We've long been hearing rumors that Nvidia is working on an entry-level GeForce RTX 5050 card. And while we haven't heard anything from the horse's mouth, several leaks from reliable sources have popped up in the last few months, giving us details about specifications and confirming its existence.

Happy Nintendo Switch 2 release day! Did you get one? Yeah, me neither. I'm watching as my Twitch following list slowly fills up with streamers playing Mario Kart World and the introductory welcome tour. But that's okay because we have free PC games we can play while we try to ignore how much fun everyone else is having.

By now, almost everyone has seen some kind of coverage about the disappointing Arrow Lake launch, and how Intel took one step forward, two steps back. What was supposed to be Intel's comeback after the disastrous instability saga of its Raptor Lake chips became just another cautionary tale for gamers. The Core Ultra CPUs were slower than the 14th Gen CPUs in gaming, but that's not the only reason you should avoid them. Intel still has a long way to go in terms of thermal efficiency, platform longevity, and pricing, when compared to the competition.

One of the main reasons I've stuck with the Steam Deck over more powerful gaming handhelds like the ROG Ally X is the build quality. Other handhelds are built fine, but you immediately feel the quality and consistency of the buttons and joysticks on Valve's handheld. That was until I picked up the GameSir Cyclone 2 controller for my desktop. It's a decent 2.4GHz controller, but the differentiator is that it comes with micro-switches for the D-pad and face buttons. I fell in love with the tactile feedback, and suddenly, it was hard to go back to the membrane-based buttons of my Steam Deck.

The Pad 3 has already launched in China twice, first as the Oppo Pad 4 Pro, and then as the OnePlus Pad 2 Pro.OnePlus has launched the Pad 3, the first tablet outside of China powered by the flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset. It’s been upsized since the Pad 2, with a larger 13.2-inch display, but that’s allowed OnePlus to make it impressively thin at just 5.97mm.That big screen is LCD, rather than OLED, but the 144Hz refresh rate and 3.4K resolution are impressive. Combined with a keyboard and stylus — sold separately — it should make the Pad 3 running Android 15 a pretty capable laptop replacement. It’s a bit less portable than its predecessor thanks to the bigger screen and an extra 90g (around 3oz) of weight, though that’s offset by the fact that it’s actually thinner than the latest iPad Air, albeit not quite as slender as the 13-inch iPad Pro, which is double the price.The 8 Elite is backed up by 256GB of storage and either 12GB or 16GB of RAM, with a fairly sizable 12,140mAh battery. 80W wired charging should fully charge the tablet in a little over an hour and a half. OnePlus has also tweaked the tablet’s rear design, ditching the central, circular camera that was a bit of an eyesore on the first two generations in favor of a simpler pill-shaped module in one corner. The other big changes are on the software side. OnePlus has leaned into its popular take on multitasking, upgrading it with streamlined split-screening and smoother ways to drag and drop. OnePlus phone owners will also benefit from direct file-sharing between their devices, smarter notification syncing, and data sharing that allows the tablet to piggyback on your phone’s connection, but only when it needs data — theoretically saving phone battery life compared to leaving a hotspot on the whole time.The O Plus Connect software I saw on the Oppo Find N5 foldable is also included here. That means easy wireless file transfers between the tablet and a Mac or Windows PC, though Mac owners get an extra bonus: direct remote control of their Mac from the Pad 3. That really could make this a laptop replacement, though bear in mind that OnePlus says all these software features are coming to the Pad 2 eventually, too. As for the Pad 3’s updates, it’s been promised three generations of OS updates and six years of security support.The Pad 3 is available to order now in the UK and Europe, hitting shelves on June 19th. It costs €599 / £529 (about $685) for a model with 12GB of RAM, rising to €699 / £599 ($800) for 16GB. The Smart Keyboard costs €169 / £169 ($193), and the Stylo 2 is €99 / £99 ($113). It’s set for a US release too, but we won’t know the price until later today.

Windows Update is a core component of Windows 11, and obviously, it's an important one. Delivering security fixes and improvements, along with new features, it keeps your PC running safely and can often make it better in many ways.

Whenever a new Doom game is released, there's going to be a lot of people who show up to play it. The latest entry in the series from Bethesda, Doom: The Dark Ages, garnered a positive reception from many who were eagerly awaiting its release. But not everybody showed up to a retail store or hopped onto the Xbox Live marketplace to grab their copy of the game. With the latest Doom game being available on Day 1 through Xbox game Pass, tons of people downloaded it as soon as the game went live for everyone. Unfortunately, this may have had some unintended consequences on the release of Doom: The Dark Ages that many have been saying about the subscription service for some time.

Lime, the shared scooter and bike company, is getting ready for another busy summer by cozying up to one of its biggest supporters, Uber. The two companies recently signed a new multiyear agreement that allows Uber to continue to feature Lime’s shared bikes and scooters on its ridehail app. As part of the deal, Lime’s rented bikes and scooters will continue to appear in Uber’s app in the markets in which they overlap, including the US, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. The previous agreement was set to expire later this year.“We’re pleased to extend this fruitful relationship into the future so riders can discover and quickly book Lime on the Uber platform,” said Wayne Ting, CEO of Lime, in a statement. “Working with Uber has allowed us to reach even more people and provide more riders with shared, affordable, emissions-free transportation through one of the largest transportation platforms in the world. This deal further solidifies Lime as the go-to option for two-wheeled travel in cities.”Uber also recently announced that Lime would be included as part of its Uber One subscription members, offering 10 percent cash back on all Lime rides. As part of the deal, Lime’s rented bikes and scooters will continue to appear in Uber’s appUber and Lime first came together during the height of the scooter boom in 2018, with the ridehail giant joining a $335 million round of financing led by Alphabet’s venture arm, GV. That was the first time Lime’s bikes and scooters became available for rent on Uber’s app. During the covid pandemic, Uber threw a crucial lifeline to Lime, investing $170 million in the company in exchange for Lime acquiring Uber’s Jump bike and scooter business. Today, Uber holds a 29 percent stake in Lime. And as the pandemic progressed, the deal positioned Lime to pull ahead of many of its struggling rivals. As other companies floundered, Lime scootered past all the mergers and bankruptcies, and now presents itself as the leading shared micromobility company in the world. Earlier this year, the company published its 2024 financial results, in which it touted a fourth consecutive year of over 30 percent growth, second consecutive year of positive free cash flow, and $810 million in gross bookings.And as the summer busy season approaches, Lime is setting its sight on new markets. The company recently launched in Barcelona, and later this year plans on expanding into Mexico. Its also continuing to scale its latest vehicles, the LimeBike and pedal-less LimeGlider, with launches in nearly a dozen cities over the past two months. Of the two new bikes, Lime says it plans to reach a fleet of more than 15,000 deployed vehicles globally in 2025. (The Glider is only available in North America, as the EU requires that throttle-only e-bikes be classified as mopeds.)Lime’s bullishness on its business comes as the company recently hit a new record for daily ridership, surpassing 1 million rides in a single day on May 31st — and then again on June 1st. Lime says riders also recently exceeded 10 billion minutes using the platform, across more than 800 million individual trips since Lime’s service began in 2017. Lime’s decision to continue partnering with Uber comes as the ridehail company’s main rival, Lyft, hikes the prices of its main bikeshare service, Citi Bike in New York. Lyft had been exploring a possible sale of Citi Bike, but now says it plans on expanding the service in the outer boroughs later this year. Uber says its deal with Lime helps get it closer to its goal to be a zero-emission platform by 2040. “Lime has been an impactful partner in our efforts to make transportation easier, more affordable, and more sustainable,” Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber, said in a statement. With widespread global use through Uber in over 200 cities, this next chapter is about scaling up together—and giving riders even more ways to get where they’re going without owning a car.”

AI still doesn’t know what kissing looks like.Doomscroll on TikTok long enough, and you'll come across an ad for AI video apps. In one ad, a stereotypically nerdy girl puckishly smirks as she uploads a picture of herself and her much more handsome crush. Boom - suddenly, thanks to AI, they're smooching. In another, I'm shown a woman in a blouse and jeans. Do I want to know what she looks like in a blue bikini? Psst. There's an app for that. The ad then shows me the woman in said blue bikini. These apps aren't peddling the digital nudes many people associate with AI deepfakes, which are proliferating in their own right on app stores. Slapped together by opportunistic developers and sprinkled with subscription fees and microtransactions, they're all pitching tools to help you make benign fantasies a bit more tangible - but the results feel more cursed than magical.AI video ads link out to apps with titles like Boom.AI, VideoAI, and DreamVid, made by companies you've probably never heard of - a short perusal of Apple's App Store brings up roughly two dozen options. Despite their titillating promotional material, they feature plenty of innocuous video templates. By uploading one or two photos and hitting a "generate" button …Read the full story at The Verge.

The best apps are those that save you a significant amount of time or genuinely fire up your imagination. Room planners make a strong claim to do both. These tools are able to give you 2D or 3D visualizations of your new home quickly and easily, letting you dream about the sort of spaces you want to create while also making sure you don't waste hours on furniture arrangements that don't work.If you're already on the way to moving to a new home, or just thinking about it, these apps can help. They're all different in terms of the exact features and customizations they offer, so you can pick something that suits the amount of time and learning you want to invest - from quick 2D floor plans done in minutes, to 3D fly-byes of your ideal living space that will look better but take you significantly longer.RoomStyler gives you everything you need to put together a floor plan and then visualize it in 3D. There's also a busy community that has built up around the app, so you can share your designs publicly if you want some feedback, or get inspiration from what other people are doing, if you want to. You can even use someone else's design to start off your own with a couple of clic …Read the full story at The Verge.

Moving is stressful at the best of times, and while moving to a new country is exciting, it also adds a layer of logistical complications, especially when it comes to tech. As someone who's tackled several international moves - most recently, from my native Australia to the US in mid-2023 - here are some tips for figuring out what to bring and how to bring it, and for making sure that your tech works with you, not against you, in your new home.Before you leaveWith all the paperwork and legwork involved in moving countries, it can be easy to put off more minor matters, like what to do with your electronics. Laptops, tablets, and phones should travel with you, but if you're planning on taking relatively large, bulky items like monitors, desktop computers, stereo equipment, TVs, and so on, it'll be cheaper (and easier) to ship them in advance, along with other similarly bulky items like furniture.If you do decide to do this, you'll need to decide between air freight and sea freight. The former is faster; the latter can take months but is generally far cheaper. If there are devices you need with you right up until departure and / or as soon as you arrive - a work computer, for i …Read the full story at The Verge.

It's apparent that Doom: The Dark Ages is awell-designed game for PC and consoles. Many who have stuck with the series have praised the game for how good it feels to control and how exciting it can be to rip and tear up hordes of demons. But what makes Doom: The Dark Ages stand far apart from other games is how well-optimized it is on all platforms. Between the highly detailed visuals and the large scope of the environments, not forgetting the crazy characters you encounter, Doom is a technical marvel of a game. And one that is succeeding, whereas many other games seem to fail continuously.