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Entering the digital future, I have had the chance to explore BioMatrix's cutting-edge blockchain platform. As a technology enthusiast, the idea of the Proof of You (PoY) token caught my attention at first, especially with its pledge to "distribute wealth in a fair and equitable manner."

The selling point of the PoY token is that it is not just a digital asset, but it is an integral part of the company's Universal Basic Income (UBI) distribution strategy, which is designed to connect the user's biological identity to blockchain technology - an important development that could help bridge financial divides around the world.

At its recent launch in Dubai, the BioMatrix platform showcased its potential to redefine the UBI landscape. Like many other secure platforms, BioMatrix is built with user empowerment in mind, and leverages advanced AI and blockchain technology to facilitate its ecosystem growth and expansion. However, the key difference that sets BioMatrix apart from other UBI platforms is using newer cryptography solutions like Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKP) to protect user privacy and security.

Qualcomm has been trying for many, many years now to get its Windows on Arm chips up to scratch -- with very, very mixed results -- and now we're being introduced to the new Snapdragon X Elite, which Qualcomm calls the "world's fastest NPU for laptops".

The new Snapdragon X Elite laptop chip has the Qualcomm AI Engine with integrated Qualcomm Hexagon NPU (Neural Processing Unit) with 45 TOPS of AI workload performance. In comparison, Intel's current-gen Core Ultra "Meteor Lake" CPUs top out with 10 TOPS (pun not intended, but it works so well here), while AMD's new Ryzen 8040 "Hawk Point" APUs have 16 TOPS of AI performance.

Qualcomm's new Snapdragon X Elite chip has 75 TOPS of AI performance across the CPU + GPU + NPU and micro NPU, while it's made on the 4nm process by TSMC. On the CPU side of things, we've got the Arm-baed Oryon CPU with 12 cores on the Snapdragon X Elite, or 10 cores on the Snapdragon X Plus.

Capsule toy vending machines, or 'gacha' machines, can be found all over Japan. They dispense random toys and collectibles for a small fee, with themed machines covering everything from popular anime franchises to Hello Kitty to stuff as simple and pure as dinosaur toys. Now, we can add Intel CPUs to the list, as someone has spotted a capsule toy machine in Japan that dispenses random Intel CPUs.

Over on X, user @LaurieWired posted a link and YouTube clip from Sawara-San (which is in Japanese) showing that they managed to snag an Intel Core i7-8700 CPU for just 500 Yen (which is around $3 USD) from this CPU Gacha machine. The machine is located outside 1's PC, a store that sells new and second-hand PC parts and things like cameras.

The Intel Core i7 8700 is not that old, with the eighth-generation Coffee Lake from 2018 closely matching the performance of the flagship Intel Core i7 8700K. It's old by 2024 standards for mid-range CPUs, but for around $3, it's a bargain. It's a 6-core 12-thread CPU with a 4.7 GHz Boost Clock - not too shabby. Except, this random 'gacha' version ran into issues.

NVIDIA has announced that Japan's new quantum supercomputer will be powered by NVIDIA platforms for accelerated and quantum computing.

Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) is building a hybrid cloud system of quantum computers and supercomputers called ABCI-Q. Quantum computers are still capable of making a lot of errors if they're operating solo, with supercomputers needing to solve the mistakes and make those complex operations smoother.

NVIDIA is providing the AI GPUs for the new ABCI-Q quantum supercomputer and quantum computing software through its cloud service. NVIDIA will provide over 2000 of its H100 AI GPUs in 500+ nodes interconnected by NVIDIA Quantum-2 InfiniBand, the world's only fully offloadable, in-networking computing platform.

TSMC has said that its new chip manufacturing technology -- A16 -- will enter production in the second half of 2026, where it will be in a semiconductor battle with Intel for the world's fastest chips.

During a news conference in Santa Clara, California, on Wednesday, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) executives said that AI chip makers will be the first adopters of its new A16 process technology rather than smartphone makers like Apple.

Intel came out banging its chest in February this year, saying that with its new High-NA EUV lithography machines from ASML, the company would make the world's fastest chips in the coming years with its new Intel 14A process node. TSMC's senior vice president of business development, Kevin Zhang, told reporters that TSMC has developed its new A16 process node quicker than expected, thanks to the insatiable demand from AI chip companies like NVIDIA.

Putting together a small form factor (SFF) gaming PC, or productivity PC, can be a lot of fun, as you can fit some serious hardware inside sleek and stylish cases like the Fractal Design Terra.

As one of the premier brands for high-performance and stylish cooling, Noctua has introduced a new low-profile CPU cooler designed specifically for SFF builds: the Noctua NH-L12Sx77. It's an improved (and taller) version of its acclaimed NH-L12S cooler, offering improved thermal performance and more clearance for RAM modules and motherboard heatsinks.

Like the previous model, it includes a Noctua fan preinstalled underneath the fin stack. The fan blows upwards, which Noctua describes as "ideal in compact cases that typically have a perforated panel right above the cooler." With that in mind, Noctua says the NH-L12Sx77 is perfect for smaller chassis like the Fractal Design Terra, SilverStone Milo MILO 12, and Louqe RAW S1.

Gray Zone Warfare is a new Unreal Engine 5-powered realistic tactical FPS set on a mysterious island in Southeast Asia that is coming soon to PC (via Early Access on Steam). Described as "a vast MMO open world with PvEvP and PvE gameplay, it's currently one of the most wish-listed games on Steam.

As part of its weekly DLSS update, NVIDIA has confirmed that the game will launch with DLSS 3 Frame Generation, Super Resolution, and NVIDIA Reflex support. This will be useful because the game features real-time ray tracing via Unreal Engine 5's Lumen lighting system.

The other game getting DLSS 3 support this week is the DLC for the popular co-op looter shooter Remnant II. The launch of the Remnant II: The Forgotten Kingdom DLC/expansion supports DLSS 3 and Frame Generation, boosting performance by up to 3.5X.

Halo Infinite fans aren't happy with the new free operation pass.

Halo Infinite's new Operation: Banished Honor battle pass rolls out on April 30, bringing a new 20-tier track of digital goods for gamers to unlock. Only...the tiers are a bit lackluster compared to previous passes. There's a big reason for that: 343 Industries wants to make sure you have enough UNSC space bucks to spend on bonus trinkets.

The devs just announced that Spartan Points are coming to Halo Infinite. That's not a premium currency--Infinite already has credits, which are sold for real money. Instead, Spartan Points are a "soft" currency that can be earned by playing the game. SP will roll out alongside the new Banished Honor pass, but there's just one issue: Spartan Points--which are free--apparently make up a big proportion of the free operation pass.

Spartan Points are coming to Halo Infinite, but thankfully they're still free.

343 Industries today announced some changes coming to Halo Infinite's cosmetic rewards. The developer will be introducing Spartan Points to Halo Infinite as part of the Operation: Banished Honor event on April 30, a new type of "soft" currency that isn't sold for real money. Halo Infinite will soon have Credits as the premium currency, and Spartan Points as the soft currency.

Spartan Points were originally introduced to the Halo Master Chief Collection in 2022, and back then, 343i had originally wanted to charge money for the points and sell them as premium currency. Massive backlash forced the studio to abandon these plans. The system is similar to the cR economy found in Halo Reach.

New PlayStation exclusive Stellar Blade appears to get a sales lift from positive reviews.

Reviews for Shift Up's new femme fatale action game are in, and the dust has settled on a strong 82 out of 100 on Metacritic. It looks like these positive reviews may have boosted Stellar Blade's game sales in the United States.

Stellar Blade has enjoyed a boosted position on the PlayStation Store's top 25 best-selling games. The Korean hack-and-slash is now in the #12 spot, beating out Overwatch 2 and Fallout 76 while brushing up against the mighty Roblox. At #12, Stellar Blade is higher today than it has been since I started tracking sales data a week ago. Just yesterday, Stellar Blade was at #17 - on April 17, Steller Blade was #21.

Apple TV+ has announced a new trailer for The Big Cigar, a new upcoming limited series that will see André Holland star as Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton. The show will also star Alessandro Nivola, Tiffany Boone, P. J. Byrne, Marc Menchaca, Moses Ingram, Rebecca Dalton, Olli Haaskivi, Jordane Christie and Glynn Turman.

The Big Cigar will make its global debut on May 17 with the first two episodes made available to stream on Apple TV+ around the globe. From there, viewers can expect new episodes to be made available every Friday through to the season's conclusion on June 14.

The six-episode show is based on the magazine article of the same name by Joshuah Bearman who also happens to serve as the show's executive producer. The show tells the true story of what Apple calls Hollywood revolution meeting social revolution. It tells the story of Black Panther founder Huey P. Newton escaping from the FBI to Cuba with the assistance of famed producer Bert Schneider. Amazingly, the whole plan involved a fake movie production and the escapade did not go according to plan. In fact, Apple says, it went wrong in every way that it possibly could.