Latest News - Page 1018

NASA has pulled off a world's first by successfully colliding a man-made spacecraft into a distant asteroid with the goal of altering its orbit.

NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) recently struck the binary asteroid system Didymos-Dimorphos, located approximately seven million miles from Earth. The DART spacecraft impacted the smaller of the two asteroids, Dimorphos, which orbits its larger companion asteroid, Didymos. NASA's goal was to prove that a spacecraft approximately the size of a vending machine, when traveling at extremely high speeds, is capable of changing the orbit of an asteroid - the world's first planetary defense demonstration.

Astronomers on Earth gazed up at the asteroid system on the day of the impact, looking for any changes in the asteroid. Italian astronomer Gianluca Masi live-streamed his observations via the Virtual Telescope project, which showcased Dimorphos gaining in brightness following the impact of the DART spacecraft. The above GIF showcases the increasing brightness, which, according to Masi, completely exceeded his expectations for the event.

New reports surfacing online have revealed that Twitter ran advertisements from prominent companies on profiles that were spreading child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

A new report from Insider states that the publication learned Twitter had run certain advertisements for products or services on profiles that were spreading CSAM and that following the discovery, Twitter has informed marketers that the social media platform has suspended the profiles in question. Advertisements that were run on these egregious profiles were from companies such as Coca-Cola, Disney, and NBC Universal, whose ads appeared next to the explicit and banned content.

The problem of CSAM material appearing on Twitter and other social media platforms has been around for quite some time, and Twitter last stated that it has implemented software that removes 91% of CSAM-spreading accounts. Notably, Twitter also said that during the second half of 2021, it removed 31% more profiles related to CSAM material. Reuters has reported that in light of these advertisements being misplaced, companies such as Dyson and Mazda have either suspended marketing campaigns with Twitter or decreased advertisements.

Intel hosted its recent Innovation 2022 event in San Jose this week, unveiling the new 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" CPUs, announcing the release date and price of its new Arc A770 graphics card, and had custom Arc A770 and Arc A750 graphics cards on display.

We can see that the GUNNIR Intel Arc A770 while ASRock had two cards teased: the Phantom Gaming Arc A770, and Challenger Arc A750 graphics cards. We should expect a little bit of overclocking fun on the custom Arc graphics cards, with one of them an "OC" model that should have GPU clocks higher than Intel's own Arc A770 Limited Edition graphics card.

GUNNIR's new custom Intel Arc A770 graphics card was on display, teased with a triple-fan cooler and 2.2-slot design with dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors (up from the 8+6-pin PCIe power connectors on the Intel Arc A770). I really dig the design here, as it feels like it's the best of the AMD Radeon Vega Frontier Edition + Radeon VII graphics cards.

Intel's new Arc A310 graphics card has just been teased on the official Intel website, with some specifications on Intel's new entry-level desktop Arc GPU.

The specifications for the Intel Arc A310 point to the entry-level GPU featuring 6 Xe-Cores clocked at either 2100MHz or 2000MHz -- as there's some conflicting information here -- with Intel making the Arc A310 graphics card on TSMC's N6 process node.

Intel's entry-level Arc A310 graphics car has 4GB of GDDR6 memory clocked at 15.5Gbps on a 64-bit memory bus, with up to 124GB/sec of memory bandwidth and a 75W TDP. Intel's own website says that the Arc A310 launches in Q3 2022, meaning we only have a couple of days left for that to happen or someone is going to have to go in and ninja-edit that entry.

AMD's next-gen Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series "Storm Peak" CPU has been teased, packing 64 cores and 128 threads of Zen 4 processing power on the new 5nm process node at TSMC.

A new entry for a chip with the ODN code "100-000000454-20_Y" with the CPU finding itself in the "Family 25 Model 24 Stepping 1" which makes it part of the Zen 4 architecture. It looks like AMD's new Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series CPU is being teased here, codenamed "Storm Peak".

We have 64 cores and 128 threads for the HEDT market and desktop PCs with a Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series "Storm Peak" CPU, which matches the max 64C/128T of CPU power that the current-gen Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5000 WX-series CPUs: but they're based on the older Zen 3 architecture.

Intel has launched its XeSS technology which has found its way into Death Stranding Director's Cut, as well as Shadow of the Tomb Raider... now updated on the PC with support for XeSS.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider received its new patch over Steam, and then was confirmed with the new Steam notes for the game where the developer explains it "added XeSS graphics support for DX12-compatible systems". CapFrameX has already used an AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card in Shadow of the Tomb Raider with XeSS enabled -- remember, XeSS works on Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA graphics cards -- with some surprising results.

In the benchmarks, Shadow of the Tomb Raider was running at 3840 x 1600 (not quite 4K) on Ultra settings with RT enabled on the Radeon RX 6800 XT with XeSS enabled. With XeSS disabled, the RX 6800 XT is capable of 46FPS average, while with XeSS on Performance mode the RX 6800 XT drives far higher frames up to 75FPS average.

Death Stranding Director's Cut has just been updated on the PC, adding support for Intel XeSS technology... before Intel Arc GPUs are even on the market, ironically.

Hideo Kojima's last game is now upgraded with Intel's AI-enhanced upscaling technology, delivering 4K visuals at performance levels of lower resolution rendering to create a "more immersive experience" in Death Stranding Director's Cut, explained in a post detailing the update on Death Stranding's Steam page.

It's good to see that a big title like Death Stranding has Intel XeSS technology support, but as big as the game is, it doesn't have a gigantic player base. Secondly, Intel (like AMD and NVIDIA do) throw money at developers like Kojima Productions, but it doesn't matter: XeSS needs to be in as many games as possible, as soon as possible.

It looks like Sony is about to deliver another PlayStation 5 game to the PC with Returnal teased, packing NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR upscaling technology support.

In the leak, we can see the PC graphics settings of Returnal which details DLSS without knowing which version (we should expect DLSS 2.x) while FSR is the same (we should expect FSR 1.x unfortunately, and not FSR 2.x) as FSR is listed as "spatial upscaler" in Returnal.

Returnal is a third-person shooter developed by Housemarque and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, released over a year ago in April 2021. It seems we have to wait over a year before Sony pushes its PS5 exclusives to the PC, but that's alright with me... it means we have some exciting PS5 games to look forward to on the PC in the future. Returnal seems to be another one of those, after the fantastic PC port of Marvel's Spider-man Remastered.

NVIDIA's next-gen Ada Lovelace GPU architecture will deliver the world DLSS 3 technology, exclusive to the new GeForce RTX 40 series graphics cards... and now Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered has been put through its paces with the Ada-powered AI upscaling tech.

We've seen NVIDIA tease the performance of its new GeForce RTX 4090 with DLSS 3 in games like Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Cyberpunk 2077, and more... but now the folks at Digital Foundry are testing with the RTX 4090, DLSS 3, and Spider-Man Remastered.

Digital Foundry has already played around with Cyberpunk 2077 and its update that will usher in Overdrive RT + DLSS 3 support, but also early drivers to the GeForce RTX 4090. The team at DF posted an article and large 30-minute video, showing off DLSS 3 with side-by-side comparisons in Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered against DLSS 2 and native 4K.

Researchers from Oregon State University want to find out if robots can improve the mental and physical wellbeing of veterans. The university is working with the Edward C. Allworth Veterans' Home in Oregon on a project with federal funding from the National Science Foundation's National Robotics Initiative.

During the initial phase of research, OSU engineers want to analyze physical therapy programs and cognitive exercise for veterans, which can be led by robots. Assuming the robot is streamlined and easy to operate, they tend to be extremely more immersive than something on a laptop, tablet, or a virtual reality system.

Robots have a certain appeal both in the home and in a veterans' home, where it can be used in group sessions - and alleviate nurse and worker burnout. The staff and residents of the veterans' home will be interviewed to figure out what specific needs they have which can be assisted by OSU researchers and their robotic research.

Ryan Reynolds has tweeted news of the next Deadpool movie, which will introduce Hugh Jackman's Wolverine into the MCU. The introduction is awesome, and just the way I'd expect Reynolds and Jackman to be in Deadpool 3.

Ryan is being his usual self, tweeting that it's been hard keeping his mouth sewn shut about this one, after news back in late 2019 that Deadpool 3 would be with Marvel Studios (which is now owned by Disney). Ryan starts off by trolling us as usual, saying that he's been working on Deadpool 3 but he's been coming up blank... but we all know he knows what's going on.

Just as Ryan says "but we did have one idea" as Hugh Jackman (or at least a body double, or VFX) walks behind him, to which Ryan quips "Hey Hugh, you want to play Wolverine one more time?" to which Jackman replies "Yeah, sure, Ryan".

Sony's new PlayStation Stars rewards program launches next month on October 5 in North America.

PlayStation Stars is kind of like a side quest for, you know, PlayStation gaming: Get a quest from an NPC (in this case, the PlayStation App), complete the objective, and get a reward. It's a lot like the Xbox quests system that Microsoft put out many years ago.

The new program will reward players for completing various challenges and tasks in specific games, creating a perpetual cycle of fulfillment through playing games. There's even daily log-in bonuses, similar to those used in live service games.

Verizon has announced the Razer Edge 5G, a new powerful gaming handheld optimized for high-performance cloud gaming and remote console game streaming.

While the Steam Deck and the Nintendo Switch deliver dedicated games to the handheld market, a new frontier is emerging: cloud gaming handhelds. Following Logitech's muted jump into new market with its lower-powered mobile G Cloud handheld, Razer, Verizon, and Qualcomm are defining the upper end of the nascent market with the new Razer Edge 5G.

Razer's new Edge 5G is an Android-powered mobile handheld with controllers on the sides, a la Switch, and is based on Qualcomm's potent G3x Gen 1 gaming platform that was revealed back in November 2021. Qualcomm says the G3x supports TV or monitor output at up to 4K 144FPS for enthusiast cloud gaming.

Amazon, the biggest online retailer and No. 2 US private sector employer, continues to expand interest in robots as part of its warehouse automation.

Tasks such as searching the cabinet for the right plate or glass, grabbing it, and successfully retrieving it might not be a big deal for humans - but it's still extremely difficult for robots to complete. However, Amazon researchers are working on robotic pinch grasp, an important aspect of item-specific manipulation.

Here is what Aaron Parness, senior manager for applied science at Amazon Robotics AI, said in a press statement:

After decades of making Dynasty Warriors games, Japanese developer Omega Force is about to try something very different.

Today Koei Tecmo announced Wild Hearts, a new Monster Hunter-like game that's coming from its famed Dynasty Warriors studio. The game is being published by Electronic Arts under its EA Originals label (the same one that brought best-seller It Takes Two) and takes place in feudal Japan with towering mythical beasts to hunt called kemono.

Combat looks fluid and slick, and what's most interesting about Wild Hearts is the new "karakuri" tech, which basically let's you create traps, fortifications, siege weapons, and other fabrications Fortnite-builder style to tackle enemies. There will also be three-player online multiplayer co-op so gamers can team up with friends to take down huge hulking behemoths.

Cyberpunk 2077 is back in the limelight after a huge comeback story as CD Projekt RED shares new sales figures.

CD Projekt RED today announced that Cyberpunk 2077 has sold 20 million copies worldwide since its launch in December 2020. To put the number in perspective, that is half of The Witcher 3's lifetime sales of 40 million.

For even more perspective we can chart the game's overall sales rates from release to present. Cyberpunk 2077 sold an astronomical 13.7 million copies at launch, making it one of the best-selling games of the year, but sales dropped significantly thereafter when the game was pulled off of the PlayStation Store due to big performance issues.

In the United States, there is a nationwide effort to ramp up the adoption of electric vehicles, with states creating ambitious plans to ban the sale of gas-powered vehicles. To assist in this effort, the Biden Administration announced the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Deployment Plan for all 50 states has been approved.

The effort is designed to install EV chargers across 75,000 miles of highway spread across the US. The bipartisan infrastructure law aims for a charging station every 50 miles, with states able to select where these chargers are located. These chargers must be fast, able to recharge a vehicle's battery in 15 to o45 minutes, based on which car model is being serviced.

US states have access to $1.5 billion of a total $5 billion in funding designed for building EV charges over the next five years. Each charging station must have at least four fast-speed plug-ins and non-proprietary chargers able to connect to any type of EV.

Global logistics company DHL has expanded its partnership with Locus Robotics, a company specializing in manufacturing autonomous mobile robots used in warehouses. Wider adoption of AMR technology from Locus will ensure DHL fulfillment centers are able to meet increasing volume - including seasonal shopping demands - as we quickly approach the Christmas holiday shopping season.

The DHL Supply Chain has worked to develop and adopt digitization as the supply chain and logistics industry has undergone continued change. Besides growing orders among shoppers, there is increased pressure for same-day and next-day delivery, which opens the door to logistical headaches. The AMR devices can be deployed based on demand changes or potential staff shortages at each fulfillment location.

DHL announced last year it would bring 2,000 Locus robots to its warehouses throughout 2022 - the autonomous resources help improve employee productivity, reduce employee walking time, and improve worker ergonomics. This relationship initially began in 2017, when Locus Robotics strengthened DHL's piece picking order fulfillment behavior inside of warehouses.

YouTube channels are continuously impressing with how many views content creators can get, and there is no one more representative of that fact than MrBeast.

Jimmy Donaldson or better known as MrBeast, has amassed more than 100 million subscribers on his platform and has recently appeared on Andrew Schulz's FLAGRANT podcast, where he explained his tactics for content creation, video ideas, and how much time he has spent researching how to make a "good" YouTube video. MrBeast has set the gold standard for YouTube video creation and even spawned multiple channels to expand into different languages.

Furthermore, MrBeast has moved into products with a food chain called MrBeast Burger and a chocolate brand called Feastables. During the podcast, Donaldson explained his early childhood of making YouTube videos and the eventual gigantic growth his channel saw. More notably, Donaldson says, without diving into any specifics, that he was once offered in passing $1 billion for his entire channel and all his companies. MrBeast says that the offer wasn't on official term sheets, but the people that proposed to him would be able to afford it.

A study on the flooding of Mars titled "Layered subsurface in Utopia Basin of Mars revealed by Zhurong rover radar" has been published in the journal Nature.

China's Mars rover, Zhurong, has used its radar imager to detect evidence of two major floods that likely shaped the Utopia Planitia region the rover has been exploring since it landed on the Red Planet on May 14th, 2021. Its radar imager can see up to 100 meters (328 feet) below Mars' surface using low-frequency radar waves or between 3 and 10 meters (9.8 to 32.8 feet) below the surface with high-frequency radar waves.

Radar signals reflect off subsurface materials, and the radar data reveals the size and ability of the materials to hold electric charges, with stronger radar signals correlating with larger objects. A layer between 10 and 30 meters below the surface likely contains large boulders near the bottom, with smaller rocks that settled on top, as the reflecting signals were stronger the deeper they went.