Microsoft's Copilot key for Windows 11 AI PCs has a secret - it dates back to the mid-1980s

Darren Allan | Software & Apps | Apr 3, 2024 6:06 AM CDT

You've doubtless heard about the Copilot key - the dedicated physical key that's present on the keyboard of AI PCs running Windows 11 - but there's a surprising secret behind this new feature.

Microsoft's Copilot key for Windows 11 AI PCs has a secret - it dates back to the mid-1980s

This was highlighted by Tom's Hardware, who did some digging with new Dell XPS 14 and XPS 16 laptops that have the Copilot key on their respective keyboard decks, in an effort to find out how the key works.

In other words, what's behind the Copilot key in terms of mapping, and is it a new key with a new scan code? Well, the answer to that question is a short no.

Continue reading: Microsoft's Copilot key for Windows 11 AI PCs has a secret - it dates back to the mid-1980s (full post)

US government tasks NASA with creating an out-of-this-world clock

Jak Connor | Science, Space, Health & Robotics | Apr 3, 2024 3:40 AM CDT

The White House has tasked NASA and other agencies to come up with an idea to keep track of time on Earth, but not on Earth.

US government tasks NASA with creating an out-of-this-world clock

The White House has officially instructed NASA and other US agencies to work with the appropriate international agencies to develop a preliminary idea by the end of the year that creates a moon-centric time reference system, or a moon clock. Notably, there is less gravity on the moon due to its lower mass, which means time moves slightly differently than here on Earth, precisely 58.7 microseconds quicker every day. Why do we need a moon clock?

Highly sophisticated computer systems rely on timing to make communications possible, and with NASA's push back into space exploration with its Artemis missions and future plans, along with other countries' space agencies, keeping track of the time has become more paramount than before. NASA has already proposed creating an atomic clock for the moon, an extremely precise clock that would create a unified time for the moon. Furthermore, the moon will not have a daylight saving time, according to Kevin Coggins, NASA's top communications and navigation official.

Continue reading: US government tasks NASA with creating an out-of-this-world clock (full post)

Scientists set world record in creating an 'artificial Sun'

Jak Connor | Science, Space, Health & Robotics | Apr 3, 2024 2:55 AM CDT

The pursuit to create an "artificial Sun" through nuclear fusion has been a dream of scientists for quite some time, and now a team of researchers has inched a little bit more closer to making that dream a reality.

Scientists set world record in creating an 'artificial Sun'

South Korean scientists have now set a new world record with the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) device, a nuclear fusion reaction that is capable of generating plasma temperatures of up to 100 million degrees Celsius, or seven times hotter than the Sun's core. The team was able to achieve this temperature for just 48 seconds, with the previous record being set in 2021 at 30 seconds.

The idea behind fusion reactors is quite simple - superheat two elements until they combine into one, which gives off heat and energy. However, maintaining the reaction is the challenging part. The most common way to achieve fusion energy is by heating hydrogen variants within a donut-shaped reactor called a tokamak.

Continue reading: Scientists set world record in creating an 'artificial Sun' (full post)

AMD FSR 3 Frame Generation is coming soon to PS5 and Xbox, and will debut in Immortals of Aveum

Kosta Andreadis | Gaming | Apr 3, 2024 2:29 AM CDT

AMD recently announced a big FSR 3.1 update was 'coming soon,' which would improve upscaling and Frame Generation visual fidelity, decouple the two technologies and introduce console support.

AMD FSR 3 Frame Generation is coming soon to PS5 and Xbox, and will debut in Immortals of Aveum

With NVIDIA's DLSS 3 and AMD's FSR 3, frame generation has been among the most talked about and exciting PC technologies of the past couple of years. And now, it's finally headed to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.

As part of a developer update on Immortals of Aveum, Ascendant Studios announced that, in addition to a new HDR patch dropping for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S today, the team was working on bringing "AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 3 (FSR 3), including its frame generation capability" to the game on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

Continue reading: AMD FSR 3 Frame Generation is coming soon to PS5 and Xbox, and will debut in Immortals of Aveum (full post)

Discord's April Fool loot box video garnered 1.4 billion views in a day by accident

Kosta Andreadis | Internet & Websites | Apr 3, 2024 1:58 AM CDT

An April Fools' gag can be amusing, cringeworthy, miss the mark, or fall flat in that 'meh' way. In the case of the popular social, chat, and online community platform Discord, its little April Fools was seen by 17% of the world's total population in 24 hours.

Discord's April Fool loot box video garnered 1.4 billion views in a day by accident

Discord's April Fools' gag is a simple joke: a short clip announcing that Loot Boxes are coming to Discord - a funny enough gag that would have been funnier during the height of videogame Loot Boxes, around 2017. You can watch it above.

So, how did this video get 1.4 billion (that's right, billion) views on YouTube, making it one of the most popular videos ever? A figure that makes the Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer we all watched in December look like a clip from a niche channel that posts the odd instructional video on how to, I don't know, untangle headphone cables? Apparently, it was a software error.

Continue reading: Discord's April Fool loot box video garnered 1.4 billion views in a day by accident (full post)

Apple's new AI system can 'see' and could be a game-changer for Siri

Jak Connor | Artificial Intelligence | Apr 3, 2024 1:27 AM CDT

Apple is diving head first into artificial intelligence-powered systems and according to reports citing Apple researchers behind these new systems, one specifically is designed to take on OpenAI's GPT products.

Apple's new AI system can 'see' and could be a game-changer for Siri

Reports indicate that Apple is developing the ReaLM system, which stands for "Reference Resolution As Language Modeling", a new system that is designed to make interacting with AI much more natural. Additionally, ReaLM is able to "see" on-screen content, with the researchers behind the project saying it outperforms OpenAI's GPT-4, the underlying technology powering ChatGPT, in determining context and interpreting linguistic expressions.

Additionally, the researchers behind the project believe ReaLM is "an ideal choice" for a context deciphering system that would be present "on-device without compromising on performance". So, how would it work? Imagine asking Siri to show you a list of local groceries around your location. After Siri has completed bringing that list up you will then be able to ask her "Call the bottom one." With ReaLM implementation Siri would be able to identify the bottom option and proceed to call them. Apple researchers say ReaLM outperformed GPT-4 in this context deciphering area.

Continue reading: Apple's new AI system can 'see' and could be a game-changer for Siri (full post)

GeForce RTX 4060 and RTX 4070 are the most popular current-gen GPUs, and it's not even close

Kosta Andreadis | Video Cards & GPUs | Apr 3, 2024 1:04 AM CDT

The Steam Hardware & Software Survey results for March 2024 are now available, and the data once again shows that the GeForce RTX 3060 is still the most popular GPU among Steam gamers. As reported earlier today, its share rose dramatically in March, with 6.71% (+0.71%) of PC gamers rocking the mainstream Ampere card.

GeForce RTX 4060 and RTX 4070 are the most popular current-gen GPUs, and it's not even close

What about the current generation of GPUs? The GeForce RTX 40 Series, the Radeon RX 7000 series, and Intel's first generation of Arc graphics cards. Although we've seen new models and variants arrive at a steady clip, most recently with the SUPER refresh from NVIDIA and the Radeon RX 7900 GRE global relaunch from AMD, we're now well over a year into the generation.

Now's as good a time as any to take stock and see what's hot and what's not. So, let's examine some trends, starting with the current generation of GPUs - where the GeForce RTX 4060 and GeForce RTX 4070 are the most popular new cards.

Continue reading: GeForce RTX 4060 and RTX 4070 are the most popular current-gen GPUs, and it's not even close (full post)

NASA achieves world's first observation from within a Sun burp

Jak Connor | Science, Space, Health & Robotics | Apr 3, 2024 12:45 AM CDT

The Sun goes through an 11-year cycle that ranges from extreme activity to very minimal activity, and when our host star is at the height of its activity, astronomers detect numerous solar flares, plasma ejections, and tumultuous conditions.

NASA achieves world's first observation from within a Sun burp

NASA sent its Parker Solar Probe to orbit the Sun and monitor our star's ever-changing conditions with the goal of researchers learning more about its constitution and evolution. With that knowledge, scientists can more accurately predict potentially dangerous space weather caused by the Sun. Now, the Parker Solar Probe has made some ground-breaking observations while passing through a Coronal Magnetic Ejection (CME), a wave of charged particles ejected from the Sun, similar to a burp.

According to reports, the Wide-field Imager for Parker Solar Probe (WISPR) instrument has captured turbulent eddies, which are what physicists call Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities (KHI). These events occur when one patch of fast-moving fluid interacts with another. This phenomenon has been detected in clouds when the wind speed at one end of the cloud is different from the other end. However, it has never been observed within a solar eruption but was theorized by solar physicists for quite some time.

Continue reading: NASA achieves world's first observation from within a Sun burp (full post)

Amazon walks out of its 'Just Walk Out' technology after being plagued with issues

Jak Connor | Business, Financial & Legal | Apr 3, 2024 12:18 AM CDT

Amazon has decided to remove its "Just Walk Out" technology from its Fresh grocery stories across the United States, following the self-checkout system being plagued with numerous problems.

Amazon walks out of its 'Just Walk Out' technology after being plagued with issues

According to a report from The Information, Amazon has decided to axe its "Just Walk Out" technology from its Fresh grocery stores across the US, which includes a multitude of cameras, sensors, and 1,000 human eyeballs to function. For those who don't know, the Just Walk Out system was touted as an automated future way of shopping as consumers could simply walk into the store, grab what they need, pay for it at a counter without a cashier, and then leave.

During this process a consumer is constantly scanned by sensors and cameras positioned around the store. However, Just Walk Out doesn't involve zero humans, as reports indicate there are more than 1,000 real people in India scanning the camera feeds to detect that all patrons are accurately checking out. Additionally, these stores required high ceilings to achieve the appropriate camera angles for maximum monitoring.

Continue reading: Amazon walks out of its 'Just Walk Out' technology after being plagued with issues (full post)

TSMC forced to evacuate following 7.4 earthquake in Taiwan

Jak Connor | Business, Financial & Legal | Apr 3, 2024 12:03 AM CDT

A powerful 7.5 magnitude earthquake has struck just off the coast of Taiwan, resulting in tsunami warnings being issued for Japan.

TSMC forced to evacuate following 7.4 earthquake in Taiwan

The earthquake struck off the east coast of Taiwan, approximately 100 kilometers from Taiwan's capital, Taipei, which has triggered nearly 3m-high waves in some areas 1,000 miles south of Tokyo within the Okinawa prefecture. Social media videos show buildings collapsing, massive dust clouds, and widespread damage throughout the affected region. Notably, Taiwanese officials pegged the earthquake at a 7.2 magnitude, while the US Geological Survey stated it was a 7.4.

Now, reports indicate that some of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's fabrication plants have been forced to halt chipmaking, with staff being told to evacuate the premises due to safety concerns. Bloomberg has reported that some machinery within these fabs have been switched off following the earthquake, and at the moment, it remains unclear if this pause in production will impact the global chip market timelines for product releases.

Continue reading: TSMC forced to evacuate following 7.4 earthquake in Taiwan (full post)