Hossam Taibi

I will defend to the end of times (well, as long as SATA is still a thing and motherboards pack in 6 M.2 slots that can all be fully accessed) the need for 2.5" drives. I get that NVMe has come down significantly in price over time but the usefulness of 2.5" SATA SSDs is as high as ever. That's why it's good to see new drives coming along on this form factor. In collaboration with their partner BIWIN, who has 25 years' worth of R&D in storage and microelectronics, HP is updating their S700 series of 2.5" SSDs to the HP SSD S750 2.5" on the SATA 3 interface. At this point, the theoretical performance of SATA 3 has been peaked and the HP SSD S750 is no exception with HP claiming speeds of up to 560MB/s sequential read speeds and 520MB/s sequential write speeds, both of which are great for the form factor. They will be offered in 3 capacity variants with 1TB, 521GB, and 256GB and all of them maintain the full sequential read/write performance but differs on random read/write OIPS, likely due to using different NAND die sizes. HP and BIWIN aren't clear on which controller they're using SSD S750 so it's hard to make any judgment calls on whether or not the drive is using DRAM or not, which could be a big deciding factor on their value. But, with the middle of the road 512GB version packing in the same sequential performance but the highest random read/write IOPS by quite a margin over the 256GB and the 1TB, it would be the most attractive one to use if being put to work as a primary storage device rather than just a secondary game drive or such. Pricing and availability haven't been announced as of yet.

Valorant Act II is due to launch tomorrow, on the 4th of August, bringing new competitive changes and a new Agent, Killjoy. Among those new addition is, reportedly, a Valorant Deathmatch mode; a long-requested feature which will offer players a game mode that isn’t objective-based. A Valorant Deathmatch Mode is Coming Soon According to Riot Games, a new Valorant Deathmatch mode will be available in Act II, although it won’t be available immediately at launch. (It will reportedly launch on the 5th of August, one day after Act II begins.) The mode will feature 10 players, but will not be team-based. Similarly, it will not include any objectives beyond eliminating other players. However, there are some more significant differences from the game’s standard mode. Riot has said that the Valorant Deathmatch mode, in an effort to focus entirely on player skill and accuracy, will not feature Agent abilities. Additionally, players will have an unlimited amount of money, so that they can always purchase whichever weapons they want. Although the game’s objective-based mode will remain Riot’s focus, Deathmatch will provide players with an alternative option. One reason why fans have been calling for a Deathmatch mode is to have a simpler, warm-up option or a mode primarily for practicing their accuracy. As a result, players will reportedly suffer no penalties for leaving active Deathmatch games in progress; a stark difference to the game’s standard mode. This will allow players to drop in and out of Deathmatch more easily, making it a good option for warming up while waiting for your teammates, etc. When the mode launches on the 5th, it will reportedly be available initially in a beta form. After a period of beta testing, Riot will make the mode a permanent addition to the game. However, at least at present, it’s unknown how long this initial beta period will last. Ahead of the upcoming launch of Valorant Act II, Riot Games has launched a new series of extremely flashy in-game punk-style cosmetics known as “Glitchpop” skins. The series replaces the existing Oni skins, which will no longer be available from tomorrow, the 4th of August. New Valorant Glitchpop Skins & Trailer The new Valorant Glitchpop skins might well have spawned the game’s wierdest trailer; a riotous, half-cartoon look at the skins in action. The Glitchpop skins will be available to purchase in-game from the 4th of August. In total, the new cosmetic bundle includes skins for the Bulldog, Frenzy, Odin, and Judge firearms, as well as a melee skin. Plus, there are a wide range of Glitchpop Stickers available too. Each one is glaringly neon and over-the-top. Bought individually, each of the five new Glitchpop weapon skins cost 2,175 VP, except for the melee, which instead costs 4,350 VP. Bought together as a bundle, the total cost for all the skins is 8,700 VP. The high cost has already attracted significant criticism on social media. You can’t buy exactly 8,700 VP from the Valorant Store, but 11,000 VP (the closest amount) will cost you $99.99. Even if you want to buy just one of the single weapon skins, you’d have to get 3650 VP for $34.99. (The bundle below is only 2050 VP – 125 VP off the cost of a Glitchpop weapon skin.) The Glitchpop skins do go a little further than standard cosmetics, in that they can be levelled up and improved. These level-up improvements include custom muzzle flashes and firing audio, custom reload effects, and logo hologram projections, among other things. However, it’s unclear whether this feature will be enough to sell them to the general Valorant audience. More likely, these sorts of cosmetics are marketed at a tiny wealthy minority of players. Most in-game cosmetics in most games are supported by a very small minority of buyers anyway, but Riot does rather seem to be pushing things to a bit of an extreme.

Billions of devices running modern operating systems such as Linux and Windows could be at risk from a wide-ranging new security vulnerability, new research as found. Security firm Eclypsium has discovered a EUFI Secure Boot vulnerability that allows unfettered access to affected systems. Virtually all modern servers, client PCs, and other PC-based equipment use UEFI, an interface between an OS and platform firmware. All versions of UEFI feature Secure Boot framework specifically designed to protect unauthorized access to the machine during boot-up process. The framework relies on cryptographic keys to authenticate the code that is allowed to execute when the system starts up. The key process that executes the specified OS loader and transfers controls to the OS is called GRUB2 (Grand Unified Bootloader). If this process is compromised, the perpetrators can control how the OS is loaded and undermine all higher-layer security controls. The best antivirus software around today Best secure drives: top USB drives to protect your data 5 cheap smartphones with fingerprint scanners BootHole Eclypsium discovered a weakness in the way GRUB2 parses its configuration file that lets attackers to execute arbitrary code that bypasses signature verification and install persistent and stealthy bootkits or malicious bootloaders to gain control over a system. While the attackers can successfully get unfettered control over a machine as well as all the secrets it may hold, the computer may operate as usual and admins may not know that it is compromised until it is too late. Exploiting the GRUB2 vulnerability is not exactly easy as it requires high-level privileges that can be obtained by an insider, or from an insider using various means. Yet, the potential advantages a near-total access can bring look very motivating. On paper, the fix seems pretty straightforward: fix the GRUB2 vulnerability; update installers/bootloaders/shims of Linux distributions; signs new shims by the Microsoft 3rd Party UEFI CA; update operating systems. Meanwhile, given the difficulty of ecosystem-wide update/revocation, fixing the vulnerability for all systems and organizations on the planet will take quite some time, years, to be exact. “Full mitigation of this issue will require coordinated efforts from a variety of entities: affected open-source projects, Microsoft, and the owners of affected systems, among others,” a statement from Eclypsium said. “However, full deployment of this revocation process will likely be very slow.”

Requirements: Here are the Overwatch System Requirements (Minimum) CPU: Intel Core i3 or AMD Phenom X3 8650 CPU SPEED: Info RAM: 4 GB OS: Windows Vista/7/ 8/10 64-bit (latest Service Pack) VIDEO CARD: Nvidia GeForce GTX 460, ATI Radeon HD 4850, or Intel HD Graphics 4400 PIXEL SHADER: 4.0 VERTEX SHADER: 4.0 FREE DISK SPACE: 30 GB DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 768 MB Overwatch Recommended Requirements CPU: Intel Core i5 or AMD Phenom II X3, 2.8 GHz CPU SPEED: Info RAM: 6 GB OS: Windows Vista/7/ 8/10 64-bit (latest Service Pack) VIDEO CARD: Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 or ATI Radeon HD 7950 PIXEL SHADER: 5.0 VERTEX SHADER: 5.0 FREE DISK SPACE: 30 GB DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 2 GB Name game: Overwatch Price: 11.98 euro Link store: https://www.eneba.com/blizzard-overwatch-standard-edition-battle-net-key-global?af_id=operagxnew&currency=EUR

Requirements: PlayStation Name game: Rise of the Tomb Raider Price: Free Link store: https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP0082-CUSA05794_00-RISEOFTOMBRAIDER

What's more fun than an ultra-wide monitor? How about an ultra-ultra-wide monitor? One of Lenovo's 32:10 gaming monitors, the Legion Y44-w10, is on sale for $799.00 on Microsoft's online store. That's a discount of $400 from the original price. This massive curved monitor has a resolution of 3840x1200, an aspect ratio of 16:5 (or 32:10). It has a peak brightness of 450 cd/m2, a 3000:1 contrast ratio, and a Samsung VA panel with HDR400 support. There are also four pass-through USB Type-A ports on the monitor, as well as a 3.5mm audio output. The Legion Y44-w10 is capable of refresh rates of up to 144Hz, using AMD FreeSync. It's not certified by Nvidia for G-Sync compatibility, and I wasn't able to find any reports of people trying it out with the unofficial G-Sync mode, so you're unfortunately on your own if you buy this for an Nvidia-powered PC. Buy it here

The NHL series tends to largely fly under the sports video game radar most years. Hardcore fans of the series know that it has ebbed and flowed since 2010 with last year’s version being one of the best versions. Hockey gamers and others who may be looking for another sports game to pick up will be happy to know NHL 20 builds on NHL 19’s momentum and takes almost everything to the next level. Here is the good, the bad and the bottom line on NHL 20. Over the years, I’ve seen some choppy animations from NHL games. Checks have been particularly difficult to render in the game, but NHL 20 features the most seamless animations I’ve seen from the series. Apple’s famous slogan is “there is an app for that.” When playing NHL 20, it feels as though there is an animation for every situation. When you compare this to other sports games like Madden where there are obvious on-field situations that occur without an animation to represent it, you’ll appreciate NHL 20’s movement and collision detection all the more. Loving the Puck Physics The quality physics aren’t reserved for the players. The glide, bounce and caroms of the puck are also authentic. NBA Live infamously has some odd bounces of the basketball on its virtual court. NHL 20’s puck performs as a real one would on the ice. It’s a quality you could easily overlook, but it adds to the realism. The Skating is Magnificent EA has long had a good handle on this part of the NHL series. However, when you group the constantly evolving skate and deke mechanics with improvements in collisions and overall animations, you get the sweet amalgamation of high-end visuals and compelling gameplay represented in NHL 20. The Balance with Poke Checking is Ideal At times in the past, poke checking has been overpowered. The defensive tactic should carry a risk-reward dynamic. That’s exactly where we are in NHL 20. Successfully dislodging the puck from the player handling it comes down to timing, angle and ratings. I can’t think of a more logical set of factors. Goalies Don’t Feel Like the Same Guy in a Different Shell I love that goalies aren’t simply indistinguishable 3-D characters with weaknesses that are too similar to differentiate. Playing Draft Champions and other modes, I could see the difference between Casey Price and a young, unproven net minder like Elvis Merzļikins. Ratings should matter at every position. I Can Feel the Speed Difference From One Player to the Next Speaking of ratings, speed feels even more powerful. When the puck is in the possession of a speedster that you’re controlling, the game is its most enjoyable. Again, the differentiation from one player to the next makes you appreciate the elite stars in all modes, and even when you’ve upgraded your characters in the World of Chel. Franchise Mode Is Almost Perfect Presentation is a lost art in many sports video games, but someone forgot to tell the developers of the NHL franchise. In-game, the overlays, instant replays, and intermission presentation are all excellent. Specifically, the slow-mo replays of big hits are a particularly bright moment. I’d like to see a more in-depth intermission show, especially in franchise mode. However, most of the boxes are checked. When you see what has been done with scouting, the draft, free agency and most of the offseason functions, franchise mode lovers will appreciate the attention to detail. With the most leagues represented in a sports video game this side of FIFA, the franchise mode depth is strong. It is missing an element, but we’ll get to that in the bad section. Hands Down, The Best Presentation in Any Sports Video Game A Wealth of Options If you take a look at the menu for NHL 20 (not the four modes you pin to your quick access), you see just how many ways you can play this game. Whether its couch head-to-head, co-op, online, offline franchise, etc, the number of options rivals NBA 2K. World of Chel Has Gotten Bigger and Better When the World of CHEL was originally introduced, I didn’t care for it much. It seemed rather empty and a bit underdeveloped. That has changed. While you’re not in this virtual community like NBA 2K (and I’m not so sure that’s a bad thing) the arcade-ish option does open up a number of other offline and online challenges. There is a lot to do, but my absolute favorite new addition is the Ones elimination tournament. It’s like Fortnite hockey in that the tournament field begins with 81 players in 3-character matches. You keep playing and winning these matches until there is one player remaining. The action is fast-paced and so too is the matchmaking. It’s one of the best parts of NHL 20. The Bad Commentary is a Bit Too Repetitive I’m not as upset as others that Ed Olczyk and Doc Emrick aren’t returning. Good commentary in a sports game isn’t about the voices or the identity of the announcers. It’s about the variety in the script, the stitching and the access the developers have to the talent. As of now, I find the NHL 20 commentary to be too repetitive. There are far too many distinctive stories and quips that I’m hearing in nearly every game. Franchise Mode Lacks Customization As much as I like the franchise mode in NHL 20, I cannot neglect to mention the lack of team customization. The biggest reason NBA 2K’s MyLeague is still the king of all franchise modes is its customization suite. NBA 2K lets you upload images for logos and even change patterns for jerseys. NHL is still using a template-based creation tool that forces you into a set of pre-rendered logos. It’s just not as fun to relocate and rebrand a team. Online Matchmaking Has Been Iffy With Draft Champions I’m assuming this will clear up, but the game has been out for a week and I still have issues with connectivity in Draft Champions. I was getting an error message and even being forced to restart at points. Hopefully a patch is forthcoming that will eliminate this problem. The Bottom Line If you’re a sports gamer who isn’t necessarily into hockey video games, you may be missing out on a title that has produced a rapidly improving product over the past two years. NHL 20 is my favorite edition of the series since NHL 13, and one of the best in franchise history. Platform: XB1 and PS4 (XB1 version reviewed and code provided by EA) Developer: Electronic Arts Vancouver Publisher: Electronic Arts Release Date: Sep 13. 2019 Score: 9.4 out of 10

Requirements: Here are the Dark Souls 3 System Requirements (Minimum) CPU: Intel Core i3-2100 / AMD FX-6300 CPU SPEED: Info RAM: 4 GB OS: Windows 7 SP1 64bit, Windows 8.1 64bit Windows 10 64bit VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA® GeForce GTX 750 Ti / ATI Radeon HD 7950 PIXEL SHADER: 5.0 VERTEX SHADER: 5.0 SOUND CARD: DirectX 11 sound device FREE DISK SPACE: 25 GB DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 2048 MB Dark Souls 3 Recommended Requirements CPU: Intel Core i7-3770 / AMD® FX-8350 CPU SPEED: Info RAM: 8 GB OS: Windows 7 SP1 64bit, Windows 8.1 64bit Windows 10 64bit VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA® GeForce GTX 970 / ATI Radeon R9 series PIXEL SHADER: 5.1 VERTEX SHADER: 5.1 SOUND CARD: DirectX 11 sound device FREE DISK SPACE: 25 GB DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 4096 MB Name game: Dark souls 3 Price: 7.60 euro Link store: https://www.eneba.com/steam-dark-souls-3-steam-key-global?af_id=operagxnew&currency=EUR

Traditionally, the Mac has been regarded as a safe and secure haven compared to other desktop platforms – particularly Windows – and a common line of thinking has been that Apple computers don’t need antivirus defenses, because security is tight enough anyway, and threats are relatively scarce. But is that still true today? The latter point most certainly isn’t… Our definitive list of today's Mac antivirus software Looking for even more protection? Grab the best VPN See why we rate Bitdefender so highly in our testing Growing threat level Mac threats might once have been far thinner on the ground than malware targeting other operating systems, but that’s no longer the case. Just a quick glance at a recent security report will tell you that. Malwarebytes found in its latest annual report detailing the current ‘state of malware’ that over the course of 2019, Mac threats increased by 400% year-on-year, and for the first time ever, more threats were found per endpoint (ie Mac) than with Windows machines. If any statistic will make a Mac user sit up and take notice on the security front, it’s the revelation that there were 11 threats per endpoint compared to 5.8 with Windows – in other words, nearly double the amount with Apple machines. That stark headline isn’t the full story, though. The big caveat here is that much more malware is still aimed at Windows PCs, with the Mac getting hit more with adware and potentially unwanted programs (PUPs), or ‘malware light’ as Malwarebytes dubs it. These kind of efforts aren’t nearly as serious or dangerous as the full-fat malware out there, but they can certainly be unpleasant in at least some cases, hijacking your browser, changing your default search engine or perhaps serving up sponsored results to the benefit of the author. Of course, we must also bear in mind that this is just a single report, and it’s unwise to put too much emphasis on any one source in isolation. However, we’ve also seen a regular drip of articles about Mac malware hitting the headlines. Witness, for example, the recent revelation of a new strain of Mac ransomware (the first such sighting in some four years). So given this, and the apparent increase in Mac threats – which is doubtless tied into Apple’s machines becoming more po[CENSORED]r – anyone who has been following all this will likely have become more concerned about Mac security, and rightly so. But isn’t my Mac secure by design anyway? Despite these growing dangers, you may well ask: but isn’t my Mac secure by design anyway? It is true that macOS is built to be seriously secure, and Apple implements a number of measures within the operating system to that end. The firm incorporates features such as XProtect antivirus protection, and the likes of Gatekeeper, insisting that all software is digitally signed (or notarized, in other words, checked by Apple for issues or malicious code). All this helps protect those downloading software from outside of the official App Store. There’s no doubting that the level of security provided by Apple is sterling stuff – but nonetheless, these systems aren’t fool-proof, and we have seen ways to get around Gatekeeper in the past, or attempts to trick users and foil this built-in security. Vulnerabilities at a hardware level can be another dangerous potential attack vector against Mac systems, too, as we’ve seen in the past with the likes of ZombieLoad. Besides, as Malwarebytes points out, Apple’s integrated security measures aren’t so great about picking up the ‘malware light’ efforts we mentioned above. As the security company notes: “macOS’ built-in security systems have not cracked down on adware and PUPs to the same degree that they have malware, leaving the door open for these borderline programs to infiltrate.” And as we’ve noted, those ‘borderline’ apps may not wreak havoc on your system like a traditional piece of malware, but you still don’t want those kind of things hanging around on your Mac. Do I really need antivirus for Mac? When you weigh everything up, given the increasing amounts of Mac malware – albeit with much of it not as serious as the malicious software targeting Windows – and the possibility of exploits managing to get around Apple’s (admittedly good) security, there is certainly a valid argument for backing up the core protection provided by macOS with a second layer of defense in the form of an antivirus.

NVIDIA has just posted the first real performance numbers of its Ampere A100 GPU and the results are insane. The company has broken a total of 16 performance records in AI-specific benchmarks & also beaten its main competitors in the specific machine learning performance category by a huge lead. NVIDIA Ampere A100 GPU Breaks 16 AI World Records, Up To 4.2x Faster Than Volta V100 The results come in from MLPerf which is an industry benchmarking group formed back in 2018 with a focus purely on Machine Learning performance. The benchmark suite consists of a total of eight tests and NVIDIA has posted records in all with record training speeds. NVIDIA also reported eight additional records with its DGX SuperPOD system which is a massive cluster of DGX A100 HPC systems connected together through HDR InfiniBand. The DGX SuperPod consists of 140 DGX A100 systems with a total of 1,120 NVIDIA Ampere A100 GPUs, 170 Mellanox Quantum 200G Infiniband switches, 4 PB of storage and 15km of optical cable. That's around 7.7 million Ampere CUDA cores inside the DGX SuperPod system which is mind-blowing. The system is part of the DGX V expansion plan, adding nearly 700 Petaflops of computing horsepower to the system which is currently deployed at NVIDIA's HQ in Santa Clara, California. The AI Performance Benchmarks - Ampere vs Volta & More NVIDIA has compared their Ampere A100 Tensor Core GPU accelerator to its predecessor, the Volta V100. The comparison also includes Google's 3rd Generation TPU and Huawei's Ascend HPC chips. MLPerf themselves have more detailed benchmarks listed and also include a preview of upcoming AI accelerators such as Intel's Cooper Lake-SP Xeon CPUs and Google's 4th Gen TPU. With that said, let's take a look at the benchmarks themselves. The Huawei Ascend chip was able to finish just one test in time and that too with poor performance than the Volta V100 while Google's TPU V3 only managed to complete two tests in time. In one test, the chip secured a 20% lead over NVIDIA Volta V100 while in the second test, it was 10% slower than the V100. Compared to the Cooper Lake-SP 8-socket configuration which completes the image classification test in 1104.53 minutes, a dual NVIDIA A100 system can complete the same test in just 33.37 mins. NVIDIA also goes ahead to compare the performance of its Ampere A100 to the unreleased Google TPU V4 which is still in the research stage and at least a year away from availability. NVIDIA also shows how the performance of their GPU accelerators has improved over time with the latest full-stack innovations for AI. Compared to MLPerf 0.5 running on Volta V100, the MLPerf 0.7 suite running with Ampere A100 delivers a mind-blowing 4.2x performance gain. This goes off to show just how impressive of a chip the NVIDIA Ampere A100 GPU is in real-world benchmarks within a suite that is recognized by all major players in the AI community. The Ampere A100 GPU was also regarded as the fastest GPU ever recorded in another benchmark even when compared to the Turing GPU which had hw-accelerated techniques enabled to deliver better perf but still couldn't match the Ampere A100 and its huge performance output. All these benchmark capabilities make us all the more excited to see Ampere in consumer form which should definitely be happening a few months from now.

Riot Games recently unveiled Killjoy, the next upcoming Valorant Agent who will be joining the game with the launch of Act II next week. While the initial teaser trailer did show off Killjoy’s abilities, it didn’t go into any detail about how exactly they work. Now, Riot has revealed those details in a new short video series. New Valorant Agent: All of Killjoy’s Abilities All told, the new Valorant Agent Killjoy has four different abilities; Alarmbot, Turret, Nanoswarn, and Lockdown. The first of these, Alarmbot, allows Killjoy to throw down a roaming robot. This robot will then seek out any enemies who enter its detection range and detonate once it’s close enough. Any enemies hit by this detonation will temporarily take double damage from anything that hits them. The Alarmbot can also be recalled by Killjoy before it detonates. Next up for Killjoy is her Turret ability, which is fairly self-explanatory. The Agent deploys a small machine gun turret which will shoot at any enemy it sees within a 180-degree cone of vision. Note that there is a short delay between placing the turret and the turret opening fire, so putting one down in the middle of a firefight may not be wise. Rather, it’s probably best used as a defensive countermeasure. Nanoswarm is Killjoy’s third ability. Similar to a grenade, Killjoy can throw her Nanoswarm canister, which then sits quietly wherever it lands. When Killjoy activates it, the canister releases the Nanoswarm in a blast radius around itself. The swarm subsequently damages any enemies in the area. Killjoy’s final ability is Lockdown, which was shown briefly at the end of her teaser trailer. When activated, Killjoy sets down a large electronic device which deploys a bubble that extends over a very wide radius. The initial bubble doesn’t actually do anything other than to warn players on both sides what’s about to happen. A few seconds later, the bubble collapses, hitting all enemies in the area with an effect that leaves them significantly slowed for 8 seconds. Valorant Act I will soon be coming to an end, and with the impending launch of Act II, Riot Games today revealed that an all-new Agent will be coming to the game. This upcoming Valorant Agent is Killjoy, a tech specialist with an array of robotic gadgets at her disposal. The Upcoming Valorant Agent: Killjoy “Killjoy arrives in VALORANT Act II,” writes Riot; “The latest Agent is a genius inventor that brings the chill of the Berlin nightlife and deploys her killer tech for some potent defensive impact. Outsmart your opponents or lock down an area for a stress-free Spike plant.” Valorant Act I will officially end at 14:00 PST on the 4th of August, next week. Riot Games have yet to confirm exactly when Valorant Act II will begin, but a safe bet would be that the new Act will begin relatively quickly; either almost immediately or within a few days. The new Act will bring with it some rank and competitive changes, but now fans can also look forward to the addition of a new Agent. Killjoy will be the second new Agent to come to the game post-launch. The first, Reyna, was released around two months ago, shortly after the game left beta. Riot Games has yet to release official details about Killjoy’s playstyle and abilities. However, today’s teaser trailer does give fans a look at what the new Agent will be able to do. She is able to deploy a machine gun turret, for example, as well as an ‘Alarmbot’ which appears to alert the player to nearby enemies. In addition, she can deploy some sort of bubble device, although it’s currently unclear what purpose this serves in-game. Fans likely won’t have to wait long to find out, however. Valorant Act II could well launch in less than a week, and besides, Riot may release more details before Killjoy comes to the game anyhow.

Requirements: Here are the Battlefield 1 System Requirements (Minimum) CPU: Core i5 6600K / AMD FX-6350 CPU SPEED: Info RAM: 8 GB OS: 64-bit Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 VIDEO CARD: DirectX 11.0 Compatible video card with 2 GB VRAM (AMD Radeon HD 7850 / nVidia GeForce GTX 660) PIXEL SHADER: 5.0 VERTEX SHADER: 5.0 FREE DISK SPACE: 50 GB DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 2 GB Battlefield 1 Recommended Requirements CPU: Intel Core i7 4790 / AMD FX 8350 Wraith CPU SPEED: Info RAM: 16 GB OS: 64-bit Windows 10 or later VIDEO CARD: DirectX 11.0 Compatible video card (AMD Radeon RX 480 4GB / nVidia GeForce GTX 1060 3GB) PIXEL SHADER: 5.1 VERTEX SHADER: 5.1 FREE DISK SPACE: 50 GB DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 4 GB (GeForce 3 GB) Name game: Battlefield 1 Price: 4.97 euro Link store: https://www.eneba.com/origin-battlefield-1-origin-key-global?af_id=operagxnew&currency=EUR

Requirements: Here are the Human: Fall Flat System Requirements (Minimum) CPU: Intel Core2 Duo E6750 (2 * 2660) or equivalent | AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 6000+ (2 * 3000) or equivalent CPU SPEED: Info RAM: 1024 MB OS: Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10 x86 and x64 VIDEO CARD: GeForce GT 740 (2048 MB) or equivalent | Radeon HD 5770 (1024 MB) PIXEL SHADER: 5.0 VERTEX SHADER: 5.0 FREE DISK SPACE: 500 MB DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 1024 MB Human: Fall Flat Recommended Requirements CPU: Intel Core2 Quad Q9300 (4 * 2500) or equivalent | AMD A10-5800K APU (4*3800) or equivalent CPU SPEED: Info RAM: 2048 MB OS: Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10 x86 and x64 VIDEO CARD: GeForce GTX 460 (1024 MB) or equivalent | Radeon HD 7770 (1024 MB) PIXEL SHADER: 5.0 VERTEX SHADER: 5.0 FREE DISK SPACE: 500 MB DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 1024 MB Name game: Fall Flat Price: 1.98 euro Link store: https://www.eneba.com/steam-human-fall-flat-steam-key-global?af_id=operagxnew&currency=EUR

A simple vulnerability found in the web client of video conferencing platform Zoom could have allowed hackers to listen in on any private meeting of their choosing. Identified by Tom Anthony, VP Product at SEO firm SearchPilot, the Zoom vulnerability stemmed from the absence of rate limiting on private meeting log in attempts. As Anthony explains in a recent blog post, Zoom meetings used to be protected by a 6-digit numeric password, making for a maximum of one million different permutations. This might sound like a considerable number but, using a simple Python program, a hacker could easily trial all possible passwords and brute force their way into any meeting in minutes. Check out our list of the best productivity software on the market Working from home: the mouse, monitor, keyboard and router you need Here's our list of the best project management software out there Meetings set to take place at regular intervals were particularly vulnerable to attack, since the password remains the same for each batch-scheduled meeting. Zoom security Zoom has experienced a sharp uptick in user numbers in recent months and currently serves over 300 million daily meeting participants. Having rocketed into public consciousness as a result of coronavirus lockdown measures and the rise of remote working, Zoom has faced significant scrutiny where security is concerned. Since March, researchers have uncovered a litany of vulnerabilities in the service - from the opportunity for credential theft to app hijacking, malicious code injection and more - forcing the company to suspend product development for a period to focus on eliminating security bugs. After verifying the brute force exploit using a crude Python program running on an AWS machine, Anthony disclosed the vulnerability on April 1, which led to the suspension of the Zoom web client on April 2 - an outage that lasted one week. During this time, Zoom implemented policy that required web client users to log into an account before joining a meeting. The company also made default passwords longer and included non-numeric characters, drastically increasing the number of possible password permutations. “We have since improved rate limiting and relaunched the web client on April 9. With these fixes, the issue was fully resolved, and no user action was required. We are not aware of any instances of this exploit being used in the wild,” Zoom explained in a statement. As Anthony notes, however, it is plausible an attacker might have infiltrated a Zoom meeting by this vector without alerting the other participants, hidden behind a generic user ID such as “iPhone” or “Home PC”.

Cougar has introduced the MG120-G RGB PC case, which is a Micro-ATX PC case featuring support for not only an mATX motherboard but also two graphics cards that can have a length of up to 330 mm. The MG120-G RGB PC case also features support for a bulky cooling which can be either air or water-cooled solutions. Cougar Introduces the MG120-G RGB PC case featuring two tempered glass panels and support for up to six RGB 120 mm fans The MG120-G RGB PC case features an elegant but compact design that utilizes a dark mirror transparent front panel that showcases the three included ARGB VK120 fans. The design of this case is fantastic, featuring the black and grey color scheme, which makes this case an excellent choice for a home office or a high-end gaming setup. In addition to the black and grey color scheme, this case features two tempered glass panels, with the front panel being a darker color. In contrast, the side panel is transparent, allowing for easy viewing of the installed components. These fans are plugged into the included LED controller, which supports up to six fans and is compatible with the motherboards' 5V ARGB connector. These fans have an RGB diffuser ring, which allows for robust and bright RGB lighting effects to be shown throughout the system. These fans are equipped with a Hydro-Dynamic Bearing allowing for enhanced durability and near-silent operation even at the most massive workloads. These fans are connected to the MG120-G's built-in LED controller, which can have up to six fans connected and have all the RGB lighting to be synchronized. This LED controller connects to the motherboard through the 5V ARGB connection, allowing these fans to be controlled through the motherboard RGB software. The front of the case can feature up to three 120 mm fans or two 140 mm fans, and the top panel features support for two 120 or 140 mm fans, and a single 120 mm fan can be mounted to the rear to act as a result. The front IO is somewhat limited, having just two USB ports alongside the two 3.5 mm audio input and output jacks. For storage, this case features support for three 2.5" SSDs on the PSU shroud, one 2.5" SSD mounted to the backside of the motherboard tray, and two 3.5" HDDs can be installed int the drive cage. Sadly, Cougar has yet to reveal any information regarding pricing or availability for the MG120-G RGB Micro-ATX PC Case.

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Name of Game: STAR WARS Jedi: The Old Republic Price: Free Link Store https://store.steampowered.com/app/1286830/STAR_WARS_The_Old_Republic/ SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS MINIMUM: Requires a 64-bit processer and operating system OS: 64-bit Windows 7/8.1/10 Processor: AMD FX-6100/Intel i3-3220 or Equivalent Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 7750, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 or Equivalent DirectX: Version 11 Storage: 55 GB available space RECOMMENDED: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: 64-bit Windows 7/8.1/10 Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 1700/Intel i7-6700K or Equivalent Memory: 16 GB RAM Graphics: AMD RX Vega 56, Nvidia GTX 1070/GTX1660Ti or Equivalent DirectX: Version 11 Storage: 55 GB available space

Online code repository Github has announced a major shake-up in how it keeps users informed about new changes and updates on its platform. For the first time, the Microsoft-owned database will start publicly publishing its roadmap for current and upcoming features. Github has previously only shared details on new announcements at company events or trade shows, but says that in the current climate, more regular updates are needed. Best laptop for programming: top picks for coders, developers and sysadmins These are the best Linux distros around today Also check out our roundup of the best website builders Github roadmap "The public roadmap is designed to give your team more information about what features and functionality you can expect from GitHub over the coming quarters," Github's Shanku Niyogi wrote in a blog post announcing the news. "With more transparency into what we’re building, you can also plan better and share feedback earlier to influence what we’re building." The company's public roadmap will take the form of a new public repository that is open to all Github users in the form of a project board that lays out upcoming releases. Each item on the board will link to a detailed issue with more information about what Github is planning, why it’s important, when the company expect to deliver it, and details on how it is expected to work. Users can also watch the repository or subscribe to individual roadmap issues to be notified about changes directly within GitHub. The company adds that while the new public roadmap isn’t exhaustive, it will include most aspects of Github's product plans, and will be regularly updated. The news is the latest in a series of shakeups from Github since it was acquired by Microsoft for $7.5bn back in 2018. Since then, the platform has enjoyed a number of expansions and updates, including the launch of Android and iOS apps, and also recently made all of its core features available for free to all users.

It appears Intel is getting ready to roll out a new branding for its mainstream processors by the name of EVO. The trademark was spotted by the Twitterati and are widely believed to represent the company's upcoming Alder Lake platform. We can also speculate that the designation EVO has something to do with the word 'evolution' because of the drastic shift to big and small cores that Intel will be rolling out with Alder Lake. A compilation of the trademarks is provided courtesy of Videocardz.com Intel EVO branded processors: Alder Lake CPUs with big and SMALL cores? Intel has been using the traditional branding for quite a while now and the new trademarks spotted appear to reflect an aesthetic shift in the company's brand identity. The distinctive arcs that circled the Intel logo are gone and in its place is a minimalistic and modern looking Intel logo. As you can see, its not just the EVO series branding that has received this treatment - pretty much all Intel logos will be updated. The "i" designations have now been moved to the bottom right corner and will the overall design is more square than before. Considering both Intel CORE and Intel EVO models are there, it might be that [warning: speculation] the i3 series does not get the big small treatment and only i5s and above will receive it [/speculation]. Alder Lake is slated for arrival in 2H 2021 and will coincide with a massive shift in Intel's operations and structures as it starts reaching out to third-party foundries to keep pace with the industry. Recap: Intel Alder Lake CPU configurations: The desktop side of Alder Lake, called Alder Lake S will have up to 125W TDP and up to 8 big cores + 8 small cores. Depending on whether or not you can use all cores simultaneously, this is either an 8 core design or a 12-ish core equivalent design in terms of power. The presence of small, highly power-efficient cores will allow the company to reduce standby and idle power consumption as well as menial loads (like light browsing etc). According to the data posted by the source, Alder Lake series platforms would be: Alder Lake-S 8 Big Cores + 8 Small Cores with a GT1 GPU 6 Big Cores + 0 Small Cores with a GT1 GPU Alder Lake-P 2 Big Cores + 8 Small Cores with a GT2 GPU 6 Big Cores + 8 Small Cores with a GT2 GPU Alder Lake-M 2 Big Cores + 8 Small Cores with a GT2 GPU There is also an Alder Lake P which could probably stand for the Atom Server series if older Intel P series SKUs are any indication. Servers that have a highly dynamic workload (think servers that can scale client loads) would also benefit from this technology as it would make scaling between light and heavy workloads more power-efficient. An Intel Alder Lake M is also in the works which is likely going to be the mobility series. This is the one we are most excited about. The presence of light cores would allow the company to extend the battery lives of laptops significantly as they would no longer have to engage the heavy cores for light tasks.

With the launch today of an all-new Frontier Pursuit in Red Dead Online, Rockstar has also released a brand-new Outlaw Pass. The Outlaw Pass No. 3 features 80 Ranks for players to unlock, and is available until the 19th of October. Of course, the Pass also introduces new cosmetics, and its launch also coincides with new bonus rewards and in-game payouts. Red Dead Online: The Outlaw Pass No. 3 Serving as Red Dead Online’s season pass, this is the third Outlaw Pass to launch for the game thus far. Players who upgrade to the new pass can get up to 40 Gold Bars together with access to new Outfits, Weapon modifications, Camp Upgrades, and other cosmetics. There are 80 Ranks in total in The Outlaw Pass No. 3, offering players a wide range of rewards for playing and completing the pass. The Red Dead Online Outlaw Pass No. 3 is available for players until the 19th of October. Alongside this new release, Rockstar is also launching a series of bonus in-game rewards, available until August 3rd. Encouraging use of the new Naturalist role, Naturalists can earn double rewards on Tier 3 Legendary Animal Samples and Whole Carcass Sales. Moreover, Naturalists can get bonus rewards for completing the following tasks: Free Role Accessory, Outfit, or Emote: Simply become a Naturalist. Gila Monster Camp Flag: Sedate and sample any animal. Unique Colorway for Farnholme Double Bandolier: Complete a Legendary Animal Sighting Mission. Treasure Map: Pitch a Wilderness Cam PS4 users can also claim a handful of free gifts as part of an ongoing partnership between Sony and Rockstar. With the launch of today’s update, these new rewards include 10 Sedative Varmint Cartridges, 5 Animal Revivers, and 5 Blending Tonics. PS4 users will also get a range of new early access bonuses; The Legendary Gabbro Horn Ram, Legendary Chalk Horn Ram, 5 Blending Tonics, Three Fossil Collection Set, and the Woodcote Poncho. Finally, Twitch Prime users who link their accounts to the Rockstar Games Social Club can also claim a host of new bonuses too. These include 5 free Legendary Animal Pheromones, 6,000 Naturalist XP, a free Wilderness Camp, 10 Special Health Cures, 10 Special Snake Oil, 10 Special Miracle Tonics, and 10 Special Bitters. There are also three new in-game Offers available for Twitch Prime users.

Requirements: Here are the Call of Duty: Black Ops III System Requirements (Minimum) CPU: Intel Core i3-530 @ 2.93 GHz / AMD Phenom II X4 810 @ 2.60 GHz CPU SPEED: Info RAM: 6 GB OS: Windows 7 64-Bit / Windows 8 64-Bit / Windows 8.1 64-Bit VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470 @ 1GB / ATI Radeon HD 6970 @ 1GB PIXEL SHADER: 5.0 VERTEX SHADER: 5.0 DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 1 GB Name game: Call of Duty Black ops 3 Price: 13 euro Link store: https://www.eneba.com/steam-call-of-duty-black-ops-3-steam-key-global?af_id=operagxnew&currency=EUR

Requirements: Here are the Minecraft System Requirements (Minimum) CPU: Intel Core i3-3210 3.2 GHz / AMD A8-7600 APU 3.1 GHz or equivalent CPU SPEED: Info RAM: 2 GB OS: Windows 7 and up VIDEO CARD: Integrated: Intel HD Graphics 4000 (Ivy Bridge) or AMD Radeon R5 series (Kaveri line) with OpenGL 4.41Discrete: Nvidia GeForce 400 Series or AMD Radeon HD 7000 series with OpenGL 4.4 PIXEL SHADER: 5.0 VERTEX SHADER: 5.0 FREE DISK SPACE: At least 1 GB for Game Core and Other Files Minecraft Recommended Requirements CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz / AMD A10-7800 APU 3.5 GHz or equivalent CPU SPEED: Info RAM: 4 GB OS: Windows 10 VIDEO CARD: GeForce 700 Series or AMD Radeon Rx 200 Series (excluding integrated chipsets) with OpenGL 4.5 PIXEL SHADER: 5.0 VERTEX SHADER: 5.0 FREE DISK SPACE: 4 GB DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 256 MB Name game: Minecraft Price: 19.75 euro Link store: https://www.eneba.com/other-minecraft-official-website-key-global?af_id=operagxnew&currency=EUR

Box has announced that intelligent, automated classification will soon be coming to Box Shield, its advanced security solution for protecting content in the cloud. It will now automatically scan files and classify them based on their content to help businesses detect and secure sensitive data. Box Shield is the fastest growing new product in the company's history and security-conscious and highly regulated organizations including NASA use it to to secure data in the cloud. Secure your data on the go with one of the best secure drives Keep your devices protected online with the best antivirus software Also check out our roundup of the best business VPN solutions Chief product officer at Box, Varun Parmar provided more details on how businesses are using Box Shield to protect their content from ending up in the wrong hands while working from home in a press release, saying: “The sudden shift to remote work has surfaced new security challenges for businesses, making it more critical than ever to keep sensitive data from getting into the wrong hands. In June alone, Box Shield helped customers protect their content by blocking shared link access to classified files over eight million times and prevented close to a million downloads of classified files. Using advancements in machine learning to automatically apply classification labels as files are uploaded or edited extends Box Shield’s ability to enable secure remote work from anywhere. This allows IT and security teams to configure and enforce policies across the enterprise at a new level of scale that would be impossible to tackle manually.” Automated classification Using advanced machine learning and data leakage prevention capabilities, Box Shield scans files in real-time when they are uploaded, updated, moved or copied to specified folders and automatically classifies them based on admin-defined policies. Businesses will be able to leverage its new automated classification feature to scale their data classification efforts and enforce policies across the enterprise to better comply with GDPR and other regulations. Box Shield can now also automatically identify multiple personally identifiable information types within files including social security numbers, driver's licenses, International Bank Account Number (IBAN) codes and more. The new feature can even identify custom terms and phrases within files such as “Box Confidential”, Internal use only” and “NDA required.” Policies can easily be created that apply the appropriate classification labels to files stored in an organization's cloud storage. The new Box Shield automated classification capabilities will begin to be available today and will roll out to eligible customers over the next month.