HyperX, the gaming division of Kingston Technology Company, Inc. and brand leader in gaming and esports, today announced it is now shipping the HyperX Cloud Stinger Wireless gaming headset. The light weight Cloud Stinger Wireless gaming headset weighs just 270 grams, features 90-degree rotating earcups for an adaptive fit and offers up to 17 hours of battery life on a single charge. The Stinger Wireless utilises intuitive on-board controls, includes a swivel-to-mute noise-cancellation microphone and 50 mm directional drivers, delivering high-quality sound with pinpoint audio precision. The wireless headset provides great sound for gaming, chat and watching movies at an affordable price. The Cloud Stinger Wireless headset is built on the comfort and sound DNA of previous Cloud headsets. It operates on 2.4 GHz wireless providing freedom from cords, featuring on-ear cup volume control and a swivel-to-mute noise-cancelling mic. The HyperX Stinger Wireless is PC, PS4, PS4 Pro ready.

As announced today, DOOM: Annihilation is set to arrive this fall on October 1. The movie won't be coming to a theater near you and will instead be headed straight to Blu-Ray. That's probably all you really need to know about its potential for being any good. Based on the popular original video game, Doom: Annihilation is an explosive, terrifying thrill ride. On the darkest moon of Mars, scientists have found an ancient portal which allows teleportation throughout the universe. Considered to be mankind's greatest discovery, it's actually a gateway from hell, unleashing a swarm of demons looking to steal the souls of everyone who gets in their way. It's up to Lieutenant Joan Dark and an elite unit of Marines to destroy an ever-growing horde of bloodsucking and soul-stealing beasts and prevent them from taking over planet earth. The plot sure does sound like DOOM, all right. On paper, I'm sure this movie seemed like it could be pretty decent but the low budget that it clearly has and the fact that a Doom Guy or Doom Slayer is nowhere in sight based on what we've seen so far doesn't bode well.

In 2020, they will become kings. Watch the new teaser trailer for The King's Man now. See the film in theatres February 14, 2020.

Qualcomm today announced the Snapdragon 855 Plus, a higher-performance version of the company's flagship Snapdragon 855 chipset for phones. With a more powerful CPU and GPU, it's designed for high-end gaming phones coming out later this year. The 855 Plus is based on the same Kryo 485 CPU and Adreno 640 GPU as the standard 855, but the CPU top clock speed has been boosted from 2.84 GHz to 2.96 GHz, and the GPU offers "a 15% increase". The chipset is paired with a suite of gaming-oriented software features to make the "Snapdragon Elite Gaming Experience". The software suite includes Game Jank Reducer, Game Fast Loader, Game Anti- Cheat Extensions, and more.

In the coming weeks Asus will announce the ROG Phone II, a new high-end gaming phone. Asus has revealed one detail is advance: it will use the just-announced, top-end Snapdragon 855 Plus chipset from Qualcomm.

ASUS believes that PCI-Express gen 4.0 support on older socket AM4 motherboards based on the AMD 400-series chipset is technically possible, even if discouraged by AMD. The company's latest series of motherboard BIOS updates that expose PCIe Gen 4 toggle in the PCIe settings, does in fact enable PCIe gen 4.0 to all devices that are directly wired to the SoC. These would be the PCI-Express x16 slots meant for graphics, and one of the M.2 slots that has PCIe x4 wiring to the SoC. Below is a list of motherboards scored by Chinese tech publication MyDrivers, which details the extent of PCIe gen 4.0 support across a number of ASUS motherboards based on the X470 and B450 chipsets.

AMD apparently did not explicitly block PCIe gen 4.0 for older chipsets. It merely suggested to motherboard manufacturers not to enable it, since the newer AMD 500-series motherboards are built to new PCB specifications that ensure PCIe gen 4.0 signal-integrity and stability. ASUS wants to leave it to users to decide if they want gen 4.0. If their machines are unstable, they can choose to limit PCIe version to gen 3.0 in their BIOS settings. Among other things, AMD's specifications for 500-series chipset motherboards prescribe PCBs with more than 4 layers, for optimal PCIe and memory wiring. Many of the motherboards on ASUS' list, such as the TUF B450 Pro Gaming, use simple 4-layer PCBs.

To test that PCIe gen 4.0 is actually enabled, MyDrivers used a PCIe gen 4.0 SSD on the M.2 slot that's directly wired to the SoC, on a TUF B450M Pro Gaming. Crystal DiskMark sequential read speeds of the drive are consistent with the same drive tested on an X570 motherboard - with just over 5 GB/s reads. These speeds are impossible on gen 3.0 x4. In a separate article, MyDrivers reports that AMD isn't too happy with ASUS marketing PCIe gen 4.0 support on its 400-series motherboards, and is reportedly trying to block it in updates to the AGESA microcode. Our recommendation - if your updated ASUS 400-series motherboard is running PCIe gen 4.0, don't update its BIOS.

Some of the best tennis players in the world have extremely fast serves - here's why the pros can react and you can't.

AMD has reportedly discontinued production of its flagship Radeon VII graphics card. According to a Cowcotland report, AMD no longer finds it viable to produce and sell the Radeon VII at prices competitive to NVIDIA's RTX 2080, especially when its latest Radeon RX 5700 XT performs within 5-12 percent of the Radeon VII at less than half its price. AMD probably expects custom-design RX 5700 XT cards to narrow the gap even more. The RX 5700 XT has a much lesser BOM (bill of materials) cost compared to the Radeon VII, due to the simplicity of its ASIC, a conventional GDDR6 memory setup, and far lighter electrical requirements. In stark contrast to the RX 5700 XT, the Radeon VII is based on a complex MCM (multi-chip module) that has not just a 7 nm GPU die, but also four 32 Gbit HBM2 stacks, and a silicon interposer. It also has much steeper VRM requirements. Making matters worse is the now-obsolete "Vega" architecture it's based on, which loses big time against "Navi" at performance/Watt. The future of AMD's high-end VGA lineup is uncertain. Looking at the way "Navi" comes close to performance/Watt parity with NVIDIA on the RX 5700, AMD may be tempted to design a larger GPU die based on "Navi," with a conventional GDDR6-based memory sub-system, to take another swing at NVIDIA's high-end.

A couple of months ago Humble Store gave away Age of Wonders III for a short time, and for those who missed out on it, the game has gone back to being free to claim again, this time on Steam. This giveaway lasts over the whole weekend. The turn-based strategy title is the most recent entry to the now almost 20-year old classic Age of Wonder series - that is until Planetfall launches next month. Fans of the 4X genre will feel right at home in this fantasy title, which also features a full story campaign, versus multiplayer, as well as cooperative modes.

As expected, the giveaway is only for the base game, so anyone who gets hooked will have to shell out money for the two expansion packs. They are currently discounted by 50% on Steam. Age of Wonders III giveaway on Steam is slated to last until 10AM PT on July 15, with the game being playable on Windows, macOS, as well as Linux systems. Unlike Humble giveaways, however, there isn't a risk of keys running out in the middle of this promotion, offering Steam users ample time to pick up the game.

If you're a Hulu subscriber, you may have noticed that last year, the service removed the ability to stream its content in 4K. Now, the service is bringing back that ability, as reported by The Streamable, albeit with a few limitations that weren't present before. For instance, as the report notes, 4K streaming used to be available on devices such as the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 (the variants that support 4k, that is), but now only the Apple TV 4K and the Chromecast Ultra can stream at that resolution. What's more, though it supports 4K, it won't support HDR. Also, not all the content that was previously available in 4K is making a return. Previously, you'd be able to stream James Bond movies in 4K, but now you'll be limited to Hulu Originals, such as The Handmaid's Tale, Catch-22, and Castle Rock. Rivals such as Netflix have a wide range of 4K content available, though they do charge a higher monthly fee for that capability. It's unclear why 4K content is making a return in such a limited fashion, but hopefully, Hulu will expand its availability sooner rather than later.

A sulphur-crested cockatoo named Snowball garnered YouTube fame and headlines a decade ago for his uncanny ability to dance to the beat of the Backstreet Boys. Now, researchers reporting in Current Biology are back with evidence that Snowball is not limited in his dance moves. Despite a lack of dance training, videos show, Snowball responds to music with diverse and spontaneous movements using various parts of his body.

Footage has captured a rarely seen seafloor shark feeding frenzy, that took an unexpected turn when a wreckfish appeared and swallowed one of the feasting sharks whole.

Earlier this week, news of Intel's 10th generation Core "Comet Lake" processors did rounds as the company's short-term response to AMD's 3rd generation Ryzen processors. According to slides leaked to the web by Hong Kong-based tech publication XFastest, "Comet Lake" isn't Intel's short-term reaction to "Zen 2," but rather all it has left to launch. These processors won't launch before 2020, the slide suggests, meaning that AMD will enjoy a free rein over the processor market until the turn of the year, including the all-important Holday shopping season. More importantly, the slide suggests that "Comet Lake" will have a market presence spanning Q1 and Q2 2020, meaning that the 10 nm "Ice Lake" won't arrive on the desktop platform until at least Q3 2020. It's likely that the LGA1200 platform which debuts with "Comet Lake" will extend to "Ice Lake," so consumers aren't forced to buy a new motherboard within a span of six months. The platform diagram put out in another slide junks the idea of an on-package MCM of the processor and PCH dies (which was likely ripped off from the "Ice Lake-Y" MCM platform diagram).

The new platform combines a "Comet Lake" processor with an Intel 400-series PCH, which talk to each other over DMI 3.0, which offers comparable bandwidth PCI-Express 3.0 x4. The AMD "Valhalla" platform implements PCI-Express 4.0 x4 between the SoC and X570 chipset. The platform's main PCI-Express x16 slot will remain gen 3.0. Intel appears to have put much of its efforts into improving its 14 nanometer node one last time, and increasing core-counts with the introduction of a new 10-core silicon that does away with iGPU. With its "Skylake" core IPC within 5% of that of "Zen 2," and gaming performance leadership still held onto by a hair's breadth, Intel will focus on bolstering multi-thread performance by enabling HyperThreading on even its Core i5 and Core i3 desktop processor models, while providing more cores to the Dollar compared to its 9th generation "Coffee Lake Refresh." The Core i3 series will be 4-core/8-thread, the Core i5 series 6-core/12-thread, the Core i7 series 8-core/16-thread, and the flagship Core i9 series 10-core/20-thread. Intel will leverage its refined 14 nm node to increase clock-speeds across the board, with its 10-core silicon having a TDP rating of 125 W, and not the 105 W we saw the other day. The Gen 9.5 iGPU on the 4/6/8-core models will be bolstered with more features via software, and be branded under the UHD 700-series.

Qualcomm and T-Mobile have successfully completed the first data call using Qualcomm's X55 modem, the first 5G chip for phones to support all 5G networks to be launched in the US in 2019, including T-Mobile's band 71 (600 MHz). All 5G phones currently on the market in the US use the X50 chip, which only supports mmWave bands and TDD bands such as Sprint's band 41. mmWave bands offer high speeds, but short range and poor building penetration. US carriers will only offer mmWave 5G in central areas of major cities. T-Mobile and AT&T will offer broader 5G coverage using sub-6-GHz FDD bands later this year, and the first phones in the US to support those networks will use this new X55 chip.

Sprint is launching its 5G network in Chicago this week. Utilizing the company's 2.6 GHz (band 41) spectrum, the network offers better coverage and building penetration than the mmWave 5G networks launched by other companies in Chicago to date. The coverage area reaches from the historic IL-64 in the north to Stevenson Expressway in the south, and as far as California Avenue in the west. It covers 700,000 people. Chicago joins Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and Kansas City among Sprint's 5G cities, and the company promises to launch 5G in Los Angeles, New York City, Phoenix, and Washington, DC "in the coming weeks". Sprint customers in Chicago will be able to buy a 5G device starting Friday, July 12th. Sprint currently offers the LG V50 ThinQ 5G and Samsung Galaxy S10 5G.

The name 'Agent Smith' is usually associated with the famed Matrix movie trilogy. However, it is now being used to identify a new variant of malware discovered by security provider Check Point Research. The firm reports that around 25 million Android devices have been infected by Agent Smith over the course of the last three years, and that the attackers behind the scenes may be looking to expand their reach. The malware is spread through 9Apps, a third-party apps store, and has targeted mainly Asian users; however, countries such as the U.S. and U.K. have had a high amount of device breaches as well. Essentially, the life cycle of the malware revolves around three phases that have been described in the following way:

1) A dropper app lures victim to install itself voluntarily. The initial dropper has a weaponized Feng Shui Bundle as encrypted asset files. Dropper variants are usually barely functioning photo utility, games, or sex related apps.

2) The dropper automatically decrypts and installs its core malware APK which later conducts malicious patching and app updates. The core malware is usually disguised as Google Updater, Google Update for U or “com.google.vending”. The core malware's icon is hidden.

3) The core malware extracts the device's installed app list. If it finds apps on its prey list (hard-coded or sent from C&C server), it will extract the base APK of the target innocent app on the device, patch the APK with malicious ads modules, install the APK back and replace the original one as if it is an update.

To expand a bit upon each of these phases, 'droppers' are apps that imitate popular utilities while quietly installing malicious content on a device. The dropper variants deployed as part of this attack include a number of different applications that may attract users of all ages. These typically offer little to no functionality, but a one-time installation is all that's required to address a major phase of the attack - actually getting the malware on the target device. Moving on, the core module of a 'loader' that's additionally coded with the dropper gets installed, and begins searching the infected device for pre-determined popular apps. The pre-determined list of apps is obtained through contact with a command-and-control (C&C) server. The apps include some highly popular and widely-used ones, such as WhatsApp, ShareIt, MX Player, the Opera browser and more. The loader then works with various other modules to infect the legitimate applications with its own code. As a result of this alteration, Android's package manager is duped into considering the malicious files as an update for said applications. Throughout the following 'update' process, the malware disguises itself as a Google-related updating tool, thus not rousing users' suspicions. The breached apps, now carrying the malicious ad modules patched into their APKS, start displaying these ads as a replacement of in-app activity. Even if said app isn't specified in the pre-created list, the ads are simply shown on any activity that is being loaded at the time. Notably, 'Agent Smith' will continue to infect the same device multiple times, whenever the latest malicious patches are available.

Based on its research, Check Point believes that a Chinese firm operating in the city of Guangzhou is the main culprit behind the attacks. The name of the company has been redacted from its publication, and information related to the attacks has been provided to law enforcement officials, as well as Google, to assist them in further investigation. Although this form of malware was initially only spread through 9Apps, the researchers discovered traces of the malicious actors looking to spread their system to Play Store applications as well. During the search, 11 Play Store apps were found to be connected to the attackers. However, Check Point does state that it has worked closely with Google to remove all of these from the Play Store. Google has not issued a public statement regarding the matter as of yet, though we'll keep you updated. For now, do make sure that you download your applications from a trustworthy app store, and be on the lookout for ads that may crop up at unusual times.

Intel's short-term reaction to AMD's 3rd generation Ryzen processor family is the 10th generation Core "Comet Lake." These processors are based on existing "Skylake" cores, but have core-counts increased at the top-end, and HyperThreading enabled across the entire lineup. The Core i3 series are now 4-core/8-thread; the Core i5 series a 6-core/12-thread, the Core i7 series are 8-core/16-thread, and the new Core i9 series are 10-core/20-thread. Besides core-counts, Intel has given its 14 nanometer node one last step of refinement to come up with the new 14 nm+++ nodelet. This enables Intel to significantly dial up clock speeds across the board. These processors come in the new LGA1159 package, and are not backwards-compatible with LGA1151 motherboards. These chips also appear to feature an on-package PCH, instead of chipset on the motherboard.

Leading the pack is the Core i9-10900KF, a 10-core/20-thread chip clocked at 4.60 GHz with 5.20 GHz Turbo Boost, 20 MB of shared L3 cache, native support for DDR4-3200, and a TDP of 105 W. Intel's new 10-core die appears to physically lack an iGPU, since none of the other Core i9 10-core models offer integrated graphics. For this reason, all three processor models have the "F" brand extension denoting lack of integrated graphics. The i9-10900KF is closely followed by the i9-10900F clocked at 4.40/5.20 GHz, the lack of an unlocked multiplier, and 95 W TDP rating. The most affordable 10-core part is the i9-10800F, clocked at 4.20 GHz with 5.00 GHz boost, and a TDP of just 65 W. Intel has set ambitious prices for these chips. The i9-10900KF is priced at $499, followed by the i9-10900F at $449, and the i9-10800F at $409.

The 10th generation Core i7 series, as we mentioned, consist of 8-core/16-thread processors. These are physically the same die found on the i9-9900K, but built on the new 14 nm+++ nodelet, and benefit from higher clock speeds. The Core i7-10700K clocked at 4.80 GHz with 5.10 GHz boost, offers 16 MB of shared L3 cache, Intel Gen9.5-based UHD 730 graphics, and native support for DDR4-3200. Intel is pricing the i7-10700K at $389. This is closely followed by the $339 Core i7-10700, which lacks an unlocked multiplier, ticks at 4.60 GHz with 4.90 GHz boost, and comes with a 65 W TDP. The 10th generation Core i5 family consist of 6-core/12-thread processors, which are physically similar to the Core i7-8700K, but fabbed on 14 nm+++. The Core i5-10600K offers an unlocked multiplier, clock speeds of 4.70 GHz with 4.90 GHz boost, 12 MB of shared L3 cache, 95 W TDP, UHD 730 graphics, and native support for DDR4-3200 memory. This chip is priced at $269. It is closely followed by the i5-10600 clocked at 4.60 GHz with 4.80 GHz boost, the lack of an unlocked multiplier, and a $229 price-tag. Other Core i5 SKUs include the i5-10500 (4.40-4.50 GHz, $199 price), and i5-10400 (4.20-4.40 GHz, $179 price).

At the bottom of the pile is the new Core i3 family of 4-core/8-thread chips, which is surprisingly not physically simlar to the quad-core "Skylake" die, but is rather carved out from the 6-core silicon to give it 9 MB of shared L3 cache. The Core i3-10350K is price-matched with the i5-10400 at $179, offers an unlocked multiplier, and is clocked at 4.60 GHz with 4.80 GHz boost, with a 95 W TDP. It's trailed by the i3-10320 (4.50-4.70 GHz, 9 MB L3 cache, $159 price); and the i3-10300 (4.30-4.50 GHz, 9 MB L3 cache, and $149 price). At the very bottom is the Core i3-10100. This 4-core/8-thread chip is configured with just 7 MB of L3 cache, 4.20-4.40 GHz clock-speeds, 65 W TDP, and a $129 price. The 10th generation Panic Lake lacks PCIe gen 4.0, uses 32 Gbps DMI 3.0 chipset bus, and will be accompanied by the new 495-series chipset that sits on the same package as the CPU die, and talks to it over OPI, which is basically on-package DMI (32 Gbps). The CPU socket now puts out all of the platform connectivity on the motherboard. Among the connectivity options are one PCI-Express 3.0 x16 link meant for graphics, a handful USB 3.1 gen 2 and gen 1 ports, a few M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 slots, SATA 6 Gbps ports, HDA bus, and GbE PHY. There's no information on when the 10th generation "Comet Lake" launches, but something tells us Intel will frantcally launch this platform to cut into 3rd gen Ryzen sales, because its desktop "Ice Lake" processor won't launch before 2020.

NVIDIA has released a new driver for its graphics cards. According to the release notes, the NVIDIA GeForce 431.36 WHQL driver adds support for the SUPER GPUs and improves performance in The Division 2, Metro Exodus & Strange Brigade. Furthermore, this new driver adds support for three new G-SYNC compatible monitors (these models are the LG 34GL750, HP 25mx, and HP Omen X 25f). This driver also adds an SLI profile for F1 2019, something that may please those that are still using SLI systems in 2019. As NVIDIA noted, the performance increase in Metro Exodus is 10.5% compared to the previous Game Ready Driver. The Division 2 sees 3.6% performance improvement and Strange Brigade sees a 7.7% performance improvement.

NVIDIA GeForce 431.36 WHQL Driver Release Notes

Game Ready

Provides the optimal gaming experience for Tom Clancy's The Division 2, Strange Brigade, and Metro Exodus.

Gaming Technology

• Adds support for three new G-SYNC compatible monitors.
• Adds support for GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER and RTX 2070 SUPER GPUs.

Application SLI Profiles
Added or updated the following SLI profiles:

• F1 2019

Software Module Versions

• nView – 149.77
• HD Audio Driver – 1.3.38.16
• NVIDIA PhysX System Software – 9.19.0218
• GeForce Experience – 3.19.0.107
• CUDA – 10.1
• Standard NVIDIA Control Panel – 8.1.940.0
• DCH NVIDIA Control Panel – 8.1.954.0

Other Changes
Added support for the following GPUs:

• GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER
• GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER.

Fixed Issues

• [GeForce Experience]: FPS Counters appear in the Windows Start Menu for certain applications after upgrading to Windows 10 May 2019 Update. [2617230]
• [Notebook]: Fixed BSOD that occurred after waking ASUS GL703GS/ASUS GL502VML notebook from hibernation. [2612106/2540582]
• Code 43 error occurs when installing driver 430.64 on Windows 10 May 2019 Update system with Intel Sandy Bridge CPU. [2606672]
• [Grand Theft Auto V]: The game may experience flickering when MSAA is used.[2583604]
• [Forza Horizon 4]: The game may crash when driving through tunnels. [200515120/200523430]
• [Shadow of the Tomb Raider][Pascal GPU]: The game may crash or experience a TDR when launched on Pascal GPU. [200519081]
• [Shadow of the Tomb Raider]: Benchmark quits when running with ray tracing is enabled. [2599507]

The Stromboli volcano erupted on Wednesday and one lucky videographer was able to capture the moment.