It's a small and quiet end of an era for Microsoft. It started, at least for the general public, with a ton of promise and hype over 10 years ago with what the company first called Project Natal. You can learn a lot more about how Microsoft first developed the technology before its public reveal at Polygon's excellent history on Kinect.

On June 1, 2009, Microsoft introduced Natal during its E3 press conference. Suddenly, the audience at the Galen Center in Los Angeles got to see a video of people playing and interacting with their Xbox 360 console without a physical controller. Instead, there was a small camera 3D sensor that detected their body movements.

The family members in the video were fighting with a virtual martial arts master, driving in a race car, pretending they were a massive kaiju monster tearing down buildings, and more. There was even a section where a girl was video chatting with a friend, and the friend on the other end shows some outfit choices that the girl could virtually try on via Natal and the TV screen.

I was there at that event and I remember the audience reaction at the time was pretty much gob-smacked. Many folks were likely thinking this was the next step in game interaction after Nintendo introduced the Wii motion-sensor controllers a few years earlier.

Microsoft went all out with its reveal. The head of Microsoft's E3 division at the time, Don Mattrick brought out none other than famed filmmaker (and self-professed video game player) Steven Spielberg after that video introduction.

He told the audience that he had a chance to see and interact with a demo for Natal a couple of months earlier. Spielberg stated that at that time he felt he was "present for a historic moment." He added that Microsoft was not trying to reinvent the wheel with Natal, "it's about no wheel at all".

The E3 event then proceeded to show live demos of what Project Natal could do on the stage. Unfortunately, the demo started with the head of the Natal team, Kudo Tsunoda, showing off the motion capture of the Natal camera on an Xbox 360 avatar. The avatar's movements were definitely wild and all over the price and didn't match the movements of Tsunoda at all.

The demos worked better later as Tsunoda showed how moving his hand could be used to interact with the Xbox 360's menus. We also got to see live demos of a game where players could use their whole body to send virtual balls to targets on screen, and even create digital artwork with their movements and their voice.

The Natal E3 presentation ended with game developer Peter Molyneux who at the time work for Microsoft as the head of its Lionhead development studio. Molyneux showed a filmed demo of Milo & Kate, where the Natal sensor was used to allow the game's characters to interact with the player via voice and body recognition.

For the most part, people were extremely impressed with what Microsoft showed off at E3 with Natal. In Neowin's own comments about the press conference. Writer Andrew Lyle stated, "Wow, simply wow. This is going to change gaming forever. I was so freaked out when they demonstrated the Lionhead's game Milo and being able to speak to your video game. It was fantastic."

However, another one of Neowin's writers at the time, Larry Cooney Jr was not sold on Natal. He stated, "My mother always told me if you have nothing nice to say, do not say anything at all. With that said, I understand why MS is doing this, I totally do, and I do think it is great to see things advance as well, but I am not really all that interested at this point in time. Meaning, until it can be applied in a way that does not require me flailing my arms around the living room so my wife can laugh at me while I do so, I personally have no interest."

The truth was the Natal demo at E3 in 2009 seemed at the time to be a major shift in the video game industry. However, that promising shift that was introduced that day didn't last. Perhaps we will write about that another day.

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Billions of dollars are flowing into a clutch of specialist companies hunting for treatments for some of the most debilitating ailments.

And pioneering studies have already yielded results.

In May, a Dutchman paralyzed in a motorcycle accident regained the ability to walk thanks to implants that restored communication between his brain and spinal cord.

That experiment was one of several eye-catching trials that have helped spark a huge buzz around the industry.

In the decade to 2020, investors poured more than $30 billion into neurotechnology more widely, according to UNESCO.

And the money has continued to flood in thanks, in part, to rapid improvements in artificial intelligence (AI), used by researchers to interpret the data from the implants.

Tech titan Elon Musk has refocused some energy on his Neuralink firm after it received permission in May to test its implants on humans, helping it to raise $280 million in funding.

And other firms with less prominent bosses are proliferating, offering hope for sufferers of ailments from rare nerve diseases to severe epilepsy.

'Turning point'

Synchron, a company formed more than a decade ago, raised $75 million this year with backing from the likes of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Amazon's Jeff Bezos.

The firm got permission from the US authorities in 2021 to test its implant, and has since rolled it out to nine people with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)—the motor neuron disease that physicist Stephen Hawking suffered from.

Elon Musk has refocused energy on his Neuralink firm after it received permission to test its implants on humans.

Its implant allows patients to use messaging apps or browse online using only eye movements and thoughts.

One of the big selling points is that, unlike other implants, it does not require invasive surgery.

The first goals of the Synchron test, said Dr. David Putrino, who oversaw the medical trial at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, were to make sure the implant was safe and could monitor the brain over long periods.

On both fronts, he said, the trial had been a success.

Synchron founder Tom Oxley thinks the technology, known as brain-computer interface (BCI), is now at a "turning point".

The industry must aim to make the implants widely accessible, he told AFP.

Brain attack

There are still pretty hefty impediments before that can happen, not least that the most powerful results often come from the most invasive implants.

For example, a patient in the US, Ian Burkhart, who was left paralyzed from the neck down after a diving accident, told AFP that getting an implant that allowed him to control his arms and hands again was a "magical moment".

But he was only ever able to do that in a lab and the implant, known as a Utah array, was far from comfortable.

"The brain doesn't like having stuff inside it," said Michael Platt, professor of neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania.

"And so the immune system of the brain will attack these devices," he said of the Utah arrays.

Ian Burkhart got an implant after he was left paralyzed from the neck down after a diving accident.

As the implants get covered by cells, they are less able to transmit signals from the brain and they function less well.

Although far less advanced, some researchers are pinning their hopes on techniques that do not involve implants.

In May, scientists at the University of Texas at Austin said they had used brain scans and AI modeling to glean "the gist" of what people were thinking.

The technique relied heavily on the GPT models developed by OpenAI, which are capable of analyzing massive chunks of data increasingly quickly.

But such research is at the very earliest stage and involves patients spending as much as 16 hours each time in an MRI scanner.

Musk's telepathy plan

While most players in the field are exclusively concerned with medical uses for neurotechnology, Musk is different.

The maverick tycoon is touting the possibility of telepathy, using the technology to store memories or to enable humans to continue their existence without their bodies.

"In the future you will be able to save and replay memories," he told a Neuralink event in 2020.

"You could potentially download them into a new body or into a robot body."

These claims remain far from reality but this has not stopped Musk from going even further.

He sees implants as a way of enhancing humans—a vital move, he thinks, if our species is to co-exist with superintelligent machines.

"That might be the most important thing that a device like this achieves," he said.

© 2023 AFP

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Imagine a world where, rather than inspiring fear and trembling in even the stoutest of IT professional's hearts, snipping bugs out of, or adding features to, legacy closed-source binaries was just another basic, low-stress task. 

A couple of years into a five-year DARPA project and we're perhaps well on our way there, thanks to the smart cookies at Georgia Tech. According to the US university, the GT team has, with $10 million in Pentagon funding, developed a prototype pipeline that can "distill" binary executables into human-intelligible code so that it can be updated and deployed in "weeks, days, or hours, in some cases."

Hold on a moment

We know what you're thinking: Uncle Sam is reinventing decompilation. It certainly sounds like it. There are lots of decompilation and reverse-engineering tools out there for turning executable machine-level code into corresponding source code in human-readable high-level language like C or C++. That decompiled source, however, tends to be messy and hard to follow, and is typically used for figuring out how a program works and whether any bugs are exploitable.

From what we can tell, this DARPA program seeks a highly robust, automated method of converting executable files into a high-level format developers can not only read – a highly abstract representation, or HAR, in this case – but also edit to remove flaws and add functionality, and reassemble it all back into a program that will work as expected. That's a bit of a manual, error-prone chore even for highly skilled types using today's reverse-engineering tools, which isn't what you want near code going into things like aircraft.

DARPA instead seems to want a decompilation-and-recompilation system that is reliable, easy enough to use, and incorporates stuff you'd expect from a military research nerve center, such as formal verification of a program's modifications.

Ah-HAR!

With that said, let's look at this DARPA-backed work. After running an executable through the university's "distillation" process, software engineers should be able to examine the generated HAR, figure out what the code does, and make changes to add new features, patch bugs, or improve security, and turn the HAR back into executable code, says GT associate professor and project participant Brendan Saltaformaggio.

This would be useful for, say, updating complex software that was written by a contractor or internal team, the source code is no longer or never was to hand and neither are its creators, and stuff needs to be fixed up. Reverse engineering the binary and patching in an update by hand can be a little hairy, hence DARPA's desire for something a bit more solid and automatic. The idea is to use this pipeline to freshen up legacy or outdated software that may have taken years and millions of dollars to develop some time ago.

"The US government has this tremendous problem where they put tons of research and development into cutting-edge software, and then two years down the line, it needs to be updated," he said.

Yes, even after two years; it's not just for code that was finished a decade or more ago. Saltaformaggio told The Register it's still the case that software in executable form gets handed over to the Pentagon to deploy, and no one is tasked with maintaining the source code or making it available as needed, even after that short a time.

"In an ideal world someone would be hanging on to that source, and I'm sure that's sometimes the case. But not always," Saltaformaggio said.

Dare we say, a team or contractor may not be inclined to help with an update if there is no budget or agreement requiring it to do so. Rather than go through months or years of bidding, negotiations, and finally some engineering, Uncle Sam might want to skip ahead to that last part if all it wants is a bug fix, especially if it needs a critical update, stat. And if the source code is no longer available in any case, it doesn't have to be recreated from scratch: a binary update will be possible.

Indeed, GT touts its work as a way for the Dept of Defense to save millions of dollars in time and money.

A legacy code wizard, complete with spells

And so, enter DARPA's Verified Security and Performance of Large Legacy Software, or V-SPELL program, which kicked off in late 2020.

The GT team is one of just two groups given a grant to work on all three research thrusts for the project. Its goals include decoding binary executables into a human-readable representation, making it possible for changes to the readable code, and recomposing it back into a binary executable that can be slotted into place where the old one was without issue. 

Here's the pitch direct from DARPA:

The goal of the V-SPELLS program is to create a developer-accessible capability for piece-by-piece enhancement of software components with new verified code that is both correct-by-construction and compatible-by-construction, ie, safely composable with the rest of the system.

V-SPELLS will create practical tools for developers to gain benefits of formal software verification in incremental software (re)engineering rather than only in clean-slate introduction. V-SPELLS tools will enable developers to deliver assured incremental modernization of legacy systems in a manner that leverages verification technologies and reduces rather than raises risk.

V-SPELLS aims to radically broaden adoption of software verification by enabling incremental introduction of superior technologies into systems that cannot be redesigned from scratch and replaced as a whole.

Saltaformaggio told El Reg his team has the entire process working from start to finish, and with some level of stability, too. "DARPA sets challenges they like to use to test the capabilities of a project," he told us over the phone. "So far we've handled every challenge problem DARPA's thrown at us, so I'd say it's working pretty well." 

Saltaformaggio said his team's pipeline disassembles binaries into a graph structure with pseudo-code, and presented in a way that developers can navigate, and replace or add parts in C and C++. 

Sorry, Java devs and Pythonistas: Saltaformaggio tells us that there's no reason the system couldn't work with other programming languages, "but we're focused on C and C++. Other folks would need to build out support for that." 

Along with being able to deconstruct, edit, and reconstruct binaries, the team said its processing pipeline is also able to comb through HARs and remove extraneous routines. The team has also, we're told, baked in verification steps to ensure changes made to code within hardware ranging from jets and drones to plain-old desktop computers work exactly as expected with no side effects.

Saltaformaggio told us the V-SPELLS program ends in 2025, and his team's software is already at the stage where partners are being lined up for experiments, and the US Navy is likely first among them. Other transition partners, including companies working in the aerospace industry, are also interested in testing the pipeline, Saltaformaggio said.

As to when the civilian world can expect its own magic pipe that ingests legacy binaries and spits out something useful - that's going to take a while, but it's still likely, Saltaformaggio told us. 

"DARPA programs are always way forward looking, and we're still in the very fundamental research stage," Saltaformaggio said. "But the government loves to take technology that it feels comfortable with and redeploy it for civilian uses."

"It might be a decade, but it'll happen," Saltaformaggio predicted. ®

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“The difference between us and somebody like Gamers Nexus or Hardware Unboxed is we test new components, new tests every time. Every project that we do has new data”, were the exact words of one of Linus Tech Tips Labs employees that kicked off the controversy that has seen the YouTube giant halt all video production for a week. Following these comments, Gamers Nexus posted a 44-minute-long video exposé pointing out serious repeated factual errors in LTT videos. 

More importantly, GN’s report was followed by serious allegations levied against LTT by Madison Reeve, an LTT fan-turned-employee, who left the company after allegedly enduring toxicity in the workplace and harassment.

Linus Media Group, the parent company of LTT, has since temporarily stopped all video production and has committed to fixing internal process issues.

Gamers Nexus’ report

As mentioned above, the whole LTT drama began when an LTT Labs personnel claimed that LTT Labs runs new tests for every new project, unlike outlets like Gamers Nexus and Hardware Unboxed. Hardware Unboxed countered the claim by tweeting that “I've re-run more benchmarks than Linus has spent $ on testing equipment & staff”. The outlet further tweeted that “If you have to tell everyone how good your testing is, in my 20+ years of experience that generally means your testing isn't very good”.

That said, the real debacle began after Gamers Nexus uploaded a 44-minute long video detailing LTT’s numerous factual errors in reviews, unboxings, and general oversight that could be labeled as misleading.

As an example, GN showed that in LTT’s initial RTX 4090 review, the outlet mistakenly displayed the RTX 4090 to be about 300% faster than the RTX 3090 Ti in Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K with Ultra RT. Calling the oversight a “massive human error”, GN suggested the performance delta between the RTX 4090 and RTX 3090 Ti should have been about 72 to 75%. 

Although LTT did correct the mistake later, the inaccuracies didn’t stop and repeatedly popped up per GN’s analysis. For instance, GN reported that LTT’s RTX 4060 Ti review had the Intel Arc A750 outperforming the RTX 4060 Ti, on average, in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p with Ultra RT.

GN also detailed errors in LTT’s various other videos dealing with CPU coolers, CPU reviews, and Power Supply reviews.

Furthermore, GN raised ethical concerns regarding LMG/LTT’s business dealings. For instance, the outlet pointed out that even though Linus has invested north of US$200,000 in laptop maker Framework, LTT continues to cover not only Framework’s products but also competitor notebooks which represents a potential conflict of interest.

Perhaps the most egregious case of LTT’s alleged questionable ethical practices, the channel reportedly failed to properly test Billet Lab’s copper waterblock, refused to correct their mistake when pointed out, and even auctioned the product off after explicitly agreeing to send the one-of-a-kind prototype back to Billet Labs. GN heavily criticized LTT's handling of the Billet Labs situation as irresponsible with the potential to “kill someone’s life work in a heartbeat”.

Finally, GN also blasted Short Circuit’s video on the Pwnage Strombreaker mouse. Short Circuit, LMG’s YouTube channel dedicated to product unboxing and hands-on videos, called the Pwnage Stromerbreaker “not a smooth mouse” despite the company claiming that the Strombreaker has a “lower friction coefficient than even the most top gaming mouse brand”. The company cited Rtings review of the mouse as proof of how smooth the mouse really is.

As it later turned out, LMG staff had actually forgotten to take the protective plastic film off the mouse feet before shooting the Short Circuit video and in it recommending users not to buy the mouse because of their own oversight. LMG later edited the video to partially correct their mistakes.

Long story short, GN’s lengthy report ripped into LTT’s frequently erroneous testing and raised alarming ethical concerns that, for a company of LMG’s stature, are potentially disastrous, to say the least.

Linus Sebastian’s initial response

Linus responded to GN’s video in a lengthy written piece that attempted to deal with criticism raised by the channel. 

Linus started the piece by accusing Steve (Gamers Nexus) of not “going through proper journalist practices in creating this piece” as he had Linus’ contact details and could’ve asked for “valuable” context.

Linus also attempted to clarify Billet Lab’s situation by explaining that LTT didn’t technically sell the monoblock but auctioned it for charity. The media giant has also reportedly agreed to compensate Billet Labs for the prototype.

However, Linus effectively doubled down on LTT’s conclusion regarding Billet Lab’s monoblock despite admitting that their testing was inaccurate and they “could’ve re-tested it with perfect accuracy”.

Linus, now LMG’s Chief Vision Officer, also explained having notes under “some videos” because LTT values transparency and stated that there would be a much larger correction “if circumstances merited it”.

In reaction to Linus’ response, some users on the LTT subreddit called the response a “nothingburger”, deflection “onto the community”, and even a “basic ass corporate response”.

Madison Reeve’s damning accusations

As if GN’s critique wasn’t enough, Madison Reeve, a former LTT employee, unloaded scathing accusations regarding LMG’s workplace environment. 

For starters, Madison detailed the seemingly unsustainable amount of work that she was expected to do. She was also reportedly told not to complain because her job was “the fun job”.

According to Madison, the toxic work environment at LMG “brought her mental health to an all-time low”. She also alleged being “belittled” by some members of upper management and also had to hear how her work was “dogshit” and “incompetent”.

More damningly, Madison reported having been “inappropriately grabbed multiple times in the office”.

The aftermath

In the wake of GN’s scathing exposé and Madison Reeve’s allegations, LMG has temporarily paused all video production to focus on addressing the pressing issues. 

In their latest video, LMG CEO Terren Tong admitted that the team has “a lot of work to do” and he has “asked the team to unflinchingly address both the concerns that have been raised and how to fix them”. To that end, Yvonne Ho, LMG’s CFO, has announced that the company will be working on “long-term workflow changes”. Yvonne also stated that they are going to be working on reducing the LTT upload schedule which was one of the main concerns raised by GN.

More importantly, the head of LTT Labs, Gary Key, promised to use the production halt to publish documents detailing the Labs testing standards for feedback from both the community and the wider industry. Gary also explained that a team will be sifting through all LTT videos using Labs data to ensure accuracy, make corrections, and even take the video down for replacement where needed.

Furthermore, Gary stated that the Labs team will, among other things, open-source the code of their test integrations to the community.

Additionally, other members of the LTT management also committed to resolving issues and streamlining workflows. 

Finally, Linus also made an appearance. Delivering an emotional response to the wider criticisms and some of the more personal attacks from the disgruntled community, he admitted that his decision to not re-test the Billet Labs monoblock was a mistake and the later explanation on the forums was an “unnecessary blunder”. He also went on to explain the role he will be playing in helping LTT get better.

Long story short, the recent LTT drama has undoubtedly proven to be a massive wake-up call for the media giant. Let’s hope the company takes the criticisms to heart and implements far-reaching changes to ensure error-free reporting in the future.

Linus' initial response to GN video. (Source: LTT forums/LTT subreddit)

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The most recent instance of AI error has been unveiled in an article released on MSN, where it suggests that tourists explore the Ottawa Food Bank and even offers an ill-advised suggestion: "Think about arriving on an empty stomach."

Recently, an article titled "Heading to Ottawa? Don't Miss These!" was released last week but has been removed by Microsoft since then.

Nevertheless, it remains accessible via the Internet archive. The Ottawa Food Bank was ranked as the third recommendation on the list, following the National War Memorial and preceding attending an Ottawa Senators hockey game.

As per a report by engadget, the AI-generated article contained a concise description of what visitors could anticipate at the destination. Concerning the food bank, Microsoft's summary featured an insensitive statement that seems to have been posted without human editorial approval. The statement stated, "Our visitors come from diverse backgrounds, often with jobs and families to care for, along with their financial responsibilities. Life can be tough as it is, let alone when faced with hunger."

Microsoft's AI-aggregated news service, Microsoft Start, which replaced Microsoft News in 2021, featured the article before its retraction. Reportedly, following The Verge's coverage of the article and its extremely inappropriate suggestion to "go into it on an empty stomach," Microsoft senior director Jeff Jones informed the publication, "This article has been removed, and we are investigating how it made it through our review process."

Currently, the original URL shows the message, "This page no longer exists. A new search page will load automatically."

Meanwhile, Microsoft is also introducing a new punitive framework for Xbox devices to tackle online toxicity among players. This novel system is hinged on a 'Strikes' mechanism, which encompasses varying degrees of severity based on the misconduct. Each instance of inappropriate behavior will lead to a strike, with the potential for cumulative accumulation in cases of recurring violations.

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However, earlier this year it announced a new and upcoming sci-fi PvP extraction shooter, Marathon. It will share the same name as an earlier Bungie game franchise. As it turns out, that's not the only upcoming game that Bungie is currently working on.

In an X (formerly Twitter) post, Bungie revealed it has an "incubation" project it is working on. The unnamed project is a "team-based action game" set in a "brand-new, science-fantasy universe"

The post adds that the new game has quite a few inspirations, such as "fighting games, platformers, MOBAs, life sims, and frog-type game." It's also set "in a lighthearted, comedic world." All in all, this sounds very different than the hardcore sci-fi shooters Bungie has been making for over 20 years.

In a follow-up post, Bungie reveals that this is not just a side project, but one it is actively hiring new team members to work on. The X post also included a link to its Careers website.

Some of the listings seem to reference this incubation project, with references to working on a new game with an "amazing action feel with lighthearted and whimsical characters". The job listings also ask for experience in using Epic Games' Unreal Engine.

It sounds like this is still in the very early stages of development. Therefore, we don't expect an official reveal from Bungie for some time to come.

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It was previously reported that the Legion Go will have an 8-inch display, which will set it apart from the other handhelds. It is worth noting that the Steam Deck and ROG Ally have 7-inch displays. It will also reportedly run on Windows 11. This would allow it to play any PC games that its internal specs can support.

A new report shows that the Legion Go will be powered by AMD's new Ryzen Z1 processors, similar to the ROG Ally. Specifically, it will likely offer a choice between the standard Ryzen Z1 and the higher-end Ryzen Z1 Extreme chips. This could mean up to 8 CPU cores and a 12-core RDNA 3 integrated GPU.

Other features include removable M.2 SSD storage, a built-in trackpad, and additional controller buttons labeled M1-M3 and Y1-Y3. The previous images showed that the right controller has a touchpad and wheel on the back, while the left has an analog stick and buttons.

Lenovo Legion Go (based on rumors):

• Architecture: AMD Zen4 & RDNA3
• APU: AMD Phoenix-based Ryzen Z1 and Ryzen Z1 Extreme
• SoC GPU: AMD iGPU, 12CU @ 2.7GHz

ASUS ROG Ally:

• Architecture: AMD Zen4 & RDNA3
• APU: Ryzen Z1 Extreme, up to 5.1GHz / Ryzen Z1, up to 4.9GHz
• SoC GPU: AMD iGPU, 12CU @ 2.7GHz

Steam Deck:

• Architecture: AMD Zen2 & RDNA2
• APU: AMD Van Gogh, up to 3.5GHz
• SoC GPU: AMD iGPU, 8CU @ 1.6GHz

Lenovo is also rumored to be developing new AR glasses called Legion Glasses to complement the Legion Go. It is thought to provide a dedicated display for on-the-go use. The glasses appear to be similar to ThinkReality A3 model announced two years ago.

An official announcement and release details for the Legion Go are still unknown. However, with marketing images already leaked, the reveal of the gaming handheld could be imminent. Rumors point to a possible announcement at IFA 2023 this September and a Q4 2023 launch, just in time for the holidays.

Source and images: Windows Report

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In a post on the game's website, Ubisoft says that you must be invited to participate in the closed PC beta test. First, you have to have an Ubisoft Connect account and then you can join the Skull and Bones Insider Program. If you join the program and get invited, you can also invite two more people to join the beta test (again, they must also have Ubisoft Connect accounts).

The closed beta will run from August 24 at 4 pm Eastern time (7 pm Pacific time) to August 28 at 3 am Eastern time (Midnight Pacific time). Preloads for the beta start August 22 at 6 am Eastern time (3 am Pacific). While this is a closed beta, there won't be an NDA, so you can reveal info and even stream live gameplay during the test.

So what can players expect to check out during the Skull and Bones beta? Ubisoft says:

Located within the Red Isle is the pirate den of Sainte Anne. Ruled by John Scurlock, the local Kingpin you'll deal with as you start your rise to the top of the pirate world. This den is a safe zone where you can interact with other players, craft your ships, weapons, and equipment with the help of the skilled artisans who have made their home here. You'll be able to access a warehouse to store your loot, repair your ship, sell the commodities you liberated from rich merchants, and more.

Explore this part of the world as well as the Coast of Africa during the Closed Beta, as you meet the different factions present in-game and face them peacefully or turn against them in-combat.

Ubisoft adds that players should also look for hidden areas to get more ammo or trade with vendors. Beta testers will also get special in-game items when the final version of the game is released.

Speaking of which, Ubisoft still has not issued a release date for Skull and Bones, but if there's a closed beta, we would expect to see the full game finally hit the virtual waves in the near future.

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The Backstory: WiFi 5 - The hero of its time

Imagine a time when buffering was as common as air. This was the era dominated by WiFi 5 (802.11ac), the fifth generation of WiFi technology. WiFi 5 was no slouch - it brought us faster speeds and better coverage compared to its predecessors. Think of it as the trusty steed that got us through the initial stages of the digital revolution. With its max speeds of up to 3.5 Gbps and support for multiple devices, WiFi 5 was our knight in shining armor, allowing us to stream, game, and work from the comfort of our homes. But as technology advanced, so did our demands, and it was time for WiFi 6 to emerge on the scene.

Enter WiFi 6: The quantum leap in connectivity

Ladies and gentlemen, prepare to be amazed by WiFi 6 (802.11ax), the sixth generation of WiFi technology that's here to take connectivity to a whole new dimension. Picture this: you're hosting a movie night, your teenager is gaming online, and you're video conferencing with your colleagues - all at the same time. In the WiFi 6 era, this is no longer a dream but a reality. Here is why:

Speed that defies imagination

WiFi 6 doesn't just offer faster speeds; it redefines the concept of speed itself. With a potential top speed of a jaw-dropping 9.6 Gbps, WiFi 6 ensures that even the most data-hungry applications run smoothly. Say goodbye to those frustrating lags during intense gaming sessions or while streaming 4K videos. WiFi 6 transforms your online experience into a seamless, exhilarating adventure.

Picture this: You're hosting a virtual reality gaming night with your friends. With WiFi 6, the immersive worlds of your favorite games come to life without a hint of latency, making every moment feel like reality.

More Devices, no sweat

Remember the struggle of sharing your WiFi with multiple devices? WiFi 6 comes to the rescue with its improved ability to handle a multitude of devices simultaneously. This means your smart TV, smartphone, laptop, smart fridge, and even your neighbor's WiFi-hungry parrot can all coexist harmoniously on the network without sacrificing performance.

Picture this: It's Thanksgiving, and your entire extended family is over. Everyone's connected to the WiFi, from the tech-savvy teens streaming their favorite holiday movies to the grandparents video chatting with distant relatives. Thanks to WiFi 6, there's not a glitch in sight.

Efficiency redefined

WiFi 6 is not just about raw power but also about using it efficiently. It introduces revolutionary technology like Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) and Basic Service Set (BSS) colouring, which makes it possible for the router to communicate with multiple devices simultaneously, reducing congestion and boosting overall network efficiency.

Picture this: You're at a crowded stadium, and everyone is trying to upload their epic game-winning selfies. WiFi 6 ensures that each upload is a breeze, even in the midst of chaos.

The Verdict

While WiFi 5 was undoubtedly a game-changer in its time, WiFi 6 emerges as the undisputed champion, ready to conquer the ever-expanding digital frontier. Its blistering speeds, device-handling prowess, and efficiency enhancements make it the ultimate choice for those who demand the very best from their wireless networks. So, whether you're a hardcore gamer, a streaming aficionado, or a remote work guru, WiFi 6 is your ticket to an unparalleled digital journey.

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What you need to know

• Quinas Technology developed ULTRARAM, a new type of universal memory designed to outperform and outlast your SSD's flash storage.
• The technology leverages quantum mechanical resonant tunnelling to provide a system memory-like performance level while promoting energy efficiency.
•  It's not yet clear how much the new technology will cost.

Leaving your Windows PC in hibernation mode for too long can sometimes land you in tough positions. For instance, not being able to pick up your work from where you left it and need to restart your device all over again is a great deterrent to your overall productivity.

But now, even 1,000 years don't seem as long in hibernation for your PC, at least with ULTRARAM, a new type of universal memory designed to outperform and outlast the conventional SSD's flash storage while simultaneously matching the read/write speeds of the system memory with lower power demand, as reported by TechRadar.

Manus Hayne, a Physics Professor at Lancaster University, is the brains behind this new technology developed by Quinas Technology. At the moment, there are two types of memory that you can leverage on your device.

First, system memory (DRAM) sports incredible read and write speeds and can be rewritten as often as you'd like. However, it requires a constant supply of power to retain storage data. This is why your device still drains the battery, despite being in sleep mode, ultimately losing all the stored data. 

On the other hand, flash memory can retain data longer, even after the power is completely drained out. It's considerably cheaper than the system memory but sports slow read and write speeds. 

However, ULTRARAM promises a have your cake and eat it scenario where the user can enjoy the best features from both types of memory. ULTRARAM's official website states, "Our patented memory technology uses quantum mechanical resonant-tunnelling, to provide an unmatched combination of speed, non-volatility, endurance, and energy efficiency."

Moreover, the technology boasts over 1,000 years of data retention capability with a system memory performance level while demanding less energy. The technology seems promising because it just bagged an award at the Flash Memory Summit. 

ULTRARAM goes on to provide a short explanation highlighting how the new technology works in their brochure:

ULTRARAM is a charge-based memory that stores data by moving electrons into or out of a so-called 'floating gate.' The charge state of the floating gate is read non-destructively by measuring the conductance of an underlying 'channel.' The final component of the memory is the barrier that acts like a 'lock' to retain electrons in the floating gate during data retention. The barrier is unlocked to allow charge to flow when the memory is being written or erased.

PCGamer's Dave James provides a comprehensive explanation of how the technology works. Still, in simpler terms, ULTRARAM will let you leave your PC in sleep mode for much longer and pick up exactly where you left off without any hiccups. 

This includes any browser tabs as well as programs you left running. And with ULTRARAM’s fast performance, you should have your PC up and running in a jiffy. 

In a perfect world 

The technology is still in its early stages, and it's impossible to tell its direction. However, this could potentially revolutionize the computing world significantly. 

Think of how this will impact how we do things, especially regarding productivity. The whole concept of being able to leave your device on hibernation without a care in the world about you losing your work is simply mindblowing. How will this impact productivity? Does it have any setbacks? Only time will tell as we await its applicability and costing.

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In a series of X posts, the team showed off some stats in infographic form. Some of the more interesting stats include:

• The Cessna 152 is the most popular aircraft in the game, based on the number of player flights, followed by the Airbus A32ONE0, and the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet.
• Players in the game have flown over 44 billion miles with 711 million flights in the game so far.
• Los Angeles International Airport is the most popular in the game, followed by John F Kennedy International Airport in New York City, and London Heathrow Airport.

There is currently a Three-Year Anniversary Sale in the Microsoft Flight Simulator Marketplace, where over 65 in-game aircraft, along with the game's Premium Deluxe Upgrade are discounted by 50 percent for the next week.

The game's development team has a long list of updates it has planned over the next few months. Its roadmap includes the game's next major update, Sim Update 13, which is currently in beta testing and is scheduled to be released sometime in mid-September.

Of course, the big news is that last June, Asobo Studio and Microsoft officially announced a full and upcoming sequel, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. We also got some more details about the sequel a few weeks later.

The sequel will include, among other things, different kinds of pilot professions, with their own unique missions. It will also have a number of graphical and in-game physics improvements and more. The current game will continue to be supported even after the sequel is released.

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The next-gen CPUs will offer moderate performance improvements over the current 13th-gen, with single-core speeds estimated to be 4-8% faster and multi-core performance gaining 8-15%. It matches earlier leaks regarding the Intel 14th generation desktop Core i9-14900k, i7-14700k, and i5-14600K.

Support for faster DDR5 memory is also coming. ASRock claims the new CPUs will handle DDR5 RAM clocked at 6400 MT/s out of the box, a nice increase over the 5600 MT/s DDR5 speed officially supported by 13th-gen chips.

While CPUs should technically work with higher speed memory than the ones officially supported, running it past the specified spec is considered overclocking the memory (whether it is done via XMP or manual overclocking).

While official confirmation is still needed, ASRock states that existing 600-700 series motherboards will be compatible with 14th-gen Core processors via BIOS updates. Even some more affordable H610 boards will reportedly work with the new chips. This should be good news for current system owners, as it provides an easy drop-in upgrade path later this year.

On the other hand, we also reported that the company is allegedly working on new "Intel 300" branding in preparation for a dual-core processor to kill Pentium and Celeron brandings. By dual core, the leak suggests that these will be two Performance cores (P-cores) with zero Efficiency cores (E-cores).

While not a revolutionary update, Intel's 14th-gen Core CPUs appear to be well positioned as a compelling upgrade option over 12th Gen Alder Lake chips. We look forward to learning more details directly from Intel as the official announcement draws near.

Source: ASRock (Weibo) via ITHome

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The email issues began late last night, with users and admins reporting on Reddit, Twitter, and Microsoft forums that their Hotmail emails were failing due to SPF validation errors.

A Hotmail user explained in a post on Microsoft's forum that their Microsoft Outlook Hotmail accounts were failing to send with the following error:

The Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is an email security feature that reduces spam and prevents threat actors from spoofing domains in phishing attacks.

To configure SPF, admins create a special DNS TXT (text) record for a domain that specifies the specific hostnames and IP addresses allowed to send emails under that domain.

When a mail server receives an email, it will verify that the hostname/IP address for the sending email servers is part of a domain's SPF record, and if it is, allows the email to be delivered as usual.

However, if the IP address or domain of the sending mail server is not listed in the sender domain's SPF record, it will either bounce the email back to the sender with an error or put it in the recipient's SPAM folder.

After analyzing what was causing email delivery errors, admins noted that Microsoft removed the 'include:spf.protection.outlook.com' record from hotmail.com's SPF record.

To illustrate the issue, the previous SPF record for hotmail.com was:

v=spf1 ip4:157.55.9.128/25 include:spf.protection.outlook.com include:spf-a.outlook.com include:spf-b.outlook.com include:spf-a.hotmail.com include:_spf-ssg-b.microsoft.com include:_spf-ssg-c.microsoft.com ~all

Hotmail's current SPF record with spf.protection.outlook.com removed is now:

v=spf1 ip4:157.55.9.128/25 include:spf-a.outlook.com include:spf-b.outlook.com include:spf-a.hotmail.com include:_spf-ssg-b.microsoft.com include:_spf-ssg-c.microsoft.com -all

The spf.protection.outlook.com SPF record contains a large list of hosts allowed to send an email for the hotmail.com domain, and with that record missing, any email from those senders will fail SPF checks.

BleepingComputer tested sending an email from an Outlook.com Hotmail account and replicated the problem, with our email going to Gmail's SPAM folder instead due to its SPF record failing.

Authentication-Results: mx.google.com;
       dkim=pass header.i=@hotmail.com header.s=selector1 header.b=Aoix6uEm;
       arc=pass (i=1);
       spf=fail (google.com: domain of ###@hotmail.com does not designate 2a01:111:f400:fe5b::808 as permitted sender) smtp.mailfrom=###@hotmail.com;
       dmarc=pass (p=NONE sp=NONE dis=NONE) header.from=hotmail.com

This is because the allowed IPv6 address (2a01:111:f400) associated with Outlook.com that was used to send my email is designated in the spf.protection.outlook.com record and, with its removal, is no longer accepted as valid.

Other hosts that will now fail SPF checks due to the removal of spf.protection.outlook.com are:

40.92.0.0/15
40.107.0.0/16
52.100.0.0/14
104.47.0.0/17
2a01:111:f400::/48
2a01:111:f403::/49
2a01:111:f403:8000::/50
2a01:111:f403:c000::/51
2a01:111:f403:f000::/52

Unfortunately, there is nothing that Hotmail users can do to fix this problem on their own, and they will have to wait for Microsoft to fix the DNS entry.

BleepingComputer has asked Microsoft about this change, but a reply was not immediately available.

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Steve Jobs didn’t want the photographer. It was May 1998, and he was about to launch the iMac, the computer that would strap Apple in for a wild ride to the greatest comeback in corporate history. The product was due to ship that August, 25 years ago this month. And Jobs had chosen me, then working for Newsweek, to get an exclusive first look and hang out with him while he prepped for the launch. He hadn’t demanded a cover, as he often would in future years; at that moment neither Jobs nor the nearly bankrupt Apple had that kind of clout. (Even later, when Apple did have that clout, Newsweek would make no guarantees.) But, being Steve Jobs, he was very finicky about who would be taking his picture. He blew up when he learned the identity of the photographer Newsweek had assigned to shoot the behind-the-scenes images. Apparently it was someone who, in Jobs’ mind, had done a less-than-stellar job at a photoshoot years before for Next, the company he founded after John Sculley fired him from Apple in 1985. And he was intensely skeptical of the portrait photographer our art director had chosen to take the hero shot. Moshe Brakha? Jobs had never heard of the guy.

When Steve got antsy like that, floors suddenly got knee-deep in virtual eggshells, forcing everyone around him to step with gravity-defying lightness. His PR team had to all but beg him to walk downstairs from his office and sit for the picture. Jobs glared at me as he grudgingly complied.

Brakha, who had flown up to Cupertino from Los Angeles, was used to recalcitrant subjects: He’d shot Joni Mitchell, Devo, and the Ramones. He handled Jobs the way a Yellowstone Ranch cowhand does a wild stallion, whispering soothing words while subtly maneuvering Apple’s cofounder into the poses he desired. Brakha’s fearlessness seemed to calm Jobs. By the time the photographer asked the interim CEO to sit with legs crossed and hold the machine on his lap, Jobs’ spidey sense told him that he was in the presence of a fellow artist. His smile was sweetly genuine in what became not only the dominant photo of the Newsweek spread but one of the most iconic Steve Jobs shots ever. Apple eventually bought the rights so it could control its use.

That was 25 years ago. This week we’re celebrating not only the anniversary of the iMac G3’s launch, but the moment when the dark clouds over Cupertino parted with the possibility that Jobs might actually pull off a recovery. Though the machine had no groundbreaking new technology, it was cleverly curated to provide the best of Apple’s innovations to date—a powerful G3 chip, crisp 15-inch display, built-in modem, and software that demystified what was then the frustrating process of getting on the internet. Part of the package was the removalof technology—it had no floppy disk drive, which was standard on computers back then. (“A complete nonissue,” Jobs said when I asked if people might complain.) But most striking was its look, created and refined by Jobs’ young, new design wizard, Jony Ive. The final result was a curvy translucent plastic blob that evoked both the Jetsons and a blue watermelon. (The colour was dubbed Bondi Blue, after the dreamy waters of an iconic Australian beach.) After months of advertising to drum into our heads the idea that Apple thought different, the company had delivered a new computer that lived up to that slogan.

Personally, I’m also celebrating the anniversary of a turning point in my own relationship with Jobs. I’d known him since writing about the original Macintosh launch for Rolling Stone in 1984, and in 1997 I had covered his return to Apple. But his offer of an advance look at the iMac was the start of a routine in which I’d get an early peek, or at least a post-keynote personal briefing, on virtually every big product Apple launched in the next decade. The access I got for this particular story included multiple interviews, and even some informal hangouts. In his corporate suite at One Infinite Loop, I saw him take a call from Jerry Seinfeld, who was helping him get a clip of the comedian’s first Johnny Carson appearance for a Think Different commercial. And after we drove in his Mercedes to the event facility, I watched an uncomfortable moment when he reamed out one of his employees at the launch rehearsal for not meeting the Jobsian bar of perfection.

The most valuable moments, though, were when Jobs foretold how he would bring Apple back from the dead. “The world is a slightly better place with Apple Computer in it, and if Apple can return to its roots as an innovator, the whole industry would benefit from that,” he said, adding that this was a project straight from his heart. His plan centered around what he called the “whole-widget” strategy, whereby Apple’s products would be designed from scratch, with software created in-house, and marketed directly to consumers. The only company doing anything comparable was Sony. Jobs said he had originally thought Apple could be the Sony of the computer business. But now he had visions of surpassing even that Japanese electronics giant. “Now I say, Apple could be the Apple of this business,” he said. “And that’s what we’re gonna do.”

Of course, Jobs did that. The apotheosis of that whole-widget strategy was the iPhone, but the iMac G3 was the start. He told me that the internal codenames for the iMac were styled after Columbus’ ships: Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria. I asked him why. “It’s a new world,” he answered.

Reading the transcripts of our conversations that May, I came upon an exchange I’d forgotten about. Jobs had told me there was a detail of his software strategy that he would reveal on stage at the iMac’s formal introduction. Since our story would come out after the event, I said that if we didn’t include it, Newsweek might look dumb. He snorted at me with derision. “You’re going to look really smart,” he said. “You’re gonna have the first great photographs of this thing, and you’re going to have the first in-depth story about it.” He was right—25 years from that conversation, the article is still remembered, for the photograph as much as the text.

The iMac worked because of its simplicity, its value, and especially its design, which not only delighted our eyes but fired our imaginations. On its silver anniversary, the iMac name persists, and it still epitomizes the whole-widget strategy. But it's a drastically different machine, way more powerful and way less fun. And there will never be another Steve Jobs.

Time Travel

Here’s my Newsweek story about the iMac. Though I included some of the hedges required by journalistic convention, my exuberance regarding Apple’s future under Steve Jobs turned out to be more than justified.

Last Wednesday Jobs himself received a more thunderous thumbs-up at the announcement of Apple Computer's successor to its own hall-of-fame classic, the original Macintosh: a machine designed for consumers dubbed the iMac (only Apple would dare to lowercase the "I'' in Internet). The crowd in Cupertino, California's Flint Center—site of the historic Mac launch 14 years ago—largely consisted of Apple employees. But due to an industrial-strength cone of silence shrouding the new product, few had been aware of its existence. So after a morale-boosting slide show documenting the company's new profits, and a demonstration of the speed of its sleek new laptops, the crowd went bonkers when interim CEO Jobs, in a rare appearance in a business suit, literally unveiled a piece of hardware that blends sci-fi shimmer with the kitsch whimsy of a cocktail umbrella. As distinctively curvy as the [VW] Beetle, dressed in retro-geeky, translucent plastic, the iMac (due to ship in August) is not only the coolest-looking computer introduced in years, but a chest-thumping statement that Silicon Valley's original dream company is no longer somnambulant.

Ten months ago, when 43-year-old Jobs temporarily assumed control of the company he cofounded in a garage in 1977, the move was widely seen as a last-ditch effort to inject excitement into a barely breathing corporate husk. Maybe Jobs could weave his famous “reality-distortion field” and preserve enough interest for some bigger entity to snap Apple up at a face-saving price. But now strange words are emerging from One Infinite Loop, the glass-atriumed Cupertino headquarters. Words like profit. Stability. And even, if you strain to hear, growth. For the first time in years the face icon appearing on the Mac boot-up screen has a reason to smile.

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A Twitter user noted its absence, Sebastian Castellanos, who dug through the preload files now available on the Microsoft Store. He found no DLL files referring to Nvidia or Intel upscaling tech, only those for AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.0 (FSR 2).

AMD announced a partnership with Bethesda earlier this year, with the GPU maker serving as the "exclusive PC partner for Starfield." This likely explains the lack of DLSS, as AMD would want to highlight their own FSR 2 tech instead. It is worth noting that FSR 2 works across AMD, Nvidia, and Intel GPUs.

While a patch could potentially add DLSS, the current signs indicate FSR 2 being the only supersampling option at Starfield's launch. FSR 2 is considered comparable to DLSS in image quality and performance uplift. However, Nvidia RTX 3000-4000 series owners will miss out on DLSS 3's advanced frame generation.

On the other hand, Xbox Series X|S and PC players can now preload the game files for Starfield, which will be released on September 6. The preload for the Steam version will begin on August 30. Bethesda has not yet explained why the Steam preload is happening so late.

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In an X post, Musk stated, "Block is going to be deleted as a “feature”, except for DMs". He later posted a follow-up message, stating simply, "It makes no sense" without elaborating. In yet another post he clarified his thoughts, stating, "You will still be able to mute accounts and block users for DMs."

This possible major change on X has been met with a near-universal negative response. There's also the question of whether or not it will be allowed with certain app mobile store rules.

One user pointed out that the Apple App Store rules under "Under Generated Content" states that apps like X must have "The ability to block abusive users from the service."

Musk has not yet stated when the block feature will be removed from X. It's possible he could change his mind, especially if Apple decides this new decision is indeed in violation of its app rules.

This is just the latest in a long series of decisions by Musk that has affected the social network since he bought it in late 2022.

The biggest one was made just a few weeks ago when he changed the social network's name from Twitter to X and ditched the familiar bird logo for a stark-looking "X" logo.

This change is reportedly part of Musk's huge quest to turn X into a "Super app" that will do almost anything, from chats to shopping to banking and more.

More recently, the service renamed its popular TweetDeck feature to X Pro. The service also can no longer be used without paying for an X Blue verification subscription.

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What you need to know

• Microsoft published an AI-generated article highlighting key tourist attractions in Ottawa, Canada on Microsoft Start.
• The article has since been pulled down after recommending Ottawa Food Bank among the top three places to visit.
• The company is currently investigating the matter to determine how the piece made it through the review process and being published.

While generative AI has gained massive popularity this year, people still have reservations towards the tool. Privacy and security concerns top the list, but the issue of accuracy still lurks among many users. 

And as it seems, it remains a major issue. Microsoft recently posted an article on Microsoft Start (MSN) dubbed "Headed to Ottawa? Here's what you shouldn't miss!" And while you'd expect this list to be packed with cool and fun places you can visit while in Ottawa, Canada, the third option on the list was off-putting. 

This is because it recommended the Ottawa Food Bank as one of the top tourist attractions with the following caption: "People who come to us have jobs and families to support, as well as expenses to pay. Life is already difficult enough. Consider going into it on an empty stomach," as spotted by Paris Marx on X (formerly Twitter).

Alongside, the bizarre recommendation was The Winterlude Festival, National War Memorial, as well as the consideration of going to an Ottawa Senators hockey game. However, when you click on the link to the original article on Microsoft Start, you'll be met by a message indicating that the page no longer exists. A clear indication that Microsoft pulled down the article. The Verge has since uploaded the full article on Imgur, so you can also check it out from there. 

“This article has been removed and we are investigating how it made it through our review process," said Jeff Jones, a senior director at Microsoft while speaking to The Verge on the issue. 

In recent studies and investigations carried out by researchers, AI-powered chatbots are seemingly getting worse. For example, ChatGPT is reportedly getting dumber, despite numerous updates and improvements. OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, could potentially be on the verge of bankruptcy as well.

You might recall that Microsoft laid off a bunch of its MSN journalists in 2020 while transitioning to AI-generated content, in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Samantha Koziara, Ottawa Food Bank's communication manager shared the following sentiments with The Verge pertaining to the article:

The ‘empty stomach’ line is clearly insensitive and didn’t pass by a (human) editor. To my knowledge, we haven’t seen something like this before — but as AI gets more and more popular, I don’t doubt an increased number inaccurate / inappropriate references will be made in listicles such as this. This simply highlights the importance of researchers, writers, and editors… of the human variety.

AI needs more tuning

Evidently, there's still a lot of work to be done on the AI front if organizations and companies want to cut down on staff and replace them with Artificial Intelligence. 

The technology is still far from perfection, with instances of chatbots giving wrong information or outrightly being rude to users. Additionally, the FTC launched an investigation looking into ChatGPT, to determine whether OpenAI had broken any consumer protection laws.

While the FTC can't make rules that govern how AI tools are used, it could still make recommendations that would have a great impact. As such, Microsoft is also likely to be on the receiving end given its recent interest and investment in AI. 

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What you need to know

• Linux-focused hardware brand StarLabs has unveiled its latest budget machine and it's taking heavy influence from the Microsoft Surface.

• The 12.3-inch 2-in-1 boasts a high-resolution display, comes with a keyboard and starts under $500. 

• And yes, you could put Windows 11 on one if you wanted to. 

We've long touted the effect the Microsoft Surface has had on PC design, breaking the mould when it first launched and continuing to set the bar for 2-in-1 laptops to this day. 

Now, the iconic kickstand and detachable keyboard design has broken free of Windows, with Linux-focused brand, StarLabs, revealing its latest budget StarLite offering. It's not quite a Surface Pro, but it's that kind of experience, and for under $500. 

Previous StarLite models have been traditional laptops but for the latest iteration, StarLabs has ripped up the old design and gone for a 12.3-inch 2-in-1 with an included detachable keyboard, a high-resolution display, and some useful ports on the side that you don't get from a Surface. 

(Image credit: StarLabs)

The design, and most likely also the construction, doesn't quite hit Surface levels, but from the early images it doesn't look bad at all. The display is a 2880 x 1920 resolution panel, which itself is amazing for something this affordable. It also promises 16GB of RAM, and while storage isn't mentioned right now, there will likely be at least a couple of options. 

The CPU is where the price has been kept down, using Intel's N200 4-core, 4-thread unit. This does at least mean a fanless design, and since it's designed for Linux which is typically less resource-intensive than Windows, it should be capable enough. Demanding users will still need to look elsewhere, though, just as if they wouldn't buy a Surface Go over a Surface Pro. 

What I like the most is that despite being a slim tablet form factor, there are still ports on this thing. You don't need a dock to hook it up to an external display, as it boasts a micro-HDMI port, alongside a pair of USB-C connectors, one of which will be how you charge it. There's also a headphone jack, the keyboard docks with pogo pins and is backlit, and you also get a microSD card slot for storage expansion. 

Starting at $498 the StarLite looks like being a pretty solid value package. It's extremely customizable, too, using open-source firmware, and StarLabs will either ship it without an OS or put your favorite Linux distro on it. And since it's just a PC, you could put Windows 11 on it if you wanted. 

This is the second StarLabs machine in recent weeks that caught my eye, right after its new 16-inch laptop with an innovative detachable webcam. Great things from a company many may never have heard of. It isn't available to order yet, but if you're interested, you can sign-up to be notified.

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What you need to know

• AMD hinted that it will unveil new Radeon GPUs at Gamescom next week.
• The RX 7900 XTX and RX 7900 XT launched late last year, and AMD started shipping the RX 7600 in May 2023.
• AMD's press conference at Gamescom will take place on August 25, leaving only a handful of days of waiting and speculating.

PC gamers and AMD enthusiasts will soon have a new graphics card, or cards, to check out. AMD's Scott Herkelman teased that the company will make "major product announcements" at Gamescom 2023. That event takes place next week, and AMD's press conference will kick off at 11 AM ET on August 25. Gamescom takes place in Cologne, Germany, so AMD's announcements will be made at 5 PM local time.

AMD launched its RX 7900 XTX and RX 7900 XT in December of last year. The company then revealed the more affordable RX 7600 XT in May 2023, but it's been quiet on the RX 7000 Series front since then. With the high end and low end of the range sufficiently covered, it's expected that AMD will announce GPUs in the middle of its RX 7000 Series at Gamescom.

An accidental post by Powercolour briefly showed specs for the RX 7800 XT, though that page has since been taken down. VideoCardzwas able to snag specs of the graphics card before Powercolour took the details down, however. Based on what was seen, the RX 7800 XT will have a shader counter of 3840, 16GB of memory, and a 256-bit memory bus. Powercolour's post was about a premium model, so some specs would differ on other RX 7800 XT GPUs.

Leaks or official word on an RX 7700 XT have been harder to find. There's also a chance that AMD will unveil different GPUs than what's speculated by the rumor mill and leaks.

AMD could announce both of the aforementioned graphics cards at Gamescom or just one of them. Herkelman's said multiple announcements were on the way, so it seems likely that several graphics cards will be announced. We only have to wait until next week to find out.

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Activision's blog post about Modern Warfare 3 has tons of details, so we will just hit the highlights here. The campaign will be a direct sequel to the story events in 2022's Modern Warfare II. It will also include Open Combat Missions, where players can use more than one method to complete a section of the campaign.

The multiplayer part of the game will include new versions of all the maps that were made for the 2009 edition of Modern Warfare 2. Activision says:

All 16 launch maps from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009) have been modernized, both graphically and with meticulous attention given to the authenticity and aspects of the maps that made them so popular. Veteran players love these Core 6v6 maps, and there’s no better time to introduce a generation of new players to experience the community’s favorite Modern Warfare content.

There will also be four large all new multiplayer maps in the game and a new Cutthroat 3v3v3 gameplay mode, among other editions.

The game will also include a new Zombies mode, which will be the first time the popular multiplayer mode will be included in the rebooted Modern Warfare game series. It will also be an open-world experience for the first time. Activision says:

Modern Warfare Zombies (MWZ) tells an involved and unearthly Dark Aether Zombies story set in the Modern Warfare universe. Expect to undertake missions across different regions that escalate in difficulty, with core Zombies features and a cavalcade of secrets to discover. Ready up for an open-world player versus enemy (PvE) extraction survival experience against some of the biggest enemies in Call of Duty history.

There's a lot more to the game so check out the blog post to get additional information. The game is due out on November 10 for the PC (via Steam and Battle.net), the PS4 and PS5, and the Xbox One and Xbox Series X and S consoles. You can go ahead and pre-order the Xbox versions now. They will include access to the open beta, and a way to play the game several days earlier.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

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🌟 Stories on Telegram
Introducing Telegram Stories - share moments of your life, beyond just text.

🖥️ Desktop Version
An experimental standalone version is now available for enthusiasts and early adopters on all desktop platforms.

🚀 Massive Connection Improvements
Web A is now more optimized – ensuring speedy and seamless conversations. Less loading, more chatting.

🎙️ Redesigned Group Calls
Group calls have been overhauled to bring exceptional clarity, connectivity, and functionality.

🌏 Real-Time Translation
Premium users can tap to translate entire chats, dynamically updating as they scroll.

🕑 Custom Mute Durations
Notifications from any chat can be temporarily muted for a specific period – like hours, days, or weeks.

📝 Read Time in Groups
You can see at what time other members read your message in the 'Seen By' section.

😃 Emoji v15 Support
Web A now supports the latest from Emoji v15, so you can express yourself fully.

🎨 Dynamic Sticker Packs
Dynamic order for your sticker packs can be toggled on or off – whichever you prefer.

🚀 Performance Upgrades
We've implemented multiple memory and performance optimizations for a smoother, faster, more efficient Telegram experience.

🔧 Fixes & Improvements
We've patched several problems, including issues with sending messages while uploading files, freezes while scrolling, and messages incorrectly marking as read with Web A in the background. See if you can spot the host of UI refinements we added as well.

📱 More for iPad Users
iPad users, we heard you! Web A now has improved iPad support.

You can access the experimental standalone Web App early at this link. Currently, it serves Telegram A v10.0.1 for users on all desktop platforms. Here are the links to the three variations of the Telegram Web:

• Telegram Web A
• Telegram Web K
• Telegram Web Z

Source: Telegram

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The GOG store has now begun selling Fallout 4: Game of the Year Edition. As all its other products on the store, this version of the Bethesda Game Studios-developed RPG is completely DRM-free.

For those unfamiliar with the term, games without DRM (Digital Rights Management) has no copy protection services that's normally associated with most modern releases. Once someone purchases a DRM-free copy, they can use the files to install and copy it into any amount of machines without restrictions, encryptions, or online requirements getting in the way.

Coming back to the game, as this is the Game of the Year Edition, it carries the base game as well as Far Harbor, Automatron, and Nuka-World expansions for a complete story experience. The Workshop DLC packs — Wasteland, Contraptions, and Vault-Tec — are also included, which provide new types of base building items and materials that have specific themes.

Just like the Steam and Microsoft Store versions of Fallout 4, the game's High Resolution Texture Pack is also available for free from GOG. This is an optional download weighing in at almost 60GB that can be installed onto the base game for gaining enhanced visual (texture) details. You can grab it provided you have plenty of VRAM on your graphics card: 4GB for 1080p, 6GB for 1440p, and 8GB for 4K.

One missing feature, however, is the in-game mods platform Creation Club. The online service lets players download and install both free and premium mods from the community directly. However, GOG players can still mod the game using the usual PC gaming methods, with the store even recommending the popular, and free, Nexus Mods platform.

Fallout 4: Game of the Year Edition usually costs $39.99 on GOG, but the game is currently discounted on the store to $9.99 celebrating the launch.

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