Samsung's unionized workers may strike for 18 days starting May 21st over bonus pay disputes, potentially costing the company $700 million daily in lost memory production. PCWorld reports this strike could worsen the existing chip shortage and drive RAM prices even higher than current levels, which are already 3-4 times more expensive than last year. The disruption threatens global electronics supply chains despite Samsung's $13.4 billion profit in 2025. As if the AI data center boom wasn't causing enough problems for PC hardware, a looming strike in Samsung's home territory of South Korea could grind the memory giant's already-strained production to a halt. According to the latest reporting from Reuters, a long-simmering dispute between Samsung and its unionized labor force has boiled over, with no compromise in sight even after days of government-mediated talks.

Samsung's Bespoke update is big step towards a useful AI for your fridge Samsung's Bespoke update is big step towards a useful AI for your fridge The idea of installing a software update on your fridge already feels kind of weird, let alone one centered around improving its AI capabilities. But that's exactly what's happening to Samsung's line of Bespoke refrigerators this week, and to my surprise this patch is making major strides at providing truly useful machine learning in a modern day icebox. As a quick recap, Samsung has offered AI-powered features like automatic food recognition and meal planning on its Bespoke refrigerators for a couple years already. However, as I found out after reviewing its flagship model late last year, the company's AI capabilities are still very much a work in progress. Previously, the fridge could recognize around 60 different kinds of fresh foods (like fruits and veggies) alongside another 50 or so packaged goods like yogurt or popcorn.

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Samsung's Odyssey G51F gaming monitor is 32% off at Amazon, its biggest price drop since launching in August 2025. Samsung's 27-inch Odyssey G51F gaming monitor is on sale for $170 at Amazon, its best price yet. That's a 32% discount off its $250 MSRP, and this is the first time it's gotten such a big price drop since it launched back in August 2025. The G51F is an updated version of the G51C, with a lot of the same specs that made the older model great: 2560 1440 resolution on a fast VA panel, 1ms response time for a competitive gaming edge, and excellent 3000:1 contrast ratio for vibrant gaming (especially on a VA panel).

Video game retail chain GamesStop confirmed to the BBC on Sunday that it is making a $56bn (£41bn) unsolicited takeover offer for e-commerce firm eBay. GameStop's chief executive Ryan Cohen told the Wall Street Journal that he sees potential to make eBay a much bigger rival to Amazon, worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Cohen said his company has built a stake of around 5% in eBay and that the cash and stock takeover offer would value eBay at $125 a share, around 20% higher than its closing price on Friday. The BBC has contacted eBay for comment. Cohen also said that GameStop has a commitment letter from TD Bank to provide around $20bn in debt to help finance the deal. There is nobody who is more qualified, based on my experience, to run the eBay business, added Cohen, who is also the co-founder of online pet-products retailer Chewy.

Samsung predicts the ongoing RAM shortage will intensify in 2027 and beyond, creating a worsening supply-demand gap for DRAM and SSD memory. PCWorld reports Samsung's semiconductor division profits surged to $36.5 billion in Q1 2026, representing a 49-fold increase driven by the shortage. Consumers and businesses should expect continued price increases and limited memory availability for several years ahead. We've long known the ongoing memory shortage could last several years . Even though RAM prices dipped for a bit, it was a false alarm and now there are more signs that the shortage won't abate for a while. According to Reuters, Samsung--one of the largest manufacturers of RAM and storage--believes not only that the memory shortage will worsen in 2027, but it will continue into the following years. Kim Jaejune, Executive Vice President at Samsung Electronics, is reported to have told analysts that, based solely on the orders the company has received for 2027, the gap between supply and demand for memory is likely to widen even further in 2027 compared to this year. For Samsung, however, the memory shortage has been a huge success. Operating profit for the company's semiconductor division reached nearly 53.7 trillion won ($36.5 billion USD) in the first quarter of 2026, a 49-fold increase over the previous quarter.

PCWorld reports that Samsung may replace Windows 11 with Android 17 and One UI 9 on future Galaxy Book laptops for a more unified device experience. This potential shift coincides with Google introducing Aluminium OS, a new ChromeOS replacement, at their upcoming I/O conference. The move could significantly impact the laptop market by challenging Windows dominance, though Samsung's launch timeline remains unclear. It appears that Samsung is considering dropping the Windows 11 operating system on its future Galaxy Book laptops. SamMobile reports that the company is working on Galaxy Book laptops that will instead run Android 17 and One UI 9. It's unclear why Samsung would choose to switch operating systems, but SamMobile speculates that it may be to achieve a more consistent user experience across all the company's products, most of which run some version of Android and One UI.

Images of Samsung's rumored smart glasses have leaked They are codenamed Jinju and could retail for somewhere between $380 and $500. Images and details about Samsung's upcoming smart glasses have leaked, . We knew these were, but we now have what could be actual photos and they look pretty nifty. The glasses are reportedly being developed under the codename Jinju and could cost anywhere from $380 to $500. These are the first smart glasses from Samsung and look to offer a similar feature set to stuff like and the forthcoming . Samsung's specs will run on the and will likely feature heavy integration with the Google Gemini chatbot.

There Aren't a Lot of Reasons to Get Excited About a New Amazon Smartphone The company is reportedly building a new AI-powered mobile device. If Amazon follows through on the plan, experts warn it would be next to impossible to break into a crowded market. Reuters reports that Amazon's Devices and Services unit is working on a smartphone--dubbed Transformer--with Amazon's Alexa+ AI assistant and shopping as a major focus of the experience. It's unclear what this smartphone would cost, how much Amazon is spending to develop Transformer, and what operating system it will run. There's no word on when it will launch, and there's still also a chance the project could be scrapped altogether.

Now I wish every smartphone had a built-in privacy display. Privacy Display is very useful. Some AI features are useless. Did you privately ask ChatGPT how to bring up nonmonogamy with your husband? Your commuting neighbor on the train snuck a glance at your phone, guffawed internally, and blasted it on X with a satisfied smirk.

The company hopes to use its Bee chatbot to connect compatible users without the need for swipes. Bumble is testing an AI dating assistant called Bee that it hopes will get users on dates without them having to swipe through profiles, writes . The company announced the AI assistant during its fourth quarter earnings, and intends to use the AI in a new experience it calls Dates. When a user opts in to Bumble's Dates feature, Bee performs an onboarding chat where it learns about the users' values, relationship goals, communications style, lifestyle and dating intentions, and then attempts to find other users who share some or all of those traits. Once Bee finds someone compatible, both users are notified in the app that they could be a great match, and receive a summary generated by Bee explaining why.