What is new in the Surface Laptop 4 October 2023 firmware update?

• Addresses potential security vulnerability and improves system stability.

   

• Improves audio stability.

Here is the list of new drivers:

Here is extra information about the release:

The Surface Laptop 4 with Intel processors will be supported with new firmware and drivers until April 15, 2027.

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This first patch, labeled as Update 1.0, is mostly about fixing a number of bugs that were discovered since the game went public. Here is the changelog:

Stability [All Platforms]

 

• General stability improvements with fixes for various crash scenarios.
• Fixed a crash that could occur in the Builders Cup Career Mode after upgrading a car and entering Open Practice in the Fox Body Challenge race on Watkins Glen.
• Fixed a crash that could occur on Grand Oak Club Circuit during a cinematic when entering Open Practice for the third race of the Builders Cup Intro Series.
• Fixed a crash that could occur when entering a Free Play race from the My Cars menu if there were too many cars with custom thumbnail images.
• Fixed a crash that could occur upon loading into a Free Play race.

 

Progression [All Platforms]

 

• Adjusted car part unlock levels to increase player upgrade options at lower car levels. Most car parts should now be unlocked within a single Builders Cup series.
• Improvements to ensure Car Affinity manufacturer reward discounts are unlocked when intended – once a player reaches Car Level 50 in a car from the respective brand.

 

Progression [Xbox Series X|S Only]

 

• Fixed an issue that would cause players to lose gameplay progress if they continued to play Forza Motorsport after a new game update has been released.

 

Graphics [Xbox Series X|S Only]

 

• Fixed an issue when entering and exiting the video menu in-game resulted in black levels being substantially raised, creating a “washed out” look.

 

Multiplayer [All Platforms]

 

• Fixed an exploit in Featured Multiplayer where in specific scenarios, a player could post impossible lap times onto the Qualifying leaderboard by entering Qualifying directly from a Practice session.
• Resolved an issue where at times incorrect Safety Rating and Driver Skill Ratings were used for matchmaking.
• Fixed an issue where control of the car wouldn’t be handed back to the player upon exiting the pits in Featured Multiplayer and beginning a solo race in Free Play.
• Fixed an issue that prevented players from downloading and saving another player’s livery while in a Private Multiplayer pre-race.

 

Livery Editor [All Platforms]

 

• Fixed an issue on the 2016 Ford #66 Ford Racing GT Le Mans while moving a decal around the “Top” or “Hood” of the vehicle while in the Livery Editor which caused decals to appear reflected and offset on the other side of the car.
• Fixed an issue on the 2018 Porsche 911 GT2 RS where stripe decals would not correctly line-up between the hood, roof and wing.
• Fixed a crash encountered in Apply Decals when importing a Layer Group from a previous Forza game and then attempting to apply a Vinyl Shape.

 

Tracks [All Platforms]

 

• Updated trackside flag textures on Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
• Fixed an issue on Le Mans track layouts where a specific curb would stop LMP cars as if they were colliding with an invisible wall.

 

Physics [All Platforms]

 

• Improved wet tire wear rates in conditions where track wetness levels are moderate. Wet tires will still wear quickly in dry or semi-dry conditions.

 

Tuning Setup [All Platforms]

 

• Fixed an issue that prevented players from downloading another player’s custom Tuning Setup while browsing a Leaderboard.

 

Accessibility [All Platforms]

 

• Fixed an issue where custom key binds for a controller or keyboard would not be saved between game sessions.

 

Accessibility [Steam Only]

 

• Fixed an issue where the speech-to-text window did not appear when speech-to-text or text-to-speech would be enabled.
• Fixed an issue where the speech-to-text or text-to-speech window would persist on-screen for an indefinite duration until the game was relaunched.

 

Replay [All Platforms]

 

• Improved the visuals of the replay camera shown for the last segment of VIR Grand West.

 

Cars [All Platforms]

 

• Fixed an issue with the 1956 Jaguar D-Type where cockpit view would appear too low and clip through the driver’s collar.
• Fixed an issue with the Alfa Romeo Giuletta Quadrifoglio Verde where the front of the car disappeared after selecting a front bumper visual upgrade.
• Fixed an issue where the 2014 Volkswagen Golf R side skirts could not be seen after installing a bodykit.
• Fixed an issue with the 1977 Holden Torana where both Street and Sport Roll Cages would be visibly present on the car after installing a Race Roll Cage.
• Removed visible graining on the 2021 Lexus LC 500 Race Roll Cage texture.
• Fixed an issue with the 2004 Porsche 911 GT3, 1997 Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec, 2018 Renault Megane R.S. and 2012 MINI John Cooper Works GP where higher-level Roll Cage would be visible on lower-level upgrades.
• Fixed an issue with the 2021 BMW M3 where the RPM displayed on the digital dash would be desynced with the RPM shown on the Forza UI HUD.
• Fixed ambient occlusion errors on both the exterior and interior views in the 2016 Cadillac ATS-V and fixed a separate issue of damage geometry clipping when viewing the car from a distance.
• Fixed an issue with the 2014 Lamborghini Huracan where no light is cast from the car gauge and dashboard cluster, as well as the headlights, taillights and brake lights. We’ve also fixed ambient occlusion errors on this vehicle.
• Updated the mirror texture of the 2018 SUBARU #1 Adrian Flux SUBARU Racing Levorg GT from a repeating pattern to its intended semi-gloss metallic silver texture.
• Fixed an issue with the 2020 Chevrolet C8 Corvette Stingray where using the Remove Wing Upgrade left the Stock Wing visible on the car.
• Fixed an odd behavior scenario that would occur for players who own the Forza Motorsport Premium Edition or Premium Add-Ons Bundle on both Xbox and Steam and use the same Gamertag on both versions where duplicated DLC cars would result in an error message prompting the player to repurchase the associated DLC.
• Fixed an exploit where DLC car duplicates purchased from the Showroom could be used on another account or platform where the DLC has not been purchased.

Turn 10 also has a long list of known issues in Forza Motorsport that are currently being investigated. The game is available now for PC, Xbox Series S, and Xbox Series X consoles, and is also included in Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass subscriptions.

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'The official YouTube blog has the details on these changes. One of the big new features is made specifically for people who like to watch videos at faster than normal speeds:

When watching a video either in full screen or portrait mode, just press and hold down anywhere on the player to automatically bump your playback speed to 2x. Once you get to the part of the video you want, simply let go! This feature will be available across web, tablets, and mobile devices.

Then there's the new lock screen feature which will keep your video playing even if you might tap on pause or some other control. In order to enable it, go to a YouTube video's settings icon and tap on it, then tap on the Screen lock option. The video will keep playing no matter what. If you want to unlock it, just tap anywhere on the video and the Tap to unlock icon will appear so you can tap it.

Another new mode that is actually rolling out today on mobile devices is called stable volume. When you watch a YouTube video on the mobile app, this feature is automatically toggled on so that there won't be huge ups and downs in a video's volume level. This feature can be toggled off in a video's settings.

Android devices will get a new AI feature in the next few weeks that will allow users to find a song that's on YouTube just by the user playing, singing, or humming a tune into the app.

Google is also going to ditch the Libary tab in YouTube on mobile and the web. In its place, there will be the new You tab. That's where users will be able to see their previously watched videos, playlists, downloads, and purchases. It will also replace the Account tab as it will have all of those settings as well.

Again, most of these new features, and more will be rolled out over the next few weeks so it may be a little while before you see these changes.

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When Intel reached out to Neowin asking if we were interested in testing the 14th Gen Processor family for the desktop, I jumped at the chance, but also because I had recently upgraded my main PC to an AMD chip after being loyal to Intel for decades as my main go-to. I figured that I have a system I can pitch the new Intel chips against.

Firstly, I should mention that I am fully aware the i9-13900KS already exists with a Max Turbo of 6.0 GHz, but that is not a mainstream processor. Our title reflects what Intel has now brought to the masses, not just to people with too much money to wait for the proper mainstream offering.

With that out of the way, now the disclosures: Intel let me keep the i5-14600K and i9-14900K samples they provided, and I (mostly unsuccessfully) reached out to some companies to try and secure hardware for our review. Only Sabrent stepped up, by providing a 4TB Rocket 4 Plus-G NVMe for us to use in our test build, and due to time constraints with that delivery (it arrived the day this review was published), I ended up having to order the 1TB version myself anyway.

If you want 17 pages of lab conditioned benchmarks, you're better off going somewhere like Tom's Hardware. I am not going to pretend I am an authority on CPUs, this is my first review of such hardware. However I should mention that I have been tinkering with self-builds since the 90s, and have built my own systems using Cyrix, AMD, and Intel CPUs. I am not going to kid myself by trying to look like Tom's Hardware, so instead, I've decided to do a comparison to another flagship processor, which is the AMD 7950X3D.

For our benchmarks, hwinfo.com provided a commercial license of HWiNFO, and UL Solutions provided us with Professional (commercial use) licenses for 3DMark, PCMark 10, and Procyon.

Introduction

The 14th generation of Intel's Core desktop processors, which were officially released yesterday, are a refresh of Raptor Lake-S, and really need no introduction. They are based on the same LGA1700 socket design of the 12th and 13th generation. They support both DDR4 and DDR5 memory using the Z690 or Z790 chipsets. Yes it's recommended you get an x90 chipset board as Intel's chips are quite power-hungry as we'll see later, and so something with robust power delivery with heatsinks help.

They even ship with the same iGPU (Intel UHD Graphics 770) as the 13th generation, offering 32 EUs. The full specs of the 14th Gen Core i9 and i5 are listed below.

Building the beast

Test system

• Intel Core i9-14900K or Core i5-14600K
• ASUS ROG STRIX Z790-H GAMING WIFI (BIOS v1402)
• ASUS ROG STRIX 850W Gold
• Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE ARGB CPU Air Cooler
• Coolermaster Thermal Pad 0.5mm (used with i5-14600K)
• Carbonaut thermal grizzly 0.2mm (used with i9-14900K)
• 2x 16GB Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR5 6000MT/s in XMP
• Sabrent 1TB Rocket 4 Plus-G (PCIe 4.0)
• MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Ventus 3X
• OS: Windows 11 Professional Build 22621.2468 (Moment 4)
• dGPU driver: Nvidia driver 538.58
• iGPU driver: 31.0.15.3758

Reference System

• AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D
• ASRock X670E Steel Legend (BIOS v1.28)
• be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 850W
• NZXT Kraken Elite 360 RGB
• 2x 32GB Kingston Fury Beast RGB DDR5 @ 6000MT/s in EXPO
• WD Black SN850X 1TB
• MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Ventus 3X
• OS: Windows 11 Professional Build 22621.2468 (Moment 4)
• dGPU driver: Nvidia driver 538.58
• iGPU driver: 22.40.70

As you can see above, only the MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Ventus 3X was used between both systems, (I do not have two of these cards!) this was to see how the CPUs complimented the same dGPU in some of the benchmarks, and Game Mode was on in Windows 11. Perhaps to try and be completely fair™, the top, and glass side panel of the Lian Li O11 Dynamic EVO case were removed from the AMD system as well, but also due to GPU swapping, essentially making it an open plan system too.

My test hardware was open plan, and as mentioned in the hardware specs above, I ensured that I had the latest stable BIOS, firmware and drivers from the respective hardware manufacturers. Resizeable BAR was enabled (default BIOS setting) as was MultiCore Enhancement (MCE), which was on Auto by default, and which showed it as "Enabled". On a similar note, Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) was set to "Advanced" on our AMD system which is also the default setting.

Essentially, we ran everything on the default settings since that was the idea as the average user won't go into BIOS immediately to play around with the settings.

As you may also be able to see from the above picture, I was only able to fit one fan on the cooler, in an ideal world I would have preferred the heatsink to have a little more height. I needed another 1.7cm to properly clear the internal IO shield cover (pic). In hindsight, maybe I should have added it anyway, despite how it looks, and not fully covering that side of the heatsink.

I resisted to using thermal paste, one: because of the mess, and secondly, because it's not part of my day job to be swapping around CPUs multiple times a week. In addition, I looked into it and with Sayan's help discovered that the right thermal pads offer almost as good thermal conductivity for CPUs while also not being messy and prone to potentially harming the pins on the socket if some of it finds itself there.

First up, I ordered a CoolerMaster Thermal Pad 0.5mm to use with the Core i5-14600K tests, and which offered a conduction rate of 13.3 W/mK (watts per meter kelvin). The higher the W/mK value, the more the thermal coupling (heat dissipation rate) is between the CPU's integrated heat spreader (IHS) and the cooler. Essentially, the more the thermal conductivity value of a thermal interface material, the more efficient it is (source).

The pad was large enough at 95mm x 45mm to be cut into three portions. The first time I messed up by tearing it before it could be applied to the CPU (this stuff is somewhat difficult to handle) and the CoolerMaster Thermal Pad is sort of like a sheet of dried thermal paste/clay-like substance, and so very easy to rip and fold, making it impossible to unfold due to the stickyness of the material.

Left: CoolerMaster Thermal Pad (after use) | Right: Carbonaut thermal grizzly (before use)

We attempted to use the CoolerMaster Thermal Pad with the Core i9-14900K as well, but we kept seeing the CPU throttling in tests, so it was decided to order the Carbonaut thermal grizzly, which offers 62.5 W/mK, and is basically the "chef's kiss" of thermal conductivity as far as thermal pads are concerned.

When handling any of the hardware, I always used an anti-static band. I even ordered a cable that let me power on, reset, and see the status of HDD and Power LEDs, so I didn't have to use a screwdriver on the pins.

Benchmarks

First up, we tested the integrated graphics processing unit (iGPU) between the two CPUs. The i5 and i9 both use Intel UHD Graphics 770 which has 32 EU (Execution Units). Team Red uses AMD Radeon RDNA 2 graphics with 2 Compute Units (CUs).

First up, we played Jellyfish MKV 400 Mbps HEVC (H.265) Main10 file @ 3840x2160 (scaled to 1440p) in VideoLAN Player and monitored the max and average percentage usages during video decoding in HWiNFO64. It's clear to see that Intel takes the crown as far as integrated graphics' media decoding capabilities are concerned.

We did not stop there and also attempted two other videos with different codecs. We played Big Buck Bunny which is AV1, and LG Ink Art 4K60 which is VP9 on YouTube and monitored the video decode max and averages, again using HWiNFO.

It's clear that it's a cakewalk for the Intel UHD Graphics 770, leaving AMD Radeon Graphics in the dust.

One thing noteworthy was that the sensors on Intel's iGPU also recorded a "video processing" data in the YouTube videos that AMD does not. So, the Intel vs AMD data may not be exactly comparable as we are not sure how they are going about their duties here. However, it is clear from the Jellyfish 400Mbps demo that Intel's media engine is the more capable one. The Intel iGPUs also exhibited fewer dropped frames when the Jellyfish demo was looping.

Finally, we tested the iGPU with 3DMark to assess the gaming capabilities. Again, we can see that Intel is leaps and bounds better in the integrated graphics department. The UHD 770 is just more capable than what AMD offers with its 2CU RDNA 2.

Up next, we moved to test scenarios with a discrete GPU (dGPU) on board. The following benchmarks were done with an MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Ventus 3X in the system.

Here we can see the AMD 7950X3D losing to both Raptor Lake-S refresh processors in the CPU score. Do keep in mind that Time Spy's physics seems to favor clock speeds over cache and hence the 14900K, and also the 14600K, are easily able to outpace the 7950X3D. Scaling to 16+ threads is also not happening on the X3D as you will see later in the CPU Profile test.

It's somewhat of the same story with Fire Strike Extreme, which tests DirectX 11 gameplay.

Here, on PCMark 10, we can see some impressive scoring by the Core i9-14900K, but it's apparent that the 7950X3D can hold its own against the newer generation, beating the i9 by a considerable margin with the Photo Editing test, but losing to both Intel chips in the Rendering and Visualisation test.

If you are wondering, the first data point on each of the above PCMark graphs is the overall combined score in that test.

The new Cinebench 2024 holds no surprises either, with scores around about where you'd expect to find them. Rendering tests like this leverage all available threads which is why both the i9 and the Ryzen 9 are significantly faster than the i5.

Next, we measured the max VRM (voltage regulator module) temperatures and power consumption of each chip while Cinebench 2024 was able to complete. Here we can see the efficiency of the 7950X3D at work, with Intel's flagship needing 108.5W (over 75%) more to achieve its score. Even the i5 was consuming more than the AMD chip while being much slower. Ambient room temperature was around, but no more than 20C.

In UL's CPU profiling test, again the Core i9-14900K shows its superiority in terms of scaling beyond 16 threads.

If we were to guess, it looks like the AMD 7950X3D, due to how the chipset driver handles the CCDs in gaming-like workloads like this test, does not scale at all above 16 threads. This is quite the contrary to what we saw in Cinebench (above) where the 7950X3D scales very nicely and almost keeps up with the 14900K.

In UL Procyon we used the AI Inference Benchmark which uses the Windows Machine Learning API. This was run to complement the PCMark 10 above which assessed performance in more traditional workloads. The default precision is set to FP32 (float32) and we proceeded with that.

Although we were able to complete the test with the AMD 7950X3D and twice using the i5-14600K, after repeated attempts, we were unable to get past the Deeplab V3 test with the i9, on which it failed. I reached out to my contact at UL and provided them with our findings, which included thermal throttling at the end of each test that may not have been recorded properly (as HWiNFO showed different data). And we will update once we know more.

Last but not least, we also benchmarked 7-Zip compression and decompression which measures in GIPS (billion instructions per second). Here we can see that AMD holds the crown for both scenarios.

Conclusion

This has certainly been a journey for me, and the one thing that I have taken away from this past week is that Intel runs hot! You need a really good cooling solution with the i9. When not under load I was seeing lows of 28C and averages of 33C which were in the range that the i5 idled at too, and even lower than the 39C of my 7950X3D which is liquid cooled.

Then there's the power use. As a European, we've had to get used to the idea of turning off lights in empty rooms and watching our power use thanks to the rising costs of our energy bills. One thing that will be on the minds of everyone on this side of the Atlantic when building a new high-end system, are questions like, "is it energy efficient?" This isn't. One of the major contributing decision for me to switch to AMD was the fact that it is super energy efficient, so much so that it costs half to power than my older 9th-gen Intel build.

The 14th gen Raptor Lake-S chips are beasts, Intel clearly took on AMD's flagship in the speed department and won. Intel loyalists will probably tell you it's better in every way, the benchmarks prove it. If you can cool it, and afford it, then you have a new gaming king of a processor with the i9.

However, let's not forget the i5 as well. This chip also proved itself in the benchmarks that it can hold its own against AMD's flagship in a number of tests, and coupled with a decent card like the 4070Ti, you have yourself a more than adequate gaming system at considerably less cost than an i9 and 4090 system. I've never been in the position to afford Nvidia's top card, but the i5 tests also prove that when coupled with an 4070 Ti, it can run (almost) everything on Ultra.

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When Intel released the now previous-gen Raptor Lake processors, everyone was expecting a huge increase in performance. While the top of the line processors in the Raptor Lake series did offer great performance, that wasn’t the case for all the processors in the line-up.

The reason why the performance increase across the line wasn’t seen was because many CPUs in the Raptor Lake series, especially the cheaper ones, were actually just a refresh of the then previous-gen Alder Lake series.

So after Raptor Lake was released, everyone thought that maybe Intel will give everyone a great upgrade by releasing Meteor Lake, which is going to be the biggest upgrade Intel has made in 40 years. But to everyone’s disappointment, Meteor Lake is not going to release on desktops. Meteor Lake CPUs will release only on notebooks and other mobile computers.

So what will desktop users get instead. The desktop users are going to get Intel Raptor Lake Refresh instead. These refresh CPUs are nothing but an improved version of the same CPUs found in the Raptor Lake series.

14th-Gen Intel Raptor Lake Refresh Released

After months of rumors, Intel today officially launched the 14th-gen Raptor Lake Refresh series of CPUs. It has revealed all the details about the series in the media presentation (PDF) it has provided.

For now, only 6 processors in the unlocked K series line-up have been launched. They are:

• Intel i9-14900K and i9-14900KF with 24 (8P+16E) cores, 32 threads, 36MB L3 cache, up to 6.0GHz clock, 253W max turbo power. They would cost $589 and $564 respectively.
• Intel i7-14700K and i7-14700KF with 20 (8P+12E) cores, 28 threads, 33MB L3 cache, up to 5.6GHz clock, 253W max turbo power. They would cost $409 and $384 respectively.
• Intel i5-14600K and i5-14600KF with 14 (6P+8E) cores, 20 threads, 24MB L3 cache, up to 5.3GHz clock, 181W max turbo power. They would cost $319and $294 respectively.

All these processors will support 20 total PCIe CPU lanes (like one x16 for graphics card and one x4 for SSD). They will also support both DDR4 RAM up to 3200MHz and DDR5 RAM up to 5600Mhz. With total RAM storage capacity up to 192GB.

As per the official presentation, Intel says this about the new Raptor Lake Refresh series:

Intel’s advanced performance hybrid architecture continues to deliver the compute performance enthusiasts demand in their day-to-day workflows:

• The Ultimate Gaming Platform: Intel Core 14th Gen processors power an immersive gaming experience with up to 23% gaming performance uplift compared to leading competitor processors, while new gaming-focused features like Intel® Application Optimization (APO) ensure better-than-ever application threading alongside existing Intel® Thread Director application thread scheduling^6,7.
• Continued Overclocking Leadership: Intel Core 14th Gen unlocked processors continue to offer an unparalleled overclocking experience for everyone – from experts to beginners2. Latest-generation unlocked desktop processors now include the new Intel® XTU AI Assist feature for AI guided overclocking, as well as support for DDR5 XMP speeds well beyond 8,000 megatransfers/second (MT/S).
• Best-in-Class Connectivity: Intel’s latest desktop processor family comes equipped with integrated support for Wi-Fi 6/6E and Bluetooth® 5.3, as well as discrete support for new Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 wireless technologies. Additionally, Intel Core 14th Gen desktop processors include support for Thunderbolt™ 4 as well as upcoming Thunderbolt 5 wired connectivity – supporting up to 80 Gbps of bi-directional bandwidth⁸.
• Compatibility with 600/700-series Chipsets: Intel Core 14th Gen desktop processors remain compatible with both Intel 600 and 700 series chipsets, giving enthusiasts the ability to easily upgrade their existing systems and enjoy latest-generation gaming and creator performance.

Intel 14th-Gen Raptor Lake Refresh Performance

The reviews for the Intel 14th-Gen Raptor Lake Refresh aren’t out yet. At least at the time of writing this article, we aren’t aware of such. They will be available tomorrow.

We can however rely on the performance benchmarks provided by Intel themselves. As per the official gaming benchmarks provided by Intel, the i9-14900K is up to 23% faster than the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D processor in some games, while also being up to 23% slower in some games against the same.

This was tested at 1080p resolution, which is the best resolution to test CPUs. Having said, until the CPUs are tested by review sites, nothing can be said for sure.

Intel also claims this series is 54% faster in creator workflow. But that’s misleading. This is because they compared i7-14700K vs i7-12700K processors. Both are completely different CPUs now. While i7-14700K comes with 8P cores and 12E cores, i7-12700K came with 8P cores and 4E cores. These additional 8 E-cores can play a big role in professional software benchmarks.

Conclusion

Just days ago, the internet was filled with rumors that Intel would, in-fact, increase the price of the 14th-gen Raptor Lake Refresh series processors. That rumor turned out to be completely false. That’s because the price of these CPUs have been revealed to be the same as previous-gen. Which is a good thing, as a refresh series doesn’t require an increase in cost. As for the processors themselves, only the unlocked K series is released for now.

As we had shared in July this year, the rumor about the increase in the core count for the i7 version has come out to be completely true. In-fact, that’s the only processor in the series worth checking out, both for the buyers and reviewers. Otherwise, all other processors are the same, with just 100MHz to 200MHz increase in CPU clock rates.

Many reviewers like the TechPowerUP and Andreas Schilling (Twitter) from HardwareLuxx.de have gotten their hands on the Intel Media Kit with these processors. Expect them and many others to release their reviews tomorrow.

Without checking the reviews, if one asks whether they should upgrade from Alder Lake or Raptor Lake, we would say no. However, if they are upgrading from 11th-gen or before, then they can consider them. Why we don’t recommend it outright is that the 14th-gen Raptor Lake Refresh is the last processor series in the LGA1700 socket, as Arrow Lake and later will be based on an entirely new LGA1851 socket. This leaves no room for a CPU upgrade on the same PC.

Meanwhile, there are rumors that future Intel processors which would release two or more years later will ditch Hyper-Threading entirely and will replace them with Rentable Unit instead, but more on that can come only later when Intel gives more information about it.

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“Since the introduction of our performance hybrid architecture, Intel has consistently raised the bar for desktop performance. With our Intel Core 14th Generation processors, we’re showing once again why enthusiasts turn to Intel for the best desktop experience available on the market today.”

The lineup consists of three unlocked models (plus iGPU-less KF variants) with up to 24 cores and 6GHz max clocks. The Core i7-14700K model received four extra E-cores, bumping the spec up to 8 P-cores and 12-E cores for 20 cores and 28 threads. Intel claims the change results in significant performance gains in multi-threaded workloads.

Overall, the new lineup promises up to 23% gaming performance uplift compared to "leading competitor processors," AI-assisted overclocking, and improved DDR5 memory support. Additionally, the 14th-gen lineup maintains compatibility with DDR4 RAM on compatible motherboards with 600 or 700 Chipsets. Therefore, you can upgrade your existing rig without spending on a new board or RAM.

Additional features include integrated support for Wi-Fi 6/6E, Bluetooth 5.3, Thunderbolt 4, and the upcoming Thunderbolt 5. Besides, you can pair new processors with discrete Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 network cards.

Here are detailed specs:

The Intel Core 14th-gen processor lineup will be available on October 17, 2023.

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What you need to know

• Empire of the Ants is developed by Tower Five and published by Microids.
• The game uses Unreal 5 to bring photorealism to a strategy game based on the book Empire of the Ants by Bernard Werber.

If you played Grounded and thought to yourself "this game is great, but it could use more ants" then it is your lucky day. There's a new, photo-realistic strategy and simulation game from on the way from Tower Five and Microids. Empire of the Ants is based on a book of the same name by Bernard Werber, taking players into the heart of a French Forest as they become a tiny ant named 103 683rd. 

Tower Five and Microids have harnessed the power of Unreal Engine 5 to provide 103 683rd a stunningly photo-realistic world which players can explore as they go off on an epic adventure in an effort to improve the life of their colony. The forest itself is alive with not just ants but a multitude of creatures players can encounter and interact with, set among lush foliage in a world that changes with time and seasons. 

The story's narrative is set to Nature's rhythm, and players will need to take that into account when creating their strategy to help 103 683rd advance his units of fellow insects toward more prosperous horizons. 

At its core, Empire of the Ants is a strategy game where players will need to carefully plan their way through strategic battles so that their ant colony can dominate. Players will need to explore, engage in combat, and create alliances with other wildlife if they want to succeed at overcoming the challenges Nature has to offer. 

Empire of the Ants is not merely an ant colony simulator, however, as the game is closely aligned to the Bernard Werber's novel, which reflects on a relatable and human story through the tale of 103 683rd and their fellow insects.

Microids did not detail any plans to bring Empire of the Ants to Xbox when it releases in 2024, though it did express the game was coming to "PC and consoles". It is available to wishlist now on Steam, Epic Games Store, GOG, and the PlayStation store, however. 

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While researching the economics of clean energy innovation, I came across a little-known story: that of Canadian inventor George Cove, one of the world's first renewable energy entrepreneurs. Cove invented household solar panels that looked uncannily similar to the ones being installed in homes today—they even had a rudimentary battery to keep power running when the sun wasn't shining. Except this wasn't in the 1970s. Or even the 1950s. This was in 1905.

Cove's company, Sun Electric Generator Corporation, based in New York, was capitalized at US$5 million (around US$160 million in today's money). By 1909, the idea had gained widespread media attention. Modern Electric magazine highlighted how "given two days' sun… [the device] will store sufficient electrical energy to light an ordinary house for a week."

It noted how cheap solar energy could liberate people from poverty, "bringing them cheap light, heat and power, and freeing the multitude from the constant struggle for bread." The piece went on to speculate how even airplanes could be powered by batteries charged by the sun. A clean energy future seemed to be there for the taking.

Vested interests?

Then, according to a report in The New York Herald on 19 October 1909, Cove was kidnapped. The condition for his release required forgoing his solar patent and shutting down the company. Cove refused and was later released near the Bronx Zoo.

But after this incident, his solar business fizzled out. Which seems odd—in the years before the kidnapping, he had developed several iterations of the solar device, improving it each time.

I can't say with certainty if vested interests were behind it. Some at the time accused Cove of staging the kidnapping for publicity, although this would seem out of character, especially since there was no shortage of media attention. Other sources suggest that a former investor may have been behind it.

What is well-known though, is that fledgling fossil fuel companies commonly deployed unscrupulous practices towards their competitors. And solar was a threat as it is an inherently democratic technology—everyone has access to the sun—which can empower citizens and communities, unlike fossil fuels which necessitate empire-building.

Standard Oil, led by the world's first billionaire John D Rockefeller, squashed competition so thoroughly that it compelled the government to introduce antitrust laws to combat monopolies.

Similarly, legendary inventor Thomas Edison electrocuted horses, farm animals and even a human on death row using his rival Nikola Tesla's alternating current to show how dangerous it was, so that Edison's own technology, the direct current, would be favored. Cove's Sun Electric, with its off-grid solar, would have harmed Edison's business case for building out the electric power grid using coal-fired power.

While some scattered efforts in solar development occurred after Cove's kidnapping, there were no major commercial activities for the next four decades until the concept was revived by Bell Labs, the research branch of Bell Telephone Company in the US. In the meantime, coal and oil grew at an unprecedented pace and were supported through taxpayer dollars and government policy. The climate crisis was arguably underway.

Four lost decades

When I discovered Cove's story, I wanted to know what the world lost in those 40 years, and ran a thought experiment. I used a concept called Wright's law, which has applied to most renewables—it's the idea that as production increases, costs decline due to process improvements and learning.

I applied this to calculate the year solar would have become cheaper than coal. To do this, I assumed solar power grew modestly between 1910 and 1950, and worked out how this additional "experience" would have translated into cost declines sooner.

In a world in which Cove succeeded and solar competed with fossil fuels from the get go, it would have trumped coal by as early as 1997—when Bill Clinton was president and the Spice Girls were in their heyday. In reality, this event occurred in 2017.

An alternate century

Of course, this still assumes that the energy system would have been the same. It is possible that if solar were around from 1910 and never disappeared, the entire trajectory of energy innovation could have been very different—for example, maybe more research money would have been directed towards batteries to support decentralized solar. The electric grid and railways that were used to support the coal economy would have received far less investment.

Alternatively, more recent advances in manufacturing may have been essential for solar's take-off and Cove's continued work would not have resulted in a major change. Ultimately, it is impossible to know exactly what path humanity would have taken, but I wager that avoiding a 40-year break in solar power's development could have spared the world huge amounts of carbon emissions.

While it might feel painful to ponder this great "what if" as the climate breaks down in front of our eyes, it can arm us with something useful: the knowledge that drawing energy from the sun is nothing radical or even new. It's an idea as old as fossil fuel companies themselves.

The continued dominance of fossil fuels into the 21st century was not inevitable—it was a choice, just not one many of us had a say in. Fossil fuels were supported initially because we did not understand their deadly environmental impacts and later because the lobby had grown so powerful that it resisted change.

But there is hope: solar energy now provides some of the cheapest electricity humanity has ever seen, and the costs are continuing to plummet with deployment. The faster we go, the more we save. If we embrace the spirit of optimism seen during Cove's time and make the right technology choices, we can still reach the sun-powered world he envisioned all those years ago.

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Table of contents:

1. Windows 11 news
2. Updates are available
3. Gaming news
4. A blast from Microsoft's past
5. Random fact about Microsoft

Windows 11

Here we talk about everything happening around Microsoft's latest operating system in the Stable channel and preview builds: new features, removed features, controversies, bugs, interesting findings, and more. And of course, you may find a word or two about older but still supported versions.

The latest Patch Tuesday updates kick off the Windows 11 section with the following releases:

• KB5031354 for Windows 11 version 22H2 (build 22621.2428) with some Moment 4 changes and new features. The updated File Explorer is not there (expect it later next month), but you can already compare its latest upgrades with what users wanted Microsoft to do.
• KB5031356 for Windows 10 (build 19044.3570 and 19045.3570) with security patches. Windows 10 also received a components service update with a "new user interface (UI) functionality for Windows Update."

Microsoft has also updated the official Windows Health Dashboard website with details about a newly discovered bug. According to the company, BitLocker might incorrectly receive a 65000 error in MDMs. However, the problem does not affect drive encryption, and you can bypass it by changing a few policies. Note that the bug does not affect non-managed devices or systems not using BitLocker encryption.

Windows 10 also has a fair share of troubles. Microsoft has confirmed that some users may experience problems downloading the latest Patch Tuesday updates (KB5031356). Error 8007000D ERROR_INVALID_DATA might prevent you from getting your system to the newest release. Fortunately, there is a relatively quick and easy fix.

It is also worth noting that the original Windows 11 release, version 21H2 from October 2021, is now unsupported. Microsoft no longer provides security patches and bug-fixing updates for the Home and Professional Edition. If your PC runs Windows 11 version 21H2 Home or Professional, it is time to update to a newer version and discover plenty of great changes and new features it contains.

Windows NTLM (NT LAN Manager) is another Windows-related thing Microsoft plans to ditch. The company published a blog post detailing the expansion of Kerberos, its main authentication protocol used by hundreds of millions of users for more than 20 years. Although some businesses and organizations still use NTLM, Microsoft wants to retire the standard because it does not require a local network connection to a Domain Controller, and there is no way to know who the target server is.

Windows 11 is infamous for its strict hardware requirements users try to bypass with various commands and methods. This week, curious minds discovered that adding a short switch to the setup.exe file in the Windows 11 setup directory bypasses the hardware requirements check.

What you can no longer bypass is the requirement to use a genuine Windows 10 or 11 key to activate a clean install of Windows 11. This week, Microsoft confirmed that all Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 keys are now blocked from validating any Windows 11 edition or version. If you missed it, those still using the now-unsupported Windows version can no longer update to Windows 10 for free (existing activations will continue working fine). The one-year offer has finally expired, albeit with a seven-year delay. Better late than never.

Windows Insider Program

Microsoft released the following Windows 11 preview builds for testing this week:

• Dev Channel: 23565 with the new Copilot icon and Windows Spotlight set as the default desktop background.
• Beta Channel: 22635.2483 and 22635.2419 (a two-build week, yay) with some new features added and turned off due to bugs. More importantly, Microsoft has finally ditched the two-build update system and merged Beta builds into one. Now, you can use a special toggle in Windows Update settings to enable all new features the latest Beta update contains. This change will simplify and make the Windows Insider program easier to understand.
• Release Preview: 22621.2500 with Search Highlights changes and minor fixes across the operating system.

On October 1, 2023, the Windows Insider program marked its ninth anniversary. To celebrate the occasion, Microsoft released two weird-looking wallpapers featuring UI elements Windows 11 will most likely never get. You can check out the anniversary wallpaper Microsoft released in 2022 here.

To finish the Windows 11 section, here is an article detailing the top 10 Start menu features and changes Windows 11 users want. This part of the operating system is highly controversial and still sparks heated and hated discussions among users. Especially considering how little change it has received since October 2021.

Updates are available

This section covers software, firmware, and other notable updates (released and coming soon) delivering new features, security fixes, improvements, patches, and more from Microsoft and third parties.

The original Surface Duo and its successor, the Surface Duo 2, received the first unofficial Android 14 ROM. It is based on the raw Android Open-Source Project, so do not expect many optimizations or specific features (except for turning off the hinge gap on the Surface Duo 2). Also, there are plenty of bugs and rough surfaces, so keep that in mind before flashing your Surface Duo.

On the official side, the Surface Pro 7 and Surface Go 2 received the October 2023 firmware update. It improves camera performance and resolves security vulnerabilities. Surface Laptop 3 received charging improvements and a fix for the bug causing a stuck Surface logo when booting. Finally, the SQ1 and SQ2 configurations of the Surface Pro X lineup got a patch to resolve disconnecting keyboards. It's time to visit Windows Update if you own one of those Surface PCs.

Following the less-than-positive feedback from users about the recently announced OneDrive changes, Microsoft decided to undo the damage and revoke the controversial feature with counting users' photos multiple times when added to different albums. Here is what Microsoft has said:

On August 31, 2023, we began to communicate an upcoming update to our cloud storage infrastructure that would result in a change in how OneDrive photos and photo albums data is counted against your overall cloud storage quota.

 

This change was scheduled to start rolling out on October 16, 2023. Based on the feedback we received, we have adjusted our approach, we will no longer roll out this update.

 

We will maintain the current photo album experience, as it is today.

Other notable updates released this week include the following:

• Office Insiders can add checkboxes to cells in Excel. According to Microsoft, this was one of the most requested features for Excel, and now you can try it by enrolling your device in the Microsoft 365 Insider program.
• The UUP Media Creator project received a small bug-fixing update to resolve problems with downloading the latest Windows 11 Moment 4 update files.
• Microsoft Edge Dev 119.0.2151.2 with tab grouping and video overlay improvements.
• Rufus 4.3 Beta with Windows in S Mode installation, NTFS enforcing for Linux, and more.
• Microsoft Edge 118 in the Stable Channel as a part of its four-week release schedule. The latest release includes a new Microsoft Edge for Business Banner, an AI upgrade for the Find on Page feature (it sends some bits to Microsoft, so you might want to turn it off), new policies, and security fixes.

Here are the drivers released this week:

• NVIDIA 537.58 WHQL with support for Forza Motorsport, Call of Duty Modern Warfare III Open Beta, and Lords of the Fallen.
• Intel Arc 31.0.1014887 with support for the new Arc A580 GPU and optimizations for Call of Duty Modern Warfare III Open Beta, Total War: PHARAOH, and Lords of the Fallen.
• Intel Wi-Fi 23.0.5 with the initial support for Wi-Fi 7 network cards from Intel.
• AMD Radeon Software 23.10.1 with Assassin's Creed Mirage and Lords of the Fallen support.

Finally, here is Microsoft 365 Roadmap Weekly covering the latest features coming soon to Microsoft's productivity applications, such as Copilot in Office apps, Loop in Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Stream improvements, and more.

On the gaming side

Learn about upcoming game releases, Xbox rumors, new hardware, software updates, freebies, deals, discounts and more.

We may still be far from the leaked Xbox Series X|S refresh, which is scheduled for the second half of 2024, but the company is not sitting and doing nothing regarding hardware announcements. This week, the company unveiled a new Xbox Starter Bundle. It includes the 500GB white Xbox Series S, a wireless controller, and a code for three months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. The best part? The price is still the same, $299.99, which means the bundle can save you $50 on three months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Steal!

Starfield, one of Microsoft's biggest and hottest new IPs, received another update. It introduced an FOV slider and optimizations for those playing the game on Intel's Arc graphics cards. You can find the complete changelog for Starfield version 1.7.36 here.

Following the approval from the UK's CMA, Microsoft finally closed the merger with Activision-Blizzard, which means users now expect the company to add popular ABK titles to its PC and Xbox Game Pass catalogs. Although the publisher ruled out adding Diablo IV and the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III to the service, other games should land in the subscription much earlier than we expected. A newly published report claims gamers can expect "a ton of new games hit Xbox Game Pass the very minute the deal is finished."

Interestingly, the FTC still thinks the deal threatens competition. Therefore, we may hear more interesting stories revolving around the troublesome acquisition in the near future. Conversely, Microsoft may please the regulators by giving developers and customers more choices. Phil Spencer revealed in an interview that the company is open to the idea of launching a "Steam of mobile" app store for iOS and Android. The just-acquired mobile titles like Call of Duty Mobile, Diablo Immortal, and Candy Crush will help Microsoft cement its position in the mobile gaming market and increase its push on competitors.

This week, NVIDIA revealed its plans to increase the price of its GeForce NOW streaming service in Europe and Canada starting November 1. However, the US price will remain unchanged. Get ready to pay NVIDIA more if you use the service in the affected countries. At least it continues getting new games: 22 new titles, including Forza Motorsport, are now playable on NVIDIA's GeForce NOW.

Deals and Freebies

There are no price increases in our Deals and Freebies section. Our Weekend PC Game Deals are here with first-person shooters to try, an entire festival of free demos, and a few big deals on critically acclaimed titles, such as No Man's Sky, SUPERHOT VR, Battlefield 1, Little Nightmares, and more.

The Epic Games Store also gives away Q.U.B.E Ultimate Bundle and Blazing Sails. The offer is valid until the upcoming Thursday.

A blast from Microsoft's past

John Callaham's weekly "Look back" series provides throwbacks into the past, detailing the company's products, partnerships, mishaps, and successes from years ago.

This week's look-back article is about Age of Empires Online and the current fan-run revival. Age of Empires Online was a free-to-play multiplayer real-time strategy game developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was released in 2011 and shut down in 2014.

Despite its short lifespan, Age of Empires Online had a dedicated fan base. In 2017, a group of fans decided to revive the game under the Project Celeste title. The game is completely free to play and is being run under Microsoft's Game Content Usage Rules but without any involvement or endorsements from Microsoft. You can read more about the project here.

Microsoft Solitaire, another legendary game developed by the software giant, marked its 33rd anniversary. Here is another look-back article detailing how Microsoft released the game in 1990 as a part of Windows 3.0.

Random fact about Microsoft

And here is a randomly selected piece of trivia about the company, Windows, and other Microsoft-made things.

Microsoft was never a big or notable player in the smartwatch market. You may have heard about Microsoft Band (or even owned one), but did you know that the software giant released its first smartwatch long before the category became mainstream? The Timex Datalink 150 was co-developed by Timex and Microsoft as a wearable mini-computer and an alternative to personal digital assistants (PDAs).

Unlike the Apple Watch and its lookalikes, the Timex Datalink required pairing with a Windows 3.1-based PC, not a phone. It could display messages, appointments, and other data synced from your computer. Sadly, despite being a groundbreaking product for its time, the Datalink watch series was not a commercial success. However, NASA certified the Timex Datalink for space missions, resulting in astronauts wearing the device in space.

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The critical response to Minecraft Legends was very much on the average scale. with a 71 out of 100 score on Metacritic. However, the development team has been busy updating the game since the launch. It has added features such as custom campaign and PVP modes, showing the controls and UI on on screen, pillars of light for waypoints, improved pathfinding, and even the ability to pet animals in the game.

During today's Minecraft Live event, it was announced that players of Minecraft Legends can look forward to other updates. Two new "Lost Legends" events in the game will be coming soon. The first is “Creeper Clash” which will be available in just a few days on October 19, in a Halloween-themed event. A winter holiday Lost Legends event, "Snow vs Snout” is coming in December

Also in December, Minecraf Legend will get some other new features. They will include new units like frogs, a new piglin unit and structure, and some new witch allies who can throw potions at enemies.

Craig Leigh, Principal Design Director for Mojang Studios is quoted as saying:

It's been a busy year for the Minecraft Legends team! After a successful launch in April, we turned to our fantastic community to understand what they were enjoying, what needed to be improved, and what we could add to make the game better. Over the last 6 months the team have focused on greatly improving key systems and adding brand new features. We're excited to see the community's reaction to the new content announced at Minecraft Live.

Minecraft Legends is available now for Xbox, PC, PlayStation, and Switch platforms. Its also available on Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass.

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The Crafter. For the first time, automated crafting is coming to Minecraft. A new feature that will be of particular interest for redstone engineers, the Crafter also includes a unique intuitive UI to help players new to redstone understand the feature’s mechanics. This intuitive UI introduces toggleable slots to the crafting grid meaning if an empty slot is clicked with an empty hand, the slot becomes disabled. If a disabled slot is clicked, it becomes enabled to define your crafting recipe.

 

Trial chambers. Procedurally generated structures underground, the trials chambers present a unique challenge (including a new hostile mob!) for players to overcome. The combat trial chambers are generated using new copper block sets, Tuff block sets and copper bulbs.

 

Copper Bulb. These new light-emitting blocks are made from copper and like other Copper blocks, can oxidize over time, be waxed, and scraped with an axe. The light level it emits depends on the oxidation stage - the more oxidized it is the dimmer it becomes!

 

Trial Spawner. This new type of spawner will not spawn additional mobs for an extended period after it has spawned a specified target count of mobs, different than standard mob spawners. The spawner also rewards players by ejecting its loot. Trial Spawners will adjust some of their parameters dynamically based on how many players are nearby.

 

The Breeze. The newest hostile mob added to Minecraft, the Breeze is found in the Combat Trial Chambers, a challenge for players braving the chambers. The Breeze moves by jumping and shoots projectiles of wind energy that explode on impact, like how Blazes shoot fireballs. If it collides with a player or entity, it explodes immediately. These explosions cover a blast radius of a few cubic blocks, deal a small amount of damage, and knock back all entities in the area. They have a new particle indicating what's happening, differentiating it from a typical damage explosion.

Agnes Larsson, the Vanilla Minecraft Game Director, stated:

We’re excited to see our community’s reaction to the new features announced at Minecraft Live. This update is a precious mix of exciting adventures, combat trials and tinkering - we believe it adds something delightful for lots of different kinds of play styles! Long-term we want to evolve Minecraft for every play style and we’re looking forward to continue creating update 1.21 together with our community.

The Minecraft Vanilla 1.21 update is due out sometime in mid-2024

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The new sales milestone reveal includes a quote from Helen Chiang, CVP of the Minecraft Franchise and Head of Mojang Studios:

As we approach the 15th anniversary, Minecraft remains one of the best-selling games of all time, with over 300 million copies sold, a milestone no one could have dreamed of when we were all placing our first blocks. Our incredible community has built Minecraft into what it is today and what it will become in the future. We can't wait to share new Minecraft content and experiences in the years ahead.

Indeed, the idea that a game that was basically created as a freeform title where you used blocks to build structures would sell hundreds of millions of copies in less than 15 years was likely not on the mind of its creator, Markus "Notch" Persson.

As this Wired article stated back in 2012, Persson created Minecraft just for fun in May 2009. The article stated:

Over the course of a weekend in May, he wrote a basic game, which mashed up others such as Dwarf Fortress and Infiniminer into something entirely its own, and mentioned it on the TIGSource forum -- a site for independent games players and creators. A month later, he charged people €10 (£8) to download the game. Minecraft sold 40 copies that first weekend.

For many indie game developers, selling a game and getting 40 people to purchase it over one weekend would be a huge accomplishment. However, word of mouth quickly began to grow about Minecraft over Reddit and other online communities. In 2010, Perrson formed Mojang Studios to keep developing the game. In December 2020, it reached its beta stage and in November 2011 it finally ditched its labels with a 1.0 release.

The game also kept selling and selling just on the PC platform. In January 2011 Minecraft reached the 1 million sales milestone. Only a few months later, in August 2011, it reached 3 million copies. Mojang also started selling copies of the game on iOS and Android.

Microsoft then got interested in Minecraft and wanted a console exclusive with its Xbox 360. It announced it would bring the game to the Xbox 360 at E3 in 2011 and in May 2012 the Xbox 360 port was released. As expected, it was a huge hit out of the gate with over 1 million copies sold just a few days after launch.

In September 2014, rumors started hitting the interwebs claiming Microsoft was interested in buying Mojang and the Minecraft franchise. Those rumors were confirmed later in the month as Microsoft announced it had acquired Mojang and the Minecraft franchise for $2.5 billion. Persson also departed the studio, and the game he created, as part of the deal.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and former CEO Steve Ballmer were still on the company's board of directors when the decision was made to purchase Minecraft by its current CEO Satya Nadella. In his book Hit Refresh in 2017, Nadella wrote:

Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, who were still on the board when the deal was presented, later laughed and said they had initially scratched their heads, failing to understand the wisdom of the move. Now they get it.

It's safe to say that the Minecraft purchase by Microsoft was one of its best acquisitions. Not only has the game itself continued to sell well across tons of different platforms, but the company has spun off its success into different game genres and even into merchandising like toys, Nerf-style weapons, and more. And of course, there's that long in-development movie version which hopefully will go into production soon after the current Hollywood actor strike ends.

In the meantime, Microsoft has plans to celebrate Minecraft's 15th anniversary in 2024. It sent over a quote from Kayleen Walters, Head of Franchise Development at Mojang Studios:

As we mark our 15th year, we at Minecraft want to express our gratitude to our passionate Minecraft community. It is our community’s creativity and dedication that has helped shape this world into something extraordinary. As we kick off this milestone year, we eagerly look forward to honoring and celebrating your contributions, stories and adventures. Thank you for 15 amazing years of crafting, building and exploring together. Stay tuned for more updates and surprises in 2024!

It will be interesting to see how Minecraft evolves over the next 15 years.

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What is new in the October 2023 firmware update for the Surface Laptop 3?

• Improves device charging performance and stability.

   

• Improves external monitor stability when attached through dock.

   

• Improves pen inking.

   

• Resolves a device booting to Surface logo issue.

Here is the list of new drivers:

Here is extra information about the release:

All Surface Laptop 3 configurations (13 and 15-inch with Intel and AMD processors) have a little less than 5-year lifecycle. According to Microsoft, the computer will reach the end of its life on July 30, 2024. Modern Surface devices receive support and firmware updates for six years (separate from Windows updates).

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Some artificial intelligence programs are marking images from the war in Israel and Palestine as fake, despite them being real photographs depicting real horrors taking place.

A popular free AI image detector labeled a photo of an infant, body burned, killed in Hamas’ recent attack on Israel as being generated by AI even though it is likely real, 404Media reports.

The image was examined by Hany Farid, a professor at UC Berkeley and one of the world’s leading experts on digitally manipulated images. He says that the image, which was first tweeted by Israel’s official Twitter account, doesn’t show any signs it was created by AI.

The idea that the image was fake was first started by Ben Shapiro, a conservative Jewish commentator who tweeted the accusation Thursday morning. Later in the day, Jackson Hinkle shared the image as well on the platform along with a screenshot from the AI image detection tool “AI or Not” showing the image was fake.

A new context note now added to the tweet notes that the site AI or Not is unreliable at detecting images and gives users different results for the same image.

Farid notes that one of the easiest ways to detect an AI image is how lines appear in it. AI generators currently have issues with creating highly structured shapes and straight lines. Ensuring shadows are consistent with the image is also an easy way to detect an AI image, in that AI often struggles with creating correct shadowing in images.

In both cases for the image in question, the image passes the test. The shadows on the table are consistent with an overhead light source, and the leg on the table is straight.

Farid warms that the tools currently available online aren’t a good way to determine if an image is real or AI-generated, and that even if an image is labeled “real” or “fake” by one of those tools that doesn’t mean the tool’s analysis is accurate.

“It’s a second level of disinformation,” Farid told 404. For now, at least, he warns that we should all be skeptical about results generated by similar tools, because more often than not they might provide inaccurate results.

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Google has plunged the internet into a “spiral of decline”, the co-founder of the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) lab has claimed.

Mustafa Suleyman, the British entrepreneur who co-founded DeepMind, said: “The business model that Google had broke the internet.”

He said search results had become plagued with “clickbait” to keep people “addicted and absorbed on the page as long as possible”.

Information online is “buried at the bottom of a lot of verbiage and guff”, Mr Suleyman argued, so websites can “sell more adverts”, fuelled by Google’s technology.

Mr Suleyman was one of three people who set up pioneering AI lab DeepMind in London 2010. The company was bought by Google for £400m and it has become the cornerstone of the search giant’s AI operations.

Mr Suleyman, 39, quit Google 18 months ago and has since set up a rival venture, Inflection AI. The company is developing a conversational chatbot, similar to ChatGPT, amid a race by AI companies to usurp Google’s dominance of the web.

The entrepreneur has developed a chatbot called Pi, which he says can act as a kind of AI confidante or coach. He has raised more than $1.5bn for the new technology.

The criticism of his former employer came as Mr Suleyman told the Telegraph about plans for a new international body to monitor AI threats.

Mr Suleyman, along with billionaire former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt, plan to present proposals for an International Panel on AI Safety at Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s global summit on the technology next month. 

The DeepMind co-founder said the panel could be “modelled on the IPCC” – the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – to “establish the scientific consensus around the current capabilities” of AI.

Mr Suleyman said the IPCC, which was first set up in 1988, was a “good inspiration” for establishing a “rigorous body” for making predictions about AI risks. Other backers of the plan include Reid Hoffman, the billionaire LinkedIn founder, and Florentino Cuéllar, president of the Carnegie think tank.

The AI panel would provide governments with regular assessments on the level of danger posed by the technology.

The UK’s AI Safety Summit is due to take place at Bletchley Park and is expected to gather world leaders and tech entrepreneurs to address the challenges of “frontier AI” that might cause “significant harm, including the loss of life”.

The two-day summit on Nov 1 and 2 is expected to be attended by top lobbyists from the likes of Meta and Google. Kamala Harris, the US vice president, is expected to attend, while a Chinese delegation has been invited. 

The leaders will try to find common ground on tackling AI risks. Officials are also understood to be considering setting up an international institute for AI safety.

Michelle Donelan, the technology secretary, told the Telegraph the conference would “consider the biggest risks and biggest opportunities that come from frontier AI”, bringing together “companies, countries and also experts”. 

Concern about the technology has been sparked by the overnight success of ChatGPT, which was seen as a wake-up call for world leaders about the speed at which the technology was being developed. 

A new wave of chatbots, built on so-called “large language models”, can answer questions and have online conversations in an almost uncannily human way. They can write emails, essays, poetry or music, prompting concerns they could create upheaval in the jobs market.

Writing in his recent book, The Coming Wave, Mr Suleyman called for a “containment” of high-risk AI advances, so governments can get ahead of developments that may threaten jobs, elections and human life. 

Mr Suleyman said chatbots could “take on Google” by providing more accurate information than internet search.

However, despite recent advances, many chatbots suffer from errors and in some cases may make up false information, creating a hurdle to taking on search engines. 

Google is also developing a rival AI chatbot project, called Bard. 

Google was approached for comment. 

Meanwhile on Saturday, the Government confirmed 100 winners of £5m in grant funding for AI start-ups, including a business tackling clothing waste and a company finding a use for the technology in vineyards. 

Ms Donelan also announced a further £32m in grant funding for high-growth businesses using AI, to be confirmed after the UK summit.

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A little over 24 hours ago, Microsoft finally closed the deal to purchase Activision Blizzard for nearly $69 billion. The acquisition gives Microsoft access to some hugely popular game franchises, including Diablo, Overwatch, and of course Call of Duty.

However, the truth is that back in 1990, Microsoft, perhaps inadvertently, created one of the most well-known and most-played games of all time: Microsoft Solitaire. It's a game franchise that continues to this date, in a somewhat different format.

We can thank a person named Wes Cherry for the creation of Microsoft Solitaire. He was an intern at the company back in 1988. According to Business Insider, he wrote a version of the Solitaire card game for Windows 2.1 in his spare time, because he enjoyed a similar game made for the Apple Macintosh. He put the game on a server at Microsoft, and a company program manager saw it. He decided to add it to the release of Windows 3.0 in 1990.

In a chat with Great Big Story a few years ago, Cherry said that the official reason for adding his Microsoft Solitaire program in Windows 3.0 was to help people learn how to use the mouse with the OS. However, the real reason was that Microsoft just wanted to give people who had Windows 3.0 something to do. He also said that Microsoft co-founder and then CEO Bill Gates played the game before the launch of Windows 3.0 and his only complaint was that it was too hard to win.

It may have been too hard to win in Gates' eyes, but the release of Microsoft Solitaire as part of Windows 3.0 became a huge hit. It helped that the PC revolution at both home and work really went into overdrive in the 1990s, and therefore there were tons of people using their Windows PCs and sneaking in a quick round or two of the game while at the office.

Cherry even came up with an Easter Egg for people who were playing the game at work. With a quick key press, the game was supposed to change to a fake spreadsheet in case your boss started to walk past your cubicle. Unfortunately, Cherry said that Microsoft asked him to remove that "feature" before it shipped out.

Cherry said that Microsoft didn't offer him any payment for creating one of the most popular games of all time, since he was an intern. He's joked that if he had a penny for everyone who played the game he would be rich and that just 14 people have actually sent him money. He later became a full employee at Microsoft but years later he departed. He now is the owner of an apple orchard and makes cider in Washington state.

According to the book The Friendly Orange Glow, at one point Microsoft Solitaire was in the top three most used programs on Windows, according to Microsoft's own telemetry.

The game continued to be included in every Windows release until Windows 8, when the company decided to release the Microsoft Solitaire Collection in the Windows Store. It combined Solitaire with other card games as a free, but ad-supported download.

In 2015, Microsoft launched Windows 10, and the Microsoft Solitaire Collection was once again bundled with it, and that's continued with Windows 11. In 2016, the game launched for iOS and Android devices. In 2019, the original Microsoft Solitaire was inducted into The Strong's World Video Game Hall of Fame.

In 2020, Microsoft noted the 30th anniversary of Microsoft Solitaire and added that the Collection version still had 35 million players every month. However, we think it would still be cool to just play the original free version on a Windows 11 PC. We think it would still be a huge hit.

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In response, Hexworks has quickly released its first post-launch patch for the PC version. In its release notes on Steam, Hexworks said that its bug database has zeroed in on four major issues that are addressed in the patch.

The notes stated that "the majority of crashes result from outdated drivers." The new patch will now check to see if the user's PC has the most updated drivers from NVIDIA and AMD. If not, the game will prompt the user to download and install those updated drives.

Hexworks has also " temporarily deactivate Frame Generation" for NVIDIA GPU users, as using that feature has also led to crashes in certain situations. Also, Epic Games has provided new Unreal Engine 5 updates for Lords of the Fallen to help deal with crashes on some NVIDIA GPUs, along with crashes after the game's first cinematic has run.

The first patch also has a number of other fixes and changes. They include balancing improvements along with a couple of fixes when players encounter boss battles. There have also been a few visual and audio fixes and players who play the game on a Steam Deck can now access a virtual keyboard.

Earlier this week Hexworks revealed that the Xbox version of Lords of the Fallen would be released without parity with the PC and PlayStation versions. The developer says that the Xbox port is currently being updated to bring it up to the other versions and that a patch for the Xbox edition "will release over the coming days."

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Since then the deal has gone through a long period of regulatory approvals worldwide. In April 2023, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority announced it would not approve the deal, stating it would give Microsoft too much control of the cloud gaming market. Microsoft offered the UK CMA a different plan which would give cloud gaming rights for all current and future Activision Blizzard games to Ubisoft for 15 years. A few hours ago, the CMA gave its final approval, which allowed Microsoft to close the deal.

In a statement on the Xbox Wire site, Microsoft head Phil Spencer stated:

For the millions of fans who love Activision, Blizzard, and King games, we want you to know that today is a good day to play. You are the heart and soul of these franchises, and we are honored to have you as part of our community. Whether you play on Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, PC or mobile, you are welcome here – and will remain welcome, even if Xbox isn’t where you play your favorite franchise. Because when everyone plays, we all win. We believe our news today will unlock a world of possibilities for more ways to play. Thank you for the ongoing support. We have so much more to come in the months ahead – I’m excited for the future and cannot wait to share it with you.

He added that Microsoft will also "start the work to bring beloved Activision, Blizzard, and King franchises to Game Pass and other platforms", and added that the company will reveal "when you can expect to play in the coming months."

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According to TrendForce, most manufacturers are resistant to any further price reductions and they actually want to see ‘aggressive increases’. It said that PC DDR5 prices already rose in the third quarter and a rise in the fourth quarter will make the hardware cost even more.

On the server side, Samsung has increased its production cutbacks, especially that of server DDR4. TrendForce reports that this has led to a server DDR4 stock supply crunch meaning prices in the segment will inevitably rise.

It said that manufacturers are looking to profit from this reduction in supply by increasing their DDR5 output. Consumers can act as a downward force on prices by shopping around, manufacturers will cut prices where possible to attract customs.

In the last year or so with prices being so high for consumers, they have been buying less computers and phones. With this extra inventory, the need for components such as memory is also not as great so that has acted as a downward force on prices.

A few days ago, Neowin covered Gartner’s report which found that worldwide PC shipments had declined again in the third quarter but that the fourth quarter will see an increase. If shipments do increase this will mean fewer computers in inventories, more production, and DRAM supplies being shifted too.

Breaking things down, TrendForce said desktop DDR4 prices will rise by 0-5% and DDR5 will rise by 3-8%. On the server side, DDR4 prices will remain stable and DDR5 prices are going to continue declining.

It said ‘With DDR5 shipments on the rise and a notable 50-60% price disparity with DDR4, the blended ASP for the range is poised for an upswing. This leads to an estimated 3–8% quarterly hike in Q4 server DRAM contract prices.’

Source: TrendForce

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Starlink's website update is revealing a bit more about its plans for a satellite-delivered cell phone service. The new page for "Starlink Direct to Cell" promises "ubiquitous coverage" from "cellphone towers in space" that will work over bog-standard LTE. The current timeline claims there will be text service starting in 2024, voice and data in 2025, and "IoT" service in 2025.

 

Today satellite phone connectivity still requires giant, purpose-built hardware, like the old-school Iridium network phones. If you're only looking for emergency texting, you can also make do with Apple's introduction of the barely there connectivity paradigm, requiring being inside a connectivity window, holding up a phone, and following a signal-targeting app. Starlink wants to bring full-blown space connectivity to normal smartphone hardware.

 

The plan for Starlink Direct to Cell is different thanks to a lot of foundational improvements over what's currently available. First, those other two networks are in a higher orbit: the iPhone's Globalstar network is at 1,400 km above Earth, and Iridium is at 781 km. Starlink currently operates a lot closer to Earth, in the 550 km range. The other major shift is that SpaceX is developing the world's largest rocket, Starship, and having the world's largest rocket means you get to launch the world's biggest satellites. Bigger satellites can involve bigger, more sensitive antennas than what generally are launched into space, and this part of the operation isn't rocket science: Your tiny smartphone will have a much easier time connecting to the closer, bigger satellites, leading to a level of cellular space service that wasn't possible before.

 

Once the space network gets up and running, SpaceX says the service "works with existing LTE phones wherever you can see the sky. No changes to hardware, firmware, or special apps are required, providing seamless access to text, voice, and data." There will be hardware changes to Starlink satellites, though, with the latest versions sporting the necessary LTE equipment. The new site doesn't reiterate expectations for service speed, but when this project was announced in 2022, the claim was 2–4Mbps.

 

The page says Starlink satellites with the Direct to Cell capability will first be launched on the workhorse Falcon 9 rocket and eventually Starship. Starship's bigger payload represents a big capability upgrade for Starlink since the full-size "V2" satellites don't fit on the smaller Falcon 9, and today the company is getting by with "V2 Mini" variants due to Starship delays. The 2025 and 2026 service upgrades for Direct to Cell most likely depend on getting the big rocket up and running, so like all SpaceX projects, you should take these timelines with a grain of salt. This whole project was originally scheduled to start a "beta service" this year, but making that deadline now looks iffy.

 

When the new network eventually gets up and running, SpaceX has several traditional cell phone companies lined up to sell the service. The page lists SpaceX's partners as T-Mobile in the US, Rodgers in Canada, KDDI in Japan, Optus in Australia, One NZ in New Zealand, and Salt in Switzerland. The new promo page is seeking additional cellular partners.

 

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A 21-year-old computer-science student has won a global contest to read the first text inside a carbonized scroll from the ancient Roman city of Herculaneum, which had been unreadable since a volcanic eruption in AD 79 — the same one that buried nearby Pompeii. The breakthrough could open up hundreds of texts from the only intact library to survive from Greco-Roman antiquity.

Luke Farritor, who is at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, developed a machine-learning algorithm that has detected Greek letters on several lines of the rolled-up papyrus, including πορϕυρας (porphyras), meaning ‘purple’. Farritor used subtle, small-scale differences in surface texture to train his neural network and highlight the ink.

“When I saw the first image, I was shocked,” says Federica Nicolardi, a papyrologist at the University of Naples in Italy and a member of the academic committee that reviewed Farritor’s findings. “It was such a dream,” she says. Now, “I can actually see something from the inside of a scroll.”

Hundreds of scrolls were buried by Mount Vesuvius in October AD 79, when the eruption left Herculaneum under 20 metres of volcanic ash. Early attempts to open the papyri created a mess of fragments, and scholars feared the remainder could never be unrolled or read. “These are such crazy objects. They’re all crumpled and crushed,” says Nicolardi.

The Vesuvius Challenge offers a series of awards, leading to a main prize of US$700,000 for reading four or more passages from a rolled-up scroll. On 12 October, the organizers announced that Farritor has won the ‘first letters’ prize of $40,000 for reading more than 10 characters in a 4-square-centimetre area of papyrus. Youssef Nader, a graduate student at the Free University of Berlin, is awarded $10,000 for coming second.

Luxury library

To finally see letters and words inside a scroll is “extremely exciting”, says Thea Sommerschield, a historian of ancient Greece and Rome at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy. The scrolls were discovered in the eighteenth century, when workmen came across the remains of a luxury villa that might have belonged to the family of Julius Caesar’s father-in-law. Deciphering the papyri, Sommerschield says, could “revolutionize our knowledge of ancient history and literature”. Most classical texts known today are the result of repeated copying by scribes over centuries. By contrast, the Herculaneum library contains works not known from any other sources, direct from the authors.

Until now, researchers were able to study only opened fragments. A few Latin works have been identified, but most of these contain Greek texts relating to the Epicurean school of philosophy. There are parts of On Nature, written by Epicurus himself, and works by a little-known philosopher named Philodemus on topics such as vices, music, rhetoric and death. It has been suggested that the library might once have been his working collection. But more than 600 scrolls — most held in the National Library in Naples, with a handful in the United Kingdom and France — remain intact and unopened. And more papyri could still be found on lower floors of the villa, which have yet to be excavated.

Seales and his team spent years developing methods to “virtually unwrap” the vanishingly thin layers using X-ray computed tomography (CT) scans, and to visualize them as a series of flat images. In 2016, he reported1 using the technique to read a charred scroll from En-Gedi in Israel, revealing sections of the Book of Leviticus — part of the Jewish Torah and the Christian Old Testament — written in the third or fourth century AD. But the ink on the En-Gedi scroll contains metal, so it glows brightly on the CT scans. The ink on the older Herculaneum scrolls is carbon-based, essentially charcoal and water, with the same density in scans as the papyrus it sits on, so it doesn’t show up at all.

Seales realized that even with no difference in brightness, CT scans might capture tiny differences in texture that can distinguish areas of papyrus coated with ink. To prove it, he trained an artificial neural network to read letters in X-ray images of opened Herculaneum fragments. Then, in 2019, he carried two intact scrolls from the Institut de France in Paris to the Diamond Light Source, a synchrotron X-ray facility near Oxford, UK, to scan them at the highest resolution yet (4–8 micrometres per 3D image element, or voxel).

Reading intact scrolls was still a huge task, however, so the team released all of its scans and code to the public and launched the Vesuvius Challenge. “We all agreed we would rather get to the reading of what’s inside sooner, than try to hoard everything,” says Seales.

Around 1,500 teams were soon discussing and collaborating through the gamer chat platform Discord. The prizes were designed in phases, and as each milestone is reached, the winning code is released for everyone to build on. Farritor, who had always been interested in history and taught himself Latin as a child, got involved early on.

In parallel, Seales’ team worked on the virtual unwrapping, releasing images of the flattened pieces for the contestants to analyse. A key moment came in late June, when one competitor pointed out that on some images, ink was occasionally visible to the naked eye, as a subtle texture that was soon dubbed ‘crackle’. Farritor immediately focused on the crackle, looking for further hints of letters.

One evening in August, he was at a party when he received an alert that a fresh segment had been released, with particularly prominent crackle.

Connecting through his phone, he ran his algorithm on the new image. Walking home an hour later, he pulled out his phone and saw five letters on the screen. “I was jumping up and down,” he says. “Oh my goodness, this is actually going to work.” From there, it took just days to refine the model and identify the ten letters required for the prize.

The first word deciphered in the Vesuvius Challenge is the Greek πορφύρας, meaning ‘purple’.Credit: UK Photo

Papyrologists are excited, too. The word “purple” has not yet been read in the opened Herculaneum scrolls. Purple dye was highly sought-after in ancient Rome and was made from the glands of sea snails, so the term could refer to purple colour, robes, the rank of people who could afford the dye or even the molluscs. But more important than the individual word is reading anything at all, says Nicolardi. The advance “gives us potentially the possibility to recover the text of a whole scroll”, including the title and author, so that works can be identified and dated.

Seeing the invisible

Yannis Assael, a staff research scientist at Google DeepMind in London, describes the Vesuvius Challenge as “unique and inspirational”. But it is part of a broader shift, he notes, in which artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly aiding the study of ancient texts. Last year, for example, Assael and Sommerschield released an AI tool called Ithaca, designed to help scholars glean the date and origins of unidentified ancient Greek inscriptions, and make suggestions for text to fill any gaps2. It now receives hundreds of queries per week, and similar efforts are being applied to languages from Korean to Akkadian, which was used in ancient Mesopotamia.

Seales hopes machine learning will open up what he calls the “invisible library”. This refers to texts that are physically present, but no one can see, including parchment used in medieval book bindings; palimpsests, in which later writing obscures a layer beneath; and cartonnage, in which scraps of old papyrus were used to make ancient Egyptian mummy cases and masks.

For now, however, all eyes are on the Vesuvius Challenge. The deadline for the grand prize is 31 December, and Seales describes the mood as “unbridled optimism”. Farritor, for one, has already run his models on other segments of the scroll and is seeing many more characters appear.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-03212-1

References

1. Seales, W. B. et al. Sci. Adv. 2, e1601247 (2016).
2. Assael, Y. et al. Nature 603, 280–283 (2022).

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What you need to know

• A new report indicates that NVIDIA's RTX 4090 16-pin connector (12VHPWR) is experiencing melting issues.
• A user on Reddit highlighted that they had used the GPU for a year before facing this issue.
• This is not the first time the users have complained about the melting issue affecting the GPU's power connector.
• NVIDIA issued a statement addressing users' concerns, citing that the problem might be on the user's end.
• The company started rolling out a new power connector for the RTX 4090 and other cards, and no melting issues have been reported so far. 

The NVIDIA RTX 4090 is arguably one of the best graphics cards, but its massive power draw and emerging reports of its 16-pin connector (12VHPWR) melting after just one year of use are setting it back. 

This isn't the first time concerned users have flagged such an occurrence. Last year in October, users reported a similar issue with the NVIDIA RTX 4090 that was causing some of its power adapters to fail and melt. NVIDIA followed this up by issuing a statement highlighting that it was investigating the issue, seeking to understand its root cause. 

However, it now seems that the melting issue affecting the RTX 4090 is back, as flagged by Byogore on the PCMasterRace subreddit. Notably, the user indicated that this is the first time a card had ever died on them, further highlighting that they had used the RTX 4090 for a year before it died because of the 12VHPWR power connector melting issue, as spotted by Tom's Hardware. 

Perhaps the main issue can be centered around all the power (450W stock / 500W+ overclocked) tucked under the RTX 4090's hood going through a single point. This means simple mishaps like a slightly bent wire could have a catastrophic outcome.

The RTX's 4090 lifeline seems faulty

(Image credit: Future)

NVIDIA pointed fingers at the user while issuing the statement addressing the melting issue, further stating that they weren't pushing the "faulty power connector" into the reciprocating power connector on the GPU. But this is unlikely since many people using the RTX 4090 are technical users. Therefore, the chances of this happening are slim. And even if it were to occur, the issue wouldn't be this widespread. 

Amid the power connector melting concerns, PCI-SIG debuted a new 16-pin connector, the 12V-2x6 power connector, which seemingly rights the wrongs of the 12VHPWR. Aside from resolving the melting issue, the new power connector packs 660W under the hood, a significant bump from 600W.

What's more, NVIDIA has been rolling out this new connector to the impacted RTX 4090. But where does this leave users with the RTX 4090 with the faulty 12VHPWR power connector? Luckily, modern GPUs have warranties that run for up to four years, depending on the manufacturer. 

Have you faced the melting issue while using the RTX 4090? Please share your thoughts and experiences with us in the comments. 

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