Latest News - Page 1215

The James Webb Space Telescope is not only nearing the end of its journey to Lagrange 2, it's also closing in on completing its deployment.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) took off from Earth on Christmas Day, 2021, and has now spent a full month in space. Webb has completed the majority of its complicated deployment work, which has taken the observatory from a narrow configuration that was necessary for launch to an extremely expensive unfolded piece of origami that will hopefully be able to answer some of the biggest questions about the universe.

JWST has 18 primary mirrors, and each is hexagonal and is controlled by seven actuators that give teams back on Earth precise movement capabilities. Teams began deploying each of the mirrors on January 12, and now according to NASA administrator Bill Nelson, all 18 mirror segments are now fully deployed. This doesn't mean that the observatory is operational, as Space.com points out, NASA will need to alter each of the positions of the mirrors, so all of the segments combine to form one giant mirror.

Apple was poised to release its new AR headset later this year but due to overheating and production issues, the AR headset has been delayed into 2023 -- but Apple will still crush Samsung in AR according to an industry analyst.

Kim Gwang-soo, an analyst at eBest Investment and Securities said: "Big tech companies, rather than smartphone manufacturers, are leading XR devices because they have the necessary content and platforms. Google has an operating system Android, Microsoft has Xbox and Sony has PlayStation. It's risky for Samsung to roll out XR devices, so it has no choice but to stick to foldable smartphones".

There are other players in the AR and VR headset game, where past, present, and future companies include: Facebook/Oculus/Meta, HTC, Valve, Microsoft, Sony, Qualcomm, and soon... Apple. Samsung doesn't seem to be too worried about not leading in AR or VR, as it is leading in so many other categories the company is probably waiting to see how the market reacts to Apple's huge AR headset release, and has something planning in the wings.

AMD has been enjoying filling computers, consoles, servers, and supercomputers of the world with its various CPU and GPU designs on 7nm thanks to TSMC, while NVIDIA hobbles along with Samsung 8nm... but the floodgates of 5nm are opening later this year.

But it looks like we can expect Chinese GPU manufacturers to have both 5nm and 7nm GPU designs on the market sometime in 2022, according to sources of DigiTimes. Their sources said that Innosilicon -- which works with Imagination Technologies IP, Changsha Jingjia Microelectronics, and Biren Technology -- all make GPUs in China.

We've already been reporting on Innosilicon Fantasy One GPU, which the company offers in an impressive dual-GPU design with up to 32GB of GDDR6X memory (16GB per GPU). Performance is only hitting the levels of NVIDIA's previous-gen mid-range GeForce RTX 2070 graphics card. But Intel's upcoming Arc Alchemist is around the corner, and that RTX 2070 level performance is actually opening the door to China competing with Intel this year.

It looks like we're going to have another player in the cryptocurrency hardware market, with a new ASIC miner from... Intel... called Bonanza Mine.

Don't worry this isn't an early April Fools Day joke, but rumor has it Intel will be unveiling a new ASIC miner at the upcoming International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC 2022) event between February 20-24. On February 23 @ 7AM PST, Intel will host a live presentation called "Bonanza Mine: An Ultra-Low-Voltage Energy-Efficient Bitcoin Mining ASIC".

Intel's new "Bonanza Mine" Bitcoin ASIC miner will reportedly offer low power consumption, while packing some hopefully very impressive performance mining Bitcoin. If we see Intel play its cards right, we might see Team Blue competing with ASIC mining giant Bitmain who is a huge customer of TSMC.

You know how hard it is to buy not just graphics cards these days, but DDR5 RAM, high-speed SSDs, high-end PSUs, next-gen consoles, and so much more are next to impossible to buy in some countries... and in roll GPU loot boxes.

Yeah, you read that right -- a Japanese Amazon reseller is offering customers "mystery boxes" that will include a new, or used graphics card of some description. You will pay $100 for the mystery box, and not know what you're going to buy. You might spend $100 and end up with an older-gen NVIDIA Maxwell-based GPU, or an AMD Radeon RX 300-series GPU.

But... you might end up with a flagship NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090, RTX 3080 Ti, RTX 3080 Ti, RTX 3070 Ti, RTX 3060 Ti -- or in AMD's Team Red camp you could score yourself -- for $100 mind you, a Radeon RX 6900 XT, RX 6800, RX 6700 XT, RX 6600 XT, and many others. The Ampere and RDNA 2-based GeForce RTX 30 and Radeon RX 6000 series GPU, respectively, will be brand new -- the others, will be used cards. Not a bad gamble for $100, isn't it?

Update: SK hynix reached out to tech media to clear the air about its HBM3 detailing at ISSCC 2022, and that its HBM3 @ 896GB/sec is the same memory as the one the company unveiled back in October 2021 but with a different "standard of performance indication".

SK hynix will be detailing its latest under-development HBM3 memory spec at the ISSCC 2022 (IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference) with up to 24GB through 12-layer HBM3 DRAM. With capacities of up to 196Gb (24GB) the company is using TSV (through silicon via) auto-calibration and machine learning optimizations.

We know what to expect from the title of the session SK hynix is involved in is dubbed "A 192-Gb 12-High 896GB/s HBM3 DRAM with a TSV Auto-Calibration Scheme and Machine-Learning-Based Layout Optimization". FYI: "TSV" is through silicon via, but we don't know if this is prototype memory or something that will enter mass production and see SK hynix printing it onto devices en masse.

Halo Infinite's big team battle mode is still broken following a new hotfix patch.

Today 343 Industries deployed a new hotfix patch to address the ongoing big team battle issues. Unfortunately, the update didn't fix the issues and BTB's prevalent matchmaking issues remain. This marks the second month in a row that big team battle has been almost unplayable due to connection errors, glitches, and frozen loading screens. Our own tests showed that BTB had an 80% failure rate; out of 20 attempts, there were 16 failures and 4 successfully played games.

"Today's BTB hotfix does not appear to be the outcome we expected. There are minor improvements, but overall matchmaking issues are still occurring. Thanks to the folks who have been working hard and we're sorry this didn't quite get the job done. Work continues," Halo community director Brian Jarrard said today on Twitter.

The new Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition is apparently selling well despite its controversial launch.

The new GTA trilogy remaster released with a ton of issues, including graphical hiccups, bad animations and character models, and a lot of glitches. Rockstar has stepped in to offer free games and a multitude of patches to fix the myriad of problems. Plus the original versions of the game had to be removed from sale on PC because they non-licensed music in the source code.

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick recently acknowledged the game's slips at launch, and says the GTA trilogy remaster is doing very well insofar as overall company metrics.

Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick reportedly suggested buying websites in an attempt to control the press.

In an attempt to control the narrative around Activision-Blizzard's damning controversy, company CEO Bobby Kotick reportedly suggesting direct acquisitions of video game press websites like Kotaku and PC Gamer. New reports from The Wall Street Journal say Kotick discussed possible press company buyouts with the board of directors to help stem the tide of scathing articles.

Throughout the last few months, Activision-Blizzard's dirty laundry--which culminates in years of alleged discrimination, sexual harassment and toxic workplace culture--has been aired by dozens of news articles across a multitude of websites as well as official documents like public lawsuit filings.

Four new Diablo 2 Resurrected runewords have leaked so far, including Unbending Will, Wisdom, Mist, and Flickering Flame.

A bit ago we reported on Unbending Will, the first new Diablo 2 runeword released in the last 17 years. Now three other runewords have been leaked, showing us what to expect from Diablo 2 Resurrected's big new v2.4 update.

Three other runewords of various utility have surfaced: Flickering Flame (Nef + Pul + Vex), Wisdom (Pul + Ith + Eld), and Mist (Cham + Shael + Gul +Thul + Ith). The first two runewords are so-so and have some specific applications.

Rockstar Games' UK studio has received over $77 million in relief throughout 2019 and 2020, likely to help offset high costs of developing games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and the new GTA 6.

According to new reports from Tax Watch, Rockstar North received £56.6 million (roughly $77 million) from the UK's Video Game Tax Relief fund throughout 2019 and 2020. Rockstar received nearly 50% of all VGTR relief during the period.

As outlined in previous articles, Rockstar North is carefully managed to make the most of this relief. The UK-based Rockstar studio makes very little operating profit and pays lower taxes as a result. The VGTR fund adds notional costs (that is, estimated costs) to help inflate Rockstar North's overall taxable costs and losses so it can quality for credits. The HMRC (the UK's version of the IRS) offers a cash payment for losses at a 25% rate.

Phil Spencer is now officially the top boss of Xbox gaming.

Yesterday marked a historic day for gaming. Microsoft announced its plan to buy Activision-Blizzard for $68.7 billion and merge the Call of Duty publisher in its Xbox Studios lineup. Phil Spencer has been promoted as the new CEO of Gaming--a role that hasn't existed before--at Microsoft. As CEO, Spencer will oversee all facets of the company's interactive entertainment business.

"As Satya mentioned, I am now CEO, Microsoft Gaming. This change is a reflection of the incredible work each of you are doing to create the best entertainment ecosystem anywhere. As a leadership team, we know how much exciting but difficult work we have ahead of us, so it's crucial that we operate as a single, unified team," Spencer said in an email to employees that was made publicly available.

The challenges were created by NASA's Tournament Lab in collaboration with crowdsourcing platform HeroX.

The first challenge, Waste to Base Materials Challenge: Sustainable Reprocessing in Space, is seeking solutions to the problems caused by waste generated in space. Long spaceflights such as those to Mars, which for a round trip would take at least 12 to 18 months, would generate a lot of waste. Each submission for the challenge will be evaluated based on how it handles four categories: trash, fecal waste, foam packaging material, and carbon dioxide processing.

A new review on the technology was published in the journal Science and Technology of Advanced Materials.

Scientists in Taiwan reviewed the latest advances in small dressings that generate electricity, and can accelerate wound healing and tissue regeneration. In the mid-to-late 20th century, scientists found that stimulating tissue with an electric field could improve wound healing. Current research is focused on developing small patches that can achieve this without external electric equipment.

Candidate materials for these technologies are piezoelectric materials, which generate electric currents when exposed to mechanical stress. These include natural materials such as quartz, silk, wood, bone, hair, and rubber. Synthetic materials such as quartz analogs, ceramics, and polymers are also piezoelectric.

A review of the current situation was published in an article in the journal Nature Climate Change by researchers from Concordia University.

The article synthesizes findings from 1,682 articles distilled from over 50,000 scientific documents on adaptations made by humans and society to respond to climate change. It shows that humans are implementing strategies to combat climate change; however, there is insufficient data to ascertain whether any responses reduce the overall climate change risks. So far, no significant transformative change has arisen.

Some of the reviewed articles suggested a link between adaptation and mitigation, but the limited data doesn't show a direct influence on adverse outcomes such as extreme weather events resulting from the risk mitigation strategies currently in place. Lack of transformative adaptations such as moving communities out of high-risk areas or radically changing agricultural practices was a cause of concern for the researchers, who noted only relatively small steps being taken so far.

A new study published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology discusses the updated planetary boundaries framework.

In 2009, nine planetary boundaries were identified by researchers, which describe the relatively stable state of Earth since the dawn of civilization approximately 10,000 years ago. Some of the boundaries have yet to be quantified, but in 2015 scientists concluded that at least four of the boundaries have been breached. The boundary for novel entities is now being breached with significantly increased chemical and plastic production.

ExxonMobil made its pledge on Tuesday, January 18th, 2022.

The pledge covers what is known as "Scope 1" and "Scope 2" emissions, referring to the carbon emissions from ExxonMobil's operations and emissions associated with heating and cooling used at its facilities. "Scope 3" emissions are not covered by the pledge, which refers to those from the products sold, including gasoline purchased by consumers.

ExxonMobil has also announced other projects that will see more funding put into lower-emissions technologies, such as carbon capture and storage projects. "Detailed roadmaps" will be released by the end of 2022, addressing ninety percent of operations-related greenhouse gas emissions, with the remaining ten percent in 2023.

A cryptocurrency scam is entwining a famous Hollywood star, and professional athlete as both have been accused of pumping up a coin and dumping it.

According to a new court filing with the California federal court, Kim Kardashian, Floyd Mayweather Jr, and former NBA player Paul Pierce are being accused of playing a role in the sharp rise and fall of the cryptocurrency called EthereumMax. The lawsuit has claimed that the aforementioned individuals artificially inflated the price of the cryptocurrency that was then purchased by investors. The lawsuit also claims that investors were encouraged to purchase the asset with false information.

Kim Kardashian posted about EthereumMax in June 2021, saying to her 250 million Instagram followers, "Are you guys into crypto?? This is not financial advice but sharing what my friends just told me about the Ethereum Max token! A few minutes ago, Ethereum Max burned 400 trillion tokens-literally 50% of their admin wallet, giving back to the entire E-Max community."

Mastercard has announced a new partnership with cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase for its upcoming NFT marketplace.

The new partnership with Mastercard is aimed at providing users with a way to make purchases on the NFT marketplace without having to purchase Ethereum or other cryptocurrencies. Mastercard's executive vice president of digital assets, Raj Dhamodharan, said that NFTs will be looked at as "digital goods," and this partnership will allow users to purchase NFTs with a credit card.

Dhamodharan explains that the process of purchasing an NFT with cryptocurrency is fairly simple for someone who is already involved in the space (trading, flipping, etc) but for the majority of people, the process is very new and not simple. Dhamodharan says that the process of purchasing an NFT "should be much easier", and "That will ensure NFTs can be for everyone [...] Getting more people involved safely and securely is perhaps the best way to help the NFT market thrive."

A recent volcanic eruption 40 miles off the coast of Tonga has rocked the nation, as a tsunami has destroyed countless homes, and ash blanketed the main island.

An underwater volcano erupted 40 miles north of the capital of Tonga, spawning a 49-foot tsunami that has almost wiped out all the homes on two islands. Tonga has experienced communication issues since the eruption as an undersea cable was severed. The Tongan government gave its first update on Saturday and announced its second today, describing the event as an "unprecedented disaster" and confirming the deaths of three people.

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai undersea volcano erupted with an ash cloud that reached the stratosphere (50 miles), covering the 170 islands where around 100,000 people live. The physical damage from the tsunami has caused major damage across most islands, and the volcanic ash is blanketing regions, contaminating drinking water.