USB-C is wonderful, not just because you no longer need to rotate the plug at least three times to get it in, it allows you to power your laptop from your monitor,…
After a rush-job getting tons of iPhones to the US from India just before a trade deadline, Apple may be considering getting more of its US supply from the country to pay less in tariffs than it would if it imported the devices from China.
Tim Cook in a previous visit to India. Image Credit: Apple
Apple's stock prices continue to decline, as the Trump administration's tariffs have affected nearly every country in the company's supply chain. The iPhone maker won't just stand idly by, however, as reports indicate Apple has taken measures to combat the impact of President Trump's tariffs.
On Monday, a report claimed that Apple was stock-piling current-generation products, in an attempt to keep prices at their current level for as long as possible. In the last week of March, over three days, the company reportedly shipped five flights worth of products into the United States. The devices in question were allegedly shipped from China and India.
While markets fluctuated insanely on rumors, the third consecutive trading day after the blockbuster tariffs announcement has again ended very badly for Apple, with it seeing billions more bled off of valuation.
Donald Trump showing off his signed tariff plan
Apple's shares were trading at $223.89 on April 2, 2025, before Trump imposed raised the cost of it doing business with every single one of its overseas suppliers. As with all stocks, Apple's shares took an immediate hit, dropping 7.5% overnight.
And, on Monday, the sell-off continued. At the close of business, Apple stock ended a tumultous trading day at $181.46, a $6.92 hit from Friday's close.
Atto Technology has introduced two Thunderbolt 5 adapters built to support uncompressed 8K video editing, high-speed media transfers, and multi-user post-production workflows.
Atto Technology
The company unveiled ThunderLink TLFC-5642 and ThunderLink NS 5102 at NAB Show 2025 in Las Vegas. These adapters are crucial tools for studios in high-bandwidth post-production, real-time collaboration, and hybrid cloud media operations.
With Thunderbolt 5 connectivity, they double the bandwidth of their predecessors and are optimized for macOS environments, including Apple's MacBook Pro and Mac Studio.
"Severance" fans stepped into the world of Lumon Industries on April 5, as Apple TV+ transformed the iconic Bell Works building in Holmdel, New Jersey, into an eerie, immersive corporate retreat.
Apple TV+ hosted a Severance' event
The one-day activation, dubbed the Outdoor Retreat Team-Building Occurrence (ORTBO), celebrated the show's third season renewal. Fans were surprised with a star-studded panel, a live music performance, elaborate set recreations, and ominously cheerful team-building activities straight out of the show's playbook.
Stephen Colbert hosted the live panel conversation, joined by Dan Erickson and executive producer/director Ben Stiller, along with the show's cast: Adam Scott (Mark), Britt Lower (Helly R./Helena), John Turturro (Irving), Zach Cherry (Dylan), Dichen Lachman (Ms. Casey), Tramell Tillman (Milchick), Sarah Bock (Miss Huang), Jen Tullock (Devon Scout-Hale), Michael Chernus (Ricken Hale), Gwendoline Christie (Lorne), and Olafur Darri Olafsson (Drummond).
Some scam emails and texts are easy to spot, but scammers are getting better, and more convincing. Here's how you and your loved ones can avoid getting phished.
Image Credit: Mohamed_hassan on pixabay
If you've been on the internet long enough, and I'm betting you have been, you've probably seen your fair share of scam emails. Back in my day, most scam emails fell into one of two categories: the classic 419 scam, aka the "Nigerian Prince" scam, or pill peddlers offering near mythical enhancement in one very, very specific area.
While these scams still exist — and I still get a fair amount of both — most of them have taken a back seat to something far more sinister: phishing.
Steep discounts on current and closeout MacBook Pros are in effect this week, with budget-friendly and tricked out models now up to $1,700 off.
Save up to $1,700 on MacBook Pros.
B&H and Best Buy are competing for your business this April, with both retailers slashing prices on current and closeout MacBook Pros. Pick up a last-gen configuration at up to $1,700 off or grab Apple's latest M4 model from $1,399.
From field shoots to studio edits, two new Thunderbolt 5 RAID enclosures from Promise Technology are built to keep Mac users in the fast lane.
Mac Studio
Storage demands are evolving fast, especially for Mac users working in 4K, 8K, or AI-heavy environments. Promise Technology is answering that call with two new Thunderbolt 5 storage enclosures built to deliver speed, scalability, and seamless integration with Apple workflows.
Apple has just released a new utility for Mac users to help manage their immersive video libraries with direct connectivity to Apple Vision Pro.
Apple's new immersive video app is available for Mac and Vision Pro
the Apple Immersive Video Utility app continues Apple's efforts to support its large-format immersive spatial video efforts. According to the app description, users can import and manage their immersive video files, create playlists, sort, organize, search, and share them as well.
Creators are able to inspect and modify the metadata on these videos. This includes the ability to modify, swap, and update package contents for post-production.
Microsoft appears to have found success in Hollywood with its Minecraft movie. The film has gone on to have the best-ever opening weekend box office performance for a video game film adaptation.
While the Minecraft Movie was forecast to generate up to $80 million domestically (in the US), the film actually ended up making a whopping $157 million in its opening weekend. Outside of the US, international markets generated a further $144 million in box office ticket sales. As reported by Insider Gaming, the film has made $301 million so far globally.
This surpasses another video game film adaptation starring Jack Black. The Super Mario Bros. Movie broke records last year with its $146 million opening weekend. Now, the Minecraft movie has handily surpassed that figure.
It is unclear how much money was spent making and marketing the film, but a $300 million opening weekend should put it right on track towards profitability.
KitGuru Says: Did any of you see the Minecraft movie over the weekend?
Bungie had to scale back pretty heavily on Destiny 2 content last year due to the need for additional resources on Marathon. Following multiple delays, Bungie's new Sci-Fi shooter now appears to be on track for release, with a big reveal event taking place next week.
Bungie has announced that the Marathon gameplay reveal will be taking place on April 12th at 6PM UK time. Aside from a new trailer, the showcase will also feature developers discussing more in-depth details about the game and we also expect to see pre-orders and a release date announced.
This news follows on from leaks several weeks ago. Bungie has recently been updating the Marathon store pages, with Steam back-end changes hinting at extra game editions and pre-order bonuses.
Marathon will be a multi-platform title, releasing for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The game is expected to release later this year, with beta testing likely to take place over the summer.
KitGuru Says: Bungie has always been great at PvP gameplay, but the studio's name doesn't carry the weight it once did. With this game set to be a paid release, it will be interesting to see how many Bungie fans are willing to pay the upfront cost, particularly after how Bungie treated PvP in Destiny 2.
While Nintendo has not fully detailed the hardware inside of the Switch 2, we are finally starting to get details on the chip powering the system. According to Digital Foundry, the Switch 2 utilises a custom Nvidia T239 processor, which means it uses graphics technology similar to what we can find in RTX 30 series GPUs.
In a new report focused on the deep technical specifications for the Switch 2, Digital Foundry reveals that the system is powered by a custom T239 chip, which is thought to be a tweaked version of the Nvidia T234 SoC, used in autonomous cars.
Here are the specs based on what Digital Foundry has been able to uncover:
Processor
Nvidia T234
Nvidia T239 (Switch 2)
CPU cores
12x ARM A78AE
8x ARM A78C
CPU clock speed
1.43GHz
Up to 1100MHz (estimate)
CUDA cores
2048
1536
Memory Interface
256-bit / LPDDR5
128-bit / LPDDR5
Memory Bandwidth
204GB/s
Up to 102GB/s (estimate)
The clock speeds and memory bandwidth figures for the T239 are estimates based on what is already known about the Switch 2 processor and how it compares to its closest public equivalent, the Nvidia T234.
So far with these specs, it is expected that the Switch 2 will offer performance equivalent to the PlayStation 4. However, with access to features like DLSS, developers should be able to squeeze a bit more out of it, allowing for games to run at up to 4K resolution, with frame rates up to 120 frames per second.
KitGuru Says: It is going to be a very interesting Summer with the Switch 2 dropping. We'll no doubt see an increase in third-party AAA support in the second half of the year too.
A new connection standard might be on the horizon. Developed by a consortium of Chinese companies, General Purpose Media Interface (GPMI) leverages USB Type-C and USB Type-B connectors to deliver high bandwidth for next-generation displays and integrated power delivery.
As reported by HKEPC (via VideoCardz), GPMI is positioned as a future-proof, all-encompassing technology designed to supersede existing audio and video interfaces. The standard's core emphasis is on providing a comprehensive solution, integrating power delivery within the cable to address power supply limitations. However, GPMI's capabilities extend beyond power, encompassing data transfer, fast wake-up functionality, bidirectional connections, and other features.
The standard is targeted at a wide range of applications, spanning consumer electronics, radio and television broadcasting, smart homes, security monitoring systems, automotive systems, and industrial equipment. Notably, the initial focus appears to be on the consumer electronics sector.
The USB Type-C implementation offers up to 96 Gbps, surpassing the latest DisplayPort 2.1 standard's bandwidth while supporting up to 240W of power delivery. The USB Type-B variant significantly expands these limits, doubling bandwidth and power capacity to 192 Gbps and 480W, respectively. The standard's bidirectional nature allows simultaneous data transfer alongside audio and video transmission. For example, a set-top box, typically relying on WiFi for network connectivity and HDMI for audio/video output, could potentially use GPMI for network data reception and display output, eliminating the need for separate connections.
GPMI is being championed by the Shenzhen 8K Ultra High Definition Video Industry Collaboration Alliance, which comprises over 50 companies, including TCL, Hisense, and Huawei. Moreover, the Type-C variant has already obtained the approval of the USB Association, meaning we might see devices using the standard very soon.
KitGuru says: Do you think other manufacturers should use the GPMI standard? Will it ever become the norm for USB-C and USB-B cables and connectors?
Nvidia has made two of its proprietary technologies open-source: Flow, a real-time, grid–based fluid simulation library, and PhysX, a GPU acceleration library for physics.
While Nvidia initially released the PhysX library on GitHub a few years ago, it wasn't fully open source. As Wccftech highlights, Nvidia has now updated its PhysX GitHub repository to include the complete SDK source code, encompassing its GPU acceleration capabilities. In addition to PhysX, Nvidia is open-sourcing its Flow technology, providing the complete GPU compute shader version of the SDK.
PhysX recently garnered attention due to performance discrepancies in some games on Nvidia's latest GeForce RTX 50 series hardware, as these GPUs lack support for 32-bit PhysX. However, Nvidia has indicated that it does not intend to reinstate compatibility for the older 32-bit library.
Now that it has become open-source, developers might develop a 64-bit PhysX library to run on newer hardware or a translation layer so that newer architectures can interpret the instructions. Hopefully, now that it has become open-source, someone capable will find a way to run PhysX on modern hardware with decent performance.
KitGuru says: Would you like it if the RTX 50 series could run PhysX properly, or is it something that doesn't bother you?
The Last of Us Part 2 is finally available for PC, bringing the legendary game to the PCMasterRace. In our performance review, we examine its graphical fidelity, VRAM usage, and how well it runs on a variety of modern GPUs.
In order to protect its customers from high import fees, Apple shipped an impressive amount of products, including iPhone, to the US from over seas, with very little notice. Here's how it did it.
Apple Park
Big Tech is projected to be one of the industries hit hardest by the Trump Administration's newly instated tariff plan. Apple alone is projected to take a $33 billion hit, a number much higher than anyone — including Apple — would have expected.
Apple may not have anticipated getting hit as hard as it did, but that doesn't mean it sat idle. In fact, some quick thinking may have bought it a little more time.
President Trump is literally doubling down on his ruinous tariff plans, saying that since China has retaliated to the original rate, he is now raising it a further 50%.
Donald Trump's signed tariff plan - Photo credit CNBC
Trump's original tariffs were more severe than businesses had feared, they have hit every single country Apple relies on, and saw the company's share price implode, but now there is more. Even as the White House claimed it was fake news that Trump would consider pausing his tariffs, the President himself has announced punitive retribution for China having retaliated.
"[Despite] my warning that any country that Retaliates against the U.S. by issuing additional Tariffs, above and beyond their already existing long term Tariff abuse of our Nation," wrote Trump on his Truth Social platform, "will be immediately met with new and substantially higher Tariffs, over and above those already set."
Continuing its almost 30-year legacy of Mac expansion, Sonnet's new Thunderbolt 5 hardware transforms Apple's Mac mini into a rack-mounted workstation with high-speed PCI-e.
The RackMac mini. Image credit: Sonnet
Sonnet Technologies is expanding the power and flexibility of the Mac mini with new professional hardware built for Apple's latest M4 and M4 Pro models. At NAB 2025, the company introduced a rackmount enclosure, a modular PCI-e expansion system, and a next-generation external GPU chassis.
On the latest episode of the HomeKit Insider Podcast, more rumors swirl about delays for Apple's smart display, Google narrows the Nest brand, and your host reviews the Knog Scout luggage tag with Find My.
HomeKit Insider Podcast
This week, a new report yet again points to delays in Apple's upcoming smart display. Now, 2026 seems more likely as the company waits for more Apple Intelligence and next-gen Siri features to launch.
The news comes on the heels of the launch of iOS 18.4 which contained a number of new features, including robotic vacuum cleaner support for Apple Home. We talk through the availability of this feature and which models currently support it, and what models will be arriving soon.
Sam Altman's OpenAI has discussed acquiring Altman and Jony Ive's startup firm that is designing at least one household AI device.
Jony Ive
Jony Ive left Apple in 2019 to found his own design company, LoveFrom, and has since hired many ex-Apple staff, including his own replacement, Evans Hankey. Ive also hired ex-Apple design lead Tang Tan specifically to work on the AI startup collaboration with Sam Altman.
Now according to The Information, this startup is called "io Projects," and OpenAI has discussed buying it outright for at least $500 million. If this happens, OpenAI would acquire the AI designs plus the engineers who are working on it.
With up to 20 ports, the CalDigit TS5 and TS5 Plus docks are ready to deliver a big boost in connectivity to not Thunderbolt 5 ports, but any Mac Apple has made for the last nine years.
New docks from CalDigit
CalDigit has officially unveiled the TS5 and TS5 Plus, its next-generation Thunderbolt docking stations designed to push the limits of desktop connectivity for Mac and PC users.
Analysts at Wedbush say that Apple's iPhone is the piece of technology hit the hardest by Trump's tariffs, and has lowered its price target by a whopping $75 as a result.
Wedbush says Apple is hit worst by tariffs because 90% of its iPhones are assembled in China
Wedbush has been raising its Apple stock price target on the expectation of growth because of Apple Intelligence. In December 2024, the price was raised to $325, but it has now been cut back to $250.
In a note to investors seen by AppleInsider, Wedbush analysts described the current situation facing Apple as a "tariff economic Armageddon," and "a complete disaster." It bases this on how 90% of iPhones are assembled in China, which Wedbush says means Apple is more affected by the tariffs than any other comparable firm.
After a legal challenge by Apple, the hearing about blowing open Apple's iCloud encryption in the UK for the sake of national security won't be kept secret, but it's not clear when the details will be made public.
iCloud security is on the line
After the hearing about a mandated back door happened behind closed doors, Apple very nearly immediately filed an appeal, with the backing of most of the world's governments, privacy advocates, and journalism organizations. That appeal has been heard, and at some point, the results of the hearing will be made clear.
The Investigatory Powers Tribunal rejected claims from the UK government that national security would be hurt by revealing the results of the hearing, or exposing who attended the hearing.
Investment bank Morgan Stanley believes that the CEOs of US big tech were unprepared for how steep Trump's tariffs ended up being, and will now — probably unsuccessfully — try to persuade him to make changes.
An Apple Store logo
Morgan Stanley previously estimated that Apple will take a $33 billion hit to its bottom line because of Trump's tariffs. In a note to investors seen by AppleInsider, Morgan Stanley's analysts confirm that Apple has it bad — but its analysts now predict that for Dell and HP, the loss will be close to the entirety of their expected net income in 2025.
The analysts further believe that technology hardware executives didn't anticipate that the tariffs would be as ruinous as they are. Consequently, the industry's most influential business leaders like Tim Cook, Satya Nadella, and Mark Zuckerberg will surely attempt to lobby and negotiate with the current administration.
Grand Theft Auto V is one of the best selling games of all time, having shifted well over 200 million copies since launching back in September 2013. Still, the game continues to sell to this day and if you are one of the few who has never picked it up, you'll soon be able to play the game via Game Pass.
Last week, Microsoft announced the next wave of titles for Xbox Game Pass, but it turns out the company had one surprise up its sleeve. While not announced alongside the other games coming this month, Microsoft has confirmed that Grand Theft Auto V will be returning to Game Pass for console and PC on the 15th of April.
Better yet, this is the newer Expanded & Enhanced edition of the game, which includes ray-traced graphics and other improvements. This version of the game has been available on Xbox Series X/S consoles for a while now, but it only just landed on PC this year, so PC gamers can jump in and check out the improved graphics for the first time.
As always, don't expect GTA V to stay in the Game Pass library forever. The game has joined and left the library of numerous subscription services over the years, including Game Pass and PlayStation Plus. Typically, Take-Two likes to give these services three to six months of access before pulling, so we expect to see GTA V removed from the library before Grand Theft Auto 6 arrives later this year.
KitGuru Says: Have you managed to go all of these years without buying Grand Theft Auto V? Will you be giving it a first-time install once it arrives on Game Pass?
Microsoft has not been secretive about its AI ambitions, particularly in the game development space. Over the weekend, Microsoft released its first AI-powered experimental game – a clone of Quake 2.
Microsoft has released a version of Quake 2 entirely generated by AI. Using Microsoft's own gaming-oriented generative AI model, Muse, this version of Quake 2 is automatically generated as you play it and while it is an interesting experiment, it does have some significant limitations. For instance, the game often appears fuzzy, as the ‘context length' for the AI is 0.9 seconds, so the AI ‘forgets' about objects that leave the frame for more than that length of time.
While the game is playable in browser, it also takes a while for the AI to catch up and makes its calculations. Every input you make in this version of Quake triggers the next AI-generated moment of the game. So not only do you have to grapple with fuzzy visuals, but there is also a good amount of input latency. With all of that in mind, there is still plenty of work that needs to be done before Microsoft's AI model can be fully utilised for a functioning game.
Social media commenters have also been quick to point out the amount of computational power required to run this experiment and the environmental impact it could have. Given that the game barely functions right now, I think it is a fair criticism to make. Sure it is interesting to see, but do we need this to be publicly available, eating up environmental resources when the end result is just… not very good?
KitGuru Says: Experiments like this certainly have their place and it is interesting for those ‘in the industry'. For the rest of us, it just all seems a bit silly when you can run the original Quake 2 on practically any device nowadays.
Reports on the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti are increasing, with the latest being benchmark entries on the Furmark database. Nvidia's board partners are reportedly already distributing samples, so we expect to see a few more benchmark database leaks in the coming weeks.
One of the earliest leaks has surfaced from FurMark. Richard Huynh (via VideoCardz) discovered a new entry within the benchmark's database with the code 10DE-2D04, identifying an Nvidia GB206 GPU. Subvariant data further points to HP and Gigabyte as the originators of this information. VideoCardz found two other entries with the same PCI ID, suggesting these are also an RTX 5060 Ti.
FurMark's focus is typically on thermal stress testing rather than performance benchmarking, making its appearance as an early leak somewhat unusual. Notably, one of the tested cards was power-limited to 61% TDP (116W), meaning that at its 100% TDP, it would be 190W. Given that the RTX 5060 Ti is rumoured to have a default TDP of 180W, this sample might be from a board partner who may have a 10W higher power limit out of the box.
Overall, the scores show a performance level that is not significantly higher than the RTX 4060 Ti, if not pretty much the same. However, this might not reflect the final results, as various factors like driver versions or platform limitations might be limiting the card's capabilities. Although the release date of the RTX 5060 Ti hasn't been confirmed yet, it is expected to launch within the following weeks.
KitGuru says: How will the RTX 5060 Ti compare against the RTX 4060 Ti when it releases?
While the Switch 2 has been met with a ton of hype, many decisions made by Nintendo have also given long-time fans some pause. Despite costing up to $80 for a physical copy, Switch 2 game cartridges can only hold up to a maximum of 64GB of data.
Following the official Switch 2 Direct, many Nintendo-focused YouTubers and other publications were given the opportunity to get their hands on the system ahead of its June launch.
In talking to a CDPR rep for the Switch 2 version of Cyberpunk 2077, Nintendo YouTuber BeatEmUps received confirmation that just like Switch 1, the maximum cartridge size available for devs to use is just 64GB.
While this was not necessarily as big of an issue back then, a new generation of Nintendo hardware will undoubtedly require larger game sizes – for improved texture resolution if nothing else.
That said, of the Switch 2 games detailed so far, it seems none will surpass that 64GB limit – for now at least. Based on preliminary data from the Japanese Nintendo Store (collated by ResetEra user Atheerios), the biggest first-party title so far will be Mario Kart World – taking up 23.4GB. Donkey Kong Bananza meanwhile will be just 10GB. Following this is Super Mario Jamboree Switch 2 Edition at 7.7 GB. Last but also least, the GameCube Nintendo Classics currently take up just 3.5GB.
As we saw with the OG Switch however, most first-party Nintendo titles manage to stay relatively light size-wise. Just how much data the likes of Cyberpunk 2077 will require is unknown, but given the fact that the PS5 version is around 90GB, CDPR will need to do quite a bit of optimisation if they want to get the full game (and its expansion) onto a single cart with no extra downloads.
KitGuru says: What do you think of the Switch 2’s cart situation? Should they have gone for bigger sizes? Has Nintendo removed almost all benefits of physical media with Switch 2? Let us know down below.
The ambidextrous MCHOSE L7 Pro is a strong budget contender: at a weight of 40 g without any holes, it comes with PixArt's PAW3395 sensor, Omron optical switches, Bluetooth support, and 8000 Hz polling in both wired and wireless operation.
While the Nintendo Switch was an undeniable success, one of the handheld’s core issues was in its Joy-Cons. Suffering quite easily from Joy-Con drift, the Switch 1 was on the receiving end of a ton of lawsuits. Hopefully though, when it comes to Switch 2 this shouldn’t be a concern as Nintendo claims to have fixed the issue.
Following the official Nintendo Switch 2 Direct, many publications got the chance to get hands on with the console, while also being able to question Nintendo on the system’s specifics.
VGC brought up the point of Switch 1 and its infamous Joy-Con drift, asking whether such issues have been resolved for Switch 2.
While Nintendo of course remained somewhat coy on the matter, hardware design lead Tetsuya Sasaki did offer some clarity, stating: “As you may have witnessed and felt, the new Joy-Con 2 controllers for the Nintendo Switch 2 have really been designed from the ground up, from scratch, to have bigger movement and smoother movement.”
In addition, a spokesperson claimed that “The control sticks for joy-con 2 controllers have been redesigned and have improved in areas such as durability.”
Does this mean the Switch 2 is using Hall-effect sticks? Unlikely, but at the very least, hopefully these now $90 Joy-Cons won’t suffer from drift quite so easily. We will have to wait and see.
KitGuru says: What did you think of the OG Joy-Cons? How quickly did your controllers start to drift? Did they somehow manage to survive the full 8 years? Let us know down below.
Making the announcement on Twitter, the team at KRAFTON wrote: “We are honored to share that inZOI has surpassed 1 million sales — made possible thanks to your incredible support.”
They continued, “It’s a number that still feels unreal to us and a milestone we could not have reached without each and every one of you. Your excitement, your creations, your feedback, your content, and your support have brought inZOI to life in ways we never could have imagined.”
Since its Early Access launch on the 28th of March, inZOI has seen a great deal of buzz, with the game receiving ‘Very Positive’ reviews on Steam alongside a peak concurrent player count of 87 thousand players.
Of course, being Early Access the game is far from perfect. That said, it is encouraging to see not only another studio trying to enter the Sims-like genre, but succeeding too. Hopefully inZOI receives strong levels of support throughout its Early Access journey.
KitGuru says: What do you think of inZOI? Does it scratch that Sims itch? What features would you like to see added / improved? Let us know down below.
Almost a year ago, Evil Empire (one of the teams behind Dead Cells) released The Rogue Prince of Persia in early access. Published by Ubisoft, this side-scrolling platforming rogue-lite has seen consistent updates in the months since. Ahead of its 1 year anniversary, The Rogue Prince of Persia has gotten another major patch – The Unleashed Army Update.
Taking to their Steam page, the team at Evil Empire officially released and detailed the Unleashed Army Update for The Rogue Prince of Persia. Just as with many of the previous patches, this latest update brings with it a ton of changes, overhauls and more, including but not limited to:
6 new Elite enemies
Complete rework of ‘Awakening’
Removed slot limitations
New awakening stones
Rebalance of current stones
Boosted rewards
Reduced input latency
Reduced RAM usage
Improved CPU usage
Improved pathfinding processing
Finally, alongside all of this new content, the team have announced a coinciding price increase. Set to go live in May, this slight bump will see the game go from $19.99 to $24.99 – a relatively modest boost given just how much content has been added since its Early Access launch.
The Rogue Prince of Persia is a woefully underrated game which not only features excellent movement and combat mechanics, but sports a 10/10 soundtrack to boot. Hopefully the team at Evil Empire continue to show just as much love with all future updates.
KitGuru says: What do you think of this latest update? What do you think of the many changes made since launch? When do you reckon the game will leave Early Access? Let us know down below.
The Zircon Nova R desktop from PCSpecialist goes full AMD with a Ryzen 7 9700X processor and a Gigabyte Radeon RX 9070 XT graphics card… but how is gaming on an all-Team Red machine in 2025? Those components are paired with 32GB of Corsair Vengeance RAM, a 2TB Samsung M.2 SSD and a Gigabyte AORUS Elite WiFi 7 motherboard. Priced at £1899, does the Zircon Nova R deliver on its circa two-grand price tag?
Timestamps:
00:00 Start
00:36 Pricing / Warranty
01:22 Specification
02:23 Memory / Testing
03:02 SSD / Testing
04:09 Mobo
04:42 Rear I/O
05:31 PSU
06:04 CPU Cooler / Fans
06:48 Case
07:45 Front I/O
08:08 Mats thoughts/ Cable Management
08:40 Software side
09:03 Assassins Creed Shadows (4k)
09:27 Cyberpunk 2077 (4k)
09:45 Hogwarts Legacy (4k)
10:11 Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 (4k)
10:30 A Plague Tale Requiem (4k)
10:51 Black Ops 6 (1440p)
11:12 Space Marine 2 (1440p)
11:29 Forza Horizon 5 (1440p)
11:50 Black Myth Wukong (1440p Max)
12:14 F1 2024 (1440p)
12:29 Temps and Fan Noise Sound Test
13:23 Total System Power Draw
13:37 Closing Thoughts
Specifications:
Case – Lian Li LanCool 205 Mesh C (Black)
CPU – AMD Ryzen 7 9700X
Motherboard – Gigabyte AORUS Elite B850 WiFi 7
Memory – 32GB Corsair Vengeance RGB 5600MT/s CL40
GPU – Gigabyte Radeon RX 9070XT
SSD – 2TB Samsung 990 Pro Evo M.2 NVMe SSD
PSU – Corsair 850w RMx ATX 3.1
CPU Cooler – PCS Frostflow 150 Series Air Cooler
Operating System – Windows 11 Home
The core specs are confirmed in the following CPU-Z and GPU-Z screenshots:
Gaming performance proved to be quite varied across a number of titles at both 1440p and 4K. The system is much better suited to 1440p gaming if high frame rates are a priority. 4K performance did marginally exceed 60fps in certain titles but on the whole, some tweaks would be needed to maintain smooth 60+ fps 4K gameplay. Below are some screenshots from a handful of games (but for full details of all 10 games we tested, watch our video review on YouTube, embedded at the top of the page).
F1 24 (1440p)
Warhammer: Space Marine 2 (1440p)
Assassin's Creed: Shadows (4K)
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 (4K)
Game optimisation plays a large part in system performance, as can be seen in the 1440p screenshots, with F1 24 hitting 381 FPS at it's peak, with Space Marine 2 falling some way behind that at around 110-120 FPS. 4K performance typically sat just below 60 FPS as previously mentioned, at least when not using FSR or any upscaling.
For details of synthetic benchmarks, power usage, noise and temperatures check out our full video review on YouTube.
You can buy the Zircon Nova R desktop directly from PCSpecialist for £1899 HERE.
UPDATE: PCSpecialist have got in touch and let us know the Zircon Nova R is actually retailing for £1899, £100 less than the figure we were originally told and reference in the video review. As such, we have increased its score from an 8/10 to 8.5/10.
Pros:
Good 1440p gaming performance.
Very well built and with excellent cable management.
2TB SSD should provide enough storage for most people.
Great build aesthetics.
Cons:
Memory could be faster and with tighter timings.
Pricing is not as competitive as some previously reviewed PCSpecialist systems.(See update above).
KitGuru says: The Zircon Nova R is well built and relatively balanced all AMD desktop, hindered by sub par memory.
One of the biggest surprises from the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct was the confirmation that the sequel system’s screen will not only be upping its resolution to 1080p, but also supports up to 120hz and even HDR. Unfortunately, the real-world impact of these changes may not be quite as transformative as one might hope – owing to its use of a rather basic LCD screen.
In a video published by Nintendo Life, in which they got hands-on with the Switch 2 and Breath of the Wild, it was noted that in a dark room the screen offered clear signs for exactly what kind of LCD screen is being used.
Though it is undeniably an improvement when compared to the OG Switch’s non-laminated LCD display, it still falls behind the Switch OLED’s screen in many aspects.
HDR can of course still work on traditional edge-lit panels, however what players will likely encounter is a notable amount of light-bleed and elevated black levels; negating much of the visual impact of HDR.
Still, for those who owned an original Nintendo Switch, the Switch 2’s screen will easily represent a generational leap in quality. For OLED owners however, you might notice a bit of a downgrade.
KitGuru says: What do you think of the screen so far? Will it look better or worse in person? Do you notice inconsistencies such as light-bleed? Let us know down below.
National Security Advisor Mike Waltz has blamed his iPhone for accidentally inviting a journalist into a secret discussion of a strategic military strike.
The Signal app promises secure and encrypted chats between users.
Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of The Atlantic magazine, accepted a March 13 invitation from Waltz that was intended for National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes. Goldberg then reported on the chat, revealing that the administration used the Signal app for what should be considered classified information.
A report published in the UK by The Guardian explained exactly how the error in inviting Goldberg occurred. The journalist was accidentally included because Waltz accepted an iPhone-suggested updated contact number in Hughes' original missive, thinking it was an updated number for Hughes — when in fact it was the number for Goldberg.
Apple has been told it is allowed to keep the TikTok app in the App Store, following a US government assurance that no action should be taken for another 75 days.
A US-based version of social network TikTok appears to be eminent.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a letter to Apple and Google on Friday, April 4, requesting that the company follow the new executive order from President Trump. That executive order further extended a previous reprieve from a threatened US ban of TikTok.
President Trump initially gave the Chinese-owned ByteDance until April 5 to sell the service to an American company, or be banned from use in the US. The new extension sets a new deadline for compliance to June 18.
In the face of crippling tariffs, Apple will have to raise prices of popular items like the iPhone in the US and elsewhere — but is trying to delay increases until the next set of hardware upgrades.
The iPhone and other Apple products will be getting more expensive due to tariffs.
A new report suggests that Apple is pursuing several different initiatives in an effort to mitigate the cost increases of tariffs imposed by the United States and other countries on its flagship products. That said, US consumers should expect to see the price go up in the near future on iPhones, Macs, and other hardware products.
While Apple has spent years diversifying its production facilities away from China, almost all of the countries it has set up shop in — such as Brazil, India, and Vietnam — also face withering import tariffs. According to Bloomberg, the company is said to be pursuing a diverse range of strategies to soften the blow as much as possible.
A report suggests that Apple will wait until a revamped Siri with contextual app data access launches to reveal its Home Hub project — likely in 2026.
Apple's Home Hub won't be a HomePod with a speaker, but a separate display
The so-called Home Hub has been rumored for almost as long as the HomePod has existed. Users are interested in a "HomePod with an interactive display" similar to Google's and Amazon's products.
It seemed as if Apple would launch such a product line sometime soon, but according to the Power On newsletter, that launch will now occur in 2026. The Home Hub product is inherently tied to the contextual Siri and Apple Intelligence features that rely on app intents, which were delayed into the next year.
A man who worked for UPS for five years has been arrested by Texas authorities for $200,000 in theft, Florida is considering harsher laws for people who use AirTags to stalk, and more, all on this week's Apple crime blotter.
All-electric UPS truck
A 37-year-old Texas man who worked for UPS for five years has been charged in a "high-end theft" case. He is accused of stealing parcels, including "Apple iPhones, Apple iPads, and various smartwatches."
According to a Facebook post by the Cameron County District Attorney's Office Facebook page, the man is also accused of stealing jewelry, power tools, and "luxury designer items such as Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Ferragamo, and Dior handbags, wallets, and accessories."
A new report claims that Apple is planning to mark the 20th anniversary of the iPhone with a significant redesign, but perhaps not as dramatically different as it did for the iPhone X in 2007.
Apple may release the iPhone fold as part of its iPhone 20th anniversary range
While it's rumored that iOS 19 will feature a dramatic redesign, Apple's next iPhone is expected to physically resemble the current iPhone 16 range — except for the rear cameras. Now a new report from Bloombergclaims that Apple is gearing up for a significant iPhone redesign for the models released in 2027.
"[The] the company is preparing a major shake-up for the iPhone's 20-year anniversary," it says, "including a foldable version and a bold new Pro model that makes more extensive use of glass."
It's been two years since NVIDIA introduced its Ada Lovelace GPUs, kicking things off with the RTX 4090 and finishing up the initial lineup with the SUPER family At CES, the company unveiled its new RTX 50 "Blackwell" family which features a brand new architecture and several changes such as new cores, AI accelerators, new memory standards, and the latest video/display capabilities. NVIDIA has released the fourth entry within its "RTX 50" portfolio, the GeForce RTX 5070. The GeForce RTX 5070 retains its high-end positioning with the green team promising lots of performance at a price point of $549 US, […]
CPU-Z validation results for Q1 2025 reveal an emerging trend in CPU preferences, with eight-core processors gaining significant traction. Data shows that eight-core CPUs now represent 24.7% of all validations, marking a substantial 32.6% increase compared to previous figures. Conversely, six-core processors have declined, accounting for only 22.5% of validations, a 6.9% decrease.
This surge in eight-core CPU adoption reflects the growing demand for multi-threaded performance across various computing environments, from professional workstations to high-end gaming systems. These market share figures (via VideoCardz) also offer insights into shifts in customer allegiance among CPU manufacturers. While Intel maintains its market dominance with 56.3% of validations, AMD has made significant strides, capturing 43.7% of the market share, a notable 16.6% increase from the previous year.
The rising popularity of specific models is likely a key driver behind the eight-core trend. One such model would be the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, which emerged as the most popular CPU based on CPU-Z validations.
Another interesting point in CPU-Z's data is that 27-inch displays are now more popular than 24-inch monitors, following a 7% growth in a year. There has also been a shift in GPU brand popularity. Nvidia appears to have lost 6.4% of its market share in a year, leaving it at 67.9%, while AMD now has 31.1%, up 16.6% from the previous year. On the other hand, Intel controls 0.7% of the GPU market (presumably for discrete GPUs), representing a 27% rise in a year.
Nvidia is reportedly gearing up to launch its GeForce RTX 5060 graphics cards, with information from Board Channels suggesting a potential release schedule. As previously indicated, Nvidia is expected to introduce the RTX 5060 series this month. This new lineup is anticipated to include the RTX 5060 Ti in both 16GB and 8GB configurations and the standard RTX 5060.
On the Board Channels forum (via VideoCardz), it has been suggested that Nvidia intends to maintain pricing parity with the previous generation. The RTX 4060 Ti launched at $399 for the 8GB variant, while the 16GB variant carried a $100 premium. If Nvidia adheres to this precedent, it may necessitate phasing out older models or implementing price reductions to remain competitive.
It's important to approach these pricing rumours cautiously, as pricing information can fluctuate significantly close to launch. However, Nvidia's strategy of mirroring the RTX 40 series SKU selection makes this pricing approach plausible. Still, depending on the pricing of competing products, like AMD's upcoming Radeon RX 9060 XT, which is also rumoured to offer 16 GB and 8 GB memory configurations, the RTX 5060 Ti could be forced to be sold at a lower price point.
Currently, pricing details for the non-Ti RTX 5060 remain undisclosed. The coming weeks will likely reveal more concrete information about Nvidia's pricing strategy and how it will position the RTX 5060 series against AMD's offerings.
KitGuru says: The RTX 5070 and RTX 5070 Ti held similar price tags to their last-gen counterparts. Do you think that trend will continue for the RTX 5060?
The ongoing saga of potential collaboration between Intel and TSMC has taken another turn, with a new report suggesting a “preliminary agreement” for a joint venture involving Intel's chip fabrication plants (fabs).
This news, reported by The Information (via Reuters), revisits a familiar narrative. This latest development shares a bit more about the potential collaboration, with TSMC reportedly considering acquiring a 20% stake in Intel's fabs.
Conflicting reports have emerged regarding the ownership structure of the new entity formed from the current Intel Foundry. Some sources indicate that “Intel and other U.S. chip companies” would retain a controlling interest, but the specifics remain hazy. TSMC's influence over Intel's fabs under this agreement is also unclear. While TSMC has a superior track record in recent years, it's unlikely it could instantly overhaul Intel's manufacturing processes. Reversing Intel's course in chip fabrication, particularly with processes like the nearly finalised 18A node, would likely be a multi-year undertaking.
Initial rumours have been followed by reports of TSMC engaging with other industry giants like Nvidia, AMD, and Broadcom about participating in such a venture. However, the involvement of these other firms in the current “preliminary agreement” remains unclear.
It's worth noting that Intel's Direct Connect event, focused on its foundry business, is scheduled for April 29th. Any potential announcements regarding collaborations or changes to Intel Foundry could be unveiled at this event.
KitGuru says: Do you think TSMC will partner with Intel? Will other semiconductor companies join this venture?
From Software is primarily known for its single-player action games, but recently, the studio has turned its focus towards multiplayer games, with two co-op titles announced back-to-back.
This year, From Software will be releasing two titles – neither of which fit the studio's usual single-player mould. Elden Ring: Nightreign has been announced as a co-op spin-off to the original single-player game, and just this week, From Software announced a new multiplayer game – The Duskbloods, releasing exclusively for the Nintendo Switch 2.
While From Software is experimenting with multiplayer games right now, studio boss, Hidetaka Miyazaki, has addressed fan concerns, stating that the studio is not shifting away from the single-player games it is best known for: “We still intend to actively develop single-player focused games that embrace our more traditional style”.
Elden Ring: Nightreign and The Duskbloods stand out in From Software's library. Both are PvPvE titles, inviting players to team up to take down bosses, and each other. While Elden Ring: Nightreign has gameplay elements taken directly from Elden Ring, The Duskbloods seems to take inspiration from a different fan-favourite title, Bloodborne.
KitGuru Says: After these two titles, I fully expect From Software's next game reveal to be for a single-player game. Future From Software multiplayer efforts will no doubt get the greenlight or be scrapped based on the performance of Elden Ring Nightreign and The Duskbloods.
We've heard very little out of Eidos-Montreal since being acquired by Embracer. The studio has been attempting to get a new Deus Ex game off the ground for several years but has struggled to obtain the greenlight from their new corporate overlords.
Just this week, Eidos-Montreal announced a round of layoffs, letting go of around 75 employees. This has naturally had fans asking – what is going on over there? According to Insider Gaming, they are still trying to get a new Deus Ex game greenlit.
The layoffs announced this week come after the cancellation of two different pitches for a new Deus Ex game. According to sources familiar with the matter, Eidos-Montreal is not giving up on Deus Ex though, as they have another pitch for a new game doing the rounds.
It is claimed that Eidos-Montreal has been pitching external partners and publishers on its new Deus Ex game, making it clear that Embracer Group is not interested in funding the project itself. This lines up with other moves from Embracer recently, such as signing on Amazon Games to publish the next Tomb Raider game, despite Embracer Group itself being a publisher and the owner of the Tomb Raider IP. It would seem that if another Deus Ex game was to be made, Eidos would need a similar deal to Crystal Dynamics, with an external publisher stepping in to help out.
KitGuru Says: Deus Ex is a storied franchise and despite what Square Enix says, Human Revolution and Mankind Divided both did sell quite well. The series might not break any records, or promise long-term revenue in the style of a live-service game, but there is a massive gap in the market right now for Immersive Sims and with Cyberpunk 2 many years away, now would be a perfect time to fill that gap with a new Deus Ex title.
Back in the day, EA would make a little extra money from Battlefield by offering Battlefield Premium, a membership that provided instant weapon unlocks, XP boosts and more. Now according to dataminers, this system will be making a return in the future under the name ‘Battlefield Pro'.
As reported by MP1st, dataminers have been combing through the files released through the recent Battlefield Labs playtest. Two things of note came up – the first being a Battlefield Pro subscription. This subscription will include the seasonal battle pass, six instant unlocks, a permanent 10% XP boost, battlepass tier skips and access to new challenges to accelerate your progress further.
Elsewhere, dataminers also uncovered references to a new battle royale mode for the next Battlefield. DICE attempted this before with Battlefield Firestorm, a battle royale mode for Battlefield V, which did not garner much traction.
All of this information comes from files released via Battlefield Labs, a new alpha and beta testing service that invites fans to test out early builds for upcoming game modes, as DICE looks to perfect its content plans ahead of Battlefield 6, which is supposedly due to release later this year, but could slip to 2026.
In recent months, rumours of a complete remake for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion have been heating up. Now, according to multiple sources, the remake is on track to be revealed later this month, with a launch following the current Elder Scrolls Online anniversary event.
According to leaker DetectiveSeeds, earlier information that the Oblivion Remake would release on April 4th was incorrect. Now after consulting multiple sources, it is claimed that the game will release the week of April 21st, following the conclusion of the current ESO anniversary event.
The Oblivion Remake is said to be in development at Virtuos, a studio that primarily co-develops AAA titles with major studios and publishers. Aside from Oblivion, Virtuos is working on the upcoming Metal Gear Solid Delta remake, and has previously worked on franchises like Call of Duty, The Outer Worlds, Hogwarts Legacy and others.
The remake is said to be developed using Unreal Engine 5 and may have a completely different combat system compared to what Elder Scrolls fans are used to. The change of engine also likely means less opportunity for mods.
KitGuru Says: Oblivion is my favourite Elder Scrolls game so I have high hopes for this remake. Court documents already revealed an Oblivion remake in Microsoft's plans, so all signs are pointing to this being real.
This episode is brought to you by “start ms-cxh:localonly”, available at your local Windows 11 installer Shift+F10 command prompt and also by USB-C: the choice of a new generation. Check out the…
The British Broadcasting Corporation has complained to a UK antitrust authority that Apple and Google's news services, such as Apple News, diminish its branding by downplaying where it gets its new stories.
Apple has now disabled news summaries after damaging inaccuracies were reported.
The new accusations come in the midst of an ongoing investigation by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) over the two tech giants' dominance in web browser engines and smartphone operating systems. The new complaint from the BBC suggests that aggregate news services minimize credit for the providers of the news those programs feature.
Because the BBC gets its budget from a unique "licence fee" model, it depends on worldwide brand recognition and respect for its efforts to justify its funding. Its income derives in large part from a fee paid by everyone in the UK who watches TV on any device.
Newly available on Mac, "Palworld" goes beyond the typical monster battle game by incorporating tried and true survival crafting mechanics, but its crossplay implementation leaves something to be desired.
Palworld is an open-world survival crafting game with collectible monsters. Image Credit: Pocketpair, Inc.
With a unique mix of cartoon-like aesthetics and dark humor, Palworld offers an exciting, action-packed experience that'll bring you hours' worth of fun. The game is also somewhat of a meme, often being described as "Pokemon with guns."
A Japanese chipmaker you've probably never heard of wants to power Apple's future artificial intelligence server farms.
Manufacturing for Apple
Rapidus, Japan's ambitious semiconductor startup, is moving quickly toward becoming a key supplier for advanced AI chips. The company has reportedly initiated talks with Apple, Google, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft.
The supplier is aiming to secure agreements for mass-producing cutting-edge 2-nanometer chips by 2027. Although it trails behind TSMC, Rapidus CEO Atsuyoshi Koike believes the company can close that gap with more advanced manufacturing techniques.
President Trump has pushed back TikTok's ban date again, saying that his administration has made "tremendous progress" on a deal to "save TikTok."
Image Credit: lechenie-narkomanii on Pixabay
When Trump took office on January 20, he gave TikTok two and a half months to sell to an American company or face a nationwide ban. The ban was initially set to go into effect on April 5, but once again, Trump has pushed it back with an executive order, setting the new deadline to June 18.
"My Administration has been working very hard on a Deal to SAVE TIKTOK, and we have made tremendous progress," President Trump posted to Truth Social on Friday. "The Deal requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed, which is why I am signing an Executive Order to keep TikTok up and running for an additional 75 days."
Lian Li came up with an interesting twist to their Lian Li Hydroshift LCD AIO 360 series of AiO CPU coolers. You can get the full fat model with modular TL fans…
There is a bit of controversy over the new end-to-end encryption feature that Gmail is offering to business customers. The traditional definition that security experts use requires that only the "sender…
The UPERFECT UStation Delta Max consists of two stacked 18.5-inch portable IPS monitors. They can expand your workspace into a dual-screen setup or be connected to two separate sources, allowing you to monitor both simultaneously, enhancing productivity across various use cases.
We investigate whether AMD’s 9070 series cards' release was a paper launch
The Highlights
Our research indicate that AMD’s 9070 series cards did not release to a paper launch
The downside is that we noticed partner model cards are noticeably becoming more expensive over base MSRP
Unfortunately, this price increase is looking like it’s becoming the new normal
Table of Contents
AutoTOC
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It turns out that AMD got close. Launch day came and went for small, scrappy savior of gaming AMD, pulling itself up from its $163 billion bootstraps to remind all of us that “this one is for the gamers” and that we should all be mindful of NVIDIA’s challenges during AMD’s launch. Well, we’ve been listing NVIDIA’s current challenges for the last 2 months, and now it’s time to look at AMD’s challenges.
Editor's note: This was originally published on March 10, 2025 as a video. This content has been adapted to written format for this article and is unchanged from the original publication.
Credits
Host, Writing
Steve Burke
Writing
Jeremy Clayton
Camera, Video Editing
Vitalii Makhnovets
Research, Writing
Tannen Williams
Writing, Web Editing
Jimmy Thang
We tracked sales and sentiment for the launch of the RX 9070 XT and made the map above. In green, you can see areas of extreme customer satisfaction with AMD. Major cities in the US did pretty well. Far better than NVIDIA.
Now let’s look at the dissatisfied areas:
OK, so it wasn’t the smoothest launch for AMD. And because we didn’t embark on a 5-hour round-trip road trip, we got to experience internet purchasing first-hand. We buy most of our partner models to review rather than request them these days, and that meant we got to experience the absurd reality of it all.
At first, it seemed to go well: We thought we’d gotten multiple orders through at Newegg at 9:08 AM, 8 minutes after launch, and again at 9:28 AM Eastern, which meant we were late up to 30 minutes and still saw seemingly tons of options in stock.
When we tried to buy GPUs at MSRP from Amazon, we were met with this:
We did the only rational thing that well-adjusted adults would do: We spent two days obsessively gathering information about prices of GPUs for playing video games.
Only 12 of 51 models that we catalogued across 4 retailers were at MSRP in the US. Of the remaining 39, 5 were 42% over MSRP and 16 were 30-40% over MSRP, which is worse than we’ve seen in most prior GPU launches, except for the 50-series.
In some ways, it’s a “normal” launch: There are always models over MSRP. That’s normal. But it felt bad this time because of just how many were so far over MSRP. But the good news is that it wasn’t a paper launch: More like a highly compressed cellulose arboreal composite launch...
But Micro Center enjoyers had a different experience:
We noticed that a Micro Center had 45% of its total inventory at MSRP.
And that seems like a much better distribution of MSRP cards than what was experienced by those of you who live in a small place allegedly called “the rest of the world.” We're told it’s a nice place to vacation.
Today, we’re digging through the evidence we’ve collected to better understand the AMD RX 9070 (read our review) launch and put some context to the absurdity.
“Fake MSRP” & Price Tracking
We prepared this table of RX 9070 XT (read our review) prices through a combination of data from TrackaLacker and some manual data collection. It shows the card model, retailer, original and updated price (if applicable), how much the price changed, and how much the price is elevated over the base MSRP of $600. Because of the way Amazon aggressively de-lists and removes prices, anything from Amazon is just what we came across in a spot check on the morning of launch. Pricing data may change by the time we publish due to a fluid market.
The average price of all 9070 XT models, ignoring quantity, is $739, or $139 higher than AMD’s base $600 MSRP. With all cards included, that makes the average increase over MSRP 23% by model – with non-MSRP occupying a range from 20% over to a terribly bad 42% over, which is completely insane. Please do not spend that much more for one of these cards. Only 12 of the 51 listings we cataloged were actually at MSRP.
XFX’s Mercury 9070 XTs were the worst, with the Magnetic Air OC variant taking the top spots along with the PowerColor Red Devil Limited Edition at Micro Center. Expressed as an average, XFX’s 9070 XT models all combined were 29% over MSRP. The ASUS TUF cards fill in next at 33% over MSRP. ASRock generally stayed the closest to MSRP, with its cards coming to an average of 11% over MSRP.
Interestingly, Best Buy and B&H show price reductions across a few listings – all of which had extremely elevated initial prices. The worst was the ASUS TUF at B&H for $1,100, later reduced to $800. B&H might be able to argue these were placeholder prices since it’s only selling these GPUs via waiting list, but we can’t be certain.
Best Buy’s situation was similar, with an initial listing price of $950 for the Gigabyte AORUS ELITE, which later dropped to $760. This may coincide with the lime-limited “deal” pricing we saw from Best Buy initially on launch morning, whose “deal” text was later removed. Our understanding is that AMD had a conversation with Best Buy after seeing this, causing the retailer to remove what appeared to insinuate that the launch price was a limited time and that it’d climb later.
RX 9070 Price Table
Now we’ll move on to the RX 9070 non-XTs. MSRP is supposed to be $550 for these, which we maintain is $50 too high and intentionally creates an upsell.
The good news is that it’s not $550. The bad news is that it’s more.
The average price of all listings is $628, which is $78 higher than the base MSRP of $550, or an average of 14% over. 13 of the 38 cards we gathered info on were at that base MSRP – a better ratio than the XTs. The average increase over MSRP for all 9070s shown here is 14%, with the raised price models in a range from 13% at the low-end for the PowerColor Hellhound at Micro Center, up to the Sapphire NITRO+ at a 31% increase over base price, which was also at Micro Center.
That puts the most expensive 9070 we found at $720, which is obviously atrociously bad. Nobody should pay even close to that for one of these cards.
It’s actually the same price as the ASUS 9070 XT Prime OC at Newegg. At those prices, you’d be better off buying a used NVIDIA GPU on eBay at those prices.
In fact, every single 9070 that wasn’t MSRP was actually more expensive than MSRP 9070 XTs. That’s also insane, and might be another piece of evidence pointing to AMD dropping the MSRP of both of these GPUs at the last moment.
Average increase per board partner is a lot closer for the non-XTs by percentage, to the point that it’s not worthwhile to get into the specific numbers. ASUS was technically the worst.
Overall, adding all the 9070 XTs and 9070s together, the average percent increase over MSRP is 19%. We don’t know whether that’s normal or not for AMD since this is the first time we’ve gathered that data for AMD, but we’ll bring up a point from our NVIDIA “Fake Prices” piece.
The ASUS RTX 4090 Strix – regarded as the most expensive “normal” 4090 – sold for 25% over MSRP. That’s a high-end GPU with a bunch of unnecessary, expensive bells-and-whistles from a company that largely sells its brand image. Tons of these AMD 9070 XTs (and some non-XT) are way across that percentage threshold, again including some at 42% over MSRP. That’s a bigger price hike than the Strix 4090.
In this case, modern midrange GPU price bloat continues, even if it’s not as high as NVIDIA’s 5070 Ti class of GPUs.
According to this detailed product listing sheet from the Dallas Microcenter, which is the only such one we were able to find, we observed 421 out of 920 cards, or roughly 46%, were sold at MSRP. More specifically, 319 of the 705 9070 XTs and 102 out of 215 9070s were listed with MSRP. This accounts for about 45.25% of 9070 XTs and nearly 47.5% for the non-XTs.
As seen in this chart we put together, each manufacturer listed had at least one MSRP card for both variants of the GPU. In these listings, excluding MSRP models, percent over MSRP ranged from 12.73% on the low end to 41.67% on the high end.
It’s normal for AIB partners to charge more than baseline MSRP. They tack-on extra features, they have quality of life options like extra VBIOS, “hellstones,” apparently, and quieter cooling.
What isn’t normal is the amount of upcharge we’re seeing this generation for both NVIDIA and AMD. Both companies’ partners have totally lost the plot, but AMD’s in particular feels bad because it marketed itself as the savior of gaming at affordable prices.
We dug back through decade-old reviews from our own publication, TechPowerUp, Tom’s Hardware, Anandtech, and others. We took prices from launch day of the GTX 1080 Ti and RX 5700 XT (read our review) GPUs to compare their average price increases over baseline MSRP. Remember: There are multiple MSRPs. There’s the base price from AMD or NVIDIA, but then the MSRP for each individual model. What we’re proving is that the cost increase in partner MSRP over baseline has gotten way worse.
Here’s the GOATed GTX 1080 Ti. We reviewed a lot of these. As you remember, the 9070 XT had multiple cards at 42% over MSRP. The GTX 1080 Ti KINGPIN was the only card at 42% over MSRP, technically about 43%, and that’s a specialized XOC card. Those are basically extinct today. Cards of that quality don’t exist anymore.
The next highest is the Lightning Z, which was a competing card to the KP and was 24% over MSRP. In fact, most of the cards of that era were about 7% to 10% over MSRP, including some of the best ones. The EVGA 1080 Ti FTW3 (watch our review) and SC2 (watch our review) were both excellent cards. The 1080 Ti Armor (watch our review) was a basic 1080 Ti for MSRP, but could be converted into an excellent water-cooled card with its reference PCB.
This chart is hugely different from what we just saw in the 9070 and 50-series launches. Partners have gotten out of control.
Here’s the 5700 XT. The 5700 XT had two prices. The first was $450, but after it jebaited itself, it came down to $400 pre-launch. Using the $400 price as the reference since that was launch pricing, the uplift for the cards we found via TechPowerUp and our own prior GN reviews ranged from 3% to 20% increased over MSRP. The $480 Taichi OC+ was among the highest.
There are models we didn’t list for each, but this cross-section gives you cards from all over each stack.
We are confident that data supports the delta against MSRP increasing with time. That means AMD and NVIDIA share blame with the partners for setting possibly unrealistic targets.
Tracking Stock
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We’ll come back to the fake MSRP discussion in a minute. First, it’d help to have perspective on volume and if this was a “paper launch” like NVIDIA’s.
Micro Center can be sort of a microcosm for our inventory report: It’s just one chain and it’s hyper localized, but because we have data for its RTX 50 launch, we can more easily get a like-for-like comparison perspective on AMD’s.
By crawling through web posts and cross-referencing them, we were able to conclude that Micro Center had nearly 12,000 known cards in stock (excluding a few stores we couldn’t find data for).
For reference, this spreadsheet circulated on Reddit after users tallied the Micro Center inventories for the 50-series launch day. The Madison Heights and Sterling Heights stores are actually the same, so subtracting those 10 duplicate entry units from the 5090s and 91 units from the 5080s (read our review), we end up with 223x RTX 5090s and 2,302 RTX 5080s for launch day.
Overclockers UK also posted some numbers. Gibbo from OC UK posted this:
“We do have several deliveries due today and next week, so we might have more available later. We have sold around 5000 units now, warehouse is working very hard to get them all shipped out today.”
That puts us at 12,000 units for a localized store in the US and 5,000 units for a UK-based store. Speaking with someone at AMD off-record, GN learned that AMD and its partners shipped “tens of thousands” of units to the North American market alone, with most of those being 9070 XT GPUs.
The break-out is more interesting: We don’t have the break-out for each store of the 9070 vs. 9070 XT quantities, but of the 11,657 total tallied, we were able to identify the model of 2,528 of them. The split of these is about 22% 9070 non-XT to 78% 9070 XT.
The RX 9070 is a Decoy Product
We think this supports the theory that AMD doesn’t actually want to sell the RX 9070 GPUs. We think that’s a model designed to create an upsell to the 9070 XT, like a decoy product.
AMD did this with the 7900 XT and 7900 XTX (at $900 and $1000), with that difference just months later becoming about $200. Within a year, the difference was at times $250.
To us, it doesn’t matter why AMD does this. We don’t care about AMD’s perspective. All we care about is the consumer perspective. And for the consumer, the reason a company might upsell them is irrelevant -- all they know is they’re getting upsold. Maybe the yields are so good on the XT that they have to fuse products off to even create a non-XT. But if that’s the argument, then they might as well drop the price for the goodwill and price accessibility since there aren’t that many anyway -- but then the 9070 wouldn’t serve what we assume is its purpose, which is to purely function as a tool to create an upsell to a 9070 XT.
System Integrator Inventory
We next checked with several system integrators we know. They have a very different perspective on the success of AMD’s launch than retailers for DIY.
The first SI we spoke to sold 50 systems with 9070 XTs and 20 systems with 9070s on launch day. That SI had just over 1,000 systems with RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT cards available for purchase. That’s about 7% of the built systems that were sold on launch day. The SI told us that this was “better than expected” as compared to AMD’s previous launches.
For perspective, that same SI previously told us that they had 20 units of RTX 5090 GPU (read our review) on launch day and that they sold out in about 2-4 minutes. There may be some influence from the wider market there: As users couldn’t buy retail DIY cards, they may have resorted to pre-built machines.
Another SI told us that they sold 7 units of 100 available on launch day. Interestingly, that’s also 7% -- so that’s two very differently sized system integrators at the same sell-through of inventory. The second SI sold about 30 units of RTX 5090 systems on launch day, which was 100% of availability.
It was interesting to gain the perspective of these companies. For the first, it was a better launch than expected -- but only in the context of AMD. For the second, the launch was viewed almost as a dud. In both situations, the average non-enthusiast “video game enjoyer” doesn’t buy AMD, at least in pre-built PCs.
AMD has to make inroads there eventually. For it to do that, it needs unshakeable goodwill in the enthusiast DIY segment so that those people become their evangelists.
Between the two SIs we spoke with, one received 50.5x more AMD GPUs than it received NVIDIA cards on day one, yet it made less revenue from them. The other received about 100x more since they’d only received a single 5090 initially, though they got another 20 or so on launch day, so that’d still put it at 5x more.
Using Micro Center only as another control, they received 4 times as many RX 9000 series cards as RTX 5000 series cards.
By all accounts, this is not a “paper launch” in the way the RTX 5000 series was. This appears to be more normal, in that there was a good amount of supply, just not enough to satisfy initial demand.
So the supply wasn’t fake. Now we question whether the “MSRP” is fake.
Retailers Claiming “Temporary Price”
Since it seems that AMD panicked when it caught wind of NVIDIA’s January announcements, we can continue the speculation that it never planned to sell the cards at these prices. If AMD is subsidizing partners, distributors, and retailers to hit the lower-than-expected price, then the new concern becomes whether the announced price is “temporary.”
Found via VideoCardz, at least three distributors have publicly stated that MSRP will only apply to the first shipment of cards.
Swedish retailer Inet.se announced in a machine translated post:
“Prices apply only to the first delivery of the respective model. We have now been told how the recommended prices, so-called MSRP prices, work for the launch of the AMD Radeon RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT. We must not say exact prices for the release, but simply explaining they will apply to a limited number of cards.”
The company clarified (which has also been machine translated):
“Our second delivery from PowerColor is already waiting, and we can not offer it at MSRP prices. This means that we will first sell the Reaper models at MSRP price and the stock balance will tick down as usual until the first delivery is sold out. Then, with a certain delay, the stock will be filled with new cards and we will then release the Reaper cards for order again – but then not at MSRP price.
“If you get through an order with MSRP price even if the cards are sold out, we will of course give you that price, but we unfortunately have no opportunities to continue selling cards at MSRP price after the first deliveries are sold out.”
“MSRP is capped quantity of a few hundred, so prices will jump once those are sold through.”
Another UK retailer, eBuyer, reportedly cancelled pre-orders that were processed at MSRP after it sold out of the first delivery of cards. They explained to an affected customer:
“Unfortunately, we were only allocated a limited number of units at the price offered by AMD, and we won't be receiving any additional stock at this price. As you can imagine, this launch has been extremely popular, and we have now sold out at that price. As a result of this, your pre order has been cancelled, and any payments have been reversed.”
A separate eBuyer customer claimed he checked out at £569.99 but the price increased to £664.98 when processing his payment.
eBuyer repeated its previous statement explaining the finite number of MSRP cards and added, “once these were sold we did have to sell these are normal cost [sic].” This would seem to indicate that it’s not simply from taxes being added after the fact.
But AMD has responded. AMD emailed us a statement from Frank Azor, whom you may remember from a previous AMD launch where he bet customers that, unlike its competition, he’d have stock at launch. He bet $10. He lost the bet. We’re not sure if he ever paid it out.
Just like when AMD’s other now-former executive claimed -- we think lied -- about AMD dropping GPU prices after panicking at NVIDIA’s launch as some sort of 6D chess grand jebaiting strategy, AMD has continually used NVIDIA and riled-up a tribal mentality as a shield for its own incompetence.
Emailed to us, Frank Azor said this:
“It is inaccurate that $549/$599 MSRP is launch-only pricing. We expect cards to be available from multiple vendors at $549/$599 (excluding region specific tariffs and/or taxes) based on the work we have done with our AIB partners, and more are coming. At the same time, the AIBs have different premium configurations at higher price points and those will also continue.”
Speaking with insiders, we learned that AMD is “enabling” partners to continue this pricing. When we asked what “enabling” means here, we were told that AMD is working to lower cost to partners either through direct price reductions or through rebates and marketing development fund, or MDF. MDF is money that partners can use to spend on AMD-approved advertising efforts. If you see ads pop-up on YouTube for AMD’s GPU partners at some point, it’s likely that money went from AMD itself and through the partner to trade for artificial suppression of the GPU price.
But based on the statement they sent to the media, it’s still unclear whether cards for MSRP can be expected or not going forward. The statements from distributors and AMD directly contradict one another. AMD can certainly say “launch-only pricing” is inaccurate, but the fact of the matter is the sellers previously mentioned have increased prices.
If AMD really wanted to enforce its MSRP, it could technically not distribute to retailers who don’t honor the price, but that seems unlikely. It doesn’t matter how much AMD claims pricing wasn’t launch-only: By not offering its own reference model for sale as NVIDIA does, it is an accomplice to the murder of its launch price. It has allowed partners to drift from the baseline because they’re all doing it, and without AMD there to undercut them, there’s no anchor to hold it back down. There are pros and cons to this: On the upside, AMD can avoid an EVGA departure situation. On the downside, partners can run wild, and AMD absolutely shares some of that blame. If AMD doesn’t control the final price because it doesn’t sell the final product, it can’t truly guarantee the price it advertised.
For all the sh*t NVIDIA gets, it does have this aspect of things together. It is controlling, overbearing, and levers its position to enforce strict requirements. Even if that’s often a bad thing, it can also work in favor of consumers.
Non-US Market Gets Screwed
We’re based in the US and are most familiar with that market, so that’s what we’ve looked at so far. But from reading comments from viewers internationally, it’s become clear that you all got screwed the most.
We’ve collected reports from 16 different countries outside of the US, all sharing a similar sentiment of MSRP cards evaporating in seconds to minutes.
Various users reported Netherlands retailer Megekko continuously increased prices throughout the launch.
One user explains, “At 15.00 their website crashed, and megekko kept on raising the prices, if im correct they raised the price 3 times in total. Now it costs 1100euro for a 9070xt that has 600dollar msrp.”
Another states, “Bought one from megekko for 930€ and was ‘sold out’ 3 seconds later, only to come back fully in stock but suddenly ANOTHER 100€ added.”
Because we don’t have actual numbers here, we can’t make any definitive claims. That being said, these reports seem to suggest that non-US distributors, excluding OCUK, didn’t receive as much stock as those in the US did. Specifically, stock being sold at MSRP. Interestingly, this is with new tariffs in the US.
Conclusion
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Based on our research, it does appear as if the cost increase in partner models has increased over time. Partners are shipping cards at a percent price higher than baseline MSRP that is greater than what they’ve done historically in the past from what we’ve briefly looked at thus far.
This might indicate that launch MSRPs might be for show. We think the situation boils down to greed. If we’re being charitable to partners in that they are raising prices just to survive the low margins, then the MSRPs are bull****.
When we covered EVGA’s GPUs, we learned that the company was just making $4 per card, so their margin was functionally zero. When NVIDIA let off the pressure to hit certain baseline prices, EVGA would stop selling these lower-margin cards to push pricier models that yielded higher margins. This is something we can’t fault them for given the low margin they had to contend with.
The pricing situation seems to have gotten worse. The argument that the tariffs are behind this is kind of BS because other countries outside of the US are getting screwed even more. In addition, these cards have been stockpiled in the US before the tariffs went into effect. Tariffs will have an effect, but we don’t buy it when you look at the total situation across both AMD and NVIDIA over the last 2 launches. We’re seeing a price creep due to companies realizing they can make more money on video cards, especially since they realize people will pay for it. The end result is that people get screwed. The delta against baseline MSRP is widening.
Microsoft has announced the general availability of hot patch updates for enterprise customers using Windows 11 Enterprise 24H2 on x64 systems. Hotpatching in ARM-based devices running Windows 11 Enterprise is also in the works and currently in public preview.
Hotpatching enables the application of OS security updates in the background, eliminating the need for restarts. This is achieved by patching the in-memory code of running processes, eliminating the downtime associated with traditional updates. The deployment of these updates is controlled through Windows Autopatch policies created in the Microsoft Intune console. Devices managed by these hotpatch-enabled policies will receive hotpatch updates every quarter.
To be eligible for hotpatching, devices must meet specific requirements:
A Microsoft subscription (Windows 11 Enterprise E3, E5, or F3, Windows 11 Education A3 or A5, or a Windows 365 Enterprise subscription)
A Windows 11 Enterprise 24H2 PC with the latest baseline update
An x64 AMD64 or Intel CPU
Virtualization-based Security (VBS) enabled
Microsoft Intune for managing hotpatch update distribution
Microsoft notes that hotpatch updates for Arm64 devices are currently in public preview. However, administrators can temporarily disable CHPE support via registry (Path: “HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management”, Dword Key Value: “HotPatchRestrictions=1”) to receive the functionality ahead of the official release. For the remaining eligible devices, hotpatching can be turned on or off within the Microsoft Intune admin center by navigating to Devices > “Windows updates” > “Create Windows quality update policy”.
This technology is not entirely new to the Microsoft ecosystem. Windows Hotpatch capability was initially introduced for Windows Server Azure Edition core virtual machines and later became widely available in February 2022 for systems running Windows Server 2022 Datacenter: Azure Edition. Since then, Microsoft has added hot patching to various preview builds of operating systems but has yet to arrive in the mainstream segment. Hopefully, hot patching will eventually be added to Windows 11 Home and Pro editions.
New rumours suggest AMD might be preparing to expand its RDNA 4 graphics card lineup with a new addition. These claims have emerged following reports of low stock for the non-XT Radeon RX 9070 in China, fuelling speculation that AMD might be clearing the way for a new model.
According to ITHome (via VideoCardz), a Radeon RX 9070 GRE is in development. While this initially points towards a China-exclusive release, it's worth noting that AMD has previously offered GRE versions to the global market, as seen with the RX 7900 GRE. Benchlife also corroborated these reports, stating that its sources claim AIB partners are presently preparing the Radeon RX 9070 GRE and are ready for mass production. If so, expect the first RX 9070 GRE graphics cards to emerge in the Chinese market shortly.
Currently, detailed specifications for this potential RX 9070 GRE remain scarce. However, ITHome and Benchlife speculate it will feature a 192-bit memory bus and a 12 GB GDDR6 configuration. A hypothetical RX 9070 GRE would effectively slot between the RX 9070 and the RX 9060 series in terms of performance and memory configuration, while also aligning with the memory specifications of the Nvidia RTX 5070.
MediaTek has unveiled its latest processor, the Kompanio Ultra 910, designed to elevate Chromebook performance. This new chipset emphasises AI capabilities, enhanced power efficiency, and high-speed connectivity, incorporating advanced computing technologies to drive productivity, creativity, and multimedia experiences.
Built on TSMC's 2nd-generation 3nm process, the MediaTek Kompanio Ultra 910 processor aims to deliver exceptional power efficiency, enabling Chromebooks to achieve all-day battery life while providing a significant performance boost. The CPU architecture features an eight-core configuration, comprising a high-performance Arm Cortex-X925 core clocked at up to 3.62 GHz, three Cortex-X4 cores, and four Cortex-A720 cores. This core combination is coupled with 12 MB of L3 cache and 10 MB of system-level cache (SLC).
The 11-core Immortalis-G925 MC11 GPU handles graphics processing, including ray tracing support, enhancing gaming and graphics-intensive applications. The Kompanio Ultra 910 also integrates LPDDR5X RAM (8533 Mbps) to support its processing power. Early benchmark results indicate strong performance, with a Geekbench 6 single-core score of 2600 and a multi-core score of 8000.
The Kompanio Ultra 910 uses an 8th-generation NPU, significantly boosting on-device AI performance. This enables real-time AI image and video generation and achieves up to 50 TOPS AI performance. AI acceleration also improves overall power efficiency by offloading tasks from the CPU and GPU.
The Kompanio Ultra 910 also features Bluetooth 6.0 (dual engine) and Wi-Fi 7, which can support speeds up to 7.3 Gbps. Moreover, this SoC can simultaneously drive up to three 4K displays: one integrated and two external. Lastly, it supports 4K 10-bit video decoding and encoding in HEVC, AVC, VP9, and AV1 formats.
KitGuru says: Although it looks like a capable SoC in single-core and AI workloads, its multi-core score doesn't come near what many expect from a proper, high-end laptop CPU. However, it should be more than enough given what most Chromebook users do in their systems.
Nvidia has teased what's to come for GeForce Now users in April. This month, we'll see a total of 21 new games added to the library, including brand-new releases like South of Midnight.
April is shaping up to be a huge month for exciting indie games. The Talos Principle: Reawakened is heading our way on April 10th, followed by Sunderfolk and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 on April 23rd. Compulsion Games is also releasing its first new game since 2016's We Happy Few – South of Midnight, a highly stylised action-adventure releasing day-one for Steam, Xbox and Windows, as well as via Game Pass.
Here is the full list of titles joining GeForce Now this week:
South of Midnight Advanced Access (Steam and Xbox, coming soon before launch)
Cat Quest (Epic Games Store)
Dark Deity 2 (Steam)
Hero Siege (Steam)
KARMA: The Dark World (Steam)
Sky: Children of the Light (Steam)
Train Sim World 5 (Steam)
Vivat Slovakia (Steam)
Later in the month, titles like Aimlabs, Backrooms: Escape Together, Sunderfolk, Night is Coming, Commandos Origins and more will be joining GeForce Now.
This week, G.Skill is launching its first high-capacity DDR5 memory kit to reach 8000MT/s speeds.
G.Skill continues to raise the bar for capacities, speeds and latency. The company's new DDR5-8000 CL44 kit offers up to 128GB of memory, spread over two 64GB memory sticks. Getting such a high capacity kit up to the 8000MT/s mark is a huge milestone for G.Skill and paints a promising picture as companies continue to find ways to push the boundaries of what's possible with DDR5.
Engineered for high-capacity overclocked performance, the DDR5-8000 128GB (64GBx2) combines ultra-high memory speed with massive memory kit capacity, surpassing the previous module capacity maximum at 48GB per module.
Dedicated to the continual development of extreme overclock performance memory kits, G.SKILL is also announcing an extreme-speed DDR5-9000 CL48-64-64 memory specification at 64GB (32GBx2) kit capacity. This new memory kit has been validated running on the ASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z890 APEX motherboard with an Intel Core Ultra 7 265K desktop processor.
If you've been having a hard time finding an RTX 50 series GPU at MSRP price levels, we'd like to steer you in the right direction. Currently, the Palit Infinity 3 RTX 5070 is available at MSRP, and there are some cheap options available for those looking to buy a prebuilt system too.
Both SCAN and OverclockersUK currently have the Palit Infinity 3 RTX 5070 graphics card in stock, priced at £509.99, making it one of the few cards currently available at MSRP price levels.
For those looking to buy a pre-built system, AWD-IT currently has two good deals for UK customers. The AWD-IT Charger PC is available at £949.99 equipped with a Ryzen 5 5600 CPU and an RTX 5070 graphics card. If you can spring up to £1,299.99, you can get the RTX 5070 Ti version of this build instead.
KitGuru Says: Are you currently trying to get hold of a new Nvidia or AMD graphics card at MSRP?
Apple's iconic iPhone may soon cost you about double what it costs now, as analysts predict a 43% price increase in response to U.S. tariffs on imports from China and elsewhere in the world.
The iPhone 16 Pro Max could reach a price point of around $2300.
On April 2, or "Liberation Day" as President Trump called it, a new assortment of "reciprocal" tariffs was applied against every foreign country in the Apple supply chain. While there's a minimum 10% tariff on all goods coming into the United States, imports from China were hit with a 54% tariff.
Investment bank Morgan Stanley has told investors that while Apple may have brought forward some iPhone 16 production ahead of Trump's new tariffs, there is little more it can do to mitigate a $33 billion cost increase it is about to incur.
Apple reportedly stepped up importing iPhones ahead of the tariff announcement
President Trump did not expect China to retaliate against his tariffs, and Morgan Stanley says its analysts didn't even contemplate tariffs being this high. But reportedly, Apple did at least expect that it would fail to get exemptions this time around.
According to a Morgan Stanley note to investors seen by AppleInsider, the company's analysts claim to know that "Apple has pulled forward some iPhone builds." There are no further details, but depending on the quantity of iPhones already completed and imported into the US, Apple could hold off price increases for a time.
One of Apple's most controversial stores never opened, but a virtual tour that can be viewed on Apple Vision Pro brings the dream back to life.
Apple's Federation Square building render. Credit: Filip Chudzinski
Apple's plan to build a flagship store in Melbourne's Federation Square sparked immediate backlash — and was ultimately canceled. Now, a virtual recreation offers a glimpse of what could have been.
In 2017, Apple announced its intention to open a global flagship in the heart of Melbourne, marking its first in the Southern Hemisphere. Designed in partnership with Foster + Partners, the multilevel glass pavilion would have anchored the southeast corner of Federation Square.
President Trump's announcement of tariffs and retaliatory measures by China has seen Apple's shares drop to their lowest point since June 2024, as investors predict rising iPhone prices and falling sales.
Tim Cook
The sweeping tariffs introduced by Trump will affect every single one of the very many countries Apple relies on for its manufacturing. Consequently, as with all technology firms, the company's share price took an immediate battering — but now it's getting worse.
In response to the purportedly reciprocal Trump tariffs, China has announced its own retaliatory ones. Trump is levying a 54% import tax on China, now Chinese firms importing goods from the US will face a 34% tariff.
Windows users who have an Apple Music subscription can now enjoy immersive, three-dimensional audio thanks to newly added support for Dolby Atmos on the Apple Music app.
Dolby Atmos support rolls out for Apple Music on Windows
Apple Music first came to Windows 11 in January 2023, and then showed up on the nearly ubiquitous Windows 10 just over a year later.
However, it didn't include support for Dolby Atmos — even though Apple users had it since June 2021.
The ASUS Prime X870-P Wi-Fi supports both USB4 and Thunderbolt 4, at a highly attractive price point of just slightly over $200. PCIe Gen 5 support for GPU and SSD is onboard, too, but what has ASUS had to cut in other areas to get there and are similarly-priced B850 offerings better value?
Respawn has quietly had a number of projects in the works behind the scenes over the last few years, but the majority of them have been cancelled. Unfortunately, that list of cancelled projects includes another Titanfall revival attempt.
According to Insider Gaming's sources, internal efforts to get Titanfall 3 off the ground have been shut down twice already, with the most recent cancellation being last year. In 2024, Respawn also cancelled its single-player Mandalorian game, and another project tied to the Apex Legends universe.
While some sources indicate that we are no closer to Titanfall 3, two leakers known in the Apex Legends community, Yorotsukl and Osvaldatore, Titanfall 3 is in development with plans for a 2026 launch, and a potential announcement planned for The Game Awards.
Given how past attempts to bring back Titanfall have gone, I'd encourage fans of the series to take these latest leaks with a pinch of salt.
KitGuru Says: Titanfall 2 has gone down in history as a good game, but it was still a commercial flop. Do you think Respawn will bring back Titanfall at some point? If Titanfall 3 is indeed on the way, hopefully Respawn learns from past mistakes and does not schedule its release in between Battlefield and Call of Duty.
Nintendo announced months ago that the Switch 2 would be backwards compatible with Switch 1 titles, bar a few limited exceptions. However, it turns out Switch 1 titles aren't running natively on Switch 2 and are instead relying on emulation.
During a developer Q&A on the Switch 2, Takuhiro Dohta explained that the team implemented “something that's somewhere in between a software emulator and hardware compatibility”.
As spotted by Eurogamer, that does mean that some Switch games may not run perfectly on Switch 2 at launch. Some Switch 1 titles have already been revealed to have compatibility issues, including 141 titles with start-up issues and 47 games with in-game compatibility issues.
Some of the titles with compatibility issues aren't exactly small either. Rocket League, Warframe and Dead by Daylight are all listed amongst the titles with start-up issues. On the single-player side, Doom Eternal, Wolfenstein 2, Final Fantasy and Alien Isolation are also listed as having issues.
Other titles, like Ring Fit Adventure and Nintendo Labo won't work with Switch 2 due to peripheral incompatibilities, as the new Joy-Cons won't fit the Labo cardboard kits, or the Ring Fit Adventure Ring attachment.
Now that iOS 18.4 is out, we're looking to the future with iOS 18.5, a rumored AI update to Apple Health, and the first rumors about the M6 processor, all on the AppleInsider Podcast.
The original iPad with the original Apple logo —- image credit: Apple
The iPad is now 15 years old — and Apple is 49. It's hard to say which seems more unbelievable, but what's much easier to say is that today's iPad and today's Apple may be very different from their origins, yet they are still so clearly the same product from the same company.
But if we must stop to acknowledge these anniversaries, and also acknowledge just how important the iPad and Apple itself have become to us all, there is still much more to come. We've just had the public release of iOS 18.4, but already the beta test versions of iOS 18.5 are out, and of course we are mere moments away from WWDC and the announcement of iOS 19.
CarPlay in the newly updated iOS 18.4 is causing problems for an unknown number of users, who report it disconnecting and reconnecting.
Apple's CarPlay
AppleInsider readers have long reported that CarPlay has various disconnection problems before, but this new update appears to have brought a series of issues. The main problem appears to be specifically that wireless CarPlay will disconnect and reconnect, but some users are no longer seeing the "Now Playing" information on their car screen.
Really unhappy with iOS 18.4.. #Carplay is driving me crazy. Think I will upgrade to the betas. So annoying that were on .4 and the quality is still bunk :/ #apple#ios184#ios185
Five years after it gave up on its iBooks Author app, Apple is now removing the ability for Pages to send books straight to the Apple Books store.
Pages for Mac still has the menu option for publishing to Apple Books, but now it just means export to ePub
Initially, Apple made a big deal of its original iBooks Author app in 2012, and how it let users create richly formatted books they could then immediately sell on its then iBooks Store. Only, iBooks Author had bugs, and Apple retired it in June 2020, when it also subsumed the app's publishing features into Pages.
As ever with the Book Store or publishing apps, there then followed silence from Apple, until Thursday. Apple emailed publishers with the news that Pages would no longer support publishing to the Apple Book Store.
Podcasts are wildly popular, and its easy to see why — from sports to true crime, comedy, news, and more, there seems to be one for nearly anything. Here's how to use Apple Podcasts and get the most out of your podcast experience.
Apple Podcasts
Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard of podcasts by now. You might even be among the millions of people listening to them.
Apple has anticipated this, which is why it includes its Apple Podcasts app on almost all its devices.
Each week, the Epic Games Store offers a title or two for free to all those with an EGS account. This week, players can get their hands on the cute and fun open-world Action-RPG Cat Quest II – with River City Girls set to be given away next week.
Available to add to your library from now until the 10th of April at 4PM UK time, Cat Quest II is the sequel to 2017’s well-liked (though ultimately rather simplistic) open world action-RPG.
Released back in 2019, Cat Quest II builds upon the bones of the first game, adding co-op; new weapon types; more spells; additional abilities; side quests and much more.
Of course, the sequel also uses a familiar-yet-enhanced take on the first game’s aesthetic, mixing 2D art in a 3D world to create a pleasing contrast.
Finally, despite its gimmicky name, Cat Quest is known to feature a rather charming story – and so overall is just a jolly fun time.
Marvel Rivals launched last year to a ton of praise and a great deal of buzz. In the months since, the game has been kept fresh with new characters, cosmetics and more. While Season 2 is introducing two new characters, from Season 3 onwards Marvel Rivals is set to get a new hero every single month.
While Season 2 will proceed as normal, adding two new characters (Ultron and Emma Frost) over the next three months, from Season 3 onwards players will get to enjoy three additional characters – meaning one a month.
Of course, Marvel Rivals is based on comics and so NetEase should have plenty of inspiration to draw from – be it for characters; maps; powers and more. Even so, adding a new character every single month seems like quite the ask.
KitGuru says: What do you think of this new release strategy? Are you excited to get more Marvel characters so consistently? Which hero/villain would you want to see in Season 3? Let us know down below.
The BAFTAs are one of the most prestigious award shows across multiple industries – video games included. Ahead of this year’s gaming BAFTA awards, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts hosted a public vote for the most influential games of all time – with Shenmue taking the top spot.
While it is somewhat hard to argue against a public vote, some of these games (and their placements) do give some pause. There’s no denying that Shenmue is an influential game, however the fact that it managed to take the top spot is surprising given its relative lack of awareness in the public consciousness.
On the other hand, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 literally released just two months ago, and so it is far too early to determine its long-term influence – making its placement at no.7 curious to say the least.
Of course, this is far from a definitive list, and each person’s own rankings will be unique to themselves. Still, there’s no denying that the results are at the very least interesting to read through.
Back in 2023, following many leaks and rumours, Bungie officially announced Marathon – the studio’s next big multiplayer live-service offering. Since then, we’ve heard little from the project. Finally however, Bungie seems ready to begin showing us more.
Making their very first post on BlueSky, the official Marathon page shared a brief teaser video – giving us very little to go off of. That said, this does seem to suggest that Bungie are gearing up for some sort of announcement.
Finally, about a month ago fans began to notice the back-end for Marathon on Steam getting a bunch of updates, leading many to believe that some major news was incoming.
Based on the recent activity on Bungie’s socials, a Marathon showcase appears to be imminent. It’s simply a matter of when, not if.
KitGuru says: What do you think of this teaser? Do you have high hopes for the game? Will we get a release date at this supposed-upcoming showcase? Let us know down below.
It's been two years since NVIDIA introduced its Ada Lovelace GPUs, kicking things off with the RTX 4090 and finishing up the initial lineup with the SUPER family At CES, the company unveiled its new RTX 50 "Blackwell" family which features a brand new architecture and several changes such as new cores, AI accelerators, new memory standards, and the latest video/display capabilities. NVIDIA has released the fourth entry within its "RTX 50" portfolio, the GeForce RTX 5070. The GeForce RTX 5070 retains its high-end positioning with the green team promising lots of performance at a price point of $549 US […]
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