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.

The January 2026 Patch Tuesday updates are now available. Windows 11 received KB5074109, while Windows 10, for those in the Extended Security Update program, got KB5073724. As usual, shortly after that, Microsoft started issuing details about new known bugs. Interestingly, the latest Patch Tuesday updates finally put Windows Vista to bed, as the last SKUs of the infamous operating system received the final update after nearly 7000 days of service.

For one, Microsoft released a fix that patches broken parts of Windows 11 versions 24H2 and 25H2. Next, Microsoft confirmed that Remote Desktop connections are broken for some users after KB5074109. There is also another bug, which is rather hilarious: the January 2026 Patch Tuesday update broke the shutdown and hibernation features on certain systems. Fortunately, these two bugs were quickly fixed with an out-of-band update.

Finally, Microsoft explained why Windows 11 25H2 got twice as heavy due to a key security update.

With all the drama that is happening in the world of Windows, with all of its stupid bugs, it is no wonder that people continuously grow more and more frustrated about the operating system. GoG's new owner recently ranted about the current state of affairs, claiming that Windows 11 is an unbelievably poor-quality product.

Moving from bugs, we have some useful stuff to improve the stock Windows 11 experience. A new Windhawk mod makes adjusting per-app volume so much easier. Just hover the cursor over the app on the taskbar and use your scroll wheel. Genius!

Microsoft also updated the Media Creation Tool, which now downloads a more recent build of Windows 11, allowing you to make a clean Windows installation with fewer updates. To finish this week's Windows section, here is our deep dive into why Microsoft no longer includes any easter eggs in its software.

Windows Insider Program

Here is what Microsoft released for Windows Insiders this week:

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.

We continue our overview of PowerToys utilities, and this time, here is a quick look at Screen Ruler, a rather niche utility that an average user might not care about. However, if you work with precise stuff, Screen Ruler could become a great help. Check out our article here.

On the browser side, we have a few major updates for Edge, Firefox, and more. Mozilla released version 147, which brought the ability to customize keyboard shortcuts, WebGPU support on Apple Silicon devices, improved picture-in-picture, and more. Shortly after that, Firefox 147.0.1 was released with three additional fixes.

In addition to releasing a major update for Edge, Microsoft seemingly decided to retire the Collection feature. The successor to the Reading List app from the Windows 8 era is now on its way out, and if you do not back up your collection, all the data will be lost.

Opera One has been updated to R3 with a few improvements for Tab Islands, its built-in AI engine, tab tiling, themes, and the beta program.

For Office users, Microsoft announced a new feature that makes importing data from CSV to Excel much easier, all without using Power Query.

Here are other updates and releases you may find interesting:

• Microsoft retires the legacy Windows deployment toolkit used by some IT admins.

• Microsoft is making Windows Backup for Organizations a lot better.

• Microsoft is securing a Windows Server component, and IT admins are warned about a new configuration.

• Massive cybercrime-as-a-service platform RedVDS disrupted by Microsoft, FBI, and Europol.

• Microsoft graduates Copilot Studio extension for VS Code to general availability.

Reviews are in

Here is the hardware and software we reviewed this week

This week, Steven Parker reviewed the GEEKOM A7 Max, a mini PC with a decent price tag, plenty of ports, good fit and finish, and proper display output. Just look out for some quirks, bad RAM configuration, and more.

On the gaming side

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

Next week, Microsoft is hosting its Developer Direct gaming event, where it is expected to unveil details about Forza Horizon 6, the next installment in the Forza franchise. While the details about the game remain mysterious, Microsoft itself leaked the release date using an in-game banner in Forza Horizon 5.

NVIDIA announced new games for the GeForce NOW cloud streaming service. The latest additions include Quarantine Zone: The Last Check (New release on Steam, Jan. 12, GeForce RTX 5080-ready), Star Wars Outlaws (Ubisoft Connect, now available on Xbox Game Pass), The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon (New release on Steam, Jan. 15), Styx: Shards of Darkness, and more.

Here is this week's Weekend PC Game Deals article, where you can find plenty of discounts on PC games, including the latest freebies from the Epic Games Store.

Other gaming news includes the following:

• Arc Raiders sales cross 12 million, celebrate with a surprise gift for all players.

• The Division series boss leaves the studio, Ubisoft tells fans "don't worry" about the future.

• Monster Hunter Wilds runs better when you buy more DLC, a user finds.

• EA delays Battlefield 6 Season 2 launch, plans to bring back community testing.

   

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Posted Monday 19 January 2026 at 5:16 am AEST (my time).

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Paul's Hardware (1.54m subscribers)

January 18, 2026

Video length: 12m 19s

0:00 Welcome to Paul’s Tech News - January 18, 2026

1:47 Post-CES Disappointments (no Arc B770 / RTX 50 Super, Panther Lake though)

4:30 ASUS Reportedly “End-of-Lifes” RTX 5070 Ti, Nvidia says no

7:34 Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Still Coming, 9850X3D expected Jan 29

TECH BRIEFS

9:34 2026 Is Going to Suck for PC Gaming

10:06 Popularity of DDR3 motherboards is growing rapidly

10:48 Jeff Bezos hopes that you'll give up your PC to rent one from the cloud

11:20 Redditor: One of my PCs stopped a bullet and saved my kid’s life

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Posted Sunday 18 January 2026 at 6:02 pm AEST (my time).

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As we predicted, the world’s biggest consumer electronics show was a bit of a bust for gamers this year! CES 2026 brought us several neat gamepads, but barely any handhelds and no new desktop GPUs — not from Nvidia, not from Intel, and not from AMD.

But if you dig deep, AMD said two things at this year’s show that are worthy of attention. Did you catch that the company’s about to make socketed mobile chips again? Or that its answer to Intel is to lower the price of its monster Strix Halo silicon?

Publicly, AMD barely acknowledged consumers at the Consumer Electronics Show. “AMD failed us,” decried Gamers Nexus, pointing out that the company’s keynote was almost entirely fixated on AI. Outside the keynote, the company’s few consumer-friendly announcements — including the Ryzen 7 9850X3D for gaming desktops and Ryzen AI 400 for laptops — are all retreads of existing components.

AMD also didn’t announce a new chip for handheld gaming PCs, no successor to the Z2 and Z2 Extreme it introduced a year ago, even as Intel publicly announced plans for an “entire handheld gaming platform” and Qualcomm teased its own handhelds for a possible March reveal.

Intel didn’t miss a chance to jab: “They’re selling ancient silicon, while we’re selling up-to-date processors specifically designed for this market,” Intel client product management director Nish Neelalojanan told PCWorld.

Yet AMD claims those so-called “ancient” processors are more than a match for Intel’s new Panther Lake silicon. AMD client chip boss Rahul Tikoo told Tom’s Hardware that AMD’s Strix Halo / Ryzen AI Max chip “will kill” Panther Lake. He said, “It’s not even a fair fight at that point, because it’s discrete-level graphics.”

Tikoo also told Tom’s Hardware that Intel’s gaming-grade Panther Lake chips might be pricier than you expect: “And, oh, by the way, that 12 Xe [Panther Lake]... Wait until you see the price point on that. It’s gonna be, you know. Enough said.”

Price has been the problem with AMD’s Strix Halo too — every powerful Ryzen handheld, mini desktop, and monster tablet we’ve seen has cost around $2,000, even before the RAM crunch. But that brings me to the first exciting thing for gamers AMD quietly revealed at CES: The cost of its powerful Strix Halo systems is almost certainly about to come down.

AMD introduced two new cut-down versions of Strix Halo last week with their full-fat graphics intact; Tikoo told us that gaming companies specifically had been asking for parts like the new Ryzen AI Max Plus 388 and 392.

Spotted at CES: Asus stuck a Strix Halo into its budget TUF gaming laptop line. Asus wouldn’t say price just yet.

Photo: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

 

And when I caught up with AMD’s Jason Banta, who’s in charge of interfacing with those companies, he said AMD genuinely expects the two new chips will lead to lower Strix Halo system prices, below $2,000 even when you factor in the runaway price of RAM. (I asked the question several different ways to be sure of his answer.)

Banta would not tell me if the company has any other plans to defend its tiny handheld empire (the Steam Deck, Xbox Ally, Legion Go, and more all use AMD chips, as do the PlayStation and Xbox) when Intel and Qualcomm come knocking later this year. “We believe imitation is a great form of flattery,” is all he’d really say. “When we’re creating the segment, innovating the segment, we expect others to enter.”

OneXPlayer brought liquid-cooled Strix Halo handhelds and tablets to CES. This is the “Frost Bay” external cooler.

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

 

Here’s the magnetic locking hose adapter plugged into the Super X tablet.

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

 

The Apex handheld hides its cooling port underneath the magnetic cover with the company’s logo. And yes,

this handheld has a detachable external battery.

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

 

The front of the Apex handheld.

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

 

The specs on the screen of the Super X tablet.

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

 

OneXPlayer also has a new OneXGPU 3 external GPU, with a 16GB 9070 XT built in, and up to 180W TDP. USB-4 and OCuLink connectivity.

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

 

The OneXGPU 3’s specs.

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

 

Lastly, OneXPlayer has a tiny laptop/handheld hybrid with hidden gaming controls, like the GPD Win Max.

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

 

Here it is with the magnetic keyboard deck attached. It’s powered by an HX 370 chip.

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

Banta isn’t afraid of Intel and Qualcomm handheld chips taking his customers away. “What they’ve seen is we’ve proven we can execute, and not just execute: When we see a quirk with a game, we follow up, we update, we optimize. […] That has a very big influence on those design decisions for every one of these OEMs,” he said. Banta said AMD’s handheld business is still growing, too, and the company still plans to keep investing.

Most PC makers don’t seem ready to climb aboard Intel’s handheld bandwagon just yet. If you take a close look at Intel’s keynote slide, the only major vendors listed are Acer and MSI, and the only boutique handheld makers are GPD and OneXPlayer, both still big on AMD. The rest of Intel’s partners (Compal, Foxconn, Inventec, Pegatron, Quanta, and Wistron) aren’t brands, but rather the ODM contract manufacturing companies that’ll be fighting for their business.

Intel’s handheld partner list is dominated by ODMs.

Image: Intel

 

While I was chatting with AMD’s Jason Banta at the show, he brought my attention to one more piece of news that was easy to miss. The second potentially exciting thing for gamers is that AMD is making socketed mobile processors again — Ryzen AI 400 laptop chips that aren’t soldered down, but fit into a socket like a desktop CPU, so you can replace or potentially even upgrade them in the future.

He said they’ll begin to appear in desktops in the early part of this year, specifically targeting Q2. Banta thinks socketed mobile chips are going to unlock gaming and productivity designs of all shapes and sizes: “That socketed Ryzen AI 400, we’re expecting to see that everywhere from 1-liter designs all the way to 30-liter designs,” he says. (Mobile processors can be a good match for beefy desktop GPUs, since most games don’t require all that much CPU power at high resolution.)

These socketed chips aren’t just for gamers, mind; it sounds like they were actually targeted at AI PCs to start. “What we’re seeing is folks that want the flexibility of the socketed design, but they want to try out Copilot Plus, they want to try out some local models that can actually leverage the NPU and run directly on that,” he said.

As VideoCardz notes, AMD barely mentioned socketed mobile chips at CES, but did show this render during

Lenovo’s keynote in the Sphere.

Image: Lenovo/AMD

 

When I asked if the socket means we should expect upgradable laptops, Banta gently throws some cold water on that idea. “In general, what we find is people want the thinnest system they can get, even if they’re enthusiast users,” and that both the socket itself and a socketed CPU’s integrated heat spreader add unwanted thickness to a laptop.

But he seems to think it’ll happen in mini PCs: “What we’re seeing is BGA, LGA, everyone’s experimenting in a lot of different ways within those 1-liter, 2-liter designs, things you can fit on your desk.”

While I didn’t spot a mini PC with a socketed CPU at the show, I bumped into one with tiny modular desktop graphics cards — this Steam Machine competitor from Minisforum — and it makes me excited for a possible future where we can upgrade the CPU, too. Why should only larger PCs be fully upgradable? The new Steam Machine isn’t, and the Framework Desktop requires you to upgrade a whole mainboard at a time, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

Tiny GPU! Minisforum originally announced this PC with an RTX 5060, but seems there’s a Radeon that’ll fit too.

Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge

 

For that to happen, though, AMD would also have to sell its socketed mobile processors at retail the way it sells its desktop ones, and AMD’s not yet willing to commit to that today.

“What can I say… we have active partnerships with OEMs on Ryzen AI 400 socketed designs. DIY is not something we’re communicating information about at this time, so more to come later,” Banta said.

Here’s hoping.

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Posted Saturday 17 January 2026 at 4:06 pm AEST (my time).

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Big Tech’s AI-fueled memory shortage is set to be the PC industry’s defining story for 2026 and beyond. Standalone, direct-to-consumer RAM kits were some of the first products to feel the bite, with prices spiking by 300 or 400 percent by the end of 2025; prices for SSDs had also increased noticeably, albeit more modestly.

The rest of 2026 is going to be all about where, how, and to what extent those price spikes flow downstream into computers, phones, and other components that use RAM and NAND chips—areas where the existing supply of products and longer-term supply contracts negotiated by big companies have helped keep prices from surging too noticeably so far.

This week, we’re seeing signs that the RAM crunch is starting to affect the GPU market—Asus made some waves when it inadvertently announced that it was discontinuing its GeForce RTX 5070 Ti.

Though the company has since tried to walk this announcement back, if you’re a GPU manufacturer, there’s a strong argument for either discontinuing this model or de-prioritizing it in favor of other GPUs. The 5070 Ti uses 16GB of GDDR7, plus a partially disabled version of Nvidia’s GB203 GPU silicon. This is the same chip and the same amount of RAM used in the higher-end RTX 5080—the thinking goes, why continue to build a graphics card with an MSRP of $749 when the same basic parts could go to a card with a $999 MSRP instead?

Whether Asus or any other company is canceling production or not, you can see why GPU makers would be tempted by the argument: Street prices for the RTX 5070 Ti models start in the $1,050 to $1,100 range on Newegg right now, where RTX 5080 cards start in the $1,500 to $1,600 range. Though 5080 models may need more robust boards, heatsinks, and other components than a 5070 Ti, if you’re just trying to maximize the profit-per-GPU you can get for the same amount of RAM, it makes sense to shift allocation to the more expensive cards.

Either way, those GPUs are selling for at least 40 or 50 percent more than their original MSRP right now—it’s a bad time to want a graphics card that can hit 4K without leaning too heavily on upscaling technologies.

The good news, if there is any, is that it’s still not a historically awful time to want a low-end to midrange GPU for 1080p or 1440p gaming. The regular RTX 5070 is hanging out around $560 or $570, just a hair over its $549 MSRP. The situation is similar for the Radeon RX 9070 (MSRP $549, current street price around $580), the 16GB version of the RX 9060 XT (MSRP $349, street price $400-ish), and the GeForce RTX 5060 (currently available at its $300 MSRP). The Radeon RX 9070 XT is faring a bit worse, though not as badly as the RTX 5070 Ti or 5080 (MSRP $599, street price around $730 or $750).

We’re past the period late last year where you could consistently find many of these cards for under MSRP, but we aren’t (yet?) at the point where you have to fight with scalpers for the privilege of paying just 1.5 times the normal price for any of them. It’s something to bear in mind if you’re thinking about upgrading an existing build to get around having to buy new RAM.

Storage wars

SSD prices have been climbing alongside RAM prices for months, but as of last month, the price increases for 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB drives were around twice as expensive as they had been in August 2025, compared to three or four times as expensive for DDR5 RAM kits. But things are moving in a bad direction, and high-capacity SSDs in particular are being hit hard.

If you want a 1TB internal M.2 SSD from a recognizable company, that will generally run you somewhere between $120 and $150—often a little higher than the $135 we recorded for a 1TB WD Blue drive back in January, but not absurdly so.

It’s still possible to find a decent 2TB drive like this SiliconPower model for around $230, the price we quoted for a 2TB Western Digital SN7100 in December. But currently, SSDs from big-name companies like Samsung and WD/SanDisk (currently in a state of flux, but the SanDisk-branded versions of these drives don’t appear to be at retail yet) are either out of stock at many major retailers or have shot up dramatically in price. Best Buy will sell you a 2TB SN7100 for $370, which the site proclaims is a “deal” because it’s marked down from a regular price of $490. A 2TB Samsung 990 Evo Plus will run you $440; Amazon had listed the same drive in new condition for $177 as recently as mid-December.

Drives with 4TB capacities are in a similar place: it’s possible to find reasonable-ish options (another SiliconPower UD90 for $360; a Crucial P310 for $345), but the bigger-name drives I’d usually default to are either much more expensive or out of stock.

Even spinning hard drive prices are beginning to climb, albeit more gradually. A 6TB WD Red NAS drive that retailed for $140 in August of 2025 is listed at $160 now. The 4TB version, as well as a 4TB Seagate IronWolf NAS drive, is around $100, which was its typical price for most of last year. But historical data sourced from CamelCamelCamel shows that both drives went on sale for $80 or $85 several times last year, something that stopped happening for both drives after September. A 12TB IronWolf drive that was usually priced at $240 last year is $270 now; the 16TB version has climbed from $330 to $350.

I wouldn’t expect these prices to continue to shoot upward like RAM and SSD prices have—the level of demand isn’t the same, there isn’t a ton of RAM or flash memory in them, and data centers mostly aren’t going to bother competing with home users to buy 4TB or 8TB drives when they can fit 20 or 30TB in a drive that takes up the same amount of physical space. But the increases are still worth keeping an eye on, as price increases and shortages change buying patterns.

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Posted Saturday 17 January 2026 at 4:05 pm AEST (my time).

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On Thursday, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) reported record fourth-quarter earnings and said it expects AI chip demand to continue for years. During an earnings call, CEO C.C. Wei told investors that while he cannot predict the semiconductor industry’s long-term trajectory, he remains bullish on AI.

TSMC manufactures chips for companies including Apple, Nvidia, AMD, and Qualcomm, making it a linchpin of the global electronics supply chain. The company produces the vast majority of the world’s most advanced semiconductors, and its factories in Taiwan have become a focal point of US-China tensions over technology and trade. When TSMC reports strong demand and ramps up spending, it signals that the companies designing AI chips expect years of continued growth.

“All in all, I believe in my point of view, the AI is real—not only real, it’s starting to grow into our daily life. And we believe that is kind of—we call it AI megatrend, we certainly would believe that,” Wei said during the call. “So another question is ‘can the semiconductor industry be good for three, four, five years in a row?’ I’ll tell you the truth, I don’t know. But I look at the AI, it looks like it’s going to be like an endless—I mean, that for many years to come.”

TSMC posted net income of NT$505.7 billion (about $16 billion) for the quarter, up 35 percent year over year and above analyst expectations. Revenue hit $33.7 billion, a 25.5 percent increase from the same period last year. The company expects nearly 30 percent revenue growth in 2026 and plans to spend between $52 billion and $56 billion on capital expenditures this year, up from $40.9 billion in 2025.

Checking with the customers’ customers

Wei’s optimism stands in contrast to months of speculation about whether the AI industry is in a bubble. In November, Google CEO Sundar Pichai warned of “irrationality” in the AI market and said no company would be immune if a potential bubble bursts. OpenAI’s Sam Altman acknowledged in August that investors are “overexcited” and that “someone” will lose a “phenomenal amount of money.”

But TSMC, which manufactures the chips that power the AI boom, is betting the opposite way, with Wei telling analysts he spoke directly to cloud providers to verify that demand is real before committing to the spending increase.

“I want to make sure that my customers’ demand are real. So I talked to those cloud service providers, all of them,” Wei said. “The answer is that I’m quite satisfied with the answer. Actually, they show me the evidence that the AI really helps their business.”

The earnings report landed the same day the US and Taiwan finalized a trade agreement that cuts tariffs on Taiwanese goods to 15 percent, down from 20 percent. The deal commits Taiwanese companies to $250 billion in direct US investment, and TSMC is accelerating the expansion of its Arizona chip fabrication facilities to match.

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Posted Saturday 17 January 2026 at 5:15 am AEST (my time).

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Microsoft's stock has suffered a bit of a battering over the past few months, largely wiping out all gains it made the six months prior.

As of writing, Microsoft's stock is down around 10% over the past three months, as executives like CEO Satya Nadella, President Brad Smith, and CCO Judson Althoff unload tens of millions of dollars of shares.

Although the sales are routine and not exactly indicative of a wider shift, the near constant decline since June paints a picture of broader headwinds Microsoft and other tech companies are facing as the AI hype train cools and reality begins to set in.

Microsoft's capital expenditure (capex) for AI data center infrastructure increasingly seems to be a sore point for investors. Microsoft's costs in this area have spiralled, hitting a record-breaking $35 billion for its Q1 2026. Investors are not only concerned that returns on this infrastructure spend may elude Redmond for months if not years to come, but there are fresh regulatory concerns adding jitters into the mix.

Yesterday, Microsoft President Brad Smith revealed a five-point "Community First" AI data center plan, which was met with mockery and scepticism online. Not long after that, United States President Donald Trump made comments about how data centers are hurting communities and electricity prices — given that affordability is a major voter issue heading towards the U.S. electoral mid-terms.

Currently, AMD is on its 2nd Gen 3D V-cache technology, and recently at CES, it released the Ryzen 7 9850X3D, claimed to be the world's fastest gaming processor.

In the case of AMD's Zen architecture, the last-level cache (LLC) is level 3 (L3), though it looks like the company is now working on making some inroads in its cache hierarchy, as a recent patent suggests AMD is now trying to vertically stack the L2 (level 2) cache as well for even more performance and/or efficiency.

The company has filed a patent for what it calls a “Balanced Latency Stacked Cache,” a design intended to reduce cache memory access delays and improve power efficiency even further in future Ryzen X3D processors.

Compared to 3D V-cache CPUs, conventional planar cached CPUs with no 3D stacked cache have higher latencies and energy costs. This means lower performance and efficiency, respectively. By keeping those benefits in mind, AMD’s new 3D L2 cache memory design claims to reduce the number of cycles required for accessing a typical 1 MB L2 cache memory from 14 cycles down to just 12 cycles.

While this may not seem like a lot, in CPU architecture designing, it is plenty to get excited about, as even shaving off bits like this means a lot for the overall end performance and efficiency. For context, a typical L2 cache has 10-50 cycles, so this is definitely some of the best.

If you are wondering how AMD is making it possible, the patent notes that stacked dies are connected by connection vias like through‑silicon vias (TSVs) or bond pad vias (BPVs) for vertical silicon-to-silicon communication, and these connection vias are routed through the center, thus shortening the wire stages or pipe stages. Also, by routing the via connections through the center of the stacked dies, AMD creates a symmetrical or balanced structure that should help ensure that data access times are uniform across all layers. This is also why the patent is called "Balanced Latency Stacked cache".

The patent is still pending so it remains to be seen what happens. Of course just because it is being filed does not mean it will come to the market. There can be a lot of difference between a theoretical expectation and the real-world performance.

Via: Google patents (US20260003794A1)

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Posted Friday 16 January 2026 at 12:21 pm AEST (my time).

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Raspberry Pi is launching a new add-on board capable of running generative AI models locally on the Raspberry Pi 5. Announced on Thursday, the $130 AI HAT+ 2 is an upgraded — and more expensive — version of the module launched last year, now offering 8GB of RAM and a Hailo 10H chip with 40 TOPS of AI performance.

Once connected, the Raspberry Pi 5 will use the AI HAT+ 2 to handle AI-related workloads while leaving the main board’s Arm CPU available to complete other tasks. Unlike the previous AI HAT+, which is focused on image-based AI processing, the AI HAT+ 2 comes with onboard RAM and can run small gen AI models like Llama 3.2 and DeepSeek-R1-Distill, along with a series of Qwen models. You can train and fine-tune AI models using the device as well.

A demo shared by Raspberry Pi shows how you can use the add-on board to power an AI model capable of generating a text-based description of a camera stream, as well as answer a question about whether there are any people in the scene. Another shows how you can translate text from French to English with Qwen2.

However, tech YouTuber Jeff Geerling found that a standalone Raspberry Pi 5 with 8GB of RAM generally outperformed the AI HAT+ 2 across the supported models. Geerling links the lower performance to power draw, as the Pi 5 can operate at up to 10 watts, while the AI HAT+ 2 is limited to 3W.

Though the AI HAT+ 2 may be ideal for specific use cases, Geerling notes that the add-on board’s extra 8GB of RAM is “not quite enough to give this HAT an advantage over just paying for the bigger 16GB Pi with more RAM, which will be more flexible and run models faster.” The AI HAT+ released last year, can also handle AI image processing for a cheaper $70 starting price.

Raspberry Pi says more and “larger” AI models “are being readied for updates, and should be available to install soon after launch.”

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Posted Friday 16 January 2026 at 4:48 am AEST (my time).

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It's been nearly a year since the release of Monster Hunter Wilds, the latest mainline entry in the Monster Hunter series. While it went on to sell over 10 million copies, the game ended up being my biggest disappointment of the year for it's non-existant difficulty, unfinished endgame content, and needlessly convoluted multiplayer system.

Not to mention its performance on PC has been absolutely abysmal to the point players have been relentlessly review-bombing it on Steam. While Capcom has been busy improving its endgame content with post-launch updates that added challenging new monsters, new gear to grind for, and an insane crossover with Final Fantasy XIV, there have been little to no improvements for the game's performance on PC.

However, Reddit user by the name of u/de_Tylmarande has reportedly discovered one of the main causes for Monster Hunter Wilds' subpar PC performance, especially for people using mid-range PC hardware.

According to u/de_Tylmarande, the performance issues are partly caused by a system Monster Hunter Wilds uses to check how much DLC content a player owns. They discovered this after doing testing using two separate Steam accounts, where one had no DLC and the other did.

This DLC ownership checking system was running constantly in the background, and they concluded from their testing that the more DLC that was registered to a player's account, the fewer performance hiccups there were.

Image 1 of 2

No mods enabled

(Image credit: Capcom | Reddit (u/de_Tylmarande))

 

DLC ownership checker disabler mod enabled

(Image credit: Capcom | Reddit (u/de_Tylmarande))

 

de_Tylmarande then decided to take it a step further by using a mod that disabled the DLC ownership checking system and was shocked to discover that disabling the system resulted in a 75% performance increase (26 fps with the mod off and 46 fps with the mod on while running in the Windward Plains hub area).

 

Considering Monster Hunter Wilds has tons of piecemeal DLC items like cosmetic armor sets, Seikret and weapon skins, stickers, emotes, and various other knick-knacks, it would make sense that the DLC ownership checker would cause performance issues.

 

 

It essentially forces your PC's CPU to overclock, trying to track if any of them are on your Steam account, and causing Monster Hunter Wilds' framerate to suffer as a result.

 

Now, it's highly likely this is a bug caused by accident. Yet, it's wild that in nearly a year of releasing post-launches, Capcom didn't catch such a huge game-breaking bug in testing that a random fan on Reddit managed to do in their spare time.

 

However, there is a chance that Capcom may address this in the coming weeks, as they've announced on their Japanese X account that a performance patch for the Steam version will be rolled out on January 28, 2026.

 

Although there is also a possibility that Capcom's upcoming patch won't fix the issue regarding the DLC ownership checker, causing frame drops at all.

 

If that happens, u/de_Tylmarande says he'll finish the mod that disables the DLC ownership checker and release it as open source as a last resort option.

 

But will either option be enough to fix Monster Hunter Wilds on PC and bring back disenfranchised PC players? We'll keep an eye out to let you know if performance improves on PC officially or unofficially.

 

Do you think Monster Hunter Wilds PC performance will finally get fixed in Capcom's upcoming patch on January 28, 2026, or will you wait for unofficial mods to do the job?

 

If you have any thoughts on the matter, let us know in the comments below.

 

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Posted Friday 16 January 2026 at 4:39 am AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025: 5,700+

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The rankings below reflect download activity in North America (US/Canada) and Europe, highlighting what PlayStation players spent the most time with last year.

PS5 - United States / Canada

NBA 2K26

Battlefield 6

Grand Theft Auto

VEA Sports College Football

26EA Sports Madden

NFL 26

Minecraft

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7

Arc Raiders

Ghost of Y?tei

MLB The Show 25

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

Ready or Not

EA Sports FC 26

Forza Horizon 5

UFC 5

NBA 2K25

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered

Assassin's Creed Shadows

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Monster Hunter Wilds

EA Sports FC 25

PS5 - Europe

EA Sports FC 26

Grand Theft Auto

VEA Sports FC 25

Forza Horizon 5

Battlefield 6

Minecraft

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7

Assassin's Creed Shadows

Arc Raiders

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Ghost of Y?tei

Split Fiction

Hogwarts Legacy

UFC 5

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

It Takes Two

Ready or Not

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered Rematch

F1 25

PS4 - United States / Canada

Red Dead Redemption 2

Star Wars Battlefront II

Batman: Arkham Knight

Minecraft

Grand Theft Auto

VA Way Out

Need for Speed Heat

Mortal Kombat X

theHunter: Call of the Wild

The Forest

Gang Beasts

Call of Duty: Black Ops III

Kingdom Come: Deliverance

Middle-earth: Shadow of War

Stardew Valley

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

Unravel Two

God of War

Injustice 2

PS4 - Europe

Red Dead Redemption

2A Way Out

EA Sports

FC 26

The Forest

EA Sports

FC 25

Grand Theft Auto V

Minecraft

Need for Speed Heat

Star Wars Battlefront II

Batman: Arkham Knight

Unravel Two

Kingdom Come: Deliverance

Battlefield V

Mortal Kombat X

Gang Beasts

Assassin's Creed Odyssey

Hogwarts Legacy

Battlefield 4

Assassin's Creed Origins

Middle-earth: Shadow of War

Summary:

The 2025 download charts underline familiar trends on PlayStation. Sports games continue to dominate yearly rankings, evergreen titles like Grand Theft Auto V and Minecraft remain extremely popular, and last-gen PS4 games still attract a large audience.

While newer releases made strong appearances, the lists show that longevity and broad appeal continue to matter more than novelty when it comes to PlayStation Store downloads.

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Posted Thursday 15 January 2026 at 6:44 pm AEST (my time).

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Wi-Fi is an ever-evolving technology that connects our favorite devices wirelessly to the internet. From routers to laptops to phones and IoT gizmos, if it gets wireless internet, it's using a Wi-Fi standard.

As it stands at the beginning of 2026, most of our hardware is still using Wi-Fi 5 (the 802.11ac standard introduced in 2013) or Wi-Fi 6 (the 802.11ax standard introduced in 2021).

Yes, Wi-Fi 7 made its official debut in 2024 with the 802.11be standard, but so far it hasn't been largely adopted. Sure, lots of new devices — including many of the PCs and laptops introduced at CES 2026 — are now shipping with Wi-Fi 7, but the vast majority are still operating on an older standard.

Despite the ongoing adoption of Wi-Fi 7, there's already something new on the way from the Wi-Fi Alliance, the non-profit organization in charge of the Wi-Fi trademark and certification.

Call me ignorant, but it was at CES 2026 that I first heard about Wi-Fi 8. More specifically, it was ASUS and its ROG WiFi 8 concept router that tipped me off to the upcoming standard. The ROG NeoCore, as it's known, is expected to arrive in 2026, long before the new Wi-Fi 8 standard is officially finalized.

Setting the ASUS concept aside, let's dig into Wi-Fi 8 and what we can expect when it arrives.

What is Wi-Fi 8? Specs and jargon explained

Later this month, Microsoft will show its next-generation Forza Horizon game, which, this time, will be set in Japan. While we do not have any gameplay or announcement trailers (those are coming next week), it appears that Microsoft accidentally revealed the launch date.

@XBOXF10 posted on X a screenshot from Forza Horizon 5, where an in-game banner offers the user to pre-order Forza Horizon 6 and get access to a bunch of perks and early access on May 15, 2026:

Pre-order now and get a pre-tuned and exclusive Ferrari J50 in Forza Horizon 6!

 

Discover the breathtaking landscapes of Japan in over 550 real-world cars and become a racing Legend in Forza Horizon's biggest open-world driving adventure yet.

In addition to revealing that early access will kick off on May 15, four days ahead of public launch, the banner reveals a few key details bout the game. First, there will be 550+ cars, which is significantly less than what Forza Horizon 5 has. However, Forza games are known for their regular content drops where each series brings a bunch of new exclusive or previously available cars.

Next, Forza Horizon 6 appears to feature a bigger map than Forza Horizon 5, which is already the biggest open-world racing game on Xbox and PC. As such, expect a bigger playground for your open-world racing adventures.

Finally, those who will preorder Premium Edition will get similar perks to those in the previous instalments. Those include VIP Membership, a Welcome Car Pack, Car Pass, two additional car packs (Time Attack Car Packs and Italian Passion Car Pack), plus two premium expansions. Both expansions and the Italian Passion Car Pack will arrive later.

Forza Horizon 6 is coming to PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5 (at a later date). The game will also be available in Game Pass on day one.

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Posted Thursday 15 January 2026 at 5:06 am AEST (my time).

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RAM prices have soared, which is bad news for people interested in buying, building, or upgrading a computer this year, but it’s likely good news for people exasperated by talk of so-called AI PCs.

As Ars Technica has reported, the growing demands of data centers, fueled by the AI boom, have led to a shortage of RAM and flash memory chips, driving prices to skyrocket.

In an announcement today, Ben Yeh, principal analyst at technology research firm Omdia, said that in 2025, “mainstream PC memory and storage costs rose by 40 percent to 70 percent, resulting in cost increases being passed through to customers.”

Overall, global PC shipments increased in 2025, according to Omdia, (which pegged growth at 9.2 percent compared to 2024), and IDC, (which today reported 9.6 percent growth), but analysts expect PC sales to be more tumultuous in 2026.

“The year ahead is shaping up to be extremely volatile,” Jean Philippe Bouchard, research VP with IDC’s worldwide mobile device trackers, said in a statement.

Both analyst firms expect PC makers to manage the RAM shortage by raising prices and by releasing computers with lower memory specs. IDC expects price hikes of 15 to 20 percent and for PC RAM specs to “be lowered on average to preserve memory inventory on hand,” Bouchard said. Omdia’s Yeh expects “leaner mid to low-tier configurations to protect margins.”

“These RAM shortages will last beyond just 2026, and the cost-conscious part of the market is the one that will be most impacted,” Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for worldwide mobile device trackers at IDC, told Ars via email.

IDC expects vendors to “prioritize midrange and premium systems to offset higher component costs, especially memory.”

RAM shortage hits AI PCs

The increased costs have implications for the concept of “AI PCs,” a term OEMs have used consistently over the last two years as they sought to leverage the growth of generative AI chatbots to drive computer sales.

Shoppers, however, have been either too reluctant or too savvy to buy into manufacturer-made AI PC hype.

“PC OEMs had trouble selling the on-device AI message even before the memory shortages,” Ubrani said.

IT buyers will likely also consider local AI capabilities a lower priority if OEMs lower RAM specs to address the component shortage.

“General interest in AI PCs has been wavering for a while, since cloud-based options are widely available and the use cases for on-device AI have been limited. This indifference (between on-device and cloud-based) from a demand perspective might work in favor of PC OEMs, as they don’t need to provide large amounts of RAM,” Ubrani said.

With RAM pricing stability possibly not arriving until 2027, per Ubrani, it may be a while until RAM is readily available enough for it to make sense for PC companies to put as much emphasis on AI PCs, which generally require at least 16GB of memory, as they have in the past two years.

We’ve already seen a shift from AI PCs from Dell. In 2025, it discontinued its XPS brand of consumer laptops and desktops, partially due to the belief that “the AI PC market is quickly evolving,” Kevin Terwilliger, VP and GM of commercial, consumer, and gaming PCs at Dell, told media outlets at the time.

“Everyone from IT decision makers to professionals and everyday users are looking at on-device AI to help drive productivity and creativity,” he said.

At CES 2026, however, Dell resurrected the XPS brand and reframed its laptop marketing around build, battery life, and display quality. Terwilliger also sang a different tune.

“… what we’ve learned over the course of this year, especially from a consumer perspective, is they’re not buying based on AI,” Terwilliger said at a press briefing ahead of the show. “In fact, I think AI probably confuses them more than it helps them understand a specific outcome.”

Moving from the hype

Microsoft also seems aware of the shortcomings of AI PCs. In December, The Information reported that CEO Satya Nadella had sent an email to engineering heads expressing disappointment with the consumer version of Copilot. He reportedly wrote that tools for connecting Copilot with Outlook and Gmail “for [the] most part don’t really work” and are “not smart.” The publication also reported that Nadella delegated some of his responsibilities to spend more time on Copilot. Microsoft hasn’t commented on the report.

With that in mind, it stands to reason that we’re far from hearing the last about AI PCs. Currently, there are still plenty of stakeholders pushing AI PCs in 2026. But as we all await the end of the RAM shortage, it seems that at least some brands will attempt to build AI PCs with a significant and relevant purpose and scale back on trying to get people to buy a computer that can handle AI.

The idea of AI PCs isn’t inherently a bad thing. But in recent years, it felt like technology companies were exploiting generative AI to convince people and companies to buy more or more powerful devices, even if they didn’t need them or local AI processing.

Now, with a RAM crunch and lack of customer demand, there’s hope for AI PC marketing spiel to relent somewhat and for PC companies to try harder to prove that AI PCs are a solution to a problem, not a solution searching for a problem.

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Posted Wednesday 14 January 2026 at 11:59 am AEST (my time).

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The year 2025 brought some setbacks for these big tech companies as they were granted fewer patents in the US than in previous years. That's according to a new report from IFI Claims Patent Services based on the data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), revealing that the growth of US patent applications has stalled for the first time in years.

Last year, the number of US patent applications filed decreased by 9% compared to 2024, reaching its lowest level since 2019. On the other hand, the number of US patents granted declined by 1% from 324,064 in 2024 to 323,272 in 2025.

Apple and Google are among the popular names that took the brunt of it. Apple was granted 2,722 patents in 2025, down from 3,082 in 2024. It's a 12% drop that resulted in the company falling from second to sixth place in the annual ranking of the top 50 companies with the most US patent grants.

To name a few, the iPhone-maker has filed patents for flexible speakers and full-body tracking technology in the past.

Google now sits at the 14th position following a drop. The company was granted 1,782 patents in 2025, down from 2,054 in 2024, a 13% drop. Meanwhile, Samsung has retained the crown for the last three years and claimed the top spot again in 2025 with 7,054 grants (6,377 in 2024), recording a 10% increase.

This overall decline comes just a year after the US patent applications reached a record high in 2024. At the same time, the USPTO is facing a massive backlog of unexamined applications due to various reasons.

"It’s very interesting to see patent applications take such a dive after a long climb upward," said the firm's marketing manager, Lily Iacurci. "Right now, we’re wondering if other companies are quietly adopting patent strategies similar to the one IBM announced a few years ago."

IBM, which is now out of the top 10, has the most patent grants for 29 consecutive years before Samsung replaced it three years ago. Other giants like Tesla, NVIDIA, and Meta didn't collect enough US patent grants to make it to the top 50 list.

Looking at region-level data, the firm notes Asian companies captured 60% of all grants on the top 50 list. The US single-handedly received the most patent grants (136,131) when looking beyond the top 50.

The latest rankings highlight a strong focus on sustainability in R&D. About half of the patent areas considered as the fastest-growing technologies are related to battery tech, alongside recovery of waste materials, which is among the major trends.

Image via DepositPhotos.com

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Posted Wednesday 14 January 2026 at 4:07 am AEST (my time).

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Arc Raiders sales have now crossed 12.4 million, according to the latest data released by the developer, Embark Studios. The peak concurrent number had also reached 960,000 in January 2026, a mere ten weeks after the multiplayer game's launch.

"Reaching 12 million downloads is a milestone we owe entirely to the players," said Aleksander Grøndal, executive producer of Arc Raiders at Embark Studios. “The community of Raiders has helped shape this game from the very beginning, and their passion, feedback, and ingenuity continue to guide how we build, support, and grow this world for the long term."

The studio had been planning a gift for players for when the game reached 10 million players. However, the holiday rush had boosted sales to 12 million by the time it was finished with the reward.

Starting later today, January 13, a special Gilded Pickaxe Raider Tool cosmetic is being sent out to all players that have jumped into Arc Raiders since its launch in October last year. Today also marks the day that the next update hits Arc Raiders, taking away the popular Cold Snap map effect that froze over the landscape. A new map event should be replacing it soon.

At the same time, some balance changes are expected to land as well, which should affect some popular but overused items such as the Trigger Nade explosive as well as the Sticher and Kettle weapons.

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Posted Wednesday 14 January 2026 at 4:06 am AEST (my time).

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There have been reports that the AI giant has been working on its first lineup of AI-focused hardware products. New information from the Weibo-based leaker Smart Pikachu claims that OpenAI's first device, internally known as "Sweatpea," is a "special audio product to replace" Apple AirPods.

OpenAI acquired Apple veteran Jony Ive's design startup io back in May 2025 in a $6.5 billion all-stock deal. The deal was announced alongside a teaser for a mysterious AI device. Ive is reportedly involved in multiple AI device projects for OpenAI. One of them could be a palm-sized screenless device that is said to be running into "critical issues."

The leaker said that Ive's team is working on "Sweatpea" as a priority. Its release date is expected in September 2026, with projected shipments of 40 to 50 million units in the first year.

Based on the available details (via Cult Of Mac), the main device, made of metal, will resemble the shape of an eggstone, and its hardware design is said to be "unique, unseen before." There will be two pills inside the eggstone, which will rest behind the ears.

Under the hood, Sweatpea is expected to fit a 2nm smartphone-style chip as the main processor, possibly Samsung's Exynos. It will house a custom chip that allows the device to "replace iphone actions by commanding Siri."

While replying to a user's comment on X, the leaker said that the OpenAI device doesn't use bone conduction to produce sound. Moreover, the device's complex nature could push the price tag higher, as its bill of materials (BOM) is expected to compete with that of smartphones.

So far, we have seen AI-first devices like Rabbit R1 and Humane AI Pin that haven't made a big dent, given that AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini are among the top dogs. It remains to be seen what OpenAI has in store for its first device.

Image via DepositPhotos.com

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Posted Wednesday 14 January 2026 at 4:03 am AEST (my time).

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For much of 2024, the narrative around Google in the AI race was one of a "sleeping giant" caught off guard. One of the main catalysts is the launch of Gemini 3, which also began rolling out across Google's ecosystem earlier this month. Unlike previous AI integrations, which felt like a hit or miss, the integration of Gemini 3 into core products like Gmail and Workspace has shown its investors that AI is indeed monetizable.

Since 2024, Google has been investing massively to scale up its AI infrastructure, as well as making changes to its corporate structure. The consolidation of teams like Google AI Studio and Gemini API into Google DeepMind in early 2025 also streamlined the company's fragmented AI efforts, allowing for faster deployment of models like the Ironwood (7th Gen) TPUs. These chips have become a critical asset not just for Google's own training, but also to lure major partners.

Google's partnership with Anthropic served as an external validation of its hardware superiority, where the company secured a "tens of billions" commitment from a top competitor to use its cloud infrastructure.

Google is certainly more confident with its AI, as the company is shifting its hardware strategy and has been busy integrating Gemini into the Pixel series, as well as its WearOS devices, mimicking Apple's 'walled garden' but with superior AI intelligence as the hook. Google's partnership with Apple to power the next generation of Siri, following internal setbacks at Cupertino, has further given more leverage to Google as well as solidified investor confidence.

via Reuters

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Posted Tuesday 13 January 2026 at 12:05 pm AEST (my time).

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Over the past couple of weeks, users on the r/alexa subreddit have reported getting automatically upgraded to Alexa Plus as a perk for their Prime memberships. The update doesn’t appear to be opt-in, but there’s an option to roll it back.

Screenshots of a message from Amazon sent to users state that, “After your device updates, you can still revert to the original Alexa by saying, ‘Alexa, exit Alexa+.’”

Alexa Plus is an LLM-powered overhaul of Alexa that’s intended to help Amazon’s voice assistant compete with rivals like Google Gemini. Not everyone is eager to use the latest version of Amazon’s AI, though, and the rollout of the Gemini update for Google Home has had its own issues, like misidentifying objects and hallucinating camera activity.

Some users on Reddit have responded to Amazon’s update with a variety of reasons for wanting to stick with the original Alexa, including disliking Alexa’s new voice and attitude and experiencing longer wait times for Alexa Plus to respond to queries. Users also report an influx of ads for Alexa Plus, including one user who said that after they turned off the updated Alexa, they got “flooded with ads” until they turned it back on.

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Posted Tuesday 13 January 2026 at 4:02 am AEST (my time).

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CES 2026 took place in Las Vegas last week, and as usual, we’re looking at the most interesting monitors from the show. Not every display is a monitor in the strictest sense, but they all provide a display for computers and have a unique twist that make them worth exploring.

Dell’s massive UltraSharp

Dell’s biggest UltraSharp has a 21:9 aspect ratio.

Credit: Dell

It was a pretty safe bet that Dell would announce new UltraSharp monitors at CES. The displays are a solid recommendation for reliable USB-C monitors, including for Mac users and people needing something polished for professional or creative work. In recent years, UltraSharp monitors have also boasted more modern features, including integrated web cameras and IPS Black tech.

This year, the strategy was clear: Bigger is better.

At 51.5 inches, the UltraSharp U5226KW that Dell announced at CES is the biggest UltraSharp monitor yet. It has a resolution of 6144×2560, for a pixel density of 129 pixels per inch. The IPS Black monitor also has a bevy of ports via a Thunderbolt 4 hub that supports up to 140 W power delivery. There’s a separate pop-out box with 27 W USB-C and 10 W USB-A ports, and the monitor can connect to up to four PCs simultaneously via an integrated KVM. There’s a bounty of connectivity options across this massive display.

The U5226KW lacks any other noteworthy innovations beyond its size, but Dell is still hoping to impress professionals who frequently use numerous apps simultaneously, and especially those currently using multi-monitor setups.

Dell’s giant UltraSharp launched last week for $2,900 with a stand or $2,800 without a stand.

Lenovo’s tall AIO

All-in-ones (AIOs) are often overlooked, but Lenovo arrived at CES with a unique take on the computer-monitor combo.

The Lenovo ThinkCentre X AIO Aura Edition differs from other AIOs, including Apple’s 24-inch iMac, in its square-like panel. Its 16:18 aspect ratio means it’s not a true square, but the display is still much taller than other AIOs and most regular computer monitors, which are both usually 16:9.

The Aura Edition’s specs include a 27.6-inch IPS panel with 2560×2880 resolution, up to an Intel Core Ultra X7 Series 3 processor, up to 64GB of LPDDR5x RAM, and two M.2 SSD storage slots.

Lenovo expects the PC to appeal to “creators, programmers, and data professionals who benefit from seeing two A4 pages or full data sets in an easy-to-view portrait display,” the company said in a press release.

Additionally, Lenovo will preload the system with business-friendly features, like Lenovo DeskView, which can “digitize documents placed in front of the screen for instant sharing.” And in case there’s any debate over whether the ThinkCentre X AIO is truly a monitor, Lenovo says the device will launch with Lenovo Share Zone, which lets the screen support both the AIO and a second, connected system simultaneously.

A marketing image for Lenovo’s tall AIO.

Credit: Lenovo

Noteworthy AIO releases are infrequent these days (Lenovo also announced a 32-inch 4K-resolution Yoga AIO I Aura Edition aimed at consumers who want their monitor’s base to light up in different colors depending on what’s on the screen. That machine is expected to release in Q2 for $2,400). Laptops, smartphones, and improvements in monitor technology and affordability have largely supplanted some of AIOs’ primary benefits, like saving space and providing an ample screen.

 

But with many companies pushing employees back into offices full-time or part-time, there’s an incentive to explore alternative ways to equip offices, from AIOs to big-screen tablets, and even keyboard-PCs. AIOs are easy for IT teams to set up and use minimal space. Simultaneously, Lenovo is offering an option for the growing number of people who prefer taller screens, perhaps due to the nature of their work or the increasing presence of taller displays in consumer laptops.

 

Lenovo didn’t announce a price or release date for its tall AIO.

RGB-stripe OLED monitors

A return to classic OLED subpixel layouts from panel-makers LG Display and Samsung Display is a promising sign for the versatility and legibility of future OLED monitors.

 

Most OLED computer monitors use either a WOLED panel from LG Display or a QD-OLED panel from Samsung Display. WOLED panels feature a red, white, blue, and green (RWBG) subpixel layout or, for newer monitors, an RGWB subpixel layout. QD-OLED monitors have a triangular RGB layout.

 

Both subpixel layouts have issues with text legibility on Windows. That’s because ClearType, Windows’ subpixel font-rendering software, is built for LCDs with an RGB-stripe subpixel layout. The result for OLED monitors is “fringing,” which, to astute eyes, appears as a colorful border around text. Fringing is especially common on OLED monitors with less than 4K resolution and is often more associated with QD-OLED than WOLED.

 

A diagram of the subpixel structures of WOLED (left), QD-OLED (center), and LG Display’s RGB-stripe OLED (right) panels.

Credit: LG Display

As is common in emerging, expensive computing peripherals, OLED monitors first targeted gamers, making fringing less of a concern. WOLED and QD-OLED panels were also favored by panel suppliers because they were easier to manufacture in large sizes for TVs.

 

And after Japanese panel maker JOLED went bankrupt (it has since been acquired), we stopped seeing new RGB-stripe OLED monitors, which should be more suitable for reading, working, and other non-gaming applications.

 

But this year, LG Display is making OLED panels with RGB-stripe subpixels. As the company announced in December, “the RGB stripe structure arranges the three primary color subpixels—red, green, and blue—in a straight line, significantly reducing visual distortions such as color bleeding and fringing, even at close viewing distances. Although OLED panels using the RGB stripe method existed before, their maximum refresh rate reached around 60 Hz, making them unsuitable for use as gaming monitors.”

 

To enable an RGB-stripe subpixel and high refresh rates, LG Display said it increased “the proportion of the pixel area that emits light.”

 

Similarly, Samsung Display announced at CES that this year, Asus and MSI will release monitors with Samsung’s new QD-OLED panels, which use a vertical RGB subpixel structure the company has named “V-stripe.”

A depiction of text on a QD-OLED monitor with RGB subpixels in a triangular shape (left) and on QD-OLED monitor RGB subpixels in a vertical stripe (right).

Credit: MSI

“The biggest technical challenges in mass-producing high refresh rate panels with a new pixel structure include reduced organic material lifespan, heat generation, and brightness degradation,” Samsung Display’s announcement said. “By leveraging QD-OLED’s top emission structure, which offers brightness advantages, along with improvements in organic material efficiency and design optimization, we were able to mass-produce a high-performance monitor.”

 

Some publications that demoed RGB-stripe OLED monitors at CES reported text looking noticeably better than on other OLED monitors.

 

LG and Gigabyte also announced that they will release OLED monitors with RGB-stripe subpixels this year.

Samsung’s 6K, 3D monitor

The IPS monitor has two ports: HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 2.1.

Credit: Monitors Unboxed/YouTube

In true CES fashion, Samsung’s latest Odyssey 3D monitor one-ups its predecessor in every way it can.

 

Samsung launched its first Odyssey 3D monitor last year. We found that while the glasses-free 3D experience was impressive, the monitor was hard to recommend given its limited game support.

 

Back then, Samsung’s Odyssey 3D Hub app, which is used to launch stereoscopic content, had 14 games. As of this writing, there are 29 3D-supporting titles (you can see a full list at the Microsoft Store), but that still may not be enough to warrant a purchase price of what we expect will be over $2,000, based on the preceding Odyssey 3D’s release price.

 

The lack of applications for a glasses-free 3D gaming monitor didn’t stop Samsung from releasing a larger option, though. The Odyssey 3D that came out in 2025 has a 27-inch 4K IPS screen with a 165 Hz refresh rate. The 2026 model is 32 inches and supports 6K resolution (6144×3456) at a refresh rate of 165 Hz. The monitor is also supposed to easily drop down to 3K resolution (3072×1728), at which point it will run at 330 Hz. So although you don’t need glasses to get the most out of this monitor, you will need a decently powerful GPU.

 

In addition to glasses-free 3D gaming, Samsung’s 3D monitors can make 2D videos appear to be in 3D. In our testing of the 27-inch Odyssey 3D, this worked well enough on YouTube videos, albeit with a bit of a cardboard-cutout effect.

 

Most gamers or people seeking 6K resolution won’t opt for a 3D monitor. But Samsung’s investment in improving 3D displays alongside (slowly) growing game support should be welcome for people who have been waiting 15 years for glasses-free 3D to really take off.

Nvidia G-Sync Pulsar monitors

Asus’ ROG Strix Pulsar XG27AQNGV monitor came out last week.

Credit: Asus

G-Sync Pulsar is a backlight strobing technique designed to reduce perceived blur when viewing fast-moving content on supported monitors.

 

The backlight on a Pulsar monitor pulses for one-fourth of a frame right before pixels are overwritten. This enables pixels to be the proper color before they’re lit up so you don’t see pixels fading from one hue to another. The approach differs from that of most monitors, which use always-on backlights, and is reminiscent of plasma TVs, which didn’t have backlights but lit up pixels in quick pulses, helping to reduce motion blur. Pulsar also differs from other forms of backlight strobing, such as Nvidia’s Ultra Low Motion Blur, in that it works with variable refresh rates.

 

Speed-hungry gamers have been awaiting Pulsar monitors since Nvidia announced the technology at CES 2024. As of this writing, three Pulsar monitors are available to purchase: Acer’s Predator XB273U F5, Asus’ ROG Strix Pulsar XG27AQNGV, and MSI’s MPG 272QRF X36. 

 

For more, check out our previous coverage on Nvidia’s new G-Sync Pulsar monitors.

Odinn’s Omnia display

Two-year-old California startup Odinn reportedly held limited demos at CES last week of Odinn’s Omnia X,  a provocative approach to the idea of a “portable data center.”

 

The term “data center” is a stretch, though, as Omnia X is far from matching the computing capabilities of even a modest data center. The PC can support up to two AMD EPYC 9965 CPUs, four Nvidia H200 NVL GPUs, and 6TB of DDR5 memory.

 

That’s an impressive amount of power to fit in a chassis that Odinn claims is the size of carry-on luggage. The system also has a flip-down keyboard and a pair of handles, which are essential since Omnia X weighs 77 pounds. That’s more than what you’d expect from a"portable” gadget, but Omnia X’s form factor is more about simplifying “data center” access for businesses and employees with demanding and sensitive computing needs who work in various locations.

 

In an interview with Las Vegas Sun, Oddin CEO Carl Liebel compared Omnix X to about half of a data center rack and said it could replace a company’s need to rent space in a data center.

 

The Omnia X makes this list due to its (optional) integrated, 23.8-inch 4K display that flips out from the system’s side. With the display and max specifications, the Omnia X could be the most well-equipped portable computing solution we’ve seen.

 

OMNIA by ODINN

 

Odinn says that Omnia X uses a redundant power supply unit (PSU) with a high Platinum rating for efficiency. In a PSU, efficiency means less internal heat and lower energy consumption—key areas of concern in a system like Omnia’s. Interesting Engineering reported that Omnia X uses a proprietary closed-loop cooling system.

 

Odinn’s website targets Omnia X at heavy-lift projects, like “military AI missions,” “enterprise-grade simulations,” and portable data centers.

 

“Run large models without ever connecting to the cloud. Omnia AI was built for mission-critical inference at the edge, from battlefield computer vision to real-time autonomous navigation,” Omnia’s website reads. “With dual GPUs, massive RAM, and hardware-level isolation, it delivers the kind of raw AI horsepower previously reserved for large-scale data centers, right where your team needs it most.”

 

Odinn is also pitching the computer to cinematographers, 3D artists, and VFX editors who work on location. Analysts, investigators, and cyber operators could also benefit by using the system for “mapping threat surfaces, performing forensic investigations, or searching across massive, disconnected data sets,” the California startup claims.

 

Omnia X will cost at least $550,000 Liebel told Las Vegas Sun. You can see pictures of it at the show here and here.

1,000 Hz monitors

Every year at CES, a new panel claims to be the fastest monitor that has ever existed. Sure, most people don’t need a monitor that can refresh 1,000 times per second. But extremely high refresh rates do offer visual benefits, including less blur and fast objects looking sharper. It’s also just cool to see how far professional-grade gaming monitors can go.

 

One of the fastest monitors at CES 2026 is Acer’s 1,000 Hz Predator XB273U F6. Last month, Philips and AOC announced upcoming monitors that could run 720p at 1,000 Hz, too. But Acer appears to be the closest to actually releasing such a monitor. The OEM gave demos of its 1,000 Hz, 27-inch display at last week’s trade show. Unlike the other monitors, Acer’s speedy screen has a launch timeframe: Q2 2026. (Samsung also announced a 1,040 Hz monitor at the show, but the additional 40 Hz seems negligible at this point, and Samsung hasn’t provided details about how it purportedly reached that speed. Further, there seemed to be minimal demos of Samsung’s 27-inch Odyssey G6 G60H at CES 2026.)

 

While 1,000 Hz monitors target gamers playing games at the highest levels, they are also built to support a 2560×1440 resolution at a slower—but still amazingly fast—500 Hz.

 

You can take a look at the Predator XB273U F6 in this video from CNET or the video from Monitor Unboxed below.

 

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AMD launched its FSR "Redstone" update in December 2025 as part of the AMD Adrenalin 25.12.1 driver package, bringing to a close months of speculation after the upgraded upscaling tech was first revealed at Computex 2025.

As expected, AMD's ML-powered FSR Redstone update launched with availability only for its latest Radeon RX 9000 graphics cards using the RDNA 4 architecture. PC gamers using AMD's older RDNA 3 GPUs were largely left out in the cold, watching as adopters of the newer hardware got to test out new FSR Upscaling, Frame Generation, Ray Regeneration, and Radiance Caching techniques.

Why didn't AMD launch Redstone on its older hardware? It all comes down to performance. The new ML-powered techniques are designed specifically for RDNA 4's newfound AI performance, just like NVIDIA's latest AI-powered DLSS 4.5 improvements are largely reserved for its latest RTX 5000 Blackwell GPUs.

In a recent interview at CES 2026 with PC World, AMD's Senior VP of GPU Technologies and Engineering, Andrej Zdravkovic, reiterated that the full set of Redstone features will remain closely linked to RDNA 4.

Zdravkovic explains that the latest Redstone features simply don't perform as they should on older AMD GPUs. Subext? It's not a case of barring older hardware to drive sales of the latest Radeon RX 9000 cards.

Zdravkovic adds that while some of the Redstone features are useful and can actually be performed on some of AMD's older cards, internal testing reveals that "the net result is not going to improve the experience."

When pressed about PC enthusiasts forcing the latest FSR updates onto unsupported GPUs, Zdravkovic has a very reasonable response.

Generative AI has caused a paradigm shift in the tech industry, with every major tech corporation, including Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, quickly hopping on the bandwagon with multi-billion-dollar investments.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has been critical of the technology. Last year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed that the philanthropic billionaire was against his $1 billion investment in OpenAI in 2019. "You're going to burn this billion dollars," Gates warned.

The Microsoft co-founder indicated that the world is in the midst of an AI bubble while likening it to the dot-com era, fueled by investor enthusiasm and overvalued companies. "There are a ton of these investments that will be dead ends," Gates added.

More recently, the executive indicated that AI could be used as a bioterrorism weapon against the world if it landed in the wrong hands. In his annual letter titled "Optimism with footnotes," Gates indicated that “of all the things humans have ever created, AI will change society the most.”

While the technology shows great promise and advances across computing, education, medicine, and more, it also poses a significant threat to humanity. Last year, Google DeepMind's CEO, Demis Hassabis, indicated AGI (artificial general intelligence) is coming but warned that society isn't ready, further revealing that the prospects keep him up at night.

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.

At CES 2026, ASUS confirmed that Windows 11 version 26H1 is coming in the first quarter of 2026 on devices equipped with Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 processors. All the other existing computers will get new features and platform updates in the second half of the year, once Microsoft releases Windows 11 version 26H2.

Bloatware in Windows 11 is a major problem these days, and with Microsoft not willing to listen to feedback from its customers, third-party devs and enthusiasts offer their solutions to the problem. FlyOOBE, a popular tool for debloating Windows 11, has been updated this week with a new tool for detecting and removing AI components. If you are sick of unsolicited AI everywhere, try it out.

Later, the maker of FlyOOBE released a new tool called Winslop, which aims to give users a flexible, modular utility for debloating Windows 11 and removing AI slop.

Other useful stuff for Windows 11 this week included a new support document from Microsoft that explains how to properly remove junk files from your computer, and free up a few dozens of precious gigabytes.

Finally, Microsoft confirmed that Windows activation over the phone is now dead. However, users still have one method for offline activation.

Windows Insider Program

Here is what Microsoft released for Windows Insiders this week:

In addition to releasing a new Dev and Beta build, Microsoft issued an important message to Windows Insiders who are currently in the Dev Channel. The channel will soon move to higher builds, and the ability to switch to Beta without reinstalling Windows will close soon. If you do not want to risk using less stable Dev builds, it is time to switch.

Also, there are signs of Microsoft injecting even more AI into File Explorer. Users discovered that recent Windows 11 preview builds have a blank button on the toolbar, which will reportedly work as a Copilot button so that you can have a chat with AI right in your File Explorer window. Ugh...

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.

Outlook for Windows is getting an interesting meeting feature. Microsoft is working on a new capability that will allow customers to set up and schedule meetings through the Outlook chat interface available in the side pane. Additionally, Microsoft confirmed an annoying bug plaguing users of Outlook Classic.

A useful update is coming to Word as well. Microsoft announced that users will be able to paste links more quickly by simply highlighting a word and pressing Ctrl + V. Pressing Ctrl + K or selecting the corresponding option is no longer necessary. Very nice. What is not nice is the fact that Microsoft is taking away the ability to send documents from Word to Kindle. Microsoft killed that feature, so now, you have to use other methods to send documents to your e-reader from Amazon.

Finally, Microsoft shut down fake news about its renaming Office apps to Copilot. Many users got confused by poor wording, but as it turned out, Office apps are not going anywhere with their name, at least for now.

If you use PowerToys, particularly its Peek and Light Switch modules, look out for a few more features in upcoming updates. The app may soon let you keep Peek on top of all windows, while Light Switch may get the ability to customize wallpapers for each mode.

Speaking of useful tools, Raycast for Windows received a new update, which introduced a properly modern Run dialog that lets you do much more and much better than the standard Run dialog in Windows 11 and its upcoming redesigned variant.

On the browser side, we only have two updates for Microsoft Edge. One patches a high-severity security vulnerability in Edge 133, while the other adds more Copilot nudges to Edge 134 in the Beta Channel.

Here are other updates and releases you may find interesting:

• Microsoft cancels Exchange Online configuration change because no one liked it.

• Microsoft acquires Osmos to bring autonomous AI data engineering to Fabric.

• Microsoft warns IT admins against using this unsupported Exchange Online configuration.

• Samsung patches high-risk security vulnerability in its SSD software; update yours now.

• Rumours suggest Microsoft may cut up to 22,000 jobs in early 2026.

• Microsoft reveals itself as the firm behind the controversial Michigan data center.

   

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

• NVIDIA 591.74 WHQL driver with DLSS 4.5 support and bug fixes.

Reviews are in

Here is the hardware and software we reviewed this week

Christopher White has a new NAS review for you. This week, he published a detailed review of the Zettlab D4 NAS, an interesting storage device that uses AI in its operating system to work with your local profile. Check out its in-depth review here.

We also have a new gamepad review, this time, the Hyperkin The Competitor. This interesting-looking mix of Xbox and PlayStation Controllers ticks all the boxes of a good, budget controller. It has Hall Effect sticks and triggers, a removable USB Type-C cable, swappable sticks, customizable rear buttons, and more. It also works with PC and Xbox, plus you get a free month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate with it.

Finally, Steven Parker reviewed the Honor Magic8 Pro, a high-end smartphone with a fantastic display, plenty of storage, a big battery, and good cameras. There are some software quirks here and there, but overall, the device turned out to be fantastic.

On the gaming side

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

The first Xbox Developer Direct in 2026 is now confirmed. Microsoft announced the date of its January 2026 gaming event, where the company will show some of the upcoming games, including Forza Horizon 6, Fable, and more.

The first wave of new games for Game Pass in 2026 is here, and it packs a few big titles, including Star Wars Outlaws, Atomfall, Resident Evil Village, and more. Additionally, Microsoft announced that Xbox Cloud Gaming is coming to Hisense TVs.

NVIDIA is expanding the number of platforms where its cloud streaming service GeForce NOW is officially available. This week, the company announced that GeForce NOW is heading to Linux with an official app. In addition, a native client is coming to Amazon's Fire TVs. Additionally, there are new games that you can play if you own them on Steam, Epic Games, or Xbox.

Deals and freebies

Epic Games Store is giving away Baloons TD6, a tower defence game. If you're into games like this, you can grab it for free until next Thursday. As usual, you can find more deals in the latest Weekend PC Deals article.

Other gaming news includes the following:

• 007 First Light system requirements are here, and they are surprisingly reasonable.

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7's massive Fallout crossover lands with Ghouls, Deathclaws, more.

• Minecraft's kittens, puppies, and other baby animals are getting a major upgrade soon.

• Avowed announced for PS5, will land alongside a massive anniversary update.

   

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ExplainingComputers (1.16m subscribers)

January 12, 2026

Video length: 13m 46s

00:00 Titles & Intro

00:43 RAM Prices Rises

06:13 Storage Price Rises

08:26 The Year Ahead

10:16 Implications

12:32 Wrap

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Paul's Hardware (1.54m subscribers)

January 12, 2026

Video length: 15m 26s

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•     Chinese AI firms positioned to co-develop hardware and software, industry experts say
•     Lack of advanced lithography machines a main hurdle to having a Chinese AI world leader, they say
•     Younger Chinese AI entrepreneurs have more appetite for risk

BEIJING, Jan 10 (Reuters) - China can narrow its technological gap with the U.S. driven by growing risk-taking and innovation, though the lack of advanced chipmaking tools is hobbling the sector, the country's leading artificial intelligence researchers said on Saturday.

China's so-called 'AI tiger' startups MiniMax and Zhipu AI had strong debuts on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange this week, reflecting growing confidence in the sector as Beijing fast-tracks AI and chip listings to bolster domestic alternatives to advanced U.S. technology.

Yao Shunyu, a former senior researcher at ChatGPT maker OpenAI who was named technology giant Tencent's (0700.HK) chief AI scientist in December, said there was a high likelihood of a Chinese firm becoming the world's leading AI company in the next three to five years but said the lack of advanced chipmaking machines was the main technical hurdle.

"Currently, we have a significant advantage in electricity and infrastructure. The main bottlenecks are production capacity, including lithography machines, and the software ecosystem," Yao said at an AI conference in Beijing.

China has completed a working prototype of an extreme-ultraviolet lithography machine potentially capable of producing cutting-edge semiconductor chips that rival the West's, Reuters reported last month. However, the machine has not yet produced working chips and may not do so until 2030, people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

MIND THE INVESTMENT GAP

Yao and other Chinese industry leaders at the Beijing conference on Saturday also acknowledged that the U.S. maintains an advantage in computing power due to its hefty investments in infrastructure.

"The U.S. computer infrastructure is likely one to two orders of magnitude larger than ours. But I see that whether it's OpenAI or other platforms, they're investing heavily in next-generation research," said Lin Junyang, technical lead for Alibaba's (9988.HK) flagship Qwen large language model.

"We, on the other hand, are relatively strapped for cash; delivery alone likely consumes the majority of our computer infrastructure," Lin said during a panel discussion at the AGI-Next Frontier Summit held by the Beijing Key Laboratory of Foundational Models at Tsinghua University.

Lin said China's limited resources have spurred its researchers to be innovative, particularly through algorithm-hardware co-design, which enables AI firms to run large models on smaller, inexpensive hardware.

Tang Jie, founder of Zhipu AI which raised HK$4.35 billion in its IPO, also highlighted the willingness of younger Chinese AI entrepreneurs to embrace high-risk ventures - a trait traditionally associated with Silicon Valley - as a positive development.

"I think if we can improve this environment, allowing more time for these risk-taking, intelligent individuals to engage in innovative endeavours ... this is something our government and the country can help improve," said Tang.

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