November 2015 – Page 3

The (leaked) Just Cause 3 system requirements are here

Just Cause 3 is a game about blowing stuff up, just ’cause it’s there. Get it? It’s a play on words! Is the cause just, or is it all just ’cause? It’s quite clever, actually, because it so succinctly captures the dichotomy of videogames, in which you, as the savior figure, inflict levels of violence that transcend gratuitous and push into the obscene, all in the ostensible pursuit of a higher, perhaps noble, sometimes beautiful, goal. It’s a disconnect between means and end that’s so ubiquitous in our genre that some developers choose to not simply overlook it, but embrace it, essentially encouraging players to ignore the studio’s envisioned narrative in favor of indulging their worst anti-social tendencies, guilt and consequence-free.

So anyway, here’s what you’ll need to play it.

Minimum Specifications

OS: Vista SP2, Win 7 SP1, Win 8.1 (64-bit Operating System Required)
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K, 3.3 Ghz | AMD Phenom II X6 1075T 3 Ghz
Memory: 6GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 (2GB) | AMD Radeon HD 7870 (2GB)

Recommended Specifications

OS: Vista SP2, Win 7 SP1, Win 8.1 (64-bit Operating System Required)
CPU: Intel Core i7-3770, 3.4 GHz | AMD FX-8350, 4.0 GHz
Memory: 8 GB Ram
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 (3GB) | AMD R9 290 (4GB)

To get a feel for exactly what Just Cause 3 can bring to the table if you have the hardware to support it, feast your eyes on the 4K trailer that developer Avalanche released earlier this month, and don’t miss our hands-on from October. Just Cause 3 comes out on December 1.

Google can remotely bypass the passcode of at least 74% of Android devices if ordered

According to a document prepared by the New York District Attorney’s Office, older versions of Android can easily be remotely reset by Google if compelled by a court order, allowing investigators to easily view the contents of a device.

The document, which looks at the impact of full disk encryption on access for law enforcement, says that devices running Android 5.0 (and newer) are unable to be remotely reset as they use full disk encryption – it’s not switched on by default for many devices, however. Anything using an older version is vulnerable to remote reset.

“Forensic examiners are able to bypass passcodes on some of those devices using a variety of forensic techniques.

For some other types of Android devices, Google can reset the passcodes when served with a search warrant and an order instructing them to assist law enforcement to extract data from the device. This process can be done by Google remotely and allows forensic examiners to view the contents of a device.”

According to the Android Developer Dashboard, that means that 74.1 percent of devices are still using a version of Android that can be remotely reset at any time.

Software boosts smartphones to 4K without tapping out battery

Ultra HD 4K videos can be a sight to behold, but they come at two costs: price and power. While 4K screens will inevitably drop in price over time, Japan’s Kogakuin University and Fujitsu are working to reduce the power consumed while playing 4K videos’.

The university and electronics maker have worked together to develop software that can scale up video playback on smartphones to a resolution of 3,840×2,160 pixels, commonly referred to as 4K. The new technology can display Ultra HD at a highly stable 30 frames per second (fps) without increasing the typical power consumption of a smartphone. Kogakuin University has also confirmed that it is possible to increase video frame rate to a more fluid 60 fps.

At the moment, Sony’s Xperia z5 Premium is the only handset on the market that sports a 4K screen, though this is sure to change as Ultra HD screens become less costly. However, displaying content in the cutting edge resolution is extremely draining to the battery, so the Z5 Premium is designed to only output in 4K during media playback, and not during other uses. The new software could circumvent one of the considerable negatives to Ultra HD viewing, even if there are still doubts as to the benefit of 4K screens on smartphones.

Sony Xperia Z5 Premium camera samples: Is this really the best mobile camera?

Xperia Play to land on all five major UK mobile networks. Three has become the final of the UK’s big five mobile network providers to announce it will offer the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play handset, formerly known as the PSP Phone.

Following in the footsteps of O2, Orange and T-mobile which announced their intentions for the Xperia Play in the past 24 hours after Vodafone broke cover to be the first network to confirm it would stock the upcoming gaming-centric handset, an official Three press release revealed: “Three has just announced it’s ranging the Sony Ericsson XPERIA play over on @ThreeUK.”

Speaking on the network’s adoption of the Xperia Play Three’s Head of Branded Devices, Sylvia Chind said: “At Three we’re eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Sony Ericsson XPERIA play. We believe this handset celebrates a further step change in the way in which consumers use data, merging mobile communications and entertainment.”

New Yu Yuphoria version with 3 GB RAM spotted

Palm HP announced a lot of really great stuff today! The TouchPad, Palm Pre 3 and Veer (which might be my favorite, because it is tiny and adorable like a puppy). And they’re the only products guaranteed to get webOS 3.0.

Funny thing is, HP is actually launching a product tomorrow: Verizon’s taking pre-orders for the Pre 2. You might be thinking to yourself, “Great, I can buy it now and get all of that cool webOS 3.0 stuff on my phone later!” Well, don’t be so sure. Palm literally doesn’t know if the Pre 2 is going to be updated to webOS 3.0 that’s running on the TouchPad and eventually on the Pre 3 and Veer. It might. Or it might not. But it’s a little disconcerting Palm doesn’t know.

And since Palm’s VP of Product Marketing Stephane Maes told us they’re not really going to push the Pre 2 very hard—meaning it was every bit the stopgap product we thought—I’d think reallllly hard about throwing down cash on it. Oh, and if you own a Pre or Pixi or their Plus variants? You’re not even getting the latest webOS shown off today. End of the road.

Hate to sound like a broken record of late, but consider waiting for the new stuff. It is all quite spiffy.

No more invites: OnePlus 2 to be available via open sales from Nov 25-27

Following the recent preview of INQ’s Cloud Touch phone, more commonly known as the Facebook Phone, the company has officially confirmed the device. Of course, the device is really an Android-powered device with some Facebook-oriented widgets and shortcuts that make accessing the social network’s chat, contacts, events, notices, news feeds and more much easier. The phone is powered by a 600MHz Qualcomm chip and INQ is planning to get Android 2.3 on the device further down the road. An interesting feature of this phone will be the use of Spotify in place of the stock Android media player,

Motorola Moto X Style gets Android 6.0 Marshmallow update in India

According to Businessweek, Nokia is expected to announce a partnership with Microsoft this week, which will put the Windows Phone 7 mobile OS on future Nokia devices. Nokia CEO Stephen Elop basically said this was going to happen in his memo, and from the looks of it he’s wasting no time making it happen.

Nokia also talked with Google CEO Eric Schmidt about the possiblility of putting Android on Nokia phones, but those dealings fell through. (Sidenote: GOD DAMMIT.) Both companies hope the partnership will help them get back into the game against the likes of smartphone hardware and software makers such as Apple, Google, Samsung and HTC. Businessweek expects Elop to make this announcement tomorrow. [Businessweek]

A Finished Version of Firefox for iOS Is Finally Available on App Store

Free hardware has somewhat become the norm lately, if you want to promote your new platform (at least if you aren’t Apple or Google). We hear that HP is apparently planning to hand out WebOS tablets and Intel just confirmed that it has given developers MeeGo netbooks.

How do you convince developers to start using and developing for a new platform. Hardware would help and that seems to be a common theme these days. Remember Microsoft, which handed out more than 30,000 Windows 7 phones? Or Google, which beta tests Chrome Os with 65,000 ChromeOS notebooks (and hopes that developers will start developing many more apps for the Chrome Web Store)? Intel does it on a much smaller scale with MeeGo.

At a recent meeting with about 140 developers in Arizona, the company gave out MeeGo netbooks to “qualified developers”. The hope here is, as well, that developers will actually use the netbook to build MeeGo apps. “By the end of the night, developers learned that with MeeGo they can rapidly create a variety of experiences across many computing device types, as well as have an opportunity to make money with their applications,” Intel’s Rhonda Peters wrote in a blog post.

The success of smartphone and tablet platforms seems to be a numbers game. 140 netbooks are a start, but it may not be enough to see a big impact. The first MeeGo version that will make it into consumer devices is, as far as we know, currently scheduled for a late April 2011 shipment date. We have no idea whether there will be MeeGo netbooks on retail shelves, but we do know that the company plans on having MeeGo tablets in U.S. retail by June.

If you are a developer interested in MeeGo, we have no idea whether Intel is giving out more free netbooks. However, you could always try and contact the company through its AppUp developer program.

Rdio Will Shut Down and Sell Some of Its Assets to Pandora for $75 Million

One of the strengths of Google’s Android mobile operating system is its support for customization. Android enthusiasts can augment the capabilities of their Android device by replacing key components of the platform with superior third-party alternatives.

There are a growing number of really great third-party home screen implementations and Web browsers that users can install directly from the Android Market. Some of the popular Web browsers include Opera, Skyfire, Firefox, and Dolphin HD. We plan to write up a full comparison at some point in the future, but decided to start by giving you a close look at our favorite: Dolphin HD.