The upcoming Pixel Watch will feature some type of Fitbit integration.
The updated Play Store listing for Fitbit shows off the Wear OS app.
Google is rumored to offer up to six months of free Fitbit Premium for those that purchase a Pixel Watch.
We’re less than 24 hours away from Google’s big launch event, and while there have been plenty of unofficial leaks revealing details about the Pixel 7 and Pixel Watch, some official details manage to slip through the cracks now and then. This time, it’s all about Fitbit, which we expect to hear a lot about at the event.
If you head over to the Fitbit app on the Google Play Store, 9to5Google noticed that the listing appears to have been updated with new screenshots showing off the upcoming Wear OS app. The screenshots reveal a pretty full-featured application, as you can see what appears to be the screen for an in-progress workout that shows steps, calories, and time. At the bottom, we can see that two other screens are available via a swipe.
There are also views for various metrics, recent activities, sleep metrics, and a heart rate graph. At least one screenshot appears to be a possible tile, showing a step counter with a circular progress bar like what we’ve seen with Google Fit on Wear OS watches.
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(Image credit: Fitbit)
(Image credit: Fitbit)
(Image credit: Fitbit)
(Image credit: Fitbit)
(Image credit: Fitbit)
(Image credit: Fitbit)
(Image credit: Fitbit)
As 9to5 points out, the listing also shows a slight redesign to the Fitbit smartphone app, with an oddly designed navigation bar at the bottom.
Additionally, it appears the Fitbit app is already gearing up for the Pixel Watch launch. When setting up a new device, the Pixel Watch shows up among the available devices (via Android Police). Selecting it doesn’t do much, however. It attempts to redirect you to a non-existent Pixel Watch app, which we expect to become available on the Play Store at any moment now.
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(Image credit: Android Central)
(Image credit: Android Central)
Meanwhile, the Fitbit ECG app also looks like it’s primed for the Pixel Watch launch.
Rumors have suggested that Google may offer users up to six months of free Fitbit Premium when they purchase a Pixel Watch, which is double what it already offers some new users. The Fitbit Premium subscription isn’t exactly cheap, and we’re not really convinced that it’s worth the price, so a six-month trial isn’t something to pass up.
Google will launch the Pixel Watch on October 6 at 10 am AM ET / 7 AM PT. Be sure to check out our live blog to catch all the news as it happens.
After negative feedback, Blizzard is scrapping Overwatch 2’s requirement for a non-prepaid phone for most players. The change should come into effect this Friday, October 7.
In a forum post, Blizzard community manager Jodie wrote: “We designed Overwatch 2 to be a live service, which enables us to be responsive to a variety of player feedback. We have made the decision to remove phone number requirements for a majority of existing Overwatch players. Any Overwatch player with a connected Battle.net account, which includes all players who have played since June 9, 2021, will not have to provide a phone number to play. We are working to make this change and expect it to go live on Friday, October 7. We will update players once it is in effect.”
The SMS Protect system was intended to help curb cheating and disruptive behaviour from players, and it will remain in effect for those making brand new accounts.
“Accounts that were not connected to Battle.net as well as new accounts will still have to meet SMS Protect requirements, which helps to ensure we’re protecting our community against cheating. If a player is caught engaging in disruptive behavior, their account may be banned whether they have a new account or not,” reads the statement.
The post ends by saying the team “will make further adjustments in this area if it is required.” The statement does not confirm whether the previous block on prepaid phone numbers has been removed, and we’ve asked Blizzard for comment.
Overwatch 2’s free-to-play nature should mean it’s accessible to all players with a compatible device. However, a side effect of a new security measure from Blizzard is leaving some users out in the cold.
Over on Twitter, user Jack Saint brought the community’s attention to Overwatch 2’s SMS Protect policy, which says all players must connect a phone number to their battle.net account to launch Overwatch 2.
blizzard isn’t letting people play overwatch 2 if they have… a prepaid phone plan?? pic.twitter.com/NkVOMuFGDJ
— Jack Saint (@lackingsaint) October 5, 2022
Blizzard made this news public last week, but the players only began noticing on a larger scale after the game went live yesterday. According to a news release on Overwatch’s official website, the SMS Protect functionality is a solution to combat “both cheating and disruptive behavior” in Overwatch 2. Part of the release says the following:
“Starting October 4, 2022, all players across all platforms, including consoles, are required to have a phone number attached to their battle.net account to launch Overwatch 2. The same phone number cannot be used on multiple accounts at the same time, and players can’t use the same phone number to create multiple accounts. A phone number can only be used once when making a new account, and certain types of numbers, including pre-paid and VOIP, cannot be used for SMS Protect.”
Overwatch 2: All 35 Heroes at Launch
The part that’s causing problems is the last sentence, where it says prepaid phone plans are not eligible for SMS Protect. Prepaid phone plans, from companies like Cricket Wireless, require users to pay the bill before receiving service. These plans also rarely require a contract, making them a more attractive option for people who can’t afford or don’t want to spend as much money on a contract phone plan from Verizon or T-Mobile. Unfortunately, these are the people Overwatch 2 is currently excluding because of the SMS Protect requirement.
For example, in a post on r/Overwatch, one user said this phone requirement made them feel bad about having a prepaid phone plan, writing in part, “I’m really upset and oddly ashamed for not meeting this ‘standard’. Never thought I would be disqualified from playing overwatch based on my ability [to] afford a phone contract, but here we are… Blizzard is the first company to make me feel too poor to play a game.”
And, it’s not as if Overwatch fans with prepaid phone plans can even return to the original game, either, as Blizzard shut down the Overwatch servers to prepare for the sequel’s launch this week. Rather, players who launch Overwatch will be prompted to update to Overwatch 2. Blizzard made the decision to shut down Overwatch 1 in order to retain a unified player base in the new game.
When IGN reached out for comment, Blizzard responded, saying, “We plan to address this sometime soon, potentially this afternoon.” We will update this story when Blizzard addresses the lack of access for users with prepaid phone plans.
That’s not the only issue Overwatch 2 faces during its launch week, as players online are also complaining about lengthy queues. Multiple posts on Twitter cite wait queues with upwards of 20,000 people in line ahead of them.
This isn’t uncommon for massive online games during their launch window, as Final Fantasy XIV fans are no doubt familiar with. Blizzard also told IGN there will be a communication later today addressing the server wait times.
Tried to get into Overwatch. Waited for about 30 mins to go from 400 in the queue to zero. When I got to the front, it said ‘Searching for Server’. When it found one, I was 30,000 in the queue.
No Overwatch for me today 🙃
— Skill Up (@SkillUpYT) October 5, 2022
Beyond all this, the big headlines yesterday surrounded the pair of DDoS attacks Overwatch 2 suffered on its launch day. So if you jumped into Overwatch 2 shortly after launch, you likely experienced dropped games or other connection issues as Blizzard worked to fix server issues and stability.
Underneath all of these problems, there is a good game somewhere within Overwatch 2. In our review, we called the sequel great, saying “Overwatch 2 breathes new life into what was once the sharpest multiplayer shooter around, before it had its edges severely dulled by Blizzard’s attention shifting away.”
Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over six years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.
The first benchmarks of NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB graphics card have leaked online and show over 20% performance gain in 3DMark tests.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB Graphics Card Beats The RTX 3090 Ti 24 GB In Leaked 3DMark & Gaming Benchmarks
The benchmarks of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB graphics card have leaked over at Chiphell Forums. It is unknown if the graphics card was a Founders Edition variant or an AIB model but the chip was running on an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D CPU. The graphics card was tested across 3DMark & a few titles. But first, we got to lay our eyes on the AIDA64 GPGPU Benchmark which shows that the card offers up to 53.6 TFLOPs of single-precision performance which is 8% higher than the officially reported figure of 49 TFLOPs. For comparison, the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti produces 40 TFLOPs so this is a 32.5% improvement in single-precision compute.
In terms of synthetic benchmarks, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB scores 13977 points in the 3DMark Time Spy Extreme (Graphics), 17465 points in the 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra (Graphics), and 17607 Points in the 3DMark Port Royal benchmark.
Just for comparison, my heavily overclocked & custom RTX 3090 Ti SUPRIM X scores 11643 points in Time Spy Extreme, 13554 points in Fire Strike Ultra, and 15124 points in Port Royal. If we compare these figures to the RTX 4080 16 GB, we get the following performance:
RTX 4080 16 GB vs RTX 3090 Ti 24 GB in Time Spy Extreme – 20% Faster
RTX 4080 16 GB vs RTX 3090 Ti 24 GB in Fire Strike Ultra – 29% Faster
RTX 4080 16 GB vs RTX 3090 Ti 24 GB in Port Royal (DXR) – 16% Faster
0
4000
8000
12000
16000
20000
24000
The user also shared performance benchmarks of two games, Red Dead Redemption 2 (with and without DLSS) and Shadow of The Tomb Raider (Full High DLSS Quality). The results can be seen in the screenshots below:
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB graphics card is expected to utilize a cut-down AD103-300 GPU configuration with 9,728 cores or 76 SMs enabled of the total 84 units whereas the previous configuration offered 80 SMs or 10,240 cores. While the full GPU comes packed with 64 MB of L2 cache and up to 224 ROPs, the RTX 4080 might end up with 48 MB of L2 cache and lower ROPs too due to its cut-down design. The card is expected to be based on the PG136/139-SKU360 PCB. The graphics card is said to offer a peak clock rate of 2505 MHz.
As for memory specs, the GeForce RTX 4080 is expected to rock 16 GB GDDR6X capacities that are said to be adjusted at 22.5 Gbps speeds across a 256-bit bus interface. This will provide up to 720 GB/s of bandwidth. This is still a tad bit slower than the 760 GB/s bandwidth offered by the RTX 3080 since it comes with a 320-bit interface but a lowly 10 GB capacity. To compensate for the lower bandwidth, NVIDIA could be integrating a next-gen memory compression suite to make up for the 256-bit interface.
The card will have a TBP of 320W which is 30W lower than the TBP of the 12 GB RTX 3080 and much lower than the TBP of the RTX 3090 Ti while offering a big performance jump. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 16 GB and RTX 4080 12 GB graphics cards will be launching in November and be priced at $1199 US and $899 US, respectively. Considering if the card does end up around 20-30% faster in games than the RTX 3090 Ti, then it could
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Series Official Specs:
Graphics Card Name
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 16G
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 12G
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti
GPU Name
Ada Lovelace AD102-300
Ada Lovelace AD103-300
Ada Lovelace AD104-400
Ampere GA102-225
Process Node
TSMC 4N
TSMC 4N
TSMC 4N
Samsung 8nm
Die Size
608mm2
378.6mm2
294.5mm2
628.4mm2
Transistors
76 Billion
45.9 Billion
35.8 Billion
28 Billion
CUDA Cores
16384
9728
7680
10240
TMUs / ROPs
512 / 176
320 / 112
240 / 80
320 / 112
Tensor / RT Cores
512 / 128
304 / 76
240 / 60
320 / 80
Base Clock
2230 MHz
2210 MHz
2310 MHz
1365 MHz
Boost Clock
2520 MHz
2510 MHz
2610 MHz
1665 MHz
FP32 Compute
83 TFLOPs
49 TFLOPs
40 TFLOPs
40 TFLOPs
RT TFLOPs
191 TFLOPs
113 TFLOPs
82 TFLOPs
78 TFLOPs
Tensor-TOPs
1321 TOPs
780 TOPs
641 TOPs
320 TOPs
Memory Capacity
24 GB GDDR6X
16 GB GDDR6X
12 GB GDDR6X
12 GB GDDR6X
Memory Bus
384-bit
256-bit
192-bit
384-bit
Memory Speed
21.0 Gbps
23.0 Gbps
21.0 Gbps
19 Gbps
Bandwidth
1008 GB/s
736 GB/s
504 GB/s
912 Gbps
TBP
450W
320W
285W
350W
Price (MSRP / FE)
$1599 US
$1199 US
$899 US
$1199
Launch (Availability)
October 2022
November 2022
November 2022
3rd June 2021
Which NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series graphics card are you looking forward to the most?Poll Options are limited because JavaScript is disabled in your browser.
Customers try out new iPhones at an Apple store as iPhone 14 series go on sale on September 16, 2022 in Shanghai, China.
VCG | Visual China Group | Getty Images
Apple’s next iPhone is likely to be equipped with USB-C charging, analysts said, after a European law on common chargers took a step closer to becoming reality.
On Tuesday, lawmakers in the European Parliament approved a law requiring electronics, including mobile phones, tablets and cameras sold in the European Union, to be equipped with a USB Type-C charging port by the end of 2024.
Apple currently uses its proprietary Lightning chargers which are different to USB-C. But that could change from the iPhone 15, the next version of its flagship smartphone.
“It is now inevitable that Apple will have to capitulate and transition to USB-C on the iPhone 15 when it arrives in 2023,” Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight, said in a note earlier this week.
“My thinking is that Apple has already moved to USB-C on MacBook and iPad Pro so the transition has started. iPhone 14 was quite iterative so iPhone 15 could be a bigger step in design. Therefore, it would be a good time to make the change,” Wood said in follow up comments to CNBC.
There are rumors that Apple is exploring USB-C for the iPhone 15, which is what the next device could be called if traditional naming convention continues.
In May, Bloomberg reported that Apple is testing future iPhone models with USB-C charging but those won’t come out until 2023 at the earliest.
Will iPhone 15 have USB-C charging globally?
If Apple does switch to USB-C next year, Bryan Ma, technology industry analyst at IDC, said the U.S. technology giant would make the change for iPhones globally, not just in the EU.
“Most likely it would make sense that they get the scale out of moving to this common charger globally rather than having to make individual parts, unless they think that they’re really making so much [money] off of those chargers and accessories and that sort of thing that it’s still worth it for them to maintain that separate,” Ma told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Wednesday.
“In their own house, they’re already getting ready and making preparations for the eventuality within a couple of years,” he added.
The change would bring Apple’s charging ports in line with competitors including Samsung which already use USB-C.
The EU law has been about 10 years in the making and looks set to potentially get a final stamp of approval this year.
Lawmakers argue different charging standards create waste and the law will mean consumers won’t need to buy a new charger every time they purchase a device.
“This is a victory for common sense. Although Apple has a huge installed base of lighting cable powered devices, the ubiquity of USB-C across all consumer electronics products means that harmonising on USB-C makes perfect sense,” Wood said.
NVIDIA RTX 4080 16GB has been supposedly tested in 3DMark
Benchmark results featuring alleged NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 16GB have now been posted on Chiphell forums.
First thing that should be mentioned is that we are not certain how could someone obtain a driver that supports RTX 4080 16GB this soon. This card is not expected to launch until next month and as far as we are aware, there are no drivers for this card yet.
However, the screenshots do show a GPU with a boost clock of 2505 MHz and 76 Compute Units, in this case Streaming Multiprocessors, and the leaker clearly states that this card is RTX 4080. Furthermore, we can see it tops at 53620 GFLOPS, which would be just slightly higher than what NVIDIA promised for RTX 4080 16GB.
NVIDIA RTX 4080 16GB in AIDA64, Source: Chiphell
The results are quite good, in fact, the GPU is already the fastest GPU in a 3DMARK ranking. This alleged RTX 4080 scored 17465 and 13977 Graphics points in FireStrike Extreme and TimeSpy Extreme respectively, which puts it at the very top of the list.
NVIDIA RTX 4080 16GB in 3DMark, Source: Chiphell
3DMark Fire Strike Ultra
VideoCardz.com
(4K, DX11) Graphics Score
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 16GB
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB
AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT
AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT
AMD Radeon RX 6800
3DMark Time Spy Extreme
VideoCardz.com
(4K, DX12) Graphics Score
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 16GB
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB
AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT
AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT
AMD Radeon RX 6800
The leaker also published an Intel XeSS result and Port Royal.
NVIDIA RTX 4080 16GB in 3DMark, Source: Chiphell
3DMark Port Royal
VideoCardz.com
(1440p, DX12) Score
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 16GB
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 12GB
AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT
AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT
AMD Radeon RX 6800
Furthermore, benchmarks from actual games such as Shadow of the Tomb Raider have also been published.
NVIDIA RTX 4080 16GB in Games, Source: Chiphell
NVIDIA announced two RTX 4080 GPUs, the 16GB variant offers more cores and more memory. The one that was allegedly tested features 9728 CUDA cores and AD103 GPU, whereas the 12GB variant has 7680 cores and AD104 GPU. Both models are set to launch at the same time next month, but the release date has not been announced yet.
I’ve been testing Apple’s new $899 iPhone 14 Plus, which hits stores Friday, for the past several days. It has the biggest screen you can get on an iPhone, without shelling out $1,099 for the Pro model, and the best battery life ever on an iPhone.
The iPhone 14 Plus is great for people who just want a larger screen and don’t mind missing out on the new features of the Pro and Pro Max, such as the Dynamic Island and always-on display.
But most buyers seem to have flocked to the Pro models over the regular iPhone 14 so far.
Bank of America analysts released a rare downgrade to Apple’s stock last week and cut its price target on “weaker consumer demand” and the potential for a sluggish iPhone cycle as consumers slow spending. The bank suggested that while there’s a stronger mix of Pro model purchases so far, that won’t offset a decline in revenue and profit if Apple sells fewer units overall.
iPhone 14 Plus.
Sofia Pitt
And JPMorgan analysts said in a note on Oct. 3, which compared shipment times across iPhone models, that price-sensitive customers are opting for the iPhone 13 rather than the more expensive iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus.
But you shouldn’t just write off the iPhone 14 Plus. It’s a good option for folks who just want a big screen and don’t want to spend $200 more for the iPhone 14 Pro Max. And it has excellent battery life and improved cameras in a lightweight package.
Here’s what you need to know about the iPhone 14 Plus.
iPhone 14 Plus: What’s good
Apple unveiled four new iPhones, three new Apple Watches and an updated AirPods Pro during a press event on Wednesday in Cupertino, California, United States on September 7, 2022.
Tayfun Coskun | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
The large screen is the highlight here. And, if you’re like me, you’ll dig having a bigger display in your pocket for reading, movies, gaming and more. It’s otherwise the same screen as the regular iPhone 14. I noticed blacks were nice and deep and colors popped while streaming YouTube videos.
You can see more on a page, such as a website you’re browsing, or store more apps on your homepage. And this helps if you want to see more while also increasing the text size, which might be convenient for folks who prefer or need larger text.
iPhone 14 Plus.
Sofia Pitt
The iPhone 14 Plus is just 0.11 ounces lighter than the iPhone 14 Pro Max, which has the same display size, but the difference felt significant when I carried it around.
The iPhone 14 Plus is 1.31 ounces lighter than the iPhone 14 Pro Max and the difference felt significant when I carried it around.
Apple says the iPhone 14 Plus has “the best battery life ever in iPhone,” which just refers to general usage throughout the day. The battery life was great in my tests. I was able to stream YouTube videos for over 19 hours before the phone died, which is in line with Apple’s claim that streamed video playback lasts 20 hours. Apple also promises up to 100 hours of audio playback, which is longer than any other iPhone.
The cameras are also solid. While you don’t get the telephoto or really sharp main cameras that you’ll find on the iPhone 14 Pro models, you still get an improved 12-megapixel main camera that took good pictures, including clearer and brighter photos at night when there weren’t a lot of lights.
iPhone 14 Plus photo in night mode.
Sofia Pitt
There’s also a new front camera with autofocus for selfies. That means your selfies will look sharper and more in focus than on the iPhone 13.
iPhone 14 Plus selfie.
Sofia Pitt
Apple debuted new safety features on all iPhone 14 models, including crash detection and emergency SOS via satellite, the latter of which will be available in November. I haven’t been in a car crash to test it, though multiple reports have already shown the feature works. Both safety features aren’t available on the iPhone 13.
iPhone 14 Plus.
Sofia Pitt
iPhone 14 Plus: What’s bad
Despite its size, the iPhone 14 Plus is a relatively small update over last year’s iPhone 13. You’ll see more of an upgrade from the Pro models. Those phones have always-on displays that can show notifications even when your phone is idle, and feature Dynamic Island, which makes better use of the notch at the top of the screen. Dynamic Island can show things like album art for the music you’re playing, for example, and will soon offer other features like live sports scores at the top of your screen.
iPhone 14 Plus home screen.
Sofia Pitt
If you’re looking for a camera upgrade, you’ll notice a difference if you’re upgrading from an iPhone 12, but it’s hard to see a significant difference if you’re switching from the 13 to the 14 Plus, aside from the autofocus on the front-facing selfie camera.
The iPhone 14 Plus uses the same A15 chip as the iPhone 13, but with an additional graphics processing core for improved gaming performance. I didn’t notice a difference when I played the game “Diablo: Immortal” on both phones.
I’m disappointed that all of the iPhone 14s still have a Lightning port instead of USB-C. I wasn’t expecting Apple to switch, but it would be really useful to just carry the same USB-C charger that I use to power a MacBook and an iPad.
iPhone 14 Plus.
Sofia Pitt
Should you buy it?
The iPhone 14 Plus is a great buy for folks who just want an iPhone with a bigger screen and who don’t want or need the features in the Pro models. At $899, the $100 premium over the standard iPhone 14 is well worth it for the larger display and better battery life. But you probably don’t need to upgrade from the iPhone 13 for it.
Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs passed away from pancreatic cancer 11 years ago today. He is probably most remembered for the introduction of the iPhone on January 9th, 2007. In a performance that was flawless for both Jobs and the iPhone, Steve displayed the device with the confidence of a man who knew that he was showing off a device that was about to change the world.
Jobs was only 56 when he passed and ironically, just the day before he died, Apple unveiled the iPhone 4S. This was the first iPhone to feature Siri and while some said that the “S” in the phone’s name stood for Siri, others said (a few days after the unveiling) that it was a tribute to Steve Jobs. Actually, neither one was right. As it did with the iPhone 3GS, Apple was merely adding the letter to the name of the previous year’s iPhone with the same design as the new model.
Steve Jobs, seen here unveiling the iPhone in 2007, passed away 11 years ago today
This email said, “Hi Mr. Jobs, I love my new iPhone 4 (nice work) but when I put my hands on the steel bands I lose all reception. It appears to be a common issue. Any plans to fix this? Thanks, Aram.” Jobs wrote back, “Just avoid holding it in that way.” Somehow that response became a direct quote from Steve saying, “You’re holding it wrong.” Eventually, Apple sent out free rubber bumpers that shielded the antenna bands from interference from your hands.
Before the iPhone, Jobs had made a triumphant return to Apple in 1997. He had hired Pepsi executive John Sculley to be CEO of Apple in 1983. Sculley then fired Jobs who worked on Pixar (later bought by Disney) and a company called Next while away from Apple. When Apple purchased Next, it gave Jobs a way back into Apple and he took over the CEO role (although it was supposed to be on an interim basis).
Jobs released a series of products that might never be seen again. First came the iMac computer with its colorful translucent plastic. Then came the iPod, Apple’s MP3 player that held an incredible 1,000 songs while featuring a battery that ran for 10 hours. The iPhone was next (’nuff said) followed by the iPad.
The Persona 5 Royal Nintendo Switch release is fast approaching, and if the smash hit RPG wasn’t already enough to steal your heart, maybe an official card game will help.
Atlus has announced it has teamed up with Pandasaurus Games to release a Persona 5-themed cooperative card game by Emerson Matsuuchi – best known for designing the Century: Eastern Wonders and Foundations of Rome board games.
It’s scheduled to arrive on October 21st next year, but we have any screenshots or information just yet. The creator has shared a brief description though of what players can expect:
“Players will take on the roles of their favorite Phantom Thieves and fight to change the world in this cooperative card-based strategy game.”
Pandasaurus says it’s excited to adapt Persona 5 Royal to “tabletops everywhere in 2023”. Here’s the teaser graphic:
Image: Atlus
The Switch version of P5R will arrive later this month. You can see this game in action in our previous post:
Would you be interested in a Persona 5 Royal card game? Comment down below.
Blizzard’s launch of Overwatch 2 on Tuesday did not go as planned. Many players who attempted to play the revamped Overwatch experienced long queue times, were subjected to server errors, were disconnected from games, and had progress and items not carry over from the original game — that is, if they could connect to Blizzard’s game servers at all. On Wednesday evening, Blizzard apologized for the state of Overwatch 2’s launch and announced a major policy change: It will no longer require a phone number to be attached to a Battle.net account for “a majority of existing Overwatch players.”
“We have made the decision to remove phone number requirements for a majority of existing Overwatch players,” the Overwatch team said in a post on Blizzard’s forums. “Any Overwatch player with a connected Battle.net account, which includes all players who have played since June 9, 2021, will not have to provide a phone number to play.”
Blizzard said it plans to change the phone number requirement for Overwatch 2 for existing players by Friday.
Despite lifting the phone number requirement for much of its player base, an initiative it called SMS Protect, the developer “remain[s] committed to combating disruptive behavior in Overwatch 2” and noted that “accounts that were not connected to Battle.net as well as new accounts will still have to meet SMS Protect requirements, which helps to ensure we’re protecting our community against cheating. If a player is caught engaging in disruptive behavior, their account may be banned whether they have a new account or not.”
Blizzard’s decision to require a phone number for Overwatch 2 — and further restrictions about which types of phone numbers would meet its requirements — was a controversial one. Some players who had pre-paid cell phone plans found themselves locked out from playing Overwatch 2, meaning some customers who purchased the original Overwatch, which was replaced by its sequel wholesale, could no longer play their copy of the game. That issue was exacerbated by the timing of Blizzard’s announcement of the policy: one week before Overwatch 2 launched, and well after the developer started taking pre-orders for add-ons for the game.
As for the status of Overwatch 2’s online play, Blizzard said it’s still working to improve stability for the game’s online service.
“Today we’ve patched a server that is critical to the login experience, and this change has increased login reliability,” the Overwatch team said. “Beyond queues, we’re in progress with another server update that will reduce the occurrences of players being disconnected once they’re already in game.”
Blizzard said it has “made changes to simplify the queuing process,” and expects players to see more streamlined queue times, and is working to address players being dropped from queues.
In Wednesday evening’s update, Blizzard also addressed problems with account merging and missing player items, and incorrectly locked heroes, all of which it said is being investigated and worked on. Blizzard again noted that Overwatch 2’s launch issues “were exacerbated by DDoS attacks,” which have apparently abated since Tuesday.
Blizzard said updates will be posted on the official Overwatch Twitter account (and presumably its forums) as they come in.
Enlarge / The Nvidia RTX 4090 founders edition. If you can’t tell, those lines are drawn on, though the heft of this $1,599 might convince you that they’re a reflection of real-world motion blur upon opening this massive box.
Sam Machkovech
It’s a busy time in the Ars Technica GPU testing salt mines (not to be confused with the mining that GPUs used to be known for). After wrapping up our take on the Intel Arc A700 series, we went right back to testing a GPU that we’ve had for a few days now: the Nvidia RTX 4090.
This beast of a GPU, provided by Nvidia to Ars Technica for review purposes, is priced well out of the average consumer range, even for a product category where the average price keeps creeping upward. Though we’re not allowed to disclose anything about our testing as of press time, our upcoming coverage will reflect this GPU’s $1,599-and-up reality. In the meantime, we thought an unboxing of Nvidia’s “founders edition” of the 4090 would begin telling the story of exactly who this GPU might not be for.
A better look at the box’s heft.
Sam Machkovech
Sadly, the box has been scuffed a few times since its arrival; honestly, it opens and closes so awkwardly that if you buy the same model, you should be very careful how you open it.
The diagonal line that runs from top-left to bottom-right indicates where this opens and closes. Be sure to have the full box braced before popping it open.
Useful manufacturer info in many languages.
On paper, the Nvidia RTX 4090 is poised to blow past its Nvidia predecessors, with specs that handily surpass early 2022’s overkill RTX 3090 Ti product. The 4090 comes packed with approximately 50 percent more CUDA cores and between 25 and 33 percent higher counts in other significant categories, particularly cores dedicated to tensor and ray-tracing calculations (which are also updated to new specs for Nvidia’s new 5 nm process). However, one spec from the 3090 and 3090 Ti remains identical: its VRAM type and capacity (once again, 24GB of GDDR6X RAM).
Nvidia’s twin-fan design returns in a chassis that resembles the 3000-series founders editions.
Sam Machkovech
Zoom in on nicely etched text.
Unsurprising combination of HDMI 2.1 and DP 2.0 ports, along with a better sense of its height.
You’re not imagining things; that’s a slight concave curve on each of its edges. If you already have an ATX 3.0-compliant power supply, then you can expect a tidier connection between the 4090 and your PC’s power supply. If not…
…then you can use this adapter to connect the 4090 to legacy PSUs. This cable comes with the 4090 by default, and the box suggests no less than 450 W for its power.
Spoiler alert: You only need to connect three of these to get the GPU running. But the fourth is there for… reasons.
Magnetic clasp over this little cover.
And it reveals something! What is it? We’ll tell you later.
Yet despite surpassing the 3090 Ti in many performance-impacting specs, Nvidia is sticking to a power maximum of 450 W—still a power-hungry card, certainly, but the results may push a new level of efficiency for such a high-end product. Clearly, something has to give if the power maximum isn’t changing, and that comes in the form of a massive new chassis, now requiring three full PCI-e slots of space in your preferred gaming case, along with additional length.
4090 vs. Yoshi Amiibo toy (roughly 3 inches tall).
4090 vs. banana.
Sam Machkovech
4090 vs. Xbox Series X gamepad.
Sam Machkovech
4090 vs. Intel Arc A770.
4090 vs. Intel Arc A770.
4090 vs. Intel Arc A770.
4090 vs. Xbox Series S console.
4090 vs. Xbox Series S console.
4090 vs. Xbox Series S console.
You can estimate that additional size in your own case by comparing its 12-inch (304 mm) length and 5.4-inch (137 mm) depth with a more standard-sized GPU like the new Intel Arc A770 (pictured in the above final gallery). You’ll also need to make room for at least three standard 8-pin power connector cables in your case of choice, which can be plugged into an ATX 3.0 12-pin adapter (pictured in the second-to-last gallery). Our size-comparison gallery goes everywhere, from a plastic Yoshi toy to a banana and from an Xbox controller to an entire Xbox console.
If there’s anything you’re itching to know about the RTX 4090, whether because you want to buy it specifically or because you wonder how its launch will affect other future GPU technologies, let us know in the comments section. This unboxing can’t go into performance questions like a new DLSS system or cheaper models in the Ada Lovelace GPU line, but our upcoming review, slated to run next week ahead of the GPU’s October 12 launch date, will go much further.
This article has been updated since publication to correct an error about the 4090’s included power cable.
