You’ll have to wait a big longer for the Analogue 3D, but 8BitDo’s N64 controller remake is now avialable. | Image: 8BitDo Analogue’s 4K remake of the Nintendo 64 has been delayed again and again due to the US tariff situation. But at least you can get 8BitDo’s updated take on the N64 controller, which was announced alongside the Analogue 3D, while you wait. You can get one through Amazon in white or black for $39.99 and while it’s one of 8BitDo’s more budget-friendly controllers, its functionality is limited.The Nintendo 64, which launched in 1996, had an unusual three-prong controller design, with a single analog joystick in the center of the gamepad above the middle grip. The 8BitDo 64 offers the same buttons as the N64’s controller in a more traditional layout, but while it’s easier to hold, the lack of a second joystick limits its compatibility with modern games, which generally expect two. The 8BitDo 64 is compatible with the Switch, Switch 2 (after updating the controller’s firmware), Windows, and Android devices and connects to consoles, PCs, and mobile devices using either a Bluetooth connection or a USB cable. It also features more durable Hall effect joysticks and shoulder buttons which should help prevent it from developing stick drift over time. But if you’re not planning to use it with the Analogue 3D (someday), the controller will potentially only be useful for playing classic N64 games through an emulator or the Nintendo Switch Online service but your GoldenEye 007 muscle memory may not perfectly transfer over to the updated button layout. Nintendo’s own wireless N64 controller is a more accurate reproduction, but you still need to be a Nintendo Switch Online subscriber to buy one.

Modern PC hardware has reached a point where performance isn't a concern on most machines. As long as you have a new 6-core processor and a $350–$400 GPU, you can easily power through 1440p gaming. Many users focus instead on reducing the power consumption and, consequently, operating temperatures. Tweaking your BIOS/UEFI is a fantastic way to cut down on power usage without affecting performance too much. You just need to ensure you're fully aware of the effects of disabling or enabling a setting.

Microsoft just posted the fourth and final quarter of its 2025 fiscal financial results. The software maker made $76.4 billion in revenue and a net income of $27.2 billion during Q4. Revenue is up 18 percent, and net income has increased by 24 percent.Like clockwork, cloud services are the strong point of Microsoft’s revenue this quarter. Azure revenue grew 39 percent year-over-year, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says “Azure surpassed $75 billion in revenue” for the entire financial year, up 34 percent. The impressive cloud earnings come just weeks after the software maker laid off as many as 9,000 employees earlier this month. Microsoft says it employed 228,000 people on a full-time basis as of June 30th, the same amount as 2024 before the most recent layoffs.Windows and Surface revenueThe PC market is still feeling the effects of the Trump tariffs and consumer spending, while businesses look to refresh PCs ahead of Windows 10’s end of support in October. As a result, Windows OEM and devices revenue is up 3 percent year over year, driven by growth in Windows OEM revenue.Gartner said earlier this month that PC shipments were up more than 4 percent in the recent quarter, thanks to a Windows 11 refresh cycle for desktop PCs. Microsoft primarily makes money from Windows through OEM revenue, the price that manufacturers pay to license Windows for laptops and PCs.While this time last year Microsoft’s Surface revenue had been in decline for two years, Microsoft started combining Windows and devices revenue together during this past financial year, so it’s still not clear how Surface is performing. Microsoft CFO Amy Hood did reveal on the company’s earnings call today that devices revenue is expected to decline next quarter, alongside a Windows OEM revenue decline in the “mid to high single digits.”Microsoft did launch two new Surface devices in the recent quarter, though: the 12-inch Surface Pro and 13-inch Surface Laptop. Both devices launched midway through the quarter, so the full impact of sales on Windows OEM and devices revenue won’t be felt until next quarter.Xbox and gamingXbox content and services revenue, which includes Xbox Game Pass, is up by 13 percent this quarter. Microsoft still isn’t revealing any new Game Pass subscriber numbers, though, and the last time we got an update was in February 2024, when Microsoft revealed there were 34 million subscribers, including Xbox Game Pass Core (previously Xbox Live Gold) members.Microsoft has been aggressively pushing ahead with its strategy to bring more previously Xbox-exclusive games to PlayStation and Nintendo Switch over the past year. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is arriving on PS5 next month, alongside the original Gears of War as a remastered version. Microsoft also launched Forza Horizon 5 on PS5 earlier this year, as well as Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, Age of Mythology: Retold, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.While the move to bring more Xbox games to PlayStation might have angered some fans, it has proven to be a successful choice. Preorders for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Forza Horizon 5 topped Sony’s own PlayStation Store earlier this year, and Circana revealed this week that Microsoft had six of the 10 top-selling games on PlayStation in the recent quarter.“We are now the top publisher on both Xbox and PlayStation this quarter,” said Nadella on an earnings call today. Nadella also revealed “Game Pass annual revenue was nearly $5 billion for the first time,” and confirmed that Microsoft has 500 million monthly active users across gaming platforms and devices.Xbox hardware is still struggling, though. Xbox hardware revenue is down 22 percent this quarter, despite a busy period for Game Pass. Microsoft increased the prices of its Xbox consoles and controllers worldwide in May, with the Xbox Series X bumped by $100 to $599.99. Overall gaming revenue at Microsoft is up 10 percent year-over-year, and has increased by $2 billion for the entire fiscal year. Xbox content and services revenue has also increased by 16 percent for the fiscal year, but Xbox hardware revenue has decreased by 25 percent in the fiscal year “driven by lower volume of consoles sold.”Microsoft’s Xbox everywhere strategy — which I’ve been covering closely in my Notepad newsletter over the past year — will also include titles for the Nintendo Switch 2. It’s possible we might even see one during Nintendo’s Switch 2 partner Direct tomorrow.Looking ahead, Microsoft is also heading to the Gamescom show next month, where it will let attendees play with its new Xbox Ally handheld devices. A playable demo of the long-awaited Hollow Knight: Silksong will also be available on the ROG Xbox Ally handhelds, as well “a couple more surprises at the show from our partners too.”In Q1 fiscal 2025, Hood expects Xbox content and services revenue to decline in the mid single digits, alongside an overall gaming revenue decline in the mid to high single digits.Office and cloudMicrosoft 365 commercial cloud revenue grew by 18 percent year-over-year, driven by growth in revenue per user and in part to Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses. The January price increase to Microsoft 365 consumer plans has also contributed to 20 percent of growth in Microsoft 365 Consumer cloud revenue. There are now 89 million Microsoft 365 consumer subscribers, up 8 percent year-over-year.It’s Microsoft’s cloud growth that’s really the story this quarter once again. Azure and other cloud services grew by 39 percent, a big jump that was driven by growth across all workloads, according to Microsoft. Server products revenue declined 2 percent, a sign that Microsoft’s customers are increasingly moving to its cloud offerings.Nadella noted on Microsoft’s earnings call that every Azure region is now AI-first, and all regions support liquid cooling. LinkedIn revenue was also up 9 percent this quarter, with sessions also growing by 7 percent. Microsoft says it has also seen “record engagement” with LinkedIn this quarter. Even Microsoft’s search and news advertising revenue is up 21 percent, after it has overhauled Bing with AI-powered results and features.

Microsoft has had a really strange bug on its hands recently. Around the time that Apple announced its suspiciously familiar Liquid Glass feature, the ghost of Windows Vista began popping up in the Windows 11 testing channels. This bug caused the startup sound to be replaced by Windows Vista's, and I have zero idea as to how that would even happen.

Ziff Davis, the media conglomerate that owns outlets like CNET, ZDNet, PCMag, and Mashable is laying off 15 percent of its unionized workforce, for a total of 23 people.The majority of layoffs are coming from CNET, where 19 people will lose their jobs — even as Ziff Davis goes on a shopping spree. The layoffs will hit CNET coverage areas like the finance, broadband, and sleep beats, as well as the outlet’s copy desk. A handful of staffers across Lifehacker, Mashable, and ZDNet will also be laid off.“It’s very clear to us that these cuts aren’t about journalism,” Anna Iovine, unit chair of the Ziff Davis Creators Guild, says. “They’re based on money and greed.” Iovine noted particular concerns about cutting copy editors and fact checkers.“Eliminating any coverage is really devastating. These journalists, some of them have decades of experience, and we’re losing [that],” Iovine says.Ziff Davis has acquired five other companies this year alone, most notably daily news outlet TheSkimm and health outlet Well+Good. CNET was acquired by Ziff Davis in 2024 for $100 million. Ziff Davis did not immediately respond to a request for comment.CNET has had a tumultuous last few years under its previous owner, Red Ventures. In 2023, the outlet was engulfed in controversy when readers discovered that it had been quietly publishing stories written by AI that were full of errors. In the ensuing weeks and months, CNET staff were laid off, editor-in-chief Connie Guglielmo stepped down to take a job overseeing AI content, and staff at the outlet unionized. After Red Ventures sold CNET, the union was rolled into the Ziff Davis Creators Guild, which is represented by the NewsGuild of New York.“At a time when CNET is still building back its reputation after a damaging AI scandal under Red Ventures, Ziff’s decision to further undermine CNET’s human authority is disturbing,” a statement from the bargaining unit reads.“Our members are so much more than dollars and cents, even as the capricious management at Ziff Davis tries to treat us as such,” the statement continues. “We won a strong collective bargaining agreement just over a year ago, and we will fight to enforce it so we can preserve our ability to continue producing high-quality work for our readers.”

Google will soon cast an even wider net with its AI age estimation technology. After announcing plans to find and restrict underage users on YouTube, the company now says it will start detecting whether Google users based in the US are under 18.Age estimation is rolling out over the next few weeks and will only impact a “small set” of users to start, though Google plans on expanding it more widely. The company says it will use the information a user has searched for or the types of YouTube videos they watch to determine their age. Google first announced this initiative in February.If Google believes that a user is under 18, it will apply the same restrictions it places on users who proactively identify as underage. In addition to enabling bedtime reminders on YouTube and limiting content recommendations, Google will also turn off Timeline in Maps, disable personalized advertising, and block users from accessing apps for adults on the Play Store.In case Google incorrectly identifies someone as under 18, users can submit a photo of their government ID or a selfie to verify their age. The move comes amid a global push for age verification, with politicians in the US pressuring tech companies to make their platforms safer for kids, and the UK widely rolling out an age verification requirement affecting platforms like Bluesky, Reddit, Discord, and even Spotify.

The Windows User Account Control has mostly remained the same since Windows 7. This important security feature ensures that certain system changes that may be harmful to your computer require permission from an administrator account. This allows company devices, for example, to be managed by the company and prevent major changes from being made by employees without admin rights.

Dropbox is discontinuing its password manager. The tool, Dropbox Passwords, will be discontinued on October 28th, and the company is recommending that you transfer your passwords to another app like 1Password ahead of that date.The company will shut down Dropbox Passwords in phases. Starting August 28th, Dropbox Passwords will be view-only from both the mobile app and the browser extension, meaning you can’t add new information. At that time, Dropbox will also be deactivating autofill functionality. On September 11th, the mobile app will “stop working.” On October 28th, Dropbox Passwords will be fully shut down, meaning you can’t add or access information and everything that you had stored will be “permanently and securely deleted from our servers.”Dropbox says it’s discontinuing Dropbox Passwords “as part of our efforts to focus on enhancing other features in our core product.” Dropbox launched Dropbox Passwords in 2020 after acquiring the password manager Valt in 2019.

Have you ever wondered what bops powerful figures are listening to on Spotify? You'd be amazed what you can get with a profile search - but just in case you want them all in one place, there's the Panama Playlists, a newly published collection of data on the musical listening habits of politicians, journalists, and tech figures, as curated by an anonymous figure.The site appears to have data for a number of notables, including Open AI CEO Sam Altman, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, US Attorney General Pam Bondi, and Late Night host Seth Meyers. Five people featured on the website confirmed to The Verge that data for them is accurate: "T …Read the full story at The Verge.

As a college student, one of my biggest complaints with most AI tools is that they don’t really help you study. Instead, what they do help you do is cheat your way through. Want a 2000-word essay for your economics class? Just prompt ChatGPT. Want to solve your math assignment? Toss the questions into an AI tool and watch the answers appear.

Roblox and Fortnite are two of the biggest games around, and a huge part of why is because they aren't just one game: instead, they're vast platforms where you can party up with your friends, dress up in ridiculous digital outfits, and quickly jump from one experience to another. Back in the day, Fortnite copied PUBG by making a battle royale, and now, PUBG is mimicking Fortnite by trying to become more of a platform than a game.As part of a roadmap released earlier this year, PUBG developer Krafton said that it would let players create their own modes as part of an alpha, and it revealed more details about the alpha this month. This week, …Read the full story at The Verge.

With the sheer number of projects centered around these tiny tinkering boards, the Raspberry Pi series is undoubtedly the most versatile option for tinkerers. On the easier end of the DIY spectrum, you’ve got simple retro gaming stations, media servers, and UmbrelOS/Runtipi-based container hubs. And once you start climbing the steps to the more complex projects, you’ll encounter Kubernetes clusters, semi-functional Steam gaming machines, and web servers.