Xbox Game Pass or PC Game Pass is expanding its cloud gaming options on Xbox.com with a new option that lets gamers choose their streaming service. The 'Play With Cloud' option now includes multiple streaming platform choices: Xbox Cloud Gaming and NVIDIA GeForce NOW.

This is great news for PC gamers because NVIDIA's GeForce NOW cloud streaming services is widely regarded as the best for cloud gaming thanks to it leveraging powerful GeForce RTX 4080 hardware (for those on the higher subscription tiers), RTX technologies like DLSS and Frame Generation, with support for VRR displays, and G-SYNC. It even supports up to 240 Hz or 240 FPS.

On the other hand, Xbox Cloud Gaming is limited to 1080p 60 FPS running on console hardware with a higher latency. Microsoft is still all in on Xbox Cloud Gaming, as the service is available on Samsung Smart TVs and recently has found its way to Amazon's Fire Stick streaming devices.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) isn't happy with Microsoft's decision to increase the price of the Xbox Game Pass subscription.

The FTC filed a document with the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, claiming the decision to increase the price of Game Pass was a move by a company "exercising market power" after its acquisition with Activision-Blizzard. The FTC filing states that Microsoft's price increases and "product degradation," combined with its "reduced investments in output and product quality via employee layoffs," are hallmarks for it exerting its power on the market.

Notably, the filing is part of a larger appeal lodged by the FTC regarding Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which was finalized in October last year. While the $68.7 billion deal is completed, it still has an appeal in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which has yet to receive a ruling. The FTC calls the new Game Pass subscription tier a "degraded product" and explains its reasoning below.

Millions of Windows systems around the world are experiencing the blue screen of death or are stuck in repetitive boot loops after an update was rolled out by the cybersecurity software platform CrowdStrike, which provides cybersecurity solutions to Microsoft.

The outage is truly global, with reports indicating severe outages across Australia, India, and various other locations. Critical infrastructure has been affected across Australia, with banks, airlines, payment systems, telecommunications providers, and emergency services being knocked offline. Supermarkets and other retailers across Australia are closing their doors as they are unable to access their point-of-sale systems.

So, how do you fix a Windows blue screen of death (BSOD)? Microsoft states in its blogpost that a BSOD presents itself when a serious issue is detected in Windows. That issue can be either hardware or software-related. To bypass the blue screen of death a user will need to boot the computer in Safe Mode or Windows recovery environment. The steps for that process can be found below.

IT security firm CrowdStrike has experienced an outage that has resulted in millions of Windows PCs around the world being knocked offline.

The outage hasn't just affected PCs at home, but also critical infrastructure across multiple countries. CrowdStrike, which provides cybersecurity solutions to Microsoft for its Windows operating system, issued an update on Friday, which is suspected to be the cause of millions of Windows PCs getting hit blue screens of death (BSOD) error messages. Some reports indicate Windows PCs are being thrown in repetitive boot cycles.

What has this affected? Airlines across multiple countries have been grounded, 911 services in various states in the US are down, news outlets have been knocked offline in Australia, and some Point-of-Sale (POS) systems have been disrupted. Australia is seemingly experiencing the worst of the problem, as universities, POS systems, banks, telecommunications providers, and more have been knocked offline.

An outage due to a failure of CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity platform that provides cybersecurity solutions for Microsoft, has caused the 911 service to be unusable in multiple US states.

A major IT outage began unfolding globally only a matter of hours ago as the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which provides cybersecurity solutions to Microsoft for its Windows operating system, confirmed it experienced an issue that has resulted in many systems becoming unusable, including critical infrastructure such health services and emergency services.

The outage at CrowdStrike has affected many IT systems worldwide, including multiple countries such as India, Australia, Germany, and US emergency 911 services, along with select US airlines. The outage has seemingly hit Australia the hardest, as reports indicate some digital payments systems are now down, planes have been grounded, Sky News was knocked off the air, banks, telecommunications companies, and more.

A global outage is currently causing havoc, grounding planes, grinding public transportation systems to a halt, disrupting banking services, and affecting everything from streaming services to supermarkets. The cause is the dreaded Windows 'Blue Screen of Death' or BSOD, bringing down systems that countless people, businesses, and critical services rely on.

Based on reports, the culprit appears to be a CrowdStrike update for its CrowdStrike Falcon threat checker, which is currently causing systems to crash and fail.

This is one of the most significant outages we've seen in a while, it's gotten to the point where airlines like American Airlines, United, and Delta have stopped flights taking off. Emergency services are also apparently down in some areas.

Intel has been in hot water since the instability reports surfaced with its flagship 13th and 14th Gen CPUs, specifically the Core i9-14900K and Core i9-13900K.

These reports have been mounting over the past several months, and in response, Intel denied any RMA requests for issues such as blue screens, intermittent errors, and system crashes. Furthermore, Intel shifted the blame to motherboard manufacturers, which responded by launching their own investigation into the issues and rolling out BIOS updates that provided workaround fixes. Overall, the process has been extremely messy and lacks transparency and frequency in responses from Intel.

The problem seemed to get worse when Alderon Games, an Australian-based developer, announced it was swapping all of its servers to AMD CPUs as it alleged "Intel is selling defective CPUs - specifically 13th and 14th Gen models". Alderon Games said it observed in its own testing conducted over the last 3 to 4 months a 100% failure rate in affected Intel CPUs.

On Sunday, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) said it was struggling to gain access to the phone owned by the man identified as Donald Trump's shooter.

The phone owned by Thomas Matthew Crooks, the man who shot and wounded former US President Donald Trump on July 13, had his phone seized by the FBI, who attempted to gain access to it in hopes of establishing a clear motivation for the attempted assassination. However, the FBI was unable to it themselves and contacted Israeli digital intelligence company Cellebrite, which specializes in providing data management tools for federal, state, and local law enforcement, along with enterprise companies.

The information comes from Bloomberg, who was in contact with people close to the investigation who requested anonymity to be able to speak freely. The local FBI bureau in Pittsburgh uses the Cellebrite software, but that software couldn't bypass the security on Crooks' Android-powered Samsung smartphone. The FBI contacted the Cellebrite team and then was transferred to the FBI in Quantico, Virginia, to provide technical support while it was developing new cracking software.

In June the US government deemed the popular anti-virus software Kaspersky, which is used by millions of users around the world, a prohibited software as it was found to be a risk to national security.

In March 2022, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled that Kaspersky posed an "unacceptable risk to national security" due to its ties to the Russian government, which Kaspersky irrefutably denied. The anti-virus company denied having ties to any government and acts as an independent multinational company. Additionally, Kaspersky said the decision to ban its products across the United States was a purely political move.

The banning of Kaspersky by the Department of Homeland Security alleged the company has ties to the Russian government, presumably some kind of backdoor within its software that allows the Russian government access to devices running the Kaspersky software. Kaspersky responded by offering to reveal its source code to third parties for verification.

A product that was originally marketed as a security product has been discovered to be malicious malware that injects a kernel-level infection that makes the device susceptible to further attacks.

A new investigative report into the malware called HotPages revealed researchers notified Microsoft of the malicious software on March 18, and it has since been removed from the Windows Server Catalog of where it was once approved on May 1. However, up until that point, HotPage was presumably delivered to its victims as a security product, masquerading as an ad blocker called DWAdsafe for internet cafes in China.

HotPage contained malicious code that dropped a vulnerable system-level driver that could enable any attacker with the highest level privilege to execute new malicious code within a device. Additionally, the malware didn't even remove ads; it instead intercepted web traffic and redirected and manipulated content within a victim's browser. The malware hooked Windows API functions to intercept and modify browser activity to collect information on the victim, which was then sent back to the HotPage creator's server.

The art of price negotiation used to be a big part of buying anything, where the listed or stated price for something marked the beginning of a back-and-forth between retailer and customer. In some countries, negotiating or haggling is a part of buying something and expected.

Even so, I wasn't expecting to see that there's already an AI Negotiation chatbot that can be plugged into online shopping portals to simulate the ancient art of haggling. The generative AI is called Nibble, and it's described as "the world's most experienced AI negotiation platform, creating win-win outcomes at scale."

The official site for Nibble states that over 200 organizations currently utilize AI and handle deals worth up to six figures. It works as expected: an AI chatbot where you can ask for a better deal. The fun or dystopian part (depending on your general take on AI popping up everywhere) is that Nibble talks precisely like a pushy salesperson.

AMD's upcoming Zen 5-based Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 "Strix Point" APU has been benchmarked again, this time in Cinebench R23 with a single-core score of 2010 points.

The new Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 "Strix Point" APU scored 2010 points in Cinebench R23's single-core test and 23302 points in the multi-core test. The single-core result beats Intel's current flagship mobile CPU, the Core Ultra 9 185 "Meteor Lake" CPU (which scores 1935 points), and just 17147 in the multi-core run against 23302 from the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370.

Intel still has the lead with its desktop-class 55W version of the Core i9-14900HX, which scores 2193 points in the single-core run of Cinebench R23, and 30411 points in the multi-core run. AMD's own Ryzen 9 7945HX3D processor also beats the new Zen 5-based Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 "Strix Point" APU, but not in single core (the 7945X3D scores 1935 points in single-core) but beats them all in multi-core scores with 32782 points.

Sony's beefed-up PlayStation 5 Pro console could be unveiled at the Tokyo Game Show in September, with a holiday 2024 release for the more powerful PS5 Pro console still in play.

In a new post on X, leaker Tom Henderson was talking about Gamescom preparation being in "full swing" right now, with Ben replying to say, "Is it even a big show this year. Geoff isn't really hyping it much". Henderson replied "Gamescom itself is the biggest one ever - As for Opening Night Live, I am not sure yet". Ben continued, replying, "I guess September will probably be a decent month since PS5 Pro is most likely going to be announced around then?"

Henderson replied: "If it releases this year!" which has set off questions of whether the PS5 Pro will be released this year, but Henderson took to Insider-Gaming to address the PS5 Pro announcement and release. Sony will be returning to the Tokyo Game Show this year after 5 years of not attending, and with the PS5 Pro cooking in the Sony ovens right now, TGS seems like the perfect time to unveil the beefed-up PS5 Pro console.

More layoffs devastate the interactive entertainment industry as Warner Bros. Games shutters an entire mobile games division.

According to a somber LinkedIn post from QA analyst Tony Lazzara, NetherRealm's mobile group has been disbanded and all employees in the division have been laid off.

This is a stark contrast to the studio's position in 2021, which saw NetherRealm pursuing an "aggressive push" into mobile gaming. Through job postings made on NetherRealm's mainsite, we were able to guess that Mortal Kombat would be next in line for a new game, not the Injustice series.

The Halo TV series has officially been cancelled at Paramount, sources have told The Hollywood Reporter.

Paramount has shuttered its Halo television show after two seasons, but showrunners are trying to find a new home for the series. The news comes just weeks after the announced merger of Paramount and Skydance Media.

While seemingly popular among viewers, with season 2 among the top 10 most-streamed shows tracked by Nielsen with a strong 354 million views in February 2024, the Halo show has proven to be controversial due to its divergence from the core timeline set by the video games.

The Federal Trade Commission alleges that Microsoft's recent decisions with Xbox Game Pass will cause harm to consumers.

A bit ago, Microsoft announced that it would be making big changes to its Xbox Game Pass multi-game subscription service. Game Pass Ultimate has been raised by $3, from $16.99 a month to the new $19.99 a month price, and Game Pass Console tier has now been removed entirely, and will be replaced with a new higher-cost Standard tier "in the coming months" that removes day-and-date releases and trades that big benefit out with online multiplayer.

These adjustments were caught by the FTC, who is currently appealing a decision made by Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley in July 2023 that had led to the closure of the $70 billion Microsoft-Activision merger. In a new filing, the FTC alleges that these price hikes, in tandem with the new "degraded" Xbox Game Pass Standard product, will cause harm to consumers.

Nintendo just made the Joy-Con charging situation with the Switch much more manageable, especially for those who have many Joy-Con controllers around their Switch setup.

Nintendo has taken to its social media account to announce it will be releasing a first-party Joy-Con charging station that will enable buyers to charge two Joy-Cons. This makes the living room charging situation much easier as now gamers will be able to have two Joy-Cons charging on a charging station and another two charging on the Switch itself.

Additionally, the new charging station integrates with the retro wireless NES gamepads, which are typically used to play Nintendo Switch Online games. The charging station can draw power from the Nintendo Switch dock or directly from an outlet via its USB-C connection. Furthermore, the stand can be removed to make the charging station more portable. Nintendo hasn't revealed the price for the new accessory, but it did state in its announcement that it will be coming to market on October 17, 2024.

When you think fast, you typically think of sports cars or the speed of a bullet, but do you ever think about satellites, or more specifically, space probes?

The question as to what is the fastest human-made object can answered by understanding the incredible speed of NASA's Parker Solar Probe, a space probe sent to the Sun to relay data back to Earth about its intense environment and activity. The goal of the Parker Solar Probe is to provide researchers with more information on the evolution of our local star, and since it has been orbiting the Sun, it has been providing vital information about its habits and 11-year cycle.

Parker Solar Probe's Wide Field Imagery for Solar Probe (WISPR) camera passing through a CME

SpaceX encountered a problem with one of its Falcon 9 rockets last week when the workhorse launch vehicle didn't reach its intended orbit.

It shouldn't be understated the rarity of a problem with Falcon 9, as the workhorse rocket has launched twenty-four times in just 2024 and more than 350 times since its debut in 2010. During that time it has only experienced one catastrophic in-flight failure, and its lack of failures is what earned its reliability badge.

However, during a launch last week, SpaceX discovered the Falcon 9 was leaking liquid oxygen, which resulted in it being unable to reach the designated orbit for the Starlink satellites and ultimately a RUD protocol being initiated by SpaceX - Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly (RUD), or boom. SpaceX managed to get into contact with some of the Starlink satellites and tried to raise their orbits using the satellite's ion thrusters. Unfortunately, that didn't work, as there was too much atmospheric drag.

Apex Legends is the latest game to be hit with a wave of negative reviews on Steam, as players of the popular battle royale rally against EA's latest monetization strategy.

If gaming history serves us at all, we know that gamers aren't fans of quick cash grabs, particularly if they come in the form of microtransactions that plague the game with a bunch of unappealing cosmetics or, in some worse cases, items that give buyers an advantage. Apex Legends has been put in the crosshairs as EA has decided to essentially release two battle passes instead of one long one that would run throughout the season.

The decision to split the battle pass into two halves means players are no longer able to save up Apex Coins from battle passes to then spend on premium tiers in future battle passes. EA has changed it so that premium tiers cost $9.99. The immediate reaction to this change by players was fury, as players rushed to the Steam listing to call out EA for its seemingly tone-deaf cash grab.