In the latest Developer Update, Game Director Joe Shely and Franchise General Manager Rod Fergusson had some pretty exciting news (below). Diablo IV is entering its testing phase, with the first closed beta occurring in October. More importantly, fans have a chance to score an invite to the test and be one of the first to try the game. Blizzard is looking for players with experience in the end-game content of Diablo II: Resurrected, Diablo III, and Diablo Immortal....

Financial transactions are typically guaranteed by a trusted third party (such as PayPal) and blockchain can be used to automate that process, reducing overall costs by cutting out the middleman with autonomous smart contracts acting as trusted intermediaries between parties on the network. Blockchain is expected to be so influential over the coming years that some technologists foresee it ushering in a new type of Internet, one that stores and authenticates information about every asset, device and individual, opening the door to a range of new technological capabilities....

But the truth is actually a lot more complicated than the news has led you to believe. In an effort to help you decide whether cable abandonment is right for you, we’re tackling seven major cord-cutting myths. To that end, we’ve borrowed some official Mythbusters terms, labeling each myth either busted or plausible. Read on to find out whether all cord-cutters are pirates, how much money you could save, and more....

At 1680x1050 the Radeon HD 6870 was the first graphics card to exceed an average frame rate of 60fps, though the 6850, GeForce GTX 560 Ti and GTX 650 Ti were close with over 50fps. The GeForce GTX 560 also did well averaging 47fps. It’s worth noting that while the GeForce GTX 560 managed 47fps in Black Ops II, at the same resolution in Modern Warfare 3 it was 60% faster, so this latest installment is clearly more demanding....

A bill governing the use of Bitcoin was adopted unanimously by parliament last week, writes Reuters. Despite being rich in natural resources such as gold and uranium, CAR is one of the poorest countries in the world and has been embroiled in civil war since 2012. It currently uses the French-backed CFA franc as its currency, as do six other former French colonies in Africa. What’s especially strange about CAR adopting Bitcoin as an official currency is that just 11 percent of the 4....

Bend but don’t break. That’s the mantra of the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show as multiple major companies have canceled in-person plans for next week’s event in Las Vegas, leaving organizers scrambling to try and save the show. It’s now a week later and the tune has changed a bit. The CTA on December 31 said it will end CES 2022 one day early. The in-person event is now scheduled for January 5-7, 2022, in Las Vegas, with January 3-4 designed as media days....

This AWD variant produces up to 557 horsepower and up to 648 lb-ft of torque. In Wide Open Watts (WOW) mode, it can sprint from 0-60 mph in less than four seconds. Other premium amenities include front Brembo brakes for extra stopping power and 22-inch wheels. All models ship standard with a 17.7-inch diagonal color touchscreen infotainment system, full LED lighting and high-speed DC fast-charging capability of up to 190 kW, enabling up to 78 miles of additional range with a quick 10-minute charge....

The Radeon HD 5870 was not quite as impressive with an average of 40fps while the Radeon HD 5850 was slightly slower, averaging 37fps. The new GeForce GTS 450 performed surprisingly well, delivering 34fps, making it slightly faster than the Radeon HD 5830. However, cards beyond this point start to dip below 30fps with the Radeon HD 5770 averaging just 29fps. Although we are testing worst-case scenario performance, we were shocked the Radeon HD 4890 averaged 27fps at this low resolution, while the 4850 could only muster 20fps....

In Taunton, Massachusetts, Comcast’s broadcast TV fee will increase from $18.65 per month to $26 per month starting December 20, 2022. That is an increase of $7.35 per month, or more than $88 a year. Video package pricing is also going up in Taunton, from $2 to $5 more a month, and the cost to rent a set-top box will increase by $1.50 to $10 per month. Several cities in Michigan, including Royal Oak Township and Farmington, will see their broadcast TV fee shoot up by nearly six bucks, from $14....

The ISP further noted that DOCSIS 4.0 will be compatible via the connections already installed in hundreds of millions of homes worldwide, so that’s one less thing to have to worry with in terms of infrastructure support. Comcast’s results are certainly impressive, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg. As developers refine the technology, speeds are expected to increase significantly. After all, the name of the initiative is 10G, and their ultimate goal is to deliver Internet speeds of 10 gigabits per second....

Upon first opening the HAF X, we immediately noticed that its internals were much more complex. While its general layout is the same and things like the motherboard tray have gone largely unchanged, Cooler Master has made a number of noteworthy alterations. The patented Cooler Master finger-press buttons are still used for the 5.25" drive bays, providing an ultra-quick and reliable way to install and remove devices. Unlike many other tool-less designs that are clumsy and impractical, the finger-press buttons actually work very well....

Watch Dogs 2 is a heavy CPU user and here the 7800X is able to roughly match the 7700K, not something we have seen in all CPU intensive games. Like a lot of the games tested Prey isn’t too demanding on the CPU, this one will play perfectly smooth on the Pentium G4560 for example. So no surprise the 7800X keeps pace with the 7700K here. Finally we have Dirt 4 and this isn’t a title I expected the 7800X to fall behind in but once again it has....

After careful deliberation, we decided to install the following hardware: OCZ ZX 1000W PSU, Asus F2A85-M Pro motherboard, 8GB (2x4GB) Crucial RAM, AMD A10-6800K CPU with the Prolimatech Megahalems and two Radeon HD 7970 graphics cards. Storage-wise, we installed a pair of Western Digital Red 2TB drives and three OCZ Vector 240GB SSDs. We began by attaching the Megahalems’ CPU bracket to the back of Asus’ F2A85-M Pro motherboard. However, forgetting this step is no biggie thanks to that hole in the motherboard tray....

The Carbide Air 540 was first released in black but white and silver versions have been available for a few months now and we are finally going to check both of them out. Along for the ride is Corsair’s Obsidian 450D, another mid-tower case that the company announced on March 25 of this year. Unlike the Carbide Air 540, the Obsidian 450D features a more traditional tower case design. In fact, it looks a lot like a smaller version of the 650D, which is in turn a smaller version of the legendary 800D....

The aluminium chassis used here is one of the best on the market. It looks fantastic, and it’s reasonably compact despite the powerful off-the-shelf hardware included inside. The unique shape makes it stand out from the crowd as well, and I think the design makes it well suited to being shown off on a desk, or in the living room. Internally, the Corsair One is kitted out to the maximum....

Measuring 125mm long, 80mm wide and 42mm tall it is quite a bit larger than the claw grip Aorus Thunder M7. Despite the bigger size the 600M is a light mouse weighing just 90 grams and there isn’t any kind of weight system here. Whereas the Aorus Thunder M7 was designed specifically for MMO games, the Cougar 600M is said to be able to tackle FPS, MMORPG, MOBA and RTS titles....

Steam Deck owners on Reddit worked out how to change the handheld’s boot animation about six months ago. Since then, scores of users have created custom splash screens for the Deck. There is even an entire repository full of creative replacements. The original method for editing the boot screen involved messing around with system files. Valve has since made it so that users don’t have to compromise SteamOS system files, but it does still involve getting into the guts of the OS....

BOE’s new panel has a higher refresh rate than any consumer display on the market right now. Earlier this year, Alienware revealed a couple of new gaming laptops with 480Hz displays, while many other notebooks top out at “just” 360Hz. As far as monitors go, Asus and Nvidia revealed a model capable of reaching 500Hz at Computex, but it seems that it’s still not available to buy. The company demoed the 600Hz panel in an unnamed notebook equipped with an AMD Ryzen processor and an Nvidia RTX GPU (judging by the stickers on it)....

Back in 2018, Microsoft began prototyping the IVAS glasses and was awarded a $480 million contract by the Army for 100,000 units. In April last year, Microsoft won the contract to build the final version for soldiers in a deal worth $22 billion over ten years. The system combines high-resolution night, thermal, and soldier-borne sensors into a heads-up display. It also leverages augmented reality and machine learning to enable a life-like mixed reality training environment, the military branch wrote....

In any case, we found some interesting results here that will be kept in mind when testing the gaming performance of Ryzen 5 CPUs set to arrive next week. We’ll be sure to throw an AMD GPU into the mix for games such as Deus Ex: Mankind Divided or Total War: Warhammer, though these games are being dropped until we have a more powerful single-GPU graphics card from AMD. For now, we’ll continue to monitor Ryzen’s progress as the platform matures....