UK Counterfeit Vinyl Operator Sentenced to Three Years in £2.7M Scheme
A London court sentenced a man to prison for running a large counterfeit vinyl operation, underscoring the growing black market around physical music's resurgence.
Compute & Hardware
Chips, datacenters, interconnect, and the power they draw.
Nvidia RTX Mega Geometry 2.0 streams geometry into VRAM on demand
The updated SDK lets ray-traced scenes exceed VRAM budgets by streaming geometry, reducing memory pressure and improving performance.
DDR5 Laptop Memory Prices Jump Sixfold, Laptop Maker Warns of Shortages
XMG and Schenker say DDR5 SO-DIMM costs have risen 6x since July 2025, forcing laptop price hikes and adding to conflicting forecasts on how long the shortage lasts.
Windows 11 update breaks virtual desktops, leaving black screens
Microsoft's August 2026 preview update can leave Windows 11 virtual desktop users staring at a black screen until they manually restart Explorer.
Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra 16K Resin Printer Drops to $399 in Limited Sale
Tom's Hardware reports a 39% discount on Elegoo's upgraded resin printer, adding an integrated vat heater and 16K resolution before the sale ends September 29.
DOE Announces Winners of Quantum Grid Planning Challenge
The U.S. Department of Energy has selected winning teams in a competition exploring quantum computing for energy grid planning.
Samsung's multi-update gauntlet after months offline
A neglected Galaxy A33 shows why phone vendors need cumulative updates and better update tooling.
Nvidia Patents AI Chatbot to Help Developers Optimize PC Games
A new patent filing describes a plain-English chatbot that could automate GPU diagnostics for game developers, though it may never ship.
Open-Source AnyPS5 Aims to Run PS5 Games Natively on PC
AnyPS5 uses a translation layer rather than emulation to run PlayStation 5 executables on Windows and Linux, though it remains early-stage.
GTA 2 mod adds full path tracing and 60 FPS frame generation via RTX Remix
A custom Direct3D 9 wrapper lets Nvidia's RTX Remix bring modern lighting and performance features to the 1999 classic.
US Bill Would Force ISPs, DNS Providers, and VPNs to Block Pirated Sites
The American Copyright Protection Act of 2026 would require US-facing internet intermediaries to block foreign piracy sites, but vague definitions of origin and destination could lead to overbroad enforcement.
ChatGPT-6 Astra cracks 85-year-old Enigma message in two days
The AI autonomously built its own Enigma simulator and Bombe to decipher a 1941 German Army message that had resisted cryptanalysts for decades.
Intel says 14A within 5% of TSMC A14, but its own numbers imply a bigger edge
Intel's conservative 'within 5%' performance forecast for 14A versus TSMC's A14 clashes with the two companies' published process-improvement projections.
Excel beta lets one cell hold multiple values
Microsoft is previewing lists and nested arrays inside spreadsheet cells, overturning the long-standing one-value-per-cell rule.
Sandisk Optimus GX Pro 850P Review: A Rebranded WD Black SN850P at a Premium
Sandisk's Optimus GX Pro 850P is a rebadged WD Black SN850P for the PS5, offering strong Gen 4 performance but at a price premium.
Wireless Wi-Fi 7 eGPU with 4TB SSD targets local AI workloads
WiCi's new external GPU streams compute over Wi-Fi 7 and bundles a 4TB SSD to make local LLM workloads more practical.
PNY Allegedly Denies Warranty for Melted RTX 5090 With Native Cable
A Reddit user says PNY rejected an RMA for a melted RTX 5090 because the card used the power supply's native 12V-2x6 cable rather than a PNY-approved one.
Tower Semiconductor’s $4B Japan Plan Targets AI Optical Chips
The foundry is betting on a 40-fold capacity increase in Japan to meet surging demand for optical-connectivity semiconductors in AI infrastructure.