As per a new report by Counterpoint Research, Apple's revenue in 2024 is expected to reach $400 billion for the first time, with the hardware and services segments contributing the most to the growth. The iPhone 16 series and Apple Intelligence could be the iPhone maker's catalysts for reaching this milestone.

Despite recent layoffs, Apple's latest earnings reports paint a rosy picture of the company's situation. For reference, Apple generated $85.8 billion in revenue in Q3 2024, exceeding all Wall Street expectations.

During this quarter, Apple made $39.30 billion from selling iPhones while services revenue was $24.21 billion. Mac, iPad, Wearables, Home, and Accessories also brought in nearly $22.27 billion in total. Apple's net income for the quarter stood at $21.45 billion.

According to Counterpoint Research's projections, Apple's hardware segment (consisting of iPhone, iPad, Mac, Watch, and AirPods) is expected to grow 3% YoY in 2024, with AirPods being the fastest-growing segment of the year. As for services revenue, the analyst firm says it can reach the $100 billion mark for the first time in 2025. For clarification, Apple's services include Music, movies, TV shows, stickers, books, and app purchases.

Counterpoint Research Director Tarun Pathak said:

"In terms of growth rates, and now with the advent of Apple Intelligence, the services segment does seem very exciting. It is poised to grow at a much faster rate than hardware. However, in terms of absolute revenue growth, hardware remains critical in pushing the needle considering it contributes to three-fourths of Apple's global revenues."

Counterpoint also believes the Cupertino-based firm might monetize Apple Intelligence, probably by locking some of its best features behind a subscription.

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Cloud Imperium Games has pushed out another alpha update full of features to its sci-fi space RPG. The 3.24: Cargo Empires update is now live, and it ships with the game's new instancing tech, overhauled cargo mechanics for better immersion and gameplay, and more. Watch the launch trailer above.

Instanced locations is a big addition to the multiplayer experience, letting players enter hangers that are dedicated to them without any wait times or time limits. When requested, any ship will be available to board right from these new types of hangers.

"All hangar types are instanced, meaning they are able to physically stack on each other in the same location without interference," says the studio. "All hangar types have ASOP terminals, Item Banks, and Freight Elevators (SCU freight amount depends on hangar size)"

Moreover, every player now has a Personal Hanger at their home location, which comes with space for items, decorations, and vehicles for players to use however they wish. "Your hangar is allocated by the largest vehicle you own, so it’ll always fit, even if you upgrade your ship," adds Cloud Imperium.

Next, loading cargo into ships from bays no longer needs to be automated, with brand-new Freight Elevators delivering the items straight to cargo bays. These can then be manually arranged inside of ships by the crew by hand or tractor beams. Automated cargo loading has not gone away however.

Meanwhile, Hauling missions have been enabled for all players. There are three different variants of cargo hauls for players to accept, each one procedurally generated to take them across the solar system. The amount of cargo players can accept to haul depends on their reputation in the field.

The developer has even published a dedicated blog post diving deep into the new cargo systems to guide players on hauling missions, what tools are needed, recommended ships, how to make a profit, and other essential elements.

Star Citizen Alpha 3.24: Cargo Empires is available now to all backers. Read the complete patch notes for the update here, which has details on the fixed and known issues of this release too.

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The Ryzen 9 9900X is a 12-core, 24-thread processor for the AM5 platform (600 and 800 Series AMD motherboards) with DDR5 memory. It operates at a 4.4 GHz base clock with up to 5.6 GHz max boost. The processor is unlocked, so feel free to crank it beyond those clocks, assuming your cooling has enough headroom. Speaking of cooling, the Ryzen 9 9900X has the default TDP of 120W.

Here is a brieа rundown of the processor's specs:

If you plan to purchase the Ryzen 9 9900X and build a new computer with it, be sure to download and install the latest non-security update for Windows 11, as it significantly improves performance on AMD's recent processors, including the Ryzen 9000 Series.

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Yesterday, at Hot Chips 2024, Microsoft shared specifications on Maia 100 for the first time and revealed a lot more details. You can find the summary of them below.

Maia 100 Specs:

• Chip Size - 820mm2
• Packaging - TSMC N5 process with COWOS-S interposer technology
• HBM BW/Cap – 1.8TB/s @ 64GB HBM2E
• Peak Dense Tensor POPS – 6bit: 3, 9bit: 1.5, BF16: 0.8
• L1/L2 – 500MB
• Backend Network BW – 600GB/s (12X400gbe)
• Host BW (PCIe) = 32GB/s PCIe Gen5X8
• Design to TDP – 700W
• Provision TDP – 500W

The Microsoft Maia 100 system is vertically integrated to optimize cost and performance. It also features custom server boards with specially designed racks and a software stack to improve performance.

Maia 100 SoC Architecture:

• A high-speed tensor unit to deliver high-speed processing for training and inferencing while supporting a wide range of data types. This tensor unit is constructed as a 16xRx16 unit.
• The vector processor is a loosely coupled superscalar engine built with a custom instruction set architecture (ISA) to support a wide range of data types, including FP32 and BF16.
• A Direct Memory Access (DMA) engine supports different tensor sharding schemes.
• Hardware semaphores enable asynchronous programming on the Maia system.
• To improve data utilization and power efficiency, large L1 and L2 scratch pads are software-managed.

Maia 100 uses Ethernet-based interconnect with a custom RoCE-like protocol for ultra-high bandwidth compute. It supports up to 4800 Gbps all-gather and scatter-reduced bandwidth, and 1200 Gbps all-to-all bandwidth.

On the software side, the Maia software development kit (SDK) allows anyone to quickly port their PyTorch and Triton models to Maia. The Maia SDK includes several components for developers, allowing them to easily deploy their models to Azure OpenAI Services.

Developers can choose from two programming models to program the Maia system. They can either use Triton, a popular open-source domain-specific language (DSL) for deep neural networks (DNNs), or the Maia API, a Maia-specific custom programming model built for maximum performance with more detailed control. Also, Maia has native support for PyTorch models allowing developers to execute PyTorch models with a single line change.

With its advanced architecture, great developer tools, and deep integration with Azure, the Maia 100 is changing the way Microsoft manages and executes AI workloads. It remains to be seen whether Microsoft will open up Maia 100 accelerators to 3rd party organizations like how Google has been doing with its TPUs and Amazon has been doing with its Trainium and Inferentia chips.

You can learn more about Maia 100 from Microsoft’s official blog post here.

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Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was indicted in France today and ordered to post bail of 5 million euros. The multi-billionaire was forbidden from leaving the country and must report to police twice a week while the case continues.

 

Charges were detailed in a statement issued today by Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau, which was provided to Ars. They are nearly identical to the possible charges released by Beccuau on Monday.

 

The first charge listed is complicity in "web-mastering an online platform in order to enable an illegal transaction in organized group." Today's press release said this charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a 500,000-euro fine.

 

Telegram's alleged refusal to cooperate with law enforcement on criminal investigations resulted in a charge of "refusal to communicate, at the request of competent authorities, information or documents necessary for carrying out and operating interceptions allowed by law."

 

Beccuau said there was a near-total lack of response from Telegram to requests for cooperation in cases related to crimes against minors, drug crimes, and online hate. This led authorities "to open an investigation into the possible criminal responsibility of the messaging app's executives in the commission of these offenses," Beccuau said, as quoted by Bloomberg.

 

Durov was further charged with complicity in drug trafficking and distribution of child pornography.

Cryptology-related charges

He was also charged with providing cryptology services without making required declarations to government officials. Under French law, providers of cryptology must make declarations to ANSSI, the country's cybersecurity agency. French authorities may request that companies provide "the technical characteristics and the source code of the means of cryptology which was the subject of the declaration."

 

The charges against Durov include "providing cryptology services aiming to ensure confidentiality without certified declaration," "providing a cryptology tool not solely ensuring authentication or integrity monitoring without prior declaration," and "importing a cryptology tool ensuring authentication or integrity monitoring without prior declaration."

 

Telegram offers a mix of private messaging and social network features. Telegram messages do not have end-to-end encryption by default, but the security feature can be enabled for one-on-one conversations.

 

In response to Durov's arrest, Telegram said on Sunday that it follows the law and industry standards on moderation and called it "absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform."

 

French authorities also reportedly issued a warrant for the arrest of Durov's brother and fellow Telegram co-founder, Nikolai.

 

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What you need to know

• Employees at NVIDIA reportedly work round the clock through the week but get generous pay packages in return.
• NVIDIA is now the most profitable chip brand and was briefly the world's most valuable company, ahead of Apple and Microsoft. 
• A former marketing employee at the company says she used to attend up to 10 meetings per day, which often turned into shouting matches.

What defines a company's success? While this is a broad topic, most executives would list the employees' performance index and morale as key determinants. Hard work also plays a crucial role. 

Amid concerns that AI is rapidly claiming jobs from professionals, Microsoft's latest Work Trend Index report indicates employers won't recruit anyone without an AI aptitude. Contrary to popular belief, AI is creating more job opportunities, but company executives are concerned that there isn't enough talent for the vacancies in their organizations.

According to former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, the company is losing to Microsoft, OpenAI, and NVIDIA in the AI race due to its work-from-home policy. "Google decided that work-life balance and going home early and working from home was more important than winning," stated Schmidt. "And the reason the startups work is because the people work like hell."

Despite Microsoft and OpenAI's vast resources and talent, the CEO says NVIDIA will win the AI race due to the high demand for AI chips. NVIDIA is the most profitable chip brand in the world and was briefly the world's most valuable company, ahead of Apple and Microsoft. 

How did it get to achieve these feats?

NVIDIA employees "work like hell"

NVIDIA RTX 4070 (Image credit: Harish Jonnalagadda / Windows Central)

 

According to a report by the New York Post, NVIDIA employees go to work every day of the week and leave the office at around 2 a.m. However, their hard work doesn't go unnoticed. Several sources with knowledge of the arrangement indicate that employees receive generous pay packages.

 

While speaking to Bloomberg, a former marketing employee at NVIDIA disclosed that she'd attend up to 10 daily meetings, each featuring up to 30 participants. The meetings would often turn into shouting matches due to differences in opinion and strategy. NVIDIA employees describe the working environment at the company as "a pressure cooker."

 

Despite the immense pressure in NVIDIA's work environment, most employees retained their jobs because of the "golden handcuffs," as a former employee described them. The golden handcuffs are a metaphor for NVIDIA's employee stock compensation package.

 

According to NVIDIA, the rate of employee turnover is 17.7%. A former engineer at NVIDIA indicates that employees who've been working at the company for more than a decade have enough money set aside for retirement but opt to continue working for better incentives.

 

The engineer further indicated that NVIDIA's parking lot is filled with high-end vehicles, including Porsches, Corvettes, and Lamborghinis, and the occasional bragging of new vacation homes. 

 

Elsewhere, NVIDIA isn't the only company breaking the bank to further its AI advances. In a leaked spreadsheet featuring the salaries of Microsoft employees, an AI software engineer gets paid up to $120,000 more per year than someone working in Azure.

 

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"Work on Polaris is progressing," says CD Projekt joint CEO Michał Nowakowski in a separate press release from earlier today. "Its development team is nearing a major milestone which will mark the end of the pre-production phase."

As of July 31, 2024, the number of CD Projekt RED developers working on Orion has grown to 410 out of 639 total staff. In late last year, that staff number was at 330. The Unreal Engine 5-powered game is supposed to kick off a brand-new trilogy, but so far only a teaser image has been revealed about its direction, seen above.

“The Polaris team is maintaining the right scale to enter the production phase very soon, while our work on both announced and unannounced projects is steadily progressing,” Nowakowski echoed during the earnings call.

Nowakowski also added that CD Projekt's Boston-based studio had a "busy period" in the first half of the year as it was "laying the groundwork for Project Orion." For those in the dark, this is the codename attached to the next entry set in the Cyberpunk universe.

Last we heard of it, the company was revealing that a number of industry veterans with experience in the AAA games space was joining the Orion development team. This included building up the team with staff from high-profile studios like Blizzard, Remedy, IO Interactive, Massive, Arkane, BioWare, Obsidian, and others.

While it may be a while till we see a new game materialize from the studio, don't forget that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt received official modding tools earlier this year. Saying that there's already quite a few major and interesting mod projects in the works for the title, the studio thanked fans for "bringing new strength" to the The Witcher 3 just as it prepares to turn 10 years old.

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Today, Nvidia revealed the financial results for the second fiscal quarter of 2024, which ended on July 28. The company recorded revenues of $30 billion, up 11 percent from the last quarter and up 122 percent from the same quarter a year ago.

Nvidia also recorded net income of $16.6 billion for the quarter, which was up 12 percent from the last quarter, and up by 168 percent from the same period a year ago. The company also announced a $50 billion share buyback program which usually helps its stock price.

All of these results beat Nvidia's projections as well as the expectations of financial analysts. However, Reuters reports that some of those investors were not as impressed by the amount that the company beat expectations:

"Here's the issue, the size of the beat this time was much smaller than we've been seeing," said Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at the Carson Group.

 

"Even future guidance was raised, but again not by the tune from previous quarters. This is a great company that is still growing revenue at 122%, but it appears the bar was just set a tad too high this earnings season."

As a result, shares in Nvidia were down by over 6 percent as of this writing. The share price went way up in 2024 but went down a bit during the summer before recovering somewhat.

For the current third fiscal quarter of 2024, Nvidia says it expects revenues of $32.5 billion, plus or minus 2 percent. It also mentioned the future release of its next-gen "Blackwell" AI GPU. CEO Jensen Huang stated, "Blackwell samples are shipping to our partners and customers."

There were previous rumors that mass production of the Blackwell GPU could be delayed to the first quarter of 2025, due to the discovery of a design flaw in the chip. The company gave no indication of such a flaw, or a shipment delay, in its financials today.

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A federal judge’s ruling that Google violated US antitrust law with its search business earlier in August paved the way for the lawsuit by Yelp, another major tech company that allows users to write reviews of local businesses. Yelp has long raised grievances with Google’s search dominance, saying in the complaint Google had stymied Yelp’s reach since rejecting the tech giant’s offer to buy the platform.

“Our case is about Google, the largest information gatekeeper in existence, putting its heavy thumb on the scale to stifle competition and keep consumers within its own walled garden,” Yelp said in an online blog post on Wednesday.

The staggering defeat for Google in the US District Court of the District of Columbia had the potential to reshape how millions of Americans get their information online. Wednesday’s Yelp lawsuit was one of the first steps taken since US District Judge Amit Mehta called Google a “monopolist” in the opinion.

“Yelp’s claims are not new. Similar claims were thrown out years ago by the FTC (Federal Trade Commission), and recently by the judge in the DOJ’s (Department of Justice’s) case. On the other aspects of the decision to which Yelp refers, we are appealing. Google will vigorously defend against Yelp’s meritless claims,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday.

CNN has reached out to Google for comment.

The Wednesday lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco, alleges that Google manipulates results to promote its own local search offerings when a customer searches for such results on Google. That allows Google to unfairly outperform its rivals, Yelp said.

That means when a user searches up a local restaurant, Google allegedly uses its monopoly power to serve them any and all information – from directions to hours to reviews – meaning people don’t have to click on a single outside source such as Yelp.

Yelp isn’t the only specialized search provider. Sites like travel provider Expedia, job and employer reviewer Glassdoor and real estate site Zillow were described in the complaint as threats to Google “on a level playing field.”

“In other words, Google abuses its monopoly power in general search to keep users within Google’s owned ecosystem and prevents them from going to rival sites,” the statement said.

Yelp claims Google does this because the quality of reviews on Yelp and other services is better. Yelp cited an FTC report that said 32% of reviews on Google have no text, while review text is always required on its own platform.

“Google, which was late to market in this respect, has never been able to develop a high-quality local search service to rival that of Yelp and other local search platforms,” the 66-page complaint said.

Google has historically spent billions on exclusive contracts to become the world’s default search engine – allowing it to stomp on any sort of rival from Bing, DuckDuckGo, to even more specialized platforms like Yelp.

Specifically, Google’s exclusive deals with Apple and other key players in the mobile ecosystem were anticompetitive, Mehta wrote in the opinion from earlier this month. Mehta wrote that Google has also charged high prices in search advertising that reflect its monopoly power in search.

The court earlier in August did not find that Google has a monopoly in search ads. But Yelp, which also sells local search advertising, is arguing that Google’s monopoly entices local advertising to depend on Google. This allows Google to charge these businesses higher fees.

Google said in a statement then that it plans to appeal the decision, and that Mehta’s opinion recognized Google as the internet’s best search engine — an argument the company had made in court as the reason consumers preferred Google over the competition.

In the lawsuit, Yelp said Google’s actions hurt its business by lowering its traffic, reducing advertising revenues and raising Yelp’s own costs.

Yelp is seeking monetary damages and an “injunction prohibiting Google from continuing to engage in the anticompetitive practices.”

CNN’s Clare Duffy and Brian Fung contributed to this report.

This story has been updated with additional context and developments.

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In an Xbox Wire post, Microsoft stated that one of the new features in the August update is allowing users who have their Microsoft and Discord accounts linked up to see their Discord friends on the Xbox Friends list on the console. Also, if you are in a Discord call or in a voice channel, you can now directly jump into a game stream from anyone on your Xbox. Both of these Discord features were made available for Xbox Insiders less than a month ago.

Another new feature in the Xbox August update allows both Xbox console owners and Windows PC owners via the Xbox app to choose which parts of a game they wish to download. Microsoft stated:

Now, if an Xbox or PC game you’re planning to install on your Xbox console or PC – via the Xbox app on PC – has additional features, you can either install it all or customize your download to save download time and space.

The update will also add features for certain Xbox controllers. The Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 and the Xbox Adaptive Controller will soon add Toggle hold, which will allow a controller button to be held down by only pressing once on the button. There's also a new way to turn off a device via an Xbox controller:

With your device turned on and connected to your Xbox console, simply open the Xbox Accessories app, select the More options menu (…) for the device, and then select Turn off device.

Finally, the Xbox August update repeats what was announced earlier this week. People who have the current third-generation Amazon Fire TV Cube and the first-generation Amazon Fire TV 4K Max streaming stick can now play Xbox Cloud Gaming titles with an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription and a controller.

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Gamers Nexus (2.26M subscribers)

August 27, 2024

Video length: 26m 22s

00:00 - Recapping the Week

01:24 - Quick GN Update & Scheduling

03:19 - Rumors of Intel 285K & Arrow Lake CPUs

06:39 - Xbox Makes Big Changes

09:01 - Valve Banning Input Automation

10:31 - Rumor of 7600X3D CPU in September

11:55 - Rumor of AMD 9000X3D CPUs in January

13:50 - NVIDIA & Mediatek G-Sync Replacement

16:51 - Zotac Gaming Zone Handheld News

18:54 - Intel Deepens Cuts

20:56 - NVIDIA's Misleading RTX 4070 GPUs

23:36 - Black Myth Wukong Shatters Steam Record

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JayzTwoCents (4.09M subscribers)

August 27, 2024

Video length: 23m 02s

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Today, The Washington Post revealed all the features that will be part of the upcoming Alexa Plus subscription service, which is expected to launch in October this year.

Alexa Plus will be able to recognize the individual voices of customers and ask questions about them to be more helpful. Additionally, the voice experience will feel more conversational and charismatic compared to the current Alexa experience.

The flagship feature of Alexa Plus will be the new “Smart Briefing.” As the name suggests, Smart Briefing will deliver daily, AI-generated summaries of news articles selected based on a customer’s preferences. This is not an entirely new feature, as Google Assistant already has a similar feature called News Briefings. According to Amazon’s internal document, Smart Briefings can create a daily habit and drive recurrent engagement for Alexa Plus.

Alexa Plus will also be able to help customers find recipes. A new chatbot targeting children will allow them to “have back-and-forth, exploratory conversations with Alexa about any topic under the sun.” There will be a new conversational shopping experience. For example, customers will be able to ask questions like “What colors do the shoes come in?”, “What are the ingredients?”, or “Do you have any deals on headphones?”. The new Shopping Scout feature can notify customers when a particular product goes on sale.

Along with the regular voice feature, Amazon is also planning to launch a web UI version of Alexa for the first time. The new Alexa web experience will directly compete with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot.

Despite the push for the premium Alexa Plus subscription, Amazon will continue to offer a free version of Alexa with a limited set of features.

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The Focus Entertainment community site has the info on the first year of planned updates for the game, both for free and for people who get the paid Season Pass. Fans who purchase the Gold Edition of the game for $99.99 will get access to the Season Pass for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles. The Steam and Epic Games Store PC version gets the Ultra edition for $99.99. There's also the Collector's Version but the Focus site says it is no longer available.

People who pre-order any version of the game before launch will get access to the Macragge’s Chosen DLC at launch which offers cosmetics for the Chainsword and Bolt Rifle weapons. Ultra edition buyers will get the Ultramarines Champions Pack of cosmetic armor and the Heavy Bolter weapon at launch.

The game will get some quick updates for the launch in early September including ultrawide monitor support, private PvE lobbies, and a new Battle Barge starting arena.

For the rest of 2024, the game will get free PvE missions, a new Lethal difficulty level, a new enemy and a new weapon. Season Pass holds will get the Dark Angles cosmetic pack. In 2025, the free updates will add the Battle Barge expansion pack, along with a Horde mode, new PvP arenas and game mode, new enemies, new weapons and more. Battle Pass owners will also get more cosmetic armor and weapons packs.

Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine II will officially launch for all platforms on September 9, but Gold, Ultra and Collector's Edition buyers will be able to access the game four days earlier on September 5.

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A year ago, we revealed how AMD Radeon RX 8000 series of graphics cards are unlikely to come with flagship models. In other words, there might not be any RX 8900 or RX 8800 graphics card in the next-gen AMD Radeon series. This is because AMD seems to want to concentrate on the mid-range and upper mid-range in the RX 8000 series.

This is possibly because recent AMD Radeon graphics card series like the RX 7000 and RX 6000 haven’t performed as great as they should. The top range models of the RX 7000 series comes with multi-chip modules that have one graphics chip and six memory chips max on one Navi 31 and Navi 32 GPUs respectively that power graphics cards like RX 7900 XTX, RX 7900 XT, RX 7900 GRE, RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT.

The above graphics card models are unlike RX 7600 XT and RX 7600 that use a monolithic Navi 33 GPU. Similarly, AMD Radeon RX 8000 graphics cards are expected to use the traditional monolithic GPUs too.

While we do know that the RX 8000 series is likely to be announced or release starting January next year, till now we did not have proper information about their specs. Except maybe the GPU name, Navi 48 and Navi 44. Looks like now we have some more specs about them.

RX 8000 Leaks

A series of benchmarks about a possible next-gen AMD Radeon RX 8000 graphics card seems to have leaked on Geekbench.

While the benchmark doesn’t directly say which model, it comes with a codename gfx1201. As RX 7000 series used a codename of gfx11** and even RX 6000 too used a gfx103* codename, the gfx1201 is all likely to be the highest level graphics card that’s going to be found in the RX 8000 series.

The benchmark shows us two important specs. First is, it comes with 16GB of VRAM, something which RX 7800 XT comes with for example. While GDDR7 is going to be available by then, AMD is unlikely to use it in the RX 8000 series. It would likely stick to GDDR6 instead. Why, because it’s cheaper that way.

Second, it mentions 28 CU (compute units). As confirmed by @Kepler_L2 and @AnhPhuH, Geekbench counts WGP (Work Group Processors) as CU. Since AMD these days uses two CUs in a single WGP, it’s fair to say that this particular graphics card is likely to come with 56 CUs. Which puts it between RX 7700 XT (54 CU) and RX 7800 XT (60 CU).

The leaks aren’t without their problems, though. The GPU clock in the benchmark hits just 2101 MHz, which is considered quite less as per the modern standards. Another problem is, the benchmark score itself is quite less. Both of these things suggest that these are early engineering samples. VideoCardz, in fact, suggests that these could be early samples sent to the board partners for testing. Explained by the commonly used mid-range PC used in the benchmarks.

Either way, going forward, expect more leaks to come. Especially leaks related to improved performance, correct GPU clocks, bandwidth, TDP and other things.

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A recent Business Insider post (under a paywall) claims to have obtained a spreadsheet of some of Microsoft's average employee salaries. If the spreadsheet is accurate. It shows that a software engineer in Microsoft's AI division is being paid up to $377,611 a year. That number includes both the base pay for the job, which is $192,667, plus stock and cash bonuses that total $184,994.

It's the large cash and stock bonuses that help a Microsoft AI engineer get more money than a team member who works at Microsoft's Azure cloud division. The spreadsheet posted by Business Insider shows that the total pay of an Azure team member can go up to $252,464 a year. The base pay is actually not much higher than the AI team member, as the Azure employee gets $174,196 a year. However, the team member's cash and stock bonuses are much lower, coming in at $77,268 a year.

Earlier this year, Microsoft announced it was launching a new AI division at the company, which would be led by Mustafa Suleyman, who previously was the co-founder of two AI companies, DeepMind and Inflection. Suleyman has the CEO title for Microsoft AI, similar to how Phil Spencer is the CEO of Microsoft Gaming.

As part of the AI division formation, Microsoft decided to move its Bing, Copilot, and Edge development teams under that AI banner. It remains to be seen of the establishment of the AI division, and its reportedly higher salaries, will make a difference in Microsoft's future AI plans.

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Hailing from Greece, Skopós is joining the Defending team, and she is touting access to two robots, which are called Shells in-game, as her gadget. Named Talos and Colossus, both count as operators that Skopós is controlling remotely from out of the map, so she can't be actually found in a round.

Each Shell is equipped with a PCX-33 assault rifle, a P229 Pistol as secondary, as well as Impact Grenades and Proximity Alarms.

Skopós is only able to control one Shell at a time, letting her switch between them at will. However, if even one of them gets destroyed by the enemy as Skopós is controlling them, then she is considered out of the game like any operator, so there isn't a second life mechanic at play here.

Above you can check out a video of the shells and powers in action, while below is a breakdown of their performance in the field:

The active shell can do anything an Operator can; the same movement, shooting, and secondary-gadget usage rules apply. They are 2-speed 2-health when active, and when inactive, they assume a crouched position and deploy a bulletproof barrier in front of them. The inactive shell also functions as an observation tool for the defense, and it is by accessing the observation controls of her inactive shell that Skopós can switch to make it the active one.

As for counters, the bulletproof window inactive shells put up can be destroyed with explosives, and there is also a certain angle that attackers can use to kill it off easily too. As for gadgets, EMP grenades and hacks can also mess with inactive shells, while Brava can use the Kludge Drone to destroy an inactive one completely by overheating them if Skopós doesn't switch back in time.

The active shell isn't affected by any of these (functioning as a normal operator), but it cannot utilize Rook's armor plates and can't receive healing from anybody. On the plus side, being robotic, Shells can't be affected by toxic gas or poison effects of other operators either.

As for other changes, drones are gaining a boost ability to speed up and get away, or go into areas much quicker. This is a limited use power for each drone though. An in-game tournament system named the Siege Cup, which will hit PC players first in a beta state first. The ability to warm up in the in-game Shooting Range as matchmaking is happening is coming. Moreover, Ubisoft is touting much improved cheat detection tools now too.

Rainbow Six Siege Year 9 Season 3: Operation Twin Shells first hits test servers on August 26, letting players try out the new Operator and changes so Ubisoft can make tweaks and bugfixes if needed. Once everything is stable, Ubisoft plans to ship the complete update across live servers on all platforms starting September 10.

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Ok, wait. Do I really think this is true? Nah, I’m not such a skeptic, although I can imagine many ways artificial intelligence can go wrong at times. These words actually belong to a certain Elon Musk. Thus, the question is, does HE really believe that?

For years, Elon Musk had a reputation as an innovative, ambitious, disruptive, and inspiring visionary. Somebody whose strong cult of personality often forgiven his demanding, relentless, impatient, and maybe at times even intimidating approach towards his personnel.

Talented people found motivation in working for Musk, although it was also an enormous challenge for many. Challenge they were willing to sign up for.

Statements like the ones at the top were often rendered controversial by the media; however, they were also driving the motivation for those in search of an innovative project they could contribute to. Thus, “Does he really believe that?” is indeed an important question. Important for those who work for Musk’s causes and equally important for those cheering for his break-or-make projects.

Because of this, I was very surprised by the revelation that upon its release, Musk’s latest Grok AI didn’t include the necessary limitations and safety measures to prohibit users from generating malicious content—for example, realistic violent images. Musk doesn’t care. It is more than clear that his desire for Grok to be non-woke and different from any other competing AI model has a higher priority than safety.

Why is it concerning? It is Elon Musk who has been painting pictures of the dark AI future that will take over the world for years. Heck, he even founded Neuralink—not just to help disabled people but to ultimately merge our minds with machines to keep up with them.

Today? It is the very same Elon Musk who personally contributes to malicious uses of artificial intelligence. And he doesn’t seem bothered. In fact, it looks like he is enjoying it. Ironic, isn’t it?

Despite all the hatred from the media Musk had endured for the past 20-plus years, there was always a strong community around him. Not many individuals or even companies can say that there are dedicated news websites worldwide focused on their projects.

Yet, many people—including me—are disappointed with Musk’s personal behavior and business decisions over the past few years. I am disappointed to the point that even using his products and services feels wrong at times. Just think of all the “I bought this before we knew Elon was crazy” Tesla bumper stickers.

Musk’s vision of the future can be exciting, even though it is often presented in dark colors. Thus, I’m not surprised that there are still lots of fans who are willing to close an eye or two when he logs into his X account.

However, if he continues to undermine the foundation of his own vision, Musk will find himself walking on thin ice that will inevitably break...

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Table of contents:

1. Windows 10 and 11 news
2. Windows Insider Program
3. Updates are available
4. Gaming news

Windows 11 and 10

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

If you have a computer with one of AMD's recent Ryzen processors, you will be pleased to learn that AMD and Microsoft are working on a new set of patches that should improve the performance of PCs powered by Ryzen 9000, 7000, and 5000 processors. AMD said the update is coming soon.

Things are not going very well for Windows users with dual-boot systems. A report emerged about the August 2024 Patch Tuesday update breaking PCs with Linux and Windows installed side-by-side. Shortly after that, Microsoft acknowledged the problem and promised to release a fix. Meanwhile, if you have a dual-boot system and the August 2024 Patch Tuesday update installation is pending, use a special registry tweak to kill the update before it takes down your Linux distro. If it is already down, check out this guide that will help you bring it back to life.

Finally, Microsoft published new docs about Regedit, Group Policy Editor, and other configuration tools. In those articles, users discovered what seemed like a hint about the upcoming deprecation of the legacy Control Panel. But if you feel like there is a need for a better way to access all the Windows settings, check out the Super God Mode script, which does exactly that.

Windows Insider Program

Microsoft has finally broken its radio silence about the controversial Recall feature. Now, the feature is coming to Windows insiders in October 2024. If you want to participate in the testing, go get yourself a Copilot+ PC since this type of Windows 11 machine is still the only one officially supported. Speaking of Copilot+ PCs, they may soon become more affordable as Qualcomm announced a new eight-core entry-level SKU.

Here is what Microsoft Released this week for testing in the Windows Insider Program:

With build 27686, which was released in the Canary Channel last week, things got a little confusing in the Insider program. Users noticed that Canary builds now have "Dev" as the Windows version, even though there is a separate channel with the same name. Microsoft clarified that that is not an indicator of your current channel. Instead, the inscription indicates that you use an in-development Windows build that is not tied to any specific Windows version.

What is also confusing is a not-so-new feature coming soon to Windows 10. Users noticed that the latest preview build has the so-called "Account Manager," which replaces traditional user-related buttons in the Start menu with a Microsoft 365 ad. For now, it is hidden and turned off, but considering the same feature is now in the stable version of Windows 11, it will probably make its way to Windows 10 soon.

What is not confusing is the new webcam settings in build 26120.1542. The latest Dev release finally allows video streaming to multiple apps at once. Also, you can toggle on a special basic camera mode that should make it easier to troubleshoot webcam issues.

Updates are available

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

Skype Insider has been updated to version 8.127. Unlike the previous update, which made the messenger completely ad-free, the latest build focuses on performance improvements, bug fixes, and stability. Check out the full release notes here.

Microsoft also released two 2.0 updates for its apps, Loop and Clipchamp on iOS. Loop received a revamped UI and various improvements, and Clipchamp got an improved editor with AI-based features and other changes.

Teams, one of Microsoft's flagship apps, is finally available as a unified app for Windows 10, 11, and Mac users. You can now use a single application for work, school, and personal accounts. Things just got simpler, which is always nice.

Speaking of Office apps, Cisco Talos recently discovered several vulnerabilities in Microsoft 365 apps for macOS. These vulnerabilities allow hackers to bypass macOS permissions and then take over the victim's system.

Microsoft's Edge browser received a bunch of updates this week. Version 128 arrived in the Stable Channel with Edge Bar improvements, the SSE3 instruction set requirement (no Edge for you if your ancient computer does not support SSE3), and other changes. Users also noticed that Microsoft quietly deprecated the rounded tab feature. While it is still available and working, the feature description says it will soon be out.

In the Dev Channel, Edge received version 129.0.2779.0 with various fixes and patches.

On the third-party side, Stardock released a feature update for Fences, an app that helps you keep your desktop tidy. Version 5.81 is now available for all users with a new feature and a bunch of quality-of-life improvements.

Start11 is another Stardock-made application that received a notable update. Version 2.1 is now available for all users with native Windows on ARM support. That means you can run this Start menu alternative on your Copilot+ PC without having to sacrifice performance or battery life.

Mozilla released another small update for Firefox 129 in the Release channel. Version 129.0.2 landed this week with an accessibility fix and another drag-and-drop improvement.

Other notable updates include the following:

• Dev Home app has been updated to version 0.17 with widget and environment improvements.
• The US government version of Copilot for Microsoft 365 now has an October 2024 launch date.

• Microsoft reveals changes to its financial reporting for the 2025 fiscal year.

• Microsoft SharePoint received a new AI-powered Design Ideas feature.

• Microsoft Forms now lets you generate answers to quiz questions via Copilot.

• Microsoft announced general availability of Text to Speech Avatar in Azure AI Speech Service.

• Microsoft announced new updates for the Message Recall feature in Exchange Online.

• Microsoft is reportedly making more branding changes for Copilot business services.

   

And here are the newest drivers released this week:

• AMD Radeon Software 24.8.1 with Black Myth: Wukong, Star Wars Outlaws support, and more.
• Nvidia 560.94 WHQL Game Ready with optimizations for the same games.
• Intel 32.0.101.5972 WHQL with Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Beta support and more.
• Intel Wi-Fi 23.70.2 with Wi-Fi 7 support for Windows 11 version 24H2.

To finish the update section, check out this week's Microsoft 365 Roadmap Weekly, where we track the latest features coming soon to Microsoft's productivity apps.

On the gaming side

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

The recently announced new versions of Microsoft's Xbox Series X|S consoles are now available for pre-order. You can now purchase a white Xbox Series X with 1TB of storage, a white Xbox Series S with 1TB of storage, and a special edition of Xbox Series X with a unique finish and 2TB of space.

In addition, Microsoft unveiled a new adaptive controller for people with disabilities. The Xbox Adaptive Joystick has four button inputs on the front, a standard Xbox thumbstick, and two additional buttons that mimic the bumper and trigger placement on a traditional controller. All these buttons are customizable, providing the flexibility to play in a way that’s most comfortable. Microsoft also published files for 3D printing a variety of Adaptive Thumbstick Toppers that fit specific needs.

Xbox Insiders in all four channels can now test the upcoming Xbox Game Pass Standard tier. During the testing period, it will be available for $1 per month, including renewals. Once launched, Xbox Game Pass Standard will charge you $14.99 for access to console games, online multiplayer, and exclusive deals.

Speaking of Game Pass, check out the latest additions to the catalog here. They include Black Ops 6 Beta, Atlas Fallen, Core Keeper, and more.

Another thing available to Xbox Insiders is a beta version of 33 Immortals, an indie game from Thunder Lotus Game. You can still participate in the test, which ends on August 26, 7 AM Pacific Time.

At Gamescom 2024, Microsoft Flight Simulator received its eighteenth city update. This time, the game received reworks of multiple cities in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. There is also a new premium plane, the Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor.

Forza Horizon 5, another Microsoft-owned game, is getting a new free game mode for all players. "Hide and Seek" is launching next month, and it will offer a unique way to play this racing game with your four friends or random players from the internet. In addition, Turn 10 Studios unveiled a Jordan Luka 3 collaboration, which will bring a new exclusive car and a racing suit to both Forza Horizon 5 and Forza Motorsport.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will launch on December 9 on Xbox and PC. What is interesting is that the game is also coming to the PlayStation 5 console. The specific date is not known yet, but owners of Sony's current-gen console can rest assured that they will also be able to play this much-anticipated game.

Nvidia announced an update for the Xbox integration in its cloud streaming service GeForce NOW. Now (get it?), users playing PC games that require a Microsoft Account can sign in and forget it. GeForce NOW can remember your credentials and save you some time and clicks by not requiring signing in every time you want to play a game running in Nvidia's cloud.

Besides that, Nvidia added a whopping 25 new games to the catalog, which include Black Myth: Wukong, Skull & Bones, Civilization V, Wreckfest, and more.

Also, Nvidia announced that over 20 future games will use RTX and DLSS graphics technologies.

Valve has released a new update for the review section on Steam. Now, it is much easier to spot reviews from customers who played the game on the Steam Deck. Therefore, if you want to purchase this handheld but are unsure if your favorite game runs well on it, look out for a special Steam Deck icon in the review section.

Deals and freebies

The Epic Games Store is giving away The Callisto Protocol and Gigantic: Rampage Edition. These two games are free until the next Thursday. As usual, if you are looking for more deals, check out this week's Weekend PC Game Deals, which features rhythm festivals, a Resident Evil bundle, and more.

Other gaming stories from this week include the following:

• Starfield: Shattered Space expansion is coming on September 30.

• Civilization VII gameplay was finally revealed at Gamescom.

• Avowed from Obsidian will launch on Xbox consoles at 30 FPS to improve visuals.
• Rare reportedly sold over a million copies of Sea of Thieves on PlayStation 5.

• Developers of Ara: History Untold revealed the extra content for Deluxe and Premium editions.

• Goat Simulator is getting a remaster ten years after the initial release.

• Microsoft confirmed Black Myth: Wukong is coming to Xbox Series X and S.

• Gearbox revealed Borderlands 4 with the launch date somewhere in 2025.

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Paul's Hardware (1.48M subscribers)

August 25, 2024

Video length: 9m 32s

0:00 Welcome to Paul’s Tech News - Aug 25, 2024

1:27 AMD says Reviewers were Wrong - Continued Ryzen 9000 Launch Fallout

4:14 Intel Core Ultra 9 285K “Arrow Lake” CPU Beats 14900KS, 9950X In Leak

5:36 Ryzen 9800X3D now expected in January, but 7600X3D maybe in September

TECH BRIEFS

6:59 Gigabyte GeForce RTX 4070 with slower GDDR6 memory pictured

7:56 Intel Plans 35 Percent Cut In Costs For Sales And Marketing Group

8:34 AMD Marketing ► LINKS AMD says Reviewers were Wrong - Continued Ryzen 9000 Launch Fallout

   • AMD Fires Back: Zen 5 Gaming Performa...  

   • AMD Fires Back: Zen 5 Gaming Performa...  

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In the trailer, we see what looks like a perfect day with a husband, wife, and son out in the woods. We won't spoil things much, but the trailer does show that things get very nasty very quickly, and it all leads into the backstory for Liberty Falls, West Virginia, a small town that, in the year 1991, is going to have to deal with an outbreak of the undead.

Activision previously stated the Zombies section of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will see the return of round-based gameplay. Besides Liberty Falls, there will also be a second Zombies map that will be set in the fictional Pacific Ocean location of Terminus Island. Earlier this week, Activision showed off part of a campaign single-player map for Black Ops 6 as part of Gamescom 2024.

The next big event for fans of the game series is Call of Duty: NEXT which will stream on the game's YouTube and Twitch channels starting on Wednesday, August 28 at noon Eastern time (9 am Pacific time). Among other things, the streaming event will offer a lot more info on the Liberty Falls Zombie maps.

Just two days later, on August 30, people who preorder the game, or have an Xbox Game Pass subscription, will be able to check out the Black Ops 6 multiplayer beta. The Open Beta for the game will launch for everyone else on September 6.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will officially launch on October 25 for PC, Xbox, and PlayStation platforms, and will also be available for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers.

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The trailer on YouTube shows Grinding Gears' Game Director Mark Roberts stating that making boss creatures and fights for Path of Exile II is extremely enjoyable for him. In fact, if he had a choice of just making just one feature in the game full time it would be making new bosses and battles.

Roberts says there are two ways to design and make a boss in the game. One is to create a narrative for the player to go through that leads them to the boss, where the creature is designed around that narrative.

The other way to put in bosses, according to Roberts, is just to give the artists at Grinding Gears the freedom to make creatures with wild designs and find a way to fit them in the game. He states:

They can come up with something completely abstract, and this is how you get some of your most awesome things because all of a sudden it can be something with 100 tentacles, or nine limbs, or no limbs or a thousand teeth or none and obviously things that aren't even in my imagination.

We get to see just a few of the cool boss designs and battles in the video, like a warrior who has a sword that has an ice-based ranged attack, or a large creature who has huge garden sheers to cut a player character, or a creature that looks like several red flesh balloons floating up in the air.

Roberts says there will be over 100 bosses in Path of Exile II "with a lot more to come" so players should not get bored when they play the game. It will launch on the PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S platforms.

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The new entry-level Snapdragon X Plus debuted under the "X1P-42-100" moniker. It is the first eight-core processor in the lineup, which also means it has less cache and lower clocks. Single-core clocks are the same as in the 10-core Snapdragon X Plus X1P-64-100, but the maximum multithreaded frequencies are lower by 200 MHz.

The built-in graphics is another area where the X1P-42-100 cuts corners. According to an SKU comparison table from Qualcomm (via VideoCardz), the new X1P-42-100 outputs 1.7 TFLOPS while its 10-core sibling generates over two times more—3.8 TFLOPS. This difference will directly translate to notably lower performance in graphics-intensive tasks, so do not expect this processor to handle the latest PC games very well.

As for the NPU, it has the same 45 TOPS as all the other chips in the lineup. Memory support is also the same—LPDDR5X at 8,448 MT/S.

Here is a brief spec comparison:

So far, only ASUS has two models with the new Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100 processor, but more models should follow suit. Qualcomm certainly feels pressure from Intel and AMD with their upcoming AI-capable chips, so you can expect the current generation of Windows on ARM computers to become more affordable.

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