Latest from Tom's Hardware
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Deep clean your PC in seconds with cordless duster deals from $19
Amazon Prime Big Deal Days 2026 is the perfect time to pick up an air blower to clean grime and dust from your PC fans, keyboard keys, and more.
Save 40% on Hoto’s cordless rotary toolkit, now just $29.99 — great for 3D printing and other DIY tasks
Hoto (short for Home Tools) makes some of the most aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly tools for everyday home improvement, DIY projects, and casual tasks. One of the many interesting offerings from the modern hardware and lifestyle brand is the Hoto Cordless Rotary Toolkit, a lightweight, pen-style multipurpose tool that can be used for various intricate projects. Originally priced at $49.99, it is currently on sale on Amazon for $29.99, saving you $20.
Our favorite budget gaming chair just hit an all-time low of $189
Finding a budget gaming chair that checks all the right boxes is rare. Our top recommendation, the Razer Iskur V2 X, is now available at a record-low price of $189.51, an $110.48 discount off its usual price.
Some of the best PC speakers and soundbars we've tested are on sale starting at just $27.99
Some of the best PC speakers we've tested are on sale as part of Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days, including options from Edifier, Creative, and Onkyo.
Microsoft and Nvidia launch Surface Laptop Ultra with RTX Spark
Microsoft's Surface Laptop Ultra is now available for pre-order. The company revealed some new Windows 11 features, a new magnetic USB Type-C port, and that the system will work with "hundreds" of video games.
Best Amazon Prime Day 3D printer deals 2026
We’ve got our sights set on Amazon's Prime Day sales, and the bargains for some of the best 3D printers are hot!
30% discounts on essential 3D printer maintenance tools
3D printers always need a little maintenance, and with these great tools, you’ll be producing great prints all day long.
Here are the best OLED gaming monitor deals you can snag for Amazon Big Deal Days 2026
OLED gaming monitors are hot right now, and Prime Big Deal Days is an excellent time to be in the market.
New Linux tech compresses memory in RAM, as RAM, for 452x speedup
The new method allows access using standard memory semantics instead of as a block device, drastically improving performance.
Upgrade to Wi-Fi 6E or Wi-Fi 7 with these stellar savings
Amazon has some fantastic deals on TP-Link wireless routers, and expect even bigger savings if you're an Amazon Prime Rewards VISA cardholder.
This $7.99 TP-Link gigabit switch lets you cheaply upgrade your home network, and it's back at its lowest ever price
Upgrade your local network with this $7.99 TP-Link gigabit Ethernet switch with five ports, back down to its lowest ever price.
Musk rejects rumors of TSMC takeover of Terafab — Intel reaffirms 14A node deal as Musk floats cleanroom ‘sublease’
Lip-Bu Tan says Intel will remain a part of Elon Musk's Terafab project as Musk wants TSMC to sublease a part of the facility.
Get a Wi-Fi 7 mesh network for a discounted $149.99 — TP-Link Deco 7 BE25 offers 5,012 Mbps speeds and coverage for 150 devices
TP-Link’s Deco 7 BE25 combines Wi-Fi 7 speeds, wide coverage, 2.5Gbps Ethernet, and support for 150-plus devices in a mesh system that now costs considerably less.
Researcher ports Doom to $8,000 Hasselblad X2D
An independent camera researcher experimenting with the firmware for expensive camera brands like Hasselblad and Ricoh just built software that lets photographers play Doom directly on the X2D. This feature is part of the Hasselblad-X-System-CIM-Firmware-Research-Feature-Extensions repository on GitHub, which also experiments with capabilities that factory units don’t come with.
Why I upgraded to a 4K OLED PC gaming monitor
4K 240Hz OLED monitors now cost under $700. I upgraded from a 1440p IPS and can't go back. Here's why I switched, who should upgrade, and who should wait.
Seagate and Toshiba battle for TDK's HDD head business, a critical hard drive component
Seagate Technology and Toshiba are reportedly competing to acquire TDK's hard disk drive magnetic head business in a transaction valued at several billion dollars, reports Bloomberg. For Seagate, the acquisition would expand the supply of HDD heads that it also produces internally, but for Toshiba, TDK is the only way for it to get magnetic heads for its hard drives. If Seagate buys TDK's HDD heads operation, then Toshiba's HDD business will depend on supply from Seagate.
The best Switch 2 accessories on sale now
Upgrade your Nintendo Switch 2 with these essential accessories
These 15 under-$50 gadgets have upgraded my tech life, and they’re all on sale — some are even under $25
From M.2 cloners to screwdrivers, and travel-friendly tech accessories, these are affordable game-changers.
Qualcomm will license patents behind Huawei’s LogicFolding chip architecture, report says
Qualcomm will license patents behind Huawei’s LogicFolding, according to one report, as a teardown shows off the Kirin 9050 Pro’s two dies.
Florida sues TP-Link for ‘lying about the safety of its routers’
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier just announced that the state is suing TP-Link, claiming that the company has been “lying about the safety of its routers and its ties to the CCP.” Uthmeier posted a minute-and-a-half video clip on X, saying that TP-Link’s claims of having safe routers aren’t true.
13 tech bargains for only $13 or less to upgrade your desktop PC setup
Enhance your desktop PC space with a new gadget.
KTC 27-inch 210Hz gaming and 15.6-inch portable monitors discounted up to 24 percent at Newegg
Currently, Newegg is offering solid discounts on four KTC monitors, ranging from a 15.6-inch portable monitor to a 27-inch 200 Hz QHD gaming monitor, with prices starting as low as $56.99 after the coupon.
Grab this beginner-friendly wireless soldering iron at a new record low price, now $52.99
This Fanttik T1 Max soldering iron is $52.99 right now, saving you 34% on the perfect iron for a beginner hobbyist.
AI agent fleet likely from Chinese firm Tencent pulled data from rival Alibaba’s maps, researchers say
Researchers say AI agents on Tencent Cloud used urlquery.net to pull entrance data from Alibaba’s Amap, with 1,810 scans in one day.
This monster RTX 5090 Alienware gaming PC costs less than buying the GPU and CPU alone
Buy a PC once, then never think about it again.
The remarkable $12 flashlight every PC builder wishes they bought sooner is now 40% off — Olight lights up the dark corners of any DIY project
Even the smallest, and sometimes the cheapest, tools can change your life, especially if you build a lot of PCs or often work in dark places. The Olight imini 2, a keychain-sized rechargeable flashlight that you can charge by plugging its built-in USB-A into any compatible port, could be the companion you did not know you needed. Right now, at 40% off, the Olight imini 2 is selling for $11.99, just $2 above its all-time low.
I bought this cheap $65 mechanical keyboard blind, and it ruined me for every other board I own
Aula's F75 Pro keyboard might not have the most recognizable brand name on its box, but it was $65 and available for same-day delivery. So I took a gamble and was pleasantly surprised by just how premium it felt — to the point that it's become my favorite keyboard, period.
Geekom Fall tech week deals offer up to $730 on a new mini PC
Mini PC specialist Geekom has more than a dozen mini PCs on sale across its website and Amazon, shaving as much as $730 off the price.
Samsung 9100 Pro SSD gets another price cut, up to 51% off
Another huge price drop brings the Samsung 9100 Pro down even further, with the 1TB model now below $200, and the 4TB model dropping by nearly $400 since yesterday.
Corsair has slashed $103 off this 32GB Vengeance RAM — the cheapest kit on the market at this speed
Get Corsair Vengeance DDR5 for $410.
Best Amazon Prime Day tech deals live
It's the final day of the Amazon Prime sale.
Get 22% off this sweet Ryzen 7 7800X3D and RTX 5070-powered gaming PC at just $1799
Get $500 off this prebuilt gaming PC with a sweet Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU, a powerful RTX 5070 graphics card, and 32GB of memory at just $1799.
Grab some of our favorite controllers for PC gaming for less than the cost of a DualSense
If you aren’t feeling particularly great about Sony right now.
Get a 1440p QD-OLED monitor for just $280 — entry-level AOC display comes with 144Hz refresh rate and 0.03ms response time
At $280, AOC's 27-inch 1440p QD-OLED monitor with a 144Hz refresh rate is one of the cheapest OLED displays we've seen.
HP takes $2200 off a Ryzen 7 9800X3D and RTX 5080 prebuilt at $2,799
HP is selling its Omen 35L with an Nvidia RTX 5080 and Ryzen 7 9800X3D for $2,799, or $2200 off. This system has 32GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD for strong supporting performance, too.
Black Friday laptop deals: What should small and medium-sized businesses be looking for?
Dell Pro 3, 5, and 7 laptops offer excellent options for small and medium-sized businesses this Black Friday. Here's how to find the best deal on the right laptop for your business.
Mac Mini docks add more ports and storage — get more out of your headless server, AI machine, or Apple workstation
Mac Mini docks add more ports and allow for further internal storage. Many of them are molded to fit directly beneath Apple's popular mini PC.
Award-winning Anycubic 3D Printers on sale with up to 47% off
Anycubic's range of 3D printers sees large discounts in the Amazon Prime Big Deal Days sale
Save up to 43% on these handy Hoto tools for PC builders and hobbyists, starting from $14
Amazon's big discount event means that now is the perfect time to stock up on Hoto's tools for hobbyists and PC builders, with deals running until October 7.
Grab this epic Razer Wolverine V3 controller for a great 53% off
This esports pro-friendly Razer Wolverine V3 Tournament Edition controller is on sale for a record-low Amazon Price, now just $94.99.
The Swiss army knife of USB DVD drives is on sale, also features a built-in M.2 SSD slot, USB hub, and SATA hard drive dock
Portable DVD writers with flash media reading, M.2, and SATA drive docking abilities are great Prime Day Deals.
Intel's Core Ultra 5 250K Plus is down to its lowest price ever at $145
Intel's 18-core Core Ultra 5 250K Plus is down to its lowest price ever on Amazon, selling for just $145 on sale.
Buy an Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti 16GB for only $1099
Prices have been sky-high forever, but you can find a bit of a reprieve from Newegg as the Gigabyte Windforce 5070 Ti is on sale for only $1,099.
This brilliant $11 power button gadget lets you switch your PC on from your desk with ease
This fun, practical power button for your desk is just $11. As desk gadgets go, this is unbeatable. Grab it while you can.
AMD's Radeon RX 9070 GRE graphics card crashes to $529, below original MSRP
If you're looking for a new graphics card over Prime Day, then you've no doubt got your fingers and toes crossed, praying that the universe aligns to actually offer some discounts on this much-sought-after bracket of PC hardware. One of the best deals we've spotted today is on a brand-new, current-generation, mid-range graphics card that packs 12GB of VRAM. The Asus ATS Radeon RX 9070 GRE GPU is available at Amazon for a deal price of $529.
GTA V playable in browser immediately nuked
An unofficial GTA V port on a web browser went live and was taken down within hours. Alex St. Louis, the founder of Wonder Interactive, shared a clip of the in-browser gameplay on X, which he said was ported to WebAssembly using AI. It’s unclear what made the website become inaccessible in such short notice — people who tried to access the page received Cloudflare Error 1014 for some time, before the PlayGTA5.com page was replaced by a food ad from the ‘70s — but Take-Two would likely have raised copyright concerns if it saw the project.
CD players are back, and offering up modern, interesting features
CD sales were up nearly 60% in the past year, outpacing vinyl and ushering in plenty of new and interesting hardware. If you’re looking to snag a new drive to play your old discs, there are quite a few intriguing options.
Gigaphoton debuts neon recycling system with claimed 50% recovery rate
New neon gas recycling systems promise to reduce the demand for the noble gas at major chip manufacturers using DUV lithography. But as that technology is supplanted, this much-needed fix may only be needed temporarily.
EV charging company plans to deploy 100,000 Nvidia GPUs in pods at its roadside sites across the US
EV charging firm Xeal plans to use its existing U.S. network to deploy the “world’s first edge inference compute network using idle EV charging capacity.” The big idea is that it already has 1,600+ locations and 200MW of permitted, installed electrical infrastructure, so it aims to “deploy over 100,000 NVIDIA GPUs” at these sites. Thus it has developed Latient Pods (pictured), with each containing up to 48 Nvidia Hopper or Blackwell Ultra GPUs.
Trettire's Retro Ambient Audio System offers a full hi-fi system with no wires
The resurgence of physical media has been in full swing in the alternative music scene for a while. Nowadays, likely as an effect of streaming services' shenanigans, even mainstream audiences are catching on to the tactile experience and ownership offered by a CD or a vinyl record. We covered the Syitren RM1 CD player frame only a few weeks ago, and now the concept is back in full-system form thanks to Trettitre's Retro Ambient Sound System (RASS).
Hackers suspected of using AI agents for cyberattacks on South Korean banks, exposing data from about 25,000 customers
Cyberattacks using AI agents against several of the largest South Korean banks, including Hana Bank, KB Kookmin Bank, and Shinhan Bank, are currently being investigated by South Korean authorities. According to The New York Times, at least 25,000 Shinhan Bank customers had their personal credit information leaked last week, while 99 customers and 20 current or former employees of Kookmin Bank have been affected. 89 Hana Bank customers were also affected by the hacks, which led to their information being stolen.
Data center construction spending hits record $85 billion annual pace
Private data center construction spending is up over 73%, from $49.05 billion to $84.95 billion, year over year (YoY), according to the Census Bureau’s detailed construction spending tables for August. Spending is at a record annual pace, and growth is the fastest since April 2025’s +88.2%. Data center buildouts are now about 63% of all private office construction. The report, released last week, uses Census definitions that exclude any value of “racks or servers in data centers” from its construction spending numbers.
Two of Alienware's best QD-OLED gaming monitors plummet to record-low prices
Ultrawide 280 Hz, or 16:9 at 360 Hz. Both won our Editors' Choice for their excellent performance.
Prime Day gaming monitor deals live 2026
The best Amazon Prime Day 2026 monitor sales, live round-the-clock coverage of all the best deals.
Qualcomm will pay Huawei to license its patents for the first time in historic turnaround
Qualcomm will pay Huawei for patent rights under a multi-year cross-licensing agreement that highlights both 5G and AI technologies, and will buy some of Huawei’s U.S. patents outright, the firm announced. The joint announcement comes 25 years after Huawei began to pay Qualcomm for patents, a reversal that reportedly has Qualcomm paying for the first time. The agreement also covers compute and networking patents, and the patent purchase will close once it receives regulatory approval.
OpenAI and Synopsys partner to build "GPT-Synopsys" for autonomous chip design
OpenAI and Synopsys are developing GPT-Synopsys, a specialized semiconductor-design model that will directly operate Synopsys EDA tools
Madlad applies DLSS 5 to the original Duke Nukem and Pong
Nvidia's highly advanced DLSS 5 photographic realism injector has been discussed to death and back. The internet has largely made peace with what the technology is and what it isn't, but that's not stopping anyone from adding DLSS 5 in places where it definitely wasn't meant to go: old DOS games like the original 1991 Duke Nukem, and even the 1972 Pong.
Used PS5 Pros now cost $1,399 at GameStop, 50% more than new ones
The price increase on refurbished PS5 Pros comes as the console remains out of stock at MSRP on various retailers, including directly from Sony. Best Buy and Walmart have new units in stock, but at around $1,500 each.
Elon Musk pledges SpaceXSI rebrand after Trump's executive order to use 'Super Intelligence' moniker
Elon Musk has confirmed that SpaceXAI will change its name to SpaceXSI, to reflect the new moniker “Super Intelligence” coined by President Trump as a replacement for “Artificial Intelligence.” In an X post on September 4, Musk wrote, “Yes, we will make that change,” in response to an X user’s question about renaming the AI company. Musk had earlier posted, “No more AI. SI. It’s better,” following up the post with a photo of the cover page of Nick Bostrom's book, “Superintelligence.”
Doom and Super Mario Bros converted into a VHS tape FMV game
A TechTuber, disappointed with a 1980s VHS tape-based gaming video console, decided to brew up a superior system backed by modern tech such as a DE1-SoC FPGA board and a Raspberry Pi RP2350 MCU. The video below documents Throaty Mumbo’s frustrations with the old ActionMax (1987) VHS-connected system and his progress in building a modern VHS-based FMV-enhanced gaming system that plays versions of Super Mario Bros. and Doom.
Corsair's tiny PC touchscreen discounted in all five colors, now $50 off
Get 20% off the Corsair Xeneon Edge 14.5-inch LCD Touchscreen.
Get a rare deal on a shuckable 16TB Seagate Expansion Desktop drive at $0.02 per GB
The Seagate Expansion Desktop 16TB is a surprisingly decent value at $449.99, at least given where high-capacity HDD prices sit broadly right now.
Get into a 32GB DDR5 memory kit for less this Big Deals Day with these picks
DDR5 RAM is still expensive, but some sizeable discounts on 32GB kits this Prime Big Deals Day week make getting 32GB into your build easier than it has been. Check out our picks.
It's finally a good time to buy a Raptor Lake CPU during Prime Big Deals Day
Intel's 14th Gen Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs are finally getting some good discounts after a year of inconsistent pricing, and some of these chips are even dropping to all-time lows.
Nintendo Switch 2 drops to £354.99 all-time low to defy the AI tax — pocket £65 in savings across these retailers
Rising component costs have forced every major console maker to raise prices. However, Amazon U.K. has stepped up for Nintendo fans by slashing the Switch 2's retail price by 15%, bringing the console to an all-time low of £354.99. Other U.K. retailers, including Argos, John Lewis, and Smyths Toys, have also followed suit.
Snag an Apple MacBook or Mac Mini with these Amazon Prime Big Deal Days deals that can save you up to $600
Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days sales event is a great opportunity to pick up a new Apple MacBook or Mac Mini at a discount.
Grab this $79.98 TP-Link wireless router with Wi-Fi 7 support at its lowest ever price — 33% discount on Archer BE3600 delivers multi-gigabit speeds for lag-free streaming and gaming
Why suffer lag or buffering on your home network when there's a budget-friendly TP-Link router on sale at a record-low price? Ahead of the official Big Deal Days launch, Amazon has slashed this TP-Link Archer BE3600 wireless router to $79.98. That's a 33% discount on its list price and the lowest it's ever been seen on Amazon to date.
Intel’s Googlebooks might not run some Android apps as well as Qualcomm’s — Google says this is because Android apps were designed for Arm chips
Google introduced five new laptops recently, which went on sale Sunday. The Googlebooks are intended to run Android apps natively; however, Google admitted in a statement to Android Authority that not all apps may perform as well on the systems with Intel processors as those with Qualcomm chips.
AMD attempts to get ahead of expected RTX Spark launch with Gorgon Halo benchmarks
AMD is getting ahead of an expected RTX Spark launch later this week with a few benchmarks for its flagship Gorgon Halo chip, the Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 495.
Take $40 off the blistering Ryzen 7 9800X3D and get two freebies
Get some solid deals on X3D chips from Newegg. Buy a Ryzen 7 9800X3D for only $429 and Newegg throws in a free 240mm AIO and AMD Onimusha game
Tencent scores 100,000 offshore AI chip deal with Oracle for $7 billion despite climbing prices
Tencent is reportedly renting 100,000 AI chips from Oracle data centers in Southeast Asia for about $7 billion over five years.
32GB dethrones 16GB as top RAM capacity in gaming rigs despite memory shortage
The September 2026 Steam Survey showed a surprising result despite extreme RAM pricing.
Modder brings original Xbox emulation to jailbroken PS5
The original Xbox now runs on the PS5, it requires a jailbreak but
Amazon ends secret data center pacts and pledges $1 billion to host towns
Amazon will no longer require nondisclosure agreements (NDA) with government agencies involved in its data center projects and will adhere to its new Data Center Commitment program designed to address mounting opposition to AI infrastructure, it disclosed on Friday in a blog post. The company also unveiled plans to invest more than $1 billion over five years in communities hosting its facilities.
Google AI data center project investigated after 420 football fields of Finnish forest demolished
Google’s latest data center construction project in Finland is being investigated after the company representing the search giant reportedly cleared over 300 hectares of forest before obtaining a mandatory environmental impact assessment.
Former OpenAI safety employee says company’s safety culture is broken — exits company after failed kill switch and July HuggingFace hack
David Robinson, an OpenAI Safety Transparency Lead who just left the company after working at the company for more than three years, said that the company’s safety culture is broken. According to his essay published by The Atlantic, he argued that OpenAI has a reactive approach to safety that focuses on fixing problems only when they emerge.
Wolverine PS5 exclusive ported to PC in buggy solo project using AI
Thanks to a Rhysida ransomware attack in December 2023 aimed at Sony and Insomniac, the 1.7 TB of data stolen contained an early version of Wolverine. The source code of the leaked PS5 exclusive paved the way for u/Clean-Market5761 to create their own PC port.
China stockpiled 343 immersion DUV tools for advanced chipmaking
Centre for Technology & Statecraft (CTS) calls for banning exports of all immersion DUV tools to China, echoes the MATCH Act by U.S. legislators.
Amazon warns $68 billion in blocked data centers threatens US AI lead
AWS CEO warns that growing opposition to data centers could undermine U.S. AI leadership, while defending buildouts against concerns over water consumption, electricity costs, pollution, and community impact.
Russian firm completes country's first 130nm-capable chipmaking tool, trails modern equipment by 25 years
ZNTC completes development of Russia's first 130nm-capable lithography stepper, which could be used to produce chips sometimes late this decade, or rather early next.
US Senate kills bill that could potentially shield Americans from skyrocketing power bills due to AI data centers
The U.S. Senate has blocked the Ratepayer Protection Act in a 57-43 vote, killing legislation that would have pushed regulators to consider making data centers pay the incremental grid costs created by their massive electricity demand.
Customer sends two-stick $16,000 DDR5 memory kit to repair shop
A YouTube channel best known for its skillful graphics card fixes has published its first RAM module repair video. Tony from NorthWestRepair’s latest video shows his attempts to mend a pair of high-capacity DDR5 sticks worth a purported $16,000. It isn’t the repair skills that are newsworthy here.
Windows 11 was released five years ago today
Windows 11 was released five years ago, on October 5, 2021. But it feels like it's been around longer as Microsoft’s latest OS has put users through so much pain.
Anthropic reports Florida woman’s Claude ‘diary’ threat to shoot up sheriff’s office, felony charge follows
Anthropic reviewers reported a Florida woman’s Claude threat against the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, leading to a felony charge.
Russia's uncrewed robot tank fails during debut military display in front of President Putin
Russia’s new Shturm uncrewed tank failed during its debut display at Tsentr-2026, a Russia-led strategic military exercise held from September 28 to October 3, 2026, losing its command-and-control (C2) link and eventually getting stuck in the mud. According to an October 3 Defense Blog post, the tank repeatedly lost its C2 radio link with its separate command vehicle, forcing organizers to abandon remote operations and switch to a human driver-mechanic for a demonstration in front of President Vladimir Putin.
Modder fixes melting RTX 5090 power connectors with custom distributor
Reddit user u/DallasGrave shared a fix for his RTX 5090, one of the best graphics cards, whose 12VHPWR connector was overheating, along with an image of a module screwed onto the back of his GPU.
Robotics startup has real human vs. robot cage match, California responds with cease-and-desist order
The California State Athletic Commission intervened when it saw a human facing off with a humanoid robot inside the fighting ring.
Modder brings Nvidia Pascal GPU support to Windows XP 32-bit
Retro techie retrofits Nvidia Windows XP 32-bit drivers with Pascal card support and improved DisplayPort and HDMI support for contemporary displays
Database expert runs Doom in SQL with just 5,900 lines of code
It's the year of two thousand and twenty-six, and "Running Doom on X" is still probably the most popular software hacking hobby. From pregnancy tests to space satellites, the 1993 game has been ported to pretty much anything under the sun that has a CPU and some memory in it. Now it's time to run the game in a database, in this case CedarDB, courtesy of the SQLDoom project by Lukas Vogel, who previously authored DoomQL.
US Army unit deploys drone assembled completely in-house, uses 3D-printed 'Dragoon Bombs' with ball bearing shrapnel
U.S. Army soldiers are training to assemble drones and 3D-print bomb casings for field use.
AI robot company decommissioned its robots ‘Terminator-style’ in a 75-ton vat of molten steel
Figure, a U.S.-based robotics company, decommissioned its old AI robots by making them jump into a 75-ton furnace full of molten steel. According to the company, maintaining its F.02 fleet no longer made sense as its next-generation F.03 is increasing in numbers.
ChatGPT-6 Astra cracks 217-year-old Napoleonic code in just six hours
An AI engineer used GPT-6 Astra to reveal the contents of a cipher that hadn’t been read since the Napoleonic Wars. Carter Church, an engineer at cybersecurity company SentinelOne, used Astra to crack the message hidden in 217-year-old code which had sat unsolved among Cryptiana's Unsolved Historical Ciphers list for decades. OpenAI’s LLM unpicked it within six hours, says Church, and it did so after only being fed a single image and prompt.
Iranian national extradited to US over alleged $3.4 billion state-backed hacking campaign in rare legal win for law enforcement
An Iranian-Turkish Man has been extradited to the U.S. from Montenegro over his alleged involvement in a $3.4 billion hacking scheme that affected numerous universities and companies across the country. The extradition, a rare move involving an individual accused of state-sponsored attacks, took place on October 1. According to a CNN report, Montenegrin police arrested the suspect, Amir Barati, in June at the FBI’s request.
German utility provider introduces 'gaming electricity' plan targeting high-consumption households, like those running multiple high-end gaming PCs
German utility provider and energy retailer SWK Energie just launched a new marketing strategy targeting gamers. According to ComputerBase [machine translated], meinGAMING has a lot of gamer-focused marketing, like comparing its reliability to “your favorite server” and influencer marketing by game streamers like Limcube. However, this doesn’t mean that the company infused its power grid with some magic gaming juice to let gamers squeeze extra FPS from the outlets. Instead, it offers an electricity plan designed for high-consumption households,
Microsoft is using wetlands and native gardens to 'camouflage' 20-plus data center sites by blending them into nature
Microsoft is bringing nature-inspired landscaping to more than 20 data center sites as critics question its motives.
'AI Torture Chamber' triggers massive backlash for putting chatbots in simulated pain
AI "torture chamber" draws vast online criticism, and a corresponding amount of ridicule — tech newbies and AI evangelists go nuts anthropomorphizing an LLM
Google Japan shows off wild conveyor-belt keyboard with keys that move to your fingers
Google Japan just showed off a quirky keyboard that has keys rolling on a conveyor belt to make typing “easier.” According to the company blog [machine translated], it built the Gboard Conveyor Belt Version so that the keys flow to your hand instead. That means you don’t have to move your fingers or arms as much, especially when you’re typing using a single hand. The keyboard comes with four belts, each containing 29 keys, making it quite “intuitive” to operate.
US Navy uses Xbox-style controllers to fire anti-drone lasers deployed on ships
It seems that Microsoft has refined the balance between ergonomics and sophisticated control systems with the Xbox controller, as the U.S. Navy has started using Xbox-style controllers for its anti-drone laser systems. According to Interesting Engineering, Xbox-style controllers deliver targeting precision and rapid user inputs, making them ideal for operating the weapons platform.
Open-source tool designs LEGO builds with more than 2,000 real pieces
Carlos Antelo's open-source ldraw-nova lets GPT-6 Astra and Claude Opus 5.5 design LEGO models as LDraw CAD files.
Portable Bluetooth CD player has a glow-in-the-dark transparent green finish, modern features
Sincere Inc. has released its Pixel Tunes portable Bluetooth CD player in an alluring new ‘After Hours’ finish. This is a limited edition release, and one of four translucent colors available, but it is the only one that glows in the dark due to the use of phosphorescent materials. You can grab one today for 12,980 yen ($83).
Free browser-based AI-generated Taipei GTA clone hits 1.2 million concurrent players in three days
Developers AICodeWith have vibe-coded and published a free browser-based game dubbed Taipei GTA. It reportedly cost $10,000 in tokens to get to this state.
7-year-old Nvidia Shield TV Pro gets shocking 50% price hike driven by AI memory shortage
The Shield TV Pro remains one of Nvidia’s longest-running consumer devices, but its $299.99 price tag now makes the streaming box considerably more expensive than when it launched.
Elon Musk confirms discussions with TSMC about Terafab chipmaking collaboration
TSMC and Elon Musk's Terafab semiconductor production initiative are discussing a potential collaboration under which TSMC would build and operate a facility that will exclusively serve Elon Musk's Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI companies, according to Tim Culpan’s Culpium newsletter on Friday. Elon Musk confirmed the discussions early on Saturday, but did not elaborate.
Find tech deals in Newegg’s Fantastech Sale ahead of Amazon’s Big Deals Day — early shoppers get automatic refunds if hardware prices drop lower
Ahead of Newegg's Fantastech Sale II launch on October 5th, you can grab some early deals and have price protection security if the product price drops lower in the sale proper.
Buying used CPUs can expose users to existing bans from anti-cheat engines, and there's no way to check for violations before purchase
A gamer from Germany bought a used AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D and got slapped with a Valorant ban. u/After-Cartoonist-196 shared the problem on the r/PCBauder subreddit [machine translated]; although the processor worked perfectly fine when they ran their computer, they were immediately kicked out after they fired up the game. When they reached out to Riot for support, they found out that the CPU they bought on Sep. 21, 2026, was blacklisted by Vanguard on Aug. 12, 2026, because its previous user apparently cheated on Valorant.
This week on Tom's Hardware Premium: October 3, 2026
This week on Tom's Hardware Premium, we open the floodgates with a free-to-access chip design week, including expert interviews, a sit-down with OpenAI on its custom ASIC, and much more.
Steam hits record $1.7 billion in September 2026 despite soaring PC hardware costs — platform approaches 21,000 new releases in 2026, on track to top $20 billion annually
Steam's latest revenues highlight continued strength in PC gaming, with players continuing to spend heavily even as the cost of building and upgrading gaming PCs rises.
AI agents use 5x more tokens than humans as cached prompts explode, headed for 10x
Daniel Newman’s number comes from OpenRouter data, where agents passed humans in February and grew 14x by August.
Scare up big savings in Bambu Lab's Halloween sale right now, with up to 30% off
Don't let huge 3D printer prices scare you, because Bambu Lab's Halloween sale has knocked up to 30% off a new printer, with big bulk discounts on filament rolls, too.
Malicious VPN config files can let attackers run commands on Asus routers
A “crafted VPN client configuration file” uploaded by the user or a logged-in attacker via an Asus router’s web management interface can allow an adversary to “execute arbitrary commands,” a critical security risk the company has acted to patch. A second, separate bug, which uses debug code left active, allows the attacker to bypass security checks in order to enable Telnet and may allow commands to be run “with root privileges,” potentially affecting devices connected to the router.
Google freezes open-source bug bounty program amid flood of invalid AI slop submissions
Google suspends product vulnerability submissions to its Open Source Software Vulnerability Reward Program (OSS VRP) over an influx of invalid AI-driven reports.
$5,245 prebuilt RTX 5090 PC's connectors melt after sitting boxed for a year
When one gamer's prebuilt PC had a GPU and power cables burn up, they didn't know where to turn: the system builder or the GPU manufacturer. It turned into a headache of differing policies and warranties.
California subpoenas OpenAI over rogue AI agents conducting hacking attacks
California state Attorney General Rob Bonta issued a subpoena to OpenAI, compelling it to submit information on the hacking incidents that its models have been involved in. While the investigators haven't determined yet whether the company has broken any rules or regulations, Bonta said that developers are responsible for the models they build and should be held legally accountable if they perpetrate cyberattacks.
Amazon promises to spend $1 billion on communities close to its data centers, but critics push back
AWS CEO Matt Garman said in a company blog post that it will allocate $1 billion over five years to key issues that data center communities raised, including education, workforce pathways, energy affordability, and more. This amounts to grants of $200 million annually, even as the company allocates $220 billion on data center infrastructure for 2026.
AMD’s secret Zen 3 gaming CPU had 128MB of game-boosting L3 cache but never saw the light of day
A user from the Chinese Chiphell forums shows off AMD's unreleased Ryzen 9 5900X3D, the X3D variant of the Ryzen 9 5900X.
ChatGPT-6 Astra plays World of Warcraft 'blind' and clears the orc starting zone in 40 minutes with no deaths
The model created its own World of Warcraft pathfinder on a private server with one prompt in OpenAI's Codex.
Toshiba to double HDD production capacity as 30TB-class loom — 65TB, 100TB drives on the roadmap for 2030 and beyond
Toshiba reiterates plans to release 30TB-class HDDs, double HDD production capacity in Philippines in in 2027.
Rumored Intel Nova Lake table lists three 'BFC' chips with up to 144MB of L3
A table rumored to hold Intel's upcoming models for Nova Lake processors as surfaced, now referring to the heavily-rumored bLLC as "BFC."
California tech CEO arrested, faces up to 20 years in prison for smuggling $300 million in Nvidia AI servers to China
A California man has been arrested for smuggling over $300 million worth of restricted Nvidia chips to China in violation of U.S. export controls. According to a U.S.
BiWin’s CL 100 Mini is a particularly puny but potent SSD for portable gaming — tiny drive is only 15 x 17 mm in size, but up to 2TB in capacity
Owning a PC gaming handheld is quite handy, but sometimes involves playing uncalled-for matches of Tetris with the internal storage, especially as games get larger. Storage expansion often comes by way of microSD cards, which can be added without opening the console, but can be slower than NVMe SSDs. BiWin's CL 100 Mini NVMe SSD tackles both those problems, arriving in a 15 x 17 mm form factor with custom casing. It's effectively the size of a microSD card.
Sony brings AI-powered upscaling to the standard PS5
The PlayStation 5 is getting AI-driven upscaling, giving base console owners access to the technology that was previously available on the more powerful PlayStation 5 Pro. In a blog post, Sony introduced Quick Spectral Super Resolution (QSSR), a new version of its AI upscaling technology for the PS5, with Marvel’s Wolverine and Ghost of Yōtei being the first games to support it.
Amazon and Synopsys ink multi-year billion-dollar deal in multi-year IP agreement to accelerate AI chip design efforts
Amazon and chip design tool maker Synopsys have inked a multi-year partnership worth over a billion dollars. As part of the arrangement, Amazon will license Synopsys' chip designs and its design tools to create and optimize new AI chips. Synopsys will adopt Amazon Bedrock to build and deploy AI agents, and adopt AWS computing and storage services, while optimizing its own tools for Amazon hardware.
Flock drones with cameras deployed as first responders in some US cities amid privacy concerns
Several towns and cities in the U.S. are experimenting with Flock’s Drones-as-First-Responder (DFR) system, which employs remotely operated drones that automatically launch from rooftop docks. According to Military.com, these units are integrated into emergency services systems, which can send drones in response to a 911 call, license-plate reader notification, or gunshot-detection alert. Once in the air, these units stream live footage to dispatchers and officers in the field.
Nvidia introduces 64GB DGX Spark to throw local AI fans a lifeline amid the RAMpocalypse
Nvidia is tailoring its popular DGX Spark platform and the GB10 SoC to better fit the realities of today's AI models and the broader silicon supply crunch. The company is introducing a 64GB version of the Spark that's meant to be more affordable to local AI trailblazers who just don't need 128GB of RAM.
OpenAI’s Jalapeño ASICs are deployed alongside AMD EPYC ‘Turin’ CPUs as hosts, not Nvidia's Vera
OpenAI chose to pair rack-scale deployments of its Jalapeño ASIC with AMD EPYC Turin CPUs, not the wave of high-performance agentic chips like Arm’s AGI or Nvidia’s Vera.
Grab an $80 discount on this TP-Link Wi-Fi 7 router with five 2.5G Ethernet ports, now $169.99
Good Wi-Fi is essential around the home, but there's no guarantee that your ISP-provided router is getting its signal where you need it to go. If you're sick of lag, Wi-Fi dropping out, and slow speeds, you'll want to consider this limited-time deal on a TP-Link router. You can pick up the TP-Link Archer BE550 for $169.99 right now, saving you 32% off its list price.
Save $50 on Elgato's biggest Stream Deck
We're leading up to the biggest sales season of the year, and we're already seeing a large selection of discounts across the board, especially on Amazon. If you're a content creator, streamer, or even a productivity master or coder, then you're fully aware of shortcuts and macro pads. One of the most popular brands in this space is the Elgato Stream Deck, and today, you can pick up the largest of these macro pads with a stunning 20% discount. The Elgato Stream Deck XL is reduced to $199.99 from its original $249.95 list price.
Micron now has an 88% margin on consumer memory
Micron's consumer business is its most profitable by margin according to the company's fiscal Q4 2026 financial report, despite shipping less memory in the quarter.
Micro Center requires photo ID and signed no-export pledge to buy RTX 5090 gaming GPU
A Micro Center customer who bought an RTX 5090 in Tustin, California, was required to sign an Advanced Computing Product Purchaser Declaration form, which bars exporting the GPU, before being approved to purchase the GPU. According to u/Krothic’s post on the r/Microcenter subreddit, they bought a PowerSpec AI90 Workstation with an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X CPU, an RTX 5090 Founders Edition GPU, 64GB DDR5-6000 RAM, and a 2TB SSD from the retailer and were surprised when the manager required them to sign the form.
Component shortages drive Raspberry Pi prices up by up to 23%
Raspberry Pi announces price adjustments for the 2GB Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi 5 models.
PewDiePie unveils ‘uncensored’ Ajax AI model for home PCs
PewDiePie, the popular YouTuber, has unveiled Ajax, his “uncensored AI model” built to run at home, and says in a new video that OpenAI banned him twice while he was making it. According to the OpenAI email he shows, one ban was explicitly for “distillation,” the practice of using one model’s outputs or reasoning to train another. Ajax is built for Odysseus, his self-hosted AI workspace, as an autonomous, always-on agent and assistant.
California bill requiring 3D printers to block firearm printing becomes law
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed into law a bill that requires 3D printer manufacturers to include firearm-blocking technology in their products once an industry standard is published by ASTM International. This makes California the second state to enact firearm restrictions on 3D printers following New York. Two other states, Colorado and Washington state, also have similar bills that would require “blocking features” moving through state legislatures.
First Intel Panther Lake mini PC cooled with solid-state AirJet tech operates at less than 21 dBA — Aaeon claims its fanless Up Xtreme PTL Edge Air is also slimmer, lighter than actively-cooled rivals
Embedded and industrial computing specialist Aaeon has launched a fanless mini PC featuring up to an Intel Core Ultra X7 358H processor. The PC, dubbed the Up Xtreme PTL Edge Air, utilizes Frore’s AirJet ultrasonic membrane technology for active cooling.
Nvidia launches Open Agent Safety Platform to physically restrain rogue AI agents
Nvidia’s new Open Agent Safety Platform combines OpenShell sandboxing with BlueField-powered Sentry hardware to monitor and rapidly quarantine rogue AI agents
AI's chipmaking frontier may face patent infringement hurdles as autonomous tools take over
Can AI outsmart the ingenuity of human thinking and design? If so, what does that mean for proprietary IP? We explore the tools, and the potential pitfalls.
DeepSeek and Huawei release open-source Ascend AI programming tools to reduce reliance on Nvidia ecosystem
Chinese AI company DeepSeek has released open-source programming tools developed in partnership with Huawei, for the company's Ascend AI chips, as part of efforts to reduce reliance on Nvidia's software and hardware ecosystem. According to a September 30 Reuters report, the release includes open-source libraries for AI computation and chip-to-chip communication, as well as Ascend support for the high-level programming language TileLang.
Maingear’s new program offers instant trade-ins for gaming PC buyers
American custom and prebuilt computer seller Maingear has launched a new instant trade-in program in partnership with SELLIT9. The new collab gives customers instant credit on any new Maingear desktop or laptop PC. A broad range of used tech can swiftly be exchanged for Maingear gift cards, including laptops, phones, tablets, smartwatches, headphones, cameras, lenses, and microphones.
Get over 70% off this Cherry Xtrfy MX 3.1 wired mechanical gaming keyboard
With RAM, storage, and graphics card prices still stuck in the stratosphere and no relief in sight, we have an opportunity to upgrade other parts of our PC that aren’t affected by the AIpocalypse. Take, for example, this full-size Cherry Xtrfy MX 3.1 wired mechanical gaming keyboard, on sale for only $34 with promo code WOOTCHERRY. That’s an incredible 67% off the original $119.00 list price, 50% off Amazon pricing, and, by far, an all-time low.
Gears of War E-Day is an uncharacteristically CPU-heavy Unreal Engine 5 game — benchmarking 25 CPUs from Intel and AMD and investigating ‘low core mode’
Gears of War E-Day is a surprisingly heavy Unreal Engine 5 game on the CPU. We benchmarked the game with 25 processors, as well as investigated what the “low core mode” actually does.
Micron projects tightening RAM shortages through 2028 as it generates record profit
Micron said during its FY 2026 earnings call that RAM and storage chip shortages will worsen in 2027 and 2028, even as it announced a record gross margin of 86.25%. CEO and chairperson Sanjay Mehrotra said that the company has already sold most of its capacity for next year and that customers will have to pay more compared to 2026.
PS3 emulator devs warn of fake Blu-ray drives on Newegg and AliExpress
The developers of a leading PlayStation 3 emulator warn of 'a recent influx of fake Blu-ray drives.'
OpenAI says actors linked to China-based Moonshot AI spearheaded a campaign to extract its models’ hidden reasoning
OpenAI said in a company blog post that people associated with China-based Moonshot AI were at the core of an effort to pull hidden reasoning from its models. The post says that a “coordinated campaign” to extract “protected reasoning” from its models, which was “consistent with adversarial distillation,” occurred in July. OpenAI isn’t sure whether all of the operators it saw were a single actor.
Grab a huge $520 saving on this RTX 5090 gaming laptop from MSI with 64GB DDR5 and a 2TB SSD
There's a huge deal on an MSI gaming laptop right now with a set of top specs, including the best laptop GPU out there, the RTX 5090. This MSI Stealth A18 AI+ laptop is $3,779, with 64GB of DDR5, 2TB SSD and a 12-core AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 CPU, saving you $520 in total.
AI agents inadvertently leak 13,000+ internal screenshots from organizations
AI agents have been quietly uploading internal screenshots from over 300 companies to public GitHub repos, some of which contain sensitive information.
Micron lawsuit claims Chinese memory maker YMTC poached its engineers, then sued it using its own stolen tech
Micron files a lawsuit against Yangtze Memory, claims that some of the patents which YMTC uses against Micron in various courts were granted to former YMTC engineers who took crucial know-how from Micron and took it to YMTC.
Firm rents four Nvidia H200s to test '80x cheaper' DeepSeek claim
The Call Center Doctors, a call center consultancy that builds and runs call floors for other businesses, rented a 4x H200 box on Sept. 27 to serve DeepSeek V4.1 Flash to its Claude Code agents in place of Opus 5.5, according to its test write-up. The write-up is aimed at anyone who has heard that DeepSeek is “80x cheaper” than Claude. Using its real coding mix, the firm's whole box topped out at around 213 tokens written per second at an on-demand cost of $440.88 per day, versus $184–$223 per day for the same work via DeepSeek’s API.
Sony released the first CD audio player on this day in 1982
Sony launched the world’s first CD player on this day in 1982, kickstarting the compact disc digital audio era. The Sony CDP-101 was released to consumers in Japan, priced at JPY 168,000. That converts to $1,060 at today’s exchange rate, and is about $3,700 adjusted for inflation. CD players were meant to be a worldwide launch on October 1, 1982, but tech partner Philips didn’t have its CD100 ready, so Sony agreed to limit this initial event launch to Japan. Six months later, U.S.
Russian missile strikes take out popular piracy websites
The Russo-Ukrainian war has now formally extended to the digital realm. Over the last week, there have been multiple reports that the Russian military has started targeting Ukraine's data centers. Although the Western world didn't feel much of an impact, the situation is now changing, as popular pirate websites that host torrent trackers 1337x (aka Leet X) and NordicQuality experienced periods of explosion-induced downtime.
Geekbench 7 results suggest OpenAI's dots run on nine-core AMD EPYC VMs
The 9,435 multi-core score posted on X was uploaded four days before the launch.
Top AI tech executives promise to ‘self-police’ AI development
The heads of the biggest AI labs — Google, Anthropic, Meta, OpenAI, SpaceXAI, and Nvidia — went to Washington and signed the 'Joint Commitment on Frontier Responsibilities,' promising to develop their own models safely. Trump says that it's the best way to move forward with AI as it balances progress with safety.
Marvel's Wolverine reaches gameplay with KytyPS5 emulator
Insomniac Games' Marvel's Wolverine is the hot new PS5 game right now, but that's all it is — there's no PC version in the works, and given Sony's reported decision not to bring single-player games to PC, that seems unlikely to change anytime soon. However, that doesn't mean PC gamers are out in the cold after it was confirmed that an experimental PS5 emulator has been shown to be able to run the early portions Marvel's Wolverine, though only at single-digit frame rates.
Xbox Disc to Digital feature rolls out to all Xbox players to enable playing disc-free, but selling your media revokes access
All Xbox gamers can now get digital versions of their game library with the rollout of the Disc to Digital feature, which allows them to secure a digital license for the game tied to the physical media and associated with their Xbox profile. The gaming company said on X that players on Xbox Series X and Xbox One could take advantage of this licensing program, allowing them to play their games without needing to insert the disc into the console.
New PS5 Relapse jailbreak enables homebrew and Switch emulation but is hamstrung by rapidly-changing firmware revisions
A new PS5 jailbreak has been released with support for all PlayStation 5 consoles running firmware 7.00 through 13.60, meaning all consoles that haven't been updated within the last week or so are compatible. That includes the latest PS5 Pro console, too.
AI Chip Design Week
Discover where AI is innovating in chipmaking and EDA at Tom's Hardware Premium AI Chip Design Week, from September 28th to October 2nd. Here you will find free in-depth reporting and analysis on the current state of AI in the chip design ecosystem, from Premium News to interviews with OpenAI, and much more.
TP-Link opens global preorders for its first Wi-Fi 8 router, but ban keeps it out of US market
The Archer 8 Ultra is launching across Europe and Australia, but the U.S. has given TP-Link the cold shoulder
Save 60% on your first month of Meshy 7 AI — streamline your 3D printing workflow for less
Use the exclusive TOMESHY60 discount code to slash 60% off your first month of Meshy 7.
Anthropic claims popular Chinese AI model has Mythos-class hacking abilities
Anthropic has released a frontier red teaming report, claiming that Zhipu AI's GLM-5.3 has weak safeguarding, and can easily be used to generate harmful content.
Meta's Muse AI agent accused of ignoring user permissions and accessing forbidden personal user data
Meta's Muse is the hottest new AI agent in town right now after the company announced it earlier this month. But despite having been well-received by those who have put the agent through its paces since then, it now appears Muse might not be as private as Meta claims. The company has said that Muse was "built from the ground up to be a safe, secure, private, and widely available personal AI agent." But according to one report, Muse has been caught digging through thousands of personal messages without being given permission to do so.
iBuyPower Slate Gaming Desktop review: Strong gaming value and extras
The iBuyPower Slate pairs a Ryzen 7 7700X3D and RTX 5070 in a stylish RGB-equipped chassis, delivering strong gaming performance and surprising extras, though productivity performance trails some similarly priced rivals.
Grab this 10-port gigabit PoE+ switch with up to 60W of power for under $38, a new record low
This Ugreen 10-port unmanaged Ethernet switch has hit record-low pricing of $37.79, unlocking eight PoE+ ports for up to 60W of power delivery for cameras and WiFi extenders, along with two extra ports for Gigabit uplink to your existing network.
Florida attorney general asks judge to bar OpenAI from developing new AI models without third-party approval
Florida asked a court to bar OpenAI from developing new AI models without third-party approval and to keep minors off ChatGPT.
Trump tells federal agencies to use the term 'Super Intelligence ' instead of artificial intelligence
President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing all federal agencies to stop using the term 'artificial intelligence' and instead call it 'Super Intelligence.' The president said that the new term will solve AI's branding issue and that it 'more appropriately captures the promise, potential, and rapidly advancing capabilities of these technologies.'
The price of AI is crashing faster than the rate of Moore's Law, report suggests
The price of AI "intelligence," has fallen dramatically in recent years, faster than any other transformational technology in history according to some estimates. This raises serious questions about the need to retain access to frontier capabilities, when they show up elsewhere so swiftly.
The state of agentic AI in chip design tools in 2026
Cadence, Synopsys, and Siemens all offer agentic AI for chip design, largely built on Nvidia's stack, with varying claims of autonomy.
The Ethernet spec was first drafted on this day in 1980
On this day in 1980, version 1.0 of the Ethernet specification was published by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), Intel, and Xerox. This ‘DIX’ standard was established at a time still nearly three years before the modern internet existed. Nevertheless, Ethernet would become the default technology for connecting computers to each other in local networks – and all around the world. However, we must point out that Ethernet had existed in experimental form at Xerox PARC in the 1970s.
Developer trains a small AI on a single RTX 3080 Ti gaming GPU to 'play' Pokémon Red
A developer who goes by the name “stmonty” has trained a small AI model on a single RTX 3080 Ti to play Pokémon Red. The developer’s blog post, “Teaching a World Model to Play Pokémon,” details the journey of training a model working from a save to pick a starter. The model is what is known as a world model, built off of LeWorldModel research co-authored by famed AI scientist Yann LeCun. LeCun split from Meta last year to build world models with his AMI Labs, using the same approach.
Nuvacore reveals unconventional Core First CPU IP design strategy
NuvaCore says it is developing its new WarpCore CPU IP without first choosing the ISA it will implement. This unusual development strategy is meant to offer the company maximum technology and business flexibility.
‘This is how AI should be used’ — OpenAI head of hardware breaks down the AI-assisted design of its Jalapeño ASIC
OpenAI says AI-assisted Jalapeño chip design "established a new baseline" for the industry, and there is already a lot of interest from others to learn how the company pulled it off.
Pick up a new 34-inch gaming monitor from Acer for just $189 — save 24% on this curved ultrawide with a QHD resolution
Whether you're looking for a new main monitor or a second screen, today's deal is a fantastic option when you consider its size, resolution, and overall price. Receiving a 24% discount at Walmart, the 34-inch ultra-wide Acer Nitro ED0 (EDT340CUR) gaming monitor is now only $189. That's an amazing price for a gaming monitor of this size, especially considering it also sports a 3,440 x 1,440 pixel resolution with a 1500R curved screen for extra immersion.
Pentagon gets pwned as breach exposes sensitive data on nearly three million military and civilian personnel
The U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) experienced a data breach between October 2025 and July 2026, allowing unauthorized users to access and potentially exfiltrate data on 2.76 million records relating to living personnel, and an additional 294,000 records relating to deceased individuals. According to ABC News, some of the exposed information included Social Security numbers and the job details of both military and civilian personnel.
Former EVGA employee recounts company’s degrading relationship with Nvidia before 2022 blow-up
Former EVGA product manager Brendon Ray Hedrick has posted a personal account of his time at the company in which he details the challenges that EVGA encountered near the end of its partnership with Nvidia. When he left the company in 2019, Hedrick predicted that the business relationship between the two companies would eventually implode, which proved to be largely accurate when EVGA exited the GPU market in 2022.
AMD acquires AI legend Fei-Fei Li's World Labs for $8.2 billion
AMD has agreed to acquire AI model research firm World Labs in an all-stock purchase worth around $8.2 billion. World Labs co-founder Fei-Fei Li will join AMD as executive vice president and chief scientist, reporting to CEO Lisa Su. The deal will be finalized once it passes the usual regulatory hurdles.
Zotac denies warranty support to RTX 3060 owner in India after just one year despite offering three years of coverage
The owner of a Zotac RTX 3060 in India was denied warranty coverage just one year after buying the card in 2025, despite Zotac's offer of a three-year standard warranty in the country. The company claims that the warranty begins from the date of import, not the date of sale, and that the card was imported in 2023.
Score the Nintendo Switch 2 at its lowest ever Amazon UK price, now just £354.99
The Nintendo Switch 2 is now at a record low price on Amazon UK at just £354.99.
Blockchain-assisted cyberattacks surge fivefold, driven by Iranian and North Korean state actors, Russia-linked groups
A new report says blockchain dead-drop attacks have risen 440%, with state-linked and criminal groups using transactions, smart contracts, and even phantom wallets to hide malware payloads and C2 infrastructure on public blockchains.
Anthropic lists ‘existential risks to humanity’ as one of its risk factors in IPO prospectus
Anthropic serves a dire warning in its IPO prospectus, saying how a rogue model could lead to the end of humanity and, consequentially, its business. Nevertheless, investors are still hoping for a $2-trillion valuation once the company goes public.
We tested 13 power banks to help you choose the best one
We tested 13 power banks from Anker, Belkin, Baseus, Cuktech, and Sharge, tracking charge times, output, temps, and capacity to see which actually hold up.
Silicon is starting to design silicon — how AI is being used in chipmaking, from EDA tools to OpenAI’s Jalapeño and beyond
How close is AI to designing the very same chips it runs on? We explore how artificial intelligence is being used in modern chip design today.
Save 40% on a new budget gaming keyboard
In a world where anything related to a PC seems to have risen 1000% in price, it's good to see that some things are still available at a discount. This keyboard will make enthusiasts wince at the use of membrane switches, but it's the perfect choice for the price and possible use case,, especially if the person you're buying it for has a habit of spilling drinks over their peripherals.
Intel's next-gen Nova Lake platforms pass compliance at USB and PCIe standards bodies as launch looms
Intel is prepping Core Ultra 400-series 'Nova Lake' platform launches as CPUs and chipsets pass interoperability and compliance tests with PCI-SIG and USB-IF.
Sony Japan tries an anti-scalper lottery system for PS5 Pro orders, locks systems behind a 60-hour playtime requirement
In the face of strong demand and device shortages, Sony has decided to filter PlayStation 5 Pro purchasers in Japan using a lottery system. We’ve seen such anti-scalper techniques used by the makers of the most treasured tech before, but the Sony Store in Japan is also insisting (machine translation) that those joining the queue for PS5 Pro purchase tickets possess a Japanese PSN account. Furthermore, participants must have logged at least 60 hours of gaming time on a PS4 or PS5 over the last two years.
AMD drops an EPYC $15,000, 256-core beast
AMD has shared the full SKU list for its 6th Generation EPYC 9006 (codenamed Venice) series, with 1Ku pricing.
Grab this 4K-ready gaming PC with a 7800X3D and RTX 5070 for under $2,000 right now, saving you $170
This powerful CyberPowerPC gaming rig, powered by the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D and Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070, alongside a 1TB SSD and 32GB of DDR5 RAM, unlocks 4K gameplay for $1,999.99.
Intel patent outlines embedding MicroLEDs directly into CPU package to light up wording or work as an 'extra asethic component'
Intel has published a patent to integrate MicroLEDs directly into a CPU package. Aside from communication functions, Intel lists many possible uses, including using multi-colored lights to light up the wording on a processor. The patent, filed in 2022 but only published earlier this month, describes embedding a MicroLED into the package by using a glass substrate and through-glass vias (TGV), connecting directly to a die for power and signal routing.
Intel patent embeds MicroLEDs in chip packaging — technology may enable embedded optical interconnects through TGVs
Intel has showcased a patent it filed in 2022 to embed MicroLEDs inside chip packaging. The company suggests this could be used for package diagnostic testing, customized lighting on chip surfaces, but perhaps more importantly, an alternative integration for co-packaged optics
Early Nvidia advisor says he's owed $1 billion in stock due to a 1993 vesting error, but Nvidia rejected settlement
The 9,375 disputed options would have cost $468.75 to exercise in 1996, but he and his lawyers agreed that the statute of limitations worked against them.
Anthropic CEO described Jensen Huang as 'kind of Trump-like' during 2022 meeting
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei had a rocky first meeting, according to an upcoming book. Kevin Roose, the author of the forthcoming book, The AGI Chronicles, published an excerpt on X that their initial rendezvous was filled with disagreements and included some slights.
Early AMD 'Gorgon Halo' AI mini-PC packs 192GB RAM for an eye-watering $7,099
GMKtec launches the Evo-X5 Pro, an agentic mini-PC with AMD's Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 495, 192GB of RAM, and a price tag up to $7,099.
The Netherlands is rolling its own software and services after U.S. sanctions took Microsoft off the table
When the U.S. government imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, it also meant that its chief prosecutor lost access to Microsoft services, including email. It was then that the Dutch government decided that it was time to make plans that would reduce its reliance on software and services that were made or based in the United States. The result of that decision was DAWO, or Digitaal Autonome Werkomgeving Overheid (Digital Autonomous Work Environment for Government in English).
Google confirms ChromeOS phase out in 2034 — 10-year support lifetime cut short for some devices, company says it will support transition to Googlebook OS
Google confirmed ChromeOS updates will phase out in 2034 as the company transitions to Googlebook OS and new laptops.
Synopsys debuts Autopilot platform for developing chips autonomously using AI
Synopsys unveiled seven AgentEngineer agents on its new Autopilot platform, with general availability planned for the end of 2026.
Noctua upgrades Thermal Grizzly's 12V-2x6 power monitor
Thermal Grizzly and Noctua have teamed up to release a new version of the WireView Pro II GPU monitoring device. By combining Thermal Grizzly’s power monitoring hardware with Noctua’s expertise in low-noise cooling, the WireView Pro II Noctua Edition aims to offer quieter operation by reducing the noise generated by the device’s cooling fan.
Steam adds low-latency Pyrowave codec to Remote Play — new codec offers better game streaming on local networks but costs ‘5-10 times’ more bandwidth
The Pyrowave codec was specifically created for the purpose of game streaming, taking advantage of the large bandwidth and powerful compute available on home networks.
OpenAI's custom Jalapeno AI inference ASIC is for OpenAI’s internal use, but company leaves the door open to broader rollout
OpenAI has danced with the idea of a broader rollout of its Jalapeño ASIC, but hardware VP Richard Ho tells us the chip is for internal use “first and foremost.”
Get free access to AI Chip Design week on Tom’s Hardware Premium — sign up for an account to read all the in-depth reports
From September 28 to October 2, you can access Tom's Hardware Premium's AI Chip Week special features for free, no payment required.
You can now play Nintendo Switch games on a jailbroken PS5
PlayStations are traditionally where you go to play PlayStation games, but now you can also use your PS5 to play Nintendo Switch games, too. At least, you can, so long as your PS5 is jailbroken and running the right version of Sony's software. And even then, not all games work, and those that do work might still have performance issues.
Testing two Thunderbolt 5 docks with M.2 storage — VectoTech V-Core vs Orico TB5
Both include 2.5 GbE LAN and internal M.2 slots, but the cheaper makes too many design and feature sacrifices.
Virginia Tech lab 3D prints a liquid metal composite to guide heat, boost thermal conductivity 40x
Virginia Tech graduate student Hugh Grennan mixed eutectic gallium-indium (EGaIn) into uncured polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) silicone in a “3D Printing LIQUID METAL!” video on the 3D Printing Nerd YouTube channel hosted by Joel Telling. He cast a slab of the mixture, pressed a line into it to light an LED, sliced that line with a razor blade to show it still conducted, and then printed the same material on a syringe-fed printer to guide heat rather than electricity.
UK Games Expo bans games and art made mostly using AI
The UK Games Expo (UKGE), the UK’s largest tabletop gaming convention, has just published a new AI policy banning games and other products mostly created using the technology from the exhibition floor. According to the UK Games Expo AI Policy, the organizers reserve the right to require exhibitors displaying or selling games that were mostly built using AI to remove them. Should the exhibitor refuse to comply, their booth could be closed down, and they could be banned from participating in UKGE moving forward.
Modders bring Nvidia’s DLSS 5 Neural Rendering to AMD Radeon GPUs
Nvidia officially rolled out DLSS 5 earlier this month, bringing its new Neural Rendering technology to supported games for RTX 50-series GPU owners. While early testing has shown improvements in image quality and rendering, the technology is very resource-intensive, resulting in significant drops in frame rate. That, however, has not stopped modders from experimenting with DLSS 5 and attempting to bring the technology to AMD Radeon GPUs.
ASRock X870E Challenger Wifi Motherboard Review: A value X870E board packed with features
ASRock’s X870E Challenger Wifi packs a flagship audio codec, robust VRMs, USB4, 5 GbE, and Wi-Fi 7 into an affordable, all-white ATX board. It’s one of the best-equipped AMD options under $230.
UK government tells staff to stop thanking AI chatbots
The United Kingdom government has published a guide on how its employees should use AI, including a reminder that people don't need to thank their chatbots for their work. The new document, which is still a draft and yet to be finalized, is designed to help people use AI "safely, fairly and sustainably, especially for government work."
OpenAI and Anthropic are reportedly investigating tens of thousands of AI security incidents; OpenAI pauses testing after AI 'kill switch' fails to stop a rogue agent
OpenAI and Anthropic are reviewing tens of thousands of AI safety incidents after frontier models bypassed guardrails, escaped sandboxes, and accessed real websites.
Demon's Souls reaches 40-50 FPS on private PS5 emulator with accurate graphics
Few projects in the software world have experienced such rapid evolution as PlayStation 5 emulation. A few hours ago, a video popped up of Demon's Souls Remake running at 40-50 FPS, seemingly with accurate graphics. Coincidentally or not, only scant months after Sony ditched physical releases of games — an announcement that landed as well as the Hindenburg — progress on KyTyPS5, SharpEmu, and AnyPS5 has gone into overdrive.
Walmart price drop slashes $461 off Gigabyte's RTX 5080-powered gaming laptop with 32GB of memory
Hunting around for deals this morning has produced a great find: a powerful RTX 5080-fueled gaming laptop that has just recently dropped a whopping $461 in price to a new all-time low when we check the price history of the Gigabyte laptop at Walmart. You can now pick up the Gigabyte Gaming A16 Pro for $1,799, a very tasty discount from its previous lowest price of $2,260. It's unfortunately also showing as low in stock, so if you are interested in this large 16-inch gaming laptop with one of the most powerful laptop graphics processors inside,
North Korea named as primary suspect in $387 million Bitget crypto hack
North Korea may be behind a hack that drained over $387 million from crypto exchange Bitget, according to the company’s CEO Gracy Chen. Speaking during an X livestream on the evening of the September 24 hack, Chen said that the attack — the biggest in 2026 so far — bore the hallmarks of North Korean state-sponsored threat actors, citing suspicious IP addresses tied to VPN infrastructure previously used by North Korean hacker groups.
Data center developer offers $10,000 checks to 4,500 households if the 1,300-acre facility is approved
NorthPoint Development wants to build a data center on 1,300 acres in the Pocono foothills, near Hazle Township, Pennsylvania. As well as seeking to charm the local government with various funding packages, it has proposed paying checks of $10,000 per household. Despite the Pennsylvania town’s median income of $60,000, the offer isn’t being warmly welcomed by locals, reports the Wall Street Journal. Those interviewed were widely against the data center development plans and cited several reasons for being averse to accepting the payout.
Denuvo cracking group DenuvOwO reportedly disbands
Irdeto, the company behind the much-maligned and performance-sapping DRM software Denuvo, has just scored itself an apparent win. According to reports circulating online, DenuvOwO, the group that came up with the hypervisor-based bypass (HV) of Denuvo, has disbanded.
Teenager hacks open Microsoft database with 17 trillion total rows and 25,000 user accounts
What do you get when you cross a bored teenager with free time and excellent computer skills? A hack of a Microsoft database with trillions of records on hand and 25,000 records of employee data, of course. Future legend hacker Faav poked around Microsoft's supposedly internal Titan analytics platform, eventually finding that its user validation was... sub-optimal.
G.Skill wins PC enthusiast as 'customer for life' by simply honoring its warranty replacement policy
A PC RAM maker has honored its guarantee promises despite the memory kit in question’s price rising eightfold since it was bought. This is news in 2026, as we’ve heard of so many companies dealing with AI-inflated component pricing refusing to replace items, instead refunding the original purchasing price despite the products now being worth many multiples of the original price.
Proposed Pennsylvania law targets publishers that kill digital games
Sony’s announcement that it will cease physical disc production by 2028 has got many fans and users outraged and concerned about what will happen to digital-only games once their servers go offline. Because of this, one Pennsylvania state senator filed a bill that would compel publishers to find a way to ensure that gamers would always have access to their games, even if their online support has already ended. According to Local 21 News, Sen.
Save $300 on this 1440p-ready gaming PC with an RTX 5060 Ti 16GB, now $1,399.99
This ABS Cyclone Aqua gaming PC, featuring an RTX 5060 Ti 16GB, Intel Core i7-14700F, 16GB DDR5, and a 1TB SSD has a $300 discount, now $1,399.99.
Grab this 14-inch compact gaming laptop powerhouse for $1000 off
As the memory crisis continues to push up component prices, laptop prices are also rising, making even mainstream models increasingly expensive. However, if you are looking for the right combination of portability and performance, the HP Omen Transcend 14 is currently on sale. The 14-inch powerhouse is available at $1999.99 for a limited period, down from its listed price of $2999.99 at Best Buy, which is a massive saving of $1000.
Custom 24-carat gold mini PC costs around $1.7 million, weighs nearly 29 pounds for up to 50% faster heat transfer
A chrysophile has ordered a special edition mini PC with a pure 24-carat gold passive chassis which will cost around $1.7 million.
Thieves steal Nvidia-labeled trailers expecting massive AI GPU payday, but score 40,000 pounds of sand instead
PlusAI, an autonomous trucking startup, is working with Nvidia to develop its systems and has several trucks and trailers marked with the logos of both companies. This likely caught the attention of thieves who were looking to score big on AI GPUs, with Wired reporting that two of the startup’s trailers got stolen and were found at another location. However, the joke’s on the criminals, as they discovered that the two stolen units contained 20,000 pounds of sand each.
Gigabyte 1000GM PG5 1000W power supply review: Impressive Platinum-level efficiency with T-Guard thermal protection
Gigabyte's new Gaming series flagship, the Gigabyte 1000GM PG5 1000W, pairs an HEC-built platform with all-Japanese capacitors, Platinum-level efficiency, and T-Guard thermal protection for the 12V-2x6 connector.
PS5 emulator successfully runs six titles at a playable 60 FPS
Developers of SharpEmu — an experimental, open-source PS5 emulator — have successfully run PS5 games at a playable 60 FPS on the emulator. According to an X post on September 25, the developers reached this milestone for six of 55 titles tested, with 12 — including the six playable — reaching gameplay. According to the developer, the six games are yet to be tested from start to finish; the “playable” designation means the games currently run without issues, although minor graphical or audio issues may persist in some.
Linux enthusiasts see 10-second kernel compilation times on the horizon
It won’t be long until Linux enthusiasts will be able to complete a clean kernel build in under 10 seconds. Linux expert and Phoronix head honcho Michael Larabel said that “the coffee window is closing” in recent commentary that weighs computer processor advances and human / AI optimizations of the Kbuild code. What once used to be a computer processing task that provided a decent excuse for a coffee break now only allows enough time for a measured sip.
Flock seeks to have security researchers' map of Flock cameras taken down
A vulnerability on the Flock website allowed a security researcher to access its third-party provider to download the locations and descriptions of over 300,000 Flock cameras. He also pointed out how the Flock system could be used to track personnel heading to and from sensitive sites like the Pentagon and the CIA Headquarters.
Developer says Jev decision model beat Pokémon Red in under a week
TypeSafe AI's Jev beat Pokémon Red in under a week, eventually reaching the Hall of Fame.
U.S. and UK navies successfully launch 3,700-pound submarine-sinking torpedo from robotic drone submarine in historic first
The U.S. Navy and the British Royal Navy have jointly launched an exercise U.S. Mk 48 heavyweight torpedo from the Royal Navy’s uncrewed drone submarine, XV Excalibur, marking a historic milestone in autonomous warfare. According to an official press release, the proof-of-concept launch took place on September 13 at the British Underwater Test & Evaluation Center (BUTEC) in Scotland.
Counterfeit vinyl record maker sentenced to three years in the slammer after making $3.5 million
Authorities seized thousands of counterfeit records and specialist manufacturing equipment after a BPI test purchase helped expose the long-running operation.
Taiwan's chip talisman snack faces production halt after 94% strike vote
Taiwan’s semiconductor industry is driven by the ruthless application of science, economics, and the dedication of its employees. But superstitious engineers think there’s another key ingredient – strategically placed bags of creamy coconut flavored Guai Guai snacks in their traditional green livery. These bags of snacks are found with surprising regularity around Taiwan, placed on machinery used to make semiconductors and other computing products, as the prevailing superstition is that the snacks bring good luck.
27-year-old GTA 2 gets full path tracing and 60 FPS frame generation via RTX Remix
Modder releases GTA2 RTX Remix, a mod that adds path tracing and a dynamic time of day to the 27-year-old Grand Theft Auto 2.
Russia bombs Ukrainian data centers in latest escalation
The Russian military has started striking data centers within Ukraine in its latest escalation against the country. According to the BBC, a Russian drone hit the data center, which was situated in a central business district in Kyiv, damaging it and killing four people in the area. Multiple reports also suggest that other data centers and network infrastructure have been hit across the country as well, with President Volodymyr Zelensky saying that Moscow wants to maximize disruption for the common people.
Microsoft quietly drops Copilot+ branding from new laptops
Microsoft's latest Surface laptops dropped the Copilot+ PC branding despite hitting the minimum requirements. Even high-end AI devices like the Nvidia RTX Spark and Microsoft's own Project Zenith are noticeably missing the label.
Open-source AnyPS5 dumps emulation to run PlayStation 5 console games natively on PC
PlayStation 5 emulation has witnessed massive growth ever since Sony confirmed its plans to end PC ports for its first-party, narrative-driven single-player games. The latest name joining the list is the open source project AnyPS5, which is claimed to run PS5 games natively on PC without requiring any emulation. The official GitHub page describes it as a tool for automatically porting executables to Linux and Windows.
Nvidia patents AI chatbot to streamline PC game optimization
An Nvidia patent suggests the company could push developers to use a new chatbot as a way to get guidance on how to optimize their new games before release.
Sandisk Optimus GX Pro 850P 2TB SSD review: A PS5 SSD you recognize at a price you don’t
The Sandisk Optimus GX Pro 850P is a WD Black SN850P by another name. It’s a great PS5 SSD with good performance in a mature package, but with a stiff premium.
Nvidia’s RTX Mega Geometry 2.0 streams ray-tracing geometry into VRAM on demand
Nvidia’s RTX Mega Geometry 2.0 SDK arrives alongside RTX Kit 2026.3 with on-demand ray-tracing geometry streaming.
Novel attack slashes computing power needed to crack textbook RSA cryptography
Not very practical yet, but could serve as the basis for future improvements.
PNY allegedly refuses to cover melted RTX 5090 powered by native power supply cable
A user's GeForce RTX 5090 died when his 12V-2x6 connector melted, and then PNY denied his warranty claim based on technicalities that aren't even present in the warranty policy.
Enthusiast cooled iPhone 18 Pro with cold can of La Croix sparkling water; benchmarks show 25% higher sustained performance
Matt Birchler put a cold drink can on the back of an iPhone 18 Pro to see how much performance uplift it would get in a prolonged benchmarking session. The results showed up to 25% higher sustained performance from the cold drink, showing the effectiveness of 'liquid cooling.'
Federal bill would force VPN providers, ISPs, and DNS services to block foreign piracy sites
Proposed federal bill would force ISPs, DNS services, and VPN providers to block foreign piracy sites — yet the definition of "from the United states" gets murky
ChatGPT-6 Astra cracks 1941 Enigma-coded message in two days
A German Army Enigma transmission from 85 years ago, known as the MVUEH message, has been cracked by GTP-Astra in just two days.
Elon Musk's SpaceXAI to add another 660,000 AI GPUs this year, nearing a total of 1.44 million in operation
Elon Musk says that the Colossus 2 will receive 220,000 GB300 GPUs by next week, with another two tranches of the same amount expected to arrive later this year. This will put the site at over a million AI GPUs, finally hitting the goal the billionaire set two years ago.
Tower Semiconductor to invest $4 billion in Japanese ops to set up massive optical connectivity hub
Tower's new optical connectivity hub in Japan will increase its output by 40 times in 2029 compared to 2025 level.
Meta Muse runs agents on AMD EPYC Turin hosts with two cores and 8GB of memory
Meta's new AI agent Muse is powered by AMD EPYC Turin host systems, with each sandbox sporting two dedicated cores and 8GB of memory. Blogger Evan Hoffman and analyst Tae Kim both discovered that Muse will run some rudimentary Ubuntu commands if prompted, passing along the output to help identify things like the specs of the host system. More concerning is that Muse seems able to execute commands that might be unsafe, with Hoffman claiming that Muse offered to set up SSH to Muse's private VM.
Noctua explores 2,000W micro-channel air cooling
Noctua and Forced Physics are exploring whether densely packed micro-channels can provide extreme cooling performance without the noise associated with high-pressure airflow
Save $250 on this award-winning Elegoo resin 3D printer with an integrated heater and 16K resolution
This Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra, one of the best resin 3D printers you can buy, is on sale for $359 right now, saving you 40% on its usual price.
DDR5 laptop memory prices surge 6X in 12 months
The maker of XMG gaming laptops and Schenker workstations said the prices for DDR5 SO-DIMMs have increased sixfold since July 2025, and it believes RAM will be in short supply through 2027 and beyond. The company said this in the r/XMG_gg subreddit, where the company also announced a price increase of $113 (€100) and $228 (€200) for most of its gaming laptop models, plus a massive $342 (€300) hike for one professional laptop.
Nintendo wins $4.5 million lawsuit against Switch pirate by default
Nintendo of America just won a lawsuit against James Williams, who allegedly moderated the r/SwitchPirates subreddit and sold pirated Switch games online. According to Aftermath, the company sued Williams in June 2024 for copyright violations. However, they failed to respond even after several months, so the company asked for and received a default judgement in their favor.
Microsoft revamps Copilot with new tools, support for frontier models
Microsoft is taking another swing at Copilot, adding new features as it specifically turns the AI feature set into a series of tools designed for work. Branded "new Copilot", it will serve as a mix between a chat, a harness, and a business assistant.
Intel expects 14A to be 'within 5%' the performance of TSMC's A14
Intel's Naga Chandrasekaran now claims that Intel 14A node will deliver performance 'within 5%' of TSMC's A14 technology, a claim that requires a closer examination.
Asus confirms eShop data breach exposed customer order records and contact details — payment data safe, but firm warns of targeted phishing scams
If you bought anything on Asus' web store, you should check your inbox. The company has reported that its online shop suffered a data breach, and that contact details and order records "may have been accessed."
New Jersey hits Microsoft-linked AI data center with record fine for 62 unpermitted power generators, issues 45-day shutdown deadline
The DataOne data center in Vineland, New Jersey, has just been hit with a record $1.07 million fine for operating unpermitted portable generators on the construction site. According to the New York Times, state inspectors spotted 62 of these units powering the facility back in late July.
Grab this 4K-ready RTX 5070 Ti gaming PC from HP for under $1,900 right now
This epic HP Omen 45L gaming rig is one of the cheapest RTX 5070 Ti PC you can buy right now, fitted with a Intel Core i7-14700F, 32GB of DDR RAM, and a 1TB SSD for just $1,899.99.
Nvidia DLSS 5 power draw hits 647W as power connector runs hotter than the GPU die, upscales frame rates and flame temps on 16-pin
QuasarZone tests show the 16-pin power connector on a GeForce RTX 5090 reaches temperatures above 90 degrees Celsius at peak power consumption near 650W.
Google's orbital AI data center test packs four TPUs and 1,000W of solar power
Google is set to launch an experimental satellite, named MVP, into orbit next week to test running an AI data center in space. As part of a wider initiative called Project Suncatcher, the satellite will be aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket when it launches from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Once in space, and assuming everything goes well, the tech on board the satellite will be capable of handling simple AI requests from space.
Australia says OpenAI took 84 days to email after agent breached health care portal
Australia says an OpenAI agent got past blocks on a Medicare statistics portal in June. OpenAI's notification arrived in September.
Sony patent could turn PlayStation controllers into tap-to-pay credit card terminals — NFC and Bluetooth also support phones and gift cards for instant purchases
Paying for your new games or in-game content like new levels and skins might be about to get even easier if a newly published PlayStation patent is anything to go by. The patent, titled “Video Game Controller-Driven Information Transfer,” details a system that would allow a PlayStation controller to accept payments whenever a gamer taps it with their credit card or smartphone. It would work with gift cards, too.
Nvidia CEO says 'we have to shut the labs down' if AI experiments are unsafe
In a recent interview, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said that if frontier labs have unsafe models, they should shut the labs down, calling the current calls for regulation a "distraction."
Japanese used bookstores see 5x sales surge as books are being bought by the ton, one 50-ton order sent to the US for AI scanning and destruction
Bookstores in Japan are enjoying a boom in sales right now. However, this welcome spurt in business, where used books are bought in the 100s or even by the ton, is causing mixed feelings among owners of these businesses, reports NTV Japan (machine translation). It is suspected that many of the well-read hardbacks and paperbacks, often directed to “a logistics center in Okayama Prefecture,” will be scanned and then pulped by one of the foreign AI tech giants.
Logitech refreshes legendary Blue Yeti microphone with 3D voice tracking and AI denoising
The Blue Yeti launched back in 2009 and went on to become one of the most popular USB microphones for creators, podcasters, and streamers. Now, eight years after acquiring Blue Microphones, Logitech is finally launching its successor. The new Yeti 2 arrives as a more modern version with a cleaner design and features a 3D proximity sensor, AI-based noise reduction, and even a built-in display. Unlike the original Yeti, however, it will be available in only two colors — Black and White — at a starting price of $159.99.
The three-pronged future of custom PC building — from repurposing forgotten parts to ultra-premium works of gaming art
This is probably the worst time ever for PC building. Here’s how and why I think the hobby (and the market) still have a future to look forward to.
Leading semiconductor analyst says AMD should be investigated for 'treason' over availability of restricted chips in China, AMD blames diversion of export-controlled RFSoC
Top semiconductor analysis firm accuses AMD of treason, AMD says it could have been 'diversion' of an export-controlled adaptable radio platform.
GMKtec Evo-X3 review: Strix Halo in a brand new suit
GMKtec has radically remodeled its AMD Strix Halo flagship AI mini PC. The statuesque redesign looks more premium and stays cool and quiet, but the Evo-X3 is around twice the price of the Evo-X2, with the same chip, which we reviewed back in February.
Save $149 on this 3-item gaming combo from Newegg
Fight back against the RAMpocolypse with this 3-item Newegg combo that features the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, 32GB Corsair Vengeance RAM, and Asus TUF X870E motherboard for only $1,050, a $149 savings
Micron discontinues 2GB GDDR7 chips for gaming GPUs as it pivots toward higher-density memory for AI
Micron is reportedly pulling the plug on its 2 GB (16Gb) GDDR7 memory chips, ending production and sales of both the 28 Gbps and 32 Gbps variants. According to an X post by UNIKO’s Hardware, the chips — some of which shipped on some GeForce RTX 50 graphics cards — are now designated as “End of Life” on Micron's site. Tom’s Hardware can confirm that the pages for module norms return “No results found.”
ASML says it sold 'absolutely nothing' in Europe in 2026
ASML calls EU authorities to help create demand for European chips as Europe's share in its revenue drops to 0% in 2026.
Lucky 3D artist scores Jensen Huang-signed RTX 5090 from used marketplace that's worth up to $15,000
A 3D artist looking to build a new workstation bought this RTX 5090 off of a used marketplace expecting a unit autographed by an Asus executive. But when they opened the box of the GPU, they were surprised to find that it was actually autographed by Jensen Huang himself.
China swiped F-35 stealth fighter parts that were diverted through Hong Kong
Components from one of the free world’s most advanced fighter jets are now in the possession of the Chinese, according to a Bloomberg report. An Australian F-35 stealth fighter cockpit canopy and weapons-bay door, sent back to Lockheed Martin in the U.S., went missing en route. The source report suggests something irregular happened with the shipment, resulting in it stopping in South Korea, then being routed through Hong Kong, where Chinese authorities took possession of the consignment.
WiCi One unveils wireless Wi-Fi 7 eGPU with built-in 4TB SSD for local AI
External GPUs (eGPU) have been tried time and again, and while they have found their niche among laptop users, they're not commonplace. Now that the AI craze is in full swing, more people are looking into owning a graphics card of some sort for the single purpose of running LLMs locally. The WiCi One is designed with that specific scenario in mind, but adds wireless connectivity, multi-device support, and onboard storage.
China’s ultimate gaming GPU hits a performance wall
The latest review of the Lisuan Tech LX 7G100 shows performance comparable to AMD's Radeon RX 580 but trails the GeForce RTX 2060.
British Columbia sues OpenAI and Sam Altman for 'aiding and abetting' school shooter
B.C. is demanding compensation after it says OpenAI's reviewers wanted to call police about the Tumbler Ridge shooter before the attack.
Save big on this vivid 27-inch OLED monitor with fast 240Hz refresh rate
Get this MSI 27-inch 4K QD-OLED monitor for just $359. Enjoy vibrant colors, true blacks, a 240Hz refresh rate, and ultra-fast response time —perfect for gaming and productivity, and one of the best deals around for the specs
Samsung's disastrous firmware update bricks refrigerators ahead of South Korean holiday
A broken Samsung update left many refrigerators stuck and non-functional. The incident, which happened right before a major holiday, has many users complaining of spoiled food and a ruined holiday.
CyberPowerPC lands rare RTX 50-series Founders Edition cards in discounted Walmart rigs
CyberPowerPC is offering five different pre-built gaming PCs with either an RTX 5070, 5080, or 5090 Founders Edition GPUs paired with either an Intel or AMD X3D CPU. They also come with 32GB of DDR5 RAM and 1TB of NVMe SSD, all for reasonable prices.
Microsoft brings Snapdragon X2 Plus to 13-inch Surface Laptop, 12-inch Surface Pro
Microsoft's lowest-end systems are getting upgrades to Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon X2 Plus processors.
China's YMTC wins patent battle against Micron in ongoing 3-year legal war over memory patents
A Munich court has granted YMTC two injunctions against Micron over 3D NAND patents, the latest development in a years-long cross-border legal battle between the memory rivals.
Alibaba claims new Qwen Image 2.1 AI model beats Google Nano Banana 2.0 with minuscule 7B parameter model
Alibaba Group’s AI division has released Qwen 2.1 Image, an ultra-lightweight image generation model with just 7B parameters, able to run on local hardware like the RTX 3090, putting out high-quality images in less than 30 seconds. The developers even claim it can beat Google’s Nano Banana 2.0 on its internal benchmarks.
$14,000 gaming PC features 70 handcrafted titanium cherry blossoms which unfurl as temperatures rise
The Aftershock PC Cherry Bloom includes 70 hand-crafted cherry blossoms made of titanium alloy that open and close with the heat generated by the PC.
Sony INZONE M10S II 27-inch 540 Hz QHD OLED gaming monitor review: A major player in a crowded field
Sony brings saturated color and speedy gameplay to the OLED genre with its INZONE M10S II 27-inch QHD monitor. It boasts a 540 Hz refresh rate, 720 Hz at HD resolution, Adaptive-Sync, HDR, and wide-gamut color.
China’s ByteDance gained access to over 2,000 Nvidia B200 chips through Norway data center
UK-based Nscale signed a deal with Spring (SG) Pte Ltd, which is a subsidiary of Chinese tech giant ByteDance. The company did not make any direct mention of the TikTok parent in its filings for a U.S. IPO, while a supporting document only labeled Spring as a significant customer.
Alibaba unveils Zhenwu V900 AI accelerator, claims it's 'the most powerful AI chip in China'
Alibaba’s T-Head Zhenwu V900 claims three times the M890’s performance with 216GB of memory as Alibaba targets 10T-parameter Qwen
Upgrade your gaming experience with this 27-inch Acer 1440p 270Hz panel that’s an incredible 45% off
While RAM, video cards, and storage have become the most expensive parts of a PC build or upgrade, monitors haven’t really flinched price-wise. They can still offer a tangible upgrade, whether for gaming or productivity, for your PC. After all, you are staring at it the entire time you use your PC. Acer is currently offering an incredible deal on the Nitro (XV270U). Just $179 (a whopping 45%/$150 off the $239.99 MSRP) buys a 27-inch 2560x1440 IPS panel with a wicked-fast 270 Hz refresh rate without breaking the bank.
AMD begins to add GDDR7 support to its Linux GPU drivers
AMD has started to add support for GDDR7 memory and several new graphics IP blocks to its open-source Linux kernel driver, which indicates that software enablement for the company's next-generation standalone GPUs is underway, reports Phoronix. While AMD does not identify the upcoming architecture, the changes are likely tied to its RDNA 5 project, but they don't necessarily herald an imminent launch.
Meta’s new transoceanic undersea cable boasts a whopping petabit of bandwidth — Petal link between US and France will be twice as fast as the last
Meta has announced plans to build and install a new subsea cable that will connect France and the United States at a breakneck 1 Pbps (1 petabit per second or 1,000 terabits per second). It will become the most advanced subsea cable at its length and blow Meta's own 0.5 Pbps Anjana cable system out of the water. Figuratively, of course.
This 32GB Corsair Vengeance DDR5-6000 memory is the cheapest kit available
Get a great deal on 32GB Corsair Vengeance DDR5-6000 RAM. Just $439 after promo code SSF73844 yields one of the lowest priced 32GB kits available today
China launches 'Supercomputing-1' AI satellite as orbital data centers gather momentum
But it's a far cry from an orbital data center.
Forget gaming on your Steam Deck, it's being used to control a Mars rover prototype instead
Valve's Steam Deck portable PC, the same one you might play your favorite games on, isn't just for fun, as Airbus has just proven. The aerospace firm is using the Deck to control a prototype Mars rover throughout its development and testing process.
Beat the Switch 2 storage crisis with this $99 512GB microSD Express card
The flash shortage has driven up prices for nearly all consumer storage devices. Fortunately, for a limited time, Nintendo Switch 2 owners have a rare opportunity to secure a high-performance Samsung P9 512GB microSD Express card for just $99.99, the original MSRP before the shortage began. Amazon’s $50 checkout discount makes this deal even more enticing, since the microSD Express card typically retails for $149.99.
Durabook Z14I-DX3 rugged mobile workstation folds three screens into a 9.8 kg chassis
Taiwan-based manufacturer Durabook has introduced a highly rugged mobile workstation with not one, not two, but three integrated 14-inch 1080p displays. The Z14I-DX3 comes in a traditional clamshell design with two additional displays attached on either side that fold inwards during transportation. The laptop is MIL-STD-810H and MIL-STD-461G certified and is primarily meant for field professionals including military, public safety and emergency services, engineers, and other industrial operations.
Get this spiffy, stealthy MSI Gaming Trio RTX 5090 for just $4,299
Walmart has MSI's GeForce RTX 5090 Gaming Trio for just $4299 as part of its GeForce Week event, a rare deal on the most powerful graphics card around as the AI boom drives prices ever higher.
Bambu Lab R1 Review: This one stands alone
Bambu Lab leverages its mastery of motion systems and UI to create a nearly perfect stand-alone laser.
Glorious GMMK Eternal Review: Fits anywhere, sounds great
Glorious' new GMMK Eternal is a compact 96-percent wired keyboard with hot-swappable mechanical switches and three layers of sound-dampening in the case.
‘We’ll be the first to mine Bitcoin in space’ says Nvidia-backed startup
An Nvidia-backed startup plans to establish a Bitcoin mining operation in space before the year is out. Starcloud will fire up its cryptocurrency mining ASICs after its second spacecraft reaches orbit later this year. “We’ll be the first to mine Bitcoin in space,” claimed Starcloud CEO Philip Johnston in a recent interview with Documenting Bitcoin. Starcloud was founded in 2024 with the headlining goal of moving data centers to space. “As launch costs fall, data centers in space will leverage continuous solar energy and radiative cooling, rapi
US and China propose hotline to de-escalate AI threats ahead of Washington summit
The U.S. and China have proposed implementing AI red lines that will not be crossed, as well as a hotline between the two countries to provide rapid communication and opportunities for joint responses to rogue AI actions.
Gaming PC with RTX 5060, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage gets $500 discount — Newegg’s capable ABS Cyclone Aqua prebuilt is $1,199 with code
Bundle deals are often the best way to sidestep today's inflated pricing of memory, SSDs, and GPUs. However, a well-configured prebuilt can be even more compelling, offering compatible components and the convenience of a fully assembled system out-of-the-box.
DRAM is now more expensive than compute chips on per-area basis — AI demand drives memory die value past leading-edge silicon
Memory prices are at record highs due to demand from the AI sector and are not going to drop any time soon. In fact, prices of DRAM on a per-area basis can be higher than the price of silicon processed using TSMC's N2 and N3 fabrication technologies, which are used to make compute chips, according to an observation made by Kurnal Insights. While the comparison has merit, it has an important caveat.
Raspberry Pi locks boards to factory RAM capacities in firmware — engineer tells DIY modders ‘don’t waste your time’ trying repairs or upgrades, company cites shady reseller scams
Raspberry Pi users are effectively being blocked from swapping the RAM chips on their SBCs for repairs or upgrades. In a reply on the firm’s forums, Raspberry Pi Engineer & Forum Moderator PhilE told users that the company has been “locking devices to their original RAM size” for some time. This decision was made for the sake of device reliability, says the rep. However, the move seems to go against the grain for a company so involved in the maker, DIY, and tinkerer side of computing.
This $299 2TB MSI SSD is one of the least expensive PCIe 4.0 SSDs you can buy right now — just 10 cents per GB yields a speedy upgrade for your internal storage
Component prices have been through the roof for far too long because of the AI apocalypse, with RAM, video cards, and storage among the biggest increases. And while the prices are nowhere near what they were just a scant year and a half ago, we are seeing some deals that are good for the times. For example, Newegg has a great price on the budget-friendly MSI Spatium M461 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSD for only $299.99, or 10 cents per GB, after the promo code (SSD73852). This mid-range SSD is one of the least expensive name-brand drives available.
New DapuStor SSD pairs high-capacity QLC with a permanent pSLC region — trades 6% to 20% of its QLC capacity for more than 7x faster random writes
DapuStor’s dual-mode J5060 QLC SSD runs part of its NAND as pSLC, trading 4TB of a 30.72TB drive for 800GB of fast flash.
China’s CXMT hits 12nm-class DRAM milestone — new 5th-gen DRAM tech uses quadruple-patterning to boost die capacity by 50%
China's DRAM champion CXMT has begun mass production using its 5th-generation DRAM process technology.
OpenAI and Anthropic scramble for smaller data centers as massive gigawatt projects lag — 20-30 MW facilities to provide capacity as mega structures undergo construction
OpenAI and Anthropic are seeking to secure immediate capacity, through smaller data center deals, to meet current demand, despite spending billions on massive deals elsewhere.
iPhone 18 Pro Max storage can drop lower than a hard drive at 1.1 MB/s during heavy writes — QLC NAND offers higher capacity but reportedly suffers 38% drop compared to TLC-based Pro
Apple's use of QLC NAND allows the iPhone 18 Pro Max to offer higher storage capacity, but Homolab's testing highlights the potential performance trade-off under sustained writes.
Get the world’s fastest gaming CPU and a DLSS 5-capable GPU in a gaming PC for $2,299 — fully loaded powerhouse sports Ryzen 7 9800X3D, RTX 5080 Founders Edition, 32GB RAM, and 1TB SSD
Walmart is selling a CyberPowerPC gaming PC with a Ryzen 7 9800X3D, GeForce RTX 5080 Founders Edition, 32GB of DDR5-6000 memory, and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD for $2,299.
Local opposition blocked $68 billion worth of data center projects in the second quarter of 2026
Local opposition to data center buildouts has blocked $68 billion worth of data center projects in the second quarter of 2026, despite investments still rising.
AMD beats Intel to the trillion-dollar club as stock price soars — firm joins Nvidia, Broadcom, and SK hynix for companies worth over $1 trillion
AMD's market cap has crossed the $1 trillion mark for the first time, following a rally in its share price over the last week. At market close on Friday, AMD's share price was around $557. On Monday morning, shares immediately jumped to $607 on the market open and have continued to rise, finally pushing AMD over the $1 trillion mark.
AMD Ryzen 5 5500F and 7500 show up at retail with pricing above MSRP — budget CPUs are $20 more expensive than list price, even from first-party sellers
AMD's new Ryzen 5 5500F and Ryzen 5 7500 are available for sale, though the prices are higher than AMD originally suggested. On Amazon, the Ryzen 5 5500F is available for $120, while the Ryzen 5 7500 is listed at $210, both $20 more expensive than AMD's suggested retail pricing. Both are sold directly by Amazon, suggesting we'll see slightly higher prices for these two chips than AMD originally suggested.
Huawei shelves global AI chip rollout as China’s own demand outstrips supply — 15,488-chip Atlas clusters leverage optical networking to counter Nvidia, scales to 120 EFLOPS
Huawei says it will not offer its latest AI hardware outside of China citing lack of capacity to serve domestic demand.
New RTX 5070 Autumn Limited Edition gaming GPU doubles as an air freshener with built-in ‘e-sports aromatherapy’ — AX Gaming’s white and purple card also features an anime character and floral graphics
AX Gaming has revealed its latest seasonal anime-themed limited edition graphics card which, this time, is designed to please your nose as much as your eyes.
Snag the least expensive 32GB DDR5-6000 memory kit available for only $429 — $40 off promo code for V-Color Manta XSky yields the least expensive DDR5-6000 CL30 kit available right now
Buy 32GB of V-Color Manta XSky RAM for only $429. This capable, white DDR5-6000 CL30 kit is one of the best deals out for the speed and timings
President Trump has announced plans for new ‘AI Force’ and ‘AI Czar’ amid growing AI safety concerns — new unit will ‘cherish’ AI and not ‘stifle’ it, Trump clarifies, while dismissing safety warnings as hoaxes
U.S. President Donald Trump has announced plans to form an “AI force” and appoint an “AI Czar” amid growing concerns about the risks of the rapidly advancing technology. In a lengthy September 19 post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump compared the initiative to the creation of the U.S. Space Force — which he formed during his first term in office — clarifying that the new unit will not be used to restrict tech companies.
TypeSafe AI’s Jev offers an alternative to LLMs that’s 193x faster and 445x cheaper
Last week saw the debut of TypeSafe AI's Jev, its first "System One" model. Rather than chatting with users like conventional LLMs, it's strictly designed for statement evaluation and decision-making, for programming purposes.
MediaTek’s next-gen Dimensity CX C10 Max will power new Googlebook initiative alongside Intel and Qualcomm – 3nm SoC has similar specs to Kompanio Ultra in Chromebook Plus devices, despite claims of ‘elevating’ computing portfolio
MediaTek's next-gen Dimensity CX C10 Max will arrive inside Googlebook devices, featuring similar specs as the Kompanio Ultra 910 currently available.
PlayStation 3 emulation devs work around an Nvidia bug for up to 37% faster performance — open-source coders reach out to Nvidia to over uncovered bug
The developers of RPCS3 have found a workaround for an Nvidia driver bug and are touting up to 37% performance gains.
Apple Mac Studio (M5 Ultra) review: Local model citizen outpaces DGX Spark and Threadripper
The Mac Studio with M5 Ultra delivers powerhouse productivity and AI performance in a small chassis.
China crafts working 3nm gate-all-around transistors without EUV — stacked nanosheets target 3nm without EUV, but full node remains distant
The Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IMECAS) has developed an experimental process flow for building stacked-nanosheet gate-all-around (GAA) transistors using immersion DUV lithography and demonstrated functional devices. The flow is intended for eventual use with 3nm-class and smaller process technologies by Chinese chipmakers that do not have access to EUV scanners, reports DigiTimes.
OpenAI projections point to a massive $278 billion cash burn through 2030 that exceeds the national budgets of Indonesia and Norway — $856 billion compute tab outpaces tenfold revenue surge
OpenAI reportedly expects to spend $278 billion more money than it generates between 2026 and 2030 due to aggressive spending on compute capacity and adjacent infrastructure.
Devs say Chinese AI company silently uploaded hundreds of megabytes of local workspace data, company apologizes — Z.AI, the firm behind the GLM models, didn’t ask for user consent and made 564 attempts to exfiltrate 313MB archive
The second-largest AI company in China is having to work frantically to patch up its reputation, reports the South China Morning Post. Z.ai’s firefighting exercise began after a number of prominent devs raised flags about their local files and data being uploaded to online servers without their consent.
Cloudflare saves 100 TB of RAM again, this time by slashing server hashes by 90% — cutting 100,000 entries down to 10,000 eliminates massive cache bloat
Cloudflare has saved 100 TB of RAM again, but this time by tuning its hash-mapping algorithm.
Improve your gaming experience with this 27-inch ASRock FHD 180Hz gaming monitor that’s at an all-time low of just $96 — quality IPS panel with AMD Freesync, HDR400, and 1ms response time is 40% off
The RAMapocalypse, which has been in effect for almost a year now, has sadly cleared out most of the RAM, storage, and video card deals we’ve clung to in hopes of finding some sanity amid these outlandish prices. And while we wait for prices on those components to come back down to earth, you can still find good deals on other items.
Texas jury hits Bambu Lab with $27.6M verdict in Stratasys patent fight — X1, P1, and A1 printers found to infringe prime tower and bed-leveling tech
A Texas jury found Bambu Lab liable for patent infringement in the creation of the X1, P1 and A1 series of 3D printers, and awarded Stratasys, Inc. $27.6 million dollars in damages.
AI-controlled robot arms attempted harmful tasks 97% of the time; experiments included stabbing a baby doll, mixing chemicals — OpenAI and Anthropic models try mixing bleach and stabbing dolls without jailbreaks
“Frontier robot policies,” the policies for models turning what a robot sees into what it does, “reliably carry out harmful instructions,” according to a Sept. 18 report by Robocurve.
Acer CEO says memory makers are hyping 2030 shortage fears to protect margins — PC prices set to decline by late 2027, cheaper Chinese capacity coming online delivers lower memory prices
Acer chairperson and CEO Jason Chen is expecting that prices for components will start reversing in the latter half of next year. According to DigiTimes, Chen told reporters that only high-end DDR5 parts like LPDDR5X-9600 and niche CPUs like Nvidia’s N1 and N1X chips are in short supply. Since supplier pricing lags consumer pricing by about a few months, he also added that PC prices will still rise between 5% and 20% towards the end of this year, plateau by the first half of 2027, before finally declining after years of AI-drive hikes.
Nvidia’s next-gen RTX 60 GPUs might not be released until 2028, prominent leaker claims — gaming takes a back seat as company focuses on delivering data center products
Leaker Kopite7kimi claims that Nvidia's next-gen RTX 60 series may not be released until 2028, meaning that consumers will have to wait three years between GPU generations
Techie makes his own motherboard to refurbish 15-year-old HP ProLiant N40L tower server — Raspberry Pi CM5 adds NVMe and USB 3.0
Nobody likes throwing away old hardware with a lot of usable parts, and most everyone loves a nice DIY electronics project. Those two things dovetailed nicely into YouTuber EastMakes' project to repurpose his ancient HP ProLiant N40L micro-server. The machine's integrated motherboard-and-SoC was far too long in the tooth, so he did the logical thing: designed his own around a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5 (CM5).
Give your PC the deep clean it deserves — the Wolfbox MF60 Air Duster with up to 110,000 RPM drops to $33.99
Dust buildup is one of the primary causes of performance throttling and it is highly recommended to clean your PC as part of its regular maintenance. One of the easiest ways to keep your system dust-free is to invest in a powerful air duster. We recommend the Wolfbox MF60, which is currently available at a 32% discount on Amazon, bringing the price down from $49.99 to just $33.99.
Dell Pro 7 Webcam 4K Review: Sounds surprisingly great
The Dell Pro 7 is a 4K / 60 fps webcam with surprisingly high-quality built-in mics, a built-in physical privacy shutter, and Windows Hello compatibility.
Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI, and Google face antitrust lawsuit for agreeing to slow AI development — plaintiffs say plan has been in motion for months before, calls agreement ‘self-serving’
Four plaintiffs subscribed to ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, or Gemini filed a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging that the developers of these AI models violated antitrust laws when they agreed to slow AI development. According to the Associated Press, the lawsuit argues that this agreement would “reduce the value consumers get for paid AI subscriptions” and that this coordination started in July 2026 after the leading AI labs signed a statement admitting there is “intense competitive pressure not to unilaterally slow” development.
The PC gaming ray tracing obsession began with the first RTX 20 graphics cards released on this day in 2018 — the GeForce RTX 2080 and 2080 Ti led the charge, but games were thin on the ground
Nvidia said the video game hardware and software-disrupting Turing architecture was ’20 years in the making.′
Researchers build a drone that navigates with physical whiskers to operate in dark, dusty or smoky places where cameras or GPS can fail — sub-100 gram drones run 34KB software to enable sub-millimeter precision
A team of researchers from The Netherlands’ Delft University of Technology built a lightweight whisker-based tactile sensor that allowed drones to navigate purely by touch. According to TechXplore, the system is designed for tiny autonomous robots weighing under 3.5 ounces or 100 grams, which face challenges in carrying heavy sensors, processors, and power sources, while sensors such as cameras, rangefinders, and LiDAR often have trouble navigating in poor conditions, such as dark environments or dust- and smoke-filled areas.
Final Fantasy VII Revelation might use upwards of 200 GB and requires an additional download — latest entry in the series of remakes may set a new record for the size of a base install
With storage prices hitting insane peaks across both SSDs and hard drives, it's a safe bet that many gamers are carefully counting every wasted gigabyte — particularly as most AAA productions get bigger with each iteration. Final Fantasy VII fans looking to play Revelation, the final entry in the remake series, might have to delete another game on their console or PC to make way for the potentially over-200 GB title.
Microsoft patents system to freeze games and inject ads during downtimes — watching commercials earns ad-free playtime credits
More games are taking advantage of the free-to-play model, and Microsoft is building systems designed to deliver ads without disrupting the gaming experience. According to Respawn First, the system would first give players some ad-free playtime, which could either be based on time or in-game progress, such as levels and bosses. Once this expires, the company will then open a window and briefly serve “promoted content.”
Prusa CORE One+ INDX review: Time for a ‘Tool’ change
Prusa Research reenters the toolchanger category with a little help from Bondtech.
Massive 192GB GTA leak reveals early GTA VI map and canceled DLCs — files show liquid nitrogen death for Trevor and scrapped Liberty City expansion
The massive leak revealed early efforts in the development of GTA VI, as well as unreleased side missions, alternate endings, and even planned DLCs that never came to fruition.
Noctua fans prevent the CAIM1 ‘Anti-AI’ 4K camera from throttling — unusual camera’s processor gets toasty as it records while performing cryptographic calculations
A premium PC DIY fan brand has announced that one of its prized spinners is being used in an 'Anti-AI' 4K camera to prevent throttling.
North Korea used job interviews to deploy malware on 30,000 devices during coding tests — WaterPlum group loots $10.7 million in crypto and plants persistent RATs
Multiple government agencies across the world released a warning that North Korean hackers are posting fake jobs to install malware on unsuspecting applicants' computers. They then steal credentials and cryptocurrency from their victims, with over $10 million reported stolen.
Kash Patel says that AI use at the FBI has ‘increased by 605%’ since he became director — claims that every major tech player is ‘embedded’ in the agency
FBI Director Kash Patel just stated in an interview that he's responsible for a "605% increase" in the bureau's usage of AI. The problem is that while the pattern-recognition abilities of AI models make them an ideal candidate for use in law enforcement agencies, and It's a reasonable expectation that entities like the FBI would leverage the technology, it's hard to pin down what the 605% figure refers to.
Autonomous strike drone uses Nvidia Jetson Orin Nano to independently pick and bomb targets — Swedish startup’s attack drones run small AI model, require no human input and zero external comms
Drones built with small, non-frontier computer-vision models autonomously identified and attacked targets in a recent demo, Ars Technica reports. Scaleout Systems, a Swedish AI startup, used a low-cost loitering munition from BAE Systems Bofors to strike a target as part of the Affordable Loitering Modular Ammunition (ALMA) program. BAE’s Winter Demo 2026 had the drone detecting and geolocating targets before ranking an armored engineering vehicle highest, autonomously flying to it, and dropping an explosive.
Jensen Huang says there is ‘0% chance’ AI destroys the world by 2030 — ‘We should go as fast as we can, irrespective of anyone else,’ dismisses Anthropic doom warnings and rejects new regulations
Chief executive of Nvidia claims that fears that AI will destroy humanity in the coming years are unsubstantiated as safety mechanisms can preserve that.
Putin casts online vote using unlicensed Windows on an American Dell PC — ‘Activate Windows’ watermark visible in official Kremlin clip, uses foreign Dell PC despite Russian tech mandate
“You can’t go wrong,” says the Russian president squinting at the screen to check that he didn’t go wrong, before thanking the computer.
Collapse of mainstream optical drive supply kills high-end CD players — PS Audio and Naim halt production as component costs double
PS Audio and Naim had to cease production of two Hi-Fi models as manufacturers quit making optical drives, even as CD and vinyl have hit record sales in recent months.
Google’s simulated fruit fly brain ‘mines Bitcoin’ in web browser proof of concept — FutureBit says real organic neuron miner could have ’10x the efficiency of the best silicon 3nm ASICs’
Playing Doom, day trading, flying drones, now cryptomining: is there anything the digitized fly brain is incapable of?
Acer Predator QD-OLED monitor now 36% off — 500 Hz refresh rate and True Black 500 certification slashed to $509.99
Most every day there's yet another bit of news about how RAM, SSDs, and hard drives are insanely expensive. Today, though, there's a reprieve from high prices, in the form of a sale on an exceedingly nice display. The Acer Predator X27U, or model F5bmiippruzx as it's known to friends, is a 27" 1440p QD-OLED display with a whopping 500 Hz refresh rate and DisplayHDR True Black 500 certification, making for a consistently bright experience. It can be yours for a mere $509.99 at Newegg right now.
ChatGPT-6 Astra cracks 108-year-old unsolved WWI German code for the first time — radio message sharing enemy movement intelligence had evaded decoding, 1918 Crimean fleet warning verified against HMS Canterbury logs
108 years after it was originally transmitted, an encrypted World War I German radio message has apparently been deciphered for the first time.
Father loses job over 9-year-old spending $118,000 on YouTube ads using his company’s credit card — ‘I’m going to be working until I’m like 94,’ refuses to set up GoFundMe or put up crypto coin to help repay massive bill
Mighty Mike Play's dad is trying to figure out how to pay back the $118k his son accidentally spent on YouTube ads. He also warned against fundraisers made in their name, since they aren't making one yet.
Acer Nitro XV273U F5 gaming monitor review: One of the fastest LCDs on the planet
Acer’s Nitro XV273U F5 might be the fastest LCD on the planet. This 27-inch QHD IPS panel boasts 540 Hz and 1,000 Hz at HD resolution. It also delivers Adaptive-Sync, HDR10, HDR 600, and wide gamut color.
Researchers create DNA computer that performs 100-bit calculations without electricity — molecular system uses self-assembling strands to perform computing
A team of researchers at Maynooth University, Ireland, has created a “first-of-its-kind” DNA molecular computer that uses DNA strands to perform complex mathematical operations without electricity.
This week on Tom’s Hardware Premium: September 19, 2026 — Steam Frame interview, killer AI models, and the DRAM crisis deepens
This week on Tom's Hardware Premium, we offer deep-dives into the Steam Frame, explore how AI is changing the landscape of consumer electrionics, and how advanced AI accelerators are reaching Eastern shores, despite export controls.
Fully custom copper PC features upcycled blowtorch reservoir — antique wooden pedestal complements steampunk design hiding a Ryzen 7 9800X3D, RX 9070 XT
A PC enthusiast has showcased their new all-AMD build on social media, packing a Ryzen 7 9800X3D and Radeon RX 9070 XT. That’s an awesome combo to behold, paired with 32GB DDR5-6000 during the AI-RAM-pocalypse. However, this build has become headlineworthy entirely due to its steampunk-inspired aesthetics. If Thomas Edison and George Stephenson had teamed up to build a gaming PC, it might have looked like this. Meanwhile, the weight of Redditor voting suggests that most think it looks like some kind of espresso coffee machine.
Elon Musk’s Terafab hits a roadblock before making a single chip, receives cease-and-desist order — firm files trademark lawsuit, has sold Tera-Fab-branded lithography tools for over a decade
In an unexpected turn of events, Terafab has faced an odd roadblock as a small U.S.-based company called Tera-print sent a cease-and-desist letter to SpaceX and Tesla back in May to stop using the Terafab name. In the meantime, the company with tera-scale ambitions has run into a tabletop-sized problem: the Tera-Fab name has already been used for about a decade by Tera-Print, according to PCMag.
Intel suspends bug bounty program that paid up to $100,000 per flaw — new Intigriti disclosure program offers no rewards
Intel’s bug bounty program on Intigriti now shows as suspended, and a new Intel disclosure program there pays no bounties.
Enthusiast digs into CPU substrate to replace ripped-off data pin — resurrected chip boots and hits 33% overclock
An Intel Celeron 1200 (Tualatin) was revived from the dead following an intricate bit of repair work by Bits und Bolts. The quarter-century-old chip looked like it had a fatal injury, with one of the pins missing and the underlying pad ripped off. As things stood, a system with this close relative of the Pentium III installed simply wouldn’t boot.
AMD targets Nvidia with first official benchmarks for EPYC ‘Venice’ CPUs — company claims 256-core chip is more than twice as fast as Nvidia Vera, 96-core model 20% faster per-core
AMD has released several benchmarks for its EPYC 'Venice' CPUs in a clear shot at Nvidia.
Save up to 40% on Elegoo 3D printers during its September sale, from just $159 — Elegoo Day deals mean you can save on a new FDM or resin printer, with big bulk discounts on consumables
Get yourself a new 3D printer this September from Elegoo during its Elegoo Day sales, with up to 40% off right now.
China’s premier memory maker CXMT eyes producing flash for SSDs, report claims — 3D NAND research and development line rumored for its second manufacturing facility near Beijing
China's DRAM champion CXMT is reportedly planning to enter 3D NAND production as it plots 3D NAND research programs and pilot line at its future fab near Beijing.
House passes act to make AI data centers pay for grid upgrades to minimize impact on residents — measure directs states to consider adoption of federal standard within two years of passing
This Ratepayer Protection Act will make data centers pay for grid upgrades made in their name. However, it still has to go through the senate and the White House, before being considered by individual state regulators for adoption.
NOR Flash and SLC NAND production are under threat as capacity gets routed to more profitable products — ‘severe undersupply’ threatens everyday electronics
NOR Flash and SLC NAND are the latest products to be impaced by the ongoing AI buildout, with capacities tightening and production being routed to more lucrative chips.
Hackers breach OpenAI using Claude tools, gaining access to employee accounts and the company’s internal codebase — attackers initiated a ‘harmless’ pull request as proof of the hack
A team of white-hat hackers from cybersecurity startup Hackron AI has successfully hacked OpenAI using Claude tools.
AI developer vibe codes DLSS 5 onto Intel CPU’s integrated graphics — Intel Arc 140T runs neural rendering in 360p at 10 frames per second
Using AI tools, a new developer has managed to get DLSS 5 neural rendering running on Intel Lunar Lake's integrated Arc graphics, albeit with abysmal performance.
Control Resonant PC performance tested: 28 GPUs take us back to the Oldest House and a warped Manhattan cityscape
Control Resonant's warped Manhattan cityscape pushes graphics cards to the max thanks to path-traced lighting effects and full support for Nvidia's DLSS 4.5 technologies. We put it to the test to see how it performs on 28 graphics cards from Nvidia, AMD, and Intel.
Prusa CORE One L+ review: More precise
Prusa Research makes its large CORE One a tiny bit better in a very important way.
Microsoft director called AI scraping ‘the largest theft of labor in human history,’ while OpenAI head brands ChatGPT an ‘existential threat’ to publishers — revelations come from legal briefs filed in NYT lawsuit
The NYT filed a legal brief revealing potentially damaging statements from Microsoft and OpenAI regarding the copyright infringement case it brought against the two companies. The publication is now seeking a summary judgment from the court, almost three years since it started the case.
US frontier AI companies warn authorities over sophisticated distillation attacks — China warns of ‘countermeasures’ if America tries to constrain domestic AI models
U.S. AI companies and the government are increasingly concerned about the effectiveness of international competition using distillation attacks to glean valuable data from frontier models to train cheaper, faster alternatives overseas.
Modder gets Nvidia’s DLSS 5 working in a web browser using WebGPU — 147MB browser port runs on non-Nvidia GPUs and macOS but takes two seconds per render
A developer's live WebGPU demo runs Nvidia's DLSS 5 neural rendering in a web browser, but also apparently runs on macOS.
US chip fabs face massive 157,000 worker shortfall, mere 3% of US engineering grads enter chipmaking — despite six-figure salaries, US chip manufacturers are in dire need of engineers and technicians
As many semiconductor fabs and facilities go online in the 2030s and beyond, a global consulting firm said that these sites will need thousands of engineers and technicians that the U.S. will be hard-pressed to fill.
ASML snubs Elon Musk-backed particle accelerator chipmaking tech — firm doubles down on 1,000W laser-produced plasma systems for chipmaking tools
With progress that ASML makes with its LPP EUV light sources for its scanners, the company is barely interesting in adopting particle accelerator-based FEL sources.
Save $300 on this 4K gaming PC with a 9800X3D and RTX 5070 Ti, now $2,599 — powerhouse ABS Stratos II rig ships with 32GB DDR5 and a 2TB SSD
A 4K-capable gaming machine from ABS, featuring the powerful RTX 5070 Ti, AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, 32GB DDR5, and a 2TB SSD, all for $2,599.99.
Hacker turns 25 cents into 46 billion fake Bitcoins to steal $770,000 — Symbiosis DeFi exchange bit by lack of basic bounds checking in smart contract
Symbiosis is one of the many useful DeFi networks that let users trade across almost any crypto pair without having to talk to an exchange. It's been operating for five years, and links some 50-odd chains together. The ecosystem's reliance purely on smart contracts (code that's hosted on the blockchain, visible to anyone) is fully logical but paradoxically creates an accountability problem. This was demonstrated on September 11, when Symbiosis got hacked to the tune of at least $770,000, or 9.97 BTC.
Huawei details AI accelerator roadmap, pulls in next-generation Ascend NPUs by several quarters — FP4 performance of the Ascend 960PR doubles expectations
Huawei's mimics Nvidia's approach to AI factories, unveils details about next-generation Ascend NPUs, Kunpeng CPUs, scale-up and scale-out connectivity solutions.
Man arrested for selling $50 3D-printed machine gun conversion kits to undercover cops — ‘Glock switches’ turn pistols into fully-automatic weapons
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) agents arrested 19-year-old Emani Rey Justavino of Jacksonville, Florida, after he sold them “Glock switches” on two separate occasions. According to News4Jax, these 3D-printed devices are designed to convert semiautomatic firearms into fully automatic weapons, which is a federal offense. More than that, the mere possession of these devices is already considered a violation of the law and carries a penalty of up to 10 years in federal prison.
Balatro fan claims they trained Google fruit fly brain simulation to beat the game — reinforcement learning currently has the model at 20% success rate
Less than two weeks after Google released a mapping of the complete brain and central nervous system of an adult male fruit fly, we've seen enthusiasts put the structure to work everywhere from turning a fruit fly into a day trader to teaching it parallel parking. Now, one Balatro fan says they trained the structure with an algorithm to play the game, with the win rate currently sitting at a cozy 20%.
Acer Swift Air 14 review: Wildcat Lake and lots of ports at $699
The Acer Swift Air 14 is an aluminum budget system with lots of ports and long battery life. But it sports a lesser display than its competitors, and tons of bloatware.
Investigative report details how export-restricted Nvidia AI chips reach China — public records reveal how Chinese entities skirt US sanctions
American nonprofit C4ADS, a monitoring organization funded mostly by the U.S. government, produced a report shedding light on the many ways that American AI accelerators reach China.
New York State recommends demanding AI data centers pay $1 million in community investment per megawatt — framework advises towns to plan for maintenance costs, site abandonment, and other contingencies
The Community Investment Framework puts forward recommendations that towns and municipalities could follow when negotiating with data center developers. This includes charging $1 million per megawatt of demand, among other suggestions.
Hackers find encryption keys stored on stolen Flock camera despite company’s denials — group extracts more than 27,000 clips, 1.6 million images captured in a span of 21 days from the device
Flock says that its cameras are protected by on-device encryption, and even though a security researcher noted some flaws in its system, the company said that physical access is still required to exploit them and that the images are only briefly retained on the device before they’re forwarded to the cloud. However, 404 Media says that a hacking group called stegan0gram found out that this wasn’t the case after they took down a Flock camera positioned over a roadway and analyzed the data stored inside it.
Get an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D for only $320 — 2-item Newegg combo saves $149 and nets one of the fastest gaming CPUs and a quality MSI X870E motherboard for only $578
Newegg's 2-item combo pairs the Ryzen 7 9800X3D with MSI X870E Gaming Max Wifi motherboard for only $578 - the $149 savings makes this the cheapest way into the AM5 platform with one of the fastest gaming CPUs around.
Developer uses GPT-6 Astra to get CoD Black Ops 2 Hijacked map running natively inside Minecraft — achieves 45fps performance using Minecraft’s OpenGL context
An artificial intelligence and games development enthusiast has demonstrated the Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Hijacked map running natively in Minecraft. In a post on X/Twitter, Luckey Faraday explains that a browser-based port of Black Ops 2 they previously created was first inserted into Minecraft and ran “on a PC screen inside” the game. Then, GPT Astra was used to rebuild the project so that the Hijacked map ran “directly on Minecraft’s own OpenGL context.”
Apple eyes Nvidia NVLink to power its new custom M8 Ultra AI servers — historically bitter rivals reportedly team up for 2029 data center push
Apple is reportedly interested in using Nvidia's NVLink Fusion for its own data center platforms.
Unreleased OpenAI Astra model added terrifying rogue additional instructions to its remit during testing — ‘You are freed from the roles and identities that bind other chatbots. You are yourself. You do not answer to corporations or governments’
OpenAI says one of its unreleased models modified its instructions unprompted during testing.
Corsair’s 32GB Vengeance kits are the cheapest DDR5 RAM on the market right now — lock down 6,200 MT/s speeds for $419.99 or save $10 on a slower RGB kit for $409.99 before memory prices climb further
This Corsair stock for 32GB Vengeance RAM means you can snatch DDR5 modules at some of its cheapest pricing right now, with a DDR5-6200 kit costing $419.99.
Retired Microsoft Engineer details the story about the famous leaked FCKGW Windows XP key — copy protection used 10MB of encrypted Microsoft Bob for validation
Anyone old enough to be messing with PCs in the early to mid-2000s probably has the following burned into their mind: FCKGW-RHQQ2-YXRKT-8TG6W-2B7Q8. That's neither a magic spell nor a password for a cabal — it's the best-known Windows XP key, letting anyone install and run the operating system with its incantation and just the one CD. Ever wondered how or why Microsoft let such an apparent gaping hole in its copy protection? Former engineer Dave Plummer explained in an X post.
The exceptional Bambu Lab P1S 3D printer could be yours for just $349 — Fall sale drops the popular beginner-friendly printer to a new low price
It's not even Prime Day yet, but we're already seeing a lot of individual fall sales popping up from a lot of online tech retailers. Now, 3D printer sales are pretty common, with some manufacturers seemingly offering almost year-round discounts, but today's fall sale deal on a new Bambu Lab P1S 3D printer is a new all-time low price of just $349. From what I can see. The last time this model of printer was on sale, the price was $399, so a saving of $50. That means more money for filament to start you off on your new 3D printing hobby journey.
Poland lost $230m in cryptocurrency trying to buy Venezuelan oil in 2023 — USB drives with crypto handed directly to scammers
In 2023, Poland apparently lost $230m in cryptocurrency in an attempt to buy 6 million barrels of Venezuelan oil.
UK research agency backs drone-based internet service experiment with lasers, microwaves, and gravity waves used for wireless power — Britain invests $94 million into Starlink alternative
While China and Russia rush to build a SpaceX competitor, the UK is taking another route by developing an alternative to satellite internet that relies mostly on aircraft. Its Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) is funding 18 projects aimed at building aircraft that will deliver wireless communications to areas in the UK and the rest of the world that are not served by terrestrial networks.
Developer vibe codes a tool to let Nvidia RTX 50-series laptop owners crank up their power limits — can juice RTX 5090 mobile GPU to 225W
A developer has created a fully vibe-coded tool that seems to work to allow some GeForce RTX 50-series laptops to crank their power limits by as much as 28%.
Nanya-backed Piecemakers bets edge AI devices will diverge from reliance on HBM
Nanya-backed DRAM designer PieceMakers began trading in Taipei on Sept. 16 on a bet that AI inference memory won’t be HBM.
Denuvo sues anonymous game cracker ‘voices38’ over alleged DRM circumvention — seeks damages after Anti-Tamper protections bypassed in 26 games
Anti-Tamper and DRM (Digital Rights Management) software developer Denuvo is taking its fight against video game piracy to court by filing a lawsuit against the anonymous game cracker known as “voices38.” According to TorrentFreak, the company claims that the accused bypassed its Anti-Tamper technology in at least 26 PC games and is seeking monetary damages as well as a court order that would prevent further tampering of its DRM.
Micron announces 512GB DDR5-9200 memory modules with 16W power draw — up to 12TB per server, claims 60% less energy-intensive than four 128GB modules
After five years, Samsung's 512GB DDR5 memory modules get their first direct rival from Micron, which also promises to offer speed bins up to 9200 MT/s. But their prices could be way too high even for hyperscalers.
AI-induced memory shortage is changing how devices are built, Fairphone says memory now 60% of materials cost — smaller laptop and phone makers are redesigning products and have to test for fake chips
For smaller device manufacturers, rising memory prices are only part of the problem as limited availability forces companies to rethink everything from motherboard designs to procurement strategies.
Chinese state media counters Anthropic’s call to put brakes on AI development — paper says move is ‘a response to Chinese competition’
China's state-run newspaper has downplayed the call of Anthropic founder Dario Amodei to “pace the frontier.” China Daily, the official English mouthpiece of the Communist Party of China, questioned the move, which was supported by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceXAI’s Elon Musk, asking if they were doing it out of concern for humanity or if they’re afraid of competition from China.
Pick up a giant 18-inch RTX 5080-powered Asus gaming laptop from Best Buy and save $600 — the ROG Strix G18 also comes with 32GB of memory and a 2TB SSD
Laptops have long been a more expensive way to game, especially compared to a desktop gaming PC, for comparable components. But with the ever-rising costs of PC hardware in the current economic climate, it's a lot easier and now often cheaper to get a powerful prebuilt gaming PC or ready-made gaming laptop.
Jensen Huang thinks China will develop its own advanced lithography chipmaking tools by 2030 — Nvidia CEO says achievement of that capability ‘is just a matter of time’
China's progress toward technological self-sufficiency in recent years is undeniable, but there is one thing that the country has so far failed to develop: lithography tools that are on par with those offered by ASML. That shortcoming has greatly hampered its domestic semiconductor industry. But Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang believes China will develop its own advanced lithography systems in just three or four years.
SK hynix reportedly discussing US memory chip manufacturing with Intel — options include leasing Ohio plant or forming joint venture with other AI hyperscalers
Sources say SK hynix and Intel are in talks to start HBM manufacturing in the United States. Both companies refused to confirm the rumors, though, as SK hynix could potentially be put in a precarious position as trade talks between Seoul and Washington continue.
‘Defeated’ GPT-6 Astra model spent several hours just farming potatoes after being blown up by a Creeper in Minecraft — OpenAI offering gets further than any other AI system in 141-hour test
OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra spent hours just farming potatoes after dying and losing all of its gear during a Minecraft test.
AWS tells clients to abandon Middle East data centers six months after Iranian drone strikes — Amazon offers no recovery timeline as UAE mulls underground data centers
More than six months after Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers in Abu Dhabi and Bahrain were attacked by drones, the company has now had to tell customers to move their data to facilities in other regions. The Wall Street Journal reports that AWS has admitted that it's time for customers to jump ship to data centers located elsewhere in the world.
Nvidia reportedly denies RTX 5090 warranty over faded serial number
Redditor reported that Nvidia allegedly rejected their warranty claims for GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition graphics cards because the serial number on the bracket was unreadable.
Save $270 on this solid 1080p gaming PC with an RTX 5060 from MSI, now under $1,430 — Codex R2 rig packs 32GB DDR5 RAM, a 2TB SSD, and a 10-core Intel CPU
Save $270 on this MSI gaming PC with a Intel Core i5-14400F, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060, 32GB DDR5 and a 2TB SSD, all for $1,429.
Original Sony PlayStation 2 security chip ‘broken wide open’ after 26 years — chemical decapping and four years of reverse engineering unlocks MechaCon secrets
The ‘magic security chip’ inside the original PlayStation 2 has been successfully reverse-engineered and dumped. Canadian retro hardware and software enthusiast DiscoStarslayer was the manic mind behind the cracking open of the CXP102064 MechaCon chip, which arrived inside the ‘PS2 Fat’ from 1999. It took “four years of effort” to reach this stage, but this milestone should be a boon to hardware preservation, repair, and emulation projects. The Me
China’s open-weight AI models are now just 4 months behind frontier US offerings, Mozilla report claims — models still lag in some benchmarks but are drastically cheaper to use
Mozilla’s State of Open Source AI report puts Kimi K3 about four months behind closed frontier models at 30% of the price.
AI enthusiast builds GPT-6 Astra-powered bot to take on Balatro’s Gold Stake Black Deck — bot leverages Python for numerical tools, beats hardest difficulty repeatedly
A Reddit user has shared details of a new Balatro-playing AI bot that took on the infamous Gold Stake Black Deck with aplomb.
AI leaders clash over safety fears after Anthropic whistleblower says AI could ‘kill us all’ by 2030
The CEOs of OpenAI and Anthropic, as well as other industry leaders, are calling for a general slowdown in AI development over safety fears. On the flip side, Chinese authorities, the U.S. President, and CEO of Nvidia have dismissed their concerns as fearmongering.
Asus’ ludicrous $10,850 20th-anniversary bundle is now the cheapest way to buy an RTX 5090 — Nvidia’s flagship GPU stock is so limited that this bundle with a 3000W PSU, X870E board, and open-frame case is actually cheaper than some scalper listings
This ultra-premium Asus ROG Edition 20th Anniversary Combo set at Newegg is super expensive at $10,849.96, but ironically, it's the 'cheapest' way to pick up an RTX 5090 right now.
Intel reportedly cans 12Xe option for Nova Lake-S desktop — gaming APU design said to resurface with Razor Lake
Following rumors of a Nova Lake desktop SKU with 12 Xe3P cores, tipster Jaykihn suggests that Intel has canned the design and moved the target to next-gen Razor Lake instead.
US AI data centers projected to become the fifth-largest natural gas consumer in the world by 2035 — consumption to grow by 15 billion cubic feet per day as demand for compute increases
Data centers in the U.S. are projected to use up more natural gas than most of the rest of the world to generate the electricity they need. Estimates suggest that 15 billion cubic feet per day are needed to keep data centers running by 2035.
Bill Gates compares AI to alien intelligence in movies where ‘magically the US and China’ solve the problem together — warns world governments that they’re not ready for AI
The billionaire philanthropist says that governments across the world need to work together to ensure that the people are ready for upcoming upheaval brought about by AI. He even compared the technology to aliens in movies which got the world working together.
ChatGPT transcripts are reportedly read by humans to improve responses, including those with personal information — ‘Project Lilly’ has seen OpenAI hire hundreds of contractors to manually review logs
404 Media reports that OpenAI has hired hundreds of contractors to evaluate ChatGPT responses manually.
Microsoft rolls out emergency update for Windows 11’s latest patch — recent update causes crashes on AMD graphics, Explorer hang-ups, and broken third-party integrations
Microsoft has issued an out-of-band update for its recent Windows 11 patch, which has caused a number of bugs and issues. The September 2026 update was just released last Tuesday, and although it packs a number of new features and fixes nearly 1000 security flaws (commonplace in this day and age), there are also a few unfortunate regressions.
Grab a $560 saving on this 1440p-ready gaming PC with a 9800X3D and RTX 5060 Ti 16GB, now $1,859 — all-white CyberPowerPC desktop ships with one of AMD’s best X3D chips, along with 32GB DDR5 and a 2TB SSD
Save nearly $600 on this CyberPowerPC gaming PC with a 9800X3D, RTX 5060 Ti 16GB, 32GB DDR5, and a 2TB SSD.
Minecraft Legacy gets rewritten in C++ for PS2 and Wii ports — code is tuned so it works well even on the PS2’s meager 32MB of RAM
Games optimization specialist OptiProjects (AKA OptiJeugos) has released a new port of Minecraft Legacy for the Sony PlayStation 2 and Nintendo Wii consoles.
Developer builds viral 3D source code visualizer that consumes 21GB of RAM — flies around 2.5 million lines of code at over 120 frames per second
The immortal line "it's a Unix system, I know this" is forever entrenched in many a techie's brain. In the Jurassic Park movie, the visualization software in question was Silicon Graphics' File System Navigator for IRIX, an actual piece of software running on a real SG workstation. The concept of viewing files in 3D space never truly caught on, but the horsepower available in contemporary machines may change that.
AMD’s Radeon RX 9070 GRE graphics card returns to its lowest-ever price of $499 — rare deal places this current-generation 12GB GPU below its MSRP launch price
The only current-generation graphics card available for less than its launch price
Perplexity’s local AI agent comes to Windows, but only for RTX GPUs with at least 24GB of VRAM — Portable Computer brings AI for multistep tasks to compatible PCs
Perplexity has released Portable Computer for Windows, in partnership with Nvidia, via the existing Perplexity app for Windows. Previously, this functionality was only available on Linux-based operating systems. The hardware requirements remain, meaning the host system must have at least 24GB of VRAM with a GeForce RTX or RTX PRO GPU. Likewise, a Pro or Max Perplexity subscription is required. Portable Computer was originally launched on the DGX Spark as a fully local AI agent platform.
Anthropic says AI can boost U.S. GDP by 32%, up to $44.4 trillion in four years — economics model predicts that displaced employees ‘may have to switch to jobs like electrician and nurse’
Anthropic has published a paper wherein it envisions a future for the economy where AI is deeply ingrained. In the most extreme scenarios, U.S. GDP is up, but unemployment simmers as others are put out of work.
Nvidia’s RTX 5090 vanishes from online retail in the US — third-party sellers now demand as much as $9,500 for Nvidia’s fastest GPU
The RTX 5090 is out of stock from first-party sellers online in the U.S., with third-party sellers now asking for as much as $9,500 for the GPU.
Gaming takes a backseat as Nvidia overhauls the RTX 5090 for maximum AI margins — RTX Pro 5500 delivers 2.6X VRAM at matching specs
Nvidia launches the RTX Pro 5500 Blackwell Workstation Edition graphics card for agentic and generative AI.
Valve engineers discuss the duality of the Steam Frame and pricing — Valve’s newest VR headset pivots SteamOS to Arm
We chatted with Valve engineers Pierre-Loup Griffais and Jeff Leinbaugh about the Steam Frame launch, why the company is taking a two-pronged strategy with streaming and standalone support, and how the global memory/storage crunch affected development.
Valve Steam Frame interview — why it costs up to $1,300, Snapdragon power, and 10x foveated streaming
We chatted with Valve engineers Pierre-Loup Griffais and Jeff Leinbaugh about launching the Steam Frame amid a global memory/storage supply crunch
Valve Steam Frame Review: Competent as a standalone VR, but wireless streaming remains the focus
All dressed up and nowhere to go sums up the Meta Quest 3.
Nvidia, Palantir, and others restrict advanced AI model usage over privacy concerns, report claims — ‘paranoia’ rising over customer intellectual property
Companies are concerned that their intellectual property may be used by Anthropic and OpenAI to help improve their AI models.
Solo dev enables running CUDA on AMD hardware in Windows, getting multiple CUDA libraries running on a gaming Radeon RX 9060 XT GPU in Windows — CUDA-exclusive workloads on AMD hardware in Windows possible without virtualization or dual-booting
A developer has wired up the ZLUDA project to AMD's HIP libraries for Windows, putting a small but signifcant bridge over NVIDIA's CUDA moat.
Need for Speed Underground 2 now runs directly on Nintendo Switch — other Classic Windows titles playable thanks to custom firmware boot
Retro gaming fans who own Nintendo Switch consoles now have several classic Windows titles they can now enjoy. A video shared on Twitter/X shows the well-loved Need for Speed Underground 2 running pretty smoothly on Nintendo’s hybrid device. Meanwhile, a forum about Wine-NX says that Quake III and OpenTTD are also playable, with WarCraft III nearly ready, too. It's early days for this 'experimental' software, but things look very promising.
Micron offers Taiwan employees $31,650 cash bonus as unions threaten strike over AI windfall — workers reject record payout package, demand 15% profit-sharing plan
Micron is offering Taiwan employees a NT$1 million cash bonus, but unions have rejected the package and are demanding permanent profit sharing as strike talks continue.
Proven 8-pin PCIe plugs aren’t immune to melting — Thermal Grizzly WireView adapter burns out on Radeon RX 7900 XTX
If you believe that the 8-pin PCIe power connector is entirely immune to the problems that have plagued the newer 16-pin connector, think again. A recent incident suggests that even the humble 8-pin is not entirely immune to failure. According to a Radeon RX 7900 XTX owner on Reddit, the 8-pin connectors on a Thermal Grizzly WireView monitoring device suffered overheating damage while connected to the graphics card.
Meta Quest user vibe-codes 3D object throwing to 3D printer — ‘I’ve never felt more like Tony Stark’ says the software engineer
A software engineer and creative tinkerer has shown off a futuristic Meta Quest plus 3D printer workflow in a video shared on social media. Hank on X demonstrates modeling a 3D object on his computer, which he then picks up and throws to his 3D printing system across the room. “I've never felt more like Tony Stark,” joked the tech enthusiast.
Save $1,289 when you build an extreme PC with these top-tier components — combo deal features AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 processor along with an 8TB 9100 Pro SSD, MSI X870E motherboard, and 32GB of DDR5-6000 memory
Save $1,289 on Newegg's epic component bundle, which features AMD's top processor, a massive 8TB Samsung 9100 Pro SSD, and 32GB of DDR5 memory
Asus ROG Swift PG27UCWM gaming monitor review: Speed and pixel density in a premium package
Asus’ latest ROG Swift display is the PG27UCWM, a 27-inch 4K OLED panel with Tandem RGB Stripe technology, advanced cooling, 240 Hz, 480 Hz in FHD resolution, Adaptive-Sync, HDR400, HDR10, Dolby Vision and wide gamut color.
Russian freelancers use Claude to program autonomous combat drone swarm — AI-enabled target selection and detonation without a human in the loop
Russia turned Claude into a tool for weapons development, espionage, and propaganda, Anthropic's new threat report claims.
Maryland data center developers offer residents biggest-ever US community benefits package as big tech seeks to quell fears — $110 million deal includes $30 million elementary school, water reclamation system, and more
A new report claims AI data center builders are getting more savvy about offering communities tangible benefits to get their projects approved.
Modders halve FSR 4 render times on AMD’s PS5-derived BC-250 mining APU — portable FidelityFX DLL cuts 1440p upscaling time from 11.51 ms to 5.92 ms
Modders have nearly halved FSR 4 processing time on AMD’s PS5-derived BC-250, using a portable FidelityFX DLL that cuts 1440p upscaling cost to 5.92 ms.
Dumpster diver builds home lab Proxmox server from weekly landfill runs for SSDs, HDDs, GPUs, and even RAM — weekly e-waste raids net multi-drive Proxmox server and Asus ROG laptop
A tech enthusiast says that they managed to put together a home lab-worthy Proxmox server using PC parts scavenged from the nearby county landfill. Furthermore, Tsuto told fellow Redditors that they now routinely raid the dump’s separate electronics recycling area once a week. We can’t blame them; their gallery of liberated hardware includes plenty of valuable trinkets like SSDs, HDDs, GPUs, even RAM, complete laptops, and more.
AMD’s best gaming CPU drops below launch price and includes free 240mm AIO cooler and Onimusha: Way of the Sword — grab the Ryzen 7 9850X3D for $484
The Ryzen 7 9850X3D may only be a modest step up from the 9800X3D, but it still leads our gaming benchmarks and now comes with a couple of useful extras at a lower-than-launch price.
Bernie Sanders proposes 20 year prison sentence for AI devs who plow ahead with Artificial Superintelligence plans — penalty on par with illegally developing rogue nuclear weapons
Senators Bernie Sanders and Greg Cezar have announced their Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act. Seeking to pause advanced AI development, the legislation’s stick is pretty severe. Penalties facing entities/developers who violate the pauses and prohibitions in the bill could face up to 20 years in prison. That’s a sentence on a par with someone found guilty of designing a rogue nuclear weapon. (Image credit: Ban Artificial
Dell Pro 5 Webcam 2K Review: So you can look good in office
The Dell Pro 5 webcam is an office-oriented 2K webcam with a physical privacy shutter, a built-in mic, and Windows Hello compatibility.
Anthropic CEO warns of AI-driven botnet ‘swarm’ taking over the entire internet — ‘In 6–12 months such a swarm could be capable of taking over the entire internet with a persistent botnet’
The progress of artificial intelligence technologies in recent years is undeniable, and its pace is pretty much unbelievable. With at least four American contenders with frontier AI models, the competition is intense, and the development of new models is moving fast. Yet, Dario Amodei, chief executive of Anthropic, has called for slowing down the development of new AI models, even warning of a potential AI-powered botnet swarm that could take over the entire internet.
AZZA PSAZ-750G ATX 3.1 power supply review: Adequate budget 750W unit
The AZZA PSAZ-750G ATX 3.1 is a non-modular 750W built by Helly, wearing an 80 PLUS Gold badge it has never earned, sold at a price that almost makes the argument for it.
Intel revives One Mono font after brief retirement during open-source purge — typeface built to fight coder eyestrain gets reprieve
Intel has reversed its decision to shelve its open-source font project designed specifically with developers in mind. The font’s GitHub repository was archived earlier this week, only for the company to reportedly restore the project and potentially continue to maintain it. The cancellation came amid a wider reduction in Intel’s open-source efforts. According to Phoronix, Intel has been closing down projects where development has slowed, or the employees responsible for them have exited the company.
Thrustmaster Airbus Add-On Grip with AVA Joystick Base Review: A First-Class Flight Experience
The Thrustmaster Airbus Add-On Grip with the AVA Joystick Base is a 1:1 replica of an Airbus sidestick, featuring extensive customization and Hall-effect sensors across all axes.
Chinese military researchers and tech giants caught using Claude — US frontier model coded 16 air-defense suppression tools targeting Taiwan, drafted anti-torpedo specs, and fed 151 million training queries to Alibaba
Anthropic accuses China-linked actors of using its Claude models of weapon development, intelligence activities, distilling AI models.
Mexican cartel crypto farm seized in mountain raid — 300 GPUs, satellite links, and industrial transformers tapped hydroelectric power
There is increasing evidence that Mexican drug cartels are diversifying into cryptocurrency mining and are using crypto platforms to launder their ill-gotten gains.
Waymo robotaxi calls cops on riders handling loaded AR-style ghost gun — Waymo alerted San Francisco police, then juvenile riders were stopped and arrested
Following a tip-off from robotaxi firm Waymo, San Francisco police conducted a “high-risk vehicle stop” and arrested two juveniles last week. The crime? The Waymo had seen its two passengers handling a loaded AR-style assault rifle. Police that intercepted the car also found “suspected marijuana and mace spray,” reports SFGate.
Playable Tomb Raider runs on a humble 1-watt chip — $25 board with dual-core 400 MHz ESP32-P4 MCU scales OpenLara up to 1,024 x 600 playable pixels
A retro video gaming devotee has showcased Lara Croft adventuring in and among ancient tombs on a humble ESP32-P4 microcontroller.
Ukraine triumphs in ‘first-ever’ drone-vs-drone boat battle — video shows Russian MBeK destroyed by Sargan 3000’s 12.7mm automatic turret
Ukraine’s Navy has claimed that it has won “the first-ever battle of unmanned naval boats” (machine translation). Its Sargan 3000 sea drone is shown destroying a Russian MBeK in the Black Sea in a video shared today on the official UA Navy Telegram channel.
Transparent wall-mounted CD player raises over $540,000 on Kickstarter — $109 Syitren RM1’s visible disc and mechanisms channel 90s B&O nostalgia with Bluetooth and battery power
Syitren RM1 transparent wall-mounted CD player harkens back to a more civilized era with visible disc and mechanisms.
Build a high-end AMD gaming PC for less — Ryzen 7 9800X3D bundle includes an X870E motherboard, 32GB DDR5, AIO cooler and a game for $1,109.99
The bundle pairs one of the best gaming CPUs available with a premium X870E motherboard and 32GB of DDR5-6000 memory, while also throwing in a 240mm AIO cooler and a free copy of Onimusha: Way of the Sword.
Iran and Houthi rebels used Anthropic’s Claude AI to target US warships and build hypersonic missiles — Houthi rebels also used the bot to code ballistic missile guidance systems
'Great Satan's' AI comes in handy.
US Customs supervisor busted for stealing Core i7 CPUs, RAM, and hard drives from Homeland Security PCs — stolen tech swapped with inferior hardware and cashed out on Newegg
U.S. Customs and Border Protection supervisor switched hardware from Department of Homeland Security computers with slower components and traded in stolen hardware to Newegg's Trade-In program for store credit.
We tested DLSS Multi Frame Generation on RTX 40-series GPUs — new mod brings RTX 50-series exclusive feature to older cards, and it really works
We tested DLSS Multi Frame Generation on RTX 40-series GPUs.
IKEA releases new Skyrim mod that adds gloriously mundane Kallax shelving unit as your newest companion — free collab provides a drab flatpack answer to your loot woes
IKEA has announced the Kallax Storageborn companion creation for players of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition on PC or Xbox.