Oculus VR founder wants to see an Oculus Rift in every home

Palmer Luckey, the 21-year-old founder of one of the most exciting companies in the world, Oculus VR, has high hopes for the future of technology. With Oculus VR shipping its Development Kit 2, or DK2, Rift headset to consumers and developers over the last month, Palmer has had some interesting things to say in a recent interview with Kotaku UK.

Palmer said: "We see one in every home. [But], just at launch we need to be realistic. The people who are going to be buying this initially are going to be gamers, probably hardcore gamers, and they're going to be the ones with PCs most capable of running it". Palmer wants to see VR become something that expands past just pure gaming, with the Rift and VR in general becoming something for everyone. He continued: "As time goes on it'll become more and more mainstream, but at launch we're going to be targeting that core. Basically let's target it to the people whom we know are going to be buying and then let's go for the people who are going to take some convincing".

After testing out the Rift DK2 myself, I'd have to agree - I think VR will take off like smartphones did, selling tens of millions within the next five years. One in every home is a big statement, but there's a TV in most homes, isn't there? The Oculus Rift is cheaper than a cheap TV, so that statement, while it might sound prosperous to most, could happen - especially with the financial backing of Facebook.

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Oculus VR wins Best Hardware of Gamescom 2014 with the Oculus Rift DK2

Oculus VR had a strong presence at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany this year - but they walked away with a massive win from the gaming event. With over 140 submissions for the awards at Gamescom 2014, 54 of them made it to the group of nominees, Oculus VR was one of these.

Oculus took out the Best Hardware of Gamescom with its Oculus Rift DK2 unit, with four other devices against it: the Cyberith Virtualizer, Sony's VR headset Project Morpheus, Nintendo's Amiibo, and NVIDIA's latest Shield Tablet and Shield Wireless Controller. We've only just received our Oculus Rift DK2 and we are in love with it, so it comes as no surprise for Oculus to be awarded Best Hardware of a gaming show like Gamescom.

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Action Comics #1 featuring Superman is on eBay for $1.75 million

Anthony Garreffa | TV, Movies & Home Theatre | Aug 16, 2014 9:19 PM CDT

One of the best kept copies of Action Comics #1, where Superman made his debut all the way back in 1938, is up for auction on eBay. This comic has its current bid at $1,750,200 - or $1.75 million.

The seller, Darren Adams who is based in Federal Way, Washington, explains that his copy of Action Comics #1 is "The finest known copy of the most sought after comic book in the world. A 1938 museum piece with PERFECT WHITE pristine pages". Adams said that he purchased it from a collector who had stored it in a bank vault. He adds: "I'm hoping that the next person can enjoy it as much as I do. I'd love it if a museum purchased this book for all to see".

Back in 2011, another copy of Action Comics #1 sold for $2,161,000 - with this copy reportedly belonging to Nicholas Cage, who is said to have purchased the comic for $150,000 in 1997. Funnily enough, Cage was in the running to star as the Man of Steel in the now-scrapped, thankfully, Superman Lives from around the time Cage purchased the copy of Action Comics. Bidding started on August 14, and will end of August 24, with 1% of the proceeds going toward the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, Reeve playing Superman in the original Richard Donner movies, as well as Superman 3 and 4.

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Repeated cyberattacks targeting French site Rue89, website staff

Michael Hatamoto | Hacking, Security & Privacy | Aug 16, 2014 3:31 PM CDT

Repeated cyberattacks against French news website Rue89 has drawn criticism from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), with staff and their families being harassed after publishing a story related to a "militant Zionist" cybercriminal. The person in question, Gregory Chelli, lives in Israel, and reportedly attacked people he thought were against Israel.

The official Rue89 website suffered multiple distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, according to Pierre Haski, website editorial director. An official complaint has been filed with the French public prosecutor's office, and Chelli already faced a suspended sentence in France, but it's unsure what will happen this time around.

"We call on French and Israeli authorities to launch a thorough investigation into these attacks on Rue89 and to ensure its staff members' safety," said Nina Ognianova, CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator, in a statement. "Such intimidation tactics against journalists and their families must not be tolerated, lest they lead the media to self-censor."

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Blizzard teases the possibility of World of Warcraft II

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Aug 16, 2014 1:39 AM CDT

Could it be? A sequel to an ever-changing online game that has been around for over 10 years and still dominates the charts, making $1 billion in revenue for 2013?

Game Informer asked World of Warcraft's Game Director, Tom Chilton, about the possibilities of a sequel to World of Warcraft. Chilton replied: "Definitely. It's something we have talked about. It's something we have talked about for ten years. I think that there are a lot of challenges there in seeing how World of Warcraft II relates to World of Warcraft, do they live alongside each other, does one feed into the other, what is that product, etc. These are challenges that have to be figured out before that becomes a reality".

What do you think of a sequel to World of Warcraft? Do you want to see it happen? Or would you want to see Blizzard just continue to evolve World of Warcraft, just as it has been doing for the past decade?

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AMD Catalyst 14.7 RC3 drivers available, Windows 8 no longer supported

Anthony Garreffa | Software & Apps | Aug 15, 2014 10:26 PM CDT

AMD has released the new Catalyst 14.7 RC3 drivers, which no longer support Windows 8 - something that AMD hasn't supported since the Catalyst 14.6 Beta driver. AMD recommends that Windows 8 users upgrade to Windows 8.1 for free, so that they can take advantage of the new features found in the Catalyst 14.7 RC3 drivers.

The new Catalyst 14.7 RC3 drivers offer "display interface enhancements to improve 4K monitor performance and reduce flickering" with the Radeon R9 290, R9 270 and HD 7800 Series all benefiting from this. The new drivers also offer some perofrmance improvements at 4K when gaming on Assassin's Creed IV, with up to 93% more performance with CrossFire.

You can download the new Catalyst 14.7 RC3 drivers here.

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Hackers could compromise smartphones by using device's gyroscope

Michael Hatamoto | Hacking, Security & Privacy | Aug 15, 2014 9:49 PM CDT

Hackers can compromise a smartphone user and eavesdrop by using the device's internal gyroscope, according to a study from Stanford University and the Rafael Advanced Defense Systems technology company. Instead of directly listening to a phone conversation, this is remote eavesdrop exploit so users can be snooped on when in the immediate area of a device.

"Whenever you grant anyone access to sensors on a device, you're going to have unintended consequences," said Dan Boneh, Stanford security professor, in a statement to Wired. "In this case the unintended consequence is that they can pick up not just phone vibrations, but air vibrations."

The gyroscope in smartphones use a small plate that vibrates around 200 hertz, which is fast enough to recognize human voices. Using customized speech recognition software allowed the researchers to accurately determine 65 percent of "numeric digits" of a specific speaker. Eavesdropping levels aren't quite the same as using a compromised smartphone's microphone, but shows the potential threat level of current data security efforts.

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Silent Hills has the potential to be one of the best horror games ever

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Aug 15, 2014 8:26 PM CDT

When the world found out about Silent Hills, we didn't know what to expect exactly. A return to the usual mechanics of Silent Hill, or something completely new? Well, luckily there is a "Playable Teaser" available for the PS4, providing just that - an amazing tease of things to come.

As you can see, Hideo Kojima wasn't lying when he said Silent Hills would make you 's**t your pants'. This teaser looks absolutely incredible, almost to the point where it could sell PlayStation 4 consoles on its own. Now imagine this game working with Project Morpheus, Sony's VR headset. Better yet, Kojima has announced that Metal Gear Solid 5 is coming to the PC, so imagine Oculus Rift support if it arrived on the PC.

I had actually found this walkthrough on Reddit, with one of the comments on there from 'EvenArrantzier' where he said: "I've got a sweet 110 inch projection screen and surround sound. Six 15 inch speakers spread out around the ceiling. It was fucking perfect. I'd hear the noises all around me. They really did a great job with the sound. I played for three hours with two of my friends, in a completely dark room. We spent the night screaming and yelping with fear. It didn't become any less scary despite knowing the layout and mechanics of the game. It remained as unnerving and frightening as the first ten minutes. And not a word of a lie, I swear to fuck, at one point my friend yelped, farted, and had to go to the bathroom to make sure he hadn't shit his pants. We all agree that demo was the single most terrifying thing any of us had ever experienced".

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Report: SuperValu, Albertson's grocery stores hit by data breaches

Michael Hatamoto | Hacking, Security & Privacy | Aug 15, 2014 5:51 PM CDT

Cybercriminals successfully breached Albertson's and SuperValu, which are two of the largest and most popular grocery store chains in the United States. The massive data breach also impacts their umbrella companies, including Acme, Jewel-Osco, Shaw's, Star Market, Cub Foods, Farm Fresh, Shop 'N Save, Hornbacher's, and Shoppers Food & Pharmacy.

The SuperValu breach might have affected customers between June 22 and July 17 in Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Virginia and Missouri. It's unknown how many Albertson's customers might be affected from the data breach.

"The safety of our customers' personal information is a top priority for us," said Sam Duncan, SuperValu President and CEO, in a statement. "The intrusion was identified by our internal team, it was quickly contained, and we have had no evidence of any misuse of any customer data. I regret any inconvenience that this may cause our customers but want to assure them that it is safe to shop in our stores."

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Rady Children's Hospital facing lawsuit related to data breach

Michael Hatamoto | Hacking, Security & Privacy | Aug 15, 2014 3:51 PM CDT

Following a data breach suffered by Rady Children's Hospital in June 2013, a mother has filed a lawsuit against the company related to a security breach that led her daughter's medical records to be exposed.

The Rady data breach occurred when an employee emailed a spreadsheet containing patient admittance records from July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013 to four job applicants. The records included patient names, birth dates, primary medical diagnoses, medical record numbers, insurance carrier information, and admittance and discharge dates.

"This is not one or two records dropped in the parking lot," said David A. Miller, an attorney representing the mother, in a statement to the media. "The people they gave this information to didn't even work there. They were job applicants."

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