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Showing posts from June, 2023

Quordle today - hints and answers for Saturday July 1 (game #523)

Web Hosting & Remote IT Support It's time for your daily dose of Quordle hints, plus the answers for both the main game and the Daily Sequence spin off.  Quordle is the only one of the many Wordle clones that I'm still playing now, around 18 months after the daily-word-game craze hit the internet, and with good reason: it's good fun, but also difficult. What's more, its makers (now the online dictionary Merriam-Webster) are also keeping it fresh in the form of a new variant called the Daily Sequence, which sees you complete four puzzles consecutively, rather than concurrently.  But Quordle is tough, so if you already find yourself searching for Wordle hints , you'll probably need some for this game too.  I'm a Quordle and Wordle fanatic who's been playing since December 2021, so I can definitely help you solve Quordle today and improve your game for tomorrow. Read on for my Quordle hints to game #523 and the answers to the main game and Daily Sequ

Businesses are set to spend billions on securing their 5G networks

Web Hosting & Remote IT Support Despite the widespread opinion that private 5G networks are secure by default, most enterprises are sceptical, and would rather invest a portion of their IT budget on securing the new, promising technology.  New research from Trend Micro has revealed businesses are ready to set aside quite a hefty part of their budget on this endeavor.  After interviewing 150 enterprises with 5,000+ employees, the majority of which already deployed private 5G networks, Trend Micro found that most enterprises invest 5-10% of their IT budgets specifically on the security of this type of network.  3GPP Furthermore, for the vast majority (72%), the 3GPP approach to security will suffice. For the uninitiated, 3GPP refers to the use of 3GPP standards and technical specs for implementing and deploying private networks. However, Trend Micro says that 3GPP architecture isn’t impenetrable to determined attackers.  The majority of the respondents were interested in secur

Baldur's Gate 3 will come to Xbox once the devs "overcome" technical hurdles

Web Hosting & Remote IT Support Developers have reassured fans that Baldur's Gate 3 is still coming to Xbox, but that Larian Studios has certain technical challenges it needs to overcome first.  "Our ambition is definitely to get it ready for this year", said Larian Studios head Swen Vincke, but the fact remains that the studio is struggling to get Baldur's Gate 3 to run on Xbox Series S (via IGN ). As such, there is currently no concrete release date for Xbox versions of the game.  Larian has been struggling to get Baldur's Gate 3 's split-screen co-op feature running smoothly on the Xbox Series S. Despite the feature working as intended on Xbox Series X , Microsoft policy demands that Xbox Series X versions of their games cannot have any features that Xbox Series S editions lack. This means that canning the feature on Series S simply isn't an option for Larian.  Speaking on the issue, Vinke stated: “It's not that we planned this. Our plan

Businesses are shunning the metaverse because it's just not very good

Web Hosting & Remote IT Support A new report from Gartner has claimed the metaverse is really not living up to expectations, despite companies like Apple and Meta pushing their ideal virtual realities. Among the discoveries in the report were two key findings: VR outside of gaming is failing to meet customer expectations, and immersive meetings are not compelling enough for businesses to want to invest time and money moving away from already-good-enough video conferencing platforms . This comes at a time when Meta is refining its expenses in what it calls its ‘year of efficiency,’ in preparation to throw more money at artificial intelligence and the metaverse. Equally, Apple has teased its Vision Pro headset which is expected to land on shelves in 2024 with an eye-watering $3,499 price tag. The metaverse is nowhere near ready for us Either the metaverse is not ready for us, or we’re not ready for the metaverse: Gartner has it that Gen Z is the only group expressing any measur

A modder finally gets Bloodborne running at 60 FPS on PS5 - and it's awesome

Web Hosting & Remote IT Support A notable modder has released footage of Bloodborne running at 60fps on PS5 with no downsampling of any kind. It's a new development for the long-running project to get FromSoftware's opus running optimally on modern hardware.  Bloodborne is one of the best PS4 games , and technically available to play on the PS5 , however, with no improvement to framerate, as the base game remains stuck at an inconsistent 30fps. One prolific modder named Lance McDonald has been on a crusade to change that, though. For over three years, he has made it his mission to double the framerate of the massively popular action-adventure title to bring it in line with the likes of Elden Ring and Dark Souls: Remastered before it.  The new version of the modded patch is available on the PS5 which showcases the game in its native 1080p resolution with no downscaling as was previously the case. Lance has released a demonstration video of Bloodborne running in this

Court mistake reveals how much Sony's first-party games like Last of Us 2 costs

Web Hosting & Remote IT Support A mistake during the Microsoft/ Activision Blizzard FTC hearing has accidentally revealed the cost of making some of Sony's biggest titles.  Thanks to some very poor redacting, anyone who has been following the ongoing court case will be able to make out some key information concerning the development cost for The Last of Us 2 and Horizon Forbidden West .  While the documents have now been pulled from the FTC hearing's list, The Verge's Tom Warren tweeted a screenshot of the documents after they were uploaded. The small snippet revealed that Sony spent $212 million for Horizon Forbidden West over a five-year period with 300 full-time developers. While Sony rolled out the red carpet for The Last of Us 2 spending $220 million over six years with 200 full-time employees.  Sony did great job on the document redactions... not 🙃 https://t.co/aPQgk9JU8L pic.twitter.com/5rJQbZbbd0 June 28, 2023 See more These numbers mean that Ho

Microsoft planned to acquire Square Enix in ominously titled "Project Phoenix"

Web Hosting & Remote IT Support Confidential documents revealed that Microsoft had plans to acquire Square Enix as part of a broader corporate acquisition strategy. Revealed as part of the ongoing legal battle surrounding Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard , Microsoft sought to acquire the veteran RPG creator in order to support "future mobile-exclusive Game Pass offerings" ( via The Verge ).  These plans were given the foreboding title "Project Phoenix" and were also centered around leveraging ownership of Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Kingdom Hearts to grow Xbox's Japanese audience as well as to capitalize on Square Enix's experience in creating mobile games .  This is the latest in a string of revelations that have come to light in the wake of the US Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) court case against Microsoft . Many confidential documents have come to light, including internal correspondence planning for the acqu

Nokia G42 combines repairability and 5G connectivity in a handsome purple package

Web Hosting & Remote IT Support Hot on the heels of the G22 launch earlier in 2023, Nokia owner HMD Global has announced the Nokia G42 as the next in its series of repairable smartphones. The G42 continues Nokia’s quest to make at-home smartphone repairs simple, accessible and affordable, but the headline feature in this latest release is the inclusion of 5G connectivity (something that was missing on the G22). Repairable and replaceable parts on the Nokia G42 include the screen, the battery and the charging port and in order to make the G42 repairable – and to provide the parts with which to repair – Nokia has continued its partnership with global repair community iFixit.  Nokia’s intention with the G42 – and its G22 sibling – is to allow owners to keep using their phone as if it were new, long after the included warranty expires.  Aside from its repairable credentials, the Nokia G52 arrives with a 50MP camera, which in tandem with the company’s latest imaging AI technology,

Apple is raising iCloud prices in many markets - find out if you're affected

Web Hosting & Remote IT Support Apple has quietly slipped some pretty hefty price rises into its iCloud+ cloud storage plans, with millions of users across the world potentially affected. With US pricing unchanged, it’s likely that the rises were a move to tie back into true values that have been affected by currency exchange rate fluctuations in recent months. UK customers are among the worst affected, having to deal with price rises of at least one-fifth: the 50GB plan has gone from £0.79 to £0.99 (25%), the 200GB plan from £2.49 to £2.99 (20%), and the 2TB plan from £6.99 to £8.99 (29%). iCloud+ prices go up across the world According to 9To5Mac , customers in Poland, Romania, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sweden, Tanzania, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates are also now having to fork out more each month for their cloud storage. Read more > These are the best cloud backup tools > Apple announces huge upgrade to your iCloud data privacy > Apple One: wh

AWS AppFabric wants to make pulling your SaaS apps together much easier

Web Hosting & Remote IT Support Amazon Web Services ( AWS ) has unveiled a new, no-code tool that it hopes will bring together all of your different software-as-a-service products together in one place, with added security and management benefits. The new AppFabric tool lives inside the AWS Management Console, where IT and security teams can review a variety of important information in one central location. At the same time, AWS also uncovered some of its generative AI plans for AppFabric, which are set to arrive in a future release. AWS AppFabric AWS claims some companies are subscribing to more than 100 pieces of software in an effort to give their workers the right tools.  From launch, the company has confirmed that some of the most popular applications will be supported, including Asana , Dropbox , Google Workspace , Microsoft 365 , Slack , and Zoom . Read more > These are the best cloud hosting providers around > AWS went down for millions of customers, ta

Amazon Prime Day Fitbit deals: How to find the best fitness tracker bargains

Web Hosting & Remote IT Support The Amazon Prime Day Fitbit deals are the perfect time to score a cut-price fitness tracker or fitness watch in 2023. With Amazon Prime Day set for July 11 - 12, a few very early deals are beginning to rear their heads, even though the retailer's uber-sale hasn't officially kicked off yet.  The Amazon Prime Day deals always offer sterling discounts across lots of different kinds of tech – including fitness trackers and smartwatches. The best Fitbits , whether you're going for a smartwatch like the Fitbit Sense 2 or a slender fitness tracker such as the Fitbit Charge 5 , are consistently some of the most popular choices when it comes to wearables.  It stands to reason there are always some great discounts on offer during deals events, like Prime Day and Black Friday.  Below, we've used last year's deals to provide an example of what sort of discounts you can expect, along with some information on how, when, and where to find

Google says its secret AI weapon could eventually outsmart ChatGPT

Web Hosting & Remote IT Support Google’s DeepMind laboratory is currently developing a new AI system called Gemini with claims it’ll rival, if not surpass, ChatGPT , according to a report from Wired. In order to surpass ChatGPT , the developers plan on integrating an old “artificial intelligence program called AlphaGo” into the upcoming language learning model (LLM). What’s special about AlphaGo is it's “based on a technique” known as reinforcement learning where the software tackles tough problems through sheer trial and error. As it makes “repeated attempts”, the AI takes feedback it receives from each failure to improve its performance. DeepMind seeks to outfit Google’s future LLM with the ability to plan, or at the very least, solve complex problems. If you combine that with a generative AI’s ability to grab information from the internet and then reformat it into natural-sounding text, Gemini has the potential to be more intelligent than any other artificial intelligenc

Exclusive: Worlds fastest CPU goes on sale everywhere in Europe - but not in the US

Web Hosting & Remote IT Support Just weeks after AMD launched its first cloud-native processor, the 128-core EPYC 9754 , the processor has started to appear online (in tray, rather than retail box) in several European markets.  The CPU, labeled 100-000001234, can be preordered but is out of stock from all the eight online retailers I checked today. Finnish outlet, MacPeople, is the only one that gave an estimated time of arrival (June 30th) although that’s likely to be an estimation. The 9754 has a suggested retail price of $11,900 when purchased in 1000 units but none of the e-tailers came close to that price. Dutch outlet Max ICT sold the 9754 for just under $9,500 (a discount of more than 20%) with the most expensive one coming from France-based LAFI at $11,200. None of the usual suspects in the US (Ingram Micro, Avnet, Element14 etc) had stock or publicly available pricing of the new AMD part, which is surprising to say the least. Benchmarks shed light on outstanding perfo

Microsoft planned to buy Sega and Bungie to "expand Xbox Game Pass's reach"

Web Hosting & Remote IT Support Internal documents have revealed that Microsoft had ambitious plans to acquire a range of developers, including Sega and Bungie.  In addition to Xbox head Phil Spencer's testimony , the ongoing legal battle between the US Federal Trade Commission and Microsoft over the latter's plans to acquire Activision Blizzard has led to the revelation of a range of confidential documents. Among these was an email from Spencer sent in 2020 outlining a strategy to "accelerate Xbox Game Pass" through the designation of "acquisition targets" ( via The Verge ). Though the email focused on Sega, it mentioned "informing our next strategic acquisition target", a theme that would be developed in another document revealed during the trial. A 2021 document revealed a list of companies that Microsoft had in its sight for acquisition as part of Xbox Game Studios. Among them were Bungie, IO Interactive, Supergiant Games, Niantic, an

Meta Quest Plus subscription service launches - and it's pretty decent value

Web Hosting & Remote IT Support Meta has just launched its new Meta Quest Plus subscription service, and it's one of the simpler monthly subs we've seen in quite some time. Meta Quest Plus, available for Quest 2 and Quest Pro owners, will add two "handpicked VR titles" a month to subscribers' libraries. It'll cost you $7.99 / £7.99 per month or, alternatively, you can save around 37% with an annual payment of $59.99 / £59.99. Brand new subscribers can also purchase their first month for just $1 / £1 so long as they opt in before July 31 (via Eurogamer ). Meta Quest Plus's debut titles are Pistol Whip VR and Pixel Ripped 1995, two positively received VR games that each cost a fair bit more than the subscription's asking price. The former is a fast-paced rhythm shooter, while the latter is something of a 90s kid nostalgia simulator. Both are well worth checking out, especially if you're signing up for just a dollar. Next month's tit

How to watch The Bachelorette 2023 online - live stream season 20 from anywhere

Web Hosting & Remote IT Support Watch The Bachelorette season 20 online In the US, The Bachelorette is broadcast through ABC; alternatively, you can stream it the channel live through Fubo TV or Hulu + Live TV. Canadians can watch it with City TV or City TV Plus, while episodes will episodes will be added to Hayu in the UK. Travelling away from home? A VPN will let you reconnect to your usual streaming service. Georgia native Charity Lawson is finally getting her chance to find Mr Right. After landing fourth place in last season of The Bachelor, she’ll be getting familiar with 25 dashing contestants and looking to find one worthy of receiving her final rose. Host Jesse Palmer returns to guide Lawson through this rollercoaster journey, and you can catch all the drama with our guide below explaining how to watch The Bachelorette season 20 online. Lawson, a child and family therapist, made it all the way to the hometown dates episode of Zach Shallcross’s season before being elim