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A space probe has made its way past Mercury for the third time has captured several incredible shots of the innermost planet.

A mission that's a combined effort between the European Space Agency (ESA) and Japan dubbed the BepiColombo mission, which involves six flybys of Mercury each proving to unique opportunity to capture photographs of the planet's scarred surface.

The latest fly by occurred on June 19 with the space probe coming 146 miles above the planet's surface, snapping a series of photographs that show the rocks geological features such as large craters and even a newly named crater.

Sony has used its market-leader position to negotiate exclusivity deals that block games from releasing on Xbox. Due to these deals, in which Sony pays companies to keep their games off of Xbox, Microsoft leadership sees Sony as a "hostile and aggressive competitor." That's why Microsoft fought back by purchasing Bethesda parent company ZeniMax for $7.5 billion.

Sony is no stranger to exclusivity deals. We've seen Sony make wide-sweeping deals that range from timed to full-on exclusivity. Microsoft already misses out on select Call of Duty content, with PlayStation receiving preferential treatment for in-game content and early access betas. Sometimes this exclusivity also makes a game skip Xbox, further weakening Microsoft's position and increasing costs for any exclusivity deals the company wants to offer. We've seen high-profile games like Final Fantasy 7 Remake and the more recent Final Fantasy 16 avoid Xbox entirely.

In the recent FTC v Microsoft evidentiary hearing, Xbox gaming CEO Phil Spencer gave rare insight into Microsoft's business structure and the rationale behind its recent acquisitions, including the $7.5 billion ZeniMax buyout, and the proposed $68.7 billion offer for Activision-Blizzard.

Xbox Cloud Gaming (Project xCloud) was originally created to deliver Xbox console games to mobile devices, but the service has not gone according to plan.

Microsoft's game streaming initiative was born out of necessity. The company--and the rest of the industry--has identified mobile gaming as the largest area of growth, with mobile expected to rise to $113 billion by 2027. While Microsoft has a presence on console and PC, it is significantly lacking in mobile. In an attempt to solve that, the Xbox games division decided to try to bring its existing content library to mobile using cloud gaming instead of creating a smattering of native mobile games.

During his testimony in the federal trial between the FTC and Microsoft/Activision, Xbox gaming CEO Phil Spencer delivered an insightful history lesson on Xbox Cloud Gaming and revealed why the service was made and why the xCloud platform hasn't gained traction.

Bethesda's Todd Howard reveals that most of Starfield's planets will be devoid of life, and that's as much as a design decision as it is a technical one.

Starfield promises a lot. The game is supposed to have 1,000 planets with exotic flora, fauna, resources, and possibly even strange ancient alien artifacts. We might find things like derelict ships in space, colonies of adventurers that died in mysterious ways, and other forms of unique environmental storytelling that Bethesda is known for.

One thing that Starfield will also have are those lonely, introspective moments of exploration in a vast world--or in this case, galaxy. This is something Bethesda RPGs have, and not all of your expeditions are going to be exciting encounters with life. Your explorations might end up with you being mostly solitary. In a recent interview with Kinda Funny Games, Bethesda's Todd Howard talked more about what gamers can expect when it comes to Starfield's planets and how the team is looking to a distinct Buzz Aldrin quote for inspiration.

Before Take-Two Interactive bought Zynga for $12.7 billion, Microsoft had its eye on the mobile-maker.

Xbox gaming CEO Phil Spencer made one thing clear in today's court testimony: Console gaming is not growing. In the hearing, Phil Spencer laid out the rationale behind Microsoft's $68.7 billion merger proposal with Activision, saying that despite his best efforts, the Xbox console business has remained stagnant.

Despite beating Nintendo in games revenues in 2022, things apparently aren't going well for Xbox. In the hearing, Spencer admitted to FTC laywer James Weingarten that Xbox has missed its internal targets. Microsoft's board of directors and senior leadership, including CFO Amy Hood and CEO Satya Nadella, pressure the Xbox unit to continue growing. That's just not happening on console.

The Elder Scrolls VI's release is so far away that Microsoft is not ready to fully commit on Xbox exclusivity.

Bethesda's next Elder Scrolls RPG could also release on PlayStation. Even Xbox gaming CEO Phil Spencer has no idea when Elder Scrolls 6 will release--it's pretty far out there, and right now Bethesda is full steam ahead on Starfield. TES6 may not launch on Gen9 consoles, and could move to Gen 10, which is expected to begin in 2028.

As part of his recent testimony at the FTC v Microsoft court evidentiary hearing, Phil Spencer cautioned that a decision hasn't been made on The Elder Scrolls 6 skipping PlayStation.

Xbox Gaming CEO Phil Spencer says that PlayStation is a hostile competitor.

Note: The quotes taken here were transcribed via live audio call and are not wholly representative of what was said, and there are paraphrases.

Microsoft believes that Sony is a hostile competitor due to its myriad of exclusivity deals, which sees Sony buying up platform and timed-exclusivity for big-name games like Final Fantasy and Call of Duty. Spencer says that Sony outright pays developers to skip Xbox, a controversial business practice also referred to as "blocking rights."

If you were hoping to buy one of AMD's higher-end Navi 21 GPUs, like the RX 6800, one of the graphics cards that stands out due to seeing some considerable price-cutting action of late, the sands of time could already be running against you.

At least if Moore's Law is Dead (MLID) is correct, having spoken to graphics card manufacturers recently and drawn a very interesting conclusion regarding the aforementioned RDNA 2 GPUs.

In a new video - where MLID discusses the confusion over what the next RDNA 3 GPU might be, and how AMD seems indecisive on that - the leaker touches on the subject of Navi 21 stock.

Xbox gaming boss Phil Spencer gives a quick explanation on how developers make money from Xbox Game Pass deals.

Xbox Game Pass can be risky or rewarding depending on many factors. The service can bring negative effects like "cannibalization," which reduces overall premium full game sales as a result of the business model--gamers are less likely to buy a game for full price if they can access it on Game Pass. To help make up for this effect, Microsoft offers specific deals to developers as incentives to bring new content to the value-driven service.

In the recent FTC v Microsoft evidentiary hearing, Xbox CEO Phil Spencer outlines the kinds of revenue deals that developers can take advantage of on Game Pass. When asked specifically about a revenue share split by FTC legal counsel James Weingarden, Spencer replied that Game Pass actually doesn't adhere to the standard 70-30 storefront model because it's a subscription.

AMD's next outing for its RDNA 3 family, following the recently released RX 7600, will be a more powerful GPU, and it should debut in September, according to the latest leakage.

However, what the rumor mill can't decide - due to AMD's apparent hesitancy around positioning the GPU - is exactly what model this graphics card (or maybe even multiple SKUs) will be.

The expected release, as per previous speculation, is the RX 7800 XT, and that's probably the most likely candidate to turn up, and certainly one the rumor mill is still mentioning.

ZeniMax's Head of Publishing Pete Hines explains why some Bethesda games go exclusive, and highlights the general merits of platform exclusivity that apply to all independently-operated game developers.

Starfield is a full-on Xbox exclusive, but it wasn't always going to be. Microsoft's $7.5 billion buyout of ZeniMax, Bethesda's parent company, changed things. In yesterday's evidentiary hearing in the FTC v Microsoft trial, ZeniMax's Pete Hines revealed key information about exclusivity deals, how such deals benefit ZeniMax, and how the publisher fits into Microsoft's games division.

Hines' testimony first reveals that ZeniMax is a limited-integration company, meaning that ZeniMax's studios--Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, Tango Gameworks, ZeniMax Online, Arkane, etc--do not report or answer to Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty. Instead, ZeniMax reports directly to Phil Spencer.

Microsoft's Xbox Cloud Gaming (also known "as xCloud") may not ever become a standalone subscription service due to the constrained logistics of the business.

During yesterday's evidentiary hearing the FTC v Microsoft case, Xbox SVP Sarah Bond highlighted the practical realities of Microsoft's game streaming initiative. The Xbox executive highlights how xCloud operates, reiterating that Xbox's game streaming fork is powered by actual Xbox Series X consoles and not Azure servers. Microsoft has made it clear that it makes no money from Xbox hardware sales, and since these servers are powered by Xbox consoles, Microsoft themselves must acquire Xbox units for the service and potentially reduce consumer product availability in the process.

This could put constraints on the practicality of the business. It's unclear that xCloud is even profitable, which is likely why the delivery method is combined with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate--the premium value-oriented part of Game Pass could offset any losses from xCloud, the same way that software sales and services help Microsoft offset the losses from console hardware sales.

Samsung is expected to announce its next lineup of flagship phones in the first few weeks of 2024 if the previous years are any indication, and now those phones have started to leak.

We can of course expect Samsung to name the new phones under the Galaxy S24 nomenclature, with the Galaxy S24, Galaxy S24+, and Galaxy S24 Ultra likely to be announced. Those three phones will offer a version for most wallets and needs, and now a new report claims that Samsung is using the Muse codename internally while it's still developing things.

According to the Samsung watchers at SamMobile, Samsung is calling the Galaxy S24 Ultra Muse 3 internally which might suggest that the Galaxy S24 is Muse and the Galaxy S24+ is Muse 2, but that's yet to be confirmed.

Apple's iOS 17 update will roll out to the world this fall after being announced at WWDC 2023 on June 5, and it's already shaping up to be a big improvement for a number of reasons. One of those has to do with the way third-party apps can record video, giving them the same controls as the official Apple Camera app.

Those controls bring Cinematic mode to all third-party apps that want to access it, according to a new report. Developers are already able to download the beta and begin building their apps against the latest iOS 17 SDK, and it's likely that they're doing just that. As a result, we should expect to see new apps make use of Cinematic mode for the first time later this year.

Apple's Cinematic mode was announced as part of the iPhone 13 launch and only works on those phones and newer models. It's designed to mimic the rack focus technique used by videographers who manually switch focus from something in the foreground or background to create a depth-of-field effect.

Apple's iOS 17 is going to make a small change to the iPhone's Haptic Touch feature that will actually make a big difference for people who actually use it. But you're going to have to wait until this September to enjoy it.

Back in the day Apple's iPhones had something called 3D Touch, a feature that let you press firmly on the screen to interact with in-app elements. But that feature was replaced by Haptic Touch, a feature that simply has users tap and hold to interact in the same way. While there were two speed options for how long people had to hold to invoke Haptic Touch, some found them both to be too slow. Now, iOS 17 is getting ready to change that.

As noted by those who have installed the iOS 17 developer betas, there's a new 'Fast' option for those who don't want to wait around. Confusingly, the iOS 16 software has 'Fast' and 'Slow,' but iOS 17 renames the faster option to 'Default' and adds a new, even faster option. You can see the difference in the tweet above.

When Apple announced iOS 17 and the rest of its software updates during its WWDC 2023 opening keynote on June 5 it shared a number of new features that iPhone users can look forward to taking advantage of. One of those features was support for AirPlay on televisions that are used in hotel rooms, and now one company has already announced that it is ready to support exactly that.

In a press release published yesterday, LG announced that it would be the first to bring Apple AirPlay to hotel room TVs.

According to that press release LG and Apple have worked together to make it quick and easy for people to use AirPlay while in a hotel room. The press release says that people will be able to connect an iPhone or an iPad securely by simply scanning a QR code. There will be no logins or passwords required and users won't have to download any extra apps to get up and running. Once connected via AirPlay they'll be able to watch content and listen to music as usual, while screen mirroring is surely also supported although not specifically called out.

DuckDuckGo's browser, which is designed to offer tight levels of privacy when scooting about the web, is now out for Windows.

The browser has previously been on the Mac platform (and for some time - the best part of a year), so its arrival on Windows will see it reach a much larger audience.

This is the public beta release of the Windows flavor of DuckDuckGo's browser, and it's available to Windows 10 or Windows 11 users (the requirement is to be running at least Windows 10 May 2020 Update, although that version is now out of support, we should point out).

OceanGate sent its Titan submersible containing five passengers to the wreckage of the Titanic. One hour and 45 minutes into the submersible's descent communications were lost.

US Coast Guard confirmed today that debris was found of the Titan submersible and that on its way to the Titanic wreck, which is located 12,500 feet below the surface of the ocean, it imploded under pressure. At that extreme depth objects are subjected to extreme pressure. Comparatively, Earth's atmosphere exerts 14.7 pounds per square inch (Psi) of pressure, but 12,500 feet below the surface of the ocean the Titan was being pounded with 5,500 Psi, or 300 times what is normally felt by most people.

According to military insiders that spoke to the Journal, a top-secret US Navy system that's used for detecting enemy submarines detected an implosion shortly after the communications dropped out an hour and 45 minutes into the Titan's descent, which would have placed them close to the seafloor. Notably, the Titan was designed to withstand this amount of pressure and underwent safety tests. However, the submersible wasn't certified by regulators and all passengers signed a waiver that said they acknowledge the safety risks of the Titan.

Meta has taken to its website to announce Voicebox, a new generative AI model that Meta described as a "breakthrough in generative AI for speech".

According to the press release, Voicebox is aimed at creators that are looking to speed up the audio editing process, such as removing car horns or a dog barking from the background of pre-recorded audio clips.

Additionally, Voicebox will be used to assist visually impaired people in hearing written messages from friends and family. Meta states that Voicebox is multilingual, being fluent in six languages, users will be able to speak any foreign language in their own voice. Languages include English, French, German, Spanish, Polish or Portuguese.

Throwflame, a company that specializes in all things to do with throwing flame, has announced it will be selling a robot dog that can launch a stream of fire 30 feet.

Throwflame took to its official Twitter account to introduce the world to Thermonator, the world's first flame-thrower-wielding robot dog. Throwflame has built Thermonator on the Unitree Go1 quadruped robot, which is a smaller and lighter iteration of the Boston Dynamic's iconic robot dog Spot. Notably, Boston Dynamics requires buyers that their robot dogs can't be used to harm people.

Thermonator weighs 37 pounds, is 30 × 20 × 20 inches, and features an ARC Flamethrower with a built-in fuel tank that can be filled with gasoline or a gasoline/diesel mixture. The flaming robot dog will be able to launch fire up to 30 feet for approximately 45 minutes when using the largest possible battery pack. If you already think that you need a robot dog equipped with a flamethrower, you, unfortunately, can't buy one at the moment, but the company expects shipping will begin sometime in Q3.