Computing
The latest news and reviews of PCs, laptops, chips and accessories.
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Porsche's virtual race series starts tomorrow with pro drivers at the wheel
It's not just multi-manufacturer racing leagues like NASCAR going digital during the COVID-19 pandemic. Porsche is livestreaming its Mobil 1 Supercup Virtual Edition starting on April 4th at 10AM Eastern, when drivers take to a digital version of the Spanish Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for two races in 911 GT3 Cup cars. The iRacing-based series will have 31 drivers, 22 of which are full-time Supercup racers -- the nine others are factory and young professional drivers fielded by big-name sponsors like TAG Heuer and Vodafone.
The forgotten dream of second-screen gaming
The original iPad came out on April 3rd, 2010, at a time when most smartphone manufacturers were making the awkward transition from full QWERTY keyboards to touchscreen-only devices. Apple sold 1 million iPads in that first month, and by the end of 2010, that figure had climbed to 15 million. That same year, the top video games were Fallout: New Vegas, Bayonetta, Red Dead Redemption, Super Meat Boy and StarCraft II. The alpha version of Minecraft was generating some slight buzz.
Deadpool is Fortnite's latest playable crossover cameo
While he's been in the periphery of the game since the start of the current season, Deadpool is finally making his way to Fortnite proper. If you purchased this season's battle pass, you can obtain the skin by finding the mercenary's two hidden pistols (hint: look in the menus). After finding the weapons, head to a phone booth on the island to change outfits.
A sequel to beloved indie game 'Rogue Legacy' is in the works
What at first seemed like a potential April Fool's joke has turned out to be real: almost seven years after the original came out, Cellar Door Games has confirmed it's working on a Rogue Legacy sequel. The indie studio didn't share a release date for Rogue Legacy 2, nor did it say anything about potential platforms. In fact, besides some screenshots showing off a lovely new art style, the only significant tidbit of information we got is that Judson Cowan and A Shell in the Pit will return to score the game's soundtrack.
Get six months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $40 at Newegg
If you play games with your Xbox One frequently, there's a good chance you already have Game Pass Ultimate. Now is an excellent opportunity to top up your subscription at an affordable price. Newegg is offering a total of six months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $40 when you enter the code "EMCDHDE22".
Google donates Chromebooks and WiFi hotspots to California students
To help students keep up with their studies during the coronavirus pandemic, Google will donate 4,000 Chromebooks and 100,000 WiFi hotspots to households in California. Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced the initiative in a tweet on Wednesday. California Governor Gavin Newsom said the state's Department of Education will distribute the Chromebooks and WiFi hotspots, prioritizing rural communities. Students will have the tools until the end of the school year, giving them at least three months of unlimited high-speed internet access.
Facebook debuts standalone Messenger app on Mac and PC
Today, Facebook is bringing its Messenger app to desktop. You can now access Messenger -- including unlimited and free group video calls -- on MacOS and Windows. The desktop app will sync across mobile, offer notifications for new messages and support Dark Mode and GIFs.
Gigabyte's Aero 17 has a 4K HDR display and Intel's 8-core i9 CPU
Gigabyte has launched its latest lineup of Aero laptops for creators, and its latest 17-inch model has some nice features if you're into HDR. First off, both the new 15- and 17-inch models look considerably more powerful than the last models. They offer up to the latest 10th-gen Intel Core i9-10980HK 8-core laptop processors with boost speeds as high as 5.3 GHz, along with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070/2080 Super graphics.
Razer's Blade 15 packs an 8-core Intel CPU and RTX 2080 Super
Razer has unveiled the 2020 Blade 15 Advanced with more gaming and content creation power, along with one long overdue addition. To start with, the Advanced model is the first Razer Blade with an 8-core CPU, namely the 10th-generation Intel Core i7-10875. That will make it useful for both content creation and gaming, particularly since you can clock it up to 5.1 GHz.
Lenovo's latest gaming laptops pack more efficient NVIDIA graphics
Lenovo is leaping quickly on the latest NVIDIA and Intel technology for its gaming laptops. It's introducing Legion 5i and Legion 7i portables (successors to the Y540 and Y740 respectively) that, most notably, are among the first to use NVIDIA's Advanced Optimus graphics switching. The tech both lowers power consumption in less-intensive moments and ramps up performance in GPU-heavy situations, theoretically giving you added battery life and higher frame rates in the same package. The Legion 7i also touts the option of new GeForce RTX 2080 Super Max-Q graphics if you insist on the best possible visuals.
Intel's 10th-gen H-series laptop CPUs reach 5.3GHz
Just like Intel said at CES, it's crossed the 5GHz barrier with its new H-series 10th generation notebook CPUs. And you won't need to shell out for the top-of-the-line Core i9 to do it: The new six and eight-core i7 processors reach up to 5.1Ghz (boost speed) on a single core. But if you want to go all out, the octa-core i9-10980HK hits 5.3GHz -- and it's fully unlocked for overclocking, to boot.
ASUS' ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 is a gaming laptop with a built-in second screen
ASUS has been pushing laptops with second screens for a couple of years now, but it's still searching for a winning formula. Last year's ZenBook Pro Duo pushed the keyboard down to the edge of the laptop's body, with the rest of the surface housing a second screen. The problem with that configuration was an awkwardly placed trackpad. But, you know who cares less about trackpad placement? Gamers. Hence, almost a year later, the company's Republic Of Gamers (ROG) division has its own spin on the concept: the ROG Zephyrus Duo 15.
Acer gaming laptops add RTX Super graphics and 10th-gen Intel CPUs
Acer is joining a flurry of PC makers in adopting the next wave of NVIDIA and Intel chips inside its laptops. It's updating its 15.6-inch Predator Triton 500 (above) and Nitro 5 (below) gaming portables to use NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX Super laptop GPUs as well as Intel's 10th-generation Core H-series processors. As you might guess, the premium Predator series is the highlight. It comes with up to a GeForce RTX 2080 Super Max-Q to deliver speedier and more efficient graphics, and mates that with a 300Hz, 3ms response IPS display and per-key RGB keyboard lighting.
NVIDIA's RTX Super GPUs arrive on laptops
NVIDIA has launched its latest Max-Q GPU refresh with new hardware like the RTX 2080 Super Max-Q GPU and upgraded features as well. As with the desktop hardware, the new products will offer a modest boost to gaming and content creation performance. However, NVIDIA has also introduced new Max-Q features that should boost performance and power efficiency significantly on all the Max-Q GPUs -- but only on new 2020 laptops.
ASUS adds new Intel chips to its Zephyrus gaming laptops
ASUS has refreshed its line of gaming laptops with new 10th Generation Intel Core processors, NVIDIA RTX 2070/2080 Super graphics and a bunch of other features designed to make gaming and content creation slicker and smoother. First up, the new Zephyrus S17 (pictured), which comes with a 17.3-inch display with super narrow bezels in an 18.7-millimeter-thin chassis. A 300 Hz refresh rate and 3ms grey-to-grey response time means the display is lightning fast, and it comes with Pantone-validated color accuracy as well.
Social distancing is pushing esports into the mainstream
Industries around the globe have ground to a halt amid the coronavirus pandemic. Bars, restaurants, stadiums and factories have shuttered, and entire countries are on lockdown as citizens are ordered to stay home for weeks at a time in an attempt to control the disease's spread. With the streets empty, people are turning to their screens more than ever before. Viewership of streaming services like Netflix, YouTube, Twitch, Mixer and Hulu has risen weekly since shelter-in-place orders began rolling out, and people are on the hunt for new forms of entertainment, ideally with a social twist. Something with a chat room, or dozens of forum posts to read through, or an active Twitter and Instagram presence. Something with stats and high stakes. Something live. Enter: Esports. As economic activity spirals downward around the world, the esports industry has been spun into overdrive. Leagues are ditching plans for in-person tournaments and pivoting to online-only matches, where they're finding a hungry audience.
Dell XPS 13 review (2020): Tweaked to near perfection
How do you improve on a nearly perfect laptop? We gave the XPS 13 one of our most positive reviews ever last year -- and in 2020, Dell has managed to outdo itself again. The latest XPS 13 model has a larger screen with slimmer bezels, a bigger keyboard and a sleeker design. On their own, those aren't exactly life-changing upgrades. But taken as a whole, they make the XPS 13 even more refined than before. You could say it's more perfect than perfect.
Alphabet’s DeepMind AI is better than you at Atari games
Having AI agents learn how to play simple video games is an ideal way to test their effectiveness, thanks to the ability to measure success via a score. Alphabet's DeepMind designated 57 particular Atari games to serve as a litmus test for its AI, and established a benchmark for the skills of an average human player. The company's latest system, Agent57, made a huge leap over previous systems, and is the first iteration of the AI that outperforms the human baseline. In particular, Agent57 has proven its superhuman skills in Pitfall, Montezuma's Revenge, Solaris and Skiing -- games that have been major challenges for other AIs.
Xbox Series X and PS5: The new consoles are all about crazy fast storage
The Xbox One and PS4 were the start of an unusual console generation. Both systems adopted very "PC-like" architecture and instead of a new generation we instead got a refresh where Microsoft and Sony both released faster versions of their existing consoles, the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X. We may still have a few months left to wait, but finally we've gotten details of what the next real generation will bring. Microsoft and Sony have both stuck with the PC-like design of their predecessors, and are again using AMD as their CPU and GPU supplier, but the Xbox Series X and PS5 will be very different from the current generation. The biggest changes come from the storage systems. Considering the Xbox One and PS4 both still use slow mechanical hard drives, we figured a move to smaller, faster, more efficient flash-based SSDs was inevitable, but Microsoft and Sony have gone all out. Both systems feature custom storage interfaces with PCI Express 4.0 SSDs and custom hardware to handle real-time decompression. That means these drives will move serious amounts of data very quickly. The Series X is claiming transfer speeds of around 3-4GB/s, while the PS5 may be capable of data rates as high as 9GB/s. With data rates that high (the current consoles manage maybe 150MB/s in ideal conditions), load times should be cut down to seconds, and in-game load screens may become a thing of the past. Faster data rates could also enable higher resolution textures for more photo-realistic graphics, and enable you to switch between games with the click of a button. Add in a significantly upgraded CPU and a long-awaited AMD ray tracing solution for hyper-realistic lighting, and these consoles represent a huge leap forward. Hopefully, their benefits will also trickle down into the PC space as well, and games on every platform will be able to leverage these new possibilities to be faster and better looking. We don't know exactly when they'll arrive yet, or how much they'll cost, but we'll have more details on the Series X and PS5 as soon as they're announced.
The Morning After: MacBook Air (2020) review
Hey, good morning! You look fabulous. Remember when Steve Jobs pulled the MacBook Air out of a manila envelope? These days a thin-and-light laptop isn't that shocking, but Apple's original version is still one of the best. Dana Wollman's review is in: With the improved keyboard and upgraded base storage, this 13-inch laptop is an even better option than last year when its price started $100 higher. The only drawbacks? Just two USB-C ports and battery life that is good, but not best-in-class. If you want macOS and don't need Pro power or a discrete GPU, it's worth thinking about -- but I'm sticking with my XPS 13 2-in-1. -- Richard