Latest News - Page 1307

As we lead up into the Battlefield 2042 open beta that takes place October 5-9, 2021 -- just days from now, the WD_BLACK SN750 SE NVMe SSD Battlefield 2042 PC Game Code Bundle is discounted.

You can get the 500GB version of the WD_BLACK SN750 SE NVMe SSD Battlefield 2042 PC Game Code Bundle for just $89.99, down from its regular price of $114.99. Meanwhile, the larger 1TB variant is down to $159.99 from its regular price of $179.99.

Both the 500GB and 1TB SSDs offer 3.6GB/sec (3600MB/sec) of read speeds, so you'll be boosting into Battlefield 2042 in record time. You'll get a Battlefield 2042 PC code, which gives you access to the full game when it launches.

Valve's new Steam Deck portable gaming consoles will be running an AMD APU and Steam OS, and has now had some early benchmarks run on it with a few different games.

The new benchmarks run were run by a Chinese user who ran some tests on Shadow of the Tomb Raider, DOOM Eternal, Dota 2, and even Cyberpunk 2077. Performance is impressive across the board, with the Steam Deck running Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 30-60FPS average depending on the graphics settings.

Even a great-looking, and very well-optimized game like DOOM Eternal was running at 46FPS average on a custom graphics setting, and up to 60FPS average on low graphics settings. The super-popular Dota cranks along at 47FPS average on high settings, while it pushes 80FPS average on low settings.

GPU prices are already out of control and the situation won't be getting any better, not even for the next 12-18 months, and now a copper foil shortage is making things worse.

Copper foil is used to make PCBs (printed circuit board) for motherboards and graphics cards, with the cost of copper rising from $7845 per ton towards the end of 2020, to $9262 now. The rise of cost for copper as well as rising energy costs in China is making for the perfect storm of rising costs of production, and an unsure world of product pricing moving forward.

PCB costs won't just affect graphics cards and motherboards, but anything that has a PCB -- it's just that graphics cards and motherboards have many more connectors and thus, more copper is required. This won't drive the price up on products by much, but high-end components rising 10% in cost would matter when you're talking $500-$1000+ or higher. Manufacturers can eat the cost of course, but motherboards and graphics cards are only costing more and more, especially with the impending launch of Intel's 12th Gen "Alder Lake" platform.

Phison teased its next-gen E26 SSD controller but now we know all about the E26 controller, which will be offered to both high-end consumer and gaming PCs as well as enterprise level systems.

Phison's new E26 controller has Arm Cortex-A5 cores as well as special-purpose accelerators inside of the in-house CoXProcessor 2.0, while Phison will have its E26 as a customizable SSD platform that can be made in different form factors: M.2, U.3, E1.S, and E3.S form factors.

What Phison does special here with the E26 SSD controller is that the company makes more of the critical intellectual property (IP) blocks inside of the controller than any other company, something that Phison says "thereby eliminating dependencies and inconsistencies that competitors have when they source 3rd party IP for their controllers. Second, that the E26 controller IP is developed concurrently with Phison's firmware in a FPGA environment, even before tape out ensuring a fast time to market with the highest reliability at introduction".

Sony's new Twisted Metal game may not be a premium battle royale crash-em-up. There's a chance it could be a F2P digital titles on PS4 and PS5 consoles (and maybe even PC and mobile too).

The next Twisted Metal game will be developed by Destruction AllStars developer Lucid Games, sources have told VideoGameChronicle. Sources also hinted the Twisted Metal would be a free-to-play experience (with microtransactions) to help bolster Sony's recurring monetization revenues and PS Plus subscriber retention.

This news aligns with Sony's current open-ended business model. Sony management has promised that more PlayStation IP will expand to PC and mobiles, and more live service titles with social integration will also roll out.

Live cam site Chaturbate is letting performers stream a handful of video games.

In a strange twist of fate, Chaturbate, the explicit XXX cam site, recently announced that it's getting into game streaming. Well sort of. It will now allow its live performers stream select games. As you could imagine, Mario isn't on this list, and the games are restricted to adult-oriented hentai games, dating sims, and 3D sexcapades.

"Broadcasters can now officially play video games on Chaturbate! Head to the broadcast page and add any approved game to your broadcast to begin playing."

The upcoming Battlefield 2042 open beta test will require Xbox LIVE Gold subscriptions on Xbox consoles, but PlayStation Plus won't be required for PS4 or PS5.

Battlefield 2042 brings 128-player Conquest chaos with an open beta on October 6-8, but Xbox gamers won't be able to play without an Xbox LIVE Gold subscription. The news was confirmed by DICE in an open beta FAQ:

"The Battlefield 2042 Open Beta is available to play on PC (via Origin, EA app, Steam, and Epic) and console (PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S). Please note, PlayStation Plus is not needed to participate in the Open Beta, however, if you're playing on Xbox you will need to be an Xbox Live Gold subscriber."

Plan on playing Diablo 2 Resurrected offline? You'll still have to log in from time to time for authentication.

Like the original game, Diablo 2 Resurrected supports full offline play. Rightly so considering the Switch practically demands it. The game will still require you to go online and log into Battle.net at different points so Blizzard can make sure you own the game. In essence, D2R has offline DRM and the game can't be played completely online in perpetuity.

"An internet connection is required to download the client. Single Player mode may be played offline, but a connection to the internet will be required on occasion for periodic updates and authentication checks," the game's launch page says.

In an interview with NASA's climate advisor, Gavin Schmidt warns that researchers are seeing things that have never happened before.

ABC's lead meteorologist, Ginger Zee, spoke to NASA's Senior Climate Advisor, Gavin Schmidt, who said that what he and his team are seeing is "unprecedented in many millennia". Schmidt goes on to say that this is happening because of what humans are doing to the planet through the use of burning fossil fuels and the increases in greenhouse gases.

NASA lead climate advisor continues to explain that researchers have observed the global mean changes "decade by decade", and found that there is "unequivocal warming of the planet". The warming of the planet impacts weather events such as fires, storms, hurricanes, floods, etc. Schmidt says that global warming amplifies these events. An example of this is heat waves becoming more frequent and greater in magnitude. If you are interested in reading more about climate change, check out NASA's latest satellite launch here.

NASA's Landsat program has been taking images of Earth from space for more than 50 years, and now the space agency has sent out its brand new satellite - Landsat 9.

The achievements from the Landsat program cannot go understated as it holds the longest continuous space-based record of Earth in existence. The satellites have been taking square images around 112 miles by 115 miles of all of the landmass on Earth, and with the data, researchers can interpret and understand what is shaping our planet.

The data acquired from the Landsat satellites are used to monitor climate change, landmass movement, take images of natural disasters, and even used to influence political decisions. With all that in mind, NASA has recently launched Landsat 9, which is equipped with many improvements when compared to its sister satellite that is currently in orbit, Landsat 8. NASA's newest Landsat satellite will work in tandem with Landsat 8, and with both satellites taking images of the Earth, NASA expects it will only take eight days to acquire a complete image of Earth.

A new video has been posted to the NASA Goddard YouTube channel that details a discovery made with the Hubble Space Telescope.

NASA explains that humans have been observing Jupiter (and some other planets) for centuries, and out of all of the accumulated data humans have acquired, Jupiter is always depicted as having a Great Red Spot. This is definitely the most defining feature about the planet, and in the past, astronomers have observed the Spot shrinking in size as well as becoming more circular rather than oval.

Hubble was pointed at the Great Red Spot, and over the years, annual images revealed that the Spot was changing. The Spot is a storm with wind speeds exceeding 400 miles per hour, but what researchers noticed was that the wind speed on the outermost edge of the storm increased by 8% from 2009 to 2020. Additionally, the researchers observed the wind speed at the center of the storm decreasing. NASA says in the video that the answer for this strange discovery is yet to be found.

A promotional stunt has shook the moviemaking industry as a "live alien" was spotted inside a truck that's driving around the streets.

Apart of promoting Amazon's "The Tomorrow War" movie starring Chris Pratt, the film studio decided to build one of the aliens from the movie. The robotic alien was placed inside of a truck container that had a see-through shell. The truck was then driven through the streets in Tokyo's Shinjuku, Shibuya, and Harajuku, as well as Hollywood & Highland, Venice Beach, Huntington Beach, and Wembley, UK.

The alien that can be seen inside of the truck is called a White Spike. According to Jared Goldsmith, the global head of action and thriller marketing at Amazon Prime Video, "We're available in over 240 different countries, so it was translating and localizing into multiple languages. But it also takes creativity and all the teams aligning around a strategy and being able to develop creative that's going to resonate globally, but still have local relevance."

A new image has been released of the surface of Earth's only natural satellite, and its being described as the highest-resolution image of the Moon ever.

ScienceAlert reports that the image is of the Tycho Crater and was taken by the National Science Foundation's Green Bank Telescope that is stationed in West Virginia. The telescope was recently upgraded with a new radar transmitter that sends pulses out into space that then bounce of the target - in this case, the Tycho Crater.

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory then collects the bounced signals, compares them, and then produces an image. The result is what you can see above, and according to ScienceAlert, the image contains about 1.4 billion pixels. As for the size of the Tycho Crater, the image fully encompasses its diameter that measures 53 miles.

Space is slowly becoming accessible to private citizens, with the recent Inspiration4 launch marking the first all-civilian spaceflight. One day humans will venture to Mars, and one of them will be SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

Back in 2018, in an interview with Axios, Musk was several questions about his plan on putting humans on the Red Planet, and the chances of him participating in a trip. Musk said that there is a 70% chance that he'll live long enough to be able to go to Mars. Musk goes on to say that he is "talking about moving there". Musk was then asked if colonizing Mars will be "an escape" for rich people as the target price for a ticket is a "couple hundred thousand".

Musk goes on to explain that Mars won't be an "escape" for the rich as the probability of dying on the Red Planet is significantly higher than Earth. Musk added that the advertisement for going to Mars will be a lot like "Shackleton's ad for going to the Antarctic. It's going to be hard. There's a good chance of death, going in a little can through deep space. You might land successfully, once you land successfully, you'll be working nonstop to build the base."

The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft landed on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko back in 2014, and now the comet is making a very fast approach towards Earth.

The achievement of landing on the comet with the Rosetta spacecraft in August of 2014 put 67P on the map. The Rosetta spacecraft traveled with the comet for two years, and in during that time, it sent down Rosetta's lander that touched down on the surface of the comet. Now, 67P is on its way to making its closest approach with Earth for the next 193 years. Next closest approach will be in 2214.

67P will pass safely pass Earth between November 11 and November 12 at a distance of about 38 million miles. The world-famous comet was first discovered back in 1969 by Soviet and Ukrainian astronomer Klim Churyumov. The comet's orbital period has been calculated to be 6.45 years, meaning it takes 6.45 years to complete its full orbit around the Sun. Additionally, it's traveling at a ridiculous speed of 84,000 mph. For more information on this story, check out this link here.

The space race between SpaceX's Elon Musk and Blue Origin's Jeff Bezos and Virgin Galactic's Richard Branson has been heating up for a while.

Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos missed out on NASA's $2.9 billion contracts to construct a new lunar lander. The contract was awarded to SpaceX, and since that decision was made, Blue Origin has been making moves to get the decision overturned, even going as far as to sue NASA. The lawsuits and efforts on Blue Origins' behalf to get the decision overturned have caused major delays with the construction of SpaceX's lunar lander, which has thrown the timeline of humans getting back onto the Moon by 2024 into jeopardy.

As you can probably imagine, the constant stopping and starting with SpaceX's lunar construction would be very frustrating for everyone involved. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has previously voiced his concerns over Blue Origin's decision to sue NASA, even going as far as to pay out Jeff Bezos, "Turns out Besos retired in order to pursue a full-time job filing lawsuits against SpaceX". Now, Musk has fired another shot off at Bezos during an interview at CodeCon 2021.

There's a new trojan going around that is now targeting gamers, known as "BloodyStealer" that is attacking gaming services like Bethesda, Epic Games, GOG, EA Origin, Steam, Telegram, and VimeWorld

BloodyStealer is able to take gamers' data including passwords, credit card details, screenshots, cookies, and client sessions from the above gaming services. The malware was discovered back in March 2021 in an advertisement on an underground forum, according to Kaspersky.

The malware has built-in protections to defend itself against analysis and has already been deployed in Europe, Latin America, and the Asia-Pacific region. Kaspersky notes that the sellers of BloodyStealer are selling the "malware-as-a-service (MaaS) distribution model" which costs $10 per month, or $40 as a lifetime license.

Samsung's new flagship foldable Galaxy Z Fold 3 smartphone is in the hands of millions across the world, with one user dropping it from a bike -- the phone surviving, but then blowing up when it was being packaged up. Check it out:

The Galaxy Z Fold 3 survived a fall from his bike a week ago, after he visited a Samsung repair center and was told to box it up and mail it in. Once the Galaxy Z Fold 3 was put in the box, it exploded and was thrown in the garage for it to blow smoke out of the battery which now had a hole in it.

Just as @CoachCWC said on Twitter, imagine if this happened during shipping. It was being boxed up to be sent back, what if it did this as it was in the air and on its way to Samsung for repair. Just to be clear, this isn't an article about 'OMG the Galaxy Z Fold 3 exploding is like the Galaxy Note 7 all over again', but this phone was dropped beforehand.

Amazon has just unveiled its first-ever household robot with the introduction of Astro, a new autonomous robot that listens to your voice commands and drives around your house on wheels.

The new Amazon Astro robot would wheel around your house when you're not home, and will keep an eye on things at home while you're away. It will patrol your home like a gimped Terminator, but on wheels and it looks harmless, and will send you a push notification if something happens at home. You can even have a live view of your house from you're phone while you're out of the house, if that's what you want.

Astro can move around a fair bit, and has multiple movements and expressions through its LCD-as-a-face, and front-facing cameras that will identify you, and show the world to you through Astro's all-seeing eyes. If you're concerned about privacy, you can tweak Astro with "out of bounds" zones where Amazon's robot can't go.

SAPPHIRE's new PULSE Radeon RX 6600 graphics card isn't too far away now, with the non-XT version of the card reportedly launching October 13 for 590 EUR -- or a shave under $700.

I've already taken a look at the SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 6600 XT, but the PULSE Radeon RX 6600 (non-XT) model has made an early debut at a Portuguese retailer. The new SAPPHIRE PULSE Radeon RX 6600 is a bit smaller than the RX 6600 XT variant, but it still retains the same 8GB of GDDR6 memory.

AMD cuts down the Navi 23 GPU inside of the RDNA 2-powered Radeon RX 6600, with 28 Compute Units (1792 Stream Processors), a custom PCB, and a single 8-pin PCIe power connector. We'll have our review of all of the custom Radeon RX 6600 graphics cards as soon as the cards are in my hands, and the NDA is up.