What you need to know

• The i7-14700KF CPU which is part of Intel's upcoming Raptor Lake Refresh has new benchmarks shown off through Geekbench.
• The Geekbench score is very close to last generations flagship i9-13900KS CPU.
• Raptor Lake Refresh will be releasing later this year.

Intel's 14th generation of CPUs is launching this year, and more benchmarks have popped up for its high-end i7-14700KF. The new benchmarks were found by X user Benchleaks on Geekbench. It shows the 14700KF hitting a clock speed of 5985MHz, just shy of that 6GHz threshold. 

The Geekbench score reported is 3097 points for the single-core score and 21196 points for the multi-core. The exciting thing is that this is close to the i9-13900KS, Intel's flagship CPU last year. It's worth noting that these are simply Geekbench scores, which don't necessarily reflect how the new CPUs will perform in real-world tests.

This will make consumers more likely to purchase a 14th Gen CPU from Intel. It desperately needs these performance increases to remain competitive against AMD, with its Ryzen 7000 series being hugely popular. This is also the end of the line for the LGA 1700 socket before a totally new one arrives with Intel 15th Gen next year. 

Do you think it's worth shelling out for a new 14th Gen build, or will you wait for Intel's 15th Gen "Arrow Lake" hardware? 

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What you need to know

• Microsoft topped TIME and Statista's list of the World's best companies of 2023.
• Its competitors Apple, Alphabet, and Meta also featured in the list.
• The companies' employee satisfaction, revenue growth, and sustainability were considered during the ranking.
• Microsoft scored 96.46 out of the possible 100, with a top ranking regarding employee satisfaction.

Microsoft was officially listed as the best company in the world, capping a major month for the tech giant.

Last week was quite something for Microsoft; the company's plate seems full between Xbox's biggest leak in history and the just-concluded Surface and AI event. If that's not enough, the company's big Windows 11 September update with Copilot just shipped. 

Amidst all this, a big win for the Redmond giant seemingly slipped through the cracks. Microsoft was ranked as the top "world’s best company" by Statista and TIME, closely followed by Apple, Alphabet, and Meta. As highlighted by TIME, the criteria used to come to this conclusion was based on "a formula of revenue growth, employee-satisfaction surveys, and rigorous environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG, or sustainability) data."

According to the report, Microsoft made $72 billion in its most recent fiscal year, which translates to a whopping 63% increase from 2020. The report also indicated that the tech giant had reduced its emissions by 0.5%. 

The company was also spotted creating more lucrative opportunities for women and racial and ethnic minorities in the U.S. What's more, the report also showed that they were taking bigger checks home compared to their male counterparts. While speaking to Time in May, Microsoft's CEO, Satya Nadella shared the following sentiments:

"The way I think about our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more."

Microsoft garnered an overall score of 96.46 out of the possible 100. The company also topped the list when it came to employee satisfaction, which is rather odd. Back in June, a leaked poll from Microsoft employees suggested otherwise. The employees raised concern over the company's leadership, and the sudden change in their compensation packages, which in turn negatively impacted their performance index at work and morale. 

In fact, more than half of the employees who took part in the poll indicated that they would leave the company if a better opportunity presented itself. The massive layoffs that hit the company this year aren't doing it any favors either. 

Do you think Microsoft is the best company in the world? Let us know in the comments below.

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Cyberpunk now has its Phantom Liberty expansion - with patch 2.0 update in tow - and some benchmarking of the game has produced some surprising results in terms of a Linux distro performing much faster than Windows 11.

Okay, so upfront, we should note that this is just one test, and the conclusions we can draw are limited - but the difference is quite eye-opening, when running Nobara (a spin on Fedora) compared to Windows 11 on the exact same PC.

YouTuber Maximum Fury conducted the test runs which found that Nobara was just over 30% faster than Windows 11 at Full HD resolution (high textures).

As Tom's Hardware spotted, the result for Windows 11 using the in-game benchmarking facility was an average frame rate of 48.5 fps (minimum 34 fps) compared to 63.7 fps for the Linux distro (with a minimum of 41 fps).

The spec is important, of course, and the system used comprised of a Ryzen 5 5600 processor (in a B550 motherboard) paired with an AMD RX 5700 XT graphics card, alongside 16GB of system RAM (DDR4).

So, this is an AMD system, and perhaps switching components to NVIDIA or Intel parts might produce different results. (Well, we'd be shocked if it didn't, the question is whether the variance would be in the same ballpark).

What we need, of course, is for someone to do just this, and repeat the testing using a different GPU and CPU to see if the major bump for the Linux distro still holds. If so, it's a pretty striking illustration of how Linux gaming does have at least some advantages over Windows 11 in certain use cases.

As Tom's observes, this is hardly the first time Linux has been found to run a game faster than Microsoft's operating system, but the gap is not normally anything of this order.

It's an interesting finding from the YouTuber, though we should again underline that it pertains to just one specific comparative scenario (and further note some other parameters are applied by the tester here, such as undervolting the GPU).

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A story from Bloomberg, citing unnamed sources, claims that in 2020, Microsoft representatives held meetings with Apple's then Services VP Eddy Cue, with Microsoft proposing that Apple buy the Bing division.

However, the talks reportedly never went beyond the exploratory stage. The story claims that Apple had a few reasons for not going through with such a deal. One was that Apple was apparently very happy with the revenue it got from Google with its search engine as the default on Apple's devices like the iPhone.

According to the story, another reason the talks didn't move forward was that Apple "also had concerns about Bing’s ability to compete with Google in quality and capabilities."

That was not always the case. In 2013, Apple entered into an agreement with Microsoft to have its Bing search engine set up as the default for its Siri digital assistant. However, that agreement didn't last long. In 2017, Apple switched to Google Search as the default for Siri. That was also the case for Spotlight for Mac, and Search inside iOS.

In another report from Bloomberg today as part of its coverage of the current Google antitrust trial, it was revealed that in 2016, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella met with Apple CEO Tim Cook to discuss having Bing become the default search engine for Apple's Safari browser. Those talks went nowhere, as did another series of talks in 2018 when Microsoft discussed switching from Google to Bing on Apple devices outside the United States.

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Starfield may have only just come out, but there are already tons of amazing community-made mods that you can install if you're playing with the Microsoft Store or Steam version of the game on PC. Whether you're hoping to rebalance Starfield's gameplay, elevate its graphical presentation, improve the user interface, or something else, there's a very good chance you'll find exactly what you're looking for on the Nexus Mods Starfield mod archive.

Though my first playthrough of Bethesda's expansive sci-fi RPG was done on a completely vanilla save, I've since installed several excellent mods that have made my ongoing second one an even better experience. In particular, seven of them are so good that I can't even imagine myself playing Starfield without them moving forward. Here's a closer look at all of them, and why I strongly recommend each one.

Project Reality - Immersive Gameplay Overhaul

While I enjoyed my time spent with vanilla Starfield, I felt a few of its gameplay elements were underbaked and disappointing. The stealth system always felt wildly inconsistent even with fully upgraded Stealth and Concealment skills, and even on higher difficulties, both you and your enemies are total bullet sponges. Earning lots of credits fast is ridiculously easy, too, as is getting tons of XP for levels.

One mod that solves all of these issues in one fell swoop is Project Reality, which overhauls the game with changes that give it more of a hardcore survival feel. It improves the viability of stealth by making it harder for enemies to detect you when you're out of their line of sight and aren't making much noise, while also promoting a lower time-to-kill by reducing the maximum health of both you and your adversaries. Credit and XP gains have been lowered as well, forcing you to be more selective with purchases and chosen skills. 

Project Reality also comes with a tweak that disables infinite ammo for NPCs, though you can disable this if you want. Make sure to read the mod's description and comments for more information on how to do this.

Improved Combat AI

Starfield's AI can often behave in rather dumb ways, so one of the first mods I looked for was one that raised their intelligence and made them more engaging to fight. Improved Combat AI does just that by making NPCs more active and strategic during combat. With this installed, your opponents will make decisions faster, shoot more frequently, use cover often, and throw more grenades in an effort to flush you out of yours. Their accuracy gets a bit of a boost, too.

Notably, these tweaks affect companions and followers, too, so your crewmates won't have trouble keeping up with the enhanced AI and will actually become useful. Finally, a gameplay-related reason to bring allies along for the ride!

Ultimately, this mod is fantastic, and when it's paired with Project Reality, Starfield's overall combat experience becomes significantly more exciting. Definitely give it a shot if the vanilla game has left you wanting more.

StarUI Inventory

While I think Starfield's UI is generally fine, one part of it I'm not a fan of is its inventory screen. Each item in it takes up a significant part of the screen, yet displays very little information. As a result, it often feels like you have to do way too much scrolling and close investigating during inventory management, and after an entire playthrough of dealing with that, I wanted better.

StarUI Inventory is precisely what I was looking for. On top of shrinking elements in the inventory UI down so they're more compact, the mod also adds item icons that correspond to selectable subcategory filters so you can quickly find what you're looking for (for example, you can view your rifles by selecting the rifle-shaped icon). Item details like mass, DPS, and credit value can also be viewed at a glance thanks to the addition of columns, removing the need to select items to see this information.

If you love this mod as much as I do, you might also like StarUI HUD. As its name suggests, it brings a similar overhaul to Starfield's heads-up display. I don't view this one as essential since I think the vanilla HUD is fine, but it's a great mod nonetheless.

Undelayed Menus

The transition animations and fading effects that play as you move between Starfield's menus do look nice, but eventually, I got tired of how they delayed my ability to quickly pick a star system to grav jump to or equip a new piece of armor. An extra second of waiting to get into your menus doesn't sound like a lot, but it adds up over time, and it's the biggest reason why the interface feels rather sluggish in vanilla.

Undelayed Menus makes the UI feel much snappier by speeding these transitions up or removing them entirely. It also raises the framerate of interface elements to 60 FPS (it's 30 FPS in vanilla), resulting in a navigation experience that feels buttery smooth. 

Before installing, make sure you read the pinned comment on the mod page for instructions on how to make it work properly with StarUI Inventory.

Neutral LUTs - No colour Filters

One of the most polarizing elements of Starfield's visuals is its colour grading. There's a distinctive blue-green tint to the game that looks a bit washed out, and while it adds a lot of mood and atmosphere to some scenes, it arguably doesn't look very good in others. If you're like me and would prefer something that looks more natural, I can't recommend installing Neutral LUTs - No colour Filters enough.

Put simply, this mod removes Starfield's colour filters and makes its blacks deeper, resulting in a cleaner, more realistic image (the video embedded above has gameplay with and without the mod, if you'd like to compare). The mod description also includes some instructions on how you can tweak a configuration file to make outer space darker as well, so make sure you read it if you're interested in that.

Starfield HD Reworked Project

A fair number of Starfield's textures are surprisingly low-res, and while it's not always noticeable in motion, it can become quite apparent during slower gameplay moments like NPC conversations or instances of stealth combat. Thankfully, the Starfield HD Reworked Project takes care of that by massively improving texture quality across the board while preserving the game's art direction.

Developed by the same author behind the Witcher 3 mod of the same name — it just so happens to be the most endorsed mod on Nexus Mods for that game, by the way — the Starfield HD Reworked Project is an absolute must-have for folks aiming to give Bethesda's new RPG a graphical facelift. What's more, the mod has little to no impact on performance at all, provided that your GPU has at least 6GB of video memory.

Notably, the mod also improves some fire visual effects, though I recommend overriding them with the gorgeous ones from the next mod.

EXE - Effect Textures Enhanced

The team behind the incredibly popular series of Effect Textured Enhanced (EXE) mods for the Fallout games is back at it again with Starfield. EXE - Effect Textures Enhanced replaces every single visual effect in the game with remade versions that look significantly better. This includes weather, muzzle flashes, open flames, blood spatters, bullet impacts, explosions, sparks, and much more.

Multiple large updates for the project are planned, and the team has confirmed that additional options for gore are on the way for folks that miss the ultraviolence of Bethesda's Fallout games. The mod is also fully compatible with the Starfield HD Reworked Project, and together with both it and the Neutral LUTs mod, your Starfield will look phenomenal.

The future is bright, and I'm excited for it

Even though Starfield only came out a few weeks ago, stellar mods like these are already available and have become permanent additions to my load order. It's exciting to think about what the game's talented passionate modding community will  accomplish in the future, especially since Todd Howard has confirmed official mod tools are coming in 2024.

These seven mods are my favorites, but there are plenty of other fantastic ones I also use and enjoy. For a complete list of what I recommend, don't miss our roundup of all the best Starfield PC mods.

Starfield is finally here, and it's undoubtedly one of the best Xbox games and best PC games for lovers of space exploration, deep RPG gameplay, and the sci-fi genre as a whole. 

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What you need to know

• Intel will not make Meteor Lake processors designed to power desktop PCs with sockets.
• A company executive previously stated that Meteor Lake would come to desktop in 2024, which led many to believe the chipmaker had desktop Meteor Lake CPUs on the way.
• Instead, Meteor Lake will only appear in desktops in the form of All-in-Ones and compact PCs, which feature laptop processors rather than full desktop CPUs.

Intel will not release desktop versions of its Meteor Lake processors. The chipmaker will, however, have Meteor Lake CPUs in desktop PCs. If that seems confusing, you're not alone. An Intel executive recently stated that Meteor Lake would come to desktop in 2024, but Intel has since clarified that Meteor Lake will only include mobile processors. But like many laptop processors, those chips will appear in All-in-Ones.

Communication from Intel on the subject hasn't been great. But after a statement to ComputerBase, we now have a better idea of what Meteor Lake will look like on both laptops and desktops.

"Meteor Lake is a power efficient architecture that will power innovative mobile and desktop designs, including desktop form factors such as All-in-One (AIO)," said Intel. "We will have more product details to share in the future." 

Intel's Meteor Lake processors will likely be compared to Apple's M-series chips because both sets of CPUs hang their hat on efficiency.

Mini PCs and All-in-Ones often feature CPUs designed for laptops. (Image credit: Harish Jonnalagadda / Windows Central)

The key distinction is that Intel will not make Meteor Lake chips for desktop PCs with sockets. All-in-Ones and the best mini PCs and NUCs often use laptop CPUs. Those processors allow manufacturers to make compact computers that can sit on a desk, but the chips are not as powerful as desktop CPUs.

While Meteor Lake CPUs will appear in All-in-Ones and other compact PCs, they will not power gaming desktops, workstations, or other powerful desktop PCs.

Those looking for new desktop CPUs from Intel will have to wait until Raptor Lake is refreshed. Recent leaks suggest that Intel's upcoming Raptor Lake chips will deliver solid performance and a considerable jump over Intel's 13th Gen.

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The quad-core 64-bit Arm Cortex-A76 CPU powering the device runs at 2.4GHz paired up with Broadcom's VideoCore VII GPU running at 800MHz. The Raspberry Pi Foundation says that the new board will perform two and even three times faster than the Pi 4.

Dual HDMI ports, each with 4K output at 60FPS and HDR support, major bumps to available USB bandwidth, and SD card performance are also here.

Here are the official specifications of the tiny powerhouse:

• Broadcom BCM2712 2.4GHz quad-core 64-bit Arm Cortex-A76 CPU, with cryptography extensions, 512KB per-core L2 caches and a 2MB shared L3 cache
• VideoCore VII GPU, supporting OpenGL ES 3.1, Vulkan 1.2
• Dual 4Kp60 HDMI® display output with HDR support
• 4Kp60 HEVC decoder
• LPDDR4X-4267 SDRAM (4GB and 8GB SKUs available at launch)
• Dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi®
• Bluetooth 5.0 / Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)
• microSD card slot, with support for high-speed SDR104 mode
• 2 × USB 3.0 ports, supporting simultaneous 5Gbps operation
• 2 × USB 2.0 ports
• Gigabit Ethernet, with PoE+ support (requires separate PoE+ HAT)
• 2 × 4-lane MIPI camera/display transceivers
• PCIe 2.0 x1 interface for fast peripherals (requires separate M.2 HAT or other adapter)
• 5V/5A DC power via USB-C, with Power Delivery support
• Raspberry Pi standard 40-pin header
• Real-time clock (RTC), powered from external battery
• Power button

The extra performance also means the Pi 5 will need more power to run intensive workloads, requiring 12W over the last generation's 8W. Running the device in heavy loads continuously can also cause performance to throttle, and an active cooler can be used to mitigate this.

While the size and dimensions have remained the same, keep in mind that old Pi 4 cases will not fit on the Pi 5 due to component changes (like the removal of composite video and analog audio jack) and location shifts. The new 27W power supply may also be required for those wanting to squeeze out all the performance from the new board.

The Raspberry Pi 5 starts at $60 for the 4GB RAM variant, while opting for 8GB RAM will cost $80. The Raspberry Pi 4 and its cheaper variants will remain in production for those needing less horsepower.

While previous Pi announcements have coincided with the boards hitting the shelves already, only pre-orders for the Raspberry Pi 5 are going live today. Interested users can order a board of their choice from approved resellers, with units slated to ship "by the end of October."

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In the email, Sweeney stated:

For a while now, we've been spending way more money than we earn, investing in the next evolution of Epic and growing Fortnite as a metaverse-inspired ecosystem for creators. I had long been optimistic that we could power through this transition without layoffs, but in retrospect I see that this was unrealistic.

Later in the email, Sweeney stated that about two-thirds of the layoffs will come from Epic's non-core businesses. In addition, the company is selling off the Bandcamp online music store, which it acquired in March 2022, to another similar service, Songtradr. Also, it is spinning off most of the SuperAwesome online security service for kids, which it bought in 2020, into its own separate company once again. Epic will keep its Kids Web Services parent verification tools.

Epic says it will offer the affected employees six months of base pay, and employees in the US, Canada, and Brazil will also get six months of health insurance.

Sweeney added that even with these mass layoffs, he has high hope for Epic Games:

Epic’s prospects for the future are strong. We have amazing game experiences across multiple platforms. We’ve built the best engine in the world, and will be hosting Unreal Fest next week to bring the community together and spotlight the things they are building with Unreal Engine and UEFN. Creators are making a living building for the Fortnite ecosystem, with time in third-party games now exceeding first-party.

In December 2022, Epic Games reached a $540 million settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission to settle claims that Epic had violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act by allowing children and teenagers to unknowingly make in-game purchases in its hit game Fortnite. Earlier this month, the FTC started taking applications from people affected by this action to get refunds from Epic Games.

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Note: Microsoft rolls out Surface firmware updates in stages. Your device will get available updates eventually, but it may take a few days. You can force-install the latest firmware by downloading a package from the official Surface Support website.

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

• Improves device charging performance and stability.

• Addresses security vulnerability.

• Resolves a device booting to Surface logo issue.

   

Here is the list of new drivers:

Here is extra information about the release:

The fourth-generation Surface Laptop with Intel and AMD processors will remain supported until 2027. According to the official Surface Lifecycle documentation, the computer will reach its end of life on April 15, 2027.

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The rise of 5G both inside and outside of enterprises may give rise to a million new ideas and concepts, breaking the current barriers of innovation.

Imagine theme parks handing out augmented reality glasses for immersive experiences. Or wearing such headgear to explore a futuristic city.

These are just some of the ideas being explored by visionaries, entrepreneurs, and developers as 5G becomes entrenched within our enterprises and the wider world. 

In pursuit of exploring this new frontier, several large tech and telecom companies have banded together to launch the 5G Open Innovation Lab, which seeks to support collaboration between startups, industry leaders, technical experts, and investors interested in 5G's potential. The effort is supported by AT&T, Comcast, Deloitte, Dell, Intel, Microsoft, and Nokia.

 "The opportunity for developers to impact the potential of edge and 5G is fundamentally bigger than connectivity," according to Jim Brisimitzis, founder of the 5G Open Innovation Lab. "To realize this potential, we need a bold approach to experimenting, learning, and unleashing the transformational impact software is capable of."

Industry observers agree that 5G represents a new frontier of innovation -- which has only started to gain traction. "Innovations that can consume and take advantage of the increased bandwidth and responsiveness of new 5G networks have been hard to come by," says Dan Hays, PwC partner and telco expert. "With 5G standalone networks now growing in coverage, advanced capabilities such as network slicing and ultra-low latency are poised to finally become a reality."

Emerging technologies such as AI also can be enhanced by the 5G revolution. "The enhanced wireless capabilities are arriving right on time as bandwidth-intensive generative AI technologies hit the mass market," Hays continues. "They look to take advantage of not only increased bandwidth, but also efficient computing architectures -- including edge computing and hybrid cloud -- to serve as the engine rooms of their applications. Together, the bandwidth, responsiveness, and reduced cost of these technologies open the doors to new applications and services, ranging from virtual fitting rooms to AI-assisted repairs for industrial equipment."  

Slalom Element Labs is an example of a company that is working directly with Ericsson to develop new use cases for 5G in business settings. For example, employing augmented reality: "We have created immersive cityscape experiences that provide real-time visual rendering of data for demographics, transportation, ecological and geographic information allowing people to see existing places in new ways," says John Tomik, managing director of Slalom Element Labs. "The low latency and high performance of 5G makes the experience of seeing details in this way feel like you are living in a future world and for the first time allows the experience to feel human-like."

Another innovation supported by 5G may be interaction with digital humans, Tomik continues. "We see a night-and-day difference in making digital people more human-like when compute is done at the edge of a 5G network," he explains. "Gestures, response time and human interactivity all take on Hollywood film-like quality which allows for groups to innovate on experiences that typically were off limits for digital humans because they felt robotic."

5G may also open up new avenues in city design and urban planning. "Think of a traffic light that can see an intersection and process data quickly, thanks to edge computing, while sending back useful information no matter where it's located, thanks to 5G," says Mark Varnas, database administrator and consultant with Red9. "The short and immediate effect is that there'll be no more needless waiting at traffic lights, but the long-term potential of a city that's data-driven in this way can have major effects on improving the way we live."

PwC's Hays provides an example of a 5G use case that pushes the boundaries of innovation: enhanced guest experience in theme parks. "Imagine an amusement park attendant wearing a set of augmented reality glasses while doing their job in the park," he illustrates. "Using the power of 5G, the glasses could be proactively scanning for guests who might be tired, hungry, or just plain important. When on-board facial recognition software being processed on a local edge computing network identifies a guest who may require attention -- say a cranky child on the verge of a meltdown -- it could match them with their importance level and prompt the attendant right in their field of vision to take an action -- perhaps offering a complementary ice cream -- to make the experience truly special."

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Photo by Emma Roth / The Verge

Image: The Raspberry Pi Foundation

Image: The Raspberry Pi Foundation

Image: The Raspberry Pi Foundation

Image: The Raspberry Pi Foundation

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"A free upgrade to CS:GO, Counter-Strike 2 marks the largest technical leap in Counter-Strike’s history. Built on the Source 2 engine, Counter-Strike 2 is modernized with realistic physically-based rendering, state of the art networking, and upgraded Community Workshop tools." — Valve

Features:

• All-new CS Ratings with the updated Premier mode.
• Global and Regional leaderboards.
• Upgraded and overhauled maps.
• Game-changing dynamic smoke grenades.
• Tick-rate-independent gameplay.
• Redesigned visual effects and audio.
• All items from CS:GO moving forward to CS2.

The updated Linux system requirements:

• OS: Ubuntu 20.04
• Processor: 4 hardware CPU threads - Intel® Core™ i5 750 or higher
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: AMD GCN+ or NVIDIA Kepler+ with up-to-date Vulkan drivers. Support for VK_EXT_graphics_pipeline_library highly recommended.
• Storage: 85 GB available space
• Sound Card: Highly recommended

Like the earlier upgrade to the Linux version of Dota 2, Valve also bumped it up to their latest "Steam Linux Runtime 3.0 (Sniper)", which should provide a big improvement to compatibility on modern Linux systems. From what developer Timothee "TTimo" Besset said on Mastodon, the Windows version has been thoroughly tested but significantly less on the Linux version so be sure to report any bugs you find.

Note: If you find you don't have any sound there's already a bug report with some suggestions to try.

Be sure to pop along to our Discord to chat about it, and be sure to leave a comment for those not on Discord.

Play for free on Steam.

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OpenAI posted today that ChatGPT can once more trawl the web for current information, offering answers taken directly from “current and authoritative” sources, which it cites in its responses. The feature, called Browse with Bing, is only open to those with Plus and Enterprise subscriptions for now, but the company says it will roll it out “to all users soon.”

Microsoft’s Bing Chat on Windows, in the Edge browser, and in third-party browser plugins could already return live information from the web, and so can Google’s Bard in Chrome and other browsers. Both also offer links when searching, as ChatGPT’s Browse with Bing feature now does. Meta just announced at Meta Connect that it will also use Bing to power real-time web results in the Meta AI Assistant it’s adding to WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger.

It’s a little confusing to get ChatGPT to search the web for you. The company provides instructions for the browser version, but I didn’t find the same for the iOS app. I figured it out, though. Assuming you have a subscription, it’s: three dots menu > Settings > New Features > Browse with Bing. Then, start a new chat, tap GPT-4, and “Browse with Bing.” Then your searches should return information from current websites.

It’s a little slow, but it works. And when it answers a question for you, you can click the link to the site to compare the answers. Now I know that, according to MediaMass — a website I’ve never heard of — AC/DC might be working on a new album! Given AI bots’ tendency to hallucinate, being able to check them on their sources is a huge improvement that not only means you can actually verify they’re not lying to you, but also, it’s just nice to give credit where it’s due.

AC/DC may or may not be working on a new album, according to sources cited by ChatGPT. Screenshot: Wes Davis / The Verge

OpenAI added the ability to browse the internet within its ChatGPT iOS app in late June but quickly pulled it. Users had figured out they could coax the chatbot into giving them otherwise paywalled content by feeding a URL directly to it. Since then, OpenAI’s automated crawler that feeds information to the model powering ChatGPT has begun identifying itself with a user agent so that sites can filter themselves out of its analysis with updates to their Robots.txt file forbidding it.

If you subscribe to one of OpenAI’s plans and want to try out the Browse with Bing feature, here are the company’s instructions:

Click on ‘Profile & Settings’

Select ‘Beta features’

Toggle on ‘Browse with Bing’

Choose Browse with Bing in the selector under GPT-4.

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The report arrives from Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson, with his sources revealing that the next entry in the series is planned for a fall 2024 release. Internally dubbed Project Blackbird, the game is said to be developed using Massive Entertainment's Snowdrop Engine, the same one powering releases such as The Division franchise, Star Wars Outlaws, and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.

According to the new report, developer Ubisoft Montreal is taking a new approach to the campaign. The storyline is reportedly non-linear, letting the player choose how and when to complete the primary objectives in any order. While the series has always been open-world adventures, the campaigns have been, for the most part, a linear affairs telling a set story, with perhaps a couple of secret endings.

Far Cry 6

The new game's plotline reportedly revolves around a kidnapped family taken by a group named Sons of Truth, with the player character having to save each member in any order. The story will also be tied to a timer apparently, giving players only a specific amount of hours (72 in-game and 24 in real-time) to try and rescue all family members and complete the game.

Players can also mess up and let the kidnapped members die, per the report, which can affect the story in some way. The report adds that a new interrogation mechanic is also being introduced, which can help players in gaining information from enemies to track down objectives, though it may not always be successful.

As usual though, take this report with a grain of salt until Ubisoft comes out with some official information about the future of Far Cry. If a new entry is coming next year though, an announcement may arrive sooner rather than later. The company even unveiled The Division 3 recently, though that release seems to be years away.

Source: Insider Gaming

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Toshiba has announced a new 22TB model, the MG10F, almost a year after it unveiled its last flagship 20TB hard drive. The release comes almost half a year after Seagate’s own 22TB drive and more than a year after Western Digital. 

As expected, it is an incremental improvement on the previous product, increasing the platter capacity from 2TB to 2.2TB; the design still uses conventional magnetic recording (CMR) HDD with the company’s mature 10-disk helium-sealed technology.

Aimed at the enterprise market, it offers a whopping 512MB cache, is available with SAS and SATA interfaces and comes with a five-year warranty. According to Blocksandfiles, the drive should perform similarly to its rivals, offering a sustained data rate transfer of 284 MB/s compared to 291 MB/s for Western Digital’s 22TB Gold and 285 MB/s for Seagate’s 22TB IronWolf Pro drive.

No pricing has been announced yet but given that that the 20TB model retails for around $350 in the US and 22TB models from Seagate and Western Digital can be had for as low as $410, I can’t see Toshiba charging a significant premium for its product. Expect Toshiba to offer this higher capacity in its external hard drives and in its X300 and N300 product ranges for PC clients and NAS devices respectively.

As for the future, all three storage companies have plans to move to shingled magnetic recording (SMR) in the future, something that makes sense for enterprise/data center/hyperscale/nearline but not really for consumers. Western Digital already launched a 26TB drive, the Ultrastar DC HC670, but end users can’t buy it as it is host-managed SMR (more on that in our interview with WD’s Ravi Pendekanti, SVP of HDD Product Management).

Seagate has confirmed that it has shipped samples of 32TB hard drives that use HAMR technology (heat-assisted magnetic recording) with Western Digital confirming that 28TB HDD are already in the hands of customers, albeit in the testing stage. Beyond this, we’d be looking at 50TB hard drives by the end of the decade[.]

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Google is killing off so many products lately we need to do a roundup or we won't get anything else done today. First on the docket is the inevitable death of Google Podcasts. We've been side-eying Google Podcasts ever since Google's new podcast platform, YouTube Podcasts, launched in April. YouTube has been slowly consuming all of Google's media properties, and podcasts completes the trinity along with videos (both amateur and scripted Hollywood content) and music.

 

Google does not need two podcast apps, so Google Podcasts must die. This was announced on the official YouTube blog, if there was any question about the responsible party. Google Podcasts is getting shut down "later in 2024," but before that, we'll see an expansion of YouTube podcasts, which is currently only available in the US. YouTube says its podcast platform (which is built into the YouTube Music app) will be out "globally" before the end of the year.

 

Google Podcasts was Google's third podcasting service, after the Google Reader-powered Google Listen (2009–2012) and Google Play Music Podcasts (2016–2020). Google Podcasts technically started in 2016 as a bizarre podcast player that was only accessible via a mobile Google Search. Searching for a podcast in the Google app would show a play button next to episode search results, but there was no way to subscribe to a podcast. Android Google Podcasts finally got podcast-defining subscription support a whopping two years later, but you couldn't really call the service viable until an iOS app finally launched in 2020.

 

In 2024, Google Podcasts will die at 8 years old, if you want to count from the weird Google Search beginnings, but only has had the bare minimum feature set of a podcast service for four years. With a startup procedure like that, it's no wonder that Google Podcasts isn't very popular, with YouTube saying, "According to Edison, about 23% of weekly podcast users in the US say YouTube is their most frequently used service, versus just 4% for Google Podcasts."

YouTube Premium Lite heads into the darkness

Staying with Team YouTube, the next door Google's Grim Reaper is knocking on belongs to YouTube Premium Lite. While YouTube Premium gives you access to ad-free YouTube and YouTube Music, the "Lite" version was a Europe-only budget plan that cut down the feature set to only ad-free YouTube videos. The cost was 6.99 euros/month, a decent discount over the then-11.99 euros per month price. If you've never heard of this, that's because it got a very small rollout to only Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden.

 

You can throw this shutdown into the pile of "Google price increases" this year. Regular YouTube Premium jumped in price to $13.99 in July, and shutting down the lower tier is a way to raise the price for everyone else. Current YouTube Premium Lite subscribers all got emails saying their current subscriptions will end on October 25, 2023, and if they want to keep seeing ad-free YouTube, it's time to pay full price.

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The RTX 4080 16GB was also launched around the same time and while the press had no complaints about it, like those related to VRAM or other key hardware specs, both the premium 40-series GPUs had one major issue which was definitely making it hard to recommend them without a second thought. This was due to reports of melting, burning, and frying 12VHPWR 16-pin PCIe 5.0 connectors which powered these cards.

Testing and in-depth investigation suggested that improper contact and connection between the pins and the power socket was causing this and this scared a lot of potential buyers of these GPUs as it was seemingly much more difficult to ensure that the power connector was securely inserted properly and securely in its place. The problem generated so much buzz that AMD used it to favorably market its own RX 7900 series cards as they don't come with the new connector and instead carry traditional 8-pins. While such reports were first based mainly on GPU-side melting, earlier this year, a PSU-side melting case was also found.

Workarounds and solutions for this problem have been proposed and one of those was by MSI where the vendor proposed a simple yet effective solution with bright yellow coloured 16-pin power connectors that will not be visible to the user once the connector is properly seated. However, this does not resolve the potential cause of the issue and is only a workaround that still relies on the user being careful and attentive when connecting the PSU cables.

Hardware Busters today published a video that shows a new breakthrough 12V-2×6 PCIe 12VHPWR connector that seems to perform near-miraculously, relatively speaking, as it functions within spec even when not seated properly.

As you can see in the images above (click on them to zoom in), when load-testing the 12V-2×6 cable using a Jartul JT6322A (1200W/150V/240A) DC electronic unit, the cable displays almost identical readings across voltage, current and power, and is able to sustain nearly 645W of load both times, despite one of them being not inserted properly. If you weren't able to guess which one that is, the one on the right is the correct answer.

Source and images: Hardware Busters (YouTube)

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What you need to know

• A Starfield player has encountered a bug that allowed them to fly the entirety of New Atlantis, the first city visited after the game's tutorial, into space.
• Despite attempts to "return it" by grav jumping or landing on planets, the city stubbornly followed the player everywhere. 
• Reloading a save appears to be the only fix, though starting a fresh NG+ cycle will resolve the issue as well.
• The exact cause of this glitch is unclear, though everyone who's reported it says it happened after they tried to register a new ship as their Home Ship while aboard a space station.

Though Starfield is, on the whole, much less buggy at launch than past Bethesda games were, players have still reported experiencing plenty of strange glitches since the RPG's release earlier this month. I didn't think anything could top the (now patched) exploit that allowed someone to steal a pirate space station and land it on a planet, but I've since discovered the existence of what is easily one of the most bizarre bugs I've ever seen in a video game.

Recently, u/Punidue on Reddit took to the r/Starfield community to share an absolutely wild development. After boarding their ship while it was docked at the Crimson Fleet faction's The Key space station, they somehow found themselves in the middle of New Atlantis — the metropolis players first arrive at after Starfield's tutorial, and one that's located many systems away from The Key. Then, when they took off, the entirety of New Atlantis followed them to space, and continued to do so even after grav jumps or landings.

"I'm not sure why it happened, but: I boarded a spacer ship, and jumped to The Key to register and modify it. I do so, exit dialogue with the vendor, and talk to her again because I wanted to change my home ship back to what I was using before. After that, the station got incredibly bright and I could not fast travel anywhere," explained u/Punidue. "So I got back to the docks, boarded my ship and bam, I was in a glitchy New Atlantis ready for take off. I do so, and bring the whole city in orbit with me. It follows me if I grav jump away or land making the game an unplayable mess."

Next time you fly, keep an eye out for an entire city on your six. (Image credit: Windows Central)

Thankfully, u/Punidue was finally able to fix the issue by loading an earlier save, though they lost three hours of progress as a result. If nothing else, let this be a reminder that saving often is always a good idea, especially in massive and complicated RPGs like Starfield.

Interestingly, u/Punidue isn't the only person who's run into this particular bug, as several others have mentioned their own experiences in the comments of their post. For some, performing multiple grav jumps in a row eventually made the city disappear from orbit, though multiple chunks of New Atlantis will be missing if you land at it whether this happens or not. At the moment, it seems that reloading a save or starting NG+ are your only options for a true fix.

The exact cause of this glitch is unclear, though everyone who's reported encountering it says that it happened after they tried to register a new Home Ship while aboard a space station. Therefore, we recommend taking care of business like that while you're at a planetary spaceport, lest all of New Atlantis hitches a ride with you across the Settled Systems.

Starfield is finally here, and it's undoubtedly one of the best Xbox games and best PC games for lovers of space exploration, deep RPG gameplay, and the sci-fi genre as a whole. 

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Earlier today, Samsung announced that it has developed a new memory module standard that could show up on Intel's platforms as early as next year. In an industry-first, the South Korean giant has developed a Low Power Compression Attached Memory Module (LPCAMM). Samsung claims that this new memory can be more power efficient while offering better performance compared to the current offerings.

Currently, manufacturers have the option of using two types of memory modules- Low-Power Double Data Rate (LPDDR) DRAM or Small outline Dual In-line Memory Module (So-DIMM). LPDDR is compact but is attached to the motherboard, making it ideal for smaller devices like mobiles and smartwatches. So-DIMM, on the other hand, is bigger but is removable, making it great for reparability.

Samsung is not the first company to go out of its way to develop a new memory design. Last year, Dell announced that it had developed Compression Attached Memory Module (CAMM) which addressed a lot of So-DIMM's shortcomings.

Samsung claims that LPCAMM infuses So-DIMM's reparability with LPDDR's compactness, making it a great alternative for all kinds of devices, including smartphones and laptops. Samsung notes that LPCAMM takes up to 60% less space while improving the performance and power efficiency by up to 50% and 70% respectively. This, combined with the fact that LPCAMM is detachable, makes it a great option for all types of hardware.

Samsung's LPCAMM is built on DDR5 spec and will come with Serial Presence Detect (SPD) hub which offers additional features and manages external controller access while taking a memory load off the internal bus. LPCAMM will also feature Power Management Integrate Circuits (PMIC) which will help manage power distribution to the various components like DRAM register and SPD hub.

Dr. Dimitrios Ziakas, Vice President of Memory & IO Technology at Intel said:

The energy efficiency and repairability advantages of LPCAMM make this new form factor a game changer in today’s PC market. We’re excited to be a part of the new standard enabling the client PC ecosystem and pave the path for future adoption and innovation in broader market segments.

Samsung is branding the new module as the perfect replacement for all kinds of hardware. However, the company recognizes the challenges of upgrading to a new standard on a larger scale like for a server. As such, the company wants to create "significant potential for it to become the solution of choice for future data centers and servers."

Yongcheol Bae, Executive Vice President of Memory Product Planning Team at Samsung Electronics said:

With the growing demand in innovative memory solutions encompassing high performance, low power consumption and manufacturing flexibility across various fields, LPCAMM is expected to gain wide adoption in PCs, laptops and data centers. Samsung is committed to actively pursuing opportunities to expand the LPCAMM solution market and collaborating closely with the industry to explore new applications for its use.

Samsung plans to test the new LPCAMM modules with new hardware and major customers this year, with the company planning to introduce it to consumers in 2024.

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According to a new job posting (spotted by DCD), Microsoft is considering using nuclear power to run its massive data centers. The company seeks a "Principal Program Manager Nuclear Technology" to lead efforts to integrate small modular reactors (SMRs) and microreactors potentially.

This person would be tasked with developing a strategy and roadmap for adopting nuclear technology, selecting partners, and evaluating business impacts.

SMRs are smaller, simpler nuclear fission plants that can be mass-produced and more easily sited than traditional reactors. While no commercial SMRs operate yet, Microsoft seems intrigued by their compact size and carbon-free power generation. With data centers being major energy hogs, Microsoft is searching for ways to reduce costs and environmental footprint.

This senior position is tasked with leading the technical assessment for the integration of SMR and microreactors to power the datacenters that the Microsoft Cloud and AI reside on. They will maintain a clear and adaptable roadmap for the technology’s integration, diligently select and manage technology partners and solutions, and constantly evaluate the business implications of progress and implementation.

However, significant barriers remain to the deployment of SMRs. The technology is still in development and faces regulatory hurdles. Siting nuclear facilities near data centers could also raise security concerns. So Microsoft is looking for someone with experience in the energy sector who understands the regulations.

The ideal candidate will have experience in the energy industry and a deep understanding of nuclear technologies and regulatory affairs. This role will also be responsible for research and developing other precommercial energy technologies.

Microsoft has already invested in other nascent energy technologies like fusion power. But, realizing its goal of carbon-negative operations by 2030 may require more proven and scalable solutions.

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