Valve co-founder and CEO Gabe Newell, the company behind Half-Life and DOTA 2 and Counter-Strike and preeminent PC game distribution platform Steam, has long toyed with the idea that your brain should be more connected to your PC. It began over a decade ago with in-house psychologists studying people’s biological responses to video games; Valve once considered earlobe monitors for its first VR headset. The company publicly explored the idea of brain-computer interfaces for gaming at GDC in 2019.

But Newell decided to spin off the idea. That same year, he quietly incorporated a new brain-computer interface startup, Starfish Neuroscience — which has now revealed plans to produce its very first brain chip later this year.

Starfish’s first blog post, spotted by Valve watcher Brad Lynch, makes it clear we’re not talking about a complete implant yet. This bit is the custom “electrophysiology” chip designed to record brain activity (like how Neuralink can “read your mind” so patients can interact with computers) and stimulate the brain (for disease therapy), but Starfish isn’t claiming it’s already built the systems to power it or the bits to stick it into a person’s head.

“We anticipate our first chips arriving in late 2025 and we are interested in finding collaborators for whom such a chip would open new and exciting avenues,” writes Starfish neuroengineer Nate Cermak (bolding theirs), suggesting that Starfish might wind up partnering with other companies for wireless power or even the final brain implant.

But the goal, writes Starfish, is a smaller and less invasive implant than the competition, one that can “enable simultaneous access to multiple brain regions” instead of just one site, and one that doesn’t require a battery. Using just 1.1 milliwatts during “normal recording,” Starfish says it can work with wireless power transmission instead.

Here’s the chip’s current spec sheet:

• Low power: 1.1 mW total power consumption during normal recording 
• Physically small: 2 x 4mm (0.3mm pitch BGA) 
• Capable of both recording (spikes and LFP) & stimulation (biphasic pulses) 
• 32 electrode sites, 16 simultaneous recording channels at 18.75kHz 
• 1 current source for stimulating on arbitrary pairs of electrodes 
• Onboard impedance monitoring and stim voltage transient measurement 
• Digital onboard data processing and spike detection allows the device to operate via low-bandwidth wireless interfaces. 
• Fabricated in TSMC 55nm process

Neuralink’s N1, for comparison, has 1,024 electrodes across its 64 brain-implanted threads, a chip that consumed around 6 milliwatts as of 2019, a battery that periodically needs wireless charging, and the full implant (again, not just the chip) is around 23mm wide and 8mm thick. The Elon Musk-led company has reportedly already implanted it in three humans; while some of the threads did detach from the first patient’s brain, he still has functionality and has been giving interviews.

Starfish says it could be important to connect to multiple parts of the brain simultaneously, instead of just one region, to address issues like Parkinson’s disease. “there is increasing evidence that a number of neurological disorders involve circuit-level dysfunction, in which the interactions between brain regions may be misregulated,” Cermak writes.

In addition to multiple simultaneous brain implants, the company’s updated website says it’s working on a “precision hyperthermia device” to destroy tumors with targeted heat, and a brain-reading, robotically guided transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) system for addressing neurological conditions like bipolar disorder and depression.

In case you’re wondering how any of this might make its way back to gaming, I’ll leave you with Valve’s talk from GDC 2019 about brain-computer interfaces.

Valve has been building up to this for months, first in preview, then in beta, and now finally in a full stable release: a new version of SteamOS that brings brand-new features to the Steam Deck and supports third-party handhelds like Lenovo’s Legion Go and Asus’ ROG Ally series.

SteamOS 3.7.8 is the first stable release to add official support for the Lenovo Legion Go S, and the first to offer an official “recovery” image that lets you install SteamOS on other AMD handhelds like the ROG Ally and original Legion Go, as Valve promised us in January of this year.

Until now, those who wanted to try SteamOS on those Windows handhelds could shoehorn the Steam Deck’s original recovery image onto their device, or opt for a similar experience like Bazzite. But now, Valve explicitly provides instructions for getting that image working on a Legion Go or ROG Ally, even as it warns that “support for all devices that is not officially ‘Powered by SteamOS’ is not final.”

But even if you don’t care about rival handhelds, SteamOS 3.7.8 has a lot of improvements for the Steam Deck. I’ve been asking Valve to let me use my Bluetooth earbuds’ microphone since launch, and it’s finally happening in desktop mode (sadly not gaming mode yet) thanks to HFP/HSP profiles. You can turn on your Steam Deck LCD from across the room with a Bluetooth controller, a feature previously exclusive to the OLED model, which comes in handy when you’re docked to a TV.

Speaking of leaving it docked, you can now set a Battery Charge Limit to 80 percent for longevity’s sake if your handheld is always plugged in, frame-limit variable refresh rate displays, and control the P-state frequency of certain AMD CPUs.

It’s all underpinned by new versions of Arch Linux, new Mesa graphics drivers, a much newer version of the Plasma desktop mode, and more. Here’s the full SteamOS 3.7.8 changelog.

An updated SteamOS FAQ seems to suggest that Valve is ready to expand SteamOS beyond Lenovo and the Steam Deck. “We’re currently working with select partners on officially licensed Powered by SteamOS devices. Please reach out to us at [email protected] for more information about licensing SteamOS for your device,” one answer reads.

But the industry is still waiting for Valve’s other shoe(s) to drop. Rumors are still heating up that we’re close to the launch of Valve’s wireless VR headset “Deckard,” and that it might be pointing the way toward a SteamOS-powered living room console too. Valve has been moving slow and steady, but it seems like a master plan for Steam Machines could finally be coming into focus.

Nvidia has gone too far.

This week, the company reportedly attempted to delay, derail, and manipulate reviews of its $299 GeForce RTX 5060 graphics card, which would normally be its bestselling GPU of the generation. Nvidia has repeatedly and publicly said the budget 60-series cards are its most popular, and this year it reportedly tried to ensure it by withholding access and pressuring reviewers to paint them in the best light possible.

Nvidia might have wanted to prevent a repeat of 2022, when it launched this card's predecessor. Those reviews were harsh. The 4060 was called a "slap in the face to gamers" and a "wet fart of a GPU." I had guessed the 5060 was headed for the same fate after seeing how reviewers handled the 5080, which similarly showcased how little Nvidia's hardware has improved year over year and relies on software to make up the gaps.

But Nvidia had other plans.

Here are the tactics that Nvidia reportedly just used to throw us off the 5060's true scent, as individually described by GamersNexus, VideoCardz, Hardware Unboxed, GameStar.de, Digital Foundry, and more:

• Nvidia decided to launch its RTX 5060 on May 19th, when most reviewers would be at Computex i …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Last fall, Logitech CEO Hanneke Faber was roundly ridiculed after suggesting the company would like to produce a "Forever Mouse" - a mouse with a monthly subscription fee for software updates. It seemed to betray a lack of understanding: many people who buy mice don't want software at all, much less software they have to pay for; the idea they'd pay every month is ridiculous.

But as I sit here with a perfectly good Logitech mouse, the best I've ever owned, I'm starting to think some sort of "forever mouse" wouldn't be such a bad idea. Logitech has an opportunity and a responsibility to make its mice last longer, and I have part of the proof right underneath my palm. I use a great mouse that is slowly disintegrating.

In some ways, my wireless Logitech G502 Lightspeed is already a forever mouse. I may never have to charge or replace its battery again, because I use Logitech's magic wireless charging mouse pad to automatically keep its battery at the perfect level. I haven't plugged in this mouse once in nearly three and a half years.

Luckily, the mouse's buttons and sensor have held up well over the same period, as far as I can tell. But the soft rubber grips that let me hold t …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake was originally supposed to arrive on January 21st, 2021. Since then, it’s been delayed three times, got shipped to a different studio, reportedly started over from scratch, and may have lost the original writer and amazing performances of its English voice actor. But Ubisoft has revealed the game is finally on the way — and will go on sale before April 2026, as spotted by Insider Gaming.

In Ubisoft’s latest earnings release, the company reveals that it expects the Prince of Persia remake to be one of the games that will help its bottom line during the next fiscal year, FY2025-2026. Since Ubisoft’s FY2024-2025 ended on March 31st, 2025, that means the new game will have to go on sale before March 31st, 2026.

But that also means it could arrive any time now. We’re already two months into FY2025-2026. I’d be surprised if we didn’t get an announcement at the Summer Game Fest next month.

Ubisoft suggests that its top games in FY2025-2026 will be Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Siege X, but names Prince of Persia as one of the games that’ll contribute alongside Anno 117: Pax Romana, Rainbow Six Mobile and The Division Resurgence.

I’m eagerly awaiting the chance to try it, as the original is one of my top five favorite games of all time. I loved its storytelling, voice acting, incredible music, and its then-groundbreaking ability to rewind time. But I won’t deny I’m a bit worried.

Both Yuri Lowenthal — the Prince’s iconic English-language voice actor — and Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner were attached to the remake when it was announced in 2020. (Lowenthal once suggested the remake was going to “keep all of Jordan Mechner’s brilliant writing” and thanked Ubisoft for not picking a “younger, hotter actor” instead of him.) But after development moved to Ubisoft Montréal in 2022, it’s not clear whether either is still involved. Here’s hoping there was good reason to overhaul the game, unlike that other time a game company replaced Yuri Lowenthal’s face!

The remake is far from the most-delayed game at Ubisoft, of course: I believe Beyond Good and Evil 2 currently holds the all-time record at over 15 years since it was first announced. Incidentally, the first BG&E game shipped just a month after Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

By the time you read these words, it's quite possible that Adorama will be out of stock of the new DJI Mavic 4 Pro. But when I wrote them, the US-based retailer was still selling a drone that wasn't supposed to go on sale in the US at all, with roughly 70 left in stock.

This morning, I wrote how DJI was skipping the US with its most advanced drone yet, citing Trump's tariffs among other reasons for the decision. DJI did not send the drone to US reviewers, and it wouldn't provide US prices when we asked.

But Adorama and B&H, two rival camera stores based in New York City, apparently didn't get the message!

Today, they both listed the drone for $2,699 - or $3,549 for the Fly More Kit, or $4,649 for the Creator Combo with the fancy new controller with the folding sticks and swiveling 1600-nit screen, or $1,299 for that controller all by its lonesome. B&H even issued a press release.

B&H is only offering preorders today; I confirmed with Miguel Perez in the store's drone department that "we don't yet have it in stock," and he …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Today, DJI is officially announcing the Mavic 4 Pro, which could be the most versatile drone it's ever made. It's the first with a 360-degree rotating gimbal for footage that tilts, rolls, and offers true vertical filming. It's the first Mavic to offer 51 minutes of battery life, tied with the old Mini 3 and close to the longest flight times DJI has achieved. It's the first with a built-in 100-megapixel camera, which can also record 6K/60fps HDR, as part of its triple-camera array.

Another important distinction: it's the first off-the-shelf DJI drone that won't launch in the United States.

Today, it's going on sale in Canada, Mexico, and every other country where DJI sells drones, but the company tells The Verge it has no timeline on bringing it to the US. DJI won't honor its limited warranty if you cross the border to purchase one in Canada or Mexico. It's not even sending the drone to US-based technology reviewers - we don't have one, and we're not sure when we'll get one.

Why is the Chinese drone maker doing this? The company says Trump's tariffs were among the top reasons it chose to abandon a US launch - and there's also the fact that, seven months later, US Customs is …

Read the full story at The Verge.

DJI hasn’t even announced a 360-degree camera yet, but the DJI Osmo 360 has now spilled its guts all over the web. Leakers Hakasushi and Igor Bogdanov have published over a dozen pictures of a prototype dual-lens camera, including both external and internal photos and images of its Quick Start Guide.

Together, they suggest that DJI may finally be about to compete with Insta360 and the upcoming GoPro Max 2 in letting you capture attention-grabbing spherical photos and video — check out my colleague Vjeran Pavic’s recent video to see what these cameras can do.

And it appears that DJI may have chosen quite a small, squareish design, instead of the more elongated stick shapes of its Insta360 rival. As you can see above, it’s roughly 6.5 centimeters (2.6in) wide and maybe 9mm tall.

While we don’t have much in the way of all-important specs like video resolution and framerate, we can see it has three buttons including power, recording, and menu controls, plus a tap-and-swipe touchscreen, and it uses interchangeable 7.55Wh batteries that look like those for DJI’s Osmo Action series.

According to the quick start guide, the “OQ001” model has microSD storage, a USB-C charge port, Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1, and it can physically mount “various accessories” — intriguingly, the unit’s tripod mount seems to have four copper contacts surrounding it, perhaps to let an accessory provide power or data.

Internally, the teardown shows that DJI mounts its camera sensors the same way as Insta360. Instead of having a sensor directly facing each lens, the light first bounces off a 45-degree mirror.

Hakasushi has published quite a few other teardown photos too, but says the internals might change, as this one appears to be a prototype.

Unusually, DJI leaker Jasper Ellens speculates that DJI may not bring this camera to market, particularly not in the United States, as word (and leaks) would usually have reached him by now if it were. “I can’t find any early leaks on web stores, multiple sources never received it and therefore it’s even a better hidden secret than the DJI Mavic 4 or DJI Mini 5,” he writes.

Then again, DJI is living in unprecedented times.

We've called DJI's baby steadicam "almost everything I wanted my iPhone camera to be" and one of our favorite gadgets of 2023, but it's just become a harder product to recommend. In April, DJI quietly hiked the US price of the camera from $519 to $619. Now, DJI has hiked the price again, officially listing the camera at $799 in the US.

That's a $280 price hike in just two months, a 54 percent increase, and the company says it's not a mistake. "The price you saw today is the current price," DJI spokesperson Daisy Kong tells The Verge. We're seeing that US retailers have already updated their listings.

DJI's "Creator Combo" has risen in price even more. The kit, which adds loads of useful accessories including a modular extended battery handle and one of the company's excellent Mic 2 wireless lav microphones, is now listed at $979, up from the original $669 list price it had maintained before April. (It quietly rose to $799 around the beginning of April.)

Is this the impact of Trump's tariffs on China? DJI is a Chinese company, after all, but it says things aren't as clear-cut as that. Tariffs "are certainly among the key considerations," the company tells The Verge by email, but …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Since Neuromancer took the sci-fi world by storm in 1984, computing nerds have pined for a "cyberdeck" - the ultimate in personal, portable PCs for surfing and hacking the world. Usually, they're DIY affairs. But the 10-inch GPD Win Max 2 is the closest I've seen to an off-the-shelf cyberdeck worth buying.

It's far from the best laptop or gaming handheld. It's an ergonomic compromise in five ways, and the webcam is trash! It's also a portable computing dream. It doubles as a gaming handheld, with joysticks and buttons smuggled away in hidden compartments. It optionally triples as a desktop gaming PC, with a rare Oculink port that lets you plug in a beefy eGPU. I …

Read the full story at The Verge.

In 2019, DJI insisted to me that it wasn’t killing off the Phantom, its iconic line of oft-imitated drones that turned the Chinese company into the powerhouse it is today. And yet, DJI has just announced the end of life for its final two Phantom drones — the Phantom 4 Pro and Phantom 4 Advanced — with no new Phantom models in sight.

According to a support page, DJI actually produced its last Phantom in May 2018, and will now suspend service for its final two Phantom models on June 1st, 2025. Seven-plus years of support is a pretty decent run.

While DJI wasn’t the first maker of off-the-shelf flying quadcopter cameras — the first Phantom arrived in 2013, whereas Parrot’s AR Drone was already on shelves in 2010 — the Phantom was among the first ready-to-fly ones widely adopted by both consumers and video production pros. Other companies produced loads of Phantom clones and knockoff toys, and the unique pillow-and-legs silhouette of a Phantom soon became an instantly recognizable symbol for “drone.” I saw it on signs banning drones from public parks, for example.

But DJI doesn’t seem to need the Phantom brand anymore. Now, most of its drones are more rectangular packages with fold-down legs for portability, and it has many other brands to carry that torch, from the highest end Inspire down through the Mavic, Air, Mini, and the new entry level Flip line.

According to extensive leaks via the usual suspects (Jasper Ellens, OsitaLV), a new Mavic 4 Pro is imminent, and a Mini 5 is well on the way.

We’ve reached out to DJI for a statement on the end of the Phantom, and the company should get back to us by tomorrow.

Ever wanted a mouse that could easily stick to your laptop as you carry it around? I can't say so myself - but one's launching on Kickstarter today that seems to do the job! I've been testing the $36 ESR MagMouse for roughly a week now, and I'm genuinely surprised we haven't seen anything like this before.

It's a lightweight 75-gram (2.65 oz) travel mouse with both Bluetooth and 2.4GHz wireless connectivity modes, its own extremely short built-in USB-C cable for charging, and the titular magnets embedded in its frame so you can stick it to stuff. The USB-C cable folds down into its belly, and there's a slot beneath for its 2.4GHz USB-A dongle, so it's completely stow-and-go.

But though ESR is known for its MagSafe accessories, it's important to know that this isn't a MagSafe gadget, nor one that's even magnetically compatible with all the MagSafe / Qi2 stuff. This 4800dpi optical mouse doesn't stick to my iPhone or Samsung Galaxy, and while it does lightly stick to fridges and the metal rings designed to use with third-party magnetic gear, a rep tells me that ESR does not recommend sticking it to the rings.

Instead, the MagMouse is designed to use with ESR's own magnetic lapto …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Every so often, Central Computers - one of the last remaining dedicated Silicon Valley computer stores - lets subscribers know it's managed to obtain a small shipment of AMD graphics cards. Today, it informed me that I could now purchase a $600 Radeon RX 9070 XT for $850 - a $250 markup.

It's not alone. I just checked every major US retailer and street prices on eBay, and I regret to inform you: the great GPU shortage has returned. Many AMD cards are being marked up $100, $200, $250, even $280. The street price of an Nvidia RTX 5080 is now over $1,500, a full $500 higher than MSRP. And an RTX 5090, the most powerful consumer GPU? You can't even get the $2,000 card for $3,000 today.

Here, I've built tables to show you:

You shouldn't just blame tariffs for these price hikes. In early March, we found retailers were already …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Today is Intel’s Q1 2025 earnings call, and the first we’re truly hearing from new Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, who took over the company on March 18th. But he didn’t wait until the call to announce major changes at Intel, nor did he begin his reign by laying off 20 percent of the company’s employees, as Bloomberg reported he might.

“We have not set any headcount reduction target,” Intel spokesperson Sophie Metzger tells The Verge.

Instead, Tan is announcing that employees will return to the office for an additional day per week — four days in office, up from three — as the company purges what he characterizes as “unnecessary bureaucracy,” reduces the size of teams, and cuts back on “time-consuming corporate administrative tasks such as non-essential training and documentation.”

Intel has just published an all-hands memo from Tan to employees detailing these and other changes; you can read it in full at the bottom of this post. The company is also subtly suggesting that job cuts are nigh, but that they might come from Intel’s individual leaders rather than layoffs from the company as a whole.

“We have learned some valuable lessons from past actions. We must balance our reductions with the need to retain and recruit key talent. I will empower each of my leaders to make the best possible decisions aligned with our top priorities,” Tan writes in the memo.

But it sounds like there will be pressure on those leaders to cut people, and soon:

I’ve been surprised to learn that, in recent years, the most important KPI for many managers at Intel has been the size of their teams. Going forward, this will not be the case. I’m a big believer in the philosophy that the best leaders get the most done with the fewest people.

Tan says that these workforce reductions will “begin in Q2” — which is now — “and we will move as quickly as possible over the next several months.”

Intel said today it that it hopes to save an extra $0.5 billion in 2025 alone compared to previous goals, and more in 2026. As for this quarter, the company lost $0.4 billion in Q1 2025, on flat revenue of $12.7 billion.

Reuters reported last month that Tan planned to significantly change Intel’s chip manufacturing and cut “what Tan views as a slow-moving and bloated middle management layer.” That report seems to have been accurate. On the earnings call, Tan says he’s also instructed teams to find $2 billion they can save in capital expenditures.

In his first public statement in March, Tan said that his Intel would be “an engineering-focused company” that would “take calculated risks to disrupt and leapfrog” in the future. Today, he says he’s doing that in part by flattening the organization: “All critical product and manufacturing and G&A functions that were spread over 2-3 layers are now directly reporting to me,” he says on the earnings call.

“Organizational complexity and bureaucracies have been suffocating the innovation and agility we need to win. It takes too long for decisions to get made. New ideas and people who generate them have not been given the room or resources to incubate and grow. The unnecessary silos have led to bad execution. I’m here to fix this,” says Tan.

As for Tan’s strategy for Intel overall, he says “it’s a bit too soon for me to provide all the details” but shared several priorities, including:

• “Start building best-in-class products again”
• “A holistic approach to redefine our portfolio to optimize our products for new and emerging AI workloads”
• “Refine our AI strategy with a focus on emerging areas of interest”
• “Our goal will be to enable the next wave of computing defined by reasoning models, agentic AI, and physical AI”
• “We need to build trust with foundry customers”
• “Learn to delight our customers by building wafers that meet their required power, performance area, and on-time schedule”
• “Our business is capital intensive and we have important investment to make at the time when our financial performance is not where it needs to be. This means we need to be prudent with capital.”

Meanwhile, Intel’s all-important 18A process, which was supposed to mark the company’s return to silicon process leadership, is still going into “volume production” in the second half of 2025, but don’t expect a full complement of laptops built on Intel’s Panther Lake silicon at once. Intel says it’ll launch its first Panther Lake chip for power users by the end of the year, but additional chips will come in Q1, according to Intel Products chief Michelle Johnston Holthaus.

Some of Intel’s chips may also cost more due to tariffs, though, and Intel’s bracing for people to potentially buy fewer computers as a result. “While we have offsets, including a global, highly diversified manufacturing footprint to help mitigate tariffs, we will certainly see costs increase and we feel it prudent to anticipate a TAM contraction,” Intel CFO David Zinsner says on the call.

That said, Holthaus says Panther Lake should be a good product from both performance and price perspectives, unlike the too-expensive Lunar Lake. She confirmed that the future Nova Lake, like Panther Lake, won’t be built entirely on Intel’s wafers but will still lean on Taiwan’s TSMC as well, but the plan is to eventually get to 70 percent manufactured in-house. Zinsner says Intel now believes it’s prudent to always have some outside manufacturing in addition to Intel’s own.

Here’s the full memo for posterity:

The following note from Lip-Bu Tan was emailed to all Intel Corporation employees on April 24, 2025:

Team,

Today we reported our Q1 2025 results. It was a step in the right direction as we delivered revenue, gross margin and EPS (earnings per share) above our guidance, driven by Dave and Michelle’s leadership. I want to thank them both, and all of you, for the good execution.

We need to build on this progress — and it won’t be easy. We are navigating an increasingly volatile and uncertain macroeconomic environment, which is reflected in our Q2 outlook. On top of that, there are many areas where we must improve. We need to confront our challenges head-on and take swift actions to get back on track.

As I have said, this starts by revamping our culture. The feedback I have received from our customers and many of you has been consistent. We are seen as too slow, too complex and too set in our ways — and we need to change.

Our flatter Executive Team (ET) structure that I shared last week was a first step. The next step is to drive greater simplicity, speed and collaboration across the entire company. To achieve these objectives, today I am announcing some important changes.

Becoming an Engineering-Focused Company

We need to get back to our roots and empower our engineers. That’s why I elevated our core engineering functions to the ET. And many of the changes we will be driving are designed to make engineers more productive by removing burdensome workflows and processes that slow down the pace of innovation.

To make necessary investments in our engineering talent and technology roadmaps, we need to find new ways to reduce our costs. While we have taken significant actions in the last year, our current cost structure is still well above competitive benchmarks. With that in mind, we have reduced our operating expense and capital spending targets going forward, which I will discuss during our investor call this afternoon.

Flattening the Organization

As we refocus on engineering, we will also remove organizational complexity. Many teams are eight or more layers deep, which creates unnecessary bureaucracy that slows us down. I have asked the ET to take a fresh look at their respective orgs, with a focus on removing layers, increasing spans of control and empowering top performers. Our competitors are lean, fast and agile — and that’s what we must become to improve our execution.

I’ve been surprised to learn that, in recent years, the most important KPI for many managers at Intel has been the size of their teams. Going forward, this will not be the case. I’m a big believer in the philosophy that the best leaders get the most done with the fewest people. We will embrace this mindset across the company, which will include empowering our top talent to make decisions and take greater ownership of key priorities.

There is no way around the fact that these critical changes will reduce the size of our workforce. As I said when I joined, we need to make some very hard decisions to put our company on a solid footing for the future. This will begin in Q2 and we will move as quickly as possible over the next several months.

We are going to be very intentional about where we focus these efforts and how we stack up against the best in the industry. We have learned some valuable lessons from past actions. We must balance our reductions with the need to retain and recruit key talent. I will empower each of my leaders to make the best possible decisions aligned with our top priorities. These decisions will not be made lightly, and we will keep you regularly informed.

Streamlining Our Processes

It has been eye-opening for me to see how much time and energy is spent on internal administrative work that does not move our business forward. We need to radically simplify this to maximize the time spent focusing on our customers.

I am instructing our leaders to eliminate unnecessary meetings and significantly reduce the number of meeting attendees. Too much valuable time is being wasted. We will also modernize processes with a focus on live dashboards and better data to ensure we have the real-time insights we need to make better and faster decisions.

In addition, I have decided to make our formal Insights and OKR requirements optional. While it’s crucial for us to stay accountable for our results and receive feedback on our performance, I believe we can achieve this in a simpler and more flexible way. Along the same lines, we will cut back on time-consuming corporate administrative tasks such as non-essential training and documentation.

Returning to the Office

Our existing policy is that our hybrid employees should spend approximately three days per week on site. Adherence to this policy has been uneven at best. I strongly believe that our sites need to be vibrant hubs of collaboration that reflect our culture in action.

When we spend time together in person, it fosters more engaging and productive discussion and debate. It drives better and faster decision-making. And it strengthens our connection with colleagues.

With that in mind, we will be updating our policy to require four days per week on site by Sept. 1. I wanted to tell you well in advance so that you have time to make any adjustments to your daily routines. We are going to work hard in the meantime to ensure sites are ready to operate at full capacity. Your local leadership will share site-specific details and seek your input on how to create the best possible on-site experience.

Building a New Intel

I realize this is a lot to take in, but we are playing from behind and we need to rally as a team to put ourselves in the best possible position to win.

This requires us to be laser-focused on developing the best products. We need to delight our customers and earn their trust by delivering the performance, quality and reliability they need to succeed. We must demonstrate predictable execution and ensure on-time delivery. And we need to deliver consistent returns for our shareholders.

There are two ways teams can respond at make-or-break moments like this: They can look at the gap they need to close and give up — or they can look inside themselves and fight like never before.

I made my choice last month when I decided to join you all, and there is no place I would rather be right now. I came on board knowing full well this would be the most challenging job of my career, but also the most motivating and fulfilling — because we have opportunities ahead that most people don’t get in their careers.

I’m talking about the opportunity to fundamentally reinvent an industry icon. To pull off a comeback that will be studied in business schools for generations to come. To create new technologies and deploy them at scale to change the world for the better.

Intel was once widely seen as the world’s most innovative company. There’s no reason we can’t get back there, so long as we drive the changes needed to improve.

It’s going to be hard. It will require painful decisions. But we will make them knowing it’s what we must do to serve our customers better as we build a new Intel for the future – and I have great confidence in the power of our team and our people to make it happen.

Thank you for everything you did in Q1. I look forward to talking more tomorrow during our All Company Meeting.

Lip-Bu Tan

How much will Trump’s threatened 245 percent tariffs truly impact Chinese goods and the prices we pay in the US? Some Chinese companies aren’t waiting to see. Anbernic, which makes excellent and controversial Nintendo Game Boy clones, is already suspending US shipments indefinitely.

“Due to changes in U.S. tariff policies, we will be suspending all orders shipping from China to the United States starting today,” writes Anbernic. “We strongly recommend prioritizing products shipped from our U.S. warehouse, which are currently not affected by import duties and can be purchased with confidence.”

No, Anbernic didn’t set up a brand-new US warehouse in response to tariffs — it’s been an option on its storefront for some time. Generally, Anbernic begins by drop-shipping each new handheld from China directly to buyers’ homes after they’re introduced, then stockpiles additional units in US warehouses for faster ship times. Anbernic lets buyers pick which warehouse they prefer on its checkout page.

As of last week, Anbernic had already begun suggesting that US buyers pick its US warehouse because “orders shipped to the United States may be subject to high customs duties,” asking customers to “take this potential risk into account when making your purchase decisions.”

But now, the company is suspending those shipments entirely — similarly to how acclaimed retro game scaler maker RetroTINK suspended shipments not just because of tariffs, but “due to lack of guidance on how tariffs will be collected.” I checked: while you can still add a Anbernic handheld to your US cart from a Chinese warehouse, the company offers plenty of warnings and won’t let you purchase it from there.

One reason for Anbernic’s popularity is that its retro handhelds are cheap, typically around $70 for the newest models. (Some also do an excellent job emulating the look and feel of classic Nintendo handhelds, as you can see in my videos above and below.) But those low prices are now completely under threat by Trump’s tariffs and the removal of the de minimis exemption for cheap Chinese goods. It’s not clear if or how companies like Anbernic could afford to resume shipments, should those tariffs actually take hold.

For the time being, Anbernic handhelds are also still available in the US via third-party sellers like Amazon — which I’ve always found surprising given that those ones typically come with Nintendo, Sega and Sony ROMs.

Retro Handhelds has a handy regularly updated page keeping track of handheld tariffs; so far, Anbernic is the only one to suspend US shipments entirely.

When Nintendo announced the Switch 2 would cost $450, my initial reaction was disappointment. “Why does it cost so much more?” I thought to myself. “Why does Japan get it cheaper?” my brain jealously added, once I learned that Nintendo would sell a Japan-only model for the equivalent of just $333.

It felt like Nintendo was about to overcharge the entire rest of the world for a modest improvement to its original $300 console, one that doesn’t come with an OLED display or anti-drift magnetic sticks. Surely it can’t cost Nintendo that much more to make, especially seeing how it’s selling the exact same hardware for so much “less” in Japan? 

But while Nintendo might be charging more than I’d like to spend, particularly with its $80 games and its button that makes you pay extra, I no longer think the company’s being distinctly unfair to gamers outside of Japan. The $450 price makes more sense when you consider what’s happened to the dollar and the yen. 

Since its March 3rd, 2017, debut, Nintendo basically hasn’t changed the price of the original Switch in either the US or Japan. The portable console cost $300 USD or Â¥32,378 in 2017; it costs the same $300 …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Earlier this year, modular computer company Framework began a quest to fix “entry-level laptops” with the Framework Laptop 12, its first 12-inch laptop and its first 2-in-1 touchscreen PC. And as you might expect, Trump’s new US tariffs are making entry-level pricing difficult for Framework, which at least briefly delayed US preorders of the new Laptop 12 and paused sales on its other cheapest machines.

But tariffs or no, the new Framework Laptop 12 won’t exactly be cheap.

Framework has now opened Laptop 12 pre-orders in the US on Thursday starting at $549, after opening them for the UK, Europe, and Canada at €569/£499/$719 CAD a day earlier.

Those prices are hundreds less than Framework’s other DIY laptops, but a good bit higher than today’s entry-level Windows laptops and Chromebooks even before you consider that price doesn’t include storage, memory, ports, or an operating system. If you want those preinstalled, the machines start at $799 US, €849, £749, and $1,079 CAD respectively, which is getting close to what Framework charges for its Laptop 13.

As usual, you pay more for Framework because you believe in repairability and upgrades, ones that might even save you money down the road. To date, Framework is the only company that’s delivered on the promise of a fully upgradable laptop, to the point you can even take its earliest Intel-based model and put a brand-new AMD motherboard and chip inside. We were also impressed with the Laptop 12’s colorful and friendly design!

But with the Framework Laptop 12, you’re also paying for a 2-in-1 backflipping touchscreen rather than the latest chips. At $549 or £499, it starts with a six-core 13th Gen Intel Core i3-1315U from 2023, with a 10-core i5-1334U available for $150 or £150 more. The $799/£749 prebuilt model starts with the same i3 chip, 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, and you’ll pay $250/£200 more ($1049/£949) to upgrade to the i5 and 16GB of memory.

$799 and $1,049 machines aren’t exactly entry-level for the United States, and my colleague Jess Weatherbed assures me that similarly spec’d laptops can be had for anywhere between £400 and £600 in the UK. In either locale, you can find more powerful thin-and-light machines available at the prices that Framework’s asking today. Again, repairability and modularity aren’t free.

Framework isn’t yet selling the color-matched stylus with removable battery it showed off as a companion to this Laptop 12; that will go on sale “soon” and you’ll have to buy it separately. But you can also use any USI 2.0 or MPP 2.0-compatible stylus, the company says, with support for both Windows and Linux.

Speaking of colors, it appears that the prebuilt Laptop 12 will only be available in black for now. You’ll have to choose the mostly preassembled “DIY” version to get cute colors like the mint and pink model.

The DIY and prebuilt models should ship in June and July, respectively, Framework wrote Wednesday, but I’m seeing that new buyers will get their machines in July or later. The June batch sold out less than an hour after preorders went live, though buyers who wish to donate $250 to Hack Club can get their preorder bumped to June for the black color of the laptop.

Update, April 10th: Updated now that Framework has also put the US version on preorder.

Thanks to Framework, one of the most transparent computer companies out there, we now have a sterling example of just how ridiculous President Donald Trump’s tariffs can make life in the year 2025.

Today, the company made all of its computers more expensive. Then, it almost immediately reversed that to bring its computers back to their original prices, in real time, all because Trump posted to social media that he was instituting a tariff pause less than a day after his new tariffs began. Then, Framework clarified that some price increases will still apply on China-made components.

Here’s the timeline of events:

• At 12:01AM ET Wednesday, Trump’s new tariffs went into effect, including an incredible 104 percent tariff on China and a 32 percent tariff on Taiwan.
• At 12:30PM ET, Framework announced a 10 percent price hike on all its computers, one it never thought it would need to introduce because it doesn’t make computers in China. (It does make them in Taiwan.)
• At 1:18PM ET, just over 12 hours after the new tariffs were officially in place, Trump announced a 90-day pause on tariffs for most countries but an increased 125 percent rate for China.
• At 1:48PM ET, Framework announced that nope, actually, it’s bringing prices back to normal.
• At 3:43PM ET, Framework announced that some prices will still reflect increased tariffs on China.

Things are still a bit convoluted, but here’s the general lay of the land: since Trump is still imposing 10 percent tariffs on Taiwan, Framework will continue a pause on selling some of its cheapest laptop configurations “where we’re unable to absorb the remaining 10% tariff.” Additionally, some of Framework’s made-in-China modules now cost more, like $15 for a USB-C port rather than $9, or $49 for an Ethernet card rather than $39 — and Framework says systems that ship with those modules will see those same price increases.

A 10 percent price hike wasn’t the only change Framework made in response to Trump’s tariffs. This very morning, Framework delayed opening preorders for its new entry-level Framework Laptop 12 in the United States even as it put it on sale in other territories. (Here’s my new story about that machine.)

You can read more about Framework’s thought process on the tariffs in its likely-soon-to-be-revised blog post published earlier today, where it initially promised to absorb part of the increased cost. While it builds systems in Taiwan, Framework says that many of its modular components are still manufactured in China where Trump’s tariffs are strongest, and it’s possible that prices for those will continue to go up.

Here is that whole original blog post for posterity, as written by Framework CEO Nirav Patel:

As a result of the new tariffs that were announced last week, we have a series of unfortunate price and availability adjustments we need to make for US customers. We manufacture most of our products in Taiwan, for which we now face a new 32% import tariff into the US. We’re absorbing part of this cost temporarily, and we are increasing prices on in-stock laptops and new system pre-orders by approximately 10% for US customers. For our lowest-priced configurations, where we can’t afford to absorb the tariffs, we’re currently pausing sales to the US. We’re also delaying the pre-order launch of Framework Laptop 12 in the US. We’re continuing to monitor changes to tariffs, and we will make additional adjustments if needed. For non-US customers, there is currently no tariff impact, and we’re keeping the same pricing and availability of our products.

First, I want to acknowledge that this sucks, for you, for us, and for our mission to remake Consumer Electronics. We will get through it. This isn’t the first challenge we’ve faced, and it won’t be the last one. We’ll navigate through and keep focused on delivering great products and fulfilling this mission. We’re going to remain open and transparent throughout and try to bring clarity to a messy situation wherever we can.

Next, let’s go into more detail on the specific changes we’re making. Our Framework Laptops, Mainboards, Framework Desktop, and a subset of our modules are made in Taiwan, which means they are now impacted by a 32% import tariff to the US. Those are the products we’re increasing pricing on by 10% in the US, and we may need to increase this further if tariffs persist. Many of our modules are currently manufactured in China, where we face between 104% and 129% (!!!) tariffs. On those modules, we’re also absorbing part of the tariff and increasing pricing, depending on the category. Our Western Digital storage is manufactured in Malaysia, which now faces a 24% tariff. We’ve also increased storage pricing by up to 10%, but recommend that you purchase it elsewhere for your DIY Edition if possible, like directly from the Western Digital website.

These changes are going into effect now in the US for both in-stock orders and for new pre-orders. We’re enacting tariff absorption along with price increases as a temporary measure while we track the evolving situation around tariffs. In the event tariffs are removed, we’ll reset pre-orders that haven’t yet been fulfilled back to their previous prices. If tariffs persist or increase, we’ll likely need to increase US prices further. For existing US pre-orders of Framework Laptop 13 (AMD Ryzen AI 300 Series) and Framework Desktop, we’re still determining how to handle the tariff impact. In the event we need to adjust pricing, we will ask for your confirmation on the new price before finalizing your pre-order. We’ve also temporarily removed the functionality to edit configurations of existing US pre-orders, but you’ll still be able to edit your order at pre-order finalization. As always, pre-orders remain fully refundable. We’ll keep you updated on US pre-order timing for Framework Laptop 12. We’re reserving some manufacturing capacity for US orders to be able to ship alongside orders from other countries.

For US orders of parts and modules that ship from our New Jersey warehouse, we’ve temporarily paused ordering while we implement changes that let us decouple pricing between laptop configuration items and items in the Framework Marketplace. When we open ordering again, we’ll continue to sell items that are already in inventory in the US at the original price, while updating pricing for each item when we import new inventory. Canadian orders that ship from our US warehouse will also remain at the original CAD price at the moment, but we may need to make future price adjustments on items that are made in China, on which we face some tariff impact.

Now, let’s get into more detail about how the tariffs work. We’re keeping this apolitical and sharing more about how this works operationally. When goods are imported into the US, tariffs are assessed based on the country of origin and the HTS (Harmonized Tariff Schedule) code that the goods are classified as. We ship all of our products DDP (Delivered Duty Paid), meaning we pay tariffs as goods clear customs and include the cost inside of our product pricing. The tariff is calculated against the value of the product at import, meaning our cost as the importer, rather than the final price we charge for the product. The country of origin is defined as the last location in which “substantial transformation” occurs. For computers, US Customs has specifically defined substantial transformation as the location at which the main circuit board is assembled.

When starting Framework five years ago, we anticipated increased trade challenges between the US and China, and we chose to build most of our manufacturing and logistics footprint in Taiwan. At the time, imports from China to the US were subject to 7.5-25% Section 301 tariffs, with exceptions that included laptops, but not laptop parts. Because we’ve assembled our Mainboards in Taiwan since 2022 (we also do final system assembly and make magnesium parts and some aluminum parts there), the country of origin for our laptops is Taiwan. While this has largely shielded us from earlier rounds of tariffs on imports from China, all countries with a meaningful electronics manufacturing infrastructure are impacted by the current round. We are actively investigating paths to perform Mainboard assembly in the US, but our current manufacturing partners do not have necessary infrastructure in place. We were also already in the process of moving some module production from China to lower-tariff regions like Thailand and Indonesia. Migrating manufacturing partners or setting up new manufacturing infrastructure is a theoretical long term solution, but is not something we can execute ahead of tariffs coming into place this week.

This brings us back to the price and availability adjustments. Our products are built around longevity, and our business is too. We’ve built excellent Supply Chain and Logistics teams to be ready for this kind of disruption, and they are exploring every possible option to get back to normal US fulfillment. We’ll share changes and solutions as we come up with them, and we’ll remain transparent throughout. Thanks for continuing to follow along the journey.

We’ll let you know if Framework changes its plans further.

Update, 4:31PM ET: Added that Framework will continue to charge more for made-in-China modules, though it will no longer do a global 10 percent price hike on all US systems.

Kevin Bates managed to quit his day job and move to China after his game-playing business card, the Arduboy, went viral in 2014. But a decade later, Trump’s staggering and inexplicable new US tariffs are driving him out of business.

Just as he was about to turn a profit for the first time, just before he was about to bring a new product to retail, he tells The Verge that his company can no longer survive as-is. He says that despite lifetime Arduboy sales of over $1 million, much of it from recent growth in 2023 and 2024, Trump’s new 104 percent China tariffs will be the beginning of the end.

“I just like making circuit boards and helping people learn to code games. This is all too much,” he says.

Even if he wanted to — Bates admits he’s been looking to sunset Arduboy for a while — he says he wouldn’t be able to satisfy Trump’s stated goal of restarting manufacturing in the US.

“There are no manufacturers in the USA who would even answer an email to produce Arduboy, much less give a good price. I could build them myself and end up making about $10 an hour, still paying a crazy amount for components.”

Instead, he says, his options are to dramatically raise prices, find a way around the tariffs, or simply kill off Arduboy for good.

“The fact Arduboy could exist at all was kind of a miracle of global trade. An individual person, producing and distributing an international product with margins that would never work at a larger company. I didn’t need 80 percent markup to survive,” he says, adding that his actual margins ranged from 30 to 50 percent.

Trump’s US tariffs would entirely wipe out those margins, and he says China’s retaliatory tariffs would hurt too, as they would impose a 34 percent tariff on the Arduboy’s US-made processor, which Bates says is the most expensive component in the system.

While he’s hopeful that some larger organization might buy Arduboy and take up the torch, he admits that’s not terribly realistic in this economic climate, and he’s already declaring Arduboy “dead” on his LinkedIn and in the Arduboy forums. He’s already looking for a new day job once again.

But he says Arduboy isn’t quite dead yet. He wants to launch one last Kickstarter for a USB-C version of the Arduboy with “more features like real time clock, IR blaster, and link cable support,” assuming he can figure out how to ship them at a price people will pay. He says he already saw $99 Arduboy FX Special Edition as overpriced for what it is, and he isn’t looking forward to charging $200 for a new version or saddling buyers with customs fees should he choose to drop-ship them.

“The only realistic solution is to warehouse the inventory somewhere that doesn’t have Chinese import taxes, and drop ship everything. I visited my factory last year to talk about this, and they said all their customers are in the same situation so they said they would have a solution. But one has not materialized yet,” he says.

Speaking of drop-shipping and customs fees, that is probably what you should expect if you buy the new banana-shaped Arduboy or the last few remaining units of the Arduboy FX Special Edition. “I am planning to fulfill the orders but they may be drop shipped, so U.S. customers should be aware that import taxes may now apply,” he tells The Verge. But he also may just turn off Banana-Bit preorders, as he says he’s only sold about a dozen so far.

He also warns these packages could get held up at US customs for a time, because Trump has also gotten rid of the de minimis exemption that let low-value packages enter the US duty-free. “That’s going to impact everything from Shein to Temu to AliExpress, and honestly, it’s going to be chaos. U.S. customs isn’t ready for that volume,” he says.

Bates says Trump’s trade war is “an absolute unmitigated disaster for anyone without the ability to dramatically restructure.”

“I guess that’s the point,” he adds.

Every time I see “mAh” on a consumer product, I cringe. Megahertz are starting to bruise, too. That’s because the most critical components of portable gadgets — batteries and processors — should really be measured in watts: it’s the one common spec that gives you a real idea of what your device can do.

With watts, you can tell how much literal power is under the hood — how much energy is provided by your battery and how much is coursing through your chip. Watts determine whether there’s enough cooling to let that processor run free, instead of overheating and throttling prematurely. Watts can even tell you how much battery life you have left, based on the watt-hours (Wh) of battery remaining and the wattage at which your device is draining. 

You can do it all with elementary school math — so why aren’t watts everywhere? Consumers are regularly exposed to wattage measurements when buying light bulbs or reading their power bills. But many gadget manufacturers insist on measuring their batteries in milliamp-hours and their chip speed in megahertz or gigahertz, neither of which are a good measure of a device’s true power. 

The Steam Deck gaming handheld is my go-to exampl …

Read the full story at The Verge.