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Xiaomi has teased that its next-gen flagship Xiaomi 12 smartphone will be "available soon" with Qualcomm's very latest Snapdragon 8 Gen1 chipset.

In a video appearance during Qualcomm's Snapdragon Tech Summit 2021, Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun, confirmed that the new Snapdragon 8 Gen1 SoC would be powering the flagship Xiaomi 12 smartphone. Normally the company announces new smartphones for China first and then they eventually make their way to other markets.

Normally this would be the Xiaomi Mi 12 smartphone, but the Chinese giant is removing the "Mi" branding from the name -- similar to how Qualcomm just removed "Qualcomm" from its new Snapdragon 8 Gen1 chipset naming scheme.

Elon Musk is being Elon Musk again, with Tesla announcing the new "Cyberwhistle" that was sold out in nanoseconds and... well... you can't buy it anyway.

Anyway, Tesla's new Cyberwhistle is exactly what it sounds and looks like: a freaking Tesla Cybertruck-inspired whistle "Cyberwhistle" that costs $50. It's made of stainless steel, with Elon Musk tweeting out to "Blow the whistle on Tesla!"

But the fun doesn't end there for the world's richest man, with the Tesla and SpaceX boss adding "Don't waste your money on that silly Apple Cloth, buy our whistle instead!" Apple released its $29 cleaning cloth back in October 2021, where back then Musk was teasing Apple CEO Tim Cook. Cook announced the new Apple Bağdat Caddesi, a new store in Instanbul, to which Musk replied: "Come see the Apple Cloth TM".

Qualcomm has made its new Snapdragon 8 Gen1 platform official, announcing the new SoC during its annual Snapdragon Tech Summit in Maui, Hawaii.

The new Snapdragon 8 Gen1 SoC was thought to be fabbed on TSMC's process node, but during a Q&A session company CEO Christiano Amon announced the new chip was being fabbed by Samsung on its new 4nm process node.

Alex Katouzian, SVP and General Manager of Qualcomm's Mobile, Compute, and Infrastructure division also chimed in, saying that the flagship new Snapdragon 8 Gen1 SoC is not made by TSMC. The new Snapdragon 8 Gen1 will be a major competitor to Samsung's upcoming Exynos 2200, Apple's new A15 Bionic, and MediaTek's just-announced Dimensity 9000 SoC.

Qualcomm and Razer have officially announced their partnership with the Handheld Gaming Developer Kit, which is powered by the Snapdragon G3x Gen1 SoC.

The new purpose-built platform has been built from the ground up from input by both Qualcomm and Snapdragon, to deliver "cutting-edge performance to run all Android games, play content from cloud gaming libraries, stream games from your home console or PC, and enjoy entertainment from your favorite Android apps. Amassing the entire arsenal of Snapdragon Elite Gaming™ technologies together to create a premium category of dedicated consumer gaming products, the platform is designed to power incredible experiences for gamers on-the-go".

Razer collaborated with Qualcomm on the Snapdragon G3x, with the mobile device teased packing what should be a gorgeous 120Hz HDR OLED display. Inside, there's a large 6000mAh battery feeding the system and display. The device is advertised here as a game streaming product that supports Xbox Game Cloud, streaming from a console or even a PC... very, very nice.

Intel's new Arc a380 GPU has been teased in a new tweet, where it will reportedly have performance in the vicinity of NVIDIA's mid-range GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER.

The new tweet is from @TUM_APISAK who says that Intel's new Arc a380 graphics card will have GPU boost clocks of up to 2.45GHz, and 6GB of GDDR6 memory. Intel's new Arc a380 will compete with NVIDIA's purported new mid-range GeForce RTX 3050, and AMD's unreleased Radeon RX 6500 XT.

We should see Intel's upcoming Arc a380 graphics card packing the Alchemist (Xe-HPG DG2) GPU which will have 128 Execution Units (EUs) or 1024 ALUs, all within 8 Xe cores. Intel is fabbing the GPU on TSMC's new 6nm process node, so we should be good for some high GPU clock speeds of up to 2.45GHz, even on a lower-end card like the Intel Arc a380.

Activision is detailing Call of Duty: Warzone's biggest update yet, morphing COD: Warzone into something new called Warzone Pacific -- and it will be introducing a new map called Caldera.

In a new video posted by the developer, Warzone Pacific gets a naughty video that covers a bunch of things we need to see (and so many that I can't wait for). The map itself looks absolutely gorgeous compared to the drab environments of Verdansk, with many new locations and environments in Caldera that will make Warzone Pacific feel oh-so-fresh.

There are 15 locations teased so far in Caldera: Arsenal, Docks, Runway, Ruins, Mines, Peak, Beachhead, Village, Lagoon, Airfield, Fields, Sub Pen, Power Plant, Capital, and Resort.

NVIDIA has just released its new GeForce Game Ready 497.09 WHQL drivers, which offer the best day one experience in ICARUS.

ICARUS will feature NVIDIA DLSS and NVIDIA RTX Global Illumination (RTXGI) technologies, with the new GeForce Game Ready 497.09 WHQL drivers able to rock and roll from the start. Not only do we have Game Ready support for ICARUS, but also the just-released Halo Infinite.

On top of that, we have support for NVIDIA's just-announced GeForce RTX 2060 12GB graphics card, which is a refreshed Turing TU106-based GPU with 12GB of GDDR6 memory launching on December 7. There's also support for 6 new G-SYNC Compatible displays from ASUS, Dell, LG, and MSI.

Polaris has just announced a first-of-its-kind partnership for the company, announcing that they are the new Official Off-Road Vehicle Partner of Battlefield 2042. Not only that but there's a huge $30,000 giveaway where fans can win an awesome Battlefield 2042-inspired ATV. Check it out:

Polaris is a global leader in power sports, with the company celebrating the (limp) launch of Battlefield 2042 with the Polaris Sportsman XP 1000. Polaris is running a huge 6-week prize giveaway, including daily, weekly, and the huge grand prize winners.

The grand prize is a fully custom Battlefield 2042-inspired Polaris Sportsman XP 1000 ATV, which is featured in the trailer above. The ATV is worth close to $30,000 while the entire vehicle was hand-painted to mirror the in-game vehicle from Battlefield 2042.

NVIDIA has announced its new GeForce RTX 2060 12GB graphics card, with it appearing on the official NVIDIA website in all its refreshed glory.

The "new" GeForce RTX 2060 12GB will be powered by the Turing TU106 GPU made on the same 12nm process, with GPU clocks at 1470MHz and 1650MHz for base and boost, respectively. The RTX 2060 12GB packs 12GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit memory bus, with up to 336GB/sec of memory bandwidth.

Comparatively, the GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER has 12GB of GDDR6 on a wider 256-bit memory bus and a heftier 448GB/sec of memory bandwidth. NVIDIA is making the new GeForce RTX 2060 12GB graphics card in Founders Edition, too -- so it won't just be overclocked, custom AIB models of the RTX 2060 12GB but a new FE card as well.

If you've played Battlefield 2042 then you would've realized it's just... really not that great, at all. So the news from Battlefield insider Tom Henderson that the Battlefield 2042 player base has dropped, hard.

Henderson tweeted that the Battlefield 2042 "player base has dropped 70% since launch, in addition to its stock also dropping 18% since early access. Both players and investors are not happy with this game". We don't have any firm numbers to confirm this, because a 70% drop would mean the Battlefield 2042 servers would be empty.

But even tweet replies to Henderson's claims that 70% of the Battlefield 2042 player base has run away aren't all negative, with some tweets noting: "Well I'm happy. Game is great, loving it. Genuinely" and another that tweeted: "70% ?! On what platform? Just Steam or across the board. Seems like if 70% of people stopped playing, we wouldn't be finding matches as quickly. Not seeing this on PS5 anyway".

I've written over 25,000 articles in over 11 years at TweakTown, and never... never did I think I'd write the headline "Sperm used by scientists as an eco-friendly alternative to plastic". But hey, here we are... using fish cum as an alternative to plastic. Righty-o.

Anyway, a team of Chinese scientists has created a new raw, squishy material known as "hydrogel" because hydrogel sounds way better than "salmon semen" or "fish cum". The scientists used two small strands of DNA from the sperm of salmon -- yeah, fish cum -- and then combined them with vegetable oil that binds them together, creating hydrogel.

The gel is then molded into different shapes, freeze-dried in order to remove moisture, and already the scientists have turned it into cum cups, I mean plastic cups made from semen-based materials. Because I want my lips around a fish cum-based plastic, instead of real plastic, because I care about the environment that much. Uh, yuck.

EA's rockstar Vince Zampella now leads the Battlefield franchise amid a big internal shake-up at the company.

Big things are happening with the Battlefield universe. EA announced that Respawn Entertainment head Vince Zampella has taken over the Battlefield series and will guide the IP into the future with a multitude of new games.

Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto will also help expand the Battlefield universe. In October, EA opened a new Seattle-based studio and hired Lehto to lead the team. Now Lehto confirms his new studio is working on Battlefield.

With the possible upcoming changes to the guidelines for entering into the United States happening over the next few days, everyone has been quite silent about the possible impact on next month's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. It has been announced that US President Joe Biden will unveil a new federally based strategy to address COVID-19 this winter on Thursday. The President has said the new strategy will be focused "not with shutdowns or lockdowns, but with more widespread vaccinations, boosters, testing and more."

It has been reported over the last few days that top US government officials have been considering requiring everyone who enters the United States to be tested for COVID-19 the day before their flight, as well as being tested again after arrival, regardless of vaccination status. Although no official changes have been announced yet, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed in a statement that the agency is working to revise testing requirements for travelers because of the new Omicron variant.

"A revised order would shorten the timeline for required testing for all international air travelers to one day before departure to the United States," a CDC spokesman said in a statement. "This strengthens already robust protocols in place for international travel, including requirements for foreign travelers to be fully vaccinated." As the rules stand as of now, vaccinated travelers are required to test three days before their departures. The change under consideration would shorten that timeline to one day prior to a departure to the United States.

At the 181st Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Kelly Benoit-Bird will discuss how sonar or active acoustics can identify biological hotspots in ocean life, revealing the answer to the food paradox in the sea.

Using active acoustics, researchers could analyze returning echoes from sound pulses to find small activity hotspots throughout the ocean. Conventional sampling often misses these, giving rise to the Lasker food paradox proposed in the 1970s, which found that laboratory animals fed the average concentration of ocean food did not survive, despite their ocean-dwelling counterparts doing fine.

Using radar data from China's Chang'e 3 mission in 2013, researchers are learning more about the stratified layers of the lunar surface.

Volcanic activity on the moon has deposited lava rock on its surface throughout its history. With time, these rocks break down into dust and soil, called regolith, from space weathering and asteroid impacts. Layers of this material have been buried beneath the lunar surface over time as this cycle repeats.

The Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) at Baylor College of Medicine, along with the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is seeking scientific proposals to counteract wear and tear on astronauts during spaceflight.

The NASA-funded Institute's Biomedical Research Advances for Space Health (BRASH) solicitation is investing in science to protect astronauts on future Artemis missions and more. Deep space exploration presents astronauts with many physiological stressors, such as increased radiation exposure and gravity changes, and psychological stressors from isolation, confinement, and the inherent danger in such an environment.

Consequently, astronaut health is impacted as tissues degrade, DNA is damaged, and more. The BRASH solicitation aims to reduce risks to crew member health through supporting the development of disruptive technologies, therapies, or novel approaches to enhancing pre-existing internal cellular repair functions, improving the body's endogenous repair and maintenance systems.

Researchers from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have shown the potential of a new radiation therapy technique to deliver effective, targeted doses to cancer patients.

In a paper published in Scientific Reports, the FLASH radiotherapy (FLASH-RT) method selectively killed cancer cells while minimally damaging nearby healthy cells. FLASH-RT aims to provide rapid, targeted, high-dose radiation therapy as an alternative to weeks of low-dose radiation in other radiotherapy settings. Previously, FLASH-RT has required complex and enormous gymnasium-sized machines that are impractical for clinical use. However, LLNL has found linear induction accelerators (LIAs) to be powerful enough to deliver a sufficient dose while only three meters long, which LLNL previously used in its weapons program.

Long after it was theorized to exist, a new class of stars has been discovered by astronomers.

Using the Shane Telescope at Lick Observatory in California and data from multiple astronomical surveys, researchers from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian made this discovery.

Mark Zuckerberg has sat down with Vayner Media CEO Gary Vaynerchuk on November 12, 2021, to discuss the next platform shift called the Metaverse or Web 3.0.

Zuckerberg is at the helm of what was formerly called Facebook, and is now Meta, and explains why he thinks the Metaverse is the next big thing on the technological advancement horizon. Zuckerberg explains that, simply put, the Metaverse is a combination between augmented reality and virtual reality. "Virtual reality" can be easily defined as being in an entirely digital world that you can interact in, and "augmented reality" is the virtual world projected onto the world that we see today.

The head of Meta says that the company is investing $10 billion dollars into the future of the Metaverse and that money will be going towards connecting people via this new digital experience. Zuckerberg recounts the timeline of the internet, with its beginning primarily being text-based to its transition to mobile phones with cameras and the shift in focus images. Zuckerberg says that video format is primarily how we share social experiences and that the Metaverse will be what's next.

The comet called Bernardinelli-Bernstein (BB) has just surprised researchers once again as it makes its way through to the edges of our solar system.

BB is a 62-mile wide comet that was first discovered back in 2014 and since then has been a focus point for researchers that want to understand the nature of comets and retrace their life-spans. Researchers analyzed data from the Transient Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) that was acquired between 2018 and 2020, what they found was that BB was "active" much earlier than anticipated.

A comet becomes "active" when light from the Sun heats up the comets surface, melting the icy crust and turning it into water vapor, causing the iconic "tail", or "coma" that defines a comet. The researchers found that BB was active when it was much farther away from the Sun than previously anticipated, which has now pushed the possible distance for active comets out much further than researchers have previously estimated.