In a somewhat concerning development for people who are running Windows 11 without activating the OS, it appears that Microsoft is taking some initial steps - in testing - to punish those folks via its Edge browser.

Punish them how, exactly? Essentially by blocking off all access to any settings in Edge for those who haven't activated their Windows 11 (or Windows 10) installation.

Windows Report (via TechRadar) picked up on the move Microsoft has made which is being tested in Edge (the Canary version of the browser in preview).

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A team of researchers has penned a new study detailing the use of a cheap NVIDIA chip to control a hypersonic weapon.

The new study published in Propulsion Technology, a Chinese academic journal, details a team of researchers using a NVIDIA Jetson TX2i module to control and perform real-time optimization of the fuel supply system of a scramjet engine used in an air-breathing hypersonic missile. Notably, NVIDIA intends the Jetson TX2i module to be a low-cost solution for edge-computing, or AI. More specifically, the module contains a CPU, GPU and memory, all for a low price of just a few hundred dollars.

Additionally, the Jetson TX2i module isn't subjected to US export restrictions laid against China, which has curbed the exportation of high-end, powerful GPUs. It appears China is demonstrating that even cheap NVIDIA silicon, or any other low-cost silicon, can be used to control some of the deadliest weapons on the planet and that even if an export ban has been placed on the nation, it will find a way to create and control these weapons with chips that only cost a couple hundred dollars.

Elon Musk has been at war against bots on X since he bought the company and his latest strategy to curb the spread of bots is to charge new users a fee to enable posting.

X began testing its "Not-A-Bot" program in New Zealand and the Phillipines in October last year, which involved charging users in those regions $1 to access the platform. Users that paid the $1 received features such as posting, replying, liking and bookmarking X posts.

It remains unclear how successful the test program was, but it appears it was at least somewhat successful as it will be expanded upon as Musk moves to combat "Current AI (and troll farms)" as they "can pass"are you a bot"with ease," wrote Musk on X.

NASA has confirmed in a new blog post that it will be sending a nuclear-powered Dragonfly, a newly designed rotorcraft, to Saturn's moon Titan.

The space agency took to its blog and explained it's made the decision to point the Dragonfly rotorcraft mission at Saturn's organic-rich moon Titan, enabling engineers to enter the final stages of the rotorcraft's development and testing. NASA explains the Dragonfly mission was confirmed with a total lifecycle cost of $3.35 billion and a launch date of July 2028, which is a cost that is two times what was originally proposed, and a delay of more than two years from the initial launch year of 2019.

Due to funding constraints, NASA had to re-juggle the Dragonfly mission, and to compensate for the delay, NASA has added a more powerful rocket that will reduce the time it takes to arrive at its destination. Engineers have equipped the rotorcraft with eight rotors and various scientific instruments. When flown, it looks like a large drone. It's expected that Dragonfly will arrive at Titan in 2034, and once it does, it will mark the first time that "NASA will fly a vehicle for science on another planetary body," writes the space agency.

NASA officials announced on April 15 that the initial plan to get the Mars samples collected by NASA's Perseverance rover is now deemed impractical.

NASA's Mars rover Perseverance has been exploring the Red Planet's desolate landscape since 2021 and collecting samples along the way. These samples are precious as they could contain evidence of ancient microbial life that once lived on Mars, which would mean Earth isn't the only planet capable of hosting life, giving credence to the theory that many planets throughout the universe could also be hosting life. However, we won't know for sure until NASA returns to the samples back to Earth for an in-depth analysis.

Here lies the problem. NASA's initial plan for returning the samples has been plagued by delays, cost overruns, and long timelines. An example of how bad costs have gotten came from an independent review board that estimated in 2020 NASA's return mission would cost anywhere between $2.5 and $3 billion. Now NASA is saying its mission would cost $11 billion, and the samples wouldn't be returned until 2040, with previous estimates putting the return timeline in the 2030s.

Just when you thought Elden Ring was hard enough, a gamer demonstrated his patience and skill at the FromSoftware title by tackling it from start to finish using just a single button and Morse code.

The persistence, patience and resilience of gamers never fails to impressive me, especially when a gamer decides to purposefully make the game they are playing harder than necessary to create a unique challenge. Twitch streamer Silithur embarked on one of these adventures and decided to test his patience in Elden Ring only equipped with a button, Morse code, and a dream of beating the entire game.

On April 13 Silithur achieved what he set out to do, defeating the Elden Boss and becoming an Elden Lord. Elden Ring has become somewhat of a benchmark for gamers wanting to challenge themselves, as Silithur isn't the first to tackle the difficult game in an unconventional way, as back in April another Twitch streamer and psychology graduate beat the game using nothing but a brain signal controller. Another gamer took on Elden Ring with a dance pad, beating it with sweet moves.

In early March, a man from Naples, Florida, took to X, formerly Twitter, to report that an object crashed through his home's roof and two floors, almost hitting his son, who was home at the time of impact.

The homeowner is Alejandro Otero, and on March 8, an object smashed through his roof and both floors of his two-story home, luckily missing his son. Following the impact, NASA launched an investigation into the origin of the object, with predictions from astronomers tracing its origins back to jettisoned debris from the International Space Station (ISS).

NASA has since wrapped up the investigation and confirmed the object is debris from the ISS that was launched from the floating laboratory three years ago. NASA engineers took the object to Kennedy Space Center and confirmed it was a piece of the EP-9 support equipment that was used to mount batteries onto a cargo planet.

AMD's Radeon RX 7700 XT has always felt a little out of place because when it launched alongside the Radeon RX 7800 XT last year, only $50 USD separated the two graphics cards. This made the Radeon RX 7800 XT look like the better option, as the extra performance meant that it competed directly with the impressive GeForce RTX 4070.

Cut to February 2024, and AMD announced that it was officially dropping the MSRP of the Radeon RX 7700 XT from $449 USD to $419 USD. This is a modest price drop but a step in the right direction, as the Radeon RX 7700 XT's performance makes it a great alternative to the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti. Immediately following the price cut, we reported on some models, like the reference Sapphire PULSE variant, sold for $399.

It looks like AMD's partners are dropping the Radeon RX 7700 XT price to under $400 across several models (thanks Videocardz.com) - with options from Sapphire, ASRock, and PowerColor below.

Bringing modern generative AI technologies to audio headsets has always been a given; however, how it works with the new Dell Premier Wireless ANC Headset (WL7024) available today is unique. Typically, we associate headphones and headsets with noise cancellation with travel - with ANC being all about cutting out background noise.

The Dell Premier Wireless ANC Headset takes a different approach because it is designed for professionals and those times when you need to jump into a meeting or Zoom call while out and about or in an otherwise noisy environment.

The Dell Premier Wireless ANC Headset uses AI uplink and downlink noise cancellation, removing background noise on both ends. The real magic comes with how the headset's AI noise cancellation "preserves the human voice," so you only hear the sounds of those speaking, just like sitting in a closed meeting room.

Foxconn and NVIDIA are teaming up to battle the future of AI, with Foxconn chairman Liu Yangwei saying yesterday that we'll see the progress of what the companies have been working on, later this year.

The two companies have teamed up for three major platforms: AI factories, AI smart manufacturing, and AI smart electric vehicles. Foxconn is expected to ramp up its support with NVIDIA in building next-gen Blackwell GB200 AI servers, which was announced at the 2024 Taipei International Automotive Electronics Show.

The Foxconn executive flew to the United States to personally attend NVIDIA's recent GTC (GPU Technology Conference), where he said that the two companies would be working on AI factories and that "everyone will soon see some construction on NVIDIA's AI factories".