TT Show Episode 32 - No Rest For the Wicked, Far Cry 7, and Australia vs. Elon Musk
Things get political this week on The TT Show when Jak and Kosta dig into the recent controversy surrounding Elon Musk, X, and the Australian government's attempt to censor specific content. Then, it gets even more political when the topic switches to the US government deeming Microsoft a security risk because all agencies depend on its software.
Plus, Intel partners with the Pentagon to develop microchips for what we can only assume is stuff you'd consider "not good." But hey, that's just the show's second half, as the first half is full of in-depth impressions for No Rest From the Wicked. Thel attest game from the studio behind the excellent Ori series blends Diablo with Dark Souls to deliver something special.
Jak and Kosta also talk about the upcoming rumors surrounding Ubisoft's Far Cry 7, which will feature Mr. Oppenheimer himself, Cillian Murphy, as the villain. Plus, Sony has announced a new PlayStation overlay with PSN Friends and Trophies for its PC games.
Some users say their iPhone's alarms aren't working, but Apple's already on it
If you woke up this morning and found that you were late for school or work, or missed that important appointment that you had planned, you aren't alone. It seems that a bug has prevented some people's iPhone alarms from making any sound, and people have been taking to social media to complain ever since.
The issue seems to have started affecting some people a few days ago, and although it isn't impacting everyone who sets an iPhone alarm, it definitely seems to be enough of an issue for Apple to act soon - an NBC report notes that Apple is already aware of an issue causing some iPhone alarms not to play a sound when required and that it's already working on a fix.
Unfortunately, Apple hasn't yet said what the issue is or when the fix will be rolled out, so we also don't know whether there is a workaround that people can use in the interim. The result is that people who would normally rely on their iPhone's alarm to make sure they get up in the morning might want to consider taking another route for the foreseeable future.
The iPhone 16 could get the iPhone 15's funky color-infused glass finish
Apple is strongly expected to announce the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro families of devices at an event likely to take place this coming September, and we're hearing more and more about the unconfirmed devices as time rolls on and that launch gets closer. We heard recently that it was possible Apple could bring the iPhone 15's color-infused back glass to the iPhone 16 Pro, and now a new report has said that the finish will come to the iPhone 16.
While it isn't yet clear whether this report leaves the iPhone 16 Pro out of the equation because it isn't expected to get the same finish, or if it is just a case of the leaker believing they covered all bases by iPhone 16, time will no doubt tell. However, it does look increasingly likely that at least one of the new models will take the same finish as last year's non-Pro models.
This latest report comes via Weibo-based leaker 'Fixed focus digital' in a post picked up by MacRumors. According to the report the leaker claims to have seen an iPhone 16 color scheme, adding that the same process used on the iPhone 15 will also be used for the back glass of the new models. It's already been suggested that new colors will be added to the mix this year, with a potential for seven colors being offered to iPhone 16 buyers.
Claims Apple's OLED iPad Pro will use a new M4 chip given weight by a new iPadOS code discovery
Over the last few months, there have been almost never-ending rumors that Apple is getting ready to launch an all-new OLED iPad Pro with both 11-inch and 12.9-inch screen sizes expected. We'd been told to expect the tablets to upgrade the current M2 chips to the latest M3 silicon, as would make the most sense. But a report over the weekend suggested that Apple had chosen to skip the M3 entirely and usher in a new wave of chips with the arrival of the new 2024 iPad Pro.
That was according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman with the chip in question being the unconfirmed M4. We already knew that Apple was working on Macs that would use the M4 series of chips and that it intended to launch them towards the end of this year and the beginning of next. But now it appears that Apple could give the new chip to the iPad Pro first.
Following Gurman's claims 9to5Mac now reports that code found in the iPadOS 17.5 beta suggests that the M4 chip might actually be used despite reservations among those following along with Gurman's report. The code was found to reference new display firmware for the OLED iPad Pros, as expected, but it's the model identifiers that are most notable; iPad16,3, iPad16,4, iPad16,5, and iPad16,6.
Microsoft OneDrive cloud storage finally gets an offline mode - with a catch
Microsoft's OneDrive is getting a mode that allows you to work with your files in the storage locker when you don't have an internet connection.
The catch we mentioned in the headline? This is that the feature is rolling out to begin with only to OneDrive work and school users (across the globe), but surely a broader deployment to consumers will follow soon enough.
How does offline mode work with OneDrive? You can continue to interact with the following views: Home, My files, Shared, Favorites, People, and Meeting.
Windows 11 has a couple of useful tweaks in testing for File Explorer and widgets
Windows 11 has a couple of fresh changes which are hidden in preview builds, which a leaker has uncovered using ViVeTool.
As anyone who follows Windows leaks will doubtless be unsurprised to learn, this is PhantomOfEarth (who accounts for a lot of spillage around the OS, as well as Albacore on X).
The first change which has been dug up using ViVeTool (the Windows configuration utility) is an improvement for File Explorer tabs which you can see in the above tweet.
Manor Lords sold a million copies on launch day, set new Steam player record for strategy games
Manor Lords, which became the most wish-listed game on Steam during its development, is now out - and day one sales reflect its most-wanted status.
For those who missed it, Manor Lords is a medieval-themed city builder that mixes constructing a settlement with a side order of tactical battles - and some seriously nifty visuals.
As publisher Hooded Horse declared in a post on X (formerly Twitter), on the initial day sales topped 1 million copies on Steam. Manor Lords also managed to achieve the highest ever concurrent player count for a city builder on Valve's platform, with some 173,000 PC gamers indulging in being a Lord at the same time on launch day.
Elon Musk lays off senior Tesla executives, even a production supervisor who lived in his car
Elon Musk has just terminated multiple senior executives at Tesla, with hundreds of other Tesla staffers let go at the 'send' button of an email from Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
The Information is reporting that Musk wrote in an email to Tesla staff that were being laid off: "Hopefully, these actions are making it clear that we need to be absolutely hardcore about headcount and cost reduction. While some on exec staff are taking this seriously, most are not yet doing so".
Rebecca Tinucci, senior director of Tesla's Supercharger business, and Daniel Ho, the head of new products, will both be leaving Tesla today. Tesla has a global workforce of around 140,000 with the electric vehicle giant ordering a culling of over 10% of its workforce, which results in 14,000+ layoffs. The hundreds of people let go today are just a new wave of layoffs, it seems. Two senior leaders, battery development chief Drew Baglino, and Patel have both announced that they're leaving Tesla.
AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su named 2024 CEO of the Year by Chief Executive Magazine
AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su has been named 2024 Chief Executive of the Year by her peer CEOs, in an announcement from Chief Executive magazine today.
Dr. Lisa Su was selected by an independent committee of CEOs for her work in leading "one of the most spectacular turnarounds in the history of the technology sector". AMD has gone from second-best to class-leading with its Ryzen and EPYC processors, the company has semi-custom designs inside of Microsoft's Xbox Series X/S and Sony PlayStation 5 consoles, as well as countless handhelds, laptops, and more.
Ed Bastian, chief executive of Delta Air Lines and Chief Executive magazine's 2023 CEO of the Year, who served on this year's selection committee, said: "Lisa Su's leadership in transforming AMD into a global leader in innovation and technology is truly remarkable. Just as impressive is the fact that she never forgets the people behind the technology-her employees and customers are always front and center. Her values-led approach is exactly the type of leadership we need as we move into an exciting and unprecedented future driven by AI innovation and emerging technology".
China's black market price of NVIDIA's H100 AI GPU has plummeted, H200 is coming soon
The price of NVIDIA's Hopper H100 AI GPU in the Chinese black market is coming down "rapidly," with spot prices falling more than 10% in the short term.
In a new report from UDN, the market is watching the impact of this wave of selling on the overall supply and demand, and whether the normal market for AI GPUs will be affected. NVIDIA's new H200 AI GPU is about to be released, upgraded with HBM3E memory, meaning that the price of AI servers with H100 AI GPUs on the black market in mainland China have plummeted in anticipation of H200.
At the time of replacing the old H100 AI GPUs with newer H200 AI GPUs, scalpers who previously had lots of stock of H100 AI GPUs are trying to get rid of them all -- and sometimes, in large quantities -- which is quickly bringing the price down on the black market.
Samsung's new Apple Vision Pro competitor will use OLEDoS panel from Sony for its XR headset
Samsung is reportedly set to use an OLED on silicon (OLEDoS) display provided by Sony for its new extended reality (XR) device.
The news is coming from Korean media outlet TheElec, which reports that Samsung's smartphone business has decided to use Sony's display over its own in-house Samsung Display panel. Samsung is working on its own OLEDoS panel technology, with TheElec pointing out that Samsung needs a new person to look over the development of new semiconductor products (and not just consumer electronics, but electronic components, including OLED panels, transistors, and more).
TheElec also points out that Samsung's smartphone business should've used Samsung Display technology over Japanese competitor Sony, "if there had been close collaboration between the Samsung affiliates in the first place".