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Xbox Series X boosts old games to 120FPS with unlocked GPU, CPU power

Derek Strickland | Gaming | May 28, 2020 4:35 PM CDT

The Xbox Series X will play thousands of backwards compatible games across three generations, and all of them will harness the full native power of the system's 12TFLOP GPU and 3.8GHz Zen 2 CPU.

Xbox Series X boosts old games to 120FPS with unlocked GPU, CPU power

The new next-gen Xbox Series X also has serious next-gen backwards compatibility boosts that can significantly improve in-game performance. The Xbox Series X will natively enhance all backwards compatible games to massive levels, doubling frame rates (if a game runs at 30FPS base, it'll run at 60FPS on XSX, and up to 120FPS for games that normally hit 60FPS), simulating HDR visuals, tapping the built-in 2.5GB/sec PCIe 4.0 SSD for ultra-fast load times, and raising fidelity up to native 4K.

Microsoft previously confirmed Gears of War 4 Ultimate hits native 4K on the XSX without any upgrades from developers.

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BIOSTAR debuts new H410 series motherboards designed for Intel CPUs

Shane McGlaun | Motherboards | May 28, 2020 1:08 PM CDT

BIOSTAR has unveiled a pair of new H410 series motherboards designed to run the latest 10th generation Intel processors. The boards include the H410MHG and the H410MH. Both boards are aimed at business or casual users and are built with high-grade materials and functionality suitable for different uses.

BIOSTAR debuts new H410 series motherboards designed for Intel CPUs

Both boards are designed for the Micro-ATX form factor and feature USB 3.2 Gen1 ports with performance and connectivity needed for multiple devices. Integrated storage technologies include PCIe M.2 10Gb/s, offering 1.8 times more bandwidth compared to the SATA M.2 6Gb/s along with lowered latency.

Both the motherboards support up to 64GB DDR4 RAM with clock speeds up to 2933 MHz. Both also support gigabit LAN. The BIOSTAR H410MHG has TPM technology improving equipment effectiveness with an emphasis on proactive and preventative maintenance and provides a safe working environment. That board is built to suit government agencies and other commercial applications. It also includes a 4K HDMI connector.

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Upgraded Raspberry Pi 4 now offers up to 8GB of RAM

Shane McGlaun | Motherboards | May 28, 2020 11:02 AM CDT

Raspberry Pi 4 fans can get an upgraded version that just launched that offers up to 8GB of RAM. With the additional RAM version, the Pi 4 can now be had with 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB of RAM. The Pi 4 is almost a year old and has sold 3 million units so far. Over the nearly 12 months since launch, there have been a couple of minor board revisions.

Upgraded Raspberry Pi 4 now offers up to 8GB of RAM

The rumored 8GB Raspberry Pi 4 is now available and costs $75. The 2GB version of the same board sells for $35. The BCM2711 chip used on the Raspberry Pi 4 can address up to 16GB of LPDDR4 SDRAM. The developers behind the board say that the barrier to offering the larger-memory version was the lack of an 8GB LPDDR4 package.

Pi.org says that its partners at Micron unveiled a suitable part earlier this year. The Raspberry Pi 4 with 8GB of RAM is available right now. Eben Upton from Raspberrypi.org wrote, "If you're a power user, intending to compile and link large pieces of software or run heavy server workloads, or you simply want to be able to have even more browser tabs open at once, this is definitely the Raspberry Pi for you."

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Microtransactions by the billions: Top-earning games companies in 2019

Derek Strickland | Gaming | May 28, 2020 10:32 AM CDT

I'd like to preface this comparison by saying it's not nearly as dynamic as I'd like it to have been. There's many other companies that make much more in microtransaction and monetization revenues than the ones listed here. And even the ones listed in the graph come with some caveats, which we'll go over below.

Microtransactions by the billions: Top-earning games companies in 2019

Live services are a billion-dollar business and the GaaS model won't go anywhere anytime soon. It's just too profitable. All of gaming's biggest publishers do it, from overseas titans like NetEase and Nexon to Western giants like Activision and EA. But how much do these games actually make every year? Quite a bit. We've compared some of the top earning companies that monetize both F2P and premium games.

NetEase leads the charge with over $6 billion generated from games in 2019, the bulk of which is from microtransactions, but this also includes full game sales. The company has stated in its filings that a "significant amount" of its games earnings come from monetized F2P titles, so we felt more comfortable including them on the list.

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5GBioShield: USB drive that costs $416, protects you from 5G radiation

Anthony Garreffa | Connectivity & Cloud | May 28, 2020 9:11 AM CDT

If you are scared of 5G radiation then you really need to look at buying this $416 product called 5GBioShield, from a UK-based company that says when the 5GBioShield is plugged in, it'll emit a protective shield with a 40-meter diameter that cancels out 5G radiation.

5GBioShield: USB drive that costs $416, protects you from 5G radiation

The company explains its 5GBioShield: "It harmonizes all harmful frequencies into life affirming frequencies". The drive itself is pwoered by "quantum nano-layer technology" that 5GBioShield says will "balance the imbalanced electric oscillations arising from all electric fog induced by all devices such as: laptops, cordless phones, wlan, tablets, etc".

But that's when IT security company Pen Test Partners steps in, as they purchased and tested the 5GBioShield. The firm said that the USB drive was "virtually identical" to a normal USB flash drive that you can buy wholesale form China for just $6. Yeah, there's nothing special going on -- it's like the Alex Jones of USB sticks.

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Here's why SpaceX delayed its first astronaut launch to the ISS

Jak Connor | Science, Space, & Robotics | May 28, 2020 2:09 AM CDT

Everyone, including the President of the United States, was excited for SpaceX's first astronaut launch to the International Space Station, but at the last minute, the launch was canceled.

Here's why SpaceX delayed its first astronaut launch to the ISS

Elon Musk's space company, SpaceX, was scheduled to launch its first-ever crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on May 27th, but unfortunately, the launch was delayed just 20 minutes before liftoff due to bad weather rolling in. The launch has now be rescheduled for May 30th at the earliest, and hopefully, on May 30th, there are clear skies.

If there aren't clear skies on May 30th, SpaceX has said that it will attempt to launch again on May 31st at precisely 3 p.m EDT or 1900 GMT. The two astronauts that SpaceX plans on sending are NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley. This mission to the ISS will mark the first orbital human spaceflight from the U.S since NASA retired its space shuttle fleet in July 2011.

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HBO Max is live, Netflix and Disney+ competitor costs $15 per month

Anthony Garreffa | TV, Movies & Home Theatre | May 28, 2020 12:26 AM CDT

The day is here: HBO Max has officially launched, with the new subscription service costing $15 per month and competing directly against Disney+ and Netflix. You can read everything you need to know about HBO Max here.

HBO Max is live, Netflix and Disney+ competitor costs $15 per month

The launch hasn't been perfect, but the library is better than most on day one -- offering a gigantic library of content in the form of cartoons, TV shows, and movies from Warner Bros. At $15 per month, it's the most expensive streaming service on the market, but it has lots of content to binge -- HBO Originals coming soon, and exclusives like Zack Snyder's Justice League.

You can binge every single series of Friends, or The Big Bang Theory -- or dive right into some of the largest movies WB has in its catalog. This includes DCEU movies like Aquaman and Wonder Woman (others to come) as well as the Harry Potter movies, and so much more.

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Zack Snyder's Justice League might cost much more than $30M to finish

Anthony Garreffa | TV, Movies & Home Theatre | May 27, 2020 11:44 PM CDT

I'll remember the moment that Zack Snyder alongside Henry Cavill announced that Zack Snyder's Justice League was coming to HBO Max in 2021. It was a moment that will live with me forever.

Zack Snyder's Justice League might cost much more than $30M to finish

But one of the concerns is the financing of getting it finished, as Snyder might have hours of footage to use -- but he'll need to make some adjustments to get the movie in a final state. During the recent episode of the Recode Media podcast, WarnerMedia and HBO Max boss Bob Greenblatt said it would cost far more than the reported $30 million to finish off Zack Snyder's Justice League.

Greenblatt said: "It isn't as easy as going into the vault and there's a Snyder Cut sitting there to put out... Zack is actually building it and it's complex, including - and I don't wanna get into too much detail that we haven't already talked about yet - but, new effects shots. It's a radical rethinking of that movie and it's complicated and wildly expensive. Which is, of course, a number I won't quote... I'll just say I wish it was $30 million and stop there".

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Continue reading: Zack Snyder's Justice League might cost much more than $30M to finish (full post)

Intel's gone black with its new CPU cooler, can't go back to silver

Anthony Garreffa | Processors | May 27, 2020 10:29 PM CDT

Intel hasn't updated its retail CPU cooler in over 10 years, so I guess the company decided to celebrate the 10th Gen Core CPU family release with a slightly re-designed cooler.

Intel's gone black with its new CPU cooler, can't go back to silver

The new Comet Lake CPUs when purchased in retail form will come with an Intel stock cooler, which for many years now has had a black-and-silver color scheme. Well black and silver no more, as Intel has moved to an all-black color scheme, seemingly turning its back on the color silver on its coolers -- at least for this generation.

Intel only includes a CPU cooler with the non-K series processors, so you'll only find these new all-black heat sinks in both the 35W T-series processors and the 65W non-K chips. The cooler itself remains unchanged, with the same circular design and fans in the middle with a shroud (that is now just a little thicker).

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Henry Cavill in talks to continue as Superman for the DCEU

Anthony Garreffa | TV, Movies & Home Theatre | May 27, 2020 9:45 PM CDT

Today is the day that HBO Max launches and today is the day news took a giant leap of a new rumor: Henry Cavill is set to return in the role of Superman in future DCEU movies.

Henry Cavill in talks to continue as Superman for the DCEU

The news is coming from exclusive sources of Deadline, who said that Cavill is in talks to return as Kal-El. Deadline writes: "While there is not a Man of Steel sequel in the works, we're hearing that Henry Cavill is in talks to reprise his role as Superman in the Warner Bros. DC Universe".

But what is more interesting is how Cavill will return as Superman, as there is no announcement of Man of Steel 2 yet -- a sequel to Man of Steel from 2013 which kicked off the DCEU and was directed by Zack Snyder's Justice League director, Zack Snyder. Snyder also directed Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice released in 2016.

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We could see the first fusion reactor turned on by 2025 in the US

Anthony Garreffa | Science, Space, & Robotics | May 27, 2020 7:26 PM CDT

Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) has announced that it has raise $84 million in a second round of Series A funding, with the MIT spin off using the funds to continue its work on commercializing fusion energy.

We could see the first fusion reactor turned on by 2025 in the US

The company has now raised $200 million since it first opened its doors in 2018, with the first round of funding seeing CFS secure $115 million in June 2019. Commonwealth Fusion Systems is all-systems-go towards meeting its goal of making commercial nuclear fusion a reality, and that could be much sooner than you think.

Commonwealth Fusion Systems boss Bob Mumgaard explains: "We're in a unique position where it's still something that's far enough in the future that any of the recovery models are not going to affect the underlying needs that the world still has a giant climate problem".

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Xbox boss: no shortage of Xbox Series X consoles at launch

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | May 27, 2020 6:25 PM CDT

Microsoft is ramping right up into the launch of its next-gen Xbox Series X console, with Phil Spencer having a chat with the now ex-Nintendo America boss Reggie Fils-Aime on the Talking Games podcast. Check that out below:

Xbox boss: no shortage of Xbox Series X consoles at launch

In the chat, Spencer reiterates that Microsoft's supply chain is healthy and that they should be able to feed enough Xbox Series X consoles out to the world to all those hungry next-gen console gamers. Spencer said: "In our supply chain, we feel good about the hardware side. Feels like we'll be able to get enough units"

He continued: "And you know, we're pretty committed, as we've talked about to a worldwide launch, which regretfully, we didn't do with Xbox One. You remember watching that from Nintendo campus. It took us months and months to hit some of the incredibly important markets and worldwide launch is important to us".

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No Man's Sky gets creative, finds other ways to monetize without mTX

Derek Strickland | Gaming | May 27, 2020 4:30 PM CDT

Hello Games seems intent on not adding microtransactions to No Man's Sky, and is pulling some strategically-timed maneuvers to still make money from No Man's Sky.

No Man's Sky gets creative, finds other ways to monetize without mTX

No Man's Sky is one of the most interesting live games in the industry. It's a premium game that doesn't bake monetization into its online multiplayer hooks. The game brazenly defies what I call the Engagement Cycle by releasing massive game-changing expansions for free--something that any other publisher would nickle and dime you for--and instead relies on full game sales. So how does No Man's Sky dodge monetization so easily? It's actually pretty tactical.

Soon No Man's Sky will be available on Game Pass on both Xbox One and PC. This is absolutely huge for any game, especially one with a live audience. Game Pass has 10 million subscribers who will all instantly get access to No Man's Sky across two platforms. Not only will Hello Games make money from Game Pass subs, but the service is proven to actually spark full game sales of the titles that're available. After playing on Game Pass, users are eager to permanently own the titles they like.

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PlayStation Vita lives in new Last of Us Part II footage

Derek Strickland | Gaming | May 27, 2020 3:35 PM CDT

Today Naughty Dog released new State of Play gameplay footage for The Last of Us 2, and one of Sony's dead-but-not-forgotten systems made an appearance.

PlayStation Vita lives in new Last of Us Part II footage

The Last of Us 2's newest trailer is full of death. Ellie just massacres her way through the game, burning, slicing, stabbing, shooting, and generally brutally murdering everything in her way. But there's one dead thing that made a surprising appearance in the footage: Sony's ill-fated PlayStation Vita handheld.

The trailer has a neat little nod to the PS Vita--one of the WLF faction members is playing a game (see if you can guess which one) on the Vita when Ellie sneaks up on her. And just like the Vita is in real life, the lady is dead at the end of the footage. Sadly, Ellie doesn't pick up the Vita or mess with it, and we're not sure if you actually can.

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New Avengers co-op gameplay, combat footage, and more coming in June

Derek Strickland | Gaming | May 27, 2020 3:03 PM CDT

Fans are still iffy on Square Enix's new original Avengers game, and for good reason: We simply haven't seen all that much of it yet. But Square Enix will soon change that.

New Avengers co-op gameplay, combat footage, and more coming in June

On the heels of E3's cancellation, many pubs have moved to their own digital stream events. Square Enix has no plans to lump all their reveals and updates in one big package. Instead, they'll cut them up and serve them over time. New Outriders gameplay is coming tomorrow, May 28, and new Marvel Avenger's footage will drop on June 24.

So what can we expect from the Avengers update? We already know most of the pertinent details about the Avengers game: It's a live service title with up to 4 player co-op, complete with offline singleplayer. It's a huge grind fest with 10 different crafting materials, and it'll be monetized with cosmetic microtransaction skins straight out of the comics.

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MacBook Pro notebooks with Mini-LED displays expected in 2021

Shane McGlaun | Laptops | May 27, 2020 1:06 PM CDT

A new rumor is making the rounds that claims Apple is getting ready to release several high-end devices that use Mini-LED displays in 2021. Among the devices will be a new 16-inch MacBook Pro aiming at launch in Q2 and a new 27-inch iMac tipped for the second half of 2021. The source of the rumors is an analyst called Jeff Pu from GF Securities.

MacBook Pro notebooks with Mini-LED displays expected in 2021

The rumor reportedly lines up with the previous rumor from noted Apple analyst and leaker Ming-Chi Kuo, who claims that Apple suppliers will begin mass production of related components between Q4 2020 and Q1 2021. The timeframe suggests that most, if not all, of the Mini-LED products, will be released next year.

Kuo previously stated that Apple would release a 14-inch and a 16-inch MacBook Pro using the new display technology. He also expects the launch of a new 12.9-inch iPad Pro with Mini-LED screen tech along with a 10.2-inch iPad and a 7.9-inch iPad Mini. The new screens will allow products to be thinner and lighter than the current designs.

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Kingston is shipping a 7.68 TB data center SSD

Shane McGlaun | Storage | May 27, 2020 11:02 AM CDT

Kingston Digital is the flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company. Kingston Digital has announced that it is now shipping a 7.68 TB model of the DC500R SSD and DC450R SATA SSD. Another new drive called the DC1000M 7.68 TB U.2 NVMe ships in June.

Kingston is shipping a 7.68 TB data center SSD

Kingston says the SSD provides additional storage and implements strict QoS ensuring predictable I/O and low latency for data centers using NVMe or SATA. The DC500R is a VMware Ready SSD that's engineered for read-intensive applications like web servers, virtual desktop infrastructure, operational databases, and real-time analytics.

The DC450R has a specific and focused feature set for read-intensive applications and is optimized for data centers looking for more affordable alternatives to write-intensive SSDs. The drive is designed for content-delivery networks, edge computing, applications, and a range of software-defined storage architectures.

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PlayStation 5 reveal event set for June 3, next-gen games to be shown

Derek Strickland | Gaming | May 27, 2020 10:17 AM CDT

Sony plans to show off next-gen PlayStation 5 games during a special reveal event set for Wednesday, June 3, sources tell Bloomberg.

PlayStation 5 reveal event set for June 3, next-gen games to be shown

Although Sony has yet to announce plans, we now have multiple sources reporting on a June PS5 reveal event. The first event will center around PlayStation 5 games and Sony is said to carve up other announcements for separate reveals. The game selection could include a mix of next-gen exclusives as well as current-gen games that're enhanced on the new console.

Sony confirmed PS4 games will run on the PS5, and that the next-gen system's native boost mode is so powerful that all current-gen games have to be revamped to ensure compatibility.

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Here's how to watch NASA and SpaceX's historic launch of Crew Dragon

Anthony Garreffa | Science, Space, & Robotics | May 27, 2020 8:53 AM CDT

A historic moment is about to happen for the United States.

Here's how to watch NASA and SpaceX's historic launch of Crew Dragon

The US is about to send two astronauts into space from US soil for the first time in nearly 10 years, with President Trump in attendance at the NASA and SpaceX launch of mission Demo-2. This mission will see NASA astronauts thrust into orbit on SpaceX's new Crew Dragon spacecraft riding a Falcon 9 rocket.

NASA veteran astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will rocket into orbit from the Kennedy Space Center on Launch Pad 39A, with a 19-hour journey ahead of them to the International Space Station (ISS). The NASA astronauts will stay on the ISS for between 1-4 months both living and working in space.

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Continue reading: Here's how to watch NASA and SpaceX's historic launch of Crew Dragon (full post)

NVIDIA's new GeForce driver optimized for Valorant, Minecraft Dungeons

Anthony Garreffa | Graphics Cards | May 27, 2020 8:15 AM CDT

NVIDIA has just released its new GeForce Game Ready 446.14 WHQL driver, which you can download right here.

NVIDIA's new GeForce driver optimized for Valorant, Minecraft Dungeons

The new drivers include the latest performance optimizations for Valorant, as well as support for Minecraft Dungeons, Disintegration, and Crucible. NVIDIA has also added VRSS (Variable Rate Supersampling) to Onward -- as well as a bunch of issues that have been fixed.

There is one particular thing worth highlighting with these new drivers: they have support for Microsoft's soon-to-be-released Windows 10 May 2020 update. The upcoming Windows 10 May 2020 update has an interesting new GPU feature: it will show GPU temperature in the Task Manager now -- thanks to the introduction of the DirectX 12 Ultimate API.

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Continue reading: NVIDIA's new GeForce driver optimized for Valorant, Minecraft Dungeons (full post)

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