Nikon Z9 Teaser Briefly Shows Off The Camera’s Unique Rear LCD

Nikon has released a 30-second teaser video featuring its upcoming Z9 flagship camera. While it didn’t reveal much regarding the new camera, the video did highlight one feature that is exclusive to the product: a unique vari-angle rear LCD screen that is unlike those featured on most current generation mirrorless cameras.

Seen from the video, the Nikon Z9’s rear LCD can be tilted out to face the photographer at any horizontal or vertical angles without needing to be flipped out ala the more traditional vari-angle approaches. As pointed out by Petapixel, this new mechanism used by Nikon may be similar to the one featured on the Pentax K-1’s Flex-Tilt LCD screen, which functions somewhat similarly. Nevertheless, both methods are more straightforward when compared to regular vari-angles, and there’s no denying their usefulness – especially when shooting photos at difficult angles.

As for the camera itself, Nikon previously confirmed that the Z9 will come with a stacked CMOS sensor, a new first-party image processor, and the ability to record video at up to 8K resolution. And based on the photo included together with the camera’s first announcement in March, it will feature an integrated battery grip body that allows you to easily shoot in both horizontal or vertical orientations. Unofficial sources, on the other hand, suggest that the camera will feature either a 46MP, 50MP or a 60MP sensor, and an ISO range of 64 – 25,600, among other things.

Yet again, the company did not mention when the new Z9 flagship mirrorless camera is expected to launch. As previously reported, Nikon-specialised publication NikonRumors believes that the product will be fully unveiled officially later in fall this year.

NVIDIA Shows Off RTX On ARM Using A MediaTek Chromebook CPU Paired With RTX 3060

If you are a gamer or PC hardware enthusiast, you most probably are well-aware of what NVIDIA RTX technologies are all about especially real-time ray tracing. Aside from having the appropriate GeForce RTX graphics cards, you also generally need a capable x86-64 processor too in order to utilise them but NVIDIA is now working to bring the RTX tech to ARM-based processors as well.

At the ongoing Game Developers Conference, the company has unveiled two demonstrations of RTX on ARM including one that utilises Wolfenstein: Youngblood. According to NVIDIA, both demos were run on a system that is equipped with a MediaTek Kompanio 1200 processor and a GeForce RTX 3060 GPU.

NVIDIA pointed out that there were five key RTX technologies that were being showcased in these demos including DLSS as well as RTX Direct Illumination, RTX Global Illumination, RTX Memory Utility, and NVIDIA Optix AI-Acceleration Denoiser. However, the company noted that MachineGames and Bethesda Softworks have no plans to put out the ARM version of Wolfenstein: Youngblood that was used for the demo as a commercial release though.

Considering that the Kompanio 1200 is essentially a Chromebook processor, what NVIDIA is trying to achieve here is indeed pretty interesting as it may lead to a future whereby an ARM-based device could become a decent gaming PC. That could be a fairly fruitful future for NVIDIA beyond its role as a GPU company since ARM is about to become a part of NVIDIA soon, although the acquisition deal has been met with resistance by a lot of parties including the UK government.

Jordan unveils underwater military museum off the coast of Aqaba

Jordan has unveiled an underwater military museum dive site off the coast of Aqaba. The attraction has opened for divers to explore tanks, troop carriers, and a helicopter.

According to an Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA) statement, the military machines were sunk and stationed along coral reefs, imitating a battle formation.

The formation includes tanks, a military crane, a troop carrier, an anti-aircraft gun, a combat helicopter, and an ambulance. More acquisitions will be sunk in the future.

Some of the vehicles sit at 15-20 metres below the surface of the water, and some sit at 20-28 metres. Visitors can find them by snorkelling, diving, or via a glass bottom boat, in a new type of experience.

The statement also said the ASEZA took measures to ensure the protection and safety or marine life and its environment. All hazardous materials were removed from the military vehicles.

All the vehicles come from the Jordanian Army, and include a Chieftain main battle tank (Khalid Shir) with 120mm tank gun, an unarmed FV104 Samaritan tracked military ambulance, and an M42 Duster anti-aircraft gun with twin 40mm Bofors gun (via Popular Mechanics).

Also submerged are an FV701 Ferret armoured car and a South African Ratel (Honey Badger) 6 x 6 wheeled infantry fighting vehicle. The most important vehicle is a Royal Jordanian Air Force AH-1F Cobra attack helicopter.

Earlier this year, a 70-metre Boeing 747 was submerged as part of an underwater theme park, opening to the public in August 2019.

The plane is located off the coast of Bahrain and sits at around 20m deep, also encouraging new coral growth and acting as a safe haven for marine life.

More items will be submerged alongside the Boeing, including a traditional Bahraini pearl merchant’s house, artificial coral reefs and sculptures made from eco-friendly materials.