Logitech G, a brand of Logitech and leading innovator of gaming technologies and gear, today released three new products for the gaming and streaming space, the Logitech G Yeti GX microphone, Logitech G Yeti Orb microphone, and the Logitech G Litra Beam LX light. The new Yeti microphones and Litra light are designed to meet the specific needs of game streamers and content creators by using broadcast-style audio and pro-level lighting gear, and work seamlessly together via Logitech's G Hub software to enable them to deliver great content to their community.

Based on the iconic Yeti design, the Yeti GX is a premium, broadcast-style gaming microphone with dynamic capsule technology that delivers unparalleled audio performance. It features a supercardioid pickup pattern that elevates the voice while rejecting room noise, keyboard clicks and other background sounds. The Yeti GX features one handed control of mic gain by cleverly leveraging a scroll wheel from Logitech G gaming mice. Users can easily dial in the gain and, with a simple press of the wheel, apply Yeti GX's Smart Audio Lock feature to prevent clipping and reduce background distractions thanks to a powerful onboard DSP.
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Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4826 Beta Released
Intel has released the latest version of Arc GPU Graphics Drivers, Version 101.4826 Beta, which bring Game On driver support on Intel Arc A-series Graphics for Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, Payday 3, Lies of P, and Party Animals games. New drivers as improve performance in Hitman Absolution and Bioshock Infinite under DirectX 11.

The driver fixes some issues in Trackmania (DX11) game, which experienced application crash during launch, as well as some an issue with Intel Arc Control, which may consume higher than expected system memory. There is still an extensive list of known issues, and we are still waiting for further Starfield fixes, as there are still plenty of issues with textures and instability.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4826 Beta
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(PR) Lies of P - Out Tomorrow on PC & Consoles
We welcome you to Krat, where the most spectacular display of human endeavor on Earth can be seen. For those who have been long waiting for the gates to open, we fully assure you that the adventures you will experience will be filled with unexpected turns. Take on the role of Geppetto's prized puppet to uncover the mysteries of Krat and save the City in this new take on the Fairy-Tale Classic! In this once-prosperous city, prepare yourself to face untold horrors, untangle the unfathomable secrets of the city's elites and choose whether to confront predicaments with the truth or weave lies to overcome them on the journey to find yourself. We hope your visit to Krat is a safe and prosperous stay.

Lies of P is a fantastic interpretation of "The Adventures of Pinocchio," dropping our beloved puppet within the nightmarish city of Krat, a fallen utopia built on the backs of mechanical puppets who have gone mad and slain its citizens. Their creator, Geppetto, has gone missing and "P" is brought to life to track him down to try and save the city. In the classic fairy tale, Pinocchio embarks on many adventures of self-discovery and encounters a wide range of characters - many of them bad actors who take advantage of his ignorance—which leads him on a transformative journey where he learns what it means to be human, the power of forgiveness, and of course, repercussions for lying.
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ASUS ROG Ally "Standard Z1 APU" Model Launches at $599
We have had to wait a bit longer for the launch of a lesser ASUS ROG Ally variant—the Windows 11 handheld gaming PC was officially revealed sporting an AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme APU. A non-Extreme variant was teased to launch at a later date, which appears to be within the last couple of days—emerging first in North America. The more affordable—$599—offering has popped up for sale on Best Buy, and the ASUS store has a listing although it is currently "out of stock." This non-Extreme model's (RC71L-Z1512) arrival at retail coincides with Valve running a 20% price reduction on its Steam Deck handheld gaming range.

The $100 saving over the ROG Ally Extreme ($699) nets the customer largely identical features and specifications, apart from the main choice of APU. The Z1 non-Extreme chipset was analyzed earlier this month, with its "Phoenix 2" origin revealing usage of Zen 4c cores. The standard Z1 seems to be very similar in makeup to the mobile series Ryzen 5 7540U APU. The AMD Ryzen Z1 is a six-core Zen 4/Zen 4c APU with four RDNA 3 compute units, which is nowhere near as fierce as the "Phoenix 1" Ryzen Z1 Extreme—sporting eight cores (all Zen 4) and twelve RDNA 3 compute units.

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Panos Panay, Head of Windows & Surface Departments, Leaves Microsoft
Panos Panay, Microsoft's chief product officer—where he has lead development on Windows (since 2020) and the company's Surface device product line (from the start)—is leaving the American multinational technology corporation. He made it official on X this afternoon: "After 19 incredible years at Microsoft, I've decided to turn the page and write the next chapter. I'm forever grateful for my time at Microsoft and the amazing people I had the honor to make products with." In an email sent to employees, Rajesh Jha (vice president of experience and devices) said: "After nearly 20 years at the company, Panos Panay has decided to leave Microsoft. Panos has had an incredible impact on our products and culture as well as the broader devices ecosystem. Under Panos' leadership, the team created the iconic Surface brand with loved products. More recently, as the leader of Windows, the team has brought amazing services and experiences to hundreds of millions with Windows 11 on innovative devices including those from our OEM partners. He will be missed, and I am personally very grateful for his many contributions over the years. Please join me in wishing him well."

A press release regarding the high-level departure was released to media outlets not long ago—Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella had some kind words: "Thank you, Panos, for your impact on our products, culture, company, and industry over the past two decades. I'm grateful for your leadership, support, and all you've done for Microsoft and our customers and partners. We remain steadfast and convicted in our strategy, and Yusuf Mehdi will take lead on our Windows and Surface businesses and products externally." Mehdi is the current Corporate Vice President & Consumer Chief Marketing Officer, perhaps best known for producing a lot of his company's big artificial intelligence announcements. Microsoft is expected to reveal a bunch of next-gen Surface models later this week—will the new boss be in attendance?

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(PR) NVIDIA Announces Collaboration with Anyscale
Large language model development is about to reach supersonic speed thanks to a collaboration between NVIDIA and Anyscale. At its annual Ray Summit developers conference, Anyscale—the company behind the fast growing open-source unified compute framework for scalable computing—announced today that it is bringing NVIDIA AI to Ray open source and the Anyscale Platform. It will also be integrated into Anyscale Endpoints, a new service announced today that makes it easy for application developers to cost-effectively embed LLMs in their applications using the most popular open source models.

These integrations can dramatically speed generative AI development and efficiency while boosting security for production AI, from proprietary LLMs to open models such as Code Llama, Falcon, Llama 2, SDXL and more. Developers will have the flexibility to deploy open-source NVIDIA software with Ray or opt for NVIDIA AI Enterprise software running on the Anyscale Platform for a fully supported and secure production deployment. Ray and the Anyscale Platform are widely used by developers building advanced LLMs for generative AI applications capable of powering intelligent chatbots, coding copilots and powerful search and summarization tools.
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Spider-Man 2's Ray Tracing Feature Always On
Developers at Insomniac Games have confirmed that Spider-Man 2's ray tracing feature will be running as standard/by default within the PlayStation 5 version—a player's adjustments of graphical performance settings will have no bearing on this being turned on or off. Mike Fitzgerald, Insomniac's director of core technology, shared technical information in an interview with IGN, although he stopped short of making any promises for an inevitable PC conversion—gamers on that platform will likely be waiting another 18 months post-October 20. It is possible that Nixxes Software has been contracted to work on a port, given their recent-ish track record. The Insomniac dev cites advanced experience gained by working on past titles—notably Spider-Man Remastered, Miles Morales, and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart—as the main factor behind the confident push into implementing an "always-on" ray tracing graphical feature. Fitzgerald stated: "We've really gotten to leverage everything we've seen in developing those games."

He continued: "Our performance mode for this title has ray tracing on by default. We've really expanded ray traced reflections throughout the game. It's on the water and the oceans and really gives a more realistic picture everywhere...For this game we're really able to deliver (ray tracing) as a baseline performance mode. There's no mode of this game that has the ray tracing turned off, no need for it. We've really figured out how to deliver what we feel like is the right Spider-Man visuals and we want to make sure every player is seeing that." Fitzgerald also praises PlayStation 5's storage solution—SSDs allow for "faster traversal" across the New York City environment. Players can look forward to traversing the urban landscape at about "three times as fast" as the pace experienced in Spider-Man 1.

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