Country News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

True Detective is the rare show that was much more exciting and complicated after seven episodes than it is after three seasons. What started out as a brooding series about detectives looking into the dark heart of senseless, seemingly occult killings eventually transformed into a detective show mostly about men being sad. What is remarkable about the show’s newest season, True Detective: Night Country, is that in just one episode, new showrunner Issa López has managed to bring back the creeping, supernatural horror vibe that gave the first season so much promise.

Apple Inc. is shutting a 121-person team related to artificial intelligence operations in San Diego, leaving many employees at risk of termination, according to people familiar with the matter. The group, known as Data Operations Annotations, was told Wednesday that they would be relocating to Austin to merge with the Texas portion of the same team, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans haven't been announced.

AI weather forecasting: As it celebrates 150th year of its establishment, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has now set its eyes on fine-tuning its weather forecast models using artificial intelligence (AI) and faster supercomputers even though it struggles to predict small-level severe weather events. In an interview with PTI, IMD Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said the weather office was setting up test beds in Odisha and Madhya Pradesh to better understand the physical processes leading to the formation of thunderstorms and heavy monsoon rains which could eventually help improve weather forecasts.

Family Guy's creator has claimed Epic Games "didn't have the budget" to replicate Peter Griffin's actual body in Fortnite.

What does it mean to be “dominant?” Well, there are levels to it, as many will agree. There is short-term dominance, and there is long-term dominance. In sports, you can be dominant for a season and then earn the title that “you deserve” because you blasted everything in your path on the way to that title. But if you have long-term dominance, you’re a dynasty. A legacy that can’t be overcome unless someone tops you. Given the nature of the gaming industry, you might think there are no such “dynasties” to be had. But with Nintendo, they have a streak going in Japan that will likely be hard to top.

Let’s dispel any trepidation you might have from previous seasons of True Detective, and all the baggage they carry: True Detective: Night Countryis astoundingly good television. A six-episode stunner where a macabre murder unspools into a layered exploration of an Alaskan town at the edge of Earth, its relationship with its Indigenous population, and the things the Arctic’s long night can do to a person, Night Country is about as good a start to television in 2024 we can ask for.

Before we read and wrote, we moved. Stories of people moving – migrating – have been told since time immemorial. The Mexica journey to central Mexico; Moses leading the Jewish people across the desert; the founding of Rome – as told by Virgil – by those that fled the fall of Troy. Unsurprisingly, then, video games also tell stories of migration. On August 8, 2013, game designer Lucas Pope, the man behind the studio 3909, released Papers, Please, a game about managing migration.

In each issue, Game Informer prints questions that are submitted by readers via email and standard mail. We'd like to give our website readers the chance to make the magazine as well.

BGMI tips: Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) is known for its intense gameplay and interesting gaming themes which have attracted mobile gamers 7in the tens of millions. BGMI has gained new players too as it keeps enhancing the gameplay and it has also maintained its top ranking in the country. Krafton is constantly improving the gaming experience, which is making it ever more thrilling. However, with fresh improvements being rolled out, the game also gets tough due to the fierce competition between players. Therefore, if you want to play the game to win and actually own the battleground, then follow these BGMI tips which will help you improve your gaming skills.

Bethesda may have just leaked the title of MachineGames’ Indiana Jones game, and there might not have been much they can do about it.

A new model of the PlayStation 5 DualSense controller with improved battery life has been spotted on a retailer website.

The Indian government stepped up its crackdown on offshore crypto exchanges operating without local registrations, asking Apple Inc. to take the apps of platforms including Binance off its App Store in the country. Bitfinex, HTX and Kucoin are among eight exchanges whose apps are no longer available on the App Store in India. They were removed on directions from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, according to people with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified because the request isn't public. 

Streaming platform Twitch is reportedly planning to lay off around 500 members of staff.

Amazon-owned streaming platform Twitch is set to lay off approximately 500 employees this week, or 35% of its total workforce, Bloomberg broke in a report on Tuesday.

BGMI guide for 2024: Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) has gained massive popularity among mobile gamers. It has managed to take on the biggest game-making companies in the world successfully in India. Now, it has been a year since its return from the ban imposed on it in the country and over the months has introduced various updates and modes to the game including a new map called Nusa. While many payers like to play ranked matches in Erangel, there are other maps and modes that players can explore to improve their gaming experience. Playing on different gaming modes also helps players learn new gaming tricks to survive any situation in the game. Check out this BGMI guide for 2024 to improve your overall gaming experience.

 Apple Inc.'s iPhone sales slump in China is deepening and the company is likely to see volumes decline further this year, according to Jefferies analysts led by Edison Lee. The iPhone maker's latest generation, iPhone 15, got off to an atypically sluggish start in China last year, which most recently expanded to a 30% year-on-year decline, Lee and colleagues said in a note on Sunday, citing industry checks. The rest of the country's mobile market grew in December, with Huawei Technologies Co. growing fastest on the back of its new Mate 60 device lineup.

By Tom Warren, a senior editor covering Microsoft, PC gaming, console, and tech. He founded WinRumors, a site dedicated to Microsoft news, before joining The Verge in 2012.

2024 is revving up, and 2024 TV is following suit. This week, some big name players are coming to grace our television screens, and tee up some genuinely good TV to get our new year really rockin’ and rollin’.

Apple has announced a US launch date for its mixed reality headset, Vision Pro.

One of the things that became a “hallmark” of the Nintendo Switch was that there were NUMEROUS games from the previous console, the Wii U, that were ported over to the system so they could have “new life.” That might sound like an exaggeration, but it’s honestly true. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, Pikmin 3, Super Mario Bros U Deluxe, and so many more from that console came over due to the failure of the Wii U and the hope that the Switch would bring better sales. And yet, Xenoblade Chronicles X was one that never got that treatment despite fan demand.

The Pokémon Company has announced it will donate 50 million JPY (around $345,750) to support those affected by the recent devastating earthquake in Japan.

Fanatec has delayed the release of its upcoming ClubSport DD+ racing wheel base due to a slow licensing process at Sony, the company has told customers awaiting the product. Originally expected to arrive with customers in December, the DD+ is now in a limbo until Fanatec can square it away with the console giant.

BGMI A4 Royale Pass: Over the years, the warzone game has started to make a big shift in the gaming industry due to its increasing popularity over all other variants. Games such as Call of duty, BGMI, and others have been immensely popular in India due to their unique offerings, especially due to the the fight sequences. That is why Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), which started late in the country, but still managed to gain much recognition due to its attractive gameplay, new themes, rewards, weapon choices, and more. Now, that the new year has begun, the anticipation for BGMI A4 Royale Pass is also increasing as the current pass is going to retire soon. Know all about BGMI A4 Royale Pass.

The UK's final weekly chart of 2023 for physical games is here, and it's Hogwarts Legacy that takes the top spot as the year comes to a close. However, WB Games' open world Harry Potter title has achieved more than that — as reported by GamesIndustry, it's the UK's best-selling boxed game of 2023 overall. Usually, that title goes to EA Sports and its annual football game, but Hogwarts Legacy won out over EA Sports FC 24, ending a 10-year streak.

When it comes to grand strategy titles, not many others can do it as well as the game franchise by Creative Assembly. Melding together aspects of political intrigue, economic development, and real-time strategy, is a chess match that relies on tactics and strategic thinking. Though the franchise has touched on a variety of different time periods, cultures, and conflicts for the 20+ years it's been going, many are wondering what the next game will be.

Korean games giant Nexon has been fined ₩11.6 billion ($8.9 million) by the country's Fair Trade Commission following allegations of misleading players of the MMO MapleStory.

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 Over ₹10,300 crore were siphoned off from the country by cybercriminals since April 1, 2021, of which agencies managed to successfully block around ₹1,127 crore in the country, Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) said Wednesday.

There’s a new rumor that Microsoft has scored another Disney owned IP, to make an Xbox exclusive.

Quordle 708 answer for January 2: Unlike Wordle where there is just one word to guess, Quordle is a more tricky affair as players have to guess four words in a limited number of attempts. However, Quordle players will find today's answers relatively easy, and might even be able to guess them on the first attempt! Still, players are not advised to make random guesses to prevent breaking their winning streak. Here are some of the Quordle 708 hints and clues that you can get help from. And as always, if you need more help, just scroll to the bottom for the solutions. As always, if you need more help, just scroll to the bottom for the solutions.

In yet another blow to China as it attempts to maintain a path towards self-reliance, Dutch-based lithography systems manufacturer ASML has revoked shipments of some of its DUV machines thanks to a request brought forward by the Biden administration. The export ban for such equipment was supposed to come into effect after a few weeks, which would have given China a little breathing room to procure sufficient machinery to continue mass producing chips for various applications, but the U.S. had other plans.

Runaway artificial intelligence has been a science fiction staple since the 1909 publication of E. M. Forster's The Machine Stops, and it rose to widespread, serious attention 2023. The National Institute for Standards and Technology released its AI Risk Management Framework in January 2023. Other documents followed, including the Biden administration's Oct. 30 executive order Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence, and the next day, the Bletchley Declaration on AI Safety signed by 28 countries and the European Union.

While the unaided eye or binoculars can reveal much of the night sky, a telescope reveals so much more. Seeing Saturn's rings or the Moon's craters with your own eyes can be an “oh wow” moment. However, choosing the right telescope can be tricky. There are telescopes with lenses and telescopes with mirrors.

AMD's best gaming CPU, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, is currently discounted to $317 in China with an AM5 combo deal going for just $466 US.

India's ISRO launched its first satellite, XPoSat, on Monday to study black holes as it seeks to deepen its space exploration efforts ahead of an ambitious crewed mission next year. The spacecraft, named X-ray Polarimeter Satellite, was propelled into an orbit of 350 kilometers from an island near India's main spaceport of Sriharikota, off the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, according to S. Somanath, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation. The XPoSat satellite, weighing about 470 kilograms, will carry out research on X-rays emanating from around 50 celestial objects with the help of two payloads built by ISRO and a Bengaluru-based research institute.

Chief Justice John Roberts on Sunday turned his focus to the promise, and shortcomings, of artificial intelligence in the federal courts, in an annual report that made no mention of Supreme Court ethics or legal controversies involving Donald Trump.

From politics to films and even war, the year 2023 has demonstrated that not everything one sees or hears on the internet may be real.

Chinese tech giant Huawei said Friday it "weathered the storm" of US sanctions as it announced a rise of almost nine percent in revenues in 2023, a year that saw it shock Washington with the release of a high-end smartphone.

To help round off the year, PlayStation has put together an interactive map of the world that shows the most played PS5 and PS4 games of 2023 in a bunch of different countries. A nice idea, we're sure you'll agree, but the results are every bit as boring as you'd expect.

Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen unwittingly included phony cases generated by artificial intelligence in a brief last month arguing for his release from post-prison supervision, according to court papers made public Friday.

Pokemon Scarlet & Violet, despite all of its shortcomings, added some pretty great new 'mons to the series' ever-growing Pokedex. It's introduced some new fan favorites, but only one of them can be crowned the game's most popular Pokemon. That's exactly what a Japanese fan poll has done recently, with Meowscarada coming out on top, after a whopping 152,681 votes.

OpenAI employee debunks prompt engineering as future's key skill; Chinese cybercriminals arrested for creating ransomware with ChatGPT assistance; Seoul boosts crime prevention with AI-powered surveillance expansion; Generative AI breakthrough enhances focused ultrasound for neurological treatment- this and more in our daily roundup. Let us take a look.

NVIDIA's H100 AI GPUs will reportedly reach a deployed capacity of a whopping 3.5 Million units by next year, consuming enough electricity to power entire countries.

As a citizen of today, you enjoy several digital systems, be it smartphones, email, voice AI like Alexa, or IoT. If you are part of any digital system, you are vulnerable to a cyberattack. In an era dominated by interconnected systems, the constant threat of cyberattacks, and businesses and individuals increasingly relying on digital platforms, the need for robust defenses against cyber threats has never been more critical.

She's an important figure behind today's artificial intelligence boom, but not all computer scientists thought Fei-Fei Li was on the right track when she came up with the idea for a giant visual database called ImageNet that took years to build. Li, now a founding director of Stanford University's Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, is out with a new memoir that recounts her pioneering work in curating the dataset that accelerated the computer vision branch of AI.

Japan's SLIM space probe entered the Moon's orbit on Monday in a major step towards the country's first successful lunar landing, expected next month. The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) is nicknamed the "Moon Sniper" because it is designed to land within 100 metres (328 feet) of a specific target on the lunar surface.

It’s finally time: the last new TV of 2023. Whether you’re at work or not, this week tends to be a pretty sleepy one, ideally with plenty of time to catch up on new TV.

VNG co-founder Le Hong Minh's first taste of international competition was as a gamer for Vietnam at an early e-sport tournament in South Korea. Two decades later, he says he's ready to face the world's best again as he takes his tech company public. The firm -- headquartered in buzzing business hub Ho Chi Minh City -- is one of Vietnam's leading game publishers, but it also runs a digital wallet, cloud services, and Vietnam's most popular messaging platform.

The successful soft landing of India's ambitious Chandrayaan-3 mission on the lunar south pole was admired by a large part of the world, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Friday.

There once was a time when video games were hard simply because that’s how game developers wanted them to be. Then, it became a thing where it should be “easier to play” because not everyone was a “hardcore gamer.” And now, we’re in an age where certain titles should have multiple difficulty levels or be “naturally hard” because many gamers love to be masochists. No matter where you fall in those difficulty categories, Rise of the Ronin from Team Ninja will have you covered. Team Ninja is known for making games difficult, and that will be no different with their upcoming game.

The International Criminal Police Organisation better-known as Interpol has announced the arrest of 3,500 alleged cybercriminals and scammers, alongside the seizure of $300 million in cash and digital assets across 34 nations. The arrests marked the conclusion of what Interpol calls Operation HAECHI IV, a six-month investigation funded by South Korea.

Regulators of the Chinese Communist Party have come down hard on several key pieces in the live service model, leading to spiralling shares for major players in the market as investors scramble to assess the damage.

China is once again looking to impose tighter regulation on its video game market.

Did you know that D4 Enterprise is releasing Japanese PC-88 games on Switch? It hasn’t been going on for long, but I just learned it now, thanks to Hydlide. D4 has added two titles to their EggConsole lineup, with 1984’s Hydlide and 1986’s Silpheed.

Narcotics police the world over are sprucing up their video game skills, as cartels go increasingly online to sell drugs and recruit dealers.

Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) has become extremely popular among youth ever since it made a comeback in India. Earlier players were immersed in the PUBG world, however, due to security issues govt had to ban the game in the country. But this was not the end as Krafton designed BGMI specifically for the Indian audience and now it has been awarded the Best Ongoing Game in the Google Play Best of 2023 apps. Now, the game recently launched the 2.9 update with the “Frozen Kingdom” theme and introduced various in-game rewards and new crates for players to play and win.

Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League will arrive in 2024, and many are cautious and curious about what they’ll see when they finally get to play it. The title hasn’t had the best luck regarding development or sticking to its release dates. However, to make up for the lack of knowledge about the game, Rocksteady has been dropping “insider” videos to highlight many of the things that players can expect. In Episode 2, they not only showed off more cutscenes from the game and gameplay footage, but discussed the many DC Comics characters you’ll run into that’ll help the Squad overall.

Today, December 20, artificial intelligence space has emerged as a big talking point again as various countries are taking significant steps in integrating the technology and formulating the right regulatory procedures. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has written a post looking back at 2023 and the year ahead. In his post, he predicted that AI will take center stage in 2024 and will “supercharge the innovation pipeline”. In other news, the defence ministry signed a Rs. 1,614 crore contract for the procurement of six AI-powered offshore patrol vessels for the Indian Coast Guard. This and more in today's AI roundup. Let us take a closer look.

There is now a games hub for startup developers in Lisbon.

Google Maps will launch address descriptors from India early next year, marking its first global launch from the country, a senior company executive said on Tuesday. The descriptor will include the nearest landmark and the direction from there to the location shared by a map user.

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Ex Machina director Alex Garland looks like he will try to do the impossible when his new film Civil War hits theaters in 2024: depict a second civil war in the United States without directly engaging with the politics of why that war is taking place. It’s not hard to see why Garland might want to avoid thorny connections between the movie and the very real politicians and political groups openly calling for succession and open conflict in the United States. Maybe he believes there’s enough value in the arresting visuals of a modern America under siege.

A violation of Masimo’s patents has resulted in various Apple Watch models getting banned in the U.S., though their sales will not be halted until December 21. Both companies have had a long history, as the health-focused technology corporation filed the lawsuit in 2020. However, according to the latest findings, Masimo appears to be on a vendetta against the Califoria-based giant, and his efforts in getting the Apple Watch banned in the U.S. have cost him around $60 million, but his reason for going against one of the largest entities in the world may not be misguided, as talked about in the latest rumor.

 India aims to reform its century-old telecommunications law by introducing a new bill as Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks to make the sector investor friendly. The government is exploring abolishing the concept of licensing with “authorization,” said a person familiar with the matter, who requested not to be identified as the bill is before lawmakers. This is expected to give the government flexibility to cope with advances made in technology.

Huawei has remained mum on the subject of building its own fabrication plants, and that is likely to avoid further trade restrictions from the U.S. However, a recent patent filing provides evidence that the former Chinese giant is going the extra mile to reduce dependency on foreign companies. The patent application date is June 2022, describing a process for improving wafer alignment and efficiency. It is titled ‘Wafer Processing Device and Wafer Processing Method’ and provides some evidence that Huawei wishes to build its chip plants, which can mean it may want to rid itself of SMIC too.

Battle royale games are being played all over the country due to their great offerings which attract players and allow them to immerse themselves in them. Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) is one such game that has been immensely popularised in the country. From teens to adults, everyone loves to play BGMI with their friends or gaming squads. However, there are some players who like matches in the duo format to have more fun. Apart from the fun in duo matches, it also makes players practice their skills and build a strategic mindset for the battlefield. If you are someone who is also looking to perfect their skills in the match then, check out the below-mentioned BGMI guide for a duo.

Researchers have discovered the limits to ChatGPT's ability to provide location-specific information about environmental justice issues, which they said possibly hint at the chatbot's geographic biases. The researchers at Virginia Tech University in the US asked ChatGPT to answer a prompt about the environmental justice issues in each of the 3,108 counties across the states of the country. ChatGPT is a generative artificial intelligence (AI) tool, developed by OpenAI, that is trained extensively on massive amounts of data in natural language. Such AI tools, also called large language models, can process, manipulate and generate textual responses based on users' requests, or "prompts".

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Ottawa will keep pushing Meta to comply with a new law requiring large internet companies to pay Canadian news publishers for their content, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday, but the Facebook parent stood by its decision to block news sharing rather than pay. The government on Friday published final regulations for the Online News Act before enforcement starts Dec. 19. The law requires technology companies with 20 million unique monthly users and annual revenues of C$1 billion ($748 million) or more to compensate Canadian news outlets for publishing links to their pages.

Elon Musk claimed Saturday that advertisers were returning to X (formerly Twitter) after an exodus, at a Rome meeting where he also warned Italy's low birth rate could put off investors. The billionaire was a star guest at the Atreju political festival organised by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's far-right Brothers of Italy party.

Sony propelled overall console sales up almost 60 per cent year-over-year, as the PS5 absolutely exploded in Europe during November. According to a GSD sales report – which tracks several major countries, excluding the likes of the UK and Germany – the new-gen console’s sales were boosted by an eye-opening 376 per cent year-over-year. It’s worth remembering that in 2022 the system was still supply constrained, which is a factor in these results.

China's video games market returned to growth this year as domestic revenue rose 13% to 303 billion yuan ($42.6 billion), putting Beijing's 8-month crackdown two years ago in the rear-view mirror.

Poco C65 has officially launched in the Indian market, positioning itself as the latest addition in the budget smartphone segment. Boasting an attractive design and robust internals, this smartphone hits the Indian market at a price point below ₹10,000. The POCO C65 sporting a robust MediaTek Helio G85 chipset, the POCO C65 delivers impressive performance. Its sleek and precisely crafted design, featuring a notch-free water-drop design, complements the immersive viewing experience provided by the stunning 6.74-inch HD+ 90Hz display.

Since the advent of AI, there has been a divide between those who think this tech is a boon and those who feel that it will bring doom to humanity. While the risks of artificial intelligence are being debated across the world at all levels, some famous industry leaders have different views. Renowned investor Vinod Khosla, a key figure in the early backing of OpenAI, has stirred debate by emphasizing that the real threat to the world is China, not artificial intelligence. Khosla, who invested a substantial $50 million in OpenAI through his venture capital firm Khosla Ventures in 2019, shared his insights at Fortune's Brainstorm AI conference. Another top OpenAI investor who subsequently moved out was Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Check here to know what Khosla said.

Tech companies have pitched artificial intelligence as a powerful tool to address climate change, but first they may need to stop AI from making the problem even worse. 

Facebook owner Meta's text-based app Threads arrived in the European Union on Thursday, months after its global launch in July, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said. Threads is a spin-off of the Instagram photo app and is intended to be a rival to X, formerly known as Twitter, after that platform alienated many users and advertisers following Elon Musk's purchase last year.

Missed Black Friday deals on Portable Power Station? Guess what, Christmas savings are coming. BLUETTI, a leading brand in portable power solutions, is giving you one last chance to get the power station of your dreams at a massive discount, up to 38% off during Dec.11 to Dec. 25.

The Indian government has issued a critical alert to users of Samsung smartphones across the country, urging them to swiftly update their handsets in response to identified security vulnerabilities. The advisory, issued by the Computer Emergency Response Team of India (CERT-In) highlights a threat to Samsung devices operating on Android versions 11, 12, 13, and 14. These vulnerabilities, if exploited, could potentially allow unauthorised access to sensitive data on these devices.