Latest News - Page 1602

Microsoft launched the Windows 10 version 2004 (May, 2020) update not long ago and it's not playing well with some computers. Lenovo has put out a chart that shows owners of its computers if their machine has been tested to be compatible to upgrade to the Windows 10 May 2020 from:

Lenovo warns that anyone who updates a computer not listed in the chart below may not have tested drivers available. Those users can still update their machine, but the generic Windows 10 drivers may cause the loss of some features and functionality. Its worth noting that even if your machine is on the list, there are limitations with some machines which can be seen here. The complete list of Lenovo computers tested for compliance with the May 2020 Windows 10 update include:

Lenovo has been focusing on Chromebook launches having revealed the Chromebook Flex 3I recently.

OWC is a company that specializes in hardware for Mac computers new and old. It has a new SSD that it says will "revitalize older Macs and PCs" with improved performance. The new SSD offering is available now and is the OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G SSD. The drive is offered in capacities from 240GB up to 4TB.

All capacities are in a 2.5-inch form factor that should fit inside most desktop and laptop systems. OWC says that the SSD is ideal for audio, video, photography editing, and production for users who need sustained performance. The Mercury Extreme Pro 6G is promised to be up to 10x faster than what many drives deliver today.

According to OWC, some drives drop to 50 to 60 MB/s after their cache is exhausted. The SSD promises read speeds of 37 MB/s and write speeds of 98 MB/s for 6 Gb/s 4K random data. The SSD can sustain 34 MB/s read speeds and 79 MB/s writes with 3 Gb/s 4K random data. Sustained read speed is up to 559 MB/s with sustained writes at up to 527 MB/s.

A new study has indicated that constantly thinking about negative thoughts could increase the risk of a person developing dementia.

According to the UCL-led study published in Alzheimer's & Dementia, researchers looked at over 292 people over the age of 55 and found that 'repetitive negative thinking' (RNT) is linked to subsequent cognitive decline, as well as the deposition of harmful brain proteins that are linked to Alzheimer's. Lead author Dr. Natalie Marchant, a UCL Psychiatrist said, "Depression and anxiety in mid-life and old age are already known to be risk factors for dementia. Here, we found that certain thinking patterns implicated in depression and anxiety could be an underlying reason why people with those disorders are more likely to develop dementia.".

Marchant also says that from the research, scientists believe that chronic negative thinking patterns that occur over longer periods of time could increase the risk of dementia. Marchant also explains that the evidence gathered doesn't suggest that short term negative thinking would increase the chances of one developing dementia. The researchers behind the study now hope that RNT is further investigated as a potential risk factor for dementia and that other tools that can break someone's negative thinking pattern/s are also explored as treatments.

Can you believe we're just a few days away from (hopefully) getting the full skinny on Sony's next generation PlayStation 5 console? We have seen all sorts of designs of what the PS5 could end up looking like, from the iconic V-shaped design through to slick 3D renders and now the latest from LetsGoDigital:

This new PlayStation 5 design was made by Dutch designer Jermaine 'Concept Creator' Smit, who envisions a two-tone PS5 design that has strikes of the rounder PS3 design.

Sony hosts its 'The Future of Gaming' event on June 11 at 9PM BST, on the official PlayStation 5 website.

It's always a blast when astronomers spot another planet that is really similar to Earth, as most planets out there are baron wastelands that are either too hot or too cold.

Luckily, astronomers are really good at finding planets, and sometimes with a little bit of luck, they find one that is really similar to Earth. According to a new report in MIT Technology Review, astronomers have located a new planet that is likely an exoplanet, and it's called KOI-456.04. This planet is just under two times the size of Earth, and shares about 93% of the same light our planet receives.

The team managed to locate this planet with the old Kepler Space Telescope, and pulled the diamond in the rough out using algorithms that study a star's brightness. The algorithms target a star and constantly observe it waiting for it to dim, and once it does dim, it indicates an object, and sometimes a planet has passed in front of it. While I previously do say that KOI-456.04 is a planet, I must be accurate; scientists are 85% sure that KOI-456.04 is a planet, but for that to be confirmed, studies have to hit the 99% mark. Once that mark is hit, KOI-456.04 is officially an exoplanet.

It looks like the new Far Cry will be announced in just over a months time, where we should see Far Cry 6 revealed during Ubisoft Forward on July 12.

The news is coming from Gamereactor.dk, which says that Far Cry 6 will be officially unveiled during the event. The site said (translated): "The last [Ubisoft] game scheduled to be released before April (unless Ubisoft decides it's this game that should be postponed due to COVID-19 or that there are too many AAA releases in a fairly short window) is set to be a Far Cry".

It continues: "I don't want to ruin Ubisoft's plans by giving you all the information, but I can say with certainty that those of you who didn't like Far Cry 5's North American setting are likely to find this game more interesting when it's officially unveiled during Ubisoft Forward on July 12".

AMD has completely disrupted Intel's reign on the CPU market, with German tech retailer Mindfactory releasing some rather eye-opening sales numbers.

According to their sales for first week of June 2020, there have been 5270 AMD Ryzen processors sold, compared to just 770 processors by Intel. This means that AMD has 87.25% of sales for the first week of June, leaving Intel just 12.75%. The most popular CPU sold was the Ryzen 5 3600, followed by the Ryzen 7 3700X.

Hell, the top 7 most popular CPUs sold are AMD Ryzen -- with the Intel Core i7-9700K breaking it up, then it's back to AMD Ryzen again before Intel can get three in a row with its Core i9-9900K, Core i5-9600K, and Core i7-10700K.

Samsung is going to have a gigantic year whether we're stuck in our houses or not, with next-gen smartphones, tablets, smartwatches and so much more to reportedly unveil on August 5.

According to Samsung leaker Ice Universe, we can expect the annual Galaxy Unpacked event on August 5, 2020. We should see Samsung unveil the next-gen Galaxy Note 20 smartphone, as well as a new Galaxy Fold 2 smartphone, a new Galaxy Z Flip handset, a Galaxy Tab 7 tablet, and even a Galaxy Watch 2.

We should see the Galaxy Note 20 packing some crazy internals, with an upgraded SoC and RAM, a better display, upgraded storage, improved cameras, super-fast 45W charging, and so much more. We might see a 60Hz panel on the Galaxy Note 20, while the Galaxy Note 20+ should feature a 120Hz panel -- Samsung, make both 120Hz please.

AMD is currently on 7nm with both its Ryzen and Radeon products right now, NVIDIA is dabbling in 14/12nm with its GPUs and Intel -- well, Intel is being Intel with 14nm+++ (+++++++++++) and tipping its toes into 10nm. Well, TSMC is already forging ahead with 5nm, 3nm -- and now 2nm.

According to the latest rumbles, TSMC has just accelerated its R&D (research and development) into the next-gen 2nm node. TSMC is using its massive slush fund of $16 billion for R&D wisely, with 5nm planned to go into volume production in late-2020, while 3nm enters trial production in the first half of 2021 and should enter mass production in 2022.

TSMC is pushing faster with its future 2nm node, with the company acquiring more (and very expensive) EUV lithography (Extreme Ultra-Violet) machines for its new 2nm node. The investment into these bleeding edge EUV machines wasn't cheap, so TSMC's capital spending will not be revisited this year, and it will remain in the $16 billion range.

Cyberpunk 2077 will be one of the best looking games of 2020 when it drops, but what about some early 8K screenshots of CD Projekt RED's upcoming open-world RPG.

CD Projekt RED has been pretty steady with gorgeous 4K screenshots of Cyberpunk 2077, but now Reddit user 'Compxs36' has delivered the goods with some upscaled 8K screenshots. The user ran the Cyberpunk 2077 screenshots through the Waifu2x neural network that upscaled them to 8K (7680 x 4320), as well as tapping the de-noising feature that removes film grain.

As you can see from the screenshots, it looks absolutely beautiful. The images are gigantic at around 20MB a piece, so I won't have them all here and will rather direct you here.

Bungie is working on two big projects right now: Destiny 3, and a new IP with Borderlands-esque humor. Now we have more details on this mysterious new IP. But to get a better idea of what's going on with Bungie, we have to take a look at a specific timeline of events.

Back in 2018, after it split with Activision and morphed into a developer-publisher, Bungie trademarked something called Matter. Everyone thought Matter was the name of Bungie's new IP.

Not long after the Activision split, Bungie received a huge $100 million investment from NetEase to fund their "bold new vision," which includes publishing and developing their own games, as well as branching off to other projects besides Destiny.

EA is finally embracing cross-play, the games industry's most potent new money-making strategy.

Cross-play is the future of gaming. Unifying consoles and PC in a new wave of platform agnosticism is the next billion-dollar step for gaming's biggest companies, and represents a brave new world for engagement and monetization. Here at TweakTown we've long talked about how instrumental cross-play is for service games. Just look at Warzone, which has quickly risen to become the most important thing Activision has ever done. EA is taking notice, and they want in on the action.

Today EA announced they're launching a new cross-play initiative starting with Need For Speed: Heat. This is just the beginning. Like Activision-Blizzard, we should expect EA to bake cross-play into all of its mainline games, especially juggernaut annualized sports games like FIFA and Madden. Another big use case is the F2P battle royale Apex Legends, which has generated tremendous earnings for EA.

We've said it a few times; it's uncommon to get significant discounts on Apple gear. The gang from Cupertino tends to keep its margins very high, and saving significant money is something that Apple fans have to search for. Any Apple fan needing to replace an older MacBook Pro might want to check out a deal Amazon has going right now on the 16-inch version of the notebook.

Typically, the 16-inch MacBook Pro with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage sells for $2399. Amazon is currently offering $300 off, making the notebook $2099. For those wondering, the machine uses an Intel Core i7 operating at 2.6 GHz and up to 4.5 GHz with Turbo Boost. That is a six-core processor, and the notebook has the Touch Bar and Touch ID.

Graphics are handled by an AMD Radeon Pro 5300M GPU with 4GB of GDDR6 and the ability to automatically switch with the integrated Intel UHD graphics 630 when extra performance isn't needed. Storage is to a 512GB SSD, and the machine has a quartet of Thunderbolt 3 ports with support for charging. Other connectivity options include a DisplayPort and USB 3.1 port.

CD Projekt RED aims to take Oblivion's radiant AI to a whole new level with Cyberpunk 2077.

According to new CDPR interviews, Cyberpunk 2077's new real-time AI systems will allow for incredible dynamism. Thousands of NPCs will have actual daily routines throughout Night City's six districts, including a ton of robust and varied characters with cyborg implants, unique designs and animations, and day and night cycles.

This isn't a surprise. We knew about this as far back as 2016, when CD Projekt RED filed for a grant with the Polish government (which it received). Back then, CDPR laid out its ambitious plans for the game's city creation: "Comprehensive technology for the creation of 'live' cities of great scale playable in real-time, which is based on the principles of artificial intelligence and automation, and takes into account the development of innovative processes and tools supporting the creation of high-quality games with open worlds."

MSI is the latest computer maker to design a high-end notebook with powerful hardware specifically for design professionals. The machine is called the MSI Creator 15 and uses 10th generation Intel Core i7 H processors combined with NVIDIA GeForce RTX SUPER graphics. The processor available is the Core i7-10875H promising up to 40% faster performance than past generations with eight cores.

MSI says that the machine is specially designed for multitasking and professional processing jobs, including graphic design, video editing, and 3D rendering. Despite the high-end hardware inside the computer, it's configured with a cooling system that can keep all that hardware running optimally.

MSI chose fans that have super thin 0.1mm blades to increase airflow by 15%. The heat pipes are 25% wider than standard cooling solutions to keep the CPU operating at optimal performance. One of the key features of the MSI Creator 15 notebooks is its touchscreen with available 4K resolution and 220 ppi. The 4K display option promises 100% Adobe RGB color gamut. Other available screens include a 15.6-inch full HD IPS touchscreen or a 15.6-inch full HD IPS screen.

Sony will reveal the PlayStation 5's next-gen games on Thursday, June 11 at 4PM EST, a new Twitch ad reveals.

A recent Twitch ad has outed the new timing for the PS5 reveal event for June 11. The stream was originally delayed so Sony could "stand back and let more important voices be heard."

We won't see Sony reveal the actual PlayStation 5 at the event. The company was careful to say this will center around next-gen exclusive PS5 launch games, not the actual console. The PS5's main housing is expected to be revealed months later.

The PlayStation 5's SSD is nearly twice as fast as the Xbox Series X's. According to Microsoft's Brad Stilwell, developers will use all sorts of tricks to help equalize this raw performance disparity.

Both the PS5 and Xbox Series X SSD's are revolutionary, and are similar in many ways. But they vary in possibly the most important spec: raw speed. The PS5's SSD can hit 5.5GB/sec base data transfers, and the Xbox Series X hits 3.5GB/sec. That's a pretty big jump. But rather than playing favorites, third-party developers releasing titles for both platforms are expected to find ways to help smooth out that SSD disparity in their games so the PS5 ports are massively better than the Xbox Series X SKU.

First things first. Let's talk about how important SSD speeds are for next-gen. Essentially the SSD is what feeds the system's beastly power--it's the fuel for the fire. Without streamlined, ultra-fast, and more importantly, ultra-efficient software and hardware synergy, next-gen performance falls apart. It's imperative the SSD delivers quick access to specific data through supercharged PCIe 4x lanes across custom memory controllers (like the PS5's 12-channel memory controller), IO blocks (hardware-based decompression on the 7nm SoCs), and specific APIs, like the powerful Xbox Series X's Velocity Architecture.

Lenovo recently pulled the wraps off the Chromebook Flex 3I. As the name suggests, the machine runs Chrome OS and is extremely portable. Lenovo says that the machine is designed to be super light at 2.64 pounds and easy to take with you to work, school, or on the road.

Power comes from an Intel Celeron N4020 operating at 1.10 GHz and up to 2.80 GHz. The display is an 11.6-inch unit with a native resolution of 1366 x 768 and 250 nits brightness. 4GB of LPDDR4 2400 MHz RAM is soldered to the motherboard.

Graphics are handled by integrated Intel UHD Graphics 600, and the Chromebook comes in two versions. Both use all the same hardware, except for storage. The cheaper $329.99 unit features 32GB of eMMC storage while the $339.99 unit has 64GB of internal storage. Considering the price difference of only $10, we expect the vast majority of Chromebook Flex 3I units sold to be the 64GB version.

If you happened to miss it, SpaceX successfully launched two astronauts to the International Space Station. But that wasn't the only achievement SpaceX made that day.

When SpaceX successfully launched Crew Dragon to the ISS, it passed a milestone point with the use of the Falcon 9 booster designated for B1049. This launch by SpaceX with the Falcon 9 marked the fifth time the same booster was used, putting it completely ahead of all other companies developing reusable rockets. SpaceX didn't just magically get the Falcon 9 booster to be reusable, there were many failed attempts by the company and a lot of persistence on their part.

As Teslarati reports, SpaceX has dominated the competition in terms of the fastest orbital-class rocket or spacecraft in history to do five launches. The Falcon 9 has beaten out Space Shuttles Columbia (~27 months), Challenger (~24 months), Discovery (~22 months), Atlantis (~26 months), and Endeavour (~29 months) with launches in ~20 months. Falcon 9 is now the most flown operational rocket in the United States.

If you happen to be a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate fan, and an Animal Crossing fan, then this is the post for you as someone has decided to add the entire Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster to Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Posted to the Animal Crossing subreddit, user DJ-Dez celebrated this massive achievement by saying that after 400+ hours, "Every smash bros ultimate character transported into the animal crossing world! Nintendo, this is my job application". This massive task was completed by the player using a variety of different hats and costumes, and all in all, most of the characters look fairly spot on.

This post was met with massive community support, and at the time of writing this, it has gained 36.5K upvotes and several different awards. If you are interested in shopping for any of the looks seen in the above image, the creator has provided his creator ID so you can download them for free. Here's the creator ID: MA-3790-6501-6469. For more information on Animal Crossing: New Horizon, check out the subreddit here.