Latest News - Page 819

When Apple switches the iPhone to USB-C it might not go beyond the current USB 2.0 speeds that Lightning is limited to, a new leak claims.

We've known for months now that the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max will switch away from the familiar lightning connector to a new USB-C connector for the first time. That's happening because the European Union wants all phones to use a common charger, but that isn't going to help people who want to be able to transfer files more quickly. Despite moving to USB-C, a new leak claims that those cables will still be limited to just USB 2.0 speeds.

That's the story on the standard iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, at least. There is still the possibility that the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max will bump things up to Thunderbolt given their use as cameras by photographers and videographers alike.

UK regulators at the Competition and Markets Authority have opened a separate new investigation into Microsoft's updated Activision merger proposal.

Days ago, the CMA officially blocked the original Microsoft-Activision merger under the existing terms. Microsoft's 10-year deals with NVIDIA and Boosteroid were not convincing enough, neither was the Cloud Remedy proposal nor the Call of Duty deal that Sony signed. The CMA still believes the original merger would have resulted in lessened competition in the cloud gaming market.

Microsoft anticipated this play and has now submitted a new restructured merger deal that makes some pretty big changes. UK regulators at the CMA have opened a separate investigation into the revised merger proposal--it's a new deal that has warranted its own Phase 1 investigation, which can take over a month.

Fans of the gold iPhone 14 Pro are going to have to choose a new color if they plan to upgrade to the iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max, according to a new report. But don't worry, there are two new colors on the horizon assuming this latest leak is correct.

Apple always removes one special color and adds a new one with every iPhone iteration, and the iPhone 14 Pro's Deep Purple was always going to go the way of the dodo this year. But a new report claims that the gold finish is also going to go away this time around despite having been a staple of the lineup since the iPhone XS days back in 2018.

This is all according to a 9to5Mac report that cites unnamed and unspecified sources when it says that Apple is removing the gold finish from the 2023 Pro iPhone lineup. The report goes on to say that the company instead intends to lean into the new titanium finish and will sell a gray version that will likely look similar to the Apple Watch Ultra's current bare titanium finish.

At this point, it is surely impossible to have got this far and missed the fact that Apple is expected to announce not one, but four new iPhones next month. September 12 seems to be the date to save, and it now appears that some of the new iPhones might already have made an appearance in one Mexico Apple Store.

The store in question is located in Mexico City and it's reported that Apple may have used it as the location to film its iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro guided tour video.

Apple releases these videos for every new generation of iPhone, including last year's iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro. Now, one TikTok creator has shared a video to say that they noticed the area surrounding the Apple Store was closed off. And that wasn't all because they also saw the actor who has so far starred in all of the iPhone guided tour videos that Apple has put together. You can see him in the video above.

Have you ever gone to Type-A web address into Google Chrome on your iPhone only to drop the damned thing because it's just too big? Reaching all the way to the top of an iPhone 14 Pro Max is no easy feat unless you're blessed with Hulk-like hands. But Google is working on fixing that.

According to a new report, Google is now testing a change that will make it much easier for people to reach the address bar no matter how big their iPhone might be. It's going to do that by borrowing a change that Apple made to the iPhone's Safari web browser all the way back in the iOS 15 days - it's going to give people the option of moving the browser's address bar to the bottom of the screen.

That's according to developer Steve Moser who happens to be on the TestFlight beta for Google Chrome and he shared a screenshot of what the new option currently looks like. It isn't yet clear how long it will be before Google rolls this new update out to everyone who gets their apps via the App Store, but we can only hope that it isn't that far away. Nobody should have to drop their iPhone because they wanted to visit a website, after all.

Xbox's Phil Spencer tells gamers that Activision-Blizzard PC and console titles won't show up on Game Pass overnight.

Microsoft's desire to buy Activision Blizzard King centers around three main goals: Having a presence in mobile gaming, bolstering PC and consoles, and adding value to Xbox Game Pass. The inclusion of Call of Duty alone on Xbox Game Pass could tip the scales in Microsoft's favor when it comes to subscription services, not to mention other heavy hitters like Overwatch and Diablo IV.

If the merger goes through, Microsoft indeed plans to add a lot of Activision-Blizzard's PC and console games to Xbox Game Pass. After all, the subscription service is meant to transform and usher in a new digital-based future of the Xbox business, as Microsoft plans to make Xbox a $32 billion business by 2030 using models like Xbox Game Pass.

NVIDIA might be about to cut pricing on its RTX 4060 Ti, perhaps as part of a plan to combat AMD's mid-range activity, namely the incoming RDNA 3 GPUs.

You can't have missed that AMD is readying the launch of what's likely a pair of mid-range graphics cards, supposedly the RX 7700 XT and 7800 XT (this is heavily rumored at this point - and we should see these GPUs tomorrow).

As is often the case when new graphics cards come out, the rival firm may decide to react in some way, and NVIDIA may have a price cut planned for the RTX 4060 Ti as a response - albeit an unofficial one.

Baldur's Gate 3 will officially launch on Xbox in 2023, the boss of game developer Larian has re-confirmed.

Working closely with Xbox gaming CEO Phil Spencer, Larian has now found a way to ensure Baldur's Gate 3 meets its target and releases on Xbox platforms in 2023. The news was confirmed today by Larian Studios head Swen Vincke, who said:

"I'm super happy to confirm that after meeting Phil Spencer yesterday, we've found a solution that allows us to bring Baldur's Gate 3 to Xbox players this year still, something we've been working towards for quite some time," Vincke said on Twitter.

Microsoft plans to team up with unlikely ally Ubisoft in a bid to seek approval from UK regulators for its $68.7 billion merger with Activision.

Microsoft has taken creative and preemptive strategies to get the Activision merger approved. We've seen Microsoft make 10-year Call of Duty deals with Nintendo and Sony, and also sign deals with multiple cloud gaming providers in an effort to reduce concerns about content exclusivity. But Microsoft's latest gambit for merge approval is by far its largest yet.

Following multiple reports from unnamed sources, the tech giant is indeed planning to divest a significant portion of its cloud gaming business. Microsoft's divestiture doesn't involve an entire studio or business unit but instead distribution.

We recently posted our review of the HyperX Cloud III Gaming Headset, the latest version of the company's classic headset in wired form. "The HyperX Cloud III is here, and it retains the supreme comfort and great balanced sound of its predecessor," we wrote in the summary, with the headset earning an award.

With Gamescom underway in Cologne, Germany, HyperX was on hand to launch the HyperX Cloud III Wireless, which is available for USD 169.99. With the same focus on great sound and comfort, HyperX has confirmed that the new Cloud III Wireless will offer up an impressive 120 hours of battery life - quadrupling the Cloud II Wireless.

The headset arrives with re-engineered 53mm angled drivers and, on PC, will support spatial surround with a lifetime activation for DTS Headphone: X. HyperX notes that the new angled drivers have been tuned to deliver and improve on the impressive clarity and sound quality of its predecessor - the Cloud II Wireless.

With a staggering $13.5 billion in revenue for Q2 2024, a figure up 101% from a year ago and 88% from the previous quarter, it certainly looks like the AI boom has been going well for NVIDIA, so much so that this figure is a couple of billion dollars higher than Wall Street projections for NVIDIA's earnings for the quarter, which were already super high thanks to the growing demand for NVIDIA's data center hardware for AI.

For the $13.5 billion in revenue, $10.3 billion came from the data center sector due to the unprecedented demand for AI chips. NVIDIA's Gaming sector, which covers GPUs and the GeForce line-up, saw its revenue climb to nearly $2.5 billion - an 11% increase over the previous quarter and a 22% increase over the same period a year ago.

The Gaming sector used to be NVIDIA's main revenue driver. Still, these results show that data centers and AI utilizing Hopper H100, Ampere A100, and HGX systems have driven NVIDIA's revenue, profits, and share price to record highs. NVIDIA made over $6 billion in profit in Q2 2024, representing an 843 percent year-over-year increase.

The new Alienware AW2524HF Gaming Monitor is described as "the world's fastest IPS gaming monitor," featuring an ultrafast 500 Hz 24.5" Rapid IPS panel with a low latency gray-to-gray response time of 0.5ms.

Throw in AMD FreeSync Premium and VESA AdaptiveSync certification alongside sRGB 99% color coverage and HDR10 support, and you've got one impressive 1080p display for competitive gaming.

Alienware notes it's on track for release on September 12 via Dell.com, carrying an MSRP of USD 649.99. Sporting Alienware's new display design with funky features like a retractable headset stand, it's packed with features, as per below.

Even though the big Gamescom event is now underway in Germany, AMD's "Gaming Festival" is scheduled to kick off on Friday, August 25th, with AMD GPU Chief Scott Herkelman set to hit the stage at 5 pm local time. AMD has already hinted that it will unveil its "next major product announcements" for the Radeon brand, and now we've got more definitive proof that it will cover multiple GPU announcements.

Based on leaks, rumors, and common sense, the mysterious new Radeon products will cover the mid-range and enthusiast graphics cards for the RDNA 3 line-up - the Radeon RX 7700 XT and the Radeon RX 7800 XT. In addition, we might also get to see some new software innovations from the company, like the long-awaited FidelityFX Super Resolution 3 or FSR 3, which is essentially AMD's version of NVIDIA DLSS 3 Frame Generation.

Ahead of the presentation, a few of AMD's closest partners in the GPU field have taken to social media and the Gamescom show floor to tease the reveals - with ASRock putting "RDNA 3" placeholders on its booth next to existing products.

We now know the system requirements for Forza Motorsport, and it's another PC game to join an increasing trend these days, calling for an SSD as a compulsory component.

The other minimum requirements are not particularly taxing, but ruling out gamers with PCs that still run a hard disk may be painful for some folks.

As mentioned, there are more than a few games which have taken this SSD-only route in recent times, including Starfield which is now imminent.

You don't need to be trying particularly hard to keep up with new iPhone rumors to know that Apple is expected to make big changes to the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. One of those changes is the arrival of a new Apple Watch Ultra-like Action button to replace the mute switch, and now it looks like Apple's iOS 17 beta is getting ready for the swap out.

Apple has been putting iOS 17 through its paces ever since announcing the software during the WWDC 2023 opening keynote on June 5. Developers, as well as those on the public beta program, have been testing the software for weeks. But the latest beta has something new - a change that appears to be getting iOS ready for when there is no mute switch to speak of.

A new 9to5Mac report notes that iOS 17 beta 7 adds a new haptic feedback pattern designed for switching to and from Silent Mode. When that's done on a current iPhone a short vibration happens, but only when enabling the mode. Disabling it does nothing.

Apple's Vision Pro headset is something that had been rumored for years before it was finally announced during the WWDC opening keynote on June 5. But the amount of time it was rumored pales into insignificance when compared with how long it was actually being worked on deep inside Apple Park and, before it, 1 Infinite Loop.

Based on information gleaned from a new patent, it would appear that Apple's engineers were hard at work on what would eventually turn into the Vision Pro headset as far back as 2007. That's the year that the original iPhone changed everything of course, and at the time of writing it's 16 years ago. We have to assume that the headset was being worked on even before the patent's 2007 origin which means that by the time the headset finally goes on sale in 2024 it's entirely possible it will have been in development for close to 20 years.

That's two decades of work that seem to have started with the patent that was spotted by Patently Apple this week. Titled "Automatically Adjusting Media Display In A Personal Display System," it appears to reference features that ultimately made it to Apple's big unveiling a couple of months ago. Those features include being able to watch content in a theater, stadium, or even a concert fatality even though they aren't there.

Buyers of the Samsung Galaxy S24 can perhaps look forward to a bigger battery than the Galaxy S23 that came before it, according to a new report.

While Samsung is yet to publicly announce the new phone, or the rest of the Galaxy S24 lineup for that matter, the leaks are starting to spring. One of those leaks appears to be a photo of the battery that will go into that new phone and it seems to be a 4,000mAh part. For those unfamiliar, that's a 100mAh increase over the capacity of the battery used in the Galaxy S23 that is on sale right now.

This is particularly interesting when you remember that the Galaxy S23 was already a better phone than its predecessor in terms of how long it could run for between charges. Some Samsung phones haven't been great in that regard, but that situation was greatly improved last year. Now, it seems that Samsung could be getting ready to ensure that it doesn't suffer a setback with the Galaxy S24.

Sony just announced a new PSP, but it's not the one you expected. Sony's new gaming handheld is called the PlayStation Portal and it's a very targeted product with a limited feature set.

With its $199 price tag and reduced functionality, the new PlayStation Portal might be a tough sell. The device has steep competition with the Nintendo Switch Lite matching the same price tag, but what sets the Portal apart isn't necessarily what it can do, but what it can't.

The PlayStation Portal is exclusively a Remote Play device, meaning it can't play games on its own and does not have game-ready internal hardware (and if it does, the functionality is being limited by proprietary software/firmware). We've known this for a while, but there was some fuzziness about the Portal supporting cloud game streaming. That's not the case.

Samsung has launched its Odyssey OLED G9 DQHD gaming monitor, bringing forth an incredible 5,120 x 1,440 resolution at a 240Hz refresh rate.

Samsung was kind enough to fly me out to have a hands-on experience with both the G95NC, the world's first dual 4K gaming monitor, and the Odyssey OLED G9, a dual 1440p display. During the event, I was lucky enough to have a gaming session of around 20 minutes with both of the displays - if you want my thoughts on the flagship G95NC, check out this link here. Before we get into my impressions, let's talk specifications.

The OLED G9 comes with all the bells and whistles that you'd expect out of Samsung's gaming line-up of monitors, with a crisp 0.03ms response time, 240Hz refresh rate, AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, and the advanced Neo Quantum Processor Pro, which optimizes each frame the gamer sees in terms of shades, contrast, brightness and more.

Sony's new PlayStation handheld gets an official announcement with pricing details.

Sony's first gaming handheld since the PlayStation Vita isn't what you'd expect. The so-called Project Q handheld has been officially revealed as the PlayStation Portal, and unlike the Vita, it does not play games on its own. The PlayStation Portal is described by Sony as a "remote player," and rightly so, because the handheld is meant to be an extension of the PS5.

The new PlayStation Portal handheld features basic functionality when compared to its peers and only streams PlayStation games, whereas other similarly-priced mobile handhelds offer access to Android apps and other services/games. At the same price of $199, consumers can opt for a Nintendo Switch handheld and play full dedicated titles. But that's not really who the PS Portal is for--Sony is aiming at the fan who is already entrenched in the ecosystem.