Xbox users will have to buy a new type of premium currency in order to play the full version of Final Fantasy XIV, and it's priced so that gamers may have to overspend when trying to purchase Entry monthly subscriptions.

A bit ago, Square Enix announced that Final Fantasy XIV on Xbox would have two strict requirements. The first is that Xbox Game Pass subscriptions are required to play the MMORPG on Xbox consoles. This a stark contrast to FFXIV on PlayStation, which does not require PS Plus in order to play.

The second mandate was more controversial. The publisher says that Xbox gamers can only pay for Final Fantasy XIV game time and in-game purchases with a new premium currency called FFXIV Coins. It's a subscription-based game, so all users must pay a set fee to play FFXIV on all platforms. It's just that Xbox gamers can't buy game time directly from Square Enix and must first exchange their cash for in-game currency.

Micron has announced that it has sold out of its HBM3E memory supply for 2024, and that most of its HBM3E memory has been allocated for 2025.

We are to expect Micron's latest HBM3E memory to be inside of NVIDIA's beefed-up H200 AI GPU, with the US company competing against HBM rivals in South Korea with Samsung and SK hynix. Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra talked about HBM supply in a recent earnings call, where we're finding out the new information.

Sanjay Mehrotra, chief executive of Micron, said: "Our HBM is sold out for calendar 2024, and the overwhelming majority of our 2025 supply has already been allocated. We continue to expect HBM bit share equivalent to our overall DRAM bit share sometime in calendar 2025. We are on track to generate several hundred million dollars of revenue from HBM in fiscal 2024 and expect HBM revenues to be accretive to our DRAM and overall gross margins starting in the fiscal third quarter".

Samsung wasn't the only one showing off next-gen GDDR7 memory chips at NVIDIA's GPU Technology Conference (GTC) 2024 event, with SK hynix also having some GDDR7 on the show floor. Check it out:

Our friends over at HardwareLuxx were on the show floor at NVIDIA GTC 2024, spotting SK hynix's new GDDR7 memory modules that offer up to 40Gbps per pin for up to 160GB/sec memory bandwidth per module. We've heard and reported that GDDR7 memory will start its life at 28Gbps on NVIDIA's next-gen GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs, with refreshes along the way packing higher-speed GDDR7 modules.

Samsung has claimed it is working on 37Gbps GDDR7 memory while also showing off next-gen 32Gbps and 28Gbps GDDR7 memory modules at NVIDIA GTC 2024. We should expect NVIDIA to roll out GeForce RTX 50 series graphics cards with 28Gbps GDDR7 memory, but I would lean more towards 32Gbps GDDR7 to give them a huge performance leap over the GDDR6X-based flagship GeForce RTX 4090.

AOC has just unveiled its new AGON PRO AG456UCZD gaming monitor, with a huge 44.5-inch OLED panel, native 3440 x 1440 resolution, 21:9 aspect ratio, and uber-smooth 240Hz refresh rate. Check it out:

AOC's new AGON PRO AG456UCZD gaming monitor offers an 800R curative, which is perfect for sim games, something that the company is pushing with its marketing on the monitor. The company has designed the new AGON PRO AG456UCZD gaming monitor with a borderless design on all four sides, which lets gamers get consumed in their game.

The OLED panel will offer beautiful blacks, colors, vibrancy, and responsiveness no matter what you're playing: first-person shooters, driving games, or even something like Star Citizen. One of the leading sim-racing esports teams, G2 Esports, is sponsored by AGON by AOC and is impressed with the new AG456UCZD. Professional sim-racer Isaac Price who plays for G2 Esports, said: "The AGON PRO AG456UCZD is such an immersive monitor that I can't leave the game anymore".

Apple has long been rumored to be readying the launch of new iPad Air and iPad Pro tablets within the next few weeks, but it turns out that a report the new tablets will be unveiled on March 26 might have been wide of the mark.

That March 26 date was first suggested by the leaker Instant Digital via the Weibo social network, but Bloomberg's Mark Gurman now says that date is wrong, although he didn't clarify when the new tablets will actually be announced.

Gurman had however previously suggested that Apple would not be able to release the new iPads until it had completed a software update that will run on the new tablets. That update needs to be finished and then sent to factories to be preinstalled on the new tablets and that process was always thought to be unlikely to happen before the end of March. Instead, he believes that Apple would more likely announce the new iPad Air and iPad Pro in April.

The Apple Vision Pro headset has been on sale for a few weeks now, and Apple has today released a new software update for those who have picked one of the spatial computers up. The new update is of course a free download for owners of the headset and everyone should install the visionOS 1.1.1 software update as soon as possible. Just don't expect anything in terms of new features and exciting upgrades, however.

The new software update is available via the Settings app on the Apple Vision Pro, found in the General section. The Apple Vision Pro needs to be taken off during the update process and a restart will of course happen, while the progress bar can be seen via the EyeSight display on the front of the headset.

In terms of the update, there are no big new features here but the update is still worth downloading. Apple says that it includes important security fixes and security updates which means that it is a release that people should install as soon as possible to ensure that they're using the most secure software available.

Apple regularly releases new software updates for the iPhone and iPad and today saw the arrival of new software for both of those two devices. Owners of devices that are compatible with iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 now have new releases available although the iOS 17.4.1 and iPadOS 17.4.1 updates won't bring with them any high new features for people to sink their teeth into.

The new updates are both available for download via the software update mechanism found in the Settings app and the downloads aren't big ones by normal standards. The reason for that is likely their content - Apple says that these updates offer important bug fixes and security improvements which means that people are recommended to download and install them sooner rather than later.

It isn't currently clear exactly which bug fixes Apple believes that it has fixed this time out, but the security improvements are always worth having regardless. Apple has also released iOS 16.7.7 with the same security fixes for devices that do not support iOS 17, suggesting that the fixes are important ones.

You probably haven't missed that Microsoft just launched a new Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 for businesses, and consumer models are inbound - except they may come with a sting in the tail.

According to chatter on the grapevine, those consumer Surface devices will be the ones to carry ARM chips - specifically the Snapdragon X Elite, or a custom version of it tinkered with by Microsoft - whereas the business-targeted models revealed today have Intel Meteor Lake CPUs.

On X (formerly Twitter), well-known Microsoft leaker Zac Bowden was talking about the new Surfaces and somebody chimed in with a question about whether there will be an Intel option with the consumer Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6.

NVIDIA may have new spins on its RTX 4070, 4060 Ti and 4060 graphics cards inbound, but if so, let's make it clear from the outset that these won't be anything interesting.

A tweet has surfaced from regular leaker MEGAsizeGPU claiming some new versions are planned by NVIDIA, but before you begin imagining some kind of 4060 Super (or indeed 4060 Ti Super), these graphics cards will keep the exact same specifications as the existing versions (if they're anything at all - add salt as ever).

So, what's the point of that? Well, they will have a different chip, with the changes being as follows:

During the recent State of Unreal livestream, Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra was showcased in a new trailer, revealing a seemingly head-to-head battle between Captain America and Black Panther.

The new game is developed by Skydance New Media, and according to the overview of the title found on the Marvel website, the game will put players into the chaos of the 1940s where Captain America and Azzuri, T'Challa's grandfather and the Black Panther of the 1940s, will need to overcome their differences and form an alliance to confront their common enemy.

Additionally, the overview reveals that both heroes will be fighting alongside Gabriel Jones of the Howling Commandos and Nanali, a Wakandan spy embedded in Occupied Paris, to stop "a sinister plot that threatens to turn the havoc of WWII into the ultimate rise of Hydra." Captain America will be voiced by Drew Moerlein, and Black Panther will be voiced by The Walking Dead's Khary Payton.