Latest News - Page 1646

Twitch announced that it has developed a new avenue for keeping the community safe and healthy. The Twitch Safety Advisory Council aims to support the growth of the community moving forward. Twitch says that the Council will inform and guide decisions made at Twitch by contributing their experience, expertise, and belief in the Twitch mission of empowering communities to create together.

The Safety Advisory Council will advise on a number of topics that include:

The group is composed of both Twitch creators and online safety experts who all have a deep understanding of the Twitch network, its content, and its community. The Council has both streamers and experts who can provide an external perspective.

Battlemode cheating is a big problem in Doom Eternal--gamers are using the Cheat Engine to do all sorts of crazy things. id and Bethesda responded by slapping Denuvo Anti-Cheat into the game, triggered lots of concern from fans.

Doom Eternal just got a new update on PC that adds some nifty features like empowered demons and new unlockables, but also includes Denuvo's somewhat controversial anti-cheat tech. Denuvo Anti-Cheat isn't the same as Denuvo Anti-Tamper, though. The anti-cheat is a kernel-based driver at the base ring 0 level, meaning it has full and unfettered access to your operating system. That means technically the game can collect data on everything your OS is doing, as well as interfere with critical functions and cause errors like blue screens and even lowered game performance. Some see this as a security risk and are aggravated at the move.

id has been transparent about DAC's inclusion in Doom Eternal with the recent patch notes, and promises the game won't be collecting any sensitive info and shipping it out. id also lays out easy un-installation instructions if you want to play offline. But DAC is required to play Battlemode and I can't actually start Doom Eternal on Steam without updating the game to the newest patched version.

Chromium says that following the Better Adds Standards, it is taken steps to address ads that most people find unacceptable. Chromium Blog writes that it recently discovered that a fraction of a percent of ads consume a significant share of device resources such as battery and network data without the user knowing it. These ads, such as those that mine cryptocurrency, can drain battery life, saturate data networks, and cost users money.

To save the battery life and data plans of users, Chrome will limit the resources a display ad can use before the user interacts with the ad. When the advertisement reaches its limit, the ad frame will navigate to an error page informing the user that the ad has used too many resources. The image below is an example of what an ad removed for using too many resources will look like.

Chromium says to determine threshold limits for the unloading it extensively measured ads Chrome sees. The most egregious ads were targeted, meaning those that use more CPU or network bandwidth than 99.9% of all detected for that resource. Chrome is setting thresholds at 4 MB of network data or 15 seconds of CPU usage in any 30 seconds, or 60 seconds of total CPU usage.

E-commerce giant Amazon has announced that it has filed a lawsuit accusing two companies of what it calls "widespread tech support fraud" that is targeting users of its Alexa devices. The lawsuit was filed last week in U.S. District Court in Seattle against Robojap Technologies in Washington state and Quatic Software Solutions in Punjab, India. The lawsuit also reportedly targets several employees at both companies.

Amazon says that these companies scammed Amazon users by offering to set up Alexa on consumer-owned devices via "fraudulent websites and applications." Amazon says that the companies used "Amazon's trademarks, as well as false and misleading statements about Amazon and [the companies'] services, to divert victims from Amazon's genuine activation process and customer support."

A company spokesperson from Amazon told CNN in a statement that the company works "hard to protect our customers," noting that the "blatant misuse" of the Amazon brand to deceive unsuspecting customers setting up their new device is "appalling." Since the lawsuit has been filed, neither of the companies has responded to inquiries about the suit, according to CNN.

Sony's Fiscal Year 2019 results show a marked decrease in PlayStation hardware adoption and a drop in software sales, but digital ratio is on the rise due to COVID-19.

Sony's latest financials reveal key earnings drops in a number of areas, resulting in a 36% decrease in overall profits and other performance metrics. The results saw drops in yearly revenues, operating income, and overall profits,

Profits are down 36% YoY due to key segment slides like gaming, music, and EP&S, all of which saw net revenue drops. Sony pulled in $5.355 billion in profits attributable to stakeholders in FY19, as compared to $8.262 billion last year.

The mid-range smartphone wars have been raging for years, but things flared up when Apple launched its new 2020 iPhone SE at $399. It wasn't just the price that was so impressive about the iPhone SE. It was that at $399, the device has one of the fastest smartphone processors out there under the hood. A new rumor has turned up about another contender that's aiming to knock the new iPhone SE off its perch and take over as the king of the mid-range smartphone market.

The rumor claims that the Google Pixel 4a will launch with a price tag of $349 for the base 128 GB model. That would make the smartphone $50 cheaper than the iPhone SE while offering twice as much storage. While it remains to be seen, it would be unlikely the Google Pixel 4a will offer a processor that can compete in performance against the iPhone SE.

Other rumors have suggested that the 4a will have a primary camera with 12-megapixel resolution, the same camera used in the Pixel 4 and the Pixel 3a. Recently, a leak from a case manufacturer showed what is believed to be the final design for the Pixel 4a.

Scientists have hit a new milestone in mixing human cells into animal embryos, as researchers have managed to create a human-mouse hybrid.

As reported by ScienceNews, and is something out of a science-fiction horror movie, researchers have reached a new milestone in the stem cell field by modifying human cell proteins and successfully adding them to mice embryos. This is the first time researchers were able to add a large amount of human cells to an animal. The scientists let the embryos develop for 17 days, and after that period of time, they observed that human cells spread throughout much of the mice embryo.

The human cells were found in the tissue that would form the heart, brain, and blood. Scientists noted that all mice that were given this treatment didn't have the same percentage of human cells found in tissues throughout the embryo, but on average, a mouse embryo contained up to 4% human cells. So why do this? Scientists believe that if they can get a firm understanding of stem cell research that one day they will be able to use pigs, for example, to grow human organs that could be used to save lives of people who need them. If you are interested in reading more about this subject, check out this link here.

Razer has kicked off an interesting new pilot program in Singapore, where the gaming peripheral giant is offering a free COVID-19 fask mask... but it has some (green) strings attached to it. First, check out the #RazerForLife video:

Back when the COVID-19 pandemic first started spreading throughout the globe, many companies were quick off their feet in reacting to it and transitioning supply chains to making face masks and ventilators. Razer was one of those companies, and is now running a new pilot program that is will make one free surgical mask for every resident that is 16 years or older in Singapore.

It is a pilot program just for now, running between May 12 to June 2 with 20 vending machines spread throughout Singapore. Razer will have a full rollout throughout Singapore right as the local shelter-in-place orders are lifted.

Netflix reduced the streaming quality of its video down to just HD back a couple of months ago in March 2020, after millions of people were stuck at home and binge watching TV shows and movies.

FlatpanelsHD reports that Netflix streams have returned to normal, with HD by default now in a few countries throughout Europe. The site writes "Denmark, Norway, Germany, and other European countries have contacted FlatpanelsHD or taken to forums to report that streaming quality has been restored, meaning 4K HDR streaming at up to 15 Mb/s bitrate. HD bitrates are also reverting back to normal".

A statement from a Netflix spokesperson to FlatpanelsHD explains: "Please note, we are working with ISPs to help increase capacity. In the last month alone we have added four times the normal capacity. As conditions improve we will lift these limitations".

The Boring Company has just announced it has completed its excavation work under the streets of Las Vegas, finishing up on the second of two tunnels this week.

Elon Musk's not-so-boring Boring Company first began its work under the streets of Vegas in February 2020, just under a year after the Las Vegas Convention and Vistors Authority (LVCVA) announced the project. Now the "Convention Center Loop" is closer to completion than ever before.

The LVCVA is expecting to take around 4000 people per hour through the LVCC venue inside of Tesla autonomous vehicles, which will save a bunch of time. It takes around 15 minutes to walk across the LVCC, but just two minutes inside of the Boring Company's upcoming Loop.

NVIDIA launched its next generation Ampere GPU architecture during its online GTC 2020 keynote, with company founder and CEO Jensen Huang delivering the GPU Technology Conference 2020 keynote from his house.

The first GPU on the Ampere architecture announced was the new A100, which you can read all about right here -- as well as the new DGX A100 supercomputer, which you can read about here. The new DGX A100 supercomputer is an absolutely beast, rolling out as a third-generation AI supercomputer from NVIDIA super-charged by the Ampere GPU architecture and ridiculously fast A100 GPU.

NVIDIA's new DGX A100 supercomputer is now helping the fight against COVID-19, with Rick Stevens, associate laboratory director for Computing, Environment and Life Sciences at Argonne, explaining: "We're using America's most powerful supercomputers in the fight against COVID-19, running AI models and simulations on the latest technology available, like the NVIDIA DGX A100".

Alienware has just unveiled its newly-upgraded Area-51m R2 gaming laptop, which packs some seriously fast desktop-class components.

The new Alienware Area-51m R2 packs an Intel Core i9-10900K which means you have a super-fast 10C/20T processor, at up to a huge 5.3GHz. GPU wise you're looked after, with Alienware tapping NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER graphics with 8GB of GDDR6 memory.

Alienware has really stepped up with the new Area-51m R2 gaming laptop, as it has a bunch of user-replaceable parts. This includes the CPU, GPU, RAM, storage, thermal cooling components, and more. It's not perfect though, but it's nice to see that you can make changes to core components like the CPU and GPU post-purchase.

It looks like the United States just made one of the largest changes in recent years, with the Trump administration paving the way for the future of chip production on American soil.

It first started in 2017 days before Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States, where I wrote a story that he was pushing both TSMC and Foxconn at the time to consider manufacturing their chips in the US.

Fast forward to 2020 and just days ago the White House was talking with Intel and TSMC to get plants built in the US -- on top of that, throw in the coronavirus pandemic and the tentacle of issues it throws out into the world. Having the world's bleeding edge chips being made in Taiwan which has possible issues with China to face in the coming years, as well as China and global relations post-COVID-19, and we have some glaring issues in worldwide supply of chips that go into virtually all products.

Today Sucker Punch showcased the first Ghost of Tsushima footage, exploring a deeply cinematic samurai epic that would've made Akira Kurosawa proud.

Akira Kurosawa's samurai films typically spin tales about scarred and psychologically-damaged heroes who take on impossible odds. Some, like Zatoichi, simply aim to roam, but their deadly skills always attract chaos. Others, like the Seven Samurai, must stand against hordes of bandits. There's always a sense of dire seriousness to the films, a kind of bold valor that permeates throughout. Ghost of Tsushima replicates that feeling, but also plays with the duality of man: The shadow who cares only for killing by any means possible, and the noble hero who stands and fights with pride. In Ghost of Tsushima, you can become the shadow that roams the night or a walking fortress of honor.

To me, this is the most interesting thing about Ghost of Tsushima, this duality. The world pays attention to your choices and your deeds and reacts accordingly. The game is centered around building the legend of Jin Sakai. How you build that legend is up to you.

Ubisoft's transition towards a more digital live games market has utterly transformed its business, from game sales to yearly earnings. In the past 7 years, nearly all of Ubisoft's biggest AAA games have sold over 10 million copies apiece.

Today Ubisoft reported its FY2020 earnings and revealed a surprising metric: 11 games released across the PS4 and Xbox One generation have sold 10 million copies each. Having even three or four games hit 10 million is an amazing accomplishment, but an entire fleet of them is absolutely huge. The range of top-selling games is diverse across Ubi's entire portfolio and isn't just dominated by Assassin's Creed--The Division, Watch Dogs, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six also show up.

"During the prior generation, only the Assassin's Creed franchise and Far Cry 3 reached these levels. This shows how far we've come in deepening and strengthening our portfolio franchises over the past 7 years," Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said during today's conference call.

Today Nintendo announced Paper Mario: The Origami King, a new game in the series that has a bunch of fresh innovations.

Paper Mario is back on the Nintendo Switch, complete with a new art style that merges 3D polygonal worlds with Mario's 2D sticker shape and even 3D origami. The game has some nifty little advancements and mechanics like Mario's "thousand-fold" arms, which let gamers use the Switch JoyCon motion controls to accordion out his arms and grab objects to solve puzzles. You can even peel the actual world like a sticker to reveal secrets.

There's also a new turn-based battle system in a series of dartboard-like concentric rings that blends strategy with reaction skills. The idea is that you strike enemies when they're lined up in rows on the rings for maximum damage.

Sony has announced two new intelligent vision sensors, which it says are the first image sensors in the world equipped with AI processing functionality. That AI processing functionality is on the image sensor itself, enabling high-speed edge AI processing and extraction of only the necessary data when using cloud services. That sort of extraction reduces data transmission latency and minimize privacy concerns while reducing power consumption and communication costs. Sony says that the new products will expand opportunities to develop AI-equipped cameras in both retail and industrial equipment industries.

The sensors include the IMX500 1/2.3-type (7.857 mm diagonal), with approximately 12.3 effective megapixels, and the IMX501 1/2.3-type (7.857 mm diagonal) with approximately 12.3 effective megapixels. Sony began shipping samples of the IMX500 in April and will begin shipping the IMX501 in June.

Sony's new sensor products use a stack configuration consisting of a pixel chip and a logic chip. The product are the world's first image sensors to be equipped with an AI image analysis and processing functionality on the logic chip. The signal required by the pixel chip is processed via an AI on the sensor, which eliminates the need for high-performance processors or external memory.

Sony's PlayStation 4 lifetime sales now beat 110.4 million, edging closer to the PlayStation 2's long-reigning 155 million. Current trends show the console is unlikely to dethrone the 2000's era best-seller.

Sony's latest FY19 earnings confirm the PS4 has sold-in (shipped) a gigantic 110.4 million consoles since launch in 2013. The financials show a clear decline in total hardware adoption as gamers hold off for the next-gen PlayStation. There's quite a bit of insight to glean here, but the more obvious point is the PS4 probably won't outsell the PlayStation 2 in its lifespan.

Sony sold 13.6 million PS4s in the FY'19 period, down a substantial 23.5% year-over-year. Sony originally expected to sell 15 million consoles in the period, and missed this target by 1.6 million unit sales.Hardware earnings plummeted by 30% year-over-year due to the loss of a big 2018 launch game (likely RDR2). Weighted by this hardware slump, total gaming sales dropped 14% to $18.19 billion.

Facebook is rolling out a new future for both the main Facebook website and Messenger in the United States. The new feature is digital avatars that are sort of like bitmoji. Similar services are offered on both Snapchat and Apple devices via Memoji stickers.

Facebook's digital avatars are intended to allow users to share feelings and interact with friends in comments on Messenger and Stories. The avatars are usable in text posts with backgrounds too. The user's Facebook gaming profile can also use the avatar. Facebook introduced the avatars in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and Ireland last year. They expanded to Europe and Canada this year and are now coming to the United States.

The digital avatars are entirely customizable, including customization for skin tone and complexion to facial features and hairstyles. Users can choose the outfits their digital avatars wear and the accessories to allow complete personalization. Facebook has said that it spent time building the feature to ensure that the avatars were able to represent the diversity of its billions of users.

Ubisoft's earnings slip nearly across the board in FY2020, but microtransaction revenues are up almost 10% year-over-year.

Today Ubisoft announced its FY20 earnings, sending two signals: The company's current strengths and weaknesses, and massive sales are on the horizon for this fiscal year thanks to 5 new AAA games. Net sales revenues dropped double-digit pp's to $1.446 billion, attributed to sales under-performance of key new games like Ghost Recon: Breakpoint. Net bookings were also down nearly 25% YoY to $1.391 billion for similar reasons.

Q4 saw a massive rebound for live games. Assassin's Creed Odyssey sales and microtransaction earnings skyrocketed, and gamers responded incredibly well to the new Breakpoint and Division 2 updates, both of which spiked engagement. Ubisoft's total MAUs tripled in January and hit record highs in February and March. Rainbow Six likewise saw a 15% rise in player recurring investment in the year.