Samsung is fond of bragging about its progress on memory chips, but this is one time where it made a particularly notable breakthrough. The Korean firm has started mass production of 16-gigabit LPDDR5 mobile RAM chips that are billed as the first memory ever to be made using extreme ultraviolet lithography, which uses lasers and light-sensitive chemicals to etch silicon. Aside from giving Samsung an edge over rivals, it reportedly clears a “major developmental hurdle” in scaling RAM — this could offer much more room for the industry to grow.

This also translates to some immediate real-world gains, as you might expect. The 6.4Gbps of bandwidth is about 16 percent faster than the 12-gigabit chips seen before, while a 16GB package of chips is about 30 percent thinner. That could lead to slimmer phones or space for components like batteries and cameras.

Apple takes a lot of heat for its RAM pricing, and the company’s latest move may only escalate the criticism. The lowest tier of the new 13-inch MacBook Pro comes stock with 8GB of RAM but can be upgraded to 16GB. That option used to cost $100, making it a no-brainer for most. But as MacRumors spotted over the weekend, the price has doubled to $200. While Apple does adjust its RAM pricing from time to time, the refreshed 13-inch MacBook Pro came out less than a month ago, making this a surprising change.

It’s not clear why Apple increased the price of the upgrade. Supply chains across industries have been disrupted by the Coronavirus pandemic, but as MacRumors reports, the prices of RAM upgrades on other Mac models haven’t changed. That said, the MacBook Pro model in question uses LPDDR3E memory. (Higher-spec versions of the laptop use LPDDR4X memory.) This type of RAM is, in a word, old, and so it’s not outside the realm of possibility that Apple could be running into supply issues. 

The Raspberry Pi Foundation is always looking at ways to make its models bigger and better, and today it’s realized its ambition of an 8GB Raspberry Pi 4. It joins the 2GB and 4GB line up, and will set you back $75.

It’s essentially the same deck-of-cards-sized single board computer as its predecessors, just with more RAM, which gives DIY projects more scope and means tinkerers can start exploring more memory-hungry applications, such as streaming. A couple of components have moved on the board to help supply the slightly higher peak currents needed by the new memory package, but everything else essentially remains the same: lots of ports, ARM-based CPU, WiFi, Bluetooth…

To keep your browser from stealing resources, the GX control panel lets you set how much CPU power or RAM it can use. That means you can leave it running during gaming sessions, confident it won’t overwhelm your machine. On top of that, Twitch is integrated directly into the sidebar, and you get shortcuts to Discord, Reddit and other sites, along with Telegram, WhatsApp and Facebook.

To set the right mood, you can also customize Opera GX with a huge color palette, sound effects and wallpapers. It also has a built in ad-blocker, browser VPN and a “GX Corner” that hosts gaming news and deals feeds.

Opera also did some surveys and revealed a ton of statistics on PC gaming, noting that 82 percent of PC gamers are on Windows and 14 percent on macOS. About 49 percent have had technical issues, with 30 percent troubled by network problems, 26 percent having memory issues and 14 percent CPU problems. Opera GX for macOS is now available to download here.

The Exynos 990 follows the launch of the 980 in September — Samsung’s first processor and 5G modem in one– and last year’s Exynos 9820/9825. It supports a 120Hz refresh rate on phone screens, which means smoother gaming and scrolling. It can handle up to six cameras (although only three at once), and has enough guts to manage Samsung’s 108-megapixel image sensor, which was announced over the summer.

The company has also unveiled its Exynos Modem 5123, which works alongside the 990 to bring 5G connectivity to phones, boosting top speeds to 8.36 gigabits per second — a pretty marked improvement on the 3Gbps offered in its previous modem.

Finally, Samsung has announced that it’s started mass producing the industry’s first 12GB low-power double data rate 4X UFS-based multichip package (uMCP). Until now, high-end phones have carried 12GB of RAM through increased capacity chips — six 16Gb RAM chips for one 12GB chip. The new uMCP means only four 24Gb RAM chips are needed to make the same 12GB chip. What does this mean? Increased AI potential and more space for a larger battery, for a start, plus a cost effectiveness that’ll mean we’ll start seeing mid-tier phones getting more RAM in the coming year.

You can now upgrade the base model MacBook Air to the 1.5TB SSD for $1,100, $100 less than before. If you choose the MacBook Air with 256GB, upgrading to the 1.5TB SSD will also cost $100 less, or $900 total. Upgrading the base Mac mini to 2TB will cost $1,400, which is $200 less than previously listed.

It’s now $200 cheaper to upgrade both the base- and high-end MacBook Pro, 13-inch models to the 2TB SSD. And you can upgrade both 15-inch MacBook Pro models to the 2TB SSD for $200 less or to the 4TB SSD for $400 less.

As for the Mac Pro RAM, Apple finally lowered the cost to upgrade RAM in the 2013 Mac Pro (if you’re buying one for some ill-advised reason). You can now upgrade the 2013 Mac Pro from 16GB of RAM to 64GB of RAM for $800. That’s down $400 from the original price of $1,200. Memory costs have certainly declined since the Mac Pro was launched, so it’s about time they pass some savings on to buyers.

These price reductions might be welcome by people who found today’s iMac updates to be a bit lackluster. As we reported earlier, the processors and GPUs on the 21.5- and 27-inch iMacs changed, but the design and storage options remained the same.