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April 1 is when we're all a little cautious about reading the news and checking social media, as everyone likes having little April Fool's fun. Including us, we posted two stories earlier today covering Elon Musk buying Intel and NVIDIA rebranding to NVID AI. Regarding hardware makers like CORSAIR, April 1 can be used to showcase fake products, like CORSAIR's new 'Atomic Purple' PRISM series.

And this is one of those rare April Fool's jokes that is so good that it's disappointing - because every piece of translucent purple gear that CORSAIR has created for this little prank looks fantastic. If you're unfamiliar with the whole 'Atomic Purple' thing, it's something Nintendo did back in the 1990s and early 2000s - sell translucent versions of its popular hardware like Nintendo 64 consoles and controllers, Game Boys, and more.

The 'Atomic Purple' option has stood the test of time, and the retro aesthetic is still popular today. At the time, Apple also got into the game with its lineup of translucent iMacs. So yeah, it's not hard to see why CORSAIR fans are drooling over the FRAME 4000D PRISM 'Atomic Purple' PC case - it looks incredible.

Microsoft's first-ever video games union has voted to strike in protest of low wages and other issues.

In 2023, QA workers at Bethesda made history by unionizing into the ZeniMax Workers United (ZWU). Eventually, other Bethesda Game Studios employees also unionized, forming the first "wall-to-wall" video games studio union at Microsoft.

Now the ZWU union has voted to strike. In a recent press release, the Communication Workers of America (CWA) say that 94% of the union has voted in favor of a strike. ZeniMax Workers United cite numerous grievances with Microsoft, including low wages compared to the higher costs of living, work being outsourced to third parties without warning, and the lack of progress on any negotiations are all major reasons for the strike.

Windows 11 has seen a sizeable growth in its adoption, although that's hardly surprising given that Windows 10's end of life is now only half a year away.

Clearly, that prospect is getting folks thinking about migrating, and according to Statcounter, which publishes monthly statistics pertaining to the usage of different Windows versions, Windows 11 is up by 4.53% in March 2025. This means the newer OS is now on 42.66% and is finally closing the gap with Windows 10.

That said, Windows 10 is still on 54.23%, with more than a 10% lead, but it lost 4.43% this past month, and that kind of erosion is likely to continue apace as 2025 rolls on.

The Nintendo Switch 2 dock is expected to support HDMI 2.1, potentially indicating at 4K gaming that exceeds 60FPS.

Nintendo's new Switch 2 system is expected to deliver upscaled 4K gaming when it's docked--similar to the first device, the Switch 2 should get a hefty power boost when docked, enabling higher GPU clocks and power profiles to supercharge gameplay performance.

The "switch" is made possible by a built-in video converter chip that takes the tablet's video signal and translates it to a TV screen. The chip is included in the Switch's dock--when you slot the device in, the signal automatically switches over to the TV. New reports suggest that the converter chip in the Switch 2's dock has been identified, which potentially gives us an idea on what to expect from the Switch 2's internal horsepower.

Nintendo has confirmed that tomorrow's Switch 2 Direct will be an hour long, which should be plenty of time to highlight new hardware, software, and services.

Tomorrow is a big day for Nintendo, and a big day for the games industry. The Switch 2 is poised for a full-on showcase at 9AM EST on the Nintendo YouTube channel. The stream will be an hour long and is expected to cover all of the bases of a new Nintendo product.

"We will provide detailed information about the Nintendo Switch 2. The broadcast will last approximately 60 minute," the Nintendo Japan account said on Twitter.

The latest class in Elden Ring Nightreign has been revealed, and it's the stylish Iron Eye archer.

Elden Ring Nightreign's release is coming up and FromSoftware is showcasing more playable classes in their macabre co-op spin-off. The new Nightfarer is called Iron Eye, and it emphasizes swiftness and agility with quick movements and wall-jump dodges, running-slide multi-shots, and even fiery arrows. The Iron Eye's special attack looks pretty demolishing though and sees the character grow a giant bow out of their arm in true bizarre FromSoft fashion.

Nestled in the press release (included below) is also confirmation that the Iron Eye can do something really nifty: the class can apparently resurrect players from far away.

Ubisoft management is still ironing out all the details of the new billion-dollar Tencent deal and seem unsure exactly where the cards will fall.

Things are looking up for Ubisoft. Assassin's Creed Shadows is a hit with 3 million players and the second-largest launch revenues in franchise history, and Ubisoft just secured a critical $1.2 billion investment from Tencent to help pay down debts and stabilize Ubisoft's books.

The deal does complicate things. Ubisoft has effectively splintered into two groups: Ubisoft 1, which will handle the main operations and record-keeping, and Ubisoft 2, a subsidiary that now has exclusive rights to Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six. Tencent purchased 25% stake in Ubisoft 2 with its $1.2 billion investment. Tencent also has ~10% stake in Ubisoft 1, and purchased 49.9% stake in Ubisoft 1's majority shareholder Guillemot Bros. Ltd., which is run by Ubisoft's founding Guillemot family.

We are closing in on the official close-up look of the Nintendo Switch 2 scheduled to take place on April 2, and before Nintendo hopefully answers the majority of the unanswered questions gamers have about the Switch 2, we have a rumor about the resolutions it will support.

Previous rumors indicated that Nintendo's next-generation console will come with support for 4K video output when docked, but according to Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson, who revealed during the latest episode of the Insider Gaming Weekly podcast, a developer informed him at the Game Developer Conference (GDC) the developer kit Nintendo provided to developers didn't come with support for 4K video output. Additionally, Henderson said in emails that he was told the new console doesn't support 4K output.

While this may be disappointing for some, it should be noted that developer kits aren't always identical to the specifications of the console that arrives on shelves. An example of this would be developer kits offering more memory than the final console for debugging purposes, while also leaving out features that will be in the final console but are not necessary for developers to make their game.

Riot Games is reportedly working on a live-action League of Legends TV show to build off the massive success of Arcane, the animated series based on the universe created for the hugely popular multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game, League of Legends.

The news of a live-action League of Legends TV show comes from an official Vietnamese government Facebook account, which posted that Riot Games is researching and planning to shoot 9 episodes of a TV series in Cat Ba, Hai Phong, later this year. The post states the episodes will be released on multiple streaming platforms such as Netflix and HBO. Additional information in the post reveals Riot representatives have already met with Vietnam's Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

According to reports, Riot has already surveyed other countries within Asia, such as Japan, Korea, and Thailand, but landed on Vietnam as the most suitable for the upcoming show. Sheep Esports has speculated that the "rugged cliffs, deep blue waters, and maritime atmosphere of Cát Bà" may be the perfect setting to recreate Bilgewater, which in League of Legends is a pirate haven similar to Tortuga, the pirate haven seen in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

QD-OLED monitors are the crème of the crop when it to gaming, and Acer isn't a stranger to offering high-end gaming monitors with the company now adding to already extensive line-up of Predator gaming monitors with two new QD-OLED displays - one 32-inch and one 27-inch.

Introducing the Predator X32 X2 and Predator X27U X1. First, the 32-inch model. Acer has now rolled out a 32-inch model with a QD-OLED panel sporting a 3840 x 2160p resolution and a 240Hz refresh rate. At 32 inches, the display has a 16:9 aspect ratio, and thanks to the QD-OLED pixel technology, it has a 0.03ms (GtG) response time.

As with most QD-OLED panels the Predator X32 X2 has a native brightness of 250 nits, with a peak brightness of 1000 nits with HDR turned on. As for connectivity, the Predator X32 X2 has 2x HDMI 2.1, 1x DisplayPort 1.4, and a headphone jack.

A clip of Hayao Miyazaki talking about computer-generated animation has resurfaced amid the massive wave of Studio Ghibli-inspired images taking over social media platforms thanks to OpenAI's newly released AI image generator.

The resurfaced clip comes after OpenAI rolled out its new GPT-4o image generator that enables users to take any image, within the tool's terms of service, and convert it into a Studio Ghibli-style animated image. Users have flocked to the new AI image-generation tool, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman writing in a recent X post that the release of the new tool attracted more than one million new users to the platform in just an hour, which is more than ChatGPT attracted in five days.

The tsunami of Studio Ghibli-inspired images has caused people to dig through past interviews with Hayao Miyazaki, the creator of the art style, to see if we can gain any knowledge on how he feels about the new tool or AI image generation as a whole.

HAPPY APRIL FOOLS!

Back in 2021, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg took to the stage and announced that the company was changing its name to Meta to bring all its various apps and technologies under a single name and bring the "metaverse to life." If you're unfamiliar, the metaverse is a fancy word for virtual reality - specifically apps like VR Chat, where you put on your goggles and chat with real people represented by crudely animated avatars.

Fast-forward to 2025, and Meta isn't so much focused on bringing the "metaverse to life" as it is on investing in AI, developing powerful large-language models, and integrating AI features and tools into its products. Like some of the other big names in tech that are going all-in on AI, Meta is building its new AI foundation using powerful NVIDIA GPU hardware.

The release of OpenAI's latest image-generation tool that's powered by the advanced GPT-4o model has taken the internet by storm, with millions of users flocking to the new AI tool to spawn countless new images inspired by the iconic Studio Ghibli art style.

The new image-generation tool is able to take almost any image and recreate it with the art style inspired by Studio Ghibli, created by famed director Hayao Miyazaki, who helmed many highly rated animated movies such as Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, and My Neighbor Totoro. These images have already taken over the internet with tsunamis of them being posted on multiple social media platforms as users are taking real-life historical events, iconic scenes from other movies, and famous people, and recreating them in the Studio Ghibli art style.

With this massive increase in popularity comes a cost that OpenAI is paying, and that cost is in GPU processing power, which company CEO Sam Altman said a few days ago was so high that OpenAI's GPUs are "melting" under the demand. In fact, the demand was so high that Altman announced that rate limits had to be implemented, and in a follow-up announcement, he pleaded with users to "chill" on generating images as the OpenAI team "needs sleep."

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has responded to some heavy criticism about his ability to achieve top leaderboard rankings while running multiple industry-leading businesses simultaneously.

The business magnate shared a video of him playing Diablo IV on March 29, seemingly clearing an end-game-level room with ease. The video sparked some fairly contentious replies from the public, with one commenter writing that right after the video was taken, "the 18-year-old intern was right back in playing with your account." The commenter continued and said, "Nobody believes that you are the global top 3 player in between running the federal government and managing world companies. Do better; this is simply not possible."

Musk responded to this comment with his own reply, cheekily writing, "You're right. I should be #1. I got overconfident with Kekius_Maximus, and he died." For those who don't know, Kekius_Maximus is the name of the character Musk was playing. Notably, Musk has already admitted to cheating and breaking the terms of service of both Path of Exile 2 and Diablo IV for account sharing.

HAPPY APRIL FOOLS!

A not-so-surprising move from Elon Musk is that the SpaceX and Tesla boss has just acquired US chipmaker Intel for a tidy $133 billion, with a new Core xAI processor that will power the next-generation Xbox AI console.

People familiar with the matter confirmed rumors from the last few months that a mystery buyer was looking at acquiring Intel as it was struggling, but Intel's freshly-minted CEO Lip-Bu Tan will work alongside Musk, and strengthen the partnership between Intel and Microsoft to provide a US-made chip for the next-gen Xbox.

The Blue Screen of Death, or BSOD, has been a part of Windows since Windows 3.0 launched in 1990. The latest version has been around for a few Windows versions, where errors necessitating a complete system restart display a sad smiley face with a QR code and some information on what happened.

As part of Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3653, Microsoft is "previewing a new, more streamlined UI for unexpected restarts which better aligns with Windows 11 design principles." For Windows Insiders, this new screen is green, drops the sad smiley face and QR code, and presents a simple "Your device ran into a problem and needs to restart" message alongside information on the error at the bottom of the screen.

Green is a more neutral and positive color than blue, so maybe the idea is, "Hey, it's okay; we just need to reboot." However, a new report at Windows Latest says that once the Blue Screen of Death disappears, it will be replaced by a Black Screen of Death.

Apple is thirsty for the health market, with some rumored upgrades coming from the company that would add an AI doctor into its Health app, using its wearables to monitor users' health and alert them to any issues, or help them with their general health along the way.

In a new report from Bloomberg insider Mark Gurman, Apple "has some moon-shot initiatives in the works that could indeed transform the health industry. That includes a 15-year-plus project to create a noninvasive glucose monitor. The idea, which originated while Steve Jobs was still alive, is to add a sensor to the Apple Watch that can inform users if they are prediabetic, helping them potentially avoid the full-blown condition".

This project remains "active" at Apple notes Gurman, and has reached "key milestones" but they're still "many years away" from delivering this new feature. Apple has hit some issues regarding health sensors, including for blood oxygen and hypertension. The blood oxygen monitoring feature was dropped from the Apple Watch over a patent fight, while the hypertension feature has had issues in development.

CrystalMark Retro 2.0, from Crystal Dew World, is a free benchmarking tool that has just been updated to support Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me systems. It took a year of development to extend the tool to cover retro hardware older than Windows XP.

"I decided that Windows 95/NT 4.0 compatibility was necessary to call ourselves a true retro benchmark," Hiyohiyo, the President and CEO of CrystalMark Inc., wrote in the release notes. "It really took a whole year." In addition to supporting ancient beige machines rocking Windows 95, users can post their benchmark results and compare them against modern machines at https://crystalmarkdb.com/retro.

CrystalMark Retro is a complete benchmark suite that measures CPU, storage, 2D graphics, and 3D graphics (OpenGL) performance. It's compatible with VMware, so you can see how Windows 95 runs on a system with an AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5995X 64-Core CPU - per the screenshot above.

AMD has officially closed its $4.9 billion acquisition of ZT Systems, a leading provider of AI infrastructure for the world's largest hyperscale computing companies.

In a new post on X, the company said: "We are excited to welcome the ZT team into the AMD family - they are the best in the industry! The ZT team brings unparalleled choice to our customers with critical systems expertise needed to deliver a full AI solution - from silicon to software to rack and cluster-level solutions".

ZT Systems is an artificial intelligence infrastructure group that will help AMD create a better AI infrastructure, helping get AMD's new Instinct MI300 series AI accelerators into data centers. ZT Systems was founded over 30 years ago, and is a private company that builds custom computing infrastructure for some of the world's biggest AI hyperscalers.

You might be looking at the date and thinking that we're close enough to April 1 that this is some sort of tongue-in-cheek story, but it's not. For those that know their NVIDIA lore, as plans were being put in place to start one of the biggest tech companies in the world, co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang's first job was at American diner-style restaurant chain Denny's.

Between long shifts and saving up enough money to start a new business (and probably putting a deposit on his first leather jacket), Jensen Huang would sit at Denny's booth drafting plans for what would end up being NVIDIA. For food, he would wrap Denny's sausages in Denny's pancakes, pour syrup over them, and eat them.

Questionable nutritional value aside, this was (apparently) a key stepping stone toward AI and PC gaming domination with CUDA, RTX, and GeForce. We like to think that seeing the reflection of his surroundings in the syrup made him realize that one day, real-time ray-tracing in games would be possible. Or not. Either way, this combination of Denny's food is now being sold as 'NVIDIA Breakfast Bytes' for a limited time.