Latest News - Page 990

French automaker Citroen updated its plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV) series, announcing a new 180-horsepower PHEV engine for the C5 Aircross. The new version of the Citroen C5 Aircross is a plug-in hybrid that combines 150 horsepower from the gas engine with an 81 KW electric to offer 180 horsepower combined.

Citroen hopes drivers will use 100% electric mobility for short rides, and then switch to the combustion engine for longer trips.

The 180 e-EAT8 Plug-in Hybrid replaces the 180 gas version so there is no choice but to go hybrid. The automaker wants to welcome potential first-time EV buyers to the market with a more affordable car than many current choices. The 84-cell, 12.4 kWh battery supports the hybrid traveling up to 36 miles in 100% electric mode.

If you were waiting to hear when mass production of the Tesla Cybertruck would start, expect that milestone to be reached sometime by the end of 2023, according to Reuters. That means most of the reservation list will have to wait until 2024, at the very earliest.

The Cybertruck was first unveiled by Musk in 2019 to a mix of ardent fanfare mixed with a heavy dose of the initial skepticism. Tesla initially wanted to release the truck for less than $40,000, but the cost of vehicles has gone up since then - and Tesla has also increased pricing across all of its models.

A dual, tri-motor, and quad-motor trims are expected, with the single motor trim reportedly canceled due to low demand - but pricing and additional details still haven't been confirmed yet. Unfortunately, the semiconductor shortage and other logistical issues have made it difficult for Tesla and other automakers to keep their deadlines.

Amid weakening yen and sales slips, Sony's Games and Network Services division reported noteworthy losses for the Q2 period.

Sony's latest Q2 FY2022 earning report shows significant year-over-year losses for its PlayStation games business, including a 59% drop in operating income when converted to USD. While most of PlayStation's business channels were affected by the Q2 drop, its most lucrative segment was hit the hardest: Microtransactions.

According to the figures provided by Sony and converted by us, PlayStation's Add-On Content segment revenues dropped to the lowest point since 2019. Add-On Content includes microtransactions from both premium and free-to-play games, DLC, and expansions, and typically makes most of Sony's quarterly and annual revenues.

PlayStation's monthly active users (MAUs) have dropped to the lowest point since 2019 as consumers react to new real-world conditions and an inflation market.

Sony's latest Q2 FY2022 report shows clear downward trends in gaming for the quarter ending September 30, 2022. PlayStation's Games & Network Services metrics were down in almost every relevant metric, from overall revenues and operating income (down 11% and 59%, respectively) and overall game unit sales (down 18%) to monthly active users, one of the most important figures for the games division.

According to the data, PlayStation's monthly active users (MAUs) were down to 102 million in Q2'22, representing a drop of 1 million users in a quarter-over-quarter basis, and a reduction of 2 million users on a year-over-year basis. The Q2 period actually had the lowest MAU count in the last three years. Pre-pandemic PlayStation MAUs were 96 million in Q2'19, and then shot up to 106 million during Q3'19 to reflect seasonal holiday boosts.

US electric automaker Lucid will launch the Lucid Air Pure and Air Touring on Tuesday, November 15, with the first Air Touring to be delivered to the company's Beverly Hills Studio. During the event, Lucid will also offer updates on the Project Gravity SUV as the automaker looks ahead to a busy 2023.

The Air Pure will launch with a starting price of $87,400, and feature a dual-motor, all-wheel drive configuration - battery range and other specifications will be announced during the Lucid event.

Lucid Air Touring has a starting price of $107,400 and interested drivers can select a unique glass canopy - a piece of glass that starts at the base of the windshield over the heads of the front passengers, so there is no unobstructed view for the driver. In addition, the DreamDrive Pro, Lucid's advanced driver assistance system, features 32 on-vehicle sensors and can continually update through over-the-air capability.

Netflix has just launched its new Basic with Ads tier, the lowest-priced ad-supported plan the company announced back in November, and is now live in 12 countries.

The new "Basic with Ads" costs $6.99 per month and is available in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Spain, the UK, and the US. But, how long are the ads you ask? Well, Netflix explains the ads will be 15 or 30 seconds long and will play before and during TV shows and movies.

Nothing else is changing, so you'll still get all of the goodies in the form of TV shows and movies that Netflix has in its catalog on the new ad-supported "Basic with Ads" tier, but what will change is that the video quality will be up to 720p (that's both for the Basic with Ads, and the current Basic plan).

Forza Horizon 5 is getting a new update that will add in support for NVIDIA DLSS 2.0 and AMD FSR 2.0 upscaling technologies, as well as improved ray tracing for PC gamers.

Playground Games explained on the official Forza Motorsport website that the upcoming "Donut Media" series update will be available on the Microsoft Store and Steam on November 8. The developer explained that they've "enhanced" the DirectX Raytracing on the PC with two new presets: Ultra and Extreme.

The developer explains that the beefed-up ray tracing on the PC will see true-to-life reflections for the player car in both Free Roam and Races, as well as "realistic" Drivatar reflections in Photo Mode. Ray tracing will continue to be available in Forzavista, just like it is now.

Ford was recently found guilty by a federal jury in Michigan of violating a licensing contract and misappropriating trade secrets. The automaker will have to pay Versata Software $104.65 million following the 15-day trial.

Ford licensed Versata automotive software from 1998 until 2015 but started copying the software instead of paying millions for annual licensing fees.

Both companies entered a 15-year contract agreement in 2004, but Ford claimed it developed its own software so Versata would no longer be needed. The deal officially fell apart in 2014 when Ford refused to pay $17 million licensing per year, then the courtroom fight started in 2015.

Two experimental Porsche 911 cars were modified and tested on the slopes of Ojos del Salado, the highest volcano on Earth. In the Andes Mountain range along the Argentina-Chile border, the German automaker saw the car reach 19,708 feet - where the air is extremely thin, and temperatures hovered around -22F.

The Type 992 Carrera 4S models still ran the factory turbocharged flat-six engine with 443 horsepower powered by a seven-speed manual transmission. Beyond those factory specifications, Porsche heavily modified the rest of the car, including the addition of roll cages, carbon fiber seats, and harnesses. To increase ground clearance, portal axles were added, then lower gear ratios were configured for more precise throttle inputs.

Designed specifically for motorsport driving, the Porsche Warp-Connecter was added to the 911 models tackling the volcano - the connecter makes it possible so all four wheels share constant wheel load under heavy chassis articulation. Porsche didn't disclose what kind of suspension system was used, but there is no shot the factory suspension was left in either 911.

Elon Musk has control of Twitter now and has already been pushing things in an interesting, and fun new direction... and now we have former President Donald Trump not just suggesting, but pretty much saying that he will be running again for President in 2024.

President Donald Trump said during a pre-election rally in Iowa today, that he would "very, very, very probably" do it again (run for President, obviously).

In full, President Trump said: "in order to make our country successful, safe and glorious... I will very, very, very probably do it again, okay. Very, very, very probably... VERY, VERY, very probably" to which the crowd absolutely exploded with applause yelling out "Trump! Trump! Trump!"

Samsung is about to blow gamers away with a monster new gaming monitor in early 2023, with the company teasing its new Odyssey Neo G9 gaming monitor... the world's "first 8K ultrawide" gaming monitor.

The new Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 gaming monitor will have an 8K resolution -- vertically at least, so 7680 pixels wide -- while I'm sure it'll have 2160 pixels (or so) high. True 8K resolution boasts 7680 x 4320, but "8K ultrawide" will be much less (half the vertical pixels) than native 8K... kinda like 8K wide, 4K high.

AMD's new Radeon RX 7900 XTX and Radeon RX 7900 XT graphics cards both have DisplayPort 2.1 connectivity, meaning they are capable of driving 8K 165Hz and 4K 480Hz, which is going to be absolutely insane.

GALAX has smashed some world records with its flagship GeForce RTX 4090 HOF graphics card, breaking not one but two world records with the monster custom GeForce RTX 4090.

If you haven't heard about the GALAX GeForce RTX 4090 HOF, it is a monster custom GeForce RTX 4090 with dual 16-pin PCIe power connectors... yeah not one, but two 16-pin power connectors. Every other GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card has a single 16-pin power connector, but GALAX is driving some serious power into their GeForce RTX 4090 HOF.

Overclocker "OGS" cranked up the GPU frequency on the GALAX GeForce RTX 4090 HOF to an absolutely incredible 3705MHz throughout the GPUPI benchmark (which is a part of the official HWBOT competition).

AMD's new Radeon RX 7900 XTX and Radeon RX 7900 XT have now been detailed, with the company also unveiling its new FSR 3.0 technology during its RDNA 3 reveal event in Las Vegas.

The company announced the new FidelityFX Super Resolution 3 technology will drop in 2023, offering twice the performance over FSR 2. AMD showed off the new Radeon RX 7000 series GPU running an Unreal Engine 5 demo, with FSR 2.0 capable of around 60FPS or so, but with FSR 3.0 enabled the performance jumped up to around 112FPS... impressive stuff.

AMD's fresh new FSR 3.0 upscaling tech also includes Fluid Motion Frames Technology, but the company wasn't clear on what it actually does... but we do know that you'll get more performance in games that support the technology with the most demanding games on the market.

AMD has officially unveiled its new Radeon RX 7900 XTX and Radeon RX 7900 XT graphics cards, and now AIB partners can unveil their custom Radeon RX 7900 series GPU designs.

ASUS is here with its new TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7900 XTX and TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7900 XT graphics card, both featuring a triple-slot and triple-fan design. Both of the new cards will require 3 x 8-pin PCIe power connectors, up from the 2 x 8-pin PCIe power connectors on AMD's in-house reference Radeon RX 7900 XTX and Radeon RX 7900 XT graphics cards.

Remember that AMD includes the brand new DisplayPort 2.1 connector on its new Radeon RX 7000 series GPUs, which can drive 8K 165Hz and 4K 480Hz (and an incredible 1440p at 900Hz). The new ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7000 series GPUs are the first graphics cards from ASUS that rock the new DisplayPort 2.1 connector.

KIOXIA has announced that it has worked with Ampere to quality its fleet of CD6, CM6, and XD6 Series SSDs with platforms that are based on Ampere's Altra, and Ampere Altra Max Cloud Native Processors.

The certification testing itself was conducted by Ampere, to make sure that KIOXIA's SSDs were totally compatible, and were hitting max performance. Inside of the world's biggest and most demanding data center workloads are powered by Arm-based servers, which make it imperative (in the words of KIOXIA, but I do agree) that the SSDs inside of them are ready, more than ready.

KIOXIA has a gigantic fleet of SSDs for the data center market, with the company reiterating that the performance demands and latency sensitivities aren't an issue, but also for future enterprise infrastructure requirements. In order to meet the demands of the modern cloud ecosystem, Ampere designed a server microprocessor architecture from the ground up, with its AArch64-based processor pushing performance, scalability, security, and power efficiency that KIOXIA says is uniquely focused on today's hyperscale cloud and edge computing workloads and applications.

AMD has formally unleashed its new Navi 31-powered Radeon RX 7900 XTX and Radeon RX 7900 XT graphics cards, both powered by the new RDNA 3 GPU architecture, and man... they're 4K and 8K gaming powerhouses.

The new Radeon RX 7900 XTX has some serious power inside of itself, with AMD completely thrashing NVIDIA in one department: including the new DisplayPort 2.1 standard while NVIDIA has stuck almost in the 90s with its DisplayPort 1.4 connectors on its fleet of new GeForce RTX 40 series graphics cards.

DisplayPort 2.1 can drive far, far higher refresh rates at higher resolutions where we're talking about the truly dizzying heights of 8K 165Hz and 4K 480Hz, which should melt most gamers' eyeballs. Hell, DP2.1 can even drive an absolutely bonkers 1440p at 900Hz (up from 1440p 480Hz on DisplayPort 1.4).

AMD invited the tech press, influencers, YouTubers, and its partners to Las Vegas for its huge RDNA 3 GPU reveal, with my invite sadly declined over personal reasons... but it hasn't stopped the unleashing of some real game-changing Radeon RX 7000 series graphics cards.

I've already covered AMD's new Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics card, but now we have the second-best RDNA 3-powered Radeon RX 7900 XT graphics card that is just slightly cut down from its bigger brother.

AMD's new Radeon RX 7900 XT still rocks the impressive Navi 31 GPU, which is the first consumer GPU chiplet with 84 CUs and a 2GHz game clock. There's 20GB of GDDR6 memory on the Radeon RX 7900 XT spread out on a 320-bit memory bus, with 300W TBP.

AMD has finally unveiled its new Radeon RX 7900 XTX and Radeon RX 7900 XT graphics cards, where we'll be diving into the new flagship Radeon RX 7900 XTX first. Spoiler alert: AMD's new monster Radeon RX 7900 XTX launches December 13 for just $999... laughing in the face of the $1500+ pricing on NVIDIA's also monster GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card.

The new AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics card is powered by the new RDNA 3 GPU architecture, offering 96 CUs, and a 2.3GHz GPU game clock across its 12288 cores. AMD slaps a large 24GB of GDDR6 memory, matching its competitor in the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 with 24GB of GDDR6X.

AMD's new Radeon RX 7900 XTX and its 24GB of GDDR6 memory is spread out on a 384-bit memory bus, joined by 96MB of Infinity Cache (lower than the 128MB of Infinity Cache on Navi 21-powered GPUs) which offers up to an insane 5.3TB/sec of memory bandwidth (yes, you read that correctly). AMD has a 355W TBP (Total Board Power) for the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, only 55W more than the Radeon RX 7900 XT (300W).

Ford has unveiled the 2023 Ford Transit Trail Van, a vehicle ready to help owners travel and experience van life off the grid in a bit of luxury. Taking a van on a cross-country adventure is one thing, but getting off paved roads can be a difficult task - but the US automaker wants people to get out and about easier than what's currently possible.

The Transit Trail Van has a 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 engine cranking out 310 horsepower and 400 lb-ft of torque with a 10-speed automatic transmission. Ford included five different drive modes - Normal, Eco, Mud/Ruts, Tow/Haul, and Slippery - and is an all-wheel drive van.

Three different cargo van configurations will be available, medium-roof, high-roof and a high-roof extended-length van variant - with Ford adding features so it's ready for off-highway driving without heavy modification.

Electric vehicles tend to be exclusively automatic, as they don't need a clutch or gearbox to switch through gears like a traditional gas or diesel vehicle. Some automakers, however, like the idea of a gimmicky manual EV, though it definitely isn't something that is required - and it's uncertain how many EV drivers would even care about this feature.

Japanese automaker Honda understands the transition to EVs will inevitably end manual transmissions and doesn't seem interested in simulated or artificial manuals for its EV models. Electric sports cars also probably won't see a manual for drivers to shift gears, and drivers will just need to adapt to modern vehicle designs.

Here is what Shinji Aoyama, leader of global electrification business at Honda, said during a recent media roundtable: "Artificially, we can do it. Mechanically, it is not easy," when pondering the thought of a simulated manual "like an extension of active sound control." Honda wants it is EVs to be "edgy" and stand out from competing EVs, though confirmed: "I'm not sure if we can replace the manual transmission."