Latest News - Page 450

Microsoft is taking its traditional break from updates in December, so Windows 11 and 10 users will only get a monthly cumulative update next month - and no preview release.

November updates are happening as usual, what with the Patch Tuesday release just having landed, and there's going to be a preview update (of the non-security variety) that'll be deployed late in the month for those brave enough to download an optional upgrade.

However, in December, there won't be any such preview update at the end of the month due to it being the holidays, with Microsoft staff taking a break. As noted, Windows 11 and 10 PCs will still receive the main monthly cumulative update for December (of course).

Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has given some new details about an Xbox gaming handheld during an interview with Bloomberg.

According to the Xbox head, Microsoft is currently developing an Xbox gaming handheld device, with Spencer confirming internally the company is "working on prototypes". Spencer said Xbox and Microsoft, by extension, are also investigating the market sentiment regarding handheld devices in an attempt to find the right vision for hardware that could be on the horizon. Spencer was enthusiastic about Xbox building a handheld device, which is something Spencer has expressed love for in the past.

Bloomberg writes that any Xbox handheld device would still be a "few years out" and that much of the concentration of the Xbox engineers is taken up by making improvements to the Xbox app. Notably, Microsoft has been openly discussing its plans to create an Xbox handheld device for quite some time, but nothing seems to have come of it besides rumors and teasers. Keeping to hardware, Spencer finished off the interview by throwing a slight dig at Sony for its decision to launch the PlayStation 5 Pro at the $700 price point.

SSD not big enough? Well, how does a speedy 60TB solid-state drive grab you? Micron just revealed the ION 6550 as the "world's fastest, most energy efficient" SSD of this capacity, and it is indeed something of a powerhouse.

The catch, as you've no doubt guessed, is that this isn't a drive for consumers, but one for data centers.

Micron's ION 6550 is a PCIe 5.0 NVMe drive currently sampling with its customers ahead of a full release.

Phil Spencer, the CEO of Microsoft Gaming, has sat down for an interview with Bloomberg, where he commented on bringing more Xbox games over to PlayStation.

The Xbox head said during the interview that it was too early to rule anything out, but he doesn't see any "red lines in our portfolio," and that even goes for the next Halo game. According to Spencer, it's too early to make a decision on whether the new Halo will launch on the PS5. These comments from Spencer leave the sentiment that anything is the table when it comes to making cross-platform launches -- even Halo, the franchise that made the Xbox what it is today.

As for what is known about the next Halo, Microsoft announced in September that multiple new games are in development, and they will be using Epic Games' Unreal Engine 5. Unfortunately, that is most of the details, as none of these titles have been officially announced or unveiled. Microsoft has already tested the waters by bringing Xbox games over to PlayStation with the release of Sea of Thieves, Grounded, and others.

Microsoft appears to be up to old tricks again in terms of pushing its Edge browser, and in this case, apparently poaching data from Chrome - something which has happened in the past.

The Verge's Tom Warren reports that a colleague on the tech site, Richard Lawler, ran into an odd situation with Edge where the browser fired itself up on boot-up of their PC.

Specifically, this was a Microsoft pop-up promising Windows 11 users the opportunity to 'enhance' their browsing by setting up the Edge web browser (with Copilot).

Intel is reportedly expanding its CPU offerings for its latest generation of desktop CPUs, the Core Ultra lineup, according to a recent leak by @momomo_us shows.

The new leak indicates that Intel is preparing to launch seven new SKUs across the respective Core Ultra 5, 7, and 9 families of CPUs. The leak reveals information about the non-K, T, and F variants of CPUs, with the highest-end Core Ultra 9 285 non-K coming in two variants, a 65W and 35W model. Notably, these two new SKUs match Intel's 285K's but are clocked at lower speeds.

Additionally, the Core Ultra 7 series will be seeing three new additions to the family, with 265, 265F, and 265T SKUs on the way. Each of these CPUs feature the 30 MB of L3 cache, but are separated from each other with different clock speeds, specifically the T-version, which has considerably lower clock speeds compared to the two counterparts. Moving on to the Core Ultra 5 series.

The US election has seen winners away from the political landscape, and Bluesky has been one of them, with the social media firm seemingly benefiting from an exodus of users from X.

Yesterday, Bluesky declared that it had gained a million new recruits (on X, as you can see above).

As TechCrunch reports, the social media outlet reached approximately 14.6 million users as of November 12, having witnessed a surge of folks joining over the weekend. (Bluesky membership was around 9 million just a couple of months back in September 2024).

Project Borealis is a fan-made Half-Life 3 currently in development by a global team of developers, based on the plot synopsis of the game outlined by Half-Life writer Marc Laidlaw. As PC fans of the franchise know, Valve's iconic FPS series abruptly ended after the release of Half-Life: Episode Two in 2007.

Of course, we got the excellent Half-Life: Alyx in 2020. However, that was a VR-only release that felt more like a spin-off than a true Half-Life 3. Interestingly, Project Borealis is being developed using Unreal Engine 5, not the Source Engine (Valve's internal engine that has powered every game in the Half-Life, Portal, and Left 4 Dead series) - with the team aiming to faithfully recreate the "iconic Half-Life 2 movement and gameplay mechanics."

On the plus side, Unreal Engine 5 gives developers access to powerful visuals, and Project Borealis: Prologue is now available to play (for free) on Steam. You can now fire up what is a fan-made version of Half-Life 3.

Microsoft has announced it will end support for Windows Mail, Calendar, and People on December 31, 2024. After this date, users can no longer send and receive emails or make changes using these apps. With that, Microsoft recommends that Windows Mail users jump to the new Outlook for Windows.

The good news is that locally stored emails, events, and other information in these three apps will remain exportable. Microsoft offers users a guide on exporting emails and contacts and importing them into the new Outlook - which you can read here.

For those wondering, the "new" Outlook is Microsoft's revamped web-based version of its popular and long-running email platform. It will eventually replace the desktop version of Outlook; however, support there is expected to continue until at least 2029.

Simple text editors offer a way to edit or write plain text without fancy formatting or other features usually associated with word processors. Generally used by coders and programmers, there are several text editors on the market, with Microsoft's Notepad being one of the most well-known.

Windows Notepad has been part of Microsoft's popular operating system since version 1.0 and has received numerous updates. While its core functionality has remained the same, new features and tools have been added. During the Windows 10 era, Microsoft added zoom capabilities to Notepad and the ability to highlight text and search for that phrase or text string on Bing.

Now, Microsoft is adding generative AI tools and features, currently available in Notepad version 11.2410.15.0 for Windows Insiders in the Canary and Dev Channels for Windows 11.

Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition is a 2021 compilation that includes the franchise's first three iconic open-world games: Grand Theft Auto III (2001), Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002), and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004).

However, these highly anticipated remasters were not received well at the time and felt like the opposite of 'Definitive' thanks to bugs, poor AI-generated textures, and visuals that felt like a massive departure from the original games.

Two main criticisms echoed by fans and critics alike were the dramatic shift from stylized lighting and the complete removal of all fog effects. With no fog and an increased draw distance, the previously massive open world of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas felt small. On top of that, the yellow and orange look of the GTA's West Coast was missing.

LG has been working on Stretchable displays for years, and they're exactly what you're imagining right now - a display that can twist, turn, bend, and expand. Stretchable displays are thin and lightweight, so they're designed to adhere to non-flat and curved surfaces, including clothing and skin. LG believes they'll be widely used in various industries - like wearables and fashion - once they hit mass market production.

LG demonstrated its latest Stretchable display prototype this month at the LG Science Park in Seoul. The 12-inch display was stretched and expanded to 18 inches - a 50% increase and a massive improvement over the 20% stretchability of the first prototype from 2022.

With a high-resolution pixel density of 100 PPI, full RGB color, and a micro-LED light source, LG confirmed that the display could be stretched over 10,000 times and still maintain the same image quality - even when exposed to low or high-temperature environments.

Apple has been rumored to be working on a cheaper iteration of the Vision Pro spatial computing headset, and now recent rumors indicate the second-generation product might not be released until 2026.

According to Apple insider and Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, Apple's next attempt at the Vision Pro headset will include the yet-to-be-unveiled M5 chip, which will be a substantial upgrade from the M2 chip that is in the available Vision Pro. Gurman writes the new device is currently in active development and that its slated to arrive between the "fall of 2025 and spring of 2026".

Notably, Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo previously stated the Cupertino company is planning on releasing its second-generation Vision Pro headset sometime in 2025. Additionally, a separate report from The Information claimed Apple's second-generation Vision Pro will re-use stockpiled parts from the first-generation model, which means there will likely be very limited physical design changes.

At the end of last month, Apple insider and Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman teased that Apple is working on a new device designed to add some intelligence to your home.

According to Gurman, the new smart home device will blend an iPad and a HomePod, and is described as a "smart home screen." The new device will have touchscreen capabilities and be tuned to enable users to control various applications from one device, making the smart home screen a proverbial command station for all things "smart" in a user's home.

Additionally, the new smart home device will be able to complete tasks on its own through Apple Intelligence, which, according to Gurman, will be the main feature Apple will use to sell the upcoming product. As for what it will look like, Gurman says he has heard it's much smaller than what is probably being anticipated by those interested as the new product is approximately the size of two stacked iPhones in a horizontal orientation or about a 6-inch screen, but in a square shape.

Two gamers are accusing Ubisoft of "duping consumers" into purchasing The Crew without informing buyers the game's servers would be shut down, thus making the online game unplayable.

Ubisoft announced in December last year that servers to The Crew would be shut down, and those who "recently" purchased the game would receive refunds. Due to the age of the title, many gamers were unable to receive refunds. The lawsuit claims Ubisoft deceived players in two different ways, and because of the deception, the company has violated California's consumer protection laws.

The first is Ubisoft allegedly duped players into thinking they were purchasing the game when they were merely licensing it, despite them physically owning the disk. Second is the accusation that Ubisoft "falsely represented" that game files for The Crew were freely accessible on the physical disk and not "a key" for the game. The two players have submitted the lawsuit in a California Court.

In May 2023, an "alien signal" was beamed at Earth from Mars, and it contained a coded message that has now been finally deciphered.

The "alien signal" was beamed at Earth by the European Space Agency's (ESA) ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter Mars probe as part of a partnership between the ESA and Daniela de Paulis, the current Artist in Residence at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California and the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia. The project is an art piece called "A Sign in Space," but it has real experimental value as its been used to test how long it would take for a real alien signal detected on Earth to be deciphered.

After more than a year of deciphering, father and daughter team Ken and Keli Chaffin have decoded the message, and according to a statement from the ESA, the team was able to decode the signal by following their "intuition and running simulations for hours and days on end." Before the signal could be decoded, it needed to be extracted from the raw radio signal data, which took 10 days and a group of more than 5,000 citizen scientists.

Bitcoin, the world's most valuable cryptocurrency, has surpassed its previous all-time high and is now closing in on the $100,000 mark.

The latest milestone of the world's most valuable digital currency was achieved after a 24-hour price rally that took the price of a single Bitcoin from $80,000 to $90,000. The price of Bitcoin broke through the $90,000 ceiling and quickly re-corrected back down to $87,000, where it's currently sitting at the time of writing. The rise of the price of Bitcoin has been occurring since President Trump was elected into office on November 5, gaining as much as 30% since the announcement was made.

According to reports, analysts are predicting the price of Bitcoin could reach as high as $100,000, but given the meteoric rise since Trump was elected, it appears the $100,000 mark will be exceeded. Additionally, the price of Bitcoin isn't the only cryptocurrency-related thing rising in value, as shares of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase increased by approximately 75% to what is nearly a three-year high for the company.

Samsung will be showing off its innovations for AI and automotive technologies at the electronica 2024 event, with the likes of its new HBM3E AI memory and GDDR7 memory for graphics cards, and so much more shown off at the event.

Samsung is showcasing its latest innovations in AI and HPC including HBM3E, CXL-based CMM-D, and GDDR7 memory as well as DDR5 RDIMMs for the data center. The company is supporting automotive innovation in the "Server on Wheels" era with automotive LPDDR5X and Detachable AutoSSDs being on display at electronica 2024.

Here's what Samsung will be showcasing at electronica 2024:

Bitcoin has smashed through a new all-time record high price of $88,000+ after Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 US presidential elections, after his administration saying they'll be pro-crypto.

The world's biggest cryptocurrency has pumped over 25% in value since the November 5 elections, with Reuters also pointing out that Elon Musk's automotive side Tesla has seen its shares skyrocket by 40% after the elections, as Musk is joining the Trump administration and its DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency).

Nick Twidale, chief market analyst at ATFX Global in Sydney said: "Obviously (it's) a clear Trump trade as he is so supportive of the industry, and this can only mean more demand both for crypto stocks as well as the currencies themselves. The fact that bitcoin was trading near all-time highs when the election result came through meant that it had clean sky above".

NVIDIA has reportedly shifted production to its new GeForce RTX 50 series "Blackwell" GPUs, with just a single RTX 40 series "Ada" GPU still in production.

In a new report from Board Channels, we're hearing that NVIDIA is reallocating its production lines to the new RTX 50 series, leaving the AD107 production line in operation. This means that NVIDIA's fleet of Ada Lovelace GPUs -- AD102, AD103, AD104, and AD106 -- have ceased production, the GeForce RTX 40 series is close to being retired (at least at a production level).

This doesn't mean NVIDIA's current-gen GeForce RTX 40 series "Ada Lovelace" GPUs have been discontinued, it just means that no NEW cards will be produced. All NEW cards produced will be the next-gen GeForce RTX 50 series "Blackwell" GPUs, which will be unleashed at CES 2025.