TechSpot

Hobbyist revives the beloved Winamp player into a polished physical marvel

Stan Goldyn — Sun, 9 Jun 2024 10:43 -0500

Winamp was released for Windows in 1997, just as MP3s were becoming mainstream. Some of the features that stood out were Winamp's unique interface with dynamic spectrum bars and the ability to change skins (a.k.a. themes). Let's not forget the signature start-up sound, which you can listen to here. The...

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Rivian's new lineup of R1 pickups and SUVs feature Nvidia chips for enhanced performance

Skye Jacobs — Sun, 9 Jun 2024 09:35 -0500

Rivian has unveiled the second generation of its flagship vehicles, the all-electric R1S SUV and R1T pickup. These models have been reconfigured with hundreds of hardware improvements, performance upgrades, a fully redesigned software experience, and enhanced in-house drive systems. Central to these advancements is the integration of advanced Nvidia chips....

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DisplayLink gets 'Pro' upgrade with new Synaptics DL-7000 chip

Zo Ahmed — Sat, 8 Jun 2024 12:16 -0500

DisplayLink docks provide an alternative to pricier Thunderbolt options by using data compression tricks to funnel high-res video streams through plain old USB connections. While you might notice some quality hits with intense gaming, most day-to-day desktop duties are unaffected. The key advantage is that these docks can often push...

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Intel's new Gaudi 3 accelerators massively undercut Nvidia GPUs as AI race heats up

Zo Ahmed — Sat, 8 Jun 2024 11:09 -0500

Pricing for products like these is typically kept hidden from the public, but Intel has bucked the trend and provided some official figures. The flagship Gaudi 3 accelerator will cost around $15,000 per unit when purchased individually, which is 50 percent cheaper than Nvidia's competing H100 data center GPU.

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Retailers fight back against gift card scams with education, technology

Skye Jacobs — Sat, 8 Jun 2024 10:24 -0500

For Melody Randall of Queensbury, NY, it started with a voicemail: "Dear customer, this voicemail is to inform you that Spectrum is removing the 40 percent discount offer on your monthly bill. To reactivate this offer right now, please call back the number displayed on your caller ID. Thank you!"

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AMD teases "really cool" upgrades coming to its 3D V-Cache tech

Zo Ahmed — Sat, 8 Jun 2024 09:17 -0500

PC Gamer spoke with Donny Woligroski, AMD's senior technical marketing manager, during Computex 2024 to get the inside scoop on future 3D V-Cache plans. When asked about potential developments for Zen 5, he said AMD is not "resting on laurels" and is "improving what we can do with X3D."

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The Best GPU for Every Price Point

Steven Walton — Sat, 8 Jun 2024 00:07 -0500

When it comes to GPUs and graphics cards, we go in full depth. Year after year, we test dozens of GPUs from Nvidia, AMD, and now Intel, to determine which are worth your money and which are dead on arrival.

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MSI showcases desktop PC with a 1080p screen on the front, possibly featuring Arrow Lake and Blackwell chips

Daniel Sims — Fri, 7 Jun 2024 15:35 -0500

The MEG Vision X AI is one of several products MSI presented at Computex this year. The company lists all the features typically associated with AI PCs when describing the gaming tower, but the vertical 1080p touchscreen on its case is likely the real standout feature.

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Micron claims GDDR7 memory can bring up to 3.1x performance boost over GDDR6

Alfonso Maruccia — Fri, 7 Jun 2024 14:20 -0500

Micron's GDDR7 memory is expected to replace both GDDR6 and non-standard GDDR6X chips currently used in modern GPUs for gaming and AI workloads. The Idaho-based company claims that graphics cards built with GDDR7 will provide over 30 percent more frames per second for both ray tracing and rasterization rendering across...

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Civilization VII revealed hours ahead of Summer Game Fest, watch the trailer

Daniel Sims — Fri, 7 Jun 2024 13:38 -0500

Update (June 7): The game is now official, watch the trailer above.

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GOG games can be inherited upon death, but you'll need a court order

Alfonso Maruccia — Fri, 7 Jun 2024 12:33 -0500

Valve recently stated that a Steam account and its entire library of digital games cannot be transferred to a third party, even if the original owner has died. Now, GOG is addressing the issue, confirming that the ownership of digital content is a very complex topic. The digital store is...

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Sony removes 8K logo from retail PlayStation 5 packaging

Shawn Knight — Fri, 7 Jun 2024 11:47 -0500

When Sony launched the PlayStation 5 in late 2020, an accompanying FAQ noted the console was compatible with 8K displays. Sony further said that after a future system software update, the system would be able to output resolutions up to 8K once content was available.

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When asked about Windows Recall privacy concerns, Microsoft researcher gives non-answer (updated)

Rob Thubron — Fri, 7 Jun 2024 11:40 -0500

Update: Following some backlash and criticism regarding the security of the new Windows Recall feature in upcoming Copilot+ PCs, Microsoft has revised their stance on how it plans to implement it.

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T-Mobile's Home Internet Backup keeps ISP customers connected during outages

Zo Ahmed — Fri, 7 Jun 2024 11:02 -0500

With Home Internet Backup, T-Mobile leverages its 5G network to provide a reliable backup internet connection for cable and fiber customers. For $30 a month with AutoPay (or $20 if you have an eligible T-Mobile voice line), you get 130 GB of 5G data to use when your main internet...

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Apple updates warranty coverage to exclude hairline cracks in iPhone and Apple Watch displays

Rob Thubron — Fri, 7 Jun 2024 10:18 -0500

The standard one-year warranty that Apple includes with all its products doesn't include cosmetic damage to the devices, such as scratches and dents, unless it can be proved that Apple was to blame (e.g., a manufacturing fault). Apple has, however, covered single hairline cracks in iPhones and Apple Watch displays...

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Adobe can scan user-generated content stored in its cloud, and users aren't happy

Alfonso Maruccia — Fri, 7 Jun 2024 09:29 -0500

Video game concept creator Sam Santala recently discovered that Adobe has imposed new "Terms of Use" for its tools since February 2024, stating that the company has "full access" to content, including NDA-protected documents. Santala expressed his surprise about the new terms, threatening to cancel his subscription and switch to...

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OpenRecall is a free and open source alternative to Microsoft's Recall feature

Kishalaya Kundu — Fri, 7 Jun 2024 08:46 -0500

Last week, coder and well-known Windows tipster Albacore demonstrated how Recall can be enabled on traditional Windows 11 PCs without a built-in NPU. Now another developer has created a third-party app to bring similar functionality to all devices running Windows, macOS and Linux. Called OpenRecall, the new tool is free...

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Apple set to launch Passwords app, taking on LastPass and 1Password

Rob Thubron — Fri, 7 Jun 2024 08:14 -0500

Apple has long offered iCloud Keychain as a password manager to its users, letting them generate, store, and sync passwords across iDevices and the Vision Pro. However, it's not as user-friendly or feature-packed as the top password managers available today.

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Google Chrome crowned fastest browser with record Speedometer 3.0 score

Zo Ahmed — Fri, 7 Jun 2024 07:38 -0500

Speedometer 3.0 basically tests how well web browsers handle modern web apps by simulating real user actions like adding to-do items and editing text to see how responsive the browser is. By running these tasks repeatedly at an extremely rapid rate, the benchmark measures performance and gives a clear picture...

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Wi-Fi can measure your breath and heartbeat with remarkable accuracy, research shows

Zo Ahmed — Fri, 7 Jun 2024 06:15 -0500

It turns out that the channel state in modern Wi-Fi is quite sensitive to tiny movements and environmental changes. By precisely measuring the time of flight and angle of arrival of Wi-Fi signals bouncing around a room, Delta has crafted algorithms that can track breathing with great precision.

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How Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League became a $200 million failure

Rob Thubron — Fri, 7 Jun 2024 05:19 -0500

With many initially expecting Suicide Squad to be similar to Rocksteady's (mostly) much-loved Batman Arkham series, the anticipation turned to disappointment as Kill the Justice League was revealed to be a live service title with none of the magic of the early single-player Arkham entries. Sure enough, it launched to...

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Patriot showcases DDR5 that overclocks to 11,500 MT/s

Daniel Sims — Thu, 6 Jun 2024 18:53 -0500

Patriot's booth at Computex showcased the company's new ultra-fast RAM and SSD, both reaching the highest speed tiers of their respective categories. The memory modules set new records for consumer RAM.

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Nvidia releases GeForce security driver update for Windows 7 and 8

Ivan Franco — Thu, 6 Jun 2024 18:38 -0500

A new security update display driver for GeForce GPUs on Windows 7 and 8 is now available. This is separate from the regular Game Ready driver releases that no longer support legacy OS. Critical updates will be available until September 2024.

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Nvidia's desktop GPU dominance grows to 88% as market returns to normal

Daniel Sims — Thu, 6 Jun 2024 15:36 -0500

Desktop GPU sales data from Jon Peddie Research for the first quarter of 2024 indicates that the market has stabilized after the shocks of the last few years. Although quarter-to-quarter shipments decreased slightly, analysts view this as typical for the first quarter of a year.

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The FBI has over 7,000 decryption keys to help LockBit ransomware victims

Alfonso Maruccia — Thu, 6 Jun 2024 14:44 -0500

From its "ongoing disruption" of LockBit, the FBI has recovered more than 7,000 decryption keys for victims of the notorious ransomware cybergang. According to FBI Cyber Assistant Director Bryan Vorndran, who spoke at the 2024 Boston Conference on Cyber Security, LockBit remains a threat, and the bureau continues to gather...

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Canada will tax online streaming companies to fund local broadcasters

Alfonso Maruccia — Thu, 6 Jun 2024 14:03 -0500

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is imposing a new tax on online streaming services, requiring Netflix, Amazon, and other major companies to contribute five percent of their Canadian revenue to the local broadcasting system. This tax is part of the recently approved Online Streaming Act (OSA), designed to...

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Tokyo hopes new Tinder-like match making app will curb population decline

Shawn Knight — Thu, 6 Jun 2024 13:21 -0500

The Asahi Shimbun, one of the largest newspapers in Japan, said the fee-based app will be operated by a private contractor and is expected to launch sometime this summer. The dating app will feature a robust registration process designed to avoid the pitfalls of more casual dating apps.

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3Dfx Voodoo4 graphics processor gets wild laptop upgrade 24 years later

Zo Ahmed — Thu, 6 Jun 2024 12:40 -0500

Daniel Simionescu, aka "sdz" on the Vogons forums, has created what he calls the "Voodoo 4 M4800." The project involved transplanting the processor from a Voodoo4 4500 AGP card onto a custom MXM board, which he then plugged into the expansion slot of a 2013 Dell Precision M4800 laptop. Despite...

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Zotac's handheld gaming PC packs adjustable triggers, jog wheels, and dual touch pads

Shawn Knight — Thu, 6 Jun 2024 11:36 -0500

The Zotac Zone certainly looks the part, at least on paper. It features a seven-inch 1080p AMOLED display (120 Hz, 800 Nits) that is driven by an AMD Ryzen 7 8840u CPU with Radeon 780M graphics, and will ship with 16 GB of LPDDR5X memory. A 512 GB NVMe solid-state...

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This mouse ditches traditional batteries for supercapacitors, promises 5-minute charging

Zo Ahmed — Thu, 6 Jun 2024 10:53 -0500

A mere 5-minute charge translates into potentially weeks without having to juice this device. And if you're in a rush, plugging it in for just 60 seconds nets you enough power to get through a full day's use. The mouse was unveiled at Computex 2024, as reported by TechPowerUp.

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