Last Saturday, Scythe Group announced the closure of its European branch. This followed mid-April reports of unusually low stock numbers in Germany—at the time, ComputerBase.de and its community highlighted the complete absence of the manufacturer's flagship Mugen 6 CPU air cooler at regional retail outlets. The site published an investigative article on April 22; presenting an important Consumer Protection Forum filing. Apparently "economic difficulties" have warranted the initiation of "preliminary insolvency proceedings"—as a result, Scythe EU GmbH faced an uncertain future. Looking back in TechPowerUp's news archive, the last official introduction of brand-new products—Mugen 6 standard and Black Edition coolers—happened around early February. Also within the same month, TPU's crazyeyesreaper reviewed the brand's "highly-recommended" Fuma 3 model. Despite releasing consistently high-grade and top-performing products; Scythe has faced aggressive competition across Europe—Chinese brands have flooded regional markers with cheaper alternatives. In particular, Thermalright has gained plenty of attention and uptake—due to a rapid cadence and wide variety of highly-acclaimed new releases.

Scythe's April 26 official notice stated: "To All Valued Clients, we deeply regret to inform you that SCYTHE EU will be ceasing operations. Moving forward, SCYTHE-branded products and customer support will remain available through our European distributors and online e-commerce platforms. During the transition period with our distributors/e-commerce channels, there may be some unfinished matters, and we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. SCYTHE will continue to uphold the principles of responsibility and integrity, ensuring consumer rights are protected in accordance with the law. We sincerely thank you for your support and loyalty to the SCYTHE brand over the years."

Last month, we released Atomfall, and it quickly became our most successful launch in the over 30-year history of Rebellion. We want to shine a light on something else we're proud of—how Atomfall is also Rebellion's most accessible title to date. Atomfall might offer challenges for those that want them, but it shouldn't be difficult to physically play. With that in mind, we want to showcase some of the standout accessibility features we've built to help everyone explore the mysteries of the Quarantine Zone. We've included features across motor, vision, audio and cognition, with many becoming accessibility firsts for the studio—including additional audio cues, directional indicators on subtitles, and more. We hope that the host of features, both in and outside of options, helps welcome more players to the Quarantine Zone.

Playstyle
We've built a world full of choice and we want players to be able to play their own way. So, instead of difficulty, Atomfall provides a choice of Playstyle. There are five preset Playstyles to choose from, including Investigator for those seeking more survival gameplay, Brawler for a combat-focused experience, and our default Atomfall experience in Survivor. Sightseer, on the other hand, is a preset which will allow more players to explore and enjoy the Quarantine Zone. It lessens combat and survival aspects and provides a boost to exploration to help you through the expansive Lake District and all its mysteries.

According to The Korea Economic Daily, an unlikely alliance—involving Samsung Electronics and Palantir Technologies—was formed at the end of last year. Late last week, insiders posited that the South Korean megacorporation's Foundry business was going through troubled times. It is not clear whether the assistance provided by Palantir's AI-infused suite has produced pleasing results chez Samsung's flagship production hubs, but insiders reckon that utilization of the software started just before Christmas. Local media outlets view this unusual pairing as a "gamble"—reportedly, the new-ish initiative has targeted an improved "semiconductor yield (ratio of good products in total production), quality, and productivity."

The Samsung Foundry appears to be going "all-in" with its 2 nm GAA node process; industry moles picked up on signals transmitted by an alleged special "task force (TF)." This elite team is reportedly entrusted with a challenging two-pronged goal; get 2 nm GAA over the finish line by late 2025, alongside the (connected) finalization of a much-rumored "Exynos 2600" mobile chipset. The Korea Economic Daily news article mentions the expansion of a "Samsung DS Division AI Center" back in December (2025), but falls short of labelling this department as the aforementioned "special task force." Despite a previous reluctance to share sensitive data with external companies, the latest report suggests a significant change in strategy. Further details were disclosed: "(Samsung's) collaboration with Palantir is handled by the DS Division AI Center...The AI Center is an organization that merged the DS Division Innovation Center and SAIT (formerly Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology) AI Center, and is developing DS Division-specific technologies using AI, advancing development software, building AI platforms, and controlling and advancing facilities and infrastructure." Around late February, industry inside trackers predicted continued "smooth" progress with the 2 nm GAA node. Samsung Foundry's fully upgraded "S2" mass production line is expected to come online by Q4 2025.

Ask a typical IT professional today whether they're leveraging AI, and there's a good chance they'll say yes-after all, they have reputations to protect! Kidding aside, many will report that their teams may use Web-based tools like ChatGPT or even have internal chatbots that serve their employee base on their intranet, but for that not much AI is really being implemented at the infrastructure level. As it turns out, the true answer is a bit different. AI tools and techniques have embedded themselves firmly into standard enterprise workloads and are a more common, everyday phenomena than even many IT people may realize. Assembly line operations now include computer vision-powered inspections. Supply chains use AI for demand forecasting making business move faster and of course, AI note-taking and meeting summary is embedded on virtually all the variants of collaboration and meeting software.

Increasingly, critical enterprise software tools incorporate built-in recommendation systems, virtual agents or some other form of AI-enabled assistance. AI is truly becoming a pervasive, complementary tool for everyday business. At the same time, today's enterprises are navigating a hybrid landscape where traditional, mission-critical workloads coexist with innovative AI-driven tasks. This "mixed enterprise and AI" workload environment calls for infrastructure that can handle both types of processing seamlessly. Robust, general-purpose CPUs like the AMD EPYC processors are designed to be powerful and secure and flexible to address this need. They handle everyday tasks—running databases, web servers, ERP systems—and offer strong security features crucial for enterprise operations augmented with AI workloads. In essence, modern enterprise infrastructure is about creating a balanced ecosystem. AMD EPYC CPUs play a pivotal role in creating this balance, delivering high performance, efficiency, and security features that underpin both traditional enterprise workloads and advanced AI operations.

In an exclusive report, Laptop Mag has extracted intriguing disclosures from Intel's Robert Hallock. The company's VP and General Manager of Client AI and Technical Marketing was happy to announce that new-generation processors are lined up for inclusion within next waves of handheld gaming PCs. Industry rumors posited that things would end with Team Blue's Core Ultra "Lunar Lake" generation of APUs; as featured on the recently deployed MSI Claw 8 AI+ and Claw 7 AI+ models. First-generation devices with "Meteor Lake" chips did not disrupt the market, and struggled to keep up with AMD Ryzen Z1 chipset-based rivals. Despite negative conjecture suggesting a withdrawal, Hallock revealed that a certain department is growing in size: "Intel is beefing up its staff to support gaming ISVs who want to do handhelds."

Team Blue's fortified support network is touted to expand the market reach of portable gaming PCs; the Intel executive elaborated on this topic: "we're starting a number of internal programs to give them more assistance in targeting this performance profile because—relative to what they're accustomed to—(handhelds) are still relatively rare in terms of availability." Hallock and colleagues are diving in with a new strategy; game development studios are on the receiving end of pre-release hardware: "a lot of game devs tend to just target what they have on their desks or in their QA labs...so (we're) arming them with more handhelds as prototype devices. Getting them dev kits leading into Panther Lake."

ASUS today announced that ASUS AI Advisor will now be available in select ASUS motherboard series. AI Advisor is a software tool that uses artificial intelligence to understand user needs and provide answers using natural language. Users can ask questions related to motherboard software, BIOS, and hardware, and receive clear and straightforward responses. This tool debuted with the ASUS Z890 motherboard series and is going mainstream with the value-oriented B860 motherboards. It's now also available to owners of the ASUS X870, B850, and B840 motherboards.

Enhancing customer interaction
ASUS AI Advisor is an AI tool designed to revolutionize how customers interact with ASUS products. It offers users an easy and intuitive way to learn about products, get technical support, and receive instant assistance.

During Alphabet's Q3 earnings call, CEO Sundar Pichai announced that AI now generates more than a quarter of the company's new code, marking a significant milestone for AI advancement and for the tech giant. This development comes alongside impressive financial results, with the company reporting $88.2 billion in revenue, representing a 15% year-over-year increase. Implementing AI in code generation has raised concerns, though Google maintains rigorous safety protocols. Every AI-generated code segment undergoes thorough review by human (natural intelligence) engineers before deployment, ensuring quality and security standards are met. This hybrid approach helps Google balance productivity with reliability. The tech giant's commitment to AI development extends beyond code generation.

Recent achievements include the revolutionary AI Overviews feature, which has undergone significant optimization. Through optimizing hardware solutions and technical improvements, Google has managed to reduce query costs by over 90% while simultaneously doubling the capacity of their custom Gemini models. Google's AI push has also garnered prestigious recognition, with DeepMind researchers Demis Hassabis and John Jumper receiving the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their groundbreaking AlphaFold project. Former Google researcher Geoff Hinton also achieved Nobel recognition in Physics. The impact of Google's AI integration is evident across its product ecosystem, with Gemini models now powering seven platforms that each serve over two billion monthly users. Google Maps recently joined this elite group, while the company has expanded its AI capabilities to external developers through partnerships with platforms like GitHub Copilot to help developers write code with AI assistance.

According to a recent Reuters report, the US government, under Biden's administration, will allow a few criteria-matching semiconductor fabs to circumvent environmental protection laws. On Wednesday, President Joe Biden signed legislation that effectively enables these fabs to not follow the strict regulations designed for maximum preservation of the environment. The Semiconductor Industry Association has noted that without this new legislation, companies that are extending facilities on US soil would be significantly slowed down due to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969. The CHIPS Act's primary force driver isn't just domestic production but near-future completion so that future geopolitical shifts don't impact US companies. The speed of getting permits to manufacture advanced chips is essential for every CHIPS Act recipient company, like Intel, Samsung, TSMC, and Micron.

According to the latest report from The Verge, Microsoft is currently testing a new AI-driven chatbot designed to automate support tasks for its Xbox gaming platform. As the report notes, Microsoft is experimenting with an animated AI character that will assist in answering Xbox support inquiries. The Xbox AI chatbot is connected to Microsoft's Xbox network and ecosystem support documentation. It can answer questions and process game refunds from the Microsoft support website, all aiming to provide users with simple and quick assistance on support topics using natural language, drawing information from existing Xbox support pages. Training on Microsoft's enterprise data will help Microsoft reduce the AI model's hallucinations and instruct it to do only as intended.

As a result, the chatbot's responses closely resemble the information Microsoft provides to its customers to automate support tasks. Recently, Microsoft has expanded the test pool for its new Xbox chatbot, suggesting that the "Xbox Support Virtual Agent" may soon handle support inquiries for all Xbox customers. The development of the Xbox chatbot prototype is part of a broader initiative within Microsoft Gaming to introduce AI-powered features and tools for the Xbox platform and developer tools. The company is also reportedly working on providing AI capabilities for game content creation, gameplay, and the Xbox platform and devices. However, Xbox employees have yet to publicly confirm these more extensive AI efforts for Microsoft Gaming, likely due to the company's cautious approach to presenting AI in gaming. Nevertheless, AI will soon become an integral part of gaming consoles.

Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc. is inviting potential CRADLECOFFIN Drifters to participate in the upcoming SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada closed beta test, with registrations now open. The extraction shooter, set in a dystopian futuristic world where humans and AI must cooperate to survive, will have limited slots available for players to be among the first to venture into the ruins of Amasia to fight both environmental threats and human enemies, reap rewards, and escape with all the AO Crystals they can carry.

As a CRADLECOFFIN mech pilot, players will be able to bring their choice of Magus into battle—an AI companion that provides useful combat information including radar locations, resource tracking, combat assistance, and more. They can also select from a wide variety of chassis, arms, and legs, with two weapons as well to optimize their loadout for each sortie. The CBT for SYNDUALITY Echo of Ada will run March 28 through April 1 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam.

Creatures of Ava was announced during Xbox Partner Preview, and we're excited to confirm that it is arriving on Xbox Series X|S and PC in 2024. That's why we at Inverge Studios wanted to use this opportunity to tell you more about the beautiful world of Ava. Creatures of Ava is a Creature Saver game in which you will have to help creatures escape from an infection that is rapidly growing on the planet Ava, threatening to wipe out all living beings. Your goal is not to collect the creatures for your amusement nor hurt them—your goal is to save them.

One of our overarching goals when developing the game was to make it non-violent while remaining really fun to play. From the outset, we've been captivated by the notion of saving creatures from a distant planet, not for any utilitarian purpose, but simply because they're sentient beings deserving of compassion. With that vision in our mind creating a non-violent game was essential. However, this initially proved to be one of our biggest challenges, until we settled on the flute as one of the key mechanics in the game—that really helped us realize our goal. Let me explain….

The highly anticipated AORUS 16X, a brand-new 16-inch AI gaming laptop unveiled by the world's leading computer brand, GIGABYTE, is now available. Powered by the latest Intel Core 14th gen HX processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series laptop GPU, AORUS 16X sets a new standard for performance. Equipped with GIGABYTE AI Nexus technology, it optimizes power management and gaming performance while enhancing generative AI applications. Boasting patented innovations like the 4-sided Super-slim Bezel design and supporting Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision, it creates a cinematic audiovisual experience unparalleled in its class. It holds the TÜV Rheinland Eye Comfort Certification and Pantone Validated color accuracy certification, which provide high comfort and confidence for extended use.

The AORUS 16X is powered by the latest Intel Core i9 processor 14900HX and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 dedicated graphics card. With a maximum graphic power of up to 140 W, it provides unmatched performance for gaming and creative tasks. The inclusion of NVIDIA Advanced Optimus technology (DDS) ensures seamless switching between integrated and dedicated graphics for optimal performance. Additionally, the WINDFORCE Infinity Cooling technology features the Icy Touch design and 0dB Cooling, enabling efficient heat dissipat ion during heavy loads, or maintaining a noise-free environment during low loads.

Today, Microsoft launched Copilot Pro, bringing its AI-powered productivity features to mainstream consumers. Available as a $20 per month add-on to Microsoft 365 Personal or Home subscriptions, Copilot Pro injects AI directly into Office apps to help users write faster and work smarter. The key features include AI-generated text suggestions and summaries in Word, automated data analysis and graph creation in Excel, and even entire PowerPoint presentation generation from a text prompt. Copilot can also suggest email replies in Outlook and assist with other productivity tasks. What sets Copilot Pro apart from the free Copilot assistant is its tight integration with Office apps and ability to summarize long Word documents and generate entire decks. The Pro version also offers priority access to the latest AI models from OpenAI, Microsoft's key partner. The regular Copilot uses GPT-4 during non-priority times, while the Copilot Pro aims to serve its users with GPT-4 and GPT-4 Turbo all the time.

While regular Copilot is available to anyone with a Microsoft account, Copilot Pro is reserved for those with active Microsoft 365 subscriptions. However, it brings previously business-only AI capabilities like PowerPoint generation to mainstream users. Microsoft's Divya Kumar, global head of marketing for search and AI at Microsoft, stated in a discussion for The Verge that Copilot Pro will continue to expand over time: "Given that pattern we've been in, that rolling thunder, you can expect we're going to do the exact same thing for Copilot Pro." So, while the initial launch focuses on core Office apps, expect Copilot Pro to pop up across Microsoft's software and services eventually. For now, it aims to boost productivity for Office power users willing to pay a little extra for AI assistance.

The Xbox Series version of Baldur's Gate 3 was at risk of being delayed into 2024, thanks to Microsoft enforcing a policy of feature parity across S and X consoles. Larian Studios is reportedly still struggling to get split-screen co-operative mode running on Xbox Series S hardware, even with deployment of first party assistance. Swen Vincke, founder and CEO of Larian Studios, discussed these technical issues with Microsoft Gaming's head honcho at Gamescom last week—their tête-à-tête resulted in a positive outcome: "Super happy to confirm that after meeting Phil Spencer yesterday, we've found a solution that allows us to bring Baldur's Gate 3 to Xbox players this year still, something we've been working towards for quite some time." The game is due to launch—feature complete—on PlayStation 5 in early September, so Team Xbox appears keen to play catch up with its arch rival.

Vincke elaborated on the compromise: "All improvements will be there, with split-screen coop on Series X. Series S will not feature split-screen co-op, but will also include cross-save progression between Steam and Xbox Series." A firm release date has not been confirmed yet, but the official Xbox Twitter account later revealed that Microsoft engineers are committed to collaborating with the game's development team and resolve technical hurdles: "To answer some questions we're getting, we'll continue to work with Larian to explore the addition of split-screen on Series S post launch."

China electric vehicle maker XPENG Motors has announced its new G6 coupe SUV—featuring an NVIDIA-powered intelligent advanced driver assistance system—is now available to the China market. The G6 is XPENG's first model featuring the company's proprietary Smart Electric Platform Architecture (SEPA) 2.0, which aims to reduce development and manufacturing costs and shorten R&D cycles since the modular architecture will be compatible with future models.

The electric SUV also features the XPENG Navigation Guided Pilot (XNGP), a full scenario-based intelligent assisted driving system. It's powered by the cutting-edge NVIDIA DRIVE Orin compute and XPENG's full-stack software developed in-house. The XNGP system first made its debut in the EV maker's flagship G9 SUV, touting a safe, reliable, advanced driving experience behind the wheel.

This July, as part of Disability Pride Month, Team Xbox proudly celebrates players, creators, and community members with disabilities. More than 400 million video game players have disabilities worldwide, and we recognize the incredible contributions the gaming and disability community has made in making Team Xbox, and the broader gaming industry, more inclusive and welcoming for everyone.

Disability Pride holds a special place in my heart, as I am not only a Program Manager on our Gaming Accessibility Team, but also a person with disabilities. Most people wouldn't think of me as having a disability at first glance. In fact, I didn't know I had disabilities until I was in my 20's when I was diagnosed as being neurodiverse. Now I know that I have had Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Sensory Processing Disorder since I was a young child. And, as the years have gone by, I've acquired new disabilities due to illness, injury, and trauma. Chronic pain is now part of my life, as is hearing loss, and anxiety and depression related to complex post-traumatic stress disorder.

Larian Studios recently announced that the PlayStation 5 version of Baldur's Gate 3 is getting postponed by a week—from August 31 to September 6, with PC gamers happy to discover that they will be treated to an earlier release (adjusted to August 3). Xbox Series console owners were seemingly left out in the cold with last week's announcements—Larian is yet to confirm a solid launch date for current generation Microsoft systems. The studio admitted—earlier this year—that software engineers were struggling to get the split screen multiplayer mode in Baldur's Gate 3 running adequately on both Series X and S hardware: "We've had an Xbox version of Baldur's Gate 3 in development for some time now. We've run into some technical issues in developing the Xbox port that have stopped us feeling 100% confident in announcing it until we're certain we've found the right solutions—specifically, we've been unable to get splitscreen co-op to work to the same standard on both (systems), which is a requirement for us to ship."

Microsoft apparently enforces a policy that locks gameplay feature parity across Xbox Series X and S, and Larian has continued to struggle with technical issues, albeit now isolated to the lesser console (not that helpful given the circumstances)—IGN contacted studio head Swen Vincke for comment about this situation. Other development outfits have expressed their disdain for Series S launch requirements, with calls to drop the system entirely—but IGN discovered that Vincke was reluctant to aim criticism at Microsoft, since first party assistance has been roped in: "We had support from the ATG group. They've been doing great. They've been helping a lot. Everybody wants this out on Xbox. It's not that we don't want it out on Xbox. It's just that, our problem—and this is us, Larian—is that we just made a very big game. And it's a very complicated game...We're also not a developer with an infinite (number) of resources. We are constrained in the amount of time each platform version is tested. The more permutations you start adding to it on a platform, the more complicated that becomes." Given the high profile nature of Baldur's Gate 3, it would be in both parties' interests to get a decent port out of the door, so it is encouraging that Microsoft is pitching in (perhaps to save face).

We are pleased to announce that we have raised $450 million in Series C funding led by Spark Capital with participation from Google, Salesforce Ventures, Sound Ventures, Zoom Ventures, and others. The funding will support our continued work developing helpful, harmless, and honest AI systems—including Claude, an AI assistant that can perform a wide variety of conversational and text processing tasks.

Anthropic was founded to build AI products that people can rely on and generate research about the opportunities and risks of AI. Our CEO, Dario Amodei, says, "We are thrilled that these leading investors and technology companies are supporting Anthropic's mission: AI research and products that put safety at the frontier. The systems we are building are being designed to provide reliable AI services that can positively impact businesses and consumers now and in the future."

Alphabet Incorporated's Google AI division has today revealed a planned update for its Bard conversational artificial intelligence chatbot. The experimental generative artificial intelligence software application will become capable of assisting people in the writing of computer code - the American multinational technology company hopes that Bard will be of great to help in the area of software development. Paige Bailey, a group product manager at Google Research has introduced the upcoming changes: "Since we launched Bard, our experiment that lets you collaborate with generative AI, coding has been one of the top requests we've received from our users. As a product lead in Google Research - and a passionate engineer who still programs every day - I'm excited that today we're updating Bard to include that capability."

The Bard chatbot was made available, on a trial basis, to users in the USA and UK last month. Google's AI team is reported to be under great pressure to advance the Bard chatbot into a suitably powerful state in order to compete with its closest rival - Microsoft Corporation. The Seattle-based giant has invested heavily into Open AI's industry leading ChatGPT application. Google's latest volley against its rivals shows that Bard's has become very sophisticated - so much so that the app is able to chew through a variety of programming languages. Bailey outlines these features in the company's latest blog: "Starting now, Bard can help with programming and software development tasks, including code generation, debugging and code explanation. We're launching these capabilities in more than 20 programming languages including C++, Go, Java, Javascript, Python and Typescript. And you can easily export Python code to Google Colab - no copy and paste required." Critics of AI-driven large language models have posited that the technology could potentially eliminate humans from the job market - it will be interesting to observe the coder community's reaction to Google marketing of Bard as a helpful tool in software development.