Tech

Acer is leading off its early Computex announcements with a new 2-in-1 laptop, the Swift Spin 14 AI. It’ll pack Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Plus and X2 Elite chips when it arrives in the US in August (July for other regions), and it’ll also include a stylus stored its chassis. Neat.

This is Acer’s Aspire Go 15 AG15-Q31P, a budget laptop built on Qualcomm’s just-announced Snapdragon C platform. Acer didn’t share its price or release date by the time I wrote these words, but Qualcomm says the platform unlocks roughly $300 laptops — despite RAMageddon. Corners cut, surely. The specs we know are here.

The banger made a cameo in Donkey Kong Bananza, but next week you’ll be able to enjoy the original DK Rap when Donkey Kong 64 comes to the Nintendo Switch Online’s Nintendo Classics collection. However, because it’s an N64 title, you’ll need a pricier Expansion Pack subscription to play.

The Alphafold costs $6,880 (and that’s if you want to slum it with a calfskin finish), with more expensive options including alligator leather, gold, and diamonds. That gets you a year-old Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chip, a five-megapixel telephoto (yes, five, not 50), and an AI agent called Hermes.

Sonny Dickson is back with what’s purported to be one of those non-working, physically accurate replicas used by accessory makers ahead of launch. The folding Galaxy’s passport-like design is set to take on Huawei’s Pura X Max and Apple’s long-rumored foldable iPhone later this year.

As the Wall Street Journal reports, SK Hynix and Micron both passed the milestone this week. The spike in value for the world’s three largest DRAM manufacturers follows a months-long global memory shortage, driven by demand from AI data centers, that’s causing prices to skyrocket on everything from phones to game consoles.

If you’ve set up preferred sources — like, say, The Verge — they’ll be labeled in AI Overviews and AI Mode, according to Google. The company says that “people are twice as likely to click through to a Preferred Source.”

And it seems like WordPress.org co-founder Matt Mullenweg is growing frustrated with the legal battle, which has dragged on for nearly two years:

Amazon MGM Studios greenlit three shows as part of its GenAI Creators’ Fund, which gives producers access to the company’s AI filmmaking platform. The projects include Cupcake & Friends from BuzzFeed Studios; Love, Diana Music Hunters from former Nickelodeon exec Albie Hecht; and Punky Duck from animator Jorge R. Gutierrez.

They’re initially rolling out as a feature mods can turn on in public and safe-for-work (SFW) subreddits.

The ecommerce giant is now selling access to the tech behind its Alexa for Shopping assistant, giving other retailers — like Kate Spade — abilty to build their own AI shopping chatbot. Amazon says its AI shopping interface can offer personalized recommendations with images and pricing, as well as answer store policy questions.

Since Friday, Google hasn’t shown an AI Overview for the word “disregard.” The term was making AI Overviews “disregard” instructions instead of giving an AI search result summary.

Tap the scissors icon, trim your clip, and then save it to your library, where it can be shared from a dedicated “Your Clips” collection that houses all of your saved clips.

Since Google announced its Search box overhaul at I/O last week, DuckDuckGo says its own iOS installs have increased by an average of 33 percent week over week in the US. Visits to the “No AI” version of DuckDuckGo’s search platform also jumped by up to 27.7 percent compared to the week prior.

Steve Jobs famously told Houston his startup was “a feature, not a product” when trying to acquire it back in 2009. Houston turned down the nine-figure buyout offer and Apple went on to launch iCloud. Houston, now 43 and worth about $2 billion, leaves behind a service used by millions worldwide. He now wants to do something entrepreneurial with — you guessed it — AI.

The deal will pay some workers in Samsung’s highly profitable memory chip unit around $416,000 this year, while employees in other chip units will receive less, and those in its consumer electronics divisions are ‌set ⁠to receive very little by comparison. Payouts are pegged to Samsung hitting profit milestones through 2028.

This 3.5-hour GamersNexus video makes me wonder. We knew tariffs, RAM prices, and oil prices were scaring buyers away, but it’s something different to watch a Cooler Master guy, standing in a warehouse full of unsold PC cases, dish for 30 minutes straight — or see how Thermal Grizzly’s thermal paste sales have cratered.

We started seeing them in our apps earlier this month, but Google said Tuesday that it’s rolling out the icons over the “next several weeks.” I’m not a fan of the changes — the Gmail and Sheets ones look particularly bad to me — but I suppose I’ll get used to them over time.