We last covered the topic back in 2023, where we tested AMD's claims of improved ray tracing performance with driver 23.2.1, and we found some interesting results. Meanwhile, a year earlier in 2022, the company put out DirectX 11-specific optimizations that showed up to 34% better performance.

Now in 2025, Fine Wine is still relevant, as testing has shown that the latest RX 9070 XT sees significant improvement with the latest 25.6.3 Adrenalin driver. The measurements were conducted by the YouTube channel Hardware Unboxed as it compared the new driver against the driver version 24.30.31.03 / 25.3.1 RC that was used for review.

The biggest improvements were seen in Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered and Counter-Strike 2, which saw gains of 27% and 23% in average framerate. Those are literally generational gains these days, as we often see similar differentials going from one GPU architecture generation to the next.

Meanwhile, other titles like Hogwarts Legacy, Call of Duty Black Ops 6, Delta Force, and more, also see big gains of 10% or more. Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty saw a 7% uplift, which is still significant. The least significant gain was seen in Starfield, as it was 5% better on the newest driver.

Keep in mind though that these improvements are cumulative and thus if you are already on a much newer driver compared to the launch drivers, you are likely already experiencing some of these improvements. Not every tested title however saw an uplift, so a boost is definitely not guaranteed.

If you are wondering how a simple software update can bring so much to the table, there can be many reasons. Perhaps the newer drivers manage to reduce the CPU overhead greatly compared to the launch ones, or the newer drivers may also be better able to use the hardware resources available to the new RDNA 4 GPUs, or it is probably a mix of both.

Source and image: Hardware Unboxed (YouTube)

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of June): 2,864

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

There’s always a reason why universal USB-C ports don’t “just work” like you’d expect. In the early days, it was incompetence or naiveté. Later, manufacturers often cheaped out. But in the case of Nintendo’s Switch 2, it appears to be intentional.

With the Nintendo Switch 2, it should be easy to plug your new, more expensive console into video glasses or TVs when you’re traveling away from home. USB-C makes it so. But Nintendo has intentionally broken the Switch 2’s compatibility with those devices, using a new encryption scheme and some form of dedicated encryption chip, two accessory manufacturers tell The Verge.

I haven’t yet found proof of that encryption chip myself — but when I analyzed the USB-C PD traffic with a Power-Z tester, I could clearly see the new Nintendo Switch not behaving like a good USB citizen should.

A third-party Switch dock, plugged into a USB-C PD tester, about to be plugged into the Switch 2. Please forgive the terrible photo.

Photo: Sean Hollister / The Verge

 

If you’ve been wondering why there are basically no portable Switch 2 docks on the market, this is the reason. Even Jsaux, the company that built its reputation by beating the Steam Deck dock to market, tells us it’s paused its plans to build a Switch 2 dock because of Nintendo’s actions. It’s not simply because the Switch 2 now requires more voltage, as was previously reported; it’s that Nintendo has made things even more difficult this generation.

That “U” in USB isn’t always “universal,” but this is generally true: if you plug any USB-C to HDMI adapter, dock, or hub into a USB-C laptop, tablet or handheld that supports USB-C video output, you can expect to see your screen automatically appear on your TV.

The magic is normally possible because of a simple, standardized set of instructions that any manufacturer can follow to make their docking station or hub “talk” to the computer. In fact, they’re so simple I can mock up a basic version for you right here:

• Dock: “Hi, I’m a power supply. Here are the five different kinds of power I can give you!”
• Computer: “I’ll take 15 volts at 3 amps, thanks!”
• Dock: “Okay, I’m now powering you, you’re no longer powering me, got it?”
• Computer: “Yep! So what are you, anyhow?”
• Dock: “I’m a USB-C PD dock with extra modes, wanna know more?”
• Computer: “Sure.”
• Dock: “I support DisplayPort-Alt mode if you want to output video.”
• Computer: “Go for it.”
• Dock: “Doing it… done!”

This conversation, using standardized (known as “structured”) messages over the USB-C PD protocol, takes a tiny fraction of a second.

But as you probably now suspect, the Nintendo Switch 2 doesn’t do it that way. When you plug the Switch 2 into a third-party dock or hub, it may refuse to negotiate power. Other times, it’ll get the power it asks for, but then the conversation will abruptly grind to a halt.

Because that’s when the Nintendo Switch 2 will start talking in code — proprietary messages only Nintendo can decipher.

By now, you might be wondering how I can see any of this, coded or not. But all you need is a middleman to sniff the USB-C Power Delivery traffic passing between a dock and Nintendo’s handheld, like the Power-Z KM003C that I bought for this story. I plug one end of it into the Switch 2 (and other computers to compare), another end of it into the Switch 2’s dock (and other docks to compare), connect its third port to my Windows PC with a long cable, then fire up its app to log the passing data.

How the conversation between the Switch 2 and Switch 2 dock begins.

Screenshot: Sean Hollister / The Verge

 

When I analyze the conversation between the Nintendo Switch 2 and its dock, I can see the two devices begin speaking in Nintendo’s own flavor of “vendor defined” language early in the conversation, before they sign off on any video output. And then, seemingly before the dock confirms that it’s engaged video-out, they send over 30 proprietary “unstructured” messages to one another.

Other USB-C hubs and docks I’ve tested don’t have that same conversation — with one notable exception.

As of today, only one single third-party dock claims to be compatible with the Nintendo Switch 2. And you probably won’t be surprised to hear that when I tested the $36 Antank S3 Max (aka SiWiQU TV Dock Station), I found it speaks Nintendo’s coded language.

Here’s the Antank dock responding to a Nintendo request using Nintendo (0x057E) messaging.

Screenshot: Sean Hollister / The Verge

 

It doesn’t transmit every message in the same exact order as Nintendo’s dock, and it supplies a slightly different amount of electricity, but it sent almost exactly the same coded messages and responses to Nintendo’s requests, including a repeating code that I’m particularly curious about: 33 01 07 DA 06 01 6D 68 33 01 07 DA 06 01 6D 68.

According to Antank, which says it checked with its chip supplier, that hexadecimal string “is indeed the current key being used by Nintendo.” My other sources are less sure.

But just like with the official Nintendo Switch 2 dock, our TV lights up after the Antank sends those coded messages.

But that doesn’t mean any company can just copy Nintendo’s commands and expect their dock to keep on working. “We do expect Nintendo may further limit third-party docks and accessories via system updates to maintain device and system security,” Jsaux spokesperson Winnie Chen tells The Verge.

Antank seems to agree. “Yes — the key should be considered subject to change,” writes an Antank representative who goes by Susie. “However, our product supports firmware updates, and any future changes to the authentication key by Nintendo could theoretically be addressed via software, ensuring continued compatibility.”

So why is any of this a big deal, particularly when the Switch 2 comes with its own dock right in the box? Well, it’s not just big TV docks. Nintendo has also broken compatibility with portable docks that you can take on vacation or to your hotel room, and with video glasses like the Xreal One, which cost as much as or more than a Switch 2 all by themselves.

And to fix that, you’ll apparently need to buy brand-new hardware, Jsaux, Antank, and Xreal have found. While Xreal originally seemed to suggest it was a temporary problem that just required a “technical adjustment,” Xreal now says the fix will need a new gadget called the Xreal Neo. The good news: Xreal spokesperson Ralph Jodice tells The Verge the new device is already working in the lab and will ship “a little later this year.”

Another argument I’ve heard on Reddit: why shouldn’t Nintendo have the ability to protect the Switch 2 from fly-by-night docking stations and power supplies that might damage its new handheld and trigger more calls to Nintendo customer support?

There, I might point out that locking things down isn’t necessarily a fix. When Nintendo released the original Switch in 2017, accessory makers similarly had to figure out how to crack Nintendo’s esoteric docking protocols, and some of them (Nyko) allegedly led to damaged handhelds.

I expect some eagle-eyed Nintendo fans will also point out that the Switch 2, unlike the original Switch, needs active airflow to run properly: Nintendo’s official Switch 2 dock now has a fan inside, and the console has vents on the bottom that might get blocked by third-party docks. (In fact, the Antank dock already does block those vents!)

 

Nintendo official (top) vs. Antank (bottom), hotspot at top vent

But before you suggest that the vents and fan are strictly necessary, please know that the cooling fan in the Switch 2 dock doesn’t actually cool the Switch 2, and that Antank’s dock doesn’t seem to make a Switch 2 run hotter than the official dock. I ran Cyberpunk 2077 for an hour straight with each dock, then pulled out a thermal camera, and Antank’s actually seems slightly cooler. Perhaps having more airflow across the screen and back of the console offsets the impact of blocked vents. By that logic, perhaps the console could run even cooler if Nintendo let you use a USB-C to HDMI dongle instead of a dock. If only it weren’t locked down!

 

Nintendo official (top) vs. Antank (bottom), immediately after removing from dock

Mostly, it’s the principle of the matter. USB-C should just work, here’s a place where it usually does, and yet Nintendo has kept it from doing so.

Nintendo would not confirm or deny that it’s using encryption and authentication chips to lock down the Switch 2’s video output. It offered no comment for this story.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of June): 2,864

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

Paul's Hardware (1.52M subscribers)

July 3, 2025

Video length: 12m 08s

0:00 4 Reasons Not to Buy an RTX 5050 

1:16 Wait - did the RTX 5050 Launch? Are There benchmarks? 

3:05 Reason 1 - There are Much Better New GPU Alternatives 

6:19 Reason 2 - There are Much Better Used GPU Alternatives 

8:32 Reason 3 - It only has 8GB of VRAM (and it’s GDDR6 too) 

9:54 Reason 4 - No Reviews - Is Nvidia Embarrassed?

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of June): 2,864

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

Microsoft says that Phil Spencer, Microsoft Gaming CEO and the head of Xbox, isn’t retiring “anytime soon.” The company has responded to rumors of Spencer’s retirement, which have spread online today following Microsoft’s major layoffs.

“Phil is not retiring anytime soon,” says Kari Perez, head of Xbox communications, in a statement to The Verge. The denial comes after Call of Duty leaker GhostOfHope claimed “Phil Spencer will be retiring from his role as CEO of Microsoft Gaming after the launch of the next generation Xbox” and that Xbox president Sarah Bond would be taking over as CEO of Microsoft Gaming.

While Microsoft’s comment doesn’t address the rumor fully, it makes it clear Spencer isn’t retiring imminently. Separately, Microsoft communications chief, Frank Shaw, took to X to claim that at least part of the rumor was made up.

Spencer originally assumed leadership of the Xbox division in 2014, a promotion from his role as the boss of Microsoft Studios. As the boss of Xbox, he’s overseen many big initiatives, including the launch of the Xbox Series X / S, a huge push into Xbox Game Pass, acquisitions of major companies like Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax Media, bringing more Xbox games to platforms like PlayStation and Nintendo Switch.

While Spencer isn’t retiring anytime soon, Microsoft is continuing its big cuts today that have affected Xbox studios and employees. Perfect Dark and Everwild have been cancelled, while Forza Motorsport developer Turn 10 Studios will be letting go of more than 70 staffers. Zenimax Online Studios also reportedly canceled a new MMORPG codenamed Blackbird that had been in the works since 2018.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of June): 2,864

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

The main reason that Microsoft wants to make the cuts is to reduce the layers of management between the top executives and the people building the products and services. The Redmond giant also thinks the cuts will help it become more efficient and agile.

“We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company and teams for success in a dynamic marketplace,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in an email to CNBC.

While it’s unknown how much of a role AI has had in Microsoft being able to make these cuts, it is ironic that Microsoft has been saying AI is not a threat to employees at the same time that it has been cutting thousands of jobs.

Microsoft isn’t alone in its layoffs this year. Autodesk, Chegg, and Crowdstrike are other tech firms that have reduced headcounts this year. By reducing employee numbers, companies can curry favor with investors who are concerned that capital expenditure is too high in an economic landscape where things are tougher for people financially.

The layoffs come against the backdrop of an unexpected decline in US private sector payrolls in June. The US private sector saw jobs decrease by 33,000 while economists had predicted an increase of 100,000.

What do you think about these cuts? Do you think they're the last we'll see, or are there more to come?

Source: CNBC | Image via Depositphotos.com

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of June): 2,864

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

Nvidia has updated its official Unix graphics feature deprecation schedule to clarify that driver 580 will be the last to support three architectures: Volta, Pascal, and Maxwell. The driver branch is shared with Windows, so the change affects Windows PCs as well.

The first post has been updated to note that the release 580 series will be the last to support GPUs based on the Maxwell, Pascal, and Volta architectures.

For those unfamiliar with Nvidia's architecture naming, TITAN V graphics cards are based on Volta, GeForce GTX 10 Series is based on Pascal, and GeForce GTX 900 and certain 700 series cards like the 750 Ti are based on Maxwell. Note that the change does not affect the GTX 16 series, which is based on the Turing architecture. These graphics cards will continue receiving new drivers, updates, and fixes.

At this point, there is no information on when Nvidia plans to release driver branch 580 (the latest is 576.80). Therefore, if you own one of the affected graphics cards, no need to panic just yet. Besides, your beloved GTX 1080 Ti will not stop working overnight only because it can no longer download the latest driver. Also, Nvidia's most recent driver releases (those disastrous ones) primarily focus on fixes and optimizations for much newer graphics card generations.

If you are still using a GTX 10 series graphics card, do you plan to upgrade it anytime soon? Is the end of driver support a valid enough reason for you to pull the trigger and buy a newer GPU?

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of June): 2,864

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

Video game design has come a long, long way since the industry started to take off in the 1970s, but few genres have grown as much as RPGs have. The simplistic, rudimentary design philosophies of yesteryear eventually gave way to far more depth and complexity, resulting in roleplaying experiences with larger, denser worlds, richer stories, and a wider variety of encounter solutions to support player creativity and freedom.

Despite this, a few irksome and tired trends still remain — one of which is the prevalence of fetch quests. These simple missions task the player with retrieving one or more items and then delivering them to the quest giver or another NPC, and in most cases, they're incredibly dull busywork jobs with little-to-no story or roleplaying relevance.

It's relieving to hear, then, that developer CD PROJEKT RED is adhering to a no fetch quest policy with its highly anticipated RPG sequel The Witcher 4.

Narrative director Philipp Weber said as much in an interview with GamesRadar+. "A quest has to be something interesting. I have to feel, as a player, that if I played that quest, my time was well spent and not just spent," he explained. "I was busy doing stuff, and didn't think about work or taxes. I experienced a story, or something else that was worth it. That basic rule is still there 100%."

The affordable computer company, Raspberry Pi, has just announced the release of the Radio Module 2 for just $4, making it extremely accessible to people around the world. The company said that RP2040 and RP2350 customers often ask for a wireless solution that offers software and feature-set compatibility with Raspberry Pi Pico devices and now they have it.

This module actually uses the same Infineon CYW43439 radio found in the Pico W and Pico 2 W ensuring compatibility. The company said that it’s a great option for organizations too because it comes with full modular certification, helping customers avoid expensive radio certification processes.

It’s not just big organizations that benefit from the availability of this product either, independent developers and smaller projects will now have an easier time enabling Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in their RP2040 and RP2350-based projects.

The $4 Radio Module 2 features castellated edge pads to more easily mount the module to your board and there’s an on-board 2.4GHz antenna. Raspberry Pi has opted for a low-pin-count Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) host interface to make efficient use of the host CPU’s input/output budget. It also features a compact 16.5mm x 14.5mm form factor and works with just a host CPU and power. The small form factor and requirements will help to drive down mass-production costs.

The module supports single-band Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n) and Bluetooth 5.2 (Classic and Low Energy). It’s certainly not going to deliver the best Wi-Fi connectivity but it should be acceptable for many hardware projects you’ll want to use it in.

Raspberry Pi says that the Radio Module 2 has an integrated Power Amplifier, Low Noise Amplifier, and Transmit/Receive switch which delivers “excellent wireless performance even when sharing a single antenna between Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.”

The new Radio Module 2 has already been used in a number of Raspberry Pi’s partners’ products including the SparkFun’s Thing Plus and Pimoroni’s Pico Plus 2 W. If you want to learn more about the technicals, check out this datasheet.

To get your mitts on this new component, go to the product page and press Buy now, you’ll then be shown approved retailers who have it for sale.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of June): 2,864

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

Yes, you heard it right. According to reliable tipster, Ming Chi-Kuo, Apple is supposedly working on a new affordable MacBook that could feature the A18 Pro, the same chipset, which is expected to power this year's iPhone 18 series. If true, this could mark a shift from the usual MacBook chips, that come from the M-series line.

Ming Chi-Kuo says that this new MacBook with A18 Pro processor is "expected to enter mass production in late 4Q25 or early 1Q26." He also shared some details about the device and said that it could come with a 13-inch display. Apple is also tipped to get a bit funky with colors, and could include: silver, blue, pink, and yellow, most likely to appeal to students and younger buyers.

Now the question arises: What does Apple want to achieve with this? Kuo answers it and says that, "Apple aims to return total MacBook shipments to the COVID-19 peak of around 25 million units in 2026 (vs. an estimated 20 million units in 2025)."

The rumored MacBook with A18 Pro chipset is expected to account for five to seven million units in 2026, out of the 25 million (pre-pandemic era).

The new MacBook with A18 Pro processor could not only be cheaper, but it could also offer better battery life and, thinner form factor. For now, these are just speculations, and we would advise taking this piece of information with a pinch of salt.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of June): 2,864

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

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 biggest Windows story of this week was undoubtedly the launch of the Extended Security Update program for Windows 10, which will soon be out of support (governments are now issuing warnings to Windows 10 users). What is interesting is that Microsoft is giving away free security updates—all users need to do is back up their PCs with the Windows Backup tool. Other options include paying with 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points or $30, so pick your poison.

If you are thinking about staying on Windows 10, perhaps this article will convince you to switch. Microsoft published a few reasons why Windows 11 is a better choice than the outgoing Windows 10. Another post compares the performance of the two operating systems in another attempt to make you ditch Windows 10. There is also a new ESU guide for office PCs that do not support Windows 11.

Another major story is about the Blue Screen of Death, which will soon become the Black Screen of Death and lose its iconic smiley face. Microsoft revealed that the redesign is coming later this summer, alongside Quick Machine Recovery. This new tool can fix PCs that cannot boot due to outages, malware, or other software nastiness.

We are not done with big news just yet. Microsoft confirmed that Windows 11 version 25H2 is coming later this year. This year's feature update is coming soon, and the first officially marked preview builds are now available for testing.

Microsoft also released the June 2025 non-security updates for Windows 10 and 11 users. It all started with Windows 10, which received KB5061087 with build number 19045.6036. Windows 11 version 24H2 received KB5060829, and Windows 11 versions 22H2 and 23H2 received KB5060826. Also, Windows 11 received a new configuration update to resolve the stuck Windows Update (and new setup updates), Windows Server 2025 got a new security baseline, and the Media Creation Tool now downloads the latest Windows 11 images with the June 2025 Patch Tuesday fixes.

Another important story is about Secure Boot, one of Windows 11's hardware requirements. Microsoft published a lengthy blog post warning that its first certificates will soon expire, and users should prepare to update them if they want their PCs to be secure and compatible with third-party apps going forward.

No week goes by without some Windows issues. This time, Dell acknowledged a problem with Night Light on certain Windows on ARM PCs. The bug breaks Night Light on the secondary display, but Dell says you should blame Qualcomm and its Oryon chipset. Microsoft, on the other hand, confirmed more issues with Chrome on Windows.

This week's Windows trivia includes an interesting story from Microsoft veteran Raymond Chen. He published a new blog post where he recalled how PC manufacturers used to trick BIOS copyright strings to get full editions of trial versions of various apps.

To finish this week's Windows section, here is a small tip for those who want to make Windows 11 feel a little snappier. A hidden accessibility feature can make the user interface much more responsive and fast, so check it out here.

Windows Insider Program

Here is what Microsoft released for Windows Insiders this week:

Additionally, Microsoft released new screen-recording capabilities for the Snipping Tool app for more Windows Insiders (Beta and Release Preview).

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's browser updates include some major releases and plenty of Firefox updates. Mozilla released Firefox 140 with custom search engine support, a new ESR release, and more changes. Shortly after, it released version 140.0.1 with fixes for dark theme issues and crashes and version 140.0.2 with fixes for crashes on certain Windows devices. Microsoft released Edge 138 with AI-powered history search and a warning for IT admins, and Google released Chrome 138.

Office updates include the new Outlook for Windows coming to Microsoft 365 Education in early next year. Speaking of the new Outlook, Microsoft also published a story that explained why the app is actually great and why haters are wrong. Oh, Microsoft...

Teams is getting a new health dashboard feature, PowerPoint can generate presentations from PDFs or text files, and Modern Page Templates are coming to SharePoint. Microsoft also published detailed guides about fixing Office 2024 activation issues. Finally, here is this week's recap of the new features coming soon to the Microsoft 365 productivity suite and a recap of everything new in Excel in June 2025.

Here are other updates and releases you may find interesting:

• Microsoft announced Mu, an on-device small language model for Windows 11.
• The Comet AI browser is coming to Windows, now in private beta.
• Discord for Windows on ARM is now in development.
• Surface Copilot+ PCs are coming to classrooms on July 22.
• Raycast for Windows is now in closed beta; here is the first look.

• Visual Studio is now even smarter, thanks to more AI models and billing updates.

• France's third-largest city is ditching Windows and Office in favor of Linux and FOSS.

• Here are five things that people want in Microsoft Teams.

   

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

• Intel 32.0.101.6913 WHQL graphics driver with Mecha BREAK support and more.

Reviews are in

Here is the hardware and software we reviewed this week

Steven Parker reviewed the TerraMaster F4 SSD, an extremely lightweight and quiet all-SSD NAS with some good connectivity, a decent price tag, and good design. It is not flawless, but it still managed to score 8.5 out of 10 on Steven's NAS scale.

Robbie Khan reviewed the Keychron Lemokey G2 8K Wireless mouse. It is lightweight, has onboard memory, supports Keychron Launcher, and includes a good cable and an adapter. However, with an 8/10 rating at Robbie's scale, it has some cons that you should consider before buying.

On the gaming side

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

Microsoft finally announced the long-rumored Xbox app launcher for Windows PCs and handhelds. The Xbox app will soon work as a single place for all your games, regardless of their origin, be it Steam, Epic Games Store, Origin, or something else. As of right now, the updated app is being tested in the Xbox Insider Program.

Also, Microsoft announced the June 2025 update for Xbox, bringing users unsynced save management, the ability to browse games by publishers, the option to hide system apps on the Dashboard on Xbox consoles, and more.

Microsoft finally has its official Xbox-branded VR helmet. However, it is not an entirely Xbox VR per se. It was made in collaboration with Meta, and its stocks are "extremely limited."

Sadly, not all Xbox news was positive this week. A new report hit out of the blue, revealing Microsoft's plans to lay off a lot of workers in the Xbox division.

Microsoft Flight Simulator received a new city update with upgraded visuals of New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and other parts of the state to give you a more realistic experience when flying the sim. City Update 11 is now available on consoles and PCs.

Deals and freebies

The Epic Games Store is giving away Sable, an interesting-looking exploration game with an open world and a unique art style. If that is not enough, be sure to check out the Steam Summer Sale 2025, which is now in full swing, offering gamers a horde of discounts on various games. More deals are available in this week's edition of Weekend PC Game Deals.

Other gaming news includes the following:

• Senua's Saga: Hellblade II is getting 60 FPS mode, dev commentary, and more.

• DayZ is getting a desert map with the new Badlands expansion, set to be its biggest yet.

   

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

ExplainingComputers (1.11M subscribers)

June 29, 2025

Video length: 17m 44s

Testing a microSD Express card, including an overview of available media, and an explanation of SD Express and other common SD card interfaces. MicroSD Express cards are now used on the new Nintendo Switch 2, but also have applications in video making and photography.

00:00 Titles & Intro 

01:07 SD Express Cards 

03:30 SD Interfaces 

06:51 SD Express Reader 

08:30 CrystalDiskMark 

09:48 Large Copy Tests 

14:31 Heat & Apps 

16:19 The Express Option

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

Paul's Hardware (1.52M subscribers)

June 29, 2025

Video length: 15m 03s

0:00 Welcome to Paul’s Tech News - June 29, 2025 

2:00 RTX 5050 Announced, Sort Of, with Bad Graphs - Coming In July for $250 

TECH BRIEFS 

7:08 Intel's Nova Lake CPUs to take on AMD's X3D CPUs with cache memory tile 

8:21 RTX 5090 GPUs - 10% Off! 

9:30 Microsoft's AI chip delayed six months 

10:38 Cooler Master Launches NR200P V3 Compact Case Series 

11:43 MSI Launches Toy Story Gaming PC Hardware 

12:47 Black Screen of Death to replace Blue Screen of Death 

13:38 Summer Sales - Steam Summer Sale on now, Prime Day July 7-11

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

Assuming this is true, in order to achieve this big MT jump, core counts are expected to go significantly up compared to the current gen (Arrow Lake-S). A previous report outlines up to 52 total cores on the flagship part, 16 performance “P-cores,” 32 efficiency “E-cores,” and four ultra-low-power “LP-E” cores, yielding 52 threads in all (If you recall, Intel has dropped hyper-threading, its version of SMT or simultaneous multi-threading on the Lunar Lake architecture).

There is no information regarding clock speed though, so we can't guess what kind of IPC (instructions per cycle) Nova Lake may be delivering.

Nova Lake-S is also said to support DDR5-8000 memory by default and bring 32 PCIe 5.0 lanes plus 16 Gen 4 lanes for I/O, on a new socket,1954.

Nova Lake aims to succeed Arrow Lake’s combo of Crestmont P-cores and Skymont E-cores with new microarchitecture, codenamed “Coyote Cove” and “Arctic Wolf,” respectively, along with the addition of LP-E (Low Power Island) cores that debuted on Meteor Lake. If the internal slide’s performance claims hold true, Intel could close the single-threaded gap against AMD’s Zen 6 Ryzen 9000 X3D parts and redefine desktop gaming leadership.

For now, these performance numbers remain unverified rumors even though it sort of does look like the real thing (the font matches). Intel has yet to share any official Nova Lake-S benchmarks or architectural deep dives.

Finally, Nova Lake is also rumored to debut a large LLC (last level cache) somewhat similar to AMD's 3D V-cache which helps in boosting gaming performance and other tasks.

If you recall, Intel has been working on an L4 (level 4) cache for a while.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

Gamers Nexus (2.46M subscribers)

June 29, 2025

Video length: 31m 08s

In this week's hardware news recap, we talk about the Stop Killing Games initiative, featuring Ross Scott of Accursed Farms (in full appearance on our GNCA channel), alongside other topics. We also cover the ASUS GC-HPWR connector, ASUS' accidental shipment of an NVIDIA "Radeon" GPU, Intel layoffs, Microsoft layoffs, a Sony PS5 lawsuit over monopolistic practices, and more.

00:00 - Recap for the Week 

01:25 - GNCA Stop Killing Games 

06:20 - Cooler Master NR200P V3 Compact 

07:27 - ASUS Accidentally Ships NVIDIA Radeon GPU 

08:40 - ASUS 1000W GPU Power Connector 

11:33 - More Intel Layoffs 

15:35 - More Microsoft Layoffs 

16:49 - 3080 Ti 20GB VRAM 

19:25 - Cute GPU Onslaught 

20:33 - Sony PS5 Lawsuit for Monopolistic Practices 

22:02 - Steve Speaks Dutch Very Poorly 

25:11 - Noctua NF-A12x25 Fan 

26:31 - Unbreakable PC 

27:55 - Steam Controller 2 Mod

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

Reddit has become known as the place to go for unfiltered answers from real, human users. But as the site celebrates its 20th anniversary this week, the company is increasingly thinking about how it can augment that human work with AI.

The initial rollout of AI tools, like Reddit Answers, is “going really well,” CTO Chris Slowe tells The Verge. At a time when Google and its AI tools are going to Reddit for human answers, Reddit is going to its own human answers to power AI features, hoping they’re the key to letting people unlock useful information from its huge trove of posts and communities.

Reddit Answers is the first big user-facing piece of the company’s AI push. Like other AI search tools, Reddit Answers will show an AI-generated summary to a query. But Reddit Answers also very prominently links to where the content came from — and as a user, you also know that the link will point you to another place on Reddit instead of some SEO-driven garbage. It also helps that the citations feel much more prominent than on tools like Google’s AI Mode — a tool that news publishers have criticized as “theft.”

“If you just want the short summary, it’s there,” Slowe says. “If you want to delve deeper, it’s an easier way to get into it.”

In order for those AI answers to be useful, they need to continue to be based on real human responses. Reddit now has to be on the lookout for AI-generated comments and posts infiltrating its site. It’s an important thing for the platform to stay on top of, says Slowe: Reddit’s key benefit is that you can trust that a lot of what’s written on it is written by humans, and AI spam could erode that. “Trust is an essential component of the way Reddit works,” Slowe says. The platform is using AI and LLMs to help with moderation and user safety, too.

The other half of Reddit’s AI equation is selling its own data, which is extremely valuable to AI giants. The changes that forced notable apps to shut down and spurred widespread user protests (which Slowe referred to as “some unpleasantness that happened about two years ago”) were positioned by CEO Steve Huffman as more of a way to get AI companies to pony up. And two of the biggest companies have already done so, as Reddit has cut AI deals with both Google and OpenAI. But Reddit also has to be on the lookout for improper use of its data, with the most recent crackdown being its lawsuit against Anthropic.

“At the end of the day, we aren’t a charity,” Slowe says. Reddit wants to provide a service that people can use for free, “but don’t build your business on our back and expect us not to try and defend ourselves.”

Still, with new AI-powered search products from Google, OpenAI, and others on the rise, Reddit risks getting buried by AI summaries. And Reddit is experimenting with AI-powered searches on its own platform. So what’s the company’s goal for the future?

“Keep allowing Reddit to be Reddit,” Slowe says. “I think that the underlying model for Reddit hasn’t really drastically changed since the early days.” The platform doesn’t require real names (your username is a “coveted thing” that many people keep private, Slowe says), everything is focused on text, and reputation is more important than who you are; all of these elements marked “a drastic difference with the rest of social media.”

Reddit is also facing competition from a slightly different angle: Digg, which is making a return with the backing of founder Kevin Rose and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. Slowe didn’t have much to say about it, though. “I always love seeing innovation and I always love seeing new bends on old business models.”

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

On Tuesday, software engineer Doug Brown published his discovery of how to trigger a long-known but previously inaccessible Easter egg in the Power Mac G3's ROM: a hidden photo of the development team that nobody could figure out how to display for 27 years. While Pierre Dandumont first documented the JPEG image itself in 2014, the method to view it on the computer remained a mystery until Brown's reverse engineering work revealed that users must format a RAM disk with the text "secret ROM image."

Brown stumbled upon the image while using a hex editor tool called Hex Fiend with Eric Harmon's Mac ROM template to explore the resources stored in the beige Power Mac G3's ROM. The ROM appeared in desktop, minitower, and all-in-one G3 models from 1997 through 1999.

"While I was browsing through the ROM, two things caught my eye," Brown wrote. He found both the HPOE resource containing the JPEG image of team members and a suspicious set of Pascal strings in the PowerPC-native SCSI Manager 4.3 code that included ".Edisk," "secret ROM image," and "The Team."

The strings provided the crucial clue Brown needed. After extracting and disassembling the code using Ghidra, he discovered that the SCSI Manager was checking for a RAM disk volume named "secret ROM image." When found, the code would create a file called "The Team" containing the hidden JPEG data.

Solving the mystery

Brown initially shared his findings on the #mac68k IRC channel, where a user named Alex quickly figured out the activation method. The trick requires users to enable the RAM Disk in the Memory control panel, restart, select the RAM Disk icon, choose "Erase Disk" from the Special menu, and type "secret ROM image" into the format dialog.

"If you double-click the file, SimpleText will open it," Brown explains on his blog just before displaying the hidden team photo that emerges after following the steps.

The discovery represents one of the last undocumented Easter eggs from the pre-Steve Jobs return era at Apple. The Easter egg works through Mac OS 9.0.4 but appears to have been disabled by version 9.1, Brown notes. The timing aligns with Jobs' reported ban on Easter eggs when he returned to Apple in 1997, though Brown wonders whether Jobs ever knew about this particular secret.

In his post, Brown expressed hope that he might connect with the Apple employees featured in the photo—a hope that was quickly fulfilled. In the comments, a man named Bill Saperstein identified himself as the leader of the G3 team (pictured fourth from left in the second row) in the hidden image.

"We all knew about the Easter egg, but as you mention; the technique to extract it changed from previous Macs (although the location was the same)," Saperstein wrote in the comment. "This resulted from an Easter egg in the original PowerMac that contained Paula Abdul (without permissions, of course). So the G3 team wanted to still have our pictures in the ROM, but we had to keep it very secret."

He also shared behind-the-scenes details in another comment, noting that his "bunch of ragtag engineers" developed the successful G3 line as a skunk works project, with hardware that Jobs later turned into the groundbreaking iMac series of computers. "The team was really a group of talented people (both hw and sw) that were believers in the architecture I presented," Saperstein wrote, "and executed the design behind the scenes for a year until Jon Rubenstein got wind of it and presented it to Steve and the rest is 'history.'"

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

Capcom had recently concluded its June 2025 Capcom Spotlight event with a massive gameplay showcase for Monster Hunter Wilds' upcoming second free title update, which will be launching on June 30, 2025, alongside similarly swim-themed content for Street Fighter 6.

We already knew that the 2nd Title Update would feature the return of the fan-favorite monster Lagiacrus (as teased in the 1st Title Update), but we were not prepared for what the rest of the update would entail.

Not only will this update include Lagiacrus, but it will also feature another returning monster called Seregios, the cosmetic Layered Armor, Arch-Tempered Uth Duna, more cosmetic DLC and event quests, and the shocking return of underwater combat from Monster Hunter Tri!

Here's all the new info on Monster Hunter Wilds' second Title update announced during the June 2025 Capcom Spotlight event.

The showcase begins by fully unveiling what Lagiacrus will be like in Monster Hunter Wilds. For those unaware, Lagiacrus is a large Leviathan-class monster that attacks its prey by lunging at them with its jaws and zapping them with lightning produced from its back spikes.

And from the looks of the gameplay trailer, Lagiacrus will fight just as he did back in 2009's Monster Hunter Tri, but extremely sped up now that the beast is powered by next-gen hardware.

It was only last year that developer Bohemia Interactive brought a snow-covered map to the multiplayer survival game DayZ with the Frostline expansion. The long-time supported, post-apocalyptic title is now aiming to take players to a region a little hotter with the next expansion. Touting extreme heat and war-scarred landscapes, the Badlands expansion is set to launch next year. Watch the announcement trailer above.

Landing as the third expansion for DayZ, Badlands is set to deliver the biggest map ever developed for the hardcore survival experience.

"With an enormous size of 267 km², DayZ Badlands introduces the largest official map in the game’s history," says the studio, describing the incoming content and setting. "Set west of Chernarus and bordering Takistan’s frontier, the terrain offers a desolate blend of cracked soil, sand-swept plains, and mountainous divides. Here, every inch of land tells a story of failed invasions, abandoned cities, and the silence that followed decades of war."

The desert environment of the new Nasdara province brings its own survival elements for players to endure. This includes droughts and hydration management, as well as encounters with new types of infected zombies. New loot types, cosmetic items, and region-specific weapons are being added as a part of the expansion, too.

As usual, with all the tools and environments in place, it will be the players who make up their own stories and adventures in the multiplayer title.

Bohemia Interactive did not announce a release date for the DayZ Badlands expansion today, but it did attach a broad 2026 launch window to it. The expansion is being developed for PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5. While pricing information has not arrived yet either, judging by previous expansions, it may cost around $30 at launch.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

Each of the newly upgraded regions has its own mix of 'areas of interest' to fly and visit as well, including Boston, Plymouth, Manhattan, Brooklyn, and much more. These areas specifically have been given more focus by the developers to add more authenticity, all using state-of-the-art "high-resolution aerial and satellite imagery, digital elevation models (DEMs), and TIN (triangulated irregular network) surface texturing."

"This update comprises a spectacular mix of locations throughout this storied region of the United States, including portions of New England, one of the most important heritage areas in the nation," says the development team regarding this content drop. "City Update 11 invites exploration throughout the sights of this historically renowned part of America, where each flight is filled with expansive vistas and intriguing landmarks."

City Update 11: Northeastern United States II is now available in Microsoft Flight Simulator as well as the newer Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 as optional downloads from the in-game marketplace. Make sure the version is at least 1.38.2.0 for Flight Simulator 2020 / 1.3.23.0 for Flight Simulator 2024 / 1.3.25.0 for Flight Simulator 2024 on Windows PC or Steam.

The games and the new update are accessible across Steam and the Microsoft Store for PC, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox and PC Game Pass subscriptions. Xbox One, mobile, and PC players can also jump into the new content using Xbox Cloud Gaming if they have a Game Pass Ultimate membership.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

Over the past year, Google has transformed its web search experience with AI, driving toward a zero-click experience. Now, the same AI focus is coming to YouTube, and Premium subscribers can get a preview of the new search regime. Select searches on the video platform will now produce an AI-generated results carousel with a collection of relevant videos. Even if you don't pay for YouTube, AI is still coming for you with an expansion of Google's video chatbot.

Google says the new AI search feature, which appears at the top of the results page, will include multiple videos, along with an AI summary of each. You can tap the video thumbnails to begin playing them right from the carousel. The summary is intended to extract the information most relevant to your search query, so you may not even have to watch the videos.

The AI results carousel is only a test right now, and it's limited to YouTube Premium subscribers. If you're paying for Premium, you can enable the feature on YouTube's experimental page. While the feature is entirely opt-in, that probably won't last long. Like AI Overviews in search, this feature will take precedence over organic search results and get people interacting with Google's AI, and that's the driving force behind most of the company's decisions lately.

It's not hard to see where this feature could lead because we've seen the same thing play out in general web search. By putting AI-generated content at the top of search results, Google will reduce the number of videos people click to watch. The carousel gives you the relevant parts of the video along with a summary, but the video page is another tap away. Rather than opening videos, commenting, subscribing, and otherwise interacting with creators, some users will just peruse the AI carousel. That could make it harder for channels to grow and earn revenue from their content—the same content Google will feed into Gemini to generate the AI carousel.

Currently, the AI-generated results carousel will only appear for shopping, places, and activities in specific areas. Google recommends searches like "best beaches in Hawaii" and "noise canceling headphones." However, AI Overviews launched with AI answers for a small subset of searches, and it has since expanded to almost all queries. The AI-generated results carousel could end up the same, but we're not there yet. In addition to being an opt-in test for subscribers, the AI results are also limited to the mobile app and English-language videos for now.

Alongside the debut of AI search in YouTube, Google is expanding its conversational AI tool to more users. This feature was previously limited to Premium members, but it will now appear for everyone. This chatbot lets you ask questions about a video, get recommendations for similar content, and explore concepts.

Google has also promised (threatened?) that it's working on more AI features to "help you get the most out of YouTube." Prepare yourself.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

The Siege mode takes place on a fortified Imperial stronghold on Kadaku that is enduring endless attacks by Tyranids and Thousand Sons. There are three sections in total that players will defend in order before circling back to the original position, fighting away thousands of enemies in five waves before swapping locations.

To give players a small break, there's a one-minute gap between each wave to resupply and purchase perks from the points they collect while in battle. Players can call in AI-controlled specialized soldiers, Space Marines, or even a Dreadnought to help out if the waves get a little too tough. To cap it all off, every fifth wave a boss encounter kicks off.

There are 15 waves to go through in a single session, but parties can also kick off an endless mode at the end of these to see how far they can get.

"Siege Mode expands on our PVE operations, emphasizing endless enemy waves that challenge even the strongest teams," says Focus Entertainment, describing the new mode. "When overwhelmed, players may call reinforcements for assistance. Engage in intense battles across three distinctive sectors, each requiring strategic adaptation. Side objectives emerge during combat, providing essential resources used to summon elite Space Marines or a formidable Dreadnought, drastically shifting battlefield dynamics.

Over on PC, the studio has added two new options. One is RTAO (Ray-Traced Ambient Occlusion), though this is currently listed as an experimental feature. Next, Nvidia 5000 series graphics card owners can now enable DLSS 4 for better upscaling tech as well as multi-frame generation.

The complete patch notes for Patch 8, which includes details on the balance changes, can be found here.

The Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Siege update is now available on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

If you plug the world’s best-reviewed webcams into the Nintendo Switch 2 today, they won’t work, while many comparatively ancient webcams do. Why? That’s been a mystery for the nearly three weeks since the handheld launched. Now, two companies say they’ve figured it out and are pledging to update the firmware on their cameras.

Here’s a possibly oversimplified answer: today’s more powerful webcams advertise many different modes that they support to any device you connect via USB — but that’s a problem because the Nintendo Switch 2 appears to be choosing modes it can’t properly play.

In the case of Elgato, which will update its non-working Facecam MK.2 and Facecam Neo, the solve was adding an additional low-resolution 480p mode, with Elgato general manager Julian Fest speculating that the Switch can only reliably support “very low resolution” cameras in order to put multiple facecams on screen.

But low resolution by itself isn’t the answer — as you’d probably expect, given that Nintendo’s own official Switch 2 camera is a 1080p camera that genuinely broadcasts a 1080p mode (we checked), and given it’s far from the only 1080p or higher camera that works with Nintendo’s new Switch.

Accessory company Ugreen tells The Verge that the technical details of making a camera work with the console are far more nuanced than resolution, or frame rate, or whether you have the enhanced bandwidth of USB 3 or the far slower USB 2.

Nor is it enough for the camera to support a single compatible UVC (USB Video Class) mode. Instead, Ugreen spokesperson Gabrielle Wang explains by email, the camera needs to avoid advertising modes or protocols that the Switch might not recognize, or that it might attempt to use but fail, after you plug it into the console.

Ugreen says three different conditions all simultaneously need to be met for a camera to work with the Switch 2:

• “The camera must not use the HID protocol.”
• “The camera must be configured for Isochronous transfer mode.” (As opposed to Bulk, which can be more resource intensive.)
• “The USB endpoint descriptors must not include unsupported low frame rate settings (below 30 fps).” More on that one in a sec.

Unfortunately, you’re not likely to find any of those “specs” on a camera’s box or in its marketing materials, but but they are things you can check with a connected PC and a tool like USBView — and in so doing, we can see the camera incompatibility situation is more nuanced than a single factor.

Elgato’s Facecam MK.2, for instance, already advertises isochronous modes to connected devices as far as I can tell, and it doesn’t advertise an HID interface. In fact, it appears to already offer a 480p mode as well.

But Elgato’s camera may have broken Ugreen’s third theoretical rule — it tells connected devices like the Switch 2 that it’s capable of running as low as 5 fps at a variety of different resolutions, according to the USB Device Descriptors I’ve viewed. Ugreen says that the Switch 2 may prioritize lower settings, “but if the camera hardware cannot actually output at such low frame rates, it will cause a failure.”

It wouldn’t be surprising if Ugreen had an easier time figuring this out: though none of Elgato’s webcams worked with the Switch 2 at launch, Ugreen had the benefit of discovering that some of its models did, while others did not.

Ugreen says its CM826 / 55512, CM797 / 45644, and CM825 / 75330 cameras will have updates by the end of June, while the CM678 / 15728, CM778 / 35626, CM717 / 25442, CM825 / 55721, and CM831 / 65381 already work.

But I wonder if this should solely be the responsibility of camera companies — PCs, for example, don’t generally have this same trouble picking from a webcam’s list of supported video modes. Perhaps Nintendo will address the webcam compatibility situation, globally, with an update of its own.

Nintendo didn’t have a comment for our story.

Andrew Liszewski and Andru Marino contributed to this story.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl, the long-awaited and highly acclaimed first-person survival shooter, has received a new big update called Patch 1.5.

Much like the previous update, Patch 1.4, Patch 1.5 aims to improve the AI and A Life of all NPCs and enemies while implementing quality-of-life improvements, balance changes, bug fixes, new gear to find, new enemies to kill, and more.

The key method this update plans to improve AI for all NPCs is by making them simulated all the time, even outside the player's view.

This will allow the NPCs to behave like they did in STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl (which was recently remastered along with the original Stalker trilogy), and live out their lives in more realistic ways outside of quests or interacting with the player.

As the full list of patch notes for Patch 1.5 is too many to list here (you can find them on the game's official website), here are the major content highlights for Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl's Patch 1.5 as taken from the game's Steam page.

Be warned, some of these patch notes will contain story spoilers.

GSC Game World continues to refine this long-awaited title to help reach its full potential

HDMI 2.2 sports maximum bandwidths of 96Gbps, which is double that of what was offered by the previous version, HDMI 2.1. Higher resolutions with higher refresh rates are also supported, these include 12K at 120fps, along with 16K at 60fps. In addition, uncompressed full chroma formats like 8K@60/4:4:4 and 4K@240/4:4:4 at 10- and 12-bit color options are supported too. Notably, the HDMI 2.2 specification also offers the Latency Indication Protocol (LIP), which enhances audio and video synchronization, especially in configurations with multi-hop hardware.

Chandlee Harrell, president of the HDMI Forum, had the following to say regarding this milestone:

The HDMI Forum is proud to release the new HDMI 2.2 Specification to enable higher performance capabilities and features for exciting and immersive new solutions and products. And the introduction of the new Ultra96 feature name will help consumers and end-users ensure their product’s maximum bandwidth is supported.

The HDMI Forum has encouraged manufacturers to adopt the "Ultra96" branding on any HDMI 2.2 product that supports 64Gbps, 80Gbps, or 96Gbps bandwidth. They will also need to leverage the Ultra96 HDMI Cable as the existing Ultra High Speed HDMI Cable only supports a maximum of 48Gbps bandwidth. That said, it is pertinent to note that an HDMI 2.2 cable may only support the 64Gbps mode, but still have the Ultra96 branding, which could be confusing.

The HDMI authority has also reminded cable manufacturers that Ultra96 cables will have to go through the regular certification process, which mandates the testing of model length too. It will be interesting to see how quickly and widely HDMI 2.2 gets adopted by manufacturers as well as the public.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend  

The lithium-ion battery inside your power bank isn’t designed to run forever. After years of use and hundreds of charges, its performance and capacity will decline, while the risk of more severe issues increases. There are things you can do to prolong your power bank’s lifespan, while also ensuring you can use it safely. And if it’s already a few years old, there are signs that your power bank may be reaching the end of its life and needs to be disposed of properly.

The risk of a power bank causing a fire, which is the result of a chain reaction known as a thermal runaway, is low. But when it does happen, the fires are intense, occasionally explosive, and difficult to extinguish. Anker recently recalled more than 1.1 million aging power banks, and while the company says it only received 19 reports of fires and explosions, the incidents caused multiple injuries and over $60,000 of property damage.

Knowing how to detect when a power bank has reached the end of its life can help prevent hardware failures and reduce the risk of a fire, but so can being proactive and knowing how to use the device properly.

It may seem obvious, and it’s not foolproof, but buying a power bank from a reputable brand can increase the chances it’s made from higher-quality components and materials, and that it’s free from manufacturing defects. Cheaper power banks may seem like a bargain, but the corners that have been cut to reduce their price tag could have negative impacts on their performance and reliability.

Larger and more expensive power banks with greater capacities — like a 20,000mAh model instead of a smaller 5,000mAh one — also generally last longer, according to Anker. More capacity means a power bank has more battery cells to distribute the power load, putting less strain on them individually per charge cycle and increasing their lifespan.

The thermal runaways typically responsible for power bank fires are caused when the chemical reactions in a rechargeable battery produce more heat than can be dissipated, resulting in a rapid, uncontrolled release of energy. To help mitigate the risk of overheating, you should avoid using or storing power banks in environments where there’s extreme temperatures. For example, don’t store them in a vehicle that’s at risk of getting extremely hot inside, and avoid leaving them exposed to direct sunlight.

Storing your power banks in a cool, dry, and dark location such as a closet is a good idea, but putting them all in a single container may not be. Keeping a little space between them reduces the risk of an overheating power bank causing another one to overheat.

It’s also important to stop using a power bank and dispose of it properly if it’s been pierced or damaged, which includes accidental drops. Although it may look fine on the outside (aside from a scuff or a dent), it’s impossible to know how the battery inside has been affected, and it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Anker’s suggestions for extending the life of a power bank include only charging it to between 50 and 80 percent capacity to prevent accidental overcharging, and to avoid completely draining it before the next charge. It also recommends against using your power bank to charge another device while it’s being charged, which can generate excessive heat and put extra strain on the battery.

Some higher-end power banks allow for software and firmware updates, and companies will occasionally release updates that improve their performance or fix bugs that reduce their capacity or lifespan. You can check the specific manufacturer’s website to see if this is a feature offered on your model and whether updates are available for download.

There are no tools that can definitively tell you when it’s time to replace a power bank, but a common symptom of batteries that have reached the end of their life is reduced performance. If it’s taking significantly longer to fully recharge the power bank than when it was new or if the number of times you can use the power bank to recharge your device has been reduced, it might be time to replace it.

Power banks, particularly smaller models, will always get warm when being charged or while powering other devices. But if your power bank gets so hot that it doesn’t feel safe to physically handle, that could be a sign that there are potential problems.

it’s a good idea to regularly check manufacturers’ websites for product recalls. Anker recently recalled over 1.1 million aging power banks.

Image: Anker

 

Other symptoms that are easier to spot include physical changes like a deformation or swelling. One of the safety features of lithium-ion batteries is a sealed casing that prevents chemicals like electrolyte from leaking while also protecting internal components. Excessive heat, or the age of the battery, can cause the electrolyte material to decompose, which creates a buildup of gases, making the protective casing expand like a balloon. If it expands enough, it can cause parts of the power bank itself to bulge outward, which is easy to spot. If left too long, those expanding gases can cause a battery to burst.

Some issues are impossible to detect, so it’s also a good idea to regularly check manufacturers’ websites for product recalls. Companies like Anker and Baseus have dedicated pages where recalled products are listed. You can also search for specific brands and products on the US Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) website to find information about recalls.

Even though the risk of a fire and explosions is low, power banks and other devices that use rechargeable lithium-ion batteries need to be disposed of properly and should never be thrown away with your home’s regular trash or recycling. There have been several reports of garbage truck fires caused by lithium-ion batteries getting damaged by the vehicle’s crushing mechanisms, and prioritizing convenience over someone else’s safety is irresponsible.

Some stores that sell electronics, like Staples and Best Buy, offer recycling programs, but they typically have limitations on what they’ll accept. According to Best Buy’s website, its stores won’t accept “items that present a health or safety hazard” or “any product subject to a CPSC recall.” You’ll want to first confirm what your local store is willing to accept.

If you’re trying to get rid of a power bank that’s been officially recalled or is showing signs of being at the end of its life, you’ll need to ensure you’re following local laws and regulations when it comes to proper disposal and find a recycling facility near you that’s equipped to handle electronics that are potentially dangerous.

Your local municipality may recommend specific facilities to use. In addition, the US Environmental Protection Agency website lists several organizations that can help you find a disposal facility based on your location, including Earth911, Call2Recycle, and the Consumer Technology Association’s Greener Gadgets. But as with retail locations, it’s a good idea to first contact the electronics recycling facility and confirm the types of devices that it will accept.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of May): 2,377

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend