Apple is reportedly facing a massive price increase for a critical phone component, which could pressure its profit margins. The cost for a twelve-gigabyte LPDDR5X memory chip has jumped to seventy dollars, a huge leap from the twenty five to twenty nine dollar range earlier this year. This shortage comes as Apple's long-term supply contracts with major manufacturers Samsung and SK hynix are set to expire soon. The company is said to be formulating strategies to counter these rising costs, having already secured a large batch of chips before the price surge.
If the global DRAM shortage continues, Apple may need to raise prices for future iPhone models. The upcoming iPhone 18 series is expected to use a faster six-channel memory...
Very old AMD graphics cards are getting a significant speed upgrade on Linux thanks to a driver change. The upcoming Linux kernel update will shift aging GCN architecture GPUs, like the Radeon HD 7950 from the early 2010s, from the old Radeon driver to the newer AMDGPU driver used by modern hardware. Early testing shows this transition delivers major performance gains across many applications.
Benchmarks comparing the two drivers reveal that the newer one provides a large boost, around thirty percent faster in several Vulkan-based games. Titles like Dirt Rally 2.0 and Strange Brigade saw much higher frame rates. The change also enables proper Vulkan API support for these older cards through the RADV driver, reducing processor...
The United States has formally banned foreign-made drones and their parts due to national security concerns. The Federal Communications Commission placed these uncrewed aircraft systems on its Covered List, identifying them as an unacceptable risk. This action specifically blocks the import and sale of popular drones from Chinese manufacturer DJI, along with their components and replacement pieces. American-made drones from companies like Freefly Systems remain unaffected.
Official reasoning cites fears of direct attacks, unauthorized surveillance, sensitive data theft, and general homeland security threats from these devices. Multiple government agencies have warned about risks posed by foreign drones, with DJI previously designated a...
A former Rockstar animator does not believe the company will price the base version of Grand Theft Auto VI at one hundred dollars. Mike York expects the standard edition to launch at the typical seventy-dollar price point for major releases, suggesting Rockstar will sell enough copies without needing what he called greedy pricing. He speculated a special edition could cost more and include bonus content for the eventual online mode, like virtual property, but the main game would avoid a premium base cost.
Regarding the release date, York predicted a November 2026 launch, noting the holiday shopping season is an ideal sales period. He expressed little concern over further delays despite the title's already postponed schedule, stating...
South Korean prosecutors have charged several former Samsung employees with leaking advanced memory technology to a Chinese semiconductor firm. A current director at ChangXin Memory Technologies, along with four other individuals now working at the company, were arrested for allegedly violating industrial secrecy laws. The group is accused of transferring critical 10-nanometer DRAM process knowledge to CXMT, which is backed by substantial Chinese government investment. Authorities claim a single former engineer provided hundreds of detailed manufacturing steps, directly enabling China's first mass-produced DRAM chips in 2023.
The investigation revealed an organized effort by CXMT to recruit key Samsung talent, sometimes using an...
A mobile gamer recently tested the older Tomb Raider reboot from 2013 through an emulator on a high-end Android tablet. Using a OnePlus Pad 3 powered by a Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, they ran the game's benchmark at various resolutions through the GameHub emulation app. The results showed the device could handle the title at 4K Ultra settings, averaging around sixty frames per second, even without using an upscaling technique.
Performance varied across different presets. At 1080p resolution with Ultra settings, the average framerate was eighty-four. Pushing to native 4K resolution with the same settings still maintained a sixty fps average, with a special performance mode briefly boosting that to seventy two before thermal throttling...
The Epic Games Store carved out a big audience by offering developers a much larger revenue cut and giving away free games to users. Despite gaining nearly three hundred million accounts, it has not stopped Valve's Steam platform from also growing massively, regularly hitting tens of millions of concurrent users. A game developer recently explained this divide by comparing the two services, noting that Steam functions as a community hub while Epic remains just a digital storefront.
Adrian Chmielarz from The Astronauts said Steam feels like a home because it has user reviews, forums, and other social features that foster emotional investment. The Epic store lacks those community elements, making it just a place to buy things. This...
Scammers are now swapping expensive DDR5 memory kits for cheaper or fake parts inside sealed boxes. A recent example involved a buyer receiving older Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 sticks instead of the DDR5 kit they ordered from Amazon. In a related comment, another user reported finding just a single hair tie in a package that was supposed to contain RAM. These fraudulent returns, where someone buys the real product and sends back a different item for a refund, are becoming a frequent issue for high-demand computer components.
Rising DDR5 prices and limited availability seem to be driving this trend, making the newer memory a bigger target. While retailers like Amazon typically offer refunds in these cases, the process forces the buyer...
Apple faces a chip shortage for its upcoming A20 processors despite locking down a huge part of TSMC's initial 2nm production. The next iPhone 18 series and a rumored foldable model are slated to use these new A20 and A20 Pro chips next year. High demand for TSMC's advanced node is creating supply constraints, but Apple is unlikely to switch its manufacturing partner to Samsung, even with its competing 2nm GAA technology now entering production.
Samsung is making moves with its own 2nm process, securing deals with other major clients and planning US-based manufacturing. Apple probably views TSMC as the more reliable partner due to better production yields and a long-standing exclusive relationship. Past performance issues with...
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