Latest News - Page 1093

Sony will reveal a new proprietary line of gaming hardware specifically optimized for its PlayStation 5 platform soon, sources have told Exputer's Tom Henderson.

Sony is making a new brand of enthusiast hardware and accessories aimed at premium PlayStation 5 gaming. The lineup is called INZONE, and will consist of three higher-grade PS5 headsets of varying quality: the H3 (cheaper, wired headset), H7 (wireless), and H9 (wireless, LED lighting noise-cancelling). 91Mobiles has leaked images of each headset and says the models come with 360-degree spatial sound integration to leverage the PlayStation 5's on-chip Tempest sound technology.

The INZONE lineup will also include high-end displays optimized for gaming on the PlayStation 5 with exclusive features like HDR tone mapping and picture modes for specific game genres. The displays will reportedly come in two resolution and refresh rates: a 4K 144Hz model and a 1080p 240Hz monitor. The displays are expected to feature HDR, 1ms latency, and variable refresh rate support over HDMI 2.1. Right now there aren't any PlayStation 5 games that technically support 240FPS, however a number of titles are able to hit 120-144FPS.

SpaceX has set a new record for the most reuses of a single Falcon 9 rocket booster.

On Friday, June 17th, SpaceX launched 53 Starlink satellites from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida before launching a radar satellite for the German military from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California the following day. With a third Falcon 9 launch at 04:27 UTC on June 19th from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) in Florida, SpaceX has launched three rockets within 36 hours, and all safely made it back to Earth.

The first of the three missions saw SpaceX break its rocket-reuse record, as the Falcon 9 first-stage booster used in the mission flew for the thirteenth time. The booster has flown for the launches of GPS III-3, Turksat 5A, Transporter-2, and now a total of ten Starlink missions.

A study on the Lac-Phe molecule titled "An exercise-inducible metabolite that suppresses feeding and obesity" has been published in the journal Nature.

Researchers from the Baylor College of Medicine, Stanford School of Medicine, and other institutions have identified an exercise-induced molecule that appears in the blood of mice during exercise. The molecule is a modified amino acid, Lac-Phe, synthesized from lactate and phenylalanine. Lac-Phe was found to suppress food intake by roughly 50%, without affecting their overall energy expenditure or activity.

Lac-Phe also contributed to lowered overall food intake, reduced body weight, primarily due to a reduction in body fat, and improved glucose tolerance when administered over ten days. An enzyme called CNDP2 was also identified, used in the production of Lac-Phe, and was shown to be critical in weight loss from exercise.

Being the world's richest person comes with many benefits and shortcomings, but if there is one thing that Elon Musk hasn't lost on his ride to the top is his sense of humor.

Musk, is known for his CEO position at both Tesla and SpaceX, is known for his public wit, which is mostly said on his personal Twitter account. In April, Musk shared a meme, that was likely created by him, that poked fun at Bill Gates, and it showcased Gates next to the "pregnant man" emoji with Musk's caption "in case u need to lose a boner fast". Musk followed up to that tweet with a "shadow ban council reviewing tweet".

Now, Musk is at it again by taking to Twitter to announce that he will be changing the default Wi-Fi name for Starlink to "Stinky", in an effort to get people to change their Wi-Fi names. The tweets from Musk have seemed to cause a large selection of Starlink users to change their Wi-Fi names to some obscure names. In other Elon Musk news, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO may have caused stargazers to be confused as a spiral formation of lights streaked across the night sky.

NASA's famous Hubble Space Telescope used its Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys to snap the large galaxy cluster Abell 1351.

Hubble snapped the above image of this galaxy cluster that resides in the constellation Ursa Major within the northern hemisphere. As detailed by the the European Space Agency (ESA) in its "image of the week", Abell 1351 features streaks of light that are caused by gravitational lensing, which is a phenomenon that is caused when a large celestial body warps spacetime.

These massive celestial bodies such as galaxies warp light that is being seen by telescopes, and essentially act as a magnifying glass. The image of Abell 1351 is a part of an astronomical album that is a collection of the largest galaxy clusters ever observed, which clearly demonstrate the phenomenon of gravitational lensing.

Google has been accused by US lawmakers of its search engine giving misleading results to pregnant women seeking an abortion.

A letter signed by fourteen Senators and seven members of the House of Representatives, was sent to Google last week and cited a study conducted by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) that found 11% of search results from searches using the terms "abortion clinic near me" or "abortion pill" resulted in referrals to centers that oppose abortion rights "crisis pregnancy centers".

The lawmakers wrote in the letter that Google "should not be displaying anti-abortion fake clinics or crisis pregnancy centers", adding that if Google wishes to continue listing these types of results, they should, "at the very least, be appropriately labeled". Google didn't comment on the letter directed to Alphabet's CEO Sundar Pichai, but stated the following found below.

Drake recently released his surprise album Honestly, Nevermind, and one of the songs on the album is titled "Texts Go Green".

Google tried to use the release of Drake's seventh album to explain the references Drake used in the song "Texts Go Green". Android took to its Twitter account, where it shared a video explaining that when a text is sent from any device that isn't an iOS device and received on iMessage, it's subjected to the "ugly" green color, or when an iPhone user has blocked the sender.

The Android team then pointed to the problem being entirely solvable by Apple, as the company just has to "adopt RCS (Rich Communication Services protocol)," which will, according to Android, "make texting more secure, too". Android then called upon one "super-talented engineer" to carry out its request, but as you may have expected, Apple hasn't replied.

Some residents that were lucky enough to see the event were left confused and some even scared at the whirlpool that appeared in the night sky over New Zealand.

Stargazers and anyone that was happening to look up at the night sky over the weekend at around 7:25 pm witnessed a spiral of light formations appearing in the night sky. The spiral of light streaked across the night sky and according to Alasdair Burns, who witnessed the event and spoke to The Guardian, "it looked like an enormous spiral galaxy" that was "slowly just drifting across". Notably, Burns said that many residents of his neighborhood banded together to watch the light show.

So, what was thousands of people witnessing? According to Professor Richard Easther, a physicist at Auckland University, the phenomenon isn't aliens, or anything sci-fi, but can be simply answered. The physicist explains that when a rocket is carrying a satellite into space its expelling propellant out its back, which mostly consists of water and carbon dioxide that form a cloud. This cloud is then illuminated by the sun.

Jimmy Donaldson, better known as "MrBeast," has given a substantial amount of aid to struggling Ukrainian refugees.

Donaldson posted a new video to his "Beast Philanthropy" YouTube channel that explains that there are more than 12 million Ukrainian refugees currently struggling to figure out where they are going to live, being forced out of their homes by Russia's invasion. Donaldson explains that the Beast Philanthropy team "had to help" and got into contact with several refugee centers across Eastern Europe to gather a long shopping list of supplies that people need.

The shopping list included various items such as food, toilet paper, water, medical supplies, cleaning supplies, and more. The long shopping list stacked up to a staggering $3 million, then Donaldson reached out to his local community in North Carolina to help him pack all of the purchased items to be made ready for transportation. Donaldson explained that he established his own global logistical transportation chain through Flexport.

Unreal Engine 5 is some mastercraft in engine-making technology, where older games can be modded onto it with some truly awesome results. Another one, is Zelda: Ocarina in Time... check it out:

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina in Time in Unreal Engine 5 has been ported by modder CryZENx, who explained last month: "Finally ported to UE5 and I don't regret one bit. There [are] so many new features that can boost up the development. Can't wait to take advantage of it. Also, I present the new feature from UE5 called Lumen. That stands for Global illumination ( dynamic lighting ) without baking any light".

The results are astonishing -- just on the water physics alone -- giving me some Wave Racer 64 vibes from 1996... but way, way better. Unreal Engine 5 is a sight to behold, providing a gigantic 'oomph' to the Zelda: Ocarina of Time in terms of graphics. You could sit at that beach for hours on end, especially with that beautiful score in the background.

The first custom Intel Arc A380 desktop GPU has launched... well, in China at least... with GUNNIR's new Arc A380 Photon listed for $599.

GUNNIR's new custom Arc A380 Photon GPU is listed for 3999 RMB (around $595) on the official JD webstore, but it's unavailable because it's sold out (obviously). JD is waiting for its shipment, with all of the new Intel Arc A380 graphics cards shipping with slower GDDR6.

Intel updated its own Arc A380 website, detailing the 6GB of GDDR6 memory at 15.5Gbps bandwidth -- down from 16Gbps -- reducing the memory bandwidth down to 186GB/sec, down from 192GB/sec. Intel has also confirmed that its Arc A380 desktop GPUs launching in June are limited to pre-built PCs only, so the Chinese JD.com website is the only place allowed to sell the Arc A380 GPUs in China.

Meta has displayed some new prototype VR headsets that the social networking + virtual reality giant says will drive the future of VR, displaying worlds that will be "indistinguishable from reality"... oh, and they're prototyping the new "Starburst" VR headset that is 200x brighter.

The new VR headsets are being worked on at Meta's Reality Labs Research division, with the team saying that they're using a "visual Turing test" that is a bar that needs to be met, in order to convince your visual system that what you're seeing in the virtual world, is real. The Turing test is used to see if an AI is capable of thinking like a human being.

This isn't just a simple case of higher resolution display + higher refresh rate... there's much more going on inside of these new prototype VR headsets than you'd think... especially when you compare it up to the Meta Quest 2 headset.

It looks like AMD will have its next-gen Zen 4-powered Ryzen 7000 series CPUs on sale in under 3 months' time: on September 15 according to the latest leaks.

The new date was used in a presentation in China by AMD, where it's most likely meeting with AIB partners, distributors, and everyone in between. On one of the slides you can see "9 15" at the top, which would mean 9/15 -- September 15 -- with AMD noting the new socket AM5, LGA1718, PCIe 5.0, and DDR5 technologies.

AMD could have its next-gen Ryzen 7000 series CPUs -- which according to the latest rumors will include the 7950X, 7900X, 7800X, and 7600X processors -- launching on September 15, alongside the huge flock of next-gen 600-series motherboards. AMD should be launching its new RDNA 3-based Radeon RX 7000 series GPUs the month after, in October-November, with the Navi 31-based flagship GPU expected to debut on PCIe 5.0 x16.

COLORFUL has unveiled its latest G-ONE PLUS all-in-one gaming PC, which packs everything into its height-adjustable stand, with the I/O panel at the back... and it looks fantastic.

The new COLORFUL G-ONE PLUS AIO gaming PC packs an Intel 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPU, a huge 31.5-inch IPS display with a native 2560 x 1440 (1440p) resolution at a gamer-fast 165Hz refresh rate. COLORFUL also includes built-in stereo speakers, fully customizable RGB lighting, a concealable Lift Camera, and even a built-in Qi wireless charging dock on its stand.

Inside, there's up to an Intel Core i9-12900H processor, up to 16GB DDR4-3200 (also upgradeable to 64GB) with up to 1TB of "fast" NVMe SSD storage (also upgradeable, another M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe slot). On the GPU side, COLORFUL is using an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU. The large 31.5-inch IPS panel with a native 1440p @ 165Hz is a fantastic thing to see, as AIO systems normally lock things down to 60Hz.

Sabrent has now entered the SO-DIMM memory market with the introduction of its new Rocket DDR5 SO-DIMM 4800MHz memory modules, available now for laptops, Ultrabooks, and Mini-PCs.

The new Sabrent Rocket SO-DIMM memory is available in DDR5-4800 speeds, in 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB capacities (in 1, 2, and 4 packs, too). So you can fill up a laptop, Ultrabook, or mini-PC with 128GB of Sabrent Rocket DDR5-4800 SO-DIMM memory: unleash yourself, truly, with Sabrent's new Rocket DDR5 SO-DIMM memory, opening as many Chrome tabs as you want.

Sabrent explained in its press release: "It seems like DDR4 has ruled the roost forever. Finally, new motherboards and architectures have allowed memory to grow wings with the advent of DDR5. Improved clock speeds promise up to twice the bandwidth of DDR4, all with lower voltage for better efficiency. To further help with that last bit, DDR5 has on-board power management to reduce motherboard cost and complexity. This is particularly nice for all-new, powerful laptops and embedded devices".

Intel's new Arc A380 desktop GPU has finally launched, at least in China, with its 6GB of GDDR6 memory being reduced in bandwidth silently.

GUNNIR launched its new custom Arc A380 Photon OC 6G graphics card last week with its 6GB of GDDR6 memory clocked at 15.5Gbps, down from 16Gbps. The 6GB of GDDR6 memory is on a 96-bit memory bus, with the 15.5Gbps bandwidth packing 186GB/sec bandwidth -- down from the 192GB/sec on the 16Gbps GDDR6.

The official Intel website and its Arc A380 GPU listing have 6GB of GDDR6 at 15.5Gbps bandwidth, with the company also clarifying some of the issues with what was happening with HDMI 2.1 on its Arc A380 graphics cards. Intel Arc A380 officially supports HDMI 2.1 but it is up to AIB partners to add it, partners... please use HDMI 2.1 and not HDMI 2.0 on ALL of your Arc GPUs.

ASUS and NVIDIA unveiled their new E-TN (Esports TN) panel which is the world's fastest gaming monitor, offering an incredible 500Hz refresh rate.

But now AUO reportedly has a new 540Hz "high-brush" panel under development, with MyDrivers reporting that the "specific specifications of this ultra-high brush panel have not yet been announced, and it is likely to be overclocked on a 500Hz panel, which is a product that continues to be optimized".

The site reports that "some people have tested 500Hz high-speed brushing monitors before, using Core i9-12900K , 32GB DDR5 The game PC including the memory and RTX 3090 graphics card has been verified. Even if the minimum picture quality is turned on, the frame rate under FHD resolution is only 343 frames".

UPDATE: The KOTOR II Onderon crash glitch can be bypassed with cheats: This is a known issue and will be addressed in the next patch. For now, our suggested workaround is to warp past the point where the game crashes using the cheats menu. To do so, triple click the left thumbstick, open the cheats menu, select warp, and warp to OND504. Make sure not to head to the merchant quarter, as your game will crash.

KOTOR II cannot be completed on the Nintendo Switch due to a nefarious old bug, Aspyr Media has confirmed.

Back in 2007, Obsidian rushed KOTOR II out with a bunch of game-breaking glitches and bugs. One such bug, the infamous Onderon crash, is found in the most recent KOTOR II re-release on Nintendo Switch. Aspyr Media confirms it knows about the glitch, says it also knows the game can't be completed, and assures fans a patch is on the way.

Meta has announced its new Avatars Store that will sell the equivalent of cosmetic microtransactions that customize users' appearance.

In a bid to further monetize its billions of active Facebook users, Meta is launching a new Avatars Store that will allow users to pay real money to customize their digital avatars. Much like Meta's fledgling metaverse concepts, the new Avatars Store looks amateurish compared to Xbox's own equivalent avatar system, which launched during the Xbox 360 era and has thousands of interesting add-ons, clothes, and bundled content to make representations unique.

Meta's Avatars Store, on the other hand, is teaming up with real-life fashion lines in a further attempt to merge digital and real worlds. The result looks like something out of time, not digital assets designed for the world's most popular social media network. It remains to be seen how popular these items will be, and right now Facebook's ARPU (average revenue per user) is about $9.54 worldwide, with the US & Canada raking in nearly $50 per user last quarter.

Nintendo has announced a new Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Direct showcase for Wednesday, June 22.

The new Xenoblade Chronicles 3 direct will show 20 minutes of new information on the game, including RPG mechanics, gameplay, and other features. Nintendo recently moved the release date for Xenoblade Chronicles 3 up by two months.

Reports claim that Nintendo will be breaking up its regular E3-timed shows into smaller Directs that focus on individual games. Reporters like Jeff Grubb say this should be the case throughout June: "This fits with what I heard about Nintendo doing their summer showcases in bits and pieces. I still expect more news later this month," Grubb said on Twitter.