How ‘Halo 5: Guardians’ hits 60 fps and stays there
The developers at 343 Industries won’t sacrifice Halo 5‘s aim for a buttery smooth 60 frames per second by adding local co-op (for now), and it turns out that the team isn’t married to 1080p resolution if it means a lower frame rate, either. The game’s creative lead Josh Holmes writes on Xbox Wire that maintaining that benchmark is the result of tech that allows the game to adjust the resolution on the fly. “This enables us to deploy resources where they have the most impact across a diverse series of experiences throughout the game while delivering the most visually stunning Halo game ever,” he says. From the sounds of it, that means when there’s less stuff onscreen it’ll be in higher detail.
Toss in a gaggle of tanks, ATVs, genetically engineered super soldiers, a field of adversaries and their instruments of mayhem into the mix and expect the overall fidelity to take a hit. It’s a balancing act.
To be fair, this isn’t exactly a unique situation. The Witcher 3 on Xbox One used a system that adjusted the amount of pixels onscreen at once in accordance with the graphics processing unit’s load at any given time, floating between 900p and 1080p. With games like Infamous: Second Son on PlayStation 4, or BioShock: Infinite on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, the frame rate was locked at 30 fps for consistency’s sake. However, menu options in those games allow to unlock the frame rate at the expense of graphical fidelity and a constant frame rate.
Perhaps the closest point of comparison here though is the Call of Duty series — something that Halo 5‘s play style has already been related to. That franchise hits its 60fps by running at either a very low resolution (something it did on last-gen hardware) or something similar to what’s going on with Halo 5 for its modern incarnations. Digital Foundry reports Advanced Warfare swapped between 1360×1080 and 1920×1080 depending on the scene to maintain 60fps, for instance. Surely none of this is going to stop fanboys from gloating that the Xbox One is an inferior/superior machine (depending on which side you ask), but no one has exactly played Halo 5‘s campaign yet so those barbs are a bit moot until October 27th.
Filed under:
Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Microsoft
Via:
IGN
Source:
Xbox Wire
Tags: 1080p60, 343Industries, 60fps, framerate, halo, halo5guardians, hdpostcross, joshholmes, microsoft, resolution, xbox, xboxone
Windows 10’s latest phone test gives you more control over photos
Microsoft is likely on the cusp of unveiling its first Windows 10 phones, which has left more than a few fans wondering why it hasn’t posted a fresh preview version of Windows 10 Mobile in a while. Well, wonder no longer — the company has released an updated preview build that not only fixes a number of key bugs, but introduces a big upgrade to the photo experience. Fire up the Photos app and you’ll get a folder view that makes it easier to see what’s in OneDrive or your phone’s SD card. You can also mark photos as favorites, and navigating your gallery should be faster overall.
This latest test is available right now if you’re on the faster preview track. Think twice about leaping on it if you’re a Lumia 1020 owner, however. Although the list of known glitches with this Windows 10 Mobile build is mercifully short, you can’t use the 1020’s signature features (like 41-megapixel photos and RAW files) without the Lumia Camera app, which won’t be ready for Windows 10 until the fall. If you don’t mind that omission or carry a different device, though, this build could be worth a try. It may well be one of the last sneak peeks you get before Windows 10 is ready to ship.
Filed under:
Cellphones, Mobile, Microsoft
Source:
Blogging Windows
Tags: microsoft, mobilepostcross, smartphone, windows, windows10, windows10mobile
Cyanogen will get cozy with Microsoft’s Cortana
You can use Microsoft’s Cortana voice assistant on Android right now, but it’s not really integrated with Android. There’s only so much the developers can do when they don’t control the operating system. If Cyanogen has its way, though, you’ll soon see what Cortana can do when the gloves are off. The company has revealed that it’s working with Microsoft to integrate Cortana into Cyanogen’s custom version of Android, kicking Google’s own voice control to the curb. It’s not clear exactly how this will compare to the assistant on other platforms, but Cyanogen hints that it could offer better control over third-party apps than rivals like Google or Apple’s Siri. You could tell Spotify to play specific songs or playlists, for instance. The software should show up in the “next version” of Cyanogen OS, so you won’t have to wait long to find out how well this tie-in works.
Filed under:
Cellphones, Mobile, Microsoft
Via:
Trusted Reviews
Source:
International Business Times
Tags: android, cortana, cyanogen, microsoft, mobilepostcross, smartphone, VoiceControl, VoiceRecognition
Microsoft unveils new Windows 10 devices on October 6th
Microsoft will host an event featuring new Windows 10 devices plus remarks from CEO Satya Nadella on October 6th in New York City. The briefing (fittingly) begins and 10AM ET. Microsoft is light on specifics, but it promises Windows 10 hardware, so we might get a closer look at things like the Surface Hub, a product we recently learned will start shipping to customers on January 1st, 2016. That one is priced between $7,000 and $20,000. Plus, there’s always the Surface tablet, Lumia smartphones, Xbox One and PC devices, too. And we can’t forget about HoloLens, Microsoft’s augmented reality headset.
Filed under:
Cellphones, Desktops, Displays, Misc, Handhelds, Tablets, Wearables, Software, Microsoft
Tags: microsoft, MicrosoftEvent, SatyaNadella, windows10
Microsoft secretly purchased a popular Android lockscreen app
Microsoft have purchased Double Labs, the makers of Echo Notification Lockscreen for Android. The lockscreen app lets you customize your lockscreen to show you custom notifications so you don’t have to unlock your phone as much.
Microsoft have already made their own Android lockscreen app last year called Next Lock Screen. It does basically the same thing as Echo Lockscreen. Why do they need two nearly identical lockscreen apps you might be asking? Well, Microsoft Chief Experience Officer Julie Larson-Green says it’s about “taking productivity to the next level.” She also says the current problem with Apple, Android, or even Windows Phone is that they are just alerts of random apps, and not actually personalized to the user.
“It’s a list of what apps want you to know, not necessarily what’s important to you,”
Larson-Green’s main job is to think of new ways for users to receive their information, contextual and personal. Android is a perfect testing ground as it has many users for experimentation. Basically, Microsoft are creating Android apps for testing purposes only and will use the data to make better Windows Phone, Windows 10, Office, and other Microsoft products that send notifications in the future.
Newly purchased Echo Lockscreen has over 50,000 reviews in the Play Store currently, which gives Microsoft a ton of new data to work with.
Larson-Green says that by having standalone apps they can edit and refine them before making them a permeant part of their own operating systems.
“You buy Microsoft for your business, you want to feel good about the products we’ve been building,”
Source: Business Insider
Come comment on this article: Microsoft secretly purchased a popular Android lockscreen app
Microsoft acquires Double Labs, developer of the popular Android app Echo Lockscreen
Echo Notification Lockscreen is one of our favorite lockscreen replacement applications on Android, and it looks like it now has a new owner. According to Business Insider, Microsoft has just officially purchased Double Labs, developer of the lockscreen app. Microsoft has already released the Android app Next Lock Screen, which is quite similar in functionality to Echo.
Although it may seem odd that Microsoft now owns two lockscreen replacement apps for Android, according to Microsoft Chief Experience Officer Julie Larson-Green, Microsoft’s main goal is to take productivity to the next level. A lot of the notable features currently present in both Next and Echo lockscreen apps will make their way back to Windows 10, Office and any other Microsoft product that sends out notifications. In order to properly deploy these features into Windows products, Microsoft can push out unique features to the third-party apps first so the company won’t accidentally ship half-baked features to the millions of Windows users out there.
To see just what Echo Notification Lockscreen can do, check out the promotional video attached below.
Related: 20 best Android lock screen apps and lock screen replacement apps
Microsoft has been pretty good at bringing interesting features to its in-house built Next Lock Screen app, so it shouldn’t be long until we see some interesting improvements coming to Echo.
Cyanogen OS to integrate Cortana?
Not too long ago, Cyanogen made deals with Microsoft to pre-load their apps like Skype, Bing and Office on the commercial OS (not the custom ROM). Microsoft also recently released a beta version of their homebrewn Cortana assistant for Android phones. They are now reportedly expanding this deal to integrate Cortana into the popular Cyanogen OS that ships on phones like the OnePlus.
Previously, Cortana was unlikely to offer competition against Google Now, mainly because of how it’s integrated, but this new deal could see that change.
In an interview with International Business Times, the Cyanogen CEO Kirt McMaster revealed that Microsoft and Cyanogen are working to bring Microsoft’s digital assistant over to the OS but in a way that goes much deeper than the current Cortana Android app.
“Natural language coupled with intelligence is very important but as an application it doesn’t really work because you need to be embedded into the framework of the OS because that is where you get all the signal from the services that makes that intelligence smarter.“
Quite simply put, this means that Cortana will be able to properly compete with its competition.
How do you feel? Is this ruining Cyanogen with more boatware?
The post Cyanogen OS to integrate Cortana? appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Continuing its Android crusade, Microsoft has bought Echo Notification Lockscreen
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Microsoft has made many significant moves to cement its place as one of the top developers of Android apps recently, and in the latest example of this new crusade, Microsoft has bought Echo Notification Lockscreen, a custom lockscreen app that has somewhere in the vicinity of 1,000,000-5,000,000 downloads on the Google Play Store and a great rating to boot. Chief Experience Officer at Microsoft, Julie Larson-Green, expressed Microsoft’s urge to fix something it sees as a problem with lock screens on all smart devices and the notifications that are shown on it.
“It’s a list of what apps want you to know, not necessarily what’s important to you.”
And Microsoft isn’t just working on the Echo Notification Lockscreen to improve Android – Larson-Green says that improving it in its standalone form first means that when it is refined to the level Microsoft wants, it can be integrated into Windows 10 and Microsoft’s whole ecosystem, without the risk of having it around half-finished. You can really start to see that Microsoft has a much bigger vision for its ecosystem than just Windows 10, one day extending it to Android the same way it would extend it to Windows Phones.
What do you think about the news Microsoft has bought Echo Notification Lockscreen? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: Business Insider via Phandroid
The post Continuing its Android crusade, Microsoft has bought Echo Notification Lockscreen appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Xbox One’s upcoming overhaul has an opt-in beta
That new Windows 10 Xbox One update sounds pretty great, right? Well, how it works is a little different than folks in the console’s Dashboard Preview Program are used to. Previous updates were pushed out automatically and you had no choice over installing them, but here you can choose as to whether or not jump into this massive overhaul. Xbox spokesperson Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb says that Preview members will get a message in their system’s inbox and you’ll need to register and opt-in from there. But if you’re not quite sure about being even more of a guinea pig that’s totally okay: You can choose to not participate in the double preview and still get the regular dashboard updates ahead of the general public.
Hryb also says that you can expect more builds of the Win10 dash to hit as kinks are worked out ahead of the full launch. Invites for this beta will go out in waves, and Hyrb says to be patient if you don’t see one pop up just yet. Until then? Maybe grind through some more Destiny ahead of “The Taken King” arriving next week.
Filed under:
Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Microsoft
Source:
Major Nelson
Tags: beta, dashboardpreviewprogram, gaming, hd, hdpostcross, majornelson, microsoft, optin, windows10, xbox, xboxone
Next version of Cyanogen OS might use Cortana as the main voice assistant
Cortana is basically Microsoft’s answer to Siri or Google Now. It comes installed on Windows Phone 8.1, Windows 10, and Windows 10 Mobile. They have even released an Android app for people looking to try it out. Also, it’s looks like it might be heavily integrated into the next version of Cyanogen OS.
The news comes directly from Kirt McMaster, who is the co-founder and CEO of Cyanogen.
“When Apple launched Apple Music at WWDC, they showed the Siri integration with Apple Music. Siri doesn’t power Spotify like that so we can do these kind of things with for example, integration of Microsoft’s Cortana into the OS enabling natural language to power Spotify and other services.”
He goes on to talk about how Cortana would not just be an app, but built right into the OS. Essentially, making it “the brains” of the phone.
“Natural language coupled with intelligence is very important but as an application it doesn’t rally (sic) work because you need to be embedded into the framework of the OS because that is where you get all the signal from the services that makes that intelligence smarter.”
Source: International Business Times
Via: Android Central
Come comment on this article: Next version of Cyanogen OS might use Cortana as the main voice assistant
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