Sony (NYSE: SNE) has announced that the long-awaited Spotify app will launch on PS3 and PS4 later today, and that the app will be exclusive to PlayStation systems “for the foreseeable future”.

The PlayStation Music app, which taps the power of the music-streaming service Spotify, is free on both PlayStation consoles.

An active PlayStation Plus isn’t required and it’s free to listen to music, however a premium subscription is offered for $9.99 a month that blocks out ads and improves stream quality. Sony is offering a free 30-day trial for the service.

The app will be available to download on the PlayStation Store, but most users will find it already on their console, replacing the Music Unlimited app on the main menu.

Using PlayStation’s new Spotify app, users can easily listen to customized playlists and music tracks without going through the hassle of switching between the pesky Music Unlimited and the game session.

Sony has locked down exclusivity rights for Spotify as well, signalling that app software has joined as a major contributor of the timed exclusivity console wars.

“PlayStation [consoles] have gaming exclusivity,” Sony Computer Entertainment Europe UK marketing director Murray Pannell told Eurogamer.

But how long with the timed exclusivity last? “That’s to be decided exactly, but certainly for the foreseeable [future].”

While Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Xbox One won’t get access to Spotify, it does have its own premium console-based music streaming service called Xbox Music Pass. The service is priced at $9.99 a month and features cross-platform streaming across various devices, and even supports offline streaming.

The Spotify PS4 and PS3 is a win for Sony because it replaces their awful Music Unlimited service and lets users actually listen to music while playing a game. But in terms of competition, it isn’t a big deal to Microsoft, considering it has its own unique multi-platform music service.

Along with the live TV streaming service PlayStation Vue, this move into a more consolidated music streaming service fits in with Sony’s major new rebranding focus.

It’ll be interesting to see how app software is leveraged in the future to bolster each console brand, and how it fits in with each company’s growing ecosystem.

Also before you hand over your credit card information to Sony, be aware that the company doesn’t have the best track record in regards to protecting your info, and is constantly hit by hackers. Buyer beware!

The post Spotify PS4 And PS3 App Launches Today, Is Timed Exclusive appeared first on VR World.

UPDATE: Nintendo has confirmed that the Legend of Zelda Wii U port won’t be showcased at E3 2015.

Original story is as follows.

The Legend of Zelda Wii U port has been delayed, and won’t be releasing in 2015 after all.

The news comes straight from game producer Eiji Aonuma who announced the push back in a recent video update.

Aonuma cites the reason for the delay is that the development team has “discovered new possibilities for the game”, and the timeframe constricts on the new content they could add to make Zelda on Wii U the “complete and ultimate Zelda game”.

“Since I declared at The Game Awards in December that the game would launch in 2015, the directors and the many members of the development team have been working hard developing the game to make it the best it can be.

“In the last three months, as the team has experienced firsthand the freedom of exploration that hasn’t existed in any Zelda game to date,we have discovered several new possibilities for this game.

“As we have worked to turn these possibilities into realities, new ideas have continued to spring forth, and it now feels like we have the potential to create something that exceeds even my own expectations.

“As I have watched our development progress, I have come to think that rather than work with meeting a specific schedule as our main objective, and releasing a game that reflects only what we can create within that scheduled time…

“I feel strongly that our focus should be to bring all these ideas to life in a way that will best make The Legend of zelda on Wii U to be the best game it can possibly be.

“So, I must apologize to you all that were expecting the game by year’s end, but we are no longer making a 2015 release our number one priority.

“Instead, our priority is to make the most complete and ultimate Zelda game.

“I hope to use the added time to make The Legend of Zelda for Wii U into a game that will reward you for your patience, so thank you for your continued support.”

The news comes as a big disappointment to Wii U fans that were looking forward to the game this year, myself included. Some fans even rushed to buy the console after seeing the footage, and will undoubtedly be let down with the news.

The new open-world Legend of Zelda on Wii U represents a huge leap forward for the franchise, and Aonuma showcased an playthrough at The Game Awards 2014 that delved into the game’s expansive feel.

Seeing how huge the scope is for the game, it’s not surprising to see it get delayed. Creating and shaping such a substantial game world is no easy feat, and hopefully Aonuma can provided more

Many are speculating that the delay signifies that the new Zelda port will see a release on Nintendo’s mysterious new NX console, but the Japanese company hasn’t revealed anything yet and probably won’t until 2016.

At least Xenoblade Chronicles X is still on schedule for a 2015 release, and we’ll have Splatoon in May, but the new Zelda was one of this year’s premiere Wii U titles.

The post Zelda Wii U Delayed, Isn’t Coming in 2015 appeared first on VR World.

A new trailer for Halo Online gives us a brief look at the game’s built-in microtransactions, revealing an extensive pay-to-win style structure.

While the footage for 343 Industries’ brand new free-to-play PC shooter does indeed look pretty, it showcases something quite troubling that manifests as a cheap cash grab. Halo Online pay to win microtransactions are a thing, and its something I predicted in my recent editorial.

Halo Online is set up like Halo: Reach, where you earn credits from matches to spend on armor permutations and such.

But in the Russian PC shooter, players will get to customize every little thing about their Spartan: weapon loadouts, armor sets, and even equip a number of extra attachments to make your weapons stronger.

Check the upper right hand corner to see the Gold and Silver currency, and it looks like all the armor will be priced in different tiers in terms of its effectiveness in battle.

And you’ll have to pay for every little bit of it–every scope augmentation, every armor set, every little change to your Spartan will be monetized. The real balance is how much silver you can earn per match, and if that’s handled just right, the skewed ratio won’t be so bad.

But if you earn hardly any silver? You’ll be pushed and pushed to just snag the gear for cash. Plus the game has weapon rentals.

That’s right, you can rent your weapons for 30 minutes, 6 hours, or 24 hour periods.

Anyway, let’s take a look at the microtransactions and their rates.

It looks like Halo Online will have Silver, which can be earned by free players, and Gold, which is the game’s premium currency. Some of the ratios are pretty exorbitant, sometimes ranging to 50,000Silver to 50 Gold.

The trailer didn’t show us how much the premium currency will cost, but it’s a bit unsettling to know that the game embraces such an obvious pay-to-win structure.

The main Spartan hub screen showcases a variety of different sections that act as their own different marketplaces:

• Bundles
• Weapons
• Tactical Packages
• Armory
• Restock

In the footage we only ever get to see the Weapons and Armory section. The Bundles section is probably straight-forward, having a variety of pre-sorted bundles that come with weapons, tactical packages, and armor sets.

Strangely enough you can rent weapons, as well as attach a number of different upgrades to them–all of which can be bought with premium Gold currency.

The Weapons section is a tailored marketplace for all the destructive weaponry in Halo, and to the game’s benefit, there is an amazing array of guns. There’s Primary and Secondary slots that include just about every gun in the franchise, along with a slew of different grenades

But you have the opportunity to pay cash for all of them, as well as a number of different accessories. You can, of course, earn them the hard way, but you’ll be grinding for quite some time I’m sure.

The Tactical Packages is a bit worrying, considering Halo 4 had a considerable RPG structure that let gamers customize their Spartan with a number of passive abilities.

Considering the game uses the Halo 3 engine, and we see instances of Bubble Shields and the like used in-game, this might be a marketplace for Halo 3 equipment (Rengerators, Bubble Shield, Trip Mines, etc) rather than actual Halo 4-style passives, but we really don’t know.

The Armory is where you buy your stylized armor. It looks like the armor will have passive bonuses like increased melee damage or boosted shield recovery, further incentivizing the pay-to-win structure.

Restock might be where you can buy grenades, ammo and such, but again we weren’t shown this screen so there’s no telling.

Halo Online has primary, secondary and grenade slots–all of which will probably cost silver or the premium gold currency.

So far this is like Halo from hell, where combat is just abysmally skewed towards players who are willing to shell out cash for victory.

This isn’t the Halo I grew up with. Although there’s a substantial RPG presence going on here, the whole game looks like it was optimized to get you to spend as much money as possible in order to win–a concept that should be abolished in any competitive PVP space.

The Halo Online beta is scheduled to start this Spring exclusively in Russia, but 343 Industries hasn’t ruled out an expansion across the globe.

So we might see this pay-to-win shooter make its way to North America and Europe, but at this point I’m glad it’s an overseas exclusive.

The post Halo Online Pay To Win Microtransactions Revealed appeared first on VR World.

UPDATE: A new trailer for the game has revealed a peek at the game’s microtransactions, confirming a shameless pay-to-win scheme.

In Halo Online Russian gamers will get the opportunity to pay for every little thing, including weapons, armor sets that give passive bonuses, Spartan passives, and even attachments that boost weapon damage.

Original story is as follows.

In a quite confusing move, 343 Industries has announced Halo Online, a brand new free-to-play game for PC.

Even more strange is the news that Halo Online free-to-play PC game will be tested exclusively in Russia via an upcoming closed beta test.

The game itself is built on Halo 3‘s engine and is a multiplayer-only PVP style game that plans to bring all the definitive FPS chaos to the PC world. The beta test is planned to start “this spring” in Russia, which means sometime soon.

Since it’s free-to-play it’s fair to assume microtransactions will be involved, and maybe a horrible pay-to-win style to boot.

Also there’s a chance Halo Online could come to other regions, although it won’t ever be released on Xbox One (of course not, you’ll have to shell out premium cash to play Halo in console form).

In the FAQ listed below, 343i doesn’t explicitly rule out a release in North America or Europe, but they’re more worried about learning what they can from Russian players before the game launches overseas.

Halo Online looks like it’ll have all of the PVP staples, but how many armor sets will be locked behind premium paywalls?

This is probably the worst time for 343i to take on a project like this.

Instead of focusing on fixing the Xbox One’s still-awkward Master Chief Collection or even wholly devoting the team to polishing up Halo 5 for its impending launch, they’ve decided to splinter precious resources to focus on a F2P Halo game.

I personally think this is an awful idea that could destroy the very soul of Halo itself.

Halo has always been a big win for the Xbox brand. Microsoft has made concessions by bringing the original Halo: Combat Evolved to PC, along with Halo 2 years later, but this kind of game isn’t Halo: it’s a bastardized attempt at a cheap cash grab.

Now if the microtransactions are entirely cosmetic, that won’t be so bad.

With a huge arsenal of armor permutations to choose from, we can see how this could work. But if the game starts charging premiums for skill sets straight out Reach, that’s when things get terrible.

343 Industries needs to be careful how they proceed here or they risk alienating themselves from the game’s fanbase–something they’ve accomplished with the abysmal Master Chief Collection launch.

No one likes microtransactions, especially the pay-to-win variety. Although it’s a lucrative structure for publishers it becomes a roadblock for gamers and locks off a portion of content behind paywalls.

And paywalls are eroding gaming.

Halo Online is tailor-made for Russian PC gamers, but we might see it cross over to other regions…which could be a good or bad thing.

That being said, 343i could take Halo Online in an interesting direction, maybe even making a distinct MMOFPS mashup. The Halo universe is so massive and full of wonder, splendor and depth, and it’s so much more than just competitive PVP multiplayer action.

Imagine a subscription-based MMO based in the Halo universe that has the depth of, say, Final Fantasy XIV? Imagine combining Halo Wars with the dynamism of the first-person shooter elements, along with a winding story arc.

There’s so much potential with a Halo Online game. But instead, it looks like 343 Industries want to go the cheap, easy way.

Below we have the Halo Online FAQ published on Halo Waypoint that might answer some questions you have.

Halo Online FAQ

Q: What type of game is Halo Online?

A: Halo Online is a free multiplayer-only PC experience that we’re launching as a closed beta test in Russia.

Q: Does Halo Online represent your future plans for the franchise on PC?

A: Halo Online is a learning opportunity for us as we explore ways to welcome new fans to the “Halo” universe. We’re excited to release a “Halo” multiplayer-only PC experience tailored for Russian gamers.

Q: When will Halo Online be available?

A: The closed beta period will begin in Russia later this spring. There is no definitive launch date at this time.

Q: Are you planning on bringing Halo Online to the Xbox One?

A: Halo Online was built from the ground up specifically for the PC. There are no plans to bring Halo Online to the Xbox One.

Q: Will gamers in other regions like North America and Europe be able to play Halo Online?

A: Right now our focus is on learning as much as we can from the closed beta period in Russia. Theoretically, any expansion outside of Russia would have to go through region-specific changes to address player expectations.

Q: Are you planning to officially launch this year?

A: There is no definitive launch date at this time as we proceed in our closed beta period in Russia.

The post The New Halo Online Free-To-Play PC Game Is A Bad Idea appeared first on VR World.

It may come as a surprise to many that the way computers handle numbers is not very accurate. Indeed, it can be said that error is built into the very foundation of digital computers, and while the end user often does not see the result of these errors, they can be very problematic for programmers, scientists, engineers, and calculation intense industries such as money management and military operations.

At the recent Supercomputing Frontiers 2015 conference in Singapore, computer scientist John Gustafson outlined the problems with floating points in his keynote and later in an interview. Given the complexity — and severity — of the problem, it’s worth taking a second in-depth look at the issue.

The Problem

Developer Richard Harris, who wrote a series of articles on the dangers of floating point, said in one post, “The dragon of numerical error is not often roused from his slumber, but if incautiously approached he will occasionally inflict catastrophic damage upon the unwary programmer’s calculations. So much so that some programmers, having chanced upon him in the forests of IEEE 754 floating point arithmetic, advise their fellows against travelling in that fair land.”

Because computers – which are machines of precision and exactness – are often made to deal with unprecise and inexact numbers (such as pi, and irrationals), methods must be devised to compensate for computational error, and to make the end result as close to the correct answer as possible. One solution has been devised that is still in use today: floating point. Floating point is a method similar to scientific notation, which uses a decimal point, sign bit, and a number of exact digits to represent a number.

Since The IEEE Standard for Floating-Point Arithmetic was published in 1985, this standard has come to dominate the mathematical methods used by hardware and software engineers for the basic operations computers perform whenever running an application. Ideally, a one-size-fits-all standard such as this one would minimize error and promote uniformity of results across a broad spectrum of hardware.

Unfortunately, this has not been the practical result. Different processors and software packages, designed to handle floating point operations, often result in slightly different answers, due to rounding errors, and differing orders of operation.

One way that programmers often compensate is to use as many digits as possible to represent a number. In modern computers, this means that 32 – 64 bits of data are almost always used to represent a single floating point number. While modern computers are also very fast at calculations, this many bits must be stored and retrieved from memory, causing significant latency in calculations.

Furthermore, due to compounding error, traditional properties of algebra – such as the commutative and associative property – do not necessarily apply to floating point operations. In other words, (a + b) + c =/= a + (b + c), nor does c * (a + b) = c*a + c*b.

In the case of floating point, using these differing approaches often yields dissimilar results.

The post The Evils of Floating Point, and the Joys of Unum appeared first on VR World.

Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) latest plan to get Windows 10 for phones on more devices involves collaborating with Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi in offering a custom Android ROM that effectively allows devices like the Mi 4 to run Windows 10.

From what has been revealed thus far, the deal seems less like a partnership and more like Microsoft trying to gain feedback from Xiaomi’s community of fans, who are some of the most vocal when it comes to sharing their thoughts on new software updates.

As part of the Windows Insider Program, Microsoft will partner with Xiaomi to offer Windows 10 free downloads to a select group of Xiaomi Mi4 users. Xiaomi Mi4 users will get the ability to flash their phones with the new Windows 10 OS and provide feedback to Xiaomi and Microsoft on their experience.

This partnership will allow Xiaomi and Microsoft to get direct user feedback and continue to improve the experience for China. Microsoft is thrilled to see Xiaomi embracing Windows 10 and offering this great value to their customers. We’re excited to see the feedback we receive from this audience.

Since Xiaomi actively encourages users to install custom ROMs on its hardware, Microsoft’s Windows 10 is seen as just another alternative among the likes of CyanogenMod, Paranoid Android and AOSP builds.

An image of a Mi 4 — which comes with hardware that is better than anything currently available on Windows Phone — running Windows 10 was posted on the MIUI forum, with the statement that the ROM would be made available to the community shortly.

What Microsoft’s intentions at this stage in launching a ROM tailored to run Windows 10 is unclear, but with Windows Phone steadily coming to parity with Android at a hardware-level, it is possible that the software giant is looking to increase the number of devices that have Windows 10 installed without actually having to launch any.

By offering a ROM, Microsoft is allowing users to try and test out the features on offer from Windows Phone, which ultimately leads to an increased interest in the platform. Android’s customizability continues to be one of its strong points, and if Microsoft can cater to that segment of power users, it stands to gain valuable feedback as well as a new outlet through which to increase the number of customers using its services.

The post Microsoft Wants You To Run Windows 10 On Your Android Device, Starting With Xiaomi Mi 4 appeared first on VR World.

In a landmark move to combat piracy in China and other emerging markets, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has announced that it will make Windows 10 freely available to all current users, even those who are running pirated versions of the operating system.

The move is designed to curtail piracy, which is rampant in China. A study found that over 67% of all PCs in China run a non-genuine version of Windows, and after trying and failing to prevent piracy, Microsoft is now looking to put an end to illegal downloads by giving the next version of Windows away for free. By allowing users to upgrade to Windows 10 for free, Microsoft will be able to “re-engage” with hundreds of millions of customers in these countries, according to Terry Myerson.

Microsoft is heavily reorganizing its business model  with Windows 10, which will be the first Windows to offer a consistent user experience across devices and form factors, such as smartphones, tablets, PCs and even the Xbox One. Windows 10 will be offered as a service, and while the first year of usage will be available for free to all users, there will be some pricing structure rolled out after that. Along with changing how Windows 10 is delivered, Microsoft is also fundamentally altering the way the operating system is built by giving millions of customers access to early builds to solicit feedback.

It is possible we’ll see an Office 365-style pricing tiers for Windows. Microsoft has not detailed as to how it will charge for Windows 10, but more details will likely emerge at its BUILD conference, which is being held next month.

The post Users Pirating Windows Will Also Be Able To Upgrade To Windows 10 For Free appeared first on VR World.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has launched a new build of the Windows 10 technical preview with build number 10041. The build comes with new features and has a more polished user interface, giving users a taste of what’s to come in the final version of Windows 10, set to launch this summer.

The new build highlights the visual overhaul of Windows Explorer, with icons looking more flatter and colorful. The settings section has also been retooled, and now features toggles that are similar to what will be seen on Windows 10 for phones.

One of the major highlights of build 10041 is the inclusion of Cortana in more territories, with users in China, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK now able to access the personal assistant. The Virtual Desktops feature, which is essentially the able to run multi-window setups, is also getting new functionality, with users now having the ability to moving a specific window to its own Virtual Desktop in a single step.

The taskbar is also being tweaked, with network settings getting its own dedicated fly-out section for easy access. The Photos app, which has Live Tile functionality, will be able to pull images from OneDrive in preview mode, and has also gained the ability to handle images in the RAW file format. The feedback hub has also been tweaked and will now let users share feedback on feature requests as well as suggestions more easily.

While not ready yet, Microsoft has announced that Project Spartan will be launching in the next update. The browser will be the default way to surf the web on Windows 10 as Microsoft finally called the curtains on Internet Explorer. Project Spartan will come with a new rendering engine, come with support for extensions and  a brand new user interface with a reading mode.

Head of the Windows Insider program Gabriel Aul has mentioned that new builds will be available to customers once every month leading up to the launch of Windows 10, with Fast ring members having the ability to get updates even faster.

The post Windows 10 Technical Preview Build 10041 Launched appeared first on VR World.

At the WinHEC event in Shenzhen, China, Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) head of operating systems Terry Myerson announced that Windows 10 will be launching this summer in 190 countries. Several new features were demoed as well, along with the announcement that a country-specific version of Cortana would be available in Mandarin.

Microsoft also revealed that it is partnering with several Chinese tech companies to increase its presence in the country. Lenovo (HKG:0992), the world’s largest PC maker, has announced that it will make Windows 10 upgrade services available at more than 2,500 locations in China. Lenovo also said that it would be launching its first Windows Phone mid-2015. Specific details about the hardware were not revealed, but considering that the device will be sold through China Mobile, it is likely Lenovo will target the masses with an entry-level or mid-tier offering.

Chinese internet portal Tencent (HKG:0700) is also collaborating with Microsoft in making Windows 10 available to as many of its customers as soon as possible. The vendor stated that it would be launching the highly popular League of Legends on the Windows 10 store, and that it would make several of its apps universal for Windows 10.

In terms of features, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 would get a new biometric authentication system dubbed Windows Hello. Through the feature, you can use your face, iris or fingerprint to unlock your Windows 10 computer. As is the case when implementing biometric authentication, the feature will require specialised hardware, with Microsoft stating that it is working with OEMs to include Intel’s RealSense F200 sensor in their Windows 10-based hardware.

Windows 10 for IoT devices was also highlighted, with Microsoft stating that it will give away the upcoming version of the operating system for free to the maker community. There will be specialised versions of Windows 10 based on the hardware use-case, with products tailored for powerful devices like ATMs and ultrasound machines, to low-energy consuming machines like gateways. Microsoft is also collaborating with Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) and Raspberry to launch tools and developer kits for the IoT platform. Qualcomm’s DragonBoard 410C was selected as the first dev board for Windows 10 in this segment, with the kit offering integrated Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, GPS, single-channel LPDDR2/3 memory and a Snapdragon 410 SoC.

The post Windows 10 Launching This Summer, Microsoft Details Chinese Partnerships appeared first on VR World.

PlayStation Vue, Sony’s (NYSE: SNE) web-based service that brings live TV broadcasts to PlayStation consoles, is now available today in New York City, Philadelphia and Chicago.

PS Vue “aims to take the burden out of watching television”, and essentially unifies all the functionality of a cable set-top box with a customized Netflix-like subscription model.

Subscribers can schedule, record and save their favorite TV shows thanks to Vue’s DVR, and since the content goes directly to Sony’s cloud network, you won’t have to worry about all that HD video eating up your precious hard drive space.

The service also has a considerable on-demand presence that taps into Sony’s established PlayStation Store content. “Vuers” get the further benefit of a “smart customization” feature that learns what you like and adapts to your preferences, tailoring to your specific tastes.

Subscription fees are on a month-by-month basis, and there are three different plans: $50 a month for Access, $60 a month for Core and $70 monthly for Elite.

Each successive tier delivers more channel options, and Core brings a dedicated sports package whereas the Elite plan includes everything in the previous tiers along with extra lifestyle, music and family channels

If you live in the trio of launch cities you can get a free 7-day trial to PlayStation Vue.

The service launches today with “over 75 channels” including major content providers like Fox, CBS, Comedy Central, Bravo, Nickelodeon and even AMC, which will be available next month. Below we have a handy list of what you can expect from the service:

• CBS – At launch, PlayStation®Vue will offer the live linear signal from CBS Television Network’s owned-and-operated TV stations in select leading markets in addition to on-demand prime-time programming.

• Discovery Communications – Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Investigation Discovery, Science, OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network, Discovery Family Channel and 11 more brands.

• Fox – FX, FXX, FXM, National Geographic Channel and Nat Geo WILD. Additionally FOX Sports’ national and regional programming services – FOX Sports 1, FOX Sports 2, BTN, Fox’s regional sports networks, including YES Network and Prime Ticket. The agreement also covers Fox’s owned and operated television stations.

• NBCUniversal – All local offerings from NBC, Telemundo and regional sports networks as well as Bravo, CNBC, E!, NBCSN, Oxygen, Sprout, Syfy, USA Network and more.

• Scripps Networks Interactive – HGTV, Food Network, Travel Channel, DIY Network and Cooking Channel.

• Viacom – BET, CMT, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, PALLADIA, Spike, VH1 and more.

Sony’s bold gambit to circumvent cable and satellite providers might pave the way for other console-makers to follow suit. With PlayStation Vue, Sony’s home consoles become decidedly all-in-one style systems that embrace a new frontier of TV-over-internet streaming on a games console.

It’ll be interesting to see how the market responds to the service, and what kinks and follies arise on the way. First and foremost is Sony’s problem with securing customer’s credit card info with it’s shaky online framework, whose security has been make a mockery of time and time again.

It might be possible to use prepaid PS Store cards to pay for the recurring monthly fee, but odds are that you’ll need to use a credit card, and that means entrusting Sony with a responsibility it’s proven it’s not so ready to handle.

Be sure to drop by the official PS Vue website for more info.

The post Sony’s PlayStation Vue Live TV Service Launches In Select Cities appeared first on VR World.

Earlier today, Facebook (NASDAQ: FB)  unveiled Facebook Payments to allow friends to send free friend-to-friend payments over the social network messages. This service can be seen as the direct response by the largest social media network in the world, all to the likes of Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, unveiled a few months earlier. It also shows how the financial sector is developing rapidly, all without much input from the older well-established companies in the sector recently.

The first time you send or receive money in Messenger, you’ll need to add a Visa or MasterCard debit card issued by a US bank to your account. Once you add a debit card, you can create a PIN to provide additional security the next time you send money. On iOS devices you can also enable Touch ID. As always, you can add another layer of authentication to your account at any time. The payment system lets you just tap a “$” button to send some of your friends money on iOS, Android, and desktop messenger applications, all with zero fees. Facebook Messenger payments will roll out first in the U.S. over the coming months.

European and Asian users will have to wait for Facebook to roll out the service to them. In accordance to recent developments in the sector, this serves as a reminder how quickly things can revolutionize in certain areas overall. This Facebook payment system will undoubtedly have a great argument for a choice between similar payment systems worldwide.

If Facebook can work out an agreement with European Union law makers, this could very well mean the payment system becomes one of the most popular money transfer systems out there. The zero fee approach is offset by companies paying a certain fee when payments are made with this system. Facebook may have a different approach to this aspect, but we believe this will be what the social network does in the future for this issue. While intended for friends, we can see a great deal of use by possible client to client transfers, but more importantly later we can expect this payment system to roll out for companies too.

The post Facebook Introduces Free Friend-To-Friend Payments appeared first on VR World.

As the processing power of the world’s fastest high-performance computers gets faster and faster, we eventually need to think about an era after the processing speed arms race, argued John Gustafson at the Supercomputing Frontiers 2015 conference in Singapore on Tuesday.

Gustafson said that the big challenge for the future of HPC is not necessarily faster processors, but more accurate processors. Using the metaphor of HPC doesn’t need a faster horse, but rather start thinking about a world “post-horse” era, Gustafson proposed moving beyond floating point rounding numbers — which he described as having become sloppy — to something called the universal number or “Unum”.

Unum, as Gustafson first proposed in his book The End of Error, is a new way to represent numbers that’s more accurate than the floating point estimate found in the IEEE 754 standard which Gustafson hopes it would ultimately replace. The IEEE 754 standard is based on the 101×10^2 floating point (which adds up to 64-bits) first introduced by L. Torres y Quevedo in Madrid in 1914.

Unums, which are 29-bits, contain metadata that allows for a longer and more in-depth answer rather than the rounding that floating point integers contain — including the overflow and underflow that goes along with it. Unums also obey algebraic laws and are safe to parallelize. With the mathematically complex problems that comes with the parallelism and sheer power found in modern HPC clusters, complex physics equations are reduced to mere “guesswork”.

The use of rounding can lead to disastrous results. Gustafson gave the example of how during the first Gulf War the 24-bit integer clock used in the Patriot missile batteries miscalculated the approach of a Scud missile by 0.34 seconds — killing 28 and injuring 100. The reason why the missile launched late is because of integer crowding. This came from the inaccuracy of the computer’s system clock due to it multiplying the time from milliseconds to seconds by multiplying 1/10. The 1/10 value was chopped after 24 decimal points. As the system had been on for 100 hours, the continued decimal chopping made the system continually less accurate. When dealing with missiles that travel hundreds of meters per second, this inaccuracy is unacceptable.

The other advantage of Unums is that due to their shorter float size, they take less external memory bandwidth to process. For a data center the largest single line item is its power bill. If power can be saved for the lowest level, for things like RAM calls, this would add up substantially in a massive data center. The US Department of Energy wants vendors to be able to produce an exascale system by 2019-2020 that uses less than 20 MW and to do this power savings has to happen everywhere.

Gustafson said that the next steps to get Unums to go “mainstream” is to convert the Mathematica C library into Unums. After that a strictly Unum compatible FPGA will need to be created. These are the first steps to the long road to a fully Unum compatible CPU.

For more on Unums, Gustafson’s book The End of Errors is worth a read.

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With Windows 10, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) will be introducing a brand new browser codenamed Project Spartan, with Internet Explorer finally set to become obsolete. The browser will continue on as an alternative, mainly for enterprise customers, but for other users Project Spartan will be the go-to browser.

Microsoft’s marketing chief Chris Capossela announced during the Microsoft Convergence event yesterday that the manufacturer was working on a new name and brand for the Porject Spartan browser. Some of the new features that are set to be ushered in with Project Spartan include a new Edge rendering engine that can parse HTML markup directly, with the ability to also load legacy IE11 websites.

The browser will be delivered as a universal app, which means that for the first time, the same version of the browser will be available on Windows 10 as well as Windows 10 for phones. Considering Microsoft’s One Windows vision, it is possible a slimmed-down variant of the browser will be available for Xbox One as well. Ability to update directly from the store means that Microsoft can introduce new features without having to roll out an OS update. Also available in Spartan is extension support, and Cortana is also highlighted as an integral feature in the browser.

One of the main reasons in ditching the Internet Explorer brand is the negative connotation it carriers in the tech world. Microsoft tried to shake off the negative image of the browser by rolling out commercials, but ultimately failed to challenge the growing dominance of Chrome and Firefox. With Windows 10 heralding a new direction for Microsoft as a whole, Redmond is now looking to start afresh in the browser segment as well.

Microsoft is yet to figure out a name for Project Spartan, although it is likely given market research trends that it will feature Microsoft’s brand name in front of it. Microsoft Spartan, anyone?

The post Microsoft To Ditch Internet Explorer Brand In Favor Of Project Spartan For Windows 10 appeared first on VR World.

During its Spring forward event, Apple announced that it will be acting as the launch partner for HBO’s streaming service. In addition, the Cupertino giant stated that CarPlay will be available with “all major car brands”, with over 40 models set to launch by the end of the year.

ResearchKit

Apple highlighted the changes introduced in the health sector thanks to the launch of a ResearchKit program. The open source initiative will give users the ability to lead “better and healthier lives,” and works in conjunction with an iPhone.

Users will be able to make use of sensors built into the iPhone to gauge their vitals and conduct basic tests. Talking about iPhones, Apple has mentioned that over 700 million devices have been sold since the launch of the first generation model back in 2007.

Apple TV

Coming onto Apple TV, the vendor announced that the price of the entry-level model is being slashed to $69 following sales in excess of 25 million units. HBO’s streaming service — HBO Now — will be available exclusively on Apple devices, including the iPhone, iPad and Apple TV. The service will launch sometime in April, and will cost $14.99 a month. Customers registering in the month of April will be able to watch episodes for free during the first month.

All of HBO’s catalog of TV shows and movies will be available for streaming on-demand to subscribed customers.

CarPlay

Coming over to CarPlay, Apple has announced that the infotainment system will be available in over 40 car models in the US. The car vendors that will be offering the service as standard were not mentioned, although Tim Cook said that all major car companies were on board.

Apple Pay

After launching the Apple Pay NFC-based payments service last year, Apple has announced that the service has over 2,500 banks participating, with over 700,000 retail locations accepting the touchless payments method. The next move for Apple Pay is into vending machines, with Coca-Cola integrating the service in its vending machines.

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Since cryptographers from the IMDEA, IRIA and Microsoft Research found a serious vulnerability in the SSL/TLS security standards that are used to keep passwords and other sensitive information safe in modern browsers, security researchers have been scrambling to uncover the range of everything that has been affected as a result.

Since then, it has been discovered that Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) server software was vulnerable, along with a host of sensitive websites, including those of Facebook (NASDAQ: FB), American Express (NYSE: AXP), the NSA, the White House, and others. Additionally, many and most popular web browsers were vulnerable to the exploit: the extent was, on the whole, very impressive.

Parties using vulnerable computers could quickly find themselves on the receiving end of man-in-the-middle attacks, that could be used to steal payment information, passwords, and other extremely sensitive data. Webmasters fared even worse, as the vulnerability could be used to inject malicious code onto server and web buttons.

Companies were quick to roll out patches and fixes for the attack, but this whole mess could have been mitigated, and definitely should not have happened in the first place.

Who is responsible for the FREAK SSL exploit?

Who is to blame for a flaw in the most commonly used security protocol in the world, that managed to affect more than one-third of websites offering SSL?

According to cryptographer at John Hopkins university Matthew Green, the flaw was built into SSL from the very start. “The SSL protocol itself was deliberately designed to be broken,” Green wrote on his blog.

Back in the 1990s, when (it is fair to say) computers were significantly slower than they are today, and the World Wide Web was still in its infancy, cryptography was not very strong by modern standards. After Netscape revealed it’s new SSL technology, the U.S government was quick to regulate the standard. U.S versions of the browser came with 1024 bit public keys, but these keys could not be exported to other countries. The International edition was significantly weaker, with 512 bit public keys.

Since the government made this rule in the interests of being able to break into other nations’ SSL, the standard was quite literally designed to be broken.

Since the 1990s, of course, computers have moved on, and so have politics. The U.S has relaxed its laws about international encryption, and in 2013, a broad push was made to introduce 2048-bit SSL encryption, which is now the standard across the Internet.

So why, fifteen years later, are we being haunted by SSL’s poor security?

Because of the varying degrees of encryption offered by servers and browsers, ‘cipher suites’ were used to negotiate the strongest available encryption standards between a client and a host. While this is barely used nowadays, the option still exists in the clockwork behind operating systems and browsers. The essence of the FREAK attack is, therefore, very simple: interrupt a vulnerable client, and downgrade its encryption from standard RSA to ‘export RSA’.

The resultant encryption is so weak by today’s standards that it can be cracked in a manner of hours using Amazon Web Services.

FREAK never needed to be an issue, and it’s the classic result of companies failing to keep up with rapidly deprecating technology standards.

Fixing the FREAK SSL vunerability

Here are three ways to prevent another FREAK attack from occurring:

1. The government should not try to regulate Internet security standards. The government should be involved in security, and it should certainly regulate the security of its own systems: but laws should not be in place that will hamper the development of security technologies in the private sector. Criminals will continue innovating, and computers will only get faster. The government cannot shut down the Internet, or control its rate of progress, and it shouldn’t try. When it does, bad things happen.
2. Software and web developers – especially larger ones, like Microsoft and Facebook – must actively curate its software for deprecated standards, and disable it. It can be a pain, and a hassle to keep changing systems when old ones are in place that worked in the past. But a little pain in the present could prevent massive disasters down the road.
3. Consumers must be willing to let go of old, familiar technologies and upgrade to ones that are newer and safer on a consistent basis. Individuals – and especially companies – who insist on keeping software solutions that are deprecated in terms of decades must dedicate the time and money to keep up with the changing environment of threats and dangers by upgrading. At the very least, if they must keep the old solutions, they must seek ways to actively improve and safeguard them from potential exploits (similar to what the active Windows XP community is doing now).

This isn’t a novelty, and it isn’t rocket science. This is common sense, and it’s what people should be doing in the first place.

The post How the FREAK SSL Flaw Could Have Been Prevented appeared first on VR World.

After launching Android TV and Android Auto last year at Google I/O, it looks like this year’s agenda for Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) will focus on Android in virtual reality. According to a report published by the Wall Street Journal, Google has tasked “tens of engineers” to work on a version of Android tailored for virtual reality.

With Facebook (which owns Oculus), Sony, Microsoft, Samsung and now Valve showing interest in the medium, it is clear that VR is a major area of focus for major tech companies. At this week’s  Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, VR products and services took center stage, with the medium referred to as the future of gaming.

The Wall Street Journal suggests that Google will be giving away Android for VR for free, much like other flavors of the operating system. At last year’s I/O, Google demoed the $20 Google Cardboard, which is essentially a low-cost DIY solution that allows you to turn your smartphone into a 3D viewer. The cardboard unit has a tie-in software component that goes by the same name. Clay Bavor was partly responsible for Cardboard, and he will be joined by Jeremy Doig in leading Google’s VR efforts.

Details are light as to what exactly is on offer with the operating system, but with this year’s I/O scheduled at the end of May, it is likely we’ll hear more about Google’s plans for virtual reality then.

The post Google Is Getting Into Virtual Reality With A Custom Version Of Android appeared first on VR World.

Reports indicate that Sony (NYSE: SNE) will roll out a new firmware update for the PlayStation 4 that will add in a number of interesting new features including the long-awaited game suspend/resume function, customized controller button mapping, and more.

The info was leaked by participants of Sony’s PlayStation MVP Program who are currently beta testing the PS4 2.50 firmware update, which is currently slated for a release sometime in April.

PlayStation 4 gamers have been waiting for the resume/suspend mode since Sony announced the feature before the system’s launch, but the addition was delayed and has been anticipated ever since.

In the meantime Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) sought to one-up Sony by implementing the “Resume Game Quickly” feature for the Xbox One, effectively introducing a suspend and resume mode for the all-in-one console.

The mode is essentially like opening and closing the Nintendo 3DS and being able to easily and quickly jump back into your game without any loading or data loss.

Suspend and resume will be nestled as part of the PlayStation 4’s Rest Mode and will essentially enables users to pause their game and preserve their progress while the console is in its low-powered state.

With the custom button-mapping feature, PS4 gamers will finally be able to recreate the original Japanese face button meanings where O is confirm and X is cancel; a scheme that a lot of JRPG gamers have come to know and love.

The button mapping may be universal across all PlayStation 4 games, which is a pretty amazing addition. Then again we have reports that the custom mappings may need to be set for every game instead of being a global option (thanks justerthought!).

Plus it looks like V 2.50 will update Share Play to 60 frames-per-second along with allowing gamers to take snapshots of game scenes when trophies are earned and share them just like screenshots, similar to the Xbox One’s achievement structure.

Also the PS4 will automatically delete games at 0% trophy progresson from your list, making for easy navigation.

But there is some bad news, as you’ll need to update your PS Vita past v 3.35 in order to use Remote Play with the PS4. Let’s hope both updates arrive side-by-side or gamers won’t be able to tap into the cross-platform streaming action.

The new firemware update is looking to be quite hefty and it’s great to see that Sony is opting for a beta test this time around considering how some past updates have led to various performance issues and problems.

Hopefully the Japanese console-maker will be able to iron out all the kinks and stay on track for an April release, as it’d be nice to play Final Fantasy X HD Remaster in May with the revised button mapping controls.

Below we have a huge breakdown of what v 2.50 has to offer straight from trusted industry insider Wario64 (via Gematsu):

Main Features

• The system can now enter rest mode without closing any applications. You can adjust this setting in [Power Save Settings] > [Set Functions Available in Rest Mode].
• [Accessibility] has been added to [Settings]. You can adjust accessibility settings such as zooming and button assignments.

Trophies

• You an now delete trophies with 0% achievement progress.
• [Earned Date], [Not Earned], and [Grade] have been added as sorting options for trophies. You can also sort by [Earned Date] and [Not Earned] options when comparing trophies with other players.
• You can now search the Internet for details about trophies from the options menu in [Trophies].
• Screenshots of scenes when you earn trophies are now saved automatically. You can view saved screenshots in [Capture Gallery].
• You can now share trophy details and screenshots. Select the trophy you want to share details about in [Trophy], and then press the Share button.

Share Play

• You can now test the host’s connection speed when starting Share Play.
• You can now enjoy Share Play at 60 fps. A host in a party can adjust the setting in [Party Settings] > [Video Quality for Share Play] > [Frame Rate].
• A user who is running version 2.50 or earlier on their system cannot use Share Play with someone who is running version 2.50 beta on their system. Users who are both running system software version 2.50 beta can enjoy Share Play.

Other

• Users who are your Facebook friends can now be displayed in [Players You May Know].
• You can now send real name requests in addition to Friend requests to users who are currently not on your Friends list.
• You can now apply a shadow style for text in [Themes].
• You can now enter up to 140 characters for your self-introduction.
• If you enter 22 characters or more for your self-introduction, only 21 characters will be displayed on a PS4 system running system software version earlier than 2.50.
• You can now use the touch pad to operate playback of videos on discs.
• [Discover] has been added to introduce users to PS4 system features. You can view information about features in [Notifications] > [Discover].
• Remote Play cannot be used with a PS Vita system running version 3.35. A system software update for the PS Vita (to be released later) is required.

Source: Gematsu, @Wario64 1, 2, 3 and 4

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Virtual Reality is quickly becoming more and more immersive, but there’s one problem that ruins the illusion: lag. When a user moves their head and the virtual world doesn’t respond as quickly, the illusion is ruined.

This is where AMD’s (NASDAQ: AMD) new Liquid VR API comes in. Liquid VR uses a number of different methods to make sure the VR headset is responsive as possible. These methods are Latest Data Latch, Asynchronous Shaders, Affinity Multi-GPU, and Direct To Display. All of these methods are optimized for AMD GPUs, and support multiple GPUs working in-sync.

Latest data latch promises to reduce the latency by increasing the efficiency of CPU-GPU parallelism. With this method the GPU would be provided a bigger buffer of data from CPU, making more rendered data available so less rendering time would be needed to display virtual worlds.

Moving on to asynchronous shaders, these allow the GCN shaders on the GPU to warp the image of a user’s viewpoint before sending it to the VR headset to further reduce latency. Effectively for every viewpoint the VR headset requests, the GPU will create more data than required so re-rendering isn’t necessary.

The Affinity Multi-GPU feature allows GPUs to work together in creating the stereoscopic image. Effectively each GPU would render a single eye’s viewpoint before combining them into one stereo 3D image.

Finally Direct to Display is simply a plug-and-play feature allowing cross compatibility of VR headsets with Radeon GPUs.

All in all Liquid VR is a promising early step towards a much-needed API for VR gaming. As this API matures AMD will have no trouble getting VR headset vendors on board.

The post AMD’s Liquid VR SDK Aims to Take the Lag Out of VR appeared first on VR World.

Unity 5 is now available across the globe, and for the first time ever users can download the game engine for free.

The news comes straight from this year’s Game Developers Conference (GDC 2015), where the developers showcased the brand new engine as well as revealed a new pricing structure to make Unity 5 more accessible to developers.

For starters the Unity 5 Personal Edition will be free of charge, but you won’t be able to earn royalties.

The Professional Edition is priced at $75 per month or $1500 lifetime, and comes with a license to Unity Cloud Build, a new addition that lets users “leverage the power of cloud computing”.

With Unity Cloud Build, “users can automate the creation and distribution” of their builds by “monitoring your team’s source control, and when changes are detected, it builds your project for multiple platforms in the cloud”.

Essentially it’s a tool that can automatically update and optimize projects for specific platforms without needing to be changed directly, and is tailored for convenience and ease of use across a team of developers.

To showcase Unity 5’s new capabilities, the team released The Blacksmith, a video entirely comprised of in-game footage that highlights everything from graphical fidelity, lighting and shading, physic engines, and more.

As for specifics, the footage shows off a variety of new features including, enhanced and rather eye-catching high-resolution real-time shadows renders and custom shaders for realistic hair and beard renders.

As for lighting, the video showcased the new real-time global illumination system for immersive indirect lighting, custom color-grading to make the scenes more dynamic, and a variety of customized motion blurs that create the illusion of movement in an easily recognizable way.

Below we also have a few other videos that demo Unity 5’s new capabilities, including the Architectural Visualization featurette and the Viking Village walkthrough.

Key features of Unity 5 include the following updates:

• New artistic toolset
• Physically-based standard shader
• Real-time global illumination
• HDR reflection probes
• New editor featuring PhysX 3.3 and an updated animator
• New Audio Mixer
  New Physics engine
• Updated animator with new features like adding State Machine Behaviors and a new Asset Creation API
• Deployment to 21 different platforms
• Web GL Preview
• Upcoming Oculus Rift Support
• iOS Metal Rendering Support
• Unity Cloud Build Toolset

Click here for a complete list of patch notes for Unity 5.

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Cheetah Mobile (NYSE: CMCM) announced today at the 2015 Mobile World Congress a partnership with Samsung (KRX: 005930) to bundle its junk-file cleanup technology into Samsung’s new flagship smartphone.

“We’re thrilled to join forces with Samsung to help Galaxy owners get the most out of their new phones with the ‘Powered by Clean Master’ feature,” said Sheng Fu, CEO of Cheetah Mobile. “Clean Master’s distinctive qualities have made it the No. 1 app in Google Play’s Tools category across over 50 countries, the top choice for hundreds of millions of Android users, and now a valuable partner for Samsung’s mobile phones.”

The “Powered by Clean Master” functionality in Samsung’s new Galaxy smartphone, which was unveiled at the 2015 Mobile World Congress, is the result of joint meetings across four different countries and extensive testing by both parties over the past year.

As Android users add a growing number of apps to their phones, all of those apps generate gigabytes’ worth of junk cache files and contribute to insufficient storage errors. Clean Master consistently helps first-time users get back more than 2GB of space. On average, Clean Master frees up 30% more storage than similar tools.

Cheetah Mobile announced in early February that its CM Security Suite package had hit 100 Million downloads.

What this means for Cheetah Mobile

The inclusion of Cheetah Mobile’s software in Samsung’s new Galaxy flagship is a big deal for the company. Having the app bundled into the phone is a big win for the company, and another step in its path to going mainstream in markets outside of China.

However, the mobile app space which Cheetah Mobile occupies has fierce competition. Rival Qihoo (NYSE: QIHU) also has impressive numbers, and an announcement of a similar partnership might be on its way at the 2015 Mobile World Congress.

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