PSN Flash Sale has Valentine's day inspired deals

Jeff Williams | Gaming | Feb 13, 2016 6:04 AM CST

Another holiday another round of deals to commemorate the day. The PlayStation Network is rife with savings up to 75% off on games for the PS3, PS4, PS Vita and even the aging PSP. All these deals are going on until the 15th at 11AM PT.

The funny thing is that none of the games listed are necessarily titles that have anything to do with the loving holiday. It's an excuse to sell us things at lower prices, which isn't a bad thing if you've been wanting something and have been waiting for a sale like this one to get it. And the selection this weekend is massive with 216 titles to choose from.

Looking to enjoy the Battlefield series if you hadn't had the chance already? Battlefield is at the forefront on all platforms with 60% off. Magicka 2 is also there for $5.99 and you can find the classic Sniper Elite 3 Ultimate Edition for the PS3 on sale for $8.99. Overall a good selection that warrants a look through to add something new to the collection, or to lovingly add to your partners collection, because that's what great significant others do, right?

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Class-action suit filed against Apple over iPhone error 53

Sean Ridgeley | Business, Financial & Legal | Feb 13, 2016 3:01 AM CST

Recently, iPhone users have been encountering error code 53, an issue prevents users from installing updates or just flat out bricks the device. It triggers when the TouchID buttons are damaged or replaced.

Consequently, a Seattle law firm has filed a class-action lawsuit in California against Apple, arguing the behaviour is "abusive" and that Apple failed to warn buyers of what could happen should the sensor be damaged or replaced. It goes on to claim over 62 million units have been affected. For now, class-action status hasn't yet been granted by a judge.

The iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, and 6S Plus are confirmed affected; it's not known whether the 5S is or not.

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Apple rumored to partner with Dr. Dre for TV drama

Sean Ridgeley | TV, Movies & Home Theatre | Feb 13, 2016 1:00 AM CST

Multiple sources have informed The Hollywood Reporter that Apple is developing a television series starring revered rapper Dr. Dre, who previously sold his Beats Electronics company to Apple for a stunning $3 billion. Titled 'Vital Signs', it's said to be a semi-autobiographical dark drama with "no shortage of violence and sex."

Apple rumored to partner with Dr. Dre for TV drama

The show sees veteran music video director Paul Hunter billed as director; Empire co-executive producer-writer Robert Munic was specifically chosen by Dre to write and produce all six of the show's first episodes, which will be released all at once, likely via Apple Music and possibly other Apple outlets. It's said the concept for the show originates with Dre, who executive produced the highly successful 2015 drama Straight Outta Compton, which was based in part on his career.

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Google will soon retire Picasa photo service

Sean Ridgeley | Software & Apps | Feb 12, 2016 10:58 PM CST

Faced with the issue of redundancy after launching Google Photos last year, Google has decided to retire its Picasa photo service on March 15. You will continue to be able to use it, but there will be no official download available, and no updates. The Web Albums service will go offline May 1.

"After much thought and consideration, we've decided to retire Picasa over the coming months in order to focus entirely on a single photo service in Google Photos," Anil Sabharwal, Head of Google Photos writes in a new blog post. "We believe we can create a much better experience by focusing on one service that provides more functionality and works across mobile and desktop, rather than divide our efforts across two different products."

If you do use Picasa, you'll be taken care of: Google says it will "take some time in order to do this right and provide you with options and easy ways to access your content." In the meantime, you can already access all of your Picasa photos and videos via Google Photos. If you have some weird hatred of Google Photos, you'll soon be able to access your content in a new, currently unspecified location, although you won't be able to manage albums.

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NVIDIA is testing four different Pascal GPUs right now

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Feb 12, 2016 5:37 PM CST

As the weeks fly past, we're getting closer and closer to the reveal of the next-gen GPUs from both NVIDIA and AMD. Today, we have news that NVIDIA is currently testing four of its next-gen Pascal-based GPUs.

NVIDIA is testing four different Pascal GPUs right now

The four Pascal GPUs have reached the testing and validation phase, with the GPUs being sent from TSMC's fabrication plants to NVIDIA's testing facilities in India. The four boards include the '699' serial number which was spotted back in December, with these four cards having the following serial numbers:

699-2H403-0201-500

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Micron unveils its own 3D NAND technology, finally going vertical

Jeff Williams | Storage | Feb 12, 2016 5:00 PM CST

Vertical NAND is all the rage, something that was initially released commercially by Samsung but is in development by the other manufacturers as well. Micron is unveiling their first generation of 3D NAND into the wild, ready to improve density, reliability and performance.

Samples of their own vertically aligned NAND were shown at CES this year, though they were playing a little coy with the details until things were actually finalized. And now those specifications are. Micron's first generation of 3D NAND will come in two flavors, a 256Gb MLC die and a 384Gb TLC die, and those are ready for manufacture it would seem, ready to be integrated into products coming out in the near future.

Interestingly, Micron has made some very significant advancements in how they package their NAND. In the past, the CMOS logic was packaged alongside of the actual memory die itself, but they've been able to place nearly 75% of the CMOS itself underneath the NAND array, similar to how HBM has localized the entire stack vertically. That innovation makes it more cost effective to manufacture.

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Conan Exiles alpha screenshots show a brutal and desolate world

Jeff Williams | Gaming | Feb 12, 2016 4:02 PM CST

Conan Exiles looks to be a desolate and demanding, one that requires a bit of mental fortitude in order to summon the strength and very essence of Conan himself. It's an open-world survival game that's as brutal as the story is beautiful.

Conan Exiles alpha screenshots show a brutal and desolate world

This isn't the first time that a Conan game has been attempted. The mythos and universe was the subject of Funcom's own Age of Conan, an MMORPG set in the same Hyborian Age as most other fictional works of Conan, that has more traditional RPG elements that we're used to. Conan Exiles takes that universe and adds a dynamic single-player storyline where you get to choose your narrative, and survival elements in a way that surely won't be typical of that sub-genre.

The key elements of the game are to survive, build and to dominate. Take the mindset of Conan himself, who saves you from your own destruction in the beginning cinematic, to tame the harsh mistress that is the barbaric wasteland. It's going to be a violent game, as the developer diary suggests, it'll require you to out-think your opponents with violence, being the most savage of the land. Precisely what Conan is about.

Continue reading: Conan Exiles alpha screenshots show a brutal and desolate world (full post)

CBS not talking with Apple about streaming TV services anymore

Jeff Williams | Internet & Websites | Feb 12, 2016 3:04 PM CST

CBS was in some heated negotiations with Apple to bring forth their lofty network services through the network, and potentially allowing you to stream that content to Apple devices. But that's no longer, or so says the CEO of CBS.

According to the CEO, Les Moonves, they really haven't heard from Apple regarding that aforementioned TV streaming service. The initial meetings occurred, and they appeared to be positive from what we can gather. It's just that Apple never called them back afterwards.

"We had conversations awhile back, and we haven't had recent conversations with them," Moonves told CNNMoney in an interview. Internet streaming services have accounted for nearly 40% of their revenue this past year, meaning that they understand the importance of digital media. They've made a number of partnerships with outside companies for streaming content, so a partnership with Apple isn't out of the question. Apple just needs to answer the phone.

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Unsurprisingly, the PlayStation 4 outsold the Xbox One in January

Jeff Williams | Gaming | Feb 12, 2016 2:05 PM CST

The NPD, the organization that tracks retail sales throughout the United States, is reporting that the PlayStation 4 is off to vigorous start for 2016. January saw it outselling the Xbox One by a decent enough margin.

The market research firm showed that while the sales were lower than the 5.7 million units they pushed out during the holiday months (November and December), Sony was still able to take the lead going into the new year with actual year-over-year growth.

"Thanks to our fans and partners for making PlayStation 4 the top-selling platform and software sales leader in January, according to NPD. PS4 also saw impressive year-over-year growth in both hardware and software sales. We appreciate the support and will continue to deliver on our promise to bring the best entertainment experiences to gamers," Sony said in a statement regarding their sales.

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Grand Theft Auto Online Valentine's day special, Adversary Mode

Jeff Williams | Gaming | Feb 12, 2016 12:59 PM CST

Grand Theft Auto Online is celebrating the Hallmark holiday this weekend by adding in a new Adversary Mode called Death do us Part.

The new mode pits four couples on the "ultimate date" they say. But the catch is that each couple only has one life to live between the both of them. That means that if one person dies, the other person in the pair commits the ultimate sacrifice in the name of love, in true Romeo and Juliet style.

To show how much you love the other person, there're five new locations that are the epitome of romanticism in Grand Theft Auto. This mode might just last beyond Valentine's day as well, though they do plan on having a few bonuses and other cool things happening over this weekend to make it worth your while.

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