Hardware News and Reviews

Cryptocurrency coming under increasing scrutiny

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are coming under increasing scrutiny from financial regulators in the US, thanks to their increasing popularity as an investment (rather than a currency):

Cryptocurrencies are under the microscope as never before. Financial regulators in the US are concerned about the emergence of bitcoin and its digital cousins as speculative investments and have hinted that much tougher regulation is in the pipeline.

Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which regulates the New York financial markets, issued an alert, saying it was “cautioning market participants that offers and sales of digital assets by ‘virtual’ organisations are subject to the requirements of the federal securities laws”.

The message was that selling coins issued by a digital currency provider and selling shares on the stock exchange amount to pretty much the same level of risk. This sent tremors through the digital currency industry.
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Read the rest at the Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/technol...es-more-investment-way-pay-bitcoin-regulation
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by Ian, Aug 17, 2017 at 3:18 PM

Radeon RX Vega 64 and RX Vega 56

The Tech Report check out the Radeon RX Vega 64 and RX Vega 56 graphics cards, bringing some serious competition to the high-end market:

The Vega 10 GPU that's riding in on those cards is a massive and massively complex piece of silicon. It packs 12.5 billion transistors into a 486 mm² die fabricated on GlobalFoundries' 14nm LPP FinFET process. (For comparison, the Nvidia GP102 chip aboard the GTX 1080 Ti and friends is a similarly massive 12 billion transistors on a 471 mm² die.) The card's compute resources are organized into 64 "Next-gen Compute Units." Each of these hosts 64 stream processors for a total of 4096. The full Vega 10 chip has 256 texture units and 64 ROPs, too.
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Read the rest here:
http://techreport.com/review/32391/amd-radeon-rx-vega-64-and-rx-vega-56-graphics-cards-reviewed
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by Ian, Aug 14, 2017

Microsoft to Enable Eye Control in Windows 10

Windows 10 will have eye tracking support in an upcoming release, according to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. This is a great accessibility feature, but also has many other uses:

According to an MSDN blog post, the Eye Control feature has been in development for quite some time — the initial idea to integrate something like that was proposed in 2014. At present, the capability is in beta and interested people can participate in early testing and provide feedback using the Windows Insider program. Microsoft positions the Eye Control primarily as a way to make PCs more accessible to people with disabilities, such as ALS.

Microsoft does not disclose many technical details about its Eye Control feature, but only says that the Tobii Eye Tracker 4C will be one of the compatible eye-tracking devices. Meanwhile, the Tobii 4C is a rather sophisticated piece of hardware that can only be purchased separately (€159 in Europe) for now. By contract, Tobii's previous-gen sensor called EyeX is integrated into various displays and laptops from Acer, Alienware and MSI.
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Read the rest at Anandtech:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/11693/microsoft-to-enable-eye-control-in-windows-10
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by Ian, Aug 8, 2017

Ryzen 7 1700 vs. Core i7-7820X

TechSpot have an 8-core CPU showdown, comparing the Ryzen 7 1700 vs. Core i7-7820X - similar spec processors at very different prices:

Buying an 8-core processor was a wallet ripping affair prior to the arrival of Ryzen. In absence of competition, the Intel Broadwell-E Core i7-6900K was ridiculously overpriced at $1,050. Intel has had to make changes to its HEDT platform by releasing the Core i7-7820X in response to the 8-core/16-thread Ryzen 7 1700.

However, I'm not quite sure Intel understands how competition works. Whereas AMD's solution launched with an MSRP of $330 and can be readily purchased online for as little as $290 today, Intel is still asking $600 for the i7-7820X. Worse still, the cheaper Ryzen 7 1700 can be happily paired with a $100 motherboard, while the pricier Core i7-7820X requires one that costs $220+.
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Read the rest here:
https://www.techspot.com/review/1457-ryzen-7-vs-core-i7-octa-core/
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by Ian, Aug 3, 2017

AMD Radeon RX Vega GPU Specs and Pricing Revealed

HardOCP have an article covering the long awaited RX Vega GPU, due to be released on August 14th 2017:

AMD Radeon RX Vega is the sequel to AMD Radeon RX Polaris architecture GPUs. It exceeds Polaris in features, architecture and performance. However, RX Vega is a continuation and evolution of the GCN (Graphics Core Next) architecture introduced back in 2012 with the AMD Radeon HD 7900 Tahiti GPU that all subsequent GPUs from AMD have been based on. A brand new complete re-architecture or "generational" change in the classic term, this is not.

The product lineup, and pricing, starting at the top will be:

AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 Liquid Cooled - $699

AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 Limited Edition - $599 (bundle)

AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 - $499

AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 - $399
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Read more here:
https://www.hardocp.com/article/2017/07/31/amd_radeon_rx_vega_gpu_specs_pricing_revealed
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by Ian, Jul 31, 2017

No more Flash in 2020

Adobe will reportedly stop making the once-popular Flash plugin in 2020, thanks to the combined efforts of major browsers to block this plugin by default, thanks to the number of vulnerabilities over the years. It was once a huge leap in web technology, but it is long past its best:

A number of gaming, education, and video sites still use Flash, and Adobe says it remains committed to supporting the technology until 2020 alongside partners like Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla. Microsoft says it plans to disable Flash by default in Edge and Internet Explorer in mid to late 2019, with a full removal from all supported versions of Windows by 2020. Google will continue phasing out Flash over the next few years, while Mozilla says Firefox users will be able to choose which websites are able to run Flash next month and allow Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR) users to keep using Flash until the end of 2020. Apple is also supportive of the 2020 end of life for Flash, and Safari currently requires explicit approval on each website even when Mac users opt to install Flash.
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Read more at the Verge:
https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/25/16026236/adobe-flash-end-of-support-2020
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by Ian, Jul 25, 2017

HyperX's Alloy Elite mechanical gaming keyboard

Tech Report take a look at the HyperX Alloy Elite - a minimalist gaming keyboard that comes with mechanical MX Blue, Brown or Red keys:

Like the Alloy FPS before it, the Alloy Elite is fashioned from a dull-coated steel deck filled with Cherry MX switches. As it did with the Alloy FPS, HyperX will offer the Elite with MX Blue, Brown, or Red switches. My review unit sports Browns, which are tactile but not clicky. While the Alloy FPS was just barely large enough to fit a standard 104-key layout, the Alloy Elite is more generously proportioned. The extra real estate let HyperX's designers include a light bar containing 18 red LEDs, as well as a trio of buttons to control the onboard red backlighting and a bank of dedicated media keys. Users with desk space to spare can attach the included wrist rest if they like.
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Read the review here:
http://techreport.com/review/32236/hyperx-alloy-elite-mechanical-gaming-keyboard-reviewed
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by Ian, Jul 19, 2017

Apple iPhone laser-based AR

CNET report that Apple is working on a 3D laser based augmented reality system for the iPhone 8:

Although Apple has been hush-hush about its next iPhone, we're 99 percent certain it will feature some form of AR. Last month at its yearly WWDC conference, Apple unveiled its ARKit, the company's software for developers to overlay virtual objects in the real world using AR. ARKit uses hardware that's already built into certain iOS devices, but it could get even better with technology like the dual cameras in the iPhone 7 Plus or whatever Apple decides to put into the next round of iPhones.

AR is the next frontier of smartphone smarts, with companies like Apple and Google vying to get their AR systems on phones. Google has its Tango software on two phones, including the ZenFone AR. Although the iPhone 8 would be Apple's first entry into AR, CEO Tim Cook has said that AR is "huge," claiming that its ARKit software will make Apple's the biggest AR platform overnight.
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Read more here:
https://www.cnet.com/uk/news/iphone-8-ar-3d-laser-rumor/
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by Ian, Jul 14, 2017

Oculus Rift Price Drop

Oculus have dropped the price of the Rift VR headset to $399/£399 - a phenomenal drop compared to just a few months ago. Does this mean there is a new version coming out soon, or do sales need a boost? Ars Technica take a look:

Such a severe price reduction, coming so soon after the company's first price drop in March, could signal that Oculus is having trouble moving Rift headsets and/or Touch controllers in sufficient volume (even if Oculus advertises the new price as being for a "limited time"). While the Rift was back-ordered for months as early adopters snapped up initial pre-orders at $599 last year, anecdotal reports suggest retail interest has waned in recent months.

Analysts at SuperData estimated the Rift had sold about 240,000 units through the beginning of February, well behind sales estimates for both the cheaper PlayStation VR and the more expensive HTC Vive (not to mention less powerful mobile-based competition).
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Read the rest here:
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017...for-second-time-this-year-now-399-with-touch/
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by Ian, Jul 10, 2017

Photobucket Disables Hotlinking

The popular image hosting site Photobucket has suddenly disabled the ability to link to images from other websites - having a huge impact on forums, ebay listings and websites that have used this service for many years. It now costs a whopping $399 to enable this previously free service:

Thousands of images promoting goods sold on Amazon and other shopping sites have been removed after a photo-sharing service changed its terms. Ebay and Etsy have also been affected, in addition to many forums and blogs.

The problem has been caused by Photobucket introducing a charge for allowing images hosted on its platform to be embedded into third-party sites.

The company caught many of its members unaware with the change, prompting some to accuse it of holding them to ransom.

Denver-based Photobucket is now seeking a $399 (£309) annual fee from those who wish to continue using it for "third-party hosting" and is facing a social media backlash as a consequence.
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Read more at the BBC:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-40492668
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by Ian, Jul 6, 2017

Latest Threads

Cryptocurrency coming under increasing scrutiny
Ian posted Aug 17, 2017 at 3:18 PM
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Ryzen 7 1700 vs. Core i7-7820X
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