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AI laptops such as Microsoft's much-hyped Copilot+ PCs might be set to flop, according to the latest word from one analyst.

This is semiconductor analyst Daniel Newman, who as Tom's Hardware noticed posted on X about Micron's Q3 earnings being slightly weaker than expected - and moreover, the forecast for Q2 2025 dropping considerably (from $8.98 billion to $7.9 billion in predicted revenue).

Newman points out that any 'panic' that this might be the beginning of the end for big AI profits is misplaced, as Micron's revenue for HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) in AI is very much booming, growing at a high double-digit percentage year-on-year.

AMD's next-gen Radeon RX 8800 XT graphics card has reportedly appeared on Reddit in the form of an advertising campaign on the site by AMD... flagship RDNA 4 might have just been teased.

The purported Radeon RX 8800 XT graphics card has a triple-fan design with a sleek black and silver aesthetic, with an LED--illuminated Radeon logo on the side. The purported RX 8800 XT is sitting alongside a Ryzen 9 series processor, so we should expect Zen 5 + RDNA 4 combos in 2025.

We don't know of the ad is still running on Reddit, as it could've been taken down by AMD... if it is real, a ninja reveal like this with an "oops, uhhh we made a mistake and now we'll pull this ad" makes sense, as AMD is going to need everything it can get to begin to fight off the tidal wave of NVIDIA's next-gen GeForce RTX 50 series "Blackwell" GPUs at CES 2025, when RDNA 4 is unveiled.

AMD's new Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor has thick dummy silicon that uses 93% of the CCD stack, provides no performance benefits, and is completely non-functional, but it's required for stability.

On previous x3D processors, the 3D chiplet was stacked on top of the CCD (Core Complex Die) which allowed the cores direct access to the pool of additional L3 cache memory, but AMD moved the 3D chiplet underneath the CCD for the new Ryzen 7 9800X3D.

In a recent teardown of the 9800X3D, Tom Wassisk analyzed the CCD of the 9800X3D and found that most of the silicon on it is... rather useless. The CCD and SRAM silicon layers measure 7.2µm and 6µm respectively, with the total die stack and interconnects, etc measuring only 40-45µm.

ASUS chairman Jonney Shih has said that they are already in "full swing" developing its first humanoid robot, something that would compete with Elon Musk and his Tesla Optimus robot we've been hearing more and more about lately.

Shih recently said: "we are already in full swing on this part and have launched plans internally", but ASUS already has its Zenbo robots... but its new adventure is with a humanoid robot that should better resemble the Tesla Optimus humanoid robot sometime in the future.

Elon Musk recently chatted to TSMC boss C.C. Wei asking for a massive, and stable supply of chips for his Optimus robots, but now it looks like ASUS is stepping into the next big thing for AI. The real big breakthroughs for AI are constrained for now, with artificial general intelligence (AGI) only obtained by using large language models (LLMs), and without a physical body, we are limited by the potential of these robots.

Micron has updated the industry on its next-generation HBM4 and HBM4E memory, with mass production expected to start in 2026 ready for next-gen AI GPUs like the NVIDIA Rubin R100.

The AI memory market only has a few players with SK hynix leading the HBM market, Samsung and Micron have started spooling up production of their HBM3, HBM3E, and future-gen HBM4 and HBM4E memory for the insatiable requirements of the AI industry... it's mostly NVIDIA vacuuming up all HBM memory chips made.

Sanjay Mehrotra, President and Chief Executive Officer of Micron said: "Leveraging the strong foundation and continued investments in proven 1β process technology, we expect Micron's HBM4 will maintain time to market and power efficiency leadership while boosting performance by over 50% over HBM3E. We expect HBM4 to ramp in high volume for the industry in calendar 2026".

NVIDIA will reportedly launch its new GeForce RTX 5080 16GB graphics card first, with the ultra-enthusiast GeForce RTX 5090 32GB launches after.

In a new post from Wccftech, we're learning that after the CES 2025 reveal of NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 50 series "Blackwell" desktop gaming GPUs, the second-fastest card -- the RTX 5080 16GB -- will launch first. NVIDIA is expected to announce the GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 at CES 2025, alongside the RTX 5070 series (RTX 5070 Ti + RTX 5070) and then the RTX 5060 comes later.

The first Blackwell gaming GPU to launch will be the GeForce RTX 5080 which will feature 16GB of new GDDR7 memory clocked at up to 32Gbps (30Gbps is expected) on a 256-bit memory bus, which will result in up to 960GB/sec of memory bandwidth, which means the RTX 5080 has virtually as much memory bandwidth as the current-gen flagship RTX 4090 24GB.

Australian computer scientist Craig Wright falsely claimed he invented bitcoin and has been sentenced for contempt of court on Thursday for his 911 billion-pound ($1.2 trillion USD) lawsuit against Twitter founder Jack Dorsey's payments company, Block, in Britain.

Reuters reports that Wright has long claimed to be the author of a 2008 white paper which was the foundational text for Bitcoin, published under the pseudonym "Satoshi Nakamoto". A judge at London's High Court found that back in May 2024, Wright had repeatedly lied and forged documents to support his claim, after the trial of a case brought by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) to stop Wright suing bitcoin developers.

COPA said that Wright's recent lawsuit against Block and others breached an injunction preventing Wright from bringing litigation on the basis of his claim to be the creator of bitcoin, or that he owned intellectual property (IP) rights over bitcoin. The group's lawyer Jonathan Hough told the court that Wright's latest lawsuit was "a desperate publicity stunt to keep his cultish supports engaged".

Lenovo is preparing its next-gen ThinkBook Plus laptop, which will be rolling out with a rollable display... officially debuting at CES 2025 after being shown off in 2023 in prototype form.

In a new post from leaker Evan Blass, we're being introduced to the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus laptop that has a focus on multitasking, which seems to have the rollable display splitting one screen into two separate displays. Lenovo has shared images showing off presentations and live video chats happening at the same time, showcasing the multitasking abilities of its rollable display laptop.

When the screen is folded, it looks like a regular laptop except it's missing its bottom bezel, which is where the screen rolls down. The keyboard looks like other Lenovo products, but the lid extends to the height of two display, meaning the base will need to be heavier to maintain balance (so it doesn't wobble over).

Lenovo PR is having a field day in terms of leaks, with another showing us the company's new Yoga laptop that features an under-display camera. Check it out:

The new Lenovo Yoga laptop will feature an ultra-slim bezel design with a front-facing camera that is hidden behind the display, while Intel's new Core Ultra 200V series "Lunar Lake" CPU handles the rest. We've had years of punch-hole cameras, cameras in bezels, and the "Dynamic Island" but Lenovo is putting the camera directly behind the display so it's invisible.

Lenovo seems to be going with a smartphone-style approach with its under-display camera, with leaked photos from WalkingCat on X, with the photos looking like they've been ripped right out of a promotional video that is probably destined for CES 2025, especially as the calendar displays 'January 2025'.

A bakery in Indiana is still using a Commodore 64 as its cash register, over 42 years since the Commodore 64 launched in 1982. Check it out:

Tony Lyon reposted some photos on X of the Commodore 64 being used at the Hilligoss Bakery in Brownsburg, Indiana, USA, operating two of the systems as cash registers. The photos themselves were taken in 2010, while another photo is from 2021, but the bakery would still have the Commodore 64 systems active today.

The Commodore 64 launched in 1982 for a cost of $595 at the time, which works out to just under $2000 today, and still continues as the highest-selling individual computer of all time with sales of somewhere between 10 million and 17 million units.

NVIDIA's next-gen GeForce RTX 5080 Laptop GPU is rumored to be around 40-60% faster than the current-gen RTX 4080 Laptop GPU, according to the latest leaks. Let's go:

In his new video, leaker Moore's Law is Dead says his NVIDIA source told him: "By the way, this December we've been validating a GN22 X9 sample that has 16GB of GDDR7, a 175W max TGP, and 7680 CUDA cores. This definitely seems like the RTX 5080 Laptop Edition, and it should be 40-60% faster than the current RTX 4080 Laptop GPU".

We've been hearing more and more about NVIDIA's next-gen GeForce RTX 50 Laptop GPUs lately, with ASUS's next-gen ROG gaming laptops featuring the new RTX 5090 Laptop GPU, RTX 5080 Laptop GPU, and RTX 5070 Ti Laptop GPU in 2025.

Palit has just unveiled its first "Mini AI hardware" with the launch of its new Pandora system, check it out:

The new Palit Pandora system has been built specifically for AI inference, machine learning, and other AI-focused tasks, with the Pandora running the Ubuntu operating system, and supports NVIDIA SDK for AI acceleration. Pandora has been made for enthusiasts and small developers who want an AI-focused system, ready for multiple fields.

This includes smart retail, education, robotics, generative AI applications, and more. Palit explains: "Compact at 121mm x 145mm x 66mm and weighing only 470g, Pandora is ideal for space-constrained environments. Pre-installed with a 128GB SSD, Ubuntu OS, and JetPack SDK 6.1.1, Pandora is ready for AI deployment, excelling in smart retail, education, robotics, and generative AI applications".

Rather than buying Kadokawa Corp for multiple billions of dollars, Sony has chosen to invest in the manga giant instead.

Sony will not be acquiring Kadokawa after all. Both companies have announced a strategic partnership that sees Sony purchasing 10% of Kadokawa's stock for 50 billion yen, or about $319.5 million. That's a lot less than it would have cost to buy out Kadokawa completely.

Despite Kadokawa's commanding presence in the manga/anime markets (not to mention its gaming might thanks to FromSoft and others), Sony making this kind of investment makes more sense than an outright buyout. The news comes at a time when Sony is aggressively slashing its budgets and spending in an effort to boost profitability, and new consolidation could take years to unravel. Based on Kadokawa's market capitalization, it could have cost Sony over $3.3 billion to buy out Kadokawa's existing shares.

The worldwide games market pulled in $184.3 billion throughout 2024, driven primarily by digital software and microtransactions, analyst firm Newzoo estimates.

Newzoo has just updated its forecasted earnings figures for 2024, and the new numbers are actually slightly down. According to coverage from Games Industry.biz, Newzoo now projects that the global video games industry earned $184.3 billion throughout 2024. It should be noted that the data does not include advertising revenues, hardware and peripheral sales, and earnings from regulating gambling games.

The actual results are considerably less than what Newzoo had originally expected that gaming would make in 2024. Previous coverage shows that Newzoo had forecast gaming to hit $187.7 billion in 2024, meaning the current results are off by some $3.4 billion, or nearly 2%. Global digital game revenue was $175.8 billion, making up 96.4% of total earnings, whereas physical clocked in at around $8.5 billion and accounted for just 4.6% of yearly spending.

A new job promotion under Xbox's management team could hint at a handheld-based future for Microsoft.

Through a series of interviews, Xbox gaming CEO Phil Spencer has teased that Microsoft wants to make an Xbox handheld. There's just two problems: Microsoft has a bad track record with hardware profitability, especially Xbox consoles; and two, Microsoft has never actually made a gaming handheld before (but they did make phones),

So that's why Microsoft has been drumming up interest and helping mature the nascent-but-growing handheld market in its own way, through third-party deals, advertisement promos with Game Pass, and strong marketing campaigns like the recent "this is an Xbox" barrage. LG signed such a deal with Microsoft to promote its Logitech G Cloud handheld. Microsoft is essentially finding ways to bolster the handheld market while not actually having to produce any hardware of its own.

Is it time for some good news about Windows 11 24H2, finally? No, it isn't sadly, instead we've got further tales of woe about fresh bugs in the 24H2 update.

There are two new critters which are skittering about in the works of Windows 11 24H2, as highlighted by Microsoft in its release health status dashboard for the OS.

The first glitch is with the Auto HDR feature, and when it's switched on, those running 24H2 may find the colors in games are messed up (with "certain display configurations" Microsoft advises).

The US government has asked NVIDIA to investigate how its best AI chips are ending up in China, pushing the company to ask big distributors, to start spot checks on customers in Southeast Asia.

In a new report from The Information and Reuters, we're learning that the US Department of Commerce is asking NVIDIA to look into how its chips are getting into China.

NVIDIA was being pushed to ask its big distributors Dell and Super Micro Computer (SMC) to conduct spot checks on their customers in Southeast Asia, with The Information reporting that 5 different people involved in smuggling NVIDIA chips say they've so far managed to evade detection during recent inspections by Super Micro.

Lenovo will have a "special guest" at its gaming handheld event in Las Vegas at CES 2025 on January 7, and that special guest is Valve... with Lenovo cooking up its first SteamOS gaming handheld.

We heard rumors of the Lenovo Legion Go S last week from leaker Evan Blass, but now The Verge is confirming that "the future of gaming handhelds is coming to CES '25 and you have a front row seat!" The January 7 event is titled "Lenovo Legion x AMD: The Future of Gaming Handhelds" with a special guest: Valve SteamOS and Steam Deck co-designer Pierre-Loup Griffais.

Lenovo and AMD call him Valve's "Chief Design Architect" but Griffais will be joined by Microsoft VP of Xbox Gaming Devices and Ecosystem, Jason Ronald, where he will be introduced as Microsoft's "VP of Next Generation".

The next-gen ASUS ROG Strix G835 gaming laptop has been teased, powered by NVIDIA's next-generation GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop GPU.

In some new leaks from retailers, early listings were spotted for multiple next-gen ASUS ROG gaming laptops with the ROG Strix G835 featuring up to the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor, up to 64GB of DDR5 memory, a 2TB Gen4 SSD, and up to NVIDIA's next-gen flagship GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop GPU, and an 18-inch QXGA display with a peak brightness of 1200 nits.

ASUS will also have the next-gen ROG Zephyrus GU605 which will feature up to Intel's new Core Ultra 9 285H processor, 64GB of LPDDR5X memory, and a 16-inch QXGA OLED display. On the GPU side of things, ASUS will reportedly offer a choice of the RTX 5090, RTX 5080, and RTX 5070 Ti Laptop GPU options.

Rapidus has just become the first Japanese semiconductor company to announce 2nm trial production, using ASML's bleeding-edge High-NA EUV lithography machines, and could enter the coveted supply chain for NVIDIA.

TSMC is ahead with its 2nm production but Rapidus is coming in quick, leaving semiconductor competitors Intel Foundry and Samsung, in its 2nm dust. Rapidus is an emerging semiconductor company, using ASML EUV scanners in a facility in Japan, with 2nm production reportedly on track and ready to compete with Taiwan semiconductor giant TSMC.

Rapidus unveiled that ASML's bleeding-edge EUV machines were being installed by the end of December 2024, which is said to be a revolutionary development for Japan's semiconductor industry. Rapidus said that it will kick off pilot production in April 2025, with commercial development expected to start in 2027.