Kalakshar US

No Man’s Sky is back with Worlds Part II, expanding the universe in new ways as only games can. Hello Games, the studio behind No Man’s Sky, has announced the release of its newest iteration and the billions of stars and trillions of planets added to its universe. 

In a statement about the release, Sean Murphy, founder of Hello Games, explained, “This allows us to push the boundaries of our engine and technology without changing the things people love about the game already. If you settled on your home planet with a beautiful base that you lovingly crafted, that is safe — but now there are new worlds to explore with a level of variety no one has seen before.” 

This shift includes the addition of Gas Giants, which Hello Games claims are up to 10 times bigger than any planets previously included in the game. The developers have also improved things under the sea, with better fishing and deep sea diving. Plus, the lighting should be better, with more detailed shadows, sharper sunlight and, of course, those shining starry skies. 

Hello Games also says Worlds Part II offers quests that connect existing storylines and mysteries. A lot of this development comes from work on Hello Game’s new fantasy game Light No Fire. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/no-mans-sky-update-adds-billions-of-stars-and-even-more-planets-165102362.html?src=rss 

Sony is once again shaking up its leadership ranks. Effective April 1, Hideaki Nishino will be president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE). Nishino was appointed CEO of the division’s Platform Business Group last year. He ran SIE in partnership with Hermen Hulst, who will remain in his role as the head of PlayStation’s studios but now report to Nishino. The pair replaced former SIE CEO Jim Ryan.

“I am truly honored to take the helm at Sony Interactive Entertainment,” Nishino said in a statement. “Technology and creativity are two of our biggest strengths as we continue to focus on developing experiences that deliver entertainment for everyone. We will continue to grow the PlayStation community in new ways, such as IP expansion, while also delivering the best in technology innovation.”

Hulst, meanwhile, will continue to oversee Sony’s first-party games. He’s also responsible for helping adapt the company’s video game franchises into other mediums via PlayStation Productions.

The pair have had a tumultuous first year in charge of SIE. Just before they took the reins, Ryan announced that the division was laying off 900 staff and shutting down London Studio.

Since then, Nishino and Hulst have been dealing with the fallout of Ryan’s deeply misguided efforts to focus on live-service games. After the disastrous debut of Concord — a hero shooter that vanished within just two weeks, never to return — Sony shut down the game’s developer Firewalk Studios, as well as Neon Koi. A subsequent review of Sony’s live-service efforts led to the company canning two other projects that were in development at Bluepoint and Bend Studio, with the former said to be a God of War title.

Elsewhere within the company, SIE Chairman Hiroki Totoki is giving up that post to become the new CEO of Sony. He’ll succeed Kenichiro Yoshida, who will remain the company’s chairman. Totoki is also the current president, chief operating officer and chief financial officer of Sony. Replacing him as CFO is Lin Tao, a senior vice-president of finance, corporate strategy and development at SIE.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/sonys-playstation-division-will-once-again-have-a-single-ceo-170758830.html?src=rss 

NVIDIA just warned consumers that it might be pretty difficult for gamers to get their hands on its upcoming high-end RTX 5090 and 5080 graphics cards. The company says it expects “significant demand” for the cards and that “stock-outs may happen.” The term “stock-out” is business speak for “we ran out of the thing you want.”

The official launch is January 30, so many gamers could find themselves out of luck on release day. Several distributors have revealed they won’t even have the cards on January 30. MSI says it won’t be selling the GPUs in the US until February 6 and PC maker PowerGPU told its customers that availability “will be the worst” for the “first three months.”

This is a global issue. VideoCardz has reported that Korea likely won’t see shipments until mid-February and the UK retailer Overclockers has posted that it only has “single-digit” numbers of RTX 5090s in stock. The retailer does, however, have slightly more 5080s in stock. 

Gizmodo has reported that folks are already camping out in the cold for the expensive cards. NVIDIA, for its part, has stated that its “shipping more stock to retail every day to help get GPUs into the hands of gamers.” We’ll see how that goes. In any event, we have compiled some tips to help folks snag one of these cards.

If you pay attention to NVIDIA product launches, this news should come as no surprise. The same thing happened with the 40 series. There was high demand and limited initial availability. It took months until gamers could cruise online and purchase one of the latest graphics cards. The 30 series cards were also difficult to find at launch, due to the pandemic and bitcoin mining.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/nvidia-says-itll-likely-run-out-of-rtx-5090-and-5080-cards-due-to-significant-demand-172030639.html?src=rss 

OpenAI claims that Chinese startups are persistently trying to copy the technology of American AI companies. Aligned with that, OpenAI says it and partner Microsoft have been banning accounts suspected of “distilling” its models. The two are trying to identify those behind such efforts and, per The Wall Street Journal, buzzy upstart DeepSeek is among the entities OpenAI is looking into.

Distillation refers to the process of bolstering smaller and more efficient AI models by tapping into responses from more advanced ones. The aim is to achieve similar results in certain circumstances by aping larger models’ reasoning. OpenAI permits business users to distill its models on its platform, as the Journal notes, but under the company’s terms of service, users aren’t allowed to train their own models on the output of its systems. DeepSeek has said that it uses distillation on R1, its most capable model, to train smaller ones.

“We know [China]-based companies — and others — are constantly trying to distill the models of leading US AI companies,” an OpenAI spokesperson told The Guardian. They added it was “critically important” for OpenAI to work with the government to “best protect the most capable models from efforts by adversaries and competitors to take US technology.”

The company didn’t explicitly mention DeepSeek in its statement, but the Chinese startup’s open-source chatbot has blown up in recent days. For one thing, it hit the top of the free apps list in Apple’s App Store. Its success wiped $1 trillion of stock market value from publicly listed tech companies that are neck deep in the AI sector. It’s been claimed that DeepSeek’s chatbot performs about as well as AI systems from the likes of OpenAI and Google but at a fraction of the cost and with less-powerful chips, undercutting the belief that such technology is very expensive to develop and run.

There have been reports that DeepSeek cites OpenAI policies in its outputs. Meanwhile, David Sacks, who is President Donald Trump’s AI advisor, claimed there’s “substantial evidence” that DeepSeek “distilled the knowledge out of OpenAI’s models.”

Still, all of this concern seems extremely rich from OpenAI, a company that has faced a swathe of lawsuits from authors, comedians, news organizations and others who accused it of using their copyrighted work without consent to train its models. Indeed, the company admitted last year that it would be “impossible to train today’s leading AI models without using copyrighted materials.” It seems OpenAI would have you believe that what’s good for the goose is not good for the gander.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-suddenly-thinks-intellectual-property-theft-is-not-cool-actually-amid-deepseeks-rise-154249605.html?src=rss 

Do you constantly lose all of your stuff? No shame, but now might be a great time to invest in a few tracking devices. Luckily, a four-pack of Apple AirTags is on sale right now for $70 via Amazon. This is a record-low price and represents a 30 percent discount. It also breaks down to around $17.50 per tracker.

Apple AirTags easily made our list of the best Bluetooth trackers, and this is especially true if you use an iPhone. The finding network is comprehensive and works just about anywhere. Just imagine all of those other Apple devices out there in the world helping to create this network. The end result? You’ll likely find what you’re looking for.

These trackers can also use the ultra-wideband (UWB) wireless protocol, which gamifies finding lost objects. As long as the object is within 25 feet of your smartphone, the screen will display directional arrows and a distance meter. You use this data to zero in on the object, all without constantly ringing the AirTag.

Of course, AirTags aren’t perfect. They are designed to work with iPhones and other Apple products, so Android users should keep scrolling. Also, the ringer only pings for seven seconds at a time. Sometimes that’s enough to find a lost item, but not always. 

Finally, Apple decided to not include attachment points with these trackers, so they can’t connect to a keychain or a related accessory. However, there are plenty of amazing accessories for AirTags that get the job done.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/pick-up-a-four-pack-of-apple-airtags-while-on-sale-for-70-161335051.html?src=rss 

NordVPN is known for developing its own VPN protocol, NordLynx, based on the popular and reliable WireGuard protocol. It also supports the tried-and-true OpenVPN protocol. Today, Nord Security is adding NordWhisper as its latest encryption offering.

Some countries like China, India, Pakistan, and Russia prevent their citizens and visitors within their borders from using VPNs. Even if you visit these countries with a VPN app preinstalled, these governments have anti-VPN solutions to prevent you from using them. That’s where NordWhisper comes in. The company claims that instead of relying on standard obfuscation techniques, NordWhisper mimics regular internet traffic, which makes it harder for governments to tell if you’re using a VPN, though it’s not foolproof.

All VPN protocols introduce lag and latency, and Nord Security also mentioned that NordWhisper will likely be slower than other protocols due to its technology. Even so, the company has promised to make it smarter, faster, and more effective at its job.

NordWhisper will gradually roll out to users, starting with the Windows, Android and Linux apps. The other apps will receive support at a later date, though Nord Security hasn’t mentioned any specific days or timeframes.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/vpn/nordvpns-nordwhisper-protocol-can-get-around-vpn-blockers-162525626.html?src=rss