YouTuber Benn Jordan, a musician and acoustic scientist, has achieved what may be a world first: the saving of data from a live animal, specifically a bird.

That bird is a European starling, or a songbird that is able to mimic sounds extremely effectively through its vocal organ called a syrinx. Jordan explains that starlings are able to precisely produce multiple tones at the same time, meaning they are able to mimic almost any sound they hear. The bird in the video is shown mimicking sounds it wouldn't otherwise hear naturally in the wild, such as the sound a camera shutter makes when it opens and closes, or synthetic sounds created by humans.

Using a spectral synthesizer, which is a piece of software that shows a spectrogram, or the visual representation of how the frequencies that make up a sound change over time, Jordan drew an image of a bird. Essentially, this image consists of a collection of sounds that make up the image Jordan drew. He then played the sounds to the starling, who was able to mimic it. Jordan then captured the mimicked sound in the spectrogram to see if the image was correctly reproduced, and it was identical.

Reliable leaker billbil-kun, who recently predicted the announcement of Battlefield 6 has leaked the release date of the Xbox ROG Ally and Ally X, along with the respective prices.

According to billbil-kun, ASUS's upcoming ROG Xbox Ally X and Ally will open for pre-orders on August 20, 2025, and will be priced at €899 (Ally X) and €599 (Ally). These prices line up with ASUS's accidental leak that happened earlier this month when the company uploaded prices to the ASUS Store listing the consoles for the aforementioned prices. Now, the prices don't directly convert straight to USD, but it's likely both consoles will be priced anywhere between $599 and $899 in the US.

The leaker also says that both handhelds will be available at Gamescom 2025, located in Cologne, Germany, which coincides with Xbox's official schedule that was published on their blog yesterday. According to the blog, Xbox has a live broadcast scheduled for 3 PM (French Time) on August 20, with a segment dedicated to the Xbox Ally.

Roblox CEO David Baszucki said during a recent podcast that Roblox is more than just a game, it's a "wellness platform" that players who are lonely and disconnected from the world can find other people on Roblox. By extension, Baszucki said that "some day we'll have dating on Roblox".

40% of Roblox's player base consists of users under the age of 13, and to further illustrate how the title has attracted a large portion of children, it has faced allegation in the past for being a platform used to groom minors. For example, one pedophile groomed, abducted and sexually assaulted one 15-year-old girl through Roblox.

Now, the context of which Baszucki was suggesting Roblox eventually integrating a dating feature is the CEO discussing the wider impact of Roblox as a platform, where he said that Roblox is more than a gaming platform it's a "wellness platform" where players disconnected in real-life can find other disconnected players.

Monster Hunter Wilds is getting its endgame expansion a good deal more swiftly than anticipated - in fact, it's happening in a couple of weeks.

As announced on X (see the above post, which PC Gamer highlighted), the endgame work was going to be part of 'Title Update 3' debuting in late September going by Capcom's timeline.

However, as you can see, this is now arriving as part of the v1.021 update, on August 13. Originally, that update was supposed to be deployed early in August, so it's being shifted to mid-August to allow for some final polishing to be done to the endgame expansion.

WB Games is currently going through restructuring after some absolute flops of releases, which include titles such as Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, MultiVersus, and Harry Potter Quidditch Champions. These titles, and a myriad of other problems, resulted in the publisher losing as much as $300 million in 2024, with $200 million of that $300 million being attributed to Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.

With all of those titles being live-service games, one would think that WB Games would give the genre a breather and concentrate on honing the scope of their games to make consistent, profitable single-player titles. However, that doesn't appear to be the case, as WB Games is currently looking for an executive producer for an unannounced AAA live-service game based on DC Comics.

Notably, this listing comes after WB Games closed Middle-earth Shadow of War/Mordor studio Monolith Productions, which was working on a Wonder Woman game using the famed Nemesis System. The job listing was recently discovered by Tech4Gamers and states the position would be responsible for "oversee post-launch content and live service strategy, ensuring ongoing player engagement."

AMD has a cheaper spin on the Ryzen 7 9700X that drops the integrated graphics, and ASUS has spilled the beans on the processor (at least in theory).

This was spotted by Italian tech site Bits and Chips (as highlighted by VideoCardz), which found the Ryzen 7 9700F - note the 'F' suffix meaning it lacks the GPU - on the ASUS website.

The Ryzen 7 9700F (which has been rumored previously) pops up in the CPU support details page for ASUS motherboards on the official site if you type in the model name, confirming its existence - and presumably the fact that the 9700F is not far off launching. (Either that, or someone has made a silly mistake here).

Razer has announced its latest wireless gaming headset, and the successor to the award-winning Razer BlackShark V2 Pro. According to the company, the new Razer BlackShark V3 Pro for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox is the "fastest pro-grade wireless headset" for competitive gamers and esports professionals.

You're probably wondering what makes the new Razer BlackShark V3 Pro gaming headset the fastest out there. Well, it all comes down to the wireless technology it features, which is optimized for ultra-low latency - right down to 10ms. This delivers "near-instantaneous" audio, making it faster than the 15ms of latency you'll find in other pro-grade gaming headsets.

That's not the only new feature on the menu; the Razer HyperClear Full Band Mic offers a pro-grade audio sampling rate of 48 kHz for "studio-grade voice capture," making it ideal for recording and communication.

We reviewed the original 4K-ready Elgato Facecam Pro a couple of years ago, and we were impressed by its pristine image quality, 4K60 capture capabilities, and ease of use. Earning an Editor's Choice Award, it's hard to think how a follow-up webcam could offer improvements outside of a few minor updates.

It seems that you can always trust the creators and streaming experts at Elgato to deliver something that sounds like a worthy upgrade. Meet the new Elgato Facecam 4K. It's the first 4K60 webcam with lens filter support, delivering DSLR-like quality and features powered by a pro-grade Sony STARVIS 2 sensor with uncompressed UHD or 4K output.

With support for 49mm lens filters, enabling cinematic effects such as diffusion and reflection reduction at the lens level, the new Elgato Facecam 4K introduces the capabilities of a professional camera to the webcam market for the first time.

A campaign led by Collective Shout, an Australian-based group that fights the sexualization of women, has led to the changing of Valve's policy for what games can be made available on the Steam marketplace, and the vanishing of hundreds of legal games/content from the platform.

Collective Shout pushed Valve to remove any games that contained depictions of rape and incest from the Steam marketplace, as the organization claimed Valve was profiteering off the normalization of violence and the abuse of women. Valve didn't respond to Collective Shout, resulting in the organization turning its attention to payment processors, such as Visa and Mastercard.

The open letter, which can be read here, attracted the attention of Visa and Mastercard, and resulted in Valve issuing a change to its "Rules and Guidelines" documentation, which states under the new 15th clause that developers are not allowed to have their game contain any "Content that may violate the rules and standards set forth by Steam's payment processors and related card networks and banks, or internet network providers. In particular, certain kinds of adult-only content."

Windows 11, version 24H2, is the latest version of Microsoft's operating system. It introduces a wide range of new features and optimizations alongside changing the dreaded BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) to Black. More than a color change, this update is part of Microsoft's Windows Resiliency Initiative, designed to help users and admins recover from "disruptions" faster, and with more control.

According to Microsoft, its change to the error and crash screen reduces the time spent on the screen from 40 seconds to 2 seconds, with enhanced error information, diagnostic tools, and options. Naturally, you can't help but wonder if all this talk about what you see once your PC crashes and needs a full restart kind of makes Windows 11 sound, well, unreliable.

It's a lot better now, with Microsoft's Monika Sandhu stating, "Windows 11 24H2 is our most reliable version of Windows yet. Compared to Windows 10 22H2, failure rates for unexpected restarts have dropped by 24%."

It's always interesting to see what game is climbing the ranks of the most-played games on Steam, as it's almost impossible to predict what gamers will be sinking their teeth into next. That new game is Mage Arena, and it lets players scream magic spells at each other.

Mage Arena is developed and published by solo developer jrsjams and is currently in early access with a humble price of $3. For this meager price tag, players can step into the shoes of a mage and enter into a 4v4 voice-controlled battle between sorcerers and warlocks, or test their spellcasting skills in the Mage Colosseum in a 1v1.

Mage Arena is currently popping off on the Steam charts, with the title reaching its all-time peak in concurrent players only 1 hour ago (13,450). Mage Arena was released on July 24, and at the time of writing, it has 12,552 players in-game casting spells via voice commands.

Australian YouTube creator TrashBench wanted to create a video showcasing that the eight-year-old GeForce GTX 1080 Ti still had some life left in it. The goal was to overclock the 1080 Ti (with a complete liquid cooling mod) to the point where it would outperform the current entry-level GeForce RTX 5050 GPU, which is built on the four-generation newer RTX Blackwell architecture.

Using the 3DMark Time Spy benchmark, tests were also conducted with Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Red Dead Redemption 2, Cyberpunk 2077, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider running in 1440p. The initial results indicate that the GeForce RTX 1080 Ti lags behind the RTX 5050 by approximately 5-15% in gaming performance. And this is without DLSS and RTX technologies like Frame Generation, which would further increase the 5050's lead.

It turns out that, after trying a few different GeForce RTX 1080 Ti GPUs, he was unable to see a significant performance difference, with only Shadow of the Tomb Raider running notably 6% faster. The initial plan didn't include overclocking the GeForce RTX 5050; however, once he applied an extreme OC, boosting the clock speed to 3.3 GHz, the RTX 5050 saw a massive 17% increase in performance.

Microsoft has launched a new experimental and free Copilot Mode for its Edge browser, which integrates AI features and grants AI access to view your tabs. Microsoft says that it's designed as a collaborator that "cuts through clutter and removes friction" while being built with the "highest Microsoft standards" for security, privacy, and performance.

How does it work? Well, once you open up a new tab in Edge with Copilot Mode, you'll be presented with a clean and straightforward page containing the Copilot input box that combines "chat, search, and web navigation." Yes, the AI will also have visibility of all the tabs you have open, so you can ask it to do things like compare and answer questions about the things you're looking at.

One of the earliest examples in Microsoft's videos explaining the new Copilot Mode feature includes a traveller looking at a variety of hotels and wondering which one is located closest to the beach that also includes a full kitchen.

With the popularity of white-colored components, cases, and cooling, it only makes sense to pair an all-white build with an all-white GPU. And with that, Palit is introducing new GeForce RTX 5060, RTX 5060 Ti, and RTX 5070 WHITE Series graphics cards, with all models listed as OC variants shipping with GPU Boost Clock speeds that are overclocked out of the box.

The line-up includes both GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 8GB and 16GB models, with Palit noting that the 8GB variant is "well-suited for iCafes" and competitive title performance where the VRAM limitation won't be a bottleneck. All models feature compact dual-fan designs, except for the Palit GeForce RTX 5070 WHITE OC, which has three fans with the same two-slot thickness.

The Palit GeForce RTX 5070 WHITE OC is the flagship model of the line-up and is positioned as a 1440p 120FPS GPU for AAA ray-traced gaming thanks to DLSS 4 and the arrival of Multi Frame Generation. The mainstream GeForce RTX 5060 WHITE OC 8GB model is described as an entry-level 1080p gaming GPU and an "ideal entry" point for next-gen PC gaming.

The God of War TV show was first announced two years ago, and now the showrunner, Ronald D. Moore, has shared new details on the upcoming show, revealing that the director of the God of War games is actively involved in the TV show's creation.

Moore recently sat down for an interview with Collider at San Diego Comic-Con 2025, where he said the show is currently in the "scripts phase," and that the more work that is done, the more he is fascinated with the world of God of War. Moore added that he has never done an adaptation of a video game before, and the deeper he got into the adaptation, "the more impressed I was with the breadth and depth of the mythology."

Additionally, Moore said that he had several meetings with Cory Barlog, the director of the God of War games, and described Barlog as a "genius" as he holds the entire mythology and backstory of the God of War games in his head.

Samsung Electronics has secured a $16.5 billion contract to make 2nm chips for Tesla, which will be made at Samsung's new semiconductor fab in Texas, and will be produced for Tesla at a loss.

The new order for Tesla has been analyzed as a "loss-making order" that prioritizes securing references over profitability, and that Samsung looks to be taking the $16.5 billion order as a reference point to make a "blessing in disguise" for its foundry business.

Furthermore, the completion of its new Taylor semiconductor fab, collaboration with Tesla is expected to strengthen, and that there's anticipation growing that the Tesla order will lead to increased transactions with big tech companies like Google and Qualcomm.

ASUS has been celebrating 30 years in the graphics card business, and will be unveiling a new ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5080 graphics card at Gamescom 2025 on August 19.

The company has been teasing new product launches and a bunch of giveaways ahead of the event, with ASUS preparing to unveil a new graphics card teased as a "30th Anniversary Edition" release. The folks at VideoCardz looked into the page's source code on the ASUS website and found some placeholder data, commented out, with references to the ROG Astral RTX 5080 Hatsune Miku, but that card was unveiled just over a week ago now.

We were expecting to see a new RTX 5090 design from ASUS, but it looks like the company will be unveiling a new RTX 5080 design as the AI TOPS performance numbers match the 5080, and that the Hatsune Miku variant is probably just a temporary placeholder.

It appears that WB Games Montreal is spinning up a new project as it seeks to make high-profile hires for a new game.

WB Games Montreal is hiring an executive producer for what appears to be a new live service game. All-told, the WB Games subsidiary is hiring 12 people across multiple disciplines, including two producers and three programmers.

The executive producer job will oversee a DC game, and the studio wants applicants to have a "deep understanding of the full game development lifecycle, including live services."

Samsung has secured a huge $16.5 billion foundry contract to make Tesla's next-gen AI6 chip at its new Texas fab, with Elon Musk saying that the strategic importance of this is "hard to overstate".

In a new post on X by the SpaceX and Tesla boss, Elon Musk said: "Samsung's giant new Texas fab will be dedicated to making Tesla's next-generation AI6 chip. The strategic importance of this is hard to overstate. Samsung currently makes AI4. TSMC will make AI5, which just finished design, initially in Taiwan and then Arizona".

Samsung Foundry will be making next-gen AI6 chips for Tesla at its Texas semiconductor facility, with Musk adding that Samsung "agreed to allow Tesla to assist in maximizing manufacturing efficiency. This is a critical point, as I will walk the line personally to accelerate the pace of progress. And the fab is conveniently located not far from my house".

Krafton has acquired another independent studio as it faces a lawsuit with ousted Subnautica 2 developers.

South Korean games giant Krafton has expanded its pool of game studios with the acquisition of Eleventh Hour Games, the team behind the popular Last Epoch action RPG. Krafton notes that it spent $96 million acquiring 100% of the studio's shares.

The buyout will help fund new content for Last Epoch, as well as a fully-fledged console port. Krafton intends to make Last Epoch an enduring, evergreen franchise with long legs.