SpaceX's Starship launch vehicle has recently passed a major hurdle in its construction, and now SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has teased its launch may happen earlier than expected.

On October 21, SpaceX successfully completed a static fire test with its SN20 Starship prototype, and this static fire test is no small achievement as preparations are being made for its first orbital flight test. SpaceX has previously said that Starship's first orbital test flight would likely occur within a couple of months or before the end of the year, but now SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has teased via Twitter that the test flight could occur next month.

At the moment, the launch of SpaceX's largest orbital vehicle is "pending regulatory approval" from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which is essentially an official license that grants SpaceX approval to launch the new vehicle. Musk took to Twitter on October 22 and said, "If all goes well, Starship will be ready for its first orbital launch attempt next month, pending regulatory approval." Patience and timing are the two things the public and SpaceX must now wait for as the space transportation company gears up for its biggest launch yet.

Apple's new MacBook Pro laptops are here with 14-inch and 16-inch offerings powered by Apple's latest M1 Max SoC, with powerhouse mobile performance that rivals laptops and desktops, all on a 5nm chip fabbed at TSMC.

The new Apple 2021 MacBook Pro 16.2-inch model has received a quick teardown treatment by @L0vetodream on Twitter, showing that the new MacBook Pro is cooled by a single heat pipe and dual fans. Apple's new M1 Max SoC does not require massive amounts of cooling, with the thermal design of the new MacBook Pro allowing for 50% more airflow with lower fan speeds.

Apple's energy efficiency out of the new M1 Max SoC and TSMC's new 5nm process node is showing its strength here, with the teardown revealing the new 2021 MacBook Pro and its M1 Max SoC is surrounded by 4 memory chips, and compares it to a small coin. Impressive stuff that, as a nerd, is really awesome to see.

EA DICE has announced that Battlefield is receiving its first non-binary character, which will launch with Battlefield 2042 as a new Specialist: Emma "Sundance" Rosier.

Battlefield 2042 fans noticed that descriptions for the character had "they/them" pronouns, so one gamer asked EA DICE what was going on. EA DICE community manager Adam Freeman explained: "Yep. Sundance is non-binary and uses the Pronouns They/Them".

"Sundance" has her their own special traits and abilities, with Emma being from France and is an Assault-class Specialist with a wingsuit that allows for faster entry in objectives and tactical situations. Sundance also has Smart Explosives, which can be used to take down enemy aircraft.

Phison has revealed some juicy new details on the future of SSD controller technology, with future PCIe 5.0, PCIe 6.0, and PCIe 7.0 connectivity on the way.

The next-gen PCIe 5.0, PCIe 6.0, and PCIe 7.0 SSD technology was talked about during MSI's recent Insider Livestream, where Phison CTO Sebastien Jean talked about all things next-gen SSDs and PCIe tech. He said that it takes around 16-18 months to develop a brand new SSD design, while the technology and enabling for a new silicon process node starts 2-3 years earlier.

Phison says that it has begun work on low-level components for PCIe 6.0 SSDs and expects them to be here in 2025-2026, a few years from now. As for what to expect from PCIe 6.0 SSDs we can expect up to 32GB/sec from a PCIe 6.0-based SSD, up from the 14-16GB/sec we're going to see from PCIe 5.0-based SSDs with Intel's new Alder Lake and Z690 platform launching in a few days, and up from the 7-8GB/sec you get from PCIe 4.0-based SSDs.

ADATA has thrown another hat into the DDR5 memory ring with the unveiling of its new XPG LANCER DDR5 gaming memory that has RGB lighting.

The new ADATA XPG LANCER DDR5 memory comes in kits of up to 16GB and speeds of up to DDR5-5200, with ADATA adding in a PMIC (Power Management Integrated Circuit) and ECC (Error Correcting Code) for enhanced performance and stability.

ADATA reiterates that the company is using high-quality ICs and PCBs to "ensure uncompromised performance and reliable overclocking, ideal for discerning gamers and overclockers. With support for Intel® XMP 3.0, users can get overclocking easily without the need to go into BIOS. There is no need to repeatedly adjust and fine-tune overclocking parameters".

ASUS will be debuting a new tweak to its ROG Maximus and ROG Strix motherboards, with the ASUS PCIe Slot Q-Release.

The new ASUS PCIe Slot Q-Release would be a special button on the ROG Maximus and ROG Strix motherboards, which will make it much easier to pull your graphics card -- no matter what it is -- out of the new PCIe 5.0 x16 slot on the Z690-based ASUS ROG Maximus and ROG Strix motherboards.

There's nothing like this on any MSI or GIGABYTE motherboard, even the new Z690 motherboards, so ASUS will make it much easier for graphics card reviewers -- hey ASUS, I need this new ASUS PCIe Slot Q-Release button and ASUS Z690 ROG Strix motherboard -- as it will make putting in, and taking out -- and in again -- easier than ever before.

NVIDIA has released its new GeForce 496.49 WHQL drivers which are Game Ready for some of the very latest, and greatest games for the last few months of the year.

The new GeForce 496.49 WHQL drivers have Game Ready support for Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, Battlefield 2042 Early Access, Call of Duty: Vanguard, Chivalry 2, Forza Horizon 5, Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition, Jurassic World Evolution 2, and Riders Republic.

NVIDIA is also adding in support for 6 new G-SYNC Compatible displays that provide VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) support. These monitors include 2 from AOC 24G2W1G4 and AOC AG274QS3R1B+, 3 from ASUS in the XG27AQM, VG32AQ1LA, and XG249CM, and then 1 from MSI with the MPG321QRF-QD. All of these monitors now have VRR between 60-165Hz on the MSI, 48-270Hz depending on the ASUS model, and 48-170Hz depending on the AOC model.

AMD has announced its new Accelerated Data Center Premiere Virtual Event for November 8, 2021 -- barely 2 weeks away, where we should be introduced to the next-gen Instinct MI250 accelerator, and new EPYC Milan-X processors.

We should be introduced to the first multi-chip module design (MCM) GPU which will come in the form of the new AMD Instinct MI250X and MI250 accelerators, rocking the codename Aldebaran GPU. We only heard a couple of days ago that the Instinct MI250X would feature an MCM GPU with 110 Compute Units (CUs) and 128GB of super-fast HBM2e memory.

Not only will AMD introduce the MCM-based Aldebaran GPU, but also the next-gen EPYC Milan-X CPU which will reportedly offer up to 64 cores and 128 threads on the Zen 3 architecture. 64C/128T on Zen 3 + 280W TDP and a gigantic, mind-blowing 768MB of L3 cache.

MOV is not one file format but rather a format envelope that can be made up of any of dozens of codecs, resolutions, and frame rates from basic DV through H.264, HEVC to ProRes, and other pro formats. However, most apps on your computer try only to support MOV with codecs that come from common consumer cameras. Converting MOV to MP4 before posting to social media or sharing with someone who doesn't have a Mac is therefore a pretty good way to avoid compatibility issues.

In this article, I'm going to offer a quick primer on how to convert MOV to MP4 with a great converter. Whether you're an experienced user or a newbie for video conversion, you can turn any 4K/HD videos from MOV into MP4 easily.

First get the free converter

WinX Video Converter - Some of you may have heard of it, but for those who haven't, WinX Video Converter is a free MOV to MP4 video converter which is incredibly helpful to convert any video into the format you want with the best results.

Microsoft makes history with a new all-time record for Xbox's Q1 revenues, driven by a massive spike in console sales.

Microsoft kicked off its Fiscal Year 2022 with a bang. Xbox earnings hit $3.593 billion, up 16% year-over-year and a new high for any Q1 period in the history of Microsoft gaming. Microsoft says this uptick in revenues was driven by a huge 166% jump in Xbox console sales primarily due to significant Xbox Series X/S demand. This Q1 performance follows another record year for Xbox with over $15.37 billion earned through FY21.

"Gaming revenue increased $501 million or 16% driven by growth in Xbox hardware," Microsoft writes in an SEC filing.