In a world of crazy side-mounted pop-up cameras, foldable displays, and so much more -- LG might be going back to basics with its new G9 smartphone according to the latest leaks.

LG's upcoming G9 smartphone should feature 4 rear-facing cameras over the 2 used on the G8X, while throwing an under-display fingerprint sensor into the mix. There is a camera notch at the top, so LG won't be going too fancy with an under-display selfie camera, but it might be enough to stand out from the competition when it comes to pricing on a more 'plain' smartphone.

LG could be keeping the 3.5mm headphone jack on its G9 smartphone, while offering a display somewhere in the 6.7-6.9 inches range. We should expect LG to detail its new G9 smartphone at Mobile World Congress in late February, where Samsung is unveiling its new Galaxy S20/S11 (depending on the rumors) and the new Galaxy Fold 2 on February 11 at its own event.

We've been hearing a bit more on Xiaomi's upcoming Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro smartphones, where I wrote just a couple of days ago that current rumors pegged it to rock a 6.5-inch OLED display at 90Hz.

But now we're seeing new rumors from an alleged screen protector for the Mi 10, where it shows that there are no camera cutouts which means Xiaomi might be using an all-screen design. This would mean under-display cameras and an under-display fingerprint sensor are all but confirmed, if this screen protector is any indication.

We could see a pop-up camera, with fellow Chinese smartphone maker Oppo's purported new smartphone possibly featuring a side-mounted pop-up selfie camera. Xiaomi isn't a stranger to under-display cameras, with company president Bin Lin teasing an Mi 9 prototype that used an under-display camera.

Samsung has announced two new smartphones in the new Galaxy S10 Lite and Galaxy Note 10 Lite handsets, with the new phones acting as budget versions of the popular 2019 flagships.

The new Galaxy S10 Lite and Galaxy Note 10 Lite will have premium features at lower prices, starting with both the phones rocking a large 6.7-inch Super AMOLED Infinity-O display with 2400 x 1800 native resolutions. Inside, we have the Galaxy S10 Lite packing a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor, while the Galaxy Note 10 Lite uses Samsung's own Exynos 8895 chip.

Samsung uses a triple-camera rig on both the phones, with the Galaxy S10 Lite packing a 5-megapixel f/2.4 macro lens; a 48-megapixel F2.0 wide-angle lens featuring "Super Steady OIS" (something the Note 10 Lite doesn't have). It also has a 12-megapixel f/2.2 ultra-wide camera with 123-degree angle lens.

Tesla delivered 367,500 vehicles in 2019 which marks a huge increase for the electric vehicle maker, as that is more than double the cars it shipped in the previous two years, combined.

Even just in Q4 2019, Tesla broke its own records for making close to 105,000 vehicles and delivering 112,000 vehicles. Most of this is from the super-popular Model 3 sedan, with 92,500 Model 3s delivered -- a 46% increase of Q4 2018, while delivering 19,450 Model S and Model X electric vehicles.

Tesla is bringing more Gigafactory locations online, with its recent Shanghai-based Gigafactory 3 churning out its Model 3 vehicles now. Tesla says that its new Gigafactory 3 facility has already made 1000 cars ready for consumers, and has a production run-rate of making more than 3000 cars per week (this excludes local battery pack production).

Samsung has kicked off the new decade in a big way, with the South Korean giant making major progress in its pursuits to become the #1 semiconductor manufacturer by 2030. Samsung has just made a prototype 3nm process using GAAFET technology.

Gate All Around (GAAFET) technology is different to the widely-used and known FinFET standard, with GAAFET seeing a reduction in the total silicon size by around 35%, while consuming 50% less power. This blend can see a 33% performance increase over the still-yet-released 5nm FinFET process.

The design of GAAFET is much different to Planar FET and FinFET designs, with 4 Gates on channel compared to just 1 Gate and 3 Gates, respectively. This means power leakage is kept to a minimum, with control over the channel improved the shrinking of the node process becomes easier. This paves the way for more efficient transistor design, even at its teeny-tiny size -- ushering in a huge performance-per-watt jump over the 5nm FinFET process.

CES 2020 - Acer has unveiled its new Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel laptops at CES 2020, with the new Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel and Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel Pro laptops having an impressive design and some powerhouse internals.

But where the Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel does things differently is in the new hinges, allowing the laptop to have an almost 360-degree swing. This means you can throw down the Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel pretty much anywhere and get work done, show someone something, or use it as a portable display -- all while it packs some crazy internals for high-end tasks.

Inside, Acer can configure the ConceptD 7 Ezel laptops with NVIDIA's normal GeForce RTX 2060 or RTX 2080 Ti -- while the Pro model can be configured with the latest Quadro RTX graphics cards. You can also opt between Intel's new 10th-gen Comet Lake CPUs or a higher-end workstation Intel Xeon CPU in the Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel Pro.

CES 2020 - HP has just unveiled a refreshed version of its Spectre x360 laptop, and while it looks virtually identical, HP has been getting its hands dirty on the engineering and design of the refreshed Spectre x360 laptop.

The new HP Spectre x360 laptop has reduced bezels for a near bezel-less design, something that allowed HP to reduce the overall size of the laptop by 13%. HP also tapped a smaller IR webcam that sits behind the new-and-improved 15.6-inch OLED panel, with a gorgeous native resolution of 3840 x 2160, or 4K.

HP says that this 15.6-inch 4K OLED display offers up True Black HDR, making the Spectre x360 a mean, but gorgeous on-the-go multimedia station. Inside, you will get up to Intel's new 10th-gen Comet Lake CPUs and NVIDIA GeForce graphics, and up to 17 hours of battery life according to HP.

Oh, how the tables have turned -- Intel has no CPUs that are capable of supporting PCIe 4.0 technology, so they need to use AMD Ryzen 3000 series CPUs along with an X570 motherboard to test their latest storage products.

Intel technical marketing performance engineer, Frank Ober, tweeted (above) that Intel can send PCIe 4.0-capable SSDs to developers, but they'll need PCIe 4.0-capable CPUs and motherboards to test them. The super-fast new Alder Stream SSDs (an updated version of their Optane drive tech, with second-gen 3D XPoint technology).

But in order to ramp up those speeds they will need more PCIe lanes, and since PCIe 3.0 is pretty much tapped out -- the doubling in bandwidth to PCIe 4.0 is a tasty offering. But, Intel has no PCIe 4.0 anything right now -- so they're stuck. Intel won't have PCIe 4.0-capable CPUs until 2021 which means they need to lean on their main competitor in AMD until then.

Oppo could have one of the more interesting smartphones of 2020 if a new unearthed patent is to be believed, with it teasing a nifty side-mounted pop-up selfie camera. Check it out:

We've seen pop-up selfie cameras before but they normally pop-up from the top of the phone, with a side-mounted selfie camera being an interesting turn. Oppo's new patent sees the camera module with an LED flash that should have up to two camera sensors at most. It's an interesting take, but is it a game-changer? Of course not.

Oppo could be saving space at the top of the smartphone for other goodies, as there is no practical sense in having a side-mounted pop-up camera other than generating headlines and wanting to stand out from your competitor. But in a world where most smartphones look the same, a side-mounted pop-up camera will make you stand out from the crowd, and maybe that's the point here.

In the middle of my tsunami of CES 2020 coverage I thought I would break it up with some more gripping news, with Ultimate Games releasing a demo of their new game -- Wanking Simulator, onto Steam. Check out the trailer below:

Yeah, Wanking Simulator is real and you can go for a tug on Steam right now -- getting out a blend of destruction and wanking in a place called Gay Bay. There are houses, a high school, garages, and more to roam -- and jerk off around. The aim of the game? Destroy as many things as possible before the authorities catch you.

But the swell thing here is that you get more points if you wank off to the carnage, so the more destruction you cause, and the harder and more you tug yourself, the more points you get. Got it.

CES 2020 - Lenovo has just unveiled its new "thinnest and lightest" gaming laptop in the new Legion Y740S, a thin 15.6-inch gaming laptop that is teamed with Lenovo's first external GPU -- the new Legion BoostStation.

Inside, Lenovo's new Legion Y740S can pack up to Intel's Core i9 processor, up to 32GB of RAM, and up to 1TB of PCIe SSD storage. You'll only have integrated graphics on the Intel CPU, but you'll get an incredibly thin laptop in the process -- if you want to game on the gaming laptop however, you'll need to use the external GPU in the new Legion BoostStation.

Lenovo can provide the Legion Y740S with two 15.6-inch display options: a normal 1080p panel, or a 4K-capable display with HDR through Dolby Vision. The BoostStation itself is a Thunderbolt 3-connected affair with graphics card options ranging between an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti and higher-end GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER -- while AMD sees its Navi-powered Radeon RX 5700 XT also on offer.

CES 2020 - Vizio has come out swinging yet again at CES, where this year the US electronics giant has unveiled a slew of new upgraded TVs with a bunch of new features and so much more.

The entire range of 2020 models from Vizio see HDR10+ support included, which goes alongside HDR10, HLG and Dolby Vision. Vizio is packing new processors inside of their 2020 TVs which will upscale lower-res content up to 4K, but the special sauce here for me is the inclusion of a "ProGaming Engine" that will support Variable Refresh Rate technology.

AMD FreeSync support is included with the 4K TVs packing super-slick 120Hz refresh rates with low input lag, perfect for gaming PCs and even next-gen consoles in the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 when they launch later this year. The cherry on top here is that Vizio's new 2020 range of TVs have HDMI 2.1 packed in and ready to go.

CES 2020 - The future is now. Pizza-making robots are making delicious 12-inch pizzas on the show floor of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week.

Picnic is a Seattle-based "innovator of food production technology and Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS) solutions" that has teamed with live event hospitality leader Centerplate, to serve CES attendees fresh pizza. Picnic's robot is capable of making 300 12-inch pizzas an hour, which is a helluva lot of pizza per day.

The AI-powered pizza making robot uses a vision system to make adjustments to the pie if it is off-center, with Picnic CEO Clayton Wood explaining: "Picnic's distinct culmination of food production customization and throughput, smart data and cloud analytics is quickly resonating with food service operators".

CES 2020 - Acer unveiled its gigantic 55-inch 4K 120Hz OLED gaming monitor at CES 2020, joined by a bunch of new gaming displays that are all shaping up to be worthy of our attention in 2020.

One of those includes the new Predator X38, with Acer cramming the entire kitchen sink into a 37.5-inch curved panel with 2300R curvature, packing in a native 3840 x 1600 resolution, making it a UWQHD+ display.

We have the ability to overclock Acer's new Predator X38 through to 175Hz which is glorious, and even better when you consider it has NVIDIA G-Sync support and VESA DisplayHDR 400 certification.

The latest on Sony's next-gen PlayStation 5 for 2020 is coming from a new photo of an alleged PS5 developer kit console, something that was being cleaned and then promptly leaked online.

In the above shot we can see that V-shaped PlayStation 5 being cleaned, with the developer kit rocking an LCD display to the right (which the final consumer version of the PS5 will not). The 4K Blu-ray drive is right there on show, as too are the LED activity lights and various USB ports for connectivity.

We get a closer look at the new DualShock 5 controller which looks a little chunkier than the current DualShock 4 controller. But apart from that there's nothing new here, with all eyes on Sony for CES 2020 where they could show off something about the new PlayStation 5. We don't know what, but Sony will be shouting something from the roof tops of CES.

Next-gen dominance will come down to the age-old equalizer: The retail price tag.

Reports indicate the PlayStation 5 could be weaker than the Xbox Series X's 12TFLOP GPU, with a possible shrunken MSRP to match. By all accounts the Xbox SX is a beast that "eats monsters for breakfast" that could carry a monstrous price tag to match. Analysts are starting to weigh in on sales predictions, with most agreeing on a $400+ price point for both, but what happens if there's a price difference? If the Xbox SX is more expensive, the PS5 could win.

"You know what's going to take the wind out of Microsoft's sales? Charging more than $400. That's a problem. I think far more relevant to the success of both boxes is if there's a price differential. If they're priced the same I think they have an equal chance of thriving. If they're priced vastly different, the cheaper one's going to win," Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said in a recent episode of The Pachter Factor.

CES 2020 - Acer has just stolen my heart with the unveiling of its new Acer Predator CG552K at CES 2020, with it arriving as a gigantic new 55-inch 4K 120Hz OLED.

The new Acer Predator CG552K is a huge 55-inch TV that has a native 3840 x 2160 (4K) resolution, with blistering fast 120Hz refresh rate and those gorgeous deep blacks and beautiful colors of an OLED panel. Acer has a barely-there bezel on the Predator CG552K, helping it not just have crazy good internals, but it'll look great in your room.

We have up to 400 nits of brightness on the Acer Predator CG552K, so you won't be completely blinded by its brightness but it'll look damn good at the samne time. We have 3 x HDMI 2.0 ports, 2 x DisplayPort 1.4 ports, 1 x USB Type-C port, 2 x USB 3.0 ports and finally, 2 x USB 2.0 ports. Acer is also including dual 10W speakers in the Predator CG552K -- all of this will cost $2999... which isn't too damn bad at all.

If George Lucas had his way, gaming history could be very, very different.

In the years before Interplay made Fallout, one of the most legendary cRPGs of all time, George Lucas had an idea: What if Lucasfilm Games and Interplay combined forces? According to Interplay founder Brian Fargo, Lucas not only wanted Interplay to merge with Lucasfilm Games, but the Star Wars director wanted Fargo to run the new studio.

Fargo ruminated on the possibility in a recent Tweet. In 1995 Interplay had just shipped Stonekeep, a very Elder Scrolls-esque first-person dungeon crawler that impressed Lucas. This was before Fallout's release in 1997 and if Fargo had indeed taken up Lucas' offer, we probably would never have seen Fallout come to fruition. We'd probably just have had more old-school Star Wars games...maybe a cRPG spin-off?

CES 2020 - Samsung has been teasing something about 'Project Neon' for a while now, and while some thought it would be some fancy full artificial human being -- in reality, it seems it's just an ultra-realistic human avatar.

Neon would be used for entertainment and business use, so think of a virtual person greeting you at a hotel, a receptionist, or even as an actor in guiding someone through a building or tutorial. We don't know what to expect exactly, but the head of Neon and computer-human interaction researcher Paranav Mistry tweeted a tease above.

He said that the company's new "Core R3" technology is capable of "autonomously create new expressions, new movements, new dialog (even in Hindi), completely different from the original captured data".

No Man's Sky has consistently been one of the top-played games on Steam since it's release in 2015.

Over the last four years Hello Games has redeemed No Man's Sky with seven free expansion updates. Every successive update has invigorated the playerbase on Steam, especially the latest Beyond update that even added VR support. This comeback story carries with it an important lesson for developers and publishers: Heavily monetizing a game with microtransactions isn't always the best way out. Sometimes when you just give to the community, the community gives back and keeps playing your game for years on end.

That's what happened with No Man's Sky. For four years running, No Man's Sky has been among the most-played games on Steam. In 2019 it amassed over 50,000 concurrent players, putting it alongside heavy-hitters like Red Dead Redemption 2, Rocket League, and Monster Hunter World. Not bad for an all-indie game.