Latest News - Page 980

German automaker Volkswagen has successfully delivered more than 500,000 models from its ID. Vehicle series, reaching the number one year earlier than expected. Volkswagen is developing a long-term strategy to help usher in the era of electric vehicles and didn't want to wait to begin research. The series is currently made up of the ID.3, ID4. ID.5, and ID.6 models, with others expected in 2023.

Instead, Volkswagen decided to proactively work towards the electrification of its vehicle fleet - with ID.3 models reaching customers in October 2020, the company didn't need long to reach 500,000 units. By 2030, Volkswagen expects EVs to account for 70% of sales in Europe - and wants half of the sales in the US and China by 2030. Currently, Volkswagen EVs are made in the United States, with production in Europe not expected until at least 2033.

The ID. family allows Volkswagen to provide over-the-air updates and other features to enhance the digital customer experience. Safety and drive assist features should be easier to deploy directly to drivers with OTA updates.

To complete the X concept trilogy alongside the X Concept and X Speedium Coupe, Genesis has unveiled the X Convertible concept car. Although the Korean automaker owned by Hyundai didn't disclose drivetrain specifications during the unveiling, we get a closer look at a unique vehicle design.

Ahead of the 2022 LA Auto Show, Genesis invited a small group of attendees to check out the four-passenger, open-roof concept car in Malibu. Even if the folding hardtop roof is closed, transparent moon roofs located above the front-seat passenger and driver have been designed to offer an open feel at all times.

Similar to the pair of concept vehicles before it, the X Convertible features a digital dash and infotainment system that is physically angled towards the driver with an L-shaped piece of glass. The "Giwa Navy" primary interior color is enhanced with recyclable wool fabric to make roof tiles - and a noticeable woven pad graphic wraps around the car's interior.

The 2023 Toyota Prius hybrid car offers a better range and a slick new look for a car model over a quarter-decade old. The Japanese automaker said series-parallel hybrid (HEV) models will launch in winter 2023, while plug-in hybrid (PHEV) Prius models will be available starting in spring 2023.

The standard hybrid includes a drivetrain able to support up to 193 horsepower, while the PHEV cranks out 220 hp. The standard hybrid runs the Toyota Series Parallel Hybrid System and interested shoppers can choose from a 1.8-liter or 2.0-liter version. The PHEV uses a 2.0-liter Dynamic Force four-cylinder engine, lithium-ion batteries, and an electric motor to generate extra horsepower.

Toyota aimed for an interior styling that presented some amenities alongside a spacious interior and cockpit. The instrument panel features the first illuminated warning system from Toyota, with flashing lights and audible warnings in place to alert the driver to safety risks.

NVIDIA's nifty little Jetson Nano modules have been used by two students at the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas to create a mini supercomputer.

The desktop supercomputer is powered by 16 x NVIDIA Jetson Nano modules, with the students building it into a clear acrylic case, including the power supplies required, cooling fans to get rid of the heat, and a network switch to connect it all together.

Southern Methodist University received outside funding to design the NVIDIA Jetson Nano-powered desktop supercomputer, which will be used to educate students about how a computer cluster works. The project took four months of learning and labor for the design and creation, while the students were learning about networking.

NVIDIA has been silent about the explosive issues on its new flagship GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card and the use of its 16-pin "12VHPWR" power connector.

The company explained to KitGuru: "We continue to investigate the reports, however we don't have further details to share yet. NVIDIA and our partners are committed to supporting our customers and ensuring an expedited RMA process for them".

Numerous gamers and enthusiasts have reported issues with their 16-pin power connector melting, or brand new expensive GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card dying in a ball of flames. Not that theatrical, but it's pretty close... while the organization behind the 12VHPWR power connector -- PCI-SIG -- has considered engineering changes for the 16-pin power connector in leu of these issues.

Sony won't come out and admit that it's working on its next-gen PlayStation 6 console, let alone the probably decades-away PlayStation 7 console, but that hasn't stopped Xbox boss Phil Spencer from pumping out some free marketing for the PS7.

In some new comments during an interview on the Decoder podcast, Spencer talked about the Call of Duty franchise -- now that Microsoft is acquiring Activision-Blizzard in a whopping $69 billion deal -- with Spencer saying that Microsoft will be treating Call of Duty like it does Minecraft: offering Sony to extend their 3-year agreement.

But... PlayStation boss Jim Ryan isn't happy, calling the deal "inadequate on many levels".

NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 4080 graphics card is officially in the wild, with the company unleashing its new GeForce Game Ready 526.98 WHQL drivers.

The new NVIDIA GeForce Game Ready 526.98 WHQL drivers offer official support for the new GeForce RTX 4080, based on the AD103 "Ada Lovelace" GPU and 16GB of GDDR6X memory. The new GeForce Game Ready 526.98 WHQL also has the best day-one gaming experience in Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, and the new update for WRC Generations in the FIA WRC Official Game.

NVIDIA is also introducing DLSS Frame Generation support for V-Sync when GeForce RTX 40 series GPU owners have G-SYNC enabled, as well as introducing support for the HDR10+ GAMING standard.

A recent interview with Phil Spencer indicates that Candy Crush makes more money than Activision, but more contextual data reveals that this isn't necessarily the case.

Decoder recently published a lengthy interview with Xbox gaming exec Phil Spencer that touches upon many subjects including Call of Duty exclusivity and Microsoft's mobile aspirations. King is a big reason why Microsoft wants to buy Activision for $68.7 billion, and looking at the revenues, we can see why. However it's important to note that King does not make more money than Activision on an annual basis--in fact, it never has since Activision-Blizzard purchased the mobile giant in 2016.

Data published by Activision Blizzard indicates that King makes more revenues on a quarterly basis during the Q1-Q3 period, but Activision conquers segment earnings with significant revenue spikes in the Q4 holiday period.

Elon Musk shares his vision for Twitter 2.0 and has delivered an ultimatum to Twitter staff.

Earlier today, CNN got a hold of an internal email that Twitter's new CEO Elon Musk sent out to Twitter staff. The general message is clear: Workers are expected to "work long hours at high intensity" or they will be let go.

This email comes shortly after Elon Musk mass-fired a significant portion of Twitter's staff--half of which were apparently planned to be let go before Musk took the reins--and throughout a troubled balance of power for the social media network.

Elon Musk has further fueled a hoax that was pulled by two individuals that pretended to be fired Twitter staff by admitting that he was wrong to fire them in the first place.

Pranksters Rahul Ligma and Daniel Johnson pretended to be Twitter employees that were laid off at the company by being photographed holding boxes of their belongings and leaving the company headquarters in San Francisco. Ligma and Johnson even conducted interviews with numerous media outlets that had to issue public apologies once it was discovered that the due was simply trolling. Before the apologies could reach everyone's ears, Musk amplified the chaos by tweeting, "Ligma Johnson had it coming", and then reacted to the entire prank, saying, "one of the best trolls ever".

Ligma didn't stop there as he was filmed stating that he was recently fired from now-collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Both FTX and Twitter have recently experienced massive layoffs of real employees, hence the public confusion that is being caused by the pranksters. Now, Musk has turned up the heat once again in what could be viewed as a somewhat insensitive tweet that welcomes back "Ligma & Johnson" to their fake jobs at Twitter while also simultaneously stating its "Important to admit when I'm wrong & firing them was truly one of my biggest mistakes".

A well-known security researcher named Jane Manchun Wong suggested on November 10 that Twitter revive end-to-end encryption for direct messages (DMs), and now it seems that is already being worked on.

Wong took to Twitter a few hours ago to showcase some evidence of Twitter engineers working on end-to-end encryption in Twitter for Android, which sparked a reply from SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who simply replied with a "winky face", suggesting that the evidence is legitimate, and Wong's initial suggestion has already been taken onboard by Twitter engineers. At the moment, it's unknown when end-to-end encryption will roll out.

The addition of end-to-end encryption leads back to November 10 when Musk took to Twitter to ask the public to "please mention your complaints below", which resulted in thousands of people flooding his replies with suggestions for Twitter. One individual suggested that Twitter DMs get some new features, such as the ability to make DMs archivable, adding a search functionality within conversations, and enabling replies to specific messages. Musk replied to this suggestion by writing, "the goal of Twitter DMs is to superset Signal".

The downfall of FTX is still in mid-flight, with the former CEO and co-founder of the cryptocurrency exchange discussing his version of the events on his Twitter account.

The face of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), has been caught in a whirlwind of his own creation by being accused of mishandling customer assets through FTX's sister company called Alameda Research, who was purportedly using FTX customer money to make poorly placed trades. Additionally, reports have surfaced that Alameda Research routinely engaged in frontrunning, which is the act of making investment decisions based on insider knowledge.

In the case this case, Alameda Research is accused of making investment decisions with its insider knowledge of which new cryptocurrency tokens were being listed on the FTX exchange. Over the course of the last two days of the fallout following the declared bankruptcy by SBF, the former CEO has taken to his Twitter account to post "what happened" over two days, followed up by a few posts on what his goals are, with one of them being "is to do right by customers" and that "I'm meeting in-person with regulators and working with the teams to do what we can for customers. And after that, investors. But first, customers."

Only moments ago the Artemis 1 rocket lifted off from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, marking the official launch of NASA's milestone effort to get humans back to the Moon.

At the time of reporting, its been six minutes since Artemis 1 lifted off from its launch pad, and so far, NASA has reported nothing but healthy news for Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. Listening to the livestream on NASA's YouTube channel, NASA's commentator is reporting that Artemis 1 is appearing "nominal" with the Space Launch System's core stage main engine cutoff is complete and the core stage has separated from the interim cryogenic propulsion stage as well as the Orion spacecraft.

NASA reports that the next major milestone will be reached 18 minutes after the initial launch, which will be the deployment of Orion's solar arrays. For those that don't know, the Artemis 1 mission will include Orion, which was aboard the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, traveling 280,000 miles from Earth as well as 40,000 miles beyond the far side of the Moon. Artemis 1 is NASA's first mission in its journey to get the US back on the Moon, and the mission is essentially reconnaissance-based and is an overall demonstration that NASA can safely make the journey.

Elon Musk has decided the launch of Twitter Blue and the controversial blue verification check mark needs to be relaunched.

The SpaceX and Tesla CEO took to Twitter to announce that he would "punting" the relaunch of "Blue Verified" to the end of the month in an attempt to "make sure that it is rock solid". The decision to relaunch Twitter Blue, is probably an overall good choice by Musk when considering the rollercoaster of the original launch of the updated subscription service.

Following the first day of Twitter Blue being available to users on iOS the social media platform experienced a massive influx of account impersonators that created new fake profiles of individuals/companies, and by simply paying the $8 they received a Blue verification check mark that made them appear legitimate to the unsuspecting eye.

A new article published in Nature has revealed that new models from the United Nations (UN) indicate that on November 15, the world population reached 8 billion people.

The article published on November 15 states that it was just twelve years ago that Earth's population was sitting at 7 billion people, and less than 100 years ago, the population was at just 2 billion people. With the release of the new models, the UN also released its updated predictions for what it thinks Earth's population will be by 2100, and according to its updated chart, as seen above, the UN believes that by 2100 Earth will support 10.4 billion people but around 2075 there will begin a plateau that will eventuate into shrinking.

Notably, officials such as Patrick Gerland, who leads demographic work at the UN Population Division in New York City, have said that while it may be a grim thought or a "crude approximation" that Earth's population growth will begin to slow, it's more a "symbolic finding", while simultaneously admitting that there is no way to know for sure that November 15 was the day that Earth officially passed 8 billion people, as some locations around the world are blind spots the UN struggle to get reliable data from. Those locations are countries such as Somalia, Yemen, and Syria.

The collapse of the world's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, is being felt around the world, with several prominent businesses within the space now making the impact known.

The downfall of FTX and the announcement from the company's CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, that he was declaring bankruptcy, companies that held large stakes in FTT token, or held lines of credit with FTX and any of its affiliated companies would be exposed to its fallout. On November 8, BlockFi CEO Flori Marquez announced via Twitter that BlockFi crypto lending products were "fully operational" and that the company held a $400 million line of credit with FTX US, a separate entity from FTX global which was the entity most affected by the liquidity crunch.

However, on November 14, BlockFi Inc reported having "significant exposure" to the now-bankrupt FTX, and all its entities, according to a new article by The Wall Street Journal. According to people familiar with the matter that spoke to WAPO, BlockFi is now planning on laying off staff while preparing to file its own chapter 11 bankruptcy. Another cryptocurrency company in a seemingly similar boat to BlockFi is fellow crypto lending platform SALT, which paused its withdrawals and deposits as "the collapse of FTX has impacted our business".

The fastest Ford Mustang a consumer could purchase, the CS850GT, was recently upgraded by Clive Sutton - and the CS850R packs on more for an already upgraded car. The CS850GT Mustang is the most powerful Mustang available in the UK, though that wasn't good enough for the Clive Sutton team.

The CS850R borrowed the 5.0-liter V8 engine from the base Ford Mustang but modified it with a bespoke Whipple supercharger, active exhaust system, and different intercooler. These changes helped take the increased whopping 847 horsepower - with 665 lb-ft. of torque - and spice it up further. The mechanical drive is improved with a new Torsen differential, so the car has significantly better traction under fast acceleration.

Inspiration from Shelby led the CS850R to feature a carbon fiber body kit, along with designed tweaks to improve the muscle car's aerodynamics. Although the car can travel on public roads, it's apparent that this beast was designed to tear up the track.

Qualcomm has just announced its next-gen Snapdragon 8 Gen2, which is a follow-up to the Snapdragon 8+ Gen1 and Snapdragon 8 Gen1 SoCs... packing in everything including the kitchen sink it seems.

The new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen2 is made on TSMC's fresh new 4nm process node, with the company tapping its latest Kyro CPU that packs up to 45% more CPU performance. Qualcomm is using a Cortex X3 primary core at up to 3.2GHz, as well as 4 x "performance" cores (2 x A710 and 2 x A715 both clocked at 2.8GHz) backed up by 3 x "efficiency" cores that are clocked at up to 2.0GHz.

On the GPU side of things, Qualcomm promises up to 25% more performance in its new Snapdragon 8 Gen2 SoC over its previous-gen design, while there's 40% more efficiency. Qualcomm has some big bragging points with its new Snapdragon 8 Gen2 SoC, with the company pushing hardware-enabled ray tracing... interesting.

We are slowly finding out more and more about AMD's upcoming RDNA 3 GPU architecture, which will be powering the soon-to-be-released Radeon RX 7900 XTX and Radeon RX 7900 XT graphics cards. We're now hearing about the AMD Infinity Links bandwidth inside of the Navi 31 GPU-powered cards.

AMD's upcoming RDNA 3 architecture will feature GPU chiplet technology, with Infinity Links operating at 9.2Gb/s with High-Performance Fanout that will provide nearly 10x the bandwidth of the IFOP (Infinity Fabric On-Package) that AMD uses in its high-end Ryzen and EPYC processors.

The new slides were leaked out by ASCII but quickly removed, showing that the Infinity Link interconnect technology will feature industry-leading peak bandwidth of a whopping 5.3TB/sec: this is the bandwidth between the GCDs (Graphics Compute Die) and the MCDs (Memory Compute Dies).

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has purchased a $4.1 billion stake in TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company), wherein a filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday, Berkshire Hathaway acquired around 60 million American depository shares of TSMC.

The news saw TSMC shares rise over 8% in Taiwan on Tuesday, with a TSMC spokesperson explaining: "TSMC welcomes all investors with the propensity to buy and hold TSMC's stock". TSMC has been the star of the world without many people knowing their electronic devices are powered by chips made by the Taiwan-based company (which is also making fabrication plants in the US).

TSMC CFO Wendell Huang explained on a conference call: "Moving into the fourth quarter 2022, we expect our business to be flattish as the end market demand weakens, and customers' ongoing inventory adjustment is balanced by continued ramp-up for our industry-leading 5nm technologies".