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TP-Link’s alleged ties to China have drawn scrutiny from regulators, even though the company says it split from its Chinese parent company back in 2024. With the FCC’s ban on foreign-made consumer routers in place, it has pledged nearly $1 billion in U.S. R&D and manufacturing, and has also signed a letter of intent with Key Tronic to assemble its Wi-Fi 8 routers in Mississippi, hoping to win approval. We chronicle the saga of keeping those routers off U.S. shelves, and how TP-Link hopes that Key Tronic will once again unlock the U.S. market for the networking firm.
Last week saw the release of Nvidia's RTX Spark platform, with a brand-new high-end Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra in tow. However, despite the device's focus on running local AI workloads and inference, it can be a capable gaming machine. There's just one thing getting in its way: a 3:2, 3270×2180 display that demands a lot out of the relatively humble Blackwell-based GPU within. We tested the ideal custom-resolution cocktails to bolster gaming performance on the Surface Laptop Ultra, with benchmarks on how it performs in Control Resonant , and how to get a better gaming experience out of Nvidia's pricey slab of silicon.
One easy change makes Microsoft's Surface Laptop Ultra with RTX Spark a better gaming system — custom resolutions make DLSS easier on the device
Gaming PCs and setups aren't merely about getting the best performance possible; it's also about immersion, comfort, and ease-of-use. All of those elements are heavily informed by your choice of gaming headset. With the market saturated up and down, ' audiophile'-grade headsets are sitting on storefronts with some of the heftiest price tags. So, is pure audio fidelity really the be-all and end-all for gaming headsets? We argue that other elements, like microphone quality and additional quality-of-life features, can make a bigger difference.
Why you don't need an audiophile headset for gaming — comfort, convenience, and a good mic win over pure audio fidelity
Tape storage is far from obsolete. As the AI boom produces and demands massive datasets that don't always need to remain on expensive SSDs or HDDs, tape shipments jumped by 57% year-on-year in Q1 2026. But where does the technology go next? We explore how companies like IBM , HPE, and Quantum are building new standards beyond LTO-10 with new standards and upcoming cartridges with up to 365TB native capacity, balancing time-tested reliability, performance and cost.
This week on Tom's Hardware Premium: October 17, 2026
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/this-week-on-toms-hardware-premium-october-24-2026-tp-links-fcc-saga-file-semantic-ssds-and-unlocking-better-gaming-performance-from-rtx-spark#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com/my-account
- Claude and Grok among AI agents used to automate attacks on Latin American institutions
- Extremely rare and 'previously undocumented' Pokémon Red prototype cartridge surfaces at auction, starting at $25,000
- YouTuber escapes the modern AI tech market by recreating his 1996 PC
- NVIDIA Confidential Computing Expands, Enabling Frontier Model Builders to Securely Scale Across Global Infrastructure
- TSMC is seeking chipmaking equipment that doesn't contain Chinese rare-earth magnets
Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.