NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office, which is tasked with the agency's ongoing mission of finding, tracking, and defending Earth from asteroids and comets, has published a report that found NASA doesn't currently have the infrastructure in place to defend Earth from an asteroid impact adequately.

The report explains an internal exercise conducted by NASA on a proposed scenario for an asteroid impact. The proposed scenario was as follows: 72% chance of an asteroid impact in 14 years on July 12, 2038, and requirements for preventing its impact are unknown. The asteroid is between 196 and 2624 feet in diameter but is more likely to be between 328 and 1049 feet.

There is a 45% chance its impact will affect no one, a 47% chance more than 1,000 people will be affected, a 28% chance of 100,000, an 8% chance of more than 1 million people, and a 0.04% chance 10 million will be affected. The impact area was across multiple populated regions such as Mexico, the United States, Portugal, Spain, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.

TSMC and contract chip design partner Global Unichip have won the bulk orders for base dies used with SK hynix's next-generation HBM4 memory chips.

In a new report from UDN, we're learning that after being the exclusive OEM for AI chips for technology giants like NVIDIA and AMD, TSMC is seizing another AI business opportunity. UDN reports that TSMC will collaborate with its special application IC (ASIC) design service factory Creative, now successfully developing the HBM key peripheral components required for AI servers, jointly inking a "large order" for base dies required for next-gen HBM4 memory.

UDN's report says that TSMC and Creative have "never commented on order developments," but the legal source of the site said that demand for AI is strong, and not just HPC-related chips, but HBM demand is "growing rapidly" and is "becoming a new business opportunity in the market" which has three major memory chip companies including SK hynix, Samsung, and Micron, investing as much as they can into their respective HBM supply chains.

FIFA is the governing body behind the world's most popular sport, football (or soccer for those of us in the United States or Australia). For many years, it has supported the rise of esports, though, for the most part, it has been via traditional soccer games like the former EA FIFA series.

If you're a fan of competitive gaming on PC or console, then no doubt you're aware of Rocket League, the vastly popular soccer-like game where you control cars trying to push and hit a giant ball and score goals.

With a new announcement on its social media channels, FIFA announced that the first FIFAe World Cup featuring Rocket League is coming later this year. Much like the real-world Word Cup, teams representing various countries will go head to head in a tournament.

Seagate has teamed up with eBay for a very cool initiative - the Seagate Circularity Program. This program offers customers a direct channel to access and purchase refurbished hard drives to reduce e-waste. You're also looking at massive discounts on high-capacity storage, with 20TB drives available for around $270 and 22TB drives selling for around $310 USD.

"Tens of millions of hard drives are still being shredded yearly, and we need to reduce the use of destructive sanitization methods," said Jason Feist, Seagate's SVP, Products and Markets. "Seagate builds circularity into the drives we bring to market. The collaboration with eBay will increase the amount of data that can be stored on top quality, recertified hard drives."

Currently, the storefront lists several SATA options from Seagate's EXOS line for enterprise and a few consumer-facing Barracuda drives. These are all old-school 3.5-inch platter drives with a SATA 6Gb/second interface - perfect for a NAS setup or backup drive ready to store all your data. 22TB in a single drive for such a low price is impressive.

7 Days to Die is an open-world zombie sandbox game that debuted in Early Access in 2013 after a successful Kickstarter campaign. This week, developer The Fun Pimps announced that after a decade of updates, new features, and improvements, the game will hit Version 1.0 on July 25. The plan is to bring this version of the game to Steam, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.

"After nearly twelve years of early access, the highly anticipated Version 1.0 release of 7 Days to Die is here," The Fun Pimps writes. "This momentous milestone marks a significant evolution in the survival horror genre. The 1.0 Edition brings more optimizations, polish, quality-of-life improvements, new content, new features, and new gameplay systems than ever before."

It's a significant game overhaul, with visual improvements, a new gore system, updated crafting, an armor systems overhaul, and more. You can learn about all this in the 7 Days to Die 1.0 video.

NVIDIA's new Blackwell GB200 and B-series AI GPUs, including the B100 and B200, have received a "large number of customers," and that "demand exceeds supply," reports UDN.

After NVIDIA aggressively increased the production volume of TSMC's advanced process, the "order-chasing effect" spread to the back-end packaging and testing plants. ASE Investment Holdings and KYEC operations have "exploded," reports UDN, with related order volume doubling in the fourth quarter.

UDN reports from its sources that KYEC is "full of new orders" from NVIDIA, that it is moving internally to welcome those large volumes of orders, and that it needs to be relocated for this purpose alone. More production capacity can then meet NVIDIA's growing (unstoppable) needs.

GIGABYTE has just introduced its new Radeon PRO W7900 Dual Slot AI TOP 48G and Radeon PRO W7800 AI TOP 32G for workstation users, professionals, content creators, and AI developers. Check them out:

The new Radeon PRO W7900 Dual Slot AI TOP 48G has 48GB of GDDR6 memory, and is a smaller version of the original Radeon PRO W7900 workstation card. GIGABYTE is sticking pretty close to AMD's own reference design, with a black blower-style cooler and dual-slot design. There's a nice big "AI TOP" sticker on top, because this is an AI TOP graphics card.

Inside, the card has the Navi 31 GPU with 6144 shaders, and 48GB of GDDR6 memory with ECC support on a 384-bit memory bus with up to 864GB/sec of memory bandwidth.

Sony's PlayStation VR2 headset for the PS5 is a massive improvement over the PS4-era original. It is an impressive VR headset backed up by some fun and immersive experiences like Horizon Call of the Mountain, Gran Turismo 7, and Resident Evil Village, if you can stomach it.

That said, Sony's post-launch support has been virtually nonexistent, and we've heard for months that headset sales have been lackluster. This week, it looks like we've hit the point where Sony is giving up on VR.

A new report by Android Central, citing sources close to or within Sony, states that Sony is making "deep cuts" to VR game development and that very few, if any, VR game projects will be in development at Sony's first-party studios. Apparently, only two PSVR 2 games are currently in development at Sony, and they might be the last.

With Season 4 of Diablo 4 still in full swing, the game is experiencing a resurgence in popularity thanks to the 'Loot Reborn' overhaul that brought massive changes to itemization, the end-game, and how fun it was to level up a character slaying demons. Season 5 is set to begin in August, and Blizzard is showing no signs of slowing down with the pre-expansion update set to add an exciting new end-game activity called 'Infernal Hordes.'

It's a horde mode with a rogue-like twist, where you have 90 seconds per wave to survive and see how many horrors from the Burning Hells you can destroy. At the end of each wave, you need to decide between three Infernal Offers with positive and negative effects that will affect the rest of the run.

Blizzard calls these 'Boons and Banes,' in a nod to the many rogue-likes out there - Hades, Vampire Survivors, etc. The ultimate goal is to collect as much Burning Aether as possible, where at the end of the final wave, you can spend on various themed chests, letting players target-farm all sorts of items and materials.

Because of US sanctions, NVIDIA has been restricted from supplying multiple countries across the Middle East, but more importantly, China has been restricted from shipping its leading AI GPUs.

It appears that might be changing with a new report from Reuters teasing that NVIDIA believes it can get an export license to sell its AI GPUs to a telecom giant that operates in multiple Middle East countries. NVIDIA has reportedly inked a deal with Ooredoo to "introduce its AI technology" in datacenters across five Middle Eastern countries.

This would mark NVIDIA's first major expansion that has US export regulations stamped on it, somewhere that the company isn't allowed to provide its AI GPUs to: the Middle East (it's not just China). Ooredoo is a telecom giant that operates in the Middle East, and will soon be powered by NVIDIA AI and HPC GPUs across its datacenters located in Qatar, Algeria, Tunisia, Oman, Kuwait, and the Maldives.

Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and UC Berkeley have created what they're calling "microcapacitors," which integrate energy storage directly into the microchip itself, solving the challenge of working on smaller and more power-efficient devices.

By doing this, it heavily minimizes the energy loss that happens when power is being transferred between different components, with the sceitnsits engineering thin films of hafnium oxide and zirconium oxide. These capacitors use materials and fabrication techniques that are commonly used during the chip manufacturing process, but what makes this different is that they can store significant amounts of energy when compared to regular capacitors, all thanks to the use of negative capacitance materials.

One of the basic components of electrical circuits is capacitors, which store energy in an electric field made between two metallic plates that are separated by a dielectric material (a non-metallic substance). Capacitors can deliver power quickly, with a longer lifespan than regular batteries, which store energy in electrochemical reactions.

Rolls-Royce has come out of nowhere to announce its new Micro-Reactor, with a post on X and a detailed video rundown of how the nuclear-powered Micro-Reactor works. Check it out:

The company posted a rundown of its Micro-Reactor on its website, stating that both Micro-Reactors and Small Modular Reactors (SMR) use nuclear technology and are part of the "Rollse-Royce nuclear portfolio", they use different technologies and would be used to power different things.

Rolls-Royce's new Micro-Reactors is capable of providing 1-10 megawatts of power, and in its more compact size, the UK-based company says it "makes it a transportable source of power". A transportable, next-generation nuclear-powered Micro-Reactor. The company compared its Micro-Reactor to a Small Modular Reactor, with an SMR powering 0.5 gigawatts and operate from a static site that is approximately the size of two football pitches.

The "PC was reborn," said Qualcomm CEO Christiano Amon upon the announcement of the company's new Arm-based Snapdragon X series processors inside of Microsoft's newly-announced Copilot+ PC family of AI-ready laptops.

Qualcomm and Microsoft are in for a fight with Copilot+, which is being rocket-fueled by Charlie Demerjian, the founder of SemiAccurate. In a direct sniper headshot to both companies and especially the Arm-based Snapdragon X series processor -- Microsoft doesn't get out of this easily, either -- Charlie said: "Lets start out with a simple fact of product launches, when you have a good product, get it out there to everyone as early as possible".

"When you have a bad one, make sure no one can independently test it and therefor contradict your rosy messaging with hard facts. Qualcomm and Microsoft have gone far above and beyond the call of duty to make sure independent reviews of their new SoC in the AI/Copilot PCs can't happen. This isn't by chance".

A rocket made an uncontrolled landing on land instilling fear into onlookers in the area that were caught on video running away from the booster.

The rocket was China's Long March 2C rocket reports indicate was launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China's Sichuan province. The satellite the rocket was carrying was created out of a collaboration with the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and the French Space Agency (CNES), spawning what is officially called the Space Variable Objects Monitor (SVOM). The payload of the rocket was 992 pounds, making the total weight of the Long March 2C rocket 2,050 pounds.

The Long March 2C is powered by four Chinese YF-21C rocket engines that use dinitrogen tetroxide and hydrazine as rocket fuel and oxidizer, which is what we see in the video leaking out of the rocket as it plummets back down toward Earth's surface. This isn't the first time China has been seemingly liberal with the fallout from its rocket launches, with the nation even garnering criticism in the past for having out-of-control rocket debris crash landing back on Earth in random locations.

Apple has announced it will be pausing the rollout of its Apple Intelligence across Europe as the company has to adhere to the European Union competition regulations.

Apple Intelligence was announced at WWDC a few weeks ago and is expected to be released alongside iOS 18 and the iPhone 16. Moreover, Apple Intelligence is Apple's foray into artificial intelligence, as the new update to Apple's operating system will integrate a slew of AI-powered features, and completely overhaul Siri.

However, Apple has said in a statement on Friday that specific iOS 18 features won't be rolled out in the EU, and those are: Phone Mirroring, SharePlay Screen Sharing enhancements, and Apple Intelligence.

Microsoft is pushing out a new feature that will enable desktop Windows users to continue using their smartphones after they sit down at their PC via an app.

The Windows Phone Link app is currently in Microsoft's Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.3790, and as shown in the above and below screenshots enables a user to access the most barebones features of a connected smartphone. At the moment only Android devices are supported, but there is work being done on enabling iPhone support.

As for what the Phone Link app offers, users are able to send/receive messages, make calls, access photos, check battery life, and more. Microsoft is promoting a new feature that will provide "continuity" between a smartphone and a Windows PC.

Hong Kong Customs busted a suspected smuggling case using private cars, busting a 51-year-old male driver with 596 smuggled Intel Xeon CPUs worth around $1.5 million.

Customs intercepted an outbound private car at Shenzhen Bay Control Point, where after an X-ray inspection, custom officials discovered that the image they had just taken of the trunk of the car was different. Once opened, Hong Kong Customs officials found the smuggled Intel Xeon CPUs on both sides of the rear of the car, as well as secret compartments in the trunk.

The 51-year-old male driver was arrested, with Hong Kong Customs taking to its official blog to explain: "Smuggling is a serious crime. According to the Import and Export Ordinance, anyone who imports or exports unmanifested goods may be fined up to $2 million and imprisoned for seven years upon conviction".

NVIDIA is a "little-known brand" even though it's an absolute monster in more ways than one, at least in a new report from CNBC and consulting firm Interbrand.

Last week, NVIDIA hit a record $3.3 trillion market cap, making it the world's biggest company by market cap, passing US tech leaders Apple and Microsoft. Even with that in their back post, NVIDIA "doesn't even cracK' the top 100 most iconic names on Interbrand -- a consulting firm -- and its most recent list, which includes companies like McDonald's, Amazon, Tesla, Google, Starbucks, Disney, Netflix, and others.

AI is everywhere and will continue to penetrate every market on the planet over the years... NVIDIA leads that in the AI GPU department, with an estimated 80%+ of the AI chip market share. Not only that, but NVIDIA's annual revenue growth has been exceeding 200% in the last three quarters and with no signs of slowing down, with fiscal 2025 revenue expected to nearly double from a year ago to over $120 billion.

AMD's upcoming Strix Halo APU is going to be one of the best APUs on the market when it releases, with the latest shipping manifestos showing Strix Halo with up to 128GB of RAM on board.

We've already heard whispers about AMD's upcoming Strix Halo APU featuring 32GB and 64GB of RAM, but now we're seeing the gigantic leap up to 128GB of RAM with the Zen 5-based APU. AMD's new Strix Halo APU will be compatible with the FP11 (BGA) platform with TDPs ranging between 55W to 130W.

This new spotting of the Strix Halo APU with 128GB of RAM is the highest we've seen yet, blowing away most high-end desktop gaming PCs that usually get packed with 32GB or 64GB of RAM. That doesn't stop you from upgrading to 128GB, but having 128GB of RAM with an APU... is just something special.

GIGABYTE has just unleashed a new GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER graphics card, with a hidden 16-pin PCIe power connector and a new WINDFORCE MAX cooling system.

The new GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER WINDFORCE MAX OC16 graphics card features factory overclocking out of the box, with the GPU boosting up to 2655MHz, which is a 45MHz increase over the reference RTX 4070 Ti SUPER.

Inside, we've got the regular 8448 CUDA cores from the AD103-275 GPU die, 16GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit memory bus with up to 672.3GB/sec of memory bandwidth. We should have TGP ratings of close to the 285W reference form, too.