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While Netflix had one of the worst quarters in the company’s history, Spotify seems to be better off. In its latest earnings report, the company announced its premium subscriber count rose to 182 million. That’s a 15-percent gain year-over-year and an extra 2 million compared to the end of 2021. Total monthly active users increased 19 percent YoY to 422 million, up from 406 million last year. Spotify initially expected to get to 183 million subscribers in Q1, claiming it missed this mark because of the suspension of its services in Russia....

Waning NFT interest hasn’t stopped Square Enix’s plans for Symbiogenesis. It’s a browser-based game for PC and mobile—the start of a franchise—that uses the Ethereum blockchain. The company describes it as the “first digital collectible art project designed from the ground up for Web3 fans.” The project’s “interactive story” involves NFT art being collected by players, which can be used “as a character in a story that takes place in an alternate world where the player can ‘untangle’ a mystery by completing missions that revolve around questions of the monopolization and distribution of resources....

After all, the device comes with 12 drive bays out of the box and offers the ability to add another dozen, pushing the maximum storage capacity to 72TB, or 60% greater than the DS1511+ can handle. It’s scary to think how much you could spend on such a set up. With 3TB drives starting at $140 and the more desirable 7200RPM models going for ~$180, we estimate the hard drives alone will set you back between $3,360 and $4,320....

Motherboard, Processor, Cooler, Memory Intel’s new mainstream flagship Core i7 processor is a beast. For gamers seeking the ultimate solution there is simply nothing better than the Core i7-8700K. Out of the box performance is incredible, overclocking is even more incredible with proper aftermarket cooling, and power consumption is impressive for a CPU running at over 4 GHz by default. Compared to the Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 lineup, the i7-8700K doesn’t offer exceptional value, but you do get what you pay for – as in, a justifiable boost in performance to pay a little extra and this is the Luxury system so definitely the 8700K is the way to go....

Coinbase’s 60-second Super Bowl ad consisted of a bouncing QR code in the style of those old DVD-logo screensavers from years gone by. Scanning the code directed people to a page on the crypto exchange’s site that offered $15 in free Bitcoin if they signed up for an account before February 15. The popularity of the ad forced Coinbase to limit traffic to the website, though it was only for a few minutes....

We’re already entering the second quarter of 2021, and the rest of the year is filled to the brim with what looks to be an excellent selection of new PC-exclusive and cross-platform releases. Today, we’re hoping to condense all of those choices into one, easier to digest list. Granted, we can’t include every promising-looking game here, but we’ll do our best to draw your attention to some of the more exciting, innovative, or downright highly-anticipated upcoming releases....

Gears of War 4 is a DirectX 12 title but it’s also an Nvidia sponsored title so unsurprisingly the GTX 1050 comes out ahead, though only by a slim margin. Both GPUs managed around 60fps on average using the medium quality settings so the game still looked quite good while maintaining very playable performance. Titanfall 2 historically tends to favor AMD and we see a bit of that here. The RX 560 is able to catch the GTX 1050 in this title as both delivered around 70fps with a minimum frame rate of 59fps, so solid performance here from both graphics card camps....

HP’s latest addition to the Omen 27 series will be joining the Omen 27i, which comes with a 1440p resolution and 165Hz refresh rate, and the more recent Omen 27c that keeps the same QHD display while upping the refresh rate to 240Hz and adding a curved panel. The Omen 27u uses an 8-bit IPS panel that reaches 144Hz and offers a 4K (3840 x 2160) resolution, making it an appealing prospect for those with beefy rigs....

Our list of the most anticipated games for 2023 is a mix of remakes, new entries from long-dormant series, and a handful of new IPs. We’ve been waiting for some of these titles for literal years, while others are probably going to see more delays before they arrive. But what these names really illustrate is that there’s something on the horizon for every type of PC gamer. Dead Space We start this list with the game that, barring no setbacks, will arrive first: Dead Space....

The processor’s significant role in The Witcher 2 is further evidenced when comparing the results of various Intel and AMD chips. The game plays considerably better when running on a Core i5 or i7 processor, as the i5-2600K achieved 78fps versus the Phenom II X4 980’s 54fps. We were also surprised by the speed difference between the LGA1155 and LGA1156 platforms, as well as the Athlon II and Phenom II parts....

Earlier today, the official Twitter account for The Witcher confirmed the next-gen update would be delivered on December 14. In a separate release, CD Projekt Red said the update will feature dozens of visual, performance and technical enhancements over the original game including support for ray tracing, faster load times on consoles and mods integrated into the experience. Gamers can also look forward to new content inspired by The Witcher series from Netflix....

x2 2GB DDR2-1066 G.Skill (CAS 7-7-7-18) Asus P5Q Pro (Intel P45) OCZ GameXStream 700 watt Western Digital Black 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Black 500GB (Serial ATAII) Asus Radeon HD 4550 (256MB) Software - Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 (64-bit) - ATI Catalyst 9.12 LG Super-Multi NAS N2A2 - Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.C 1TB (Serial ATAII) - Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.C 1TB (Serial ATAII) QNAP TS-412 - Western Digital Black 500GB (Serial ATAII) Thecus N3200XXX - Western Digital Black 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Black 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Black 500GB (Serial ATAII) Synology Disk Station DS211 - Western Digital Black 500GB (Serial ATAII) - Western Digital Black 500GB (Serial ATAII) The N3200XXX was a more power hungry than we anticipated, chugging almost twice as much juice as the dual-bay Synology DS211....

In the three games used to measure system power consumption, the HD 5870 configuration consumed an average of 225 watts while the 6970 used 28% more power at 288 watts. Despite offering considerably more performance, the 7970 pulled just 3% more power than the 6970. The overclocked 7970 GHz Edition chugged 10% more power for roughly 10% more performance and the R9 290X used 14% more than that with an average draw of 374 watts....

Musk yesterday tweeted one of the rules he’s implementing as Twitter’s new overlord: “any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying ‘parody’ will be permanently suspended,” he wrote. Musk added that Twitter currently issues warnings before suspensions, but now that it is rolling out widespread verification, there will be no warning before it takes action. The billionaire recently confirmed that the optional Twitter Blue service is increasing in price to $8 per month, as opposed to $20, and those who subscribe will be verified....

The latest Ada Lovelace leak comes from a familiar source: prolific Twitter leaker Kopite7kimi. They claim the RTX 4070 Ti will pack a full-fat AD104 GPU and be so powerful that it can trade blows with the current Ampere flagship, the RTX 3090 Ti. That AD104 GPU, built on the TSMC N4 process node, is said to feature 7,680 CUDA cores or 60 SM units, 30 billion transistors, and up to 160 ROPs....

The USB Promoter Group published the final specifications for USB4 version 2.0 this week. The specification’s main improvement is that it doubles bandwidth from 40Gbps to 80Gbps. Using PAM3 signal encoding, 80Gbps connections are possible over newly-defined 80Gbps USB-C active cables or existing 40Gbps passive cables. Technically, 80Gbps isn’t the maximum bandwidth, however. High-performance USB4-based displays and other specific situations might allow for asymmetrical connections reaching up to 120Gbps in one direction and 40Gbps in the other....

The updated Steam Mobile app is now available in beta form. Valve itself has joked about the current app’s ancient design, writing that “2015 called and wants its app back.” The refreshed version offers QR code sign-in, smarter notifications, an improved Library, and multi-account support. All the previous features will remain, including the Steam Guard codes, being able to browse the Steam store, and confirming trades. “[The beta test] helps us test our assumptions, learn what you like and don’t like, and find things that need to be fixed....