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Intel hosted its first-ever Intel Foundry Direct Connect event, where the company added its new Intel 14A node to its extended process technology roadmap.

On the subject of AI, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said at the event: "AI is proudly transforming the world and how we think about technology and the silicon that powers it. This is creating an unprecedented opportunity for the world's most innovative chip designers and for Intel Foundry, the world's first systems foundry for the AI era. Together, we can create new markets and revolutionize how the world uses technology to improve people's lives".

Intel provided new details on how it plans to push into the lead ahead of TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) into 2026 and beyond. Intel wants to retake the mantle of making the world's fastest chips away from TSMC later this year with its upcoming Intel 18A process node, and then in 2026, it says it will push further into the lead with its next-gen Intel 14A process node.

A new paper published by researchers at the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology teases that they've developed an optical disc that's capable of storing up to 1.6 petabits of data, which works out to around 200GB... or enough storage to hold over 2000 x PlayStation 5 games and many, many more PC games.

The scientists increased the capacity by leaps and bounds using an optical disc with a 3D planar recording architecture, which uses a highly transparent, uniform photoresist film doped with aggregation-induced emission dye and stimulated by femtosecond lasers. It sounds like a lot of scientific jargon -- and it is -- but this allows hundreds and hundreds of layers to be crammed into a single micrometer apart on the disc at the same thickness as a DVD or Blu-ray disc.

The highest-density Blu-ray disc on the market is a 4-layer Blu-ray, which holds around 100GB of data, but the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology researchers claim this new format could record 100 layers on both sides of the disc for a total capacity of 1.6 petabits, or around 200TB.

NVIDIA just posted its latest quarterly earnings, blowing expectations out of the water with $22 billion in revenue, largely driven by the AI GPU dominance by the company.

The company has been selling as many AI GPUs as it's been making, slowly improving the supply chain holdups that were stopping companies and governments from getting NVIDIA AI GPU hardware. TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) has been in the middle of this, with their advanced CoWoS packaging technology also flexing its (required) muscle here.

If you think we've seen enough AI so far, you're wrong... the technology industry is all-in with AI like it's 3D + VR + RGB + ray tracing all at the same time. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang says we're in the first year of a 10-year cycle in AI, with Jensen explaining: "Accelerated computing and generative A.I. have hit the tipping point. Demand is surging worldwide across companies, industries and nations".

Windows 11's big 23H2 update from 2023 has entered a new 'rollout phase,' one that will leverage machine learning (ML) to automatically update Windows 11 devices to the latest version of the operating system. Forcing major OS updates on users is never a good look, but this adds an extra layer thanks to AI being in charge of which devices will be 'force-updated.'

Of course, it comes down to older versions of Windows 11 reaching their end of servicing phase, so there's a definite reason to update. The devices in question are predicted to be those running Windows 11 21H2 or 22H2.

"This automatic update targets Windows 11 devices that have reached or are approaching end of servicing and it follows the machine learning-based (ML) training we have utilized so far," Microsoft writes. "We will continue to train our intelligent ML model to safely roll out this new Windows version in phases to deliver a smooth update experience."

AMD launched a new GPU in January 2023, the Radeon RX 7600 XT, which took its mainstream RDNA 3 offering and doubled the VRAM capacity to 16GB. Per our review, adding a slight boost to clock speeds is enough to make a difference in most games, but the overall performance sits very close to the Radeon RX 7600 8GB model.

What does this have to do with the Radeon RX 6750 GRE GPU (another Golden Rabbit Edition release), an RDNA 2 GPU released exclusively in China before the Radeon RX 7600 XT? AMD has yet to release the Radeon RX 7600 XT 16GB in China because the Radeon RX 6750 GRE (available in 10GB and 12GB variants) is proving very popular in the region.

And for a good reason: the card is priced similarly to the GeForce RTX 4060 while outperforming NVIDIA's mainstream GPU and the more expensive GeForce RTX 4060 Ti, so much so that AMD is cracking down on retailers discounting the Radeon RX 6750 GRE by imposing fines to ensure that its profit margins remain intact.

Intel held its first-ever Intel Foundry Direct Connect event, with the chipmaker getting customers, ecosystem partners, and leaders across the technology industry to be in person at the event.

Some of the speakers at the Intel Foundry Direct Connect event included Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, Arm CEO Rene Haas, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and more. At the event, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that Microsoft has chosen Intel's new 18A process node for a new chip is wants to make.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella explained: "We are in the midst of a very exciting platform shift that will fundamentally transform productivity for every individual organization and the entire industry. To achieve this vision, we need a reliable supply of the most advanced, high-performance and high-quality semiconductors. That's why we are so excited to work with Intel Foundry, and why we have chosen a chip design that we plan to produce on Intel 18A process".

NVIDIA posted its fourth fiscal quarter earnings today, smashing Wall Street predictions for earnings and sales, and we even got a tease of its next-gen Blackwell B100 AI GPU.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang explained: "Whenever we have new products, as you know, it ramps from zero to a very large number and you can't do that overnight". The new products Jensen is referring to are NVIDIA's upcoming beefed-up H200 AI GPU and its next-gen B100 AI GPU, which are both dropping this year.

The company has recently improved its supply chain issues which were hampering AI GPU shipments, even though the company reported record revenue for the quarter, driven by its Data Center business. Even with that, the company is selling AI GPUs as fast -- in fact, faster -- than the company can make them.

In a recent interview with veteran game journalist Stephen Totilo's Game File publication, Microsoft's Phil Spencer reaffirmed that all games from its many Xbox Game Studios developers - including those from ZeniMax/Bethesda and Activision Blizzard - will be launch on 'day one' on Xbox Game Pass. "Our intent is the full portfolio of games from ZeniMax, Activision Blizzard, and XGS-Xbox Game Studios-will be on Game Pass, day one," Phil said.

This means Call of Duty 2024 will come to Xbox Game Pass. Of course, the game has yet to be formally revealed or announced. However, according to reports, this year's entry comes from Treyarch - the studio behind 2020's popular Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War entry. Rumors hint at a potential story and conflict set during the 1990s, with many suggesting a Gulf War theme for this year's CoD.

The next major Call of Duty coming to Xbox Game Pass represents a significant shift for the franchise - and it will be interesting to see what effect the move has on sales and Game Pass subscriptions. But what about the current Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 3, and legacy titles like the iconic Call of Duty 2 and 4? When will they come to Game Pass?

AMD's just-released Ryzen 8040 series "Hawk Point" processors will have their included NPUs (Neural Processing Unit) receiving real-time monitoring inside of Windows Task Manager, according to AMD.

In a new post on its website, AMD explained: "AMD has been working with Microsoft to enable MCDM (Microsoft Compute Driver Model) infrastructure on the AMD NPU (Neural Processing Unit)-enabled Ryzen 8040 Series of mobile processors. MCDM is a derivative of Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) that is targeting non-GPU, compute devices, such as the NPU. MCDM enables NPUs to make use of the existing GPU device management infrastructure, including scheduling, power management, memory management, and performance debugging with tools such as the Task Manager. MCDM serves as a fundamental layer, ensuring the smooth execution of AI workloads on NPU devices".

AMD explains: "One of the reasons AMD has integrated an NPU into select Ryzen 8040 processors is to help vendors create new, AI-powered apps and experiences. Being able to monitor device usage in real-time can make software development easier, so integrating this functionality makes sense for everyone, from developers and system vendors to the individual end-user".

NVIDIA has just posted its Q4 FY24 financial report, blowing everyone out of the water with $22 billion in revenue thanks to the AI GPU dominance the company has been firing on all cylinders with. Check it out:

Before the release, analysts were predicting $20.6 billion in revenue, but NVIDIA beat that with $22.1 billion for the three-month period. NVIDIA beat its own profit and revenue records here, where you can see in the chart NVIDIA posted above that its Data Center business is raking in all the cash.

Back in Q1 FY23, the company made $3.75 billion in revenue from its Data Center business, but now that has absolutely skyrocketed by 409% annually, whereas in Q4 FY24, the Data Center business did an absolutely incredible $18.4 billion in revenue.

Unreal Engine 5 is one of the most amazing graphics engines that we've ever seen, and now someone has worked out how to get Unreal Engine 5 running in a web browser. Yeah, UE5 in a web browser.

In a photo posted to X by "moon" we get to see Unreal Engine 5 running in WebGPU, with multi-threaded rendering, many performance optimizations, and an asset streaming system. It's very cool to see, that's for sure. As for WebGPU, it's a modern web graphics API and successor to WebGL, which delivers higher performance and newer features to web applications.

Developers get low-level access to the GPU, which allows them to enjoy more efficient rendering and the option to play around with features and software that haven't been seen in a web browser before. As for the project itself, it's still being announced to the public, but the company CEO has confirmed it will be baking in multi-threaded rendering and an asset streaming system.

Apple has long been rumored to be working on new iPad Pros with OLED displays and faster chips inside, and they're now expected to debut within the next couple of months. Now, a new leak appears to have shared details about their dimensions and if accurate, these could be some super-thin tablets.

Apple is expected to ship 11-inch and 12,9-inch iPad Pro models as has become the norm for its high-end tablet. And while they're generally going to be around the same height and width as the models that they will replace, these newly updated versions will reportedly shrink considerably in terms of thickness. The 12,9-inch iPad Pro, for example, will be just 5,0mm thick if this leak is correct.

The full rundown of dimensions of the new OLED iPad Pros, alongside the models they will replace in the lineup, reads:

Apple has long been tipped to have not one but two new iPad Air tablets ready to be released in 2024, but hard details have so far been hard to come by. We've been able to make educated guesses based on past release patterns and rumors of the two-size strategy have so far been the most interesting. Now, as Apple gets closer to the rumored April release window, a new leak appears to have shared more information.

Specifically, the information relates to the physical sizes of the new tablets. We're already expecting a refreshed 11-inch iPad Air to be joined by an all-new 12.9-inch model but actual figures have so far not been shared. 9to5Mac has now changed that.

According to unnamed sources, 9to5Mac says that the new iPad Airs are codenamed J507 and J537, but so far the only dimensions it has shared are for the new 12.9-inch model. According to the report, the new model will measure 280.6 mm x 214.9 mm x 6.0 mm.

Apple's currently beta testing the iOS 17.4 software update with developers as well as those who are on the public beta program, and the latest beta release includes a new feature that will be popular among users of older iPhones.

While the iPhone has long shown people the device's current battery health status, the information has been somewhat hidden within the Settings app's menus. However, the upcoming iOS 17.4 update will change things somewhat, putting the iPhone's battery health data front and center.

The change, as has been spotted by multiple people who already have the new update installed on their devices, means that the battery health status is now visible in the main battery sub-menu of the settings app. Here, the battery health is shown while tapping immediately opens a deeper view with additional information should people want to see it.

If you're a big sports fan who also happens to have an iPhone, Apple has some good news for you. The company has released the Apple Sports app and it's now available for download in the App Store. It's completely free and is available in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

The new app brings live real-time scores and stats to people in those countries, with a number of sports and leagues from around the globe included at launch. The company also confirmed that additional leagues will be added in due course, specifically before their new seasons begin.

At launch, the following sports and leagues are all available and they include the biggest soccer leagues from across Europe.

Fans of Major League Soccer can start to get excited - the 2024 MLS season is upon us, and those who subscribe to MLS Season Pass on Apple TV have plenty to look forward to. Apple has today confirmed that the season kicks off later today with a standalone match between Lionel Messi's Inter Miami and Real Salt Lake with four more games streaming at the weekend.

This is the second MLS Season Pass, part of a ten-year deal that Apple signed for a cool $2.5 billion. The deal means that the Apple TV app is the only place to stream the MLS season including its growing roster of high-profile, big-name players including Messi.

Apple confirmed that the match will air at 8 p.m. ET on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV. The streamer's prematch coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. ET with a special 90-minute edition of MLS Countdown/MLS La Previa. After that, the following Matchday 1 games will be available to stream for free on MLS Season Pass.

The Apple Vision Pro is now available to buy and with the 2024 MLS season kicking off today, Apple is trying to make sure that everyone makes the link between the two. The 2024 MLS Season Pass begins with a game between Lionel Messi's Inter Miami and Real Salt Lake and Apple Vision Pro owners will be able to watch via the TV app on their headsets. But if people want to experience the true future of sports streaming, they're going to want to check out a new film covering the best of the 2023 MLS Cup Playoffs.

Apple says that this is the first-ever sports film captured in Apple Immersive Video, a move that means that viewers can look forward to watching the footage in 8K3D with a 180-degree field of view and Spatial Audio support. The result should be incredibly impressive, but it isn't yet clear exactly when it will be available to watch.

Instead, Apple simply said that it would be available soon.

Apple Music might not be as big as Spotify but it's used by a ton of people all around the world. It's a popular music streaming service for a reason and it has some great apps available across just about every category of device. But there is always room for more users and Apple knows that making it easier to switch from Spotify, Tidal, and others is a key part of getting people's money. So it's working on doing just that.

A new MacRumors report notes that references found in the latest Apple Music beta for Android show that Apple is working on a new option that will allow people to transfer their music library and playlists from one streaming service and into Apple Music. The whole thing is powered by SongShift, a service that already offers similar functionality.

The feature isn't fully baked in yet and not all users of the latest Apple Music beta appear to be able to access it which suggests that Apple is still in the middle of doing some testing. However, it's a feature that could well be just enough to tempt people to take Apple Music for a spin, and its launch makes plenty of sense.

Elden Ring was released two long years ago now (very nearly), and the anticipation around the expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree, has been stoked to fresh fiery heights with the release of a gameplay reveal trailer.

The video was promised yesterday, and arrived on time, looking very smart indeed as you can see above.

The trailer shows a bunch of bosses - highly imaginative fare - and locations, as well as giving us some story and background details. It doesn't disappoint fervent fans of Elden Ring, and there are plenty of those, as you're doubtless well aware.

It's official: Microsoft and Nintendo have announced two first-party Xbox exclusives that are coming to the Nintendo Switch.

TImes are changing. Exclusivity may be on its way out as games companies outgrow the narrow confines of their controlled platforms to sell as many games to as many people as possible. The new model once again underlines the basics of the games industry: Expanding software and content sales matters the most. Having reached the limits of the Xbox console market, Microsoft is starting to break first-party exclusivity so it can 'use what other platforms have to grow Xbox.' And Nintendo just so happens to have a market with over 139 million systems.

Now we officially know what two of those games are. Microsoft had announced that four Xbox games would come to Switch and PlayStation, but didn't name them, presumably because of official marketing promos. Neither Microsoft nor Nintendo wanted these reveals to spoiled, but the leaks sure fixed that.