Google, Intel, Nvidia, AMD. These and other companies made it a mission to mention Apple in some way at this year’s CES .

While Apple wasn’t actually at the event in Las Vegas, it still felt like everyone was talking about the company.

If you watched Intel and Nvidia’s live streams, you would have heard about products that were faster than Apple’s M1 Max chips for example (although further research looks to have put cold water on these claims by both companies already).

It’s only when you scratch the surface that you find that Apple has already been regarded as the winner at CES this year in a variety of categories, without being there in any official capacity.

Apple was in the eye of many at CES 2022

Intel was quick to compare its newest Alder Lake chips with the M1 Max, currently available in the MacBook Pro 14-inch and 16-inch models. The press release directly states that the Intel Core i9 chip is faster than the M1 Max, but when you consider the heat that dissipates from this CPU compared to Apple’s chips, there’s more than just speed that Apple beats the competition on.

The Core i9 can draw up to 115 watts of power, while the M1 Max requests 60 watts in regular use, and it usually doesn’t exceed 90 watts when macOS demands more power from the chip.

But this is just one example from Intel, as the company also showcased Apple Watch and iMessage integration with upcoming Evo PCs through Screenovate, an app that was recently acquired by the company in December.

Google also announced an effort to mimic the connectivity that Apple’s ecosystem of devices boasts. Soon, you’ll be able to pair multiple devices through an upcoming feature called Fast Pair . This allows your Android phone to unlock your Chromebook, or having your Pixel Buds being able to swap between your phone and laptop with no issue.

However, this isn’t just about Google and Intel being inspired by Apple’s software features.

But wait, there’s more

Find My is Apple’s service of integrating with other products that can be found through the Find My app. It’s the same method that AirTags offer, but the company is allowing other companies to use the same technology. Targus was one example at CES by integrating Find My into a backpack .

Belkin also announced earbuds that would feature Find My , alongside a mount for the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 series that will be able to track your face , ideal for video calls or for creating the next viral TikTok video.

There’s also more efforts by companies such as Eve to integrate Apple’s HomeKit, which is a way of managing your home devices through the Home app, so you can control lights, your heating, and soon window blinds to switch on and off around your home when needed.

These are just some examples of what was announced at CES 2022, but it only shows how Apple was everywhere at the event, but not present itself. The only time where someone from Apple appeared at CES was in 2020 when Jane Horvath, Apple's senior director of privacy, took to the stage in a privacy roundtable.

And, the year before, the company decided to put up a banner in front of CES promoting the fact that your information is stored on your iPhone only.

This just proves that Apple doesn’t need to be at CES - companies such as Belkin with its products and Intel with its charts do the hard work for the company regardless. While there’s still doubt on whether events like this are still needed in a post-pandemic world, the underlying theme was that companies are getting ready to suit up for a battle that’s mostly, already been won by Apple.

Yet another major antivirus is now bundled with a cryptominer

Fresh off a controversy over Norton 360 , Norton subsidiary Avira is also adding a mining feature for Ether to its antivirus product.

The company says the feature , which is opt-in (and disabled by default), is designed to "mine cryptocurrency more safely and easily" by turning over idle processing power. Of course, the safety and ease comes with considerable fees, cutting into already-slim profits.

The basic premise is that your PC – and specifically its GPU – could be put to better use when you're doing something else, like mining for Ethereum's Ether coin.

But there's a catch

The unfortunate thing about Norton's plans for crypto mining is that Ethereum contains a structural weakness: gas fees (also known as transaction fees). According to Etherscan.io , you can expect to pay $33 to cover one single ETH transaction.

When combined with Norton's 15% cut from mining, users are going to be left with basically nothing unless they fully commit their GPU to mining, incurring the relate energy consumption costs in the process.

While other coins, like Solana, seek to reduce these fees, they are a fact of the cryptocurrency world and, in some ways, a barrier to its wider adoption. Consumers hate credit card fees, which are significantly lower than many ETH transactions.

On top of this, you're unlikely to even mine that much. The Verge found that a night of mining for ETH generated $0.66 in ETH and cost $0.66 in electricity, meaning they broke even.

Marvel's Wolverine: everything we know about the PS5 exclusive so far

Marvel's Wolverine is the next hero getting the video game treatment by Insomniac Games, the studio behind the critically acclaimed Marvel's Spider-Man and Spider-Man: Miles Morales .

Announced as a PS5 exclusive, Marvel’s Wolverine is expected to have a more “mature” tone than Insomniac’s Spider-Man games, which isn’t all that surprising given it stars the grizzly, adamantium-clawed Mutant James "Logan" Howlett. Like the Spider-Man games, though, Insomniac has said it wants to “respect the DNA of what makes the character so popular” while looking “for opportunities to make it feel fresh and truly reflect the Insomniac spirit.”

Marvel’s Wolverine was confirmed to be in “very early development” when it was revealed in late 2021, so details are pretty scant right now and we’re still awaiting confirmation of a release window.

In the meantime, we’re speculating on what Insomniac could do with the character of Logan and we’ve gathered together all the latest news and rumors around the game. Read on for everything we know about Marvel's Wolverine so far and what we want to see.

Marvel's Wolverine: cut to the chase

Marvel's Wolverine game currently doesn't have a release date and, unfortunately, it will likely be a while before we get our claws on it. Insomniac Games stated that the game is in "very early development" when it was announced in late 2021 so we wouldn't expect to see it until at least 2023 - especially given that Insomniac Games is currently working on Marvel's Spider-Man 2 , which is due for release in 2023.

Marvel's Wolverine is set to be a PS5 exclusive, much like Spider-Man, so it won't be available to Xbox Series X /S and PC players.

PlayStation Showcase 2021 Marvel's Wolverine was announced during Sony's PlayStation Showcase in September 2021, with a brief teaser trailer giving us our first look at Insomniac's take on Logan. Well, kind of.

The teaser trailer shows a destroyed bar, with injured men lying on the floor, before cutting to a back view of a man in a cowboy hat and checkered shirt drinking at the bar - his knuckles and surrounding area covered in blood. In the background, we see one of the injured men getting up and pulling out a knife. Sensing the assailant, the man at the bar, the man at the bar clenches his fist, resulting in long metallic claws appearing from them. Yep, it's Wolverine.

The trailer may not give us a look at gameplay or at Logan himself, but it does set the tone of Marvel's Wolverine game - which at first glance appears to be a more bloody, mature alternative to Insomniac Games' Spider-Man game. You can check out the trailer below:

Easter Eggs in the trailer The Wolverine announcement trailer seems to contain a few Easter Eggs which could hint at the game's story and setting.

Firstly, the trailer's setting seems to drop a big clue about when and where Marvel's Wolverine is set. Logan is drinking in the Princess Bar, located in Madripoor (which you may recognize from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier ), which we see from the bar sign and the Madipoor tourist poster.

In Marvel Comics Presents Volume 1 #1 (1988), Wolverine visits the Princess Bar while hunting down crime lord called Roche. After wiping the bar floor with Roche's enforcers - who are trying to get protection money off the bar's owner O'Donnell - Wolverine becomes a regular of the bar, under the name "Patch", and even co-owned it for a time. The bar was essentially Logan's home-away-from-home during a period when the X-Men were inactive. Is Insomniac Games hinting that this is the time period Marvel's wolverine is set to take place in? Will we see Logan taking on the criminal underworld?

Another possible Easter Egg is the Radio Lowtown 104.8 poster. Lowtown is a district in Madipoor (so Madipoor as a setting seems pretty likely) but the 104.8 seems to reference Marvel Earth-1048, the Marvel’s Spider-Man universe. This seems to suggest that Insomniac's Spider-Man games and Wolverine take place in the same universe, meaning we could see a Marvel Game Universe in the making - or at least we hope so.

But the Radio station isn't the only number that appears to reference a specific comic book. The license plate on the bar reads "HLK 181", which seems to reference The Incredible Hulk #18 - in which Wolverine makes an appearance. Does that mean we could see Hulk in Marvel's Wolverine? Again, we certainly hope so.

A "full-size" game with a "mature tone" According to Marvel's Wolverine's Creative Director, Brian Horton, James 'Logan' Howlett's standalone adventure on PS5 will be a full-size game with a "mature tone". Horton confirmed this in response to a fan on Twitter asking whether Wolverine on PS5 will be "big or a 'miles morales' size game".

Being directed by Spider-Man: Miles Morales creative leads In a PlayStation Blog post , Insomniac Games revealed that Marvel's Wolverine is being directed by Brian Horton (creative director) and Cameron Christian (game director), who led the creative efforts on Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales.

Respecting the DNA, with a fresh take Insomniac Games has said that, while it intends to honor the "DNA" of what makes Wolverine popular, it will be putting its own fresh spin on Weapon X.

"In the vein of our Spider-Man games, our goal here is to not only respect the DNA of what makes the character so popular, but also look for opportunities to make it feel fresh and truly reflect the Insomniac spirit," Insomniac Games wrote in a PlayStation blog post. According to the developer, despite being in early development, Marvel's Wolverine boasts an "emotional narrative and cutting-edge gameplay".

Embracing Wolverine's dark side While Marvel's Spider-Man and Miles Morales are critically acclaimed, there's no denying they're pretty family-friendly - after all, Spider-Man himself is your "friendly neighborhood Spidey". But Wolverine isn't all sunshine and rainbows, his backstory and character are actually pretty dark.

We're hoping that Insomniac explores that side of Logan in the Wolverine game, offering a more mature experience than Spider-Man did (fortunately Insomniac Games has confirmed the game will have a "mature tone") We're not asking for gratuitous violence but, to really dig into Wolverine's backstory (depending on when this game is set), you can't shy away from the darker moments. Also, you can't slash up enemies without a bit of bloodshed.

The appearance of other Marvel heroes... We don't want them hogging the spotlight, but it would be nice to see Insomniac's take on some other Marvel heroes popping up in the Wolverine game as side characters. Which characters would really depend on the story Insomniac wants to tell and which Marvel universe it's largely basing its narrative on. But we're hoping to see some of the X-Men make cameos, including Jean Grey, Professor X or maybe even Rogue.

...and infamous villains We currently don't know who will serve as the main adversary in Marvel's Wolverine, but there are plenty of infamous villains to choose from - and we imagine some could appear as smaller roles. We're hoping we could see Logan battling Sabertooth, Lady Deathstrike or even Silver Samurai, or perhaps we'll see him simply battling to bring down the Weapon X program that turned him into a mutant.

A Marvel Game Universe With Insomniac Games now working on another Marvel title for PS5, we're hoping that we could see a Marvel Game Universe in the future. In our opinion, it could work pretty well. Like with the MCU, Insomniac has created standalone products allowing us to get to know individual superheroes within its universe, if we continue to see more Marvel heroes getting their own games, could we potentially see crossovers in the future? We're hoping so as Crystal Dynamic's Marvel's Avengers certainly left a lot to be desired.