New chips, new designs, and bold prototypes defined PCs at CES 2026

The takeaway: If you've ever been to a CES in Las Vegas, you know how easy it is to get lost – not only amongst the convention halls, hotels, and meeting rooms, but also in the noise of all the announcements made at the event. Breaking through the nearly overwhelming tsunami of show news is no easy task, but with the benefit of a week to reflect on it all, it's clear that the PC category was unquestionably a big and successful part of the news story from the event.

TSMC struggles to meet surging AI chip demand amid data center boom

Ripple effect: While critics and PC enthusiasts are cheering for the AI bubble to burst, Big Tech and enterprise ventures cannot buy AI accelerators fast enough. In fact, even one of the world's most important chip manufacturers is now facing significant issues with its ability to meet customer demand.

NYSE is testing a new blockchain platform for 24/7 trading

Microsoft Office is down to $35 for a lifetime license

TL;DR: If you're looking for a powerful productivity suite without paying any subscriptions, Office 2021 is now available for just $35. All the essential tools you need for work or personal projects at over 80% off the regular price.

PowerToys adds new CursorWrap utility, upgrades Command Palette

Anthropic's Dario Amodei says allowing Nvidia H200 sales to China is like "selling nuclear weapons to North Korea"

Acer's Predator X27U gaming OLED sees significant price drop to $429

Most plug-in hybrid drivers don't charge their cars, undermining the benefits

For a limited time, grab a Windows 11 Pro license for $10

Pepper spray drones are Japan's newest tool against bear attacks

Scientists infected bacteria in space, and evolution took a new path

Realme says its 10,001mAh P4 Power phone can last nearly four days

Data centers are now the fastest-growing part of US construction

AI hype meets reality as majority of CEOs report no financial returns

Researchers build a stretchable OLED that can double in size without dimming

Microsoft rushes out emergency updates to fix a broken Windows Patch Tuesday

Data shows half of all crypto tokens have gone dark, and 2025 was the worst year yet

The memory shortage is driving up prices for SSDs, GPUs, and hard drives – even phone makers are cutting projections

A new Wine update could finally bring Adobe Photoshop to Linux

Forward-looking: Linux powers the vast majority of the world's computing infrastructure, yet it has long struggled to gain traction with everyday users – and with creative professionals, where macOS often holds an edge over Windows. That could change in the near future if one developer's work is accepted into Wine's codebase.

Even GPU anti-sag brackets are getting LCD screens now

EPA shuts down xAI's off-grid turbine loophole at Colossus data center in Memphis

Elon Musk says OpenAI and Microsoft owe him $134 billion in "wrongful gains"

This humanoid robot learned realistic lip movements by watching YouTube

Something to look forward to: Inside a Columbia University engineering lab, a humanoid robot has learned to move its lips with previously unseen realism. The project, led by the Creative Machines Lab, represents the first time an autonomous system has acquired natural lip movement for speaking and singing through visual learning alone.

CD Projekt Red says the Witcher games have sold over 85 million copies as Witcher 3 expansion rumors grow

Mercedes is hitting pause on Level 3 hands-off driving, for now

What just happened? Autonomous driving remains a long-term goal for Mercedes-Benz, but regulatory frameworks continue to limit how and where "eyes-off" systems can operate. For now, the company appears focused on refining solutions that can function reliably within those boundaries rather than pushing prematurely toward full automation.

A modder turned the PS5, Xbox Series X, and Switch 2 into one console

"Games should never die": Rust dev offers $25M to save Amazon's MMO New World

Intel's Tejas CPU aimed for a clock speed so high it was never released. What was the target?

Thousands of players join forces to build New York City in Minecraft at a 1:1 scale

Opera browser R3 update expands tab organization and AI integration

Call of Duty's chart-topping run comes to an end

Bottom line: Amid Microsoft's ambition to turn Game Pass into gaming's dominant business model, one of its most valuable assets is showing signs of strain. Call of Duty, a $35 billion global franchise known for annual billion-dollar releases, appears to be in decline less than two years after Microsoft completed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Hackers can hijack your headphones in seconds using Google Fast Pair

Winners & losers: Google's Fast Pair technology was designed for convenience. The protocol turns pairing a new Bluetooth accessory into a tap-and-go experience for Android and Chrome OS users. But new research suggests that the same design choices that make Fast Pair effortless also make it alarmingly easy to abuse.

ChatGPT is getting ads soon, starting with free users

The AI crunch is making high-capacity SSDs worth their weight in gold