DICE officially addresses Battlefield 4's net code issues

Charles Gantt | Gaming | Mar 3, 2014 2:07 PM CST

Today DICE released an official response to all of the complaints it has been receiving about issues revolving around Battlefield 4's "netcode." While the term netcode is made up by the community, the issues in Battlefield 4 are quite real and very much a nuisance. For some players lag, rubber banding, and pre-mature deaths are causing the game to be unplayable and it all seems to revolve around network connection issues.

DICE says that it is currently working on problems ranging between faulty networking latency compensation, to glitches in the game-play simulation itself. Before DICE went into any of its fixes, it described how the game actually works. "The game receives updates from the game server and displays these to the player using a system called latency compensation - this system makes sure players move around naturally on your screen when network updates arrive. We have found and fixed several issues with latency compensation, and thereby decreased the impressions of "one hit kills" in the game."

DICE has also fixed issues that cause rubber banding in the form of server optimization and is planning several more client-side fixes to reduce packet loss in an upcoming patch. This patch will also fix the Kill Cam animation from popping up prematurely and causing players to think they died before their health was deplenished. Additionally fixes for damage not registering for some users as well as a rare glitch that catapults some players at high speeds across the map resulting in death will be fixed as well.

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Keurig will use DRM in new coffee machines to stave off refill market

Charles Gantt | Current Affairs | Mar 3, 2014 12:37 PM CST

Keurig's single cup coffee system is one of the hottest trends in both the home and office today, and as a result hundreds of third-party K-Cup refill brands have popped up all over the US and Canada. Much like the inkjet printer market or even gaming consoles, the profit is not in the main system, but is in the refills of coffee, ink, or game licenses. With refill competitors offering refills that are cheaper by up to 25-percent Keurig is not making as much money as it would like.

It appears that Keurig is looking to remedy this problem in a similar way that the software industry has attempted to thwart off piracy. In official documentation from an on-going lawsuit between TreeHouse Foods and Keurig, the plaintiff (TreeHouse Foods) says that Keurig is working on a DRM system that would only allow its K-Cups and officially licensed refills to work with the system. While no information was given on exactly how this DRM system will work, I expect that it will be RFID tag based.

During its quarterly earnings call, Keurig's CEO confirmed that it was working on a system that will not work with unlicensed refill cups, and that the next generation of coffee machines from the company will be "game-changing." Industry analyst suggest that the Keurig 2.0 will launch this fall, and that if a DRM system is introduced customers can expect a rise in price for both the machines and the "official refills." What do you think about this? Is Keurig shooting themselves in the foot, or will officially licensed refill cups make you more apt to buy a Keurig?

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Apple announces CarPlay, 18 car companies committed to use this iOS

Roshan Ashraf Shaikh | Electric Vehicles & Cars | Mar 3, 2014 12:15 PM CST

Today, Apple officially made an announcement about its brand new iOS specifically made for cars- CarPlay. The company first talked about its car iOS version during the developer conference last year and the cars with this Car specific iOS integration will be shown in an auto show at Geneva. This required partnership with car companies as it requires the manufacturers to provide the suitable hardware/interface setup for the in-car touch panel on the dashboard.

Via a statement, Apple VP Greg Joswiak said,"CarPlay has been designed from the ground up to provide drivers with an incredible experience using their iPhone in the car. Iphone users always want their content at their fingertips and CarPlay lets drivers use their iPhone in the car with minimized distraction. We have an amazing lineup of auto partners rolling out CarPlay, and we're thrilled it will make its debut this week in Geneva."

CarPlay allows drivers to access their iPhone content and maps via the car's entertainment display that's integrated on the car's dashboard. Once your iPhone is connected to the car, you can make and receive calls, message, use Apple maps for navigation, use the inbuilt display or Siri for whatever you require it to do. As of now, CarPlay has limited app integration, but one can easily assume that eventually a lot of apps will be available by the time cars with this iOS version rolls out from its factories.

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Recent leaks shows more Titanfall images, maps and modes

Roshan Ashraf Shaikh | Gaming | Mar 3, 2014 10:55 AM CST

Information and images from upcoming game 'Titanfall' is still being leaked. This time it contained a lot of information about the game which was present on the files of the BETA version of the Windows version of the game. The leak was done by 'FallenFusion' in Reddit's Titanfall sub-reddit section.

The game's campaign will have nine matches: five rounds of death match called 'Attrition' which can be played as either Intersteller Manufacturing Corporation or Militia. There's also 'Capture the Flag' and 'Last Titan Standing'. The 5th game type is called 'Pilot Hunter' mode where killing every pilot (human) is killed, but killing the AI opponents would lower the time to earn titans and the ability to regenerate the titan core.

The leak contained a total of 10 screenshots which shows different maps and more. One of them was about 'Generations' where once the players reaches the level up cap, they can reset their progress. It will reset the player's experience, unlocks and completed challenges. What will not be reset is their Burn Card collection. What's more is that second generation pilots can earn experience 10% faster than the player's first gen counterpart. It was also revealed that the rate of experience boost increases as your player resets its experience and crosses to another generation.

Continue reading: Recent leaks shows more Titanfall images, maps and modes (full post)

LeakedTT: The next-gen HTC One gets outed in new comparison video

With Samsung's Galaxy S5 having very little "WOW" factor everyone's eyes have now turned to HTC in hopes that the upcoming refresh of its flagship will raise the bar to something worth upgrading to. While several leaks have appeared in recent weeks, today is the first time we have seen an actual side-by-side comparison video of the new HTC One and its predecessor that was released last year.

The video shows the slight size difference with the new HTC One being 5-inches, as well as an aluminum bezel now wrapping the screen on the sides. Additionally, the headphone jack has been moved to the bottom of the phone, and a microSD slot is now present. The leakster in the video says that the new BlinkFeed is now "actually really cool," and he also calls the camera spectacular. From previous leaks, BlinkFeed does appear to be more refined, and since the update back in December, I actually like the current BlinkFeed. While I would prefer a pure Android experience, at least HTC is listening to its customers and tailoring its Sense UI to feature better functionality.

At the moment it appears that the HTC One 2014 edition will be sold at ATT, T-Mobile and Verizon, but no mention has been made of Sprint, one of HTC's largest retailers. With the current HTC One being such a popular phone with Sprint customers, I can not expect that the carrier would not offer it on launch day. HTC is scheduled to unveil the next-gen flagship during an event it is holding later this month on March 25th in London and New York City.

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Outgoing NSA chief General Keith Alexander calls for reform

Michael Hatamoto | Hacking, Security & Privacy | Mar 3, 2014 8:16 AM CST

After being exposed by former IT contractor Edward Snowden last year, the NSA has the difficult task of trying to regain trust among the American people.

It's not impossible for the NSA and federal government to earn trust back, but without a sign of good faith, people will likely remain skeptical.

"I think we need to step back, set a framework for discussion with the American people," outgoing NSA chief Gen. Keith Alexander said during a recent Senate Armed Services Committee. "This is going to be absolutely important in setting up what we can and cannot do in cyberspace to protect this country. And from my perspective, that's going to be one of the big issues that we move forward. I think a precursor to that is getting the NSA issues resolved. We have to get those resolved because, ironically, it operates in the same space."

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Disney hit new critical and financial benchmarks with Frozen

Ben Gourlay | Celebrities & Entertainment | Mar 3, 2014 8:01 AM CST

Disney's 2013 animated hit Frozen crossed two separate creative and financial milestones for the company in the past 24 hours. Yesterday, the company announced Frozen had become first animated feature film to cross the $1 billion mark in international grosses, putting it at number 18 on the list of the highest grossing films of all time, inching above The Lion King and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

In a separate win today, the film also marked the Disney studios first animated feature to take home the Oscar for best animated film, since the category was created in 2002. These two events are seen to be extremely significant for the animation arm of the company, which has languished behind competitors such as DreamWorks and Blue Sky Animation in recent years.

Whilst live action features leveraging Marvel characters in The Avengers and Iron Man 3 have been extremely lucrative for Disney, costly misfires including The Lone Ranger, and John Carter in recent years have bitten hard into the companies bottom dollar.

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Android Jelly Bean, Kit Kat vulnerable to security flaw

A new flaw was recently found in the Google Android Jelly Bean and Kit Kat OS flavors, with the "critical flaw" compromising the virtual private network (VPN) in the Android OS.

Compromised devices allow cybercriminals to monitor communication after VPN traffic is sent to a different network address.

The flaw, which was found in India, can be successfully remedied by installing updates from OEM manufacturers, the CERT-In team says. Installing anti-virus and anti-malware protection on the device should help add additional layers to prevent Android exploits from causing problems.

Continue reading: Android Jelly Bean, Kit Kat vulnerable to security flaw (full post)

Google includes restaurant menus in its search results

Roshan Ashraf Shaikh | Internet & Websites | Mar 2, 2014 11:48 PM CST

Ever wanted to know what's there in the menu of a restaurant you haven't been before? Google search engine will now show menus anytime you search for a restaurant in the United States. This announcement was made officially via Google+ post.

Google said,"Next time you're planning a brunch or a date night, check to make sure the menu has something to satisfy everyone in your group, without having to browse through several restaurants' websites". As of now, this feature is available in United States and wasn't clear if they will make this feature available in other countries. Some say that the move is made you try to compete with services such as Yelp.

But the search engine giant doesn't its own database of menus from a large amount of restaurants spread through United States, and therefore has to rely in data from a third party. Google didn't reveal any information, nor it provided any information of how many restaurant menus they have so far.

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Hackers compromised RT.com to replace the word 'Russian' with 'Nazi'

Russia's news website RT.com was recently compromised, and hackers have changes multiple articles with the word 'Russian' to 'Nazi'. Currently there's tension going between the country and Ukraine as Russia decides to move its troops towards the border and planning many military exercises.

The hack was reported at about 11 pm EST, which lead to changed in many news headlines such as 'Thousands rally again 'illegitimate govt', raise Nazi flags in eastern Ukraine' and 'up to 143,000 Nazis requested asylum in Russia in two weeks'.

After some time, RT.com was able to revert the headlines and made an announcement about the hack via Twitter. The reason RT.com became involved in this controversy is that their media reports were being heavily criticized for being allegedly bias and was funded entirely by Russia.

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