Apple rumored to soon remove all Bose products from its retail stores

Anthony Garreffa | Audio, Sound & Speakers | Oct 12, 2014 3:24 AM CDT

When Apple coughed up $3 billion to acquire Beats Electronics, I'm sure the executives over at Bose were wondering what would happen to their products once the acquisition was all said and done. Now that Apple has launched two new iPhones, and is preparing to launch a new iPad, iMac, and much more, the latest rumors are pegging the Cupertino iGiant to remove all of Bose's audio products from its retail stores.

A "reliable source" talked with MacRumors, who said that the removal of Bose products is most likely due to the recent Beats acquisition. Then we have the fact that Bose's new sponsorship deal with the National Football League, which has seen the league prohibiting players from wearing Beats headphones while anywhere near a TV camera, be it practice or on game days.

It was only a week ago that San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick defied the ban, wearing his bright pink Beats for all to see, having him slapped with a $10,000 fine. Bose and Beats are also in a patent dispute, which has seen Bose filing suits against Beats, claiming the infringement of five patents related to noise cancellation technology.

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Final Fantasy XIII for PC locked at 60 FPS at 720p, requires 60GB

Roshan Ashraf Shaikh | Gaming | Oct 12, 2014 2:06 AM CDT

Nothing makes gamers more angry than a poorly-executed port of a game over different platforms, fixed resolution and lack of graphic options, at least for the PC gamers. Square Enix recently announced the PC port version of its fantasy-based JRPG Final Fantasy XIII, but gamers are not amused with the stifling performance of the PC variant.

The digital download via Steam requires 59GB of hard drive space, mostly due to huge cutscenes. Gamers who have already installed the game are complaining about that issue with the resolution and lack of basic graphic options that you'll usually find in a PC game.

Many gamers have started ranting and raising genuine complaints about the problems they're facing while playing the game. According to a pinned article in the Steam forums, there is no proper way to quit the game. The game apparently exits when you press the ESC button, but no pause scene with menu options provided at all. Final Fantasy XIII also doesn't provide an option to change antialiasing, anisotropic filtering, tesselation, V-sync, Shadow resolution and many such options. Though the game does come with dual audio support, many want the option to uncheck the audio file before downloading the game to reduce the download size.

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BioWare releases PC hardware requirements for Dragon Age: Inquisition

Roshan Ashraf Shaikh | Gaming | Oct 12, 2014 12:03 AM CDT

Dragon Age Inquisition is all set for release in the United States on November 18th, but Bioware just released the official PC specification requirements for the upcoming game. Previously, it was reported that BioWare and EA were giving away Dragon Age: Origins which should help them to get newer players on board their fanbase.

While Dragon Age is available for the consoles, the older and the newer generations from Sony and Microsoft, PC is where it should be interesting, assuming the game is made to please to PC master race. Along with the PC specification requirements, three screenshots of the game from its PC variant have been released.

But according to what is posted EA Origin's company's blog, the PC version is 'the real deal' since BioWare's roots are in PC gaming. EA and BioWare promises 'fine-tuned' for mouse and keyboard gameplay, along with many visual options for tweak and a support for 4K resolution and AMD Mantle support. The blog post goes on, saying that Dragon Age: Inquisition is a true testament to BioWare's love for PC gaming.

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iBUYPOWER introduces the SBX Entertainment System

Roshan Ashraf Shaikh | Computer Systems | Oct 11, 2014 11:12 PM CDT

iBUYPOWER introduces its newest 'ultra-simplified' entertainment center: SBX Entertainment System. The team designed this new unit to make it reflect the aesthetics and physical characteristics of a game console, but with the raw power that only high-end desktop systems can provide.

The unit is designed keeping living room computing in mind, and iBUYPOWER assures that its new system can provide 60FPS gameplay at high definition resolutions. As you'd imagine, just like any game console or any properly configured and optimized desktop rigs, this is made to provide the best out-of-the-box PC gaming and entertainment experience.

"What we really wanted to do was make an impact in the living room. We wanted to really show the world that the power of desktop gaming machine can be experienced in the living room in a totally seamless way, " said Darren Su, Co-founder and VP of iBUYPOWER. "All preconceptions of what entertainment in the living room should and can be, are out the door."

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Apple remains the No. 1 most valuable brand in the world

Michael Hatamoto | Business, Financial & Legal | Oct 10, 2014 6:04 PM CDT

Apple has been awarded the most valuable brand in the world for a second consecutive year, worth an estimated $119 billion, according to the Interbrands 2014 Best Global Brands list. There are four technology companies in the top 10 this year, though tech remains extremely fickle, forcing companies to try to adapt to changing customer demands.

"A lot of our thinking about this year's report is really around the 'Age of You,'" said Alfred DuPuy, Interbrand Executive Director.

Trailing behind Apple is Google ($107.4 billion), a 15 percent increase year-over-year, and Coca-Cola round out the top three - with IBM, Microsoft, General Electric, Samsung, Toyota, McDonald's, and Mercedes-Benz round out the top 10 overall most valued brands in the world. As an honorable mention, Facebook's value increased 86 percent, and the company jumped up to No. 29 on the list - and will likely continue to rise.

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Hackers to post thousands of stolen Snapchat photos to 4chan

Michael Hatamoto | Hacking, Security & Privacy | Oct 10, 2014 1:43 PM CDT

Hackers aren't only interested in embarrassing celebrities, as thousands of pictures and videos were stolen from Snapchat users and will be posted online. The online service was quick to confirm its servers weren't breached, however, users of third-party Snapchat apps were targeted - and will be posted online in a searchable database.

Unfortunately for the users, they believed the images were quickly purged after being sent - instead, "The Snappening" will be posted on 4chan and other websites soon enough.

"We can confirm that Snapchat's servers were never breached and were not the source of these leaks," a Snapchat spokesperson recently said. "Snapchatters were victimized by their use of third-party apps to send and receive Snaps, a practice that we expressly prohibit in our Terms of Use precisely because they compromise our users' security. We vigilantly monitor the App Store and Google Play for illegal third-party apps and have succeeded in getting many of these removed."

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Xbox boss promises a more personal Xbox One going into the future

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Oct 10, 2014 4:25 AM CDT

As it stands, the PlayStation 4 seems to be winning the 'next-gen' and now current-gen console war, with the Xbox One lagging behind. Microsoft obviously wants to change this, something that was pointed out in an interview with The Inner Circle Podcast, with the head of Xbox, Phil Spencer.

Spencer said during the interview: "I'll announce it here: I was told themes and background [pictures] are something that we are working on. And screenshots, I know people beat me up on screenshots". Spencer is aware that Xbox One gamers want to be able to personalize their dashboards, and do things that PC gamers can do easily, such as taking in-game screenshots without having to have the game have a built-in screenshot-taking feature.

He wasn't willing to tell the world when these new themes, backgrounds and screenshot-taking abilities would be appearing, but he did say "people should know that they're in development".

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EA giving away Dragon Age: Origins for free via Origin

Roshan Ashraf Shaikh | Gaming | Oct 10, 2014 2:32 AM CDT

EA is doing something good for PC gamers and it's something that a lot of people would appreciate. The company is giving away Dragon Age: Origins for free via Origin. The best part is that this does not come with any strings attached - no gameplay time limits, no restrictions such as minimum purchase/regular Origin user - just a free copy of DA: Origins for all.

You will have to claim the free copy of Dragon Age: Origins before October 14th and you will need an Origin account. The game can be claimed from here

Dragon Age: Origins is developed by Bioware in 2009 and its an action-based RPG game. The game retails for $20. EA is going to release the sequel of the game Dragon Age: Inquisition On November 18th and there's no better way to increase the fan base before the sequel release by providing the first instalment up for the grabs, for free.

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Flipkart Big Billion Day sale angers Tech giants, cries foul

Flipkart barely can step out of the oven now that the Indian government plans to crack down 'predatory discount' and unfair trade practice claims. But now its all ready to be grilled thanks to top electronic makers like LG, Sony and even Samsung.

While Flipkart claimed that its Big Billion Day Sale was a huge success despite the server downtime issues it faced, consumer good manufacturers were not amused. The companies did not like what Flipkart did, and is considering a legal action over 'predatory pricing and discount scheme' allegations. Several personnel assumed that Flipkart intends to disrupt the livelihood of the organized retail market in India.

One of the company's staff also claimed that goods that are sold via Flipkart with unrealistic pricing are via unauthorized channels. Therefore, they will be compelled not to provide warranty to those consumers who have purchased from such sites. An executive said, "This is a clear case of predatory pricing just to shoot up traffic at their website, and build up valuations unrealistically. This is not acceptable and we will ensure that this does not happen again."

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Assassin's Creed dev claims that industry is done with 60FPS standard

Roshan Ashraf Shaikh | Gaming | Oct 10, 2014 12:05 AM CDT

Earlier, we've reported that Ubisoft's upcoming game Assassin's Creed: Unity will be running at 30FPS at 900p for both consoles- Sony's PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. To justify the move, Ubisoft's Creative Director Alex Amancio said that selling the game with different levels of experience would be unfair.

However, Nicolas Guerin, the World Level Design Director for Unity is giving a different reason. He said: "At Ubisoft for a long time we wanted to push 60 fps. I don't think it was a good idea because you don't gain that much from 60 fps and it doesn't look like the real thing. It's a bit like The Hobbit movie, it looked really weird."

He continued by saying that series like Rachet and Clank also dropped the 60FPS standard. Another reason is that its twice as hard as 30 fps, and its doesn't make it look good when the game is rendering. On the other hand, 30 FPS feels more 'cinematic' while 60 FPS is perfect for FPS and action-adventure genres.

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