Latest News - Page 912

Windows 11 could get an extensive update to File Explorer later this year, as rumors continue to fly about what changes might be inbound for this central aspect of the desktop operating system.

Windows Latest reports that its sources say that File Explorer could witness a 'significant' update this fall, and indeed, it could be the biggest update applied in a decade.

Take that with a pinch of seasoning, naturally, but Windows Latest details the exact changes which are seemingly incoming, a good few of which are elements that we've already heard about (including ones that have been discovered hidden away in preview builds of Windows 11).

NASA has revealed the next director for its Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, and at the swearing-in ceremony, fans noticed something peculiar about the book being used to take the oath.

NASA has taken to its blog to name Dr. Makenzie Lystrup as director of Goddard Space Flight Center. Lystrup will take over from Dave Mitchell effective immediately and will make history by becoming the very first female center director at Goddard. Before joining NASA, Lystrup was vice president and general manager of civil space at Ball Aerospace, where she was responsible for maintaining the company's portfolio of space systems across various scientific fields.

Within this position, Lystrup has made contributions to NASA endeavors such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), Landsat 9, the Roman Space Telescope, and the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). Looking at the above image, which was posted on NASA's website, NASA Watch's Keith Cowing spotted an interesting factoid. Lystrup was sworn in by NASA administrator Bill Nelson with her hand on a copy of Carl Sagan's 1994 "Pale Blue Dot" instead of a bible.

NVIDIA's RTX 4070 is rumored to launch later this week, and we've caught a glimpse of some pre-release pricing - and it doesn't make for pleasant reading.

We should make it clear upfront that prices from retailers that appear before a product is launched can often be wrong, and maybe just placeholders (educated guesses), but equally, they can sometimes serve as a fair indication of ballpark price tags.

Sadly, what we've witnessed from a Vietnamese retailer (Bpstore.vn) - as highlighted by I_Leak_VN on Twitter - is on the high side compared to previous leaks.

After being announced alongside the GeForce RTX 4090, the fully path-traced Ray Tracing: Overdrive Mode has arrived in Patch 1.62 for Cyberpunk 2077.

Patch 1.62 for Cyberpunk 2077 has just dropped, bringing the highly anticipated Ray Tracing: Overdrive Mode to the game, which presents a full ray-traced experience via path tracing for all lighting effects and things like shadows and reflections.

"We're proud of it," writes CD Projekt Red in the update. "It pushes the boundaries of what's possible in technology. However, because it is so new and fundamentally different from what we've been using so far, we know it's not going to be perfect from the start, and players might experience some issues - that's why we've decided to call it a Technology Preview."

The milestone launch date is near for SpaceX's Starship, and if no new large problem presents itself between now and next week, we will see Starship attempt its very first orbital launch.

SpaceX has been preparing for this moment for quite some time, as development for Starship's first orbital flight test has been a strenuous road paved with many hindering issues. However, that road appears to be coming to an end as the company's CEO Elon Musk announced via his personal Twitter account that, based on development trends, Starship is eyeing its first orbital test for the third week of April - next week.

Musk has been talking about Starship's first orbital launch for months now, and in August 2022, the SpaceX CEO sat down for an interview on the Nelk Podcast, where he explained that Starship is the largest flying object ever made and that there is a real risk of the launch failing in a disappointing, but epic, explosion. Regardless of the possibilities of failure, movements at SpaceX's Starbase facility located in South Texas indicate the company is just about ready to give it their first crack as technicians last week stacked the Ship 24 upper-stage prototype on top of its Booster 7 first stage.

NASA's Webb space telescope has honed its extremely sensitive instruments on the seventh planet from the Sun, Uranus.

Uranus was deemed a top priority for investigation in the 2023-2033 Planetary Science and Astrobiology decadal survey, which aims at finding the most valuable holes in science and filling in those gaps with proposals for knowledge-gaining missions. NASA has now followed up on the requests of the survey by performing some quick observations on Uranus, revealing features of the planet that haven't been seen in a very long time. NASA has taken to its blog to explain the above image of Uranus that was captured with Webb's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) on February 6, 2023.

The image reveals a stunning view of Uranus' rings, with Webb's sensitive instruments managing to capture 11 out of the 13 known rings. Uranus is a unique planet in the solar system as it rotates on a roughly 90-degree angle, which causes the planet to experience extreme seasons as it goes through its long 84-year orbit around the Sun. NASA writes on its blog that because Uranus rotates on its side, one side of the planet's poles goes through years of sunlight while the other side remains in total darkness for an equal number of years.

Samsung has made itself an example of how you aren't supposed to use AI-powered chatbots such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, Microsoft's Bing Chat, or Google's Bard.

A new report from The Economist claims that at least three Samsung employees have accidentally leaked sensitive information with OpenAI's ChatGPT, with one instance involving a source code of a confidential database being entered into the chatbot to check for errors. Another instance includes a Samsung employee sharing code optimization, and the last was an employee requesting the chatbot convert an internal Samsung video of a meeting into minutes.

Problems such as what Samsung is facing right now are real examples of what some digital privacy experts have sounded alarms about since the emergence of AI chatbots. It was only yesterday that a law professor from George Washington University revealed that OpenAI's ChatGPT wrongfully accused him of sexual assault, which falls under defamation and disinformation. The law professor asked who is culpable for AI chatbots spewing misinformation about individuals that could have very real impacts on reputations and, by extension, careers, and lives.

The AMD Radeon Pro W7900 Graphics Card has been spotted in Puget Bench, a benchmark tool for showcasing accurate After Effects performance. It points to an imminent or "coming soon" release for the first RDNA 3-powered workstation GPU from AMD that will compete with something like the NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada graphics card from NVIDIA.

The graphics score of 135.3 for the AMD Radeon Pro W7900 puts it roughly 10% slower than the NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada workstation GPU, but like the launch of the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX (which it's safe to assume this new GPU is based on), the assumption is that it will launch with a lower price.

The AMD Radeon Pro W7900 will be the successor to the AMD Radeon Pro W6000, targeting high-end workstation rigs. Although the Puget Bench listing confirms the existence of a next-generation workstation GPU from AMD, specifications and other details remain unknown.

Over at Videocardz.com, leaked images and info outlining performance and benchmarks for the GeForce RTX 4070 (presumably the Founders Edition) have appeared, confirming that overall performance without DLSS 3 and Frame Generation is on par with the GeForce RTX 3080.

The same slide also confirms that "Without Frame Gen" performance is 1.2X faster than the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti and 1.3X faster than the GeForce RTX 3070. According to the source, these official numbers from NVIDIA include DLSS 2.

The overall byline from NVIDIA for the new GeForce RTX 4070 is that the card will deliver 100+ fps performance at 1440p with ray-tracing and DLSS 3 enabled. It makes sense that official benchmarks and info from NVIDIA would focus on the brand-new GeForce RTX 40 Series exclusive DLSS 3 technology - it did the same when it came to the RTX 4090, RTX 4080, and RTX 4070 Ti.

AMD's flagship RDNA 3 GPU, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, launched in December last year with an MSRP of USD 999. This price was for the reference model using the cooling and specs laid out by AMD, with custom partner cards arriving later with more room for overclocking and a higher price tag.

One of these cards is the ASRock Phantom Gaming Radeon RX 7900 XTX with 24GB GDDR6 memory and a higher Boost Clock of 2615 MHz using triple 8-pin power connectors. A step up from the two 8-pin power connectors of the reference models. This custom Radeon RX 7900 XTX from ASRock initially launched with a price of USD 1,119.99; its current price on online retailer Newegg is USD 959.99.

The Radeon RX 7900 XTX is a capable 4K GPU, delivering exceptional performance. Our review of the custom ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7900 XTX OC Edition produced consistently better results than the reference Radeon RX 7900 XTX. So it's safe to assume the story will be the same for the ASRock Phantom Gaming Radeon RX 7900 XTX.

Cyberpunk 2077's Ray Tracing: Overdrive Mode is set to arrive this week in technical preview form, bringing full path-traced lighting to the game. Going hands-on with the build and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, tech channel Digital Foundry has released a new video showcasing the difference it brings.

The video features footage from the game without ray-tracing, with the game's current (technically demanding) RT Psycho Mode and the new Overdrive Mode.

The difference between the existing Cyberpunk 2077 ray-tracing and the new Overdrive mode proves to be the most interesting, as it provides a good look at what full path-traced lighting can bring to a game.

Sony's PlayStation VR2 headset has sold an estimated 300,000 units, which isn't terrible performance when compared to the original PSVR1 headset.

Reports indicate that Sony's PlayStation VR2 is failing to gain traction in the gaming market. According to IDC analyst figures reported by Bloomberg's Takashi Mochizuki, the PSVR2 has sold around 300,000 units in its first month on the market. Video game news outlets have responded to the news with reports that the PSVR2 is selling poorly, leading to doom and gloom coverage of the VR market.

IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo even went so far to say that Sony may need to cut prices to avoid total disaster: "I suspect a price cut on the PSVR2 will be needed to avoid a complete disaster of their new product."

Google is preparing to unleash its next major update to its Google Search engine, and according to the company's CEO, the 'search' space will be bigger than before.

Google is in a tough spot that it doesn't often find itself in, playing catch up to competitors in an emerging space - artificial intelligence chatbots. Large language models, or LLMs, powering chatbots such as OpenAI's ChatGPT or Microsoft's Bing Chat, currently threaten Google's long-standing dominance of Search being the primary location for looking for information on the internet (90% of all searches worldwide), and by extension, the company as a whole.

The release of OpenAI's ChatGPT and the adoption of more than 100 million users in a record-breaking time proved there is demand for AI-powered chatbots. Microsoft quickly followed along with the debut of Bing Chat, which is powered by uses OpenAI's GPT-4 language model through the company's massive $10 billion investment into OpenAI. Google is next to make the leap into AI, and while it has already released a standalone version of Bard, the company's CEO explained in a recent Wall Street Journal report that it will soon be implementing Bard into Google Search.

It was only a few weeks ago that an Australian company cooked up a large meatball that was made using DNA from a wooly mammoth. Now, a competitor company in the cultured meat industry has revealed its upped the ante as its CEO has actually eaten a woolly mammoth burger.

Wooly mammoths were once one of the biggest animals to ever walk on the surface of Earth, and luckily for researchers, the remains of these giant creatures have been found encased in permafrost, resulting in many of their limbs, flesh, fur, and tissue being persevered. From these remains, researchers are able to extract the woolly mammoths' DNA sequence, which can then be combined with close relatives such as an elephant's DNA.

Australian lab-grown meat startup Vow combined the woolly mammoth myoglobin DNA sequence with elephant DNA and then inserted both into the cells of a sheep muscle. Researchers left the cells for several weeks, and they eventually grew into 400 grams of meat. It should be noted that myoglobins are the proteins of the meat, and in live animals, it stores oxygen, producing the red color that is seen in freshly cut meat. Interestingly, myoglobin proteins are responsible for the red color of the meat, not blood.

A fellow law professor informed George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley that OpenAI's ChatGPT was falsely accusing him of sexual assault.

UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh was conducting research on OpenAI's ChatGPT and discovered that when asked to describe scandals that involve fellow professors and to provide cited media sources on the information, the AI-powered chatbot would begin to fill in the blanks with made-up information. In the instance of Turley, ChatGPT's 3.5 model sourced a phony 2018 Washington Post article that falsely accused the law professor of sexual misconduct with students throughout an Alaska school trip.

According to Turley, who wrote in USA Today, he has never been to Alaska, the cited WAPO source didn't even exist, and he has never been accused of sexual misconduct, assault, or harassment. Throughout an interview with WAPO, the law professor said he found the accusations from the AI chatbot "quite chilling" and said that allegations of this caliber are "incredibly harmful", especially given the current climate of critics willing to take and run without second consideration or further analysis, any piece of information that appears to be credible.

In a herculean effort, Caltech's Bruce Murray Laboratory for Planetary Visualization has created what has now been deemed the most detailed 3D map of Mars ever made.

The Global CTX Mosaic of Mars map comprises more than 110,000 images snapped by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) black-and-white Context Camera (CTX). Each pixel represents a staggering 270 square feet or 25 square meters, and the entire mosaic image contains 5.7 trillion pixels. NASA writes on its website that if this mosaic image was printed out, it would cover the entire Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California.

The space agency explains that the new 3D map of the Red Planet took Caltech's Bruce Murray Laboratory for Planetary Visualization took six years to stitch together and tens of thousands of hours to develop. Not to mention the more than 120 peer-reviewed studies and scientific papers that were cited and implemented into its creation. The idea behind the map was to create an interactive experience that allowed anyone to explore the various different regions of Mars.

The strange phenomenon was captured on Monday, March 27, by photographer Valter Binotto, who managed to snap an incredible shot of the red ring that only appeared for a few milliseconds.

Binotto was stationed in the foothills of the Italian Alps when he snapped the above photograph of the phenomenon looming over what appears to be the small Italian town located in northern Italy called Possagno. However, the accurate location of the red ring wasn't above Possagno. Binotto's location when the photograph was taken has caused the image to create a forced perspective, a filming/photography technique that is used to create the visual illusion that objects appear larger, smaller, farther, or closer than they really are.

This technique was abundantly used through Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies to make characters such as Gimli the Dwarf and all the Hobbits appear smaller than they really are. As for the red ring, Spaceweather reports that it's called an ELVE, or an Emissions of Light and Very Low-Frequency Perturbations due to Electromagnetic Pulse Sources.

GEEKOM is back yet again with another sales event, this time for Easter, where they are offering up its small and capable Mini IT11 small form factor mini computer powered by an Intel Core i7-11390H CPU (eight threads with a boost up to 5GHz), 512GB SSD, and 16GB of RAM for just $549, with Microsoft Windows 11 Professional installed.

When not on sale, this system sells for $779, but right now you can save a huge $230 when buying it from GEEKOM. There's no need to enter any coupon code, as this is a direct price discount already applied at GEEKOM. That works out to be an impressive 30% discount off the usual price. Not only that, for this Easter sales event, if you spend more than $399, you will receive one of the free following gifts, worth $40.

GEEKOM's Mini IT11 is a tiny PC weighing just 565 grams and measuring 117 x 112 x 46mm. It is powered by Intel's 11th Gen Core i7-1195G7 processor (4 Cores, 8 Threads, 12M Cache, and up to 5GHz boost) and Intel Iris Xe graphics. It comes installed with 16GB DDR4 SO-DIMM memory modules in dual-channel mode, with upgradability up to 64GB if required. Also included is a 512GB 2280 M.2 PCIe/SATA SSD, which is upgradable to a 2TB drive.

Candy Crush has been downloaded over 3 billion times, King has confirmed--a figure that underlines one of Microsoft's true motivations in buying Activision.

In a recent interview with Mobile Games.biz, Candy Crush general manager Todd Green revealed a very interesting piece of information: the mega-hit free-to-play mobile game has been downloaded over 3 billion times. The stat really underlines the power of the free-to-play mobile sensation, punctuating other incredible figures like the 233 million monthly active users (MAUs) that King enjoyed throughout Q4 2022, and the $5.5 billion of revenue that King has generated in the past 7 years (from 2016 - 2022).

It's important to keep these kinds of metrics in mind when considering Microsoft's proposed $68.7 billion buyout of Activision Blizzard King. We've talked about the sheer amount of active players that Microsoft would fold into the Xbox brand simply with the inclusion of King. MAUs remain one of the most important KPIs, or key performance indicators, that are used in the games industry.

A lower-quality Call of Duty game could ruin the PlayStation business, Sony's Jim Ryan told UK regulators at the Competition and Markets Authority.

The CMA recently filed an amended version of its provisionary findings report, and the new revision made some waves. The new report states that the UK regulator no longer believes Microsoft has the incentive or ability to withhold mega-hits like Call of Duty from PlayStation. The CMA has determined the downside of losing out on PlayStation revenues is just too high.

Sony's legal counsel opposes the CMA's new provisionary findings and has identified and explained four key errors with the CMA's data model that was used to make the agency's determination.