The Apple-Intel partnership is taking shape as a key part of Cupertino's future silicon plans for both mobile and desktop chips. Fresh reports from a GFHK (GF Holdings Hong Kong) Monthly Call, shared by leaker Jukan on X, suggest a formal agreement between the two Silicon Valley giants was already signed last year.

For over a decade, Apple has been TSMC's "darling" customer, a relationship forged after Apple famously moved away from Samsung Foundry. This partnership has historically granted Apple exclusive, early access to bleeding-edge nodes. However, the unprecedented AI boom has fundamentally altered that dynamic, with TSMC reporting shortages projected to persist beyond 2027.

Apple has been eyeing diversification of its chip production through dual sourcing, with Intel Foundry and Samsung Foundry as potential partners. Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that Intel and Apple have struck a preliminary deal in this regard.

After months of nothing but bad news, Assassin's Creed Hexe seems to be making a comeback with some positive rumors. The game has been in developmental turmoil, first losing two directors in two months, and then parting ways with 50 developers in one go. Information around Assassin's Creed Hexe has been very scarce ever since its announcement, but it seems like that is about to change.

A new leak by a known Ubisoft insider, "Rogue," has surfaced, outlining various new Assassin's Creed Hexe features, story points, and gameplay details. According to Rogue, a number of voice lines from the game have leaked, which give us an idea of what to expect from Hexe's story. It is according to these voice lines that we now know that the legendary assassin, Ezio Auditore Da Firenze, will make an appearance in Assassin's Creed Hexe.

This is huge news, especially given the kind of fandom Ezio has garnered over the years. The leak goes on to say that the main protagonist of the game, Anika, is a descendant of Ezio's sister, Claudia Auditore. Anika was previously referred to internally as Elsa, but that was just a placeholder name. There is a leaked Anika dialogue that says, "They call me a witch," so we know our protagonist is probably going to get in trouble for it.

It seems Microsoft is continuing to deliver on its Project K2 promises, and the latest development is notable. As part of the broader initiative to address Windows 11's biggest pain points, including sluggish performance, bloated AI integrations, unreliable updates, and a reduced storage footprint, Microsoft is now turning its attention to the UI framework itself.

A key part of Project K2 involves migrating core Windows 11 experiences, such as the Start menu and File Explorer, over to WinUI 3, Microsoft's modern native UI framework. However, according to a GitHub post by Microsoft software engineer Beth Pan, in addition to porting components to WinUI 3, the company is also actively optimizing the framework from the inside out, with performance being a central focus.

The post outlines that Microsoft has been using File Explorer and Notepad as primary benchmarks for its WinUI 3 improvements, targeting launch time as the key metric. The results so far are quite encouraging. For File Explorer alone, the team has achieved a 41% reduction in memory allocations, a 63% drop in transient allocations, a 45% decrease in function calls, and a 25% reduction in the time Windows spends executing WinUI code during a launch sequence. These are meaningful numbers that should translate into a noticeably snappier experience for everyday users.

Google recently announced Googlebook, a series of laptops designed around the Gemini AI model. This new laptop series is supposed to fall somewhere between a Chromebook and a traditional Windows laptop. Information surrounding the Googlebook is pretty vague right now, except for a few nifty features such as the Magic Pointer, Widget Creator, and general Gemini integration.

However, now it seems like we are getting more clarity about the hardware side of Googlebook. Intel has announced that it is the official CPU partner for Googlebook, providing processors for the upcoming series of laptops from various manufacturers. The company took to X (formerly Twitter) to announce that it is prepping "premium, powerful devices designed for intelligence." Google has previously confirmed that Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, and Lenovo are the official launch partners for this laptop series.

Intel has not yet confirmed which CPU lineup will power Googlebooks, but the most optimal candidate has to be the Core 300 "Wildcat Lake" processors. These processors are a perfect match for these laptops since they are built on Intel's 18A process node, and offer 2 "Cougar Cove" P-cores and 4 "Darkmont" LPE cores, with no traditional E-cores. The models come with a 15W TDP and a maximum power package of 35W, and include an NPU 5 with 40 TOPs, as well as an Xe display and media engine.

AMD is extending its existing lineup of Ryzen 9000 Pro models with six new SKUs, including some armed with 3D-VCache technology. The highlight of the lineup is the Ryzen 9 Pro 9965X3D, armed with up to 144MB of cache, and the Ryzen 7 Pro 9755X3D boasting 104MB of L3 cache.

These two models are the world's first Pro-series chips to come with 3D-VCache technology. The extra 3D cache layer is aimed at accelerating professional cache-sensitive workloads such as video encoding and 3D rendering. Both models are virtually identical to their consumer desktop counterparts in terms of raw specs. The Ryzen 9 Pro 9965X3D comes with 16 cores, 32 threads, a 5.5 GHz boost clock, a 4.3 GHz base clock, 144MB of L2+L3 cache, and a 170W TDP. The Ryzen 7 Pro 9755X3D comes with 8 cores, 12 threads, 5.2GHz boost clock, 4.7GHz base clock, 104MB of L2+L3 cache, and a 120W TDP.

The rest of the lineup consists of traditional (non-X3D) parts, featuring a mix of 6, 8, 12, and 16-core parts. AMD is also offering multiple TDP variants for almost all of these non-X3D models, to better fit OEMs with systems that can handle higher TDPs. For the uninitiated, AMD's initial Ryzen 9000 Pro series lineup offered only three SKUs with a 65W TDP.

Some TVs (notably OLEDs) are marked down for not being bright enough, and there can be concerns around daytime viewing with such screens, particularly in well-lit rooms - but one criticism you can't level at the TCL X11 is that its brightness is subpar.

According to TV expert and reviewer Vincent Teoh (via VideoCardz), the new 85-inch Super Quantum Dot Mini LED TV from TCL comes close to 11,000 nits.

That's as measured by Teoh as you can see in the above video clip posted on X, with the brightness level reaching 10,931 nits to be precise.

Sony CEO Hiroki Totoki tells investors that PlayStation console prices could be adjusted if hardware manufacturing costs increase, but the company has enough console supply to meet demand throughout the remainder of the year.

In a recent earnings call, Sony management briefly discusses the PS5's volatile pricing situation that, in part, led to Q4'25 delivering the lowest quarterly shipments off Sony's ninth console generation.

The company's CEO was quite frank on the realities of the hardware market, indicating that the PS5 could get more price hikes if component scarcity keeps squeezing the market.

One of the biggest stories for the consumer-facing PC market, that is, the non-data center and AI-only space, was Micron announcing that it would no longer produce consumer SSD and RAM products under its long-standing Crucial brand. It was a surprising move, but on the plus side, it looks like KIOXIA, the inventors of flash memory, is stepping in to fill that void with a new range of SSD offerings built for OEMs and the consumer PC market.

In addition to the affordable EG7 and BG8 Series of SSDs that cover PCIe Gen4 and Gen5 interfaces and leverage the company's groundbreaking BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory with its CBA (CMOS directly Bonded to Array) technology, KIOXIA is also introducing the new XG10 Series of SSDs for PC OEMs, targeting high-performance users.

With its PCIe 5.0 interface delivering sequential read speeds of up to 14,000 MB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 12,000 MB/s, the XG10 Series is built for content creation workloads such as editing, immersive next-gen cinematic gaming, and local AI training and inference. Compared to the previous generation's XG8 Series, that's double the performance while also delivering improvements of 122% in random read and 158% in random write.

Valve has sneaked in a smart easter egg with the Steam Controller, one that'll only be discovered by the clumsier people out there - or those who aren't afraid to chuck the controller about a bit.

VideoCardz flagged up a thread on Reddit where the original poster threw their controller onto a bed - and was surprised to hear it scream.

As Redditor RF3D19 observed: "If you drop the controller while in Steam Big Picture mode (on a pillow or a bed, we're not psychopaths here), it will occasionally play the Wilhelm scream with the haptic motors. Do whatever you want with this information, I just feel like I needed to share this asap."

Sony's PlayStation 6 is on the horizon. Still, with the memory and storage crisis set to affect all consumer technology for the foreseeable future, the company's executives are unsure of the next-gen console's launch timing. This uncertainty could pave the way for concessions on the hardware side, as costs for the PS6's custom next-gen AMD hardware continue to rise.

Renowned insider and leaker, KeplerL2, who has previously leaked specs for the upcoming PlayStation 6 console, notes that a reasonable cutback could see Sony drop the planned 30 or 32GB of GDDR7 memory to 24GB of VRAM on a slower 128-bit bus. According to KeplerL2 (via NeoGAF), this move would save the company around $60 in BOM costs per PlayStation 6 console and would be a "reasonable" choice, as it wouldn't require reworking the PS6's custom AMD SoC beyond disabling a single memory controller.

24GB of VRAM still represents notably more capacity than the PlayStation 5's 16GB of unified memory. It would allow more complex rendering, such as ray tracing and path tracing, to run without bottlenecks. The other bonus for going the 24GB route, as KeplerL2 notes, is "a yield boost for the SoC by being able to harvest MC (memory controller) defects."

Computex 2026 is right around the corner, and ahead of the show, Origin Code has announced the new Vortex 48GB DDR5-6200 Memory Kit with low CL28 timings that will undoubtedly draw a crowd when people see it in person. The reason is fairly obvious: this is a DDR5 memory kit equipped with a Vortex Water Block that, yes, delivers a liquid-cooling thermal solution that reportedly improves heat dissipation by 50%.

And with that, the average memory temperature while operating at 1.55V drops from 66.3 degrees Celsius without liquid cooling to only 31.5 degrees Celsius. The custom water block features a dual-inlet, dual-outlet setup with standard G1/4 threads for custom closed-loop systems. In addition to delivering something that you don't normally see, RAM liquid cooling, the Vortex Water Block also features a small LCD wide-view screen with a 222 x 480p resolution and 60 Hz refresh rate that can be configured to showcase real-time system information for monitoring.

The Vortex Water Block is designed specifically for Origin Code's DDR5 line-up, which includes multiple kits with capacities going up to 256GB. Aside from the whole liquid cooling add-on, a 48GB DDR5 kit with 6200 MT/s speed and CL28 timings is impressive, as is the company's 48GB 6000 MT/s kit that supports CL26 or 8000 MT/s at CL36 with AMD EXPO.

GeForce Game Ready Driver 596.49 is here, and it's Game Ready for what is easily the biggest game release of the month, Forza Horizon 6. Despite leaks, the game's official launch is May 19, and on PC, the game is set to debut with stunning ray-traced visuals and support for NVIDIA's new DLSS 4.5 Super Resolution and Dynamic Frame Generation.

Running in 4K with Max Settings and ray-tracing, the full DLSS 4.5 suite of technologies delivers 200+ FPS performance at the demanding resolution on the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, RTX 5080, and the flagship RTX 5090. With the latter pushing 300+ FPS. Dropping the resolution to 1440p and NVIDIA's internal DLSS 4.5 benchmarks show that the figure climbs to 260+ FPS for the top-tier GeForce RTX 50 Series cards.

Set in a visually impressive open-world Japan, Forza Horizon 6 is the highly anticipated follow-up to the Mexico-set Forza Horizon 5, and it's undoubtedly the biggest racing game release in years. In addition to Game Ready support for the latest Forza, the GeForce Game Ready Driver 596.49 also adds support for Directive 8020 and Subnautica 2.

Razer has introduced a new keyboard in its competitive-focused Huntsman series, one best described as a more affordable version of the Razer Huntsman V3 Pro TKL 8K we recently reviewed. And it does not compromise performance, with the Razer Huntsman V3 TKL 8KHz dropping the 'Pro' but keeping the same impressive Razer Analog Optical Switches Gen‑2 and true 8,000 Hz polling.

The big differences between the two come down to additional features: the new Razer Huntsman V3 TKL 8KHz drops the programmable control dial and wrist rest for a more streamlined, gaming-focused TKL design. The result is a more affordable Huntsman, with the new non-Pro variant priced at $169.99 USD versus the $219.99 USD of the Pro model.

Naturally, having Razer's next-gen analog or magnetic switches opens the door to on-the-fly adjustments to each key's actuation point via onboard controls or Razer's new Synapse Web interface, with Rapid Trigger and Snap Tap also supported. Razer notes that its switches arrive pre-lubricated with the Razer Huntsman V3 TKL 8KHz sporting internal foam dampening for a clean 'acoustic profile.'

Micron has confirmed it has begun shipping its fastest-ever DDR5 Registered Dual In-Line Memory Modules to customers, featuring 256GB capacities and speeds of up to 9,200 MT/s. At more than 40% faster than DDR5 RDIMMs currently in volume production, these modules represent a meaningful jump in what server memory can deliver.

The new modules are built on Micron's leading-edge 1-gamma process technology and use advanced 3D stacking alongside through-silicon-via packaging to meet those capacity and speed targets. Micron also claims that a single 256GB module delivers 40% power savings compared to running two 128GB modules together to achieve the same capacity, providing a significant efficiency gain for data center operators running thousands of servers.

With its new 256GB DDR5 RDIMM modules, Micron aims to deliver higher bandwidth and greater DRAM density by maximizing memory capacity per CPU socket. This helps provide the performance and power efficiency required for high-end AI servers.

As part of iOS 26.5, Apple has finally added end-to-end encrypted RCS conversations with Android users in the Messages app. This has been one of the most long-awaited updates in mobile messaging, closing one of the last obvious gaps between iMessage and Android messaging and bringing cross-platform privacy protection to everyday conversations. The feature is now rolling out to users in beta.

Google and Apple described the rollout as the result of a cross-industry effort to bring encryption to RCS. With iOS 26.5, users will see a lock icon and a small "Encrypted" label at the top of the chat while having an encrypted conversation with an Android user. Apple says encryption will be enabled by default, but device owners can confirm it in Settings under the RCS Messaging menu of the Messages section.

To use end-to-end encrypted RCS, you must be on iOS 26.5 and use a supported carrier. The feature is only beginning to roll out in beta, so not all users will have access just yet. Apple still frames iMessage as the best way to communicate between Apple devices, but this update helps further close the gap between green and blue bubbles.

PS5 sales are dwindling as Sony faces turbulence midway through the PS5 generation, caused by a perfect storm of inflation and increasing supply costs.

Following two back-to-back price hikes, the PlayStation 5 isn't doing so well on the shipment level. Sony's latest FY25 earnings report shows that the company only shipped 1.5 million PS5 consoles in Q4'25, which happens to be the lowest-ever quarter in the company's ninth console generation.

The PS5 is also being lapped by its predecessor, at least in unit shipments. The end of Holiday 2025 marked the PS5's 22nd quarter on the market and when aligned with the PS4, we see that the PS4 is ahead by 3.3 million.

Sipeed has launched its new K3 series Single Board Computers, powered by the RISC-V ISA. Using SpacemiT's new "Fusion Architecture" with dedicated matrix multiplication blocks, Sipeed claims these systems can run 30B LLMs locally at over 10 tokens per second.

SpacemiT, a fabless Chinese semiconductor designer, is the silicon architect, while Sipeed serves as the hardware integrator. The K3 SoC is packaged with 32GB of LPDDR5-6400 memory and 10GbE networking, offering an alternative to proprietary AI hardware for enthusiasts and researchers. Prices start at $299 and go up to $629 for the 32GB flagship.

At the silicon level, the K3 SoC features 8 general-purpose X100 cores, each with 4 MB of L2 cache. The company claims the X100 performs similarly to ARM's Cortex-A76 core. The K3 also offers 8 A100 AI matrix units with TCM (Tightly Coupled Memory) and supports up to 1024-bit RVV 1.0 vector processing. These deliver up to 60 TOPS of performance (format unspecified) and support BF16, FP16, FP8, INT8, and INT4 data types.

World-famous singer Dua Lipa has recently filed a $15 million (£11 million) lawsuit against Samsung for using her likeness to sell TVs without her permission or consent. The complaint was filed on May 8th, 2026, in the US District Court for the Central District of California. The complaint accuses Samsung of copyright infringement, trademark infringement, and misappropriation of Lipa's image and likeness.

According to the lawsuit, Samsung is using an image of Dua Lipa taken at the 2024 Austin City Limits Festival on its TV product boxes. The complaint claims that Ms. Lipa owns the rights to the image, and Samsung's packaging was "designed to improperly capitalize on Ms. Lipa's hard-earned success" for the promotion of their products. Samsung was thus sent multiple "cease and desist" letters from Ms. Lipa's legal team, all of which were ignored according to the lawsuit.

The suit alleges that Samsung was profiting financially by using Dua Lipa's likeness and quotes several social media comments from fans of Ms. Lipa who were apparently convinced to buy a Samsung TV just because of her appearance on the box. According to Ms. Lipa's legal team, Samsung has violated California's right of publicity statute, as well as trademark and copyright infringement claims. The singer is demanding $15 million in damages, as well as punitive damages and legal costs.

After the disastrous Forza Horizon 6 leak just a couple of days ago, it looks like another big game has leaked before its official launch date. RespawnFirst has reported that Unknown Worlds' Subnautica 2 has leaked online 48 hours before its Early Access date. Unfortunately, the leak has already spread, and the game has appeared on websites of ill repute ahead of launch.

The Early Access date for Subnautica 2 was set to be May 14th, 2024, but the leak has now made the game playable for pirates worldwide. This situation is quite similar to the Forza Horizon 6 leak we reported earlier, but it is not quite as bad. At least Subnautica 2 was only 48 hours away from officially launching, but Horizon 6 was leaked 10 days before it was meant to be officially available.

This wave of game leaks has led to immense speculation online. Gamers on social media platforms like X and Reddit are arguing over security concerns and whether Steam should be held accountable for these leaks. Others are blaming the pre-load mechanisms, but that seems less likely. Perhaps the most likely source of these leaks is review copies given in advance to game reviewers and media outlets.

Big news in the fighting game world as previous Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada joins a once strong rival, SNK.

In December 2025, Katsuhiro Harada announced he was leaving Bandai Namco and the Tekken franchise. The update was a big blow to the Tekken community, as Harada is seen as an irreplaceable force in the fighting game world. Now it's been revealed that Harada didn't actually retire--he just changed sides.

Today, Harada reveals VS Studio, a new subsidiary of SNK that will focus on new games, including--you guessed it--fighting titles. After all, SNK is best known for titles like King of Fighters and Fatal Fury. According to a press release, VS Studio has the tagline "beyond tradition, crafted to perfection," and the VS in the group's name has multiple meanings--versus, video game software, visionary standard, volition shift, and vanguard spirit.