Nintendo's Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake launched on Switch 2 on November 5, and it is already running on a jailbroken PlayStation 5 and an iPhone. On PS5, Vampinity posted results in the GitHub repository for EglantinePS5, a PS5 port of a Switch emulator based on Eden. On firmware 12.40, the game loads a save, and Link can walk out of his house into Kokiri Forest at roughly 15 to 20 FPS. However, it runs out of memory a couple of minutes in, with heavy white fog and missing geometry in the forest. Vampinity calls it "nowhere near playable" and says Claude wrote the patches. Apparently, much of the shader work was borrowed from forks of Lichii, the emulator that got the remake running on PC on launch day.

The iPhone port comes from developer Joe Jiang, who showed Kokiri Forest running on an iPhone 17 Pro Max. According to Jiang, memory was the hardest part, since the game wants about 9 GB while a single iPhone app is capped at 8,192 MB. He claims his approach keeps quality intact and peaks at just 3.4 GB when loading scenes. Apparently, the method isn't specific to Ocarina, and Jiang says it could bring any Switch or Switch 2 game to iOS, iPadOS, Apple TV, Android, and HarmonyOS. He hasn't released it yet, but it isn't the first Switch 2 game on iPhone. Mario Kart World booted on one shortly after the console's first jailbreak went public. The PS5 port, meanwhile, needs the Relapse jailbreak, which covers firmware 7.00 through 13.60. Neither is a practical way to play the game yet, but I'm sure Nintendo isn't too happy about the remake breaking containment this quickly.

The Chinese Ministry of State Security has reportedly ordered local governments and state-affiliated organizations to remove Windows 10 installations from their systems as the central government seeks to completely diversify away from Western technology. However, the irony is that this is not the standard Windows 10 OS we are all familiar with. The software was developed by C&M Information Technologies (CMIT), a joint venture between Microsoft and China Electronics Technology Group, and was specifically modified to meet Beijing's security requirements. Based on Windows 10 Enterprise, this government version removes or disables several consumer-facing features, keeps activation and updates within China, and supports the use of Chinese cryptographic standards.

According to Bloomberg, the central government has reportedly moved up the planned obsolescence date, and instead of lasting until February 2027, the retirement is happening now. Despite receiving a highly customized version of Windows 10, Beijing now seems increasingly uncomfortable with maintaining a foreign-origin operating system at the core of sensitive government infrastructure. However, China does have a replacement plan for the Windows operating system.

Huawei is advancing its strategy for technology independence by introducing two new desktop computer models built entirely with Chinese components. The Qingyun line—featuring the W515y and W585y models—represents the company's latest effort to provide computing solutions free from foreign hardware. These systems integrate Huawei's Kirin 9000X chip with locally developed Linux software, instead of Microsoft Windows. Users can choose between UOS V20 from Tongxin or Galaxy Kylin V10. While details about the hardware are still emerging, the Kirin 9000X is an eight-core Arm-based chip with 16 threads, operating at 2.5 GHz. It could be a big.LITTLE deisgn, or a big-core only SoC. The desktops feature quad-channel LPDDR5x memory and support both flash storage and conventional hard drives.

The port selection is vast, offering a Type-C USB connector and three standard USB 3.2 ports on the front, with four additional USB connections, wired network capability, a legacy serial interface, and dual video options via VGA and HDMI on the back panel. Weighing approximately 3.6 kg and measuring just under 300 mm in width, the systems are compact. Huawei includes its own keyboard and mouse with each unit, though pricing and release dates have not been disclosed. Notably, Huawei has chosen to equip these computers with established Linux variants instead of its HarmonyOS.

A mysterious HiSilicon Kirin X90 processor was included in a Chinese state report; the official assessment document seems to cover the topics of native CPU reliability and security. Jukanlosreve—a keen watcher of semiconductor industry inside tracks—highlighted the unannounced technology on social media. They alerted TP Huang (aka tphuang) to this discovery, possibly in reaction to the latter's reporting of a wholly Huawei-designed AI laptop. Last week, we heard about a speculated portable enterprise PC series powered by Kunpeng-920 mobile processors. HiSilicon is a Chinese fabless semiconductor firm, operating under Huawei ownership—normally, their Kirin processors are designated as smartphone-based solutions. Industry watchdogs believe that company leadership is paving the way for a new generation of personal and server processors—their current Kunpeng-900 series debuted back in 2019, so natural successors are very likely in the development pipeline. Early last year, insiders proposed that Huawei had prioritized its Ascend 910B AI accelerator chip—despite these rumors, Kirin-related leaks continued to trickle out.

According to industry moles, HiSilicon tends to spread its custom Arm-based Taishan core design across modern Kirin and Kunpeng processor families. Based on Jukanlosreve's initial detective work, Tom's Hardware proposed a plausible outlook for the (leaked) chip's future. Their report theorized: "Huawei's server and PC divisions have been relatively quiet, as evidenced by the lack of new Kunpeng SoC designs. The new Kirin X90, despite its name, could be a possible successor, considering that Huawei is reportedly launching a new 'AI PC' with HarmonyOS next month. It's likely to be fabricated using SMIC's 7 nm process featuring Taishan V120 cores based on either the Armv8 or Armv9 architectures, which are not subject to the US trade ban." Instead of using an old hat Kunpeng-920 SoC, Huawei's forthcoming next-gen "Qingyun" AI laptop could be equipped with a Kirin X90 APU—Tom's Hardware foresees an Apple MacBook-esque "integration of custom hardware and software" with the Chinese tech firm's fully in-house developed model.

Huawei Technologies reported a robust 22% year-over-year revenue increase for 2024, reaching 860 billion yuan ($118.27 billion), demonstrating remarkable resilience amid continued US-imposed trade restrictions. The Chinese tech giant's resurgence was primarily driven by its revitalized smartphone division, which captured 16% of China's domestic market share, overtaking Apple in regional sales. This achievement was notably accomplished by deploying domestically produced chipsets, marking a significant milestone for the company. In collaboration with Chinese SMIC, Huawei delivers in-house silicon solutions to integrate with HarmonyOS for complete vertical integration. The company's strategic diversification into automotive technology has emerged as a crucial growth vector, with its smart car solutions unit delivering autonomous driving software and specialized chips to Chinese EV manufacturers.

In parallel, Huawei's Ascend AI 910B/C platform recently announced compatibility with DeepSeek's R1 large language model and announced availability on Chinese AI cloud providers like SiliconFlow. Through a strategic partnership with AI infrastructure startup SiliconFlow, Huawei is enhancing its Ascend cloud service capabilities, further strengthening its competitive position in the global AI hardware market despite ongoing international trade challenges. Even if the company can't compete on performance versus the latest solutions from NVIDIA and AMD due to the lack of advanced manufacturing required for AI accelerators, it can compete on costs and deliver solutions that are typically much more competitive with the price/performance ratio. Huawei's Ascend AI solutions deliver modest performance. Still, the pricing makes AI model inference very cheap, with API costs of around one Yaun per million input tokens and four Yuan per one million output tokens on DeepSeek R1.

According to ChinaScope, an effort is currently underway to strengthen Huawei's HarmonyOS platform's presence. The local government of Shenzhen has unveiled an ambitious program aimed at supercharging the development of native applications for the operating system. The "Shenzhen Action Plan for Supporting the Development of Native HarmonyOS Open Source Applications in 2024" outlines several key goals to foster a more robust and competitive ecosystem around HarmonyOS. One primary objective is for Shenzhen-based HarmonyOS apps to account for over 10% of China's total by the end of 2024. To facilitate this, the city plans to establish at least two specialized industrial parks dedicated to HarmonyOS software development across various application domains.

Furthermore, the initiative calls for over 1,000 software companies in Shenzhen to obtain HarmonyOS development talent qualifications, underscoring the city's commitment to cultivating a skilled workforce for the platform. Perhaps most impressively, the action plan encourages eligible companies to ramp up their outsourcing services for HarmonyOS app development, with a lofty target of reaching 500,000 HarmonyOS developers. This would represent a significant influx of developer talent focused on the platform if achieved. The Shenzhen government's push aligns with China's broader strategy to reduce reliance on foreign technologies and promote the adoption of domestic alternatives like HarmonyOS. While initially launched by Huawei as a workaround for U.S. sanctions, HarmonyOS has since expanded to power many devices, including smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, and TVs.