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NVIDIA Broadcast has hit Version 1.4.0 and is the company's tool for live streams, voice chats, and video conference calls using RTX and AI technology. The latest addition is called Eye Contact (currently in beta). The official description says it "uses AI to make it appear as if you're looking directly at the camera, even when glancing to the side or taking notes" - and the results are impressive.

And if we're being honest, a little scary, too, as the effect looks real - with blinking taken into consideration and eye contact that isn't there suddenly being there. Above is a brief demonstration of Eye Contact as part of the 1.4 update video.

NVIDIA Broadcast uses AI hardware found in NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs, bringing a dose of RTX On to video conferencing. As it's in beta, the effect can look unnatural sometimes, but it's still impressive to see in action. The main benefit here for video production will be the ability to make a presenter reading from a script look like they're addressing the camera and audience directly.

When it comes to PC gaming, a display or monitor's resolution or refresh rate relates directly to performance. If a display can hit 144Hz, you'll be getting the most out of it if you have a GPU that can push 144 frames per second in games. The immediate benefit you get from a higher frame rate and refresh rate is smoother gameplay and more detail in fast-paced moment-to-moment action.

This makes displays that push super-high refresh rates ideal for esports and competitive gaming. And with ASUS making headlines in 2021 with an impressive 360Hz display, it's set to go even further in 2023 thanks to the new ASUS ROG Swift Pro PG248QP.

A 24.1-inch Full HD (1080p) display built with an Esports TN (E-TN) panel that features an incredible 540Hz refresh rate. As a competitive display, it features a dedicated G-SYNC processor for a smooth VRR experience and a built-in NVIDIA Reflex Analyzer to capture and optimize system latency for mouse input. Plus, an insane 540Hz refresh rate.

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Sony's PlayStation Store marketplace may get a much-needed overhaul for a more consumer-friendly experience.

Sony has just recruited Ben King as senior vice president of its direct-to-consumer business, and he could help streamline the PlayStation store across PC, consoles, and mobiles. King previously led Apple Services and was the chief subscription officer for DAZN, a sports streaming giant.

This is good news considering the PlayStation Store definitely needs some work, especially on PS5. The store is still sort of barebones and it's often hard to find specific things with direct search queries. There's also other issues with information presentation--some games don't have install size requirements, for example--and other missing info that should be available on $69.99 game's buy page. The PS Store needs some work, and so do other consumer-facing web portals such as the PlayStation Blog.

Ubisoft has lowered its earnings forecast for the most important quarter of the year by over €100 million as it faces tough competition.

Ubisoft is not in a great place right now. While earnings are stable overall, the company made some announcements that have shocked investors and dropped share value. Three games have been cancelled and Ubisoft now expects to take a significant €500 million loss for the fiscal year. The situation is so serious that Ubisoft may actually sell some of its studios and/or games to reduce risks and costs.

Ubisoft also announced that new games like Mario+Rabbids Sparks of Hope and Just Dance 2023 did not sell very well. As a result of the disappointing game sales, Ubisoft now expects to make €100 million less from net bookings in the critical Q3 holiday period. This is significant because net bookings includes game sales and monetization. It's the major metric that helps define Ubisoft's performance.

Wizards of the Coast has remedied its massively controversial Dungeons & Dragons Open Game License and will no longer charge royalty fees.

Hasbro is not doing well right now. Consumers aren't buying action figures and the company's subsidiary Wizards of the Coast has had blunders with its Magic: The Gathering brand, both of which caused Q3 net revenues to drop by 15%. The latest Dungeons & Dragons controversy didn't help.

A bit ago, Wizards of the Coast announced they'd be making changes to DnD's Open Game License, or OGL. This public copyright license gives players the right to modify, copy, redistribute and sell their own versions of the current active edition of the game. For 23 years now Wizards has not charged its fans any kinds of fees involved with the OGL.

Ubisoft is making drastic business decisions to reduce spending and overall risks. Now is a great time to eliminate one of the riskiest moves in gaming right now: NFTs and blockchain.

Ubisoft was the first mainstream publisher to embrace Quartz NFTs. The risk-to-reward ratio simply wasn't favorable. Quartz was a significant failure insofar as sales revenues and also damaged Ubisoft's reputation in the process. This is a mistake that probably should not be continued even in the best of times, but that goes double for the current inflation-laden games industry environment.

Publishers are currently being challenged by an uncertain global economy. Consumers are spending less on games; according to Newzoo, overall industry-wide spend was down over $8 billion in 2022. Ubisoft plans to battle these conditions by reducing risk and spending, and has laid out a business strategy to investors.

Ubisoft share value drops by over 12% as the company shocks investors with a new announcement.

Ubisoft isn't in a great place right now and is prepared to take a short-term loss to get itself back on track. Ubisoft executive management held a conference to outline a new business plan that will make the publisher more lean and better equipped to navigate the current inflation- and recession-driven market.

The plan includes a few things that investors won't like. Ubisoft expects to record a 500 million Euro loss in non-IFRS operating income for Fiscal Year 2023. The loss is driven by the cancellation of three in-development projects, which has led to the depreciation of half a billion Euros of capitalized R&D. The company has previously expected non-IFRS operating income of about 400 million Euros, which would have represented the third straight year of declining profits.

Ubisoft management has announced a new business plan to offset "major challenges" that the company faces in the current economy.

Inflation and recession conditions are affecting the video games industry. Consumers are spending less on games hardware and content, and as a result we've seen 2022's total industry earnings drop by over $8 billion. Nintendo, Sony,, SEGA, Capcom, and other overseas publishers like Ubisoft are also facing unfavorable foreign exchange rates that reduce overall earnings.

Ubisoft is taking measures to adapt to the new market and safeguard itself against any future negative trends. The company has announced a new business plan focused on mega-brands and live services, while also promising to be more learn in the process. Ubisoft's plan is simple: Create more live services to boost recurring revenues, reduce risk by doubling-down on established and popular brands like Assassin's Creed, Rainbow Six, and The Division, and to restructure its workforce (layoffs), cancel games, and sell off assets.

The current inflation market is hitting the games industry pretty hard right now, and publishers like Ubisoft are adapting to the new economic challenges.

Ubisoft's pirate game Skull and Bones has been delayed again, continuing long-running meme surrounding the project. The game was originally set to release March 9, right before Ubisoft's fiscal year cutoff, but Skull and Bones will no release in "early 2023-24," which basically means the game could launch in the Q1 Fiscal Year 2023 period which is from April - June 2023.

Ubisoft says it will use the extra time to ensure the game is polished across the board, complete with optimizations and tweaks for all platforms. In its current state, Skull and Bones looks to be a strongly monetized live game with familiar mechanics and trappings including online multiplayer, long-term questing, crafting, and lots of ship customization. Ubisoft has also reportedly heavily invested in Skull and Bones over the game's chaotic 10-year development timeline, with Kotaku reporting the game had a budget of up to $120 million.

NASA has taken to its blog to announce that its James Webb Space Telescope has confirmed its first exoplanet, which was found to be very similar to Earth in terms of size.

The exoplanet was originally classified as LHS 475 b was identified by Webb, and according to NASA's blog post, the planet clocks in at 99% of Earth's diameter, making it almost the exact same size as our pale blue dot. Researchers from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory led the discovery and explained that Webb's Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) captured the planet easily and clearly. Webb's observations found that the planet is small, rocky, and doesn't feature an atmosphere that is methane heavy.

NASA writes that researchers are currently exploring the acquired data to determine what type of atmosphere the exoplanet has, or if any atmosphere at all. At the moment, the team can't conclude what is present in the atmosphere but can deduce what isn't present in the atmosphere, hence the aforementioned lack of methane.

The United States government is beginning to take UFO sightings by US military personnel much more seriously, per a newly released report from the Pentagon.

The report that has since been released was originally delayed by a month and has now been published by the Pentagon's Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). Multiple intelligence agencies, such as the Federal Aviation Administration, NASA, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Department of Energy, provided valuable information for the report.

In total, the Pentagon's report included 510 instances of catalog UFO reports from multiple sources within the US military, with the majority of the sightings being provided by the US Air Force and Navy. Of these 510 cataloged UFO reports, 26 were found to be uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS), or drones, 163 were likely balloons or "balloon-like entities", and six were determined to be airborne "clutter," which covers things such as birds, airborne plastic and more.

As we're all getting used to Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E popping up in motherboards and high-end routers, later this year, we can expect to start seeing the next generation of wireless - Wi-Fi 7.

So what exactly will this new standard bring to the table? Well, it will build off Wi-Fi 6E, supporting the usual 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz bands but focusing on increasing transfer speeds. By an impressive amount, too, with the technology able to handle 8K video streaming.

This comes from a max data rate of 46 Gbps versus Wi-Fi 6E's 9.6 Gbps. As with all new Wi-Fi standards, backward compatibility will ensure a smooth transition and some future proofing for those that choose to be early adopters. On that note, to benefit from the best that Wi-Fi 7 has to offer, you'll need to connect with a Wi-Fi 7-based client. That means a network card or motherboard with Wi-Fi 7 capabilities in the PC space.

Sometimes a new product looks a little silly; that's just a fact. And there's nothing wrong with functionality and form over stylish and fashion-conscious. This makes the reveal of the new Mutalk device an interesting case because it does look silly (and sure, that's a subjective take), but it's presented to look like this cool thing you can wear and cover your mouth with.

What is it? The Mutalk is a wireless Bluetooth microphone you wear as a mask to dampen the sound and cover your lips so no one can hear or tell what you're saying. You can see it in action in the video above.

The privacy side of the Mutalk makes it a device for smartphones and PCs, where sensitive conversations can happen anywhere. Plus, VR headsets, and if the picture below the headline is to be believed when gaming online too. There's also the benefit of not disturbing those near you or your neighbors. Regarding high-frequency noise reduction, the Mutalk can muffle the sound by around -30 decibels.

As the fabrication of smaller nodes becomes more costly, we might see a slower adoption of high-end tech from companies. TSMC's N3 or 3nm class is the next node that will power chips. However, a new report indicates that due to the cost of manufacturing the technology, TSMC is considering lowering prices to entice adoption by companies like AMD, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm.

N3 uses EUV (extreme ultraviolet) lithography for production, and the EUV scanners, according to China Renaissance, can cost anywhere between USD 150 to USD 200 million. This puts the foundry price of 3nm wafers at over USD 20,000 each.

In the graphics and CPU space, it's expected that NVIDIA's Ada Lovelace successor, Blackwell, will utilize the 3nm process. Alongside AMD for Zen 5 architecture - which the company has hinted at in the past. We probably won't see these products until the second half of 2024. As it stands, the high-cost brand-new N3 looks like it will be limited to Apple, with the optimized version being the one that will appeal to a broader range of companies.

We're one step closer to a Futurama-style world where courtrooms will be populated by humanoid defendants with robot lawyers pleading their case to either a robot or alien judge. Welcome to the age of AI legal assistance.

Legal advice startup DoNotPay is reporting that AI will be helping two defendants dispute speeding tickets. The AI legal assistants will communicate to the defendants via an earpiece to let them know what to say and when. One case will be litigated over zoom with the other in an actual courtroom.

DoNotPay describes its app as "the world's first robot lawyer" with lofty claims that it can help you fight corporations, beat bureaucracy, and sue anyone. Because, sure, why not. It's worth noting that there's a disclaimer stating, "DoNotPay is not a law firm and is not licensed to practice law." Which sounds like a smart legal move for the firm and app.

Although worldwide PC shipments of 65.3 million units in Q4 2022 sound like a lot, it's a 28.5% decrease compared to Q4 2021. The data comes courtesy of Gartner, Inc, with economic uncertainty as one of the underlying factors.

Undoubtedly, the last couple of years have been strange for PC hardware, from hardware shortages to a pandemic to a substantial increase in people working from home. Gartner notes that the high demand and low supply issues of 2021 did a complete 180 to turn into an excess of supply once the demand slowed down.

"The anticipation of a global recession, increased inflation, and higher interest rates have had a major impact on PC demand," said Mikako Kitagawa at Gartner. "Since many consumers already have relatively new PCs that were purchased during the pandemic, a lack of affordability is superseding any motivation to buy, causing consumer PC demand to drop to its lowest level in years."

After showcasing a new CPU that could hit 6 GHz clock speeds out-of-the-box, albeit briefly, Intel has not only confirmed that it was the new flagship Intel Core i9-13900KS - but it's out now for USD 699.

The USD 699 price point puts it at $110 more than the Intel Core i9-13900K, a monster of a CPU sporting a 5.8 GHz top speed. Naturally, this is the sort of CPU targeting the enthusiast market, where performance is king.

The cool thing is that the 6 GHz speed is out-of-the-box and achievable with standard AIO cooling and no overclocking - via what Intel calls Thermal Velocity Boost.You can see it action here.

The tumultuous takeover of Twitter by SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk will continue as the new Twitter owner continues his strategy of moving fast with development and breaking some stuff along the way.

A new report from The Information has revealed that top advertisers have been warned that Musk's unpredictability at the company will continue and that they need to get used to it. The report also stated that Twitter executives are becoming more and more desperate for fresh revenue from advertisers, as GroupM, the world's largest ad-buying company, has reduced spending on Twitter by anywhere between 40% to 50%.

Notably, Twitter is experiencing an overall downturn in advertising spending as Elon Musk moves to open up the platform towards more free speech, broadening the variety of content on the platform. Unfortunately, some leading advertisers don't want their brands associated with the content that is now allowed on the platform, resulting in them pulling advertising spending, the aforementioned hemorrhaging of Twitter's advertising revenue.

Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft and one of the world's richest individuals, has responded to the skepticism around his motivation to buy up large portions of farmland across the United States.

Gates, being very well known for his creation of Microsoft, is now earning himself new titles, such as the biggest private landowner in the US, according to the 2022 edition of the Land Report 100. Notably, the report found that Gates owns about 275,000 acres of farmland across the US. Additionally, the US Department of Agriculture found in a 2022 report there were about 895.3 million acres of farmland throughout the US in 2021.

The Microsoft founder was asked in his annual Reddit AMA why he is purchasing so much farmland and if he thinks it's a problem that billionaire wealth enables them to acquire disproportionally. Gates responded to the question and said he owns less than 1/4000 of the total farmland in the US and that his investment in them is founded on the motivation to make them more productive. Gates added that there "isn't a grand scheme involved" and that all of the investments are being handled by a professional investment team.