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Sabrent's new docking station for the Steam Deck offers 4K output and M.2 SSD storage expansion
The Sabrent USB Type-C 6-Port Docking Station with M.2 Port (DS-SDNV) is the most impressive Steam Deck and ROG Ally compatible dock to date, thanks to the addition of an M.2 Port, which allows for installing an M.2 SSD with 5Gbps transfer speeds expand the storage capabilities of your PC gaming handheld of choice or USB-C device.
The new dock is stacked with ports, where you've also got a gigabit Ethernet port for fast network transfers (a great move thanks to Steam now allowing for game installs to transfer over a LAN), multiple USB ports, and an HDMI 2.0 port. The latter offers support for up to a 4K 60Hz signal, which is excellent for connecting the dock to a modern 4K TV.
The DS-SDNV supports Windows, Linux, and macOS, and according to Sabrent, it will work with USB-C devices that feature DisplayPort Alternate (DP Alt) Mode support. Plus, you've got plenty of charging power - up to 90W.
Lenovo Legion Go gaming handheld pictures emerge and it looks like a Nintendo Switch
Earlier this month, we reported on the Lenovo Legion Go handheld that could compete with PC gaming handhelds like the Steam Deck and ROG Ally from ASUS. With the Legion Go set to feature AMD's new Phoenix APU processors, performance would reportedly be on par with the ROG Ally, which features a customized ROG Ally Z1 Extreme chip built off of the Ryzen 7 7840U SoC.
Thanks to a new report over Windows Report offers some exclusive images of the Lenovo Legion Go, which features a look and feel that is part Steam Deck, part Nintendo Switch. The Switch comparison sets it apart from other PC gaming handhelds, including the massive range of options from companies like AYANEO.
Based on the images we see for the Legion Go, it's set to feature removable controllers, much like Nintendo's wireless Joy-Con controllers for the Switch. This will allow the Legion Go to act similarly to the Switch by offering a seamless docking process to connect the handheld to a TV or monitor and still be able to use the same controllers.
Dell forced to pay a sizable fine in Australia for offering fake discounts on monitors
The consumer-focused ACCC in Australia recently took Dell to court, with the watchdog alleging that the computer and hardware maker was misleading customers about the cost of its monitors.
The proceedings made their way to the Federal Court in Australia, where this week it has ordered Dell Technologies Inc. to pay $10 Million AUD (around $6.4 million USD) in penalties for misleading consumers about discounts for add-on monitors.
Basically, using Dell's website to purchase computer hardware took consumers to an offer page where they could add additional items to their order with a supposed discount. The 'strikethrough' prices or MSRP for monitors were being displayed with higher prices than if consumers purchased them on a stand-alone basis.
Intel Arc GPUs are about to get even better value - for those wanting Assassin's Creed Mirage
Intel's latest bright idea on the giveaway front is to bundle a pair of free games with selected Core CPUs and Arc graphics cards.
The freebies are Assassin's Creed Mirage and Nightingale, with a value of $50 and $30 (US) respectively. They're being given away as an Intel Gamer Day 2023 promotion, but only by certain retailers (so check before you buy, if you're not sure).
So, for those who were planning to purchase the next instalment of Assassin's Creed anyway, this is effectively a $50 discount off an Intel CPU or GPU.
Xbox 360 store closing in 2024
Microsoft is officially shutting down the Xbox 360 storefront on July 29, 2024, the company has announced.
The Xbox 360 Store will be unavailable starting next year, cutting off digital access to thousands of video games and content.
"A lot has changed since the Xbox 360 launched in 2005. Technology has evolved, expectations from players have shifted, and we are focused on making Xbox Series X|S the best place to play now and in the future," Microsoft said.
Continue reading: Xbox 360 store closing in 2024 (full post)
Intel Battlemage GPUs could be faster than hoped, and may give an RTX 4070 a run for its money
Intel's Battlemage GPUs, which should debut next year, might be beefier graphics cards than the rumor mill has led us to believe.
If you recall, some speculation on the GPU grapevine has led us to believe that Intel is reining in its ambitions with the firm's second-gen graphics cards. We've even heard some talk in recent times that Team Blue may only produce budget GPUs with Battlemage (the equivalent of the A300 series for Alchemist).
Fresh info from the rumor mill, as provided by well-known hardware leaker Harukaze5719 on X (formerly Twitter), suggests otherwise - or at least that Battlemage might be peppier than expected.
Baldur's Gate 3 patch turned chaotic evil and was removed - making some player's saves unusable
Some Baldur's Gate 3 players were left scratching their heads yesterday, after a hotfix was rolled back and recent saved games became unusable.
The story here is that Larian released the fourth hotfix for Baldur's Gate 3, but all was not well with the mini-patch - which suffered from an expected side-effect of causing crashes - so it had to be pulled.
However, those playing the RPG at the time the hotfix was implemented, who saved the game since the update was applied, have now found that those saves are greyed out and can't be loaded.
Linus Tech Tips stops video production after posting an apology video amid ongoing controversy
Popular review and tech YouTube media company Linus Tech Tips is in the midst of some pretty severe controversy at the moment, sparked by its poor handling of putting together a water-cooled PC using a prototype of a Billet Labs' Monoblock, which then exploded to include countless examples of inaccuracies and rushed content courtesy of an in-depth expose by competitor Gamers Nexus.
And that's a competitor in that both channels offer reviews and critiques of everything from CPUs to GPUs to cooling solutions. The Gamers Nexus video goes in-depth, highlighting and showcasing what feels like a mountain of erroneous reporting by Linus Tech Tips (LTT), from incorrect benchmark results to several critical inaccuracies. The video purports that this is due to LTT "rushing content out of the door" and focusing on quantity over quality.
Linus Tech Tips founder Linus Sebastian wrote a lengthy rebuttal, admitting to some of the mistakes and sloppiness in LTT's hardware reviews while admitting that not reviewing the prototype Billet Labs' Monoblock with a video card recommended by Billet and then selling it was a mistake, adding that "our intention wasn't to hurt anyone."
AMD Ryzen CPUs affected by 'Inception' vulnerability and the fix could impact performance
Most modern Ryzen CPUs built using the Zen 3 and Zen 4 architectures (including the latest Ryzen 7000 series) are affected by the 'Inception' vulnerability. A new speculative side-channel attack that can expose sensitive or otherwise secure data - per AMD's description that you can read in full here.
The current understanding of 'Inception' is that the vulnerability is local, meaning you'd need to download malware containing the exploit for a potential issue. AMD notes that older Ryzen CPU hardware using the original Zen and Zen 2 architectures remain unaffected.
Regarding exploits, Inception is similar to the well-known Spectre attack, where secure data is accessed within memory via features in modern CPUs - going as far as to grab passwords, keys, and other secure data. The good news is that the exploit is being addressed in an upcoming AGESA Firmware update due for release later this month.
YouTube moves to kill cancer treatment misinformation platform wide
YouTube has announced a big effort to reduce cancer treatment misinformation that's present across its platform.
Medical misinformation on YouTube was thrown into the spotlight during the COVID-19 pandemic, and now the Google-owned video platform is continuing its efforts to reduce the spread of misinformation in what seems like it will be a never-ending battle. According to reports, YouTube is cracking down on false information about cancer treatments, in particular, videos that promote cancer treatments that are proven to be harmful or ineffective.
Additionally, YouTube has said that it will be removing videos that discourage people from seeking medical advice from a licensed practitioner. Furthermore, these changes will bring in new changes to YouTube's medical misinformation policies and will start on Tuesday next week - rolling out over the coming weeks. YouTube's revision of its medical misinformation policies will "streamline dozens of our existing medical misinformation guidelines to fall under three categories - Prevention, Treatment, and Denial."
Continue reading: YouTube moves to kill cancer treatment misinformation platform wide (full post)
AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7995WX benchmarks leak, and it's a monster with 96 Zen 4 cores
AMD's upcoming Threadripper Pro 7000WX "Storm Peak" series will shake up the workstation CPU market, thanks to the Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7995WX being spotted in a new Geekbench 5 submission. A 96-core and 192-thread monster, it will replace the existing Ryzen Threadripper Pro 5995WX as AMD's' flagship workstation CPU - delivering a whopping 50% increase in core count.
According to the benchmark results, the new CPU was connected to an HP Z6 G5 A Workstation system - with additional information confirming that the 96-core CPU could achieve a boost clock speed of 5.1 GHz (though this is incorrectly reported as 7.97 GHz).
As the new Threadripper Pro 7000WX series is based on the Zen 4 architecture, the Threadripper Pro 7995WX is also paired with 512GB of DDR5 memory (though the Geekbench listing doesn't confirm the full memory spec) with a sizable 384 MB of L3 Cache and 96MB of L2 Cache - which is similar to AMD's data center-focused EPYC 9654.
KIOXIA's CD8P Series of high-speed PCIe Gen5 SSDs wins Best of Show at Flash Memory Summit 2023
The single-port KIOXIA CD8P Series was showcased last week at Flash Memory Summit 2023 alongside other impressive memory and storage solutions. As one of the creators of flash memory as we know it and a company at the forefront of delivering technology to all industries, the KIOXIA CD8P Series' PCIe 5.0 performance and speed for data centers received a Flash Memory Summit 'Best of Show' award in the 'Most Innovative Memory Technology' category.
Available in capacities up to 30.72 TB, Enterprise and Data Center Standard Form Factor (EDSFF) E3.S, and 2.5-inch (U.2) form factors, the new KIOXIA CD8P Series has been designed for data center environments and compared to previous PCIe 4.0 solutions delivers a 60-80% increase in sequential read performance.
Other specs include random read performance of up to 2,000K IOPS and random write performance of up to 400K IOPS. Based on KIOXIA BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory triple-level cell (TLC) technology with an in-house developed controller, these SSDs comply with PCIe 5.0 and NVMe 2.0 specifications, with end-to-end data protection, power loss protection, and flash die failure recovery.
AMD Radeon Chief confirms major product announcements are coming next week at Gamescom
After months of rumors, leaks, and potential performance benchmarks, we're just waiting for the upcoming AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT graphics card to be official. One of the most notable in recent weeks was AMD Radeon partner PowerColor inadvertently posting the full product page for its Radeon RX 7800 XT Red Devil graphics card (which was then quickly taken down).
With AMD also planning to launch a Radeon RX 7700 XT, these two GPUs will effectively 'fill the gap' between the RDNA 3 desktop line-up that includes the mainstream Radeon RX 7600 and the high-end enthusiast Radeon RX 7900 XT and XTX. And it looks like we can put a timeline on when we can expect to hear all about the Radeon RX 7800 XT and Radeon RX 7700 XT - at Gamescom 2023 in Germany.
As the biggest global gaming event of the calendar year, AMD's presence will focus on the company's upcoming Radeon products. Scott Herkelman, Senior Vice President & General Manager Graphics Business Unit at AMD, has taken to X/Twitter to confirm that the Radeon team will be on hand to showcase the company's "next major product announcements."
COD HQ may be Call of Duty's games as a platform future, may mimic Halo Master Chief Collection
Activision's relatively new Call of Duty HQ infrastructure could be the key to a games-as-a-platform solution for the $33 billion shooter franchise.
Publishers are always trying to find new ways to create new business models and innovate on existing ones. Executing its four-part plan that was originally introduced in 2018, Activision has successfully created one of the most powerful unifications of F2P and premium gaming with Warzone. The company is capitalizing on multiple trends like battle royale in a cohesive, cross-monetized and cross-play ecosystem. Even back in 2020, I recognized that Warzone was clearly the biggest thing Activision had ever done. Things are now accelerating even more.
Call of Duty HQ is the latest manifestation of this plan. Right now, Call of Duty HQ is basically a unified launcher where players can access different COD games in one place. Gamers can launch a game, choose what mode they want to play, and jump in. It's a big more than that, though. Call of Duty HQ could end up being the franchise's own games-as-a-platform (GaaP) model.
Starfield's release build is now finished and ready to ship to gamers
Xbox's biggest game of 2023 is finished and ready to ship.
It's official: Starfield is finished and ready to ship. Bethesda Game Studios has put the last touches on Starfield's gold master code, which means the game will soon be printed onto millions of game discs and be loaded up onto the Xbox Store, Windows Store, and Steam in anticipation of the game's September 6 launch.
The day is fast approaching, Microsoft has also confirmed pre-load dates to ensure gamers have all the files downloaded and ready to go for the big launch date. Pre-load begins much sooner on Xbox consoles and the Microsoft Store, with Starfield pre-loads going live tomorrow, August 17 on those platforms.
Continue reading: Starfield's release build is now finished and ready to ship to gamers (full post)
New York City just banned TikTok on city-owned hardware
TikTok junkies who are using their New York City-owned phones to watch cat memes are going to have to find something else to do with their time, it seems. The city has apparently decided that it is going to ban TikTok from all city-owned devices and has already told agencies that they have to get people to remove the app from phones and other hardware within the next 30 days.
The news comes as part of a directive that was issued on Wednesday and follows a review by the NYC Cyber Command. It was then decided that TikTok poses a security threat to the networks of New York City and that the ban will start immediately. That means that employees can no longer download or use the app even if it's already there, while the 30-day timeframe for uninstalling the app is also now underway.
In a statement to The Verge, a New York City Hall spokesperson said that NYC Cyber Command regularly takes proactive actions to "keep New Yorkers' data safe." The city also cited US Office of Management and Budget guidelines that discourage TikTok being used on government devices including federal legislation that already banned the app earlier this year, The Verge reports.
Continue reading: New York City just banned TikTok on city-owned hardware (full post)
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra's specs might have just leaked
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is currently the best Samsung phone you can buy and among the best flagship phones across the market, but eyes are already starting to look for what comes next. What comes next is sure to be the Galaxy S24 Ultra, a product that isn't expected to ship until the early part of 2024. However, we're already starting to see information leak - including what appears to be a good chunk of the specifications that we can expect.
If the leak is accurate - and it comes from a previously reliable source - we can expect some things to change and some things to stay the same when compared with the current Galaxy S23 Ultra.
According to leaker Yogesh Brar we can expect a few things from the Galaxy S24 Ultra. Those things start with a quad-camera situation that includes the same 200-megapixel camera that we're familiar with from this year's model. Then there is a 12-megapixel ultrawide and a 10-megapixel periscope camera for high levels of zoom. However, things do seem to have some improvement when we get to the 50-megapixel telephoto camera. That should allow for more detailed shots than we are used to from the current model, but we will have to wait and see if it actually ships before we can be sure.
Continue reading: The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra's specs might have just leaked (full post)
The iPhone 15 could be getting a huge Thunderbolt speed glow-up
All of the smart money right now is on Apple announcing as many as four new iPhones this September, and with just weeks to go until that happens, the leaks continue to appear. Now, a new report claims that buyers of at least some of the new models will be able to transfer files off of them more quickly than any previous iPhone.
If the report is accurate, some iPhone 15 models will offer Thunderbolt support via their new USB-C ports. That would theoretically allow for files to be transferred off of, and onto, the iPhones at speeds of up to 40Gbps. Current iPhones max out at just 480Mbps thanks to their use of slow Lightning connectors, making this a big upgrade for people who generate big files like photographers and videographers.
This is all according to a ChargerLAB report that is itself based on claimed leaks of images showing the iPhone 15 USB-C port and associated connectors and cabling. The report notes that the images show what appears to be a Retimer chip, a device that is normally used to establish stronger signal transmission used for faster data transfer speeds. With that in mind, the report suggests that 40Gbps Thunderbolt support could be on the way.
Continue reading: The iPhone 15 could be getting a huge Thunderbolt speed glow-up (full post)
Starfield Q&A: alien warfare, housing, pacifist runs, and much more
Bethesda Game Studios reveals a bunch of new Starfield information in a recent Discord Q&A.
Bethesda's new Starfield Q&A just dropped, and we have a quick copy & paste of everything that was said during the session.
Starfield lead quest designer Will Shen and Bethesda studio design director Emil Pagliarulo stopped by the official Starfield Discord for a big Q&A and below are their responses.
Continue reading: Starfield Q&A: alien warfare, housing, pacifist runs, and much more (full post)
YouTube launches 'Samples' a new way to discover brand new music
YouTube has rolled out a new feature to its YouTube Music app that's designed to let users discover brand new music through 30-second snippets.
YouTube Music has a new feature called "Samples" and judging by the above video posted to YouTube's official channel, the feature will be designed to let YouTube Music users discover brand new music through quick 30-second snippets of songs recommended to them. Notably, Samples won't just play the start of a song, they will play what YouTube Music considers to be the most "catchy" part of a song. An example of this would be a strong chorus, guitar riff, or head-bobbing beat.
Users will interact with Samples the same way they interact with Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and TikTok Videos - taking on the swipe up/down layout. Additionally, Sample's won't just feature snippets of the "best" parts of songs, it will also include exclusively made content by artists. The idea behind this new feature is to enable more discoverability for upcoming artists by combining the TikTokification of short video content with the millions of paying subscribers that are already on YouTube Music.
Continue reading: YouTube launches 'Samples' a new way to discover brand new music (full post)






















