Latest News - Page 751

TEAMGROUP has announced a new lineup of PCIe Gen 4 SSDs for gaming under the T-FORCE brand with the new T-FORCE G70, G70 PRO, G50, and G50 PRO. The flagship T-FORCE G70 and G70 PRO SSDs offer sequential read speeds of up to 7,400 MB/s and write speeds of up to 6,800 MB/s and are both PlayStation 5-ready.

Outside of the T-FORCE G70 PRO offering DRAM Caching and the SLC Caching found on the T-FORCE G70, the big difference comes via heat dissipation. Both the G70 and G70 PRO feature TEAMGROUP's ultra-thin patented graphene heatsink, with the G70 PRO also available with the company's brand-new aluminum alloy heat spreader. All versions of the G70 are PS5 compatible.

The T-FORCE G70 and G70 PRO will be available in 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities, with the T-FORCE G50 and G50 PRO available in 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB capacities. The full line-up is expected to become available in North America via Amazon by the end of December 2023.

AMD launched its new Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series HEDT processors not too long ago now, featuring up to 64 cores and 192 threads of CPU power, with v-color unveiling new overclocked DDR5 R-DIMM memory that has been optimized for the new TRX50 platform.

The new v-color DDR5 overclocking R-DIMM has been tailor-made for the new TRX50 series motherboards and AMD's new Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series CPUs. The company will be launching its new R-DIMM memory in 64GB kits (4 x 16GB sticks) and larger 128GB kits (4 x 32GB sticks) with speeds of up to DDR5-7200.

V-Color says that its new DDR5 OC R-DIMM memory is "primed to unleash its full potential with EXPO ready technology, designed for a diverse user base encompassing both non-overclocking users and enthusiasts who engage in overclocking, with a specific focus on content creators, intensive 3D modelers, and AI programmers".

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 is already a pretty stunning piece of kit and you'd surely have to admit that even if you aren't a huge fan of foldable phones. But while we're big fans of the base model there is a whole new limited edition version for us to drool over. And it's pretty gorgeous.

The new phone is the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 Maison Margiela Edition and while that's quite the mouthful, we'll let everyone involved off. The phone was announced via a press release and comes with a number of accessories. This is the second collaboration between Samsung and the Parisian haute couture house after a similar one related to last year's Galaxy Z Flip 4.

The new phone comes in a striking new white package which itself is covered in a paper-based woven fabric. Inside, buyers will find a Flap Leather Case, a Flipsuit Case, and two different Splatter Flipsuit Cards that can be used to further customize the phone. On the software side, this special Galaxy Z Flip 5 comes with custom icons and wallpapers, too.

Casetify is a company that makes some pretty solid cases for phones of all shapes and sizes including some collabs with various companies, including some pretty huge ones. So when it started to sell cases that look like X-rays of the devices that they're protecting nobody really thought too much about it. Except Dbrand did. The company that sells skins and cases for phones and other consumer electronics thought the new Casetify cases looked familiar.

As well they should because it turns out that Casetify's new cases are basically carbon copies of Dbrand's own products which were created in collaboration with YouTuber JerryRigEverything. And it's that collaboration that outed Casetify's copying.

As Dbrand's thread shows, its own products have a nod to one of the YouTuber's catchphrases, "GLASS IS GLASS AND GLASS BREAKS." And can you guess which phrase also makes an appearance in Casetify's cases? You guessed it.

Following the release of the new AirPods Pro 2 with USB-C it was surely only a matter of time before Apple started to sell the older Lightning-powered model at a discount. And now that's happening, so long as you're willing to pick up a pair of refurbished earbuds.

Apple's refurbished store is now selling second-gen AirPods Pro for the first time, but only in a select few European countries. At the time of writing those countries include the U.K., Austria, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland, and Switzerland.

It's important to remember that these are not the latest model of AirPods Pro right now, although it won't matter to a lot of people. The only difference between this model and the one Apple recently released is the move from Lightning to USB-C and a tweak that could be important to future Vision Pro headset buyers. For those people, the USB-C AirPods Pro will support wireless lossless audio, something the Lightning model can't manage thanks to having an older H2 wireless audio chip.

Spotify is reportedly testing a tweak that will allow music fans to turn off its popular personalized recommendations system. That system currently allows Spotify to recommend new music based on the songs and artists that a user likes and frequently listens to, but a new report claims that there is work afoot to give people the ability to disable all of that.

The testing was first reported by MacRumors, although it isn't yet clear how it will work or how Spotify will market it. However, it seems likely that Spotify will give users the opportunity to temporarily disable the personalized recommendation system to allow them to listen to songs without having those songs negatively impact future recommendations. The most obvious use for such a feature is road trips where a family member's songs could alter recommendations moving forward. Nobody wants Baby Shark to have an effect on which songs they're recommended, do they?

If that all sounds familiar, it should. Apple recently started testing a similar function in the current iOS 17.2 beta that allows people to disable Apple Music's listening history when they are in a particular Focus Mode. With that in mind, music fans with a Driving Focus Mode could have their listening history disabled when driving but then have it automatically turn back on when they aren't.

When making what he saw as a stand against ugly URL cards posted by online publishers, Elon Musk took the decision to have X remove headlines from those cards in the name of 'aesthetics'. However, that meant that readers would have to open the link just to see what it was about, which in turn made for a terrible experience. Now, Musk seems to have seen the error of his ways and is now turning this car around - and headlines are coming back.

In a post to the X social network, previously known as Twitter, Musk confirmed that X will overlay the title in the upper portion of the image posted on a URL card, making it easier for people to understand what they are about to read without having to first open it. This comes a few weeks after the initial change that saw publishers find new and interesting ways to convey their message.

For some that involved simply putting the title of the piece in the X post itself, while others got more creative and chose to embed the title in the imagery instead. However, it now appears that none of those workarounds will be required soon.

If you've been following along with the OpenAI controversy over the last few days you will know that the company fired its CEO, hired another one, and then got rid of them and took the original CEO back all in the space of a weekend and change. But after all of that, the company still managed to find the time to launch a new feature.

To be more specific, it took an old feature and rolled it out to more people. The ChatGPT voice chat feature was previously limited to people who paid for the Plus or Enterprise subscriptions which meant that those who use the free version of ChatGPT were unable to take advantage of it. However, that's all changed after co-founder Greg Brockman shared the news via a post on X, the social network previously known as Twitter.

The ChatGPT voice chat feature allows iPhone and Android app users to speak to the chatbot and then have it answer back using a synthesized voice. It's similar to Siri and other digital assistants in that sense, but it's backed by the OpenAI Large Language Model that has made ChatGPT such a huge deal for people around the world of late. That also means that it's lightyears ahead of Siri and those similar assistants.

If you'd been hoping that Apple would bring Touch ID to the iPhone 16 or iPhone 16 Pro in 2024, it looks increasingly likely that you are going to be left disappointed. That's what we're learning today if a new report by MacRumors is anything to go by.

The report cites an integrated circuit expert who has posted to the Chinese social network Weibo with information about Apple's plans moving forward into the next 12 months. MacRumors says that this leaker has a track record for sharing information about Apple's future plans, but it's always important that we take these kinds of leaks with a pinch of salt. However, a good track record isn't for nothing.

In terms of this report, the post says that most of the equipment used to manufacture the chips required for an iPhone's Touch ID system has been permanently shut down, suggesting that there won't be the capacity to bring Touch ID to an iPhone any time soon. The only remaining units are currently used to produce the Touch ID hardware that is used in the iPhone SE, suggesting that Face ID is going to be the iPhone's biometric security system for a good while yet.

Following reports of people being able to steal an iPhone's passcode or passphrase by watching someone enter it over their shoulder before stealing the phone itself, it appears that Apple might have the answer. The issue with iPhones stolen in that way is that the owner's iCloud account could be compromised as a result of the unlocked iPhone but Apple's plans seem to be designed to ensure that nobody can snoop at your iPhone's screen in the future.

That's according to a new report by AppleInsider that looks at two different patents that could potentially fix this issue for good.

One of those patents appears to relate to a privacy film that could be applied to a curved display, putting a protective layer on the screen to ensure that people can't read it when they are standing at an angle to it. This sounds similar to the privacy screen protectors you can buy online, and they're less than ideal. We have to imagine that Apple will have something better up its sleeve though.

Microsoft has stated that Windows 10 would no longer get any new major features. Instead, the company would continue to release security updates for the OS until October 14, 2025. Well, it looks like Windows 10 is set to receive a pretty major feature - with the previously Windows 11 exclusive AI-powered assistant Copilot set to arrive soon.

The reason comes down to numbers. Microsoft might be focusing its attention and development on Windows 11, but many more Windows 10 users are out there. According to StatCounter, as of October 2023, Windows 10 still holds over 69% of the total Windows market share, followed by just over 26% for Windows 11.

This data is backed up by the latest Steam Hardware & Survey results for October 2023, which shows Windows 10 sitting on 65.6% market share with PC gamers, with Windows 11 sitting on 30.5%. Copilot coming to Windows 10 will bring the AI-powered companion to millions of people.

Dell has issued an internal Sales Advisory document to its salespeople to not sell hardware with AMD's most powerful RDNA 3 graphics cards to customers in China and other countries outlined by the U.S. government's recent export ban. The idea is to stem the flow of AI hardware to certain countries, and for Dell, this now includes the Radeon RX 7900 XT, Radeon RX 7900 XTX, and workstation options like the Radeon PRO W7900, which is a little strange.

The Export ban covers raw GPU power, which has led to the most powerful gaming GPU being banned in China. The GeForce RTX 4090 no longer appears on NVIDIA's Chinese website because it's so powerful it enters the realm of high-end AI hardware like NVIDIA's H100. Even though the Radeon RX 7900 XTX is powerful, it's no GeForce RTX 4090 - and as far as we can tell, it shouldn't require a special export license and doesn't fall with the current export restrictions.

Is this Dell misinterpreting the new export rules or a case of them being extra cautious? The list also includes AMD's AI Instinct MI210, MI250, MI250X, and MI300-series datacenter GPUs, which makes sense, but the inclusion of the Radeon RX 7900 XT doesn't.

Even though the user review rating for Diablo IV is sitting on 'Mixed,' it's still one of the biggest games of 2023 and the second game ever to make the jump from Battle.net exclusive to also being available on Steam. With the current Steam Autumn Sales now on, you can pick up Diablo IV with a sizable 40% discount, bringing the price down to just $42.

Thanks to Black Friday, this is one of the many awesome PC Game Deals currently available. But, if you're unsure whether or not Diablo IV is the sort of game you'd play (we'd argue that Diablo IV is one of the most fun and instantly rewarding gaming experiences of the year), this free trial will let you play the game from now until November 28.

However, there's a catch - in that Blizzard has outlined some stipulations and rules for this Diablo IV Free Trial period on Steam. Character level will max out at Level 20 for the free trial. Still, players will have access to all Diablo IV content - including the new Season of Blood action that sees Sanctuary overrun by Vampires. The latest Season also expands the endgame with new meaningful activities, bringing several quality-of-life updates to the game.

Call of Duty's annual 2024 release will be centered on the Gulf War, sources have told Windows Central's Jez Corden.

The next Call of Duty game will take place in the 1990s during the Gulf War, new reports indicate. COD 2024 is part of the Black Ops sub-series and has been in development by Treyarch for the past 4 years--the only game in the entire franchise to have such a long timetable according to Charlie Intel.

Info on Black Ops Gulf War was originally discovered in a 2022 content leak at Activision, where the game was mentioned under the codename Cerberus. A picture of an F-117 Nighthawk stealth bomber was also part of the leaks, further lending credence to the Gulf War setting. U.S. forces used F-117 Nighthawks during the airstrike campaigns of Operation Desert Storm.

Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition is set to launch on December 5, bringing the complete version of the game to Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation, and PC - in physical and digital forms. This includes the heavily updated, improved, and overhauled 2.0 version of the base game and the critically acclaimed Phantom Liberty expansion starring Idris Elba and Keanu Reeves.

According to the developer and publisher CD Projekt RED, the Ultimate Edition includes "every update ever released," with the announcement making special mention of the new dynamic skill tree inspired by Diablo II, vehicle combat, enhanced enemy and police AI, and the fact that it includes a tonne of free DLC packs including cards, clothes, and new weapons.

Although Cyberpunk 2077 launched in 2020, it still feels as modern and fresh in 2023 thanks to the development team's time and effort. On PC, with the fully ray-traced and path-traced RT Overdrive Mode and NVIDIA DLSS 3.5 rendering, Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition is also one of the most incredible-looking games ever made.

ASUS recently launched its GeForce RTX 4060 Ti DUAL SSD, which has an M.2 slot on the back, handling either an M.2 SSD or a flagship GeForce RTX 4090 as an external GPU, I guess... awesome to see, though!

The RTX 4060 Ti DUAL SSD graphics card uses only 8 of the 16 PCIe lanes it has connected to the motherboard, with the integrated M.2 slot on the back of the card adding more functionality to a mid-range GPU. ASUS has room for a full-sized M.2 2280 SSD, with the company making some changes to its card from prototype to retail on the RTX 4060 Ti DUAL SSD.

ASUS has teased the GPU pushing over 12GB/sec reads from the integrated M.2 slot, thanks to ASUS using an M.2 2280 PCIe 5.0 SSD slot on the back of the RTX 4060 Ti DUAL SSD.

Modern Warfare 3 may be one of the most polarizing Call of Duty games in history, but it's also delivering record-breaking performance along the way.

It's no secret that MW3 is in the crosshair right now. The game looks to have the worst review score out of any Call of Duty title and has been put on blast for its short campaign. Bloomberg reports indicated that Modern Warfare III was cobbled together in just 16 months, which is a far cry from the multi-year timeline that Activision developers typically spend on COD games.

Despite the negative pushback, Modern Warfare 3 is still setting a new high water mark for the the new MW trilogy. According to a recent update, MW3 has enjoyed more engagement than 2022's Modern Warfare 2 and 2019's Modern Warfare.

The Nintendo Switch hit the scene in 2017; now, in 2023, it's easily the most popular gaming console. With some of the best games from Nintendo's talented first-party studios, third-party support, and countless indies ready to play - even if there's a Switch 2 coming in 2023, the original console-meets-handheld hybrid is still a great choice for the holidays.

With Black Friday 2023 deals in full swing, there are several great deals to be had when it comes to the Nintendo Switch - and if you're after the console itself, there are a couple of brilliant bundles up for grabs that include Mario Kart 8 or Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The latter is paired with a Nintendo Switch OLED, which offers one of the best screens for any handheld gaming device.

So, strap on those Joy-Cons as we go through the best Black Friday 2023 deals for Nintendo Switch - covering consoles, controllers, accessories, storage expansion, and games.

OpenAI announced its new Q* project in its venture towards AGI (artificial general intelligence) to which Elon Musk says is "extremely concerning" and then tweeted out "Q*Anon" in response to the Q* announcement from OpenAI.

OpenAI has reportedly made some great progress on its Q* (pronounced Q-Star) project, which is one of the main goals of the company -- hitting AGI -- with an AI system that is massively smarter than us mere humans. The obvious point is that it's called Q*, which if you've not been living under a rock, would be a funny thing if you were a conspiracy theorist... after all, it's called Q* and the largest "LARP" and "conspiracy theory" of the last decade has been Q, or what the media refers to as "Qanon".

There is no "Qanon" on the 4chan boards when Q was posting, Q only refers to themselves (we don't know if it's a he, a she, or a group of people) as "Q" and not "Qanon". The above is Q drop "4881" which points to the fact that Q said back in 2020 that "there is 'Q'" and that "there are 'Anons'", but "there is no 'Qanon'". This was a reply to Elon's tweet on X from @NotOpCue.

Well, today will be known as one of the most important days in history... where we're finding out that OpenAI has had a breakthrough in AI with the introduction of Q* (pronounced Q-Star), and that's behind the firing of OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman.

While internally, OpenAI believes that this AI breakthrough in their search for artificial general intelligence (AGI) is another step in their progress with Q*. AGI has been one of the points scientists, researchers, and especially AI companies like OpenAI have been striving towards. AGI systems are smarter than humans... it's not just a chatbot anymore, but something different entirely.

Going with a little bit of fringe thinking here, but has this Q* been the one behind all of the absolutely insane, wow moments of AI drama? Because at this point, it would all start to make sense as one large "conspiracy" that is unfolding in front of our eyes.