Microsoft could be preparing to release a new type of foldable as a patent filed back in 2021 has recently been unveiled, showcasing what the Redmond company may be developing quietly behind the scenes.

Firstly, patents aren't indicative of what is about to be released by a company, but they aren't totally worthless either, as they show what a company is interested in pursuing development-wise. There are almost countless patents filed by technology companies and 9/10 times, none of the showcased products see the light of day. However, select features from specific patents are often combined with other patented features to eventually create a new product.

As for the recent patent, Microsoft appears to be working on a new device that is capable of folding 360 degrees. The patent was originally filed in 2021 and the 38-page document was unveiled on October 1, 2024. The documentation reveals how Microsoft describes the device, with the company writing it can take the form of a tablet, laptop, or another computing apparatus. More specifically, the new device has a rear cover, a glass layer, and a light-emitting layer in between.

Apple's new iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max smartphones include the company's latest A18 Pro SoC, with a die shot comparison between the A18 Pro, and the A18 non-Pro (inside of the iPhone 16).

The folks at High Yield detail that Apple's new A18 Pro SoC has a 105mm² die size, while the A18 SoC measures in at 90mm². The larger die allows Apple to add larger SLC cache and an additional GPU core, which you can see in the comparison image between the A18 Pro and A18 SoC dies above.

In a thread on X, it's mentioned that the die shots are proof that Apple didn't design the A18 to based on the A18 Pro, but rather they're two different SoCs. The previous-gen A17 Pro (inside of the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max) is bigger than the A18, but smaller than the A18 Pro at 103.8mm².

MSI teased its new GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER STALKER 2 graphics card last week, but now we've got some more deets: you get a FREE copy of STALKER 2: Heart of Chernobyl bundled with the card.

Now we've got a look at the retail packaging for the MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER STALKER 2 graphics card, and a closer look at the tweaked graphics card itself. MSI is using a military green color theme with a brushed metal finish, with 3 stripes running through the design (an MSI thing) with small nuclear / radiation symbol decals.

MSI isn't changing the physical design of the new RTX 4070 Ti SUPER STALKER 2 from its GAMING SLIM model (you can see its a GAMING SLIM model on the retail package, next to the FREE copy of STALKER 2: Heart of Chernobyl). It's not the first customized graphics card from MSI (and it won't be the last) as the company has used its GAMING SLIM family for custom World of Warcraft, Black Myth: Wukong, and Monster Hunter-themed graphics cards.

Rumors are filtering out that NVIDIA is going to cease supply of the chips for its RTX 4060 and RTX 4060 Ti graphics cards, but this situation isn't nearly as serious as it sounds at first.

Wccftech flagged up a post from the Board Channels over in China which carries the claim that there will be a temporary halt to the supply of the chips for these RTX 4060 models.

The key point here, though - assuming this rumor is correct in the first place, and it may just be hot air - is the word 'temporary,' because this is just an apparent pause in production.

Apple's MacBook Pro, Mac mini and iMac computers with the M4 SoC inside could be arriving slightly later than we thought in 2024.

MacRumors highlighted a new report from leaker Mark Gurman (of Bloomberg fame) where he was more vague about the timing of the launch of these M4-toting Macs.

Previously, Gurman has talked about the M4 Macs arriving at an Apple press event held in October, but in his latest newsletter, the leaker has cast doubt on the accuracy of this prediction by referring to these devices as arriving 'this year.'

The open source Nintendo Switch emulator for PC, Ryujinx, is no more, following in the footsteps of Yuzu.

If you recall, Yuzu was shut down following a Nintendo lawsuit alleging 'massive intellectual property infringement of Nintendo' and 'facilitating piracy at a colossal scale.'

Ryujinx, which remained the only major emulator option on the table after Yuzu was downed, has now gone the same way as Wccftech spotted. The Ryujinx website's download page is now simply blank (and other pages have been removed too, though the site itself is still there as a shell), and the emulator can't be found on GitHub any longer.

Krafton, the South Korean company behind PUBG Battlegrounds, is going to bring Palworld to mobile phones.

In a press release announcing the partnership with Pocketpair, the firm told us:

That's the sum total of the information we have thus far, though.

Krafton executive Maria Park reveals more details on the company's plans for Tango Gameworks, and the logistics around the Japanese studio's resurrection.

In May, ZeniMax/Bethesda shut down Tango Gameworks, the studio behind games like The Evil Within and Hi-Fi Rush. Then Krafton, the publisher responsible for the mega-popular battle royale PUBG, swooped in to save the day. But Krafton didn't actually buy Tango Gameworks. Instead, the South Korean publisher just offered Tango's developers a new place to work.

In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Krafton VP of corporate development Maria Park explains how this actually worked, and confirms that Krafton is still in negotiations to buy the Hi-Fi Rush IP from Microsoft.

The ever-present question 'Can it run Doom' has now been applied to quantum computers, in a fashion, with the 'Quandoom' project.

As Tom's Hardware reports, Quandoom is a port of Doom for quantum computers, the catch being that there isn't a powerful enough computer to run it - not yet anyway.

As Luke Mortimer, known as Lumorti, the creator of Quandoom, points out, the game needs a quantum computer that boasts 72,376 qubits and 80 million gates - which doesn't exist yet (we're nowhere near that level, in fact).

Some folks aren't so keen on the size of the taskbar buttons with Windows 11, and if you fall into the group that feels the icons are oversized, there's some good news for you going by a change hidden in testing.

As uncovered by PhantomOfEarth in a beta build of Windows 11 (22635), there's going to be an option to have the taskbar icons made smaller - but this is hidden in the preview right now.

The leaker uncovered the change by using ViVeTool (a Windows configuration tool) and just because the concept is present in testing, in the background, doesn't mean Microsoft will ever enable it. But there's certainly a chance that'll happen.

Epic Games has just finished its Unreal Fest opener with some huge news, but one of them is the upcoming Unreal Engine 5.5 update that has some new MegaLights technology. Check it out:

Unreal Engine 5.5 has some exciting new rendering improvements, with Nanite now capable of rendering Skeletal Meshes incredibly fast says Epic Games (which is currently an Experimental feature) and Path Tracer is now Production-Ready. But there's also a new MegaLights technology that comes with Unreal Engine 5.5.

What is MegaLights? Unreal Engine 5.5 Preview 1 includes support for a new experimental feature called MegaLights, which enables developers using UE 5.5 to create movable, dynamic, and realistic area shadows with the ability to light volumetric fog. Epic showed off its UE 5.5 + MegaLights technology running on real-time on a PlayStation 5 console with a scene navigated through an area with over 1000 shadow-casting lights.

Rambus has provided more details on its upcoming HBM4 memory controller, which offers some huge upgrades over current HBM3 and HBM3 memory controllers.

JEDEC is still finalizing the HBM4 memory specifications, with Rambus teasing its next-gen HBM4 memory controller that will be prepared for next-gen AI and data center markets, continuing to expand the capabilities of existing HBM DRAM designs.

Rambus' new HBM4 controller will pump over 6.4Gb/s speeds per pin, which is faster than the first-gen HBM3 and has more bandwidth than faster HBM3E memory using the same 16-Hi stack and 64GB max capacity design. HBM4 starting bandwidth is at 1638GB/sec (1.63TB/sec) which is 33% faster than HBM3E and 2x faster than HBM3.

NVIDIA's upcoming GB200 NVL72 AI server development has some big challenges ahead of it, which mostly stem from the insane 132kW TDP requirement, making it the highest-power-consuming server in HISTORY.

In a new post on Medium, analyst and insider Ming-Chi Kuo said that NVIDIA has halted the development of its GB200 NVL36x2 AI server (the dual-rack 72 GPU version) which you can read more about in the links below. Moving back to the 'biggest challenges' in NVL72 development from the 132kW thermal design point (TDP), with NVIDIA and its supply chain requiring more time to solve "unprecedented technology issues".

Kuo points out that it's important to note that the TDP "refers to average power consumption during continuous operation. If poor design leads to peak power consumption (electrical design point (TDP) as NVIDIA calls it) exceeding TDP, two or more sidecars may be required. This would not only increase cooling design complexity and production difficulties but also negate NVL72's data center space-saving advantage".

NVIDIA is reportedly halting development of its dual-rack 72-way GB200-based NVL36x2 AI server, shifting focus into the single-rack NVL36 and NVL72 AI servers, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo..

In a new post on Medium, Ming-Chi Kuo deep dives into why NVIDIA is nixing its NVL36x2 AI server, with the single-rack GB200 NVL36 will "maintain its original development and shipment plans". NVIDIA originally plans to have 3 different GB200 projects: NVL36, NVL72, and NVL36x2 under simultaneous development.

However, due to "uncertainties in NVL36 development, simultaneous development of two 72 GPU versions (NVL72 and NVL36x2) is even more challenging" writes Kuo. The analyst breaks it down on his Medium post, but I've included some of the highlights below.

AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 24.9.1 is here. Although it adds new game support for Frostpunk 2, God of War Ragnarok, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, and The Sims 4 DirectX 11 Update, the big story is that AMD Fluid Motion Frames 2, or AFMF 2, is now out of technical preview.

AMD's updated driver-based frame generation solution works for thousands of games with lower latency, faster performance, and better motion optimization than the original. It also now supports the OpenGL and Vulkan APIs, so you'd be hard-pressed to find a PC game that it doesn't work with.

This is even more notable because AMD Fluid Motion Frames 2 has been optimized to work with the new AMD Ryzen AI 300 Series processors for laptops and upcoming portable PC gaming handhelds. It's also supported by AMD Radeon 700M integrated graphics, which can be found on devices like the ROG Ally from ASUS.

GeForce Game Ready Driver 565.90 WHQL is here. It supports three new October games - MechWarrior 5: Clans, Starship Troopers: Extermination, and the new free-to-play MMO Throne and Liberty - all of which are launching with DLSS Super Resolution, DLSS 3 Frame Generation, and NVIDIA Reflex.

Throne and Liberty is a spiritual successor to the popular Lineage from developers NCSoft and Amazon Games. It's set in a massive open world and features impressive art direction and visuals, which can be accelerated with DLSS 3. NVIDIA notes that when played in 4K, performance increased by an average of 2.6X, which means the GeForce RTX 4070 can play with max settings.

If you drop the resolution to 1440p, and with DLSS 3, the entire GeForce RTX 40 Series can hit a smooth 60+ FPS with max settings. Check out NVIDIA's DLSS 3 trailer for Throne and Liberty above to see the game in action.

NVIDIA released another major update to the NVIDIA App, which is still in Beta. The app, which replaces the aging NVIDIA Control Panel and the GeForce Experience app, continues to add more features. With this latest announcement, the company confirms that it will be exiting Beta before the end of the year - while confirming the GeForce Experience app's days are numbered.

"We intend to migrate all remaining GeForce Experience users to the new NVIDIA app when it exits beta before the end of the year," NVIDIA explains. "In future updates, we'll continue to add the remaining NVIDIA Control Panel options, with the goal of unifying the NVIDIA Control Panel and GeForce Experience's key features in one app, boasting new features and additional enhancements that deliver an even better experience for our users."

Fans of GeForce Experience might not be happy with this news, but from our experience, the NVIDIA App has been a massive improvement. Here's what's been added in the latest update.

The Steam Hardware and Survey results for September 2024 are in, and it is no surprise that NVIDIA is dominating the PC, laptop, and handheld GPU market. This fresh data from Valve reinforces recent reporting that showed NVIDIA's lead with PC gamers has been growing in recent years - it's now sitting on a 77.75% market share.

The September results show that NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4060 line-up is currently the most popular GPU once you add all the variants. This includes the desktop GeForce RTX 4060, which has climbed to the number two spot behind the GeForce RTX 3060, the GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU in third place, and the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti desktop card in fourth place.

And with the GeForce RTX 4070 also making the top ten and no sign of a mid-range or entry-level Radeon GPU until you reach number 34, it's a little concerning. As one generation of hardware ends and a new one begins, will we see a change?

The Norwegian Consumer Council has teamed up with nearly two dozen other consumer protection agencies to call for mass regulation of the billion-dollar virtual currency market.

Gaming currently is, and has been for quite some time, ruled by microtransactions. Sony makes more money from microtransactions than it does actual game sales. The same may be true for Xbox. Publishers like Electronic Arts, Take-Two Interactive, and Activision-Blizzard all make most of their earnings from in-game spending. And most of--if not all--these games have their own virtual currencies that've been carved up deliberately to maximize spending.

Publishers have employed tactics in order to create the illusion of bonus value when it comes to virtual currencies, often pricing alluring in-game items such as weapons and cosmetic skins in such a way that it requires consumers to make multiple purchases of virtual currencies. Alongside 17 other countries, the Norwegian Consumer Council has created an illuminating 55-page report that delves into the specifics of virtual currencies, and alleges that the practice may be illegal in its current form.

Final Fantasy 16 will probably come to Xbox at some point, but there's no telling exactly when that will be.

Square Enix wants to bring Final Fantasy 16 to Xbox. It behooves the publisher to release its games on as many platforms as possible in an effort to maximize sales, but the timed exclusivity deal with Sony did help accelerate development of the game. If it weren't for the PlayStation agreement, Final Fantasy 16 may have taken longer to develop and release.

But that's not to say there's no interest in Xbox. Despite Xbox having an "extremely low" userbase in Japan, FF16 game producer Naoki "Yoshi-P" Yoshida expresses interest in launching the game on Microsoft's machine.