Latest News - Page 1096

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has sat down with Twitter employees to answer a series of questions regarding his acquisition of Twitter and any potential coming changes.

Elon Musk has previously explained in small portions what he believes Twitter should transform into. He has mentioned implementing an expansion of freedom of speech on the platform and rolling back some of the current moderation. Musk has previously said that he is against permanent bans and that he would unban former President Donald Trump and other banned accounts while also removing any form of content moderation that is outside of the written law.

Musk was asked for his thoughts on freedom of speech at the recent meeting, where he explained that for Twitter, there is "freedom of speech or freedom of reach". The Tesla CEO then used an example of an individual being able to legally able to "walk into the middle of Times Square and deny the Holocaust", but that doesn't mean that individuals message should be reached by millions of other people. Adding that he believes people should have the right to say "pretty outrageous things that are within the bounds of the law".

Elon Musk has sat down with Twitter staff and answered a series of questions regarding what he believes Twitter will become under his control.

Musk entered into a $44 billion acquisition of the world's second largest social media platform, and since then Twitter employees have been concerned about what his acquisition means for their positions (once its gone through) and how handing over the reins to the company will impact it.

Now Musk has sat down for an all-hands meeting where he explained that he personally uses Twitter to express himself, "Some people use their hair to express themselves. I use Twitter" and that there is a line between being able to express ones self and how many people that expression reaches. Notably, Musk praised China's platform WeChat and how that platform is the center point for social media as users "basically live on WeChat".

Ferrari has said that it will have 60% of its fleet of vehicles electrified by 2026, promising 40% of its cars will be combustion, and 60% of them hybrid or full-electric by 2026.

The luxury car maker recently unveiled its first production plug-in hybrid -- the Ferrari SF90 Stradale -- but that was 2019 and three years later, Ferrari is full-speed ahead with its EV vehicles. Ferrari has 4 different model EVs: Stradale, 296 GTB plug-in V6 hybrid joined by the pure ICE 812 Superfast V12 and Roma V8 vehicles. Ferrari teased that its new Purosangue SUV will be here in September in full combustion at first.

Ferrari teases that the first full electric Ferrari will be unveiled in 2025, "rooted in the Prancing Horse's heritage, drawing from a broader technical expertise to further enhance driving thrills. Its unique features, leveraging the racing know-how, will make it a true Ferrari, ensuring it stands out across all dimensions: engine power density, weight, sound and driving emotions".

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) has just unveiled its updated process technology roadmaps, some new information on the next-gen N3 process nodes, and more at its 2022 TSMC Technology Symposium.

TSMC unveiled its new FinFlex technology for N3, which allows chip designers -- like Apple, AMD, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and others -- to choose the best options for the key functional blocks on the same die, using the same design tool set.

Godfrey Cheng, Head of Global Marketing, TSMC, explained on the official TSMC website that TSMC's new FinFlex technology: "extends the product performance, power efficiency and density envelope of the 3nm family of semiconductor technologies by allowing chip designers to choose the best option for each of the key functional blocks on the same die using the same design toolset. These options include a 3-2 FIN, 2-2 FIN and 2-1 FIN configuration with the following characteristics".

Ford's new F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck is a mobile powerhouse, offering some incredible power not just as a car -- but as a gigantic, portable battery that can power your power tools, charge up a dead Tesla EV, and even your house.

Yes, the Ford F-150 Lightning can charge your house. Ford isn't the only one, but they're the biggest name by far that is doing it, and has a car on the market here, and now. At least a few of them. Being able to charge your entire house during a power outage, Ford is really changing what it means to be "just a car".

The 9.6kW of Intelligent Backup Power on the Ford F-150 Lightning can power an entire home for up to 3 days if the battery on the F-150 Lightning is fully charged. Ford's energy services lead, Ryan O'Gorman, explains: "If your F-150 Lightning is plugged in when your outage occurs, Intelligent Backup Power will automatically kick in to power your home. When power is restored, the truck automatically reverts to charging its battery".

The Boring Company has just received approval from the City of Las Vegas, so that the Elon Musk-led company can extend its tunnel network underneath the city, to downtown Las Vegas.

Clark County Commissioners first approved the Vegas Loop, which was planned as a 29-mile tunnel network that was connected to 51 stations. But with the expansion approval, it will boost up to a bigger 34-mile tunnel network with 4 more stations: 55 in total, with connections to Harry Reid International Airport and the Allegiant Stadium.

If you forgot how the Boring Company tunnel network works, the Vegas Loop will see passengers get into a human-driven Tesla Model X or Model Y electric vehicle -- underground, in a series of networked tunnels -- and boosted off to their destination with much, much more time to spare than driving on the roads.

Microsoft announced the news that it would be retiring its first-ever browser -- Internet Explorer -- after 27 years on Windows.

The memes flew out the door pretty quickly, with so many jumping in and taking a laugh that Internet Explorer was used by billions of people to purely download another browser: Google Chrome, Opera, Firefox, and many others. But, back in 1995 when Microsoft launched Internet Explorer (IE) as an add-on with "Microsoft Plus!" for its flagship Windows 95 operating system, I was there.

It was the portal to the internet for a then 12-year-old tech and gaming nerd, as it was launching before "the internet" was really a thing. You got AOL CDs in the mail... people referred to it as the "Information Superhighway"... and the world was totally (but didn't) end at the stroke of midnight on January 1, 2000. We survived the "Millenium Bug". But now, the browser that delivered all that information through those tubes... has been retired.

Valve's next-gen Steam Deck 2 could have quite the performance upgrade thanks to some refreshed AMD technologies, with the new portable handheld from the makers of Half-Life packing the purported "Little Phoenix" APU from AMD.

The new information on Valve's next-gen Steam Deck 2 handheld is coming from leaker Tom @ Moore's Law is Dead, who said that his sources told him "Little Phoenix is a "Van Gogh successor" and began "late in its development cycle" with the goal to "build an Ultra Low Power & Compact version of Pheonix".

Inside, the APU reportedly features 4 cores and 8 threads on AMD's next-gen Zen 4 CPU architecture, with 25-35% higher PPC and boost clocks that could reach 4GHz. Valve would also get some big GPU upgrades from the AMD RDNA 3-based GPU, which should see the next-gen Steam Deck 2 with over 50% more performance than the GPU inside of the first-gen Steam Deck.

Ford's new F-150 Lightning is a beast of an electric truck, with the huge battery inside of the F-150 Lightning capable of charging up an empty Tesla... acting as a portable Supercharger.

The reality of re-charging a Tesla started with F-150 Lightning owners posting on a forum, using the J1772 Adapter for Tesla vehicles, which is sold by EV charging company, Lentz. There are reports that the Ford F-150 Lightning actually includes a free Tesla charging adapter, which is a dig at Tesla obviously.

Most vehicles have the standard J1772 charging connector, but Tesla uses a proprietary connector that works with its Supercharger network. Ford owners laughed, talking smack on forums with comments like "we can help all those poor dead Teslas" and "I'll add a bumper sticker 'Tesla Rescue Squad'".

Sony is teaming with Honda to form a separate company for their blossoming joint electric vehicle partnership, announcing today that the company is called Sony Honda Mobility Inc.

Sony Honda Mobility Inc. will be based in Tokyo, with operations expected to kick off later this year, while the first electric vehicle from the two Japanese companies won't hit the streets until 2025. Sony and Honda each have an equal 50% share of the company, with Honda executive Yasuhide Mizuno appointed chairman and CEO, and Sony EVP Izumi Kawanishi president and COO.

In a new press release on Sony's website, the company explained: "The new company will aim to bring together Honda's cutting-edge environmental and safety technologies, mobility development capabilities, vehicle body manufacturing technology and after-sales service management experience, with Sony's expertise in the development and application of imaging, sensing, telecommunication, network and entertainment technologies, to realize a new generation of mobility and services for mobility that are closely aligned with users and the environment, and continue to evolve going forward".

Blizzard promised it would make things more clear at its Overwatch 2 reveal event, and the developer did: Overwatch 2 is completely free-to-play, has NO loot boxes, will have a new season every 9 weeks, and Battles Passes are being thrown into the mix.

Overwatch 2 will be launching with 3 new heroes -- Sojourn, Junker Queen, and another unknown support hero -- while another big change to the OW roster is the new Battle Pass system. Blizzard will be giving Overwatch 2 players cosmetics (skins, etc), XP boosters, and more with up to 100 levels to unlock.

Season 1 of Overwatch 2 kicks off on October 4, when the game launches, while Season 2 starts 9 weeks later on December 6. There will be 3 new heroes launching with the game, another tank hero with Season 2, and "new heroes" promised for future seasons. A new map and 30+ skins will launch with Season 2, as well as a new Mythic skin.

Final Fantasy VII Remake's second chapter, Rebirth, will release on PS5 in Holiday 2023, Square Enix has announced.

Today was a big day for Final Fantasy VII fans. Square Enix revealed FF7R part 2 Rebirth, a new standalone chapter that features prequel and flashback sequences from the original Final Fantasy VII story arc. The trailer shows the days when Cloud and Sephiroth were allies in the ranks of SOLDIER. There's also flashbacks that include Zack, too.

Creative director Tetsuya Nomura comments that the dev team has been able to work much faster on Rebirth due to a streamlined process. Nomura and his team have actually started work on the third game.

Dragon's Dogma II is officially in development, Capcom today announced during a special 10th anniversary franchise stream.

Details on Dragon's Dogma II are very light outside of the development confirmation. Capcom did say the game will be built with its powerful RE Engine tech, the same engine that is being used for its newer Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, and Street Fighter titles. It's likely that Dragon's Dogma II will also be exclusive to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

"Dragon's Dogma 2 is currently in development! Everyone in the development team is hard at work creating a game that we hope you will enjoy! Please look forward to it!" said Dragon's Dogma director Hideaki Itsuno during the 10th anniversary event, discussing the creation of the game's original backstory with other developers.

Overwatch 2 will not have lootboxes and will instead have a direct cosmetic storefront instead, Blizzard has announced.

After making billions from lootboxes in Overwatch 1, Blizzard is changing its strategy with Overwatch 2. The new shooter will now have two primary monetization points: A new battle pass for every season and an in-game storefront where players can directly purchase cosmetics, skins, and other trinkets.

"Players will also be able to unlock new cosmetic items through the new in-game store and battle pass, as well as complete weekly challenges. The game is going to feel fresh all the time," Blizzard said during a recent Overwatch 2 stream.

Activision-Blizzard tells investors that there is no actual evidence of widespread and systemic sexual harassment or gender discrimination at the company.

Today Activision-Blizzard released a new 8K filing that reveals the results of its investigations into the scathing allegations of harassment. The billion-dollar games publisher has formally declared its board of directors and external advisors did not find evidence that management or CEO Bobby Kotick willingly hid or ignored harassment complaints.

Activision relied on "outside advisors" and former EEOC chaiman Gilbert Casellas (1994-1998) to review the evidence, which includes correspondence and internal documents, for signs of systemic harassment.

NASA's upcoming Artemis I mission will fly over three million people's names around the Moon.

Artemis I is the first mission in NASA's Artemis program, which is set to return astronauts to the surface of the Moon, hoping to establish a more permanent presence from which NASA can stage missions to Mars for its Moon to Mars initiative. Artemis I will comprise an uncrewed test flight around the Moon using the new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft.

Aboard this flight will be a flash drive containing over three million names collected by NASA, and will be placed inside the Orion spacecraft. Before NASA stopped accepting further submissions, 3,390,384 "boarding passes" were claimed using NASA's website.

A study on the extra chromosomes titled "Detection and characterization of male sex chromosome abnormalities in the UK Biobank study" has been published in the journal Genetics in Medicine.

Data from over 207,000 men included in the UK Biobank has revealed that an extra sex chromosome, either an X or Y, may be prevalent in as many as 1 in 500 men. Typically, men are born with one X chromosome and one Y chromosome, however, in the dataset, were 213 men with an extra X chromosome, resulting in the XXY genotype, and 143 men with an extra Y chromosome, resulting in the XYY genotype.

Also referred to as 47,XXY and 47,XYY, the genotypes are called Klinefelter syndrome and Jacobs syndrome, respectively. Only 23% of those with Klinefelter syndrome had a known diagnosis, while only 0.7% of those with Jacobs syndrome were diagnosed. However, the latter has much more subtle characteristics that could contribute to a lower diagnosis rate.

Satellites from Maxar Technologies spotted preparations for rocket launches in Iran on Tuesday, June 14th.

The launch preparations are underway at the Imam Khomeini Spaceport for the Islamic Republic of Iran's new Zuljanah three-stage rocket for carrying satellites to orbit. The rocket is slated to be launched two more times after a previous launch at the same site where numerous failed attempts to launch satellites to orbit have occurred.

Satellite imagery captured a rocket on a transporter at the site, and later that day, a rocket was lifted onto the launch tower. Reporters questioned Ned Price, the spokesperson United States Department of State, about the launch preparations, who said, "Iran has consistently chosen to escalate tensions. It is Iran that has consistently chosen to take provocative actions."

China has a very itchy 'non-war' trigger finger for Taiwan, mostly to seize and take control of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) with its own "special military operation"... and no one will be able to condemn China if it launches the attack.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has signed a new directive that allows for the "non-war" use of its military, described as a "special military operation". It went into effect on Wednesday and could allow China to invade Taiwan -- and seize TSMC: which makes chips on Taiwanese soil for the biggest companies in the world (Apple, AMD, Intel, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and many more) -- without anyone being able to condemn China if it invades.

The directive will provide "provide 'the legal basis for troops to carry out military operations other than war", these include peacekeeping operations, disaster relief, humanitarian efforts, and more. Considering that US president Joe Biden has said that the US would military defend Taiwan if China attacked, if Jinping does launch an assault on Taiwan with a "special military operation", Biden would have to sit on his hands... along with NATO, the UN, and every other leader in every other country on the planet.

Bill Gates spoke at the TechCrunch climate conference on June 14th, 2022.

Gates has previously been vocal about his misgivings about cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), questioning their viability and opposing the massive carbon footprint associated with mining them and processing their transactions on the blockchain.

Gates joked during an interview at the conference that "obviously, expensive digital images of monkeys are going to improve the world immensely, we all know that, and that's so incredible," referencing the notorious Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs.