China's Chang'e-4 mission releases new high-res images Moon's surface

Jak Connor | Science, Space, Health & Robotics | Jan 27, 2020 2:42 AM CST

China's Chang'e-4 lunar mission rover has relayed some brand new images of the dark side of the Moon. These images are also high-resolution for viewers' pleasure.

China's Chang'e-4 mission releases new high-res images Moon's surface

China's Chang'e-4 lunar mission recently completed its first year on the lunar surface, and also earned the achievement of being the first rover to travel the longest distance on the dark side of the Moon. China's lunar rover is called Yutu 2, and it recently relayed a new data set back to officials on the ground. Within this data set was a bunch of new high-resolution images that let us take a great look at the surface of the dark side of the Moon.

The date was released online by the Ground Research and Application System (GRAS) on Monday, January 20th. Some of the locations the rover managed to take pictures of including the Von Karman Crater, which is the same spot the rover soft landed on last year. Doug Ellison, who is the engineering camera team lead for NASA's Curiosity rover mission on Mars, tweeted about the data drop, saying, "Oh my god - the data drop is incredible :O". Ellison created galley of the images, that can be found here.

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Boeing's largest & most fuel efficient jetliner completes first flight

Jak Connor | Electric Vehicles & Cars | Jan 27, 2020 2:11 AM CST

Boeing has taken to its website to announce that it has completed its first test of the world's largest twin-engine jet.

Boeing's largest & most fuel efficient jetliner completes first flight

In the press release, Boeing has detailed that the new Boeing 777X jetliner has successfully entered the next phase of testing. The jetliner took off from Paine Field in Everett, Washington, at 10:09 a.m and managed to be in the skies for a massive 51-minute flight before landing back down safely at Seattle's Boeing Field.

The 777X is the largest twin-jetliner every created, measuring in at roughly 252 feet in length and 235 feet across. According to Stan Deal, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, "Our Boeing team has taken the most successful twin-aisle jet of all time and made it even more efficient, more capable and more comfortable for all. Today's safe first flight of the 777X is a tribute to the years of hard work and dedication from our teammates, our suppliers and our community partners in Washington state and across the globe."

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US Senator criticizes Tesla 'Autopilot' feature, calls it 'misleading'

Jak Connor | Electric Vehicles & Cars | Jan 27, 2020 1:38 AM CST

U.S. Congressman has called out Tesla regarding the automotive company's "Autopilot" feature, asking them to "re-brand and re-market."

US Senator criticizes Tesla 'Autopilot' feature, calls it 'misleading'

U.S. Senator Edward Markey said in a statement that the "Autopilot" feature is incorrectly named and is, in fact, a misleading title. Markey also stated that "Tesla promotes confusion about the capabilities and limits of its driver assistance system with an inherently misleading name - 'Autopilot' - that encourages users to over-rely on the technology." Markey also went further and said that the "Autopilot" branding "significantly undermines all of the user manuals and subsequent instructions that Tesla issues to its customers" regarding that the vehicle is, in fact, not fully autonomous.

In the statement from Markey, the Senator suggested that Tesla decides to "re-brand and re-market" the feature so that customers are fully aware of what its capable of. This isn't the first time Markey has recommended Tesla fix some of their safety features, as the Senator asked the company back in November to address some issues. Tesla responded to the Senator back on December 20th, 2019.

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Marss beats top Super Smash Bros. Ultimate player MkLeo at Genesis 7

Jak Connor | Gaming | Jan 27, 2020 12:28 AM CST

The Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Genesis 7 has just concluded, and against all the odds Marss has beaten the top Super Smash Bros. Ultimate player, MKLeo.

Marss beats top Super Smash Bros. Ultimate player MkLeo at Genesis 7

At the time of writing this, there are currently 78,000 players watching the tournament on Twitch.tv, and against what fans expected, Marss took out the championship with Zero Suit Samus. Marss went up against MkLeo, who played his notorious Joker. Marss ended up smashing MkLeo, going three games to zero.

In other Super Smash Bros. Ultimate news, Nintendo recently announced the fifth DLC fighter to close out the first Fighters Pass. That character is a Fire Emblem: Three Houses representative, Byleth. Byleth will be arriving in the live game with version 7.0.0, which is expected to drop on January 28th.

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Samsung Galaxy S20 price leaks: $999 through to $1349 for S20 Ultra

In less than two weeks we'll know all about the Samsung Galaxy S20 family of smartphones, like we haven't already from all the leaks -- but one thing we don't know about yet is price.

Samsung Galaxy S20 price leaks: $999 through to $1349 for S20 Ultra

According to a new leak, we should be expecting some seriously expensive smartphones from Samsung with the new Galaxy S20 family starting at $899. Samsung's new Galaxy S20 4G will reportedly cost $899, while the S20 5G is $999. Moving up from there we have the Galaxy S20+ 5G at $1099 while the flagship Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G will reportedly cost $1349.

Samsung might even have 4G versions of the Galaxy S20+ and Galaxy S20 Ultra for all we know, which would reduce the price from the $1099 and $1349 to maybe $999 and $1249 -- but that's something we'll have to wait until February 11 at their Unpacked 2020 to find out. Until then, check out my detailed coverage on Samsung's new Galaxy S20 range of smartphones here.

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Our first 'official' photo of Samsung's new Galaxy S20, Galaxy Buds+

I think the hype train for Samsung's new Galaxy S20 has been going for months now, but it feels like it is speeding up and faster than ever before as the days pass. Now, we have our first 'official' photo of the new Galaxy S20 and the new Galaxy Buds+ that you'll get for free if you pre-order the phone.

Our first 'official' photo of Samsung's new Galaxy S20, Galaxy Buds+

Notorious leaker Evan 'evleaks' Blass has leaked out a bunch of official images for the Galaxy S20 family of smartphones, along with a promotional shot that sees Samsung giving a free set of the Galaxy Buds+ if you pre-order the Galaxy S20+ or Galaxy S20 Ultra smartphones.

There's nothing new with the shots other than confirming what we have already seen from the slew of leaks on the Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20+ and Galaxy S20 Ultra. But we do have some official goodies confirming the insane 108-megapixel camera on the Galaxy S20 Ultra and its 100x "Space Zoom" feature, and the higher-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 865, up to 16GB of RAM (!!!) and 120Hz displays.

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EVE Online player bids $40,000 for rare ship on charity auction

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jan 26, 2020 10:15 PM CST

EVE Online is a super-popular game and while it doesn't have 50 million active players in games like Fortnite, Apex Legends and League of Legends -- it has a rabid, and very dedicated player base.

EVE Online player bids $40,000 for rare ship on charity auction

Well, in EVE Online right now developer CCP are donating all donations in their "PLEX for Good" event towards the devastating Australian bushfires. CCP are asking EVE Online players to donate any spare in-game currency to an official CCP-owned character, and at the end of the PLEX for Good event they will convert it into real-world money, and donate it to the Red Cross.

And then in steps Scott Manley, a YouTuber and former EVE Online player that was eyeing off Kelon Darklighy's super-rare ship -- and opened bidding at 1 million PLEX, which converts into 3.5 trillion ISK which then converts into an insane 160 years of EVE game time. This is worth around $40,000 and is what is making the big headlines. If the transaction goes through, it would represent the largest single-ship transaction in EVE Online's entire history.

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Motorola: 'bumps and lumps are normal' on foldable Razr smartphone

Motorola is edging closer to the release of its foldable Razr smartphone, with the company pushing out a new support video dubbed 'Caring for Razr', check it out:

Motorola: 'bumps and lumps are normal' on foldable Razr smartphone

In the video, Motorola says that Razr smartphone owners will have to get used to bumps and lumps as the company says "bumps and lumps are normal" on the plastic screen. Motorola adds that you should not be using screen protectors or sharp objects on the screen, so like Samsung's foldable Galaxy Fold -- do not use your nails on the screen.

Motorola also warns future Razr foldable smartphone users to fold up their Razr phone before they put it in their pockets, the only warning where I'm left scratching my head -- would someone really put an unfolded Razr in their pocket? Probably. As for now, Motorola will begin shipping pre-orders of the Razr in early February, with the phone costing $1500.

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This is our first look at Samsung's new Galaxy Note 20 smartphone

Samsung is ramping up to the launch of the Galaxy S20 range of smartphones, with the Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20+, and Galaxy S20 Ultra all to be unveiled on February 11 at the Unpacked 2020 event. Samsung's flagship Galaxy S20 Ultra will have a huge 108-megapixel camera with a 100x 'Space Zoom' feature.

This is our first look at Samsung's new Galaxy Note 20 smartphone

But now it's time for some leaks on the larger Galaxy Note 20 smartphone, which should be unveiled later this year -- and leaker @IceUniverse on Twitter has tweeted out the purported design of the body of the upcoming Galaxy Note 20. We should expect the Galaxy Note 20 to be a larger version of the Galaxy S20 in terms of design, retaining its rectangular section of next-gen cameras.

The button placement, USB-C charging port and S-Pen stylus haven't moved from the current-gen Galaxy Note 10 and Galaxy Note 10+ smartphones, but inside we should expect all-new tech. Samsung will use Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 865 processor as well as their own in-house Exynos 990 chip -- both with 5G connectivity. We should expect Samsung to also use a glorious 120Hz panel inside of the Galaxy Note 20 just like the upcoming Galaxy S20 family of smartphones.

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NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 now passively cooled, costs $6000

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Jan 26, 2020 7:32 PM CST

NVIDIA's monster Quadro RTX 8000 graphics card has now been crammed into a small passively cooled version by PNY, with the company unveiling a new Quadro RTX 8000 and Quadro RTX 6000 which are both passively cooled.

NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 now passively cooled, costs $6000

The two new cards are both maxed out at 250W TDP, but have reduced base and boost GPU clocks as well as their GDDR6 memory clocks reduced to lower the TDP and have it passively cooled. The cards both arrive in a dual-slot design, with boost clocks reduced by 8% down to 1620MHz (down from 1770MHz) while the base clocks are reduced to 1230MHz (down from 1395MHz) which is a 12% reduction.

NVIDIA crams an insane 48GB of GDDR6 memory on its Quadro RTX 8000 graphics card, with PNY clocking it down to 13Gbps from 14Gbps which reduces memory bandwidth to 624GB/sec down from 672GB/sec on the regular air-cooled Quadro RTX 8000.

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