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Happy Birthday 🙂

Why it matters: This week, a Taipei YouTuber who may be part of the Asus ROG motherboard team prototyped an adapter for using DDR4 memory sticks on motherboards designed only for DDR5. This trick may alleviate a dilemma facing those building or buying new computers with Intel’s new Alder Lake processors. When Intel launched its Alder Lake CPUs in November, it let users finally take the plunge into DDR5 RAM--if they can find any. Supply chain shortage has affected DDR5 production as well, so users may want to stick with DDR4 for the time being. However, upgrading from DDR4 to DDR5 at a later date means replacing your entire motherboard, as motherboards can currently only support one or the other. YouTuber Bing—an Asus employee according to machine translation of his profile page—posted a video Thursday of his prototype adapter, which lets him use DDR4 RAM on an Asus Z690 DDR5 motherboard. We've embedded the video above, but it is in Chinese, so change the closed caption settings to auto-translate. The challenge lies in the fundamental differences between DDR4 and DDR5 modules. From the looks of the video, Bing’s prototype is still in an early phase and might not turn into something you can buy for a while. If it turns into an actual product, users could go ahead and purchase DDR5 motherboards even before they can get their hands on DDR5 RAM and simply upgrade to it whenever it becomes more available and cost-effective.

In context: Like Nvidia's DLSS upscaling tech, AMD's FSR requires additional effort from developers to get implemented into a game. However, Team Red might be looking to change that by making the upscaling algorithm behind FSR available via the Radeon Software for any game that can run in exclusive fullscreen mode. Back in June, AMD launched its competitor to Nvidia’s DLSS tech in the form of FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR), an open source technology that works on both AMD and Nvidia hardware as well as Intel’s upcoming Alchemist GPUs. As our own Tim Schiesser noted in his preliminary analysis of FSR, AMD managed to come up with an upscaling solution that is good enough when playing at 4K and 1440p resolutions unless you’re using the more aggressive performance presets. It’s not capable of matching Nvidia’s DLSS 2.0 or later revisions in reproducing fine details and it suffers from more shimmering and image artifacts when in motion, but it does offer a similar increase in performance. Half a year later, adoption is looking pretty strong with 70 current and upcoming games offering support for Team Red’s non-AI upscaling tech. However, a VideoCardz report says the company is also working on a different variant of FSR that is designed to work in “nearly all games.” If true, this is likely being built as a response to Nvidia’s Image Scaling tool that has recently been updated to provide FSR-like image upscaling and sharpening capabilities via the Nvidia control panel. There is a catch, however — in order to use AMD’s upcoming Radeon Super Resolution (RSR) feature, you’ll need to use an RX 5000 series or newer GPU and run your game in exclusive full-screen mode. Unlike FSR, Radeon Super Resolution won’t require developers to implement it as part of the rendering pipeline of their games, which means you won’t have to wait before you can use it in your favorite titles. The trade-off is that FSR leaves UI and in-game HUD elements at native resolution, while the new solution will just apply the upscaling algorithm to the entire video output. As a result, the image will be softer than with FSR but some people might be willing to accept that on a lower-end graphics card like the Radeon RX 5500 XT. As usual, take this with a pinch of salt. Still, AMD is expected to announce RSR at CES 2022 alongside the Radeon RX 6500 XT and the Radeon RX 6400, so hopefully we’ll learn more soon.

Jabra Elite 4 Active true wireless stereo (TWS) fitness-focussed earbuds have been launched in India. The IP57-rated earbuds come with Spotify Tap Playback feature along with active noise cancellation (ANC) paired with HearThrough technology, and Google Fast Pair. Jabra claims that the earbuds offer a total battery life of up to 28 hours. They also come with support for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. The news comes a few days after these earbuds from the Danish brand were seen listed on retailers in Australia and in the UK. Jabra Elite 4 Active price in India, availability The Jabra Elite 4 Active TWS earphones price in India is set at Rs. 10,999, as per the company site, and they are also listed for purchase on Amazon and Flipkart in Black, Mint, and Navy colour options. As per a report, the company is expected to showcase these earbuds along with other Jabra products at CES 2022. Jabra Elite 4 Active specifications and features Jabra Elite 4 Active TWS earphones come with Secure Active Fit ergonomic wing-free design for a noise isolating fit. They offer ANC and an adjustable HearThrough feature that allows the wearer to control the level of ambient sound to let in while listening to music or calls. The earbuds come with four built-in MEMS microphones that are protected by a special mesh covering for added protection from wind noise, and offer noise cancellation. Jabra says that the earphones can also be used independently through a Mono Mode. When it comes to audio, the Jabra Elite 4 Active TWS earphones come equipped with 6mm drivers and support for Qualcomm aptX as well as SBC audio codecs. The audio can be customised with the equaliser in the Jabra Sound+ app. The earbuds come with a Spotify Tap playback feature that quickly starts playing music with a single tap. The earbuds are IP57-rated for dust and water resistance and use Bluetooth v5.2 for connectivity. Jabra says that users can pair up to 6 devices, and the earbuds feature Auto on/off feature as well. Jabra Elite 4 Active TWS earbuds are claimed to deliver seven hours of playtime, and a total runtime of up to 28 hours. The case also supports fast charging and the earbuds are said to deliver an hour of playtime with 10 minutes of charging. Jabra claims that the earphones can be fully charged in up to 3 hours.

This year it was finally revealed that Haunted Chocolatier would be the next game from Stardew Valley creator Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone, and fans of his previous title are undoubtedly wondering how similar the games may be. Rest assured though, one element coming back from Stardew is relationships – although they may be done “differently this time around”. After many months of teasing, the latest game from the creator of Stardew Valley was revealed as Haunted Chocolatier back in October – and we still don’t know too much about it, other than it involves running a chocolate shop from within a haunted castle. It has a similar look to Stardew Valley but it’s unknown so far how similar they will play – we already know it will have a “greater focus on combat” than Stardew Valley. In a new interview with Vgkami, Eric Barone was asked the thing Stardew Valley players probably care about most – having relationships between the game’s characters. Barone confirms that “there will be relationships like in Stardew Valley” but they may not work the same way. At the moment the developer is remaining coy about what differences there will be, but that’s probably because Barone’s not sure themselves. “I haven’t decided exactly how the system will work, yet,” Barone says. “And I expect to approach some things differently this time around.” Presumably, we’ll find out more closer to release. While Haunted Chocolatier is still probably a ways off, fans have already begun recreating it in other games – including The Sims 4 and Stardew Valley itself. Until Haunted Chocolatier is playable these mods are probably your best bet – or something similarly relaxing. Get involved in the conversation by heading over to our Facebook and Instagram pages. To stay up to date with the latest PC gaming guides, news, and reviews, follow PCGamesN on Twitter and Steam News Hub, or download our free app for Overwolf.

Happy birthday

Music Title: Qubool Hai - Nabeel Akbar (Prod. UMAIR) | Official Audio Signer: Nabeel Akbar Release Date: 26 Dec 2021 Official Youtube Link: Informations About The Signer:--- Your Opinion About The Track (Music Video):---

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-59806499 Elon Musk is facing a social media backlash after China complained that its space station was forced to avoid collisions with satellites launched by his Starlink Internet Services project. The country's space station had two "close encounters" with Starlink satellites, Beijing claimed. China's complaints, lodged with the UN's space agency, have not yet been independently verified. Starlink is a satellite internet network operated by Mr Musk's SpaceX. Mr Musk is well known in China even as his electric carmaker Tesla comes under growing scrutiny from regulators. The incidents occurred on 1 July and 21 October, according to a document submitted by China this month to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. "For safety reasons, the China Space Station implemented preventive collision avoidance control," Beijing said in the document published on the agency's website. SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the BBC. After the complaint was made public, Mr Musk, Starlink and the US were heavily criticised on China's Twitter-like Weibo microblogging platform. One user described Starlink's satellites as "just a pile of space junk". The satellites are "American space warfare weapons" and "Musk is a new 'weapon' created by the US government and military", others said. Another posted: "The risks of Starlink are being gradually exposed, the whole human race will pay for their business activities." Scientists have voiced concerns about the risks of collisions in space and called on world governments to share information about the estimated 30,000 satellites and other space debris that are orbiting earth. SpaceX has already launched almost 1,900 satellites as part of the Starlink network, and plans to deploy thousands more. Last month, the US space agency NASA abruptly postponed a spacewalk from the International Space Station over concerns about space debris.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-59807241 The hospitality sector has strongly welcomed the decision not to impose further Covid restrictions in England. The sector has described it as a "lifeline" for pubs, bars and clubs, which have been relying on New Year's Eve trade for their survival. On Monday, Health Secretary Sajid Javid announced that the government would re-evaluate the situation in January. Some scientists advising ministers are concerned they may be taking an overly optimistic approach, as cases rise. Mr Javid said people should "remain cautious" and celebrate outside on New Year's Eve if possible. He added that the government would reassess whether more measures were needed in the new year. Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted on Monday that there would be "no new restrictions introduced in England before the New Year". Pubs, bars and restaurants have been hard hit in the run-up to Christmas, due to mass cancellations over Omicron variant fears. UK Hospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls said the decision to not go beyond Plan B measures in England had been a "pragmatic and proportionate" decision by the government. She said: "This will give a real lifeline for many who have struggled with the loss of trade in the run-up to Christmas and the loss of new year on top of that would have been devastating for many. "It will be a welcome boost and keeping restrictions to a minimum and lifting the remaining restrictions as quickly as possible to help the beleaguered sector back on to the road to recovery. The Night Time Industries Association described the decision as "amazing news" and Mark Davyd, chief executive of the Music Venue Trust, said there would "obviously be some relief" among hospitality bosses. However, he called for help to improve ventilation in venues along with "more clarity" on the government's long-term vision. Conservative MPs - who recently inflicted the largest rebellion of Mr Johnson's premiership over the introduction of Covid passes - were among those who welcomed Monday's announcement. Former minister Mark Francois told GB News: "It is remarkable how a backbench rebellion of 101 MPs focuses minds, isn't it?". Senior backbencher Sir Geoffrey Clifton Brown said that the data on hospital admissions did not support the imposition of further restrictions. Health Secretary Sajid Javid IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES However, some of the experts who advise the government were less enthusiastic. Prof Andrew Hayward - epidemiologist and a member of the advisory group Sage - told the BBC that ministers seemed to be acting "on the optimistic end of the spectrum". And Prof Danny Altmann suggested that there was now a great divergence between scientific advice and legislation. There is also now a clear divergence between the government at Westminster and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - all of which have introduced further restrictions this week. People in Wales and Scotland are living with curbs on hospitality, including the closure of nightclubs. Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting urged the government to publish all relevant advice and data, so the public could be reassured that Boris Johnson was not simply "capitulating" to members of his own party. After a two-day halt in publishing data, it was revealed that more than 300,000 new Covid cases had been recorded on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. UK-wide hospital data has not been updated since before Christmas but NHS England revealed that there were 1,281 Covid-19 hospital admissions in the country on Christmas Day - the highest number for any day since 16 February.

Something to look forward to: With CES 2022 just a couple of weeks away, we’re seeing more exciting hardware announcements from event participants. The latest two being Adata and Samsung, who have teased their first PCIe 5.0 drives with next-gen performance figures. The upcoming CES is showing even more signs of becoming a full-on virtual event, with several big names in the industry pulling out over fears of the latest Omicron variant. However, storage maker Adata has shared that it will be on location in Las Vegas to showcase some of its latest XPG-branded PC hardware. Among them will be ‘Project Nighthawk’ and ‘Project Blackbird,’ two prototype m.2 PCIe 5.0 SSDs that offer nearly twice the read/write performance of current-gen PCIe 4.0 drives. For Project Nighthawk, which uses a Silicon Motion SM2508 controller, Adata claims sequential speeds of up to 14GB/s reads and 12GB/s writes. The slightly slower Project Blackbird SSD features an InnoGrit IG5666 controller that offers the same read performance, but up to 10GB/s writes. Adata notes both drives pack up to 8TB of storage capacity. Expect additional details like IOPS performance, thermals, pricing and availability of consumer versions to be revealed during the showcase. Samsung, which is also attending CES (for now), has revealed its next-gen PM1743 drive. This enterprise-focused PCI 5.0 NVMe SSD uses the company's sixth-gen V-NAND memory and utilizes a proprietary controller to offer up to 13GB/s sequential read (2,500K random read IOPS) and 6.6GB/s writes (250K random write IOPS). Samsung says the PM1743 delivers up to 608 MB/s per watt, which is 30 percent more power efficient than last-gen SSDs. The upcoming drive will be offered in 2.5-inch and 3-inch EDSFF (E3.S) server-grade versions, and in storage capacities ranging between 1.92TB and 15.36TBs. Samsung is currently sampling this drive with chipset and server manufacturers and plans to mass-produce it in Q1 2022.

What just happened? Windows 11 arrived with a relatively minor set of issues and Microsoft has been working hard to address them one by one since the official launch. Most recently, the Redmond firm has confirmed a problem affecting color profile management and color rendering on the new OS. A patch is already in development but it won't arrive for at least another month. As reported by Windows Latest, the bug is preventing some image editing programs from rendering colors correctly on certain HDR displays. The problem is especially apparent with white shades, which can often display in bright yellow or other colors. Microsoft writes that the issue occurs when certain color-rendering Win32 APIs return unexpected information or errors under specific conditions. It emphasizes that not every color profile management program is affected, and color profile options available in the Settings page of the stable Windows 11 build, including Microsoft Color Control Panel, are expected to function correctly. Microsoft said it is working on a fix for the color issue, which affects Windows 11 version 21H2, though it’s not expected to arrive until late January. Elsewhere, the Windows 11 KB5008215 patch that arrived on December 15 has brought user reports of several other problems, including one that sees it failing to install. There are also reports of SSD/NVMe performance issues still being found, despite the bug being present since August. If you’ve made the jump to Windows 11 but are missing some of Windows 10’s distinctive elements, check out this feature on how to make Windows 11 look and feel more like its predecessor.

Oppo Enco M32 neckband-style earphones India launch has been teased by the company. The earphones will come with a fast charging technology, bass drivers and ergonomic fin design. These upcoming Oppo earphones are the successor to the Enco M31 earbuds that were launched in May last year. There is not much information about the price and specifications. These upcoming earphones will be available on Amazon just like the Oppo Enco M31. They are expected to be offered in multiple colour options. The Oppo Enco M32 earphones are listed on a microsite on Amazon.in, which means they will be available for purchase on the e-commerce website. The microsite also has a small video which shows the features of the earphones. They will come with a fast charging technology that is claimed to offer up to 20 hours of playback in 10 minutes charging. We can also see a USB Type-C port in the video. Oppo claims that the earphones can be fully charged in 35 minutes. The Oppo India site has also created a microsite for the new headphones, detailing the same information. Additionally, the video clip shows that the Oppo Enco M32 will feature an ergonomic fin design, and will be equipped with 10mm large dynamic drivers to boost bass. Other features include magnetic earbuds which join together in case they are not being used. There is a Black colour option, and they weigh 33 grams. In comparison, the Oppo Enco M31 earphones offer 3 hours of music playback with 10 minutes of charging. They are equipped with 9.2mm dynamic drivers, and use Bluetooth 5.0 for connectivity. They have IPX5 rating for water resistance, and an AI-powered noise cancellation feature. They also feature Magnetic Control for pausing and starting music by joining and separating the earbuds. The earphones are offered in Black and Green colour options.

It looks like we’re going to have wait a while longer for our next good look at Final Fantasy XVI. Producer Naoki Yoshida has confirmed that, due to the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the game’s development has been delayed “by almost half a year”, and that its “next big reveal” will come in spring 2022. “When we last spoke, I promised I would have more information on Final Fantasy XVI sometime later in 2021,” Yoshida explains in a statement shared on the game’s Twitter channel (below). “However, I regret to inform you that I will be unable to keep that promise as complications stemming from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic have delayed the game’s development by almost half a year.” The producer explains that the studio has needed to “decentralise” the large team of creators working on the game and let them work from home due to the ongoing pandemic. This has unfortunately meant, though, that communications from the head office in Tokyo have been “hampered”, which has had a knock-on effect on the delivery of assets. However, it sounds like the effects of this are in hand, and the studio’s set to focus on fully polishing the game ready for its launch. Yoshida explains that the studio spent “much of 2021 addressing this issue”, and that it hopes to see “its impact to a minimum by the new year”, which will let it focus on tasks such as “increasing graphic resource quality, refining combat mechanics, fleshing out individual battles, putting the finishing touches on cutscenes, and conducting overall graphical optimisation”. Here’s the statement on Twitter in full: While it might be disappointing news for those excited to see and hear more about the game ahead of its launch, the good news is that we’re due to get another big reveal in the coming months. There’s no window given other than “spring of 2022”, but with that just around the corner, hopefully it won’t be long before we get another good peek at what’s in store. YouTube Thumbnail “I deeply apologise to all those who have been looking forward to learning more about Final Fantasy XVI, and thank you for your continued patience while we focus our combined efforts on development,” Yoshida concludes in the post.

In brief: Remember mClassic, the plug-and-play graphics processor that promised to upgrade the graphical experience when playing older console games? The Indiegogo campaign smashed its funding goal in the summer of 2019 but what you may not know is that the add-oh hardware is now shipping worldwide. The mClassic is an inline graphics adapter designed to plug directly into your game console of choice (either directly or via an HMDI adapter). From there, you’ll need to run another HDMI cable from the mClassic to your television and power the device via USB. mClassic has three modes of operation: scaling off, scaling on and retro. With scaling off, your console’s original signal will pass right through, completely unaltered. With scaling on, mClassic will redraw every pixel, add an antialiasing layer and output at a higher resolution. Retro mode will add in the other processing effects but maintain the original aspect ratio. The mClassic is available to purchase from writing at a 15 percent discount, yours for only $84.99. You can also score an extra five percent off when you sign up for their mailing list. It’s no PS5 or Xbox Series, but with those consoles being so hard to track down right now, perhaps dusting off your old systems, boosting the visuals and revisiting some classics will be enough to hold you over until the inventory / bot issues get worked out.