‘Quake’ is coming back to the PC with a modern twist or two

Bethesda kicked off its big E3 2016 showcase with a old favorite: Quake . Big guns, team battles, gore. Quake Champions is coming — at the moment to PCs and will be arena-style shooter “designed for people at all skill levels”. The most impressive technical part? The team is promising 120Hz with unlocked framerates. That’s seriously smooth — and sounds so very ready for VR. Of course, it’s also perfectly timed in a current = boom in competitive shooters, especially with the mention of “characters with unique abilities” — like this thing . Gaze at the trailer below, but be warned it’s a bit graphic in that Quake kinda way.

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‘Quake’ is coming back to the PC with a modern twist or two

‘Skyrim Special Edition’ is the remaster you asked for

The rumors are true : We’re getting a prettier version of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Developer Bethesda ported the original game to this round of modern consoles as part of the development process for last year’s wildly popular Fallout 4 , so it was just a matter of time before we actually saw it. And guess what? Mods are coming with it, thanks to Bethesda’s framework that allows players to use fan-made customizations on consoles. This new version of the game looks really well-improved in the visual department too and you can check it out in the trailer embedded below. Does mod support mean that we’ll see the game’s dragons replaced with My Little Ponies ? It certainly sounds like it. Let’s hope that Bethesda has that pesky piracy situation under control soon. Time to get those vocal cords ready for all the shouting (FUS RO DAH) you’ll be doing come October 28th when it launches for new-gen consoles. Follow all the news from E3 2016 here !

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‘Skyrim Special Edition’ is the remaster you asked for

‘Mass Effect: Andromeda’ promises to be bigger and more beautiful

Andromeda is still delayed , but when you’re a big budget EA franchise, you can’t just show nothing at the world’s biggest gameshow . BioWare at least had a new fanciful trailer, showing what its “new galaxy” will look like. According to the teaser trailer: “Distant star systems with remote and hostile planets ripe for discovery.” So perhaps a little bit like No Man’s Sky , but with extra political intrigue and sci-fi powers? The originals are starting to show their age now, so it’s not surprise that Asarians and the citadel looking all the prettier on new gaming hardware. The teaser is peppered with creatures, locations, species and monsters from the Mass Effect trilogy, even if it’s hard to pin down any spoilers or tangible facts about this new universe — and when we’ll actually get to explore it. Best just hit replay on the teaser again.

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‘Mass Effect: Andromeda’ promises to be bigger and more beautiful

Apple Is Fighting A Secret War To Keep You From Repairing Your Phone

It’s no secret that Apple makes a ton of money by charging ‘astronomical’ fee for replacing and fixing display and other components of iPhone and iPad (as well as Mac line). For instance, the company charges $599 for replacing the display on the iPad Pro tablet. Which sounds insane when you realize that you can almost certainly purchase a new iPad Pro under $700. And this is what most people do. A Huffington Post article notes that this behavior has contributed significantly in “generating heaps of e-waste.” Citing many advocates, the publication claims that Apple has “opposed legislation that could help curb it.” From the report: The Huffington Post spoke with politicians in two states who support such legislation, and confirmed through government filings that Apple has lobbied on the issue. Four states — Minnesota, Nebraska, Massachusetts and New York — have considered adopting “right to repair” amendments, which would update existing laws regarding the sale of electronic equipment. Amending these laws would make it easier to fix your devices and would help reduce “e-waste, ” a catch-all term for any electronic detritus. The New York State Senate and Assembly could approve one of these amendments next week. This would help unofficial repair shops get the information they need to fix your iPad, ideally driving down repair costs and encouraging you to squeeze more life out of your old devices — thus cutting down on the e-waste generated by our voracious appetites for new gadgets. Apple asserts that it helps recycle millions of pounds of electronics equipment every year. But it won’t support right to repair amendments.One would ask what is preventing a user from getting their device repaired by unofficial service person? In addition to the security implication, you also run a risk of getting your device bricked by Apple. To recall, the iPhone maker was found bricking the handsets that had been repaired by third-party vendors earlier this year. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Apple Is Fighting A Secret War To Keep You From Repairing Your Phone

The World’s Oldest Computer May Have Predicted the Future

Gizmodo reports: Discovered in an ancient shipwreck near Crete in 1901, the freakishly advanced Antikythera Mechanism has been called the world’s first computer. A decades-long investigation into the 2, 000 year-old-device is shedding new light onto this mysterious device… It wasn’t programmable in the modern sense, but it’s considered the world’s first analog computer. schwit1 shares a report from the Associated Press:: For over a century since its discovery in an ancient shipwreck, the exact function of the Antikythera Mechanism — named after the southern Greek island off which it was found — was a tantalizing puzzle…. After more than a decade’s efforts using cutting-edge scanning equipment, an international team of scientists has now read about 3, 500 characters of explanatory text — a quarter of the original — in the innards of the 2, 100-year-old remains. They say it was a kind of philosopher’s guide to the galaxy, and perhaps the world’s oldest mechanical computer. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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The World’s Oldest Computer May Have Predicted the Future

Air Force Has Lost 100,000 Inspector General Records

schwit1 shares an article from The Hill: The Air Force announced on Friday that it has lost thousands of records belonging to the service’s inspector general due to a database crash. “We estimate we’ve lost information for 100, 000 cases dating back to 2004, ” Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek told The Hill in an email. “The database crashed and there is no data…” The database, called the Automated Case Tracking System (ACTS), holds all records related to IG complaints, investigations, appeals and Freedom of Information Act requests…. “We also use ACTS to track congressional/constituent inquiries.” The Air Force said they were “aggressively” trying to recover the data, adding that they had no evidence of malicious intent. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Air Force Has Lost 100,000 Inspector General Records

Mozilla Will Fund Code Audits For Open Source Software

Reader Orome1 writes: The Mozilla Foundation has set up the Secure Open Source (SOS) Fund, whose aim is to help open source software projects get rid their code of vulnerabilities. Projects that want Mozilla’s help must be open source/free software and must be actively maintained, but they have a much better probability to being chosen if their software is commonly used and is vital to the continued functioning of the Internet or the Web. Three open source projects — PCRE, libjpeg-turbo, and phpMyAdmin — have already gone through the process, and the result was removal of 43 vulnerabilities (including one critical). Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Mozilla Will Fund Code Audits For Open Source Software

iMessage for Android Would Change Everything

As is tradition, some last-minute rumors are sneaking their way into the news before Apple’s big reveal on Monday morning in San Francisco. We already have a good idea what of what we think is coming , but this latest bit that says iMessage is coming to Android is very intriguing. Read more…

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iMessage for Android Would Change Everything

Gawker declares bankruptcy, will auction itself off in wake of Hulk Hogan lawsuit

(credit: Miguel Discart ) UPDATE 3:00pm ET : The Verge located and published Gawker’s federal Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing, which we have mirrored here . In that document, owner Nick Denton estimates the company’s assets at $50 million to $100 million, and liabilities at $100 million to $500 million. Ryan Mac, a reporter at Forbes , provided Ars with a three-page statement from Gawker, that we have published in full , here. Read 9 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Gawker declares bankruptcy, will auction itself off in wake of Hulk Hogan lawsuit