Latest News - Page 196

It was only recently that Halo Studios unveiled Halo: Campaign Evolved, a remake of the classic Halo title "Halo: Combat Evolved," and now we are hearing that the first Halo game isn't the only one to be getting the remake treatment, as Halo 2 and Halo 3 are also teed up for remakes.

The rumor comes from the X account "Halo Leaks," which wrote in a recent post that it has learned "Halo 2 & Halo 3 are being remade". Additionally, the X account said both titles will also have sprint mechanics, as does Halo: Campaign Evolved, and neither title will feature any multiplayer aspect, as Halo Studios, Xbox, and Microsoft are saving that for the upcoming Halo 7.

Halo Leaks wrote in a follow-up post that there currently isn't an estimated time of arrival for when both of these titles will be announced, and that the same source that informed them about the Campaign Evolved development told them about Halo 2 and 3. Furthermore, Halo Leaks wrote that it's possible Halo Studios is using the announcement of Halo Campaign Evolved as a tester to gauge audience reaction before going ahead with the remakes of Halo 2 and 3, albeit the leaker says "but this is just guessing".

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has been enjoying his time in South Korea, enjoying some Korean fried chicken with his "executive friends" from Samsung and Hyundai.

Jensen delivered an important keynote at the APEC summit, where he met with Samsung chairman Lee Jae-yong, and the president of Hyundai Motors, Chung Eui-sun. After the important stuff was over, the executives were spotted in casual clothing, enjoying some Korean fried chicken, what looks like some mozzarella sticks, and some beer at a South Korean restaurant.

This year's APEC summit was an important one, with President Trump meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping, which is the reason Jensen was in South Korea, in support of the US. After the business side of things, the NVIDIA CEO was hanging out in South Korea talking to the public, and enjoying his dinner with his executive friends.

Apple isn't looking at moving to TSMC's bleeding-edge A16 process node anytime soon, even faster than the company had TSMC fab its new A20 and A20 Pro chips on its new 2nm process.

In the future, Apple is poised to use TSMC's even newer A14 process node, but NVIDIA looks to be the first A16 customer for TSMC on its next-gen Feynman AI GPUs in 2027. TSMC's cutting-edge A16 process node is the first from the semiconductor giant to use a backside power supply delivery network (BSPDN) on its new 2nm process (A16).

In a new report from Korean outlet EBN, an official in charge of semiconductor design at a major North American big tech company met with reports, where they said: "currently, NVIDIA is the only customer for TSMC's 'A16'" and that "NVIDIA and TSMC are testing together". The official continued talking about the new A16 node, adding: "It will be applied around 2027. I understand that Apple's mobile application processor (AP) is not yet in talks with TSMC".

Embark Studios has a definite hit on its hands, with its brand-new extraction shooter ARC Raiders, reaching a peak concurrent player count of 264,673 on Steam in its first day. This figure will likely be eclipsed over the weekend, but either way, it's a good sign, as the game also boasts a 'Very Positive' user review rating.

On PC, the game is a visual showcase, thanks to the fantastic art direction and Embark Studios' impressive tech, which includes NVIDIA's RTXGI for ray-traced global illumination. Now, when it comes to ray-tracing and multiplayer games with shooting, it's a combination that doesn't normally work due to the performance hit that comes from cinematic and immersive RT.

But, with DLSS 4 Super Resolution, Multi Frame Generation, and NVIDIA Reflex, GeForce RTX 50 Series gamers can experience impressive performance for what looks to be a well-optimized PC launch. For high-refresh-rate esports 1080p displays, the GeForce RTX 5070 achieves an impressive 406 FPS, while the flagship GeForce RTX 5090 reaches a staggering 611 FPS, according to NVIDIA's benchmarks.

SAPPHIRE has just launched its new EDGE AI Series of AI-powered Mini PCs, powered by AMD's Ryzen AI 300 Series processors, which feature a built-in NPU alongside integrated Radeon 800M graphics. This includes the powerful 'Strix Point' AMD RyzenAI 9 HX 370, a 12-core 24-thread CPU with a max boost clock speed of 5.1 GHz and Radeon 890M graphics with 16 RDNA 3.5 Compute Units.

With models also featuring the AMD Ryzen AI 5 340 and AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 processors, there are plenty of options to suit productivity, local AI performance, and PC gaming, with all three offering 50 TOPS of AI performance. When it comes to gaming, the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 will likely be the go-to option, as it's a chip capable of delivering a solid and fast 1080p gaming experience for modern games. Which is impressive when you realize SAPPHIRE EDGE AI Series Mini PCs are the size of a drink coaster.

With dimensions of 117 x 111 x 30 mm, the SAPPHIRE EDGE AI Series is compact enough to fit almost anywhere, and with its black and gold look, it's also one of the more stylish mini PCs we've seen in a while. The design features a tool-free magnetic top cover, providing easy access to storage and memory for quick configuration and upgrades.

The new Call of Duty movie now has a director, with Peter Berg signing on to direct, while Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan tasked as the writer.

Berg and Sheridan have been lifelong friends who previously worked on the Oscar-nominated Hell or High Water, which received four Oscar nominations including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay for Sheridan. In its press release, Paramount said that this partnership aims to bring the iconic Call of Duty universe to life on the big screen, "delivering an unforgettable cinematic event for fans worldwide".

The Call of Duty movie is based on the uber-popular game series, designed to "thrill its massive global fan base by delivering on the hallmarks of what fans love about the iconic series, while boldly expanding the franchise to entirely new audiences. Both companies are committed to honoring the brand's rich narrative and distinctive style, promising an authentic and exciting experience for longtime fans and newcomers alike".

KLEVV's URBANE V RGB DDR5 Gaming OC memory not only launched with a futuristic and stylish all-white aesthetic, but with low-latency speeds of up to 8400 MT/s while running cool. In our review from earlier this year, regardless of the voltage applied, temperatures never rose above 43°C. Pair solid performance, fast speeds, tight timings, and a robust 'limited lifetime warranty', and it's no wonder the 32GB kit we reviewed earned an Editor's Choice award.

Although white PC gaming hardware is becoming increasingly popular and a go-to aesthetic for many gamers, black remains the preferred choice for many enthusiasts. And with that, it's great to see that KLEVV has finally launched a Jet Black Edition for its URBANE V RGB DDR5 Gaming OC memory. At launch, the only option was Brilliant White, with KLEVV adding black to broaden the number of builds URBANE V RGB kits can seamlessly slot into.

This is strictly a secondary color option, as you've got the same 2mm-thick aluminum heatsink, the stylish futuristic look with RGB "dual-beam" light bar, and low-profile height of 42.5mm. And yes, it remains one of the best-looking DDR5 memory kits in 'Jet Black' and one of the best-performing.

I don't know about you, but when I put my earbuds in playing my nu-metal Spotify playlist, I might expect to hear some Static-X - but not actual static.

However, this is what's happening to some folks with Apple's AirPods Pro 3, which went on sale last month.

MacRumors highlighted some complaints on Reddit - and its own forum - about a static, or white noise kind of sound, which is audible when nothing's playing through the AirPods, when noise cancelling is active.

If you were thinking of casting caution to the wind and sacrificing your bank balance to own an NVIDIA RTX 5090 graphics card, here's some bad news - the cost of these already incredibly pricey GPUs appears to be going up, over in Europe, and also in the US.

First off, VideoCardz spotted a report on pricing over in Europe from German tech site PC Games Hardware (PCGH) as highlighted by 3D Center (see the above post on X).

According to PCGH, you can't get the Founders Edition direct from NVIDIA in Germany as it's out of stock, and custom third-party spins on the RTX 5090 are mostly around the €2600 to €2800 mark. (While there are some listings towards the €2200 price point, these are pre-order graphics cards with dubious delivery dates, we're told).

YouTube has published a new press release that reveals the video platform will now be using artificial intelligence to upscale low-quality videos to 1080p (HD).

In a new blog post on the official YouTube blog, the company outlines how it will be using the power of AI to give a resolution bump to lower quality videos to make them easier to watch on higher resolution displays, such as 4K, or even 8K TVs. Notably, YouTube states that it will also be expanding the thumbnail file size limit from 2 megabytes to 50 megabytes, which enables the use of 4K thumbnails for creators.

As for the upscaling, YouTube writes that AI upscaling on sub-1080p (HD) content will be enabled by default, but creators, or the uploaders of the video will be able to disable the feature upon upload, with YouTube writing, "creators will retain complete control over their library."

A recent report by The Guardian claimed Google and Amazon agreed to demands by the Israeli government in order to ink the Project Nimbus deal worth $1.2 billion, and one of those demands was allegedly a "secret code" the companies were required to use to inform the Israeli government when its data, stored on Google and Amazon services, was being handed over to foreign countries as part of court orders or investigations by local authorities.

The Guardian report cited leaked documents about the Project Nimbus deal and claimed both Google and Amazon agreed to these terms with the Israeli government, and this secret code was called the "winking mechanism". For those who don't know, companies such as Google and Amazon are commonly requested to hand over data on individuals by authorities of various countries, and typically, the companies are gagged by local courts from informing the individual that their data is now with the authorities.

To get around this, The Guardian report claims leaked documents revealed a "winking mechanism" was devised by the Israeli government so Amazon and Google could inform it that its data, which was hosted on the company's servers, was now in the hands of authorities. The alleged code was in the form of payments to the Israeli government with a corresponding dialing code. For example, if US authorities asked Google or Amazon to hand over data, either company would send 1,000 shekels, as the US has a dialing code of +1.

Nintendo is known for having one of, if not the most active, legal teams in the gaming industry, with the company not being afraid whatsoever to try and shut down any form of creative endeavor that it may impact the sales or misrepresent its products.

An example of Nintendo's willingness to go above and beyond to protect its products is the rampant trademarking it has been filing to prevent other game developers, or anyone else for that matter, from replicating certain aspects of its games. One example is the capturing of monsters, for which Nintendo attempted to file a trademark with Japan's Patent Office, which, if accepted, would give Nintendo the legal right to file lawsuits against any other game developer that used a similar mechanic.

However, Nintendo has experienced a rare occurrence as it has been told "no" by the Japanese patent authority, as the application, 2024-031879, was rejected over its lack of originality. Japan's Patent Office cited games that already existed before Nintendo filed the patent in December 2021, such as ARK: Survival Evolved, Monster Hunter 4, Craftopia, and even Pokémon GO.

If you've been distracted by Google's playable Pac-Man doodle today - yes, check out the search engine for a Halloween-themed take on the arcade classic - there's something far spookier on the loose for PC gamers.

XDA Developers noticed that Welcome To The Dark Place has been released by Zeekerss, the improbably named creator of the well-liked Steam early access horror hit Lethal Company.

The Dark Place as I'll call it for short - not to be confused with the classic Quake deathmatch level, The Bad Place (aka the duellist's paradise) - is a single player effort for Halloween which is available as a free download on Steam.

The 1992 release of "Little Samson" is coming to the Nintendo Switch 2, according to an announcement by Limited Run Games.

Little Samson was originally released for the NES in 1992 and has become somewhat of a collector's item, with copies of the title going for hundreds, and even thousands of dollars, depending on the condition. For those who don't know, Little Samson is a side-scrolling title directed by former Capcom designer Shinichi Yoshimoto, and enables players to control four characters: Samson, a dragon named Kikira, a golem named Gamm, and a mouse named K.O.

Each of the characters is distinctly different by featuring different abilities, and players can swap between characters at any point following the completion of the first four levels. Nintendo Switch 2 owners will be able to enjoy Little Samson for the first time, or relive the experience on Nintendo's latest console when Limited Run Games launches the Switch 2 port sometime in 2026.

Samsung has just unfolded some new details on its upcoming tri-fold Galaxy Z TriFold smartphone, which will be between 12mm and 15mm thick when folded, and could be using new silicon-carbon (Si/C) batteries.

The new tri-fold smartphone only has a single competitor on the market, the China-exclusive Huawei Mate XT, but now Samsung has had its new Galaxy Z TriFold smartphone on display and in the flesh at the K-Tech Showcase event on October 28 in South Korea.

The folks over at the Korea Economic Daily were at the event, reporting that the dimensions of Samsung's new Galaxy Z TriFold were between 12mm and 15mm thick when folded. Huawei's tri-fold competitor, the Mate XT, is just 12.8mm when folded, so it's good to hear that Samsung will be in that vicinity when its upcoming Galaxy Z TriFold is folded.

Apple's new iPhone 17 Pro Max comes with 256GB of storage on its base model, but the upgrade to the flagship 2TB storage costs $800... unless you have precise machinery, and steady hands like this modder.

YouTuber "DirectorFeng" has modded his iPhone 17 Pro which has 256GB of NAND flash made by Toshiba with part number "K5A4", saying that physically formatting the flash drive preparing for the 2TB upgrade is impossible without using machines, and even then, you'll need specific gear and years of knowledge to do so.

The 1TB and 2TB NAND flash modules are the same length, but they're not the same thickness or width, making the upgrading process of an iPhone 17 Pro Max not so easy. But, it seems that the dimension change hasn't caused a problem for the modder, as he soldered the Toshiba "K6B3" 2TB NAND flash module to the logic board of the iPhone 17 Pro Max using tin planting, followed by fuming with resin, and then installing the beefier NAND flash module.

The crumbling of Amazon Games has revealed some interesting insider information about what the company was developing before it was hit with the recently announced widespread layoffs and studio closures.

For those who aren't caught up, Amazon Games announced major layoffs as it switches its focus away from MMOs to its Luna cloud gaming platform. According to the announcement, 14,000 employees were laid off from Amazon, and of those, an unknown number will be let go from Amazon Games and its studios. What is known is that Amazon Games will be hit quite hard by the layoffs, following the publisher's dismal track record of game releases and failed projects.

It was back in February of this year that we heard about Amazon's ultimate goal, and that was to compete with Steam, and it believed it could since it was far larger than Valve and possessed more resources. This revelation came from Ethan Evans, who was the former Vice President of Prime Gaming at Amazon until 2020, who wrote on LinkedIn that despite being 250x the size of Valve, Amazon was unable to crack the code.

A new report has claimed Amazon and Google agreed to use a secret code with the Israeli government called the "winking mechanism" when obfuscating legal obligations in countries around the world.

The Guardian has cited leaked documents between Google, Amazon, and the Israeli government that were part of the $1.2 billion cloud-computing deal in 2021, with the publication writing that Israel was concerned that, as the companies moved data through global corporate cloud networks, the data could end up in the hands of foreign authorities.

Global corporations controlling the routing of data and the storage regularly comply with laws that compel the holders of the data to hand over information regarding specific persons of interest, and typically, the companies are gagged by authorities to prevent them from informing the individual that their data has been handed over to authorities. However, according to The Guardian report, Israel demanded a workaround for this, and it involved the creation of a secret warning system.

A Microsoft Azure outage occurred only a week after the Amazon Web Services outage, which took down large portions of the internet. The Azure outage took out Microsoft services such as Microsoft 365, Xbox, and Minecraft, along with other companies you may not expect to be impacted, such as Starbucks, Capital One, and Alaska Airlines.

According to Microsoft, the outage was a result of an "inadvertent configuration change" and a DNS problem, which the company followed up with several messages on its various social media channels explaining that it's currently working to recover services. At 7:40 ET Microsoft wrote on its status page for Azure that 98% of the Azure Front Door (AFD) service is operating, and that "majority of customers and services are mitigated or seeing strong improvements".

Additionally, "We have revised our mitigation time and are currently tracking toward full mitigation by 00:40 UTC on 30 October 2025." It seems that goal has been somewhat achieved as Xbox Support wrote on its X account that Xbox gaming services have recovered completely. However, some Xbox owners have reported they were required to restart their console to access the service.

According to a local news report from WBAL-TV 11 News, an "artificial intelligence detector" called the cops on a student at a Baltimore County school for mistaking a bag of Doritos for a gun. Apparently, the student was outside his high school, eating some Doritos and chatting to friends when the Omnilert AI system notified the police that a gun-carrying individual was on school property.

'Omnilert: AI Gun Detection & Emergency Response Technology' is a security and proactive system that automatically notifies law enforcement and emergency services when it detects firearms within a "fraction of a second." According to Omnilert's official website, there's a human verification step with one of its certified operators before a call is placed to the police, so it's unclear how a bag of chips could have been mistaken for a gun.

The student in question, Taki Allen, told reporters that "eight cop cars" pulled up with officers pointing their guns at him, asking him to get on the ground, on the suspicion that he was carrying a firearm. "They made me get on my knees, put my hands behind my back, and cuffed me," Allen said. "Then, they searched me and they figured out I had nothing."