Latest News - Page 793

Coming from EK, the company's new EK-Quantum Torsion A60 PC case is a little bit special not only in how stylish and futuristic it looks but also that it's created specifically for liquid-cooled builds and entirely built of CNC-milled aluminum, aside from the tempered glass side panel so you can see all the liquid-cooled goodness.

Weighing in at 22 kilograms or around 50 pounds, it's sturdy and then some, and one of the heaviest mid-tower cases we've seen - but that's expected when looking at 6082 aluminum alloy, one of the strongest and corrosion-resistant metals you can use. Every piece of the case is held together with hex screws so that you can disassemble, customize, and modify it.

It's also limited, with EK only producing 777 EK-Quantum Torsion A60 PC cases, with two-thirds Black and one-third Silver.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has been in operation for more than 30 years and is still able to produce some of the most impressive photographs of the cosmos, such as this recently highlighted image of a galaxy known as NGC 612.

NASA has taken to its website with a brand new image snapped by the Hubble Space Telescope, with the iconic space telescope pointing its sensitive instruments at the lenticular galaxy called NGC 612, capturing its beauty in visible and infrared light. Notably, lenticular galaxies feature a central budge and disk that's similar to spiral galaxies, but they lack the long spirally arms. NASA explains that these types of galaxies harbor older star populations that range between 40 to 100 million years.

The above image shows a massive galactic disk that is mostly comprised of dust and hydrogen, with red and orange colors indicating matter. Furthermore, NGC 612 is a Seyfert galaxy, which means it has an active nucleus that's 100 times brighter than the combined light of its stars. More specifically, NGC 612 is a Type II Seyfert galaxy, meaning matter moves slowly around its nucleus.

Windows 11 has only just got the Copilot feature, as part of the recent Moment 4 update for the OS, but the AI assistant is already being used to display ads to users according to a report.

Windows Latest spotted that when using Copilot, some queries result in small ads popping up in the side-panel for the AI.

The example provided is a query comparing Amazon Prime Video to Netflix, which produced an advert at the end of the answer linking through to Amazon's streaming service.

It might not be quite as exciting as a new iPhone or Apple Watch but there are increasing rumors that Apple might be hard at work getting ready to launch an updated Apple Pencil. Now a new leak might have confirmed just that, although it still isn't clear what it will offer above and beyond the current Apple Pencil 2.

We recently saw a leak claim that the new Apple Pencil will feature interchangeable tips that will be more suited to specific tasks like writing, drawing, and painting. Now, another report claims that Apple could be about to launch a new USB-C Apple Pencil, with the two devices likely to be the same.

This latest news comes via developer and researcher Steve Moser on X, the social network previously known as Twitter. According to them, new code found in iOS 17.1 beta 2 shows that there is a USB-C Apple Pencil in the works.

You don't need to have been following along too closely to know that the iPhone 15 Pro is in the middle of an overheating storm, with people at different points blaming the new A17 Pro chip and the titanium construction for causing heat to build up instead of dissipating. But Apple now believes that the issue is all software-based and that things can be fixed via a new iOS update. Now, that update might be a step closer to release.

That's after MacRumors reported that Apple is now internally testing the iOS 17.0.3 update ahead of a likely release to the public. It isn't yet clear when that release will happen, but it's likely that it will arrive within the next week or two. Apple is sure to want to get this update into the hands of as many iPhone 15 Pro owners, and as soon, as possible.

Apple has previously said that the overheating issues are being caused by bugs in iOS 17 as well as specific apps that aren't behaving the way that they should on some iPhones. Those apps are going to need to be updated independently, with Meta's Instagram one that has already been released. Uber and Asphalt 9: Legends are two others that are thought to be problematic on Apple's most recent and best iPhones.

Apple's Vision Pro AR/VR headset won't go on sale for another few months at best, with an early 2024 release window leaving plenty of wiggle room. However, the company continues to get its ducks in a row ahead of time and its new visionOS beta 4 release has confirmed a new feature that will try and dip into the pockets of new headset owners.

A new 9to5Mac report says that a new message has been found in the latest visionOS beta 4 release that warns users that their current headphones or earbuds aren't the best way to listen to audio from their headset. Instead, it'll tell them that they should consider picking up a new pair of AirPods Pro to get the most out of that headset.

The new USB-C 2nd-gen AirPods Pro are the only ones that support lossless audio when connected to the Vision Pro as confirmed last month. That's due to an upgraded H2 chip that allows for audio to be sent over the 5GHz band, allowing for more bandwidth. The Vision Pro headset will be the only product at launch that also uses that band for lossless audio, and Apple seems keen to make sure that customers know about it.

A new report from The Wall Street Journal has revealed that Meta is currently planning on rolling out a new subscription plan that will remove ads from both Facebook and Instagram.

The article states that Meta is planning on rolling out the new plan to EU users within the coming months, where it will offer an ad-free experience on Facebook or Instagram for $14 per month on mobile, or both social media platforms for $17 a month on desktop. The new subscription plan comes after a court ruling that enforces Meta to gain consent from users to access personal data that will then be used for targeted advertising.

Users who are unwilling to pay the monthly fee will automatically give consent to targeted advertising. Meta has until November to comply with the recently updated regulations, with regulators even recommending other social media companies to look into subscription models for userbases. It's likely that not many users will choose to opt into Meta's new subscription plan, given its price. The most basic plan is only a little bit cheaper than Netflix's standard plan.

SpaceX launched Starship back in April, and the first orbital attempt for the world's largest and most powerful rocket ended in flames, with SpaceX losing communication with the rocket due to fires and ultimately resulting in a self-detonation.

Despite what appears to be a catastrophic failure in every regard, SpaceX deemed the mission a success as much was learned about how to fly Starship, and it even reaching the altitude of 24 miles was impressive as many staff, including Elon Musk, believed there was a decent chance the rocket wouldn't even get off the launch pad. The necessary changes were implemented into the next model of Starship, and that one is now standing on the Starbase launch pad waiting to take off.

So, what is stopping the next orbital test flight? The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) needs to grant SpaceX a license for launch, which the company is currently working through right now. Musk said back on September 10 that SpaceX had completed 57 of the 63 items the FAA required for a license to be granted. Musk wrote on October 1 that "Starship is ready for flight 2!". SpaceX wrote on the same day that its "team continues to work with the FAA on a launch license."

On October 12, 2023, NASA will be launching a mission to an astronomical object called Psyche, which could possibly harbor the secrets to the evolution of Earth's core.

New research out of NASA's Ames Research Center in California has summarized what NASA will find when its spacecraft arrives at the solar system's second-largest metallic asteroid called Psyche. Researchers behind the study bounced different wavelengths of light off Psyche, and from the data received, were able to determine how porous the surface has, and the amount of energy it emits. This leads to the conclusion that Psyche is a metal-rich asteroid with a "fluffy" surface.

How does this relate to Earth? Researchers believe that planets such as Earth, Mars, and Mercury have metallic cores, but due to their depth, observations are extremely difficult. There is speculation that Psyche may be the core of a planet, which will assist scientists in understanding the evolution of Earth and other planet cores. Psyche is a large asteroid, with NASA writing that it would be able to cover "the distance from New York City to Baltimore, Maryland."

Over the past decade, we've seen major improvements in gaming monitors - from color accuracy to response times to refresh rates, and VRR tech is now the standard. We're now at a point where a 60Hz display is more for productivity than PC gaming, where 100 Hz and higher is what most are looking for.

That said, a high refresh-rate gaming monitor is a must if you're an esports professional or someone who regularly jumps into Call of Duty, Counter-Strike, or Apex Legends. Because the higher you go, the more responsive and smoother fast-moving images become. Yes, there is a visible difference between 60 Hz, 144 Hz, and 240 Hz - to the point where it could give you the edge on the battlefield.

And with that, the new ROG Swift Pro PG248QP is pretty exciting because it's the "world's fastest esports gaming monitor," thanks to the inclusion of an ultra-fast and responsive 540 Hz overclocked panel with a built-in NVIDIA G-SYNC processor and 0.2 ms GtG response times.

T-FORCE XTREEM DDR5 memory is the latest high-speed RAM from TeamGroup designed specifically for gamers and overclocking with speeds starting from 7600 MHz to an impressive 8200 MHz. Compatible with Intel 700 series motherboards, these premium memory kits will be available in 48GB (2 x 24GB) and 32GB (2 x 16GB) capacities when they launch later this month in North America.

With impressive specs and design features, like the 2mm-thick aluminum alloy fin heatsinks to improve thermal performance and the use of special heat-conducting silicon in the construction, each stick also arrives decorated with a T-FORCE logo badge to signify its place as one of the most powerful overclocking DDR5 memory modules available.

T-FORCE XTREEM DDR5 memory also sports a two-piece metallic heat spreader with a matte black finish and texture that looks stylish and rugged. T-FORCE calls the design "elegant," and we agree. Here's a breakdown of the kits coming, with details on speed, capacity, timing, and more.

In an exclusive excerpt from Walter Isaacson's biography titled "Elon Musk", where he shadowed the world's richest man for two years, we get a glimpse of what it's like when Musk ticks over to what is described as "demon-mode".

The excerpt was obtained by Space.com and recounts the events leading up up to Starship being stacked on SpaceX's launch pad. According to the biography Musk enters "demon-mode" in a major way only two to three times a year, and during this period of time the CEO becomes hyper-focussed on reaching a specific goal, resulting in strenuous working hours, extreme pressure on staff, outbursts, and more. Isaacson writes that Musk did this at the Nevada battary factory, Fremont car plant, and at Twitter.

The goal behind this particular "demon-mode" was to receive approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for Starship to fly, and Musk believed stacking Starship on the launch pad would cause enough public stir to light a fire under regulators, engineers at SpaceX, and himself - "We need to get to Mars before I die," he said. "There's no forcing function for getting us to Mars other than us, and sometimes that means me."

RGB lighting on a modern PC, especially a gaming rig, is standard in 2023. What isn't standard is how you can customize and sync all of the various lighting protocols across different brands - and often, you'll need multiple pieces of software to make lighting changes to your motherboard, keyboard, and so on.

Microsoft has been teasing the addition of dedicated RGB lighting controls coming to Windows 11 for a while now, and it finally looks like the feature is here and available for everyone to check out if they toggle the "receive the latest updates as soon as they are available" toggle in the Windows Update menu.

Having RGB control software within Windows 11 could be a game changer for RGB lighting across various peripherals and other bits of hardware, as it could mean third-party apps having to be installed and a shift to a more unified way lighting is handled. Assuming, of course, that Microsoft can provide robust customization tools as lighting is about more than simply setting a color and leaving it at that. Which is what the tool is at the moment.

An exploding star captured by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) may be what researchers need to solve one of the biggest mysteries of the universe.

Researchers are still attempting to figure out what is called the "Hubble tension", which is the discrepancy that lies between measuring the expansion of the universe in two different ways. The first method measures the cosmic microwave background (CMB), leftover radiation from the Big Bang, or what is commonly referred to as the beginning of the universe as a whole. The second is the Hubble constant, the speed at which astronomical objects such as galaxies and supernovas are moving away from Earth.

Notably, the Hubble constant consistently produces a higher number than CMB measurements, and the discrepancy between these two is what researchers have been trying to explain. NASA's Webb telescope snapped an image of a type 1a supernova called SN H0pe back in March, and the image, as seen above, showcases the exploding star as a streak of orange light, an effect called the gravitational lensing that occurs when light passes through space-time that has been warped by the intense gravitational pull generated by an astronomical object.

Apple's iOS 17.1 update is now available to beta testers and it's starting to look like it'll bring with it a few notable improvements once it arrives, likely next month. One of the changes that hadn't been highlighted until today is a tweak that will change the way that the Reachability looks on some iPhones.

The Reachability feature is designed to make it easier for people to reach interface elements that are at the top of the screen, especially on larger devices like the iPhone 15 Pro Max. The feature moves everything down temporarily and currently uses the iPhone's wallpaper to fill the void. Except that can look pretty bad on devices with the Dynamci Island because it draws attention to it - and that's all changing with iOS 17.1.

As reported by MacRumors and based on a post to Reddit, the Reachability feature will gain a new solid black background when it's invoked on a device that has the Dynamic Island. That includes the iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max, iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max. On devices that don't have a Dynamic Island, Apple still shows the blurred version of the wallpaper.

You've probably already seen the stories of people's new iPhone 15 Pro handsets getting warm, but have you heard the one about iPhones getting so hot that they break their Apple Pay feature? That's a thing, believe it or not. But at least it doesn't sound like this one is being based by Apple or its new iPhones.

The problem, it seems, crops up whenever people charge their iPhones using their in-car wireless charger and then go to use Apple Pay only to find that the payment feature no longer works. The problem? It seems that some wireless chargers are getting so hot that they're damaging the iPhone itself, specifically the NFC chip that makes Apple Pay work.

The original reports about this were specifically for Apple's iPhone 15 lineup, but it's since become clear that it's a problem that affects all iPhones. It was also said that it was specific to BMW but, again, it now seems that people with other cars from Ford, Audi, and others are also having similar problems.

Apple has started to apply new Chinese laws that require apps to be licensed before they can be made available to people in the country. That applies to all apps available in the App Store, something that means Apple will now have to also require licenses be granted before apps can be made available for download.

This move is one that has been in the works for some time and Apple was the notable dissenter as it tried to make the Chinese government aware of the impact it would have on its users. However, it's now had to comply just as others already had and now requires that developers receive a license if they want their apps to be available for download from the Chinese App Store.

Reuters reports that the new move kicked in last Friday, with Apple now requiring developers to submit the "internet content provider (ICP) filing" when publishing their app to the App Store. Without it, apps will not be made available. However, while the Reuters report mentions new apps the law also applies to apps that are already available, so it's likely that some will need to be removed.

NVIDIA's RTX 4090 is selling well in Japan, a report tells us, but the RTX 4080 is a very different story.

According to the report from Japanese tech site ITMedia (via VideoCardz), which talked to a number of retailers, there is considerable demand for the Lovelace flagship GPU.

One store noted that:

The Google Pixel 8 and Google Pixel 8 Pro are both set to be announced at an event that will take place tomorrow, October 4. Now the latter phone has appeared in a new leak with the Tensor G3 chip getting an outing in new photos.

Those photos show the Tensor G3 having its information displayed on-screen and were shared by M. Brandon Lee on X, the social network previously known to the world as Twitter. They give us a better indication of what the new chip will be set up like including the speeds of the cores that are being used.

Based on the leak we're seeing here, and assuming it's legitimate, the Tensor G3 will have a 1+4+4 layout which is different from the 1+2+4 layout of the previous two generations of Google chip, as noted by 9to5Google. The new Cortex-X3 chip will be the big core used this time out, with a 2.91GHz clock speed and a 4nm fabrication process being the key features.

Intel would appear to be clearing out stock of Alder Lake processors, at least on Newegg given a bunch of fresh reductions - big ones - that the US retailer has just put into play.

VideoCardz flagged this up, spotting that Vectral on X (formerly Twitter) had posted about the discounts to a clutch of Alder Lake CPUs.

Should you want to grab yourself a Core i9-12900KF (the same as the 12900K, just with no integrated graphics), that will now run you to $325 on Newegg, with $75 chopped off the price tag via a discount code at checkout (all of these offers work via a code).