Latest News - Page 1700

Amazon is currently shooting their massive Lord of the Rings TV show, and unfortunately, while production was originally going smoothly, mistakes do happen out of the blue.

The New Zealand Herald has reported that a stunt performer has sustained a head injury while on set, and was later taken to hospital to be examined. The stunt performer was Australian actress Elissa Cadwell, who also did stunt roles for Nicole Kidman in Aquaman.

Amazon has since commented on the matter, saying, "While rehearsing a stunt on set, one of our talented stuntpersons was injured and sustained a cut on her head. She was immediately transported to a hospital, where she was seen by a specialist and went home to recover shortly after. We are happy to report she is doing well and we plan to have her back at work soon. The health and safety of our cast and crew is our top priority, and we are reviewing the accident to ensure we are maintaining the highest levels of safety on our production."

The court for Berlin-Brandenburg has officially ordered Tesla to stop all forest clearing and building preparations for their coming gigafactory.

According to a recent report from Reuters, U.S electric car manufacturer, Tesla has been ordered to stop all forms of preparation for their planned construction of a gigafactory. The court has ordered this after it gave Tesla the green light to remove 92 hectares of forest for the construction of the building.

This decision by the court has come after environmental activists (Green League of Brandenburg) have expressed their concerns over the de-forestation being a threat to wildlife and water supplies. It should be noted that Tesla was only three days away from completing the forest clearing, but the court states "It should not be assumed that the motion seeking legal protection brought by the Green League lacks any chance of succeeding." At the moment, Tesla has two gigafactories, one located in the United States and the second in Shanghai, China.

Marques Brownlee has sat down with Microsoft founder Bill Gates to give a quick overview of Gates Annual Letter 2020.

The above video was released onto Marques Brownlee's YouTube Channel, and it's basically an overview of Gates' 2020 annual letter that was released onto his website. The letter that Gates and his wife wrote, Melinda Gates, details their 2020 plan on how they are going to tackle issues such as global health (vaccines), education, climate, and more.

Gates and his wife discuss in detail that their strategies for 2020 and how some of his endeavors for creating new solutions are 'high-risk' and might cost a lot of money, but it would be worth it if it paid off. In the video, Gates talks in detail about bringing the 'green premium' (the extra cost in using green alternatives) of using environmentally friendly alternatives down to zero. If you are interested in what Gates' plan is, check out the above video or the annual letter here.

This is not a joke. A group of people are attempting to sell DNA samples of the global elites, and some of the names on the list will surprise you.

I wouldn't blame you if you thought this was a joke, because I certainly did until I read the website as well as the press release. According to the website, a mysterious group that has called themselves the Earnest Project is scheduling in an auction for items that were collected during the 2018 World Economic Forum at Davos. Some of the items are as follows: glassware, cigarettes, paper cups, cutlery, jars, serviettes, hair, and more.

The press release by Earnest Project says, "Third-party verification of EARNE$ T's attendance at Davos will be made available prior to the auction date. Past Davos attendees may also be consulted to verify the plausibility of the collection-action. Many attendees may recall enjoying a muesli parfait (lot #402) in the Central Lounge for instance. Page 10 of The Collection Catalogue provides further details on collection sites."

Astronomers around the world have their observational eyes fixed on the red giant Betelgeuse, as they are patiently awaiting any signs of detonation.

If this is the first time you are hearing about Betelgeuse, don't stress we aren't in any immediate danger. Betelgeuse is located around 650 light years away, and astronomers have estimated that due to it's dimming cycles the star could explode anytime within the next 100,000 years. What's concerning, and what has caused astronomers from around the world to focus their attention on Betelgeuse is the fact that the red giant seems to be dimming at an unprecedented rate.

Betelgeuse is currently sitting at around 35% of it's normal brightness, which has moved it from it's normal position of the 11th brightest star in the sky to the 24th bright star in the sky. These variations in Betelgeuse's brightness are normal, as the internal temperatures inside the star rises and falls. What isn't normal is how rapidly it's doing it. Astronomers used the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope instrument called 'SPHERE', SPHERE allows astronomers to capture polarized infrared light of objects.

Deepfake technology is getting uncomfortably good, and while most of what you have probably seen from deepfakes is movie-related, check out this video game one.

Above we have a video from BabyZone who used Deepfake technology to include various celebrities in Mortal Kombat 11. Using the deepfake tech, BabyZone was able to successfully replace Sub-Zero with Keanu Reeves from John Wick, Terminator with Bruce Campbell, Kabal as Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, Johnny Cage as Jean-Claude Van Damme, Kung Lao with Jackie Chan, Liu Kang with Bruce Lee and finally The Joker with Joaquin Phoenix.

I think Keanu Reeves as Sub-Zero and Jackie Chan as Kung Lao are the two that are particularly good out of the set. Unfortunately, you cannot download these to play as BabyZone used his own facesets, and the footage that you are seeing was edited in post. Regardless of not being able to download them, these deepfakes are extremely impressive.

Well, well, well... what do we have here? Oh, just the Tesla Motors self-titled 'Anti-Handbook Handbook' for new employees which is actually ridiculously awesome. Check out the Tesla Anti-Handbook Handbook right here.

The purported Anti-Handbook Handbook is filled with regular-sounding explanations of everything, and not a bunch of stuff that is corporate speak. It's actually very refreshing, with Tesla starting off the Anti-Handbook Handbook with: "We're Tesla. We're changing the world. We're willing to rethink everything. We're different and we like it that way. Being different allows us to do what no one else is doing; to do what others tell us is impossible".

Tesla also says that anyone at Tesla can and should email or talk to anyone else "according to what they think is the fastest way to solve a problem for the benefit of the whole company". Tesla staff can talk to their managers, their manager's manager, to a VP in another department, or even Elon Musk himself -- the Anti-Handbook Handbook adds that "you can talk to anyone without anyone else's permission. Moreover, you should consider yourself obligated to do so until the right thing happens".

Qualcomm unveiled its Snapdragon 855 processor in late 2018, refreshing it in mid-2019 with the Snapdragon 855+ processor and then the company unveiled its new flagship Snapdragon 865 in December 2019 and now rumors of the suped-up Snapdragon 865+ are already surfacing.

ASUS was one of the first to use the faster Snapdragon 855+ processor in its ROG Phone II smartphone, which was an overclocked Snapdragon 855 with 15% more performance from its Adreno 640 GPU that helped drive up to 90FPS on the ASUS ROG Phone II gaming smartphone.

What should we expect from Qualcomm's upgraded Snapdragon 865+ processor should be very similar -- even more performance from an already kick ass processor. We've already seen 120Hz capable smartphones revealed, with a recent boost in 120Hz capable phones in Samsung's new Galaxy S20 range of handsets -- but I'm sure we'll see ASUS reveal its ROG Phone III and Razer with its gaming-focused Phone III later this year both rocking the Snapdragon 865+ processor that is tailor made for high refresh rate gaming smartphones.

Microsoft and Sony are seeing lower-than-expected sales of their current-gen Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles, according to the latest report from market analysts NPD Group. The reason? The upcoming next-gen Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 consoles, that's why.

Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad tweeted out: "An interesting takeaway from the US NPD report is that PS4 and XB1 hardware sales in Jan 2020 are considerably lower than PS3 and 360 were in Jan 2013. Next-gen consoles are around the corner but both are declining sharper than expected. Switch continues to remain steady".

Hardware sales were down 35% in January 2020 compared to January 2019, while total spending throughout gaming hardware, software, accessories, and game cards is down 26% compared to the same time as 2019.

Sonic the Hedgehog had its fair share of issues with its first trailer, but the production team and director were quick off the mark taking in all the criticism and fixing it up before release -- so much so that the Sonic the Hedgehog movie has broken records for a video game movie debut.

Sonic the Hedgehog pulled in $57 million over its 3-day opening weekend, a $2.7 million increase over the $54.3 million opening weekend of Detective Pikachu. Its 4-day US box office haul sits at $68 million, while global box office numbers for Sonic the Hedgehog have surpassed $100 million -- not bad for the SEGA front man.

Jim Carrey is one of the stars of the Sonic the Hedgehog movie, with his own record to enjoy -- his second-best 3-day debut, bested by Bruce Almighty with $67.9 million back in 2003. As for Sonic, the character has grossed over $5 billion in game sales, has multiple animated TV shows, mobile games, and so much more since his debut in 1991.

Samsung detailed and released its new Galaxy Z Flip smartphone during its recent Unpacked 2020 event, where it also unveiled its family of Galaxy S20 smartphones which will drop on March 6. Read more on Samsung's new Galaxy S20 smartphones here. As for the Galaxy Z Flip... JerryRigEverything does what he does best -- tears it apart.

In the video above, he performs an awesome but cringe-infused durability test of the Galaxy Z Flip with a concentration on Samsung's touted 'Ultra Thin Glass'. JerryRigEverything discovers that it isn't in fact glass, and seems like a layer of plastic as it even takes scratches on with his fingernails -- and that's not a good sign for an expensive foldable smartphone.

JerryRigEverything takes fire to it, razors, and dirt -- where it is actually pretty damn durable. As for the foldable screen, he notes during the video that the screen is "in no way scratch resistant whatsoever". If you've watched any of his videos before, you'll cringe as much as I did where I squinted my eyes in pain watching a brand new Galaxy Z Flip being torture tested. But man, do I love his videos.

Everywhere I turn I see Apple AirPods in ears of people walking around, so they must be doing something right -- so right, that Counterpoint Research estimates Apple will sell over 100 million AirPods in 2020.

Counterpoint Research points out that the wireless earbud market grew by over 50% in Q4 2019 alone, which saw average sales sitting at over 50 million units per quarter. Apple's own market share increased by 44% in Q4 2019, with Xiaomi coming in second place, Samsung in third.

The report goes into more depth about just how much Apple dominates with its AirPods, where in the $100 and above market Apple commands around 70% market share. This leaves Samsung, Jabra, Beats, Huawei, Sony, and others with what little is left after that. In the sub-$100 market Apple is not visible at all.

Star Wars Battlefront II has been out since 2017 and while it might have cost $2100 to unlock all that DLC back in the day, the visual upgrades that the team at EA DICE have done to the game are nothing short of amazing. Check it out:

Cinematic Captures have (if you'll pardon the pun) captured the visual upgrades that Star Wars Battlefront II has received recently, with character detail greatly improved, animation improvements, and so much more. Lighting, shadows, visual effects, ambient occlusion, and bloom tweaks have all made the game look that much more stellar.

Star Wars Battlefront II was recently updated on February 12 with the new 'BB Update' adding in a bunch of fixes, improved visual effects and lighting (as highlighted in this video), and much more. You can read more about the Star Wars Battlefront II - Feb 12th Patch and their release notes here.

If there's something we all need in our crazy mobile-obsessed lives, it's super-fast and super-gigantic powerbanks. Well, now we have the interesting new Flash: the world's most powerful 150W USB-C powerbank.

The new Flash powerbank is a total beast of a powerbank with 20,000 mAh of new graphene-based batteries with a single USB-C Power Delivery 3.0 port that is backed up by 2 x USB-A ports that can charge other devices, on top of it doubling as a wireless charging pad. It is the most powerful USB-C 100W Power Delivery 3.0 charger in a single battery pack, with Flash saying the competition "struggles to even reach 60W".

There's also an 18W USB-A Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 port, as well as a specially designed USB-A port that is compatible with Huawei, OPPO, OnePlus and Vivo's proprietary fast-charging technology. The battery pack can also keep your wireless charging devices happy with 10W wireless charging and it supports 2.5W Apple Watch charging, too. It truly is a powerhouse powerbank, with everything you need to charge every device you can buy.

AMD launched its monstrous Ryzen Threadripper 3990X not too long ago, and it is already breaking records left, right, and center -- but what about running Crysis in software mode without a graphics card? Yeah, it can do that.

LinusTechTips has done just that, running Crysis in software mode on the 64-core/128-thread Ryzen Threadripper 3990X processor. No one would buy AMD's flagship Ryzen Threadripper 3990X to do this, but it's an incredible feat and something to completely nerd out to.

Personally, I love seeing this stuff and nerding out to seeing the once 'can it run Crysis' meme turn into running entirely on software. Something I didn't think we'd ever see.

So something amazing is about to happen, with Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt RED using its official Cyberpunk 2077 Twitter account to ask about making a limited edition Cyberpunk 2077 GPU... to which NVIDIA replied "stay tuned...".

I don't think this tease is about NVIDIA's next-gen Ampere GPU architecture that is right around the corner, something that should be detailed at its own GPU Technology Conference (GTC) 2020 that takes place between March 22-26. If it is, I'm all booked and ready to go and will deliver you guys the news from the show floor and GTC key note with NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang.

What we are probably looking at is a GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER graphics card themed like Cyberpunk 2077, as NVIDIA is the technology partner for CD Projekt RED and its recently-delayed Cyberpunk 2077. NVIDIA is no stranger to themed graphics cards, where just a couple of years ago it released the TITAN Xp Star Wars Collectors Edition graphics cards in both Galactic Empire and Jedi Order goodness.

Back in 2002, Blizzard was working on Starcraft: Ghost, a third-person action shooter for the PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube. It never saw the light of day, but now thanks to a recent leak, we get a look of what could've been.

Starcraft: Ghost has been, well, a ghost for a long, long time. The game was cancelled 15 years ago and we've only ever had snippets of info and small pieces of footage and screenshot tidbits from the cut project. But now thanks to a recent leak of a playable Xbox pre-release build, we get an idea of what the shooter could've been like...and it actually looks pretty fun.

The build was apparently pretty robust and had access to six different missions, including zergling rush. New gameplay footage shows a mix of third-person shooter mechanics with your basic over-the-shoulder firing and HUD setup, complete with a nifty high kick melee attack. Nova, the playable character, was quite flexible and cat-like, not unlike Aeon Flux. Ghost also had exploration-based interactivity, and big crazy sequences like gunning down hordes of zerglings in a turret. It's definitely a remnant of the past and anyone who grew up with older 2000's era console games will instantly recognize the mechanics.

Capcom just filed an interesting trademark for something called Pragmata, and it could be a new games IP, a new sequel in an established, or some kind of new product.

The new Pragmata trademark was actually filed three days ago on the European Union Intellectual Property Office, and is currently under examination so it's yet to be officially registered. Predictably, the trademark gives absolutely no clues on what Pragmata means or what it refers to.

It simply follows the same classification as Capcom's other game trademark filings. It's one of the three EUIPO listings attributed to Capcom. The others, Resident Evil Resistance and Shinsekai: Into the Depths, are games that've already been announced.

Back in the day, Tony Hawk games were all the rage with tremendous sales, which of course led to some pretty sizable royalty checks to the legendary vert skater.

In an older 2018 interview with skater show The Nine Club, Tony Hawk discusses how his life changed forever after receiving a huge $4 million royalty check from Activision, and also talks about why the games are so MIA.

In 2002 before Activision made Tony Hawk 4, a studio rep sat down with the halfpipe master and handed over a substantial amount of cash. "He's like, 'here's what's happening, we're releasing a fourth game, and the last three are still in the top 10 of sales.' One of them was going into classics mode, where they sell it at a lower price but at way more volume. So he's like 'things are so much bigger than you've ever thought.'

Media Molecule's latest PS4 game Dreams is a big playground for creatives. It basically lets you make anything you want, and you can also load up creations from other people to try out, kind of like mods. Skilled artisans are using it to not just make amazing things, but recreate current-gen games in Dreams.

Dreams master Robo_killer_v2 has painstakingly recreated Fallout 4 in Media Molecule's new community game, showing just how powerful the tools really are. The game, which is essentially a player-made slice of gameplay similar to a mod, features Fallout 4's distinct style, open-world environments, locations, and first-person shooter gunplay complete with VATS targeting. The Pip-Boy is there with a fully-functioning inventory UI and there's even robot enemies and mirelurks straight from the game.

The game also has quests, exploration mechanics, and mini-games. It's a work-in-progress so more content is coming soon...and eventually we could see it expand radically to include even more of the irradiated Commonwealth. There's some hiccups though. The frame rates aren't good, and it's not going to replace the native Fallout 4 experience (nor should you expect it to). But it's still an incredible achievement that shows just how flexible and potent Media Molecule's latest game can be.