If humans are going to live someplace other than Earth, the seems like a good option. It’s nearby and could serve as a launchpad for missions to other locations in the solar system. Scientists have long wondered if shadowy crevasses on the lunar surface could be entrances to caverns that could serve as a home for future colonists. New data from Japanese and US researchers . The moon is a cold, lifeless chunk of rock today, but it was active in the past when the interior was still cooling. Geological activity like lava flows and volcanic activity could have carved out tubes and caves similar to features we have here on Earth.
We’ve said from the beginning Apple could be facing a serious problem with the iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and iPhone X. As demand for the first two has failed to materialize, and with Apple X shipments still far below what the company will need to meet demand, Apple’s decision to launch the iPhone X could whack its finances. Now there are reports that the company has cut iPhone 8 production by as much as 50 percent. It’s the first time in history the company has ever reduced its orders by so much so soon after an iPhone launch. Reuters first the story from Taiwan’s , but Google Translate’s weak Chinese handling means we’d recommend reading the Reuters version.
Last year, Microsoft demoed a number of ARM-based system running Windows 10 on a Snapdragon 820 processor. The company promised this new breed of machine would be vastly different from the Windows RT debacle that killed its plans for a separate ARM-derived computer market. This week, the company shared additional details on the upcoming products and their hardware plans. These new ARM systems will run on Snapdragon 835, they’ll emulate x86 instructions to ensure cross-compatibility, and, according to Microsoft, they’ll offer amazing battery life. Trusted Reviews to Microsoft exec Pete Bernard, who told the site that Microsoft’s ARM battery life is “really, really good.
Back in 2015, American startup MegaBots Inc challenged Japanese company Suidobashi to a Giant Robot Duel–a knock-down dragout, totally-not-staged fight between the US and Japanese robot teams. On Tuesday night, the final fight went down. Here’s the breakdown, starting with Round 1: Iron Glory (MK2) is fifteen feet tall, weighs six tons, has a 22-foot wingspan at full extension, a top speed of 2.5 miles per hour, a 24 horsepower engine, and is armed with a missile launcher and a six-inch cannon that fires 3-pound paintballs. Iron Glory is described as favoring a “Western” combat style, with an emphasis on distance and ranged weaponry.
EA has announced that Visceral Games, the developer of games like Battlefield: Hardline and Dead Space is shutting down, effective immediately. The Star Wars title the studio had worked on is also being shut down. While EA isn’t literally canceling the project altogether, it’s going to fundamentally overhaul the game. EA’s Patrick Söderlund : Our Visceral studio has been developing an action-adventure title set in the Star Wars universe. In its current form, it was shaping up to be a story-based, linear adventure game. Throughout the development process, we have been testing the game concept with players, listening to the feedback about what and how they want to play, and closely tracking fundamental shifts in the marketplace.
Every now and then–but much more rarely, now that the phone market is generally viewed as being ‘mature’ in the developed world–a phone manufacturer comes out with a device that makes you stop and ask yourself what the designer was thinking. Android manufacturer ZTE, generally viewed as a budget device maker, is willing to take that challenge head on, with a new Axon M device that looks more like a Nintendo 3DS then a modern smartphone. Spec-wise, the is a bit of an odd duck. It’s based on the Qualcomm 821, a reasonably high-end choice for a device, but no longer at the top of the product stack.
Years ago, you would buy a game for an agreed upon amount of money, and that was the end of the transaction. Then, happened. Paid downloadable content (or “microtransactions”) has only gotten more popular in the games industry since then, culminating in the current raft of free-to-play and heavily monetized “premium” games. The now-common “” might not be the ultimate form of microtransactions. Activision has been granted a patent for a system for encouraging in-game purchases that sounds positively game-breaking. The patent, titled “system and method for driving microtransactions in multiplayer video games,” was filed in 2015, but .
The last few years haven’t been kind to the PC industry. From a high of 365 million devices shipped in 2011, the industry has contracted to just 263 million units shipped (estimated) for 2017. That’s more than a 25 percent drop, and it’s had a serious impact on multiple companies, from HP’s decision to split its consumer and enterprise product divisions, to Dell’s decision to go private several years ago. After six straight years of declines, Gartner is predicting a small recovery, though 2019’s estimated sales will still be lower than 2016. This will be principally driven by significant growth in what Gartner calls the premium ultramobile space, as traditional laptop and desktop sales are expected to decline from 220 million units in 2016 to 188 million units in 2019.
In search of an affordable desktop that has plenty of room for upgrades? Take a look at the XPS 8910 tower PC from Dell. With a sleek modern design, a quad-core CPU, space for three 3.5-inch drives, and support for up to 64GB of DDR4 memory, this PC is up for almost anything. • (List price: $1019.99 — Coupon code: XPS669) So, what kind of specs are we looking at here? This tower ships with a sixth generation quad-core 3.4GHz Intel Core i7-6700 processor, a dedicated Nvidia GeForce GT 730 graphics card (with 2GB of memory), 16GB of DDR4 RAM, a 1TB 7200RPM hard drive, Bluetooth 4.2, and 802.11b/g/n/ac WiFi support.
