Confirmed: The Xbox One S is a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player and upscales games too

Ever since Microsoft announced the Xbox One S, its smaller, more capable console for this year, there has been a lot of confusion over what it will be capable in a home cinema sense.

We had mentioned that it would support 4K Ultra HD Blu-rays in our round-up feature, but out at E3 there was still talk that it would only have 4K output for streaming services, such as Netflix and Amazon Video,

Pocket-lint can confirm that it does indeed have a 4K Blu-ray optical disc drive built-in. We can also confirm that it upscales conventional video and gaming outputs to 4K if you have an Ultra HD television.

READ: Xbox One S: Release date, specs and everything you need to know

It also offers HDR support across the board, for 4K Blu-rays and games that support the high contrast and wider colour gamut afforded by the image tech.

In essence, this information means that, as well as a better version of the Xbox One, starting at $299 (£212) means the new machine undercuts existing 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray players on the market significantly.

Some have been wondering whether, with Project Scorpio also announced for next year, people will invest in an Xbox One S this. In its 4K Blu-ray capabilities, we think we have the answer.

10 gaming sequels absent from E3 2016: Red Dead Redemption 2, Cyberpunk 2077 and more make our wishlist

It’s not that we’re ungrateful. E3 has delivered a bumper crop of exciting games that we’ll get to play in 2016 and beyond. It even lifted the lid on Microsoft’s new 4K-capable Xbox consoles, the Slim and Project Scorpio, and set a release date for PlayStation VR.

We’re simply greedy. Ahead of the show there was lots of talk about various titles – from Red Dead Redemption 2, to a Wolfenstein sequel, with even a titter of The Last of Us 2 – that didn’t show face, some of which we really expected to see.

Sure, we can’t live in a world of perpetual sequels with no room for true creativity. Games like Days Gone, Steep, Scalebound and other reimaginations such as God of War (ok, so that is a sequel, but it’s a different take) have excited.

Even so, here’s our list of sequels and games that we had hoped to see at E3 2016. Including some that might seem fairly far-fetched.

Red Dead Redemption 2

There’s been talk of Red Dead 2 for some time, but for good reason: a leaked map seemingly suggested that the game was deep in production and about to be shown. Some have even suggested it was pulled from Sony’s pre-E3 conference at the last minute. We’re not sure that’s true, but we do think the game will show face in the coming years. Here’s hoping, as it’s one of Rockstar’s true classics – and with the power on hand from the current-gen of consoles we suspect it’ll look amazing too.

Wolfenstein

Another that was largely expected to be shown at Bethesda’s pre-E3 conference, in particular because the pre-Quake presentation had an apparent MSDOS style reference to the game. How cryptic. Given that id software has had success with revamped Doom and the just-announced Quake Champions looks set to please battle arena players, timing looks good for a Wolfenstein revamp – particularly given how under-rated the last game was.

The Evil Within 2

Love it or loathe it, The Evil Within’s dark horror captured a fanbase in little time. Just two years on from the game’s release seems rather soon to be talking about a sequel, but it was high up the suggestions list ahead of this year’s E3.

The Last of Us 2

Pocket-lint

Sat in Sony’s pre-E3 conference we were thinking this would be Sony’s “one more thing” moment (ok, so we said that last year too). But it wasn’t to be: instead the new Days Gone was shown in playable gameplay depth – which looks both terrifying and incredible by the way – rather than the return of Ellie. One not to be rushed, we suspect, given how picture perfect the original game was.

Cyberpunk 2077

CD Project Red is at E3 2016, behind closed doors, and was taking appointments ahead of time to show off a new game. We know Cyberpunk 2077 is coming, so we though this might well be the stage for it. But, nope, the Gwent card game from Witcher 3 has been expanded upon and made into a game of its own right instead. Which is kind of cool, but we want to see more badass female androids and machine guns right about now. Here’s to next year on this one. Maybe?

Shenmue III

Ys Net

Ok, so we’re probably clutching at straws here. But after successful crowdfunding for Yu Suzuki’s third chapter to the Shenmue series we though we might get a tease of how the upcoming title might look. Given the stage Sony gave this game at last year’s E3, to go dead silent on the progress of the game perhaps seems odd.

Final Fantasy 7 remake

Similar to above here: we know that FFVII is getting reworked, as confirmed at E3 2015, but that’s as far as it goes right about now. Perhaps Square Enix leaving breathing space for Final Fantasy 15 (FFXV)’s imminent launch is the sensible priority for 2016.

Portal 3

Valve / Portal 2

The first-person puzzle game to beat all others, Portal 2 was one of our favourite gaming moments ever. Rarely is something so genius, so accessible, and yet so different to anything else ever made.

That was five years ago. And given that title’s success, surely publisher Valve has the incentive to be working on the follow-up, perhaps even in an HTC Vive-compatible VR form?

We’ve seen no suggestion of this game existing, of course, we just have wishful thinking.

Half-Life 3

Valve

Ok, so our suggestions are getting ever more “just because”, and this is yet another one angled at Valve, but Half-Life 2 was one of the best first-person shooters ever.

It’s been years since the last title, plus there was even a moment when a follow-up was in early production (collaboratively with Arkane Studios, which has since been canned). Wishful thinking for the time being, then, but here’s hoping for the future.

New Nintendo Mario title

Nintendo

For Nintendo to dedicate its entire E3 floor space to Zelda was brave. It was also quite amazing – in a positive way – given the tranquility and setup of the stand.

Anyway, it also goes right in the face of the already-announced Nintendo NX console, which is due in 2017. Other than Zelda what’s going to launch with that? We don’t know. But we thought Ninty might be pushing a new Mario or Donkey Kong title already.

Harley-Davidson will make an electric motorcycle in 5 years

Harley-Davidson wasn’t just fooling around when it showed off its electric Project LiveWire motorcycle. In a chat with the Milwaukee Business Journal, the bike maker’s Sean Cummings says that there will be an electric Harley within the next 5 years. That’s 2021, if you want to mark your calendar. He’s not giving any clues as to what this e-bike will entail, but it probably won’t resemble the 2014-era LiveWire.

As our Autoblog colleagues point out, the biggest challenge is maximizing range. The LiveWire concept only got 60 miles on a charge at best, which just won’t cut it when you’re riding to Sturgis. Harley doesn’t have the luxury of a large car floor to hold its battery packs — it has to cram a lot of cells into a narrow space without making the bike ugly or unmaneuverable. A cruiser may make more sense than a street bike.

Having said this, the very fact that Harley is planning a production e-bike is noteworthy. This is a brand that’s virtually synonymous with loud, roaring gas engines. Clearly, it believes there’s enough interest in the idea (or at least, enough pressure from an eco-conscious society) that it’s worth bucking expectations.

Via: Autoblog

Source: Milwaukee Business Journal (sub. required)

Former IBM employee accused of economic espionage

A former IBM software engineer working in China has been charged with six counts of economic espionage and theft of trade secrets, Reuters reports today. The employee, 30-year-old Xu Jiaqiang, is accused of using his access as a developer to steal and subsequently sell IBM’s proprietary source code.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Xu resigned from IBM in May of 2014, but he allegedly took the code for a clustered file system with him. The system is meant to facilitate “faster computer performance by coordinating work among multiple servers,” and is only valuable to IBM if the code is kept in-house. After leaving IBM, however, Xu tried to sell the code to two undercover law enforcement agents posing as an investor and a project manager who were trying to launch a data storage company.

Over the course of about six months in 2015, Xu demonstrated the code to the two undercover officers, who confirmed it was a “functioning copy” of IBM’s own software. Xu was finally arrested at a hotel in White Plains, New York last December after he openly admitted to the undercover agents that he used the code to build his own version of IBM’s software that he could sell to clients. In his discussions with the law enforcement officers, he even stated that he had concealed a block of code identifying it as copyrighted worked owned by IBM.

Phil Schiller and Craig Federighi Talk iMessage, Siri API and Mac App Store on ‘The Talk Show’

A day after Apple’s WWDC keynote address, Apple SVP of Marketing Phil Schiller and SVP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi joined Daring Fireball’s John Gruber on a special edition of his podcast, The Talk Show. The duo addressed many topics, including the emphasis on iMessage in iOS 10, opening up Siri and other parts of iOS up to developers and the Mac App Store.

The bulk of Apple’s presentation on iOS 10 was focused on the extensive improvements to iMessage. When Gruber asked Federighi about the focus on Messages Federighi said the company knew that it was the app iPhone users spent the most time in, and the one they get the most excited about.

Every time we add emoji it would be the biggest thing. We work all year on a new file system or something and people are more excited about the two more emoji. So we figured if there’s one place where we could make a difference in how people experience iOS it’s Messages.

With iOS 10, Apple announced that many of its services would be opened up to developers. Siri now has an API that allows developers to interface with it, iMessage includes a new App Store that will allow developers to create stickers and payments for it, and Apple Maps now allows developers to create extensions for their apps, allowing users to book a reservation or hail a cab via Maps.

Federighi and Schiller both said that Apple likes to create a baseline for its technology first, then allow developers to build on it. Federighi said this is illustrated by Share Sheets, which at first only featured Facebook and Twitter extensions that were built by Apple, rather than third-party developers. He said that once the company creates the systems they deem necessary for a feature, they feel comfortable opening it up to third parties.

Federighi said that Apple wants to give developers more opportunities to give users better experiences, and that if developers feel like they can help users get things done by invoking their apps through Siri they want to help.

Federighi also addressed the ability to “delete” stock apps in iOS 10, clarifying that the apps are not actually deleted, with only user data and necessary hooks being removed if a user opts to delete the apps from his or her device. The apps themselves remain on the device as part of the signed package Apple uses to assure authenticity. “Re-downnloading” the apps from the App Store doesn’t actually involve a download and instead simply re-links the apps back into iOS so they can be used.

When asked why Siri’s API is limited to certain kinds of apps, like ride-hailing services like Uber or messaging, Federighi and Schiller once again talked about Apple’s baseline philosophy. Federighi said the decision to go with those apps types was made because Siri largely understands the domains of messaging and requesting purchases, making it easier to give the keys to developers and ensure a great user experience. He also said that Apple is working to expand Siri’s familiarity with certain domains over time.

Recently, a survey indicated that developers were dissatisfied with the state of the Mac App Store. Gruber asked Schiller and Federighi whether the store was a second priority for the company because of the popularity of the iOS App Store, which Apple recently revealed a slew of improvements for. Schiller said that Apple “loves all of our kids” and that they’re very happy with the Mac App Store, noting that they think it’s important enough to host their own apps on it. Apple thinks it’s an important solution for the future of the platform and are dedicated to it.

Schiller said that Apple pushes to make sure that all things make as much sense as possible on all storefronts, and that they organize development time and resources based on what they think the need for some features are. For example, Apple felt like the need for TestFlight on iOS was more important than the need for TestFlight on macOS.

In the full talk, the pair also talks about Swift, WWDC lunch boxes, and more. The episode of The Talk Show is not yet online, but it should be available in video form on Daring Fireball in due time.

Related Roundup: WWDC 2016
Tags: The Talk Show, John Gruber, Phil Schiller, Craig Federighi
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Best RPG and adventure games of E3 2016: Zelda, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Days Gone, FFXV, Scalebound and more

If it’s quality games you’re after you are in for a real treat. This year’s E3 videogames convention is jam packed with amazing looking triple-A titles that offer conclusive proof the industry has got the hang of this new-generation console malarkey.

If you’re big into your adventure and role-playing games then there’s a huge variety on show. Whether you’re more into out-and-out turn-based RPG, open-world epics where you level-up and hunt for collectibles, or those angled more towards straight-up shooting on an epic scale, then E3 2016 has them all.

READ: E3 2016: All the launches, games and consoles at the show

Nintendo finally showed Zelda: Breath of the Wild gameplay, sealing the Wii U’s fate and showing where 2017’s NX console will take things. Bethesda’s re-rub of Skyrim for PS4 and Xbox One in Special Edition form looks like a graphically wonderful rework. While Square-Enix’s Final Fantasy 15 (XV) has finally got a 2016 release date set. There’s plenty more besides.

We’ve selected our favourites from the show floor and also given our brief thoughts and release date of each game. So without further ado, here are the best  adventure and RPG games from E3 so far: click on this gallery link (mirrored below) for a full-screen experience.

VIEW: The best RPG and adventure games of E3 2016 gallery

Test-driving LELO’s ‘condom of the future’

I’m not proud of it. As someone who’s at high risk for HIV infection, I have a spotty relationship with safe sex. I came of age in the ’90s, when rappers like Salt-N-Pepa and Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes frequently spit rhymes about rubbers. I volunteered in a South African AIDS orphanage in the early 2000s and saw first-hand the effects of unprotected sex. I even had my own close brush with HIV infection nearly 10 years ago. And yet, I don’t always do the right thing.

NSFW Warning: This story may contain links to and descriptions or images of explicit sexual acts.

So when LELO, the luxury sex toy manufacturer, invited me to see its big breakthrough in condom technology, I jumped at the chance. Weeks later I found myself sitting across the table from the company’s founder, Filip Sedic, my hands covered in lube, attempting to tear apart perhaps the most ambitious prophylactic of our time.

Sedic strikes an imposing figure. He’s tall, built like a brick, dressed in a purple velvet jacket with a silk ascot tied around his neck. He speaks passionately and about STIs, contraception and pleasure in sometimes broken, though eloquent, English. He tells the story of HEX, a latex condom seven years in the making, the result of four years of radical R&D and three more overcoming regulatory hurdles. The final product, a high-design raincoat that takes design cues from the structure of graphene and suspension bridges, was born of frustration that shows on Sedic’s face.

“It’s a disgrace, that we in 2016, has STIs at all,” Sedic says. “It’s diseases that should be already disappeared hundreds of years ago. It’s a very big contradiction for me that we are living now with digital watches and robots and computers and virtual reality and everything … and STIs. Come on, seriously. These things should not exist.”

Eliminating STIs is a tall order, and one not likely to happen with a single leap forward in condom technology. The CDC estimates that there are more than 19.7 million new STIs in the United States each year, and 110 million sexually transmitted infections nationwide. But Sedic is optimistic that HEX will be “something people want to use, not have to use.”

Sedic, a former product manager for mobile products at Ericsson, pinpoints the two biggest barriers to condom usage as he sees it: their tendency to break or slip (depending on how you’re endowed) and the universal truth that they make the motion in the ocean less pleasurable, no matter the size of the boat. His assertions are backed by a 2008 Kinsey Institute study of men attending an STD clinic that focused on challenges to correct condom use. The study found that 30 percent of respondents “experienced problems with the fit or feel of the condom,” 31 percent had a condom break and 28.1 percent lost erections during condom use.

Sedic says his team explored “hundreds of different crazy ideas” before landing on a redesigned latex condom. Among them, using “electromagnetic force to kind of keep liquids separated and away.” While Sedic won’t discount the wilder ideas, he says regulatory hurdles from multiple government agencies forced the team to think about more practical immediate solutions. The result is a latex condom that, aside from high-design packaging and a simple pattern, looks a lot like the condoms that occupy truck-stop vending machines.

It’s a simple, interior hexagonal lattice, also found in the superstrong, ultralight wonder material graphene, that sets the HEX apart from its competitors. That pattern, in theory, not only makes the condom stronger, but centralizes breaks to a single, small hexagon, whereas tears in standard condoms are not contained. It also creates an internal friction that makes slippage less of an issue, according to Sedic. That lattice work also allows LELO to use extra-thin latex inside the individual hexagons, presumably creating a more pleasurable experience.

As Sedic stretched and poked at “the condom of the future” with his massive hands, I wondered if it’s possible. Could something so simple really change the way I think of condoms? Will I one day WANT to wear a condom? And how am I going to get all this lube off my hands?

It’s one thing to try and poke a hole in a condom with a rollerball during a press briefing; it’s something else entirely to put one on and go to pound town. I’ve been sleeping with the same person for more than a few months and after a failed attempt at using condoms, we’ve had sex exclusively without them. I know his status and he knows mine. I’m also taking Truvada (aka PrEP), to reduce the risk of HIV infection, just in case.

But HIV is only one of many potential risks, and I’d prefer a solution that safeguards against as many as possible. I brought home a pack of 12 LELO HEX eager to find out how they stack up and gave them the old college try. Unfortunately, the condom of the future wasn’t the safe sex silver bullet I was seeking. I’d prepped my partner Saturday night, telling him about the condoms before we hopped in bed, but in the heat of the moment, I failed to reach for the shiny white square sitting just inches from the lube on my nightstand.

The following morning, my brain clear and my deadline for this story looming, I asked him to slide one on before our 7 a.m. romp. He did, but it didn’t stay on long. It didn’t break or slide off, but the third piece of the puzzle just wasn’t there. Like that 28 percent from the Kinsey study, things fell flat with the condom on. Of course sex without a barrier will always feel better than sex with one, but the HEX failed to deliver on its final promise for us. Pleasure is a tricky thing. What feels good to me may not feel good to you, and that’s why a one-size-fits-all solution to eliminating STIs is such a difficult proposition. Had I not had the added protection of regular testing and Truvada, I’d like to think things would have ended differently, but reason and desire are strange bedfellows.

For HEX to succeed it will have to overcome a number of obstacles, not least of which is public perception. The company’s enlisted a rather unusual celebrity spokesperson in Charlie Sheen, with the hope that his HIV diagnosis and subsequent endorsement of the product will persuade consumers to put aside preconceived notions of what a condom is. Even if it can tackle that hurdle, however, LELO will have to convince the world that it’s worth the very steep price. LELO is offering the condoms at a discount for the first 10,000 customers via Indiegogo and its own site, but it will eventually charge close to $10 for a pack of three at retail. With the abundance of free and cheap prophylactics on the market, that’s a high price to pay for what, to the naked eye, looks like just another rubber.