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Hitman to be an Episodic Game and Why We Should be Excited

Our favourite modern-day assassin, Agent 47, is back in the latest instalment of the Hitman game series. The new game will find globetrotting Agent 47 in the prime of his career, stalking and bringing to end the life of his preys in trademark cold blooded Hitman style.

This latest instalment takes us back to a time before the chaos of Hitman Absolution. A time in which Agent 47 is an operative of the International Contract Agency, and Diana Burnwood still his handler helping 47 take out high profile targets from around the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oj3q6I_acQw

This new game is set to be released in an “Episodic” manner, with the first episode consisting of the prologue and the Paris Map slated to go live on 11th March, 2015. This will be followed by the next episode set in Italy in April, and Morroco in May. Further map locations such as the USA, Japan, and Thailand will be released along with monthly downloadable content.

Square Enix and IOinteractive with this strategy of releasing episodic content are looking at redefining not just the Hitman video game series, but the way mainstream games work in particular. The game studio has revealed that this is not just a simple marketing gimmick which will see the studio trying to tap changing consumer behaviours of the population of today, but will try to achieve something more.

Travis Barbour, a senior figure at IO posted on the PlayStation blog that this game will unfold over multiple seasons. Different Episodes of the game in the beginning will run parallel with each other, however, towards the end the end of the season they will merge together.

He further stated that the episodic nature of this video game allows them to create individual stories, and also create stories involving all of the new cast something which will not be possible if the developers are confined within the narrow structure that the industry currently follows for mainstream games.

This format will allow the developers to create a living world that will expand and evolve over time with the help of updates, and content additions helping the game to expand with future Hitman games.

Coming to the gameplay, the new game will also see a much-wanted return to the old stealth strategy gameplay for the franchise. The trailer hints for the game to be going back to its violent ways that made people like it in the first place. This new game will feature the classic Hitman formula of the puzzle game rather than simply being a gory blockbuster.

Like the earlier instalments of the series, the structure of the new Hitman game is based on killing a specific target or targets across each level but, disguises, exploration and concealed weapons will play more of a part than they did before because of the expanded sandbox nature of the game. The episodic format will now see big complex levels full of non-playable, but interactable characters and multiple options for terminating your targets.

Forget the fact that this game is an important milestone in the timeline of the franchise, the new Hitman has the potential of impacting the industry throughout. The episodic release structure has been typically used for smaller games such as Life is Strange or Minecraft: Story Mode but never before for big name titles such as the upcoming Hitman title. How the game does upon launch could persuade game publishers, and studios to come out with more such games which frankly could be a great thing for the evolution of the industry.

February 8, 2016
Samsung Galaxy A9 Pro Specifications Revealed

New leaks have surfaced on the internet regarding the Galaxy A9 Pro which not only provide further proof of its existence but also takes the lid off certain important specifications of the phone.

Latest GFXBench entry of the phone has revealed the phone to come with a 5.5-inch display. This is in conflict with earlier reports that the phone will come with a 6-inch display. This news will come as a surprise as the Galaxy A9 (2016) is already available to Chinese markets coming in at a size of 6-inches. Even the A7(2016) which has recently made its way to Indian markets comes in at 5.5 inches so this news of the phone being equipped with a display of the same size does not sound believable.

Coming to the other specs, the benchmark pegs the phone to come in with a Snapdragon 652 CPU running at 1.8GHz inside a Qualcomm chip. The SoC will be coupled with 4GB RAM for smooth performance. Camera at the back is a 15-megapixel shooter, while the front will be a 7- megapixel shooter. Battery is expected to be a massive 3500 mAh.

There is nothing concrete on the handset as of now, but the way these leaks are coming thick and fast expect the phone to be unveiled sometime in the month or so.

February 8, 2016
Microsoft Lumia 650 Dual-SIM Variant Passes FCC

A month ago, the single SIM variant of the Microsoft Lumia 650 had passed the FCC hurdle. The leaked live image of the device also confirmed a metal frame for a more premium finish. Today, the second, dual-SIM variant of the device with the model number RM-1154 was FCC certified and has been approved for sale.

The 5-inch 720p display device is likely to come bearing the Snapdragon 210 chipset clocking at 1.1GHz. A 2,000mAh battery pack in the 650 is small, especially when compared to the Lumia 640 (2,500mAh) and the Lumia 550 (2,100mAh).

It is also rumoured that there will be a larger Lumia 650 model expected with XL attached to it. The Lumia 650 XL is said to sport a 5.4-inch screen while most of the specs under the hood will remain the same as the Lumia 650.

From what the specs tell us, and this is yet unconfirmed, the Lumia 650 lacks both juice and power, but does well with the exterior design, and a pricing of under Rs. 10,000 (similar to the Lumia 550) will be needed for this device to tempt the masses.

February 8, 2016
Twitter Shuts Down 125,000 Accounts For Promoting Terrorist Activity

Twitter took off 125,000 accounts from the website for threatening or promoting terrorist activity. All these accounts were linked to the extremist group, ISIS -both its members as well as sympathisers. ISIS’ tech-expertise are no big secret. Its members have been brazenly using the virtual space to get their message across.

There has been no official verification for the identity of the users of these accounts. Also, if they truly were related to ISIS -there really is no way to know how effective this move was. Many of these accounts are often handled by the same person who can very easily create another network of Twitter accounts and pick up exactly from where they left.

In the past, ISIS has used many apps, websites, softwares and all sorts of virtual entities to keep itself on its feet. While SoundCloud has been used to release audio reports, Instagram and WhatsApp have been the platforms to share graphic content in the form of videos and images.

Battle summaries have been published on JustPaste, while hundreds of questions have been answered about joining ISIS on Ask.fm. The website also gives guidelines regarding the footwear to carry and availability of toothbrushes for new recruits.

Reportedly, many ISIS volunteers have been put in touch with members of the organisation in Turkey or Syria following an introduction that says, “Kik me”, followed by discussion in private on many smartphones-based virtual platforms.

Quite recently a woman in the US sued Twitter for allowing official ISIS accounts to run on its platform, sparking off yet another debate about the exchange of content on social media.

The lawsuit followed an attack by an ISIS member on November 9th when he shot down five people to death in Jordan. Two of them happened to be Americans. The husband of the plaintiff was one of the two American victims.

However, despite various complaints and lawsuits over the last couple of years, no serious action has been possible against any social media platform. Websites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. It means that these websites are exempt from laws that would otherwise make them responsible for the content that users put up on their platform.

Additionally, US authorities often prefer the existence of accounts of antisocial elements. Officials think activities on social media platforms would enable them to keep an eye on ISIS and their supporters. Issues like these have been a much debated topic with no imminent conclusion for now. Twitter, on the other hand, has decided to take some form of a definitive step and remove 125,000 accounts. A lot of Anons will sleep more peacefully than usual tonight.

February 7, 2016
GoPro and Microsoft Sign Deal for File Storage Tech

Microsoft and GoPro have announced a deal that would allow the action camera manufacturer to take advantage of the software giant’s file storage and other system technologies.

Both the tech companies have decided to keep the terms of the agreement confidential leaving the media speculating about which patents have been targetted in the deal.

In a statement, president of Microsoft Technology Licensing, Nick Psyhogeos, said, “This agreement with GoPro shows the incredible breadth of technology sharing enabled through patent transactions. Microsoft meets the demand in wearable tech licensing, an area that is continuously growing. Microsoft has a wide array of partnerships with firms from all industries in order to provide optimized solutions for global customers.”

The likely inclusion in the licensing partnership is the exFAT file system. ExFat is particularly interesting due to its capacity to store large media files, and keeping in mind the fact that GoPro cards below 64 GB still have to use in the old FAT format this partnership with Microsoft for licensing of the ExFat file system could be great news for the company.

February 6, 2016
Twitter to Revamp Itself, Introduce a Facebook-Like Timeline

If this latest report is to be believed, Twitter is expected to introduce its revamped version next week and bring in a newsfeed very similar to Facebook’s timeline. It would combine data and tweets in a way that would no longer follow a chronological order.

This new algorithm would order tweets based on what it thinks people would want to see more as opposed to adhering to a strict chronology. It is unclear at this point if this would be a change forced on all users or if it would simply be an option to choose or ignore.

Rumours about this redesigning have been milling around for a couple of weeks now. As Twitter struggled to stay on its feet the last couple of days, this revamping seemed like one of company’s desperate measures to stay afloat.

No official comments have been made by the company on the topic. Jack Dorsey did say recently, however, that they would “continue to question our reverse chronological timeline”.

Source

February 6, 2016
New WhatsApp Scam Raises Privacy Scare

As privacy becomes more and more treacherous in virtual space, there is yet another update from the front to make matters worse. WhatsApp has become the target of a scam threatening users’ privacy and their devices with malware.

The new scam tricks users into revealing personal information like passwords and account details. A link comes from what seems to be a friend and when the recipient opens it, they are directed to a website which asks for their private details. Users often find themselves on a discount page asking for log-in ids and passwords.

While this website not only manages to obtain important personal information like passwords, it also infects the device with viruses. Furthermore, the victims are then asked to forward the message to their friends in return for a promotion like a discount coupon with a famous brand and so on and so forth.

What is more disturbing is the fact that owing to its far reach all over the world, this virus makes makes use of different languages.

David Emm, principal security researcher at an internet security and anti-virus software company comments on this and says, “We have noted that this WhatsApp scam has been actively circling for some time. It ‘speaks’ several languages so the attacks can be customised for each market.

WhatsApp has gained immense popularity ever since its inception, becoming the most popular messaging platform in the world. After having secured itself 1 billion customers, WhatsApp recently also increased its upper limit of members in a group from 100 to 256. Because the platform is expanding in such an exponential manner, it is bound to attract scammers. WhatsApp has issued no official comment on how it plans to address the problem.

February 6, 2016
Samsung Galaxy S7 Latest Benchmark Test Show Impressive Results

As MWC 2016 nears, and all sorts of rumours and leaks regarding the Galaxy S7 make way across the Internet, it’s really difficult to not stand up, and be impressed by what could potentially be the best Galaxy lineup of phones in the past few years.

Earlier today we reported that the Galaxy S7 on the back of certain improvements to its internals and the UI will come with a promise of great battery life which if reports are to be believed could even take you through two days on a single charge.

And now, to add to that, new reports suggest that the S7’s performance could be far better than what we had earlier expected. GeekBench scores of what is a unit bound for US with Snapdragon 820 SoC on board has clocked some pretty solid numbers on benchmark tests.

The benchmark results from today are much higher than initial benchmarks of the phone suggesting that the manufacturer has carried out some serious optimization work on the handset. Having said that, single core performance still sees Qualcomm’s 820 lag behind the A9 SoC found on the new iPhones.

The Samsung Galaxy S7 upon launch is expected to to feature a 5.1-inch Super AMOLED display with Quad HD resolution, a new 12 MP BRITCELL camera with f/1.7 aperture, and a 5 MP secondary cam. Two SoC configurations are expected. One being a Exynos-based version and the other a Qualcomm-powered model. The battery is expected to be upwards of 3500mAh.

February 6, 2016
iPhone 5se to Come in a ‘Hot Pink’ Colour Variant

After witnessing decline in sales of iPhones, Apple looks in no mood to let things get worse in the coming quarters and hence is planning to launch a smaller screen variant of the iPhone for emerging markets where buyers can’t pay as much as their counterparts in western economies. A couple of weeks ago, rumours about a 4-inch iPhone began doing the rounds, and so happened iPhone 5se.

There have been numerous leaks about the design and body of the new iPhone and the latest addition to the lot is a new colour variant. iPhone 5se is expected to come in a ‘hot-pink’ colour variant. This colour has been a topic of discussion since the iPhone 6 ever came out. The rose-gold variant of the 6s can be seen as a culmination of these rumours from the past. But looks like Apple is going to get more interesting with the colour choices it will offer this year.

Report of this new colour variant comes from a Japanese blog Mac Otakara. Interestingly enough, this report doesn’t mention the gold variant. If we are to go by this source, the iPhone 5se would be available in Pink, Space Grey and Silver.

The iPhone 5se is expected to be powered by the A9 chipset, and come equipped with an 8 MP or 12 MP rear-facing camera and Live Photos. The handset will miss out on the 3D Touch feature. The display would be the same as on the last 4- inch iPhone, the 5c.

The 5se will be offered in two storage options, 16 GB, and 64 GB. Pricing is expected to be around $450 (approximately Rs 30,000). It is expected to be unveiled at the official Apple event on the 15th of March, along with iPad 3.

February 6, 2016
Samsung’s Future Smartwatch to Use Your Veins for Identification

A new patent granted to Samsung hints that the south Korea based tech giant may bring to the wearable-market a concept futuristic enough to put the Terminator to shame. Samsung plans to incorporate a new biometric user authentication system in its smartwatches and other wrist-based wearables of the future.

According to a new patent filed by Samsung, the company is toying with the idea of using advanced biometrics in its smartwatches of the future that will recognize you by your veins.

The patent talks about a system in which light sensors work in tandem with the camera sensors trace the user’s vein structure and simultaneously also detect the user’s pulse. Since vein structure and pulse are unique to individuals they will be used for identification when the user puts on the smartwatch.

The patent information indicates that the software could offer custom contact lists and ringtones upon identification of the user. Further uses of a smartwatch equipped with such high-level biometric tech could be the smartwatch being used like a key to open a car door or your house. It also could be used to authenticate a mobile payment, replacing the currently used fingerprint sensor or password sign-in.

The patent filing describes the tech as:

“A wearable device comprising: a sensor configured to capture a vein image of a user;…identify the user by comparing the captured vein image with at least one registered vein image; and in response to determining that the identified user has an execution authority for the selected function or application, execute the function or the application.”

February 6, 2016
Samsung Galaxy S7 to Last Two Days on Single Charge

Samsung S7 launch is right around the corner, and it seems that the rumour mill has decided that its about time it goes into overdrive mode.The last couple of days have seen a number of leaks and rumours about the phone surface, but today’s probably the most interesting we have come across for a while.

Russian blogger Eldar Murtazin has made an interesting revelation about battery life of the S7. He says that the phone might last up to two days of continuous use on a single charge.

Murtazin, who previously claimed in an extensive pre-release review of the handsets that the Galaxy S7’s battery lasts for 17 hours while playing video with the screen at 100% brightness, today posted new screenshots from a dual-SIM version of the Galaxy S7. Murtazin has claimed today that the phone can last upto 2 days with a single charge with the battery draining 4G LTE on, and the phone’s brightness set at 75%.

????? ????????? Samsung ???????? ????? ????? ? ?????? (??????? 75%), lte ?????? (3gb) ? ??? ????? pic.twitter.com/dZBfKhqNdn

— Eldar Murtazin (@eldarmurtazin) February 3, 2016

The new Galaxy S7 phones are said to come in packing bigger battery packs of over 3500 mAh. Along with this, the phone is expected to also come with a better-optimized OS for improving battery life and the switch to Qualcomm 820 with better thermal, and power management is also expected to do well for the Galaxy S7 when it comes to providing good battery life.

February 6, 2016
HTC One M10 Leaked Image Shows Front Design

HTC is ready to out its newest flaship device. However, this won’t happen at the MWC this month where Samsung and LG and ready to unveil their own flagships. HTC is planning to hold a standalone event for the One M10 in March. Today, we have a new leaked image courtesy poplular leakster @evleaks that shows off the front look of the One M10.

As @evleaks had posted a few days earlier, the One M10 indeed looks a lot more like the One A9 and a lot less like the One M9, according to the image. From what we can tell, the most obvious feature missing here is the second front-facing speaker under the display, which means the One M10 will not have BoomSound speakers.

Besides this, the One M10 also sports a rounded home button much like the One A9, and it may also house a fingerprint scanner and a rigged power button on the right side to distinguish it from the volume buttons.You also notice that the bar under the display which had HTC’s logo is nowhere to be found here. This is a welcome sight for HTC fans who were not all too fond of the black bar that simply took up unwanted space on the device.

The rumoured specs of the One M10 suggest a 5.1-inch QHD AMOLED touchscreen, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 chipset powering the device with 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage and a microSD card slot. On the camera front lies a 12 MP UltraPixel rear camera with laser autofocus and optical image stabilization. The device will likely run Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow with HTC Sense 8 atop. We’ll know more as we approach HTC’s event in March.

February 6, 2016
iPhone 7 To be The End of Physical Home Button on Apple Phones

Apple for what it’s worth is exploring ways of getting rid of the bulky home button on its future iPhones. Apple’s 3D Touch technology could be at the heart of this change if the Cupertino-based company does end up going ahead with the idea.

A new patent out of Cupertino shows how Apple might combine Touch ID fingerprint recognition and haptic feedback into a single module. The patent which was finally approved this week after 3 long years of talks shows what looks like an idea for a “Force-sensitive fingerprint sensing input.”

This will essentially mean the iPhone’s home button will not remain a physical button if and when Apple decides to implement this tech on their future handsets. Instead, it could simply merge into the rest of the flat touch sensitive surface.

Apart from the fact that it will herald an all new change in the way Apple uses home buttons on its phones, the idea of a button-less display without any capacitative buttons on it sounds pretty cool.

And if that’s not good enough for you, then try this for kicks. Apple details more features in the patent that could be possible with this new technology. The flat button space may recognize various gestures and even “near touches.” So yes, you basically interact with the button without even touching it. Don’t know about you, but we are already excited.

February 5, 2016
Adreno 530 GPU to be Good News for Gaming on Android

As MWC 2016 nears, news of new smartphones using Qualcomm’s latest 820 SoC is going to start coming in thick and fast. The snapdragon 820 SoC is slated to come with Adreno 530 GPU which is said to give almost 40-50% more performance than last year’s Adreno GPU, and as claimed by Qualcomm is going to be more energy efficient too.

Well, for starters Snapdragon 820 is a chip built from scratch. The CPU cores, the GPU, the DSP, the modem, the image processors. everything has been upgraded after the debacle that the Samsung 810 was. On this new architecture, Qualcomm claims to have upgraded things across the board.

The Adreno 530 will be offering up to 2.5 times an increase in video performance. It will also be coming with full support of OpenCL 2.0, Renderscript, Vulkan, OpenGL ES 3.1 + AEP. Shared Virtual Memory, which comes with OpenCL will now allow data sharing between an Open CL’s host and the device’s GPU.

Last year’s GPU was a nightmare for Android gamers who faced grave heating issues owing to the GPU of the chipset while all the time having to deal with dismal graphics performance. Qualcomm has revealed that a lot of work has gone into the GPU on the 820 SoC to ensure that the 530 can achieve 40-50% performance boost at acceptable energy levels.

Seeing is believing, and as such, early GFXBench tests have also revealed that the Adreno 530 might just really be the beast Qualcomm claims it to be. The 6-Core GPU, PowerVR GT7600 found on the iPhone 6s Plus comes close to the might of the Adreno 530 but loses out to it in the end.

Surprisingly, the only GPU that did beat the 530, and that too by a small margin, was the Nvidia Tegra X1 chipset. Worth a mention is the fact that the Tegra X1 because of its form factor is found on large tablets. Such is the might of the Adreno 530 that other GPUs like the Mali-T760MP8 and the Mali-T880 MP4 couldn’t even come anywhere close to it in the benchmark tests.

This will come as great news especially for those of us who are looking to buy the Galaxy S7 once it arrives. Samsung’s flagship offering from last year, the S6, and S6 Edge, though being heavy on specs did lose out to the iPhone lineup when it came to raw graphics processing power.

The Mali T760MP8 on the Exynos and the Adreno 430 on other Android handsets sporting the Snapdragon 810 were significantly under-powered for graphics tasks. The resurgence of Snapdragon with the 820 could close the huge divide that had been created over the last year.

For gamers and power users who prefer the Android platform this could indeed turn out to be a good year.

February 5, 2016
Apple Ordered to Pay $626 Million in Patent Infringement Case

Apple, in a case that has been jumping around from one court to another since 2012, has been dealt a major blow. Apple has been ordered to pay VirnetX Holding corp a cool $626 million for violating patents related to FaceTime and iMessage amongst other technologies that the jury determined had been patented by VirnetX, and hence are its property.

VirnetX, is commonly known as a patent troll across the industry because of its habit of targeting tech companies and making almost all of its revenue from patent licensing and lawsuits. It has sued a number of tech companies over the past decade and has famously settled disputes with Microsoft over patents used in Skype, and made $200 million from the Redmond-based company in another patent infringement related case in 2010.

This recent verdict is in continuation from a case where a jury had found Apple guilty of violating the same patents back in 2012.The company then was asked to pay an amount of $368 million to VirnetX.

Apple appealed and won on a technicality, but as it is with the judicial system, the appeals court vacated the damages and sent the case back down to a bench at a District Court for retrial, where the jury found Apple guilty and ordered it to pay even more money to VirnetX because it found it guilty of “willfully” violating the company’s patents.

Reacting to the decision a member of the legal team from Apple said that the company would appeal the decision. The company argued that the patents in question are not valid.

“We are surprised and disappointed by the verdict and we’re going to appeal. Our employees independently designed this technology over many years, and we received patents to protect this intellectual property. All four of VirnetX’s patents have been found invalid by the patent office. Cases like this simply reinforce the desperate need for patent reform,” he said.

February 5, 2016