Lenovo launches VR-ready gaming laptop, compact desktop, and all-in-one PC

Lenovo launches VR-ready gaming laptop, compact desktop, and all-in-one PC

Lenovo is expanding its line of gaming computers with two new desktop options and a new laptop.

While the new IdeaPad Y910 gaming laptop is arguably the most portable options, it’s really more of a desktop-replacement than the kind of notebook you’re likely to carry with you everywhere you go. The IdeaPad Y910 has a 17.3 inch display and weighs over 10 pounds. But under the hood it has an Intel Core i7 K series processor, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 graphics, and up to 64GB of RAM.

Continue reading Lenovo launches VR-ready gaming laptop, compact desktop, and all-in-one PC at Liliputing.

Lenovo launches VR-ready gaming laptop, compact desktop, and all-in-one PC

Lenovo is expanding its line of gaming computers with two new desktop options and a new laptop.

While the new IdeaPad Y910 gaming laptop is arguably the most portable options, it’s really more of a desktop-replacement than the kind of notebook you’re likely to carry with you everywhere you go. The IdeaPad Y910 has a 17.3 inch display and weighs over 10 pounds. But under the hood it has an Intel Core i7 K series processor, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 graphics, and up to 64GB of RAM.

Continue reading Lenovo launches VR-ready gaming laptop, compact desktop, and all-in-one PC at Liliputing.

Final Fantasy 15 hands-on: Brave new direction or just pandering to fans?

Plus, one whole hour of FF15 gameplay footage from the start of the game.

Get a sneak peek at one whole hour of Final Fantasy 15 from the very beginning of the game. Naturally, the video contains some spoilers. The text below is spoiler-free. (video link)

COLOGNE, Germany—It finally happened, a decade's worth of expectation fulfilled with a simple push of a button. Though I still can't quite believe it (and a recent delay hasn't helped) Final Fantasy XV, a game that's taken on near mythical status alongside the likes of The Last Guardian, Beyond Good and Evil 2, and Half Life 3, is finally being released on November 29—and I've already played it.

Selecting "New Game" has never been quite as satisfying before.

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You can watch free episodes of Amazon shows on YouTube and Facebook

Only the pilots, and a few shows including Transparent and Annedroids.

Amazon is pushing its Original Series shows out to more outlets, this time for free. The company announced it will upload full pilot episodes of ten original shows on social media sites including YouTube and Facebook, free for anyone to watch.

According to a Broadcasting and Cable report, Amazon will share the pilots for five primetime shows (including Bosch, The Man in the High Castle, and Transparent) and five kids shows (including Tumble Leaf and Wishenpoof!) on its YouTube channel and Facebook page. Currently only Amazon Prime members have access to these shows in their entirety, so this its the first time non-Prime customers can watch these episodes for free. All ten episodes have already been uploaded to Amazon's YouTube channel.

Until now, these social media accounts have been used to show teasers and trailers for new Original Series content. It's likely that Amazon is trying to encourage new customers to sign up for Prime by giving them a sneak peek into its Video service. In addition to free two-day shipping, one of the perks of Amazon Prime is free, full access to Amazon Prime Video, which includes original content from Amazon as well as many other movies and TV shows.

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BLU Pure XR is a $299 smartphone with 4GB of RAM (launching Aug 29th)

BLU Pure XR is a $299 smartphone with 4GB of RAM (launching Aug 29th)

Budget smartphone company BLU has a habit of offering smartphones that are better than you’d expect if you just looked at their price tags… even if many are just rebranded versions of smartphones that are already available in China.

Now the company is getting ready to launch its first phone featuring 4GB of RAM. The BLU Pure XR is coming August 29th for $299.

BLU is also holding a contest ahead of launch day, so you can enter for a chance to win one of three phones the company is giving away.

Continue reading BLU Pure XR is a $299 smartphone with 4GB of RAM (launching Aug 29th) at Liliputing.

BLU Pure XR is a $299 smartphone with 4GB of RAM (launching Aug 29th)

Budget smartphone company BLU has a habit of offering smartphones that are better than you’d expect if you just looked at their price tags… even if many are just rebranded versions of smartphones that are already available in China.

Now the company is getting ready to launch its first phone featuring 4GB of RAM. The BLU Pure XR is coming August 29th for $299.

BLU is also holding a contest ahead of launch day, so you can enter for a chance to win one of three phones the company is giving away.

Continue reading BLU Pure XR is a $299 smartphone with 4GB of RAM (launching Aug 29th) at Liliputing.

Eric Anholt: Freier Raspberry-Pi-Treiber unterstützt offizielles Panel

Das offizielle Panel des Raspberry Pi nutzt den DSI-Standard und kann künftig mit dem freien Treiber genutzt werden. Entwickler Eric Anholt beschreibt aber auch Probleme mit der Firmware, was den Treiber noch fehlerhaft macht. (Raspberry Pi, Treiber)

Das offizielle Panel des Raspberry Pi nutzt den DSI-Standard und kann künftig mit dem freien Treiber genutzt werden. Entwickler Eric Anholt beschreibt aber auch Probleme mit der Firmware, was den Treiber noch fehlerhaft macht. (Raspberry Pi, Treiber)

NVIDIA launches VR-ready GeForce graphics for laptops

NVIDIA launches VR-ready GeForce graphics for laptops

NVIDIA’s latest graphics chips for laptops are designed to offer better performance, lower power consumption, and support for virtual reality, even on notebooks that weigh as little as 4 pounds.

For the first time, NVIDIA is also dropping the M (for mobile) from the names of its new cards. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060, GTX 1070, and GTX 1080 solutions for laptops have the same names as the company’s desktop graphics cards.

The mobile versions will probably run a little slower in some situations, but if you’ve got a notebook designed to keep the graphics card from overheating, you should be able to get performance that’s pretty close to what you’d see from a desktop.

Continue reading NVIDIA launches VR-ready GeForce graphics for laptops at Liliputing.

NVIDIA launches VR-ready GeForce graphics for laptops

NVIDIA’s latest graphics chips for laptops are designed to offer better performance, lower power consumption, and support for virtual reality, even on notebooks that weigh as little as 4 pounds.

For the first time, NVIDIA is also dropping the M (for mobile) from the names of its new cards. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060, GTX 1070, and GTX 1080 solutions for laptops have the same names as the company’s desktop graphics cards.

The mobile versions will probably run a little slower in some situations, but if you’ve got a notebook designed to keep the graphics card from overheating, you should be able to get performance that’s pretty close to what you’d see from a desktop.

Continue reading NVIDIA launches VR-ready GeForce graphics for laptops at Liliputing.

Microsoft Authenticator: Zweiwege-Authentifizierungs-App kommt für Android und iOS

Microsoft hat seine neue Autorisierungs-App Authenticator auch für Android und iOS veröffentlicht. Damit können Nutzer Anmeldungen auf einem PC zusätzlich absichern. Praktischerweise können mehrere Konten verwendet werden, auch von Diensten, die Microsoft nicht selbst anbietet. (Security, Microsoft)

Microsoft hat seine neue Autorisierungs-App Authenticator auch für Android und iOS veröffentlicht. Damit können Nutzer Anmeldungen auf einem PC zusätzlich absichern. Praktischerweise können mehrere Konten verwendet werden, auch von Diensten, die Microsoft nicht selbst anbietet. (Security, Microsoft)

Rimac’s Concept_One electric car drag-races a Tesla Model S and LaFerrari

Even Ludicrous mode is no match for Rimac’s powertrain.

(credit: Rimac Automobili)

As its legion of online fans never cease to remind us, the Tesla Model S P90D is a fast car. Actually, that's selling the electric vehicle a little short. In Ludicrous mode, it's about as quick in a straight line as a McLaren 650S, no mean feat considering that the McLaren weighs 1,800lbs (815kg) less. Until now, if you wanted to go any faster in an EV, you needed to roll your own, Flux Capacitor-style. But even Jonny Smith's quarter-mile EV record may be under threat, courtesy of Rimac's Concept_One.

You may not have heard of Rimac Automobili, but the Croatian company has been impressing us for a while now. We first saw the Concept_One in the paddock at last year's Formula E race in Miami. More recently, we met up with some of its engineers in Colorado at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb; the four-wheel torque vectoring powertrain in Nobuhiro "Monster" Tajima's car is a test-bed for the Concept_One. And Rimac has also been working with Konigsegg on the batteries and power distribution units going into the latter's Regera hybrid hypercar.

We always knew the Concept_One would be fast; it's hard to argue with 1072hp (800kW) and 1180ft-lbs (1600Nm) after all. But thanks to British YouTuber Archie Hamilton, we now know just what that means. Hamilton traveled to Rimac in Croatia and brought along a Tesla Model S P90D (yes, with Ludicrous mode) as well as a rather rarer beast—a Ferrari LaFerrari hybrid:

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Abzû review: A digital sightseeing tour of an underwater realm

Abzû is a beautiful audio-visual treat light on challenge but big on wonder.

It takes a while to adjust to life down here, in the murk and swill of Abzû's underwater palaces. The world feels fundamentally different when your movements are slowed and made heavy by water resistance. And then, as a kind of compensation perhaps, you are given the freedom of flight: upwards and downwards you soar in slow-mo, through the teeming fish. You play as an adept diver, with strong legs, fat flippers, and a head-mounted torch but, even so, it's hard to shake the sense that you are an interloper in a foreign realm. Your get-up cannot disguise the fact that your body was not made for a place like this. You are not welcome here.

It takes time to adjust to Abzû in other ways too. This is a fashionably chic independent game, with no ugly and intrusive HUD elements to spoil your view of its watery domain. But it bucks many other expected contemporary game-design conventions too. There's no map, for example, and no blinking mission-marker drawing you toward your next objective. There are, in fact, few objectives at all, at least in the usual video game sense. There's no health bar, no experience points, nor ways to level up your character's abilities. A single button is used to interact with the world, one catch-all interface used to free shoals of fish from meshes of imprisoning fronds, or to send orbiting mechanical devices to cut a window through the coral, or to loose a shark from some collapsed masonry.

While, much later, there are dangers in the form of unexploded mines which will go off if you drift too close, it's not possible to die in Abzû. At worst you get an electric shock that sends you tumbling through the water for a few seconds until you recover and rediscover your bearings. No, this is a wistful, thoughtful kind of a game: a digital sightseeing tour of an underwater realm, which allows you to marvel at the watery vistas and swim eye-to-eye with great whales. Like Flower and Journey, two contemplative PlayStation games on which Abzû’s creator Matt Nava has previously worked, this is a game about experience rather than challenge, about the journey rather than the destination.

At times Abzû has the ambiance of a magical Disneyland ride, an on-rails tour through vivid scenes where, each time through, you're free to pick out new details and wonders. The feeling of enchantment is compounded by Grammy-nominated composer Austin Wintory's stirring soundtrack, which calls to mind Disney's 1940 film Fantasia, which famously blended animated imagery with classical music. As you drift into and out of jet streams, through billowing curtains of seaweed, and over old bones licked white by the salt, the violins rise and fall to match your movements. As you breach the water alongside a display team of dolphins, a choir provides triumphant accompaniment. Reach the deepest parts of the sea and the soundtrack retreats, leaving nothing but the deep grumble of the tides, and the low popping of swaying bubbles leaked from the seabed. Abzû’s soundtrack, both musical and natural, is exemplary.

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