Latest News - Page 651

MeLE has just revealed its new stick PC, featuring an Intel N100 "Alder Lake-N" processor, which will fit in your pocket. Check it out:

The new MeLE pocket-sized PC measures just 146 x 61 x 20mm and weighs only 184g, which makes it about the size of a regular smartphone. Inside, we've got the Intel N100 "Alder Lake-N" processor with 4 cores -- all Efficient cores --operating at between 800MHz and 3.4GHz.

We've got 8GB or 16GB of LPDDR4X-4266 memory and either 128GB or 256GB of eMMC storage, which isn't expandable. MeLE includes two USB 3.2 ports for external storage if needed. On the GPU side of things, the MeLE pocket-sized PC features Intel UHD graphics with 24 Execution Units, which support dual 4K 60Hz displays. There's no DisplayPort here, but there is USB Type-C, which unfortunately doesn't have DP Alt mode.

Uh-oh... it's starting again... AMD's current-gen Ryzen 9 7950X processor has become a super-popular CPU for crypto mining, earning higher profits than some of the fastest GPUs on the market.

Our friends at Wccftech are reporting that because of the rise of Bitcoin pricing, CPUs are being used for crypto mining, whereas Qubic (QBIC), crypto miners are using CPUs that have AVX2 and AVX512 instructions on the Zen 4 architecture, which are great for crypto mining. Intel dropped AVX512 support for its processors, starting with Alder Lake, seeing crypto miners flocking to Ryzen 7000 series processors.

AMD processors were used for Raptoreum mining algorithms, using the huge L3 cache on Ryzen and Threadripper CPUs. 3D V-Cache models featured gigantic pools of cache stacked on the chips, perfect for crypto mining. Qubic (QBIC) coins generate a profit of around $3 per 24 hours, including the electricity cost of running a Ryzen 9 7950X processor, even at 170W of power consumption.

Samsung is reportedly using MUF technology for its next-gen HBM chip production, with the South Korean giant reportedly issuing purchasing orders for MUF tools.

The company says that the "rumors" it will use MUF technology are "not true," according to Reuters, which is reporting the news. HBM makers like SK hynix, Micron, and Samsung are all fighting for the future of HBM technology and future-gen AI GPUs, and it seems Samsung has its tail between its legs now.

One reason Samsung is falling behind is that it has stuck with its chip-making technology, non-conductive film (NCF), which has caused production issues. Meanwhile, HBM competitor and South Korean rival SK Hynix has switched to mass reflow molded underfill (MR-MUF) to work through NCF's weakness, "according to analysts and industry watchers," reports Reuters.

Sycom has announced two new GPUs for its 'Silent Master' range: the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER and the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER. Like previous releases in the series, the Japanese company has partnered with Noctua to deliver its whisper-quiet GPU cooling, powered by Noctua's flagship NF-A12x25 PWM fans.

Throw in a custom fan cover and steel frame from Japanese company Nagao Manufacturing Co., Ltd, generous heat sinks with copper pipes, and a metal backplate, and you've got near-silent performance even when under load. Sycom claims 31.4 dB noise levels for the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER when idle and 42.1 dB under load - a full 12 dB quieter than the competition.

Plus, the use of Noctua fans also keeps temperatures down - with Sycom saying you can expect the GPU to run with temperatures around 5 degrees cooler than the competition. And you're looking at two fans instead of the traditional three for a high-end GPU. However, there is a catch - a big one. Literally.

Seasonic has just upgraded its GPU cables for some of its power supply units with upgraded H++ connectors that are compliant with the new PCIe Gen5 and ATX3 standards.

The new 12V-2x6 power connectors now replace the current H+ (12VHPWR) power cables, with three versions of the cable specifically made by Seasonic for its power supplies. The new native 12V-2x6 power cable is compatible across multiple Seasonic ATX 3.0 power supplies, including the Prime TX, Prime PX, Vertex GX/PX, and Focus GX power supplies.

These cables won't work with ATX2-based power supplies, but the new native cables feature blue connectors on one side, which is nice to see. If you see blue, you know your cable isn't connected properly... nice and easy installation from Seasonic here.

NVIDIA kicked off 2024 with the release of its GeForce RTX 40 SUPER Series refresh, which included three GPUs: the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER, and the GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER. With improved performance and, in some cases, new pricing (the RTX 4080 SUPER got a sizable price cut), it reshuffled the GeForce RTX 40 Series line-up with more choices.

This has led to increased competition, with AMD lowering the price of some of its RDNA Radeon RX 7000 Series GPUs in recent months (like the Radeon RX 7900 XT and Radeon RX 7700 XT) and even introducing a new model - the Radeon RX 7900 GRE - in the competitive $500 to $600 USD price range. Fluctuating GPU pricing is not unusual in the current climate, nor is it seeing things stabilizing and sticking closer to MSRP.

However, in one market - Germany - the entire GeForce RTX 40 SUPER Series is currently being sold for less than the MSRP. This information comes from ComputerBase (via Videocardz), which reports that cards like the GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER are available in the country for prices well below MSRP.

HBM3E memory is about to be unleashed with NVIDIA's upcoming beefed-up H200 AI GPU, but now JEDEC has reportedly relaxed the rules for HBM4 memory configurations.

JEDEC has reportedly reduced the package thickness of HBM4 down to 775 micrometers for both 12-layer and 16-layer HBM4 stacks, as it gets more complex at higher thickness levels, making it easier... especially as HBM makers fly in the face of insatiable demand for AI GPUs (now, and into the future with HBM4-powered chips).

HBM manufacturers, including SK hynix, Micron, and Samsung, were poised to use hybrid bonding with the process, a newer packaging technology, and more to reduce the package thickness of HBM4, which uses direct bonding with the onboard chip and wafer. However, HBM4, being a new technology, sees that hybrid bonding would increase pricing, making HBM4-powered AI GPUs of the future even more expensive.

Designed for the "modern mobile gamer," the Lenovo Legion Tab is an 8.8-inch Android tablet for mobile gaming that the company is bringing to more regions. Originally available in China, the Lenovo Legion Tab will soon be available in EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia) for €599 (including VAT).

As far as tablets go, this one is powerful, thanks to its Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 4nm processor, 12Gb of LPDDR5X memory, 256GB of onboard storage, and 144 Hz QHD+ Lenovo PureSight display. Unlike the Lenovo Legion Go, a Windows 11 gaming handheld, the Legion Tab is designed to play Android-compatible games. Plus, cloud-based gaming with Xbox Game Pass and GeForce NOW.

Other notable features of the Lenovo Legion Tab are its support for USB Type-C display output (DisplayPort 1.4) so you can connect the device to an external display, the large 6550mAh battery for long gaming sessions, and the integrated haptics.

Cerebras Systems just unveiled its new WSE-3 AI chip with 4 trillion transistors and 900,000 AI-optimized cores... as well as its new CS-3 AI supercomputer.

The new CS-3 AI supercomputer has enough power to train models that are 10x larger than GPT-4 and Gemini, which is thanks to its gigantic memory pool. Cerebras Systems' new CS-3 AI supercomputer has been designed for enterprise and hyperscale users, delivering huge performance efficiency gains over current AI GPUs.

The new Condor Galaxy 3 supercomputer features 64 x CS-3 AI systems, packing 8 Exaflops of AI compute performance, which is double the performance of the previous system, but at the same power... and the same cost.

Cerebras Systems has just revealed its third-generation wafer-scale engine (WSE) chip, WSE-3, which packs 4 trillion transistors and 900,000 AI-optimized cores.

The company hasn't stopped on its journey of AI processor releases, with some truly crazy specifications for Cerebras' new WSE-3 chip. We have 4 trillion transistors, 900,000 AI-optimized cores, 125 petaflops of peak AI performance, and 44GB of on-chip SRAM made on the 5nm process node at TSMC.

WSE-3 also features either 1.5TB, 12TB, or 1.2PB of external memory -- yeah, 1.2 petabytes of memory -- capable of training AI models with up to 24 trillion parameters. Cerebras says its new WSE-3 has a die size of 46,225mm2, which is an insane 57x larger than NVIDIA's current H100 AI GPU, which measures 826mm2.

Intel's Core i9-14900KS, the limited edition flavor of the flagship for Raptor Lake Refresh, should arrive tomorrow if the rumors are right - and MSI is set to offer a one-click option to further pep up this CPU.

As you likely won't have failed to notice, the Core i9-14900KS is set to have a boost speed of up to 6.2GHz out of the box (for the 8 performance cores, that is).

However, as noticed by leaker chi11eddog on X (formerly Twitter), MSI has just added new overclocking profiles for the 14900KS, with the firm's 'P-Core Beyond 6 GHz+' one-click feature allowing for a dead easy overclock to 6.4GHz.

If you've looked at the price of Apple TV+ and wished that it was just a little bit cheaper, you might be in for some good news if a new report is anything to go by. According to that report, Apple has hired a former NBCUniversal ad exec and that suggests that the company is getting ready to bring an ad-supported tier to the Apple TV+ streaming service for the first time.

Other streaming services like Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, and Disney+ all offer ad-supported tiers as a way for people to pay less to access their streaming wares. In exchange for a cheaper subscription, people have to watch some ads before and sometimes during their content. Now, Apple might be ready to go a similar route.

The ad exec in question is Joseph Cady, a man who had worked at NBCUniversal for 14 years. Business Insider reports that his most recent title was EVP of advanced advertising and partnerships, a role that meant he was in charge of data-driven and targeted TV advertising. Cady was also involved in new partnerships between NBCUniversal and Amazon, Google, TikTok, and others.

Every so often we see a flurry of rumors that suggest Apple is getting ready to unveil a new iPhone SE model, with the current iPhone SE 3 starting to look a little too long in the tooth. It still has a Home button for example, and amid a lineup that is full of Face ID devices and edge-to-edge displays, the iPhone SE 3 is due to be replaced. The iPhone SE 4 is what's been heavily rumored, but you might not want to buy one.

The iPhone SE 4 is tipped to be based on the iPhone 14 design, which is no bad thing. That will mean the use of a notch, but it's thought that rather than have a Face ID system it will instead have a Touch ID sensor built into the power button just like some of Apple's iPads. But a new report looking into how quickly Apple's iPhone SE models lose their value has added new color to the buying decision - and you might be better just buying a cheaper iPhone 13 or iPhone 14 instead.

That's because, as SellCell reports, the iPhone SE has historically lost its value much more quickly than any other model that Apple sells. As an example, the iPhone SE 3 went on sale in March 2022 but lost 42.6% of its value within the first month. After three months, it had lost 47.1%. After 18 months it was worth a fraction of its original $429-$579 asking price after losing a whopping 64.7%.

Google has taken something of a different direction with its Google Play Games app for Windows 11 (or Windows 10) PCs, adding actual PC games to the service.

For the uninitiated, Google Play Games previously allowed for playing certain Android games on a Windows PC, with the app being released a few years back.

Now, though, the library will contain not just mobile games but actual PC titles - though the question is, which ones?

Microsoft's Copilot just got a lot better for users of the free version of the AI with the introduction of the GPT-4 Turbo model.

Previously, GPT-4 Turbo was only available to paying subscribers - those on Copilot Pro. However, as Mikhail Parakhin, head of Advertising and Web Services at Microsoft, made clear on X (formerly Twitter), the more advanced model is now available to those on the freebie version of Copilot.

Free users were on vanilla GPT-4 up until now, with the Turbo version - which provides faster responses, and better, more accurate ones, to boot - effectively paywalled.

The Apple Vision Pro isn't just for having fun around the house or out in public, it has practical uses within hospitals, according to a recent report from Business Insider.

The report details a success story of surgeons at London's Cromwell Hospital using Apple's first-generation product to assist in two micro spinal procedures, which has been deemed a first in the UK and Europe. The two surgeons, Mr. Fady Sedra and Mr. Syed Aftab, used the eXeX software, which is an AI program designed for surgical organization and workflow optimization to enable hands-free access to important documentation on the patients and about the procedure.

According to Aftab the experience with working with the eXeX software greatly improved the way the surgeons were "able to deliver care to our patients" and the software provided a seamless interaction that has led to "improved efficiency within the Complex Spine team". This achievement highlights the potential for the Apple Vision Pro within workplaces and the multitude of use cases Apple's spatial computing software can provide users.

When Apple released the iOS 17.4 update earlier this month it made a few big changes to the way the iPhone is used in the European Union. One of those changes was to allow support for third-party app stores while allowing developers to offer their apps for installation via their own website is a feature that will come in due course. But one notable change was a new screen that appears the first time someone opens Safari and asks whether they would like to choose a different default browser.

The list of browsers that are shown is generated at random, but the company that makes one of those browsers says that it has already noticed a huge spike in the number of downloads as a result of this change, suggesting that Apple's Safari did indeed have an outsized portion of the market as a result of being the default browser on iPhones.

While Apple has offered users the chance to change the default web browser for some time now, it's a feature that has perhaps not been that well-known among users. For that reason, it was argued that Apple should present the option to choose a new default the first time that Safari is launched after installing the iOS 17.4 update. Brave is one of the browsers listed as an option and in a post on the X social network the company shared a graph that shows the boost in downloads the app has seen since the update arrived.

If you're a Spotify Premium subscriber in one of a number of countries you will soon be able to watch music videos as you listen to your favorite songs. That's what Spotify has today confirmed in a press release that notes the feature is still in a beta form and that it will roll out to 11 countries starting today.

The list of countries that will see the new music video feature arrive starting today includes the U.K., Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Brazil, Colombia, Philippines, Indonesia, and Kenya. Spotify Premium subscribers in those markets can now watch music videos via the iPhone, Android, and desktop apps as well as their TV by selecting the "Switch to Video" toggle on supported songs.

It's important to remember that music videos are not currently available for all songs that can be listened to via Spotify, but the limited collection right now includes songs from global artists like Ed Sheeran, Doja Cat, and Ice Spice, or local favorites like Aluna and Asake. Spotify does say that it hopes to expand the catalog of music videos and bring the feature to more countries in the future, so hang fire if your country isn't listed or your favorite artist's videos aren't yet available.

Apple has long been rumored to want to switch a future Apple Watch Ultra to new microLED display technology but recent reports again suggest that the company might be having issues in finding a supplier for those displays.

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday, a company that produces manufacturing equipment Kulicke & Soffa reported that one of its "strategic customers" has now canceled a project related to the "advanced display" market. While there was no clarification on who the customer is or what the display would be, display analyst Ross Young suggests that this is related to Apple's future Apple Watch Ultra plans.

The project, previously called Project W, the project was thought to be related to a microLED watch and as a result of the cancelation, it's said there will be up to £140 million in surcharges.

A 59-foot-rocket designed by Japan's first private space company to launch a satellite has exploded just seconds after getting off the launch pad.

Space One, the company behind the rocket conducted its inaugural launch on Wednesday in an attempt to become the Japan's first private company to put a satellite into orbit. However, the flight of the rocket was "interrupted" seemingly seconds after the go button was pressed as the 59-foot, four-stage solid-fuel rocket exploded just seconds after lift off. The rocket explosion resulted in a plume of smoke, multiple fires, and fragments landing on and around the launch pad.

At the moment, it remains unclear if anyone was injured as a result of the explosion, but typically, during a time of launch, the pad where the rocket is stationed is completely cleared of any people - for this exact reason. Additionally, it remains unclear why the rocket called Kairos exploded, but what is known is that it was carrying an experimental government satellite designed to temporarily replace Japan's intelligence satellites if they happened to be knocked offline.