Apple’s Vision Pro headset is an incredible piece of technology, but even Apple’s design and marketing magic hasn’t been enough to convince many people to don a VR headset for an entire day. Instead, people seem more willing to use discreet wearables like Bluetooth headphones, smartwatches, and products like the Ray-Ban Meta glasses — so… Read more
read more...Even Apple wasn’t able to make VR headsets mainstream in 2024
By: The Verge
Bluesky adds Trending topics to its arsenal
By: The Verge
As a special holiday treat, on December 25th, the social media app Bluesky announced that it has added a new feature to its mobile app: a list of Trending topics that lets you know what subjects are popular among its users. Bluesky now shows you its current Trends below the search bar.Screenshot: Bluesky The new… Read more
read more...Russian firm starts shipments of HPC system based on homegrown CPU — but cannot really avoid using a foreign GPU
By: Tom's Hardware
Graviton, a Russia-based server supplier, has announced its first AI and HPC server powered by processors developed domestically. This device can support up to eight compute GPUs to process artificial intelligence and supercomputer workloads, but the maker does not recommend any particular GPUs (though they can be easily guessed) probably because getting them amid sanctions… Read more
read more...Bose SoundLink Home review: a speaker that’s all about looks
By: The Verge
Sometimes it’s okay to buy a speaker mostly for the aesthetic. And from the moment it was first announced, Bose’s $219 SoundLink Home stood out from the pack (and Bose’s own other efforts) with a mid-modern style that bears little resemblance to most competitors. It’s the kind of gadget that people are likely to notice… Read more
read more...Squid Game season 2 is a brutal remix of Netflix’s biggest show
By: The Verge
In the three years since Squid Game became Netflix’s biggest property, it’s been easy to forget just why it was so popular to begin with. The unflinching story of class conflict that combined iconic visuals, schoolyard games, and a nihilistic view of humanity, has largely been buried beneath ill-conceived reality shows, influencer knockoffs, cartoon-ish mobile… Read more
read more...Undersea power cable connecting Finland and Estonia experiences outage — capacity reduced to 35% as Finnish authorities investigate
By: Tom's Hardware
Estlink 2, an undersea power cable connecting Finland and Estonia, has unexpectedly been disrupted at around 12:26 pm local time (10:26 am GMT) on Christmas Day. While Finland Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said that the outage hasn’t affected the country’s power supply, Reuters said that it did reduce the availability capacity between the two countries… Read more
read more...Chinese PCIe 5.0 SSD tested with speeds up to 14.5 GB/s — Zhitai TiPro9000 sports 5th Gen YMTC 3D NAND and SMI SM2508 controller
By: Tom's Hardware
DIY.Zol.com.cn has reviewed a rather mysterious solid-state drive from Zhitai with a PCIe 5.0 x4 interface based on a controller with no markings and on YMTC’s 5th Generation 3D NAND with the Xtacking 4.0 architecture. The SSD supports read speeds of up to 14.5 GB/s, enabling it to compete against the best SSDs. While the… Read more
read more...Vendors push Intel’s promised performance-boosting firmware for Intel Arrow Lake CPUs — 0x114 beta BIOS updates coupled with the new CSME version 1854v2.2
By: Tom's Hardware
Intel partners have started to deploy BIOS patches for Z890 motherboards featuring the 0x114 microcode coupled with the updated CSME 1854v2.2 firmware. The patches serve as the last piece to Intel’s Core Ultra 200S (Arrow Lake) performance puzzle, with the newer CSME and BIOS combo promising additional single-digit increases in gaming performance. Interestingly, vendors are… Read more
read more...ASML CEO says China is 10 to 15 years behind in chipmaking capabilities
By: Tom's Hardware
(Image credit: ASML) Although advancements that SMIC and Huawei have made in the semiconductor sector in recent years are pretty impressive, the companies are 10 to 15 years behind industry giants like Intel, TSMC, and Samsung, said Christophe Fouquet, chief executive of toolmaker ASML. It’s well known that even with the best-in-class DUV tools, Chinese… Read more
read more...What podcasts looked like in 2024 — literally
By: The Verge
In 2024, podcasts have gotten closer to becoming a video-first medium. Though video podcasts have been around a relatively long time, shows from The New York Times, NPR, and many other podcast networks that have been audio-only for years have recently started adding a video component in order to gain new listenership. In fact, Spotify,… Read more
read more...AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D drops to just $359 at Amazon — Secure the fastest Zen 4 gaming chip while supplies last
By: Tom's Hardware
Hunting for the elusive Ryzen 7 9800X3D? You aren’t alone, as the world’s fastest gaming CPU has been difficult to find in stock for a while. Alternatively, for the low price of $359 at Amazon, you can get the Ryzen 7 7800X3D instead, which is positioned as the fastest Zen 4 gaming processor, only second… Read more
read more...2024 has been an amazing year for roguelikes
By: The Verge
The roguelike genre has turned from a relative niche into something much bigger. Roguelike games can be famously tough to crack into; generally, they have a high difficulty that means you’ll bang your head against a wall as you learn how to play the game, puzzle out what strategies work best in the procedurally generated… Read more
read more...Elon Musk’s xAI raises $6 billion to build even more powerful AI supercomputers — Nvidia, AMD contribute to funding round
By: Tom's Hardware
Elon Musk’s xAI has raised $6 billion in its latest funding round, pushing its total capital raised to $12 billion at a valuation of $50 billion, reports TechCrunch. The round, which involved 97 investors, followed a doubling of xAI’s valuation within six months and solidified the company’s position as a growing competitor in the AI… Read more
read more...Nvidia’s RTX 5070 Ti and RTX 5070 allegedly sport 16GB and 12GB of GDDR7 memory, respectively — Up to 8960 CUDA cores, 256-bit memory bus, and 300W TDP
By: Tom's Hardware
Renowned and avid leaker Kopite has detailed Nvidia’s RTX 5070 family, and the overall bump in specs over Ada Lovelace is a mixed bag, at least on paper. The leaker has a proven track record, having previously leaked the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 specifications. The RTX 5070 family comprises the RTX 5070 Ti and… Read more
read more...Leaked Nvidia RTX 5090 PCB design reveals massive GPU package and high-performance features
By: Tom's Hardware
Photos of a PCB allegedly belonging to Nvidia’s next-generation GeForce RTX 5090 have leaked online, offering a glimpse of the company’s future flagship GPU. Shared on Chinese tech forum Chiphell, the images reveal certain aspects of the RTX 5090’s architecture, hinting at a major performance leap for Nvidia’s upcoming Blackwell architecture. The leaked image showcases… Read more
read more...