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If you're a WhatsApp user who finds themselves joining voice calls often you're probably already very aware that it can be annoying to receive that call when you're in the middle of something. It can also be startling to receive a call if you aren't expecting it, but WhatsApp is now changing the way that all works to make things a little less disruptive.

Having previously tested the change in beta form, WhatsApp is now rolling out a tweak to the way people are invited. The new voice chats should make things more palatable. Now, rather than receiving a call, people will receive a notification that can then be tapped just like any other. Once tapped they'll see an in-chat bubble that will allow them to join an ongoing voice chat if they want to. That's important because it means that just tapping the notification isn't enough to throw you into a call - a second tap is required.

WhatsApp confirmed the tweak in an updated support document that also confirms that voice chats will be available to groups of between 33 and 128 people. The feature is only available on a user's primary device as well, and the chat will automatically be closed if nobody joins the first or last person in the chat for 60 minutes.

Total Grand Theft Auto franchise revenues have broken $8.7 billion since GTA V's release a decade ago, Take-Two Interactive's financial reports have confirmed.

GTA V is something of a marvel. There are few games that get even close to shipping nearly 200 million copies in their lifetime, let alone within 10 years. Minecraft's incredible 300 million figure comes to mind, as do sales of whole franchises like Call of Duty, which had sold over 425 million copies since MW2's release in 2022. But here we are, and Grand Theft Auto V has now sold-in (shipped) 190 million copies across three console generations.

In addition to strong hundred-million-dollar revenues generated every quarter from GTA Online, those game shipments add up fast. According to Take-Two's financials, the Grand Theft Auto franchise has made over $8.74 billion in net revenues since GTA V's launch in September 2013. Records indicate that Grand Theft Auto made up about 15% of Take-Two's total Q2'24 net revenues, or about $236 million. This is a significant year-over-year increase of 55%, likely driven by GTA V's inclusion as a temporary free playable game as part of Xbox Game Pass.

We've been hearing talk of a new OLED iPad Pro arriving as soon as 2024 for a long time now, and with the tablet having not been updated since 2022, it's only a matter of time before a new version arrives. Now, a new report claims that one of Apple's key supply partners is getting ready to begin mass production ahead of the big unveiling.

That company, LG Display, will be tasked with building the OLED displays that will be part of the iPad Pro's next big refresh. The report, by the Korea Herald, claims that LG Display intends to begin mass production of the new OLED panels as soon as February of 2024, suggesting that we might see a tablet arrive sooner than was previously thought. Manufacturing will apparently kick into gear at LG Display's production factory in Paju, Gyeonggi Province.

The move to an OLED display technology will offer improved contrast and color reproduction while also potentially allowing Apple to make the iPad Pro thinner and lighter. LG Display is thought to be the company that will provide the majority of the displays although Samsung Display will be tasked with producing the rest. The report also notes that LG Display will be able to charge more for iPad Pro displays than those that are used in smartphones, something that will help a company in need of a cash boost.

Anyone who owns an iPhone knows that the only way to install an app on it is to do so via the App Store, something that has long proven to be an issue for both users and developers. But that could be about to change, with a new report claiming that Apple is working to enable the sideloading of apps for the first time - although it's likely that will only apply to users who happen to have bought their iPhone in the European Union. The report, in Mark Gurman's weekly Power On newsletter, claims that Apple will enable sideloading in the first half of 2024. Gurman is well-connected and could well have information not normally in the public domain.

Sideloading is installing apps outside of the App Store, something that is currently impossible. But an EU ruling means that Apple will be forced to open the iPhone up to sideloading as part of the Digital Markets Act, or DMA. That act requires that so-called gatekeepers, like Apple, must make their services and devices more interoperable than they otherwise might be. One instance of that is to allow apps to be installed via means other than Apple's App Store. It's argued that will give users more choice, while developers will be able to offer their apps without having to give Apple a cut of their income. Currently, Apple takes 15% or 30% of all App Store transactions, something that previously saw Epic Games and the popular Fortnite game kicked out of the store.

Epic Games famously bypassed Apple's in-app purchase system by allowing V-Bucks to be bought via the game's in-app web browser. That was against Apple's rules and Fortnite was banned as a result. However, once sideloading is allowed Epic Games will be able to offer Fortnite via its own Epic Games Store on iPhones and iPads.

GTA V players listen up, because DLSS 3 is coming to the game courtesy of a mod, promising much faster frame rates.

Wccftech spotted that well-known modder PureDark has posted a teaser of the mod for GTA V on YouTube, ahead of its release which is supposedly happening in the next few days.

PureDark explains that bringing DLSS 3 to the open world game was no mean feat, as it has no motion vectors in the engine. The modder had to patch up "hundreds of shaders to inject motion vectors" which took quite some time.

Reports indicate that Apple is working on a big software update that will be rolled out as part of iOS 18, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

Gurman, who is known for having his finger on the pulse of what is happening inside of Apple, wrote in the latest edition of his Power On magazine that Apple is referring to iOS 18 as "ambitious and compelling". Notably, Gurman writes that Apple is expected to roll out iOS 18 with "major new features and designs", which will come with additional improvements to performance and overall security.

As with most rumors, there isn't any specific discussion by Gurman, but there are some interesting pieces of information worth mentioning. iOS 18 will come "after a few years of modestly sized updates", which has been going on for many years now. Gurman writes this is a challenge that Apple is facing as iOS updates have been somewhat stagnant as of late, with each iteration shipping with steady improvement but not really any groundbreaking changes.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has sat down for an interview with Lex Fridman on the Lex Fridman podcast, where he was asked to talk about the hardships he has overcome with launching Starship, the world's largest and most powerful rocket.

Musk explained that the main thing causing Starship launch delays isn't manufacturing or creating the rocket, but regulatory bodies and organizations that are preventing the rocket launch through investigations into various aspects of safety.

While you may think that safety investigations are warranted, and they are - unfortunately, it seems they can get a little out of hand as Musk said that SpaceX was contacted by an organization that was concerned about the impact of sonic booms from Starship's launch on seal procreation near the Vandenberg launch site.

NASA has apologized and walked back the statement where it said humans will never visit Jupiter, which seemingly bothered a lot of netizens.

The source of the NASA apology can be traced back to a post from NASA 360, which wrote: "Is visiting Jupiter on your bucket list? Let's face facts, it's not going to happen". The post went on to promote NASA's "Message in a Bottle", which asks the public to submit their name to the space agency for a chance for it to be engraved on an uncrewed spacecraft that's headed to Jupiter's moon Europa next year.

Despite the logistical problems, along with the obvious facts such as Jupiter not even having a surface for humans to land on, netizens seemed to take extreme offense at the doubt insinuated by NASA's post. SpaceX intern Nathan Commissariat responded to the post and said, "NASA [is] really out here telling kids to stop dreaming and instead engrave their name on a tiny plate. There are so many better ways to have worded this."

Last week Oscar-nominated star Scarlett Johannson launched legal action against an AI app that cloned her likeness for profit.

The new report comes from Variety and explains that Johannson has filed legal action against AI-app "Lisa AI: 90s Yearbook & Avatar", which according to the suit used an AI-generated version of Johannson's voice along with an image. The ad was seen by publications and showed a real-life behind-the-scenes clip of Johannson playing Black Widow where she is seen saying, "What's up guys. It's Scarlett and I want you to come with me...".

The ad then cuts to AI-generated photos and a cloned version of her voice that promotes the Lisa AI app. The ad actually states the following, "Images produced by Lisa AI. It has nothing to do with this person." Since the legal action was filed the Lisa AI app still remains on both the App Store and Google Play Store. However, the specific ad in question has been removed from the app, along with additional advertisements that were published on X, formerly Twitter.

A critical part of humans being able to expand into a multiplanetary species is mastering botany in zero gravity, as it will provide us with a reliable resource for food.

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) have taken another step forward in that process by successfully gardening in low-Earth orbit. NASA took to its website to announce that NASA Flight Engineer Jessica Watkins has started harvesting radishes and mizuma greens aboard the floating laboratory, both of which were grown without any soil.

So, how were these vegetables grown without soil? NASA says we can thank an experimental system called XROOTS created by private sector company Sierra Space, which includes multiple "growth chambers" that enable astronauts to test various concoctions on different plants. To create the vegetables the system used hydroponic and aeroponic techniques.

X, formerly called Twitter, will soon have new features added to it that will allow for a more fluid dating experience on the platform, or at least that's what X owner Elon Musk has teased.

The decision to morph X into a dating app is part of the Musk's overall push to create "the everything app", an app that has all of the features of the most downloaded apps one has on their smartphone. Core apps that users have on their smartphone include finance apps such as banking, stocks, cryptocurrency, messaging services, and calling. Musk plans to include all of these in one unified place, while also incorporating other features from other apps.

Musk spoke to X staffers and touched on "X Dating", saying that he has "found people on the platform" and that users are able to tell if they are a "good match" based on what they post. This comment was followed up by a question by X CEO Linda Yaccarino, who jokingly cut in "So, X Dating around the corner then?". Musk responded by saying, "Yeah. There's already some stuff happening to some degree. But I think we might be able to improve the dating situation."

Ubisoft has been caught up in a recent controversy with thousands of people calling out the company for using AI-generated art to market Assassin's Creed.

The extremely successful Assassin's Creed franchise has recently come under fire from fans who are accusing Ubisoft of using artwork generated by an artificial intelligence-powered tool such as DALL-E, to promote Assassin's Creed. The artwork in question was posted to a Ubisoft X account in celebration of Halloween, and was quickly pulled apart by netizens pointing out irregularities within the image, or the tell-tale signs of AI-generated artwork.

These signs include a misshapen Assassins emblem, contorted fingers, gaps in the light lines between the buildings behind the assassin, and more. Fans of Ubisoft called for the company to "do better" as its posting AI art to social media channels while simultaneously laying off workers, only adding to the exponentially increasing problem of artists struggling to compete with AI-powered image-generation tools.

YouTube has started cracking down on ad-blockers with a recent change that occurred last week that has severely angered millions of users around the globe.

YouTube has long been public about its stance regarding ad-blockers as these tools are used by millions of users around the world, which are reducing the company's overall revenue and ultimately are against its main business model - advertising. Now, the company has rolled out a change to its platform, which has come in the form of a simple "block" that requests the user disable its adblocker or whitelist YouTube.

It appears this change has affected a select group of YouTube accounts, and from personal experience, I only know a few people who have had their accounts added to the initial rollout list - my brother being one. YouTube confirmed this change of disabling video watching for select accounts back in June, with the company writing back then that it would only affect a small group of accounts globally. However, that has now changed as millions of accounts have been added to the list over the following weeks/months.

Turning the impressive and beastly ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 OC Edition GPU into a skateboard might sound like the sort of flex you can't help but get angry about; the good news is that what we're seeing here is simply the spare shroud from a ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 installed into a water-cooled system.

This fact alone makes it a pretty fun mod, commenting on the size of modern enthusiast gaming GPUs. With its length of 357.6mm, the ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 is one of the largest cards on the market, but even so, it's still half the size of a standard skateboard, which feature lengths of roughly 700mm.

Reddit user Ashley Said What posted a short clip of them using the ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 shroud as a skateboard, immediately sparking a whole range of responses - both hilarious ("How many frames are you running at?" and "driver seems to be working fine") to outrage over the extravagance.

MSI's new GeForce RTX 4060 AERO ITX 8G packs all of the power of NVIDIA's mainstream Adal Lovelace GeForce RTX 40 Series GPU into a lightweight and tiny form factor. With dimensions of 167 x 111 x 43 mm and an overall weight of 455 grams, it's one of the smallest GeForce RTX 4060 cards available.

MSI says it will "fit into virtually any system and ensure a smooth gaming experience." With a 40% smaller and 50% lighter build than most GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card options, MSI hasn't stripped back any of the performance.

Available in two variants, the MSI GeForce RTX 4060 AERO ITX 8G features the GPU reference spec of a 2460 MHz boost clock (which you can overclock to 275 MHz via MSI Center), 8GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, and a super-efficient power rating of 115W.

CORSAIR is expanding its keyboard line-up with a new special edition version of the K70 CORE - with the new CORSAIR K70 CORE SE giving the keyboard a style makeover thanks to the excellent use of white, silver, and yellow flourishes. The combination gives the overall look of the mechanical keyboard a retro meets modern feel that, for me, easily trumps the standard all-black edition.

Hardware-wise, it's no slouch, with pre-lubricated CORSAIR MLX Red linear mechanical switches for smooth performance over the 70 million keystroke lifespan. Throw in two layers of sound-dampening foam, and the CORSAIR K70 CORE SE aims to deliver on acoustics, type-feel and looks.

A nice 'green' touch comes from the keyboard's bottom case, constructed with 85% post-consumer recycled materials, making it the most eco-friendly gaming keyboard CORSAIR has ever produced.

Valve's recent surprise drop of the new Steam Deck OLED, which it calls the definitive version of its gaming handheld, confirms that the company plans to release and develop a successor. However, the Steam Deck 2 could be several years away from hitting the market because Valve wants "a generational leap in performance."

This info comes from Valve and Steam Deck designers Lawrence Yang and Yazan Aldehayyat, who have been doing the interview round as part of the Steam Deck OLED launch. Speaking with PC Gamer, the current status of the Steam Deck 2 at Valve is that the company is waiting for the right parts to emerge, hardware that will deliver a true next-gen experience similar to what you'd find in the console space.

It's a unique and exciting approach for the PC market, which is traditionally all about iterative evolution, and this can be seen in the CPU and GPU space.

Tesla's new Cybertruck will reach its first customers on November 30, where owners of the new EV pickup truck are actually banned from reselling their Cybertruck within the first 12 months.

Seriously? Yeah, seriously. Inside of Tesla's terms and conditions is a clause titled "For Cybertruck Only" inside of its Motor Vehicle Order Agreement. Tesla explains in its Motor Vehicle Order Agreement: "You agree that you will not sell or otherwise attempt to sell the Vehicle within the first year following your Vehicle's delivery date. Tesla may seek injunctive relief to prevent the transfer of title of the Vehicle or demand liquidated damages from you in the amount of $50,000 or the value received as consideration for the sale or transfer, whichever is greater. Tesla may also refuse to sell you any future vehicles".

However, if a customer has a good enough reason to sell their new Tesla Cybertruck, the EV giant might buy back the Cybertruck at its original price, minus "$0.25/mile driven, reasonable wear and tear, and the cost to repair the Vehicle to Tesla's Used Vehicle Cosmetic and Mechanical Standards". If Tesla decides not to purchase your used Cybertruck, it could agree to let the customer sell it to someone else.

Judging by the number of options available, which includes the Steam Deck from Valve, the ROG Ally from ASUS, and the Legion Go from Lenovo, not to mention several options from companies like AYANEO, the handheld PC gaming market has exploded in recent years. However, it could be argued that the popularity of Valve's Steam Deck has taken the idea of a PC gaming handheld that performs in much the same way as a Nintendo Switch mainstream.

The fact that Valve struggled to catch up to pre-orders when the Steam Deck originally launched was an early sign that the creator of arguably the most popular gaming platform in the world (Steam) was onto something. However, without sales figures, we can all draw on little nuggets like Valve celebrating 1 million units sold and research firms concluding that there are roughly 2 to 3 million Steam Decks out there as of October 2023.

Although it's not an exact number, Valve designers Lawrence Yang and Pierre-Loup Griffais shared information on how the Steam Desk performs as a retail product.

Hard drive docking stations are a great way to easily access data stored on older drives that you do not need to install and connect directly to a motherboard. Pop the drive-in, fire up the docking station, and you have instant data access. But, when you add up all of the features and capabilities of Sabrent's new 5-Bay USB-C Docking Station for 2.5" SATA HDDs and SSDs - you've got a pretty powerful and affordable external storage solution.

Powered by USB-C, the transfer speed fully uses the USB 3.2 Gen 2 connection with 10Gbps on offer, bolstered by the included power adapter to ensure a stable and reliable connection while in use. Throw in an 80mm fan to keep the drives cool, and the overall look is reminiscent of a cryo-chamber or that thing Darth Vader sits in when he gets his helmet taken off in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.

The Sabrent 5-Bay USB-C Docking Station for 2.5" SATA HDDs and SSDs (DS-5R15) supports up to five 2.5-inch drives, which can be used independently or simultaneously with tool-free plug-and-play hot-swappable functionality.