Phew, virtual reality is officially “A Thing” now, with the So instead I’m rounding up the gaming news from April 4 – 8. This week: A member of the House of Representatives incurs $1,302 in Steam purchases in his campaign funds, IKEA makes the definitive VR experience, and
A proposal from two senior U.S. senators would force tech companies to give technical assistance to law enforcement agencies trying to break into smartphones and other encrypted devices. The draft bill, released Friday by Senators Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein, would allow judges to order tech companies to comply with requests from the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to help them break into devices. Burr, a North Carolina Republican, is chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee; Feinstein, from California, is the panel's senior Democrat. "All persons receiving an authorized judicial order for information or data must provide, in a timely manner, responsive, intelligible information or data, or appropriate technical assistance,"
Apps, games, and Shakespeare: a look at the week's top new Play Store releases.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission will take steps to restore competition in the market for broadband services used by businesses, potentially saving them billions in costs. For years, groups have called on the FCC to cap the rates charged by Verizon and AT&T, the two carriers that dominate the market. At a meeting on April 28, the FCC will For more than a decade, critics of Verizon and AT&T have pushed the FCC to address these so-called "middle-mile" data connections, which link ATMs, credit-card scanners, mobile towers and many office broadband networks.
Like sands through the hourglass, so are the iPhones the government wants Apple’s help breaking into. Recently, the FBI said it had paid for a “tool” that
More than two-thirds of the U.S. public doesn't support a federal government takeover of drone regulation, despite a push in Congress to preempt state and local drone rules, according to a new survey.
As if summoned by the Bat-Signal, U.S. Senator Al Franken is seeking answers on Oculus’ privacy policies after some users expressed concerns. Gizmodo rounded up
It’s official: versions of EVGA's the latest company to join the low-power GTX 950 craze with four new models of the entry-level graphics card. Instead of relying on a 6-pin power connector, the new GTX 950s will draw power from the motherboard via the PCIe x16 slot.
They say it’s tough to buy into the virtual reality hype until you’ve tried it for yourself. That’ll soon be a lot easier as Gamestop and Microsoft Stores start demoing the Vive demos have already begun at Microsoft Stores in New York City, Bellevue, and Salt Lake City. Microsoft plans to expand demos to a dozen more stores (including one in Australia) later this month, and an undisclosed number of additional stores in May. Gamestop will start showing off the HTC Vive at 10 U.S. locations, starting on April 16. (We’ve posted the full list of HTC Vive demo locations at the bottom of this story.)
Microsoft is joining Google in the quest to Similar to Chrome, Edge's new Flash-halting feature won't affect auto-playing videos that are part of a site’s content. Instead, the feature will look at disabling flash video and animations in advertisements and other non-essential content. To re-enable it, all you have to do is click on the paused content.
Adobe Systems released a security update for Flash Player to fix 24 critical vulnerabilities, including one that hackers have been exploiting to infect computers with ransomware over the past week. The company advised users Thursday to upgrade to the newly released Flash Player 21.0.0.213 on Windows and Mac and Flash Player 11.2.202.616 on Linux. The Flash Player Extended Support Release was also updated to version 18.0.0.343. As usual, the Flash Player build bundled with Google Chrome on all platforms, Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer for Windows 10 and IE for Windows 8.1 will be upgraded automatically through the update mechanisms of those browsers.
You in 2010: Five-inch screens are ridiculous! You in 2016: Screens smaller than five inches are ridiculous!
After years of teases, tweaks, and trailers, virtual reality is finally here, with the
Apple's Mac Pro is aging fast, especially with screaming fast Windows desktops being announced in recent weeks. Introduced in 2013, the Mac Pro was a top-of-the-line desktop at that time. It looked exquisite in its sleek cylindrical design, and it sported new features like Thunderbolt 2 ports, plus the latest CPUs, GPUs and NVMe storage. More importantly, it was a signal that Apple had not abandoned the professional computing market. The latest Mac Pro was a relief to those clamoring for an upgrade from an older version of the computer, which last received a face-lift in 2010. But the Mac Pro is again falling behind the competition, with powerful new workstations from Lenovo, Dell and HP carrying superior technology. The PC companies are waging an active campaign to tempt Mac Pro users, many of them creative professionals, to move over to Windows PCs with better CPUs, GPUs, and memory.
There's already plenty of angst out there about the prospect of A new "Rembrandt" painting unveiled in Amsterdam is not the work of the Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn at all, but rather the creation of a combination of technologies including facial recognition,
The latest zero-day vulnerability in Adobe Systems' Flash player has been used over the last two weeks to distribute ransomware called Cerber, email security vendor Proofpoint said. Adobe said it would patch the flaw, CVE-2016-1019, on Thursday. The vulnerability affects all versions of Flash Player on Windows, Mac, Linux and Chrome OS. Ryan Kalember, senior vice president of cybersecurity at Proofpoint, said his company detected an attack trying to exploit the flaw on Saturday. One of Proofpoint's customers received an email with a document that contained a malicious macro that led victims through a series of redirects that eventually reached an exploit kit.
Watching online video on your hotel television could soon be as easy as watching on your phone as Sonifi, a provider of TV and Internet services for hotels, is partnering with Google on a Chromecast-based system for guest rooms, dubbed SoniCast. Instead of having to bring their own $35 Chromecast dongles, and employ