Intel launches the first U-series processor capable of 5GHz speeds  

 

This year's Computex virtual event officially starts tomorrow, but Intel is getting the ball rolling with a couple of major announcements today. The company is adding two new processors to its Tiger lake family, specifically in the U-series range, meant for thin-and-light laptops.

 

First and foremost, there's the new Intel Core i7-1195G7, which is Intel's first U-series processor capable of boosting all the way up to 5GHz. In fact, it's the industry's first 5GHz CPU for thin-and-light laptops, according to Intel. We've seen Intel gradually push more of its processors to 5GHz, starting with its first 5GHz desktop CPU in 2018, and laptops got their first 5GHz CPU in 2019 with the Core i9-9980HK.

 

Naturally, this is a single-core boost clock with Intel Turbo Boost Max technology, but the maximum all-core turbo is 4.6GHz, which is still impressive. Meanwhile, the integrated Iris Xe GPU can also boost slightly higher, at up to 1.4GHz.

Gallery: Core i7-1195G7 vs Ryzen 7 5800U

 

 

 

As you can see above, Intel compared the Core i7-1195G7 to AMD's Ryzen 7 5800U in both gaming and content creation, showing off higher performance across the board.

 

The other new CPU is the Core i5-1155G7, which is now the fastest U-series Core i5 model. It can boost up to 4.5GHz on a single CPU core or 4.3GHz on all cores, and the GPU can boost up to 1.35GHz.

 

You can see what Intel's lineup looks like with these new additions in the table below:

In addition to the higher performance of the CPUs themselves, Intel says it aims to accelerate the adoption of designs with Wi-Fi 6/6E with these additional options. We should see over 60 new consumer PC designs based on these two processors by this holiday season, and the first laptops with them should be coming from Acer, ASUS, Lenovo, and MSI this summer.

Intel launches the first U-series processor capable of 5GHz speeds

MSI reportedly launching X570S lineup very soon, a special GPU model also incoming  

 

MSI is set to hold a new event dubbed "Tech meets Aesthetic" in a couple of days on June 1st. The company has unveiled this information with the help of a new event page on its website. The event seems to be coinciding with this year's Computex and will be streamed live on YouTube at 00:00 PDT on its 'MSI Gaming' YouTube channel.

 

At the event, the company will reportedly be launching, among others, its recently leaked AMD X570S chipset-based motherboards. In fact, today a couple of alleged pictures of two such models have surfaced from a Chinese forum 'NGA'. The two models in question here are the MAG X570S TOMAHAWK MAX WIFI (image on the left) and the MAG X570S TORPEDO MAX (on the right).

 

 

Alongside this, MSI is reportedly also preparing an all-new graphics model called the SUPRIM 35th Anniversary Edition. The image of this was apparently listed by MSI previously but has since been removed. The company was founded in the year 1986 so a special 35th Anniversary product in 2021 does make sense. Here's how the new card looks like:

 

It is apparently a triple-fan model with the middle fan bearing a "35" on it which obviously seems to be indicating the 35th Anniversary of the company.

 

So far MSI has generally had SUPRIM models only associated with its GeForce-based cards. Hence it is being speculated that the company could be launching the new product as a part of its upcoming RTX 3080 Ti lineup.

 

via VideoCardz | Motherboard Images via UID10406399 (NGA Forum)

MSI reportedly launching X570S lineup very soon, a special GPU model also incoming

Microsoft Weekly: Build 2021, a combo showcase, and next-gen Windows

Microsoft Weekly: Build 2021, a combo showcase, and next-gen Windows

Amazon plans to enroll many of its hardware devices that are operated in the United States, including many Echo devices and Ring Spotlight and Floodlight Cams, into its Amazon Sidewalk system on June 8, 2021.

Amazon Sidewalk is a shared network. According to Amazon, it is used to make devices work better, e.g. by extending the working range of devices, keeping devices running even if outside the range of the wireless network of the home, or finding pets.

One of the ideas behind Sidewalk is that devices may continue to operate even if they lose access to the local wireless network; this works best in neighborhoods with lots of Amazon devices in the vicinity that all share some of their bandwidth.

Another key element of Amazon Sidewalk is that it creates a network for roaming devices, e.g. devices similar to Apple AirTags, that Amazon could utilize to provide the functionality.

Amazon explains:

Amazon Sidewalk uses Bluetooth, the 900 MHz spectrum and other frequencies to extend coverage and provide these benefits.

Each device, called Sidewalk Bridge by Amazon, shares up to 80kbps with the Sidewalk server when the feature is active. Amazon notes that the total monthly bandwidth is capped to 500 Megabytes for an account.

Neighbors will see the approximate location of Amazon Sidewalk devices, and not the street address.

Amazon Sidewalk will be enabled by default by Amazon on supported devices on June 8, 2021 in the United States. Amazon customers who operate Echo or Ring devices, need to opt-out of the program if they don't want their devices to join the shared network and spend some of the home bandwidth.

The company published a privacy and security whitepaper that explains in detail how the system works and which privacy and security protections Amazon implemented.

How to turn off Amazon Sidewalk

Amazon explains on this page how Sidewalk can be turned off:

1. Open the Alexa application.
2. Select More > Settings.
3. Select Account Settings.
4. Select Amazon Sidewalk.
5. Select Off to turn off Amazon Sidewalk for the account.

Some users reported that Amazon reset the setting for their accounts after they disabled Sidewalk. It is probably a good idea to check the setting regularly to make sure it remains disabled.

Closing Words

Amazon is creating a large network of connected devices using Sidewalk. Most Echo and Ring customers will keep Sidewalk enabled as they may not even know that Amazon enabled the feature on their devices.

For some, using Sidewalk may indeed be beneficial, but for the majority, privacy and security concerns outweigh all benefits that Sidewalk might provide.

Source

Your Amazon Devices to Automatically Share Your Wi-Fi With Neighbors- © The Hacker News

Dying Light 2 launches on December 7, new gameplay trailer out 

 

Techland's Dying Light sequel is back on the menu following a rather long hiatus, with the studio releasing a brand new gameplay showcase, seen above, aiming to rebuild the hype train. There is also a release date attached to the action game again, finally letting players parkour their way over zombies in Dying Light 2 – now with the tagline Stay Human – on December 7.

 

The trailer gives a good rundown of the setting, overall storyline, and the tools available for surviving the hostile, post-apocalyptic world. The story is set 20 years after the events of Dying Light, and the developer says playing the original is not a requirement for jumping into the sequel. Cooperative play also returns as a feature, with the upcoming title offering four-player co-op across the full campaign.

Three human factions fight for control over the massive city, which is simply named The City, during the daytime, while at night, the zombies take over the streets looking for a feast. As previously announced, choices will be a big part of the game, letting players dictate how these human settlements end up: thriving or wiped out.

 

Here's how the developer describes the game:

You are a wanderer with the power to change the fate of The City. But your exceptional abilities come at a price. Haunted by memories you cannot decipher, you set out to learn the truth… and find yourself in a combat zone. Hone your skills, as to defeat your enemies and make allies, you’ll need both fists and wits. Unravel the dark secrets behind the wielders of power, choose sides and decide your destiny. But wherever your actions take you, there's one thing you can never forget—stay human.

The title was originally announced during E3 2018, and a year later – also during E3 – it received a spring 2020 launch window. An indefinite delay hit the project in early 2020, throwing those plans out the window, with the developer saying it needed more time to complete the experience to a high standard.

 

Dying Light 2 Stay Human is launching on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5. As with most games, pre-order bonuses are attached to the release as well, offering the "Reload" outfit, as well as weapon and paraglider skins. Techland is planning to host more gameplay showcases focused on specific systems like parkour going forward.

Dying Light 2 launches on December 7, new gameplay trailer out

After years of work, Epic Games is launching early access for game developers for Unreal Engine 5, the latest version of the company’s tools for making games with highly realistic 3D animations. And to show it off, Epic Games released an amazing video that displays how the engine could render a game space that faithfully reproduced a huge area of the red rock formations of Moab, Utah.

Epic is no doubt pleased to be talking about something other than its three-week antitrust trial against Apple that just wrapped up on Monday. And while the company creates a lot of fun with Fortnite, the Unreal Engine goes back to the geeky roots of Epic and its CEO Tim Sweeney, who is one of the world’s graphics gurus. Founded in 1991, Epic now has 3,200 employees and the company is once again free to tout how it innovates in the gaming market.

And the Unreal Engine 5, which will officially ship in 2022, is the company’s crowning technical achievement. The early access build will let game developers start testing features and prototyping their upcoming games. Epic isn’t saying how long this took or how many employees are working on it, but it’s a safe bet that a large chunk of those devs are involved in Unreal Engine 5. It’s been seven years since the last engine shipped.

Unreal Engine 5 will deliver the freedom, fidelity, and flexibility to create next-generation games that will blow players’ minds, said Nick Penwarden, the vice president of engineering, in an interview with GamesBeat.

He said it will be effortless for game developers to use groundbreaking new features such as Nanite and Lumen, which provide a generational leap in visual fidelity. The new World Partition system enables the creation of expansive worlds with scalable content.

As it always does, Epic will battle-test the engine in-house, as it prepares to ship Fortnite on UE5 across all platforms down the line. Epic said it will empower creators across all industries to deliver stunning real-time content and experiences. The early access build has only been tested on game development workflows and offers a chance for game developers to go hands-on with some of the new features.

Additional features and other improvements for all industries will be part of the full Unreal Engine 5.0 release in early 2022. The current tech is not yet production ready.

Valley of the Ancient

Above: Echo goes up against the Ancient in an Unreal Engine 5 demo.

Developers can also download the new sample project, Valley of the Ancient, to start exploring the new features of UE5. Captured on an Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, Valley of the Ancient is a rich and practical example of how the new features included with Unreal Engine 5 early access can be used, and is the result of internal stress-testing.

The demo features a woman named Echo in a deserted mountain area. The team from Quixel, which Epic acquired in 2019, went out to Moab in Utah to scan tons of rock formations, using drones and cameras. And the artists who created the demo populated the scene with Megascans assets, as opposed to using anything procedural or traditional animation tools.

“We wanted to see how we could populate pretty much everything with Nanite content using Megascans assets,” Ivey said.

Chance Ivey, a senior technical designer on the project, walked me through a demo via a remote video. Even while viewing it remotely, I could see that it had massive amounts of detail, as Ivey could zoom in on a realistic rock and zoom out to show terrain that covered a couple of square kilometers of area. Ivey said the demo runs at 30 frames per second, which is slower than the fastest shooter games but is still realistic in its speed to the human eye. At some moments it can get up to 50 frames per second on a high-end machine.

“We are targeting 30FPS on next-generation console hardware” at 4K output with the demo, said Penwarden. “We expect people to be targeting 60 frames per second. It’s really a choice of the the gaming content itself, what you want to target, and UE5 is absolutely capable of powering 60 frames per second experiences. We chose to, in this case, absolutely maximize visual quality. And so we targeted 30fps. But we’re absolutely going to support 60 frames per second experiences.”

Above: The Ancient is not very happy or nice, but he is slow.

The visual quality was amazing, and so I asked Penwarden what was the trick to getting millions of polygons into a scene with rich details that moved fast in real time.

“The trick is a lot of smart engineering that goes into the algorithms and techniques that we’re using,” Pendwarden said. “Nanite is able to make sure that we’re spending graphics cycles only on detail that you can actually see. As you are traversing the environment, it’s streaming data in and out. So we don’t need to pre populate memory with all of the triangles that you would potentially see. It’s very intelligently selecting which LODs [levels of detail] to render across the board in a very smooth and continuous manner so that so that we’re able to deliver that micro polygon detail in real time.”

In the demo scene, the world is one large map, not a bunch of prefabricated parts that are put together. Yet artists can work on the partitions without interfering with each others’ work. Artists can load and work on only the sections of the world that they need. Echo has body motions that are captured and brought into the scene so she can fluidly vault over some pixels and walk like a human without looking so much like a robot.

In the video, Echo runs into a giant robot creature called the Ancient, which was created completely inside the Unreal Engine by the Aaron Sims Creative Company. The creature is made out of Nanite meshes and 50 million polygons. Echo proceeds to attack it with a magical energy charge. She brings it down in a big pile of dust amid the Moab rocks. Sadly, Ivey confirms that Echo is just a demo character and the company isn’t building a game around her.

Above: Fire and magma.

“We’re targeting next-gen hardware, high-end PCs,” Ivey said. “The important thing is to give developers a look inside UE5. We want people to poke around at and give us feedback on it and prepare their next projects on it. There are a number of different transformative workflows for building maps that are coming in UE5, and they’re available in early access.”

Compared to Unreal Engine 4, which debuted for the first time in 2014, the visuals are much better.

“If we want to look at scene complexity, we’re looking at orders of magnitude more objects in the scene,” Penwarden said. “We’re looking at orders of magnitude more triangles so we’re talking hundreds of millions plus triangles, compared to maybe one or two million in a in a traditional game.”

Nanite

Above: Nanite can capture the right level of detail in Unreal Engine 5 imagery.

Developers can modify the project and make it their own using Unreal Engine. The new Nanite virtualized micropolygon system lets developers create games with massive amounts of geometric detail.

One thing that Unreal Engine 5 does that couldn’t be done before is directly import film-quality source assets comprised of millions of polygons. Developers can place them millions of times, all while maintaining a real-time frame rate, and without any noticeable loss of fidelity. Nanite intelligently streams and processes only the detail you can perceive, largely removing poly count and draw call constraints, and eliminating time-consuming tasks such as baking details to normal maps and manually authoring levels of detail (LODs) —freeing creators up to concentrate on creativity.

Lumen

Above: Lumen creates accurate light and shadows in Unreal Engine 5.

Lumen is a fully dynamic global illumination solution that lets developers create dynamic, believable scenes. With Lumen, indirect lighting adapts on the fly to changes to direct lighting or geometry, such as changing the sun’s angle with the time of day, turning on a flashlight, or opening an exterior door. This means creators no longer have to author lightmap UVs, wait for lightmaps to bake, or place reflection captures—they can simply create and edit lights inside the Unreal Editor and see the same final lighting as when the game is run on console.

The scene has global illumination, where the sun casts rays of light on every object, and that light bounces off of objects or changes the look of areas in shadows. As the time of day changes, you can see the shadows retreat behind every single rock in the scene. The Megascans library — which consists of real objects meticulously scanned into digital form — is available for artists to drag and drop items into the scenes they’re creating. Megaassemblies are groups of preassembled objects such as a bunch of rocks put together as one object.

Open Worlds

Above: Unreal Engine 5 can capture an open world.

One of Epic’s goals is to make the creation of open worlds faster, easier, and more collaborative for teams of all sizes. The new World Partition system in Unreal Engine 5 changes how levels are managed and streamed, automatically dividing the world into a grid and streaming the necessary cells.

Team members can also simultaneously work on the same region of the same game world without stepping on each other’s toes via the new One File Per Actor system. Data Layers allow creators to create different variations of the same world—such as daytime and nighttime versions—as layers that exist in the same space.

“Compared to our last demo last summer, this is quite a bit more open,” Ivey said. “We’re using the open world features to show that off. One of the features that comes along with World Partition, which is our new world building system, is a system called data layers, which allows us to very quickly change the state of the world. We had a team of artists build an entire dark world  representation of this area.”

Animation

Above: Choreographing animation in UE5.

Creators can author detailed characters in dynamic, real-time environments with Unreal Engine 5’s powerful animation toolset. Working in context, they can iterate faster and more accurately, without the need for time-consuming round-tripping.

Artist-friendly tools like Control Rig let developers quickly create rigs and share them across multiple characters; pose them in Sequencer and save and apply the poses with the new Pose Browser; and easily create natural movement with the new Full-Body IK solver. And with Motion Warping, developers can dynamically adjust a character’s root motion to align to different targets with a single animation.

When a camera moves through the world, the engine knows how to stream in the right data at the right level of detail so that the scene looks real but doesn’t slow the computer down to a crawl.

MetaSounds

Above: MetaSound flow in UE5.

Unreal Engine 5 introduces a fundamentally new way of making audio, with MetaSounds, a high-performance system that offers complete control over audio digital signal processing (DSP) graph generation of sound sources. Users can manage all aspects of audio rendering to drive next-generation procedural audio experiences. MetaSounds is analogous to a fully programmable material and rendering pipeline, bringing all the benefits of procedural content creation to audio that the Material Editor brings to shaders: dynamic data-driven assets, the ability to map game parameters to sound playback, huge workflow improvements, and more.

“I think it’s going to change how people think about audio in games,” Ivey said.

Editor Workflow

Above: The Unreal Engine 5 editor workflow.

The revamped Unreal Editor provides an updated visual style, streamlined workflows, and optimized use of screen real estate, making it easier, faster, and more pleasing to use, Epic said. The demo video showed how artists can be looking at a scene in the Moab rock formations and insert black monoliths and other objects into the scene, without having to exit the scene or bring out another tool.

“With UE5, we’ve tried to get rid of as much complexity in that workflow as possible,” Penwarden said. “That entire world was actually just one big map file. And the Unreal Engine 5 just takes that map file and it breaks it up into a grid of cells for the purposes of the Edit time. And then for runtime, it’s it dices it up into into streaming chunks, that then it streams in and out dynamically. And the the details of how we break it up can be can be set up to be optimal for the platform that you’re targeting, or platforms that you’re targeting. On the Edit time side, we don’t store everything in one big file or one file for the entire level. Rather, we store data at the granularity of the individual actors and objects that you’re placing in the map.”

To free up more space for viewport interactions, Epic added the ability to easily summon and stow the Content Browser and to dock any editor tab to the collapsible sidebar. Creators can now quickly access frequently used properties in the Details panel with a new favoriting system, while the new Create button on the main toolbar lets them easily place Actors into the world.

“An artist would be able to build an environment like this without writing code,” Penwarden said. “Depending on the complexity of the game, it is absolutely possible to build games entirely out of Blueprint that is possible today in UE4 and it will continue to be possible in UE5. As the scope and complexity of your project grows, then the native C++ APIs are there for developers to start working with and really expand on on what their game is. And of course, just like with Unreal Engine 4, developers will have access to the full source code of Unreal Engine 5.”

The user interface is all visual, so artists don’t have to know how to code in order to create what they need to do.

“We wanted the user interface to get out of the way,” Ivey said. “The artist or designer can be as close as they can to the actual work that they are doing. There are more and more tools that keep you close to the creation, you can work in this space, and when you do that, you have less iteration time and you’re able to focus more on creating. This leads to better outcomes. You have tools that let designers and artists work more closely together rather than having to bring in engineering.”

One huge gain for productivity is being able to access so many photorealistic environment assets that artists can access without having to reinvent all of those things in a digital form.

“It’s really about trying to keep developers in the editor as much as we can, and allowing them to iterate and be productive,” Penwarden said.

MetaHumans

Above: These people are not people. They MetaHumans.

A new RTX 3070 Ti is expected, too

Nearly a decade after introducing an ill-fated line of Linux gaming PCs dubbed “Steam Machines,” PC gaming giant Valve is reportedly trying its hand at hardware again — with its own handheld gaming computer a la the Nintendo Switch.

That’s the word from Ars Technica’s Sam Machkovech, who claims to have multiple sources attesting that Valve has been working on such a device: a touchscreen, touchpad, button, trigger, and dual-joystick-equipped portable that’ll likely run Linux and an array of specially optimized Steam titles. It should have the ability to dock, a la Nintendo Switch, via a USB-C port, too. Ars suggests it could arrive as soon as the end of the year.

It appears to be called SteamPal, or Neptune, according to a recent code dump collected by SteamDB:

Gabe Newell himself also cryptically teased at some sort of announcement regarding Steam and consoles earlier this month:

Gabe Newell has teased either Valve or Steam's games coming to consoles in this calendar year, at a public Q&A held in a public school yesterday morning. pic.twitter.com/TbKnrc6fZn

— Tyler McVicker (@Tyler_McV) May 11, 2021

Valve didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Could Valve build such a thing? It’s absolutely possible. We’ve written about a recent explosion of portable gaming PCs thanks to new Intel and AMD chips, and while they’re still a good bit fatter and with shorter battery life than the Nintendo Switch, they’re getting more efficient and powerful every year. I’ve been testing an early version of the Aya Neo for months, and it’s been a great companion for Persona 4 Golden couch sessions.

We have many burning questions, though, like whether the Linux gaming ecosystem (and perhaps streaming games) are compelling enough to sell people on a dedicated portable, and whether Valve will do what it takes to make such a system succeed.

The original Steam Machines failed for a wide variety of reasons, including a lack of exclusive titles and a lack of control over partners that were allowed to build boxes that didn’t make sense, but Valve’s own hardware game was pretty strong: I poured one out for the Steam Controller and Steam Link respectively a few years back, and the Valve Index is still considered the top-tier PC VR headset for a variety of reasons.

If Valve builds more of its own games and takes an active role in optimizing for such a system, I’d definitely be interested.

Source: Report: Valve is secretly building a Switch-esque portable gaming PC

It seems that Microsoft’s digital rights management decisions for the Xbox Series X are a serious cause for concern. According to a video from YouTuber and game developer Modern Vintage Gamer, the Xbox Series X is unable to play games without connecting to Microsoft’s servers. He tried games off a disc like Rise of the Tomb Raider as well as Hitman 3 and both refused to work offline. While Microsoft recommends keeping your Xbox Series X as your ‘Home Console’ in its settings, it’s a solution that’s described as a ‘band-aid’ as it doesn’t seem to work with every game as it should.

Native Xbox Series X physical games like Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition work fine. It installed off the disc and ran as it should offline. This should in theory mean that games that are solely for the Xbox Series X should work both offline and online. However with Microsoft’s focus on Smart Delivery, it means that the current crop of Xbox Series X discs that run on Xbox One as well are essentially coasters.

All of this essentially means that you won’t be able to play your Xbox games when Microsoft decides to take its servers offline.

You can check out the video for yourself right here.

Modern Vintage Gamer’s video hasn’t gone unnoticed. Preservationist group Does It Play chimed in on the matter, taking to Twitter with the following statement.

“Combined with its forced online set up ALL Xbox consoles and smart delivery game’s will one day be obsolete,” the group says. “Talk about caring for preservation all you want, actions speak louder than words and right now Xbox is the worst platform for preservation.”

Of late gamers are growing increasingly aware of what appears to be console companies exercising a near obscene amount of control over their games. Sony was taken to task for its heavy-handed policies regarding the PS3, PS4, PSP, PS Vita, and most recently, PS5. Safe to say, Microsoft’s been no better in this respect.

For what it’s worth, we were able to replicate Modern Vintage Gamer’s findings and reached out to Microsoft for comment. We’ll update this story if we hear from the company.

Source: Xbox Series X DRM Makes It Near Impossible to Play Games Offline

The Cortex-X2 and Mali-G710 are ready for ARM-based PCs.

99 million solid-state drives were shipped in Q1

In brief: We’ve come a long way since solid-state drives were the expensive alternative to traditional HDDs, making up only a small part of the market. Falling prices and increasing capacities have seen their popularity rise in recent times, to the point that in Q1 2021, SSD shipments outpaced their hard disk drive counterparts by 3:2, while in 2020, SSDs saw 28% more unit sales than HDDs.

According to a Trendfocus report (via Tom’s Hardware), three hard drive makers shipped as many as 64.17 million HDDs in Q1 2021, while fewer than a dozen SSD suppliers shipped 99.438 million SSDs during the same period.

We all know the typical speed and physical size advantages that come with SSDs, so the figures aren’t too surprising; a recent IDC report revealed that nearly 60% of new PCs shipped in Q1 used SSDs.

The trend of SSDs outselling HDDs isn’t new. A jump in fourth-quarter sales last year helped SSDs push past 333 million units for the entirety of 2020, moving ahead of the 260 million HDD units sold.

One area where HDDs have an advantage, of course, is their superior $/gigabyte ratio, which makes them ideal for enterprise solutions. And while datacenters do still use SSDs for caching, it means the total exabytes (EBs) shipments for HDDs in the first quarter far exceeded that of SSDs: 288.28 EBs vs. 66 EBs.

Solid-state drives are bringing in more money, too. Analyst firms had the SSD market valued at $34.86 billion in 2020, while HDDs lagged behind with $22.6 billion.

As with so many tech products, Samsung, the top supplier of NAND flash memory, is the industry leader when it comes to SSDs, boasting the largest market share for units shipped (25.3%) and exabytes (34.3%). It’s followed by Western Digital (18.2% units and 15.8% EBs) then Koxia—formerly Toshiba Memory (13.3% units and 9.4% EBs).

SSDs, and the storage market in general, is facing a tough time right now—despite the positive report. The shortage of SSD controllers is expected to affect sales, while the introduction of cryptocurrency Chia, which can ruin a 512GB SSD in 40 days, is starting to impact drive supply and prices in some areas.

Source: SSD shipments outpaced HDDs by 3:2 last quarter, but hard disks still lead the storage race

Qualcomm has just announced the Snapdragon 7c Gen2, a new entry-level ARM chipset designed for PCs. You may recall that Qualcomm first introduced the Snapdragon 7c back in 2019, and it was the most affordable entry point into Windows on ARM devices, and it also eventually allowed Qualcomm to be in the Chromebook market.

The Snapdragon 7c Gen2 is a minor refresh of the original chipset, similar to the upgraded Snapdragon 8cx Gen2. It comes with an upgraded clock speed up to 2.55GHz, up from the maximum 2.4GHz of the original chipset, and Qualcomm promises over 19 hours of battery life on a single charge, as well as 10% more performance over competing systems.

These are some of the big advantages of ARM processors over most x86-based laptops in the same price range, but there's another one - always-on connectivity. PCs with the Snapdragon 7c Gen2 have a built-in 4G mode, the Snapdragon X15, meaning they can always have access to the internet, even when no Wi-Fi is in range, or if a Wi-Fi network is overloaded.

Qualcomm is also touting AI performance with the fifth-generation Qualcomm AI Engine, though that isn't new. There's also support for cameras up to 32MP (which you're unlikely to find on a PC), 4K HDR video streaming, and more. It comes with "enterprise-grade security"as well, with the chipset being supported on Microsoft's Secured-Core PCs.

PCs with the Snapdragon 7c Gen2 Compute Platform will be available this summer. This includes a new Snapdragon Developer Kit for Windows developers, which was also announced today.

Source: Qualcomm introduces the Snapdragon 7c Gen2 for always-connected PCs

A confirmation of Windows 10X’s demise, a better vertical tab experience in Edge, and an unsurprising announcement of a joint Xbox – Bethesda E3 event. You can find info about that, as well as much more below, in your Microsoft digest for the week of May 16 - 22.

No more Windows 10X

If you were expecting the arrival of Courier v2 (aka Surface Neo) and its companion OS, Windows 10X, sometime this century, that won’t be happening anymore.

Microsoft has officially announced that Windows 10X is for all intents and purposes dead, but that some of its features will live on in Windows 10 proper. Among those, improvements in the voice typing experience, an enhanced touch keyboard, and much more.

What did however make it to market was the May 2021 Update, now available to everyone. It adds some Windows Defender Application Guard performance improvements, as well as enhancements to Windows Hello for systems with multiple cameras that are face-recognition capable. In other words, not much to write home about.

As was the case with previous updates, some features have been deprecated or outright removed. For example, the XDDM-based remote display driver and the legacy version of Edge have been stripped out, with the Windows Management Instrumentation Command line (WMIC) tool and personalization roaming now showing up as deprecated. What this means for the latter two is that Microsoft is no longer developing them and will most likely remove these in a future update.

Staying a little longer on the subject of updates, folks on 1909 may experience problems logging into Microsoft 365 apps following the installation KB5003169. A suggested fix for now is simply to restart the system, and if that doesn’t do the trick, the firm suggests that the web-based variants or clients on other operating systems be used, as those are not affected by the bug.

Flipping over to exploits, one was released, targeting a flaw in the Windows 10 HTTP protocol - CVE-2021-31166. Luckily, this has been fixed with KB5003173 as part of the May 2021 Patch Tuesday set of updates.

Insiders got some updates too, namely build 21382.1000 which landed in the Dev channel to test the servicing pipeline, followed by build 21387, which retires the IE11 desktop app and temporarily shuts down ‘Eco mode’ in Task Manager.

For insiders across the Release Preview and Beta channels, Microsoft also released builds 19042.1023 and 19043.1023 with an impressive list of fixes. What needs to be highlighted here is that those on 2004, 20H2, and 21H1 will all receive these same exact fixes when the Redmond firm rolls out the next set of cumulative updates, seeing as they share the same bits.

And speaking of bits, a rather sought-after bit of news by ARM enthusiasts and, in particular, Surface Pro X owners, is the announcement of apps running natively on the platform. Well, one such announcement was made this week, as Photoshop can now run natively on Windows 10 on ARM, shedding the ‘Beta’ tag that’s been put on it since November of last year.

Joint E3 conferences

Surprising perhaps three people, Xbox Game Studios head honcho Matt Booty has confirmed that Xbox and Bethesda will in fact be combining their E3 presentations into one big show.

Along with news about Halo Infinite and Age of Empires IV, both launching later this year, we might also get a glimpse at BGS’ Starfield, which will benefit from the big improvements to the Creation Engine. Said improvements, as per BGS studio head Todd Howard, are some of the biggest in the engine’s history, perhaps even dwarfing the improvements made from Morrowind to Oblivion.

Of course, let’s not forget that id Software, MachineGames, Arkane, and others are also now under XGS, so it wouldn’t be too unexpected for Microsoft to showcase some unannounced projects from those studios.

Until then, we have some things that are a tad more official. For example, there’s a Halo: MCC Insider test which brings visual improvements to Halo: Combat Evolved, the usual array of Deals with Gold, and the reveal that the next-gen variant of GTA V will be making its debut on Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 on November 11, 2021.

For fans of Paradox’s grand-strategy games, the publisher has announced Victoria 3. While still early in development, the game has been confirmed to hit Steam and Xbox Game Pass for PC on launch day, mimicking the launch of Crusader Kings 3.

And speaking of Game Pass, the service is soon set to welcome in its ranks Peggle 2, Conan Exiles, MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries, SpellForce 3: Soul Harvest, Slime Rancher, and many more throughout the month of May, covering cloud, console, and PC availability.

We’ll end the section with a rather interesting original Xbox Easter egg. Though Xbox’s 20th anniversary is upon us (more specifically on November 15), certain aspects about the original console are still shrouded in mystery.

Among them is this rather quirky Easter egg, which for some reason involves an audio CD and the typing of the name Timmy, followed by the letter ‘y’ 24 more times, and an exclamation mark. It’s just about as weird as it sounds, if not more so, and you can read more about it here.

Better vertical tabs

At the rate Microsoft is adding things to its Chromium Edge browser, we’re bound to cover its development to some extent. This week in particular highlights some good news for fans of the vertical tabs feature.

As per Leopeva64-2 on Reddit, Edge was set to soon support the hiding of its title bar when using vertical tabs, something which perhaps should’ve been there from the start. This was first seen in Canary v92.0.891.0, and not long after its initial discovery, made its way to the Dev channel.

The Redmond firm also took a moment to update its password monitor and health dashboard, though the feature is expected to roll out to users starting this month, so some folks may not have it just yet.

If you’re in one of the Insider channels however, you will have access to Math Solver. The experimental feature does pretty much what it says on the tin, allowing students to take a picture of a math problem, import it into Edge, and use Microsoft’s AI capabilities to find out an answer and instructions on how to solve said problem.

Dev channel

• Personal features in Teams are now generally available.
• A preview of Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management is out now.
• LaLiga and Microsoft have expanded their partnership to transform the digital sports experience.
• O2 has partnered with Microsoft to trial Mobile Edge Computing.
• The Redmond giant has explained how it’s making gaming more accessible.
• Teams on mobile will soon get support for large gallery view.
• Dark mode is rolling out for the unified Office app on Android.
• According to Microsoft, this is how meeting rooms will look like in the future.

Logging off

We round off this week’s column with a look at the EOL of Internet Explorer. Version 11 to be more precise.

With the focus on its Chromium-based Edge browser as of late, as well as the inclusion of IE mode in its latest browser, the Redmond software giant has decided to put a firm date on the end of IE11: June 15, 2022.

While the deprecation of the feature will affect Windows 10 client and IoT versions 20H2 and later. For now, the IE platform (MSHTML/Trident), IE11 on Windows 8,.1, 7 ESU, 10 Server, 10 IoT LTSC, Server LTSC, and client LTSC are spared.

Should the time come for IE mode in Edge to be retired, the company says it will give at least a one-year notice for organizations to prepare. Beyond the all-important EOL date, Microsoft has provided additional details in regards to how businesses can get ready for the browser’s end of support.

Missed any of the previous columns? Be sure to have a look right here.

Source: Microsoft Weekly: No more Windows 10X, joint E3 conferences, and better vertical tabs

A robot paramedic is being used for the first time in the UK to carry out chest compressions on patients in ambulances to free up the emergency team to carry out other vital treatments.

South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) – an NHS ambulance service for the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, and Hampshire – is the first in the country to take the novel technology, known as LUCAS 3, onboard its vehicles.

The device is a mechanical system that can deliver high-quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) chest compressions consistently from the moment crews arrive on the scene and throughout a patient’s journey to a hospital without interruption.

“Once paramedics arrive and begin CPR or take over from bystanders who may have initiated it, paramedics can complete the transition from manual compressions to LUCAS within seven seconds, ensuring continuity of compressions,” a SCAS spokesperson said.

The system uses wireless Bluetooth connectivity, allowing it to configure the compression rate, depth, and alerts specific to an organisation’s resuscitation guidelines. Paramedics can also collect and review data post-event and share this information with other clinicians, its developers said.

Dr John Black, medical director at SCAS, said: “We know that delivering high quality and uninterrupted chest compressions in cardiac arrest is one of the major determinants of survival to hospital discharge, but it can be very challenging for several reasons.

“People can become fatigued when performing CPR manually which then affects the rate and quality of compressions, and patients may need to be moved from difficult locations, such as down a narrow flight of stairs, or remote places, which impedes the process.”

Black added there are also significant safety risks to ambulance personnel being unrestrained and performing CPR in the back of vehicles travelling at high speed. “These devices don’t fatigue or change the delivery, meaning it can deliver high-quality CPR for as long as required while freeing up the paramedic, keeping them seated and belted and able to focus on other critical aspects of patient care on a journey. It ultimately acts as a robotic third crew member for our teams.”

The experts at SCAS upgraded the model used from a version which clinicians at SCAS evaluated in 2014 as part of the PARAMEDIC trial led by the University of Warwick and published in the journal The Lancet.

“The LUCAS device transforms the management at a cardiac arrest and allows paramedics to focus on the key aspects of clinical care,” said Professor Charles Deakin, divisional medical director for SCAS and lead for resuscitation. “It will be an invaluable part of the team and contribute to the already outstanding results that SCAS have achieved in saving lives of these patients.

South Central Ambulance Charity has funded 28 of the devices to support crews across Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, and Hampshire.

The NHS also use LUCAS devices for resuscitation in hospital emergency departments and to support patients in cardiac arrest in intensive care units, as well for patients undergoing life-saving coronary balloon angioplasty and stenting procedures to widen narrowed arteries.

Source

As we previously learned, Seagate developed its Mach.2 technology to maximize performance across large-capacity enterprise HDD products.

Mach.2 drives also allow for 2x the performance of sequential bandwidth for streaming applications. What’s more, it’s the first HDD tech to introduce parallelism, enabling two independent streams of data (or, dual channel access).

In Seagate’s newly published data sheet, the company notes that its 14TB Helium- sealed drive spins at 7200 RPM and affords a maximum sustained transfer rate of 524 MB/s with an average latency of 4.16ms. Power consumption is rated at 7.2w average at idle and up to 13.5w under load.

The drive carries a 2.5 million-hour MTBF rating and is backed by Seagate’s five-year limited warranty.

During a February analyst meeting, Jeff Fochtman, SVP of marketing, said they started shipping Mach.2 drives in volume in 2019 and have over a dozen major customers using them. That said, Mach.2 remains in what Fochtman called a “technology-staging mode.”

Once capacities climb above 30 terabytes, however, we should start seeing the tech become a standard feature in many large data centers.

Source

However, there are drawbacks to all this progress: most notably, the PS5's mediocre 825GB of available storage space. As game file sizes climb higher and higher (sometimes upwards of 150GB on consoles), having less than a terabyte of available storage space is far from ideal.

Fortunately, the PS5 has a bit of a trick up its sleeve. As reported by Computer Base, the console is capable of extreme file compression. For example, Subnautica on PS5 takes up a mere 5GB of storage, while eating up 14GB on the PS4. That's a reduction of over 60 percent, and this isn't an isolated example.

To use a bigger-budget (and more graphically intensive) game as an example, Control's Ultimate Edition reportedly uses around 25GB of space on the PS5, while requiring 42.5GB on the XSX.

While we're not sure precisely what tech is working behind the scenes to enable such significant results, it's impressive nonetheless. Hopefully, the stronger compression we saw with Subnautica will become the norm moving forward; the PS5 will certainly need it if gamers are to have any hope of installing more than a few AAA titles at a time.

The situation should improve when Sony allows PS5 users to expand their consoles' storage capacity with additional NVMe drives, but it might be a while before that happens.

Source

The 2021 MacBook Pro line, which is reported to drop this summer, is not just expected to see a redesign, but powerful internal specifications, according to a new rumor. One of those internal changes is in addition to the M1X chip, followed by the removal of ‘MacBook Pro’ branding at the display’s chin.

New M1X Is Said to Be an Extension of the M1, Featuring More CPU and GPU Cores

According to 9to5Mac, the source has a decent track record and claims that the M1X will differ from the M1 in the following manner.

“The M1X is an extension of the M1 that will contain more thunderbolt channels, cpu cores, gpu cores, multiple external monitor support, and greater power draw. These devices will both feature a 1080p webcam, SD card reader, three thunderbolt usb c ports, an updated MagSafe port, and an HDMI port.”

While no specifics have been added, a previous Bloomberg report states that Apple is working on two custom chips codenamed Jade C-Chop and Jade C-Die. Both of them are expected to feature a total of 10 cores, where eight of them will be focused on performance, while the remaining two will be developed for power efficiency. The difference between the two could be the number of GPU cores, which the report claims will be offered in 16 and 32 configurations.

Now here is the confusing part. It is possible that both M1X and M2 are separate Apple Silicon in development and meant for different 2021 MacBook Pro versions. After all, Apple is reported to refresh the 13-inch MacBook Pro too while offering redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch models to customers. It is possible the higher-tier M2 is present in the newer MacBook Pro models, while the M1X is offered with the older chassis.

Of course, we are playing on mere speculation here, and Apple’s actual plans might be completely different, so we will wait for more updates. In the meantime, you can check out our roundup of the next-generation Apple Silicon, where we have discussed everything from CPU cores to performance differences between the M1 and more.

As for removing the ‘MacBook Pro’ branding, this move would be consistent with Apple removing the logo from the M1 iMac. It appears that the company wants to present a cleaner look when talking about the 2021 MacBook Pro design. However, since mass production is expected to start in the second half of this year, there could be more changes on the horizon, so stay tuned for more updates.

Source: 2021 MacBook Pro to Feature M1X Chip, With Apple Expected to Remove the Front Logo From the Chin

How many more secrets are lurking on the OG Xbox?

In brief: Microsoft’s first home game console, the Xbox, launched way back in November of 2001. More than 24 million units were sold worldwide before Microsoft officially discontinued the system in 2006 to focus on its successor, the Xbox 360. Nearly 20 years later, the console is still hiding secrets that gamers somehow never managed to stumble across.

Kotaku was recently contacted by an anonymous source that worked on the original Xbox. The person shared an Easter egg that, to the best of their knowledge, has remained undiscovered for almost 20 years.

It’s nothing groundbreaking, mind you, and the leaker even said they didn’t expect it to be found unless the source code leaked or someone reverse-engineered the Dashboard, but it’s still pretty remarkable that none of that has happened yet.

To activate the egg, fire up an original Xbox follow these steps:

• Go into “Music” and insert an audio CD. (A short album will take less time.)
• From the Audio CD screen choose “Copy,” “Copy” again, then “New Soundtrack.”
• Delete the default soundtrack title and replace it with (no quotes) “Timmyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!” (That’s the letter “y” 26 times. No need to count; just fill the entire field and replace the last one with a “!”.)
• Sit a spell. Enjoy the sounds of the hard drive stealing the disc’s essence.
• When ripping completes, back out to the main menu.
• Choose “Settings” and then “System Info.”
• You should now see a new screen listing members of the “Xbox Dashboard Team.”

The trick replaces the standard contents of the “System Info” screen with a new listing that shows the names of the Xbox Dashboard team. Like I said, it’s not groundbreaking, but neat nevertheless.

Kotaku further confirmed that this “is not the final secret hidden within the original Xbox” that Seamus Blackley referenced in 2017.

Yes. An there's an Easter egg than nobody has noticed as far as I can tell.

— Seamus Blackley (@SeamusBlackley) September 26, 2017

The publication reached out to Blackley for clarification, who said the egg he has in mind involves the Xbox’s boot animation. When asked if controller inputs were needed to trigger it, he said “Nope, it doesn’t. But I’m tempted to say it does. But no it doesn’t really. At all. For sure. I’m pretty sure at least.”

Source: Newly disclosed Xbox Easter egg has remained hidden for nearly 20 years

(Reuters) -Netflix Inc is looking to hire an executive to oversee its expansion into videogames, The Information reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The company has approached veteran game industry executives in recent weeks, the report said.

The move comes at a time when the video-streaming pioneer is stepping up efforts to grow beyond its traditional business as competition heats up and subscriber growth slows.

The gaming industry has been a big pandemic winner thanks to a surge in demand from customers staying at home during the crisis.

The report said Netflix had discussed offering a bundle of games similar to Apple’s online subscription offering, Apple Arcade, as an option.

While the details of the company’s games strategy are still very much in flux, it has decided that the games will not feature advertising, the report added.

Netflix did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Source: Netflix looking to hire executive for gaming expansion - The Information

The Viking sandbox world game Valheim gave a big boost to Embracer Group by selling 6.8 million copies since February. And Embracer announced with its fourth fiscal quarter (first calendar quarter) results that it now has 160 games in development.

Today, Embracer Group reported its revenues for the fourth fiscal quarter (first calendar quarter) for the three months ended March 31 grew 80% to $289.5 million while operating profits (or operating EBIT, earnings before interest and taxes) grew 216% to $108.7 million.

For a change, Embracer didn’t announce any acquisitions. But it’s been so busy with acquisitions that its games under development has now increased from 103 a year ago to 160 now. Total headcount has increased 103% to 6,325, and its total number of game developers has increased 116% to 5,115. By contrast, Electronic Arts has more than 6,000 developers.

Embracer saw a huge bump in sales for its Coffee Stain Studios division, which published Valheim, with division sales rising to $94 million from $9.9 million a year ago. In early April, Embracer acquired Aspyr, Easybrain, and Gearbox Entertainment. Easybrain is exceeding management’s expectations for its mobile games.

Studio division sales

THQ Nordic sales grew slightly to $42.6 million, Deep Silver dipped 9% to $55.8 million, Saber Interactive came in at $32.5 million, and Deca Games came in at $12.5 million. The sales of partner publishing and the film business came in at $51.6 million.

The EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) was $141.2 million, corresponding to a 49% EBITDA margin.

For the full year, sales were $1.08 billion, up 72% from the previous year. Net sales for the game business was $776.8 million, up 102%. EBITDa for the year was $480.1 million, up 119%.

CEO Lars Wingefors said in a shareholder note that the strategy has been to build a diverse business that stands on many revenue streams from a diverse portfolio, and that strategy is increasingly paying off. (See Wingefors in a fireside chat with Nick Tuosto of Liontree/Griffin Gaming Partners at GamesBeat Summit here).

He said Valheim could sell another 1 million to 1.2 million copies before the close of the current quarter on June 30. While much of the growth came from acquisitions, organic growth has been strong as well.

Since 2016, when Embracer went public in Sweden, the company’s adjusted earnings per share have increased 14 times.

In five days, THQ Nordic has another big game launching in Biomutant, an open-world martial arts RPG. Preorders are ahead of expectations.

Wingefors said SnowRunner has now sold more than 2 million copies, as has Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Re-Hydrated, while Destroy All Humans has sold 1 million copies.

Big investments

In the past two years, Embracer has invested $240.9 million in game development. More than two-thirds of the works in progress are new intellectual properties or IPs that the company is revitalizing because they haven’t had new titles in the past five years.

In the year ending March 31, 2022, Embracer expects to complete more than 90 games. This includes projects from the newly acquired Gearbox and Aspyr studios.

Wingefors pointed out that in the past year, the fees paid to platform owners (console makers and Steam) are estimated to be two times the actual costs spent on game development in the past fiscal year.

“We will continue to challenge these paradigms and pursue opportunities to reduce costs and increase the relative investment into content creation,” Wingefors said.

TimeSpliters is back

Embracer recently acquired five more studios: Appeal Studios, Kaiko Massive Miniteam, Frame Break, and Gate21. Combined, these entities are currently employing around 90 developers.

And Embracer raised another $915 million for further acquisitions. The company has more than $2.04 billion in cash and credit facilities.

“The determination not to become a ‘corporate machine’ is as strong as ever,” Wingefors said. “Our philosophy is and will continue to be one that encourages founder creativity.”

During the quarter, Wingefors said his team talked to more than 150 companies about acquisitions, including larger companies that could form additional operating groups. About 20 deals are in late-stage talks.

Source: Embracer sells 6.8M copies of Valheim, has 160 games in development

The fourth-gen glasses have built-in AR displays

Snap’s new Spectacles glasses are its most ambitious yet. But there’s a big catch: you can’t buy them.

On Thursday, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel unveiled the company’s first true augmented reality glasses, technology that he and rivals like Facebook think will one day be as ubiquitous as mobile phones. A demo showed virtual butterflies fluttering over colorful plants and landing in Spiegel’s extended hand.

The new Spectacles have dual waveguide displays capable of superimposing AR effects made with Snapchat’s software tools. The frame features four built-in microphones, two stereo speakers, and a built-in touchpad. Front-facing cameras help the glasses detect objects and surfaces you’re looking at so that graphics more naturally interact with the world around you.

These Spectacles, however, aren’t ready for the mass market. Unlike past models, Snap isn’t selling them. Instead, it’s giving them directly to an undisclosed number of AR effects creators through an application program online. (Another indication they aren’t ready for everyday use: the battery only lasts 30 minutes.)

Tapping the vast potential of @Snap’s AR platform, the next generation of Spectacles allow you to overlay Lenses directly onto the world in front of you, for an immersive AR experience. #SnapPartnerSummithttps://t.co/r4XnSC886z pic.twitter.com/UTDDoxwBOO

— Spectacles (@Spectacles) May 20, 2021

The idea is to encourage a small portion of the 200,000 people who already make AR effects in Snapchat to experiment with creating experiences for the new Spectacles, according to Spiegel. Like the bright yellow vending machines Snap used to sell the first version of Spectacles several years ago, the approach could end up being a clever way to build buzz for the glasses ahead of their wide release. Spiegel has said that AR glasses will take roughly a decade to reach mainstream adoption.

“I don’t believe the phone is going away,” he told The Verge in an interview this week. “I just think that the next generation of Spectacles can help unlock a new way to use AR hands-free, and the ability to really roam around with your eyes looking up at the horizon, out at the world.”

The first two generations of Spectacles, released in 2016 and 2018, looked like sunglasses with a single camera in the corner of the frame. They let you snap videos (and later photos) in a unique, spherical format that could then be transferred to your phone and posted to Snapchat or another social network.

Above: Snap’s new fourth-generation Spectacles. Lower: the Spectacles in their case, and a side-view showing their touch panel. Images: Snap

Snap, which calls itself a camera company, started moving more toward AR in 2019 with the launch of its third-generation Spectacles. That model added a second camera to detect depth in videos, allowing for more advanced effects to be applied afterward. But they lacked displays. You had to shoot a video, import it to Snapchat, and then apply AR effects — which Snap calls Lenses — later.

The new fourth generation of Spectacles come from a secretive hardware division of the company called Snap Lab, which is also working on a camera drone. They weigh 134 grams, more than double the weight of the previous version but far less than Microsoft’s Hololens AR headset. They’re designed to be worn indoors or outdoors with up to 2,000 nits of display brightness, a tradeoff the company clearly made to favor display richness at the expense of battery life.

Two front-facing cameras use the software Snap built for its mobile phone Lenses to automatically detect physical surfaces and place effects in a way that doesn’t obstruct the real world. Two stereo speakers capture audio and allow for the wearer to control them by voice. A touchpad on the side of the frame operates an interface in the displays that Snap calls the Lens Carousel, allowing the wearer to switch AR effects they’re seeing.

Above: two images show AR effects as seen through the new glasses. Lower: the lens carousel interface lets you select different AR effects. Images: Snap

The new Spectacles were announced Thursday at Snap’s virtual Partner Summit for developers, where the company previewed a number of new augmented reality features for Snapchat. Its AR clothing try-on tech can now handle watches and glasses, and businesses will be able to more easily add AR versions of their online catalogs for Snapchat’s 500 million monthly users to try and purchase.

A new feature, called Connected Lenses, allows multiple people to see and interact with the same scene in AR. Snap is also launching an AR “innovation lab” called Ghost and is committing $3.5 million to support creators making effects, with another $1 million in funding with Verizon to fund AR experiences used over 5G.

While Snap is known primarily for the Snapchat app now, these Spectacles indicate how the company’s ambition is to be a major player in the race to build AR glasses. Facebook, Apple, and other tech giants are currently working on their competing devices. Facebook plans to debut its own pair of smart glasses in partnership with RayBan later this year, though they won’t feature AR displays.

According to Spiegel, head-worn devices like these new Spectacles will create a big shift in how we interact with computers. While Snap is betting that millions of people will eventually want to wear Spectacles, the company is content for now to build in public alongside its creators.

“You have to invent a whole new way of interacting with computing when it’s volumetric and integrated with the space around you,” Spiegel said. “So I don’t see Snapchat transitioning to wearables that directly, but one of the things that’s really fun is to think about what the new interaction paradigms can look like.”

Source: Snap’s new Spectacles let you see the world in augmented reality

As reported by Kotaku, UnNameD became the first person to complete a One Hit KO (OHKO) run on GTA V using utilized strategies. A mod was installed that kills the player if a single point of damage is received, thereby ensuring his claim was genuine. It took 48 attempts to complete the campaign successfully, and you can watch the whole thing in the three embedded videos, assuming you have a spare nine hours.

The run hasn’t been without controversy, not that anyone’s arguing about its legitimacy. Another speedrunner, DarkViperAU, had been trying to become the first person to OHKO run GTA V since early last year and recently uploaded his 27th attempt.

As per PC Gamer, a Reddit post displays a now-deleted comment from DarkViper that claims he shared strategies on how to complete the OHKO run publicly, while other speedrunners refused to do the same. “The result was that anyone running alongside me was getting far more information about what was needed to be done and what was needed to be avoided,” he wrote. “They additionally had a rich foundation to build off for their runs, something I lacked when I started, meaning anyone who begun later was far ahead compared to where I was when I began.”

UnNameD says he never intended to beat his fellow OHKO speedrunner to the punch and claims he did attempt to share some strategies with DarkViper but received no reply. He’s now been banned from DarkViper’s Discord channel.

Source