With graphics cards being the most expensive component of any gaming rig, most PC builders tend to allocate over half of their budget to the GPU. But over a decade ago, it was impossible to imagine that someday wed end up paying more than a grand for a single mid-range GPU. Besides the pricing, things were quite different back in the day, with many enthusiasts rocking SLI and CrossFire configurations in their systems.

If you're an Apple user who loves emulation, you've probably had a lot of fun checking out all the new apps that hit the App Store in recent months. Ever since the company opened the gates to emulators, we saw great examples such as Delta and RetroArch make their debut on the App Store. In fact, our own Brady Snider gave the Delta emulator a test run to see if it's even worth getting a gaming handheld anymore. Now, Apple is allowing even more emulators onto its platform, including one that had been rejected from the App Store beforehand.

The Asus ROG Ally is our favorite Windows handheld. Its powerful processor and high refresh rate screen ensure smooth gameplay. Despite controversies and quality control issues, the company sold enough units to satisfy its investment. How do we know that? Because the ROG Ally X was released at Computex 2024, bringing a host of improvements to the handheld gaming console as a mid-cycle refresh. Is the ROG Ally X worth the upgrade if you already own the Ally? Well, that depends on whether you hit any of the issues, like the seemingly defective microSD card reader.

Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge Alderon Games, the maker of dinosaur MMO Path of Titans, says it's swapping out its Intel 13th and 14th Gen-based servers for AMD and urges others hosting the game’s servers to do the same. The developer has had “significant” instability issues that none of the fixes so far have reversed, wrote Alderon founder Matthew Cassells in a blog post last week.Cassells wrote that Alderon has recorded “thousands of crashes” on gamers’ CPUs using its crash reporting tools and says the processors can also corrupt SSDs and memory. He added that in his team’s experience, 100 percent of the affected CPUs “deteriorate over time, eventually failing.” On the contrary, Unreal Engine decompression tool maker RAD Game Tools, which Cassells cites in the... Continue reading…

Illustration by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge AT&T paid a hacker about $370,000 to delete customer data that was stolen from it as part of a hacking spree earlier this year. The hacker then provided a video to prove they had deleted the data, according to a Wired report today. AT&T reportedly negotiated through an intermediary, called Reddington, acting on behalf of a member of the ShinyHunters hacking group. The hacker originally asked for $1 million before AT&T talked them down to the amount, which it paid on May 17th in bitcoin, Wired writes. The outlet reports that Reddington, whom AT&T paid for his part in negotiations, said he believes the only complete copy of the data had been deleted after AT&T paid the ransom, but that it’s possible excerpts are still in the wild.... Continue reading…

This probably isn’t Paramount’s new logo. | Image: Paramount If you didn’t know Paramount Global is set to merge with Skydance, then the logo included in their recent investor presentation would like to share an important update. Under its traditional mountain and stars, it shouts PARAMOUNT, using the all-caps styling and arched text of the Skydance logo instead of a more gently whispered Paramount.It’s... not good. But, like the very bad Warner Bros. Discovery logo that appeared in 2021 when their merger was announced but disappeared by the time the deal closed a year later, it’s unlikely this is the final version of whatever redesign Paramount might cook up. If and when the deal gets done, the logo at that time probably won’t look like some poor shmoe had to jam out a quick synergistic symbol... Continue reading…

The Galaxy Z Flip 6 launched recently, and the lifestyle-focused flip foldable is better than ever. Samsung's latest devices enter an evolving foldable phone market, with multiple manufacturers all vying to be the best. As one of the forerunners, Samsung's devices have had time to mature, and the Z Flip 6 is proof that foldable phones are here to stay. It might not have any huge changes from the previous two installments, but it is good enough to be the foldable flip phone to buy if you're in the market for one.

Image: David Pierce / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 45, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, sorry I love productivity apps so much, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) I’m back from a few days off, feeling rested and sunburned and ready to rumble. Thanks to everyone who sent birthday wishes! This week, I’ve been reading Made for Love and stories about AI gamers and AI musicians and Ferrari EVs, watching Turning Point, replacing my weather app with Lazy Weather, raging at Ira Glass for listening to podcasts at 2x speed, and spilling all my feelings to the Dot AI bot.I also have for you a new phone, a new smart ring, a new / old podcast reunion, a sci-fi show... Continue reading…

After the big companies gave us a few weeks to take a break, we were back at it again with more news after Samsung hosted its Galaxy Unpacked 2024 event. It gave us an insight as to how the company is moving forward with its devices, from AI to wearables. However, that doesn't mean that nothing else cool happened, and as usual, we at XDA were picking up on the news as it happened. So, here are the top pieces for the last week.

Image: Samar Haddad for The Verge Humans are terrible at remembering things. We forget things over time; we fail to remember them in the first place because we’re also not great at paying attention; we misremember things because of our inherent biases and the way we perceive the world. There’s a lot going on, and we don’t keep much of it for long.Maybe AI can fix that. It sure looks like we’re about to find out. Microsoft, for instance, is making a big bet on Recall, an app that promises to use AI to collect, store, organize, and resurface everything you do and see on your computer. (Imagine just being able to ask your computer, “What was that article about bees I read the other day? What was the timeline it mentioned?”) At this year’s Google I/O, the most impressive AI... Continue reading…

Images of UTM SE from its App Store listing. | Screenshots: UTM SE Apple has approved UTM SE, an app for emulating a computer to run classic software and games, weeks after the company rejected it and barred it from being notarized for third-party app stores in the European Union. The app is now available for free for iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS.After Apple rejected the app in June, the developer said it wasn’t going to keep trying because the app was “a subpar experience.” Today, UTM thanked the AltStore team for helping it and credited another developer “whose QEMU TCTI implementation was pivotal for this JIT-less build.” Screenshot: UTM SE UTM SE doesn’t include any virtual machines, but does help you find them. As with other emulators on the App Store, you can’t do much... Continue reading…

Illustration: The Verge Conspiracy theories about the shooting at a rally for Donald Trump began surfacing on X shortly after the news broke this afternoon, with the platform promoting topics including “#falseflag” and “staged” to users. X owner Elon Musk has staunchly advocated for “free speech” on social media platforms — which can include misinformation like the above.After the shooting, Musk posted that he would “fully endorse” the former president. Bloomberg reported yesterday that Musk donated to a super PAC supporting Trump, giving a “sizable amount” to reelection efforts. Musk has taken on increasingly conservative views in recent years, promoting the “great replacement” conspiracy theory and endorsing support for white pride. His support adds to a... Continue reading…