With Apple set to hold a new iPad event on May 7 the expectation is that a refreshed iPad Pro will be joined by a revamped iPad Air lineup, but those hoping for the entry-level iPad to get some love will be disappointed. They won't be that way for long though, and Apple is expected to update that model later this year as well. And it might even get cheaper, too.

The current 10th-gen iPad is the best ever, and it ditched the Home button to make it appear more modern and match the other iPads in the lineup. But that meant an increase in price from the previous $329 to the $449 price that Apple asks for today. However, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman now believes that Apple is not only going to update the iPad but also potentially seek to reduce its price, too.

Writing in a larger explainer about the upcoming May 7 event, Gurman said that Apple is working on a cost-reduced version of its 10th-gen iPad. If this does happen Apple will phase the older 9th-gen model out but no firm details have yet been shared.

Apple is set to hold an event on May 7, and while it will be streamed rather than an in-person event like the pre-COVID days, don't let that make you think that there won't be any big announcements. Apple is yet to confirm what those announcements will be, but the rumor mill has been in overdrive for weeks now and we have a pretty solid idea of what we can expect CEO Tim Cook and his band of merry executives to announce in its streamed video.

There have been rumors of new iPad announcements for months now, and with Apple having skipped the entire 2023 year in terms of refreshing its tablets, 2024 is set to bring plenty of updated models. The iPad Pro and iPad Air will be the star of the show come Tuesday's event, and there's plenty to get excited about.

If everything goes as expected, Apple will announce an update to its high-powered iPad Pro lineup. Both the 11- and 12.9-inch tablets are expected to be updated including new OLED displays for the first time. The same 120Hz ProMotion variable refresh rate is expected, but improved contrast and colors, not to mention a higher brightness ceiling, should make this the best iPad display ever.

SK hynix has announced it's already working on an insane 300TB (yeah, that's 300 terabytes) SSD, with the SSD pre-announced at its press conference in Seoul, South Korea, on Thursday.

SK hynix cited reports from market researchers that the total volume of data generated globally in the AI era -- that's data generated by us, humans, as well as AI -- will absolutely explote to 660ZB (660 zetabytes) in 2030, from the 15ZB generated in 2014.

You can buy 30TB+ HDDs right now, but when it comes to SSDs even the best are topping out at 8TB for the most part. The newer high-end PCIe Gen5-capable M.2 SSDs can push upwards of 14GB/sec but capacities are limited to 8TB, so a gigantic truly next-gen PCIe 6.0 or even PCIe 7.0 SSD with ultra-high-speed transfers double, triple, 5x what we have today, with 300TB capacities? Yeah, wow.

X has rolled out an update that enables its Premium users to receive AI-generated summaries of news and topics trending on the platform.

The new feature called "Stories on X" has become available to Premium subscribers, and according to a post from the company's engineering account, the new feature will appear within the Explore tab and is entirely curated by X's GrokAI tool. So, how does it work? Grok has been leveraged to identify the most popular content trending on X, which can be news stories and any general public discussion that has gained a lot of attention.

Grok then digests the popular content and generates a summary. Users exploring the new feature have posted screenshots to X showcasing the design and layout, with some screenshots showing AI-generated summaries for stories such as Apple's earnings report, aid to Ukraine, and "Musk, Experts Debate National Debt," which was a summary of an online discussion between Musk and other prominent X users.

NVIDIA is currently baking its next-generation Blackwell GPU-based GeForce RTX 50 series graphics cards in both desktop and notebook form, with some new leaks regarding VRAM capacity on the Blackwell-based GeForce RTX 50 Laptop GPUs.

In a new video from Moore's Law is Dead, we get some juicy leaks about the VRAM capacity on the stack of Blackwell-based GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs. Starting with the flagship GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop GPU which will roll out with 16GB of VRAM, but so too will the RTX 5080 Laptop GPU under that; they'll both have 16GB of VRAM.

Under that, we've got the GeForce RTX 5070 Laptop GPU which should have 12GB of VRAM, while the RTX 5060 Laptop GPU will have 8GB of VRAM. Compared to the Ada Lovelace-based GeForce RTX 40 series Laptop GPUs had 16GB, 12GB, 8GB, 8GB, and 6GB for the RTX 4090 Laptop, RTX 4080 Laptop, RTX 4070 Laptop, RTX 4060 Laptop, and RTX 4060 Laptop GPUs, respectively.

Micron has released the industry's first high-end 128GB DDR5 RDIMM memory that's destined for AI data centers, with speeds of up to 8000MT/s.

Micron announced today that it has validated and shipped its high-capacity monolithic 32Gb DRAM die-based 128GB DDR5 RDIMM memory with speeds starting at 5600MT/s on all leading server platforms. The company explains that its new memory modules are powered by Micron's in-house, industry-leading 1-beta technology, with 45% improved bit density, up to 22% improved energy efficiency, and up to 16% lower latency over competitive through silicon via (TSV) products.

Micron's new high-capacity 128GB DDR5 RDIMMs deliver up to 28% faster performance for AI training, while the 16% less latency is important for memory-bound workloads including generative AI, in-memory databases, and real-time data analytics, where high capacity is needed, and prompt response times are critical for real-time inference.

The Helldivers 2 community has turned on the game after recent changes were announced by publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE).

SIE took to the Helldivers 2 Steam listing to post an update regarding coming changes to the game, particularly the ending of the grace period for optional PlayStation Network (PSN) account linking. According to SIE, at the game's launch technical issues enabled Steam accounts being linked to a PSN account to be temporarily optional, and now that time period will expire. As of May 6, all new Helldivers 2 players will be required to connect their Steam account to a PSN account.

Additionally, current Steam players will begin to see a mandatory login from May 30 and will be required to have linked a Steam and PlayStation Network account by June 4. These changes of forcing a PSN account connection haven't boded well with many Helldivers 2 players, as the reviews for the game are now experiencing an incredibly high influx of bad reviews. Just on May 3, the Helldivers 2 Steam listing received more than 36,000 negative reviews.

SK hynix has had an absolutely stellar last 12 months riding the ever-growing AI wave, with the South Korean memory giant expecting over $10 billion in revenue from HBM alone by the end of 2024.

The news is coming from South Korean outlet TheElec, which sums up that SK hynix has sold out of its 2024 supply of HBM memory, and is already close to selling out its 2025 supply of HBM. NVIDIA's current H100 uses HBM3, while its new H200 and next-gen B200 AI GPUs both use HBM3E memory, provided by SK hynix.

SK hynix is staying ahead of its HBM competitors in Samsung and Micron, with plans to provide samples of its new 12-stack HBM3E this month, with mass production of the new HBM memory chips expected in Q3 2024 according to SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung at a press conference on Thursday.

Windows 11 and Windows 10 users are again under fire from a Microsoft pop-up which is rather intrusive, flashing up on the desktop to advertise Bing AI for those using Google's Chrome browser.

Windows Latest notes it initially spotted the pop-up, which urges Chrome users to use ChatGPT-4 powered Bing - and to set Bing as their default search, and install its extension - back in March, but it's now appearing again.

Multiple readers have been getting in touch lately complaining that they've been hit by this dialog box, which stays present until you dismiss it - you have to answer either yes or no to the suggested Bing-related modifications to Chrome.

If you're an iPhone owner who has been keeping up with the iOS 18 rumors you'll already know that there are some new features coming later this year. The iOS 18 software update is expected to bring plenty of AI smarts to the iPhone, and a new leak has detailed some of the beneficiaries of those improvements.

According to AppleInsider Apple intends to bring its AI capabilities to bear on a few different aspects of the iPhone, with both Siri and Spotlight likely to be upgraded.

The report details a new text summarization feature that will come to Siri as well as the Safari web browser. Apple is reportedly testing AI-powered enhancements that will allow people to get summaries of the webpage they're looking at, while Siri will be able to do something similar within the Messages app. Sources told the website that Apple's AI will be able to analyze message contents and then use its on-device large language model to generate a response.

Apple is getting ready to announce a ton of new devices and accessories at an event on May 7, meaning we're just days away from some new Apple gear. But while there are plenty of new things for us to look forward to, there are some things that definitely won't be announced. Instead, they'll come later in the year, and there's plenty to get excited about.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has outlined a number of new product updates that are expected to arrive in 2024 including the much-rumored AI features that have been in the works for a while now. And if the upcoming OLED iPad Pro and new iPad Air lineup aren't for you, there's sure to be something in this list that gets you interested.

At the top of Gurman's list is a new, refreshed iPad that will sell for a lower price point than the current 10th-gen model. That retails for $449 which is a lot more than the $329 that the previous generation sold for. With that in mind, it's thought Apple will aim to make the new model cheaper, although it won't arrive until much later this year.

You don't need to be following along with the Apple rumor mill too closely to be aware that Apple is very likely to announce not one, but four new iPhones this year. If it all goes the way we're used to, the new handsets will all be announced this coming September, and they'll include the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max, and a new leak has shown off an unexpected tweak.

We've been hearing and seeing various leaks relating to these new iPhones in recent months but we've yet to see anything to do with the iPhone's MagSafe wireless charging solution. The iPhones will of course support MagSafe and Qi2 wireless charging, but new molds appear to show that they will feature a revised version of MagSafe that's slightly smaller.

The molds, shown off by French website ShopSystem, appear to show that the ring of magnets in the center of the iPhones' rear panel will be smaller than in previous years. A comparison shows the iPhone 16 Pro alongside the iPhone 15 Pro and while the difference isn't a huge one, it's definitely there.

ASUS is going to bring out a 2024 take on its ROG Ally handheld, or that's the gossip on the grapevine - but it's clear that this won't be some kind of sequel.

Rather than a ROG Ally 2, ASUS will push out a ROG Ally 2024 which is essentially the same device we already have, but with one important change - the fix for the much-aired SD card problems.

If you missed this saga somehow, the SD card reader on the ROG Ally is basically a ticking timebomb, eventually destined to fail (and maybe take your card with it, when it does).

A new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets details the discovery of a Mars mineral that forms on Earth within a river, delta, or a shoreline of a ancient lake, leading researchers to thinking the Gale Crater on Mars was once home to water and oxygen.

The team explained that NASA's Curiosity rover discovered higher-than-usual amounts of manganese in rocks within the Gale Crater on Mars. Using the rovers ChemCam, an instrument that fires a laser into rocks, the rover collected data that researchers have now analyzed and published in a study.

Patrick Gasda, Los Alamos National Laboratory researcher and lead author of the study explained the formation of maganese happens all the time on Earth due to the high amounts of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere produced by photosynthetic life, "and from microbes that help catalyze those manganese oxidation reactions." However, Mars doesn't have any oxygen, and there is no evidence of life, despite researchers suspecting that ancient Mars may have had the right environment to host life.

In February, Microsoft confirmed that four first-party titles were making their way over to PlayStation, which was the company's first batch of tester titles, to see how Xbox games would perform on Sony's console.

Around this time, rumors suggested that Microsoft was going to lead with massive heavyweight, system-seller titles such as Gears of War, Starfield, and Halo, but it was later confirmed the first games to make it over to the PlayStation from Xbox would be Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Grounded, and Sea of Thieves. Xbox's Phil Spencer described the transfer as an experiment and said at the time it didn't mean that other first-party Xbox titles would be coming to PlayStation.

Intel's Arrow Lake desktop processors might pitch up earlier than expected, or at least ahead of what the rumor mill seems to have been floating as the most likely arrival timeframe recently.

If you've been following the chatter around Arrow Lake (Core Ultra 200), you won't have missed a certain amount of pessimism creeping in of late.

In the early days of leaks, there was talk of massive performance gains, and while that's still true to an extent, enthusiasm about Arrow Lake seems to have been waning somewhat with suggestions that Intel is struggling to finish the next-gen desktop silicon, and that it might even get pushed to 2025. (Or at least that volume production may not happen until next year, anyway).

Orcs Must Die 3 is a different spin on tower defense that ticks some boxes - including having a top-notch name - and if you've always been half-tempted to take the plunge, now you've got no excuse.

We express this possibility of temptation because it applies very definitely to us - we've been meaning to pick up this game for some time (before the third instalment came out, in fact). And now that it's free on the Epic Games Store, we'll be doing exactly that.

Actually, hang on. Back in a moment...

A Nintendo dataminer has discovered within the latest version of the NintendoWare Bezel Engine supports frame rates of up to 240 frames-per-second (FPS).

This engine is used by Nintendo and third parties in select games, and the discovery of gameplay supporting up to 240 FPS has led to some theorizing that Nintendo's next console will be able to achieve framerates above 60FPS, which is the maximum the current Nintendo Switch is capable of producing. Notably, the dataminer wrote "this only applies to games that enable the variable frame rate mode".

The discovery of 240FPS support doesn't mean all future Nintendo games will be able to achieve 240FPS in gameplay; in fact, it's incredibly unlikely that Nintendo's next console will even have the horsepower to hit such a framerate unless at an expensive cost of resolution - likely far below 720p. However, what it does mean is there is room for the possibility of 40FPS, or even 120Hz modes that have already been seen in other consoles such as the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

Windows 11 just made quite a leap in adoption levels with PC gamers, or at least those that use Steam.

Valve's popular gaming platform conducts a monthly hardware survey, as you're doubtless aware, and that includes the operating system gamers are running as well as hardware components.

For the month of April, the hardware survey shows that Windows 11 adoption rose to reach 45.15%, which represented an increase of 3.54% on the previous month.

Helldivers 2 publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment announced that all new Helldivers 2 players will need to connect their Steam account to a PlayStation Network account to access the game.

Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) took to the Helldivers 2 Steam blog with an update explaining that a technical issue at the game's launch forced SIE into making linking Steam and a PSN account optional, but that will now change. As of May 6, new Helldivers 2 players on Steam will be forced to link to a PSN account, and if they don't have one, they will be required to make one. Helldivers 2 won't be accessible if they don't.

According to SIE, linking a Steam and PSN account "plays a critical role in protecting our players and upholding the values of safety and security provided on PlayStation and PlayStation Studios games." Additionally, SIE wrote that linking the two accounts is the main way to "protect players from griefing and abuse" by banning players that are participating in that kind of behavior. Additionally, banned players will be able to appeal.