Latest News - Page 1283

The TACMAP, one of the best new features of Halo Infinite, is being developed by the same studio who made Halo 5's Forge mode.

Halo Infinite's TACMAP transforms the game from a linear FPS into something more like Far Cry. Now gamers have an in-game map with icons, missions, and high-end visual topography they can use to trace out their path through Zeta Halo. It's the single most important new feature of Halo Infinite's campaign and one that's instrumental to the wide open-world scope of the game.

Apparently the feature was also developed by SkyBox Labs, the same team that brought Halo 5's Forge mode to life. SkyBox is also co-developing other portions of the game, too.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla isn't even a year old yet and it's already one of Ubisoft's best-earning games of all time.

Today Ubisoft announced Assassin's Creed Valhalla is the second-most profitable video game in the company's 35-year lifespan. That's a pretty huge milestone for a game that's not even a year old. While Ubisoft predictably didn't give exact sales figures or revenues for Valhalla, it did say the game is responsible for driving strong Q2 earnings.

Meta, formerly known as Facebook, is moving away from its controversial Facebook login requirement for Oculus hardware. That change comes alongside the name change for the company and the discontinuation of the Oculus brand name.

Mark Zuckerberg and co. made some big announcements at Facebook Connect 2021. The big news is that the company is now known as Meta--a change that not everyone is pleased about. The other significant news is the Oculus brand name will soon cease to exist. Both the Facebook company and the Oculus brand are changing to Meta. One thing that sort of slipped under the radar during the presentation is that Meta will decouple Facebook accounts from VR and AR headset accounts.

When Facebook made the change to require a Facebook login for Oculus accounts, the decision was met with harsh criticism from almost everyone. Media, fans, and even politicians didn't like what Facebook was doing. And the people who got banned from their Oculus accounts after an infraction on the Facebook social media site were especially upset about this. Not to mention anyone who doesn't want a Facebook account. For nearly a year, Facebook stood its ground on the account issue.

Yesterday, Facebook announced that it would be rebranding the company as Meta to better align with its efforts to build the metaverse. Most of the company's other brands, like Instagram and Whatsapp, and even the Facebook social media platform, will keep their names and remain unchanged. Except for Oculus. That brand is done.

By next year, the Oculus brand name will cease to exist in the market. The company's AR/VR division will adopt the Meta name, and the Oculus Quest will go on to be known as the Meta Quest, and the Oculus App will change to Meta Quest App.

"We're bringing our brands and products closer to Meta, which is the umbrella for all our products and services," said Andrew Bosworth, Head of Reality Labs. "When people buy our products, we want them to clearly understand that all of these devices come from Meta and ladder up to our metaverse vision. That's why we're evolving our brand across our current lines of hardware in-market, as well as for all future products, in order to bring more consistency across the portfolio and more transparency to consumers."

Researchers thought that Earth's inner core was "solid," but new research suggests that it may be closer to a mush than a solid.

A new study published in the journal Physic of the Earth and Planetary Interiors on September 20 details that the planet's inner core can range from being hard to a semisoft liquid metal. According to Jessica Irving, a seismologist at the University of Bristol in England and not involved in the aforementioned study, "The more that we look at it, the more we realize it's not one boring blob of iron. We're finding a whole new hidden world."

As for the researchers behind the study, they were measuring the seismic waves that are created by large earthquakes. These quakes travel from one side of the globe to the other. Recording these massive vibrations in the form of straight-line compressional waves and undulating shear waves using special instruments, researchers are able to recreate a picture of what the inner planet looks like.

In a recent article for Spaceweather.com, an astronomer described an object seen traveling at 26,000 mph as a "giant space volcano".

While this description isn't officially recognized, it may be the best way to describe the comet named 29P. This comet is constantly spewing "cryomagma" into space and is certainly stretching our definitions of what we call a "comet". 29P measures 37 miles in diameter It is a massive ice ball with ice volcanoes on its surface that erupt around 20 times a year. The strange comet was first discovered back in 1927, and its eruptions have been documented for quite some time. However, 29P seems angrier than ever.

Arizona amateur astronomer Eliot Herman was observing the comet and recorded four eruptions in quick succession in late September. Dr. Richard Miles of the British Astronomical Association (BAA) told Spaceweather.com, "The current outburst, which began on Sept. 25th, appears to be the most energetic of the past 40 years." Adding, "within a span of only 56 hours, four eruptions took place in quick succession, creating a 'superoutburst.'"

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said that he plans on using his wealth on getting humanity to Mars after criticizing a plan to tax billionaires.

The statements from Musk come after Senate Democrats are moving to propose a new tax increase that directly targets the top wealthiest individuals in the United States. In response to an article from the Washington Post that discusses the moves being made by lawmakers, Elon Musk criticized the idea saying, "According to their own estimates, this tax only covers ~10% of the $3.5 trillion spending bill. Where will the other 90% come from? The answer is you."

Additionally, the SpaceX CEO followed up by saying the "US national debt is ~$28,900 billion or ~$229k per taxpayer. Even taxing all "billionaires" at 100% would only make a small dent in that number, so obviously the rest must come from the general public. This is basic math. Spending is the real problem." Adding, "US Federal Debt/GDP was 56% in 2000, now it is 126% & climbing fast." Musk didn't stop there, the SpaceX CEO doubled down on stance, saying that his "plan is to use the money to get humanity to Mars and preserve the light of consciousness."

Humans are constantly snapping images of Earth and the surrounding stars/galaxies, some even millions of light-years away from our planet,

It wasn't always that way, though, as there was a lack of technology/knowledge about how we can even take a picture of Earth and retrieve the image without it being destroyed. But that all changed on October 24, 1946, when a 35 mm motion-picture camera was loaded on the back of a Nazi V-2 ballistic missile and launched to an altitude of about 65 miles. The camera was programmed to take an image every 1.5 seconds, and the results created a milestone in space exploration, as researchers had successfully taken the first image of Earth from space.

At the time, the missiles had no way of slowing down upon re-entry, which meant that they hit the ground at more than 340 mph. The speed of the missile hitting the ground was devastating and provided problems for engineers about how they would be able to save the images that were taken. To get around this problem, the engineers encased the camera in a specialized steel case designed to protect it from the incredibly high-speed fall.

A research paper out of China has detailed an achievement in the quantum computing realm, as the paper states the researchers have created a quantum computer that puts Google's to shame.

The paper states that the Chinese research team has achieved a quantum computation advantage in two mainstream technical routes; superconducting quantum computing and photonics quantum computing. The Global Times reports that the team has designed a 66-qubit programmable superconducting quantum computing system. This system is named "Zuchongzhi".

Additionally, the report states China's new quantum system is reportedly 10 million times faster than the current fastest supercomputer. On top of being "10 million times faster than the current fastest supercomputer", the supercomputer's calculation complexity is more than 1 million times higher than Google's Sycamore processor, and if true, China has achieved a quantum advantage in a superconducting quantum computing system.

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has spotted evidence of a possible planet located in another galaxy - a first-of-its-kind discovery if proven true.

NASA has detailed the discovery of the evidence in a new report on its website where it states that the possible exoplanet is located in the spiral galaxy Messier 51, which is also referred to as the Whirlpool Galaxy. Exoplanets are planets located outside of our Solar System, and according to NASA, researchers have located "almost all of them less than about 3,000 light-years from Earth". The possible exoplanet located in the Whirlpool Galaxy is around 28 million light-years away from Earth.

The researchers discovered the evidence for the possible exoplanet using the transit method, which is an event that occurs when a planet passes in front of a star, causing observes to notice a significant drop in the star's light its producing. This method of exoplanet hunting is commonly used by astronomers in the optical light frequency, the frequency of light humans can see in. However, Rosanne Di Stefano of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who led the study on the newly discovered evidence, used X-rays wavelengths, which aren't visible to the human eye.

NASA is planning on launching its first attempt at deflecting an asteroid of its course very soon, as the space agency has locked in the launch date.

The mission is called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, and encompasses NASA launching a spacecraft directly towards an asteroid to attempt to knock it off course. It should be noted that the asteroid that NASA is targeting doesn't pose any threat to Earth, and is purely just to research purposes. The launch of DART marks humanity's first attempt at deflecting an asteroid, and is a demonstration of our capabilities to respond to a potentially dangerous asteroid if it's on course with Earth.

NASA is targeting a binary asteroid system called Didymos, which translates to "twin" in Greek. The system features two asteroids, one 2,559 foot-wide asteroid named Didymos and another 525 foot-wide asteroid called Dimorphos. Dimorphos being the smaller of the two orbits its larger partner and is essentially a moon to Didymos. NASA plans to impact Dimorphos, which will (hopefully) push the asteroid into a closer orbit of Didymos. The asteroid system is located 6.8 million miles away from Earth.

Officials that monitor the Sun have observed a large solar flare occur on Thursday, October 28, which may cause interference with radio and satellite communications.

The launched an X1-class solar flare, which is the most powerful category of flare, according to the US Space Weather Prediction Group. According to the group, the solar flare caused a coronal mass ejection that is headed directly towards Earth. Upon impact, the large amount of charged particles hitting Earth's magnetic field can cause wide-area radio communication blackouts for high-frequency signals for around an hour.

Here's what the US Space Weather Prediction Group wrote in an email, "Area of impact consists of large portions of the sunlit side of Earth, strongest at the sub-solar point." The coronal mass ejection shoots out charged particles at around 1 million mph or more and usually takes a few days before they reach Earth. Reports indicate that the charged particles from our local star are expected to reach Earth sometime on October 30 and may deliver a "glancing blow".

ASRock has just unveiled its new range of Z690 motherboards, all ready to rock and roll with Intel's new 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPUs, DDR5 memory, and PCIe 5.0 devices.

The new range of boards is led by the flagship ASRock Z690 Taichi, which has a 20-phase SPS Dr.MOS power design, with support for DDR5-6400 memory through overclocking. You've got a plethora of super-high-speed next-gen connectivity here, with 2 x PCIe 5.0 x16 ports, 1 x PCIe 4.0 x16 port, and 1 x PCIe 3.0 x1 port.

ASRock also includes 2 x Thunderbolt 4 USB-C connectors, the usual USB 3.2 Gen 2/1 connectors, Killer 2.5GbE + Intel GbE + Wi-Fi 6E + Bluetooth connectivity. ASRock has you absolutely covered with the new flagship Z690 Taichi motherboard.

Call of Duty: Warzone is about to go through its biggest change yet, with the introduction of Warzone Pacific. Warzone Pacific is the new name of the big update for Warzone (which is now Warzone Pacific) with a brand new map that the developer says is "built on the learnings from the community" and is launching with Season One.

The new map for Warzone Pacific is Caldera, and will have the new RICOCHET Anti-Cheat included with its kernel-level driver. Now that the business end of the situation is done, Warzone Pacific will have lush forests and rocky crags, with white sand beaches and mysterious ruins for you to explore -- and annihilate other players. There's even a dormant volcano in Caldera, with Activision promising over 200 other points of interest.

One of the biggest things I love to see from the developer is that they've listened to the community and built Caldera around 2 years of research from that feedback. Warzone Pacific will launch formally as part of Vanguard's first season of content, and is built on the same technology and graphics engine that Call of Duty: Vanguard is built on. Warzone Pacific is fully optimized for cross-play, cross-progression, and has cross-gen console support as well.

If you haven't heard of Netflix's "Squad Game" show then you must be living under a rock, if you haven't -- wow -- if you have, Squid Game has turned into the SQUID cryptocurrency and has exploded in value in the last 24 hours.

SQUID is up over 1200% in the last 24 hours with a $182 million market capitalization at the time of writing, but as always, these types of coins come with their own warnings. CoinMarketCap has warned that it has received "multiple reports" that people can't sell their SQUID on PancakeSwap, a large decentralized exchange.

The new SQUID crypto popped onto the radar on October 20 and "sold out in 1 second" according to its own white paper, which has taken the same energy as the meme-fueled Shina Ibu which has absolutely exploded -- an $8000 purchase if SHIB back in August 2020 is now worth in excess of $5.7 billion.

Intel's new 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPUs aren't available to the public for another few days yet, but Newegg has shipped batches of the Alder Lake CPUs to some customers, some of which have been contacted to ask for them to not break the embargo from Intel.

Newegg might have shipped some of Intel's new 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPUs but they will be useless, because they'll need a new Z690-based motherboard which aren't available yet. So while Newegg has shipped some Alder Lake CPUs, they didn't send Z690 motherboards or DDR5 RAM.

Some of those new Intel Alder Lake CPU owners posted on Reddit, with "Hyphnx" saying: "Getting my 12900K tomorrow, what can't I post? Just got a phone call from Newegg and the lady said I can't post anything until 11/4?" while "NoveltyNetwork" said: "Just got the same call, and mine just came in about an hour ago. The packaging on the 12900k looks awesome! The 12700k looks a bit mediocre". "discovet11" said: "Just got a voicemail from a lady as well. Told me not to post anything until 11/4 "to avoid any issues".

Intel might have just launched its 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPUs but AMD is stealing headlines with its from-the-future EPYC "Turin" CPUs which will be based on the Zen 5 architecture.

AMD's next-next-gen EPYC "Turin" CPUs on the Zen 5 architecture will boast up to 256 cores and 512 threads, with all of that silicon having up to 600W of power at its hands. AMD will be using a stacked 3D chiplet design with EPYC "Turin", an evolution of what we'll see in the new EPYC "Milan-X" CPUs later this year.

AMD's upcoming EPYC "Genoa" CPUs will have up to 96 cores and 192 threads on the Zen 4 architecture and supports huge 12-channel DDR5 memory. The leap from AMD's EPYC "Genoa" CPUs to the next-gen EPYC "Turin" will be equally as large: Turin will use the Zen 5 architecture, could boast PCIe 6.0 connectivity, and an insane 256 cores and 256 threads on a single CPU.

Shiba Inu has absolutely exploded over the last few weeks, with one crypto investor putting around $8000 into the Dogecoin-fueled meme coin -- and with the explosion in the price of Shiba Inu -- is now worth over $5.7 billion.

Yes, that's $5.7 billion -- or $5,700,000,000 from an $8000 investment. YOLO.

In August 2020 the crypto investor purchased a rather large bag of Shiba Inu: 70 trillion -- or 70,000,000,000,000. At the time, Shiba Inu was worth around $0.000000000189 while peaking yesterday at around $0.00008500. This is why that $8000 is now worth over $5.7 billion.

Sony has $14 billion left to spend on strategic acquisitions from now until March 2024.

In its recent Q2 earnings report, Sony pledged to "aggressively invest" in games development to help further growth of its $25 billion games empire. In that same presentation, it also confirmed it has $14 billion in funds left to spend on strategic acquisitions from now until FY23 (ends March 31, 2024).

Every three years Sony devises what it calls Mid-Range Plans. At these meetings, shareholders and executives decide specific growth vectors for the company. A budget is made to pay for things like like strategic acquisitions and capital expenditures to grow the business.

Facebook Connect kicked off with a keynote presentation on Thursday, and the company had several announcements to share. Including a new company brand name, new games on the way, and some insights into its experimental work with advanced XR technology. Meta also revealed that it would release a new Oculus headset next year, but it's not the Quest 2 successor you might be expecting.

Meta revealed Project Cambria, an advanced device that will be on the market next year with a premium price tag.

"This is not the next Quest. It will be compatible with Quest. But it's a completely new, advanced, and high-end product. It will be at the high-end of the price spectrum, too, said Mark Zuckerberg. "Our plan is the keep building out this product line to release our most advanced technology before we can hit the price points that we target with Quest. "