Latest News - Page 591

It was only a few weeks ago that Microsoft continued with its plan to roll out a controversial Windows 11 update that implemented new advertisements into Windows 11, and now users have spotted yet another additional promotion now baked into Windows.

The new advertisement from a few weeks ago was implementing a "Recommended" section within Windows 11's Start menu. This new section first began testing within Microsoft's Insider program and according to Microsoft the recommendations within the section will be for apps sourced from a "small set of curated developers" that will meet Microsoft's quality standards. Notably, users are able to switch off recommendations within the Personalization section of Windows 11.

Now, Microsoft has rolled out a new advertisement within the "Settings" option for Windows, and this advertisement is for its Game Pass subscription service. The advertisement was discovered in the latest Dev channel version 26120.470 (KB5037864). The new Game Pass promotion ties in with the company's previous statements regarding Game Pass growth on PC still being present, while it stagnating on Xbox consoles.

The race to achieve the world's first petabyte-sized SSD is being headed by Samsung Electronics, and the finish line may be closer than we previously thought.

It was only in March last year that reports surfaced that Samsung Electronics was approximately a decade away from creating the first petabyte SSD, but now new research has come out that may reduce that timeline significantly. Firstly, Samsung is preparing to launch its 9th Gen V-NAND flash that features 290 layers stacked, a new global benchmark. Additionally, the manufacturer announced the existence of its 10th Gen V-NAND flash that features 430-layer stacking.

The quest to achieve a 1,000 terabyte, or 1 petabyte single SSD may still be some years away, but recently, we got a peak into the behind-the-scenes at what new technology the company is working on to make that storage goal a reality. Giwuk Kim, a Ph.D student at the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), is set to present an analysis on Hafnia Ferroelectrics, and how ferroelectric properties could lead to smaller and more efficient capacitors/memory.

NASA has taken to its website to reveal some brief plans for constructing the first levitating robot on the surface of the Moon.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has proposed plans to construct the first lunar railway system, which will be designed to provide reliable, autonomous and efficient payload transport between locations on the surface of the Moon. The space agency has proposed developing FLOAT, or Flexible Levitation on a Track, which is a system that uses magnetic robots that levitate over the track.

How is this possible? NASA explains the track will be comprised of three layers: a graphene layer that enables robots to float above it using diamagnetic levitation, a flex-circuit layer to generate electromagnetic thrust to move the robots along the track, and an optional, but preferable solar panel layer to catch any sunlight. The additional benefits of FLOAT is the robots won't be touching the track, which minimizes the chance of wear and tear.

DIY gadget YouTuber "Bitluni" has built his own personal RISC-V megacluster, inside of a compact design, check it out:

Overall, the megacluster features 256 x RISC-V-based microcontrollers, operating at a mind-boggling 14.7GHz single-core frequency. Impressive. Remember, these are RISC-V chips, not x86-based processors inside of a regular PC.

The idea behind this is to fit 16 of the superclusters into a single interface, but that created issues down the line, so he designed his own "cluster blade" that featured two microcontrollers mounted on the board, each of them managing the supercluster on top of it. The cluster blade allowed Bitluni to give each supercluster its bus interface.

AMD's next-generation high-end Ryzen AI "Strix Halo" APUs have turned up in new shipping manifestos, featuring up to 64GB capacities and up to 120W TDPs.

The shipping manifestos were noticed by "nbd.ltd" and @harukaze5719, with multiple shipments of the same APU that would've been sent out for evaluation and testing purposes. These manifestos show the Maple DAP reference evaluation platform, which is available in both 32GB and 64GB memory capacities.

The Maple DAP reference systems feature 32GB or 64GB of pre-soldered memory, set by AMD, unlike Intel which is using on-package memory with its next-generation Lunar Lake CPUs.

Before it created Halo and before it created Destiny, veteran game development studio Bungie released the classic first-person shooter Marathon for the Apple Macintosh in 1994. Hailed as the Mac's answer to Doom, Marathon spawned a sequel several years later, leading to the studio's creation of the iconic Halo: Combat Evolved.

With Bungie now a first-party PlayStation studio owned by Sony, the team is developing a new entry in the series called Marathon. It takes place in the same futuristic sci-fi universe as the original but is shifting the gameplay and style to fit the mold of a PvP extraction shooter - ala Escape From Tarkov.

We've got some great news if you want to get a taste of where it all began. The community-driven team at Aleph One Developers has released a remastered version of the 1994 original - playable on modern PC gaming hardware and available for free on Steam.

MSI and Capcom announced and showcased limited edition Monster Hunter-themed PC gear earlier this year at CES 2024. The line-up of PC hardware included a gaming laptop, GeForce RTX 4060 Ti GPU, a custom gaming controller, case, motherboard, monitor, and liquid cooler. It's quite the line-up, with the MSI GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8G GAMING SLIM Monster Hunter Edition GPU now available.

The limited edition graphics card is bundled with the custom Monster Hunter controller, both sporting unique designs inspired by the franchise to help celebrate its 20th anniversary. The custom GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB GPU looks very cool with red, gold, and black flourishes to mimic Rathalos - one of the game's giant monsters.

The MSI GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8G GAMING SLIM Monster Hunter Edition sports a thin 2-slot design and MSI's TRI FROZR 3 cooling system, which includes the company's latest TORX FAN 5.0, core pipe, and airflow setup. However, as a limited edition bundle that also features custom packaging, the price tag is much higher than the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB's MSRP of $399 USD. It's currently listed for $499.99 USD at Newegg.

MSI has introduced a new GPU with the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER 16G SHADOW 3X OC, which looks like a darker version of the Ventus 3X reference model we reviewed when the GPU launched in January 2024. The Shadow 3X sports an out-of-the-box boost clock speed of 2640 MHz (which can be pushed to 2655 MHz via MSI Center), so it should perform slightly better than the non-OC Ventus variant.

The big difference here isn't just the color, which takes the silver of the Ventus line-up and switches it out for a darker bronze or brown metallic look. The MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER 16G SHADOW 3X OC is thinner, 43mm versus 50mm, and lighter, 838 grams versus 1107 grams.

Being thinner and lighter but retaining the same look as the Ventus 3X, MSI's new Shadow line could be the series' next evolution. It represents MSI's most affordable range of GeForce RTX graphics cards.

With a planned release for later this year, rumors, speculation, and insider leaks about the upcoming GeForce RTX 50 Series graphics cards are ramping up. The most recent rumors suggest that the GeForce RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 will be released within weeks of each other, much like the initial launch of the Ada Lovelace GeForce RTX 40 Series in 2022.

Built using NVIDIA's Blackwell architecture, the upcoming GeForce RTX 4080 is said to use the new GB203 GPU, while the flagship GeForce RTX 5090 is set to use GB202. Based on leaked or rumored specs, there will be a significant disparity between the two - with GB203 set to include 96 SMs compared to GB202's 192 SMs. Memory bandwidth will be 256-bit on the GeForce RTX 5080 compared to 512-bit on the GeForce RTX 5090.

Although the GeForce RTX 5080 is expected to be more powerful than the current GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER graphics card, the US export ban on powerful GPU hardware could be the reason for the GeForce RTX 5080 launching in such a 'cut down' state.

Sony, not Valve, is behind the recent unpopular decisions regarding PlayStation PC games.

A bit ago, Sony learned a tough lesson about PC gamers: They're an austere and fickle audience. This was proven by the mass orbital review bombings that Helldivers 2 recently suffered. Sony has a policy to require PlayStation Network accounts in its games that include online multiplayer. This included Helldivers 2, and gamers had to make a PSN account in order to keep playing.

Predictably, everyone pushed back against this mandate and Sony eventually reversed course. But something else happened along the way: Helldivers 2 was delisted and removed from sale in countries that don't support PSN accounts, all 181 of them. This policy has led to a lot fewer players--and payers--for Sony.

On the heels of reports that Microsoft is unsure whether or not launching new Call of Duty titles on Game Pass is a good idea, Xbox president Sarah Bond reiterates the company's day-one policy for the subscription service.

In a recent interview with Bloomberg Tech, Xbox president Sarah Bond brought up the day-and-date Xbox Game Pass policy as one of the touchstones of Microsoft's core gaming business. Bond says that a plethora of high-profile games are coming to Game Pass later this year. Games like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Starfield's Shattered Space expansion, and new Fallout 76/Elder Scrolls Online will be among the releases, but what about Call of Duty: Black Ops Gulf War?

New reports say that Xbox management is conflicted on launching new Call of Duty games on the service. After all, COD titles sell many millions of copies a year--offering new COD games day one would undoubtedly affect these sales. But that seems to be waived by the Xbox president, who hints that Call of Duty 2024 could be among the titles included on Game Pass this year.

Electronic Arts is currently working on new ways to integrate ads into its games, and it's possible the ads could extend outside of sports.

EA is no stranger to advertising. The company's EA Sports label makes multi-million deals with top brands like Nike, Pepsi, and even teamed up with Uber Eats to make an FC24 tournament. Advertising is a big part of sports sims.

But what about EA's other titles? Games like Battlefield, or even Dragon Age and Mass Effect? Could advertisements show up there in some way? In a recent Q4 earnings call, EA CEO Andrew Wilson says that there are teams currently looking at ways to place more ads into games, but the extent of this remains unclear.

Xbox president Sarah Bond says 'new options' are coming to Microsoft's game streaming offerings.

Microsoft's foray into cloud gaming is far from over. The company is still gung-ho on the nascent technology and hopes to use cloud to accelerate its multi-faceted games business. In a recent interview with Bloomberg Tech's Dina Bass, Xbox president Sarah Bond says that cloud gaming is seeing tremendous growth.

This growth is likely driven by a sharp uptick in Xbox game availability on services like GeForce Now. In an effort to assuage regulatory concerns, Microsoft signed a 10-year agreement to bring Xbox and Activision games to competing cloud services like GeForce Now and Boosteroid. In return, NVIDIA would get a lower Windows license fee. The partnership has born lots of fruit; in 2022, there were exactly 0 licenses for Xbox games that could be streamed on GFN, and as of today, there are 234 Xbox games that can be streamed over GFN.

Xbox's top brass are reportedly conflicted on whether or not new Call of Duty titles should launch on Game Pass.

Something as big as Call of Duty on Game Pass could skew things quite a bit, and in ways that Microsoft can't fully predict. The megaton shooter franchise is worth over $31 billion, but all of those earnings started with one thing: Premium game sales. Including Call of Duty on Xbox Game Pass will lead to fewer game sales--a replacive effect referred to as "cannibalization." Who's going to spend $70 on Call of Duty when they can play it for $17, or maybe even $25?

This is the exact reason that Activision Blizzard never included its games on Game Pass in the first place. Microsoft would have to pay quite a bit to make up for the potential impact on sales, and other publishers have reportedly referred to Game Pass as 'value destructive'. Consumers typically enter ABK's biggest games through a point of sale, especially Call of Duty.

Xbox's new mobile storefront will start on the web and "extend from there," Xbox president Sarah Bond says.

Xbox's Universal Store is starting to take shape. Microsoft plans to lay the early frameworks for its new unified digital commerce ecosystem with a so-called 'mobile store experience.' Xbox already has a game store on consoles and PC, but the mobile version won't be a dedicated shop.

Instead of a native app, Microsoft is launching its Xbox mobile store on the web. This way, Microsoft can completely circumvent paying the 30% commission fee on the Google Play and App Store. The Xbox mobile store experience is set to launch sometime in July--the same month that Microsoft will shut down the Xbox 360 store.

Sonos released an updated version of its mobile app back on May 7th, and while most similar app updates would just pass without too much interest among the masses, this one has very much gone in another direction. The app has been almost universally derided, with some accusing it of breaking accessibility and others simply lambasting the decision to remove features. But whatever reason people don't like it, they can all generally agree that it isn't great.

Sonos, on the other hand. would argue differently. The company says that it's aware that people don't seem to like the new update and that it's working to address the functionality that it has removed as part of this latest change. But in a statement provided to The Verge, Sonos says that it stands by its decision to roll the app out.

The Verge reports that Sonos believes that the changes it has made will ultimately result in a better app further down the line.

When the European Union allowed third-party app stores onto the iPhone as a result of the Digital Markets Act earlier this year it meant that Apple would be forced to allow people to install apps from somewhere other than the App Store for the first time/. While the EU's DMA only applies in the European Union, it's a change that brings real opportunity for companies that want to compete with Apple. And Microsoft is one of those.

Microsoft had already confirmed that it intended to launch a store that would allow users to download content onto their iPhone and now we know when it will arrive. According to a Bloomberg report, Microsoft says that it intends to launch its new mobile game store in July, and it's being run by the Xbox portion of the business. And notably, it won't be an app as such but rather a website instead.

Xbox President Sarah Bond confirmed the news and the company intends to make its own games available for download initially. However, the company also apparently intends to open the doors to other publishers who want to distribute their wars via the Xbox store as well, and that could be pretty huge.

In the build-up to the announcement of the new OLED iPad Pro earlier this week, we started to see some rumors that the company was planning to not give the device an M3 chip as was previously expected. Instead, there was a suggestion that Apple would move to something all-new, giving us our first glimpse at the M4. That ultimately happened of course, and early benchmark results suggest that buyers of the new tablet can expect something that will be very capable indeed.

Those benchmarks have started to appear online as people start to put the tablet through its paces ahead of the review embargo that will likely drop early next week. The figures produced by the M4 chip show scores of around 3,700 for its single-core CPU score and around 14,500 in the multi-core test.

To put that into perspective, the M3 MacBook Air wasn't released all that long ago and it managed to score around 3,100 in the single-core test and 12,000 in the multi-core tests. With that in mind, it's clear that the M4 is notably faster than the M4, making the new iPad Pro not only the fastest iPad Pro ever but also one of the fastest devices that Apple currently offers for sale.

2024 marks the tenth year of the Apple Watch, a wearable that first launched in 2014 and has become a huge global hit. Just as it did with the iPhone X in 2017, it's thought that Apple may choose to release an Apple Watch X to celebrate the decade of Apple wearables, and if it does, we could be in for something interesting.

Details for what the Apple Watch X will actually offer customers are hard to come by but Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has previously suggested that it will be the wearable's biggest overhaul to date. With that in mind, we think we would be pretty happy if Apple released this concept.

Designer Lukas Gehrer from the German design agency Wordsmattr shared details of his concept with 9to5Mac and it definitely has plenty for us to get excited about. The concept looks similar to the Apple Watch Ultra in some ways but it's thinner with curved edges that aren't quite flat but are much less bulbous than the Apple Watch Series 9 and previous non-Ultra models.

Apple announced the M4 iPad Pro alongside the refreshed M2 iPad AIr earlier this week and the high-end tablet immediately went up for preorder, giving people the chance to place an order ready to receive their new computer on May 15. But as we get closer to the big day of release, it's going to prove more difficult for people to buy the iPad Pro for the big day.

While those who placed an order quickly were able to guarantee that they would be among the first to receive a new iPad Pro, a check of the Apple Store online right now suggests that people placing an order today are going to have to wait a good while before their tablet will be delivered.

Right now buying an iPad Pro in many configurations, including the cheapest one, will see buyers wait for either three or four weeks before taking delivery. Apple could well be able to get your tablet to you sooner than that, but its online delivery indicator right now suggests that might not be the case. Thankfully, it wouldn't be the first time that Apple has shipped devices sooner than the expected window suggested.