Pelican Press

What Stagflation Means for Investors and These Stocks What Stagflation Means for Investors and These Stocks When the market narrative becomes too widely accepted, excess seems to be created in some areas of the economy as businesses prepare for what’s coming their way. Today’s stock market seems to be focused on one theme and one theme only: stagflation. This rare economic condition, not seen since the 1970s, poses a particular risk for investors, though not one that can’t be hedged or managed. But before investors learn about these strategies and safety stocks, they must first understand stagflation. Simply put, it is an economic state of low economic growth as measured by the GDP numbers, other business activity readings, and an elevated inflation rate, hence the name’s stagnant nature. With this in mind, investors can make sense of some of the decisions behind recent buying and selling activity from investors like Warren Buffett, who decided to sell names like Apple (NASDAQ:) and Capital One Financial (NYSE:) to express his concerns in cyclical names. However, buying energy stocks like Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:) also gave investors a safer route to profit if stagflation happens. Why Energy Does Well in Stagflation There is a basement level of business activity that will never really go away. People will still need fuel and energy no matter whether the economy is booming or busting, meaning oil demand will never really fall below the minimum needed to keep companies pumping out profits. Buffett knows this, which is why he chose to go into the sector, but there are other choices investors can consider. For those uncomfortable with picking individual stocks, the broader Energy Select Sector SPDR® Fund (NYSE:) offers more diversification and lower volatility potential. Then there are other, more aggressive choices. Moving up in the oil industry’s value chain, investors can land on the oil drilling names for upside, and that’s where shares of Transocean (NYSE:) come into consideration. Standing at the forefront of drilling equipment leasing and manufacturing, here’s why this company stands to make a few investors happy. 3 Reasons Transocean Beats Stagflation First, as the United States enters a potential stagflation scenario, where commodities like gold do well against a weakening dollar, related products like oil also follow the same upward path. Considering the long-term correlation between gold and oil has been closer to 90%, today’s divergence calls for a massive rally in oil. Second, Wall Street analysts share the same view. As of February 2025, the consensus price target is set at $5.75 per share, which calls for a rally of up to 95% from where the stock trades today, justifying some of the recent institutional buying. After a 1.2% boost in Transocean holdings by the Vanguard Group, a stake of $295.5 million today, or 9% ownership in the company, shows investors where the so-called “Smart money” is looking to bet today. Third, the company offers investors a tremendous discount. As price action goes, the stock now sits at 43% of its 52-week high, pricing in some of the worst-case scenarios for the entire oil industry and giving shareholders a fantastic risk-to-reward setup. More than that, there is a fundamental discount to exploit today. According to the company’s latest earnings presentation, the backlog of orders outstanding today is $8.4 billion and expected to be converted within 12-18 months. Considering the company’s market capitalization is only $2.5 billion today, that prices in a forward sales multiple of only 0.3x, reiterating the low-risk opportunity to outrun stagflation. A Worthy Mention in This Value Stock To beat stagflation, investors must tap their portfolios into growth opportunities and significantly compress their downside, such as in the already discussed Transocean setup. However, only the business side has been covered, and now it’s time for the consumer end of things. This is where PepsiCo (NASDAQ:) comes into play today. As part of the consumer staples sector, it provides certain stability while also offering enough earnings per share (EPS) growth at a discount to mitigate some of the potential stagflation risks today. Wall Street analysts now forecast up to $2.52 in EPS for the third quarter of 2025, a significant boost from today’s $1.96 reported EPS. With this sort of growth in mind, it’s time to consider the downside. Today’s forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 18.5x on Pepsi stock would be the lowest since 2018 and significantly below the 23.0x longer-term average. This is why the consensus price target is also set at $171.5 today, calling for up to 11.7% upside from where Pepsi trades today, another excellent risk-to-reward setup. Original Post Source link #Stagflation #Means #Investors #Stocks Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Amgen weight loss drug MariTide starts two phase three trials Amgen weight loss drug MariTide starts two phase three trials The Amgen logo is displayed outside Amgen headquarters in Thousand Oaks, California, on May 17, 2023. Mario Tama | Getty Images Amgen on Wednesday said it has started two critical late-stage trials for its experimental weight loss injection MariTide, another step in its bid to enter the booming obesity drug market. “We’re delighted to share that these trials have now been initiated, and really, the progression of the MARITIME program is going very, very well,” Dr. Jay Bradner, Amgen’s chief scientific officer, said during the TD Cowen conference, using the name of the drug’s phase three development program. MariTide is a monthly injection that investors hope could compete against existing weight loss drugs from Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, which are weekly injectables. One of the new phase three trials is examining Amgen’s drug in around 3,500 people with obesity or who are overweight without Type 2 diabetes, Bradner said. The second study examines MariTide in 999 patients who are obese or overweight and have Type 2 diabetes The main goal of both studies is to measure the percentage of weight loss at 72 weeks. Amgen will study three target doses of MariTide and plans to use dose escalation, or starting patients at a lower dose of the drug and increasing that amount over time. The company did not share a specific regimen for dosing in the trials. Amgen in November said MariTide helped patients with obesity lose up to 20% of their weight on average after a year in a phase two trial, with no weight loss plateau. The drug also helped patients with obesity and Type 2 diabetes lose up to 17% of their weight after a year with no plateau. But the results were on the lower end of Wall Street’s lofty expectations for the drug. Amgen will report more data on MariTide this year. The full results of the phase two trial will be presented at the American Diabetes Association conference in June. The company is also continuing to study patients in an extension of that trial that will read out in the second half of this year. MariTide brings a new approach to weight loss compared with the existing drugs on the market because it is a so-called peptide antibody conjugate, which refers to a monoclonal antibody linked to two peptides. The peptides activate receptors of a gut hormone called GLP-1, while the antibody blocks receptors of another hormone called GIP. That’s unlike Eli Lilly’s obesity drug, Zepbound, which activates both GIP and GLP-1. Wegovy activates GLP-1 but does not target GIP, which may also affect how the body breaks down sugar and ****. Source link #Amgen #weight #loss #drug #MariTide #starts #phase #trials Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Who is Al Green, the congressman from Texas removed from House chamber during Trump’s speech to Congress? Who is Al Green, the congressman from Texas removed from House chamber during Trump’s speech to Congress? Rep. Al Green, a Democrat from Texas, was swiftly escorted from the House chamber Tuesday night after interrupting President Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress. Green, a 77-year-old congressman, was ejected for shouting early on during Mr. Trump’s speech, in which the president reviewed his administration’s sweeping legislative agenda and outlined, for an hour and 40 minutes, his vision for how Congress should start to implement it. How long has Al Green been in Congress? Green has represented Texas’ 9th congressional district, which includes Houston, since 2005. He is currently serving his 11th term in the U.S. House of Representatives. His congressional biography touts him as “a veteran civil rights advocate” who “has fought for those in society whose voices, too often, are not heard.” Green was among the federal lawmakers who pushed to remove Mr. Trump from office during his last term, introducing the first articles of impeachment against him in 2017 and threatening to do it again when the president suggested a U.S. takeover of Gaza last month. He was arrested in 2012 outside of the Sudanese embassy in Washington, D.C., where he and other lawmakers at the time protested the civil war policies of Sudan’s then-president, and again in 2021, outside of the U.S. Capitol while protesting a voting rights bill. Rep. Al Green is removed from the chamber as President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress at the Capitol in Washington, March 4, 2025. Win McNamee/Pool Photo via AP Why was Al Green removed during Trump’s speech? After Mr. trump touted his victory in the 2024 election, Green stood up from his seat, raised his cane in Mr. Trump’s direction and could be heard shouting — in a departure from the largely quiet protests of his Democratic peers. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who sat behind the president during his address, immediately banged a gavel and said “members are directed to uphold and maintain decorum in the House and to cease any further disruptions,” in a response to Greene. “That’s your warning,” Johnson said. Green continued as Johnson told him to sit down. The House Speaker ultimately instructed the sergeant at arms to “restore order” and remove Green from the chamber. Green later told reporters he was “willing to suffer whatever punishment is available to me.” “I’m not fighting the punishment,” Green said. “This is about the people who are being punished by virtue of losing their health care. This is the richest country in the world, and we have people who don’t have good health care. We’ve got to do better and now we’re about to cut Medicaid, which is for poor.” Rep. Al Green of Texas shouts as President Trump speaks during an address to a joint session of Congress in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol on March 4, 2025. SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images Where is Al Green from? Green was born in New Orleans in September 1947. He attended Florida A&M University, Howard University and the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. “Without receiving an undergraduate degree, he enrolled in the Thurgood Marshall School of Law, where he earned his Juris Doctorate in 1973,” his bio states. He went on to co-found and co-manage a law firm and was appointed Justice of the Peace in Harris County, Texas, where he served for 26 years before serving in the House. Emily Mae Czachor Emily Mae Czachor is a news editor at CBSNews.com. She typically covers breaking news, extreme weather and issues involving social and criminal justice. Emily Mae previously wrote for outlets like the Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed and Newsweek. Source link #Green #congressman #Texas #removed #House #chamber #Trumps #speech #Congress Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Viva La FIFA! Coldplay help plan first World Cup show Viva La FIFA! Coldplay help plan first World Cup show Coldplay’s Chris Martin and the band’s manager Phil Harvey will be involved in helping FIFA plan the line-up for the first ever World Cup final half-time show next year. Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, confirmed the duo’s role in the Super Bowl-style event in a post on Instagram. The 2026 final will be played at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on July 19. Infantino said Martin and Harvey would be “working with (FIFA) to finalise the list of artists who will perform during the half-time show”. Infantino did not confirm how long FIFA intended the show to last, but the Super Bowl’s is generally between 25 and 30 minutes. “This will be a historic moment for the FIFA World Cup and a show befitting the biggest sporting event in the world,” he wrote. Infantino also said there would be a “takeover” of Times Square in New York City over the weekend of the final. The finals are being co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. The three countries are currently involved in a trade war, sparked by the imposition of tariffs by US president Donald Trump. The US anthem has been booed at recent sporting events by ********* fans in response to that, and following his regular calls for Canada to become the 51st US state. Source link #Viva #FIFA #Coldplay #plan #World #Cup #show Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Assassin’s Creed Shadows Global Launch Times And Preloading Info Revealed Assassin’s Creed Shadows Global Launch Times And Preloading Info Revealed Assassin’s Creed Shadows launches on March 20, and now Ubisoft has announced precisely when people can get started by publishing the game’s global releasing timing. Ubisoft also announced that pre-loading for Shadows is now underway on Xbox and will start soon for PS5 and PC. As you can see in the graphic below, Shadows unlocks on March 19 at 9 PM PT in Los Angeles, which works out to midnight ET in New York on March 20. You can see the full unlock times below. Assassin’s Creed Shadows is almost here As for pre-loading, Xbox Series X|S users are already able to pre-load the game, while PC users can begin at 4 PM UTC on March 17. PS5 players can pre-load starting March 18 AM 12 AM local time. Shadows takes place in 16th-century Japan and features two main characters: Naoe and Yasuke. The game brings back the popular War Kick ability, and it looks incredible. Assassin’s Creed Shadows officially launches for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S on March 20, and it features a robust selection of accessibility options, a world that dynamically adapts to your main character, and seasons that’ll change how you play. If you’re interested, you can check out our Assassin’s Creed Shadows preorder guide to see which version of the game is best for you. Assassin’s Creed Shadows unlock times March 19 Los Angeles PC, Ubisoft Connect: 9 PM PDT Steam: 9 PM PDT Console: 12 AM PDT (March 20) Mexico PC, Ubisoft Connect: 10 PM CST Steam: 10 PM CST Console: 12 AM CST (March 20) March 20 Montreal PC, Ubisoft Connect: 12 AM EDT Steam: 12 AM EDT Console: 12 AM EDT New York PC, Ubisoft Connect: 12 AM EDT Steam: 12 AM EDT Console: 12 AM EDT Sao Paulo PC, Ubisoft Connect: 1 AM BRT Steam: 1 AM BRT Console: 12 AM BRT London PC, Ubisoft Connect: 10 PM GMT (March 19) Steam: 4 AM GMT Console: 12 AM GMT Paris PC, Ubisoft Connect: 11 PM CET (March 19) Steam: 5 AM CET Console: 12 AM CET Johannesburg PC, Ubisoft Connect: 12 AM SAST Steam: 6 AM SAST Console: 12 AM SAST Warsaw PC, Ubisoft Connect: 11 PM CET Steam: 5 AM CET Console: 12 AM CET Shanghai PC, Ubisoft Connect: 8 PM CST (March 19) Steam: 12 AM CST Console: 12 AM CST Seoul PC, Ubisoft Connect: 9 PM KST (March 19) Steam: 1 PM KST Console: 12 AM KST Tokyo PC, Ubisoft Connect: 9 PM JST (March 19) Steam: 1 PM JST Console: 12 AM JST Sydney PC, Ubisoft Connect: 11 PM AEDT (March 19) Steam: 3 PM AEDT Console: 12 AM AEDT Source link #Assassins #Creed #Shadows #Global #Launch #Times #Preloading #Info #Revealed Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Delivering digital government – it’s (still) not about technology Delivering digital government – it’s (still) not about technology When I first started work as a civil servant in 2017, people were quick to talk to me about issues with the way that we funded digital work. I subsequently had the opportunity of experiencing these challenges and reading countless blogs and opinions arguing that reform of funding was the single most important issue to unlock to truly deliver digital government. I disagree. While funding is important, it’s just one of a number of fundamentals that need to change that together represent something much deeper and more complex to shift than one particular policy or process. In the digital world, IT leaders spent years refining technology and ways of working to become more adaptive and responsive to change. We deploy updates multiple times a day, design modular architectures, leverage APIs, and build platforms that allow for and indeed thrive on constant iteration and improvement. In government, however, we layer these modern approaches onto a system of thinking and doing things designed in the 19th century – one built for a more static, predictable world. Successive governments see technology as a silver bullet. Whether it’s process automation, blockchain or artificial intelligence (AI), they assume that implementing the technology, perhaps with a few tweaks to a process here or there, will be enough to overcome deeply embedded inefficiencies. It won’t. Rethinking policy by embedding digital from the start In a policy-led environment, we have to start there. The way government creates policy and legislation hinders the ability to deliver modern digital services. The civil service is not set up for, incentivised to, or focused on creating digital solutions to problems. They bake in ambiguity or subjectivity that requires human intervention, which means it’s not possible to fully automate processes. The system builds in lots of conditionality and complexity which adds cost and time to delivery. It’s difficult and slow to iterate and change policy in line with changing needs, even when change is constant. While there is an aspiration to break down silos and work in multidisciplinary teams, it isn’t happening fast enough. Government needs to be bolder and compel a different approach to policymaking. There are many approaches they could take here. For example, they could set up a customer experience duty to compel consideration of implementation up front; make it mandatory to create wireframes or prototypes before finalising legislation; or direct 25% of all policymaking work to focus on solving problems through digital, technology and AI. A more commercial, user-centred approach One of the things that surprised me the most going into the civil service was the absence of data – something I was used to seeing when working in the private sector. Having come from commercial organisations where the cost and performance of service lines were understood and constantly challenged, I was surprised to see that wasn’t the case in government. For lots of reasons it is hard to define where public services start and finish, and difficult to gather and track cost and performance metrics for those services. But that needs to change. If we don’t know what a service costs end-to-end or how it’s performing, how do we know where to invest or where to truly find efficiencies or improve user experiences? If we don’t know what a service costs or how it’s performing, how do we know where to invest, where to find efficiencies or improve user experiences? Gina Gill To incentivise and drive improvement the government needs to get back to basics and understand spend based on the services delivered rather than the capabilities or organisational structures that exist. We need to understand the performance and user experience of those services. And we should tie both future funding and individual performance to the cost, performance and experience of the services that the public and businesses rely on. Funding for software-led services It’s not all about funding, but funding is important. Current funding processes are designed for things like railways and submarines, not modern software development. They are too slow, too rigid, and too bureaucratic. This results in delaying delivery, not properly funding business-as-usual or risk reduction, and stifling innovation and experimentation with new technologies. A recent review of digital funding also found that departments implement the most stringent and onerous version of processes to ensure compliance, rather than taking advantage of measures that are built in to enable flexibility. Government needs a new and separate approach to fund digital work to allow it to deliver faster and pivot quickly, enabling improvements in real time rather than waiting years for a major transformation programme to be set up. As I left, some departments were setting up pilots to test models to enable this. These need to be tested, mandated and embedded quickly. But we can and should go further. Alongside funding, there is a need to focus on incentives and, given the economic climate, on incentives to save money. The biggest financial prizes need departments to be incentivised to work together to unlock them. For example, if the cost of recidivism is upwards of £18bn per year, we need to collectively task the relevant departments, agencies and local authorities to reduce that cost, rather than everyone shaving an arbitrary percentage off the cost of all services. Procurement can open the door to innovation and agility I spent many years in the private sector and public bodies as a commercial leader. Much like with funding approaches, civil servants take the most stringent and onerous approaches to comply with procurement regulations. Rather than putting the outcome first and working out how to compliantly achieve that outcome, compliance is put first and people hope it delivers the right answer. The cost and time taken to procure along with a risk-averse approach to regulation, leads to long-term, rigid contracts limiting the ability to adapt, usually with a handful of large suppliers as only they can afford to take part in lengthy procurement competitions. The government needs a different approach to procurement of digital products and services, led by digital commercial specialists. It needs to mandate the use of the flexibility that exists in frameworks already to compete faster so that departments use that flexibility – using benchmarks and setting standards for what “good” looks like. Departments must contract in a more modular and flexible way, allowing for course correction, scaling and innovation from the outset. There is also an opportunity to contribute to growth by creating a “GovTech” ecosystem, such as Scotland’s CivTech programme. Capability fit for a digital age Last but not least, there are many things written about the shortage of digital and data skills. What I want to talk about instead is digital understanding outside of the government’s digital and data profession which, while improving, is still a long way from where it needs to be. The recent State of digital government report found that digital is not seen as a valued skillset at a time government is looking to technology to play a core part in making service delivery better and more efficient. We should expect senior leaders in the civil service to be able to run digital businesses – which is effectively what many of them now do – and equip them to do so well. We need to embed different expectations in job descriptions, recruitment processes, learning and development, and performance approaches for all senior leaders. Small interventions are not enough to develop leaders that have skills and confidence to lead government in a digital age. A more holistic approach is needed that immerses leaders in digital and enables them to “qualify” to lead the change government needs. Responsive government These challenges aren’t easy to solve, but lots of the building blocks are in place, from understanding the issues to some parts of solutions in departments and agencies. To create a digital government, technology is not the only thing that needs to be responsive – the entire system of government needs to be designed for adaptability. The question is – are we ready to embed this thinking at the heart of how government operates? If we don’t do it now, will we ever? Gina Gill was chief digital information officer at the Ministry of Justice from 2021 to 2024, and subsequently executive director of the Central Digital and Data Office, until leaving the civil service in February 2025. Source link #Delivering #digital #government #technology Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

3 Resilient Stocks That Can Outperform in a Tariff-Driven Market 3 Resilient Stocks That Can Outperform in a Tariff-Driven Market As if investors didn’t have enough to worry about, the Trump tariffs have gone into effect. As other nations begin to retaliate, this could be the initial battle in a prolonged trade war. Stocks are sinking across the board consequently, and that includes some of the top names from 2024, which don’t look as magnificent in 2025. Tariffs put pressure on corporate earnings and consumer spending, which is leading to cries of recession. However, what makes this particular tariff program so unsettling is its seemingly random, unpredictable nature. Are the tariffs being used to drive down ? Are they being used to drive onshore manufacturing? Or are they, as President Trump says, about leverage to achieve policy objectives? It makes for an uncertain time, and markets hate uncertainty. It’s only natural to be concerned, but this isn’t the time to panic. Having discipline and a diversified outlook can help you find stocks that are likely to move higher even as the effects of tariffs start to take effect. Here are three names to consider. 1. Fortinet: A Defensive Play on the AI Trade Cybersecurity stocks are one area for investors to look for stocks that are likely to grow in an uncertain tariff environment. Fortinet (NASDAQ:) is one of the top names to consider. The company is primarily focused on the hardware firewall niche through a unified platform. Analysts are forecasting a significant upgrade cycle in 2026 and 2027. This should be a significant catalyst for a company that already has one of the best operating margins in the sector. FTNT stock is also one of the most upgraded stocks. As of March 4, 2025, the Fortinet analyst forecasts on MarketBeat had a consensus price target of $103.72, which is about 3% lower than its current price. However, in the last 30 days, analysts have raised their price targets to levels that would give the stock an upside of around 20%. Investors are wondering if the AI trade has peaked. The emergence of China’s DeepSeek is weighing on some stocks focused on AI infrastructure. However, cybersecurity is less exposed to tariff risks, which will keep analysts focused on the increasing demand for cybersecurity caused by AI’s growth. 2. Texas Roadhouse: This Restaurant Stock Just Flashed a Buy Signal Restaurant stocks can be sensitive to tariffs for many reasons, including the cost of ingredients, supply chain snafus, and waning consumer demand. However, this sector can be an example of a stock picker’s market, and Texas Roadhouse (NASDAQ:) is one of the best names to consider as discretionary dollars become tight. Texas Roadhouse is simply one of the most well-run restaurant chains in the United States. And in the fourth quarter of 2024, it continued to post high single-digit year-over-year (YoY) growth in same-store sales. Plus, the company is still planning to open more restaurants in 2025. And one of the reasons to buy TXRH stock now can be found in the company’s stock chart. Late in February, the stock hit a low around $169 which formed an almost perfect double-bottom pattern. This can be a bullish signal and sure enough in the seven trading days ending March 4, the stock is up about 10%. 3. Lowe’s: A Stable Stock for Long-Term Investors Investing in retail stocks has been tricky in the past two years. Consumers have mostly absorbed and rising interest rates. And now tariffs are driving up prices again. Lowe’s Companies (NYSE:) is exposed to the retail sector via the housing and home improvement market, and it’s been feeling the impact of a weak market on its top and bottom lines. One of the best reasons to own Lowe’s stock is its dividend. The company is a dividend king that has increased its dividend for 53 consecutive years, and it’s been increasing that dividend at an average annualized growth rate of around 14.8% in the last three years. LOW stock has been essentially flat over the last twelve months. But if you zoom out on the company’s chart, you can see a bullish pattern where the stock may retreat over 10% but then come back to make new highs. That would be consistent with analyst sentiment, which has a consensus price target of $280.45 for LOW stock. Original Post Source link #Resilient #Stocks #Outperform #TariffDriven #Market Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Apple unveils the M4 MacBook Air with a price drop Apple unveils the M4 MacBook Air with a price drop Apple has introduced its latest update to the MacBook Air, bringing the M4 chip to its lightweight laptops at long last. Even though the Air lineup is getting more powerful, it’s also getting cheaper. The smaller base model of the M4 MacBook Air will retail at $999, down $100 from the previous starting price. Pre-orders begin today, and the machines will be available starting on March 12. Last year’s Air models were quite good but didn’t do anything revolutionary, and the same seems true for the 2025 versions. There are still two size choices, 13-inch and 15-inch. RAM for the M2 and M3 laptops is 16GB by default, and the M4 model matches that standard. Apple is promising up to 18 hours of battery life, and the Airs will have support for Apple Intelligence. There’s also a new look in the lineup, with the addition of a sky blue color to the now-familiar choices of silver, midnight and starlight. The company’s current chip has been available in MacBook Pros, the Mac mini and the iMac for awhile now, so the power levels of the M4 have been pretty well established. But the boost for Apple’s ultralights is still welcome. Apple says the new chip can make the latest Airs up to twice as fast as the M1 versions. The M4 is kitted out with a 10-core CPU and a GPU with up to 10 cores. It supports up to 32GB of unified memory. The new prices might be the most exciting part of today’s Air announcements. The 13-inch M4 Air starts at $999, or $899 for buyers in education, while the 15-inch model starts at $1,199, or $1,099 for education. Source link #Apple #unveils #MacBook #Air #price #drop Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Thank Goodness You’re Here wins UKIE’s Game of the Year award Thank Goodness You’re Here wins UKIE’s Game of the Year award Coal Supper‘s comedy game Thank Goodness You’re Here took home the main prize at the UKIE Video Game Awards 2025. It won the *** Game of the Year award ahead of fellow nominees Planet Coaster 2 (Frontier Developments) and Still Wakes the Deep (Sumo Digital). Released last August for PC and consoles, Thank Goodness You’re Here is about a colourful, fictional northern English town called Barnsworth. “It’s a joyously silly game,” according to VGC’s 5/5 star review. “It’s a shameless, full-chested love letter to Monty Python and a prime candidate for one of the funniest games ever.” Thank Goodness You’re Here was also named Best PC Game at Tuesday’s UKIE awards show, while Monument Valley 3 won Best *** Mobile Game and Lego Horizon Adventures took home the award for Best *** Console Game. Best *** Developer went to FuturLab (PowerWash Simulator), while Playstack (Balatro) was named Best *** Publisher. A full rundown of the award winners is republished below. UKIE also inducted five individuals into *** games industry Hall of Fame, in honor of their transformative impact on the video games industry. This year’s Hall of Fame inductees are Frontier Developments founder David Braben, Trailmix co-founder Carolin Krenzer, DMA Design founder David Jones, Google DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis, and narrative designer Meghna Jayanth (80 Days and Thirsty Suitors). UKIE Video Game Awards 2025 Best *** Mobile Game: Monument Valley 3 (Ustwo games) – Demonstrating exemplary design and user experience within the mobile platform. Best PC Game (Sponsored by Green Man Gaming): Thank Goodness You’re Here! (Coal Supper) – Exhibiting innovative gameplay and creative execution within the PC gaming sector. Best *** Console Game: Lego Horizon Adventures (Studio Gobo) – Achieving high standards of production and entertainment value within the console market. Best *** Mixed Reality Game (VR, AR, XR): Just Dance VR (Soul Assembly) – Advancing the immersive experience within emerging mixed reality technologies. Sustainability Champion: Playground Games – Demonstrating a commitment to environmentally responsible practices. Diversity and Inclusion Champion: Women in Games – Advancing equitable representation and fostering inclusive environments. Best *** Developer (Sponsored by Barclays): FuturLab – Exhibiting consistent excellence in game development and innovation. Best *** Publisher (Sponsored by RS ***): Playstack – Demonstrating strategic acumen in the publishing and distribution of video game content. Rising Star (Sponsored by Bastion): Spilt Milk Studios – Exhibiting significant potential for future contributions to the industry. *** Game of the Year (Sponsored by Playground Games): Thank Goodness You’re Here! (Coal Supper) – Achieving outstanding critical acclaim and industry recognition. Source link #Goodness #Youre #wins #UKIEs #Game #Year #award Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

MWC 2025: HPE advances AI in connectivity MWC 2025: HPE advances AI in connectivity Observing that communications users and providers are facing unprecedented network and service demands, HPE has enhanced its connectivity portfolio to redefine the network’s role in delivering business value with what it calls the next wave of innovation. The new connectivity solutions and infrastructure are said to have been designed to meet the evolving needs of demands of enterprise customers across various industries include, principally taking into consideration that precision timing is critical for artificial intelligence (AI) workloads and private 5G experiences. At the vanguard of the portfolio is the new HPE Aruba Networking CX 8325P network switch, which is attributed with delivering simplified operations and nanosecond accuracy to enhance performance for high-speed, latency-sensitive applications such as autonomous vehicles, and in vertical industries including manufacturing and robotics. The precision timing capabilities of the switch are said to enhance roaming experiences as cellular traffic moves from radio to radio at large venues such as stadiums, as well as for AI applications, broadcasting and cloud radio access network (C-RAN) deployments. The CX 8325P switch is also claimed to feature the industry’s first solution to embed precision timing into the network fabric, delivering nanosecond accuracy for mission-critical capabilities such as improved quality of calls, data transactions and AI workloads between moving cellular traffic. Unlike other solutions using Precision Time Protocol (PTP) communication with satellites, HPE Aruba Networking says it is embedding enterprise PTP support in the network to eliminate the need for a separate timing appliance, while introducing fail-safe redundancy. “Private cellular networking has great promise in its ability to unlock transformative enterprise use cases, including transportation and logistics. However, many of these applications, including modern AI workload support, rely on precise nanosecond timing and ultra-low latency profiles,” said Will Townsend, vice-president and principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. “The HPE Aruba Networking CX 8325P switch is designed to address these challenges by integrating telco-grade timing into the network fabric, and provides a single operating system to ease management cross-domain to network edges,” he added. AI is an important consideration for HPE’s products, said HPE Aruba Networking executive vice-president and general manager Phil Mottram. “The market inflection that AI presents will have a monumental impact on networking, edge and datacentre innovations for the telecommunications industry,” he said. “HPE Aruba Networking is continuing our innovation leadership to help service providers build next-generation networks to maximise these AI opportunities. AI [is] opening up new revenue streams, new services and new capabilities that telcos can provide to their customers … with service providers facing unprecedented network and service demands,” he added. Along with the new switch, also announced at MWC 2025 is the HPE ProLiant Compute DL110 Gen12, HPE’s next-generation server based on Intel’s Xeon 6 Granite Rapids-D chipset. Designed specifically for deployments at the far edge of networks, the HPE ProLiant Compute DL110 is said to combine compute, thermal performance and IO density with “next-level” security. Source link #MWC #HPE #advances #connectivity Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

The Almost 19-Year-Old PS3 Just Got A New System Update The Almost 19-Year-Old PS3 Just Got A New System Update This isn’t a mistake or a typo. Sony has released a new update for the PS3–not the PS4 or PS5–that “improves system performance.” While that description is especially vague, it’s possible the patch relates to renewing the Blu-ray player encryption key for the home console. On X, the Ask PlayStation account announced the new PS3 update and pointed players to the PlayStation website. Sony says 200MB must be available on the system’s hard drive to download version 4.92. The company also then writes in bold about the Blu-ray player encryption key renewal to continue playing discs. The last console patch occurred just over a year ago on February 27, 2024, for version 4.91. PS3 launched in Japan and North America in November 2006, followed by a European release in March 2007. Sony unveiled the PS3 at E3 in May 2006, showcasing titles like Metal Gear Solid 4 and ****** May Cry 4 at the event. That means the Sony system will turn 19 years old later this year. In 2012, a redesigned PS3 was released, and ultimately, Sony sold over 87 million units of the home console. Just yesterday, PS2 celebrated its 25th anniversary, as a Redditor shared photos of traveling to Japan to buy the system. Meanwhile, PS5 received a stability update in January that didn’t really do much. That month also saw the removal of the 30th-anniversary PS5 themes, though Sony mentioned they could return in the future. Source link #19YearOld #PS3 #System #Update Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 review: Excellent value, if supply is good AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 review: Excellent value, if supply is good Why you can trust Tom’s Hardware Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test. Introducing the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 are here, ushering in the RDNA 4 GPU architecture and RX 9000-series of graphics cards. AMD spilled the beans on the hardware and specs last week and we’ve already done a deeper dive into what makes these new GPUs tick, but now it’s time to see how the RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 stand up to the best graphics cards — all while we wait to see what happens with the retail launch tomorrow and how quickly the supply disappears. RDNA 4 represents a throwback to AMD architectures of years past, as the company is once again targeting mainstream performance, and maybe even budget performance further down the road. But today, we’re getting the $599 RX 9070 XT and $549 RX 9070 cards. And while some might feel cards at up to $600 don’t qualify as “mainstream,” in today’s market we’d say mainstream stretches from around $400 up to $600, while anything below about $300 is clearly in the budget range. The PC graphics card market has gotten a lot more expensive in the past decade. The one question we can’t answer is what retail availability will look like. It seems like the AIBs have been stockpiling cards for about two or three months now, but how quickly were they being supplied the requisite GPUs? We don’t know. Maybe there are tens of thousands of 9070 series cards just waiting to go on ***** tomorrow, maybe there are only a few thousand. What we do know is that if there aren’t enough to meet demand, prices are going to head north, just as they did with the RTX 50-series launches of the past two months. Speaking of which, the Nvidia RTX 5070 officially goes on ***** this morning. Of course we knew the performance of the RX 9070 XT and 9070 when we posted that review yesterday. What we don’t know — what no one outside of Nvidia and its distributors and retail partners know — is how many 5070 cards will be available today. The RTX 5070 Ti, RTX 5080, and RTX 5090 have all sold out almost immediately, and we’ve seen prices shoot up by 50% or more relative to the MSRPs. Will the AMD graphics cards buck that trend or join the “party?” We’ll find out in the coming days, but considering what happened with Intel’s Arc B580, it’s obvious that lower priced cards aren’t immune from the potential supply and demand problems. Our default assumption right now, based on nearly all prior generation graphics cards already being sold out and/or overpriced — with only the RTX 4060 and RX 7600 still available at or near MSRP — is that RDNA 4 isn’t going to be a magic bullet to solve the availability issues plaguing the graphics card market right now. Let’s also clear the air on the comparison GPUs that will be in our charts. We’ve (or at least I’ve) been testing GPUs more or less constantly since the beginning of 2025. Drivers keep changing, certain tests that failed to run in the past have been fixed, bugs come and go, and we have a new GPU testbed and test suite. Ideally, we’d love to have every reasonable comparison present in the charts, but it will be a while before we have all the data compiled at a rate of a few GPUs getting tested per week. So, the RTX 4070 Super wasn’t tested for the 5070 review, not because we don’t think it’s important but because of time. Similarly, the RX 7900 GRE won’t be in this review because we don’t have time. Eventually, we’ll get those tested and all the data will be available in our GPU benchmarks hierarchy. You should be able to reasonably estimate where those ‘missing’ cards would land, and as both of those were later additions to their respective GPU families, it seemed to make more sense to leave those out rather than some other GPUs. All good? Good. Let’****** the specs. Swipe to scroll horizontally Graphics Card Specifications Graphics Card RX 9070 XT RX 9070 RX 7900 XTX RX 7900 XT RX 7900 GRE RX 7800 XT RTX 5070 Ti RTX 5070 Architecture Navi 48 Navi 48 Navi 31 Navi 31 Navi 31 Navi 32 GB203 GB205 Process Technology TSMC N4P TSMC N4P TSMC N5 + N6 TSMC N5 + N6 TSMC N5 + N6 TSMC N5 + N6 TSMC 4N TSMC 4N Transistors (Billion) 53.9 53.9 45.6 + 6x 2.05 45.6 + 5x 2.05 45.6 + 4x 2.05 28.1 + 4x 2.05 45.6 31 Die size (mm^2) 356.5 356.5 300 + 225 300 + 225 300 + 225 200 + 150 378 263 SMs / CUs 64 56 96 84 80 60 70 48 GPU Shaders (ALUs) 4096 3584 6144 5376 5120 3840 8960 6144 Tensor / AI Cores 128 112 192 168 160 120 280 192 Ray Tracing Cores 64 56 96 84 80 60 70 48 Boost Clock (MHz) 2970 2520 2500 2400 2245 2430 2452 2512 VRAM Speed (Gbps) 20 20 20 20 18 19.5 28 28 VRAM (GB) 16 16 24 20 16 16 16 12 VRAM Bus Width 256 256 384 320 256 256 256 192 L2 / Infinity Cache 64 64 96 80 64 64 48 48 Render Output Units 128 128 192 192 160 96 96 80 Texture Mapping Units 256 224 384 336 320 240 280 192 TFLOPS FP32 (Boost) 48.7 36.1 61.4 51.6 46.0 37.3 43.9 30.9 TFLOPS FP16 (INT4/FP4 TOPS) 389 (1557) 289 (1156) 122.8 103.2 92 74.6 352 (1406) 247 (988) Bandwidth (GB/s) 640 640 960 800 576 624 896 672 TBP (watts) 304 220 355 315 260 263 300 250 Launch Date Mar 2025 Mar 2025 Dec 2022 Dec 2022 Jul 2023 Sep 2023 Feb 2025 Feb 2025 MSRP $599 $549 $999 $749 $549 $499 $749 $549 The raw specs are interesting, but there’s more to GPU performance than specs. For example, Intel’s Arc B580 as an example has “worse” compute performance than the Arc A770: 14.6 TFLOPS versus 19.7 TFLOPS. But in actual benchmarks, the B580 is up to 17% faster across our gaming test suite at 1440p. Both AMD and Nvidia have also updated their core architectures to improve performance, and today we find out just how much. The RX 9070 XT offers theoretical peak compute of 48.7 TFLOPS for FP32, which is used for graphics, and up to 1557 TOPS of INT4 AI compute (with sparsity). The previous generation RX 7900 XTX offers 61.4 TFLOPS of FP32, but only 122.8 TFLOPS of FP16 for AI workloads — or alternative 122.8 TOPS of INT8 compute. We’ll spoil the surprise a bit by saying that, for a lot of games, the 7900 XTX is still faster… but in AI tasks and RT games, the tables can turn. It’s not just compute performance that matters, of course. Memory bandwidth and capacity are also factors. The 7900 XTX had a 384-bit interface and 24GB of VRAM, compared to the 9070 XT and 9070 with 256-bit interfaces and 16GB of VRAM. In all cases the memory is GDDR6 clocked at 20 Gbps, so the prior generation halo card had 50% more bandwidth and capacity. There’s also the RT accelerators. AMD’s RDNA 4 has doubled the ray/triangle and ray/box intersection rates with RDNA 4 compared to RDNA 3, which means the 64 RT units in the 9070 XT should be the performance equivalent of 128 RDNA 3 RT units, but the 7900 XTX only has 96 RT accelerators. So that’s potentially 33% higher ray tracing performance from the new generation. (Image credit: Tom’s Hardware) As already noted, the prices on paper look good. What we don’t know is whether prices will stay close to what AMD recommends, or if they’ll get jacked up by the retail outlets and AIBs. Because AMD isn’t making any graphics cards itself this round, it will be up to the add-in board (AIB) partners to determine prices on the various models. There are probably requirements for each company to have an MSRP priced GPU, but we’ve seen those disappear in the past — or things like Asus’s “special launch pricing” on some of its RTX 50-series cards. We can also look at what graphics cards are available at retail. Last November, during the holiday shopping season, most graphics cards went on ***** at prices below MSRP. And then they were gone. Now, virtually everything at the usual places for the U.S. — Newegg, Amazon, B&H, Best Buy, etc. — is either out of stock or seriously overpriced. RX 7900 XTX was selling for as little as $819, now the best price we can find is $1,094 for a PSU and GPU combo, and after that the price jumps to $1,283 at Amazon. The same pattern applies to pretty much every other GPU. Outside of the RTX 4060, RX 7600, and Arc B570, we can’t find anything at MSRP, never mind below MSRP. If you want a mainstream or higher performance GPU, it’s currently overpriced compared to just a month or two back. Given the scarcity of any graphics card with an MSRP above $400, then, it’s hard to imagine the 9070 XT and 9070 will stay at MSRPs in the near term. But we’ll wait and see. Source link #AMD #Radeon #review #Excellent #supply #good Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Lesotho shocked by Donald Trump’s remarks that ‘nobody has heard of the country’ Lesotho shocked by Donald Trump’s remarks that ‘nobody has heard of the country’ Lesotho’s government says it is shocked by US President Donald Trump saying that “nobody has ever heard of” the southern African nation. Trump, addressing the US Congress in his first speech since his return to the Oval Office, made the reference as he listed cuts made to what he said was wasteful expenditure. “Eight million dollars to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of,” Trump said, eliciting laughter from some US lawmakers. A spokesperson for Lesotho’s foreign affairs department told the BBC that Lesotho enjoyed “warm and cordial” relations with the US. Lesotho is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the US’s African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), which gives favourable trade access to some countries to promote their economic growth. According to the US government, the two countries traded goods worth $240m (£187m) in 2024, mostly exports from Lesotho to the US, in particular textiles and clothing. Lesotho’s Foreign Affairs Minister Lejone Mpotjoane said it was “shocking” to hear a head of state “refer to another sovereign state in that manner”. “To my surprise, ‘the country that nobody has heard of’ is the country where the US has a permanent mission,” Mr Mpotjoane told the BBC. “Lesotho is a member of the UN and of a number of other international bodies. And the US has an embassy here and [there are] a number of US organisations we’ve accommodated here in Maseru.” Officials dismissed Trump’s remarks as “off the cuff” and a “political statement”, adding that they were “uncalled-for” given the good relations between the two nations. “We maintain very warm and cordial relations with the US. They’ve got a mission in Maseru and we also have [one] in Washington,” foreign affairs spokesperson Kutloano Pheko told the BBC. Mr Pheko was unable to confirm Trump’s comments on the funding that went to LGBTQ organisations, saying that as the money went directly to them, they would be best placed to comment. Mr Mpotjoane, on his part, confirmed that the country had been affected by Trump’s sudden decision to pause aid funding to countries around the world. Many organisations, mostly non-governmental, were thrown into chaos after the Trump administration announced a permanent end to the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar) funding as part of a wider cost-cutting drive to reduce US government spending. Pepfar was launched in 2003 by then US President George W Bush and its finances are distributed via the US government’s main overseas aid agency USAID, whose funding has also been cut. Lesotho is among those countries that benefited from Pepfar, its health ministry told South African publication GroundUp in February, with TB and **** programmes among those receiving the critical funds. But Mr Mpotjoane declined to criticise this decision, saying it was the US’s “prerogative to cut aid if they want to”. Source link #Lesotho #shocked #Donald #Trumps #remarks #heard #country Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Apple unveils the M4 MacBook Air with a price drop Apple unveils the M4 MacBook Air with a price drop Apple has introduced its latest update to the MacBook Air, bringing the M4 chip to its lightweight laptops at long last. Even though the Air lineup is getting more powerful, it’s also getting cheaper. The smaller base model of the M4 MacBook Air will retail at $999, down $100 from the previous starting price. Pre-orders begin today, and the machines will be available starting on March 12. Last year’s Air models were quite good but didn’t do anything revolutionary, and the same seems true for the 2025 versions. There are still two size choices, 13-inch and 15-inch. RAM for the M2 and M3 laptops is 16GB by default, and the M4 model matches that standard. Apple is promising up to 18 hours of battery life, and the Airs will have support for Apple Intelligence. There’s also a new look in the lineup, with the addition of a sky blue color to the now-familiar choices of silver, midnight and starlight. The company’s current chip has been available in MacBook Pros, the Mac mini and the iMac for awhile now, so the power levels of the M4 have been pretty well established. But the boost for Apple’s ultralights is still welcome. Apple says the new chip can make the latest Airs up to twice as fast as the M1 versions. The M4 is kitted out with a 10-core CPU and a GPU with up to 10 cores. It supports up to 32GB of unified memory. The new prices might be the most exciting part of today’s Air announcements. The 13-inch M4 Air starts at $999, or $899 for buyers in education, while the 15-inch model starts at $1,199, or $1,099 for education. Source link #Apple #unveils #MacBook #Air #price #drop Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

TSMC plans $100B investment boost for US AI chip production TSMC plans $100B investment boost for US AI chip production Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s plan to spend an additional $100 billion in the U.S. would greatly boost the nation’s capacity for producing chips for the AI industry. On Monday, TSMC unveiled plans to build three new fabrication plants, two advanced packaging facilities and a major R&D center. The additional spending would raise the company’s expected investment in U.S. chip manufacturing to $165 billion, which TSMC claimed would be the largest direct investment by a single foreign company in U.S. history. The timeline for construction and the location of the facilities for building advanced AI chips and other semiconductors was unclear. TSMC said its U.S. investment will likely support 40,000 construction jobs over the next four years while driving more than $200 billion of indirect economic output in Arizona and the U.S. in the next decade. TSMC has a fabrication plant in Washington state and another in Arizona, where it also has a plant under construction. The latter facility is scheduled to start volume production in 2028. A 10-year timeframe is more likely for the new fabrication plants given that TSMC has told investors it would spend $38 billion to $42 billion on Capex this year, said Alex Harrowell, an analyst for Omdia, a division of Informa TechTarget. To spend an additional $100 billion over four years, the company would have to raise Capex by $10 billion to $15 billion this year. To stay within its guidance, TSMC would have to cut spending elsewhere, “which would mean crushing TSMC Capex in Taiwan,” Harrowell said. “If it were 10 years, well, putting the already-announced [Capex] increase into the U.S. would do nicely,” he said. Also, there’s a shortage of lithography tools from supplier ASML. Chip manufacturers use the tools to print microscopic circuit designs onto semiconductor wafers. “That suggests that concentrating on packaging might be smart and also that the additional Capex is likely to be back-loaded,” Harrowell said. TSMC has set ambitious goals for its most advanced packaging process, called chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, or CoWoS. The company has set a target of 80,000 wafers per month by the end of this year and 150,000 in 2028, Harrowell said. The expansion is critical to serving TSMC’s largest customers — Apple, Nvidia, AMD and large cloud providers designing custom chips. “That they’re putting major investment into advanced packaging in the U.S. tells us it’s serious and also creates more of a complete supply chain there,” Harrowell said. President Donald Trump has threatened tariffs on semiconductors manufactured outside of the U.S. Trump favors tariffs over government subsidies to rebuild U.S. chip manufacturing. The CHIPS and Science Act, which President Joe Biden signed in 2022, was a subsidy program that allocated $52 billion for semiconductor manufacturing, including $6.6 billion in funding for TSMC as well as up to $5 billion in loans for its Arizona plant construction. The latest TSMC investment has no downside for the U.S. economy, according to Jack Gold, principal analyst for J.Gold Associates. “They have to hire techs, so employment will go up, and they’ll pay taxes. It’s all good for the economy,” he said. Last month, Trump administration officials reportedly asked TSMC to consider taking a controlling stake in U.S. chipmaker Intel’s manufacturing operation, called Intel Foundry. Intel is struggling to keep its foundry and design subsidiaries under one roof after cutting thousands of jobs, reducing spending by billions of dollars and firing its CEO Pat Gelsinger. TSMC launched its first investment in U.S. chip manufacturing in 2020, with plans to spend an initial $12 billion on an advanced semiconductor fabrication plant in Phoenix. The company made the commitment during the first Trump administration. Antone Gonsalves is an editor at large for Informa TechTarget, reporting on industry trends critical to enterprise tech buyers. He has worked in tech journalism for 25 years and is based in San Francisco. Have a news tip? Please drop him an email. Source link #TSMC #plans #100B #investment #boost #chip #production Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

The Hundred: England captain Heather Knight says gender pay gap ‘looks bad’ The Hundred: England captain Heather Knight says gender pay gap ‘looks bad’ England captain Heather Knight has criticised the disparity between men’s and women’s salaries in The Hundred. The gap in pay between the top men’s and women’s players has widened from £75,000 to £135,000 for this year’s competition. Top level men’s players will see their pay increase by 60% to £200,000, while leading women’s salaries are rising 30% to £65,000, as part of an overall 25% rise across all salary bands. In the lowest-earning category, men will be paid £31,000, up from £30,000 in 2024, while women will earn £10,000, up from £8,000. “It’s great to see the overall pot for the women has gone up but it looks bad when the disparity between the top men’s and women’s salaries continues to grow when it should be coming down,” said Knight. “There’s a huge amount of money coming into the game so we want to see that the whole game is benefitting. “You don’t want that gap to widen, you want to continue to make progress.” The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said both men’s and women’s salary pots were raised by around 25% in the latest increase and that women’s salaries alone increased by £800,000 in 2023. An ECB spokesperson added: “In the men’s game, the latest increase was weighted towards the top end in order to be competitive in the global market. “In the women’s game, the increase was spread across the salary bands because we need to make more progress across the board.” Source link #England #captain #Heather #Knight #gender #pay #gap #bad Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Hitting NVIDIA where it hurts Hitting NVIDIA where it hurts AMD has finally done it. For years it’s tried to undercut NVIDIA with slightly cheaper, but less capable, video cards like the Radeon 6700 XT and 7900 XT. And sure, it’s still following that same strategy with the new Radeon 9070 and 9070 XT. This time around, though, AMD has produced far more capable hardware, especially when it comes to 4K and ray tracing performance. And there’s hope that it could finally catch up to NVIDIA’s DLSS AI upscaling with its new FidelityFX Super Resolution 4 (FSR4) technology. These aren’t perfect video cards, to be clear. But for $549 and $599, the Radeon 9070 and 9070 XT are far more compelling than AMD’s previous lineup. That’s particularly true since the 9070 XT is $150 less than NVIDIA’s RTX 5070 Ti, and in our testing it’s sometimes faster than that card. AMD still has to prove that it can catch up to NVIDIA’s DLSS, which has had several years to steadily improve its AI upscaling capabilities. In particular, AMD needs to match the performance of NVIDIA’s multi-frame generation in DLSS 4, which has led to some surprisingly high fps figures while testing the RTX 50-series GPUs. AMD’s Fluid Motion Frames technology is a start, but it’s not nearly enough at this point. AMD AMD’s Radeon 9070 is a solid midrange GPU with excellent support for 1440p gaming and a bit of 4K. It has better ray tracing support than before, and it finally has AI upscaling to compete with NVIDIA’s DLSS. Pros Affordable price Excellent 1440p performance FSR 3 and 4 are a big help Better ray tracing Quiet and cool performance Cons FSR 4 needs more support Complex upscaling configuration Needs better multi-frame gen $549 at XFX AMD AMD’s Radeon 9070 XT is a solid midrange GPU with excellent support for 1440p gaming and a bit of 4K. It has better ray tracing support than before, it’s faster than the plain Radeon 9070 and it finally has AI upscaling to compete with NVIDIA’s DLSS. Pros Affordable Excellent 1440p performance FSR 3 and 4 are a big help Occasionally faster than the 5070 Ti Better ray tracing Quiet and cool performance Cons FSR 4 needs more support Complex upscaling configuration Needs better multi-frame gen $549 at XFX Hardware The Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT are AMD’s first RDNA 4 GPUs, a new platform sporting more powerful and efficient compute units, third-generation ray tracing accelerators and second-generation AI accelerators. There isn’t a huge technical difference between the two cards: The RX 9070 features 56 compute units, 56 ray accelerators and 112 AI accelerators, whereas the 9070 XT has eight more compute accelerators and 16 additional AI processors. The XT model is clocked slightly higher, as you’d expect, and it also draws more power (304W vs 220W). Notably, both cards also ship with 16GB of GDDR6 VRAM, whereas NVIDIA skimped a bit and only put 12GB of RAM in the $549 RTX 5070. Devindra Hardawar for Engadget As I was comparing our XFX-built review units, though, it was practically impossible to tell the RX 9070 and 9070 XT apart without reading the fine print on their labels. This is fairly typical for AMD cards with XT variants, and it makes sense since they’re technically so similar. The XFX Swift GPUs I tested came in an elegant frost white case, with three large fans and surprisingly massive heatsinks. They’re both 3.5-slot cards, so they also take up more room than the RTX 5090, which is a dense two-slot beast. Thanks to AMD’s efficient RDNA design, you also don’t need to rely on complex power dongles to drive these cards. They both take two PSU connections directly, and XFX recommends 800-watt power supplies at a minimum. That’s significantly higher than AMD’s minimum 650W spec though, so it could be that XFX is just trying to play it safe with its massive cooling setup. (If you’re planning to overclock these cards, though, you’ll likely want more than a mere 650W PSU.) Devindra Hardawar for Engadget In use: A big step up for AMD I knew AMD was onto something special when I learned the Radeon RX 9070 averaged 60 fps in Cyberpunk 2077 in 4K Ray Tracing Overdrive mode. Sure, it needed FSR 3 upscaling to get there, but it was still better than the 50 fps I saw on the Radeon 7900XT a few years ago. The game occasionally dipped below 60 fps, but it was still very playable. 1440p was much smoother overall, averaging 117 fps. The Radeon 9070 XT, meanwhile, averaged 68 fps in 4K and 130 fps in 1440p. Sure, these numbers are far behind the raw figures from NVIDIA’s RTX 5070, which used the magic of multi-frame generation to deliver 115 fps in 4K with ray tracing and maxed out graphics. That card also hit 205 fps in 1440p. But as impressed as I was by the 5070, most of those frames were just meant to deliver the illusion of smoothness. During actual gameplay, I had a hard time seeing much slowdown with either Radeon card in 4K, and the difference between the NVIDIA card was practically erased in 1440p. Remember, fps figures aren’t the entire story, even though NVIDIA wants you to believe otherwise. I kept that idea in mind as I tested FSR 4, which surprised me when it averaged around 20 fps less than FSR 3 in Call of Duty: Warzone on both GPUs. The Radeon 9070 XT reached 250 fps in 4K with FSR 3, cranked up graphics and frame generation, whereas it hit 229 fps in FSR 4. AMD tells me that’s no error, it’s to be expected since FSR 4’s AI upscaling is more focused on delivering higher quality graphics rather than a pure frame boost. I couldn’t really see a huge difference while dodging bullets in CoD, but I did notice that finer textures like chain-link fences looked a bit clearer in FSR 4. (I also saw a few random glitched textures, something that was common in DLSS upscaled games early on. They weren’t a major problem, but AMD clearly has to refine its upscaling model further.) At the moment, enabling FSR 4 is a bit counter-intuitive as well. You have to turn it on in AMD’s driver software, and then flip on FSR 3.1 in a compatible game. Warzone also required a reboot to fully enable the feature, but the game didn’t prompt me to do so. And if you want frame generation, that’s another option that has to be toggled on outside of the game. Hopefully this process will be smoothed out over time, along with wider availability for FSR 4. In addition to ****** Ops 6, it’s supported in the newly launched FragPunk, Civilization 7, Marvel Rivals and a handful of PlayStation 5 ports like the Spider-Man games. But it’s nowhere to be found in Avowed or Dragon Age: The Veilguard, where you’ll be stuck with FSR 3. Devindra Hardawar for Engadget For games that don’t work with FSR at all, AMD’s Adrenaline software also has a “HYPR-RX” mode that enables features like Radeon Super Resolution upscaling (a separate driver-level technology) and AMD’s Fluid Motion Frames generation. Altogether, they led to me seeing 200 fps in Forza Horizon 5 using the RX 9070 XT in 4K with maxed out graphics settings, up from 85 fps natively. But again, those are just fps figures – AMD points out Radeon Super Resolution may not look as clear as FSR alternatives. (I didn’t notice any weirdness in Forza, but I may have been distracted by the beautiful racing vistas in Mexico.) GPU 3DMark TimeSpy Extreme Geekbench 6 GPU Cyberpunk (4K RT Overdrive DLSS) Port Royal ray tracing AMD Radeon 9070 10,997 113,012 60 fps (DLSS 3 w/ frame gen) 15,888 AMD Radeon 9070 XT 13,060 130,474 68fps (DLSS 3 w/ frame gen) 17,959 NVIDIA RTX 5070 10,343 178,795 115 fps (4x frame gen) 13,920 NVIDIA RTX 5070 Ti 12,675 238,417 153 fps (4X frame gen) 19,309 AMD Radeon 7900XTX 12,969 N/A 55 fps (DLSS 3) 14,696 When it comes to benchmarks, the Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT hold their own against NVIDIA’s 5070 and 5070 Ti in most of 3DMark’s tests. In the Steel Nomad benchmark, the 9070 scored 1,100 points higher than the 5070, and the 9070 XT beat out the more expensive 5070 Ti by almost 3,000 points in Timespy Extreme. I was also surprised to see the RX 9070 scoring almost 2,000 points higher than the RTX 5070 in the Port Royal ray tracing benchmark. Previously, ray tracing of any kind was AMD’s Achilles heel. Both of our XFX cards also stayed surprisingly cool during benchmarks and extended gaming sessions. They never went beyond 65C under load, and they typically idled below 40C. And since they never got very hot, I could barely hear their fans spinning up. Devindra Hardawar for Engadget Should you buy the Radeon RX 9070 or RX 9070 XT? On paper, both of AMD’s new GPUs are compelling alternatives to NVIDIA’s midrange cards for 1440p gamers who occasionally dabble in 4K. The RX 9070 XT is particularly interesting, since it’s noticeably faster and still comes in $150 less than the RTX 5070 Ti. But we’re also dealing with a chaotic time in the PC gaming world, where GPU stock can disappear quickly and prices can rocket up quickly. If you can nab either Radeon card at their listed prices, they’ll be good deals. But it’s not worth overpaying by too much for now. It also remains to be seen how the Trump administration’s combative tariffs will affect pricing for PC hardware and electronics. Prices could easily jump by 20 percent or more to cover those costs. While NVIDIA’s DLSS 4 technology is more mature and leads to higher interpolated frame rates, there’s also a good argument for going with AMD’s cards since they have 16GB of VRAM. They’ll be better suited to handling larger textures in games down the line, and there’s also the potential for FSR 4 to improve as well. Devindra Hardawar for Engadget Wrap-up It’s clear now why AMD was focused on upgrading its mid-range Radeon cards first. There’s not much point competing with NVIDIA at the extreme high end, like it did with Radeon RX 7900 XT and XTX. It makes more sense to focus on cards people can actually buy. The Radeon 9070 and 9070 XT also solve many of the problems I’ve had with AMD’s GPUs in the past. They can go toe-to-toe with NVIDIA’s cards, they have better ray tracing support and finally, they have AI upscaling. It remains to be seen if AMD will actually build on the promise of those features, but these cards are a hopeful start. Source link #Hitting #NVIDIA #hurts Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

MacBook Air (2025) With M4 Chip, Up to 15-Inch Displays Launched in India MacBook Air (2025) With M4 Chip, Up to 15-Inch Displays Launched in India Apple on Wednesday refreshed the MacBook Air — it’s entry-level laptop model — with the company’s 10-core M4 chip that first arrived on the iPad Pro (2024) last year. Like its predecessor, the MacBook Air (2025) is available in 13-inch and 15-inch Liquid Retina display options and comes with 16GB of RAM. It can be configured with up to 2TB of SSD storage. The latest MacBook from Apple offers support for Apple Intelligence, and runs on macOS Sequoia out-of-the-box. MacBook Air (2025) Price in India, Availability MacBook Air (2025) price in India starts at Rs. 99,900 for the base model with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. On the other hand, the 15-inch variant of the MacBook Air (2025) begins at Rs. 1,24,900 for the 16GB+256GB model. Apple’s new MacBook Air model is available to pre-order and will go on ***** in India starting March 12. It will be available in Midnight, Silver, Sky Blue, and Starlight colourways. MacBook Air (2025) Specifications, Features The MacBook Air (2025) is available in 13-inch (2,560×1,664 pixels) and 15-inch (2,880×1,864 pixels) Super Retina display with a pixel density of 224ppi and up to 500nits peak brightness. The laptop supports up to two external displays at up to 5K resolution, according to the company. MacBook Air (2025) Photo Credit: Apple Apple has equipped the MacBook Air (2025) with an M4 chip, which has an 10-core CPU with four performance cores and four efficiency cores. The laptop also features a 16-core Neural Engine, an 8-core GPU and features support for hardware accelerated ray tracing. You can configure the MacBook Air (2025) with up to 24GB of RAM and up to 2TB of SSD storage. It is equipped with a quad speaker setup with Spatial Audio and a three-mic array. Connectivity options on the laptop include Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3, and it features two Thunderbolt 4/ USB 4 ports, a MagSafe 3 charging port, and a 3.5mm audio jack. The new MacBook Air (2025) features a Touch ID button that can be used to unlock the laptop or authenticate purchases. It has a Force Touch trackpad with support for Force clicks and Multi-Touch gestures. There’s a 1080p FaceTime camera with Centre Stage. The 13-inch MacBook Air packs a 52.6Wh lithium-polymer battery with support for 70W fast charging, but the base model ships with a 30W USB Type-C power adapter. The 15-inch variant packs a slightly larger 66.5Wh battery. Apple claims its latest MacBook Air can deliver up to 15 hours of web browsing and up to 18 hours of video playback via the Apple TV app. For details of the latest launches and news from Samsung, Xiaomi, Realme, OnePlus, Oppo and other companies at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, visit our MWC 2025 hub. Source link #MacBook #Air #Chip #15Inch #Displays #Launched #India Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

From Tornadoes to Whiteouts, Wild Weather Wreaks Havoc Across the US From Tornadoes to Whiteouts, Wild Weather Wreaks Havoc Across the US A massive storm system is sweeping across the United States, bringing blizzard conditions, tornadoes, high winds, and fires to multiple regions, impacting millions of Americans. In the Southwest, blinding dust storms covered parts of New Mexico and Texas, reducing visibility and creating hazardous travel conditions. Meanwhile, multiple tornadoes also tore through the region, causing significant damage. In Lewisville, Texas, powerful winds damaged buildings and scattered debris across the city, even ripping the roof off Plano West High School. Further north, an EF1 tornado devastated parts of Ada, Oklahoma, destroying homes and leaving residents to begin cleanup efforts. Quincy Thompson, an athlete at East Central University, joined hundreds of college athletes to pick up trash and help those in need. “I’m not used to tornadoes or super crazy weather like this, so it was different to see it, but it feels good to take care of the trash and help the community look a little better,” said Thompson. As the storms moved east, high winds knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses across the South. In Mississippi, at least two people were killed after falling trees caused by the strong winds turned deadly. The system also disrupted Mardi Gras in New Orleans, prompting officials to reschedule events and shorten parade routes. In Alabama, high winds overnight left 70,000 people without power. In San Antonio, critical fire conditions led to multiple house fires, with emergency crews battling flames and evacuating residents. Rev. Bryant Livingston Sr., a District Two City Council Member, reported on a house fire near downtown, highlighting the widespread impact of the extreme weather. Meanwhile, the Midwest faced a different kind of chaos as blizzard warnings were issued in parts of five states. Whiteout conditions made travel difficult for some semis seen off the road, with Nebraska experiencing a dramatic temperature drop. Residents reported temperatures plummeting from 60 degrees earlier in the day to freezing conditions as the storm moved in. Now, the East Coast is bracing for impact, with windy conditions expected to sweep through the region. These storms come amid concerns about the future of weather forecasting, as the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the federal government have led to 280 layoffs at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Critics worry these cuts could compromise the safety of Americans and the accuracy of future weather predictions. Source link #Tornadoes #Whiteouts #Wild #Weather #Wreaks #Havoc Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Battlefield Labs First Playtest Starts This Week Battlefield Labs First Playtest Starts This Week The first Battlefield Labs playtest will start this week, Insider Gaming has learned. Insider Gaming has learned that Battlefield Labs will have its first playtest to test “concepts and mechanics” on Friday March 7th. The playtest will be the first in EA’s new Battlefield Labs program, which was announced earlier this year. The first test is scheduled to take place for approximately two hours on the PC. According to the email sent to participants, the test is in a “closed test environment” and recording, streaming, and and discussions about the game are strictly prohibited. But whether participants stick to such a confidentiality agreement remains to be seen. Players can still sign up to the Battlefield Labs in order to try and gain access to future Battlefield playtests. Battlefield Labs is said to be EA’s “most ambitious community development collaboration ever, where a select number of fans will step inside the war room.” Its announcement saw hundreds of thousands of people sign up, with EA assuring players that no matter when you register, you’ll still be as equally eligible to be accepted as those who registered first. The playtest comes as DICE and EA want to work more closely with the community after Battlefield 2042’s fumbled launch, which was poorly received by the community. The next Battlefield title is scheduled to release later this year on the Xbox Series S|X, PlayStation 5, and PC. Have you already signed up to the Battlefield Labs playtests? Let us know on the Insider Gaming forum if you have any success. For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out everything we learned from the new Battlefield gameplay snippet. SUBSCRIBE to our newsletter to receive the latest news and exclusive leaks every week! No Spam. Source link #Battlefield #Labs #Playtest #Starts #Week Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

This 7.6% Tariff-Proof Payout Shrugs Off Geopolitics This 7.6% Tariff-Proof Payout Shrugs Off Geopolitics Uncertainty appears to be the theme of 2025. From tariffs to geopolitics, we have a nonstop flow of news that has vanilla investors quite rattled. CNN’s Fear and Greed Index dipped back into the Extreme Fear zone earlier this week. Markets don’t like ambiguity. But that does not mean that we income investors need to sell everything. Heck, or anything! This is a split stock market and we contrarians are rolling with the dividend victors. The bifurcated financial landscape is not news to us. We discussed the likelihood of major “winners and losers” in Trump 2.0 immediately after the November election: Things have the potential to get wild. Fortunes made; retirements lost. Thus far our Contrarian Income Report portfolio is doing quite well because we have smartly sidestepped ambiguity. Why place wild bets when we have safe monthly dividends that are steadily adding to our nest eggs? Let’s talk about a sizzling 7.6% yield, paid every 30 days, that is another big winner from the energy revolution. Remember, we have a few megatrends converging in one direction here, so we want to maximize our dividend exposure. These wheels in motion are not affected by tariffs or geopolitics, either. First, more electric vehicles (EVs) are hitting the road. The global market for EVs is projected to triple by 2033, regardless of the political, geopolitical or tariff environment. EVs create more demand on the power grid, *******. Adding to the grid’s grind is AI. Every week we see a new “must have” model released from leading technology companies. The newest shiny object is the latest and greatest version of ChatGPT, version 4.5. It puts DeepSeek back in its place. But GPT 4.5 already has a reputation as a processing hog. It uses a lot of servers—aka juice. Power. Electricity demand from data centers powering apps like ChatGPT already accounts for 5% of total US consumption. New models like GPT 4.5 will boost this demand massively further. Boring old utilities are big winners. We called out Duke Energy (NYSE:) as a “power play” at the intersection of these megatrends. Duke’s operations fuel data center expansion for tech hubs in Florida and North Carolina. DUK pays 3.6%, which is “cute”—not even half of the scorching 7.6% divvie dished by Cohen & Steers Infrastructure Fund (NYSE:). DUK, by the way, is UTF’s six-largest position. The closed-end fund (CEF) owns 272 stocks that are all well-positioned to benefit from the joint ***** in EVs and AI. UTF’s Sweet, Steady Monthly Dividend UTF’s status as a closed-end fund (CEF) explains the yield “anomaly.” Normally, it would take a stock market ****** of epic proportions for us to see a 7.6% dividend paid by a utility ETF, or blue-chip name. In CEF-land, however, these deals arise because CEFs fly under the mainstream radar. CEFs are too small for big institutional money. UTF has about $2 billion in assets under management. That’s a pond that is plenty big for us but too small for “whales” like pension funds. Too bad for them! As a result the 7.6% dividend deal sits there for individual investors like us. UTF does tend to be volatile due to the erratic nature of vanilla retail holders. The fund is trading 6% off its recent highs. We welcome this buyable dip. Longtime CIR subscribers know the fund well. The first time we bought and held UTF we enjoyed 95% gains. This is our second go round and we have already been treated to 37% total returns and counting. (And many of the profits were delivered to us in the form of UTF’s neat monthly payout!) Plus, new rate trends are a tailwind for both UTF and the stocks it holds. Utilities behave like “bond proxies,” which means they rally as (especially long rates) fall. And rates are dropping because of the two “T’s”—tariffs and the Treasury Secretary. First, tariffs. Headline readers believe they are inflationary but the data show that trade wars slow and thus bring lower rates. The has already fallen nearly 30 basis points since we talked about this phenomenon just two weeks ago! Second, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is focused on lowering the 10-year Treasury yield. Bessent explicitly said: “?The president wants lower rates. He and I are focused on the 10-year Treasury.” This is the first time in recent memory a Treasury Secretary has called out this benchmark yield as a goal. It is a notable shift from Trump 1.0, when the president was focused on lower short-term rates via the Fed. The bond market has taken note of Bessent. The 10-year yield is a full 50 basis points lower since he was nominated! Plus, UTF will benefit from lower borrowing costs going forward. The fund employs 29% leverage, paying an interest rate that is tied to short-term rates. As long rates ease further and the economy slows from tariffs, short rates will drop too. This will be a nice savings on interest payments for UTF—another tailwind for its sweet 7.6% dividend. Believe it or not, UTF’s monthly dividend is a bit “light” by my (admittedly) lofty standards. Disclosure: Brett Owens and Michael Foster are contrarian income investors who look for undervalued stocks/funds across the U.S. markets. Click here to learn how to profit from their strategies in the latest report, “7 Great Dividend Growth Stocks for a Secure Retirement.” Source link #TariffProof #Payout #Shrugs #Geopolitics Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Freed raises $30 million, led by Sequoia, to tackle clinician burnout Freed raises $30 million, led by Sequoia, to tackle clinician burnout Erez Druk, co-founder and CEO of Freed. Courtesy: Freed For Erez Druk, who spent almost four years working at Facebook, building health-care startup Freed has been a labor of love, quite literally. Druk’s wife, Dr. Gabi Meckler, works at a community clinic in northern California, where she cares for children and adults, and delivers babies at a local hospital. When not with patients, Meckler is inundated with paperwork, constantly updating medical records and related documents. “I got sucked into the world of clinicians,” Druk said in an interview. “One day, it was like, ‘Hey Gabi, what should we just build for you?’ And she said, ‘Do my notes for me.'” Druk worked as a software engineer at Facebook from 2013 until launching his prior startup, UrbanLeap, in 2017. He shuttered UrbanLeap, which focused on software for public procurement, in 2022, and started Freed the following year, along with Andrey Bannikov, who had spent the prior decade at Facebook. Freed offers an AI scribe that automates the clinical notetaking process in real time as doctors consensually record their visits with patients. The company sells the technology directly to individual clinicians, oftentimes at small or independent practices, for $99 a month, and is beginning to partner with entire practices, Druk said. On Wednesday, Freed announced a $30 million funding round led by Sequoia Capital, a hefty haul for a company raising its first institutional capital. The company also announced new features like custom note formatting, pre-charting, and specialty specific templates. Freed said it plans to build additional capabilities, like automating coding and other billing cycle functions. Clinicians spend nearly nine hours a week on documentation, according to an October study from Google Cloud. A study last year from Athenahealth concluded that administrative tasks are a significant reason for burnout, as 64% of doctors feel overwhelmed by clerical requirements. Physicians are responsible for completing mountains of paperwork, including the tedious and time-consuming process of clinical notes, which contain detailed records of patient visits. Druk wants to automate as much of that process as possible so doctors can spend more time with patients and, perhaps, even with their family. As of late February, 17,000 clinicians around the world are using Freed in about 2 million patient visits each month, he said. “It just started spreading,” Druk said. “It’s really been beyond my wildest expectations.” Crowded field Druk isn’t the only one who sees the opportunity. The AI scribing market has exploded in recent years as health systems have been searching for tools that can help address administrative burnout. Freed is going up against tech giants like Microsoft, as well as startups like Abridge and Suki that have developed similar tools. Josephine Chen, a partner at Sequoia, said the crowded market reflects the seriousness of the problem. She said Freed’s scribing tool has gained traction by focusing on smaller, independent offices. “Freed’s approach is unique because most of the companies we see are serving a different market segment,” Chen said. Natalie Desseyn said Freed is the reason she’s still working as a nurse practitioner in psychiatry. Desseyn sees about 250 patients through a practice called Cloud Break Therapy in Virginia. She’s been using Freed for about two years and pays for it herself. Without it, she said she wouldn’t be able to see patients on such a large scale, if at all. “I’m not over here writing, so people feel really heard,” Desseyn said. “I can’t tell you all the ways, it’s literally changed my life.” Desseyn has tried a few other AI scribing tools, but she said she always comes back to Freed. She said its model is better at keeping things precise, sticking to the facts and avoiding extraneous comments in the notes. Meckler, Druk’s wife, said documentation was the thing she disliked the most while practicing medicine. She said Freed felt like “magic” the first time she used it. Previously, Meckler said she would spend about half of her day writing notes. Individual tasks that used to take her around 15 minutes to complete now take closer to two, she said. “I expect great things from Erez, but I was still shocked,” Meckler said. Druk said he and his 50-person team are focused on building the business and its product portfolio this year. He said he remains committed to creating a platform that clinicians, and his wife, enjoy using. “It’s truly the most fulfilling and the most important work I’ve ever done, and probably will ever do,” he said. WATCH: Texas measles outbreak could take a long time to get under control Source link #Freed #raises #million #led #Sequoia #tackle #clinician #burnout Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

US eyes zero tariff on cars in India trade deal as Tesla entry nears, sources say US eyes zero tariff on cars in India trade deal as Tesla entry nears, sources say By Shivangi Acharya and Aditi Shah NEW DELHI (Reuters) – The United States wants India to eliminate tariffs on car imports under a proposed trade deal between the two nations, but New Delhi is reluctant to immediately bring down such duties to zero even as it considers further cuts, sources told Reuters. India’s high auto tariffs will feature in formal talks for a bilateral trade deal that are yet to begin, said one of the three sources, all of whom were briefed on the matter, paving the way for American electric vehicle maker Tesla, which is gearing up for an India launch. Taxes on cars imported into India are as high as 110%, which Tesla chief Elon Musk has criticised as being among the steepest in the world. The EV giant last year shelved its plans to enter the world’s third-largest car market for a second time. Musk has now found support from U.S. President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly railed against India’s high taxes and in an address to Congress on Tuesday slammed the country’s auto tariffs of more than 100%, threatening reciprocal action. “The U.S. ask is for India to bring tariffs down to zero or negligible in most sectors, except agriculture,” the first source said, adding the expectation on New Delhi eliminating auto tariffs was “clearer than any other”. A second source said India was “listening to the U.S.” and had not pushed back, adding it would respond with its position on the tariffs after consulting local industries. The office of United States Trade Representative, India’s trade ministry, and the foreign affairs ministry did not respond to requests for comment. TRADE WORTH $500 BILLION After a meeting between Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month, the two nations agreed to resolve tariff rows and work on the first segment of a deal by the fall of 2025, aiming for bilateral trade worth $500 billion by 2030. Indian trade minister Piyush Goyal is on a nearly week-long trip to the U.S. and on Tuesday met U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to pursue trade talks. He is also expected to meet the United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. While India is unlikely to relent to U.S. demands to reduce tariffs on auto imports to zero immediately, it has been priming the industry to prepare for a lower tariff regime and be open to competition, said the first source and a fourth person. Last month, the Indian government met domestic carmakers to decide on any tariff cuts and understand their reservations over taxes going down to zero immediately, the first source added. Story Continues India’s 4 million-vehicles-a-year car market is one of the most protected in the world and its domestic players have previously argued against lowering tariffs, saying such a move would dry up investment in local manufacturing by making imports cheaper. The likes of ***** Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra have especially lobbied against lowering import tariffs on EVs, saying it would hurt the nascent sector in which they have invested heavily. Vowing to avoid protectionist signals on trade, India last month cut import tariffs on nearly 30 items including high-end motorcycles and said it will review surcharges on luxury cars. (Reporting by Shivangi Acharya and Aditi Shah in New Delhi, additional reporting by Aftab Ahmed; Editing by Alex Richardson) Source link #eyes #tariff #cars #India #trade #deal #Tesla #entry #nears #sources Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]

Assassin’s Creed Shadows: How Long To Beat? Game Director Reveals A Runtime Assassin’s Creed Shadows: How Long To Beat? Game Director Reveals A Runtime Assassin’s Creed Shadows launches later this month, but how long might it take you to finish the game? According to Genki, game director Jonathan Dumont said players should expect the main campaign to take 30-40 hours to complete. In total, however, players could spend more than 80 hours to complete the main game and side content, the director is reported to have said. Of course, everyone plays games differently, so your mileage may vary. Beyond the game and its side content, Dumont is reported to have also mentioned a possible New Game+ being added after launch, which could in theory extend the amount of time a person could play the game even more. You need a javascript enabled browser to watch videos. Assassin’s Creed Shadows: Story Trailer Size:640 × 360480 × 270 Want us to remember this setting for all your devices? Sign up or Sign in now! Please use a html5 video capable browser to watch videos. This video has an invalid file format. Sorry, but you can’t access this content! Please enter your date of birth to view this video JanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecember12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031Year202520242023202220212020201920182017201620152014201320122011201020092008200720062005200420032002200120001999199819971996199519941993199219911990198919881987198619851984198319821981198019791978197719761975197419731972197119701969196819671966196519641963196219611960195919581957195619551954195319521951195019491948194719461945194419431942194119401939193819371936193519341933193219311930192919281927192619251924192319221921192019191918191719161915191419131912191119101909190819071906190519041903190219011900 By clicking ‘enter’, you agree to GameSpot’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy enter Assassin’s Creed Shadows also has a special quest, “Thrown to the Dogs,” that’s exclusive to people who preorder the game. Meanwhile, an expansion called “Claws of Awaji” is coming after launch. Ubisoft said this paid expansion includes “over 10 hours of additional content.” 2020’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, by comparison, took around 60 hours to complete, while Assassin’s Creed Mirage could be completed in as little as 15 hours. Assassin’s Creed Shadows launches on March 20, following a delay from February. Ubisoft said the delay was due in part to needing time to respond to feedback about how to make the game better. Assassin’s Creed Shadows is Ubisoft’s first major game release of 2025. Last year was a tough one for Ubisoft, as Star Wars Outlaws released to lower-than-expected sales, Ubisoft’s share prices sunk to the lowest levels since 2015, and the company announced that XDefiant will shut down. The company was also in the spotlight recently after a former Indonesian support studio working on Assassin’s Creed Shadows was accused of subjecting its employees to mental and physical abuse. Source link #Assassins #Creed #Shadows #Long #Beat #Game #Director #Reveals #Runtime Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Apple finally unveils the MacBook Air with the M4 chip – but the best news is the new price Apple finally unveils the MacBook Air with the M4 chip – but the best news is the new price Apple adds the M4 to its MacBook Air The laptop welcomes center stage There’s a new color, while another shade is retired Apple’s MacBook Air, arguably the most popular Mac and a laptop that regularly sits near the top of our best laptops list, is finally getting the M4 chip, a piece of Apple silicon that first appeared in the iPad Pro last year and later the MacBook Pro. It’s also, rather surprisingly, seeing a price drop. While fundamentally the same laptop as last year’s MacBook Air M3 (and the M2 from the year before), there are a handful of upgrades and even one aesthetic change. In addition to the M4 chip, Apple is upgrading the 12MP FaceTime camera with Center Stage functionality, and the laptop now has two Thunderbolt 4 ports. Those ports offer roughly the same throughput as last year’s Thunderbolt 3 port (up to 40 GBps) but with one noticeable difference. The MacBook Air M4 can now drive two external screens through those ports while still powering the laptop’s main Liquid Retina Display. That’s right, the laptop stays open. There’s also a new color to consider: Sky Blue. It replaces Space Gray and joins Midnight, Starlight, and Silver. These updates run across the 13-inch and 15-inch models, which now, somewhat remarkably, are $100 cheaper than last year. The 13-inch MacBook Air M4 starts at $999 with 16GB of memory, and the 15-inch model starts at $1,199. Digging in (Image credit: Apple) The M4 chip brings more power in the form of a 10-core CPU and up to a 10-core GPU. You can also specify up to 32GB of unified memory. In practice, this makes the MacBook Air M4 a better system for creativity and business. While I didn’t get to try the laptops for myself, Apple did show me some impressive live demos. Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. We watched as photo editor Pixelmator Pro, which Apple bought last year, tapped into the 12MP Center Stage camera, took a headshot, and then used backgrounds and other presets to make a passport photo quickly. The M4 does support Apple Intelligence, and the MacBook Air puts it to good use. We saw Apple Intelligence quickly pull numbers from a disorganized document and instantly create a helpful table. Writing Tools were used to generate an executive summary from a long document. We saw some integrations of Apple Intelligence in third-party apps. In one case, we selected an Image Playground button to quickly generate a colorful image of a backpack in a forest. Apple’s generative image work still leans more toward cartoon than realism. Apple then switched to Blender, an open-source 3D app that has been optimized to run natively on Apple Silicon. With it, we could render a complex arctic ice scape image in just 18 seconds. The M4’s powerful 16-core neural engine isn’t just for Apple’s AI tools. In one case, we switched to Companion from WebAI, a large language model with 22 billion parameters, and, using the App Intents Framework that connects third-party apps to Apple Intelligence capabilities, started entering prompts about a document we had open. Companion answered the prompts and even opened the native Mail app to send a report. Apple’s been working hard to convince the world that the Mac is AAA game ready, so I was not surprised to see Wuthering Waves running on the MacBook Air M4. The gameplay was smooth, with zero tearing, stuttering, or visible frame loss. Perhaps most surprising was that everything Apple showed me was running at once. It was a nice demonstration of the M4’s raw power. Apple is claiming 18 hours of battery life and showed us how the demo MacBook Air wasn’t even plugged in, a further demonstration of how performance wouldn’t change if you’re not tethered to a wall outlet. A fixed design (Image credit: Apple) Other than price and performance, the MacBook Air M4 13 and 15-inch are identical to the M3 units. In my very brief time with them, they looked and felt the same. The 13-inch is still 2.7 lbs. and the 15-inch model is 3.3 lbs. They still feel thin and light. Aside from that higher-resolution Center Stage camera, the screen specs are unchanged. Both offer Liquid Retina Displays with 2560×1664 resolutions and 500 nits of brightness. The notch, which accommodates the Face ID camera, remains. It’s a great-looking display with vibrant colors and crisp images. Sadly, it did not get the MacBook Pro’s reflection-defeating nano-texture glass. The keyboard, which includes the Touch ID power button, is unchanged and feels just as good as it does on the M3 MacBook Air. Oh, and the almost pastel-like Sky Blue is lovely. There’ll be a tiny bit of shuffling as the MacBook Air M4 enters the market. The M3 model will be discontinued, and the M2 MacBook Air, which launched the new design language, will remain a lower-cost option. And, yes, the OG MacBook AIr M1 is still in the channel (usually Walmart) at a sub-$700 price. Considering the well-established and generally pleasing design, M4-grade power, and a more attractive price, the MacBook Air M4 stands a good chance of moving up our list of Best Laptops. You can pre-order the MacBook Air M4 in 13 or 15-inches today, and it ships on March 12. You might also like Source link #Apple #finally #unveils #MacBook #Air #chip #news #price Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content] For verified travel tips and real support, visit: [Hidden Content]