E3 2015 hub: see our mobile gaming coverage in one place
If you’re even remotely interested in gaming, you’ve probably heard about some of the announcements making the rounds these days. I don’t know, stuff like a remake of Final Fantasy VII, Fallout 4, a new Deus Ex, an expansion for Destiny, a new Hitman, Star Wars: Battlefront, just to name a few. All of these games have been showcased ahead of E3, the biggest gaming trade show in the world.
While console and PC gaming remain the main attractions, mobile gaming has carved a niche for itself at E3, and it’s only going to get bigger which each edition. That’s why we decided to attend the show for the first time, and this is where you can see our coverage.
We will be updating this post with new videos and links as they come, so keep it tuned!
Videos and hands-on
We’re live from E3!
Josh and Lanh talk about their first impressions from the show, what they look forward to see, and their sheer enthusiasm to be able to attend Electronic Entertainment Expo 2015.
Demo: Merge VR – making VR more accessible
Grushie and Lanh takes a look at Merge VR, a virtual reality headset that aims to lower the barrier of entry into the world of VR. Read our post on Merge VR here .
Demo: Dawn of Titans – control thousands of units on the battlefied
Games like the Total War series have long made it possible to control entire virtual armies in real time, in epic battles across across huge battlefields. Zynga-owned Natural Motion managed to bring some of that experience to mobile. Read our post on Dawn of Titans here.
E3 news
And here’s our coverage on the news breaking on the sidelines of E3 2015!
- Final Fantasy 7 finally going mobile!
- Titan Quest will fight its way to Android sometime this year, courtesy of DotEmu
- Kingdom Hearts Unchained Key is coming to mobile (trailer)
- Square Enix announces Lara Croft Go for mobile devices at E3 2015
- EA announces build-harvest game Minion’s Paradise, coming summer 2015
Keep an eye out for updates to this post and let us know what would you like us to cover from E3!
FCC issues AT&T a $100 million fine for quietly throttling unlimited data plans
The FCC has just issued AT&T, the United States’ second largest wireless provider, a $100 million fine for misleading customers about its definition of the term “unlimited”. According to the filing, AT&T is getting accused of two major violations: using the term “unlimited” to label a data plan that was in fact subject to prolonged data speed reductions, and failing to disclose the data speed reduction to the customers after they reached the data threshold. According to the FCC, subscribers on average receive throttled service for 12 days per billing cycle. The filing explains:
Although AT&T asserts that it has provided ample disclosures about these policies, we find that these disclosures do not cure AT&T’s apparent violations of the Open Internet Transparency Rule. AT&T’s practices deprived consumers of sufficient information to make informed choices about their broadband service and thereby impeded competition in the marketplace for such services
The FCC says that the reduced speeds, sometimes dropping down to just 256kbps or 512kbps, significantly impaired customers’ ability to use AT&T’s data service and perform basic functions.
This is the largest proposed fine in the history of the wireless carrier
Although a customer will be able to potentially send an email by using these speeds, the FCC claims that he or she may find it completely impossible to use their smartphones in ways that most people use them today, such as navigating to a location using Google Maps or using a video chat application to connect with friends and family. The report also states that a minimum download speed of 700kbps is necessary to use a video chat app, and 3.5Mbps is the minimum to watch a standard-definition television show. The commission also says that “at 512kbps, a ten megabyte file would take nearly three minutes to download. At AT&T’s widely advertised speed of 12 Mbps, it would take less than 10 seconds.”
It should be noted that this proposal is not final – the FCC only charged the wireless carrier for violating these important requirements. Of course, AT&T declined to comment on the FCC’s fine. We’ll be sure to let you know when we hear more about the situation.
Material stock Android themes coming to Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge soon
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The Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge are pretty fantastic devices. many of the Samsung haters are even taking a second look at this years line-up and considering it since they toned down the bloatware and made TouchWiz not so terrible. One aspect of the line-up that wasn’t present on previous versions is custom themes. They aren’t as easily created and distributed as say, Cyanogen or MIUI themes, but they are on par with Sony in terms of quality control and direct distribution. When I snagged my S6 it was the first place I looked to change the entire look and feel of the device without root and a custom ROM installed. However, many of the themes just take things a little to far for my taste. Even the Avenger themes are a bit too much for me. It would now appear that a new set of themes more tailored to what an Android enthusiast might go for are on the way.
XDA Developer cambunch announced on his XDA thread that he has been accepted as a Samsung Theme Designer and both the Material Design stock Android look in dark and in light, will be making their way to the Samsung Theme Store soon. That means that any day now they should be available for all owners to quickly install to their device. The two themes might seem simple, or seem more like a no brainer offer, to many. For those out there that don’t want to get armpits deep in rooting, flashing and playing around, these two new additions will bring a more stock look and feel to your eye balls. Hopefully Samsung will give themers a little more control with additional assets in the future, but for now, this is better than nothing.
Source: XDA Via: iTechTriad
The post Material stock Android themes coming to Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge soon appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Intel buys Recon, makers of the ‘Google Glass for fitness’
Recon Instruments is famous for two things: building the technology behind Oakley’s Airwave and the Recon Jet head-worn fitness wearable. The company has had a close relationship with Intel ever since the chip firm’s venture-capital arm threw cash at the business back in 2013. Now, however, Intel has decided that closer ties are in order, and has decided to swallow the Canadian firm wholesale in a deal that TechVibes believes is worth around $175 million.
It’s a big deal with both businesses, since Intel has a ready-made entry into the head-mounted wearables firm with a convincing alternative to Google Glass. Meanwhile, Recon can take advantage of its new owner’s hardware expertise, manufacturing and cash reserves to develop even more exciting devices. Right now, the pair are giving each other some hearty pats on the back, but expect Intel to start pushing head-mounted computing in a big way.
Filed under: Wearables
Source: Recon Instruments, Intel
AT&T faces $100 million fine for quietly throttling data speeds
Look, it’s no secret that if you’ve got a old-school unlimited data plan from AT&T, your data speeds get throttled from time to time. Alright, it might be a bit of a secret — that’s why the FCC has just announced that it plans to slap the massive telecom with a $100 million fine for “severely” slowing down users’ connection speeds without adequately notifying them of the pokier speeds they might face. In case you haven’t been keeping count, that’s the single largest proposed fine in FCC history. A senior FCC official stated that service would at times get so slow that “basic mobile applications would not function,” and that people who ran afoul of AT&T’s rules would get slower data speeds than others for an average of 12 days.
First, though, a little recap. AT&T started offering unlimited data plans to its wireless customers in 2007, and finally stopped doing so in 2010. Here’s what happened a year after that, according to the FCC:
AT&T implemented a “Maximum Bit Rate” policy and capped the maximum data speeds for unlimited customers after they used a set amount of data within a billing cycle. The capped speeds were much slower than the normal network speeds AT&T advertised and significantly impaired the ability of AT&T customers to access the Internet or use data applications for the remainder of the billing cycle.
The news comes less than a week since the FCC’s new net neutrality rules officially took effect, but this investigation has been in the works for years now. That’s why the Commission is hanging its hat on the 2010 Open Internet Order, a troubled basket of oversight that basically got torn apart by Verizon in court last year. Verizon’s near-total legal win could have almost stopped the FCC’s investigation in its tracks, but the DC circuit court that heard the case upheld the Order’s stance on customer transparency so AT&T’s. Naturally, AT&T and sympathetic commissioners like Ajit Pai contend that the telecom did disclose the slowdowns, and that the FCC just ignored them all. Thing is, senior FCC officials didn’t think the disclosures AT&T did make were sufficiently straightforward. As far as they’re concerned, AT&T could’ve talked about its throttling program left, right and center, but it would’ve been meaningless unless those disclosures made clear what unlimited customers might run into.
Filed under: Mobile
Source: FCC.gov
Robot dinos, archery and mystery in ‘Horizon: Zero Dawn’
Horizon: Zero Dawn was a bright spot of Sony’s E3 press conference, largely because it was so unexpected. It broke through the monotony of sequel and remake reveals, and it was surprising to see a new IP from Guerrilla Games, a studio that’s been dedicated to the Killzone franchise since 2004. Horizon is a post-apocalyptic action, survival and crafting game starring Aloy, a huntress and expert archer who lives in a world where nature has overrun everything man ever built — except for the robot dinosaurs. The violent, hulking, terrifying robot dinosaurs. During the game’s reveal at Sony’s conference, Aloy crouched through the brush, shot arrows through the metallic hearts of sleek silver beasts and absolutely dominated a gigantic, robotic monster. Turns out, that was only the half of it.
Aloy is special. She’s a master craftswoman and an agile hunter. She understands things about this strange, post-apocalyptic world that no one in her tribe does, and she understands physics in a way that no one else can. This means there’s an emphasis on crafting in her world, Guerrilla Games explains during Horizon‘s first-ever live, public gameplay demo.
When Aloy kills a robotic beast — whether by setting traps and tripwires, shooting it with arrows or taking it down hand-to-hand, silently — she can loot its remains for parts. She doesn’t love slaughtering these animals, even though they’re composed of metal and electricity that she needs to survive. During the live demo, Aloy creeps up on a beast called a “Watcher” and takes it down stealthily; as it dies she says, “Sorry little one.” She cares for these robots as if they were alive, and they very well might be. Aloy resides in a tribal society that knows nothing of the skyscrapers, vehicles and technological feats of humankind’s past, and these beasts are, by all appearances, sentient. In Aloy’s mind, she just slaughtered something akin to a gazelle or a deer.
There are specific types of robot animals: Watchers guard the herd and send out a screech if they see a threat, while Grazers travel in groups and carry glowing green canisters on their backs (these cans are hugely important to Aloy’s society and, in the demo, she is on a mission to collect them). Each of these creatures is roughly the size of a velociraptor, and they’re mostly harmless. Most of the Grazers, for example, will simply run away from a threat, though a few will stay behind to defend the herd. Aloy takes two down by diving away when they charge and shooting them from afar.
And then there’s the Thundermaw. Guerrilla Games breaks down some numbers for this gigantic, angry animal: It’s 80 feet long by 30 feet tall (roughly the size of an adult blue whale); it has 93 destructive elements along its body, all of which Aloy can shoot to reveal weak points; and it has 12 attacks, including a tail swipe and long-range projectiles.
The Thundermaw is huge, but Aloy is faster and she’s able to shoot arrows directly into some of its weak points. She also has electrical ammo that stuns the beast, plus trip wires that can hold it in place for a while. Aloy can also pick up weapons that fall off of the Thundermaw as she fights it. It’s a big, fierce battle. When Aloy wins, it’s truly triumphant.
There’s much more mystery in Horizon. Guerrilla has crafted an expansive, fully explorable world — Aloy can travel to every point she sees, including to the tops of distant mountains, the studio says. By the time Horizon launches in 2016 for PlayStation 4, we’ll probably have more answers about Aloy’s role in her society, the world in which she resides and the robot dinosaurs that she’s fighting — but we probably still won’t know the half of it.
Uber poaches former Google Maps chief for its self-driving car project
Uber’s poached plenty of robotics experts from Carnegie Mellon and now we know who it’s snagged to lead that team to produce something worthwhile. According to Re/code, Uber’s new Advanced Technologies Center will be led by former Google VP Brian McClendon, a 10-year veteran of the company. The name may not ring a bell, but McClendon is most famous for co-founding the startup that eventually became Google Earth before making Google Maps what it is today.
Right now, Uber relies upon other businesses’ mapping services for its various transport services, something that the company clearly can’t rely upon. That’s why it’s doing its best to build its own super-powerful location platform, and recently purchased deCarta, the firm that powers OnStar’s navigation technology. The company also showed off its desire to own a premium GPS technology after tabling a $3 billion bid for Here, the Nokia-owned mapping firm.
As we know, the Advanced Technologies Center is the anodyne name for the Uber’s self-driving car project. Given that the company is now on the hook for its employees’ expenses, it’s clear that human-free hardware can’t come fast enough.
Filed under: Transportation
Source: Re/code
Microsoft watched gamers at home to design the new Xbox Elite controller
By now, if you’re an Xbox One gamer, you know that Microsoft has a pretty badass controller on the horizon. But what’s truly interesting about the new Elite controller, announced at the company’s major E3 press event this week, is that it’s the product of several in-home research sessions. According to Xbox Hardware Project Manager David Prien, the company realized that today’s gamers are all about “customization and personalization.” And so Prien’s team enlisted pro-gamers picked from leaderboards on the company’s own Xbox titles to help mold this new modular controller design.
But if you thought that the Elite controller was just for gaming’s cream of the crop players, you’d be mistaken. Prien assured us that it’s “not just for the pro-gamer. The idea here is that everyone can benefit from this.” He also said that the hardware team had a “laundry list of over 100 feature sets,” though, understandably, not all of that made it into the final design. We had an opportunity to get some close-up time with the new Elite controller here on the showfloor, so be sure to watch our interview with Prien below.
Samsung vulnerability exposed with over 600 million devices affected worldwide
NowSecure security researcher Ryan Welton has exposed a security risk that affects over 600 million Samsung devices world wide. The risk comes from the pre-installed Swiftkey keyboard. Samsung gave the app system user privileges, which is one step away from root. The app cannot be uninstalled or disabled in the system.
“If the flaw in the keyboard is exploited, an attacker could remotely:
- Access sensors and resources like GPS, camera and microphone
- Secretly install malicious app(s) without the user knowing
- Tamper with how other apps work or how the phone works
- Eavesdrop on incoming/outgoing messages or voice calls
- Attempt to access sensitive personal data like pictures and text messages”
Samsung issued a patch to mobile network providers early 2015, but it is unclear if the carriers have provided the necessary update to patch the vulnerability at this point. Check the list below to check if your device is affected
| DEVICE | CARRIER | PATCH STATUS |
| Galaxy S6 | Verizon | Unpatched |
| Galaxy S6 | AT&T | Unknown |
| Galaxy S6 | Sprint | Unpatched |
| Galaxy S6 | T-Mobile | Unknown |
| Galaxy S5 | Verizon | Unknown |
| Galaxy S5 | AT&T | Unknown |
| Galaxy S5 | Sprint | Unknown |
| Galaxy S5 | T-Mobile | Unpatched |
| Galaxy S4 | Verizon | Unknown |
| Galaxy S4 | AT&T | Unknown |
| Galaxy S4 | Sprint | Unknown |
| Galaxy S4 | T-Mobile | Unknown |
| Galaxy S4 Mini | Verizon | Unknown |
| Galaxy S4 Mini | AT&T | Unpatched |
| Galaxy S4 Mini | Sprint | Unknown |
| Galaxy S4 Mini | T-Mobile | Unknown |
What to do:
- Avoid insecure wi-fi networks
- Use a different mobile device
- Contact carriers for patch information and timing
Source
The post Samsung vulnerability exposed with over 600 million devices affected worldwide appeared first on AndroidGuys.
HTC One M9+ and One E9+ launch on Amazon in the U.S.
Were you pretty torn by the fact that HTC launched a better version of the One M9 shortly after its release and out of your reach? Well, we got some good news today, with the help of Amazon.
The One M9+ just popped up on Amazon via a third-party seller (sorry Prime subscribers), in either gunmetal grey or silver gold. The asking price? It ain’t cheap, at $799 (plus shipping). To compare, the price of the vanilla One M9 is $649.
If the extra $150 doesn’t deter you by your desire to have it all, we’re looking at some worthy upgrades from the M9: 5.2-inch screen (vs 5.0-inch), QHD (vs 1080P), Duo camera sensor (like on the M8), and a fingerprint scanner. For better or worse, the M9+ uses a MediaTek Helio X10 octa-core SoC, since it was made for the Chinese market.
Amazon is also providing us the cheaper, plastic variant of the flagship, the E9+, in either grey or rose white at $499. This guy is as powerful as the M9+, but subtracts the second Duo sensor, the fingerprint scanner, and metal build. However, the screen size is bumped up to 5.5-inches.
Note that because these are not U.S. models, like usual there is no CDMA frequency support. So if you’re on Verizon or Sprint, you’re out of luck if you want one of these. They should work on AT&T or T-Mobile, but unfortunately it is said their LTE radio won’t work in the U.S.
Source | Source | Source | Source
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AIVAnet 