In an industry famed for moving fast and breaking things, it’s odd to hear ofanyoneslowing down. But just a few weeks on from Meta investing $14.3 billion in data annotation firm, Scale AI, it’s laying off over 200 staff and 500 of its global contractors,The Verge reports. Although this may amount to classic efficiency savings when two large firms merge their efforts, the CEO claims that it’s because “we ramped up our GenAI capacity too quickly over the past year....

There’s a lot of competition for capturing your voice for streaming, podcasting, work calls, or just chatting with your friends. Some people are perfectly happy using a cheap headset or desktop mic, but if your use case involves streaming or producing content for an audience, you really have to up your game in the quality stakes if you want your audience to grow and keep listening. People aren’t going to stick around if they can constantly hear every background noise or your keyboard clicking away....

Intel recently released a one-line code patch for itsMeteor Lake CPUs, resulting in huge performance wins in Linux. That single line of code fine-tunes theP-State CPU frequency scalingdriver. In benchmark tests, the seemingly minor change resulted in Linux performance increases as high as 72% on Intel’s Core Ultra PC systems. The patch, sent out on May 26, 2025, adjusts the Intel P-State Energy Performance Preference (EPP) default “balance_performance” value. This sets the balance between power and performance in a processor....

SK hynix may increase its production of DRAM chips in response to increased demand according toKorea JoongAng Daily. After demand for consumer electronics plummeted in 2022 due to worsening economic conditions, the South Korean corporation decided to cut production for DRAM and NAND flash in 2023. However, as demand returns, SK hynix may decide to reverse its production decreases. DRAM spot prices are significantly up from their low point in 2023 according toDRAMeXchange, which tracks this data daily....

Just weeks after a Taiwanese ministersaidit was illegal for TSMC to transfer its leading-edge process technology—such as N2 (2nm-class)—from Taiwan to its overseas fabs, another minister said that after N2 enters mass production in the second half of 2025, discussions about transferring the node to friendly democratic nations can take place, reportsEconomic Daily(as noticed byDan Nystedt). Yet, TSMC only plans to start making 2nm-class chips in America by the decade’s end....

Anyone holding out for a large gaming monitor should look at thisLGoffer on theLG UltraGear 32GP83B-Bgaming monitor. It spans 32 inches and has an IPS panel with plenty of quality specs to handle modern gaming needs. It usually costs around $299, but LG currently offers a limited promo code that takes the price down to $210. The code NEWYEAR Is available until January 5th and must be used at checkout to redeem the offer....

Magnetic tapeis supposed to be dead as a digital storage medium. However, the people and organizations who use it apparently never got that memo. Manufacturers behind the Linear Tape-Open (standard) shipped 152.9 exabytes of magnetic tape capacity (compressed) in 2023. That’s actually 3.14 percent greater capacity than in 2022. The three remaining LTO Program Technology Partners, HPE,IBM, and Quantum, provided the details inThe Annual LTO Program Media Shipment Report. Some of that growth between 2022 and 2023was attributed to“rapid data generation and the increased infrastructure requirements of hyperscalers and enterprises....

Update 01-06-2025 1:30 PM ET: The same $2649 deal for PNY’s Epic-X ARGB RTX 5090 is available at B&H Photo Video.Check out our article for details. Following an absolute frenzy on the $2,649 RTX 5090 at Amazon, the hunt for the cheapest RTX 5090 has shifted. Amazon is now sold out,but B&H has the same Epic-X ARGB model for the same $2649. The cheapest 5090 on Amazon is anotherPNY Overclocked model with a triple fan, now $2,799, $200 off the list price....

Corsair is discounting itsCorsair MP600 Core MiniPCIe 4.0 SSD down to $109.99 on Newegg using the promo code BFEDY2A97. The SSD typically sells for $159.99. TheCorsair MP600 Core Miniis easily the most affordable compact PCIe 4.0 SSD of its kind. While our review does highlight some shortcomings, the performance on offer is overall plenty for use with theSteam Deckand gaming workloads, though not to the extent of a modern high-end PCIe 5....

Nvidia’s RTX 5090 will undoubtedly be a powerhouse GPU, and part of the reason for that will be the enormous GB202 chip powering it that allegedly comes in at an 744mm-squared, according to renowned hardware leakerMEGAsizeGPUat X. If the leak proves correct, the RTX 5090’s die size sees a sizeable bump 22% bump compared to the RTX 4090’s AD102 GPU. That would likely drive prices up — both for Nvidia and the end-customers....

When it comes to laptops, there are plenty of great laptops on the market but we’ll bet our bottom dollar that you haven’t seen a laptop quite like this one. Maker and developer Michael Mayar has put together what he calls thePortable Pi 84. This machine stands out not only in that it uses aRaspberry Pibut also in its detailed, open source design. It’s not here to make waves in the world of AAA gaming, we have a list ofbest gaming laptopsif that’s the sort of goal you’re after, but it is here to share the delicious taste of Pi with the greater community at large....

If there’s one thing theRaspberry Piabsolutely shines at, it’s serving as a miniature desktop. The Pi community is overflowing with cool custom PCs that range from looking like tiny versions of existing computers, like thesetiny Pi-powered Macs, to totally unique creations like this one from Arnov Sharma. Using our favorite SBC, he’s put together aportable Pi-powered desktopknown as the Power Pi Version 2. This project has been ongoing for a while....

The tech industry is facing some headwinds. Manufacturers, sellers, and consumers are more concerned than ever about prices and stock as a global trade war upends the supply chain. But, even as we face these challenges, many companies continue to innovate in ways that surprise and delight us. It’s time to celebrate those who move the ball forward, even in tough times. That’s why, as we do at this time of year, we present to you the 2025 Tom’s Hardware Innovation Awards: a set of products that set or expand the standard for others....