TT Show Episode 28 - Neuralink gaming, PSVR 2 comes to PC, AI movies, GTA 6, and more!
This week on The TT Show, Jak and Kosta discuss everything Neuralink, from the first brain implant patient telepathically playing games like Mario Kart and Civilization to how it might cure blindness.
In the world of generative AI, NVIDIA's LATTE3D to create 3D models sounds like a great idea for game development, but OpenAI's video-generation AI being used to create Hollywood films doesn't. Jak and Kosta also look at the new $5,000 AI benchmark tool built on Stable Diffusion's image generator from 3DMark creators UL Solutions.
Plus, Grand Theft Auto 6's potential delay to 2026 and what that means (basically, we'll have to wait longer to play it), PSVR 2 comes to PC, Meta Quest 3 Lite is coming soon, scientists discover an OLED breakthrough that could eliminate burn-in, and more.
Scientists solve the mystery of a celestial object hiccupping
Astronomers detected a burst of bright light 848 million light years away from Earth back in December 2020, and now a new study has detailed why this unusual behavior took place.
The team traced the burst of bright light to a region of space with a supermassive black hole at its center, and since then the black hole has been relatively quiet. But during the time of activity the energy released from this region of space strangely dipped every 8.5 days before it completely settled down to near-zero activity. These releases of energy are similar to having celestial hiccups.
A new study published in the journal Science Advances details the use of the X-ray telescope NICER (the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer), which is aboard the International Space Station. The researchers gathered four months of data on the region of space, and after analyzing the data the team landed on the conclusion that an object was passing in front of the supermassive black hole, causing the dips in energy every 8.5 days.
Continue reading: Scientists solve the mystery of a celestial object hiccupping (full post)
South Korean search giant Naver moves from NVIDIA, orders $752 million of AI chips from Samsung
Samsung will make the next-generation Mach-1 artificial intelligence (AI) chips for Naver Corporation, a deal worth up to 1 trillion won ($752 million USD).
With its new deal with Samsung, south Korean search giant Naver will significantly reduce its reliance on NVIDIA for its AI processors. Samsung's System LSI business division has agreed to supply AI chips to Naver, with the two companies in "final talks to fine-tune the exact volume and prices," according to "people familiar with the matter," reports KED Global.
Samsung expects the price of the next-gen Mach-1 AI chip to be around 5 million won ($3756 USD or so) with Naver wanting to receive between 150,000 and 20,000 units of its new AI accelerator according to the same sources. Naver is a leading Korean online platform giant, where it will use the next-gen Mach-1 AI chips in its servers for AI inferencing, replacing the chips that it received from NVIDIA.
Elgato's new Facecam MK.2 adds new features and lowers the price of the popular 1080p60 webcam
Elgato has announced the arrival of the new and improved Facecam MK.2, which brings more features and capabilities to the popular 1080p60 webcam while dropping the MSRP from $199 USD to $149 USD compared to the original.
On the physical side, the Facecam MK.2 is slimmer than the original, thanks to a new low-profile design. Elgato finally added a privacy shutter, too, which was missing in the 2021 original. The good stuff comes with the new image processing, which delivers better out-of-the-box color accuracy, improved low-light performance, and the ability to record 1080p60 HDR video.
The Facecam MK.2 is also fully supported by Elgato Camera Hub, which offers in-depth controls over all camera aspects, from zoom to FOV to aperture and exposure settings. Camera Hub also integrates NVIDIA's AI-powered RTX Broadcast features and tools, bringing everything together in one handy spot.
Blizzard makes Overwatch 2's new hero 'Venture' playable for FREE this weekend
Overwatch 2's upcoming DPS hero, Venture, has been unlocked early, with developer Blizzard making the new hero available for free this weekend. Check Venture and all of her abilities out below:
Venture is a new DPS hero with a new "Smart Excavator" weapon that allows you to use the drill to move around the battlefield, while her "Burrow" ability lets you dig underground and re-emerge underneath or beside enemies. This provides players with both an offensive and defensive tool when playing Venture in Overwatch 2.
Diablo 4's game changing Season 4 PTR patch notes includes over 10,000 words of changes
Diablo 4 is changing. Season 4 will change how loot and crafting work, overhaul some class items, skills, and abilities, and expand the endgame with new modes and features. It's an update so massive that Blizzard will let players test all the changes early via a PC-only PTR playable from April 2 to 9. The Diablo 4 team will use this as an opportunity to "make adjustments to Season 4 before it goes live for everyone."
After detailing the changes coming during a live stream last week, today we've got the full PTR Patch Notes for the massive overhaul coming to the game. To say the list is long would be an understatement; clocking in at over 10,0000 works; these are the sort of patch notes where you'll need a bunch of time and a strong coffee to get through.
With fundamental changes being made to how loot, crafting, and putting together a build works, there are so many changes being made to class items, skills, Legendaries, and Unique Items that this update will fundamentally change how Diablo 4 plays.
Chinese brand VASTARMOR launches Radeon RX 7900 XTX Super Alloy, highest 7900 XTX boost clock
VASTARMOR has just launched their new Radeon RX 7900 XTX Super Alloy graphics card, around 4 months after the Chinese company first unveiled the new RX 7900 XTX design. Check it out:
The new VASTARMOR Radeon RX 7900 XTX Super Alloy features the highest GPU boost clock of any RX 7900 XTX on the market, with 2680MHz out of the box. This means VASTARMOR's new RX 7900 XTX Super Alloy graphics card has a higher boost clock than Navi 31 is capable of. This is the same 2680MHz that we find on the ASRock Taichi and Aqua cards, PowerColor's Liquid Devil, and SAPPHIRE's NITRO+ variants.
VASTARMOR's new card is a chunky boi, measuring in at a large 33cm long and 6.9cm thick, which makes it one of the biggest graphics cards on the market. The company includes a triple-fan cooler, with ARGB lighting, too. Pricing kicks off at 6799 RMB (around $940 USD), which means it's considerably cheaper than the MSRP of the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, which was priced at 7999 RMB.
ZOTAC unveils new AI-powered ZBOX Mini PCs with Intel and AMD AI CPU options
ZOTAC has just announced three brand-new compact form-factor Mini AI PC systems powered by the latest processors and NPUs for AI workloads from Intel and AMD.
The new ZOTAC Mini AI PC systems feature Intel Core Ultra "Meteor Lake" and AMD Ryzen 7840HS "Hawk Point" APUs, both with integrated NPUs (Neural Processing Units) that are used for AI workloads. First, we've got ZOTAC's new ZBOX M Series PC with Intel's latest Core Ultra 7 155H and Core Ultra 5 125H "Meteor Lake" CPUs.
The ZOTAC ZBOX Edge MI672 and MI652 feature a beautiful low-profile design that looks fantastic. Thanks to the LPE cores inside the Meteor Lake CPU, it's also power efficient. Intel includes integrated Arc graphics that pack up to 2x the performance of previous-gen chips, so you can enjoy some light-level gaming on the ZBOX Edge MI672/MI652 Mini AI PC systems.
Cyberpunk 2077 has made over $750 million since launch
Including the best-selling Phantom Liberty expansion, Cyberpunk 2077 has made over $750 million since launch.
CD Projekt's latest earnings report proudly announced that Cyberpunk 2077 has made over 3 billion Polish zloty, or about $754.8 million when converted into USD based on historical exchange rates. These revenues are from sales of both Cyberpunk 2077 on two console generations and PC, as well as Phantom Liberty sales on PS5, Series X/S, and PC.
"Last year, owing to the successful release of Phantom Liberty, Cyberpunk 2077 further raised the revenue bar to 3 billion PLN. We are confident in the strength of our product. Supported by the franchise flywheel, we expect it to generate solid revenue flows for years to come, solidifying its status as a long seller," said CD Projekt joint CEO Michal Nowakowski.
Continue reading: Cyberpunk 2077 has made over $750 million since launch (full post)
First foldable iPhone might not come until 2027, report claims
The world of smartphones might be full of foldable phones from most of the biggest names in the game, but Apple has so far refused to join in. To date, no foldable iPhone has launched and rumors about such a device's development are all over the place. While it's thought that Apple is indeed developing a foldable device of some description, when it will launch and what it will have to offer is unclear.
Now, a new DigiTimes report claims that Apple continues to work on a foldable iPhone but the news isn't positive. According to that DigiTimes report, Apple has moved some of the Apple Vision Pro engineers onto the foldable iPhone program but there is now an expectation that it will launch either in the fourth quarter of 2026 or the first quarter of 2027; That means that anyone hoping to buy a foldable iPhone is going to be waiting a good long while before it arrives. If, indeed, it ever does.
Apple is thought to be concerned that the current state of foldable display technology still isn't in a position to be able to offer the kind of experience that Apple wants.
Continue reading: First foldable iPhone might not come until 2027, report claims (full post)
Apple sues former employee who leaked the Journal app and Apple Vision Pro
Apple has long been one of the companies that manage to keep leaks to a minimum compared to some others like Samsung, but there are still plenty of leaks to go around. Apple is notoriously ruthless when dealing with employees who leak information to members of the press, and now it seems to have decided that it has to sue one former employee, too.
According to the lawsuit, reported by MacRumors, one now-former Apple employee was leaking information to specific news outlets and was responsible for information about the iOS 17 Journal app leaking to the public. It's also argued that he was the source of leaks relating to spatial computers, suggesting some of the Apple Vision Pro leaks were due to him.
The employee in question is Andrew Aude with Apple's lawsuit detailing some of the leaks. In the case of the Journal app, aude leaked the finalized features for the app to a journalist at The Wall Street Journal, Apple says. The same month the outlet posted a piece detailing Apple's plans for a journaling app.