Latest News - Page 1097

Members of the Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (TOSV) club have spotted the truck in California.

Driving down California Highway 580 on June 14th, 2022, a member of the TOSV passed a Tesla Semi and captured it with the inbuilt cameras of the driver's Tesla. The sighting of the Semi is the first since April earlier this year, when the Semi was spotted alongside other vehicles in Tesla's lineup at Gigafactory Texas before the Cyber Rodeo event.

The first deliveries of the Semi were originally due for January this year, with fifteen units due for PepsiCo by the end of the month. However, supply constraints have resulted in multiple delays for the Semi, and as a result, the Semi is still being developed and tested. Nevertheless, this hasn't stopped the demand for the Semi, which has also seen orders placed by Karat Packaging, which creates food packaging items.

Chinese researchers have published a new study in Nature Communications that confirms a major Moon discovery.

According to the researchers, China's Chang'e 5 lander has collected lunar rocks and confirmed via onboard analysis with its instruments that the rock samples contain water. Notably, Chinese researchers were able to estimate the amount of water molecules within some types of moon rocks - 120 parts per million and 180 parts per million (ppm) in other rocks.

The rocks were then studied by a team of researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences on Earth and found that the mineral apatite was 179 ppm, which was close to the earlier estimates from Chang-e 5. For quite some time, astronomers and researchers have suspected that lunar soil contains some degree of water molecules, but now we have a much better idea of the specific amount of water contained in some soil samples.

Meta is planning on taking TikTok in a head-to-head as major changes are coming to Facebook that will make the platform directly compete with ByteDance's highly popular app.

According to a leaked internal memo, originally made public by The Verge, Mark Zuckerberg, and other Meta executives want to compete with TikTok, and to do this, several changes need to be implemented to Facebook. Firstly, the memo states that Meta developers are planning a complete redesign of the Facebook app, and the overhaul will mostly concentrate on Facebook's main feed being transformed into what was described as a "discovery engine" by Tom Alison, head of the Facebook app at Meta.

These changes would implement major changes to Facebook's main feed that will prioritize recommended content from pages, users, as well as people/pages that aren't being followed. Essentially, Facebook's main feed would be changed to similar to how TikTok's "For You" page works. Notably, the memo states that users will see fewer posts from friends and family, as well as the addition of bringing Messenger back to the Facebook app as the company believes that users will use Messenger as a vehicle to share discovered content.

A London-based agency has performed a survey and found that Apple is ranked as the world's most valuable brand.

The new survey conducted by Kanter provides a list of the top 100 most valuable global brands based on their recent financial performance and consumer impact/research across 4 million users in 51 different markets. According to the survey, Apple is ranked 1st, with Google and Amazon following behind in second and third place, respectively.

Notably, Apple reached the top spot in the rankings with a valuation of $947 billion, which means that the brand is close to becoming the world's first trillion-dollar brand. Furthermore, Amazon actually lost a few places compared to previous years, with Jeff Bezos' online marketplace falling from 1st to 3rd in 2022. The survey states that Amazon's brand value grew by just 3%, while Google has risen a shocking 80% in brand value.

A new report has been released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that links hundreds of crashes to "self-driving" cars.

Reports indicate that 392 crashes in 10 months (July 1st, 2021 and May 15th, 2022) were linked to advanced driver-assistance technologies, and out of those 392 reported crashes, the NHTSA found that 70% or 273 were Tesla vehicles operating with Autopilot or the Full Self-Driving beta. Notably, of those 273 Tesla-related crashes, five were fatal crashes.

The report also states that Honda cars using some kind of semi-autonomous driving technology were linked to 90 crashes, and Subaru was tied to 10. Other car manufacturers such as Ford, GM, VW, and Toyota were involved in five crashes or fewer. As noted by Steven Cliff, the NHTSA administrator, there are approximately 830,000 Autopilot-enabled Tesla vehicles throughout the US, making it the most common semi-autonomous car, and is likely why the electric car manufacturer has dominated the crash report.

A group of astronomers have discovered a new multiplanet system that resides within our galactic neighborhood and maybe the closest known multiplanet system to Earth.

The astronomers, some of which are from MIT, initially used NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) to discover the multiplanet system, which contains a small and cool M-dwarf star now named HD 260655. Additionally, the researchers found two terrestrial Earth-sized planets, which are believed to be rock worlds that have relatively tight orbits around HD 260655.

Due to the orbits of both of the rocky planets being relatively tight, the researchers believe that it's likely the Earth-sized planets aren't habitable as the planets would be exposed to the extreme temperatures of their local star. Despite the planets likely not being suitable for life, astronomers and researchers are still excited about the discovery as the planets are prime prospects for atmospheric study.

NASA's Perseverance rover is currently scouring the surface of the Red Planet looking for past signs of ancient life that may have inhabited the planet long ago.

Throughout its adventures, Perseverance has encountered many things that are both interesting and unexpected, and now NASA researchers can add another event to their "unexpected" list as Perseverance has located a piece of trash. Taking to Perseverance's official Twitter account, NASA explains that the rover discovered the trash jammed in a jagged rock and was later able to identify that the trash is a thermal blanket that was used to protect the rover from Mars' harsh atmosphere as it descended to the surface.

The Twitter account states that "it's a surprise finding this here" as the descent stage crashed approximately 1.24 miles away from the location of the thermal blanket. Questions have now been put forth as to whether the thermal material landed in this location or was blown there by martian wind. Now that Perseverance and NASA's team have enjoyed discovering some long-lost landing equipment, the rover will be directed to get back to its main task - exploring the Jezero Crater.

A big fan of Tesla recently received his brand new 2022 Model Y and has realized it has come with a slew of serious issues.

The buyer, Dylan Hong, posted to his YouTube channel giving a detailed run-through of his new car. Hong found that the interior of the vehicle was covered in a film of dust that covered most surfaces. Additionally, Hong found that the glove box was uneven and unable to fully latch into place unless it was forced harshly. Hong points out that the 2022 Model Y is currently going for about $65,000 and that his "new" vehicle arrived dirtier than what would be expected when purchasing a brand new car.

The cleanliness of the delivery wasn't the worst of Hong's problems with the new Model Y, as Hong found that one of the back interior trim pieces was not aligned correctly, allowing Hong to see the pins. Furthermore, when driving, Hong noticed that there was a high-pitched ringing noise coming from the back of the car. Hong contacted Tesla regarding the ringing noise and the several uncompleted trim alignments, and the company replied by saying that the shipped vehicle was within its specifications.

US researcher Christopher Balding has said that he has evidence that China is siphoning data from Americans' smart coffee machines.

IoT home appliances have absolutely ballooned in popularity and use over the last few years, with Balding's new report at New Kite Data Labs adding that China spying on Americans through smart coffee machines isn't the worst of it -- it's the issue with the always-connected, connect-everything, Internet of Things future we're living in.

The data collection from coffee machines is part of a larger effort of China, and I'm sure many other countries -- all behind the US and its alphabet agencies of course -- with low security and data policies that aren't clear to most people. Balding said: "China is really collecting data on really just anything and everything. As a manufacturing hub of the world, they can put this capability in all kinds of devices that go out all over the world".

NVIDIA's new GeForce Game Ready 516.40 WHQL drivers are here, offering the usual best day-0 gaming experience for Fall Guy: Free for All. Not only that but there's the usual support for new and updated titles on the market.

This includes NVIDIA Reflex technology for ICARUS, as well as ray tracing for Jurassic World Evolution 2, Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3, and Resident Evil 7. Jurassic World Evolution 2: Dominion Biosyn Expansion is now here, which introduces Ray-Traced Ambient Occlusion (RTAO) effects, "making dinosaurs and your carefully-crafted dino parks look even better".

Resident Evil fans with GeForce RTX-powered GPUs on the PC will enjoy Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3, and Resident Evil 7 Biohazard PC releases with Ray-Traced Global Illumination (RTGI) and Ray-Traced Reflections. The new updates are available now, so if you haven't updated your game yet, once you do you'll get the new ray tracing effects ready with the new GeForce Game Ready 516.40 WHQL drivers.

Ark 2 has an official release window of sometime in 2023, with the announcement following a new trailer for the game, giving us a better look at Vin Diesel and his character, Santiago. Check it out:

The new Ark 2 cinematic trailer describes the world of the game, with some fantastic visuals for your eyes -- while the sequel to the super-successful Ark: Survival Evolved features third-person gameplay with "advanced character traversal mechanics include mantling, free-climbing, parkour, sliding, and swinging" says developer Studio Wildcard.

Ark 2's new trailer has Vin Diesel riding a T-Rex, and I'm not even joking. He's with his family -- of course, Vin Diesel is big on FAMILY for anyone who watches the "Fast" movies -- with his character Santiago joined by his daughter Meeka, who is voiced by Auli'i Cravalho who voiced Disney's Moana.

Elon Musk has been whipping his opponents as well as everyone who doesn't like him, into an absolute mental meltdown with his constant tweets... now throwing his support behind Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for president in 2024.

In some new tweets over the last 24 hours or so, Musk said that he backed the successful Republican congressional candidate -- Mayra Flores -- during a special election in Texas on Tuesday. Musk said: "I voted for Mayra Flores - first time I ever voted Republican. Massive red wave in 2022".

Tesla Owners Silicon Valley tweeted, asking: "I assume republican for president 2?" to which Musk replied: "tbd" to which he was replied, asking "what are you leaning towards" which is when Musk dropped the big one: "DeSantis".

GUNNIR has just unveiled the world's first custom Intel Arc A380 graphics card, with the introduction of the new GUNNIR Arc A380 Photon 6G OC graphics card. Check it out in all its custom Arc glory:

The new GUNNIR Arc A380 Photon graphics card features a tight dual-slot design, a single 8-pin power connector, and 6GB of GDDR6 @ 15.5Gbps (slower than the reference 16Gbps GDDR6). There's an aluminum block as a heat sink, keeping the Intel ACM-G11 GPU cool.

Intel's new Arc A380 desktop GPU has a 2000MHz base GPU clock and 75W TBP, with the custom offering from GUNNIR in the new Arc A380 Photon 6G OC rolling out with a maximum GPU clock of 2450MHz and higher 92W TBP. We don't know how the base + maximum GPU clocks work just yet, but with the "OC" branding on the card it'll be interesting to see what sub 100W can do.

Starfield will support mods on consoles and PC, and will give creators all sorts of new ways to redefine gameplay.

Starfield wouldn't be a Bethesda game without mod support. Luckily the new space RPG will indeed come with a creation kit similar to previous Fallout and Elder Scrolls games. Bethesda's Todd Howard commented on Starfield's new mod setup but didn't get exact specifics on what to expect.

"We've learned that people do play our games for a really, really long time. People are still playing Skyrim. Certainly we're going to be doing extra content for this game, and we love our modding community. We actually think this game for our modding community is going to be a dream because there's so much they can do. We think that's a great thing," Howard said in a recent IGN Unfiltered interview.

Starfield will let you live your best space-age life, whether it be an intrepid voyager of the stars or an interstellar culinary master.

Starfield will continue Bethesda's penchant for offbeat and irreverent humor. There's LSD fish, a bunch of funky planets, and weird critters scuttling around on moons. Sure there's lots of realism here--the stark coldness of space for one, the do-or-die FPS combat for two--but players will also get a taste of whimsy too.

Speaking of tastes: One of Starfield's starting classes is a Chef. Apparently cooking will play a big part of Starfield, which makes sense considering the dearth of materials and aliens you can collect/harvest across the game's 1,000 planets. We don't know how in-depth the cooking system is (hopefully it's as robust as FFXV) but we'll at least be able to make "specialty food and drink".

Sony will reportedly reveal a new premium PS5 DualSense controller aimed at professional and enthusiast gamers.

A new higher-priced PlayStation 5 DualSense controller is coming from Sony, sources tell games insider Tom Henderson. The new controller is specifically aimed at pro players and will feature upgrades similar to the Xbox Elite Series 2 controller from Microsoft, including swappable analog sticks, trigger stops, and back paddles.

The new PS5 Elite controller will retain features of previous DualSense controllers including more actuators/trigger haptics, however the new model will be more advanced with trigger stops to increase sensitivity and reduce latency. Another breakthrough feature is being able to completely remove the controller's entire analog stick mechanism.

Considering the pedigree of his contributions to the fantasy genre, Brandon Sanderson is a definite authority on myth and magic. He's also a gamer. Combine these two together and you have a special type of curator that can deliver very targeted recommendations to his fans.

Brandon Sanderson, the author of books and series like Mistborn, Wheel of Time, and the Stormlight Archive, loves Elden Ring (and Dark Souls in general). Fun fact: Bandai Namco wants to collaborate with Sanderson on a new game, and the writer is all for it.

Sanderson recently put out the first in his series on Why You Should Play Elden Ring, a rare let's play series where Sanderson gives glimpses of his past and talks you through key segments of the game. The first video is illuminating and shares Sanderson's early gaming experiences while touching on why he thinks fans should try out FromSoftware's new game.

GSC Game World shares a haunting look at life during the Russian invasion, confirms that STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl has been delayed to 2023.

STALKER 2 developer GSC Game World is at the heart of Russian invasion of Ukraine. The studio recently gave a harrowing update on current events, revealing a resilient spirit of developers who continue to work in dire conditions where raid air sirens go off right outside their windows, Some devs are working from washrooms, others in corridors and hallways. Others, like animator Oleksandr Levchenko, worked even though they didn't have contact with their loved ones since the war broke out.

Some of GSC's devs even joined the fight against the Russians. Lead AI designer Dmytro Iassenev joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces: "I never imaigned a war in Europe in the 21st century," he said.

For some strange reason, 343 Industries is raising the price of Halo Infinite's controversial cosmetic armor microtransactions.

According to latest findings on Reddit, Halo Infinite's full armor set cosmetic packs are becoming more expensive. Prices have for these sets recently reached a high point of 1700 credits (roughly $17), prompted much criticism from Infinite players. Armor set prices have fluctuated from 1200, 1500, 1600, and now 1700 credits over the past five months.

343 Industries originally lowered all Halo Infinite microtransaction prices in January, however prices then started to jump very shortly after online design lead Jerry Hook left the studio.

An image of a mysterious creature has recently gone viral, causing thousands of individuals to speculate online what species it could be.

The image comes from the City of Amarillo Twitter account that shared a screenshot from security camera footage taken at the Amarillo Zoo. The Twitter account explains that in the early hours of May 21, 2022, a mysterious creature was caught on film at approximately 1:25 AM. The Twitter account speculates that the creature could possibly be a person with a strange hat on or a "chupacabra," which is a legendary creature in folklore that feeds on livestock by drinking their blood.

The City of Amarillo described the creature as an "Unidentified Amarillo Object", and palmed the question off to the public to try and find out what it could be. As you can probably imagine, many people were happy to provide theories, some rational and possible, and some just claimed that the image was doctored and fake.