It was less than a year ago that Cloud Imperium Games delivered a new solar system to its sci-fi space RPG Star Citizen in the form of Pyro. Already, a third one has been introduced. The Alpha 4.4 update has now been pushed to all backers of the crowd-funded experience, and it includes the Nyx star system for players to explore and do missions in the persistent universe. Check out the new trailer above showcasing the system.

While the system's three planets are inhabitable, the dense asteroid belt surrounding the star is packed with mining locations and abandoned sites for players to explore. It's inside of this Glaciem Ring that players will also find the asteroid Delamar, marking the return of the 'free-town' Levski landing zone.

"The long awaited return of Delamar and Levski is here with the same nostalgic look and feel of the location with many new visual and location improvements," says the developer, describing the returning location. "Extensive audio inclusions for Levski and Nyx have been included in 4.4.0 with new soundscapes and musical scores while exploring the system."

Cloud Imperium Games has enabled jump points at the edges of both the Stanton and Pyro systems for players to use, which will carry them towards the new system. However, it reminded players that as only Pyro is supposed to be a neighbor star to Nyx, the Stanton shortcut is only a placeholder for ease of use reasons.

"This system will be accessible as a new home location if desired but we fully recommend players not devoid themselves of the journey to reach Nyx for their first time seeing it by jumping into the system from one of the 2 new jump gates," adds the studio.

Brand-new missions and operations have been introduced alongside the new system too. This includes PvE missions involving Vanduul-Tech Smugglers, interstellar hauling missions that take players between systems, and fresh variants of classic missions that now take place inside the Nyx system.

The Star Citizen Alpha 4.4: Welcome to Nyx update is now available for all backers in the Live channel. Find the complete changelog here.

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Posted Thursday 20 November 2025 at 11:57 am AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of October): 5,009

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The new map is named Eastwood. Touting a Southern California theme, multiple versions with different playable areas are now present for players to jump into across all the official modes of Battlefield 6.

Next, the studio has added two new weapons: the DB-12 shotgun and the M357 Trait sidearm. There's a limited-time game mode available with the update too. Dubbed Sabotage, this themed event has players being focused on demolitions and counterplay.

Portal mode has received some attention as well. This includes a Sandbox map option for players to start with a fresh plane to begin their creations and the Golf Cart vehicle. The studio plans to enable Battle Pickups in Portal soon too, the limited-ammo drops that offer high-power weaponry to players.

Outside of new content, Battlefield Studios has made some major changes under the hood of the engine too. The developer said that aim assist has been reverted to how it functioned during the Battlefield 6 open beta. This should allow for "consistent infantry targeting behavior across all input types," per the team. Controller aim should feel better overall, as input latency and stick response timings have been tightened with the update.

"After reviewing player feedback and gameplay data, we’re reverting aim assist back to the values some of you experienced during Open Beta and Battlefield Labs," said the developer about the aim assist changes. "This will now serve as the default, whilst still providing you with the ability to alter the aim assist to your preference and playstyle via settings. This change keeps aim slowdown consistent across all ranges, helping with muscle memory and providing a steadier, more reliable feel as we move into future seasons."

Battlefield 6 game update 1.1.2.0 is now live across PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5. Check out the complete changelog from Battlefield Studios over here.

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Posted Wednesday 19 November 2025 at 5:17 am AEST (my time).

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You can check out the nominees at the official website. But I'll be listing some of the major categories here.

Without further ado, these are the "Game of the year" nominees.

• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - Sandfall Interactive / Kepler Interactive
• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach - Kojima Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment
• Donkey Kong Bananza - Nintendo EPD / Nintendo
• Hades II - Supergiant Games
• Hollow Knight: Silksong - Team Cherry
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II - Warhorse Studios / Deep Silver

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was released in Dec 2024, and has been widely praised. It's kind of surprising it didn't make the cut for GOTY.  The game was released on GOG recently, if you want to pick up a DRM-Free copy of it. Blue Prince not making the list is also rather odd. This is a tough one, but it's probably going to boil down to Clair Obscur and Silksong.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has received 12 nominations in total, three actors for best performance (Ben Starr, Charlie Cox and Jennifer English), best narrative, best score and music, best art direction, best game direction, best audio design, best independent game, best debut indie game, best RPG, and of course, GOTY.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach and Ghost of Y?tei have 7 nominations each, while Hades 2 and Silksong, have 6 and 5 nominations respectively.

Best Game Direction

• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
• Ghost of Yotei
• Hades II
• Split Fiction

Best Narrative

• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
• Ghost of Yotei
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
• Silent Hill f

Best Art Direction

• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
• Ghost of Yotei
• Hades II
• Hollow Knight: Silksong

Best Score and Music

• Christopher Larkin - Hollow Knight: Silksong
• Lorien Testard - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Darren Korb - Hades II
• Toma Otowa - Ghost of Yotei
• Woodkid and Ludvig Forssell - Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

Best Audio Design

• Battlefield 6
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
• Ghost of Yotei
• Silent Hill f

Best Performance

• Ben Starr as Verso – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Charlie Cox as Gustave – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Jennifer English as Maelle – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Erika Ishii as Atsu – Ghost of Yotei
• Konatsu Kato as Hinako Shimizu – Silent Hill f
• Troy Baker as Indiana Jones – Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Kato is the only non-English performer to be nominated for the award.

Best Independent Game

• Absolum
• Ball x Pit
• Blue Prince
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Hades II
• Hollow Knight: Silksong

I'd like to see Blue Prince or Hades II win this one, but that's no easy task.

Best Debut Indie Game

• Blue Prince
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Despelote
• Dispatch
• Megabonk

Best Action Game

• Battlefield 6
• Doom: The Dark Ages
• Hades II
• Ninja Gaiden 4
• Shinobi: Art of Vengeance

Best Action / Adventure Game

• Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
• Ghost of Yotei
• Hollow Knight: Silksong
• Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
• Split Fiction

Best RPG

• Avowed
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
• Monster Hunter Wilds
• The Outer Worlds 2

MHW has no business being here. Avowed was good, not great. I'm not sure about this, but if it comes to Expedition 33 vs KCD 2, it'll probably be the former.

Best fighting game

• 2XKO
• Capcom Fighting Collection 2
• Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves
• Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection
• Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage

Best Sim / Strategy Game

• The Alters
• Civilization VII
• Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles
• Tempest Rising
• Jurassic World Evolution 3
• Two Point Museum

Civ 7 being nominated for best sim / strategy has to be a joke, right? Not including Europa Universalis 5 is also puzzling. It's hands down the best new one in the genre.

Best Sports / Racing Game

• EA Sports FC 26
• F1 25
• Mario Kart World
• Rematch
• Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds

Best Multiplayer Game

• ARC Raiders
• Battlefield 6
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Peak
• Split Fiction

Best Mobile Game

• Destiny: Rising
• Persona 5: The Phantom X
• Sonic Rumble
• Umamusume: Pretty Derby
• Wuthering Waves

Here are the nominees for the "Most anticipated game"

• 007 First Light (the James Bond game) - releasing on March 27, 2026, for Windows PC, PS5, Xbox Series X / S, Nintendo Switch 2
• Grand Theft Auto VI -  releasing on November 19, 2026, for PS5, Xbox Series X / S.
• Marvel's Wolverine - TBD
• Resident Evil Requiem - releasing on February 27, 2026, for Windows PC, PS5, Xbox Series X / S, Nintendo Switch 2
• The Witcher IV - TBD

This is a rather silly category, but I would be very surprised if GTA 6 didn't win it.

The Game Awards 2025 will be announced on December 11, 2025, the event will be live-streamed on YouTube, Steam, Twitch, Amazon Prime, X, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok at 4:30 PM Pacific Time, 7:30 PM Eastern Time, 9:30 PM (Brazil), and on December 12 at 6:00 AM (India), 8:30 AM (China), 9:30 AM (Japan), 11:30 AM (Australia), 12:30 AM (U.K.).

Note: A word of warning, the TGA website seems to be quite slow, buggy and very intensive on resources. Do I get an award for putting up with the site?

Personally, I'm not a fan of such events, but it's an interesting way to discover games, especially indie games, that may have slipped under your radar.

How many of these games have you played?

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Posted Wednesday 19 November 2025 at 5:14 am AEST (my time).

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Every company would be affected if the AI bubble were to burst, the head of Google's parent firm Alphabet has told the BBC.

Speaking exclusively to BBC News, Sundar Pichai said while the growth of artificial intelligence (AI) investment had been an "extraordinary moment", there was some "irrationality" in the current AI boom.

It comes amid fears in Silicon Valley and beyond of a bubble as the value of AI tech companies has soared in recent months and companies spend big on the burgeoning industry.

Asked whether Google would be immune to the impact of the AI bubble bursting, Mr Pichai said the tech giant could weather that potential storm, but also issued a warning.

"I think no company is going to be immune, including us," he said.

In a wide-ranging exclusive interview at Google's California headquarters, he also addressed energy needs, slowing down climate targets, UK investment, the accuracy of his AI models, and the effect of the AI revolution on jobs.

The interview comes as scrutiny on the state of the AI market has never been more intense.

Alphabet shares have doubled in value in seven months to $3.5tn (£2.7tn) as markets have grown more confident in the search giant's ability to fend off the threat from ChatGPT owner OpenAI.

A particular focus is Alphabet's development of specialised superchips for AI that compete with Nvidia, run by Jensen Huang, which recently reached a world first $5tn valuation.

As valuations rise, some analysts have expressed scepticism about a complicated web of $1.4tn of deals being done around OpenAI, which is expected to have revenues this year of less than one thousandth of the planned investment.

It has raised fears stock markets are heading for a repeat of the dotcom boom and bust of the late 1990s. This saw the values of early internet companies surge amid a wave of optimism for what was then a new technology, before the bubble burst in early 2000 and many share prices collapsed.

This led to some companies going bust, resulting in job losses. A drop in share prices can also hit the value of people's savings including their pension funds.

In comments echoing those made by US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan in 1996, warning of "irrational exuberance" in the market well ahead of the dotcom crash, Mr Pichai said the industry can "overshoot" in investment cycles like this.

"We can look back at the internet right now. There was clearly a lot of excess investment, but none of us would question whether the internet was profound," he said.

"I expect AI to be the same. So I think it's both rational and there are elements of irrationality through a moment like this."

His comments follow a warning from Jamie Dimon, the boss of US bank JP Morgan, who told the BBC last month that investment in AI would pay off, but some of the money poured into the industry would "probably be lost".

But Mr Pichai said Google's unique model of owning its own "full stack" of technologies - from chips to YouTube data, to models and frontier science - meant it was in a better position to ride out any AI market turbulence.

The tech giant is also expanding its footprint in the UK. In September, Alphabet announced it was investing in UK artificial intelligence, committing £5bn to infrastructure and research over the next two years.

Mr Pichai said Alphabet will develop "state of the art" research work in the UK including at its key AI unit DeepMind, based in London.

For the first time, he said Google would "over time" take a step that is being pushed for in government to "train our models" in the UK - a move that cabinet ministers believe would cement the UK as the number three AI "superpower" after the US and China.

"We are committed to investing in the UK in a pretty significant way," Mr Pichai said.

However, he also warned about the "immense" energy needs of AI, which made up 1.5% of the world's electricity consumption last year, according to the International Energy Agency.

Mr Pichai said action was needed, including in the UK, to develop new sources of energy and scale up energy infrastructure.

"You don't want to constrain an economy based on energy, and I think that will have consequences," he said.

He also acknowledged that the intensive energy needs of its expanding AI venture meant there was slippage on the company's climate targets, but insisted Alphabet still had a target of achieving net zero by 2030 by investing in new energy technologies.

"The rate at which we were hoping to make progress will be impacted," he said.

AI will also affect work as we know it, Mr Pichai said, calling it "the most profound technology" humankind had worked on.

"We will have to work through societal disruptions," he said, adding that it would also "create new opportunities".

"It will evolve and transition certain jobs, and people will need to adapt," he said. Those who do adapt to AI "will do better".

"It doesn't matter whether you want to be a teacher [or] a doctor. All those professions will be around, but the people who will do well in each of those professions are people who learn how to use these tools."

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Apple’s Power Mac and Mac Pro towers used to be the company’s primary workstations, but it has been years since they were updated with the same regularity as the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro. The Mac Pro has seen just four hardware updates in the last 15 years, and that’s counting a 2012 refresh that was mostly identical to the 2010 version.

Long-suffering Mac Pro buyers may have taken heart when Apple finally added an M2 Ultra processor to the tower in mid-2023, making it one of the very last Macs to switch from Intel to Apple Silicon—surely this would mean that the computer would at least be updated once every year or two, like the Mac Studio has been? But Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says that Mac Pro buyers shouldn’t get their hopes up for new hardware in 2026.

Gurman says that the tower is “on the back burner” at Apple and that the company is “focused on a new Mac Studio” for the next-generation M5 Ultra chip that is in the works. As we reported earlier this year, Apple doesn’t have plans to design or release an M4 Ultra, and the Mac Studio refresh from this spring included an M3 Ultra alongside the M4 Max.

Note that Gurman carefully stops short of saying we definitely won’t see a Mac Pro update next year—the emphasis on the Mac Studio merely “suggests the Mac Pro won’t be updated in 2026 in a significant way,” and internal sources tell him “Apple has largely written off the Mac Pro.” The current Mac Pro does still use the M2 Ultra rather than the M3 Ultra, which indicates that Apple doesn’t see the need to update its high-end desktop every time it releases a suitable chip. But all of Apple’s other desktops—the iMac, the Mac mini, and the Studio—have skipped a silicon generation once since the M1 came out in 2020.

Do we still need a Mac Pro, though?

Regardless of what Apple does with the Mac Pro, the desktop makes less sense than ever in the Apple Silicon era. Part of the appeal of the early 2010s and the 2019 Mac Pro towers was their internal expandability, particularly with respect to storage, graphics cards, and RAM. But while the Apple Silicon Mac Pro does include six internal PCI Express slots, it supports neither RAM upgrades nor third-party GPUs from Nvidia, AMD, or Intel. Thunderbolt 5’s 120 Gbps transfer speeds are also more than fast enough to support high-speed external storage devices.

That leaves even the most powerful of power users with few practical reasons to prefer a $7,000 Mac Pro tower to a $4,000 Mac Studio. And that would be true even if both desktops used the same chip—currently, the M3 Ultra Studio comes with more and newer CPU cores, newer GPU cores, and 32GB more RAM for that price, making the comparison even more lopsided.

Mac Pro aside, the Mac should have a pretty active 2026. Every laptop other than the entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro should get an Apple M5 upgrade, with Pro and Max chips coming for the higher-end Pros. Those chips, plus the M5 Ultra, would give Apple all the ingredients it would need to refresh the iMac, Mac mini, and Mac Studio lineups as well.

Insistent rumors also indicate that Apple will be introducing a new, lower-cost MacBook model with an iPhone-class chip inside, a device that seems made to replace the 2020 M1 MacBook Air that Apple has continued to sell via Walmart for between $600 and $650. It remains to be seen whether this new MacBook would remain a Walmart exclusive or if Apple also plans to offer the laptop through other retailers and its own store.

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Posted Tuesday 18 November 2025 at 11:47 am AEST (my time).

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When parents feel like they’ve lost control of their children’s tech usage, they can call up Daniel Towle.

A professional screen-time coach who works with families one-on-one, the 36-year-old says many have the same question: What’s the perfect amount of screen time to make kids behave?

The reality, he’s found, is more complicated. Many parents are just as glued to their devices as their kids, and oversimplified solutions like going cold turkey rarely work. A job he thought was going to be mostly technical advice has become more about relationships and helping parents navigate a complex ecosystem that wasn’t originally designed with children in mind.

“It’s fend-for-yourself out there,” says Towle, who is based in Britain. “Parents are trying to keep their kids alive, keep them safe, keep them happy — and then you somehow have to know how Instagram and TikTok algorithms work, how a VPN works, you have to understand what Discord is.”

Managing technology has become an overwhelming part of modern parenting. Caregivers are trying to be IT departments, screen-time police, content filters and scam educators. They have to keep up with the latest risks, like AI companions, while struggling with their own tech usage. To cope, some adults are seeking outside help from specialists like Towle, parenting coaches, online communities and even camps where they can send their kids for a technology “detox.”

“Technology kind of snuck up on us as a society,” said Michael Jacobus, executive director of the Reset Summer Camp for digital detox in Santa Barbara, California. “We didn’t really understand the addictive nature of it until it was too late.”

For four weeks, a group of around three dozen teenagers lives in college dorms with no tech access. The camp costs just under $8,000 per camper. The first week, says Jacobus, is rough but eventually the kids — who are 13 to 18 — adjust to the schedules and relearn how to spend time offline. Since he started the camp in 2017, Jacobus says he’s seen the technology itself change but the problems largely stay the same: too many caregivers giving kids smartphones early, and then failing to maintain control of how much they’re used.

“Quite honestly, parents are looking for outside sources because they are reluctant to be parents,” he said.

About a quarter of kids 12 and under have their own smartphone, according to the Pew Research Center, and most have access to a tablet or smartphone. While 86 percent of parents say they have rules around device usage, most say they are only able to stick to them most of the time or sometimes.

“I never imagined parenting being this hard, and technology only makes it harder. It’s like adding another full time job,” said Stephanie Losh, an educator and mother to an eighth-grader. “I run across kids without phones and think that’s the smartest thing they ever did.”

To try to keep up, Losh, 51, is active in online communities and follows creators focused on kids and technology. She isn’t always successful. Recently she learned AI chatbots like PolyBuzz can have inappropriate conversations, but only after she’d allowed her daughter to download it. She now pays $14.99 a month for the Bark app, a monitoring system that flags alarming activity to a guardian.

Bark is also behind one of the largest online communities for parents and caretakers discussing how to manage their kids’ technology. Parenting in a Tech World on Facebook has more than 650,000 members and can get 50 to 100 posts a day asking about the risks of popular games like Roblox, advice on what social media to allow or for help with parental controls.

Technology is also a major topic in general parenting forums. A Pew analysis of the Reddit parenting forum found that 1 in 5 posts mentioned tech. Mothers were more likely to seek advice from other parents in online spaces in general, according to Pew.

The reason adults are constantly searching for help traces back to the technology itself, say experts.

“This stuff is not built for kids; it’s built for adults and then kids’ settings are duct-taped on the side,” said Ben Gillenwater, 44, who goes by the Family IT Guy. “Especially if [the company’s] in a PR crisis.”

After working at tech companies for years, including as a CTO, Gillenwater, who is based in Boise, Idaho, switched to posting tech advice online, including videos on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. He tells parents and caregivers to focus on what he sees as the two biggest risks: algorithmic feeds and anonymous chat. For parents, that might translate to not allowing apps with those features at all, or tightly controlling access and using techniques like no screens in bedrooms.

Instead of creating systems that require parents to constantly seek out and block things, he’d like to see tech companies do the opposite and build products for minors that are “family first.”

The majority of parents and caregivers of kids 12 and under want lawmakers and tech companies to set more rules to protect kids online, according to Pew. The study found it’s a bipartisan issue, and that more parents — 67 percent — want action from tech companies.

Kids are constantly finding workarounds for even the tightest controls. David Gomez, a school resource officer at a public school in Idaho, runs a popular Facebook page called Officer Gomez that shares their latest tricks, like using a Bible app to access forums or educational apps to watch unrestricted YouTube. He’s had kids use popular maps and music-streaming apps to access sexual content, or share inappropriate photos and bully each other on shared Google Docs or Slides. Gomez also posts about more disturbing trends like kids texting their own nudes or falling for sextortion scams.

The best thing he sees adults do is have regular conversations about difficult topics, and delay the age they give kids smartphones at all. Once they have unfettered access to the internet and social media, rolling it back can be impossible, he says.

Tiffany Huntington, who works in education and is raising two tweens, follows Officer Gomez online and stays as educated as possible about the latest risks. But she wishes there was more digital literacy and online safety education in schools in addition to the work she’s doing. While she hasn’t run into any major issues yet, she’s constantly worried about what could happen, whether it’s bullying or meeting strangers online.

Her 14-year-old has a tablet and a smartwatch, while her youngest, 10, only has a tablet. She thinks she’ll give her son a smartphone for a birthday present when he starts high school, but is wary about losing control.

“It’s super overwhelming and I feel like I’m just barely getting my feet wet before I’m getting my kid a phone,” says Huntington. “I’m probably a little too paranoid but I feel it’s needed.”

Tech use is often a stressor for the parents who hire Samantha Broxton, a parenting coach and consultant in California. She believes the abundance of screens in kids’ lives is partially the result of fewer common spaces, outdoor play and other systems that keep kids of all ages engaged and part of a community.

“We are terrified of outside, so they’re inside, and we’re not terrified of inside enough,” said Broxton.

She finds that families either try to shield their kids from technology entirely, or go the opposite direction and allow too much access without the proper skills and guidance. She tells her clients to use proper parental settings as part of a balanced approach, but only when paired with building character and teaching them how to create their own boundaries with the kinds of media they consume.

“All the parental controls in the world will not protect your kids from themselves,” said Broxton.

For Towle, the screentime coach, often his answer isn’t just getting kids to put down their devices, but changing how they use them and even joining them.

“You want to channel their obsession into productivity; you want to turn them into a creator and not a consumer,” said Towle.

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Quick links:

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

Windows 11 and Windows 10

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

The funniest Windows story of the week is about Pavan Davulur, the current Windows chief, who published a post on X, claiming that the operating system is evolving into an agentic OS to "unlock intelligent productivity and secure work anywhere." He was quickly ratioed in replies, where users caused a massive backlash to the point of Pavan limiting who can reply to his tweets. Oof.

However, a few days later, Pavan decided to address the criticism with a new post, claiming that the company knows how to fix its operating system and it is not blind to user feedback. Ironically, users slammed Microsoft once again for a botched Copilot ad that only showed how useless it actually is.

As usual, on Tuesday, Microsoft released the latest security updates for supported Windows 11 versions. Windows 10, which is now unsupported, received its first update in the Extended Security Update program in the form of KB5071959. These updates improved security and fixed quite a lot of major bugs. Also, Microsoft released a new version of the Media Creation Tool to address various bugs and issues.

In addition to that, Microsoft increased the rollout scope of Windows 11 version 23H2. It is now available to more supported devices, as Windows 11 version 23H2 is no longer supported.

Windows 11 is now more friendly to third-party password managers. This week, Microsoft released improved passkey integration with third-party services, such as Bitwarden and 1Password, which allows seamless access to passkeys for improved security.

We also have a new update for Flyoobe, a popular customization app that also lets you skip Windows 11's hardware requirements. This time, version 2.0 introduced a major UI redesign, now available as a separate preview release. Alternatively, you can use the latest release of tiny11. This lightweight and debloated Windows 11 mod now comes with the latest November 2025 security updates and new features.

If you want to try the new full-screen Xbox experience on your computer without buying one of the latest Xbox ROG Ally consoles, which arguably have some notable flaws, you can check out this guide. It describes how to enable the new experience on any handheld and even on desktop PCs.

Finally, check out this story about a former Microsoft software engineer explaining why Windows sucks and what to do with it. And to close off this week's Windows section, check out this interesting Windows "26" concept:

Windows Insider Program

Here is what Microsoft released for Windows Insiders this week:

The new Windows 11 preview builds have a few interesting bits hidden inside them. For one, Microsoft is reportedly working on haptic feedback for various actions across the operating system. A dedicated toggle and intensity slider were discovered in the latest Dev release. Rumors say these will work on laptops with haptic trackpads.

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.

The beef between third-party browsers and Microsoft continues, as the Browser Choice Alliance accused the software giant of bribing customers to continue to use the Microsoft Edge browser. The bribe? Microsoft Reward points, which have real cash value and can be exchanged for goods, such as discounts, subscriptions, and more.

Speaking of browsers, we had a bunch of big releases this week. Firefox 145 is now available, and it is an important update, as it killed 32-bit Linux support. Additionally, it features improved privacy protections, a new way to work with PDF files, and more.

Opera, on the other hand, continues releasing various unorthodox updates to see what sticks, thus offering users a more unique experience. This time, the company partnered with Spotify to develop a new dynamic theme catering to music lovers.

Vivaldi also received a big update. Version 7.7 arrived with a new privacy dashboard, improved cross-device tab syncing, and more upgrades.

Finally, Microsoft launched Visual Studio 2026 and .NET 10 with big performance improvements, and over 300 feature requests implemented across the company's flagship IDE.

Here are other updates and releases you may find interesting:

• Microsoft killed a popular KMS activation hack for Windows 10 and 11.
• Microsoft announced the general availability of Surveys Agent for all Microsoft 365 Copilot customers.

• Some exciting features are coming soon to Edge, Excel, Outlook, and Copilot.

• Microsoft reveals the architecture powering its new Azure AI superfactory.

• Microsoft solves a major OneNote annoyance on Windows.

   

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

• Microsoft will release a new low-latency audio driver for Windows on Arm in 2026.

• AMD releases Windows 11 25H2 RAID drivers for many chipsets.

• AMD 25.11.1 driver adds Ryzen 7500X3D, Black Ops 7, ARC Raiders, and Anno 117 support. There is also FSR Redstone Ray Regeneration for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.

Reviews are in

Here is the hardware and software we reviewed this week

This week, we reviewed the Baseus VD1 Pro, an interesting and budget-friendly 4K dash cam, which has one stand-out feature: a solar panel to provide power for the parking surveillance system. This sub-$200 camera comes with a rear-view 1080p camera and everything you need to record your driving without purchasing additional accessories.

By the way, in case you missed it, the early deal offer on the UGREEN NASync DH4300 Plus, which we reviewed earlier this month, is still live. You can get this sleek NAS for as little as $364.99.

On the gaming side

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

The biggest gaming story from this week is, without a question, the announcement of a bunch of new hardware from Valve. The company, which many accuse of not knowing how to count to three, announced a new console, a VR headset, and a new controller. Prices are currently unknown, but the hardware and the overall approach look very promising.

If you expect major news about the upcoming The Elder Scrolls VI, Todd Howard has bad news for you. The head of Bethestda Game Studios revealed that the game, initially announced seven years ago, is "still a long way off."

Xbox users in India now have access to Xbox Cloud Gaming. This week, Microsoft expanded its cloud gaming service to India, where it is part of various Game Pass tiers that start from ~5.63/mo and go all the way to ~$15.68.

The original Red Dead Redemption is back. The critically acclaimed game is finally coming to current-gen consoles, and even mobile devices, allowing you to play the iconic title on Android, iOS, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch 2.

Nvidia announced new games for GeForce NOW. Black Ops 7, Anno 117, Rue Valley, Megabonk, RV There Yet, and other titles are now available to play in the cloud, as long as you own them.

Deals and freebies

As usual, we published our weekly Weekend PC Game Deals article, bringing you a list of multiple game discounts across various storefronts, including a giveaway from the Epic Game Store and Ubisoft. The latter is letting everyone grab a free copy of Immortals Fenyx Rising on PC.

Other gaming news includes the following:

• Fortnite is getting Xbox Play Anywhere support alongside Game Pass Ultimate benefits.

• FromSoftware's new Elden Ring Nightreign DLC brings back a popular Dark Souls boss.

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Posted Monday 17 November 2025 at 3:46 am AEST (my time).

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Paul's Hardware (1.53M subscribers)

November 16, 202

Video length: 12m 42s

Small Black Box to Alter PC Gaming Forever - Tech News Nov 16

0:00 Welcome to Paul’s Tech News - November 16, 2025 

1:30 Valve’s Hardware Announcements - Steam Machine 

4:50 Valve’s Announcements - what does this mean for SteamOS? 

6:05 Valve’s Hardware Announcements - Steam Controller, Steam Frame VR Headset 

TECH BRIEFS 

8:45 Half Life 3 Rumors Revitalized After Valve’s Hardware Announcements

9:33 GamersNexus AI Surveillance, Contact by Secret Service Video 

10:33 SSD prices going up along with Memory, Overall PC Hardware Impacts 

11:31 Cooler Master launches €64 QUBE 540 E-ATX with built-in pegboard

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Posted Sunday 16 November 2025 at 6:45 pm AEST (my time).

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The morning of Monday, October 27th, I started my workweek by asking my colleagues at The Verge for advice on buying a gaming PC. I wanted a small, portable, and semi-powerful machine that could easily sit beneath my living room TV and occasionally move over to my desk to play games or even use for work. My dream was to find something as easy to use as the Steam Deck, which has become my primary gaming device due to its simplicity and massive catalog of PC games.

Just two days later, I walked into Valve’s headquarters and was introduced to the new Steam Machine, a gaming PC and console hybrid. It checked basically every box I was looking for.

The Steam Machine is a 6-inch cube that will comfortably fit into my small entertainment center in the corner of my living room and on my small office desk I’ve squeezed into the bedroom. Valve says its AMD GPU is more than six times as powerful than the Steam Deck, which should be great for me since most of my gaming time is spent playing less graphically intensive indies. It runs SteamOS, which I already love on a big screen when docking my Steam Deck.

Just look how small the Steam Machine is!

Photo by Everything Time Studio / The Verge

 

There are some fun perks for the gadget nerd in me, too. The Steam Machine has a customizable LED bar that Valve says will be able to show you things like the status of downloads, which sounds perfect if I want to keep an eye on when I can play my next game while watching a show on a different TV input. It supports Valve’s customizable new Steam Controller and has a dedicated antenna that offers a low-latency connection for up to four of the gamepads. And because the Steam Machine is a Linux PC, I can also do whatever the heck I want with it — I’m even thinking about installing Windows so I can dual-boot and play games that aren’t on Linux due to anti-cheat, like Fortnite.

Best of all, the Steam Machine should just work with my quickly growing collection of Steam games. The Steam Deck has totally converted me to the benefits of the Steam ecosystem, like a huge catalog of games to play, a library that follows me across devices and platforms, and cloud saves and multiplayer that aren’t gated behind a monthly fee. And because, like the Steam Deck, the Steam Machine has a microSD card slot, I’ll be able to save games to a microSD card and swap them between the two devices, almost like a souped-up game cartridge.

Prior to seeing the Steam Machine, I was weighing choices like using the Framework Desktop (promising, and a handle is an option!), getting a good gaming laptop (the most portable, but potentially very expensive), or just sourcing parts and building the PC myself (intimidating for a Verge reporter me, a DIY newb). But these options aren’t as compelling as a first-party Steam Machine: I want something that is great for TV gaming, as reliable as my Steam Deck, and requires minimal fuss on my end — with an active toddler running around the house, time is a major commodity!

With the Steam Deck, Valve made PC gaming much more palatable to console crowds by (mostly) being something that just works. Verified games don’t need much fiddling to play great, many less-optimized games can be playable with graphics tweaks or by customizing your controls, and table stakes like a functional UI and reliable sleep and wake are all there. And it’s all wrapped up in a comfortable, ergonomic handheld. If Valve can bring that same console-like experience to a living room device, it would open up the best of PC gaming to even more people.

Valve is set to launch the Steam Machine sometime next year. It hasn’t said how much it will cost, but instead of shopping for Black Friday deals on some kind of other gaming PC, I think I’m going to save that money for the Steam Machine instead.

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Posted Sunday 16 November 2025 at 4:52 am AEST (my time).

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Tim Cook, who took over Apple from founder Steve Jobs, has headed the company since 2011. At the start of the month, Cook had his 65th birthday, a common year for people to retire around the world.

The move has been long-planned and is not related to the company’s current financial performance; Apple is expected to see very good end-of-year sales for the iPhone. No announcement is expected to be made before the next earnings report in late January, however this could always change, it’s just not expected right now.

The change at the head of the company will definitely be a big shift for the company and in recent times, several other changes have been made too. Earlier this year, former COO Jeff Williams retired from the company with his operational leadership being handed to Sabih Khan and remaining responsibilities being assumed by other executives.

Additionally, last year, Apple also switched its Chief Financial Officer when Luca Maestri stepped down, handing the role to Kevan Parekh, formerly the VP of Financial Planning and Analysis.

Apple’s leadership under Tim Cook has been quite different compared to when Steve Jobs was at the helm. The popular view of Steve Jobs is that he was a visionary. Tim Cook doesn’t have this aura, but has managed to introduce lots of new products, reinvent the company’s operating systems several times, and see Apple’s share price rise to astronomical heights. It’ll be interesting to see how his successor decides to run the company and what results they’ll have.

Source: Financial Times via 9to5Mac | Image via Depositphotos.com

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Posted Sunday 16 November 2025 at 4:51 am AEST (my time).

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Dubbed AMD FSR Ray Regeneration, this is a process that is said to be able to make raytraced effects like lighting and reflections sharper using a machine learning–based real-time denoiser. Much like Nvidia's Ray Reconstruction system, this is supposed to reduce the rendering cost thanks to the use of sparse samples without the drawback of fuzzy visuals.

As previously announced, these FSR 4 upgrades will be exclusive to AMD Radeon RX 9000 series graphics cards.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 will be the first game to receive the new FSR Ray Regeneration, with it being available day one when it launches tomorrow, November 14. As already seen by players, it will be found in the settings menu's Ray Tracing Denoiser section under Ray Tracing Reflections, letting RX 9000 series players choose FSR Ray Regeneration. The setting also recommends using it with FSR 4. Players looking to try the new tech out will first want to install the new AMD 25.11.1 driver that landed earlier today too.

"Lighting and reflections are essential to creating an immersive gaming experience," says AMD's Jack Huynh, describing the new feature drop into Black Ops 7. "Imagine spotting your opponent’s reflection rippling in a puddle beneath your feet as every ray of light is rendered with stunning precision. Experience crystal-clear reflections and lifelike lighting that redefine immersion."

Keep in mind that the new FSR Redstone is a larger suite of upgrades that contains enhancements for AMD's frame generation, upscaling, and other technologies using machine learning. Find more details here.

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Posted Friday 14 November 2025 at 6:11 pm AEST (my time).

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Gamers Nexus (2.53M subscribers)

November 13, 2025

Video length: 45m 18s

Valve today is announcing its Steam Machine, Steam Frame VR headset, and new Steam Controller. Alongside these announcements, the company is moving SteamOS to what is functionally a desktop platform while also adapting it to ARM for the Frame VR headset. The new Steam Controller makes some major iterations on the original, with a particular focus on TMR thumbsticks and connectivity. In this video, we run through the details of Valve's new hardware and interview many of the company's engineers working on the products. Engineering interviews and discussions talk about signal trace routing, power delivery, ESD protections, acoustics, thermals, and more.

00:00 - Valve Announces Steam Machine, Frame, and Controller 

04:24 - Valve's First Attempt at Steam Machines 

05:16 - Machine: Steam Machine Specs 

08:54 - Machine: BIOS, Modularity, BGA Silicon, Power 

13:20 - Machine: Airflow, Thermal Engineering

18:10 - Machine: Upgradeable System RAM, SSD 

18:28 - Machine: Memory Trace Routing Technicals 

21:14 - Frame: Valve Steam Frame Specs, Basics 

23:47 - Frame: SteamOS on ARM, Native Compilations 

26:46 - Frame: Foveated Streaming 

32:20 - Frame: Thermal Design, Power 

35:05 - Frame: Sound, Controllers 

37:12 - New Steam Controller: Basics 

38:10 - Controller: Puck, Antenna Design 

41:08 - Controller: Repairability, Battery, Haptics 

42:16 - Controller: TMR Thumbsticks, Gyro 

43:21 - Conclusion

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Posted Thursday 13 November 2025 at 1:53 pm AEST (my time).

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Given the constraints in the video game industry as of late, you might think it was a crazy move to launch anything like a new console in the coming years. Valve is no ordinary company, though.

Despite Xbox hardware being down year-over-year for several quarters and PlayStation posting a very modest 1% increase in playtime hours despite PS5 sales keeping pace with PS4 — Valve is unbothered and has decided it's time to revive its Steam Machine efforts that originally started in 2014.

Following the success of the still beloved Steam Deck, Valve is doubling down on hardware in a big way and has revealed a range of new hardware today as part of that effort. We have an all-new Steam Machine, targeting a Spring 2026 launch, as well as a long-rumored VR headset called the Steam Frame, previously codenamed Deckard. There's also a brand-new Steam Controller to go along with both. Here's everything we know so far.

Steam Machine specifications

It's a very subtle design, mimicking the Xbox Series X, and should look quite tidy side-by-side with it.

(Image credit: Valve)

 

Valve's Steam Machine (not to be confused with the 2014 Steam Machines) sports some impressive specs on paper, though it doesn't seem to outclass the Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5, despite using some more modern AMD Zen 4 architecture. Valve itself says the Steam Machine is "over 6x more powerful than Steam Deck", and should offer a comparable 4K @ 60 FPS experience when stacked up against Microsoft and Sony's consoles, while soundly beating the Xbox Series S and Nintendo Switch 2.

 

Feature	Specifications
Models	512GB model and 2TB model. Can ship bundled with or without a Steam Controller.
CPU	Semi-custom AMD Zen 4, 6C / 12T, up to 4.8 GHz, 30W TDP
GPU	Semi-Custom AMD RDNA3, 28 CUs; 2.45GHz max sustained clock, 110W TDP; Supports 4K gaming @ 60 FPS with FSR; Ray tracing supported; Over 6x more powerful than Steam Deck.
Memory	16GB DDR5 + 8GB GDDR6 VRAM
Storage	512GB & 2TB SSD models; microSD card slot for expanded storage / portable catalog.
Power	Internal PSU, AC 110–240V
DisplayPort 1.4	Up to 4K @ 240Hz or 8K @ 60Hz; HDR, FreeSync, daisy-chaining
HDMI 2.0	Up to 4K @ 120Hz; HDR, FreeSync, CEC
Networking	Ethernet 1 Gbps; Wi-Fi 6E (2x2); dedicated BT antenna
USB	USB-C 10 Gbps (3.2 Gen 2); 4× USB-A ports (2× USB 3 front, 2× USB 2 rear)
Controller Radio	Integrated Steam Controller 2.4GHz radio
Compatibility	Works with other controllers, accessories, and PC peripherals
Wake Function	Wake with Steam Controller
OS	SteamOS (like Steam Deck); Gaming-first UX; Fast suspend/resume; Steam Cloud saves + full Steam features.
LED Bar	Customizable colors & animation; Reflects system status (downloads, booting, updating)
Price	Unknown
Launch Date	Spring 2026

 

Designed for TV set ups, the Steam Machine could be the most convenient way to play Steam games yet.

(Image credit: Valve)

 

Again, the Steam Machine uses AMD's more modern (but technically previous-generation) Zen 4 processor architecture, sporting six CPU cores with twelve threads at 4.8 GHz. Despite having fewer cores than the Xbox Series X and PS5, the process node should give it superior per-core performance. These new Steam Machines should punch above their weight owing to that updated, more efficient technology, but the Xbox Series X, PS5, and PS5 Pro in particular should easily keep pace owing to higher core counts.

 

It's a similar story with the GPU: the Steam Machine's recent RDNA 3 architecture also offers improved power efficiency and higher performance compared to the older generation (but still not using RDNA 4, AMD's current tech). Even the Xbox Series X|S can use the same generation of upscaling as the Steam Machine — FSR 3.

 

The Steam Machine sports 28 compute units (CUs) at 2.45 GHz, compared to the Xbox Series X's 52 CUs at 1.8 GHz, and PS5's 36 CUs at 2.23 GHz. Microsoft's console, again, offers the most raw graphics computational power here, but the Steam Machine will punch above its weight owing to its more modern architecture and choice of lightweight operating system, SteamOS.

 

It's a very subtle design, mimicking the Xbox Series X, and should look quite tidy side-by-side with it.

(Image credit: Valve)

 

Memory (RAM) is where things continue to diverge. The Steam Machine hasn't yet offered official memory bandwidth figures, but it combines 16GB of DDR5 system memory with 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM for the GPU.

 

It has more total memory on paper than the Xbox Series X's 16GB dual-pool GDDR6 RAM and PS5's unified 16GB GDDR6 pool, but the Steam Machine's PC-like split memory design may impede its overall memory bandwidth despite having a larger amount. It should, in theory, remain competitive here with both the PS5 and Xbox Series X, but we need more information to know more to get a solid answer.

 

The Steam Machine oddly has only two storage options up for grabs: a 512 GB model and a 2TB model. Xbox storage cards are notoriously expensive CFExpress PCI cartridges, while the PS5 went with more standard M.2 NVMe options that users can purchase off the shelf. The Steam Machine diverges by offering microSD expansion, allowing its users to easily transfer large amounts of games from a Steam Deck and back to their Steam Machine.

SteamOS has become incredibly capable over the last few years, with Valve deploying reams of updates as part of its Steam Deck line.

MicroSD technology isn't fast enough to effectively run all AAA games, but the Steam Machine's internal storage should be more than up to the task for the majority. Although we don't have a ton of info on what's sitting inside it here, it's unlikely to be using ultra-modern microSD Express tech.

 

Finally, we have the operating system. SteamOS has become incredibly capable over the last few years, with Valve deploying reams of updates as part of its Steam Deck line. It's incredibly user-friendly and easy to use, and its powerful Proton layer translates Windows games to Linux without any developer input — generally speaking, at least.

 

Does the Steam Machine blow you away?

(Image credit: Valve)

 

Proton does have some shortcomings, namely with functions like anti-cheat systems. As such, many Windows-native multiplayer games with kernel-level anti-cheat systems don't run on SteamOS. Proton will only get better over time, too. SteamOS does allow you to exit out into full Linux desktop mode as well, allowing you to install launchers, games, and other apps not available on the Steam store itself.

 

You can get things like Xbox Cloud Gaming, Battle.net, Genshin Impact, and other titles that aren't available to buy via Steam like this, but it isn't always a particularly easy experience — even more so if you include the fact that you need a mouse and keyboard to navigate it effectively.

 

Regardless, Steam has quite literally thousands of games available directly on its store, the vast majority of which will run on this platform without issue. This will be the first "console" that has games from Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox on a single device, via a single store.

Steam has quite literally thousands of games available directly on its store, the vast majority of which will run on this platform without issue.

It does miss out on many of the world's most popular games that aren't available on Steam or Linux, such as Roblox, Minecraft, and Fortnite (not to mention GTA 6 at launch), but there are workarounds for many of these if you're willing to tinker. And who knows, if SteamOS begins to see broader adoption, maybe these games will come across natively as well.

 

Given that this is more designed for a sofa-style experience, I expect Valve will use its Steam Deck Verification process to verify games for the Steam Machine in a similar way. Though there's absolutely no reason why you wouldn't be able to plug a keyboard and mouse in and use this as a full desktop mini PC.

 

The Steam Machine interestingly reflects Xbox's vision for its own next-gen console, which will be more PC-like, complete with the ability to exit out to the desktop, and install other launchers and games not available natively on Xbox itself.

 

Valve hasn't yet confirmed pricing, although the more modern and pricy RDNA3 and Zen 4 components are a strong indicator that it might be difficult for the Steam Machine to undercut its PS5 and Xbox Series X rivals in any significant way. We'll have to wait and see there. For now, the Steam Machine is targeting that aforementioned Spring 2026 launch. Until then, you could try building your own Steam Machine.

Steam Controller specifications

The Steam Controller thumbstick positions look odd in pictures, but it remains to be seen how good it feels in the hand.

(Image credit: Valve)

 

Back buttons come as standard, something we hope will become more ubiquitous next-gen.

(Image credit: Valve)

 

Interestingly, the Steam Machine will only include a controller optionally, since the console will work with any Xbox or PlayStation controller you have lying around already. Any controller that's compatible with the Steam Deck (and that's a lot) will also be compatible with the Steam Machine.

 

However, if you do want or need a controller, here's what Valve is offering as a follow-up to its original, less successful Steam Controller from 2015.

 

Feature	Spec
Compatibility	Works with any device that runs Steam
Supported devices	Windows, Mac, Linux PCs; PC handhelds; iOS/Android (Steam Link); Steam Deck; Steam Machine; Steam Frame
Connectivity options	Steam Controller Puck; Bluetooth; USB tethered play
Steam Controller Puck	Pre-paired, plug-and-play; proprietary wireless; ~8 ms end-to-end latency; 4 ms polling; measured at 5 m; more stable than Bluetooth; up to 4 controllers per puck
Bluetooth	Standard wireless connectivity
USB	Wired tethered play and charging
Battery	Li-ion rechargeable; 35+ hours play time
Charging	Via Steam Controller Puck or USB
Thumbsticks	Magnetic (TMR) for improved responsiveness and reliability; capacitive touch
Grip sense	Quick gyro activation/deactivation; assignable input
Haptics	HD haptics with 4 LRA motors: 2 in trackpads (HD tactile feedback), 2 high-output in grips (rumble and game haptics)
Buttons	ABXY; D-pad; L/R triggers; L/R bumpers; View/Menu/Steam/QAM
Grip buttons	4 assignable grip buttons
Trackpads	2 trackpads with haptic feedback; pressure sensitivity for configurable click strength
Motion sensors	6-axis IMU
Capacitive inputs	Thumbsticks capacitive touch; capacitive grip sense
Price	Unknown

 

Xbox style ABXY buttons join PlayStation style symmetrical joysticks.

(Image credit: Valve)

 

The Steam Controller works with any device running Steam, which includes Windows PCs, macOS, and devices like the Steam Deck. It should also be compatible with the next-gen Xbox as well, given that the next Xbox is going to run full Windows.

 

It connects up with a USB "puck" which can connect four controllers simultaneously, and it also supports Bluetooth and USB wired play on top. The puck is pre-paired and has a proprietary wireless signal, which should be comparable in quality to PS5 and Xbox controllers for speed and reliability.

 

Where it has the Xbox and PS5 standard controllers beat is battery life, with 35+ hours on a single charge, making it more like the Xbox Elite controller. It also boasts magnetic TMR thumbsticks, which should eliminate drift in ways the Xbox and PS5 controllers currently don't.

 

In shots it looks ergonomic, but we won't know for sure until we get chance to do a full review. 

(Image credit: Valve)

 

Where things get even more interesting are the large dual trackpads, similar to that old-school Steam Controller and the Steam Deck. These support haptics and help control games that don't have native joystick support. It also supports gyro gameplay, with six-axis motion sensing.

 

It has ABXY Xbox-style buttons and symmetrical PlayStation-style thumbsticks, while sporting four programmable back buttons and standard triggers and bumpers. It also sports capacitive grip sense, detecting when it has been picked up.

 

There's no mention of price yet, but I imagine it'll sit somewhere between a standard Xbox controller and a more pricey Xbox Elite controller in price, given its impressive specs.

What do you think?

The Valve hardware line up is looking increasingly impressive.

(Image credit: Valve)

 

Seeing a new console launch in an era where both PlayStation and Xbox are pointing at short-form video platforms like TikTok for decreasing growth might seem like a bold move, but the Steam Machine is no typical console.

 

Despite some limitations of Proton and Linux, Steam remains one of the world's most popular and favored video game ecosystems. Steam sales are legendary, Valve's approach to customer satisfaction is industry-leading, and developers flock to the platform owing to its relaxed certification processes.

 

Steam's discovery engine is second to none. Every time I log into Steam, I discover new games I've never heard of, as the system understands my habits and has more options to cater to those habits than other platforms. Some of the world's most popular games, like Fortnite and Roblox, might not be available natively, but Steam has become home to massive viral mega-hits in recent years, such as Megabonk and Peak more recently. I wish Xbox were capable of delivering similarly, but Microsoft has been pursuing a more Steam-like feature set for its own Xbox PC platform recently, which it says is growing rapidly, too.

 

Rumors have been ramping up that Valve might seek to pair its Steam Machine launch with the borderline mythical Half-Life 3, too. The team at Valve makes legendary games in its own right, including DOTA2, Counter-Strike 2, Left 4 Dead, Portal, Team Fortress, and more. Valve used Half-Life Alyx to boost interest in its own VR efforts previously, so could it pull off a similar feat for the Steam Machine?

 

The Steam Machine will also be the first "console" in the world that comes with games from Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox as standard, as the walls around "exclusivity" become increasingly blurred. PlayStation recently said its unprecedented launch of Helldivers 2 was a huge success on Xbox, and Microsoft has been putting its games everywhere and anywhere at a breakneck pace.

 

What the future of the game industry looks like is anyone's guess, but Valve is becoming an increasingly interesting part of the hardware discussion, which is great to see.

 

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Posted Thursday 13 November 2025 at 1:47 pm AEST (my time).

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The end of the year is usually a busy time in the quantum computing arena, as companies often try to announce that they’ve reached major milestones before the year wraps up. This year has been no exception. And while not all of these announcements involve interesting new architectures like the one we looked at recently, they’re a good way to mark progress in the field, and they often involve the sort of smaller, incremental steps needed to push the field forward.

What follows is a quick look at a handful of announcements from the past few weeks that struck us as potentially interesting.

IBM follows through

IBM is one of the companies announcing a brand-new architecture this year. That’s not at all a surprise, given that the company promised to do so back in June; this week sees the company confirming that it has built the two processors it said it would earlier in the year. These include one called Loon, which is focused on the architecture that IBM will use to host error-corrected logical qubits. Loon represents two major changes for the company: a shift to nearest-neighbor connections and the addition of long-distance connections.

IBM had previously used what it termed the “heavy hex” architecture, in which alternating qubits were connected to either two or three of their neighbors, forming a set of overlapping hexagonal structures. In Loon, the company is using a square grid, with each qubit having connections to its four closest neighbors. This higher density of connections can enable more efficient use of the qubits during computations. But qubits in Loon have additional long-distance connections to other parts of the chip, which will be needed for the specific type of error correction that IBM has committed to. It’s there to allow users to test out a critical future feature.

The second processor, Nighthawk, is focused on the now. It also has the nearest-neighbor connections and a square grid structure, but it lacks the long-distance connections. Instead, the focus with Nighthawk is to get error rates down so that researchers can start testing algorithms for quantum advantage—computations where quantum computers have a clear edge over classical algorithms.

In addition, the company is launching a GitHub repository that will allow the community to deposit code and performance data for both classical and quantum algorithms, enabling rigorous evaluations of relative performance. Right now, those are broken down into three categories of algorithms that IBM expects are most likely to demonstrate a verifiable quantum advantage.

This isn’t the only follow-up to IBM’s June announcement, which also saw the company describe the algorithm it would use to identify errors in its logical qubits and the corrections needed to fix them. In late October, the company said it had confirmed that the algorithm could work in real time when run on an FPGA made in collaboration with AMD.

Record lows

A few years back, we reported on a company called Oxford Ionics, which had just announced that it achieved a record-low error rate in some qubit operations using trapped ions. Most trapped-ion quantum computers move qubits by manipulating electromagnetic fields, but they perform computational operations using lasers. Oxford Ionics figured out how to perform operations using electromagnetic fields, meaning more of their processing benefited from our ability to precisely manufacture circuitry (lasers were still needed for tasks like producing a readout of the qubits). And as we noted, it could perform these computational operations extremely effectively.

But Oxford Ionics never made a major announcement that would give us a good excuse to describe its technology in more detail. The company was ultimately acquired by IonQ, a competitor in the trapped-ion space.

Now, IonQ is building on what it gained from Oxford Ionics, announcing a new, record-low error rate for two-qubit gates: greater than 99.99 percent fidelity. That could be critical for the company, as a low error rate for hardware qubits means fewer are needed to get good performance from error-corrected qubits.

But the details of the two-qubit gates are perhaps more interesting than the error rate. Two-qubit gates involve bringing both qubits involved into close proximity, which often requires moving them. That motion pumps a bit of energy into the system, raising the ions’ temperature and leaving them slightly more prone to errors. As a result, any movement of the ions is generally followed by cooling, in which lasers are used to bleed energy back out of the qubits.

This process, which involves two distinct cooling steps, is slow. So slow that as much as two-thirds of the time spent in operations involves the hardware waiting around while recently moved ions are cooled back down. The new IonQ announcement includes a description of a method for performing two-qubit gates that doesn’t require the ions to be fully cooled. This allows one of the two cooling steps to be skipped entirely. In fact, coupled with earlier work involving one-qubit gates, it raises the possibility that the entire machine could operate with its ions at a still very cold but slightly elevated temperature, avoiding all need for one of the two cooling steps.

That would shorten operation times and let researchers do more before the limit of a quantum system’s coherence is reached.

State of the art?

The last announcement comes from another trapped-ion company, Quantum Art. A couple of weeks back, it announced a collaboration with Nvidia that resulted in a more efficient compiler for operations on its hardware. On its own, this isn’t especially interesting. But it’s emblematic of a trend that’s worth noting, and it gives us an excuse to look at Quantum Art’s technology, which takes a distinct approach to boosting the efficiency of trapped-ion computation.

First, the trend: Nvidia’s interest in quantum computing. The company isn’t interested in the quantum aspects (at least not publicly); instead, it sees an opportunity to get further entrenched in high-performance computing. There are three areas where the computational capacity of GPUs can play a role here. One is small-scale modeling of quantum processors so that users can perform an initial testing of algorithms without committing to paying for access to the real thing. Another is what Quantum Art is announcing: using GPUs as part of a compiler chain to do all the computations needed to find more efficient ways of executing an algorithm on specific quantum hardware.

Finally, there’s a potential role in error correction. Error correction involves some indirect measurements of a handful of hardware qubits to determine the most likely state that a larger collection (called a logical qubit) is in. This requires modeling a quantum system in real time, which is quite difficult—hence the computational demands that Nvidia hopes to meet. Regardless of the precise role, there has been a steady flow of announcements much like Quantum Art’s: a partnership with Nvidia that will keep the company’s hardware involved if the quantum technology takes off.

In Quantum Art’s case, that technology is a bit unusual. The trapped-ion companies we’ve covered so far are all taking different routes to the same place: moving one or two ions into a location where operations can be performed and then executing one- or two-qubit gates. Quantum Art’s approach is to perform gates with much larger collections of ions. At the compiler level, it would be akin to figuring out which qubits need a specific operation performed, clustering them together, and doing it all at once. Obviously, there are potential efficiency gains here.

The challenge would normally be moving so many qubits around to create these clusters. But Quantum Art uses lasers to “pin” ions in a row so they act to isolate the ones to their right from the ones to their left. Each cluster can then be operated on separately. In between operations, the pins can be moved to new locations, creating different clusters for the next set of operations. (Quantum Art is calling each cluster of ions a “core” and presenting this as multicore quantum computing.)

At the moment, Quantum Art is behind some of its competitors in terms of qubit count and performing interesting demonstrations, and it’s not pledging to scale quite as fast. But the company’s founders are convinced that the complexity of doing so many individual operations and moving so many ions around will catch up with those competitors, while the added efficiency of multiple qubit gates will allow it to scale better.

This is just a small sampling of all the announcements from this fall, but it should give you a sense of how rapidly the field is progressing—from technology demonstrations to identifying cases where quantum hardware has a real edge and exploring ways to sustain progress beyond those first successes.

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Posted Thursday 13 November 2025 at 1:46 pm AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of October): 5,009

RIP Matrix

As reported by Reuters, Microsoft, almost renowned now for making billion-dollar AI deals after billion-dollar AI deals, is back with another huge agreement. This time, it is partnering with IREN, with Microsoft prepaying a hefty sum upfront to secure access to IREN’s NVIDIA-powered servers as they come online.

The deal gives Microsoft more compute for AI workloads such as Copilot, OpenAI training, and Azure. It also lets it skip the slow, expensive process of building new data centres, which can take years and often get delayed by planning approvals and local power limits.

By working with IREN, Microsoft can scale far faster than if it tried to build everything itself. It also avoids buying GPUs that become outdated quickly, since Nvidia releases new hardware at a rapid pace. Renting cutting-edge chips through partners keeps Microsoft flexible and avoids being stuck with last-generation hardware.

Inside Microsoft’s $9.7B IREN contract

For years now, Valve has been slowly improving the capabilities of the Proton compatibility layer that lets thousands of Windows games work seamlessly on the Linux-based SteamOS. But Valve’s Windows-to-Linux compatibility layer generally only extends back to games written for Direct3D 8, the proprietary Windows graphics API Microsoft released in late 2000.

Now, a new open source project is seeking to extend Linux interoperability further back into PC gaming history. The d7vk project describes itself as “a Vulkan-based translation layer for Direct3D 7 [D3D7], which allows running 3D applications on Linux using Wine.”

More options are always welcome

The new project isn’t the first attempt to get Direct3D 7 games running on Linux. Wine‘s own built-in WineD3D compatibility layer has supported D3D7 in some form or another for at least two decades now. But the new d7vk project instead branches off the existing dxvk compatibility layer, which is already used by Valve’s Proton for SteamOS and which reportedly offers better performance than WineD3D on many games.

D7vk project author WinterSnowfall writes that while they don’t expect this new project to be upstreamed into the main dxvk in the future, the new version should have “the same level of per application/targeted configuration profiles and fixes that you’re used to seeing in dxvk proper.” And though d7vk might not perform universally better than the existing alternatives, WinterSnowfall writes that “having more options on the table is a good thing in my book at least.”

Those additional options should be welcome news for fans looking for new ways to play PC games of a certain era. The PC Gaming Wiki lists over 400 titles written with the D3D7 APIs, and while most of those games were released between 2000 and 2004, a handful of new D3D7 games have continued to be released through 2022.

The D3D7 games list predictably includes a lot of licensed shovelware, but there are also well-remembered games like Escape from Monkey Island, Arx Fatalis, and the original Hitman: Codename 47. WinterSnowfall writes that the project was inspired by a desire to play games like Sacrifice and Disciples II on top of the existing dxvk framework.

Despite some known issues with certain D3D7 titles, WinterSnowfall writes that recent tuning means “things are now anywhere between decent to stellar in most of the supported games.” Still, the project author warns that the project will likely never reach full compatibility since “D3D7 is a land of highly cursed API interoperability.”

Don’t expect this project to expand to include support for even older DirectX APIs, either, WinterSnowfall warns. “D3D7 is enough of a challenge and a mess as it is,” the author writes. “The further we stray from D3D9, the further we stray from the divine.”

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Posted Tuesday 11 November 2025 at 12:51 pm AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of October): 5,009

RIP Matrix

Any fans of The Elder Scrolls that are wondering when it'll finally be time for the sixth mainline entry in Bethesda Game Studios fantasy role-playing series will be waiting a while longer.

The Elder Scrolls 6 is "still a long ways off," according to executive producer Todd Howard, who shared that small update in an interview with GQ.

“I’m preaching patience,” he says. “I don’t want fans to feel anxious.

”While The Elder Scrolls 6 was first announced with a small teaser all the way back at E3 2018, Bethesda Game Studios hasn't shared anything since, with the team focused on the release of its science-fiction title Starfield in 2023.

Howard goes on to add that while the studio now has "hundreds" of people working on the Fallout franchise "with 76 and some other things we're doing," The Elder Scrolls 6 is currently the studio's main focus.

He also notes that he considers it a good thing for Bethesda to have breaks in betwee its different games instead of just doing direct sequels, though he admits that the gap for The Elder Scrolls has been "too long."

"I think Fallout 3 has the best opening," Howard says, when asked what the best game he's worked on is. "I think Starfield has by far the best gunplay and gameplay in areas. I think the varied landscape of Fallout 76 is really good. Tonally and player agency-wise, I think Skyrim is really good."Interestingly, when asked about how The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered was shadow-dropped back in April and if The Elder Scrolls 6 could follow a similar pattern, Howard doesn't say no. 

"You might say that was a test run," he says. "It worked out well."

As the wait continues, more Starfield DLC is on the way

In groundbreaking research conducted by Swansea University, the University of Lincoln, and Ariel University in Israel, scientists discovered that AI systems such as ChatGPT and DALL·E are now capable of generating eerily lifelike portraits of both imaginary individuals and well-known celebrities. The results, published in the journal Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, suggest that the world has entered a new era of “deepfake realism”—a time when seeing may no longer mean believing.

Faces That Fool the Human Brain

The research team wanted to test just how realistic modern AI-generated faces have become. Previous studies had already shown that people struggle to distinguish between AI-created faces of fictional individuals and real human photos. But this time, the scientists went further: they asked, what happens when AI generates images of real people—individuals whose faces we already know?

Using advanced models, the researchers produced highly realistic images of various individuals, including famous celebrities like Paul Rudd and Olivia Wilde. Then, across four carefully designed experiments, they asked participants from several countries—the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand—to identify which images were real and which were synthetic.

The outcome was startling. Participants consistently failed to tell the difference. Even when they were familiar with the person’s face, their judgments were little better than chance. Adding comparison photos—a supposedly simple trick to help people recognize the real image—did not make much difference either.

Professor Jeremy Tree, from Swansea University’s School of Psychology, summarized the unsettling findings: “The fact that everyday AI tools can now generate such realistic synthetic images of real people not only raises urgent concerns about misinformation and trust in visual media but also highlights the pressing need for reliable detection methods.”

The Birth of Deepfake Realism

This new phase of image generation has been described as a leap into “deepfake realism.” Just a few years ago, even the most advanced AI-generated portraits had telltale flaws—strange lighting, asymmetrical eyes, unnatural skin textures, or distorted details in hair and background. But with the rapid evolution of models like DALL·E, Midjourney, and other neural image generators, those imperfections are disappearing.

The AI systems that once struggled to mimic the nuances of human expression can now render them flawlessly. They capture the subtlest shadows, the glint of light in an iris, the curve of a smile, and the texture of human skin with uncanny precision. The boundary between the real and the synthetic is fading—and with it, the visual cues that help us navigate truth from fabrication.

This isn’t just a technological achievement—it’s a psychological shockwave. For millennia, human beings have relied on faces as the ultimate test of authenticity. We instinctively believe what our eyes see. But in the age of AI, that instinct may betray us.

The Experiments That Changed the Game

In one of the study’s main experiments, participants were presented with a series of images—some genuine, others generated by AI. Their task was simple: identify which was real. The results revealed that human intuition is no longer a reliable guide. People were just as likely to label a fake face as real as they were to correctly identify an authentic one.

In another phase, the researchers tested recognition among familiar faces. Participants were shown photographs of Hollywood actors—Paul Rudd, Olivia Wilde, and others—alongside AI-created counterparts. Despite their familiarity with these celebrities, participants often failed to identify the true image. The AI imitations were simply too convincing.

These findings carry profound implications. If even familiar faces can be faked convincingly, then the potential for manipulation extends far beyond entertainment—it touches politics, business, journalism, and personal identity.

The Dangerous Power of Synthetic Reality

The ability to generate realistic human images at will opens doors to both creativity and deception. On one hand, artists, filmmakers, and game developers can use these tools to create digital worlds more vivid than ever before. On the other, bad actors can weaponize the same technology to fabricate endorsements, spread misinformation, or impersonate real people for malicious ends.

Imagine seeing a photograph of a world leader apparently signing a controversial treaty—or a celebrity promoting a political agenda they never supported. In the age of deepfake realism, such deceptions could look utterly authentic. Professor Tree warns that this poses “urgent concerns about misinformation and trust in visual media.”

The line between imagination and evidence is blurring, and without reliable detection tools, society could find itself caught in a new kind of visual illusion—one where proof itself becomes suspect.

When Familiarity Fails

One of the most striking aspects of the study is how little familiarity helped participants detect fakes. Normally, humans are remarkably skilled at recognizing familiar faces. Our brains have evolved a unique ability to distinguish the subtle details that make each person unique—the distance between the eyes, the shape of the jaw, the curve of a smile.

Yet in this study, that ability faltered. Even when participants were shown reference photos, their accuracy barely improved. This suggests that AI-generated faces are not just passable imitations—they’re precise reconstructions capable of tricking our most refined social instincts.

It’s a sobering realization: the very features we use to establish identity and authenticity are now easily forged by machines.

The Ethical and Psychological Challenge

The implications go beyond technology—they strike at the foundations of trust. We live in a world already saturated with visual media: social networks, news feeds, video platforms. Our perception of truth has long been shaped by images. If those images can no longer be trusted, what happens to our ability to believe?

The potential for abuse is vast. Fake celebrity endorsements could mislead millions. Fabricated political images could distort public opinion.

Even personal relationships could be targeted—deepfaked images or videos used for manipulation, extortion, or harassment.

For the average viewer scrolling through an endless feed of photos and videos, this creates a new kind of cognitive burden. Every image demands skepticism. Every familiar face invites doubt. As Professor Tree notes, “While automated systems may eventually outperform humans at detecting fakes, for now, it’s up to viewers to judge what’s real.”

A Call for Vigilance and Detection

If AI can fool our eyes, then we must build new tools to defend the truth. The researchers emphasize that developing effective detection systems is now a matter of urgency. Advances in AI that enable realism must be matched by advances that enable verification.

Already, scientists are working on digital watermarking systems that can tag authentic content at the point of creation, as well as AI-powered detectors that can analyze microscopic inconsistencies invisible to humans. But these solutions are racing against time—and against AI models that evolve faster than regulations can keep up.

In this high-stakes technological arms race, awareness itself becomes a vital defense. Educating the public about the power and pitfalls of synthetic media can help foster a more critical eye in the digital age.

Redefining Reality in the Digital Era

What does it mean to live in a world where the boundary between the real and the artificial is dissolving? The answer may depend not on technology but on human responsibility. AI has given us astonishing creative potential—the power to generate images, voices, and worlds that once existed only in imagination. But with that power comes an equally vast responsibility to protect truth.

The Swansea–Lincoln–Ariel study is a warning as much as it is a revelation. It shows us that the tools we now possess are no longer just creative instruments; they are instruments of influence. How we use them will define the future of information, trust, and authenticity.

Seeing Beyond the Illusion

We have entered an era where reality can be replicated pixel by pixel, expression by expression. The photograph—once the symbol of truth—has become a stage for illusion. Yet even in this uncertain landscape, one thing remains constant: the human capacity for discernment.

Technology may blur what we see, but it cannot erase our will to understand. As we navigate this new world of digital mirrors and manufactured faces, the challenge is not to reject what’s artificial but to recognize it—to learn once again how to see, not just with our eyes, but with our judgment.

In the end, the truth may no longer be self-evident, but it will always be worth seeking.

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An international team of mathematicians led by Lehigh University statistician Taeho Kim has developed a new method that could greatly enhance predictive modeling in areas such as health, biology, and the social sciences.

This new approach aims to generate predictions that align more closely with actual outcomes. The researchers call it the Maximum Agreement Linear Predictor, or MALP. The method achieves higher consistency by optimizing the Concordance Correlation Coefficient (CCC), a metric that evaluates how well pairs of data points align along the 45-degree line of a scatter plot.

This measure combines both precision, how tightly the data points cluster, and accuracy, how close they are to the reference line. Traditional techniques, such as the least-squares method, primarily focus on minimizing average error. While effective in many applications, those methods may fall short when the goal is to maximize agreement rather than simple proximity, says Kim, assistant professor of mathematics.

“Sometimes, we don’t just want our predictions to be close—we want them to have the highest agreement with the real values,” he says.

“The issue is, how can we define the agreement of two objects in a scientifically meaningful way? One way we can conceptualize this is how close the points are aligned with a 45 degree line on a scatter plot between the predicted value and the actual values. So, if the scatter plot of these shows a strong alignment with this 45 degree line, then we could say there is a good level of agreement between these two.”

Why agreement differs from correlation

When people think of agreement, they often recall Pearson’s correlation coefficient, a measure introduced early in most statistics courses. Pearson’s correlation is useful for assessing the strength and direction of a linear relationship between two variables, but it does not specifically measure how well the data align with a 45-degree line. For instance, it can indicate a strong correlation even if the relationship follows a line with a slope of 50 or 75 degrees, Kim notes.

Taeho Kim. Credit: Christine Kreschollek

“In our case, we are specifically interested in alignment with a 45-degree line. For that, we use a different measure: the concordance correlation coefficient, introduced by Lin in 1989. This metric focuses specifically on how well the data align with a 45-degree line. What we’ve developed is a predictor designed to maximize the concordance correlation between predicted values and actual values.”
Testing MALP on real-world data

The team evaluated MALP using both computer simulations and real-world data, including eye scans and body fat measurements. To demonstrate its effectiveness, the researchers applied MALP to data from an ophthalmology study comparing two optical coherence tomography (OCT) devices: the older Stratus OCT and the newer Cirrus OCT. Because clinics are shifting to the Cirrus system, physicians need a reliable way to convert measurements to ensure consistency over time and across devices.

Using high-quality scans from 26 left eyes and 30 right eyes, the researchers tested how well MALP could estimate Stratus OCT readings based on Cirrus OCT data, comparing its performance with the least-squares approach. MALP produced predictions that more closely matched the actual Stratus measurements, while the least-squares method performed slightly better at reducing average error, highlighting the trade-off between accuracy and agreement.

Taeho Kim. Credit: Christine Kreschollek

The team also tested MALP on a body fat data set containing measurements from 252 adults, including weight, abdomen size and other body dimensions. Because direct methods of measuring body fat, such as underwater weighing, are accurate but costly, researchers often rely on estimates from easier measurements. Using these measurements to predict body fat percentage, MALP was compared with the standard least-squares method. The results echoed the eye scan study: MALP delivered predictions that more closely matched actual values, while the least-squares approach produced slightly smaller average errors — underscoring the balance between agreement and error reduction.

Broader applications and next steps

Kim and his colleagues found that MALP often provided predictions that better matched the actual data compared with traditional methods.

However, the choice between MALP and conventional methods should depend on the goal and context of individual projects. If minimizing error is most important, the classic methods still perform well; if agreement is key, MALP is the better choice.

The findings could have major implications for improving prediction tools in various fields — from medicine and public health to economics and engineering. For data scientists and researchers working on predictive models, MALP offers a promising new tool, especially when error minimization isn’t just about being close, but about being in full agreement with the truth.

“We need to investigate further,” Kim says. “Currently, our setting is within the class of linear predictors. This set is large enough to be practically used in various fields, but it is still restricted mathematically speaking. So, we wish to extend this to the general class so that our goal is to remove the linear part and so it becomes the Maximum Agreement Predictor.”

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Quick links:

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

Windows 11 and Windows 10

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

Following the discovery of Windows 11 version 26H1 in update code, Microsoft officially announced the first H1 release for its operating system. It is coming soon as a special release for "certain silicon," which is most likely Qualcomm's new Snapdragon X2 chips or even Nvidia's upcoming PC processors.

Windows 10 is no longer supported, and as such, its market share is dwindling, particularly among gamers. Valve reports that as of November 2025, 31.14% of all survey participants reported using Windows 10. In one month, the operating system lost 3.94 points, while Windows 11 climbed to a new all-time high of 63.57%.

Microsoft announced that on Windows 11 version 25H2, it is no longer possible to authenticate devices on NTLM and Kerberos with duplicate security identifiers.

Those on Windows 11 versions 25H2 and 24H2 should also check out this guide, which explains how to fix duplicate Task Manager processes. They can eat up a massive chunk of your PC resources, so you'd better know how to clean them up before Microsoft has a permanent fix. By the way, the company often fixes Windows bugs with the Known Issue Rollback feature, and there is now a new post that explains the magic behind it.

There is also another useful article that details how to speed up File Explorer by disabling certain useless features. Microsoft also used File Explorer as an example for the updated context menus in WinUI-based apps, but at this point, it is unknown if the company plans to bring those improvements to the Windows shell.

Speaking of bugs, this week, Microsoft mistakenly flagged Windows 10 PCs in the ESU program as unsupported. However, the company quickly admitted the mistake and reassured users that their computers would continue receiving security updates. Additionally, Microsoft confirmed yet another BitLocker bug forcing users into BitLocker Recovery.

Do you remember Microsoft simplifying Windows Update names? Forget about it. Following community backlash, Microsoft is reverting the new scheme to include more information in Windows Update names.

Finally, check out our interview with Jason Banta, AMD's Corporate Vice President and General Manager of Client OEM, where we discuss Ryzen compatibility with the next major Windows release, system requirements, Copilot+ PCs, and more.

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.

Microsoft Edge has received updates and improvements to its built-in password manager. It can now store and sync passkeys across devices, offering users a more secure and convenient authentication method. However, for now, it is only available on Windows.

Finally, check out our overview of the latest additions to the Microsoft 365 Roadmap, which includes several useful features for Edge, Outlook, Copilot, Teams, and more. Besides adding stuff, Microsoft is retiring certain things, particularly in Excel. In addition to that, Microsoft apologized for the misfired price increase of the Microsoft 365 subscription earlier this year and offered a refund.

Here are other updates and releases you may find interesting:

• SmartScreen for Internet Explorer and IE Mode on Windows 11 are now deprecated

• Microsoft inks $9.7 billion deal to secure computing power for its AI

• Microsoft to invest $7.9 billion in UAE AI and Cloud Infrastructure by 2029

• Microsoft's Mustafa Suleyman says AI is definitely not conscious

• Microsoft and NVIDIA seek to help UK agentic AI businesses

• Microsoft now lets employees raise concerns anonymously

• Microsoft announces a major change for Configuration Manager

• Microsoft rolls out the MAI-Image-1 AI image generator model on Bing

   

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

• Nvidia 581.80 with support for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Anno 177, and more. By the way, if you play old Forza titles, stay away from the 580 branch. These drivers break Forza Horizon 3, Motorsport 7, and Motorsport 6: Apex, and the only way to play these titles on Nvidia GPUs is by rolling back to driver 576.88.

Reviews are in

Here is the hardware and software we reviewed this week

This week, we reviewed the iContact Pro 4K, an odd webcam that tries to solve a common webcam problem by mounting the camera on a retractable arm. Does it work, though? Check out our review here.

Steven Parker reviewed the MINIX ER937-AI, a fully-qualified Copilot+ PC with built-in Windows Hello and an AMD processor for under $920. While the computer offers excellent performance, a premium build, and good thermals, it suffers from a weak SSD, the lack of a card reader, and a hefty price tag.

On the gaming side

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

Halo Infinite is not-so-infinite anymore. Despite the promise of making the game a ten-year-old platform for Halo, Halo Studios is discontinuing the title to focus its efforts on future games. Halo Infinite has received its final update, and it is no longer supported.

If you feel like Battlefield 6's multiplayer is a bit too extreme for you, Battlefield Studios now offers a solution: Relaxed Mode. This casual mode still offers XP gains for players, with most of the players on servers being bots.

The latest additions to Game Pass are here. Microsoft is adding Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Dead Static Drive, Egging On, Voidtrain, Great God Grove, Pigeon Simulator, Winter Burrow, and other titles. Some games are leaving the service as well, so be sure to check out the complete list here.

New games are also available in GeForce NOW, Nvidia's cloud streaming service. They also include Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and other titles, such as Europa Universalis V, 7 Days Blood Moons, Voidtrain, Virtual Fighter 5 R.E.V.O., and more.

Deals and freebies

Also, check out this week's Weekend PC Game Deals for more discounts across various storefronts.

Other gaming news includes the following:

• Wider Steam store pages are now rolling out to everyone as Valve targets the front page next

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Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Monday 10 November 2025 at 3:14 am AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of October): 5,009

RIP Matrix

Cameras have become a constant presence in daily life. Over the past two centuries, they have evolved from rare inventions into essential tools used across countless technologies. Today, cameras are found in smartphones, laptops, vehicles, surveillance systems, aircraft, and satellites that capture images of Earth from above. As the push to miniaturize mechanical, optical, and electronic components continues, researchers are seeking ways to design cameras that are smaller, lighter, and more energy efficient.

To meet this challenge, scientists are exploring ultra-flat optics as an alternative to the bulky lenses in most cameras. Unlike traditional curved glass or plastic lenses, ultra-flat optics—such as metalenses—use an extremely thin layer of nanostructures to manipulate light. These structures make them hundreds or even thousands of times smaller and lighter than standard lenses.

However, one major obstacle remains: a visual distortion called “chromatic aberration” limits the ability of ultra-flat optics to capture clear, full-color images when using a large aperture (the opening in a lens that lets light enter). While a large aperture allows more light and improves image brightness, this distortion has long prevented ultra-flat lenses from achieving the same image quality as conventional cameras. For decades, researchers viewed this as an insurmountable problem.

A breakthrough in flat-lens imaging

That is, until now.

In a groundbreaking study published in Nature Communications, a team of researchers from the University of Washington’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (UW ECE) and Princeton University’s computer science department demonstrated that a large-aperture, ultra-flat optic can capture high-quality color images and video comparable to those produced by traditional lenses. This result overturns the long-standing assumption that a single large-aperture metalens could not produce sharp, full-color images.

In a first-of-its-kind achievement, researchers at UW ECE and Princeton University have shown that a camera containing a large aperture, ultra-flat optic can record high-quality color images and video comparable to what can be captured with a conventional camera lens. Shown above: an illustrative comparison of a standard refractive lens next to an ultra-flat optic developed by the research team. The ultra-flat optic is hundreds of times smaller and thinner. When this metalens replaces a conventional camera lens or stack of lenses, the savings in volume, weight, and device battery life can be substantial. Credit: Liz Sabol / Princeton University

The team’s new ultra-flat optic is a metalens just one micron thick. When mounted on its supporting substrate, the entire structure measures only 300 microns—about the combined width of four human hairs. This makes it hundreds of times thinner and smaller than a standard refractive lens. Replacing conventional multi-lens systems with such a metalens could significantly reduce the size, weight, and power consumption of imaging devices.

The potential uses for this innovation are extensive. The metalens could be integrated into nearly any type of camera, particularly where space and weight are limited. Smartphones and laptops would benefit immediately, but the technology could also be applied to drones, cars, and satellites that require compact, efficient imaging systems. Medical devices such as endoscopes and angioscopes could also take advantage of the smaller lens design, allowing doctors to see farther inside the body and improve diagnostic accuracy.

Collaboration driving innovation

“Our work shows capability, what can be done with ultra-flat optics. I think our research pushes the field forward, and there will be a lot more of this type of work in the future.” — UW ECE Research Assistant Professor Johannes Fröch

This achievement is an outgrowth of a longstanding collaboration between the senior authors of the paper, Arka Majumdar, a UW ECE professor who holds a joint appointment in physics, and Felix Heide, an assistant professor of computer science at Princeton University. Majumdar, Heide, and their research teams have produced some dramatic advances in optics over the last few years, such as shrinking a camera down to the size of a grain of salt while still capturing crisp, clear images, and engineering a camera that can identify images at the speed of light.

Majumdar’s lab team also has a strong track record of reimagining optics for smartphone cameras and other devices. This latest research advance emerged from a previous joint effort overseen by Majumdar and Heide, which was led by Ethan Tseng, a doctoral student in Heide’s lab who was also a co-author of this paper.

Lead authors of the paper were UW ECE Research Assistant Professor Johannes Fröch and Praneeth Chakravarthula, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Chakravarthula was a postdoctoral scholar in Heide’s lab at Princeton University when this research took place.

“Previously, it was assumed that the larger the metalens is, the fewer the colors there are that can be focused,” Fröch said. “But we went beyond that and beat the limit.”

Lead authors UW ECE Research Assistant Professor Johannes Fröch (left) and Praneeth Chakravarthula, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (right). Credit: University of Washington

“We treated this as a holistic system,” Chakravarthula added. “That allowed us to leverage the complementary strengths of optics and computation, where we didn’t design these different parts of the imaging system sequentially, but instead, we jointly optimized them to maximize performance.”

Other co-authors of the paper included UW ECE alums Shane Colburn, Alan Zhan, Forrest Miller, Anna Wirth-Singh, and Zheyi Han as well as former UW ECE postdoctoral researcher Quentin Tanguy and Jipeng Sun, a doctoral student in Heide’s lab. UW ECE Professor Karl Böhringer also co-authored the paper and contributed to the effort, supervising the students who fabricated the ultra-flat optic in the Washington Nanofabrication Facility. Böhringer is the director of the Institute of Nano-Engineered Systems, of which Majumdar is a faculty member.

AI-powered computation enables high-resolution images

In most imaging systems, multiple refractive lenses are used because a single lens cannot bring all colors into focus. This issue, specifying “chromaticity,” becomes exacerbated in ultra-flat optics. Many scientists and engineers even consider metalenses to be hyperchromatic because all the light cannot be brought into focus at a given point. This limits the ability of ultra-flat optics to have broader apertures and still be able to do well in terms of imaging visible light.

Previous to this research advance, it was not thought possible to build metalenses with large apertures that can produce a high-quality image. Most earlier efforts with metalenses were working with camera apertures that were less than one millimeter in size.

In comparison, the aperture in the camera the research team engineered is one centimeter in size, significantly larger. The team demonstrated that with a strong computational backend co-designed with the optical hardware, even larger apertures are possible.

This research advance is an outgrowth of a collaboration between UW ECE and Physics Professor Arka Majumdar (left) and Felix Heide (center), an assistant professor of computer science at Princeton University. UW ECE Professor Karl Böhringer (right) also contributed to the effort. Credit: Ryan Hoover / UW ECE, and Steven Schultz / Princeton University

“People have tried purely physics-based or heuristic, handcrafted optical designs to address this issue, but in our work, we treat it as a computational problem,” Chakravarthula said. “We used AI tools to figure out what should be the shape of these lens structures and what should be the corresponding computation.”

The computational backend of the team’s optical system incorporated AI — a probabilistic diffusion-based neural network. This AI-powered backend takes in the data received from the ultra-flat optic and outputs images with lower haze, better color accuracy, more vivid hues, and better noise reduction. This all results in high-quality color images that are almost indistinguishable from what can be captured with a conventional camera.

“Previously, I was always considering problems from the optical side of the system,” Fröch said. “But this project really showed me that if you consider the whole system and then try to leverage the strength of each part — the optics and the computational backend — they can work synergistically to produce this really good image quality that we’ve shown here.”

Working toward even sharper images, new modalities

Next steps for the research team include further refining and improving image quality produced by their ultra-flat optic. They are also planning to explore different modalities for the optical system they developed that could be useful for augmenting human vision. These modalities involve capturing and working with information from light that is beyond what is visible to the human eye.

To illustrate, many animals, such as butterflies, can see far beyond the spectrum of light visible to humans and gain useful information from different characteristics of light, such as its polarization — the orientation of light waves as they travel through space. Animals use this information to find food, evade predators, and attract mates. In a similar fashion, humans can use light beyond what people are able to see to enable multimodal sensing for polarization or spectral information. An example of this is light detection and ranging, or LiDAR, which is currently being used in autonomous vehicles and in smartphones to assist with augmented reality, virtual reality, and depth-perception applications. The research team anticipates that their ultra-flat optic could be applicable to these sorts of technologies.

Commercialization of this ultra-flat optic is also a distinct possibility in the near future. Metalenses are suitable for mass manufacturing in foundries using nanoprint lithography, which makes the optics affordable and scalable. The team is currently talking with a UW professor in the ophthalmology department, who is interested in creating small, lightweight, hand-held devices that would be easier to use for eye inspections. Fröch also said there are startups that might be interested in commercializing this technology. He noted as well that the team’s research could open new avenues for others in the field of optics to explore.

“I think the overall takeaway here is that even when there are perceived limitations to solving a certain problem, it doesn’t mean it’s not possible to solve it,” Fröch said. “Our work shows capability, what can be done with ultra-flat optics. I think our research pushes the field forward, and there will be a lot more of this type of work in the future.”

Reference: “Beating spectral bandwidth limits for large aperture broadband nano-optics” by Johannes E. Fröch, Praneeth Chakravarthula, Jipeng Sun, Ethan Tseng, Shane Colburn, Alan Zhan, Forrest Miller, Anna Wirth-Singh, Quentin A. A. Tanguy, Zheyi Han, Karl F. Böhringer, Felix Heide and Arka Majumdar, 28 March 2025, Nature Communications.
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-58208-4

The work was supported by the National Science Foundation, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a Packard Foundation Fellowship, a Sloan Research Fellowship, a Sony Young Faculty Award, an Amazon Science Research Award, and a Google Ph.D. Fellowship.

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Before DirectX 8, graphics cards worked on a fixed-function pipeline, meaning that almost everything was predefined, baked into the silicon itself. Lighting equations, texture blending, transformations; it was all at the mercy of the GPU's support. For instance, in lieu of real-time reflections, you'd have environment maps because the GPU itself wasn't able to calculate them dynamically. You were bound by the logic of the hardware, which wasn't very flexible.

Think of it as adjusting knobs on a console. You can tweak the parameters slightly, but what if you wanted to change the very knobs themselves? Enter, DirectX 8.

DirectX 8's programmable shaders

Microsoft added Shader Model 1.0 to DirectX, which came with Vertex Shader 1.0 that would allow devs to manipulate each vertex, and Pixel Shader 1.0 that would allow devs to control the final color of each pixel. Previously, none of this was really accessible, but DirectX 8 gave control to the people making the games, enabling them to write code to program the GPU to render in a certain way.

Devs could define the very math behind lighting, for example, or control material behavior, specular highlights, (basic) tessellation, and so on for the first time ever. It was no longer about just accepting what the GPU provided by default, but rather what the GPU could do, full stop. It turned the silicon from a locked-down machine to an actual, programmable processor, true to its name.

Piggybacking off the possibilities of DirectX 8, games like Half-Life 2 would arrive with groundbreaking graphics for the era. They were built on the ideas of authorship, giving autonomy (even if minor at the time) to devs to build real-time shadows, refraction and water shaders, post-processing effects and so much more. All because they could now write custom code, telling the GPU how to calculate something.

It was up to the creatives to shape how light interacted with each object, something that may seem primitive by today's standards. Even in 2025, some things are pre-baked, like global illumination, for efficiency's sake, while others operate in real-time. And it's shaders that decide how both interact with each other, merging them seamlessly to give you "better graphics."

Modern-day GPUs (Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

DirectX 8's release coincided with the launch of Nvidia's GeForce 3 , which added hardware blocks, such as shader-execution units, to run DX8's Shader Model. In our original coverage of the GPUs from over two decades ago, we listed the inclusion of a Pixel Shader and Vertex Shader as the two biggest improvements, carrying endless possibilities — truer than ever in hindsight.

A year later, ATI (AMD) caught up with more powerful DX9-class hardware, building upon the legacy of DX8. Even the original Xbox shipped with a DirectX 8 GPU at the time, and there was a lot of excitement around true per-pixel lighting among the developer community. Games like Morrowind and Splinter Cell were early adopters of this technology, eventually made common by Unreal Engine 2 later on.

All in all, DirectX 8 wasn't an explosive update, but it completely altered the way modern rendering works. Every single device we use right now, from phones to consoles to computers, they wouldn't work the way they do without employing DX8's fundamental principle of control. Letting the people, who make the software, program the hardware however they want is what led subsequent graphics breakthroughs we consider normal today.

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Battery anxiety is a commonplace ill of modern times, even if some recent hardware releases have seen significant improvements. So, glancing at the battery icon on your PC (or phone, iPad, watch or camera) is something many people do. And if you don’t, you’re probably lying. 

In the Windows taskbar, the visual indicator has been of limited help. A black-and-white battery with white bar indicating battery strength isn’t easy to read. Glancing back at it after half an hour and it can be difficult to spot if it’s changed much — until it suddenly plummets.

A percentage indicator helps, which Microsoft has now offered as an option. I’d argue that color helps more for that quick reveal of how things are going.

“Up until now, Windows 11 taskbar’s battery icon has been static white, but with a colourful icon, Microsoft wants it to communicate,” explains Mayank Parmar at Windows Latest. “The Windows 11 taskbar was not exactly useful when it shipped in 2021, but it has come a long way, and it’s now getting two new features. The first feature is a colorful battery, which means the icon would now be green when it’s charging and red when you’re about to run out of battery. You can also turn on battery percentage.”

That’s very helpful, and it’ll arrive when you update. It will come with the Patch Tuesday coming on Nov. 11, though is available before then in an optional update if you just can’t wait.

“After the update, you will notice that when the device is charging, the color changes to green with a bolt indicator. And if you turn on battery saver, it turns to orange (when not plugged in)," Parmar adds.

Personally, I’d call that yellow rather than orange, but potato-potarto.

Show battery percentage is an option found in Settings, in Power & battery in the System section.

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For years, the conversation around Generative AI has been about chatbots that can talk, models that can code, and systems that can summarise research in seconds. However, the battleground is now shifting. The new frontier is not just smarter assistants, it is the browser itself. The same window through which the world accesses the Internet is being reinvented, reshaped, and in many ways re-imagined. 

And this time, it’s not just about speed or user interface (UI) polish. It’s about who controls the intelligence layer that sits between the user and the web.

The Gen AI platform race, once about conversational supremacy, has now expanded into agentic planners, executors, and fully AI-native browsers. From Perplexity’s Comet to ChatGPT’s Atlas to Opera’s Aria and Microsoft’s Edge Copilot, the browser has become the new stage where intelligence meets action. The question is simple — can these new AI-first browsers meaningfully challenge Google Chrome’s near-monopoly?

Ambika Sharma, founder and chief strategist at Pulp Strategy, believes we are no longer looking at just a browser war. “We are entering an agent war, not just a browser war. The winners will be those who combine three things: strong models, privacy compliance, and deep integration into user workflows,” says Sharma. In other words, the browser of tomorrow is not a viewer, rather it’s a doer. It summarises, negotiates, shops, translates, and executes. The shift is from passive browsing to active reasoning.

Sharma adds that the whole ecosystem is witnessing a fundamental rewrite of relevance and performance. “Advertising and search engine optimisation (SEO) are being disrupted as AI interpreters decide what is relevant, not users. Metrics are moving from clicks and impressions to engagement quality and AI-level authority.”

The Internet is no longer something we sift through, rather it is something that gets interpreted for us.

That shift also comes with responsibilities. Aakriti Bhargava, co-founder of Wizikey, points out that many AI-native platforms are already encountering regulatory scrutiny. “A few, including Perplexity, Anthropic, and OpenAI, have faced regulatory checks and media scrutiny around data use and training practices. That’s a sign of a maturing ecosystem. Winners will be those who build trust and make browsing effortless.” According to Bhargava, the browser will soon feel more personal, perhaps even wearable. “The browser will evolve into a personal learning and action space.

Think AI wearables that connect directly to the browser to make information accessible. And as AI advances, the browser will feel more human.” Yet Google isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Its dominance stems not just from Chrome’s speed but from its deep integration with Android, Gmail, Workspace and its unparalleled data graph. Google is already folding Gemini into Chrome and Search, signalling that it, too, is preparing for the intelligence-first era. But the new players have the advantage of agility and focus. They don’t need to protect legacy revenue streams like ad flows as they are free to redesign the web experience from scratch.

Dhrubabrata Ghosh Dastidar, managing director at Protiviti Member Firm in India, calls it a dynamic co-existence rather than a battle to the death. “AI-native browsers are bringing fresh energy into this space, challenging long-standing models and re-imagining what’s possible. But it’s not necessarily a zero-sum game.” He points out that the browser is evolving into an intelligent, connected workspace, something between a notebook, an assistant, and a private search engine.

This wave also opens doors for India. With its strengths in mobile-first ecosystems, localisation, payments, and multilingual Internet usage, the country is well-positioned to deliver a differentiated browsing experience, perhaps even one tuned for local languages and trust-based interactions.

So, will Google be dethroned? Not immediately. Market dynamics don’t shift overnight. But the basis of leadership is changing, from who has the most users, to who best understands them.

Consumers, for once, will be spoilt for choice. And the experience of searching, surfing, and discovering online will never be the same again.

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Paul's Hardware (1.53M subscribers)

November 9, 2025

Video length: 12m 48s

0:00 Welcome to Paul’s Tech News - November 9, 2025

2:03 RTX 50 SUPER GPU launch uncertain; 3GB GDDR7 memory shortage reported 

4:40 Memory Shortage Gets Worse, RAM and SSD Prices Keep Going Up 

6:26 China suspends rare-earth export control measures, shuns Nvidia 

TECH BRIEFS 

7:48 AMD Almost Got Away With It - RDNA Driver Support Fiasco 

9:21 Ryzen 9800X3D And 7800X3D Together Outsell All Intel CPUs at Amazon in October 

10:06 AMD hit with lawsuit over hybrid bonding tech behind potent 3D V-Cache 

11:12 HardwareUnboxed posts 47-Motherboard B850 roundup

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Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Sunday 9 November 2025 at 6:42 pm AEST (my time).

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