Latest News - Page 304

Microsoft only recently unveiled its new PC handheld device made in partnership with ASUS, and now retailers have leaked when that device is scheduled to release and how much it will cost.

The information comes from eXtas1s, a known gaming-industry leaker who stated that he has spoken to two European retailers about the new Xbox ROG Ally. Both said pre-orders are scheduled to begin in August, with the official launch scheduled for October 2026. The two new consoles, the Xbox ROG Ally and Ally X, are two new PC-based gaming handhelds featuring 7-inch 1080p 120Hz displays and dedicated Xbox buttons. The Ally X boasts 24GB of RAM, surpassing the Series X.

These two new consoles represent Microsoft's new push into the future generations of its Xbox brand, and how Xbox won't just mean the traditional hardware console, but now any console that is capable of playing Xbox games. However, Microsoft has a long road ahead of it when it comes to making these devices attractive to consumers, as currently, Windows 11 gaming performance on handheld devices is lagging behind competing platforms such as SteamOS.

Every day, millions of people wake up to their iPhone alarm going off, and some that aren't as disciplined as others hit that snooze button and go straight back to sleep, only to wake up again precisely 9 minutes later.

If you have ever wondered why this is the case, Apple currently doesn't let users change the snooze duration within the Clock app. Why do you ask? Honestly, I have no idea. Custom snooze durations have been present on stock Android for the better part of a decade, with some of the earliest versions of custom snooze options dating back to Android KitKat, which was released in October 2013 on the Nexus 5.

This is one of those oversights that seem so glaringly obvious that it's confusing. If you wanted a different snooze length on iPhone, you would have to use a separate app for your alarm. Be that as it may, Apple is finally catching up to Android in the snooze duration department as the company plans to add custom snooze lengths in its soon-to-be-released iOS 26 update.

Still don't think Intel's got a higher-end Battlemage GPU incoming? It appears that Team Blue just dropped a weighty hint that such a graphics card is indeed in the works.

VideoCardz was on-the-ball enough to spot that Intel has updated some IDs in the Mesa drivers which previously read 'Intel Graphics,' but they now refer to a BGM-G31 product.

So, this is the long-rumored G31 GPU, and with four of the IDs changed, this suggests Intel might be preparing four different Battlemage graphics cards which use this chip as their engine.

Micron has been hit with a lawsuit that alleges the company engaged in a scheme to intentionally seek and destroy the reputation of a rival memory maker.

Chinese company, Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) has filed a complaint in the US District Court that claims Micron participated in a scheme to destroy the company's reputation and business through "spreading xenophobic lies that YMTC's market-leading flash memory chips are capable of being used to spy on millions of Americans who use the devices in which the chips are embedded, at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party or its People's Liberation Army."

The lawsuit states YMTC's chips are completely safe and these accusations from Micron are "false and unlawful" - even going as far as to say Micron knows they aren't legitimate claims.

Anker has announced it is recalling more than 1 million power banks after it discovered they were prone to overheating.

The recall has been detailed by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, which wrote that 11 instances of these power banks erupting resulted in more than $60,000 of property damage. The units affected by the recall were sold online in the US by Anker, Amazon, Ebay, and Newegg between the following dates: June 2016 through to December 2022 for approximately $27.

The specific unit prone to overheating is the "PowerCore 10000" power bank, which regulators urge owners to stop using immediately. However, not every PowerCore 10000 is affected by the recall; only units with the model number A1263 are. So, what should you do if you own one of these power banks? Firstly, stop using it immediately, and then begin the process of obtaining a replacement. Anker has detailed the steps in a post on its website, but I have listed what to do below.

Sony has no plans to kill the PlayStation 4 just yet--in fact, the platform is still a major contributor to the brand and is serving as a stable bedrock of earnings.

Nearly 12 years after release and the PlayStation 4 is still going strong. Sony today revealed how the last-gen PS4 is helping mitigate risk for the games division, and underlined that PS4 support isn't going anywhere any time soon.

During its annual corporate business strategy briefing, Sony asserted that the current PlayStation ecosystem is multi-generational and that PS4 users are still "active and spending" across the network. Company finance SVP Lynn Azar makes an interesting pointing regarding how Sony's virtuous cycle was key for continued growth, and how much the PS5's gen 9 is affected by the successful framework of its predecessor.

Sony's latest 2025 corporate business strategy briefing gives an update on PlayStation segment metrics.

The PlayStation 5 ecosystem is the most profitable console generation of all time for Sony, the company has re-confirmed with today's corporate update. The PS5 has generated over $136 billion in the last five fiscal years, and for comparison, it took the PS4 seven fiscal years to achieve just $107 billion in sales.

On a profit level, Sony discloses that the PS5 generation has made $13 billion in operating profit. With $13 billion in operating profit on $136 billion in sales, this indicates that Sony's 9th console generation has a profit margin of ~9.5%. Nintendo similarly sells its Switch and Switch 2 hardware at a profit, but conversely, Microsoft is known for selling its Xbox consoles at a loss.

If you own a certain model of Anker PowerCore 10000 power bank, you need to stop using it now due to a fire risk with the battery inside, and arrange for a replacement from the manufacturer.

Anker advises that PowerCore 10000 power banks which are labelled as model A1263 "may pose a fire safety risk due to a potential issue with the lithium-ion battery."

If the battery overheats, it could melt the casing and potentially lead to a fire. This is the case for the compact and lightweight power banks that were sold between June 1, 2016 and December 31, 2022 in the US.

Sony confirms its working on a next-generation PlayStation console as the company says most players still aren't interested in depending solely on the cloud.

PlayStation consoles are the top revenue-generating video games hardware on the market, so it's no surprise Sony would want to keep the ball rolling with continued system launches. Even in the era of cloud gaming and supercharged network throughput, Sony isn't ready to stop making consoles just yet and rely solely on its decade-old cloud efforts.

In a recent fireside chat taped during Sony's 2025 corporate business strategy meeting, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Hideaki Nishino shared the company's view on PlayStation consoles while also teasing the next-gen PS6 in the process.

UL has just announced that its 3DMark benchmark suite now runs on macOS, and while it was already available on iOS, the company saw that many users were running 3DMark on macOS... marking today's big announcement.

3DMark now has a full native macOS version that removes any and all potential bottlenecks, something UL says that was especially noticeable on more powerful Macs, as the iOS version has maximum frame rate limitations that are tied to the display's refresh rate.

UL explains: "Since we launched 3DMark Steel Nomad Light, we found that 1/6 of all iOS app submissions were from macOS devices. Running an iOS application on a macOS device can negatively affect scores on some benchmarks, especially when run on some more powerful Macs, as iOS application maximum frame rates are limited to the system's display refresh rate".

Steam for Mac has entirely relied on Rosetta 2 to work on Apple Silicon, which is an emulator designed to allow software designed for Intel-based Macs to run on Apple Silicon.

When emulating from one system architecture to the next, there is a cost to performance, and in the case of Rosetta 2 and Steam, there was a significant hit when compared to Steam native. However, Apple is planning on sunsetting Rosetta 2 with macOS 28 as the era of Intel-based Mac software support comes to an end.

macOS 26 will be the last release for Intel-based Macs, meaning software designed for Intel-based Macs will need to become native on Apple Silicon to continue to receive top-of-the-line compatibility and optimizations with macOS.

DOOM: The Dark Ages, the third game in id Software's modern Doom reimagining, is out now for PC and consoles. It delivers frantic action with incredible visuals powered by the latest id Tech engine. The game, which saw the team at id work closely with NVIDIA to implement cutting-edge ray-tracing effects and full support for the latest DLSS 4 technology, has also been in the spotlight for all things GeForce RTX in recent months.

And with that, we've seen several custom GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs with designs and mods inspired by DOOM: The Dark Ages, including some from NVIDIA. The latest comes from PALIT, which sees it create a new custom GeForce RTX 5080 GamingPro graphics card using the company's impressive PALIT MAKER modding tools, where you can download 3D Files to develop custom GPU covers.

Unlike ASUS's stunning ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5080 DOOM Edition GPU we saw at Computex 2025, this one from PALIT has a very cool DIY modder feel. With 3D printing, you have a large DOOM logo and even the Slayer's Flail melee weapon on the backplate alongside the new Shield-saw.

The VRAM capacity debate is currently being discussed in the PC gaming space. The consensus is that in 2025, you will need more than 8GB of VRAM for high-end 1440p and 4K gaming. VRAM is also a key and crucial component for running local AI, and the demand for more memory is growing alongside the arrival of more complex models.

The powerful Stable Diffusion 3.5 large language model for creating images from text models uses 18GB of VRAM. This limits the use of the GeForce RTX 50 Series to the flagship GeForce RTX 5090. Well, not anymore, as NVIDIA has collaborated with Stability AI to quantify the model to FP8, reducing the VRAM requirement by 40% to 11GB.

Alongside optimizations with TensorRT to double performance, this now means that five GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs (the RTX 5060 Ti 16GB, RTX 5070, RTX 5070 Ti, RTX 5080, and RTX 5090) can run the model locally.

NVIDIA is still cooking up its upcoming Arm-based AI PC processor codenamed N1 and N1X, with the new flagship N1X recently hitting Geekbench providing us with some early benchmark numbers.

We should expect NVIDIA's new N1X to be inside of next-gen desktop PC systems, while the N1 will find its way into new gaming laptops. The new Geekbench 6 results show the higher performance chip -- N1X -- pushing 3096 points in single-threaded tests, and 18837 points in multi-threaded tests.

NVIDIA's new N1X processor was tested inside of an unreleased HP 8EA3 system running Ubuntu 24 (Linux) and Geekbench 6.2.2 software, with the Arm-based CPU listed with 20 threads (matching the description of the GB10 Superchip inside of NVIDIA's new Spark systems) which has 10 x Cortex-X925 and 10 x Cortex-A725 cores. N1X can reportedly boost up to 2.81GHz, but detailed results show it boosting up to a much faster 4.05GHz.

Razer has announced its new line-up for mobile gamers looking to level up with the new Razer Kishi V3, Kishi V3 Pro, and Kishi V3 Pro XL controllers. Razer notes that its latest Kishi controllers for mobile gaming are all about delivering console-grade performance to iPhone, Android, small and full-sized tablets, and even PC.

The new Kishi V3 Pro and Kishi V3 Pro XL take this idea one step further, including immersive Razer Sensa HD haptics and an enhanced controller layout compared to similar products from other brands. The Kishi V3 Pro is a full-sized USB-C controller built for phones and mini tablets, making it perfect for on-the-go gaming by turning a modern mobile device into a portable gaming handheld.

It gets interesting that with Razer's new impressive remote PC play via the Razer Nexus, a mobile device with the Kishi V3 Pro can become a powerful little unit that streams high-quality, low-latency, AAA games over a local network.

AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 25.6.2 is a new optional driver update for Radeon owners that adds support for two new games, the sci-fi survival action of The Alters and Remedy's FBC: Firebreak, which is the co-op shooter set in the Control universe. This driver is also great for RDNA 4 owners with a Radeon RX 9000 Series GPU, adding FSR 4 support to four more games.

A list that includes The Alters, Delta Force, Dragonkin: The Banished, and RoadCraft. FSR 4, exclusive to RDNA 4 GPUs, is AMD's AI-powered upgrade to its FidelityFX Super Resolution upscaling technology. As seen in our reviews of Radeon RX 9070 Series and Radeon RX 9060 XT GPUs (check them out here), it dramatically improves image quality. It brings FSR technology into the same realm as NVIDIA's popular DLSS.

AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 25.6.2 is a notable release as it also fixes some game-specific issues with the new Radeon RX 9060 XT and Radeon RX 9070 Series. From Marvel's Spider-Man 2 to The Last of Us Part I, here are the full Release Notes for the latest Radeon driver update.

Micron and the Trump administration have announced that Micron plans to expand its US investments to around $150 billion in domestic semiconductor manufacturing, with $50 billion directed into US-based R&D, which will create an estimated 90,000 direct and indirect jobs.

Micron's approximately $200 billion broader US expansion vision includes two leading-edge, high-volume fabs based in Idaho, up to four leading-edge, high-volume fabs in New York, and the expansion and modernization of its existing manufacturing fab in Virginia. These moves will see advanced HBM packaging capabilities and R&D to drive American innovation and technology leadership.

The US-based memory giant is also announcing a $50 billion domestic R&D investment, which reaffirms its long-term position as the global memory technology leader, with Micron's investment including its ongoing plans for a megafab facility in New York. These investments are designed to allow Micron to meet expected market demand, maintain share and support Micron's goal of producing 40% of its DRAM in the United States. The co-location of these two Idaho fabs, with Micron's Idaho R&D operations will "drive economics of scale and faster time to market for leading-edge products, including HBM".

AMD has confirmed that its newly-announced Instinct MI350 series AI accelerators are using Samsung's latest HBM3E 12-Hi memory.

Samsung Electronics has been almost famously tripping over trying to get HBM certification from NVIDIA for use in its AI GPUs, but now AMD's just-announced Instinct MI350 and MI355X AI accelerators are using Samsung and Micron's new 12-Hi HBM3E memory. Samsung has been supplying HBM to AMD for a while now, but this is the first time that AMD has confirmed it.

AMD's new Instinct MI350 series AI accelerators boast 185 billion transistors and up to 288GB of HBM3E memory, but the company also teased its next-gen Instinct MI400 series AI chips that will feature up to 432GB of next-gen HBM4 memory. AMD said that its new Helios AI server racks will feature 72 x Instinct MI400 series GPUs with 31TB of HBM4 per rack, featuring 10x the AI computing power over its newly-announced Instinct MI355X-based server rack.

AMD launched its new Instinct MI350 series AI accelerators today, rocking 185 billion transistors, up to 288GB of HBM3E memory, FB4 and FP6 support, and more.

The new Instinct MI350 series AI chips were launched during AMD's huge Advancing AI event, where it also unveiled its new Zen 6-based EPYC "Venice" CPUs, a tease of its next-next-gen Zen 7-based EPYC "Verano" CPUs, as well as a tease of its new Instinct MI400 and even next-next-gen Instinct MI500 series AI accelerators.

AMD's new Instinct MI350 series AI accelerators are based on the company's new CDNA 4 architecture, and fabbed on TSMC's 3nm process node. Inside, the chip itself features 185 billion transistors and comes in two different variants: the MI350X and MI355X, offered in both air-cooled, and liquid-cooled configurations.

AMD has confirmed its next-next-gen Zen 7-based EPYC "Verano" CPUs and Instinct MI500 series AI accelerators will both be launching for next-gen AI racks in 2027.

AMD held its Advancing AI event earlier today, unveiling its new Zen 6-based EPYC "Venice" CPUs with up to 256 cores and 512 threads of processing power, as well as its new Instinct MI350 series AI accelerators, on top of teasing its next-gen Instinct MI400 series AI chips that will boast 10x the performance of its just-released MI350 series, with MI400 AI chips boasting up to 432GB of next-gen HBM4 memory.

The company surprisingly introduced its next-next-gen Zen 7-based EPYC "Verano" CPUs and Instinct MI500 series AI chips, where we should expect the new EPYC "Verano" chips to use the new Zen 7 architecture (but AMD didn't confirm this part). The new EPYC Verano and Instinct MI500 series chips will power the next-gen wave of AI server racks from the company, as it will be using its just-announced EPYC Venice and Instinct MI400 series chips inside of its new Helios AI servers.