Asus has made updating your BIOS with EZ Flash 4 easier. This method of updating your motherboard no longer requires you to unpack the compressed file containing the updates, saving you a little time and effort. Asus North America showcased this tiny improvement on itsZ890 AMA YouTube stream(h/tUniko’s Hardware), which would help make it easier to update the BIOS, even if you’re not a tech enthusiast. This feature is available in Asus Z890 motherboards with EZ Flash 4....

The AsusROG Ally Z1 Extremeis now seeing a successor, but not the ROG Ally 2 just yet— per an unveiling toThe Vergeahead of an upcoming official June 2 announcement, the Asus ROG Ally X has been revealed. The device has been confirmed to have mostly the same specifications as the original Asus ROG Ally Z1 Extreme, particularly the 7-inch, 120 Hz VRR IPS display and AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme APU, which is broadly equivalent to the Ryzen 7 7840U used inother handheldsand some gaming laptops....

We’ve seen our fair share of attempts to upgrade the memory on the Raspberry Pi single-board computer (SBC), some of which have been successful. What we haven’t seen much of, though, were efforts to do this on the Raspberry Pi 5. That is, until now, when we learned that YouTube creatorHandyman Danposted a video detailing his experience. TheRaspberry Pi 5has some significant improvements over its predecessor. Its CPU and GPU are faster; it has more MIPI and display connectors, and it has introduced a PCIe 2....

Gaming monitors come in various shapes, sizes, resolutions, aspect ratios, and panel types. One category that has seen an explosion in popularity in recent years is the ultrawide category, with the most popular resolution being Wide Quad High-Definition (WQHD). While traditional 16:9 aspect ratio QHD monitors have a 2560 x 1440 resolution, UWQHD stretches the resolution horizontally all the way to 3440 x 1440 (21:9 aspect ratio). There are even some superwide monitors available, like thePhilips Evnia 49M2C8900, taking the Double Quad High-Definition (DQHD) moniker, delivering a 5120 x 1440 resolution (32:9 aspect ratio)....

This week, President Donald Trump imposed at least 54% tariffs on nearly all imported Chinese goods, and Beijing hit back with 34% duties for goods from the U.S. In addition to these taxes,Bloombergreported that China is restricting the export of seven rare earth metals as part of its move against Washington. TheMinistry of Commerce for the People’s Republic of Chinais sanctioning the following materials: samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium....

The New York Timesreports that China is deepening its hold on rare earth minerals by implementing new export restrictions and expanding state ownership of production facilities. This move strengthens its near-monopoly on these resources, creating substantial hurdles for foreign tech companies dependent on these materials andincreasingtheir prices. China now requires exporters to submit comprehensive reports detailing how rare earth shipments are used along supply chains. Effective June 30, 2025, this policy enables greater control over who can access these vital resources....

Senior Chinese officials have repeatedly warned Japan about ramping up semiconductor sanctions in tandem with the U.S.Bloombergreports that if Japan decides to restrict sales and maintenance of semiconductor equipment in step with U.S. policy, it could face “severe economic repercussions” from the Chinese. With increased pressure from the U.S. about possible new rules, Japan sits uncomfortably between a rock and a hard place. Access to advanced semiconductor tech is behind China’s posturing, but the worst effects of Chinese retaliation would likely be felt by an entirely different industry in Japan....

China hasintroducednew export restrictions on materials containing key materials for RF and storage applications — scandium and dysprosium — which may hurt key players in these industries, including Broadcom, GF, Qualcomm, TSMC, Samsung,Seagate, andWestern Digital. China’s new restrictions follow two prior rounds of rare earth export rules that are slowly tightening the supply of these critical minerals, especially those used in several chipmaking applications. Scandium is widely used for RF front-end modules found in smartphones, Wi-Fi modules, and base stations, whereas dysprosium is used for HDD heads and electric vehicles....

China-based SSD controller developer Maxio Technology has rolled out a lineup of PCIe Gen5 controllers for solid-state drives with a PCIe 5.0 x4 interface, reportsMyDrivers. The controllers are aimed atenterprise, high-end client, and midrange client SSDs and can offer sequential read performance of up to 14.8 GB/s, which is in line with that what the most advanced controllers for thebest SSDsoffer today. Maxio’s family of PCIe Gen5 SSD controllers is composed of three devices: the MAP1803 controller for enterprise-grade SSDs supporting 3D NAND with an up to 3200 MT/s data transfer rate, the MAP1802 for high-end client drives supporting 3D NAND with an up to 4800 MT/s interface, and the MAP1806 for midrange client SSDs that can use 3D NAND with an up to 3600 MT/s transfer speed....

Australian scientists are exploring ways to extract rare earth metals, like gallium and germanium, more efficiently from mining waste. These are crucial in semiconductor manufacturing and are currently primarily sourced from China. However, the East Country is tighteningexport controls on these materials, and the U.S. and its allies are getting worried about thesecurityof their semiconductor supply chains, saysNikkei Asia. China currently owns 90% of the global gallium market and 60% of germanium, giving the country sway over these minerals required to produce advanced electronics....

China isbuilding dozens of new semiconductor fabsthat willcome online in the next few years. To produce chips, these upcoming fabs will need silicon wafers, and to ensure a sufficient supply of those wafers, China-based companies are expanding their production capacity.DigiTimesreports that the National Silicon Industry Group (NSIG) and Wafer Works are significantly expanding their silicon wafer production in the People’s Republic. NSIG, one of China’s largest domestic silicon wafer suppliers, is leading the expansion of wafer production capacity in the country....

On Sunday, the Chinese-government-backed research institute and think tank CAICT issued a detailed report regarding China’s computational power. The report (viaSCMP) warned data centers to keep on using Nvidia-based solutions. The institute cited ‘high costs’ and ‘complex engineering’ as one of the few hurdles that data centers would face if they were to transfer their models to Chinese chips. It should not be surprising that the US government has barred Nvidia from exporting its high-performance A100 and H100 GPUs to China....

Leading laptop ODM Compal has won another iF Design Award 2025 for a quirky concept product. TheCompal Adapt Xis described as a modular laptop, and it is immediately quite clear it takes a leaf out of theFramework laptopplaybook. It is also something of a hybrid / convertible, with the components being usable slotted together, or independently. Compal says this concept design is appealing to customers because it offers multiple usage modes, reduced upgrade frequency, and should cut down on e-waste....