Flagship iPhones now expected every 3 years instead of 2..

                     

Currently, Apple develops and sells a major new iPhone every two years. It’s the famous “tick-tock” cycle, where Apple introduces a new flagship like the iPhone 6 and then follows it with an upgrade, the iPhone 6s, before returning to another major release. A new report suggests Apple will bump this “major” upgrade cycle from every two years to every three.

Nikkei suggests that will begin with this year’s iPhone 7, which isn’t expected to offer major upgrades over the iPhone 6s. This thought isn’t new. In fact, most pundits now believe Apple will launch a major iPhone upgrade in 2017 but will be relatively conservative with its changes this year.

What is new is that Nikkei suggests Apple will continue this cycle of launching a flagship every three years instead of every two, due to “smartphone functions have little room left for major enhancements” and “a slowing market.” The report said Apple’s iPhone 7 will “look almost identical” to the iPhone 6s but that it will feature an upgraded camera, improved battery life and water resistance.

Nikkei also provided some insight into what to expect in the 2017 iPhone, again pointing to an OLED panel but also noting it will feature components that allow it to “create more complex tactile vibrations on the display because of a tiny, but high-performance motor equipped inside.”

My guess is that Apple is going to watch the market and will adapt accordingly, depending on what’s available and what it feels it needs to add to its smartphones to remain competitive. That may mean a 3 year term between flagships this year, but Apple could move just as easily back to a tick-tock cycle if it felt it necessary.

SOURCE NIKKEI

Microsoft’s FlashBack tech could give mobile VR a huge upgrade

                         

Microsoft has been putting a big focus on augmented reality with the HoloLens headset, but the company is also cooking up some clever new virtual reality technology. A recent paper published by Microsoft Research, in conjunction with Rice University Ph.D. student Kevin Boos, details a system called FlashBack that could bring high-end VR experiences to cheaper devices.

FlashBack works by compressing detailed 3D environments and saving them to your device where they won’t take up very much space. Then, when you need a specific setting or object, referred to as a “mega-frame,” those files are automatically decompressed. This removes the need to constantly render a VR environment and also means you don’t need a fancy graphics card to make it work.

                         

The result is almost like watching a 360-degree video on YouTube, just interactive. FlashBack can render a large, fast-moving object like a car. It can even recreate massive environments like a basketball arena or an entire Viking village.

                   

The paper claims FlashBack will deliver framerates eight times faster than a mobile device that’s rendering locally. It could also reduce mobile VR latency and energy consumption by a factor of 15 and 97 respectively.

                  

FlashBack is still just a prototype, but it has the potential to revolutionize mobile VR. If Microsoft can get this technology to the market it could have an exciting competitor for Google Cardboard, Gear VR, and even the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive.

SOURCE FLASHBACK (CACHED), FLASHBACK DEMO

Best Android apps of 2016 highlighted in Google Play Awards

                       

Google on Friday unveiled the winners of its 2016 Google Play Awards, highlighting the top apps across various categories within the Google Play App Store.

The best app overall was Houzz, an application that allows you to browse through ideas for updating your house, furnishing it and more. Thinkrolls 2 took home the award for “Best Families App,” while Clash Royale won the “Best Game.” Robinhood was noticed for the “Best Use of Material Design,” while Table Tennis Touch took home the award for “Best Use of Google Play Game Services.” World Around Me won the “Early Adopter” award, Pokemon Shuffle Mobile won “Go Global,” NYT VR took home the “Most Innovative” app award, while Alphabear stole the show with “Standout Indie.” Finally, Hopper won for “Standout Startup.”

Pretty solid selection. Houzz is a great app, one that I personally use pretty frequently. Check these out if you haven’t yet.

SOURCE GOOGLE

Pokkén Tournament has sold more than Street Fighter V in the US

                 

Honestly, I didn’t think I’d ever see this news. Pokkén Tournament, the Pokémon and Tekken hybrid that’s launched exclusively for the Wii U on the console level, has actually sold more copies than Street Fighter V on the PlayStation 4.

This comes from gaming industry analyst ZhugeEX on Twitter has he looked over the most recent NPD results.

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Pokken Tournament for Wii U has now outsold Street Fighter V for PS4 in the US at retail.

11:04 PM - 13 May 2016

 
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He notes that this does not include digital sales, for what that’s worth.

Pokkén Tournament launched for the Wii U on March 18, 2016. Street Fighter V hit the PlayStation 4 on February 16, 2016. Even with Street Fighter V‘s full month head start at retail, Pokkén Tournament still managed to beat out Capcom’s fighting title.

             

Chalk it up to the Pokémon, the lack of competition on the Wii U or Street Fighter V‘s rocky launch. Whatever the reason, this news is pretty wild.

PS4 Neo is coming before October 2016, according to new report

Thanks to a French video games distributor, we have another rumor to pile onto the speculation that’s running rampant with whatever Sony might be doing for the PlayStation4’s mid-cycle refresh. This one’s been called the PS4K, PS4.5 and, most recently, the PlayStation 4 Neo. We’re running with that moniker as it’s sort of the one cited in the report.

The word comes from French video games distributor Innelec Multimedia’s most recent financial report report. That report indicates that, as Videogamer has the translation, the “evolution” of the PlayStation 4 will arrive during the first have of the distributor’s 2016-2017 fiscal year. That runs from April 2016 until March 2017, and the first half ends in September.

Innelec refers to this “evolution” as the Neo 4K, to make things even more confusing.

All of this makes sense on a larger scale, too. PlayStation VR is set to launch in October of this year, so, if the PlayStation 4 Neo is really set to make the system more powerful, the console totally should launch in time for the virtual reality add-on.

We’ll have more on the PlayStation 4 Neo, or whatever it’s slated to be called, as it comes.

SOURCE OTAXOU, VIDEOGAMER

Assassin’s Creed’s world premiere movie trailer is here

Last night, Jimmy Kimmel premiered the trailer of 20th Century Fox’s upcoming video game film, Assassin’s Creed. The film stars Michael Fassbender in the role of the film’s lead Callum Lynch, and from what it looks like, it will closely follow the plot of the first game in Ubisofts’ mega-popular series.

                    

Lynch awakens prisoner in an unknown room, and he travels back in time through a machine which lets him tap into old assassins. He’s Desmond, but hopefully Fassbender is able to bring more personality to the protagonist role. Lynch is tasked to infiltrate the age of the Spanish Inquisition.

                   

20th Century Fox also revealed the film’s official poster with Fassbender swan-diving from a ledge. All I can think is “Hopefully a hay-stack is awaiting him at the bottom,” and it looks like there is. The film will take place in the game franchise’s universe, but it is not following the exact plot of any specific game.

                  

Assassin’s Creed will be released in theaters on Dec. 21, and some are pointing towards it as the next big hope to bring legitimacy to video game films. We’ll have to wait and see

source:  POLYGON

Epic Games is done with single player, will focus on free-to-play multiplayer

                  

Unreal Tournament and Gears of War creator Epic Games is taking a controversial route that many fans might not agree with. CEO Tim Sweeney has confirmed with Polygon that it will be following a new business model that shifts away from single player campaigns and focuses solely on free-to-play multiplayer games.

Sweeney’s reasoning is that huge, AAA campaigns force smaller development studios into relationships with big publishers if they want to succeed. Self-published titles, like Epic Games’ Paragon, Fornite, and Unreal Tournament, are easier for these smaller teams to develop and sustain for a longer period of time.

                   

We realized that the business really needed to change its approach quite significantly. We were seeing some of the best games in the industry being built and operated as live games over time rather than big retail releases … so we began the transition of being a fairly narrow console developer focused on Xbox to being a multi-platform game developer and self publisher, and indie on a larger scale.

Polygon‘s sources also say that Epic Games’ future titles will be “dynamic” in that they will never be release completed and will be further updated until deemed unnecessary. It’s unknown how this shift will fare since we haven’t seen an original game released from this model yet, nor will we until Fornite and Paragon get released later in 2016. Hold off gut-reactions and brimstone judgement until then, please.

                   

And in case you don’t know, Epic Games sold Gears of War to Microsoft, meaning it will not be part of this shift in focus.

SOURCE POLYGON

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare promises new experiences, no loading screens

                      

Call of Duty has been pretty stale for a while. Since Black Ops II, none of the entries has contributed much to the series. Following yesterday’s unveiling of Infinite Warfare, Infinity Ward talked about what they want to bring to the series with what might be its biggest departure since their own Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.

Let’s not mince words, here. Call of Duty is still massively popular. It sells like crazy. For many players, their PlayStations and Xboxes are Call of Duty arcade machines. They just swap out the disc each year. But the series has been stagnant, with little truly new material, and it hasn’t seen growth (it’s only selling hojillions). To keep going, something has to change.

                   

Talking to Polygon, Infinity Ward’s narrative and design directors, Taylor Kurosaki and Jacob Minkoff, talked about some of what we can expect.

Despite the distinctly science-fiction setting, Kurosaki promises a grounded experience that players want from the series. The setting allows the team to push the game in new directions, though. Minkoff talked about a “desire to experiment.” Fighting in zero gravity brought on the advent of grappling hooks and thrusters. We saw a tiny bit of this in Advanced Warfare, but they played only briefly into the single-player game, and the thrusters were merely a double-jump.

                    

Minkoff also said that, despite the increase in scale, the team plans to rid the game of loading screens as much as possible.

“You can be on the surface of Earth, and you can launch up through the atmosphere into orbit, engage in combat in space, land on the flight deck of [your ship] the Retribution, go inside the ship, go up to the bridge, and order your ship to the next target of opportunity,” he said. “All of that completely seamlessly.”

Call of Duty games have typically been pretty linear, so promises of freedom like that are encouraging. With that said, the game is still a linear experience.

You play as Nick Reyes, commander of an aircraft carrier type of ship, the UNSA Retribution. You’re not just a grunt this time around, explained Kurosaki.

“It’s more akin to Saving Private Ryan,” he explained.

While you’ll still be in the thick of combat, Kurosaki says there’ll be lots of opportunity to make decisions.

“We want to put the players into the shoes of…Reyes, who is facing terrible extenuating circumstances,” Kurosaki said. You’ll have crew under your watch, and it sounds like your decisions can affect their survival, hopefully in meaningful ways.

The move further away from modern combat is sure to push some players away, but shifts like these give the series more opportunity to grow than it’s had in years. Infinity Ward’s last contribution, Advanced Warfare, started down that path, but it ultimately didn’t take things far enough to differentiate from its competition or its predecessors. I’d love to see Infinite Warfare do exactly that.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare hits PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on November 4.

SOURCE POLYGON

Watch Dogs 2 main character image leaks via actor’s Instagram

                        

While we know that Watch Dogs 2 is coming, we know next to nothing about it. A motion capture actor may have just outed the main character, though.

An LA-based actor who goes by @thekingcort on Instagram – account since locked down – posted the photo above, a picture of a character on a computer monitor, wearing a familiar-looking hat and bandanna. The image was accompanied by the following text:

Had a blast doing motion capture work as the lead character in a new video game series! (= #actor #motioncapture #artist #videogames #ps4 #xbox #art #work #comingsoon #watchdogs2

Ubisoft confirmed during a financial call that the game will be out before the end of its current Fiscal year in March 2017, and Kotaku has sources saying the game is going to come out this year and will be set in San Francisco.

If this actor is indeed the new protagonist, then that means the original protagonist, Aiden Pearce, has been left behind. While Watch Dogs wasn’t without some fun elements, it didn’t quite reach its potential thanks in part to a pretty boring main character. A new character and city offers up the opportunity to totally rewrite everything about the original that went wrong, rather than trying to connect a broken game to a new one.

If this is accurate information, it’s a potential good start for the sequel. And if Watch Dogs follows an arc anything like Assassin’s Creed did, the sequel should be a much more entertaining experience.

source: VG247

False alarm: Drone-airplane collision probably just a floating plastic bag

                      

Earlier this week, reports that a drone had bumped into a British Airways plane near Heathrow airport in London made the rounds online. Now it turns out that alleged drone was probably just a floating plastic bag.

“And indeed, the early reports of a dent in the front of the plane were not confirmed,” British transport minister Robert Goodwill told The Telegraph. “There was no actual damage to the plane and there’s indeed some speculation that it may have even been a plastic bag or something.”

The incident happened in southwest London at an elevation of around 1,700 feet. That’s four times higher than drones are allowed to fly. They’re currently limited to 400 feet by law.

Thankfully, this case turned out to be a false alarm. Still, we’re a little wary of the possibility that some inexperienced (or even malicious) drone owner could do some actual damage. Goodwill also commented on the option of restricting the flight of drones using geo-fencing, which would stop them from flying into restricted areas, noting that the software could still be hacked.

SOURCE THE TELEGRAPH

The Division is better when you roleplay, as this hilarious video proves

Despite some issues it’s had in the last couple weeks, The Division is a really fun game. It’s even more fun, apparently, if you roleplay. As you’ll see in the video above, YouTuber StoneMountain64 jumps into the game and responds to the game’s audio prompts and his randomly-selected partners in-character. He simultaneously enhances the game’s military aspects while adding some much-needed humor to the mix. Quick heads-up: the video above covers the last mission of the game, just in case you’re worried about spoilers.

                       

StoneMountain64 has been doing this with games like Battlefield for some time, but this Division video is particularly good. Even while fitting right in with some of the voice acting in the game, he manages to point out how silly certain aspects of the game are. Whether it’s the suspect decision to leave crates of ammo right outside a stronghold, the amount of high-end gear a boss character drops, or how many shots a high level enemy can take to put down, he manages to find a funny way to pick at it.

                       

It seems like he’s pretty good at the game, so his teammates never get annoyed with his antics, so maybe make sure you can hold your own before copying him, but this seems like an awesome way to get more out of games like these.

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source: technobuffalo