Apple says the iPhone had its “best-ever” quarter, with revenue hitting more than $85.3 billion over the past few months. The company announced the news as part of its Q1 2026 earnings report, which also revealed record-breaking revenue of $143.8 billion, up 16 percent when compared to the same time last year.

“The demand for iPhone was simply staggering, with revenue growing 23 percent year over year,” Apple CEO Tim Cook says during a call with investors. “This is the strongest iPhone lineup we’ve ever had, and by far the most popular.”

iPhone sales surged despite delays surrounding an AI-upgraded Siri, with the base iPhone 17 model offering many features previously exclusive to “Pro” level devices, including an always-on display and a screen with a higher refresh rate. Rumors that iPhone Air sales fell short of expectations didn’t seem to have a big impact, either.

The “high levels” of demand for the iPhone 17 have led to a “constrained” supply, according to Cook. He adds that the company is “seeing less flexibility in the supply chain” when it comes to the availability of the advanced process nodes that it uses to build the device’s chip. Meanwhile, Apple’s services revenue, which includes subscriptions like Apple Music, iCloud, and Apple TV, surged 14 percent year over year, while Mac and wearable revenue were down.

In the coming months, Apple will bring promised AI-powered personalization features to Siri. Apple is partnering with Google to power this upgrade, which will use a custom version of Google’s Gemini AI model.

The company is also acquiring an AI startup, called Q.ai, for $2 billion, according to the Financial Times. Though there aren’t any details on how Apple plans to use the startup’s technology, the Financial Times reports that Q.ai’s patents “show its technology being used in headphones or glasses, using ‘facial skin micro movements’ to communicate without talking.”

Rumors suggest that Apple has even bigger AI ambitions, as a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman suggests the company plans on turning Siri into an AI chatbot built directly into its iPhone and Mac. Apple is also reportedly working on an AI-powered web search tool for Siri.

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Posted Friday 30 January 2026 at 1:00 pm AEST (my time).

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Forza's official X account announced the update that adds improved Steam Deck support. If you have this Valve-made handheld, you can now properly use the virtual keyboard in the game.

In addition to that, the update improves the performance and stability of the game. Plus, developers fixed an exploit that allowed players to bypass the profanity filter. Here is the complete changelog from the official Forza support website:

Bug fixes and changes (Available from Jan 29)

 

• General
  • Performance and stability fixes.
  • Fixed an exploit that allowed players to bypass the profanity filter.
• Steam Deck Handhelds
  • Added virtual keyboard support for Steam Deck Handhelds.

The latest update for Forza Horizon 5 is available on Steam, Windows, and Xbox. It is not available on PlayStation 5. Sony's console is also not getting Forza Horizon 6 on its launch on May 19, 2026, with early access kicking off on May 15, 2026. However, the game is still coming to PlayStation 5, albeit at a later date. If you missed the game's showcase at the Xbox Developer Direct, you can find all the details here.

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Posted Friday 30 January 2026 at 12:58 pm AEST (my time).

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Gaming on Linux has already come a long way over recent years, with improvements to Valve’s Proton and more gamers switching to Linux, but the newly-formed Open Gaming Collective (OGC) is aiming to take it even further.

Universal Blue, developer of the gaming-focused Linux distribution Bazzite, announced on Wednesday that its helping to form the OGC with several other groups, which will collaborate on improvements to the Linux gaming ecosystem and “centralize efforts around critical components like kernel patches, input tooling, and essential gaming packages such as gamescope.”

The other founding members of the OGC include Nobara, ChimeraOS, Playtron, Fyra Labs, PikaOS, ShadowBlip, and Asus Linux.

Having a wide range of distros to choose from is one of the best parts of using Linux, but shared efforts around important gaming components should improve the experience across the board, resulting in “better hardware compatibility, fewer duplicated efforts, and a more unified Linux gaming experience.” As Bazzite’s announcement post puts it, “a win for one project becomes a win for everyone.”

It’s worth noting that this will mean some changes to Bazzite, which is switching to the OGC kernel, replacing HHD with InputPlumber as its input framework, and integrating features like RGB and fan control into the Steam UI. Bazzite also added that, “We’ll be sharing patches we’ve made to various Valve packages with the OGC and attempting to upstream everything we can.”

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Posted Friday 30 January 2026 at 12:15 pm AEST (my time).

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• The selling frenzy around Microsoft cut $357 billion off the software company’s market capitalization, leaving it at $3.22 trillion as of Thursday’s close.
• Analyst Ben Reitzes said Microsoft needs to build data centers more quickly.
• When it comes to allocating computing power, Microsoft is prioritizing internal applications, though some are not breakout hits.

Microsoft shares slid about 10% on Thursday following an earnings report that disappointed some investors, prompting the stock’s sharpest daily decline since March 2020.

The move trimmed the technology company’s market cap by $357 billion, leaving it at $3.22 trillion by the end of Thursday trading.

The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector exchange-traded fund tumbled 5% on Thursday, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite index finished the day down 0.7%. Not all of technology went down, though.

Meta shares spiked 10% after impressing analysts with robust results and quarterly revenue guidance on Wednesday.

Investors found a few imperfections in Microsoft’s report.

The all-important growth statistic for Azure and other cloud services came in at 39%, below StreetAccount’s 39.4% consensus. The company called for about $12.6 billion in fiscal third-quarter revenue from the More Personal Computing segment that includes Windows, lower than StreetAccount’s $13.7 billion consensus, and the implied operating margin for the new quarter also came up short.

Microsoft’s finance chief, Amy Hood, argued that the cloud result could have been higher if it had allocated more data center infrastructure to customers rather than prioritizing its in-house needs.

“If I had taken the GPUs that just came online in Q1 and Q2 in terms of GPUs and allocated them all to Azure, the KPI would have been over 40,” she said.

Analyst Ben Reitzes of Melius Research, with a buy rating on Microsoft stock, said during CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on Thursday that Microsoft should double down on data center construction.

“I think that there’s an execution issue here with Azure, where they need to literally stand up buildings a little faster,” he said.

Analysts at UBS led by Karl Keirstead questioned Microsoft’s choice to secure artificial intelligence computing capacity for products such as the Microsoft 365 Copilot productivity software add-on that has yet to succeed as much as OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

“M365 revs growth is not accelerating due to Copilot, many checks on Copilot don’t suggest a strong usage ramp (we plan to refresh our own checks in case we’ve missed a usage ramp) and the model market appears crowded and capital-intensive,” the UBS analysts wrote. “We think Microsoft needs to ‘prove’ that these are good investments.”

The negativity wasn’t universal across Wall Street. Bernstein analysts led by Mark Moerdler, with the equivalent of a buy rating on Microsoft shares, applauded Microsoft’s decision-making.

“Investors need, we believe, to understand that management made a cognizant decision to focus on what is best for the company long term rather than driving the stock up this quarter or even over last quarter and a few quarters to come (as capacity constraints likely abate),” the analysts wrote in a Thursday note.

Hood called for capital expenditures to decline slightly in the current quarter.

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One such stat shows how much these major players paid in fines in 2025 alone. And what’s even more astonishing is how effortless it was for them to pay those fines.

According to Proton’s new “Big Tech fines” report, Google, Apple, Meta, and Amazon racked up approximately $7.8 billion in fines in 2025. The reasons ranged from privacy breaches and antitrust violations to data misuse.

But for these companies, with combined free cash flows exceeding $289 billion annually, paying off the entire year's penalties would take just 28 days and 48 minutes. I know people who would take longer to pay a speeding ticket.

The table below shows the biggest fines paid by Big Tech in 2025, and how long it took them to pay those fines:

Proton's Big Tech fines tracker explains: "Free cash flow (FCF) is a measure Alphabet defines as 'amount of cash generated by the business that can be used for strategic opportunities, including investing in our business and acquisitions, and to strengthen our balance sheet.'"

And it isn't just a one-off bad year either. The price of breaking the rules is climbing steadily, as the cumulative fines for Big Tech companies have exceeded $3 billion every year since 2022.

The numbers show that paying billions in fines was more of a rounding error for these companies, rather than a serious hurdle.

In fact, it's reasonable to assume that most of them have often profited far more from the practices that led to these fines than the penalties themselves cost them. When observed from this perspective, these fines realistically represent just a "cost of doing business," or even "investments" for the major tech players.

At these proportions, it actually doesn't make sense for tech companies not to break the rules. The only question is how far they can go.

Source: Proton Tech fines tracker

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Posted Friday 30 January 2026 at 4:00 am AEST (my time).

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That is one big reason AMD says you should consider buying the 9850X3D over any other processor including from its major rival Intel.

The Ryzen 7 9850X3D is built on AMD’s Zen 5 architecture and features 2nd-generation 3D V-Cache technology. With a boost clock of up to 5.6 GHz, the highest of any X3D chip to date, alongside 8 cores and 16 threads, a 120W TDP and 144MB of total cache, the processor is designed to deliver best-in-class gaming performance.

Thus this is the best AMD is able to deliver at the moment, at least until the next gen X3D processors arrive, something which could bring an even bigger leap in performance and efficiency according to early patent details.

AMD emphasizes that the high capacity and low latency L3 cache on X3D chips delivers strong performance in gaming such that even affordable DDR5 memory kits should offer plenty of good showing. You should keep an eye on some of the combo bundle deals we are covering as they can allow you to build an entire PC for a relatively low price.

This is the second big reason to consider the 9850X3D as AMD writes: "The 3D V-Cache technology delivers strong performance — even with more affordable DDR5 memory kits — enabling outstanding frame rates for smooth gameplay, streaming, and multitasking."

The processor is available now across major OEMs, system integrators, and retail partners. You can find them on Amazon and Newegg, among other places.

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Posted Friday 30 January 2026 at 3:59 am AEST (my time).

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Microsoft appears set to be part of the next big wave of investment in OpenAI. According to The Information, Microsoft is in discussions to invest less than $10 billion in the well-known AI company.

Microsoft's investment would be part of a funding round that will potentially include NVIDIA investing up to $20 billion and Amazon investing $10 billion or more.

None of this information has been confirmed by OpenAI, Microsoft, NVIDIA, or Amazon. Reuters has reached out to the tech giants but has not received word back.

The exact figures of the deal are unknown as well, even when accounting for phrasing such as "up to" and "less than." The Information's headline states that NVIDIA , Microsoft, and Amazon are in talks to invest up to $60 billion in OpenAI.

A report by The Financial Times states that OpenAI is in talks to raise $40 billion from investments from NVIDIA, Amazon, and Microsoft.

Until we see more information or receive confirmation from OpenAI or its potential investors, it's important to take the latest information with a grain of salt. It appears OpenAI could see heavy investment soon — we're just unsure of the exact details.

Microsoft was an early partner to OpenAI and has invested heavily in the AI startup. Microsoft extended its partnership in October 2025 and confirmed that it holds an investment in OpenAI that was valued at approximately $135 billion at the time.

World of Warcraft enters its third decade of live operations, at the apex of the MMORPG genre. The next expansion is none other than World of Warcraft: Midnight, with early access going live on February 27, 2026, ahead of an official March 3, 2026 launch.

World of Warcraft is an odd place in some ways. It's straddling two different playstyles as player behavior diverges wildly as fans enter new stages of life. Some want a hardcore and challenging experience, while others want a relaxing, casual experience. World of Warcraft has done a pretty great job at catering to multiple different audiences, offering WoW: Classic for those seeking nostalgia and more challenging open world gameplay, alongside WoW retail which pushes the story forward.

Retail WoW has tons of content for casual players these days, with soloable mini dungeons offering high-end loot at a reduced cadence, alongside Player Housing, which lets players collect furnishings and flex their creativity.

At today's World of Warcraft: State of Azeroth event, World of Warcraft directors Ion Hazzikostas and Holly Longdale spoke at length about what players can expect from the near and far future of the legend that is, WoW.

Holly Longdale explained how the current era of WoW began development at the end of Shadowlands and through Dragonflight, with features like Player Housing taking shape around this time. Microsoft famously acquired Blizzard for its Xbox operations during these years, and has been pretty hands-off with regards to how the company operates.

Blizzard formed a new team specifically to target an 8-week major patch cadence to keep players equipped with plentiful things to do. Generally, WoW has done well to meet this patch schedule, but it has occasionally come at the cost of quality. The current pre-patch for Midnight has caused a range of issues and bugs with the game, and the schedule Blizzard has imposed on itself hasn't always led to the kind of polish players expect for their subscription fee. Players will likely be judging Midnight more harshly than usual when it drops, owing to the deluge of major changes Blizzard has implemented into the expac.

Longdale discussed Midnight's story, which revolves around Xal'atath's forces of the Void, and the re-emerging Army of the Light. She said that the campaign is designed to be emotionally evocative — with themes of loss central to the plot.

Xbox’s Q2 FY26 earnings reveal a problem Microsoft can’t pin on hardware, subscriptions, or macro trends this time. Revenue dipped, and the company pointed directly at its own first‑party lineup as the reason — a rare acknowledgment that the content pipeline meant to define the platform simply didn’t deliver enough momentum this quarter. It’s a moment that puts Xbox’s long‑term strategy under the microscope, especially as the industry leans harder than ever on exclusive hits to drive engagement.I could tell the Xbox revenue was down as Satya closed on his opening gaming content statement with: “We saw record PC players in paid streaming.” That is such a stretch to find a highlight that I had to listen back to it a couple of times to make sure I heard it right.

• Gaming revenue decreased 9%
• Xbox hardware revenue dropped -32%
•  Xbox content and services revenue down 5%

Now, some may think the changes to Game Pass are to blame, but when listening to the webcast, Microsoft CFO Amy Hood said that Microsoft expects Game Pass revenue to grow in Q3, not decrease. That would seem rather nuts if Game Pass were the cause of the current drops in revenue.

In the same breath, Amy Hood mentioned they expect Xbox hardware to drop again in Q3, which they hope will be offset by potential growth from Game Pass. Either way, the Xbox brand seems to be suffering overall, and the once-proud console is expected to drop further.

Amy Hood would go on to blame the downtrend of gaming revenue on first-party games. “[Gaming revenue was] Below expectations, driven by first-party content with impact across the platform.” Q2 was from October 1 to December 31, 2025. There were four games that were released during that time period: Ninja Gaiden 4, Keeper, Outer Worlds 2, and the ever-so-bloated Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.

Nobody expected games like Ninja Gaiden and Keeper to carry the majority of revenue during that quarter. If anything, the only game that Microsoft and Xbox expect to be a slam dunk is Call of Duty. With recent news that Black Ops 7 saw drastic sales decreases, it’s no surprise that revenue is down by so much.

Call of Duty, even with its release later in the year, generally manages to grab the top spot in gaming. This year, Black Ops 7 trailed behind four other titles: Monster Hunter Wilds, Borderlands 4, NBA 2K26, and Battlefield 6

What will it take to stop the slide?

The Device Solutions (DS) Division was the main engine behind this growth. This division brought in 44.0 trillion KRW ($30.8 billion USD) in revenue and a massive operating profit of 16.4 trillion KRW ($11.48 billion USD). Sales jumped 33% compared to the previous quarter.

The Memory Business specifically hit an all-time high for revenue and profit. This happened because almost everyone, including Microsoft, needs high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and server DDR5 chips right now. Prices are surging across the board, and semiconductor companies like Samsung are cashing in on that demand by selling high-value products like enterprise SSDs.

On a related note, rival SK Hynix also posted record-breaking numbers for FY2025, pulling in 97.15 trillion KRW ($68.13 billion) in revenue and 47.21 trillion KRW ($33 billion) in operating profit, with memory products doing most of the heavy lifting.

Like Samsung, the company says strong demand for HBM, server DRAM, and high-value NAND pushed both prices and margins higher, especially as hyperscalers and AI firms scramble to secure supply.

Samsung's DS Division expects demand for AI and servers to keep climbing well into the first quarter of 2026. Management says it will focus on profitability by pushing high-performance chips rather than chasing volume on lower-end parts.

It explicitly stated that the aim is to "lead the AI era with product competitiveness amid a rapidly growing demand environment" by ramping up sales of HBM4 and specialized SSDs. The Foundry Business is also moving forward as it started mass production of its first-generation 2nm products.

The Device eXperience (DX) Division didn't have the same luck as the DS Division, with revenue dropping 8% compared to the last quarter. Samsung attributes this slide to "reduced launch effects" from new smartphone models and intense market competition.

The Mobile eXperience (MX) team specifically saw smartphone sales dip as the hype from the earlier foldable launches faded. However, the company is banking on the upcoming Galaxy S26 series to turn things around in Q1 2026 with new Agentic AI features.

Samsung Display (SDC) managed 9.5 trillion KRW ($6.65 billion USD) in revenue even as smartphone demand softened a bit. Harman also performed well with 4.6 trillion KRW ($3.22 billion USD) in revenue, thanks to strong sales of car audio systems in Europe.

Interestingly, the Digital Appliances business is looking to grow its HVAC sales after acquiring FläktGroup. You can check out the full report here.

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Posted Thursday 29 January 2026 at 5:51 pm AEST (my time).

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Raspberry Pi has announced that it will soon launch an adapter board designed for professional signage applications, called the Raspberry Pi Smart Display Module.

This new module is an adapter board for the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5 (CM5) and aims to deliver "high-quality", low-power display experiences without needing a ton of extra gear.

The CM5, designed for embedded apps, was launched back in November 2024 and packs the core components of the Raspberry Pi 5 into a compact form factor. It features a powerful Broadcom BCM2712 processor, the same one found in the main Raspberry Pi 5 board. It also has an expanded set of I/O interfaces compared to the CM4, its predecessor, offering much faster data transfer with USB 3.0 and PCIe Gen 3, and up to 30 GPIO pins that support both 1.8V and 3.3V signaling.

Raspberry Pi says that its goal was to make the Smart Display Module as "straightforward to assemble as possible". The module is designed to support the Intel SDM specification, allowing it to just slot right into a compatible display, drawing all its power from the screen itself, without the need for external power bricks or messy cables.

For extra functionality, the module also has an HDMI output for a second independent video stream and an M.2 expansion slot for things like AI accelerators. Businesses can slot an AI accelerator into that M.2 slot and run analytics or other AI applications right on the device.

Raspberry Pi said all the processing happens locally, inside the screen, which keeps data private and provides real-time results without having to rely on a cloud service.

The Smart Display Module will launch later this year, but you can see it early if you attend Integrated Systems Europe (ISE), which runs from February 3rd to the 6th, 2026, at Fira de Barcelona, Gran Via. Raspberry Pi will be showing off the new module at the Sharp booth, running in some of its displays.

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Posted Thursday 29 January 2026 at 6:40 am AEST (my time).

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Here is what is new in the update:

• Security:
  • Strengthen your device’s security. We’ve addressed potential security vulnerabilities that may lead to unexpected shutdowns and privilege escalation.
• Reliability:
  • Write, erase, and navigate smoothly with your pen. We’ve fixed issues where the Surface Slim Pen 2 unexpectedly loses pairing after inking, pen erasing isn’t stable, and the cursor position isn’t aligned to the pen during hovering.
• Performance and usability:
  • Simplify device management. System administrators now have the option to turn off the stop error triggered by a long power-button hold. They can set the value for PowerButtonBugcheck to 0 in the registry.

Here is the list of new drivers:

Here is extra information about the release:

The 12-inch Surface Pro has a six-year lifecycle, and it will remain supported until May 20, 2031. If you are looking for a small, affordable Windows tablet, you can grab the 12-inch Surface Pro for $799 on Amazon.

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Posted Thursday 29 January 2026 at 6:37 am AEST (my time).

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The Microsoft Flight Simulator team has just announced a new city update for the game. City Update 13 is now available for free from the in-game marketplace, and it focuses on America's "Golden State," California.

The update brings new details and a more human touch to 18 urban areas across the state, including some of its most iconic and popular locations, giving players more beautiful visuals to enjoy and discover when flying. Those include Sacramento, the San Fransicso Bay area (San Rafael, Novato, Oakland, San Francisco, Fremont, and San Jose), the San Joaquin Valley, Central Coast (Santa Maria and Santa Barbara), Greater Los Angeles, San Diego, and more.

Here is what the team says about the update in the announcement blog post:

Called the “Golden State” due to its Gold Rush of the mid-19th century, fields of golden poppies, and reputation for boundless prospects, California is renowned for its beauty and diversity. City Update 13 celebrates California in the Microsoft Flight Simulator World by adding breathtaking detail to 18 urban regions across this renowned state.

Notable points of interest in Microsoft Flight Simulator Update 13 include the USS Midway Museum, the Soreliine Gateway Tower, the RMS Queen Mary, Intuit Dome, Santa Barbara Harbor, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, and even Apple's headquarters in San Jose.

For those unfamiliar, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and 2024 recreate our planet in a 1-to-1 scale and populate cities, points of interest, and other parts of the planet with the help of various cartographic technologies. However, developers also often release so-called "City Updates" where humans add more refined and detailed areas and locations, such as landmarks, airports, buildings, bridges, parks, etc, for a more realistic and immersive experience.

City Update 13 is now available for all owners of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 and 2020 on all supported platforms and Game Pass. Note that in order to get the update, you must update the game to version 1.39.9.0 (Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020) and 1.6.34.0 (Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024). Microsoft's iconic flight simulator is available on Xbox Series X|S, PC (in the Microsoft Store and Steam), Xbox Game Cloud, and PlayStation 5.

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Posted Thursday 29 January 2026 at 6:35 am AEST (my time).

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AMD’s GPU roadmap chatter just took an interesting turn, with early RDNA 3.5 being used up to 2028 and beyond. None of this is locked in — and the details are still foggy at best, but the leaks line up with AMD’s slower, more deliberate cadence in recent years.

Recently, AMD has had a lot of success in the gaming market thanks to the rather wide adoption of its RDNA 3.5 graphics architecture. Laptops, sure, but the gaming handheld sector is where it's really noticeable. From the ROG Xbox Ally to the Legion Go 2 to the MSI Claw A8, an AMD Ryzen CPU and RDNA 3.5 integrated GPU are working behind the scenes to deliver solid performance.

RDNA 3.5 graphics arrived with Strix Point and Strix Halo in 2024, and it's going forward with the upcoming Gorgon Point Ryzen AI 400 series of chips revealed at CES 2026. As with any chip, GPU included, you can usually expect at least plans for an upgrade in the near future.

That might not be the case for AMD if a recent leak turns out to be true, and the AMD laptop or gaming handheld you buy a few years down the line could have the same graphics as one you purchased in 2024.

The rumor stems from known leaker Golden Pig Upgrade and was picked up by @Kepler_L2 on X, who added some extra information. As always, treat this information with caution.

In an internal memo seen by the BBC, Amazon inadvertently sent numerous employees and an online invite with the title "Send project Dawn email". For those unaware, this moniker is reportedly Amazon's internal code-name for layoffs. In it was also a draft email from AWS Senior Vice President Colleen Aubrey, which noted that:

This is a continuation of the work we've been doing for more than a year to strengthen the company by reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy, so that we can move faster for customers. Changes like this are hard on everyone. These decisions are difficult and made thoughtfully as we position our organization and AWS for future success.

The email indicated that layoffs would be impacting those in the U.S., Canada, and Costa Rica.

However, this email was quickly withdrawn since it was clearly an early draft that was sent in error. Employees have not been officially informed of a layoff, but it is expected soon.

Back in October 2025, Amazon laid off over 14,000 workers, and at that time, it was reported that the company may be letting go of 30,000 employees in total, which would mean that the upcoming round of layoffs will be similarly significant. It is also important to note that Amazon has been emphasizing cost reduction and increased productivity for the past few months; it is one of the few major tech companies that mandates working from the office five days a week. Although the aforementioned draft email was sent by accident, it's clear that layoffs are happening within the next few days as the firm tightens its chokehold on workplace productivity and costs.

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Posted Thursday 29 January 2026 at 6:32 am AEST (my time).

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Bethesda's legendary post-apocalyptic sci-fi RPG franchise Fallout was propelled into the spotlight when the Fallout TV show debuted in Spring 2024, kicking off a renaissance for the fan-favorite games. Now, two years later, Season 2 of the show is sparking further renewed interest in the series — and if you're playing Fallout 4, Bethesda has released several pieces of free DLC content you can enjoy now.

These come in the form of community-made Creations mods paid for and curated by the developer. Typically, these cost money, but four that Bethesda has released for Fallout 4 recently are completely free to download and play across the Xbox, Windows PC, and PlayStation versions of the RPG shooter. None of them got any real marketing; that's a shame, because they're quite substantial and add many hours of content.

They include the following: The Varmint Rifle by Neeher, The Tale of the Beast Hunter by Hobgoblin Studios, Brotherhood of Steel T60 Pistol by Volodymyr Bondarchuk (Painter2099) and Armando Neto (NetoElite), and Revenge of the Van Graffs by the same creators. You'll find all of them in the Creations Store within Fallout 4.

Notably, the Varmint Rifle is a returning weapon from Fallout: New Vegas, and both The Tale of the Beast Hunter and Revenge of the Van Graffs feature or reference factions and gear that's either from or inspired by Obsidian's beloved entry in the franchise. The T60 Pistol add-on, meanwhile, brings the faction's powerful hand cannon from the TV show into Fallout 4.

That makes all four of these Creations especially worth checking out if you're a big fan of New Vegas and/or Amazon's TV series, which I'd wager most Fallout fans are. After all, the TV show is a record-breaking success, and New Vegas is widely regarded by many as the best Fallout game.

Valve — the creator of Steam, the biggest PC gaming storefront in the world — is facing a £656 million (roughly $900 million) class-action lawsuit in the UK. Originally filed in 2024 by digital rights activist Vicki Shotbolt, the case has now been allowed to continue by the Competition Appeal Tribunal per a new ruling.

The claim accuses Valve of "rigging the market and taking advantage of UK gamers" by contractually obligating publishers and developers to not sell their games on other platforms at lower prices than the versions available on Steam. This "forces" them to always give Steam the best deal and limits potential offers to customers, it's argued.

It's also claimed that Steam's versions of games only working with Steam's versions of DLC add-ons and expansions is anti-competitive, as it dissuades players from buying extra content for their games elsewhere and locks them into continuing to buy on Steam.

By "shutting out" PC gaming competition like this, Shotbolt asserts, Valve has been able to charge game studios an "excessive commission" of 30% for every game sold on its platform. The lawsuit argues this has driven costs up for players as developers seek to recoup revenue lost to this commission rate.

Ultimately, Shotbolt says she filed the lawsuit "to stop this unlawful conduct and help people get back what they are owed." Officially, it's a collective action claim that represents 14 million Steam users in the UK that have purchased games and add-ons on the platform since 2018.

Over the last few months of 2025, Meta spent $6.4 million on an ad campaign running in cities across the country, from Sacramento to Washington, with a clear mission: win over viewers on the construction of new data centers. As the New York Times reports, the ad campaign is anchored by short, folksy video spotlights on Meta’s data centers in Altoona, Iowa, and Los Lunas, New Mexico.

The ads make the case that Meta’s data centers create jobs, revitalizing rural communities.

However, they take a fairly idealistic tone. For instance, the Altoona ad portrays a town on the brink of disappearing, but thanks to Meta’s data center, its residents get to meet up at local diners and attend football games. The Los Lunas ad similarly shows data center employees having cookouts with their families, rather than moving away to find work.

And Meta isn’t the only company trying to convince the public to embrace the data center boom. The Financial Times reported this week that data center operators, including Digital Reality, QTS, and NTT Data, are planning a “lobbying blitz” to campaign in defense of new data centers in response to public backlash.

However, the recent winter storm that swept the country only highlighted the strain the power grid is already under, including areas around large data centers.

For Meta, and competitors like Microsoft and Google, these sprawling data centers are critical for powering AI, but public sentiment on them has been souring. Many communities are pushing back against the construction of new data centers, united across the political divide by concerns about skyrocketing energy costs and water use. These movements have caused delays and cancellations for billions of dollars’ worth of data center investments across the nation, like now-canceled buildouts in Oregon, Arizona, Missouri, Indiana, and Virginia.

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Posted Wednesday 28 January 2026 at 1:46 pm AEST (my time).

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The main reason why I won't ever give up Windows 11 is its ability to do it all. Sure, there are some limits, but 99% of the time, whether I'm working, creating, handling life, or gaming, it performs what I ask it to do without hesitation.

This jack-of-all-trades approach built on decades of development does have its downsides. Such is the case for PC gaming, which is becoming ever more apparent as the Linux-based SteamOS and its straightforward approach gain traction.

SteamOS, which originally made its debut in 2013 alongside the original (and ill-fated) Steam Machine, was thrust back into the spotlight when Valve announced the Steam Deck in 2021. Fast forward a few years, and we're now on the cusp of the console-adjacent Steam Machine's launch in early 2026. It, too, will run SteamOS.

Let me be clear: SteamOS has no chance of dethroning Windows 11 as the most popular OS around. However, SteamOS is picking up a considerable amount of momentum as users discover its smooth operation and console-like UI.

Steam users running Linux climbed to 3.58% in December 2025, a rise of 0.38% compared to the previous month. In that same time frame, Windows users dropped by 0.56% to fall to 94.23% overall.

I don't see SteamOS adoption hitting a plateau anytime soon, and, if anything, I expect to see it continue to eat into the Windows 11 userbase. Here are four reasons why.

1) OEMs are showing interest in SteamOS

It's been nearly a year since the release of Monster Hunter Wilds, a game that many (myself included) looked forward to playing but were ultimately disappointed by its lackluster difficulty, barebones endgame, and PC performance issues that caused players to review bomb it on Steam for months.

While Capcom has fixed a majority of the game's issues through title updates, it has yet to address the game's PC issues, which have only gotten worse to the point where the DLC's checker system is causing framerate issues (which Capcom has confirmed is a bug).

Hopefully, those technical bugbears will finally be put to bed as Monster Hunter Wilds' biggest PC performance patch will launch tonight at 6:00 p.m. PT (or January 28, 2026, 2:00 a.m. UTC for the rest of the world).

To help fans understand what the PC performance patch will change, Capcom has recently shared patch notes for the update on Monster Hunter Wilds' official website.

The patch notes are as follows:

Major Additions and Changes (Steam)

• Improved CPU/GPU processing specific to the Steam version.
• Reduced shader warming processes performed outside the shader compilation screen to lower CPU load.
• Adjusted texture streaming to improve visual quality while reducing VRAM usage.
• Adjusted the High Resolution Texture Pack to reduce VRAM usage and overall package size.
• Added a CPU tab to the Options menu, allowing players to adjust settings related to CPU load.
• Added new categories to the graphics settings, along with new settings for existing options.
• Adjusted graphic presets and added a confirmation window to automatically update your settings on first launch after updating.
• Expanded the Volumetric Fog setting in the graphics options from two levels to five. The previous "High" setting has been renamed to "Highest," and "Low" to "High," with three new lower options—"Medium," "Low," and "Lowest"—now available.
• Fixed an issue where a warning dialogue incorrectly indicated that the AMD Radeon driver was outdated when using driver version 26.1.1 or later.

Bug Fixes and Balance Adjustments (Steam)

• Fixed an issue where system load could increase around the Support Desk at Base Camp or the Grand Hub due to claimed content status checks.
• Adjusted Variable Rate Shading behavior so it is forced off during upscaling to maintain proper effect visuals.
• Fixed other miscellaneous issues.

Do note that this performance patch will require 2GB of install space, and your PC's video driver must be updated before downloading this patch.

NVIDIA users must update to NVIDIA GeForce 581.57 or newer, while AMD users must update to AMD Radeon 25.9.1 or 25.9.2. Capcom has stated that there are some issues identified with AMD Radeon drivers versions 25.10.2 and higher.

This information regarding video drivers is subject to change at any point due to certain factors, such as NVIDIA and AMD support availability.

Will Monster Hunter Wilds finally get fixed on PC?

It's been a long, bumpy road for Monster Hunter Wilds, but hopefully, this PC performance patch will finally address the issues that have plagued this game since launch.

We'll keep an eye on the fan reception of the PC performance patch and let you folks at home know if it's considered a success or a failure!

If Alexa's in your home, you might've been one of many users this month who were suddenly moved from the original Alexa to the new AI-powered Alexa+ voice assistant.

Amazon announced in early January during CES that it'd be rolling out the new assistant to all Alexa+ Early Access customers, and that turns out to also include all Prime members, even if you weren't on the Early Access list.

Alexa+ is still in Early Access, as it has been since it launched in spring last year, meaning that the assistant isn't fully complete yet, nor is it requiring you to pay the $20 monthly fee if you don't have Prime. However, the waiting list is done, and it's become fully available. Even if you didn't want it, if you have Prime, Alexa+ and its new voice will start showing up on your device.

Here's what's going on and how you can switch back to the original Alexa voice—which is still not quite the same as it once was.

Amazon's Forward Push

Alexa+ is Amazon's new generation of the Alexa voice assistant, powered by artificial intelligence, promising more conversational responses, better understanding of complex requests, and serving more as a chatbot you can talk to rather than a digital butler you command.

If you have a display device like an Echo Show, it also turns the on-screen conversation into a text chat, akin to the ChatGPT app. Perhaps most noticeably, Alexa+ has a new default voice that people have described as a “sassy teen," though you can technically switch back to the old voice. (More on that below.)

Part of the news announced at CES was that Alexa+ will now also be widely available on Alexa.com if you want Alexa's help while you're using your browser. This is more of a move to compete with ChatGPT than it is something to help your day-to-day use of Alexa, but I guess it's nice if you're looking for a single AI service to use across smart home devices, apps, and the browser. Also, this cross-platform Alexa access is free if you have Prime, versus paying an additional fee for something like ChatGPT, but Amazon's assistant is has yet to reach its full intended form and is not as capable as the competition right now.

Amazon says users were notified via email, in the Alexa app, and on Echo and Echo Show devices about upgrading from the basic Alexa to the new Alexa+. One WIRED staffer kept declining the upgrade and found it had forcibly pushed to her Echo Dot one morning, greeting her with a completely different voice, which she found intolerable.

“Alexa+ is significantly more capable than the original Alexa, so we’re working to make it available to as many customers as possible,” said an Amazon spokesperson. “We notified customers of the upcoming update, including how to return to the original version.”

Amazon says it's only upgrading Prime members with supported devices to Alexa+ Early Access in this new push. Alexa+ is currently free, and Prime members will continue to get it for free when it launches into the first full version, but it will cost $20 a month once it officially launches for non-Prime members. The list of supported devices is also generous, including the first generations of the Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Show, Echo Spot, and even Echo Plus. There's a long list of Fire TV and Fire tablet devices that are also compatible, so depending on how many Amazon-powered devices you own and if you're a Prime member, you could be seeing Alexa+ in several places.

How to Switch Back to Original Alexa

Photograph: Nena Farrell

If you didn't want to upgrade or don't like the experience, it's easy to switch back. Just tell your Alexa device, “Alexa, exit Alexa Plus,” and it'll switch back to the original Alexa voice and experience. This works on supported Echo devices. You'll stop seeing the chatbot-like conversation style, and the assistant's responses will be less conversational.

Other than that, you won't really lose your core capabilities. Personally, I haven't found that I needed to change how I ask questions between the two versions of the voice assistant. The onscreen and voice experience reverted to something very similar (if not slightly updated, though I am using the newest Echo Show 11 to test it) to what I remember Alexa being like before I switched to Alexa+. Amazon will also warn you that some features will have to be changed in the Alexa app if you revert to the older experience, but doesn't specify what these are, nor does it make those settings easy to find.

If you're not a Prime member and didn't get the automated push to Alexa+, you should be able to still toggle it pretty easily in the app, or even on your device by asking to switch to Alexa+. There's no longer a sign-up page like there used to be, since there's no waitlist. To find details about your Alexa+ access and to manage the controls, look under Memberships & Subscriptions in your Amazon account.

Alexa Versus Alexa+

Even if you request to switch back to the old Alexa, is it really the old Alexa? While it is the same voice, Feminine 2 (or “Relaxed”), our team—along with other users on Reddit—have noticed some of the inflections in the voice have changed, making it sound different from the way it used to. You can also use Feminine 2 while in Alexa+, so the voice itself has likely been updated to keep up with the more conversational style that Alexa+ promises.

Some people also hate the new default voice, Feminine 1, which the Alexa app describes as “upbeat,” but others call the “teenage girl” voice. (Or as my editor, parent to a teen, calls it, the “sassy teenager" voice). New Alexa does sound much more youthful, and has a cadence that sounds almost sarcastic. In all, Alexa+ offers four feminine and four masculine voices, each of which is described in the app with a single adjective like “Inviting” or “Warm.”

You can tell Alexa to just switch to the old voice and it will change it to Feminine 2 while staying in Alexa+. (A Reddit user said this request didn't work for them, but I was able to request it and see an instant change as of January 22.)

When you revert to the original Alexa—the whole experience, not just the voice—on a display device, you'll also stop seeing the text chats displayed, conversation style, onscreen. And while both versions of Alexa show ads, only Alexa+ shows me ads while I'm actively asking questions. Old Alexa keeps its ads to its rotating slideshow (and sometimes sneaks in a promo during my weather report).

I've actually liked switching back because Alexa+ would only show me part of my local weather report, since it's confined to the text chat. Imagine a slideshow of pictures in a chat you can't click or fully open; that's what the weather report becomes in the Alexa+ experience. The old Alexa fills the entire screen with the weather report, and slowly shows me multiple pages of hourly reports and weekly reports.

We'll have to see if this push by Amazon helps bring wider Alexa+ adoption. Amazon has no update at this time about when the completed, fully baked version of Alexa+ is arriving for users. I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't happen until next year, as it's taken nearly a year for Alexa+ Early Access to become available to everyone, let alone a fully updated assistant.

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Posted Wednesday 28 January 2026 at 7:09 am AEST (my time).

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Microsoft just announced Maia 200, an AI chip set to compete with the best from Amazon and Google. The chip is designed specifically for large-scale AI workloads.

Maia 200 is made on TSMC's 3nm process. Microsoft claims the chip is "the most performant, first-party silicon from any hyperscaler." The tech giant added that Maia 200 has three times the FP4 performance of Amazon's third-gen Trainium chip and better FP8 performance than Google's seventh-gen TPU.

FP4 and FP8 refer to 4-bit and 8-bit floating-point formats. FP8 is generally used for low-precision AI work because it balances accuracy and speed. NVIDIA has a full explainer on Floating Point and how it relates to AI.

Microsoft states that in addition to having better performance in certain areas, Maia 200 is more efficient than competing chips. Maia delivers 30% better performance per dollar than the previous generation of hardware used by Microsoft.

Maia 200 has already been deployed in Microsoft's datacenter region near Des Moines, Iowa. The US West 3 datacenter region near Phoenix, Arizona will be the next to see Maia 200 used.

In a video explaining the Maia 200, Microsoft Executive Vice President Scott Guthrie noted that the chip is designed to be cooled with water, which is more efficient than air cooling. Guthrie also highlighted "zero water waste" by the chip and noted that Maia 200 can be used in a way that "protects the environment and the communities that [Microsoft runs] in."

Microsoft has been criticized for how much electricity and water is used by data centers. The company announced plans to build "Community-First" AI infrastructure, though the tech giant was mocked for the announcement.

Remember Highguard, that new FPS game that closed out The Game Awards 2025 last month? Following the scathingly negative reception from players annoyed that former Titanfall and Apex Legends developers had come together to make another hero shooter, it and its studio Wildlight Entertainment gave the gaming community the silent treatment as its late January release date approached.

Now, though, that launch is here — and the free-to-play "PvP raid shooter" has officially dropped on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC (on Steam), and PS5 with something of a re-reveal showcase that explores what Highguard is and shows how its gameplay loop stands out compared to other titles in the genre.

The showcase is just over 25 minutes long, and goes over everything from Highguard's core gameplay structure to in-depth details about the game's world, setting, art direction, narrative elements, and more. You can watch it with this link, or via the embed below.

At its core, Highguard is a 3v3 shooter with two distinct phases — an open-world looting phase reminiscent of the first few minutes of a battle royale or extraction shooter, and then a raiding phase that aims to capture the intense attack/defend combat of multiplayer survival games like Rust and and ARK. Throughout it all, players control special Warden characters with unique abilities, though Wildlight notes that ultimately, Highguard is a "gun game" at heart.

As part of the game's live-service nature, the developers plan to add new Wardens regularly, along with several other pieces of content like new weapons, weapon mods, areas to play in, and more. Specifically, all of these will come in Highguard's "Episode" updates every two months, with Episode 1 being launch, and Episode 2 launching very quickly in February in just two weeks.

In the looting phase of a match, teams ride out on mounts and can encounter one another in the field as they gear up with better weapons, armor, and other equipment. Then, after a few minutes, a special sword called the Shieldbreaker will spawn, its location indicated by a storm in the sky.

Players will then have to fight over this blade, and if you manage to stab it into the opposing team's base shield, you'll spawn a giant battering ram that — you guessed it — breaks the shield, kicking off a raid phase in which the assaulting team has to try and push through the defenders to their base's generators, or its heavily fortified anchor stone.

Storage tiering sounds like something reserved for data centers, but the same principles apply just as well to home and small-office setups.

Why Flat Storage Causes Problems

Flat storage means everything lives in one place, usually the primary SSD. Operating system files, active projects, old downloads, archived photos, and backups all compete for the same fast — and expensive — space.

That approach causes issues over time. As SSDs fill up, performance drops. File organization becomes messy. Backups take longer because unchanged files are scanned repeatedly. Worst of all, a single drive failure can wipe out everything at once.

SSDs are also the most expensive storage per gigabyte. Using premium storage to hold files you haven’t opened in years is a poor tradeoff, especially when slower and cheaper options work just as well for that role.

Hot, Warm, And Cold Data Defined

Hot Data

Hot data is anything you access frequently or need immediate performance from. This includes:

• The operating system
• Installed applications
• Current work files and projects
• Games and software that benefit from fast load times

Hot data belongs on your internal SSD. This keeps the system responsive and reduces wait times. The key is keeping this tier lean. The less clutter on your main drive, the better it performs.

Warm Data

Warm data sits between daily use and long-term storage. Examples include:

• Recent photos and videos
• Finished projects that may need revisiting
• Media libraries accessed occasionally

Warm data doesn’t need SSD speeds, but it should still be easy to reach. External hard drives, secondary internal drives, or standard cloud storage work well here. Access might take a few extra seconds, but that’s rarely a problem.

Cold Data

Cold data is stored for reference, legal reasons, or sentimental value — not for frequent access. This includes:

• Old photos and videos
• Past backups
• Archived documents and installers

Cold storage prioritizes cost and durability over speed. Large external drives, offline backups, or archive-tier cloud storage are ideal. Retrieval may take minutes or hours, but that’s acceptable for data you rarely need.

Why Separating Data Matters

Understanding storage tiers changes how you buy and use hardware. Once you realize only a fraction of your data needs to live on fast storage, you can stop overpaying for oversized SSDs.

Instead of upgrading to a 2TB SSD, many users are better off with a smaller internal drive paired with cheaper secondary storage. The system stays fast, and the savings can be put toward better hardware elsewhere.

Tiering also improves reliability. When cold data lives offline or on separate devices, it’s protected from malware, ransomware, and everyday accidents. Losing a laptop no longer means losing everything.

Organization improves too. Active workspaces stay clean, backups run faster, and finding files becomes easier when old data isn’t mixed with current projects.

How To Apply This At Home

You don’t need special software to get started.

• Keep the operating system, apps, and current projects on the SSD
• Move completed projects and media to a secondary drive
• Archive old files to offline or cloud-based cold storage
• Exclude cold data from daily backups when possible

Many users already have the hardware needed. Old hard drives, USB enclosures, and cloud storage plans can all serve as warm or cold tiers with minimal effort.

Storage Is About Intent, Not Capacity

The biggest mistake isn’t having too little storage — it’s using the wrong storage for the wrong data. Fast drives should stay fast. Cheap storage should handle the bulk.

Once you stop treating all files equally, storage becomes easier to manage, systems stay responsive longer, and upgrades become less frequent. Hot and cold data separation isn’t an enterprise trick. It’s a practical habit that pays off on every PC.

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Posted Tuesday 27 January 2026 at 4:37 am AEST (my time).

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The new AirTag sports Apple's second-generation Ultra Wideband chip already found on the iPhone 17 lineup, improving the Precision Finding feature, which now works up to 50% farther away than on the previous-generation AirTag.

"For the first time, users can use Precision Finding on Apple Watch Series 9 or later, or Apple Watch Ultra 2 or later, to find their AirTag, bringing a powerful experience to the wrist," Apple said. While AirTags might seem like a budget-friendly option to track your furry friends, Apple points out that it's not "designed exclusively for tracking objects, and not people or pets."

The second-generation AirTag also comes with an upgraded Bluetooth chip for extended range and an internal speaker that is 50% louder than the previous generation. It works with recent iOS 26 features like Share Item Location, which lets you share your AirTag with airlines to help find it faster.

Using the Share Item Location feature has reduced luggage delays by 26% and reduced incidences of "truly lost" or unrecoverable luggage by 90%, according to the airline IT provider SITA. In line with Apple's environmental goals, the new AirTag uses 85% recycled plastic in its enclosure, 100% recycled rare-earth elements in all magnets, and 100% recycled gold plating on Apple-designed printed circuit boards.

The second-generation AirTag is now available for purchase on Apple's website and the App Store, with retail availability to follow later this week. It's available at the same $29 price for a single pack and $99 for a four-pack. You can pair it with the $35 AirTag FineWoven Key Ring accessory.

However, the catch is that the new AirTag works with iPhones/iPads running iOS 26/iPadOS 26 or later. Similarly, the Apple Watch Precision Finding feature requires watchOS 26.2.1 running on compatible models.

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Posted Tuesday 27 January 2026 at 4:35 am AEST (my time).

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