Latest News - Page 873

More than two dozen subreddits that contain more than 10 million members have started striking after Reddit's announcement that it will begin charging hefty fees to third-party apps that want to access the platform's data.

Reddit announced that as early as next month, the platform will begin charging third-party applications and their developers a hefty fee to access the platform's data. These changes came after Reddit learned that much of the platform's data was being used to train potentially lucrative AI-powered tools such as chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT.

Once Reddit learned this, it decided it would charge developers a fee to access its data, which resulted in Redditors joining a digital picket line as the changes to Reddit's API doesn't just influence developers looking to train AI models, but moderators and developers of third-party apps that have been using Reddit's API freely for years. Reddit moderators commonly use third-party applications to make their volunteer work much easier and less time-consuming.

Bright and colorful PC components aren't exactly new, and we've seen some impressive designs over the years - including licensed stuff that adds a bit more flair to the usual black or monotone look we see for the most part. And there's the rise in popularity and presence of white hardware, from GPUs to motherboards, cases, and everything else.

This new GPU from Chinese company Zephyr, the Zephyr GeForce RTX 3060 Ti ITX, looks like a small form-factor GeForce RTX 3060 Ti in white. Taking a closer look at the pink fan, you might notice that the PCB is also pink - which is a first.

The "Sakura and Snow" color scheme of white and pink is the main drawcard alongside the mini-ITX form factor, which means this GPU could be slotted into pretty much any build. Unfortunately, Zephyr is an unknown quantity outside of China, so we don't think this one will get a wide release.

US Air Force veteran and now whistleblower, David Grusch has sounded the alarm on secret US government programs that have encountered non-human intelligence and exotic alien spacecrafts.

David Grusch made these startling claims during an explosive one-hour interview with News Max, where he said that he's been briefed by people that are currently and were formerly working in these secret programs. These programs have specifically been hidden from Congress and the public, as they contain information that confirms the existence of extraterrestrial lifeforms that in some cases have harmed, or murdered human life, according to Grusch.

More specifically, Grusch said that videos that were leaked in 2017 showcased evidence of spacecrafts that were not of this world. In 2020 when the videos were officially released by the Pentagon, officials decided to form the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs), which was designed to focus on reports of UFOs. Grusch was part of of this team and said during the interview that the 2017 and 2020 videos are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what the else the US government has in storage.

Yep, that's not a typo. AMD is prepping to launch a new AM4 CPU, with new leaks (via chi11eddog) suggesting that a Ryzen 5 5600X3D is on the way. With the new AMD Ryzen 7000 series well and truly here, this would be a new and affordable upgrade for existing AM4 owners that should be able to deliver impressive gaming performance.

According to the leaked specs, the new AMD Ryzen 5 5600X3D features 6 Cores, 12 Threads, and a Base and Boost Clock speed combo of 3.3 and 4.4 GHz. Of course, the magic comes from AMD's 3D V-Cache stacking, which has proved excellent for boosting CPU-heavy gaming performance.

So even though the baseline specs are fairly modest, the 96MB of L3 cache memory should be able to provide a notable performance bump over the baseline AMD Ryzen 5 5600X. This would also make it a companion CPU to the still popular AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D, which has recently seen its pricing drop to around USD 300.

Xbox Game Pass across console and PC represents one of the best deals in gaming, with access to over 100 titles to download and install, including the full library of first-party titles from Xbox Game Studios and Bethesda. It also features a cloud gaming component for a number of its game, opening the door to countless devices, from phones to tablets to smart TVs, that can stream Xbox games.

As part of a new report on the future of Xbox, Microsoft's vision for the future, and opening the platform up to more gamers, we've got word that PC Game Pass is coming to NVIDIA GeForce NOW later this year.

Now, you might think that doubling up on cloud gaming is a little redundant. It's worth stating that GeForce NOW is on the cutting edge in terms of visual fidelity while receiving critical acclaim for delivering low-latency performance with its streaming tech. Compared to playing games on an Xbox console blade, you can access up-to GeForce RTX 4080 performance with real-time ray-tracing and other visually intensive settings.

UPDATE: NVIDIA has confirmed the June 29 launch date for the GeForce RTX 4060 and is now listing the date on the GPU's product page.

With rumors pointing to a potential early release for the new GeForce RTX 4080 8GB from July to late June, today comes confirmation from Videocardz.com, citing release plans and embargo information from NVIDIA's partners, that this is indeed the case.

According to the leaked info, reviewers will get their hands-on the new mainstream GeForce RTX 40 Series GPU around June 21, with MSRP model reviews set to drop on June 28, with non-MSRP model reviews coming on June 29. And with that, the global launch for the GeForce RTX 4060 is happening on June 29, before July though pretty much on the cusp.

Samsung has launched a brand new juicy ultrawide monitor that is going to require a beefy PC to fully utilize its specifications.

Samsung has taken to its website to open up pre-orders for the world's first 49-inch OLED gaming monitor, officially called the Odyssey OLED G9, or G95SC. What's so special about this monitor? Samsung has jam-packed this super-ultrawide with a plethora of specs. The OLED G9 comes with a Dual Quad High Definition resolution of 5,120 x 1,440 at a 32:9 aspect ratio. Samsung states on its website that the OLED G9 is the "first OLED monitor to offer Dual Quad High Definition (5,120 x 1,440) resolution at a 32:9 aspect ratio".

Samsung has upgraded the OLED G9's panel with the company's Neo Quantum Processor Pro, which uses a deep learning algorithm to automatically adjust the brightness and contrast levels of images, according to Samsung's press release. The company states that this deep learning algorithm operates "pixel by pixel", and is what "sets the Odyssey OLED G9 apart from other OLED gaming monitors". Additionally, the OLED G9 has a 0.03ms GTG response time at a stunning refresh rate of 240Hz.

GIGABYTE is refreshing its GeForce RTX 4090 WINDFORCE graphics card with the new GeForce RTX 4090 WINDFORCE V2 24G, and the most interesting change looks to come from moving the 12VHPWR power connector to the backside of the GPU. It's still a part of the board but is now positioned facing outward with ample space for cabling via a single cable or a 12VHPWR to 8-pin adaptor.

For those looking at the GeForce RTX 4090 and rightfully concerned about having to bend cables, this design should alleviate those fears, and we wouldn't be surprised if it becomes GIGABYTE's standard design for massive GPUs going forward. And as an added bonus, the new V2 WINDFORCE RTX 4090 is smaller than the original - coming in at under 3 slots!

No matter the model, the GeForce RTX 4090 is a monster in terms of the 4K performance it delivers and the physical size of the cooling it requires - so it's great to see this revision shrinking the overall size of the GPU. Dimension-wise, the new V2 is 331 x 136 x 55.5mm compared to the original's 331 x 150 x 70mm.

New listings from Display Specifications detail two new displays from ASUS under the company's TUF Gaming brand.

Display Specifications writes that ASUS has launched launched the TUF Gaming VG279Q3A and the TUF Gaming VG249Q3A, which feature identical specifications besides the difference in size. The VG279Q3A is a 27-inch model, as referenced in the model name by the number 27, and as its smaller counterpart, both displays feature Fast IPS at a resolution of 1920 x 1080, or Full HD. Both panels feature 99% sRGB coverage, 250 nits of typical brightness, 1 ms GTG response time and a 180 Hz refresh rate.

Additionally, both displays have support for ASUS Extreme Low Motion Blue technology, GamePlus, GameFast Input, Shadow Boost, GameVisual, DisplayWidget Center, and Trace Free technology. Furthermore, both panels come with AMD FreeSync Premium, along with NVIDIA G-Sync compatibility, as both panels have VESA AdaptiveSync Display 180Hz certification. As for connectivity, both monitors feature HDMI 2.0 inputs, one DisplayPort 1.2 input, a headphone jack, a tilt-only stand and 2W speakers.

Diablo IV will define Blizzard's 2023 yearly revenues with explosive game sales.

Blizzard has announced that Diablo IV is not only its fastest-selling video game of all time, but that the game managed to break a devilish $666 million in earnings in just 5 days time. This figure refers to game sell-through, so that's $666 million made from full game sales and does not include microtransactions sold through Diablo IV's cosmetic shop.

A quick comparison shows that Diablo IV has made 40% of Blizzard's 2022 full-year segment revenues in just five days. Game launches will often define a publisher's annual revenues for good and bad, and this year Blizzard will enjoy record results. Even if we excluded revenues from all other franchises, Blizzard's Q2 2023 quarterly revenues as a result of Diablo IV alone are so high that they have exceeded every quarter for the past 5 years.

Avatar Frontiers of Pandora channels big Far Cry vibes with chaotic first-person combat, slick traversal, and impressive open-world exploration.

Ubisoft's new Avatar game looks like Far Cry if the franchise were unleashed upon a magical alien world. That's basically what's happening, and Ubisoft Massive is taking full advantage James Cameron's colorful exotic world of Pandora to deliver some incredible-looking environments.

On a more interactive level, combat looks to be the real draw of Avatar Frontiers of Pandora. As a Na'vi, players are basically incredible lithe and agile aliens who can unleash devastating attacks, power-slide under obstacles, run fast as lightning, make huge leaps, and climb roots and cliff faces. It's a lot like the slick parkour and traversal you'd find in something like Assassin's Creed and Far Cry 6, complete with the first-person combat you'd expect from the latter.

If you're someone who receives a lot of Twitter direct message spam you're going to like a change that's coming, but it could break the way some people sue the service.

In a change that owner Elon Musk says will happen this week, Twitter will only allow people to send a direct message to someone that doesn't follow them back if they also happen to pay for Twitter Blue. That means that the only way for people to send a direct message to people they don't know will be to pay to be verified on the platform.

Musk says that this change is to make it more difficult for bots to fill people's inboxes with spam. Currently, allowing people to send direct messages with no controls can mean that people receive a lot of spam messages. However, Musk believes that by making it so those spam bots would also need to pay for Twiter Blue, he'll effectively be cutting them off at the knees.

Xbox Game Pass and the Xbox business as a whole are both profitable for Microsoft.

We've known for a while that Xbox Game Pass is profitable. Phil Spencer said as much during a Wall Street Journal Live interview from 2022. While we don't know exact figures or the accounting methods used for Game Pass, Spencer has now mentioned Xbox Game Pass profitability twice in recent memory. This comes as a surprise to some considering the immense value that Game Pass offers with its 400+ games available on PC and console.

The Xbox games business is also profitable and is not operating at a loss. Records indicate that Microsoft's games division made $15.56 billion revenues in 2022, driven primarily by content and services, which includes full game sales, monetization, and subscriptions like Xbox Game Pass. Based on percentages provided by Spencer in 2022, further investigation reveals that Game Pass could have made as much as 10-15% of Xbox's digital revenues representing a range of $1.197 billion to $1.796 billion for calendar 2022.

Ross Coulthart, the journalist that conducted the interview with Pentagon UFO whistleblower David Grusch, has said the former intelligence official is currently suffering from harassment.

Coulthart interviewed Grusch as part of News Nation's exclusive one-hour special into all of the claims Grusch has come forward with. For those who aren't familiar with Grusch's story, he's a decorated former combat officer in Afghanistan, a veteran of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), and has many current and retired intelligence officials vouch for his credentials, such as the Christopher Mellon, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, who also worked with Congress on UAP reports,.

Grusch has claimed the US military has covered up secret programs that involve the capture of alien spacecrafts that contained non-human intelligence. Grusch also claims he was briefed on events where non-human intelligence harmed and even murdered humans. The former intelligence official revealed a lot during the one-hour interview, and now according to Coulthart, who appeared on the podcast Need To Know, Grusch is in a much safer position now that his story is public.

Chinese astronauts have announced they've successfully grown stem cells in space, according to a report from the South China Morning Post.

The publication has reported that Chinese astronauts took pluripotent stem cells, which are cells that can become any human cell, aboard the Tiangong space station, and for many months, researchers aboard the station cultured them inside the Wentian laboratory. According to lead scientists Lei Xiaohua of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the team has achieved "the first goal of our experiment, which is to produce human blood stem cells in space".

The lead scientist told the Hong Kong-based newspaper that while the stem cells were in orbit, they were in "good condition," and the team managed to collect many pictures and data that were "in line with our expectations". These experiments of sending stem cells to space aren't unusual, as the University of San Diego Sanford Stem Cell Institute sent stem cells in November to the International Space Station (ISS) in an effort to learn more about how human cells can grow in microgravity.

Phil Spencer weighs in on some of the reasons why Japanese game developers and publishers don't release their games on Xbox.

Microsoft has made progress winning over Japanese game developers over the last few years, and the recent Xbox Games Showcase was a big example. Japanese games actually had a sizable presence at the show: Capcom announced a new IP with Path of the Goddess, and Atlus revealed three separate games with Persona 5 Tactica, Persona 3 Reload, and a brand new game called Metaphor: ReFantazio.

Xbox still has a long way to go in order to win over overseas game devs, including Square Enix, who has signed priority timed-exclusivity deals with PlayStation. These decisions are often made for good reason: PlayStation and Nintendo dominate their domestic markets. But what does that look like from the perspective of Xbox CEO Phil Spencer, who is leading the teams that broker these worldwide deals?

The Google Pixel line of phones has always been one that has been the go-to for people who want some of the best cameras around. That definitely didn't change with the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro, and even the Pixel 7a got some camera upgrades earlier this year as well. Now, all of the attention is beginning to turn to what comes next.

What comes next is of course the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, and a new leak claims to have details about what the cameras of those phones will have to offer. That leak comes via Android Authority which cites an unnamed source from inside Google, so make of that what you will.

The most interesting bits of information found in the leak begins with the fact that the Samsung ISOCELL GN1 found in the Pixel 7 lineup is being removed and then replaced by the upgraded GN2 model from the same company. That'll be used in the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, with a larger sensor likely improving photographs taken in low-light conditions in particular. Less motion blur should also be noticed, too.

The Elder Scrolls VI could be the last game that Todd Howard directs, and the RPG could be a pivotal changing of the guard moment for the studio.

In a recent interview, IGN's Ryan MacCaffrey brought up Starfield's 8-year development timeline and touched upon a kind of grim but apt question--how much time does Howard have left to make games? The truth is that Starfield took much longer than Bethesda hoped it would, and IGN was curious how many more games Howard has left in him. According to the project lead of Morrowind, the next major Elder Scrolls could be his last game.

"I do the math...I'm not getting any younger. How long do people play Elder Scrolls for? [The Elder Scrolls 6] may be the last one I do. I don't know," Howard said.

Microsoft has no plans to release a new Xbox console upgrade any time soon.

The current ninth console generation is entering its 3rd year, which is typically when we see mid-cycle console upgrades like the PlayStation 4 Pro (released in 2016, 3 years after PS4) and the Xbox One X (released in 2017, 4 years after Xbox One). COVID-19 has significantly disrupted and potentially elongated this generation, and Microsoft in particular feels no need to rush to the market with a new Xbox Series X/S mid-gen upgrade.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Xbox gaming CEO Phil Spencer assures fans that Microsoft plans to keep focusing on its current hardware. "Right now, we're pretty set on the hardware we have," Spencer said. "[I don't] feel an imperative [to make a new console]. That's not the feedback we're getting right now."

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is officially one of the best-selling individual video games of all time.

In a recent interview with IGN, Bethesda Game Studios exec Todd Howard confirms that Skyrim has now sold 60 million copies, which is double the previous figure from years ago. Back in 2016, Howard had said that Skyrim was at 30 million sales.

"We're sitting at 12 years now for Skyrim, we're looking at a game that's over 60 million copies and all of these people are still playing it. So we have to learn...we need to build in from the beginning games that have this long-term play. Hopefully people are playing Starfield for a long time."