Here's a link to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate 'Terry Bogard' livestream

Jak Connor | Gaming | Nov 6, 2019 3:06 AM CST

If you didn't know already, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will soon be getting Fatal Fury's Terry Bogard. He will be arriving as a DLC character, but first we have to watch the Smash Bros. director play him for 45 minutes.

Here's a link to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate 'Terry Bogard' livestream

Of course you don't have to watch Masahiro Sakurai play Terry Bogard for 45 minutes, but it would certainly help if you are planning on giving him a shot in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Sakurai will be going through all of Terry's moves, and most likely give a description on how those moves reflect his original moves from the Fatal Fury games.

Sakurai will also be giving players some pointers on how to best utilize Terry's kit, meaning we should get some descriptions on his weakness and strengths. It should also be noted that Terry will be arriving with the version 6.0.0 update for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and with any luck that update could drop right after the livestream ends. Above we have a link to the Nintendo UK YouTube channel that has a countdown for the livestream.

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FTC fines AT&T $60 million, customers entitled to 'partial refunds'

Jak Connor | Internet & Websites | Nov 6, 2019 2:02 AM CST

AT&T has been caught out slowing down internet speeds, and have agreed to pay $60 million in a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

FTC fines AT&T $60 million, customers entitled to 'partial refunds'

In a prepared statement by Andrew Smith, the director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection its detailed that AT&T misled internet customers by charging them for "unlimited" data plans, but inhibited overall download speeds. The settlement also details that any consumers who signed up for one of these plans before 2011 are entitled to "partial refunds".

Moving forward, the FTC has said that AT&T must disclose to customers any restrictions on speed, etc., "The disclosures need to be prominent, not buried in fine print or hidden behind hyperlinks." The FTC says that AT&T's speed restriction on "unlimited" plans are estimated to have affected more than 3.5 million customers as of 2014. "AT&T promised unlimited data -- without qualification -- and failed to deliver on that promise," said Smith.

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11,000 scientists from 153 countries sign for global climate emergency

Jak Connor | Science, Space, Health & Robotics | Nov 6, 2019 1:09 AM CST

Climate change is a problem we all must face, no matter what side of the planet you are on, we all have a responsibility to listen to the educated and take action where possible.

11,000 scientists from 153 countries sign for global climate emergency

A new paper that has been published in BioScience by authors William J. Ripple and Christopher Wolf of Oregon State University, along with more than 11,000 signatures from scientists located in 153 different countries have declared a climate emergency. The paper indicates key trend lines and also lays out six different ways humanity can slow the effects of climate change down.

The six areas in which the scientists think humanity should take to reduce the effects of climate change immediately are the following: Energy, replacing fossil fuels with low-carbon renewable's. Short-lived pollutants, cutting methane, soot, and other hydrofluorocarbons. Nature, through the restoration and protection of forests, ecosystems, and grasslands. Food, humanity switching to more plant-based meals, and fewer animal products. Economy, removing the profitable exploitation of ecosystems that ultimately hurt the planet. Finally, population stabilization.

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AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X: 64C/128T launches January 2020

Anthony Garreffa | CPU, APU & Chipsets | Nov 5, 2019 11:20 PM CST

AMD will reportedly be announcing its next-gen Ryzen Threadripper 3000 series CPUs on November 7, with three different SKUs to b e revealed alongside a new TRX40 chipset and motherboards.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X: 64C/128T launches January 2020

AMD will reportedly be unveiling and detailing the Ryzen Threadripper 3960X and 3970X processors, while just reportedly teasing the higher-end and flagship Ryzen Threadripper 3990X processor. We should expect the name and possibly core/thread count (64C/128T fingers crossed) but clock speeds and pricing will be held.

The reviews of the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X are set to hit in January 2020, while the Ryzen Threadripper 3960X and 3970X processors will find reviews ready for November 19 which isn't too far away from now.

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Red Dead Redemption 2: Vulkan and DX12, 40 graphics options to tweak

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Nov 5, 2019 10:31 PM CST

Red Dead Redemption 2 has just launched on the PC and while I was able to download it and initially run it, the Rockstar Launcher crashed and I couldn't load into RDR2 again (at least at the time of writing).

Red Dead Redemption 2: Vulkan and DX12, 40 graphics options to tweak

Now that Rockstar has launched Red Dead Redemption 2, I did however get into the game and begin my benchmarking article on the game and noted down all of the graphical options to tweak. Rockstar has over 40 graphical options to tweak with my test rig packed with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti using around 6GB of VRAM at 4K and maxed out settings in Red Dead Redemption 2.

There is an option to change the graphics API from its default setting on Vulkan to DX12, but given that Rockstar Launcher continuously crashed I haven't been able to test it just yet. I did play around with the graphics settings and yeah, there's a lot of them to play around with. They go from Low to Ultra for the most part, with some maxing out at High and others like TAA being a toggle ON/OFF.

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Check out this 24 minute Diablo 4 gameplay video

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Nov 5, 2019 9:28 PM CST

Diablo 4 is getting some big gameplay love with some glorious 4K screenshots recently teased alongside 21:9 UltraWide shots of Activision-Blizzard's upcoming RPG but now we have some gameplay footage.

Check out this 24 minute Diablo 4 gameplay video

There are 24 glorious minutes of Diablo 4 gameplay goodness there, with Game Informer sitting down to play the game for around two solid days at the Blizzard offices in Irvine, California. This gave the team a good idea as to how Diablo 4 felt in tgerms of graphics, gameplay, and solid RPG mayhem in typical Diablo style.

Blizzard has some nice tweaks in Diablo 4 that the team has been working on for many years now, even since before the release of Diablo 3. Lots of this new blood (pardon the pun) has been infused into the Hellish world of Diablo 4, which currently has no release date outside of it dropping sometime in 2020.

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Seagate will have 50TB HDDs by 2026, 18TB and 20TB launch in 2020

Anthony Garreffa | Storage | Nov 5, 2019 8:29 PM CST

Seagate is teasing some gigantic HDDs for 2020, with the first half of 2020 seeing the storage giant unleash 18TB HDDs into the world, but by the end of 2020 we'll be seeing even bigger 20TB HDDs.

Seagate will have 50TB HDDs by 2026, 18TB and 20TB launch in 2020

The company is headed towards releasing the first commercial HAMR-based HDDs in the second half of 2020, while the new 18TB drive will be based on the same 9-platter platform that Seagate uses for its current Exos 16TB HDD. This means that Seagate has everything it needs to put 18TB HDDs into mass production before HAMR arrives in 2H 2020.

Seagate will be putting many more eggs into the HAMR basket going forward, with its own 30TB+ HDD planned for 2023-2024 and an even bigger 50TB+ based on HAMR in 2026. The one thing I think of when I see 50TB is image losing 50TB of data in a single drive... that is millions of photos, videos, and untold billions of files gone in an instant. Still, from a tech perspective -- 50TB in a single drive, WOW.

Continue reading: Seagate will have 50TB HDDs by 2026, 18TB and 20TB launch in 2020 (full post)

AMD confirms Ryzen 4000 series coming in early 2020

Anthony Garreffa | CPU, APU & Chipsets | Nov 5, 2019 7:30 PM CST

If you thought AMD had a big year in 2019, then you ain't seen nothin' yet. AMD is set to have a cracker of a year in 2020, with AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su confirming that the company will be rolling out its next-gen Ryzen 4000 series CPUs in early 2020.

AMD confirms Ryzen 4000 series coming in early 2020

In a recent chat with VentureBeat, AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su explained: "We're also pretty excited as we go into 2020. You'll start to see our next-generation mobile products, as well, coming in early 2020. You'll see 7nm mobile chips that have yet to come to market. That's a pretty strong portfolio. We're well underway with Zen 3 as a follow-on, as well, for 2020 - lots of product activity".

So there you have it -- next-gen Ryzen 4000 series mobile CPUs in early 2020. We should expect desktop Ryzen 4000 series CPUs maybe a few months later closer to Computex 2019 in June, with a release in July to line up as 12 months after AMD's reveal and releases of the current kick-ass Ryzen 3000 series based on the Zen 2 architecture and 7nm node.

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Voyager 2 officially reaches interstellar space & sends message back

Jak Connor | Science, Space, Health & Robotics | Nov 5, 2019 7:10 AM CST

Humans have now successfully got a second man-made object out into interstellar space. Voyager 2 has now officially joined Voyager 1 out in the abyss.

Voyager 2 officially reaches interstellar space & sends message back

Researchers out of the University of Iowa have reported that Voyager 2 has officially entered the interstellar medium or ISM for short. The ISM is a region in space that is outside of the Suns solar winds, and this was discovered by researchers detecting a definitive jump in plasma density. Researchers noticed that the spacecraft went from the hot, low density plasma characteristics, to cool, higher density recordings.

According to Don Gurnett, an author on the study that is published in Nature Astronomy, "In a historical sense, the old idea that the solar wind will just be gradually whittled away as you go further into interstellar space is simply not true. We show with Voyager 2-and previously with Voyager 1-that there's a distinct boundary out there. It's just astonishing how fluids, including plasmas, form boundaries."

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Smash Bros. Ultimate director will play Terry Bogard for 45 mins live

Jak Connor | Gaming | Nov 5, 2019 6:15 AM CST

Nintendo have announced the showcasing date for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's fourth DLC fighter, Terry Bogard.

Smash Bros. Ultimate director will play Terry Bogard for 45 mins live

Nintendo has taken to their official Nintendo Versus Twitter account to announce that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate director, Masahiro Sakurai will be showcasing Terry Bogard tomorrow. Sakurai will be sitting down for 45 minutes to run Smash Bros. players through all of Terry's special moves, normal attacks, strengths, weakness and more.

If you didn't know, Terry Bogard is a representative of the Fatal Fury series that dates all the way back to 1991. Nintendo Versus also details throughout this livestream there will be "no announcements regarding any unrevealed fighters" and that version 6.0 of Smash Ultimate will arrive soon. Since a new DLC fighter has arrived on every version update, I would assume Terry Bogard will come with version 6.0.

Continue reading: Smash Bros. Ultimate director will play Terry Bogard for 45 mins live (full post)