And it is not just AI though, as the earnings shows that Nvidia has made plenty of money in its gaming division too. What is interesting is that the company's revenue shot up a massive 47% compared to last year despite actual sales being down 13% as opposed to the previous quarter. This clearly shows that Nvidia is reaping the benefits of the overpriced market conditions that users are currently facing.

This was confirmed during the earnings call by Nvidia's CFO Colette Kress who stated: "Gaming revenue for the fourth quarter was up 47% from a year ago, driven by strong Blackwell demand. Gaming revenue was down 13% sequentially as channel inventory naturally moderated following a season of strong holiday demand."

Kress further added that the normalization of the supply chain will take some time which means next gen GPUs will also be affected as Nvidia "expects supply constraints to be a headwind to Gaming in the first quarter of fiscal 2027 and beyond."

This is in line with previous reports which have suggested that Nvidia's RTX 6000 series cards are probably not going to land before 2028 (via The Information), though Nvidia has claimed it is doing its very best to fix such supply chain problems (via PCMag).

To be fair, it is not surprising in the least bit as other companies are also expected to miss earlier predicted product launches. For example, the Sony PS6 is not said to arrive later in 2029, and analysts are anticipating a massive price hike for SSDs similar to what memory is experiencing now.

Source: Nvidia Q4FY26 earnings (PDF)

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Posted Saturday 28 February 2026 at 5:01 am AEST (my time).

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The macOS 26.3 update from earlier this month referenced J427 and J527 codenames for Apple's monitor, suggesting there would be two versions of the Studio Display 2. It's also known that the next-generation Studio Display will come fitted with 120Hz ProMotion and HDR.

Macworld took the time to dig into Apple's system files and found that the two references are separate displays with differentiating features. While both J427 and J527 are expected to share the same core display capabilities, each monitor has a different audio driver, suggesting Apple might choose to include different speakers.

Right now, the Studio Display has a high-fidelity six-speaker system with force-cancelling woofers also found in the MacBook Pro. Apple might want to fit a high-end system, comparable to the HomePod, in the pricer monitor.

The J527 model supports more I/O controllers than the J427, as Apple might have planned to include more advanced ports while limiting the base model to the current setup, which includes three USB-C 10Gbps ports and one Thunderbolt 3 port.

The publication notes that Apple may have planned to launch the two models on different dates. That's because the J527 is internally labeled as a 2026 product and the J427 as a 2025 product. It could be possible that Apple chooses to put a larger 32-inch display on the pricier model with better audio and ports, rather than selling two 27-inch displays.

Whatever Apple has chosen for its next-generation Studio Display will most likely be revealed next week when it launches new products during its Spring event, including a low-cost MacBook, iPhone 17e, and other devices.

Source: Macworld

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Posted Saturday 28 February 2026 at 5:00 am AEST (my time).

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Google announced new Gemini-powered features for its Translate app on Android and iOS. According to Google, these new AI features are “designed to help you nail the tone of any conversation — from informal hangouts to professional meetings — when it matters most.”

New features should help you with idioms and colloquial expressions that aren’t part of official dictionaries. For example, if you ask it to translate a phrase like “It’s raining cats and dogs” to another language, it will find a matching expression in that language instead of translating literally.

The Translate app will get two new tabs where you can ask Gemini to give you more info about an expression you want to translate and ask follow-up questions. Once you enter a phrase for translation, you can tap the “Understand” tab, and Gemini will tell you everything you need to know about it. There’s also the “Ask” tab, where you can ask questions in natural language. For example, you can ask Gemini, “What’s the best way to say ‘beating a dead horse’ in Spanish?” and it will tell you the appropriate expression.

Gemini features are already available in the Translate app in the U.S. and India on Android and iOS, and are coming soon to the web.

Google Translate currently supports 249 languages, while Gemini supports over 100 languages for text generation and understanding. So, you won’t be able to use the AI features with every language on Google Translate, but the majority of the world’s languages are covered.

Source: Google

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Posted Friday 27 February 2026 at 12:04 pm AEST (my time).

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CEO Tim Cook fueled the anticipation by posting a teaser on X about a "big week ahead," starting Monday. Its video shows a random shape transforming into the Apple logo, similar to how it's engraved on the MacBook. So, let's talk about what all Apple products are expected to arrive at Apple's Spring event:

• Low-cost MacBook: Rumors have been running hot that Apple will launch a budget MacBook next week, fitted with an iPhone chip. Tim Cook's MacBook reference in the teaser video could be a hint in this direction. The low-cost MacBook is reportedly aimed at students and first-time buyers, prompting Apple to offer a platter of colors and keep the prices around $750.
• iPhone 17e: It was believed that Apple wasn't sure about it, but next week, we might see the eventual successor of the iPhone 16e. Apple's upcoming budget iPhone is expected to feature an A19 chip, Dynamic Island, C1X modem, and finally, MagSafe. The device might settle for a single 48MP camera at the back this time as well.
• iPad 12 and new iPad Air: Apple refreshed the base iPad in March last year. It's expected to repeat the same by introducing the iPad 12, fitted with the A18 chip and support for Apple Intelligence. Last year's iPad Air packs the M3 chip and is expected to get a refresh alongside the base iPad.
• Studio Display 2: The recent macOS 26.3 update references the J427 and J527 codenames, which are believed to be of two upcoming Studio Display models. A previous report said that Apple might launch its next-generation Studio Display during the first half of 2026. Let's hope Tim Cook's "big week ahead" includes this one after a four-year dry spell.
• M5 MacBook Air: Apple could follow last year's schedule and refresh the MacBook Air with the M5 chip next week.
• M5 Pro/Max MacBook Pro: Apple has already refreshed the 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M5 chip, but the flagship laptops have been packing M4 Pro/Max since 2024 for more power. The company didn't push any updates last year, but reports said it will bring M5 Pro and M5 Max options for the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro in Spring 2026.

There are several other Apple products that have been waiting for years for a refresh. The list includes Apple TV 4K, whose current generation was launched in 2022. A new Apple TV model was reportedly on track for last year, but that didn't happen. Meanwhile, the second-generation HomePod smart speaker was introduced back in 2023. Apple is reportedly working on an upgraded HomePod with a built-in display.

It remains to be seen what Apple has in store for next week, when it will launch multiple products. Let's hope the Cupertino giant doesn't pull the plug on more box accessories.

Image via DepositPhotos.com

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Posted Friday 27 February 2026 at 12:03 pm AEST (my time).

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The hardware in question is the 12GB LPDDR5X memory module used in the iPhone Air and the iPhone 17 Pro. Back in early 2025, these chips cost Apple roughly $30 a piece. Today, that price has surged to around $70.

The report comes from the South Korean investment website Dealsite and claims that Samsung and Apple held emergency supply meetings in the first half of 2026 to discuss memory shipments. Samsung opened the table with a 100% markup, and was reportedly willing to settle on 60%. But instead of pushing back, Apple reportedly accepted the deal immediately just to secure the inventory.

9to5Mac’s Ben Lovejoy finds the report suspicious. Ben emphasizes that such meetings are usually attended by senior executives, which makes it unlikely for such important details to leak to a media outlet just like that. That is, unless someone at Samsung was so proud that they pushed Apple, a notorious negotiator, to accept their terms that they openly bragged about it.

If we look at the bigger picture, the report’s accuracy is actually less relevant. The obvious reality here is that this shortage is entirely driven by the tech industry neglecting consumer hardware to chase the AI server market. Some major chipmakers like SK Hynix have already abandoned their consumer hardware departments, while others are redirecting most of their resources towards producing high-bandwidth memory for AI data centers. This makes standard mobile memory incredibly scarce.

Apple is currently the second most valuable company in the world, with a market cap of around $4 trillion. It can rely on its massive capital to absorb the price hikes without hurting too much. This also means that Apple is paying a figurative "tax" for not being involved with AI as much as the rest of Big Tech.

This situation still creates a massive ripple effect. When the wealthiest buyer in the room completely surrenders its negotiating leverage, it gives suppliers a green light to squeeze the rest of the mobile industry, or the tech industry in general, even harder.

If Apple is willing to instantly pay double just to survive the current manufacturing squeeze, smaller smartphone brands might soon find themselves completely priced out of building competitive devices. If we look at the market as the food chain, it’s obvious that those at the bottom, which are consumers, will feel the most consequences.

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Posted Friday 27 February 2026 at 6:18 am AEST (my time).

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In an illustration of the severity of the current memory shortage, HP Inc. CFO Karen Parkhill said that RAM has gone from accounting for “roughly 15 percent to 18 percent” of HP PCs’ bill of materials in its fiscal Q4 2025 to “roughly 35 percent” for the rest of the year.

Parkhill was speaking during HP’s Q1 2026 earnings call, where the company said it expects the total addressable market for its Personal Systems business to decline by double digits this calendar year, as higher prices hurt customer demand.

“We have seen memory costs increase roughly 100 percent sequentially, and we do forecast that to further increase as we move into the fiscal year,” Parkhill said, per a transcript of the call by Seeking Alpha.

HP expects its financials to be most severely impacted by the RAM shortage in the second half of its fiscal year.

“We are seeing increased input costs driven primarily by the rising prices of DRAM and NAND,” Bruce Broussard, HP’s interim CEO and director, said. “We expect this volatility to remain throughout fiscal [year 2026] and likely into fiscal [year 2027].”

RAM shortage drives higher prices, lower specs

HP’s CFO noted that a third of the margin for HP’s Personal Systems business comes from non-RAM-related categories, including IT services and peripherals. However, HP has also raised PC prices to keep making money while paying significantly more for RAM.

Like other OEMs, HP has been trying to get customers interested in PCs with lower RAM specs to meet demand without depleting its limited and expensive memory supply. Analysts this year have warned about PC price hikes in the 15 to 20 percent range, as well as leaner RAM specifications on low- to mid-tier configurations.

“We also want to leverage part of our broad portfolio with silicon diversity so that we can offer different choices to customers in order to ensure how we do the demand-supply equation matching and also introduce low memory configurations,” Ketan Patel, president of HP’s Personal Systems business, said. The executive also pointed to releasing cheaper products that have fewer features.

Another strategy HP has employed to protect its profits is to leverage long-term agreements to maintain its “supply coverage,” Patel said during the call.

Broussard said that to mitigate the impacts of the memory shortage, HP has added new suppliers and cut “the time to qualify new material in half to accelerate our product configuration changes.” He added that HP has also lowered its logistics costs with AI-driven “end-to-end planning processes.”

HP’s Personal Systems business reported an 11 percent year-over-year (YoY) increase in revenue for the quarter at $10.3 billion. Consumer PC unit sales increased 14 percent YoY, while business PC unit sales increased 11 percent YoY.

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Posted Thursday 26 February 2026 at 11:43 am AEST (my time).

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Prior to leading Hexe's development, Hocking worked on Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, and Far Cry 2 during his first stint with Ubisoft. Later he went on to work at studios such as Valve, Amazon, and LucasArts before returning to Ubisoft to lead Watch Dogs: Legion development.

"We sincerely thank [Clint] for his vision, creative contributions, and dedication over the years, and we wish him the very best in his next chapter," a Ubisoft spokesperson told VGC today, confirming the departure. "Development on Assassin’s Creed Codename Hexe continues with a seasoned team."

The change comes only days after Ubisoft made major changes to the internal Assassin's Creed development team structure. This saw Martin Schelling, Jean Guesdon, and François de Billy moving to leadership roles for the entire franchise, a trio that has experience developing and shipping blockbusters like Black Flag, Origins, and Valhalla.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot also confirmed recently that multiple Assassin's Creed (and Far Cry) games are in development. Other than Hexe, this is said to include a multiplayer experience and the long-rumored Black Flag remake. None of the projects have release windows attached to them just yet.

"The game will deliver something distinctive within the Assassin’s Creed franchise," Ubisoft had added regarding Hexe. "We look forward to sharing more information in the future."

The company has been having a tough year so far, with major project cancelations and multiple layoff waves already confirmed. Hocking isn't the only major departure from Ubisoft recently either, with The Division series boss Julian Gerighty also leaving the studio in January to join EA's Battlefield Studios.

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Posted Thursday 26 February 2026 at 5:05 am AEST (my time).

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Intel's foray into hybrid-core processors could be coming to an end. A job listing posted on LinkedIn shows that the company is hoping to hire a senior CPU verification engineer to join its "Unified Core" team that is based in Austin, Texas. The listing is no longer accepting applications, and it was only live for about three days.

According to the job listing, Intel is hoping to land a new engineer who "will be responsible for driving and executing the functional correctness of CPU logic designs through rigorous pre-silicon verification methodologies."

This signals that Intel is still a few years away from launching a Unified Core CPU, which has been rumored to be coming after Razer Lake (which itself is expected to be the successor to the upcoming Nova Lake generation).

A verification engineer's job begins far ahead of any sort of consumer-facing news, so it's not a stretch to believe that a potential shift back to a Unified Core architecture would arrive in 2029 or 2030.

What's the difference between Unified Cores and Hybrid Cores?

Meta has struck a multi-billion dollar chip deal with AMD that could lead to the Facebook owner taking a 10 percent stake in the group, sending shares in the US chipmaker surging on Tuesday.

The social media giant said it would acquire customized chips with a total capacity of 6 gigawatts from AMD as it races to develop and deploy its AI models.

AMD’s chief executive Lisa Su said that “each gigawatt of compute is worth double-digit billions” under the deal.

AMD also issued Meta with a performance-based warrant, giving it the option to acquire up to 160 million AMD shares in tranches at an exercise price of $0.01, as the Facebook owner buys successive orders of processors.

The shares-for-chips arrangement represents the latest “circular” transaction in the industry and mirrors a deal AMD struck with OpenAI in October, in which the ChatGPT maker was offered a 10 percent stake in the chip group over time.

Shares in AMD, which has a market capitalization of $320 billion, surged 14 percent in pre-market trading on Tuesday.

The transaction is also the latest sign that Big Tech customers are looking to diversify supply away from market leader Nvidia, which last week announced its own multiyear deal with Meta to supply it with “millions” of its chips over the coming years.

Meta will receive its first tranche of AMD shares in the second half of this year when the first gigawatt of chips is shipped, Su said. The terms of the warrant are also tied to certain share price thresholds, escalating to $600 for the final tranche. The warrant expires in February 2031.

“In some sense, Meta is taking a big bet on AMD, and we are also giving Meta a chance to participate if AMD shareholders do well,” Su said. “From a financial standpoint, each gigawatt of compute is worth double-digit billions.”

Su said the warrant structure would help “make sure that we are always a clear seat at the table when [Meta] are thinking about what they need next.”

Meta’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said he expected AMD to be “an important partner for many years to come.”

Meta has said that it will almost double its AI infrastructure spending this year to as much as $135 billion, as US tech giants rush to build the data centers to train and run AI software. It is already one of AMD’s biggest AI chip customers.

“We don’t believe that a single silicon solution will work for all of our workloads,” said Santosh Janardhan, Meta’s head of infrastructure. “There’s a place for Nvidia, there’s a place for AMD and… there’s a place for our own custom silicon as well. We need all three.”

Under the deal, AMD will build a custom version of its MI450 AI chips for Meta. They will be used primarily for “inference” workloads, the process of running models after they have been trained.

The chips need 6 gigawatts of power—equivalent to the amount required by 5 million US households for a year.

Increasingly creative funding arrangements to support massive AI infrastructure build-outs have emerged in recent years, leading to warnings about circular financing.

AMD has, for example, helped data center builder Crusoe secure a $300 million loan from Goldman Sachs by offering a backstop guaranteeing the use of its chips if Crusoe is unable to find customers after installing them in an Ohio facility.

Tech giants such as Meta, historically flush with cash, are meanwhile facing the prospect of tapping bond and equity markets or stemming capital returns to shareholders to help fund their unprecedented infrastructure plans. The Facebook and Instagram parent raised $30 billion in October, marking its biggest bond sale to date.

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Posted Wednesday 25 February 2026 at 3:45 am AEST (my time).

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With the rise of AI in the tech industry in recent years — generative AI, in particular — it's hardly a surprise that its use in gaming has quickly become a hot-button issue. Just a few months ago, Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian Studios came under fire for revealing it uses generative AI for ideation for its upcoming RPG Divinity, and many game dev executives like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's director have weighed in on the topic.

In December, Todd Howard — the executive producer and game director at The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, and Starfield developer Bethesda — shared his thoughts on AI, explaining that he views it as a tool that can and should be used to aid the development process instead of replace human art and creativity. Now, he's further elaborated on what he means.

"Look, it's certainly not a fad. The AI answer now becomes, 'ask me in six months,' right? It changes so much what you're seeing out there. For us, we're being incredibly cautious, kind of viewing it like a tool, like an analyst. [Using it to] look at the data in our games," Howard told Kinda Funny Games in a recent podcast. "We're not using it to generate anything — there's such an element of artistic intention that is essential to what we do and what others do ... this idea of craftsmen. I still think craftsmen and handcrafted human intention is what makes things special, and that's where we want to be."

Ultimately, Howard and Bethesda as a studio consider human creativity and intention to be extremely important, and say they have no plans to use AI to generate in-game content for its upcoming games. With that said, he does say it has potential to help the developers with "big data tasks."

"But you can't ignore it, in terms of, 'it's coming, it's changing' — every few months there's a new model, particularly in the tech side with code or productivity or other things, and I'll just say we're looking at that stuff," Howard continued. "We're not fully ignoring it because where it can help us get better at some big data tasks that take us a lot of time that we just wish were done now so we can move on to the creative stuff — that's kinda where our heads are. But I think it's still very very early days."

While many expected this to be a single robot incursion, the developer confirmed today that two new ARC units are coming in to harass players with the Shrouded Sky update tomorrow, February 24.

From the duo, the Firefly is described as a "floating nightmare," thanks to its armored nature and attached flamethrowers for cooking up anything in its way. The armor will make it a tough foe to fight in a panic, especially if being swarmed with other ARC types. As always, the white, unarmored parts of the robot will be the best places to shoot to knock it out quickly.

Next, the Comet will be rolling towards players much like a Fireball or Pop, but this one's ability is described as a "seismic boom" explosion. Comets will also be found outdoors, unlike most other rolling machines. It certainly sounds like stunning players will be its method of attack.

Meanwhile, setting the snow aside, it's time for the land above to get hit with hurricanes for the next few months.

"As a Hurricane hits the Rust Belt, Raiders face new challenges to their looting and shooting," says Embark, describing the dangerous new map condition. "The wind will batter you, debris will light up your shield while degrading its protection, and visibility will scatter your sense of direction - but it might just be worth it for those First Wave Raider Caches that have been unearthed along the surface."

Of course, a new map condition means a brand-new project is available for players to complete in ARC Raiders too. This will be a Weather Monitor System for Shani. Players can collect specific loot and contribute towards this project for fresh rewards. Moreover, there's a new Raider Deck to complete, fresh facial hair options, and a map update to Dam Battlegrounds with new loot areas that will be landing as free content with this update too.

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Posted Tuesday 24 February 2026 at 1:46 pm AEST (my time).

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What a way to start the week.

After over a decade running Xbox and almost 40 years at Microsoft, Phil Spencer is stepping down. I'm told Spencer officially exits in October later this year. As implied in his previous email to staff, Spencer will spend much of the next year helping incoming CEO Asha Sharma acclimate to what might end up being the most challenging period in her professional career.

As of February 2026, Xbox is at a cross roads. The next couple of years will not only reveal whether or not Xbox survives as an entity within Microsoft, but also define whether or not Microsoft still wants to have any consumer-facing businesses whatsoever.

Farewell to Phil Spencer, the man who saved Xbox

Xbox fans had been anticipating the retirement of Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer for years, but what most hadn’t expected was the departure of Xbox president Sarah Bond too. For many outside the company, Bond seemed like Spencer’s natural successor, a deputy of sorts.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Microsoft CFO Amy Hood clearly didn’t agree.

Instead of picking Bond for the role, Microsoft promoted Asha Sharma, a former Microsoft AI executive, to the top of Xbox. The decision to overlook Bond might have surprised many Xbox fans, but for the more than a dozen current and former Microsoft employees I’ve been speaking to, it’s felt inevitable in recent months.

Phil Spencer, Microsoft’s long-term Xbox chief, made the decision to resign from Microsoft last year after a tough few years for Xbox. The giant Activision Blizzard acquisition had dragged on for far longer than Microsoft had anticipated, and the need to grow the business saw Microsoft walk away from Xbox-exclusive games in favor of a multiplatform strategy. Microsoft has also been trying to reinvent the Xbox brand beyond the console, with mixed results.

Spencer’s decision led to months of careful successor planning. It was announced to the world on Friday, but it was supposed to be today. Microsoft was forced to announce early because it started to leak and IGN was planning to run a story, according to sources familiar with the situation.

That kicked off a day of chaos, where teams inside Xbox were hearing the news first through reporters and news outlets, instead of via internal memos. The team running Sarah Bond’s social media accounts was so unprepared that a LinkedIn post inviting people to provide feedback about Xbox accessibility features went live just before her departure was announced. It sat there for hours, until Bond’s team eventually posted her own memo.

Microsoft executives shared four memos with Xbox teams on Friday, but only Phil Spencer mentioned Bond. Satya Nadella, Microsoft Gaming EVP Matt Booty, and new Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma all had kind words for Spencer, but no mention of Bond. Even Bond’s own memo to her teams didn’t arrive until hours after the announcement and wasn’t part of Microsoft’s blog.

Some Xbox employees I’ve been speaking with saw the writing on the wall for Bond last year. She was promoted to Xbox president in October 2023, just days after Microsoft finalized its $68.7 billion deal to acquire Activision Blizzard. Bond had been crucial in getting the deal over the line with regulators and slowly started to become the face of Xbox as Spencer took on the complicated duties of integrating a huge new business into Microsoft Gaming.

Six months after Bond’s promotion, Xbox executive Kareem Choudhry, who reported directly to Bond, departed Microsoft and triggered another shake-up of some teams inside Xbox. Choudhry was key to Xbox’s backward compatibility support and helped bring Xbox Cloud Gaming to life as xCloud in 2019.

Just weeks after Choudhry departed, former Xbox chief marketing officer Jerret West also left Microsoft in June 2024. That meant the Xbox marketing team was now reporting directly to Bond. A month later, Microsoft delivered a marketing campaign that signalled people didn’t need to buy an Xbox console anymore. The message was that “you don’t need an Xbox to play Xbox,” because games were available through Xbox Cloud Gaming on TVs.

This was all part of the “Xbox everywhere” strategy that Bond had been pursuing, a vision to move the Xbox brand beyond its roots in console hardware. Months later the “This is an Xbox” campaign launched, with commercials that positioned a phone or a tablet as an Xbox instead of just a console. It was a confusing campaign, and I’m told it offended many Xbox employees internally.

“This is an Xbox” also debuted months after Bond appeared on stage at the Bloomberg Technology Summit and announced an Xbox mobile gaming store that was supposed to launch in July 2024. It still doesn’t exist almost two years later. Although attempts to redefine Xbox were clearly tied to the mobile store efforts, Microsoft still went ahead with “This is an Xbox” after the store was delayed.

The pivot away from console, led by Bond, under Spencer’s direction, hasn’t gone well for Xbox. Microsoft’s Xbox hardware revenue has declined for three financial years in a row, and it looks like those declining revenues are going to continue throughout fiscal 2026.

Most of the current and former Xbox employees I’ve spoken to in recent days are relieved that Bond is leaving Microsoft. I’ve heard from multiple sources that Bond has been tough to work with, and built a team structure that meant if you didn’t follow the vision or questioned it, you were out. Most have praised her ability to strike partnerships with companies and developers, though.

I wrote in December 2024 that Bond had “staked her career reputation on the idea of Xbox being everywhere, across multiple platforms and devices.” This also involved carefully managing her image both internally and externally, making her appear to be a gamer like Phil Spencer. In reality, she wasn’t.

I understand that Bond’s strategy had been failing internally and been questioned multiple times. Bond had tried to push mobile and cloud over console, to reach potentially millions more Xbox customers, but the result has been a classic case of chasing tomorrow’s customers by neglecting today’s.

Phil Spencer’s retirement has seemed inevitable to Xbox employees, particularly over the past year. In February last year, Spencer took a long vacation, and I’m told some teams had to wait weeks for sign-off on some key changes. Shortly after this vacation, rumors started circulating inside Microsoft that Spencer was getting ready to retire. Microsoft was eventually forced to deny the rumors in July, claiming Spencer wouldn’t be retiring “anytime soon.”

With Spencer’s retirement official, Microsoft is hitting the reset button on Bond’s Xbox strategy instead of embracing it further. Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma is now promising “the return of Xbox,” in a clear message to employees that the strategy over the past few years has not been working. “I want to return to the renegade spirit that built Xbox in the first place,” says Sharma.

Xbox employees I’ve been speaking to have been concerned about the Sharma appointment, particularly because of her previous role as an AI executive at Microsoft. There is also concern about her lack of industry experience in entertainment and gaming. Sharma has been clear she’s not a gamer and has spent the weekend responding to people on X and even taking game recommendations.

Some Xbox employees worry she’ll force AI into everything Xbox does, but Sharma was clearly ready for that reaction. “As monetization and AI evolve and influence this future, we will not chase short-term efficiency or flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop,” said Sharma in her memo. “Games are and always will be art, crafted by humans, and created with the most innovative technology provided by us.”

The other concern is that she’s been appointed by Nadella as some kind of executioner of the Xbox console. Her memo doesn’t suggest that, and Microsoft could have easily appointed Matt Booty into that kind of role to push game publishing instead of the Xbox console. I get the impression from sources that Microsoft wants a turnaround and is worried about losing Xbox, as it’s one of its only remaining successful consumer brands.

Those who know Sharma better describe her as enthusiastic, willing to learn, and very capable of getting teams to execute on a clear vision rather than coming in as a product executioner. She also has a history at Instacart and Meta of overseeing platform launches and getting people to use products, the type of user acquisition that Xbox has failed at in recent years.

Sharma’s non-gaming credentials don’t mean she can’t do a good job at Xbox, but it will still be a tough gig to step into the shoes of Phil Spencer, who is widely respected inside and outside of Microsoft. He will be remembered for the impact he had in turning Xbox around more than a decade ago. Xbox could have easily died after the Xbox One disaster, but Spencer made transformative decisions that have benefited the entire gaming industry.

Xbox led the way in consumer-friendly decisions like crossplay, or allowing consumers to buy a game once and play it across both PC and console. Under Spencer’s watch, Game Pass has also forced competitors to offer similar subscription services.

Spencer is also departing at a time when the Xbox Series S / X generation has failed to put a dent in Sony’s PlayStation sales and during a period of turmoil in the game industry and within Xbox. Layoffs and studio closures have plagued the Xbox division after the Activision Blizzard acquisition, and there are big questions about Microsoft’s gaming acquisitions, the side effects of its Game Pass push, and the future of the Xbox console itself. Spencer won’t be here to answer them anymore.

Sharma now has the opportunity to define the next 25 years of Xbox, and we’re about to find out if she can turn Xbox around and execute on a clearer strategy. “The next 25 years belong to the teams who dare to build something surprising, something no one else is willing to try, and have the patience to see it through,” says Sharma. “We have done this before, and I am here to help us do it again.”

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Posted Tuesday 24 February 2026 at 3:26 am AEST (my time).

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Paul's Hardware (1.54m subscribers)

February 22, 2026

Video length: 13m 39s

0:00 Welcome to Paul’s Tech News - February 22, 2026

2:01 Hardware Shortage Spreads, More Products Impacted; Glint of hope for RAM

5:50 Zen 6 CPU core configs leak, but launch may be delayed to 2027

7:55 Intel Confirms Continued GPU development with "Xe Next"

TECH BRIEFS

9:31 GPU Olympics - high-wattage vbios leaks and shattered 5090

10:52 Discord's age verification rollout has ties to Palantir

11:55 Microsoft AI Exec Asha Sharma Named New Xbox Boss

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Posted Monday 23 February 2026 at 3:48 am AEST (my time).

News posts: 2023 5,800+ | 2024 5,700+ | 2025 5,700+ | 2026 (to end of January) 461

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Quick links:

1. Windows 10 and 11
2. Windows Insider Program
3. Updates are available
4. Reviews are in
5. Gaming news

Windows 11 and Windows 10

Here, we talk about everything happening around Microsoft's latest operating system in the Stable channel and preview builds: new features, removed features, controversies, bugs, interesting findings, and more. And, of course, you may find a word or two about older versions.

This week, Microsoft shared more news about the Extended Security Updates program for Windows 10. In addition to regular consumers, who can remain supported until October 2026, Microsoft is giving some extra updates for Windows 10 2016 LTSB and Windows Server 2016 for businesses that are willing to pay Microsoft $61 per device. Unlike the consumer version of the program, ESU for these editions is not limited to just 12 months.

Ericsson may not be the first company to come to mind when it comes to Windows 11 and hardware support, but it just made an important improvement to Windows 11. Ericsson Enterprise 5G Connect has been validated by Microsoft for enterprise users leveraging 5G Surface devices on the go. This solution is capable of automatically connecting to the best available 5G network, both on the private and public cloud, while being invisible to the user. Since all of this happens in the background, customers don't need to worry about troubleshooting and diagnosing network issues.

Windows Insider Program

Here is what Microsoft released for Windows Insiders this week:

In addition, Microsoft released a highly-requested feature for Paint. With the latest update, which is available in the Canary and Dev channels, users can finally enjoy freeform rotate. Previously, it was only possible to rate a selection by 90 or 180 degrees. Besides that, it seems that Microsoft is adding image support to Notepad for whatever reason.

Updates are available

This section covers software, firmware, and other notable updates (released and coming soon) delivering new features, security fixes, improvements, patches, and more from Microsoft and third parties.

This week was rich in browser updates. Google, for one, patched a critical security vulnerability in Chrome, which was already exploited in the wild. If you use Google Chrome, make sure you are on version 145.0.7632.75 or newer. The vulnerability affects both Windows and macOS. A minor update with similar changes arrived for Firefox, with version 147.0.4 fixing a bug with blank new tab pages, and a single security vulnerability. By the way, Mozilla is finally ending Firefox 115 ESR support, the final version for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1.

There were plenty of announcements for Microsoft Edge. Version 145 arrived in the Stable Channel for all users, offering some useful changes, such as a better password manager, enhanced Read Aloud, and more. Following that, Microsoft pushed Edge 146 to the Beta Channel with some important announcements. For one, Microsoft is dropping macOS 12 Monterey support. Edge 150 will be the final update for those still on macOS 12. Also, Microsoft is discontinuing the custom password feature for autofill, switching users to systemwide authentication for better security and convenience.

In addition, Microsoft is testing a new Edge trick for enterprises that could change how browser updates reach your workplace PC. This change should make it easier for IT Admins to manage browser updates. Finally, Edge for Business Edge received direct Copilot integration for Office documents and YouTube.

Moving from browsers to software, we have some news for Teams users. Microsoft 365 Copilot users can now automate project summaries and data monitoring with new "scheduled prompts" in the Teams Workflows app. There is also a new nag to select the default browser and install Edge, a new consolidated device settings hub, and more.

Microsoft also released a big update for OneDrive on macOS. The client for Microsoft's cloud storage now has Liquid Glass to look better on macOS 26 Tahoe, a reworked activity center, and a lot more. It is a big feature release, and if you use OneDrive on macOS, it should make your experience a lot better.

Microsoft decided to retire one feature in Outlook because it was causing users too much confusion. Speaking of emails, a new report emerged about Microsoft uploading confidential emails for AI summarization, but the company quickly fixed the issue and explained that it was not an intentional behavior.

Here are other updates and releases you may find interesting:

• Microsoft announced a powerful tool for security teams using Defender.

• Microsoft is improving PowerShell and Windows OpenSSH in 2026.

   

Here are the latest drivers and firmware updates released this week:

• Intel 32.0.101.8509 WHQL. This update brought XeSS multi-frame generation to more graphics products from Intel, including discrete A and B Series graphics cards. Also, there are fixes for issues on Intel Core Ultra 300 Series processors and more.
• AMD released a new chipset driver. The latest release introduces some bug fixes and Windows 11 version 25H2 support to more drivers (keep in mind that the chipset driver is a set of multiple different drivers).

Reviews are in

Here is the hardware and software we reviewed this week

This week, Steven Parker reviewed the OneOdio Focus A1 Pro, budget-friendly over-ear headphones with noise cancellation, transparency mode, good battery life, Bluetooth 6, and more. At $49.99, these are pretty good.

Another review from Steven Parker was about the Geekom X14 Pro, a stunning 14-inch laptop with an AMOLED display, USB 4, Windows Hello, a good set of bundled accessories, and more. It is not the cheapest laptop out there, but it delivers quite a lot despite some quirks here and there.

Meanwhile, I got to try the GameSir G8+ MFi, a fantastic mobile controller with features like Hall Effect sticks and triggers, remappable back buttons, good build quality, and more. It is not the cheapest gamepad out there, but it makes up for that by providing great, reliable gaming on iPhone and Android.

On the gaming side

Learn about upcoming game releases, Xbox rumors, new hardware, software updates, freebies, deals, discounts, and more.

The biggest gaming story of this week and probably the current year so far is Phil Spencer's departure announcement. Microsoft's now-former gaming CEO is leaving the company after dedicating 38 years of his life to it. With Phil, Sarah Bond is leaving as well.

Due to the ongoing hardware crisis, manufacturers have problems with their existing consoles and future releases. Sony, for one, reportedly delayed the release of PlayStation 6 all the way to 2029, giving PlayStation 5 and Pro three more years on the market as the Japanese company waits for the RAM frenzy to calm down. The same problem hit Valve, which officially confirmed that the Steam Deck is in short supply in certain regions.

More bad news is coming from Ubisoft. The ill-fated publisher announced a new round of layoffs, which, this time, directly affects the maker of the Splinter Cell franchise, particularly those behind the remake that was announced in 2021. Despite all of that, Ubisoft is still working on new Assassin's Creed and Far Cry games.

Obsidian's fantasy RPG Avowed is now a year old, and to celebrate the occasion, the studio released the anniversary update with New Game+ mode, new races, and more. Additionally, the game is now available on PlayStation 5.

NVIDIA's GeForce NOW streaming service crossed a major milestone this week. The service now supports over 4,500 games, giving users a lot of titles to play in the cloud. As always, NVIDIA added new games, including KILLER INN, Diablo, and more.

This week's Weekend PC Game Deals article is here, offering you the latest batch of discounts on various titles across different PC storefronts, including the latest giveaway from the Epic Games Store. You still have time to grab a free copy of Return to Ash.

Other gaming news includes the following:

• Solid Snake is joining Rainbow Six Siege as a playable character next month.

• Cities: Skylines II gets its first update under new developer Iceflake.

• Bethesda updates Skyrim on Switch 2 with 60 FPS mode and much-needed fixes.

• Elder Scrolls VI won't be like Starfield, says Todd Howard, will return to 'classic style'.

• Microsoft is testing the Postgame Recaps feature on PC to highlight your gaming sessions.

• Minecraft Java Edition is upgrading to Vulkan, but it's not great news for mods.

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Posted Sunday 22 February 2026 at 12:02 pm AEST (my time).

News posts: 2023 5,800+ | 2024 5,700+ | 2025 5,700+ | 2026 (to end of January) 461

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Microsoft officially introduced Copilot+ AI PCs on May 20, 2024, sparking somewhat of a revolution that most major PC brands would be keen to sign up for as soon as possible.

This new wave of AI PCs was made possible at first by Qualcomm's Snapdragon X ARM-based Systems-on-Chip (SoC) with a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) designed for handling specific AI workloads locally on your device. It wouldn't take long for Intel and AMD to catch up with new processors of their own containing the same specialized NPU hardware.

Back in 2024, when the AI PC wave was just getting started, I wrote an explainer for our readers focusing on NPU, TOPS, and AI PCs in general. It quickly ballooned to about 1,500 words despite my attempts at keeping it trim.

At the time, many of us were convinced that the number of words needed to explain an AI PC would shrink. For example, Windows Central Senior Editor Ben Wilson, echoing my own thoughts, believed that a capable NPU would become the norm across all PCs, making the Copilot+ divide a thing of the past.

What were we thinking?

Two years later, and after selling countless AI PCs and jamming Copilot (not to be confused with Copilot+) into every corner of Windows, Microsoft has again attempted its own beginner explanation in the hopes of deciphering the topic.

Unfortunately, the AI PC landscape hasn't really gotten any simpler in that time, requiring a lengthy explanation just to relay the basics.

Here is the changelog:

• Security:
  • Strengthen your device’s security. We’ve addressed potential security vulnerabilities that may lead to unexpected shutdowns and privilege escalation.
• Reliability:
  • Be productive when using a virtual private network (VPN). We've resolved an issue where devices have no cellular network connectivity when using a VPN.
  • Ensure you have the correct connectivity settings. We’ve fixed an issue where your cellular setting changes to SIM card, overriding your previous eSIM selection.
  • Lead seamless video conference calls. We’ve resolved an issue that causes unexpected shutdowns during Microsoft Teams calls.
  • Get full functionality when your device is docked. We’ve addressed compatibility issues with Surface Dock 2.
  • Enjoy your favorite videos without disruptions. We’ve fixed an issue where Dolby Vision videos show a black screen with an error message that says playback isn’t authorized.

You can find the list of all new drivers included in the update here.

Here is extra information about the release:

While Microsoft does not require extra steps before or after installation, we recommend backing up your important data before installing Surface firmware updates. They are non-uninstallable, so make sure you have a backup of everything important in case things go sideways during installation.

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Posted Sunday 22 February 2026 at 3:59 am AEST (my time).

News posts: 2023 5,800+ | 2024 5,700+ | 2025 5,700+ | 2026 (to end of January) 461

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Amazon Web Services experienced a 13-hour interruption to one system used by its customers in mid-December after engineers allowed its Kiro AI coding tool to make certain changes, according to four people familiar with the matter.

The people said the agentic tool, which can take autonomous actions on behalf of users, determined that the best course of action was to “delete and recreate the environment”.

Amazon posted an internal postmortem about the “outage” of the AWS system, which lets customers explore the costs of its services.

Multiple Amazon employees told the FT that this was the second occasion in recent months in which one of the group’s AI tools had been at the centre of a service disruption.

“We’ve already seen at least two production outages [in the past few months],” said one senior AWS employee.

“The engineers let the AI [agent] resolve an issue without intervention. The outages were small but entirely foreseeable.”

AWS, which accounts for 60 per cent of Amazon’s operating profits, is seeking to build and deploy AI tools including “agents” capable of taking actions independently based on human instructions.

Like many Big Tech companies, it is seeking to sell this technology to outside customers.

The incidents highlight the risk that these nascent AI tools can misbehave and cause disruptions.

Amazon said it was a “coincidence that AI tools were involved” and that “the same issue could occur with any developer tool or manual action”.

“In both instances, this was user error, not AI error,” Amazon said, adding that it had not seen evidence that mistakes were more common with AI tools.

The company said the incident in December was an “extremely limited event” affecting only a single service in parts of mainland China.

Amazon added that the second incident did not have an impact on a “customer facing AWS service”.

Neither disruption was anywhere near as severe as a 15-hour AWS outage in October 2025 that forced multiple customers’ apps and websites offline — including OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Employees said the group’s AI tools were treated as an extension of an operator and given the same permissions. In these two cases, the engineers involved did not require a second person’s approval before making changes, as would normally be the case.

Amazon said that by default its Kiro tool “requests authorisation before taking any action” but said the engineer involved in the December incident had “broader permissions than expected — a user access control issue, not an AI autonomy issue”. AWS launched Kiro in July.

It said the coding assistant would advance beyond “vibe coding” — which allows users to quickly build applications — to instead write code based on a set of specifications.

The group had earlier relied on its Amazon Q Developer product, an AI-enabled chatbot, to help engineers write code. This was involved in the earlier outage, three of the employees said.

Recommended ExplainerFT Explains What makes us so vulnerable to cloud computing outages? Some Amazon employees said they were still sceptical of AI tools’ utility for the bulk of their work given the risk of error.

They added that the company had set a target for 80 per cent of developers to use AI for coding tasks at least once a week and was closely tracking adoption.

Amazon said it was experiencing strong customer growth for Kiro and that it wanted customers and employees to benefit from efficiency gains. “Following the December incident, AWS implemented numerous safeguards”, including mandatory peer review and staff training, Amazon added.

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During a new interview with Variety, Guillemot gave some teasers about what the company's numerous studios are working on.

"Under the Assassin’s Creed brand, several titles are in development, spanning both single-player and multiplayer experiences, with the ambition to further grow a community that exceeded 30 million players last year," said the CEO. "On Far Cry, anticipation is high, and we currently have two very promising projects in development."

It was only last year that Ubisoft released Assassin's Creed Shadows, finally taking the series to Japan as many fans have requested. However, it was 2021 when Far Cry 6 landed, giving plenty of opportunity for Ubisoft to bring the action series back. Both franchises are under the new subsidiary that it recently created alongside the Chinese conglomerate Tencent.

While he did not go into any detail about these games, previous reports have shed some light on the series' future.

The two Far Cry games are reported to be single-player adventures with a unique 24-hour time limit on the campaign, as well as an extraction shooter experience. As for Assassin's Creed, Ubisoft is said to be working on a Black Flag remake, a mystery RPG entry set during the witch trials, and a multiplayer game.

The company certainly needs some big releases to come in. So far in 2026, Ubisoft has announced layoff waves at Massive Entertainment (The Division, Avatar, Star Wars Outlaws) and Ubisoft Toronto (Splinter Cell remake, Far Cry 6, Watch Dogs: Legion). Moreover, it canceled seven titles in development, including the long-awaited Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake. Ubisoft Stockholm and Ubisoft Halifax studios were also shut down this year.

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Posted Saturday 21 February 2026 at 12:18 pm AEST (my time).

News posts: 2023 5,800+ | 2024 5,700+ | 2025 5,700+ | 2026 (to end of January) 461

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The new Microsoft Gaming CEO has been confirmed to be Asha Sharma, who is the President of Microsoft’s CoreAI product. Before joining Microsoft in 2024, Sharma served as the chief operating officer of Instacart and vice president of product at Meta. She is also a board member at The Home Depot.

According to an internal email sent by Phil Spencer to Microsoft staff, via IGN, the plan to step away from the Xbox CEO role had come up in a conversation with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in 2025.

"When I walked through Microsoft’s doors as an intern in June of 1988, I could never have imagined the products I’d help build, the players and customers we’d serve, or the extraordinary teams I’d be lucky enough to join. It’s been an epic ride and truly the privilege of a lifetime," added Spencer. "I’ll be cheering you on in this next chapter as Xbox’s proudest fan and player."

In another internal email addressing staff, the new Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma gave some hints as to how the future of Xbox will look.

She outlined three commitments: "First, great games." "Second, the return of Xbox." and "Third, future of play." She went on to say that the company will continue to invest in its franchises and studios, keep Xbox spreading across platforms to reduce barriers, while also inventing "business models and new ways to play."

"As monetization and AI evolve and influence this future, we will not chase short-term efficiency or flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop," Sharma added. "Games are and always will be art, crafted by humans, and created with the most innovative technology provided by us."

At the same time, the head of Xbox Game Studios, Matt Booty, has received a promotion. Now he will be directly reporting to Sharma as the Executive Vice President and Chief Content Officer.

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Posted Saturday 21 February 2026 at 12:17 pm AEST (my time).

News posts: 2023 5,800+ | 2024 5,700+ | 2025 5,700+ | 2026 (to end of January) 461

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The English-language edition of Wikipedia is blacklisting Archive.today after the controversial archive site was used to direct a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack against a blog.

In the course of discussing whether Archive.today should be deprecated because of the DDoS, Wikipedia editors discovered that the archive site altered snapshots of webpages to insert the name of the blogger who was targeted by the DDoS. The alterations were apparently fueled by a grudge against the blogger over a post that described how the Archive.today maintainer hid their identity behind several aliases.

“There is consensus to immediately deprecate archive.today, and, as soon as practicable, add it to the spam blacklist (or create an edit filter that blocks adding new links), and remove all links to it,” stated an update today on Wikipedia’s Archive.today discussion. “There is a strong consensus that Wikipedia should not direct its readers towards a website that hijacks users’ computers to run a DDoS attack (see WP:ELNO#3). Additionally, evidence has been presented that archive.today’s operators have altered the content of archived pages, rendering it unreliable.”

More than 695,000 links to Archive.today are distributed across 400,000 or so Wikipedia pages. The archive site, which is facing an investigation in which the FBI is trying to uncover the identity of its founder, is commonly used to bypass news paywalls.

“Those in favor of maintaining the status quo rested their arguments primarily on the utility of archive.today for verifiability,” said today’s Wikipedia update. “However, an analysis of existing links has shown that most of its uses can be replaced. Several editors started to work out implementation details during this RfC [request for comment] and the community should figure out how to efficiently remove links to archive.today.”

Editors urged to remove links

Guidance published as a result of the decision asked editors to help remove and replace links to the following domain names used by the archive site: archive.today, archive.is, archive.ph, archive.fo, archive.li, archive.md, and archive.vn. The guidance says editors can remove Archive.today links when the original source is still online and has identical content; replace the archive link so it points to a different archive site, like the Internet Archive, Ghostarchive, or Megalodon; or “change the original source to something that doesn’t need an archive (e.g., a source that was printed on paper), or for which a link to an archive is only a matter of convenience.”

The Wikipedia guidance points out that the Internet Archive and its website, Archive.org, are “uninvolved with and entirely separate from archive.today.” The Internet Archive is a nonprofit based in the US.

As we previously reported, malicious code in Archive.today’s CAPTCHA page was used to direct a DDoS against the Gyrovague blog written by a man named Jani Patokallio. The Archive.today maintainer demanded that Patokallio take down a 2023 blog post that discussed the archive site founder’s possible identity. Patokallio wasn’t able to determine who runs Archive.today but mentioned apparent aliases such as “Denis Petrov” and “Masha Rabinovich,” and described evidence that the site is operated by someone from Russia.

When we last wrote about this topic, the Archive.today maintainer told Ars Technica that it would not provide any comment on the Wikipedia discussion unless we removed references to Patokallio’s blog, which we did not do.

Archive.today maintainer sent threats

Patokallio told Ars today that he is pleased by the Wikipedia community’s decision. “I’m glad the Wikipedia community has come to a clear consensus, and I hope this inspires the Wikimedia Foundation to look into creating its own archival service,” he told us.

In emails sent to Patokallio after the DDoS began, “Nora” from Archive.today threatened to create a public association between Patokallio’s name and AI porn and to create a gay dating app with Patokallio’s name. These threats were discussed by Wikipedia editors in their deliberations over whether to blacklist Archive.today, and then editors noticed that Patokallio’s name had been inserted into some Archive.today captures of webpages.

“Honestly, I’m kind of in shock,” one editor wrote. “Just to make sure I’m understanding the implications of this: we have good reason to believe that the archive.today operator has tampered with the content of their archives, in a manner that suggests they were trying to further their position against the person they are in dispute with???”

“If this is true it essentially forces our hand, archive.today would have to go,” another editor replied. “The argument for allowing it has been verifiability, but that of course rests upon the fact the archives are accurate, and the counter to people saying the website cannot be trusted for that has been that there is no record of archived websites themselves being tampered with. If that is no longer the case then the stated reason for the website being reliable for accurate snapshots of sources would no longer be valid.”

Blog capture tampered with

One example discussed by Wikipedia editors involved Jani Patokallio’s name being inserted into an Archive.today capture of a blog post that was mentioned by Patokallio in his February 2026 write-up of the DDoS incident. This blog is related to the “Nora” alias used by the Archive.today maintainer, which now appears to be the name of an actual person.

“It appears increasingly likely that the identity of ‘Nora’ has been appropriated from an actual person, whose only connection to archive.today was a request to take down some content,” Patokallio wrote in an update to his blog today. “As a courtesy, I have redacted their last name from this post.”

Evidence presented in the Wikipedia discussion showed that Archive.today replaced Nora’s name with Patokallio’s name in the aforementioned blog post. The Archive.today capture has since been reverted to what appears to be the original version. In other cases, Archive.today captures included a “Comment as: Jani Patokallio” string on captures that previously had a “Comment as: Nora [last name redacted]” string.

Even if the snapshot alterations hadn’t helped convince Wikipedia’s volunteer editors to deprecate Archive.today, the Wikimedia Foundation itself might have stepped in. In its comments on the DDoS, the nonprofit that operates Wikipedia said on February 10 that it had not ruled out intervening due to “the seriousness of the security concern for people who click the links that appear across many wikis.”

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Posted Saturday 21 February 2026 at 6:13 am AEST (my time).

News posts: 2023 5,800+ | 2024 5,700+ | 2025 5,700+ | 2026 (to end of January) 461

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Amazon’s cloud unit has suffered at least two outages due to errors involving its own AI tools, leading some employees to raise doubts about the US tech giant’s push to roll out these coding assistants.

Amazon Web Services experienced a 13-hour interruption to one system used by its customers in mid-December after engineers allowed its Kiro AI coding tool to make certain changes, according to four people familiar with the matter.

The people said the agentic tool, which can take autonomous actions on behalf of users, determined that the best course of action was to “delete and recreate the environment.”

Amazon posted an internal postmortem about the “outage” of the AWS system, which lets customers explore the costs of its services.

Multiple Amazon employees told the FT that this was the second occasion in recent months in which one of the group’s AI tools had been at the center of a service disruption.

“We’ve already seen at least two production outages [in the past few months],” said one senior AWS employee. “The engineers let the AI [agent] resolve an issue without intervention. The outages were small but entirely foreseeable.”

AWS, which accounts for 60 percent of Amazon’s operating profits, is seeking to build and deploy AI tools including “agents” capable of taking actions independently based on human instructions.

Like many Big Tech companies, it is seeking to sell this technology to outside customers. The incidents highlight the risk that these nascent AI tools can misbehave and cause disruptions.

Amazon said it was a “coincidence that AI tools were involved” and that “the same issue could occur with any developer tool or manual action.”

“In both instances, this was user error, not AI error,” Amazon said, adding that it had not seen evidence that mistakes were more common with AI tools.

The company said the incident in December was an “extremely limited event” affecting only a single service in parts of mainland China. Amazon added that the second incident did not have an impact on a “customer facing AWS service.”

Neither disruption was anywhere near as severe as a 15-hour AWS outage in October 2025 that forced multiple customers’ apps and websites offline—including OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Employees said the group’s AI tools were treated as an extension of an operator and given the same permissions. In these two cases, the engineers involved did not require a second person’s approval before making changes, as would normally be the case.

Amazon said that by default its Kiro tool “requests authorisation before taking any action” but said the engineer involved in the December incident had “broader permissions than expected—a user access control issue, not an AI autonomy issue.”

AWS launched Kiro in July. It said the coding assistant would advance beyond “vibe coding”—which allows users to quickly build applications—to instead write code based on a set of specifications.

The group had earlier relied on its Amazon Q Developer product, an AI-enabled chatbot, to help engineers write code. This was involved in the earlier outage, three of the employees said.

Some Amazon employees said they were still skeptical of AI tools’ utility for the bulk of their work given the risk of error. They added that the company had set a target for 80 percent of developers to use AI for coding tasks at least once a week and was closely tracking adoption.

Amazon said it was experiencing strong customer growth for Kiro and that it wanted customers and employees to benefit from efficiency gains.

“Following the December incident, AWS implemented numerous safeguards,” including mandatory peer review and staff training, Amazon added.

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Posted Saturday 21 February 2026 at 6:12 am AEST (my time).

News posts: 2023 5,800+ | 2024 5,700+ | 2025 5,700+ | 2026 (to end of January) 461

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Google giveth, and Google taketh away. Two long-standing features are being removed from Gmail, and they both relate to how you access messages from other, non-Google email accounts through the Gmail interface.

The features we're talking about are Gmailify and POP access, and if you rely on them to consolidate multiple email accounts into your Gmail inbox, you're going to have to find a different approach. While Google hasn't given any reasons for the changes, it's likely that it wants to simplify Gmail, as well as encouraging users to spend more time checking their Google inbox rather than any others.

According to Google, these features will be closed to new users from the first quarter of 2026. For existing users, the functionality will remain until “later in 2026.”

Here's what you need to know, and what you can do next.

Gmailify

Gmailify is a service that Google introduced in February 2016 that enables you to import messages from Outlook or Yahoo accounts, and then add some extra Gmail-specific features on top. It adds spam filtering using Google's algorithms, and it adds Gmail’s inbox organization rules, so email is automatically organized into tabs like Social and Updates.

The feature uses a form of IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) technology to fetch emails from other accounts and let you interact with them. IMAP is a standard way of syncing emails—it's what modern desktop email clients use—but Google applied some special tricks to get it working through Gmail on the web and the Gmail mobile apps.

After the shutdown, the perks that Gmailify brought with it are going away, so you won't get the spam sorting and the category sorting for emails you’ve fetched from other accounts. You can still access third-party accounts through Gmail and IMAP—but without the extra Gmail magic, and only on mobile. For numerous technical reasons, IMAP is hard to implement on the web, and something Google probably doesn't think is worth the investment.

Accessing other accounts in Gmail on Android or iOS was available before Gmailify arrived, and will continue to be available. From the app, tap your profile avatar (top right), then Add another account. While Gmailify only worked with Outlook and Yahoo accounts, Google’s standard IMAP implementation should work with almost all third-party email platforms.

When using IMAP, the emails from your other accounts will appear in the Gmail interface, and can be read and replied to from there. However, they won't actually be stored in your Gmail account or count towards your Google storage. Everything gets synced instantly too. So, for example, deleting a Yahoo email in Gmail for Android would also delete it from your Yahoo email inbox.

POP Access

POP (Post Office Protocol) is an old standard for accessing emails that has effectively been replaced by IMAP now. Given its age, it's no surprise really that Google is retiring the feature in Gmail. However, POP has been a reliable, easy, and effective way of getting messages from third-party accounts into Gmail over the years.

POP has none of the clever syncing that IMAP uses. When Gmail fetches an email via POP, it can leave or delete the original email on the server. If you have several email apps accessing the same account via POP, you can end up with a different inbox in each of them, depending on which apps got to which emails first.

Despite its limitations, POP does have benefits. It downloads emails in full, so you can read them while offline and easily back them up to a drive. And even if you were to close down your other email accounts, your messages would still remain in Gmail (and count towards your Google storage) if you downloaded them to your Gmail inbox using POP. It's a handy way of dumping messages from a secondary account into Gmail for reference, though if it's something you rely on, you're going to have to find an alternative pretty soon.

Google recommends auto-forwarding emails from your other accounts—though you'll only be able to read messages (replying from Gmail using the original address won't be an option), and auto-forwarding isn't something every email provider offers. In the case of Yahoo Mail, for example, forwarding is a paid-for extra.

Your other options are to access your other accounts via IMAP in the Gmail mobile apps, or to go old-school and use a desktop email client (such as Outlook or Apple Mail). This will let you sync multiple accounts, including Gmail, into one interface via IMAP. However, neither of these options will get your other emails into Gmail on the web, which auto-forwarding would do.

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Posted Saturday 21 February 2026 at 6:10 am AEST (my time).

News posts: 2023 5,800+ | 2024 5,700+ | 2025 5,700+ | 2026 (to end of January) 461

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Top AI research labs have released sophisticated AI models and subsequent chatbots to cement their brand names in the ever-evolving landscape, which is honestly becoming difficult to keep up with. However, users often lodge complaints about these offerings, citing hallucinations or outrightly wrong responses to queries.

A research paper by Microsoft Research and Salesforce analyzed 200,000+ AI conversations from the most advanced Large Language Models (LLMs), including GPT-4.1, Gemini 2.5 Pro, Claude 3.7 Sonnet, o3, DeepSeek R1, and Llama 4, and revealed that these tools often get "lost in conversation" when tasks are broken into a natural, multi-turn conversation (via NeuroNad).

For context, AI models like GPT-4.1 and Gemini 2.5 Pro achieve 90% success rates with single prompts. However, their performance takes a significant hit, dropping to approximately 65% during lengthier, back-and-forth conversations.

Generative AI has seemingly turned into a buzzword in the tech industry; it's what everyone in the business is talking about right now. The technology is gaining widespread adoption worldwide despite claims that it's a bubble on the verge of bursting.

In 2024, Microsoft claimed that ChatGPT wasn't better than Copilot AI. The company indicated that users weren't using the product as intended, while pointing the finger at poor prompt engineering skills.

This recent study builds on this premise, as LLMs tend to deliver better results in single-turn conversations than in multi-turn ones. It further disclosed that the clear disparity in performance doesn't mean that the model has miraculously become dumber.

The researchers detail that the models' aptitude only decreased by 15%, but their unreliability skyrocketed by 112%. So what happened here exactly? The researchers indicated that AI models tend to suffer from premature generation, where they'd attempt to provide a solution for your query even before you're done with the explanation.

Yesterday, PlayStation made one of the most head-scratching decisions I’ve seen a major publisher make as it shut down one of its globally beloved studios, Bluepoint Games. Matching, maybe even surpassing the closure Microsoft handed to Tango Gameworks, Sony has done something that I can only ask, “But why?”

Bluepoint Games was the mastermind behind some of the most incredible remasters and remakes I’ve ever seen. Heck, let’s be truthful, Demon's Souls was quite possibly the best remake of all time, and that’s coming from a former die-hard Xbox guy.

When I opened Demon’s Souls for the first time in 2020, you could have told me it was an entirely new game, and I would have believed you. Nothing about it screamed 'remake' to me, and to this day, it feels like one of the best demonstrations of PlayStation's hardware potential.

What this closing does is further signal that the industry at large, and not just Microsoft, is facing massive issues. While the internet bemoaned the closure of Tango Gameworks (rightfully so), there have been a number of layoffs and studio sunsets in the last few months.