Latest News - Page 314

Apple has long been rumored to be preparing to release a foldable iPhone, but one major problem has prevented the company from doing so - the dreaded crease.

Previous rumors about Apple's foldable developments indicated that the company gave its engineers a list of stipulations that needed to be met, one of which was to solve the problem of the crease seen on every major foldable smartphone device. One insider I reported on last month stated Samsung Display will provide the foldable screen for Apple's upcoming device, and that Apple's unnegotiable requirement to "make the crease disappear" meant having to obtain new materials and to take a step back from the entire design of the phone.

Now, a Chinese leaker has stated Apple has selected metallic glass (amorphous metal) for the iPhone Fold's hinge mechanism, which industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has referred to as "liquid metal". According to a report, the metallic glass differentiates itself from traditional metals in its disordered arrangement of atoms, which are more resistant to bending, deformation, and denting. The metallic glass is made through rapid cooling, and its structure means its 2.5% harder than titanium alloy, but it's also smooth and has a glossy finish that makes it look similar to stainless steel.

Hungrybox, a legend within the Super Smash Bros. community for being one of the best players in the world at Super Smash Bros. Melee, has teased that Nintendo will unveil a Deluxe edition of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

According to Hungrybox, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will be getting the Mario Kart 8 treatment by Nintendo, which, for those who don't know or remember, Mario Kart 8 was initially released on the Wii U and later re-released on the Nintendo Switch under the title "Mario Kart 8 Deluxe".

The deluxe version of Mario Kart arrived with all of its DLC already included, more characters, an overhaul to the battle mode, several gameplay improvements, and various other minor changes. It appears Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will soon be getting the same treatment.

Krafton has announced it will remove Denuvo, the controversial anti-tampering software, from InZOI before the game's April 28 (early-access) launch.

The team added an official statement to the game's Steam page, highlighting that while the software was chosen to prevent illegal distribution, it no longer aligned with the interests of the players.

Whenever Rockstar releases Grand Theft Auto 6, the gaming market will come to a standstill regarding new releases from other publishers, as they won't want their product to be consumed in the tsunami of GTA news in the media, and gamers simply not even hearing about their new game/content because they are too busy running around in Rockstar's new world.

This sentiment was echoed by at least three big video game publishers, according to Christopher Dring from The Game Business, who recently penned a report stating that at least three major publishers are ready to delay their game just to avoid the release of GTA 6 due to how big a splash it will make.

Formula 1 fans have an exciting few months ahead of them. They will soon be able to sink their teeth into F1 25 and, less than a month later, watch Brad Pitt in Apple's new F1 movie, one of the most expensive movies ever made.

The new F1 25 trailer featuring Lewis Hamilton was released on the EA Sports YouTube channel and gives players a brief look at some gameplay, graphics, and some new features. According to the website listing explaining F1 25 in some more detail, Codemasters are bringing back the Braking Point story mode with Braking Point 3, with My Team receiving its "biggest overhaul since it was introduced." The newly revised mode will enable players to take on new challenges, such as the responsibilities of being an owner of an F1 team. More details on My Team will be unveiled closer to the launch of the game.

As for the launch, players who purchase the Iconic Edition will get access to F1 25 three days before standard edition players on May 27. Standard Edition buyers will get access on May 30. The release of F1 25 will be exactly one month before the release of the highly anticipated Apple movie F1 starring Brad Pitt. The F1 movie reportedly has a budget of around $300 million, making it one of the most expensive movies ever made, and is helmed by Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski.

A new report has claimed NVIDIA is eyeing a potential acquisition of Lepton AI, a company that rents out servers that are powered by NVIDIA's AI hardware.

The report comes from The Information, which writes the green semiconductor giant is currently engaging in talks to move into the server rental market with the acquisition of Lepton AI in a deal worth several hundred million dollars. If true and the deal was inked, it would give NVIDIA a stronger foothold in the cloud-based AI computing market and the greater artificial intelligence sector.

As for the AI server rental market, reports indicate that it's an extremely fast-growing sector. Lepton AI was founded two years ago but secured an $11 million seed funding round from investors CRV and Fusion Fund. Lepton AI has positioned itself well in the emerging market as companies are looking for cost-effective ways of accessing high-performance AI computing hardware without having to fork out hundreds of thousands or potentially millions of dollars in AI server infrastructure, hence it attracting attention from NVIDIA for a potential acquisition.

Several articles have surfaced online sourcing a leak about Apple's upcoming iPhone 17 Pro, with the reports citing a leak that claims the 17 Pro will support 8K video recording. These reports are citing a mistranslation.

Firstly, here's the rumor. The Weibo-based account Fixed Focus Digital posted on Wednesday that the iPhone 17 Pro is "something to look forward to," adding Apple has implemented a "special process" by using a mixture of "aluminium and glass" to create a gradient presumably for the backplate of the device. The account also stated the following: "If you have 8K in hand, you should look forward to the iPhone 17 series even more." According to comments by other accounts, that last sentence was mistranslated and taken as the iPhone 17 series will come with support for 8K video recording. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case.

According to the comments, the "8K" is actually Chinese internet slang for ¥8000 RMB, which is approximately $1,100 to $1,200 USD. So, the user is referring to the price of the device, not the camera capabilities. This means the sentence should read like this, "If you're someone who's holding onto a phone worth ¥8000 (or paid that much), you should definitely look forward to the iPhone 17 series."

Microsoft's Robin Goldstein, the company's Partner Director of Product Management has announced users of the company's various services and platforms will soon be getting a fresh Microsoft experience, and it's more than just aesthetic changes.

Microsoft is updating its sign-in experience for all users of its products and services with an overhauled interface that has already begun appearing for select users. According to the announcement on Microsoft's website, which is currently unavailable as it seems to have been removed, Microsoft's new change will be coming to Xbox, Windows, the web, mobile devices, and essentially every other platform and service the company manages. What are the changes?

The new sign experience is built with Microsoft's Fluent 2 design and focuses on passwordless sign options, which the company has been pushing for quite some time. These new authentication methods, such as passkey, are designed to streamline the sign-in process to each respective account, with reports indicating the new sign-in page is optimized for various passwordless sign-in methods. Additionally, the new sign-in page comes with support for a dark mode, while also removing unnecessary clutter, making the sign-in window much more minimalist.

With the Arkham franchise now in the rear view mirror fans of the Caped Crusadar are now wondering what Rocksteady has been cooking up behind the scenes, and it appears it will be yet again a new Batman experience, but this time done in Unreal Engine 5.

The new adaptation, which hasn't been officially announced by Rocksteady or Warner Bros., was discovered through a job listing for a Senior Core Engine Programmer on the Warner Bros website. The job listing states the position is located at Rocksteady Studios in London, and that the individual would have to have a high level of technical ability, be competent in C++, and have experience with Unreal Engine 5.

Notably, all of the Arkham games were built on different versions of Unreal Engine, specifically Unreal Engine 3, with titles such as Arkham City, Origins, and Knight heavily modifying the engine to push it to its limits.

As outlined in a recent 10-K filing, computer maker Dell has been shring in terms of staff volume, with 25,000 of its employees no longer on the payroll as of January 2025.

As reported by Business Insider, the company said that it had 133,000 staff as of February 2023. According to the recent filing, the figure currently stands at 108,000 global employees as of January 31, 2025. This represents a total reduction of 25,000, marking a 10% shrinkage every year. Altogether, the company's workforce has reduced by 19% over the two-year period.

In August 2024, Dell significantly restructured its sales divisions, laying off over 20,000 workers. The laid-off staff were told the restructure was to prepare for "the world of AI". The company also began issuing return-to-office mandates last year, eventually ordering all staff within 90 minutes of Dell offices to return full-time as of January 2025.

Concerns about job displacement continue to mount, as OpenAI, Anthropic, and the broader market continue to roll out new models seemingly on the daily. Bill Gates has been relatively vocal about AI's potential to replace humans in most markets and professions. However, according to the Microsoft co-founder, there's a few exceptions.

Coding is widely considered one of the first professions on the chopping block due to AI. Major tech leaders, including NVIDIA's Jensen Huang, OpenAI's Sam Altman, and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, have each been insistent that programming will cease to exist when AI reaches a particular stage. However, Gates takes a different stance, explaining that human oversight is essential for identifying and correcting errors, refining algorithms, and helping to improve AI development.

NVIDIA has released an "experimental version" of its Project G-Assist System Assistant, which we previewed back at Computex 2024. Available for GeForce RTX desktop owners (GeForce RTX laptop support is coming in a future update) via the NVIDIA App, the AI assistant will simplify optimizing your PC if you have a GPU with at least 12GB of VRAM.

"G-Assist helps users control a wide range of PC settings, from optimizing game and system settings, charting frame rates and other key performance statistics, to controlling select peripheral settings such as lighting - all via basic voice or text commands," NVIDIA explains.

Project G-Assist is powered by a custom Small Language Model (SLM) using a Llama-based Instruct model with 8 billion parameters to interpret natural language. This means you can ask it about your PC's hardware, explain what DLSS or other RTX technologies do, and provide detailed performance. You can even use it to overclock your GPU or change your display settings.

For those who remember the Wild Wild West days of the internet, Napster was a peer-to-peer file-sharing program that launched in 1999. It quickly took off as a means to share MP3 music files and quickly grew in popularity thanks to the arrival of high-speed broadband internet at the time. Most users had dial-up connections and had to wait several minutes or an hour to get a few songs.

It didn't take long until the Recording Industry Association of America took note, and bands like Metallica made headlines as they moved to sue Napster for facilitating the sharing of copyrighted material. After bankruptcy, Napster became a music streaming service similar to Spotify in 2016 - even though the name 'Napster' has faded into the background.

This week, Napster was acquired by Infinite Reality, the creator of "immersive 3D interfaces," for a cool $207 million. According to CNBC, the company and its name will be used to create virtual 3D spaces for music fans and artists - aka metaverse stuff.

ENDORFY has announced a new range of ultra-lightweight gaming mice, the LIV series. This series covers a range of wired and wireless offerings to suit all budgets and needs, joining the flagship LIV Plus Wireless mouse released last year. The new models include the LIV Plus Wireless Onyx White, LIV Wireless Onyx White, LIV Wireless, LIV Onyx White, and LIV - all ultra-lightweight ranging from 54 to 69 grams.

Depending on the model, the LIV series sports the PixArt PAW3395 or PixArt PAW3311 sensor, which feature a sensitivity of up to 12,000 or 26,000 DPI and 300 IPS or 650 IPS tracking speed, respectively. It also features Kailh GM 8.0 or Kailh GM 4.0 switches for responsive clicks. All models sport the wireframe look of ultra-lightweight mice, and the wireless models support Bluetooth, low-latency 2.4 GHz wireless, and USB connection options.

The premium LIV Plus Wireless Onyx White also has a charging dock with ARGB lighting. The LIV series is available in black or 'onyx white,' and each model features ARGB lighting, which is not seen on many ultra-lightweight mice.

Launching at the end of this week, the life simulation game inZOI has skyrocketed up the Steam wishlist charts - making the game's Early Access debut one of the most highly anticipated releases on the PC gaming platform. inZOI lets players control and simulate an entire community, where the characters - called Zois - will live out their lives.

From robust character creation tools to customize housing, rooms, and even a city, inZOI is also shipping with powerful AI tools, including the ability to generate images and transform those images into in-game 3D objects. The game will also feature a "Smart Zoi" experimental setting, allowing players to turn Zois into NVIDIA ACE autonomous game characters.

As a life simulation where 'Zois' carry out their daily lives based on their own in-game experiences, switching them to generative AI characters sounds fascinating. You'll be able to read their inner thoughts as they go about their day while also customizing their personalities, life goals, and other settings to see how they interact with other Zois and the world.

When we first saw PowerColor's impressive Radeon RX 9070 XT Red Devil at CES 2025, we were told it planned to release an all-white version in the months following RDNA 4's launch. The time has come, as the Radeon RX 9070 XT Red Devil Spectral White Edition is set to debut on April 8 in Limited Edition form.

PowerColor's Red Devil cards have always featured all-black designs with red flourishes, signaling their power and premium status among custom-overclocked models. This marks the first all-white edition designed for PC gamers with all-white builds, and as seen in a new video by Overclock3D that previews the card, everything is white.

Everything from the power 8-pin power connectors to the PCB, fin stack, I/O bracket, and heat pipes is all-white - which is very impressive. Most white GPUs rarely go this far in their commitment to an aesthetic.

As seen in our recent reviews of AMD's new Radeon RX 9070 and Radeon 9070 XT GPUs, one of the significant improvements with RDNA 4 is the arrival of FSR 4. The latest version of AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution is exclusive to its latest generation of desktop graphics cards because it introduces a new complex AI model for upscaling, dramatically improving image fidelity compared to FSR 3.1.

Like with NVIDIA DLSS, if FSR 4 is available in a game using the 'Quality' preset at 1440p or 4K can be considered 'free performance' as it offers a clean and detailed image comparable to native rendering with TAA. However, as FSR 4 support is only available in a fraction of games compared to DLSS 3 and DLSS 4, it's not yet a selling point or reason to choose Radeon over the competition.

The good news is that AMD has noticed the positive response to FSR 4 among reviewers and RDNA 4 early adopters and is actively working with developers "to make sure the next blockbusters that come out are enabled with FSR 4 technology."

CD Projekt may be able to release the new Witcher saga in its entirety in the next 6 years, senior management for the Polish games-maker has told investors.

The Witcher 4 is in full production within Unreal Engine 5, and while progress appears to be going smoothly with 400 developers working on the project, CD Projekt did say the game won't release until 2027. With that news in mind, can CD Projekt deliver the full new Witcher trilogy in the same span as the original games?

From The Witcher in 2008 to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in 2015, it took nearly 7 years for Geralt's three-game adventure to come to a close. Can CD Projekt do the same and release Ciri's trilogy in, let's say, six years after the first game's release? Maybe.

We've caught an early glimpse of NVIDIA's RTX 5090 laptop GPU in action in a Razer laptop, with a YouTuber providing benchmarks that show the new mobile graphics card promises to be a major leap in performance - certainly in some scenarios.

You can see the results of YouTuber Dave2D running the RTX 5090 through its paces in the incoming Razer Blade 16 in the video above, as noticed by Notebookcheck.net.

In Black Myth: Wukong, Dave2D observes that at 1440p (ray tracing on, top graphics details, DLSS balanced) the RTX 5090 is a healthy 33% quicker than the RTX 4090.

European regulators have set their consumer-protecting eye of Sauron upon predatory gaming practices, with the focus on in-game currencies and how they can be used to manipulate and deceive consumers.

The European consumer watchdog Consumer Protection Cooperation Network (CPC) has filed an enforcement action with the European Commission against the gaming company Star Stable Entertainment, the owners of the MMORPG/horse simulation game Star Stable Online. I explain the specifics of the enforcement action in this article, but I will briefly go over them here as the context is important for what could happen in the future.

EU regulators have deemed several areas of Star Stable Online's monetization practices as predatory, such as the in-game currencies not being one-to-one conversions with euros, and its in-game currency being bundled with "discounts" are both techniques to obfuscate the actual cost of in-game products, making it unnecessarily difficult for consumers to know how much real-life money they are actually spending.