The Xbox gaming handheld is reportedly in the early stages of development at Microsoft, but in the meantime, the PC giant is apparently working on unifying its gaming experience across the various platforms where its games are available. According to a Windows Central report, Microsoft is working on something called Project Rainway, which is "a set of in-game APIs and user interface features," that will take shape as a cross-platform Xbox user interface. This news comes after Microsoft's recent "This is an Xbox" ad campaign and some pretty notable changes to its Xbox Game Bar to make that more compatible with gaming handhelds. How this new API and UI will take shape is yet to be seen, but it will likely further blur the line between gaming consoles and PCs—something that the Valve Steam Deck has also done in the years since its launch.

This seems to align with Microsoft's current strategy around gaming, which has seen Microsoft Gaming head, Phil Spencer, confirm that the company is both working on its own gaming handheld and that, in the meantime, it is focussed on making the Xbox gaming experience as seamless and enjoyable as possible on current gaming hardware. Xbox is also seemingly moving away from console exclusives as a concept, as we reported earlier this month, and, according to Windows Central's sources at least, this is partly because Microsoft has noticed no measurable impact on Xbox performance as a result of moving Xbox exclusives over to other consoles.

Imagine being able to step into any world in an instant—from the bustling streets of New York City to the snowy mountain tops of the Alps. These worlds are no longer merely places to observe from afar. They can now be explored and interacted with simply through a gaze, a gesture or your voice. What once seemed like science fiction has become a reality as eXtended reality (XR) transforms how we engage with the world around us.

XR is an umbrella term for technologies that use digital elements to extend or alter reality by merging the physical and digital worlds together. This includes virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR) as well as other similar technologies yet to be developed. XR offers infinite possibilities, creating a dynamic spatial canvas where users' sight, sound and motion combine to interact with the outside world. A world that will unlock unprecedented experiences across core areas of life, from working and learning to entertainment, gaming and even health and wellness.

Since its inception, Razer Synapse has been designed with the goal of empowering gamers and elevating their experience; with core functions like key remapping and macro creation, Synapse enables users to create personally tailored setups to make Razer peripherals truly their own. For years, Synapse has been constantly innovating to meet evolving user needs. And now, as the Vice President of Software at Razer, it is with great pleasure and excitement that I am able to announce the official full rollout of Razer Synapse 4.

What's new with Synapse 4
In this latest evolution, after nearly a year of intensive beta testing, Synapse 4 has redefined performance and usability, ensuring that all users will be able to enjoy a more reliable and intuitive experience on the platform.

New insights from Omdia's Desktop Monitor Intelligence Service show the gaming monitor market, featuring refresh rates over 120 Hz, is expected to grow by 9% YoY to 24.7 million units in 2024. Meanwhile, the smart monitor market, equipped with operating systems and streaming service portals, is projected to expand by 63% YoY to 1.2 million units.

In 1Q24, desktop monitor shipments hit 30.7 million units, a 5% increase year-on-year (YoY). The industry has been growing steadily since 3Q23, overcoming post-pandemic logistical disruptions. Notably, the gaming monitor market and smart monitors are expanding rapidly. This growth is driven by added value and high functionality, particularly in both monitor categories.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, and hardware solutions, released the GIGABYTE exclusive groundbreaking AI TOP Utility. With reinvented workflows, user-friendly interface, and real-time progress monitoring, AI TOP Utility provides a reinventing touch of local AI model training and fine-tuning. It features a variety of groundbreaking technologies that can be easily adapted by beginners or experts, for most common open-source LLMs, in anyplace even on your desk.

GIGABYTE AI TOP is the all-round solution for local AI Model Fine-tuning. Running local AI training and fine-tuning on sensitive data can relatively provide greater privacy and security with maximum flexibility and real-time adjustment. Collocating with GIGABYTE AI TOP hardware and AI TOP Utility, the common constraints of GPU VRAM insufficiency when trying to execute AI fine-tuning locally can be addressed. By GIGABYTE AI TOP series motherboard, PSU, and SSD, as well as GIGABYTE graphics cards lineup covering NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Series, AMD Radeon RX 7900 Series, Radeon Pro W7900 and W7800 series, the size of open-source LLM fine-tuning can now reach up to 236B and more.

GIGABYTE Technology, a leading global powerhouse in motherboards, graphics cards, and cutting-edge hardware solutions, has always committed to improving user experiences and proactively preventing any unforeseen issues, announces a crucial software update for its users.

GIGABYTE has received user feedback regarding unexpected behavior and issues when using certain brand memory modules in conjunction with GCC (GIGABYTE Control Center). After thorough investigation, it was identified that some DDR modules did not comply with JEDEC specifications, leading to the failure of SPD write protection. The issue was promptly addressed within a month by updating the BIOS to enable SPD write protection from motherboard side, thereby assisting customers in avoiding and resolving the problem.

Starting today, a new Home experience is rolling out to all Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One consoles. This update is designed from player feedback and makes it easier to discover new games, rediscover games you already love, connect with communities, and create a more personalized experience.

We're excited to share more about the journey that led us here, and what you can expect with this new update.

Hello! We're excited to announce that we've just shipped a new version of the Steam Client to everyone. This update includes all the new Steam Desktop features that have been tested and fine-tuned in the beta branch. Before we get into the details, we want to thank our beta testers really quick - we couldn't have shipped without all of your invaluable feedback and bug reports!

New framework, new foundation
The most impactful changes in this update aren't immediately visible; much of the work went into changing how we share code across the Steam Desktop Client, Big Picture mode, and Steam Deck. These changes also means quicker implementation and iteration of new features. For example, many of the features in this update (like Notes in the overlay) are simultaneously shipping on Steam Deck because of the shared codebase.

A previous attempt to enable NVIDIA GPU video hardware acceleration by default within Steam running on Linux platforms was thwarted by numerous bugs and faults - adopters of the mid-May Steam Client Beta update reported their experiences of various crashes encountered in Valve's user interface. The embattled software engineering team has since investigated this matter and released a new update (yesterday).

The June 6th Steam Client Beta patch notes list a number of general improvements along with Linux-specific adjustments: "a crash when Steam windows were closed with hardware (HW) acceleration enabled on NVIDIA GPUs" and the re-enabling of "HW acceleration by default for NVIDIA GPUs." Early reports indicate that Linux gamers are having a smoother time after installing yesterday's update.

Earlier this month, we shared that PC Game Pass is now available in 40 new countries, the ability to take the expansive Game Pass library everywhere you go with the Asus ROG Ally, and the new PC Game Pass Friend Referral program where you can invite your friends and play together. You can find Friend Referral invitations on the Game Pass Home screen in the Xbox App on PC, just click the "Give PC Game Pass" button to share with up to 5 friends. Now, we're excited to share the latest Xbox app update to improve your PC gaming experience. Let's explore the new features and improvements.

Improved Discovery with Updated Game Card, Filtering, and New Collections
We've updated game cards throughout the app to give you more information and convenience. Now, you can see the game's title along with contextual metadata like publisher, pricing, HowLongToBeat time, coming to Game Pass date, leaving Game Pass date for those games leaving soon, and more! You will see all this information as you browse through games in the app. We have also made it easier for you to filter and sort game collections and your library with new filter options, including accessibility features and game ratings, as well as introducing HowLongToBeat as a new sorting option. This way, you can easily find the games you love and discover new ones that match your preferences.

NVIDIA and VMware are helping professionals elevate extended reality (XR) by streaming from the cloud with Workspace ONE XR Hub, which includes an integration of NVIDIA CloudXR. Now available, Workspace ONE XR Hub enhances the user experience for VR headsets through advanced authentication and customization options. Combined with the cutting-edge streaming capabilities of CloudXR, Workspace ONE XR Hub enables more professionals, design teams and developers to quickly and securely access complex immersive environments using all-in-one headsets.

Many organizations across industries use XR technologies to boost productivity and enhance creativity. However, teams often come across challenges when it comes to integrating XR into their workflows. That's why NVIDIA and VMware are working together to make it easier for enterprises to adopt augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). Whether it's running immersive training sessions or conducting virtual design reviews, professionals can achieve the highest fidelity experience with greater mobility through Workspace ONE XR Hub and CloudXR.

According to a blog post by Panos Panay, Chief Product Officer, Windows and Devices, Microsoft is adding native support for RGB lighting control to Windows 11. One of the big frustrations today is that almost each and every manufacturer of RGB equipped devices, or motherboards for that matter, have their own system when it comes to controlling the RGB lighting. This might result in multiple apps having to be installed and they often don't communicate with each other. There's obviously some interoperability, but it's still quite poor, so now it appears that Microsoft has taken things into their own hands.

However, the blog post which covers a lot of other topics as well, doesn't provide any details of a user interface. Microsoft calls its solution to the problem for Dynamic Lighting and it's supposed to be part of the Windows settings. The blog post mentions that Dynamic Lighting will be released in this month's insider build as a preview, so hopefully we should have a better idea of what Microsoft supports and how much user control there will actually be. That said, it seems like Microsoft is expecting the various hardware manufacturers to add support for Dynamic Lighting as well, so it's highly likely that we'll still see plenty of unsupported hardware out there.

Imagination Technologies is bringing seamless visual experiences to cost-sensitive consumer devices with the new IMG CXM GPU range which includes the smallest GPU to support HDR user interfaces natively.

Consumers are looking for visuals on their smart home platforms that are as detailed, smooth, and responsive as the experience they are accustomed to on mobile devices. At the same time, ambitious content providers are aligning the look and feel of their applications' user interfaces with their cinematic content, by integrating advanced features such as 4K and HDR.

Store Quick-Search now includes developer pages and tags, also it will be better at handling of misspelled words. Today, we rolled out an update to the Steam store search to add more ways for players to search. Recently we've noticed more players searching for particular store hubs, tags, or developers so we've updated Steam store search to handle those destinations. For these new results, we'll show a new format with a subtle background generated from images of the most popular games in that result. Let's take a quick look at all the recent search updates...

Search for Developers, Publishers, and Franchises
Additionally, players can now search directly for your developer or publisher if you have set up a homepage. For more about developer and publisher homepages, please see: partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/creator_homepage. Looking for a particular developer or publisher on Steam? Excited about a specific gaming franchise? Now those appear in the quick search results too. Looking for "Bethesda" games? Or perhaps you want to browse all the "Star Wars" or "Final Fantasy" games. Now you can!

Solidigm, a leading global provider of innovative NAND flash memory solutions, has announced the launch of Solidigm Synergy 2.0 software. The Solidigm Synergy software suite improves overall system performance and delivers a better user experience than hardware alone can provide. This free download includes two elements, both optional, but highly recommended: the Solidigm Synergy Driver, which automatically improves the performance of Solidigm SSDs, and the Solidigm Synergy Toolkit, which offers useful SSD health reporting and tools for SSDs from any manufacturer.

Solidigm is the only company today that is investing in a solution with software built on top of the SSD that understands system behavior and adapts based on the user's needs. The latest Solidigm Synergy software improves the PC user experience for all SSD users. It increases performance where it matters most on Solidigm SSDs, and offers a host of useful drive management features for all SSDs, regardless of manufacturer. Solidigm is combining breakthrough SSD products with revolutionary software solutions and plans to introduce further innovations to deliver additional improvements to end-users.

Opera is unveiling Opera One today. Opera One is the early access version of a completely redesigned browser that is planned to replace the flagship Opera browser for Windows, MacOS, and Linux later this year. Based on Modular Design, Opera One transforms the way you interact with your browser, delivering a liquid navigation experience which is more intuitive to the user. With today's release, Opera One also becomes the first major Chromium-based browser with a multithreaded compositor that brings the UI to life like never before. Opera One also introduces Tab Islands, a new, more intuitive way of interacting with and managing multiple tabs. This news from the company comes just weeks after announcing its first generative AI features, including AI Prompts, as well as access to ChatGPT and ChatSonic in the sidebar.

Introducing the first implementation of Modular Design
Opera has a history of reinventing itself to address the changing needs of its users as well as the evolving nature of the web. With Opera One, the browser has been redesigned according to Modular Design. The new design philosophy, which is being presented today for the first time, will allow Opera to over time build a more powerful and feature-rich browser that is ready for a generative AI-based future. The Opera browser is thus beginning its metamorphosis into a browser that will dynamically adapt to the user's needs by bringing only the key features to the foreground: the relevant modules within Opera One will adjust automatically based on context, providing the user with a more liquid and effortless browsing experience.

Microsoft has introduced a handy new feature within the Windows 11 File Explorer application - an update was released last week (Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23434), and it adds a Photo Gallery feature layer. It does not look too far removed from the operating system's standard photo/picture viewer, as well as the discontinued (as of 2012) Windows Photo Gallery app - although the latter offered a wide range of image organization, photo editing and photo sharing functionalities.

Microsoft's Amanda Langowski (Head of Insider Program) and Brandon LeBlanc (Senior Program Manager) go into further detail about the latest addition in an official Windows blog: "We are introducing Gallery, a new feature in File Explorer designed to make it easy to access your photo collection. The set of content shown in Gallery is the same as what you'll see in the All Photos view in the Photos app."