Intel’s 13th-gen “Raptor Lake” CPUs are official, launch October 20

Intel and Samsung are getting ready for ‘slidable’ PCs

Aside from the uplift to gaming performance, the new Nvidia cards also bring new media capabilities which now includes support for AV1 encode. Prior to this, the Nvidia cards were only capable of decoding AV1 content. Only Intel Arc GPUs supported AV1 encoding before this. But sadly for Team Blue, the delay in Arc's release means it has lost that advantage.

In order to take advantage of the new-found capabilities, the Chromium development team approved a merge request to enable AV1 encoding on the new Nvidia GPUs. The feature should be up and running in the upcoming release channel builds for Chromium-based browsers like Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and more.

The new RTX 40-series cards feature the 8th Gen NVENC with dual AV1 encoders. With this, Nvidia promises game recordings with 8K60 quality and nearly two times faster export speeds. And with this merge, streaming quality will also see an improvement since AV1 is more efficient than H.264 (AVC) and VP9 codecs.

Source: Chromium

Nvidia RTX 4090, 4080 will soon be able to stream AV1 on Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome

Everything you need to know about Zen 4, socket AM5, and AMD’s newest chipsets

Companion article: Ryzen 7600X and 7950X review: Zen 4 starts off expensive but impressive

Late in the day on September 14 and into the early hours of the following morning, Vitalik Buterin and a few dozen crypto developers crowded into an office space in Berlin to flip the switch on The Merge.

There wasn’t a literal switch to flip: Buterin, the 28-year-old Ethereum co-founder who has been active in cryptocurrency since his teens, had long ago envisioned a system that would basically run itself. The crypto research and developer community would agree on what a change looks like, coders would type out a command and timestamp it, developers on the client side would download these bits of code, and then at the predetermined time, the system would manifest the change by itself—in this case, The Merge. It changed how transactions on the Ethereum blockchain are verified, a much-delayed upgrade that has been hailed as a major moment in crypto land.

That doesn’t make the current landscape of crypto apps, and the blockchain technology they’re built on, any less complex for the average individual. Buterin seems mostly aware of this. In the lead up to The Merge, he collated some of his earlier essays about crypto into a book titled Proof of Stake: The Making of Ethereum and the Philosophy of Blockchains. Given how quickly crypto technologies are changing, the book already feels slightly outdated, peppered with coins and DAOs that may no longer exist and concluding in an essay from January 2022, just before the crypto market tanked. But the collection serves as a kind of crypto Old Testament, a historical record and first-hand account of a mindshift towards decentralized networks that inspire a host of lofty promises.

WIRED’s global editorial director Gideon Lichfield and senior writer Lauren Goode spoke with Buterin over Zoom about the recently-burst crypto bubble, whether decentralized technology can support society-scale decision-making, and what next great innovation may follow The Merge. The conversation has been edited and condensed.

Gideon Lichfield: So I guess congratulations are due on The Merge. How do you feel it has gone?

Vitalik Buterin: I'm definitely happy, and definitely relieved. This is a transition that the whole Ethereum community has been working towards for the last eight years. Along the way there have been a lot of people—whether from the Bitcoin community, or people skeptical of crypto in general—who have doubted whether or not The Merge, this switch to Proof of Stake, would happen. We're very happy to have proven all of them wrong finally.

GL: Just to boil things down really simply, the presumed advantages of proof stake are that it uses much less energy, and has lower barriers to entry, so there's less risk of centralization. It's more secure against attacks. But what would you say, in lay terms, are the biggest opportunities that proof of stake opens up?

I think there are a few. One of them is from the economic resources that the ecosystem no longer has to spend on proof of work. All kinds of projects are going to have somewhat more resources than they did before.

Another is the greater legitimacy the switch to proof of stake gives to Ethereum. A lot of institutional actors, whether it's governments or corporations, their biggest reason to be skeptical of or not want to use Ethereum has been the proof of work and environmental aspect. After The Merge, Ethereum is not a proof of work network anymore, and that makes people who had those kinds of concerns a lot more willing to use it now. There’s probably going to be a lot of people who have been quietly on the sidelines who now are going to come in and start using Ethereum.

A third one is that proof of stake is an opportunity to redesign the protocol in a lot of ways. Probably the biggest problem that people have with blockchains—outside of proof of stake or their practical ability to use them—is scalability. Sending transactions is expensive, because blockchains are not very scalable. The reason why is this architecture where every node in the network has to personally verify every single transaction. We have ideas around technologies to fix that and turn Ethereum into a system that processes transactions in a way that's still decentralized, but a lot more efficient.

Lauren Goode: You sort of answered my next question, which is, what is the next biggest innovation we can look for post-Merge? Can you give a specific example of developers building something that they weren't able to build, or build efficiently, before?

Scaling is really the big one. Ethereum has what we call this two-layer scaling model and the plan is to upgrade it a little bit, by making it possible for the chain to process a much larger amount of data. And then there are these separate protocols that take that data as an ingredient and create kind of like mini-Ethereums inside of Ethereum, on top of that. These together would be able to process a much larger number of transactions. Instead of the about 20 transactions per second that Ethereum can process today, potentially between 5,000 and a 100,000 transactions.

A bunch of work needs to happen in the Ethereum ecosystem on building these layer-two protocols. And The Merge makes it much easier. The transition to scalability is probably the next big thing that the Ethereum ecosystem is doing after The Merge. It's, in my opinion, equally exciting. It could be equally as big of a game changer.

GL: How do you think the crypto crash of this year affects Ethereum now, in the wake of The Merge?

Mmm, It's a good question. I have I think said publicly on a couple of occasions that to some extent I look forward to the bear market. One of the unfortunate things that's happened around crypto, especially in the 2020 and 2021 bubble, is that it got really big before it was really mature enough to handle the level of attention that it was getting. If you look at the chart of how much energy Ethereum consumed, I think more than half, maybe more than two thirds, was within the last two years. If The Merge had happened two years earlier, things would be even better, and if it got delayed by another five years and it happened after another really big crypto bubble, things could have been vastly worse.

That’s also true from the scalability point of view. Transaction fees on Ethereum got up to five dollars and even twenty dollars [per transaction] last year and if there is another big price bubble we could easily see fees go up to a hundred to two hundred dollars. In that kind of a world, talking about the promise of crypto as a way of empowering the third world, banking the unbanked, supporting people who are marginalized by existing institutions, just clearly starts looking ridiculous.

I've always really wanted to solve scalability properly before the next big rise in adoption and attention on the ecosystem happens. One of the saving graces of prices going down for a while is that we are going to get an opportunity to be able to do that. Proof of stake does not reduce transaction fees, but it is the big thing that we've had to get out of the way before we can go full steam ahead on doing the stuff that will.

LG: Your last essay in the book, written in January 2022, is about NFTs. Since then the market has changed dramatically. How confident are you in some of the ideas that you were exploring, like the “Proof of Attendance Protocol”? For what it’s worth, event ticketing seemed to be one of the more valid uses of NFTs. But the market for NFT art has just cratered.

My take on NFTs is the same as it was a year ago, which is that I think the NFTs that are going to be sustainable are the NFTs that are going to be useful. In the beginning stages, there is tradable art and cat pictures and a lot of that stuff really has cratered. For an NFT to have lasting value there needs to be some benefits of holding it other than just being able to say that you hold it.

The most successful NFT use case so far, and it's been so successful and pervasive that people don't even think about it as NFTs, is ENS domain names. I'm sure last year you saw a lot of people on Twitter putting up dot-ETH names. I still have Vitalik.ETH. Those names are NFTs that are in the wallet of a particular address. If you have that NFT, then if I want to send someone Ether, or interact with them through some Ethereum application, then I can put in their dot-ETH name. It’s really convenient to do that—the same sort of function that domain names on the internet or usernames have in any kind of chat application—except in this big decentralized Ethereum ecosystem.

Another interesting use is the whole NFT gaming space. Games like Axie Infinity were really successful last year, but then Axie Infinity got hacked. Even aside from that, it hasn't really been able to recover. The reason for that in my view is that the people who designed these first-generation NFT games approached it with the attitude that the financialization aspect by itself was enough to make the game fun. But that’s clearly not enough, and a successful NFT or play-to-earn game itself needs to be fun even without the monetization aspect. Whoever figures out how to make a blockchain game that is a fun game first, those are the kinds of projects that are going to win.

GL: You’ve written a lot about governance and I'm interested in the potential uses of blockchains for governments and societies. What is the potential of using decentralized systems like Ethereum for running decision-making on social issues, and not necessarily crypto-related issues?

I think blockchains can be a good technical infrastructure for running a lot of these very base layer mechanisms. They're good for currencies. They’re good for things like domain name systems. And I think at least the formal ingredients of a governance system can often make sense to put partially on a blockchain. Although I want to put in some caveats, because governance is also the communication and everything that goes around a system, and most of that's going to happen on platforms that are off [block]chain.

Blockchains for things like voting are an interesting example. People talk a lot about blockchains providing censorship resistance, for example. And the phrase “censorship resistance” gives a lot of people the impression of, you know, I want to smoke weed and not have to ask the government, but people forget that voting requires censorship resistance. If the government can censor your ability to vote, that means that the entire democracy just completely stops working. It’s important for voting systems to have this really strong property, that if you want to vote, then you should be able to, and you should be able to be really certain that your vote actually went to where it was able to be counted. That's something that I think blockchains, combined with some other types of cryptography that add things like privacy, can do a good job of providing.

LG: You write in one of your essays in the book that traditionally in governance, incompetent people have a way of buying their way into responsibility and leadership roles. Does the blockchain prevent that?

Yeah, good question. This is one of the reasons why I think privacy technology is important. I keep talking about zero-knowledge proofs over and over again because I really believe in the importance of privacy, not just in helping protect people from bad social structures, but also because it’s a necessary ingredient in making many kinds of social structure possible at all.

The corruption in voting issue, and people's ability to buy their way into power, is one of those use cases where privacy is a really important ingredient. Because if everything is transparent, then everything that you do is basically subject to everyone else's incentives.

GL: How should crypto be regulated?

Mmm. [long pause] I think it depends on what aspect of crypto is being regulated. So there's the crypto base layer, and then there's the application layer on top. For the base layer, we try very hard to prevent it from falling under regulations, especially any one country. It's critical for the credibility of a platform in every other country for one country to not have too much power over it.

But then once you start getting into the application layer, there are applications that are in different industries. And the specific things that people do with blockchains are things that are more likely to be regulated already. It's much more difficult to make a public argument that they should be completely free of any kind of regulation.

I think in the Ethereum community, we're not ideological theorists in the sense that if there is any regulated thing happening then that’s a betrayal of the values and the whole thing failed and we have to start from scratch. I think people have known all along that there would be different parts of the stack, and some would be less regulated and some would be more regulated.

Tornado Cash got sanctioned about a month ago, and that is just the most recent instance of the ongoing regulatory issue of how to treat efforts to improve privacy in blockchains. It’s a challenging issue because on the one hand, I think financial privacy is necessary and lots of people agree, and cash is a natural thing that people have had for thousands of years. And a lot of people don't want this kind of dystopia where the cashless society is used to bring a much larger level of surveillance into people's lives. But at the same time, there are real concerns about billion-dollar hackers being able to completely anonymize their money and whether this is going to create funding streams for terrible governments.

GL: One last question: What do you think it would take for you to conclude that Ethereum or crypto more generally is not going to deliver on its promise to transform the world? What would have to go wrong?

I have a pretty clear answer: If after we solve scalability and privacy there's still nothing interesting happening. There are people who give this critique that "Hey, there's nothing actually interesting at a large scale happening with crypto, aside from money transfers.”

But if you dig in, the reasons often have to do with the fact that, hey, there's a $5 fee on sending even a single transaction. Twitter would never have taken off if there was a $5 fee for sending a tweet, right? But that by itself is not proof that Twitter is not useful. If there is nothing interesting happening even after we solve scalability and resolve transaction fees, and some of the zero-knowledge proof stuff happens—which I think will all happen over the next couple of years—then the case to be very pessimistic about the technology starts to become a lot stronger.

That's the standard that I'm holding myself to.

What’s Next for Ethereum After The Merge

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Common sense is different from intelligence in that it is usually something innate and natural to humans that helps them navigate daily life, and cannot really be taught. In 1906, philosopher G. K. Chesterton wrote that “common sense is a wild thing, savage, and beyond rules.”

Robots, of course, run on algorithms that are just that: rules.

So no, robots can’t use common sense — yet. But thanks to current efforts in the field, we can now measure an AI’s core psychological reasoning ability, bringing us one step closer.

So why does it matter if we teach AI common sense?

Really it comes down to the fact that common sense will make AI better at helping us solve real-world issues. Many argue that AI-driven solutions designed for complex problems, like diagnosing Covid-19 treatments for example, often fail, as the system can’t readily adapt to a real-world situation where the problems are unpredictable, vague, and not defined by rules.

Injecting common sense into AI could mean big things for humans; better customer service, where a robot can actually assist a disgruntled customer beyond sending them into an endless “Choose from the following options” loop. It can make autonomous cars react better to unexpected roadway incidences. It can even help the military draw life-or-death information from intelligence.

So why haven’t scientists been able to crack the common sense code thus far?

Called the “dark matter of AI”, common sense is both crucial to AI’s future development and, thus far, elusive. Equipping computers with common sense has actually been a goal of computer science since the field’s very start; in 1958, pioneering computer scientist John McCarthy published a paper titled “Programs with common sense” which looked at how logic could be used as a method of representing information in computer memory. But we’ve not moved much closer to making it a reality since.

Common sense includes not only social abilities and reasoning but also a “naive sense of physics” — this means that we know certain things about physics without having to work through physics equations, like why you shouldn’t put a bowling ball on a slanted surface. It also includes basic knowledge of abstract things like time and space, which lets us plan, estimate, and organize. “It’s knowledge that you ought to have,” says Michael Witbrock, AI researcher at the University of Auckland.

All this means that common sense is not one precise thing, and therefore cannot be easily defined by rules.

Secret AGENT

We’ve established that common sense requires a computer to infer things based on complex, real-world situations — something that comes easily to humans, and starts to form since infancy.

Computer scientists are making (slow) but steady progress toward building AI agents that can infer mental states, predict future actions, and work with humans. But in order to see how close we actually are, we first need a rigorous benchmark for evaluating an AI’s “common sense,” or its psychological reasoning ability.

Researchers from IBM, MIT, and Harvard have created just that: AGENT, which stands for Action-Goal-Efficiency-coNstraint-uTility. After testing and validation, this benchmark is shown to be able to evaluate the core psychological reasoning ability of an AI model. This means it can actually give a sense of social awareness and could interact with humans in real-world settings.

So what is AGENT? AGENT is a large-scale dataset of 3D animations inspired by experiments that study cognitive development in kids. The animations depict someone interacting with different objects under different physical constraints. According to IBM:

“The videos comprise distinct trials, each of which includes one or more ‘familiarization’ videos of an agent’s typical behavior in a certain physical environment, paired with ‘test’ videos of the same agent’s behavior in a new environment, which are labeled as either ‘expected’ or ‘surprising,’ given the behavior of the agent in the corresponding familiarization videos.”

A model must then judge how surprising the agent’s behaviors in the ‘test’ videos are, based on the actions it learned in the ‘familiarization’ videos. Using the AGENT benchmark, that model is then validated against large-scale human-rating trials, where humans rated the ‘surprising’ ‘test’ videos as more surprising than the ‘expected’ test videos.

Common sense?

IBM’s trial shows that to demonstrate common sense, an AI model must have built-in representations of how humans plan. This means combining both a basic sense of physics and ‘cost-reward trade-offs’, which means an understanding of how humans take actions “based on utility, trading off the rewards of its goal against the costs of reaching it.”

While not yet perfect, the findings show AGENT is a promising diagnostic tool for developing and evaluating common sense in AI, something IBM is also working on. It also shows that we can utilize similar traditional developmental psychology methods to those used to teach human children how objects and ideas relate.

In the future, this could help significantly reduce the need for training in these models allowing businesses to save on computing energy, time, and money.

Robots don’t understand human consciousness yet — but with the development of benchmarking tools like AGENT, we’ll be able to measure how close we’re getting.

Source

The selection of Veneto was made in early September, where both parties thrashed out a “comprehensive agreement”. Neither will be making any public statements on the matter until after the election today. Vigasio is well-connected with Germany through Austria, which will allow Intel to move resources between this site and two factories it’s planning to build in Magdeburg, Germany.

The factory will be used for advanced semiconductor packaging and the assembly of chips. The whole arrangement is expected to cost $5 billion, but the government is stumping up some of this money. This will be one of the issues that will have to be approved by the incoming government. The country has also been talking with STMicroelectronics, MEMC Electronic Materials, TSMC, and Israeli Tower Semiconductor to establish factories in the country.

The cost of this factory will partly come from the $88 billion that Intel has earmarked for boosting European chip capacity. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, it became evident that there was too large a dependence on Asian chip producers, which were heavily affected by strict lockdowns to control the virus.

Italy and Intel choose Veneto for the location of a new chip factory

Windows 11 2022 Update

Our biggest news category of this week undoubtedly relates to the rollout of the Windows 11 2022 Update (also known as version 22H2) kicking off - following ISO links leaking a day early. The first major update to Windows 11 has started rolling out as of September 20 and is currently being made available to seekers. As with all major Windows updates, you might not see get it immediately either. For those curious, it will enjoy two years of support.

The update brings a lot of new features including those related to gaming, security, accessibility, and more. But it doesn't stop here. Microsoft has also announced plans to brings more features to Windows 11 next month including the tabbed File Explorer, a Photos app revamp, Suggested Actions, Taskbar Overflow, and the ability to share content to more devices through nearby sharing. However, if you simply can't wait for some reason, here's how you can get these capabilities right now (at your own risk).

The Redmond tech firm had some updates to share regarding the app situation on Windows 11 too. Android apps are coming to 31 countries including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The Amazon Appstore will offer over 20,000 Android apps. Meanwhile, the Microsoft Store itself now has over 900 million customers and the Microsoft Store Ads pilot has launched too.

Microsoft revealed that it is making significant improvements to the Windows Update process too. Updates will now have smaller footprints and Windows Update will be carbon-aware. The company has boasted that adopting Window 11 itself will save enterprise customers millions of dollars over the next three years, this claim is backed by data from Forrester. But for enterprise customers and consumers who can't upgrade to Windows 11, rest assured that Windows 10 version 22H2 is coming next month.

It hasn't been all smooth sailing for Windows 11 version 22H2 though. Those with Nvidia graphics cards are experiencing random stuttering and screen-tearing in games, and this is a matter that Nvidia is still investigating. Meanwhile, some haven't been able to install the update itself because it fails with the error code 0x800f0806. However, a Neowin reader may have figured out a fix that you might want to look at.

Of course, this section is only a summary of all the announcements that Microsoft made regarding the Windows 11 2022 Update, you can check out our detailed coverage on the topic here.

Windows 11 Dev Channel build 25206

Just because Microsoft announced the rollout of the Windows 11 2022 Update this week does not mean that the company took a break from releasing Insider builds.

In fact, Microsoft released Dev Channel build 25206 for Windows 11 Insiders just a few days ago. It's a relatively major build with support for Dynamic Refresh Rate (DRR) on external displays, an updated "Open with" dialog box, significant improvements to SMB authentication rate limiting, and fixes for OneDrive and Windows Sandbox, among other things. We got the same build number 25206 for Windows Server vNext, but as usual, there's no proper changelog.

On the same day, Microsoft also released Beta builds 22621.601 and 22622.601 (KB5017384) for Windows 11 Insiders. The update doesn't contain any new features but there are a bunch of bug fixes and a single known issue in two. In the same vein, build 22621.607 (KB5017389) was made available to the Release Preview Channel too, and it has a very lengthy list of bug fixes that you can view at your leisure here.

Speaking of bug fixes, Microsoft recently rolled out an optional update for Windows 10 and Windows 11 customers ahead of next month's Patch Tuesday. We're highlighting it again because it fixes a Daylight Saving Time (DST) issue plaguing some Windows customers.

Finally, Microsoft has released the new Photos app for Insiders. It has better OneDrive integration, Memories, and it gets rid of the legacy video editor. It will become available to Windows 11 version 22H2 users next month.

Surface on the horizon

Amidst all the excitement for the Windows 11 2022 Update this week, Microsoft also announced that its next Surface event will take place on October 12, which is just under three weeks from today.

This time around, we expect the company to show off the 9th-gen Surface Pro with Intel and ARM processors, the 5th-gen Surface Laptop, a long-overdue Surface Studio refresh, and new accessories. There are also speculations about Microsoft preparing a gaming-focused Surface Laptop with 12th Gen Intel processors and Nvidia 3000 Series graphics cards.

A recent report has also claimed that the upcoming Surface Laptop "5" will ditch AMD processors in favor of Intel's 12th Gen offerings. However, this has not been corroborated by other reputable sources as of yet, so take this rumor with a grain of salt.

In terms of what we have on hand today though, Microsoft has finally resolved the "No Bootable Device" error that had (soft-)bricked Surface Go and Go 2 devices a few months ago. You can find out more details about the patch here.

Git gud

On the gaming front, we have already mentioned that the Windows 11 2022 Update packs a few enhancements, but it is also pertinent to highlight the Windows HDR Calibration app that is now available for all Windows 11 users who want to calibrate their HDR displays for the optimal viewing experience.

Additionally, the Xbox September 2022 update has introduced lots of new features including customizable RGB lighting on the second-gen Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2, a revamped Library UX, better store management, and more. Microsoft is also testing the ability to mute the Xbox startup sound in the Alpha ring.

Coming over to games in general, Frozen Plant II content is now available in Minecraft and Arkane's Deathloop has finally ditched its PlayStation console exclusivity and arrived on Xbox Series X|S. It's also available on Xbox Game Pass, with other new additions being Grounded, Slime Rancher 2, and Valheim, among others.

Finally, in terms of discounts, we have Dead Island Definitive Edition and Hunting Simulator 2 in Microsoft's latest Xbox Free Play Days promotion. Meanwhile, the Deals with Gold promotion is headlined by Halo and Mafia franchises. But if you're a PC purist, you might want to check out this Weekend's PC Game Deals with titles handpicked by our News Editor Pulasthi Ariyasinghe.

Dev Channel

• Spellcheck capabilities in Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge can apparently expose your passwords to Google and Microsoft, respectively
• Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is now available Android Enterprise COPE devices and tamper protection is now enabled by default for all customers
• Edge Canary has restored a bunch of Chromium flags like Mute site and CTRL+H to History page
• Microsoft has announced a 10% dividend increase for shareholders
• Microsoft thinks labeling fake news as "false" could be misinterpreted as censorship
• Canonical and Microsoft have brought systemd support to Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)
• UK regulator Ofcom is probing the cloud space dominated by Amazon, Microsoft, and Google
• Viva Engage now has an Answers capability
• Microsoft is launching a "living atlas" in collaboration with some partners

Under the spotlight

This week, News Reporter Taras Buria wrote a handy guide on how you can disable the Search button that hovers above the dock in iOS 16. The feature has been a bit controversial but it is redundant in a way since Apple allows you to take advantage of the functionality through the swipe-down gesture anyway.

Meanwhile, Adam Bottjen - better known as "Warwagon" on the Neowin forums - explained how you can restart you display driver on Windows with ease next time you run into an issue with it. Check out his latest Tech Tip Tuesday edition here.

Logging off

This week's most interesting news item relates to Mozilla alleging that tech giants like Apple, Google, and Microsoft are unfairly restricting consumer choice and driving people to their own browsers. Its latest report is titled "Five Walled Gardens: Why Browsers are Essential to the Internet and How Operating Systems Are Holding Them Back" and it talks about how the three most popular browsers (Chrome, Edge, Safari) enjoy a bigger user base because of their respective parent companies. Such claims aren't new but they haven't elicited a response from the involved firms yet.

Microsoft Weekly: Windows 11 2022 Update, Dev build 25206, and Surface on the horizon

SSD is the best upgrade one can make on their computer. Computer getting outdated? Install an SSD, make it the main drive and get instant speed boosts. For a long time, SATA based SSDs remained a standard. Now PCIe based NVMe drives are becoming one.

These NVMe SSDs are add-in cards which one needs to install in their motherboard directly, provided their motherboard supports it. While a SATA SSD maxes out at 600 MB/s due to the limit of the SATA interface, the PCIe based NVMe SSDs reach the speeds in thousands of MB/s.

So far, the SSD market has been dominated by the likes of WD, Seagate, Crucial, Kingston, Silicon Power and many others. However, the biggest name in the SSD market is Samsung. Looks like it’s known rival is going to join it in the SSD race too. As Sony is going to enter the consumer SSD market.

Sony Demos SSD

A year ago, Sony announced PCIe based SSDs for it’s PlayStation 5 gaming consoles. These SSDs were named Nextorage. It seems Sony is going to use the same brand of SSD for consumer PCs too.

Hermitage Akihabara reports that Sony has demoed a range of SSDs in the Nextorage brand in the Tokyo Game Show 2022.

Notably, the models include PCIe 5.0 based SSD of 1TB and 2TB. It also includes PCIe 4.0 based SSDs in 500GB, 1TB, 2TB and 4TB.

Flagship PCIe 5.0 x4 SSD

Sony Nextorage PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD Specs. Credit: Hermitage Akihabara.

Sony Nextorage PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD. Credit Hermitage Akihabara.

Sony Nextorage PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD Showcase. Credit: Hermitage Akihabara.

The first in the lineup is Sony Nextorage’s flagship PCIe 5.0 x4 SSD. It will come in two sizes, 1TB and 2TB. The form factor will be M.2 2280.

While the 2TB model will have a massive read speeds of 10,000 MB/s and write speeds of 9,500 MB/s. The 1TB model will be slightly slower, with write speeds reaching 9,500 MB/s and read speeds reaching 8,500 MB/s,

The above specs make these SSDs the fastest in the market. Far faster than Samsung’s latest PCIe 4.0 based offering, the Samsung PRO 990 NVMe SSD.

Reports suggest that these drives could come with SLC based cache, just like the PS5 drives from Nextorage.

Nextorage G Series PCIe 4.0 SSD

Sony Nextorage G Series PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD Specs. Credit: Hermitage Akihabara.

Sony Nextorage G Series PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD Closeup. Credit Hermitage Akihabara.

The next series in the lineup is the PCIe 4.0 x4 based Nextorage G Series. It will come in three sizes, 1TB, 2TB and 4TB.

The 2TB and 4TB SSDs will have the read speeds of 7300 MB/s and write speeds of 6900 MB/s.

The 1TB model will have same the read speeds of 7300 MB/s, but it will come with a slightly reduced write speeds of 6000 MB/s. Which is still massively fast.

They will be made with 3D TLC NAND chips, which have become a standard now.

The specs of the Nextorage G series seem to be very similar to the NEM-PA Series, which Sony offers for its PlayStation 5 console.

Nextorage G SE Series PCIe 4.0 SSD

Sony Nextorage G SE Series PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD Specs. Credit: Hermitage Akihabara.

Sony Nextorage G SE Series PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD Closeup. Credit Hermitage Akihabara.

The third series in the lineup is the PCIe 4.0 x4, NVMe 1.4 based Nextorage G SE Series. They will come in 500GB, 1TB and 2TB models.

The 2TB model will have a read speed of 4,800 MB/s and the write speed of 4,100 MB/s.

Whereas the 1TB model will have a read speed of 4,700 MB/s and the write speed of 2,800 MB/s. Which makes it similar to a top of the line PCIe 3.0 SSD.

There’s no speed information currently available for the 500GB model.

The G SE series seem to be cheaper than the above offerings and hence comes with lesser specs. They might well become mainstream SSDs. Thought we feel there could be some confusion in the consumers between the G series and the G SE series. Also, we aren’t quite sure why Sony has labeled the G SE series drive as 4TB, as the specs don’t mention a 4TB model.

Outcome of Sony Entering Consumer SSD Market

From decades, Sony has been known for its high quality products. In many fields of tech, Sony remains a leader without a competition in quality. With Sony entering the consumer SSD market, the competition will only get bigger. Samsung, its biggest challenger, as mentioned above, can be given a tough fight by Sony.

We don’t know when will Sony release these SSDs. Whether they will come with new models of PlayStation 5 first and then come to PCs later. Or whether they will come to PCs first. Nor do we know anything about their pricing.

Whatever it maybe, the consumers will enjoy more quality choices.

Sony Enters Consumer SSD Market, Demos PCIe 5.0 SSD

Graphics cards based crypto-mining has been a huge problem for the consumers in the tech industry for a while.

These miners buy graphics cards in bulk and make them almost completely unavailable for the common public. This, combined with a huge increase in demand, caused the prices of graphics cards to reach enormous levels.

This continued this recently, until Ethereum, the main cryptocurrency which used graphics cards for mining, switched its algorithm. Under the new algorithm, graphics cards aren’t used for mining Ethereum coins. Instead, the server would generate them for you.

This has meant that crypto-miners, who bought these graphics cards to mine cryptocurrencies, have no use for these cards anymore. After-all, no one needs 15 to 20 graphics cards to run a single game, no matter how demanding or beautiful the game is.

It also means that crypto-miners have no other option but to sell these graphics cards in the used cards market.

A lot of consumers too, who are tired with the high prices of new graphics cards, are considering to buy these used cards due to their affordability. Looks like they will need to be extremely careful if they do buy used ones.

Miners Seen Washing Their Graphics Cards

A Vietnam based Twitter user I_Leak_VN has posted a video alleging that some cryptocurrency miners are now washing, yes, washing their graphics cards.

It mentions that they are doing that after Ethereum changed the mining method. The poster claims that this is their cleaning season, while they wait for another cryptocurrency which allows them to mine with graphics cards again.

These graphics cards, it must be mentioned, are not being washed for self-preservation reasons. Nor are they being washed to give them some special abilities by summoning the water gods and asking them to make these cards usable in mining again. No, not at all. They are being washed for them to be cleaned, packed and be to re-sold in the used graphics cards market.

In the followup Tweet, I_Leak_VN has warned everyone to be extremely careful when buying used cards from eBay or any other sites. As otherwise, you may buy one of these.

In a yet another followup Tweet, I_Leak_VN shows that these cards are then dipped into “Ozone Water” (sterile water) inside a cleaner. These cards are seen dipped inside the water with their coolers / fans removed.

Horrible and Selfish

Even a kid could tell how horrible it is to wash their electronics. Let alone washing expensive graphics cards. This next level idiotic move is filled with complete disregard for ethics and also the buyer. It is only done to make the graphics card look new, in order to sell them easily.

While it’s true that there are professionals out there who do wash their circuits and other tech parts with water, that is done extremely professionally. Not to forget, it is always cleaned with pure, unadulterated sterile water, if not alcohol completely. The whole process is done with extraordinary care and professionalism.

These miners are not professionals in cleaning graphics cards. So expecting them to do it properly is meaningless. As mentioned in a Tweet reply by I_Leak_VN, the water being used is (likely) not 100% pure. Also is the fact that these cards are not water-resistant.

What this does is that it destroys the graphics cards. These miners might dry these cards and even bake them in the sun for the water to evaporate. But that alone is not enough. The water might not evaporate completely. The cards may not get dried easily. The impurities in the water would damage the cards. All the soldiering would have corroded and thermal paste would be eroded. The card’s circuit itself could break. All these would lead to short circuits and other damages when powered up.

Buying Carefully

So in this world of such cheaters, buyers are advised to be extremely cautious when buying these used cards. Especially the ones which might have “new like” or “refurbished” or “recently opened” tags to them. Who knows, some miner would have taken these cards along into the shower and washed them. Or even duck them into a bathtub with their rubber ducking besides them watching the whole thing in horror.

The above does not mean no one should buy used graphics cards, though. The next-gen graphics cards are really horribly priced. There’s nothing wrong in buying used ones. Just that buying them from well known or trusted sellers, who can provide warranty, would be a better thing to do.

Dejected Bitcoin Miners Are Now Washing Their Graphics Cards With Water

Starlink is getting a lot slower as more people use it, speed tests show

After pushing AV1 codec, Google goes after Dolby with HDR and audio standards

It was 1983, and Acorn Computers was on top of the world. Unfortunately, trouble was just around the corner.

 

The small UK company was famous for winning a contract with the British Broadcasting Corporation to produce a computer for a national television show. Sales of its BBC Micro were skyrocketing and on pace to exceed 1.2 million units.

 

A magazine ad for the BBC Micro. The tagline was "The Shape of Things to Come."

 

But the world of personal computers was changing. The market for cheap 8-bit micros that parents would buy to help kids with their homework was becoming saturated. And new machines from across the pond, like the IBM PC and the upcoming Apple Macintosh, promised significantly more power and ease of use. Acorn needed a way to compete, but it didn’t have much money for research and development.

A seed of an idea

Sophie Wilson, one of the designers of the BBC Micro, had anticipated this problem. She had added a slot called the “Tube” that could connect to a more powerful central processing unit. A slotted CPU could take over the computer, leaving its original 6502 chip free for other tasks.

 

But what processor should she choose? Wilson and co-designer Steve Furber considered various 16-bit options, such as Intel’s 80286, National Semiconductor’s 32016, and Motorola’s 68000. But none were completely satisfactory.

 

The 286, 32016, and 68000 CPUs, roughly to scale.

Wikipedia

 

In a later interview with the Computing History Museum, Wilson explained, “We could see what all these processors did and what they didn’t do. So the first thing they didn’t do was they didn’t make good use of the memory system. The second thing they didn’t do was that they weren’t fast; they weren’t easy to use. We were used to programming the 6502 in the machine code, and we rather hoped that we could get to a power level such that if you wrote in a higher level language you could achieve the same types of results.”

 

But what was the alternative? Was it even thinkable for tiny Acorn to make its own CPU from scratch? To find out, Wilson and Furber took a trip to National Semiconductor’s factory in Israel. They saw hundreds of engineers and a massive amount of expensive equipment. This confirmed their suspicions that such a task might be beyond them.

 

Then they visited the Western Design Center in Mesa, Arizona. This company was making the beloved 6502 and designing a 16-bit successor, the 65C618. Wilson and Furber found little more than a “bungalow in a suburb” with a few engineers and some students making diagrams using old Apple II computers and bits of sticky tape.

 

The Western Design Center in 2022, according to Google. It might even be the same bungalow!

 

Suddenly, making their own CPU seemed like it might be possible. Wilson and Furber’s small team had built custom chips before, like the graphics and input/output chips for the BBC Micro. But those designs were simpler and had fewer components than a CPU.

 

Despite the challenges, upper management at Acorn supported their efforts. In fact, they went beyond mere support. Acorn co-founder Hermann Hauser, who had a Ph.D. in Physics, gave the team copies of IBM research papers describing a new and more powerful type of CPU. It was called RISC, which stood for "reduced instruction set computing."

A history of ARM, part 1: Building the first chip

The teenager, originally from Oxfordshire, has been detained on suspicion of hacking, and remains in custody at this time.

The footage, since made unavailable due to a copyright claim, was leaked to GTAForums on Sunday which included over 90 gameplay clips of an alleged "testing build," and the data breach was by the same group that recently got access to Uber's systems.

Rockstar since confirmed that the breach itself did not impact the development of the next installment of the popular series, but release dates and other information such as platform availability, have not been officially announced yet.

The leaks did confirm that there will be two main protagonists, as well as the Vice City setting which was heavily rumoured. Additionally mechanics from Red Dead Redemption 2, and placeholder assets from GTA 5 were seen throughout the footage.

No other details of the investigation into the leaks have been made public at this time.

Source: BBC News

GTA 6 leaker has been arrested in London following investigation

Is Moore’s law actually dead this time? Nvidia seems to think so

Today, Google announced the rollout of the new Chromecast with HD streaming support for just $30. It comes bundled with a remote control too.

The streaming product, as rumored, has been named Chromecast with Google TV (HD). It features the same overall design and includes the same voice remote as the 4K model. It streams in high definition with 1080 HDR and Google says it has made some software optimizations that ensure its viewers get the best entertainment experience no matter what TV they’re watching on.

Besides using the dongle for casting (sharing your Google Photos to a TV or casting your Google Meet video calls), you can use it to browse the web, watch TV shows and movies, and listen to music simply by plugging it into the back of your TV and connecting it to a Wi-Fi network.

Jess Bonner, product manager, Nest wrote in a blog post:

Today, we’re expanding this lineup with the new Chromecast with Google TV (HD). We built this product with affordability in mind and to help bring all our favorite features of Chromecast and Google TV to more people than ever.

Chromecast was originally launched as a $35 dongle. Its newer version - Chromecast with Google TV HD comes at an even less price of $29.99 in the US, making it even more affordable. It ships in classic snow color with Android 12.

Google announces a new Chromecast with HD streaming support for $30

While AMD Radeon GPUs have already seen their prices fall to very reasonable levels in recent times, Nvidia prices were much more stubborn. However, they are finally starting to budge.

In this article we have compiled the best Nvidia deals at the low and mid segments since they are unlikely to be replaced by next-gen upgrades any time soon either from AMD or Nvidia itself. We start off with the RTX 3060 Ti and move up to the RTX 3070.

• ZOTAC Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Twin Edge OC LHR 8GB: $449.99 (MSRP: $529.99) (15% off)

• PNY GeForce RTX3060 Ti 8GB XLR8 Gaming Revel Epic-X RGB: $459.99 (MSRP: $539.99) (14% off)

• ASUS TUF Gaming NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti V2 OC: $479.99 (MSRP: $579.99) (17.5% off)

• GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Vision OC 8G (REV2.0) WINDFORCE 3X: $479.99 (MSRP: $569.99) (16.5% off)

• PNY GeForce RTX 3070 8GB UPRSING Dual Fan Graphics Card LHR: $499.99 (MSRP: $599.99) (17% off)

• EVGA GeForce RTX 3070 XC3 Ultra Gaming 8GB GDDR6 iCX3 Cooling: $538.81 (MSRP: $659.99) (17.5 % off)

   

In case you want to shop higher priced cards, we recommend you wait for the upcoming RTX 4000 launch which will be available starting October 12th. AMD also announced yesterday that its RDNA 3 Radeon RX 7000 GPUs will be unveiled in early November.

On the other hand, in case you are looking for cheaper options, then currently AMD has the much better deals. You can find such deals in these articles.

Our stories may contain affiliate links for products/apps where Neowin is paid an affiliate fee if you complete a purchase via those links

Post RTX 4000 launch, Nvidia RTX 3000 cards are finally getting cheaper

We already know that Microsoft wants to merge the Surface Pro and Pro X lineups into a single device family, providing users with the option to pick an Intel or ARM processor. It is similar to how Microsoft lets you configure the Surface Laptop 4 with AMD and Intel CPUs. Unfortunately, it appears that the Surface Pro "5" will take away that privilege, leaving the device with only 12th Gen Intel processors.

WinFuture claims they are not 100% sure Microsoft has decided to kill AMD-based Surface Laptops, so take this information with a healthy grain of salt, even though the source has a solid record of accurate leaks.

Like every other Surface update, the upcoming computers will debut new chassis colors. Besides now-classical black and platinum, Microsoft plans to unveil "Forest" (green) and "Sapphire" (blue?) variants for the Surface Pro "9." Price-wise, the Surface Pro "9" will be available in Europe for roughly €1300 for the entry-level model with the Intel Core i5-1235U, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB SSD. The Surface Laptop "5" in its base 13-inch configuration will get a €1200 price tag and €1500 for the 15-inch variant.

For now, the latest report contradicts rumors claiming that Microsoft is preparing a new Surface laptop with Ryzen 6000 processors. Other leaks point to an upcoming gaming-focused Surface laptop with only 12th Gen Intel Processors. Luckily, we are just a few weeks away from the event, so things will get clear soon.

Microsoft reportedly ditches AMD processors for upcoming Surface Laptop

NVIDIA unveiled RTX Remix, a platform to help modders remaster games, and add ray tracing features to DirectX 8 and 9 games. Using this tool, modders can significantly improve the textures and lighting effects of older games. Classic games could also benefit from NVIDIA DLSS (deep learning super sampling).

A game mod created using NVIDIA RTX Remix will essentially replace a game's original API with a 64-bit Vulkan renderer. Modders can easily export their RTX Remix mods into files and then drag and drop them into a game's directory alongside the executable. NVIDIA assures these new RTX mods shouldn't conflict with those from Nexus Mods or other sites.

NVIDIA RTX Remix will rework the assets of games that support fixed function graphics pipelines. Specifically speaking, the platform will intercept draw calls and reinterpret game assets, and convert them into the Universal Scene Description (USD). NVIDIA claims these newly converted assets should work with popular game development apps such as Adobe Substance 3D Painter, Autodesk Maya, 3ds Max, Blender, SideFX Houdini, and Unreal Engine.

Decades-old games generally lack a lot of components and data required by ray tracing. NVIDIA RTX Remix allows users to add features like physically-based rendering materials, normal maps, and increased geometric detail. These additional components are able to “react” to artificial lighting conditions in the game. Modders can also add several additional light effects or tweak existing data to add ray-traced shadows, ambient occlusion, reflections, and global illumination. Needless to mention, there’s a lot of artificial intelligence (AI) powering the NVIDIA RTX Remix tool.

NVIDIA RTX Remix to help modders add ray tracing to old DirectX 8 and 9 games

This year marks ten years since the unveiling of the original Surface Pro tablet with Windows 8. According to rumors, this year, Microsoft will show the 9th-gen Surface Pro with Intel and ARM processors, the 5th-gen Surface Laptop, possibly a long-overdue Surface Studio refresh, and new accessories. There are also speculations about Microsoft preparing a gaming-focused Surface Laptop with 12th Gen Intel processors and Nvidia 3000 Series graphics cards.

Of course, Microsoft tries to keep all the details under a veil until the event, but some leaks are already spilling contradictory information about the Surface Laptop 5 ditching AMD processors in favor of Intel's 12th Gen CPUs. Whatever Microsoft is cooking in its HQ in Redmond, we will find all the details on October 12, 2022.

With the Surface event looming over the horizon, what device do you anticipate the most? Share your thoughts in the comment section.

Microsoft announces Surface event coming October 12

< View all the six (6) photos at the source page. >

Loose Nozzles is a mobile game that combines physics-based elements and classic arcade mechanics with a hand-drawn art style and vocalized sound effects. The art is entirely created by Chris Foster’s son, Ian, after seeing his father’s work.

Although Chris’ idea for the game took shape over eight years of part-time, nights-and-weekends development, it was only until Ian drew the first picture of a “cannon-shooter” firing at a rocket that cemented the decision actually make the game.

“I was teaching myself how to move sprites in Unity and Ian, then 5, showed me a picture of a rocket falling apart while an enemy shot at it, and explained the game he was dreaming up. I suggested we combine his idea with the games I’d loved as a kid, like Lunar Lander and Choplifter,” said Chris Foster.

Once he found his artist to create the art, Chris took it upon himself to design all the other aspects of the game. In between his work at Hidden Door, a new startup that dabbles both in machine learning and immersive storytelling, and teaching game development at Northeastern University, as well as being a father, Chris found the time to finish Loose Nozzles.

Even though it’s a lighthearted game, it’s actually challenging. In Loose Nozzle, players fly a rocket through maze-like levels in an effort to rescue endangered colonists, while avoiding damage that knocks off the ship and changes its trajectory.

The game features simple two-button controls and an upgrade system that will allow players to further improve their ships to carry more, fly farther, and look a tad better. Loose Nozzles is available now on the iOS and Google Play app stores, as a free download with a one-time $1.99 purchase to unlock additional features.

< View the video at the source page. >

Source

RTX 4000 series is based on the TSMC 4N (4nm) process and despite the improvements to efficiency, Nvidia has had to push the cards to 450W in order to reach these levels of performance. The chart below shows the improvement in raw throughput on Ada Lovelace and compares it against the power draw increase. For those that desire the best, cutting-edge performance out there, the extra power draw on the 40-series cards will probably be worth it.

The RTX 4090, according to Nvidia, is anywhere between two times to four times faster compared to the RTX 3090 Ti. The card comes with 24GB GDDR6X VRAM and is priced at $1,599, which is $100 more than the RTX 3090 at launch.

Up next, we have the RTX 4080 which comes in two flavors, the RTX 4080 16GB and the RTX 4080 12GB. These succeed the RTX 3080 12GB and RTX 3080 10GB respectively.

The two models are priced at $1,199 and $899 respectively and will be available in November, which is also when AMD will unveil its next gen RDNA 3 Radeon RX 7000 series GPUs. Like with the RTX 4090, Nvidia claims the RTX 4080 is also two to four times faster than the RTX 3080 Ti.

Nvidia RTX 4090 is up to 4x faster than 3090 Ti but takes 450W of power to do so

Meanwhile, to perhaps steal some of the limelight off of Nvidia's RTX 40-series announcement, rivals AMD has revealed when it will launch its competing Radeon RX 7000 series cards which will be based on the RDNA 3 (Navi 3X) architecture.

Scott Herkelman, who is the Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Radeon division, took to Twitter to reveal that RDNA 3 would be unveiled on November 3rd. This means AMD will have a month or so to look at Nvidia's stack of cards and their pricing to set its own rates.

Last night, AMD shared some details regarding its RDNA 3 architecture and how the company has improved upon its previous design in terms of power efficiency. Performance-wise, the top RX 7000 series SKUs like the RX 7900 XT / 7950 XT are rumored to be more than twice as fast as the current best AMD offerings like the RX 6900 XT and the 6950 XT.

AMD shares RX 7000 (RDNA 3) release date to steal Nvidia RTX 4000 limelight

Windows Patches

This week hosted the second Tuesday of the month, which means that we received a Patch Tuesday updates for all supported versions of Windows.

Windows 7 bagged KB5017361, which contains security updates and minor improvements to the OS. There are two known issues that you should be aware of as well. Meanwhile, Windows 8.1 received KB5017367, again with unspecified improvements and security updates. It also shares one of its known issues with the Windows 7 patch, namely the Daylight Saving Time (DST) problem detected earlier this month.

Windows 10 netted KB5017308 for Windows Server 20H2, and Windows 10 for the latest versions, 21H1, 21H2, bumping the builds to 19042.2006, 19043.2006, and 19044.2006 respectively. There are some security fixes but there are a bunch of known issues too. Patches were also rolled out to older versions of Windows 10 LTSC, so do check out all the details here. Those on a non-LTSC version of Windows 10 version 21H1 should remember that this specific OS is reaching end of life after three months.

Finally, Windows 11 got KB5017328, which includes a fix for a web dialog not appearing when signing in and out of your Microsoft account, an issue that has been present since KB5016691. There are two known issues in this latest build 22000.978 too. While it's not related to this specific Patch Tuesday update, Microsoft has also fixed a voice typing issue plaguing the OS and references to a new LTSC version of Windows 11 have also been spotted in the wild.

And in a bit of surprising news, it appears that some brand-new PCs are already shipping with Windows 11's first feature update, version 22H2. One particular Dell PC with build 22621.521 has already been reported online. For now though, Microsoft has not publicly disclosed a release date for its first major update to Windows 11.

Those who care about synthetic benchmarks and scores may also be interested to know that Windows 11 is facing a bit of a tough time on paper when it comes to performance comparisons with Ubuntu on AMD hardware.

Insider builds galore

At the start of this, we uncovered a way to enable a Windows 10-style taskbar search functionality in Windows 11 build 25197. It's currently hidden by default but you can make it visible by using a simple ViveTool command.

Shortly after, Microsoft published build 22622.598 to the Beta Channel. Notably, it removes the ability to repair or uninstall Win32 apps with inter-dependencies through the Settings > Apps > Installed apps section. It also contains some fixes for File Explorer and a known issue related to the network icon on the lockscreen.

Microsoft rolled out build 25201 of Windows 11 to the Dev Channel. Its headlining features include full-screen Widgets, improvements to the Game Pass Widget, and more. There are several known issues in this build too, which is expected that this is the most unstable public ring in the Insider Program.

Both Windows 10 and Windows 11 received new builds in the Release Preview Channel with massive changelogs as well.

Windows 10 received build 19044.2075 (KB5017380) which adds the ability to view News and interests on the taskbar in any orientation, Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.0 and 1.1 now being off by default in all apps and browsers by Microsoft, and a good number of fixes. Meanwhile, Windows 11 netted build 22000.1041 (KB5017383) with dynamic Widgets and WebAuthn redirection, along with bug fixes.

Talking about preview builds, Visual Studio 2022 17.4 Preview 2 is now live with features like multiple active Git repositories, Arm64 support for Node.js and Visual Studio SDK, and a button in Test Explorer to reset the tests to "Not Run".

Lastly, Microsoft has also implored its Mixed Reality Partners (MRPs) to start testing the next major update to the HoloLens 2's OS and provide feedback. The update contains nine key improvements and the Redmond tech firm is entertaining direct feedback until September 20.

Microsoft app updates... including a TikTok ringtone

In a rather unexpected announcement, Microsoft revealed that it has collaborated with a TikTok influencer to create a more upbeat and funky version of the default Teams ringtone. This variant is called "Remix" and can now be enabled in the Teams app, but it isn't the default ringtone.

Microsoft has also built a proof-of-concept project in Teams that allows attendees to e-sign documents in real-time during a meeting. It is integrated with Teams SSO and the Redmond tech giant has also published the code on GitHub so customers can adapt it to their specific use-cases. In related news, language interpretation is now generally available in Microsoft Teams Meetings too. Skype customers haven't been ignored either as Insiders of that application can now take advantage of improved notifications, clickable profile pictures, and more.

In terms of upcoming features to be excited about, Microsoft will soon allow Excel users on Mac and Windows to automate repetitive tasks through scripts and the company may also add an autonomous AI-powered image quality enhancing solution to Microsoft Edge. For now, Office customers can take advantage of the "update under lock" mechanism that will silently update Office apps for you when they are idle, even when they are open, without losing any data.

Both Windows Terminal 1.15 and Windows Terminal Preview 1.16 are now live. The latter is a major update packing the new text rendering engine as a default, colors, themes, and more. Meanwhile, PowerToys 0.62.1 bashes a few bugs.

Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA) on Windows 11 received its September update earlier this week too. It brings Chromium WebView 104, UX enhancements, improved stability, and some Linux kernel security updates.

Finally, Microsoft had some major updates to share regarding SharePoint. Basically SharePoint Server Subscription Edition (SE) will now receive two feature updates a year. The first is now available as Version 22H2 with lots of new features including AMSI, bulk editing, and a new SharePoint RESTful ListData.svc implementation. Meanwhile, SharePoint Server 2013 customers will soon get a new tool called SharePoint Workflow Manager for their workflows. They will also be among the recipients of the revamped notification experience being offered to customers on older versions of SharePoint reaching end of life.

Git gud

This week in games, we learned that Microsoft could be prepping a gaming variant of its Surface hardware in the form of a "Surface Gaming Laptop". Of course, nothing is confirmed yet, but a report claims that this could offer up to an RTX 3070 Ti GPU, a 1440p display with a 165Hz refresh rate, and 32GB of RAM. If the report is true, we'll likely hear about this hardware at the Surface event in October.

Microsoft did face a major setback a couple of days ago though when the UK regulator Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) ordered a Phase 2 investigation of its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. This is due to some antitrust concerns raised by the regulator and Sony, but since this is a particularly lengthy and detailed phase, the results will arrive on March 1, 2023.

Halo chief and 343 Industries founder Bonnie Ross has also revealed that she is departing the company due to a "family medical issue". In light of this leadership shakeup, Microsoft has named current head of production and studio veteran Pierre Hintze as the new 343 Industries head.

But in some positive news, Microsoft attended the Tokyo Game Show where it announced that Deathloop and Assassin's Creed Odyssey are the latest entries to Game Pass. The company showcased a lot of other upcoming games too and you can find all the details here.

For fans of retro games, GoldenEye 007 is coming to Xbox and Nintendo Switch. The former platform will include improved controller support for dual analog sticks, 4K resolution support, smoother and consistent frame rates, and achievements arrive as new features for this classic. However, online multiplayer is surprisingly an exclusive feature for the Switch.

In terms of first-party stuff, Sea of Thieves has received another time-limited Adventure campaign in the form of The Sirens' Prize, which is available only until September 29. Meanwhile, the Xbox app on Windows has received a nifty integration with HowLongToBeat. Discord Voice has officially launched on the Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One as well.

Coming over to sales, deals, and promotions, Games with Gold received its final Xbox 360 game in the form of Portal 2. No Xbox 360 titles will be added to this subscription moving forward. Meanwhile, Deals with Gold this week is headlined by Assassin's Creed and Borderlands.

The Xbox Free Play Days promotion only has a couple of titles this time, namely Golf with Your Friends and Diablo III: Eternal Collection. And if you're a PC purist looking to grab some games on the cheap, don't forget to check out this Weekend's PC Game Deals, curated by our News Editor Pulasthi Ariyasinghe.

Dev Channel

• Check out some beautiful, dark Windows 11 stock wallpapers
• Microsoft has launched a new tool to make elections more accessible in the U.S.

• .NET 6.0.9 has fixed stack overflow denial of service in .NET Core and Visual Studio

• Microsoft has a new video to guide you in disassembling your Surface Laptop Go 2

• There is a new Group Policy to give organizations more control over the disablement of Internet Explorer

• You might see some malicious tech support scam ads while using Microsoft Edge

• Microsoft Defender has been bested by its competitors in the latest AV-Comparatives benchmarks

Under the spotlight

Earlier this week, I published an editorial detailing my thoughts on how it's disappointing that Teams integration on Windows 11 has continued to be Microsoft's neglected child, despite being featured front and center by default on the Taskbar.

I also wrote a listicle featuring the top 10 changes and capabilities that the public is requesting for Microsoft Edge, check it out here.

Meanwhile, News Reporter Taras Buria published two guides about enabling hidden features in Windows 11 Dev Channel build 25201. The first deals with an updated date/time picker and "Rename your PC" UI.

And the second guide is about forcefully enabling full-screen Widgets if they haven't been seeded to you in the latest Dev Channel build.

On the other hand, Neowin's co-founder Steven Parker highlighted our recent guide about how you can update to Windows 11 version 22H2 right now if you are so inclined instead of having to wait for the update to be made available to you via staggered rollout.

Finally, forum member Adam Bottjen - better known as Warwagon" - wrote a brief guide explaining how you can quickly lock your Windows PC in his latest edition of Warwagon's Tech Tip Tuesday.

Logging off

This week's surprising news item features Adobe buying up its design tool competitor Figma for a massive sum of $20 billion. The half cash and half stock deal is expected to close in 2023 following regulatory and stakeholder approval. Following completion, Figma's co-founder and CEO Dylan Field will continue to lead his Figma team while reporting to Adobe's Digital Media president David Wadhwani.

Microsoft Weekly: Windows patches, Insider builds, and a Teams ringtone from TikTok

Ethereum moving from PoW to PoS could mean gamers have a lot more graphics cards available in the second-hand market. However, in an FAQ, the Ethereum Foundation confirmed that The Merge would not have any noteworthy impact on the speed of transactions, and the expenses involved in getting a transaction completed and authenticated would remain the same.

Those hoping PoS Ethereum would make transactions cheaper have been disappointed. The Ethereum Foundation claimed that after transitioning to PoS, the energy costs of Ethereum should decrease by around 99.95%. However, this will have no impact on the transaction costs, commonly known as “Gas fees”.

The busier the Ethereum network, the higher the Gas fees. However, despite a massive reduction in processing power needed to validate a block under PoS, the Ethereum Foundation claimed nothing has changed "that directly influence(s) network capacity or throughput". In other words, gas fees will remain unchanged.

The second complaint from many cryptocurrency owners and traders is that transactions involving PoS Ethereum take nearly just as much time as the earlier PoW iteration.

Historically, on proof-of-work, the target was to have a new block every ~13.3 seconds. Under proof-of-stake, slots occur precisely every 12 seconds … this was a fairly insignificant change and is unlikely to be noticed by users.

Investors are also concerned because the Ethereum Foundation will reportedly continue to cap withdrawals. This safeguard should ensure there’s no cascading effect due to mass selling, but it does keep investors away from their own investments.

Cryptominers are already complaining about the lack of benefits from PoS Ethereum