Latest News - Page 659

Ethisphere's annual World's Most Ethical Companies list aims to highlight global businesses that are "committed to doing business with ethics and integrity" through a detailed assessment process. In 2024, 136 organizations spanning 20 countries and 44 industries were recognized by Ethisphere for their "unwavering commitment to business integrity."

Of the 136 organizations, only five are from the 'Technology' industry - Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HP, Inc., Juniper Networks, and Western Digital. IBM, which also makes the list, is listed under Information Technology Services. According to Ethisphere, making the list involved a rigorous review process of a company's practices, documentation relating to ethics, and overall conduct.

To become eligible, companies must complete an extensive questionnaire and provide "over 240 different proof points on their culture of ethics," covering social, environmental, governance, diversity, inclusion, and other practices.

The success of Helldivers 2 doesn't appear to be slowing down whatsoever, racking up over 3 million sales, breaking records on concurrent player numbers on Steam... and now enjoying its third week in a row of continued sales.

In a new post on X, Circana executive director Mat Piscatella praises Helldivers 2 as sales have continued to increase in its third week since release. He said that Helldivers 2 is going through an "honest-to-goodness inverse decay curve so far," adding that he feels like Steve Irwin sighting a "rare bird or something, rare and amazing, in an Australian accent even."

He continued: "Normally, sales are biggest for a new release during week 1, and fall over time. With an 'inverse decay curve' the trend reverses. It's rare, particularly for bigger games. Just saying 'growth' doesn't explain the nature - as 'growth' could be temporary, ie from discounting. Using the term "inverse decay curve" denotes that baseline sales are improving, unrelated to short-term things that can impact incremental demand. I mean, or just keep saying it's pretentious or obnoxious that's cool too. Live your dream.."

JEDEC has just published the next-gen GDDR7 graphics memory standard, with the publication of JESD239 Graphics Double Data Rate (GDDR7) SGRAM.

The groundbreaking GDDR7 memory standard offers double the bandwidth of GDDR6 memory, with up to 192GB/sec per device, and will be used as graphics memory offering oodles more bandwidth in graphics, gaming, compute, networking, and AI applications.

According to the latest rumors, NVIDIA is the only one securing itself GDDR7 memory modules for its next-gen GPUs, hearing that AMD has been buying up GDDR6 at faster 20Gbps bandwidth for its new RDNA 4-powered Radeon RX 8000 series GPUs. AMD isn't walking away from GDDR7, as beefed-up Radeon RX series GPUs should feature GDDR7 in teh future, the rumor is that AMD has received "tons of purchases" for GDDR6 at 20Gbps.

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There have been intermittent rumors of Apple potentially getting ready to launch a new Apple Pencil in recent months, and now a new report claims that the company is almost set. If the report is accurate, Apple will release a new Apple Pencil this month.

The report comes via Weibo user Instant Digital, a user who has a relatively strong track record with these things. The report was spotted by MacRumors and notes that Apple is ready to refresh the second-generation Apple Pencil specifically and that it will happen this month. This follows a similar report by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman which suggested that a new Apple Pencil could debut within the next few weeks.

Solid information about what the new Apple Pencil might have to offer is hard to come by right now, but there have been rumors that the stylus will feature a shorter design that uses interchangeable tips to allow for more precise work where needed. Those tips could attech to the Apple Pencil body using magnets, while there is also a suggestion of color-detection technology that could sense a color and then replicate it.

Apple has today released the iOS 17.4 software update to the public, bringing with it support for a number of new features. The update is available for download via the usual Software Update mechanism and is free for all compatible iPhones.

The new update's list of features starts with changes specific to those who use an iPhone in the European Union. There, the new software update allows people to install apps from third-party app stores while web browsers can also use their own browsing engines rather than WebKit for the first time. There is also support for alternative payment options, allowing developers to use different payment methods for in-app purchases rather than the App Store's. Apple is also adding support for allowing third-party wallet apps to access the iPhone's NFC chip to make payments in a similar manner to Apple Pay.

For those using iOS 17.4 globally, there are a number of changes for them to enjoy including a number of new emojis including a mushroom, phoenix, lime, broken chain, and shaking heads. 18 people and mody emoji have also been given the option to face in either direction, Apple's release notes say.

Windows 11 users should look out for a smart new feature rolling out for Copilot which allows them to throw a file at the AI and then have it summarized in a swift fashion.

As spotted by Leopeva64 on X (formerly Twitter), it's now possible to drag a file to the Copilot panel, drop it in, and make a request - such as to summarize the info within that file. (Or rather than dragging the file, there's an 'Add a file' button should you wish to go that route).

In the test shown above, Leopeva64 gives Copilot a PDF which the AI assistant then quickly goes through, listing all the key points in the document.

Four former Twitter executives have filed a lawsuit against X owner Elon Musk, claiming they haven't received the appropriate severance package following their departure from the company.

The four former Twitter executives are former CEO Parag Agrawal, former CFO Ned Segal, former chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde, and former general counsel Sean Edgett, who were all fired following Musk's takeover of the company in late 2022. The Wall Street Journal has reported Musk says he fired the former C-Suite executives with cause, meaning he doesn't have to pay them any severance.

But the recent lawsuit states that Musk fast-tracked the acquisition of Twitter (now X) precisely to fire Agrawal and other C-Suite executives so there would be cause and so they couldn't cash their lucrative stock options, hence the now $128 million suit. This isn't the only lawsuit Musk has faced over severance packages as six former senior managers at Twitter are also suing the company over severance pay, while Agrawal, Segal, and Gadde filed for a $1 million lawsuit against X, claiming the company owed them for legal fees related to their separation at the company.

Researchers are warning that it's only a matter of time before AI-powered malware, such as the "worm" they created, is discovered in the wild.

The team behind the new malware published a paper that is yet-to-be-peer-reviewed that details the creation of a new type of malware that targets AI-powered email assistants. The researchers conducted their experiment in a closed-circuit environment and found that their malware, or "worm," was capable of targeting email assistants powered by popular language models such as OpenAI's GPT-4, Google's Gemini Pro, and LLaVA.

The result was the worm infecting these email assistants, obtaining sensitive user information, and then sending out spam emails that can infect other PCs, replicating the same process. So, how does it work? The researchers used an "adversarial self-replicating prompt" that forces the targeted AI model to create another prompt within its response. Essentially, the target AI assistant receives a prompt, generates a response, and within that response is another prompt.

Sony Interactive Entertainment is currently preparing to bring Ghost of Tsushima over to PC, according to XboxEra's Nick Baker.

Baker has been correct about calls in the past, and he recently took to his personal X account to announce that he's heard from insider sources that Sony Interactive Entertainment will be making an announcement regarding Ghost of Tsushima coming to PC. According to Baker, the announcement is expected to happen around the 5th of March, which, at the time of writing, would be sometime today.

Notably, this isn't the first time we have heard about a Ghost of Tsushima port coming to PC, as rumors have been circulating about the port for years now, especially after the game received its PS5 upgrade in 2022. Ghost of Tsushima was originally launched in 2020 for the PS4 and was developed by Sucker Punch Studios, who made the Infamous series. For those that don't know, Ghost of Tsushima is set in 1200s Japan at the beginning of the Mongolian invasion.

Super Mario 64 was not only the first game in the series to present a fully 3D world, but it's still highly regarded as one of the greatest platformers ever made. Recent efforts to decompile and recreate the game on PC (that is, run it without the need to emulate Nintendo 64 hardware) have resulted in several visual upgrades and mods for the game, including 4K, unlocked frame rates, and even real-time ray tracing.

Infinite Mario 64 is different in that it's all about gameplay. It adds a random level generator to the game, meaning you can play new Super Mario 64 levels from now until the end of time. This is a remarkable achievement for a game that first came out in 1996.

One of Super Mario 64's most enduring aspects is its level design - alongside impeccable movement and physics. The mod uses elements from the game to create its new levels, so even though they are randomly generated - they still "feel" like classic Mario 64.

No Rest for the Wicked is the latest game from Moon Studios, the talented team behind the Ori games for Xbox. If you've played Ori and the Will of the Wisps, it won't come as a surprise that it looks absolutely stunning, with incredible art direction, character and environment design, and immersive lighting effects.

However, unlike Ori, this is an isometric action RPG with gameplay and mechanics inspired by Diablo and Dark Souls. There will be skills and loot aplenty, with all the action taking place in a beautiful hand-crafted world - no procedural generation here.

Moon Studios has grand ambitions for No Rest for the Wicked. It aims to "reinvent the genre" by introducing precision-based combat to the loot-filled hack-and-skill world of Diablo-like titles. It's also a story-driven affair, set in a medieval world overrun by "the Pestilence" with religious undertones. You take on the role of a holy warrior and will have full control over the look of your character.

Remedy's Alan Wake II was one of the most technically advanced and visually impressive PC game releases in 2023, pushing advanced path-traced lighting to help sell its spooky horror setting. However, at the time, it did not run well on NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 10 Series of graphics cards (which includes the GeForce GTX 1060, 1070, and 1080) due to relying on DirectX 12 Ultimate 'Mesh Shaders' for its rendering.

This DirectX 12 Ultimate feature requires hardware support, which left many PC gamers with 10-Series GPUs unable to play Alan Wake II without severe performance issues. But there's good news! A patch for the PC version will go live tomorrow (March 6) that addresses performance issues on older GPUs like the GeForce GTX 1070 while also boosting performance on modern Ada cards like the GeForce RTX 4070.

The PC tech gurus at Digital Foundry have tested a pre-release version of the patch, and they found a whopping 85 percent improvement in performance with the GeForce GTX 1080 and double the performance with the iconic GeForce GTX 1080 Ti.

Dune: Part Two is currently in cinemas worldwide, outperforming expectations at the box office and dazzling critics and moviegoers alike. This makes the debut trailer for Funcom's Dune: Awakening a case of 'perfect timing.' A new open-world survival MMO from the studio behind the long-running Conan Exiles, Awakening takes place on the harsh desert planet of Arrakis and looks pretty awesome.

With the game running on the latest version of Unreal Engine, Dune: Awakening will see you (and others) try to survive on Arrakis while contending against giant sandworms and scavenging resources in an ever-changing world. It's ambitious stuff, and again, in step with the stunning and epic Dune: Part Two.

As expected, one of the critical survival elements of the game will be staying hydrated and sticking to rocky areas. The game expands Conan Exiles' base-building, and in the trailer, you can see this in action with the player placing down 'holograms' that are then turned into actual structures once the suitable materials are gathered. Friends can contribute, too, as Dune: Awakening is a multiplayer title.

'Environment Textures Overhaul' is a new mod for Cyberpunk 2077 that replaces lower-quality textures found throughout the game's vibrant open-world Night City with new high-resolution versions that not only match the look and feel of the originals but are also optimized for ray-tracing.

Available in 4K and 2K variants, the mod pack includes around 170 new textures for road and wall surfaces and works with the popular HD Reworked Project mod. The 'Environment Textures Overhaul' mod does not impact performance; it simply requires more VRAM. It's worth installing and checking out if you're already running the game with high or ultra-equivalent PC settings.

Created by 'nigeez' and available to download on NexusMods, the 2K version weighs around 500 MB, with the 4K textures at around 650 MB, so it's not a hefty download. As a low-impact mod, it doesn't change the actual gameplay; it simply gives the world a little more detail while making everything look crisper. Here are a few side-by-side examples.

AMD has been stopped by a US government roadblock, where it was trying to sell cut-down AI GPUs to China, but stopped by the Commerce Department.

Bloomberg reports that AMD "hit a US government roadblock in attempting to sell an artificial intelligence chip tailored for the Chinese market," and once again, the news is coming from "people familiar with the matter." AMD was hoping it wouldn't have issues receiving approval to sell the AI GPU to Chinese customers from the Commerce Deparment, but they were denied, according to people who "asked not to be identified because the situation is private".

This purported AI GPU featured lowered performance to what AMD sells outside of China, and was designed to meet the required US export restrictions, they said. US officials told AMD that the AI GPU was still too powerful, and that the company needed to obtain a license from Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security in order to sell it. Both AMD and the Bureau of Industry and Security declined to comment, so we don't know if AMD secured its license or not.

Dune: Part Two is now out in cinemas across the planet, with its opening weekend seeing box office receipts of over $82 million, and over $182 million globally so far.

This success marks Dune and Dune: Part Two director Denis Villeneuve with his biggest US debut ever, with the original Dune opening up to $41 million. Dune: Part Two is visually best when seen in gorgeous 70mm IMAX, with demand for IMAX sessions of Dune: Part Two being so feverish that people had to choose late-night 3:15 AM sessions just to see it in IMAX.

IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond said: "Our most iconic film locations are virtually sold out for weeks".

GPN's upcoming WIN Mini 2024 is an upcoming super lightweight gaming clamshell gaming console, featuring AMD's new Hawk Point APU.

Inside, the new AMD Ryzen 8040 series "Hawk Point" APUs are a refresh of the previous "Phoenix" silicon that powered most of the 2023 fleet of gaming handhelds, but now has an NPU for AI workloads. The new GPD WIN Mini 2024 is a refresh of the 2023 models with Ryzen 7840/7640U processors, but with changes to the display specifications: a 7-inch 120Hz display.

GPD's new flagship WIN Mini 2024 gaming handheld with the AMD Ryzen 7 8840U offers flagship high-performance CPU power for PC gaming with 8 cores and 16 threads of Zen 4 processing power.

TSMC has just kicked off its 2024 campus recruitment drive, where there's 6000 new jobs up for offer in Taiwan, with the semiconductor giant incentiving the positions, especially for engineers and technicians.

In a new report by Chinese media outlet Ctee, TSMC went to the National Taiwan University, and for TSMC to leap into the future, the company needs to bolster its workforce. This is where the 6000 new jobs are open for Taiwan citizens, with new staff required across all of its factories, joining TSMC to create miracles and become a world-class company (more so than it already is).

TSMC highlighted the average overall salary for new engineers with master's degrees is NT$2 million, which works out to around $63,000, which is double the average wage in Taiwan.

MSI's new Claw gaming handheld will hit the United States on March 8, launching with a starting price of $649 and powered by Intel's new Meteor Lake CPUs.

The new MSI Claw gaming handheld has been available for pre-order in Germany, Spain, and the UK recently, but now the US is next, and pricing is out. Inside, the MSI Claw has three variants: with either the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H or Core Ultra 5 135H "Meteor Lake" processors, with varying SSD storage.

MSI starts things off with the Claw at $699, where you get the Intel Core Ultra 5 135H with 512GB, or for $749, you've got the upgraded Core Ultra 7 155H with the same 512GB, while 1TB of SSD storage is inside the Claw for $799. MSI is launching the $749 variant with the Core Ultra 7 155H + 512GB SSD storage on March 8, the other two variants will launch one week later.