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Facebook might owe you some money and now you have the means to collect. Meta, Facebook's parent company, agreed late last year to pay out $725 million(opens in new tab) to settle the Cambridge Analytica data privacy leak class-action lawsuit. The now four-year-old case started after journalists discovered the political research firm had collected and shared private data on at least 87 million Facebook users and that Facebook had failed to notify users of the data leak. Finally, roughly six months after the company settled, an estimated 280 million Facebook members (current and former) may be entitled to a cash payout. If you've already done the math, you know that no one is getting rich off this settlement. Sure, it's nearly a billion dollars out of Meta's pocket, but you might see just a few dollars. This scandal marks what may have been the darkest time in Facebook's history. It was a massive personal data breach that happened not because Cambridge Analytica hacked Facebook, but because Facebook didn't pay close attention to what Cambridge Analytica was doing. In a 2018 interview Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg apologized(opens in new tab) and admitted it "was a major breach of trust," and added, "We have a basic responsibility to protect people’s data." How to collect your Facebook settlement Meta and Facebook have made it easy to gather your handful of dollars, launching an online Claim Form(opens in new tab). You have until August 25, 2023, at 11:59 PM PT to fill it out. The only eligibility requirement is that you must have been a member of Facebook between May 24, 2007, and December 22, 2022. Even if you deleted Facebook, you can still collect funds. Granted, the amount of information Meta requests may give you pause, especially considering the company's data privacy record. Among the requested bits of personal information are your full name, address, email, phone number, and payment information. That last bit, which includes credit cards, PayPal, Venmo, and Zelle info, is not so you can pay them, but so Meta can get those few dollars to you. You even have to sign a form saying you are not making any of this up. It is a lot to go through for what might just be $3 or less. On the other hand, if enough people are turned off by Meta's form, a hearty, relative few may in fact get a windfall of, who knows, $50? [https://www.techradar.com/news/good-news-facebook-probably-owes-you-money]

I've been testing the Asus ROG Strix Scar 16's 2023 G634 model. Available in the UK for £3,400, and with essentially the same model in the US priced at $2,750, there's an expectation of zero compromises for a gaming laptop containing both Intel and Nvidia's latest mobile offerings. Not just when it comes to gaming prowess, but the overall user experience. And while the RTX 4080 and Core i9 13980HX provide a fantastic core config for a gaming laptop today, there are a couple of things holding this powerful machine back, not least the competition at that price point. Before we get into the numbers, the Scar 16 is off to a good start with its aesthetic. There's an industrial flair to the design, but not enough to make it look too 'edgy'. It's reminiscent of the resurgent retro console trend, with a subtle translucent plastic strip around the chassis edge and front. It may not have the humble charm of a Clear Glacier Gameboy Advance, but at least the subtle RGB strip along the front and back edge doesn't undermine the aesthetic. The light gradates gently through the laptop's thickness and gives a gentle glow to the desk around it. The default rainbow ROG logo on the back is a little much for me, but that can be easily remedied in the Aura software. It's been fascinating to see laptop manufacturers packing 16-inch gaming laptops with this generation's powerful components. How's it all going to fit? I wondered. The answer: It's all about girth, baby. The Scar 16 is thick, and heavy enough to make me question the notebook nomenclature, though it's nowhere near as dense as the desktop replacements of yesteryear (see the 8lbs Gigabyte Aorus 17X YD(opens in new tab)). Still, the Scar is thick enough that I almost expected to find a mechanical keyboard under the lid. No such luck, sadly, though the chiclet board has a pleasantly tactile bounce, and n-key rollover for gaming as one would expect. It's not the most satisfying to type on, but it does the job when it comes to gaming. Along the thick edges you're looking at a couple of USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports on one side, and a pair of USB Type-C ports on the other—one Thunderbolt 4 with DisplayPort, the other for display and/or power delivery to peripherals. There is an HDMI 2.1 port as well as 2.5G ethernet port. In other words, high spec connectivity isn't going to be a problem, though some may be disappointed at the lack of non-USB Type-C DisplayPort. Image 1 of 3 With the Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 packing a 175W RTX 4080 GPU under the hood, I noticed a few of the gaming performance numbers come close to, even blow straight past, some of other current-gen laptops we tested, even ones packing the RTX 4090 in its 150W form. In Cyberpunk 2077 for example, the Scar 16 manages 57 fps averages at 1080p against the Asus Zephyrus M16's 60 fps even in Ultra Ray Tracing mode. Pitting it against that same 150W GPU at 1080p in Hitman 3's Dubai benchmark, the Scar 16 actually surpasses the RTX 4090's 240 fps average by a whopping 26 fps, albeit with a lower minimum framerate. That points to a little inconsistency, but a lot of potential. Context is key at higher resolutions—though the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i's panel is 1600p native, it was actually tested at 1440p. That means while it looks like the Scar is falling behind the less expensive machine and its 150W RTX 4080 in a few benchmarks, the Scar 16 was tested at its native 1600p—meaning there's actually not a lot in it. While we're on the subject of the screen, that 16:10 Nebula screen is a nice ratio when you switch things up for a work session, though movies and cutscenes in games may end up sandwiched between black bars, as they tend to be designed with the standard 16:9 ratio in mind. If you've not got yourself one of the best gaming headsets(opens in new tab), you could do worse than the Scar 16's speakers, too. They're a little muddy from being packed into suck a tight chassis, though generally they're rich and bass-friendly. The 720p webcam handles low light well and sits in the right place, but it does give me lobster-red flush. The real star of the show is the Intel Core i9 13980HX. A CPU like this gives the Strix Scar 16 a leg up against some of the $4,000 laptops of this generation. Sure you're missing out on some of the GPU power, but the Scar doesn't mess around when it comes to handling all those physics simulations in the ever destructible environments we're seeing in games today. The Minimum CPU samples per minute in Blender's Junkyard benchmark shows it's got a lot to offer game artists, too. It puts even the $4,000 Zephyrus M16's i9 13900H to shame when it comes to video encoding, and although its multi-core performance falls behind the $5,300 MSI Titan's i9 13950HX in rendering benchmarks, it's single-core you're looking at for gaming. There the Strix Scar stands with the best. You might think that slight multithreading miss translates badly in Blender, but the Minimum CPU samples per minute in Blender's Junkyard benchmark shows it's got a lot to offer game artists, too. All that power in hungriness comes at a price, however and it means that while the Strix Scar 16's hour and twenty minute battery life sits in the middle compared to other gaming laptops of it's class, it's still not at the level we want from a portable device. It also runs a little hot for my liking. The CPU and GPU hit 105°C and 83°C respectively under load, which is hotter than the rest we tested. There's some serious coil whine coming from under the hood when you boot up a game, too. It's drowned out by the laptop's fans mostly, but it can sound quite concerning if you're not used to these kinds of common hardware noises. https://www.pcgamer.com/asus-rog-strix-scar-16-2023-review-benchmarks/

Italian authorities on Tuesday announced that they had captured a brown bear overnight after it had killed a jogger earlier this month. The fate of the 17-year-old female bear, known as JJ4, is now in the hands of an Italian court, which will determine if it should be euthanized. The debate has inflamed tensions over a successful effort to reintroduce brown bears to the region after they nearly went extinct in the 1990s. The bear was found in Val Meledrio, a valley in the mountains of Northern Italy, the provincial government of Trento said in a news release on Tuesday. The president of Trento Province, Maurizio Fugatti, said “satisfaction mixes with bitterness” over the capture. Mr. Fugatti also attempted to have JJ4 euthanized in 2020, after the bear attacked a father and his adult son in June of that year. “We would have liked to give this news in 2020, but its killing first, and then its capture, had been blocked by the courts,” he said. Authorities searched for the bear after investigators used genetic testing to determine that JJ4 had fatally attacked Andrea Papi, 26, a jogger from Caldes, a town in Trento. Mr. Papi was found in the woods and an autopsy concluded that he had died from wounds inflicted by a bear on April 5 or 6. Mr. Papi was the first Italian to be killed by a bear in modern times, reported the Italian news agency, ANSA. After genetic testing confirmed that JJ4 had attacked Mr. Papi, Mr. Fugatti signed an order last week to capture her. He has also issued an order for the bear to be euthanized, but that directive is on hold, pending a decision by a local court, which is scheduled to meet on May 11. Mr. Fugatti said after Mr. Papi’s death that other authorities in Italy had focused too much on the well-being of the bears, and not enough on the safety of people living in the same areas. He is also seeking to euthanize the bear MJ5, which attacked a man in March. There were an estimated 73 to 92 bears in Trento in 2021, the government said. The brown bear po[CENSORED]tion in the region had shrunk to three or four bears in the 1990s and faced extinction before the project, Life Ursus, brought 10 bears from Slovenia to the region between 1999 and 2002. Animal welfare groups have pushed back against his efforts. On Monday, the advocacy group Animalisti Italiani said that the provincial government had not done enough to minimize the chances of dangerous interactions between bears and humans. “Our cohabitation with the big predators that have always po[CENSORED]ted our country is not only possible, with the right precautions, but also necessary,” the group said in a statement. Trento’s forest department captured JJ4 this week using a tube trap and took her to a local wildlife center. She was found with her three two-year-old bears, which were deemed self-sufficient and were left behind, officials said. At the wildlife center, JJ4 is being fed fruit and vegetables, officials said. She weighs about 330 pounds and is in good health. [https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/19/world/europe/bear-captured-italy-jogger.html]

The home secretary is expected to be given the ability to ignore attempts by European judges to halt migrant deportations from the UK. The change will be made to the Illegal Migration Bill, after the government made concessions to Conservative MPs. The move should avoid a rebellion from some MPs, who have been demanding tougher action against the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The change will be made in amendments when the bill returns to the Commons. As part of the amendment, Home Secretary Suella Braverman is expected to gain the power, in certain circumstances, to ignore interim injunctions from the court, known as Rule 39 orders, that halt deportation flights. The Strasbourg-based court, unpo[CENSORED]r with the Tory right, used an injunction of this type to block the removal of migrants to Rwanda last year. Rebel Tory MPs say they have also agreed with ministers that British judges will only be able to halt deportations where there is a risk of serious and irreversible harm. BBC Newsnight has been told some movement is also expected on the provision of safe and legal routes for refugees to come to the UK - which is a key demand of another group of Conservative MPs. The migration legislation, which was set out by Ms Braverman last month, would prevent anyone entering the UK illegally from claiming asylum. It is central to Mr Sunak's pledge to stop small boats crossing the English Channel, but has provoked outrage among charities and opposition parties, who say it breaches international law. What are the legal routes to the UK? Ministers see off Tory rebels over migration plans What does Rishi Sunak's promise to stop the boats mean? Some Conservative MPs, however, believe it does not go far enough and tabled a series of changes to the bill. Last month, some of those MPs withdrew their proposals in Parliament after immigration minister Robert Jenrick said he would engage with those who have concerns. Conservative MP Danny Kruger, who was among those leading the calls, said he was "grateful to the prime minister and the home secretary for their work". Mr Kruger said the British public "are fed up with London lawyers and Strasbourg judges getting in the way of a sensible migration policy". He said he was "hopeful that the government will be able to deliver the prompt removals to Rwanda and other safe countries". This was needed, he said, "to stop the boats and lay the foundation of a fair and humane asylum system". New powers More than 45,000 people entered the UK via Channel crossings last year, up from about 300 in 2018. Under the new bill, people removed from the UK would be blocked from returning or seeking British citizenship in future. Migrants will not get bail or be able to seek judicial review for the first 28 days of detention. It will also place a legal duty on the home secretary to detain and remove those arriving in the UK illegally, to Rwanda or a "safe" third country - this will take legal precedence over someone's right to claim asylum. In a letter to MPs following publication of the bill, Ms Braverman conceded there is a "more (than) 50% chance" the bill is incompatible with international law. It is expected to come up against opposition in the House of Lords, and subsequently expected to face a wave of legal challenges, whilst opposition parties have dismissed it as unworkable. Former Lord Chief Justice and crossbench peer Lord Thomas said ignoring interim injunctions from the ECHR would be an "immensely serious step" and warned it "sets an extraordinarily bad example". "Many people would say having the power to ignore a court order is something - unless the circumstances were quite extraordinary - this is a step a government should never take because it is symbolic of a breach of the rule of law," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. [https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-65331272]

At least 78 people have been killed in a crush at a school in the Yemeni capital Sanaa during a distribution of charity for Ramadan, officials say. TV footage shows a crowd of people unable to move and many in distress in the Bab al-Yemen area of the city. Hundreds of people reportedly crowded into the school late on Wednesday to receive donations amounting to about $9 (£7; €8) per person. The rebel Houthi movement has controlled Sanaa since 2015. Video posted on social media shows people screaming with dozens of bodies on the ground, some of which are not moving. Other people are seen trying to help. Two local businessmen who arranged the event had been arrested and an investigation was under way, the interior ministry said. A spokesman for the ministry blamed the crush on the "random distribution" of funds without co-ordination with local officials. Many people were also injured with 13 in a critical situation, a health official in Sanaa said. "Women and children were among the dead," a Houthi security official told AFP news agency on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to journalists. The Associated Press news agency quoted two eyewitnesses who said Houthi fighters had fired into the air in an attempt at crowd control, apparently striking an electrical wire which resulted in an explosion. This caused panic that led to the crush, they added. The rebels are said to have then sealed off the school and barred people, including journalists, from approaching. The Houthis have reportedly agreed to pay $2,000 (£1,600) to each family who lost a relative, while the injured would get around $400 (£322). The event happened during the final days of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Last week a major prisoner swap between warring sides in Yemen started, seen as part of stepped-up efforts to end the devastating eight-year conflict. Mohamed Ali al-Houthi, head of the Houthis' Supreme Revolutionary Committee, blamed Wednesday's crush on the country's humanitarian crisis. "We hold the countries of aggression responsible for what happened and for the bitter reality that the Yemeni people live in because of the aggression and blockade," he said on Twitter. [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-65331831]

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Name of the game: Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 Price: 11.99$ Link Store:Here Offer ends up after X hours: Offer ends 1 May Requirements MINIMUM: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Operating system: Windows 8.1 / 10 (64-bit) Processor: Intel Core i5 7600 / AMD Ryzen 5 1600 Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: Nvidia Geforce 970 / Radeon RX 580 DirectX: Version 11 Storage: 20 GB available space RECOMMENDED: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Operating system: Windows 8.1 / 10 (64-bit) Processor: Intel Core i7 7700 / AMD Ryzen 7 1700 Memory: 16 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 or AMD Radeon 5600 XT DirectX: Version 11 Storage: 20 GB available space

As if Apple wasn’t omnipresent enough in our lives, the tech giant is now offering Apple Card users the opportunity to open a savings account on their iPhones The feature was originally announced back in October 2022(opens in new tab) as a way for Apple Card owners to save their Daily Cash rewards and grow them “in a high-yield Savings account from Goldman Sachs.” Some speculated the APY (annual percentage yield) would be 3.75 percent(opens in new tab), but as it turns out, it’s actually 4.15 percent which the company claims is currently “more than 10 times the national average”. Be aware the APY isn't set in stone as it could jump up or dip at any time in the future. Besides the high yield, it functions similarly to any old savings account(opens in new tab) you get at a typical bank with the added benefit of having “no fees, no minimum deposits, [plus] no minimum balance requirements”. Additionally, all Daily Cash(opens in new tab) earnings that you collect whenever you purchase something with your Apple Card will automatically be sent over to the new savings account. The neat part is there's no limit to Daily Cash although the cash rebates differ from merchant to merchant. For example, if you buy a new Macbook from Apple's online store, you get three percent of that particular purchase back. Healthy finance Vice president of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet Jennifer Bailey stated in a release that the purpose of this recent move is to give people the tools to “lead healthier financial lives” similar to Apple Pay Later which launched in late March(opens in new tab). To further help, the Wallet app will have a dashboard for users to track account activities. Users can also connect a personal bank account if they want to deposit money from a personal account to their newfound Apple Savings. Of course, it’s possible to do the opposite by withdrawing funds to said personal account or from your Apple Cash card “with no fees.” [https://www.techradar.com/news/Apple's-new-savings-plan-basically-turns-your-iPhone-into-a-bank]

have the future in my hands. Well, in the PC Gamer test rig anyways. Yes, the lightning speed promise of PCIe 5.0 SSDs is fulfilled by a Crucial T700 drive that finally uses the 'good NAND,' with performance two-thirds quicker than any previous SSD we've tested. And that's just from an engineering sample which isn't yet fully validated or optimised. So, it could potentially go even quicker when release samples arrive. Our PC platforms have been ready for the inevitable rise of PCIe 5.0 SSDs since AMD launched its AM5 motherboards and Zen 4 CPUs last year, and yet we've been waiting all that time to see any solid state drive manufacturer actually take advantage of it. There's been no SSD launched to utilise the extra theoretical bandwidth afforded by the new interface. That's an effective doubling of the bandwidth provided by the PCIe 4.0 interface, and means that the potential performance of these new Gen5 SSDs in a traditional x4 M.2 socket goes from 8 GB/s up to 16GB/s. So, why is it April 2023 and we're still yet to see a proper PCIe 5.0 SSD released? It's all about the memory and that so-called 'good NAND'. We've been chatting with manufacturers since PCs had PCIe 5.0 slots available and the noises were not that promising. The first drives that were announced, and indeed shown off in benchmarks, where the SSDs were capable of hitting 10,000 MB/s for read speeds. But that never looked like much of a performance bump over the ~8,000 MB/s Gen4 drives. We were told it wasn't a controller issue—where the Phison PS5026-E26 is seemingly ubiquitous across announced Gen5 SSDs—and that it's all down to the availability of NAND flash memory capable of taking advantage of the bandwidth on offer. The quickest flash memory available meant a limit of 10,000 MB/s. Which is why we've been waiting on Micron to get its new 232-layer TLC NAND flash memory out the factory door and available for drive manufacturers to get into their own SSDs. The reason we've got a Crucial test drive is Micron is its parent company, and the T700 SSD represents a great vehicle for getting the performance of the group's new memory in front of consumers. Which is also why you'll see a bunch of previews going live today as a whole bunch of these engineering samples have been doing the rounds. The Crucial T700 is rated for up to 12,400 MB/s sequential reads and 11,800 MB/s writes for the 2TB version that we've got our hands on. The 1TB version is actually fairly significantly slower, offering 11,700 MB/s and 9,500 MB/s for respective sequential reads and writes. The drive is supplied, as previously mentioned, with Micron's new 232-layer 3D TLC NAND flash memory, which is that 'good NAND' everyone's been waiting on. Theoretically, on this controller, it could be tuned to even 14,000 MB/s. The T700 is going to hit retail likely in May time, though we don't have a retail price for the unit as yet. But given the fact that the few PCIe 5.0 drives that have appeared in retail at the slower speeds, and have costed twice that of an equivalent high-end PCIe 4.0 SSD, the Crucial T700 is not going to be a cheap drive. It comes in two flavours—1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities notwithstanding—one that comes with a chonky metal heatsink and another that comes with just a thin copper label. It's long been known that PCIe 5.0 SSDs would come in hot, and initially I was pleased to see the T700 arrive not sporting a tiny whiny fan. But it does need a heatsink, so that bare version is only designed for users that are going to seal it under a motherboard's own heatsink instead. Our test ASRock X670E Taichi board even has its own be-fanned extra Gen5-specific heatsink. The good news is that in our preview testing the Crucial T700 does indeed hit its rated sequential performance. On the money, in fact, with our own numbers taken from the standard CrystalDiskMark benchmark being around 30-40 MB/s quicker. That's some 67% higher than the fastest Gen4 drive we've tested, the Samsung 990 Pro(opens in new tab) in 2TB trim. We've run our benchmarks against historic data from some of the best PCIe 4.0 SSDs(opens in new tab) on the market today, and the numbers are fascinating. That peak sequential read/write performance means the T700 is an outstanding drive if you're flinging large files and folders around your PC. In our real-world file transfer test—basically the act of copying a medium-sized Steam game folder—it's supremely quick. It took just 40 seconds to copy a 30GB folder from one part of the drive to another. The best PCIe 4.0 drives we've found take around 100 seconds longer. At best. The issue with that peak performance, however, is that it's purely within the interface. You're not going to get that performance copying into or out of a PCIe 5.0 SSD when you're crossing over to either a PCIe 4.0 drive or an external USB-based SSD. The good news is that in our preview testing the Crucial T700 does indeed hit its rated sequential performance. On the money, in fact, with our own numbers taken from the standard CrystalDiskMark benchmark being around 30-40 MB/s quicker. That's some 67% higher than the fastest Gen4 drive we've tested, the Samsung 990 Pro(opens in new tab) in 2TB trim. We've run our benchmarks against historic data from some of the best PCIe 4.0 SSDs(opens in new tab) on the market today, and the numbers are fascinating. That peak sequential read/write performance means the T700 is an outstanding drive if you're flinging large files and folders around your PC. In our real-world file transfer test—basically the act of copying a medium-sized Steam game folder—it's supremely quick. It took just 40 seconds to copy a 30GB folder from one part of the drive to another. The best PCIe 4.0 drives we've found take around 100 seconds longer. At best. The issue with that peak performance, however, is that it's purely within the interface. You're not going to get that performance copying into or out of a PCIe 5.0 SSD when you're crossing over to either a PCIe 4.0 drive or an external USB-based SSD. https://www.pcgamer.com/crucial-t700-pcie-5-ssd-preview/

Fast-moving Chinese premium EV brand HiPhi has revealed the new HiPhi Y crossover at the Shanghai motor show, which will be its second model to go on sale in Europe, following the arrival of the HiPhi X later this year. Presented at HiPhi’s exhibition stand at the show, Autocar understands the Y will have a focus on usability, with a range of around 500 miles on a single charge, based on China’s light-duty vehicle test cycle. It’s powered by a 115kWh battery, with the option of a smaller 76.6kWh unit, while top-rung models make use of up to 331bhp. HiPhi hasn’t revealed pricing yet for Europe but says it will be cheaper than the £75,000 HiPhi X, and the HiPhi Z. Orders are expected to open by the end of the year The carmaker confirmed it would kick-start its move into the European market with the HiPhi X after the model passed homologation tests by German firm TÜV SÜD “in record time” earlier this month. Set to be HiPhi’s first car on sale on the continent, the X is billed as a coupé crossover with a focus on comfort and technology. It will be followed in Europe by the HiPhi Z, a luxury electric grand tourer, and a third model, the HiPhi Y, which will be unveiled at the Shanghai motor show. The X will be sold in Europe with a 97kWh battery, offering a claimed range of up to 403 miles, calculated using the China light-duty vehicle test cycle (CLTC). It uses a dual-motor set-up with a total output of 528bhp. HiPhi says it can complete 0-62mph in 3.9sec. In China, the X can be selected with a 120kWh battery with 438 miles of range, but HiPhi has not confirmed if this variant will be offered in Europe. Both four- and six-seat configurations will go on sale in Europe. HiPhi has emphasised the high level of the X’s technology. Inside, it’s equipped with a 17-speaker audio system, a 19.9in, passenger-oriented touchscreen infotainment system and a customisable fragrance system. Also included as standard is a series of 8.0in touchscreens around the car and "airline-style seats". Another standout feature, the firm says, is the inclusion of the “first robotic arm in the industry”, which adjusts the angle of the infotainment screen. No prices have been revealed for the European market yet, but the X entered production just under two years ago in China, becoming the country’s best-selling premium EV (£60,000-plus) in its first half year on sale. With the Z to follow the X, the HiPhi Y is expected to open new doors for the four-year-old Shanghai-based company, targeting a lower price point and higher sales volumes - as well as serving as the flagbearer for a global expansion strategy. Speaking exclusively to Autocar, HiPhi chief technology officer Mark Stanton (previously head of Jaguar Land Rover's Special Vehicles division) hinted that the third car, based on the same architecture as its range-mates, will be revealed at the Shanghai motor show later this month and will be cheaper than the £75,000 X and Z. Human Horizons HiPhi X Founders Edition 2021 first drive "Our first two products are both high-end, top-of-the-range cars," said Stanton, adding that they have "anchored our brand at that premium level" to the point where most of HiPhi's conquest customers are coming over from Mercedes-Benz. The HiPhi Z, a rakish, high-riding saloon, arrived on sale at the end of 2022 and looks to steal some of the indomitable Porsche Taycan's thunder in the German firm's biggest market https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/new-hiphi-y-suv-makes-debut-shanghai-motor-show

A wildlife park has celebrated the 35th birthday of a penguin which it has described as a "remarkable age". Spneb, who lives at Paradise Park in Hayle, Cornwall, is thought to be the oldest Humboldt penguin in the UK. During a celebration on Sunday, the penguin received a three-tier ice cake decorated with fish. Humboldt penguins, which are native to South America, typically only live between 15 to 20 years in the wild. 'Really good age' Alison Hales, director of the wildlife sanctuary, said Spneb had reached a remarkable age. "We know that penguins in captivity can reach more than their age in the wild because they are protected from predators and given all types of care form vets and keepers," she said. "But all the same, 35 is a really good age for them." She said Spneb was lucky to overcome a lung problem she developed in 2007 that took several months to treat. As a result, she was named after her treatment programme, which initially consisted of a drug (Sp) and a nebuliser (neb). Asked about the secret to her longevity, Ms Hales said: "Exercise and fish oil. "She loves to swim and she keeps fit."

China's economy grew faster than expected in the first three months of the year, as the country emerged from its tough Covid restrictions. Compared to the same period last year, gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 4.5%, official figures show. The key measure of economic activity was driven up by a boost in household spending and rising factory activity. Beijing pledged to boost the world's second largest economy when it lifted coronavirus measures in December. Also on Tuesday, separate data for March showed that retail sales, the main indicator of household consumption, jumped by 10.6%, compared to a year earlier. At the same time, output from the country's factories rose by 3.9%, although that slightly missed forecasts. Meanwhile, there was also evidence of a strong rebound for the country's airline industry. China Civil Aviation Administration data showed that more than 45 million air passenger trips were taken last month, an almost threefold increase on the same time last year. The country resumed processing visa applications in March after announcing a major easing of restrictions. Investors had been eagerly waiting for the figures to get clues on the strength of China's recovery after the government lifted coronavirus measures. Beijing has also eased a three-year-long crackdown on big technology companies and property developers. However, one analyst told the BBC that, while the latest figures are strong, that pace of growth is unlikely to continue. "What's more likely to happen in the coming months is that people might get over the initial high after the reopening," Dan Wang, chief economist at Hang Seng Bank (China) said. "Manufacturing demand might decline, which cannot sustain a boom in exports because the global economy is slowing down rather than speeding up," she added. Authorities, including the People's Bank of China, have promised to increase support for the pledged to step up support for China's economy to help curb unemployment but are limited in what measures they can take. Last year, China's GDP growth slumped to one of the lowest levels in nearly half a century due to coronavirus measures. GDP is one of the most important tools for looking at how well, or badly, an economy is doing. It helps businesses judge when to expand and hire more people, and lets governments work out how much to tax and spend.

The birthday girl at an Alabama party where four people were shot dead was saved by her brother, she has told the BBC. He later died in her arms. Alexis Dowdell was celebrating her 16th birthday at a dance studio in rural Dadeville when her 18-year-old brother Phil Dowdell came to get her after hearing that someone at the party had a gun. Her mother, LaTonya Allen, had also heard the rumours. She said that she turned on the lights, went to the DJ booth, and asked whoever had a firearm to leave the party. But when no-one spoke up, she turned the lights back off. The gunfire erupted shortly after. "All of a sudden you hear gunshots and you just see everybody running towards the door and people falling and screaming," Alexis told the BBC. Her brother Phil pushed her to the ground, she said, before the two became separated in the chaos. She was able to escape the venue and took cover outside before someone came to help her up. Alexis said she hid behind another building in case the attacker was still on the loose. When she eventually went back inside, she discovered that her brother had been shot. He had lost a lot of blood. She stayed with him as he drifted in and out of consciousness. He was unable to talk, though he opened his eyes and raised his eyebrows as she cradled him in her arms. "The last thing I told him was to stay strong," she said. She added that her birthday would never be the same. Thirty-two others were injured in Saturday night's attack at the party in Dadeville, a small, close-knit town of roughly 3,000. Police have yet to name a suspect or a motive and have urged the public to come forward with information. Alexis and her mother said they did not know what had led to the shooting. The city's local pastor told the BBC the gunman was still at large. Jimmy Frank Goodman Sr, the mayor of Dadeville, told the BBC that the scene at the hospital after the shooting was chaotic, even worse than what he had witnessed during his time serving in the Vietnam War. "There were people crying, bodies going into the emergency room and bloody clothes on the ground," he said. The oldest of three siblings, Phil Dowdell was remembered by members of his community as a star athlete and a loyal friend. He had been due to go to Jacksonville State University on a sports scholarship. Alexis said she had enjoyed watching her brother play football and sharing laughs with him. He always used to open the door for others and come into her room to apologise whenever the two of them had fought, she said. Ms Allen said her son made her proud "in every way". "A piece of my heart is ripped out," she said. "He was supposed to graduate next month. Instead of me going to graduation I'll be going to the cemetery to see my son." Shaunkivia Smith, 17, Marsiah Collins, 19, and Corbin Holston, 23, were also killed. Relatives and friends of Ms Smith said she had been about to graduate from high school. Mr Collins was a varsity football player who hoped to become a lawyer. Mr Holston came to the party to check on a family member once he heard trouble was brewing, his family said. The flags outside Dadeville High School have been lowered to half-mast. A vigil was held on Sunday for all four victims. Hundreds of people, including some who were injured in the shooting, attended. Casey Davis, a deputy superintendent at the local board of education, said clergy and grief counsellors would be available to the community. The US has seen more than 160 mass shootings so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines such events as ones in which four or more people are shot. [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65275839]

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Name of the game: The Witcher® 3: Wild Hunt Price: 11.99$ Link Store:Here Offer ends up after X hours:Offer ends 23 April Requirements: MINIMUM: OS: 64-bit Windows 7, 64-bit Windows 8 (8.1) Processor: Intel CPU Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz / AMD A10-5800K APU (3.8GHz) Memory: 6 GB RAM Graphics: Nvidia GPU GeForce GTX 660 / AMD GPU Radeon HD 7870 DirectX: Version 11 Storage: 50 GB available space RECOMMENDED: OS: 64-bit Windows 10/11 Processor: Intel Core i5-7400 / Ryzen 5 1600 Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: Nvidia GTX 1070 / Radeon RX 480 DirectX: Version 12 Storage: 50 GB available space

Wndows 11 has witnessed the debut of a much-anticipated feature for File Explorer, namely an integrated photo gallery. Build 23435 for the Dev channel introduces this new piece of functionality, which represents a large piece in a bigger puzzle Microsoft is busy solving – that of how to make File Explorer better with a full revamp. File Explorer is the very folders you open on the desktop, no doubt on a daily basis, so it’s very much a core part of the Windows 11 interface. And in this case, the addition of a Gallery gives you an easy way to browse through your photos, right there when using File Explorer. As Microsoft points out in the blog post(opens in new tab) for build 23435, the Gallery takes the same form as the ‘All Photos’ view in the Photos app. It’s possible to decide which images get included in the new Gallery via a dropdown menu that lets you add folders. Also, Gallery will show up in the ‘file picker dialog’, which is the panel that pops up to choose a file, for example, when you’re attaching something to an email (so if that something is a pic, you can browse via the Gallery). Analysis: gauging the reaction to Gallery This is a major addition to File Explorer, but not one that’s a surprise. Mainly because we’ve seen the File Explorer photo gallery already, thanks to intrepid Windows 11 testers who’ve dug under the hood of the OS. In short, Gallery has been present in preview builds for some time, and has previously been enabled using configuration tools, so we’ve already had a couple of decent peeks at the new Windows 11 feature. Still, it’s great to see Gallery up and rocking in its full form, finally, and to discover more about the nuances of how it works. Albeit there’s a caveat here – not all Windows 11 testers will see this right now, as Microsoft is taking it slowly with the Gallery rollout. The software giant notes that it will monitor feedback on the feature to “see how it lands before pushing it out to everyone”, and that currently, we’re at the start of the rollout. So, reading between the lines, you might have to get rather lucky to see the photo gallery in File Explorer with build 23435, but we’d imagine it’ll be coming to a good deal more testers pretty soon. Speaking of expected timelines, when might Microsoft’s big overhaul of File Explorer, complete with Gallery, actually arrive in the release version of Windows 11? That’s still a good way off, and we’re likely looking at the big annual update for Windows 11 later in 2023 (known as 23H2). [https://www.techradar.com/news/microsoft-has-big-changes-in-the-works-for-windows-11-and-one-just-arrived]

Nvidia has rolled out its $600 killer, the GeForce RTX 4070(opens in new tab). And wouldn't you know it, prices of AMD's last-gen Radeon RX 6950 XT(opens in new tab) have tumbled to just over $600. Which immediately begs the question, which is the best graphics card for your roughly 600 bucks? We'll skip over the question of where the hell the rest of AMD's RX 7000-series graphics cards are, because right now its strategy seems to be relying on its last-gen options to take the fight to Nvidia outside of the $999 RX 7900 XTX(opens in new tab). This then is a classic contest between a last-gen GPU with traditional enthusiast specs including a big memory bus and loads of VRAM versus the young upstart with more advanced technology and features but hailing from lower down the model line. Just enough. That's Nvidia's MO when it comes to graphics memory. And, I'm sorry, but 'just enough' isn't actually good enough for $600. Especially when just enough applies today and can't be relied on tomorrow. AMD's Radeon RX 6950 XT, you see, is a proper enthusiast-spec card. You get a 256-bit memory bus and 16GB of VRAM and that means plenty of bandwidth and indeed sufficient VRAM for the latest games. You could argue that the increased cache of newer GPUs like the RTX 4070 makes memory bandwidth less critical. I'm sure Dave will. And it's true. But the problem with the RTX 4070's stingy 192-bit bus isn't bandwidth, it's the limitations it makes for graphics memory allocation. Long story short and without getting into the technicalities, a 192-bit bus means Nvidia had to go for 12GB of VRAM. 16GB isn't an option with a 192-bit bus. And for better or worse, 12GB is marginal when it comes to the most demanding current games. That is only going to get worse. Sure, if you're only planning to keep your new card for a year, 12GB versus 16GB may not prove much of an issue. But I'd say within around 18 months to two years 12GB is going to be a real barrier. Already, numerous games can exceed 12GB depending on the settings used, including The Last of Us, Resident Evil 4, Forspoken and a fair few others. That roster will only increase. The real irony is that turning on ray tracing, which the RTX 4070 is inherently better at, only makes matters worse. It tends to bump up VRAM usage significantly, only making it more likely that the RTX 4070 runs into problems as more and more games use ray tracing in future. Of course, I haven't even mentioned the fact that the 6950 XT is around 15% faster than the RTX 4070 at pure raster rendering even when running out of VRAM isn't an issue. All of which isn't to say that I don't value the RTX 4070's feature set. In my view, DLSS scaling is definitely that little bit sharper and more effective than AMD's FSR. And frame generation in DLSS 3 is a nice feature, even if it's absolutely not the same thing as adding more frames and will do nothing to help the RTX 4070 in those instances when it runs out of VRAM. But the point is that I do think the RTX 4070 has a better feature set. The problem is that it's been unnecessarily hobbled by Nvidia's stinginess. With 16GB of VRAM, I'd overlook the RTX 4070's raster performance deficit happily. But I ain't paying $600 for a card that's already flirting with obsolescence Part of it is going to be a bit of pride, but I don't think I could reasonably spend $600 on an RX 6950 XT over an RTX 4070. Even now I'm typing that, it doesn't seem right, considering the AMD Radeon card was a $1,100 GPU at launch. So, is it just an innate struggle on my behalf to drop such a significant amount of money on a last-gen piece of tech? I'm going to say, no. If you're looking at straight raster performance the AMD card has a fairly significant edge, especially for two cards that now cost the same amount of cash with the red team dropping its pants on pricing for its once flagship GPU. And a few years ago that would have absolutely been enough for me to say 'stuff the RTX 4070, imma get me some AMD goodness.' But we no longer live in a world where the old rules of graphics card performance apply. Native resolution and rasterised rendering aren't the only things to consider anymore. Since Nvidia dropped real-time ray tracing as a genuine ting in 2018 it's gained ever more traction in the intervening years. Sure, at the outset it was only in a handful of games, and such a performance hog that it felt more a proof of concept feature than anything people would actually use on a day-to-day basis. And Nvidia's own data bears this out(opens in new tab), with it reporting that only 37% of RTX 20-series gamers enabled the feature back in 2018. Less so the emergent upscaling magic of DLSS, where only 26% of gamers who could use it would. Both technologies have significantly improved, and so have the GPUs which run them, making ray tracing, this top end of the graphical feature stack actually playable on a wide range of Nvidia cards. And that name dropping of the green team there is deliberate, because however much more prevalent ray tracing has become in the gaming consciousness, and in actually released games, AMD is still not great at the ol' tracing of rays. Though it's improved in the RDNA 3 architecture, any game that uses even a smidge of ray tracing effects puts the RX 6950 XT behind the RTX 4070 in our benchmarks. Jeremy's argument that the difference between 16GB and 12GB of VRAM is going to make the real difference going forward is fine, but I'm yet to be convinced that is going to be a real battle outside of some very specific instances. Then there's upscaling, which lowers the demands on VRAM, and the extra L2 cache Nvidia's slapped onto its Ada GPUs means it has the bandwidth, too. While AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution is an impressive upscaler in its own right, the company is still playing catchup with DLSS and even more so now that Nvidia has dropped the RTX 40-series' not-so-secret weapon: Frame Generation. AMD's got its own frame interpolation feature(opens in new tab) reportedly incoming, but Nvidia's Frame Generation is here, and already gifting RTX 40-series gamers free frame rate upgrades with no visible fidelity hit and super smooth gaming even at 4K. It's not enabled in every game, and needs to be coded in by the devs, but it's being baked into game engines now and will certainly become more widely used. I don't want to find myself with an RX 6950 XT, proud of its old school raster performance, when I really want to be running some shiny new lighting effects at 4K in a new game. Granted, there aren't many new games these days, but I still think I'd find it hard taking a step back in GPU generational terms. Especially given the performance gap between the RTX 4070 and RX 6950 XT could well end up getting wider over time. [https://www.pcgamer.com/nvidia-rtx-4070-vs-amd-rx-6950-xt/]