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Instagram now sucks less on at least one foldable phone.
An updated Instagram app is now available and is rolling out over the coming weeks to make it much better to use on Samsung's latest foldable phones.
Using Instagram on a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold device hasn't been a fun time for a while now, with the interface failing to make full use of the larger display at hand. The lack of a tablet-sized Instagram app is also something that has long irked iPad owners, but a new update is now rolling out to improve matters. But unfortunately, it'll only work on Android. And even then, it'll only work on Samsung Galaxy Z Fold devices.
The new layout was first reported by 9to5Google and puts Stories at the top of the screen while the UI expands the feed to either side of the display for the first time. It also ensures that Reels stick to their fixed aspect ratio with black bars used to fill in the space around the videos.
Continue reading: Instagram now sucks less on at least one foldable phone. (full post)
Mario game sales jump after Super Mario Bros film success
The new Super Mario Bros. movie caused sales of Nintendo's Mario games to jump.
Following the huge success of the star-studded film, Nintendo has enjoyed a strong rise in Super Mario game sales on its Switch handheld-console hybrid. Not only has the film helped rise Nintendo's IP royalty revenue to an incredibly high $131 million, but the movie is also sparking more game and hardware sales for Nintendo's Switch ecosystem.
According to sales data released by Nintendo, the Switch saw a strong 3.91 million shipments worldwide, with the bulk of consumers opting for the more expensive OLED model. This helped Nintendo reach a new all-time Q1 high in yen earnings. It's especially noteworthy that all of the models in the Nintendo Switch family are sold at a profit.
Continue reading: Mario game sales jump after Super Mario Bros film success (full post)
Is this the iPhone 15's USB-C port ahead of next month's unveiling?
If everything goes the way that we expect it to Apple will announce a new range of iPhones next month. The iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max are all expected to debut, and Apple is thought to be making a big change to all four models.
We've been hearing for months that Apple intends to ship all four iPhones with a new USB-C port, replacing the Lightning cable that we are all so familiar with. Now, it appears that the ports that the phones will use have leaked online weeks ahead of the expected public unveiling.
That's because two posts on X, as noted by MacRumors, appear to show the new USB-C port and associated flex cables. They were shared by leakers @lipilipsi and @John011235, and appear to be for the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, and iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Continue reading: Is this the iPhone 15's USB-C port ahead of next month's unveiling? (full post)
WhatsApp gains support for screen sharing across platforms
Instant messaging platform WhatsApp has announced that it is adding support for sharing screens across platforms, with the feature starting to roll out to people right now.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was the first to announce the feature on Facebook and Instagram, with users able to share documents, photos, and even their shopping cart with people in their contacts and during video calls. The feature had already been available to some beta testers since May, but it's now starting to roll out more widely.
TechCrunch reports that the screen sharing feature is already rolling out to people with Android, iOS, and Windows devices around the world but it's also happening in a phased manner - which means that not everyone will see the option to share their screens immediately. However, if the feature isn't available yet it will be soon enough.
Continue reading: WhatsApp gains support for screen sharing across platforms (full post)
Dreaming of a Steam Deck with more RAM? This modder has equipped their Deck with 32GB
Valve's Steam Deck comes with 16GB of RAM, and you can't upgrade that - at least not in theory, but where there's a will...
Balázs Triszka achieved this feat just as you'd expect, using a BGA rework station, desoldering and removing the existing RAM modules inside the Steam Deck, and replacing them with beefier ones.
While this is clearly a trickier prospect than simply upgrading the storage on the Steam Deck, the modder notes on Twitter (as spotted by OC3D) that the task isn't that difficult "if you have the skills needed for bga rework" (naturally), adding that "there is no glue under the chips."
SpaceX deploys 15 Starlink satellites and posts awesome video of rocket landing
SpaceX has yet another launch under its belt with its Falcon 9 workhorse rocket carrying 15 Starlink internet satellites into low Earth orbit.
The Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from California's Vanderburgh Space Force base at 11:57 PM EDT, and according to SpaceX, everything went to plan as Falcon 9's first stage landed safely back down on the drone ship called Of Course I Still Love You approximately 9.5 minutes after liftoff.
According to SpaceX's mission description, this launch marks the 5th launch and landing for this specific Falcon 9 booster. As for the Starlink satellites, they were deployed into low Earth orbit 14.5 minutes after liftoff, with the company taking to its official X account to confirm all of the satellites were successfully deployed. Additionally, SpaceX posted to its X account videos of the Falcon 9 first stage landing back on the drone ship along with a video of the launch vehicle taking off from Vanderburgh Space Force base.
Zelda Tears of the Kingdom sells 18.51 million copies, made up 35% of total Q1 software sales
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has amassed nearly 19 million sales in its first quarter on the market.
Tears of the Kingdom is a staggering success on the Switch. According to Nintendo's latest earnings report, the new landmark RPG has sold 18.51 million units in little over a month. To put that number into perspective, that's more than Elden Ring's total sales in its first six months and almost as much as Elden Ring's total-year sales of 20 million.
The new Zelda did so well that it helped Nintendo hit a new Q1 record for first-party game sales, with 15.7 million copies sold in its first weeks on the market. Our figures indicate that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom made up 35% of Nintendo's total Q1 software sales.
MrBeast sued for $100 million over contract violations and 'disparaging comments'
The company behind MrBeast's ghost kitchens has counter-sued the famous Youtuber for an astonishing $100 million.
The counter lawsuit came after Jimmy Donaldson, aka MrBeast, filed a lawsuit against Virtual Dining Concepts, alleging the company prioritized rapid expansion of high-quality products, resulting in food quality levels dropping to an inappropriate standard.
Donaldson's lawsuit alleges that many customers reported receiving their burgers with raw meat, were burnt, contained bugs, and other major problems. Furthermore, MrBeast's lawsuit claims that Virtual Dining Concepts (VDC) has not paid MrBeast and has used the YouTuber's image without his permission.
FromSoftware made $152 million last year with a 60% profit margin
FromSoftware is pulling in stellar revenues and profits on the heels of Elden Ring's breakout success.
According to games industry analyst Serkan Toto, who keeps a close eye on the Japanese games market under his Kantan Games fim, the Dark Souls and Elden Ring developer FromSoftware is doing incredibly well right now.
Kantan Games' Serkan Toto notes that FromSoftware generated $125 million in total sales throughout the last fiscal year, which ran from April 2022 to March 2023. The Japanese game developer apparently managed to keep costs of goods and total expenses on the low side and made $91 million in operating income during the period. This represents an astronomically high 60% operating profit margin--something that we rarely ever see in the video games industry.
Continue reading: FromSoftware made $152 million last year with a 60% profit margin (full post)
Congress UFO whistleblower announces 'what I told them was the tip of the iceberg'
One of the navy pilots that sat in front of Congress to discuss the unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), or UFOs, has penned a new article in Newsweek explaining that what he told Congress was just the tip of the iceberg.
The former Navy fighter pilot Ryan Graves explains in the new article that nine years ago, his F-18 squadron was operating off the coast of Virginia Beach when they observed and tracked UFOs that had infiltrated military airspace.
These mysterious objects had no visible propulsion or lifting surfaces but somehow remained motionless in Category 4 hurricane winds while displaying immediate forms of acceleration to supersonic speeds and being able to operate far longer than any other fighter jet under US military command.
Intel Core i5-14600K leak shows the Raptor Lake Refresh CPU boosts to 5.3GHz
Intel's Raptor Lake Refresh processors are not too far off now, and a further indication this is the case is an uptick in the pace at which leaks are coming - with a fresh piece of spillage emerging on the Core i5-14600K.
As VideoCardz flagged up, on Twitter, HXL posted screenshots of CPU-Z showing the core configuration and boost speed of the 14600K (apply all the usual caution around nuggets from the rumor mill).
If correct, the Core i5-14600K will maintain the same core count as the 13600K, namely 6 performance cores and 8 efficiency cores (for a total of 14-cores, with 20-threads - debunking a previous rumor, incidentally).
Elon Musk says he may require surgery before he fights Mark Zuckerberg
Elon Musk has fired back at Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg following his recent comments about the highly anticipated bout between the two billionaires.
It was only a few days ago that Elon Musk reignited the highly anticipated fight with Mark Zuckerberg after posting on his personal X account that he is taking weights to work in preparation for the coming fight. Additionally, Musk posted that the fight would be live-streamed on X, which Zuckerberg replied to on his personal threads account, "Shouldn't we use a more reliable platform that can actually raise money for charity?"
It wasn't long before Musk fired back at Zuckerberg, but his response seemingly has fallen short in terms of topping his opponents' last comments, with the Tesla and SpaceX CEO writing that he is undergoing medical examination that may result in required surgery before the fight. Musk responded to a post on X regarding the fight, saying, "Exact date is still in flux. I'm getting an MRI of my neck & upper back tomorrow. May require surgery before the fight can happen. Will know this week."
Continue reading: Elon Musk says he may require surgery before he fights Mark Zuckerberg (full post)
Scientists detect first-of-its-kind signals from a wobbly black hole
In what was only a fraction of a second, scientists observed an event that may very well change our understanding of how black holes operate.
The event can be traced back to a star that's orbiting a stellar black hole, and the pair is called GRS 1915+105. So, what happened that's so special? According to reports, the star that is orbiting the black hole is slowly being eaten up by the extreme gravitational pull of the neighboring black hole. While this process is happening, some of its material fails to be consumed, causing an intense acceleration that results in a jet being shot out of the poles of the black hole.
While this event has been observed by scientists in the past, this particular instance was different. Typically, when a jet is shot out of the poles of a black hole, it's perfectly aligned with the rotation of the black hole. However, researchers observed a slight wobble in the jet's energy, similar to a spinning top, once it begins to slow down. This wobble lasted 0.2 seconds, and researchers suspect it was caused by the black hole's rotation not being aligned with its accretion disk, the disk of matter orbiting the black hole.
Continue reading: Scientists detect first-of-its-kind signals from a wobbly black hole (full post)
Want a Steam Deck on the cheap? It looks like Valve may sell officially refurbished handhelds
Valve could have plans in the works to refurbish Steam Deck portables and sell them, if fresh clues spotted online are anything to go by.
PC Gamer reports that Pavel Djundik, creator of SteamDB, spotted that Valve had concocted some listings for 'Certified Refurbished' Steam Deck models in all sizes (64GB, 256GB, and 512GB).
Those listings in the Steam database have since been removed, as expected with leaks such as this, but it's a pretty solid suggestion that this is Valve's plan in the future. Or at least that the company is exploring this as a possibility.
Massive Sun eruption bathes the Earth, Moon and Mars in radiation simultaneously
Officials have detected a massive outburst of solar plasma being injected from the Sun, and the radiation from this outburst has washed over Mars, Earth, and the Moon.
Human-devised instruments on all three of the aforementioned bodies detected the event almost simultaneously, in what LiveScience reports as the "first time" such an event has been measured at the same time.
The European Space Agency's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), along with NASA's Curiosity Rover, detected the spike in charged particles hitting the Martian atmosphere. As for the Moon, the Chinese National Space Administration's Chang'e-4 rover and NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) detected the Sun's outburst.
Blizzard is busy banning Diablo 4 players who used the 'unplug your internet' exploit
Diablo 4 has a well-known (at this point) exploit that was facilitated by temporarily disconnecting yourself from the net, but it has now been fixed - and Blizzard is taking action against those who abused the trick.
For the uninitiated, the exploit came in with the new season, and allowed for swapping items or gold from the Eternal Realm to Seasonal Realm.
This could be done by grouping up with a friend on the Seasonal Realm, then briefly unplugging your internet, allowing you to log back in as an Eternal Realm character with all their goodies - which can then be transferred.
Mark Zuckerberg calls out Elon Musk over the fight date and it being streamed on X
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has responded to the recent posts by Elon Musk claiming that the fight between the two billionaires will be streamed on X.
Not only did Zuckerberg respond to Musk's recent posts about where the fight is going to be live-streamed, but he also responded to Musk's post about how he's working out for the fight by taking weights to work with him. Zuckerberg took to his Threads accounts to share a screenshot of Musk's post about carrying weights to work, saying, "I'm ready today. I suggested Aug 26 when he first challenged, but he hasn't confirmed. Not holding my breath."
As for responding to where the fire is going to be live-streamed, Zuckerberg again shared a screenshot of Musk's post, but this time it took The opportunity to throw some shade at the competing social media platforms owner, saying, "Shouldn't we use a more reliable platform that can actually raise money for charity?" Zuckerberg reiterated in another thread that he is planning on continuing to compete "with people who trained no matter what happens here."
Here's why Apple's new iPhones are expected to be more expensive
Apple is rumored to raise the process for this year's coming iPhones, and here's why we can expect a price increase for at least the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.
MacRumors has revealed that Apple plans to increase the internal memory of the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. These internal storage increases are expected to lead to price hikes as the storage for the Pro models is likely to start at a minimum of 256GB compared to the current 128GB present in the iPhone 14 Pro models.
If the rumors from Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman and tech analyst Jeff Pu are true, Apple is preparing to release four available storage tiers starting at 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB. If these rumors have any validity, then the rumors surrounding the price hikes will also be true, with reports indicating that the iPhone 15 Pro could be priced at $1,099, up from the $999 starting price of the iPhone 14 Pro. As for the iPhone 15 Pro Max, rumors suggest that Apple's highest model phone will start at $1,199.
Continue reading: Here's why Apple's new iPhones are expected to be more expensive (full post)
Baldur's Gate 3 expansion sounds unlikely - and if it happens, it'd take a long time to arrive
Might Baldur's Gate 3 get an expansion? Those hoping to play a further adventure, post-level 12 - the cap for the RPG - might have their fingers crossed, but it sounds like it's unlikely to happen given what we've just heard from the developer.
PC Gamer reports that despite the theoretical potential for an expansion that allows characters to level up beyond the current cap of level 12 in Baldur's Gate 3, Larian founder Swen Vincke very much played down any possible such outing.
In an interview, Vincke told PC Gamer:
Microsoft is set to give Bing AI a pretty cool ability in Edge - the power to rewrite text
Microsoft has introduced a new ability for Bing AI in its Edge browser, giving the chatbot the power to rewrite text for the user.
Note that right now, this is still in early testing, as flagged up by leaker Leopeva64 on Twitter (as Windows Central spotted).
Indeed the functionality is in the Canary channel for Edge, and appears to be a controlled rollout, meaning that only a small subset of testers have actually got the feature right now.






















