Latest News - Page 745

Discord is one of the most popular voice, video, and text communication platforms today, especially among gamers. Thanks to the new Discord Store, the latest feature to arrive is all about customizing your profile and avatar/icon. Available through the desktop client and the web app, users can now make their profile more unique and animated with Avatar Decorations and Profile Effects.

Discord is popular with PC and console gamers, so one way to describe the addition is to say it's like a cosmetic microtransaction storefront for your profile. Granted, this is not inherently bad as most features on Discord are free to use - and there's a definite market for sprucing up your Discord Avatar with festive lights in time for the holiday season.

And for those who currently shell out for the premium Discord Nitro service, there's special member pricing and an exclusive set of cosmetic items "only available for Nitro members to use with an active membership."

GPU-Z v2.56.0 has been released, with built-in support to scan your game libraries to find DLSS files, including DLSS 3.0 Frame Generation (FG) and DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction (RR). You can download GPU-Z v2.56.0 here.

Why does this matter? It'll make the process of finding those files -- if you're the type of user looking for them -- to replace them with new DLSS files that aren't out of date. For some users, this is a huge deal... and the folks at TechPowerUp have just made that process super easy with GPU-Z v2.56.0 here.

TechPowerUp has also added support for adding the sensor for the NVIDIA Crossbar clock (which you can enable or disable, but it's disabled by default). GPU-Z v2.56.0 adds support for the NVIDIA RTX 5000 Ada, RTX 4500 Ada, RTX 4000 Ada, new RTX 2050 Mobile variant, L40S, and H800 PCIe cards on the NVIDIA side of things.

Dell's next-gen XPS and Alienware gaming laptops have been teased, rocking either 14th Gen Core or new Core 100 series CPUs from Intel.

The upcoming wave of next-gen Alienware gaming laptops is led by the new Alienware m16 R2 gaming laptop, powered by Intel's new Core Ultra H series CPUs and NVIDIA's current-gen fleet of GeForce RTX 40 Laptop GPUs. Dell is using a new redesigned chassis, a new thermal system to keep its new CPU and GPU as cool as possible, and more.

We'll also have a new feature called Stealth Mode, which will turn your new Alienware m16 R2 gaming laptop into something a little more inconspicuous. Stealth Mode will disable all of your RGB lighting, fan profiles will be changed, and more so that the gaming laptop can be used at school or even work without standing out.

That headline might sound like a joke, but the sheer amount of data being collected and tracked by modern smart cars is incredible. As revealed by ExpressVPN, data collection and monitoring in smart cars goes well beyond what you'd expect to find. Driving habits, GPS data, and how close you let the tank get to empty before pulling into a gas station for fuel or a charge? Sure.

Everything there is to know about you and your behavior, right down to fingerprints and facial scans? Not cool.

It's a long, seemingly never-ending list of personal information and data being collected. According to the Mozilla Foundation, smart cars are the worst offenders when it comes to the excessive collection of personal data. In the U.S., Nissan's privacy policy confirms that its smart cars collect sensitive information like driver's license numbers, citizenship status, nationality, race, and gender - but also "sexual activity."

After delays through production and manufacturing issues that lasted many years, the time has finally come, as Tesla is about to deliver the very first Cybertruck.

The highly-anticipated moment has been simply titled the "Cybertruck Delivery Event" and will be held at the Texas Gigafactory in Austin, Texas. For those that can't make it there in person, the entire event is going to be live-streamed, with the video being available on X at noon P.T. (3 p.m. ET), on Nov. 30. The details surrounding the event are somewhat vague, but given by the title the event will include Tesla delivering its first Cybertruck's to customers that pre-ordered the vehicle back in 2019 when it was first announced.

It can be expected that Tesla won't be able to deliver many Cybertruck's to customers across the day, as company CEO Elon Musk previously explained that Tesla is currently in the process of ramping up production of the Cybertruck to fulfill its pre-orders. Musk said that it would take Tesla five years of manufacturing to complete every single Cybertruck order. At its current rate of manufacturing, Tesla is making about 10 Cybertrucks a day, with expectations of reaching 250,000 a year by 2025.

It looks like we'll be seeing the RTX 3060 graphics card rolling off the production lines for some time yet.

NVIDIA plans to keep the RTX 3060 GPU in production for the foreseeable future, rather than it being shelved now that the RTX 4060 has been available for a while.

According to a report from Chinese tech site IT Home - sprinkle salt aplenty around with this, as ever with the rumor mill - NVIDIA wants to keep manufacturing this last-gen GPU, at least in the near-term, to compete with AMD's RX 6750 GRE.

Officials with Meta have warned that foreign companies are likely to attempt to influence the 2024 election with a wave of fake social media accounts spreading propaganda.

This election cycle is different as the United States government has chosen to stop proactively sharing information with Meta, along with other social media platforms, about foreign government online influence operations. Meta informed reporters of this new change on Wednesday, and according to Meta's global threat intelligence lead, Ben Nimmo, "We believe that it's important to build on the progress the defender community has made since 2016, and make sure that we work together to keep evolving our defenses against foreign interference."

Notably, Meta's head of security policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, informed reports that the drip feed of information from the US government stopped in July. Gleicher declined to comment on why the US government has stopped providing social media platforms with information. Furthermore, before the 2020 election, the US government gave vital information to Meta to prevent online influence campaigns by Russia, Mexico, and Iran - all of which the company now warns will, and particularly, be attempting this election cycle.

The United States is currently in a race with only a few competing nations in achieving global semiconductor dominance, and the CEO of NVIDIA said it will be quite some time before it will reach its goal.

Jensen Huang, the CEO of NVIDIA, sat down for an interview at the Dealbook Summit, where he explained that while the US is making moves to put itself in the race for semiconductor dominance, it will be at least a decade or two before manufacturing reaches the point where the US can sustainably disconnect itself from the global chip supply. Regardless of how high the mountain is and how long it takes to climb, Jensen says that the US should still embark on the journey.

NASA has taken to its blog and social channels to announce that the Hubble Space Telescope has stopped working following the detection of a gyroscope

The space agency explained via its blogpost that the Hubble Space Telescope entered safe mode on November 23 due to an "ongoing gyroscope (gyro) issue", and that the space telescope's instruments remain in good health. NASA further explained that Hubble entered into safe mode automatically when one of its three gyroscopes provided faulty readings. For those that don't know, Hubble's gyro's measure the turn rates of telescope, which is a component of the telescope knowing which direction it's pointing in.

Furthermore, NASA revealed that Hubble first entered into safe mode on November 19, but was promptly recovered by ground teams that were able to get Hubble back to an appropriate level for scientific operations. However, the following day, the gyro problem reared its head again, resulting in scientific operations being suspended again on November 21, which was followed by another recovery and then another failure on November 23.

A team of scientists has discovered six exoplanets orbiting a star called HD 110076, and what's interesting about these exoplanets is that they are in a rare phenomenon known as a chain of resonance.

So, what is a chain of resonance? This phenomenon occurs when two bodies orbiting a third body interact with each other gravitationally, and their orbital periods line up. Notably, these orbital periods don't have to line up 1:1. An example of this phenomenon is Pluto and Neptune - Pluto completes 2 orbits around the Sun for every 3 of Neptune's, creating a resonance of 2:3. Another example is some of Jupiter's moons such as Ganymede, Europa, and Io. For every 1 of Ganymede's orbits, Europa completes 2 orbits and Io 4 orbits, creating a 1:2:4 chain.

Using telescope's, the researchers discovered six exoplanets that vary in size from 1.94 to 2.85 times the size of Earth. As for their orbital periods; 9.11 days, 13.67 days, 20.52 days, 30.79 days, 41.06 days, and 54.77 days (from the innermost exoplanet to the outermost). Their chain of resonance is as follows: 3:2, 3:2, 3:2, 4:3, and 4:3. This discovery marks just the sixth system known to date with six exoplanets in a chain of resonance, and due to the chain of resonance still being untouched, it represents a region of space that has hardly been influenced by outside forces such as asteroid impacts and planetary migration.

Former NASA technician Chris Lewicki has revealed that he accidentally crashed the Spirit Mars rover two weeks before it was meant to launch.

The former NASA technician took to his website to reveal the behind-the-scenes story that took place in February 2003 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where it was like any other day at work. However, this day, Lewicki was testing the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT), a tool designed to cut into Martian rock and reveal just beneath its surface. To verify the integrity of the motors powering the RAT, Lewicki sent an electric charge to the components and checked the chart reading. A smooth decreasing line on the chart indicates a functioning motor, while spikes indicate problems.

Lewicki's chart during this test was not "like anything we had seen before. It did not even look like a broken motor. It was decidedly - something else." Here's where it went wrong.

OpenAI has taken to its website to officially announce the return of Sam Altman after the company's board of directors ousted him.

The return of the former CEO and founder of OpenAI was made official in a Wednesday blog post on the OpenAI website, which features a lengthy message from Altman, along with a brief message from Bret Taylor, the chair of the board of directors. The blog post explains that OpenAI's board will be adopting a non-voting observer from Microsoft, and the new board of directors will consist of Bret Taylor, Larry Summers, and Adam D'Angelo.

The now-reinstated CEO explains that he doesn't hold any grudges against any of the people that were on the side of removing him as the company's CEO and described his brief time away as a "wonderfully focusing time". Additionally, Altman wrote that during the chaotic time of his departure no customers of any of the company's services bailed, illustrating trust and inherent value in the products the company has made.

Elon Musk sat down at the 2023 DealBook Summit in New York on Wednesday, where he answered some questions regarding advertising on the social media platform formerly called Twitter and now called X.

Elon Musk, the owner of X, and the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at the company, spoke to Andrew Ross Sorkin about the recent tweets from Musk that have been described by the White House as "antisemitic and racist hate". Musk was asked his thoughts on big advertisers such as Disney and Apple pausing ad expenditure with X over his recent controversial tweets. Musk replied by saying, "I hope they stop. Don't advertise."

Sorkin followed up by asking Musk, "You don't want them to advertise?" Musk replied with, "No." Musk was asked to explain his reasoning behind his statement, to which the X owner said, "If somebody's gonna try to blackmail me with advertising? Blackmail me with money? Go f---yourself. Go. F---. Yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is." Musk then doubled down by saying, "Hi Bob! If you are in the audience. That's how I feel," which a reference to Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney.

Recently, Sony released its PlayStation 5 refresh in the form of the new PS5 Slim, which presents a similar shape to the launch model but in a size with 30% less volume and a detachable disc drive. The latter was a smart move because it means those who opt for a purely digital PS5 Slim model can get a disc drive at a later date.

Compared to previous console refreshes, the PlayStation 5 Slim is a little underwhelming, but it does feature a more efficient 6nm chip and a smaller motherboard. Enter YouTube channel Not From Concentrate, who took it upon themselves to design a working PlayStation 5 Tiny - which not only drastically reduces the PS5's physical footprint compared to the launch model, but presents the console in an entirely new way.

The PlayStation 5 Slim from Sony offered a 30% reduction in volume/size, but the custom PlayStation 5 Tiny takes this to over 60%. The design follows the white and black aesthetic of the console, albeit in a form factor that looks more like a mini PC than a console.

AWS has just announced its new Graviton4 processor, the fourth-generation Arm-based server CPU that has 50% more cores, 75% more memory bandwidth, and an overall compute performance uplift of up to 30%.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) was previously manufacturing its Graviton3 and Graviton3E processors on the 5nm process node at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) but is moving to the newer, mature 4nm process node that NVIDIA is using to build its Grace CPU and "Hopper" H100 and H200 AI GPUs.

Inside, the new Graviton4 has 96 cores based on Arm's "Demeter" Neoverse V2 core (which is based on the Armv9 architecture), which is a 50% boost in cores over Graviton3 which had 64 cores.

Grand Theft Auto is coming to Netflix, which is a strange thing to say until you remember that Netflix offers downloadable games to play as part of its mobile iOS and Android platforms. And on December 14, Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition is coming to Netflix members on said mobile platforms.

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy includes remastered and 'Definitive Edition' versions of the franchise's first forays into open-world 3D games: Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. These games first appeared during the PlayStation 2 and original Xbox era of console gaming, with Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition released for PC and consoles in 2021.

As much as this sounds like a big win for Netflix and raising the profile and awareness of Netflix Games (the company is investing in making more games using its franchises and TV properties), we're also reminded that the 2021 release of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition was an absolute disaster.

The Radeon RX 7900M is the latest flagship mobile GPU from AMD, and it recently made its debut in a variant of Alienware's M18 R1 gaming laptop line-up. It's the only laptop so far to feature the latest in high-end mobile Radeon graphics, and based on the in-depth review over at Notebookcheck, in-game performance is similar to an Alienware M18 R1 laptop rocking an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU.

This is an impressive showing for what should be a more affordable alternative to NVIDIA's high-end laptop GPU offerings (Radeon RX 7900M gaming laptops cost around $500 less than GeForce RTX 4080 laptops). But there's a catch. The same review indicates that when it comes to the Radeon RX 7900M, AMD's drivers are buggy and prone to issues like black screens, freezing on bootup, and rapidly draining the battery.

It's not a good look for the new flagship mobile Radeon chip and reinforces the general belief by some that AMD's drivers are buggy and that it's to be expected when it comes to new Radeon products.

Guess whose back? NVIDIA's back. Where are they back? China. NVIDIA is reportedly making a new GeForce RTX 4090 D graphics card, which fully complies with US export restrictions that have seen the RTX 4090 market go bananas in China.

Our friends over at Wccftech are reporting "exclusive information gathered by our sources, it seems like NVIDIA has a new GPU on the block." This will be the GeForce RTX 4090 D with the "D" standing for Dragon, a new China-exclusive design that will be a replacement for the GeForce RTX 4090, which is banned in China over its Total Processing Performance (TPP) rating of over 4800 points.

Because of those TPP restrictions, NVIDIA will water down its upcoming RTX 4090 D over the RTX 4090, with less gaming performance and less AI capabilities than the full RTX 4090. It will look, feel, and act like any GeForce RTX 40 series GPU would, DLSS, Reflex, everything... but the compute power will be restricted to meet US sanctions requirements.

OpenAI just announced its Q* platform, and now we have Amazon announcing its new Amazon Q platform, which allows businesses to ask questions specific to their companies.

Amazon Q was announced during a keynote speech by AWS CEO Adam Selipsky at AWS re:Invent, where Amazon Q will be like an AI assistant that lets people ask questions about their businesses using their data. Amazon Q will let employees ask it questions about the company they work for instead of finding the information themselves, which would take far longer (and sometimes, multiple people to sift through data).

The new Amazon Q features can be accessed through AWS Management Console or individual companies' documentation pages, developer environments including Slack, and other third-party apps in the wild. Amazon says its new Q platform has been trained on 17 years of AWS knowledge and experience.

Microsoft has rolled out the November Update for the Xbox app on Windows PCs, and it's a big one for fans of portable PC gaming devices like the ROG Ally from ASUS, Legion GO from Lenovo, or any of the various Windows-based handhelds from AYANEO. Although Valve's Steam Deck isn't a Windows device, the rise in popularity of these sorts of devices has led to the new Compact mode for the Xbox app.

As the naming suggests, it offers a more intuitive interface and streamlined version of the UI optimized for handhelds - with the side bar collapsing into icons to provide more space for browsing through your library and all of the latest PC Game Pass additions.

Accessing the new mode is simple: select your profile and then toggle between 'Compact Mode' on and off. As part of the update, Microsoft is partnering with companies like ASUS to ensure that Compact mode is enabled by default when firing up the Xbox app on PC gaming handhelds running Windows.