T3 India

Nathan George

We may finally know the names of Google’s new Nexus phones

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A new report, however, sheds light on the matter. According to information given to Droid Life, the new Nexus phones made by LG and Huawei will be called the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P.

At last, now you can reword your Christmas list. We all thought the Nexus phones would simply be called the Nexus 5 and Nexus 6 but Google clearly sees the confusion that it would have caused.

The main reason being those names are already in use for previous Nexus products. Consumers would need to specify the year of the model they wanted, thus keeping all of its products seperate makes things far easier. 

Rumours have been circulating about the two Nexus' for a while now as well as leaked images. Going by the names, I’d guess the Nexus 6P will be the bigger, more premium option and the Nexus 5X will be the cheaper, smaller sibling.

It’s exciting that we don’t have long to wait. Official invites have already been sent out for a press event on September 29. If you didn’t get an invite, fear not – the event will be livestreamed at youtube.com/google from 9am Pacific Time.

As well as the Nexus phones, we’re expecting details about Android 6.0 Marshmallow, a Nexus tablet and a revamped version of Google Chromecast.

Invisibility cloaks are a real thing, wands not so much

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Engineers at the Lawrence Barkley National Laboratory have created a super thin cloak that can bend light around objects, rendering them invisible. The catch, however, is that it only works on a micro scale for now so any prank ideas you had can be put on hold.

In tests the invisibility cloak used metamaterials to curve light around an object the size of a few biological cells. The difference between this cloak and previous attempts is that it can disguise any shaped object, and works in air. "This is the first time a 3D object of arbitrary shape has been cloaked from visible light," said Xiang Zhang, who worked on the device.

"Our ultra-thin cloak now looks like a coat. It is easy to design and implement, and is potentially scalable for hiding macroscopic objects."

That last part is what excites us. A full-blown invisibility cloak could have plenty of real-world applications aside from pranking, notably the military. Wearable tech is coming to the battlefield, would invisibility cloaks be a step too far? I mean, they’ve already got invisible tanks (well, sort of).

Sony hints PlayStation VR could cost as much as a PS4

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Sony has had a busy week. Not only did it rename Project Morpheus as PlayStation VR, it also hinted the price of its upcoming headset.

In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Andrew House said that the PlayStation VR "will be priced as a new gaming platform", but wouldn't give any actual numbers.

Going by how much the PS4 cost when it first launched in 2013, we could be looking at about Rs. 40,000. That’s not too surprising for a new product but it’s worth noting that, if you don’t already own a PS4, you need one of those too. Still, the HTC Vive is rumoured to have the biggest price tag of all the headsets. 

House also said that the plan is to start with at least 10 launch titles. That shouldn’t be difficult, either. Sony already has 10 playable titles being shown off at the Tokyo Game Show this week, including first person shooter Rigs: Machine Combat League, as well as Final Fantasy XIV from Square Enix.

"VR rewrites the rule book on how you can create games," said House. "You're seeing a large amount of interest and work happening among smaller teams, because it's possible to create something in VR that is very simple but still very magical."

What have you thought of PlayStation VR so far? Let us know in the comments section.

Nintendo classic Mega Man is getting a movie

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Tracking board reports that Mega Man will be the focus of a new sci-fi action movie. Details are limited at present, but Fox and Chernin Entertainment will work with Nintendo on the project.

Peter Chernin, who worked on both Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, will produce the movie. The premise generally has Mega Man, the good natured robot created by Dr. Light, battling other robots who have been reprogrammed by the treacherous Dr. Wily.

The first game was released in Japan under the title Rock Man back in 1987 for the Nintendo Entertainment System and was Capcom’s first attempt at making a game specifically for home consoles rather than for arcades. The Mega Man franchise has spanned more than 50 games, selling about 30 million units, so it was inevitable that Hollywood take it to the big screen.

Megaman is the latest video game character to get a movie, with a raft already in development. Agent 47, based on the Hitman franchise, has just been released to unfavourable reviews. Then there’s Michael Fassbender’s Assassin’s Creed movie – which we recently got a glimpse of – and the upcoming Warcraft film. 

We also know of Far Cry, Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon and Mortal Kombat films in development, so it’s definitely a good time to be a video game fan. Let’s just hope these can top the likes of Super Mario Bros or the so-bad-it’s-funny Street Fighter movie that came out in '94 – you know, the one with Van Damme. Can’t recollect? Watch this infamous scene with Ryu and Ken to refresh your memory,

WhatsApp edges a step closer to 1 billion users

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The WhatsApp team certainly have reason to celebrate. The messaging app just hit 900 million monthly active users and, as always with these things, took to Facebook to announce the good news. The milestone was reached seven months after WhatsApp hit the 700 million mark.

WhatsApp has seen a massive surge of late. It’s reportedly racked up tens of millions of users in just a matter of weeks and now has its sights set on 1 billion. The way it’s going, that shouldn’t take long. In June, WhatsApp became only the second Android app to reach 1 billion downloads, and it looks like there’s still more to come.

It’s gone from strength to strength ever since it was acquired by Facebook for a steep $19bn in 2014. Mark Zuckerberg threw down big money, but it’s paying dividends. In comparison, Facebook's own Messenger app hit 700 million users in June following its separation from the core service.

The one to beat, though, is Facebook’s main mobile app which boasts a whopping 1.49 billion monthly active users. Whether or not WhatsApp can catch up with it remains to be seen, but we wouldn’t rule it out. One thing we do know is that a business model isn’t far away.

Zuckerberg previously said: “Once we get to being a service with 1 billion, there are many clear ways that we can monetise.” The question is, how? The Facebook founder has already ruled out ads, so it'll be interesting to see what it does.