Latest News - Page 657

A check written out to Apple's phone company and signed by Steve Jobs back in 1976 is now up for auction - and it could rake in thousands of dollars despite originally only being made out for $201.41.

The check, which is dated Duly 8, 1976, is made out to Pacific Telephone and has Jobs' signature on the bottom. It also uses Apple's original official address of 770 Welch Rd., Ste. 154, Palo Alto. That address will forever go down in Apple history because it was where the Jobs family lived with Apple having been run out of the family's garage initially.

While it's impossible to know just how much this check will sell for at auction, bids on the RR Auction website are currently sitting at $15,307 with 15 bids having been placed. The next bid is a cool $16,838 so that's the minimum you will have to hand over if you want to be the proud owner of this little bit of Apple history.

Buying a new iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Watch isn't always the cheapest thing in the world but you often get what you pay for in life. Some would argue that's absolutely the case when picking up a new bit of tech with the Apple logo on the back, but there are ways and means of making the price a little cheaper if that's something you're looking to do.

One of those ways is of course to buy a used device, but if you're looking to get a brand-new product trading in your old model is probably a great way to go, and Apple has now increased the amount of money it will give you against a new device depending on what you're handing over. MacRumors spotted that Apple has slightly increased the trade-in values of the iPhone 14 Pro Max, second-generation iPhone SE, Apple Watch Series 4, and first-generation Apple Watch SE, while trade-in values slightly decreased for the entry-level iPad, Apple Watch Ultra, Apple Watch Series 7, and second-generation Apple Watch SE - but those hoping for a windfall are likely to be left disappointed.

As an example, trading in an iPhone 14 Pro Max would previously have saved you $620 off a new iPhone but now you'll get an extra $10. An old iPhone SE 2 is now worth an extra $20, while an Apple Watch SE (either generation) is now worth just $5 more than it was.

All of the talk about foldable devices tends to very much center on phones, and for good reason. The foldable phone market continues to grow with the likes of Samsung

and Google leading the way, at least in the United States. But Apple has so far refused to launch a foldable iPhone and that doesn't look likely to change any time soon. However, that doesn't mean that Apple isn't working on some sort of foldable device - and one analyst claims that it could be ready to enter mass production in 2027.

That device, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says, is a foldable MacBook of some sort. He says that the laptop will feature a 20.3-inch foldable display but perhaps more interesting is the suggestion that this is the only foldable device that Apple is currently actively working towards a launch schedule for. If accurate, that would mean that Apple is not edging its way closer to launching a foldable iPhone as some might hope.

NASA has announced via its blog which camera company it will be working with to develop a bespoke camera designed for astronauts exploring the lunar surface.

The space agency took to its blog on its website on February 29 and announced that it will be working with Nikon to develop a handheld camera capable of operating at a high level in the harsh lunar environment.

The camera is expected to be taken to the lunar surface as part of NASA's scientific objectives with Artemis III, which includes a destination to the lunar South Pole region. According to the update, NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, located in Huntsville, Alabama, recently created a prototype camera called the Handheld Universal Lunar Camera (HULC).

OpenAI has decided to air out some of its dirty laundry in a new blog post that fires back at Elon Musk's recent lawsuit that accused OpenAI of turning against its morals as a company.

OpenAI has since taken to its blog to post a lengthy article authored by several of the company's top officials, such as Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI. Within the blog post, OpenAI has leaked email chains with Elon Musk that reveal a plethora of details regarding Elon Musk's intentions and involvement with the company during its infancy. In one message sent in 2018, Musk suggested that OpenAI merge with Tesla and use the electric car company as its "cash cow", even going as far as to say, "Tesla is the only path that could even hope to hold a candle to Google."

Elon Musk departed from OpenAI in 2018 when he attempted to gain control of the company and was denied, severing a large portion of the revenue that he was supplying. Since OpenAI's rise in popularity through its creation of ChatGPT, Musk has been accusing the company of betraying its founding principles of staying open-source, hence the name, and being a non-profit company. OpenAI has seemingly reverted on both of those principles, signing a more than $10 billion deal with Microsoft, which spawned Windows Copilot, an AI-powered chatbot powered by OpenAI's underlying GPT technology.

An asteroid that has been a somewhat point of contention for several years has received another analysis further putting to bed the concern of a potential collision with Earth.

That asteroid is 99942 Apophis, which was originally discovered on June 19, 2004 and only a few months after its discovery caused a brief period of concern as observations indicated with probability of up to 2.7% of a potential collision with Earth on April 13, 2029. However, follow-up observations ruled out this possibility, with the probability of a collision being so small that the 1,200-foot-wide asteroid wasn't worth worrying about.

What researchers didn't take into account at the time was the possibility of Apophis colliding with another asteroid, slightly, or greatly, changing its trajectory and therefore the probability of a collision with Earth. Astronomers took observations of the asteroid once again, implemented the chance of an asteroid collision mid-journey and published their findings in the Planetary Science Journal. The team found Apophis has no risk of collision with any known asteroids within the inner solar system.

A new malware campaign launched in December is beginning to gain steam, with researchers now putting out a warning to Windows and Android users.

The emerging cybersecurity threat targets corporate users, and according to researchers from Zcaler's ThreatLabz, which penned a new blog post discussing the threat, the attackers are specifically using fake online meeting hosting requests on a single IP address. These URLs are convincing enough to get corporate officials to kick on them to join the meeting as they are masquerading as Skype, Google Meet, and Zoom meeting requests.

Notably, the malware that is infected into the device is capable of stealing sensitive user data, or even company information. With this information the bad actor could then initiate ransomware, which is when bad actors threaten the company they stole the information from with either permanently locking the stolen data or releasing it online by a certain date - unless a substantial payment is made.

Elon Musk's SpaceX has taken to its official X account to tease the scheduled date for the highly anticipated third orbital launch attempt for its Starship launch vehicle, the world's largest and most powerful rocket ever taken to the skies.

SpaceX took to its official X account on Wednesday to announce that Starship could be taking to the skies once again as soon as March 14. So, what is preventing the next Starship launch? The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has to sign off on the next Starship launch after conducting a thorough investigation of the last launch, any design changes made to the rocket as a result of the last launch, and any changes made to the Starbase facility located in southwest Texas.

Despite SpaceX having yet to receive approval from the FAA, the company appears to be expecting the green light very soon since the date of March 14 has been publicly stated. Notably, the FAA completed its investigation into SpaceX's second orbital test flight and found the company had to complete 17 "corrective actions" before it would be issued another launch license.

A professional Apex Legends esports team has been denied entry by the United States immigration office despite the team providing a requested Electronic Arts representative to vouch for their credibility.

Moist Esports, an esports organization founded by YouTuber and streamer Charles White, also known as MoistCr1TiKaL, has been denied entry to the United States ahead of an Apex Legends tournament. White took to his personal YouTube channel to outline the back and forth his organization has had to endure with the US immigration office, with the YouTuber stating his organization is trying to get members of the Moist Esports Apex Legends team from Australia to the United States.

White says the organization has provided all of the requested information, involved lawyers specializing in immigration issues, and has still been rejected. More specifically, White says the immigration agent dealing with his case doesn't believe the esports team's rankings are real, despite Moist Esports submitting official standings/rankings to the immigration office.

Samsung will reportedly show off its new HBM3E 12-Hi stack memory at NVIDIA's upcoming GPU Technology Conference (GTC) between March 18 and 21.

NVIDIA is a major partner for Samsung's bleeding-edge HBM memory, part of the heart and soul of its AI GPUs coming soon in the form of the Hopper H200 (a beefed-up HBM3E-based version of H100) and its next-gen Blackwell B100 AI GPU that are both featuring HBM3E memory.

Samsung will exhibit its new high-capacity 36GB HBM3E 12-Hi stack memory in physical form at NVIDIA GTC 2024. Samsung is expected to begin mass production in the coming months, with NVIDIA as a major customer for its H200 and B100 AI GPUs.

AMD has just announced its own localized and GPT-based LLM-powered AI chatbot, capable of running on Ryzen AI processors and Radeon RX 7000 series GPUs.

AMD's new LLM-based GPT chatbot can run on a bunch of different Ryzen AI platforms, including Ryzen 7000 and Ryzen 8000 series APUs that feature AMD's new XDNA NPUs, as well as Radeon RX 7000 series GPUs that pack AI accelerator cores.

The company published a new blog that helps you through the setup, so you can run your own localized chatbot powered by GPT-based LLMs (Large Language Models). If you've got a Ryzen AI processor, you'll need the standard LM Studio copy for Windows, while if you've got an RDNA 3-based Radeon RX 7000 series GPU, you'll need the ROCm Technical Preview.

SK hynix reportedly provided NVIDIA with its latest 12-layer HBM3E memory modules in Universal Test Vehicle (UTV) form for its upcoming next-generation AI GPU hardware.

The news is coming from ZDNet Korea, which reports that SK hynix provided initial samples of its new 12-layer DRAM stacked HBM3E memory to NVIDIA "last month." The site reports that the 12-layer HBM3E memory samples provided to NVIDIA are an "extremely early version and is mainly used to establish standards and characteristics of new products. SK hynix calls it UTV (Universal Test Vehicle)."'

SK hynix recently completed the performance validation required for its 8-layer HBM3E memory, with the same performance verification on the new 12-layer HBM3E memory to "not take much more time," reports ZDNet Korea.

Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut has been announced for the PC, with the game dropping on May 16 with a huge array of PC features and technology support. Check out the trailer:

The PC version of Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut will support ultrawide monitors like the game was fully supported for it, offering support for 21:9, 32:9, and even 49:9 aspect ratios. So, if you've got Samsung's ballistic 57-inch Odyssey Neo QLED gaming monitor, you will be in heaven.

The PC version of Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut features support for ultrawide gaming monitors and AI upscaling solutions, including NVIDIA DLSS3, AMD FSR3, and Intel XeSS. The game also features controller support, so you can hook up your PlayStation 5 DualSense controller and enjoy that haptic feedback from the controller in your hands.

Intel's upcoming special edition Core i9-14900KS processor is reportedly launching on March 14, which is just a week away from now.

The new Intel Core i9-14900KS will be the last high-end CPU the company makes for its LGA 1700 socket and the last desktop CPU from Intel that will go under the old Core branding. Intel's upcoming Arrow Lake-S desktop processors will launch under the Core Ultra 200 series branding, succeeding Meteor Lake with the Core Ultra 100 series CPUs.

Intel's next-generation LGA 1851 socket will launch later this year, ready for the next-generation Arrow Lake-S processors. So we'll have a new socket, a new chipset, and next-gen desktop processors that have some heavy changes on the way. You can read more on that below, but for now, the Intel Core i9-14900KS processor launches March 14 with 24 cores and 32 threads at up to 6.2GHz, the fastest CPU frequency from a CPU out of the box on the planet.

ADATA has just unveiled a brand new DDR5 memory thermal coating, which, when applied to the PCB, increases cooling efficiency by over 10%.

The new coating on XPG DDR5 memory is impressive, not only does the PCB thermal coating cool the memory temperatures, but it will increase the performance and lifespan of ADATA's overclocked XPG and RAMP DDR5 memory modules. ADATA will fully launch its new Lancer Neon RGB DDR5 and Lancer RGB series memory modules with its new PCB thermal coating at Computex 2024 in a few months time.

ADATA explains: "Therefore, XPG is leading the industry in applying PCB (printed circuit board) thermal coating technology to overclocked memory, effectively reducing temperatures by more than 10%. Real-world testing demonstrated an 8.5C temperature reduction in overclocked DDR5 memory with PCB heat-dissipating coating technology compared to standard overclocked memory and an enhanced heat dissipation efficiency of 10.8%."

The absolutely insatiable AI GPU demand has driven LiquidStack to announce a new US manufacturing site dedicated to high-performance, cost-effective, and reliable liquid cooling solutions for high-performance data center and edge computing applications.

LiquidStack's new facility will be located in Carrollton, Texas, where the company's entire range of liquid cooling solutions will be manufactured on-site, including direct-to-chip Coolant Distribution Units (CDUs), single-phase and two-phase immersion cooling solutions, and LiquidStack's in-house MacroModular and MicroModular prefabricated data centers.

The new Carrollton, Texas manufacturing facility and headquarters spans over 20,000 square feet, with LiquidStack seeking new production staff, with plans to triple the size of its workforce before the end of the year. LiquidStack recruiters will seek out new staffers at local colleges and universities throughout the year.

After 20 years of Halo memes and RWBY 3D action, Rooster Teeth is saying goodbye.

Today Rooster Teeth shared some sad news with fans: The production group has been shut down by parent WB Discovery. Rooster Teeth general manager Jordan Levin said this in a memo to loyal watchers.

Apple has terminated Epic's new developer account and effectively stopped the Fortnite-maker from launching the Epic Games Store on iOS.

Epic Games has a goal: The company wants to break open the so-called Google-Apple duopoly in a bid to effectively revolutionize mobile gaming. As it currently stands, both Google and Apple take a 30% cut on all game revenues from the Play Store and App Store. Epic, and practically all developers, want better earnings, and the pathway to get there is through consumer rights.

In the Epic v Apple antitrust trial from years ago, Epic argues that Apple's policies aren't good for consumers because in-game items could actually be purchased for lower prices if made available through an alternate method. If purchased directly from the developer, the in-game goods could potentially be cheaper for consumers. This would require a store on iOS, though, and Apple requires its games to be sold and distributed through the App Store; devs can't offer their own storefront solutions.

Windows 11 is once again finding it hard to push forward with gaining market share, although the OS has picked up just a little in terms of adoption.

According to the latest figures from Statcounter, Windows 11 edged up to 28.18% as of February 2024, with the OS only witnessing an increase of 0.35% compared to January.

That's a fairly meagre uptick and we've seen a fair few of those in recent times, with Windows 11 not quite stalling, but coming close to it, when it comes to growing its user base.

Apple might have just announced the new M3 MacBook Air with a starting configuration of 8GB of RAM and the 14-inch MacBook Pro might start with the exact same amount of memory, but the company has today come closer than ever to admitting that perhaps those machines should come with more - especially the MacBook Pro. And while the company hasn't come close to actually saying that, its actions have suggested that it is well aware of the situation.

That's after Apple decided to begin offering the 14-inch MacBook Pro with 16GB of RAM as an in-store pickup option for those who want to buy the pro-level laptop with a pro-level amount of memory. Normally, those who wanted to buy a MacBook Pro with 16GB of RAM would have had to place their order as a built-to-order model and wait for it to arrive.

The move now means that the 16GB 14-inch MacBook Pro is being offered as a standard option on Apple's website with a price of $1,999. That means that the same configuration will also be stocked in physical Apple Stores for the first time.