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Deepfakes, which usually involve superimposing someone’s face and voice onto another person, started gaining attention a few years ago when adult websites began banning videos where the technique was used to add famous actresses’ faces to porn stars’ bodies. DF videos have become increasingly advanced since then. There are plenty of apps that let users insert friends’ faces into movies, and we’ve seen the AI-powered process used to bring old photos back to life and put young versions of actors onto the screen once again....

This week, PCWorld took a look at how the 14-core Intel Core i9-12900HK compares against the previous Rocket Lake flagship CPU and the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX. The analysis revealed that at least in the realm of Windows laptops, Intel’s mobile Alder Lake flagship offers the best performance in a variety of tasks and also affords plenty of battery life thanks to its eight efficiency cores. Macworld took the opportunity to compare Geekbench and Cinebench results between the Core i9-12900HK and Apple’s M1 Pro and M1 Max chipsets, equipped with 10-core CPUs....

Designed for enthusiasts and workstations, the key feature of Intel’s SSD 750 Series is its adoption of Non-Volatile Memory Express or NVMe, a new performance controller interface set to replace the aging AHCI standard. Being more than a decade old, AHCI was designed for hard drives and is therefore optimized for high latency rotating disks rather than low latency non-volatile storage. AHCI isn’t the best interface for PCIe SSDs and thus industry leaders including Intel, Samsung, and LSI have developed NVMe with advantages such as multiple queues, higher queue depths and lower latency as NVMe allows for a direct path from the storage to the CPU....

Webb’s image provided the clearest view of the planet’s dusty rings in more than 30 years. NASA said some of the rings have not been detected since Voyager 2’s rendezvous with Neptune in 1989. It is also the first time they have been imaged in infrared. Neptune is one of four planets in our solar system with rings, the others being Saturn, Uranus and Jupiter. A Webb image shared last month highlighted the faint rings of Jupiter along with its auroras and tiny moons....

John Carmack is leaving Meta’s VR business. After a decade spent trying to “move things” within Mark Zuckerberg’s company, the co-creator of the FPS genre has decided to give up and pursue other interests with his own startup. Carmack’s final message, however, depicts a rather troublesome situation for his former employer’s business. Meta, the ginormous corporation previously known as Facebook, is inefficient, constantly self-sabotaging and “ill prepared for the inevitable competition” to come, Carmack said in his final message to employees....

The HyperX’s HD Tune Pro random write performance was also solid, especially its 1MB performance, where it was second only to the Vertex 3, and by a slim margin at that.

The HD Tune Pro write performance varied. While the Kingston SSDNow V+ 180 64GB was much faster than the SSDNow V Series 64GB when looking at the 512 bytes performance it was slower when measuring the 1MB performance and considerably slower when measuring the random file size performance. Overall, the random write performance of the SSDNow V+ 180 64GB when testing with HD Tune Pro was very poor.

File Explorer tabs form the primary new functionality that Windows 11 Insider Preview build 25136 introduces this week. As users would expect, the feature works similarly to web browser tabs — letting users switch between different folders from the top row of File Explorer. Evidence that the much-requested capability was coming first appeared in preview builds in March. Build 25136 also made Quick Access easier to reach in the left navigation pane....

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon is a perfect example of this. Lenovo’s signature business ultraportable is now in its 5th generation, adding new Intel Kaby Lake processors and a larger battery without sacrificing the portability of this 14-inch device. And after using this laptop for a few weeks now, it’s clear that Lenovo’s minor year-on-year improvements have led to a stunning device that’s the best ThinkPad ultraportable yet. Like previous versions of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, the 5th generation model is remarkably compact for a 14-inch laptop....

So what are these new ideas LG has brought to the G5? The biggest and most obvious one is the modular design, which sees the battery slide out the bottom of the handset attached to a swappable module. This gives LG the ability to sell additional modules that pack in other features, and it makes the G5 the most flexible handset on sale today. LG has also given the G5 an all new design that finally includes actual metal....

The Snapdragon 820 comes with four Kryo CPU cores in a two-plus-two configuration: two ’larger’ cores clocked at 2.15 GHz, and two ‘smaller’ cores clocked at 1.59 GHz. We’ve seen this sort of design with ARM cores before, but this is the first time Qualcomm has used it with their custom cores. It should be noted that the architecture of all four cores is the same, however the larger cores are tuned for higher clock speeds and better performance, whereas the smaller cores are tuned for power efficiency....

To save space the N2A2 does not feature any SO-DIMM slots for the system memory. Rather there’s a single memory chip soldered directly to the PCB providing a 128MB capacity. The Hynix HY5PS1G1631C module works at 667MHz using CAS5-5-5 timings. The tiny motherboard measures just 3.7" wide x 4.3" long (9.5 x 11cm) and features a pair of SATA ports which are connected to the Marvell 88F6281 SoC, as are the two external USB 2....

Limited Run CEO Josh Fairhurst said in an interview with Polygon that ever since opening online in 2015, they have dreamed of trying their hand at a physical store. “There [are] certainly stores left, but it’s nothing like the glory days of having a Babbage’s, Software Etc, FuncoLand, and Electronics Boutique in every town,” Fairhurst added. The store is expected to open this April in Cary, North Carolina, in the MacGregor Village shopping center....

Last month they announced updates to the popular G-series PC gaming peripheral line with the introduction of the Gaming Keyboard G510, Wireless Gaming Mouse G700 and Wireless Gaming Headset G930. Fresh off the release of our 12-way mouse round-up, today we’ll be taking a look at Logitech’s two new input devices and comparing them to their well regarded predecessors. Logitech’s Gaming Keyboard G510 replaces the popular G15 model, arriving in the familiar green and black retail package....

Over the last few years, the concept of the affordable flagship has meant fewer bells and whistles and the use of previous-generation Qualcomm Snapdragon high-end chips to meet a lower price point. Examples include the OnePlus 9R, Realme GT2, the Poco F3, and the ZTE Axon 30. However, MediaTek wants to offer an alternative in the form of proper mid-range chipsets that can compete with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 and Snapdragon 870 mobile silicon, at least in terms of performance–Dimensity 8000 and Dimensity 8100 are its solutions....

But things are pretty different when it comes to Metro Exodus. This isn’t a competitive online shooter, instead it’s a slower paced, open-world single-player survival shooter. Ray tracing is implemented as global illumination, not reflections. And the game is launching with optimized ray tracing and DLSS from day one. In this article we’ll be looking at both the quality differences between RTX on and off for this title, as well as the performance hit across all four Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics cards at a range of resolutions....

A trusted leaker has posted a retailer screenshot with the release dates, core counts, and tentative European prices of Intel’s non-K Raptor Lake processors. Intel is expected to unveil the CPUs at CES 2023 on January 5, and the leak claims they will also go on sale that week. The store listing also appears to confirm that non-K CPUs will have the same core counts as current K counterparts. The exceptions are the new i5-13400 and 13400F with 10 cores compared to current Core i5 model’s 14....

Samsung last week announced a new line of smartwatches including the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro. Product specifications list the watch’s thickness at 10.5mm but some people online noticed that the specs did not seem to pass the eye test compared to other slimmer wearables. Ray from the YouTube channel DC Rainmaker decided to take a closer look. He started with the Galaxy Watch 5 which has a stated thickness of 9....

Motorola is selling this phone for $499 unlocked, or $408 if you opt to be locked to Verizon. For $479, you can buy an unlocked OnePlus 5, or for less than that, you can import a Xiaomi Mi 6. Both of these handsets offer significantly better hardware for less money than the Z2 Play’s unlocked price, and that makes the Play pretty hard to recommend. The performance of the Snapdragon 626 inside the Z2 Play is fine, and generally quite good for basic tasks....

An Nvidia staff member confirmed this week that the company is trying out a program to connect a certain number of players and content creators directly to RTX 4090 purchasing options. Nvidia could use the idea to smoothen future product launches if it works well. The trial – called “Verified Priority Access,” – will notify certain users through Nvidia’s GeForce Experience app. The notifications contain unique URLs leading to reserved 4090 Founders Editions at third-party retailers depending on the region....