Latest News - Page 520

One parking lot in San Francisco is becoming the breeding ground for seemingly confused self-driving cars gathering at night and honking at each other.

Nearby resident Randol White captured footage of the Waymo self-driving vehicles taking over the parking lot and seemingly becoming stuck, and resulting in consistent honking at each other. The noise has kept residents in the area up at night, with reports stating several people in the nearby buildings have also complained about the noise. "Over the past two weeks, I've been woken up more times overnight than I have combined over 20 years," said Russell Pofsky, who lives in a building adjacent to White.

Notably, Pofsky said the honking incidents have happened during the day and night, and have started to affect his mood throughout the day. ABC7 News reached out to Waymo for comment on the strange scenario, and the company replied by acknowledging its vehicles "may briefly honk while navigating our parking lots" and that it "identified the cause and is in the process of implementing a fix." Despite the self-driving vehicles interrupting his sleep White says he still is a fan of Waymo cars and uses them quite regularly.

New world records have been set with AMD's Ryzen 9000 series Zen 5 CPUs, as the X670E Ace has been used to push high-end 9000 series CPUs beyond 7 GHz.

New world records were set with the Ryzen 9 9950X 16-Core and Ryzen 9 9900X 12-Core chips, and a little help from our friend LN2, which was used to supercool these chips while voltages were cranked. MSI announced that overclockers managed to identify the limits of the CPUs with the MEG X670E Ace motherboard. Prior to these new benchmarks, AMD's 9000 series chips were spotted at 7 GHz, but on a 6-core chip and 6.6 GHz on a Ryzen 9950X.

But overclockers have now managed to push the limits even further, with the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X hitting 7.45 GHz and the AMD Ryzen 9 9900X hitting 7.40 GHz. If the nearly 7.5 Ghjz wasn't enough, MSI also recorded some of the highest benchmark scores in Cinebench R23, R20, and R15 with both chips, as the 9950X scored 60,185 points in R23, 23,276 points in R20, and 9,341 points in R15. As for the 9900X, this variant scored 46,281 points in R23, 18,057 points in R20, and 7,203 points in R15.

The iPhone 16 line-up isn't even out yet, and rumors are already starting to fly about Apple's iPhone 17 line-up, which is slated to introduce another iPhone variant, the iPhone "Air" or "Slim".

Analyst Jeff Pu has informed 9to5Mac of the reasons why an iPhone 17 Air could boost sales for Apple and be a welcomed addition to the range of iPhone offerings available to customers. According to the analyst, the iPhone 17 Air would give Apple an opportunity to create a brand new iPhone design that isn't at all focused on performance but on aesthetics.

The Air wouldn't feature the best components as they would be reserved for the Pro models, but it could still be priced equally to the Pro models, as the design changes/appearance would warrant the price, according to the analyst. Pu points out the Air could even be priced higher than the Pro models, as its contrasting design would pique the interest of many buyers that are tired of the seemingly ever-so-slightly-changing iPhone design.

Picking a gaming monitor can be quite challenging, and more often than not, a buyer will just go with a more expensive option for future-proofing their build.

In most cases, that is a great strategy, but I believe there is always room to consider how a few dollars can be saved before a big purchase is made. In the realm of gaming monitors, it comes down to what games you play, as that will determine if you want a high refresh rate display, or a high resolution display (of course considering your PC can handle both). If you play a lot of competitive titles, I would recommend lower resolution and higher refresh rate for smoother gameplay, as visual fidelity typically isn't as necessary in highly competitive titles.

If you play cinematic titles, such as slow RPG games, or titles with lots of cut scenes and overall slower gameplay, high refresh rate monitors aren't recommended as most of these titles have FPS caps that are below the total refresh rate of the monitor. But what if you flew between RPG games and competitive titles? Introducing dual-mode monitors, Alienware's 27-inch AW2725QF is the latest to join other brands, such as ASUS, in the pursuit of providing a solution for this problem.

Valve has taken to its blog to announce new rules coming to the Steam Store, with the company introducing a bunch of new rules that developers will have to abide by when filling out a store listing.

The world's biggest PC gaming client will be introducing the new rules in early September, and they will remove the ability for developers to place any links within the description boxes of their games, as Steam believes the links typically don't provide any information about the game that informs players purchasing decisions. That last point is the essence of these changes, and the ability to place links will be removed from the following four specific areas: "About The Game", "Short Description", "Special Announcement", and "Awards".

Moreovoer, the four aforementioned sections will no longer be able to host embedded imagery that minics Steam store UI or buttons, along with the any images, links, or widgets pointing to other games on Steam. It appears Valve is making it difficult for developers to use Steam Store listings as a way of advertising other products that are either on Steam or off of Steam, which speaks to the player-focussed sentiment mentioned earlier.

Earlier this year, Microsoft announced that it would bring some of its first-party games to PlayStation, starting with four titles: Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea of Thieves, and Grounded. The publisher and console maker's multi-platform shift was seen as controversial by fans of Xbox consoles. Why go third-party when the Xbox Series X|S combo competes with the PlayStation 5?

In recent months, Microsoft Gaming and Xbox chief Phil Spencer stated that the publisher wasn't done bringing games to the PlayStation platform. This move makes sense, especially in light of reports showcasing Xbox games dominating the PlayStation Store sales rankings and Xbox's dwindling hardware revenue as an overall percentage of Microsoft Gaming.

According to a new report via the ResetEra Forum and known leaker Shinobi602, Microsoft and Xbox will announce at least one more "big" title coming to PlayStation 5 next week - joining Call of Duty Black Ops 6 this holiday season.

Several reports suggest that AMD plans to raise the TDP and power rating for the Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X CPUs from 64W to 105W. The rumor source looks to be hardware leaker Chi11eddog on X, who claims this will arrive as part of a new BIOS and microcode update as part of AGESA 1.2.0.1a Patch A.

We heard about this before AMD's new Zen 5-powered desktop processors launched, with previous rumors hinting at AMD raising the power rating of the Ryzen 7 9700X in time for launch. The single-core performance of Ryzen 7 9700X and Ryzen 5 9600X CPUs is impressive. A TDP increase could lead to more performance across a broader range of workloads, including gaming.

The increase to 105W would put the power rating for the new Zen 5 CPUs on par with the previous generation's Ryzen 7 7700X and Ryzen 5 7600X - both of which are rated at 105W. The Zen 5 launch has not been without controversy, with many believing that due to poor or non-existent gains in gaming performance, it's a step back from Zen 4.

Square Enix's total net sales revenues are down year-over-year, but the company could deliver a significant boost to its games segments with a lucrative new partnership.

Square Enix recently posted its Q1'25 results, reflecting lower net sales earnings than a year ago. These revenues punctuate up-and-down sales for the last two fiscal years. It's not that the Japanese publisher is in trouble--far from it, as the cost-cutting measures have actually boosting operating profits and total net profits--but compared to FY21 and FY22, the past few years (FY23 and FY24) have been markedly lower insofar as sales.

With a lack of big new AAA games, Q1'25 saw net sales drop to $435 million, the lowest quarterly sales in the past 16 quarters, or 4 fiscal years. In lieu of no AAA games, the MMO and mobile segments are doing heavy lifting for Square Enix right now. But the publisher has a secret weapon that will combine the strengths of both of these segments together.

NVIDIA RTX is a powerful and incredible game-modding tool we've covered extensively at TweakTown. It allows modders and those interested in tinkering with classic games the ability to remaster DirectX 8 and 9 titles with full ray-tracing, DLSS 3.5, AI-generated or brand-new assets, and physically accurate materials.

Since being released into beta, NVIDIA RTX Remix has expanded its game compatibility based on what modders want to use the tool for - support for the original Deux Ex's custom engine is one - while adding new rendering features. Over 20,000 modders are using RTX Remix to mod and remaster classic games.

It's one of the most impressive community-focused game development and modding tools, and now NVIDIA has announced that it is open-sourcing the RTX Remix Toolkit.

Samsung's new 8-layer HBM3E memory has passed NVIDIA's qualification tests to be used in its AI GPUs.

In a new report from Reuters, the outlet says that the qualification clears a "major hurdle" for Samsung -- which is the world's largest memory manufacturer -- and has been struggling to catch up to South Korean rival, SK hynix, which has been providing its bleeding-edge HBM3E memory to NVIDIA for its AI GPUs.

Samsung still hasn't signed a supply deal for the approved 8-layer HBM3E memory chips with NVIDIA, but "will do so soon" according to Reuters' sources, who declined to be identified as the matter remains confidential. The new 8-layer HBM3E memory ships from Samsung would be supplied to NVIDIA in Q4 2024, which is not far away now.

As part of NVIDIA's weekly DLSS announcements, which cover the latest PC games and releases that will support the groundbreaking GeForce RTX technology, there was a surprising addition of a game I didn't even know could be a thing. And that is racing in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

Warhammer 40,000: Speed Freeks is available to play right now, with the free-to-play " adrenaline-fueled combat racing" launching into Early Access with support for DLSS Super Resolution upscaling to improve performance on all GeForce RTX graphics cards. The good news is that the game is currently sitting on a 'Mostly Positive' user review score on Steam, with many praising the game for providing classic arcade-style fun.

And the game's description is perfect. "In the 41st Millennium, a kult of unhinged, speed-obsessed Orks addicted to racing has gathered to engage in raucous and breakneck races during rare lulls between open warfare."

The game director of Fallout: New Vegas recently expressed interest in returning to the franchise, and this is exciting for a few reasons. The man in question, Joshua Sawyer, still works at Obsidian Entertainment. More importantly, since Fallout: New Vegas hit the scene in 2010, the Fallout franchise, Obsidian, and Bethesda Game Studios are now all under the Xbox and Microsoft Gaming banner.

Also, it doesn't hurt that the Fallout TV Series on Prime Video is massive - and that Season 2 will see the action head to New Vegas.

As part of a recent Q&A session that Joshua Sawyer posted to his YouTube channel, the session ended with a question about whether or not he'd be interested in returning to the Fallout franchise if Microsoft or Bethesda asked him. The one-word answer? "Sure."

Sony's new first-party live service game Concord will have in-game purchases in the form of cosmetic monetization, new details on the PlayStation Blog have revealed.

Yesterday, Firewalk Studios and Sony revealed the robust post-launch content roadmap for Concord, the new first-person squad shooter that's set to launch next week. In previous messages, the studio was quick to say that Concord wouldn't have a battle pass: "You own Concord, Concord doesn't own you," gameplay animation director Mark DeRidder said at the time.

But make no mistake: Concord will indeed have microtransactions. They just won't be in the game at launch. Firewalk is instead launching the mtX storefront with Season 1, which begins in October. So gamers will theoretically have around 2 months of play without any in-game monetization.

All signs point to Final Fantasy XVI's PC version being revealed sometime next week at Gamescom 2024.

Gamescom 2024 is right around the corner (Aug 21 - Aug 24), and publishers are expected to make some interesting announcements at the event. Typically, we don't see major new game reveals from third-party publishers at the Cologne, Germany-based showcase--those are usually reserved for the summer and/or winter events--but there's often info about new ports and platforms for existing games.

That could be the case for Final Fantasy XVI, which is expected to come to PC sometime soon. Game producer Naoki Yoshida has repeatedly said he'd like to bring FF16 to PC at some point, and the move does fit with Square Enix's business model of launching mainline games onto PlayStation first and then PC months later.

A member of a hacking group is selling the personal Social Security numbers and other sensitive data to ALL Americans, with 2.9 billion records available online... for free.

In a report from BleepingComputer, a hacking forum became active after a user posted on the forum saying they had a massive collection of documents from the data brokerage National Public Data (NPD). NPD, which doesn't disclose how it collects data on its website, reportedly gathers information from publicly available records to create individual profiles that are usually used by private investigators for things like background and criminal record checks.

It's not just US residents that have to worry, but the hack of 2.9 billion files includes private information on citizens living in the United Kingdom and Canada, including personal information from all three of those countries. 2.9 billion files is a LOT of data, we don't need to underline that, but we will.

Blizzard has just announced a bunch of details for Overwatch 2's upcoming Season 12, which introduces a new support hero -- Juno -- a new game mode called Clash, new maps, balances, and so much more.

Overwatch 2's new support hero is Juno, who is a new space cadet support character with a burst-fire primary weapon called the Mediblaster, which heals teammates and damages enemies, with a secondary Pulsar Torpedoes that lock onto allies and enemies, healing your teammates and damaging your enemies. Very cool.

The passive ability with Juno comes in the form of her Martial Overboots, which allow the space cadet to double jump and then hover in the air like she's kind of (but not fully) flying. The passive ability gels beautifully with Glide Boost, an ability that lets Juno glide above and around the battle horizontally.

FromSoftware's parent company Kadokawa Corp. gives early preliminary info on Shadow of the Erdtree's performance, saying that the DLC helped significantly raise its gaming earnings.

Elden Ring's new Shadow of the Erdtree expansion is apparently doing incredibly well, which isn't always the case for premium-priced DLC. According to the latest financial results from Kadokawa Corp, who owns Elden Ring developer FromSoftware, the expansion helped boost its gaming sales revenue by 80% and operating profit also shot up by 108% year-over-year.

Kadokawa notes that Shadow of the Erdtree also helped boost sales of the main game, which makes sense as the two titles were included in a lower-cost $80 bundle on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S platforms. It should be noted that Bandai Namco published both Elden Ring and Shadow of the Erdtree, so we may get more info on direct unit sales in subsequent reports.

If you own a Windows 11 handheld, Microsoft has made a nifty move in introducing a new shrunk-down Game Bar - and ASUS ROG Ally owners have another piece of positive news on top of that today, regarding SteamOS support.

First off, the Game Bar news, and as Microsoft made clear in a blog post (noticed by VideoCardz), there's now a Compact Mode for the bar to make it more suitable for a small-screen experience such as the ROG Ally (or other Windows portables).

The catch is that it's just in testing for now, but it surely won't be too long before the new mode progresses to release. Xbox Insiders can give it a whirl by going to Settings in the Game Bar, then navigating to General, where there's a new toggle for Compact Mode.

Two cybersecurity vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Azure Health Bot Service were discovered by a team of researchers, which could have led to access to sensitive health data.

A new report shared with The Hacker News has highlighted two security vulnerabilities that Microsoft has now patched, and according to the report, the vulnerabilities, when exploited, could have enabled a bad actor to gain access to sensitive patient data. The Azure Health Bot Service enables developers in healthcare organizations to easily implement AI virtual health assistants that are interactable by patients and can also be used to offload administrative tasks.

Additionally, these services are also used by insurance providers that allow customers to query the AI chatbot for answers on their personal insurance claim, any benefits they may be getting, and available services. Tenable's research found that an aspect of the Azure AI Health Service featured a vulnerability, which was called Data Connections. Reports indicate this mechanism was responsible for integrating data from third-party sources through an API.

The world of AI PCs is just beginning with the first waves of Copilot+ ready PCs out in the wild, with 14% of PCs shipped globally in Q2 2024 featuring an NPU, making them an AI PC.

In a new report from Canalys, we're learning that 8.8 million AI-capable PCs were shipped in Q2 2024, with each of those 8.8 million systems featuring the latest AI processor (with an NPU) from AMD, Apple, Intel, and Qualcomm. As we see new generations of AI processors from AMD and Intel, Canalys says that we can expect rapid growth in the second half of this year, and going into high gear in 2025.

If we look at just the Windows segment, AI-capable PC shipments surged 127% sequentially in Q2 2024, with Lenovo shipping out its Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite-based Copilot+ PCs with the Yoga Slim 7x and ThinkPad T14s, boosting its AI PC market share to around 6% of all Windows PC shipments, a mammoth 228% growth. HP followed behind Lenovo with a 7% share of AI PCs.