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How the video game S.T.A.L.K.E.R. inspired a wave of real-world Chernobyl tourists

A virtual world leads to IRL excursions By Darmon Richter Apr 29, 2021, 12:32pm EDT Illustration by Alex Castro At the entrance to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in Ukraine, 35 years on from the worst nuclear disaster in history, a yellow souvenir van sells T-shirts, key rings, and glow-in-the-dark “Chernobyl condoms,” all branded with gas… Read more

The Mustang Mach-E is helping Ford find new customers

Ford has sold more than 7,000 Mustang Mach-E SUVs so far, and it says 70 percent of those buyers have never owned one of the company’s cars. For comparison, Ford told The Verge that 39 percent of people who bought the more affordable 2020 Escape were new to the brand. So what does that 70… Read more

Peacock signs up 9 million after adding WWE and The Office

Comcast said that The Office and WWE were to thank for its new-ish streaming service, Peacock, adding 9 million signups during the first three months of 2021. Peacock now has 42 million members total in the United States. That looks strong compared to HBO’s 44.2 million US customers, but it comes with a huge caveat:… Read more

Returnal review: A incredible PS5 blast from almost nowhere

(Pocket-lint) – As the world continues to be gripped by a pandemic not seen in generations, it comes as no shock that gaming has been affected like just about everything else. Games release schedules have been adversely hit in particular, with fewer releases, especially of a triple-A standard. Thank the heavens for Returnal, then. Not… Read more

Samsung loses over $270M from Texas plant shutdown as quarterly profits boom

Shutting down its semiconductor plant in Austin, Texas lost Samsung over 300 billion won (around $270 million), Yonhap News reports. Speaking during a conference call, a senior vice president at Samsung’s foundry business Han Seung-hoon said that the shutdown affected around 71,000 wafers, corresponding to “around 300 to 400 billion won in damage.” The statement… Read more

AMD Vows to Resolve GPU Shortage: We Are Ramping Production

Home News (Image credit: AMD) Last year, AMD finally released a family of graphics processors that can compete against Nvidia’s high-end offerings in terms of performance. Unfortunately, AMD could not meet demand for new GPUs. But apparently there is light at the end of the tunnel as AMD is ramping up production. “We introduced our… Read more

Apple’s iPhone 12 and Mac sales skyrocket despite ongoing pandemic

Apple’s iPhone 12 lineup maintained enormously strong demand from consumers from January through March, according to the company’s fiscal Q2 earnings posted today. Apple reported record March quarter revenue of $89.6 billion, up 54 percent year over year. The iPhone took in just under $48 billion, jumping up by 66 percent from a year ago…. Read more

Oppo Find X3 Neo review: Can it compete?

(Pocket-lint) – There will always be those who clamour for the latest specs, studying all the latest flagships to ensure that when they eventually part with their hard-earned cash it goes on the device that has the top numbers. Those phones will come with the highest resolution screens, the latest processor, and the most cameras… Read more

Gaming and Home Working See Microsoft Profits Soar

Home News (Image credit: Rufus46 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported) The popularity of its cloud computing services, as well as the small matter of its software output, sent Microsoft profits soaring in the first three months of 2021 to $14.8 billion. This represents a 38% rise over the same period in 2020 according to… Read more

Spotify premium subscriber count increases 21 percent to 158 million

Spotify now boasts 158 million premium subscribers and 356 million monthly active users, according to its latest earnings report released today. That’s a 21 percent and 24 percent year-over-year increase, respectively. It’s up from 155 million premium subscribers and 345 million monthly active users last quarter. The streaming service has continued to focus on podcasts… Read more

AMD Smashes Records Again, Data Center Revenue up 286%, Consumer Up 46%

Home News (Image credit: Tom’s Hardware) AMD crushed expectations with its first quarter 2021 financial results today with a record quarterly revenue of $3.45B, an increase of 93% year over year (YoY). AMD grew in every segment of its businesses despite constant product shortages for its consumer CPUs and GPUs at retail, a byproduct of… Read more

Microsoft reports strong Surface, Xbox, and cloud growth for Q3 2021

Microsoft posted the third quarter of its 2021 financial results today, reporting revenue of $41.7 billion and a net income of $15.5 billion. Revenue is up 19 percent, and net income has increased by 44 percent. Once again, Microsoft has seen strong growth for Surface, Xbox, and cloud-related services. The PC market isn’t slowing down,… Read more

Nikkei: Apple is starting mass production of the M2 chips this month using TSMC’s N5P process

Last week at the Spring Loaded event Apple expanded its portfolio of M1-powered devices with the new iPad Pros and the new iMacs. The next major event is WWDC, which starts on June 7, and is expected to bring larger MacBook Pro models (14″ and 16″). More important than their size will be their brains…. Read more

ID-Cooling SE-207-XT Review: Big Air on a Budget

Our Verdict The ID-Cooling SE-207-XT is a great option for builders looking for the performance of larger-air cooling on a budget. It isn’t going to perform like a $100 premium air cooler, particularly in the highest-end CPUs, but it does provide enticing performance for a lot less. For + Budget pricing + Easy to install… Read more

Thermaltake Toughpower GF2 ARGB 850W Power Supply Review

Our Verdict The Thermaltake Toughpower GF2 ARGB 850W has good performance, but an earlier model is a little better. For + Full power at 47 degrees Celsius + Satisfactory overall performance + Efficient at normal loads + Effective APFC converter Long hold-up time Low inrush current Adequate distance between the peripheral connectors Compatible with the… Read more