Latest News - Page 594

Apple's currently testing the iOS 17.5 software update ahead of what is likely to be a release to the public within the next few weeks. It's already been testing the update for some time now, but the latest beta release brings a new feature that we didn't see coming and can make a big difference to the way people enjoy the News app.

According to a new report, the iOS 17.5 Release Candidate build that was made available to developers recently includes a new feature that will allow people to use the News app when they don't have an internet connection.

As 9to5Mac notes, Apple News currently stops working when there is no internet connection unless a user intentionally makes specific stories available for offline viewing. However, the iOS 17.5 update looks set to change that by offering the full news experience even when no connection is available.

If you're an Apple Card owner who also happened to have asked for one of those titanium cards to go with it, you're probably starting to notice that it's getting ready to expire. The Apple Card launched back in 2019 in the United States and remains only available in that country. Now, the first cards are starting to expire and Apple is ready to ship new ones. But it isn't as easy as just cutting up your old one and getting on with your day.

Apple has started to contact Apple Card owners to alert them that they will need a new physical card. The company says that it will send a replacement card to billing addresses within the next couple of weeks. But those cards will also come with a prepaid shipping label so that customers can send their old Apple Card back to be recycled. As it turns out, having titanium recycled isn't as easy as you might think.

Apple has confirmed that the previous card will stop working at its expiry date while the new card can be activated as soon as it arrives.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has been Apple CEO since 2011 when then-CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs stood aside as a result of the ill health that would ultimately kill him. Since then Apple has seen unprecedented success including huge iPhone sales, the entry into new markets like the Apple Watch and now Apple Vision Pro, and more. But it's a fact that Tim Cook won't be able to stick around forever and Apple is likely already starting to look at who could be a likely replacement. According to one report, there's one man in particular that seems most likely to take over.

Writing for Bloomberg, Mark Gurman suggests that while any imminent change could see the arrival of Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams in the top job, Apple is making plans beyond then - and it doesn't expect that Cook is going away any time soon.

Gurman says that Apple does have Jeff Williams in line should Cook step aside sooner rather than later, citing people familiar with Apple's inner workings. However, Williams is 61 this year which means that he isn't all that much younger than Cook who turns 64 later in 2024. That means that Williams is unlikely to be a long-term replacement for Cook, which means that Apple will have plans for a more permanent solution.

Warner Bros. has announced when it will be releasing the first of the "multiple Lord of the Rings movies" called Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum.

It was last year when Warner Bros. Discovery announced it was making "multiple Lord of the Rings movies" and since then it has been radio silence - until now. During Warner Bros. latest earnings call it was details were revealed about the first of the multiple movies, such as it will be made with New Line Cinema, the production company behind Peter Jackson's original Lord of the Trilogy, and when it will be hitting theaters.

According to Variety, Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum will be released sometime in 2026 and will be directed by Andy Serkis, who will also reprise his role as the character Gollum, the tragic Hobbit-like creature whose fate gets tied to the One Ring in J.R.R. Tolkien's novels and Peter Jackson's movies. Additionally, Peter Jackson and his partners Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens are producing the movie and are going to be "involved every step of the way," said Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav.

Traveling to a new country for work, leisure, or vacation can be as exciting as it can be daunting. You want to make the most of your time abroad, so everything from flights to accommodation to sites to see and food and beverages to consume happens online. However, at any point, do you stop and take a moment to consider cyberattacks and cybersecurity when traveling or planning a trip?

The answer should be yes because cybercrime is as much of a threat as physical crime, especially when going on holiday or traveling to a new country.

According to ExpressVPN, a recent survey showed that 7% of travelers experienced some form of hacking or fell victim to a digital scam while traveling. This figure wasn't far off the 10% that experienced physical crime in the form of hotel room theft or pickpocketing.

The head of Xbox Game Studios has shared internal remarks that highlight Microsoft's goal to obtain more smaller games that give Xbox "prestige and awards".

It was only a few days ago that Xbox Game Studios announced it was letting go four development studios under its Bethesda brand. The move to close the development studio was done under Xbox's goal of "reprioritization of titles and resources," according to an internal email sent to studios by Matt Booty, the head of Xbox Game Studios. Now, The Verge has reported Booty told listeners in a call, "We need smaller games that give us prestige and awards".

The publication writes that some listeners in the call were surprised by the remarks as one of the developer studios closed by Microsoft was Tango Gameworks, the creators of the critically acclaimed Hi-Fi Rush. The title by Tango is a rhythm action game that features music by The Black Keys and Nine Inch Nails, while having an art style that was reminiscent of old PS2 games.

Only days after Nintendo officially announced when it was going to unveil the successor to the Nintendo Switch, we may have another leak about what the next-generation console has under the hood.

According to recently leaked shipments and customs data between NVIDIA and Nintendo, the successor to the Nintendo Switch, presumably called the Nintendo Switch 2, will feature 12GB of RAM, which is three times more than the 4GB of RAM in the standard Switch. WCCF reports, Famiboards tracked a website that publicly logged shipment data that they linked to NVIDIA and the Nintendo Switch 2.

The report also states that Famiboards has been tracking the data for weeks and was able to identify 12GB of RAM within the Nintendo Switch 2, which will arrive in two 6GB of 7500 MT/s LPDDR5 modules. Additionally, the next-generation console purportedly will have 256GB of Universal Flash Storage (UFS 3.1). It should be noted that none of the above information is verified and that all Nintendo has officially said about a next-generation console is that it will be unveiled in fiscal year 2024.

A new report from Bloomberg reveals Microsoft has created a new generative AI model that is designed specifically for US intelligence agencies.

The report states the main difference between this new AI model and others that power popular AI tools, such as ChatGPT, is that it's completely divorced from the internet, making it the first of its kind. Known AI models such as ChatGPT, DALL-E, and Microsoft's Copilot rely on cloud services to process prompts, train data, and reach conclusions. However, the AI model now handed over to US intelligence agencies doesn't require any cloud services, meaning it is completely devoid of any internet access and, therefore, secure.

Why do US intelligence agencies want an advanced AI model? According to the report, due to the security of the AI model, top-secret information can now be inputted and analyzed, which will help intelligence agencies understand and filter through large swaths of classified information.

Microsoft has snapped up the same location Foxconn acquired to build an LCD panel manufacturing plant, but instead of panels, Microsoft will be constructing a data center.

After years of delays Foxconn failed to materialize the LCD manufacturing project at Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, and over the years Microsoft has snapped up more and more of the land that was originally set aside for Foxconn's project, eventually resulting in the Taiwanese company pulling out and Microsoft scooping up the rest of the site.

Microsoft's proposal for a data center features infrastructure and community improvements to the local area, with promises that it will up-skill 100,000 residents across the state to be component at generative AI technologies such as Microsoft Copilot, train and certify 3,000 local AI software developers, and 1,000 cloud datacenter technicians. Moreover, Microsoft President Brad Smith, backed the push for AI as it has the potential to revolutionize manufacturing plants, assist workers and create more jobs.

The Helldivers 2 fiasco has simmered down since Sony Interactive Entertainment announced it wasn't going to go ahead with the PSN account linking with Steam.

For those that don't know, Helldivers 2 had a turbulent weekend after Sony Interactive Entertainment announced it was going to force new and current PC players to link their Steam account to a PSN account.

At first it was simply an annoying thing PC gamers complained about, but it quickly turned into hundreds of thousands of players review bombing the game when they realized some regions where Helldivers 2 was being sold didn't have access to the PSN network, meaning players in those areas would lose access to the game they paid for after the change went through.

The new Minisforum S100 is a pocket-sized mini PC (that looks like a portable tape recorder from the 1990s) powered by Intel's N100 Alder Lake-N processor. This 6W quad-core chip lacks capabilities like HyperThreading.

However, 6W for a CPU is not a lot of power at all, and with a boost clock speed of 3.4 GHz, 8GB of LPDDR5-4800 memory, and 256GB of UFS 2.1 storage (with read and write speeds of up to 850 MB/s and 260 MB/s, respectively), it's low enough that the Minisforum S100 doesn't need to be connected to a wall socket to fire up.

How does the Minisforum S100 draw power? You have two options: use the USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port (an adapter is included) or the 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet port that supports powered Ethernet. The latter solution means the Minisforum S100 can get power and data from a single cable. In addition, the Minisforum S100 comes equipped with Windows 11 and can output up to 4K.

Nintendo has taken to its website to announce its cutting ties with X, the social media platform formerly named Twitter.

Nintendo's announcement found on its website states as of June 10, players will no longer be able to post screens or videos directly from their Nintendo Switch's Album to X. Additionally, they send friend requests to social media users via the Friend Suggestions feature will be removed. Nintendo notes that posting screenshots and videos to Facebook "will continue to be available," but it will remain a service that "may also be discontinued at a later date."

Nintendo goes on to target three games specifically; Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Splatoon 3, and Splatoon 2. The company explains the ability to post Smash Ultimate screenshots from the Album in the Nintendo Switch Home Menu to Smash World, within the Nintendo Switch Online smart device app, will also become unavailable. As for Splatoon 3, posting to X via mailboxes in Splatsville, Inkopolis Plaza, or Inkolpolis Square will be removed, along with posting to Facebook. The same change applies to Splatoon 2's mailboxes.

Intel has been in a spot lately regarding its flagship high-end 13th and 14th Gen Core i9 desktop processors, with widespread reports of instability. The extent and detailed causes of the crashes are still unknown. Still, many believe it to be due to the increased power requirements of high-end Intel CPUs and motherboard profiles and official specs and guidelines bypassing proper voltage regulation.

Various motherboard makers have released BIOS updates to address the issue, implementing new 'Intel Baseline Profiles' to improve stability at the cost of performance. The band-aid approach was simple: reign everything in, and the issues will disappear.

In a new statement for its customers and partners, Intel states that the new 'Intel Default Settings' represent a range of power delivery profiles based on a motherboard's capabilities. In fact, Intel wants customers to continue pushing the new CPUs as it "recommends customers implement the highest power delivery profile compatible with each individual motherboard design."

AMD has shared some data on its CPU shipments courtesy of Mercury Research's first quarter (Q1 2024) report. And it's good news for Ryzen and AMD's growing server market, with Unit Share and Revenue Share increasing year-over-year - with Desktop and Server products leading the charge.

AMD cites growing demand for 4th Gen EPYC and Ryzen 8000 Series processors for the growth in the Client sector. Its server share (compared primarily to Intel) is now 23.6% compared to 18% a year ago. For Desktop processors, aka Ryzen, AMD's share has increased to 23.9% compared to 19.2% a year ago.

Mobile CPUs, which are Ryzen chips for laptops, mini PCs, and PC gaming handhelds, also saw their share increase in Q1 2024 to 19.3% compared to 16.2% a year ago. However, this figure presents a slight dip from the previous quarter - chalked up to a decline in overall shipments for low-end PCs.

During a recent earnings call, EA CEO Andrew Wilson said that the publisher's developers and studios have a "real hunger" for generative AI. The company is looking to use the new technology to make game development more efficient and to deliver big and complex games quickly.

"As a company, we've been deeply tied to AI since our inception," Andrew Wilson said. "It has been the very center of all of the games that we create, replicating human intelligence in the context of a gameplay experience. But certainly, as we think about the wave of generative AI today and as it merges into artificial general intelligence, broadly, we're still very early."

Citing FIFA as an example, using the game's animation and run cycles - this grew from 36 run cycles in FIFA 23 to 1,200 run cycles in EA Sports FC 24. The result is a more realistic-looking depiction of football/soccer and one that feels closer to watching the sport live on TV than the series has ever been.

The Steam Hardware Survey & Software Survey results for April 2024 are in, and it's no surprise that NVIDIA continues to dominate the discrete GPU market for desktop and laptop computers. Overall market share remains relatively unchanged, with NVIDIA and GeForce holding strong with 76.7% of total PC GPUs, followed by AMD with 15.8%.

It's not all bad news for Radeon, as the company experienced growth thanks to the rise of Ryzen chips with integrated Radeon hardware.

The most popular GPU is still NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3060, followed by GeForce GTX 1650, RTX 3060 Ti, and RTX 2060 (you can check out the Top 20 GPUs According to Steam below). However, the story does change when you look at the current generation of GPU hardware from NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel, covering the GeForce RTX 40 Series, Radeon RX 7000 Series, and Intel Arc graphics.

NVIDIA is still cooking its new Blackwell GPU architecture and B200 AI GPU, and while we've had teases of the next-gen Vera Rubin GPU, now we're hearing the next-gen R100 AI GPU will be in mass production in Q4 2025.

In a new post by industry insider Ming-Chi Kuo, NVIDIA's next-generation AI chip will enter mass production in Q4 2025 with the R-series and R100 AI GPU, with the system/rack solution to enter mass production in Q1 2026. NVIDIA's next-gen R100 will be made on TSMC's newer N3 process node, compared to B100 which uses TSMC N4P, with R100 using TSMC's newer CoWoS-L packaging (the same as B100).

NVIDIA's next-gen R100 AI GPU features around 4x reticle design, compared to the B100 with 3.3x reticle design, while the interposer size for R100 "has yet to be finalized," with Ming-Chi saying there are 2-3 options. R100 will feature 8 x HBM4 units, while GR200's new Grace CPU will use TSMC's N3 process (compared to TSMC's N5 for GH200 and GB200's Grace CPUs).

Rumors have been circulating for a while, indicating that ASUS planned to release a new version of its ROG Ally gaming handheld this year. This led to people speculating that it could be a full-blown sequin or laptop-style refresh with new Ryzen hardware or possibly even a new OLED display, ala the Steam Deck refresh.

Recent speculation and rumor have pointed to the 2024 ROG Ally refresh being nothing more than a minor hardware update that would fix the SD Card Reader issues that have plagued some units since ASUS launched the Windows 11-based PC gaming handheld in 2023. It's a minor but very welcome fix that would sort out one of the only real faults with the hardware and something that wouldn't warrant a special presentation.

That said, ASUS is teasing a special stream set to broadcast tomorrow with the title 'The Next ROG Ally.' This indicates that there's a lot more coming to the ROG Ally 2024 refresh than a fix to the SD Card Reader.

Western Digital has introduced the new Sandisk Desk Drive, a portable and sleek external storage and SSD solution for creators and those who don't want to worry about running out of space. The Sandisk Desk Drive is available in 4TB and 8TB capacities, starting from $379.99 USD. The internal SSD is formatted for exFAT, and it has a USB-C interface compatible with Windows and Mac devices.

With NVMe storage, the Sandisk Desk Drive achieves read speeds of up to 1,000 MB/s, enough to house and readily access an extensive library of videos, photos, music files, and games. Western Digital says the drive is perfect for content creators and digital creators who work with large media libraries, giving them a high-capacity, fast, and flexible solution.

It can even handle 8K content. And for PC gamers, with an average install size of 36GB, the 8TB Sandisk Desk Drive can house around 200 games.

It seems Microsoft is finally testing the display of memory speeds as MT/s (mega-transfers per second) over the traditional MHz (megahertz) in the Windows 11 Task Manager.

PhantomOcean3, a self-proclaimed Windows sleuth, noticed that Microsoft is now testing showing MT/s for RAM instead of MHz in the Windows 11 Task Manager performance tab. Why is this important?

We see the data transfer speed of computer memory (RAM) advertised with the MHz metric, which represents how many millions of cycles per second the memory module can perform, with each of those cycles being an action on the memory module itself, like storing and retrieving data.