Listen, I love the ROG Ally X, but its 1 TB of built-in storage barely puts a dent in my Steam Library. I know I could use a microSD card for some extra space, but the sub-optimal transfer speeds means downloading anything takes forever, and I dont have that kind of time. Thankfully, theres an solid 4 TB SSD on sale at Amazon for its lowest price ever. The 4TB model of the WD Blue SN5000 typically costs $299.99, but you can pick one up for just $199.99 for a limited time. The 2 TB version of this SSD is also on sale for $119.99 (was $159.99) if you think 4 TB is a little excessive.The SN5000 may not be on our list of the best SSDs for your ROG Ally X, but it shares similar specs to one of our other favorites, the WD_Black SN750, and is far more affordable. $200 may sound like a lot to pay for some extra storage, but this is an investment that pays real dividends for anyone that spends a solid amount of time gaming on the Ally X. If youre afraid of installing a new SSD in your shiny new handheld, weve put together a helpful tutorial that will show you how. Just note that while the SN5000 is also compatible with desktop PCs and the PlayStation 5 provided you have a separate heat sink on hand, this SSD is too large to fit in either the Steam Deck OLED or the original ROG Ally.

Fans have wondered what HBOs new Harry Potter TV show will be like since the moment it was announced in 2023: What would a long(er)-form retelling of the classic book series look like? Could the show get out from underneath the shadow of writer J.K. Rowlings gender politics? Do we need to see Hogwarts again, only across multiple seasons this time?Almost two years after the first announcement, the show is finally taking a bit more distinctive shape specifically with John Lithgow announcing hes said yes to the role of Albus Dumbledore, making him the first actor to confirm for the new show.In an interview with ScreenRant, Lithgow confirmed that he would be taking the role of Dumbledore, a move he expects will define the twilight years of his career. As he told the site:Well, it came as a total surprise to me. I just got the phone call up at the Sundance Film Festival for yet another film, and it was not an easy decision because its going to define me for the last chapter of my life, Im afraid. But Im very excited. Some wonderful people are turning their attention back to Harry Potter. Thats why its been such a hard decision. Ill be about 87 years old at the wrap party, but Ive said yes.While its unclear how much of Lithgows comment is accurate to the actual production timeline, his math seems to put the show starting production within the year (with him being 79 now, and his tossed-off wrap-party age assuming that this show makes a season a year, which, to be fair, many dont!).That being said, no other casting has been announced for the show, particularly as it relates to the main trio (let alone Harry Potter himself), so weve got a ways to go before the show is really under way. HBO and Max have yet to confirm Lithgows casting. Polygon has reached out to the streamer for clarification.

One of the annoying things about using PowerShell in Windows, if you're used to Linux, is having to run it as an admin in order to make system changes. The simplest way to do this is right-clicking the application in the start menu and clicking "Run as administrator," which isn't exactly elegant.It's particularly frustrating because most Linux distributions fixed this a long time ago: the sudo command. Basically, on Linux, if you need to run a single command as an administrator you can just put "sudo" at the beginning and run ityou're asked for an administrator password and the process runs. It's such a useful feature that it even inspired one of the most famous XKCD comics.Someone at Microsoft apparently noticed: sudo is now included in Windows. Sort of. A feature that allows you to run single commands as an administrator, called sudo, is now included in Windows, but this feature is not technically related to the sudo included on Linux systems (Microsoft, as always, is using a confusing name).Anyway: this pseudo-sudo feature is included with Windows 11 version 24H2, released in October 2024 and still rolling out to Windows users as of February 2025. You can check whether you have access to the feature by opening System Settings and heading to System > For developers. Scroll down and you'll see the option to enable sudo (if you don't see the option, you're not using 24H2). Credit: Justin Pot There are three options here regarding how sudo runs. By default, command will run in a new window. There are two more options: Inline, which will run the command in the same window; and Input closed, which runs the command in the same window but without input from other commands in the window. The official documentation heavily recommends leaving the default setting for security reasons, though Inline is much closer to the Linux-style sudo command.Using the feature is straightforward: when running a command that requires administrator privileges, start with sudo. You will see a pop-up asking to confirm. Credit: Justin Pot Click Yes and the command will run as administrator. That's really it: just put sudo at the beginning of your commands to run as administrator. Credit: Justin Pot Try it with your usual commands and see how you like it. If the answer is that you don't, that's fine: go back to opening Powershell as administrator.There are reasons Microsoft's sudo may not work for you. Maybe you're not yet using the 24H2 version of Windows. Maybe you can't get sudo working with the applications you're trying. Or maybe you just want to quickly change your current session into an elevated session. If so, gsudo might work better for you. This open source tool is recommended in Microsoft's documentation as offering features more similar to the Linux version of sudo and can quickly be installed using the winget package manager.

It's not surprising at this point to find out that a company you entrusted your data to turned around and sold it without your knowledge or consentas antivirus provider Avast did for years through its software and browser extensions. And while monetary compensation doesn't undo the potential damage, nearly 3.7 million Avast customers are eligible for a refund for the trouble. Last year, Avast reached a $16.5 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, which includes compensation for users who bought Avast software between August 2014 and January 2020. The FTC found that the company collected information on religious beliefs, health concerns, political leanings, financial status, and location without user consent and sold it through a subsidiary (also without consent). Now, customers can start to claim refunds from the settlement. According to the FTC, customers eligible for a refund from Avast will be notified via email between Feb. 24 and March 7. The notice will include a claim IDyou'll need this to complete the Avast settlement claim form online. If you want more information about the process or need help filling out the application, you can call the refund administrator at 866-290-0165. Your claim must be filed by June 5, 2025 to be eligible for a payment. The FTC expects to mail payments in 2026, and the amount will depend on how many people apply for refunds.

Samsung's new 9100 PRO Series solid-state drives (SSDs) include the company's first consumer-grade 8TB NVMe SSD. The latest models use the speedy PCIe 5.0 standard, which unless you train AI models for a living is almost certainly overkill for your PC needs.The Samsung 9100 PRO series offers up to double the storage of its predecessor, the 990 PRO line. It launches in 1TB, 2TB and 4TB models, with the 8TB ones not arriving until later this year. Each tier ships in models with and without a heatsink (whether you need that will depend on whether your motherboard includes one for NVMe drives).SamsungThe company says the 9100 PRO SSDs have sequential read speeds of up to 14,800 MB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 13,400 MB/s. Their random read speeds are as fast as 2,200K IOPS (input-output per second), with random write speeds up to 2,600K IOPS. The company says the 9100 PRO SSDs are up to 49 percent more power-efficient than the 990 PRO line and have a profile as slim as 0.35 inches (around 8.9mm).But as Engadget's Igor Bonifacic wrote in our SSD buying guide, very few real-world use cases demand those speeds. (Think people training large-scale AI models and the like.) As it stands, PCIe 4.0 drives already benchmark far beyond what most gamers and other consumer uses require. They also cost about half as much.The first 9100 PRO SSDs arrive in March: 1TB ($200), 2TB ($300) and 4TB ($550). Variants with a heatsink tack an extra $20 onto those prices. As for the 8TB tier, which Samsung hasn't announced pricing for, it doesn't arrive until the second half of the year.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/accessories/samsungs-9100-pro-ssd-line-includes-its-first-8tb-nvme-model-for-consumers-205727818.html?src=rss

Warner Bros Discovery made sweeping cuts to its games division today, closing three studios and ending development on its planned Wonder Woman project. Monolith Productions, Player First Games and WB Games San Diego will be shuttered due to a disappointing 2024 for WB's gaming business, according to an internal memo from JB Perrette, the company's CEO and president of global streaming and games. Bloomberg broke the news of the restructuring.Monolith Productions made two well-regarded Lord of the Rings games, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War. The studio was going to apply its popular Nemesis system from those titles to a Wonder Woman game, which was announced back in 2021.WB acquired Player First Games last year. The team was responsible for MultiVersus, a platform fighting game that reached 20 million players in its early days before dwindling to a planned shutdown of the online services when its fifth season ends this May.WB Games San Diego was working on AAA free-to-play gaming. In December, Warner Bros Games also announced that it would lay off employees at WB Games Montreal as well as pulling back on the studio's game Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.According to the internal email from Perrette, WB's gaming efforts will be focused on four of its properties: Harry Potter (including Hogwarts Legacy), Mortal Kombat, the DC universe and Game of Thrones. "We need to make some substantial changes to our portfolio/team structure if we are to commit the necessary resources to get back to a fewer but bigger franchises strategy," Perette said.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/warner-bros-discovery-slashes-gaming-business-closing-three-studios-204344213.html?src=rss

NVIDIA unveils GPU-like ConnectX-8 SuperNIC which requires advanced PCIe Gen6 connectivity and features 800Gbps throughput.

Researchers built a program that lets two AIO chatbots communicate in pure audio signals

Workday exceeded analysts' estimates for the quarter and pointed to stronger demand from artificial intelligence products.

If Super Micro fails to file the reports, its stock could be delisted from Nasdaq.