Month: July 2024

Enlarge (credit: Getty)

Video streaming providers have a big churn problem. While many streaming companies are not profitable yet, the entire industry is grappling with high and fast cancellation rates.

Users who sign up for streaming services only to cancel a few months later, likely because they watched what they wanted to already or are trying to save money, has created huge churn concerns for streaming companies. Those companies are largely responding with packages that bundle their services with other services, including rival streaming platforms. But with streaming subscribers already pushed to their financial limits, it's time for streaming providers to earn their keep, not piggyback on others.

This week, media research firm Hub Entertainment Research published its 2024 Monetization of Video report with findings from June interviews of 1,600 TV viewers ages 16 to 74. The respondents reportedly each watch at least one hour of TV weekly, and the sample is “US census balanced,” per Hub. When Hub asked respondents if they will "still have/use" their video streaming services a year from now, 85 percent of those using ad-free services said they definitely or probably will, compared to 74 percent of subscribers of streaming services with ads. Further suggesting that ad-free subscription tiers garner more loyalty, 15 percent of ad-free subscribers said they "might/might not" or "probably/definitely won't" have their subscription next year versus 26 percent of ad subscribers.

Enlarge / Dr. Craig Wright arrives at the Rolls Building, part of the Royal Courts of Justice, on February 6, 2024, in London, England. (credit: Dan Kitwood / Staff | Getty Images News)

A British judge is referring self-proclaimed bitcoin inventor Craig Wright to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to consider criminal charges of perjury and forgery. The judge said that CPS can decide whether Wright should be arrested and granted two injunctions that prohibit Wright from re-litigating his claim to be bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto.

"I have no doubt that I should refer the relevant papers in this case to the CPS for consideration of whether a prosecution should be commenced against Dr. Wright for his wholescale perjury and forgery of documents and/or whether a warrant for his arrest should be issued and/or whether his extradition should be sought from wherever he now is. All those matters are to be decided by the CPS," Justice James Mellor of England's High Court of Justice wrote in a ruling issued today.

If Wright actually believes he is Nakamoto, "he is deluding himself," Mellor wrote.

Enlarge / Dr. Craig Wright arrives at the Rolls Building, part of the Royal Courts of Justice, on February 6, 2024, in London, England. (credit: Dan Kitwood / Staff | Getty Images News)

A British judge is referring self-proclaimed bitcoin inventor Craig Wright to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to consider criminal charges of perjury and forgery. The judge said that CPS can decide whether Wright should be arrested and granted two injunctions that prohibit Wright from re-litigating his claim to be bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto.

"I have no doubt that I should refer the relevant papers in this case to the CPS for consideration of whether a prosecution should be commenced against Dr. Wright for his wholescale perjury and forgery of documents and/or whether a warrant for his arrest should be issued and/or whether his extradition should be sought from wherever he now is. All those matters are to be decided by the CPS," Justice James Mellor of England's High Court of Justice wrote in a ruling issued today.

If Wright actually believes he is Nakamoto, "he is deluding himself," Mellor wrote.

Enlarge / AMD's Ryzen 9000 launch lineup. (credit: AMD)

AMD has released more information about its next-generation Ryzen 9000 processors and their underlying Zen 5 CPU architecture this week ahead of their launch at the end of July. The company reiterated some of the high-level performance claims it made last month—low- to mid-double-digit performance increases over Zen 4 in both single- and multi-threaded tasks. But AMD also bragged about the chips' power efficiency compared to Ryzen 7000, pointing out that they would reduce power usage despite increasing performance.

Prioritizing power efficiency

AMD said that it has lowered the default power limits for three of the four Ryzen 9000 processors—the Ryzen 5 9600X, the Ryzen 7 9700X, and the Ryzen 9 7900X—compared to the Ryzen 7000 versions of those same chips. Despite the lower default power limit, all three of those chips still boast double-digit performance improvements over their predecessors. AMD also says that Ryzen 9000 CPU temperatures have been reduced by up to 7º Celsius compared to Ryzen 7000 chips at the same settings.

• 

  Ryzen 9000's low-double-digit performance gains are coming despite the fact that the company has lowered most of its chips' default TDPs. These TDP settings determine how much power one of AMD's CPUs can use (though not necessarily how much they will use). [credit: AMD ]

It's worth noting that we generally tested the original Ryzen 7000 CPUs at multiple power levels, and for most chips—most notably the 7600X and 7700X—we found that the increased TDP levels didn't help performance all that much in the first place. The TDP lowering in the Ryzen 9000 may be enabled partly by architectural improvements or a newer manufacturing process, but AMD already had some headroom to lower those power usage numbers without affecting performance too much. TDP is also best considered as a power limit rather than the actual amount of power that a CPU will use for any given workload, even when fully maxed out.

Enlarge / AMD's Ryzen 9000 launch lineup. (credit: AMD)

AMD has released more information about its next-generation Ryzen 9000 processors and their underlying Zen 5 CPU architecture this week ahead of their launch at the end of July. The company reiterated some of the high-level performance claims it made last month—low- to mid-double-digit performance increases over Zen 4 in both single- and multi-threaded tasks. But AMD also bragged about the chips' power efficiency compared to Ryzen 7000, pointing out that they would reduce power usage despite increasing performance.

Prioritizing power efficiency

AMD said that it has lowered the default power limits for three of the four Ryzen 9000 processors—the Ryzen 5 9600X, the Ryzen 7 9700X, and the Ryzen 9 7900X—compared to the Ryzen 7000 versions of those same chips. Despite the lower default power limit, all three of those chips still boast double-digit performance improvements over their predecessors. AMD also says that Ryzen 9000 CPU temperatures have been reduced by up to 7º Celsius compared to Ryzen 7000 chips at the same settings.

• 

  Ryzen 9000's low-double-digit performance gains are coming despite the fact that the company has lowered most of its chips' default TDPs. These TDP settings determine how much power one of AMD's CPUs can use (though not necessarily how much they will use). [credit: AMD ]

It's worth noting that we generally tested the original Ryzen 7000 CPUs at multiple power levels, and for most chips—most notably the 7600X and 7700X—we found that the increased TDP levels didn't help performance all that much in the first place. The TDP lowering in the Ryzen 9000 may be enabled partly by architectural improvements or a newer manufacturing process, but AMD already had some headroom to lower those power usage numbers without affecting performance too much. TDP is also best considered as a power limit rather than the actual amount of power that a CPU will use for any given workload, even when fully maxed out.

Enlarge / One of the craters identified seismically, then confirmed through orbital images. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)

Mars trembles with marsquakes, but not all of them are driven by phenomena that occur beneath the surface—many are the aftermath of meteorite strikes.

Meteorites crash down to Mars every day. After analyzing data from NASA’s InSight lander, an international team of researchers noticed that its seismometer, SEIS, detected six nearby seismic events. These were linked to the same acoustic atmospheric signal that meteorites generate when whizzing through the atmosphere of Mars. Further investigation identified all six as part of an entirely new class of quakes known as VF (very high frequency) events.

The collisions that generate VF marsquakes occur in fractions of a second, much less time than the few seconds it takes tectonic processes to cause quakes similar in size. This is some of the key seismological data that has helped us understand the occurrence of earthquakes caused by meteoric impacts on Mars. This is also the first time seismic data was used to determine how frequently impact craters are formed.

Enlarge / One of the craters identified seismically, then confirmed through orbital images. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona)

Mars trembles with marsquakes, but not all of them are driven by phenomena that occur beneath the surface—many are the aftermath of meteorite strikes.

Meteorites crash down to Mars every day. After analyzing data from NASA’s InSight lander, an international team of researchers noticed that its seismometer, SEIS, detected six nearby seismic events. These were linked to the same acoustic atmospheric signal that meteorites generate when whizzing through the atmosphere of Mars. Further investigation identified all six as part of an entirely new class of quakes known as VF (very high frequency) events.

The collisions that generate VF marsquakes occur in fractions of a second, much less time than the few seconds it takes tectonic processes to cause quakes similar in size. This is some of the key seismological data that has helped us understand the occurrence of earthquakes caused by meteoric impacts on Mars. This is also the first time seismic data was used to determine how frequently impact craters are formed.

Enlarge / Heresy must be punished. (credit: Focus Entertainment)

How badly do you want to play the upcoming Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 ahead of its September 9 launch? Enough to torrent a 75GB package from a Russian site? Enough to not only unpack and play it, but connect to a server and start building up your character?

Me neither, but that hasn't stopped seemingly hundreds of people from doing just that. Publisher Focus Entertainment had announced the third-person action game having "gone gold" (released for manufacturing) on July 9. The leaked build might date to February 23, 2024, as suggested by site Insider Gaming, which had previously suggested a June 20 date.

Footage from the leaked builds, which has been mostly taken offline by Focus through copyright claims, suggested that it was a mostly complete version of the game, with some placeholder assets in menus. Said footage also suggests that the game's pirates are playing online, and their characters are retaining their levels and items. For now, at least.

Enlarge / Heresy must be punished. (credit: Focus Entertainment)

How badly do you want to play the upcoming Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 ahead of its September 9 launch? Enough to torrent a 75GB package from a Russian site? Enough to not only unpack and play it, but connect to a server and start building up your character?

Me neither, but that hasn't stopped seemingly hundreds of people from doing just that. Publisher Focus Entertainment had announced the third-person action game having "gone gold" (released for manufacturing) on July 9. The leaked build might date to February 23, 2024, as suggested by site Insider Gaming, which had previously suggested a June 20 date.

Footage from the leaked builds, which has been mostly taken offline by Focus through copyright claims, suggested that it was a mostly complete version of the game, with some placeholder assets in menus. Said footage also suggests that the game's pirates are playing online, and their characters are retaining their levels and items. For now, at least.