Latest News - Page 1319

Intel will have its new 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPUs and 600-series motherboards launching in October or November 2021, just weeks away really -- and now we have some news on the ASUS Z690 motherboards in various forms.

ASUS will have a plethora of Z690 motherboards for you to choose from, with the choice between DDR5 + DDR4 RAM for some of the models. It all starts with the flagship ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme motherboard, which also includes the FORMULA, HERO, and APEX motherboards as well -- all of them will have DDR5, and only DDR5.

There are 3 x ROG STRIX Z690 motherboards, a TUF GAMING Z690 board, and a heap of PRIME Z690 motherboards that will have varying levels of technology, features, and sizes. In the middle of the ASUS Z690 avalanche of motherboards we have the ProART Z690-CREATOR 10G motherboard which sounds like a "content creator" motherboard that'll have 10GbE LAN and I'm sure a butt-load of I/O connectivity.

Activision is leading into the Open Beta of Call of Duty: Vanguard, otherwise known as Call of Duty 2021 -- with the full game launching on October 5, 2021 -- and now we're hearing about Call of Duty 2022 aka Project Cortez.

The codenamed Project Cortez is reportedly a sequel to 2019's Modern Warfare, the revamped version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and where Warzone all started. Battlefield leaker Tom Henderson is behind the leak, and after a damn good track record with his leaks on Battlefield 2042, the first tease of Project Cortez is here.

Henderson said: "It looks like Call of Duty: 2022 is codenamed Project Cortez. It's expected to be a sequel to Modern Warfare 2019".

Apple announced a plethora of new products today during its "California Streaming" event, with the new flagship iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max announced.

Apple's new flagship iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max have a next-gen A15 Bionic chip, up to 1TB of storage -- a first for the iPhone -- brighter, smoother Super Retina XDR displays with ProMotion 120Hz refresh, and so much more.

The new iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max still retain their 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch displays as the previous iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max, but they have an upgraded Super Retina XDR display with Pro Motion 120Hz support -- as well as the notch area being 20% smaller.

DEATHLOOP is now out on the PC and both the next-gen PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 consoles, but now we have some more performance details on the PS5 version of DEATHLOOP.

Bethesda and Arkane have added AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) support, which helps out the PC version of the game on both AMD Radeon and NVIDIA GeForce GPUs. DEATHLOOP is using temporal reconstruction to scale the resolution on the PS5, with ray-traced shadows on offer that are generated by natural light and are part of the ambient occlusion.

In a video comparing the PS5 and PC versions of the game made by ElAnalistaDeBits, and that the PS5 has "stuttering issues" and that the Quality Mode runs between 40-60FPS average. I wouldn't be running this game, or any other game without 60FPS average -- especially since DEATHLOOP has a Performance Mode offering 4K 60FPS (without ray tracing).

If you're gaming away on an AMD Radeon graphics card, then you'll want to grab the very latest AMD Radeon Adrenalin 21.9.1 drivers.

AMD's new Radeon Adrenalin 21.9.1 drivers include support for Bethesda and Arkane's latest first-person shooter, DEATHLOOP, as well as support for the Call of Duty: Vanguard Open Beta. The new drivers also include AMD Smart Access Memory (SAM) for the Radeon RX 5000 series (RDNA) graphics cards.

There's also Radeon Software support for Windows 11, which isn't far away with Microsoft unleashing its next-gen Windows 11 operating system on October 5. If you're using the Windows 11 Insider Preview build that you can read more about below, then the new Windows 11 driver from AMD is available and ready to rock and roll with your Radeon GPU.

Halo 5's mention in a GeForce Now database leads fans to believe the game is coming to PC, but 343i says otherwise.

Halo 5: Guardians was recently mentioned three times in a huge GeForce Now database leak of over 5,000 games and apps, but 343 Industries says it still has no plans to bring Halo 5 to PC. Right now 343 Industries is totally focused on Halo: Infinite's development.

"Maybe this was for H5:Forge but I can confirm there are no plans to bring H5 to PC. We know there's some demand for it, but as we've stated before, not in the cards as the studio is fully focused on Infinite and MCC. Will never say never, but nothing underway currently," 343i Community Manager Brian Jarrard said on Twitter.

The Xbox Series X's internal PCIe 4.0 SSD can technically be replaced, but only with a cloned drive from the exact same console...and a Series X SSD doesn't work on an Xbox Series S console.

According to YouTuber TronixFix, the Xbox Series X's internal SSD is apparently replaceable, but there's a catch: The replacement drive has to be a cloned version of the console's original drive.

Tests from YouTuber TronixFix confirm that the Series X's internal SSD has custom features that are essential to the console's operation, and the system won't power up unless the original drive--or a clone of the original drive--is installed. You can't just go out and buy a M.2 2230 SSD, slot it into the Xbox Series X's internal socket, and expect it to power up and operate. This is likely due to the custom ASIC that enables PCIe 4.0 (Gen4 x2) on the internal Xbox WD SN530 drive.

Epic Games has paid Apple its court-ordered fee of $6 million for breaching its Developer Product Licensing Agreement.

On August 2020, Epic Games went rogue and added its own direct payment processing system in Fortnite on iOS, breaching its contract and keeping all in-game revenues for itself. This maneuver kicked off the infamous Epic vs Apple trial. Apple kicked Fortnite off the App Store, and then Epic sued Apple for anti-trust and anti-competitive practices. Now the trial is over, and the dust has settled with Epic being forced to pay back money that Apple is lawfully owed.

The courts ordered that Epic Games would pay back Apple 30% of the $12.167 million that Fortnite earned from direct payments from August through November 2020, alongside of 30% of Fortnite's iOS Safari browser earnings from November through September 2021. Epic was found breaching its contractual obligations to Apple, which called for 30% commission on all in-game revenues. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney confirms this amounted for roughly $6 million; roughly $3 million from the direct payments, and the remainder from Safari revenues and associated fees.

Take-Two Interactive hasn't downwardly adjusted its earnings forecast to reflect the recent GTA V delay.

Grand Theft Auto V's delay from November 2021 to March 2022 on PS5 and Xbox Series X won't affect Take-Two's current earnings forecast. The company currently expects to make $3.14 billion - $3.24 billion in revenues during the Fiscal Year 2022 period. Based on this, it's possible Take-Two and Rockstar knew about the GTA V delay as early as May when the forecast was established, or that Take-Two chose not to include potential GTA V next-gen sales in its projections.

"Despite this change, the Company is reaffirming its prior guidance for the fiscal year, driven by continued strong engagement trends in its existing games, as well as the planned release of new games from its pipeline during the balance of its fiscal year," Take-Two wrote on its website.

Epic Games has appealed the ruling that declares Apple hasn't violated anti-trust laws, likely in an attempt to force third-party payment storefronts within the App Store.

The Epic vs Apple trial is over and the US District Court of Northern California has issued an official ruling declaring Apple anti-competitive, but not in violation of anti-trust. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers declared Apple is anti-competitive, calling the 30% App Store commission "supracompetitive," and led to "excessive" high operating margins that Apple "could not justify." This has led to an official ruling to allow calls, links, and buttons to third-party payment systems that would circumvent Apple's 30% paycut.

Apple won all other counts in the trial, however, and Apple has the right to keep Fortnite off of the App Store for good. The court also forced Epic Games to pay back (i) 30% of all Fortnite revenues it earned from its direct payment system and (ii) 30% of all revenues it earned from bringing Fortnite back to iOS via Safari browsers and GeForce Now between November 2020 through September 2021. Epic is appealing the ruling, but specifics haven't been revealed yet.

Grand Theft Auto V's new PS5 trailer is quite unpopular as fans push back against Rockstar Games.

Console gamers aren't too happy about re-buying GTA V for the third time, and have shown their frustration with Rockstar by massively ratio-ing the recent GTA V E&E trailer. At the time of writing the trailer has 120K dislikes compared to 25K likes on YouTube, representing an incredible 82.7% dislike ratio.

Gamers lambast Rockstar with comments criticizing the game's graphics, which have been likened to the PS4 Pro version and haven't wowed viewers. The majority of comments also accuse Rockstar of "milking" GTA V across three console generations, and it doesn't help to note that the GTA franchise has made over $6.4 billion in revenues since GTA V's launch in 2014.

Starting tomorrow all PlayStation 5 owners will be able to upgrade their console's internal storage beyond the measly 667GB of onboard space.

The PS5's M.2 SSD expansion slot will be unlocked via a new firmware update tomorrow, Sony has announced, allowing gamers to supercharge their storage with premium PC-grade SSDs.

The PlayStation 5 is only compatible with higher-end PCIe Gen4 x4 NVMe M.2 SSDs with speeds of at least 5.5GB/sec or faster, but a wide range of capacities are supported ranging from 250GB all the way up to 4TB. The PS5's expansion slot will support a number of M.2 form factors including the smaller 2230 drives used in the Series X/S, 2242, 2260, 2280, and the larger 22110.

NVIDIA has released an official comment on the GeForce Now database leak that listed tons of games like Titanfall 3, Injustice 3, Final Fantasy 9 Remake and Crysis 4.

A bit ago diligent coder Ighor July found a backdoor into the full catalog of GeForce Now games, including listings to thousands of titles that aren't available to consumers yet. Yesterday he posted up a proxy server with access to the full catalog, and Steam DB creator Pavel Djundik created a huge .csv with over 5,000 unannounced games and apps including unrevealed games from some of gaming's biggest publishers--from Treyarch's next shooter to Tekken 8, Resident Evil 4 Remake, Street Fighter 6, and new Metal Gear Solid HD games.

Now NVIDIA has delivered an official comment on the database leak. The company says that the list speculative and not indicative of game that's currently in development or announced, and that developers used GeForce Now for internal and remote testing of their PC games. Several of the games listed on the leak are actually in development for PC, including Redfall, the new Indiana Jones game from MachineGames, and The Elder Scrolls VI, to name a few.

Dying Light 2 has been delayed nearly 60 days and will now release in 2022, Techland confirms.

Dying Light 2 has been pushed back from its original December 7, 2021 release date to February 4, 2022. Techland says this decision was made to ensure the team can "polish and optimize" the huge reactive open-world of Dying Light 2, but we're willing to bet the congested holiday season was also a determining factor (Halo Infinite would've released one day after Dying Light 2, for instance).

"The team is steadily progressing with the production and the game is nearing the finish line. The game is completed and we are currently playtesting it. It is by far the biggest and most ambitious project we've ever done," the studio wrote.

Regulators are asking cryptocurrency platforms and projects to register with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The chair of the SEC, Gary Gensler, has said in a prepared statement at the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs that the SEC was working with the Commodities Futures Trading Commission to develop investor protection for cryptocurrency markets. On top of that, Gensler said, "We just don't have enough investor protection in crypto finance, issuance, trading, or lending."

Adding, "Frankly, at this time, it's more like the Wild West or the old world of 'buyer beware' that existed before the securities laws were enacted. This asset class is rife with fraud, scams, and abuse in certain applications. I've suggested that [crypto] platforms and projects come in and talk to us Many platforms have dozens or hundreds of tokens on them. While each token's legal status depends on its own facts and circumstances, the probability is quite remote that, with 50, 100, or 1,000 tokens, any given platform has zero securities."

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched into orbit 31 years ago, and despite its outdated technology, the space telescope can truly capture marvelous images of the cosmos.

An example of this is an image recently published by the European Space Agency that showcases a globular cluster of stars located around 20,000 light-years from Earth called NGC 6717. A globular cluster is a spherical collection of stars that are all tightly bound together by gravity and can be defined by the center of the cluster featuring a denser population of stars when compared to its edges.

The ESA explains that while the image showcases an amazing display of candy-colored stars, some of the stars seen in the image aren't actually a part of the NGC 6717 as they are much closer to Earth than they appear. These stars can be identified by the X running through the center of the star. If you are interested in reading more about this story, check out this link here.

The space industry is just starting to take its baby steps, and companies are already talking about gas stations being present in lower-Earth orbit.

The commercialization of lower-Earth orbit is taking place right now, but what we are seeing now is only just the beginning as more companies launch more satellites into space as society shifts more towards being digitally orientated. At the moment, there are around 4,000 operations satellites in lower-Earth orbit, and it's expected that within the end of this decade, that number will have increased to 100,000.

As a way to service these satellites and not leave them up in orbit to accumulate in an ever-growing junk pile, solutions have been proposed that would allow satellites to extend mission lengths which would prolong operational time for companies. An example of this is Orbit Fab's "Gas Stations in Space" refueling technology, which has just received investment from Lockheed Martin.

A company has received millions in funding to bring back to life a woolly mammoth in an effort to reduce the effects of climate change in certain locations.

The new company named Colossal is co-founded by geneticist George Church and Ben Lamm, the former CEO of Hypergiant, and has recently announced that it has received a $15 million seed round that's led by former CEO of Legendary Entertainment (Jurassic World and The Dark Knight), Thomas Tull. Colossal plans on using CRISPR to alter the genes of existing Asian elephants to convert them into a woolly mammoth-Asian elephant hybrid.

According to Colossal's press release, the reason it's necessary to bring back the woolly Mammoth is to reduce the effects of climate change. Here's what Lamm said, "Our goal is not to just bring back the Mammoth, that's a feat in itself. It's for the successful re-wilding of mammoths. If you take that toolkit, you have all the tools are your disposal to prevent extinction or to bring back critically endangered species."

Back on September 8, NASA officially delayed the James Webb Space telescope launch and locked in a new launch window.

The James Webb Space telescope is teed up to replace the Hubble Space Telescope and become, as NASA describes in its latest press release about the topic, "the premier deep space observatory for the next decade." NASA, along with its partners in the Webb project, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), have delayed the launch of Webb so another practice launch of the Ariane 5 rocket can take place.

The Ariane 5 rocket, provided by the European Space Agency, will take Webb to its destination out in space and successfully completed a practice launch back in July, which was the first launch of the Ariane 5 rocket since August 2020. It seems that NASA and its partners aren't taking any chances when it comes to Webb's launch, and for good reason, as the space telescope has been development for thirty years, had billions spent on it, and has faced numerous delays.

NASA researchers are showing off their excitement for the upcoming prospects that will take place in Mars' Jezero Crater after Perseverance recovered its second core sample.

In the above video that has been released onto the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory YouTube channel, NASA scientists explain the significance of Perseverance's second core sample collection and what it means for future exploration on Mars.

NASA predicted that the Jezero Crater was once a large lake that may have contained microbial life, and now NASA has confirmed that prediction was correct as the core sample nicknamed Rochette contained salts that likely formed as water evaporated from the environment. NASA said, "The salt minerals in these first two rock cores may also have trapped tiny bubbles of ancient Martian water. If present, they could serve as microscopic time capsules, offering clues about the ancient climate and habitability of Mars."