The Angels of Death are readying for battle... Check out the reveals from the LVO to learn more about all the latest exciting developments

Verizon has pegged February 6th as the new launch date for the Motorola razr. Pre-orders open up at 12:01am ET on January 26th. The $1,500 phone is available exclusively from Verizon in the US. Verizon is offering special deals for new customers who switch to Verizon and pre-oder a razr: a $200 prepaid MasterCard, plus up to $500 when customers trade in an existing phone and sign up for a specific Unlimited plan. Existing Verizon customers upgrading to the razr can save up to $300 with a phone trade-in. Verizon is also offering the razr for $62.49 a month for 24 months. The razr was originally slated to ship January 9th, but was delayed. The 2020 razr resembles the original RAZR V3 launched in 2004, with its thin metal clamshell form factor. The new model features a 6.2" flexible, folding OLED main display and runs Android.

Two interesting new approvals for unannounced Samsung phones appeared on the FCC web site this week. The limited info available in the FCC filings indicate that they are flagship-level phones, which will presumably be announced at next month's Unpacked event in San Francisco. One model appears to be a new foldable, while the other is a 5G model in the flagship Galaxy S series that will replace the current S10 series. The SM-F700 is the foldable, as indicated by the model number as well as text in the approval that says the phone is "capable of operating in folded closed and unfolded open configurations". (The Galaxy Fold had model number SM-F900.) The only variant approved by the FCC so far does not appear to be US-specific, although it does support 4G LTE in bands 2, 4, 5, 12, 13, 25, 26, 29, 30, 41, and 66. It does not include any 5G in any US frequency bands. Rumors suggest this model may be called the "Galaxy Z Flip". The other model just approved is the SM-G981U. The model number suggests that this is a US-specific variant of a new Galaxy S-series flagship phone, but not a top-end "plus" model. (The Galaxy S10+ had model number SM-G975.) It supports 5G, but only in sub-6 GHz bands, not mmWave (which is faster but has limited coverage). It supports 5G NR in bands 2, 5, 41, 66, and 71; and 4G LTE in bands 2, 4, 5, 7, 12, 13, 14, 25, 26, 29, 30, 38, 41, 46, 48, 66, and 71. It also includes CDMA for Sprint's network. That translates to excellent support for all 4G and sub-6 GHz 5G networks launched or announced in the US to date. The SM-G981 also supports NFC, MST (Samsung Pay), and two-way wireless charging, according to the FCC docs. Rumors suggest this model may be called the "Galaxy S20 5G".

After being listed on the Writers Guild of America recently, Netflix has confirmed that The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf is in development. The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf is an animated film set in the world of the Witcher. The movie will be developed by The Witcher‘s Lauren Hissrich and Beau De Mayo and Studio Mir, the studio that brought you The Legend of Korra.

The rumors are true, a new Witcher story is in the works! The anime film, The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, will take us back to a new threat facing the Continent. Brought to you by the Witcher team @LHissrich and @BeauDeMayo, and Studio Mir the studio behind Legend of Korra.

— NX (@NXOnNetflix) January 22, 2020

check it out!

A recent security update appears to be messing with some Windows 7 PCs by replacing the custom background image with an all-black wallpaper. The timing of the mishap comes on the heels of Windows 7 officially entering retirement, leading to speculation that Microsoft is petty towards people who refuse to upgrade their OS to Windows 10. That is not necessarily what is happening, though. Reports of the black wallpaper issue are popping up in various places on the web, including over at Reddit and on Microsoft's own support forum.

After KB4534310 installed, every boot-up replaces my graphic wallpaper with a black solid color. I've tried creating a new theme, tried renaming transcodedwallpaper.jpg to .old, but although these changes allow me to restore my graphic wallpaper, after restarting, the desktop wallpaper is black again. Icons and start bar color are unaffected. The only solution was to uninstall the update. But now my PC is less secure. Microsoft, please fix this!

The issue is indeed related to KB4534310, and appears to be a bug rather than a crummy attempt to annoy users into upgrading to Windows 10. Users discovered the actual culprit is the Stretch setting in the Desktop Background options menu. This allows users to stretch an image to fit the entire screen, but for whatever reason, KB453410 broke the functionality. Unfortunately, it's not yet clear if Microsoft will fix the issue, since it is no longer supporting Windows 7. We hope it does, because it's a bad look to break something with a final update and then essentially tell users, 'Too bad!'.

Fortunately, there are a couple of workarounds. One is to uninstall the KB4534310 update, though I don't suggest going that route. The other is a clever trick. Since the stretch option is borked right now, you can take a screenshot of of your desktop with the image stretched out, and then use that resulting image as your background without the stretch option enabled.

• Go into the Desktop Background settings and select the Fill option to restore your custom image, then select Stretch again. It will stretch the image as normal until your reboot your PC, at which point it is replaced by a black wallpaper. So don't reboot after doing this. Save the changes.
• Right-click on your desktop, select View, uncheck Show Desktop icons, and select Show Desktop Gadgets.
• Exit all windows and hit the Print Screen key to take a screenshot. Using your image editing program of choice (MS Paint, Photoshop, GIMP, or whatever), save your screenshot.
• Go into the Desktop Background settings and use your saved image as the new background. In the position setting, select Center. You can now safely reboot your PC without having the background revert to a black wallpaper.
• Right-click on your desktop, select View, and re-enable Show Desktop icons.

Sarah (Alison Brie), an awkward woman with a fondness for crafts, horses, and supernatural crime shows, finds her increasingly lucid dreams trickling into her waking life.

AMD today released Radeon Software Adrenalin 20.1.3 beta drivers. These drivers add support for the new Radeon RX 5600 XT graphics card that's hitting the shelves today; in addition to fixing a handful issues. To begin with, the drivers address a display signal loss noticed when performing parallel actions such as web browsing, gaming or watching video. Game crashes related to Nioh, Dragon Quest Builders 2, WWE 2K20, Dead or Alive 6 and Atelier Ryza were fixed. Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus now appears correctly in Radeon Software. Text overflow in some UI elements have been fixed. Loss of fan-tuning settings when switching between available GPUs has been fixed. Another kind of intermittent black screen on desktop idling for extended periods has been fixed.

Fixed Issues

• An intermittent black screen or loss of display may occur when performing parallel actions such as web browsing, gaming or watching video.
• A limited number of games such as Nioh, Dragon Quest Builders 2, WWE 2K20, Dead or Alive 6 and Atelier Ryza may crash or fail to launch.
• Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus is not detected in Radeon Software games manager.
• Text overflow in some UI boxes or toast messages may be experienced in some language localizations.
• Fan Tuning may change back to the default state when switching between available GPUs.
• Copy text options are not available in the display specs table for Radeon Software.
• An intermittent black screen or loss of display may occur when the system is left idle at desktop.
• Factory Reset install may keep previously configured Radeon Software game profiles. This can cause mismatch between global graphics settings and per profile settings.

On January 17, a Twitter user 'KittyCorgi' shares initial information about two GPUs: Ampere GA103 and GA104. The former GPU is supposedly associated with a higher-end GPU while the latter is likely for RTX 3070 series. According to the rumor, GA103 GPU would supposedly feature 60 SMs (Streaming Multiprocessors 'Ampere') while GA104 would end up with 48. The weird naming convention (103) is something we do no fully understand, NVIDIA does not use uneven numbers for high-end GPUs. The original source also shared die diagrams for GA103 and GA104, they look professional but they are not as detailed as Turing diagrams, hence we put a strong doubt on their credibility.

If this data is to be believed then RTX 3080 could get GA103 GPU, while GA104 would end up in RTX 3070. This is the same approach as we had for the original Turing series where RTX 2080 received the TU104 processor and 2070 was based on smaller TU106 silicon. Of course, this has changed for the SUPER series where both SKUs feature TU104. The rumor also mentions a 320-bit bus for RTX 3080, which would allow 10/20GB memory configuration. This is also very uncommon for NVIDIA and probably just as hard to believe.

NVIDIA has never confirmed Ampere as their next-generation architecture for the GeForce series. It is only present in multiple publications and leaks from foundries. For now, all we know is that the next-architecture could also be called Hopper. We actually expect NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang to present a new roadmap at GTC 2020, which starts on March 22nd.

We left different animal teeth in Coke for a week and saw what happened

The Safdie Brothers reunite with Adam Sandler in this short film about a Times Square street performer.

The destruction of the Falcon 9 rocket was a planned part of a test to assess the Crew Dragon spacecraft's emergency escape system, so you can watch this without feeling bad.

If this man were 100x larger could he launch satellites into orbit? :D

Physics from r/blackmagicfuckery

7:30 yeah football can be beautiful 😍

A new study led by engineers at The Aerospace Corporation and published in Nature Communications proposes a counterintuitive approach that turns these degrading forces into ones that actually help keep these satellites in orbit. If it worked, it would mean just four satellites could provide continuous global coverage for a fraction of the cost. Currently, the orbits for these satellites are elliptical, which means they have to burn their thrusters at the closest approach to Earth to keep from falling out of orbit. Patrick Reed at Cornell University and his colleagues wanted to make the orbits more circular, letting the satellites get by with fewer propulsive maneuvers and lower propellant requirements. And they wanted to do this in such a way that the satellites could still provide nearly global coverage. The team ran simulations that looked at what types of orbital configurations could best turn degrading forces into ones that actually fostered a stable, circular orbit. Instances where, say, the sun's gravity or high elevations would normally drag a satellite back to Earth could now boost a satellite's altitude higher. The simulations were for four-satellite constellations that would spend at least 6,000 days (16.4 years in orbit).

After analyzing the simulations using the Blue Waters supercomputer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the team found two models that could work. In one, the constellation completes an orbit in a 24-hour period, at an altitude of 22,000 miles, and achieves continuous coverage for about 86% of the globe. The other works on a 48-hour period at an altitude of 42,000 miles and covers 95% of the globe. Any areas that experienced outages would face no more than about 80 minutes of downtime a day. Granted, the internet speeds would be slower because of the extra time it takes to send the signal from a much higher orbit. "For most people using data systems, however, an additional quarter-second delay is difficult to sense, since there are so many other delays in computers and data networks," says Roger Rusch, the president of telecom consulting firm TelAstra. In these systems, the satellites (each weighing about 1.2 tons) would need about 60% less propellant over the entire 6,000-day period than if they were orbiting in more conventional configurations, potentially reducing their mass by over one-half and making it much easier to build and launch them. It could also make room to install better instrumentation and power systems (high-altitude satellites need more power to beam signals back to Earth). Reed says the work was motivated by a desire to let smaller countries or companies operate constellations that give near-continuous coverage. The argument goes that with costs down, it would be easier for these groups to build, launch, operate, and track just a few satellites in a higher orbit, versus a sprawling constellation of thousands in low Earth orbit. Experts like Rusch are bullish about the new study's findings: he says the capital and operating costs of a LEO satellite system are three to five times higher than those of a high-altitude system with the same capability. Astronomers and space debris experts who are nervous about the negative effects of projects like Starlink might also appreciate the concept.

A molecule made of two rhenium atoms (dark spots) travels around two carbon nanotubes (lighter lattice of spots), settling into the gap between the nanotubes. When the atoms separate by a larger distance, the bond between the atoms is broken, and then later reforms.

In an interview with the New York Times editorial board published Friday, presidential candidate Joe Biden went off on Facebook and said he wants to revoke section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. "Section 230 should be revoked, immediately should be revoked, number one," Biden said. "For Zuckerberg and other platforms."

Section 230 shields internet platforms and publishers from liability for what users write on their platforms. For example, a social media company can't be sued for what a user posts, or a blogger isn't liable for what readers write in the comments section. A lesser-known component of the law is that it also allows internet companies to moderate their platforms as they see fit. The law dates back to 1996, and some have called for its reexamination in light of how the internet has changed in the last 25 years. However, online civil liberty experts also say it is crucial for protecting freedom of speech online.

And you may recall, the criticism I got for meeting with the leaders in Silicon Valley, when I was trying to work out an agreement dealing with them protecting intellectual property for artists in the United States of America. And at one point, one of the little creeps sitting around that table, who was a multi- — close to a billionaire — who told me he was an artist because he was able to come up with games to teach you how to kill people, you know the ——

CW: Like video games.

Yeah, video games. And I was lectured by one of the senior leaders there that by saying if I insisted on what Leahy'd put together and we were, I thought we were going to fully support, that they would blow up the network, figuratively speaking. Have everybody contact. They get out and go out and contact the switchboard, just blow it up.

And then one of these righteous people said to me that, you know, “We are the economic engine of America. We are the ones.” And fortunately I had done a little homework before I went and I said, you know, I find it fascinating. As I added up the seven outfits, everyone's there but Microsoft. I said, you have fewer people on your payroll than all the losses that General Motors just faced in the last quarter, of employees. So don't lecture me about how you've created all this employment.

The point is, there's an arrogance about it, an overwhelming arrogance that we are, we are the ones. We can do what we want to do. I disagree.

Biden appears to have his sights set on Section 230 because of an October 2018 scuffle with Facebook. The Biden campaign wrote a letter to Facebook asking it to remove an ad, posted by an independent Political Action Committee (PAC), claiming that Biden was blackmailing a Ukrainian official to keep them from prosecuting his son, Hunter Biden. Facebook declined to remove the ad, answering that it will not monitor political ads based on whether the information they present is true or false.

This looks like a fever dream! :D

Hah! :-)

New legislation for padlocks, door locks and deadbolts in general: Must pass a 1 minute LPL lockpick test before being able to be put on sale!

Nerdy video game developer (Daniel Radcliffe) is a little too fond of stirring things up on the internet with his caustic, prodding, and antagonizing comments. One night, he makes the mistake of drunkenly dropping an inflammatory barb on a broadcast of Skizm, an illegal death-match fight club streamed live to the public. In response, Riktor (Ned Dennehy), the maniacal mastermind behind the channel, decides to force Miles' hand (or hands, as it were) and have him join the "fun." Miles wakes to find heavy pistols bolted into his bones, and learns Nix (Samara Weaving), the trigger-happy star of Skizm, is his first opponent. Gleefully echoing elements of Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, the Purge franchise, and videogames like Mortal Kombat, Guns Akimbo is hilariously dark, viciously violent, and potentially - chillingly - prescient. Director Jason Lei Howden (Deathgasm) foretells of a future that may soon await us: drone-captured live feeds, UFC-like competitions pushed to an extreme, and online streaming platforms used for gladiatorial entertainment all around the world. As Miles navigates the underworld of Skizm, the stakes - and the ratings - have never been higher.

In Cinemas March 5th 2020

NVIDIA has released a new hotfix driver for its graphics cards. The NVIDIA GeForce 442.01 Hotfix Driver resolves issues with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare & The Witcher 3. As such, and only if you encounter glitches in these two games, you can go ahead and download it. Going into more details, this driver fixes an issue with COD: MW that could cause the streaming of gameplay using StreamLabs OBS to stop. It also resolves a crash when a user reaches a specific cut scene in The Witcher 3's Blood and Wine DLC. Furthermore, it addresses an issue that could cause minor stuttering when using NVIDIA SLI in combination with G-SYNC.

NVIDIA GeForce 442.01 Hotfix Driver Release Notes

• [Call of Duty Modern Warfare] Streaming of gameplay using StreamLabs OBS will randomly stop  
• [The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood and Wine] Game may crash when a user reaches a specific cut scene
• [SLI+G-SYNC Stutter] User may experience minor stuttering when using NVIDIA SLI in combination with G-SYNC.

AMD today released the latest version of Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition. Version 20.1.2 beta is released to the main driver update channel, and adds support for the new Vulkan 1.2 graphics API. This is in comparison to the GeForce 441.99 drivers with Vulkan 1.2, which were released as a "developer beta." In addition, the drivers add optimization for "Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot." Among the two fixed issues with this releases are Unreal Engine 4 titles such as "KovaaK 2.0: The Meta," "Tetris Effect" and "Snooker 19" failing to launch with Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020; and a bug where single-display systems running Radeon RX 5700 series graphics cards experience intermittent reboots when the system is left idle on the desktop.

Support For

• Dragon Ball Z : Kakarot
• Vulkan 1.2: Product is conformant with the Vulkan 1.2 Specification. Vulkan and the Vulkan logo are registered trademarks of the Khronos Group Inc.

Fixed Issues

• Some UE4 based titles such as KovaaK 2.0: The Meta, Tetris Effect and Snooker 19 may fail to launch with Adrenalin 2020 edition software.
• Some single display Radeon RX 5700 series graphics product system configurations may experience intermittent reboots when the system is left idle on desktop.

The hands-on footage of what is believed to be the S20+ provides credence to the leaks about the design and camera layout of the device. However, in addition to the video, the source has also confirmed a few other specifications of the device relating to the display resolution and refresh rate combinations, fingerprint scanner specifics, and other specifications. As rumored previously, the S20 line will indeed be offering a 120Hz refresh rate option. However, per the source, the high refresh rate can only be paired with the 1080p (Full HD+) screen resolution. However, when the WQHD+ 3200x1440 resolution is selected, the device will default to 60Hz. This is possibly done to preserve battery life since a higher refresh rate means an increased battery drain. For the time being, though, a variable refresh rate option that shifts on the fly does not seem to be present. As for the aspect ratio, the phone is said to sport a taller 20:9 ratio. The leak also provides light on the fingerprint sensor present on the device. Samsung seems to have gone for an under-display fingerprint sensor of the ultrasonic type like on the Galaxy S10 and Note10 line. However, it is not clear if the company will employ the newer Qualcomm 3D Sonic Max sensor that was unveiled during the Snapdragon Technology Summit in December of last year. Additionally, in terms of the design, the source could confirm the absence of a 3.5mm headphone jack. Following suit with the Note10 series, this will be the first of the S series line of flagship devices to omit that feature.

If a side by side photo of the Galaxy S20+ with a Galaxy S10+ is to be believed, the S20+ will be a much taller device. The S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra are expected to sport a 6.2-inch, 6.7-inch and 6.9-inch display respectively. The leaks also suggest that the S20+ will come with 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM, while its larger sibling can house up to 16GB RAM. The S20+ is expected to come with a 4500mAh battery, topped up with a 25W fast charging brick. Earlier reports also hint that the larger S20 Ultra could come with a 5000mAh battery and 45W super-fast charging capabilities.

Sources tell KrebsOnSecurity that Microsoft Corp. is slated to release a software update on Tuesday to fix an extraordinarily serious security vulnerability in a core cryptographic component present in all versions of Windows. Those sources say Microsoft has quietly shipped a patch for the bug to branches of the U.S. military and to other high-value customers/targets that manage key Internet infrastructure, and that those organizations have been asked to sign agreements preventing them from disclosing details of the flaw prior to Jan. 14, the first Patch Tuesday of 2020. According to sources, the vulnerability in question resides in a Windows component known as crypt32.dll, a Windows module that Microsoft says handles "certificate and cryptographic messaging functions in the CryptoAPI." The Microsoft CryptoAPI provides services that enable developers to secure Windows-based applications using cryptography, and includes functionality for encrypting and decrypting data using digital certificates. A critical vulnerability in this Windows component could have wide-ranging security implications for a number of important Windows functions, including authentication on Windows desktops and servers, the protection of sensitive data handled by Microsoft's Internet Explorer/Edge browsers, as well as a number of third-party applications and tools. Equally concerning, a flaw in crypt32.dll might also be abused to spoof the digital signature tied to a specific piece of software. Such a weakness could be exploited by attackers to make malware appear to be a benign program that was produced and signed by a legitimate software company.

Today, on January the 14th, Microsoft is officially ending support for Windows 7 operating system. After more than 10 years since its launch, Windows 7 has remained a primary operating system on many PCs, especially OEM PCs manufactured before 2015, when Windows 10 came out. The user transition from Windows 7 to Windows 10 has not been an easy task for Microsoft, however, by declaring that the product has reached End-Of-Life, Microsoft is trying to make millions of users pull the trigger and embrace the new operating system.

When January 14th arrives, Microsoft will stop giving Windows 7 users technical support, software updates with new features, and most importantly security updates. The official recommendation from Microsoft is to upgrade to the latest version of Windows, meaning Windows 10. As some of the older PCs may have compatibility issues with newer OS, it is also recommended to check your PC specifications. If you are a customer of the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program, you will continue to see further support in the future, however, for regular users, the support period is over.

For those who don't know, this video is made from x-plane 11. X-plane 11 is the flight simulator, so of course this situation doesn't happen in real life. The plane taxi to the runway from Pane Field airport. It takeoff and lands at the same runway.

There are certain icons of sport that are so transcendent, they change their respective sports forever-Jordan, Tiger, Serena. But there is one athlete you've probably never heard of who also belongs in that rarified air, one who can run faster and jump higher than all of them: His name is Spitfire, and he's a 7-year-old Whippet. But what makes Spitfire so special is more than the fact that he has four legs, it's the powerful bond he has with his trainer, a 15-year-old girl named Sydney. Together, they are rewriting the record books of the canine sports world. Mina Kimes brings you their unforgettable story.

WOW!!

That "HU"-style traditional throat singing was pretty darn impressive!

Samsung this week revealed the Galaxy XCover Pro, a new Android 10 phone "optimized for a variety of industries including retail, healthcare, logistics and manufacturing". It's just slightly larger than the Galaxy S10+, but with a rugged body military-rated for drops up to 1.5 meters, and rated IP68 for dust and water. Its flat screen measures 6.2-inches, sports full-HD+ resolution, and works with gloves and wet fingers. It has a 4,050 mAh removable battery that support 15W fast charging and charging docks with pogo pins. It also has a 25 megapixel main camera, 13 megapixel front camera, NFC, fingerprint reader on the side, and two programmable shortcut buttons. One of the buttons has be used for the PTT (walkie-talkie) feature of Microsoft Teams. It's powered by a Samsung Exynos chip paired with 4 GB of RAM. It has 64 GB of storage built-in and supports memory cards up to 512 GB. It will work on Verizon's network in the US and be available in the first half of 2020 for $500.

It's not a secret that the end of extended support for Windows 7 is tomorrow, and with Microsoft's Chromium-based Edge shipping for the unsupported OS the day after, there are questions about how long the browser will be supported. Google announced last week that it's committing to 18 months of support for Chrome on Windows 7, which means that Chromium is supported for as long. Today, Microsoft confirmed that it will commit to the same timeframe as Google. That means that you'll get Edge updates on Windows 7 until at least July 15, 2021. It's likely that the company will go beyond that. Microsoft is offering Extended Security Updates (ESUs) for businesses on Windows 7 that are willing to pay up, and ESUs are available for a total of three years. Given that the Redmond firm is committed to providing Windows 7 support, even to only some users, for another three years, it seems likely that it would support the browser for as long. Of course, that also depends on Chromium support.

Of course, there were robots, and smart home devices. There were also new consumer gadgets, from the Galaxy Chromebook, to the Galaxy Book Flex, to two new smartphones, the Galaxy Note10 Lite and the Galaxy S10 Lite.

During this year's CES, Dell had a few concept products on hand that we checked out. Among those are the two laptop concepts called the Concept Duet and the Concept Ori. Designed as unconventional mobile devices, these laptops are very different than anything currently present on the market. First in line is the Concept Duet. This model is a standard looking laptop from outside, however, when you open it up, you will find that the keyboard is absent. The place where the keyboard sits is now replaced with another screen. Both the main and the secondary screens are the same quality 13.4-inch 1080p displays that work in tandem to achieve the best possible experience. However, if you wish to use a real keyboard, there is a magnetic addon that snaps on the bottom screen and makes for a standard laptop experience. Next up is another, more interesting concept product called the Ori - a foldable tablet-like laptop. The Ori is a 13-inch 720p laptop that can be folded like a book. It is designed for ebook reading and general multitasking applications that can use the folding ability of the device. Being powered by Windows 10, we don't know the state of the software support for this type of device, however, Windows 10X should be coming out soon to support use cases like these. Unfortunately we don't know the specs of these laptops, as they are subject to change and its very difficult to design a product like this, so Dell may either use Intel's 10th generation processors or AMD's 4000 series of mobile processors. Another thing to note about these two devices is that Dell showed them off as concept products, meaning that they might not make it to the market, however, being that every company is now designing similar devices we could expect something similar in the future.

Transact - a leading supplier of student ID card systems - this week announced support for Google Pay, the primary digital wallet feature of Google's Android OS. The new capability allows students of participating colleges and universities to carry their student ID in their phone instead of a physical card. Students can simply tap their NFC-enabled phone on readers to access campus buildings, as well as payments for  dining, laundry, vending, and retail. Apple Wallet has supported the Transact platform since late 2018, and additional student-ID systems since late 2019. Fifteen institutions have committed to the initial roll-out of Transact for Google Pay, including Arkansas State University, Chowan University, College of Coastal Georgia, Duke University, Georgetown University, Hamilton College, Johns Hopkins University, Marshall University, Mercer University, Roanoke College, St. Edward's University, South Dakota State University, Temple University, The University of Alabama, and University of New Brunswick.

Chinese EV startup Byton returned to the Consumer Electronics Show this year with its electric SUV, the M-Byte. The Verge's Sean O'Kane got a chance to drive the M-Byte and see what it's like to be behind the wheel of a car with a massive 48-inch dashboard display.

AMD today released the latest version of Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition. Version 20.1.1 Beta comes with follows up on the previous 19.12.3 release with an equally long list of fixes and stability improvements in the wake of AMD radically updating its driver software, particularly the Radeon Software application. Before that, 20.1.1 includes performance optimization for "Monster Hunter World: Iceborne." This driver also comes with multiple bug fixes. For instance, it fixes a game crash and DXGI dialogue error when running Mechwarrior 5 using HDMI and Radeon FreeSync display configurations. It also resolves some stuttering issues during gameplay in Lost Ark. Furthermore, it fixes screen flashing when launching Resident Evil 2 Remake using DirectX 12 API.

AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.1.1 Driver Release Notes

Support For

• Monster Hunter World: Iceborne

Fixed Issues

• The audible beeps at game startup from Radeon Chill, Radeon Boost, and Radeon Anti-Lag have been removed. These features now offer audible indicators only when activated or deactivated via hotkey.
• The Radeon ReLive on screen timer indicator during recordings has been disabled by default but can be enabled in Radeon Software settings.
• Controls for vertical sync may be hidden or disappear when Radeon Enhanced Sync is enabled.
• Radeon ReLive may experience freezing or pausing issues during recordings when a high resolution camera is connected and in use.
• CPU usage may sometimes remain high once Radeon Game Advisor has been invoked during a game.
• Some users may experience an error message "Another instance is running" during download of a software update through the Radeon Software home screen.
• The DuplicateDesktop process may sometimes cause high CPU usage while a game is running.
• Radeon Software may close or may experience a crash upon resuming from sleep.
• The toast message detailing the hotkey to open Radeon Software's Overlay may still show up in some games after Radeon Software Overlay has been disabled.
• Lost Ark may experience stuttering intermittently during gameplay.
• Using a custom stream key with Radeon ReLive may fail to stream your content.
• The 'Stream' button may remain active when in the process of choosing a region to stream even when a region has not been selected or chosen.
• Some Radeon R9 200, Radeon R9 300 and Radeon R9 Fury series graphics products may experience instability with a limited number of DirectX 9 or DirectX 11 games when using a high refresh rate 120hz+ display. A workaround if you are experiencing this issue is to lower your displays refresh rate.
• Some mjpeg clips may experience a green tint on Radeon RX 5700 series graphics products when using Windows Media Player or the Movies & TV application.
• MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries may experience a game crash and DXGI dialogue error when running the game using HDMI and Radeon FreeSync display configurations.
• Live streaming using the DouYu application with hardware acceleration enabled may cause video corruption on Radeon RX 5700 series graphics products.
• Trials Rising may experience excessive fog/smoke in some areas of the game.
• Missing text or corruption may be experienced in the right eye when playing the VR game Boneworks.
• Fixed result overflows that can be experienced with Radeon RX 5700 series when using SETI@Home.
• The 'Shop AMD Products' button may open the AMD.com homepage instead of the proper shopping web link.
• The scrolling arrow options may intermittently fail to work during Radeon Software installation.
• Up and Down arrow keys don't work when using the search bar in Radeon Software.
• Enabling HDR enabled displays in Windows may cause colors to become washed out.
• Radeon Software sidebar appears behind the Windows taskbar when the taskbar is set to the same side of your display.
• Playing Tom Clancy's: The Division 2 with HDR enabled and performing a task switch may cause display color corruption that persists even once the game is exited.
• Mixed Reality Portal may experience color corruption or distortion near the edge of viewing areas on some headsets.
• Resident Evil 2 may experience screen flashing when launching the game using DirectX 12 API.

Known Issues

• The Radeon Software Overlay hotkey notification may sometimes be displayed during video playback in web browsers or launching some video player applications.
• Integer Scaling option is not showing up or available on some Windows 7 system configurations.
• Factory Reset install may keep previously configured Radeon Software game profiles. This can cause mismatch between global graphics settings and per profile settings.
• Text overflow in some UI boxes or toast messages may be experienced in some language localizations.
• Radeon Software may open with an inconsistent size or may not keep its previously set size when opened.
• Some Vulkan gaming applications may crash when performing a task switch with Radeon Image Sharpening enabled.
• Integer Scaling may cause some video content to show flicker when the display resolution is set to less than native resolution.

The DG1-SDV is able to play games at 1080p, even if they are technically lightweight titles like "Warframe," and aren't maxing out settings. The SDV is a 15.2 cm-long graphics card that relies on the PCI-Express slot for power entirely (and hence pulling less than 75 W). We already know from Intel's Xe slides since 2019 that the Xe architecture is designed to be extremely scalable, with a single ISA scaling all the way from iGPUs to tiny discrete GPUs like the DG1-SDV, and scaling all the way up to double-digit TFLOP-scale compute processors for the HPCs. Along the way, though, Intel intends to compete in the gaming and client-graphics space by developing products at just the right scale of the Xe architecture, with just the right performance/Watt to compete with specific products from the NVIDIA-AMD duopoly. Forget the high-end for a moment. If Intel is able to match even the GTX 1650 and RX 5500 (or their future $150 successors) in performance and power, they end up tapping into a double-digit percentage of the client-graphics TAM, and that spells trouble for Santa Clara and Markham. The Xe DG1 is backed by Intel's robust software stack, which has seen breakneck development and feature-additions in recent times, such as a modern Control Center app, support for modern technologies such as variable-rate shading, integer scaling, etc. Intel has, for over a decade, established a foothold in the client media-acceleration space with its Quick Sync video encoders, and Xe only dials that a notch. The DG1 features Intel's entire media-acceleration and display-controller feature-set. Intel is also designing Xe to be extremely configurable by OEMs, to make the GPU finely-match their product's thermal and power targets.

The Xe DG1-SDV (software development vehicle) is a contraption that's more evolved than "working prototype," and stops short of being a production product. It is designed to to be stable and durable enough for its target audience: ISVs, individual software developers, and systems engineers evaluating the thing for major hardware OEMs. The card has the exact same physical dimensions as the Radeon R9 Nano, and fits into any machine that has two full-height expansion slots and a PCI-Express x16 interface, no additional power cables needed. A single fan cools an aluminium fin-stack heatsink underneath. Throughout the demo, the cooler was more than audible and in need of acoustic optimization. The cooler shroud and back-plate bear a futuristic silvery design, there's also a row of LEDs near the I/O shield that put out light into the grooves of the shroud.

Unaware of the terrifying history of Heelshire Mansion, a young family moves into a guest house on the estate where their young son soon makes an unsettling new friend, an eerily life-like doll he calls Brahms. Katie Holmes stars in STXfilms and Lakeshore Entertainment's, BRAHMS: THE BOY II, alongside Christopher Convery ('Gotham'), Owain Yeoman (The Belko Experience) and Ralph Ineson (The Witch). William Brent Bell returns to direct BRAHMS: THE BOY II. The producers are Lakeshore's Tom Rosenberg, Eric Reid, Gary Lucchesi, and Richard Wright in addition to Matt Berenson, Jim Wedaa and Roy Lee. In Theaters February 21, 2020

Certain materials used in current phone cases can block the mmWave frequencies used in some 5G networks. D3O has developed a new, less-dense version of its D3O shock-absorbing material that lets mmWave 5G signals pass through unimpeded. D3O calls it D3O with 5G Signal Plus Technology. The material is impregnated with "micro-voids" to make it less dense. D3O says it can provide the same degree of shock absorption as its standard material. Gear4 (a Zagg brand) is the exclusive licensee and user of D3O material for phone cases, and will use D3O with 5G Signal Plus Technology in its 2020 cases for 5G phones.

It also features a, uh, hyena at the very end. "Birds of Prey" premieres on February 7.

Samsung has announced a new portable storage drive that it is aiming at professionals and casual gamers. The portable SSD is called the T7 Touch, and the big feature is that it has an integrated fingerprint scanner for data security. Samsung also notes that the drive has the fastest transfer speeds currently available. Connectivity is via a USB 3.2 Gen 2 port offering read speeds of 1,050MB/s, and write speeds of 1,000MB/s. Samsung says the T7 is roughly twice as fast as its predecessor, the T5, and 9.5 times faster than external HDDs. The aforementioned fingerprint scanner is used on top of password protection and AES 256-bit hardware encryption. It also has a Motion LED that allows the user to determine the status of the drive at a glance. The SSD is fitted inside a solid aluminum case, and it is very portable, with a weight of 58 grams. Samsung offers The T7 Touch and a standard T7 lacking the fingerprint scanner in black or silver finishes. Capacity is 500GB, 1TB, or 2TB. Pricing on the T7 Touch is $129.99 for 500GB, $229.99 for 1TB, and $399.99 for 2TB. T7 Touch is available to purchase this month in over 30 countries around the world, with the standard T7 set to launch in Q2 2020.

Europe's Strongest Man 2019, featuring Mateusz Kieliszkowski, Hafthor Bjornsson, Mark Felix, Konstantine Janashia, Mikhail Shivlyakov and others.

Official Trailer for Locke & Key Season 1, coming to Netflix on February 7, 2020. Based on the best-selling graphic novels, Locke & Key follows 3 siblings who, after the murder of their father, move to their ancestral home only to find the house has magical keys that give them a vast array of powers and abilities.

At CES 2020, Intel showcased for the first time its upcoming discrete graphics card, the Xe DG1. Intel showcased DG1 running Destiny 2 in a laptop. In other words, this is a laptop graphics card, and not a desktop GPU. Still, this is something that may interest some of you.

NVIDIA in reponse to a support question stated that it will end Quadro driver support for select Windows versions from 14th January, 2020. These include all editions of Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008 R2. NVIDIA will continue to provide driver updates that include bug fixes and security patches until 14th January. After that, NVIDIA will no longer release new Quadro drivers that support these operating systems. NVIDIA will focus on providing driver updates for Windows 10 client, enterprise, and server versions, and encourages people to upgrade. The door for extended support from specific enterprise users remains open, they are asked to contact their NVIDIA representative.

I wasn't going to comment on this one but here we go... the 737 is one of the safest planes in the world (yes the max had its problems, and that's why they are not flying at the moment). I'm not here to say that this plane was shot down, but it might be the case, giving the circumstance in Iran right now. If a plane has technical problems it won't fall of the skies burning in a bright ball of fire, that does not happen, you can say they might have had a fire on its engine, but that wouldn't make the plane to crash, there are a lot of procedures to deal with emergencies like this! And the pilots are trained to deal with them! One of the most common thing that will cause an engine to "spit fire" is a compressor stall, and that's not a problem at all! A plane can safely come back and land at the airport if this happens, and some times this is fixed in flight and they will keep flying to their destination!! And remember a plane will fly with only one engine working, no problem at all!!! And like I said the pilots are trained to deal with emergencies and I'm sure they did their best to save them and as much lives as they could, unfortunately seems like all of them died (from not being a crash from a technical problem). Rest in peace all the people that were sadly killed in this accident. We should all have respect for the victims.

At CES this year, Google is showing off several new functions coming to Google Assistant on Android phones. Soon, you'll be able to say "Hey Google, read it" or "Hey Google, read this page" when you're viewing an article. When you do, it will use "new voice datasets to create more expressive and more natural sounding voices" for reading long-form content. The content can also be translated into 42 languages. Google is also adding two new voice actions for people to easily control their privacy. The first is "Hey Google, that wasn't for you," which lets you tell the Assistant to forget what it heard if an unintended activation occurs. The other is "Hey Google, are you saving my audio data?" to learn about your privacy controls and go directly into the settings screen to change your preferences. Google added several other privacy-related commands recently, including "Hey Google, delete everything I said to you this week."

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For some guy on his "deathbed" (recent rumors) he looks good :D