Amateur astronomers around the world are preparing to view an astronomical event that only occurs once every 80 years, and it's expected to happen between now and September this year.

The event can be traced back to a binary star system within the constellation Corona Borealis, also known as the "Northern Crown." This star system is too dim to see with the naked eye, but after taking a closer look with space-observing instruments, astronomers find two stars: one massive red giant and a smaller white dwarf. Both of these stars are locked in a gravitational tug of war and represent different stages in a star's life. The red giant is a star that has burnt through all its hydrogen, expanding it massively and is actually what's expected to happen to our own Sun.

The other is a white dwarf, which is much further down the road in the death of a star as all of its atmosphere has been completely blown away, leaving behind an incredibly dense core. The once-in-a-lifetime event is a result of the interaction between these two stars, as matter ejected from the red giant gets gobbled up by the white dwarf, slowly building around its surface. Reports indicate that once the white dwarf has accumulated approximately the same amount of matter as the Earth, it creates a thermonuclear reaction.

microSD cards are still one of the easiest and most convenient ways to expand the storage of portable devices, from tablets to handheld gaming consoles and PCs like the Steam Deck, ROG Ally, and Nintendo Switch. This week, Samsung has announced its latest iteration of EVO Select and EVO Plus microSD cards, which it states have been designed specifically for handheld gaming consoles.

This means the latest generation of Samsung EVO Select and EVO Plus microSD cards has seen their transfer speeds increase by 23% to 160 MB/s - making them great for storing games, large files, and media like photos and videos.

To double down on the gaming side of these new microSD cards, Samsung adds that it's planning to release 1TB EVO Select microSD cards later this year - perfect for the age of PC games requiring tens of gigabytes of storage to install.

Fans of Nintendo consoles will be saddened to hear that the end of an era has finally come as the company has officially axed its online services for the Wii U and 3DS.

While many gamers knew the decision to end online support for the two consoles was coming it still doesn't make the news any easier to read, as iconic titles such as Mario Kart 7 and Splatoon have now become single-player experiences. If that didn't make you upset, the original Super Mario Maker is now officially redundant as as players will no longer be able to download new community created levels.

As for the consoles themselves, the 3DS had a bit of a rough start after it was released, but it eventually found its success due to the slew of popular titles that were released on the platform. The Wii U, on the other hand, never quite made it and is widely considered the moderately-sized black duckling of Nintendo's line of gaming consoles, with only 13.56 million total unit sales since its release.

Ubisoft has announced the release date for the highly anticipated Star Wars Outlaws, which will be available on August 30 for PC and consoles. Earlier today, we reported on how Ubisoft has partnered with Intel on the game for the PC release. Still, for those looking for the latest and greatest in PC graphics, you'll be pleased to learn that it's also set to support all of the best game-enhancing RTX technologies.

Ubisoft Massive leads development on Star Wars Outlaws, which will feature real-time ray-tracing, DLSS 3 Frame Generation, Super Resolution, and NVIDIA Reflex for smooth and responsive performance and controls. The game runs on the studio's impressive Snowdrop engine, which was last seen in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and, before that, The Division 2.

As an open-world planet-hopping action-adventure, Star Wars Outlaws sees you take control of "cunning scoundrel Kay Vess and her loyal companion Nix" in a story that takes place between Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.

The new Logitech G PRO X 60 LIGHTSPEED Gaming Keyboard is the company's latest flagship keyboard for competitive gaming. The overall design and features were tailored with insight and input from over 70 pro players. According to Logitech, developing the new PRO X involved eight rounds of research and testing and the creation of 30 or more prototypes.

The Logitech G PRO X 60 LIGHTSPEED Gaming Keyboard falls into the 60-percent form factor range, the preferred size for portability and compact performance. Pro gamers gravitate toward this form factor because it also leaves ample room for mouse movement.

As a 60-percent keyboard, it's missing several keys, but all those features and more can still be accessed via Logitech's new remapping and secondary functionality KEYCONTROL system.

TSMC's list of its biggest customers has been teased. The top seven customers are Apple, NVIDIA, AMD, Qualcomm, MediaTek, Broadcom, and Intel, in that order.

In a new media report from Ctee citing unnamed investors, TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) has 7 main customers with their chips being fabbed in Taiwan: Apple with 25% of revenue for TSMC in 2023, NVIDIA is second with 11% and AMD third with 7% revenue generation for TSMC.

These companies -- Apple, NVIDIA, AMD, Qualcomm, MediaTek, Broadcom, and Intel -- all use TSMC's newer advanced processes. The report says that 5nm market share sits at around 70-80% while 3nm market share over 90%, which is thanks to the insatiable demand of high-performance computing (HPC) which includes AI chips like NVIDIA's A100 and H100 AI GPUs, AMD's new Instinct MI250 and MI300 series AI GPUs.

Microsoft has just announced it will invest $2.9 billion over the next two years in Japan, increasing its hyperscale cloud computing and AI infrastructure in the country.

The company will also boost its digital skilling program, aiming at providing AI skilling to over 3 million people in the next three years, to open its first Microsoft Research Asia lab in Japan, and increase its cybersecurity collaboration with the Japanese government.

Microsoft's various investments will support Japan's "key pillar to tackle deflation and simulate the economy by expanding the infrastructure, skilled talent, and security required to accelerate Japan's digital transformation and adoption of AI". This new $2.9 billion investment will be Microsoft's single largest investment in its 46-year history in Japan, which is also the site of Microsoft's first international office.

Samsung invited a bunch of press to check out its new 2024 line-up of TVs and one of the biggest focusses for the company was the new Neo QLED 8K, which we were lucky enough to go hands-on with.

The Neo QLED 8K is Samsung's latest flagship TV, with much of the focus being on the new AI-powered features thanks to the company's NQ8 AI Gen3 processor, which Samsung says marks a "significant leap in AI TV technology". Notably, this new processor delivers twice as much performance than its predecessor, which can be found in the 4K line - the Neo QLED 4K. So, what's inside the Neo QLED 8K? The gorgeous TV packs many AI-powered features such as upscaling capabilities that Samsung says will take any source video and bump it up to as close to 8K as possible.

During the event we asked what source video was playing during the demo, and Samsung said it was 4K footage. Looking up close at the Neo QLED 8K it was clear to see a significant bump in quality when compared to a 4K TV. However, we didn't get to see any 1080p, or 720p video content upscaled to 8K, which is the large majority of what people consume. As for other AI features, Samsung has implemented AI sound technology called Active Voice Amplifier Pro, a feature that's designed to extract dialogue in content from background noise and make it easier to hear.

GamerTech announced its new Magma Glove gaming gloves at PAX East 2024 last month, featuring active heating that optimizes hand performance in cold environments while gaming. Alright, now I've seen it all. Check out the new Magma Glove below:

The new Magma Glove features active thin film heating that GamerTech designed for cold gaming sessions, with the new esports gloves utilizing a reflective layer that keeps heat inside the glove, with thin layers of graphene carbon heaters in particular parts of the hand and wrist, keeping your hands at optimal temperatures. The gloves feature a timed heating cycle, which wearers can tweak with three different heat settings.

It might not seem like much, but with esports gaining more and more respect throughout the world -- especially with the International Olympics Committee agreeing that esports is a legitimate sporting activity -- competitive gamers are winning huge prize pools at tournaments and online. Just like regular sports, the temperatures of gamers have a negative effect on reaction times, with hand agility decreasing across all activities in cold temperatures... even a tiny fraction of a delay can result in a loss.

Ubisoft has just announced it has partnered with Intel as its exclusive CPU launch partner for Star Wars Outlaws, which will see optimizations for 14th Gen Core CPUs and game bundles for select 14th Gen Core CPUs and laptops. Check it out:

The partnership between Ubisoft and Intel will see performance optimizations for Intel's current-gen 14th Gen Core "Raptor Lake Refresh" CPUs that will ensure Raptor Lake-S and Raptor Lake-HX processors will have the very best experience possible when playing Star Wars Outlaws.