The 2024 International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) has named three groundbreaking laptops—Cyborg 14 AI, Stealth 18 AI Studio, and Titan 18 HX—as "Featured Finalists" for their outstanding innovation and design. These laptops, each representing the cutting edge of gaming technology, push the boundaries of user experience with their unique aesthetics and high-performance capabilities.

The Cyborg 14 AI offers a visually striking fusion of biological and mechanical elements, The 14-inch compact and lightweight body echoes the convenience of gaming on-the-go. The Stealth 18 AI Studio, modeled after stealth combat aircraft with top-tier gaming performance, precisely carried out the task, where thin meets powerful. The Titan 18 HX, MSI's flagship gaming laptop shares a kindred spirit with hardcore gamers. The voracious gaming appetites with PC specifications and high-grade thermal efficiency by all means sets the bar extraordinarily high.

Sony Electronics Inc. today announced the MDR-M1 Reference Closed Monitor Headphones, designed for music creators and sound engineers to produce music in any environment, heard as intended. The headphones host a closed acoustic structure with high sound isolation, exclusively developed driver, and a lightweight and comfortable design that allow users to create in their own environments, as if they were in the studio. The MDR-M1 headphones combine studio sound quality with extreme comfort and reliability, suitable for a wide range of music production and high-resolution audio applications.

Sound Characteristics
The MDR-M1 offers studio sound quality with a carefully tuned acoustic structure to support a wide range of music production, all while offering high-resolution audio. At the core of the sound quality is a uniquely developed driver unit that achieves ultra-wideband playback (5 Hz - 80 kHz), featuring a combination of a soft edge shape to reproduce low frequencies with sufficient volume and low distortion, and a hard dome shape to accurately reproduce ultra-high frequencies.

Comica Audio, a leading professional broadcast-level audio company, launched today the Ejoy Uni Pro studio mic with a built-in wireless RF module, a groundbreaking mic with USB-C receiver that combines dual 2.4 GHz wireless and wired modes with professional studio quality sound for gaming and streaming allowing users to choose a wired, wireless, or dual mode connection according to different needs with a wireless transmission distance of 20 meters.

The Enjoy Uni Pro captures high-resolution 48 kHz/24bit rich detailed professional studio quality audio for highs and lows with a clear real timbre with a built-in sound card compatible with various operative systems and applications, so it can be used without an extra device driver. The mic supports real-time monitoring and pick-up, with a one-touch denoise button for clean sound and a mute button to quickly respond to accidental noises and avoid picking up external voices. In addition to the denoise and mute button, noise is also reduced through the shock mount that reduces vibrations caused by accidental bumps and a metal pop filter that filters out air flow noises.

Today, at a special event on our new Microsoft campus, we introduced the world to a new category of Windows PCs designed for AI, Copilot+ PCs. Copilot+ PCs are the fastest, most intelligent Windows PCs ever built. With powerful new silicon capable of an incredible 40+ TOPS (trillion operations per second), all-day battery life and access to the most advanced AI models, Copilot+ PCs will enable you to do things you can't on any other PC. Easily find and remember what you have seen in your PC with Recall, generate and refine AI images in near real-time directly on the device using Cocreator, and bridge language barriers with Live Captions, translating audio from 40+ languages into English.

These experiences come to life on a set of thin, light and beautiful devices from Microsoft Surface and our OEM partners Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Samsung, with pre-orders beginning today and availability starting on June 18. Starting at $999, Copilot+ PCs offer incredible value. This first wave of Copilot+ PCs is just the beginning. Over the past year, we have seen an incredible pace of innovation of AI in the cloud with Copilot allowing us to do things that we never dreamed possible. Now, we begin a new chapter with AI innovation on the device. We have completely reimagined the entirety of the PC - from silicon to the operating system, the application layer to the cloud - with AI at the center, marking the most significant change to the Window platform in decades.

During the Copilot+ debut, Microsoft and global OEMs announced PCs powered by Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus - the only devices that are capable of bringing Copilot+ experiences to life today. The leading AI technology and performance efficiency of these platforms will power this groundbreaking new category, as Copilot+ revolutionizes how users interact with their PCs. Together, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and Microsoft are taking intelligent computing to the next level and transforming the PC experience.

Qualcomm Technologies is restoring performance leadership to the Windows PC ecosystem with our leading NPU powered by Snapdragon X Elite which delivers the highest NPU performance per watt for laptops, up to 2.6X vs. M3 and up to 5.4X vs. Core Ultra 7. With the integrated Qualcomm Hexagon NPU architecture, it can deliver up to 24 TOPS/watt peak performance in uses cases like Super Resolution and with our leading Qualcomm Oryon CPU, Snapdragon X Elite leads in performance per watt, matching competitor peak PC CPU performance at 60% less power.

According to Geekerwan, Apple's latest M4 silicon has achieved a remarkable milestone by using liquid nitrogen to chill Apple's M4 iPad Pro. This unconventional approach unlocked great single-core performance, surpassing even the M3 Max and M2 Ultra processors in Geekbench v6 benchmark tests. The setup involved cooling the M4 iPad Pro, equipped with a 3+6 core configuration, using a Kingpin Cooling T-Rex Rev 4 CPU LN2 pot filled with liquid nitrogen. This extreme cooling allowed the M4 processor to operate at an astonishing 4.41 GHz during the benchmark run, resulting in a staggering single-core score of 4,001 points. This score represents a 28% increase over the M3 Max found in the 16-inch MacBook Pro and an impressive 44% improvement over the M2 Ultra powering the Mac Studio.

Notably, the M4's single-core performance is capable of reaching scores in the 3,000s. With liquid nitrogen cooling, it suprases the 4,000-point mark, making this achievement all the more remarkable. While the M4's multi-core performance did not match the lofty expectations set by its single-core power, it still managed to achieve a score of 13,595 points, outperforming both the M3 Max and M2 Ultra, which scored 20,957 and 21,330 points, respectively. This was done on the 3+6 core configuration with three P-cores and six E-cores, which is not the top-end M4 configuration. This shows that with adequate cooling, like MacBooks, the upcoming M4 Pro and M4 Max chips could achieve much higher performance than their predecessors.

On Friday, Sony announced that Helldivers 2, a 3rd person squad-based shooter from Arrowhead, will require a PlayStation Network (PSN) account for gamers to link, in addition to their Steam accounts. However, that caused quite a stir in the gaming community, especially in the form of negative reviews on Steam. Since the May 2 announcement of mandatory PSN account linking, the game received more than 200,000 negative reviews from gamers. Not only is the PSN account another layer of log-in details, but it also doesn't work in 177 countries, effectively preventing gamers from those 177 countries from purchasing and enjoying the game. Arrowhead Studios CEO and Helldivers 2 Creative Director Johan Pilestedt noted that over the weekend, there were talks with Sony about reversing the decision.

Today, we have the information that Sony has reviewed its course and that the update requiring a PSN account, planned for May 6, will not be moving forward. This means that the game is PSN-free, and gamers are able to enjoy it on their Steam accounts. It has also been reported on Reddit that some users received refunds from Steam, even when their purchase was over two months old, and they had played 120+ hours of the game. As per the GDPR, terms that are changed after the agreement is made require action from the seller. This has resulted in Steam stepping up for gamers and issuing a refund for Helldivers 2, as PSN account linking was optional upon release. Gamers have shown their collective power, and Sony has managed to reverse its decision so that no further harm is done.

The ecosystem around NVIDIA's technologies has always been verdant—but this is absurd. After a stunning premiere at the World Economic Forum in Davos, immersive artworks based on Refit Anadol Studio's Large Nature Model will come to the U.S. for the first time at NVIDIA GTC. Offering a deep dive into the synergy between AI and the natural world, Anadol's multisensory work, "Large Nature Model: A Living Archive," will be situated prominently on the main concourse of the San Jose Convention Center, where the global AI event is taking place, from March 18-21.

Fueled by NVIDIA's advanced AI technology, including powerful DGX A100 stations and high-performance GPUs, the exhibit offers a captivating journey through our planet's ecosystems with stunning visuals, sounds and scents. These scenes are rendered in breathtaking clarity across screens with a total output of 12.5 million pixels, immersing attendees in an unprecedented digital portrayal of Earth's ecosystems. Refik Anadol, recognized by The Economist as "the artist of the moment," has emerged as a key figure in AI art. His work, notable for its use of data and machine learning, places him at the forefront of a generation pushing the boundaries between technology, interdisciplinary research and aesthetics. Anadol's influence reflects a wider movement in the art world towards embracing digital innovation, setting new precedents in how art is created and experienced.

Sennheiser has launched its brand-new open-back HD 490 PRO reference studio headphones, purpose-built for producing, mixing and mastering. The circumaural, dynamic headphones feature highly precise sound reproduction and a very wide and realistic sound stage. This superior accuracy and range give producers, mixing and mastering engineers, as well as musicians, the transparency they need for critical mixing decisions and for confidently resolving any panning placement issues. The HD 490 PRO and HD 490 PRO Plus (includes additional accessories) are available now.

"If you compare today's music productions with that of ten, 20 years ago, you will notice how the massively increased computing power and complex parameter automation have changed the way in which music is made," shares Jimmy Landry, Category Market Manager for MI at Sennheiser. "In every genre, engineers and music creators are continuously pushing boundaries, creating extremely complex mixes that can be prone to so-called 'audio blind spots'. Mixes can be crowded and muddy, with too many instruments sitting at the same position and their frequencies competing. For the engineer or musician, it becomes difficult to hear each individual instrument or voice distinctly. This goes to show the importance of a good pair of studio headphones."

Celebrating its centennial, beyerdynamic—the preferred audio brand for musicians and studio professionals around the world—is embarking on a new chapter with the announcement of a limited-edition version of the classic DT 770 PRO. Handmade in Germany, the all-new DT 770 PRO X Limited Edition blends the reference-setting features of the DT 770 PRO with the dynamic STELLAR.45 driver system's flexibility and a detachable cable. Redefining studio gear for a new era, the DT 770 PRO X Limited Edition is now available for pre-order at Guitar Center and Sweetwater for $199, with wider availability to come later in the year.

FLEX MARKS THE SPOT.
In today's fluid landscape of music creation, having the flexibility to work with a variety of applications is paramount. The DT 770 PRO X Limited Edition features the convenience of a detachable Mini-XLR cable so you can move freely while you create. A recess in the headband padding also protects against the pressure-sensitive fontanelle, allowing you to wear the headphones for hours on end. With premium sound quality, replaceable parts, low impedance and high-wearing comfort, the DT 770 PRO X Limited Edition is tailor-made for studio professionals, artists, filmmakers, producers and more.

The highly anticipated NVIDIA DLSS 3.5 update, including Ray Reconstruction for NVIDIA Omniverse - a platform for connecting and building custom 3D tools and apps - is now available. RTX Video Super Resolution (VSR) will be available with tomorrow's NVIDIA Studio Driver release - which also supports the DLSS 3.5 update in Omniverse and is free for RTX GPU owners. The version 1.5 update delivers greater overall graphical fidelity, upscaling for native videos and support for GeForce RTX 20 Series GPUs. NVIDIA Creative Director and visual effects producer Sabour Amirazodi returns In the NVIDIA Studio to share his Halloween-themed project: a full projection mapping show on his house, featuring haunting songs, frightful animation, spooky props and more.

Creators can join the #SeasonalArtChallenge by submitting harvest- and fall-themed pieces through November The latest Halloween-themed Studio Standouts video features ghouls, creepy monsters, haunted hospitals, dimly lit homes and is not for the faint-of-heart.

As we celebrate the 57th anniversary of Black Panther's comic debut this July, we're thrilled to announce Cliffhanger Games, a new triple-A development studio based in Seattle, is working on an original, third-person, single-player Black Panther game in collaboration with Marvel Games. Our mission is to build an expansive and reactive world that empowers players to experience what it is like to take on the mantle of Wakanda's protector, the Black Panther.

Led by Kevin Stephens (ex-Monolith Productions), Cliffhanger has already brought together accomplished talent with leaders from the critically acclaimed and innovative action-adventure game, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, along with veterans of top franchises including Halo Infinite, God of War, Call of Duty and others. "We're dedicated to delivering fans a definitive and authentic Black Panther experience, giving them more agency and control over their narrative than they have ever experienced in a story-driven video game. Wakanda is a rich Super Hero sandbox, and our mission is to develop an epic world for players who love Black Panther and want to explore the world of Wakanda as much as we do," said Kevin.

Earlier this month Discord announced that they would be rolling out a new username system that removes the 4-digit discriminator at the end of the current usernames. This change enforces that each user name is unique, and no copies of a specific spelling can exist on the platform. Discord claims this change is being made in part because they've noticed that almost half of all friend requests on the platform fail to reach the intended accounts. The problems with this change are probably immediately evident to most of you, as the platform has over 200 million active accounts, and the statistical probability of multiple people wanting to claim the same name is astronomical.

Rusty Lake, an indie game studio based in Amsterdam and creators of Cube Escape and The Path Within games, experienced the primary issue with the new system first hand: username theft. While Discord gave the company an advanced reservation to pick their username, Rusty Lake found that another user had already claimed their name. On Twitter Rusty Lake posted about the issue and issued a warning to other indie developers using Discord for their communities,

We just received an email that we, as Verified Owners, could finally submit a new username and wow... 'rustylake' is already taken! If we as a server owner with 240K+ members can't even claim it… [...] Now we have a risk of impersonation + extra legal costs to file a possible trademark infringement. In any case
[Discord] was helpful enough to respond with an automatic response email to this issue and the follow up is directing us to another helpdesk.

Back in September, we announced that 3 million of you had embraced your power washing destiny and the challenge of cleaning up Muckingham (seriously, how is that place still dirty?!). Well, since then, we've over doubled that figure, with a total of 7 million players to date! Whether you were sucked in by watching your favorite streamer play, reading the great reviews or by one of our collaborative Special Packs - thank you so much for playing! We've got heaps of awesome content coming in the remainder of 2023 for you to enjoy.

Kirsty Rigden, FuturLab's Co-CEO and the mind behind the original idea for PowerWash Simulator states: "With over 7 million players, we are honored that so many people have found their zen with PowerWash Simulator. The strength in our community is palpable. Since we launched into Early Access, the support for our soothing sim has been immense, and we are extremely grateful that this has continued to strengthen past release.

Audeze, the leading audio technology brand and premium headphone manufacturer, today announces their newest headphone made in collaboration with 17-time Grammy-winning engineer/producer Manny Marroquin. The MM-100 features Audeze's latest planar magnetic driver design, and a new lightweight chassis to bring unprecedented levels of quality and reliability to a wide range of audio professionals and enthusiasts. Audeze's MM-100 is assembled in the U.S.A. and will retail for $399, with first shipments expected in May.

The MM-100 is based on the highly successful MM-500, which has earned praise from acclaimed recording professionals since its debut at NAMM 2022. The MM-100 carries forward the highly regarded tuning from Audeze's 90 mm planar magnetic drivers. These efficient, low-impedance drivers make the MM-100 easy to drive from any console, interface, or laptop. The newly-designed chassis features premium materials ensuring comfort over long sessions.

Xencelabs Technologies Ltd. is giving artists a new creative choice with its Pen Display 24 Studio Series. The new drawing display joins the company's full line of professional digital design tools including its Pen Tablet Medium, Pen Tablet Small, and the Quick Keys customizable remote - creating a comprehensive portfolio of professional drawing tools available for creative communities worldwide.

The new drawing display will make its public debut in Xencelabs booth N2722 at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), March 22 to 24, 2023 in San Francisco.
The Pen Display 24 offers a range of features and capabilities compared to competitive offerings, including enhanced glare reduction and fingerprint resistance, an edge-to-edge drawing surface, a natural drawing experience, Pantone Color and SkinTone validation, the included Tilt Stand, VESA mount flexibility, silent and fanless operation and a security slot for the Kensington MicroSaver 2.0 lock.

We're incredibly excited to announce that the Apex Legends team at Respawn will continue to strengthen its development team with the introduction of a brand new studio location in Madison, Wisconsin led by industry veteran Ryan Burnett. Ryan is an extraordinary leader with a proven track record in live service games and as a pillar in the massive mid-western game development community in Madison. With nearly two decades of development experience at places like Raven Software and Epic Games, Ryan has a history of inspiring the sort of creativity and innovation in his teams that is the foundation of games like Apex Legends.

It's been our belief since day one that Respawn is not a singular location but a mindset: when passionate and talented people have creative freedom, they'll achieve the unexpected. This view helped us successfully expand to Vancouver in 2019, and as the workplace evolved, it helped us continue to work with the best that the games industry has to offer, whether at the office, remote, or hybrid.

The Creative Assembly Ltd., part of SEGA Europe Ltd., today announced a third development location in Newcastle, UK. This new studio sits alongside the studio's headquarters in Sussex, UK and their European studio in Sofia, Bulgaria, across which there are over 850 permanent employees.

The newly established Creative Assembly (CA) North is home to a growing flexible working team developing a project in collaboration with the studio's Sussex team. While the project is yet to be announced it promises to give players an unforgettable experience. CA North is also home to a newly formed team focused on continuous improvement. This team is dedicated to collaborating across Creative Assembly with the goal of sustained continuous improvement in tools, workflows and development experience.

We are excited to announce the opening of our fourth IOI studio in Istanbul, Türkiye. Uniquely positioned in the pan-continental gateway to Europe and Asia, IOI Istanbul is a crucial part in the continued growth and success of IO Interactive.

With a thriving tech and mobile development scene, we identified Istanbul as a region filled with talent that is furiously passionate, development-focused and technically creative. Istanbul is also a city rich in history, offering a strong cultural presence, historic architecture, astonishing Bosphorus views and vibrant and varied culture.

GIGABYTE AERO 16 OLED and AERO 14 OLED are now available for purchase. These next-generation creator laptops are designed for both content creators and creative pros, with the latest 13th-gen Intel Core processors and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Series Laptop GPUs that reduce 3D rendering time from 2.5 hours to just 10 minutes. They also feature a stunning display with exceptional color accuracy and creation-focused designs, all in a slim and portable package for an optimized creative experience anytime, anywhere.

The outstanding display is what sets AERO apart from the vast array of creator laptops. The displays on the AERO 16 OLED and AERO 14 OLED are factory-calibrated with X-Rite 2.0 and validated by Pantone for precise colors right out of the box. With a Delta E value of less than 1, these laptops feature the smallest color difference and offer the most color-accurate displays among others. The AERO 16 OLED comes in a stunning 4K UHD+ resolution, while the AERO 14 OLED boasts 2.8K QHD+ resolution, both with a 16:10 aspect ratio that provides ample screen space for improved productivity. Both laptops have been certified by TÜV Rheinland Eyesafe and feature low blue light certification, allowing creative professionals to work comfortably for extended periods while maintaining color accuracy.

2K today announced that industry veteran and Firaxis Games Chief Operating Officer, Heather Hazen, has been promoted to Studio Head, ushering in a new era of development at the legendary interactive entertainment studio behind Sid Meier's Civilization, XCOM, and the recently-released and critically-acclaimed Marvel's Midnight Suns.

As Studio Head, Hazen will manage Firaxis Games' development teams and lead its mission to build the best strategy games on the planet. With 22 years of experience in gaming and entertainment, Hazen joined Firaxis Games in 2020 as the studio's Chief Operating Officer. Prior to Firaxis Games, she was an Executive Producer on Fortnite at Epic Games, as well as Plants vs. Zombies and Bejeweled while at PopCap Games. Hazen's promotion comes as longtime Firaxis Studio Head, Steve Martin, will be leaving the studio after more than 25 years with the organization.

Apple's ongoing pursuit of leading performance in custom silicon packages continues with each new generation of Apple Silicon. Today, we have alleged Geekbench performance figures of the upcoming M2 Max chip, designed for the upcoming Mac devices. Featuring the same configuration with two E-cores and eight P-cores, the chip is rumored to utilize TSMC's 3 nm design. However, that is yet to be confirmed by Apple, so we don't have the exact information. In the GB5 single-thread test, the CPU set a single-core performance target of 1899 points, while the multi-core score was 8737. While last year's M1 Max chips can reach 1787 single-core and 12826 multi-core scores, these configurations are benchmarked in a Mac Studio, which has better cooling and allows for higher clocks to be achieved.

Apples to apples (pun intended) comparison with the M1 Max chip inside of a MacBook Pro version with presumably the same cooling capacity, which gets 1497 single-core and 11506 multi-core score, the new M2 Max chip is 19.4% faster in single-core results. Multi-core improvements should follow, and this M2 Max result should be different from the final product. We await more benchmarks to confirm this performance increase and the correct semiconductor manufacturing node.

Apple yesterday announced its M1 Ultra processor. It is designed to be one of the most powerful solutions ever envisioned for desktop users, and it leverages some of the already existing technologies. Essentially, the M1 Ultra chip combines two monolithic dies containing M1 Max designs. They are stitched together to create one massive chip behaving in a rather exciting way. To pair the two M1 Max dies together, Apple has designed a package called UltraFusion, which is a die-to-die interposer with more than 10,000 signals. It provides 2.5 TB/s low latency inter-processor bandwidth and enables seamless sharing of information across two dies.

What is more interesting is that this approach, called multi-chip module (MCM) design philosophy, allows the software to view these two dies as a single, unified processor. Memory is shared across a vast pool of processor cache and system memory in a single package. This approach is software agnostic and allows hardware to function efficiently with loads of bandwidth. Apple notes that no additional developer optimization is required for the new processor, and the already-existing stack of applications for M1 Max works out-of-the-box. Talking about numbers, the M1 Ultra chip has a potential main memory bandwidth of 800 GB/s, with up to 128 GB of unified system memory. We are yet to see how this design behaves as the first Mac Studio units start shipping, so we have to wait for more tests to check these claims out.

Adobe's Premiere Pro, one of the most common video editing tools in the industry, has received a February update today with version 22.2. The new version brings a wide array of features like Adobe Remix, an advanced audio retiming tool. Alongside that, the latest update accelerates offline text-to-speech capabilities by as much as three times. However, this is not the most significant feature, as we are about to see. Adobe also enabled 10-bit 420 HDR HEVC H/W encoding on Window with Intel and NVIDIA graphics. This feature allows the software to use advanced hardware built-in the NVIDIA Quadro RTX and Intel Iris Xe graphics cards.

The company managed to run some preliminary tests, and you can see the charts below. They significantly improve export times with the latest 22.2 software version that enables HEVC 10-Bit hardware encoding. For Intel GPUs, no special drivers need to be installed. However, for NVIDIA GPUs, Adobe is advising official Studio drivers in combination with Quadro RTX GPUs.

Today as part of CES 2022, Intel demonstrated advancements and momentum with Mobileye, progress toward discrete graphics leadership and the launch of the newest members of the 12th Gen Intel Core family. With these milestones, Intel furthers its commitment to enable the industry and its customers and partners to harness the technology superpowers - ubiquitous computing, cloud-to-edge infrastructure, pervasive connectivity and artificial intelligence - at the heart of the digital transformation.

During the Intel news conference, Gregory Bryant, executive vice president and general manager of the Client Computing Group, was joined by Lisa Pearce, vice president of the Visual Compute Group, and Prof. Amnon Shashua, Mobileye CEO, to share Intel's progress across multiple strategic businesses. "The Intel execution engine is back. From advancing the PC to high-performance graphics to autonomous driving solutions, Intel and Mobileye are proud to create new ecosystems and opportunities across multiple industries," Bryant said. "Together with our partners and customers, we are driving new innovation across products, platforms and services, and delivering on our vision of enabling world-changing technology that improves the lives of every person on the planet."