Google introduced five new laptops recently, which went on sale Sunday. The Googlebooks are intended to run Android apps natively; however, Google admitted in a statement to Android Authority that not all apps may perform as well on the systems with Intel processors as those with Qualcomm chips.

"The vast majority of Android apps run smoothly across both Intel and Qualcomm Googlebooks right out of the box," Google told the Android-focused site. "Because many Android apps were originally designed for Arm chips, a small handful of complex apps or games need some developer tuning to run their best on Intel-based platforms. We’re working hand-in-hand with app developers, Intel, and Qualcomm to continuously optimize performance and expand compatibility across the entire portfolio."

Google has not named specific apps that might have issues on Intel-based systems. None of these claims were made prior to Googlebooks being made available on store shelves.

The Googlebooks with Intel processors are the Asus Googlebook 14, Lenovo Googlebook 15, and Acer Googlebook 14. The Dell XPS Googlebook and HP Googlebook 14 use Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite chips.

Most Android apps will work on Intel Googlebooks due to the wide use of Kotlin for Android development, and many apps have been made using Java. If an app's pipeline is mostly Java/Kotlin, it will have a high chance of working on the Intel Googlebook thanks to their architecture-agnostic libraries and SDKs.

However, there are still apps out there relying on native components compiled exclusively for ARM64 with no x86-64 versions. Intel Bridge and Android’s Native Bridge can translate ARM64 code for x86 compatibility, but unless the developer actually accounts for x86, it might run into some issues.

All of the applications on Googlebookx will come from Google's Play Store, which will include a mix of optimized and unoptimized apps. You can't download applications from the web unless you're redirected to Google Play.

Google wants to compete with the Mac by offering a full Android ecosystem experience from phone to laptop, similar to the conveniences Apple offers between their laptops and phones. With prices ranging from $899-1,299, it is a fairly large jump from the MacBook Neo’s $699-799; however, the Googlebook offers more RAM, giving you either 16GB or 32GB options. Storage remains limited, only offering either 256GB or 512GB, but each Googlebook comes with 12 months of Google AI Pro that includes 5TB of cloud storage currently valued at $249.99.

Popular Xbox emulator Xemu has just been ported to jailbroken Sony PlayStation 5 consoles. Reddit user u/Yzenxam posted a video of their PS5 running the emulator with three games installed: Forza Motorsport, Halo 2, and Crash Bandicoot. The port, playfully named XPSemu, is on their GitHub page: ZiZc3.

The modder has stated that XPSemu is Xemu and is nothing different; all they did was allow it to be opened on the PS5 as an application. Xemu uses QEMU’s TCG JIT to translate the Xbox CPU to the PS5 CPU in realtime, allowing for fast performance compared to interpretation-based translation.

Xemu has its own translation for the Xbox’ NV2A GPU and uses a Vulkan renderer to work with modern GPUs; thanks to the modder behind PS5_Vulkan, Xemu can talk to the PS5’s AMD GPU through the open-source RADV Vulkan driver — allowing the porter to run Xemu as a native PS5 application.

ZiZc3 also added their own touches as explained in their GitHub repository:

"On top of the port, XPSemu adds its own controller-friendly dashboard, per-game settings, cover art, play time, game patches, a performance overlay, a per-game log and a set of CPU optimizations made for the PS5's Zen 2 processor."

While QEMU's TCG JIT is relatively fast, it still leaves plenty to be desired. ZiZc3 explains that the emulated Xbox CPU is the bottleneck, loaded at 85-97% while the PS5 GPU remains mostly idle. As a consequence, the resolution multiplier up to 3-4x barely affects performance, and upscaling with FSR does not add performance.

The developer further explains that the PS5's Zen 2 cores are slower per core than a fast PC, and CPU-heavy games suffer from this. In terms of performance, ZiZc3 has provided a table of their experience and performance of the games on XPSemu:

As of writing, there are fewer than 15 fully PS5-exclusive games, while the number of emulators the PS5 can run is increasing by the week. On X, users BrinoTk and Mihawk9_9 (the same person behind PS5_Vulkan) announced their Xbox 360 and PS5 Proton projects on the same day, with the Xbox 360 emulator already available for testing.

The PS5 already has emulators for PS1-3, with PS4 emulation technically built in. Non-PlayStation emulators besides the XPSemu include the Nintendo Switch, Wii U, 3DS, and of course the myriad of emulators available on RetroArch as well. On the other side of the coin, the PS5 itself has also been emulated on PC and the Xbox Series X — at this point, the lines are blurring faster than owners know what to do with their jailbroken PS5.

Thanks to a Rhysida ransomware attack in December 2023 aimed at Sony and Insomniac, the 1.7 TB of data stolen contained an early version of Wolverine. The source code of the leaked PS5 exclusive paved the way for u/Clean-Market5761 to create their own PC port.

It is currently a buggy mess; textures are missing, and Wolverine’s whole head is missing from multiple screenshots. Ironically, there is another screenshot where only Wolverine’s head is present, with no body in sight. The developer claims that neither KytyPS5 nor AnyPS5 were used, like in a recent story of Wolverine on KytyPS5. The developer says that the 2023 leak was key to understanding how they could generate a PC executable program.

Skeptics are claiming the developer’s screenshots are fake and from the old 2023 build; one claims they were able to port Wolverine to PC before u/Clean-Market5761, but the developer argues the screenshots are from a Jailbroken PS5 in dev mode. The developer further defends himself by comparing screenshots of Wolverine’s appearance in the 2023 leak versus their assets.

The developer has admitted to using AI for assistance in creating scripts and automated asset conversion, but trial and error were done manually. u/Clean-Market5761 further elaborates that the playable character doesn’t have a head because they haven’t ported over the PS5 shader library to render the hair, and it freezes the game. They have disabled the whole head asset, focusing on getting the game to run and become “playable.”

As excited commenters are about the port and the work of the developer, they are not thrilled about Wolverine itself. One commenter applauds the dev, but says, “You can keep it, though.”

The PS5 exclusive has not been received well, being regarded as an “interactive movie.” A viral video shows a motorcycle chase scene completing itself without any player input, with Wolverine riding along walls, seemingly with no way to crash or fail the segment. Other instances show Quick-Time Events completing themselves if the player chooses not to press any buttons. Players feel the game is making it too easy and holding their hand too much.

Even if there were an official port of Wolverine, it seems likely that the game itself isn’t attractive to players.

Reddit user u/DallasGrave shared a fix for his RTX 5090, one of the best graphics cards, whose 12VHPWR connector was overheating, along with an image of a module screwed onto the back of his GPU. This module is apparently a custom-made power distributor that splits the current load across more wires to lower connector temperatures. Apparently, u/DallasGrave is connected to GRAVEPC.com, which offers mainly custom cooling solutions for small form-factor PCs.

In response to a commenter asking whether this mod will be covered under PNY’s warranty, he said, “We're a PNY partner. You'll be able to buy a PNY-specific card with a similar modification directly from us with a full warranty.” This mod isn't currently on his website, however. PNY hasn't been great at honoring warranties for the 12VHPWR issue with third-party cables, as covered in this recent story about a third-party cable melting in use, so take the claim of full warranty coverage with a grain of salt.

The 16-pin connector issue plagues many Nvidia graphics cards because they draw high current through what is essentially a 12-pin connector. The four smaller pins are sensors, and the remaining 12 are split between six +12V and ground connections. The connector typically uses high-current-rated 16AWG cables, and in theory, they should handle up to 600W.

Apparently, some cases of these melting connectors are due to poor connections where the pins don't make enough contact, causing high resistance and heat buildup, and uneven current distribution is often a source of issues. This was rarely the case with older multi-8-pin connector setups, as the safety margins were higher. However, graphics cards now draw more current, and Nvidia thought it should run it through fewer wires.

The modder essentially fixed this issue by soldering additional connections to the power rails directly on the RTX 5090’s PCB and routing them to what can only be described as a power distributor. This distributor contains a PCB that the wires connect to and where the two female 8-pin connectors are placed. It is unknown whether the modder designed it himself and whether it contains any other power-delivery or protection components, such as capacitors and fuses.

The distributor appears to be custom-made to fit his specific graphics card, and the housing shows signs of resin printing. In the modder’s stress test, running the card at full load, pulling 550W for 48 hours, he says it “never crossed 40c even at the joint.”

The 12VHPWR connector is a terrible design; cramming that much power into only six wires creates a very sensitive system where slight misalignment and uneven current distribution could cause connector-melting temperatures. This mod is cleaner and more attractive than the other power mods we’ve covered, like this poor Galax RTX 5090, but it is still invasive, requiring wires to be soldered directly to the card’s power rails.