Latest News - Page 642

Google has announced that its AI system is capable of predicting the most common natural disaster up to seven days before it happens.

The new research has been published in the scientific journal Nature and details a new machine-learning model that has been trained on historical event data, river level readings, elevation and terrain readings, and any other relevant information that is necessary to arrive at a prediction. Following the model being trained, it was then strained by running "hundreds of thousands" of simulations of flooding events occurring in each location. The result of the training and simulations is that the model is now capable of predicting riverine floods up to seven days in advance, according to Google.

Google states that the use of this AI-powered model will help solve the riverine flooding problem on a global scale. Notably, the model was able to successfully predict a flood seven days in advance in some cases, but on average landed on five days. Furthermore, Google has said that this new technology has "reliability of currently-available global nowcasts from zero to five days."

QD-OLED pixel technology is being released by almost all major gaming monitor companies, and GIGABYTE AORUS is no exception, with three new QD-OLED displays expected to hit the market next month.

GIGABYTE AORUS is preparing to launch three new QD-OLED gaming monitors: the FO32U2P, FO32U2, and FO27Q3. Starting off with the cream of the crop, the FO32U2 is a 3840 x 2160 (4K / UHD) monitor that features a 240Hz refresh rate, 99% DCI-P3 color coverage, a resolution of 3840 x 2160 (UHD), a typical brightness of 250 nits, a response time of 0.03ms (GTG), VES Display True Black 400, two 5W speakers, and various connectivity options.

The spec sheet also states the FO32U2 has 2x HDMI 2.1, 1x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x USB Type-C with power delivery up to 18W, 2x USB 3.0 downstream ports, 1x USB 3.0 upstream port, 1x 3.5mm headphone jack, and 1x microphone jack. The FO32U2 is seemingly exactly the same as the FO32U2P, but with one difference: it features DisplayPort 1.4 instead of DisplayPort 2.1.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is officially coming after Apple and its walled-garden ecosystem, with the regulator claiming Apple has forced its way into becoming a monopoly that gained it an "astronomical valuation" at the expense of consumers, developers, and competing phone makers.

The new lawsuit filed on Thursday by the DOJ states that Apple implemented changes such as blocking cross-platform messaging apps, limiting third-party wallet and smartphone compatibility, disrupted non-Appe Store programs/cloud streaming services in an effort to keep consumers purchasing iPhones. CNBC reports that Apple's fight against the lawsuit will cost the company money, which may prevent it from releasing new products and services, thus hurting consumer demand.

Notably, 16 attorneys general stated that Apple's ecosystem anticompetitive tactics are also within its advertising, browser, FaceTime, and news offering, with Attorney General Merrick Garland saying in the recent release, "If left unchallenged, Apple will only continue to strengthen its smartphone monopoly." An Apple spokesperson told CNBC that the company completely disagreed with the lawsuit and would defend against it.

A new report from 404 Media has highlighted at least several instances of scientific journals publishing papers that were seemingly generated using artificial intelligence-powered tools such as ChatGPT.

The report states that AI-generated papers are being published in academic journals, which has raised the question of the impact of AI-powered tools on academia as a whole. The report cites Google Scholar, a journal database, and when searching this database with phrases such as "As of my last knowledge update" and "I don't have access to real-time data," two phrases commonly used by AI in its responses to prompts from users, more than 100 studies become listed.

It's unclear if these papers were entirely generated by AI, or AI was used to assist their creation. However, 404 Media reports at least one paper appears to be flagrantly submitted to a respected chemistry journal, Surfaces and Interfaces. The paper was published after peer review and didn't even remove the AI-powered chatbot's introduction.

Last week, astronomers witnessed a massive swirl of white light seemingly appear out of thin air in the night sky above the Arctic.

Reports indicate that this swirl of bright white light can be traced back to Elon Musk's rocket company, SpaceX. The rare phenomenon is being described by astronomers as a "SpaceX spiral" and is caused by an illuminated cloud of frozen fuel that was dumped by a SpaceX rocket while transporting cargo to low-Earth orbit. Astronomers expect to see many more of these "SpaceX spirals" as the company continues to advance its rocket technology and conduct more frequent launches into orbit.

So, what rocket caused this ethereal white spiral? SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket on March 4 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, transporting 53 satellites into Earth's orbit. The mission was a success, and shortly after the payload of the rocket (the satellites) was deployed, the rocket's second stage, already detached from the first stage booster, began to re-enter Earth's atmosphere. As the rocket plummets toward Earth's surface, it begins to spin, dump its fuel, and burn up. The Falcon 9 first stage burned up above the Barents Sea in the Arctic.

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) earlier this year was littered with new dazzling TV models from Samsung, and now we have finally got the pricing/preorder on the company's 2024 line-up.

Right at the top of the line of new 2024 TVs is Samsung's Neo QLED 8K models that arrive in 65-inch, 75-inch, and 85-inch. These 8K displays are what Samsung describes as its "slimmest, most premium 8K TV to ever hit the market", and seemingly like most pieces of tech these days it comes with AI features with TV being capable of upscaling content to 8K. This feature is necessary because of the lack of easily accessible 8K content. Notably, the AI Upscaling Pro feature is also capable of upscaling HD and SD media into 4K. Prices for QN800D start at $3,500, and the QN900D starts at $5,000.

Next is Samsung's new line of 4K TVs, which come in the following sizes: 43-inch, 50-inch, 55-inch, 65-inch, 75-inch, 85-inch, and 98-inch. The two series of 4K TVs are the QN90D, which starts at $1,500, and the QN85D, which starts at $1,400. Samsung's new 4K TVs come with much of the same technology as the 8K line, but they have feature limitations, such as AI upscaling technology that only reaches 4K from HD / SD. The notable difference between the QN90D and QN85D series is the maximum refresh rate, with the QN90D being 144Hz, and the QN85D being 120Hz.

SpaceX recently hit a milestone with its third orbital launch of Starship, the world's largest and most powerful rocket.

On March 14, Starship took to the skies in its third orbital launch attempt, and while the mission ended in a fiery explosion, it was deemed a success by SpaceX as Starship officially reached orbit, checking off a major milestone for the company in its quest to create a viable transportation method to the Moon, Mars and beyond. As with every flight of Starship, and every rocket for that matter, engineers gather the data from the flight, analyze it, and make the appropriate changes to the design of the rocket to improve the chances of success for the next flight.

Upon re-entry, SpaceX was forced to execute a RUD protocol, or "rapid unscheduled disassembly," or boom. RUD was executed due both stages of the rocket, the Super Heavy booster, and Ship, breaking a part during their descent back through Earth's atmosphere. Now, SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell has revealed at the Satellite 2024 conference in Washington on Tuesday March 19 that SpaceX is aiming to get Starship back into the skies for its fourth test flight in "about six weeks".

MSI has announced a new affordable gear range, the FORGE Series. This range will comprise FORCE G for gamers and FORGE (non-G), which is "ideal for office use and professional environments." The first products to carry the new FORGE branding are the FORGE GK100 keyboard and FORGE GM100 mouse, available as part of the FORGE GK100 COMBO.

The first thing that stands out here is the FORGE GK100 keyboard's physical design and look. It looks like a PC gaming peripheral from the early 2000s-the complete opposite of the more minimal keyboard designs of recent years. MSI made a bold choice, and it will be interesting to see if it catches on. If you're a fan of angles and sci-fi flourishes with plenty of RGB, you're sorted.

Based on the specs, at least with this first offering, the FORGE series should be affordable for budget-conscious gamers. MSI describes the switches as "durable" but provides no other information, so they're likely not mechanical. The FORGE GM100 mouse also sports a modest 6,400 DPI optical sensor.

This might be one of the best-looking custom case designs we've seen in a while, mainly because Chinese custom case experts Xikii have built it specifically for the ASUS ProArt GeForce RTX 4070 Ti. The case showcases ASUS's minimal and stylish GPU and its cooling, and the case colors and overall aesthetic are in step with the GPU.

It's a compact 9.8L case built around a single GPU series, ASUS's ProArt range designed for creators. The effect is striking because the GPU and case are a single piece, including the amber lighting, which matches the ProArt GPU's gold or bronze touches.

This case stands out because the GPU isn't hidden here, which usually happens with SFF and compact builds. GPU dimensions limit the versatility of this type of design, but we'd love to see other modders take the idea of "showcasing the GPU" and apply it to case mods.

NVIDIA announced its new Blackwell B200 AI GPUs at its GPU Technology Conference (GTC) event this week, with news that the company is bringing OpenUSD-based Omniverse enterprise digital twins to Apple's new Vision Pro headset.

NVIDIA announced a new software framework built on Omniverse Cloud APIs, which allows developers to send their Universe Scene Description (OpenUSD) industrial scenes from their content creation applications, to the NVIDIA Graphics Delivery Network (GDN). NVIDIA's global network of graphics-ready data centers are capable of streaming advanced 3D experiences to the Apple Vision Pro headset.

The company showed a demo off at GTC 2024 that included an interactive, physically accurate digital twin of a car streamed at full quality to Apple Vision Pro and its high-resolution displays. The demo featured a designer wearing the Apple Vision Pro, using a car configurator application called Katana, developed by CGI studio, powered by NVIDIA's own Omniverse platform.

A top US admiral has just testified that China is building its military and nuclear arsenal on a scale not since seen World War II, preparing to invade Taiwan by 2027.

Admiral John Aquilino, the leader of the Indo-Pacific Command, told the US House Armed Services Committee in a prepared testimony on Tuesday that Beijing's defense budget has ballooned by 16% over the last few years to over $223 billion. In the three years since he's taken command, he said that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) had added another 400 fighter jets and 20 new major warships to its arsenal. Admiral Aquilino said China has doubled its ballistic and cruise missile inventory since 2020.

Admiral Aquilino said: "All indications point to the PLA meeting President Xi Jinping's directive to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. The PLA's actions indicate their ability to meet Xi's preferred time-line to unify Taiwan with mainland China by force if directed".

NVIDIA has finally unveiled its next-gen Blackwell B200 AI GPU and new DGX systems for the future of AI, with CEO Jensen Huang saying that his company needs to focus on both compliance and resilience when it comes to serving the Chinese market.

Jensen noted that many parts of NVIDIA's systems are made in China, saying "that's just the truth," and that NVIDIA needs to do everything in its power to create more resilience in the supply chain. Jensen said: "There are two things we have to do right away. One is to make sure we understand the policies and comply. And the other is to do everything we can to create more resilience in our supply chain".

Jensen noted that many of NVIDIA's systems use parts made in China, where the NVIDIA CEO added: "That's just the truth," adding that the same thing is true for both the auto and defense industries. Jensen continued: "The supply chain of the world is quite complicated. We have every confidence that the goal of the nations is not adversarial... the doomsday scenario is not likely to happen".

Blizzard held a lengthy Diablo 4 'Campfire Chat' this week, where the team discussed major changes coming to the game in Season 4. A complete overhaul of itemization, crafting, and enchanting has many excited for what feels like the game's Diablo 3 "Loot 2.0" update. In addition, a new endgame mode called The Pit sees players racing against the clock in increasingly more challenging dungeons - ala Diablo 3 'Greater Rifts.'

Players can expect massive, fundamental changes that make loot drops feel important and special on the item and loot side. Items are being simplified with fewer and more meaningful aspects while ensuring that only 'Sacred' items appear in World Tier 3 and only 'Ancestral' items appear in World Tier 4. With less clutter and expanded trading to allow players to trade Legendary and Unique items, this feeds into the new Tempering and Materworking crafting systems.

It works fairly straightforwardly. Tempering is all about adding affixes from special books or crafting manuals - so if you're a Necromancer who loves minions, you can temper pet-related bonuses. Each class, skill, and playstyle is being overhauled, and item affixes are being updated to celebrate Diablo 4's kinetic action.

Xbox users will have to buy a new type of premium currency in order to play the full version of Final Fantasy XIV, and it's priced so that gamers may have to overspend when trying to purchase Entry monthly subscriptions.

A bit ago, Square Enix announced that Final Fantasy XIV on Xbox would have two strict requirements. The first is that Xbox Game Pass subscriptions are required to play the MMORPG on Xbox consoles. This a stark contrast to FFXIV on PlayStation, which does not require PS Plus in order to play.

The second mandate was more controversial. The publisher says that Xbox gamers can only pay for Final Fantasy XIV game time and in-game purchases with a new premium currency called FFXIV Coins. It's a subscription-based game, so all users must pay a set fee to play FFXIV on all platforms. It's just that Xbox gamers can't buy game time directly from Square Enix and must first exchange their cash for in-game currency.

Micron has announced that it has sold out of its HBM3E memory supply for 2024, and that most of its HBM3E memory has been allocated for 2025.

We are to expect Micron's latest HBM3E memory to be inside of NVIDIA's beefed-up H200 AI GPU, with the US company competing against HBM rivals in South Korea with Samsung and SK hynix. Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra talked about HBM supply in a recent earnings call, where we're finding out the new information.

Sanjay Mehrotra, chief executive of Micron, said: "Our HBM is sold out for calendar 2024, and the overwhelming majority of our 2025 supply has already been allocated. We continue to expect HBM bit share equivalent to our overall DRAM bit share sometime in calendar 2025. We are on track to generate several hundred million dollars of revenue from HBM in fiscal 2024 and expect HBM revenues to be accretive to our DRAM and overall gross margins starting in the fiscal third quarter".

Samsung wasn't the only one showing off next-gen GDDR7 memory chips at NVIDIA's GPU Technology Conference (GTC) 2024 event, with SK hynix also having some GDDR7 on the show floor. Check it out:

Our friends over at HardwareLuxx were on the show floor at NVIDIA GTC 2024, spotting SK hynix's new GDDR7 memory modules that offer up to 40Gbps per pin for up to 160GB/sec memory bandwidth per module. We've heard and reported that GDDR7 memory will start its life at 28Gbps on NVIDIA's next-gen GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs, with refreshes along the way packing higher-speed GDDR7 modules.

Samsung has claimed it is working on 37Gbps GDDR7 memory while also showing off next-gen 32Gbps and 28Gbps GDDR7 memory modules at NVIDIA GTC 2024. We should expect NVIDIA to roll out GeForce RTX 50 series graphics cards with 28Gbps GDDR7 memory, but I would lean more towards 32Gbps GDDR7 to give them a huge performance leap over the GDDR6X-based flagship GeForce RTX 4090.

AOC has just unveiled its new AGON PRO AG456UCZD gaming monitor, with a huge 44.5-inch OLED panel, native 3440 x 1440 resolution, 21:9 aspect ratio, and uber-smooth 240Hz refresh rate. Check it out:

AOC's new AGON PRO AG456UCZD gaming monitor offers an 800R curative, which is perfect for sim games, something that the company is pushing with its marketing on the monitor. The company has designed the new AGON PRO AG456UCZD gaming monitor with a borderless design on all four sides, which lets gamers get consumed in their game.

The OLED panel will offer beautiful blacks, colors, vibrancy, and responsiveness no matter what you're playing: first-person shooters, driving games, or even something like Star Citizen. One of the leading sim-racing esports teams, G2 Esports, is sponsored by AGON by AOC and is impressed with the new AG456UCZD. Professional sim-racer Isaac Price who plays for G2 Esports, said: "The AGON PRO AG456UCZD is such an immersive monitor that I can't leave the game anymore".

Apple has long been rumored to be readying the launch of new iPad Air and iPad Pro tablets within the next few weeks, but it turns out that a report the new tablets will be unveiled on March 26 might have been wide of the mark.

That March 26 date was first suggested by the leaker Instant Digital via the Weibo social network, but Bloomberg's Mark Gurman now says that date is wrong, although he didn't clarify when the new tablets will actually be announced.

Gurman had however previously suggested that Apple would not be able to release the new iPads until it had completed a software update that will run on the new tablets. That update needs to be finished and then sent to factories to be preinstalled on the new tablets and that process was always thought to be unlikely to happen before the end of March. Instead, he believes that Apple would more likely announce the new iPad Air and iPad Pro in April.

The Apple Vision Pro headset has been on sale for a few weeks now, and Apple has today released a new software update for those who have picked one of the spatial computers up. The new update is of course a free download for owners of the headset and everyone should install the visionOS 1.1.1 software update as soon as possible. Just don't expect anything in terms of new features and exciting upgrades, however.

The new software update is available via the Settings app on the Apple Vision Pro, found in the General section. The Apple Vision Pro needs to be taken off during the update process and a restart will of course happen, while the progress bar can be seen via the EyeSight display on the front of the headset.

In terms of the update, there are no big new features here but the update is still worth downloading. Apple says that it includes important security fixes and security updates which means that it is a release that people should install as soon as possible to ensure that they're using the most secure software available.

Apple regularly releases new software updates for the iPhone and iPad and today saw the arrival of new software for both of those two devices. Owners of devices that are compatible with iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 now have new releases available although the iOS 17.4.1 and iPadOS 17.4.1 updates won't bring with them any high new features for people to sink their teeth into.

The new updates are both available for download via the software update mechanism found in the Settings app and the downloads aren't big ones by normal standards. The reason for that is likely their content - Apple says that these updates offer important bug fixes and security improvements which means that people are recommended to download and install them sooner rather than later.

It isn't currently clear exactly which bug fixes Apple believes that it has fixed this time out, but the security improvements are always worth having regardless. Apple has also released iOS 16.7.7 with the same security fixes for devices that do not support iOS 17, suggesting that the fixes are important ones.