Planned Layoffs In January Hit 7-year High (reuters)

Alienware, Dell’s gaming hardware division, has announced it is reintroducing the iconic Area-51 computer back into the family. Announced during CES 2025 in Las Vegas, the 80-liter tower was unveiled alongside Nvidia’s new GeForce RTX 50-series graphics cards. Next-gen Alienware has officially landed! Introducing the return of the Area-51 Desktop and Area-51 Laptops powered by the latest @NVIDIAGeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs, a new 27" 4K 240Hz QD-OLED monitor, and more!

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has shared that the company feels confident about knowing how to build artificial general intelligence (AGI), a milestone that many tech firms are currently trying to reach. In a blog post published on Sunday (Jan. 5), he also predicted AI agents used by companies would be able to handle certain tasks on their own as early as this year. The company has often stressed that its core mission is to create AGI that “benefits all of humanity.” This week, Altman went further to say: “We are now confident we know how to build AGI as we have traditionally understood it.

For those following the daily shenanigans of X, you may have come across the account of Adrian Dittman, who seems to be an avid fan of the platform’s CEO, Elon Musk. For weeks, speculation has swirled about whether the profile is actually the billionaire himself, posing as a fanboy. The reason is that Dittman’s posts often sing Musk’s praises—so much so that, since 2023, users have been suspicious. During an X Spaces event, Dittman was heard chatting with Musk, and even Musk couldn’t help but laugh at how similar their voices sounded.

Bet365 CEO Denise Coates has seen her remuneration cut by a significant 45% but her salary and benefits still reached £150m ($187.8m) due to the excellent performance of the British gambling giant.  Its profits soared during the year with turnover up from $4.2b to £4.6b but that element was complemented by gains in the value of the company’s investments, while it sought to cut costs in other areas.  The outcome was a $784m pre-tax profit in the year up to March 2024, comparing very favorably to a pre-tax loss of $75.2m for the previous 12 months.  Bet365’s group accounts included the English Championship soccer club, Stoke City, for the first time.  During the year, the club was separated from Bet365 with separate control passed to John Coates.

Microsoft is hanging its hat more and more on its Game Pass subscription service these days and it is fair to say it had a stellar end to the year with the likes of Stalker 2, Indiana Jones, and Call of Duty dropping. Fast forward just a few weeks to now and the first wave of games has been announced for the rest of the month and it would not be wrong to say we have been whelmed by the list – that’s not overwhelmed, or underwhelmed, just a bit, well, meh. Of course, if any of these games tickle your fancy you are likely to feel different but since the introduction of a variety of confusing tiers sorting out who gets what, a lot of the game announcements have merely been games switching between tiers – ie, moving from Ultimate to Standard, which, if you cough up the extra for Ultimate, you clearly are not interested in. New to Ultimate is UFC 5 but that is only Xbox and if you want to play on PC it’s Cloud gaming for you as it’s not a PC release of course.

The support Pokemon TCG Pocket has had from DeNA and Creatures Inc. since launch has been nothing short of fantastic with content being consistently added to the game. While the Mythical Island pack is the biggest drop recently, it is the constant events that are being made available that are bringing players back each and every day. There haven’t been many mishaps since the initial release of TCG Pocket but now, it appears the next event has been ‘leaked’ via the Wonder Pick system. New Pokemon TCG Pocket event goes live ahead of launch If you’ve loaded up Pokemon TCG Pocket on January 7, 2025 and have seen an interesting Bonus Pick in the Wonder Pick section, you’re not alone. It appears that a portion of the next in-game Event has launched ahead of time, confusing those who are encountering it. As for what is on offer in these Bonus Pick Wonder Picks, there are new Promo cards available including both Squirtle and Charmander. Bulbasaur was available previously in a similar Bonus Pick so it makes sense that both Squirtle and Charmander make their way into the game to complete the trio of Kanto starters. There’s also a chance to pick up a green Event Shop Ticket which when inspected a little more closely, has Blastoise naming tagged on the end. This, therefore, strongly suggests that akin to that of previous Event Shop Tickets, you’ll be able to add these to your stores and spend them on Blastoise-themed items from the shop. Since the Event isn’t live yet, there are no accompanying missions to complete but once these are made available, you’ll likely be able to make inroads on these to gain even more Shop Tickets. We’re sure that an official word from Pokemon TCG Pocket socials will go out in due course both acknowledging this slip up as well as potentially announcing everything that’s to come in the next Event. Other Pokemon TCG Pocket articles you may like How to get the secret Celebi emblem in Pokemon TCG Pocket All Mythical Island secret missions in Pokemon TCG Pocket Best Celebi ex deck in Pokemon TCG Pocket Best Gyarados ex deck in Pokemon TCG Pocket Best Pidgeot ex deck in Pokemon TCG Pocket The post Pokemon TCG Pocket’s next event items go live early, confusing players appeared first on ReadWrite.