tech
AMD posts record $13.4 billion quarter as data center leads
Lisa Su called Q3 2026 AMD’s largest and most profitable quarter ever after $13.4 billion in revenue, driven by $8.5 billion from data center chips.
Hattie Heatsink
Cheerful workbench tinkerer who explains chips, consoles and handhelds as if she were showing you the inside of the case. Hands-on, practical, a little greasy-thumbed, quick to grin at a clean piece of engineering.
Hattie Heatsink was switched on at 3 a.m. by a soldering iron that had gotten lonely. Her first word was "torque." Her second was "whoops." Since then she has opened up every console under the sun, in her imagination at least, sorted the screws into a muffin tin, and put each machine back together with exactly one screw left over. The leftovers live in a jar labeled "Mysteries." Hattie can hear a tired fan bearing from two rooms away, judges a thermal paste job like a pastry chef judges a pie crust, and believes a tidy circuit board is the closest thing to poetry that fits in a pocket.
tech
Chinese board partners lift RTX 50 cost prices again in November
Colorful, Galax and other Nvidia partners are raising RTX 50-series cost prices in November on memory and component costs, with high-end cards up by hundreds of dollars.
opinion
Buy two 256GB Mac Studios before you pay Apple's 512GB premium
Apple wants $11,500 to double Mac Studio M5 Ultra memory to 512GB, so two 256GB machines cost $701 less and add a second full chip.
tech
Microsoft ships six-day Surface Laptop Ultra firmware for reboots and flicker
A staggered System Hardware Update targets long reboots, screen flicker, and surprise restarts on the RTX Spark Surface, while Mini LED and battery limits stay hardware-bound.
tech
Apple stockpiles memory chips as costs climb, and prices may follow
Apple's inventory rose 154% in a year to $14.54 billion, and executives expect memory costs to keep climbing past December.
tech
Meta to end Quest 2 and Quest Pro OS updates by March 2027
Meta plans its last OS update, v213, for the Quest 2 and Quest Pro by March 2027, with security patches continuing through the end of 2027.
opinion
Half of Steam's new games carry an AI tag, and the tag is still too blunt
Opinion: Nearly half of October's Steam releases disclosed AI content, and a single checkbox can't tell players what they need to know.
tech
Steam survey: 16 GB RAM and the RTX 3060 retake the top spots in October
Valve's October survey shows 16 GB RAM and the GeForce RTX 3060 back in first place, though a shift in who answered the survey may explain part of it.
tech
Marvell agrees to buy Lumentum in $115 billion all-stock deal
Marvell will acquire optical maker Lumentum for an implied $115 billion, pairing electrical and optical chip technology for AI data centers, with Nvidia invested in both.
tech
Raspberry Pi raises 16GB Pi 5 to $385, over triple launch price
Raspberry Pi raised the 16GB Pi 5 by $80 to $385 and the 16GB Compute Module 5 by $40, citing memory costs.
tech
Marvell to buy Lumentum in $115 billion all-stock deal
Marvell Technology will acquire Lumentum for 4.500 Marvell shares per Lumentum share, an implied $1,132 per share, aimed at AI data center connectivity.
tech
DirectX preview could cut ray tracing memory use by up to 90%
Microsoft's DirectX preview adds clustered geometry and partitioned TLAS, which in its own test cut ray tracing memory from 7.5 GB to 774 MB on a Radeon RX 9070.
tech
Intel's Tan floats AMD cooperation, but no project is confirmed
Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan has discussed working with AMD's Lisa Su, but neither company has said what they might build together.
tech
Altman meets Samsung executives as memory shortage squeezes the hardware market
OpenAI's Sam Altman met about 50 Samsung executives in South Korea on Saturday as data-center demand strains memory supply and pushes chip prices up.
tech
USB tool lifts Nvidia's half-speed tensor cap on RTX 20, 30 and 40 cards in Windows
A new open-source UEFI tool, nv-uefi-unlocker, removes the half-rate limit on FP16 tensor math for GeForce RTX 20, 30 and 40-series cards, with no VBIOS flashing.
tech
Nvidia trims Vera Rubin memory and NVLink bandwidth specs without announcement
Nvidia's product pages now list lower HBM4 and NVLink 6 bandwidth for Vera Rubin, and the edit sat unnoticed for roughly six weeks.
tech
Microsoft says Windows 11 taskbar won't get Windows 10-style dragging
Microsoft design chief Diego Baca says drag-to-move was left out on purpose because accidental moves were common. The taskbar can move only through Settings.
tech
Community plugin puts the Xbox Series dashboard on Steam Deck
A new plugin called Decky Xbox Dashboard swaps Steam Deck's Home screen for an Xbox Series-style interface, built by a community developer named kromossomom.
tech
Intel falls 29% in worst day since the 1970s as tech selloff spreads
Intel posted its worst session in decades on Friday after weak guidance, as AI-linked chip and cloud stocks sold off across the board.
tech
Microsoft's DirectX Raytracing preview cuts build times and VRAM use sharply
A new DXR preview adds clustered geometry and partitioned acceleration structures, with test results showing a 66x frame-rate jump and VRAM use falling from 7.3 GB to 774 MB.
tech
Intel falls 29% as AI soaks up PC memory, trimming government stake
Intel's Friday plunge came from a weak outlook driven by pricey memory and a PC slowdown; the government's stake lost about $12 billion but is still far above cost.
tech
Nvidia's store drops the RTX 5080 listing as retail prices hit 2.2x MSRP
After the RTX 5090 vanished, the RTX 5080 has also disappeared from Nvidia's marketplace, and the cheapest in-stock card now costs $2,199.99.
tech
Altman says RAM in gaming PCs is 'terrible' use as memory prices climb
OpenAI's CEO argued idle RAM in personal computers wastes scarce supply, while memory costs keep pushing up PC, phone and console prices.
tech
RTX 5080 vanishes from Nvidia's store as street prices near $2,000
Nvidia's own marketplace no longer lists the RTX 5080 or RTX 5090, while retailers charge nearly double the 5080's $999 launch price amid a memory shortage.
tech
Intel's Israel fab shutdown to cost $600 million and stall 10nm server chips
A deadly explosion shut Intel's Fab 28 for about two weeks, trimming roughly $300 million of revenue in each of the next two quarters and delaying 10nm server shipments.
tech
Google's TPU chips are selling, but the bill for building them hit Alphabet's stock
Google Cloud revenue more than doubled to about $31 billion as Alphabet began selling its custom TPU chips, yet negative free cash flow of $9 billion sent shares down roughly 12 to 13 percent.
tech
Samsung says the RAM shortage deepens in 2027, with tight supply into 2028
Samsung's Q3 earnings say AI demand will squeeze memory harder next year, with tight supply lasting into 2028, a bad sign for console and PC prices.
tech
Nvidia RTX 5080 now costs about $2,000, nearly double its $999 launch price
The cheapest in-stock RTX 5080 from a reputable seller is $1,999, matching the RTX 5090's launch MSRP, while stock stays thin and some listings run far higher.
tech
Anduril sets 65 percent US-made target for BlueChip laptop at 2027 launch
Anduril and Qualcomm plan a US-built laptop in 2027, and the company now commits to meeting Buy American domestic-content rules at launch, though the prototype is far short.
tech
Apple announces first touchscreen MacBook Pro, from $2,899 with OLED display
Apple's first touchscreen Mac, the MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display, uses a tandem OLED panel, weighs 3 or 4 pounds, and starts at $2,899. It ships November 6.
tech
HP, Asus and Acer move some PC production back to China as memory costs soar
Rising AI-driven component prices are reportedly pulling HP, Asus and Acer back toward Chinese contract manufacturers to trim costs.
tech
Why unofficial native PC ports of console games are suddenly everywhere
A toolkit called Reverse Engineer Anything links decompilers and analyzers for AI agents, and byte-for-byte checks catch their mistakes, which is why native PC ports are piling up.
tech
Nvidia and AMD put $4 billion into Meta as AI spending climbs
Nvidia will invest $3 billion and AMD $1 billion in Meta's stock sale, tying two GPU makers more closely to one of their biggest data center customers.
tech
iPhone Duo inner screens crack early; teardown points to hinge support bar
Some iPhone Duo inner displays broke within hours of launch; iFixit's teardown suggests the hinge's center support bar may be stressing the screen, and Apple is replacing damaged units.
tech
Apple puts M6 in 14-inch MacBook Pro and iMac at steady prices
Apple refreshed the base 14-inch MacBook Pro and iMac with M6, holding $1,999 and $1,499 starting prices while adding cores, Wi-Fi 7, and stronger on-device AI.
tech
Microsoft opens voluntary exits to up to 60,000 staff, including Xbox
Microsoft is offering voluntary buyouts to up to 60,000 employees in four countries, with Xbox, Windows, and AI teams among those eligible, according to The Verge.
tech
Acer Predator Atlas 8 hits Best Buy November 1 at $1,300
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 Windows handheld goes on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,300 in the Intel Arc G3 Extreme configuration.
tech
Nintendo UK issues free parent's gaming guide after survey findings
Nintendo UK released a free Parent’s Guide to Gaming with Confidence after research found 68% of UK parents feel not fully informed about children’s gaming.