Latest News - Page 1436

Earlier this week, Elon Musk announced that Tesla has suspended Bitcoin payments for Tesla vehicles, and now the billionaire is working with the developers behind Dogecoin.

A recent Tweet found on the official Elon Musk Twitter account reveals that Musk is currently working with the developers behind Dogecoin to "improve systems transaction efficiency". Musk goes on to say that the coin is "potentially promising", which may be a hint towards Tesla potentially accepting Dogecoin as a payment, which is something Musk has asked his audience before.

Almost every time Musk Tweets out about Dogecoin, the price of the coin is affected significantly. This time is no different, and since Musk's Tweet reveals he is working with Dogecoin developers, the impact of his news caused a spike in the coins price. At the time of writing this, the coin's price increased by 17.42%, bringing it to its current price of $0.51. For more information on this story, check out this link here.

It won't be long now until the famous Hubble Space Telescope is replaced with the long-awaited James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched back in 1990, and the development for its replacement began in 1996. Since then, the JWST has gone through multiple delays caused by cost overruns and major redesigns, but now we are finally nearing the end of its development. The JWST opened its primary mirror for the last time on Earth before its launch scheduled for October 31, 2021.

So, how much better is the JWST going to be compared to Hubble? Well, the JWST has a far larger mirror than Hubble and also sports a sun shield the size of a tennis court that basically acts as a beach umbrella to keep it cool. Astrophysicist Blake Bullock, who is a director at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, the contractor on the project, said, "It is the biggest, most powerful telescope ever to be put in space. There are big telescopes on the ground but nothing of this nature and complexity in space. Hands down, it's the most powerful thing out there."

The United States is currently under siege when it comes to cyberattacks, forcing the White House to respond to recent events.

Major infrastructure such as pipelines, water-treatment plants, hospital I.T. systems, and more have all experienced cyberattacks. Cyberattacker cut off a pipeline to the Eastern Seaboard for days and also attempted to poison a Florida water-treatment plant. According to Fox News, other major infrastructure is being targeted as well, such as transportation hubs, energy facilities, and utility companies.

From the attacks that have already occurred, it's reasonable to suggest they can be seen as acts of war, especially when you consider how many millions of lives would be affected if, for example, drinking water was poisoned for an entire city. Not to mention, holding hostage hospital I.T. systems is certainly not what an ally does. President Biden signed an executive order on Wednesday that will add additional strength to the seemingly buckling U.S. cyber defense systems, as well as boost the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

HTC announced the Vive Pro 2 this week with a much higher resolution and higher refresh rate than the previous model. The headset supports Display Stream Compression to enable that high-bandwidth signal to pass through a DisplayPort 1.2 cable and work with the Vive Wireless Adapter. Unfortunately, the wireless kit still can't handle the full specs of the new headset.

HTC's Vive Pro 2 has several features that set it apart from the competition. The headset includes dual 2448x2440 120Hz RGB LCDs to give you an ultra-high-resolution VR experience. The new Vive is also compatible with all the existing SteamVR-based Vive accessories, such as the Vive Trackers and the Valve Index controllers. The headset also retains the original Vive Pro's shape, making it compatible with the new Vive Facial Tracker.

Compatibility with the Vive Wireless Adaptor is one of the most significant factors that set the new headset apart from the competition. The Oculus Quest 2 can run PC VR content via a WIFI connection, but HTC has the market cornered if you want the freedom of a tether-free headset and high-precision tracking with accessories.

Orbbec and Microsoft have teamed up to develop a series of Time-of-Flight (ToF) 3D cameras built with Microsoft's 3D sensor technology and Orbbec's embedded computing technology. Orbbec's ToF cameras support multiple ToF Sensors, onboard depth computing, and motion tracking via a 6-axis IMU. The new cameras will also have the ability to run depth vision algorithms through the onboard computing hardware to convert raw data into depth images locally.

"Microsoft is a world leader in high-resolution ToF sensor technology and cloud-based service. Its knowledge and intellectual property allow Orbbec to offer a full range of ToF cameras for the widest possible spectrum of uses," noted David Chen, co-founder and director of engineering for Orbbec. "Orbbec is excited to join the Azure Depth Platform Program, to jointly develop solutions that will enhance the capabilities of both Orbbec and Microsoft's customer and partner ecosystems."

The new cameras, which Orbbec expects to launch in 2022, would have direct integration with Microsoft's Azure cloud platform to enable "device management, data streaming and AI analytics capabilities."

One of VR's most popular shooters just got better. Population: One Season 2 launched on Thursday, with a new Western-themed map, more weapons to blast your enemies with, and even bigger multiplayer matches for even more fun.

BigBig VR launched Population: One in October 2020, the game became one of the most popular titles around. In February, the developer launched Season 1: Uprising, the first update to the game, which introduced five new weapons and launched Battle Pass, a 10-week paid pass that gets you exclusive content and skins.

Season 1 has since concluded, and on Thursday, BigBox VR kicked off Season 2: The Frontier, another 10-week period with an optional paid subscription with extra content. Season 2: The Frontier introduces a new map based in a western town. In the spirit of the western theme, Season 2 also adds the ability to dual-wield the Matador shotguns. BigBox VR added flick reloading so you can add shells without dropping a weapon.

Bionik today announced two accessories for your VR headset. The company is preparing to release a hypoallergenic face cushion for the Oculus Quest 2 to keep your headset clean. It also announced an update to the Mantis VR headphones that work with almost any VR headset.

Bionik's Face Pad VR is a direct replacement for the factory face cushion. The company said the cushion is made of "soft, absorbent, hypoallergenic materials." Bionik's product designers also added vents to the frame to give the headset extra ventilation for extended use.

Bionik's Mantis VR headphones are an accessory for almost any VR headset. These clip-on headphones give you better audio for your VR experience without the need to mess with a separate pair of headphones. The Mantis VR has a universal clip that attaches to the side strap of your headset to give you high-fidelity over-the-ear audio.

Remedy has grown tremendously in the last 10 years on the back of strong multi-platform games and partnerships.

In its recent Q1 2021 earnings call, Remedy briefly outlined its growth over the past 10 years. The results are stunning. From 2010 to 2020, Remedy's revenues have grown over 774% and the company has evolved into a leading independent studio capable of working on multiple high-profile projects at the same time. In 2010, Remedy pulled in just 4.1 million Euros in revenues; by 2020, revenues hit an all-time high of 41.1 million Euros.

Here's a few major beats from the last ten years' of Remedy:

Remedy Entertainment is simultaneously working on five projects right now, but one of them is quite far off.

In a recent Q1 2021 earnings report, Remedy CEO Tero Virtala updates investors on the company's release pipeline. The exec affirms Remedy is well-positioned to tackle multiple projects in parallel and has secured "favorable and balanced" publishing deals and partnerships for future games. The slate is pretty busy, and as of 2020, Remedy had 644 internal and external developers working on five games. including:

The last project, the unannounced AAA title outside of the Epic-funded games, is only in pre-production. This game will clearly release after the two Epic-partnered games, both of which are about to enter full-scale production.

Remedy is working on two big games with the help of Epic Games' new publishing arm, and both of them are now in full production.

In a recent Q1 2021 earnings report, Remedy Entertainment CEO Tero Virtala outlines development progress of its new games. Remedy is currently working on five projects including:

Now Remedy says both of the Epic-funded projects are in full swing. "The AAA game we have in development with Epic will soon move into full production mode, and the second smaller-scale project continues to progress well in full production mode," Remedy's CEO said.

Spatial today launched a new beta version of its virtual collaboration platform, which introduces a browser version of the application so you can access Spatial without installing anything. Along with the update, the company partnered with a handful of NFT artists to create art galleries to share digital artwork with the world.

Spatial just launched a new update to its virtual collaboration platform that brings the non-headset version of the app closer to parity with the headset version of the app. Spatial said that over the last year, only half of its users used AR or VR headsets. With strong numbers of non-headset users, the company invested in improving their experience, leading to the creation of the web app version of Spatial.

While Spatial was building the web version of its platform, the world of NFT digital artwork exploded. The Spatial team saw an opportunity to create something unique with its technology.

YouTube is planning on paying YouTube Short creators out of its soon-to-be-released $100 million creators fund.

YouTube Shorts will be what YouTube will be using to combat the extremely popular app TikTok. According to Amy Singer, the director of global partnership enablement for YouTube Shorts, the fund's announcement is the "first step in our journey to build a long-term monetization model for Shorts on YouTube". Additionally, Singer says that the creator's fund is a "top priority for us", but it will "take us some time to get it right."

It should be noted that anyone who creates YouTube Shorts can be a part of the fund, and not just creators who are enrolled in the YouTube Partner Program. The only requirement to be a part of the creator's fund is that the creator must create original content and follow the community guidelines outlined by YouTube. YouTube is going to be reaching out "to thousands of creators whose Shorts received the most engagement and views to reward them for their contributions."

Located in the Republic of Tuva is an archaeological site of ancient nomadic warriors buried with their horses.

The burial site is of Scythians, who were a nomadic people that built a very impactful empire in Eurasia between the 9th and 2nd centuries BC. Now, the Defence Minister of Russia, and a very close ally to President Vladamir Putin, has hinted towards using the DNA samples gathered from the 3,000-year-old corpses to build human clones.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said, "Of course, we would like very much to find the organic matter. I believe you understand what would follow that. It would be possible to make something of it, if not Dolly the Sheep." For those that don't know, Dolly the Sheep is the first mammal cloned from an adult somatic cell, or more simply put a clone. Shoigu is clearly hinting at attempting to clone these ancient warriors using DNA samples.

Brand new images have been posted online by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope of Jupiter. The new images showcase the planet in three different types of light.

The images, which can be found above, are detailed on the NOIRLab website, where it's stated that Jupiter has been captured in the three following types of light; infrared, visible, and ultraviolet. These three separate views allow researchers to have a different perspective of the planet's atmospheric features, such as the "Great Red Spot, superstorms, and gargantuan cyclones".

Not only does Hubble take incredible images of space by itself, it also works with on-ground satellites such as Gemini North in Hawaii. The visible and ultraviolet images of Jupiter were captured with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, and the infrared image was captured using Gemini North's Near-InfraRed Imager (NIRI) instrument. If you are interested in reading more about this story or would like to learn more about Jupiter and its atmosphere, check out this link here.

Los Angeles and Las Vegas residents have taken to social media to report a very odd string of lights appearing in the night sky.

It was only last week when similar reports came from residents in Washington. Some of those residents deemed the lights to be UFO "sightings". However, the lights that were seen over Los Angeles and Las Vegas weren't UFOs but actually were SpaceX's Starlink satellites. The launch of sixty SpaceX Starlink satellites coincides with these "strange light sightings" posted all over social media.

The Starlink satellites take several weeks to spread out and form a line. Once they are position in the atmosphere, SpaceX proceeds to spread them out further so they can eventually synchronize and link up with the larger Starlink grid. Onlookers of the night sky that aren't aware of SpaceX's Starlink satellites are understandably confused at what they are witnessing unfold above them. However, it isn't UFOs of any kind, but just man-made magic.

It wasn't too long ago that the AMD 4700S PC Desktop Kit was spotted online, and now it's out in the wild in some markets at least -- and someone has taken some pictures of the motherboard

The pictures were posted on Twitter by "DISCLOSUZEN" but the CPU cooler wasn't removed, so we don't have a juicy shot of the chip itself. They are the first pictures of the AMD 4700S PC Desktop Kit, with the AMD 4700S processor based on the Zen 2 architecture and packing 8 cores and 16 threads at up to 4GHz.

AMD also has 16GB of GDDR6 memory on its 4700S processor, which should be on the back of the motherboard and under what looks to be a custom heat sink. There's a PCIe 3.0 x16 slot for a discrete GPU, which makes sense given that AMD has most likely disabled the integrated GPU, or it defective and thus, disabled anyway.

Dell has refreshed its XPS 15 and XPS 17 gaming notebooks with Intel's new 11th Gen Core "Tiger Lake-H" processors, with the flagship XPS 17 packing some serious specs.

The new Dell XPS 17 can be configured with 4 different Intel 11th Gen Core CPUs: the flagship Core i9-11980HK, Core i9-11900H, Core i7-11800H, or Core i5-11400H processor. You can tweak the XPS 17 with up to 64GB of DDR4-3200 RAM, and up to 4TB of PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD storage.

On the GPU side of things, there are two options for the Dell XPS 17: NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3060 or GeForce RTX 3050 as well as the integrated GPU on the processor.

AMD recently released its Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics card but it's not finished filling out its RDNA 2 family of Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards.

We've had earlier teases of the Radeon RX 6600 series through AIDA64 and GPU-Z updates and early support given to the new cards, we now have some new leaks on the Radeon RX 6600 XT and RX 6600 cards from Chiphell. New information on AMD engineering samples teases the Radeon RX 6600 XT with its Navi 23 GPU and 2048 Stream Processors.

AMD will have the cut-down Navi 23 inside of the Radeon RX 6600, with the non-XT version probably packing 1792 Stream Processors while both cards will have 8GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit memory interface. We should expect AMD to reveal the Radeon RX 6600 series cards in the next couple of months, with rumors of a Q2 2021 launch.

A new alliance of powerful US tech companies has joined forces to create the Semiconductors in America Coalition (SIAC) which has urged US congressional leaders to secure $50 billion for the CHIPS for America Act.

The Semiconductors in America Coalition has pushed congressional leaders to secure $50 billion in funding for US-based chip manufacturing incentives and research initiatives. SIAC says that its mission is to "advance federal policies that promote semiconductor manufacturing and research in the U.S. to strengthen America's economy, national security, and critical infrastructure".

The CHIPS for America Act legislation may have been enacted earlier this year, but the funds are not flowing -- something Intel has voiced its opinion on with the Biden administration recently. SIAC's first actions included a letter to congressional leaders to support this legislation, and fully fund the $50 billion asked for in the CHIPS for America Act.

ASUS has joined the growing crowd of AIB partners releasing new Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics cards using pre-binned Navi 21 XTXH GPUs from AMD. Introducing the ASUS ROG Strix LC Radeon RX 6900 XT TOP Edition graphics card:

You can see here that ASUS is liquid cooling the ROG Strix LC Radeon RX 6900 XT TOP Edition, with a dual-slot design and 240mm AIO cooler. ASUS has a game clock of 2375MHz for the card, up from the 2365MHz on the "OC Edition" of the ROG Strix Radeon RX 6900 XT. Boost clocks are at 2525MHz on the ROG Strix LC Radeon RX 6900 XT TOP Edition, up 150MHz from the 2375MHz on the original card.

The full-coverage cold plate will keep that Navi 21 XTXH humming away on its TSMC 7nm node and 16GB of GDDR6 memory nice and cool, with a blower-style fan on the card joined by dual fans on the 240mm AIO radiator. I wouldn't expect the card to be cheap when it's released, and I doubt there will be many available worldwide.