Humble Bundle: PC and Android 9 Review
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NVIDIA 337.50 Driver Comparison
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After Five Years of Development, CCP's World of Darkness Has Been Canceled
World of Darkness was originally revealed in 2006 as an MMORPG based on the Vampire: The Masquerade universe, with full production kicking off in 2009. But five years later, developer CCP is finally pulling the plug. The news of the cancellation comes after CEO Hilmar Petursson told Rock, Paper, Shotgun two months ago that World of Darkness would adopt an open-world, sandbox style similar to that of DayZ and Rust. Today, Petursson was singing a different tune, saying that the studio's "efforts were falling regretfully short."
World of Darkness was being produced by CCP's Atlanta office and the cancellation will result in layoffs of 56 employees, though some will be offered roles within the company. However, the Atlanta office will not be shutting down, and instead the remaining team will "focus on developing games within the Eve universe," which currently consists of Eve Online, Dust 514, and Eve Valkyrie.
Source: Polygon
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Child of Light's New Trailer Explores the Beautiful World of Lemuria
Those critics that argue video games are not art, need only to watch the new trailer for Ubisoft's Child of Light. Using the proprietary UbiArt Framework, Child of Light's hand-painted environments are breathtaking. The trailer highlights the varied landscapes of the world of Lemuria.
Source: Ubisoft
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Google Purchases Drone Maker Titan Aerospace
Google has announced the acquisition of start-up drone manufacturer Titan Aerospace for an undisclosed amount. Google hopes to use the drone technology for "delivering Internet service to underserved areas, particularly in the developing world." The solar powered drones can stay airborne for up to five years and are currently used in applications such as search-and-rescue aid. Google said in a statement regarding the acquisition, "It's still early days, but atmospheric satellites could help bring internet access to millions of people, and help solve other problems, including disaster relief and environmental damage like deforestation."
Source: CNN
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Corsair Announces System Building Contest
Corsair has announced the PC Domination, Spring 2014 system building and tuning contest, running until May 5, 2014. There are a total of ten categories to compete in, offering something for all levels of systems. Available prizes include a wide range of Corsair products including mechanical keyboards, Dominator memory, cases, and liquid coolers. The primary competition categories are CPU, GPU, and system building. Further information about the contest can be found at the Corsair website.
Source: Press Release
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Prototype Smartphone Battery Charges in Half a Minute
One of the fears shared by all users of mobile electronics is running out of power, and having to wait and wait for it to recharge. For now we have few options but to keep a charger handy, get a larger battery, and/or keep a second battery ready, if possible. Researchers at Tel Aviv University and the start-up StoreDot may have a new option for the future as they have created a battery that can fully charge in 30 seconds.
This new battery uses nanodots, which are bio-organic semiconductors made of peptides and have special electrochemical properties. By adding them to a battery they can increase both electrode capacity and electrolyte performance. Being organic and natural, they can also be produced very easily and cheaply. To demonstrate their capability, the researchers built a prototype battery for the Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone, and fully charged it in half a minute at a recent Microsoft conference.
While the public may be especially interested in nanodots for their batteries, they can also be used to build sensors and displays with better color reproduction. Presently the prototype charger is about the size of that for a laptop, but the researchers are working to shrink it and bring it to market for late 2016.
Source: American Friends of Tel Aviv University
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Guacamelee Developer DrinkBox Studios Unveils Its Next Game, Severed
DrinkBox Studios, the Toronto-based indie studio behind Mutant Blobs Attack and Guacamelee!, has unveiled its latest game, Severed. While it certainly has a similar aesthetic styling to Guacamelee!, the gameplay is quite different. Severed is a first-person dungeon crawler set in a "mysterious highly stylized surreal world." The game gets its name because the heroine of the story has her arm severed and you'll gain new powers by severing the body parts of enemies and attaching them to yourself. DrinkBox is calling it a cross between Mega Man, Infinity Blade, and Mike Tyson's Punch-Out, while there's also a dose of The Legend of Zelda thrown into the mix as well.
While the influence of Mega Man is apparent with the limb-attachment, Severed also takes a Mega Man-like approach to its open-ended world design, allowing players to explore any area they want from the start. Like Mega Man, you can go down one path to try and aquire one piece of gear that will help you in another area, but if that path proves too difficult, you can switch to a different area with hopefully better results. The Infinity Blade influence comes in the form of the combat, which is first-person, gesture-based swipe attacks – yes, Severed is first and foremost designed for touchscreens. The Punch-Out influence comes from how all the enemies require different strategies and have different tells, while The Legend of Zelda influence comes in the form of how magic spells are used along with physical attacks, while also doubling as an exploration tool, such as unlocking doors.
If you're curious, the music in the trailer and the original soundtrack for the game is "from Juno nominated band YAMANTAKA // SONIC TITAN and kulintang ensemble Pantayo."
Source: Press Release and Destructoid
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Quantenna Working on 10Gbps Wi-Fi Chipset
Quantenna Communications has announced that sometime next year it plans to launch a new Wi-Fi chipset that will provide throughput of 10Gbps. This is possible due to a new 8x8 MIMO chipset that the company is working on, which will work with older Wi-Fi standards such as 802.11 a/b/g and n. Some of the newest routers that are currently on the market feature 3x3 MIMO chipsets, such as the Linksys WRT-1900AC that delivers 1.3Gbps, while newer 802.11ac routers that have been announced feature a 4x4 MIMO chipset, such as the ASUS RT-AC87U that delivers 1.7Gbps. The new chipset by Quantenna will bond multiple channels found on the 5GHz frequency band to provide a single channel that is 160MHz wide; current 802.11ac routers are able to achieve an 80MHz wide channel by using the same technology.
Quantenna has revealed alongside of this announcement that it does not plan to introduce any 8x8 MIMO chipsets into battery powered devices or USB Wi-Fi adapters. The company plans on the chipset being used in enterprise environments and consumer networking.
Source: PCWorld
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Akamai Heartbleed Patch Fails to Address All Vulnerabilities
The Heartbleed security flaw, which has been one of the most influential web security issues in recent history, has hindered many websites since its initial revelation. Even though the code was supposedly an accident and not intentional, it has affected a large number of websites that make use of OpenSSL. One network provider that has been hindered by Heartbleed, Akamai, provided a patch to its systems recently that was supposed to address the security flaw entirely. The company has gone back on that claim now as Willem Pinckaers, a security researcher, has uncovered that the patch released by Akamai for its systems only addressed half of Heartbleed. According to Pinckaers, and confirmed by Akamai chief security officer Andy Ellis, the patch that was released for the Akamai network only covered three out of six critical values found in an RSA key.
In order to protect customers following this news, Akamai is rotating SSL certificates that are vulnerable. In the meantime, the company is working on a patch that will address Heartbleed in its entirety, thereby protecting one-third of the Internet's traffic that the network provider processes.
Source: CNET
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Reducing Cost of Supercapacitor with Cellulose
Cellulose is the most abundant organic polymer on Earth thanks to its use in plant life. This makes it a wonderful resource to use, but finding useful applications can be difficult. Researchers at Oregon State University though have found a way to convert cellulose into a carbon material that is suitable as an electrode for supercapacitors, and other technologies.
Starting with cellulose, which can be in the form of filter paper, the researchers heat it and expose it to ammonia. This causes the cellulose to convert into an N-doped nanoporous carbon membrane. The resulting membrane is actually so porous that a single gram of the material can have a surface area of roughly 2000 square meters. Large surface area is invaluable in supercapacitors, as that is where the charge builds up and is stored.
After discovering this safe, easy, and cheap process of producing the membrane, the researchers were actually surprised no one had reported finding it before. Its discovery could affect a number of technologies, but just inexpensive supercapacitors could rock the automobile world by making electric and hybrid vehicles more efficient, faster charging, and perhaps safer as well.
Source: Oregon State University
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