Nintendo's next-gen console will be revealed next year, no region lock
It was expected of Nintendo to talk about its next generation console at E3 2015 next month, but the company has confirmed that it will not be talking about its "NX" console at the show.
But, Nintendo President and CEO Satoru Iwata said that the Japanese company will be talking about its NX console sometime in 2016. The Nintendo boss teased that they are calling it a new concept, with the team not considering the NX console a replacement of the Wii U. At this point, there's no clue what Nintendo could be working on, but if it's anything like the Wii, we could expect a big change to the game console.
The new NX console will also reportedly not be held back by region locking, as the company has been listening to customer feedback and proposals from the market.
Continue reading: Nintendo's next-gen console will be revealed next year, no region lock (full post)
Ex-Naughty Dog developer says 8GB RAM is enough for the Xbox One, PS4
Both of the current generation consoles have 8GB of RAM, which "should be plenty for the remainder of this console generation" according to ex-Naughty Dog developer and founder of Filmic Worlds, John Hable.
During a recent interview with GamingBolt, Hable said: "In general, I would not worry about the consoles becoming outdated. Remember, the PS3 and Xbox 360 have only 512MB of RAM, but the PC versions of the same games usually require 2GB or more. On consoles you have more control over memory allocations. The 8GB of RAM in both the Xbox One and PS4 should be plenty for the remainder of this console generation".
When Hable was still with Naughty Dog, he was in control of the HDR lighting technology found in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Current generation games are now using much more complicated lighting technologies such as global illumination and physical-based rendering, so GamingBolt wanted to know where Hable thought lighting technology in games would be going next.
Continue reading: Ex-Naughty Dog developer says 8GB RAM is enough for the Xbox One, PS4 (full post)
Fox announce 'X-Files' return date
It's been an exciting few months for 'X-Files' fans, with the prospect of new adventures featuring FBI agents Mulder and Scully transforming from a dream to a reality. Now, Fox have announced their television lineup for 2016 - which includes a solid date for the show's return.
The six part, limited series starring David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, will premiere on the Fox network on January 24th 2016, with a "special two-night event" spilling over to the next night. The remaining four episodes have not been dated, but would presumably follow weekly from that point. No further details on the series plot were divulged, but is understood to mirror the original series, which featured a mix of alien mythology and 'monster of the week' episodes.
According to YVRShoots, filming will begin on June 9th and continue through to August in downtown Vancouver.
Continue reading: Fox announce 'X-Files' return date (full post)
Google says its self-driving cars have been involved in 11 accidents
Google self-driving vehicles have had 11 minor traffic accidents during six years of testing, but the vehicle and human passenger were not at fault. Following reports that the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has received accident reports from three Google-equipped Lexus SUVs since September 2014.
Most reported accidents were caused by another vehicle rear-ending the Google autonomous test car, according to Google.
"Not only are we developing a good understanding of minor accident rates on suburban streets, we've also identified patterns of driver behavior (lane drifting, red-light running) that are leading indicators of significant collisions," said Chris Urmson, director of the self-driving car program at Google, in a blog post. "Those behaviors don't ever show up in official statistics, but they create dangerous situations for everyone around them."
Continue reading: Google says its self-driving cars have been involved in 11 accidents (full post)
IDC: 3D printers continue to gain interest, with satisfaction rising
It looks like 3D printers are one step closer to widespread mainstream adoption, with 90 percent of respondents from companies saying they are "very satisfied" with their 3D printing experience, according to IDC.
Price, ease of use and service/support are critical to help drive adoption among business users, the survey found. In addition, non-users have a curiosity with 3D printing, and momentum will continue to build even further in the future.
"These printers are typically acquired for a specific creation workflow, but once in place the usage expands rapidly to other types of applications," said Keith Kmetz, VP of hardcopy peripherals solutions and services at IDC. "The early adopters who recognized the substantial cost and time-to-market benefits of 3D printing have carried the day, but it's their overall satisfaction and the ability to expand usage that will ultimately drive 3D printing to the next level."
Continue reading: IDC: 3D printers continue to gain interest, with satisfaction rising (full post)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 818 to be the first 10-core processor
We have gotten used to some flagship smartphones on the market rocking an 8-core processor, but Qualcomm will be kicking things up a notch or two with their upcoming Snapdragon 818 processor.
The Snapdragon 818 processor will be the first 10-core chipset, with four low-power Cortex-A53 cores at 1.2GHz, two mid-power Cortex-A53 cores at 1.6GHz and four more high-power Cortex-A72 cores rocking along at 2GHz. All of this will be baked onto the 20nm process, include LPDDR4 support and LTE-A Cat10 support, too.
We should expect to see some smartphones with this processor in the future, but for now, nothing is confirmed just yet so we'll have to wait to get off this rumor train for now, and jump onto the next ride. For now, what do you think about the world of 10-core smartphones? It will be coming sooner than you think.
Continue reading: Qualcomm Snapdragon 818 to be the first 10-core processor (full post)
Tesla has reportedly received $800 million in Powerwall orders so far
When Tesla unveiled its new Powerwall home battery, I don't think most people thought it would take off as fast as it has. According to Bloomberg, Tesla has received over $800 million in orders for the Powerwall and Powerpack batteries so far.
The site says that Tesla has received around $179 million worth of Powerwall reservations so far, with $625 million worth of Powerpack reservations to boot. Tesla has already said that it's taken in around 38,000 total reservations for Powerwall, and 2,500 reservations for Powerpack.
Tesla is selling the Powerwall for $3000 and $3500 for the 7kWh and 10kWh models, respectively. Powerpack units make even more money for Tesla, as they're being sold to businesses and utilities for power storage for $250 per kilowatt hour to use.
Continue reading: Tesla has reportedly received $800 million in Powerwall orders so far (full post)
Treyarch discusses COD: Black Ops III with the other COD developers
After hearing the rumors for Call of Duty: Black Ops III for what felt like months, it was made official last month with a release date of later this year. With three studios now developing games within the Call of Duty franchise, there must be a lot of brainpower going around.
Last year, Sledgehammer Games developed Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, but this year the torch goes to Treyarch Studios for Black Ops III. Treyarch has come out and said that they communicate with the two other studios that develop Call of Duty games, with Mark Lamia from Treyarch talking with the Official PlayStation Magazine, saying: "From very early on we'll share stuff on all sides".
He continued: "I invited the other teams very early on in this development, as soon as I had what I considered a representative prototype. I shared it with the other studios, but it's up to them to come up with their own [creative ideas]". Lamia continued: "It was interesting to see that they had maybe some movements like ours, but the systems and focus they had was different from ours. I think that's important inside the franchise to have some differentiation for the players so that they can get a different experience every year".
Continue reading: Treyarch discusses COD: Black Ops III with the other COD developers (full post)
Project CARS compared on video at 1080p 60FPS between PS4 and PC
With Project CARS now finally out, comparisons are being made between the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC versions of Slightly Mad Studios' very ambitious driving game.
The comparison we've embedded above is between the PS4 and PC versions of Project CARS, with both versions running at 1080p 60FPS. For the most part there's not much of a difference between the two, with some impressive performance coming out of the AMD APU-powered PS4. But, if you pause the video at any time, there's some very serious motion blur happening on the PS4 version of the game.
At 2:40 into the video, mountains completely disappear on the PS4 version of the game for some reason, which I'm sure is performance-related. As for the PC version, it was running on High texture resolution with AA on High, FXAA disabled, and most other settings on Ultra. Motion blur was set to High, with grass, particle levels and intensity set on Ultra.
Continue reading: Project CARS compared on video at 1080p 60FPS between PS4 and PC (full post)
NVIDIA says TSMC is still primary partner for 16nm, 10nm production
Back in February, we wrote a story about NVIDIA reiterating that TSMC was its 'very important' foundry partner as it heads into the world of 16nm manufacturing.
Well, NVIDIA is back to reiterate once more that it still loves TSMC, and that it's working with the Taiwanese manufacturer on not just 16nm technology, but 10nm. Jen-Hsun Huang, NVIDIA's CEO and co-founder said: "We are constantly evaluating foundry suppliers, ... [but] we largely purchase from TSMC, the vast majority of our wafers we buy from TSMC. We are in 20nm, we are expecting to ramp 16nm. We are deeply engaged with TSMC for many, many nodes to come, including 10nm".
This could be happening as Samsung is kicking ass with its 14nm FinFET production, but with the current legal battles between NVIDIA and Samsung, could NVIDIA be deflating the rumor balloon that it will ditch, or at least shift some production over from TSMC to Samsung in the near future? NVIDIA has added that it's not "too obsessed about the process technology", which is an interesting statement from a company that pushes the boundaries of GPU technology with each successive release.
Continue reading: NVIDIA says TSMC is still primary partner for 16nm, 10nm production (full post)