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.

Apple has apparently changed its plans for the iPhone 17 that'll be out next year, and the chances of a slimmer model may just have got, well, slimmer, with this move.

Of course, this is from the rumor mill - so stay skeptical - though the source is one of the better fonts of pre-release knowledge regarding Apple devices, namely analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

Kuo tells us that Apple won't use resin-coated copper (RCC) for the boards in the iPhone 17, as was previously the idea, as it doesn't meet the company's quality standards.

A new paper published in Nature details the creation of a new type of electrostatic flyer, which uses sunlight to power its propulsion system and achieve flight.

In the new paper, a team of researchers from China's Beihang University explained that the newly designed flyer uses an electrostatic propulsion system consisting of a motor, a 4-inch propeller, a high-voltage power converter, and solar cells. The above video explains that the motor consists of a rotor and a stator. The stator is made up of eight pairs of alternating positive and negative electrodes arranged in a ring.

Each of these electrodes has a brush attached to it that transfers charge to the rotor blades. When a high direct-current voltage is applied to the electrodes, electrostatic fields are generated and drive the rotor. As the rotor spins, its blades alternatively pass over the positive and negative electrodes, transferring charge and continuing the rotation. This process keeps the propeller spinning.

Residents in and around New York City had the opportunity to catch a rare astronomical event confirmed by NASA's Meteor Watch.

Earth's atmosphere is beaten up by asteroids of various sizes every day, with the majority of these entries taking place over oceans where humanity is unable to see them. Additionally, when an asteroid enters Earth's atmosphere and begins to build up heat from the friction generated by piercing dense atmosphere, it will eventually catch on fire, earning it the "fireball" title. These fireballs are difficult to see during the daytime and are commonly called "shooting stars" at night.

NASA estimates that 48.5 tons of space rocks fall through Earth's atmosphere every day, with the vast majority of the material being burned up by our planet's dense atmosphere. As for the New York City fireball, NASA estimates the space rock was around 1 foot in diameter and traveled at an astonishing 38,000 mph upon entry, far exceeding the speed of sound.

Apple's response follows an investigative report on a public dataset that companies such as Apple, NVIDIA, and others of relative size used to train artificial intelligence models. The report found the dataset contained copyrighted IP, such as YouTube video transcripts or subtitles from the most popular creators on the platform.

The report from Proof News alleges subtitles from more than 170,000 YouTube videos across more than 48,000 channels were scraped and found within the dataset known as Pile. The report also found AI companies stating in their research papers the use of the Pile dataset to train certain models. For example, Apple used the Pile dataset to train OpenELM, a new AI model that was released in April, which is only weeks before the company officially unveiled Apple Intelligence.

The close time difference between the release of OpenELM and the Apple Intelligence announcement, combined with the mounting controversy surrounding copyrighted IP AI training, resulted in the assumption that the AI model powering Apple Intelligence was trained on YouTube video transcripts. However, that doesn't seem to be the case, as Apple has informed 9to5Mac that Apple Intelligence doesn't use the OpenELM model and went as far as to say OpenELM doesn't power any of its AI or machine learning features.

South Korea has announced it will begin deploying laser weapons systems designed to intercept drones from North Korea, which have been causing headaches for years in South Korea.

South Korea's Defense Acquisition Program Administration said it will deploy at least one anti-air laser weapons system, something it called "Block-I", by the end of 2024, and many more of them in the years to come. The agency said in a statement that its new Block-I system is capable of launching precision attacks on small incoming drones and multi-copters.

The system was reportedly developed by South Korean company Hanwha Aerospace, with a cost of just 2000 won (which is around $1.50 USD) per shot. An agency official who requested anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media regarding the issue, said: "We face North Korea on our doorstep and its drones pose present threats to us, so that's why we've been aiming to build and deploy laser weapons soon to cope with them".

A new report from Proof News alleged Apple, NVIDIA and other big tech companies used a dataset that contained copyrighted IP to train their respective AI models. That copyrighted IP included transcripts of YouTube videos from prominent creators, such as MKBHD, one of the platforms biggest technology reviewers.

The report cited an investigation into the dataset known as Pile, with the reporters claiming to have discovered transcripts or subtitles of more than 170,000 YouTube videos across 40,000 different channels. Some of those videos were from creators such as MrBeast, MKBHD, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, PewDiePie and many others. The report also revealed statements from companies stating they used the Pile dataset in the training of their AI models, as the dataset is free and open for public use.

This newly surfaced report raises the question of what happens to AI companies that use datasets containing copyrighted IP to train their AI models. Is the owner of the AI model responsible or the company that formed the dataset? Or both? OpenAI was caught in the hot water bath that is AI models and copyrighted data only a few months ago when Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Mira Murati was unable to answer whether OpenAI uses YouTube videos to train its AI models.

President Trump and his allies are working on a sweeping AI executive order that would see a bunch of "Manhattan Projects" to develop next-generation military technology, and "Make America First in AI".

A second Trump administration would not just kick off the series of Manhattan Projects developing next-gen military technology, but immediately review "unnecessary and burdensome regulations", that would see President Trump looking at AI policies that would help Silicon Valley companies and investors, reports the Washington Post.

The new framework would also create new "industry-led" agencies that would look at AI models and secure systems from foreign countries, according to a "copy of the document viewed exclusively by The Washington Post". The framework itself includes a section that's titled "Make America First in AI" which has a "markedly different strategy for the booming sector than that of the Biden administration, which last year issued a sweeping executive order that leverages emergency powers to subject the next generation of AI systems to safety testing".

Samsung's new HBM3E memory has reportedly passed NVIDIA certification, with new Samsung HBM3E memory supply expected to flow in the coming months.

A new report from UDN reveals that up to 30% of existing DRAM production capacity will be allocated to provide HBM3E memory, which is causing a huge effect of capacity crowding, which UDN reports "hurry up stocking (DRAM)" is expected to trigger a DRAM price increase wave.

Taiwanese memory manufacturers like Nanya, ADATA, and TEAMGROUP are "enjoying the benefits of price increases". Samsung is the world's memory leader, with a DRAM market share that's reportedly over 45%, with the South Korean giant to allocate 30% of its production capacity to make HBM3E memory for AI GPUs, with over 13% of the world's existing DRAM production capacity no longer invested into DDR4 and DDR5 and other DRAMs, which will reportedly lead to a decline in the DRAM market, with supply tighter than ever before.

AMD and Intel are about to unleash next-generation CPUs and APUs with beefed-up AI capabilities, but do you really need, or even want them? Probably not, and that's exactly how 84% of users voted in a new poll.

TechPowerUp posted a new poll asking if PC users were interested in paying for AI-enhanced hardware, but 84% of the votes said NO. Over 26,000 people voted, with 7% saying that they would and 9% not sure what they wanted to do.

W1zzard posted: "AI capabilities are becoming increasingly integrated into hardware devices, promising enhanced performance and functionality. However, this advanced technology often comes at a premium price. Would you pay more for hardware with AI features?"

AMD's new Ryzen AI 300 series "Strix Point" APUs have an upgraded integrated RDNA 3.5-based Radeon 880M GPU, which is 15% faster than the RDNA 3-based GPU inside of the Radeon 780M, according to ASUS.

The new Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 and Ryzen AI 9 365 "Strix Point" APUs have new RDNA 3.5-based integrated GPUs. The Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 APU features 16 x RDNA 3.5-based Compute Units (CUs), while the Ryzen AI 9 HX 365 features 12 x CUs.

The new Radeon 880M integrated GPU inside of the new Strix Point APUs is up to 15% faster than the Radeon 780M in gaming performance according to ASUS. ASUS is currently promoting its new Vivobook laptop, which is powered by AMD's new Ryzen AI 300 series "Strix Point" APUs, giving us our first look at what to expect from the upgraded RDNA 3.5 GPU.

AMD has not only confirmed it's working on Zen 6, but a future-gen Zen 7 architecture is cooking the ovens at AMD right now, which will follow up Zen 6 in the (many) years to come.

The announcement of the future-gen Zen 6 and Zen 7 architectures aren't rumors, they're coming from AMD directly during its recent Zen 5 Tech Day event. We heard details of AMD's upcoming Zen 5-based Ryzen 9 9950X processor, overclocked to an incredible 6.6GHz on LN2 cooling at the Tech Day event, a tease of Zen 6, and even a tease of the future-gen Zen 7 architecture.

AMD CTO Mark Papermaster confirmed that the company is working on the Zen 7 architecture, but it will most likely require a new socket and motherboard. AMD is committed to supporting its current AM5 platform through to 2027, but Zen 7 will slot into a new socket, and new motherboards, sometime in 2027+ and beyond.

Intel's upcoming next-generation flagship Core Ultra 9 285K "Arrow Lake-S" desktop CPU will reportedly boost up to 5.7GHz, or up to 5.4GHz across all P-Cores.

In a new post on X, leaker "Raichu" says that the flagship Core Ultra 9 285K processor will hit a 5.7GHz boost and up to 5.4GHz across all P-Cores. The E-Core clock speeds will hit up to 4.7GHz max, or an all-core E-Core boost of up to 4.6GHz.

We've been hearing through recent rumors that Intel's flagship Core Ultra 9 285K processor in ES (engineering sample) form hitting up to 5.5GHz, while QS (qualifying sample) chips were hitting 5.7GHz, while now we're hearing confirmations of the max 5.7GHz boost for Intel's flagship Arrow Lake-S chip.

We've caught another price leak for AMD's imminent Zen 5 processors, and it's for the lowest-end CPU of the initial offerings that'll be debuting with Ryzen 9000 at the end of July - but sadly, it doesn't look like great news.

Keep plenty of caution in reserve with any price leak of course. It could be a placeholder, but the source is Amazon in Canada - more reliable than your average retailer leak, in theory - and the product listing for the Ryzen 5 9600X shows a pre-order price of $472 CAD.

As Tom's Hardware, which spotted this, points out, going with a simple currency conversion to try to determine a potential US price from that isn't a very useful exercise. These things never translate directly (thanks to import and sales taxes, for starters), so we can glean more - still keep that salt handy though - from looking at comparative US Amazon pricing versus Canadian for the current-gen CPU (7600X).

Amazon Prime Day is happening between July 16 and July 17 and during that time, a large selection of products on the online retailer are heavily discounted.

During the aforementioned dates, Amazon has slashed prices across a variety of PC hardware, with discounts on gaming monitors, SSDs, gaming laptops, and CPUs. If you are more dedicated to a specific brand, Corsair has slashed prices across a variety of its products, such as its cases, CPU coolers, memory, peripherals, and more.

As for gaming monitors specifically, below, you will find a list of some of the most heavily discounted gaming monitors currently available on Amazon. The offerings cover several big-name brands, such as Samsung, LG, and Acer.

AAA titles are making their way to iOS as smartphones' hardware has reached a level where cut-down versions of big-name games can be played on mobile.

Titles such as Assassin's Creed Mirage, Resident Evil Village, Resident Evil 4, and Death Stranding have made their way over to iOS, and according to Appmagic, which estimates store data, none of these titles have performed well in terms of sales. Also joining that disappointing list is Resident Evil 7, which was released on July 2. Appmagic estimates the new release has been downloaded approximately 83,000 times since it launched, earning Capcom about $28,000.

That aforementioned figure doesn't include Apple's mandatory 30% cut of all transactions through iOS, which, if added to the figure, would bring it up to $36 582. How Appmagic arrived at the total number of buyers of the app was dividing the $36,582 by the $20 fee for unlocking the full game, which brings you to less than 2,000 paying customers.

New research published by an international team of researchers in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Astronomy on July 15, 2024, details the discovery of the first lunar lava tube.

For at least 50 years, researchers have speculated about the existence of lava tubes beneath the surface of the moon, which lends to the wider and well-established theory that the moon is still volcanically active. Until recently, scientists haven't found any evidence of such tubes, which are formed by flowing lava, but a team of international researchers have used data gathered by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) to claim the first lunar lava tube has been found.

The team used the Miniature Radio-Frequency (Mini-RF) instrument aboard the LRO to collect complex data on a pit located in Mare Tranquillitatis. Using a new signal processing technique to study the data, the team found evidence of a cave structure beneath the pit that would be a result of flowing lava. The team estimates the cave to be nearly 100 feet in length. Above is an image of an empty lava tube from the perspective of the LRO.