TechPowerUP NEWS

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Fussing with a traditional scanner in 2025 is like still using a flip phone—it gets the job done, but there's a much smarter way to handle things. The iScanner is a professional-grade scanning app that turns your iPhone or iPad into a full-fledged document scanner, editor, and organizer.

Whether you're working remotely, running a business, or just need to digitize receipts and notes on the go, iScanner lets you scan, edit, and manage files anywhere—no bulky equipment required. For a limited time, you can grab a lifetime subscription to iScanner for just $24.99 (reg. $199.99) with code SCAN. That's a one-time payment for unlimited access.

iScanner can turn paper into searchable PDFs, extract text using AI-powered OCR, and even help you solve math problems by scanning equations. You can edit documents, add e-signatures, mark up text, and merge multiple files without ever touching a desktop computer.
Get lifetime access to the iScanner app for just $24.99 (reg. $199.99) with code SCAN through March 30 only.Read full story

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[NextPowerUP]

Last week, South Korean semiconductor industry moles let slip about the development of an "Exynos 2600" mobile chipset at Samsung Electronics. This speculative flagship processor was linked to the manufacturer's (inevitable) launch of Galaxy S26 smartphone models in early 2026. Despite rumors of the firm's Foundry service making decent progress with their preparation of a cutting-edge 2 nm Gate-All-Around (GAA) node, certain critics reckon that Samsung will be forced into signing another (less than ideal) chip supply deal with Qualcomm. According to The Bell SK's latest news report, Samsung's LSI Division is working with plenty of determination—an alleged main goal being the next wave of top-end Galaxy smartphones deployed next year with in-house tech onboard.

Inside sources propose that Samsung's Exynos 2600 SoC needs to be "finished by the middle of the third quarter of this year," thus ensuring the release of in-house chip-powered Galaxy S26 devices. It is not clear whether this forecast refers to a finalized design or the start of mass production. The latest whispers regarding another proprietary next-gen mobile processor—Exynos 2500—paint a murky picture. Past leaks indicated possible avenues heading towards forthcoming Galaxy Z Flip 7 and Fold 7 smartphone models. The latest reports have linked this design to a mature 4 nm process and eventual fitting inside affordable "Galaxy Z Flip FE" Enterprise Edition SKUs. The Bell contacted one of its trusted sources—the unnamed informant observed that everything is in flux: "Exynos 2500 production plan is constantly changing...I thought it was certain, but I heard that the possibility has recently decreased slightly." Reportedly, Samsung employees have their plates full with plenty of simultaneous projects in 2025.

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[NextPowerUP]

The upcoming park management sim Mars Attracts has just released a playable demo of the game on Steam. The demo release coincided with the release of an all-new trailer featuring an in-depth look at the gameplay, which sees the player building whacky rides, managing the needs of fickle Martian guests, and abducting humans to serve as the star attractions. This latest trailer reveals all new experiments and amenities for messing with the unfortunate human captives.

In the demo, players will be able to push their humans to the limits of sanity in the name of Martian science, and get a real taste for the management systems and darkly mischievous gameplay that Mars Attracts has to offer. Throughout the development journey, Outlier has encouraged fans to contribute to the direction of Mars Attracts - and the demo is just the latest step in this journey, ahead of an Early Access release later this year.
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My name is Patrick, and I am the Art Director for Zockrates Laboratories, the indie studio currently developing Ruffy and the Riverside. Together with our publisher, Phiphen Games, we are proud to announce that Ruffy and the Riverside will be released on PlayStation 5 on June 26, 2025. We are happy to contribute to Playstation's tradition of representing innovative and unique gameplay.

A platformer adventure with unique gameplay
Ruffy and the Riverside is a platformer adventure with truly unique gameplay. When Ruffy isn't jumping, running, skating, or gliding, he is using his unique Swap ability. With the Swap, you can copy and paste textures to change the game world, solve puzzles, beat enemies, and eventually save the world. Just grab a texture and throw it somewhere else, and the world will change! It is as easy as it sounds and has huge impacts: Transform water into ice to cross an ocean. Throw a climbing vine onto a waterfall, and you can climb up. With the Swap, you can exchange materials, symbols, the sun for the moon, and all colors. If you color birds the same color, they might end up as a couple. Apples are more yummy when they are red, and some bushes will drop coins if they have a golden look. Of course, the Swap can help in combat, too. Why not freeze an enemy or catch him in flight by turning him into stone? The elements are on your side if you swap them wisely. Use your imagination and make it happen. It really feels magic to swap things.
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A member of GIGABYTE's gaming subreddit has shared a worrying HWiNFO diagnostics readout accompanied by a simple title: "X870E AORUS XTREME AI TOP Chipset with AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D—Chipset 2 (xHCI) 109.9 °C." Xabiro's initial post attracted replies that disclosed additional feedback regarding higher than expected temperature measurements. Another member—RyanOCallaghan01—exclaimed in the comments section: "damn. I am having the same problem, Chipset 2 is almost reaching 100 degrees Celcius, and I have not even got a high-powered GPU installed. I have seen your image and starting to suspect mine may be the same." The original poster proceeded to disassemble their thermally-challenged X870E AORUS XTREME AI TOP specimen, and quickly identified the root cause—affecting one of the board design's two daisy-chained Promontory 21 chipsets.

Xabiro described this problem-solving process: "I removed the heat sink and actually the top AMD chipset is not touching the heat sink no matter what I do...I didn't have any GPU installed yet, but I just solved (the temperature problem) yesterday, with thermal paste combined with Thermal Grizzly (TG) KryoSheet, just because I didn't have TG Putty Pro. Now the maximum temperature is 65 °C—also on the bottom one was just changed to TG Kryonaut, and it is under 50 °C. Quite ironically, GIGABYTE recently engaged in some public mocking of a troubled ASUS motherboard feature. Xabiro suspected that the X870E AORUS XTREME AI TOP mainboard's EZ Latch Plus GPU quick release system is preventing good contact between surfaces. They observed that: "the plastic ornament which goes from the PCIe to the release button is too high and the top part of the heat sink stays on it, and just simply cannot touch the chipset die."
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At Xbox, our mission is clear: bring the joy and community of gaming to everyone on the planet. We believe that gamers should be able to play the games they want, with the people they want, anywhere they want. Central to this vision is empowering game creators to deliver exceptional content across all platforms seamlessly. Our goal is simple: to make every screen in the world an Xbox.

Since the original Xbox debuted as the first game console equipped with a built-in hard drive, this kernel of innovation has been at the core of our identity. With Xbox Live, we reshaped multiplayer gaming, establishing an industry standard for online connectivity, community building, and digital distribution. Furthering our commitment to accessibility and choice, Xbox Game Pass introduced a subscription model that redefined how players discover and engage with games, creating new opportunities for developers to connect with audiences worldwide. Since our earliest explorations in the console space, we're proud to have led the way in ensuring that hardware and services can best meet the changing needs of the gaming audience.
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Last month, ASRock added two "brand-new" B650M Pro X3D motherboard models to its global website. The Taiwanese manufacturer did not release any press material at the time, so the low-key additions were only spotted by watchful PC hardware news outlets. At the time, ASRock signalled that the eventual launch of "Pro X3D" mainboards would be restricted to certain market regions. Roughly a month later, momomo_us has stumbled across fresh listings in Japan. Yodobashi and Dospara are ready to ship out the ASRock B650M Pro X3D WiFi SKU to local customers. Respective price points—including VAT—are 26,640 yen (~$179 USD), and 23,980 yen (~$161 USD).

Curiously, the B650M Pro X3D series registers as an almost perfect visual match when compared to ASRock's "slightly older" B850M Pro RS mainboard family. Dospara's current price for the B850M Pro RS WiFi SKU is 27,800 yen (~$186.61 USD). This "refreshed" B650M design is up-to-date enough with PCI-E 5.0 support for mounted graphics cards and SSDs. According to the brand's product description: "(our Pro X3D motherboard series) is optimized for AMD Ryzen (9000 and 7000) X3D processors, delivering superior stability, compatibility, and enhanced performance, making it ideal for gaming and creating." Due to apparent confusion between "Pro X3D" and the latest "Pro RS" aesthetic, ASRock is not expected to roll out of with a wide release (of the former).

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What if the world ended in the 1980s? The answer remains a mystery, but Bloober Team is offering a sneak peek of the first episode of the Cronos: The New Dawn dev diary. Premiering during the Future Game Show at the 2025 Game Developers Conference, this electrifying behind-the-scenes video takes you through the making of Bloober Team's all-new survival horror experience. Get ready to uncover some of the secrets lurking within this post-apocalyptic vision of 1980s Poland. In October 2024, Bloober Team, the masterminds behind Layers of Fear, The Medium, Observer, and the SILENT HILL 2 remake, unveiled their newest horror IP, Cronos: The New Dawn. This high-stakes survival horror adventure immerses players in a deadly struggle against overwhelming and relentless foes, all while unraveling the mysteries of a twisted and fractured time travel narrative.

The game's enigmatic premise has sparked intense curiosity, and now, developers and co-directors Wojciech Piejko and Jacek Zięba have addressed some of the most pressing questions from the community. This exciting video takes a deeper dive into the world of Cronos, revealing more about the game's determined protagonist, the hauntingly desolate future landscape, and the terrifying monsters players will encounter. What's exciting for players is that the Dev Diary offers an exclusive first look at new gameplay clips showcasing the mechanics that will define the player experience in the upcoming game.
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Intel just started a succession of its Foundry division management. According to an Intel spokesperson for Tom's Hardware, Dr. Ann Kelleher is heading for retirement after spending 30 years at Intel. Dr. Kelleher is the executive vice president of Intel Foundry and has been the head of foundry technology development since 2020. For the past 30 years, Dr. Kelleher has been there for Intel's ups and downs, overcoming many challenges for the company. This year, Dr. Kelleher's impressive 30-year run at Intel is coming to an end as she heads to a well-deserved retirement. While not being active, her immense knowledge and education are still valuable, and she will remain a board advisor.

Succeeding her at the head of the Foundry front-end division will be Naga Chandrasekaran, who brings over three decades of semiconductor experience, 20 of which have been spent at Micron. Assisting Naga Chandrasekaran with back-end foundry operations like packaging will be Navid Shahriari, who spent over 35 years at Intel and is currently a senior vice president. In a statement for Tom's Hardware, Intel noted: "As previously announced, Dr. Ann Kelleher plans to retire later this year following a distinguished career spanning over 30 years with Intel. With a strong foundry leadership team in place and Intel 18A progressing well ahead of our first product launch and external customer tape-outs, this is a well-planned transition as we continue to advance our Foundry priorities in service to customers."
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Taiwan's Original Price House and MSI are running a compelling promotion; involving the trade in of the manufacturer's signature "Lucky Dragon" figurines for a GeForce RTX 5080 VANGUARD SOC graphics card. As reported by HKEPC Hardware, five lucky participants have managed to exchange completed sets—of nine individual toys—for GB203 GPU-based flagships. According to MSI's "Blind Box Of Lucky" landing page, ten exclusive designs—including a rare Maoi secret edition—were produced and then (randomly) bundled into VANGUARD Launch Edition packages. HKEPC outlined conditions: "applicable models include GeForce RTX 5070, RTX 5070 Ti, RTX 5080 and RTX 5090. It is limited to only 1,000 pieces worldwide." VideoCardz reckons that majority of Lucky Dragon VANGUARD boxes were sent to reviewers and influencers, so it could be challenging for mere mortals to accumulate a qualifying tally of cute plastic mascots.

As disclosed by HKEPC (a Hong Kong-based organization), one individual has gone to great lengths to complete the set: "a Taiwanese netizen posted in the HKEPC DIY group, hoping to purchase the 'Lucky Dragon' at a high price of NT$4,000 ($121 USD). After inquiry, it was learned that this is related to an event currently being held in Taiwan. As long as you collect 9 different Lucky Around the World Dragons before May 31, 2025 and keep the outer box, Taiwan Original Price House will exchange them for an MSI RTX 5080 VANGUARD graphics card worth NT$43,990 ($1332 USD), and there is no limit to the number of cards you can exchange." As of late January, the editor of Cool PC—a Taiwanese media outlet—was seeking to complete their set of MSI "Lucky Around The World" dragon collectibles. They used their news section to send out a personal request to readers: "when he has collected 9 of them, he can exchange them for a GeForce RTX 5080 at Original Price House!..The editor likes it very much, and is willing to exchange it with the lucky person who has collected a set of 9 different Lucky Around the World Dragons."

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At the 2025 CES, Epomaker officially introduced its latest innovation, the Epomaker Magcore 87 keyboard. Equipped with inductive switches, which offer precise and adjustable actuation points, the keyboard quickly became a focal point for global tech media and keyboard enthusiasts.

More than a testament to Epomaker's commitment to advancing the keyboard, the Epomaker Magcore 87 further reinforces the brand's core philosophy "From the community, For the community." With user needs at its core, this keyboard delivers a more precise, stable, and highly customizable typing and gaming experience.
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Kioxia's LC9 Series 122.88 TB NVMe SSD was photographed on the show floor at NVIDIA's GTC 2025 by Tom's Hardware, revealing the first production-ready implementation of the company's BiCS FLASH generation 8 3D QLC technology with 2 Tb die density. The 2.5-inch form factor drive delivers immense storage density in the enterprise SSD market on a PCIe 5.0 connection. The LC9 Series features a dual-port design providing 128 GT/s throughput via PCIe 5.0 1x4 or 2x2 configurations, with NVMe 2.0 and NVMe-MI compliance. Built specifically to address density requirements for AI workloads, the drive leverages CMOS directly Bonded to Array (CBA) technology in its flash architecture. The enterprise-class unit is rated at 0.3 drive writes per day (DWPD) and 67,000 TBW endurance, positioning it for read-intensive applications rather than write-heavy workloads. The reported read speeds are around 15 GB/s, as demonstrated at the booth.

The LC9 supports vector database operations through Kioxia's AiSAQ technology implementation, which transfers vector database operations from DRAM to SSD storage. This approach significantly reduces system-level costs while maintaining acceptable latency profiles for AI RAG operations. Kioxia demonstrated the SSD at booth #1811 at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center through March 21, with live performance demonstrations highlighting its capabilities in AI dataset retrieval operations. The drive represents a critical advancement for enterprise AI infrastructure where data density and retrieval speeds are becoming bottlenecks in scaled LLM deployments. A massive capacity will allow entire enterprises to operate AI LLMs on top of company data with RAG and at low latency and high endurance.

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Kaiserpunk, the highly-anticipated grand city-builder, from Overseer Games and co-published by Elda Entertainment, is now available on Steam for $29.99. Kaiserpunk challenges players to build thriving cities, maximize industrial power, and lead military campaigns across an alternate-history Interbellum Era (1918-1945). Combining large scale city-building, deep production chains, and global conquest, Kaiserpunk offers a unique blend of creativity and strategy. Players can shape their empire through military might or diplomacy—creating a city-state that will rise from the ashes of war and leave its mark on history.

"Kaiserpunk has been a journey of ambition and passion," said Danijel Mihokovic, game director on Kaiserpunk and co-founder of Overseer Games. "We set out to create a city-builder that not only lets you construct a metropolis but also challenges you to shape its destiny on a global scale. We're beyond excited to see players dive into the world and make history their own."
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Developers at Nightdive Studios will be the first to tell you no two projects are alike. Nowhere is this more true than the soon-to-be-released remaster of System Shock 2. Announced six years ago as System Shock 2: Enhanced Edition, Nightdive reannounced the project under a new name—System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster. This name change offered eagle-eyed fans a clue as to the remaster's release window, which is only accurate preceding August 11 when System Shock 2 celebrates its 26th birthday. Sure enough, during today's MIX Spring Showcase, Nightdive shared the exciting news that System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster will release on June 26. As exciting as it's been for System Shock fans to hear they'll soon be able to play Nightdive's long-awaited System Shock 2 remaster, one key question remains: why did it take six years?

Good things take time
Nightdive has been chipping away at its remaster of System Shock 2 in the years following its announcement, working on it in conjunction with other projects. While many of these harbored their fair share of challenges, System Shock 2 was unique in regards to the number and type of complexities the team encountered. One of the biggest according to Nightdive developer Alex Lima was a lack of access to the game's complete source code. To piece everything together, "extensive reverse engineering" was required. "The codebase is a complex amalgamation of various legacy libraries developed by Looking Glass, along with some more recent contributions from both Irrational Games and Looking Glass," Lima explains. "There's virtually no consistent coding standard. As a result, we had to depend extensively on debugging and breakpoints to understand its functionality."
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SMART Modular Technologies, Inc. ("SMART"), a Penguin Solutions, Inc. brand and a global leader in integrated memory solutions, solid-state drives, and hybrid storage products, announced today it is now sampling its redefined Non-Volatile CXL Memory Module (NV-CMM) to tier 1 OEMs based on the CXL 2.0 standard. This innovative product combines non-volatile high-performance DRAM memory, persistent flash memory and an energy source in a single removable EDSFF form factor to deliver superior reliability and serviceability for data-intensive applications. The NV-CMM module further expands the SMART family of CXL products introduced in the last year.

"Our NV-CMM represents a paradigm shift in memory technology for data centers," said Torry Steed, senior product marketing manager at SMART Modular Technologies. "By combining the benefits of non-volatile memory with the CXL standard, we're making it significantly easier for system integrators to incorporate compact, non-volatile, high performance persistent memory into their products."
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