Latest News - Page 114

Meta has launched its newest smart glasses, developed in collaboration with Ray-Ban, aimed specifically at prescription wearers. Although people have already used Meta's current glasses with prescription lenses, the company has not actively targeted this market until now.

Meta claims its new glasses support nearly all prescriptions and are the most comfortable it has ever designed. CEO Mark Zuckerberg highlighted that billions of people wear glasses or contacts for vision correction, a market that Meta is now entering more deliberately.

The new glasses start at $499 and come in two styles: the Blayzer and the Scriber. The Blayzer adopts a rectangular design similar to the existing Wayfarer frames, while the Scriber offers a more rounded approach, close to the Headliner style. Both are part of the Gen 2 Ray-Ban Meta glasses lineup, but are significantly more customizable.

Sony has filed a trademark for Mimic, an interesting new experimental gun controller that may or may not actually release.

A bit of trademark research on Japanese database Chizai Watch has yielded some interesting results. According to a quick search, Sony Interactive Entertainment has recently filed three trademarks: Flexstrike, Pulse Elevate, and the semi-mysterious Mimic.

Two of these trademarks have manifested into consumer-ready products; the Flexstrike is Sony's new PS5 fighting stick, and the Pulse Elevate are the wireless speakers with built-in mics.

NVIDIA's GeForce Now update, version 2.0.83, is here, and the two changes that stand out most in this release are for Apple Vision Pro users. First, ultimate members can now stream games at up to 4K and 90 FPS, delivering crisper visuals and smoother motion. This makes Vision Pro outperform Pico and Meta Quest devices, which currently max out at 1440p and 90 FPS.

The other addition is the rollout of H.265 video decoding to browser clients on select platforms. On most platforms, GeForce Now runs through NVIDIA's dedicated app, but on Apple's mobile platforms and the Vision Pro, everything is handled through Safari instead. It functions like streaming through a browser on a desktop, just with a headset strapped to your face.

H.265 support is especially important for Vision Pro users, since it still relies on GeForce Now in the browser instead of a native app, where image quality can be more limited. The H.265 codec improves on that with better image quality and a smoother experience. NVIDIA says the update will roll out in the coming weeks on supported systems.

If you've had second thoughts about your Google Account username - which is the first part of your Gmail address, of course - then it's now possible to change it in the US.

TechCrunch spotted the announcement to this effect from Google, which means you can switch that username without having to start a new account from scratch (and that's obviously a less than ideal solution).

This ability actually began to roll out last year in the US, but Google has officially announced that it's now available to everyone (with a Google Account, naturally).

NVIDIA's upcoming DLSS 4.5 update will introduce a new feature called Dynamic Multi-Frame Generation (DMFG), but what is interesting is that it's already available via over-the-air (OTA) updates in the NVIDIA App.

It appears that new DLSS files and components have already been delivered through updates, but aren't officially "turned on" by NVIDIA. However, users have found workarounds to enable the feature, such as turning on DLSS Overdrive or tweaking settings with tools like NVIDIA Profile Inspector.

For those who don't know, current DLSS Frame Generation inserts AI-generated "fake" frames between real rendered frames to boost FPS. Dynamic Multi-Frame Generation changes that approach, as it dynamically adjusts the number of frames generated in real time (4x, 6x, etc.). Dynamically adjusting the number of generated frames will, in theory, improve image quality as the number of lower-quality AI-generated frames on-screen is reduced, providing a more balanced mix of natively rendered and AI-generated frames.

In late 2025, Insider Gaming published a report claiming that a new Lord of the Rings game was in development for a $100 million budget. Now it seems that the studio behind Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Warhorse Studios, will be the one leading the charge.

The latest stokes the fires of rumor from late 2025, with hiberner toujours writing on ResetEra that Ryszard Chojnowski, a 27-year industry veteran who's been a project lead for The Witcher, said on the Tolkien Polska podcast that he has heard from credible sources that Warhorse Studios is the development team working on the new Lord of the Rings game. Notably, Embracer Group studios hold the rights to the Lord of the Rings games, and Warhorse Studios is owned by the Embracer Group.

As for funding, the $100 million will be provided by the Abu Dhabi Investment Office. So, what can fans expect? The new Lord of the Rings game is akin to Hogwarts Legacy in design, as it's a third-person action game. Given the success of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 and the experience Warhorse Studios has in crafting immersive RPG experiences in open worlds, the new Lord of the Rings game seems to be in very good hands.

It has become somewhat of a challenge to run DOOM on the most obnoxious piece of hardware imaginable. We have seen the first-person shooter run on an Elgato Stream Deck+ XL, a pair of earbuds, and scientists have even taught 200,000 human neurons to play it. At this point, the original DOOM has become the face of "can this thing do something it was never designed to do?"

And these remarkable feats continue. This time, by cramming the game's code inside DNS text records. Meet DOOM Over DNS, a recently released port of Doom by Adam Rice that encodes the entire shareware version into 1,964 DNS text records. It can be stored within a single Cloudflare zone and then reassembled by a PowerShell script that boots the game.

To understand what's actually happening here, let's start with the Domain Name System, DNS. It is one of the oldest protocols on the internet, and it's a system that translates domain names into IP addresses. You type Facebook.com, and DNS tells your browser where to go. Simple enough.

In a new article from Bloomberg reporter and Apple insider Mark Gurman, Apple's upcoming iPhone Fold is set to be the biggest shift in iPhone design since the smartphone's inception, marking the "first actual form-factor change".

Gurman points out in the recent newsletter that Apple is known for making "big" changes to the iPhone design every few generations, citing the iPhone 4, iPhone 6, and iPhone X as examples of such overhauls.

However, when it comes to the long-rumored Fold, Apple will be doing the biggest overhaul yet to the iPhone design as it will be a completely new form factor. Apple's iPhone Fold has been rumored for quite some time, and as leaks continue to surface about its design, a fairly clear picture of its physical appearance is emerging.

It's not unusual for a social media platform to offer a paid subscription tier that provides additional features. Snapchat does this with Snapchat Plus, and Meta does it with Meta Verified. There is also X Premium. But what about Instagram?

It appears Meta is testing a new paid subscription tier for Instagram called "Instagram Plus," with social media consultant Matt Navarra showing off the subscription's offerings in a screenshot posted on Threads. The screenshot revealed that Instagram Plus will enable a buyer to create unlimited audience lists for Stories, beyond Close Friends, provide data showing how many people have rewatched your Story, a once-a-week spotlight story, animated Superlike on Stories, additional 24 hours on Stories, search within Story viewer list, and the ability to preview a story without it showing up as a view.

The new premium version of Instagram is currently being tested in select global markets, including the Philippines and Mexico. Judging from the screenshot, many of the premium features are aimed at creators, specifically the ability to keep Stories active for more than 24 hours. Depending on the price Meta lands on for Instagram Plus, I can see many creators and businesses opting in just for this feature, as it will mean more of their followers will be exposed to their content, leading to conversions, purchases, increased viewership, etc.

In a follow-up to our report from yesterday, where known insider and hardware leaker KeplerL2 took to the NeoGAF forums to confirm that the BOM (Bill of Materials) for the upcoming PlayStation 6 will cost Sony around $760 USD per console, we've got a few more notable PS6 details to share. This arrives via a few follow-up posts from KeplerL2, which claim that the $760 figure is based on the PS6 launching with 1TB of internal storage and no disc drive.

Per previous leaks, it was expected that Sony would upgrade the storage on the PlayStation 6 console to PCIe Gen5 SSD technology, with each console shipping with 2TB of internal storage. With current plans for the PS6 pointing to 1TB of internal storage, this represents an obvious cost-cutting measure alongside removing the disc drive as standard and releasing it as an optional add-on.

However, according to KeplerL2, Sony is reducing storage capacity from 2TB to 1TB because the PS6 will natively support neural texture compression, which should result in significantly smaller game sizes (in GBs) compared to the current PS5. According to early tests on PCs using similar technology, neural texture compression can also significantly reduce VRAM requirements, freeing up space for features like ray tracing and path tracing.

In a recent episode of The Town with Matt Belloni podcast, reporter Alex Heath from the Sources newsletter and access podcast discussed Disney's deal with OpenAI, and how Disney is looking to gain a foothold in the gaming space.

Disney is reportedly looking at Epic Games as its source for a substantial foothold in the gaming sector, with Heath explaining during the interview that he knows "for a fact" that some senior executives at Disney want to buy Epic Games, and how they are just waiting for the "moment". But, there is also "others who think it's a bad idea". Furthermore, Heath goes on to say that Epic Games and Disney would actually be a great fit for each other, and that if Epic Games ever sold that "Disney would be the most natural home for it."

"For a lot of reasons. For the park integration. Could you imagine a Fortnite park?," said Heath. The report goes on to say that Disney would integrate its IP into Epic Games' open-world games. Heath goes on to say that securing Epic Games would mean unfettered access to the Unreal Engine, which Disney could then use to further bolster its extensive media library. Furthermore, acquiring Epic Games is part of Disney's wider plan to turn Disney+ into a portal for consumers to access all Disney content, including games, films, TV shows, etc.

XGIMI has opened pre-orders for its new TITAN Noir series of 4K projectors, which includes the flagship TITAN Noir Max, which it claims can deliver "absolute black" images thanks to its precision Dual Iris system and high-end RGB triple-laser technology. With support for IMAX Enhanced, Dolby Vision, and HDR10+, it's built for home theaters and those looking to level up their home cinema experience.

Specs-wise, it sounds impressive, with an overall brightness rating of up to 7,000 Lumens and a native contrast ratio of 10,000:1, thanks to Dual Iris technology. XGIMI notes that its Dual Iris system is designed to preserve deep blacks for shadow detail without dulling highlights or other parts of the image. In addition, with up to 110% BT.2020 color gamut coverage, the TITAN Noir Max will deliver cinema-accurate colors.

Under the hood, it's powered by a MediaTek MT9681 SoC with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, delivering smooth performance across apps and connected media devices. And for gaming, the RGB triple-laser engine and hardware support VRR, ALLM, with a 1ms response time and up to 240 Hz at 1080p. This is in addition to a pure 24 FPS mode in 4K for watching movies.

In a recent interview, former Rockstar Audio Designer Rob Carr revealed two main ingredients that enable Rockstar to create such immersive worlds, including Red Dead Redemption 2 and the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6.

Rockstar is known for creating vast open worlds that have an impressive level of attention to detail, and during the interview, Carr explained that Rockstar has an "unlimited budget", enabling developers to essentially have no "creative restraints". Carr goes on to say that Rockstar will provide the developers, who in his case are audio, with technical constraints, but when it comes to creativity, the studio says, "There isn't any. Go nuts".

Carr goes on to give more specifics on how Rockstar approaches different parts of game development, with the former Rockstar Audio Designer saying that if you wanted to make 10,000 unique sounds for just footsteps, you would be able to, but that might not make it into the final cut of the game, as it will go through a fat trimming process. "Do we need 10,000? Probably not. Well, let's just limit it to about 100 then."

ASUS has launched the new ROG Strix Morph 96 Wireless keyboard for gamers and enthusiasts looking for an affordable entry point into the fully customizable gaming keyboard space. The ROG Strix Morph 96 Wireless is a mechanical keyboard built for simple customization, performance, and acoustics, and is priced at $139.99 USD (available at Newegg).

The 96 percent form factor and layout make it a more compact version of a full-sized board, with ASUS noting that with its full-function row and layout, it's only one centimeter wider than a standard TKL board. And when it comes to customization, the ROG Strix Morph 96 Wireless offers more than your now-standard replaceable keycaps and hot-swappable switches: the full keyboard can be disassembled.

And with that, the screw on the top cover can be removed for easy access to each layer, from sound dampening to the plate and the south-facing PCB. The ROG Strix Morph 96 Wireless arrives as a full keyboard, with two mechanical switch flavors, ROG NX Snow V2 (linear) and ROG NX Storm V2 (clicky). And with its silicone gasket-mount design and dampening foam, ASUS notes that the linear switches are tuned to deliver a satisfying "thocky" sound.

Samsung's foundry division has set a goal of introducing 1nm process technology by 2030, which the company refers to as the 'dream semiconductor' process. According to a new report from Business Korea, citing industry sources, Samsung's current plan is to complete research and development of its 1nm semiconductor process by 2030, after which it will move to mass production.

To achieve 1nm, Samsung is set to deploy new 'fork sheet' technology that will allow it to effectively halve the size of its cutting-edge 2nm process, which is manufactured using Gate-All-Around (GAA) technology. According to the report, the 'fork sheet' minimizes the distance between GAA elements in a way that's similar to inserting a fork to free up space and allow for more transistors to be packed in the same area.

One analogy used in the report is that it would be like removing lawns from a housing complex and using the space to add more housing. Samsung Electronics' foundry business is second only to TSMC, which holds an almost 70% market share. Naturally, TSMC is also pursuing 1nm within a similar timeframe, with the report indicating it is set to adopt 'fork sheet' technology to achieve it.

Intel has finally released its fully unlocked 'Big Battlemage' graphics card; however, it's arrived in Intel Arc Pro B70 form and not a card aimed at the PC gaming market. This means the existing Intel Arc B580 remains the company's flagship PC gaming GPU, an affordable mainstream offering with performance comparable to the GeForce RTX 4060.

However, with the Intel Arc Pro B70 now out in the wild, we've got our first look at the Intel Arc Pro B70's gaming performance compared to the Intel Arc Pro B60 courtesy of Level1Techs. Even though these are two workstation cards, the results are a good indicator of what an Intel Arc B770 versus Intel Arc B580 gaming showdown might have looked like - with 'Big Battlemage' proving to be around 45% faster.

These results cover three games testing at 1080p and 1440p: Cyberpunk 2077, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and Monster Hunter Wilds. With hardware-intensive Cyberpunk 2077's performance jumping from 58 FPS to 83 FPS at 1440p on Ultra settings, Intel's 'Big Battlemage' could have been a real disruptor in the affordable mid-range space.

The GeForce RTX 30 Series is widely considered one of NVIDIA's best in the RTX era, delivering notable performance improvements over previous generations and introducing the game-changing DLSS 2.0 technology. However, if there was one flaw or recurring complaint with the GeForce RTX 30 Series, it was that the VRAM and GDDR6X memory ran very hot, with temperatures on high-end models like the GeForce RTX 3080 reaching as high as 100 degrees Celsius.

In YouTube modder and hardware enthusiast TrashBench's latest video, he attempts to solve this problem by taking an Arctic Liquid Freezer WS360-4710 workstation-grade AIO cooler and connecting that to the GPU and memory on a GeForce RTX 3080. The fact that it's a workstation-grade cooler is important because it includes a larger cold plate.

Securing and mounting the Arctic Liquid Freezer WS360 AIO cooler on a GeForce RTX 3080 required a lot of trial and error and a few iterations. However, with its all-black design, the result is pretty impressive, to the point where it resembles a custom-built AIO solution for the GeForce RTX 3080. What followed next was even more impressive, with GPU temperatures dropping substantially and VRAM or memory temperatures dropping by a massive 54 degrees Celsius.

One of the key features that made AM4 so popular and successful was its longevity. AMD had committed to supporting the platform through multiple Ryzen generations, and they ultimately stuck to it, which was an admirable decision. Users who started using the platform with first-generation Ryzen 1000-series CPUs can just drop in a Ryzen 9 5950X and get a massive upgrade with little more than a BIOS update.

While the current AMD Zen 5 platform isn't exactly "old", it has already seen a couple of generations of Ryzen CPUs. The Ryzen 7000 series "Zen 4" and Ryzen 9000 series "Zen 5" chips both support the AMD AM5 platform and its associated chipsets. Now, AMD is doubling down on its promise of longevity and giving its customers more confidence that the AM5 socket will be here to stay through 2027 and beyond.

Speaking in the launch video of the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition CPU, AMD Senior Vice President and General Manager of Computing and Graphics Jack Huynh gave this statement.

Nintendo, Illumination, and Universal are believed to have a huge hit on their hands with the new Super Mario Galaxy movie, with estimates putting the film at over $300 million in global opening ticket sales.

The incoming Super Mario Galaxy movie is expected to deliver meteoric results through its 5-day opening. According to the latest reports from Deadline, the latest box office preview results indicate that the Mario sequel could rack up $350 million in global ticket sales in its first week.

Split down the middle, half of that--$175 million--is expected from Canada & the United States in North America, and the other half spread out across dozens of markets and regions.

Deus Ex and Tomb Raider developer Eidos-Montreal today announced that it would be reducing its workforce by over 100 people in yet another round of layoffs.

Eidos-Montreal is conducting another round of layoffs that will affect 124 people across various roles, the studio revealed on LinkedIn.

Longtime developer-turned-studio-head David Anfossi is also leaving the company, which is a significant part of today's announcement--Anfossi had been with the group for 19 years, and led the studio since 2013, seeing multiple high-profile games shipped during his time at Eidos-Montreal.