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According to industry rumors, this year’s successor to Google’s Pixel XL will be manufactured by LG, while the Pixel 2 will once again be made by HTC. Now, an FCC filing has confirmed that not only will the Taiwanese company be building the smaller handset, but it will also boast a feature found in one of the firm's other smartphones: a squeezable frame. The filing made by HTC includes screenshots that reveal the Pixel 2’s ‘Active Edge’ squeeze functionality. The feature is found in the company’s well-received HTC U11 handset and is rumored to also be present in the larger Pixel 2 XL. In this setup, applying pressure to the phone’s sides launches Google Assistant by default. As noted by 9to5Google, the Pixel 2’s storage is listed at 50.66GB free when 21% is used, meaning a likely 64GB capacity. And the 8998 codename in the “Baseband Version” suggests the presence of the Snapdragon 835 or 836 platform. The screenshots also show the Pixel 2 running Android 8.0.1 with an August security patch. This version of the OS (thought to be called Oreo) hasn’t arrived yet, but it’s predicted to rollout next week. The Pixel 2 is expected to feature a 4.97-inch 1080p display and 4GB of RAM. Last month, new renders suggested both handsets would become the next smartphones to abandon the 3.5mm headphone jack. It now seems this will almost certainly be the case, with the Pixel 2 sporting a set of front-facing, BoomSound-style stereo speakers instead of the long-used port. Both new Pixel devices are expected to be released sometime this October.

Scientists announced today that a core drilled in Antarctica has yielded 2.7-million-year-old ice, an astonishing find 1.7 million years older than the previous record-holder. Bubbles in the ice contain greenhouse gases from Earth’s atmosphere at a time when the planet’s cycles of glacial advance and retreat were just beginning, potentially offering clues to what triggered the ice ages. That information alone makes the value of the sample “incredible,” says David Shuster, a geochemist at the University of California, Berkeley, who is unaffiliated with the research. “This is the only sample of ancient Earth’s atmosphere that we have access to.” Described at the Goldschmidt Conference in Paris by Yuzhen Yan, a graduate student at Princeton University, the ice revealed atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels that did not exceed 300 parts per million, well below today’s levels. Some models of ancient climate predict that such relatively low levels would be needed to tip Earth into a series of ice ages. But some proxies gleaned from the fossils of animals that lived in shallow oceans had indicated higher CO2 levels. If the new result holds up, says Yige Zhang, a paleoclimatologist at Texas A&M University in College Station, the proxies will need to be recalibrated. “We have some work to do.” The discovery also points the way to finding even older ice, because it comes from a largely ignored “blue ice” area, where peculiar dynamics can preserve old layers. Although blue ice areas offer only a fragmentary view of the past, they may turn into prime hunting grounds for ancient ice, says Ed Brook, a geochemist on the discovery team at Oregon State University in Corvallis. “Ice that’s this old really makes people stand up and notice,” he says. “We’re just scratching the surface.” Ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica are mainstays of modern climate science. Traditionally, scientists drill in places where ice layers accumulate year after year, undisturbed by glacial flows. The long layer cake records from deep sites in the center of Antarctica reveal how greenhouse gases have surged and ebbed across hundreds of thousands of years. But because heat from the bedrock below can melt the deepest, oldest ice, the approach has not yielded ice any older than 800,000 years, from a core drilled at Antarctica’s Dome C in 2004. Deep freezes Rather than drilling deep in Antarctica’s interior, scientists found a 2.7-million-year-old core in shallow “blue ice,” where glacial flows bring old ice up to the surface. The Princeton-led team went after ancient ice sitting far closer to the surface, in the Allan Hills, a wind-swept region of East Antarctica 200 kilometers from McMurdo Station that is famous for preserving ancient meteorites. In such blue ice areas—just 1% of the continent’s surface—the ice flows across rocky ridges, tipping the record on its side. Deep, old layers are driven up, while wind strips away snow and younger ice, revealing the lustrous blue of compressed ice below. But these contortions also confound the neat ordering of the annual layers—making it impossible to date the ice by counting them. Michael Bender, a Princeton geochemist who spearheaded the project, solved the problem by finding a way to date chunks of ice directly from trace amounts of argon and potassium gases they contain. Although not as precise as other dating methods, Bender says, the technique can date ice to within 100,000 years or so. In 2010, the team drilled their first hole at the Allan Hills, in a place where the ice was shallow and thought to be ascending a hill, with a chance of being stuck against bedrock. They drilled horizontally, toward the hill, in the hopes that the ice would get older as they drilled farther. They ran out of time after 128 meters, before they reached bedrock, but the unfinished core yielded some chunks of ice that were 1 million years old. It was the first sample older than 800,000 years, from a crucial time when glacial periods were switching from occurring every 40,000 years or so to every 100,000 years. In 2015, the team returned to try again. The environment was harsh, with constant wind shearing their clutch of tents. “Cold is one thing,” says Princeton geochemist John Higgins, “but windy cold is just another beast.” Yet they were able to drill the remaining 20 meters to bedrock, and found the ice that, along with several other new cores, yielded the ancient samples. It is unlikely that any traditional efforts will match the Allan Hills sample in age, says John Goodge, a geologist at the University of Minnesota in Duluth. Several teams are pursuing sites that may go back as far as 1.5 million years—but even that’s hopeful, says Goodge, a leader of a U.S. team planning to rapidly drill a deep ice site in the Antarctic interior. “In that sense, the Allan Hills ice core may stand on its own for some time,” he says. Now, the Princeton team wants to go back to the blue ice and drill some more, Brook says—not only to fill in the climate cycles of the last 2.7 million years with a multitude of snapshots, but also to go even deeper in time, before the ice ages, when CO2 levels were higher. There’s evidence that Antarctica has hosted at least some ice for 30 million years. It’s plausible, Brook says, that the next attempt could come back with ice 5 million years old—a time when temperatures are thought to resemble what Earth is heading toward with human-driven warming.

144Hz (and higher) displays are becoming increasingly po[CENSORED]r - we picked Asus’ PG279Q with its 1440p/165Hz screen as our best gaming monitor - but those speeds are nothing compared to a prototype display one website claims to have received, which runs at 480Hz. Blur Busters has posted a picture of what is allegedly the world’s first full-color 480Hz capable LCD monitor that is not a laboratory display. If true, it marks a huge increase over the fastest 240Hz products currently on the market. Surveys show that most PC gamers prefer higher refresh rates over 4K screens, but it seems this monitor offers the best of both worlds. The article’s author notes that it’s actually a 120Hz 4K panel that’s capable of hitting those amazing refresh rates when the resolution is lowered, i.e. 480Hz at 1080p. There’s no indication of it supporting adaptive sync technologies such as Nvidia G-Sync or AMD’s FreeSync. Back in April, Acer announced the Predator X27, a 4K HDR display that features a 144Hz refresh rate and G-Sync. Sadly, both this monitor and a similar device from Asus (the ROG Swift PG27UQ) recently had their launch dates pushed back until next year. When they do arrive, we may find that they also run at even higher refresh rates when the resolutions are dropped. Hitting 480fps, even at 1080p, is going to take a beefy graphics card, and it’s likely that most people will prefer to game at 144Hz in 4K. Still, it’s a very impressive feat, and I’m interested to find out what playing a twitch shooter at 480Hz would be like.

Adaptive sync display technologies from Nvidia and AMD have been on the market for a few years now, however it's just recently that it's become more mainstream with gamers taking the plunge thanks to generous selection, a wide variety of options, and monitor budgets. Initially, Nvidia’s G-Sync and AMD’s FreeSync significantly differed in their implementation and user experience, but now that both technologies and ecosystems have matured, it’s a good opportunity to revisit them to see where the differences lie in mid 2017. Technology For those that haven’t been keeping up with adaptive sync, here’s a quick refresher on what it brings to the table. Traditional monitors (without adaptive sync) have a fixed refresh rate, which sees the display update its image at the same interval regardless of what your PC is doing. For 60 Hz monitors, this means the image is always updated every 1/60th of a second. The issue with a fixed refresh rate is that when you’re playing games, your graphics card isn’t always outputting frames at the same interval as your monitor’s refresh rate. Occasionally you may hit a locked 60 FPS, which produces frames every 1/60th of a second to match a 60 Hz monitor’s refresh, but frame rate fluctuations are far more common. For example, if you’re playing at 45 FPS, your graphics card is producing frames every 22.2ms when your 60 Hz display wants to update every 16.7ms. This sort of mismatch results in one of two things. With v-sync off, you’ll get screen tearing, as a new frame may become ready half way through the display refresh process, leading to both frames being shown at once. Screen tearing is ugly, jarring and annoying during gameplay. Switching v-sync on solves screen tearing, as it forces each frame to wait until the display is ready to refresh, but it often leads to noticeable stuttering if your frame rate is fluctuating below the display’s refresh rate. The solution to these issues is adaptive sync, which informs the display when to refresh based on the frame rate produced by the GPU. If your game is running at 45 FPS, adaptive sync tells the monitor to refresh at 45 Hz. If the game jumps up to 57 FPS, adaptive sync makes the monitor refresh at 57 Hz. This creates a dynamic monitor refresh rate that’s synced to the GPU output rate, eliminating screen tearing and stuttering, leading to a smoother and more enjoyable gaming experience. The improvement is especially noticeable in the 40 to 60 FPS range, often giving lower frame rates a similar level of smoothness as 60 FPS on a non-adaptive-sync 60 Hz monitor. At higher refresh rates (greater than 60 Hz), the benefit of adaptive sync is reduced, though the technology still helps to remove screen tearing and stutters caused by frame rate fluctuations. This slide references G-Sync, but it also applies to FreeSync, which works in the same way. The implementation of adaptive sync differs between FreeSync and G-Sync. FreeSync uses the VESA Adaptive-Sync standard, a component of DisplayPort 1.2a, along with a variety of off-the-shelf display scalers that support adaptive sync. G-Sync uses a proprietary module from Nvidia in place of the usual display scaler, though it also communicates over DisplayPort. The proprietary module along with the closed nature of the G-Sync platform makes it more expensive to implement than FreeSync, which I’ll explore in more detail later. Feature Differences Both G-Sync and FreeSync provide the key features of adaptive sync, but due to differences in implementation, there are some features differences as well. As G-Sync monitors use a proprietary scaler module, most displays are limited to just DisplayPort and HDMI for connectivity, with only DisplayPort supporting adaptive sync. FreeSync uses standard display scalers, so FreeSync monitors often have many more connectivity options than their G-Sync counterparts, including multiple HDMI ports and legacy connectors such as DVI and even VGA. FreeSync has another connectivity advantage through a feature called FreeSync over HDMI. As the name suggests, AMD has managed to get adaptive sync working over standard HDMI connectors and cables, provided both the GPU and monitor support the feature. There are a few benefits to running adaptive sync over HDMI rather than DisplayPort, among them that HDMI cables are cheaper than DisplayPort cables, and devices with limited room for ports (such as laptops) can use the more widely-adopted HDMI standard for compatibility with other displays without losing support for adaptive sync. G-Sync’s proprietary module does have its advantages, too. G-Sync continuously tweaks monitor overdrive on the fly to eliminate ghosting wherever possible, which has been shown previously to improve ghosting performance compared to FreeSync displays. Driver and monitor tweaks over the past few years have improved FreeSync displays in this regard, though. Nvidia has integrated a feature called Ultra Low Motion Blur (ULMB) into every G-Sync monitor, which strobes the backlight in sync with the display’s refresh rate to reduce motion blur and improve clarity in high-motion situations. The feature works at high fixed refresh rates, typically at or above 85 Hz, though it does come with a small brightness reduction. The main downside to ULMB is that it can’t be used in conjunction with G-Sync. In other words, you need to choose between variable refresh rates without stuttering and tearing, or high clarity and low motion blur. Most people will prefer to use G-Sync for the smoothness it provides, while esports enthusiasts will love ULMB for its responsiveness and clarity at the expense of tearing. Low framerate compensation (LFC) is another point of difference between G-Sync and FreeSync. Every adaptive sync monitor has a refresh rate window, for example 30 to 144 Hz, within which the refresh rate can dynamically adjust to the GPU’s render rate. What happens between 0 Hz and the display’s minimum refresh rate – 30 Hz in the case of my example – is determined by whether the monitor supports LFC. Monitors that support LFC will duplicate frames and refresh rates when frame rates are below the display’s minimum to ensure variable refresh continues to function below the minimum. For example, when 20 FPS gameplay is played on a 30 to 144 Hz adaptive sync monitor with LFC, every frame is duplicated and the monitor operates at 40 Hz; within its refresh window. Monitors without LFC would run at 30 Hz with either tearing or stuttering, depending on the v-sync setting. LFC is extremely important on monitors with high minimum refresh rates, such as 48 Hz. LFC on these monitors allows the variable refresh window to extend into the crucial 30 to 48 Hz zone and function as if the monitor has no minimum refresh rate. Without LFC on these monitors, there is a jarring effect when frame rates fluctuate in the 40 to 55 FPS zone, as variable refresh is continually activating and deactivating at the 48 FPS boundary. LFC is crucial for the best adaptive sync experience. Every G-Sync monitor comes with support for LFC, so when buying a G-Sync display it’s not something you have to worry about. FreeSync is a different story, as only some monitors – mostly high-end ones – support LFC. You’ll need to consult AMD’s display list to check whether a FreeSync monitor on your radar supports LFC, whereas it’s a known quantity with every G-Sync display. Some of the initial teething issues with both adaptive sync technologies have been resolved now. V-sync works the same in both FreeSync and G-Sync, with v-sync controls only affecting how frames are displayed outside the variable refresh window. Borderless window gaming with adaptive sync is also supported now by both FreeSync and G-Sync, although AMD’s implementation appears to be a bit dodgy in some situations. As for graphics card support, FreeSync requires a 'Sea Islands' Radeon Rx 200 series card from 2013 or newer, while G-Sync requires a 'Kepler' GeForce 600 series card from 2012 or newer. G-Sync doesn’t work on AMD graphics cards, and FreeSync doesn’t work on Nvidia graphics cards, as has always been the case. The main takeaway from looking at a range of G-Sync and FreeSync displays is that G-Sync is a known quantity, whereas FreeSync monitors vary significantly in quality. Basically every G-Sync monitor is a high-end unit with gaming-suitable features, a large refresh window, support for LFC and ULMB – in other words, when purchasing a G-Sync monitor you can be sure you’re getting the best variable refresh experience and a great monitor in general. With FreeSync, some monitors are gaming-focused with high-end features and support for LFC, but many aren’t and are more geared towards everyday office usage than gaming. Potential buyers will need to research FreeSync monitors more than with G-Sync equivalents to ensure they’re getting a good monitor with all the features necessary for the best variable refresh experience. Pricing Pricing is one of the most contentious issues with FreeSync versus G-Sync, as Nvidia charges a hefty premium for the use of their proprietary module. I’ve researched a bunch of near-identical FreeSync and G-Sync monitors to examine the price differences, and here are the results. Monitor Type FreeSync Price G-Sync Price 24” 1080p 144 Hz AOC G2460PF $249 AOC G2460PG $449 24” 1080p 240 Hz TN ViewSonic XG2530 $449 Acer Predator XB252Q $549 27” 1440p 144 Hz IPS Acer XF270HU $599 Acer Predator XB271HU (OC to 165 Hz) $799 27” 4K 60 Hz IPS Acer H277HK $649 Acer Predator XB271HK $879 34” 1440p 21:9 100 Hz VA Philips 349X7 $899 AOC AG352UCG $1099 35” 1080p 21:9 144 Hz VA Acer XZ350CU $599 Acer Predator Z301C (OC to 200 Hz) $799 Looking at near-identical monitors from the same manufacturer, G-Sync adds $200 in most cases to the MSRP over the FreeSync model. When looking across brands, the margin can be as low as $100, but it often hovers near the $200 mark. For the six monitor types I researched, the average price difference when looking at the most similar models was $188. Two of the G-Sync models could be overclocked using the on-screen display beyond what the equivalent FreeSync model was capable of, which adds a bit of value to the premium price you’re paying. For the most part, though, you’re only getting the aforementioned benefits of G-Sync like ULMB, LFC and, of course, adaptive sync compatibility with Nvidia graphics cards. FreeSync monitors are universally cheaper, though one of the six monitors I examined (the Acer H277HK) did not support LFC due to its limited refresh rate windows. Future: FreeSync 2 and G-Sync HDR New adaptive sync monitors are set to hit the market in the coming months, which harness some new additions to the FreeSync and G-Sync ecosystems. G-Sync is expanding its feature set to include support for HDR monitors and wide color gamuts. HDR monitors with G-Sync will support features like ULMB and LFC, though they will also include far larger gamuts and higher brightness for HDR functionality. Drivers will seamlessly switch between an SDR environment for desktop work, and HDR in supported applications where appropriate. FreeSync 2 is a much larger update, that not only includes support for HDR monitors, but also introduces a monitor validation program that will see only the best monitors receive a FreeSync 2 badge. FreeSync 2 monitors will have at least twice the maximum brightness and color volume over standard sRGB displays, and monitors will be validated to meet input lag standards (in the “few milliseconds” range). All FreeSync 2 monitors will support LFC. FreeSync 2 will include similar features to G-Sync HDR as well, like support for larger gamuts, higher brightness and automatic switching between SDR and HDR modes. There’s still no word on whether AMD will charge a premium for FreeSync 2 validation and branding, though the updated technology will bring FreeSync closer to what G-Sync provides in every monitor.

Solid state drives are a standard among enthusiasts and are readily available in many OEM offerings, but most users still have at least one mechanical hard drive spinning away for storing large amounts of data. Samsung is working to eliminate the need for traditional hard drive storage with its QLC based NAND memory. Slower than the now common TLC NAND found in consumer grade solid state drives, QLC has the ability to be packed into a denser configuration. A single chip intended to be packed into a finished product will be able to hold 1.5 TB. Extrapolating this out to 32 chips in a single solid state drive results in a 48 TB drive, although Samsung already has plans for a 128 TB SAS enterprise SSD. Clearly the enterprise grade options will not be affordable for consumers, but reducing the number of parts required for smaller capacity drives should help bring more affordable options. Seeing several terabyte SSDs at costs closer to mechanical hard drives is a possibility. More storage capacity is great but life expectancy is also a concern since existing drives still have a limited amount of write operations that can be performed before the memory wears out. QLC is less durable than TLC NAND, yet has 4 bits per cell in an attempt to increase its longevity. Combined with existing wear-leveling and error correction technologies, rest assured that large capacity drives will still be usable for longer than average consumer needs. Even though QLC is not impressively fast on its own, the ability to access data in parallel through a raid-like configuration leaves plenty of opportunity for creative ways of quickly handling file operations. The Samsung 960 NVMe SSDs are expected to receive a refresh over the next few months. It is doubtful that QLC NAND will be found on the next update of the high speed M.2 form factor drives; However, fast turn around times have been seen by Samsung in the past so the jury remains out until further information is available. Source: www.CsblackDevil.com

It was back in July last year when China finished work on the world’s largest single-aperture telescope. It took five years and $180 million to build the Five-Hundred-Meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, or FAST, which was switched on in September. But there’s a problem – nobody wants the job of overseeing the facility. According to the South China Morning Post, the telescope’s owner - The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) – has been looking overseas for candidates to take on the role of FAST’s operator-in-chief because no local astronomers have the required experience. “The post is currently open to scientists working outside China only. Candidates can be of any nationality, any race,” a human resources official at the academy’s bureau of personnel told the publication. The position’s pay is comparable to similar jobs found in the west. The head of the facility will also receive eight million yuan in research funding and subsidies such as free housing. But finding a suitable person – and someone who wants the job – isn’t proving easy. Candidates must have 20 years’ experience, had a leading role at a similar project, offer plenty of managerial experience, and hold a professorship - or equally senior position - in a world-leading research institute or university. Language barriers and cultural differences are also reported to be hurdles, as is the requirement to live in the mountains of Guizhou, a relatively poor location in one of the country’s least developed areas. Strangely, other reports say the Chinese government and CAS are denying the South China Morning Post’s claims. CAS says there is no current recruitment drive, and that the leadership position has been filled since July last year, though it failed to name the person running the facility. Several scientists working at the telescope refused to comment on the matter, saying it could lead to “political trouble.”

Today there are dozens of options for high-end laptops and mobile computing, and while extreme raw performance is nice to have, it is not necessary for the majority of users. Focusing on productivity and durability, the Acer Chromebook 11 C771 meets the needs of educators and professionals to provide a solution that is meant to work under rough conditions. Passing MIL-STD 810G tests, the Chromebook 11 C771 can hold up to temperature variation, drops, spills, and dust ingress. Rubber bumpers on the corners of the casing have been added to allow survivable drops up to four feet. In addition, a honeycomb structure has been implemented in the lid so that placing up to 132lbs on top of the laptop will not crush it. This is more than enough to allow the Chromebook to be tossed around in a backpack or briefcase without worry. In terms of IO, options are limited compared to massive gaming laptops, but are more than sufficient for a highly portable machine. A USB Type-C port, HDMI port, USB 3.0 port, and 3.5mm TRRS combo jack can be found on the left hand side. On the right hand side, a microSD card reader and second USB 3.0 port can be found in addition to a Kensington lock port. Opening up the Chromebook 11 C771 reveals an 11.6 inch IPS panel with a resolution of 1366x768 that optionally comes as a touch screen (C771T). Although not pictured, the hinges allow a full 180 degrees of range so that touch screen users can enjoy a flat surface to work on. A fairly simple 720p webcam with built in microphone is centered above the screen. Keeping with the theme of durability, the keyboard leaves little space around the edges of the keys to help prevent liquids from quickly entering and from key caps being removed. Liquids are directed to drain out the bottom of the laptop in the event of a mishap. Inside the C771, a 6th Generation Intel Celeron 3855U comes standard, although Core i3 and Core i5 models will also be available. A 32GB eMMC module can be found for storage alongside 4GB of RAM. A 2x2 MIMO 802.11ac wireless adapter is also present. The specs are not likely to impress any enthusiasts, but they are very helpful in providing up to 12 hours of battery life on the touch screen model and up to 13 hours on the non-touch variant. Weighing in at only 2.98 lbs and measuring 0.82 inches thick, the Acer Chromebook C11 C771 is extremely portable given that it can last for an entire day of school or work. The standard C771 and C771T models will be available to commercial and education customers in August with suggested retail prices of $279.99 and $329.99 respectively. The Core i3 and Core i5 models will be available for purchase starting in September.

Got a case of the Mondays? Perhaps Intel can help. The chipmaker today announced specifications for its upcoming 12-, 14-, 16- and 18-core CPUs that help make up the Core X-Series processor family. Prior to today’s announcement, Intel had only revealed full information up to its Core i9-7900X – a 10-core / 20-thread chip with a base clock speed of 3.3GHz that’ll retail for $999. We’ve known for a few months now what the rest of the lineup would look like but official details are just now being shared. The cream of the crop, as you’ve no doubt heard, is the Core i9-7980XE, an Extreme Edition chip packing a whopping 18 cores and 36 threads. This 165W TDP part carries a base clock speed of 2.6GHz, a Turbo Boost frequency of 4.2GHz, support for 44 PCIe lanes and a generous 24.75MB of L3 cache. You’ll have to pay to play, however, as the Core I9-7980XE carries a steep MSRP of $1,999. (VIDEO):

Sadly, the recent reports of Rockstar being so far into GTA 6’s development that it was doing motion capture turned out to be a hoax. The next title in the series is certainly at some stage of early development, but it’ll be years before we see the finished product. Thanks to the work of talented modders, however, it’s possible to make GTA V look like a whole new game. GTA V is still immensely po[CENSORED]r - last month, it became the UK’s best-selling game of the year so far. The online element, which continues to make millions for Rockstar and Take-Two, is one reason for this; another is the huge amount of gameplay/graphical mods that are being churned out. One such mod, NaturalVision, added near photo-realistic graphics to the game and caused quite a stir when it was released last year. Now, the creator has completely overhauled it with improved weather, lighting, colors, and tone mapping. Modder Razed wants NaturalVision Remastered to “blur the line between fantasy and reality.” Razed said that in order to make GTA V look as close as possible to the Southern California location it’s based on, he viewed 40 hours of video footage, looked at hundreds of photos, and studied Google Maps of Los Angeles and the surrounding areas. It took six months and 1200 hours to complete the updated mod, and as you can see in the video above, it looks quite spectacular.

Those still clinging to the narrative that PC gaming is dead should seriously consider reevaluating their stance. Valve at the Casual Connect USA conference in Seattle this week revealed that Steam, its digital distribution platform for computer users, currently enjoys 67 million monthly active players. For comparison, Microsoft said last month that it had 53 million active Xbox Live users in the most recent quarter. Drilling a bit deeper, Valve shared that it now has 33 million daily active players with a peak concurrent user count of 14 million (the peak in 2015, by comparison, was just 8.4 million). What’s more, since January 2016, Steam has had 27 million new purchasers which works out to nearly 1.5 million transactions per month. Valve owes much of its continued success to international growth. According to GeekWire, Asia just a few years ago represented only a few percentage points as it relates to Steam’s worldwide sales. That figure has since climbed to 17 percent which, according to Valve’s Tom Giardino, is a direct result of efforts to localize stores and accept additional payment methods. The diversity of content available on Steam is another contributing factor. In fact, Giardino said he views Steam’s robust library as one of the platform’s biggest assets. Valve is set to host its annual Dota 2 tournament next week in Seattle with a record-setting prize pool of more than $23.5 million.

Toshiba generally isn't the first name that comes to mind when thinking of impressive solid state drives. However, there is more to a well-designed product than purely raw speed. A component needs to fit in your case and stay cool to perform as intended. As with any component, bigger is not always better, especially if you are building a small form factor PC. If there is an option to make it smaller without sacrificing performance, manufacturers certainly do their best to do so, and Toshiba is no exception. The Toshiba BG3 is a new choice of SSD for small form factors. It comes as an M.2 2230 card or M.2 1620 BGA chip that has storage capacities of up to 512GB. The BG3 packs 64-layer TLC BiCS Flash memory with 3-bits per cell, read speeds of up to 1520MB/s, and sequential writes up to 840MB/s. Over the previous generation of Toshiba's low cost SSDs, read speeds see a 60% improvement while write speeds gain 120%. One of the shortcuts taken to fit so much storage into a small space was the removal of DRAM. Solid state drives typically have some amount of fast memory allocated to caching so that the on-board controller has reduced load and I/O operations complete faster. An SLC cache mode is available, which should keep random read speeds up to satisfactory levels. An astoundingly small, high capacity drive may sound like something you would want to have, but the BG series is only readily available for OEMs. However, both M.2 cards and BGA chips will be making their way to finished products over the next several months.

Far out in space, between Mars and Jupiter, a group of roiling rocks has been circling the sun since the very early days of the solar system, a new study reveals. Piecing together the planetesimals, the earliest ancestors of the asteroids, hasn’t been easy because eons of collisions have broken them apart. But that has changed thanks to the discovery of a family of “dark” asteroids in the region, reported today in Science. Unlike the brighter, highly reflective asteroid families nearby, the dark asteroids’ orbits are more spread out, meaning more time has passed since the asteroids formed. By aggregating the sizes of the modern dark asteroids, researchers suggest the original dark planetesimals formed about 4 billion years ago, making this one of the oldest asteroid families in the main belt; most asteroid families are thought to have formed about 1 billion years ago. While putting together these planetary puzzle pieces, the scientists also determined that the dark family’s original planetesimals were no smaller than 35 kilometers across. That’s compelling evidence for the gravitational collapse theory of asteroid formation, which states that the space dust that made up the planetesimals smashed together almost instantaneously. In order for the theory to work, planetesimals had to be huge, and this family was one of the biggest. (VIDEO):

Back in April, a Wall Street Journal report claimed Google was planning to introduce an ad blocker directly into Chrome. The company later confirmed that the new addition was arriving early next year. Now, thanks to the latest version of Chrome’s developer build for Android – Canary – we’ve got our first look at the technology. German-language site Caschys Blog was first to discover the ad blocker in Canary, which is used to test Chrome features before they arrive in the full version of the browser. The WSJ believed the blocker would be turned on by default, but that isn’t the case in this instance - it’s switched off and is activated via a toggle in the preferences. It’s possible to check out the ad-blocking tech yourself by downloading Canary here. As it can be unstable and often fail to work, the app is recommended for developers and advanced users only, though it does run alongside the stable release of Chrome. Google won’t be blocking all the ads, of course; that’s where the vast majority of its (and Alphabet’s) revenue comes from. Instead, it will only block ads that are “beneath a threshold of consumer acceptability,” as determined by industry group The Coalition for Better Ads, which counts Facebook, News Corp. and Google among its members. Blocked ad types include full-page interstitials with countdowns, flashing advertisements, and those that unexpectedly play sounds. Google hopes this update to Chrome will encourage users not to install third-party blockers and is making life harder for those that do. The company is working on a tool called “Funding Choices” that allows publishers to display a customizable message to visitors asking them to, for example, disable their third-party ad blockers or pay a subscription to go ad free.

In response to a user question regarding Intel’s upcoming Coffee Lake CPU lineup, motherboard maker ASRock recently said on Twitter that Coffee Lake chips will not be compatible with 200-series motherboards. Revelations of this nature are typically shared by chipmakers at the time of reveal, not motherboard partners during the lead-up. The tweet in question has since been removed although the information has been independently confirmed by other publications. Most assumed that, because Coffee Lake shares a similar microarchitecture with Kaby Lake, that it would be compatible with 100- and 200-series LGA 1151 boards. As AnandTech highlights, if the rumor is indeed true, it could mean one of several scenarios: the new chips will not be LGA 1151 (which goes against an earlier rumor), motherboards could lock out the new processors using firmware or the CPUs and sockets will use a different notching system to physically prevent them from being installed in certain boards. Given that Coffee Lake is expected to be a six-core part, some were no doubt hoping for a plug-and-play upgrade using their existing motherboard. That doesn’t appear to be possible now and could present a scenario in which those looking to upgrade may toss in the towel and jump ship to AMD’s camp. As always, keep in mind that this is just a rumor and nothing is truly official until Intel publicly announces it.

Ever since the days of Homer, Greeks have long idealized their Mycenaean “ancestors” in epic poems and classic tragedies that glorify the exploits of Odysseus, King Agamemnon, and other heroes who went in and out of favor with the Greek gods. Although these Mycenaeans were fictitious, scholars have debated whether today’s Greeks descend from the actual Mycenaeans, who created a famous civilization that dominated mainland Greece and the Aegean Sea from about 1600 B.C.E. to 1200 B.C.E., or whether the ancient Mycenaeans simply vanished from the region. Now, ancient DNA suggests that living Greeks are indeed the descendants of Mycenaeans, with only a small proportion of DNA from later migrations to Greece. And the Mycenaeans themselves were closely related to the earlier Minoans, the study reveals, another great civilization that flourished on the island of Crete from 2600 B.C.E. to 1400 B.C.E. (named for the mythical King Minos). The ancient DNA comes from the teeth of 19 people, including 10 Minoans from Crete dating to 2900 B.C.E. to 1700 BCE, four Mycenaeans from the archaeological site at Mycenae and other cemeteries on the Greek mainland dating from 1700 B.C.E. to 1200 B.C.E., and five people from other early farming or Bronze Age (5400 B.C.E. to 1340 B.C.E.) cultures in Greece and Turkey. By comparing 1.2 million letters of genetic code across these genomes to those of 334 other ancient people from around the world and 30 modern Greeks, the researchers were able to plot how the individuals were related to each other. The ancient Mycenaeans and Minoans were most closely related to each other, and they both got three-quarters of their DNA from early farmers who lived in Greece and southwestern Anatolia, which is now part of Turkey, the team reports today in Nature. Both cultures additionally inherited DNA from people from the eastern Caucasus, near modern-day Iran, suggesting an early migration of people from the east after the early farmers settled there but before Mycenaeans split from Minoans. The Mycenaeans did have an important difference: They had some DNA—4% to 16%—from northern ancestors who came from Eastern Europe or Siberia. This suggests that a second wave of people from the Eurasian steppe came to mainland Greece by way of Eastern Europe or Armenia, but didn’t reach Crete, says Iosif Lazaridis, a po[CENSORED]tion geneticist at Harvard University who co-led the study. Not surprisingly, the Minoans and Mycenaeans looked alike, both carrying genes for brown hair and brown eyes. Artists in both cultures painted dark-haired, dark-eyed people on frescoes and pottery who resemble each other, although the two cultures spoke and wrote different languages. The Mycenaeans were more militaristic, with art replete with spears and images of war, whereas Minoan art showed few signs of warfare, Lazaridis says. Because the Minoans script used hieroglyphics, some archaeologists thought they were partly Egyptian, which turns out to be false. The continuity between the Mycenaeans and living people is “particularly striking given that the Aegean has been a crossroads of civilizations for thousands of years,” says co-author George Stamatoyannopoulos of the University of Washington in Seattle. This suggests that the major components of the Greeks’ ancestry were already in place in the Bronze Age, after the migration of the earliest farmers from Anatolia set the template for the genetic makeup of Greeks and, in fact, most Europeans. “The spread of farming po[CENSORED]tions was the decisive moment when the major elements of the Greek po[CENSORED]tion were already provided,” says archaeologist Colin Renfrew of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, who was not involved in the work. The results also show it is possible to get ancient DNA from the hot, dry landscape of the eastern Mediterranean, Renfrew says. He and others now have hope for getting DNA from groups such as the mysterious Hittites who came to ancient Anatolia sometime before 2000 B.C.E. and who may have been the source of Caucasian ancestry in Mycenaeans and early Indo-European languages in the region. Archaeologist Kristian Kristiansen of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, who was not involved in the work, agrees. “The results have now opened up the next chapter in the genetic history of western Eurasia—that of the Bronze Age Mediterranean.”

Tape storage drives may have been around for 60 years, but they’re still breaking records. Working alongside the Sony Corporation, IBM Research has been able to store 330 terabytes of uncompressed data onto a prototype cartridge small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. That's six times more storage than the world's largest hard drive. This is the fifth time since 2006 that IBM Research scientists have set a world record in tape storage. Called sputtered magnetic tape, it’s able to store 201 gigabits per square inch. That’s more than 20 times the areal density of current commercial tape drives. Areal recording density refers to the amount of information that can be stored in a given area of surface. The milestone was announced by both companies at the 28th Magnetic Recording Conference in Japan today. The record is unlikely to stand for very long, as IBM says "storage on tapes will continue to scale up for another decade." The sputtered tape was developed using low friction tape head tech, advanced servo control technologies, and new signal-processing algorithms, which are based on noise-predictive detection principles. Sony developed a low-friction lubricant technology for high-capacity writing and high-speed reading. IBM and Sony have been working on increasing areal recording densities for many years. “The results of this collaboration have led to various improvements in the media technology, such as advanced roll-to-roll technology for long sputtered tape fabrication and better lubricant technology, which stabilizes the functionality of the magnetic tape,” said IBM fellow Evangelos Eleftheriou. While the manufacture of sputtered tape can cost more than current commercial tape drives, Eleftheriou says its high capacity makes the price per terabyte very “attractive.” (VIDEO):

Back in July, it was rumored that Facebook would be expanding its hardware lineup beyond the Oculus Rift with a smart speaker that features a 15-inch touchscreen. A new report from Bloomberg claims the social media giant will actually be releasing two devices, and they could arrive early next year. Bloomberg’s sources say Facebook’s video chat offering, which comes from its experimental Building 8 lab, represents an all-new product category and could be announced at Spring’s F8 developer conference. While the product sounds a lot like Amazon’s touchscreen-equipped Echo Show, the display on Facebook’s device is larger than the 7-inch screen found on the Alexa-powered speaker. One prototype of Facebook’s machine came with a touchscreen measuring between 13 and 15 inches – a similar size as many laptops. The company has also considered running a version of Android on the device, rather than building its own OS. In addition to the screen, wide-angle lens, microphones, and speakers, Facebook wants to utilize its AI knowledge by adding a smart camera that can “scan for people in its range and lock onto them.” In addition to this video device, Facebook is also said to be working on a standalone speaker to compete with Amazon’s Echo and Google’s Home. It plans to sell the audio-only system for $100, with both the products set to feature Siri-style smart assistants. Last month, it was discovered Facebook had patented a type of electromechanical device that can be paired with items such as a touch display, GPS, speakers, a microphone, and more. It’s unclear if this is related to either of the rumored products, but it certainly sounds as if it could be.

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AMD sure is enjoying its sweet moment with Ryzen, staging its release as they saw fit bit by bit, while in the process making most of Intel's Core lineup obsolete. It must feel good after Intel has reigned and dictated terms for most of the rivalry's life and in particular to the Core family of processors that have had AMD's offerings relegated to the low-cost segment of the market. We've also been waiting patiently for Radeon Vega, AMD's next generation graphics architecture that is supposed to compete with Nvidia's highly impressive Pascal (GTX 1080, and the rest of the GeForce 10 series) and in similar fashion we've been receiving this information very slowly. Although if rumors hold true, Vega won't have such a comfortable position against the latest GeForce. With Radeon RX Vega GPUs confirmed to arrive in August, we now have official information on the models, pricing and specs. The flagship model will be the Radeon RX Vega 64, which will utilize the full capabilities of the new architecture: 64 compute units and 4096 stream processors, equipped with 8GB of HBM2 memory. There will be two variants, a more expensive $599 liquid cooled model that will push the clocks to the max and an air cooled version expected to retail for $499. Then there's the Radeon RX Vega 56, a cut down version of the same GPU, with fewer (56) compute units and stream processors for $399. Among Vega highlights, AMD is touting support for the latest DirectX 12 features, use of faster HBM2 memory, an improved display engine for multiple 4K monitors, including support for 4K 120 Hz HDR displays, among many architectural improvements that help to push the performance envelope in this and upcoming graphics chips, as AMD points out "Vega 10" is the first implementation of the Vega architecture on the 14nm FinFET process. AMD also plans to offer Radeon Vega in packs that will grant you access to a game bundle (Wolfenstein II and Prey) and a discount when buying a Ryzen CPU or Samsung Freesync monitor. In fact, the RX Vega 64 Liquid may only be sold as part of this pack. We'll be able to better judge how good that is for gamers once we get actual performance data which remains undisclosed -- but just for reference, rumors point out to the Radeon RX Vega 64 Liquid Cooled Edition (the fastest version of Vega) to be on par with a GeForce GTX 1080. For now, here are some technical highlights from the Radeon Vega presentation at SIGGRAPH:

HP unveiled a bevy of products in its Omen gaming line for this year's E3. Among those was the Omen X Compact Desktop which can be used both for VR gaming and regular computing thanks to its docking station. Continuing the theme of compact VR desktop computing, HP is releasing the HP Z VR which is aimed squarely at businesses. Like the Omen X, the Z VR utilizes a dock for traditional computing while offering a backpack for mobile use. Spec-wise, it includes a Core i7-7820HQ quad-core processor and a 16GB Nvidia Quadro P5200 GPU. Being a VR focused computer, it will of course work with the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. According to PCMag, it will be "promoted with either HP's version of the Windows mixed-reality headset or the HTC Vive Business Edition." You'll be able to use the compact desktop while connected to the backpack, by itself while connected to HDMI or mini DisplayPort, or connected to the docking station. If you plan on using the backpack, note that the Z VR weighs about 10 pounds. That includes the backpack harness, batteries, and computer itself. HP also announced VR support for the HP Z Book 17 mobile workstation, HP Z Desktop workstations, and the EliteDesk 800 G3 tower. Although a huge chunk of VR development is gaming, many businesses also use VR for things such as training in heavy machinery operation or advanced medical procedures. Other use cases could include visualizations for architecture or interior and automotive design. The Z VR backpack will be released in September and starts at $3,299.

(VIDEO): Bluefin tuna can stretch 3 meters, weigh a metric ton, and reach speeds of 60 kilometers per hour. Yet they still turn on a dime when hunting, thanks in part to their lymphatic systems. Unlike humans, who use their lymphatic systems to produce and transport white blood cells, tuna use theirs to move two of their fins, researchers report today in Science. When scientists dissected the nimble fish, they discovered empty cavities at the base of their second dorsal and under-belly fins. These vascular sinuses are connected to a network of vessels that extend into the fin, between the bones that make up the fins’ rays. When the team pumped a saline solution into the vascular sinuses of recently deceased tuna, the solution flowed into the vascular channels and increased the fins’ internal pressure. This caused the fins to rise and stand erect from the body. The fish make such changes in their fin position when they make a series of sharp turns, especially during hunting, the team found. The researchers suspect that this fin movement offers extra stability during tuna’s tight maneuvers so the fish don’t have to sacrifice their speed for balance.

Asus has released a new flagship motherboard for Ryzen CPUs. The X370 chipset on the Republic of Gamers Crosshair VI Extreme provides the basis for this enthusiast class motherboard. As a board designed with overclocking in mind, the Crosshair VI Extreme features everything needed to get the maximum performance out of your AM4 socket CPUs. Asus' extravagant UEFI combined with their FanXpert 4 software adds all of the tools needed to fine tune for the optimum combination of cooling and performance. If water cooling is of interest, a header on the motherboard has been added to monitor monoblock temperatures, leak detection circuits, and coolant flow rates. A custom designed monoblock for the Crosshair VI Extreme will be available separately through a partnership with Bitspower. Even though this is targeted specifically towards enthusiasts, not everyone has the knowledge or time to tinker with their PC build for hours on end. In order to help out novice overclockers and those who are short on time, the Crosshair VI Extreme features one-click overclocking using what Asus calls intelligent auto-tuner. The motherboard features three full size PCIe x16 slots for dual or three way CrossFireX and also has three PCIe x1 slots for additional add ins. The first two PCIe x16 slots are spaced so that extra wide 2.5 slot graphics cards can still be put in a dual setup. These two slots are also reinforced with metal and extra solder to handle greater stress from rough handling. As expected, USB 3.1 can be found on the rear I/O in both Type-C and standard Type-A varieties. USB 3.1 is also available for the front of your case via an internal header. Also included on the board is an 802.11ac module with a 2x2 antenna configuration alongside an Intel Gigabit Ethernet controller. In addition, Bluetooth 4.1 connectivity is standard, so that you can pair your smartphone or other devices. Audio is provided by Asus' SupremeFX S1220 codec and an ESS Sabre DAC. This combination provides native support for HRTF effects intended for use with virtual reality experiences. These days, what would an enthusiast board be without standard RGB lighting? The Crosshair VI Extreme goes beyond regular RGB lighting by providing a header specifically for addressable RGB light strips that allow control of individual LEDs. Using the Aura Sync software, you can color coordinate all lighting across supported products. The ROG Crosshair VI Extreme will be available in early August carrying a suggested retail price of $349.