Tag: ipad

‘Final Fantasy XV’ hits the road in 2016

Final Fantasy XV has been in development for what seems like an eternity. But being New Year’s Eve (or Day, depending on where you live), changes are afoot: Final Fantasy XV and its all-dude bro’d-trip will release in 2016. The news comes by way of a Square Enix blog post written by none other than the game’s director, Hajime Tabata. “In development, previous phases required wisdom and strength, ” he writes. “However, moving toward the final phase will focus on effort and willpower.” Sure! He goes on to vow that every developer working on it will work their hardest right to the end. “We will do everything we can do to finish FFXV to create an experience we are incredibly proud of and one that you will enjoy and treasure.” In case you’re feeling celebratory, you could always fire up the demo from earlier this year, or, barring that, watch us do the same in the video below. Source: Square Enix

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‘Final Fantasy XV’ hits the road in 2016

This Viral List About 1915 Is Full of Lies

A list of fun facts about the year 1915 has gone viral . But many items on the list are false or misleading. As we’ve seen time and again, never trust the internet for your fun facts. It’s all lies. Read more…

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This Viral List About 1915 Is Full of Lies

Hackers get Linux running on a PlayStation 4

In the two years since the PlayStation 4 first went on sale, hackers have enjoyed limited success in their efforts to open up the console. In June, a Brazilian team claimed the first PS4 “jailbreak, ” which involved the cumbersome process of copying the entire hard drive of a hacked machine using a Raspberry Pi, but it took until this month for a tinkerer to fully circumvent Sony’s content protections . With a proper exploit in the wild, homebrew group fail0verflow took on the challenge of installing a full version of Linux on the system. It achieved its goal this week, giving the homebrew community hope that the PlayStation 4 will soon become a worthy tool in their arsenal. Although exact details of the exploit have yet to be disclosed, it appears that the fail0verflow team took a WebKit bug recently documented by GitHub user CTurt and then turned things up a notch. CTurt’s workaround focuses on the PlayStation 4’s Webkit browser, which is tricked into freeing processes from the core of the console’s operating system by an improvised webpage. The PS4 is powered by Sony’s Orbis OS, which is based on a Unix-like software called FreeBSD and is therefore susceptible to common exploits. With a route into the console’s system, fail0verflow then identified weaknesses in the PlayStation 4’s GPU. Engineers from semiconductor company Marvell were called out specifically and accused of “smoking some real good stuff” when they built the PlayStation 4’s southbridge chip. Before you start dreaming up your next DIY computing project, you should know that this proof-of-concept relies on PS4 firmware 1.76. Sony recently issued firmware 3.11 to consoles. While the bug has now been patched, it’s believed the jailbreak could be altered to achieve the same outcome on more recent firmwares. Incidentally, the WebKit bug identified here is the exact same one that affected Apple’s Safari browser, which put iOS 6.0 and OS X 10.7 and 10.8 at risk in 2013. It shows just how common WebKit-based software now is. While PS4 owners won’t be able to install pirated games anytime soon, fail0verflow’s achievement shouldn’t be dismissed. Sony went to a lot of trouble to ensure that unsigned code could not be run on the console. The company requires that the machine runs on the very latest software, meaning hacker groups still have a long way to go before the PlayStation 4 is made truly open to hobbyists — just like the PlayStation 3 officially was when it first hit shelves almost a decade ago. Via: VentureBeat

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Hackers get Linux running on a PlayStation 4

House looks into claims the NSA spied on Congress

You’re not the only one concerned that the National Security Agency might be spying on Congress … Congress is, too. The House Intelligence Committee says it’s investigating claims that the NSA monitored communications between members of Congress and Israeli leadership as they discussed the Iran nuclear agreement. The Committee not only wants a point-by-point verification of the Wall Street Journal ‘s original report, but to find out whether or not the NSA was following the rules. There’s potential for trouble. While the White House reportedly didn’t order the eavesdropping, it also didn’t stop the activity when it found out. Moreover, this came after officials claimed that the US no longer snoops on NATO members’ heads of state — apparently, that courtesy doesn’t extend to allies outside of the region. Even if any surveillance was completely above-board, it’ll still raise questions about where and when the NSA is allowed to operate. [Image credit: AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite] Source: The Hill

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House looks into claims the NSA spied on Congress

A Week After India Banned It, Facebook’s "Free Basics" Shuts Down in Egypt 

Facebook’s “Free Basics” program in Egypt has been shut down , according to Facebook. It’s unclear why the new free internet service stopped working. However, the news arrives a week after the Indian government temporarily banned the program in the wake of on-going net neutrality concerns . Read more…

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A Week After India Banned It, Facebook’s "Free Basics" Shuts Down in Egypt 

Oculus Rift will ship with VR platformer ‘Lucky’s Tale’

Evoking the days of when consoles shipped with actual games, Oculus just announced a second bundled title for its upcoming Rift VR headset: Lucky’s Tale , a platformer from Words with Friends creator Paul Bettner. Earlier this month, the company also revealed that Eve: Valkyrie will also come every Oculus Rift. For the most part, Lucky’s Tale looks like a typical platforming title along the lines of Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie — the big difference is that the Rift serves as a virtual camera. But even if it doesn’t look very original, another free game will certainly make the Rift more appealing to mainstream consumers. While there’s still no official launch date or price, Oculus says the Rift will launch in the first quarter of 2016. Source: Oculus

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Oculus Rift will ship with VR platformer ‘Lucky’s Tale’

Google will strip Oracle’s Java code out of Android

Google has confirmed that it will no longer use Java application programming interfaces (APIs) from Oracle in future versions of Android, according to VentureBeat . Instead, it will switch to OpenJDK, an open-source version of Oracle’s own Java Development Kit. While you might ask, “Who actually cares?”, Google says the change will simplify app development by creating a common codebase for Java. It’s hard to imagine that such a huge change (8, 902 files are supposedly affected) isn’t related to Google’s ongoing legal dispute with Oracle, though. That dispute, depending on how it’s resolved, could adversely affect Android development and app coding in general. The epic dispute started when Oracle sued Google for copyright back in 2010, claiming that Google improperly used its Java APIs. Google argued that the APIs in question were essential for to software innovation, and therefore couldn’t be copyrighted. In 2012, a jury found that Google didn’t infringe Oracle’s copyright, but a Federal court mostly reversed the decision in 2014. The US Supreme court didn’t want to touch the case and sent it back to a lower court, where it currently sits. Users on Y Combinator’s Hacker News who first spotted the code have theorized that it may mean that Google and Oracle have settled the lawsuit out of court. However, Google told VentureBeat that the legal dispute is still ongoing, so it couldn’t comment on whether the code change is related. As for how this affects you or me, the new code should make it a touch simpler for Android N developers, possibly resulting in better apps and quicker updates. However, the court’s upcoming decision could have much wider ramifications. If they decide that API’s from the likes of Java can be copyrighted, it could turn the patent wars into even more of a cluster-you-know-what. Source: VentureBeat

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Google will strip Oracle’s Java code out of Android

Turn a Raspberry Pi Zero Into Just About Any USB Device You Can Imagine

The Raspberry Pi Zero is a pretty low key little device , but the folks over at Adafruit figured out that it’s possible to turn the Zero into a USB device, which means it can be used to make a number of electronics, ranging from an ethernet device to a camera. Read more…

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Turn a Raspberry Pi Zero Into Just About Any USB Device You Can Imagine

Everlance Automatically Tracks Your Mileage to Optimize Your Tax Deduction

iOS/Android: If you’re self-employed, you can deduct mileage expenses from your taxes. But most of us don’t think to keep up with our mileage during the year, and that leads to a rough, likely inaccurate estimate at tax time. Everlance aims to change that by keeping track of your mileage for you. Read more…

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Everlance Automatically Tracks Your Mileage to Optimize Your Tax Deduction

Download Old Versions of iOS Apps with a Clever Workaround

Ever get an update to an iOS app that just completely destroyed the app and made it terrible? There’s a way to roll back to older versions if you’re willing to jump through some hoops. Read more…

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Download Old Versions of iOS Apps with a Clever Workaround