Last week, fresh reports surfaced, claiming that Halo: Master Chief Collection would finally be launching on PC soon. It is easy to get swept up in the excitement but some of the evidence currently floating around isn't as compelling as it first appears. Fresh stories doing the rounds today are …
Read More »UK bank Natwest is trialling debit cards with built-in fingerprint readers
Near-field communication (NFC) payments are fairly common in the UK nowadays, allowing customers to pay for items up to £30 by tapping their card onto a reader. Colloquially dubbed “contactless,” UK bank Natwest is pairing this technology with a fingerprint reader that uncaps the standard limit while forgoing archaic passwords. …
Read More »Qualcomm is demanding that Apple pays $31 million for alleged patent violations
Qualcomm’s second lawsuit against Apple might have been dismissed in Germany, but that hasn’t slowed the chipmaker’s offensive against the company as their patent battles rage on. This time, Qualcomm has stipulated that the iPhone maker owes the company $31 million for its alleged violations. When Apple replaced Qualcomm modems …
Read More »Nvidia set to acquire Mellanox Technologies for $6.9 billion
Nvidia is set to make the biggest acquisition in its history. Today, team green announced that it has reached “a definitive agreement” to acquire Mellanox, a company that specialises in cloud computing, data centres and networking. Nvidia will acquire all issued and outstanding common shares of Mellanox for $125 per …
Read More »All Fortnite dance lawsuits have been temporarily dropped as ‘creators’ seek Copyright
Last year, Epic Games found itself the target of lawsuits from a number of plaintiffs, claiming that Fortnite: Battle Royale was profiting from their copyright and likeness. Now, the US Supreme Court has put a temporary wedge in the cases, ruling that litigants have no case if their work is …
Read More »Bethesda lifts the lid on first seasonal event in Fallout 76, Fasnacht Parade
Patch 7 is just around the corner for Fallout 76 players, prompting Bethesda to unveil its upcoming seasonal event: Fasnacht Parade! Alongside some terrifying masks that debatably should have released at Halloween instead, the update introduces limited-time loot to collect and changes to Energy and Heavy Weapons. “Each year, since …
Read More »Valve layoffs weren’t solely focused on VR, Artifact was also affected
Last week, we learned that Valve had gone through a round of layoffs, with around 13 employees losing their employment. At the time, it was believed that this mainly impacted Valve's virtual reality hardware team, but there were other areas affected, including the Artifact team. Valve uses a lot of …
Read More »Respawn has banned 355K Apex Legends cheaters so far, plans future improvements
Apex Legends has been out for just over a month now and during that time, the game has swiftly risen past 50 million players. Of course, like any fast-rising multiplayer game, keeping on top of cheaters is imperative to continued success. So far, over 355,000 cheaters have been caught out …
Read More »Google working on its own gaming console, controller design appears online
There has been talk of Google releasing its own gaming console since as far back as 2013. Over the years, these rumours have been consistent and Google has confirmed plans to enter the gaming market with acquisitions of studios and the public testing of a new streaming service. It looks like we are now closer than ever to seeing Google's own gaming hardware too, with the controller design being revealed over the weekend.
Read More »2020 presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren wants to split up Amazon, Google and Facebook
After throwing herself in the ring as US Democratic presidential candidate for 2020, Elizabeth Warren has declared her intentions of breaking up Amazon, Google and Facebook. Warren claims that the trio has too much power over “economy, society and democracy” and continuously display anti-competitive behaviour. Warren discussed the matter on …
Read More »We’ll be seeing Cyberpunk 2077 at E3 but there is still a lot of work left to be done
Last year, we got our first good look at CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077, with the first full trailer being shown at E3 and a full gameplay showcase landing later in 2018. We know that Cyberpunk 2077 will be at E3 again this year, but CD Projekt Red has taken …
Read More »Premature listing suggests price and specs of the OnePlus 7
OnePlus is gearing up to launch its next flagship smartphone, meaning a number of details are coming to light. CEO Pete Lau has already confirmed that the OnePlus 7 won’t feature wireless charging and leaks suggest a bezel-less design thanks to a pop-out camera, but a recent listing reportedly uncovers …
Read More »Elon Musk’s turbulent year could see him lose Tesla and Pentagon security clearance
Although Elon Musk managed to finally release Tesla’s $35,000 model, the CEO is having a particularly bad year so far. The Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a grievance against Musk for breaching his settlement agreement by tweeting about the company without authorisation, and now the Pentagon is reviewing …
Read More »Disney+ will house the company’s entire library, but it isn’t clear if this availability is worldwide
As the Disney+ streaming service approaches release later this year, the company is putting an end to its frustrating ‘Vault’ system in favour of greater availability. Drumming up excitement in shareholders and prospective fans alike, Disney CEO Bob Iger stated that the service is set to receive “the entire Disney …
Read More »EA will not be holding a press conference at this year’s E3
E3 already has a noticeable hole in its 2019 line-up, as Sony announced it will not be appearing at the event. Now, EA has revealed that it will be taking a ‘show, don’t tell approach’ as it ditches its annual keynote in favour of a pre-show livestream. The Star Wars, …
Read More »Valve layoffs reportedly reduce the company’s hardware department
Valve has laid off 13 full-time members of staff redundant alongside a number of contractors, seemingly downsizing its hardware department.
Read More »AOC’s latest monitor is 4K, ‘HDR-ready’ and sports FreeSync for £319
This week, AOC is launching a new addition to its gaming monitor lineup- the G2868PQU. A minimalist 28-inch gaming monitor with a 4K ‘HDR-ready' panel and FreeSync. The G2868PQU uses a TN panel that covers 102% of the sRGB colour gamut and 82% of the AdobeRGB gamut. While it is …
Read More »Is it too little, too late for Mark Zuckerberg to promise a “privacy focused” Facebook?
Facebook has become the poster child for data misuse in recent years, from Cambridge Analytica to run-ins with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). CEO Mark Zuckerberg is attempting to change that image, announcing that he wants to make Facebook a “privacy-focused platform.” Announcing the upcoming method of …
Read More »Nvidia explores whether newer technologies have real-world impact on battle royale K/D ratios
With the boom in popularity of the battle royale genre drawing millions of users per day, there has been an increased focus on squeezing every last bit of performance out of hardware. Better components certainly offer more frames per second, but Nvidia wanted discern whether more frames truly translated to …
Read More »Respawn’s first-layer fix for Apex Legends hitboxes is ‘coming soon’
Late last month, players discovered a discrepancy between the hitboxes of each character in Apex Legends, causing an unfair disadvantage. After exploring a number of fixes, Respawn Entertainment has laid the groundwork for its first-layer patch which should arrive alongside Season 1. Larger characters such as Gibraltar, Caustic and, particularly, …
Read More »Players discover Anthem bug that makes level 1 weapons the most powerful
After launching to mixed reviews, Bioware has been quick to address some early feedback for Anthem. Unfortunately, recent patches have introduced new problems for the game. Aside from crashing both PS4 and Xbox One consoles, Anthem now has a weapon bug that makes your starting gun more powerful than the …
Read More »BioWare is set to fix Anthem on PS4, as Xbox One users also claim to be affected
Anthem’s rough launch has seen PlayStation 4 (PS4) users flock to various forums to complain that the game was inexplicably crashing their system and in some cases causing a power cycling issue. While these woes are set to come to an end next week, thanks to BioWare finding a fix, …
Read More »H1Z1 is no more, latest patch introduces Z1 Battle Royale among other changes
Update (07/03/19): Back in September, Daybreak games announced that H1Z1 would be going through another branding change. This change has now occured as part of a major update for the Battle Royale title, which aims to bring back ‘the glory days'. H1Z1 has been through plenty of changes over the …
Read More »Valve removes controversial visual novel from Steam
Valve has been criticised over its lack of content curation on Steam several times over the last few years. Poor asset flips and fake games have landed on Steam in abundance, with some developers using these games to exploit the Steam marketplace. The Steam curation argument has recently popped up …
Read More »There are ethical concerns surrounding Facebook’s new Tributes feature
In an attempt to stop Facebook from turning into an ever-growing digital graveyard, the social network began handing loved ones control over the accounts of people that had passed. Evolving this feature, Facebook has now announced its new ‘Tributes’ section, which questionably monetises the dead. Accounts identified as inactive due …
Read More »Nintendo Switch is getting a Labo virtual reality kit
There have been rumours about Nintendo experimenting with VR again floating around for a while. Last year, a hidden VR mode was found on the Switch, now six months later, Nintendo Labo VR has been announced. Toycon #4, Labo VR, is a pack of Nintendo Labo DIY kits that let …
Read More »Analysts claim largest DRAM price decline since 2011
The DRAM and NAND Flash markets enjoyed a massive boom in recent years, to the point where there have been allegations of price fixing. Late last year, market analysts began talking about ‘steep declines' due in 2019. Now according to updated analysis, DRAM contract prices are in the sharpest decline …
Read More »Corning is testing flexible glass solutions for foldable smartphones
By their very nature, flexible smartphones are built with durable screens that can withstand multiple folds, but the rigidity of Gorilla Glass has meant that none of the new handsets live up to what is now industry standard. Corning has heard these woes and has revealed that it is now …
Read More »A class action lawsuit claims Activision misled investors over Bungie split
In a surprise move earlier this year, Bungie and Activision split up, allowing Bungie to go independent once again with the Destiny IP in hand. At the time, investors called for a third-party investigation into the situation and now, a class-action lawsuit is being pursued. Kuznicki Law PLLC, a California-based …
Read More »Leo Says Ep. 38 – GTX 1660 Ti, DLSS, 16in MacBook Pro, and USB alphabet spaghetti
Today Leo returns with another episode of Leo Says. As always, our grumpy hero has a lot to discuss, touching first on GTX 1660 Ti and its distinct lack of RTX features. He also mentions DLSS and its limitations as explored by HARDWARE UNBOXED, while there is also news of a new 16in MacBook Pro and an overview of some announcements made at MWC 2019. You can also bet that Leo has a lot to say about the new USB naming conventions, too...
Read More »