Latest News - Page 635

When Apple announced the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro in September the new phones were also confirmed to have support for the Qi2 wireless charging standard. Based on MagSafe, the standard is open to all who want to implement it which means that wireless charger makers no longer have to pay to license Apple's MagSafe technology. The benefit here is that there are more options while also making the chargers cheaper for people to buy. At the time, Apple confirmed that support for Qi2 would also be brought to the iPhone 14 and iPhone 13 via software updates.

However, Apple now appears to have also added Qi2 wireless charging to the iPhone 12 series of devices for the first time, and it did it via the iOS 17.4 software update that was released to the public earlier this month. Apple didn't make any mention of the new functionality in the software's release notes and it hasn't said anything since the release, either. But according to testing carried out by Macworld, Qi2 support is now very much alive and well on their iPhone 12 after installing the iOS 17.4 update.

Previously, using the non-MagSafe wireless chargers with the iPhone 12 meant a charging speed of just 7.5W, but as Macworld found out when trying to charge using a Qi2-compatible charger, the full 15W charging speed was available. In fact, there were instances where the third-party Qi2 chargers were performing better than the official Apple MagSafe Wireless Charger.

AMD will launch its next-gen Zen 5 CPU architecture later this year, which will be used in Kraken Point, Granite Ridge, Strix Point, and Strix Halo APU and CPU designs... with Granite Rapids desktop CPUs in both 6-core and 8-cores tested, spotted in a new shipping manifesto.

The leak on the Zen 5-powered "Granite Ridge" CPUs from AMD comes from leaker and dataminer "momomo_us," who discovered shipping manifests that confirm the next-gen desktop CPUs. There are two new AMD OPN (Product Codes) that confirm 6-core and 8-core variants are being tested right now, with what looks like a 105W TDP for the 6-core Zen 5 "Granite Ridge" CPU and 170W TDP for the 8-core Zen 5 "Granite Ridge" CPU.

It seems that AMD is using two silicon stepping for Granite Ridge, with A0 and B0, respectively, for both the 6-core and 8-core CPUs. AMD's upcoming Granite Ridge CPUs will feature the same I/O die that's used on Raphael (Zen 4), which means we'll be limited to integrated RDNA 2 graphics versus APUs with Zen 5 featuring upgraded RDNA 3 and RDNA 3.5 (now called RDNA 3+ and confirmed by AMD).

Amazon AWS has announced that it will build data centers in Taiwan, with "specific progress" expected in 2024. This will see the US cloud provider joining other American cloud companies like Google and Microsoft, which have been setting up data centers in Taiwan.

Wang Dingkai, general manager of Amazon AWS Taiwan and Hong Kong, said on March 28 that the "computer room implementation plan continues," and that it is also subject to "dynamic adjustments". Dingkai added that "there will be good news to share with you soon".

Microsoft first announced in 2020 that it would build a new data center in Taiwan, "quietly carrying out related projects" over the past 2 to 3 years. It's rumored that there will be "specific progress" in Microsoft's data center in Taiwan. The company says that since this is a large-scale project, it will be completed in stages and that if everything continues going to plan, there will be an announcement in the future.

The South Korean government is considering subsidies for the semiconductor industry. The government reportedly decided to review the provision of subsidies for South Korea's wide-ranging high-tech industries, including the semiconductor industry.

This would be a first for South Korea, where on March 27, the government discussed a comprehensive support plan for specialized clusters in advanced strategic industries based on the proposals at the 5th National Advanced Strategic Industry Committee, which was held at the South Korean Government Complex in Seoul and chaired by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo.

In a new report from Business Korea, the outlet reports that the South Korean government said: "The competition for investment subsidies among rival countries is intensifying," and that "in addition to the current investment incentive support, we will continue to review the expansion of incentive systems for advanced investments".

YouTube is constantly testing new features in what the company calls "experiments" and the latest experiment to surface online is a new AI feature that's called "jump ahead".

Most YouTuber users are aware that double tapping the screen on either side either rewinds or fast forwards the video by 10 seconds, with each additional press increasing the time that is jumped forward/backward. But what if you double-pressed the screen and jumped right to the next most interesting part of the video? That feature is currently being worked on over at YouTube, and it's powered by AI that analyses user watch data and picks the next most interesting part of the video.

The feature works like this; double tapping the screen will bring up a prompt that says "jump ahead". Tapping that prompt will fast forward the clip to what YouTube considers the next best point of interest. Notably, YouTube says that the feature will only work for specific eligible videos, while also not specifies what criteria a video will need to meet to become eligible for the feature. Furthermore, users will need to have a YouTube Premium account to access the feature.

Google has rolled out a new landing page for Google Messages that provides a bunch of information regarding the benefits of its service and, particularly, the Rich Communication Services (RCS) communication protocol.

Apple announced in November 2023 that it was going to be adopting RCS sometime "later next year", which led most users to expect the update to roll out with the next big iOS update, presumably iOS 18, which is slated to be Apple's biggest iOS update ever. Now, Google has seemingly confirmed that with one of the new Android landing pages stating the following: "Apple has announced it will be adopting RCS in the fall of 2024. Once that happens, it will mean a better messaging experience for everyone."

Notably, Apple never specifically said when it was going to adopt RCS, which means Google's announcement is may have circumvented Apple's upcoming announcement. For those that don't know, Apple has been using SMS and MMS protocols when texting non-Apple smartphones, which means low-quality images/videos when sending to non-Apple smartphones, problems with group chats, and low security. The adoption of RCS will mean users will get typing indicators between Android and iOS devices, improved security, and many more features.

A leaker has revealed that Capcom's highly anticipated Monster Hunter Wilds will be a "fully open world" experience, and will be the developers most ambitious title yet.

Capcom unveiled the next installment in the Monster Hunter franchise back in December, and since then, gamers have been speculating how this next installment will differentiate itself from the previous games in the series. With details regarding the title being scarce, we now have a little bit more to go off of, with well-known leaker Dusk Golem writing over Discord that their hearing Wilds will be "by far the biggest game they [Capcom] ever attempted".

Golem revealed other details such as development for Wilds beginning back in 2019, meaning the game has been cooking in Capcom's development labs for 6 years now. Additional information included Monster Hunter World director having "complete freedom" with Wilds and that the new game will include many "scrapped ideas from World". Probably the biggest piece of information was the claim that Wilds will be "fully open world" and that it was Capcom's idea from "day one" to pursue this development path.

In June 2023, an endless livestream, "AI Peter," was put up on YouTube, which broadcasts AI-generated Family Guy "episodes" to the world. However, that stream has been hijacked by viewers attempting to push the AI powering the episodes to its absolute brink, resulting in an ear-bruising experience.

The AI Peter stream features 3D models of Family Guy characters and locations, with viewers submitting pitches for each episode that are then generated and showcased to the entire stream. The stream uses AI-generated text and speech tools to produce the content, and with viewers being able to submit pitches for the episodes it wasn't long before some viewers wanted to see how far they could push they AI before it broke.

On March 25 X user "abcdent" attempted to do that very thing, writing in their post that a "few months ago" they paid $4 to submit a prompt that "single handedly halved the viewership". The prompt resulted in Brian Griffin scream incoherently at the camera while Cleveland Brown attempted to list of 50 bacterial infections. The viewers of the stream were asking the host to skip this episode but since its all automated "it just kept going".

A new study published in the journal Science Robotics details the creation of a robot that's designed to predict when a human is about to smile and return the smile with its own.

The idea behind the creation of the robot named "Emo" is to assist humanoid robots in appearing more natural when faced with human interaction. The study explains that Emo is capable of predicting the smile of human its facing within one second, and is able to achieve this through cameras within the pupils of its eyes. Once the smile is detected, Emo will respond with its own smile, which isn't much of a smile and is more of a grimace, at approximately the same time as your smile being full.

The team was able to train Emo to detect smiles by performing "self modeling" in front of it. This process included the robots initiating random facial movements, which then led to Emo learning to control its facial actuators. To learn to detect a smile the researchers fed Emo with several hours of human facial expressions, leading to Emo being able to accurately predict when a smile is about to occur.

Since its release, the iconic door seen at the end of James Cameron's "Titanic" has been a point of contention, with many fans of the movie saying there was enough room for Jack to fit on the door with Rose.

There are countless Reddit threads and theories circulating since the release of the movie that Jack was able to fit on the door Rose uses to survive. Fitting on the door would have saved Jack as it would have given him enough time to wait for a rescue team. However, the debate was put to bed after Titanic director James Cameron reenacted the scene, with the conclusion being that Jack likely could have fit on the door but it would have jeopardized Rose's safety, possibly resulting in them both dying.

The infamous door has now been sold at Heritage Auctions, where it went up for a five-day-long auction that pushed its value to a whopping $718,000. The door was previously displayed at Planet Hollywood alongside other iconic cinematic items such as Indiana Jones' whip and the bowling ball from "Kingpin". To check out the listing for yourself, visit this link here.

Astronomers detected a burst of bright light 848 million light years away from Earth back in December 2020, and now a new study has detailed why this unusual behavior took place.

The team traced the burst of bright light to a region of space with a supermassive black hole at its center, and since then the black hole has been relatively quiet. But during the time of activity the energy released from this region of space strangely dipped every 8.5 days before it completely settled down to near-zero activity. These releases of energy are similar to having celestial hiccups.

A new study published in the journal Science Advances details the use of the X-ray telescope NICER (the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer), which is aboard the International Space Station. The researchers gathered four months of data on the region of space, and after analyzing the data the team landed on the conclusion that an object was passing in front of the supermassive black hole, causing the dips in energy every 8.5 days.

Samsung will make the next-generation Mach-1 artificial intelligence (AI) chips for Naver Corporation, a deal worth up to 1 trillion won ($752 million USD).

With its new deal with Samsung, south Korean search giant Naver will significantly reduce its reliance on NVIDIA for its AI processors. Samsung's System LSI business division has agreed to supply AI chips to Naver, with the two companies in "final talks to fine-tune the exact volume and prices," according to "people familiar with the matter," reports KED Global.

Samsung expects the price of the next-gen Mach-1 AI chip to be around 5 million won ($3756 USD or so) with Naver wanting to receive between 150,000 and 20,000 units of its new AI accelerator according to the same sources. Naver is a leading Korean online platform giant, where it will use the next-gen Mach-1 AI chips in its servers for AI inferencing, replacing the chips that it received from NVIDIA.

Elgato has announced the arrival of the new and improved Facecam MK.2, which brings more features and capabilities to the popular 1080p60 webcam while dropping the MSRP from $199 USD to $149 USD compared to the original.

On the physical side, the Facecam MK.2 is slimmer than the original, thanks to a new low-profile design. Elgato finally added a privacy shutter, too, which was missing in the 2021 original. The good stuff comes with the new image processing, which delivers better out-of-the-box color accuracy, improved low-light performance, and the ability to record 1080p60 HDR video.

The Facecam MK.2 is also fully supported by Elgato Camera Hub, which offers in-depth controls over all camera aspects, from zoom to FOV to aperture and exposure settings. Camera Hub also integrates NVIDIA's AI-powered RTX Broadcast features and tools, bringing everything together in one handy spot.

Overwatch 2's upcoming DPS hero, Venture, has been unlocked early, with developer Blizzard making the new hero available for free this weekend. Check Venture and all of her abilities out below:

Venture is a new DPS hero with a new "Smart Excavator" weapon that allows you to use the drill to move around the battlefield, while her "Burrow" ability lets you dig underground and re-emerge underneath or beside enemies. This provides players with both an offensive and defensive tool when playing Venture in Overwatch 2.

Venture is invulnerable while she's burrowing underground, while you can use the "Drill Dash" to dash through the air, knocking enemies with your drill back. So you can dig underground, smash out of it, fly into the air at -- let's say a Pharah -- and knock her back.

Diablo 4 is changing. Season 4 will change how loot and crafting work, overhaul some class items, skills, and abilities, and expand the endgame with new modes and features. It's an update so massive that Blizzard will let players test all the changes early via a PC-only PTR playable from April 2 to 9. The Diablo 4 team will use this as an opportunity to "make adjustments to Season 4 before it goes live for everyone."

After detailing the changes coming during a live stream last week, today we've got the full PTR Patch Notes for the massive overhaul coming to the game. To say the list is long would be an understatement; clocking in at over 10,0000 works; these are the sort of patch notes where you'll need a bunch of time and a strong coffee to get through.

With fundamental changes being made to how loot, crafting, and putting together a build works, there are so many changes being made to class items, skills, Legendaries, and Unique Items that this update will fundamentally change how Diablo 4 plays.

This week on The TT Show, Jak and Kosta discuss everything Neuralink, from the first brain implant patient telepathically playing games like Mario Kart and Civilization to how it might cure blindness.

In the world of generative AI, NVIDIA's LATTE3D to create 3D models sounds like a great idea for game development, but OpenAI's video-generation AI being used to create Hollywood films doesn't. Jak and Kosta also look at the new $5,000 AI benchmark tool built on Stable Diffusion's image generator from 3DMark creators UL Solutions.

Plus, Grand Theft Auto 6's potential delay to 2026 and what that means (basically, we'll have to wait longer to play it), PSVR 2 comes to PC, Meta Quest 3 Lite is coming soon, scientists discover an OLED breakthrough that could eliminate burn-in, and more.

VASTARMOR has just launched their new Radeon RX 7900 XTX Super Alloy graphics card, around 4 months after the Chinese company first unveiled the new RX 7900 XTX design. Check it out:

The new VASTARMOR Radeon RX 7900 XTX Super Alloy features the highest GPU boost clock of any RX 7900 XTX on the market, with 2680MHz out of the box. This means VASTARMOR's new RX 7900 XTX Super Alloy graphics card has a higher boost clock than Navi 31 is capable of. This is the same 2680MHz that we find on the ASRock Taichi and Aqua cards, PowerColor's Liquid Devil, and SAPPHIRE's NITRO+ variants.

VASTARMOR's new card is a chunky boi, measuring in at a large 33cm long and 6.9cm thick, which makes it one of the biggest graphics cards on the market. The company includes a triple-fan cooler, with ARGB lighting, too. Pricing kicks off at 6799 RMB (around $940 USD), which means it's considerably cheaper than the MSRP of the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX, which was priced at 7999 RMB.

ZOTAC has just announced three brand-new compact form-factor Mini AI PC systems powered by the latest processors and NPUs for AI workloads from Intel and AMD.

The new ZOTAC Mini AI PC systems feature Intel Core Ultra "Meteor Lake" and AMD Ryzen 7840HS "Hawk Point" APUs, both with integrated NPUs (Neural Processing Units) that are used for AI workloads. First, we've got ZOTAC's new ZBOX M Series PC with Intel's latest Core Ultra 7 155H and Core Ultra 5 125H "Meteor Lake" CPUs.

The ZOTAC ZBOX Edge MI672 and MI652 feature a beautiful low-profile design that looks fantastic. Thanks to the LPE cores inside the Meteor Lake CPU, it's also power efficient. Intel includes integrated Arc graphics that pack up to 2x the performance of previous-gen chips, so you can enjoy some light-level gaming on the ZBOX Edge MI672/MI652 Mini AI PC systems.

Including the best-selling Phantom Liberty expansion, Cyberpunk 2077 has made over $750 million since launch.

CD Projekt's latest earnings report proudly announced that Cyberpunk 2077 has made over 3 billion Polish zloty, or about $754.8 million when converted into USD based on historical exchange rates. These revenues are from sales of both Cyberpunk 2077 on two console generations and PC, as well as Phantom Liberty sales on PS5, Series X/S, and PC.

"Last year, owing to the successful release of Phantom Liberty, Cyberpunk 2077 further raised the revenue bar to 3 billion PLN. We are confident in the strength of our product. Supported by the franchise flywheel, we expect it to generate solid revenue flows for years to come, solidifying its status as a long seller," said CD Projekt joint CEO Michal Nowakowski.

The world of smartphones might be full of foldable phones from most of the biggest names in the game, but Apple has so far refused to join in. To date, no foldable iPhone has launched and rumors about such a device's development are all over the place. While it's thought that Apple is indeed developing a foldable device of some description, when it will launch and what it will have to offer is unclear.

Now, a new DigiTimes report claims that Apple continues to work on a foldable iPhone but the news isn't positive. According to that DigiTimes report, Apple has moved some of the Apple Vision Pro engineers onto the foldable iPhone program but there is now an expectation that it will launch either in the fourth quarter of 2026 or the first quarter of 2027; That means that anyone hoping to buy a foldable iPhone is going to be waiting a good long while before it arrives. If, indeed, it ever does.

Apple is thought to be concerned that the current state of foldable display technology still isn't in a position to be able to offer the kind of experience that Apple wants.