Sony and Microsoft may be direct competitors, but sales charts also show just how mutualistic the two companies are.

If nothing else, the FTC v Microsoft trial in 2023 taught us one important lesson: PlayStation and Xbox are as cooperative as they are competitive. Microsoft depends heavily on Sony's storefront to sell its games, including mega-hits like Minecraft and Call of Duty, and Sony in turn welcomes Microsoft's revenue contribution. This cooperation has evolved now that Microsoft has broken first-party Xbox game exclusivity.

Microsoft has grown considerably now that it owns Activision Blizzard King, so by virtue of its sheer size, it's not really a surprise that its games now have a larger share and populate multiple charts. To get a better idea of both Xbox's size and its synergistic relationship with Sony, we can take a quick look at best-selling games on the PlayStation Store.

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Earlier this week we got confirmed specifications on Sony's upcoming PlayStation 5 Pro, with many of the consoles innerworkings being revealed we learned Sony will be including a CPU with a 10% performance boost compared to the standard PS5. But what does this mean for gamers?

In a recent video by Digital Foundry, the gold-standard when it comes to reviewing gaming hardware and technology, a question was posed to the tech experts regarding the impact of the 10% CPU performance boost. The experts explained that a 10% increase in performance is likely to not be enough to enable developers to push CPU-bound titles from 30FPS to 40FPS, as the CPU would still need to require some headroom.

However, it's probable that 40FPS may be enabled for titles that already run at 30+FPS on the standard PS5. While the aforementioned may be an option for developers, Sony is pushing for higher visual fidelity over framerate, with an emphasis on raytracing. This means that developers will likely choose to go for better graphics than framerate. However, the upgraded CPU should offer better stability in 40FPS modes, but the number of games utilizing this mode may be very limited.

Microsoft is testing a new idea for the Photos app in Windows 11, namely the ability to directly send an image you're editing in the client to Microsoft Designer.

The idea is to implement a 'Designer' button in the Photos application which when clicked sends the current image straight over to the Microsoft Designer site.

Designer is an online app that allows for considerable exercising of various AI abilities, so you can go to town on the image in question in that respect.

We've just had further bits of info drip through on next-gen Ryzen CPUs which suggest that Zen 5 desktop chips are set to arrive sooner rather than later.

What will presumably be the Ryzen 9000 series has already been the subject of a couple of recent leaks in beta BIOS releases from ASUS and MSI.

Well, now those hidden-away-mentions have become official, with both of those motherboard makers announcing up front that their new firmware for AM5 chipset toting boards supports next-gen Ryzen processors.

In a somewhat concerning development for people who are running Windows 11 without activating the OS, it appears that Microsoft is taking some initial steps - in testing - to punish those folks via its Edge browser.

Punish them how, exactly? Essentially by blocking off all access to any settings in Edge for those who haven't activated their Windows 11 (or Windows 10) installation.

Windows Report (via TechRadar) picked up on the move Microsoft has made which is being tested in Edge (the Canary version of the browser in preview).

A team of researchers has penned a new study detailing the use of a cheap NVIDIA chip to control a hypersonic weapon.

The new study published in Propulsion Technology, a Chinese academic journal, details a team of researchers using a NVIDIA Jetson TX2i module to control and perform real-time optimization of the fuel supply system of a scramjet engine used in an air-breathing hypersonic missile. Notably, NVIDIA intends the Jetson TX2i module to be a low-cost solution for edge-computing, or AI. More specifically, the module contains a CPU, GPU and memory, all for a low price of just a few hundred dollars.

Additionally, the Jetson TX2i module isn't subjected to US export restrictions laid against China, which has curbed the exportation of high-end, powerful GPUs. It appears China is demonstrating that even cheap NVIDIA silicon, or any other low-cost silicon, can be used to control some of the deadliest weapons on the planet and that even if an export ban has been placed on the nation, it will find a way to create and control these weapons with chips that only cost a couple hundred dollars.

Elon Musk has been at war against bots on X since he bought the company and his latest strategy to curb the spread of bots is to charge new users a fee to enable posting.

X began testing its "Not-A-Bot" program in New Zealand and the Phillipines in October last year, which involved charging users in those regions $1 to access the platform. Users that paid the $1 received features such as posting, replying, liking and bookmarking X posts.

It remains unclear how successful the test program was, but it appears it was at least somewhat successful as it will be expanded upon as Musk moves to combat "Current AI (and troll farms)" as they "can pass"are you a bot"with ease," wrote Musk on X.

NASA has confirmed in a new blog post that it will be sending a nuclear-powered Dragonfly, a newly designed rotorcraft, to Saturn's moon Titan.

The space agency took to its blog and explained it's made the decision to point the Dragonfly rotorcraft mission at Saturn's organic-rich moon Titan, enabling engineers to enter the final stages of the rotorcraft's development and testing. NASA explains the Dragonfly mission was confirmed with a total lifecycle cost of $3.35 billion and a launch date of July 2028, which is a cost that is two times what was originally proposed, and a delay of more than two years from the initial launch year of 2019.

Due to funding constraints, NASA had to re-juggle the Dragonfly mission, and to compensate for the delay, NASA has added a more powerful rocket that will reduce the time it takes to arrive at its destination. Engineers have equipped the rotorcraft with eight rotors and various scientific instruments. When flown, it looks like a large drone. It's expected that Dragonfly will arrive at Titan in 2034, and once it does, it will mark the first time that "NASA will fly a vehicle for science on another planetary body," writes the space agency.

NASA officials announced on April 15 that the initial plan to get the Mars samples collected by NASA's Perseverance rover is now deemed impractical.

NASA's Mars rover Perseverance has been exploring the Red Planet's desolate landscape since 2021 and collecting samples along the way. These samples are precious as they could contain evidence of ancient microbial life that once lived on Mars, which would mean Earth isn't the only planet capable of hosting life, giving credence to the theory that many planets throughout the universe could also be hosting life. However, we won't know for sure until NASA returns to the samples back to Earth for an in-depth analysis.

Here lies the problem. NASA's initial plan for returning the samples has been plagued by delays, cost overruns, and long timelines. An example of how bad costs have gotten came from an independent review board that estimated in 2020 NASA's return mission would cost anywhere between $2.5 and $3 billion. Now NASA is saying its mission would cost $11 billion, and the samples wouldn't be returned until 2040, with previous estimates putting the return timeline in the 2030s.

Just when you thought Elden Ring was hard enough, a gamer demonstrated his patience and skill at the FromSoftware title by tackling it from start to finish using just a single button and Morse code.

The persistence, patience and resilience of gamers never fails to impressive me, especially when a gamer decides to purposefully make the game they are playing harder than necessary to create a unique challenge. Twitch streamer Silithur embarked on one of these adventures and decided to test his patience in Elden Ring only equipped with a button, Morse code, and a dream of beating the entire game.

On April 13 Silithur achieved what he set out to do, defeating the Elden Boss and becoming an Elden Lord. Elden Ring has become somewhat of a benchmark for gamers wanting to challenge themselves, as Silithur isn't the first to tackle the difficult game in an unconventional way, as back in April another Twitch streamer and psychology graduate beat the game using nothing but a brain signal controller. Another gamer took on Elden Ring with a dance pad, beating it with sweet moves.