Final Fantasy XV is getting a mobile spinoff from the creators of Game of War

Final Fantasy XV is getting perhaps its most surprising spinoff yet. It’s a new game developed by the company behind ubiquitous mobile games Game of War and Mobile Strike.

Few details on the game are available just yet, but Square Enix says that it will be a mobile massively multiplayer online game set in the ever-growing FFXV universe, featuring “the characters, storyline, and soundtrack” of the game. FFXV launches later this month, but the game’s world has already been fleshed out through an anime series, feature-length CG movie, and several mobile games.

The new, untitled game is being created by MZ (formerly Machine Zone), the California-based developer behind the incredibly lucrative Game of War and Mobile Strike. The company is perhaps best-known for its celebrity-filled TV commercials, featuring the likes of Mariah Careyand Arnold Schwarzenegger pitching multiplayer mobile games. MZ has since taken the infrastructure it built to connect millions of gamers online in real time, and expanded its uses to other avenues, most notably transit infrastructure.

No release date has been announced, but the FFXV mobile MMO will be developed by a brand-new internal MZ studio. FFXV, meanwhile, is launching on PS4 and Xbox One on November 29th.
                        

AT&T will give away free Apple TVs to some DirecTV Now subscribers

In an attempt to make a big splash with its upcoming DirecTV Now service, AT&T will reportedly give away Apple TVs to customers who agree to pay for three months of the service, according to a report from Variety. According to customer support documents obtained by the publication, AT&T’s over-the-top offering — which will cost $35 a month — will also give out free Amazon Fire TV sticks to customers who sign up for one month of the service.

The tactic isn’t new, as Sling TV had a similar giveaway last year, but the cost and potential scale of AT&T’s plan far exceeds previous offerings. Sling gave away $50 discounts for the then $99 Roku 3 and Amazon Fire TV if you bought three months of the service; AT&T would be giving away $150 Apple TVs for the same lock-in period.

The documents uncovered by Variety also gave some insight into the channels DirecTV Now may carry at launch, with channels like Fox, CBS, Univision, and the Sony Movie Channel named on a partial list of channels. (CBS would be the big surprise given that the only OTT network it’s agreed to work with so far is YouTube, which is reportedly preparing a TV service for next year.)

DIRECTV NOW WILL REPORTEDLY GIVE AWAY AMAZON FIRE TV STICKS TO NEW CUSTOMERS

Those channels would go along with the previously announced carriage agreements between AT&T and Disney, NBCUniversal, Viacom, Scripps, Discovery, HBO, Starz, and A&E Networks. AT&T says the service will offer over 100 channels.DirecTV Now will feature a VOD library with around 14,000 titles, according to the report. It will also let users take advantage of a 72-hour catch-up window to watch shows you may have missed for up to three days, but according to Variety, every channel won’t be included with the feature (ESPN is notably exempt).

What hasn’t been clarified is whether the service will offer a cloud DVR service like Playstation Vue does, but with the release of DirecTV set to happen sometime this month, we shouldn’t have to wait much longer to find out.

Twitter is reportedly in talks to sell Vine

Vine may live on with a new owner, according to a new report. TechCrunch says Twitter is now evaluating multiple offers for the short-form video service, which it announced it was shutting down last month. Some of the offers are for less than $10 million, according to the report — less than it reportedly cost Twitter to run Vine for a single month. (The company declined to comment.)

Still, a sale could ensure that the huge archive of Vines remains online at a time when their current host, Twitter, is trying to slash costs. It would also allow the product to evolve after years of near-total stagnation. TechCrunch says that acquisition interest in Vine soared after the outpouring of grief that followed Twitter’s shutdown notice.

Samsung runs full-page apology ads over Galaxy Note 7 recall

In an effort to restore some consumer goodwill after the discontinuation of the Galaxy Note 7, Samsung ran full page apology ads in three major US daily newspapers today. The letters, which appeared in Monday editions of The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, andThe Washington Post, were aimed at English-speaking consumers, according to The Korean Herald. The letter is signed by Gregory Lee, the president and CEO of Samsung Electronics North America.

"An important tenet of our mission is to offer best-in-class safety and quality. Recently, we fell short on this promise. For this we are truly sorry," the ad reads. "We will re-examine every aspect of the device, including all hardware, software, manufacturing and the overall battery structure. We will move as quickly as possible, but will take the time needed to get the right answers.”

The company says it’s continuing to investigate the device’s development and manufacturing processes to fully unearth what exactly went wrong and caused the device to catch fire and combust. The Note 7, which was initially released back in August, suffered from critical flaws in its design that led to overheating. Samsung initially recalled millions of units in early September, but permanently discontinued production a month later after replacement phones began exhibiting the same issues. As of last week, around 85 percent of all devices have been returned, the company says.

All in all, it’s clear Samsung leadership feels the need to mend bridges. "Most importantly, safety remains our top priority," the ad says in conclusion. "We are grateful for your ongoing support and again, we are truly sorry."

LG starts rolling out Android 7.0 Nougat to the G5

LG has started delivering Android 7.0 to owners of its modular G5 handset in South Korea, in the process claiming to be the first company to roll Nougat out to an existing Marshmallow phone. LG’s recent V20 was also the first phone to launch with Nougat on board, ahead of Google’s own Pixel devices in most countries.

There’s a catch, though — only Korean users are getting the update today. LG says customers in the Americas, Asia, and elsewhere will have to wait for theirs to drop “in the weeks to come,” which as ever will be subject to the usual carrier-approval dance. Still, the Korea rollout suggests that LG hasn’t run into any technical issues with the G5, so hopefully a US release won’t be too far off.

Samsung's Siri killer to debut on the Galaxy S8

Partially thanks to the Note7 fiasco, Samsung has been unusually open about its next batch of flagship phones, the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Note8. Owners of Note7 in some markets canreplace their device for an advance discount on these upcoming phones, and now we know about one feature that will debut on the S8. 

According to Reuters, the company said Sunday it would include a new digital assistant on the S8 — the one that stems from the company's October acquisition of Viv Labs.Viv Labs is an AI company whose founders, Dag Kittlaus, Adam Cheyer and Chris Brigham, are also the makers of Siri which got acquired by Apple in 2010. Samsung did not share any details about what, exactly, the new digital assistant will be able to do, but it did say that it will open it to third-party developers. 

The announcement further heats up the race for the smartest digital assistant. Apple's Siri has gotten smarter and reached the company's macOS in its latest iteration, Sierra. Google recently launched a new digital AI called the Assistant, currently only available on the company's Pixel phones, and Amazon's Alexa has also been steadily updated, most recently reaching customers on the company's new Echo Dot device. 

The Galaxy S8 and the Galaxy S8 Edge are likely to launch in February or March 2017, but the date has not been officially confirmed. The Note8 is expected to be launched much later in the year.

Apple's MacBook Pro gets perfect slam from ancient Lenovo ad

We get it: A lot of you hate the new MacBook Pro. Whether it's the new Touch Bar so many think they don't need, or thedongle hell that Apple's port switcheroo will cause, the company's latest laptop isn’t winning many (vocal) fans. 

Now, just two weeks after the launch of the MacBook Pro, an ancient Lenovo commercial from 2008 has been surfaced that perfectly slams Apple's new top of the line laptop. Riffing off Apple's ad that showed the MacBook Air fitting into an envelope, Lenovo takes the laptop and shows how much trouble you have to go through to connect various devices to the laptop. The spot ends with a promotional nod to the company's ThinkPad X300. And while that ad didn't manage to spoil the popularity of the MacBook Air with consumers, many years later, it turns out thatLenovo was, well, kind of right.