Latest News - Page 407

The next-gen MacBook Air is already strongly rumored to arrive early in 2025, benefiting from the new M4 chip, and we've just seen a heavy hint that this is indeed what's happening - and it comes from Apple itself.

MacRumors noticed that with the release of macOS Sequoia 15.2, the update for the operating system contained references to the "MacBook Air (13-inch, M4, 2025)" and the "MacBook Air (15-inch, M4, 2025)," which are pretty clear clues that these new laptops are inbound.

We don't get a release timeframe, of course, but if Apple is putting files in place in macOS Sequoia right now, that suggests the launches are close at hand.

On November 15, Alex Jones confirmed that satirical website The Onion had purchased his conspiracy theory website InfoWars, following Jones being ordered to pay more than $1 billion in damages that resulted in him declaring bankruptcy.

Jones was ordered to pay more than $1 billion in damages for spreading misinformation about the tragic event that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The $1 billion in damages caused Jones to declare bankruptcy, with some of his assets going to a bankruptcy auction, which is where The Onion won the bid for the InfoWars website. The Onion intended to turn the InfoWars website into "a very funny, very stupid website" with the assistance of "hall of famers" from The Onion and Clickhole.

However, Jones said he would push back against the purchase by The Onion, and it appears he has gained the favor of U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez following a two-day hearing. According to reports, Lopez has denied The Onion's bid to purchase the website, saying he doesn't believe the bid is enough money. "I don't think it's enough money," he said in his ruling. "I'm not going to approve the sale...I think you've got to go out and try to get every dollar. I think that the process fell down."

It was in January this year that NASA announced its helicopter living on the surface of Mars sadly died after a crash landing on its 72nd flight.

The helicopter named Ingenuity arrived on the Red Planet in February 2021 as an engineering experiment to see if flight in Mars' extremely thin atmosphere was possible. Ingenuity became the first aircraft to conduct a powered and controlled extra-terrestrial flight, solidying its name in the space exploration history books. Ingenuity went on to serve NASA's Perseverance rover as a forward scout.

NASA sent Ingenuity ahead of Perseverance, and with the helicopter's cameras, NASA was able to plot a path of least resistance for the rover, along with evaluating any upcoming valuable scientific prospects. However, Ingenuity crashed on its 72nd flight on January 18, 2024, which resulted in its rotor blades sustaining critical damage preventing flight. Ingenuity's team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) said that Ingenuity crashed due to its navigation systems having too little information to make accurate decisions. The team attributes this to the monotone color of the Martian surface.

Gemini 2.0 has arrived, and alongside the announcement of the highly anticipated update of Google's AI companion is a teaser for new AI assistant-powered smart glasses.

Google may very well be preparing to make a smart glasses-related announcement, as the company has teased via a new YouTube video posted to its official channel, "Project Astra," a demonstrative video showcasing the future capabilities of an AI assistant. Currently, in the research prototype phase, Project Astra was detailed by Google DeepMind product manager Bibo Xu, who revealed that a small group of people within Google's Trusted Tester program would be testing Project Astro on the prototype glasses.

Notably, Google's Trusted Tester program consists of members who get to play with Google prototype products, most of which never make it to market, which may have thrown a dampener on the idea of Google releasing these glasses showcased in the above video. However, when asked about the glasses Xu said, "for the glasses product itself, we'll have more news coming shortly."

NASA has taken to its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) blog to announce the official discovery of seven strange celestial objects, with the findings being published on Monday, December 9, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

These celestial objects are known as "dark comets," which are astronomical objects that look like asteroids but strangely move through space like a comet. These odd objects were first discovered less than two years, but according to NASA the first inkling of dark comets was a March 2016 study that found an asteroid seemingly randomly deviated from its course, changing its orbit.

NASA writes the behavior of dark comets could explain the 2016 study documentation, as the lead author of the December 9 study, Davide Farnocchia of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, explained, "When you see that kind of perturbation on a celestial object, it usually means it's a comet, with volatile material outgassing from its surface giving it a little thrust." However, when researchers looked through instruments, the object named 2003 RM appeared as an asteroid, just a single light dot on the display. By comparison, a comet typically has a long tail that is depicted as a thinning streak from a center point of light.

General Motors (GM) announced on Tuesday that it will exited the robotaxis business it has invested more than $10 billion in since 2016, sparking Microsoft to announce it expects an impairment charge of approximately $800 million in the second quarter of next year as a result of the departure.

According to reports, General Motors will be exiting the robotaxi business, specifically the Cruise autonomous driving company, citing "time and resources" to develop a sufficiently substantial fleet to compete against the already established businesses operating in the robotaxi market. Notably, Microsoft picked up a minority stake in Cruise back in January 2021, amounting to approximately a $2 billion investment that involved institutional investors such as Honda Motor.

General Motors doesn't appear to want to try and compete with robotaxi vendors such as Waymo, Tesla, and Amazon, with the company explaining that Cruise could generate as much as $50 billion in revenue by 2030, but this business arm of GM was expendable, especially considering that it isn't even the company's core business.

A group of hackers connected to the Russian government have launched cyber attacks at Starlink-connected infrastructure in Ukraine to target devices being used by Ukrainian soldiers on the frontline. Microsoft has confirmed the infrastructure has been compromised, and currently, investigators still don't know what vulnerability was exploited.

Microsoft has labeled the group as "Secret Blizzard," and according to reports and the latest Microsoft Security blog post, in at least one instance this year when Ukrainian frontline devices were targeted, Secret Blizzard used infrastructure created by a cybercrime group Microsoft tracks as Storm-1919. In another instance,e Secret Blizzard leveraged infrastructure from another group called Storm-1837, a Russian-based cybercrime group that targets Ukrainian drone operations.

So, how did they gain access to the infrastructure? Microsoft explains the cybercriminals between March and April this year used a bot swarm attack to install the XMRIG cryptocurrency app on targeted servers. Typically, hackers will install this malware and then use the device's resources to mine a cryptocurrency, which they then sell online for real money. However, Microsoft writes the ultimate objective of bot swarm malware was to install Tavdig, a backdoor Secret Blizzard used to conduct reconnaissance on the target device.

Fujitsu has just shown off a sample of its new Monaka processor: a new Armv9-based 144-core chip that is destined for data centers of the future.

Last week, the Japanese company announced it was working with Broadcom to use its new 3.5D eXtreme Dimension System in Package (3.5D XDSiP) platform, and now we're being introduced to Fujitsu's new Monaka processor.

The new Monaka chip is a large CoWoS system-in-package (SiP) that has 4 x 36-core compute chiplets, made on TSMC's N2 process node with 144 Armv9-based cores with enhancements that are stacked on top of SRAM tiles, in a face-to-face (F2F) layout, using hybrid copper bonding (HCB).

MSI has just launched its new MAG 321CUPDF gaming monitor in China, featuring a 31.5-inch VA panel and 4K 160Hz + 1080p 320Hz Dual-Mode functionality. Check it out:

The new MSI MAG 321CUPDF gaming monitor is the first Dual-Mode monitor with a curved panel, and while we've seen multiple Dual-Mode monitors they're mostly OLED panels, where this is a VA panel. We have a 31.5-inch VA panel with a native 16:9 aspect ratio, and two different resolutions and refresh rates depending on what you're doing on the MAG 321CUPDF gaming monitor.

The 31.5-inch VA panel rocks a native 4K resolution at up to 160Hz, but its Dual-Mode function allows 1080p at up to 320Hz, which is perfect for esports, twitchy gamers. If you're playing AAA games, then that 4K resolution with a 160Hz refresh rate is going to be damn good... while if you want all the frames possible, 320Hz can be enjoyed... albeit at the lower 1080p resolution.

Samsung has still yet to pass HBM3E memory qualification from NVIDIA, and now it seems that won't be happening this year as it is "realistically impossible" for Samsung to supply its HBM3E to NVIDIA this year.

In a new report from Korean media outlet Daily Korea, we're learning that Samsung's supply of HBM3E memory to NVIDIA this year looks "impossible" in both 8-layer and 12-layer HBM3E form. The reason for the delay is that Samsung is reportedly still unable to meet NVIDIA's requirements for chip performance.

Daily Korea's source said: "It is realistically impossible for Samsung Electronics to supply 8-layer and 12-layer HBM3E to NVIDIA this year. The reason for the delay in supply is that we were unable to meet NVIDIA's requirements for chip performance".

There is a distinct annoying difficulty in getting files off an iOS device and onto a Windows machine, especially when you know how easy it is with an Android. Microsoft is trying to solve that problem, and has explained how in a recent announcement.

Redmond has taken to its Windows Blogs to share how it plans on bridging the gap between operating systems, and according to the announcement, Windows Insiders will soon be able to "seamlessly share files" between an iPhone and a Windows 10/11 machine when both devices are connected via Phone Link, and the Link to Windows app. There are some requirements for this new feature, but it's more than likely you will have already met the criteria.

An iPhone needs to be running iOS 16 or higher, and the Link to Windows app on your iPhone needs to be version 1.24112.73 or higher. Phone Link version 1.24112.89.0 or higher is also required. Additionally, those interested in taking advantage of this new feature to quickly move files from their iPhone to their Windows machine will also need to opt into the Windows Insider Program. It should be noted that some users are reporting that this feature is not working as intended for iPhone users running the recently released iOS 18.2 version.

AOOSTAR has just introduced its new Mini-PC based on AMD's new Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 "Strix Point" APU, it packs an OCulink port, and more. Check it out:

In a new post on X by leaker HXL, we're led to the Weibo forums where AOOSTAR has unveiled its new Mini-PC which packs the Strix Point APU, features 32GB of LPDDR5X-8000 memory, 1TB of SSD storage, and OCulink connectivity. The company has confirmed that the Mini-PC supports a 54W TDP, and Wi-Fi 7 too.

Inside, the new AOOSTAR Mini-PC features a custom vapor chamber cooling solution that the company says is "ultra quiet" while there are dual SSD slots in the system for upgrades if you need more storage. The OCulink port will allow you to hook up an external graphics card to the Mini-PC, just in case the RDNA 3.5-based integrated GPU doesn't have enough grunt for the games you're playing.

Google's CEO Sundar Pichai has weighed in on the recent conversation surrounding AI and its development - Are leading AI companies struggling to scale AI models due to a lack of high-quality training data?

Reports indicate that top AI development companies such as Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google will soon hit a wall that will hinder the explosive performance jumps of AI models such as OpenAI's GPT, or Google's Gemini. However, according to former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, these assumptions about AI model scaling are unfounded, saying, "There's no evidence that the scaling laws have begun to stop. They will eventually stop, but we're not there yet."

These assertions that AI models will still continue to develop rapidly in the immediate future were subtly reiterated by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who wrote on X, "There's no wall". Current Google CEO Sundar Pichai joined in on the conversation at The New York Times' Dealbook summit, where he said, "I think the progress is going to get harder when I look at '25. The low-hanging fruit is gone. The hill is steeper." Pichai recognized there will be challenges ahead that simply can't be solved by throwing more compute at the AI model.

ASUS has shown off the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X processor passively cooled with a Noctua cooler, inside of the ASUS ProArt chassis, running at 95C under 220W of load.

In a new video posted by ASUS China General Manager, Tony Yu, we're seeing the new ASUS ProArt series chassis with wooden aesthetics (which looks oh-so-nice) which has been designed for workstation users and content creators, who seek quieter operation versus RGB bling.

Tony used the Ryzen 9 9950X processor rocking 16 cores and 32 threads of Zen 5 power, using the Noctua NH-P1 CPU cooler and keeping the 9950X at 95C passively cooled (look ma, no fans!). There are some pre-installed fans inside of the chassis, but the CPU itself is running a passively cooled unit with no fans blowing air onto the heatsink.

Microsoft beefs up its PC store competition by adding nearly 400 new games to the Xbox PC app storefront.

Xbox has quite the PC gaming ecosystem right now. Between Battle.net, the Microsoft Store, the web, and now the Xbox Windows app itself, there are a variety of different ways to buy Xbox-branded games and content on PC. The pressure to expand further onto PC propelled the $70 billion Activision buyout, and this pressure is also fueling Microsoft's ambitious multi-channel market competition plans.

Now we're seeing Microsoft beef up its digital games catalog with a swath of almost 400 titles to be added to the Xbox app. This will further mold the Xbox app into a more cohesive branching point within the ecosystem, brushing up against established launchers like Battle.net and Steam while filling out the content catalog along the way.

The Xbox app's new jump back in feature is a great addition for anyone playing PC games on their Lenovo Legion Go, ASUS ROG Ally, or other Windows handheld PC.

Microsoft is slowly but surely working its way up to a dedicated Xbox handheld. But before the hardware is ready, there's still lots of work to do on Xbox's native PC gaming presence, especially when it comes to adapting to a handheld's smaller screen.

On-the-go gaming is all about convenience. If you can pair that up with instant access, like, say, with Valve's innovative quick access button and suspend and resume feature, it's a potent combo for gamers. While the Xbox PC app doesn't have some sort of revolutionary built-in Quick Resume, it does have "jump back in," which is essentially a quick launch carousel of your recently played games.

The video games industry's uneasy Survive Till '25 mantra may have to get updated with a new number as industry figures believe Grand Theft Auto 6 is likely to be delayed beyond 2025.

Rockstar Games is no stranger to delays. Red Dead Redemption 2 was delayed twice, originally set to launch in Fall 2017, then pushed back to Spring and then Fall of 2018. GTA V was delayed once on consoles, and then three times on PC. Given this trend, the consensus is that the massively anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6 will also be delayed.

In a recent Kinda Funny Games Daily podcast, Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier shared his thoughts about GTA 6 launching in 2025. While this is Schreier's own thoughts, and not based on insider information from sources as per usual of his reporting, Schreier has extensive knowledge on the trends and goings-on in the industry, and has been reporting on GTA 6 specifically for many years.

Another slew of glorious OLED gaming monitors has been announced ahead of CES 2025, which is undoubtedly going to be inundated with the incredible pixel technology in various forms.

ASRock has taken to its website to unveil three new OLED gaming monitors, the PGO32UFS, the PGO27QFS, and the PGO27QFV. The company's latest flagship gaming monitor is the PGO32UFS, which is a 32-inch flat WOLED panel that sports a 4K resolution and a native 240Hz refresh rate. However, the PGO32UFS is a dual-mode monitor, meaning it's capable of dropping its resolution down to 1920 x 1080p and increasing its refresh rate to 480Hz.

The idea behind this new mode, which is becoming more prominent among gaming monitor companies, is to enable a gamer to seamlessly switch between 4K (high fidelity) and 1080p (Performance). A gamer that flexes between graphically intensive, slower, RPG-like titles would want the 4K monitor for the graphics, while a competitive gamer that plays first-person-shooter games will opt for the high refresh rate display. Dual-mode monitors seek to provide the best of both worlds. Announced alongside the PGO32UFS was the PGO27QFS, a 27-inch monitor featuring a WOLED panel, a QHD resolution, and a 240Hz refresh rate.

Cyberpunk 2077 just got a big update, and it seemingly ushers in a major performance boost for those with a new Intel Arrow Lake CPU in their PC.

Doubtless you haven't missed the controversy around the launch of Core Ultra 200S (desktop) processors, which underperformed compared to the expectations Intel built up in the prerelease marketing phase.

Gaming performance turned out particularly shaky in terms of the generational uplift on 14th-gen CPUs, and Intel has acknowledged this, and is preparing microcode updates to boost frame rates (while also fixing apparent issues with Windows, too, that are slowing down Core Ultra 200S chips).

The latest in what seems like a never-ending line of Nintendo Switch 2 rumors is what very well could be the first look at Nintendo's next-generation console.

Nintendo's next-generation console, presumably called the Nintendo Switch 2, considering the immense success of the Nintendo Switch, has been hinted at by Nintendo several times, with the company confirming via financial reports that a successor console was on the way, and that the company will ride the original Nintendo Switch out until the end of this fiscal year in March 2025. However, Nintendo did confirm that it will announce the successor console this fiscal year, which means any time now Nintendo could reveal the highly-anticipated handheld.

It was only earlier this month that six development studios confirmed to a publication that titles being worked on for the next-generation Nintendo console will be released between June and July next year, meaning the Nintendo Switch 2 will have already been announced and on shelves. The latest rumor about this elusive console comes from Satisfye, a company dedicated to creating accessories for gaming consoles.