Latest News - Page 1429

Apple is currently building out its new "Guizhou-Cloud Big Data (GCBD)" which is its new data center that will house iCloud data of its Chinese customers.

Chinese government laws changed back in 2016, which required all "personal information and important data" that was collected in China, was to remain in China. This forced Apple to move its iCloud data of its Chinese customers out of its US-based servers (and other servers globally) to the new GCBD facility.

This new facility is codenamed "Golden Gate" and allows Apple to slip something through: it can break US laws which stops US-based companies from giving data to Chinese authorities. Well, Apple seems to have no problem in doing this as... well... it seems to already be a done deal.

HP has just introduced its new all-AMD laptop, and also its first 16-inch laptop in its Omen family of laptops which is an upgrade over the usual 15-inch display HP offers in its Omen range.

The big deal here is that HP is offering its new Omen 16 gaming laptop with the option of an Intel or AMD processor, with the option between an Intel Core i7-11800H processor or AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX. You'll also get the option of NVIDIA or AMD graphics.

HP is offering the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU, or an unreleased, and yet-unnamed RDNA 2-based GPU from AMD. We should expect the Radeon RX 6000M series, but we don't know which model just yet.

Elon Musk is on fire on Twitter this morning, first off blasting a tweet about Dogecoin and that developers who want to help with Doge can submit ideas to GitHub and the /r/dogecoin subreddit.

The second tweet was that the SpaceX and Tesla boss had spoken with US-based Bitcoin miners, and said that they committed to publishing their current and planned renewable usage for Bitcoin mining operations in the US. Musk along with US-based Bitcoin mining operations are now pushing worldwide Bitcoin miners for the same.

Musk added that this would be "potentially promising". Given the fact that Ethereum will soon be 7000x more efficient than Bitcoin, much of it related to energy costs. Bitcoin also saw a nice bump in its price, rising from $38,000 or so through to $39,800 or so with Musk's tweets while it dropped down to $38,400 at the time of writing.

Roblox Corp eventually wants to release its free-to-play juggernaut onto every games platform, including two of gaming's biggest console markets.

With $387 million in Q1 revenues and 42.1 million daily active users that spent 3.2 billion hours playing, Roblox is already huge, but it could get a lot bigger. The community-driven Roblox was able to achieve staggering earnings and engagement even without a dedicated release on PlayStation 4 (114.6 million sell-in) or Nintendo Switch (84.59 million sell-in).

Roblox Corp CEO says these platforms--and others like the Oculus Quest--are integral for the company's metaverse ambitions, so expect the game to show up on these platforms eventually.

CKY's drummer Jess Margera may have confirmed a new Tony Hawk game is in development at Activision.

In an April interview with Closed Doors Podcast (at the 39:12 mark), CKY's Jess Margera says the band will have music in a new Tony Hawk game.

When asked if CKY had music in other Tony Hawk games, Margera said: "Yeah, and I believe we're doing the new one coming out too." The drummer goes on to mention how his son just got the remastered Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1+2 on PS5 so it's likely Margera isn't referring to the re-release, but a brand new game.

A year after the impressive Unreal Engine 5 demo, Epic Games reiterates how the engine will transform how next-gen games are made.

Unreal Engine 5 is all about efficiency and freedom. Two new major UE5 innovations have been outlined by Epic: Nanite, a new virtualized micropolygon technology that allows incredibly high-definition assets, and Lumen, new real-time global-illumination lighting systems. In a recent video, Epic further outlines the advantages that Nanite offers developers.

Nanite is Unreal Engine 5's new geometry render technology that allows native cinematic-quality assets to be imported right into scenes, There's no kit-bashing required. No adjustment of the assets, no proxies, no tweaks; just natively importing the movie-quality assets right into the engine. Nanite allows developers to use Quixel megascans (ultra high-resolution assets) without compromise and gives artists freedom to choose and place images in whatever way they want.

Elon Musk has tweeted out a new piece on Dogecoin, with the SpaceX and Tesla boss saying that if you'd like to help out in developing Doge to submit your ideas to GitHub and on Reddit on /r/dogecoin.

The price of Dogecoin instantly skyrocketed close to 20% at the time of writing, from around $0.33 to $0.37 in minutes. I'm sure that /r/dogecoin will be blowing up in the next few hours, as it has been for the last few months with this skyrocketing towards the moon (and huge dip, but Dogecoin was at $0.05 just months ago and is still at $0.37 now post-plunge).

Elon Musk recently said he held a "large amount" of Dogecoin, and that he "won't sell" that Dogecoin anytime soon. Dogecoin holders will be joyous at the news of Elon asking for help with Doge development, and the highlighting of the Dogecoin subreddit and GitHub.

Grand Theft Auto V may be priced at the new premium $69.99 MSRP for next-gen console games when it releases in November.

While neither Rockstar Games nor Take-Two Interactive have officially confirmed pricing on GTA V's PS5 and Xbox Series X/S re-release, we have reason to believe the game will cost $69.99. The new console gen gives publishers an opportunity to re-price games and Take-Two was one of the first to jump on the cost hike with NBA 2K21. That trend should continue onwards. Given GTA V has sold-in 145 million copies worldwide, it's also likely the game won't get a free next-gen upgrade. This would dilute the sales potential of the next-gen launch.

Previous comments from Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick frames the company's motivations going forward.

Returnal isn't just a new game for Housemarque: It's the start of the developer's future.

Housemarque just made its first big splash into the AAA space with PlayStation 5 exclusive Returnal. The roguelite is a unique mashup of third-person action and bullet hell that combines the studio's core strengths in one package. In many ways, Returnal is a kind of early proving point for Housemarque, and now the developers want more.

In a recent interview with GameReactor, Housemarque marketing director Mikael Haveri says Returnal is a kind of experimental template that will affect all of its future games. The PS5 game is an effort to tackle bigger fish than the smaller-scale indies and arcade games Housemarque has done in the past.

Having already dominated one portion of consumer free time with entertainment streaming, Netflix is interested in making a splash in the $180 billion games industry.

Netflix is currently mulling over plans to expand into gaming, sources tell The Information. The strategies remain unclear and there's a lot of options for the subscription titan.

For example, sources say Netflix could offer a separate Apple Arcade-style all-you-can-play subscription service with games created by third-party studios. Netflix could help fund and license games for sale based on its produced franchise including Stranger Things, which has already released as an indie game, as well as other series like Altered Carbon.

Tardigrades are microscopic creatures that are believed to be close to indestructible, as they can survive quite extreme environments.

Scientists have previously found tardigrades can survive in the vacuum of space, inside a volcano, and even in a lake one mile beneath the surface in the Antarctic. Tardigrades have also been frozen and returned back to normal functionality thirty years later. Now, a recent study that has been published in the journal Astrobiology has pushed the limits of tardigrades by finding out if they can survive being fired out of a gun.

The researchers put tardigrades in some canisters and fired them out of a high-speed gun at different speeds. After many tests, the researchers found that tardigrades could survive at the speed of 900 meters per second, but any faster than that resulted in the tardigrades turning into mush. According to Alejandra Traspas, an astrochemist at Queen Mary University in London, "They just mush".

A blockchain and analytics firm has published a new study that reveals Iran is using Bitcoin (BTC) mining to bypass economic sanctions imposed by the US.

The United States has implemented a close to total economic embargo on Iran, as well as banning all imports from the country. To get around these sanctions, Iran has seemingly decided to turn towards Bitcoin mining as a way of converting the country's energy potential into a commodity it can then sell for profit.

According to estimates from Elliptic, a blockchain, and analytics firm, Iranian BTC miners sell their BTC to Iran's central banks. Miners are paid in BTC, which can then be used to purchase other things such as imported goods. Iran is using this process as a way to get around official sanctions and essentially sell the country's energy potential, but is it legal?

The time has come to get super excited for a brand new season of Rick and Morty, and to kick things off, we have a brand new trailer from Adult Swim.

The trailer has been posted to the Adult Swim YouTube channel and shows Rick, Morty, Beth, Jerry, and Summer all going on intergalactic adventures. From looking at the trailer, you can see that the scale of the show's animation is being pushed to new heights in this new season, as we can see massive robot battles, space fights, and Jerry getting a job interview?

Another cool factor to note is that the song being played behind the trailer is Sabotage by Beastie Boys. Adult Swim reveals that fans can expect the 10 new episodes of Rick and Morty to begin on Sunday, June 20th at 11:00 pm ET. For more information on the new season of Rick and Morty, check out this linkhere.

Reports are indicating that the Congo's Mount Nyiragongo has officially erupted last Saturday night on May 22.

The 11,385-foot-tall volcano has a huge lava crater located at its peak. The crater measures in at 1.3 miles wide and 820 feet tall. The eruption from the volcano caused orange and red smoke to pour out into the sky and lava to flow out towards the area's major transit hub Goma. The lava managed to stop just before Goma, but out of fear, thousands of residents fled across the border to Rwanda.

Back in 2002, Mount Nyiragongo erupted, and its lava covered Goma killing nearly 250 people and leaving more than 100,000 people without homes. Luckily, current reports are indicating that the most recent eruption hasn't caused any injuries or deaths. For more information on this story, or Mount Nyiragongo, check out this link here.

Virgin Galactic has announced it has completed its first crewed spaceflight with the VSS Unity in New Mexico.

The accomplishment from Virgin Galactic has marked a milestone in human spaceflight for New Mexico, as the state is now the third state in the US to launch a crewed spaceflight successfully. Originally, Virgin Galactic planned to launch the spaceflight in December 2020, but after many delays, that launch has finally happened, and it has been deemed a success.

Kelly Latimer and Michael Masucci piloted the mothership that released the VSS Unity, which carried two more passengers CJ Sturckow and Dave Mackay. The VSS Unity managed to reach Mach 3, or three times the speed of sound.

An announcement from a Domino's Pizza franchise located in the Netherlands has revealed that employees of the fast-food chain will have the choice of being paid in Bitcoin (BTC) or normal currency.

The announcement comes from Immensus Holding, which is the franchise behind sixteen Domino's Pizza stores. According to the announcement, employees will now be able to choose between being paid in normal currency (euros) or BTC. Dutch law states that employees' minimum wage must be paid in fiat currency (euros), but if an employee earns more than the minimum wage, they can now choose to be paid the excess of their earnings in BTC.

Immensus co-owner Jonathan Gurevich said, "We are a modern company, and we work with a lot of young employees. We hear them talking about Bitcoin and we want to offer the opportunity to own cryptocurrency." Additionally, BTC Direct's Jerrymie Marcus said, "A monthly Bitcoin salary can be compared to dollar cost averaging into Bitcoin. So all the benefits are the same, you don't have to time the market, and in the long run you cancel out short and mid term volatility. This actually benefits the employee, they save value automatically in an ever-increasing asset."

Reports are now indicating that people who hold a large amount of Bitcoin (BTC) are scooping up hundreds of thousands of Bitcoin since the price dropped.

After Tesla announced that it wouldn't be accepting Bitcoin as payment for its electric vehicles, and China began its crackdown on the currency, the price of BTC has plummeted down. Now, data from Glassnode is indicating that Bitcoin whales - people who are holding between 10,000 and 100,000 BTC - have purchased 122,588 BTC when the price crashed last Wednesday.

Additionally, cryptocurrency hedge funds that were interviewed by Bloomberg revealed that they were also buying the dip. Kyle Davies, the co-founder at Three Arrows Capital, told Bloomberg, "People that were borrowing money to invest, they were wiped from the system [...] Every time we see massive liquidation is a chance to buy. I wouldn't be surprised if Bitcoin and Ethereum retrace the entire drop in a week."

Ever since Tesla announced that they wouldn't be accepting Bitcoin as payment for its electric vehicles and the dreaded news out of China, Bitcoin has dropped in value considerably.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has taken quite a lot of heat since the drop in Bitcoin price, but the billionaire has stood his ground when it comes to people claiming that he has sold his holdings in cryptocurrency. Musk has publicly advocated for the meme-cryptocurrency Dogecoin, causing the price of the coin to reach new highs.

Now, Musk has agreed with a Twitter user that claimed that Musk has a very large number of Dogecoin in his crypto-wallet, and that he "has major skin in the game". Additionally, the Twitter user said that he doesn't think Musk "would ever sell his Doge holdings. He's the ultimate hodler". To this Tweet, Musk replied by saying, "Yeah, I haven't & won't sell any Doge".

Slow motion can truly be mesmerizing, and an example of that statement being true is the most recent video released by The Slow Mo Guys.

For those that don't know, The Slow Mo Guys are a very popular YouTube channel that is dedicated to recording things in slow motion. The guys behind the camera have created hundreds of videos of all different types of objects being recorded in slow motion. Some of the most popular videos on the channel are a water balloon popping in slow motion, and how a TV works.

The most recent video released on the channel pits a spark plug from a car against a car window. In this video the guys behind the camera explain that they have been waiting for the new Phantom camera to be released to shoot a video in an astonishing 800,000 frames-per-second (FPS). Additionally, the video description reveals that 800,000 FPS video of the window breaking is their slowest video they have ever recorded.

Chia cryptocurrency blew into the scene weeks ago, melting storage and eating up SSD supplies worldwide -- but just how much storage has Chia eaten through in the last few months? 10 exabytes.

1 exabyte is 1 million terabytes. That means 10 million terabytes or 10,000,000 TB of storage has been eaten up by Chia cryptocurrency mining so far. These numbers have skyrocketed recently, as Chia had only chomped into around 6 exabytes of storage, but it has close to doubled that inside of a week.

Another huge fact here is that most of this is being done on ultra-fast NVMe SSD drives, thanks to their superior flash-based storage compared to mechanical HDDs. If you want to write 100 terabytes of plots (1010 plots) then you're going to eat into 1.6 petabytes of NVMe writes which is insane.