Killzone Shadow Fall gets new multiplayer DLC and maps

Charles Gantt | Gaming | Mar 6, 2014 12:47 AM CST

Today, Samrat Sharma, senior online producer for Guerrilla Games took to Sony's PlayStation Blog to announce the details of the new multiplayer DLC expansion pack for Killzone Shadow Fall. Titled the Insurgent Pack, the DLC includes new features for multiplayer including a brand new Character Class, 3 new abilities, 3 new weapons and 2 new game modes.

In the DLC we learn that the Helghast government has been covertly providing funding The Black Hand, whose operatives have been infiltrating Vekta City. The DLC allows these insurgents to be playable for the first time in the games history, and is what the DLC is centered around. Rather than type out all of the new details, I have pasted the full list provided by Sharma below.

The Insurgent - a brand new class with two unique abilities: Hack and Steal.

Continue reading: Killzone Shadow Fall gets new multiplayer DLC and maps (full post)

Path of Exile: Sacrifice of the Vaal expansion now available

Michael Hatamoto | Gaming | Mar 5, 2014 11:50 PM CST

Grinding Gear Games today officially released its free update to Path of Exile, the free Sacrifice of the Vaal mini-expansion much to the delight to current Path of Exile gamers. TweakTown was able to take the game for a test ride last week during a special briefing in San Francisco, and was initially impressed on gameplay.

This is the first mini-expansion to Path of Exile, with the original game being released in October 2013, and includes numerous improvements to keep players engaged. During TweakTown's meeting with game developers, there was a large amount of emphasis placed on the craftable chests that are now available in the Ambush league. Gamers can modify the chests and unique bosses and items will drop if the player is able to kill all of the bosses.

The expansion gives gamers the chance to try and defeat Atziri, returned Queen of the Vaal civilization, though beating her isn't a requirement - and from how badly TweakTown's Michael Hatamoto and his developer partner were getting killed, best of luck to Path of Exile: Sacrifice of the Vaal gamers!

Continue reading: Path of Exile: Sacrifice of the Vaal expansion now available (full post)

Lulzbot unveils new flexible 3D Printing filament and filament guide

Charles Gantt | Modding | Mar 5, 2014 9:46 PM CST

Lulzbot is one of those companies that blaze the trail in innovation and openly share their findings with everyone else. Their philosophy of Free & Libre, hardware and software is a business model that I feel more companies need to follow. Recently Lulzbot released a new video showing their new Taz 3 3D Printer printing with the companies new Ninja Flex Thermoplastic Urethane-based flexible 3D printer filament.

NinjaFlex is the stretchiest 3D printing material on the market at the moment and Lulzbot offers it in several colors including Red, Pink, Green, Blue, White and more. Because the NinjaFlex filament is so stretchy, Lulzbot has had to design an entirely new extruder to allow the filament to be completely constrain the filament as it enters the heat chamber. Lulzbot is calling this the new Flexstruder, and has based it on a Greg's Wade-style design.

Lulzbot has also just released a new 3D Printing Filament Guide that walks customers through each of the filaments that the company carries and offers unique tips on how to achieve the best prints with each filament type. I have linked to this guide in the source links below. Stay tuned to TweakTown for our upcoming review of Lulzbot's Taz 3 3D Printer, and even more 3D printing content!

Continue reading: Lulzbot unveils new flexible 3D Printing filament and filament guide (full post)

RumorTT: Nexus 6 details begin to emerge months ahead of launch

Google's Nexus 5 smartphone has only been on the market for 5 months now, but that does not stop the rumor mill from cranking out new rumors about its successor. Today Gizmodo Germany released a report that suggest that Google will release the Nexus 6 later this year alongside its first Nexus smartwatch.

The rumor states that LG is sticking around as the manufacturer of the Nexus 6 which make perfect sense as it is also the manufacturer of the Nexus smartwatch. The reoport says that the Nexus 6 will be a "lightweight" version of LG's G3 flagship which also falls inline with the previous Nexus smartphones from LG that were versions of the Optimus G and G2 smartphones. With the news of the new Nexus 6, the report also suggest that it will be June before we see the LG G3 launched and October before the Nexus 6 arrives.

Continue reading: RumorTT: Nexus 6 details begin to emerge months ahead of launch (full post)

DirectX 12 is finally here, will launch on March 20th at GDC 2014

Charles Gantt | Video Cards & GPUs | Mar 5, 2014 7:27 PM CST

While rumors of DirectX 12 have been circling for over a year now, no one knew exactly when it would debut into the public's eye, but today the new Graphics API has been all but confirmed buy a new Twitter account and webpage that has popped up onto the internet. While no official word from Microsoft has been released, the Twitter account did say that "Rumors of our demise have been greatly exaggerated... #DirectX12 is coming to #GDC." Which means that AMD's Mantle will have a very giant competitor to deal with at GDC 2014.

The website appears to be legit as well since it is hosted on Microsoft's MSDN blog site and includes heavy hitting graphics companies like AMD, Intel, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm. The latter suggest that DirectX 12 has been developed for mobile devices too and there is a big chance that we could see it arrive on the next Windows Phone 8.1 update that is slated for April. If the website is correct then DirectX 12 will make its debut at 10AM on March 20th at the 2014 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

Continue reading: DirectX 12 is finally here, will launch on March 20th at GDC 2014 (full post)

Mt. Gox sees its source code and customer data leaked by hackers

Charles Gantt | Hacking, Security & Privacy | Mar 5, 2014 7:08 PM CST

Things just got a lot worse for former Bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox. Today a Russian leakster announced that he has accessed then entire source code that ran Mt. Gox's operations. The code is only 1,700 lines long, so it is highly unlikely that the entire thing is there, but it does provide enough information to show how Mt. Gox handled Bitcoin transactions, and the methods used to transmit and receive Bitcoin hashes.

Along with the source code, the leakster / hacker claims to have a 20GB data dump of customer and employee information that includes passport scans, and every piece of contact information customers and employees entered into the system. With a breach this big, it leaves us to wonder how many other exchanges were using a part of this source code, and how many are now venerable to even more attacks now that the information is public? If you are interested, the source link below has links to the stolen code.

It's incidents like this that further undermine the security and trustworthiness of Bitcoins as a viable digital currency. This is the exact reason that US Congressmen are calling for Bitcoin trading to be banned in the us. With such a large economy growing around the virtually unregulated Bitcoin market, a simple crash like Mt. Gox experienced, or major Bitcoin heist like Flexcoin experienced over the weekend could send the entire market crashing down and millions of people would lose everything they have invested in Bitcoins.

Continue reading: Mt. Gox sees its source code and customer data leaked by hackers (full post)

Comcast using its subscriber's home routers into Wi-Fi hotspots

Roshan Ashraf Shaikh | Internet & Websites | Mar 5, 2014 6:55 PM CST

Comcast is planning to use its customer's Wi-Fi routers to act as a Wi-Fi hotspot in Chicago. The Internet Service provider has started to convert a large number of Wi-Fi routers in homes into Xfinity hotspots using its existing equipments.

The company will be using a separate Wi-Fi signal and sending it through Comcast-owned wireless routers. Such signals from Comcast's home equipments can be identified by Comcast Xfinity's Wi-Fi mobile app. According to Comcast, by using such measures, it will not affect its subscriber's speed and privacy.

Comcast earlier did a test to see if they can do so, and made sure that such concerns are dealt with. During the time of testing, few users were found the need to opt-out of this service. Nagel said that Comcast provided a manual setting on the router should the customer choose to de-activate it. But by default, the Xfinity Wi-Fi signal will be switched on.

Continue reading: Comcast using its subscriber's home routers into Wi-Fi hotspots (full post)

ROKU unveils new HDMI Streaming Stick for just $50

Charles Gantt | TV, Movies & Home Theatre | Mar 5, 2014 4:44 PM CST

This week, Roku unveiled a new version of its Streaming Stick, a major upgrade from the $99 model it released in late 2012. The major difference is that the new Roku Streaming Stick will work with any TV with a HDMI port instead of only working on models that are deemed "Roku Ready."

The Roku Streaming Stick works on the same principal as Google's Chromecast, and features both iOS and Android apps to control the device. Not everyone likes using their tablet or smartphone to control their TV though and Roku has included a remote for those who still like to use them. The stick is basically an HD version of the Roku 1 that fits into a package the size of a large USB thumb drive and has more than 1000 channels of video programming.

The Roku Streaming Stick retails for about $50 which is $15 more than the Chromecast, and it includes major players like Showtime, HBO, Netflix, Hulu Plus, PLEX, and many more. It is up to you to decide if the extra $15 is worth it to you or not, but with Google recently opening up its SDK for the Chromecast, there is bound to be a wealth of apps arriving for it as well.

Continue reading: ROKU unveils new HDMI Streaming Stick for just $50 (full post)

New malware makes anti-virus software 'totally useless'

Michael Hatamoto | Hacking, Security & Privacy | Mar 5, 2014 4:20 PM CST

There is a security transition from defending against various virus and Trojan formats to sophisticated malware, and anti-virus programs are "totally useless," according to Mohammad Mannan, Concordia Institute for Information Systems Engineering assistant professor.

In a recent survey from Visa, almost 92 percent of respondents said they have been targeted by attempted phishing attempts - and the complexity of these attacks continues to evolve.

Just a few years ago, if a user was infected with malware, it was a major disruptive problem that directly led to PCs running poorly. However, malware is largely being written by cybercriminals aiming to either hijack compromised devices, or steal personal information and make money, so malware runs in the background a lot more efficiently.

Continue reading: New malware makes anti-virus software 'totally useless' (full post)

LG G Pad 8.3 LTE tablet lands at Verizon Wireless March 6

We first talked about the LG G Pad 8.3 tablet back in September of last year when it went official. If you like the idea of that tablet, but want one with baked in LTE connectivity Verizon has just announced exactly what you are looking for. The LG G Pad 8.3 will land on the Verizon network on March 6.

The tablet will cost $99.99 with a new 2-year contact between March 6 and March 10. After that, the tablet will sell for $199.99. If you want one of these, you should really pick it early up and save the hundo. The tablet can be added to a More Everything plan for $10 per month.

The tablet has a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor and an 8.3-inch screen. The screen has a native resolution of 1920 x 1200. Other hardware features includes 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, and a 5MP rear camera.

Continue reading: LG G Pad 8.3 LTE tablet lands at Verizon Wireless March 6 (full post)