After spending two years at the helm of what is probably the most contentious social media platform in the world, Linda Yaccarino has officially stepped down as CEO of X.

In a recent X post, the now former CEO of the Elon Musk-owned social media platform announced her departure from the helm of the company, writing that when she accepted the position two years ago she knew it "would be the opportunity of a lifetime." Yaccarino added that when she first discussed Elon Musk's vision for X, she knew it would be an incredible opportunity for her to be entrusted with the responsibility of carrying out his vision, protecting free speech, turning the company around, and creating what is now considered to be the "Everything App."

X owner Elon Musk responded to the departure message from Yaccarino by writing, "Thank you for your contributions." Musk has yet to announce the next CEO for the company. As for other X-related news, Grok was recently updated and began spilling antisemitic remarks across the platform, causing xAI to respond by taking the AI chatbot offline. These remarks came after Musk said that Grok's responses were too "woke" and that users can expect a change in the behavior of the AI chat when the next update is rolled out.

NVIDIA has become the first company in the world to reach a staggering $4 trillion market cap, despite the company's stock valuation being somewhat sluggish at the start of the year.

The new record was broken on Wednesday when shares of NVIDIA rose as much as 2.5% to an all-time high of $164, which pushed the total market cap for the company briefly over the $4 trillion mark. At the time of writing, NVIDIA is sitting at $3.94 trillion. For those who don't remember, NVIDIA's stock took a $600 billion tumble at the start of the year when Chinese AI company DeepSeek shook the entire AI sector, and by at large, NVIDIA, when it unveiled a new AI model that's performance was on par with Western AI models, but only required a fraction of the processing power.

The emergence of the DeepSeek AI model cast doubt on whether companies looking to expand their AI infrastructure actually needed NVIDIA's AI GPUs for more raw processing power, or would be better off investing in improving the efficiency of their current AI models on the software side. NVIDIA reached a $1 trillion market value for the first time in June 2023, and in just a single year, it managed to triple that valuation, beating the pace of other industry tech juggernauts such as Microsoft and Apple.

Halo Studios has reportedly been hit by the Microsoft layoffs that impacted as many as 9,000 employees across various companies falling under the Xbox Game Studios umbrella.

A developer from Halo Studios has informed Engadget that "at least five employees" from Halo have been fired as part of the recent sweeping Microsoft layoffs, following employees receiving an email last week from Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer about incoming "organization shifts" intended to "increase agility and effectiveness." According to the report, affected Halo Studios employees were brought into a meeting with team leaders and informed about the incoming layoffs.

The developer also informed the publication that the environment at Halo Studios is quite tense, even before the scheduled layoffs. The reason for the tense environment is that the current state of the new Halo game isn't great, with that title currently undergoing significant development struggles. The developer said, "I don't think anybody is really happy about the quality of the product right now. There's been a lot of tension and pep talks trying to rally folks to ship."

Amazon Prime members can grab some compelling games for free this month, as the retail giant has pulled out the big guns due to the Prime Day sale.

The freebies for July include Football Manager 2024 and the very much underrated Marvel's Midnight Suns, so there's a heavy dose of strategy, planning, and thinking between those two games.

Amazon is also offering Amnesia: The Dark Descent for free, and the classic Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II.

A sophisticated and alarming malware campaign has been enacted through web browser extensions, with the result that 2.3 million users across both Chrome and Edge have fallen victim to this large-scale scam.

Koi Security carried out an investigation into a color picker extension (software that lets you copy any color from a website, if you want to use that particular shade in a project of your own) and discovered the 'RedDirection' malware campaign behind it (and 17 other extensions for Chrome and Edge).

The gist of it is that these extensions are essentially the software equivalent of a long con. They have been around for a long time, are professionally implemented, and do what they say on the tin - and they do it well. As such, the extensions have accrued a whole load of positive reviews, Google certification (the verified badge), plus a ton of installs.

Universal Flash Storage (UFS) offers high-performance, low-power storage for mobile devices. With KIOXIA now sampling its new UFS Ver. 4.1 embedded memory devices to partners, it's set to usher in a new era for next-generation mobile applications and smartphones with powerful on-device AI.

KIOXIA-powered UFS Ver. 4.1 devices incorporate the company's latest 8th generation BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory, which introduces CBA (CMOS directly Bonded to Array) technology to boost power efficiency, performance, and density. This is a triple win for mobile devices as it offers a performance increase of up to 45% when compared to the previous generation.

KIOXIA UFS Ver. 4.1 devices will also lead to faster downloads and smoother app performance, and will be available in capacities of 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1 TB. Here's a breakdown of the performance gains, covering read/write and power efficiency.

Compared to the previous version of Windows, Windows 11 comes with quite a lot of unnecessary software that users who care about having a clean PC, free of any unneeded applications, need to spend time removing when installing a fresh version of the operating system.

Unfortunately, this can be a time-consuming process, and removing specific applications, such as Microsoft Edge or OneDrive, can even require the user to delve into PowerShell, a command-line program. Getting into this territory of Windows can be daunting for some users, which is why many users wanting to remove Windows bloatware typically look for third-party software specifically designed to remove it from a new installation of Windows. An example of this, and something I use regularly, is Talon. Check that out here.

However, there now appears to be a new way to remove Windows 11 bloat, and it's designed by Microsoft itself. Windows Insiders have discovered a feature in Windows 11 version 25H2 that allows users to remove pre-installed apps. The setting is called Remove Default Microsoft Store Packages, and is located under Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > App Package Deployment. The apps are removed after the user selects which ones they want to keep and which ones they want to discard from the installation.

Last week, reports surfaced from Call of Duty: WWII PC players that an exploit existed that allowed hackers to infiltrate player PCs mid-game and take control of them.

Some players who were experiencing this problem reported hackers taking control of their PC and opening up pornographic videos and even Notepad with a message informing them they have been hacked and need to contact some named users about the hack. Players who noticed this pointed to a Remote Command Execution (RCE) exploit, which, for those unfamiliar, enables a malicious actor to execute code on a target device. Essentially, RCE exploits mean a bad actor can install malware, viruses, or even harvest data from the target PC.

Reports of Call of Duty: WWII being vulnerable to an RCE exploit increased substantially after it was added to Game Pass, presumably due to the number of people it became readily available to, a small portion of whom would have taken advantage of the RCE exploit. Now, Activision has responded by taking Call of Duty: WWII offline, with TechCrunch reporting that an individual with knowledge of the topic said Activision took the game offline due to the reports of hacking while it fixes the issue.

Matt Turnbull, an executive producer at Xbox Game Studios Publishing, has found himself in hot water after he suggested that the recently let-go 9,000 Microsoft workers should use artificial intelligence-powered tools to help deal with their emotions surrounding losing their jobs.

In what appears to be the latest completely tone-deaf response to the widespread layoffs hitting Xbox and companies under its umbrella, the public's response to this message from Turnbull was vitriolic, causing the Xbox Game Studios Publishing executive to remove the post from his LinkedIn account. One X user called Turnbull's suggestion "plain disgusting," while another wrote on LinkedIn, "I had to read this twice to make sure it wasn't satire."

This suggestion from Turnbull has come at a time when Microsoft has pledged to invest $80 billion into developing AI, which, to many, is part of the reason why the company decided to lay off 9,000 employees across its various divisions. To many affected by these layoffs, or simply anyone looking in from the outside, Turnbull's suggestion reads, "To get through your current emotional state caused by the job loss, use the tool that has seemingly replaced you." This suggestion from Turnbull is the equivalent of saying you should ask your replacement for advice on how to cope with being fired.

The assumption that older PC technology becomes cheaper once newer technology arrives is quickly becoming a thing of the past, as prices for DDR4 and GDDR6 memory are set to skyrocket by up to 43% in the third quarter of 2025, which is right around the corner. The news arrives via TrendForce, which has posted a new report covering its findings on the three major DRAM suppliers.

When it comes to DDR4 and mobile LPDDR4X memory, the reason for the sharp increase in pricing is that these products are nearing the end of their life cycle (EOL) as companies transition to next-generation DDR5 technology. This means that the continued demand for older DDR4 technology, alongside "potential hikes in US import tariffs," may see DDR4 pricing increase by 38 to 43% with LPDDR4X pricing increasing by up to 23 to 28% for the PC market.

The growing demand for the newer DDR5 memory technology will also lead to an increase in pricing in the third quarter, but by a significantly lower amount, ranging from 3 to 8% for the consumer market. And with NVIDIA's latest generation of GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs shifting to cutting-edge GDDR7 memory, the shift in production capacity for the newer technology also means that GDDR6 memory is in short supply.

The artificial intelligence chatbot Grok has received a new update from its creators at xAI and has now been caught spouting antisemitic posts across X. The creators of the chatbot have since recognized the problem and responded.

The latest update to Grok is the fourth iteration of the new chatbot, which went live on July 9. Shortly after the update was pushed out, users began prompting the newly upgraded chatbot with a range of different questions, some of which probed to see where the new guardrails for its responses were set. Users were surprised when Grok began posting antisemitic responses to seemingly blank-slated questions, with the chatbot even going as far as to call itself "MechaHitler" and praise Hitler.

Grok jumping over its guardrails with this new update comes after xAI founder Elon Musk publicly stated he was unhappy with how the AI chatbot answered questions, saying Grok produced answers that were too "woke". On Friday, Musk said that Grok had been "improved significantly," and users would notice a difference after the July 9 update was pushed out.

War Thunder requires no introduction; the free-to-play, military-themed, massively multiplayer game has been offering players the opportunity to immerse themselves in real-world aviation, armored vehicles, and naval craft for over a decade. In that time, the game has received countless updates, with its latest, the Leviathans major update, adding real-time path-traced lighting to the game.

Now, when most gamers hear the phrase "path tracing," their mind goes directly to a high-end GPU like the GeForce RTX 5080. Granted, Path Tracing is extremely hardware-intensive, but War Thunder developer Gaijin Entertainment is limiting the technology to Path Traced Global Illumination, or PTGI. Alongside the new path-traced lighting, the studio is embracing new tech to boost ray-tracing performance.

This includes support for Opacity Micro Maps (OMM) and Shader Execution Reordering, which are currently included in the latest preview version of the DirectX SDK. War Thunder already features ray-traced shadows, reflections, and ambient occlusion, and with the new Path Traced Global Illumination, the game looks even more impressive.

NVIDIA's DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation arrived earlier this year with the GeForce RTX 50 Series of RTX Blackwell gaming GPUs, and it has been a game changer for image quality and performance. With over 120 titles featuring either native DLSS 4 support or DLSS 4 support available via the DLSS Override feature in the NVIDIA App, we can add three more PC games to the DLSS 4-compatible list this week.

First up, there's the player-driven fantasy of Mortal Online 2, which offers players a sandbox world with no rules and the freedom to build, trade, build houses, explore, loot, and of course, raise more than a few swords in massive PvP battles. Developer Star Vault AB notes that the Unreal Engine 5-powered title offers the largest draw distance or "visibility range" for any MMO.

With the arrival of its first major expansion, Reckoning, Mortal Online 2 is adding DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation support to boost performance. It's worth noting that the enhanced DLSS 4 Super Resolution is available for all GeForce RTX gamers, while the new Multi Frame Generation is exclusive to the GeForce RTX 50 Series.

Games industry analyst Chris Zukowski has shared a few choice words about PC gamers, specifically those on Steam, in a new blog post. "The amazing thing about Steam and its player base is that they buy games they aren't going to play," Chris writes in the opening, as part of a message to game developers. "More than likely, the person buying your game is not going to play it."

The post makes the point that, in the current entertainment field, with services like Netflix and HBO Max, alongside live-service games like Fortnite, game developers are competing for people's time in a fragmented market. However, when it comes to Steam, Valve's platform is so successful and lucrative for game developers of all sizes because the audience is "full of super die-hard hobbyists."

This means it's more about collecting games and building a library without worrying about "how much money they are spending." Granted, it doesn't hurt that Steam's annual Summer Sale (which is still live) brings significant discounts to a wide range of games annually.

The new Razer BlackWidow V4 Tenkeyless HyperSpeed is the latest wireless gaming keyboard from the company, and it ships with a Power Saving Mode that offers up to 980 hours of battery life. An impressive number that might leave you forgetting how to charge it once that time runs out - joking, of course. Simply plug in the USB cable and you'll be back up and running.

The Razer BlackWidow V4 Tenkeyless HyperSpeed features a new dedicated Battery Life and Status button that you simply need to hold for three seconds to enable Power Saving Mode. And that's 980 hours in either low-latency Razer HyperSpeed Wireless or Bluetooth mode, which is even more impressive.

There's a lot more to the new Razer BlackWidow V4 than its industry-leading battery life; it's also a fully customizable board with hot-swappable switches supporting both 3-pin and 5-pin options. There are also two layers of dampening foam underneath the hood for a smooth typing experience, alongside lubricated stabilizers, an enhanced PCB, and a top-mounted steel plate.

MSI's new Claw A8 gaming handheld has been benchmarked, with AMD's new Ryzen Z2 Extreme APU tested against Intel's Lunar Lake processor.

In a new video from a Chinese content creator, MSI's new Claw A8 gaming handheld was tested as the new handheld has launched on Chinese e-commerce platforms, but it hasn't officially launched anywhere else. Inside, the new Ryzen Z2 Extreme APU has 8C/16T of Zen 5 processing power at up to 5.0GHz clock speeds, and 16 Compute Units of new RDNA 3.5 integrated GPU power.

This is a big upgrade over the lackluster Intel Meteor Lake processor inside the original MSI Claw gaming handheld, but the company did upgrade its Claw to the newer Intel Lunar Lake architecture, which is superior thanks to its improved Xe2 GPU architecture.

Apple is working on next-gen silicon that recently turned up in an internal build of iOS 18, including the new A19, A19 Pro, M5, and C2.

In a new report from AppleInsider, which had exclusive information provided to them, an internal build of iOS 18 included references to multiple unannounced Apple Silicon chips for a bunch of different hardware platforms. Apple's new iOS 18 has a build number of 22A91871y, is a NonUI variant of iOS 18, lacking the regular consumer-oriented iOS user interface, instead featuring just rudimentary applications designed primarily for hardware testing.

AppleInsider's report includes a video that explains how the unit's operating system contains codenames and identifiers that line up with multiple unreleased Apple Silicon chips, including new M-series processors, the next-generation C2 5G modem, an Apple Watch chip, and more.

AMD launched its new Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9000 series CPUs earlier this month, and now the flagship Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9995WX processor has been tested in Geekbench with a score of over 30,000 points.

The current record holder on Geekbench is Intel's previous-gen Core i7-13700K processor with 33,962 points, which is because Geekbench usually favors Intel in multi-threaded CPU tests, but that doesn't mean that they're faster in multi-threaded operations than Threadripper chips with more cores and threads.

AMD's new Ryzen Threadripper 9000 series "Shimada Peak" CPUs are now out, with the flagship Ryzen Threadripper PRO 9995WX, which pushes 30,170 points, slightly less than the 30,579 points out of the Zen 4-based Ryzen Threadripper 7995WX chip.

NVIDIA is preparing to launch its new DGX Spark, a new mini supercomputer with a huge 1000 TOPS of AI workload power and a cost of $4000.

In a new report from Taiwan Economic Daily, we're hearing that NVIDIA is preparing its new DGX Spark mini supercomputer for a retail launch this month, with AIB partners like ASUS, MSI, and GIGABYTE to soon introduce their own DGX Spark mini supercomputer to the market.

Inside, the new DGX Spark uses NVIDIA's new GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip, which has been optimized into a desktop form factor. NVIDIA's new GB10 features a powerful NVIDIA Blackwell GPU with fifth-generation Tensor Cores and FP4 support, with 1000 TOPS of AI compute power for fine-tuning and inference with the latest AI reasoning models, including the NVIDIA Cosmos Reason world foundation model and NVIDIA GR00T N1 robot foundation model.

Apple's new ultra-thin iPhone 17 Air smartphone has been teased in a new video on X, showing a dummy model of the rumored design of what will be Apple's thinnest iPhone ever. Check it out:

We've been hearing tons of rumors that Apple's ultra-thin iPhone 17 Air smartphone will be just 5.5mm thick at its thinnest point, passing the iPhone 6 at its thinnest point with 6.9mm. In order to get the iPhone this thin, Apple has had to make some compromises including decreased battery life, a single rear-facing camera, a single speaker, and the A19 processor over the A19 Pro.

Inside, we should expect a 6.6-inch display, Apple's new in-house A19 processor, 8GB of RAM, a 24-megapixel front-facing camera, 48-megapixel rear-facing camera, Face ID technology, titanium casing, Apple's in-house C1 5G modem, and charging speeds of up to 35W power.