An Alien Isolation 2 Teaser Pops Out Of The Locker It Was Hiding In
Creative Assembly quietly released a teaser titled "False Sense Of Security" on the official Alien: Isolation YouTube channel, strongly suggesting it belongs to the upcoming Alien: Isolation 2. The clip, while lacking visible Xenomorphs, reveals a horror‑laden asset and a door that opens onto a spacious outdoor area, hinting at a larger, more open‑world environment. No launch window has been announced, leaving the sequel’s release date uncertain. Rock, Paper, Shotgun points readers toward the newly launched Industria 2 demo as a stop‑gap experience.
Microsoft Gives Windows Update A New Pause Button
Microsoft announced four tweaks to Windows Update aimed at reducing disruption for consumers and IT admins. A new pause button lets users schedule updates to a specific future date, while the out‑of‑box experience (OOBE) can now skip optional patches for...
The Utterly Cute ACEMAGIC Retro X5 AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 Mini PC
The ACEMAGIC Retro X5 mini PC blends a nostalgic NES‑style chassis with modern hardware, featuring an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor, 32 GB DDR5 RAM and a 1 TB NVMe SSD. It offers Wi‑Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, dual Ethernet, USB‑C, HDMI and DisplayPort, but lacks a...
Good News! 57 Right To Repair Bills Across 22 States
The Right‑to‑Repair movement has gained traction, with 57 bills introduced across 22 U.S. states this year. Nearly half of the states are now debating legislation that would force manufacturers to provide repair information and parts. Major players such as Apple,...
Framework’s New Focus, New Kit, And RAM Woes
Framework unveiled a revamped Laptop 13 Pro that can be shipped fully assembled with Ubuntu preinstalled, a rare offering for Linux‑focused hardware. The device also features a new haptic trackpad—mirroring MacBook ergonomics—and a larger battery made possible by the slimmer design. Existing...
The $900 AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition For Those Rich With DDR5
AMD unveiled the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition, a $900 processor that adds a second 3D V‑Cache die to its architecture. Benchmarks show roughly a 10% performance uplift over the $480 Ryzen 7 9800X3D in productivity suites, while gaming gains are negligible. The chip’s...
AES-128 Will Survive Cryptographically Relevant Quantum Computers
Ars Technica reports that AES‑128 encryption remains robust even against cryptographically relevant quantum computers. The analysis shows Grover’s algorithm provides only a quadratic speedup, and its advantage shrinks when the attack is parallelized across multiple quantum processors. Consequently, the effective...
AMD Bringing Back Ryzen 7 5800X3D to Save the World From DDR5
AMD announced a limited‑edition re‑release of the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, pricing it at $449 to mark the 10th anniversary of the AM4 socket. The move gives gamers a high‑performance, 3D‑V‑Cache CPU that can run on existing DDR4 platforms, sidestepping today’s steep DDR5...
MSI MAG 272UP X24, QD-OLED On A Budget
MSI has introduced the MAG 272UP X24, a QD‑OLED monitor priced at $730, making 4K‑240 Hz displays more accessible. The panel supports 4K resolution at 240 Hz via DisplayPort 1.4 and includes HDMI 2.1, though it lacks KVM and offers only 15 W USB‑C power delivery. Out‑of‑the‑box...
Orico K20 Mini 2TB, Portable SSDs Aren’t Quite As Bad As Internals
Orico’s K20 Mini 2TB magnetic portable SSD is priced at $240 on Amazon, making it cheaper than most comparable 2TB internal SSDs. The drive delivers up to 2000 MB/s read speeds over a USB‑C 20 Gbps connection and also supports Thunderbolt and...
HEVC Licensing, Here’s Exhaustive Video Codec Legal Details
Ars Technica reports that major laptop makers such as HP and Dell have removed hardware‑accelerated HEVC (H.265) decoding from recent models, citing licensing headaches. In Germany, Acer and Asus were barred from selling laptops after a court found they infringed...
ENERMAX Platimax II 1200DF PSU, More Compact Than It’s Rather Long Name
Enermax has launched the Platimax II 1200DF, a 1200‑watt ATX 3.1 power supply that carries an 80 PLUS Platinum rating. The unit measures 150 mm × 150 mm × 86 mm and uses a 135 mm fan, Japanese‑sourced Rubycon and Unicon capacitors, and a single 12V‑2×6 connector. It ships with a 13‑year...
NuPhy Node 100, A White Collar High Profile Wireless Keyboard
NuPhy has launched the Node 100, a full‑size high‑profile wireless keyboard aimed at professionals who want mechanical quality without the typical gaming aesthetic. The board features muted mechanical switches, a programmable touch strip, and extra keys for office productivity. It supports...
Stealing Your Data Via TotalRecall Reloaded Is A Feature, Not A Bug?
Microsoft’s Windows 11 Recall feature, part of Copilot+, records screenshots and OCR‑derived text to help users revisit past activity. Researchers discovered that the AIXHost.exe process, which writes data to the secured Recall database, is vulnerable to a DLL‑injection attack that requires...
GIGABYTE X870E AERO X3D WOOD
Gigabyte unveiled the X870E AERO X3D WOOD, a high‑end motherboard that blends an 8‑layer PCB with wood‑grain composite panels on the I/O and secondary M.2 heatsink. The board supplies 60 A through a 16+2+2 power delivery system and adds leather‑tipped pull...
Bad News If You Downloaded HWMonitor OR CPU-Z Late Last Week
On April 9‑10, CPUID’s website was breached for about six hours, during which hackers swapped the legitimate download links for HWMonitor and CPU‑Z with malicious URLs. The attackers did not alter the original installers but redirected users to malware‑laden copies hosted...
AMD Announces Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Pricing and Availability
AMD unveiled the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition, a desktop processor featuring dual 3D V‑Cache. The chip launches on April 22 with a suggested retail price of $899. Targeted at workstation users, it aims to deliver higher cache density for compute‑intensive workloads. AMD...
Pillars of Eternity Gets A 10th Anniversary Update?
Obsidian Entertainment has rolled out a 10th‑anniversary patch for its 2015 RPG Pillars of Eternity, introducing a full turn‑based combat mode. The new system features free actions and other mechanics expected from modern turn‑based games, differentiating it from the original...
Raptor Lake Still Big Part of Intel’s Plan in 2026 – DDR4 Options Available
Intel’s Raptor Lake CPUs will stay in production through at least 2026, with the company emphasizing their continued relevance despite newer hardware releases. The firm also announced motherboard options that can accommodate both DDR4 and DDR5 memory, giving builders a...
Headphones; Wired, Wireless Or Banana?
Hackaday examined whether wireless headphones truly rival wired models, focusing on Bluetooth’s advances such as LDAC’s 990 kbps transmission. The analysis notes that when both source and earphones support high‑resolution codecs, most listeners can’t detect a sound‑quality gap. It also highlights...
More Reasons To Dump Windows For Gaming
Wine 11 introduces NTSYNC synchronization, delivering dramatic frame‑rate gains for Windows titles running on Linux, exemplified by Dirt 3’s jump from 110 FPS to over 860 FPS. The update also refines support for games that previously relied on the less efficient fsync layer....
Microsoft Offers Lip Service And Some Hope To Windows 11 Users
Microsoft is rolling back several unpopular Windows 11 changes, re‑enabling taskbar repositioning and toning down default widget behavior. The company also announced a reduction of Copilot entry points in apps like Snipping Tool, Photos, and Widgets, and is refocusing File...
Finally Some Good News For Copilot 365 Victims
Microsoft announced it will stop automatically installing the Microsoft 365 Copilot app on new Windows devices outside the European Economic Area. The change follows backlash from forced installations and a December 2025 EU ruling that blocked the rollout in the...
Leveraging Copilot In Excel To Steal Data Without Any User Interaction
Microsoft disclosed a zero‑click cross‑site scripting vulnerability in Excel’s Copilot Agent that can exfiltrate data from open workbooks without any user interaction. The flaw can be triggered through crafted SharePoint or Teams links, causing Copilot to silently save worksheets to...
The Cooler Master MasterFrame 360 Panorama Is Not An Aquarium …
Cooler Master’s MasterFrame 360 Panorama is a mid‑tower case built around wrap‑around tempered glass, turning the interior into a showcase. The chassis routes cooling to the top and bottom, supporting up to six 120 mm fans or large 360 mm radiators, while eliminating...
Buy A New Car, Or The Acer Predator Orion 7000 System
Acer’s Predator Orion 7000 flagship gaming tower pairs an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K CPU with Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 5090 GPU, delivering extreme performance for 4K gaming. The system ships with 64 GB DDR5 memory, expandable to 128 GB, and a PCIe 4.0 SSD, while offering...
The Corsair GALLEON 100 SD Mechanical Keyboard Set Sail With an Elgato Stream Deck Onboard
Corsair unveiled the GALLEON 100 SD, a full‑size mechanical keyboard that integrates an Elgato‑style Stream Deck with two programmable dials, a 5‑inch OLED display, and twelve LCD macro keys. The board uses Corsair’s MLX Pulse switches, double‑shot PBT keycaps, per‑key...
Microsoft Copilot Will Soon Change Your Entire Browsing Experience, By Default
Microsoft is embedding its AI Copilot directly into the Windows browsing workflow via an Insider build that forces links to open in a Copilot side‑panel instead of the default browser. The feature activates automatically, prompting users to allow Copilot to...
MSI MAG B850 TOMAHAWK MAX WiFi, The Second
MSI has launched a refreshed version of its B850 TOMAHAWK MAX WiFi motherboard, designated the MAX WiFi II. The update is purely cosmetic, reducing the yellow hue on the PCB, while retaining the original’s feature set, including four M.2 slots...
Thermal Grizzly WireView Pro II, GPU Monitoring Hardware
Thermal Grizzly’s WireView Pro II is a hardware‑level GPU monitoring device that sits between the graphics card and a 12VHPWR or 12V‑2×6 power cable. It provides per‑pin current data on a 320 × 170 TFT‑IPS colour screen and streams the information to the...
Podcast #857 – Acer and ASUS Ban, More PC Hardware Doom and Gloom, Cheap USB Speakers, Sparky RTX 5090 and...
In episode 857, the PCPer team discusses the ongoing RAM shortage and its ripple effects, including Acer and ASUS being caught in an HEVC patent dispute and Intel’s new annual GPU release cadence. They highlight Micron’s unreleased PCIe 6.0 SSDs, Western...
Creality K2 Pro Combo, 3D Printers Continue to Evolve
The episode reviews Creality's K2 Pro Combo 3D printer, highlighting its high-speed capabilities of 600 mm/s and 30 mm/s² acceleration, along with an enclosed heated chamber that reaches 65 °C and a bed that heats to 120 °C. It notes the printer's ability to...
HP Quietly Offers OMEN Laptops As A Service
The PCPer Podcast discussed HP's new "Laptop as a Service" offering, which rents gaming laptops like the Victus and Omen models for monthly fees ranging from $50 to $130. The hosts criticize the model as a financially wasteful scam, noting...
Microsoft’s Abysmal Communication About The Windows 11 26H1 Release
The episode discusses Microsoft's poorly handled announcement of the Windows 11 26H1 update, which is limited to select new ARM‑based devices and not offered as an in‑place upgrade. It highlights the confusion this caused for sysadmins amid a compressed Windows 11 end‑of‑life schedule...
Nitro Concepts Immersion Metahaptics Kit; Totally Not The ButtKicker 2.0
The episode dives into Nitro Concepts' Immersion Metahaptics Kit, a high‑end haptic seat system that uses USB‑controlled actuators to simulate gear shifts, engine rumble, ABS, wheelslip, and road feel for racing simulators. Reviewers from TweakTown found the tactile feedback surprisingly...