Archives January 2024

PDP has announced that an Xbox version of its Victrix Pro BFG controller is coming soon, with pre-orders for the gamepad live now.

Compatible with Xbox Series X|S consoles as well as PC, the Victrix Pro BFG has received the official ‘Designed for Xbox’ treatment, offering Xbox players a chance to own what the TechRadar Gaming team considers one of the best PS5 controllers.

Dodgy links and malicious sites are an ever-present problem in the digital world, and one of the best VPNs in the industry has decided to do something about it—with a brand-new link-checking tool.

Called Link Checker, the new NordVPN tool lets everyday users determine the validity of any URLs they’re suspicious of. Simply paste a URL into the Link Checker site and NordVPN will put it under a microscope to see whether it’s legit, or if it’s stuffed with malware and phishing scams.

In the world of high-end home theater, there are two brands that tend to dominate the AV receiver market – Denon and Marantz – so when either one launches a new flagship product, home theater enthusiasts tend to stand up and listen.

This week, it’s Marantz with the new Cinema 30, which is packed to the brim with all the latest capabilities that you’d expect to power an elite home cinema, such as support for 8K video, surround sound formats like Dolby Atmos and Wi-Fi for watching the best streaming services.     

Microsoft has had a history of implementing moves that leave users at best confused, and at worst very annoyed, and it looks like becoming the world’s most valuable company by market cap hasn’t discouraged it in the slightest. 

This time, Microsoft is being accused of siphoning data from browsers made by other tech companies. Apparently, having its own proprietary browser, Microsoft Edge, and all the user data it accumulates with that isn’t enough. 

Apple is no stranger to controversy, especially involving government bodies. But a new proposal could aim to be “unprecedented” in its reach over the tech giant.

Several amendments to the UK’s Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) have been proposed, one that would require Apple (and any other company) to “notify UK officials of any updates they planned to make that could restrict the UK government’s access to this data, including any updates impacting users outside the UK,” according to Ars Technica. Basically, if a security or privacy update doesn’t give the UK government unrestricted access to user data, it can veto that update. And this goes for non-UK consumers as well as UK ones.

Researchers at Harvard have developed a new type of solid-state battery employing solid electrodes and a solid electrolyte, as opposed to using liquid or polymer gel electrolytes in conventional lithium-ion or lithium polymer batteries that power most of our current devices.

Solid-state batteries face numerous challenges impeding widespread adoption, such as flammability, limited voltage, poor performance and structural weaknesses, hindering their progress in the past.

Neuralink, Elon Musk’s brain interface company, achieved a significant milestone this week, with Musk declaring on X (formerly Twitter), “The first human received an implant from yesterday and is recovering well.”

Driven by concerns that AI might soon outpace (or outthink) humans, Musk first proposed the idea of a brain-to-computer interface, then called Neural Lace, back in 2016. envisioning an implant that could overcome limitations inherent in human-to-computer interactions. Musk claimed that an interface that could read brain signals and deliver them directly to digital systems would massively outpace our typical keyboard and mouse interactions.

The release date for the console version of Planet Zoo has finally been revealed.

Frontier Developments has today (January 30) announced that Planet Zoo: Console Edition is coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on March 26.

Masahiro Sakurai, the game director and designer arguably best known for creating the Super Smash Bros. and Kirby series, has spoken publicly about what he believes makes an effective video game trailer. The verdict? “Get to the actual game as soon as possible.”

In a new video posted to his YouTube channel, ‘Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games,’ Sakurai advised listeners against making trailers that take too long to get to the point, which is, in his opinion, actual in-game footage.

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