Connexion
Apple is working on an AI server that would use Apple’s high-performance M-series Ultra chips found in Mac desktops. The potential product’s expected release in 2029 would mark the first Apple server to hit the market in nearly two decades—and could capitalize on the surging popularity of Apple hardware among AI developers.
The enterprise server would come in two configurations that include either two or four of Apple’s future M8 Ultra chips, according to The Information. The project reportedly received support from new Apple CEO John Ternus when it began a year ago, back when Ternus led Apple’s hardware engineering efforts.
This revelation coincides with booming sales for Apple’s Mac mini and Mac Studio as AI developers and companies snap up the Mac computers to run AI workloads. The popularity of such computing devices that rely on Apple’s M-series Ultra chips has undoubtedly encouraged Apple’s pursuit of an enterprise server using the same chips.
On Monday, Nintendo announced that it will stop selling the original Switch in Europe next February. That decision comes in response to European regulations that will soon require easily replaceable batteries in most consumer electronics. Rather than redesigning multiple original Switch models to comply with that regulation (as it is doing with the Switch 2), Nintendo has decided it will just stop selling the older console in the region.
Those new battery rules won't affect the availability of the Switch outside of Europe, of course. But the move got us wondering how much longer Nintendo might keep selling the 9-year-old Switch now that the Switch 2 is drawing the focus of both the company and the market.
An Ars analysis of Nintendo's recent history (as documented in its annual earnings releases) shows that sales for even the company's bestselling hardware tend to decline to zero after nine years on the market. But the data also shows the Switch being a relatively resilient market force that could sustain its commercial life well into its second decade on the market.
Well, that was fast. Less than 24 hours after Valve announced renewed availability of the Steam Deck OLED (at a massively increased MSRP), the handheld is once again listed as "out of stock" in the US and Canada. Spot checks of other regional Steam stores on Thursday morning showed the hardware as still available across Europe and Australia for the time being, as well as in Asian countries through Valve's sales partner Komodo.
While it's hard to know from the outside just how many Steam Deck units sold at the new inflated price, those sales were enough to once again boost the hardware to the top of Steam's Top Sellers list. That list is based on total revenue over the last 24 hours, though, so the $789 Steam Deck could easily have sold many fewer distinct copies than the highest-ranked software on the current list, the $70 007 First Light.
Valve's Steam Deck store page notes that the handheld "may be out-of-stock intermittently in some regions due to memory and storage shortages." But that warning first appeared on the store site back in February, and stock-tracking websites show there have only been exceedingly brief availability windows for Steam Deck purchases between then and now.
When we reviewed the new Steam Controller last month, we noted how the satisfying click of the magnetic charging puck easily connecting to the back of the controller lets users “save the hassle of fiddling with a power cord.” But one Reddit user’s experience highlights how the exposed contacts on that puck can be a fire hazard if Steam Controller owners aren’t careful.
On the r/SteamController subreddit, user Toikka shared how the metal portion of the charging puck “started sizzling due to a short circuit” when it came in contact with their metallic watch strap. The strap had apparently flopped down from a nearby watch charger and hit the controller puck “at the exact wrong angle,” which “almost started a fire,” the user wrote.
This is a potential issue that Valve appears to be aware of. In the manual included with every Steam Controller, Valve warns that both the charging puck and the Controller contain ”magnetic parts [that] may attract magnetic items.” Users should make sure both are “free of metallic objects” in order “to reduce the potential risks of sparks and resulting property damage or possible injury,” Valve wrote. The manual also warns that the magnets could have a negative effect on medical devices, credit cards, and magnetic data storage placed nearby.
Since time immemorial, serious PC gamers have proselytized about the superiority of mouse and keyboard control schemes over the more input-limited handheld controllers used by most console gamers (and others). In recent years, though, many PC gamers have started keeping a spare Xbox controller (or similar) nearby for the increasing number of PC games designed primarily or exclusively with thumbsticks and buttons in mind.
Valve's upcoming Steam Controller (not to be confused with the 2015 controller of the same name) is the Steam maker's effort to replace those controllers with something more explicitly designed for the PC, and for the upcoming Steam Machine. After spending a few weeks with the controller, though, we're not quite sure it sets itself apart from the competition enough to justify its high $99 asking price.
From the first time you hold a Steam Controller in your hands, it's clear that this is a well-made piece of hardware. There's a sturdy build quality to all the pieces that makes the controller feel solid in the hand, with just enough heft to feel substantial without being too heavy.
Lateo.net - Flux RSS en pagaille (pour en ajouter : @ moi) 