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Assassin's Creed Odyssey players on Xbox and PlayStation experienced something strange this past weekend: a full-screen ad for the recently released Assassin's Creed Mirage that popped up during gameplay. Yeah, this was the first we heard of an obtrusive pop-up-style ad appearing on-screen while you're immersed in a digital world. The ad appeared and took over the entire screen as Assassin's Creed Odyssey players tried to open the map.

Redditor Triddell24 captured the moment on Xbox and posted it online. What was the general consensus? People weren't happy, and coming from Ubisoft - the kings of microtransactions - it was widely seen as the publisher testing out a potential new revenue stream on an older title. Worst of all, there's no ad blocker for playing games on Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5.

And now, a few days after the story blew up across various videogame channels and outlets, Ubisoft has released a statement saying that pop-up ads while playing Assassin's Creed games were "the result of a technical error." One that has been addressed.

YouTuber JerryRigEverything has claimed Casetify, a company that focuses on phone cases, has ripped off his teardown design that was birthed out of his partnership with dbrand, a director competitor to Casetify.

JerryRigEverything is a large YouTube channel dedicated to teardowns of tech products, mostly mobile devices such as smartphones, and throughout the growth of his channel, he began working with dbrand to produce teardown skins for devices, which essentially show the inside of the device on the outside. Jerry explains that he and dbrand go to "extreme lengths" to ensure the skin of the device is a correct mirror image of what's on the device.

However, there are some subtle additions made by dbrand and Jerry, most of which aren't obvious at a glance and are inside jokes for regular viewers of JerryRigEverything. These subtle easter eggs to the case design is what gave Casetify away. JerryRigEverything claims that Casetify has gone to the dbrand website, navigated to the product listings for the dbrand teardown skins and simply saved the product image, and began to print their own line of teardown skins called "Inside Out", as Casetify's version of the design contains several of JerryRigEverything's easter eggs.

Emulating hardware on an x86-based Windows PC is normal, whether it's a gaming console from the 1980s or a modern app designed for an Android smartphone. PC emulation is normally the home of gaming, and running an Android game on Windows 11 is straightforward. But what about the other way around? Playing a PC game developed for x86 architecture and Windows on an Android device can be tricky, but it's getting much easier.

The good news is that x86 and Windows emulation on Linux systems with Arm-based processing has improved greatly in recent years thanks to tools like Box86 and Box64. We're now at the point where an app like Winlator allows you to run PC games on an Android device and play them with minimal fuss.

Winaltor uses existing tools and third-party apps like Wine and Box86 to bring Windows and PC gaming to Android users.

"I'm the kind of person that likes to take my time during my morning poops," writes Redditor Tall_Whole_5777. Yes, this is that kind of story - albeit through the lens of virtual and mixed reality, thanks to the new Meta Quest 3. In addition to a more impressive display, the latest headset from Meta adds full-color cameras for tracking and Mixed Reality.

In addition to new types of games, Mixed Reality, or MR, is the sort of tech that can project a big or small screen into the world around you. Sit in the comfort of your living room while watching a movie on a cinema-sized screen while still being able to see and interact with your surroundings. You can even head out into the world and order a coffee from an unimpressed coffee shop employee - like this person did.

Or, use the Meta Quest 3 for bathroom-related procedures in what sounds like a surprisingly more sanitary alternative to the usual routine.

NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4070 Ti and AMD's Radeon RX 7900 XT are powerful gaming GPUs that deliver incredible 1440p performance. They're no slouches for high-end 4K gaming, either. With DLSS 3, cutting-edge ray-tracing, and world-class power efficiency, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti outclasses the previous-gen GeForce RTX 3090 using substantially less power.

The Radeon RX 7900 XT is impressive in its own right, second only to the Radeon RX 7900 XTX in the RDNA 3 lineup. The only thing holding it back is its MSRP of $899, which is too close to the 7900 XTX's MSRP of $999. Back to the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, although its MSRP of $799 makes it an attractive high-end GPU for PC gaming - like other high-end GeForce RTX hardware, it's hard to find one for anything close to this.

Thankfully, there are Cyber Monday Sales, and right now, you can pick up either the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Trinity OC or the PowerColor Hellhound Radeon RX 7900 XT for only $729.99. And so, the real question becomes, which one do you pick?

We first started hearing about Intel's next-gen Xeon "Emerald Rapids" CPUs back in August 2021; fast-forward two years, and we're still not seeing them in the wild, with new rumors teasing Intel's upcoming Xeon Platinum 8551C and Xeon Platinum 8558P "Emeralds Rapids" processors.

Intel's new Xeon Platinum 8551C and Xeon Platinum 8558P "Emeralds Rapids" processors both feature 48 cores and 96 threads of CPU power, recently tested on the CentOS Linux OS and 256GB of DDR5 memory. Geekbench results see both the new Emerald Rapids CPUs at up to 3.17GHz during their testing, with the 8551C featuring a 2.9GHz base clock and the 8558P featuring a 2.7GHz base clock.

But... AMD has released its consumer-focused HEDT processors with the new Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series featuring up to 64 cores and 128 threads on the desktop, not an Xeon-based CPU for servers. There's also the Ryzen Threadripper 7970X processor with 32 cores and 64 threads that comes close to the multi-core performance in Geekbench against the Xeon Platinum 8551C.

COLORFUL has just unveiled a new sleeper gaming PC with the introduction of its new G-ONE Plus all-in-one gaming PC, powered by both an AMD CPU and GPU inside.

The new COLORFUL G-ONE Plus AIO PC is powered by an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX processor, with 8 cores and 16 threads at up to 4.9GHz based on the Zen3+ architecture and being the HX variant, and it has a higher 45W TDP. On the GPU side of things, there's the Radeon RX 6850M XT powered by the Navi 22 GPU, based on the RDNA 2 GPU architecture with 2560 Stream Processors.

We also have 12GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit memory bus, with performance that should be close to the desktop Radeon RX 6700 XT, but it'll be limited by its rather decent 165W. COLORFUL will have multiple configurations for power settings on the Radeon RX 6850M XT: Beast at 165W, Gaming at 154W, Balance at 135W, and Quiet at 114W.

It seems that companies are pushing full steam ahead into "AI everything" in 2024, with Samsung reportedly registering the trademarks for both "AI Phone" and "AI Smartphone" ahead of its next-gen Galaxy S24 family of smartphones that will be marketed as an AI phone.

Just because Samsung has filed trademarks for "AI phone" and "AI smartphone" are very generic, we could expect something close to that. The trademarks show that Samsung is dead serious about making its future devices, and it seems to be starting with the Galaxy S24, powered by AI.

We're expecting Samsung to unveil its next-gen Galaxy S24 family of smartphones and its AI marketing to be unveiled on January 17, 2024. Samsung has filed for other trademarks on logos and names, including Magic Pixel, Flex Magic, and Flex Magic Pixel, for its augmented reality products, smartphone displays, and TVs, with a special focus on AR glasses.

OneXplayer is leading up to the launch of its new external GPU -- the OneXGPU -- which is powered by the AMD Radeon RX 7600M XT GPU and launches on November 28 or November 29, depending on where you live.

The new OneXGPU will start off at $599 for the first 96 hours of its crowdfunding campaign, but that's early pricing, so the pricing is expected to be higher when it hits retail. Inside, OneXplayer is using the Radeon RX 7600M XT with the full Navi 33 GPU powered by the RDNA 3 architecture. The Navi 33 GPU inside of the OneXGPU has a 2.3GHz game clock inside of its 120W TGP (Total Graphics Power) which means you get the maximum power from this GPU as an external GPU.

AMD's Radeon RX 7600M XT features 2048 Stream Processors and 8GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit memory bus, with up to 288GB/sec of memory bandwidth.

NVIDIA was expected to have its new H20 AI GPU making its way into China by now, but it has been delayed by many months and won't see an introduction into the Chinese market until Q1 of 2024.

The news is coming from Reuters, which is reporting that NVIDIA has told customers in China that it's delaying the launch of its new AI chip -- which is designed to comply with US export rules -- until February or March 2024. NVIDIA was expected to launch its new H20 AI GPU in China on November 16, but now it's months away.

NVIDIA's new H20 AI GPU is the most powerful of 3 new China-focused AI GPUs that the company made with new US export restrictions in mind, Reuters' sources have been quiet on anything else. Both sources "declined to be named as the information was confidential"; meanwhile, NVIDIA "declined to comment," of course.

It seems there are more and more regular NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards being disassembled, tweaked, and put back together as an AI accelerator and sold for huge profits in China... where US sanctions have destroyed the AI market in the country, which is why companies are getting around those issues.

I was tagged on Twitter overnight by I_Leak_VN, who had some photos of more GeForce RTX 4090 graphics cards being turned into AI GPUs and sold in China, where you can see more and more boxes -- and I'm sure these are just a handful of these photos -- filled with expensive, unsellable RTX 4090 cards. US sanctions by the Biden administration have all but dragged the AI GPU market to a halt in China, so companies stockpiled RTX 4090s and are now ripping them apart and making AI GPUs out of them.

This is also something thast's not new, with VideoCardz pointing out that blower-style RTX 4090s have been on the market since November 2022, so over a year now. NVIDIA could've changed its thoughts on the design of its flagship RTX 4090, lifting restrictions with AIB partners that stopped them from making blower-style coolers for the RTX 4090.

If you missed the Black Friday sales this weekend, never fear. Cyber Monday is here already. Amazon is famous for listing crazy deals on Cyber Monday, and this year is no different.

We've rounded up what we feel are the best 10 Cyber Monday tech deals on Amazon. We've compiled a list of techy products we think you would actually want to own. Most of the products are half-price or better than their usual prices. There's everything on the list, from a 55% off Intel Core i5 CPU to a 41% off Razer gaming laptop to a toothbrush with AI for 50% off, and loads more.

Game and multitask without compromise powered by Intel's performance hybrid architecture on an unlocked processor.

Underwater data centers aren't something new, with Microsoft and its Project Natick taking data centers into the depths of our oceans back in 2014, and now China has kick-started the construction of the world's first commercial underwater data center off the coast of Sanya, which is a coastal city south of Hainan Island.

In a new report from China Central Television (CCTV) each of the data storage units can process over 4 million high-definition images in 30 seconds, with an estimated performance of 60,000 regular desktop computer systems all working together. The first of the data storage units was installed back in April, but a few days ago, the engineers added another data storage unit on the sea floor south of the Hainan province.

The company has plans to install 100 watertight data storage units as the building blocks of its underwater datacenter dreams, with each of the data storage units weighing in at 1300 tons, which is the same as 1000 cars. Getting something that big and heavy to the bottom of the ocean isn't easy, as you can imagine. Each of the data storage units takes around 3 hours to move the 35 meters to the bottom of the ocean.

Seven years of game and hardware sales have propelled Nintendo Switch platform revenues to astronomical heights.

Nintendo's latest Q2 earnings report gave key updates on the state of its games business, and things are looking great for the Japanese entertainment giant. Looking at the lifetime revenues of the Switch platform really underlines how well the handheld-console hybrid has performed across its 7-year lifetime.

According to figures provided by Nintendo and charted by us, the Switch platform has generated a whopping $73.9 billion in revenues since its release in March 2017 all the way to September 2023. Major milestones across this lifecycle include over 132 million Switch console shipments and 1.133 billion games sold, which highlights Nintendo's current unshakable place in the Big 3.

Nintendo's latest Q2 earnings report delivers updates on Switch console shipments, showing the system has no signs of slowing down.

The FY24 period marks the 8th fiscal year that the Switch has been on the market. Despite this long period (console cycles typically last for 7 years), the Switch is still performing quite well, even when relative to prior periods.

As of Nintendo's Q2 FY24 period, which ended September 30, 2023, the company has shipped a cumulative total of 132.46 million Switch consoles across the entire hardware family (includes 2017 launch model, Switch Lite, and OLED).

The Super Mario Bros. film has helped Nintendo rake in over $300 million from its royalties and smartphone business, and it's also had a direct affect on Mario game sales.

Nintendo's transmedia plan has worked. The Super Mario Bros. movie is a smash success, helping Nintendo rake in millions and sparking massive interest in its games and content. While the company does want to make money from film royalties, the main goal with the Mario movie was to spread mass-market interest in Nintendo's video games (as if Nintendo, one of the most recognizable brands in history, needs help in this regard).

The success of the Super Mario Bros. movie has translated into a direct rise in Mario game sales. This was the biggest part of the plan all along--the hope was that the film would make consumers want to buy Switch consoles and Mario titles. Taking a look at Nintendo's latest Q2'24 earnings report, we can see that's exactly what happened.

AMD has launched its new Ryzen Threadripper 7000 and Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7000 series CPUs, with TRX50 and WRX90 motherboards now out in the wild. TRX50 motherboards are what HEDT systems will be built with, and now we have some US pricing on the ASUS, ASRock, and GIGABYTE TRX50-based boards.

ASUS has its new PRO WS TRX50-SAGE WIFI motherboard at the higher-end of the TRX50 motherboard pricing spectrum, with a cost of $899. Under that, we've got the ASRock TRX50 WS motherboard for $799, and finally, the GIGABYTE TRX50 AERO D motherboard for $599.

You can buy AMD's monster new Ryzen Threadripper 7000 series CPUs already, but the motherboards won't be launching until December. If you want the even higher-end WRX90 motherboards, then you'll be waiting a little while longer again. The Ryzen Threadripper 7980X flagship 64-core, 128-thread CPU will cost you $4999... meanwhile, the TRX50 motherboards max out with the $899 ASUS PRO WX TRX50-SAGE WIFI.

Capcom is developing a new chapter of its next-gen RE Engine in an effort to keep up with demanding games.

Japanese games developer Capcom turned heads with 2017's release of Resident Evil 7, a game that utilized its brand new RE Engine technology. Since then, the RE Engine has matured and evolved significantly, delivering high-end visuals and smooth frame rates across numerous Resident Evil remakes, including RE2, RE3, and the most recent RE4 remake, and it's best-selling Monster Hunter World MMORPG.

Now the company is preparing for the future. A recent video from Capcom's R&D YouTube channel outlines the current state of the engine and what's on the horizon. Details and specifics are vague, but Capcom is working on a new iteration of the RE Engine that's codenamed REX (RE neXt Engine).

Whenever you see a cool Instagram Reel and want to save it for later, the chances are that you have always had to just save it to Instagram. That is, unless you live in the United States where people have been able to download Reels ever since June. However, that's all changing now with the news that Instagram is rolling out downloadable Reels to everyone all around the globe.

The new change was announced by Instagram chief Adam Mosseri in a post to his Instagram channel and comes after months of only those in the United States having the option to physically download Reels.

However, there is still going to be a catch. As TechCrunch points out, Reels that are downloaded from Instagram will have a watermark that has the Instagram logo and the account's name. That isn't new of course, because we already see the same thing done by TikTok and YouTube and it's obvious why - it's to ensure that anything ripped from one service shows where it came from if it's uploaded somewhere else.

Internet trolls have struck again, this time hitting one of the best-known faces in gaming.

Ned Luke, the actor who played the irascible bank robber Michael De Santa in Grand Theft Auto V, was recently swatted while live streaming to fans. A clip of Luke being interrupted by a phone call was spotted by Dexerto:

"Oh nice, nice, nice," Luke sarcastically said before telling his audience what had happened. "Alright, I gotta go. Now these assholes have swatted my house, so I've gotta go."