Apple is poised to launch its next-gen 2021 iPad Pro in the coming weeks, with the introduction of exciting new Mini LED display technology.

According to new rumors the 2021 iPad Pro will be launched in mid-April, so just a week or so away from now with the Wi-Fi only model launching first and a 5G-capable iPad Pro launching in the weeks after. The new leaks are coming from leaker 'Kang' who says the Wi-Fi only 2021 iPad Pro launches in mid-April, 5G-powered one in the weeks after.

We are to expect Apple's next-gen A14X processor inside of the new 2021 iPad Pro, with the aesthetics and design of the new 2021 iPad Pro expected to be the same as previous-gen iPad Pro models, all of the new goodies will be inside. The new Mini LED display will be the big point here with the 2021 iPad Pro, but we should have camera upgrades, speakers upgrades, slimmer bezels and a few other tweaks like usual from Apple.

EA is set to have a huge year this year when it comes to the next-gen Battlefield, which isn't poised to only have game-changing natural disasters -- but it could launch on Xbox Game Pass on day one.

The rumors started on the Xbox Era podcast, with notorious Battlefield leaker Tom Henderson kinda confirming it with a GIF. We don't know if Battlefield will be an Xbox Game Pass offering at launch, but given how badly previous Battlefield games have been at launch I'd be hoping EA DICE have things much more stable with Battlefield 2021 if it's going to be on Xbox Game Pass on day one.

During the podcast, leaker Shpeshal Ed said that there would be a third-party AAA FPS game that is "very highly likely" launching on Xbox Game Pass. I don't think Microsoft would open that up to the upcoming Call of Duty: Vanguard as Sony has a tighter relationship with Activision when it comes to the PlayStation -- so Microsoft could have a big win here for Xbox if they can get Battlefield 2021 aka Battlefield 6 aka BATTLEFIELD as a day one title on Xbox Game Pass.

ASUS is working on a next-gen ROG Strix G15 gaming laptop which will reportedly rock an all-AMD design with both Zen 3 and RDNA 2 technologies inside.

The new ROG Strix G15 gaming laptop has some new CPU-Z validation, confirming that it will be powered by the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX processor and the unannounced Radeon RX 6800M graphics card. The new Radeon RX 6800M GPU will reportedly pack the full Navi 22 GPU with 2560 CUDA cores and 12GB of GDDR6 -- so the RX 6800M GPU inside of a laptop is virtually identical to the desktop RX 6700 XT GPU.

ASUS has a product code of G513QY on the laptop, confirming that it's the ROG Strix G15 gaming laptop that contains the Ryzen 9 5900HX processor + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 range of graphics cards -- other than that there's nothing else to report here. We should hopefully have some more information on the ASUS ROG Strix G15 gaming laptop and its new all-AMD tech in the coming months.

The mighty Embracer Group has now officially acquired Gearbox Software and its subsidiaries, forming a new business unit within the company.

Embracer now owns Gearbox, and the merger deal has come to a close. Embracer paid $363 million for Gearbox with a huge $1 billion bonus clause attached to the contract provisional on game sales and performance. The studio has big plans outside of Borderlands that will help hit that bonus.

Gearbox is mostly known for Borderlands, a franchise that's sold over 60 million copies and made $1 billion in revenues. And yes, the devs are working on Borderlands 4, which will be published by 2K Games.

IO Interactive is taking its new James Bond game very seriously and plans to break the long-time cycle of movie adaptation games.

Hitman developer IO Interactive has high ambitions for its new 007 game. It's the biggest project IO has ever worked on, it's built on a new-and-improved Glacier engine, and it's pretty risky; rather than follow a more tried-and-true method of commercial-based success, IO is going off the beaten path and trying something new. The result should deliver an exciting all-original journey into James Bond's past. IO doesn't want to necessarily reinvent the spy himself, but reinvent James Bond games altogether.

In a recent interview with IGN, IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak made the studio's motivations quite clear: They want to create a "Bond for the gaming industry."

The original Mass Effect game is getting some big quality of life changes to create more gameplay cohesion across the entire trilogy.

The new Mass Effect Legendary Edition is more than a simple remaster. Sure it has upgraded 4K visuals with HDR and smooth 60FPS, but in-game mechanics are also changing. BioWare is making some much-needed quality of life alterations to the original Mass Effect to ensure gamers can jump from ME1 to ME2 and ME3 more seamlessly.

The biggest changes include being able to sprint outside of combat, having full control of each squadmate during combat just like ME2 and ME3, significant adjustments to ADS, targeting, and aiming--sniper rifle sway has been removed, for instance--and a new Junk inventory designation that allows for mass conversion of items into omni-gel or bulk sales to merchants.

ASRock motherboard adoption has hit an all-time high in Japan, conquering ASUS motherboards for the first time in 10 years.

ASRock now commands 37.9% of the Japanese motherboard market, new market surveys from analyst firm BCN confirm. Until now, ASUS has dominated Japan's motherboard market for the past decade.

Based on BCN's findings, 37.9% of surveyed Japanese PC gamers own ASRock motherboards as of March 2021, compared to ASUS' 34%. The data is based on aggregated sales and ownership that shows ASUS motherboard market share has slowly declined since December 2020. ASRock has launched a number of new motherboards in 2021, including a new fleet of Rock It! series boards for Intel 500 series chipset, and the latest Z590 OC Formula that's optimized for 11th gen Intel CPUs.

Grand Theft Auto V has rotated back into Game Pass for one big reason: GTA Online monetization.

Take-Two has expected GTA Online to moderate for a while now, but the mode is still making millions every year. GTA Online's new Cayo Perico Heist drove record engagement--the mode had more players in 2020 than ever before--and Take-Two and Rockstar are eager to push things even farther.

That's the main motivation for GTA V appearing on Game Pass. It's an easy way to sample both GTA V and GTA Online, and once the period is over and GTA V rotates out, gamers are more likely to buy. This tactic has worked very well in the past. Take-Two reported GTA V sales and monetization spikes after the first time it was included on Game Pass, and the free Epic Game Store release also helped boost its balance sheets.

Diablo II's first alpha test will kick off on April 8, 2021, Blizzard today confirmed.

As we previously reported, Diablo II Resurrected's first alpha test will be singleplayer-only, and Blizzard says only a "limited number of players" will get in. The test is also exclusive to PC users who signed up on the mainsite. Future tests will also include console players on PS4, Xbox One, and Switch. Blizzard says there will be "at least one another chance to participate in a test," and the next phase will focus on multiplayer.

The alpha is somewhat barebones and won't feature the entire game. Only Acts I & II are included, and it only features three out of the seven character classes: Sorceress, Barbarian, and Amazon will be playable. The good news is that players can capture and record whatever they want. The test also lets PC players use a controller for the first time, which is nifty.

E3 2021 will officially kick off from June 12-15, complete with big reveals, highlights, and showcases from the industry's biggest games-makers.

Today the ESA confirmed E3 2021 will happen in an all-digital format. The virtual event will be 100% free: "E3 will be completely free for all attendees and there will not be a paywall," the ESA says. E3 2021 is to deliver "exclusive content" set in an "innovative, interactive online experience". Developers and publishers will hold live press conferences as well as pre-recorded showcases, and there will be high-profile hosts as well.

Sony won't be at the E3 2021, but Nintendo and Xbox will be. Expect Sony and EA to host their own events. Activision-Blizzard is also missing from the list. Publishers who have confirmed attendance at E3 include:

Sometimes it's nice to take a slow morning walk, and during that morning walk, you usually aren't expecting to find something that is truly confusing.

Well, a resident of Hoboken, New Jersey, was out for a morning stroll in a park near the Hudson River when she spotted hundreds of worms forming a spiral on the sidewalk. Tiffanie Fisher, a local councilperson, shared the images on her Twitter, calling the strange assortment of worms a "wormnado". Locals quickly began commenting on the images, one saying it "looks like a portal out of a horror movie".

Kevin Butt, a soil ecology expert at the University of Central Lancashire, said, "In short, worms have likely come to the soil surface due to excess rainwater, have been unable to burrow down due to movement on to a hard surface and the shape seen may well be a function of the water draining away, rather than specific behaviour of the earthworms."

Researchers discovered that back in 1582, a huge solar storm hit Earth and appeared in the skies over Europe and Asia.

Now, researchers are saying that a similar-sized solar mega-storm could hit Earth again this century, but this time around, it could rain destruction on the planet, knocking out power grids across the globe. Researchers from Cornell University discovered eyewitness reports of the previously mentioned 1582 solar storm and found that these old reports were similar to reports of modern-day solar storms that occurred back in 1909 and 1989.

According to the reports from back in 1582, the solar storm lasted for three days, and onlookers saw a "fiery red show in the sky". Additionally, Pero Ruiz Soares, an eyewitness of the 1582 solar storm, noted, "All that part of the sky appeared burning in fiery flames; it seemed that the sky was burning." Researchers believe that a solar storm of this magnitude occurs roughly every hundred years, which means that one is expected to happen sometime in the 21st century.

Intel's new flagship Core i9-11900K processor is here with the new Rocket Lake-S chip being used in the GIGABYTE Z590 AORUS TACHYON motherboard and pushed to over 7.3GHz in a new OC record.

GIGABYTE's new Z590 AORUS TACHYON motherboard was designed with overclocking in mind, with a powerful 12+1 direct phases solution that's capable of pumping 1300 amps with the DrMOS power state design. We also have a VRM that has been designed with a full tantalum capacitor matrix that allows for improved overclocking.

Jackson Hsu, Director of the GIGABYTE Channel Solutions Product Development Division talked about the GIGABYTE Z590 AORUS TACHYON motherboard + Core i9-11900K processor being used to push up to 7314MHz, where he said: "By the assistance of engineering design power and management team, GIGABYTE's R&D team is able to turn those wild creativity into mass production".

In a surprise move, LG has just announced that it is shutting its mobile business down -- LG's board of directors approved the decision that will allow the company to put its efforts into other areas of its business.

LG will now put more of its efforts into other industries it has it already works in: electric vehicle components, connected devices, smart homes, robotics, artificial intelligence, business-to-business solutions, as well as platforms and services. As for LG's official statement on pulling out of the mobile business, LG explains:

"Current LG phone inventory will continue to be available for sale. LG will provide service support and software updates for customers of existing mobile products for a period of time which will vary by region. LG will work collaboratively with suppliers and business partners throughout the closure of the mobile phone business. Details related to employment will be determined at the local level".

The new Battlefield seems to be getting closer and closer with rumors flying thick and fast, with industry insider Tom Henderson teasing out some super-exciting news on the next-gen Battlefield.

In a new tweet, Henderson teased: "In BATTLEFIELD, explosions are not the only thing that can damage and topple buildings. Mother nature can do a whole lot more". In the tweet, Henderson tells us to prepare for a next-gen Battlefield where it's not just explosions that cause massive damage -- but there will be natural disasters.

He followed the tweet up with another tweet of natural disasters in the real-world including tsunamis, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes. Henderson had another tweet after that, explaining that he is not joking around for April Fools and that this was serious -- EA DICE is taking destruction to the next level with the new Battlefield.

We all know about the GPU shortages but I'm sure none of us expected NVIDIA to ramp up Turing GPU production with rumors that the company is increasing the supply of its GeForce GTX 1650 graphics card.

The rumors are coming Chinese site Channel Gate, which teases that NVIDIA is bringing in the big guns -- well, not-so-big-guns in GPU power but one of their most popular GeForce GTX 10 series graphics cards. NVIDIA never really stopped making the GeForce GTX 1650 but has since had its Ampere GPUs filling in the GeForce RTX 30 series family -- but they're so hard to find right now.

We could expect to see supplies of NVIDIA's mid-range GeForce GTX 1650 graphics card sometime in April-May 2021, so over the course of the next few weeks. The card debuted at a price of around $149 but with the current GPU shortages a new GeForce GTX 1650 will cost you around $400 today.

If you are in the market for a kick ass new monitor + CPU + gaming bundle then you might want to check out this Lenovo 27-inch QHD 165Hz gaming monitor + AMD Ryzen 9 5950X processor + Xbox Game Pass for PC bundle.

The bundle itself runs until April 9 which will match together the Lenovo G27Q 27" QHD (2560 x 1440) IPS 165Hz gaming monitor, a AMD Ryzen 9 5950X processor which offers 16 cores and 32 threads of Zen 3 goodness, as well as a 3-month Xbox Game Pass for PC subscription -- for a total of $1178.98 -- not bad at all.

Considering AMD's own Ryzen 9 5950X isn't the easiest processor to find right now, getting a bundle like this could be your way into Zen 3 quick. Lenovo's own monitor isn't bad at all, a 27-inch 2560 x 1440 monitor with a super-smooth 165Hz refresh rate and 1ms response time.

For years, corners of the gaming sphere have whispered about a lost Castlevania game on the SEGA Dreamcast. Now the mythological Castlevania Resurrection has been unearthed.

A prototype CD for Konami's cancelled Castlevania Resurrection has reportedly been found. The game was previously only shown to press at E3, but now for the first time the game has been made public.

The Dreamcast Castlevania isn't a classic sidescroller, but instead a 3D game aimed at flexing the Dreamcast's polygonal power. The game on the CD is quite unfinished, and contains five playable prototype stages along with a boss fight.

Ubisoft China's Chengdu Studio discusses what it was like to make its first-ever expansion for Immortals Fenyx Rising.

Immortals Fenyx Rising's new Myths of the Eastern Realm DLC is a major breakthrough for Ubisoft China. The expansion is apparently the first major content-based AAA game released in China, and is studio's debut project. Ubisoft Chengdu carefully crafted the story for a worldwide audience, which focuses on authentic Chinese folklore and mythology, complete with ancient gods and goddesses. The standalone expansion serves around 6-8 hours of new content.

"The DLC represents a lot of firsts, such as this is the first truly complete Chinese content-based AAA game and also our first time to lead a AAA game," Junior Producer Tu Yang said in a brief Life at Ubisoft video.

Supercell is making three new Clash of Clans game, and one of them is a mix between Diablo and Gauntlet.

Billon-dollar mobile titan Supercell recently announced three new Clash games are in development: Clash Quest, a turn-based strategy game, Clash Mini, a smaller more user-friendly board game, and Clash Heroes, a new ARPG in the vein of classics like Diablo.

Clash Heroes supports up to 3 players for online co-op and keeps that old-school Gauntlet spirit with a top-down view and tons of enemies.