A hidden trailer in Watch Dogs 2 proves to be more interesting than Ubisoft’s entire catalogue

Watch Dogs 2, the game where you play Marcus Holloway, hacker extraordinaire, has revealed an a mission where you steal a game trailer for an in-game version of Ubisoft.

Ubisoft is the company that is developing Watch Dogs 2 in the first place, but that’s not the interesting part. The trailer, reproduced below, shows off a game that actually looks rather nice. It’s so good, in fact, that many are hoping that this is a teaser for a game that Ubisoft is already working on.

As you can see, the trailer features a game with a vivid colour palette and what looks like a reasonably fleshed out space game. If I’m honest, I’d go so far as to say that the trailer actually looks far more interesting to me than the bulk of Ubisoft’s games.

If Ubisoft is indeed developing the game, I’m in two minds about the outcome. On one hand, I’m excited, on the other hand, I’m terrified; this is Ubisoft we’re talking about after all. If nothing else, the company has a reputation for dumbing down games and it has no pedigree when it comes to multiplayer gaming.

Watch Dogs 2 will be available tonight for PS4 and Xbox One and on PC by 28 November. The PC version is obviously the cheaper one, but given how badly Ubisoft ported the last game, the console version may be the one you’d want to play.

Siemens agrees to buy Mentor Graphics in $4.5 billion cash deal

Siemens agreed to buy U.S.-based Mentor Graphics in a $4.5 billion cash deal that will further enhance the German engineering group’s industrial software capabilities. Siemens said on Monday it would pay $37.25 per share for Mentor Graphics, which makes software for designing semiconductors, a 21 percent premium to Friday’s closing price. Siemens Chief Executive Joe Kaeser has set out to reshape the group, a household name in Germany, to make it more profitable and more agile by selling off non-core businesses and investing in areas promising faster growth and fatter margins.

One such area is software where Siemens increasingly competes with firms that can develop technology faster because that is their sole focus. Earlier this year, Siemens bought CD-adapco, a privately held U.S. engineering software firm, for close to $1 billion. Siemens said last week that it planned a public listing of its $15 billion healthcare business, which pushed its shares to a 16-year high as investors hoped for an injection of capital to boost its valuation while funding new investments.

Wilsonville, Oregon-based Mentor Graphics “will complement our strong offering in mechanics and software with design, test and simulation of electrical and electronic systems,” Siemens management board member Klaus Helmrich said in a statement. People familiar with the matter had flagged the planned deal to Reuters, saying Siemens would pay $4.5 billion to $4.6 billion for Mentor.

Benefits Expected

Siemens said it expected the acquisition to add to its earnings per share within three years and to lift earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) by more than 100 million euros ($108 million) within four years. Siemens shares traded 1.3 percent higher at 0900 GMT. The U.S. firm generated revenues of around $1.2 billion in its fiscal year through the end of January, with an adjusted operating margin of 20.2 percent.

Mentor has been under pressure since activist hedge fund Elliott Management Corp reported an 8.1 percent stake in the company in September and said its shares were deeply undervalued. It had been no stranger to activist investors or takeover offers over previous years. Billionaire activist Carl Icahn won a proxy fight in 2011 that secured him three board seats, although he quit his investment in the company in April after six years. Mentor Graphics also fended off a hostile takeover by rival Cadence Design Systems Inc CDNS.N in 2008.

BMW G 310 GS confirmed to launch in India by late 2017

At the BMW stand at the EICMA 2016, BMW announced a number of new riding machines. In India however, all eyes were on the new baby GS called the G 310 GS which was expected to be built in India. The entry-level adventure tourer was to be produced at TVS plant in Hosur alongside the G310R. While it wasn’t known as to when the motorcycle would arrive in India, it has now been confirmed that the BMW G 310 GS will arrive only by the end of 2017.A Twitter user tweeted to BMW Motorrad asking whether the new baby GS would arrive along with the G 310 R. Turns out that the 310 R will arrive a lot earlier with an early 2017 launch while fans of the adventure tourer will have to wait a lot longer.

Based on the G310 R which was launched earlier this year, the new bike is aimed for a more global audience. It will feature a 313cc engine that produces 34hp and 28Nm of torque.

The GS version will utilise the same tubular spaceframe chassis and bolt-on rear section since the company believes it is stiff and provides a good balance of direct steering response and stability. The front suspension will have an upside-down fork assembly while the rear uses an aluminum swinging arm with a spring strut. The G310 GS will offer a relaxed riding position and is designed to be comfortable for long-drives even on over rough terrain.

Dell EMC announces range of big data, cloud, storage and security products

To help customers scale technology availability with IT demand, Dell EMC on Monday announced a range of products, solutions and consumption models that address cloud, big data analytics, converged infrastructure, storage, data protection and security. “Today’s organisations must embark on a digital transformation. To truly realise their digital future, we believe the vast majority of organisations will transform their IT through a hybrid cloud strategy,” David Goulden, president, Infrastructure Solutions Group, Dell EMC, said in a statement.

Dell EMC announced the expansion of its leading converged infrastructure portfolio through integration with PowerEdge servers into VxRail Appliances and VxRack System 1000 hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI). The company also announced the new Analytic Insights Module delivering all of the software, hardware and services necessary to stand up an environment for both big data analytics and cloud native application development in days rather than weeks.

Dell unveiled its Endpoint Data Security and Management portfolio encompassing technologies from Dell, Mozy by Dell, RSA and VMware AirWatch, offering data protection, backup and recovery, identity assurance, threat prevention and advanced response, and endpoint device and application management capabilities. The company rolled out updates to the Dell EMC Elastic Cloud Storage (ECS) platform, with new support for Dell EMC PowerEdge Servers.

Volkswagen enters talks with SAIC over Audi collaboration, making existing partners uneasy

Volkswagen’s Audi AG said on Monday that it was in talks with China’s SAIC Motor Corp Ltd for a long-term collaboration, which dealers for its existing joint venture say would cause them “potentially fatal damage.” Reuters reported on Saturday, citing a source familiar with the matter, that the two sides had signed an agreement that could pave the way for Volkswagen’s joint venture with SAIC, China’s largest automaker, to make Audi brand cars.

Audi cars are now made in China through a joint venture with China FAW Group Corp, providing a lifeline to the state-owned company whose own brands have struggled with falling sales. An early entrant to China, the world’s largest car market, Audi is the best-selling premium car brand although it is rapidly losing ground to newer car models from Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz and non-German automakers such as Toyota’s Lexus and General Motor’s Cadillac.

Audi has been slow to introduce new products, hurting sales growth, so Audi dealers are generally losing money, existing Audi dealers said in a letter to the automaker in response to the talks. “The interests of Audi dealers will be further damaged if your company sets up a new sales company in China,” they said. The dealers, in the letter seen by Reuters, requested Audi to collect their opinions and guarantee their rights before making a final decision.

Volkswagen gets a larger proportion of its proceeds from the 50-50 tie-up with SAIC than from its 40 percent stake in the venture with FAW. Audi reaffirmed its commitment to FAW in the statement announcing the talks with SAIC, saying it had outlined growth plans with FAW for the next 10 years that include making green energy sport utility vehicles and sedans in every major segment. “With this 10-year plan, everything is set for future growth together with FAW, including the dealership investors,” an Audi spokesman said.

Audi will also form a new joint venture company with FAW that will be based in Beijing to focus on mobility and digital services, according to the statement.

Microsoft pays hackers $120,000 for compromising the Edge browser

Teams from Beijing security firm, Qihoo and South Korean Hacker Lokihardt both managed to compromise the Microsoft Edge browser on Windows, and bagged bounties of $120,000 each. Each team or contenstant is given three attempts to compromise the target, with each attempt having a time limit of four minutes. Lokihardt managed to gain system level access in as little as 18 seconds.

The hacks were showcased at PwnFest, an event related to the ongoing Power of the Community information security conference in Seoul, Korea, according to a report in The Register. It was the first time that a VMware Workstation was successfully attacked with only remote code execution, and no interaction by the end user.

The PwnFest is a yearly event where major tech companies offer rewards to hackers for owning certain products. Targets for the hackers this year included Microsoft Edge, Google Pixel, Microsoft Hyper-V, Google Chrome, iOS, the Safari browser, Adobe Flash and VMWare Workstation. The event also has a Lord of Pwn trophy given to the team with the most successful attacks, and if there is a tie, the award is decided based on technical merit of the hacks.

The prize money ranges from $80,000 for the Safari hack, to $150,000 for the VMWare and the Hyper-V attacks. The exploits are not publicly disclosed, and the companies usually take measures to plug these security holes.

Microsoft has announced that it will be bringing the entire Visual Studio IDE to macOS this month

Microsoft has announced Visual Studio for Mac at the Connect(); conference this month.

For the first time in its history, Microsoft is bringing its Visual Studio development tool to the Mac. As Microsoft explains in its blog, “At its heart, Visual Studio for Mac is a macOS counterpart of the Windows version of Visual Studio.” The IDE (Integrated Development Environment) is designed to feel familiar to a macOS user, while still offering the cross-platform and cloud-based development capabilities of its Windows counterpart.

This IDE will reside alongside Visual Studio Code for macOS, which is a stand-alone, cross-platform text editor for developers.

Microsoft’s sudden interest in cross-platform development seems to stem from a deeper desire to connect with developers, regardless of their OS of choice, and offer them a common, connected platform to work on.

Microsoft has shown tremendous interest in cross-platform development this year, notably with their acquisition of Xamarin. Xamarin started out as a cross-platform development tool for developing iOS, Android, Windows and Mac apps. With its acquisition, Microsoft integrated its workflows into Visual Studio itself.

As TechCrunch suggests, Microsoft has realised that the future depends on cloud-based tools and services like Azure and that’s also where the company is making its money. If more developers start using Visual Studio, more developers will inevitably start using Microsoft’s Azure cloud services.