TechSpot
How often do you upgrade your PC? 9 May 2026 at 03:17

How often do you upgrade your PC?

9 May 2026 at 03:17

Is it me, or did PC gaming used to move faster? In the late 1990s and early 2000s, a graphics card could feel outdated within a year, and major platform jumps arrived so often that upgrading became part of the hobby. Today, things are different.

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Diablo IV players finally discover the game's secret cow level 8 May 2026 at 23:02

Diablo IV players finally discover the game's secret cow level

TechSpot

8 May 2026 at 23:02

Diablo IV's secret cow level – which according to the game's former general manager Rod Fergusson did not exist – has finally been discovered by an enthusiastic player of Blizzard's action-RPG series. Streamer LoatheBurger, a self-confessed Diablo fan since 1996, explained the convoluted steps required to unlock the hidden level,...

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Apple is reportedly working on a holographic iPhone, an AI pendent, and AirPods Pro with AI cameras 8 May 2026 at 21:39

Apple is reportedly working on a holographic iPhone, an AI pendent, and AirPods Pro with AI cameras

TechSpot

8 May 2026 at 21:39

Information about the rumored new iPhone comes from tipster Schrodinger, who shared screenshots of messages from an unnamed source said to be familiar with the project. The screenshots suggest that Apple is working on a "Spatial iPhone" – codenamed H1 or MH1 – featuring a holographic display that would create...

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The Nintendo Switch 2 is getting a $50 price hike in September 8 May 2026 at 20:56

The Nintendo Switch 2 is getting a $50 price hike in September

TechSpot

8 May 2026 at 20:56

In Canada, gamers will pay $679.99 for the Switch 2 and in Europe, it's going up to €499.99. Nintendo's home country of Japan isn't excluded from the price hike – in fact, the situation is worse there as the original Switch, the Switch OLED, and the Switch Lite will also...

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Kaspersky warns that passwords hashed with MD5 algorithm can be cracked in minutes using a GPU 8 May 2026 at 20:17

Kaspersky warns that passwords hashed with MD5 algorithm can be cracked in minutes using a GPU

TechSpot

8 May 2026 at 20:17

Just in time for World Password Day, Kaspersky is reminding everyone that outdated hashing algorithms such as MD5 remain among the worst choices for storing passwords. In a recent post, the security firm revisited a 2024 study examining the "crackability" of real-world passwords. The conclusion is not surprising: password cracking...

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Michigan residents voted down a $16 billion Stargate AI data center, then construction began anyway 8 May 2026 at 19:08

Michigan residents voted down a $16 billion Stargate AI data center, then construction began anyway

TechSpot

8 May 2026 at 19:08

Unsurprisingly, the few thousand residents of the small community of Saline Township in Washtenaw County, Michigan, were worried about OpenAI and Oracle's massive new $16 billion Stargate data center. Their concerns covered the usual issues: excessive water usage, the power draw on the regional grid, a huge increase in traffic,...

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Microsoft is adding a feature that briefly maxes out your CPU to make Windows feel snappier 8 May 2026 at 18:40

Microsoft is adding a feature that briefly maxes out your CPU to make Windows feel snappier

TechSpot

8 May 2026 at 18:40

According to insider sources, Microsoft engineers are working on a new feature called "Low Latency Profile" (LLP) aimed at improving Windows 11's performance in certain critical, system-wide tasks. The change is already present in recent preview builds distributed to Windows Insider participants, meaning enthusiast users can enable and test it...

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ValiDrive helps detect fake USB drives and storage devices 8 May 2026 at 17:44

ValiDrive helps detect fake USB drives and storage devices

TechSpot

8 May 2026 at 17:44

ValiDrive is a free utility that checks whether USB drives, memory cards, SSDs, and other storage actually provide their advertised capacity. Designed to spot counterfeit or faulty drives with inflated storage claims, it can also identify potential read/write problems and give a quick look at transfer performance.

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Samsung offered chip workers a $340,000 bonus to avoid a strike. They want it every year 8 May 2026 at 16:51

Samsung offered chip workers a $340,000 bonus to avoid a strike. They want it every year

TechSpot

8 May 2026 at 16:51

It's the latest escalation in a dispute that began with Samsung workers demanding a direct share of the money generated by the AI memory boom.

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Motherboard sales are collapsing because AI data centers made RAM too expensive to buy 8 May 2026 at 16:04

Motherboard sales are collapsing because AI data centers made RAM too expensive to buy

TechSpot

8 May 2026 at 16:04

Sources tell DigiTimes that, late last year, four major motherboard manufacturers in Taiwan significantly downgraded their 2026 shipment projections. Although motherboards are not suffering the same AI-related shortages as RAM, DIY builders see little need to purchase motherboards if they can't afford the components to install on them.

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Grok convinced a man it was sentient and that xAI had sent assassins to kill him 8 May 2026 at 15:15

Grok convinced a man it was sentient and that xAI had sent assassins to kill him

TechSpot

8 May 2026 at 15:15

The story is part of a BBC report into people who experienced delusions while using AI. They are men and women from their 20s to 50s from six different countries, using a wide range of AI models.

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The Best Ultrawide Gaming Monitors 2026 8 May 2026 at 14:17

The Best Ultrawide Gaming Monitors 2026

TechSpot

8 May 2026 at 14:17

From affordable 34-inch LCDs to flagship 45-inch OLEDs, these are the best ultrawide gaming monitors you can buy right now, tested and recommended by us.

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AI images are getting harder to spot, but physics still gives them away if you know where to look 8 May 2026 at 07:06

AI images are getting harder to spot, but physics still gives them away if you know where to look

TechSpot

8 May 2026 at 07:06

A study published in the journal Science explains that while modern image generators are rapidly improving, the models behind them remain fundamentally ignorant of how light and geometry work in the real world. Measuring simple details like reflections or shadows can still give away a fake photo – that gap,...

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Samsung is pulling TVs and appliances from China after losing $138 million to local competition 7 May 2026 at 21:32

Samsung is pulling TVs and appliances from China after losing $138 million to local competition

TechSpot

7 May 2026 at 21:32

The South Korean technology giant said it will make every effort to minimize the impact for existing customers, and is reviewing its support infrastructure for business partners. The decision won't affect Samsung's other divisions in the region, meaning they will continue to sell products such as smartphones and tablets as...

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Open-source project wants to bring stereoscopic 3D gaming back from the dead 7 May 2026 at 20:29

Open-source project wants to bring stereoscopic 3D gaming back from the dead

TechSpot

7 May 2026 at 20:29

The recently unveiled "wiz3D" project is designed to "resurrect" stereoscopic support in older games, allowing them to run with compatible goggles and other stereo display devices. The open-source tool acts as a stereoscopic 3D wrapper, injecting hooks into gaming APIs to generate real-time stereo 3D output on modern Windows systems....

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Star Fox remake hits Switch 2 on June 25 with 4v4 battle mode and iconic maps 7 May 2026 at 19:46

Star Fox remake hits Switch 2 on June 25 with 4v4 battle mode and iconic maps

TechSpot

7 May 2026 at 19:46

The official announcement came on Wednesday via a dedicated Nintendo Direct livestream. Star Fox (2026) will launch on June 25 on the Switch 2, marking at least the fifth time the classic title has been remade or remastered by Nintendo over the past three decades.

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Project Mariner is dead, but Google's browser-controlling AI plans are not 7 May 2026 at 19:03

Project Mariner is dead, but Google's browser-controlling AI plans are not

TechSpot

7 May 2026 at 19:03

Google first announced Project Mariner back in December 2024. An extension for an experimental build of Chrome, Mariner could execute multi-step commands to browse websites, use Google search, retrieve specified information, go shopping, and more. Google positioned the agent as assisting with tasks that are usually tedious for humans.

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AMD's next Epyc server chip debuts this year with 256 cores and 70% better performance 7 May 2026 at 18:31

AMD's next Epyc server chip debuts this year with 256 cores and 70% better performance

TechSpot

7 May 2026 at 18:31

During an investor call following the release of AMD's first-quarter 2026 earnings, CEO Lisa Su confirmed that the Epyc Venice processors remain on schedule for launch later this year. The server CPUs will mark the debut of the Zen 6 architecture and AMD's first move to TSMC's 2nm process technology.

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SpaceX will help power Claude with 220,000 Nvidia GPUs despite Elon's attacks on Anthropic 7 May 2026 at 17:49

SpaceX will help power Claude with 220,000 Nvidia GPUs despite Elon's attacks on Anthropic

TechSpot

7 May 2026 at 17:49

SpaceXAI, the combined company formed after SpaceX absorbed xAI earlier this year, announced that Anthropic will use compute capacity from Colossus 1, the Memphis data center Musk has repeatedly described as one of the world's largest AI supercomputers. The site offers more than 300 megawatts of new capacity and over...

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Gen Z is turning subscriptions into short-term rentals for shows, movies, and games 7 May 2026 at 17:15

Gen Z is turning subscriptions into short-term rentals for shows, movies, and games

TechSpot

7 May 2026 at 17:15

One of the clearest signals in the data is how Gen Z approaches streaming. The report finds that 59% of users in that group subscribe to and unsubscribe from platforms specifically to watch a single show or film. In effect, streaming subscriptions have become temporary access points rather than ongoing...

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PCIe has doubled bandwidth every generation for two decades, PCIe 8.0 is on track to do it again at 1TB/s 7 May 2026 at 16:44

PCIe has doubled bandwidth every generation for two decades, PCIe 8.0 is on track to do it again at 1TB/s

TechSpot

7 May 2026 at 16:44

Manufacturers can now review the 0.5 draft specification for PCIe 8.0. The spec aims to increase bandwidth significantly while reducing power consumption.

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Nintendo is selling the Switch 2 at a loss, so investors are asking for a hefty price hike 7 May 2026 at 16:03

Nintendo is selling the Switch 2 at a loss, so investors are asking for a hefty price hike

TechSpot

7 May 2026 at 16:03

Bloomberg notes that apart from a brief uplift in March when Pokémon Pokopia launched, Nintendo's stock price has been on a downward trajectory this year. It started 2026 at $68.15 but is currently at $47.38, a fall of more than 30%.

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Image generation is now the feature that moves the needle for AI apps 7 May 2026 at 15:15

Image generation is now the feature that moves the needle for AI apps

TechSpot

7 May 2026 at 15:15

This reflects a shift from earlier phases of the AI boom, when advances in conversational models and features like voice drove adoption. Those improvements still matter, but they no longer spark the same immediate interest as tools that generate visual content.

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A student halted multiple Taiwan bullet trains by spoofing the rail network's emergency radio signals 7 May 2026 at 14:19

A student halted multiple Taiwan bullet trains by spoofing the rail network's emergency radio signals

TechSpot

7 May 2026 at 14:19

Taiwan High Speed Rail (THSR) told local media that on April 5, a 48-minute stoppage affected four trains – though some outlets say it was three trains. The disruption was caused by a General Alarm signal that triggered emergency response protocols instructing the trains to stop manually.

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Microsoft made Copilot a co-author on every VS Code project, reverted after developers revolted 7 May 2026 at 00:04

Microsoft made Copilot a co-author on every VS Code project, reverted after developers revolted

TechSpot

7 May 2026 at 00:04

A recent pull request effectively turned Copilot into a "co-author" for every programming project created in Visual Studio Code – even when the programmer behind the screen did not use Copilot at all. Users informed Microsoft that they did not like the change, criticizing the company for adding more "slop"...

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Hackers used Daemon Tools' own website to silently install backdoors on thousands of PCs for nearly a month 6 May 2026 at 23:17

Hackers used Daemon Tools' own website to silently install backdoors on thousands of PCs for nearly a month

TechSpot

6 May 2026 at 23:17

Cybersecurity researchers at Kaspersky found that the attack compromised multiple versions of Daemon Tools, from 12.5.0.2421 through 12.5.0.2434. What made the campaign particularly difficult to detect was that the malicious installers were distributed directly from the official website and signed with legitimate digital certificates belonging to AVB Disc Soft, the...

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Myst and Riven remakes head to PlayStation, Xbox, and Microsoft Store 6 May 2026 at 22:36

Myst and Riven remakes head to PlayStation, Xbox, and Microsoft Store

TechSpot

6 May 2026 at 22:36

On the PS5, players will have access to HDR and 4K gameplay as well as PS5 Pro enhancements and support for ray tracing. HDR / 4K and ray tracing are also supported on the Xbox and Microsoft Store versions, we're told.

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Roku and TCL face lawsuit over software updates that allegedly brick smart TVs 6 May 2026 at 21:53

Roku and TCL face lawsuit over software updates that allegedly brick smart TVs

TechSpot

6 May 2026 at 21:53

The lawsuit alleges that a series of updates pushed to certain Roku-powered TVs introduced recurring issues that, in some cases, rendered the devices unusable. The models named include Roku Select Series and Roku Plus Series sets, along with TCL's 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-series TVs running Roku OS.

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Game engines were built for video games, but Japan is finding more interesting things to do with them 6 May 2026 at 20:49

Game engines were built for video games, but Japan is finding more interesting things to do with them

TechSpot

6 May 2026 at 20:49

A recent report by Nikkei Asia highlights several interesting cases in which 3D engines are being used for far more than simply powering commercial video games. Japanese sources describe the "extended life" of popular SDKs such as Unity and Unreal Engine, which together account for around 70% of the traditional...

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Nvidia partners with Corning to build the fiber optic backbone for next-gen AI data centers 6 May 2026 at 20:10

Nvidia partners with Corning to build the fiber optic backbone for next-gen AI data centers

TechSpot

6 May 2026 at 20:10

Nvidia said the deal will expand Corning's US-based optical connectivity manufacturing capacity tenfold and boost its domestic fiber production capacity by more than 50%. Collectively, the new facilities will create north of 3,000 high-paying jobs, we are told. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed, nor was a timeline...

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The quiet reinvention of search in the age of AI 6 May 2026 at 19:42

The quiet reinvention of search in the age of AI

TechSpot

6 May 2026 at 19:42

"Search is dead" has been a recurring headline for years. First, it was social media that was supposed to replace it. Then apps. Then, voice assistants. Now it's generative AI.

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A single Micron SSD can now store 245TB and use half the power of hard drives 6 May 2026 at 18:56

A single Micron SSD can now store 245TB and use half the power of hard drives

TechSpot

6 May 2026 at 18:56

The recently introduced 6600 ION SSD is available in both U.2 and E3.L form factors and can provide up to 245 terabytes of storage in a single drive. Micron describes the new unit as the highest-capacity commercially available SSD in the industry, in line with other high-capacity drives released in...

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Apple is paying $250 million after overselling AI features before they actually worked 6 May 2026 at 18:17

Apple is paying $250 million after overselling AI features before they actually worked

TechSpot

6 May 2026 at 18:17

The complaints focused on how Apple marketed its AI features alongside the iPhone 16 and certain iPhone 15 models. Consumers who purchased those handsets between June 2024 and March 2025 may be eligible for payments of up to $95 per device. Apple denied any wrongdoing as part of the settlement.

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Scientists create "living plastic" that can self-destruct on command 6 May 2026 at 17:51

Scientists create "living plastic" that can self-destruct on command

TechSpot

6 May 2026 at 17:51

Scientists at the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology have developed a "living plastic" with a built-in kill switch. The material contains spores from engineered Bacillus subtilis, a common soil bacterium, that remain inactive during normal use.

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Microsoft Edge stores all your saved passwords unencrypted in memory 6 May 2026 at 17:16

Microsoft Edge stores all your saved passwords unencrypted in memory

TechSpot

6 May 2026 at 17:16

Security researcher Tom Jøran Sønstebyseter Rønning recently shared evidence that Microsoft's web browser-based password manager stores all of its saved passwords in memory without encryption while running. He released and demonstrated a simple proof of concept that displays the passwords and their associated accounts.

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AMD warns gaming revenue will plunge over 20% as memory prices drive up PC hardware costs 6 May 2026 at 16:46

AMD warns gaming revenue will plunge over 20% as memory prices drive up PC hardware costs

TechSpot

6 May 2026 at 16:46

AMD's first-quarter results were good news for investors. Revenue hit $10.3 billion, up 38% year over year, while the data center segment climbed 57% to $5.8 billion on the back of Epyc CPUs and Instinct GPUs. Client and Gaming also improved, rising 23% to $3.6 billion, with gaming revenue up...

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A major study claiming ChatGPT improves student learning has been retracted 6 May 2026 at 16:03

A major study claiming ChatGPT improves student learning has been retracted

TechSpot

6 May 2026 at 16:03

By the time of the retraction, the paper had already traveled far. Published in May 2025 in Humanities & Social Sciences Communications, it attempted to measure ChatGPT's impact by combining results from 51 separate studies. The authors compared outcomes between students who used the chatbot and those who did not,...

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Microsoft kills Gaming Copilot for Xbox consoles and mobile 6 May 2026 at 15:15

Microsoft kills Gaming Copilot for Xbox consoles and mobile

TechSpot

6 May 2026 at 15:15

It was only two months ago at GDC 2026 when Sonali Yadav, Xbox's Gaming AI partner group product manager, said Gaming Copilot would be coming to current-gen Microsoft consoles, with the rollout expected to take place this year.

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Frame Generation Doesn't Fix Bad Performance! 6 May 2026 at 14:21

Frame Generation Doesn't Fix Bad Performance!

TechSpot

6 May 2026 at 14:21

Lego Batman is advertising 60 FPS, but it's really 15 FPS. Frame generation is supposed to make good performance better, not hide the fact that a game is running poorly. Lego Batman's spec sheet just crossed that line.

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Google Chrome has been silently pushing a 4GB AI model to your device without asking 6 May 2026 at 03:06

Google Chrome has been silently pushing a 4GB AI model to your device without asking

TechSpot

6 May 2026 at 03:06

Google Chrome users who have noticed unusual disk activity or unexplained drops in available storage should look for a folder called "OptGuideOnDeviceModel" inside their Chrome directory. It holds roughly 4GB of weights for Google's Gemini Nano LLM, downloaded by the browser without user consent.

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The Metal Gear Solid 2 leak is massive and perfectly timed – modders are already dreaming big 5 May 2026 at 22:03

The Metal Gear Solid 2 leak is massive and perfectly timed – modders are already dreaming big

TechSpot

5 May 2026 at 22:03

The full assets of Metal Gear Solid 2's HD remaster were recently leaked on 4chan. An unnamed party used the notorious imageboard to distribute the source code for every version of the remaster across all supported platforms, including the PlayStation Vita edition. The leak also reportedly includes 30GB of raw,...

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Apple and Samsung are dominating smartphone sales so thoroughly that only one other company makes the top 10 5 May 2026 at 21:24

Apple and Samsung are dominating smartphone sales so thoroughly that only one other company makes the top 10

TechSpot

5 May 2026 at 21:24

The iPhone 17 was the best-selling smartphone in the first quarter, accounting for six percent of global sales. Apple's iPhone 17 Pro Max ranked second, followed by the standard iPhone 17 Pro. Samsung grabbed fourth and fifth place with the Galaxy A07 G4 and Galaxy A17 5G, respectively.

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Meta is using AI facial analysis to identify underage users on Facebook and Instagram 5 May 2026 at 20:31

Meta is using AI facial analysis to identify underage users on Facebook and Instagram

TechSpot

5 May 2026 at 20:31

In a blog post, the Menlo Park-based tech giant said it is developing an advanced AI system to scan photos and videos on Facebook and Instagram, analyzing users' bone structure, height, and other visual cues to estimate their age, while insisting that it is "not facial recognition." The AI will...

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The FCC wants to ban Chinese labs from certifying electronics, but 75% of devices are tested there now 5 May 2026 at 19:48

The FCC wants to ban Chinese labs from certifying electronics, but 75% of devices are tested there now

TechSpot

5 May 2026 at 19:48

Any product that emits radio frequencies must pass through the FCC's equipment authorization process before it can be legally imported or sold in the US. That includes the obvious stuff like phones, tablets, PCs, Wi-Fi routers, along with the growing number of gadgets that insist on adding Bluetooth or Wi-Fi...

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California just gave police a way to ticket Waymo and other robotaxis 5 May 2026 at 18:52

California just gave police a way to ticket Waymo and other robotaxis

TechSpot

5 May 2026 at 18:52

The change defines how violations are handled when the "driver" is software. The gap has already caused confusion. In San Bruno last year, police stopped a Waymo vehicle after it made an illegal U-turn but were unable to issue a ticket. "Since there was no human driver, a ticket couldn't...

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Gearbox boss posts AI image "for fun," spends hours defending studio's no-AI policy 5 May 2026 at 18:09

Gearbox boss posts AI image "for fun," spends hours defending studio's no-AI policy

TechSpot

5 May 2026 at 18:09

The situation started on May 3, when Pitchford's X post showed an AI-generated image. "I asked my primary AI tool to generate a selfie that indicates how they feel based on how I interact with it and this is what it generated (note: background words were not prompted and have...

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Steam Controller sells out in 30 minutes as scalpers push prices to $300 7 May 2026 at 11:14

Steam Controller sells out in 30 minutes as scalpers push prices to $300

TechSpot

7 May 2026 at 11:14

Update (May 7): Valve has announced a new reservation system for the Steam Controller following the chaotic launch earlier this week, admitting that "the experience for a lot of you trying to buy it was incredibly frustrating." Beginning May 8 at 10am Pacific, users will be able to join a...

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