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If you’ve ever put together your own PC, chances are during your research on which parts to part, you’ve come across ASUS as a possible brand for motherboards. Unfortunately, if you’ve put together a PC recently and have bought the ASUS Z690 Maximus Hero motherboard, you’ll want to take note of this recall.

The company has announced that they will be recalling and replacing the ASUS Z690 Maximus Hero motherboard after it was reported by several users of it catching on fire. Users who have the motherboard have been submitting reports that they have been hearing popping sounds coming from the motherboard, and burning electronic smells, as well as experiencing system shutdowns.

Further investigation by YouTuber Buildzoid from Actually Hardcore Overclocking found that one of the capacitors used in the motherboard was incorrectly installed, which is what’s causing these issues. As a result, ASUS will be recalling the motherboard and will also be replacing them.

In a statement posted onto Facebook, the company said, “In our ongoing investigation, we have preliminarily identified a potential reversed memory capacitor issue in the production process from one of the production lines that may cause debug error code 53, no post, or motherboard components damage. The issue potentially affects units manufactured in 2021 with the part number 90MB18E0-MVAAY0 and serial number starting with MA, MB, or MC.”

They add, “As of December 28, 2021, there have been a few incidents reported in North America. Going forward, we are continuing our thorough inspection with our suppliers and customers to identify all possible affected ROG Maximus Z690 Hero motherboards in the market and will be working with relevant government agencies on a replacement program.”

ASUS Announces Recall Of Its Z690 Maximus Hero Motherboard

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The latest foldable Galaxy devices are a hit. Samsung shipped four times more foldables in 2021 than what it did in 2020, the tech giant has revealed. Further, it took only one month after they were released for the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and the Galaxy Z Flip 3 to exceed the total accumulative sales of their predecessors last year. The company also said that it saw a “massive increase” in consumers who jumped brands specifically for its foldable phones — in fact, more people switched to Samsung for the Flip 3 than for its flagship devices. 

While Samsung didn’t rattle off specific numbers, it said it saw a 150 percent increase in consumers who switched brands for the Flip 3 compared to the Galaxy Note 20. It saw a 140 percent increase in people switching brands for the foldable compared to the Galaxy S21, as well. The Flip’s form factor is of course its main draw, along with its front screen that gives users a way to use their phone without having to open it. As for the Fold 3, people who responded to Samsung’s survey said they got it for its large screen, multitasking capabilities and S Pen support.

In its post, Samsung said foldables are expected to grow tenfold by 2023, and it’s heavily investing in research and development to be able to keep up with rival devices that will surely pop up. One of those competitors is Huawei’s P50 Pocket phone, which is the company’s first model that folds vertically like the Galaxy Z Flip. 

Over the years, we’ve seen developers come up with new ways to generate revenue from their games. The model of buying a game once and not having to pay again for it is fine, but because developers don’t earn money after the fact means they need to keep pumping out new titles, which can be tedious.

This is why many have since adopted the free-to-play model where the cost of the game is free, but developers earn either through subscriptions or in-app purchases, which might be lucrative in the long-run. Recently, we’ve also started to see an uptick in a new model – play to earn – where gamers have to purchase what are essentially NFTs, but in return, they get extra rewards and have a chance of selling off those NFTs for real-life money.

However, it seems that over in South Korea, regulators aren’t a fan of this play to earn model and have since ordered Apple and Google to remove these games from their app stores. Apparently this is a breach of local laws that govern how much money can be won in games. Under the current law, apparently the max amount a player can win at a time is capped at around $8.42.

We’re not sure if other regulators will start scrutinizing these types of games in the future, but it’s not hard to see why it might be problematic as it could encourage kids and teens from spending more on games than they should.

Apple And Google Ordered To Remove Play To Earn Games In South Korea

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Right now, many traditional carmakers are making the shift towards going full electric. However, many are still developing and producing gas-powered vehicles, but if a report from the Korea Economic Daily is to be believed, Hyundai is actually making a rather drastic shift by going all-in on electric cars.

The report claims that the Korean carmaker has reportedly stopped development on combustion engines, the engines that you would typically find in a gas-powered car. This is apparently confirmed in an email by Hyundai’s new R&D chief Park Chung-kook who told employees that they would be shutting down new engine development.

The report states that there are about 12,000 people who were previously working on developing new engines, but they are now being transferred over to the EV department where they will be working on powertrain development.

This is quite a huge deal because it means that for the next few years, Hyundai’s gas-powered vehicles will continue to use whatever the company has already developed. It might be a tricky transition as not all customers are eager to adopt EVs just yet, so it could be difficult to convince customers to buy a new Hyundai car that uses the same engine tech as previous models.

At the same time, this change could prove to be advantageous for Hyundai in the long run, where with more resources and efforts made towards powertrain development, it could give them a leg up on the competition.

Hyundai Is Reportedly Stopping Work On Its Combustion Engines

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Hiring new employees isn’t that difficult to do, but retaining employees, especially those that are particularly skilled in what they do is a different story. According to a report from Bloomberg, it seems that in an attempt to try and keep its top employees from leaving the company for greener pastures, Apple is offering huge bonuses.

The report claims that Apple is trying to keep its skilled engineers and programmers from leaving the company and are apparently offering bonuses from $50,000 to $180,000 for them to  stay. However, these bonuses do not come in the form of cash, but rather as restricted stock units that vest over four years.

This means that in order for these employees to truly reap the benefits of these bonuses, they will have to remain with the company if they’re hoping to cash out on it. These bonuses are also reportedly not part of the usual compensation packages that Apple pays its employees, meaning that they’re additional bonuses that are meant to act as incentives.

Companies poaching each other’s talents isn’t new, and we’ve seen how some of Apple’s competitors have managed to hire some of the company’s employees, and at the same time, we’ve also seen Apple convince employees of other companies to come on board, so this isn’t really anything new.

Apple Reportedly Trying To Retain Employees With $180,000 Bonuses

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