Titanfall graphics test highlights glitches on Xbox One (video)
If there was ever a game that could cope with a few graphical imperfections, it’d be a frenetic multiplayer shooter like Titanfall. But flaws do visibly exist on the Xbox One version of that game, and Eurogamer has highlighted them in a side-by-side video with the PC version. You can see the impact of the console’s lower resolution (1408 x 792) and weaker anti-aliasing, versus the 1080p experience offered by a mid-range Windows gaming rig (with a six-core AMD FX CPU and a NVIDIA GTX 760 graphics card). More noticeable than any of that, however, is the issue of screen tearing: Horizontal slashes that happen when the game drops below the holy grail of 60 frames per second that its creators intended. Like Eurogamer, we really don’t think this does significant damage to Titanfall‘s overall experience — we’re still glued to it — but this is one more notable instance of a mismatch between what developers wanted to achieve in a next-gen title, and what Microsoft’s console was able to deliver.
Filed under: Gaming, Microsoft
Source: Eurogamer
iRobot’s Ava 500 telepresence-on-a-stick is rolling out now (video)
There are plenty of telepresence robots on the market already, but iRobot’s new Ava 500 may just be the best option out there. The highlight here is that the device is completely autonomous, just like the company’s RP-VITA healthcare bot. Once it maps out your office during an “exploration phase,” you can schedule a conference to join via an iRobot app. When your meeting time comes around, you’ll be assigned an available Ava, which will wheel itself into position in the conference room, theoretically avoiding obstacles along the way.
Just like iRobot’s home cleaning tools, Ava returns to its charging dock between sessions, so it should be able to operate without assistance for quite some time. iRobot hasn’t shared pricing at this point, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see Ava priced in line with a small car, based on the RP-VITA’s jaw-dropping reported lease pricing of $4,000 and up per month. It includes the Cisco EX60 telepresence platform, which features a camera paired with a 21.5-inch HD display — that component alone retails for just shy of $9,000. It’s available now through select certified Cisco resellers.
Filed under: Robots
Source: iRobot
Google Play Games gets new features following Game Developers Conference
With Google highlighting that 3 out of 4 Android users now use their device for gaming, increased focus has been put on improving the experience for those users. Google has also said that the momentum of their Google Play Games service is continuing to grow, with approximately 4 times the amount of revenue paid to developers in 2013 when compared to 2012.
As part of this move to improve the Google Play Games experience is the launch of new features for the service during the Game Developers Conference (GDC) which is taking place this week.
The first change focuses around gamer engagement and discovery with the introduction of game gifts. This is a new service that lets players send virtual in-game objects to anyone in their circles or through player search. The Play Games app has also been updated to allow multiplayer invites to be directly sent, allowing your friends to discover and join your activity. This will be facilitated by the introduction of 18 new game categories to make it easier to find games that consumers want.
Perhaps one of the biggest introductions is the enhancement of the Play Games Unity Plug-in to support cross-platform mutliplayer services, meaning you can be on Android and participate in a multiplayer game against someone on iOS.
Futher improvements see enhancements brought to Play Games statistics on the Google Play Developer Console to provide analytics for developers and their games in the Google Play Store. This will include a dashboard to visualise player and engagement statistics for active users, retention analysis, and achievement performance.
Hopefully these enhancements to the Google Play Games services will entice developers to invest in the Android environment and see some great games brought to the platform. The end-user should also benefit from these changes by being able to engage with the community better, and also participate in cross-platform mutliplayer events.
Let us know your thoughts about these changes in the comments below.
The post Google Play Games gets new features following Game Developers Conference appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Moto X heading to Australia in the next few weeks
Great news for Australians who are still awaiting the launch of the Moto X since it seems Motorola have decided to release it down under in the next few weeks, a full seven months after the United States, and 2 months after the UK.
Motorola state that customers will be able to purchase either the black or white model for AUD$549 and will be able to run it on Telstra, Optus, and Vodafone, with more networks coming online shortly after release.
The handset will ship with Android 4.3 Jellybean out of the box, but Android 4.4.2 is available instantly for the device through an over-the-air update.
The Moto X features a 4.7-inch AMOLED 720p display, with a 2200 mAh battery, 2GB RAM, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, 10-Megapixel rear camera, and a 2-Megapixel 1080p front camera.
If you want to get your hands on the Australian Moto X then click this link to register your interest.
The post Moto X heading to Australia in the next few weeks appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Opera 20 brings appless video chat to Android
For those of us who are overwhelmed by the vast array of video chat apps out there the new version of Opera may offer an appless video chat solution for you.
Opera 20 brings to Android a WebRTC-compatible browser that allows users of the browser to enter into a video chat across mobile phones and computers simply by entering the address of a video conference into the URL bar of the Opera 20 browser. If you are the creator of the video chat, then you have to visit a site such as appear.in to get an address for the video conference to share with your friends or colleagues. No special software or apps other than Opera 20 is needed.
The WebRTC (real time communication) protocol is a newer standard that promotes communication between browsers without having to rely on third party solutions to enable communication. With the addition of this protocol into the new version, Opera has joined the ranks of Firefox and Chrome who have been offering the protocol since last fall.
You can find the updated version of Opera in the Google Play Store.
The post Opera 20 brings appless video chat to Android appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Fleet of underwater gliders could improve global weather forecasts
While our entire climate model is based on the world’s ocean currents, there’s a surprising lack of detailed measurements in that area. Researchers from Rutgers and elsewhere want to rectify that with the Challenger Glider Mission, which will see the launch 16 unpowered, autonomous submarines later this month. As with past adventures, the 7-foot long craft will ply deep currents across 80,000 square miles of five ocean basins, using buoyancy changes and fins for propulsion and navigation. From there they’ll transmit real-time current, temperature and salinity data to the Iridium satellite network. Combined with other observational methods, that could help scientists refine current climate models and improve forecasting. Researchers will also gauge the health of our planet’s oceans using phytoplankton measurements — definitely a hot button issue at the moment.
Via: Gizmodo
Source: Rutgers
Casino on your desktop, browser and mobile – but what more?
Playing casino games on the internet has become a wide spread and popular activity in the last 20 years – this is how much has passed since the first real money online casino was launched. Online casinos are emerging even now, in this time of worldwide financial crisis, as the internet gambling industry – iGaming, as those involved call it – tends to maintain its profitability.
Online casinos have become more and more elaborate in the two decades since their first introduction. If at the beginning they were slow, resource-hungry packs of low fidelity graphics and sounds, some – not all – software packages have become more and more sophisticated, balanced and usable, with better graphics and sounds, and much better features – not to mention the games.
After a time people started to miss the one thing online casinos don’t have and real life ones do: personal contact. Developers had an answer to this issue, too – they have developed a thing called ‘live casino gaming’ – where players don’t have to make do with the impersonal, yet elaborate and precise random number generators anymore, having the chance to play their favorite game against a live dealer. These live dealers – usually young, attractive and female (wink!) – sit in a studio and deal classic casino games, like blackjack, roulette and baccarat – and smile, chat and encourage players during their playtime.
With the evolution of portable internet-capable devices, developers have discovered a new, unexplored platform to expand on. Mobile casino games – even live ones – started to emerge, with a complete set of features: touchscreen optimized interface, secure mobile payment solutions, specific promotions and games. Nowadays most online casinos have a mobile platform – most of them accessible through a mobile browser window, but some – including a live casino app made by Playtech – as native mobile apps to run on the latest mobile hardware. These mobile casinos are the latest step online casinos have taken in the course of their evolution.
I wonder what could be the next step in the evolution of online gambling – keeping in mind that the technology serving as a platform for every online activity is evolving before our very eyes. I can imagine a completely immersive casino experience, using either one of the wearable smart devices – like Google Glass or its competitors, for example – and a ‘desktop’ solution that can be used with one of the wearable gaming devices – like Oculus Rift. I can imagine voice commands used by casino software, gesture control for the poker and blackjack table, the use of bitcoins for depositing funds at casinos – and many other things, that I can’t include here, as the text I write could turn into a piece of science fiction.
Until that time, we can make do with what we have. I usually play at Platimul Play online casino – it has all my favorite games, some of them even on mobile, and live dealer games (including ones against dealers in Playboy bunny outfits) in case I want a smile besides my blackjack wins. Give them a try.
Alleged Bitcoin founder hires a lawyer in bid to ‘clear his name’
While Newsweek continues to stand by its claim that Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto is the founder of Bitcoin, the man at the center of the allegation has decided to lawyer up. Despite having already denied his involvement, Nakamoto has now shared a personal statement with Reuters to “clear [his] name” and make it clear how much he has suffered from Newsweek’s report. Once believed to be in control of a million dollar Bitcoin fortune, the Californian resident detailed his struggle to find work, adding that the article has damaged his prospects of finding a job and caused him and his a family “a great deal of confusion and stress.” Apparently, he even cut his internet connection last year, citing financial issues. Nakamoto says it’ll be his first and final public word on the matter, but given the fact he’s sought legal counsel, the supposed father of Bitcoin may have more to say behind closed doors.
Dorian Nakamoto official statement/denial. Very interested to see how @newsweek @truth_eater @jimpoco respond. pic.twitter.com/wfCyK1dQ48
– felix salmon (@felixsalmon) March 17, 2014
[Image credit: anatacoins, Flickr]
Filed under: Internet
Via: The Next Web
Source: Felix Salmon (Twitter)
Samsung Galaxy S5 ISOCELL camera is suffering some production issues; delay Imminent?
The story of early 2013 was the titanic battle between the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the HTC One for the Android smartphone crown, however, the conflict was marred by debilitating supply issues that befell HTC. The issues stemmed from a lack of HTC One camera modules which would eventually go on to severely impact HTC’s bottom line in the weeks after its release. While Samsung won that battle in terms of handsets sold, the tables have turned on Samsung in 2014 as the Samsung Galaxy S5 ISOCELL camera that was shown off earlier this week is apparently suffering from production issues.
This time, it’s not the camera sensor itself which is the problem; it’s Samsung’s new six-element lens which is constructed in an extremely complex and intricate process in which “even the slightest flaw results in a considerable optical distortion”. While the results of a successfully assembled lens are likely phenomenal, the current production yield of these lens is approximately 20-30%, even with Samsung outsourcing the assembly to a third party lens supplier. That’s definitely not a good sign, particularly with the April launch date looming, but hopefully some breakthroughs will happen in the near future to help Samsung meet its supply targets instead of delaying the Galaxy S5′s release in some regions.
What do you think about these new reports of delays for the Samsung Galaxy S5? Has Samsung bitten off more than it can chew with this new ISOCELL camera, and opened the door for HTC? Let us know your opinion in the comments.
Source: ETNews via Phone Arena
Google Play Games to bring cross-platform multiplayer to Android and iOS at GDC 2014?
Games are one area that Google and Android in general have paid very little attention to in general, though they have taken steps to remedy this recently with the changes they brought in with Google Play Services 4.1 earlier this year (read more about what this changed here). Well, it looks like Google may be bringing in a few more gaming-centric changes in the near future as a blog post recently went up detailing changes to Google Play Games which look to change the face of mobile gaming as we know it and could be announced at GDC 2014 this week.
That blog post was quickly taken down, however we have the benefit of a cached copy to divulge Google’s incoming changes to Google Play Games. The biggest of the changes appears to be the ability to support Android and iOS cross-platform multiplayer, both for turn-based and real-time games. As you can imagine, this is pretty exciting news as bitter rivals like Android and iOS users can now be bitter rivals on the battlefield as well. Other changes detailed in the post include the addition of gifting to Play Games which will enable you to send virtual goods to people in your Google+ circles or standard player search. Google also says there will be changes to AdMob which should help developers make the most of Google’s advertising machines.
Whether these changes actually get announced at GDC 2014 or if the blog post was taken down for some other reason remains to be seen, but it looks like some big changes are due for Google Play Games in the near future. What’s the most exciting part of these changes in your opinion? Let us know what you think in the comments.
Source: Android Developers Blog via Phone Arena
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