Corsair Platform:6 Elevate Modular Desk Review

Corsair Platform:6 Elevate Modular Desk Review

A desk for giants. Corsair's Platform:6 Elevate modular computer desk takes motorized desks to new heights with its solid and well-thought-out design.

Nintendo confirms when it will announce the next Nintendo Switch

Jak Connor | Gaming | May 7, 2024 8:39 AM CDT

The president of Nintendo has confirmed when the company will make an announcement regarding a successor to the Nintendo Switch - something fans have been dying to know for many months now.

Nintendo confirms when it will announce the next Nintendo Switch

If you have been following along with the Nintendo Switch 2 news, you will know there have been plenty of rumors and leaks of information regarding Nintendo's next console, with some pointing to support for higher than 60FPS gameplay, and others saying the console will come with "electromagnetic suction" Joy-Cons, along with an 8-inch display. While all of the rumors haven't been confirmed, Nintendo has finally confirmed when it will be announcing its next-generation console.

Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa took to X and stated Nintendo will make an announcement regarding the successor to the Nintendo Switch "within the discal year". The president of Nintendo made a point to mention the Nintendo Switch was announced in March 2015, making its existence 9 years old, an incredible age for the console. For context, the Switch became available in March 2017.

Continue reading: Nintendo confirms when it will announce the next Nintendo Switch (full post)

AMD's new Strix Point APU are reportedly called Ryzen AI 9 HX 170, big name changes with Zen 5

Anthony Garreffa | CPU, APU & Chipsets | May 7, 2024 5:54 AM CDT

It looks like we could be in for a huge naming scheme change for AMD's upcoming "Strix Point" APUs, with the new ASUS VivoBook S16 laptops featuring an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 170 processor.

AMD's new Strix Point APU are reportedly called Ryzen AI 9 HX 170, big name changes with Zen 5

We've never heard of the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 170 processor, but ASUS lists it as a 12-core, 24-thread CPU that clocks at up to 5.1GHz with 36MB of cache and Ryzen AI performance of up to 77 TOPS. Until now, no "AI" wording has made it into any processor from AMD like this, so it looks like we could see the Ryzen AI 5, Ryzen AI 7, and Ryzen AI 9 series CPUs in the near future.

ASUS will unveil the new VivoBook S16 laptops at Computex 2024 next month, and I'm sure we're going to get the official naming from AMD at their Computex 2024 press conference. The new Strix Point CPUs aka Ryzen AI 9 HX 170 processor will deliver up to 77 TOPS of AI performance from its beefed-up XDNA2-based Ryzen AI NPU and newer RDNA 3.5 GPU. The NPU on its own will provide 45 TOPS of AI workload performance.

Continue reading: AMD's new Strix Point APU are reportedly called Ryzen AI 9 HX 170, big name changes with Zen 5 (full post)

Sam Altman says AI will be able to 'know absolutely everything' about you

Jak Connor | Artificial Intelligence | May 7, 2024 5:07 AM CDT

In a new interview with MIT Technology Review, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman revealed what the future will look like with artificial intelligence-powered systems becoming more engrained in our lives.

Sam Altman says AI will be able to 'know absolutely everything' about you

The CEO of one of the companies leading the charge in AI development began the interview by saying AI tools will replace the smartphone as the most dependent piece of technology in our daily lives, and the capabilities of AI will be so great that it will feel like "this thing that is off helping you." Altman went on to describe the perfect app for AI would be a "super-competent colleague that knows absolutely everything about my whole life, every email, every conversation I've ever had, but doesn't feel like an extension."

Additionally, this level of AI could attempt things outside its known capabilities, fail, and then come back to the user with follow-up questions. The answers the user provides to those questions are then integrated into its second attempt at the task. So, what will power this crazy new AI? Altman believes there's a chance that we won't even need a specific piece of hardware to use this AI on the go, as the new app could simply access the cloud.

Continue reading: Sam Altman says AI will be able to 'know absolutely everything' about you (full post)

US government officially pays $285 million for the creation of virtual clones

Jak Connor | Business, Financial & Legal | May 7, 2024 4:32 AM CDT

The U.S. government is on a quest to reduce the strain on the microchip fabrication industry, which has progressively become more important with the rise of artificial intelligence-powered systems.

US government officially pays $285 million for the creation of virtual clones

The Biden Administration is committed to bringing chip manufacturing back to the United States, and under the multi-billion CHIPS Act, applications have been opened for $285 million in funding to develop "digital twins". Digital twins are advanced software models of hardware that can be used by engineers to identify key problems in the design of a piece of hardware. In this case, to receive funding an institute would have to create a digital twin of microchips.

The result of having a digital twin for hardware means engineers can make changes to the design of a chip before its even manufactured, speeding up the overall time it takes to design new silicone-based hardware. These virtual clones of pieces of hardware have been used in the past by the auto industry and the Space Force for satellite simulations.

Continue reading: US government officially pays $285 million for the creation of virtual clones (full post)

Helldivers 2 staffer almost fired for telling players to review bomb and refund the game

Jak Connor | Gaming | May 7, 2024 4:01 AM CDT

Helldivers 2 has had a somewhat tumultuous week following Sony Interactive Entertainment's announcement that PC gamers will soon be required to connect to a PSN account to access the game.

Helldivers 2 staffer almost fired for telling players to review bomb and refund the game

Sony has since backpedalled on that announcement, saying via the PlayStation X account that none of the the previously announced changes were going to go ahead and that it's still learning how to engage with the PC gaming community. The initial news of forced PSN and Steam connection resulted in massive backlash in the form of negative review bombing the game's Steam listing and an uproar in the Helldivers 2 Discord.

Spitz, the Helldivers 2 community manager stopped posting in the game's dedicated Discord server on Saturday, one day after the changes were announced. PCGamer reports the community manager left then server and has only returned today, telling the community he was almost fired for his last public comments about the controversial situation.

Continue reading: Helldivers 2 staffer almost fired for telling players to review bomb and refund the game (full post)

Hades 2 got a surprise Early Access release and it already has more content than the original

Kosta Andreadis | Gaming | May 7, 2024 3:28 AM CDT

Supergiant Games' Hades is not only one of the most critically acclaimed and celebrated games of all time, serving as the high watermark for narrative-driven rogue-like action games, but it was a game that went from great to genius through its Early Access period.

Hades 2 got a surprise Early Access release and it already has more content than the original

With a recent technical test for the highly anticipated Hade II proving to be a success, developer and publisher Supergiant Games has decided to launch Hades II into Early Access on Steam and the Epic Games Store.

Yes, you can play the game right now. Which, according to the team, "has more environments, foes, and fully-voiced characters than the full version of the original Hades game." However, it isn't complete with key areas, foes, and narrative events set to be added in the months ahead.

Continue reading: Hades 2 got a surprise Early Access release and it already has more content than the original (full post)

NASA supercomputer releases video of an astronaut falling inside a black hole

Jak Connor | Science, Space, Health & Robotics | May 7, 2024 3:05 AM CDT

NASA Goddard has taken to its YouTube channel to share an incredible visualization of what it would look like to fall into a supermassive black hole.

NASA supercomputer releases video of an astronaut falling inside a black hole

The space agency explains via the description of the video that a NASA supercomputer was used to create a scenario where a camera, or as NASA put it, "a stand-in for a daring astronaut," was placed within the orbit of a supermassive black hole. The camera orbits the supermassive black hole, pulled in by its intense gravity, and then passes the black hole's event horizon.

The space agency explained that the supermassive black hole within the visualization is approximately 4.3 million times the mass of our Sun, and the entire video was created using the Discover supercomputer at the NASA Center for Climate Simulation. The event horizon is the boundary around a black hole that light can no longer escape due to the gravity intense gravity of the astronomical object.

Continue reading: NASA supercomputer releases video of an astronaut falling inside a black hole (full post)

XFX's new flagship Radeon RX 7900 XTX Phoenix Nirvana GPU is four slots thick

Kosta Andreadis | Video Cards & GPUs | May 7, 2024 2:26 AM CDT

Quad-slot, triple-fan graphics cards are not unheard of, but they're massive units that push the limits of what you can fit inside a standard PC chassis and still have some room left for airflow. XFX, one of AMD's closest partners for creating Radeon graphics cards, has unveiled its latest flagship, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX Phoenix Nirvana - with dimensions (346 x 130 x 66mm) that make it one of the biggest gaming cards on the market.

XFX's new flagship Radeon RX 7900 XTX Phoenix Nirvana GPU is four slots thick

Currently available for pre-order in China, with a price that translates to around $1100 USD, the Phoenix Nirvana should make its way to global markets as the Radeon RX 7900 XTX is set to be the most powerful ADM gaming GPU for at least another year or so. So, even though the Radeon RX 7900 XTX first launched in December 2022, there's enough room to launch a new flagship variant.

With next-gen RDNA 4 targeting a more mid-range market, the Radeon RX 8800 XT is set to fall behind the Radeon RX 7900 XTX in performance. With its 24GB of VRAM, the 7900 XTX is also a capable AI GPU in addition to being a 4K gaming card.

Continue reading: XFX's new flagship Radeon RX 7900 XTX Phoenix Nirvana GPU is four slots thick (full post)

Global smartphone brand exposed to dangerous security vulnerabilities

Jak Connor | Mobile Devices, Tablets & Phones | May 7, 2024 2:01 AM CDT

A group of cybersecurity researchers has discovered multiple security vulnerabilities within a wide range of software running on devices.

Global smartphone brand exposed to dangerous security vulnerabilities

According to reports, the global smartphone brand is Xiaomi, and its security flaws are present within its own implementation of Google's Android operating system, which is a different system to the one present on Android devices in the US. Security researcher and founder of mobile security startup Oversecured, Sergey Toshin, said his team found twenty vulnerabilities throughout the Xiaomi devices, ranging from holes in the settings application to the Bluetooth software.

Toshin said the most egregious of these security vulnerabilities would have enabled hackers to gain "system privileges," which may have led to user passwords being stolen and access to social media accounts.

Continue reading: Global smartphone brand exposed to dangerous security vulnerabilities (full post)

Razer has introduced a new Adjustable Head Strap System for the Meta Quest 3

Razer's latest peripheral for gamers isn't a keyboard, mouse, or headset but an accessory for the Meta Quest 3 virtual reality and mixed reality headset. The Razer Facial Interface and Razer Adjustable Head Strap System for Meta Quest 3 are designed for comfort and VR gaming, looking to elevate the Meta Quest 3 immersion compared to the out-of-the-box experience.

Razer has introduced a new Adjustable Head Strap System for the Meta Quest 3

The Facial Interface component has been designed to improve the weight distribution of the Meta Quest 3 headset while reducing the pressure points for longer gaming sessions. It has also been designed to work with the Meta Quest 3 charging dock, so there are no compatibility issues.

With hypoallergenic materials for the Facial Interface and high-performance nylon in the Adjustable Head Strap System, the design builds on the Australian Good Design Award accessories Razer has created for previous Meta Quest models.

Continue reading: Razer has introduced a new Adjustable Head Strap System for the Meta Quest 3 (full post)