Sony Working on a New PlayStation Handheld Capable of PS4 Games?

With handheld gaming devices being all the rage these days, thanks to PC manufacturers getting into the form-factor; the conditions seem ripe for a new PlayStation handheld generation. Rumors of Sony working on a new gaming handheld first surfaced in February 2024 from a Moore's Law is Dead report, and now other leakers are resonating the theory. This is a fully fledged handheld console that runs games locally, unlike the PlayStation Portal, which was a cloud gaming endpoint device.

The PlayStation 4 debuted a decade ago, with SoC hardware specs that can easily be match by current-generation AMD Ryzen Z1 APUs, in handheld console power footprints; and the leakers tend to agree—the new handheld console will be able to play all the games from the PlayStation 4 library, besides its own unique crop of games that take advantage of certain handheld human interface features, such as a touchscreen, accelerometer, and gyro.


https://www.techpowerup.com/322590/sony-...-ps4-games

This Week in Gaming (Week 21)

This week's major release is a female Viking warrior sequel, for those in the mood for some sword and axe battles. If that's not your cup of tea, then maybe a cosy space explorer or a futuristic graffiti artist is more your thing? Or what about a city manager on a foreign planet? Maybe you prefer knights over vikings? If so, we got you covered as well. Or maybe you just want to be a vagabond in space?

Senua's Saga: Hellblade II / This week's major release / Tuesday 21 May
The sequel to the award winning Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, Senua returns in a brutal journey of survival through the myth and torment of Viking Iceland. Intent on saving those who have fallen victim to the horrors of tyranny, Senua faces a battle of overcoming the darkness within and without. Steam link Read full story


https://www.techpowerup.com/322580/this-...ng-week-21

(PR) COLORFUL Introduces the new EVOL G Series Gaming Laptops

Colorful Technology Company Limited, a leading brand in gaming PC components, gaming laptops, and Hi-fi audio products, proudly introduces the new EVOL G Series gaming laptops powered by the 13th Generation Intel Core processors and NVIDIA RTX 4060 graphics. The EVOL G Series comes in a new futuristic design featuring Lila—a space traveler exploring colorful galaxies and the universe. The EVOL G Series gets a new look that sets it apart from the EVOL P Series. The new EVOL G Series also introduces Lila, a space explorer that inspired the futuristic design of the new EVOL gaming laptop. The EVOL G Series is available in white and grey colors with an RGB-lit keyboard.

The COLORFUL EVOL G Series comes equipped with up to a 13th generation Intel Core i7-13620H processor with 10 cores and 16 threads, clocked up to 4.90 GHz. It is paired with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, which supports ray tracing and DLSS 3.5 for more immersive gaming, and the highest AI power of up to 233 TOP. EVOL G Series comes equipped with a QHD (2560 x 1440) 165 Hz IPS gaming screen, with a high screen-to-body ratio of 86%. Display also features a viewing angle and 100% sRGB color gamut coverage delivering accurate colors and vivid visuals. Read full story


https://www.techpowerup.com/322525/color...ng-laptops

(PR) Chaos Releases V-Ray 6.1 Benchmark

Chaos releases V-Ray 6 Benchmark, updating the free standalone application to help users quickly evaluate V-Ray rendering speeds and compare the capabilities of leading CPUs and GPUs. V-Ray 6 Benchmark adds new looping capabilities and GPU mode comparison, giving users even more control over their findings.

Since launching in 2017, V-Ray Benchmark has become a standard for new hardware testing, helping countless users and reviewers assess the rendering performance of laptops, workstations, graphics cards and more. By benchmarking against one of the most popular renderers in the world, professionals can quickly gauge how hardware from NVIDIA, AMD, Intel and Apple handle common 3D assets like cities, characters and hard-surface models.

The free V-Ray 6 Benchmark app is available now. Read full story


https://www.techpowerup.com/322442/chaos...-benchmark

AMD Ryzen 7 8700F and Ryzen 5 8400F Detailed

AMD is indeed bringing the Ryzen 7 8700F and Ryzen 5 8400F desktop processors to the retail PIB channel. Both these processors are based on the 4 nm "Hawk Point" or "Phoenix 2" silicon, but with their iGPU disabled, hence the "F" in the model name. Company slides related to the two were leaked to the web. The processors feature CPU cores based on the "Zen 4" microarchitecture, and are built in the Socket AM5 package.

The Ryzen 7 8700F features the 8-core/16-thread "Zen 4" CPU that the 8700G, but with lower CPU clock speeds of up to 5.00 GHz boost (compared to up to 5.10 GHz for the 8700G). Although its iGPU is disabled, its NPU isn't. The Ryzen AI NPU offers 16 AI TOPS performance. The processor retains the 65 W TDP of the 8700G. Moving on to the 8400G, and here we see the processor being based on the "Phoenix 2" silicon, with 6 CPU cores. Two of these are "Zen 4," and can reach the processor's 4.70 GHz maximum boost frequency; while the other four are "Zen 4c," and operate at lower clock speeds. The chip physically lacks an NPU, and its iGPU is disabled. It still has 65 W TDP to feed its CPU cores. In their retail packages, both processors include a Wraith Stealth cooling solution that's meant for 65 W TDP processors. Read full story


https://www.techpowerup.com/322413/amd-r...f-detailed

Apple Inches Closer to a Deal with OpenAI to Bring ChatGPT Technology to iPhone

To bring cutting-edge artificial intelligence capabilities to its flagship product, Apple is said to be finalizing a deal with OpenAI to integrate the ChatGPT technology into the upcoming iOS 18 for iPhones. According to Bloomberg, multiple sources report that after months of negotiations, the two tech giants are putting the finishing touches on a partnership that would be an important moment for consumer AI. However, OpenAI may not be Apple's only AI ally. The company has also reportedly been in talks with Google over licensing the Gemini chatbot, though no known agreement has been reached yet. The rare team-up between the fiercely competitive firms underscores the intense focus on AI integration across the industry.

Apple's strategic moves are a clear indication of its recognition of the transformative potential of advanced AI capabilities for the iPhone experience. The integration of OpenAI's language model could empower Siri to understand and respond to complex voice queries with deep contextual awareness. This could revolutionize the way Apple's customers interact with devices, offering hope for a more intuitive and advanced iPhone experience. Potential Gemini integration opens up another realm of possibilities around Google's image and multimodal AI capabilities. Future iPhones may be able to analyze and describe visual scenes, annotate images, generate custom imagery from natural language prompts, and even synthesize audio using AI vocals - all within a conversational interface. As the AI arms race intensifies, Apple wants to position itself at the forefront through these partnerships.


https://www.techpowerup.com/322373/apple...-to-iphone

This Week in Gaming (Week 20)

Welcome to the 20th week of 2024 and this week kicks off with a huge AAA space saga that some of you have been eagerly waiting for. However, we have a second AAA title this week, which is a few years old Playstation game that, despite the title, doesn't have anything to do with ghosts. The rest of this week's releases involve aliens, rhythms, world wars and pirates.

Homeworld 3 / This week's first AAA title / Monday 13 May
Tactical, beautiful, and wholly unique, the GOTY-winning sci-fi RTS returns with Homeworld 3. Assume control and battle through fleet combat in dazzling, fully 3D space while the award-winning story unfolds on a galactic scale. Strategic freedom is yours. Hulking space derelicts called megaliths bring 3D terrain into the classic Homeworld battlespace. Use the crumbling remains of an ancient civilization to funnel foes into a brilliant ambush or hide your fleet from powerful enemies. Fortresses teem with menacing turrets and invite your strike craft into dangerous trench runs deep behind enemy lines. But not everything is in your control. Dangerous space phenomena like particle storms and asteroid fields will test even senior commanders. Steam Link Read full story


https://www.techpowerup.com/322367/this-...ng-week-20

ASUS Readies ROG Ally X with Larger Storage and Battery, Fixed microSD Slot

Earlier this week, we got news of ASUS working on a design revision for its ROG Ally handheld game console to fix the positioning of its microSD card slot that was causing card and card-reader failures due to its location close to a thermal vent. It turns out that this revision is a whole different product, and ASUS is naming it the ROG Ally X. There's more to this console than simply a relocated microSD slot that won't fry your memory cards.

Apparently, ASUS has used the opportunity to give it a larger battery, and a larger M.2-2280 SSD bay, compared to the M.2-2242 slot on the original ROG Ally. This would open up end-users to the widest possible array of SSD choices. As a final bit of product differentiation, the ROG Ally X comes with a new black chassis trim. The larger battery makes the ROG Ally X heavier than the original. Besides these three hardware changes, the new ROG Ally X features the same kit as the original, and is hence expected to offer the same performance, albeit with improved battery life. ASUS is expected to formally launch the ROG Ally X on June 2, 2024.


https://www.techpowerup.com/322298/asus-...crosd-slot

(PR) SK hynix Develops Next-Generation Mobile NAND Solution ZUFS 4.0

SK hynix announced today that it has developed the Zoned UFS, or ZUFS 4.0, a mobile NAND solution product for on-device AI applications. SK hynix said that the ZUFS 4.0, optimized for on-device AI from mobile devices such as smartphones, is the industry's best of its kind. The company expects the latest product to help expand its AI memory leadership to the NAND space, extending its success in the high-performance DRAM represented by HBM.

The ZUFS is a differentiated technology that classifies and stores data generated from smartphones in different zones in accordance with characteristics. Unlike a conventional UFS, the latest product groups and stores data with similar purposes and frequencies in separate zones, boosting the speed of a smartphone's operating system and management efficiency of the storage devices. Read full story


https://www.techpowerup.com/322271/sk-hy...n-zufs-4-0

(PR) Sabrent Announces USB-DS12 USB-C to SATA and IDE Adapter

The Sabrent USB-C to SATA/IDE 2.5"/3.5"/5.25" Drive Adapter (USB-DS12) is your one-stop storage management solution for SATA and IDE hard drives (HDDs), solid state drives (SSDs), and optical drives (CD/DVD-RW). It connects easily to Windows, macOS, and Linux systems, among other possible device hosts, via an integrated 5 Gbps (USB Gen 3.2 1x1) USB-C cable. The maximum speed of the connection depends on the drive's interface at speeds up to SATA 3 Gbps ("SATA-II" / SATA-300). The USB-DS12 adapter is plug and play with no drivers required and is hot-swappable for your convenience.

It's important to support devices both old and new. 3.5" and 5.25" drives require additional 12 V power to operate reliably, so we have included an external power supply. IDE drives may also require a 4-pin Molex style connector for power rather than an SATA power connector, so also included is an appropriate connector for maximum flexibility. The unit itself also has a power status LED to let you know when things are good to go. Plug everything in and get to retrieving or transferring your data, formatting or cloning your drive, or freely engage in other storage management operations. Read full story


https://www.techpowerup.com/322227/sabre...de-adapter