Author: TechGeeks

A fresh iPhone 18 Pro leak is making the rounds online, and it comes with some pretty bold claims. According to leaker Reptalicant, the alleged motherboard for Apple’s upcoming flagship reveals a redesigned A20 Pro chip package with improved cooling, a beefier Neural Engine, and faster memory. That’s a lot to unpack, especially considering motherboard-level Apple leaks like this are exceptionally rare.

The leak claims better thermals, faster memory, and a stronger NPU

According to the post, Apple is said to be moving the DRAM to the side of the A20 Pro package using WMCM (Wafer-Level Multi-Chip Module) packaging instead of the current layout. The idea is that separating the memory from the main die could improve heat dissipation, potentially allowing the chip to sustain higher performance for longer under heavy workloads.

iPhone 18 Pro or (Prm) motherboard leaked

A20 Pro chip now adopt WMCM packaging, which move the DRAM to the side of the package, allowing for better thermal dissipation. It also get LP6 96-bit memory

Die size is roughly the same as A19 Pro, and the NPU seems to be beefed up pic.twitter.com/Y0kUjRi2Ma

— Reptalica (@Reptalicant) June 26, 2026

The leak also claims the A20 Pro will retain a die size similar to the A19 Pro while adopting LPDDR5X 96-bit memory and a larger Neural Engine for on-device AI tasks. If accurate, it would suggest Apple is focusing less on making the chip physically bigger and more on improving efficiency, thermals, and AI performance through packaging changes.

Interesting? Yes. Convincing? Not quite yet.

The funny thing is that leaks like this almost never happen with Apple. While supply chain reports about specifications are fairly common, detailed motherboard layouts and chip packaging information rarely surface this far ahead of launch, making this rumor particularly difficult to verify.

That’s not to say it’s impossible. Apple has been steadily investing in better thermal management as its chips become more powerful, and improved packaging would be a logical next step. Better thermals would be a welcome upgrade, especially as on-device AI workloads continue to grow. But with no corroboration from Apple’s supply chain or other reliable leakers yet, this remains firmly in rumor territory.

Grand Theft Auto 6 pre-orders recently went live, but the excitement came with one frustrating catch. The so-called physical edition of the game will not include a disc. Instead, buyers will get a box with cover art and a download code inside.

That decision immediately caused backlash online, especially among collectors who still care about owning games on disc. For a while, there was some hope that this would only be temporary. Reports suggested that Rockstar could release a proper disc version of GTA 6 in December 2026, giving physical media fans something to wait for.

Rockstar Support confirmed that GTA 6 physical disc copies will be available in the months following launch.

“You will be able to acquire a physical copy during the following months.”

The current physical pre-orders are for the digital code-in-box version. pic.twitter.com/wdk1dAmXJZ

— GTA 6 Info (@GTASixInfo) June 25, 2026

A disc release may not be coming

That hope now looks much weaker. According to a new report from The Hollywood Reporter, Rockstar currently has no plans to print GTA 6 discs, either at launch or months later. The confusion appears to have come from wording around a “physical copy,” which reportedly refers to the already announced code-in-a-case version, not a real disc.

For collectors, that is a disappointing outcome. GTA 6 is not a small annual release that people will forget in a few months. It is one of the most anticipated games ever, arriving after more than a decade of waiting since GTA 5. For many fans, owning a proper boxed copy of a game like this would have had real collector value.

Instead, buyers paying $80 to $100 may get a plastic case with artwork and a code sitting where the Blu-ray disc should have been. That feels especially rough for a game with this much cultural weight behind it.

Rockstar can afford the disc

Some fans have argued that skipping discs helps Rockstar reduce leaks and limit resale. That logic is easy enough to understand, especially for a game as closely watched as GTA 6. But it still does not make the decision feel any better for players who value physical media.

Hmmmm… so GTA 6 have Physical Box Doesn’t a Single Disc… kinda confusion… This is What GTA 6 Disc Box Look Like when It’s Release https://t.co/q2J6JE9AsV pic.twitter.com/GGSWyNgacP

— kirbpoyo3 (EToH Veteran) (@kirbpoyo3poyo) June 24, 2026

Rockstar is not exactly struggling to fund this launch. Unconfirmed reports claim GTA 6 has already reached 39 million pre-orders and around $3 billion in revenue. Even if those numbers are treated cautiously, GTA 6 is clearly heading toward a massive commercial debut.

A code in a case may be enough for retailers and publishers, but it is unlikely to satisfy collectors. For a game as big as GTA 6, many fans wanted something more permanent than a download slip.

Plastic bottles usually end up being recycled into lower-value products, buried in landfills, or worse, polluting the environment. But researchers at Penn State University believe they could one day power electric vehicles, smartphones, and even renewable energy storage systems after discovering a way to convert discarded plastic into high-quality battery graphite.

Turning plastic waste into battery-grade graphite

According to Penn State, the team converted discarded PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic, the material commonly used in water and soft drink bottles, into highly ordered synthetic graphite. Graphite serves as the anode inside lithium-ion batteries, storing and releasing electrical charge, making it one of the most critical materials in modern battery technology. Even more impressively, the PET-derived graphite exhibited a more ordered crystal structure than some commercial natural graphite, a key indicator of high-quality battery materials.

The process itself, published in Diamond and Related Materials, is surprisingly straightforward. Researchers shredded PET plastic, mixed it with a small amount of graphene oxide, and heated the material under carefully controlled conditions. The graphene oxide acts like a template, guiding carbon atoms into highly ordered graphite crystals during graphitization. The team found that adding just 2.5% graphene oxide produced the highest-quality graphite in their experiments.

Another clever aspect of the research is what the team chose not to use. Most synthetic graphite is produced using metal catalysts such as iron, nickel, or cobalt, which can leave behind impurities and require additional purification. Instead, the Penn State researchers relied on graphene-based additives, creating cleaner graphite while reducing chemical waste and simplifying the manufacturing process.

This is recycling that actually adds value

Interestingly, this isn’t just a story about finding another use for plastic bottles. It’s about securing one of the world’s most important battery materials. Graphite is classified as a critical mineral by the U.S. Department of Energy, and demand is expected to grow rapidly as electric vehicles, consumer electronics, and grid-scale energy storage become more common. At the same time, PET remains one of the world’s most widely used plastics, much of which still ends up in landfills despite recycling efforts.

The researchers still need to prove the process works at an industrial scale and validate long-term battery performance, so don’t expect plastic-powered EVs overnight. But if the technology can be commercialized, it could tackle two major problems at once by reducing plastic waste while producing cleaner, battery-grade graphite.

A few days ago, Apple announced an ugly mid-cycle price hike, blaming the worsening-by-the-day memory crisis. According to the Financial Times, the company is now lobbying the government for approval to buy memory chips from a Chinese company. 

The company in question is CXMT, a Chinese chipmaker that the Pentagon added to its Chinese Military Company blacklist for alleged ties to the Chinese army.

So what exactly is Apple asking for here?

Apple is not legally barred from sourcing chips from a Chinese supplier. What it wants, however, is the White House’s nod to do so without the reputational and political risk of being seen as a partner to a Pentagon-listed company. 

The Cupertino giant reportedly approached the Commerce Department more than a month ago. Since then, it has been working with contacts across the administration to secure the government’s blessing.

CXMT, already approved for listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, is China’s national champion in DRAM chip manufacturing, the same category of memory Apple currently sources from Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynix (via Notebookcheck).

Will Apple actually get the green light?

That’s far from guaranteed. John Moolenaar, the Republican chair of the House China Committee, told the FT the move would be a grave mistake. 

The Commerce Department added CXMT to an intended Entity List package last year, only for the White House to hold it back during trade negotiations with China. 

It’s worth noting that Apple already faced similar backlash in 2022, when it considered sourcing memory from another Pentagon-listed Chinese chipmaker, YMTC, for iPhones sold only in China. 

From where I’m seeing this, Apple’s price increase on Thursday erased $263 billion from its market capitalization in a single day (its second-largest single-day drop), and the company might not want to risk its reputation any further, especially in the eyes of the government.

OpenAI’s hardware ambitions just got a major boost, and it could be another clue that the company is preparing to take AI beyond smartphones and laptops. Paul Meade, Apple’s longtime engineering leader behind the Vision Pro headset and its upcoming smart glasses efforts, is leaving Cupertino to join OpenAI’s hardware division.

Another Apple hardware veteran joins OpenAI

At OpenAI, Meade will join an increasingly familiar cast of former Apple executives. He’ll work alongside legendary designer Jony Ive, former Apple design chief Evans Hankey, and former iPhone operations executive Tang Tan, all of whom are now helping build OpenAI’s next generation of AI hardware. That team came together after OpenAI acquired Ive’s startup, io, in a deal worth $6.5 billion, signaling that the company is investing heavily in dedicated AI devices rather than treating ChatGPT as just another app.

Neither Apple nor OpenAI has revealed exactly what these devices will look like. However, Bloomberg notes that OpenAI is already working on “several new devices” expected to launch over the next few years, while Apple is simultaneously developing smart glasses, AI-enabled AirPods with cameras, tabletop robots, and other AI-centric hardware of its own.

Could ChatGPT hardware be closer than we think?

Let’s be real, Meade’s move doesn’t confirm that OpenAI is building AI glasses, so it’s worth treating the speculation with caution. But hiring the executive who helped lead Apple’s Vision Pro and smart glasses hardware certainly strengthens the theory that OpenAI is assembling the talent needed for wearable AI, especially after bringing Jony Ive and several other former Apple veterans into its hardware team.

The funny thing is that this is starting to feel less like an AI chatbot race and more like a wearables race. Meta already has smart glasses on the market, Apple is reportedly preparing its own, and OpenAI is quietly building an all-star hardware team. Whether that leads to AI glasses, a wearable pendant, or something like an OpenAI ear wearable remains to be seen, but the company’s ambitions clearly extend far beyond ChatGPT on a screen.

Microsoft is trialing a fresh accessibility tool for Windows 11 named Screen Tint, a modest tweak that may have a surprisingly large impact. Rather than altering the display’s color temperature like Night Light, Screen Tint overlays a customizable color wash across the whole screen, softening bright visuals for extended work or gaming periods.

A gentler display for fatigued eyes

Found in the newest Windows Insider preview build v29617.1000, Screen Tint lets users pick from six preset hues or craft a personal tint, with intensity controlled via a dedicated slider. The setting resides under Settings → Accessibility → Vision, making activation simple whenever screen fatigue sets in.

Microsoft says the feature targets users who suffer eye strain or light sensitivity from vivid, bright screens. Unlike Night Light, which mainly cuts blue light for evening use, Screen Tint merely mellows the overall brightness and can be combined with Night Light. Note that turning on Screen Tint disables Windows’ built‑in Color Filters, so those who depend on those filters must choose between the two.

Small addition, unexpectedly handy

This feels like one of those utilities people often overlook until they give it a try. Whether you’re editing a stark white document all day, retouching photos late at night, or trying to curb visual fatigue during marathon gaming, a tunable screen overlay can make Windows feel more comfortable.

The latest Insider build also brings several other refinements, such as improved Bluetooth device recovery, tweaks to the Recall experience, and various under‑the‑hood fixes. But for anyone who spends hours staring at a monitor, Screen Tint could become the standout feature of the update.

Valve has started sending out reservation emails for the Steam Machine ahead of its June 30 launch, and scalpers have wasted no time turning the whole thing into a comedy act.

The Steam Machine is already an expensive device, as RAM and SSD prices have made hardware pricing miserable across the industry. Valve has previously said it would like to lower the price if component costs improve. That makes the resale listings even harder to take seriously, because the official price was already higher than many people expected before scalpers added their own fantasy tax.

The resale prices are ridiculous

Listings have already started appearing on third-party marketplaces like eBay, with some sellers asking around $1,700. That is already a major markup over Valve’s official pricing of $1,049, but a few listings go much further.

One listing for the base 512GB Steam Machine bundle with the Steam Controller was asking as much as $3,200. That bundle officially costs $1,128 from Valve, which means the seller was asking nearly three times the actual price for a console that has not even launched yet.

Steam Machines are already being scalped for $3,000 😭🙏 pic.twitter.com/fMHmzVpld1

— Steam Hardware Updates (@HardwareSteam) June 26, 2026

As pointed out by @HardwareSteam on X (via Notebookcheck), at least one listing priced at $2,800 has also been marked as sold, suggesting someone may have actually paid the inflated amount. Whether that sale sticks or not, the whole thing is exactly the kind of scalper behavior that makes new hardware launches annoying to watch.

Could this become the PS5 launch again?

The obvious comparison is the PlayStation 5 launch, when limited stock and huge demand turned Sony’s console into scalper bait for months. The Steam Machine situation does not look anywhere near that bad right now.

There appear to be only a few live listings on eBay, which suggests Valve’s reservation queue is doing its job for the moment. The system is not stopping every reseller, but it does seem to be keeping the floodgates closed. That being said, it is too soon to judge how fruitful Valve’s anti-scalping efforts turn out to be. We will have a clearer picture once the Steam Machine launches on June 30 and mass shipping begins.

If you don’t know about Apple’s recent price hike, which affected all the products in its lineup except the iPhone and Apple Watch (for now), you’ve got to be living under some sort of a rock. The revision made all the iPads much more expensive. 

Motorola, however, has just launched a 13-inch tablet that actually sounds good on paper. It’s called the Moto Pad 70 Pro, and it costs around $440 for the baseline model. The catch, however, is that the device isn’t available in the US yet. 

So what does the Moto Pad 70 Pro actually pack?

The Pad 70 Pro is built around a 13-inch 3.5K display that supports a super-smooth 144Hz refresh rate (likely for select apps), 800-nit peak brightness, and Dolby Vision. However, the company hasn’t confirmed whether the panel is LCD or AMOLED. 

Under the hood, the Android tablet is powered by the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 with up to 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of storage. It’s the chipset that adds some serious CPU and GPU horsepower to the device. Buyers can also expand the storage via an SD card (up to 2TB). 

At launch, the tablet ships with Android 16 with Motorola’s barely visible Hello UI on top. Furthermore, the company is committed to providing two generations of major operating system updates and security patches through 2030, which is great as well. 

What else does it bring to the table?

I really like how the device packs four JBL speakers (with Dolby Atmos). Rounding out the specifications are a 10,200 mAh battery with 45W wired charging, a 68W adapter in the box, and a Moto Pen Pro stylus included at no extra cost. The Snap-On keyboard, however, is sold separately. 

Wireless connectivity is sorted with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0 as well. Now, coming to the disappointing part. The Moto Pad 70 Pro costs around $440 for the baseline variant with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, and around $476 for the one with 256GB of storage. 

With the baseline iPad now starting at $449 in the United States, the Moto Pad 70 Pro sounds like a great option to me. Given that it’s a rebadged version of the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro Gen 2, it might also arrive in the US. I’m just wondering when, since we haven’t seen any FCC listings come up recently. 

Earlier today, Microsoft raised the price of its Xbox consoles by up to $150 in the U.S. Just a few hours before that, Apple announced a similar move for its Mac and iPad portfolio, while also raising the sticker price of its Vision Pro headset and several other products except the iPhone. But it seems these two giants are not done with price hikes yet.

Neither company has explicitly said that more price hikes are coming, but their statements suggest otherwise. Take, for example, this statement that Apple shared with The Washington Post earlier today.

“We have now reached a point where we need to begin raising prices on a number of products, including today’s increases for iPad and Mac.”

Apple’s wording points to more price hikes

The important phrase here is “begin raising prices.” Apple’s wording clearly suggests that the company is also looking at similar price adjustments for the rest of its portfolio. A price hike for the iPhone would not be surprising.

Across the industry, smartphone makers have raised the purchase ceiling, and even non-foldable phones from Chinese brands are now regularly reaching the $1,500 to $1,600 range. A recent estimate by JPMorgan mentions that the price of memory and storage chips has essentially quadrupled, leaving Apple with little choice but to make a $100 to $200 price adjustment for the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro, which is slated for a fall debut.

Separately, Microsoft also mentioned in its announcement earlier today that the cost of memory and storage chips has gone up by a factor of 2.5, forcing it to raise the price of Xbox consoles multiple times in the past year. More importantly, the announcement notes that the company expects another doubling in the price of these components by the end of 2027. That directly means the price of Xbox Series X and Series S consoles could climb further in the coming months.

The memory crunch is hitting everyone

The cost pressure is not surprising. Valve, for example, has priced its Steam Machine console at over $1,000, and the bundle does not even include a controller. PC brands like ASUS have also publicly stated that they do not see any immediate relief when it comes to the cost of memory and storage chips. As a result, the price of laptops and PCs continues to climb.

The situation in the smartphone industry is no different. According to analyst estimates, it is only going to get worse, and the memory crisis does not seem to be going away in the face of voracious AI data center demand.

When Apple finally caved to the memory crisis and increased prices across Mac and iPad on June 25, 2026, most people reacted with disbelief, frustration, or resigned acceptance. Mine was a quiet, slightly wicked smile, and in about two to three minutes, you’ll understand exactly why.

My M1 MacBook Air (8GB, 256GB) has been showing its age since last year. It was starting to crack under pressure. Whenever I opened more than 10 or 15 Chrome tabs, it would protest quietly before crashing, forcing me to ration them. Video exports, even casual ones, started taking noticeably longer. I did everything I was supposed to do, but none of it made a meaningful difference.

My M1 MacBook Air gave up after four years

Even though the constant lagging and slowdowns were pushing me to get a new one, I held off the purchase for as long as I could. But then one day, my MacBook simply won’t turn on. That was the tipping point for me. I started comparing all the available options in my budget, and one device made perfect sense to me: the M4 MacBook Air.

The smart play, on paper, was to grab the M4 MacBook Air (13-inch) at a discounted price. But when I actually ran the numbers, the M4 model with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage was only $70 to $80 cheaper than the already-discounted M5 equivalent, here in India. That’s not savings; that’s a rounding error.

The M5 MacBook Air, for a slightly higher price, offered twice the storage at 512GB, meaningfully better immediate performance, and enough headroom to use it for at least three to four years, or maybe even five. That made the decision for me.

The M5 vs. M4 math didn’t add up

You see, Apple launched the 13-inch M5 MacBook Air in the US at $1,099. In India, the launch price translated to INR 119,900, or around $1,270 at current rates. And thanks to prevalent discounts and offers, I saved around $200 on the purchase, which mattered since it was an unplanned purchase. 

On June 15, 2026, I got the M5 MacBook Air in India for INR 101,824, or roughly $1,078, from a third-party online retailer. Even then, I wasn’t entirely convinced I’d made the right decision. Part of me kept wondering whether I should have repaired my old MacBook instead.

Then, all of a sudden, Apple itself made me feel a whole lot better about that purchase.

The plot twist came 10 days after my MacBook Air arrived at my door, when Apple raised the retail prices for a bunch of its products, including the M5 MacBook Air.

Then Apple changed everything

The company briefly took its entire online store down, and when it came back up, the US price for the baseline M5 MacBook Air had jumped by $200, taking it to $1,299. In India, the price moved from around $1,270 to $1,587 (over $300). The effective price, even via third-party retailers, now stands around Apple’s previous MSRP in the region.

I genuinely couldn’t believe it when I saw the numbers change. If I had hummed and hawed for a few more days, bought the device from the same seller, and had it shipped from the same warehouse, it would have cost me another $200. 

The discount I got is gone now, and there’s no way Apple is reducing the prices anytime soon. 

I dodged the Macflation bullet by just 10 days

Given how long I plan to use this device, that’s quite a small margin. The memory crisis finally caught up to Apple, and I’m just glad that I got my MacBook before it did.

What I’m keen to know now is whether Apple will increase the iPhone 18 Pro’s price later this year, since recent reports haven’t painted the launch price in the best light.