Tim Cook has revealed that the adoption rate of iOS 18.1 is far faster than it was for iOS 17.1 at the same time in 2023.


Just ahead of its latest earnings call, Tim Cook has announced that the first indications of Apple Intelligence's success have come from the increased rate of updates.

"A really early stat, which is only three days worth of data," he told CNBC, "but users are adopting iOS 18.1 at twice the rate that they adopted 17.1 in the year ago quarter."


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Apple has reported its results for the fourth quarter of 2024, with revenue of $94.93 beating Wall Street expectations mostly on the strength of iPhone sales.


The final quarter of Apple's fiscal year, Thursday saw Apple release its results for the three-month period that concluded at the end of September. As the end-of-year results, it was also the opportunity for Apple to report its full-year results.

In the fourth quarter, Apple achieved $94.93 billion in revenue, up from the $89.5 billion it reported in Q4 2023. The earnings per share was also declared at $1.64.


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AVerMedia’s Versati Go USB microphone, priced at $70, is designed for mobile usage and ease of use. It offers good noise rejection and proves to be very practical in everyday use, but there are some limitations to consider as well.

Cooler Master Cooling X PC: As Configured - $3,999 Cooler Master used its decades of case, cooler, and PSU design experience to create a custom, compact liquid-cooled powerhouse, with great build quality and a price tag to match. Attractive design Excellent build quality Strong performance Compact yet powerful Good thermals and acoustics Top...

CD Projekt Red has been working with Apple's new Macs for a while now, having ported over the classic Witcher titles to run on Apple M1 and newer Macs. Now, CD Projekt Red is going for something more ambitious – a Mac release of Cyberpunk 2077. 

Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition is heading to macOS soon, including advanced features like Path Tracing, Frame Generation and spatial audio. The game is said to take “full advantage of Apple Silicon” and makes good use of Apple's Metal graphics API to get things running.

Apple just announced a whole new range of M4-powered Mac devices, containing Apple's fastest GPU cores to date, and AI acceleration cores for the first time. This includes new iMacs, a new Mac Mini, and new MacBook Pro laptops.

Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition will be available for macOS starting in early 2025 via the App Store, as well as GOG, Steam and the Epic Games Store.

KitGuru Says: Cyberpunk 2077 will make for a great benchmarking game when it comes to assessing the power of Apple's integrated graphics. Ray Tracing support is a highlight in the press release, so it will be interesting to see how well it all runs, starting from M1-based Macs all the way up to the latest M4 systems. 

 

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The Initiative's Perfect Dark reboot is undergoing another big change behind the scenes. Game Designer, Brian Horton, who had been working as Creative Director on Insomniac's unreleased Wolverine game, is now leading the Perfect Dark project. 

The Initiative has been around for a few years now and was set up to be a premiere studio for Xbox. After building up an initial team, The Initiative signed on Crystal Dynamics to take on the bulk of the development work, with The Initiative overseeing the project in a broader capacity.

According to Game File, Brian Horton left Insomniac Games earlier this summer after spending years as creative director on Marvel's Wolverine. Now, he is working at The Initiative with some of his former Crystal Dynamics colleagues. Horton had previously worked as creative director on Rise of the Tomb Raider and Spider-Man: Miles Morales.

There is still no release date announced for Perfect Dark, but Microsoft did release a cinematic trailer earlier this year, offering an early look at what to expect conceptually. We still need to see gameplay.

KitGuru Says: Level-based action-stealth games went out of style at some point, but I think many are eager to see games like Splinter Cell, Metal Gear Solid and Perfect Dark return. If Perfect Dark does well, perhaps it will convince another publisher or two to revive a classic stealth series. 

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Ubisoft recently held its most recent earnings call and as usual, it has brought about some news. For starters, we know that Rainbow Six Siege is Ubisoft's most successful standalone game to date. The company also shared some statements on its confidence in Assassin's Creed Shadows. 

Following on from a sudden delay from the 15th of November, Ubisoft says that it is confident that it will meet the new launch date of February 14th 2025. This is in part due to the fact that the game is already feature complete and considered ready for launch. The extra time is being used for bug fixes.

Even though it is a short three-month delay, it is costing Ubisoft a lot of money in additional production costs – €20 million to be exact. These kinds of costs make you quickly realise how a project like Concord could burn through $200 million over its years in development.

Ubisoft also stated that the performance of Star Wars Outlaws also contributed to the decision to delay Assassin's Creed Shadows. Ubisoft wants to be as confident as possible in the technical performance of the game before shipping it out to the masses.

It missed the mark on that with Star Wars Outlaws and it has led to an abundance of issues behind-the-scenes, including a board-ordered review of the company's development processes.

KitGuru Says: With Ubisoft's current financial position, it really needs Assassin's Creed Shadows to be a hit. 

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A number of game studios have begun releasing their most recent financial reports this week. We've already had some news out of that from Ubisoft. Now, EA is making some headlines with its most recent statements around Apex Legends, confirming no plans for a sequel.

Apex Legends will live on in its current form, with continued updates, rather than attempting an Apex Legends 2, or a ‘full rebuild' of the game from the ground up.

Speaking on the possibility of a full revamp for Apex Legends, EA CEO, Andrew Wilson said the following in an earnings call (via Insider Gaming):

“The objective right now is to ensure that we are continuing to support the global player base that we have and deliver the new innovative creative content on a season-by-season basis, as well as build these other things, but build them in a way that players do not have to give up the progress that they’ve made or the investment that they have put into the existing ecosystem.”

Wilson says that in the context of live service, “the Version 2 thing has almost never been as successful as the Version 1 thing”. Companies like Bungie seem to agree, as the studio has dropped all plans for Destiny 3 in favour of continuing Destiny 2, even with the ebbs and flows of the monthly active user count.

KitGuru Says: While we won't be getting Apex 2.0 any time soon, EA does still see a need for “meaningful systematic innovation” as well we “fundamental changes”, so we can still expect to see some game-changing announcements in the future.

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Ubisoft has struggled to release consistent multiplayer hits but it is clear why the publisher keeps chasing them. Rainbow Six Siege has made more than almost any other Ubisoft game in its history.

Rainbow Six Siege quickly gained a reputation for being a very tactical FPS, and the addition of breakable walls and fun agent gadgets gave it a hook not found in something like Counter-Strike. It quickly became one of the most popular shooters on the market, although that popularity has been on the decline.

As part of its most recent financial report (via Insider Gaming), Ubisoft was keen to big up some of its strengths following back-to-back losses on Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Star Wars Outlaws. It noted that since 2016, Rainbow Six Siege has generated $3.8 billion for the company, sitting just behind the entire Assassin's Creed franchise, which has generated $4.3 billion to date.

One of Ubisoft's other major single-player franchises, Far Cry, has underperformed Rainbow Six Siege between all of its games combined. As a series, Far Cry has made $2.1 billion.

Other multiplayer-focused franchises, like Ghost Recon and The Division, have made over €1 billion, which is likely why Ubisoft had sunk so much time into its planned free-to-play Division spin-off.

Ubisoft will have a quiet end of year, before launching Assassin's Creed Shadows in early 2025. The publisher recently said it is ‘confident' that the game won't be delayed again.

KitGuru Says: Do you still regularly play Rainbow Six Siege?

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Today sees another major game joining the GeForce Now library on day-one. Following on from last week's Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 launch, this week sees BioWare RPG, Dragon Age: The Veilguard joining the cloud. 

In Dragon Age: The Veilguard, players take on the role of Rook, your own custom-made hero destined to help save the world from calamity. Just in time for Halloween, Capcom opted to bring Resident Evil 4 Remake to GeForce Now as well.

Here are the five games joining GeForce Now this week:

• Life Is Strange: Double Exposure (New release on Steam and Xbox, available in the Microsoft store, Oct. 29)

• Dragon Age: The Veilguard (New release on Steam and EA App, Oct. 31)

• Resident Evil 4 (Steam)

• Resident Evil 4 Chainsaw Demo (Steam)

• VRChat (Steam)

Nvidia also offered a sneak peek at what's to come for GeForce Now users in November, with 17 more games planned. This list includes the day-one releases of TMNT: Splintered Fate, Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl, Farming Simulator 25, Planet Coaster 2, Metal Slug Tactics and more.

KitGuru Says: What do you think of this week's GeForce Now update? 

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SilverStone has launched a new PC case series for workstations. Based on its predecessor, the Seta A1, the Seta A2 series introduces a revamped aluminium front panel with complete perforation. This enhancement elevates the aesthetic appeal and significantly optimises cold air intake, improving cooling performance.

Adaptability is at the forefront of the Seta A2’s design. It accommodates a wide range of motherboard form factors, from ATX to SSI-CEB, making it a versatile choice for diverse setups. The cooling capabilities of the Seta A2 are pretty good, allowing the installation of up to eleven 140 mm fans alongside radiator mounts situated on the front, side, and top, capable of supporting up to three 420 radiators. Additionally, there's also space for two internal 120 mm fans. Included with the case are three 140 mm front fans and a 140 mm rear fan.

The SETA A2 has 8x PCI expansion slots, allowing for high-end graphics cards or multiple GPU configurations. Moreover, the chassis provides ample storage options, featuring ten drive cages, eight of which are at the front and two behind the motherboard tray. Individual drive cages can be removed to accommodate graphics cards up to 438mm in length, making it compatible with even the largest GPUs on the market. Moreover, the Seta A2 supports modern motherboards with concealed connections on the rear, up to 190-mm-tall CPU coolers, 220-mm-long PSUs, and up to 10x 3.5-inch drives or 16x 2.5-inch drives.

Available in black and white/gold, the Seta A2 will be available starting at $168.88 (taxes not included) for the former and $188.88 (taxes not included) for the latter.

KitGuru says: If you were planning to build a workstation, would you consider the new Seta A2? What colour option do you like the most?

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Gigabyte Japan unveiled some details of the new X3D Turbo Mode the company presented a few days ago. Initially, the company claimed it would improve performance by up to 35%, but the latest performance numbers shared are not that optimistic, with the best results seeing improvements of 18%.

In a video, Gigabyte Japan (via VideoCardz) showed that the unreleased Ryzen 7 9800X3D with this mode enabled gets a performance increase ranging from 3.56% to 5.01% across three games. It's worth noting that this information is based on a limited selection of titles, and no specifications about the testing methods or hardware configurations were disclosed.

Gigabyte Japan also showed improvements in activating X3D Turbo Mode on Ryzen 9 9950X and Ryzen 9 7950X3D systems with EXPO enabled. The Ryzen 9 9950X system saw improvements ranging from 7% to 18%, while the Ryzen 9 7950X3D performance increased between 8.5% and 16%.

As you might already know, this feature isn't exclusive to Gigabyte, and AMD is rolling out on AGESA 1.2.0.2a for all motherboard manufacturers. However, it's still unclear what this gaming enhancement feature exactly does. We learned that it reportedly enhances core distribution, fine-tunes bandwidth, balances hardware power, and disables SMT, but nothing has been confirmed.

AMD is set to release the Ryzen 7 9800X3D on November 7th.

KitGuru says: These performance uplift claims are more realistic, but they still seem a bit too good in a few cases. Third parties will certainly be able to test and confirm whether these improvements are real. In the meantime, maybe we'll learn exactly what the new X3D Turbo mode does.

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There's no doubt about it — buying a new MacBook Pro in full every two years can get expensive. But with this subscription service, it's easy to get the latest technology (and enjoy the peace of mind of having AppleCare included) for a low monthly fee.


If you're like me and want to upgrade your Mac regularly, it's worth checking out GetUpgraded.com, a service operating similarly to Apple's iPhone Upgrade Program, but for MacBooks.

Check out the service


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The iPhone 17 and other late 2025 Apple devices will feature the company's own Wi-Fi 7 chips as part of a longterm move away from third-party suppliers.


It's long been documented that Apple is working to replace Qualcomm's 5G modems with its own design, but now a new report says it's doing the same with Wi-Fi. Previously, it was rumored that Apple was aiming to drop Broadcom's Wi-Fi processors, but now analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says it will happen with the iPhone 17.



Rumor Score: 🤔 Possible


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This Samsung deal not only discounts the popular M8 monitor by 43%, but it also includes a free 2TB T9 portable SSD valued at $219.99.


Update at 1:47pm ET: Samsung sold out of the 2TB T9 SSD in gray.

The special bundle deal from Samsung is a great way to upgrade your home office setup by expanding your screen real estate and storage.


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It has been over five years since Apple launched the last Intel iMac. This is how much of an upgrade you would get with a thoroughly-modern M4 24-inch iMac.


Apple's self-designed chip initiative, Apple Silicon, has been around for quite a few years. Introduced in 2020, Apple Silicon has systematically replaced all of Apple's Intel-based Mac models with versions using its own design of processor.

The iMac saw its last Intel release in 2019, a time when Apple continued to use an older iMac design.Two years later, Apple changed the game by not only bringing out an Apple Silicon iMac, but one that was radically redesigned.


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CEO Tim Cook says that Apple intends to donate to relief efforts in Valencia, Spain after the area experienced catastrophic flooding.


Following heavy rainfall that struck Valencia, Spain, the region experienced what may be the deadliest flooding in modern Spanish history. More than a year's worth of rain fell in just eight hours, destroying bridges and buildings and resulting in at least 95 deaths in the area.

In response, Cook said the company would help fund relief efforts on the ground.


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AMD has kept much of its plans for next-generation GPUs under wraps. Aside from rumours and leaks, gamers looking into future enhancements get little information from official sources. However, during AMD's Q3 2024 earnings call, CEO Lisa Su said that RDNA 4 would be available in early 2025, the first time the company has offered a schedule for the new GPUs.

AMD had already stated that their next-gen gaming GPUs would not target the enthusiast audience, consistent with past speculations indicating there won't be a Navi 31 replacement in the RDNA 4 portfolio. Instead, gamers may expect mid-range to high-end alternatives like the RX 8800 or 8700 series. Adding to that, AMD's CEO recently confirmed during the company's Q3 2024 earnings call (via Yahoo) that these new RDNA 4 GPUs are coming in early 2025.

This is not a formal announcement, nor does it clarify whether the cards will be released in January or later. However, AMD is expected to introduce RDNA 4 at CES 2025, likely including a range of laptop and desktop products. Product launches typically occur 4 to 6 weeks following such announcements. However, there are also some odd cases where AMD has taken months to launch a product. Hopefully, this won't be the case.

Lisa Su also stated that RDNA 4 would improve ray tracing speed and introduce additional AI capabilities, but increased efficiency and better rasterization are also expected.

KitGuru says: Are you interested in AMD's upcoming RDNA 4 GPUs? How do you think they'll compare with AMD's current lineup?

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Though Call of Duty may not have as much of a positive reception as it did during the height of its popularity, the franchise continues to be one of the best selling every single year. With 2024’s Black Ops 6 seeming to be a critical and commercial hit, Activision has revealed that the series has now surpassed 500 million copies sold.

As reported by The Washington Post, the Call of Duty franchise has just hit a major new milestone, with the series having officially sold over 500 million copies since the franchise’s debut in 2003.

For context, we reported back in 2021 that the series had reached 400 million units, meaning a further 100 million copies were sold in the past 3 and a half years.

We’ve not gotten any concrete sales data for individual CODs for years now. However, given the fact that a further 100 million copies were sold since the launch of Black Ops Cold War, it’s safe to say that even the more controversial MWII/MWIII entries sold like hotcakes.

It will be interesting to see how long it takes for the series to reach 600 million.

KitGuru says: How many COD games have you purchased over the years? Have you picked up Black Ops 6? Will Call of Duty eventually reach 1 billion sales? Let us know down below.

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AMD kicks off the rollout of its 3D V-Cache equipped Ryzen 9000X3D CPUs with the Ryzen 7 9800X3D. This is an 8-core, 16-thread chip utilising Zen 5 and AMD's 2nd generation 3D V-Cache technology.

On average, AMD claims that the Ryzen 7 9800X3D offers an eight percent performance improvement in games compared to the previous generation but is as much as 20 percent faster than its closest competitor. The new-gen X3D CPU has its 64MB of cache memory relocated below the processor, putting the CCD closer to the cooling solution to help improve cooling performance. This in turn should help users achieve consistently higher clock speeds.

Here is everything we know about the Ryzen 7 9800X3D's technical specs so far:

Model	Cores / Threads	Boost / Base Frequency	Total Cache	TDP	SEP (USD)
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D	8C/16T	Up to 5.2 / 4.7 GHz	104MB	120W	$479

One of the key advantages of a Ryzen X3D processor isn't just stronger frame rates, but also stronger frame pacing and higher 1% lows, which in turns lowers slowdown, stutter and other issues. In The Last of Us Part 1, AMD says the 9800X3D offers 31 percent higher 1% low frame rates compared to the Core i9-14900K, even though the average frame rate scores are similar.

The Ryzen 7 9800X3D will be available starting in November.

KitGuru Says: We'll no doubt get a thorough look at performance and other technical details once reviews drop. Are you planning on making the jump to a new-gen X3D processor? 

The post AMD launches Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor at $479 first appeared on KitGuru.

Nintendo is easily one of the most litigious publishers in the games industry, with the Switch maker copyright striking various YouTube channels left-and-right – especially those who publish the company’s music to the platform. In a surprising move, the company has now announced their own exclusive music streaming service – available only to Switch Online subscribers.

Making the announcement, Nintendo officially unveiled their own bespoke music streaming service. Known as Nintendo Music, the app is said to feature “a variety of tracks from Nintendo franchises, plus curated playlists based on characters, in-game moments, and moods. From recent releases to nostalgic classics, even more music will be added in the future.”

As mentioned, Nintendo Music will only be accessible to those with an active NSO subscription.

Of course, the Mario maker has helped create some of the most iconic soundtracks in all of gaming, and so it makes some sense that they would want to leverage this.

That said, with pretty much every other game publisher happily adding their OSTs to the likes of YouTube and Spotify, this exclusivity does seem a bit antiquated.

KitGuru says: What do you think of this new service? Will you use it? What’s your favourite video game OST of all time? Let us know down below.

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After years of less-than-inspired Call of Duty releases, Treyarch’s Black Ops 6 has launched to solid reviews and even better sales performance. Following reports of records breaking ISP data use during the pre-load period, Microsoft has claimed that Black Ops 6 has been “the biggest Call of Duty release ever.”

As transcribed by The Verge’s Tom Warren, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed that the recent launch of Black Ops 6 marks “the biggest Call of Duty release ever, setting a record for day one players as well as Game Pass subscriber adds on launch day.”

Additionally, sales on Steam and PlayStation were also up “over 60% year over year.”

As with pretty much all Microsoft reports, we did not get any concrete numbers, instead preferring to offer relative sales data for comparison.

Following two consecutive years of Modern Warfare releases, it seems as though fans were yearning for a new entry in the Black Ops series. It will be interesting to see how the game performs in the long-run.

KitGuru says: What do you think of Black Ops 6 so far? Did you pick it up day-one? What do you think of the new omni-movement system? Let us know down below.

The post Black Ops 6 breaks multiple launch day records first appeared on KitGuru.