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Dragon's Dogma 2 patch delivers some important fixes - but not the one everyone wants
Capcom has let us know that there's a big patch coming for Dragon's Dogma 2, but it has disappointed a good number of players who were hoping that the well-publicized performance issues affecting the game might be addressed.
Sadly, smoothing over the wrinkles regarding performance hitches - and serious slowdowns in some areas of the game - is not part of the plan for the update coming later this month.
Instead, there are various gameplay tweaks and fixes, the headline one of which is an adjustment for the infection frequency of dragonsplague, reining that in somewhat - and making it more obvious when a pawn is infected (their glowing eyes, for example, will stand out more).
AMD's top Strix Point Halo APU could have 16 Zen 5 cores in 2 x CCDs, mirroring Ryzen 9000 CPUs
Fresh revelations on the rumor mill about the highest-end next-gen APUs from AMD have prompted excitement levels around Strix Point Halo to spike upwards.
If the info taken from the Chiphell forums is correct - and we should definitely add a whole load of salt to these claims, as it isn't the most reliable source in our experience - the Strix Point Halo APU will bristle with 16 cores.
In fact, this processor will supposedly run with a pair of CCDs with 8 cores apiece, meaning it'll be an APU with 16 full Zen 5 cores - effectively using the same chiplets that will be deployed inside 'Granite Ridge' (likely Ryzen 9000) next-gen desktop CPUs - quite a prospect.
FBI confirms Chinese hackers have infested US water and energy systems
FBI director Christopher Wray has said that a Chinese hacking group has infiltrated critical infrastructure systems in the US and is simply just waiting for the right moment to strike.
Wray revealed the news at the Vanderbilt Summit on Modern Conflict and Emerging Threats and said the group behind the attacks is called Volt Typhoon, and they have infested systems that are dedicated to controlling water, energy, and telecommunications. More specifically, Volt Typhoon has gained access to 23 pipeline operators, and according to the FBI director, China is developing the "ability to physically wreak havoc on our critical infrastructure at a time of its choosing."
Wray says China's plan is to attack critical civilian infrastructure to induce panic among the population. "Its plan is to land low blows against civilian infrastructure to try to induce panic," said Wray. Additionally, the FBI director said it was difficult to determine if these hacks are part of China's overall intention to push the US away from defending Taiwan.
Continue reading: FBI confirms Chinese hackers have infested US water and energy systems (full post)
Microsoft's new Windows 11 'AI Explorer' feature set to anger AMD and Intel
Microsoft has been preparing the release of new AI features for Windows 11 for quite some time now, and it appears at least one of those features will be hardware restricted.
Beta testers have already gotten their hands on these new AI features that are expected to be officially unveiled at the Microsoft event scheduled to take place on May 20. At the event, Microsoft is expected to unveil how AI will be integrated into Windows 11 and new Arm-powered Surface hardware. One of these beta testers has taken to X to share the requirements for a feature called "AI Explorer," which turns everything you do on your computer into a searchable memory through the use of natural language.
AI Explorer will be able to navigate to conversations you have had with people across various applications, locate documents, specific web pages, images, files, and even have the capabilities of understanding context and tasks that are on-screen. @thebookisclosed posted a screenshot of the requirements for AI Explorer, which appear to be an ARM64 CPU, 16GB RAM, 225GB storage, and a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite NPU. If these requirements are correct, AI Explorer appears to be exclusive to ARM-based PCs, cutting out any AI PCs built with AMD and Intel NPUs.
High-end PC maker gives advice that could fix Intel Core i9 CPUs crashing in games
Those who are suffering at the hands of the well-documented issues with Intel's 14th-gen and 13th-gen high-end CPUs that are crashing when playing PC games might be interested to learn about some new advice given by a PC maker.
This comes from boutique PC outfit Falcon Northwest, which got in touch with Hot Hardware to share some potential tweaks and solutions for those running a Core i9 processor from the current or last-gen range in an ASUS motherboard.
You can check out the tips in the above post on X (formerly Twitter) which was recently updated.
Windows 10 users: Get ready to be bugged about creating a Microsoft Account
If you're running Windows 10 and are using a local account - as opposed to being signed into a Microsoft Account with your OS installation - then prepare for a fresh round of nagging from Microsoft.
As Windows Latest reports, a change which has been in testing is supposedly coming through to arrive for the release version of Windows 10 with the next cumulative update for the OS (in May 2024).
What it means is that when you go into Settings, if you are working with a local Windows 10 install, there'll be a bar at the top of the panel - complete with a warning exclamation mark - telling you to sign in to a Microsoft Account.
TT Show Episode 31 - AI-Powered iPhone and PS5 Pro and an AI-Generated Romantic Comedy
This week, on a special AI-powered edition of The TT Show, Jak and Kosta examine the latest happenings in tech, gaming, and science - and AI is everywhere. Apple uses AI to give Siri vision and will integrate AI into many aspects of the upcoming iOS 18 update.
Also, with the PlayStation 5 Pro specs confirmed by multiple sources, AI could play a significant role in delivering the reported 4K 60 FPS gameplay target and boost to ray-tracing performance. In the world of Generative AI and LLMs, companies have pressure to disclose what data is being used (or is that harvested) for training.
And speaking of generative AI, TCL is creating the world's first AI-generated romantic comedy set to debut this summer on the company's TCLtv+ streaming service. How does it look? Well, be sure to tune into this week's episode of The TT Show to watch Jak's reaction in real-time.
NASA is about to make Treasure Planet real with a solar sail mission
NASA is preparing to launch its massive solar sail into space on the back of a rocket to test the power of sunlight and determine whether it will be a viable means of propulsion to traverse the solar system.
The technology seen in the 2002 animated Disney movie Treasure Planet is about to be tested in space by NASA, as the space agency has announced via its blog that its very own solar sail is about to be transported into space on Tuesday, April 23, aboard a Rocket Lab Electron rocket. NASA explained that the CubeSat for the mission will be deployed 600 miles above Earth, which is about twice the altitude at which the International Space Station (ISS) orbits the planet.
Once in position, the CubeSat, which is approximately the size of a microwave oven, will undergo a two-month-long system check that will then be followed by the deployment of its solar sail. When fully unfurled, the solar sail will be as big as half a tennis court. The test will consist of many up and down maneuvers to hopefully prove the solar sail is able to use sunlight as a viable means of propulsion.
Continue reading: NASA is about to make Treasure Planet real with a solar sail mission (full post)
AI discovers famous painting wasn't entirely painted by the credited artist
Humans are only so good at detecting details in art, which is why researchers have decided to train an AI algorithm to detect what humans can't and only suspect.
A team of researchers from the UK and US created a custom algorithm using a pre-trained architecture called ResNet50, which was developed by Microsoft. The team took advantage of a common machine learning technique to improve the algorithm, feeding it with authenticated paintings by the famous artist Raphael. The goal was to teach the AI to identify with a high degree of accuracy brushstrokes in paintings that were created by Raphael's hand and the faces of people within those paintings.
One painting, in particular, from Raphael, has been a point of debate among scholars. The Madonna della Rosa, or Madonna of the Rose, was painted on canvas from 1518 to 1520. Scholars have been debating for many years if the painting was an original work by the famed artist or if its creation involved another hand, specifically with the face of St Joseph. Some scholars have argued that St Joseph's face isn't as meticulously crafted as the Raphael's other pieces of work, leading them to believe it was done by another painter.
Dubai government responds to claims cloud seeding caused historic flooding
Dubai has been hit with a historic amount of rainfall this week, which some are blaming are a result of the United Arab Emirates' use of weather modification techniques.
Cloud generation is a real thing, and the United Arab Emirates has been leading the charge on technology for decades. The nation has been conducting experiments with the intention of assisting the generation of clouds in the region that lead to rainfall. The process works by cloud seeding planes releasing crystalline chemicals into already present clouds to increase rainfall, but now that technology has been thrown into question as Dubai has received an unprecedented amount of rainfall, the most in the region in the last 75 years.
Some areas received as much as 10 inches of rainfall within 24 hours, resulting in the unequipped region to suffer under intense flooding. Notably, neighboring country Oman has reported as many as 18 deaths as a result of the rainfall, with some of those deaths being schoolchildren.
Elgato announces new Neo range that includes plug-and-play Wave, Facecam, Stream Deck, and more
Elgato has announced five new products as part of its new Neo range of peripherals designed for "high-end performance with plug-and-play simplicity." It's making its popular and award-winning gear for content creators and streamers more accessible with new user-friendly software support for various devices, including laptops and iPads.
Elgato notes that the Neo range is all about offering great value (prices range from $89.99 to $119.99 USD) while maintaining the company's high-quality standard. The five new Elgato Neo products sport a fresh, modern, white color scheme. And in an excellent move, each Neo product is made from 60% or more recycled plastic.
The Wave Neo ($89.99) is a new USB microphone compatible with laptops, iPads, and PlayStation consoles. It features a built-in foam pop filter and headphone jack, with hardware optimized for clear vocals that can be fine-tuned with Elgato's Wave Link app.
Meta's next-gen Llama3 LLM is here and the Intel Arc A770 outperforms the GeForce RTX 4060
Generative AI and overall LLM performance are set to become significant elements in measuring CPU and GPU performance in the coming years. Intel's latest deep dive into Arc graphics highlights LLM performance on its current flagship Intel Arc A770 16GB graphics card for desktops.
The GPU is generally available for around $300, and Intel is comparing its AI performance against NVIDIA's mainstream GeForce RTX 4060 8GB graphics card, which is its nearest Team Green price competitor. "We've looked at two discrete GPUs positioned in a similar price segment," Intel writes in its report.
Intel's test includes various models running with IPEX-LLM, an LLM library for PyTorch. This library contains optimizations for Intel hardware and uses the XMX AI acceleration found on Arc graphics cards to boost performance. On the GeForce RTX 4060 side, CUDA Torch is used.
Boston Dynamics unveils its next-gen humanoid robot in a very disturbing way
Boston Dynamics, one of the leaders in the robotics industry that has seen successful commercialization of its products, has unveiled its next-generation humanoid robot that replaces the well-known Atlas robot.
A few days ago, Boston Dynamics announced it was retiring the hydraulic Atlas robot, which has gone viral numerous times throughout its 10 years of development with demonstrations of its impressive mobility capabilities and human-like movement. Boston Dynamics writes in its blog post that all the data gathered throughout the past 10 years has gone into developing a fully electric Atlas robot that will be designed for real-world applications such as working with people.
This new version of Atlas is stronger, more dexterous, more agile, and has been designed to move in the most efficient way possible to complete any given task. This design choice is different from the previous generation of Atlas, which was built around replicating the human range of motion. Next-gen Atlas will have movement capabilities that exceed a human's range of motion, which was demonstrated in an extremely impressive and disturbing way in the above video.
Turtle Beach unveils redesigned versions of its Stealth Wireless Gaming Headsets
Turtle Beach is refreshing its popular wireless gaming headset line-up for 2024, with three newly redesigned models coming launching in May: the Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Wireless Gaming Headset, the Turtle Beach Stealth 500 Wireless Gaming Headset, and the high-end Turtle Beach Atlas Air Wireless Open Back PC Gaming Headset.
The new Stealth 600 replaces the existing model at the popular $99.99 USD price point and sports a funky, modern look. It has low-latency 2.4GHz wireless and Bluetooth 5.2 and an impressive 80-hour battery with quick charge capabilities. Sound-wise, it features Turtle Beach's 50mm Nanoclear drivers with a microphone now powered by AI noise reduction technology.
The new Turtle Beach Stealth 500 slots into the more affordable $79.99 USD pricing bracket, and like the Stealth 600, it has low-latency 2.4GHz wireless and Bluetooth 5.2 to support gaming on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, and mobile devices. Audio-wise, it features smaller 40mm drivers but still supports surround sound - however, the battery life is cut in half to up to 40 hours.
NASA's Mars helicopter sends heart-warming final message back to Earth
Ingenuity, NASA's Mars helicopter was forced to end its mission after taking some critical damage in a landing, but the small helicopter will not be going gently into that good Martian night.
NASA landed its Mars helicopter in the Jezero Crater with its Mars rover named Perseverance in 2021, with the initial goal of Ingenuity being a flight demonstration. NASA simply wanted to see if flight was possible on another planet.
Ingenuity achieved this goal and became the first aircraft to conduct a powered and controlled extra-terrestrial flight. Ingenuity was only intended to make five flights, but went on to complete 72 across its three years of service, serving as a reconnaissance vehicle for Perseverance by scouting areas of interest and upcoming terrain which NASA can then use to map the safest path for Perseverance.
Continue reading: NASA's Mars helicopter sends heart-warming final message back to Earth (full post)
Samsung begins emergency mode: all Samsung execs to now work 6 days a week
Samsung is forcing all of the executives from its Samsung Group units to work 6-day weeks from as early as this week, in a shift to "emergency mode" reports the Korea Economic Daily.
The emergency mode shift is happening because of the South Korea won and its sharp depreciation, rising oil prices, and high borrowing costs are amplifying uncertainies in business, after some of Samsung's businesses delivered poorer-than-expected results last year.
A Samsung Group company executive said: "Considering that performance of our major units, including Samsung Electronics Co., fell short of expectations in 2023, we are introducing the six-day work week for executives to inject a sense of crisis and make all-out efforts to overcome it".
Meteorologist warns of future 'weather wars' using cloud seeding after torrential rain in Dubai
If you haven't seen the torrential rain flooding Dubai in the UAE, well, the country has experienced extreme flooding after the gigantic downpour on Monday. The downpour disrupted everything in Dubai, closing schools and flooding homes and businesses.
A meteorologist has warned that potential future "weather wars" will happen between countries if cloud seeding technology gets "out of hand". There have been theories of how the torrential rain in Dubai occurred -- possibly by cloud seeding or chemtrails, geoengineering technology to make it rain -- something that sees chemicals injected into clouds, sparking precipitation (rain).
This kind of technology has been around for close to 100 years, with one of the notable uses of it in the last few years being China spending millions of dollars to control the weather ahead of the Beijing Olympics back in 2016, something the country had been using the modify the weather since 2008.
Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian is moving on, so Hasbro is looking for a new studio to make 4
Baldur's Gate 3 is not only one of 2023's most celebrated games but is widely considered one of the best RPGs ever made, an iconic release that will influence RPGs for years. Developer Larian is still hard at work on the game, with the upcoming Patch 7 set to expand and improve the branching story's "evil endings" with new cutscenes.
However, as part of a recent communityupdate on Steam, Larian confirmed that the studio is already working on its next game, and won't be Baldur's Gate 4. The studio's next two games will be moving on from the world of Dungeons & Dragons.
"After six years in the Forgotten Realms and much discussion and rumination, we've decided to seize the opportunity to develop our own IPs," Larian wrote. "We're currently working on two new projects, and we couldn't be more excited about what the future has in store." So, what does it mean for Baldur's Gate 4? Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast are figuring that out.
NVIDIA AI GPUs trained Meta's new Llama 3 model for the cloud, edge, and RTX PCs
NVIDIA has just announced optimizations across all of its platforms to accelerate Meta Llama 3, Meta's latest-generation large language model (LLM).
The new Llama 3 model combined with NVIDIA accelerated computing provides developers, researchers, and businesses with innovation across various applications. Meta engineers trained their new Llama 3 on a computing cluster featuring 24,576 NVIDIA H100 AI GPUs linked through the NVIDIA Quantum-2 InfiniBand network; with support from NVIDIA, Meta tuned its network, software, and model architectures for its flagship Llama 3 LLM.
To further advance the state-of-the-art generative AI, Meta recently described plans to scale its AI GPU infrastructure to an astonishing 350,000 NVIDIA H100 AI GPUs. That's a lot of AI computing power, a ton of silicon, probably a city's worth of power, and an incredible sum of money on AI GPUs ordered by Meta from NVIDIA.
Meta launches early versions of Llama 3 to fight with OpenAI and Google in the AI battle
Meta has a nice surprise today: its latest large language model (LLM), Llama 3. The company explains its new Llama 3 8B contains 8 billion parameters, while its Llama 3 70B features 70 billion parameters.
Meta promises a gigantic increase in performance over the previous Llama 2 8B and Llama 2 70B models, with the company claiming that Llama 3 8B and Llama 3 70B are some of the best-performing generative AI models available today, trained on two custom-built 24,000 GPU clusters.
The company trained its new Llama 3 model on over 15 trillion tokens that were all collected from "publicly available sources," and that Met'a training dataset is 7x larger than what was used for Llama 2, and that includes 4x more code.






















