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Apple may have turned around the fortunes of its upcoming M3 line of chips after reportedly securing an entire year's worth of scarce 3nm silicon from TSMC.

It seems that Apple managed to secure TSMC’s entire stock of 3nm chips for a full year, according to Wccftech, who reports that these 3nm chipsets “will be found in various devices, starting with the A17 Bionic for the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, followed by the M3.” Apple M3 chip production will cover the entire M3 lineup, including the M3 Pro, M3 Max, and M3 Ultra chips for high-end Mac devices and Mac Studio and Mac Pro models.

Earlier rumors stated that Apple had roughly 90% of TSMC's 3nm capacity locked down, which still provided some space for competitors to secure the remaining supply, but it looks like the competition will have to wait. Not to mention that the tech giant won’t have to pay for defective wafers, which could save it billions of dollars.

TSMC has a few versions of its 3nm technology, with Apple getting the N3B batch while other companies like Qualcomm and MediaTek will most likely pick up N3E. Meaning that while Apple may have a time advantage over its competitors, it could lose that just as easily.

M3 MacBook could be coming, but should it? 

If this rumor proves to be true, Apple could be putting out M3 MacBooks as early as the end of 2023 or early 2024. Most of the world is still getting over from the global chip shortage, with AMD’s new Z1-series processors being delayed due to manufacturing struggles, and Intel reportedly canceling two new projects with TSMC.

Of course, Apple managing to acquire a year’s worth of 3nm shipments is only one piece of the puzzle. Computing sales as a whole are in decline due to the global economic downturn as well as worker shortages, and Apple is one of many tech manufacturers that have been struggling in this current market trend.

So while this rumor could end up being great news for Apple, it could also lead to M3-based iPhones and Mac products not selling well in the future, especially considering how many devices the company has pushed out in the past couple of years. I, for one, hope that anything equipped with an M3 chip comes out in late 2024, for the sake of breathing spaces alone.

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3D TV has an abysmal history, possibly only matched by 3D gaming (I see you Nintendo 3DS) but maybe it was the wrong technology at the wrong time. That's certainly Magnetic3D's hope as the company prepares to bring its glasses-free lenticular-powered 3D televisions to consumers.

Lenticular technology is one of the oldest forms of 3D image generation, one that goes back to those 3D postcards that could take a 2D image of Mount Rushmore and seemingly show you other angles of it as you moved from side to side.

Magnetic3D, which recently showed me a 55-inch glasses-free 3D TV, is using a far more sophisticated version of the display tech that, as Tom Zerega, Magnetic3D CEO & founder, and John Bracciante, company COO, told me, puts the typically vertical lenticular bands at a 45-degree angle and takes advantage of subpixels. 

Seeing is believing

When I first encountered the TV sitting at eye-level on a pedestal, I didn't see any 3D effect. That's because I was viewing it from an extreme (beyond 140-degree) angle, but as I circled around to the front of the screen, the 3D imagery took shape. I saw fish, abstracts, basketball players, and a basketball that appeared to leave the boundaries of the screen (they did this nice effect using large black borders at the top and bottom of the image). It was, in a word, impressive.

There were artifacts in the 4K, roughly 80lb 3D TV. There's no eye-tracking here (future models may have it) so as my eyes moved around the screen, I could almost see the lenticular image degrading into disconnected image bands. But this was rare and most of it held up pretty well.

Bracciante told me the best viewing experience is between 8 and 15 ft away from the screen.

(Image credit: Future)

Magnetic3D has been selling its specific brand of 3D TV for retailers and commercial use but now it hopes to inspire consumers to come back to the 3D side. They're marketing sets that run from 43 inches to 65 inches, the latter being what I consider the sweet spot for modern consumer UHD viewing.

They also hope to sell the sets for $10,000, at the low end, and roughly $20,000 at the 65-inch level (prices include a custom frame and some 3D content to stare at). I'm not sure if Zerega or Bracciante noticed me blanch. The best TVs, think real cutting-edge models, often start in the $2,000 - to - $4,000 range. No one is ponying up $10,000 for a set.

We talked a bit about the history of 3D TV and how 15 years ago consumers showed an extreme lack of interest in buying sets marketed solely as 3D TVs, as opposed to TVs that offered, among many other things, 3D viewing capabilities.

Content, content, content

They didn't argue when I said one of the big hurdles, aside from price, would be content. Few are buying 8K TVs because there is no content. The explosion of 4K streaming content has no doubt helped propel the mass consumption of 4K TVs. Not only is there a dearth of 3D content, the only way you can currently get the right kind of 3D content on Magnetic 3D's set is via a USB stick. The company is working on an app.

All that said, something Bracciante said stuck with me. People could use these sets to show off their NFTs (non-fungible tokens, which are often pieces of digital art tied to unique tokens, and that can be bought, sold, and traded). I'm not into NFTs and think they're part of a crypto bubble, but I know many who love them, own them and, yes, even want to show them off.

Magnetic3D screen technology on a tablet. (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

If you look at Magnetic3D's expensive 3D sets as display centers for digital works of art and NFTs that you own, there might be something there. Granted, this is a niche market with money to spare (they bought NFTs, after all) but it is an avenue.

I don't know if anyone will buy these sets, but the imagery is exciting and unusual and for some, that might be enough.

Before I left, Zerega pulled a small tablet out of his pocket and handed it to me. I stared at the 7-inch display dumbfounded as purple blobs appeared to leap off the screen. It was one of the better glasses-free handheld 3D experiences I'd ever had, and I've been looking at 3D handheld technology for more than a decade. Zerega said this little tablet was the company's calling card and, I must admit, I kind of get it.

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Best Hotel Credit Cards for August 2023 - CNET

Use a hotel credit card with your favorite hotel brand to turn its rewards into night stays.

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One of the best VPN services on the market, now comes at an absolute bargain, offering a special discount and some tasty freebies to get even more VPN protection at no extra cost.

Perhaps the biggest name in the industry, NordVPN has just dropped its price of 68% off its longest plan. This means that users can now get a 2-year subscription for the equivalent of about $3 per month.

The deal doesn't end here, though. Even at this tiny price, Nord adds 3 months of VPN protection at no extra cost on top, so you'll enjoy 27 months of better privacy and internet freedom for the same discounted price.

This limited-time deal is available for 5 weeks, ending on September 12, 2023. This is the best price you can find for NordVPN anywhere right now—so make sure not to miss it! Below are more details about this generous offer.

NordVPN limited-time deal: 2-year plan | from $3.19 per month | Save 68%

Subscribe now to NordVPN's two-year plan to get the best value for money on the world's most popular VPN. A 68% discount and 3 months FREE means that you can get 27 months of VPN protection for only about $86 all-in (the equivalent of just $3.19 per month). To claim the offer, just follow the link on this page. The deal ends on September 12, so don't leave it too late or you could end up paying more later.  View Deal

What makes this NordVPN deal so good?

There are quite a few reasons why NordVPN is, perhaps, the most popular Virtual Private Network (VPN) on the market right now.

A strict no-logs policy and plenty of reliable security features, for example, protect your online privacy and data against cybercriminals and snooping third parties. Plus, it comes with a host of extras, like malware protection, an ad-blocker, Double VPN encryption, and the latest addition, Meshnet, which helps keep your network safe while helping you simultaneously unblock content from around the world.

Subscribe if:

✔️ You want an all-in-one security suite: your subscription comes with ad-blocking and malware protection as standard.

✔️ Streaming Netflix is your primary use case: NordVPN currently tops our list as the best VPN for Netflix, so you can access streams anywhere in the world.

✔️ You want a blend of quality and cost: plenty of features, amazing speeds, and additional security tools, all at a competitive price point.

In terms of performance, NordVPN won't let you down either. During our last round of testing, the provider improved its speeds even further, getting among the fastest VPNs with peaks of over 950 Mbps when connected to its WireGuard-based NordLynx protocol. 

Its huge array of international servers (more than 5,500 across 80 locations worldwide) are designed to deliver great unblocking power to bypass any type of online restrictions. It reached a 100% unblocking record in our last tests. This also makes NordVPN the perfect streaming VPN, unblocking foreign catalogs on basically all the platforms available. These include Netflix, BBC iPlayer, ITV, Amazon Prime, and Disney Plus.

Anyone interested in protecting their login details with one of the best password managers will be happy to know that the provider just dropped the price for NordPass, too. At the time of writing, it costs the equivalent of just $1.99 per month for the 1-year and $1.49 per month for the 2-year personal plans. 

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Don’t Skip These Security Features When Shopping Around for a New Bank Account - CNET

Multifactor authentication and more – here’s what to look for as you search for a bank that can keep your information as safe as possible.

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Samsung to Roll Out 50 Specialized Galaxy Smartphone Repair Service Centers This Year - CNET

The first repair shops soft launched this summer.

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Earlier in 2023, it was revealed that Microsoft was testing out Bing Chat on third-party browsers like Google Chrome, Apple Safari, and Mozilla Firefox. Now the tech giant announced that it would not only be bringing Bing Chat to these browsers but to mobile devices as well.

With this move, Microsoft intends to compete with other AI services and built-in browser tools like Google’s generative AI search features found in both the browser and mobile app, according to TechCrunch. 

In Microsoft’s official Bing blog post, it stated that “This next step in the journey allows Bing to showcase the incredible value of summarized answers, image creation, and more, to a broader array of people. You’ll get most of the great benefits of Bing and we’ll continue to optimize along the way to meet your needs across different browsers.”

The tech giant also warned that though you’ll be able to use your preferred platform for Bing Chat, the best service would be provided on Bing. For instance, users and Windows Latest noticed that Chrome’s Bing supports five messages per conversation versus the 30 in Microsoft Edge. Bing in Chrome has a character limit of 2,000, while Edge supports 4,000.

Microsoft’s blog post somewhat mentioned said limitations. “With Edge, you'll unlock longer conversations, chat history, and more Bing features built right into the browser. To experience the best browser for Bing, and get the full breadth of features, simply open the Microsoft Edge browser…”

Can Microsoft pull this off? 

It’s an interesting strategy for Microsoft to put its own service on mobile devices and other browsers. Mobile especially, as it’s one of the most popular ways to access websites, services, and applications, and not having a dedicated mobile version of Bing Chat is missing out on a crucial audience.

And it’s an understandable direction too, since the end goal is to increase Bing’s market share. Getting users, who would otherwise never use Bing, to try out Bing Chat on their preferred browser and then slowly convincing them to use it on Edge is pretty crafty. But limiting the access of Bing Chat in the hopes of pulling users to Bing is a risky move as well.

Instead of getting more Bing users, there’s the very real threat of turning off these users and having them switch back to whatever other AI chat they had been using before. Switching browsers is a huge deal and it’s difficult to get a dedicated Chrome or Firefox user to go to a completely new browser just for a service they can get elsewhere. And losing mobile users would be an especially hard blow, as they make up such a huge market.

Maybe Bing can gain more users if Microsoft continues to upgrade the experience on mobile and other browsers, like getting dark mode, voice input, and other interface improvements such as what iPhone users received. Not to mention equalizing the experience between other platforms and Bing browser.

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Google has revealed a new security feature for its Pixel phones and tablet line to guarantee that the models you buy haven't been tampered with. 

Pixel Binary Transparency lets users check for themselves that the Android factory image is genuine and hasn't been tampered with somewhere along the supply chain prior to them actually acquiring the phone. 

It expands on Android Verified Boot, which ensures that the stock code actually comes from the hardware vendor. For Google phones, it verifies that the code on the phone is the same that has been audited by Google to make sure that there are no backdoors present in the software.  

Binary Transparency

Google says that Binary Transparency will let users check that the official factory image from Google is really on their phone, which ensures that, "attackers haven’t inserted themselves somewhere in the source code, build process, or release aspects of the software supply chain." 

It uses a public cryptographic log to mathematically prove that their devices are free from code that has been interfered with. Google has provided instructions to users on how to run the check that their image is the same as listed in the log, which involves "extracting the relevant metadata, then comparing their recomputed root hash with the root hash contained in the published checkpoint."

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"If they match, then the Pixel owner can be assured of some protections exemplified in the Threat Model," it added.

The log makes use of a Merkle tree which makes it impossible for the log to be changed or deleted; it is append-only. If an image does manage to be tampered with by hackers, then it will be obvious as it will no longer match up with metadata in the log. 

Android Verified Boot is a more user-friendly to make sure that your device is running legitimate Android software, with Binary Transparency designed for the more for the power user.

Google also said that it will build on the new feature even further in future, "to make even more security data transparent for users, allowing proactive assurance for a device’s other executed code beyond its factory image."

• Here are the best Android antivirus apps around.

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Lionel Messi: How to Watch, Stream Inter Miami vs. FC Dallas on MLS Season Pass Today - CNET

Messi leads Miami into the Round of 16 Leagues Cup match in Texas on Sunday.

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It's time for your daily dose of Quordle hints, plus the answers for both the main game and the Daily Sequence spin off. 

Quordle is the only one of the many Wordle clones that I'm still playing now, around 18 months after the daily-word-game craze hit the internet, and with good reason: it's good fun, but also difficult.

What's more, its makers (now the online dictionary Merriam-Webster) are also keeping it fresh in the form of a new variant called the Daily Sequence, which sees you complete four puzzles consecutively, rather than concurrently. 

But Quordle is tough, so if you already find yourself searching for Wordle hints, you'll probably need some for this game too. 

I'm a Quordle and Wordle fanatic who's been playing since December 2021, so I can definitely help you solve Quordle today and improve your game for tomorrow. Read on for my Quordle hints to game #560 and the answers to the main game and Daily Sequence. 

SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

Quordle today (game #560) - hint #1 - Vowels

How many different vowels are in Quordle today?

• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 3*.

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too). 

Quordle today (game #560) - hint #2 - total vowels

What is the total number of vowels in Quordle today?

• The total number of vowels across today's Quordle answers is 6.

Quordle today (game #560) - hint #3 - repeated letters

Do any of today's Quordle answers contain repeated letters?

• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 0.

Quordle today (game #560) - hint #4 - total letters

How many different letters are used in Quordle today?

• The total number of different letters used in Quordle today is 15.

Quordle today (game #560) - hint #5 - uncommon letters

Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?

• No. None of Q, Z, X or J appear among today's Quordle answers.

Quordle today (game #560) - hint #6 - starting letters (1)

Do any of today's Quordle puzzles start with the same letter?

• The number of today's Quordle answers starting with the same letter is 0.

If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you're not ready yet then here's one more clue to make things a lot easier:

Quordle today (game #560) - hint #7 - starting letters (2)

What letters do today's Quordle answers start with?

• S

• G

• C

• F

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

Quordle today (game #560) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle, game #560, are…

• SMITE
• GRIND
• CRAWL
• FIBRE

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.

---

Daily Sequence today (game #560) - the answers

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today's Quordle Daily Sequence, game #560, are…

• CURSE
• PESTO
• SPARE
• RIDER

---

Quordle answers: The past 20

• Quordle #559, Sunday 6 August: QUASH, MOULT, STALK, EDICT
• Quordle #558, Saturday 5 August: SPASM, TRAWL, LEVER, BIRTH
• Quordle #557, Friday 4 August: SHAKY, OWING, HOMER, PICKY
• Quordle #556, Thursday 3 August: BIGOT, AMPLE, LAUGH, EASEL
• Quordle #555, Wednesday 2 August: SLUMP, FLUTE, RUMBA, REACH
• Quordle #554, Tuesday 1 August: ANNOY, TAPER, TRIAL, HOUSE
• Quordle #553, Monday 31 July: SQUAT, CHOSE, SNORT, THERE
• Quordle #552, Sunday 30 July: SHAWL, WRITE, ALONG, DEMON
• Quordle #551, Saturday 29 July: VALUE, ALONG, ALIVE, LEAST
• Quordle #550, Friday 28 July: TOTEM, BASAL, PULSE, COUCH
• Quordle #549, Thursday 27 July: EVADE, SPICE, FLOAT, ALIGN
• Quordle #548, Wednesday 26 July: INDEX, TAKER, CURVE, PEACH
• Quordle #547, Tuesday 25 July: HAIRY, ROWDY, QUARK, LIMIT
• Quordle #546, Monday 24 July: STUFF, HIPPO, LIVER, BLINK
• Quordle #545, Sunday 23 July: ENTRY, GIDDY, STAMP, VOMIT
• Quordle #544, Saturday 22 July: BEFIT, JIFFY, ARENA, TOUCH
• Quordle #543, Friday 21 July: ROUND, TEPID, LIVER, IRATE
• Quordle #542, Thursday 20 July: ENTER, TRULY, USUAL, CIVIL
• Quordle #541, Wednesday 19 July: WORST, KAYAK, HENCE, ZEBRA
• Quordle #540, Tuesday 18 July: DEBUT, HOARD, SILLY, UPPER

Quordle FAQs: Everything you need to know

What is Quordle?

Where Wordle challenges you to guess a new five-letter word each day, Quordle presents you with four puzzles to solve. And rather than complete them in turn, you do so simultaneously. You get nine guesses, rather than the six for Wordle, but the rules are otherwise very similar. 

It's played online via the Quordle website and you can also get to it via the Merriam-Webster site, after the dictionary purchased Quordle last year. 

As with Wordle, the answers are the same for every player each day, meaning that you're competing against the rest of the world. And also as with Wordle, the puzzle resets at midnight so you have a fresh challenge each day.

The website also includes a practice mode - which I definitely recommend using before attempting the game proper! - and there are daily stats including a streak count. You also get Quordle Achievements - specific badges for winning a game in a certain number of turns, playing lots of times, or guessing particularly hard words.

Oh, and it's difficult. Really difficult.

What are the Quordle rules?

The rules of Quordle are almost identical to those of Wordle.

1. Letters that are in the answer and in the right place turn green.

2. Letters that are in the answer but in the wrong place turn yellow. 

3. Letters that are not in the answer turn gray…

4. …BUT the word you guess appears in all quadrants of the puzzle at the same time, so an A could turn green in one square, yellow in another and gray in the final two. 

5. Answers are never plural.

6. Letters can appear more than once. So if your guess includes two of one letter, they may both turn yellow, both turn green, or one could be yellow and the other green.

7. Each guess must be a valid word in Quordle's dictionary. You can't guess ABCDE, for instance.

8. You do not have to include correct letters in subsequent guesses and there is no equivalent of Wordle's Hard mode.

9. You have nine guesses to find the Quordle answers.

10. You must complete the daily Quordle before midnight in your timezone.

What is a good Quordle strategy?

Quordle needs to be approached in a different way to Wordle. With four puzzles to solve in nine guesses, you can't blindly throw letters at it and expect to win - you'll stand a far better chance if you think strategically.

That's the case in Wordle too, of course, but it's even more important in Quordle.

There are two key things to remember. 

1. Use several starting words

Firstly, you won't want just a single starting word, but almost certainly two or three starting words. 

The first of these should probably be one of the best Wordle starting words, because the same things that make them work well will apply here too. But after that, you should select another word or possibly two that use up lots more of the most common consonants and that include any remaining vowels.

For instance, I currently use STARE > DOILY > PUNCH. Between them, these three words use 15 of the 26 letters in the alphabet including all five vowels, Y, and nine of the most common consonants (S, T, R, D, L, P, N, C and H). There are plenty of other options - you might want to get an M, B, F or G in there instead of the H, maybe - but something like that should do the trick.

If all goes well, that will give you a good lead on what one or sometimes two of the answers might be. If not, well good luck!

2. Narrow things down

Secondly, if you're faced with a word where the answer might easily be one of several options - for instance -ATCH, where it could be MATCH, BATCH, LATCH, CATCH, WATCH, HATCH or PATCH - you'll definitely want to guess a word that would narrow down those options. 

In Wordle, you can instead try several of those in succession and hope one is right, assuming you have enough guesses left. It's risky, but will sometimes work. Plus, it's the only option in Hard mode. But in Quordle, this will almost certainly result in a failure - you simply don't have enough guesses.

In the scenario above, CLAMP would be a great guess, as it could point the way to four of the seven words in one go.

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Best Earbuds and Headphones Deals: Save on Bose, Sony, Apple and More - CNET

We've rounded up some of the best discounts out there on everything from premium over-ear headphones to budget-friendly earbuds.

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The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department is appealing to the public for help identifying two thieves who made off with $300,000 worth of trading cards, including Magic: The Gathering packs, at this weekend's Gen Con.

IMPD detectives have released photographs of the two suspects, who reportedly made off with an entire pallet of trading cards on August 2, the day before the show opened to the public. 

According to the police report, the robbers were equipped with a pallet jack and appeared to have walked out with the pallet of cards in the middle of the day. 

Ravenburger – which launched Disney Lorcana trading card game at the event over the weekend – quickly assured fans that the theft had not affected its stock of the highly-anticipated cards.

***Update*** two additional photos have been added. Detectives are still seeking help in identifying both individuals. https://t.co/s7mMPbcR6I pic.twitter.com/nB9uVGaCT1August 5, 2023

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"On Wednesday 2nd August, 2023, in the downtown area of Indianapolis. The people of interest reportedly acquired a pallet jack, removed one pallet of gaming cards, and moved them to an unknown location," the police said (thanks, Dicebreaker). 

"The alleged theft took place before the opening of events in the downtown area and while vendors were setting up their displays at various times."

Maybe the thieves are hoping to luck out like Canadian Brook Trafton, who sold his one-of-a-kind Lord of the Rings Magic: The Gathering card to musician Post Malone for a staggering $2 million.

Trafton said he realized his "childhood dream" when he discovered the mint-condition rare card – from the TCG's Lord of the Rings set – earlier this year. When noted Magic: The Gathering collector Post Malone contacted him to get a peek at the unique card, he didn't expect to sell it to him – however, when Malone offered Trafton $2m for the collectible, Trafton admits that he "cried a lot" and let the card go.

"It was so magical. I'm not going to lie. I cried a little bit. I cried a lot," he said at the time.

Magic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield has founded a new game studio alongside veteran developers from Hearthstone, World of Warcraft, and Halo. 

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Baldur's Gate 3 may have only released on August 3, but it's already one of Steam's biggest games, clocking up a concurrent user record so high, it's already cemented itself in Steam's top ten most played games ever.

The hugely-anticipated sequel – which has been decades in the making – has been breaking its own concurrent record over and over again all weekend (and – this is not an exaggeration – at least six times since I started writing this article). 

At the time of writing, Baldur Gate's 3's concurrent Steam peak sits at 809,012, putting it ninth on SteamDB's charts of the games with the highest ever concurrent user records and pushing Apex Legends out of the top ten and into eleventh place.

That means that in just three days, Baldur's Gate 3 has had more concurrent players – that is, simultaneous players all logged on and actively in-game at the time the record was set – than games like Valheim, Grand Theft Auto 5, and Destiny 2.

More amazingly still, Baldur's Gate 3 is currently the second-most played game on Steam of the last 24 hours, boasting more concurrent players this weekend than even Dota 2 and PUBG: Battlegrounds. Of all the games on Steam, only CS:GO has had more concurrent players in the last 24 hours.

"I played one character for 50 hours on PC. This wasn’t enough to get through the game, and I'm still in the early to mid stages of Act 2, but it’s more than enough to get a sense of the sprawling scale and depth of the game here," our editor-in-chief, Jake, said of the highly-anticipated RPG, for which he awarded it a lofty five out of five stars.

We'd say that Baldur's Gate 3 is one of the best RPGs ever, but if you're on the hunt for the next adventure with some companions, we've got a list of the best MMOs too. However, if you prefer to explore huge worlds on your own, make sure you check out our list of the best single-player games. 

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Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear series has topped over 60 million sales worldwide. 

That's despite the fact that developer/publisher Konami hasn't released a mainline Metal Gear game since 2018, and its last numbered instalment was released almost a decade ago now back in 2015. 

That hasn't stopped players from indulging in the series' stellar back catalog, however. As spotted by VGChartz, the last time Konami provided us with sales data, we were told the series – which launched back in 1987 – had collectively shifted 57.7m by the end of September 2021, and 59.3m copies by the close of November 2022.

According to a recent update to the publisher's corporate site, that figure sits at 60 million sales as of June 2023. That means Konami's tentpole franchise has sold around 700,000 units in just the last seven months... despite lying dormant for half a decade. 

Will there ever be a Metal Gear Solid 6? Even though we've had no official word, it seems unlikely that Konami will abandon one of its most beloved – and profitable – properties. The upcoming Metal Gear Solid 3 Remake clearly shows that Konami isn't done with the ironic franchise, with or without Hideo Kojima.

That said, the series is in a difficult spot at the moment, not least because its last major release, Metal Gear Survive – the first Metal Gear game developed without series creator Hideo Kojima at the helm – currently sits with a 1.4 user score on Metacritic.

For more Metal Gear information, here's everything we know so far about Metal Gear Solid 6. And even though we don't have a sixth instalment confirmed to be on the way, don't forget that Konami's own website may have recently indicated that Metal Gear Solid may finally be coming to another platform (or several) that isn't the PlayStation 3.

ICYMI, after months of speculation, Konami finally revealed that The Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Volume 1 would be coming to Nintendo Switch alongside PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. And yes, the Switch release will boast the same games as other modern platforms: Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. It's expected to release on October 24, 2023.

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A group of researchers from Technical University (TU) Berlin have uncovered a vulnerability in AMD-based vehicle infotainment systems that allows attackers to unlock restricted vehicle features.

This is most noteworthy in vehicles that offer premium features behind a paywall, including Tesla which has one of the (if not the) most extensive systems of its type, though the automaker is not alone in charging for optional extras - with BMW also hitting headlines in recent months over subscription models to commodities like heated seats. 

The team says that “hacking the embedded car computer could allow users to unlock these features without paying.”

Tesla jailbreak

There are two distinct concerns at bay. Firstly, an “unpatchable AMD-based Tesla Jailbreak” allows an attacker to run arbitrary software on the in-car display. Secondly, the extraction of a vehicle-unique hardware-bound RSA key allows an attacker to authenticate a car and open it up to Tesla’s services.

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According to those behind the discovery, a voltage fault injection attack was carried out on the AMD Ryzen SoC used in Tesla's MCU-Z.

It’s unclear which chargeable options can be accessed via an attack, however in an email to Tom’s Hardware, the TU Berlin researchers said that not all software upgrades are accessible. Depending on the model and year, upgrades can range from extras like heated rear seats to acceleration boosts, and full self-driving capabilities.

Tesla dissolved its press department in 2020, so much like Twitter, hearing news from the mouth of Elon Musk is about the only way to separate fact from fiction. Still, the automaker has not publicly commented on the vulnerability as yet.

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