Windows 11's Phone Link app is getting an AI-powered feature that was spotted in testing earlier this year, but is now rolling out to everyone.

This is 'suggested replies' which provides exactly that - short potential replies to the texts you get, within Phone Link - and this functionality is rolling out now (so not everyone will have it just yet, but it's coming).

The replies are generated via AI (in the cloud, not on-device), and they will only appear for certain messages. Namely texts where the AI can actually get a handle on the conversation enough to be able to generate some possible responses.

Meta's smart glasses have been converted into a facial recognition device that enables the user to identify random people in real time.

The conversion of Meta's smart glasses into a facial recognition device came from two Harvard students who called the glasses I-XRAY. Here's how it works. The students took advantage of the smart glasses livestreaming directly to Instagram feature and combined that with an AI program that monitors the video live stream to identify any faces within the video. Images of the faces are then captured and fed into public databases, which result in phone numbers, names, addresses, and more personal information being fed back to the wearer of the glasses through a phone app.

AnhPhu Nguyen posted the above video detailing the process of creating the glasses, and within the video, you can see them being used to identify classmates and, perhaps more shockingly, strangers in public, which the students pretended to know based on the information the device was able to obtain on the individual. For those concerned about the potential impact of releasing such a product to the market, fear not, as the students behind the project said the glasses were created to raise awareness about potential privacy issues with smart glasses.

The Razer Basilisk is a classic shape and grip that has been popular with PC gamers for years. This week, the company unveiled and announced two new additions to this series: the wireless Razer Basilisk V3 Pro 35K and the wired Razer Basilisk V3 35K.

The big addition arrives by upgrading the sensor tech to the new Razer Focus Pro 35K Optical Sensor Gen-2, as seen in the impressive Razer Viper V3 Pro we reviewed earlier this year. With the ability to track on any surface, adjust to different materials, and support for DPI increment adjustments as small as 1, it's one of the most impressive sensors currently available.

The wireless Razer Basilisk V3 Pro 35K includes a longer-lasting battery, lasting up to 140 hours on Razer HyperSpeed Wireless and up to 210 hours on Bluetooth. The only difference between the two is that one is wired and one is wireless; both feature the same hardware and overall design.

Samsung is a tech giant that develops and creates products and hardware, including everything from televisions to smartphones and biometric jewelry. The Korean company is also one of the biggest semiconductor manufacturers in the world; however, according to a new report in Business Korea, its foundry business is struggling.

To the point where it's considering spinning off its foundry business entirely. This information comes from Samsung directly, with Samsung Securities (a subsidiary of the company) publishing a report titled 'Geopolitical Paradigm Shift and Industry' in July. The report also notes that it's struggling to keep up with TSMC, specifically regarding more advanced node technology.

The company's 3nm Exynos 2500 chip has a yield of only 20%, which makes it unlikely to appear in the Galaxy S25 net year. It's a yield so low that it just wouldn't be cost-effective to produce at any sort of scale - the number would need to sit at around 60% for this to be the case.

Corsair has announced and launched two new keyboards, the Corsair K70 CORE TKL and K70 CORE TKL WIRELESS. Both are part of the company's versatile and accessible CORE series, and the two new additions deliver a smoother and more premium typing experience.

The first is CORSAIR MLX Red V2 Switches, rated up to 80 million clicks. As the second generation of the company's excellent first-run of MLX Red switches, they include sturdier stems for less wiggle, pre-lubed for smooth performance, and a "special Fresnel lens" for brighter and more vibrant RGB lighting.

In addition, the next significant change is two layers of premium sound-dampening foam, which has been a game changer for several new keyboard releases over the past year or so. Add the two together (the upgraded switches and sound-dampening), and the Corsair K70 CORE TKL and K70 CORE TKL WIRELESS are worthy upgrades.

Valve's Deadlock is currently listed as being in 'early development'; however, it's one of the most popular games on Steam. Deadlock blends hero-shooter elements from games like Team Fortress 2 and Overwatch with the lane-based action of a MOBA like DOTA 2. It's a mix of styles and mechanics that feels familiar and fresh, so it's not out-of-step to say that Deadlock is shaping up to be another hit from a studio that releases very few games.

Valve is no stranger to multiple games or shooters; Deadlock is a third-person shooter with several decades of running servers and handling matchmaking for some of the most beloved PC games ever made. So you might think this would be one side of Deadlock that it wouldn't need any outside help to sort out. Especially not ChatGPT.

ChatGPT is becoming an invaluable tool for many, and Valve engineer Fletcher Dunn used the generative AI chatbot to help out with Deadlock's matchmaking system.

Cloud gaming might not be a household thing, but regarding image quality, performance, and latency, NVIDIA's GeForce NOW is arguably the best cloud gaming platform today for modern titles. Playing games you own or have access to on platforms like Steam, PC Game Pass, and Battle.net makes GeForce NOW an affordable way to get immediate access to impressive GeForce RTX 4080 hardware.

Although there's a new game in the franchise every year, there's a lot of hype surrounding the October 25 release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. With its 1990s-set campaign that looks fantastic and a multiplayer suite (and the fan-favorite zombies mode) that excited fans during the recent beta test, it's looking like a return to form after the lukewarm reception of last year's Modern Warfare 3.

In addition to PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Xbox Game Pass, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is also coming to GeForce NOW. PC gamers with GeForce NOW also have access to RTX tech like DLSS Super Resolution, Frame Generation, Reflex, and even G-SYNC for a smoother presentation.

When it launched last year, the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT felt like a GPU that didn't make much sense. With a price that was only $50 lower than the Radeon RX 7800 XT, you would be better off spending just that little bit extra for around 15% more performance. The good news is that AMD eventually lowered the price, and we're now at the point where this Radeon RX 7700 XT deal is one of the best we've seen in a while.

For $349.99 USD, you can pick up the PowerColor Fighter Radeon RX 7700 XT 12GB graphics card. This is not only $100 cheaper than the card's original launch price, but it's also around $50 cheaper than the current MSRP of $399.99 USD. What makes this deal even better is that it's eligible for the current AMD Game Bundle for Ryzen and Radeon products.

So, in addition to the great price, you also get two free games: Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 and Unknown 9: Awakening.

NVIDIA will be launching its next-generation Blackwell-based GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop GPU with a huge 24GB of ultra-fast GDDR7 memory on a 256-bit memory in late Q1 2025, or early Q2 2025 according to the latest rumors.

In his latest video, Tom from Moore's Law is Dead said that one of his best sources told him: "We're now conducting validation of the top Laptop GB203 configuration, and it has a ~377mm² die size and 24GB of GDDR7 memory over a 256-bit bus. What's interesting, is that I've seen no mention of a 16GB variant of this configuration for Laptop, and also that it's apparently targeting a Late Q1 or Early Q2 2025 launch".

NVIDIA's next-gen desktop GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card had specs leaked out last week, pointing to an absolute monster graphic card with 21,760 CUDA cores, 32GB of GDDR7 on an ultra-wide 512-bit memory bus that will provide up to 2TB/sec of memory bandwidth, chewing down up to 600W of power.

Sources tell Insider Gaming that Cameron Lee, vice president of the Rainbow Six franchise, has reportedly left Ubisoft.

Ubisoft seems to be in trouble right now. Star Wars Outlaws missed expectations, and its new frenetic free-to-play shooter XDefiant also made less revenue than Ubisoft wanted it to make. The French company's stock has also tanked by more than 50% in the last 2 months, driven in part by last week's unpopular earnings forecast. Missed sales and earnings of its current games coupled with a big delay of Assassin's Creed Shadows has caused Ubisoft to lower its full-year net bookings guidance.

As part of these announcements, Ubisoft also confirmed a sweeping executive-level review of its core business. Now it appears that the Rainbow Six franchise was affected by this process, as R6 VP Cameron Lee is said to no longer be working at Ubisoft. This is potentially happening as a voluntary departure, or it could be a layoff and job elimination at the behest of corporate.

Microsoft's gaming leadership explains why Xbox Game Pass was introduced, and why the company chose to disrupt its own business model of game and software sales.

In 2017, Xbox changed the games industry by releasing Xbox Game Pass. It was the first multi-game subscription service, allowing subscribers to pay a low monthly fee to access hundreds of games. Since then, both Nintendo and PlayStation have released their own variants, with Nintendo option for its Virtual Console replacement with Switch Online, and Sony going with its three-tiered PlayStation Plus offering.

Here at TweakTown, we've talked in length about Xbox Game Pass and how the service has evolved the industry while also helping Microsoft shake-up the fundamental market space. We've also discussed why we think Microsoft chose to do this--a potential hail Mary move in a bid to introduce a new subscription segment to the billion-dollar games market, and get ahead of the competition while innovating with new monetization methods--but now we have somewhat of an answer from Microsoft themselves.

Intel has confirmed that its new Core Ultra 200 series "Arrow Lake-S" desktop processors will be launching on October 10, with reviews and sales coming two weeks later on October 24.

The new Intel Core Ultra 200 series "Arrow Lake-S" desktop CPUs arrive with a new LGA 1851 socket, an entire new fleet of 800-series motherboards led by the Z890 flagship, DDR5 only, and TSMC's magic foundry process which has been an impressive step in the right direction with the mobile-focused Core Ultra 200V series "Lunar Lake" processors.

As for Arrow Lake, we can expect the big announcement and reveal on October 10, while review embargoes and sales unleash on October 24. This means we're under 3 weeks away from the big launch where you'll be able to buy a next-gen Intel platform to fight against AMD's new Zen 5-powered Ryzen 9000 series CPUs.

Intel's new Core Ultra 200V series "Lunar Lake" CPUs are slowly coming to the market, you can read our review on the ASUS Zenbook S14 laptop powered by Lunar Lake here, with some more benchmarks and comparisons from Geekerwan.

With just 15W of power, the new Intel Core Ultra 7 258V benched against the Valve Steam Deck and ASUS ROG Ally (the Z1 Extreme variant) in a 15W constrained TDP mode, and running at 720p resolution to show what games can expect from a Lunar Lake chip inside of a gaming handheld.

Intel's new Lunar Lake chips has 12W of power through its SoC and on-package memory, with the competitors' APUs using around 9W of power, with the motherboard taking some additional power that drives the same 15W limt as the Lunar Lake chips.

Windows 11 no longer has WordPad, with Microsoft finally giving the venerable app the chop with the 24H2 update.

This comes as no surprise, because Microsoft had already deprecated WordPad - that happened late in 2023 - marking it for removal from Windows 11. Following that, it was yanked from test builds of the OS at the start of 2024, and we were informed that the app would be cast out of Windows 11 when the 24H2 update came around.

Well, 24H2 is now here - or it's rolling out, anyway - and as promised, there is no WordPad anymore. Furthermore, fresh installs of Windows 11 won't come with WordPad either.

Tango Gameworks had already been working on a Hi-Fi Rush sequel for about half a year before Microsoft and Bethesda shut down the studio.

Bethesda's abrupt shuttering of Tango Gameworks came as a surprise to gamers, especially given Hi-Fi Rush's apparent success. Even though the innovative rhythm game reached 3 million players across Xbox Game Pass, Tango was still closed down (alongside other groups like Arkane Austin).

Despite the first game's success, Tango wasn't just waiting around and had already started work on Hi-Fi Rush 2. According to Krafton VP of corporate development Maria Park, Tango Gameworks had an early build of their sequel in development shortly before the South Korean publisher moved in to resurrect the team.

Assassin's Creed Shadows will have a co-op mode, according to the rumor mill, but this won't be available when the game is first released - it'll arrive down the line somewhat.

This speculation comes from Tom Henderson, a reliable source for Ubisoft-related spillage (as flagged by Wccftech).

The leaker observes that the co-op mode is codenamed 'League' and is under development right now (and it has been for some time - so this isn't an additional component just bolted on, following news of the delay of the game).

AMD's RX 7900 XT graphics card has dropped in price, and you can now bag one model for $659.

This is the XFX Speedster MERC310 Radeon RX 7900 XT and it has been dropped to that price level on both Amazon and Newegg, at the time of writing anyway (as noticed by VideoCardz).

That said, it should be noted that these graphics cards are not being sold directly by the retailers themselves.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang spoke with CNBC earlier today, commenting on its Blackwell AI GPUs and that they're in full production as planned, and that the "demand is insane, everyone wants to be first, everyone wants to have the most".

Jensen told CNBC: "the thing that we have done with Blackwell, and what we have announced, this new AI infrastructure generation every single year, and so we're going to update our platform every single year and the reason foe that is if we can increase the performance as we've done with Hopper to Blackwell by 2-3x each year we're effectively increasing the revenues or the throughput of our customers on these infrastructures by a couple (2-3x) each year, decrease, or how you can think about it decreasing cost every 2 or 3 years".

Jensen continued: "reducing energy efficiency every single year, and so at a time when the technology is moving so fast, it gives us an opportunity to triple down and to really drive the innovation cycle, so that we can increase capabilities, increase our throughput, decrease our cost, decrease our energy consumption, and so we're on a path to do that, and everything's on track".

The closest known star to Earth is called Barnard's star, and it's located just six light years away, which is a very small distance in astronomical terms.

In the world of astronomy, six light years is the equivalent of Earth's neighbor, and now a team of researchers has discovered a planet orbiting our closest known star. That planet has been named Barnard b. According to a new study published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, the planet is considered a sub-Earth as its substantially less massive than Earth and Venus. Planets such as Mars and Mercury are considered to be sub-Earth planets.

As for Barnard b, the paper states the newly discovered planet orbits its star at an extremely close distance, with one year on the planet, or one full orbit, taking just three Earth days. Notably, Bernard b has a mass less than half of Venus, and with its distance of six light years away from Earth, Bernard's star is the second closest stellar system following Alpha Centauri's three-star group and the closest known star to Earth Proxima Centauri at 4.25 light years away.

A Microsoft company spokesperson has informed The Register there will be no more production of the HoloLens 2, and that Microsoft isn't planning on releasing a replacement model for the foreseeable future.

According to a new report from The Register, a Microsoft spokesperson said that this is the signal for any last consumers looking to pick up the HoloLens 2, as Microsoft won't be producing any more units. As for the HoloLens 2's that are already out in the world, Microsoft said it will continue rolling out support for the product until December 31, 2027. As for the future of mixed reality with Microsoft, the spokesperson said Redmond will continue investing in "mixed reality opportunities with first-party software solutions and services."

The spokesperson added that Microsoft plans to partner with the "broader mobile phone and mixed reality ecosystem" to bring new products to market. Through these sentences from the spokesperson, we can distill that Microsoft wants to step away from producing a mixed reality headset by itself and instead wants to combine its technology with other companies' technology to produce something together.