This is the GoPro Karma drone, rumor says

GoPro is working on developing a drone named Karma, that much is already known. What hasn’t been known, however, is what it will look like. Someone recently published an image of the alleged drone to Reddit, though the post has mysteriously vanished, but not before Konrad Iturbe was able to grab it.

Konrad published the image to his Twitter feed. His Twitter profile suggests he’s a “GoPro addict,” which might suggest he’s also quick to jump the gun on an exciting rumor. Or maybe he knows something we don’t know. In any case, the drone looks like it attaches easily to a Hero4 camera, allowing videographers to take to the skies with their actioncameras.

GoPro will need to show why consumers should buy this drones over others, like the DJIPhantom 4, for example. This image doesn’t provide any hint toward that strategy and, frankly, I’m not sure I buy this rumor.

SOURCE MASHABLE, TWITTER

Rise of the Tomb Raider PS4 Release Date Confirmed, Has PlayStation VR Support

New version of game will be available on Xbox One and PC too.

                          

Square Enix has announced Rise of the Tomb Raider will launch on PlayStation 4 on October 11 in a new 20 Year Celebration edition. This version of the game will feature "a completely new story chapter entitled Blood Ties."

In addition to this, it will have new co-op Endurance gameplay, PlayStation VR support for the new Blood Ties chapter, all previously released DLC, extra outfits, weapons, and Expedition Cards. A limited edition art book will also be included.

All this content will be available for free to Xbox One and PC to players that own the season pass. This, however, won't include VR support. The season pass will be updated to include this content going forward.

A season pass does not exist for PS4 as all the extra content is included in the new version of the game.

"[Crystal Dynamics] is celebrating with all Tomb Raider fans, thanking them for being on Lara's 20 year journey with us," said Scot Amos, co-head of the studio. "The team has packed in surprises, new story, and the top-requested special features into this 20 Year Celebration edition.

"Blood Ties, a new premium DLC, beckons players to explore Croft Manor in a new story mode; then defend it against a zombie invasion in Lara's Nightmare. When Lara's uncle contests ownership of the Manor, Lara must explore the estate to find proof that she is the rightful heir, or lose her birthright and father's secrets for good.

"Players can then test their zombie-killing skills in the replayable Lara's Nightmare mode: a haunted Croft Manor where players have new challenges and must rid the Manor of an evil presence."

According to a press release, the PlayStation VR support lets players "unlock the mysteries of Croft Manor in first-person, while the new co-op Endurance mode lets fans team-up in the wilderness.

"Two players must team up to survive the harsh elements by day, as well as lethal threats from enemies by night. Fire takes fuel, food restores health, and every resource must be hunted, collected, or crafted. Battle to the top of the leaderboards, as others try to beat your longest survival run."

To celebrate the history of Tomb Raider, a re-envisoned version of the cold-weather outfit and the Hailstorm pistol Lara used in Tomb Raider 3 will be available in the mode. A classic Lara card pack will let players play as various iterations of the character from over the years, including the original Lara model that started it all in 1996.

Finally, the game will have a new Extreme Survivor difficulty: "This new difficulty level takes the toughness of Survivor and ratchets it up several notches starting with all checkpoints being stripped out of the game. The only way to save the game is forage enough resources to light campfires."

Take a look at the infographic below to see everything included in the Rise of the Tomb Raider 20 Year Celebration release.

                          

Pokémon GO will soon let businesses sponsor locations

In the augmented reality world of Pokémon GO, businesses large and small will soon have the ability to sponsor locations. This is something developer Niantic did with their previous AR game, Ingress.

In Pokémon GO, sponsors would be charged every time someone playing the game visits the locale they’ve sponsored. That, basically, counts as an augmented reality ad impression, and it’s how Niantic hopes to create an additional revenue stream.

Niantic Chief Executive John Hanke spoke with Financial Times about the upcoming addition.

“There is a second component to our business model at Niantic, which is this concept of sponsored locations…”

The first component, of course, is the current PokéCoins system of microtransactions. The app has seen success with that, too.

Are you still playing Pokémon GO? It achieved the milestone of becoming the biggest mobile game in U.S. history  just days ago.

SOURCE FT (PAY WALL)

Seagate unveils 10TB BarraCuda Pro desktop drive

Seagate on Tuesday unveiled a portfolio of 10TB drives built for NAS, surveillance systems and, of course, a new BarraCuda Pro drive for home PC users. The company said its goal was to deliver a beefy hard drive at an affordable price point, and it promises this drive delivers.

The BarraCuda Pro 10TB desktop drive spins at 7200rpm, slower than some might prefer but not bad given the huge capacity, and offers built-in power-saving features. Before today, Seagate’s 3.5-inch BarraCuda HDD selection included 50GB, 1TB, 2TB, 3TB, 4TB, 6TB and 8TB options, so customers who needed more space had to look to Seagate’s enterprise-focused 10TB drives, which were introduced in April. Now that helium technology is trickling into the more consumer-friendly drive.

The new BarraCuda Pro, which joins new IronWolf and SkyHawk entries for small businesses and surveillance systems, respectively, will launch from retailers such as NewEgg with a $535 MSRP, according to AnandTech.

SOURCE SEAGATE

Xbox Scorpio announced with enough time for devs to make games

Watching Microsoft’s E3 press conference last month, it’s easy to say that the companymade some kind of misjudgment by announcing Scorpio at the same time as the Xbox One S. But it’s not just something they threw on the end of the show just to put it there, and while some might call it a move of desperation, even that doesn’t preclude it from being something done with thought and intent.

“Creators, given time, will come up with amazing transformative ideas that I’m not smart enough to come up with,” said Xbox boss Phil Spencer in an interview with The Guardian. “So sharing the vision with our creative partners and our internal teams, putting the tools and capability out there, will lead to those breakthrough experiences.”

Spencer cited Rocket League‘s cross platform play as one new step the company’s taking.

“Being able to detail our vision and talk about it here at E3 will kickstart those conversations, and I know you will see some of the best creators thinking through ideas just like [Rocket League].”

As The Guardian notes, it’d be nearly impossible for Microsoft to get this new platform out in the hands of all the developers they want working on it while keeping it secret. There are too many developers in too many places. This isn’t the old console development world anymore where you have formal studios with tight protocols.

With the world of game development having changed so much from even what it looked like in 2013, this might less be a matter of a desperate move and more just pragmatic realism. And if it gives developers more time to help their games take advantage of the much more powerful hardware, then it’s only going to end up being a good thing for gamers.

The interview is extensive, tackling questions about the Xbox One S, the idea of a console cycle, and more. Check it out in the source link below.

SOURCE THE GUARDIAN

Pokémon GO update to bring trading to the popular mobile game

What’s Pokémon GO missing? A few things, honestly. Battling friends, unique Pokéballs and trading are some things I’d like to see. It’d be great to tangle with buddies, and the option to toss a Great Ball or Ultra Ball at a Gyrados in order to achieve a higher success chance sounds fantastic.

What about trading, though? That’s coming soon.

Niantic Labs’ CEO John Hanke spoke with Business Insider specifically about trading. Hanke explained that “it’s kind of a core element,” and offered that it goes perfectly with what the game’s all about. Being social, interacting with others and exploring the world.

It’d be nice to get candies out of trades in order to move evolutions a little faster. Maybe trading a Pokémon earns more candy than transferring it to Professor Oak? That’s a good way to encourage the action and get folks playing together.

Hopefully this comes soon.

SOURCE BUSINESS INSIDER

Pokémon GO becomes the fastest app to reach #1 on Android

Pokémon GO is the fastest app in Android’s history to reach 1#, taking only four days to get there. The game hasn’t even launched yet in Japan, where it is bound to see even more success. The previous record was SuperCell’s Clash of Clans, which had a similar amount of hype thanks to success on iOS but not nearly the same name recognition as Pokémon.

App Annie communications boss Fabien Pierre-Nicolas chimed in on the success of Pokémon GO.

Even though Pokémon Go is only officially open in three countries, the game is generating well over $1 million of net revenue for Niantic Labs. I can easily envision a run-rate of over $1 billion per year with less server issues, a worldwide presence, and more social and player-vs.-player features.

If The Pokémon Company can maintain this success, the $1 billion could very well be possible. Obviously, more Pokémon must be added to the roster and more countries must be added, too.

The launch has been nothing but a dream come true for all parties involved, but it remains to be seen how the world reacts three or four months from now.

SOURCE VENTURE BEAT

Spotify claims Apple using App Store approval process “as a weapon”

Spotify says Apple is exhibiting extreme anti-competitive behavior by using its App Store approval process “as a weapon.” The streaming service’s general counsel, Horacio Gutierrez, sent a letter to Apple earlier this week accusing the company of causing harm to Spotify and its customers.

According to the letter, Apple recently rejected Spotify’s latest update demanding the service use Apple’s billing system.

“This latest episode raises serious concerns under both U.S. and EU competition law,” Gutierrez said. “It continues a troubling pattern of behavior by Apple to exclude and diminish the competitiveness of Spotify on iOS and as a rival to Apple Music, particularly when seen against the backdrop of Apple’s previous anticompetitive conduct aimed at Spotify.”

Last year, Spotify ran a promotion offering new subscribers three months of service for just $0.99—but only if they signed up through Spotify’s site, not via an in-app purchase, which would give Apple a cut. Apple didn’t take too kindly to Spotify’s shenanigans, and when the streaming service brought the same campaign back this month, Apple threatened to remove the app from the App Store.

Because Apple takes a cut, Spotify is being forced to charge $13/month for subscriptions for purchases made through the App Store; through Spotify’s website subscriptions are only $9.99. Meanwhile, Spotify is unable to use a different billing system because that’s against App Store policy. This gives Apple an advantage because the company is able to charge only $9.99 for purchases made through the App Store.

Spotify isn’t the only one to take issue with Apple’s controversial business practices. AsRecode notes, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos recently suggested the online giant stopped selling the Apple TV because of Apple’s unfair subscription rules. In addition to sending a letter to Apple, Spotify also shared a copy with Congressional staff in Washington, D.C., in the hopes of bringing attentions to the issue.

SOURCE RECODE

iPhone 8 AMOLED display is big business for Samsung

As much as Apple and Samsung fight in the courtrooms, it’s easy to forget that Apple relies on Samsung for a lot of its components. The latest rumor suggests Apple will use Samsung AMOLED displays on its 2017 iPhone, possibly dubbed the iPhone 8 since it will be a big transition from this year’s iPhone 7. A new report provides some insight into how many panels Samsung is expected to provide, and it sounds like a big chunk.

According to DigiTimes, Samsung is expected to build 560 million AMOLED panels by 2019. The news outlet cited its research arm, DigiTimes Research, which expects Samsung to supply 40 million AMOLED panels just for the presumed iPhone 8 in 2017, with shipments doubling to 80 million units in the second year and tripling to 120 million units in 2019, making up a large bulk of the total 560 million AMOLED panel shipments.

Keep in mind that Apple has reportedly already placed an order for 100 million AMOLED displays, which means other companies may already be securing business.

Samsung may provide some of the panels for the iPhone 8, but it will face competition from firms like Sharp (Foxconn), LG and Japan Display, which no doubt will want a slice of Apple pie.

SOURCE DIGITIMES

Apple Campus 2 looks like a freakin’ awesome futuristic donut in latest 4K drone video

The Apple Campus 2, Apple’s new HQ that’s being built out in Cupertino, is quite an amazing project. We’ve been following the progress from construction thanks to drone flyover videos from folks like Matthew Roberts.

                      

It looks like a freakin’ futuristic donut at this point, and I love it. Roberts provides a recap of some of the awesome specs the building sports, too. For example, it’ll have 3,00 total glass panels installed when Apple is finished. When the garages are finished, there will be enough room for 11,000 vehicles, Roberts said. The fuel cells installed on the roofs will supply 4 megawatts of power, too, again a nod to Apple’s focus on renewable green energy. On that same note, Apple will reuse the dirt displaced by the building to landscape the areas around its massive structure.

                     

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s book “Hit Refresh” coming next fall

Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella has signed a deal to write his first book, cleverly namedHit Refresh. Of course the Hit Refresh is a bit of a double entendre, having both meaning in the world of tech and life, though the book is not a memoir about Nadella.

Instead, The Wall Street Journal quoted Nadella explaining the book as the “meditations of somebody who is a sitting CEO of a company going through a pretty cathartic transformation.” Nadella was indeed faced with huge changes after he took the helm of Microsoft, including many layoffs, and has worked to transform the company from a seemingly stodgy enterprise-focused firm that sold Windows to one that dabbles across all operating systems with products for all sorts of consumers.

There will be a personal twist, too, according to publisher Harper Collins.

“Nadella’s personal journey of transformation, the change that is taking place today inside his storied technology company, and one that is coming in all of our lives as intelligent machines become more ambient and more ubiquitous throughout society,” will be covered in the book, the publisher explained. “Nadella explores how people, organizations, and societies can and must transform—hit refresh—in their persistent quest for new energy, new ideas, relevance and renewal. Nadella writes that uniquely human qualities like empathy will become more valuable in a world where the torrent of technology will disrupt like never before.”

The book is scheduled to hit shelves in the fall of 2017.

SOURCE HARPER COLLINS, WSJ