NASA scientists gasp as Mars rover finds puzzling Oxygen discovery

Jak Connor | Science, Space, Health & Robotics | Dec 30, 2019 4:28 AM CST

NASA's Curiosity rover is hard on work uncovering mysteries and creating new ones on the distant red planet, and now it's at the center of another one.

NASA scientists gasp as Mars rover finds puzzling Oxygen discovery

Curiosity has given planetary scientists another brain teaser to wrap their heads around as the SUV-sized laboratory has found "significant seasonal and year-to-year variability" in Mar's oxygen levels. The SAM instrument aboard Curiosity measures what molecules makeup Mars' atmosphere. Scientists know that as the planet goes through its seasonal changes - CO2 freezes in winter, reducing air pressure. During summer and spring, things thaw out, and the CO2 raises air pressure.

Oxygen, on the other hand, accounts for only 0.16% of the Mars atmosphere but didn't follow the expected rises and falls. Melissa Trainer, a planetary scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and first author on the new study, said "The fact that the oxygen behavior isn't perfectly repeatable every season makes us think that it's not an issue that has to do with atmospheric dynamics. It has to be some chemical source and sink that we can't yet account for."

Continue reading: NASA scientists gasp as Mars rover finds puzzling Oxygen discovery (full post)

Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto V voted the 'Best Game Of The Decade'

Jak Connor | Gaming | Dec 30, 2019 4:03 AM CST

We are at the turn of the decade, and gamers are no doubt wondering what game release will be crowned "Best Game Of The Decade" and why.

Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto V voted the 'Best Game Of The Decade'

Well, according to one poll done by the LADbible Twitter account that was run for over a week, and accumulated over 9,000 individual votes, Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto V has been deemed "Best Game Of The Decade". Grand Theft Auto V released back in 2013, and was no doubt a massive leap in what game development can offer players in regards to massive open-world environments.

Grand Theft Auto V was competing against the Call of Duty (franchise), FIFA (franchise), and Red Dead Redemption. The poll doesn't include some other prime candidates such as The Last of Us, Nintendo titles, God of War, and The Witcher 3. I think there should be a larger poll done with more titles listed and more votes, this way we can get a better consensus of what game should truly wear the crown of "Best Game Of The Decade". (Grand Theft Auto V would no doubt be top 5).

Continue reading: Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto V voted the 'Best Game Of The Decade' (full post)

Platinum Games boss confirms Boyonetta 3 development is going great

Jak Connor | Gaming | Dec 30, 2019 3:14 AM CST

It's been quite some time since we have heard any updates regarding Platinum Games' coming Bayonetta 3. Luckily, the studio has broken radio silence, and now we have some news.

Platinum Games boss confirms Boyonetta 3 development is going great

The last we heard about Bayonetta 3 was way back at E3 when fans expected Platinum Games to show off some gameplay footage or at least announce some more news. Instead, Platinum Games didn't appear at E3 with Bayonetta 3 and head producer of the studio, Atsushi Inaba said this was the reason why - "Giving updates for everything at E3 isn't the smartest PR strategy to begin with. So just because we're not showing it here doesn't mean it's not going well."

We are now hearing an update from Platinum Games boss, Hideki Kamiya, on his personal Twitter account which says, " Development's going really well. There you go." We do know that Bayonetta 3 will feature some design changes that will be different from the previous installments in the franchise, and while we don't know what those changes are specifically, we know that Platinum Games is putting in their all for the sequel.

Continue reading: Platinum Games boss confirms Boyonetta 3 development is going great (full post)

Apple might have stolen their Apple Watch heartbeat monitor technology

Jak Connor | Business, Financial & Legal | Dec 30, 2019 2:07 AM CST

Many Apple users that love their iPhone also love their Apple Watch to go alongside it. One of the main features of the Apple Watch is its heartbeat monitoring, and that the Watch can measure a wearer's irregular heartbeat, an amazing feature for fitness users.

Apple might have stolen their Apple Watch heartbeat monitor technology

Unfortunately, Apple seemed to have stepped in a bit of trouble when it comes to the Apple Watch's heartbeat monitor, as a New York doctor has claimed the company has ripped off his patented invention. Dr. Joseph Wiesel is suing Apple over allegations that the Watch is using his patented invention that covered "pioneering steps" in atrial fibrillation.

According to Wiesel, his invention allowed for the monitoring of "irregular pulse rhythms from a succession of time intervals." Wiesel also said that he contacted Apple back in 2017 in regard to the patent, giving them sufficient information. He is now going forward with the lawsuit and is asking the court to make Apple pay him royalties and to block the company from adding his invention to their product without his permission.

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The Witcher TV show hype rises, Netflix secretly greenlights season 3

Jak Connor | TV, Movies & Home Theatre | Dec 30, 2019 1:16 AM CST

The first season of The Witcher TV show has overall been a popular success, and with fans asking for more and more, rumors have already begun flying about season 3 being greenlit.

The Witcher TV show hype rises, Netflix secretly greenlights season 3

According to sources close to WGTC (WeGotThisCovered), Netflix has seen the hype surrounding the show and has secretly greenlit the series for season three. It wasn't too long ago that the show was already greenlit for season two, and it should be noted that Netflix did this before the show was even aired - this shows their confidence in what the show can do.

At the moment, Netflix hasn't officially announced that season three is in the pipeline just yet, so these are just rumors at this stage. If I was to give my opinion on whether or not these rumors could be true, I'd say that Netflix would certainly be heavily considering greenlighting season three and will most likely do it after seeing what season one did. Season two of The Witcher is set to begin production in February 2020, and the release is slated for early 202

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Witcher TV show gets author to #1 on Amazon, Witcher 3 = 11K+ players

Jak Connor | Business, Financial & Legal | Dec 30, 2019 12:31 AM CST

While the reviews for The Witcher TV show are accurately mixed, it can't be debated that the new TV show has caused a spike in overall Witcher IP attention.

Witcher TV show gets author to #1 on Amazon, Witcher 3 = 11K+ players

The TV show has had some dividing opinions since its release, with critics giving it some tough love, but the majority of the people that watched it rating it well. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 93% and IMDB has settled on 8.7/10, and both scores reflect that most people who watched the show at least enjoyed it more than average.

Since the release of the TV show, a portion of people wanted more of The Witcher universe and have since sought out new content to consume. We can see this primarily in Amazon's Author Rank chart as The Witcher creator, Andrzej Sapkowski, is placed at #1. All of CD Projekt Reds games are also getting massive attention, the spikes in players have basically revived the series once again. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in particular.

Continue reading: Witcher TV show gets author to #1 on Amazon, Witcher 3 = 11K+ players (full post)

The Mandalorian Season 2 is coming to Disney+ in Fall 2020

Anthony Garreffa | TV, Movies & Home Theatre | Dec 29, 2019 11:09 PM CST

If there was a reason to sign up for Disney+ then it would be for Star Wars TV show The Mandalorian, which co-creator Jon Favreau has just confirmed Season 2 is coming.

The Mandalorian Season 2 is coming to Disney+ in Fall 2020

The Mandalorian just finished its first season on Disney+ with Favreau tweeting the Season 2 of the show would be coming in Fall 2020. Favreau tweeted out a picture of what looks like a near-nude Gamorrean, a green-skinned, pig-nosed species that was featured in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi as guards at Jabba the Hutt's palace.

Favreau was a co-creator on The Mandalorian and while he wrote some episodes of the first season, he was too busy to direct an episode. Favreau was busy filming The Lion King at the time, but has said that he wants to direct an episode of Season 2 of The Mandalorian.

Continue reading: The Mandalorian Season 2 is coming to Disney+ in Fall 2020 (full post)

Ryan Reynolds says Deadpool 3 is happening with Marvel Studios

Anthony Garreffa | TV, Movies & Home Theatre | Dec 29, 2019 10:18 PM CST

Ryan Reynolds has given the world an update on the process of Deadpool 3, now that Disney acquired Fox -- and Marvel Studios.

After the Disney-Fox merger, people were concerned over what would happen to the next Deadpool movie. Fox had the rights, but Disney owned the Marvel Cinematic Universe -- of which Deadpool was hard to fit in, and vica versa, because of various legalities. But now? Well, it's all water under Disney's gigantic bridge

During a recent appearance on Live! With Kelly and Ryan, Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds was asked about Deadpool 3 and we have some news to share. Reynolds said: "Yeah, we're working on it right now with the whole team. We're over at Marvel now, which is like the big leagues all of a sudden. It's kinda crazy. So yeah, we're working on it".

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AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT specs leak out: Navi taps slower GDDR6 memory

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Dec 29, 2019 9:11 PM CST

ASRock let slip that AMD is about to launch its new Radeon RX 5600 XT graphics card, with a product listing on ASRock's own website that had the full specs for their upcoming Radeon RX 5600 XT 6GB Challenger graphics card.

AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT specs leak out: Navi taps slower GDDR6 memory

The full specs on AMD's new Radeon RX 5600 XT graphics card is now here, so we know that it will use a decent Navi GPU with 36 compute units and 2304 stream processors -- the same core count as the higher-end Radeon RX 5700. Where the new RX 5600 XT is different, is in its GDDR6 configuration.

AMD will be offering its new Radeon RX 5600 XT with 6GB of GDDR6 at 12Gbps on a 192-bit memory bus which will result in 288GB/sec of memory bandwidth. This is a big difference to the 14Gbps modules used on the higher-end Radeon RX 5700/XT (as well as more of it with 8GB versus 6GB) which results in 448GB/sec of memory bandwidth.

Continue reading: AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT specs leak out: Navi taps slower GDDR6 memory (full post)

ADATA to show off 27-inch XPG gaming monitor at CES 2020

Anthony Garreffa | RAM | Dec 29, 2019 8:25 PM CST

ADATA is about to step into a few different markets in the PC business at CES 2020, with a new 15.6-inch gaming laptop, full gaming PCs, and a new 27-inch gaming monitor.

ADATA to show off 27-inch XPG gaming monitor at CES 2020

The new ADATA XPG Photon gaming monitor uses a 27-inch IPS panel with Vivid Color Eye-Safe Display technology from PixelDisplay Inc -- the first-ever in a gaming monitor. ADATA says that this new technology will reduce eye strain for those late-night gaming sessions.

This technology eliminates blue light but does so without washing out all of the colors, using film, or using blue-blocking glasses. ADATA will provide the ability for XPG Photon gaming monitor owns to switch between the wide-color gamut during the day, and then switch over during the night.

Continue reading: ADATA to show off 27-inch XPG gaming monitor at CES 2020 (full post)