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Samsung announces when it will bring Galaxy AI to more Galaxy smartphones and tablets
Samsung has issued a press release informing Galaxy users that its Galaxy AI feature will be available on older devices.
Samsung Electronics has announced today that One UI 6.1, which includes Galaxy AI features will be coming to even more Galaxy smartphones and tablets. According to the press release Galaxy AI that was recently introduced in Galaxy S24 series will be making its way to the Galaxy S22 series, the Galaxy Z Fold4 and Galaxy Flip4 foldable phones, along with the Galaxy Tab S8 series tablets.
The update will enable more Samsung users to use Galaxy AI features such as: "Circle to Search with Google, Chat Assist, Interpreter, Live Translate, Note Assist, Transcript Assist, Browsing Assist, Generative Edit, Edit Suggestion and AI-Generated Wallpaper." There is currently no word on whether Samsung will roll out these features for the Galaxy S21 series. Furthermore, it appears the only feature that isn't making its way over to the Galaxy S22 series is instant slow motion.
Microsoft wants to show you ads in Windows 11's Start menu
Microsoft is testing out new ways to customize the Windows 11 Start menu, with one of the features being advertisements for recommended applications.
In a Friday blogpost the company outlined that its testing out the new feature within the latest Windows 11 Insider Preview Build, and the goal behind the update is to expose users to more applications from the Microsoft Store. Users that have downloaded the latest insider preview build will notice clicking on the Start button displays two sections, one for Pinned applications and one for Recommended apps. The Recommended section has the chance to display ads for apps within the Microsoft Store.
Notably, Microsoft is only rolling out this feature to users who have downloaded the Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.3495 (KB5037000) and have enrolled in the Beta Channel for insiders. Additionally, Microsoft is only pushing out the feature to a small group of people who are within the Windows 11 Insiders program and are using their Windows 11 install as an individual. This means any Windows 11 PC that's considered a commercial device won't get the ads.
Continue reading: Microsoft wants to show you ads in Windows 11's Start menu (full post)
GPU price war intensifies: AMD RX 7900 XT and NVIDIA RTX 4070 Ti Super have never been cheaper
AMD's RX 7900 XT has just witnessed another price cut, and the GPU is as cheap as it has ever been - plus NVIDIA's rival RTX 4070 Ti Super has also been discounted substantially at another retail outlet in the US.
In short, both graphics cards are more affordable than ever, and let's start with the deal on the RX 7900 XT graphics card as flagged up by VideoCardz.
At the time of writing, the ASRock Phantom Gaming RX 7900 XT has been knocked down to $689 at Newegg (there's a discount code to apply at checkout which gets you another $10 reduction).
Fallout 76 broke its all-time player count record on Steam thanks to the Fallout TV show
The Fallout TV show is a hit, with fans and newcomers alike falling in love (or getting reacquainted) with one of the most recognized and beloved franchises in gaming. As expected, the show has brought people back into playing Fallout - but in a surprise twist, the online multiplayer Fallout 76 just broke its concurrent player count record on Steam with 39,455 peak players this past weekend. This is notably higher than the previous launch record of 32,982.
Every major game in the franchise, including older titles like Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 4, has experienced a massive surge in players on Steam. The show faithfully captures the fun, bleak, and violent world of post-apocalyptic America, as seen in Fallout, so it's no wonder people have been flocking to the wasteland.
Fallout 76 is interesting because the game launched in an abysmal state, with a litany of bugs and a string of controversies. But, Bethesda has spent the ensuing years fixing the game's many issues, including the addition of actual NPCs, with the latest update to the game expanding the world to include a post-apocalyptic Atlantic City.
GIGABYTE unveils XTREME Prestige Limited Edition AORUS Z790 motherboard and RTX 4080 SUPER
Earlier this month, we reported on some leaked info on some limited edition GIGABYTE products coming, the Z790 AORUS XTREME X ICE motherboard and the AORUS GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER XTREME ICE 16G graphics card. Today, GIGABYTE has formally announced the XTREME Prestige Limited Edition series - which is expected to be limited to around 1500 units.
The motherboard and GPU look like jewelry thanks to the gold accents, "crystallized titanium textures" that look like diamonds, and the white finish. In the announcement, GIGABYTE confirms that it's real gold, 99% pure, with the XTREME Prestige combo all about "embodying luxury and exclusivity."
However, these aren't merely PC components perfect for installing on a billionaire's yacht, as the AORUS GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER XTREME ICE ships with the highest boost clock or out-of-the-box OC frequency of any GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER on the market.
PlayStation 5 Pro release window has a major issue no one is talking about
The specifications for the PlayStation 5 Pro have leaked and it now seems we have a very good idea of what Sony has been baking behind the scenes and when they plan on releasing it.
The specs for the PS5 Pro were originally leaked back in March, which reportedly sparked an investigation by Sony into which developer seemingly broke the silence on what is under the PS5 Pro's hood, leading to a further assumption the specifications were legitimate. Now, we have a double confirmation of the specifications as The Verge obtained what appears to be a more detailed developer blueprint for the PS5 Pro, which listed many of the same March specs and even more that weren't previously known. Check out that full specs list below.
One piece of information that surfaced was the release window for the PS5 Pro - the 2024 holiday period. This got me thinking. What game will Sony market with the PS5 Pro to sell it? Or is the company going to entirely rely on the performance hike from the standard PS5 to entice gamers? I proceeded to check what Sony has in the 2024 pipeline in terms of games, specifically system seller-caliber titles such as the God of War franchise from Santa Monica Studios or the Spider-Man games from Insomniac Games.
Acer Predator Z57 Mini LED 57-inch dual 4K ultrawide beast will launch for $1,999
The new Predator Z57 is Acer's largest ultrawide gaming monitor. Its 57-inch MiniLED display delivers the pixel and resolution equivalent of two 4K monitors side-by-side. The 7,680 x 2,160-pixel DUHD resolution with an up to 120 Hz refresh rate will undoubtedly require a beast of a GPU to make the most of it.
Although it doesn't feature OLED technology, aka the new hotness, the specs are impressive - as is the price point. Originally, Acer announced a $2,499.99 USD price point for the Predator Z57 at CES 2024 in January. However, it has now adjusted that launch price to $1,999.99 USD, a full $500 cheaper than initially expected. Very cool.
With the full product page for the Acer Predator Z57 now live, a release is expected relatively soon. The specs on this thing are impressive, and with the new price point, it might be worth picking up if you're excited about the idea of a dual 4K display (and you've got the PC hardware to drive it).
Pimax Crystal Super announced, new flagshig VR headset with 4K 120Hz per eye QLED panels
Premium and high-end Virtual Reality headset maker Pimax was one of the first companies to deliver a 4K VR headset, and later this year, it's set to launch one of the most impressive PCVR headsets to date.
With a per-eye resolution of 3840 x 3840 (which is more than 4K!) and a wide 150-degree field of view with a whopping 29.5 million pixels across its QLED displays, the Pimax Crystal Super is shaping up to be a beast of a VR headset. It has been designed primarily for PCVR, and its pixel counts are higher than those of the Apple Vision Pro (23 million) and the Meta Quest 3 (9.1 million). It's considerably lighter than the existing Pimax Crystal headset without standalone VR hardware.
Pimax announced the new flagship during its recent Frontiers 2024 event, where it also announced the more affordable Pimax Crystal Light, which removes the XR2 chip to present the popular Pimax Crystal headset in lightweight standalone PCVR form.
IMAX teases its next-gen film camera: 30% quieter than existing IMAX film camera, and more
IMAX has unveiled its next-generation film camera, designed and built in-house by IMAX with the company saying its next-gen film camera is 30% quieter than existing IMAX film cameras.
The next-gen IMAX film camera is also more stable and has even more film exposure, rocks an all-new multi-layer carbon fiber body and structure, and all-new technology and functionality improvements throughout the camera design. IMAX says that there is a new, brighter Optical Viewfinder in its next-gen film camera, designed by Panavision.
The next-gen IMAX film camera is metadata-capable, embedded data via SDI to on-set playback to allow for visible data overlays for both on-set and editorial use. IMAX includes gigabit ethernet (1GbE) and a newer USB-C interface, with both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. There are also live on-set dailies from the new digital viewfinder in the glorious 4K resolution.
Intel's next-gen 'Beechnut City' validation platform: ready for Xeon 6 Granite Rapids CPU
Intel's new Beechnut City validation platform is being used to test out next-gen Xeon 6 "Granite Rapids" and "Sierra Forest" processors. Check it out:
The new Beechnut City validation platform was leaked by "YuuKi_AnS", with a sleek red PCB that brings me back to the motherboards from the 90s. This isn't aimed at the market, so there will be no chance of buying it, as it's been designed for validation and further testing.
We don't have one CPU socket but two LGA-4710 socket CPUs that will support dual Granite Rapids or Sierra Forest Xeon 6 CPUs. The leaker also teased possible SKU names for Intel's next-gen Xeon 6 series: Xeon 6 6900E/P (Platinum), Xeon 6 6700E/P (Gold), and Xeon 6 6500P (Bronze).
US government to give Samsung up to $6.4 billion for Texas, USA fabs, R&D center
The US government is awarding Samsung up to $6.4 billion in grants to expand its chip production facilities in Texas, USA, to boost US-based semiconductor chipmaking.
The new $6.4 billion in funding is being fed through the 2002 CHIPS and Science Act, which will assist in the first two chip production facilities, an advanced packaging facility, and a research and development center planned by Samsung. These new facilities will be located in Taylor, Texas, USA.
These new funds will also help Samsung expand its semiconductor facility in Austin, Texas while boosting chip output for aerospace, defense, and auto industries while bolstering national security, administration officials told reporters and reported by Reuters.
Samsung co-CEO visits Taiwan in 'low-key manner' to promote HBM, meets with TSMC
Samsung Electronics co-CEO Qing Guixian reportedly visited Taiwan recently in a "low-key manner," according to a new report from UDN.
It was reported that his first priority was to promise Samsung's HBM (High Bandwidth Memory), which is used in AI GPUs; the faster and more, the better. Samsung has been focusing on pushing high-end DRAM technologies, including HBM (HBM3, HBM3E, and next-gen HBM4) and DDR5, where it needs help from Taiwanese ODM manufacturers, expanding outsourcing of mature and niche products.
Samsung met with both TSMC and Quanta Group subsidiary Werder, reports UDN. According to the sources, the Samsung co-CEO had 'two major tasks during this trip': promoting Samsung's HBM and possible AI cooperation with Taiwanese manufacturers.
Overwatch 2 Season 10 'Venture Forth' launches tomorrow, check out the trailer here
Overwatch 2 Season 10 is nearly here, and developer Blizzard has unleashed a new trailer for the season, which it has dubbed "Venture Forth." So go forth, pun intended, and check out the trailer below.
The upcoming Overwatch 2 Season 10 will deliver multiple changes and new things, including a new DPS hero called "Venture" which will be unlocked immediately once Season 10 is live. A new limited-time mode called "Clash Trial" is included, where teams must battle over 5 capture points, with each captured objecting adding to a point to the prevailing team's scores.
You can win in one of two ways: by controlling all five objectives at once or by scoring five points in total before the other team. Clash will be available as a limited-time trial until April 29. There will be new Mythic Hero Skins, and the introduction of Mythic Prisms which can be earned in the Premium Battle Pass and used in the Mythic Shop to purchase the current featured Mythic Prisms when you complete the Premium Battle Pass.
Spectra Cube tape storage solution for cloud providers: mind-boggling 75,000TB storage library
Spectra Logic has just announced their behemoth Spectra Cube, a modern tape storage library with a frankly insane 75PB of data capacity. 75 petabytes = 75,000 terabytes, or 75,000TB. Mammoth.
The new Spectra Cube will have virtually zero downtime, allowing users to install new tape cartridge drives without powering the Cube off. Spectra Cube also supports Amazon S3 and Amazon S3 Glacier API access, which will be perfect for "storage services by managed service providers and cloud service providers".
The new Spectra Cube uses Spectra's own TeraPack tape cartridges that support LTO-6 through LTO-9, with a maximum storage capacity of up to 30PB (30,000TB) uncompressed. However, when compressed, storage capacity skyrockets to 75PB (75,000TB) with the library also supporting 16 partitions, which will be handy for shared or "multi-tenant" environments.
RTX 4090s are still melting: GPU repairer is fixing 200 faulty RTX 4090s per month
GPU repair shop NorthridgeFix has been busy repairing hundreds of broken NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards, with the repair shop reporting it receives RTX 4090s that have been burned from customers across the planet "every single day".
NorthridgeFix showed off a box filled to the brim with melted 16-pin "12VHPWR" power connectors, with the repair shop noting that a large number of RTX 4090s that it receives for repair are because of the melted CableMod power adapters.
CableMod has officially discontinued and even recalled these cables, but this doesn't mean some people won't still use the adapter, with NorthridgeFix saying that the initial design of the power connector was "built on the wrong foundation".
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth sales are underperforming, Square Enix profit goal likely impacted
Square Enix may issue yet another one of its "failed to meet expectations" notices, and this time it could be Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth that's to blame.
New reports indicate that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth isn't selling nearly as well as Remake, the first game in the new reboot series, and it's possible that Square Enix's profit targets will be affected by the potential sales miss.
The news comes by way of Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad, who relayed the info on Twitter: "Rebirth is underperforming sales-wise. It's selling about half of what Remake sold in the same timeframe and looks like it'll have a weaker tail," Ahmad said, citing equities research firms as the source of the data.
PS5 Pro specs leak: ray tracing, release window, upscaling from 1080p to 4K
Sony is preparing to release the PlayStation 5 Pro, and ahead of its release, a full specifications list has been leaked online to a publication.
It was only last month that Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson confirmed previous leaks regarding Sony's PlayStation 5 Pro console, codenamed Trinity, with the insider saying that the previous rumors stating the PS5 Pro was a powerful ray tracing console that will arrive with AI hardware designed to deliver Sony's custom DLSS upscaling technology called PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) was all true.
Additionally, previous rumors stated the PS5 Pro would have a GPU 45%+ more powerful at rendering than the PS5, and the CPU would only be a 10% increase over the standard PS5. Now, The Verge has obtained a full list of specs for the upcoming console, confirming many of the previous rumors and adding more details to the equation.
Sony confirms PlayStation 5 Pro by filing copyright strike against leakers video on PS5 Pro
Sony's beefed-up PlayStation 5 Pro has been all but confirmed through rumors and leaks, but now Sony has filed a copyright claim against Moore's Law is Dead's PS5 Pro video, which has been removed from YouTube.
Moore's Law is Dead covers the PlayStation 5 Pro leaks in his video from mid-March, but it has since been deleted from YouTube. I screenshotted the main Trinity Technical Overview from MLID's video on YouTube, which you can see above, covering the improvements coming with the PlayStation 5 Pro.
Sony filing a copyright claim and having YouTube remove the video kind of confirms the PlayStation 5 Pro. If MLID's claims and rumors were nothing to be worried about... well, Sony would have nothing to be worried about. But having the entire video scrubbed from YouTube is a big step, but thankfully, we've got the receipts in the form of screenshots.
PlayStation 5 Pro targeting 8K with new PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution tech
Sony's new PS5 tech may facilitate some sort of 8K resolution gaming in the console market.
Today another major outlet reported on the PS5 Pro's developer documentation. This time it was The Verge, who reiterated a lot of the same details that were originally published by Insider Gaming. While a lot of the focus has been put on the PS5 Pro's beefier 33TFLOP GPU and other hardware improvements, these upgrades were made specifically to better enable Sony's new upscaling tech.
Sony has developed PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR), which is its own in-house answer to NVIDIA's DLSS and AMD's FSR. Both of these technologies are used to upscale resolution, and Sony's does the same while also being powered by a proprietary machine-learning solution. What's surprising about PSSR is that the PS5 Pro documentation apparently mentions that Sony is working on 8K resolution support.
The Google Pixel 9 could support life-saving satellite-based SOS features
If you're on the lookout for a new Android phone over the next year or so and are the kind of person who finds themselves in situations where cell service might not be as strong as it could be, you might want to consider a phone that has satellite SOS communication features. And according to a new report, there could be two new phones with that characteristic towards the end of this year.
That report comes via leaker Kamila Wojciechowska, writing for Android Authority, and there are a number of details shared as part of the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro relations. One of those details includes the suggestion that Google will add a potentially life-saving feature to the phones. Emergency SOS features are vital and have been proven to save lives in the past, especially among iPhone owners, and the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro seem set to feature a T-Mobile and SpaceX-powered alternative.
The technology will reportedly be part of a special Satellite Gateway app that will allow satellite communications with emergency services via an Emergency SOS feature.





















