Latest News - Page 587

If everything goes the way that we expect it to Apple will announce a round of new iPhones this fall, likely in September. That'll bring the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max to the market and replace the outgoing iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max that were released in September of last year. We've been told to expect new features and faster chips, but it's the increase in display size of the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max that could catch some by surprise.

If the rumors are true the iPhone 16 Pro will have a 6.3-inch display rather than the familiar 6.1-inch one, while the iPhone 16 Pro Max will see its display grow from 6.7 inches to 6.9 inches. With those display size increases we also expect the overall size of the devices to increase, too. That might not make all that much difference on the iPhone 16 Pro, but when you're dealing with a phone as big as the existing iPhone 15 Pro Max, any extra size makes a difference, fast.

That's clear in the images shared to the X social network by ZONEofTECH which appear to show an iPhone 16 Pro Max dummy unit alongside an iPhone 15 Pro Max. The size difference between the two devices is clear and obvious, suggesting that people who own an iPhone 15 Pro Max but already find it to be a little on the large side might want to consider sticking to the standard iPhone 16 Pro this time around.

Apple's brand new M4 iPad Pro is now on sale in both 11-inch and 13-inch display sizes. They're both identical bar the size of the display and some measurements, one of which is the thickness. The 13-inch iPad Pro is the thinnest coming in at just 5.3mm and that, Apple says, makes it the thinnest device that it has ever shipped. But given the fact that previous iPad Pros have been shown to flex and bend because of their lack of girth, many obviously wondered what this new thinness would mean for rigidity.

That was something that Apple apparently set out to address. Apple executives confirmed that there is a new cowling used in the iPad Pro that covers the entire logic board and, as a result, makes the device more rigid than you might think given its lack of thickness. But does that cowing work, and if not, how easily does the iPad Pro bend? That's what two YouTubers set out to discover.

One was JerryRigEverything, a YouTuber with a history of taking new devices and then ripping them apart to see what makes them tick. So when we heard that the iPad Pro was incredibly thin we knew that there would be a video dedicated to it. And, sure enough, here it is.

When Apple announced its latest iPad Pro with the fancy OLED display and superfast M4 chip it did so by using a new ad. That ad showed musical instruments and art supplies, among other things, being destroyed by a giant industrial press. But while the ad was absolutely impressive, it definitely didn't seem to send the message that Apple thought it would. Instead, creatives the world over argued that it was disrespectful and that Apple had completely missed the mark. Apple subsequently agreed and apologized for the misstep, but that doesn't seem to have been the end of it.

As it has done before, Samsung has now picked up the baton and mocked Apple with a new ad of its own. It's based on Apple's ad and sees a woman using a Samsung tablet to read music while playing what appears to be a bruised and battered guitar. The scene is made up to look like the aftermath of Apple's own ad, giving the whole thing extra weight. It's a cool ad, and it carries the tagline "Creativity cannot be crushed."

Samsung definitely went for the jugular here and it seems to have hit the mark. The ad was posted to the X social network carrying the #UnCrush tag and you can check it out for yourself above.

Ubisoft has revealed Assassin's Creed Shadows, a new journey into 16th century feudal Japan.

Ubisoft has unwrapped its latest Assassin's Creed game, and it takes place during Oda Nobunaga's unification war during the latter Sengoku period. Gamers will be able to play as two protagonists: a samurai named Yasuke, and a ninja named Naoe. Each are complete with individual backstories and gear types, and players will be able to switch between either characters on-the-fly similar to GTA V.

The characters also have their own unique trade-offs and traits: Yasuke is more bulky and armored, adept in chaotic combat and is more powerful, whereas Naoe is faster, more agile, and even has a grappling hook.

Microsoft's Xbox division plans to use artificial intelligence (AI) in gaming, but how exactly will this work?

AI is all the buzz right now in the tech sector, and gaming is no different. Publishers like EA have touted what AI can do to help the games industry, and we've also seen Xbox make strategic partnerships as its parent drastically accelerates AI development through various initiatives.

Last November, Xbox signed a multi-year deal to use Inworld's generative AI tech to help power games development. Inworld AI would be used to help automate specific things like quest creation, game stories, and character dialog.

Following Jim Ryan's retirement in March, Sony has now made a decision on who will lead PlayStation.

Sony has announced a new corporate structure for its games and entertainment division. Sony Interactive Entertainment has now been split into two parts: the Platform Business Group, led by existing Sony exec Hidaki Nishino, and the Studios Business Group, led by current PS Studious SVP and ex-Guerrilla Games head Hermen Hulst.

Sony Chief Financial Officer Hiroki Totoki took over as interim or temporary CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment in April. Totoki will retain some leadership over the new divisions as acting chairman of SIE, and both Nishino and Hulst will report directly to Totoki. The changes will go into effect on June 1, corresponding with with the last month of Sony's Q1 FY24 period.

Nintendo has published solid earnings results as the Switch enters its eighth year on the market.

Nintendo's Fiscal Year 2024 shows two clear trends: Switch sales are slowing down, but gamers are still voraciously consuming software and content for the aging system. A quick note before we delve into the financials - These values are based on yen to USD conversion rates listed in Nintendo's quarterly reports, which assumes the following rates: Q1 - 144.56, Q2 - 149.37, Q3 - 141.04, Q4 - 151.

Throughout FY24, which ran from April 2023 - March 2024, Nintendo generated a total of $11.6 billion in net sales revenue, down -2% year-over-year. This is due to a more pronounced drop in Switch hardware sales (15.7 million shipments, down -12.6%), and a smaller decrease in software purchases (down 6.7%).

Nintendo's Switch family of hardware breaks a new milestone in its eighth year on the market.

Switch sales are starting to slow down as Nintendo preps its new system. Total cumulative shipments for the 3-device Switch family have now reached 141.32 million, and by March 2025, Nintendo expects the Switch to dethrone the DS.

Nintendo shipped 15.7 million Switch consoles in Fiscal Year 2024, down -12.6% year-over-year, with Q4'24 delivering the lowest unit shipments for any Q4 period since the device's launch, or 1.96 million shipments.

Frostpunk 2 is the highly anticipated sequel to the grim and frosty city-builder set to launch on PC and PC Games Pass on July 25. To celebrate, developer and publisher 11 bit studios have teamed up with our friends at SAPPHIRE Technology to create a very cool custom SAPPHIRE AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT Frostpunk 2 Edition.

This looks to be a special edition of the Sapphire PURE AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT that we reviewed late last year, with a similar frosty-white color scheme to match the game's icy setting with a custom "oil-black metal backplate with rusty accents" to add some steampunk grit. Even the ARGB lighting is given a Frostpunk makeover and set to 'Orange' by default.

The special edition Radeon RX 7700 XT GPU comes with a few Frostpunk-themed extras - three enamel pins, three keyboard keycaps, a keycap puller, and a PC code for the Deluxe Edition of Frostpunk 2.

Rumors about NVIDIA working with various partners to enter the PC gaming handheld market are heating up. NVIDIA and GeForce are synonymous with gaming, especially when it comes to PCs. However, everything from the Steam Deck to the ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion GO, and handhelds from AYANEO are powered by AMD Ryzen with Radeon hardware.

It's a growing market, and Intel recently entered it by partnering with MSI to launch the MSI Claw gaming handheld. And now, it seems, it's NVIDIA's turn, with insider XpeaGPU claiming that NVIDIA is working with MediaTek to develop an Arm-based handheld SoC with integrated NVIDIA graphics.

This follows the news that NVIDIA and MediaTek are reportedly working on an Arm-based AI processor for AI PCs that could be revealed in a few weeks at Computex 2024. A SoC for PC gaming, running Windows 11 or Linux, would be something else entirely - and something that could blow the Steam Deck out of the water, performance-wise.

AMD has released Adrenalin Edition 24.5.1 for Radeon GPU owners. It adds support for three major PC game releases: Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut, Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, and F1 24.

Ghost of Tsushima and Hellblade II are two of the biggest PC game releases this month, so make sure you update to the new Adrenalin Edition 24.5.1 driver if you plan on picking one or both of these up. The new driver also adds four games to the supported HYPR-Tune titles list, enabling AMD HYPR-RX frame generation, Radeon Super Resolution, and Anti-Lag. These are Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon Forbidden West, Starfield, and The Last of Us Part I.

The new driver also improves AI support and performance with Radeon hardware, with AMD citing "Adobe Creative Cloud, Blender, DaVinci Resolve, Topaz Photo & Video AI, and many more" - though it doesn't provide any specific driver-related performance data.

Intel has just launched a proprietary app that allows you to install it on Thunderbolt 4 or 5 compliant systems, connect them with a Thunderbolt cable, and share your mouse, keyboard, storage, screens, USB peripherals, and more... it's called Thunderbolt Share.

Thunderbolt Share will allow you to use the huge bandwidth available to Thunderbolt 4 -- 40Gbps right now -- between two PCs connected over Thunderbolt, which is kinda nifty. Intel says that you can mirror one PC's screen to another at 1080p 60FPS with low latency and zero compression. PCs can connect through a Thunderbolt dock or monitor, if that's easier than a direct link.

Intel explains that you don't need a Thunderbolt-certified PC for Thunderbolt Share to work, you actually don't even need an Intel processor. Intel Thunderbolt boss Jason Ziller explains that "USB 4 and Thunderbolt 3 connections may work, we just really don't guarantee it, we won't be providing support for it".

Mozilla Firefox is a popular open-source browser that is one of the few non-Chromium-based options out there. It's the latest to incorporate support for NVIDIA RTX Video technology, which uses GeForce RTX hardware to improve video streaming quality and performance.

RTX Video covers two key technologies: RTX Video Super Resolution and RTX Video HDR. The former is like DLSS for YouTube; it taps into NVIDIA's powerful AI-based Tensor hardware to make low-resolution video look cleaner, crisper, and more detailed while also minimizing and even eliminating compression artifacts. It's tailor-made for video streaming applications and services like YouTube, Prime Video, and Disney+ - while also being beneficial for those with spotty connections.

RTX Video HDR adds another layer by converting SDR video content to HDR with excellent results that improve color vibrancy and detail. NVIDIA notes that 90% of all videos online are 1080p or lower and in SDR, which makes the RTX Video technology suite a way for GeForce RTX owners to remaster and upscale the video content they watch.

Star Citizen, the perpetually in-development grandiose everything sci-fi game, just got a new Alpha 3.23 'Adventure Beckons' update. There's a long list of updates and revisions, from a new character customization system to improved AI ship combat and a reworked Starmap to make planning your space travel more comfortable. There are also new hoverbikes, vehicles, and massive industrial facilities to explore.

Tech-wise, the update makes some fundamental changes thanks to the arrival of a new Vulkan Renderer, currently listed as in Beta. GPU performance with the new renderer should be on par with the default DirectX 11 Graphics Renderer. According to the team, "the aim [is] to make Vulkan the default and more performant implementation in a following release."

Regarding performance, GeForce RTX and Radeon GPU owners will be pleased to learn that Star Citizen now has NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR support for upscaling and a third "in-house TSR solution."

SK hynix unveiled a new technology that will be used to create a "dream memory chip" that is capable of storing data and performing calculations for AI.

The South Korean memory giant unveiled its new technology during the International Memory Workshop (IMW 2024) held from May 12-15 at the Walkerhill Hotel in the Gwangjin district of Seoul, South Korea. The new technology enhances the accuracy of Multiply Accumulate (MAC) operations in Analog Computing in Memory (A-CIM) semiconductors using oxygen diffusion barrier technology.

MAC operations are critical for the high-speed multiplication and accumulation processes required in artificial intelligence (AI) inference and learning. SK hynix's recent development is a significant step for the company in the competitive field of creating a "dream memory semiconductor" that can both store information and perform calculations, passing the traditional limitations of memory-only semiconductors.

Bethesda's big May 2024 update for Starfield is now live on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and available to all Xbox Game Pass players. It's not the game's first update with a long list of changes, but it's the first with some meaningful additions and quality-of-life improvements, namely in the form of detailed surface maps for exploration through cities and beyond. Also, Xbox players now have a 60 FPS Performance Mode and can play at 40 FPS on 120 Hz displays.

The new maps are particularly impressive. Not only do they overhaul the dedicated map screen with 3D renders of the game's city and planetary locations, but the scanner overlay now shows each notable location and how far it is, with the option to fast-travel to individual vendors or other prominent spots.

The other major change is giving players direct control over a range of gameplay settings that go beyond changing the difficulty of person-to-person or ship-to-ship combat and adding a new Extreme difficulty. These include the ability to access ship cargo from anywhere and new survival features relating to food, drink, and environmental hazards.

Apple launched its new M4 processor and new iPad Pro last week, with the powerful new Arm-based M4 processor destroying the Geekebench 6 world record when the M4-powered iPad Pro was cooled with liquid nitrogen (LN2 cooling).

The new M4-powered iPad Pro was tweaked by reviewer Geekerwan and his team, and while the M4's performance cores already clock at a hefty 4.40GHz, the overclock using LN2 only pushed the performance cores on the M4 chip to 4.41GHz (an additional 10MHz), which was enough to break the 4000 points milestone in Geekbench 6, creating a new world record.

I don't know if using exotic LN2 cooling to chill down the M4-powered iPad Pro was required enjoy a 10MHz frequency bump, as Apple is probably keeping things tight -- in both hardware and software -- keeping that 4.40GHz frequency on the performance cores as high as it can. Normally we see LN2 cooling on a CPU or GPU, as they're thermally limited from operating at higher frequencies... but it seems the M4 is hitting its limits thermally, and Apple probably has stops in place to keep the 4.40GHz (or so, 10MHz is such a tiny increase on 4400MHz).

Intel's next-generation Core Ultra 200 series "Arrow Lake" CPUs have been spotted in new shipping manifestos, in both Arrow Lake-S (desktop) and Arrow Lake-HX (laptop) form.

We've seen new Intel Core Ultra 200 series "Arrow Lake" CPUs in shipping manifestos already, but now we have more of the range: 6-core, 14-core, 16-core, and 24-core variants for both desktops and laptops have been spotted this time. Here's the full list so far:

So we'll have a trio of desktop Arrow Lake-S processors with a 24-core CPU with 36MB of L3 cache, a 14-core CPU with 24MB of L3 cache, and a 6-core CPU with 18MB of L3 cache. On the laptop side of things, we've got the Arrow Lake-HX processors in a 16-core part with 30MB of L3 cache, and a 14-core CPU with 24MB of L3 cache.

SteelSeries announcing a new gaming headset is not uncommon, nor is it strange for them to impress when it comes to audio quality and comfort - check out the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 4X we recently reviewed. This week, SteelSeries has revealed a new entry in the Arctis Nova line-up, the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 5.

Designed for PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch, the Arctis Nova 5 supports both low-latency 2.4GHz wireless and Bluetooth technologies, Neodymium Magnetic Drivers for a high-end audio experience, and a new ClearCast 2.X Mic with a new high-bandwidth chipset for 32KHz 16-bit audio for in-game chat and communication.

The new SteelSeries Arctis Nova 5 also offers 60 hours of wireless gaming with fast USB-C charging that delivers 6 hours after only 15 minutes. This is all great stuff, but the most exciting part is the new Nova 5 Companion App for smartphones or any compatible iOS or Android device.

HPE was showing off a server blade from its upcoming El Capitan supercomputer at the recent ISC High Performance event in Hamburg, Germany.

The server blade had its front cover removed, showing off the internals that include AMD's new Instinct MI300A AI accelerator. The blade is called the HPE Cray Supercomputing EX255a accelerator blade, featuring a single-slot 1U blade chassis. It might be small, but it packs an incredible 8 x MI300A chips, with copper cooling blocks and copper cooling pipes linking everything together, rather beautifully I might add.

Each of the blades uses liquid cooling to keep the crazy amounts of heat generated by the 8 x AMD Instinct MI300A chips, with each of the MI300A APUs featuring a 550W TDP, and a peak power rating of 760W. This means that the cooling for the blades needs to be able to handle an incredible 4400W of power on average, and peak power of up to an even higher 6080W.