We already know that the Oculus Rift requires a GeForce GTX 970 or AMD R290 graphics solution to simulate VR, but it looks like GTX 970 owners will be able to run every single bit of software that Oculus will offer in the official Rift storefront.

In a recent Reddit thread, a curious gamer posed a specific question about future-proofing his rig for further generations of Oculus Rifts. Is it better to buy a GTX 970 to support the first generation, or should you pick up a GTX 980Ti so your setup is ready for Oculus Rift gen 2?

According to a verified Oculus VR employee, the GTX 970 will be enough to support the Oculus Rift for quite some time: "A consumer owning a 970 will be able to play everything on our store," said Oculus expert Philanthropi.

Footage of the cancelled Battlefront 3 sequel has surfaced, giving us a look at the true successor of the franchise that we'll never get to play.

The ill-fated Battlefront 3 sequel originally started development in 2012 by the studio Free Radical, and it really looks to be everything we'd ever want in a Battlefront game. A NeoGAF user has tracked down new footage for the canned Battlefront 3, but bear in mind the video is from a 9 month old PC build of the game, and it's an early build at that.

The game looks as if it features much more than DICE's Battlefield-esque FPS action, including immersive galactic dogfights--real Rogue Squadron-level dogfighting with multiple tiers and massive Star Destroyers hulking in the background--as well as authentic third-person combat in the vein of the original series.

Windows 10 Mobile Preview Build 10572 is now live, and as with the last release, it includes many exciting changes and feature additions. Perhaps most exciting of all is the ability to text from your PC -- no need to leave your phone by the desk or go get it to text someone anymore.

The new feature is handled through Cortana which can also show you missed calls. When you see a missed call, you simply click "text reply" and proceed to, well, text reply. If you want to text someone at any time, type or speak "text" and who you want to text (as you would on your phone), and Cortana will handle the rest.

To set it up, sign into Cortana with the same Microsoft account on your phone and PC. Notifications can be disabled on any device at any time through Cortana.

Up until now, Microsoft has reserved its customized NVIDIA GPU configuration to the more expensive Surface Book models, meaning the budget tier was locked out. But now the catalogue has been updated and Microsoft now offers dGPU options to every Surface Book make and model--for a price.

If you plan to opt in for the dual-GPU solution for the Windows 10-powered laptop, Microsoft tacks on an extra $200 to the retail price. $200 might sound like a lot, but the difference is pretty substantial: default Surface Book models come equipped with Intel's integrated Iris Graphics, and the extra cash will unlock a second graphics solution, a custom Maxwell-based NVIDIA GPU that will enable more graphically-intense workloads.

Equipped with the second dGPU in the keyboard base, the budget Surface Book with a Skylake Intel Core i5 CPU, 8GB RAM and a 128GB HDD now rises to $1,699. We've reported that the Surface Book's custom NVIDIA GPU is actually equal to a GeForce 940M with 1GB of GDDR5 VRAM.

Xbox Australia plans to show off live Halo 5 gameplay footage on the world's most gigantic aerial screen in a bid to promote 343i's new shooter.

Microsoft really wants the world to know about Halo 5, and the Redmond-based tech giant is pulling out all the stops in one of the most memorable promotional showcases in gaming. At 7:30PM on the eve of Halo 5's launch, October 26, Xbox's Australia division will broadcast live Halo 5 gameplay onto a massive floating screen 2,000 feet in the air.

The huge floating screen has a projected path down the coastline from Curl Curl to Coogee, where it will fly back and forth a single time. The team boasts that the screen can be seen from over 3 kilometers (9842 feet) away. Plus Xbox affirms that the broadcast won't be sent from the ground: a fan will be picked to play the game remotely via helicopter, hinting that the player will be able to use the giant floating viewscreen. "A lucky fan in Australia will play "Halo 5: Guardians" from a helicopter flying over Sydney, as gameplay is broadcasted via a screen suspended from a second helicopter," reads the official announcement on Major Nelson's website.

With its new autonomous, electric DeLorean, Stanford University has all the other Back To the Future Day creations beat.

Named after the film's iconic hoverboard-riding don't-call-me-chicken Marty McFly, Stanford's self-driving DeLorean was built in conjunction with the Revs Program at Stanford and Renovo Motors, and stands as the team's newest research project.

"We want to design automated vehicles that can take any action necessary to avoid an accident," said Chris Gerdes, a Stanford professor of mechanical engineering who orchestrated the project. "The laws of physics will limit what the car can do, but we think the software should be capable of any possible maneuver within those limits. MARTY is another step in this direction, thanks to the passion and hard work of our students. Stanford builds great research by building great researchers."

Microsoft has been quiet about the GPU specifications for its 2-in-1 Surface Book, so enthusiastic Reddit users took to the Microsoft Store, sneakily installed GPU-Z on Surface Books, and found out for themselves what's inside.

The results may be familiar to you, as they're not unlike the 940M. The custom hardware is an upgrade though, including 1GB dedicated GDDR5 RAM, among other things. You can see the specs in the images here, as well as in the rundown below.

Operating System: Windows 10 Pro, 64-bit

Xiaomi has just unveiled its latest 60-inch 4K TV, with the new Mi TV 3 featuring the aforementioned 4K resolution, but it is a truly different 'smart' TV.

The Xiaomi 60-inch 4K Mi TV 3 features something that looks suspiciously close to a soundbar, but it's far from just an audio device. Inside of the speaker, there's an MStar 6A928 processor, 2GB of DDR3 RAM and 8GB of flash storage. When this soundbar is connected to the Mi Port on the 60-inch 4K TV, it'll also run power through the cable, while providing you with access to MIUI TV. MIUI TV is Xiaomi's Android-based smart TV platform.

The Mi TV Bar can be purchased separately, and works with any TV, monitor or projector - which is a nice bonus. Xiaomi says that a TV's motherboard represents 20% of the overall cost of the TV, so by removing these components out of the TV and into a separate device, Xiaomi hopes you'll upgrade and replace your TV's motherboard more often - keeping the glorious 60-inch 4K panel, instead of buying an entire new TV set.

Today Lenovo announced its new line of Windows 10 devices, branded as the Yoga 900 line. The most eye-catching of the new hardware is the massive all-in-one that takes the term "desktop" quite literally, bringing huge size as well as huge potential.

Lenovo's Yoga Home 900 isn't made for on-the-go use; as its name implies, it's optimized more for a home-based experience. Its massive 27-inch full HD 10-point touch display can be set at an angle for traditional browsing on or doing work across Windows 10 apps, or it can be laid flat for some competitive air hockey with the family. It weighs just 16 pounds, so you can easily heft it from room to room without worrying about a cumbersome bulk or the device bending under its own weight.

The tabletop PC has some beefy specs under the hood, with Broadwell class Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs, a dedicated NVIDIA GPU (up to a 2GB VRAM GeForce 940A), up to 8GB of RAM and up to 1TB of onboard SSHD storage. The six-cell battery is lacking, only supporting up to 3-hours of usage per charge, but given the huge 27-inch display, that's to be expected.

Researchers have discovered there are 256 apps on the App Store that have found their way around Apple's vetting process and violated privacy rights. All of them use the Chinese-developed Youmi SDK. In total, approximately one million people use the apps in question.

To be clear, the developer of any of these apps is not necessarily to blame at all. It appears Youmi is the one interested in acquiring your data, and has insidiously worked gathering tools into its development kit, thereby attempting to cover its tracks and pass the blame onto developers, should the scheme be uncovered.

Nate Lawson, founder of security analytics startup SourceDNA (which uncovered the violations), says this is "definitely the kind of stuff that Apple should have caught."