The new change will make it both easier and simple for viewers to discover the content they prefer watching while exploring a creator’s channel page. So, rather than seeing all video uploads (including long-length videos, Shorts, and live streams) under a single Videos tab, users will see separate tabs dedicated to each category, as described below:

1. Shorts tab: Dedicated to short video clips. If you are watching YouTube Shorts in the Shorts feed and try moving to a creator’s channel from the feed, you will be directed to the Shorts tab.
2. Live tab: You’ll find all streams in this tab including any that are currently active, scheduled, or archived.
3. Videos tab: Plays long-form content. You’ll no more see Shorts or live streams listed under it.

The change comes amid feedback from users who insisted on having a more streamlined way to discover and consume content. The update has started to roll out today and will be available for both the YouTube app and the website across all platforms in the coming weeks.

Source and image: YouTube

YouTube rolling out separate tabs for Shorts, live streams, and long-form videos

Twitter is now an Elon Musk company

Commenting the on the data, Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO, said:

“Our record September quarter results continue to demonstrate our ability to execute effectively in spite of a challenging and volatile macroeconomic backdrop. We continued to invest in our long-term growth plans, generated over $24 billion in operating cash flow, and returned over $29 billion to our shareholders during the quarter. The strength of our ecosystem, unmatched customer loyalty, and record sales spurred our active installed base of devices to a new all-time high. This quarter capped another record-breaking year for Apple, with revenue growing over $28 billion and operating cash flow up $18 billion versus last year.”

For those holding shares in the company, Apple said that it will pay out a cash dividend of $0.23 per share of the company’s common stock. You must be holding Apple stock by November 7 to receive the cash dividend on November 10.

Going forward, Apple CEO Tim Cook appears bullish on the company’s prospects. He said that Apple is heading into the holiday season with its most powerful line-up ever, while sticking to principles such as preserving privacy and protecting the environment. Only time will tell if fans remain dedicated to the brand despite all the economic issues.

Source: Apple

Despite the economy, Apple saw a great fiscal fourth quarter

Lego to discontinue Mindstorms robot line after a 24-year run

The latest stock price drop for Meta comes after it reported a second quarterly decline in earnings. Some investors, such as Altimeter Capital, believe Meta needs to “get its mojo back”. Altimeter Capital’s head, Brad Gerstner, suggested that the company should limit spending on the metaverse and reduce staff numbers by a massive 20% to boost investor confidence. He said these actions would double the company’s free cash flow.

In a comment on Wednesday about the situation, Mark Zuckerberg said:

“There’s macroeconomic issues, there’s a lot of competition, there’s ads challenges especially coming from Apple, and then there’s some of the longer-term things that we’re taking on expenses because we believe that they’re going to provide greater returns over time. I appreciate the patience and I think that those who are patient and invest with us will be rewarded.”

The decline in Meta’s stock price has been so dramatic that CNBC compared the wipe off as “reminiscent of the dot-com bust days” but that much more value has been erased from just one company. While Meta’s stock price may be making dramatic moves, the situation now is vastly different to how it was two decades ago. Meta’s products are mature household names that are used by billions of people, and that’s unlikely to change anytime soon.

Source

Zuckerberg is all in on the metaverse whether you like it or not

Xbox’s Phil Spencer says the metaverse is a ‘poorly built video game’

Google profits plummet 27 percent in Q3 2022 earnings report

Providing a comment on the matter, Dave Mosley, Seagate’s CEO, said:

“Global economic uncertainties and broad-based customer inventory corrections worsened in the latter stages of the September quarter, and these dynamics are reflected in both near-term industry demand and Seagate's financial performance. We have taken quick and decisive actions to respond to current market conditions and enhance long-term profitability, including adjusting our production output and annual capital expenditure plans, and announcing a restructuring plan that will deliver meaningful cost savings while maintaining investments in the mass capacity solutions driving our future growth.”

Over the last couple of months, other tech firms have been cutting back on the numbers they employ. Calm cut 20% of staff, Snap announced a 20% cut, Twilio reduced staff numbers by almost 900, Meta has said it will make people redundant, and Microsoft has laid off almost 1,000 employees working in the Xbox and Azure divisions.

COVID-19 lockdowns are still affecting supply chains in China and the war in Ukraine and resulting sanctions are hitting supplies of food and natural gas. Demand for these items is outstripping supply, causing prices to rise. To prevent inflation getting out of control, central banks, such as the U.S. Federal Reserve, are hiking interest rates. Higher interest rates will cause people’s disposable income to drop, meaning there will be less demand for scarce products - this should ease inflation over time.

With less money leftover, people are cutting back on services like Netflix or phone upgrades, and this is hurting the profits of tech firms. As a result, these companies are cutting back on their more experimental ventures and focusing on their profit-making products and services – unfortunately, this means many employees will no longer be needed at their respective company.

Source: Seagate via Bloomberg

Storage company Seagate set to cut 3,000 jobs

Starlink satellite internet for moving vehicles launches in December

Nvidia RTX 4090’s power draw may be too much for its power connector to handle

The EU has requirements in place for all consumer electronics that regulate how much energy they can consume, which fall under the Energy Efficiency Index (part of the wider Energy Efficiency Directive). The most recent change in March 2021 resulted in the majority of models falling into the lowest efficiency class possible (G).

This is set to be reviewed again, in a drive by the EU to cut energy bills to consumers by doing what it can. This includes setting an upper limit on maximum energy consumption for TVs, which many manufacturers have said will effectively push back the rollout, or stop sale, of 8K TVs altogether.

The 8K Association has provided a video response to the proposed change:

The proposed targets for TVs are based on the size of the panel, but go up to a maximum of 178W for an 88" panel. For comparison, Samsung's QN900B 8K LCD is rated at 326W, which is significantly over the proposed limit, and shows the difficulties that manufacturers will face in meeting these requirements.

Source: FlatpanelsHD

Upcoming 8K TVs likely won't be available in the EU due to energy rules

One of the main changes is a new ambient mode, which displays a glow around the video area that adapts the background color of that area to the main color of the video.  Ambient mode is activated automatically in dark mode. Google notes that it has updated the dark mode design "so that the colors truly pop" on user screens.

The feature, which is rolling out to desktop and mobile versions of YouTube, looks to become a controversial one. Google claims that it received "overwhelmingly positive reactions from users during testing", but first reactions on sites such as Twitter or Reddit paint a different picture. Some like ambient mode, others dislike it. Some find it distracting, others don't want it to change dark mode's color scheme while playing videos.

Good news is that it is easy to turn off the glow of YouTube's new ambient mode. Here is how that is done:

On desktop and mobile devices:

1. While playing a video, select the Settings button.
2. Locate the Ambient Mode setting in the list of preferences.
3. Toggle it to off to disable Ambient Mode for all videos on YouTube (in that browser).

Other options are provided by userscripts. The script YouTube watch page update reverter, for instance, reverts the watch page to the classic one. Note that it has not been updated yet to reflect the changes announced today. Keep an eye on other userscripts as well.

Another alternative is to use third-party apps or services to watch YouTube videos. NewPipe is an excellent YouTube client for Android, but there are other YouTube client alternatives as well. Desktop users may want to check out extensions such as LibRedirect, which redirect YouTube to mirror sites powered by Invidious and others.

Other YouTube design changes

There is more. Playlists show more details now and have received the same color treatment according to Google. To reduce distractions, Google decided to change links in video descriptions to buttons. Frequent actions, such as sharing or downloading, are "formatted to minimize distractions".

There is also a new pinch to zoom feature and precise seeking feature available that is being rolled out to all users on Android or iOS. Pinch to zoom allows users to zoom in and out of videos while they are playing. The zoom level stays once the action is ended on behalf of the user.

Precise seeking is designed to improve going to a specific part of the video. It works by dragging or swiping while seeking. YouTube displays a row of thumbnails of the video in that case that assists users in going to a specific part of the video.

Now You: what is your take on the design changes on YouTube?

How to disable YouTube's new Ambient Mode playback feature

Microsoft has announced the launch of "Project Volterra" or Windows Dev Kit 2023—the first mini PC from Microsoft powered by an ARM processor. The device aims at Windows developers to help them bring their apps to ARM devices and help populate the category among consumers.

The Windows Dev Kit 2023 (announced earlier this year at the Build 2022 conference) is based upon the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 Compute Platform paired with 32GB of RAM and 512GB SSD. Ports include three USB-A, two USB-C, and a Mini DisplayPort, allowing users to connect up to three monitors, including two at 4K 60Hz.

The computer also features a neural processing unit (NPU) to let developers bring AI-based experiences to their apps and projects. Microsoft says that the NPU in the Windows Dev Kit 2023 is about 90 times faster than traditional processors or 20 times faster than GPUs when using specific AI models.

The Windows Dev Kit 2023 is another sign of Microsoft taking Windows on ARM more seriously. Earlier this month, Microsoft unveiled the Surface Pro 9 lineup consisting of Intel and ARM-based variants with optional 5G connectivity. The Windows Dev Kit 2023, or "Project Volterra," will allow developers to bring better experiences to those opting for Windows devices based on ARM processors. It should help break the "no apps - no users - no apps" vicious cycle and make Windows on ARM a more attractive choice.

The Windows Dev Kit 2023 costs $599, and you can order one here. It is now available in eight countries: Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Here are the detailed specs:

Would you consider buying a $599 mini PC running Windows 11 and an ARM processor? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Microsoft launches 'Project Volterra'—its first ARM-powered mini PC for Windows Developers

In the world of PC gaming, Steam is considered a golden standard. It’s a gaming store created by the game developer Valve, best known for it’s Half-Life, Portal, Counter Strike and Team Fortress gaming series. Steam also is gaming client come game launcher software. Allowing users to arrange and launch all the games they have purchased from Steam. Initially created to serve updates to its games, Steam has come a long way.

Almost every PC game developer or publisher in the world lists their games to be sold on Steam. In fact, so big is Steam’s impact that it once accounted for 75% online market share in PC gaming sales.

This meant that gaming companies saw an opportunity for themselves. They thought, why pay Steam about 30% of their sale money if they can make their own store. Several gaming companies have tried doing so. They started releasing their games exclusively on their own gaming store, on their own gaming client.

Come Epic Games Store

One of them is Epic Games Store created by Epic Games, best known for its Unreal, Gears of War and Fortnite games. With huge investments from Chinese giant Tencent, Epic Games created a gaming store to break the Steam’s monopoly. Subsidized with massive cuts in fees, Epic Games Store has tried swaying game companies away from Steam. It also gives away at least two free games every week to attract players too.

But players aren’t the most innocent creatures. They look for their own best interests. Epic Game’s Store is a frustrating mess. It does not even have a quarter, forget half, of the features which Steam provides. At most, many use Epic Games Store only to get free games.

Except Epic Games, many other companies have realized, they cannot compete with Steam either in features or quality. Some have closed their gaming stores, some have started releasing games both on their on service and Steam too. Looks like there’s a good reason for it.

Steam Crosses 30 Million Peak Players

With Epic Games offering free games, one would wonder if Steam could continue with its user-base like this. Yes, Steam offers superior features, quality and less frustrating service. But can it fight against freebies offered by Epic Games. Apparently the answer is yes. Not only Steam is fighting nicely against Epic Games Store, it’s setting new records.

Not so long ago, Steam introduced an updated Steam Charts page which offered information about peak players on Steam. It shows total daily players online on Steam and also shows top-selling games weekly and in total, most played games daily or otherwise, among many other things.

Today, the Steam Charts page has revealed that it has crossed 30 million peak online users. Specifically, on about 23rd October, at about 2 PM UTC time, Steam had about 30,026,351 players online (the numbers keep changing slightly). SteamDB, a third party Steam database tracker site, confirms the same.

The numbers are fascinating. One might wonder, that’s just 0.37% of world population. But we are talking about a single PC gaming service having that many players online together just at that moment. That 0.37% world population is huge.

Outcome Of Big Peak Online Users

While it’s true that peak online users does not mean everyone is playing / launching a game from Steam or browsing the Steam store. It’s still very significant.

What’s important here that the strong fight showed by Epic Games to sway the users away from Steam by giving away free games is not working. Make no mistake, nothing wrong in offering free games. But not with anti-competitive and anti-consumer behavior, where one buys out or bribes game developers by signing exclusive store contracts by giving away huge amounts of money. That money could be better invested in improving the game store and also getting rid of questionable investors which raise the privacy concerns for the users.

As for Steam, this shows it is only growing more. Make no mistake. Steam is not perfect. Steam too has its own set of issues. Higher developer fees and it’s support center being just a couple out of many of them. But it’s certainly the best we have right now. Here’s hoping it improves even further.

Steam Crosses 30 Million Peak Online Players For 1st Time

It’s hard to overstate just how fast 1.84 Pbit/s really is. Your home internet is probably getting a few hundred megabits per second, or if you’re really lucky, you might be on a 1-gigabit or even 10-gigabit connection – but 1 petabit is a million gigabits. It’s more than 20 times faster than ESnet6, the upcoming upgrade to the scientific network used by the likes of NASA.

Even more impressive is the fact this new speed record was set using a single light source and a single optical chip. An infrared laser is beamed into a chip called a frequency comb that splits the light into hundreds of different frequencies, or colors. Data can then be encoded into the light by modulating the amplitude, phase and polarization of each of these frequencies, before recombining them into one beam and transmitting it through optical fiber.

In experiments, researchers from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and Chalmers University of Technology used the setup to transmit data at 1.84 Pbit/s, encoded in 223 wavelength channels, down a 7.9-km-long (4.9-mile) optical fiber that contained 37 separate cores. For reference, the global internet bandwidth has been estimated at just shy of 1 Pbit/s, meaning this system could potentially handle all of that at once with plenty of room to grow.

This data transmission speed greatly exceeds the previous record of 1.02 Pbit/s, which was only set in May this year. A previous optical chip design, similar to that used in the new study, managed 44 terabits per second in mid-2020.

But the new chip is far from finished breaking records, according to the team behind it. Using a computational model to scale the data transmission potential of the system, the researchers claim that it could eventually reach eye-watering speeds of up to 100 Pbit/s.

“The reason for this is that our solution is scalable – both in terms of creating many frequencies and in terms of splitting the frequency comb into many spatial copies and then optically amplifying them, and using them as parallel sources with which we can transmit data,” said Professor Leif Katsuo Oxenløwe, lead author of the study. “Although the comb copies must be amplified, we do not lose the qualities of the comb, which we utilize for spectrally efficient data transmission.”

The research was published in the journal Nature Photonics.

Source: DTU

Source

We are at the end of yet another week, which was quieter than the last one due to the lack of any Ignite or Surface events. That said, a lot of stuff did take place in the past few days including the rollout of the Windows 10 2022 Update, a few conflicts related to Microsoft, and some news related to app updates. Find out more in our weekly digest for October 15 - October 21!

Windows 10 2022 Update

Microsoft finally started rolling out the Windows 10 2022 Update (version 22H2) this week. Although it's supposed to be a feature update, we basically know nothing about any new consumer-facing features. Microsoft says that there is a "limited scope of new features and functionality delivered via a familiar, fast and reliable update experience", but doesn't really go into any details. While it's not surprising that there are no notable features in this update considering that development focus has shifted to Windows 11, it's unclear why Microsoft is being so mysterious about it.

Prior to releasing version 22H2 for Windows 10, Microsoft also released an out-of-band (OOB) update for the OS. KB5020435 fixes an issue that was causing handshake failures for some types of Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) connections. That said, the update brings with its own set of known issues too.

Switching gears to Windows 11, the OS received an OOB update to fix the same SSL/TLS problem too. It's important to understand that this network issue was introduced to both Windows 10 and Windows 11 with October's Patch Tuesday.

We also learned that Windows 11 version 22H2 isn't playing too nicely with both AMD and Nvidia hardware. Several users are reporting reduced performance on the former's systems with Ryzen 7000 CPUs while others are complaining about the same on Nvidia GPUs.

Furthermore, Microsoft quietly announced that with the latest version of Windows Terminal and the Windows 11 2022 Update, the default command line tool for Windows has been changed from Windows Console Host (conhost.exe) to Windows Terminal. New features in tow are multiple profiles, tabs and panes, command palette, customization, and more.

There were a few Insider builds for Windows 11 too. Build 25227 in the Dev Channel introduced Group Policy changes for update management and a couple of interesting experiments related to the Widgets and the Start menu. This was followed up by a servicing pipeline release in the form of build 25227.1010.

Meanwhile, the Release Preview Channel netted build 22621.754 (KB5018496), which brings several functionalities including right-click on Taskbar to launch Task Manager, Search on Taskbar, and updates to the Microsoft Account enrollment within Windows, among other things. The Beta Channel received builds 22621.870 and 22623.870 (KB5018499) with enhancements to Narrator, System Tray, tablet-optimized Taskbar, and more. Finally, Windows Server vNext bagged ISOs for build 25227 too, but as usual, there is no changelog. There is one known issue though, so do check out our dedicated coverage here.

Microsoft conflicts

Sordum, a company behind the development of several Windows utilities announced this week that it's killing off its Defender Control software due to conflicts with Windows Defender. For those unaware, Sordum's tool allows people to force-disable Windows Defender, claiming that it frees up resources for other use-cases. However, people have recently been reporting errors with trying to turn Windows Defender back on after disabling it using Defender Control. Sordum has blamed Microsoft for the fiasco but has shut down its tool too.

On the flip side, Microsoft has blamed a security firm called SOCRadar for mishandling the disclosure of a "BlueBleed" misconfiguration and exaggerating its impact. SOCRadar claimed that an Azure Blob Storage bucket had been available for public access and that the endpoint exposed the data for 65,000 entities spread across 111 countries. While Microsoft acknowledged the issue and quickly patched it, it called out SOCRadar for inaccurate figures about the scope of BlueBleed and also for marketing its security tool in the process, which the Redmond tech firm says is "not in the best interest of ensuring customer privacy or security and potentially exposing them to unnecessary risk".

Finally, Microsoft laid off around 1,000 employees across various departments including Xbox, Azure, and more. Although this round of layoffs impacts less than 1% of its global workforce, it is still an unfortunate situation for those affected, which includes industry veterans like KC Lemson and Greg Chapman. Microsoft has stated that the reason for these layoffs is the re-evaluation of its business priorities and the restructuring of the organization.

Microsoft 365 and other app updates

Although Microsoft had already announced that it's working on a new Microsoft 365 app, it finally gave us a first look at it in a short promotional video on YouTube. We can see the new icon (the icon in the center of the graphic above), all Microsoft and partner apps and services centralized in a single location, personalized recommendations through Microsoft Graph, pre-designed templates, and more. There's no concrete release date for the new app, but it should be arriving within the next few weeks.

After a long wait and a few delays, Dark Mode for Word for the web finally went live. Although it does what it says on the tin, Microsoft is working on improving it even further so that Word remembers your theme preferences across platforms. Similarly, Outlook on the web will soon be able to proofread your emails in up to three selected languages.

Meanwhile, Teams is getting accessibility features to assist people with hearing loss. Functionalities in tow include Sign Language View and always-on captions in Teams meetings. And Microsoft Edge is getting some advanced toggles for Find on Page including:

• Include related matches - the browser will highlight words and phrases that might be related or similar to your request.
• Match case - enables case-sensitive search, for example, finding a specific upper-cased word.
• Match whole word - this option finds only words and omits parts of words that match your search request.
• Match diacritics - lets you find only accented characters. This option will pair nicely with the new Quick Accent tool in PowerToys.

Moreover, the Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA) has received an update in the Windows 11 Insider Preview bringing improvements to security and camera, as well as general reliability and performance enhancements.

It seems like Microsoft is also working on a "PC Manager" app, which sounds like a competitor to CCleaner. Its responsibilities such as cleaning temporary files, monitoring resource usage, managing startup apps, and... recommending people to switch to Microsoft Edge. The app is unlikely to appeal to tech-savvy consumers, since it's basically just a bunch of shortcuts to existing functionalities in the OS.

Finally, we'd also like to bring your attention to a third-party utility called Fluent Flyouts. The software is aimed at Windows 11 users who want to restore Windows 10 flyouts for battery and separate volume indicators. If that is something that interests you, check it out here.

Git gud

There was not a lot of news on the Microsoft gaming front in the past few days. However, those looking to get their hands on shiny new Xbox hardware may want to check out the Xbox Elite Series 2 Controller, now available through Xbox Design Lab so you can customize it to your heart's content. The accessory starts at $149.99.

Coming over to actual games, F1 22, Rogue Lords, and Journey to the Savage Planet headline this weekend's Xbox Free Play Days promotion. Meanwhile, Persona 5 Royal, Amnesia, SOMA, and more have joined Xbox Game Pass.

And as usual, for all you PC purists out there, don't forget to check out the latest edition of Weekend PC Game Deals, curated by our resident News Editor Pulasthi Ariyasinghe.

Dev Channel

• Here is how to install Windows on your Surface Duo 2 (at your own risk!)
• Clear Linux can give you a minor improvement on Linux when compared to Windows 11 version 22H2 on AMD hardware in benchmarks

• Windows 11 2022 Update allows you to create quick notes by clicking button on Surface Pen

   

• Check out these unreleased stock Windows 11 wallpapers here and here

   

• Surface Pro 7 has received fixes for Wi-Fi issues and broken network toggles

   

Under the spotlight

This week, forum member Adam Bottjen wrote a very useful guide explaining how you can utilize a laptop with a broken screen instead of repairing it or simply throwing it away.

Meanwhile, I penned an editorial on how a really minor and seemingly simple change could really make the Windows update experience a lot better and useful rather than just idling at your laptop waiting for an update to install.

We published a lot of Windows-specific guides in the past few days too. News Reporter Taras Buria explained how you can enable the operating system to provide you the option to open the Task Manager after right-clicking the Taskbar in the latest Windows 11 update.

Taras also talked through the procedure to enable Start menu badges in the latest Windows 11 Dev Channel release, build 25227.

Similarly, News Reporter Hemant Saxena authored two other Windows 11 guides. The first one walks you through the process to toggle Core Isolation Memory Integrity, you can read it here.

The final guide is a very handy walkthrough detailing how you can add and customize borders for your Snipping Tool captures, which is a very nifty feature if you use the software regularly.

Logging off

Our most interesting news item of this week is that a community-powered version of Windows 95 running on the Electron framework now supports the latest version of Chromium, some Windows 11 dark mode features, and more. If you're not aware of the project but would like to play around with "Windows 95" on your current hardware, check out the project on GitHub here.

Microsoft Weekly: Windows 10 2022 Update, conflicts, and Microsoft 365

The easier way to install Steam on Linux gets bleeding-edge graphics support

Image: LG

LG’s new Smart Monitor is a work-from-home TV

With Intel Raptor Lake release, reviews are also out everywhere. While most reviews show best in the world performance, there’s a huge power usage issue.

After a long wait, Intel finally released its Raptor Lake series of processors. Based on the same LGA1700 platform like its predecessor Alder Lake, Intel promised unparalleled performance in Raptor Lake.

Initially, three main processors are now released in the market. The Core i9-13900K, the Core i7-13700K and the Core i5-13600K. Along with them, Intel also releases the KF version of these same processors, which do not come with any basic built-in graphics chip.

While i9-13900K is priced at $589, i7-13700K comes at $409 and i5-13600K costs $319. The difference between these processors is that i9 13900K comes with 8 performance and 16 efficient cores. The i7-13700K on the other hand has the same 8 performance cores but cuts out the efficient cores to 8. The i5-13600K processor cuts out the performance cores to 6 but maintains the same efficient cores at 8.

Many sites have not mentioned one important upgrade in these processors. The Intel Core i9-13900K not only comes with a 36MB L3 Cache, but it also comes with a massive 32MB L2 cache divided between cores. It was something which we had mentioned earlier as a possibility. A big L2 cache can give a big boost to the performance.

Unlike AMD Ryzen 7000, Intel Raptor Lake series supports both DDR4 and DDR5 RAM.

With their release, Intel has removed the restriction on the release of their reviews. Hence, many sites have already made their reviews public. The reviews are great to say the least. We will look at three of them in relation to gaming performance.

Tom’s Hardware Review of Intel Raptor Lake

Tom’s Hardware reviewed all three processors. The winner was outright visible.

As far as gaming performance benchmarks are concerned, Intel i9-13900K completely defeats its opposition, including the likes of AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D and AMD Ryzen 9 7950X processors. Not to forget it being significantly faster than previous gen Intel Alder Lake processors like Core i9 12900K.

But the more interesting CPU is the $319 processor that is Intel Core i5-13600K. The i5-13600K manages to defeat all AMD Ryzen 7000 series processors, including the significantly higher priced AMD Ryzen 9 7950X. The only AMD Ryzen processor faster than the i5-13600K is the gaming oriented Ryzen 5800X3D, which comes with a huge L3 cache.

Tom’s Hardware however found big issue in the power usage and temperatures.

When tested without any limits, they found that Intel i9 13900K could hit a huge 308W power consumption and it hits the 100 C limit regularly. It must be mentioned here that the 308W power usage is of the CPU alone, that too at stock settings. This is a massive problem. However, might not be a big issue when gaming.

Igor’sLab Review of Intel Raptor Lake

igor’sLAB tested two Intel Raptor Lake Processors. Intel Core i9-13900K and i5-13600K.

Here too, both i9-13900K and i5-13600K defeats the competition. In average FPS, Intel Core i9-13900K and i5-13600K are faster than all AMD Ryzen 7000 processors and also Intel Alder Lake processors.

Three things to notice here. In their benchmarks, unlike Tom’s Hardware, Ryzen 7 5800X3D is slower than Ryzen 7950X, which is ideally how it should be – depends on the games tested. Second, a $319 Intel Core i5-13600K again beats AMD’s top of the line $699 Ryzen 9 7950X processor in gaming as far as average FPS is concerned. Third important thing is, while average FPS is higher in i5-13600K, it’s 1% FPS is lower than many others like AMD’s Ryzen 9 7950X, Ryzen 7 7700X, Ryzen 7 5800X3D and also Intel’s Core i9-12900K.

Lower 1% FPS means games might hit higher FPS on average, but might cause slight jitters or might lag a bit. Overall, for smoother gameplay, low 1% FPS is quite important. So 1% FPS performance should also be considered before deciding upon things.

Coming to power consumption, Igor’sLab gives some fascinating numbers.

When tested to the max, Intel Core i9-13900K reached a huge 280W in power consumption, peaking at 286W. Intel Core i5-13600K on the hand reaches 154W. But there’s more to it. These are power usage at max loads. They are not maxed out by common users, including gamers.

While gaming, the average power consumption of Intel Core i9-13900K is 110W. In most games it is around 100W. Which is lower than what AMD Ryzen 9 7950X consumes. The Core i5-13600K too consumes 98W. This means the CPU is not consuming too much power while gaming and the huge power usage figures we see above is for highly specialized workloads that too at max performance.

TechPowerUp’s Review of Intel Raptor Lake

TechPowerUP reviewed both Intel Core i9-13900K and Intel Core i5-13600K individually. However, we are showing only the i5-13600K performance image as it contains the information for both the processors.

TechPowerUP tested both the processors on 12 different games. The results were on the expected lines. Both i9-13900K and i5-13600K defeated them all.

Now, the power consumption is something which takes the cake.

At max load, here too, Core i9-13900K hits 283W. However, once all the restrictions are removed, Intel’s Core 13900K manages to hit a massive 388W in power usage. With further increase till 399W when overclocked. Intel Core i5-13600K too is not far behind. It reaches 186W at stock, 200W without power limits and 277W when overclocked. Again, this is CPU only power usage, that too at max load. It’s the not same in gaming.

When gaming, Intel Core i9-13900K hits an average of 118W and 139W when overclocked. Intel Core i5-13600K, on the other hand, has an average of 73W power usage while gaming and reached 116W when overclocked.

This again shows the same thing. Intel Raptor Lake processors can use a lot of power when required, but they are not doing so in gaming.

TechPowerUP reviews mentioned some things which are really important. The Core i9-13900K could hit 5.8 GHz boost speeds on only two cores, at least on the CPU they got to test. Additionally, Core i5-13600K has no Turbo Boost 3.0 in it. What’s worse that they mention that in both the processors, when a PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot is in use, the graphics card PCIe slot limits itself to just x8 instead of x16. This can be a major issue depending on the graphics card.

Conclusion

We aren’t quite sure where to start. Out of many reviews, we chose 3 which we felt would summaries everything easily. There are many others which we did not cover, like the AnandTech one, which many might find too detailed and complex. We suggest everyone to go through all the above ones and see it for themselves what’s best for them. It’s never ideal to decide by seeing just one.

As far as the CPUs are concerned. There’s no doubt that Intel Raptor Lake processors are above all in performance. At least as far as gaming is concerned, that is. When one takes Tom’s Hardware’s performance numbers into accounts, both the processors are about 10-15% faster than their previous generation Alder Lake counterparts.

However, the power draw is a huge concern, even if we take just gaming power usage into the account. If performance has increased 10-15%, power usage has increased similarly too. Let us not forget there’s a huge energy problem happening in the world due to the war. There are going to be major power cuts happening in many parts of the world. Additional power usage is something people cannot afford. Especially during these times.

Compared to AMD Ryzen 7000 series, Intel Raptor Lake absolutely takes the cake in gaming performance. It’s not only faster, it’s cheaper both as a processor and a platform. Also remember, Intel Raptor Lake technically is still on the 10nm process which Intel calls Intel 7 process as its comparable to the 7nm process of it’s rivals. Whereas, AMD Ryzen 7000 is on the latest gen 5nm process. So Intel consuming more power is expected, but Intel easily beating AMD is not.

Some important points need to be made about AMD Ryzen 7000. It supports only DDR5 RAM and has a new AM5 CPU slot where the pins are on the motherboard and not on the CPU, unlike previous-gen AMD processors, making them extremely expensive. This has meant that when someone goes to make an AMD Ryzen 7000 PC, they will need to buy not only an expensive motherboard, but expensive DDR5 RAM too. So big is the price issue that, if reports are to be believed, AMD has decided to massively cut the production of its Ryzen 7000 processors due to a big lack of demand.

Compare that to Intel Raptor Lake processors, which also run on Alder Lake supporting previous-gen Intel 600 series motherboards. They also don’t require relatively expensive DDR5 RAM to run. So both expensive motherboard and RAM sticks are not necessarily required if price is a concern.

It means Ryzen 7000 as a platform is really expensive when compared to Intel currently.

If we were to recommend a processor, Intel Core i5-13600K is an ideal choice. It’s great for gaming and does not use tremendous amount of power that i9-13900K does.

The Intel Core i9-13900K, however, is on another level. If we ignore the claims that Intel has made about its processor, we are not sure how much the silicon inside it can take with so much max power usage. Still, benchmark reviews show that if power usage is not an issue, it’s the new king in the processor market.

Unless AMD manages to outperform Intel with it’s next-gen 3D V-Cache 7950X3D, 7900X3D or 7800X3D processors, which it possibly might, Intel is expected to not only be the best but also be the fastest one around in gaming processors.

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Life in South Korea went askew this past weekend.

Millions of people had trouble getting in touch with one another. Many could not pay for everyday items at convenience stores or order food and groceries. Travelers were left stranded because they were not able to book taxis, depriving drivers of income.

The chaos had one source: the Kakao suite of apps was down because of a fire at a data center. Started as a messaging app more than a decade ago, KakaoTalk has become a universe unto itself, with services covering banking and payments, ride-hailing, maps and games. It is found on more than 90 percent of phones in South Korea.

The days-long outage and the havoc it caused has stirred a national reckoning over the country’s growing dependency on Big Tech. The company and a government minister have apologized. Describing KakaoTalk as “nationwide infrastructure,” President Yoon Suk-yeol of South Korea ordered an investigation into the incident, invoking concerns about a monopoly.

On Wednesday, four days after the fire at the data center in Pangyo, near Seoul, a senior Kakao executive took responsibility for the disruption and resigned. By then most Kakao services had been restored.

Still, questions remained about why the company seemed to lack a contingency plan to restore services more quickly. The fire also affected Naver, another internet conglomerate in South Korea, but that company was able to bounce back much more quickly than Kakao.

Namkoong Whon, a co-chief executive of Kakao, was ultimately in charge of the data operation. He said he “felt a great responsibility” for the outage and said the company would assist with a government probe into the fire.

Hong Eun-taek, Kakao’s other co-chief, will now hold sole leadership of the company. Joining Mr. Namkoong at the news conference, he said Kakao plans to compensate businesses that had taken a hit from the outage and ensure another outage is prevented.

“We caused a great inconvenience to everyone,” said Mr. Namkoong, 50. “I know that now more than ever it will take a long time and lots of effort to gain back the trust that we have lost.”

Multiple groups of customers are preparing a class-action suit against Kakao, according to a Korean news outlet. Lawyers have claimed that the accident was the result of “negligence” and inadequate preparations. Kakao’s stock price dropped sharply in Seoul on Monday, the first day of trading after the outage, but had pared most of the losses by Wednesday.

Kakao and Naver often draw comparisons to China’s WeChat, a so-called superapp that’s an amalgam of messaging, payment, delivery services and more. In South Korea, the rapid growth of the internet behemoths has invited scrutiny comparable to that faced by the country’s “chaebols,” the family-run conglomerates that have long dominated the country’s economy.

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