The Pokemon Company International is demanding $4000 from a fan of the series after he organized a Pokemon themed party to celebrate the kick off of PAX earlier this year. Ramar Larkin Jones organized the unofficial Pokemon PAX party this year but had to cancel it at the last minute …
Read More »Microsoft has acquired the Havok physics engine from Intel
Microsoft has revealed that it has completed its acquisition of the Havok Physics engine and animation software from Intel. You will likely recognize the Havok logo from many games, the engine has been used in more than six hundred titles over the years and now it is in Microsoft's hands. Recent …
Read More »Self-driving taxis will begin trials in Japan next year
While Google has made excellent progress with its self-driving car over the last few years, it seems that Japan is swiftly catching up, as trials of the ‘Robot Taxi' are set to begin in the country next year. These will be entirely automatic, self-driving taxis, picking customers up and driving …
Read More »More details of Dell’s XPS 4K tablet hybrid appear online
Last month, we caught wind of an upcoming Dell XPS 12 hybrid-tablet, much like Microsoft's Surface offerings. While we had a look at some details at the time, more specifications have made their way online, ahead of the official unveiling coming up this month. We already know that the XPS …
Read More »Google and Microsoft call a truce on in-progress lawsuits
Google and Microsoft have called a truce on their legal battles in the US and Germany, spanning across many lawsuits all in regards to certain patents and royalties- perhaps Apple and Samsung could find some inspiration here. Some of the lawsuits concerned Xbox technology, while others were related to mobile …
Read More »Amazon might be stopping sales of Apple TV and Google Chromecast
Amazon apparently has made plans to discontinue sales of the Apple TV and Google Chromecast devices on its store, forbidding third-party merchants from listing either device. These two devices are massively popular for those wanting a streaming box but they obviously compete with some of Amazon's own Fire products. This …
Read More »Samsung denies using software to cheat TV power efficiency tests
An independent research group recently levied some pretty hefty accusations at Samsung recently, claiming that the company was using software on its TVs to cheat energy efficiency tests. This isn't the first time that Samsung has been accused of this, it was discovered that past Galaxy smartphones were capable of …
Read More »Toshiba accounting scandal may end its TV, appliance business
Over the past few months, Toshiba has been through the ringer. After it was discovered that it had over-reported its finances for the past near-decade by more than a billion dollars, the CEO resigned and it was announced that much of its now-clearly under-performing appliances would be manufactured by third …
Read More »Nvidia Shield Android TV box heads to the UK and GeForce NOW announced
Nvidia's Android TV console, the Shield TV, is finally heading to the UK this week. From tomorrow, those in the UK and EU will be able to pick up a Shield at certain retailers, featuring the Nvidia Tegra X1 Maxewell based chip. In addition to that, the GRID streaming service …
Read More »Tesla Model X officially unveiled, has ‘bioweapon defense mode’
Although we've seen concept imagery and teasers for Tesla's Model X 4×4 electric car, it was only officially unveiled and launched in the early hours of this morning at an event in the U.S. Tesla debuted the vehicle itself along with a laundry list of features, announcing that the first …
Read More »AMD’s talks with private equity firm Silver Lake stalled – report
The discussions between Advanced Micro Devices and private equity firm Silver Lake Partners have stalled because the two companies have failed to agree on the price and the future of AMD. The chip designer is reportedly considering other options. Silver Lake was interested to acquire a 25 per cent stake …
Read More »Virgin Media boosts top broadband speed to 200Mbps
Virgin Media has increased its top broadband speeds in the UK to 200Mbps, in addition to these, the ISP's speed tiers will be changing up. Up until now, Virgin Media has offered broadband in 50Mbps, 100Mbps and 152Mbps packages but going forward, the ISP will be offering broadband at 70Mbps, …
Read More »Tesla Model X launching today, teased and webcast announced
Tesla is set to launch its Model X 4×4 later today, webcasting the entire show for viewers around the world and releasing more information on the vehicle than ever before. Company founder Elon Musk made the announcement himself earlier today, linking through to a page for the vehicle that teases …
Read More »It looks like YouTube’s paid subscription option is finally arriving
We have been hearing about YouTube's potential plans to put a subscription option in place for months now but it looks like it will finally arrive as soon as next month. According to new reports, Google is planning to launch paid subscriptions at the end of October, with an email being sent …
Read More »Pebble announces ‘Pebble Time Round’ smart watch
Pebble has become quite popular with its line of smartwatches, with two successful Kickstarter campaigns under its belt, the company has now announced its next smartwatch, the Pebble Time Round. The round-faced Pebble will look more like a traditional watch, with a very thin body, though it will make some …
Read More »GlobalFoundries: We started to tape-out chips using second-gen 14nm process technology
GlobalFoundries on Friday confirmed that the first products to be made using the company’s advanced 14nm LPP [low-power plus] manufacturing technology had been taped out. The contract maker of chips did not reveal any details, but indicated that prototype chips had demonstrated “excellent” performance and yields. One of the customers, …
Read More »GlobalFoundries: 14nm yields are exceeding our plans
GlobalFoundries, which started to manufacture chips using 14nm low-power early (14LPE) manufacturing technology several months ago, said on Friday that its yields exceed its original expectations. One of the world’s largest contract makers of semiconductors does not reveal its actual 14nm volumes, but since the chips are made for customers, …
Read More »Twitch will soon allow direct video uploads, just like YouTube
A few weeks back, YouTube attempted to break in to Twitch's market with YouTube Gaming, its own revamped live-streaming service. Now, Twitch is throwing a punch back with its own VOD service, allowing Twitch users to upload fully edited videos to Twitch. Up until now, Twitch has focussed on being live, …
Read More »The Oculus Touch controllers won’t be ready in time for launch
The Oculus Rift is on the way and should release around Spring next year. However, the Rift headset isn't the only bit of hardware that Oculus is set to release next year, it also has a brand new controller known as ‘Oculus Touch'. It's two motion sensing controllers that will …
Read More »The US is investigating Google for anti-competitive behaviour
Google is going to be fighting anti-trust legal battles on both sides of the Atlantic, as the FTC and US Justice Department have launched an official investigation in to Google's business practises with Android, similar to the one European Commission conducted over the last year. US regulators have apparently decided …
Read More »Samsung is launching a new, cheaper GearVR this November
Samsung is betting bigger on virtual reality this year, as it plans to release another version of its GearVR headset. This year's latest model will launch in November with a slight re-design and a much lower price. Oculus is once again in charge of developing the headset, which will rely …
Read More »Judge invalidates copyright claims on ‘Happy Birthday’ song
A US federal judge has ruled that all copyright claims on the song ‘Happy Birthday To You' are now invalid. Music publisher, Warner/Chappell can no longer charge licensing fees for its commercial use and as long as the ruling holds up, the song will enter the public domain. The original copyright …
Read More »Facebook accused of snooping in the EU
The Commission for the Protection of Privacy (CBPL), Belgium's data authority, has been investigating Facebook and has now accused it of NSA-style snooping. The Commission has been looking in to the social network for quite some time now and things have only gotten worse since the Snowden revelations. Back in …
Read More »Google seems to be preparing a Chromecast 2
It looks like Google is preparing to return to the Chromecast soon, with a newly revised dongle, featuring a new design and faster components. The new rumours come from leaked documents, which talk about different colour options, improve WiFi performance and something called ‘Fast Play', which will be a new …
Read More »Skype is back up and running after yesterday’s widespread outage
Skype has had its service restored back to normal, following yesterday's widespread outage that affected users across the world. Skype initially went down early yesterday morning, though the team behind the communication app were quick to work on it, though it took most of the day. Skype announced that its …
Read More »Kickstarter is now a Public Benefit Corporation
This week, Kickstarter announced that it would be changing course fairly significantly. The crowd funding platform was founded around six and a half years ago as a corporate entity but it is now set to transition from being a traditional corporation in to what is called a ‘public benefit corporation' …
Read More »Skype is suffering from a service outage across the world
Skype is down right now for many users. The communication service has been down since earlier this morning here in the UK and now it seems that people are being affected across the world. Those affected by the on-going issues won't be able to make any calls, all contacts will …
Read More »GlobalFoundries develops 7nm and 10nm technologies in-house
GlobalFoundries is working on its own 7nm and 10nm fabrication processes and it does not look like the company has plans to license technologies from the outside. The contract maker of semiconductors hopes that specialists from IBM’s microelectronics unit will help it to design world-class leading-edge manufacturing processes. GlobalFoundries, which …
Read More »Apple wins appeal in patent case against Samsung
Apple has won an appeal in its never-ending lawsuit against Samsung. The latest victory on Apple's part could mean that Samsung will either have to make changes to or stop selling some of its older Galaxy smartphones and tablets. A US court of appeals made the ruling on Thursday and …
Read More »The BBC is launching a US streaming service in 2016
It looks like The BBC is planning to expand in the US with its own TV streaming service in 2016. It won't be quite like the free to watch iPlayer that we are used to here in the UK though. Apparently, The BBC's US service will be subscription based and …
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