clouds Archives

Tech Optimizer

July 10, 2025

EDB Returns to Goodwood with Sovereign AI and Data Platform for Intelligent Mobility

EnterpriseDB (EDB) has returned to the Goodwood Festival of Speed, focusing on the impact of advanced AI data systems in the automotive industry. A global survey by EDB of 190 automotive executives revealed that only 13% of organizations are successfully leveraging agentic and generative AI, with these companies achieving a fivefold return on investment through a focus on data sovereignty. The automotive sector is undergoing a significant transformation, with the U.K. automotive AI market projected to grow from £8 million in 2024 to £2 million by 2030, reflecting a 21.7% CAGR. EDB is also fostering future talent through initiatives that encourage students to propose innovative data and AI solutions, with a £2,000 prize for the winning idea. The U.K. STEM workforce is expected to grow by 10% by 2030, while many tech firms face challenges in filling roles. EDB has received multiple recognitions for its innovation and workplace culture, including listings in various industry awards. EDB Postgres® AI is described as an open, enterprise-grade sovereign data and AI platform that integrates various workloads while ensuring compliance and security.

AppWizard

July 1, 2025

Prime Gaming deal for July: Download Mass Effect for free

Prime Gaming will offer over 30 free games for its members in July, coinciding with Amazon's Prime Day sale from July 8 to July 11. Notable titles include Mass Effect Legendary Edition, GRID Legends, Need for Speed Heat, and several classic Star Wars games. Members will also have access to more than 25 indie games, such as Death Squared and Samurai Shodown II. Any games added to a member's account are theirs to keep indefinitely, even after canceling their Prime subscription. The complete list of free games for July includes titles like 10 Second Ninja X, 8Doors: Arum’s Afterlife Adventure, and The Metronomicon: Slay the Dance Floor. An Amazon Prime subscription costs £8.99 per month or £95 annually and includes additional benefits like free Twitch subscriptions and access to Prime Video.

Tech Optimizer

June 30, 2025

‘PostgreSQL Eats the World, But CockroachDB Digests It’

The database market is shifting due to increasing demands for scalability, resilience, and AI integration. CockroachDB, led by CEO Spencer Kimball, focuses on distributed SQL databases built on PostgreSQL, emphasizing horizontal scaling capabilities. CockroachDB is designed for high operational data volumes, aiming to support hundreds of terabytes to petabytes. The company prioritizes operational databases over analytical ones, catering to both human and AI access for high concurrency and strong consistency. Kimball envisions AI enhancing observability and support, potentially reducing issue resolution times significantly. CockroachDB is also developing vector indexing for nearest-neighbor searches in high-dimensional spaces but does not aim to compete with general-purpose vector databases. Cost reduction is a priority, with potential improvements in utilization and cloud cost efficiencies projected to reduce costs by 10 to 16 times. CockroachDB's geographic scalability allows it to serve customers across multiple regions, ensuring compliance with data locality laws. The database is cloud-agnostic, supporting hybrid deployments, and is positioned as a solution for self-hosted enterprise customers. Kimball highlights the challenges of integrating AI into distributed systems and notes that cloud vendors view CockroachDB as both a competitor and a partner. CockroachDB maintains a PostgreSQL-like experience while adapting for distributed environments, particularly in ID generation. The company was founded in 2015 by former Google employees, inspired by Google’s Bigtable and Spanner databases, and aims to combine the benefits of SQL with the scalability of distributed systems.

AppWizard

June 28, 2025

Dying Light continues celebrating its 10th anniversary with a big graphical facelift, but don’t you dare call it a remaster

Dying Light is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a year-long series of festivities, including the release of the first downloadable content (DLC) in four years and a significant update called the "Retouched" edition. This update features higher resolution textures, improved clouds and skyboxes, enhanced shadow quality, and a fully remastered soundtrack. The developer, Techland, clarified that the Retouched edition is not a remaster but an enhancement of the existing game. Additionally, Dying Light: The Beast, featuring the protagonist Kyle Crane with new superpowers, is set to launch in a couple of months.

AppWizard

June 18, 2025

Minecraft’s Nintendo Players Request “Switch 2 Edition” After Graphics Update Skips Switch

Mojang has launched a visual graphics upgrade for Minecraft called 'Vibrant Visuals' alongside the 'Chase the Skies' drop. Nintendo Switch players are disappointed that the Switch trailer does not feature the new visual enhancements, leading to calls for a "Switch 2 Edition" that would include these updates. The Vibrant Visuals update enhances the game's aesthetics without changing gameplay mechanics and allows players to toggle the enhancements on and off. Mojang has expressed a commitment to bringing this graphical update to as many devices as possible in the future. The latest update for the Switch version introduces new features, including a flying mount, building in the sky, leashing camels, a new music disc, and a Player Locator bar.

AppWizard

June 16, 2025

Is This Minecraft’s Best-Looking Update Yet?

Mojang Studios will release the Vibrant Visuals update for Minecraft Bedrock Edition on June 17, 2025. Key features of the update include richer lighting, dynamic shadows, biome-specific fog, and immersive atmospheres. It introduces Physically Based Rendering (PBR) to enhance textures, allowing them to exhibit properties like metalness and glow. Various biomes will receive aesthetic transformations, such as deserts glowing in golden hues and icy regions appearing cooler and bluer. The water engine has been overhauled to include realistic caustics and reflections. The update will be enabled by default on all supported Bedrock Edition devices. Development for the Java Edition is ongoing, with early test builds showcasing features like atmospheric fog and infinite clouds.

Tech Optimizer

June 12, 2025

Striim Announces Neon Serverless Postgres Support to Broaden Agentic AI Use Cases with Databricks

The demand for real-time data in artificial intelligence is increasing, but integrating data from legacy systems poses challenges due to traditional ETL pipelines that can introduce latency. Open-source Postgres is favored for operational needs, and Neon offers a new approach to database creation using AI agents. Databricks has launched Lakebase, a managed Postgres database for AI applications, after acquiring Neon. Striim has expanded its Postgres offerings to enable high-throughput data ingestion from Neon into Databricks for real-time analytics and supports rapid data delivery from legacy systems into Neon. Striim's platform allows real-time replication of operational data from various traditional systems to Neon, real-time ingestion into Databricks, and enhances generative AI applications with inline data enrichment. Alok Pareek from Striim highlighted the importance of this expansion for Postgres-native teams to build real-time AI architectures. Striim also supports Databricks Delta Lake and SQL2Fabric-X for real-time SQL Server data access. Striim's platform processes over 100 billion daily events with sub-second latency, aiding proactive decision-making.

AppWizard

June 8, 2025

Open-world survival crafting game Guardians of the Wild Sky announced for PC

Blue Isle Studios has announced the upcoming launch of "Guardians of the Wild Sky," an open-world survival crafting game for PC via Steam, set to release this summer. Players will explore a vibrant world filled with magical creatures called Guardians, who assist them in their adventures. The game features a vast environment with unique floating biomes, allowing players to sail on airships and construct various structures. Key features include capturing and bonding with Guardians, a comprehensive breeding system, a robust crafting system for tools and items, and the ability to face challenges from Cultists and ancient beasts. The game offers both solo and cooperative multiplayer modes for up to five players, with customizable server options.

AppWizard

May 27, 2025

Davy x Jones Announced for PC

Parasight has announced a new first-person action-adventure game titled Davy x Jones, where players assume the role of the pirate Davy Jones. The game features a quest for vengeance against Blackbeard, set in a surreal pirate hell. Players will use various weapons, including swords and guns, and navigate across nine islands floating on clouds. They will pilot a vessel named Abby, which functions as a base, artillery platform, and ally. The game is available for wishlisting on Steam.

AppWizard

May 25, 2025

Microsoft Solitaire Turns 35 with Minecraft-Themed Deck; All You Need to Know

Microsoft has released a special Minecraft-themed deck for Microsoft Solitaire to celebrate the game's 35th anniversary. This limited-time, free deck features characters and elements from Minecraft and is available for all Solitaire modes, including Klondike, Spider, FreeCell, Pyramid, and TriPeaks. Players can download the Microsoft Solitaire Collection from the Microsoft Store and unlock the Minecraft theme at no additional cost. The cards are designed in a pixelated art style, featuring characters like Steve, Alex, and Creepers, and the game environment includes a Minecraft-inspired backdrop.