TechSpot

The PS3 emulator that shouldn't exist can now play 75% of the console's game library

Alfonso Maruccia — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 15:06 -0500

The RPCS3 team has confirmed that 75% of all PlayStation 3 games are now "playable" on PC. The emulator reached the milestone while its developers continue to vow new features, fixes, and code optimizations to further improve compatibility and reliability across an increasingly diverse computer ecosystem.

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OpenAI's first hardware product is a $230 mini keypad for AI coding

Shawn Knight — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 13:47 -0500

Late last year, OpenAI announced a partnership with former Apple designer Jony Ive to build a screen-free AI gadget. Details are still pending, but the company said the gadget would be equipped with multiple cameras and sensors for spatial awareness. This is not that, but something else entirely.

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Microsoft's latest Patch Tuesday fixes 570 security bugs, but some Dell PCs will have to wait

Alfonso Maruccia — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 13:03 -0500

A month after fixing 200 individual flaws across Windows and other software products, Microsoft is now breaking new ground with another massive Patch Tuesday release. The July cumulative update for Windows 11 (KB5101650) addresses 570 security vulnerabilities, including three zero-day flaws that were either previously disclosed or are actively being exploited by cybercriminals.

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TSMC plans include at least four more 2nm fabs in $100 billion Arizona expansion

Rob Thubron — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 12:22 -0500

The announcement came as the Taiwanese giant posted another record quarterly profit and raised its 2026 capital expenditure forecast to as much as $64 billion.

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Ryzen 7 7700X3D delivers the gaming performance, but not the value

Ivan Franco — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 12:07 -0500

Early reviews of AMD's new Ryzen 7 7700X3D show a capable gaming CPU that performs close to the Ryzen 7 7800X3D. However, its launch price and weaker productivity performance make it difficult to recommend. Our full review is coming soon.

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This PC gamer turned old SSDs into gorgeous physical cartridges for Steam games

Alfonso Maruccia — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 11:10 -0500

Reddit user Jibril-sama recently showcased a custom-made cartridge system for Steam games. The clever idea is not entirely new and does not do anything revolutionary with Steam or the hardware itself. Even so, concepts like this are suddenly becoming relevant as the gaming industry increasingly embraces an all-digital future.

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To fund Apple's first computer, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs sold...

TechSpot Trivia — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 10:34 -0500

A little history of the Apple-1

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Netflix celebrates 10 years of Stranger Thing with a VHS-quality version of the first season

Shawn Knight — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 09:55 -0500

The very first season of Stranger Things arrived on July 15, 2016. The coming-of-age science fiction series was an instant hit with viewers, but few realized its true potential or how Netflix would capitalize on its new starlet over the coming decade.

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Woman discovers a hidden AI camera in her rental car recording her and warning about unsafe driving

Daniel Sims — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 09:08 -0500

A woman recently took to social media after discovering that her Audi rental car's dashboard contained a camera recording her every move. It also gave verbal reminders to wear a seat belt and avoid unsafe driving behavior.

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This retro-style home phone lets kids call friends without apps, browsers, or social media

Rob Thubron — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 08:33 -0500

Pinwheel, the US company that sells modified Android smartphones designed for children and teenagers, has just launched the Pinwheel Home.

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Steam Machine benchmarks show SteamOS and Windows 11 within a few frames of each other in most games

Daniel Sims — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 07:47 -0500

A brief benchmark from ETA Prime shows that games running on Valve's Steam Machine via Windows 11 mostly achieve framerates similar to SteamOS. However, one synthetic benchmark gives Windows a significant advantage.

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George Lucas says rejecting AI is like choosing the horse and buggy over cars

Rob Thubron — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 07:03 -0500

Lucas expressed his opinion of AI in an interview with A Rabbit's Foot to promote the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.

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Stripe and Advent offer more than $53 billion to buy PayPal and create a payments giant

Skye Jacobs — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 06:15 -0500

The structure is what makes the offer unusual. Rather than carve up PayPal and sell off the parts, Stripe and Advent want to hold the company together, splitting ownership evenly between them, the people said.

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Linus Torvalds tells AI critics to fork Linux or walk away

Rob Thubron — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 05:19 -0500

Torvalds' comments came in response to a discussion about anti-LLM feelings on lore.kernel.org, the official public archive for Linux kernel development mailing lists. He said that while he realizes some people really dislike AI, it's an area where he's willing to "absolutely put my foot down as the top-level maintainer."...

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Nvidia and Sega are teaming up again, 30 years after Sega saved Nvidia from bankruptcy

Kishalaya Kundu — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 13:40 -0500

According to Nvidia's press release, the new Sega games will support its latest upscaling and rendering technologies, including ray tracing and DLSS. The company added that its latest AI tools will also be supported by the upcoming titles, hinting at integration with its AI-powered neural rendering technologies, such as Reflex...

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IBM's stock just had its worst day since 1968

Alfonso Maruccia — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 12:38 -0500

In a recent letter to investors, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna explained that the company experienced some unexpected shortfalls in its latest financial performance. The former pioneer of the personal computer industry now primarily sells software, cloud services, and mainframe systems, but potential customers have recently scaled back major mainframe investments...

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LibreWolf is a Firefox-based browser focused on privacy and security

Ivan Franco — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 12:29 -0500

LibreWolf browser removes Mozilla telemetry and enables stricter privacy and security settings by default. It remains compatible with most Firefox extensions and is typically updated shortly after new Firefox releases.

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Samsung introduces Flex Titanium, a new foldable screen tech with reduced creasing

Shawn Knight — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 11:07 -0500

Samsung said its Flex Titanium tech is the result of seven generations of foldable innovation and accumulated display know-how. It utilizes a titanium-alloy film roughly one-third the thickness of a human hair that sits below the OLED panel to boost mechanical stiffness by 20 times compared to a polymer film....

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Microsoft deleted a hacked user's 25-year-old Xbox account, along with his OneDrive baby photos

Daniel Sims — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 09:51 -0500

A complaint from a Dutch streamer whose hijacked Microsoft account was permanently suspended has gone viral. The user claims to have lost access to his son's baby pictures and digital games that cost thousands of euros.

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Boston Dynamics tests Spot as a delivery assistant that carries packages

Rob Thubron — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 09:22 -0500

Boston Dynamics has posted a video of Spot on a route with a delivery driver. After it hops out of the back of a van, the driver loads parcels onto a conveyor belt attached to the robot's back.

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Enthusiast project turns the Steam Controller into a cross-platform gamepad

Skye Jacobs — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 08:54 -0500

Valve's new Steam Controller doesn't natively support XInput, even though XInput remains the standard for many PC games and devices. Typically, Steam has to stay open in the background to bridge that gap. With OpenPuck, the microcontroller handles the translation itself, so Steam doesn't have to.

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Ubisoft endured a review-bombing campaign, then made $1 million from Black Flag Resynced's controversial DLC

Rob Thubron — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 08:26 -0500

Ubisoft has a reputation for the amount of paid-for cosmetic and so-called time-saving extra content it adds to its titles, but making the combined cost of the DLC higher than the price of the game itself was a step too far for many Black Flag buyers. It caused the remake...

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Riot is reviving old League of Legends even as it prepares the game's biggest overhaul ever

Daniel Sims — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 07:58 -0500

The League of Legends Classic game client is now available to download. The new mode, set to open at the end of this month, will focus on characters and gameplay elements from the game's first three seasons.

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The US just sanctioned a VPN for the first time, accusing it of helping ransomware gangs

Rob Thubron — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 07:33 -0500

The Office of Foreign Assets Control designated First VPN Service, also known as 1VPNS, and its Ukrainian administrator, Dmytro Rashevskyi. Belarusian national Yegeniy Vladimirovich Silayev was sanctioned separately for selling "cryptors," tools designed to disguise ransomware and other malware as harmless software so security systems do not detect it.

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Microsoft finally patched Secure Boot bypasses that were hiding in plain sight since 2013

Skye Jacobs — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 07:01 -0500

The issue affects 11 shim binaries that were still signed and accepted by systems enforcing Secure Boot. That signature is what allows code to run during the boot process. If a trusted component is compromised, everything that follows can be affected.

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Repair shops are booming during heatwaves as people keep putting phones in fridges

Rob Thubron — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 06:15 -0500

Jamie Farnell, a repair shop owner in the UK town of Wem told the BBC that he has been flooded with devices suffering from internal moisture damage recently.

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Testing AMD's EXPO Ultra Low Latency Memory

Steven Walton — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 05:16 -0500

AMD's new EXPO Ultra Low Latency memory promises tighter timings without manual tuning. We tested G.Skill's latest DDR5 kits to see how much faster they make Ryzen gaming.

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SoftBank boss says the AI revolution will cost $5 trillion a year, also, there's no bubble

Alfonso Maruccia — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 17:35 -0500

Masayoshi Son is hell-bent on bringing AI to the masses, and he's ready to spend the enormous sums required to reach this historic goal. Speaking at SoftBank's annual corporate conference in Tokyo, the outspoken founder shared a few numbers about that spending, though he chose not to elaborate on exactly...

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Samsung launches new SSD 990: reviews praise the performance, question the price

Ivan Franco — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 17:17 -0500

Samsung's new SSD 990 launched today, offering solid PCIe 4.0 performance, improved efficiency over the Evo lineup, and speeds exceeding 7 GB/s. Early reviews agree that the launch price leaves it in an awkward spot however, with the faster 990 Pro and and even some PCIe 5.0 SSDs often costing only slightly more.

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HWMonitor restores hotspot temperature monitoring for RTX 50 GPUs

Ivan Franco — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 17:02 -0500

HWMonitor 1.65 can once again report hotspot temperatures on Nvidia RTX 50 series GPUs, giving users access to the hottest point on the GPU die rather than just the average core temperature. The reading is especially useful for diagnosing thermal issues, identifying uneven cooler contact, and spotting thermal throttling.

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