Samsung’s Micro RGB TV isn’t real Micro LED—but it’s so good you may not even care

Samsung provided ground transportation from Brooklyn, New York, to Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, so Ars could demo its Micro RGB TV. Ars does not accept paid editorial content. ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, New Jersey—Micro LED is still years away, but the next best thing is taking shape right now. A $30,000 price tag and 114.5-inch diagonal size makes the Samsung “Micro RGB” TV  that I demoed this week unattainable for most. But…

August 22, 2025
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Is the AI bubble about to pop? Sam Altman is prepared either way.

Last Thursday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told reporters at a private dinner that investors are overexcited about AI models. “Someone” will lose a “phenomenal amount of money,” he said, according to The Verge. The statement came as his company negotiates a secondary share sale at a $500 billion valuation—up from $300 billion just months earlier. “Are we in a phase where investors as a whole are overexcited about AI? My…

August 21, 2025
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After successes like Severance and The Studio, Apple TV+ gets a price hike

Apple has announced another price increase for its Apple TV+ video-streaming service. Starting today, a new monthly subscription will cost $12.99; it was previously $9.99. Existing subscribers will see the new price take effect during their next billing cycle. Annual plans and Apple TV+’s inclusion in Apple One at current pricing will remain unchanged. The price of Apple TV+ has practically doubled since its launch a few years ago. There…

August 21, 2025
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Having recovery and/or SSD problems after recent Windows updates? You’re not alone.

When updating a piece of software as large and complex and old as Windows, you’re inevitably going to break something every once in a while. Microsoft tracks known issues here—generally they affect lesser-used features or obscure edge cases, but every once in a while you run into something bigger and more disruptive. August’s updates have introduced a couple of more noticeable problems. The first was caused by update KB5063875, a…

August 20, 2025
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Sony makes the “difficult decision” to raise PlayStation 5 prices in the US

Sony will join Microsoft and Nintendo in raising US prices across its entire game console lineup, the company announced today. Pricing for all current versions of the PlayStation 5 console will increase by $50 starting tomorrow. The price of the PS5 Digital Edition will increase from $450 to $500; the standard PS5 will increase from $500 to $550; and the PS5 Pro will increase from $700 to $750. If you’ve…

August 20, 2025
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Raspberry Pi intros new 5-inch $40 touchscreen for your next weird project

The folks at Raspberry Pi have announced a new touchscreen component for people using boards to create miniature touchscreen appliances: The 5-inch Raspberry Pi Touch Display 2 is a 720p IPS multi-touch screen that’s natively supported by the Raspberry Pi OS and includes mounting holes on the back to make it easy to build integrated all-in-one devices. The new screen will cost $40 and is available starting today from Pi…

August 18, 2025
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Ars Technica System Guide: Five sample PC builds, from $500 to $5,000

Sometimes I go longer than I intend without writing an updated version of our PC building guide. And while I could just claim to be too busy to spend hours on Newegg or Amazon or other sites digging through dozens of near-identical parts, the lack of updates usually correlates with “times when building a desktop PC is actually a pain in the ass.” Through most of 2025, fluctuating and inflated graphics card…

August 18, 2025
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Tiny, removable “mini SSD” could eventually be a big deal for gaming handhelds

Earlier this year, Nintendo helped popularize the microSD Express standard by requiring it for the new Switch 2 console. Created in 2019, the specification had languished in relative obscurity for years because the cheap, plentiful non-Express microSD cards were generally fast enough for the things that people were using them for, and because most hardware didn’t support microSD Express cards in the first place. However, Nintendo’s console needed performance closer…

August 15, 2025
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Apple Watch gets reformulated, non-patent-infringing blood oxygen monitoring

In early 2024, Apple removed a blood oxygen monitoring feature from its then-current Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 watches, following a ruling that the feature violated light-based pulse oximetry patents from a California-based company called Masimo. Removing the feature allowed Apple to circumvent an import ban and continue selling the Series 9 and Ultra 2 (and, later, the Series 10) in the US. Today, Apple announced that it’s…

August 14, 2025
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Report: Apple’s smart home ambitions include “tabletop robot,” cameras, and more

Rumors about a touchscreen-equipped smart home device from Apple have been circulating for years, periodically bolstered by leaked references in Apple’s software updates. But a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman indicates that Apple’s ambitions might extend beyond HomePods with screens attached. Gurman claims that Apple is working on a “tabletop robot” that “resembles an iPad mounted on a movable limb that can swivel and reposition itself to follow users in…

August 13, 2025
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