Latest News - Page 707

With some carmakers like General Motors starting to turn their back on in-car entertainment options like Apple's CarPlay and Google's Android Auto, some had worried whether that would be a growing trend. Companies like Tesla prefer to offer their own in-car entertainment systems and have all of their owners use that exclusively while offering apps like Google Maps and Apple Music themselves. However, Polestar says that it won't be one of those ditching iPhone and Android connectivity any time soon.

Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath was speaking with TechCrunch when he said that the company believes it's too important to offer customers a choice for it to ditch any of the phone-mirroring options available today. Polestar currently uses an in-car system that is powered by Google, and while Polestar believes that offers the best experience, he believes that it isn't in Polestar's best interest to try and dictate to drivers how they listen to music or use their favorite mapping systems.

The approach is a refreshing one in an industry where carmakers don't have a reputation for flexibility. CarPlay and Android Auto offer ways for drivers to connect their phones either using a cable or wirelessly and then access their apps via a large touchscreen. It's safer and easier for drivers to use those apps than try to use their phone while driving, and in many cases, the apps offered simply aren't available via the car's built-in software.

For a few years now Apple has offered developers a way to make apps that live within the Messages app on iPhones and iPads. The so-called iMessage apps allow people to interact with apps and content from within the Messages app and messages threads without having to open the app proper. YouTube was one company that offered an iMessage app but that seems to have changed, with the app no longer available.

YouTube hasn't confirmed the change but the latest version of its iPhone and iPad app has removed support for the iMessage app, 9to5Mac reports. There is no mention of the move in the App Store release notes, with YouTube simply saying that the new update is about bug fixes and performance improvements.

YouTube originally launched its iMessage app back in October of 2017 and it allowed people to watch YouTube content within the Messages app while using the native player. The app also made it easier for people to find and then share YouTube videos without having to leave the Messages app to search for them.

If you're a heavy user of the Find My app you're going to be pleased to know that you can add more items than you thought you could. While Apple previously limited people to just 16 items for tracking via Find My, that number has been doubled to 32. And what's more, it was doubled more than a year ago when iOS 16 shipped.

This news comes after Apple updated one of its support documents to confirm that there is now a 32-item limit in the Find My app, a limit that it seems unlikely most people are going to find themselves reaching any time soon. However, the way that Apple counts items might be a surprise to some people with some items actually counting as three.

Those items, Apple says, are AirPods and AirPods Pro. In an example posted in the same support document, Apple said that AirPods and AirPods Pro (1st generation) are both counted as two items, whereas AirPods Pro 2 (2nd generation) are counted as three items. The reason? Find My can track individual earbuds and in the case of Apple's updated AirPods Pro, the Wireless Charging Case is included in that, too.

If you're one of the lucky few that intend to pick up a new Vision Pro at launch you're probably already starting to get excited. The Apple mixed reality headset has a lot to live up to after years of rumors and leaks, but now that it's almost here Apple is getting people ready for a buying experience that will be like no other.

The company, which will put the Vision Pro up for preorder on January 19, has started to email people in the United States to inform them about how the preorder process will work and, importantly, how they will go about making sure that they are ordering the correct size accessories to fit their head and face. And to make that happen, they're going to need to have an iPhone or iPad to hand.

In the emails sent to potential Vision Pro customers, Apple warned that they would need an iPhone or an iPad with Face ID to ensure that they get a process measurement to ensure the Headset's band fits correctly. The email also confirmed that the latest version of the Apple Store app will also be needed in order to complete the detailed face scan, while people who wear glasses will also be able to choose their Zess lens inserts at the point of order. A current prescription will need to be available and provided to Apple at the point of placing the pre-order, too.

The march of progress with smartphone batteries is undeniable, with innovations like fast charging making a real difference, but phones get more powerful and demanding too - meaning battery life is a constant battle for something acceptable.

The future, however, is a nuclear battery that can keep supplying power for 50 years with no need for it to be charged. At least that's the case if the claims of a Chinese tech startup, Betavolt, become a reality.

Betavolt's nuclear battery is a compact disc, smaller than a coin, that contains 63 nuclear isotopes, and their decay provides the energy that's made into electricity to power a device.

Microsoft might be experimenting with presenting Copilot straight away, as soon as Windows 11 boots - a controversial idea in testing, naturally - but another more useful change has been spotted in the latest preview build of the OS (23615).

This was flagged up on X (formerly Twitter) by well-known Microsoft leaker PhantomOfEarth, and it consists of the ability to drag and drop files onto the Copilot icon on the taskbar.

You can see how it works in the above tweet, but it's exactly as you'd expect - pick up a file, drag it over to the icon, and then the Copilot side panel opens, whereupon you can drop the file in and have the AI interact with it.

The TT Show is back for 2024, and with CES 2024 kicking off the New Year, it feels like Jak and Kosta barely had time to unwrap their holiday gifts before walking into a once-in-a-lifetime cosmic storm of tech news. So. Much. Tech.

From NVIDIA formally announcing its new GeForce RTX 40 Series SUPER refresh line-up to AMD announcing a batch of new CPUs and a GPU, there's also the matter of every company in the world deciding to announce a bunch of drool-worthy OLED gaming monitors at the same time!

Then there's MSI entering the PC gaming handheld market with the very first Intel-powered portable gaming rig, Sony teaming up with Nintendo, the stunning trailer for Half-Life 2's RTX Remix, and an AI-powered grill that can cook the perfect steak all the time, every time in 90 seconds.

In a change that could prove controversial - who are we kidding, it will prove divisive, for sure - Microsoft is making it so that the Copilot side panel pops up right on your desktop when you boot the PC.

This behavior is only being tested right now, with some Windows Insiders in the Dev channel, coming packaged with Windows 11 preview build 23615.

So, only a small number of testers will get this (at least to begin with - there's going to be a wider rollout), and there is a way to turn it off (in Settings > Personalization > Copilot for those interested).

Ducky keyboards are some of the most sought-after in the world, sporting excellent features, high-end components, and a type feel that is next level. Ducky's latest creation sees the keyboard maker collaborating with Bethesda to create a custom DOOM-themed keyboard based on the 60% form-factor One 3 SF design.

The Ducky One 3 SF DOOM Edition is a Limited Edition keyboard with only 666 ANSI layout and 666 ISO layout being produced. The perfect amount for anything limited edition DOOM-related. As for the physical design and look, it opts for something we rarely see in the keyboard-space artwork, in this case, the iconic key art for DOOM Eternal, stretched across all of the PBT keycaps.

This means all keycap lettering is printed on the sides (facing the user). Functionality-wise, there might be a more user-friendly design, but it looks special as a limited edition collectible.

Even though it's about to be replaced by the upcoming GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER (yeah, it's a mouthful), the current GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is still a beast of a GPU - able to deliver faster than GeForce RTX 3090 performance. A high-end GPU that often ships with over-the-top triple-fan triple-slot cooling designs - on account of its performance.

What if you could fit a GeForce RTX 4070 Ti (a capable 4K gaming card) inside a Small Form Factor (SFF) PC? It's not an out-of-this-world idea because of how power efficient the Ada Lovelace generation of GPUs has been - the lower the power draw, the lower the heat generated.

And so this mod over on Reddit is impressive. It takes the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti and puts in a single-fan and dual-slot shroud, which makes the 173mm long and 14.5mm thick dimensions small enough to fit inside even the tiniest PC gaming builds.

Chat-provider Discord has slashed 17% of its workforce to help buoy its margins and reduce costs.

The games industry is going through a great culling right now. Armed by years of record-breaking earnings during the Pandemic, game developers and publishers invested heavily into content production. Those games and projects were released into the market in 2023, leading to a congested release slate. Consumers had trouble keeping up with the glut of titles, content was in total free supply, and the competition was amplified as a result.

This led to some publishers like Nacon saying 2023 just had 'too many games.' Combined with rising costs driven by inflation, the competitive market has forced companies to cut costs wherever possible in order to maintain profit--or in Discord's case, to improve the path towards profit.

Amazon has slashed even more jobs at its streaming subsidiary Twitch.

After the latest round of layoffs announced by Twitch CEO Dan Clancy, the streamer will have laid off nearly 1,000 workers. Amazon is cutting costs where it can and Twitch, which apparently may not be profitable, is a prime cut.

The news was confirmed with an official announcement by Clancy shortly after a Bloomberg report about the layoffs had been published.

Too many games--that's one of the current problems that the interactive entertainment industry is facing, according to Nacon's Benoit Clerc.

2023 was one of the best years in gaming in terms of diversity, selection, and back-to-back heavy hitting releases, but it wasn't such a great year for the companies behind the games. Following record-breaking earnings during COVID lockdowns, the gaming economy has now corrected itself and led to significant reconstruction of talent pools. Publishers and parent companies around the world are slashing budgets, cutting headcount, cancelling projects, and even shutting down studios.

The congested market has squeezed consumer choice during a time when discretionary income is already low. Current inflation conditions have driven up the prices of basic needs and games themselves have likewise become more expensive--all major AAA games now sell for $69.99, a $10 increase over the previous $59.99 MSRP of video games.

Altec Lansing and GameShark's resurrected company are under fire for haphazardly mentioning the Nintendo Switch 2's release timing.

Remember GameShark? If you grew up in the PS1 era, odds are that you do. Back then there were all sorts of cheat devices and accessories you could buy, but none were as popular as GameShark. Now that classic brand is coming back with a line of AI-powered software and peripherals.

There's just one issue: This announcement was overshadowed by an entirely different product. According to a public press release from AI Shark, the new reincarnation of classic GameShark brand, the Nintendo Switch 2 will launch sometime in September 2024. This revelation seems quite random as the PR had nothing to do with Nintendo or its new rumored Switch handheld--the press release was about the partnership of audio expert Altec Lansing with AI Shark to make new AI headsets.

When Apple announced the Vision Pro headset on June 5 2023 it didn't say anything about availability beyond the fact that it would ship in early 2024. We're now there, and we now know that the headset will hit Apple Store shelves on February 2. But according to one report, we shouldn't expect that the headset will be easy to get hold of - and not just because you'll have to hand over a cool $3,499 to get it.

While the high asking price is sure to also limit the demand for a headset that we've been hearing rumors about for years, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims that even if you do have the money to give Apple, you might not be able to. According to him, stocks of the headset are going to be extremely limited.

Writing on X, the supply chain analyst said that Apple will produce between 60,000 and 80,000 units of the Vision Pro ahead of that February 2 release date. That leads him to believe that the headset will sell out soon after release, despite the high asking price.

While at CES 2024, we were invited to take a look at what Enermax had in their suite at the Venetian. Obviously, new PSUs and cases are Enermax's bread and butter, so here we are. They first showed us their new line of PSUs, which includes a PSU that is ATX12VO and ATX 3.1 certified. Having this ability to be this versatile in the PSU game is interesting. The only thing would be if and when the industry really takes to the ATX12VO standard that Intel is pushing. The specific PSU that Enermax showed is dubbed the PlentiGemini, which is 80 Plus Platinum rated using 100% Japanese capacitors.

Next up is the new Revolution D.F. 12 line of ATX 3.0 PSUs. Having a black/gray model and a white model with white cabling looks to shorten the footprint of the ATX PSU and slims down to 122mm depth while still maintaining a 135mm fan. 100% Japanese capacitors are standard and are rated at 80 Plus Gold; these PSUs are a good value when it comes to system builders looking to save a few bucks.

The next step up for the Revolution D.F. line is the X Pro Splave line. These PSUs are done in collaboration with Splave, who is a very avid overclocker rated 1# in the world. These PSUs feature individually sleeved cables, meet the ATX 3.1 standard, and again have 100% Japanese capacitors.

ASUS has revamped its already very powerful G14 Zephyrus 14-inch laptop model that was already a monster in its own right. This year, the G14 Zephyrus features an AMD CPU up to the new Ryzen 8000 series along with up to a NVIDIA RTX 4070 laptop edition with MUX Switch and NVIDIA's Advanced Optimus technology. The display has also been replaced with an OLED 3K 120Hz 0.2ms panel with a DCI-P3 color space of 100%, all while running NVIDIA G-Sync. Audio has also been much improved with a 6-speaker upgrade with dual force canceling woofers. Another change that ASUS has made is the move from the Anime Matrix back panel to Slash Lighting.

Continuing with the improvements that ASUS has made with the G14 Zephyrus, which ASUS is quite proud of is the improved cooling system featuring the 2nd Gen Arc Fan that runs alongside the 4 fat heat piped cooling solution.

ASUS was showing off three versions of the G14 Zephyrus with different configurations.

A fresh rumor has sprung up around NVIDIA's imminent RTX Super refreshes for its Lovelace range that suggests the RTX 4080 Super might have a little more pep in its step than previously thought.

The spillage was brought to the attention of X (formerly Twitter) users by I_Leak_VN and is supposedly from a presentation to Vietnamese retailers (as flagged by Wccftech).

The slide shown contains the full range of RTX 4000 models and pricing along with comparative performance and value calculations - add your own seasoning and don't go light with the saltshaker.

NVIDIA has just revealed the latest batch of games that are arriving for its GeForce Now streaming service, and there are 10 of them - plus the company has recapped its big CES 2024 news regarding the cloud gaming platform.

All this is part of the GFN Thursday revelations for this week. So, what are those 10 new games first of all? GeForce Now subscribers will be able to play this little lot:

Of course, the most notable additions here are Assassin's Creed: Valhalla and also War Hospital, the latter being a fresh take on a war-themed game where, as the name suggests, you manage a field hospital (in World War I). Going by the reviews, it seems to benefit from some interesting and in-depth game mechanics, but it still needs polishing.

Here's some good news for PC gamers with a graphics card from Team Red - AMD's Fluid Motion Frames tech is officially debuting on January 24.

AFMF for short, also known as frame generation (as first seen with NVIDIA DLSS 3), the technology has been in preview for quite some time - since September 2023 in fact - but it's about to graduate to full release.

AFMF is frame generation at the driver level, so it can work across all games as a result, with caveats. Firstly, it's not going to give you the same results as FSR 3 (which incorporates frame generation, too, but does a lot more than just this - though games have to be coded to support it, of course).