Windows 9?

Although we are now up to Windows 11, people managed to find references to the unreleased and never-announced "Windows 9" in recent Dev Channel builds. It doesn't mean much, because it's basically just branding at this point, but it was still interesting to find mentions of Windows 9 and "Windows Blue", the latter of which is the codename for Windows 8.1. Apparently, these references have been present since Windows 10 Technical Preview build 9860, which was released in 2014.

There are multiple theories about why Windows 9 was never announced. A prominent one is that it caused programming-related issues with legacy applications that only checked the first digit of the Windows version, which means that Windows 95, 98, and 9 would have been treated the same. Another senior Microsoft executive later revealed a completely different reason for skipping Windows 9.

But coming back to the world of ground realities, we did get monthly Patch Tuesday updates for official and supported versions of Windows, you can find more details about the fixes in the dedicated articles below:

• Windows 7 (KB5011552) and Windows 8.1 (KB5011564)
• Windows 10 (KB5011487)
• Windows 11 (KB5011493)

In related news, AMD PCs with Windows 10 and Windows 11 have been stuttering lately due to an fTPM bug, you can check out the temporary workaround here.

Secret File Explorer

Microsoft unintentionally stirred quite a bit of excitement this week by secretly including an updated version of File Explorer in its latest Windows 11 Dev Channel build. It features a tabbed interface, which we know that Microsoft unceremoniously shelved back in 2019. It was originally announced as "Sets" for Windows 10 in 2017 but was seemingly killed off without any public reasoning. Well, the good news is that it's apparently coming back, more on that in the Under the spotlight section of this piece!

But talking about the changes that Microsoft officially announced with Windows 11 Dev Channel build 22572, we have Microsoft Family and Clipchamp as inbox apps. The firm has made it simpler to access the legacy context menu too. Microsoft is also planning to roll out an updated Windows Search experience in the coming days.

The company released Windows 11 Dev Channel build 22572.100 (KB5012817), but that was just to test the servicing pipeline.

In more news related to Windows 11, Microsoft has updated Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA) with improvements to hardware decoding, networking, MSAA, and input. Check out all the details here.

Recyclable Xbox consoles

Microsoft revealed some rather ambitious plans about how it plans to make gaming sustainable in the coming years. The company claims that all Xbox products will be 100% recyclable by 2030; this includes consoles, accessories, gift cards, packaging, and more. It is also integrating Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) resins in its hardware and enabling Energy Saver mode in Xbox consoles by default, which consumes 20 times less power in Standby mode.

In more gaming news, Microsoft will soon let you play titles on Xbox Cloud Gaming with a mouse and a keyboard. Not all games will work with these peripherals out of the box, but it's clearly something that developers can target if they feel that it's worth the effort. The company has rolled out a redesigned Xbox app for Windows too.

Meanwhile, the March 2022 Xbox update brings the ability to constantly pin two games to Quick Resume, an updated audio setup wizard, and a firmware update for controllers. Rumor also has it that Microsoft is working on a white Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2.

And when we are talking about Microsoft gaming, it is pertinent to note that Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick's friends are being investigated by federal prosecutors for investing $108 million in company stock just days before Microsoft's official acquisition announcement. The personnel have denied any knowledge of inside matters when engaging in these transactions.

But on a lighter note, Metacritic has crowned Microsoft as the "Publisher of the Year" for 2021. And if you play Sea of Thieves, do check out the Sea Fort takeover challenges introduced recently.

Dev Channel

• A design revamp for Office.com should now be available to all education and business customers
• Although Google has confirmed that Surface Duo will get an unforked version of Android 12L, enthusiasts who don't have it as their primary device can actually dual-boot Windows 11 on it too
• Edge DevTools' feedback hub is now a GitHub repository

• Intel 30.0.101.1404 driver can boost the performance of Windows 11 Xe systems

• Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub is now generally available

• Microsoft has plugged a critical "AutoWarp" vulnerability in its Azure Automation Service

• PowerToys 0.56.2 fixes FancyZones bugs but future updates will also bring a new tool to end running processes

   

Under the spotlight

At the start of the week, I talked about how a specific missing feature in Windows 11 annoys me a lot. I don't lose sleep over it, it just bothers me that Microsoft removed it without any apparent logical reason. You can find out what it is here.

I also did a roundup of the top 10 features that people are requesting for Microsoft Teams. It's a pretty interesting list and it's nice to see that Microsoft representatives are actively responding to feedback with mostly non-generic replies.

When it comes to the secret tabbed File Explorer in Windows 11 Dev Channel build 22572, I wrote a guide about how you can enable it and also published my thoughts on its current unfinished implementation that you can read here.

Logging off

As we sign off, I would like to bring your attention to the fact that Google is quietly phasing out reverse image search in favor of Google Lens. However, Neowin co-founder Steven Parker has published a guide on how you can still leverage from Google reverse image search, and you can find all the details here.

Microsoft Weekly: Windows 9, secret File Explorer, and Xbox recyclability

Apple’s transition to its own processors is nearly complete. The company’s recent spring event saw the debut of the Mac Studio and its M1 Ultra processor — its most powerful piece of silicon yet. But it also revealed what the future of Apple’s computers could look like.

For the first time, all of Apple’s chips are on the table.

The first crucial takeaway is that Apple is now a force to be reckoned with when it comes to chips (if it wasn’t already). The incredibly positive reception for the first wave of M1 computers, along with the similar success of its M1 Pro and M1 Max-powered MacBook Pro laptops last year, established the company’s bona fides. But the M1 Ultra saw Apple take its biggest swing yet, with what it boasts is the “world’s most powerful chip for a personal computer.”

These chips are already becoming selling points for computers. Buying a Mac isn’t just about getting Apple’s software or aesthetic design anymore — it’s about getting the kind of performance and battery life no one else is offering.

Apple fired shots at Intel’s top-tier processor, the Core i9-12900K, claiming a 90 percent improvement from its M1 Ultra in multi-threaded performance at the same power level and the ability to match Intel’s best numbers while using 100W less power. The company took a similar victory lap over Nvidia’s RTX 3090 GPU, which Apple claims to beat out in performance while drawing 200W less power. (Obviously, we’ll be looking to test those numbers for ourselves in the coming days and weeks). The Apple Silicon transition isn’t an experiment anymore — it’s Apple’s future and one that PC manufacturers will have to pay attention to going forward.

Next, there’s the way that Apple is building out its chips. Right now, Apple has four different models of its Arm-based M1 chips, which blur the line between product form factors in a way that we don’t usually see from semiconductors. Apple has been taking a different approach — instead of building chips for specific devices, Apple has effectively built just one really good chip: its A-series processor. And all it’s been doing has been scaling it up, seemingly without limit. From a phone, to a laptop, to what’s allegedly the most powerful desktop, Apple’s secret sauce seems to be nothing more than doubling the size of each of its chips and throwing in more cooling at each step. But it’s remarkable because no company has ever managed to do that before — and because it allows Apple to create an entire portfolio of computers from $430 to $8,000 (and counting) around a single point in its silicon architecture roadmap.

The M1 in a MacBook Air or iPad is the same chip as in Apple’s iMac and Mac Mini desktops, running at roughly the same speeds and efficiency. The M1 Max from a MacBook Pro laptop makes the jump to a desk with the Mac Studio. And even the company’s ultra-powerful M1 Ultra isn’t a purely desktop-focused design, given that it’s effectively just two M1 Max processors in a trench coat. Devices are differentiated on specific features or form factor, not necessarily just how powerful they are.

 The M1 MacBook Air turned the industry’s head when we saw what Arm was capable of. Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

 Beefier MacBook Pros exist by throwing more cores and cooling at the same problems. Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

It’s that scaling pattern that we’re likely to see with Apple’s upcoming Mac Pro, too, which Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports will come later this year with up to 40 CPU cores and 128 graphics cores on a chip (the equivalent of four M1 Max processors combined together, or two M1 Ultra chips). It’s yet another doubling — presumably adding in even more cooling to compensate.

In the same vein that Apple is distinguishing the Mac Studio from the Macbook Pro with different form factors, ports, and feature sets, we’ll likely see a similar shift to help the new Mac Pro stand out from the Mac Studio. The current Mac Pro is Apple’s most powerful (and most expensive) product, and it’s one that fits a very different niche than some of its other computers — and one with no small share of missteps by the company over the years as Apple misjudged what power users need from their hardware.

An M1-powered Mac Pro would likely need more than just another doubling of the M1’s core count to satisfy professionals; it needs scalability, modularity, and customization. Things like PCIe cards, user-accessible memory slots, and compatibility with discrete graphics cards and external hardware accelerators — the same factors that made the recent 2019 refresh a success (and whose lack damned the 2016 “trash can” model almost immediately). None of Apple’s Arm-based designs have offered any of those things, and it’s still an open question whether Apple is interested in offering them on any level.

 No RAM slots on this M1 Ultra — those black squares are baked-in memory. Image: Apple

The sheer power of Apple’s CPU and GPU cores might mean that it can beat an RTX 3090 today; a 128-core GPU in a Mac Pro would offer an even bigger cushion for a longer amount of time. But without user-upgradable parts, Apple would be forcing a future Mac Pro buyer to anticipate all their needs from the start. We’ll have to wait for a more official announcement to see if Apple can evade the trap of leaning too heavily on non-upgradable systems again or not, though.

The increasingly hazy line between products also applies to the chips themselves — while the core counts and split between efficient and performance cores vary from model to model (and even within processor families, where Apple offers a variety of configurations), the cores themselves are the same: a Firestorm performance core on a $999 M1 MacBook Air is the almost same as on a $3,999 Mac Studio’s M1 Ultra, right down to the 3.23GHz clock speed, although the more powerful chips do feature additional caches and DRAM bandwidth. From a technical standpoint, the M1’s Firestorm cores aren’t much different than the ones in the A14 in an iPhone 12, either, although the iPhone cores are clocked slightly slower.

Intel’s latest 12th Gen processors are built using a similar scaled approach, with a mixture of performance and efficient cores from its most powerful desktop chips to its most battery-friendly models for lightweight laptops. But Intel’s chips don’t quite scale in the same way that Apple is doing here, with products still broken down more traditionally in multiple buckets for different laptop classes and desktop models. Intel’s desktop chips are (for the most part) not making the jump to laptops or tablets in the same way that Apple’s do.

The M2 question

Lastly, there’s the future of Apple’s processors. Apple Silicon is clearly here to stay (at this time, Apple sells just a pair of Intel-based machines: a legacy Mac Mini with severely outdated hardware and the soon-to-be-replaced Mac Pro). This means that at some point — possibly as soon as this year — we’ll start to see the next wave of processors, be they by an “M2” moniker or another name.

Whatever the next generation of Apple chips is, though, it likely won’t be the same kind of massive leap forward that the Intel to M1 switch has been. Instead, it’ll likely be a more gradual, incremental upgrade — similar to the changes from one generation of A-series iPhone processors to the next.

When it comes to upgrading processors, there are effectively two ways to go about doing it. You can use a new (or refreshed) architecture that introduces more powerful or efficient CPU or GPU cores, or you can move to a smaller manufacturing node — allowing you to pack in more transistors in a similar space or to shrink down similar hardware even further.

 The M1 Ultra doesn’t actually use Apple’s newest cores. Image; Apple

We know Apple already has better silicon designs: the company’s A15 chipset features its more advanced Avalanche high-performance cores and Blizzard energy-efficient cores, which (at least on paper) are better than the Firestorm and Icestorm cores they replaced (which Apple originally debuted back with the A14 chip in the iPhone 12 lineup). Historically, Apple tends to focus on improving its individual core designs with its A-series chips on the iPhone, but the dividends tend to be smaller from year to year.

A future “M2” could follow in that vein and start to refresh Apple’s chip lineup with Avalanche and Blizzard cores, potentially offering similar gains in performance or efficiency like the iPhone 12 to iPhone 13 upgrade. At least one rumor from 9to5Mac indicates that Apple is looking to do that for its M2 lineup, along with adding additional GPU cores to some of its chip models.

Apple could also — as several rumors already suggest — make a more modest upgrade and take the existing M1 designs and move them down to a more advanced production node. That’s something that may occur as soon as this year, with reports that Apple may ship a new MacBook Air with a largely identical chipset that’s built on TSMC’s 4nm node, instead of the 5nm node it currently uses for its M1 chips — which could let Apple increase performance and / or power efficiency.

Barring some calamity with the Mac Pro, though, it’s clear that Apple has succeeded in pulling off its first generation of computer hardware with a bang. But its competitors aren’t sitting idle, either: Intel is finally shipping its own next-generation laptop chips, and AMD’s products are better than ever, too. And that’s not even counting Arm-based competition — like Qualcomm’s looming plans to bring the fight to Apple with its Nuvia-designed chips in 2023.

Apple Silicon was a fresh start for the company’s computers that catapulted them ahead of its competition. But with the transition nearly complete, Apple has to do more than just impress once — it needs to keep that momentum going for future products, too.

Apple’s chips are on the table

For some comparison, the current-gen RTX 3090 features a TGP of 350W, and the upcoming RTX 3090 Ti that's launching soon, is going to pack a 450W TGP. Hence, the next-gen RTX 4090 is allegedly going to consume nearly double (+71%) the power of its direct predecessor and a third more than the Ti variant.

The rumor is not entirely new either as reputed leaker and YouTuber Moore's Law Is Dead (MLID) also says that sources close to it are giving similar figures, and the TGP numbers are hovering around 450W to 600W.

MILD claims that Nvidia is pushing Ada Lovelace very hard as the rumored AMD RDNA 3 performance is really good and Nvidia doesn't want to lose its performance crown.

To be fair to AMD, RDNA 2 is also quite potent in terms of raw rasterization and power efficiency however the ray-tracing performance does leave much to be desired.

Via: MLID (YouTube)

Nvidia next-gen Ada rumors run wild as RTX 4090 rumored to gobble 600W power all by itself

GPU, WiFi, and Bluetooth drivers for Windows are now available, which should be installed for optimal performance and stability on the Steam Deck. Those interested in jumping over can check out Valve's helpful Steam Deck - Windows Resources page here. There are some caveats to keep in mind though.

Only Windows 10 is what's supported for now, not 11. "We are preparing a BIOS update that enables fTPM, which is required to install Windows 11," adds Valve. Another down side is not being able to dual-boot with SteamOS and Windows just yet, with the company still working on the feature. Also, Windows audio drivers are still in the works for the handheld, so the speakers and 3.5mm audio port will not provide any audio. The USB-C and Bluetooth can be used for gaining audio in the meantime on Windows.

Other than the resources page, Valve won't be providing additional support for getting Windows running on the Steam Deck. Those that may want to switch back to the original SteamOS 3.0 operating system can do so by following the recovery instructions on this support page.

Windows drivers for the Steam Deck have landed, though with some caveats

After announcing the RTX 3090 Ti at CES back in January, Nvidia’s latest and greatest graphics card has been surprisingly absent from store shelves, and not just for the usual reasons of scalping and cryptocurrency mining for a change. 

Instead, the RTX 3090 Ti simply hasn’t been released, as Nvidia has silently blown past the original release date they gave which slated the graphics card for a release at the end of January. 

After the prospective January release date came and went, Nvidia has been suspiciously silent on the whereabouts of the RTX 3090 Ti, however, it now appears that the wait might almost be finally over. 

According to VideoCardz.com, the RTX 3090 Ti is now planned to release on the 29th of March, with reviews of the card being published on the same day. With Nvidia keeping quiet, it’s currently unclear just what caused this two-month delay, however, it’s believed it could be due to problems with the card’s GDDR6X memory. 

Featuring 10,752 CUDA cores and 24GB of 21Gbps GDDR6X RAM the RTX 3090 Ti appears to be the swansong of the RTX 30 series lineup, however, that is performance like that is expected to come at quite the steep cost. 

Nvidia is yet to announce the official price of the RTX 3090 Ti, however considering that current high-end graphics card prices are still inflated to eye-watering levels, it’s possible that the card could be sold for upwards of $2000.

Nvidia’s RTX 3090 Ti is reportedly due to launch this month

An M1 Ultra benchmark, a PowerPC Easter egg, and other Mac Studio details

This is not the first time AMD has run into trouble with Microsoft's operating system, a similar problem was discovered and fixed in October 2021.

The new issue, occurs on computers that have the Firmware Trusted Platform Module (fTPM) enabled. As you may know, TPM is a mandatory requirement to install and update Windows 11. This has prevented users with older computers, that don't have the security module, from upgrading to the new operating system, though there are several ways to bypass the restriction, should you feel the need to do so.

But here's where it gets interesting, Windows 11 is not the only OS that is affected by this bug, Windows 10 is also impacted. Betanews reports that AMD has issued a statement to address the intermittent system stutter problem.

Article PA-410 released by the company explains that the systems that have the fTPM module activated, may be computing extended fTPM-related memory transactions in SPI Flash memory (SPIROM), and that this leads to temporary pauses in the responsiveness of the computer. Does that sound a bit too technical? Don't worry, I got you, the translation is that the computer lags or stutters randomly because the fTPM chip is working in the background continuously.

It is good to see that the issue has been acknowledged but, AMD has not announced which Ryzen motherboards are impacted by the stuttering issues. It is not clear how many systems could be affected by this bug.

AMD says that it is working on fixing the Ryzen stuttering issues, the bad news is that it is going to a while for it to arrive. The chipset maker will provide a system BIOS update to patch the fTPM performance issues, and expects a fix to be available in early May, 2022. The microcode for the firmware will be based on AMD AGESA 1207 or newer.

What about users who are facing problems right now? Well, AMD has mentioned a workaround that users may try. Affected users can optionally switch from fTPM to a hardware TPM (dTPM) module. This fix is not exactly user-friendly, as it requires a TPM 2.0 header on the motherboard. The other issue is that the hardware chip, the TPM module that you need to buy, is not exactly cheap. Techpowerup says that these TPM chips can cost about $50 to $100.

If that does not deter you, you can try switching to TPM. But before you do so, you will need to make sure that BitLocker has been disabled, because the security feature relies on TPM-backed encryption systems. AMD has also advised users to take a back up of their data before switching from fTPM to dTPM.

Many AMD users who bypassed the TPM requirement for Windows 11 say that they have not faced this problem on their computer. While they won't have the additional security features that the chip provides, I think that having a usable computer will ultimately be preferable.

Do you have a Ryzen computer? Are you facing stutters while using the system?

AMD acknowledges Ryzen stuttering issues on Windows 10 and 11 are caused by fTPM bug

You can buy a nice keyboard for the iPad Air and turn it into something very close to a Mac laptop.Photograph: Apple

Will Apple ever ship a MacBook laptop with a touchscreen? Most likely not. But next week, Apple will begin shipping a device that closely resembles a MacBook with a touchscreen.

To be clear, Apple didn’t show off a MacBook during Tuesday’s virtual product launch event. But it did show off a tablet that feels a lot like a computer. (“What’s a computer?” you ask. We'll get to that.) Apple's new device is the 2022 iPad Air, the fifth generation of this product line. A few of its features have been updated to keep with the times: 5G connectivity, an ultrawide camera, a USB-C port.

But the upgraded silicon at its heart is what makes it more Mac-like. The most significant upgrade to the iPad Air is its M1 chip, the same Apple-made processor that’s in the 2020 MacBook Air, the 2020 MacBook Pro, the 2021 iMac, and the 2021 iPad Pro. The M1 might already be aging by Apple’s speedy standards, seeing how the company is already putting M1 Max and M1 Ultra chips into its high-end hardware. But the inclusion of the M1 in the iPad Air, a tweener of a device that was always more expensive than the most basic iPad and less powerful than the most souped-up iPad, means yet another Apple tab has been elevated to “PC” status.

For years now, tech pundits and consumers alike have wondered whether Apple’s iOS devices and its MacBooks would somehow merge. That hasn’t quite happened yet. From a hardware perspective, a clamshell laptop with a real keyboard still provides a utility that a tablet does not, even if that tablet has an accessory keyboard. And Apple has consistently rejected the idea that it would ever put a touchscreen into one of its laptops. The company’s software chief, Craig Federighi, told WIRED in a 2018 interview that “lifting your arm up to poke a screen is a pretty fatiguing thing to do.” Message received: Touchscreen laptops are bad (despite the millions of Windows touchscreen laptops that have sold).

According to CCS Insight chief analyst Ben Wood, the chasm between the MacBook and the iPad is still wide, but the two could grow closer together as both products continue to evolve.

“The glaring gap is still the lack of touchscreen capability and cellular support” in the MacBook, Wood says. “I'm interested to know when and how that changes. It could be that the next disruption comes when Apple can add 5G into the MacBook range."

A look at Apple's software strategy shows the company sees its mobile and desktop platforms as not too dissimilar. A few years ago, Apple launched a project called Mac Catalyst as an effort to get developers to start thinking about building apps for the entire Apple ecosystem rather than just for the iPhone or the Mac. Catalyst allowed developers to build one version of their apps that could be easily ported to iOS, iPadOS, and MacOS, essentially nudging mobile and desktop toward holy matrimony.

But while iOS, iPadOS, and MacOS share the same software kernel, they still have distinctly different user interfaces. The iPad may have an application dock, but it doesn’t have a “desktop.” Its home screen is still tightly controlled. The inability to just store local files on the home screen, or to easily manipulate app windows, is still one of the maddening differences between iPad and any other laptop or desktop.

Apple’s custom silicon, then, is where the merging of the iPad and the Mac has so far been the most seamless. Or, in the collective mind of Apple engineers, it’s what pits the iPad against all laptop competitors. It’s a “supercharged” tablet, said Angellina Kiyazike, an iPad engineering program manager, during Tuesday's presentation. It’s for college students taking elaborate notes, content creators stitching together their videos, gamers. Sure, it’s a lot faster than the 2020 iPad Air—like, a lot— but it’s also “two times faster than the best-selling Windows laptop in this price range,” a laptop that’s also much thicker and heavier, Kiyazike added.

In it’s pitch for the iPad Air, Apple has asked consumers to temporarily suspend their disbelief and accept that this $599 tablet can do many of the things a high-powered laptop can do. We know this isn’t true, both because of the software shortcomings in iPadOS and the limitations of the tablet’s design. But the silicon might tell another story, one where the tablet and trusty laptop actually are becoming one and the same.

Apple Continues Its Slow March Toward the MacPad Future

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Twitter follows a handful of major sites, including Facebook and the BBC, in launching a dedicated onion website.

The official supported browsers support page on Twitter confirms that Tor Project onion domains are now supported.

Access to the Tor network is available in several different forms. Users may download Tor Browser, which is based on Firefox ESR, to browse any site including onion sites. Some browsers, Brave needs to be mentioned here, support Tor as well. Tor Browser is available for desktop operating systems and for Google's Android operating system.

Tor uses encryption and other privacy and security features to protect user anonymity; this is done by routing the connection through a series of network nodes instead of connecting to sites directly. Tor is a popular solution when it comes to bypassing censorship or other attempts at blocking access to certain Internet sites and services.

Additionally, it may unlock access to sites that are blocked when accessed via a regular browser.

Twitter has been accessible via Tor already, but support for a dedicated .onion website takes it to the next level. Alex Muffett, who helped Twitter create the onion website, published details on the benefits of providing an onion site over allowing connections to a site via Tor on his personal website.

According to him, onion websites improve authenticity and availability of sites. Clicking or typing the onion address guarantees that the correct site is accessed via Twitter. Muffet explains that onion sites mitigate attacks carried out on rogue Tor exit notes.

The use of onion sites has other benefits, including the ability to bypass regional or national blocks of websites, protect against DNS censorship and TLS man-in-the-middle attacks, and SNI filters.

In short: the new Twitter onion website mitigates several attack types when using the Tor network to access websites.

Closing Words

The launching of a dedicated onion website improves Twitter access and security for Tor users.

Now You: do you use Tor to access sites?

Twitter launches its Tor Project onion address

On Tuesday, Apple unveiled an array of new devices, including a new iPhone SE with 5G, a new version of the iPad Air, and Mac Studio, a whole new desktop PC with a powerful new processor. Apple made all these announcements in a prerecorded presentation that oddly did not reference the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, even though the company changed its policies last week in response to the conflict. Apple's product shows are like Waffle House—no matter how many crises befall the world around them, they'll keep on going.

Here’s everything that was announced.

Anyone who loves iPhones with physical home buttons will be happy to see yet another refresh of the iPhone SE. Not much has changed since the 2020 update to the small, least expensive iPhone. This time, Apple has stuffed the A15 Bionic processor inside, the same one found inside the iPhone 13 models. That means this budget-model iPhone is nearly as capable as the super-expensive iPhones, and Apple says this chip enables better battery life. You also get 5G connectivity, so you can access faster internet speeds on your carrier’s network, and the glass around the phone is the same Ceramic Shield that protects Apple’s iPhone 13 models. The SE also has a 12-megapixel main camera, which allows for similar features introduced in the mainline iPhones, like Photographic Styles and Deep Fusion. That’s all it gets for new optical guts—there are no additional sensors here. Even the 7-megapixel selfie camera is the same.

Weirdly, the new iPhone SE doesn’t include support for the MagSafe accessory system. Apple introduced MagSafe with the iPhone 12, allowing you to magnetically attach accessories like wireless chargers, wallets, and battery packs to the back of the phone. (Don’t worry, you can still wirelessly charge this iPhone.) Everything else about it is more or less the same, from the 4.7-inch LCD screen and IP67 water resistance to the home button with Touch ID. It comes in three colors: midnight, starlight, and Product(Red). Preorders open up this Friday, and it goes on sale March 18 for $429.

If you prefer a Face ID-enabled iPhone, you might be enticed with the new colors available for the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro—green and alpine green, respectively. They’ll also be available for preorder this Friday, with official sales starting March 18. —Julian Chokkattu

To make its chipset naming convention even more confusing, Apple is adding another processor to its M1 line and calling it the M1 Ultra. It joins the M1, the M1 Pro, and the M1 Max. The design is interesting, as it’s essentially two M1 Max chips smushed together using a die technology Apple calls UltraFusion. According to Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, John Ternus, the M1 Ultra offers a ridiculous 128 GB of graphics memory and has seven times more transistors than the base M1 chip. —Boone Ashworth

The biggest curveball at Apple’s spring event was the announcement of a new desktop PC called the Mac Studio. It looks like a chonky, double-height Mac Mini, a big silver block that stands 4 inches tall. It has ports for days, including four Thunderbolt ports, two USB-A slots, an HDMI port, and a headphone jack on the back. On the front are two USB-C ports and an SD card slot. Wi-Fi and bluetooth are built in. Apple says you can output the display to four of its XDR monitors and a 4K TV simultaneously. The Mac Studio can be configured with either an M1 Max or the new M1 Ultra chip.

You can also pair it with a new 27-inch monitor, called Studio Display, that Apple designed specifically for this machine. It has one of Apple’s A13 Bionic chips built in, which powers iOS right there in the monitor, essentially making the display a giant mobile device. The screen features 5K resolution, with options for special textured glass that eliminates glare. On the front is a 12-megapixel webcam, and the display packs a set of mics and a six-speaker array that offers spatial sound.

The Mac Studio starts at $1,999 with the M1 Max chip, and $3,999 with M1 Ultra. The Studio Display starts at $1,599. Bendy stand options and a light dispersing textured glass display are extra. —Boone Ashworth

The last update to iPad Air, in September 2020, was a bit of a design overhaul for the popular tablet. It had minimized bezels, the same rounded corners and chamfered edges as the iPad Pro, an updated charging port (USB-C), Touch ID on the power button, and a powerful A14 Bionic chip. And given that it worked with accessory keyboards, there was almost no need to even consider the much more expensive iPad Pro, I wrote at the time.

The newest iPad Air looks even more covetable. The biggest update is the inclusion of Apple’s custom-designed M1 chip in the tablet—the same chip that’s in iPad Pros (and some MacBooks). Apple claims this offers up to 60 percent improved performance from the previous iPad Air. This also makes the fifth-generation iPad Air two times faster than the “best-selling Windows laptop in its price range,” said Angelina Kyazike, engineering product manager for iPad, during the event. The tablet’s display is a bit brighter, and its front camera now includes a 12-megapixel wide-angle camera. This means it supports a software feature called Center Stage, which keeps humans zoomed and centered in the frame during video calls and will supposedly make FaceTiming on the iPad Air less awkward.

This new tablet will start at $599 when it goes on sale this Friday, and will ship in 64-GB and 256-GB configurations. Per usual, cellular connectivity is an option in addition to Wi-Fi. But again, its biggest selling point is undoubtedly the new chip—as the very slow but eventual merging of Mac and iPad system features continue. And while iPad sales dipped in 2021, Apple still leads the overall tablet market, with nearly 40 percent market share. —Lauren Goode

In a piece of unexpected news—that, again, had nothing to do with an energy crisis in a world on the brink of war—Apple announced that it will begin showing two live Major League Baseball games on Friday nights. This new event is called Friday Night Baseball, and the games will be shown exclusively on Apple TV+. This seems a relatively low-stakes way for Apple to begin dipping its toes into offering live sports events on its streaming service. Unfortunately, dollar hot dogs don’t seem to be included. —Adrienne So

Apple made no mention of a release date for iOS 15.4, which brings new features to iPhones like better AirTag support and an improved Face ID system that works with face masks. Look for that release to be announced soon, possibly next week to coincide with the arrival of the newest iPhone model.

Everything Apple Announced: iPhone SE, Mac Studio, iPad Air

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Apple’s M1 Ultra tapes two M1 Max chips together

Apple announces $1,999 Mac Studio workstation with new 20-core M1 Ultra chip

Laptops and smartphones made by Apple, Microsoft, and Google are considerably less repair-friendly than those made by competitors Asus, Dell, and Motorola, according to a new report. These findings may be unsurprising to people who like to fix gadgets, but the data to back them up comes from an unusual source: the companies themselves.

The report, released today by the US Public Research Interest Group’s Education Fund, draws on data companies are now releasing in France to comply with the government’s world-first “repairability index” law, which went into effect last year. The law requires manufacturers of certain electronic devices, including cell phones and laptops, to score each of their products based on how easily repairable it is and make that score, along with the data that went into it, available to consumers at point-of-sale.

To make that information more accessible to Americans, US PIRG, with assistance from the repair guide site iFixit, compiled French repair scores for 187 laptops and phones produced by 10 major US manufacturers. Rather than simply regurgitate the French scores in English, US PIRG, which runs a right-to-repair advocacy campaign, decided to augment them by penalizing companies that fight against legislation that would facilitate independent repair. The result is a hybrid score that shows how fixable companies’ products are and whether the company is actively opposing consumers’ right to fix them.

“If a company actively lobbies, or is part of a coalition lobbying effort, to prevent access to parts, service information and repair tools, that indicates a hostile attitude toward repair choice,” report author Nathan Proctor, who leads US PIRG’s right-to-repair campaign, tells The Verge. “If you want to ensure your product is fixable now and into the future, you should consider the manufacturer’s approach to the repair ecosystem.”

France’s repairability index is a score out of 10 telling consumers how fixable a product is based on five criteria: ease of disassembly, availability of repair manuals, spare parts availability, spare parts pricing, and a device-specific category. Companies assign their products points within each of those five categories based on a number of sub-criteria laid out in a worksheet. The law requires that both the overall score and the underlying worksheet be published for French consumers. (For example, all of the worksheets Apple has completed for devices sold in France can be found on its French website.)

US PIRG calculated an overall repair score for each of the companies it looked at. It did so by averaging the French repairability indexes for that company’s products with the subscore for ease of disassembly, a criteria Proctor felt should be given additional weight since being able to physically take apart a device is “the most permanent and universal aspect” of its repairability. Finally, US PIRG deducted a point from the company’s overall score if it has a public record of lobbying against US right-to-repair bills, plus another quarter-point if it’s a member of either TechNet or the Consumer Technology Association, two trade associations that lobby against independent repair.

Out of the 10 companies US PIRG ranked, Apple received the worst grades, with the 12 fairly recent MacBook Air and Pro models averaging 3.16 out of 10 points and 20 iPhone models dating back to the iPhone 7 receiving just 2.75 out of 10 points. Microsoft fared only slightly better on laptops, averaging 4.6 points for the nine recent Surface laptops US PIRG scored, while Google also received low marks for the Pixel 4a, 6, and 6 Pro smartphones, which scored 4.64 out of 10 on average.

By contrast, Dell and Asus rose to the top of the list for repairable laptops. The 36 Dell and 22 Asus laptops US PIRG scored, lists that include mostly the companies’ current models as of December and January, averaged 7.81 and 7.61 points, respectively. Motorola performed comparably on the smartphone front, receiving 7.77 out of 10 points across 18 phones.

While these scores reflect both device repairability and corporate lobbying practices (for which all companies except for Acer and Motorola lost some points), consumers who are just interested in how physically fixable a companies’ products can find that information in the report as well. For some companies, the two scores mirror one another closely: Apple’s laptops, for instance, received an average disassembly rating of 3.24, while Dell cleaned up in this category, averaging 9.55 out of 10 points. A notable outlier is Microsoft. Its computers scored fairly well on ease of disassembly (7.34), but Microsoft devices lost points in its overall French repair score due to lack of access to spare parts and repair documentation. The company lost additional points in US PIRG’s scoring for its history of lobbying against repair legislation.

While neither Apple nor Google commented on the report specifically when asked, each sent a statement reiterating their commitment to making long-lasting, repairable products. Microsoft spokesperson Matt Garville said: “The fact that the repairability index scores are low does not mean that Surface products are not durable or reliable or cannot be repaired. We are committed to designing our products to deliver what customers need and want in a premium device and that includes increasing repairability while balancing other factors such as functionality, performance, security and safety.”

The report offers a handy, if high-level, guide for consumers looking to buy more repairable devices and align their purchasing decisions with their values. Early data from France suggests that the repair index could have a big impact: a poll commissioned last year by Samsung found that 86 percent of French consumers say their purchasing decisions likely will be impacted by these scores going forward.

That could sway some companies to change their practices. Perhaps taking note of its survey results, Samsung has been quietly working to boost its smartphone repair scores by releasing repair manuals in French. Beyond France, other recent campaigns have also demonstrated the power of putting a public spotlight on tech companies’ repair policies: Last year, Microsoft committed to making its devices more repairable following a shareholder resolution. Shortly thereafter, Apple announced a self-service repair program following years of pressure from independent repair advocates and more recent pressure from shareholders.

There’s much more these tech giants could do to foster independent repair, from ditching proprietary fasteners and glues in the design stage to actively supporting the right to repair in Congress. Perhaps, a report that ranks companies against their peers — based on their own self-reported data — will motivate some to step up their efforts. If I were answering reporters’ questions about this report, I’d rather be Asus than Apple.

Update, 11:00AM, March 8th: Added comment from Microsoft.

Apple, Microsoft, and Google all receive poor grades on repairability report card

But that's not all as a report published by VideoCardz claims that AMD also has plans for another Ryzen 4000 part, and this time it will be APU in the form of the Ryzen 5 4600G. The report also details the full alleged specifications and pricing of the new Ryzen models.

You can view it in full in the image below:

The spec that perhaps stands out the most in the lineup is the cache size on the $449 Ryzen 7 5800X3D which is set to become the new flagship Ryzen processor. That insane cache amount is due to the new 3D V-cache that will be on the new 5800X3D, which is why the processor has been named as such.

According to AMD, the 3D V-cache, on average, makes the upcoming Ryzen 7 5800X3D about 15% faster at gaming than the Ryzen 9 5900X.

The 5800X3D reportedly lands on April 20 and the other SKUs are also rumored not to be too far behind.

Source and image: VideoCardz

It's raining leaks for Ryzen: Full specs and pricing for 5800X3D, 5700X, 5600, and more

Whispers on the Chiphell forum however have suggested that AMD is looking to expand the Ryzen 5000 lineup with the launch of three new SKUs:

• Ryzen 5 5700X
• Ryzen 5 5600
• Ryzen 5 5500

A couple of days back, a Philippines-based wholesaler and trader "TechMovers" has confirmed via its Facebook account that these SKUs are indeed real. It looks TechMovers noticed the news, perhaps our own article on Neowin, and decided to build up some hype for the upcoming product launch as the cat is already out of the bag.

However, that's not all there's to it. Alongside the three 5000 series models, AMD is apparently launching new Ryzen 4000 SKUs too. There will be a couple of these, a Ryzen 5 part and a Ryzen 3 SKU. They are:

• Ryzen 5 4500
• Ryzen 3 4100

These Ryzen 4000 parts are what was rumored to be "Renoir-X" and AMD previously had launched Ryzen 4000 G series lineup with onboard integrated graphics. So if Renoir-X follows the same path, the core itself on these new 4000 models will be based on Zen 2 instead of Zen 3 that will be present in the 5000 series SKUs.

Alongside these, TechMovers also confirmed that the Ryzen 7 5800X3D with V-cache is also launching soon. However, information on pricing wasn't shared for any of these parts.

Source: TechMovers (Facebook) (1, 2) via Tom's Hardware

Wholesaler confirms Ryzen 5700X, 5600, 5500, plus Ryzen 4500 and Ryzen 4100, are all real

Intel has revealed its new Agilex M-Series Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). These are based on the Intel 7 process technology. Intel claims they have the industry’s highest memory bandwidth FPGAs with in-package HBM DRAM. While these FPGAs can work on a variety of tasks such as network virtualization, and they should benefit the cryptocurrency mining community the most.

The Agilex M-Series are the first members of the Intel Agilex device family to pack High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) RAM in the form of two in-package HBM2e DRAM stacks. They can provide up to 820GBps in memory bandwidth. This is about 60% higher than the previous generation Stratix 10 MX FPGAs. In all, the new FPGA lineup can feature up to 32GB HBM.

If a system can assimilate eight DDR5 SDRAM DIMMs, it can theoretically deliver almost 1.1TBps. The Agilex M-Series comes with a new kind of component called the Memory Network-on-Chip that "acts as a superhighway" between the FPGA's HBM2e DRAM and external DDR5 SDRAM, mentioned a blog post by Intel product marketer Sabrina Gomez.

Some of the notable features of the new Agilex M-Series FPGAs, claimed by Intel are:

• The industry’s highest memory bandwidth for an FPGA.
• The industry’s highest DSP compute density in an HBM-enabled FPGA.
• Greater than 2X fabric performance per watt vs. competitive 7nm FPGAs.

The Intel Agilex Series-M is the second product optimized for cryptocurrency mining that the company has revealed within a month's time. Last month, the company revealed an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) for this very purpose. Intel is calling the ASIC “Bonanza Mine”. Incidentally, while the ASIC is supposed to be energy-efficient, the latest FPGAs don't appear to be.

Besides cryptocurrency mining, the new FPGAs could offer enhanced network virtualization. Intel is already going after high-performance computing and cloud computing with its Arc GPUs. Moreover, the company is also interested in radar and electronic warfare for aerospace and defense, as well as 5G cellular network tests and arbitrary waveform generators. With their “high-speed networking, computing, and storage acceleration,” the new Intel Agilex M-Series FPGAs could help significantly, added Gomez.

Intel Agilex M-Series FPGAs to offer highest memory bandwidth, aimed at crypto mining

According to the company, the hangs and stutters are being caused by extended memory transaction operations inside the Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) flash ROM.

AMD has determined that select AMD Ryzen™ system configurations may intermittently perform extended fTPM-related memory transactions in SPI flash memory (“SPIROM”) located on the motherboard, which can lead to temporary pauses in system interactivity or responsiveness until the transaction is concluded.

Alongside that, the advisory also contains a temporary workaround. Plus the company has also stated that a permanent fix for the issue is coming via the AMD Generic Encapsulated Software Architecture (AGESA) update version 1207, which will be released later in the year in May. Basically, users will have to update their motherboard firmware when this comes out.

Update and Workaround

Update: Affected PCs will require a motherboard system BIOS (sBIOS) update containing enhanced modules for fTPM interaction with SPIROM. AMD expects that flashable customer sBIOS files to be available starting in early May, 2022. Exact BIOS availability timing for a specific motherboard depends on the testing and integration schedule of your manufacturer. Flashable updates for motherboards will be based on AMD AGESA 1207 (or newer).

Workaround: As an immediate solution, affected customers dependent on fTPM functionality for Trusted Platform Module support may instead use a hardware TPM (“dTPM”) device for trusted computing. Platform dTPM modules utilize onboard non-volatile memory (NVRAM) that supersedes the TPM/SPIROM interaction described in this article.

COMPATIBILITY: Please check with your system or motherboard manufacturer to ensure that your platform supports add-in dTPM modules before attempting or implementing this workaround.

WARNING: If switching an active system from fTPM to dTPM, it is critical that you disable TPM-backed encryption systems (e.g. BitLocker Drive Encryption) and/or back up vital system data prior to switching TPM devices. You must have full administrative access to the system, or explicit support from your IT administrator if the system is managed. For more information on transferring ownership to a new TPM device, please visit this Microsoft webpage.

You can view the official announcement here.

AMD PCs are stuttering on Windows 10 and 11 due to fTPM bug, temporary workaround out

First noticed by ServeTheHome (STH), both the new Red Pro 20TB and the Seagate IronWolf Pro 20TB have just 300TB of yearly endurance rating. To put this into context, over the five-year warranty period for these drives, that total endurance only reaches 1500TBW of data reads and writes.

So if a user was a heavy data swapper with lots of reads and writes, the 20TB and 18TB models would be running close to their workload capacities in no time. Quick math shows that by the 75th time, the 20TB models would have exhausted their rated endurance values. The figures are especially disappointing as these models have been labeled as "Pro" storage drives.

Toshiba is also not far behind. In fact, it appears to be ahead of WD and Seagate (in a negative way) at least when considering the company's N300 series NAS drives. The N300 HDDs are rated at just 180TB/year workload factor. Toshiba even touts this rating as "up to 3 times more than convenient desktop hard drives".

The drives come with a three year warranty and so over this period, the total endurance amounts to only 540TBW. This means the flagship 18TB N300 can on paper only perform 30 read/write instances.

Via: STH

Careful: 18, 20TB HDDs from WD, Seagate, Toshiba have endurances as low as just 180TB

According to the source (by Videocardz), Nvidia experienced memory stability problems in specific workloads and scenarios. To fix the situation, Nvidia had to replace memory on all existing units and opt for new vRAM chips for future models.

Nvidia RTX 3090 Ti should offer full capabilities of the GA102 die found in RTX 3090, 3080 Ti, and 3080 models. “Full capabilities” include more CUDA, RT, and Tensor cores, plus faster core and memory clocks. Memory size-wise, RTX 3090 Ti is to come with the same 24 GB of GDDR6X VRAM. All the extra power in Nvidia RTX 3090 Ti will increase the price and power consumption. The MSRP for RTX 3090 Ti remains unknown, but TDP will go up from 350 W in RTX 3090 to 450 W.

Finally, the post on Chiphell says Nvidia ditched the plans to release an upgraded version of RTX 3070 Ti with more memory. If you hoped to snag an RTX 3070 Ti with more than 8 GB of VRAM, you better start looking at RTX 3080, 3080 Ti, 3090, or the upcoming 3090 Ti.

It is also worth noting that the post on Chiphell is unconfirmed, which means you should take it with a hefty grain of salt and wait for Nvidia to confirm or deny the rumors.

Source: Chiphell (1), (2)

Nvidia reportedly launches RTX 3090 Ti on March 29, 3070 Ti with 16 GB is no more

However, there is a new motherboard by a Chinese vendor called Onda that can do the best of both worlds. Spotted by Twitter user momomo_us, this Onda 610M+ motherboard is a two-DIMM slot board. While one of its slots takes a DDR4 RAM, the other one has the notch placed differently and is meant for a DDR5 stick. The two DIMMs are colored separately and the black one is for the DDR5 RAM while the other one is for DDR4.

You can view the motherboard DIMM slots in the image below on the right.

That's because despite both DDR4 and DDR5 having the same 288 pin count, the module key is different for both the memory types and they are not compatible with the same DIMM slot.

In related news, Asus also made an interesting product of its own where it designed a DDR4 to DDR5 adapter for Alder Lake-S systems as DDR5 was quite expensive to buy when it first launched.

Source and images: Onda

This fascinating 12th Gen Alder Lake motherboard has got both DDR4 and DDR5 DIMM slots

Sanctions on Russia

With tensions between Russia and most other countries mounting to a peak these past few days following its invasion of Ukraine, Microsoft decided to announce some sanctions on Russia, following guidance received from the U.S. and Europe.

Apps from Russian state-sponsored media outlets Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik are no longer allowed in the Microsoft Store. Bing will not surface results from these websites either unless you explicitly name them in your search query, and they are banned from Microsoft's ad network too.

More importantly, all "new" sales of Microsoft products has been halted. The implication is that this includes new sales of Xbox hardware and service, Windows, Microsoft 365, and Azure. However, existing customers will continue to remain supported.

This is just a part of the steps that many tech firms are taking against Russia and only time will tell how impactful they are.

A surprising loss for Defender

Microsoft's Defender platform has quite a good reputation when it comes to protection against cybersecurity threats. Most recently, AV-TEST awarded it full marks in its tests conducted in October 2021 and December 2021. However, the same firm has shunned the consumer version of Defender in all of its awards for anti-virus solutions for the year of 2021.

The "Best Protection" award was won by Bitdefender, Kaspersky, and Norton 360. Meanwhile, "Best Performance" was secured by ESET, G Data, PC Matic, Protected.net Total AV, Kaspersky, and Norton 360. Finally, Avira and ESET were crowned victors in terms of "Best Usability".

The results are quite surprising, to say the least, and our readers have voiced their doubts on the metrics of the awards. You can dive into the discussion right here.

While we are talking about security, Rufus users will be pleased to know that version 3.18 of the software allows you to bypass Windows 11 restrictions for in-place upgrades and also includes a fix for errors thrown during the creation of EFI System Partition (ESP).

Windows 11 itself received two builds in the Dev Channel this week, however, only one of them is worth talking about. Build 22567 packs some fixes for the Taskbar, adds some more information to Windows Update and the Settings app, and features Smart App Control (SAC) for enhanced security too. Meanwhile, build 22567.100 (KB5012427) just tests the servicing pipeline.

We also have our first look at Windows 11 desktop stickers that you can check out here. And while all that is good, it does seem like the OS' adoption is slowing down. If you're an enterprise customer and app compatibility is what's stopping you from upgrading, Microsoft has issued a reminder that it will diligently solve such problems via its App Assure program.

Web enhancements galore

Web development seemed to be on the minds of a lot of teams over at Microsoft right now. For starters, it seems like the company is developing a new interface (screenshot above) for its Microsoft Store. It seems to be functional and contains the core, expected features with Windows 11 design aesthetics, but a lot of the actual content still isn't listed there.

People who use Microsoft 365 services on the web have some pretty significant improvements to look forward to as well. Those who use Excel on the web will soon be able to take advantage of a multi-line formula bar and a card UI containing tips about Excel calculations. Both of these features will roll out later this month.

Furthermore, Microsoft will also enable you to seamlessly switch between Microsoft 365 accounts when using its web apps. You will no longer be required to log out of one account and then log in to another, which is quite an archaic implementation. This capability will arrive next month.

Microsoft Edge version 99 also rolled out this week with better navigation for PDFs, the ability to set custom primary passwords, improved autofill capabilities, preparations for version 100 of the browser, and lots more. Check out all the details here.

Edge Canary v100 also received some enhancements on the PDF front through a full-screen PDF reader.

Dev Channel

• Valve says it's open to working with Microsoft to put Xbox Game Pass on Steam
• PowerToys 0.56.1 is now live with 128 FancyZones and a new setting for Find my mouse
• The Xbox app on Windows now offers access to game folders and repairing capabilities
• OneDrive sync will now work natively on Apple Silicon
• Forza Horizon 5 now offers sign language support for over 150 in-game cinematics
• Following the cancelation of Azure Sphere OS 22.01 in January, version 22.02 has been rolled out
• Microsoft Flight Simulator can be streamed through Xbox Cloud Gaming
• Windows Server Insider Preview build 25066 is now available
• There's a new Active Citizen experience in Minecraft: Education Edition
• Intel is seemingly ignoring Microsoft Pluton
• Microsoft has completed its $19.7 billion acquisition of Nuance Communications
• Windows Package Manager (winget) version 1.2 is now live with improved support for ARM64 devices

Under the spotlight

This week, Neowin News Reporter Asher Madan talked about his experience with Elden Ring on Xbox Series X. He detailed his thoughts on how iffy performance is pretty much the only thing holding back an otherwise perfect game on the console.

Asher is also playing Elex II on the same console. He thinks that the title has a lot of great ideas and its clear that the developer put a decent amount of effort into executing them, however, the game is desperately in need of more polish. Check out Asher's piece here.

Early in the past week, I talked about how the latest Windows 11 Dev Channel builds have given me hope about the operating system's future once again, and actually made me excited for it. While you may not agree, you can read my thoughts here.

I also published a couple of Closer Look articles this week. The first is about enhancements to the Focus experience in Windows 11. It's definitely a step in the right direction but there is clearly room for improvement.

Finally, I also wrote about the quick access to Bluetooth settings and devices in recent Dev Channel builds. It's not a radical improvement but it enhances the overall experience of using Windows 11 quite a lot.

Logging off

Our most interesting news of this week comes from hacking collective Anonymous claiming that it has shut down Russian Space Agency Roscosmos. The Director General for Roscosmos, Dmitry Olegovich Rogozin, has vehemently denied the claim but given the confidential nature of the matter, it's difficult to ascertain which side is telling the truth. Check out all the details here.

Microsoft Weekly: Defender shun, sanctions on Russia, and new web features galore

However, a new rumor alleges that AMD may be ready to finally launch a Ryzen 3 processor, in the form of the Ryzen 3 5500, alongside the Ryzen 5 5600 and a Ryzen 7 5700X, and they are coming by the end of this month. The rumor originates in the Chiphell forum (via HXL on Twitter).

Hence if this rumor turns out true then the Ryzen 5000 lineup will not only have a new flagship-tier product in the form of the already-announced Ryzen 7 5800X3D with 3D V-cache, but also more affordable options too.

As a consequence of the chip shortage, the TSMC 7nm process used by AMD for its Ryzen 5000 parts was in high demand and so it's possible that there weren't enough yields to manufacture more chips. But the yields for 7nm may be improving finally giving AMD the option to release these more affordable parts.

Source: iris_ (Chiphell forum)

AMD might launch Ryzen 7 5700X, Ryzen 5 5600 and Ryzen 3 5500 alongside Ryzen 7 5800X3D soon

Microsoft has emphasized that the driving force behind this acquisition is that both firms share a vision of building AI- and cloud-powered assistive technologies for the betterment of mankind.

This vision encompasses multiple domains. In terms of healthcare, the two will work together to improve patient experiences, automate clinical documentation, and develop efficient telehealth applications. On the financial side, contact centers solutions are being powered and secured through Microsoft Cloud, enabling fraud detection via various forms of biometric authentication.

In retail, Nuance and Microsoft will collaborate to improve supply chain visibility and the overall shopping experience. Finally, in the space of telco, the aim is to offer AI solutions that will aid in reducing costs and improving network latency and efficiency.

You can find out more in the detailed blog post here.

Microsoft completes $20 billion acquisition of Nuance

Symptom Checker

Amazon Alexa can now check whatever symptoms you may have and even provide you with a list of potential medical conditions you may be experiencing. Although, it’s worth mentioning that these suggestions are usually for common ailments that are easily detected, such as fever, rash, stomachache, runny nose, and headaches.

After saying, “Alexa, check my symptoms,” the AI will ask you a couple of questions to fully get the gist of what you’re feeling. Afterward, Alex will provide you with the best possible reasons why you’re experiencing your symptoms along with basic, need-to-know information about each cause. Of course, you shouldn’t treat this feature as a substitute for professional medical advice, as it’s only meant for educational reasons.

Amazon’s Alexa teams launched a COVID-19 self-checker feature in March 2020, and that’s what inspired them to develop and incorporate this symptom checker feature into Alexa. In Amazon’s blog post, the company emphasizes that it takes the users’ privacy seriously, so this new symptom checker is an optional experience. Those who don’t feel comfortable using the feature can skip questions they don’t feel like answering. Not only that, users can go through Alexa’s Privacy Settings or in the website or Alexa app to view, hear, and delete their voice recordings.

The new symptom checker is only one of the many health features incorporated into Amazon Alexa. Amazon Pharmacy customers who want to reorder any prescriptions they may have can say, “Alexa, refill my medications.” If you’re planning to get a COVID or booster shot, Alex can provide you with a list of nearby vaccination sites when you say, “Alexa, where can I get a COVID vaccine?” or “Alexa, where can I find a COVID vaccine booster shot?” Alexa will then schedule an appointment for you and send a link to your phone.

Scheduling a doctor’s appointment and getting connected with a Teladoc doctor has never been easier with Alexa. You can say, “Alexa, I want to talk to a doctor,” and the doctor will get back to you on your Echo device.

Notify When Nearby

Amazon Alexa has a new accessibility feature called Notify When Nearby, which makes receiving notifications a better experience for all users. When you enable Notify When Nearby, Alexa can detect any eligible Echo devices near them and alert any unread notifications by playing a particular sound. This ensures that users never miss a crucial alert or notifications, especially those who can’t see any visual alerts on Echo devices.

Access Your Integrated Channel Guide

By saying, “Alexa, open the guide,” you can now effortlessly access and customize your integrated channel guide on Fire TV. You can find the guide by going to the Live tab option; then, you can press the menu on your Alexa Voice Remote to find the “Add Channel” option. You can use this option to add live channels from your favorite apps effortlessly. Amazon’s Fire TV blog has more information regarding this for those interested.

February 2022: What’s New With Amazon Alexa?

The things Apple might announce next week, ranked by how likely they are