Amazon Sitting on $83 Million of Unsold Fire Phones
If you've yet to see someone using an Amazon Fire Phone, you're not alone. Even after Amazon slashed the price to $0.99 with a two-year contract less than two months after launch, sales have not been good. Now, with Amazon revealing its third quarter results, we have learned just how big of a failure the Fire Phone has been. Amazon posted a $437 million loss for the quarter, recording a $170 million charge, "primarily related to Fire phone inventory valuation and supplier commitment costs." According to CFO Thomas Szkutak, Amazon currently has $83 million worth of unsold Fire phones sitting in inventory. Ouch!
With the recent releases of Apple's iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, and Samsung's Galaxy Note 4 – three phones from the two biggest smartphone players – it doesn't look like it'll get better for Amazon's Fire Phone anytime soon.
Source: GamesIndustry.biz
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Action-MMO TERA Getting First Official Expansion, Fate of Arun
More than two years after its initial launch, MMORPG TERA is getting its first expansion, entitled Fate of Arun. TERA has received several updates over the years, as expected for an MMO, but Fate of Arun is by far the biggest update yet and certainly worthy of the "expansion" classification. Fate of Arun increases the level cap to 65, adds in the lands of Northern Arun with a brand-new storyline, and brings new quests, zones, dungeons, skills, gear, and a new PvP battleground.
Source: Press Release
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Sundar Pichai Now Oversees Additional Google Products
Sundar Pichai, who has been at Google since 2004 and took on overseeing Google Apps in 2012 and Android in 2013, has been promoted by Larry Page, Google’s CEO, to oversee some of the company’s most important products and services. Pichai will now have direct oversight on a plethora of core offerings by Google, which include advertisements, Android, Chrome, Docs, Gmail, Google+, maps, search, and research. Page implemented the promotion for Pichai due to his desire to offload some of his own management duties, allowing him to focus more heavily on overall business strategies for the technology giant as it continues to expand. Despite the shift in management Pichai still falls under Page, who remains the top product guru at Google.
Source: Re/code
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Revolv Acquired by Nest
Revolv, a company that prides itself on its self-titled smart hub that helps actively manage smart homes through a smartphone application, has been officially acquired by Nest. Revolv noted on its website shortly after the acquisition that "Together, we’re going to create some amazing products and continue to unify the connected home as part of the Works with Nest program." Financial details regarding the acquisition were not released by either company, but sales of the Revolv smart hub have been halted by Nest due to the takeover. While new customers are not be able to purchase the smart hub from Revolv, existing customers will be provided with continued service and customer support. The device’s one-year warranty will still be honored as well, and data gathered from the smart hub will continue to follow the privacy statement by Revolv, staying separate from Google.
Source: PCWorld and Revolv
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Codemasters Announces Toybox Turbos, Coming November 11
Depending on your age, you may remember the Micro Machines series of racing video games based on the toy line of miniature vehicles of the same name. Today, developer Codemasters announced that its returning to its miniature racing titles of the 1990s with Toybox Turbos. "Toybox Turbos features 35 vehicles to collect and customise, ranging from sports cars and dragsters to emergency vehicles, taxis, ice cream vans, construction vehicles, milk float, moon buggies and more! Each can be raced in six super-charged game modes; players sprint for the line in Classic Races, set their best time in Time Trial, pass as many turbocharged toys as possible in Overtake, avoid getting wiped out by the tide in Escape, beat the clock in Countdown and take down bosses in Elimination mode. To gain the advantage, gamers can collect and use a range of power-ups spread liberally around each circuit, including, but not limited to, machine guns, mines, electronic pulses and, of course, giant hammers!"
Source: Press Release
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Assassin's Creed Unity PC Specs Revealed
Ubisoft has revealed the PC specs for Assassin's Creed Unity and they're fairly beefy. At a minimum, you'll need an Intel Core i5-2500K @ 3.3 GHz or AMD FX-8350 @ 4.0 GHz or AMD Phenom II x4 940 @ 3.0 GHz, 6GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 or AMD Radeon HD 7970 (2 GB VRAM). Recommended specs are an Intel Core i7-3770 @ 3.4 GHz or AMD FX-8350 @ 4.0 GHz or better, 8GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 or AMD Radeon R9 290X (3 GB VRAM). No matter what your specs, the game only supports 64-bit versions of Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 8/8.1, and you'll need 50GB of hard drive space.
Along with the PC specs, Ubisoft released a new video that delves into the immersive, open-world gameplay. Narrated by Creative Director Alex Amancio, the video shows off Paris and the various side quests Unity provides.
Source: Press Release and UbiBlog [1] & [2]
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Explore the Midlands and Himalayas of Far Cry 4's Kyrat
Two weeks ago, Ubisoft released the first in a series of Far Cry 4 videos that introduces us to the various regions of Kyrat. While that first video focused on the Lowlands, the second video focuses on the Midlands and Himalayas. The Midlands are home to lush forests, exotic animals, and Kyrat's drug trade. The region is under the control of Dr. Noore Najjar, Vice Lord of Kyrat, who not only supervises the aforementioned drug trade, but also manages the brutal Shanath Arena, where gladiators face off against wolves and tigers to the death.
While the Midlands are certainly a dangerous place, they're nothing compared to the "wicked windswept peaks" of the Himalayas. Not only must you deal with the Royal Army's elite, ravenous wolves and show leopards, and frequent avalanches, but it's also home to the Sky Prison, a craggy gulag carved into the side of a mountain. The prison's warden is Yuma, a former triad gangster and commander of the Elite Royal Guard.
Source: Press Release and UbiBlog
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Feast Your Eyes on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt "The Trail" Opening Cinematic
As promised, CD Projekt RED debuted the opening cinematic for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt earlier today during the Golden Joystick Awards. Entitled "The Trail", it shows protagonist Geralt of Rivia and his mentor Vesemir pursuing Geralt's long lost love, a powerful sorceress named Yennefer of Vengerberg. The trailer is both beautiful and gruesome.
Source: Press Release
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Quantum Holograms Could Become a Memory System
As though holograms were not cool enough already, now quantum holograms may have a potential use for storing quantum information. As published in the European Physical Journal's EPJD, researchers at St. Petersburg State University have successfully retrieved information from a quantum hologram.
Holograms are a well understood means for storing optical information but have not been used before to store quantum information. Normally they store information using light intensity, but for a quantum hologram the medium that holds the information has to be able to store a quantum superposition. Superposition is a quantum phenomenon whereby quantum objects can exist in mutually exclusive states at the same time. To actually write the information onto the medium, the researchers had to be able to shape the control field in both space and time. The control field is the reference light used to write and later read information from a hologram medium.
Eventually the researchers would like to see quantum holograms used to store quantum signals but also to transform their quantum states. This ability would be useful for quantum communication and computation.
Source: European Physical Journal
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Thermaltake Announces Versa H34 and H35 Mid Tower Cases
Thermaltake has announced the addition of a pair of mid tower cases to its lineup, the Versa H34 and H35, designed "specifically designed for gamers and home-computer builders." The cases feature a transparent side window, dust filters, and stress-free cable management. Up to two 5.25" drives can be installed along with three 3.5" or 2.5" drives in modular bays, with an additional two spaces for 2.5" drives behind the motherboard tray. Two 120mm fans are included with the case and the case has enough mount points to support eight 120mm or 140mm fans.
Source: Press Release
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GIGABYTE Releases GA-H81M-Gaming 3 Motherboard
GIGABYTE, a pioneer in the motherboard industry, has reworked the H81M-WW micro-ATX motherboard and has officially released the GA-H81M-Gaming 3. The latest gaming motherboard from GIGABYTE is very similar to the H81M-WW, with the only notable differences being a PCI-Express 2.0 x1 slot, an improved PCH heatsink, and an Intel-made gigabit Ethernet controller. The board is being marketed at entry-level builders who are looking for a motherboard that can support inexpensive and value driven gaming components while stiff offering plenty of features.
According to the GIGABYTE website the GA-H81M-Gaming 3 motherboard is currently available for purchase, but searches on Amazon.com and Newegg fail to yield any results at the time of this writing.
Source: GIGABYTE and techPowerUp
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Apple Pay and Google Wallet Payments Blocked by RiteAid
RiteAid, one of the largest drug store chains in the United States, is currently not accepting Apple Pay or Google Wallet payments across 4,600 stores. While Apple Pay was fully functional at RiteAid when the Apple payment system launched on Monday, it was disabled shortly afterwards for reasons that are unknown. The customer service department confirmed that payment systems that utilize tapping are currently not welcome, and a representative for the company stated that "We just can’t take it at this time." It is not known if the drug store chain has disabled all NFC payment abilities on its terminals, or if transactions from Apple Pay and Google Wallet are the only payments being blocked.
Source: TechHive
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Android Wear Update Provides GPS and Music Playback Support
Google has revealed that the next update to Android Wear, which is available today for compatible devices, includes support for GPS sensors and music playback. Smartwatches that have a built-in GPS sensor can now be used to track routes, distance, and speed, all without the need of a smartphone. The Android Wear update also adds music playback capabilities, allowing smartwatch users to store music on their watch and listen to it via Bluetooth headphones.
Currently, the Sony SmartWatch 3, which is available for pre-order from Verizon Wireless and will soon be on sale through Google Play, is the only Android Wear watch to feature a built-in GPS sensor. All other Android Wear smartwatches currently on the market will be able updated to include the new music playback functionality.
Source: Official Android Blog
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Working to Optimize Mesoporous Nanoparticles
There are many chemical reactions we would like to be able to do, such as converting hydrocarbons into fuels, but the processes tend to require prohibitive amounts of energy. To overcome this issue, catalysts are used, which reduce the amount of energy needed at any one time, by adding intermediate steps. Researchers at Ames Laboratory have recently modelled the movement of particles through narrow channels, which these catalyzed reactions may someday occur in.
One way to improve catalytic reactions is to increase the surface area of the catalyst, as that provides more reaction sites. To that end, researchers are investigating using porous nanoparticles, as the channels within them have a great deal of surface area. The size of these channels is important though, because the narrower they are, the more of them can exist, but if they are too narrow, molecules will not be able to pass through them. This is why the Ames researchers have created a model of mesoporous nanoparticles to simulate how molecules will behave when passing each other, in a narrow channel.
Due to the complexity of the processes involved, the researchers called upon those experienced in theoretical chemistry and applied mathematics. The hope is to optimized the size of the pores in mesoporous nanoparticles, and thereby their performance.
Source: Ames Laboratory
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AMD Reduces the Cost of Its APUs
AMD has significantly reduced the cost for the majority of its APU lineup, making the CPU and GPU combination more attractive than ever for value orientated consumers. Newegg previously sold the A6-7400K for $85, the A8-6600K for $99, the A8-7600 for $110, the A10-6800K for $140, the A10-7700K for $159, and the A10-7800 for $165, but is now selling the AMD APUs for $58, $92, $92, $112, $123, and $133, respectively. The top of the line Kaveri APU from AMD, the A10-7850K, is now retailing for $143, a notable decrease from its previous $189 price tag.
Along with reduced pricing, AMD is offering APU customers a coupon code for one of three games for the rest of the month. Consumers who purchase an APU between now and the end of October will qualify Murdered: Soul Suspect, Thief, or Sniper Elite 3, with Thief and Sniper Elite 3 supporting the Mantle API from AMD.
Source: ExtremeTech
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