Latest News - Page 693

Apple's macOS software powers each and every one of its Macs and it regularly releases new versions to the public. But before that happens Apple sends the same software to developers to allow them to test their apps and report any bugs that they might find. That's what happened today, with Apple making the macOS Sonoma 10,4 software available to developers before releasing it to the public.

While Apple has yet to confirm when we expect that software to be released to everyone globally, it's thought that we should expect Apple to release it before March 6 - the date that Apple will also have to release iOS 17.4 to the public to comply with an EU Digital Markets Act requirement in relation to the App Store. If that's the case, we can expect more betas to be released between now and then. For now, though, we have the very first beta as a guide for what we can expect.

Those who are registered developers can now download the macOS Sonoma 14.4 software update via the System Settings app but should only do so if they are using a Mac that is dedicated to testing - installing betas on mission-critical Macs is risky at best. And it doesn't appear that risk is worth taking - beta one only appears to have new emoji characters this time out.

If you're an Apple Watch owner you're going to get a new software update within the next few weeks, but before that can happen it's been made available to developers to ensure that mode testing is done before the big release. That watchOS 10.4 update isn't expected to bring a huge number of new features to Apple Watch owners, but there's something for emoji fans to look forward to.

In terms of those new features, the software has only just landed so we might find new tweaks and improvements over the coming hours. However, right now, it's believed that the new emojis are the biggest change here. There have been a number of new additions including a lime, a brown mushroom, a phoenix, and a broken chain. Two new shaking heads have also been added to cover the "yes" and "no" movements.

Those who are registered developers can now download the new watchOS 10.4 update via the usual methods. That involves using the Watch app on the iPhone the Apple Watch is paired with and then choosing the Software Update section. The Apple Watch will need to be on the charger and have at least 50% battery charge at the time of the update otherwise it will not commence.

When you think of popular Apple TV+ shows we can be sure that Severance is towards the top of most lists. Its first season was a hugely popular release for Apple TV+ viewers and the way it ended left people particularly keen to see what would happen in season 2. But production of that season has been a problem for Apple and its partners, but things now appear to be back on track.

One of the problems that caused problems was the writer's strike that delayed production in a big way, but with that now done and dusted we already know that production is underway - and now we appear to have been given another hint that things are progressing pretty well.

Apple TV+ shared a post to X, the social network that was previously known as Twitter, which showed Adam Scott's Mark S. character running along one of those familiar white hallways. The alt-text for the image shared details that the large camera on-screen confirms that Severance season 2 is in production.

Apple's Vision Pro is currently available for preorder and it will finally go on sale on February 2 after initially being unveiled in June of 2023. Expectations are high and while the headset will come with some apps preinstalled, it's the App Store and its apps that will likely make or break the Spatial Computing experience that Apple is trying to create. We now know that there will be one big-name app ready to go, and it could be huge for those who work from home.

That app is of course Zoom, the app that came to prominence in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic when people were experiencing lockdowns around the world. Now, the company has announced that it will launch a Vision Pro app in the visionOS App Store when the headset goes on sale next month.

Zoom's announcement says that Vision Pro users can expect a native experience for meetings that will include "exceptional" audio and video quality. As part of that there will be support for Apple's Persona feature, allowing people's real-life movements and expressions to be represented by a recreation of themselves i calls. Zoom also says that the app will offer an experience that can be scaled to fit the space in which people are at the time, making it appear like they're in the same room as the other people on the call.

Apple's MacBook Air notebooks are among the world's most popular computers and that's why it's a huge deal whenever a new model is released. To that point, we now expect there to be as many as two new MacBook Airs announced soon, and at least one of those is already in production in Apple's supply chain.

We've been hearing rumors of new 13- and 15-inch MacBook Airs for a little while at this point and Apple's MacBook Air currently comes in those two configurations, so refreshed models make plenty of sense here.

The latest report surrounding the MacBook Air comes via Bloomberg's Mark Gurman writing in the weekly Power On newsletter. Gurman normally has a good handle on what's going on inside Apple's supply chain and its future hardware plans. And while we can't confirm anything until Apple announces it, the stars are starting to align somewhat. Those stars suggest that Apple is already producing the new 13-inch MacBook Air but we also expect the 15-inch model to join the mix as well.

Max Payne is a DX8 classic of a PC game, and a great candidate for pepping up with RTX Remix - and indeed it looks tons better with a new mod that adds path tracing.

The catch is that the frame rate takes a serious nosedive with the RTX Remix mod - which officially kicked off in open beta last week- as shown off by MxBenchmarkPC on YouTube (the developer of the mod is Slasks Psykbunker on ModDB).

Check out the video above to see the results in the demo, but bear in mind that with the base graphics (the before footage), on an RTX 4080 the YouTuber was achieving up to 1400 fps - something like 900 fps to 1400 fps we're told - but that dropped to around 65 fps with path tracing.

Bandai Namco has revealed 24 characters featured in the new Dragon Ball Budokai Tenkaichi 4 game...and they're all variations of Goku and Vegeta.

As is customary for the franchise, the latest Dragon Ball Budokai game (now renamed to Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero) is set to feature over 150 different characters and customizations. Publisher Bandai Namco illustrates two key points with its latest roster reveal: One is the age of the Dragon Ball series, and the second is just how many different ways the series has to portray two of its main characters.

Case in point: The Japanese game creator's new fighter lineup is just two dozen different versions of Goku and Vegeta, ranging from humble beginnings during The Dead Zone era ranging all the way to SSGSS Vegeta (Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan).

2023 was the first year since the introduction of the iPad that Apple hasn't refreshed any models in its lineup throughout the entire calendar, but that's all going to change in 2024 if the reports we've seen turn out to be anything close to accurate. We've been hearing reports of new iPads being in the works for some time and now a new report claims that some of those tablets will debut within the next couple of months.

That report comes via Bloomberg's Mark Gurman who claims that we should expect Apple to launch its new tablets around the end of March. Gurman says that the new iPad Pros are already in production at Apple's overseas factories which suggests that Apple is very much set to bring those to market.

In terms of the hardware that we should expect, there's plenty for iPad buyers to sink their teeth into. Things begin with a brand-new 12.9-inch iPad Air, for example, the biggest iPad Air that the company has ever made. That'll likely be joined by a refreshed 10.9-inch model with both display sizes benefiting from Apple's M2 chip for the first time. No major design changes are expected, however.

If you're a Major League Soccer fan you now have a new season to look forward to with the 2024 Major League Soccer kicking off on February 29. Those who want to watch the games can do so thanks to Apple's Major League Soccer Season Pass, a subscription that covers more than 100 countries and regions and includes coverage of the Leagues Cup, MLS All-Store game, and the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs games as well as the 2024 season itself.

Apple confirmed that it is ready to get started on the second of its ten-year contract with the MLS and will launch a first-of-its-kind whip-around show for Spanish-speaking viewers. This is in addition to the existing shows and coverage that proved popular during the 2023 season.

"The first year of our partnership with Major League Soccer exceeded expectations and brought MLS to more fans than ever before," said Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Services. "We look forward to building upon that momentum, celebrating Messi's first full season with the league, and delivering MLS fans the best experience possible."

ASUS's ROG Strix XG27ACS is now here, and the new 27-inch panel features a Fast IPS display, a QHD resolution, and a buttery smooth 180Hz refresh rate.

ASUS's latest gaming monitor offering has popped up on its website, and judging by its specifications, it's aimed directly at competitive eSports gamers looking to get an in-game edge against their competition. The ROG Strix XG27ACS is a 27-inch gaming monitor that features a Fast IPS panel, 180Hz refresh rate, 1ms response time, NVIDIA G-Sync / AMD FreeSync compatibility, a peak brightness of 400 nits, and VESA DisplayHDR 400.

Furthermore, the ROG Strix XG27ACS has an 8-bit panel that covers 133% of the sRGB and 97% of the DCI-P3 color space. Additionally, ASUS has equipped the ROG Strix XG27ACS with a 1/4" Tripod socket, a fully ergonomic stand, 120mm of height adjustment, two HDMI 2.0 ports, a DisplayPort 1.4 input with HBR3, and one USB Type-C port capable of delivering 7.5W of power.

Amazon Prime Video, the streaming subscription service, is getting adverts as of today.

Amazon first announced that this was happening back in September 2023, but the actual day the new rules for Prime Video subscribers kick in is today, January 29.

If you don't want your viewing to be interrupted with advertising, then you'll have to sign up to pay a little bit more for an ad-free streaming experience.

iOS 18 is Apple's next big update, and now reports are indicating that it will not only be a massive update but one of, if not the biggest, update in the company's history.

A report from Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, who outlined what he is hearing internally from Apple in his Power On newsletter, stated that Apple's iOS 18 update is the company's most "ambitious and compelling" update in years. That quote was from a November newsletter release, and now Gurman has upped the ante by writing in his most recent newsletter that he's been told the new operating system update is seen within the company as "one of the biggest iOS updates - if not the biggest - in the company's history."

iOS 18 is expected to be fully unveiled at WWDC in June, and previous reports about the coming update pointed to a revamped version of Siri that will be much more intelligent and will be able to take advantage of a new AI system that will feature a Large Language Model (LLM). Additionally, iOS 18 is slated to feature AI integration in the Messages app, new AI features for Apple Music, AI integration into iWork apps such as Keynote and Pages, and generative AI integration into Xcode for developers to "write new applications more quickly".

For many months now, we have been hearing rumors surrounding Nintendo's next-generation console, presumably called the Nintendo Switch 2, and those rumors pointed toward the adoption of an OLED panel.

With the rise in OLED panels illustrated by the myriad of new OLED gaming monitors announced at CES 2024, many gave credence to the idea of the Nintendo Switch 2 arriving with a gorgeous OLED display. However, not everyone is convinced as new information from Takashi Mochizuki, a reporter from Bloomberg, and Market research firm Omdia's analyst Hiroshi Hayase indicate the next-generation console will arrive with an 8-inch LCD screen.

According to reports that cite display shipment data, Nintendo is planning on manufacturing 10 million units of the next-gen console in the first fiscal year, and these units won't feature an OLED panel. However, that doesn't rule out OLED altogether, as Omdia says, "not for this year," which seems to allude to a second next-generation console including an OLED panel.

CES 2024 was littered with new OLED gaming monitors, arguably too many to remember, and one from LG has hit the market in the United States - the 27GS95QE

Now officially launched in the US for $900, the UltraGear 27GS95QE is a 27-inch OLED panel that sports a maximum refresh rate of 240Hz, a 2560 x 1440p resolution, 0.03ms response time, a typical brightness of 275 nits, HDR10 + VESA DisplayHDR 400 True Black certification. Additionally, LG's most recently launched gaming monitor comes with NVIDIA G-Sync, AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, and a color space coverage of 98.5% of DCi-P3.

Furthermore, for those worrying about OLED burn-in, which shouldn't be a worry unless you are playing one game 24/7, there is a 2-year warranty that covers all internal and functional parts of the monitor, including the OLED Display Panel. As for connectivity, LG has outfitted the 27GS95QE with a 3.5mm headphone jack, 4-pole headphone jack that supports DTS Headphone:X, enabling 3D audio. The gaming monitor has two HDMI 2.1 ports, DisplayPort 1.4, two USB 3.2 Type-A downstream ports, and one USB 3.2 Type_B upstream port.

Microsoft has given WordPad the chop, or what amounts to the final pulling of the curtain on the venerable app in Windows 11, after the software giant announced that the application was deprecated some time ago.

If you recall, the announcement about the deprecation of the app happened some time ago, back in September 2023. Then after that, at the start of January 2024, Microsoft announced that WordPad (not to be confused with Notepad, of course, which is staying - and is being actively developed) was being removed from future installations of Windows 11.

That was in preview build 26020, but the latest build in the Canary channel, which is version 26040, represents the final end for WordPad, as not only is it removed from clean installs of Windows 11, but the app will be taken out whenever existing users next upgrade their OS.

NASA has big plans for its return to the moon under the space agency's Artemis Program, and now a new proposal has surfaced under NASA's Innovative Advance Concepts (NIAC) Program that could, if approved, put a massive telescope on the dark side of the moon.

The new proposal written by Kenneth Carpenter and his colleagues at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) details a Long-Baseline Optical Imaging Interferometer (LBI) designed for the dark side of the moon, and would be called the Artemis-enabled Stellar Imager (AeSI). The telescope would consist of an array of smaller telescopes designed to image objects and regions of space in ultraviolet and visible wavelengths.

The proposal states there is massive potential for having an observatory on the lunar surface due to the "radio quiet" nature of the environment and prolonged periods of darkness. For those that don't know, the moon is tidally locked to Earth, meaning one of the sides of the moon is always facing toward Earth, hence the name description "dark side of the moon". Due to this gravitational phenomenon, two weeks on the lunar surface consists of one Earth day, which means the dark side of the moon will be in total darkness for two weeks at a time.

Apple has shared a new video showcasing its highly anticipated Vision Pro headset, which is scheduled to be launched in the United States on Friday, February 2.

The new video is latest promotional piece of material that Apple has released on the Vision Pro, and with pre-orders beginning earlier this month, and the response completely blowing all sale expectations out the water, Apple is gearing up for the full release of the mixed reality headset with a video that showcases all of its main features. The ad showcases people using the Vision Pro to interact with the visionOS operating system through eye movement and hand gestures, with a particular emphasis on the pinch technique.

The video also showcases the mixed reality capabilities of the headset with a dad using the Vision Pro in the kitchen and is still able to interact with his children in real-life by kicking back a soccer ball. There is also depictions of full virtual reality, with an individual sitting on a couch and watching the Napoleon, or Everything Everywhere All At Once on an airplane. Users will have the option of enlarging specific content for a more immersive experience.

Authors of a series of papers published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society detail the discovery of a new type of star that was found by analyzing a decade-long collection of data collected by the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope (VISTA).

The team behind the study focused on approximately 200 stars in a specific region of space that had seemingly dramatic shifts in brightness. More specifically, the team was searching for any signs of protostars or young baby stars that are very early in their life. Of the 200 selected stars, the team discovered 32 protostars; each of these was in the process of becoming a fully-fledged fusion monster star, meaning they were constantly outbursting.

Notably, among these young protostars were 21 red giants deep within the center of the Milky Way galaxy, and according to reports and the studies cited by the reports, these red giants are a new type of red giant called old smokers. The inner regions of the Milky Way is rich with heavy elements, meaning the stars located within these regions also have high metallicity.

NASA's iconic Hubble Space Telescope has been used by researchers to identify an exoplanet lurking outside of our solar system that has been described as a "landmark discovery".

The European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA posted to their websites announcing the discovery of an exoplanet located 97 light-years from Earth in the constellation Pisces. The exoplanet is called GJ 9827d and was first discovered by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope in 2017, but now astronomers have pointed Hubble's instruments at exoplanet and detected water vapor.

While this isn't the first exoplanet that astronomers have detected water vapor, it is the smallest at only approximately twice Earth's diameter. Prior to this discovery, water vapor had gone undetected on small planets, and NASA believes that GJ 9827d could be an example of water-rich planets being present elsewhere in our galaxy.

Intel's next-gen Lunar Lake-MX mobile processor will reportedly feature Samsung LPDDR5X on-package memory, which is a big deal for both Intel and Samsung.

The news is coming from DigiTimes, which reports the news according to its supply chain sources that Samsung would be reportedly landing a "huge" deal this year. Not only would Samsung be getting its heel into the PC market further than it does now, but the move to "on-package" memory was something Apple has been doing exclusively, inside of its M-series processors.

Intel's next-gen Lunar Lake-MX processors are still a while away from release, but we should expect a decent leap in performance across the board... and with on-package Samsung LPDDR5X memory, it'll be an interesting move to say the least.