Hardware sales are down across all platforms, not just Xbox.

A few days ago, Microsoft announced that Xbox hardware sales were down -31% to $430 million, the lowest point of the Xbox Series generation. It's not just Xbox, though. All of the Big 3--Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox--saw console sales dips in the United States.

According to Circana analyst Mat Piscatella, U.S. spending on gaming hardware was down by 32% in March 2024, and sales were also down a sizable 24% across the entire Q1 period.

ASUS is not done with RDNA 3 yet - even though the remaining road for the GPU range is surely running out, as RDNA 4 isn't that far off, going by the rumor mill - and the vendor just launched a pair of new AMD RX 7000 models.

What's surprising about these new entrants to the GPU fray is that both of them run with just two fans - and one of these models is actually a fresh take on the most powerful RDNA 3 graphics card.

Yes, that'd be the RX 7900 XTX, and the ASUS Dual version does, as the name indicates, come with a pair of fans, not a trio. This is a first, as VideoCardz, which spotted this, points out (and it is as far as we're aware, too).

If you're a user of the Safari web browser from Apple and use Google when searching for websites and other information, you aren't alone. Google is the default option, although it can be changed, so it stands to reason that it's probably the search engine that many users are already making use of without even thinking about it. And that, it seems, is something that's worth a cool $20 billion.

That's how much Google paid Apple in 2022 in order to make sure that it remained the default web browser in Safari. The news came out as part of the release of antitrust court documentation that both Google and Apple had sought to keep out of the public eye. Instead, Bloomberg reports, the figures were made available as part of the Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit against Google. It's alleged that Google holds a monopolistic position in the world of online search and advertising, although Google argues otherwise.

This trial began last fall with Apple execs confirming that Google paid it billions of dollars to remain the default option. However, nobody confirmed just how many billions were involved - although Google did say that it paid Apple 36% of the revenue it earns from search ads. That should perhaps have given us an indication of the kinds of figures that were changing hands.

Apple has confirmed that it intends to hold a streamed, online-only event on May 7 and there have been plenty of rumors about what that event will involve. We've been hearing for months now that Apple intends to announce a slew of new iPads, and that seems most likely. But a new report suggests that there could be something of a tease for what comes next, too.

That report, coming out of The Washington Post, suggests that Apple CEO Tim Cook will offer a hint at new AI features that will be announced later this year. More specifically, they're expected to debut at WWDC on June 10, with the company thought to have some big changes in store for iPhone owners. Those changes look set to be AI-based, although it's still unclear exactly what those new features will be.

The report doesn't suggest that Cook will go into details, simply saying that he will hint at new artificial intelligence features. Apple's iOS 18 and macOS 15 software updates are thought to be the biggest of the bunch this year, both benefiting from Apple's new focus on AI technologies. The company is thought to be in talks with both OpenAI and Google about using their generative AI technologies, but Apple is thought to have its own in-house solution available for some features, too. With the software set to be announced in June, Apple isn't expected to make any of the new updates available to the public until the fall.

Following the implementation of the European Union's Digital Markets Act in March Apple was forced to make some changes to the way the iPhone worked, specifically relating to the App Store. The implications were only for the iPhone at the time, but following news that the EU has now added the iPad to its list of gatekeeper platforms Apple was left with a decision - either make similar changes to the iPad, or appeal the decision.

Apple has chosen to go the former route, and the company has now confirmed that it will be making the same changes that it made to the iPhone in March to the iPad, with the update coming this fall. That would suggest that we can expect iPadOS 18 or a version of that update to be the one that makes the big changes for iPad owners in the EU.

Those changes will mean that EU developers will have the option of distributing their apps outside of the App Store, whether that's via a third-party app marketplace or via their own websites. The iPad will also start to offer third-party web browsers to users while developers will also be able to choose to sign a new contract with Apple that will change the way payments are handled. Apple will not take the same commission from sales that happen outside of the App STore but will instead charge a Core Technology Fee - its way to get paid for the development of iPadOS and infrastructure.

Hot on the heels of reports that some people's iPhones are currently not correctly making sound when an alarm goes off, a new report suggests that another Apple device is also having problems with something as simple as the time of day. This time it's the HomePod and HomePod mini, with the Siri digital assistant reportedly having problems with a simple request that does nothing more than ask the time.

According to a MacRumors report asking Siri what time it is can lead to the assistant being unable to answer and instead it chooses to direct users to an iPhone. Such things often happen when something needs to be displayed on-screen, like a website, but Siri should of course be more than capable of telling what the current time is.

While this issue appears to be impacting the HomePod smart speakers, the MacRumors report notes that asking the same question of Siri on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac appears to work just fine and the digital assistant offers the time as requested. With that in mind, it's unclear what is confusing Siri on the HomePod and HomePod mini.

If you woke up this morning and wondered why it was so late, that's probably because your iPhone's alarm didn't go off. Or, to be more precise, it did but didn't make any sound. It's an issue that has started to pop up for more and more people around the globe over the last few days, and it could be happening to you.

The issue, which was first reported by NBC's Today Show, doesn't appear to have a known fix just yet - but the report does suggest that Apple is already aware of the issue and that it's working on fixing whatever it is that's gone awry.

People around the world use their iPhone as an alarm for all manner of things, whether that's to remember to do something or because they need to be woken after a good night's sleep. But there are issues at hand, and they could mean that you miss an appointment or get to work late, and that's far from ideal.

In a world where too many people continue to use a single username and password combination across multiple devices, services, and accounts, it's good to see that the passkey revolution continues to gather pace. We've already seen various companies and services offer passkeys as a new way of biometric-secured authentication with Apple, WhatsApp, and PlayStation among others all on side. But now one of the really big names has also thrown its hat into the ring.

In a post on its security blog, Microsoft has confirmed that it is now rolling out passkey support for Microsoft accounts, making it easier, quicker, and more secure to sign into those accounts. Creating a passkey is easy with users given the option to switch from their previous username and password via the sign-in process.

When it comes to signing into a Microsoft account using a passkey, the new sign-in option will be offered with support for signing in using a fingerprint, a face recognition solution like Face ID, a PIN, or a security key. Microsoft says that, starting today, users can sign into Microsoft apps and websites including Microsoft 365 and Copilot using both desktop and mobile web browsers.

For those who are NVIDIA GeForce Now subscribers, but haven't got the streaming service up and running on their Steam Deck yet, because it seems like too much hassle perhaps - here's some good news.

NVIDIA has gone ahead and made the process of getting GeForce Now working on Valve's handheld a good deal easier.

As detailed in the latest GeForce Now Thursday update, NVIDIA has released an installation script that takes care of everything.

It's hardly unusual for a Windows update to introduce a bug, but most of the time, Microsoft provides a solution in a reasonable timeframe - not always, mind, and not ever in this more recent case.

Yes, this is a bit of an odd one, and it concerns the unlucky Windows 10 users who, when installing an update back in January 2024, encountered a Windows Recovery Environment error.

That installation failure error (stop code: 0x80070643) is related to the recovery partition not being large enough for the mentioned January security update (KB5034441).