By ckasprzak | TkOut
| April 23, 2026 |
Hardware
The Hot Take: Cool, I mean if it makes sense I'm all for it.
Shortly after their discovery, carbon nanotubes seemed to be a material wonder. There were metallic and semiconducting forms; they were tiny and incredibly light; and they could only be broken by tearing apart chemical bonds. The ideas for using them seemed endless.
But then the reality of working with them set in. It was hard to get a pure population of metallic or semiconducting forms. Synthesis techniques tended to produce a tangle of mostly short nanotubes; those that extended for more than a couple of centimeters remain rare. And while the metallic version offered little resistance to carrying electric current, it was hard to send many electrons down the nanotube.
Materials scientists, however, are a stubborn bunch, and they're still trying to get them to work. Today's issue of Science includes a paper describing the addition of a chemical to carbon nanotube bundles to boost their ability to carry current to levels closer to those of copper. While the more conductive nanotubes weren't stable, the discovery may point the way toward something with a longer shelf life.Read full article
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The Hot Take: The more the merrier!
Elon Musk's SpaceX set to produce 'own GPUs' at its own multi-billion fab as the company warns that it may be unable to purchase all the silicon it needs to meet its goals.
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The Hot Take: Again the people out there are calling this cheating. I say if you optimized for your hardware how is it cheating????
While everyone wants faster hardware, Intel says the answer lies in software optimization, and the P and E cores are almost identical in gaming performance. Robert Hallock Says E-Cores Don't Degrade Gaming Performance and PC Enthusiasts are "Underestimating" the Importance of Software Intel might not have been able to deliver X3D-equivalent performance in gaming with its latest Core Ultra 200 series, but it has gotten closer with the Plus variants. While still noticeably behind when it comes to the leading gaming performance, Intel blames this regression more on the "software" optimization than the hardware itself. In an interview with PC [âŚ]Read full article at https://wccftech.com/intels-hallock-blames-software-not-silicon-for-gaming-gap-claims-30-performance-is-hiding-behind-poor-optimization/
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The Hot Take: Interesting move, consolidate down to a single chip set. Less time to develop, they going to do disabling features at the firmware level to get more skus at different price points?
Intel's upcoming Z970 motherboards for Nova Lake-S Desktop CPUs will replace both high-end Z890 and mainstream B860 options. Intel Z970 Motherboards To Cover An Extensive Market With Both High-End & Mainstream Options For Nova Lake Builders Intel's 900-series motherboards will have a wide range of options for PC builders. The flagship Z990 chipset will be the recommended choice for enthusiast Nova Lake Desktop CPUs, featuring a dual compute tile configuration, while the Z970 chipset will retain a primary focus on the high-end market. Based on a new post by Jaykihn at X, it looks like the Z970 chipset may not [âŚ]Read full article at https://wccftech.com/intel-z970-chipset-cover-both-z890-high-end-b860-mainstream-tiers-for-nova-lake/
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The Hot Take: We all desperately need this to not be vapor-ware!
A relatively unknown U. S. -based startup, Bolt Graphics, has announced that it has successfully taped out the first test chip of its Zeus GPU architecture. The company positions Zeus as a disruptive compute accelerator, previously claiming performance up to 150% higher than an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 while consumi ...
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The Hot Take: How far up the supply chain does this go? All the way to Nvidia? Only time will tell.
Following the recent smuggling indictment involving Supermicro co-founder Wally Liaw and others, Nvidia has significantly upgraded its global supply chain monitoring practices in recent months, according to an industry source. Already maintaining high visibility over customer lists, Nvidia now enforces stricter controls on shipments and transshipment processes, prompting multiple suppliers to expand their legal teams to comply with the intensified audits.
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The Hot Take: Intel needs this licensing support as other law suits are back in court with patent trolls....
Elon Musk reveals details about TeraFab: Intel provides technology, Tesla builds pilot line, SpaceX constructs high-volume fab.
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The Hot Take: Nice, quicker to desktop.
Microsoft told Windows Latest that itâs rolling out a new feature that allows you to skip forced Windows 11 updates during device setup (out-of-box experience).
Right now, when you clean install or reinstall Windows 11, or buy a new device, you have to go through a long out-of-box experience, also called OOBE. During the OOBE setup, Windows nags you to set up a Microsoft account, buy Microsoft 365, try Xbox Game Pass, and more.
While itâs unclear when the calmer OOBE without upsells will begin rolling out, Microsoft is already curbing one of the more annoying aspects of the experience: forced updates.
As you might be aware, OOBE goes beyond just upsells and forces you to install newer updates before you can use the device. This can be frustrating, especially if youâre excited to try new hardware right after unboxing it.
I ran into this recently. Last week, I gifted myself an ASUS ROG Ally, and as someone who loved the PSP, I was excited to jump into games on my new handheld running Windows 11. But as soon as I booted it up, Windows forced me to install all pending updates, and I couldnât play anything for nearly an hour. It completely killed the excitement.
Thankfully, Microsoft says itâs aware of the issue and has been testing a new âUpdate Laterâ toggle in OOBE.
The feature was first spotted earlier this year, and itâs now available for everyone in production. All Windows 11 ISOs and recent cumulative updates include the new âUpdate Laterâ toggle.
When you click âUpdate Later,â OOBE instructs Windows 11 to keep checking for updates in the background without disrupting the initial setup experience.
This allows you to go straight to the desktop. Of course, only after youâve gone through the usual prompts and nudges to set up a Microsoft account.
After booting to the desktop, you can open Windows updates and manually pause updates or choose to finish applying all the pending updates.
Microsoft is also testing a calendar view that allows you to pause updates for as long as you want.
Itâs worth noting that this change isnât live yet, and calendar view is currently broken in the preview builds where we tested the feature, but itâll begin rolling out to everyone in the coming weeks.
Microsoft could drop the Microsoft account requirement and reduce upsells in OOBE
In addition to greater control over Windows updates, Microsoftâs senior leadership has suggested that the company is mulling an update that would remove the Microsoft account requirement.
Right now, Windows 11 forces you to set up your PC with a Microsoft account, especially when you use Windows 11 Home. Of course, you can always use Command Prompt, and one of the scripts/commands can help you bypass the requirement and set up a local account, but itâs not the ideal experience, and itâs becoming increasingly difficult.
My Samsung phone also nags me to set up a Google and Samsung account during setup, but I always have the option to skip.
You donât have this experience on Windows 11, but that could change soon, only if the rest of the executives in top leadership agree with the idea.
Moreover, Microsoft has admitted that Windows 11âs OOBE has upsells (ads to promote Microsoft products). In fact, Microsoft recently added web-based Copilot to the OOBE experience, so you could interact with AI while Windows finishes setting up.
Microsoft also added Copilot to Windows 11 OOBE
Microsoft is looking into ways to improve the OOBE experience, which is why the Copilot integration wonât roll out widely. But it doesnât mean the company will drop all upsells in the OS. Instead, it plans to reduce upsells and make the first setup experience calmer, at least better than what we have currently.
How do you think Microsoft should redesign the current OOBE experience of Windows 11? Let me know in the comments below.
The post Tested: Windows 11 setup screen now finally lets you skip forced updates, and go directly to the desktop appeared first on Windows Latest
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The Hot Take: It appears they're looking to accelerate Windows on ARM here. Nvidia seems to be pushing the ARM ISA hard these days with their new Server ARM SoC they just announced last month.
With the unexpected cancellation of MediaTek keynote, all eyes will be on NVIDIA's Jensen's presentation, possibly revealing the N1 Laptop SoC. Taitra Cancels MediaTek Rick Tsai's Computex Keynote Unexpectedly Ahead of the Event; NVIDIA Likely to Unveil the N1/N1X SoC for Low-Power Gaming Laptops We have all been waiting for NVIDIA to reveal its N1/N1X SoC that will power the next generation of low-power gaming laptops, positioning itself as a strong competitor against AMD and Intel in the mainstream segment. We are interested to know how the NVIDIA-MediaTek collaboration will shape up the laptop market since the N1X SoC is [âŚ]Read full article at https://wccftech.com/mediatek-abruptly-pulled-from-computex-2026-keynote-slot-handing-nvidia-the-stage/
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The Hot Take: Good news for both of them! TSMC needs to be brought into check on 2nm to bring prices down for all of us.
Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon has been spotted in Korea meeting with Samsung executives. The trip is all about manufacturing chips on the 2nm process, and there's a chance that Qualcomm will turn to Samsung to fabricate the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 SoCs.
Back at CES in January, Amon revealed that Qualcomm was talking to Samsung about this, and it seems like the discussions are still ongoing. If all this pans out and Qualcomm does indeed pick Samsung to fab the next top of the line Snapdragon SoC, it would mark a return to the Korean company for the first time since 2022, which is...
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