Samsung Gear VR's content will be controlled by Oculus

Samsung is soon to launch its Gear VR device, alongside the Galaxy Note 4 smartphone, but what about the software and games that will float onto Samsung's first VR device? That will be controlled by Oculus.

First, you'll need the Galaxy Note 4 smartphone, followed by (of course) the Gear VR headset itself, and finally, in order to get it all working, the software will be coming from Oculus. Oculus' vice president for Mobile told Polygon: "On Gear VR, there will be an Oculus store and that's how you'll get Gear VR applications". This means that there is no way for developers to release games through the Google Play, or other Android stores for Gear VR. Cohen added: "No. You'll need to go through Oculus storefront for mobile VR".

While this might sound strange, it gives Oculus the control to keep the quality of the content at a much higher grade. Second, it provides Oculus, and Facebook, with profits from the sales, in the same way Valve takes a cut of profits from each game sold on Steam. Cohen added: "We'll have a lot more details about this later, but it's going to be something that's very developer friendly. Our goal is to be the platform, to provide the tools that developers need, and to bring the users in," he stated. "And that it will be as painless as we can make it".

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Samsung pulls laptop sales in Europe, including its Chromebooks

Michael Hatamoto | Laptops | Sep 25, 2014 8:30 PM CDT

Samsung has withdrawn from the European laptop market, pulling its Ativ notebooks and Google Chrome-powered Chromebooks. Overall, the PC market has struggled as smartphones, tablets, and phablets take over - and the laptop market has also suffered. For Samsung, the company continues to have great success utilizing Google Android on its smartphones and tablets, which is where future focus will remain high.

"We quickly adapt to market needs and demands," Samsung said in a statement. "In Europe, we will be discontinuing sales of laptops including Chromebooks for now. This is specific to the region - and is not necessarily reflective of conditions in other markets. We will continue to thoroughly evaluate market conditions and will make further adjustments to maintain our competitiveness in emerging PC categories."

Sony spun off its VAIO laptop business to completely separate itself from the declining sector.

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Microsoft France President confirms Windows 9 unveiling next week

Michael Hatamoto | Software & Apps | Sep 25, 2014 5:30 PM CDT

Microsoft is expected to announce Windows 9 during a September 30 press event, which was unexpectedly confirmed by Microsoft France President Alain Crozier during a recent speech to employees. A "Windows Technical Preview" should become available shortly after the event, with numerous leaked images and details about the not-so-secret OS already available.

During the recent chat with employees, Crozier used the phrase "Windows 9" instead of the code word "Threshold" when discussing the upcoming OS.

Microsoft has an accelerated operating system roadmap, especially as users were unimpressed with Windows 8/8.1 - an operating system that was supposed to highlight touch capability - but instead left many users frustrated.

Continue reading: Microsoft France President confirms Windows 9 unveiling next week (full post)

Miss a car payment? Technology prevents drivers from moving vehicles

Michael Hatamoto | Electric Vehicles & Cars | Sep 25, 2014 1:40 PM CDT

Much of the attention related to car technology is focused on in-car features to woo potential buyers - but not the technology that could prevent a vehicle from starting. A harsh lesson for those people late on car payments, as lenders are using technology to prevent vehicles from moving until payments are made.

Subprime auto loans have increased over the past five years - 25 percent of car loans in 2013 were made to people with credit scores at or below 640 - so vehicle lease holders want to try to protect themselves if payments aren't made. The starter interrupt device provides lenders the ability to remotely disable locks, along with track vehicles via GPS.

However, customers have complained that their vehicles have been shut down for payments just a few days late - or randomly shut down while waiting in traffic - further igniting a car technology debate.

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Polaroid going after GoPro with its $99 Cube HD-action video camera

Michael Hatamoto | Cameras, Printers & Scanners | Sep 25, 2014 9:31 AM CDT

Old-school camera company Polaroid has fought for relevance over the years, and has invested in research and development of modern technologies. The company hopes its Cube, a 1080p action sports video recording device with a $99 price tag available next month, will help spur interest in its porftfolio.

"GoPro has done an incredible job building a new category in the digital imaging space," said Scott Hardy, Polaroid CEO, in a statement. "But when we look at that market, we think it can be much bigger by not just targeting the professional and amateur and aspirational thrill-seekers but going after more of the lifestyle."

For action sports participants, having something like a Polaroid Cube instead of a GoPro might not be the worst idea - and could help force GoPro to continue to innovate. The low price, half the price of the entry-level Hero3 device currently priced at $199.99 MSRP, should prove to be helpful.

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NVIDIA announces its beautiful new SLI LED bridges

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Sep 25, 2014 5:38 AM CDT

If you're rocking an NVIDIA GeForce GTX SLI setup, what better way to make it stand out from the crowd than with the new SLI LED bridges that the company unveiled during its GAME24 event.

The new SLI bridges come in three flavors: 2-way SLI, 2-way spaced SLI, and 3-way SLI. The 2-way SLI LED bridges are priced at $29.99, while the 3-way SLI bridge will set you back $39.99. The SLI bridges are designed to work with all modern GeForce GTX cards that support SLI. NVIDIA specifically mentions the following cards: GeForce GTX 770, GTX 780, GTX 780 Ti, GTX TITAN, GTX TITAN Black, GTX 970 and GTX 980.

There's one big caveat though, NVIDIA has built these beautiful SLI bridges for reference GPUs, so they might not work on the crazy third-party cards. You'll need to make sure that your custom-cooled GeForce GTX card will work with these new bridges before jumping on-board.

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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti, or GTX Titan X 'GM200' teased

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Sep 25, 2014 2:11 AM CDT

NVIDIA has impressed the world with the launch of its second generation Maxwell-based GPUs, the GeForce GTX 970 and GTX 980. The cards sip power compared to their already power conservative predecessors, but introduce a slew of new technologies, features and best of all: a great price point. Where to from here? GM200, that's where.

GM200 is now being teased, which is going to be the big new GPU from NVIDIA. NVIDIA's GM200 will feature a die size of 551mm^2, 20-22 SMMs, 2560-2816 CUDA cores, a 384-bit memory bus, a performance boost of around 50% over the GTX Titan Black Edition, with it launching sometime before the end of the year. What it'll arrive as, in terms of naming, is a mystery. With the power efficiency of the GM204 core, which powers the GTX 970 and GTX 980, we should expect a dual-GPU card offered as the GeForce GTX 990, so that's one name it won't use.

Moving on, we could expect it to be the GTX 980 Ti, but if it's offering a huge performance increase over the GTX Titan Black Edition, we might see something like the GTX 985 Ti, or GTX Titan X, something I like the sound of better. Then we have the shift to 20nm, which is expected next year, so if the new GM200 is built on the current 28nm node, the shift to 20nm is going to be an entire new world for NVIDIA. The company has positioned themselves incredibly well after the mess that was Fermi, so much so, that AMD really has no firepower right now - so it'll be interesting to see if NVIDIA holds back, waiting for AMD to release something, to quickly smack it down to reality with its new GM200-based card.

Continue reading: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti, or GTX Titan X 'GM200' teased (full post)

Apple apologizes for messing up iOS 8.0.1 update, promises fix soon

Apple publicly apologized to its customers for releasing and quickly pulling the iOS 8.0.1 update on Wednesday, and promised a new download "in the next few days."

"We apologize for the great inconvenience experienced by users, and are working around the clock to prepare iOS 8.0.2 with a fix for the issue," Apple said in a statement.

Despite software problems - and a bendy phone - the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus models have sold well. More than 10 million units were sold in the first weekend of its release, while Apple enthusiasts seemed eager to pick up one of the two models. Overall, financial analysts believe the company will persevere, but need to further efforts to innovate.

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Google to unveil new Nexus smartphone next month with Android L

I'm sure you've heard by now that Apple's new iPhone 6 Plus is bending in some pockets, so what better time to tease the world of the upcoming next generation Nexus handset? Gogole is preparing to launch the new Nexus mid next month, alongside the launch of its 9-inch, NVIDIA Tegra K1-powered Nexus 9 tablet made by HTC.

According to sources of Android Authority, Google is planning to launch 'new phone hardware' and an unveiling of 'a new software initiative'. The first, should be the new Nexus, possibly named Nexus 6, while the software initiative is most likely Android L, or Android 5.0. The final version of Android L won't be official until November 1 according to these same sources. We should hear more about both the new smartphone and mobile OS in the coming weeks.

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Don't bother updating to iOS 8.0.1, Apple pulls buggy update

Shortly after releasing the iOS 8.0.1 update, Apple has decided to pull it and users will have to wait for a new update. Some people reported they installed the update and lost the ability to make phone calls, use the Touch ID fingerprint scanner, and other problems related to the update. It only took about an hour before Apple decided to pull 8.0.1 as further improvements are made.

"We are actively investigating these reports and will provide information as quickly as we can," Apple said in a statement. "In the meantime, we have pulled back the iOS 8.0.1 update."

Apple has been frantic to improve faults of iOS, as many iPhone owners were anxiously awaiting the opportunity to upgrade to iOS 8.

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