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Researchers here on Earth are very excited to get their hands-on the new Mars specimens that are being collected by the Perseverance rover.

According to NASA's Director of Planetary Science, Lori Classe, the samples that are collected from Mars should "provide new insights for decades to come as we study them with sophisticated laboratory equipment that cannot be brought to Mars." While this optimism to bring back samples from Mars to Earth is shared by many scientists, a group of researchers are concerned about potentially contaminating Earth's biosphere.

A team of scientists at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICAMSR) has issued a warning against returning any model from Mars back to Earth. Instead, the team suggested that the samples should be taken to the Moon, where any pathogens can be identified without endangering Earth. Carl Sagan, a renowned and famous astronomer, wrote back in 1973, "Mars has a vast potential biological environment, and there are pathogens and organisms on Mars that can cause enormous biological damage if they are carried into the Earth's environment. "A Mars Plague".

The rocket designed by Elon Musk's SpaceX that is poised to transport humans from Earth to Mars has completed its first test flight.

SpaceX on Wednesday has successfully launched its first test flight of its Mars-bound rocketship named Starship. The four previous tests of the large rocket have ended in aggressive explosions either before, during, or after the launch. Starship took to the skies and soared for more than 6 miles above the Gulf of Mexico before descending horizontally and then flipping vertically for the touchdown.

Launch commentator John Insprucker announced, "Starbase Flight Control has confirmed, as you can see on the live video, we are down. The Starship has landed!" Once Starship landed, a small fire at the base of the rocket persisted. This fire was quickly extinguished by the landing pad's water cannons. Elon Musk posted to his Twitter saying that the Starship flight and landing was "nominal". For more information on this story, check out this link here.

The US Space Command is currently tracking the out-of-control rocket that China recently launched.

The rocket is roughly 100 feet in length and weighs 21 tonnes. When the rocket falls back to Earth, it will be one of the biggest space debris ever to crash back down to Earth. The rocket is currently traveling at a ridiculous speed of 16,000 mph and is rotating around the Earth once every 90 minutes. Due to the multitude of variables, officials have had a hard time determining where the rocket will land.

According to the Aerospace Corp, the trajectory of the rocket indicates that it will land somewhere in the Pacific near the Equator after passing over eastern US cities. However, this isn't officially confirmed. Originally, the orbit of the rocket indicated it could land anywhere between New Zealand and New York. Additionally, the US defense department says that the rocket will likely land on Saturday this week, but the exact location "cannot be pinpointed until within hours of its re-entry".

Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers are seeking answers to what experts believe is an attack on US officials with a microwave weapon.

Marc Polymeropolous, a 26-year veteran of the CIA, traveled to Moscow in December 2017, and during one of the nights in Moscow, "I woke up in the middle of the night with an incredible case of vertigo, of tinnitus, which is ringing in the ears. I was falling over. I was nauseated." The CIA veteran was staying near the US embassy when he was attacked, and his specific case and symptoms have been described by now 40 US diplomats working in embassies in Havana and China.

Experts are now saying that these symptoms reported by diplomats are a result of directed radio-frequency energy in the form of a microwave. Polymeropolous said, "There's conventional wisdom that this is a portable weapon, a microwave weapon that we knew the Soviet Union and the Russians certainly developed and tested for a long time. And it's designed to incapacitate. I mean, it's pretty insidious because it also doesn't leave any kind of open scars or wounds."

Apple unveiled its new 2021 iPad Pro in both 11-inch and 12.9-inch display sizes, with the larger 12.9-inch iPad Pro packing a new mini-LED display, 5G connectivity, Apple's in-house M1 processor... aaaand now it's not going to be shipping until mid-July.

Apple has changed the delivery time for its larger 12.9-inch iPad Pro, with Bloomberg noticing the changes of the shipping dates to somewhere between June 24 to July 8 in the US. This is for most versions of Apple's new 12.9-inch iPad Pro in its varying storage amounts.

If you want to get the new 12.9-inch iPad Pro any sooner then you'll have to spend big bucks getting the 2TB model, but it won't come with 5G (which I don't think most people would use for the most part, as they can always tether their mobile connection to the iPad Pro). Still, it's a little while to wait if you've been hyped about the new iPad Pro.

Resident Evil Village is about to launch on the PC and it unfortunately comes as no surprise, but more of a disappointment, that the game ships without any ability to adjust the field of view (FOV) on the PC.

But never fear, the PC modding community is here: Nexus Mods user Maceyaface has crafted magic with a very quick fix for the Resident Evil Village demo on the PC that provides an FOV slider that lets you adjust the field of view in real-time. There are separate FOV sliders for the base field of view, and the zoomed-in field of view while the mod will remember your last-set FOV options and auto-sets.

The FOV mod for Resident Evil Village has some limitations in the form of the cutscenes in the game not having their field of view adjusted.

GIGABYTE has just unveiled some very Tesla-inspired AORUS gaming PCs with the introduction of the new pre-built AORUS Model X and AORUS Model S.

The new AORUS Model X and Model S gaming PCs can be tweaked with either an Intel Core CPU or AMD Ryzen CPU, with the Intel model packing the new Rocket Lake-S flagship Core i9-11900K processor. GIGABYTE is using the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X processor in the AMD-tweaked AORUS Model X gaming PC.

Both of the systems are powered by NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card, 16GB of DDR4-4400 memory (for Intel) while the AMD-powered AORUS Model X had DDR4-3600 memory. There's a 1TB PCIe 4.0 storage options, as well as a larger 2TB PCIe 3.0 SSD.

If you've spotted Samsung's new 2021 Frame TV or have been reading or watching videos about it online, and didn't want to head into the store through the pandemic to check it out in-person, then don't worry because Samsung has your back (but not up against the wall, Dad joke).

Samsung's new 2021 Frame TV is actually a very stylish, beautifully built high-end TV with the 2021 model being slimmer, better innards, and amazing picture quality thanks to Samsung's in-house 4K QLED panel. There are new styles available, as well as new colors, artwork, and add-ons. You can totally personalize your Samsung 2021 Frame TV.

But the company is now stepping up with a pretty kick ass 100-day, totally risk-free trial offer for its new 2021 Frame TVs. Buy one of the TVs in any size, and if you don't like it you can return it without a hassle (apart from boxing it back up, etc). Not bad, Samsung... not bad.

Intel's new Alder Lake-S is currently in the foundry ovens and being tested, with the 12th Gen Core processors being teased in a different form today: codename Core-1800.

The newly-teased Intel Core-1800 processor was spotted by Igor Wallossek that has published a datasheet from HWiNFO for the new Intel 12th Gen Core CPU. The specification sheet for codename Core-1800 shows the engineering sample processor listed with a B0 stepping which is the second revision engineering sample (ES2) with more changes to be made to the chip before it's made final.

Intel's codename Core-1800 in its ES2 form is a 16-core, 24-thread CPU with varying boost clocks. The datasheet for the Core-1800 has 2 of its cores at up to 4.6GHz, 4 cores at up to 4.4GHz, and 6 cores at up to 4.2GHz. Intel has an all-turbo boost CPU clock of 4GHz on the codename Core-1800 chip.

Sony puts out a new trailer outlining which PS4 games will play better on PS5, including major first-party exclusives.

The PS5's Game Boost feature allows PS4 games to tap the next-gen console's higher-end CPU, GPU, and SSD tech to deliver enhanced gameplay. While the perf varies on a game-to-game basis, and devs have to go back and update specific titles to leverage the PS5, the results can deliver markedly different experiences with 60FPS upgrades (although this seems to pale in comparison to the Series X's massive FPS Boost, which skyrockets some games to 120FPS).

The new Sony video only shows three PS4 games that take advantage of Game Boost, God of War, Ghost of Tsushima. Shadow of the Colossus, but other titles include Days Gone and Ratchet & Clank. The PS5 also natively boosts load times of PS4 games installed on its PCIe 4.0 SSD.

Sabrent teased something really, really special earlier this year with its RocketQ Battleship SSD: offering 8 x RocketQ NVMe 8TB SSDs on the Highpoint SSD7540 8-port PCIe 4.0 x16 M.2 NVMe RAID controller. Well, now it's even closer... and soon it'll be a reality offering some truly insane storage capacity (64TB) and up to 28GB/sec reads.

Highpoint's own website for its new Fast n' Little NVMe AIC RAID card, no seriously it's called the Highpoint FnL which is the industry's most customizable NVMe RAID solution. Highpoint builds its AIC RAID controller cards for individual professionals and corporate clients that want wicked-fast NVMe storage out of the box.

But right down the bottom of the Highpoint FnL NVMe AIC website, there's the FnL NVMe AIC Drive Solutions bit -- where it lists the PRO Class Solutions which are using Samsung's 970 and 980 PRO series NVMe SSDs but below that is what we're all here for. Highpoint teases its ELITE Class Solution, which is "Built around Sabrent's diverse Rocket Series of NVMe SSD's, Elite Class AIC drives offer unprecedented storage capacity and class-leading versatility".

BioWare's new Mass Effect trilogy remaster can hit up to 1440p 120FPS on Xbox Series X, but is locked to a hard cap of 1440p 60FPS on PlayStation 5.

Today BioWare announced new performance targets for the Mass Effect Legendary Edition. The results are particularly interesting especially for next-gen hardware. The game will have two modes: one for quality, which allows 4K visuals, and the other optimizes smooth frame rates.

The Xbox Series X can hit 4K 60FPS with quality mode enabled, but in FPS mode it can hit 1440p 120FPS with resolution scaling. The PS5 can likewise hit 4K 60FPS but drops to 1440p 60FPS with the frame rate mode ticked on. It's worth mentioning the Series X's GPU is nearly 18% more powerful than the PS5's.

Xbox consoles don't make a profit and instead rely on software, services, and monetization to make money, Microsoft reiterates in the Epic vs Apple trial.

According to Lori Wright, Vice President, Gaming, Media & Entertainment at Microsoft, the company's 30% revenue commission is "required" for Xbox consoles to be manufactured or sold. All Xbox hardware has been sold at a loss, and not a single generation's hardware sales have been profitable.

"Your justification for the 30% commission is because the hardware doesn't make money," Apple counsel asked in the trial.

Activision kicks off its 2021 year with record earnings across the board due to strong performance of Call of Duty (Warzone, Black Ops Cold War), Candy Crush, and World of Warcraft.

Activision's Q1 2021 has delivered record results across a number of metrics. Q1 2021 was the best first quarter in the last 10 years when measuring net revenues ($2.275 billion), operating profit ($795 million), and profit ($619 million). In fact, Q1 2021 had the best operating profit of any other quarter in the last 10 years. The period had the third-best revenues of any quarter, and the second-best profits when compared to other quarters.

The company notes this substantial growth is due to Call of Duty monetization (up 60% YoY) and full game sales, and Activision also earned $1.343 billion from mictotransactions, representing 65% of its total net bookings.

Xbox's Phil Spencer is still holding out hope that its game streaming service could show up on competing platforms, new emails from the Epic vs Apple trial show.

Xbox's business is built off services, monetization, and widespread access. It's only logical that Microsoft wants Game Pass and its Project xCloud game streaming on every platform imaginable, including competing consoles like the Nintendo Switch and Sony's PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. Game Pass and xCloud already connect Xbox consoles, Windows 10 PCs, and mobile phones in a billion-dollar ecosystem, and Microsoft wants more.

In a 2020 email conversation with Epic CEO Tim Sweeney spotted by The Verge, Xbox's division head Phil Spencer says he has "hasn't given up" on launching xCloud game streaming on other platforms.

Activision's recent Q1 earnings show a substantial spike in in-game player spending thanks to Warzone, Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War, World of Warcraft, and continued Candy Crush earnings.

Activision's Q1 microtransactions earnings are on fire. The company earned a monumental $1.343 billion in microtransaction and subscription revenue in Q1 2021, a record high for any other Q1 period and the second-best quarter for mTX earnings in Activision history.

The company's Q1 beat out any other holiday period in history, too. This says a lot: Activision releases its mainline Call of Duty games in Q4 every year complete with microtransaction gateways in these games. mTX has markedly increased throughout 2020, hitting an all-time high after Warzone launched in Q2 2020. It's worth noting that CoD microtransaction spending usually bleeds over into Q1 due to the November launches, but microtransactions are never from Call of Duty alone. This year, Activision-Blizzard had strong performance from Candy Crush and World of Warcraft, too.

Future Deep Silver games like Dead Island 2 and Saints Row V may be timed exclusive to the Epic Games Store, internal documents from 2019 reveal.

New documents revealed in publicly available court exhibits reveal more about Epic's future timed exclusivity deals. According to one document which was created in late 2019, Dead Island 2 and Saints Row have been earmarked as Epic Games Store exclusives. Which Saints Row wasn't specified, but it's possible Saints Row V will be EGS exclusive in favor of the 88-12 revenue split.

This aligns with my predictions made in 2019 based on comments from Koch Media's CEO. Based on previous trends, these games should be timed exclusive and not kept off of Steam like Ubisoft's newer titles.

Star Wars fans have been waiting a long time to get their hands-on a real-life lightsaber, and they soon will be able to, but expectations of what it will actually be like may need to be dialed back a bit.

In the above video that has been posted to the official Disney Parks YouTube Channel, we get a very quick 13-second glimpse at the new lightsaber. The Verge states that the lightsaber is "working", and that it's a part of the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser luxury hotel that will be opening at Walt Disney World Resort in 2022. Engadget reports that patents for the lightsaber indicate that it works by a motor that extends a blade of LED-illuminated plastic.

At the moment, it isn't confirmed if you will be able to purchase the lightsaber, but it certainly would be surprising if Disney doesn't sell it, because I'm sure there are many Star Wars fans out there that would love to own one. If the lightsaber is high-quality, the price of the weapon could be anywhere in the $200 range as the already existing Galaxy Edge is priced at $200. For more information on this story, check out this link here.

Everyone will soon have the opportunity to go for a quick trip up to space, and one of the companies that is providing the service is Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin.

Blue Origin is led by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and according to a recent announcement on the companies Twitter page, the first tickets aboard the New Shepard rocket will be going live very soon. Blue Origin has said it will be revealing details on how you can purchase a seat on May 5, and if you expected it to very expensive, you assumed correctly.

Going to space is by no way a cheap process. When you factor in every cost, you can find the dollar value of each pound of weight. Blue Origin hasn't officially revealed any prices for a ticket aboard the New Shepard but has said that it will be competitive in the market. Virgin Galactic, another company that is yet to begin space tourism, has priced its tickets at $250,000. So, we can assume that Blue Origin will be anywhere in the $150,000 - $200,000 range, perhaps even lower.

In a recent livestream on YouTube by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, it was discussed how Ingenuity taking flight on Mars multiple times has paved the way for future space exploration.

According to Ingenuity pilot Johnny Lam, successful flights of Ingenuity have unlocked a completely new dimension of space exploration for the human race. Ingenuity's success is such a big deal because now space explorers can guide rovers through a safe and effective path that would have originally have had pilots guessing.

Lam said, "I think with the success of Ingenuity, we basically unlocked an aerial dimension to exploration. We can kind of reach some hard-to-reach areas, we can provide images, reconnaissance... the best path to traverse." Ingenuity will provide the teams back on Earth with vital data, and its next mission will be a one-way trip to a new possible landing site. Eventually, the helicopter will be tasked with flying next to the Perseverance rover to see how Ingenuity does working as a scout.