Shameful: Insteon looks dead—just like its users’ smart homes

They say CPUs are just rocks which we have tricked into thinking or processing information. Technically, that is correct. However, a huge amount of effort and technology goes into making these CPUs, to allow them to process information.

Modern day CPUs work in a very complex way. But the intentions behind them are the same as always. They process information, which is sent to them and they also need various features to operate. These features include CPU caches.

How CPU caches works

Whenever one opens a software or an app, it usually reads all the data from the storage drive and loads it temporarily into the RAM, also known as memory. The RAM is usually a stick shaped circuit with memory chips on it, inserted into the main computer circuit called the motherboard. The CPU uses lanes inside the motherboard to connect with the storage drive and the RAM, to receive, process and send information.

The problem is, connecting and transferring information between the RAM and the CPU is quite quick, but it is still is not as quick as required. This is why CPU makers use something known as CPU caches.

In CPUs, cache is like a memory chip installed directly inside the CPU. Cache works like a great medium between the CPU and the RAM. What it does is it allows the CPU to store important information inside it, which it can access very quickly without needing the CPU to make a trip to the RAM to get that information.

Cache speeds and sizes

Caches comes in various sizes and speeds, too.

The L1, that is level 1 cache, is usually the quickest and is sized at less than 100 KB per core in a modern day CPU.

The L2, that is level 2 cache, is slightly slower than the L1 cache and usually comes in less than 2 MB per core size.

The L3 cache, the slowest of all three (still faster than RAM), but also the largest, maxes out at 32 MB these days in modern day CPUs.

As one can notice. Compared to a single RAM stick, which usually come with the overall average memory size of 8 GB and 16 GB these days, the size of the CPU caches are extremely small. This is because a CPU is constrained by its size. One cannot add too many memory chips inside a small CPU due to that. It needs the processing power to process information, too. So very little room is available to put a big cache inside a CPU. This is where 3D stacking can play an important role.

3D stacking

Usually, memory chips are normally laid next to each other, connected to each other via the wiring in the circuit. It has been a standard since time known. Means it requires space and power to transfer information from one place to elsewhere. This is where 3D stacking comes.

Basically, in 3D stacking, computer chips are stacked onto each other – one on top of another. They are then connected vertically to each other with a through-silicon via (TSV), which allow these chips to have very small amount of space between each other. These special chips are usually thinner than the usual and having 8 to 16 chips stacked onto each other is not something unknown.

Doing this has many advantages. First, it takes lesser space, so it allows more powerful devices in smaller size. Second, it reduces the power usage. Third, it increases the overall speed of the stacked chips and much more.

3D stacking is a technology that is not exactly new. It has been worked upon since half a century. However, it’s only in recent decades in which we are seeing its results.

Examples of 3D stacked chips

The PlayStation Portable (PSP) by Sony was the first commercially available product to use this tech in its RAM chips made by Toshiba. Later, Toshiba also made NAND based memory chips, the ones used in SSD and microSD cards. Then DDR3 RAM chips were made with the same tech by the likes of Elpida Memory, SK Hynix, Samsung, Micron and others.

Some years later, AMD got together with Samsung and SK Hynix to make High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), which is based on similar 3D stacking technology of memory chips, for its graphics cards. The HBM2 announced later by Samsung started with a support for 8 GB per memory stack.

Samsung has used the same 3D chips technology with some of it’s newer Solid State Disk (SSD). Nowadays, many SSD makers use the same technology.

AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D

Months ago, when AMD announced 5800X3D, everyone wondered whether they would be able to pull it off. The reason is simple. It is among the first commercial consumer CPUs to be made available with the 3D V-Cache technology. The same one mentioned above.

AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D’s features are similar to that of Ryzen 7 5800X. Except it is clocked lower than 5800X and while 5800X comes with 32 MB cache, 5800X3D comes with 96 MB of L3 cache, thanks to its 3D stacking technology.

Except, AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D is priced at $449, which is the same as the original price of 5800X.

How 3D V-Cache is implemented

AMD 3D V-Cache. Credit: AMD.

Basically what AMD has done is that it has kept the 32 MB cache as it is, but instead, installed a 64 MB cache on top of the main L3 cache, taking the total L3 cache to 96 MB on AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D. This, AMD claims, gives excellent gaming performance. Is it really so. We cannot really say for sure. Until recently when various sites got an hold on them and ran benchmark tests on 5800X3D.

AMD 5800X3D reviews and benchmarking results

Most reviews have found one thing common. AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D does not do extraordinarily when it comes to raw processing work. It is because it is clocked lower than AMD Ryzen 7 5800X to prevent overheating due to the stacking of cache chips.

However, what was impressive is its gaming performance. Take Tom’s Hardware review for example. It shows that AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D on average is beating all the CPUs currently in the market in gaming performance. This includes Intel’s most powerful CPU Core i9-12900KS, which is released recently and is priced at $739, compared to just $449 of 5800X3D.

AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D Average Gaming FPS. Credit: Tom’s Hardware.

Reviews after reviews after reviews. Most of them are showing the same thing. Ryzen 7 5800X3D is the fastest in almost all the games. That too with significantly lower power usage.

Benchmarks explained

AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D being faster than other processors in gaming has a reason behind it. In gaming, a lot of textures and gaming assets are required to be loaded in the memory. Because of that, the cache plays a very important role. This why 5800X3D shines with its bigger cache of 96 MB.

The problem with some reviewers is that they want to disregard such a huge upgrade in gaming performance by comparing its speeds in the synthetic and other software based benchmarks. The truth is, most people have no real world use for such benchmarks. No one is going to buy such an expensive CPU to run synthetic, non-real world use benchmarks and certainly, most common users are not going to buy them to compress files regularly. A huge amount of expensive CPU buyers buy them for gaming performance. This is why AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D is an important and innovative entry in the market. It gives gamers an important option.

Current AMD users to benefit a lot

The important part about AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D is that it uses AM4 CPU socket, which is the same socket used in all the previous desktop Ryzen processors. This means a lot of motherboards released in the last couple of years are going to work with this processor, depending on the manufacturer support. So this can be an excellent upgrade for those already on the Ryzen platform as they only need to change / upgrade their CPU – hardware wise. 5800X3D possibly being the last CPU in the AM4 socket – Zen 4 based AMD Ryzen 7000 processors will use an entirely new CPU socket called AM5, which will be based on LGA technology and not the PGA one found in AMD processors until now.

Future of 3D cache processors

AMD has shown with it’s Ryzen 5800X3D the importance of the CPU cache. From decades, we have known that the more the CPU cache, the faster it can be in some tasks. Only problem was that the limitations in the technology available. Till now, CPU caches have kept increasing gradually. But this takes it to the next level.

If the performance gains continue with this technology. We expect or at least hope Intel to follow the suit in some of its processors. If not mainstream ones, then special gaming oriented ones. We want AMD to continue with this newer tech in many, if not all of it’s upcoming CPUs to be released by them.

AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D Is A Game Changer, Literally

WHAT ARE POISON PILLS SUPPOSED TO DO?

The ingredients of each poison pill vary, but they're all designed to give corporate boards an option to flood the market with so much newly created stock that a takeover becomes prohibitively expensive. The strategy was popularized back in the 1980s when publicly held companies were being stalked by corporate raiders such as Carl Icahn—now more frequently described as "activist investors."

Twitter didn't disclose the details of its poison pill Friday, but said it would provide more information in a forthcoming filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which the company delayed because public markets were closed Friday.

The San Francisco company's plan will be triggered if a shareholder accumulates a stake of 15% or more. Musk, best known as CEO of electric car maker Tesla, currently holds a roughly 9% stake.

CAN A POISON PILL BE A NEGOTIATING PLOY?

Although they are supposed to help prevent an unsolicited takeover, poison pills also often open the door to further negotiations that can force a bidder to sweeten the deal. If a higher price makes sense to the board, a poison pill can simply be cast aside along with the acrimony it provoked, clearing the way for a sale to completed.

True to form, Twitter left its door open by emphasizing that its poison pill won't prevent its board from "engaging with parties or accepting an acquisition proposal" at a higher price.

Adopting a poison pill also frequently results in lawsuits alleging that a corporate board and management team is using the tactic to keep their jobs against the best interests of shareholders. These complaints are sometimes filed by shareholders who think a takeover offer is fair and want to cash out at that price or by the bidder vying to make the purchase.

Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, attends the opening of the Tesla factory Berlin Brandenburg in Gruenheide, Germany, March 22, 2022. Twitter said in a statement Friday, April 15, 2022, that its board of directors has unanimously adopted a “poison pill” defense in response to Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s proposal to buy the company and take it private. Credit: Patrick Pleul/Pool Photo via AP, File

HOW DID ELON MUSK REACT TO TWITTER'S ANNOUNCEMENT?

Musk, a prolific tweeter with 82 million followers on Twitter, had no immediate reaction to the company's poison pill. But on Thursday he indicated he was ready to wage a legal battle.

"If the current Twitter board takes actions contrary to shareholder interests, they would be breaching their fiduciary duty," Musk tweeted. "The liability they would thereby assume would be titanic in scale."

Musk has publicly said that its $43 billion bid is his best and final offer for Twitter, but other corporate suitors have made similar statements before ultimately upping the ante. With an estimated fortune of $265 billion, Musk would seem to have deep enough pockets to raise his offer, although he is still working out how to finance the proposed purchase.

HOW HAS THIS DEFENSE WORKED IN THE PAST?

Takeover tussles often dissolve into gamesmanship that include poison pills and other maneuvers designed to make a buyout more difficult. That's what happened in one of the biggest and most drawn out takeover dances in Silicon Valley history..

After business software maker Oracle made an unsolicited $5.1 billion offer for its smaller rival PeopleSoft in June 2003, the two companies spent the next 18 months fighting with each other.

As part of its defense, PeopleSoft not only adopted a poison pill that authorized the board to flood the market with more shares, it also created what it called a "customer assurance program." That plan promised to pay customers five times the cost of their software licenses if PeopleSoft was sold within the next two years, creating an estimated liability of up to $800 million for an acquiring company.

PeopleSoft also got another helping hand when the U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit seek to block a takeover, although a judge ruled in Oracle's favor.

Even though the company ended up selling to Oracle, PeopleSoft's defense strategy paid off for its shareholders. Oracle's final purchase price was $11.1 billion—more than twice its original bid.

Source

Windows updates

Since this was the second week of the month, Microsoft rolled out its Patch Tuesday updates for supported operating systems near the start of the week.

The updates for Windows 7 (KB5012626) and Windows 8.1 (KB5012670) fix some issues related to the Windows Media Center and BitLocker, among other things. However, there are some other known problems that you should check out in our dedicated piece here too.

Meanwhile, Windows 10's Patch Tuesday update (KB5012599) contains security patches and some known issues. Updates are also being delivered to some older versions of LTSC Windows and Enterprise SKUs.

Finally, the Windows 11 update (KB5012592) has some security fixes and rolls up the changes present in the optional "C" preview release (KB5011563) from earlier this month too. This means that the ability to change the default browser relatively quicker is now generally available.

There were a ton of updates in the Insider Preview for Windows 11 too. It turns out that version 22H2 of the operating system will let you disable the overflow and show all apps icons in the notification area. The company is seemingly also prepping to make third-party Widgets installable from the Microsoft Store. Although success in this area is obviously dependent on developer support, something that Microsoft generally struggles with on its storefront.

Microsoft also rolled out build 22598 in the Windows 11 Dev Channel with new Task Manager shortcuts, an updated Media Player experience, changes to Spotlight behavior, new wallpapers for clean installs, and lots more. Those who prefer installs via ISOs will be happy to know that the disk image for this build is available too. Microsoft later released build 22598.100 (KB5014100) for both Dev and Beta channels as well, but that was just to test the servicing pipeline.

The Release Preview Channel finally received some love this week. Windows 10 build 19044.1679 (KB5011831) brought with it tons of backend changes while Windows 11 build 22000.651 (KB5012643) sported modifications to TPM, Secure Boot, and more.

Wrapping up this section of updates, the Surface Duo and Duo 2 received the April 2022 firmware update, which contains security patches. And it seems like Microsoft is working on a Surface Laptop Go 2 with newer processors and a fresh coat of paint with the new Sage color. The device is expected to hit the stores in June 2022. And while it's not really a consumer-oriented product yet, Windows Holographic received version 22H1, headlined by improvements to its flagship Moving Platform Mode.

Malware on the rise

Image via Kevin Ku (Pexels)

There was a bunch of interesting news in the cybersecurity space this week. Starting us off, we have the state-sponsored Hafnium hacking group targeting Windows again with its Tarrask malware. The collective is infamous for wreaking havoc across Microsoft's on-prem Exchange servers last year. This time around, Hafnium is exploiting a Windows bug to use hidden scheduled tasks to retain access to compromised devices even after multiple reboots, while also hiding its tracks. Microsoft has issued some recommendations for IT admins that you can check out here.

In a bit of more positive news, Microsoft has caused a major disruption to the ZLoader criminal botnet that is used to spread ransomware. Apart from damaging ZLoader's infrastructure on a technical level, it has also procured court orders to shut down the domains used by the botnet. Finally, in a bit of a surprise move, Microsoft has named and shamed one of the perpetrators behind ZLoader. The offender in question is Denis Malikov of Simferopol on the Crimean Peninsula. Microsoft hopes that by revealing his name publicly, other actors are deterred and know that they can't hide behind masks of digital anonymity.

And if you're among those looking to install Google Play on Windows 11 through unofficial means, be very careful. The Powershell Windows Toolbox third-party utility that apparently offers to install Google Play on Windows 11 actually installs malware in a crafty manner in the background too. Although the project has been removed from GitHub, check out our piece here on how to spot signs on infection, provided that you downloaded the tool.

Finally, Microsoft Defender did not have a good outing with AV-Comparatives' latest antivirus report. The firm noted that the software has the poorest offline detection rates at 60.3% even though it performs admirably at 98.8% when it's connected to the internet. The findings give off the impression that Defender is useful only when it can take advantage of its cloud-powered capabilities.

Living on the Edge

As usual, Microsoft Edge received lots of updates across various channels this week. Perhaps the most useful one on Edge Canary is the ability to pause all extensions on specific websites. And if you're wondering why you would do that for extensions you installed yourself, it's basically a cautionary measure. If you're logging into your bank's website, you may want to disable all extensions so that there is no chance of them stealing your sensitive information.

There were other beneficial capabilities added to Edge Canary too. There is now a way to disable the picture in picture (PiP) button in case you don't want it to be visible while playing videos. Note that disabling the PiP control does not prevent you from playing videos using picture in picture. On YouTube, for example, you need to right-click the now playing video two times and select "Picture in picture". Another enhancement is the ability to auto-save all passwords instead of the browser asking you each time.

Edge Dev received some love in the form of version 102.0.1220.1 too. The highlights of this release include improvements for progressive web apps, a redesigned Apps management page, the option to import passwords on mobile, and a new management policy. Check out all the details here.

Dev Channel

• An update to Halo: The Master Chief Collection has delivered Flood Firefight, campaign cross-play, and more
• Here's your first look at Catalyst and Breaker maps coming to Halo Infinite
• Microsoft is possibly working on a smaller and more efficient Xbox Series X chip
• Xbox games could soon contain in-game ads "promotions"
• Dynasties of India expansion has been announced for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition
• Windows 365 customers can now send their feedback to Microsoft through a new portal
• Windows Server admins can now opt in for automatic .NET updates
• Microsoft is now OK with Domain Controllers having some internet access

Under the spotlight

This week, I published a rebuttal against Microsoft's weak arguments for not allowing us to move the Taskbar in Windows 11. The firm has cited low usage even though it is the most requested item on Feedback Hub and has cited engineering difficulties even though it worked perfectly fine in previous versions of Windows. Why fix something which ain't broke?

Sayan Sen blasted Nvidia for still offering the ancient GeForce GT 710 graphics card despite it simply not being a good card by today's standards. Sayan's recommendation to everyone is to simply stop purchasing this hardware so Nvidia finally kills it off.

Finally, Dean Howell published his thoughts on why the upcoming Unihertz Titan Slim with a physical keyboard (PKB) is turning out to be a major disappointment. Dean reckons that unless the company is planning a major surprise, it would be smarter for Unihertz to just cut its losses and start anew. Find out why Dean thinks so in his detailed piece here.

Logging off

Our most interesting news item of this week came from the findings of a survey which revealed that teens aren't interested in the concept of the metaverse that big tech has been shoving down our throats either. Meta is focusing on metaverse development with the recent launch of Horizon Worlds, Microsoft randomly throws the term around from time to time, and Sony and Lego's parent company has invested $2 billion into Epic Games as its big bet on the metaverse too.

However, all of the aforementioned companies are still struggling to define what the metaverse actually is, how it's different from existing digital experiences, and how they add any value to our lives, if at all. The survey results reveals that teens, who should ideally be the most interested in this proposed concept due to its similarity with gaming, aren't too excited by the metaverse either. Perhaps The Kids Are Alright after all, eh?

Microsoft Weekly: Windows updates, malware on the rise, and living on the Edge

However, fellow outlet OC3D alleges that AMD is working to enable some form of overclocking support on the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. The site revealed this information on its Twitter post which was about the 5800X3D review. The feature will purportedly work via AMD's Curve Optimizer, a feature which was introduced by the company back in 2020 with AGESA 1.1.0.0 Patch D (via @AMDRyzen on Twitter). The feature allows for per core voltage-frequency tweaking on AMD chips.

For now though, overclocking enthusiasts are using the BCLK (base clock) method to achieve overclocking on the 5800X3D.

Recently, SkatterBencher was able to reach 4.74GHz stable using a similar Asus Voltage Suspension method on his X570 ROG CROSSHAIR VIII EXTREME (C8E) motherboard with a BCLK of ~104MHz. He also achieved 4.8GHz with a BCLK of ~106MHz (via SkatterBencher on Twitter).

Meanwhile, MSI's in-house overclocking enthusiast TSAIK was able to break 5GHz with BCLK of 113MHz on the MSI MEG X570 GODLIKE (via Wccftech).

Source and image: OC3D (Twitter)

Official overclocking support is allegedly coming to the Ryzen 7 5800X3D soon

Major chip producer TSMC seems to be on target to start production of its 3nm chips later this year, which is good news for Apple’s next-generation processors.

A new DigiTimes Asia report states that the company is set to manufacture 30,000 to 35,000 wafers using the 3nm process technology. iPads are expected to be the first Apple product outfitted with the chips, according to Wccftech, though no specific models have been mentioned.

Apple’s M3 and A17 chips are expected to make their debut in 2023 for iPhone, iPad, and Macs. These chips will offer better performance and improved battery life,  and previous rumors indicate that the 3nm chips will feature four dies, which would allow for up to 40 cores. The Apple M1 chip, in contrast, has eight cores while the M1 Pro and M1 Max have up to 10 cores.

Analysis: Is TSMC behind schedule?

This new report supports previous rumors concerning TSMC’s 3nm chip production schedule. However, there was some troubling news earlier this year, which suggested that the tech giant may be having issues producing the chips.

The semiconductor production process is tricky and it’s not uncommon to have faulty batches as a side effect. Though many of these faulty chips can then be repurposed for lower-powered versions, too many mistakes could be disastrous.

TSMC commands a high position in the semiconductor industry, especially with the semiconductor shortage as it’s able to provide a steady supply of chips to other companies. But if TSMC fails to master its 3nm process, it could impact AMD, Nvidia, and others would need to rely on 5nm tech instead.

TSMC set to begin production on Apple’s 3nm chips in latter half of 2022

Microsoft is reportedly building an in-game system for Xbox games that would allow brands and companies to serve ads. The ads, however, will be “placed”, and not played. Simply put, gamers need not worry about ads that hinder gameplay, just to play a promotional message, indicated a report from BusinessInsider. The Windows OS maker seems to be considering multiple AdTech companies as potential partners.

The AdTech company that Microsoft ends up partnering with for serving ads within its Xbox universe would not be able to just set up a standard marketplace. In other words, businesses interested in advertising their products and services wouldn't be able to simply pay money and ensure gamers are served ads.

Microsoft seems interested in offering more “ad space”. For the Xbox gaming ecosystem, this translates to adding more games that brands can advertise in, and allowing more game developers or publishers to sell ad space within their own creations.

Coming to the actual advertisements, and how they would be actually served, the report indicates digitally and dynamically rendered billboards within a game. In other words, these ads wouldn’t impede gameplay. It is not immediately clear, but Microsoft might offer other promotional tactics such as avatar skins or video ads that play in gaming lobbies.

Needless to mention, Microsoft hasn’t confirmed or denied it is actively exploring options to include more ads within the Xbox gaming ecosystem. The company currently allows limited forms of advertising within Xbox. Advertisers can purchase ads that appear on the Xbox dashboard. Additionally, agencies can buy in-game ads that appear within certain games. Microsoft also works with third parties such as Yahoo and Anzu to boost ad revenue.

Ads, within game titles that gamers play on dedicated gaming consoles, aren't as common as those within mobile games. Microsoft must be acutely aware that pushing any visually intrusive ads within console games would cause a huge backlash. Hence, it is quite likely the company would begin inserting subtle advertisements within some free-to-play titles. However, it is amply clear that Microsoft wants to build a large ad network that it owns and controls.

Source: BusinessInsider

Microsoft Xbox console games to contain ads but they could be subtle in-game ‘promotions'

CD Projekt Red (CDPR) announced on Wednesday that the next-gen update for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt would be delayed, but the company insists it’s not in “some sort of development hell” (via Polygon).

As part of the delay announcement, CDPR said that the update would miss its planned Q2 release and that the studio would move development of the update in-house. CDPR did not announce a new release date or even an expected timeline, which led some publications — including The Verge — to write that the game has been delayed indefinitely. CDPR’s SVP of business development, Michał Nowakowski, took issue with that characterization in an investor call this week.

“When it comes to [the] next-gen launch of The Witcher 3, I think there one comment I actually wanted to make,” he said. (Scrub to 30:34 if you’d like to hear for yourself.) “I’ve been looking at headlines that popped up here and there over the internet, and I’ve seen one that really drew my attention, which is, ‘Witcher 3 next-gen delayed indefinitely.’ Which sounds like the game is in some sort of development hell. I want to state that this is not the fact. There’s been a lot of insinuations that we’re going to launch [in] June [of] next year or something like that. That’s completely not the case.”

While he stopped short of giving details on when we might be able to play the update, the next comments from Nowakowski suggest that it may not be too far off. “Everything we’re saying is: we have taken development of the game in-house. The game is going to be finished in-house. We’re evaluating our time. That requires a bit of investigation. That’s all we’re saying. Nobody is saying the game is delayed in some monumental time gap ahead of us.”

CD Projekt Red’s Karolina Gnaś confirmed to The Verge that the update was originally being developed by Saber Interactive, which handled the impressive Switch port for The Witcher 3. However, Saber Interactive has an office in Russia, and as Kotaku noted, a Russian gaming outlet reported in March that CDPR cut ties with that office, which was reportedly handling the next-gen update. Gnaś did not reply to a question asking if the Russian office was the one working on the update.

The Witcher 3’s next-gen update isn’t in ‘development hell,’ according to CD Projekt Red

Quantum memristor: A memory-dependent computational unit

As we discussed a few hours ago, a poison pill defense is also referred to as the "shareholder rights plan" and is a safety net to prevent hostile takeovers. Poison pill basically enables existing shareholders to purchase more shares at a significantly discounted price. This essentially dilutes the ownership interest of the party initiating the hostile takeover.

Financial Times reports that the board has decided to adopt poison pill for a year to "enable all shareholders to realize the full value of their investment in Twitter". Essentially, if anyone tries to acquire more than a 15% stake in the company without the prior approval of the board, poison pill will be initiated and existing shareholders will be able to buy additional shares at discounted rates to dilute the stake of the hostile party.

Musk had previously threatened that if his offer is not accepted, he would need to "reconsider" his position as a shareholder, which basically implies that he'll start dumping his shares. That said, it remains to be seen how quickly he'll be able to do this and retain a profit considering that the share price for Twitter will now fall rapidly given the latest news. Musk had expressed intentions to acquire the company, take it private, and make it a bastion of free speech. But now it appears that those plans won't come to fruition after all.

Source: Financial Times (paywall)

Twitter board launches poison pill defense against Elon Musk takeover bid

Apple is reportedly working on nine new Macs featuring its upcoming M2 processors, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. These rumors come hot on the heels of Apple releasing the Mac Studio, and its announcement that the the M1 Ultra would be the last chip in its current-gen lineup.

Bloomberg isn’t predicting a replacement for the Studio yet, but it reports that most other Mac models will be getting an upgrade. Gurman says he’s seen evidence of an M2-powered MacBook Air with a 10-core GPU — contrary to previous predictions that a redesigned Air would still have an M1 — as well as an entry-level M2 MacBook Pro with the same specs. The 14 and 16-inch MacBook Pros also make an appearance, along with a new Mac Mini and Mac Pro, all rocking next-gen Apple silicon.

A Mac Mini with the current-gen M1 Pro also cropped up, though it’s hard to imagine that making it to market now that the Mac Studio exists.

The higher-end machines will reportedly have M2 Pro and M2 Max chips, with the Max having 12 CPU cores and 38 graphics cores (two CPU and six GPU cores extra compared to the current M1 Max). Bloomberg doesn’t include details on the breakdown of efficiency and performance cores. The M2 Pro also shows up as an option for the Mac Mini, and Gurman predicts that the Mac Pro will have a “successor to the M1 Ultra.”

(By the way, if you’re trying to figure how this adds up to nine computers like I initially did, it’s one MacBook Air, one entry-level Pro, two models of the Mini, two models each of the 14 and 16-inch MBP — with Pro and Max chips respectively — and the desktop Pro.)

It’s intriguing that the entry-level MacBook Pro may stick around, and still be barely differentiated from the Air. Whenever I discuss laptops with my colleagues, they usually predict that Apple will quietly discontinue the 13-inch model, given that it seems like an unhappy medium between the Air and the 14-inch Pro. It’s also a bit of an outlier with its Touch Bar, but it’s an open question whether the successor will have one — the Bloomberg report doesn’t say.

Notably absent from the list of computers is any sort of iMac. There’s no mention of a successor to the M1-powered 24-inch all-in-one, or a replacement for the recently discontinued 27-inch iMac.

Gurman says this wealth of information comes from developer logs, which presumably showed up because Apple was testing its new computers using third-party apps. While it wasn’t hard to predict that Apple would be working on the next generation of chips, it’s exciting to see evidence of their existence out in the wild, and to get early details.

It may not be that long of a wait before an official announcement of at least a few of these computers — Bloomberg reports that “at least two Macs” could launch “around the middle of the year.” And wouldn't you know it, WWDC is on the calendar for June 6th.

Apple’s M2 chips and the computers they’ll power detailed in new leak

Meta is planning to bring its Horizon Worlds social metaverse platform to the web, Meta CTO Andrew “Boz” Bosworth said in a tweet on Thursday. Being available on the web would mark a major expansion for the platform, which is currently only available on its Quest VR headsets.

A web version isn’t the only one in the works — this week, Meta VP of Horizon Vivek Sharma told The Verge that it’s working on bringing Horizon to mobile phones later this year and is in “early discussions” about bringing it to game consoles. However, it’s still unclear exactly when Horizon might expand to the web, and Meta spokesperson Iska Saric said there were “no timing details to share at this time” when we asked.

Boz’s tweet was included in a thread defending Horizon’s newly-announced fee structure for creators, which has come under some scrutiny. On Tuesday, Meta revealed that for Horizon purchases, it would take a 25 percent cut of the percentage left after any platform fees.

For the Horizon web app, this means that Meta would only take 25 percent, as Boz pointed out. But for platforms with a 30 percent fee, like Meta’s own Quest Store, it would take 25 percent of 70 percent. That means that for goods sold in Horizon on a Quest VR device, Meta will take an eye-popping 47.5 percent of each transaction.

Boz claims that rate is lower than some other “world-building platforms” — a shot that seems to be aimed in part at Roblox, which has also come under criticism for how it pays developers. In a chart showing “the estimated utilization of each dollar spent on Roblox,” Roblox indicates that it pays developers just 28.1 percent of each dollar, meaning Meta’s Horizon cut, even from purchases on Quest headsets, seems to be lower than what Roblox takes on its platform. And in expanding from VR to platforms like mobile and the web, Meta will be taking Roblox head-on, so this might not be the last time we see Meta make some pointed words in Roblox’s direction.

Meta has also often criticized Apple for taking a 30 percent cut of many App Store transactions — Boz did so in his thread on Thursday as well — and Apple had some of its own sharp language for Meta. “Meta has repeatedly taken aim at Apple for charging developers a 30% commission for in-app purchases in the App Store — and have used small businesses and creators as a scapegoat at every turn,” Apple spokesperson Fred Sainz said to MarketWatch. “Now — Meta seeks to charge those same creators significantly more than any other platform. [Meta’s] announcement lays bare Meta’s hypocrisy. It goes to show that while they seek to use Apple’s platform for free, they happily take from the creators and small businesses that use their own.”

Meta is working on a web version of its Horizon Worlds metaverse platform

Thanks to a search page overhaul, you can now search comments on Reddit

Although big tech has recently been throwing money at what it calls the "metaverse", it is still struggling to define what it actually is, how it differs from games with virtual worlds and other digital experiences, and how it adds value to our lives. Meta has pivoted to metaverse development and launched Horizon Worlds where it imposes a 47.5% tax on items sold, Microsoft randomly throws the term around from time to time, and Sony and Lego's parent company has poured $2 billion into Epic Games as its big bet on the metaverse too.

However, it seems that these firms are still finding it difficult to engage younger audiences, which should ideally be the most interested in virtual worlds considering their similarities to what is already present in games. A Piper Sandler survey of 7,100 teens in the U.S. revealed that less than 50% had an interest in buying hardware to access the metaverse. 9% stated that they would probably purchase it at some point while 26% already own capable hardware. Out of the latter, only 5% respondents visit the metaverse daily while 82% visit it less than a few times a month.

A similar survey from analytics firm Morning Consult revealed that less than half of surveyed Gen Z respondents are interested in Meta's metaverse. Furthermore, only 11% had ever traded cryptocurrencies while 8% had ever purchased NFTs.

It remains to be seen if big tech will be able to engage younger audiences in their respective versions of the metaverse as development in this area matures and there is a clearer understanding of what the term actually means, both for developers as well as consumers. For now though, it seems that big tech has a long road ahead of it, should the metaverse actually materialize into anything tangible for the mainstream audience.

Source: Piper Sandler, Morning Consult | Via: Fast Company

Turns out teens aren't interested in the metaverse either

Twitter’s board could be in for a fight with the company’s single largest shareholder. According to a report from The Information, it views Elon Musk’s offer to take over the company as unwelcome. This follows Musk’s offer to purchase the company for $43 billion earlier today. The company hasn’t publicly indicated how it’s planning on responding to Musk’s offer, but it’s reportedly planning to address it at an all-hands meeting at 5PM ET / 2PM PT today.

Twitter’s board is also reportedly considering using a “poison pill” strategy to make it more difficult for Elon to acquire a large stake in the company and avoid a hostile takeover. Poison pills can, as one example, flood the market with shares once an investor acquires stock above a certain limit, making them easier to acquire for others (and costly for a single investor to buy up) when someone attempts a takeover.

As Stratechery’s Ben Thompson points out, Twitter already has some poison pill provisions in its bylaws including the board’s ability to issue “blank check” preferred stock without prior approval; you can find the provisions on page 34 of this PDF.

This afternoon, Musk polled his Twitter followers with a rather leading prompt: “Taking Twitter private at $54.20 should be up to shareholders, not the board”.

It’s hard to say whether Musk will be deterred by Twitter’s tactics, provided he can actually come up with the money required to take the company private. In a TED interview on Thursday, he said the acquisition wouldn’t be about making money — he’s frequently cited “free speech” as the main reason for his interest in Twitter. Though, Musk has promised and failed to take companies private before.

In the same TED interview, Musk said he had a plan B if Twitter doesn’t accept his offer, and while he refused to explain it at TED, he may have already given us a hint. In his offer letter to Twitter’s board, he said that he would “need to reconsider [his] position as a shareholder” if the company refuses his buyout. Musk recently purchased 9.2 percent of the company’s shares but declined a position on the board.

Update, 3:42PM ET: Added that Twitter already has some poison pill provisions.

Update, 4:23PM ET: Added Musk’s tweet.

The Twitter board is reportedly not interested in Elon’s takeover offer

The Tesla CEO, who owns 9.2 percent of the social media site and is its biggest shareholder, has offered to buy the remaining percentage of the company for $54.20 per share—a 38 percent premium on the price before his investment in the company was announced on April 5.

In a letter to Bret Taylor, chair of Twitter’s board, Musk said he had invested in Twitter because “I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy.” However, Musk wrote, “I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form.” His answer to that is to take the company private.

Should his offer, which was presented as final, be rejected, Musk has threatened to reconsider his position as a shareholder. “This is not a threat, it's simply not a good investment without the changes that need to be made,” he said. Musk did not respond to emailed and tweeted requests for comment.

Twitter’s response was swift. Spokesperson Brenden Lee directed WIRED to a statement saying the company would “carefully review the proposal to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interest of the company and all Twitter stockholders.” Twitter’s share price rose to $48.70 before trading opened on April 14, up more than 6 percent from the day before. The stock opened up, trading at $48.36.

“Ultimately, we believe this soap opera will end with Musk owning Twitter after this aggressive hostile takeover of the company,” Dan Ives, a tech analyst at investment firm Wedbush Securities, wrote in a note published after the announcement. “It would be hard for any other bidders/consortium to emerge and the Twitter board will be forced to accept this bid and/or run an active process to sell Twitter.” However, this unsolicited bid—which is not a formal hostile takeover—is not a guarantee that Musk will take over the company. “Anyone could walk away from the offer,” says Timothy Galpin, senior lecturer in strategy and innovation at Oxford Saïd Business School. “It may be that he decided to back out, or the Twitter shareholders don’t approve it. A deal is never done until it’s closed.”

And the deal could be stalled before it even begins. Given the offer and the obvious intentions behind it, Twitter’s board of directors could insert a shareholder rights’ plan, informally called a “poison pill,” that would prevent any individual shareholder from buying more than, say, 10 percent of the company. This would dilute the value of Twitter stock, allowing other shareholders to ramp up their investments at a discount.

Other responses to the takeover attempt have focused on what Musk would do if it goes through. Musk’s direct mention of free speech in the letter accompanying his bid has people worried that if he does take over the platform, he could roll back some of the platform's measures against hate speech.

“I would argue there would be a negative impact on democracies worldwide if someone like Elon Musk owned Twitter,” says Christopher Bouzy, founder of BotSentinel, a service that tracks inauthentic behavior on Twitter. Musk’s absolutist approach to free speech would open the door to people like Donald Trump, who was banned from Twitter in January 2021 for stoking the insurrection on the US Capitol through social media, to return to the site.

“Twitter would become a cesspool of mis- and disinformation with real-world consequences,” Bouzy says.

One reason Musk may want to buy the business—if he’s serious about it—is because it acts as a megaphone for his own views. “He’s a social platform communicator,” says Cary Cooper, a business professor at Manchester Business School. “He’s a business maverick, in all sorts of ways. He’s been fairly successful in his business ventures, and I can understand him wanting a communication platform. It allows him to express his views in a way that fits in with his personality.”

But the big question remains: How likely is it that Musk’s bid will be accepted? While the offer's $54.20 a share is up from the shares’ value before Musk bought in, it’s still down from highs of $77.06 a share in February 2021. It’s also well below the 52-week average the company has been trading at. And intraday trading on April 14, which dropped below the opening price, indicates the market doesn’t believe Musk is likely to pull it off. Musk’s 38 percent premium “is about in the range of what an average premium is being paid for companies,” which tends to lie between 30 and 40 percent above current value, says Galpin. “It’s not a slam dunk to guarantee that enough shareholders would approve an offer at that level,” he says.

While Musk, the company’s largest shareholder, obviously wants the sale to go ahead, other large shareholders, including The Vanguard Group, Morgan Stanley, BlackRock, and State Street Corp, may not. WIRED asked all four firms whether they would accept a Musk takeover. At the time of publication, Morgan Stanley had not responded. Ed Patterson, global head of public relations at State Street Corp, Barbara Williams, director of corporate communications at BlackRock, and Vanguard spokesperson Alyssa Thornton said that they would not comment on specific companies.

Conventional business wisdom would suggest that they’re likely to turn the offer down. “Some shareholders may own the shares for more personal-value-based reasons, rather than financial ones,” says Galpin. “It’s going to be a mixed bag across the shareholder base. Is their consideration a financial game or is their consideration a personal-values-based, societal good decision on their part? Only the individual shareholders would know that.”

The price of the potential buyout is eye-watering, but it would be comparatively small for Musk, whose wealth is estimated at $273 billion. “That’s small change for him,” says Cooper. Anil Dash, CEO of software development startup Glitch, agrees: “He could afford to outbid almost anybody. It really only comes down to his whims.”

Even if the bid fails, and Musk doesn’t get to see how well he could run Twitter alongside Tesla and SpaceX, as the firm’s primary shareholder, he likely still wins for sending the stock price soaring.

However, how that money is held could give an indication of how serious Musk’s bid for Twitter actually is. “He can’t possibly have more than $40 billion lying around in cash to settle this transaction in a serious amount of time,” says Siva Vaidhyanathan, Robertson professor of media studies at the University of Virginia. “His wealth is locked up in Tesla stock and not a small bit of Bitcoin.”

Divesting that into realizable cash would take time—and would also have a negative effect on the company he already runs. “The notion of unloading $40 billion of Tesla stock would create a value shock for Tesla,” says Vaidhyanathan. “He can’t seriously expect to take over one company by inflating its value while simultaneously deflating the company he actually runs.”

That much is admitted in the announcement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announcing Musk’s intention to take over. The proposal to buy the outstanding shares in the company is non-binding and, among other things, conditioned on “completion of anticipated financing.”

In short: Musk doesn’t yet have the cash in hand to buy Twitter. “I don’t think Elon Musk is a serious person,” says Vaidhyanathan. He believes Musk lacks the appetite to handle the regulatory requirements of a major social network that acts as a public forum, an obligation that would fall on him as sole owner.

“There’s no way he wants the responsibility for dealing with regulators in London, Brussels, New Delhi, and Canberra—let alone the United States,” Vaidhyanathan says. “It’s not a well-run company. It’s not a profitable company. It’s full of hazards ahead. He must know it would not be fun to run Twitter.”

Elon Musk Has Triggered a Battle for the Future of Twitter

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The notorious UserBenchmark has struck again as the review embargoes for the Ryzen 7 5800X3D were lifted today. In its description of the new Ryzen 7 5800X3D, the site has labeled the new 3D V-cache technology as a "gimmick" and has stated that AMD would require more than such gimmicks to be competitive.

Aside from that, UserBenchmark has also claimed that the game benchmarks, where the 5800X3D wins by large margins even when the Intel Alder Lake processors are running a more advanced DDR5 memory standard, are simply "canned" which essentially implies they are meant to favor the new AMD 3D V-cache more than anything else.

As you can see in the above image, UserBenchmark has also accused that such wins will be a part of AMD's PR campaign which consists of paid or sponsored reviews meant to build up the hype for the new Ryzen 7 5800X3D.

For those who may not know what the fuss about UserBenchmark is, the site, although a helpful one at one point in its life, has turned sour towards AMD and anyone who praises its Zen CPUs for some reason. The site seems adamant in going against the grain of what is considered a good product by the majority of the media and this practice has essentially cost it its own credibility that it had once earned thanks to its light and useful benchmarking tool.

On that note, if you are looking for some other simple benchmarks, you can try the PassMark test which isn't inherently biased towards one or the other vendor.

Source and image: UserBenchmark via @Sebasti66855537 (Twitter)

Notorious UserBenchmark is already throwing shade at AMD's new Ryzen 7 5800X3D

While the embargoed reviews for Ryzen 7 5800X3D aren't going to go live until April 20, the chip has already been benchmarked by a Peruvian outlet XanxoGaming and it has put up some very impressive numbers in the case of gaming. The 5800X3D is easily able to outpace the Intel Alder Lake-S Core i9-12900KF CPU in most of the scenarios that are cache heavy, sometimes by massive margins as you can see here.

The comparisons however were conducted using DDR4-3200 CL14 memory kits and one has to wonder how the Core i9 would fare using DDR5 RAM as Alder Lake supports both generations of DDR.

As such, XanxoGaming has went back and tested the i9-12900K, which is essentially the 12900KF with integrated graphics, using DDR5-6000 CL40 memory.

The results for the Intel Alder Lake-S part has definitely improved, though, it still barely manages to keep up with the 5800X3D in some of the situations. Meanwhile, it is still beaten by the Ryzen chip in instances where the performance gap was too much in favor of the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. This time time though, only the 1080p data is provided and it is likely that the 720p comparison would have produced more pronounced differences.

While the Ryzen 7 5800X3D is certainly looks like an excellent gaming processor, the part does fall behind in other core heavy areas like rendering or encoding, among others. According to TechPowerUp's review, there is only one instance, during WinRAR compression test, when the new 3D V-cache helps the 5800X3D. Otherwise, it trades blows with the vanilla Ryzen 7 5800X and is slower quite a bit slower than the similarly priced Core i7-12700K.

To be fair to AMD here, the company only ever advertised the 5800X3D as a gaming processor so in that regard, the new Ryzen SKU does deliver.

One thing noteworthy here is that the TechPowerUp review was conducted using the publicly available 4.03.03.431 chipset driver. Meanwhile, the XanxoGaming review was done using the 4.03.03.624 driver which apparently has performance optimizations for the 3D V-cache design. However, TechPowerUp (TPU) does state here that the 431 driver was "recommended by AMD for 5800X3D reviews".

Source and images: XanxoGaming via TPU

Edit: The reviews have gone live today.

Intel Alder Lake i9-12900K needs DDR5 RAM just to barely keep up with AMD's Ryzen 5800X3D

The days of working from home could soon be coming to an end for Google employees in the US as the company has announced its plans to invest $9.5bn in its offices and data centers across the country.

Over the past five years, the search giant has invested over $37bn in its offices and data centers in 26 states while creating more than 40k full-time jobs. It’s also worth noting that Google has invested over $40bn in research and development in the US over the past two years.

Alongside its new office and data center investments, the company expects to create at least an additional 12k full-time jobs by the end of the year and thousands more among its local suppliers, partners and communities.

While it may seem counterintuitive to increase its investments in physical offices now that Google has adopted a hybrid work policy where employees only need to come to the office three days a week, the company believes that investing further in its campuses will help it create better products and lead to improved quality of life for its employees. 

At the same time, new investments in its data centers will help Google come closer to achieving its goal of running them on carbon-free energy 24/7 by 2030.

US office and data center expansion

According to a new blog post from Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, the company plans to invest in its offices and data centers across the US.

In the Southern United States, Google is opening a new office in Atlanta this year and continuing to invest in its data center in Douglas County, Georgia. In Texas meanwhile, the company is making progress on its new downtown office in Austin and investing further in its Midlothian data center which is just outside Dallas. Google also plans to invest in its data centers in Tennessee, Virginia and Oklahoma.

In the Midwest and on the East Coast of the US, Google is investing in its data centers in Council Bluffs, Iowa and Nebraska as well as investing further in its long-term office presence in New York while making improvements to its Cambridge and Pittsburgh campuses. 

In the Central United States, Google is continuing construction on its campus in Boulder, Colorado.

Finally, when it comes to the West Coast, the company has opened a new office in downtown Portland and is investing in its data center in The Dalles while also investing in its Kirkland and Seattle campuses in Washington State. Once Google’s data center in Storey County, Nevada is operational, it plans to expand it as it also invests further in its Henderson facility.

We’ll likely hear more from Google once its latest round of investments and expansion in the US is complete by the end of this year.

Google wants to spend billions on new US offices and data centers

Meta is aggressively exploring monetization options for its Metaverse, but developers and content creators might be shortchanged on all sales. The owner of Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and now New Horizons Metaverse, is reportedly planning on charging content creators as much as 47.5 percent on each virtual sale.

Meta just expanded Horizon Worlds' monetization with saleable virtual items and creator bonuses. While the sale price of virtual items is common knowledge, it wasn’t clear how much Meta was planning on charging as commission from content creators and developers who wanted to hawk their virtual wares in the purely digital world. While deploying the monetization platform, Meta wrote:

As part of our ongoing commitment to support creators, we’re beginning to test several new tools that will enable creators to experiment with different ways to monetize what they’re building in Horizon Worlds. [Someone might] for example, make and sell attachable accessories for a fashion world or offer paid access to a new part of a world.

Meta hasn’t published documentation on its fee structure. However, a spokesperson for the social media giant confirmed the details to The Register in an email, which reads:

Creators will earn revenue from purchases people make in their worlds, subject to any relevant hardware platform fee, and a Horizon Platform fee which is 25 percent of the remainder. For example, if a creator sells an item for $1.00, then the Meta Quest Store fee would be $0.30 and the Horizon Platform fee would be $0.17, leaving $0.53 for the Creator before any applicable taxes.

Products, services, or content, available in the metaverse, will have to go through the Meta Quest Store, and then hit the virtual-reality service Horizon Worlds. Hence, in terms of percentages, these numbers translate to a 30% commission as the Meta Quest hardware platform fee and 25% as the Horizon Worlds fee after deducting the platform fee. This leaves the developers with approximately 52.5% of the revenue, while they end up losing 47.5% of their revenue as commission.

It is important to note that Meta hasn’t yet confirmed or denied these figures. However, if accurate, the “Meta Toll” would surpass the 30% “Apple Tax” by a huge margin. Back in 2020, it was Facebook that vociferously opposed Apple’s iOS App Tracking Transparency (ATT), claiming it would “harm small businesses”. It seems Meta is doing exactly what it protested against but in an even more hurtful manner.

Source: The Register

Selling in the Metaverse will cost developers 47.5% as 'Meta Toll', dwarfing 30% 'Apple Tax'

CD Projekt RED announced an upgraded and enhanced version of its hugely popular fantasy RPG The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt all the way back in 2020, promising major graphics upgrades and other improvements for the new consoles and PC. The upgrade's launch plans would later be pushed to 2022. Now it seems another major delay has hit the project, and this time there isn't even a new release window.

"We have decided to have our in-house development team conduct the remaining work on the next-gen version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt," CD Projekt RED today announced suddenly via its official The Witcher Twitter profile.

Saber Interactive — the studio known for its support work with major studios of Xbox, Rockstar, and others, and even ported The Witcher 3 to the Nintendo Switch — was behind the next-gen project, at least until recently it seems. It's unclear why CD Projekt RED decided to take over the development.

"We are currently evaluating the scope of work to be done and thus have to postpone Q2 release until further notice," continued CD Projekt RED on Twitter. "We'll update you as soon as we can. Thank you for your understanding."

With a Q2 2022 launch now out of the question, fans may be waiting quite a bit longer to get their upgraded Geralt action, depending on how the original studio evaluates the work required. This long-awaited version of The Witcher 3 is coming to PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5. It is said to include visual upgrades like ray tracing as well as technical improvements. Elements from the franchise's popular Netflix series are also being added to this release.

CD Projekt RED is also working bringing back The Witcher franchise for a brand-new gaming saga, this time powered by Unreal Engine 5.

The Witcher 3 next-gen launch slips again, CDPR is taking over development duties

Hello Games has prepared another major content update for No Man's Sky as the space adventure continues to grow. Titled Outlaws, the update adds a pirate lifestyle for players to experience, instead of being the usual dogooder, as sections of the universe have fallen under rebel control.

Due to pirates suddenly beginning to colonize space stations to expand their smuggling enterprises, players will now be bumping into Outlaw Stations with their own nefarious missions. If flying around with smuggled goods and conducting space piracy for profit while evading Sentinels sounds exciting, that is a path players can take now. There is a high-capacity cargo hold available for ships to equip just for this venture.

Solar Ship in action

Meanwhile, the Solar Starship has landed as a brand-new ship type, the first Hello Games has implemented in over two years. These ships are said to be especially efficient at long range travel, and they come with their own specialized technologies.

The other focus of this update is to offer an overhauled space combat experience, much like how the February Sentinels update did to planetary combat. The rebalanced ship-to-ship combat structure will now offer much better handling and speeds, better visual effects for weapons, shield-equipped enemy vessels, and even secondary effects on weaponry that can hamper enemy flying capabilities.

Space fights that lower into planets for In-atmosphere dogfights, spruced up explosions for dramatic effects, training and recruiting squadrons of wingmen for backup during fights, cloth physics simulation, and much more are included in this massive update. There are plenty more tweaks, upgrades, and bug fixes here too. The full patch notes are here.

The Man's Sky Outlaws is now available across Steam, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox and PC Game Pass, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5.

No Man's Sky Outlaws has space piracy, solar starships, squadrons, and more

If you logged onto YouTube today, you may have noticed that something was off with the homepage: the sidebar that lets you access things like your subscriptions feed, trending videos, and “Library” that keeps your Watch Later list and video history, was missing (though you can access some of the pages by clicking on the links we’ve included). The issues plagued the site for a few hours on Tuesday, according to reports from users on Twitter.

Some users were also cut off from trying to cast videos to a smart TV or watch streams from a game console.

The account menu, which lets you switch accounts, manage settings, and view your channel, was also broken. Users could still watch videos from your homepage or search, but people who like to carefully manage their YouTube experience or creators who weren’t logged into the correct account had a tough time using the site.

YouTube hasn’t given the all-clear yet, though the amount of user complaints seems to have dwindled. At around 4:30PM ET, the company wrote a post saying that it’s aware of the issue and is working on a fix. Around 7:50PM ET, the company updated the thread to say that the issues were “all fixed,” and that users should be able to “log in, switch between accounts, and use the account menu & navigation bar across all services (YouTube, YouTubeTV, YouTube Music, YouTube Studio) and devices.” The company’s original post also mentioned issues casting to TVs or game consoles, using YouTube Studio features, and “No internet connection” errors interrupting video playback.

Throughout the outage, the YouTube app still let users access their subscriptions and Watch Later lists.

Update April 12th, 7:58PM ET: Added update from Google.

Update April 12th, 7:46PM ET: Updated to reflect that the outage is being resolved.

YouTube is recovering from outage, fixing sidebar and casting

When the power goes out or you’re visiting the great outdoors with gadgets in tow, you might carry a portable power station — and Anker might have just released the most advanced one yet. The new $1,400 Anker 757 Powerhouse offers 1500W of power and 1229Wh of capacity from a Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) battery, which it promises is faster to charge, longer-lasting, and might even be safer than the lithium-ion battery packs you’ll typically find in the market.

LiFePO4 batteries aren’t anything new in the battery space. You’ll find them in some electric cars because they don’t need to be replaced as often and because they don’t turn into a raging inferno when hundreds or thousands of them are badly damaged in an accident. The downside is weight: most consumer electronics don’t use them because they’re far heavier than lithium-ion at the same capacity. The Anker 757 Powerhouse weighs 43.8 pounds, nearly twice as much as a 1000Wh Jackery power station but with only around 20 percent more capacity. Jackery has a 1500Wh power station that weighs less, too.

Portable power stations are often sought out by CPAP users, and this one can double as a UPS for a PC. Image; Anker

But we’re starting to see some big, beefy power stations embrace LiFePO4 for the benefits, including upwards of 3,000 battery charge cycles and the ability to charge to 80 percent in just an hour off the wall — things Anker’s 757, the Bluetti AC200P, and the crowdfunded CTECHi ST2000 all boast.

Mind you, those rival products are even larger and heavier and more powerful at 2000W of power and 2000Wh capacity, and the Bluetti appears to have more outputs as well — including six three-prong AC outlets and a pair of wireless charging pads up top to rest your phone. But Anker’s can deliver a full 100W of USB-C PD charging to a powerful laptop (the others top out at 60W PD, which the Anker has, too), as well as three three-prong outlets, three two-prong outlets, four USB-A ports at 12W each, and a car lighter socket port.

A rival LiFePO4 power bank from Bluetti: the AC200P. Image: Bluetti

Anker suggests its battery may be faster to charge from the sun than most, too — it’s able to get to 80 percent in just 3.6 hours with a 300W, triple-solar-panel array Anker will be selling for an undisclosed price soon. TechRadar writes that the Bluetti can technically charge in under three hours from 700W worth of panels, and CTECHi says its battery takes nine hours to fully charge from a set of 500W panels, though both allow you to combine solar and a plug if you need to top up faster.

You need a bunch of solar panels to truly charge a battery this size. Image: Anker

The other notable difference is that Anker is offering a 5-year warranty on its battery, quite a bit longer than the two years the other companies offer, and it claims its battery should still charge up to 100 percent capacity — not the typical 80 percent — after 3,000 charge cycles. And Anker says if you leave it sitting for a year after a charge, it should still have 62 percent capacity remaining.

Oh, and it’s got a nifty light bar, I guess. Might be useful if you’re trying to plug things in when it’s dark.

Anker’s biggest battery pack ever is a 43-pound power station with impressive specs

Sams said the following on YouTube:

I believe this is true ... I know that Microsoft was working on revisions of the chip. Now, are we going to see performance improvements, are we going to see anything else? I do not believe so but Microsoft is always working on making cooler, more efficient chips because that lowers the cost of production. I believe it is accurate the Microsoft is working on a smaller, more power efficient chip. That is, I'm very confident in that.

It's unclear if the outside design of the Xbox Series X will change. Smaller and more efficient chips reduce costs so this may just be an internal revision. However, if it needs to be cooled less, we may see a smaller Xbox Series X soon.

Recently, a white Series 2 Xbox Elite Controller was spotted at a retailer. It seems like Microsoft has a few hardware announcements in the works. Only time will tell what comes of the smaller chips for the Xbox Series X.

Disclaimer: Neowin's relationship to Stardock

Microsoft possibly working on smaller and more efficient Xbox Series X chip