Latest News - Page 844

Reddit has seized control back of a subreddit that was still continuing to protest the company's recent changes to its API.

For those that are out of the loop with the Reddit drama, a few months ago, the company announced that it was changing its policy and will start to charge for use of its API. These changes came after the company realized its data was being used to train potentially lucrative machine-learning models, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, or other large language models of a similar kind.

However, these API changes mean that third-party developers, such as the Apollo app, would have to pay exorbitant fees to continue running. Many of which cannot afford to do, forcing their permanent closure. Thousands of subreddits protested these changes by going offline as many of moderators/users enjoy third-party apps/tools to make their Reddit experience better.

Apple is leading the charge against United Kingdom lawmakers that are pushing for laws to be passed that will force companies running end-to-end encryption apps to implement a backdoor.

The response from Apple comes after UK lawmakers unveiled the Online Safety Bill, which is new legislation that would force companies such as Apple, WhatsApp, Signal, and other services like them to add a government backdoor that would enable authorities to scan the messaging apps. Why do authorities want this? According to reports, UK lawmakers want companies to install this scanning technology to detect child-abuse material.

Apple has opposed the backdoor clause in the legislation, saying that the very nature of a backdoor undermines the principle of end-to-end encryption. Adding, that these changes would simply weaken the product for all users, and that even if the changes were made, they wouldn't be done in secret, as the legislation demands. Most surprisingly, Apple threatened to "walk" from the UK, bringing key products such as FaceTime and iMessage with it.

"I warned you guys in 1984!" legendary filmmaker James Cameron exclaims in a new interview with CTV News. Citing the film that put the director on the map, The Terminator from 1984, the director spoke candidly and openly about the dangers of AI - especially when the technology is in the wrong hands. Which James Cameron believes is the case right now.

"You've got to follow the money; who's building these things?" he continues. "They're either building it to dominate market share, so what are you teaching it? Greed. Or you're building it for defensive purposes and teaching it paranoia. I think the weaponization of AI is the biggest danger [and] we will get into the equivalent of a nuclear arms race with AI."

The idea that AI will become so powerful and intelligent that it will supersede or overtake humanity has dominated the science-fiction space for decades, with these concerns now filtering into the real-world space due to the incredible advances seen with generative AI models like ChatGPT. Referring to real-world AI as proto-Skynet - the villainous AI from The Terminator franchise - is commonplace.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo 64 is legendary; it took one of the all-time great top-down action RPGs from the 16-bit Super Nintendo era (The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past) and successfully translated that into an interactive full 3D experience. An open-world game before that was even a term.

With the recent release of the critically acclaimed The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (check out our in-depth review here), the Zelda franchise is as relevant as ever, delivering some of the most immersive gaming experiences in 2023 - and on aging hardware like the Nintendo Switch.

But what if The Legend of Zelda was given the ultra high-end visual fidelity treatment with something like Unreal Engine 5? That's exactly what The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Unreal Engine 5.2 from CryZENx presents. Albeit currently in limited form with the Deku Tree dungeon from the game's introduction fully playable.

Solidigm is one of the storage leaders in the NAND flash memory space, and its latest announcement is impressive for quad-level cell (QLC) SSDs for data centers. The new Solidigm D5-P5336 SSD starts at a capacity of 7.68TB, going up to a massive 61.44TB - an industry first and the world's highest capacity PCIe SSD.

For high-performance computing and data centers, it's an exciting proposition, up to 6X the storage capacity and significant reductions to Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). And you're looking at impressive speed, too, with the new Solidigm D5-P5336 capable of delivering read speeds of up to 7,000 MB/s.

"Modern workloads like AI and capabilities like 5G are rapidly reshaping the storage landscape," said Greg Matson, VP of Strategic Planning and Marketing at Solidigm. "Businesses need storage in more places that is inexpensive, able to store massive data sets efficiently and access the data at speed. The D5-P5336 delivers on all three -- value, density, and performance. With QLC, the economics are compelling -- imagine storing 6X more data than HDDs and 2X more data than TLC SSDs, all in the same space at TLC speed."

Samsung has announced that it has completed development on the world's first GDDR7 ( Graphics Double Data Rate 7) DRAM for GPUs, with the new memory set to be installed in next-generation hardware from "key customers" for verification this year. This lines up with recent news that the first GDDR7-capable GPUs could hit the retail market next year.

The new GDDR7 memory spec can achieve speeds of up to 32Gbps. That's a 33 percent increase over the 24Gbps in Samsung's fastest GDDR6 memory kits. The flagship GeForce RTX 4090's GDDR6X memory tops at 21.2Gbps, 1TB/s of peak memory bandwidth. Samsung's GDDR7 memory is capable of delivering 1.5TB/s of bandwidth.

Samsung mentions PCs and game consoles in its press release; however, it also mentions high-performance computing and AI - an area that will drive the continued development of GPUs from NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel.

Earlier this week, we looked at leaked 3DMark benchmarks for AMD's upcoming new RDNA 3 GPU offerings - the Radeon RX 7700 and Radeon RX 7800 - that are on track to launch in September. Of course, all of this is rumor and unofficial, and AMD has not officially announced its plans for expanding the Radeon RX 7000 series with new models.

Currently, we have the mainstream Radeon RX 7600 in the sub-USD 300 category, with the flagship Radeon RX 7900 XT and XTX sitting in the high-end USD 899 and USD 999 price range. Everything in between is still being serviced by existing RDNA 2 products like the Radeon RX 6700 and Radeon RX 6800 - which are currently selling well thanks to sizable discounts.

Today we've got preliminary leaked pricing for the new Radeon RX 7700 and Radeon RX 7800 from Twitter user @All_The_Watts, who shared the 3DMark synthetic benchmark Time Spy results for these GPUs. And with the Radeon RX 7700 potentially launching with an MSRP of USD 449 and the Radeon RX 7800 launching with a price point of USD 549 - how does this pricing stack up when taking the benchmarks and other GPUs from AMD and NVIDIA into account?

Activision-Blizzard's mobile performance was one of the main reasons why Microsoft seeks to buy the publisher for $68.7 billion, and our analysis really underlines just how important on-the-go gaming has become for the publisher.

It's well known that ABK makes a lot of money from mobile. After all, the three-headed giant includes King, who is responsible for the ultra-lucrative Candy Crush. But what about the other segments? Traditionally, the company's segments each have their own strengths. King reigns on mobile, Activision dominates on consoles, and Blizzard leads the charge on PC. That's what makes the publisher such a powerhouse--it's able to effectively generate billions of dollars everywhere games are played and sold.

Throughout recent years, we've seen ABK break these traditions. In 2018, the publisher enacted its new four-part plan, an ambitious strategy that led to more mobile games as well as new cross-game innovations like Call of Duty Warzone. The company sought to expand the presence of its mighty billion-dollar IPs (ABK has eight of them) across all available platforms.

Square Enix has officially responded to the recent Final Fantasy 16 sales debacle.

There's been lots of talk about Final Fantasy 16 somehow being regarded as a financial flop. The game has sold less than Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Final Fantasy 15 at launch, but as I've explained before, these are bad comparisons to make because the games launched in radically different console environments. Apparently Square Enix agrees with this assessment.

The publisher has given official comment to IGN about Final Fantasy 16's sales. Given the current landscape of the PlayStation 5 sales base, Square Enix considers Final Fantasy 16's launch sales to be "extremely strong." Data clearly supports this assertion.

In what will come as no real surprise to anyone, Blizzard has confirmed that Diablo 4 has set a new record for sales of its games.

As part of the firm's latest fiscal results, Blizzard told us that the action RPG is its 'fastest-selling title to date,' having sold through more units than any other game at the same stage of its life.

Diablo 4 drove Blizzard to achieve its first $1 billion net sales in a quarter, with net sales increasing 50% for Q2 compared to the same quarter last year. Yes, Diablo 4 is proving to be quite the cash cow (even if there isn't a secret cash cow level).

If you're buying a new iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max when it is announced later this year, we might have some good news for you. Especially if you're someone with the latest Wi-Fi network in your home.

That's because a new report claims that Apple is going to add support for Wi-Fi 6E to the pro models of the iPhone 15 lineup, with Barclays analysts Blayne Curtis and Tom O'Malley making the point in a research note seen by MacRumors.

The addition of Wi-Fi 6E support would allow for improved wireless network connectivity performance when connected to networks that support the technology. Some Apple devices already support Wi-Fi 6E including the latest iPad Pro tablets, the 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pros, and the latest Mac mini, Mac Pro, and Mac Studio.

We're now just days away from the Samsung Unpacked event on July 26 which means that we will soon see what the company has in store for its various lineups. If you're in the market for a new Samsung Android tablet, you don't need to wait that long to learn more.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra is expected to be announced during that event and the high-end tablet has plenty to give based on the specifications that we've seen leaked today. Those specifications were joined by a number of leaked images that were also shared by leaker Evan Blass.

The Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra arrived in the early part of 2022 so we're well overdue the arrival of another model. That model is shaping up to be a great one as well if these leaks are anything to go by.

Apple's iPhone SE is a great option for people who want the benefits of an iPhone without spending too much but it isn't going to get an update for a little while yet, according to a new report.

That report comes via MacRumors which cites Barclays analysts Blayne Curtis and Tom O'Malley when they report that the iPhone SE won't get a new model until next year. The analysts reportedly spoke with supply chain companies in Asia before reporting on their thoughts. According to them, the fourth-generation iPhone SE won't arrive until 2024.

When the new iPhone SE does finally arrive we're told that it'll come with an Apple-designed 5G modem, but neither the phone nor the modem will arrive until next year.

Xbox Game Pass subscribers might have a pleasant surprise incoming in the hopefully near future, or so a hint delivered on Twitter suggests - namely the arrival of Elden Ring.

A cryptic clue in a tweet from Sarah Bond, who is Xbox VP for Game Creator Experience and Ecosystem at Microsoft, was made slightly less cryptic in a follow-up message.

Initially, Bond tweeted an icon for an older person and a ring - 'Elder' or rather 'Elden' and 'Ring' - then decided that was maybe a bit too obscure, so just dropped an image of Elden Ring into the mix (not so obscure).

Diablo 4's latest patch is causing gamers to swear off the dungeon crawler en masse, and the controversial update could jeopardize player counts, engagement, and potentially even spending.

Running a live game is hard. In fact, I think it's one of the hardest things any publisher or developer can do. Online games can deliver the most revenues, but they're also incredibly risky and there's no guarantee of a payout. What makes live games so difficult to handle is developers not only have to maintain stability but also iterate and try to keep things new. Developers have to live in all three timelines at once--the past, to figure out what worked and what didn't work; the present, to apply these lessons to the now; and the future, to carry these lessons forward while also trying new updates and new content. Perhaps what is most important, though, is that a team is able to pivot to a backup plan if something goes wrong.

Blizzard, whose bread and butter is live games, knows these lessons quite well. That doesn't ease their burden. Diablo 4's recent update is proof of this, and the developer isn't in an enviable position right.

The Phanteks Revolt Series of power supplies are expanding with new Revolt 1000W/1200W Platinum and 1600W Titanium models for enthusiasts and those who love creating a custom build. And that is because these power supplies do not ship with cables; instead, Phanteks has collaborated with CableMod to offer a cable-free power supply solution where you pick the cables you need, the right lengths, and the right look. We got our first look at these PSUs back at Computex 2023, so it's great to see that the launch is right around the corner.

CableMod's website configurator allows you to select which Revolt Series PSU you're looking at getting (or have purchased), and from there, you simply select a chassis, cable style, length, and any other customization via its simple step-by-step interface. For those looking for a simple collection of high-end CableMod cables, Phanteks offers stater sets in black and white and a complete set of cables in black.

To showcase the customization, Phanteks provided the image of its popular Phantekx Nv7 Tempered Glass chassis with one of the new power supplies and custom cables.

Anything NVIDIA can do, ASRock can do just as sneakily it would seem - and better, to boot. At least when it comes to launching graphics cards that double up the VRAM loadout, with ASRock further showing that it doesn't have to cost the same premium that Team Green stuck on top.

You can't have missed the recent NVIDIA launch of the RTX 4060 Ti which has 16GB - compared to the original 8GB VRAM configuration - or actually, maybe you might have missed it. Seeing as Team Green made no announcement whatsoever, and didn't send out review cards, in what was the lowest of low-key releases.

And now, while ASRock hasn't actually announced a new version of its Intel Arc A770 graphics card which packs 16GB in a similar VRAM-doubling feat compared to the original A770 Phantom Gaming, we've seen the board.

Google has quietly increased the price of its YouTube Premium and YouTube Music subscription services, with both of their websites updated to reflect the new prices. However, there is no official announcement of anything changing.

The price increases mean that it is now more expensive than ever to subscribe to Google's services.

YouTube Premium has now been increased to $13.99 per month in the United States which is a $2 price hike over the previous price. That's for the monthly price, but the annual subscription has also increased by $20 to $139.99.

Every September Apple announces and then sells its latest and greatest iPhone lineup and that was what we expected to happen in 2023 with the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro. But a new report claims that might not actually be the case, so we might have to wait a little longer than expected.

According to this report, Apple isn't going to be able to launch the iPhone 15 series until a "few weeks" later than the usual September time frame.

That report comes courtesy of Wamsi Mohan, a global securities analyst at Bank of America. Mohan shared details in a research note seen by Barrons and then reported on by Macrumors. Mohan apparently conducted channel checks in Apple's supply chain and based on that they believe that Apple's iPhone 15 launch could miss the usual September release window.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 and Galaxy Watch 6 Classic are expected to be announced in less than a week now and new details have leaked that show the specifications that we can expect from these devices.

Samsung is set to announce the new wearables during the Unpacked event on July 26 and leaker SnoopyTech has now shared details of what they believe to be the specifications of the watches. There's a lot of data here, and you can see the full details in the tweet embedded below.

According to these leaks we can expect the following main specifications: