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Last month, users of EVGA’s GTX 1060, 1070, and 1080 graphics cards reported that the GPUs were overheating so much that some of them caught fire. The company has now issued a VBIOS update that it hopes will solve the problem. Both Reddit and EVGA’s forums have been inundated with complaints from users of the affected cards, who report that their PCs are suddenly switching off as the GPU temperatures reach excessively high levels. In some cases, cards would emit smoke and shoot out flames. Tom’s Hardware Germany found that one GTX 1080 reached 114 degrees Celsius (237 degrees Fahrenheit) when running the FurMark stress test. Here’s a list of all affected cards. It was discovered that the problem lies with the cards’ voltage regulation modules (VRM) overheating due to the insufficient cooling coming from EVGA’s custom ACX 3.0 cooler. The company’s video BIOS update will increase the default fan speeds to reduce the VRM temperatures. “This update resolves the potential thermal issues that have been reported, and ensures the card maintains safe operating temperatures,” said EVGA. Every one of its cards shipped after November 1 runs the updated VBIOS by default. EVGA is also installing VRM thermal pads in all its new GPUs and is offering 10-series owners free thermal pad kits from its website. If you don’t want to install the thermal mod yourself, just send the card to EVGA and the company will do it for you. For those who would prefer a brand new card, EVGA says it will honor its full warranty on the affected GPUs. Its Standard Cross-Ship RMA means users will receive a new card before returning the defective one. You are required to pay the full cost of the replacement, but this is refunded shortly after EVGA receives your old GPU.

Microsoft’s most recent hardware offerings may be the talk of the town but things aren’t quite as peachy on the software side according to NetMarketShare. A quick look at the market share analytics firm’s desktop web browser trends must be quite alarming if you're Microsoft. Dating back to at least last December, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has been ceding users at a steady (and rapid) pace. Digging in deeper, we see that Internet Explorer held 46.32 percent of the desktop browser market in December 2015. As of this past October, that figure has almost exactly been cut in half, down to just 23.13 percent. With Microsoft’s Edge only gaining a 2.47 percent share over the past year and Firefox and Safari more or less remaining flat, where exactly are all of Internet Explorer’s former users going? Over to Google’s Chrome browser. During the same span, Chrome’s market share went from 32.33 percent all the way up to 54.99 percent. That’s a mighty impressive 70.09 percent uptick. Microsoft’s combined market share (Internet Explorer + Edge) sits at 28.39 percent as of October. It’s hard to put actual user figures behind the percentages but Computerworld has taken a stab at it. Using NetMarketShare’s data for browser and operating system user share in addition to Microsoft’s claim that roughly 1.5 billion PCs worldwide run Windows, the publication estimates that IE and Edge have lost around 331 million users since the beginning of 2016. As always, keep in mind that these are market share estimates from a single analytics firm so take them with a grain of salt.

Video-sharing website Vimeo is looking to take on the likes of Amazon, Netflix and YouTube with a consumer-facing subscription service of its own. The Hollywood Reporter points to a recent shareholder letter from IAC CEO and interim Vimeo chief Joey Levin in which he pitches the idea for the service (Vimeo is one of the many companies IAC owns). In the letter, Levin says Vimeo has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to, following in Netflix’s footsteps, deliver compelling subscription viewing experiences for consumers in the market for pay TV. The main differentiator between Vimeo and all others in the over-the-top market is that unlike others that have to start from scratch, Levin says they will begin with more than a billion monthly video views, 115 million videos available, 240 million monthly viewers and millions of customers that have already purchased content from a Vimeo creator on their platform. Levin acknowledged that they’ll face stiff competition but their reputation as a one-stop shop for creators to bypass the entire existing media infrastructure will allow them to stand out among the crowd. What’s more, unlike other platforms that focus on building celebrities and influencers, Vimeo has loads of behind-the-camera talent (emerging filmmakers, editors and directors) known for turning out top-notch content. One example is High Maintenance, a title that originated on Vimeo and was recently picked up by HBO. The executive didn’t provide any details as to how much its subscription service will cost or what all it’ll include.

Just why does Apple love removing long-used ports from its products? It seems the outcry that followed the disappearance of the headphone jack from the iPhone 7 had no effect on the Cupertino company; it dropped most of the standard ports from the new MacBook Pro, including the SD card slot, yet kept the laptop's 3.5mm jack. Speaking during an interview with The Independent, Phil Schiller, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, explained the thinking behind axing the SD slot. He called the decision a “bold move” - similar to how removing the latest iPhone’s headphone jack took “courage.” It seems the two main reasons behind the slot’s removal were because it is “cumbersome” and there are an increasing number of cameras that use wireless transfer technology. While Schiller has a point about more cameras using wireless, there are still plenty of models, even expensive DSLRs, that don’t have the feature. And was the SD card reallysuch a pain when sticking slightly out of the MacBook's slot? Surely using a full USB-C SD adapter, as he suggests, would be a lot more cumbersome. When asked why the 3.5mm jack was removed from the iPhone 7 but remains on the MacBook Pro, Schiller said that the jack is used for more than just headphones on the laptop. Apple kept it because “these are pro machines,” and many users “have setups with studio monitors, amps, and other pro audio gear that do not have wireless solutions and need the 3.5mm jack.” Suggesting that if people used the MacBook Pro's jack for just headphones, then it would have likely been dropped. But it could still be removed in future models, if a Apple survey from September is anything to go by. The removal of so many standard ports, and the fact that not everyone is impressed by the new Touch Bar, has led to a fair amount of criticism being directed at the new MacBooks – something that has surprised Schiller. He did add, though, that he’s never “seen a great new Apple product that didn’t have its share of early criticism and debate — and that’s cool.” Despite the negative reception from some quarters, Apple’s online store is apparently taking more orders for the new MacBooks than “any pro notebook before.”

Chinese smartphone maker Huawei on Thursday unveiled its long-rumored Mate 9 smartphone, a flagship that’ll eventually find its way to US shores. The Huawei Mate 9 features a large 5.9-inch display operating at a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 with 2.5D glass that’s powered by a Kirin 960 octa-core processor and 4GB of RAM. It also includes 64GB of local flash (expandable via microSD card slot), a rear-facing dual camera system comprised of 12-megapixel and 20-megapixel f/2.2 aperture cameras with optical image stabilization, an 8-megapixel f/1.9 aperture selfie camera up front, a fingerprint sensor and a large 4,000mAh non-removable battery with fast charging technology. As Engadget details, Huawei built in a machine-learning algorithm that aims to learn your phone habits and optimize resources accordingly. For example, if you often play a specific game immediately after checking Twitter, the Mate 9 can pick up on this and prepare the CPU and RAM for a faster launch. The idea is to prevent your phone from running more slowly over time and thus, extend its usable life. Huawei has also reportedly spruced up EMUI 5.0, its Android 7.0 Nougat overlay. After spending some time with it, Engadget says the UI does feel a little less cluttered as icons have been redesigned and shuffled around in a meaningful way. Huawei didn’t say exactly when the Mate 9 would arrive in the US although a person reportedly familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal that it’ll debut in the states in January. It’s a real shame to consumers that Huawei’s Mate 9 will miss the holiday buying season as there’s a huge gap in the market left by the early exit of Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7.

Password manager LastPass on Tuesday extended the ability to sync login credentials across all platforms and devices, a perk previously reserved for paying members. LastPass founder, VP and GM Joe Siegrist said in announcing the change that by offering the service for free across all devices, they’re making it that much easier for anyone to make good password habits the norm. Having a password manager that goes everywhere you do, he said, affords a strong foundation for securing and taking control of your identity. This is the second major change for LastPass in as many years. LastPass launched in 2008 and as PCWorld notes, was only offered for free on the PC (mobile device usage was limited to paying members). That changed in August 2015 when LastPass expanded the reach of its free service to mobile devices. The catch, however, was that free users would be restricted to just one device type. Now, you’re free to use LastPass for free across any and all device types. LogMeIn acquired LastPass in October 2015 for $110 million. For those already using LastPass Free, no action will be required to start using the password manager on all your devices. Simply download the app for your browser or mobile device and sign in. LastPass’ Premium service, priced at $1 per month, still offers features you won’t get with the free version including family password sharing with up to five others, two-factor authentication options, priority tech support and 1GB of encrypted file storage, among others.

Raising kids in today’s tech-infused society has arguably never been more of a struggle. While some will argue the merits of becoming acquainted with technology at a very early age, others are steadfast in their belief that there are far more valuable ways for impressionable children to spend their free time. Reading, for example, has been shown to improve focus and concentration, reduce stress, expand one’s vocabulary and sharpen writing skills, especially among youngsters. It’s also the focus of Amazon’s latest app which advocates reading with a modern twist. Reading apps certainly aren’t anything new but Amazon’s new app, called Amazon Rapids, presents short stories across adventure, fantasy, mystery, humor, science fiction and sports categories in a unique chat-style format. More specifically, stories are told through the lens of characters chatting with each other. Examples Amazon listed including a grandmother invading her granddaughter’s group chat, an alien texting about invading Earth and two chickens debating on whether or not they should cross the street. All content is said to be appropriate for kids ages 7-12 with hundreds of original, illustrated stories on tap. New stories will be added each month, we’re told. Parents interested in checking out the app can sign up for a two-week free trial. Should you decide to stick with the app, you’ll be charged a flat rate of $2.99 (apparently an introductory rate) per month.

Olympus unveiled the OM-D E-M1 Mark II at Photokina 2016 last September, the successor to their flagship OM-D E-M1 mirrorless camera that's been around for a few years now. There’s a lot to love about the OM-D E-M1 Mark II although two key bits of information – its price and release date – were glaringly absent from its announcement. Olympus has filled inthe missing pieces of the puzzle this week and predictably, it won’t come cheap. Olympus tells us that the refreshed shooter will go on sale at the end of December with an MSRP of $1,999.99 for just the body (no lens included). In the UK, expect to pay £1,849.99 including VAT for the body or £2,399.99 for the body with Olympus’ excellent M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO lens. As a quick refresher, the weatherproof Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II features a 20.4-megapixel live MOS sensor and a TruePic VIII image processor that’s capable of shooting 18 frames per second with continuous focus enabled or up to 60 frames a second with the focus locked. You also get a five-axis image stabilization system, a new 121-point all-cross-type, on-chip phase detection and contrast detection autofocus system, two SD card slots, a 50-megapixel high-resolution mode, a battery that lasts 37 percent longer and a charger that does its job 50 percent faster, among other features. If you’ve yet to give a pro-level mirrorless camera like this a try, you’ll likely be shocked at what it’s capable of.

Microsoft is now all-in on Windows 10. The company has stopped selling OEM licenses of Windows 7 Professional and Windows 8.1 to manufacturing partners, effectively restricting all new systems to Microsoft's latest operating system. Microsoft's partners have had some time to prepare for the end of Windows 7 and 8.1 OEM sales as the dates have been available in Microsoft's lifecycle fact sheet for years. Most companies don't even bother selling products pre-loaded with older versions of Windows, particularly as most consumers want the latest software anyway. The end of sales for Windows 7 Professional comes a full two years after sales ended for Windows 7 Home Basic, Home Premium and Ultimate. Windows 8 sales ended a few months ago, and Microsoft has been quick to end sales of Windows 8.1 shortly afterwards. Currently, Windows 10 does not have an end of sales date. While you can no longer purchase systems with Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 pre-installed, Microsoft is still supporting both operating systems for many more years. Windows 7 is currently in its extended support phase, and will receive security patches until 2020. Windows 8.1 is in mainstream support until 2018, after which it will enter the extended support period until 2023. There is some good news for those that desperately want a Windows 7 Professional or Windows 8.1 license: some retailers like Newegg are still stocking official OEM licenses. However, once stock runs out, that's pretty much it for older versions of Windows.

Samsung said on Tuesday that it intends to invest more than $1 billion by the first half of 2017 to boost production of advanced system-on-chip (SoC) products at its manufacturing facility in Austin, Texas. Both Austin’s mayor and the head of the city’s chamber of commerce welcomed the news with open arms. The world’s second-largest chipmaker behind Intel makes most of its semiconductor profits from the sale of memory chips but as Reuters highlights, Samsung has been trying to bolster earnings from other products like the home-grown Exynos processors that power some of its mobile devices. The South Korean technology titan has also been working on contract manufacturing deals with clients such as Nvidia and Qualcomm. Company executives tell the Austin American Statesman that the $1 billion investment will be used to buy new manufacturing equipment and cover the cost of construction. Catherine Morse, general counsel and senior director of public affairs at Samsung Austin Semiconductor, said Samsung will be hiring between 250 and 500 manufacturing technicians and engineers to help operate the new equipment. Samsung put down roots in Austin way back in 1997 and currently employs roughly 3,000 locals. Competition in the semiconductor manufacturing industry has been heating up as of late. Just last week, for example, Qualcomm said it had reached an agreement to buy NXP Semiconductors for $47 billion as it looks to diversify into automotive and Internet of Things industries.

Alienware has announced a new Alienware 13 gaming notebook which the company is billing as the world's first VR-ready machine in a 13-inch form factor, thanks to the inclusion of an Nvidia GeForce GTX 10-Series GPU. The lineup comes in four base models: a TN model, a 1080p IPS model and two 1440p OLED models — with 8GB or 16GB of RAM. The two non-OLED models are powered by an Intel Core i5-6300HQ while the OLED models feature an i7-6700HQ. All four models can be outfitted with an Nvidia GeForece GTX 1060 GPU, which is the perfect discrete graphics core for gaming at 1080p, providing 40 to 50 percent more performance than the GTX 970M at a similar power and heat cost. n terms of design the Alienware 13 features a leaner, more elegant profile than its predecessor, measuring 13 x 10.6 x 0.87-inches and weighing in at 5.4 pounds. The lid uses Alienware's Epic Gray anodized aluminum, while the rest of the body is made of magnesium alloy and plastic. The laptop incorporates a new hinge-forward design which Alienware claims allows it to offer more rear ports and larger fans for increased cooling without additional noise. The base TN model starts at $1,199 while the OLED version starts at $2,099. They all ship standard with an IR camera for Windows Hello facial recognition and secure login features, 7.1 channel audio, stereo speakers, a Thunderbolt 3/USB-C port, a USB 3.0 Type-C port, two USB 3.0 ports, HDMI 2.0 and Mini DisplayPort 1.2, and two audio jacks. The new laptops also support the Alienware Graphics Amplifier, which is the company’s proprietary external dock that lets you connect the desktop graphics card of your choice.

Will the tablet market ever stop declining? According to IDC figures, sales of slates and detachables – tablets with keyboards included – have fallen for the eighth quarter in a row. Compared to the same period last year, total tablet shipments are down 14.7 percent to 43 million units. Q3 2015 saw 50.5 million devices shipped worldwide - 10 percent lower than 2014. Apple and Samsung continue to dominate the sector, holding 21.5 percent and 15.1 percent market shares, respectively. The iPhone maker’s share went up this quarter by 1.9 points, while Samsung’s declined 0.9 points. Apple’s iPad Mini and iPad Air made up two-thirds of the company’s total tablet shipments, while the expensive iPad Pro helped keep revenues stable. Both Samsung and Apple experienced YoY declines; Apple dropped 6.2 percent, while Samsung fell 19.3 percent. Only two names on the list saw yearly growth: Huawei, in fifth position, was up by 28.4 percent from last year, and Amazon - stealing Lenovo's third spot - saw its YoY numbers increase by 319.9 percent. Part of the reason why the online retailer’s growth figure is so high is because the IDC didn’t include the 6-inch Fire tablets in Q3 2015. The low-cost device sold well during July’s Prime Day sale, when they were discounted by 30 percent, and the recently refreshed Fire HD 8 will continue to boost Amazon’s numbers. Lenovo drops one place from Q2 2016 to fourth spot. Its YoY numbers fell 10.8 percent to 2.7 million units shipped, but its share grew 0.3 points to 6.3 percent. The majority of the tablet market continues to be made up of low-cost (sub-$200) devices. "Unfortunately, many low-cost detachables also deliver a low-cost experience," said Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Device Trackers. "The race to the bottom is something we have already experienced with slates and it may prove detrimental to the market in the long run as detachables could easily be seen as disposable devices rather than potential PC replacements."

Microsoft revealed on Tuesday that the full version of Minecraft: Education Edition is now available for purchase in 50 countries and 11 languages around the globe. Microsoft in January acquired MinecraftEdu, a version of the game designed by Teacher Gaming co-founder Joel Levin with classroom use in mind, for an undisclosed sum (Teacher Gaming licensed the po[CENSORED]r building game from its creator, Mojang, so everything was on the up and up). Minecraft was already being used in more than 7,000 classrooms across more than 40 countries before Microsoft purchased MinecraftEdu. With help from more than 50,000 students and educators participating in an early access program, Microsoft has spent the better part of 2016 fine-tuning Minecraft: Education Edition. Priced at $5 per user, per year (there’s also a district-wide licensing model), the full version includes the highly anticipated Classroom Mode companion app that grants educators the ability to manage world settings, communicate with students, disperse in-game items and more. The official version also features all of the latest updates from Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition Beta including additional player skins, leads and horses as well as an updated user interface. Educators interested in learning more are encouraged to visit the Minecraft education portal where you’ll find tutorials, lesson plans, starter worlds and a place to collaborate with others already using the game in the classroom.

Google has been working hard to keep its ubiquitous Chrome browser as lean and fast as possible. Just last month it shared some upcoming enhancements that will dramatically reduce the amount of RAM used, courtesy of an updated JavaScript V8 engine in Chrome 55. While the latter is still in beta, Google today detailed other optimizations it has been quietly working on, namely implementing Microsoft's Profile Guided Optimization. The latter is a feature of Microsoft’s Visual Studio developer tools that measures how users interact with an application. The most often used functions are then optimized by PGO, sometimes increasing their binary size, and optimizing the memory location of the browser code so that those functions can be kept in the CPU’s fast instruction cache. PGO was implemented first with the Chrome 53 release of 64-bit Chrome, followed by version 54 of 32-bit Chrome. Google claims it’s seen startup times improved by 17%, new tab page load times by almost 15%, and overall page load times by 6%. You can read more about how PGO works in here. In related news, Google is currently testing a usability-focused design change in the Canary release of Chrome for Android that moves moves the search bar to the bottom of the screen. The change currently has to be manually enabled through a Chrome flag and is intended to improve one hand use for people with large smartphones.

Seagate has taken the wraps off a new Xbox accessory that aims to improve load times while simultaneously delivering additional storage capacity. The Seagate Game Drive for Xbox SSD is essentially just that – an external solid state drive designed specifically for Microsoft’s Xbox console. Tucked inside the brushed aluminum enclosure with familiar Xbox green accents is 512GB of flash storage which Seagate says should hold around 15 games and associated downloadable content (with the average game taking up 35-50GB of space). The drive utilizes a single USB cable for both connectivity and power. Seagate says the drive helps gamers get into the action quicker by reducing wait times at welcome screens and enabling quicker transitions between levels. The company didn’t provide any hard numbers to back up the claims but I don’t doubt for a minute that it’s faster than what comes stock in Microsoft’s console. People have been putting solid state drives in next-gen consoles ever since their debut in late 2013 and the results are indeed tangible. As you’ve no doubt surmised by this point, there’s nothing really “special” about this drive short of its enclosure. If you’ve got a spare solid state drive lying around, you could just as easily throw it in an external enclosure and use it to boost console storage. The Seagate Game Drive for Xbox SSD will be available later this month from Amazon, GameStop and other consumer electronics retailers priced at $199 which isn't a bad price for a 512GB external solid state drive.

Google has angered Microsoft by announcing a critical security flaw in Windows that remains unpatched ten days after disclosing it to the Redmond-based company. In its blog post, Google explains that it reported the zero-day vulnerabilities to Adobe and Microsoft on October 21. Adobe issued a critical fix to patch the bug last Friday, but the Windows vulnerability still hasn’t been addressed by Microsoft. Worst of all, Google says it is being actively exploited in the wild. “After 7 days, per our published policy for actively exploited critical vulnerabilities, we are today disclosing the existence of a remaining critical vulnerability in Windows for which no advisory or fix has yet been released,” wrote Google’s Threat Analysis Group.”This vulnerability is particularly serious because we know it is being actively exploited.” The Windows zero-day, which can be triggered via a win32k.sys system call, could allow an attacker to escape from the operating system’s security sandbox and gain administrator privileges. Google recommends updating Flash as soon as possible and applying Windows patches as soon as they become available. Microsoft is angry that Google publicly announced the vulnerability before it had a chance to issue a fix. “We believe in coordinated vulnerability disclosure, and today’s disclosure by Google puts customers at potential risk,” a Microsoft spokesperson told VentureBeat. “Windows is the only platform with a customer commitment to investigate reported security issues and proactively update impacted devices as soon as possible. We recommend customers use Windows 10 and the Microsoft Edge browser for the best protection.” Microsoft clarified that exploiting the Windows vulnerability requires the Flash bug, so users that have received the patch are protected. But VB points out that until Microsoft sends out a fix, the flaw could be leveraged in other types of attacks.

Intel wasn't expected to officially reveal their line-up of Kaby Lake desktop processors until early next year, as the company announced at IDF several months ago. However, they have essentially leaked details of their own unannounced CPUs through a product change notification (PCN) document, which was intended for manufacturing partners but published publicly. In the PCN document, Intel lists ten desktop-class Kaby Lake Core processors and one Xeon product, along with their base clock speeds and product codes. As expected, Intel is using a similar naming scheme to Skylake: K-designators for unlocked 95W parts, T-designators for low-power 35W parts, and no suffix for regular 65W parts. We can also expect to see a similar core configuration here, with Core i7 products receiving four cores and eight threads, while Core i5 CPUs get four cores and four threads. Cheaper Core i3 parts will be dual-core with four threads. The main change moving from Skylake to Kaby Lake appears to be a slight increase in base clock speeds, somewhere in the 100 to 300 MHz range depending on model. Intel's refined 14nm+ manufacturing process allows these clock speed gains at no cost to power consumption, and users can also look forward to minor Speed Shift improvements as well. A separate document has revealed Intel's upcoming chipset names, and again they aren't a massive surprise. At the top end we're looking at the Z270 chipset, while we can also expect H270, B250, Q270 and Q250. Additionally, Intel revealed the C422 and X299 chipsets, which could be next-generation products for server and enthusiast processors respectively.

If you are an Android user you may have noticed how some apps are prominently featured in the Pay Store, even though some times they don’t seem to deserve it. They do this through fraudulent installs, fake reviews, and incentivized ratings. Well, Google is on to them. Today the company announced that it's rolling out improved detection and filtering systems to help rid the visibility of less-than-stellar applications in Android's app marketplace. Writing on the Android Developers Blog, Google Search Quality Analyst Kazushi Nagayama and Product Manager Andrew Ahn, noted that this type of mani[CENSORED]tion violates the Google Play developer policy and harms other developers by hindering their chances of being discovered or recommended. “Ultimately, they put the end users at risk of making wrong decisions based on inaccurate, unauthentic information,” the post reads. Nagayama and Ahn said that if an install is conducted with the intention to mani[CENSORED]te an app's placement on Google Play, Google’s systems will detect and filter it. Developers who continue to exhibit such behaviors could have their apps taken down from Google Play. Developers are still allowed to use marketing firms and third-party promoters, but Google cautions to ensure that any promotions for apps are "based on legitimate practices."

Nintendo hasn’t rushed to reveal the technical details of its upcoming Switch console. The lack of information saw the company’s shares fall 7 percent, as investors worried that the machine could turn out to be another Wii U-style flop. But some of the Switch’s rumored specs have been revealed over the last few days, and they could help ease concerns. In the Switch’s preview trailer released earlier this month, there is no mention of the device’s touchscreen. With none of the actors in the video actually touching the display, could it be possible that it may not possess this ubiquitous feature? Thankfully, it seems this isn’t the case. The Switch will reportedly use a 6.2-inch, 720p 10-point multitouch capacitive screen, according to Eurogamer. If accurate, it will be an upgrade from the 3DS and Wii U’s resistive, single-touch only screens. While Nintendo has revealed that the Switch features a custom Nvidia Tegra chip, there have been few other details surrounding the platform’s specs. But according to a Tweet from long-term Nintendo blogger Emily Rogers, the Switch will have 4GB of RAM – double the amount found in the Wii U. 4GB may be half that of the PS4 and Xbox One, but Nintendo’s hybrid handheld device is a lot less demanding than the current generation of consoles, and it hasn’t been designed to challenge them in the graphics department. But the news has come as bit of a disappointment to some fans, who were hoping for 8GB. More information has leaked regarding the Switch’s cartridges which will reportedly come in a ‘standard’ size of 16GB. There was also talk of the console’s arrival spelling the end for the 3DS, but according to Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima, that won’t happen. “Thanks to our software, the 3DS hardware is still growing. So that business still has momentum. And certainly rather than being cannibalized by the Switch, we think the 3DS can continue in its own form.” Kimishima told Bloomberg. In the same interview, the Nintendo boss was asked if the Switch would have virtual reality capabilities. And although they seem unlikely to be present at launch, VR games could arrive in the future. "If you asked as if this might be possible in the future, certainly we can't say no," he said. "In terms of how it can be used for gaming, it's something we must consider. It depends on the system specifications. I can't say that we have no interest in VR because VR offers new ways of playing, but that depends on what kind of software can be played.” One person excited by the Switch's arrival is Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata. Speaking to French site Gameblog, he said: “I’m very interested in this machine! As a player, but also as a developer. The Nintendo Switch that you can transform into a controller, that you can put into a dock, that you can move around with, on which you can replace elements. It’s been a while that I’ve told myself that I would like to make games on a Nintendo machine, so if the Nintendo Switch could be that opportunity, I’ll be delighted!” The Nintendo Switch is set for release in March 2017.

Apple on Thursday gave its MacBook Pro line a long overdue refresh. While most were transfixed on the new TouchBar that replaces the row of function keys, others were more intrigued by AMD’s new Radeon Pro 400 Series graphics processors. Based on AMD’s Polaris architecture and built using a 14-nanometer FinFET manufacturing process, the new graphics processors feature a thermal envelope of less than 35 watts. AMD has also made use of a process known as “die thinning” that reduces the thickness of each silicon wafer from 780 microns down to just 380 microns which is slightly less than the thickness of four sheets of paper. As for specifications, the Radeon Pro 450 features 640 stream processors (10 compute units) with peak performance rated at up to one teraflop. The Radeon Pro 455 checks in with 768 stream processors (12 compute units) and 1.3 teraflops of performance while the highest-end Radeon Pro 460 packs 1,024 stream processors (16 compute units) and is good for up to 1.86 teraflops. All three offer 80GB/s of memory bandwidth. Raja Koduri, senior vice president and chief architect, Radeon Technologies Group, AMD, said they couldn’t be more proud to have Radeon Pro 400 Series Graphics launching in the new 15-inch MacBook Pro. Apple’s new 15-inch MacBook Pro is scheduled to ship in two to three weeks with pricing starting at $2,399.

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Many people are fans of female-voiced virtual assistants such as Siri; some may even say they love them. But there are an increasing number of lonely individuals who have formed an infatuation with these AIs and are turning to them for companionship and “sexually explicit” conversations. That’s the opinion of Ilya Eckstein, the CEO of Robin Labs. He told The Times that Robin - his company's own virtual assistant – was being used by some people an excessive amount of times each day, and often for the kind of conversations you shouldn’t be having with a machine. "There are guys who talk to Robin 300 times a day. This happens because people are lonely and bored. It's mostly teenagers and truckers who don't have girlfriends. They really need an outlet,” Eckstein said. "It's a symptom of our society. As well as the people who want to talk dirty, there are men who want a deeper sort of relationship or companionship." Eckstein said that around 5 percent of conversations with Robin are of an explicit nature, while a third of interactions with the AI take place for no reason – users just want to talk to ‘someone.’ The strange practice goes beyond teenagers trying to get a machine to talk dirty (there are entire YouTube videos dedicated to it), or long-distance truckers desperate for a conversation - even one involving an AI. Eckstein said there are those who use the virtual assistants to act out their fantasies. "People want to flirt, they want to dream about a subservient girlfriend, or even a sexual slave. It may just be more for laughs, or something deeper underneath the surface," he said. Microsoft’s virtual assistant, Cortana, also has to fend off its share of unwelcome advances from lonely men. Speaking at this year’s Virtual Assistant Summit, Deborah Harrison, one of the AIs writers, said that "a good chunk of the volume of early-on inquiries" were about Cortana’s sex life. Humans forming intimate relations with machines has been the subject of many TV shows and movies, and as technology becomes increasingly advanced and AI more human-like, it’s not surprising to learn people are using virtual assistants for more than just restaurant bookings and directions.

Apple has taken the wraps off the new MacBook Pro, in what’s the biggest redesign to its professional notebook family since dropping the DVD drive and switching to Retina displays. It sports a thinner and lighter all-metal design with a new oversized trackpad, a redesigned keyboard, upgraded specs, four Thunderbolt 3 USB-C ports, Touch ID, and of course, the not-so-secret OLED touch strip replacing the function key row. The latter is officially known as TouchBar and as expected it will show different shortcut buttons based on what app is open. One might be quick to dismiss it as gimmicky but a few minutes into the demonstration, it was easy to see how it can be genuinely useful, versatile and flexible. It can be used to browse Safari, access predictive typing and emojis, adjust volume, or edit photos, navigating a video without leaving full-screen mode, and more. For now TouchBar is primarily tuned to the company’s own software offerings but developers are able to add support for the new feature in their own apps. Key partners including Adobe and Microsoft are committed to adding support in Creative Suite and Office. There’s a dedicated virtual button for Siri on the main TouchBar screen, and users can further customize the bar by dragging and dropping buttons from a Notification Center-like pane that pops up from the bottom of the screen. Over to the right is the Touch ID sensor covered in sapphire glass, allowing users to login with just their fingerprint — the feature supports multi-user setups so you can quickly switch between accounts with a finger scan. Aside from password-free logins, Touch ID can also be used to authenticate Apple Pay purchases, so you can skip all the form filling process on sites that support the payment option. All sensitive data and private keys required for Touch ID to work will be kept on a new T1 chip that includes a secure enclave, similar to how this works on the iPhone and iPad. In terms of design, this is the thinnest and lightest version of the Pro to date. The 13-inch model is just 14.9 millimeters thin, or 17 percent thinner than the previous generation. It's also 23 percent smaller in volume, and weighs 3 pounds, almost a half a pound less than its predecessor. The 15-inch model is 15.5 millimeters thin, or 14 percent thinner than the last model. It also has 20 percent less volume, and weighs in at 4 pounds. The redesigned Force Touch trackpad is twice as large as the trackpad on the previous generation — it’s ridiculously large. The keyboard has also been updated with the second-generation of Apple’s “butterfly” switch mechanism that debuted on the 12-inch MacBook. The new Pros come with Intel’s sixth-generation Core i5 and Core i7 processors, Intel Iris or AMD Radeon Pro graphics, fast SSD storage and a new cooling system. Both the 13- and 15-inch have four Thunderbolt 3 ports in USB-C form factor and any one of them can be used for hooking up peripherals, displays, storage or for charging (MagSafe is gone). The headphone jack is still there in case you were worried, but the SD card slot isn’t. The new MacBook Pro’s display is 67% brighter and shows 25% more color than Apple’s previous generation Pro laptop, while battery life remains at 10 hours. The 13-inch models start at $1,799 featuring a dual-core, 2.9 GHz Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of SSD storage and integrated Iris graphics. The 15-inch models will set you back at least $2,399 for a quad-core 2.6 GHz Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, 256GB of SSD storage, and discrete AMD Radeon Pro 450 graphics. Apple is also selling a version of the 13-inch Pro with conventional function keys for $1,499, though it also drops the number of ports to two and uses an Iris 540 GPU instead of the 550.

Twitter on Thursday revealed third quarter earnings that beat analysts’ expectations. The report also confirmed rumors that the microblogging platform would be laying off nearly a tenth of its global workforce, or just over 300 employees. A brief note published on Medium shortly after revealed that one of the departments hit hardest by the layoffs is the Vine team. In fact, the entire division is getting the axe. Twitter said that in the coming months, it will be discontinuing the Vine mobile app. There’s no reason to fret today, we’re told, as the team promised to handle the closing “the right way” by providing users with the ability to access and download their Vines. What’s more, Twitter will be keeping the Vine website online as they feel it’s important to still be able to watch all of the videos that have been made. Users will also be notified before any changes are made to the app or website. Vine was founded by Colin Kroll, Rus Yusupov and Dom Hofmann in June 2012 before being acquired by Twitter later that year for a reported $30 million. The app didn’t go live until the following year, rolling out first for iOS users followed by Android roughly five months later. The app was an instant hit but its staying power didn’t last. Facebook added a video sharing element to Instagram in mid-2013 and as The Verge correctly highlights, Twitter was characteristically slow to add new features. Although a slightly different type of product, Twitter’s decision to acquire and launch Periscope likely didn’t help Vine’s chances.

Xbox One gamers looking to stack the odds in their favor (short of cheating, of course) have at their disposal the Elite wireless controller, a pro-level gamepad that offers swappable thumbsticks and D-pads as well as interchangeable paddles, trigger locks and more. The PlayStation 4 crowd, however, hasn’t had a comparable (official) solution… until now. In lieu of creating its own professional-grade gamepad, Sony has recruited peripheral specialists Razer and Nacon to do its bidding. Here’s what they’ve come up with. Razer’s Raiju gaming controller features two extra bumpers and two extra detachable triggers, an integrated control panel on the front, trigger-stop switches and hair trigger modes, two custom profiles that you can switch between on-the-fly, a 3.5mm headset jack with dedicated volume and mic mute controls and detachable analog stick rubber caps for added grip. The Nacon Revolution, meanwhile, offers an eight-way directional pad, 46° amplitude dual analog sticks with enhanced firmware for accuracy and reach, four custom profiles and two internal compartments with six additional weights to help balance weight and feel. Sony says both officially licensed controllers will be available for purchase in time for the holidays. No word yet on pricing although given the $149 price point of the Xbox One Elite controller, I wouldn’t expect either to be “cheap.” As a prospective buyer, I’d also want to know what sort of battery life to expect before making a purchase.