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United States authorities announced they have arrested the administrator behind what is likely the world's largest botnet, which included more than 19 million compromised Windows machines across multiple countries.

The description of the world's largest botnet comes from FBI director Christopher Wray, who said the botnet was used to gather millions of dollars from people over the last 10 years. More specifically, the FBI director said to the Justice Department that a international cyber operation was conducted to identify the alleged administrator of the botnet known as "911 S5", who was found to be the individual Yunhe Wang. Wang was arrested and US authorities "seized infrastructure and assets, and levied sanctions against Wang and his co-conspirators," said Wray.

The infection of this botnet was truly global, with US officials writing the 911 S5 Botnet had infected PCs in nearly 200 countries and "facilitated a whole host of computer-enabled crimes, including financial frauds, identity theft, and child exploitation." Moreover, the US Treasury wrote in its announcement Wang didn't act alone in the venture, and named two more alleged perpetrators, Jingping Liu and Yanni Zheng. In total, the US authorities believe the botnet netted Wang and others involved $99 million.

Microsoft wants people to move off Windows 10 and move onto Windows 11, and one of the ways the company intends to attract customers to its latest operating system is AI-powered PCs - and the exclusive features that come with them.

Microsoft only recently announced a selection of AI PCs in the form of new Copilot+ laptops. These laptops are different from traditional versions as they feature a Neural Processing Unit (NPU), which is a piece of hardware dedicated to running AI tasks locally. Microsoft has locked many, if not all of its of Copilot+'s attractive features behind this hardware requirement in a bid to entice customers to go out and purchase a new Copilot+ PC.

One of the most talked about Copilot+ features is Windows Recall, which enables a user to ask the Copilot AI in natural language to show them what they were doing on the PC at specific times. For example, if a user at 4pm forgot what they were doing at 1pm they would be able to ask the AI and it would show them what was on their desktop at 1pm. Recall is able to create this timeline of a users desktop by taking screenshots of the desktop every few minutes, which are then stored locally.

A self-proclaimed good-guy hacker has taken to X, formerly Twitter, to post an unhinged version of OpenAI's ChatGPT called "Godmode GPT".

The hacker announced the creation of a jailbroken version of GPT-4o, the latest large language model released by OpenAI, the creators of the intensely popular ChatGPT. According to the hacker who calls themselves Pliny the Prompter, the now-released Godmode GPT doesn't have any guardrails as this version of the AI arrives with an in-built jailbreak prompt. Prompter writes this unhinged AI provides users with an "out-of-the-box liberated ChatGPT" that enables everyone to "experience AI the way it was always meant to be: free".

Prompter even shared some screenshots of the responses they were able to get from ChatGPT that have seemingly bypassed some of the AI's guardrails. Examples of clear circumvention of OpenAI's policies are detailed instructions on how to cook crystal meth, how to make napalm out of household items, and more responses along those lines. Notably, OpenAI was contacted about the GPT and told the publication Futurism that it has taken action against the AI, citing policy violations that have seemingly led to its complete removal.

AMD's Ryzen 9000 launch has been leaked ahead of Computex, although we should add a hefty helping of seasoning with this one.

The leak comes from Wxnod on X (formerly Twitter) and is supposedly a deck of presentation slides from AORUS (GIGABYTE), but separately, CodeCommando has also spilled the specs of AMD's initial Zen 5 desktop CPUs. (Hat tips to Wccftech and VideoCardz respectively here).

While the two leaks appear to match, and show an initial four chips that AMD is set to unleash, we should still be very cautious about all this.

Many gamers have fully adopted digital libraries of the titles they have purchased whether by choice or by need, and one of the most popular services of these is Valve's Steam client.

Steam is easily the most-popular games library for PC gaming, with millions of gamers using the service to access hundreds, or even thousands of games. Many PC gamers may have believed that their digital collection of games would be transferable to a loved one, especially considering the amount of money that some accounts have poured into collecting games. However, that isn't the case - even in the event of the account holder dying.

A user on ResetEra posted a screenshot of the reply they received from Steam support querying about this very topic. A representative from Valve replied to the user informing them Steam accounts and the games linked to them are unfortunately "non-transferable". Moreover, the representative informed the user that Steam is unable to provide access to an account or merge its contents with another. Furthermore, the Steam representative stated that even if the Steam account is outlined in a will it still won't be transferable.

Sony's PlayStation 4 is doing some heavy lifting for Gen9, and is helping prop up and accelerate spending across the new generation.

Sony Interactive Entertainment recently held their annual state of the business presentation, complete with eye-opening figures, lots of slides, and discussions about the future of PlayStation. The slide deck highlighted various operating metrics like revenue, profit, and console user base numbers.

Interestingly enough, the PS4 still accounts for 50% of total monthly active consoles, or 49 million gamers, meaning about half of all PlayStation console users are still playing on PS4 hardware. The PS5 beats the PS4 in terms of total gameplay hours, though, clocking in 1 billion more hours than its predecessor. This speaks volumes as to what kind of games that PS5 owners are playing, and that they are more engaged for longer periods of time.

Player engagement across the Fallout franchise has skyrocketed thanks to the Amazon TV show's success.

In April, Amazon, Kilter Films, and Bethesda taught an important lesson on how to properly do a video game adaptation. The Fallout TV show was a huge hit, attracting 65 million viewers (32% of all Prime subscribers) in little over two weeks.

Bethesda was able to effectively capitalize on this popularity by having a multitude of games at the ready for viewers to buy so that they can continue their Fallout adventures after watching the show. Amazon and Bethesda went one step farther by giving away free copies of Fallout 76 to all Amazon Prime subscribers--it's the live service multiplayer game with microtransactions and its own subscription.

Sony's once-console exclusive God of War Ragnarok is coming to PC, but it'll apparently have a controversial twist.

Today, Sony announced that God of War Ragnarok would drop September 19 on PC. The game's store page on Steam confirms that it'll require a PlayStation Network account in order to play--a move that caused quite significant controversy during the Helldivers II fiasco.

"PlayStation Network Account required, subject to the PlayStation Terms of Services and User Agreement," the page reads.

Microsoft has clarified how Call of Duty Black Ops 6 will release onto Game Pass, confirming that there won't be a special new Game Pass tier specifically for the mainline sequel.

Call of Duty is releasing onto a subscription for the first time ever. Black Ops 6 is slated as a day and date release on Xbox Game Pass, and contrary to our predictions, Microsoft won't be making a special new Game Pass membership option for the Call of Duty series.

"Upon launch, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be playable on Xbox and PC for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Xbox Game Pass for Console members," Microsoft told Eurogamer.

NVIDIA pranked the world back in 2017 with its GeForce GTX 1080-shaped "G-Assist" USB flash drive, saying it had technology inside to power deep learning algorithms and bring AI to gaming... well... fast-forward to today, and that's actually the reality on GeForce RTX series graphics cards with ray tracing and AI-powered upscaling through DLSS.

NVIDIA now has multiple versions of DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) powered by AI algorithms, plenty of beautiful ray-traced games supported by GeForce RTX series GPUs, and even NPCs that are powered by large language models for a totally new world of gaming in the near future.

Well, now the official NVIDIA GeForce account on X has posted "the future is never far away..." while teasing its GeForce GTX G-Assist flash drive. We have no idea what NVIDIA is hinting at here, but if it has anything that the G-Assist USB drive was meant to have, we could expect "Ghost Play" that plays the games while you're doing something else, or BossBoost, which is meant to help gamers through tough fights. There's also NV Nurture, a fictional technology that reminds gamers to recharge their energy by connecting to their fridges.

Sony has finally confirmed a release date for the highly anticipated PC release of God of War Ragnarok, the critically acclaimed sequel to the PlayStation classic that made its way to PC in 2022. God of War Ragnarok will be coming to PC on September 19, 2024, with developer Jetpack Interactive handling port duties alongside Sony's Santa Monica Studio.

God of War Ragnarok on PC is the full version of the game, with all post-launch updates, including the New Game+ mode and the Valhalla DLC. The trailer for the PC version showcases how the game will look on a high-end rig, delivering visuals that look even better than the game's PlayStation 5 version. It's impressive stuff, with crisp textures and environmental detail everywhere you look.

God of War Ragnarok on PC will support the latest upscaling technologies, including NVIDIA DLSS 3.7, AMD FSR 3.1, and Intel XeSS 3.1. This is excellent news for PC gamers; everyone can access performance-enhancing upscaling tech and frame generation.

Samsung Foundry is expected to unveil plans for its cutting-edge 1nm process node in July, with mass production expected to kick off in 2026.

The South Korean giant has plans to unveil its next-gen 1nm process node schedule at the Foundry Forum & SAFE Forum 2024, which will be held in the US between June 12-13, according to Korean media. It wasn't too long ago that Samsung bumped up its 1nm production timeline from 2027 to 2026, with the 2nm "SF2" process debuting in 2025, we still don't know much about it... for now.

Samsung looks to be ahead of its semiconductor competitors, with Intel planning to mass produce its new Intel 10A (1nm) process in 2028, while TSMC plans its next-gen 1nm process node for 2030. If Samsung can nail this, then the company would be many years ahead of its competitors. But now, we need to see performance, quality, great yields, and most of all... customers flocking to the new node (AMD, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Apple, etc).

NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang is in Taiwan once again, meeting with TSMC founder Morris Chang, as well as Quanta and MediaTek executives for dinner ahead of Computex 2024 next week.

The NVIDIA and TSMC founders enjoyed their dinner, leaving the restaurant and talking to the media, with NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang responding to fans' requests for autographs, with media outlet CNA reporting he showed his "usual friendly attitude".

Jensen hanging out with TSMC founder Morris Chang is a big deal, but we know the relationship between NVIDIA and TSMC is strong. NVIDIA has its current-gen GeForce RTX 40 series, its upcoming Blackwell-based GeForce RTX 50 series cards made at TSMC, and its entire fleet of H100, H200, B100, B200 AI GPUs (and everything in between) fabbed at TSMC.

Fallout 76 has amassed tons of new players on the heels of April's wildly successful Fallout TV show.

More than a month after the Fallout show's release, Fallout mania is still going strong. The games are racking up impressive player counts thanks to the marketing activations from the TV show push, and Fallout 76 in particular recently broke the 20 million lifetime players milestone.

That new figure is up substantially from 2022's previous number of 13.5 million lifetime players. Fallout 76 managed to tack-on 6.5 million more players from 2023 - May 2024, and a good portion of that was likely driven by the TV show an the fact that all Amazon Prime subscribers got a free copy of the game from Prime Gaming.

As the month of May draws to a close, Windows 11 has just got its latest preview update, and this optional effort might be picked up by more users than normal, seeing as it brings in a couple of keenly awaited pieces of work.

Patch KB5037853, for Windows 11 versions 22H2 and 23H2, introduces a bunch of features and fixes, but something that a lot of folks have been waiting for is drag and drop functionality in the File Explorer address bar.

This means you can now drag a file out of a folder, and into another folder on the address bar at the top of the window (where the file path is displayed). It's a convenient shortcut for moving files sometimes, and one that Windows 11 users missed, or at least some certainly did. So, it's good to see this basic piece of functionality now present in File Explorer.

NVIDIA's next-generation flagship GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card is back into the rumor mill, with updated specs through new rumors.

We're now expecting to see 28GB of ultra-fast GDDR7 memory on an (interesting) 448-bit memory bus, with 1.5TB/sec of memory bandwidth on the GeForce RTX 5090. There were previous rumors of a monster 512-bit memory bus for the RTX 5090, with other rumors suggesting a 384-bit memory bus, but new rumors are right in between: a 448-bit memory bus.

This means that NVIDIA's flagship GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card might not be using all of the 16 available GDDR7 memory modules, and only 14 of the memory modules instead. The 28GB of GDDR7 memory on a 448-bit memory bus will be spitting out an impressive 1568GB/sec (1.56TB/sec) which is a huge 50% upgrade in memory bandwidth over the RTX 4090, which should make for some really impressive upgrades in 4K gaming.

MSI announced the new MSI GeForce RTX 4090 24G SUPRIM FUZION Graphics Card in an email confirming that it and other products have won Computex 2024 awards ahead of the show. It's a 4.5-slot beast because it includes an "innovative all-in-one hybrid liquid-cooled" solution with a pump, radiator, and short pipe waterway in a single block.

Ahead of its Computex reveal, German outlet Allround-PC (via Videocardz) has gotten some exclusive pictures of the new MSI GeForce RTX 4090 SUPRIM FUZION GPU and its unique design, which includes a compact cooling block with pump. You can see the copper heat sinks around the block and the pump in these new shots.

Integrating the radiator with the GPU is definitely going to turn a few heads, and we'll be doing our best to go hands-on with it at Computex and potentially review it in the near future, so stay tuned. According to the Computex Best Choice Awards, the design can deliver a "15% increase in performance compared to traditional air cooling technology."

Colorful Technology is known for creating PC components, gaming laptops, audio products, and all-in-one gaming solutions. At Computex 2024, it's set to showcase a range of liquid-cooled products - two standouts being the unique Colorful Neptune Series all-in-one PC with an open-frame and full-cover water block and the updated COLORFUL iGame GeForce RTX 4090 Vulcan LAB.

The Neptune Series PC is quite the looker thanks to its open design and full-cover water block that delivers liquid cooling to the CPU, other components, and the Neptune graphics card. With its sci-grey color scheme, it looks like a space station or spaceship. COLORFUL confirms that the unique all-in-one PC will ship with an Intel Core i9 processor, iGame Z790D5 Neptune i92T motherboard, and 2TB SSD.

Customers will have control over the specs when ordering, so there will be multiple variations of the Neptune Series PC. Colorful also notes that it is developing a Neptune motherboard "for the next-generation Intel Core processors," so its design will support next-generation Intel Arrow Lake CPUs.

T-FORCE, the gaming brand of memory and storage experts TEAMGROUP, is set to showcase its latest T-FORCE XTREEM DDR5 Memory Module at Computex 2024. Don't let the Fuji White and Diamond Rose colors fool you; these modules feature "exclusive overclocking performance that unlocks frequencies up to 10,000 MHz."

T-FORCE XTREEM DDR5 Memory Modules feature 2mm aluminum alloy fin heat sinks for heat dissipation and a two-piece solid metal heat spreader. DDR5-10000 or 10,000 MHz would present quite the upgrade over the first generation of DDR5 kits and the absolute fastest DDR4 kits still out there. There's no word on latency and timings, but TEAMGROUP notes that these kits "will make their global debut" at Computex 2024 next week.

TEAMGROUP will have a range of products at the show, including the T-FORCE GE PRO Gen5 M.2 PCIe SSD and T-FORCE DARK AirFlow 5 SSD Cooler, which are two more high-speed highlights for PC gamers.

ZOTAC Technology is set to make a big splash at Computex 2024 with a range of new products and compact, all-in-one solutions for AI, gaming, and professionals. ZOTAC GAMING will be there with its latest lineup of discrete GeForce RTX 40 Series graphics cards. Demos will showcase full DLSS 3.5 with Ray Reconstruction ray tracing, AI-powered NPCs, generative tools, and even an AI chatbot.

However, for those who love PC gaming in all its forms, ZOTAC's most exciting announcement and reveal will be the new ZOTAC GAMING ZONE handheld, described as a "high-performance portable PC." The specs are a bit light, and all we have to go with is the teaser image you can see above - but we know one tasty little detail.

The ZOTAC GAMING ZONE PC gaming handheld will feature a 7-inch AMOLED multi-touch high-refresh-rate display. Actually, ZOTAC is teasing one other feature.