This week's news recap is here, with Microsoft teasing a new era of PCs, Qualcomm announcing new chips for $300 Windows laptops, Windows 11 getting a big Start menu upgrade, gaming news, and a lot more.

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.

Microsoft released the May 2026 non-security update for Windows 11 versions 24H2 and 25H2. KB5089573 was released with the promising low-latency mode to improve performance, shared audio support, multi-app camera support, and other feature upgrades and quality improvements. The update is optional, and everything it has to offer will be bundled in the June 2026 Patch Tuesday update. By the way, Microsoft resolved installation issues with this month's Patch Tuesday update, so you should be able to install KB5089549 successfully.

Microsoft and Qualcomm are making Windows laptops more affordable. This week, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon C, a low-end processor for Windows on ARM devices targeting the $300 price range. Laptops and tablets with this processor promise quiet operation at low temperatures, all-day battery life, and "responsive performance." In addition, these chips feature built-in Neural Processing Units (NPUs) for on-device AI. However, it seems that potential buyers will have to accept plenty of compromises, as one of the first laptops with the Snapdragon C has "up to 8GB of RAM" in its spec sheet, potentially hinting at a 4GB or 6GB RAM configuration.

Qualcomm is not the only one launching new chips. Microsoft published a teaser of "a new era of PC," with NVIDIA doing the same on X. Next week, at Computex 2026, we should see the debut of NVIDIA's N1 processors for desktop computers. Build 2026 is also kicking off, but do not expect to see Windows 12 there. And while Microsoft promises a new era, according to HP, plenty of users still enjoy the good old Windows 10.

Did you know that Windows 11 and 10 have a unified folder with all the tools available out of the box? This week, Usama Jawad shared his joy of discovering the Windows Tools folder, which lists every single tool for customizing and adjusting settings in Windows. I will chip in with a tip: do not go there during the night. This folder remains hideously unoptimized when Windows is in dark mode. Another useful tool for a Windows PC is a TaskSlinger, a third-party replacement for the stock Task Manager.

Finally, check out this neat File Explorer concept designed by Zee-Al-Eid Ahman, who suggests a few interesting upgrades for the stock file manager in Windows 11.

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.

This week, Mozilla released Firefox 151.0.2, another bug-fixing update for the recently launched version 151. The update packs ten important fixes and patches to address Split View issues, crashes on Windows with certain input methods, and other bugs.

Microsoft had a bunch of big Copilot updates this week. For one, the company revealed a major Microsoft 365 Copilot redesign with performance improvements. Also, Copilot Health, a wellness-focused flavor of Microsoft's AI, is now available in the United States.

May 2026 is now over, which means it is time to recap the new features and changes in Microsoft's apps and services, including Excel, Teams, and more. Speaking of Teams, the service is getting a new efficiency mode, and a couple of updates in the Admin Center revealed more details about it.

Here are other updates and releases you may find interesting:

• Microsoft 365 Copilot Notebooks gets new tools to turn documents into mind maps and more

• Microsoft's MAI-Image-2.5 enters Arena's top 3 with better image generation

• Microsoft is finally bringing the All Accounts view to Outlook on Windows

• Microsoft confirms Domain Controller bug in Windows Server 2016

• Microsoft 365 Copilot clears AI security audit once again

• Microsoft just made it possible to use VS Code completely offline with local AI

• OneDrive is getting a powerful file rename feature soon

   

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

• Intel 32.0.101.8824 with optimizations for 007 First Light and all sorts of crashes and corruption fixes.
• NVIDIA 610.47 with optimizations for 007 First Light, LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, and more. With the release of this driver, NVIDIA has officially retired the legacy Control Panel. The company claims that the new NVIDIA App now has every feature and setting from its old-school counterpart, and future drivers will no longer include it.

Reviews are in

Here is the hardware and software we reviewed this week

This week, Steven Parker reviewed the GEEKOM A9 Max 2026 mini PC with a dual-channel RAM setup. The device is not new to Neowin, as we have already reviewed it, but the thing is that our initial review was done with a PC running in a single-channel mode. The latest review shows how an incorrect memory setup leads to massive performance losses, crippling the processor and its potential.

Pulasthi Ariyasinghe published his Corsair Cove preview. This pirate city builder has impressive scale and logistics. Check out his early impressions here, and stand by for a future release with more details and additional content, such as a full campaign, multiple base island options, a massive map to explore, dozens more buildings and ships, and more.

On the gaming side

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

CD Projekt RED dropped some great news for fans of The Witcher 3. A decade after the initial launch, the studio dropped a new story expansion called Songs of the Past. It offers a new adventure, but the exact details remain unknown. What is known is that CD Projekt RED is increasing the game's hardware requirements, so check them out here.

Activision and Microsoft announced the next installment of Call of Duty. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 has been announced with a trailer, campaign, and multiplayer details. There is also a release date and some bad news for those still playing games on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Unfortunately, the next Call of Duty is not going to previous-gen consoles, even though the studio promises to "go back to the roots."

The Epic Games Store is giving away two games this week. One is Lonestar, a sci-fi roguelike where you hunt criminals across the universe. The second is Calico, a community simulator where you rebuild and manage a cat cafe. As usual, you can find more deals and specials in our weekly Weekend PC Game Deals series.

Bad news for those who want to purchase the Steam Deck: Valve restocked its supply and announced a major price increase for the handheld console. Now, depending on the configuration, the Steam Deck is up to $300 more expensive, casting major doubts on the upcoming Steam Machine's affordability.

NVIDIA GeForce NOW is getting new games, as usual. This week's update includes 007 First Light, World of Tanks: HEAT, Romestead, Starminer, BeamNG.drive, Alchemy Factory, and more.

Other gaming news includes the following:

• Star Citizen crowdfunding reaches $1 billion, gaining the last $100 million in six months

• No Man's Sky gets alien Death Stars for players to defeat together

• Epic Games unveiled Unreal Engine 6

• Microsoft delays Fable out of 2026 to give it a dedicated "moment to shine" and avoid GTA VI

• More Xbox console personalization options and an outage notification are now in testing

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Posted Sunday 31 May 2026 at 7:22 am AEST (my time).

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Gamers Nexus (2.61m subscribers)

May 30, 2026

Video length: 46m 58s

In this hardware news recap, we talk plans for Computex, AI companies getting booed at commencement speeches, NVIDIA's vibecoded drivers striking again with security vulnerabilities (but at least they're patched), RAM companies taking on debt to buy supply, and more. The memory situation in particular is concerning, as RAM module makers taking debt means consumers will pay for that debt and interest in retail prices, driving them up further.

00:00 - Recap for the Week

01:59 - GN at Computex

07:39 - Keep Booing These Parasites

14:17 - NVIDIA's Vibecoded Drivers Fail Again

17:42 - RAM Companies Take Debt to Buy RAM

23:11 - US Security Agency Leaks Passwords

28:53 - ASUS Starts Selling RAM

30:39 - PlayStation Increases Plus Pricing

33:50 - Government Proposes EV Fee

40:17 - China Constructs Data Center Under the Sea

44:41 - Steam Controller Has Wilhelm Scream

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Posted Sunday 31 May 2026 at 7:19 am AEST (my time).

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The patch makes several changes, including reducing the starting workers from 12 to 8, and introduces a range of balance adjustments and quality of life improvements across all three races. It also includes a number of bug fixes.

According to Blizzard, the focus of the update is to extend the early and mid-game experience, allowing players to remain competitive on one to three bases for a longer period.

The goal is to make non-warped Gateway play more practical and to increase strategic options for Zerg, Terran, and Protoss.

Economic Changes in StarCraft 2 Patch 5.0.16

The most noticeable change affects the beginning of each match:

• Starting workers have been reduced from 12 to 8.
• The default resources on large mineral patches are now 1,600, down from 1,800, while small patches have increased from 900 to 1,200.
• The total default minerals per base have gone up from 10,800 to 11,200.
• Vespene Geysers now provide 2,500 resources instead of 2,250, raising the overall gas per base from 4,500 to 5,000.
• Additionally, the harvest return for rich Vespene gas has decreased from 8 to 6.

These changes mean that players need to make more cautious build decisions early in the game, which emphasizes scouting and extends the time before armies reach their maximum size.

Race-Specific Balance Changes for Zerg, Terran, and Protoss

Each race has received significant adjustments. Zerg changes include reduced supply from Hatchery, Lair, and Hive, from six to four; slower creep spread; increased damage from Spore Crawlers against biological units; cheaper Carapace upgrades; an auto-attack weapon for Infestors; and extended Microbial Shroud range from nine to twelve. The Viper's Abduct ability can now target sieged Siege Tanks.

Terran changes involve lowering Command Center supply from 15 to 13; redesigning the Ghost to use three supply, have 100 health, deliver 20 base damage, and a range of seven, with revised Steady Targeting that no longer cancels on damage; and updating subgroup priorities in the Medivac.

Protoss adjustments include moving Warpgate Research from the Cybernetics Core to the Gateway, reducing warp-in time to three seconds, introducing a fifty-fifty transform cost for Warpgate conversion, and updating cooldowns for Gateway and Warpgate units. The damage of High Templar Psi Storm has been reduced from 110 to 100.

Bug Fixes, PTR Status, and How to Try StarCraft 2 Patch 5.0.16

The patch includes a comprehensive list of bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements that address visual indicators, animation timing, unit selection behavior, and audio cues.

Key updates include:

• Active Creep Tumors now take precedence over inactive ones during selection, Mule Repair being set to auto-cast by default
• Xel'naga towers are now selectable through the Fog of War.
• Additionally, there are multiple visual and audio improvements for spell effects across all races, as well as enhancements to worker gather order behavior when refinery structures are constructed.

Patch 5.0.16 is now live on the public test realm. Blizzard has noted that the changes may be adjusted based on feedback from testers before a full release. Players can opt into the test realm via Battle.net to share their feedback.

StarCraft 2 was released in 2010. Although Blizzard ended new content development in 2020, the company has continued to release balance updates as needed.

The 5.0.16 patch is the most significant balance and quality-of-life update in several years.

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Posted Sunday 31 May 2026 at 7:19 am AEST (my time).

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Rumors about NVIDIA’s plans to enter the PC processor market have been circulating for years, but the latest reports suggest the launch of its first chip could be imminent. The world’s most valuable company, known for its GPUs and AI chips, is reportedly preparing to unveil its first PC processor as soon as next week.

According to a report by Axios, the first Windows laptops powered by NVIDIA chips as their main processors are set to debut next week. Developed in collaboration with Microsoft, the chips are expected to be unveiled at the Computex trade show in Taiwan and Microsoft’s Build developer conference in San Francisco.

Axios reports that some Microsoft Surface devices, along with PCs from brands such as Dell, are expected to launch with NVIDIA processors. In a post on X, NVIDIA shared the coordinates of a location that appears to be Taiwan’s capital while teasing “A new era of PC.” Meanwhile, Windows chief Pavan Davuluri also posted on X: “Something new is coming for developers. And no, it’s not a new OS version. See you at Build next week!”

NVIDIA is best known for its GeForce graphics cards for PCs and its AI chips for data centers. Focusing on these markets has helped the company surpass a $5 trillion valuation and become a dominant force in the tech industry. However, it remains to be seen how NVIDIA's first PC processors will compare with rival offerings from Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm in terms of performance, efficiency, and pricing.

The PC processor market is currently dominated by Intel and AMD, while Qualcomm has also been working to strengthen its position by launching more efficient chips and enabling affordable Windows laptops with capable performance. NVIDIA's entry into the PC chip business could further intensify competition in the market and give consumers more choices.

Update: A leaker on X has shared a link to Dell media materials referencing a new XPS laptop powered by the NVIDIA N1X chip. The NVIDIA-powered Dell laptop is reportedly set to be announced on May 31 at Computex.

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Posted Sunday 31 May 2026 at 7:17 am AEST (my time).

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It’s the world’s worst kept secret that Nvidia is about to announce its own Arm-powered laptop chips at Computex this weekend, and now Microsoft, Nvidia, and Arm are all openly teasing the announcement. The Windows and Nvidia GeForce accounts on X both posted “A new era of PC” earlier today, and now Arm has followed up with an identical post.

All three posts include coordinates pointing to where Computex is hosted in Taipei. Nvidia is holding a Computex keynote in Taipei at 8PM PT / 11PM ET on Sunday night, where it’s rumored to be announcing its new N1 and N1x laptop chips.

These Arm-powered Nvidia processors have been long-rumored, with reports earlier this year suggesting that both Lenovo and Dell have been preparing new laptops with the N1X chips. We first heard rumors about Nvidia’s laptop processors in 2023, and Dell CEO Michael Dell hinted at the possibility of an AI PC with Nvidia during an interview in 2024.

Nvidia’s entry into Windows on Arm will mean Qualcomm will no longer have an exclusive license for Microsoft’s Windows 11 Arm variant of its operating system. That’s good news for laptop competition, even if Qualcomm is trying to keep entry-level laptops affordable with its new Snapdragon C platform.

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Posted Saturday 30 May 2026 at 3:04 pm AEST (my time).

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Fable fans have been looking forward to the new reboot from Playground Games since its original announcement in 2020. However, that wait has just gotten longer, as another delay has now hit the long-awaited fantasy RPG. Microsoft said that this is because it wants to give the game's launch more breathing room, which is becoming difficult in 2026 with all the upcoming major releases, including Grand Theft Auto VI.

Following previous delays, Fable's most recent release window had it landing in autumn 2026. Today, Microsoft attached a different release window to the game. The Forza studio will now be releasing Fable in February 2027, getting out of the way of some of the biggest games this year.

"In order to plan our game launches through the holidays, in a way that works best for players, we’re moving Fable to February 2027 so it can have the dedicated moment it deserves," said the company in a social media post. It name-dropped titles like Halo Campaign Evolved, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4, and Grand Theft Auto VI as just some of the releases players will still be able to enjoy on Xbox consoles this year.

At the same time, Xbox's chief content officer, Matt Booty, added some extra information about the game's status in the new Xbox Podcast today as well. He said Fable is currently in great shape and that the Playground development team and Microsoft are feeling good about it. He also reiterated the original message, adding that the goal is to give the highly-anticipated RPG its "own moment to shine."

We will be seeing more of it in Showcase," says Booty, confirming a new Xbox Games Showcase appearance for Fable. "So we're going to have plenty for people to see. It really is coming together well, exciting stuff."

The Xbox Games Showcase 2026 and the Gears of War E-Day deep dive events are slated to kick off on Sunday, June 7.

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Posted Saturday 30 May 2026 at 7:51 am AEST (my time).

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Just a week after an AI disproved an 80-year-old conjecture and astonished mathematicians, another conjecture that had stood for half a century has fallen, inspired by the same techniques, but this time written entirely by humans.

Last week, an unreleased AI model from OpenAI disproved an important conjecture first posed by Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős, called the unit distance problem. The puzzle, which Erdős considered his “most striking contribution to geometry” and which many mathematicians had failed to unravel, concerns the number of similar-sized connections you can make between dots arranged on a flat surface.

Erdős had set an upper ceiling on this number, which many experts had assumed was correct. But the AI model showed that this number could in fact be much larger, using an obscure trick from algebraic number theory to make complex structures with extremely high dimensions, which could then be used to arrange the dots in a very different arrangement than humans had considered. The result took mathematicians by surprise, with some not expecting to see Erdős’s conjecture disproved in their lifetimes.

Now, less than a week later, Thomas Bloom at the University of Manchester in the UK and his colleagues have used a similar argument to disprove another famous claim, which Erdős had first posed in 1976, called the sum-product conjecture.

“It was a surprise because I had thought about the problem quite a bit,” says Bloom. After seeing the trick used by OpenAI’s AI, which used number theory to solve a geometric problem, Bloom and his team realised that they could try the same thing for the sum-product conjecture. “Once you know that something might be possible, you’re willing to try a bit harder to actually get it to work,” he says.

Erdős’s sum-product conjecture concerns collections of numbers, or sets. It says that if you either add or multiply all the numbers together in this set, one pair at a time, to create a further two sets, then at least one of these sets must be much larger than the original set – you can’t have both sets similarly small. For instance, if you multiply all the numbers from 1 through 5, you will have a larger set than if you add them all, because there will be duplicate results, such as 2+3 and 1+4. Considering a different set, such as 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16, the added set will instead be larger, because the multiplied set just contains various powers of two.

Erdős set a bar for how small the larger of the two added and multiplied sets could be, and conjectured this should hold for any set of numbers. But Bloom and his colleagues used the same high-dimensional trick to find a set where both its sum and product are smaller than Erdős thought possible. Instead of using a geometric progression of numbers, like powers of two, you can create a progression of numbers in many different dimensions at the same time, which they found produces a set where the number of different sums you can make is much smaller.

“The real surprise for me was that it was so simple,” says Bloom. “The construction is so simple to describe and we do genuinely understand now why [Erdős’s conjecture] fails, which should help us with lots of other related problems as well.”

“This is typical for maths as a competitive sport,” says Misha Rudnev at the University of Bristol, UK. “As soon as a new idea kicks in, some people are ready to work twenty-four hours to find more applications to it, and these people are usually very good and quick.”

Rudnev says that Erdős’s original intuition was that this conjecture should mainly be true for integers, or whole numbers, and that still appears to be true, because the set found by Bloom and his team used exotic number systems that get ever more complicated as their sets grow larger. Bloom agrees that the conjecture still holds for integers, and that “there’s still a huge amount of work to be done; we don’t really understand what’s going on.”

The main insight from the proof is that problems that seem geometric, such as sets of square powers of two, can actually be tackled with tools from number theory, says Bloom. “It really opens these problems to a whole new community as well. People in algebraic number theory weren’t really engaging with these questions.”

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Under that premise, Amazon is redesigning a core piece of its cloud infrastructure. On Thursday, AWS launched its next generation of OpenSearch Serverless, a fully managed search and vector database — essentially a system for storing and retrieving information at scale — that’s designed specifically for agentic workloads. AWS says the new system can instantly scale up when agents trigger tasks and scale back down to zero when idle.

The launch reflects a growing realization across the tech industry: Infrastructure originally designed for a human-driven internet doesn’t work as well in a world increasingly populated by agents.

While AI agents still represent a relatively small portion of internet activity, machine-generated traffic is already significant, and poised to grow. Cloudflare says bots accounted for 31% of overall HTTP traffic over the last six months. AI crawlers, search engines, and assistants made up roughly a quarter of all bot requests during that period. 

“Non-human traffic will exceed human traffic sometime in the first half of 2027,” said Lai Yi Ohlsen, senior product manager at Cloudflare, to TechCrunch.

At Google’s I/O developer conference last week, the company said users will be able to start delegating tasks to AI systems, like researching purchases, booking travel, browsing the web, and interacting with apps. But the buck doesn’t stop at consumer-focused AI agents. Enterprises are increasingly deploying agents internally and for their customers, creating new kinds of machine-generated traffic behind the scenes. 

As a result, cloud providers and infrastructure companies have been reckoning with how to adapt systems built for humans to a world of agents that are constantly and autonomously retrieving information, invoking tools, and generating machine-to-machine traffic. 

That’s where AWS’s new OpenSearch Serverless comes in. 

“The timing is straightforward. Agents are moving from experimentation into production, and they create traffic patterns that previous infrastructure simply wasn’t designed for,” Tia White, general manager for Amazon OpenSearch Service, told TechCrunch. “They spike without warning, they go idle without notice, and enterprise needs search that keeps up without paying for empty or idle compute.”

The key technical change with this new generation is that it decouples compute from storage, allowing compute to scale up in seconds to accommodate agent traffic bursts and to scale down to zero, so customers pay $0 when agents are idle.

“Previously, even in our prior Serverless version, you had to have at least one instance operational and running because storage and compute were coupled,” White said. “You couldn’t just automatically spin up [compute] at the rate you needed to, so you always had idle compute reserved for your workload, whether you were using it or not.”

Think of it like always paying for a parking space, even when you’re not using it. With AWS’s upgraded Serverless, it’s more like paying for a metered parking spot.

At launch, OpenSearch Serverless will integrate natively with AI development platforms like Vercel and Kiro, so developers can deploy production-ready search and vector backends for agents without managing infrastructure. 

The shift is emerging across the cloud industry. Databricks and Snowflake are repositioning themselves as AI memory and retrieval systems for enterprise data. Microsoft has rolled out updates to Azure designed to handle AI agent bursts and share memory between agents. Cloudflare, in a similar vein to Amazon, last month introduced infrastructure aimed at giving agents persistent environments and instant scalability. 

The more companies deploy AI agents, the more pressure there will be to redesign infrastructure around machine-generated workloads, which in turn could make agents cheaper and easier to deploy at larger scales.

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As Danielle settled into the rhythms of new motherhood, her profession underwent a drastic reinvention.

Danielle, who asked to use her first name to avoid damaging her job prospects, worked as a software developer at a car company in Portland, Oregon. Before she left the workforce in mid-2024, barely anybody used AI to write code; by the time she was ready to return, a year later, it had become the expectation. Once upon a time, she had been drawn to coding for the job security it offered, but AI was threatening to upend that. “The skills that I had learned—rote development skills—we are now expected to outsource to AI,” Danielle says.

The world’s largest AI companies anticipate a future where pretty much everything is “vibe-coded.” In April, Mark Zuckerberg predicted that AI will write most of Meta’s code within the next 18 months. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently told WIRED he expects AI coding to become “one of these rare multitrillion-dollar markets.”

The dizzying pace of change has touched software engineers across the industry. But the effects are particularly acute for new mothers who, by a fluke of timing, happened to be away from their desks when the shift was taking place.

“The kind of work I was doing before, I would like to do again. I think I was good at it,” says Danielle. “But I recognize that job will never exist again.”

The executives in charge of the largest AI labs have warned that the technology could wipe out white-collar jobs, from law to finance to consulting to sales. But few industries have been carved up in the same way as software development.

With the release of coding automation tools by Anthropic and OpenAI in May 2025, the field became less about composition and more about babysitting. Learning this new way of working isn’t overly complicated, but new mothers face falling behind colleagues who have benefited from a headstart.

A UK project manager currently on maternity leave tells WIRED her manager suggested that she brush up on AI while she’s out. “It made me feel very vulnerable,” says the woman, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation by her employer, a development agency. Before she left, staff used AI on an ad hoc basis, typically for small tasks like auto-completing lines of human-written code. But the agency is eager for AI to play a larger role, she says.

“The likelihood of me spending my statutory maternity pay on an AI course … is slim to none,” she says. “This is not something I should be spending my maternity leave doing.” But she worries that falling behind might make her a target for layoffs.

Mary McCreary, a data engineer working at a US-based health tech company, says her employer helped her acclimate to new AI tools when she returned to work. Initially skeptical of AI, McCreary came to appreciate its ability to explain the function of her coworkers’ code. “The thing that I hate most about being an engineer is having to review other people’s code,” she says.

But the technology has nonetheless changed the nature of the work. “The downside is that I don’t get any time to do tedious tasks that would be not a lot of effort for my brain,” says McCreary. “I’m always looking at hard problems, because I’ve offloaded all of the tedium.”

Another software engineer, who lives in Minnesota and works at a marketing software company, tells WIRED that AI coding tools helped her to keep pace with colleagues in the face of fatigue and other postpartum symptoms. “I definitely was not ready to return,” says the engineer, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about her company’s use of AI. “Your body is filled with all these hormones and your brain changes to the point that all you can fixate on is that child.” The ability to offload tasks that require deep and sustained concentration—like debugging code—to AI “was incredibly helpful,” she says.

When she initially returned from maternity leave, in September 2024, her company was mostly using AI tools as a sort of glorified version of the code troubleshooting forum Stack Overflow. But a year later, all code changes were being fed through AI models to check for errors. Then AI began to take up the bulk of the coding work; the company started to keep a leaderboard that ranked engineers by how much they used it. “It’s like, instead of being a software engineer, I’m more like a puppet master,” she says.

By November 2025—with the release of Claude Opus 4.5, a recent iteration of Anthropic’s flagship AI model—coding tools had advanced even further. “Opus was, like, holy shit,” she says. “I did a quarter’s worth of work [for a team of developers] just by myself. It was quick and dirty, but it got the job done.” She began to worry that her role could soon be automated out of existence.

Software engineers looking for a new job, meanwhile, are finding that AI has reconfigured the job market.

Three months before she gave birth to her daughter, Danielle was laid off. When she began to apply for new software roles last year, she found that most postings required candidates to have some degree of AI knowledge, but rarely specified how they would be expected to use it. “The ambiguity was nerve-wracking,” she says. “I didn’t know how to investigate what skill I was missing.”

Women looking for a new job after an extended maternity can come up against an unwillingness among employers to accommodate caring responsibilities, misconceptions about their commitment to their jobs, and other structural issues, experts say. “The system treats it as an exit, not a pause. It’s a design failure,” says Daniela Gulie, who leads the German arm of the nonprofit Bring Women Back to Work. But in software, AI has compounded those problems, creating an AI-literacy gap between mothers and their colleagues, and warping the labor market to their detriment. “It’s yet another way in which women are being screwed over,” says Rachel Grocott, CEO at UK-based think tank Pregnant Then Screwed. “You’re layering disadvantage on inequality.”

Danielle hasn’t come close to finding a new job; only one of the 40 applications she sent out progressed to an interview. Others shared similar impressions of a cutthroat job market, in which a glut of overqualified candidates are competing for junior and mid-level software engineering jobs. “There’s this huge, huge pool of incredibly smart and talented people that you don’t want to be a part of,” says the Minnesota engineer.

To try to bring herself up to speed, Danielle plans to start coding up small hobby projects alongside AI. But the rate of change has left her wondering whether it’s worth investing in learning the technology. “Every day, I am getting even further removed,” she says. “It’s really a terrifying moment to feel like I don’t understand the future of this industry.”

The perceived risk of being left behind during a maternity absence, or being displaced by AI, is also coloring career and family planning decisions.

The Minnesota engineer says she is torn between a desire to fight to keep her hard-won career and the pull of motherhood. “I’m trying to figure out, do I want to be a mother to a second child?” she says. “I want to be a present parent and actually be there for my child. But I’m scared to have one. It’s very complicated.”

Initially attracted to the software industry for its job security, some women are considering looking for a different career entirely—one less immediately vulnerable to automation. Danielle wonders what it might be like to spend less time behind a computer; she is considering pursuing a qualification in landscape architecture. “I don’t derive meaning from training artificial intelligence, or just fixing code generated by artificial intelligence,” she says. “If that is the future of this industry, is that a job I want?”

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Samsung has announced that it is extending its HBM roadmap by shipping HBM4E samples to global customers who run massive AI networks. This comes about a month after the company reportedly paused mass production of its flagship 10nm DRAM, since the costs outweighed the returns, and the expected yields were too low.

HBM (High Bandwidth Memory), if you do not know, is a specialized memory architecture that stacks Dynamic Random-Access Memory (DRAM) layers vertically and places them directly next to the processor to accelerate things like AI and advanced graphics.

Samsung launched HBM4 back in February 2026, several months after delivering early silicon to clients like NVIDIA and AMD for quality verification testing. With that launch, Samsung became the first in the industry to initiate mass shipments, delivering performance leaps with system-in-package speeds of 11.7 Gbps.

The new HBM4E utilizes the company's sixth-generation 10-nanometer-class DRAM process alongside a 4-nanometer logic base die from Samsung Foundry. This design delivers a stable pin speed of 14 Gbps that can scale up to 16 Gbps, representing a 20% increase in performance over standard HBM4.

Each stack delivers up to 3.6 terabytes per second of memory bandwidth, assisting processors in running massive large language models. Samsung packages these chips in a 12-layer, 48GB capacity configuration, offering 30% more memory capacity than previous iterations.

Low-power design techniques and optimized packaging structures improve energy efficiency by 16% and reduce thermal resistance by 14% to ensure that next-generation data centers can dissipate heat efficiently during heavy workloads. Samsung also plans to expand the lineup to include both 32GB and 64GB configurations later this year to satisfy different customer requirements.

Samsung's HBM business has proven to be quite lucrative, at least according to its most recent earnings call for the first quarter of 2026. Financial reports showed that the semiconductor division brought in approximately $38.9 billion in operating profit, driving total company profits to $41.4 billion. Memory demand, specifically the high average selling prices of conventional DRAM and the rapid adoption of HBM, generated the most profitable quarter in the company's history. Executives noted that customers are already booking out capacity through 2027.

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Posted Friday 29 May 2026 at 4:08 pm AEST (my time).

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Intel has announced its new Arc G-Series processors in order to meet the demands of the growing handheld gaming PC market. The new chips are designed specifically for portable gaming systems and aim to deliver high-performance gaming alongside improved power efficiency and battery life

The lineup launches with two models, the Intel Arc G3 and Arc G3 Extreme, and are built on Intel’s Core Ultra Series 3 architecture codenamed Panther Lake, with the graphics core running on the Xe3 design.

According to Intel, the processors have been optimized for handheld devices through tailored core configurations, power management, and gaming-focused software enhancements. They support various graphics gaming technologies such as real-time ray tracing and XeSS 3, the company’s AI upscaling tech that combines upscaling with multi-frame generation (MFG) and low-latency features to create smoother gameplay experiences on portable systems.

The new G series processors will also support several gaming-oriented features like the recently released “XBOX mode” for a console-style Windows 11 desktop UI and Intel Precompiled Shaders, which are intended to reduce loading times and gameplay stutter by downloading optimized shader files from Intel’s cloud servers.

Intel stated that the Arc G-Series processors include support for Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thunderbolt 4 connectivity. The chips are manufactured using Intel’s 18A process technology similar to other Panther Lake parts.

Several hardware vendor partners including Acer, MSI, and OneXPlayer are expected to release handheld gaming systems powered by these new processors later this year. Intel said more details may be shared during the ongoing Computex 2026.

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Posted Friday 29 May 2026 at 7:49 am AEST (my time).

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Earlier this year, Apple launched the MacBook Neo, a $599 laptop that shocked the PC industry, already suffering from component shortages and inflated RAM prices. Now, Qualcomm is fighting back with the Snapdragon C, a new processor designed to "revolutionize entry-tier laptops" by bringing their prices to as little as $300.

Qualcomm says that the new platform offers quiet operation at low temperatures, all-day battery life, and "responsive performance." In addition, these chips feature built-in Neural Processing Units (NPUs) for on-device AI. However, Snapdragon C-based laptops do not meet Microsoft's Copilot+ PC requirements for built-in NPUs, so those who want a computer that supports features like Recall and other on-device AI features should look for a device powered by a Snapdragon X processor or one of the latest Intel and AMD chips.

There are also notable architectural differences. The Snapdragon C features Kryo cores, which Qualcomm uses in mobile processors, unlike Oryon cores found in the Snapdragon X chips designed for PCs.

The first Snapdragon C-powered laptops are coming to the market later this year from Acer, HP, Lenovo, and other manufacturers. While exact specs and prices are yet to be announced, Acer revealed the new Aspire Go 15 with the Snapdragon C, "up to 8GB of RAM," up to 512GB of storage, and a 53Wh battery.

Unlike the MacBook Neo, which Qualcomm and other manufacturers are trying to beat, this laptop is fully plastic. Also, the press release implies that we could see a return to 4GB of RAM in modern laptops. Acer won't say how much the new Aspire Go 15 costs, but Qualcomm says the Snapdragon C was designed for computers targeting "$300 and up." We will have to wait for manufacturers to release full specs and configurations to see how many compromises you have to accept in a new $300 laptop.

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Posted Friday 29 May 2026 at 7:48 am AEST (my time).

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After months of testing, Meta just launched paid subscription tiers for WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook. The three plans are sold separately, with WhatsApp Plus priced at $2.99 per month and Instagram Plus and Facebook Plus at $3.99 per month each.

We can compare these premium tiers to the microtransaction model found in most online games, since the subscription is mainly about the cosmetics and some additional features.

WhatsApp Plus, initially available to select test users, allows you to set custom app themes and ringtones. You can also install premium sticker packs, pin more chats, and customize additional options.

Instagram Plus, also initially available to testers, leans more toward audience tools and includes more functionality, beyond just cosmetics. The subscription includes story rewatch counts, unlimited audience lists, the ability to extend stories beyond 24 hours, and extra profile customization. Facebook Plus offers a similar set of features to Instagram Plus.

None of this touches core functionality. WhatsApp messaging remains free, and none of the existing free features should get paywalled. The subscription is just for those who want something on top. However, we can argue that the Instagram Plus subscription does put subscribers at an advantage compared to regular users, especially with the ability to extend stories.

These plans also exist alongside Meta Verified, the company's existing subscription focused on account verification and impersonation protection. Meta says the two offerings are separate for now, though that could change over time.

The beginning of Meta One

This is the first step of Meta’s plan toward a unified subscription brand called Meta One. And it’s only the beginning, as the company will introduce all kinds of subscriptions for different purposes.

Next on the menu is the AI plan, which Meta will begin testing next month in Singapore, Guatemala, and Bolivia. The AI plan will have two tiers:

• Meta One Plus ($7.99/mo) gives you access to Meta's AI features with more usage than the free tier.
• Meta One Premium ($19.99/mo) gives you deeper reasoning for complex tasks and more image and video generation across Meta's apps. The pricing and design of this tier make clear that Meta wants to, despite disapproval from its employees, compete with “traditional” providers like OpenAI and Anthropic by giving users a more general-purpose AI tool.

Separate plans for creators and businesses will begin testing later this week in Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Thailand, and Bangladesh:

• Meta One Essential ($14.99/mo) gives you the Verified badge, impersonation protection, and an enhanced link sheet.
• Meta One Advanced ($49.99/mo) is particularly interesting because it directly affects your reach. It adds prominent placement in Facebook and Instagram search results, featured spots in the Facebook feed, better analytics, scheduling tools, and content reuse notifications.

If we take a look at all these subscription tiers, my microtransactions analogy from above only holds true for individual Plus plans. Because, unlike microtransactions in most games, the One plans, and especially the One Advanced tier, are definitely making Meta’s platforms pay to win.

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Posted Friday 29 May 2026 at 7:46 am AEST (my time).

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For RPG lovers and fans of the medieval period, fantasy, or both, last week brought an incredibly exciting announcement: the news that Warhorse Studios, the developer behind the acclaimed open-world Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 RPGs, is working on a new title set in Middle-earth at the same time it's also building a new KCD game.

At the time, very little was said about either upcoming title, though Embracer Group — the holding company that owns KCD publisher Deep Silver and Warhorse Studios — revealed that the new Kingdom Come game is slated for launch in the "next fiscal year" in its latest earnings report, suggesting a release date in 2027.

In a follow-up community livestream from Warhorse, however, communications director Tobias Stolz-Zwilling shared some additional details about both projects. He began by confirming that both RPGs will be open world before then announcing that the third Kingdom Come title will be led by KCD2 creative director Prokop Jirsa, with KCD2 design director Viktor Bocan in charge of the Middle-earth game.

He reaffirmed the planned release window for the new Kingdom Come adventure as well: "If everything goes right, it comes next fiscal year. Which means you don't have to wait seven years for another Kingdom Come."

Stolz-Zwilling also touched on the fact that Warhorse has grown large enough that it can now work on two major projects at the same time comfortably, and stressed that "we're still one huge team" despite being split across both games. "There are still, of course, things that are being cooperated on," he explained.

He went on to talk about the The Lord of the Rings RPG in particular, then, noting that "We have a completely mind-blowing ready team to delve into what this universe has to offer. And this is, again, an absolute passion project."

"I use that word a lot, but you know what I mean by that," he added. "Don't think it's just, 'Hey, you do it,' and we got a job and now we're doing it — it's not like that. It's not how we want to do games, we're not a hired sword. We're doing the games we want to do, and the way we want to do it."

Elaborating on that further, Stolz-Zwilling explained that the developers have vowed to "build the games in a very specific Warhorse way" — that is, by focusing heavily on the open-world reactivity and crunchy systems-driven mechanics that have made the KCD games stand out as some of the best RPGs from the past decade.

"With KCD1 and KCD2, we have a very unique way of how we craft RPGs, how we understand RPGs. I said in one interview with someone at Gamescom that we want to become the new kings of RPGs. I still stand by that," he continued. "I know it's a bit 'haha' and nosy, but I really stand by that. I think we have our very own formula you guys love, and that's one of the reasons why the news yesterday cast these huge waves — because people trust that we know what we're doing."

In closing, Stolz-Zwilling, threw out some descriptions I was very happy to hear, noting that the Middle-earth game will be "deeply immersive" with a "living world," along with "interesting characters, memorable places, and, of course, a strong narrative focus." Say no more, Warhorse — I'm in.

Are you excited to play the new Kingdom Come game next year, and also the Middle-earth RPG from Warhorse when it comes out? Let me know down below.

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Posted Thursday 28 May 2026 at 12:01 pm AEST (my time).

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No Man's Sky updates in 2026 have been adding very creative features to the sci-fi sandbox, including a Pokemon-style battling system and even a physics-enabled gravity gun. Now, it's time for another fresh addition. Today's new The Swarm update brings a new kind of enemy that has players fighting an alien mothership and its swarms of drones with other squadrons.

Jumping into the game, players will find a new Expedition they can go on. This time-limited campaign will have them splitting into the teams Royal, Sage, and Weaver to battle the new threat in the sky, which has been dubbed The Hive of Glass.

This monstrous construction will be found just outside the atmospheres of planets, taking out any space travelers in the vicinity with the largest laser cannon in the universe. Nearby it, players will find swarms of battle drones dubbed Swarmers that will give plenty of dogfighting action as they attempt to protect the mothership. The studio says players will need to band together with their best ships to accomplish the missions for taking down these new threats.

"Through the ages, epic space battles have been the absolute mainstay of sci-fi across films, tv shows, books and games and we’re always looking for ways to amp up the space-borne combat," says Hello Games founder Sean Murray.

It's not all about space battles either. Players can also contribute to the war effort by exploring planets that have swarm-related corrupted debris. Ground enemies will come out to meet these explorers. There are new rewards like exclusive armors, weapons, and cosmetic options to earn by participating in this new Expedition as well.

No Man's Sky The Swarm update is now available across PC (Steam and Xbox app), Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Game Pass, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and both Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 systems. Find the full patch notes here.

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Posted Thursday 28 May 2026 at 7:56 am AEST (my time).

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Following the Google I/O 2026 developer event last week, new updates are coming to Google Search. For starters, Google announced that its Preferred Sources feature is now coming to AI Overviews and AI Mode in Search.

If you don't know, Preferred Sources lets you choose which outlets and sites you want to see more often in Top Stories for different topics. The feature was already available worldwide in all supported languages on Google Search.

Go to Search Settings > Source personalization under Content > Source preferences to start adding your preferred sources. Google said you can add any website that publishes fresh content. It found that people are twice as likely to click through a preferred source, and people have already selected 345,000 unique sources.

Moving on, if you're trying to catch the latest updates on a developing topic via AI responses in Google Search, you'll see a short text summary and a prominent carousel featuring highlights from your preferred sources. "We know people often want to read an article or a post for these searches, but some initial context and a range of options helps them decide where to dig in," Google said.

For some other topics, Google will display insights from various sources in a carousel, including different perspectives from online discussions, forums, and social media. In addition, Google will add a "Highly Cited" label to more web article links in search results. This can help users quickly find the original source of a news story that many other stories have cited.

That said, it was recently reported that the search giant is in a legal battle in the EU over market dominance. It could face massive fines of hundreds of millions of dollars if it fails to implement the suggested changes. Google is also cutting back on the virtually unlimited access it offered for Gemini. There is now a five-hour reset and a weekly cap.

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Posted Thursday 28 May 2026 at 7:56 am AEST (my time).

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Since the launch of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in 2015, developer CD Projekt RED has released two major story expansions to the popular RPG. While the studio was believed to have moved on from the project to work on the next entry, today CD Projekt revealed that another expansion is in development for the aging title.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Songs of the Past is now official, bringing back Geralt of Rivia for players to experience a brand-new adventure in the fantasy world. CD Projekt RED revealed that this expansion is in development alongside Fool’s Theory, the independent game studio behind titles like Thaumaturge and Seven: The Days Long Gone.

Only the image embedded above has been revealed so far, so we don't have any gameplay footage or story information about this expansion just yet. Judging by the title, though, this may be bringing back something from Geralt's past for players to experience. Fans are also speculating that this expansion could bridge the gap between The Witcher 3 and the upcoming The Witcher 4, perhaps setting up the new protagonist's journey early.

Rumors about the studio bringing another story expansion to The Witcher 3 have been circulating for a while, but this is the first official confirmation. The studio said that while this announcement was supposed to be made during the studio's new livestream tomorrow, a leak on its launcher had made it reveal the surprise early.

At the same time, The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt system requirements will be changing with this content expansion. Here are the new minimum requirements on PC:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 2600, Intel Core i5-8400
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660, AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT 8GB
• VRAM: 6 GB
• RAM: 12 GB
• Storage: 70 GB SSD
• OS: 64-bit Windows 11

• Windows 11 will be the minimum required OS for both The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 following Microsoft's end of support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025. Without ongoing security updates, official platform support, and continued GPU driver support, we will no longer test our games on Windows 10.
• HDDs will no longer be supported, as SSDs offer faster load times, smoother asset streaming, and improved overall performance.
• The game will exclusively run using DirectX 12, which allows us to support ongoing technical improvements and modern hardware more effectively.
• Only processors supported on Windows 11 will be supported by us.
• Only graphics cards with ongoing active driver support for gaming on Windows 11 will be supported.

The studio will offer the option to revert to the older version of the game for PC gamers who may have older hardware. They may have to skip out on the expansion in this case, though.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Songs of the Past expansion will be released in 2027 for PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5.

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Posted Thursday 28 May 2026 at 7:55 am AEST (my time).

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Dropbox's CEO and co-Founder, Drew Houston, recently announced that he plans to step down from the top leadership post after a historic 19-year run steering the cloud storage pioneer.

According to Houston, Ashraf Alkarmi will serve as the new co-CEO during a temporary "transition period" before Houston formally assumes the role of executive chairman. Alkarmi will then run the business as the sole chief executive. In a memo to Dropbox employees, Houston said that Alkarmi turned the core business around and placed Dropbox in a "stronger position than it's been in years." Alkarmi drove this shift when he made difficult and courageous calls and placed smart business bets that finally began to pay off. Houston trusted Alkarmi to steer the ship.

Alkarmi, the new co-CEO, also shared that Google and Amazon alumnus Mike Torres will join the executive suite as the new Chief Product Officer on July 7. Torres previously managed major consumer products, including Chrome and Kindle. Alkarmi joined Dropbox in November 2024 as General Manager of the company's core business, bringing experience from his previous tenures, where he worked at Vimeo (as CPO from 2022 to 2024) and Amazon.

His appointment as co-CEO comes as Dropbox faces severe market pressure and huge competition from big tech giants like Microsoft and Google, who bundle their cloud storage services directly into their enterprise ecosystems. To survive this onslaught, Dropbox chose to simplify its service offerings and killed off some secondary products that failed to gain traction.

For instance, Dropbox ended support for its Paper mobile apps on October 9, 2025, to force users onto the web version. It also shut down its dedicated password manager (Dropbox Passwords) while advising subscribers to migrate to alternatives like 1Password.

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Posted Wednesday 27 May 2026 at 4:29 pm AEST (my time).

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It seems fair to say that Apple’s MacBook Neo took the rest of the PC industry by surprise. Companies are used to competing on price and features with $1,000-and-up Apple laptops like the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, but their $600 and $700 models usually come with cut corners and compromises that are more noticeable than the Neo’s. The CEO of Asus admitted to being surprised by the laptop’s price (while simultaneously trying to downplay the Neo’s value); a Microsoft-backed study comparing PCs to the MacBook Neo included several laptops that can’t compete with the Neo’s price unless they’re deeply discounted.

In the last couple of weeks, we’ve started to see a more intentional and targeted response to the MacBook Neo from PC makers. These mostly seem to revolve around Intel’s low-end Core Series 3 processors, codenamed Wildcat Lake; while Intel’s last few generations of low-end chips have mostly been rebrands of older and less power-efficient parts, Wildcat Lake is a new purpose-built budget chip that benefits from Intel’s latest CPU and GPU architectures and its 18A manufacturing process. This should help these chips compete better with the Apple A18 Pro in the MacBook Neo.

Many early Wildcat Lake systems have already been announced, though not all have included a price tag, and several have only been announced for the Chinese market as of this writing. Lenovo is planning to launch some IdeaPad Slim models with the new processors, with some optional spec upgrades including 16GB of RAM and a 120 Hz high-refresh-rate display. Asus and HP have also announced some early products.

Most manufacturers that have announced Wildcat Lake laptops are playing coy about pricing and availability—this is somewhat understandable, given ongoing pricing volatility and component supply shortages. On paper, these systems have advantages over the MacBook Neo, but plenty of laptops have spec-sheet advantages as well. Whether they’re attractive will depend entirely on their cost; we may hear more about these systems (and other PCs from other manufacturers) during Computex in early June.

Chuwi’s $449 “Unibook,” a blessedly nondescript laptop that looks good on paper but may or may not work out in real life.

Credit: Chuwi

Chinese electronics manufacturer Chuwi contacted Ars about one aggressively priced Wildcat Lake laptop, a device called the “UniBook” with a Core 3 304 processor, a 14-inch 1200p IPS display, a backlit keyboard, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and more ports than the MacBook Neo, for an advertised price of $449. The spec sheet tells us nothing about how this laptop will feel to use, how it will hold up over time, or its US availability (a handful of Chuwi devices are available through Amazon, and the company sells some through its online store). But something with roughly these specs at around this price is what we’d like to see in true purpose-built MacBook Neo competitors from the PC companies.

A little help from Intel?

Along with several of these Wildcat Lake systems, Intel’s Chinese arm recently announced something called “Project Firefly.” Firefly appears to be an Intel initiative to reduce costs and manufacturing complexity by providing PC makers with more reference designs. These wouldn’t take all the design decisions out of the manufacturers’ hands, but by standardizing on things like motherboard layout and thermal specifications they could potentially save companies money on development that could then be passed down to customers; the first laptop to take advantage of Project Firefly will be Lenovo’s Lecoo Air 14, but it’s unclear whether or when we’ll see these laptops in the US.

Intel has put its thumb on the scale of the PC industry before, occasionally offering savings or subsidies to companies that use its specs. Intel incentivized the development of MacBook Air-style thin-and-lights in the early 2010s with its Ultrabook program, and before that, it incentivized the adoption of Wi-Fi in consumer laptops with its Centrino branding.

One key difference here is that $500-and-below PC laptops have existed for decades; the issue is that these systems are usually saddled with undesirable compromises, or only dip into that price range when they’re on sale, or are just generally low-quality and unpleasant to use. And when these companies do make a good low-end or midrange laptop, it’s not a guarantee that that laptop’s successor will also be good in the same ways. Intel might be able to help with the pricing, but it remains to be seen if they can help with availability or consistency.

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Posted Wednesday 27 May 2026 at 12:16 pm AEST (my time).

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The tug of war between Google and the EU Commission is ongoing, and the tech giant is now on the verge of facing fines of hundreds of millions of dollars if it fails to meet the EU regulators’ demands.

According to a recent report by the German outlet Handelsblatt, the EU Commission, which has previously accused Google of violating the Digital Markets Act (DMA), is now preparing to impose a record fine on the tech giant, with proceedings nearing completion. Alphabet’s Google could face hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties if it fails to implement the changes demanded by the regulators.

The antitrust case against Google was initiated in 2025 after EU regulators accused the company of favoring its own services in search results, giving it an unfair advantage over rivals.

Handelsblatt added that EU officials are unanimous in their support for imposing a record fine on Google, but the final decision has yet to be made by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The final verdict is expected to be announced before the summer recess, with the German outlet describing it as the “highest fine the EU has ever imposed for a violation of the new Digital Markets Act (DMA).”

Meanwhile, in a statement to Reuters, EU Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said the agency is more interested in ensuring Google complies with the rules rather than imposing hefty fines on the company. “Even with ‌our negotiations on future solutions, we will not hesitate to move to the next steps as soon as possible,” Regnier added.

On the other hand, a Google spokesperson described changes made to the company’s search business under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) as the “biggest downgrade in the product’s history,” saying they have led to a “second-rate experience for Europeans.”

In May this year, the EU Commission announced that Google’s proposal to address the concerns had failed to meet the regulator’s requirements. As a result, the company was given additional time to offer a new solution.

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Posted Tuesday 26 May 2026 at 5:58 pm AEST (my time).

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After Microsoft admitted that it had stuffed too much AI into Windows 11 at the start of 2026, I knew it was only a matter of time before the company's Xbox division announced something similar.

Indeed, about six weeks after Microsoft first said it was bringing Copilot for Gaming to consoles, new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announced that it was effectively dead. Xbox's realignment was in full effect.

I'm not much of a console gamer myself, but I do have experience with Copilot for Gaming on my Windows 11 gaming PC. I .

Frequent errors, gaps in knowledge, and pure hallucinations altogether ruined the experience. It might have something to do with fewer game guides being written by actual people in the age of AI search overviews.

What do Windows Central readers think about AI in gaming?

Rocket League, the vehicle-based competitive soccer game, was first released in 2015 powered by Unreal Engine 3. The developer Psyonix, which was acquired by Epic Games in 2019, has been delivering updates to the game for over 10 years now, adding new arenas, vehicles, game modes, and more to its massive playerbase. However, the community's requests for an engine upgrade have gone unanswered until today.

During the Rocket League Championship Series Paris Major tournament, the company gave a look at an engine upgrade that nobody suspected. Instead of giving players the Unreal Engine 5 upgrade they were asking for, the studio will be skipping it and heading straight to Unreal Engine 6, which developer Epic Games hadn't announced until today. Catch the teaser below, which features footage captured in real-time from the upcoming Rocket League upgrade running on Unreal Engine 5.

It's a rather small teaser, first showing off almost a photorealistic pitch that should be very familiar to fans of the game. A car and the Rocket League ball show up next, showing off the texture and model upgrades players can expect. Soon after, an air shot from the popular Octane displays the new boost trail effects. The footage ends with what looks to be a shot of the car customization system, which hints at a major upgrade for what players will be able to achieve in-game with their paints and parts.

Unfortunately, a release date was not announced today for Unreal Engine 6 nor for this "new era" of Rocket League.

Unreal Engine 5 was first unveiled in 2020 before it arrived to Fortnite in 2021 with an early access program for developers. A year after that, the engine was released in full. If Epic Games follows the same pattern, Rocket League may get this Unreal Engine 6 upgrade in 2026, before a full release happens later. Epic may announce the tech for its smash hit Fortnite soon too, before it rolls out to other game developers.

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Posted Monday 25 May 2026 at 3:33 pm AEST (my time).

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In December of 2025, Cloud Imperium Games' official funding tracker for its in-development sci-fi RPG Star Citizen breezed past the $900 million mark. Now, just six months later, the live tracker is showing a ten-figure number for the first time in the Funds Raised section.

Earlier today, the game officially passed the one-billion-dollar mark. In fact, it has already surpassed that number by over a million dollars, as of writing this.

With multiple studios split across the world, Cloud Imperium Games has been developing the grand sci-fi adventure for over a decade now. First announced in 2012, the title's funding efforts began with a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign. Since then, the studio has been selling in-game content, such as ships, to fans for gaining additional development funds.

For those unfamiliar with the project, Star Citizen is slated to have a complete single-player campaign as well as an MMO-inspired RPG component with a persistent universe at launch on PC. Following years of delays, the campaign is currently aiming for a 2026 release featuring a large cast of blockbuster actors, like Gillian Anderson, Gary Oldman, and Henry Cavill, and a 30-40-hour storyline. We will have to wait and see if more delays hit the project.

As for the Star Citizen multiplayer persistent universe portion, it has been offered to backers in alpha form for many years now. This offers players on-foot and ship gameplay with a wide range of peaceful and action jobs and missions. The alpha project continues to receive quarterly content updates as the studio builds towards a 1.0 release. Recent updates to it have delivered the game's third new star system, VR support, server-wide mission events, a crafting system, and many other pieces of content.

The tracker's built-in timeline also shows a sharp uptick in funds raised during the past week. The title's most recent update, as well as the currently ongoing free-to-play event, is probably the cause of most of this. However, the hype of finally reaching the one billion dollars raised mark could have helped push the community to reach this number quite quickly as well.

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Posted Monday 25 May 2026 at 3:32 pm AEST (my time).

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ExplainingComputers (1.18m subscribers)

May 24, 2026

Video length: 17m 21s

My take on the possible future of home computing, based on increased component integration, the rise of the agentic command interface (ACI), and increasingly hardware transparency.

00:00 Titles & Intro

00:43 Component Integration

06:56 From GUI to ACI

10:45 Transparent Computing

16:08 Radial Change?

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Posted Monday 25 May 2026 at 8:38 am AEST (my time).

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7 Days is a weekly roundup of picks of what's been happening in the world of technology - written with a dash of humor, a hint of exasperation, and an endless supply of (black) coffee.

This week's highlights include Mozilla's Nova redesign being confirmed, the LibreOffice maker taking a dig at Microsoft, a warning from Linus Torvalds, the Xbox controller ditching its expansion port, and more. Let's get started.

You can check out the recent issues of the 7 Days weekly roundup here.

Mozilla "Nova" redesign

Building on reports from earlier this year, Mozilla finally confirmed the "Nova" redesign for Firefox, bringing faster performance, improved privacy tools, cleaner visuals, customization, accessibility improvements, and more. Expected to roll out later this year, you can try the Firefox Nova design by downloading the latest nightly versions.

Firefox's Shake to Summarize feature is now available on Android, letting users generate a clean summary of website articles by sending data to cloud servers. Firefox 151.01 comes with fixes for Raptor Lake crash bugs linked to Intel CPU microcode and faulty memory operations.

In other browser news:

Vivaldi 8.0 arrives: The latest Vivaldi 8.0 update is a big one, bringing a design upgrade, which its developers called "the most significant design overhaul." It makes each user element, such as tabs, toolbars, panels, and content, exist as part of a single, unbounded design.

Copilot agentic: The latest preview of Edge for Business encourages agentic adoption by allowing Copilot to automate multi-step browser tasks securely under strict IT-managed enterprise controls.

Free AI ride is ending

The days of using unlimited free AI are coming to an end as Google and other rivals slam the door shut. They are pushing strict usage limits because running AI models in the cloud isn't cheap, and investors demand profits.

Google Gemini is the latest one to make a move, and now it's possible to exhaust the limits even if you're a paid subscriber. Thankfully, Gemini's pro model refreshes every 5 hours, but the chatbot might switch to underpowered models if it detects that too many people are using Gemini at the same time.

Is binge-watching good for us?

You might be questioning yourself after spending the entire Sunday night finishing that series, but science looks at it differently. A new study suggests that binge-watching (watching many episodes of a TV series in one sitting or over a short period) can strengthen memory, imagination, emotional engagement with stories, and help people cope with daily stress through deeper narrative involvement.

This is "absurd"

The Document Foundation (TDF), which maintains LibreOffice, penned a lengthy blog post to bash Microsoft over its use of the OOXML format in Office documents, stating that it's only "open" on paper. The developer also took a dig at Microsoft's handling of dates with OOXML, particularly in Excel. Calling it "absurd," TDF said that Excel identifies the year 1900 as a leap year, and when it "gets dates wrong, no other software does it worse."

YouTube and TikTok on notice

The UK's regulator Ofcom has tightened its grip even further to protect children on social platforms, while accusing YouTube and TikTok of failing to meet the required child-safety standards. The watchdog plans to conduct an independent safety audit to examine how content detection and moderation systems, algorithms, and age-verification systems used by social media platforms operate.

The UK government is also taking action against VPN services to ensure child safety by putting them behind age checks. Mozilla and several other entities warned that its proposed age-gating rules will strip vital online privacy and safety tools away from children.

Warning from Torvalds

The use of AI tools in the development of the Linux kernel is slowly becoming a part and parcel of it. However, with the debut of Linux 7.1 RC4, Linus Torvalds warned about a chaotic flood of duplicate AI reports clogging security channels. While the Linux creator isn't against using AI tools, it's possible that different people can find the same bug and report it. The developers must read relevant documentation and add value by figuring out how to fix it.

Our Features

Our coffee-powered team published a platter of editorials, opinion posts, and guides. Check them out:

• This ultra-lightweight Linux OS just saved my Windows 10 laptop from the scrapheap
• The real reason everyone stays on Chrome despite its terrible privacy track record
• Governments are ruining the internet to protect kids, but there is a much better way
• Here is how to remap the Copilot key in Windows 11, without Microsoft's upcoming "fix"
• I never knew Windows had a "hidden" collection of tools

This week in software news

Catch up on some of the latest software news updates that arrived throughout the week:

Unraid (without USB boot): The NAS operating system got a fresh update in the form of Unraid 7.3.0. It addresses a major pain point by ditching USB sticks as the only way to boot the OS, enabling direct booting from internal drives. You can set up a mirrored boot pool to ensure your server still boots if one drive fails.

DeskScapes 2026: The latest version of the personalization app makes it easy to create, restyle, and upscale images in just a few clicks. You can create wallpapers on your device without relying on a cloud server or worrying about tokens or hidden costs.

Long time no see: AMD released new drivers for Polaris and Vega GPUs after a long time. The changelog states that the driver includes bug fixes to address a crash affecting Apex Legends players using Radeon RX 400 and RX 500 series graphics cards.

New chipset drivers: AMD also pushed a new chipset driver for supported motherboards with Windows 11/10. Version 8.05.01.516 is now available for download with bug fixes and support for the Ryzen AI 400 processors.

This week in hardware news

Catch up on some of the latest software news updates that arrived throughout the week:

Xbox expansion port gone: Those who bought the limited-edition Forza Horizon 6-themed wireless controller will notice that the gamepad no longer has the expansion port, which was located beside the headphone jack. It has been replaced with a dummy rectangle, but Microsoft hasn't officially confirmed its removal.

1000Hz native monitor: LG announced the world's first gaming monitor with a native 1000Hz refresh rate. The 24.5-inch UltraGear 25G590B is aimed at competitive esports players and similar fast-paced environments; it's expected to launch in select markets later this year.

Galaxy S27 display supplier: It's strange to read this, but BOE might replace Samsung Display as the supplier for Galaxy S27. That's because BOE is reportedly offering its panels at $5 a piece, which is lower than Samsung's in-house company.

New Surface PCs: Microsoft launched two new laptops and a tablet to expand its business devices catalog. Powered by the latest Core Ultra 300 Series processors, the new devices include the Surface Pro for Business 13-inch, the Surface Laptop for Business 13.8-inch and 15-inch, and the Surface Laptop for Business 13-inch.

Ryzen AI Halo: AMD unveiled the new Ryzen AI Max+ 400 PRO series APUs to succeed the Max PRO 300 series. Its freshly baked $3,999 Ryzen AI Halo local AI processing hub is based on the Ryzen AI Max+ 395, and will get support for Ryzen Max+ PRO 495 once it becomes available in Q3, 2026.

This week in Google News

Catch up on some of the latest Google news updates that arrived throughout the week:

Google I/O 2026: The search giant's biggest event of the year happened this week, bringing a ton of new products and updates. For starters, CEO Sundar Pichai shared impressive numbers, stating that Gemini has surpassed 900 million users and that 13 Google products have more than 1 billion users. A new experimental Google Beam feature transforms regular users into their true-to-life size during video calls.

New design language and models: Google released the Neural Expressive design language for Gemini, along with Gemini 3.5 Flash, and the Gemini Omni Flash model. It ended virtually unlimited Gemini access by putting toll gates; you need to stick to current usage limits that reset every five hours and a weekly usage cap.

New YouTube features: The video-sharing platform has a new AI assistant called Ask YouTube, which can take questions in natural language to find relevant videos. You can also use the Gemini Omni Flash model to remix your YouTube Shorts for free.

This week in Apple News

Catch up on some of the latest Apple news updates that arrived throughout the week:

Apple Design Awards 2026: Apple recognizes outstanding apps on the App Store every year, ahead of the WWDC event. This year, Apple announced a list of 36 apps and games it picked as finalists for the award ceremony, and the winners will be announced soon.

Dark clouds over iPhone Fold: The iPhone maker is almost a decade behind Samsung when it comes to foldable smartphones. This year might be no different, as reports suggest Apple is struggling with the iPhone Fold's hinge design. The device was expected to launch in September this year, but the issues could delay it.

WWDC 2026: Apple shared the official lineup for the developer conference, stating that the official keynote will begin at 10 am PT on June 8. It has invited over 1,000 developers, designers, and students to Apple Park, as well as 50 Distinguished Winners from the Swift Students Challenge.

$2.2 billion saved: Apple also shared App Store safety stats this week, stating it saved a total of $11.2 billion in fraudulent transactions over the last six years. Among other numbers, it blocked more than 1.1 billion fraudulent account creations.

This week in AI news

Catch up on the latest artificial intelligence news updates that arrived throughout the week:

OpenAI wants an IPO: The ChatGPT-maker has dreamed of filing an Initial Public Offering (IPO) for over a year now. It was reported that OpenAI could file for an IPO as early as this week, but that didn't happen at the time of writing this issue of 7 Days. The AI tech giant is valued at $850 billion.

Spotify vs. AI slop: The streaming giant launched verified podcast badges and strengthened anti-impersonation rules to improve trust and tackle AI misuse. While noting the benefits of AI for creators, Spotify warns that it can be misused to imitate creators or mislead audiences.

Alexa Podcasts: On the flip side, Amazon released a new feature for Alexa+ that allows the AI chatbot to generate an entire podcast episode on any topic you want, complete with AI-generated host voices.

Andrej Karpathy joins Anthropic: One of the people who laid the foundation for OpenAI now works at Anthropic. The OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy is among the most influential researchers in modern AI. After his initial stint at OpenAI, Karpathy worked at Tesla as the Director of AI.

This week in Microsoft news

Microsoft Teams is getting a major redesign, with a cleaner meeting toolbar, redesigned share pane, and more. A new File Explorer concept is gaining traction for its approach to rethinking familiar workflows, drawing on ideas Microsoft never implemented.

You can check out Taras's freshly baked Microsoft Weekly roundup to catch up on all the interesting stories this week.

This week in science news

Catch up on some of the latest science and out-of-this-world updates that arrived throughout the week:

Biggest thing in our universe: Scientists recently discovered the largest reliably measured superstructure in the universe, named "Quipu." It's a massive web of galaxies, galaxy clusters, and dark matter, spanning 1.4 billion light-years, linked together by gravity.

How will aliens find us?: If you have been thinking about it, a new study found that Earth's deep-space signals cluster new planetary alignments, improving extraterrestrial detection chances significantly. Extraterrestrial species watching us might have a high chance of intercepting our deep-space transmissions during alignments between Earth and Mars.

The mystery of the Sun: An old solar mystery was solved after twisted magnetic waves were discovered inside the outer atmosphere of the Sun. These waves explain why this layer is hotter than the visible surface.

Breaking assumptions: A new study shows that the universe might not be as perfectly balanced as scientists once thought. Instead of looking the same in every direction, the universe could be lopsided, challenging what scientists have long believed.

This week in gaming news

Catch up on some of the latest gaming and virtual world updates that arrived throughout the week:

PlayStation: Sony slapped a PlayStation Plus price hike on new and returning subscribers in multiple regions due to "ongoing marketing conditions," with one-month plan now costing $1 extra. Changes in Sony's strategy will hold back its single-player narrative games from being ported to PC going forward. The company also announced a big PlayStation showcase for June, which will run for over an hour.

Steam tags update: The latest update added 17 new tags, removed 28, and modified a few others. The list includes Bullet Heaven, Desktop Companion, Organizing, Cleaning, Decorating, and more.

Xbox leadership changes: The gaming division appointed Matthew Ball as Chief Strategy Officer and Scott Van Vliet as Chief Technology Officer. CEO Asha Sharma said these changes are designed to strengthen the division's foundation by providing greater clarity and improving execution.

New Xbox feedback hub: Microsoft unveiled a new feedback hub for Xbox fans that promises clearer updates. The Redmond giant will monitor the new Xbox Player Voice feedback to give direct updates to players on their requests.

Forza Horizon 6: Playground Games pushed updates to fix AI drivers that exhibit unfair behavior and to address framerate issues on PCs with AMD GPUs. For PS5 users, the racing title will arrive later this year. Forza Horizon 6 is now available on Xbox Game Pass, alongside Jurassic World Evolution 3 and other new titles.

What else in gaming?

The latest issue of Pulasthi's Weekend PC Game Deals curates several exciting games on sale this week. Epic Games Store's latest mystery giveaway brings Tomb Raider I-III Remastered Starring Lara Croft bundle as well as a copy of Down in Bermuda.

The latest Xbox Free Play Days bring five Warhammer games to the table this time. A new update to GeForce NOW brings support for Forza Horizon 6, Deep Rock Galactic: Rogue Core, as well as the new IO Interactive adventure, 007 First Light.

That said, here are some more stories from the gaming world:

• Ubisoft delivers a Rainbow Six Vegas-inspired map to Siege alongside a major ranked rework
• Lord of the Rings RPG in development at Kingdom Come Deliverance studio
• Fallout 4 console mods get a huge storage boost, up to 100GB on Xbox Series X|S
• Bungie is pulling the plug on Destiny 2, final update lands next month
• Helldivers 2 is getting new upscaling tech on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation next week
• Bungie is reportedly facing major layoffs under Sony, and no new projects have been greenlit

From the review corner

Steven got his hands on the mid-ranger HONOR 600, which is powered by a Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 and offers strong performance for AI tasks. The device offers impressive build quality for the price, a solid unibody design, a good 200MP camera, and software improvements. On the other hand, the chipset is too weak for gaming, and the device doesn't support Qi wireless charging.

BOOX Go Gen 2 Lumi

It's a 10-inch E-Ink device that can double up as a Swiss knife of note-taking and a nearly full-blown Android tablet. BOOX Go Gen 2 Lumi comes with a Snapdragon 690, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 5.1. Taras said in his detailed review that the device is insanely thin, well-built, has surprisingly good speakers, and offers a great handwriting experience. However, its metal stylus can easily scratch the chassis, and it doesn't have wireless charging, an ambient light sensor, or front light scheduling.

GEEKOM A9 Max 2026 Edition

Steven revisited the GEEKOM A9 Max 2026 Edition mini PC after fitting it with a second 32GB memory stick to unlock the device's true potential by making the setup dual-channel. Updated benchmarks performed significantly better across the board, delivering major gains compared to single-channel 32GB memory. Points get cut for GEEKOM for not offering dual-channel memory in the box.

You can also check out Pulasthi's hands-on experience of the Corsiar Cove preview, which is a pirate city builder that impresses with its vertical scale and logistics.

So, these were some of the biggest tech news and other updates from this week. There will be more issues of our 7 Days series in the coming weeks and months, so stay tuned. You can also support Neowin by registering for a free member account or subscribing to extra member benefits, along with an ad-free tier option.

Have a great weekend!

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Monday 25 May 2026 at 8:33 am AEST (my time).

News posts: 2023 5,800+ | 2024 5,700+ | 2025 5,700+ | 2026 (to end of April) 1,700

RIP Matrix