YaKoMoS

The European laptop vendor that sells XMG and Schenker laptops has sent a statement to reporters about recent confusion regarding gaming laptop listings and whether or not Nvidia's Max-Q technologies were specified. "We always list Max-Q in the spec sheets and product texts and provide detailed information about the TGP of the installed GeForce RTX 3000 graphics card in order not to confuse our customers unnecessarily," public relations manager Kai Tubbesing wrote. "This was already the case with the previous laptop generation and does not change with the update to RTX 3000." On the page for the XMG Neo 15, for instance, the company lists the most comprehensive mobile GPU listing we've seen, with not just the model, but whether it uses Max-Q technologies and the total graphics power (TGP). Tubbesing claims the information was there the entire time, and not added in response to recent reports. Last week, Nvidia told Tom's Hardware that Max-Q branding wasn't going away, even though we haven't been able to find the name on many major laptop OEM websites. "No, Max-Q branding is not going away," an Nvidia spokesperson told us at the time. "When we originally introduced Max-Q back in 2017, the brand was initially used in GPU naming since Max-Q referred to the GPU TGP only. "Today, 3rd Generation Max-Q is broader, and is a holistic set of platform technologies and design approach to building powerful and thin laptops. "In addition, to be more transparent about a laptop’s exact capabilities, RTX 30 Series laptops now show more information than ever, listing exact TGP, clocks and features supported. You will find this in the control panel which now reports maximum power (TGP+Boost), and support for key features including Dynamic Boost 2, WhisperMode 2, Advanced Optimus, and others, all of which fall under the Max-Q umbrella. "We strongly encourage OEMs to list clocks and other technologies a laptop supports, including Advanced Optimus, Dynamic Boost 2, and more. Ultimately, like all laptop features and specs, it is up to the OEM to market what their particular laptop configuration supports." XMG and Schenker have gone full speed on transparency, which is a good look, considering the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060, 3070 and 3080 for laptops can have a wide variety of clock speeds and different TGPs depending on the implementation. It's unclear whether other vendors will follow suit.

Famed automobile designer Moray Callum is retiring from his position as Ford's vice president of design, which puts him in charge of the look of all Blue Oval and Lincoln products worldwide. Callum will leave on May 1, and Anthony Lo will take his place on April 1. Callum has spent 38 years in automotive design. He started with stints at Chrysler UK and Peugeot Citroën. In 1988, he became a consultant designer with the Ford-owned Ghia styling house. In 1995, Callum moved fully to Ford where his early work included the look of the fourth-generation 2000 Taurus. In 2001, Callum took over the design oversight duties at Mazda. Under his tenure, he focused on creating a more consistent look between the brand's products. Callum moved back to Ford in 2006 to become the leader of the brand's passenger car designs in North America. A promotion in 2009 put him in charge of the look of all Ford and Lincoln products on this continent. Callum has been the boss of all the automaker's designs globally since 2014. "Moray’s influence is seen on streets around the globe," said Hau Thai-Tang, Ford’s chief product platform and operations officer. "He brought and sustained a design vision and leadership to studios – including Ghia in Italy and Mazda in Japan, in addition to Ford and Lincoln – that has elevated the beauty, meaning and function of cars, trucks and SUVs for millions of customers." Moray's brother, Ian Callum, is also a famous automobile designer. He retired from Jaguar Land Rover in 2019 and promptly started his own design firm. Gallery: 1991 Audi Avus Quattro concept: Anthony Lo is currently the vice president of exterior design at Groupe Renault. His career kicked off at Lotus, including penning the Carlton. In 1990, he moved to Audi, and his work there included the Avus concept (gallery above) in 1991. He moved to Mercedes-Benz in 1993 and Saab in 2000. He became director of advanced design General Motors Europe in 2004. Lo has been with Renault since 2010, and his work there has included penning the Captur crossover.

If you were a noughties teen, Burnout 3: Takedown likely has a special place in your heart. A Grand Theft Auto 5 player is bringing the classic racing game to a new generation in GTA Online, and they’ve made a very nostalgic teaser video. Posted on Reddit, LucasRPDJ’s demonstration starts as what seems to be a recreation of Burnout 3’s opening cinematic, complete with The F-Ups’ ‘Lazy Generation’, before moving into actual gameplay. The authenticity of the menus, car select, and new song pop-ups is impressive enough, but the driving is remarkably similar, right down to the UI. That signature chaotic vibe of Burnout is here in force, from the camera angles to the sense of speed. Staying in the mix requires taking down your opponents while maneuvering through traffic, just like Burnout, and all the little details are here, like the onscreen markers that pop up whenever you touch an opponent, and earning boost for being a skilled driver. Being GTA 5, there’s plenty of room for outlandish physics, meaning the crashes can be as audacious as ever – keep an eye out for a white sports car doing a cartwheel in the first couple of minutes. A message after the starting screen says this is a concept trailer for a full remake, and in the clip we can see there’s a full interface for hosting and joining lobbies and so on.

Putting an AMD Threadripper HEDT chip inside a laptop might sound strange, but someone was determined to make it a reality. As spotted by Hackaday, Jeff from the Excursion Gear YouTube channel went the extra mile with his DIY laptop, by including a 16-core, 32-thread AMD Ryzen ThreadRipper 1950X. To make what Excursion Gear dubbed "the most powerful laptop in the world," Jeff used a pre-built HP media center PC case, which he cut down by a few inches, as the laptop chassis. Specs-wise, Jeff went with an AsRock X399M Taichi Micro-Atx motherboard, 32GB of Corsair Vengeance RAM running at 3,600 MHz and a Zotac GTX 1050 Ti graphics card. For the display, he called in an 18.3-inch portable 4K monitor. For cooling, this bootleg Threadripper machines uses a Dynatron A28 1U passive EPYC heatsink, which is low profile anddesigned for server-based rackmount cases. Two Delta BFB1012HH blower fans keep the Threadripper cool. The most difficult part of the process, according to the builder, was figuring out how to run the "laptop" purely on battery power. Jeff eventually went with six Dell companion 18,000mah power banks, paired to an HDPlex 400W ATX SFF power supply. The six power banks combined produce up to 390W of power, more than enough for the Threadripper 1950X-based system. Considering Origin PC makes the Ryzen 9 5950X an option in its laptops, this DIY laptop is probably not the fastest in the world. But a Threadripper-based laptop is quite an engineering feat on its own.

Following changes to WhatsApp's privacy policies that require users to share extra data with its parent company Facebook, many users have begun looking for alternative messaging apps – and it looks like Signal is hoping to lure them away by borrowing a few of WhatsApp's features. Signal already offers end-to-end encryption and the ability to send messages that self-destruct after a certain period of time (an option that arrived in WhatsApp late last year), but its latest beta release reveals a raft of other updates that will bring it in line with its rival. The changes, discovered by WABetaInfo, include some cosmetic options that have appeared in recent WhatsApp updates (animated stickers and custom chat wallpapers, to be specific), but there are also several practical new features on the cards that will make it easier for WhatsApp users to make the switch. The maximum number of participants for a group call in Signal is increasing from five to eight (WhatsApp made the same change in April 2020), there's a new low data mode to reduce data usage during calls (an option WhatsApp debuted in 2014), and users can now set a custom 'about' status (which appeared on WhatsApp in June 2019). Get the message? WhatsApp has (at least temporarily) delayed the switchover to its new terms of service, but that decision appears to have come too late for many users, including world leaders like French president Emmanuel Macron, who have decided to abandon ship rather than share extra information with Facebook. Telegram's founder Pavel Durov called the number of people leaving WhatsApp "the largest digital migration in human history," so it's understandable that Signal is looking to increase its share of the pie by bringing its own specs in line. We don't yet know when Signal's update will be rolled out to all users, but if you've been looking for an alternative messaging app that can replace WhatsApp's features like-for-like, it's one to keep an eye on.

The 2022 Kia Sportage is almost here and we cannot wait to see what Kia has in store for its tried-and-true Sportage platform. So far, we’ve seen several spy shots that give us some idea of what to expect but we have yet to see the real thing. Thankfully the team at Koaeca.ru created renderings of what the new 2022 Kia Sportage could look like, which should hold us over until we see the real thing in April of 2021. Kia’s growing SUV lineup started out back in 1993 when the Kia Sportage was first introduced for sale. Since then, the Kia brand has transformed into the desirable auto manufacturer we know and love today. During this time the Kia Sportage has matured into a competent near-luxury SUV. The Kia brand is continuing its campaign to move upmarket and the Sportage will follow in the footsteps of the top tier Telluride luxury SUV to grow Kia’s market share. We’ve already spied the 2022 Kia Sportage testing at the Nurburgring in heavy camouflage which makes us even more excited to drive this new SUV. In other spy shots, we finally saw more of the Sportage exposed including some very unique headlights which dominate this rendering. Only time will tell if Kia is this daring with their final design. The upcoming 2022 Sportage will share its platform and powertrain options with the Hyundai Tucson and we expect a host of options to cover all types of customers. Expect familiar gasoline engines, hybrid options, and maybe even an electrified SUV in the future. This flexible platform allows Kia to offer customers exactly what they’re looking for while amortizing development costs across more models to keep prices down. Would you buy a Kia Sportage if it looked like this render or would you prefer a more subdued exterior design?

DH 1 - awesome song

DH 1 - nice Lyrcs

DH 2 - Nice Rhythm

I like Unknown Brain / Rival's song, so my vote goes for DH2 .

The removal of the charger from smartphone boxes has been one of the most contentious topics in phones over the last year, and now Samsung has confirmed it won’t include many accessories you may expect in its packaging when you buy a new phone. Following Apple’s move to ditch the charger and in-box headphones with the iPhone 12, the Samsung Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21 Plus and Galaxy S21 Ultra will also come without some key accessories in the box. Why has Samsung dropped these? Officially, it’s to cut down on e-waste by supplying you with a charger that the company believes it’s unlikely you’ll need. There’s very little in the box alongside the phone – just a USB-C to USB-C cable, the phone’s Quick Start guide and an ejector pin so you can insert your SIM. There’s also a pre-applied screen protector, but that’s it. That’s a lot less than you’d currently expect from a smartphone box. It means you’ll have to use a pre-purchased phone charger and another pair of headphones with your device rather than rely on the ones included. TechRadar spoke to Paul Scott, Samsung Mobile’s Head of Product Management in the UK, who said, “It's a really bold but really important step at the same time. Listening to our consumers they’re making far more, as we are, sustainable choices in their daily lives, and what we need to do is make sure that we support that. “We do not want to be sending a consumer yet another charger when they’ve possibly got a charger from, say, 2018 or going all the way back to 2017. It's a USB Type-C charger, so we're not changing it.” All top-end Samsung phones, and the vast majority of other Android phones, have supported USB-C charging since 2017. The Samsung Galaxy S8 was the first phone from the company to make the switch from microUSB to USB-C. If you own an Android phone, it’s very likely that you currently recharge it with a USB-C charger that will be compatible with the new Galaxy S21 series. Samsung is also encouraging users to use its wireless charging tech too, which means you don’t need a cable to be able to recharge your phone. That isn’t technology that everyone has, though, and good wireless chargers are still a more expensive investment than opting for a plug and cable. Patrick Chomet, Samsung’s Head of Customer Experience Office, said, “We believe that the gradual removal of charger plugs and earphones from our in-box device packaging can help address sustainable consumption issues and remove any pressure that consumers may feel towards continually receiving unnecessary charger accessories with new phones. Samsung isn’t just cutting back on the e-waste by dropping chargers – it’s also trying its best to improve its packaging overall. Scott told TechRadar, “Over the past five years, we've reduced that plastic weight within the S series packaging by 92%. And the plastic that we use is up to 3% of the packaging with the latest Samsung flagship, so there's very minimal plastic usage. “We used to have plastic within the box – a plastic holder tray – and we've replaced those trays with pulp molds so the wrapping and accessories are far more eco-conscious." That means the box your Samsung Galaxy S21 phone will come in is set to be far smaller and generally more eco-friendly than previous phones you’ve bought from the company, and likely more than the boxes you’ve bought from other manufacturers. While many will be upset by the lack of a charger in the box with the Galaxy S21 series, the company has made this notably easier to transition over than Apple did with its iPhone 12 series. Many needed to buy a new charger to use on the iPhone 12, but Samsung’s new tech can just be used with a traditional USB-C charger. If you want the latest and greatest charging tech from Samsung and you’re using an older charger, you’ll likely want to purchase a new one. The company has said it's reducing the price of its chargers from $34.99 / £29 / AU$50 before the S21 launch to $19 (about £15, AU$25) in the near future. That price doesn't seem to have taken place on Samsung's website, but the company said during its launch the price will be dropping. We've yet to hear the new price for those in the UK or Australia. Plus, you've got the choice of a third-party alternative to go alongside your new smartphone. But given the path Apple and Samsung are paving, you won’t be burdened with more charging cables packed in all phones to come.

Hardware detective APISAK spotted Intel's Rocket Lake Core i9-11900K running full blast at 5.3Ghz (single-core) in Geekbench 5 and PassMark. Surprisingly, the chip manages to beat all of AMD's Zen 3 parts in the single-threaded tests. This somewhat verifies what we saw at CES 2021 where Intel showed its 11900K beating a Ryzen 9 5900X by roughly 5% in pure single-threaded workloads, portending a shakeup to our CPU Benchmark Hierarchy. PassMark Single-Threaded Scores: Core i9-11900K - 3764 Core i7-11700K - 3548 Ryzen 7 5800X - 3511 Ryzen 9 5900X - 3500 Ryzen 9 5950X - 3493 Ryzen 5 5600X - 3386 Core i9-10900K - 3173 Core i7-10700K - 3083 The i9-11900K scored 3764 points in Passmark, with the closest rival, the i7-11700K, landing at 3548 points. Meanwhile, the Ryzen 7 5800X weighs in with 3511 points. (Strangely, the higher-clocked Ryzen 9 5900X and 5950X scored lower than the 5800X.) If we compare the best of Team Blue to Team Red, the 11900K is 6% faster than the 5800X -- and even less if we compare it to the 11700K. GeekBench 5 Scores: Single Threaded Scores: Core i9-11900K - 1892 Ryzen 9 5950X - 1682 Ryzen 7 5800X - 1669 Ryzen 9 5900X - 1664 Multi-Threaded Scores: Ryzen 9 5950X - 16726 Ryzen 9 5900X - 14061 Core i9-11900K - 10934 Ryzen 7 5800X - 10427 Moving over to the Geekbench 5 results, the 11900K maintains its single-threaded performance lead, beating the 5950X by 12% (which in Geekbench is on top of the single-threaded chart for AMD). But, of course, Rocket Lake's higher frequency and backported cores won't give the 11900K an advantage in the multi-core race, where the 5900X and 5950X easily beat Intel's best. But if we compare just the eight-core models, the 11900K does come out 4% faster than the 5800X. Conclusion: If any of these benchmarks are representative of the Core i9-11900K's real-world performance (spoiler alert, these benchmarks generally are not), then Intel will have beaten AMD in the single-threaded race and re-claimed that crown once again. But when it comes to multi-threaded performance, the Core i9-11900K really gets hit hard from being downgraded to eight cores. We'll have to see how this all plays out once Rocket Lake fully releases and we get our hands on these chips ourselves to benchmark. If the story for Rocket Lake is similar to the story here, Intel will have to price the 11900K aggressively to keep it competitive against AMD's Ryzen 9 parts.

For all the memes, Bugsnax turned out to be a pretty solid game, albeit one with a surprisingly grim twist at the end. At this point, it’s worth noting that we’re wading into spoiler territory, though if you’ve paid any attention at all you’ve probably already gotten the impression that there’s something unpleasant going on with the titular bugsnax – but it seems the early versions of the ending were a lot darker. “We knew from the outset that bugsnax were dangerous parasites, and in their earliest designs they were not very cute,” senior creative director Kevin Zuhn tells Kotaku. “At some point there was an even worse ending where the Grumpuses become snak-craving zombies that eat each other and then you. So if anything, the game got lighter and sillier over time!” The actual ending has you discover that Snaktooth Island is really just bugsnax all the way down, and everybody who’s continuing to eat bugsnax will eventually become bugsnax themselves. But you manage to escape the island and all the villagers return to normal, which is a fair bit more hopeful than, you know, ‘everybody became zombies and ate each other’.

The snow is heavy in Sweden, and automakers like Kia are taking advantage of the conditions for winter testing. This marks only the second time we've seen a next-gen Niro prototype in public, and though the camouflage is still heavy, we can suss out some details. For starters, the new Niro should have a slightly longer wheelbase compared to the current model. It's tough to gauge the difference merely by looking at the wheels, but the rear doors on the prototype look longer, as does the roof. And if you draw your attention to the C-pillar, you'll see a completely different layout at the back of the door compared to the current model. When the covers lift it should still be recognizable as a Niro, but it's definitely a new design. Gallery: 2022 Kia Niro New Spy Photos Speaking of which, the front is still well concealed under black tarps and false panels, but we've heard the new Niro is heavily influenced by the Habaniro concept from nearly two years ago. Previous spy shots gave us a better impression of what that means, primarily with Kia's trademark tiger grille being replaced by a shark nose flanked with smaller headlights. The lenses visible on this prototype look like test units, so expect more changes as the testing program continues. The same isn't necessarily true for the rear, which also wears heavy camouflage and false panels. However, the swirling snow helps highlight the various rear sensors, and if you look really close at the upper corners, you can make out the outline of the Niro's new boomerang taillights. These should make it to production, toned down a bit from the Habaniro concept but still bringing a distinctive flavor to the crossover's backside. Sadly, the Habaniro's butterfly doors won't be part of the deal. Thus far, our spies haven't uncovered tidbits regarding the interior or powertrain. A longer wheelbase should offer a bit more room for passengers, and you know there will be a sizable infotainment screen up front. Under the hood, expect internal combustion, hybrid, and eventually, all-electric options for the front wheels or all four. We anticipate a reveal late this year as a 2022 model.

Developers from security startup Corellium have revealed they managed to get Linux running on Apple's Arm-based M1 devices natively. While Linux, and even Windows, were already usable on Apple Silicon thanks to virtualization, this is the first instance of a non-macOS operating system running natively on the hardware. “Linux is now completely usable on the Mac mini M1. Booting from USB a full Ubuntu desktop (rpi),” wrote Corellium’s CTO Chris Wade on Twitter while sharing pictures of Ubuntu's Raspberry Pi ARMv8 desktop image booting on Apple M1 hardware. A work in progress Corellium aren’t the only ones that are working to port Linux to the M1, though they are the first ones to get to a working desktop. “At Corellium, we've been tracking the Apple mobile ecosystem since iPhone 6, released in 2014 with two 64-bit cores,” write the developers in a blog post sharing details about their port, adding that “many components of the M1 are shared with Apple mobile SoCs, which gave us a good running start.” The post includes the step-by-step instructions for anyone who wants to get Ubuntu on their M1 Mac Mini. While the Corellium port can make full use of the processor, they have yet to figure out how to take advantage of the graphics hardware. Ubuntu running on the M1 The developers have also submitted their code to the Linux kernel mailing list for review. Linus Torvalds, the principal developer of Linux, had expressed interest in using the new MacBooks, though he perceived it probably wouldn't be possible given Apple’s reluctance to share details about the hardware in its machines. While the GPU support might take some doing, it’s exciting to see the amount of progress that’s already been made to get Linux working on the M1.