Apple Watch Series 7 Receives General Release Date: Malaysia’s Status Still Unknown

Of all devices that were launched during the California Streaming event last month which also include iPhone 13 Series, iPhone 13 Pro Series, 6th generation iPad mini, and 9th generation iPad, there are still some mysterious elements regarding Apple Watch Series 7. For example, its actual rollout date was not revealed by Apple during the event but that has just changed this evening.

The company has announced that Series 7 will be made available in selected markets starting from 15 October onwards. Interesting enough, more than 50 countries and regions are part of the first-wave markets for the new smartwatch including the usual suspects such as the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, and China.

Despite the large group of first-wave markets, it seems that Malaysia is not part of it though as Apple Malaysia’s website still listed the Series 7’s availability as “later this year” at the time this article is published. As a comparison, Apple websites for Singapore and Thailand have noted that customers will be able to order Series 7 through them starting from 8 October.

On another hand, Series 7 is not listed on Apple’s websites for Indonesia and Vietnam. We are now reaching out to Apple to find out more about the watch’s availability in Malaysia and will keep you posted once we receive further updates.

Amazon New World MMORPG Reportedly Still Killing GeForce RTX Graphics Cards

Back in July, reports began cropping up of Amazon’s MMORPG, New World, bricking NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 series graphics card and more specifically, GeForce RTX 3090 models made by EVGA. The game has since gone live, drawing a massive wave of interest, and while EVGA itself has admitted to its own shoddy manufacturing issues with its RTX 3090s, there are still reports that the game is still causing other GeForce RTX cards to die.

Reports of New World’s ongoing GPU murder spree was picked up by the custom rig company, PowerGPU, who tweeted that many of their customers were emailing them about their GeForce RTX graphics cards that were bricked while playing -you guessed it – New World. In the same tweet, PowerGPU also says that all affected customers clearly never played the beta and it had been anticipating said issues since the issue came about.

 The serial killing doesn’t stop there either. WinFuture, the German tech publication, reported that its Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming graphics card also suffered the same fate after playing New World. This was despite the tech site enabling the game’s framerate limiter and the 60 fps limit in the NVIDIA GeForce driver; it says that the fans on the card still spinning furiously at 100% speed, before the display went black and the PC shut down immediately thereafter. There are also reports of the Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Eagle 12G and other RTX 3080 cards that suffered the same fate, too.

At this point, it’s clear that Amazon’s new MMORPG isn’t just singling out specific brands, but more to the point, it is also clear that the game is a hazard to all high-eng NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards. So, despite Amazon’s claim that it isn’t the game’s fault, there is little doubt that it actually is. Until an actual fix is available or a full investigation into the issue is made, we strongly suggest that GeForce RTX owners hold off from playing the game.

Analysts: Ongoing Semiconductor Shortage Could Still Affect Sony PlayStation 5 Supply

As more Sony PlayStation 5 (PS5) supplies slowly and steadily make their way into the hands of consumers, the company’s gaming chief also assured gamers that it will be able to produce a “decent number” of the console during the second half of 2021. However, some industry analysts are seeing signs to the contrary.

Several analysts point out that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the corresponding lockdowns have been a source of pain and grief to the production chain of many semiconductor producers and brands. This also includes brands within the automotive and smartphone industry.

Sony, however, seems to be feeling optimistic about the future sales of the PS5. Jim Ryan, president and chief executive officer for Sony Interactive Entertainment, expects the current supply limitation for the consoles to get better throughout the year. However, Ryan fell short of providing a guarantee that Sony would have enough PS5 in stock to meet this year’s holiday sales season.

Since its launch last year, Sony sold a total of 4.5 million PS5s in November and December, and has plans to outperform the sales figure of its predecessor, the PS4. Of which it sold 14.9 million units in the first 12 months of its existence.

By comparison, Nintendo sold 26 million units of its Switch console during the whole of 2020, while Microsoft sold just 2.8 million Xbox Series X and Series S consoles within the same November and December time frame last year. It also doesn’t help that demand for the PS5 is still running high and even worse, it’s a factor with no end in sight.

On another note, Sony recently announced that a 2nd generation PSVR headset was in the works, although unsurprisingly, the announcement was lacking a great deal of detail.