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Apple's design for its secret electric vehicle is nothing like you would have expected
It was only a few weeks ago that Apple axed its secretive electric vehicle project internally called Project Titan, and now we have received more details about what the company was working on.
Rumors surrounding an Apple Car have been circulating the internet for 10 years now, with as many as 5,000 employees working on the project at its height of development to 1,400 recently being given the choice of finding a division of the company to enter or laid off. Throughout those 10 years of development, hardly any details about Project Titan were leaked, but now the project is officially canceled Bloomberg's Apple insider Mark Gurman now has many details about it, including what the secret EV would have looked like.
According to the insider, Apple's EV 2020 design was similar to a Canoo Lifestyle Vehicle, or a futuristic minivan that featured adjustable window tint, an all-glass sunroof, a white exterior, whitewall tires, an identical front and back, and full self-driving optimizations. In Apple fashion, the design of Project Titan was completely unique, with its interior echoing Apple's iconic minimalistic design approach, which is seen across all its products. The report states its interior would have featured "seats you'd normally see on a private jet or limousine," and when seated, it felt like sitting in a "contoured bubble."
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50 Series to use 28Gbps GDDR7 memory, 33% higher bandwidth than RTX 4090
NVIDIA's next-gen GeForce RTX 50 Series of GPUs, the 'Blackwell' generation, is on track to launch either later this year or early next year, with the flagship GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 leading the pack.
Rumors point to impressive performance gains, part of which could come from NVIDIA's use of next-gen GDDR7 memory. We've been following this closely here at TweakTown, with recent word from a well-known industry insider and leaker "kopite7kimi" confirming on X that the flagship Blackwell GPUs in the upcoming GeForce RTX 50 Series would be using a similar memory interface as the existing GeForce RTX 40 Series.
That would mean the same 384-bit for the GeForce RTX 5090 found in the GeForce RTX 4090. So, where does GDDR7 fit into this picture? Especially now, with new info emerging about its speed.
Final Fantasy XVI's PC spec requirements will be 'somewhat high', Yoshi-P says
Final Fantasy XVI's incoming PC port is almost finished and is set to meet its targeted 2024 release date.
Similar its predecessor, FF16 is also coming to PC, and sooner than later from the sound of it. Game producer Naoki Yoshi-P Yoshida tells Game Informer than FF16's PC version is on its last legs of development, and that the team has entered the optimization phase to ensure the game can run on as many PC configurations as possible.
"In terms of where we are in development currently, we're trying to figure out the final stages of optimization right now. When we can release the PC version might be dependent on the system requirements and specifications for PC that players will need, so we're trying to figure that out," Yoshi-P said in a recent interview with Game Informer.
Another sealed 4GB iPhone is up for auction and it could sell for an incredible sum
If you're walking around today with an iPhone 15 in your pocket, it's important to remember where that phone came from. The original iPhone shipped in 2007 with just 4GB of storage and it wasn't anywhere near as popular as you might think if you see how many modern iPhones are floating around today. But like so many things we only really appreciate the iPhone now that it's vintage, and if you want to buy one it's going to cost a small fortune - especially if you want an original 4G model that's sealed.
Right now there's one of those 2007 4GB iPhones available for auction, and if it's anything like previous auctions of this kind, things are going to get messy. One of these iPhones selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars isn't beyond the realms of possibility - we've seen it happen before - so all eyes will be on LCG Auctions to see what happens here. The bidding is currently at $10,000 with another two weeks remaining.
This original iPhone is factory sealed as mentioned and there is apparently no sign of fading on the front of the box - where all the best artwork is. Seven of the eight corners are sharp and all edges are flawless, making this about as pristine of an example as you're likely to find. The deal is clean and the auction describes the overall looks described as having very light shelfwear. The iPhone inside is of course brand-new and has never been activated and it probably never will be - assuming such a thing is even possible in 2024.
Is this the future of portable gaming? Compal's concept gaming tablet has an ace up its sleeve
We've been submerged in a steady stream of gaming handhelds of late, but what about a gaming tablet, of sorts. It's a bad idea, you say?
Well, hold your horses there, because there's a new concept design for such a device - well, technically a 2-in-1, as you can pair it with a keyboard and use it as a laptop - which has won an iF Design Award (in the Gaming category).
This is the Compal Rover Play (Compal is an ODM in Taiwan) and at first glance it looks like a normal tablet, but the clever bit for gamers is the 'FlexiRear Controller' around the back of the device.
New iPad Pro, iPad Air models again tipped for 'end of March' or April launch
There have been persistent rumors that Apple intends to launch a bevy of new iPads sooner rather than later and that has again been reiterated by the usually well-connected Mark Gurman. The Bloomberg'g journalist was writing in the weekly Power On newsletter when he again suggested that we should see new iPads launch soon.
If correct, there will be two new iPad Pro and two new iPad Air models for tablet lovers to pick up and they could debut as soon as the end of this month. If that doesn't happen we shouldn't have to wait too much longer, however, with Gurman saying that April will be the latest the new tablets will ship.
With Gurman now saying that the new iPads will debut either in late March or April we can put to bed any hopes that they will arrive this week.
Micro Center leaks Intel Core i9-14900KS CPU price, and it's the most expensive KS ever at $749
If you were thinking about buying the incoming flagship refresh of the Core i9-14900K, then be warned - it's a bit pricier than we were expecting.
Naturally, Intel's limited edition KS processors - highly binned versions of the flagship CPU from their respective families - are always pricey, but the Core i9-14900KS is going to push even further with the demand it makes on your wallet.
As VideoCardz noticed, Micro Center briefly aired the price of the 14900KS (the product listing has since been removed), and it's $749 in the US.
PUBG developers confirm destructible environments and switch to Unreal Engine 5
PUBG: Battleground has announced some major changes expected to hit the popular battle royale title throughout 2024, and two of them are the adoption of destructible environments and the switch to Unreal Engine 5.
The team behind PUBG has taken to the official PUBG: Battlegrounds YouTube channel and a blog post to explain what players can expect from the battle royale title in terms of coming updates. The roadmap blog post confirms destructible environments are coming to the game, and it will enable players to add more strategy to their gameplay as they will be able to "destroy sections of buildings" and terrain.
The developers plan on releasing destruction elements in an update that is expected to arrive sometime in April, with more updates on environmental destruction planned in future updates. As for Unreal Engine 5, the blog post reveals that PUBG will be switching to the latest Unreal Engine version and that its adoption will be "laying the groundwork" to create "User Generated Content (UGC) service. This ambitious initiative aims to empower our players with the tools to craft and engage with their own content, fostering a vibrant, creator-driven ecosystem."
iPhone owners could soon finally choose a default navigation app, but there's a catch
Apple has been making big changes to the iPhone of late, not least with the arrival of iOS 17.4. That update allows for third-party app stores and browser engines in the European Union, among other things, but that isn't the end of Apple's new features. Those changes were made in order to allow Apple to comply with the EU's Digital Markets Act, and there are more changes afoot.
Apple says that it will continue to make changes to iOS and the iPhone in order to better comply with DMA requirements, although they won't all need to be made any time soon. One of the changes that Apple has already confirmed is support for changing the default navigation app, but it won't arrive until March 2025 the company has confirmed.
9to5Mac spotted the reference in a new Apple document that outlines its plans to comply with the DMA. Apple says that it plans to introduce new default controls for users of navigation apps with the option set to live in the Settings app. However, Apple only aims to have that new option available by March 2025, which means we could be waiting almost a year for it to arrive.
Denver to pay $3.76m to innocent woman whose house its police raided based on Find My data
Apple's Find My network is pretty great when you lose your iPhone, AirPods, or if you have an AirTag, just about anything. But the network isn't perfect and that's what police in Denver found out when they raided the wrong person's home on the hunt for stolen gear. Now, that woman will be paid $3.76 million in compensation.
The woman, 78-year-old Ruby Johnson, will receive the money after police damaged and ransacked her Denver home with Apple's Find My app being the only source of information used ahead of the raid. The decision to award the money comes after a Colorado jury awarded the cash after she complained of severe physical and emotional distress.
The case saw two police officers sued as individuals but it's Denver that will stump up the cash despite finding that there were no policy violations and that there was no need for any disciplinary action. Both of the officers still work with the city.
Apple's already testing iOS 17.5 with a beta expected to be released soon
Apple might have only released iOS 17.4 last week but the new release train never stops, especially in Cupertino. Now, there is a new report that Apple is working on what comes next. And what comes after that, too.
The iOS 17.4 update brought with it support for third-party app stores in the European Union as well as a raft of other changes while those in other parts of the world benefited from new emojis and the addition of podcast episode transcriptions in the Apple Podcasts app. Now, MacRumors reports that Apple is internally testing iOS 17.4.1 for the iPhone based on evidence found in the website's logs over the last week. What's more, that isn't the only new update that's being worked on.
The iOS 17.4.1 update is likely to be a relatively minor one and will concentrate on fixing any bugs that were introduced with the iOS 17.4 update. We can also expect improvements to security as well, but it's as-yet unclear when we should expect that Apple will release that update to the public. It's unlikely that there will be any betas, however.
YouTuber fires .50 caliber bullet at Cybertruck to test its bullet proof metal
A YouTuber has decided to pull Tesla's claims about the Cybertruck being bulletproof to the test by firing various rounds at its stainless steel exterior.
YouTuber "JerryRigEverything" has gone from testing the durability of tech products, such as the latest mobile phones and the Apple Vision Pro, to now firing a .50 caliber rifle at a Tesla Cybertruck. Firstly, the YouTuber fires a 9mm handgun at the Cybertruck with 115-grain full metal jacket bullets. The Cybertruck's stainless steel alloy prevented each of the shots from going through the metal, proving Tesla's claims that the Cybertruck is "bulletproof".
However, two of the test shots landed in the same spot, cracking the metal exterior. Moving onto faster bullets, the YouTuber tests a 4.5 mm round, and an AR 5.56mm round, which both penetrated the metal exterior. The last test was easily the most interesting as a .50 caliber round was fired at the Cybertruck and unsurprisingly passing through both sides of the door.
Scientists create solar panels for your eyes designed to restore vision
Researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia, have announced they have made a breakthrough in the quest to create solar powered eye implants.
Eye implants such as these are designed to assist people with sign impairments and, if they ever come to fruition, will be able to greatly improve the quality of life of people suffering from degenerative eye diseases. The team is concentrating its efforts on using neuroprosthetic technology on people with damaged photoreceptors, which are specialized cells within the retina that absorb light and convert it into electrical signals that are sent to the visual cortex. In short, it is the part of the eye that helps register images.
Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and age-related macular degeneration (AMD), both of which degrade the part of the eye responsible for image registering. Researchers want to cure those diseases, and according to reports, solar photovoltaic panels will be able to generate enough electricity to power the sensor chips to restore vision to people suffering from these impairments. It works like this. Tiny solar cells are stacked on top of each other and then generate enough electricity to stimulate neurons that produce images.
Intel Lunar Lake leak suggests a powerful laptop CPU that runs rings around Meteor Lake
Intel's Lunar Lake mobile processors, which will, with any luck, arrive towards the end of this year, could offer a huge leap in performance compared to current Meteor Lake chips in laptops.
According to new info provided by a respected leaker on X (formerly Twitter), Bionic_Squash, Lunar Lake chips at 17W will be almost 1.5x faster in multi-threaded tasks than Meteor Lake-U (low power) at 15W. (VideoCardz spotted the tweet, by the way).
That's going by CineBench 23 and Geekbench 5 results, we are told, and that is a massive jump in efficiency if it's correct (adding a healthy portion of seasoning is standard procedure for rumors, particularly when a product isn't yet imminent).
Apple expects to shift up to 8.5 million OLED iPad Pros in 2024 as launch nears
Apple's long been rumored to be working on launching a pair of new iPad Pro tablets and it's now thought that they will arrive within the next few weeks - possibly as soon as this week - which means that the wheels must be very much in motion in terms of suppliers and mass production. Now, a report claims that Apple has ordered an estimated 8.5 million OLED panels from South Korea's Samsung Display and LG Display, with no work left over for Chinese outfit BOE and others.
The lack of a Chinese OLED manufacturer is thought to have captured the attention of those in the supply chain, DigiTimes reports. In terms of production, it's thought that LG Display will be producing OLED panels for use in the 12.9-inch iPad Pro with around 4.5 million units thought to be ordered. Samsung Display will be the supplier of the displays that will be used in the 11-inch iPad Pro with around four million units ordered.
The decision to use the two suppliers is thought to be down to concerns over the production yield of OLED displays with Apple thought to be striving for only the best display available. The OLED iPad Pro is expected to offer improved colors, better contrast, and more in order to produce the best iPad experience yet.
Apple's base model M3 MacBook Air is now way faster thanks to an SSD upgrade
Apple's new M3 MacBook Air went on sale last week and it's quickly proven to be a fast, quiet, and capable machine. And as people are starting to spend more time with the new laptop in its 13- and 15-inch guises we're starting to learn more and more about it. And one of those things will be music to the ears of those who plan on buying the entry-level 256GB configuration.
That's because while previous versions of the 256GB model of MacBook Air have offered slower SSD performance than those with more space, things seem to have been changed up this time out.
The issue that was experienced with previous MacBook Airs surrounded a slower SSD performance due to Apple's decision to ship those machines with a single 256GB NAND chip. That meant that the storage was limited to how quickly that chip could process data in an attempt to read and write files. Those who chose the 512GB storage option or higher received a different configuration. Those buying 512GB for two 256GB NAND chips while those buying 1TB got two 512GB chips, and so on. Now, Apple's M3 MacBook Air has changed things for those buying the 256GB SSD - it comes with two 128GB NAND chips.
Apple's iOS 18 update could make AirPods Pro a real alternative to traditional hearing aids
If Apple follows its usual release cadence we can expect it to announce a slew of new software updates in June during the WWDC event and then make them all available to the public around September time. We've been hearing tidbits about what those updates could have to offer with the iPhone's iOS 18 a particular focus. Now, a new report has added further fuel to the fire and it drags the AirPods Pro wireless earbuds into the mix, too.
According to the report, Apple's AirPods Pro will gain a whole new feature as part of the iOS 18 release, Specifically, it's thought that a new hearing aid feature is on the horizon and that it will only be available in conjunction with the AirPods Pro. However, it isn't yet clear whether that feature will only be available on the latest USB-C 2nd-gen AirPods Pro.
The news came via the paywalled version of the Power On newsletter shared every week by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. The newsletter was reported on by 9to5Mac.
SpaceX run last major test before its most anticipated event of the year
The most anticipated day of the year for SpaceX is less than a week away, as the world's largest and most powerful rocket is expected to take to the skies once again.
SpaceX is currently in its end preparations for the third orbital test flight of none other than Starship, the world's largest and most powerful rocket. The Elon Musk-led company has recently completed a test of its water deluge system, a critical component of the overall launch as it's designed to completely smother heat and the force generated by Starship's launch. Notably, previous generations of the water deluge system resulted in multi-month delays in Starship's launch as the entire launch pad was destroyed.
However, the rebuilt water deluge system has been tested and seemingly crossed off the to-do list ahead of the third orbital test flight. Additionally, SpaceX has learned a bunch about how Starship flies during its first and second orbital test flight, both of which ended in a fiery explosion.
Microsoft responds to 'holy grail' of Windows vulnerabilities
Microsoft has finally addressed what has been described as the "holy grail" of Windows security vulnerabilities after being informed about it six months ago.
Cybersecurity researchers from Avast informed Microsoft of the "holy grail" of security vulnerabilities in Windows that was used by the North Korean hackers Lazarus Group. The rootkit vulnerability was an admin-to-kernel exploit that was associated with a driver for AppLocker, which is an app that is designed for whitelisting software built into Windows. Notably, the vulnerability was discovered in the input/output dispatcher of appid.sys.
Continue reading: Microsoft responds to 'holy grail' of Windows vulnerabilities (full post)
Nintendo officially reveals new animated Super Mario Bros. movie release date
Nintendo has officially announced that its working on a new animated film based on the world of Super Mario Bros., with the company teasing they are thinking about "broadening Mario's world further".
It's no surprise that Nintendo is working on another Super Mario Bros. animated film as "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" starring Chris Pratt, Jack Black and Charlie Day was a hit success becoming the biggest worldwide opening weekend for an animated film and the first film based on a video game to gross over $1 billion. In total The Super Mario Bros. Movie grossed $1.36 billion worldwide and only had a budget of $100 million.
With those kind of numbers, it's a no-brainer that Nintendo would be more than happy to have a second movie released, and now we have heard about it from none other than Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto. The legendary video game character creator took to the Nintendo of America X account to announce that Illumination, the animation studio behind the first film, is currently working on a new animated film in conjunction with Nintendo that is "based on the world of Super Mario Bros."






















