Latest News - Page 656

When Apple released the 10th-gen iPad in 2022 it brought with it a big first for the company's tablet lineup. The iPad saw its FaceTime camera move from the top of the device to the side, a switch that meant that the camera was better suited to being used when the iPad was in landscape orientation. Now, a new report claimed that the same switch is coming to Apple's best iPads as well.

Historically iPads have had their camera at the top of the display which meant that it was perfect for use when the tablet was held in portrait. But with more iPads now connected to keyboards that meant that the camera was in the wrong place, causing people on video calls to appear as if they were looking to the side. The 10th-gen iPad fixed that, and now it's claimed that the upcoming OLED iPad Pro and new iPad Air models will follow where the 10th-gen iPad left off.

The rumors of the change coming to the iPad Pro have been around for a while now following the discovery of code found in the iOS 17.4 beta in January suggesting the tablet would go that route, Now, the leaker Instant Digital has posted to Weibo to claim that the same change is coming to the iPad Air in both its 10.9-inch and all-new 12,9-inch display sizes.

We're now roughly halfway through the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro models' lifecycles which means that we are edging ever closer to the arrival of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro devices. We've been seeing leaks related to those iPhones since 2023 and we're pretty confident that they will all be announced in September of this year. Now, a new leak appears to have given us a new glimpse at what the high-end iPhone 16 Pro will look like.

The glimpse comes courtesy of 91Mobiles and what appears to be a leak of CAD renders that show the iPhone 16 Pro in all its glory and from all angles. And these renders appear to match up with leaks that we've seen before including the rumored Capture Button.

The renders show that the Action Button is going to be slightly longer than that used on the iPhone 15 Pro, likely in an attempt to make it easier to press. However, the width of the button looks likely to be slightly more than that of the volume buttons that it will be beside, possibly to help make it easier to differentiate between them when the iPhone is in a pocket.

NVIDIA has beefed up its GeForce Now streaming service with support for a couple of its key technologies for ensuring a smoother and less laggy gaming experience.

The cloud gaming product now has support for G-Sync, so if your display has it on board, you'll now benefit from its ability to minimize any screen tearing and stuttering.

On top of that, NVIDIA Reflex support is here (when streaming at 60 fps or 120 fps, so those running 240 fps on the Ultimate tier don't get it), which reduces input lag (with supported games). In other words, when you click the mouse to fire your gun, for example, that happens just a touch faster - which can, of course, be the difference between life or death in a competitive shooter.

Apple's HomePod and HomePod mini have a new software update available that makes the smart speakers capable of learning where you like to listen to your music and then use that information for future listening sessions. The new feature, which is part of the HomePod Software 17.4 update, is available to all HomePod owners.

Previously, HomePod owners could use the Home app on their iPhone, iPad, or Mac to choose which music streaming service would be used when they asked their speaker to play music. Streaming music services like YouTube Music, Pandora, TuneIn, and others were all supported but the process required manual intervention whenever the default service needed to be changed. That's no longer the case as a result of this new software update. Spotify is of course a notable exception here because the Swedish streamer has chosen not to add support for HomePod streaming.

According to the software's release notes, Siri will now learn a user's preferred streaming media services, removing the need to include its name when making the request for music to be played.

Some Apple Watch owners have been complaining of so-called phantom display taps no their Apple Watches for some time now, with people saying that apps have been responding as if they touched the display with their fingers. For those who experienced the issue, the results could be dramatic with calls being placed when they aren't needed, messages sent accidentally, and more. Now, there might be some light at the end of the tunnel for those who have been waiting for Apple to issue a fix.

That fix might be part of the watchOS 10.4 software update that Apple rolled out yesterday with Apple's release notes ecpficially calling out the problem. Apple says that the watchOS 10.4 software update fixes an issue that caused some users to experience what it calls false touches and those suffering with the problem will no doubt hope that Apple is true to its word here.

The watchOS 10.4 software update brings with it a handful of other improvements including a fix for a bug that caused some contacts not to sync to Apple Watches for some users.

Microsoft has revealed that it's holding an online event on March 21 where it'll announce some new AI features for Windows and Copilot, with new (unspecified) Surface devices to boot.

Given that the event is entitled a 'New Era of Work' that certainly hints at some pretty major introductions in the pipeline, and as Windows Latest reports, one of the AI features that's supposedly going to be teased is for Windows 11's Paint app.

As previously rumored, this might be a 'LiveCanvas' feature that's akin to the capability seen in Leonardo.Ai. This allows you to sketch a very rough picture, and an AI will fully realize it (and you can use text prompts to direct the AI further in its image composition).

Helldivers 2 will soon be tweaked with some much-requested changes since its launch: nerfs to the Chargers, Hulks, Bile Titans, and other heavy-duty enemies that are slaying players left, right, and center.

In a new post on Helldivers 2's official Discord, community manager "Spitz" confirmed the news, Spitz explained: "I can confirm that we're currently looking at changes to the spawn rates and health pools of heavy enemies, and will be attempting to spread them out more to prevent large spikes of tougher mobs appearing at the same time, as well as making them a bit easier to bring down."

The developer added: "In addition, we forgot to mention (oops) that the EAT-17 and Recoilless Rifle no longer suffer from a 50% damage decrease when hitting an armored enemy at a 'glance angle' that deflects the shot. Combined with the upcoming adjustment to health and spawn rates, this should make the larger enemies a bit less common, instead spawning more 'chaff' enemies to support them, and should allow players to bring these enemies down with a single well-placed shot. Hopefully this leads to less instances of endless kiting and players being left without any effective weaponry to kill harder enemies."

V-color has just unveiled its latest DDR5 OC R-DIMM series memory, which is optimized for AMD's new WRX90 workstation motherboards and CPUs.

The new v-color DDR5 OC R-DIMM has been engineered from the ground up to meet the demand of new AI developers, heavy render modeling, simulation tasks, and high-end performance users. The new series comes with a new technology that targets a known issue with overclocking R-DIMM memory: high temperatures.

To deal with the high temperatures, the new v-color OC R-DIMM for WRX90 features a new micro-heatsink that protects the RCD and PMIC from high temperatures without compromising room for air flow. V-color's new DDR5 OC R-DIMM has been tested with "amazing results" on the ASRock WRX90 WS EVO, ASUS PRO WRX90E-SAGE SE, and Super Micro motherboards.

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has teased that its new Warbond, called Cutting Edge, will launch on March 14. It will feature new armor sets, new guns, new capes, new emotes, and so much more. Check it out:

Helldivers 2's new Cutting Edge Warbond will feature three new EX series prototypes: EX-03 Prototype 3, EX-16 Prototype 16, and EX-00 Prototype X. EX-03 Prototype 3 features a rubber underlayer for insulation, with wires operating at a shocking 400,000 volts.

EX-16 Prototype 16 has a warning: electric arcs generate a huge magnetic field, while EX-00 Prototype X is the end result of several billion Super Credits being spent and 12 years of research creating the "Soldier of Tomorrow".

The National Science Council in Taiwan has announced the latest results of the National Quantum Team. The IRTI team used a microwave IC design and TSMC's older 28nm process node to create new low-temperature control chip modules that control qubits inside a quantum computer.

Taiwan's National Science Council joined forces with the Academia Sinica and the Ministry of Economic Affairs in 2021 to integrate industry, government, academia, and research and kick off a national quantum team. Today, they held a press conference to announce the technological progress of quantum computing.

IRTI is the team responsible for developing the required hardware for the quantum computer subsystem, within the quantum national team. Project host and leader of the Institute of Electronics and Optoelectronics Systems of ITRI, Xu Shixuan, explained at the meeting that quantum computers needed to feature freezers and countless instruments.

SK hynix is reportedly increasing its spending on advanced chip packaging, where it wants to maintain its leadership in AI development with High Bandwidth Memory, or HBM.

In a new report from Bloomberg, the South Korean giant is investing more than $1 billion in South Korea this year to expand and improve the final steps of its chip manufacturing technology. Lee Kang-Wook, who leads up packaging development at SK hynix -- and was a former Samsung engineer -- said during an interview recently: "The first 50 years of the semiconductor industry has been about the front-end. But the next 50 years is going to be all about the back-end," or packaging.

Lee specializes in advanced ways of combining and connecting semiconductors, which have been the bedrock of the AI industry for the last few years. The executive started out in 2000, earning his PhD in 3D integration technology for micro-systems from Japan's Tohoku University under Mitsumasa Koyanagi, who was the man responsible for inventing stacker capacitor DRAM used in smartphones.

The world's first real-time 8K video has been broadcast from Antarctica using SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet connectivity. Check it out:

KDDI Corporation and KDDI Research, along with the Inter-university Research Institute Corporation Research Organization of Information and Systems and the National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR), successfully conducted a verification experiment in which 8K video was transmitted in real-time using Starlink. This test was completed between Syowa Station in Antarctica and KDDI Research's head office in Japan.

KDDI and KDDI Research will use Starlink to help out with the operational environment for expedition members in Antarctica, with KDDI explaining: "NIPR's research and observation work, and the building of a communication environment in Antarctica as well as the advancement of its educational services in order to play a part in solving worldwide issues such as global warming."

Intel's new flagship Core i9-14900KS special edition processor isn't available just yet, but that doesn't mean people don't have the new 6.2GHz CPU inside of their system... and now we have a delidded chip with some great results coming out of it.

The new Core i9-14900KS processor features 24 cores (split into 8 x P-Cores and 16 x E-Cores), offering speeds of up to 6.2GHz (6200MHz) out of the box and a 150W TDP. Let's see how that goes when it's delidded and pushed to the max, eh? A new processor designed for enthusiasts and overclockers and pushed to its limits is exactly what we all want to see.

The news is coming from overclocker "pakhtunov" who has used the new Intel Core i9-14900KS for thermal testing with the stock IHS (Integrated Heat Spreader) and then again with the CPU delidded, and reapplied with a liquid metal solution. The overclocker used the DeepCool LS720 SE liquid cooler with a 360mm radiator for the Core i9-14900KS processor.

NVIDIA will be the first to use next-gen GDDR7 memory on its next-gen GeForce RTX 50 series "Blackwell" GPUs, where we could see the first-generation GPUs using GDDR7 featuring 16Gb GDDR7 modules, which means the minimum VRAM capacity for next-gen graphics card will begin at 2GB.

GDDR6 started off with 8Gb dies and 1GB capacity per module, but now, hardware leaker "kopite7kimi" has posted on X, saying, "We will use 16Gbit first." I don't think we're going to get some beast GeForce RTX 5090 with double the VRAM -- so, 48GB of GDDR7, at first -- but it means that we'll get similar, or the same VRAM capacity but at wicked bandwidth levels compared to current-gen cards.

For example, lower-end graphics cards using 8GB of 32Gbps GDDR7 memory on a 192-bit memory bus will feature 512GB/sec of memory bandwidth. Meanwhile, a 192-bit memory bus ramps up to 768GB/sec, and a mid-range 256-bit memory bus will feature 1TB/sec of memory bandwidth (that's as much as the RTX 4090).

Analyst firm Omdia predicts NVIDIA could make $87 billion from its data center GPUs alone in 2024, calling the GeForce giant the "kingmaker."

NVIDIA has already lit up the stock market, bursting through the $2 trillion market capitalization milestone, and this year will only see them push harder into the AI market. NVIDIA has been leading the AI market with an estimated 90%+ market share with its AI GPU hardware, but next-generation AI GPUs are around the corner, and so are next-generation Blackwell-based GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs. "Kingmaker" sounds right.

Omdia's Cloud and Data Center Market Snapshot report for February is healthy for NVIDIA. Server and data center revenues in Q4 2023 were up 21.5% compared to Q3 2023 and 12.7% higher than they were in Q4 2022. In Q1 of 2023, the company had a server BOM of 15%, but that rocketed up to 44% in Q4 2023. This means that data centers are pushing more of their budgets into NVIDIA GPUs than ever before, and they're buying them quickly.

If you're the proud owner of an Apple Vision Pro you now have Apple's first major software update available for download. The update, visionOS 1.1, has been in beta testing for a little while now and today Apple made it available for everyone who wants it. The Apple Vision Pro is currently only available to those in the United States of course so there's no global release here.

The new software update can be installed by opening the Settings app on the Apple Vision Pro before selling the General option and choosing Software Update. The headset will need to be removed in order for the update to progress but don't worry, a progress bar will appear on the outside of the headset so that you know how things are getting on and when the update is complete.

This new visionOS 1.1 software update brings with it a number of improvements, not least to the Persona feature. Still in beta, this new update improves how hair and makeup appear while the neck and mouth have also received some attention. Apple also says that the rendering of eyes for EyeSight has been improved while the option to enroll a Persona hands-free has now been added to the configuration options.

Following the release of iOS 17.4 and iPadOS 17.4 to the public earlier this week Apple has today also made the macOS 14.4 software update available for download. The update has gone through a weeks-long beta program to get here with developers able to test their apps to make sure that they will work with the new update without causing any issues. Now, everyone with a compatible Mac - all those that worked with macOS 14 Sonoma will work fina - can now download the macOS 14,4 software update for free.

This new update brings with it a number of improvements although the list is not a huge one - top of the list is perhaps new emojis, with Apple adding a mushroom, phoenix, lime, broken chain, and more.

Alongside the new emojis, Apple also says that 18 people and body emojis now support facing the opposite direction. Beyond emojis, Apple's release notes also point to new transcript capabilities within the Podcasts app. Similar to those now found on the iPhone and Mac, users can see the text of a podcast and then use that to search for a word or phrase. Clicking on the text will see the podcast skip to that particular part of the episode, making this a great way to find a specific portion of a podcast when needed.

It's been announced that the CEO of Intel, Pat Gelsinger, will be giving a keynote for Team Blue at Computex 2024.

That'll happen on June 4, and as well as talking about data center tech, the chief executive will also be showcasing Intel's next-gen "client computing products" which gives us a sliver of hope that maybe Arrow Lake is nearer than we thought.

Of course, this could refer to Lunar Lake CPUs - efficient silicon that'll be mobile processors only, designed for premium thin-and-light laptops - but hopefully it'll mean the whole gamut of Intel's next-gen chips, including Arrow Lake desktop (it'll come with laptop offerings, too).

Windows 11 users might soon see a different behavior for Copilot in the taskbar, with the AI assistant appearing when the cursor is hovered over its icon.

This change is in testing in the latest Windows 11 preview build in the Beta channel, which is version 22635.3276 (KB5034857), though it's only rolling out, so not everyone will have seen it yet.

Currently in Windows 11, you need to click on the Copilot icon on the right side of the taskbar to get the AI assistant's panel to pop open. However, with the new scheme of things, just moving your mouse over the icon will invoke the panel, with no need to click.

Many nations around the world are concentrating their efforts toward creating the most powerful artificial intelligence system, with the main goal being achieving Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), or a system that is capable of achieving the same level as sophistication as a human brain.

With the AI arms race fully underway, the two main countries competing are the United States and China. According to a report from The Verge, China has just gained a bunch of trade secrets from one of the biggest players in the game, Google. The report states that one Google engineer, Linwei Ding, also called Leon Ding, has been indicted by a federal jury and accused of stealing trade secrets regarding Google's AI chip software and hardware.

The former Google engineer has been accused of stealing 500 confidential files containing these AI secrets and being involved with China-based AI companies. Notably, the majority of the contents within the files is about Google's tensor processing unit (TPU), which is the hardware that powers many AI workloads such as the company's Gemini project.