In the weeks leading up to Computex, headlines light up with all the tantalizing possibilities. It's one of the biggest tech events of the year, and certainly the biggest when it comes to computing, so the possibilities are endless for what products we might see at the show. However, Computex 2025, just like previous years, didn't have all the announcements that leakers and rumor-spreaders suggested.

Colorado-based Sierra Space is getting ready to launch its reusable space plane, Dream Chaser. | Image: Sierra SpaceIn The Andromeda Strain, Michael Crichton wrote about killer alien space crystals that are (spoiler alert) ultimately stymied by Earth's breadth of pH values. In reality, crystals grown in space could be key to a new generation of cancer-fighting treatments that save lives, not threaten them.Colorado-based startup Sierra Space is nearly ready to launch its reusable space plane, Dream Chaser. It's set to carry into orbit a 3-D printed module designed by engineers at pharma giant Merck. If the test goes well, and if Dream Chaser's gentle reentry process keeps that sensitive cargo safe, this could be the start of something big - despite those crystals being microscopic.A brief history of space crystalsSpace crystals sound like something an astrology guru would hang over their bed to help them sleep, but there's real science here. According to the ISS National Lab, crystals grown in space are simply better: "Scientists hypothesize that these observed benefits result from a slower, more uniform movement of molecules into a crystalline lattice in microgravity."Research into monoclonal antibodies points towards crystallization as being key for developing more stable, subcutaneous …Read the full story at The Verge.

The Windows 11 handoff feature.Microsoft is working on a new “Cross Device Resume” feature for Windows 11 that works similarly to Apple’s Handoff feature in macOS. The feature was spotted in a Microsoft Build 2025 session, before Windows Central noticed Microsoft editing out the demo that showed a mobile Spotify session resuming on a PC.“When you open the app on your mobile device or tablet, Windows can show a subtle badge right on your app’s taskbar icon,” explains Aakash Varshney, a senior product manager for cross devices and experiences at Microsoft, in a “Create Seamless Cross-Device Experiences with Windows for your app” Build session for developers. “It’s a visual nudge that when clicked launches your app directly into the task, delivering a smooth intuitive handoff from PC to phone.”Varshney’s now-deleted demo shows a Spotify app icon with a badge on it in the taskbar, and a message when you hover over the badge that says “resume, recently opened on your mobile device.” It’s designed to let you resume the Spotify app on PC right from where you left off on mobile. “Spotify launches and I’m instantly back in the same song, now playing on my PC,” says Varshney. “No need to search or start over, it’s a smooth one-click transition that keeps the music and user experience uninterrupted.”Microsoft first started testing an app handoff feature in Windows 10, back in 2016. Codenamed Project Rome, the cross-device experience for apps was designed for developers to write apps that can “run on multiple devices and travel with the user as they switch between devices.” We’ve not seen much adoption of Project Rome in reality though, so hopefully this new Cross Device Resume is more widely adopted.

The 1980s was a developing time for the video game industry, with iconic companies just getting their start before they found great success. Arcades were a dominant part of the culture, as a place where people could play new video games that were released to the public. But the 80s were also the humble beginnings of home console gaming, where many advancements in technology enabled people to bring the entertainment of the arcade scene to their home. In the years that followed, the console market went on to become one of the biggest parts of the video game industry.

AMD has announced its latest Zen 5-based Ryzen Threadripper 9000 Series of CPUs at Computex today. The 9000 Series and 9000 WX-Series are built for the demanding workstation market, and the top Threadripper Pro 9995WX will ship with 96 cores and 192 threads.This flagship Threadripper chip is designed for professionals who are working on visual effects, simulations, and AI model development. The Threadripper Pro 9995WX also has up to 384MB of L3 cache and 128 lanes of PCIe Gen 5, making it ideal to pair with multiple GPUs.AMD claims that the Threadripper Pro 9995WX is 2.2x faster than Intel’s 60-core Xeon W9-3595X processor in Cinebench 2024 multi-threaded rendering. If you don’t need a 96-core CPU, AMD’s Threadripper 9000 Series are also targeted at enthusiasts and creators who want workstation-like performance. The Ryzen Threadripper 9980X has 64 cores and 128 threads, a base frequency of 3.2GHz, and 320MB of L3 cache.All of these new Threadripper chips, pro or not, will run at a thermal design power (TDP) of 350 watts and will work (after a BIOS update) on existing motherboards that support the sTR5 socket.Both Threadripper 9000 Series and the Pro WX-Series processors will be available from retailers in July, but AMD isn’t announcing pricing just yet. Given the its high-end 7980X Threadripper CPU retailed at $4,999 in 2023, it’s fair to say these next-gen equivalents will be around that price.

Slimmed down and shiny. | Image: MiniotThe original Wheel vertical turntable was a bust, the Wheel 2 redemption, and now the small mom and pop team at Miniot is back for a victory lap with the Wheel 3. It can play your record collection upright on its stand, laid flat on a table, or hung on a wall. Inside the handmade Wheel 3 turntable you’ll find a new optical stylus that the company says “blows away anything you’ve heard before!” It also features a new “bespoke, high-end” amplifier and redesigned linear tonearm that moves up-and-down the spinning record instead of side-to-side like the Wheel 2 I reviewed back in 2023.The volume and playback slider is still embedded in the rim at the top near the dimmable display, giving you precise digital control over your analog music track selection. The new slimmed-down design also looks more cohesive, if colder. It’s made from two parts: a solid composite on the back married to a polished aluminum unibody front. A Wheel 3 Special Edition will feature a solid wooden back for fans of Miniot’s organic roots.The Wheel 3 can be preordered now for $3,350 / €2,900 with deliveries expected in 10 weeks.

Chapter 16: The Kar’Thul Marshes in Doom: The Dark Agespushes the Slayer into a marshy, swampy, and Lovecraftian arena where he must contend with powers and objects that defy belief in order to find Commander Thira. This cosmic twist halfway through the game is very welcome, and you can read in our review of the game how impressed it left us.

I've been deep into Home Assistant for quite a while now, and with that has come an obsession with researching sensors and other gadgets that I can use to automate aspects of my home and collect data from it. I've mostly opted for Zigbee devices, as these are pretty much universally compatible thanks to Zigbee2MQTT, and they're cheap and have battery life measured in years. Given that I live in a small apartment, a single Zigbee repeater has been more than enough to cover the entirety of my home, so range hasn't been a concern either.

Adobe Creative Cloud often reigns above other creative tools. It’s undoubtably the most well-known suite of creative software, but that doesn’t mean it’s the best. Although there are lists of open-source alternatives to Adobe products, sometimes a proprietary option will provide better results and remind you that Adobe isn’t the only choice for funded creative results. Serif Affinity began its suite of creative tools in 2014, and has become a breath of fresh air in the creative design space since. In over a decade, Affinity still shows Adobe the best way to treat customers, harness human creativity, and share the design landscape.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai at Google I/O 2025.Google I/O was, as predicted, an AI show. But now that the keynote is over, we can see that the company's vision is to use AI to eventually do a lot of Googling for you.A lot of that vision rests on AI Mode in Google Search, which Google is starting to roll out to everyone in the US. AI Mode offers a more chatbot-like interface right inside Search, and behind the scenes, Google is doing a lot of work to pull in information instead of making you scroll through a list of blue links.Onstage, Google presented an example of someone asking for things to do in Nashville over a weekend with friends who like food, music, and "exploring off the beaten path." AI Mode hopped into action, creating Google-curated lists of "restaurants good for foodies," recommending places with a "chill bar atmosphere with live music," highlighting "places off-the-beaten path," and suggesting websites featuring good things to do in Nashville. It even created a custom map recommending places to go. (If you're doing some shopping, AI Mode can show you a personalized batch of listings, too.)This is essentially Google doing your planning work for you. The service generated a whole bunch of related search quer …Read the full story at The Verge.

Amazon is issuing refunds to customers who’d returned products but never received their money back, in some cases from as long ago as 2018. “Following a recent internal review, we identified a very small subset of returns where we issued a refund without the payment completing, or where we could not verify that the correct item had been sent back to us so no refund was issued,” Amazon spokesperson Maxine Tagay told The Verge. “There is no action required from customers to receive the refunds, and we have fixed the payment issue and made process changes to more promptly contact customers about unresolved returns going forward.”Amazon emailed a similar message to affected customers, according to Bloomberg, while acknowledging the delay in processing the payments. “We could have notified these customers more clearly (and earlier) to better understand the status and help us resolve the return,” the email states. “Given the time elapsed, we’ve decided to err on the side of customers and just complete refunds for these returns.”Amazon had hinted refunds were coming during its most recent earnings call on May 1st. CFO Brian Olsavsky confirmed that the company was reporting a one-time charge of $1.1 billion, partly attributable to “some historical customer returns,” along with the costs of stockpiling inventory in preparation for Trump’s tariffs.There have been reports of the belated refunds from Amazon customers on Reddit, X, and LinkedIn for over a week, with one poster claiming to have received almost $1,800 this week for a TV returned to the retailer in 2018. Others claim to have received money from Amazon with no explanation why, and some report receiving refunds for products they never returned in the first place.The company is currently facing a potential class action lawsuit that alleges it systematically failed to issue refunds to customers, or reversed refunds that had been issued. The suit was filed in 2023, but this April a judge rejected Amazon’s move to have it dismissed. It’s currently awaiting certification, a necessary step before other Amazon customers can join the class action.Update, May 21st: Added an official statement from Amazon.

A year ago Xbox president Sarah Bond revealed that Microsoft was planning to launch a new Xbox mobile web store in July 2024. That never happened. I’ve been wondering what the hold up has been over the past year, and it seems we might have an answer: Apple.Microsoft filed an amicus brief late on Tuesday, in support of Epic Games’ ongoing fight with Apple’s control over the App Store. The brief takes issue with Apple’s attempt to overturn the injunction that allows Epic and other developers to freely advertise alternative payment methods in their apps, and not have to pay Apple additional fees for purchases made outside of apps.It’s a key ruling that has already allowed Fortnite to return to the App Store in the US, complete with the ability for Epic Games to link out to its own payment system inside the game. Microsoft has wanted to offer a similar experience for its Xbox mobile store, but it says its solution “has been stymied by Apple.” Here’s how Microsoft explains it:The district court’s injunction allows Apple to maintain its in-app exclusivity but at least should have enabled Microsoft to offer consumers a workable solution by launching its own online store — accessible via link-out — for in-app items to be purchased off-app and used in games or other apps. And that is what Microsoft wants to do. But even this solution has been stymied by Apple. Prior to the district court’s most recent order, Microsoft had been unable to implement linked-out payments (or even inform customers that alternative purchase methods exist) because of Apple’s new anti-steering policies that restrict Microsoft’s communication to users and impose an even higher economic cost to Microsoft than before the injunction.The court ruling makes it possible for Microsoft to now launch its Xbox mobile store, but it’s clear that the software giant also wants to ensure Apple’s appeal against the ruling isn’t successful. If Microsoft did launch its Xbox mobile store and then Apple won a temporary stay, it may have to pull that store pending the appeal process.Microsoft even notes in its filing that “Apple makes no argument that the technical or policy changes cannot be undone,” so it’s urging the ruling to be enforced pending Apple’s appeal. “Microsoft’s own experience managing app stores confirms that Apple’s policies could be restored if Apple ultimately prevails on appeal.”The court ruling also impacts Microsoft’s main Xbox mobile app. “Similarly, Microsoft has long sought to enable Xbox app users on iOS to both buy and stream games in the app from the cloud or their other devices,” says Microsoft in its filing. “Apple’s policies have restricted Microsoft’s ability to offer these functionalities together; the injunction allows Microsoft to explore this possibility.”Microsoft started rolling out the ability to purchase games and DLC inside the Xbox mobile app last month, but it had to remove the remote play option to adhere to Apple’s App Store policies. You can’t currently buy an Xbox game in the Xbox mobile app on iOS and then stream it inside that same app. You have to manually navigate to the Xbox Cloud Gaming mobile website on a browser to get access to cloud gaming.Sarah Bond also announced plans to let players purchase and play games within the Xbox app on Android in October, just days after a court ruled that Google must crack open Android to third-party app stores. The feature was supposed to arrive in November, but Bond then blamed a “temporary administrative stay” for holding it back.