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Activision-Blizzard's top executive management have a large vested interest in seeing the Microsoft merger close, with the CEO potentially making a substantial fortune from Microsoft's share buyout offer.

Microsoft wants to buy Activision Blizzard King to accelerate its gaming ambitions, and the tech giant is prepared to pay $68.7 billion to acquire the world's largest independent games publisher. Microsoft has made a tender buyout offer of $95 per share as part of a deal that will see current shareholders and top-level C-suite executives making out with millions. Activision CEO Bobby Kotick in particular could walk away with over $100 million from his tremendous amount of valuable shares.

A new report from Axios crunched some numbers to determine how much Activision's top brass could make from the merger. According to Axios' findings, Kotick could make as much as $185 million in stock value if the merger is approved and is able to close.

Although it's not official, info on the next GeForce RTX 40 Series game bundle has leaked via US retailers Ironside Computers and B&H Photo Video Audio. And it's a big one with one of the most anticipated PC releases in years, Diablo 4, set to be given away with the purchase of a GeForce RTX 4090, 4080, 4070 Ti, or 4070 desktop or GPU.

As a leak, the full terms and conditions have yet to be made available, but this is excellent news for those currently looking at upgrading in time to revisit Sanctuary when the game launches in June. We know this is set to begin this week, with the promotion starting May 9 and ending June 13, 2023.

Even better is confirmation that in addition to a game code for Diablo 4 valued at USD 69.99, newly minted GeForce RTX 40 Series owners will also get access to preorder bonus cosmetics for the game and many other Blizzard titles.

Rumors and leaks have been pointing to a GeForce RTX 4060 Ti launch later this month for quite some time now, with specs pointing to the GPU launching with 8GB of GDDR6 video memory on a 128-bit memory bus. Other specs that we previously reported on for the new GPU include info that it will make use of the AD106-350 chip with 4352 CUDA Cores.

With it being the most affordable entry-point in the GeForce RTX 40 Series line-up to date, a mainstream option depending on the MSRP, the main concern among the PC gaming community is the adoption of 8GB of VRAM at a time when new AAA PC releases are requiring more and more memory to enable high-end visual effects. The general consensus is that a high-powered GPU in 2023 should feature more than 8GB of VRAM.

Well, it looks like NVIDIA has been listening. A new report states that in addition to the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB launch happening later this month, NVIDIA has plans to release a 16GB model in July, with this variant to be announced alongside the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti's reveal in late May.

WhatsApp users who also happen to own a wearable powered by Wear OS now have a new option with the instant messaging outfit sharing a beta for its upcoming app.

WhatsApp is already one of the most popular instant messaging platforms on the planet thanks to its secure and cross-platform capabilities. But now it's testing a Wear OS app that can be used on the Pixel Watch, Galaxy Watch 5, and other Wear OS-powered wearables.

The app is only available in beta right now which means that you should probably expect there to be the odd problem here and there, but getting it installed is pretty simple - just head to the WhatsApp Google Play entry. From there it's just a case of signing up for the beta and installing it.

The Apple Watch Series 9 is expected to be announced during a September event later this year, but we haven't heard all that much about it so far. Now, a new report claims that the wearable will have one big upgrade that's years overdue.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman claims that the Apple Watch Series 9 will feature an all-new chip for the first time in years. Gurman was writing in a new Discord channel he set up for those who subscribe to his weekly Power On newsletter.

The Apple Watch Series 8, like the Apple Watch Series 7 that came before it, uses a chip that is essentially identical to that of the Apple Watch Series 6. The chips carried a new name, like S8, but don't have notable speed improvements over the S6. That's now going to change, we're told.

Apple CarPlay is a great feature for connecting your iPhone to a vehicle and then having its display projected onto a big in-car screen, but not everyone sees it that way. GM has famously declared that it won't be putting CarPlay support in its future electric vehicles - but Ford says that it has no intention of doing the same thing.

Ford CEO Jim Farley was speaking with The Wall Street Journal when he noted that around 70% of the company's customers in the United States also use iPhones. With that in mind, it's his belief that taking CarPlay away from them would be a bad idea. And he's probably right.

It seems that GM believes that it can reinsert itself between content and the customer, however. It'll be making apps for services like Spotify available via its new Google-based in-car entertainment system and that's how it expects people to listen to music and whatnot. But Ford's CEO has a different approach, saying that carmakers can't make a ton of money from controlling that experience and that it's all about safety and productivity instead.

id Software released the original Doom RPG for mobile phones in September 2005, when gaming on a phone was still a relatively new concept. For many, it was considered a 'long lost' Doom game from id, though its appearance on PC last year by the dedicated Doom historians at GEC.inc (via Doomworld) made it available for all.

As the naming suggests, it's not a first-person shooter but an RPG set in the Doom universe - and a turn-based take on the franchise. The game did well enough to receive a sequel, Doom 2 RPG, for the iPhone and iPod Touch in 2010. Another turn-based RPG off-shoot seemingly lost to time.

This one features more impressive visuals than the original Doom RPG, representing id Software's continued experimentation with mobile gaming. Interestingly you can still find an app store listing for Doom 2 RPG, but it is incompatible with current versions of iOS.

Here's a thing that we probably all do when it comes to testing out a brand-new GPU - briefly touch the backplate to see how hot it is to the touch. And here's the thing, GPU backplates are designed to get hot; they cover the back of the PCB, and for larger GPUs, they offer heat dissipation and structural support.

Still, you can see the logic behind these strange backplate-cooling solutions sold on AliExpress. If it's PC hardware-related and gets hot, try to cool it down with a few fans. And so, overclocker and tech reviewer der8auer has tested some of these new backplate coolers to see what they do.

As you can probably guess from the headline, the end result is little more than adding extra weight and physical size to a GPU. With AliExpress being home to several tech brands we've never heard of, der8auer begins the testing by taking a closer look at one of the coolers, and immediately the physical makeup is a little cheap. Sharp edges, glue for the fan mounting, zip ties, and adhesive tape for attaching it to a GIGABYTE Radeon RX 6800 XT.

Nextorage Japan started as a provider of PCIe Gen 4 SSDs for the PlayStation 5, with the company known for working closely with Sony. Its new range of PCIe Gen 5 NVMe SSDs are set to launch in June and will launch in a 'not compatible with PS5' state thanks to the chunky heatsinks.

The new NE5N range from Nextorage boasts read and write speeds of up to 10,000 MB/s (or 10 GB/s), with store listings for the 1TB and 2TB models already up on US retailer Newegg with price points of USD 249.99 and USD 499.99, respectively.

Based on Phison's E26 PCIe Gen 5 controller, these are the latest Gen 5 SSDs to push speeds into the 10 GB/s region and ship with overly large heatsinks to keep operating temperatures down. Adequate cooling is a real concern as we move into the Gen 5 era, and the NE5N drives from Nextorage Japan feature a double-story cooling structure and heat pipe setup.

Picking up a new GPU on the second-hand market is not uncommon, even for a product as fresh as AMD's Radeon RX 7900 XTX. That said, this is a strange one, as someone on Reddit posted an image of a second-hand Radeon RX 7900 XTX they purchased with an 'Internal Testing Only' label.

"Is there anything I should be aware of?" Redditor 'clumsyhotdog' wrote in the post. Many immediately pointed out that this could be an early version of the GPU that could feature some hardware differences from the retail model that shipped in December 2022. The user notes that it was purchased with a sizable discount compared to the MSRP of the GPU.

Pre-release models for GPUs are part of the process, with extensive internal testing to ensure drivers and other features are ready for launch. A pre-release Radeon RX 7900 XTX model could require special drivers and have features not present in the final retail release.

Swedish games developer Starbreeze reiterates a 2023 launch for Payday 3 on consoles and PC, and gives clues on what's next after the new heist shooter.

Following its successful comeback story from the brink of financial ruin, Starbreeze has big plans for the future. The publisher had secured deals to help fund Payday 3, which is still due out this year, but the company's ambitions apparently beyond the heist FPS franchise. Starbreeze has decided to issue rights shares and help secure up to 450 million SEK (about $44 million) to bolster its position.

According to Starbreeze's Q1 interim report, the company plans to use 300 million SEK (about $29.5 million) on games development, including projects outside of Payday 3. The company hopes to use the proceeds it makes from Payday 3, alongside any continued earnings from Payday 2, in combination with these rights issue funds to create new games that are set to release in 2025 and 2027.

Nightdive Studios believes in Atari's renaissance of classic games and joined the age-old console-maker to be a part of the movement.

Atari once ruled the console world, but now it's more of a licensor that monetizes nostalgia. We've seen more ambitious projects like the Atari VCS and a smattering of remaster collections, but overall, Atari still isn't a commanding force in gaming. But mabye Atari doesn't have to go toe-to-toe with PlayStation, Xbox, or Nintendo to stay relevant thanks to its instantly recognizable brand; Atari is pretty much the purest definition of retro as it stands today.

Now under new CEO Wade Rosen, Atari is looking to the past to lay out its future, complete with a greater emphasis on games and re-releases. And that's exactly why Nightdive Studios, a dev team known for revitalizing old-school PC games from the 80s and 90s, wanted to join up with Atari.

Scientists have re-looked over data acquired by NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft and combined their new perspective with updated computer modeling to discover a watery presence on Uranus' five moons.

NASA has taken to its blog on its website to detail a new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, which looks at Uranus' five large moons: Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, Oberon, and Miranda. Notably, Uranus has a total of 27 moons orbiting the ice giant, but only four of them are considered to be large moons, with the largest being Titania at a diameter of 980 miles and the smallest being Ariel at 720 miles in diameter. The other large moons range in size between the aforementioned figures.

As for the recently published study, NASA writes it's the first to detail the evolution of the interior makeup and structure of Uranus' large moons, and its results indicate the presence of oceans dozens of miles below each of the moon's surface. Using data from NASA's Voyager 2 fly-by of Uranus in 1980, combined with ground-based observations from NASA's Galileo, Cassini, Dawn, and New Horizons, the researchers were able to gauge how porous the surface of each of Uranus' large moon's are. The study found that the Uranian moons' surfaces are insulated enough to retain heat, a vital element in a body being able to host an internal ocean.

The impressive nature of OpenAI ChatGPT means it comes with some costs, and these costs aren't Silicon Valley-level speeding fines, according to people familiar with the chatbot's developments.

In a new article posted to The Information, people close to OpenAI's developments of now highly popular ChatGPT, the company spent a staggering $540 million in 2022 training its now extremely impressive AI chatbot. These funds weren't just used to train ChatGPT but also to poach some quality talent from competitor company Google, which is also developing its own AI chatbot called Bard.

The most recent estimated figure for OpenAI's costs is similar to what was estimated by Fortune in January, which put OpenAI's expenses at around $544.5 million for 2022. More specifically, Fortune's estimations outlined costs of $416.45 on computing and data training, $89.31 million on staff, and $38.75 million on unspecified operating costs.

The co-founder of Apple, one of the biggest technology companies on the planet, has thrown some shade at Tesla's AI developments, saying if you wanted to study how AI can kill a human, you should get a Tesla vehicle.

In a recent interview with CNN, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak discussed various topics around the technology space, and one of those was the developments around artificial intelligence (AI) and its potential dangers. Wozniak was asked during the interview if he ever speaks to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, to which he answered that he's never met Musk in person but does admire some of his technological achievements while distaining others.

Wozniak praised Musk's efforts at pushing large swaths of the population toward electric vehicles but believes the Tesla CEO has made a few empty promises or has fallen short of the capabilities he has promised for his Tesla vehicles. This tune from Wozniak comes with no surprise as the Apple co-founder has long held a critical stance against Tesla's Autopilot feature, saying that the current state of the technology is nowhere near the reality that Elon Musk has promised.

A letter sent by Twitter to affected users has revealed the platform experienced a glitch or, more accurately described as a "security incident" that leaked private tweets to the public.

The security incident can be traced back to Twitter Circles, a feature on the platform that enables users to select followers to join a private group where they can share tweets and other exclusive content. Twitter Circle is designed to be a private group of users that share exclusive content that doesn't or shouldn't, appear on Twitter's homepage. However, that very premise of the feature was undermined in early April when users began noticing followers that weren't in their Twitter Circle interacting with posts within their exclusive group.

In an email from Twitter obtained by Fortune, the platform explains that this security flaw enabled users that weren't within a Twitter Circle to see some content that was posted within it, presumably from Twitter's homepage. As you can probably imagine, Twitter Circle users were immediately concerned about the privacy of their Twitter Circle group, with one user even proving the security flaw in early April by posting screenshots of users liking his Twitter Circle's tweets that weren't a part of his Twitter Circle.

A new study published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature has detailed what is described as a very first observation of an aging star engulfing a planet.

NASA has taken to its blog to shine a light on the fascinating observation, which the researchers say is a glimpse into Earth's distant future as the same fate will befall our humble planet. According to the study, the star consumed the planet when it got close to its end of life, a stage in the star's life when its fuel begins to dwindle, and it grows in size, engulfing anything that gets too close. The planet was one of those unlucky objects, and as the star grew, its outer atmosphere surrounded the entire planet, causing the planet's orbit to shrink and eventually drop below the surface of the star.

When the planet sunk below the surface, it began to burn up like a meteor entering Earth's atmosphere. This energy exchange caused the star to grow in size and brightness temporarily. Researchers who observed the event reported the star becoming a few hundred times brighter before it returned to its normal size of brightness levels. Researchers used the Caltech-led Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) based at Palomar Observatory in Southern California and the NEOWISE observatory to observe the destruction of the planet.

Lockpick is a tool used to legitimately play Nintendo Switch games on PC, in that it's designed to work with games you own via accessing the physical files and keys. With the upcoming The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom leaking ahead of its launch, the creators of Lockpick have reportedly received a DMCA takedown notice from Nintendo.

One of Lockpick's programmers/contributors took to Twitter to confirm this by stating, "Nintendo has just issued multiple DMCA takedown requests to GitHub, including for Lockpick, the tool for dumping keys from your own Switch."

He argues that pirates that emulate software do not use keys from their own copies of games, though emulation has always been a legal grey area regarding what and what you cannot do with the physical copies of games you own.

The recent release of the PSVR 2 or PlayStation VR2 brought the latest generation of VR hardware to the PlayStation 5 in an affordable package bolstered by impressive specifications. OLED technology for the panel alongside a per-eye resolution of 2000 x 2040 pixels with a refresh rate of either 90Hz or 120Hz.

Throw in touch controllers, full inside-out tracking, and a single USB-C connection and you can see why this massive upgrade over the original PSVR for the PlayStation 4 became something VR enthusiasts everywhere were looking at. Of course, the PSVR 2 was designed exclusively for the PS5, with official or unofficial PC connectivity unavailable at launch.

Until now, with a new post over on the NeoGAF forums highlighting that PSVR 2 hardware authentication has been cracked for PC. The post from iVRy shows precisely that. What makes this exciting is that iVRy Driver for SteamVR is an application designed to use "iPhone, Android, GearVR, Oculus Mobile or a Sony PSVR headset as a Virtual Reality Headset for your PC."

RAM disks were a thing back when high-speed drives didn't exist, offering people improved speeds for specific tasks and operations. They're not intended to run fully-fledged operating systems like Windows 11, but this example is impressive.

Tiny11 is a lightweight version of Windows 11 that removes the bloat and strips the OS back to a size that can run on modest hardware. Recently we reported on a version called Live11 that managed to squeeze Windows 11 on a 4GB USB drive that could run on RAM without installation.

And with the ability to turn the VRAM of any GPU into a RAM drive, Tiny11 developers NTDEV have done just that and were able to get its cut-down version of Windows 11 running on a GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU with only 4GB of VRAM.