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Drake's new album is the first to stream 1 billion times in a week
We know, we know -- you're probably tired of hearing about Drake's new album setting records and otherwise dominating the internet. However, this is one record that's worth noting whether or not you care about the Toronto rapper's latest tracks. Billboard has learned that Scorpion is the first album to surpass 1 billion streams worldwide in a single week, regardless of service. That's well past Post Malone, whose Beerbongs & Bentleys managed "just under" 700 million global streams. Drake's US figures alone were reportedly enough to topple his rival at 750 million (Post Malone 'only' managed 413.3 million American streams) -- and yes, that's another record.
Drake is the king of memes
Drake has done it again. And no, we're not talking about him repeatedly smashing Apple Music and Spotify streaming records. We're talking about one of his tracks being turned into meme gold. This time it's the track "In My Feelings" from his new record, Scorpion. The internet has taken the lyrics and turned them into a dance that's about to conquer social media. What seems to resonate with his fans the most is the chorus, in which Drake asks, "Kiki, do you love me? Are you riding? Say you'll never ever leave from beside me. 'Cause I want ya and I need ya." Anyone who listens to Drake regularly knows he's always been an unapologetic emotional dude, and people love to turn his brooding and confessionals into viral fodder.
A robot that milks scorpions could aid cancer research
A scorpion-milking robot designed to extract and store venom could put an end to the tricky manual method traditionally used by scientists. Researchers at the Ben M'sik Hassan II University in Morocco claim their robot not only speeds up the extraction process, but also makes it safer.
Robot probe no. 2 dies while exploring a Fukushima reactor
The second robot Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) sent into Fukushima's unit 2 reactor also failed to finish its mission. Earlier this month, the cameras of the first "scorpion" robot that ventured into the reactor malfunctioned after two hours due to extremely high radiation levels. Now, it's the machine's left crawler belt that stopped working (PDF) altogether, forcing TEPCO to cut off its tether and to leave it inside.
Seen@E3: Who's next for Mortal Kombat X?
We're expecting to hear "Get over here!" a lot in Mortal Kombat X when it launches in 2015 for Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3 and PC. Be sure to catch a glimpse of the game in action courtesy of a gameplay trailer shown off during Sony's E3 2014 press conference.
EVE Evolved: Rubicon 1.3 and repainting ships
EVE Online's recently released Rubicon expansion was an important first step toward a truly player-run universe for everyone, allowing corporations to wage empire wars over planetary customs offices and introducing a series of new personal deployable structures. The initial release was a little light on content, but developers have since expanded on it significantly with three major point releases. Rubicon 1.3 went live this week, and the changes seem pretty good all around. This release overhauled the directional scanner, buffed the SoE Nestor battleship's capacitor recharge rate and remote repair range, and nerfed remote sensor dampeners into the ground. Large corporations like EVE University were pleased to hear that the limit on the size of corporations has been increased to 12,600 thanks to changes to the corporation management skills. And in response to an emerging trend in fleet warfare involving hordes of drone ships assigning their drones to an interceptor, developers have also limited the number of drones that can be assigned to another ship to 50. The 1.29 GB patch also included several overhauled ship models and new ship shaders, but the new feature I see the most potential in is the ability to finally repaint our ships. This could eventually help corporations establish their own visual identities and might even link into gameplay or EVE's spying metagame. In this edition of EVE Evolved, I look at some of the Rubicon 1.3 changes and how repainting your ship could become more than simply a cosmetic upgrade.
EVE Evolved: Should CCP interfere in the sandbox?
When it comes to player outrage, EVE Online seems to make the headlines more than any other MMO. The game has endured several high-profile scandals in its 10-year history, from the T20 developer corruption incident in 2007 to 2011's famous Monoclegate scandal. As EVE is a true sandbox game with a focus on PvP and player competition, developers have historically limited their direct influence on the universe. The importance of limiting interference became abundantly clear during the T20 incident when it was discovered that a developer had given tech 2 blueprints and preferential treatment to the Band of Brothers alliance. This interference in the sandbox had a profound and lasting impact on EVE's political endgame and undermined the legitimate accomplishments of other alliances. Some of the same issues that were raised in the wake of that scandal have now resurfaced amidst controversy over CCP's community team and its involvement with third-party fansites. Gambling website SOMER Blink was selected to host a huge giveaway event with rare prizes provided by CCP, and the contest organisers were then given rare battleships worth billions of ISK to keep as thank-you presents. In this week's EVE Evolved, I run down the details of the latest EVE Online controversy and ask whether CCP should directly interfere in the sandbox at all.
EVE Evolved: Fitting battleships for PvP in Odyssey
Tech 1 ships in EVE Online used to be arranged in tiers that determined the cost and power of the ship and what level of the appropriate skill was required to fly it. This gave a sense of progression back in 2004 when all we had was frigates, cruisers, and battleships, but developers have since filled in the gaps between ship classes with destroyers, battlecruisers, strategic cruisers, and tech 2 ships of all shapes and sizes. In a recent game design initiative, CCP has been removing the tiers from within each tech 1 ship class by buffing the lower-tier ships up to the same rough power level as the largest ship in its class. The recent Odyssey expansion saw the humble battleship buffed beyond all recognition. The Megathron, Raven, Tempest, and Apocalypse all became extreme damage-dealing powerhouses, but the Dominix, Scorpion, Typhoon, and Armageddon were buffed the most. Each of them can now fit several monster setups, dealing upward of 1,000 damage per second or completely disabling enemy ships with energy neutralisers and electronic warfare. The build costs of these tier one battleships were more than doubled in the expansion, but prices are only slowly rising due to the existing stock on the market. That makes the tier one battleships incredibly cost-effective PvP powerhouses at the moment, and players are beginning to take advantage of it. In this week's EVE Evolved, I experiment with PvP setups for the newly revamped Typhoon, Armageddon, Scorpion, and Dominix battleships.
Scorpion seeks revenge on Injustice this Tuesday
Everybody's favorite ninja-turned-skeleton-head-ghost-ninja (Mortal Kombat's Scorpion, obviously) will fight his way back from the grave and into the DC Universe this Tuesday, June 11, when he becomes the latest DLC character for Injustice: Gods Among Us. Scorpion's implementation in Injustice appears faithful to his incarnation in 2011's Mortal Kombat, though he won't play identically due to differences in Injustice's engine and gameplay mechanics. Ol' Scorps' toasty new threads were designed by legendary comic book artist Jim Lee, seen above talking design with NetherRealm's Ed Boon. Scorpion will cost $5.
Mushkin debuts three new SSDs at CES
We love us some speedy NAND Flash here at Engadget, and Mushkin's just unveiled a trio of SSDs full of the stuff packing Sandforce SF-2281 controllers. The Chronos Go offers 560MB/s sequential writes and 525MB/s reads in drives up to 480GB in size. The Atlas mSATA SSD does sequential writes at 535MB/s, maxes out at 240GB, and will be available to be dropped into the Ultrabook of your choosing. Both the Chronos Go and Atlas are scheduled for a Q1 release. Lastly, the Scorpion PCIe modular SSD lets you chain up to four SSDs in a RAID array to get sequential writes up to 1275MB/s and reads up to 1500MB/s when it drops sometime in the first half of this year. [Image Credit: DailyTech]
LG Optimus LTE now official: High-speed data alongside a high-definition IPS display
It may not be the biggest phone reveal coming in the next 24 hours, but leaked details had already piqued our interest in LG's next big thing. The Optimus LTE's screen rivals Apple's Retina Display at 326ppi and that high-definition sharpness is slathered on a 4.5-inch AH-IPS display. The sizable 1830mAh battery should be enough to keep the phone ticking over despite these high-end specs, which include a confirmed 1.5GHz dual-core CPU and eight megapixel camera. Will we get to see it on these shores? We're not sure of its travel itinerary after it reaches Korea, but we'd love to see this and Samsung's latest LTE wares tussle for our affections.
LG teases LU6200 with 1.5GHz dual-core CPU, 720p HD display, Gingerbread and 75Mbps LTE
We recently stumbled upon the latest smartphone that LG's preparing for its home country, and wow, this plus-sized beauty is sure to turn some heads in South Korea. The device is known only as the LU6200, but it packs a 4.5-inch AH-IPS display at 720p resolution, a dual-core 1.5GHz Scorpion CPU, an Adreno 220 GPU, along with an 8 megapixel AF camera and connectivity to the U+ LTE network (which supports a maximum theoretical download speed of 75Mbps). Further, users will find a 1.3MP front-facing cam, 1GB of RAM, 4GB built-in storage, an 1,830mAh battery, 801.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0, along with support for DLNA, MHL, WiFi Direct and NFC. Specifically for the Korean market, the handset can also receive digital radio and TV broadcasts through terrestrial DMB. LG has launched a teaser page for this Gingerbread-powered smartphone, for which pre-orders are said to begin on September 26th -- although, there's yet no word on the pricing. It's certainly intriguing, though we'll gladly wait for a stateside version before raiding our piggy bank... again. [Thanks, Anonymous]
Encrypted Text: Rogue tips and tricks for Firelands, part 4
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Encrypted Text for assassination, combat and subtlety rogues. Chase Christian will be your guide to the world of shadows every Wednesday. Feel free to email me with any questions or article suggestions you'd like to see covered here. In order to challenge Ragnaros in the Sulfuron Keep, we have to defeat his fire-loving cadre that blocks our way. Baleroc acts as the Spire's gatekeeper, preventing us from crossing the chasm between us and Ragnaros. After dispatching the first fours bosses in Firelands, we knock out Baleroc to make our way across a fiery bridge to dethrone Ragnaros himself. Unfortunately for us, Rag's newest Majordomo, the former archdruid Fandral Staghelm, is guardian the entrance to the Spire. Luckily for us, we just picked up a Gatecrasher from Baleroc's smoldering corpse, and we're ready to cleave our way through whatever Staghelm throws our way. The Staghelm fight is fairly simple for rogues. We're focusing on nuking the boss for nearly the entire fight, and that's exactly the type of encounter we shine in. Staghelm does have a few adds he spawns, though, and they need to be taken down quickly. Combat rogues are uniquely suited for burning these unwelcome guests down, due to Blade Flurry. Blade Flurry can boost your DPS on this encounter by nearly 20%, and combat's extra expertise helps us attack Majordomo from the front.
Xiaomi Phone with MIUI OS: a $310 Android with 1.5GHz dual-core SoC and other surprises
Xiaomi Phone is a ¥1,999 ($310) flagship Android phone.
Sharp SH8188U is run-of-the-mill 1GHz Android, awaits (possible stateside) introduction
Well, look at what the cat dragged in. Today we're given a view of the Sharp SH8188U, a Froyo-filled slate phone that sports a Qualcomm MSM8255 SoC. Like other handsets of this heritage -- including the Incredible S and myTouch 4G -- users can expect a familiar 1GHz Scorpion CPU paired with an Adreno 205 GPU. While the device has floated around the interwebs since May, we've sourced new details from the Bluetooth SIG that suggest North America might get a piece of the action. Of course, a new radio would be required for stateside use, because while quadband GSM functionality is there, current specs list only 2100 / 900MHz 3G support -- fine for Europe and Asia, but incompatible with our 1900 / 1700 / 850MHz spectrums. Externally, consumers will find a WVGA LCD display (800 x 480), a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash, what appears to be a front-facing self-shooter, and HDMI. Curiously, we're seeing benchmarks of the SH8188U running Android 2.3.4 (details below) -- good news indeed, because Froyo is really starting to melt.
Qualcomm's 1.5GHz dual-core MSM8660 destroys the competition in majestic benchmark run
Take the 1GHz Scorpion core residing in Qualcomm's current flagship Snapdragon, the MSM8x55, duplicate it, overclock the resulting pair by 50 percent, and give them improved graphics in the form of Adreno 220. What do you get? A barnburner by the unsexy name of MSM8x60. Yes, the 1.5GHz Mobile Development Platform Qualcomm loosed on the world at CES earlier this year has found itself prostrate on a test bench, where it has produced some of the finest graphical performance scores yet seen on a mobile device. The taxing OpenGL ES 2.0 test you see above shows the new Snapdragon doubling the frame rates churned out by Motorola's mighty Atrix 4G (which admittedly has to work harder thanks to its higher-res display) and completely embarrassing older generation hardware like the EVO 4G. That's a theme carried on throughout AnandTech's benchmarking, which you may explore in full at the source link. If you're wondering when this world-beating dual-core chip will be coming to market, the answer is that it's already inside HTC's imminently upcoming EVO 3D and Pyramid devices, albeit running at a tamer 1.2GHz. Exciting, eh? P.S. - Do take note that the Qualcomm dev platform was plugged into the wall during these tests and was not subject to any power management software that may have otherwise restrained its performance as on the retail chips under test. Moreover, the Egypt benchmark can only run at native resolution, which is what's causing some seemingly aberrant results such as the iPhone 4 (960 x 640) ranking below the iPhone 3GS (480 x 320).
Sony Ericsson Xperia Play review
The PlayStation Phone. We've had quite the intimate history with this gamepad-equipped slider, learning of its secretive existence way back in August and then handling a prototype unit in January, so you'll forgive us for feeling sentimental and still entertaining our pet name for it. The Sony Ericsson marketing gurus renamed it the Xperia Play when it finally went official at MWC this year, but the PlayStation connection remains as strong as ever. Aside from the D-pad, iconic game keys, and two touchpads, this device comes with a little app named PlayStation Pocket, which will be serving up dollops of classic PlayStation One gaming to all those with a taste for it. Yes, the Sony influence is strong with this one, and the Android Market will be joining the fun with Xperia Play-optimized titles from third-party developers. So all we really need to know now is whether the Android smartphone underpinning this smash-bang fusion of old and new school entertainment happens to be any good. Shall we get Started? %Gallery-119806%
Sony Ericsson's 4.3-inch Anzu previewed: ain't got no Gingerbread, but still looking tasty
Our hope for the recently leaked Anzu (likely to be known as the Xperia X12 at retail) handset from Sony Ericsson was that it'd be the company's Android Gingerbread flagship, but here comes international super-reviewer Eldar Murtazin popping that bubble for us. The good man from Russia has a preview unit in his secret lab and reports that it currently only runs Android 2.1, with the intention being that launch devices in early 2011 will start off with Android 2.2 before getting their Gingerbread (2.3) fix in a later update. He also notes a 4.3-inch display with 854 x 480 resolution (just an LCD, nothing exciting), an 800MHz Qualcomm MSM7230 (same as in the T-Mobile G2 / Desire Z) powering things inside, and a 12 megapixel imager mounted on the back. The latter is naturally capable of recording 720p video, while early performance impressions are that the stock Android interface flies. Alas, Eldar expects SE to layer its own customizations on top, which adds to his disappointment with the general build quality of this device -- it's thinner and lighter than the X10, but apparently feels cheaper to the touch. Hit the source link for his comprehensive preview. Let's also not forget Eldar's tweet from the weekend when he said he was playing with the Anzu and the Galaxy 2 (aka Samsung i9100, according to him). Given that the first of those devices has now indeed made its way onto Mobile-review, the veracity of his second claim -- that the upcoming Samsung handset would be a dual-core beastie -- now seems a lot less questionable. [Thanks, Momchil]
HTC Desire HD review
Did you know that the word "jumbo" originated from the name of an African elephant famed for being the largest of his kind? HTC will be well familiar with that tag having already rattled off the HD2, EVO 4G, and HD7 in a smartphone-dwarfing 4.3-inch form factor. And while that may not be the largest screen you can have your Android confectionery on today, it's arguably the upper limit of what we might consider a pocketable device. The HTC Desire HD follows, and seeks to improve upon, its laudable predecessors with an aluminum unibody construction, WVGA (800 x 480) display, 8 megapixel camera with dual LED flash plus 720p video, and a modern 1GHz CPU. That hardware is put at the service of Android's latest Froyo offering, complemented with an updated Sense that includes a web interface for controlling and discovering your phone remotely. It's a rich spec sheet, that much is unquestionable, but you're not just here for tenuous wildlife-related metaphors, you want to know if the whole is equal to, or perhaps even more than, the sum of its parts. Join us after the break for a deeper look at the Desire HD.%Gallery-105849%
Get over here and learn about Scorpion in this Mortal Kombat character study
When Scorpion was still a human, do you think he ever, even in his wildest dreams, imagined his fate: resurrected demon-ninja competing in a martial arts tournament against another, ice ball-throwing ninja? That's positively preposterous, he would have thought. And he would have been dead wrong.