EVIL BABY.

The real-time strategy genre was a huge deal for competitive gamers back in the day. Games like StarCraft dominated the competitive scene before the term “esports” was ever conceived. However, the interests of the masses eventually shifted to the first-person shooter genre. This was largely due to the intense in-your-face action and added emphasis on reaction timings that made the genre captivating to play and watch. And yet there are plenty who still fancy RTS games these days. This is where Eximius: Seize the Frontline comes in, because it attempts to merge the two genres into a single gameplay experience. In Eximius, you can participate as a soldier or as a commander depending on how you want to go about dominating the battlefield. It will likely take a little bit of both to ensure victory though. There are all kinds of units that you’ll be able to call in such as foot soldiers, mechs, armored heavy vehicles, and even exosuit elites.The different units types all look pretty badass, but also particularly deadly when directly controlled by players. Commanders will definitely need to keep an eye out for ace soldiers. It does sound particularly satisfying though to order a small army to deal with one troublesome would-be hero. And if certain individuals continue to cause unnecessary headaches, it will be even more satisfying to deal with them personally.Hold back in reserve This might be a game you want to keep an eye on if this all sounds interesting to you. The gameplay and graphics of Eximius: Seize the Frontline look particularly good when considering what it has to offer. It visually reminds me a bit of Titanfall at times. The gameplay looks a bit more like Battlefield. Not a lot of developers have explored this idea before, and most have yet to find any real success. The closest any AAA game ever got to this (that I can think of) was in Battlefield 4, which featured a “Commander” mode. You could call in airstrikes, monitor troop movements, suggest objectives, and the like. It never went too in-depth though. Commander mode. Eximius seems like a great way to bring two genres together. It will face some fierce competition though, as it will need to deliver solid gameplay for two different genres simultaneously. If it doesn’t, I can’t see why players would want to play a mishmash of two genres that each have strong respective followings. Developer Ammobox Studios is certainly being ambitious, and if successful, it could yield something very unique and enticing. We’re certainly onboard with the idea. Eximius: Seize the Frontline is exiting Early Access and launching into version 1.0 on March 16. Judging by the existing reviews, it just might live up to the hype.

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Meeting ended.

as he said

If you’ve been anywhere near social media in the past year, you’ll know that BMW’s design has weathered a fair old storm. In the words of Adrian van Hooydonk, senior vice-president of group design at the Bavarian firm, “it can be brutal”. But if you think that’s a hint that van Hooydonk and head of BMW design Domagoj Dukec are about to change their ways, think again. The kidney grille is here to stay.The reasoning is simple: van Hooydonk and Dukec want BMW to stand out, so they’re happy to make it the distinguishing feature. They rationalise it by pointing out that it’s part of BMW’s past, so it will remain part of the future. Listening to both men talk about all aspects of BMW’s design, it’s clear that the ‘separator’ reasoning is the philosophy behind what they’re doing. Dukec justifies it with the amount of noise they’ve created: “If you want to create something that stands out, it must be distinguished and it has to be different. If you want to reach some customers, you have to stand out. It’s not our goal to please everyone in the world, but you have to please your customers.”This, then, is at the heart of what van Hooydonk and Dukec are trying to do – sell cars. “It all comes back to the customer,” is how Dukec puts it. It’s difficult to argue with the numbers as, Covid-aside, 2020 was a good year for BMW. The group’s sales recovered later in the year, with the 686,069 vehicles sold in the final quarter marking a 3.2% increase on the same period in 2019. Not that it’s been easy or without risk. It’s the age-old compromise of acknowledging the past but also moving a company forward, a job that’s not easy with a back catalogue as long as BMW’s. As van Hooydonk is all too aware of. “There is some friction when your old product is so successful, and that’s what we’re seeing,” he says. “If your market success isn’t there, then you have to change. That’s a very stressful situation as a company. It’s better to have this kind of stress [the controversy], even though it would be even better to have market success and universal praise for the changes. But somehow that’s rarely the case.” What’s clear is that both men feel a huge amount of responsibility towards BMW. Both are well aware of the history of the brand – indeed, they’ve justified their current strategy by looking back to the 1960s, when BMW pioneered a sports car that came with a healthy dose of limousine. Cars like the 1500, which set the standard for the company for years to come, right up to today. These days, the fragmentation of what customers want (and Dukec is clear on this: he’s aiming for customers to want his cars, not need them) means that van Hooydonk and Dukec have identified two groups they want to appeal to. They’ve called them the elegant creators and the expressive performers. While it’s tempting to dismiss this as marketing hyperbole, it does make sense when you view it in terms of the product. The creators tend to sit in the odd-numbered cars – the traditional 3, 5 and 7 Series – while the performers are the even-numbered buyers, with cars like the M4 or X6.It boils down to how people will use their cars. As Dukec has it, the creators want a car “more focused on the cabin, but it still has to have a fluid silhouette and nice proportions”, while the performers don’t want such a practical car. The cabin will be smaller, like a suit that’s “not the most comfortable one, but it’s the one in which you look the best. They want a car that’s almost irrational.” What does all this mean for the cars you’ll see in the street? Traditional BMW styling cues, like the kidney grille, quad headlights and Hofmeister kink will remain, but you’ll see increasing fragmentation across the range. The sportier models will get vertical grilles and fuller bodies with sculpted surfacing, while electric cars will have a similar treatment to the recently revealed iX. The grille on that car remains vertical because of all the high-tech equipment, such as autonomous driving sensors, that needs to be positioned in the centre. The saloons, meanwhile, probably won’t get a vertical grille or even a big one: Dukec actually used the word “narrow” to describe it. It will depend on the customer and the car’s character. This separation is an entirely deliberate ploy. As van Hooydonk says: “We are expanding the vocabulary of the BMW brand with each new model and we’re pulling them further apart. And that’s deliberate. We are making them stronger in character without taking the brand apart.”

The mayor of Houston has called for the state of Texas to pay the - in some cases - astronomical electricity bills racked up by residents in last week's freezing weather. "The bill should go to the state of Texas," Houston's Sylvester Turner told CBS News. Some residents have reported bills in excess of $16,000 (£11,500) for a few days of usage. Temperatures plummeted to 30-year lows, hitting 0F (-18C). Much of Texas, which normally enjoys milder winter weather, was blanketed in snow. The unusually cold weather across several southern US states claimed at least 70 lives. Texas is recovering from the freezing temperatures, but many residents still have to boil water due to fears of contamination caused by low mains pressure. Millions of Texans suffered power outages. Electricity supplies have largely been restored in the state, but just under 30,000 customers were still without power on Sunday afternoon, according to Poweroutage.us. Texas has a deregulated energy market allowing consumers to chose between a number of suppliers. Most are on fixed-rate payment plans, but as temperatures plummeted many on variable-rate tariffs were faced with soaring costs. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which oversees the power system for most of the state, is being accused of not being prepared for the shortages. Savings gone Dallas resident and US Army veteran Scott Willoughby told the New York Times that he faces a $16,000 bill which had obliterated his savings.Mayor Turner told CBS that when he was in the state legislature, he had filed a bill to ensure there was "adequate reserve" to prevent blackouts, but it was not considered by the state's leaders. The mayor of the country's fourth largest city suggested the system was not up to the challenges of storms produced by climate change. "All of this was foreseeable. I wrote about it in 2011. And so for these exorbitant costs, it's not the consumers who should assume those costs. "They are not at fault for what happened this week." fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price also told CBS that help with bills should come from Texas and the federal government. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has called for action to ensure Texans "do not get stuck with skyrocketing energy bills". "We have a responsibility to protect Texans from spikes in their energy bills that are a result of the severe winter weather and power outages," he said after meeting lawmakers. President Joe Biden declared a major disaster in Texas on Saturday, clearing the way for more federal funds to be spent on relief efforts. "Assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, and other programmes to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster," the White House statement said.

Whether you're someone who keeps approximately 864,896 browser tabs open at the same time or gets overwhelmed by more than a baker's dozen, Google has added a handy feature to its set of Google Chrome tools that will help you keep tabs on all of your tabs. A feature introduced last year called tab groups will let you group open websites together with one click, and label them with a custom name and color. Once you've created a group, you'll be able to move and reorder the tabs within. This feature has existed for years in other browsers such as Vivaldi and Opera, and through browser extensions like OneTab. Tab groups will be especially helpful for when you're working on a bunch of different projects at once, tracking task progress, or looking through several shopping and review sites. Customize your tab group however you like, using words or emoji for the group name. The best part might be that groups are saved when you close and reopen Chrome, saving you the step of digging through your browser history to find just the website you're looking for. Tab groups are available in Chrome now. The feature will be available for the Chrome browser on desktops that run on Chrome OS, Windows, Mac and Linux. Here's how to create group tabs in Chrome: 1. When you have a tab open, right click on it and click Add tab to new group. 2. Select the name and color of your tab group. 3. When you open new tabs, right click on them, and click Add to group, and select the group you'd like to add them to. The tabs in that group will be underlined with the color you chose. 4. After that, move them around within each group as you like. Chrome is the most po[CENSORED]r browser in the world, and the tabs feature has been in testing for several months, Google said in a recent blog post. For more Chrome tips, check out how to turn on Chrome's dark mode and toolbar playback controls, and learn about its "privacy sandbox."

Intel's 12th-Gen Alder Lake chip will bring the company's hybrid architecture, which combines a mix of larger high-performance cores paired with smaller high-efficiency cores, to desktop x86 PCs for the first time. That represents a massive strategic shift as Intel looks to regain the uncontested performance lead against AMD's Ryzen 5000 series processors. AMD's Zen 3 architecture has taken the lead in our Best CPUs and CPU Benchmarks hierarchy, partly on the strength of their higher core counts. That's not to mention Apple's M1 processors that feature a similar hybrid design and come with explosive performance improvements of their own. Intel's Alder Lake brings disruptive new architectures and reportedly supports features like PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 that leapfrog AMD and Apple in connectivity technology, but the new chips come with significant risks. It all starts with a new way of thinking, at least as far as x86 chips are concerned, of pairing high-performance and high-efficiency cores within a single chip. That well-traveled design philosophy powers billions of Arm chips, often referred to as Big.Little (Intel calls its implementation Big-Bigger), but it's a first for x86 desktop PCs. Intel has confirmed that its Golden Cove architecture powers Alder Lake's 'big' high-performance cores, while the 'small' Atom efficiency cores come with the Gracemont architecture, making for a dizzying number of possible processor configurations. Intel will etch the cores on its 10nm Enhanced SuperFin process, marking the company's first truly new node for the desktop since 14nm debuted six long years ago. As with the launch of any new processor, Intel has a lot riding on Alder Lake. However, the move to a hybrid architecture is unquestionably riskier than prior technology transitions because it requires operating system and software optimizations to achieve maximum performance and efficiency. It's unclear how unoptimized code will impact performance. In either case, Intel is going all-in: Intel will reunify its desktop and mobile lines with Alder Lake, and we could even see the design come to the company's high-end desktop (HEDT) lineup. Intel has even listed -N variants for the educational (Chromebooks) segment, indicating that Alder Lake will span its entire stack of chips. Intel might have a few tricks up its sleeve, though. Intel paved the way for hybrid x86 designs with its Lakefield chips, the first such chips to come to market, and established a beachhead in terms of both Windows and software support. Lakefield really wasn't a performance stunner, though, due to a focus on lower-end mobile devices where power efficiency is key. In contrast, Intel says it will tune Alder Lake for high-performance, a must for desktop PCs and high-end notebooks. There are also signs that some models will come with only the big cores active, which should perform exceedingly well in gaming. Meanwhile, Apple's potent M1 processors with their Arm-based design have brought a step function improvement in both performance and power consumption over competing x86 chips. Much of that success comes from Arm's long-standing support for hybrid architectures and the requisite software optimizations. Comparatively, Intel's efforts to enable the same tightly-knit level of support are still in the opening stages. Potent adversaries challenge Intel on both sides. Apple's M1 processors have set a high bar for hybrid designs, outperforming all other processors in their class with the promise of more powerful designs to come. Meanwhile, AMD's Ryzen 5000 chips have taken the lead in every metric that matters over Intel's aging Skylake derivatives.Intel certainly needs a come-from-behind design to thoroughly unseat its competitors, swinging the tables back in its favor like the Conroe chips did back in 2006 when the Core architecture debuted with a ~40% performance advantage that cemented Intel's dominance for a decade. Intel's Raja Koduri has already likened the transition to Alder Lake with the debut of Core, suggesting that Alder Lake could indeed be a Conroe-esque moment. In the meantime, Intel's Rocket Lake will arrive later this month, and all signs point to the new chips overtaking AMD in single-threaded performance. However, they'll still trail in multi-core workloads due to Rocket Lake's maximum of eight cores, while AMD has 16-core models for the mainstream desktop. That makes Alder Lake exceedingly important as Intel looks to regain its performance lead in the desktop PC and laptop markets. While Intel hasn't shared many of the details on the new chip, plenty of unofficial details have come to light over the last few months, giving us a broad indication of Intel's vision for the future. Let's dive in. Intel's 12th-Gen Alder Lake At a Glance Qualification and production in the second half of 2021 Hybrid x86 design with a mix of big and small cores (Golden Cove/Gracemont) 10nm Enhanced SuperFin process LGA1700 socket requires new motherboards PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 support rumored Four variants: -S for desktop PCs, -P for mobile, -M for low-power devices, -L Atom replacement, -N educational (probably Chromebooks) Gen12 Xe integrated graphics New hardware-guided operating system scheduler tuned for high performanceIntel hasn't given a specific date for Alder Lake's debut, but it has said that the chips will be validated for production for desktop PCs and notebooks with the volume production ramp beginning in the second half of the year. That means the first salvo of chips could land in late 2021, though it might also end up being early 2022. Given the slew of benchmark submissions and operating system patches we've seen, early silicon is obviously already in the hands of OEMs and various ecosystem partners. Intel and its partners also have plenty of incentive to get the new platform and CPUs out as soon as possible, and we could have a similar situation to 2015's short-lived Broadwell desktop CPUs that were almost immediately replaced by Skylake. Rocket Lake seems competitive on performance, but the existing Comet Lake chips (e.g. i9-10900K) already use a lot of power, and i9-11900K doesn't look to change that. With 10nm Enhanced SuperFIN, Intel could dramatically cut power requirements while improving performance. Intel Alder Lake Specifications and Families Advertisement Intel hasn't released the official specifications of the Alder Lake processors, but a recent update to the SiSoft Sandra benchmark software, along with listings to the open-source Coreboot (a lightweight motherboard firmware option), have given us plenty of clues to work with. The Coreboot listing outlines various combinations of the big and little cores in different chip models, with some models even using only the larger cores (possibly for high-performance gaming models). The information suggests four configurations with -S, -P, -N, and -M designators, and an -L variant has also emerged: Alder Lake-S: Desktop PCs (Both LGA and BGA models) Alder Lake-P: High-performance notebooks Alder Lake-M: Low-power devices Alder Lake-L: Listed as "Small Core" Processors (Atom) Alder Lake-N: Educational and consumer client (Chromebook-class devices)

If you have a hankering for a space shooter, perhaps the recent Early Access release of Everspace 2 will fill that void. This brand of fast-paced single-player action from Rockfish Games features deep exploration, tons of loot, RPG elements, mining, and crafting. All in all, it’s definitely worth a look. However, in case you were worried about the future of the game, relax. Rockfish Games is certainly in it for the long haul, and a new development roadmap has been revealed for Everspace 2. This follows after the latest patch to drop for the game. For starters, April will mark the first continuation of the story. This means a selection of new missions will arrive in the game. Players can also look forward to new activities, mini-missions, and even challenges along the way.The Everspace 2 roadmap also pencils in an overhaul to game balancing, which should get players excited. The addition of two new fighters in the forms of the Light Fighter Vanguard and Heavy Fighter Bomber should excite some folks. A new companion will also join in the fun.Moving forward, summer is also looking good for Everspace 2. Head into the Eye of the Storm and investigate the shady business of Grady and Brunt further. As with the April update, there will more missions involved. Rockfish Games is also increasing the player level cap to give you more incentive to play. The summer milestone of the Everspace 2 roadmap will also see a new companion. The third system of Zharkov will be implemented as well. Expect to fight new enemy types, explore new natural phenomena, and discover new creatures.Year-long work Fall is not looking too shabby either. A treasure hunt awaits as the mystery of The Ancients gets revealed. Khait Nebula will be the fourth System added, alongside a new companion and the addition of fast travel. Player level cap will be increased yet again. Furthermore, two new fighter subclasses for the Light and Heavy Fighters are incoming. This will be accompanied by more mission content. More is on the way for Everspace 2, but the roadmap is already quite generous. The 12 to 18 months of Early Access will fly by if Rockfish Games can keep up this content pipeline.

both is good V1: has a good text, brush V2: has a good blur, clear image but i will vote for v1

i see that you working hard, and active member forum/ts3 you have my full support, good luck 😘😘

active member

i'll Vote to DH1 because i liked it more than DH2

Now seems like a bold time to be launching a new kind of hot hatchback. If it’s a particularly special or brilliant kind – say, the Toyota GR Yaris, which is probably both – it’ll no doubt be fine. If it has drive batteries and electric motors as well as a combustion engine, meanwhile, like the ones Peugeot Sport is rumoured to be working on? Well, that might be all right, too. But what if it’s a classic, fossilfuelled, front-driven performance five-door you’re introducing; one with a sense of buttoned-down German conservatism about it? Without a Nürburgring lap record with which to grab attention or a tax-saving plug-in powertrain, would such a car be able to cut through?We’re about to find out because the new BMW 128ti is exactly that kind of car. It marks the return of a model identity suffix not used since the 3 Series Compact hatchback was phased out, and most memorably adopted by the ‘new class’ 2002 of the late Paleozoic era, I believe (read the late 1960s). Exactly what that ‘ti’ suffix will mean to today’s hot hatchback buyer remains to be seen. For those who like this car, I suspect the stick-on stripes and red body parts will mean considerably more. The 128ti is much more than just a ‘stickers, spoilers and wheels’ marketing exercise, though. It has been the subject of a detailed makeover to the chassis, suspension and steering intended to answer what both BMW and its critics perceive to be shortcomings of the current 1 Series in general and of the M135i xDrive in particular. The car rides on specially tuned suspension with shorter coil springs than M Sport versions of the standard 1 Series use, and that cradles it 10mm closer to the road. It gets the M135i xDrive’s special ‘pre-loaded’ antiroll bars, but also firmer springs and higher-rated dampers than its pricier range-mate (the springs raising the car’s suspension rates at the rear axle by more than at the front, interestingly). The same Torsen limited-slip differential features on the front axle as you’ll find in an M135i xDrive, too, and firmed-up suspension bushing and mountings come in all round. So isn’t that the sound of caution being thrown to the wind in pursuit of front-driven driver appeal? Well, yes and no. Mindful of conjuring too much tippy-toed handling ‘pointiness’ for the 128ti than they felt might suit a modern BMW, the car’s development team decided to dial down the slippy diff’s locking ratio slightly from how it’s set in an M135i and slowed the M135i’s steering ratio a little. Wheel geometry on both axles was also tweaked for more handling precision and less rapier directional response. Hmm. They did one other thing that’s likely to divide opinion among petrolheads: they retained the M135i’s eight-speed automatic gearbox. Much as I don’t want this test to read like some polemic on the importance of three pedals and a manual shift lever in a properly involving, front-wheel-drive performance car, we’ll return to that.

The Prince of Wales has visited the central London hospital where his father, the Duke of Edinburgh, remains after feeling unwell. Prince Philip was admitted to the King Edward VII's hospital as a precaution on Tuesday. A Buckingham Palace source told the BBC the duke is likely to remain in hospital into next week. The exact reason for his admission has not been disclosed but his stay is not related to coronavirus. A palace source previously said the duke, who is due to turn 100 in June, had walked into the hospital in Marylebone unaided. Prince Charles, 72, spent about 30 minutes at the hospital on Saturday afternoon. Under England's current coronavirus lockdown rules, visiting someone in a hospital is considered a "reasonable excuse" to leave home, although many hospitals have put significant limits on visitors. The King Edward VII's hospital website says visitors "will only be considered in exceptional circumstances" during the pandemic. Members of the Royal Family have continued with their official duties while Philip has been in hospital. The Queen, 94, performed her first face-to-face event of the year on Thursday, when she knighted a royal aide during a private socially-distanced ceremony at Windsor. Prince Charles visited the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham with the Duchess of Cornwall on Thursday, where he told NHS staff the country owes them "an enormous debt of gratitude" for their efforts in the coronavirus pandemic. The Duke of Cambridge has also carried out several virtual conversations with frontline NHS staff this week, while the Princess Royal held a virtual meeting in her role as patron of the Scottish Rugby Union.Last month, Buckingham Palace announced that Prince Philip and the Queen had received Covid vaccinations from a household doctor at Windsor Castle. The couple have been spending the recent lockdown in England at Windsor with a small household staff, nicknamed HMS Bubble. They celebrated Christmas quietly there, instead of the traditional family gathering at the Queen's Sandringham estate in Norfolk. in December 2019, the duke was admitted to King Edward VII hospital as a "precautionary measure" for treatment for a "pre-existing condition". He was discharged on Christmas Eve that year, after four nights and driven to Sandringham, where he spent Christmas with the Queen. The duke has received treatment for various other health conditions over the years including a blocked coronary artery in 2011, a bladder infection in 2012 and exploratory surgery on his abdomen in June 2013. Prince Philip's most-recent official engagement saw him hand over his role of colonel-in-chief of The Rifles in a ceremony at Windsor to the Duchess of Cornwall, who received the role in a separate ceremony at Highgrove. Last November, the Queen and Prince Philip marked their 73rd wedding anniversary by releasing a photograph of themselves opening a card made for them by their great-grandchildren, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.

With WhatsApp’s recent plans to update its privacy policy raising questions about how the platform handles user data, people are surging to check out competitors such as Signal and Telegram. However, it’s not just consumers that would be wise to take note of the security and privacy implications of using WhatsApp, but businesses too. While some companies use the regular version of WhatsApp, WhatsApp does explicitly state that they shouldn’t, and instead should be downloading WhatsApp Business. With this in mind, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of using WhatsApp Business, across a range of criteria, from security and privacy, to usability.Why consider WhatsApp Business? Po[CENSORED]rity It would be easy to underestimate the advantage of a well-established platform (WhatsApp is reported to have over 2 billion active monthly users of its regular platform, and over 50 million users of WhatsApp Business), but being confident that your users have all heard of and are familiar with using your chosen platform is an undeniable plus. Particularly in the early days of setting up your communication streams, this can eliminate the hassle of getting users up to speed and save a lot of time. Easy to use The simple user interface of WhatsApp Business means there really isn’t much that can go wrong. Aside from the fact that most people are familiar with the platform, it’s also very intuitive, which likely means fewer mishaps for your business. It can be used with a virtual phone number For both iPhone and Android users, there’s an option to use WhatsApp Business with a virtual number; ideal for those who have concerns with sharing their number with WhatsApp or with other members of the team for those in larger organisations. It’s free Considering its widespread po[CENSORED]rity and global reach, it is perhaps a little surprising that both WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business are still free, especially with the use of additional features such as voice recordings and video calls.Why you might want to think twice about using WhatsApp Business Security and privacy Despite the fact that companies across the world are using WhatsApp Business, there are a number of restrictions, responsibilities and risks involved, especially for larger organisations because of privacy regulations like GDPR or other regulatory requirements in their industry. By using the platform, you agree to your information being shared across Facebook, with it “not possible to opt out of these data practices.” You can’t use WhatsApp Business in regulated industries Before you even begin to explore the platform further, you might want to check that you don’t fall into any of the industries not supported. WhatsApp Business’ Terms of Service state “we make no representations or warranties that our Business Services meet the needs of entities regulated by laws and regulations with heightened confidentiality requirements for personal data, such as healthcare, financial, or legal service entities.” WhatsApp Business can’t be used within or across organizations Essentially WhatsApp Business can only be used as a potential sales tool or conversation starter between a business and its customers. Stating that its “Business Services are not intended for intracorporate usage”, it therefore does not also fulfil the role of internal comms that many businesses will be relying upon from such a platform. A lack of work/life divide As many of us adapt to working remotely, the work/life divide is a real struggle without a daily commute and change of scenery to help us compartmentalize the different areas of our lives, and this isn’t helped by the various different channels used for communications. Any one given business might use multiple mediums such as phone calls, email, Slack, video call, and WhatsApp to communicate between teams. Companies are under increasing pressure to recognise the importance of staff wellbeing at this difficult time, and with employees using WhatsApp for both personal relationships and work use, the lines become more blurred. However, it’s worth pointing out that when looking at alternatives like Signal which also caters to both personal and professional use, there are no settings to switch between personal or business usage. Is there a better way? There’s certainly a need to tread with caution for companies looking to use WhatsApp Business, but are the alternatives actually more suitable? Apps such as Telegram and Signal, are ‘end-to-end encrypted’ which means the content cannot be monitored and is beyond even law enforcement agencies. While WhatsApp Business is also end-to-end encrypted, it has a number of loopholes that allow conversations to be stored or shared. But do we actually want this level of secrecy? Can businesses, in good faith, condone the use of apps without visibility of what groups exist, who belongs to them, or what is being said? A lack of control and audit trails of conversations make them a minefield from a legal, IT and HR perspective. Preventing sensitive information from reaching the wrong hands seems almost impossible. Could there be another way where messaging can be secure and protect the individuals’ rights whilst also remaining responsible? Now feels like the perfect time for messaging apps to lead by example and offer more private, but still responsible and accountable solutions, in policy and in practice.

Intel's 11th-Gen Rocket Lake is purportedly headed to the launch pad for blast off in late March, promising to upset our list of Best CPUs for Gaming and CPU Benchmarks Hierarchy. Rocket Lake certainly couldn't come at a better time for Intel, either – AMD's Ryzen 5000 processors have thundered into the desktop PC market, upsetting Intel's Comet Lake chips and taking the lead in every metric that matters, including gaming. Intel's response comes in the form of Rocket Lake, and the company says the chips come with a 19% improvement in instruction per cycle (IPC) throughput and blistering 5.3 GHz (+) clock speeds that will reestablish its performance leadership in gaming. Rocket Lake will bring the backported Cypress Cove architecture to the desktop PC, Intel's first new microarchitecture in six years. But unlike the forward progress we see with the company's 10nm Tiger Lake chips for laptops, Rocket Lake-S represents 14nm's last hurrah on the desktop and marks the seventh and final iteration of the longest-lived leading-edge node in Intel's history (it debuted in 2015). Intel's current integrated graphics are woefully inadequate for gaming, and we haven't seen a meaningful iGPU performance boost for desktop PCs since Kaby Lake arrived back in 2016. This changes with Rocket Lake, which comes with Intel's performant 12th-gen Xe graphics. Intel says the new engine doubles graphics performance over the previous-gen chips, bringing 1080p-capable gaming (albeit with low fidelity settings) to mainstream CPUs. Rocket Lake supports the PCIe 4.0 interface, which provides twice the bandwidth of PCIe 3.0. That addresses a key weakness exacerbated by AMD's now two-year-long advantage with its uncontested leadership position in I/O connectivity. Intel has also bumped up Rocket Lake's memory throughput to DDR4-3200, a nice step up from the prior gen's DDR4-2933. So what's the catch? Rocket Lake tops out at eight cores and sixteen threads due to the backported architecture, a step back from the 10-core Comet Lake i9 models. "Backporting" is a method that allows Intel to take a new design built on a smaller process node, in this case 10nm, and etch it on an older, larger node (in this case, 14nm). Intel backported the 10nm Sunny Cove cores found in Ice Lake processors to the less-dense 14nm process to create Rocket Lake's Cypress Cove architecture, leaving the chip designers with fewer transistors to make the new chips. As a result, Intel had to remove two cores; there simply wasn't enough room in the chip package for a larger die. That's an odd development in light of Intel's 10-core Comet Lake flagships, not to mention that eight cores certainly feels inadequate in the face of AMD's 16-core Ryzen 9 5950X. Intel is betting heavily on its 19% IPC gains and high clock speeds to offset the lower core counts, and the company may have a split product stack, with Alder Lake hybrid chips coming in later to address the higher core count segment. Rocket Lake slots into Intel's 11th-gen processor family, but all signs also point to refreshed Comet Lake chips for Core i3 (and lower) 11th-gen processors, which is another interesting development. Intel has slowly teased out the details of the Rocket Lake chips, but the company hasn't provided the full details yet. However, retailer listings and a string of leaked benchmarks have pretty much filled in the gaps, so let's cover what we know so far. Intel 11th-Gen Rocket Lake At a Glance Maximum of eight cores, 5.3 GHz peak boost speed New Cypress Cove architecture featuring Ice Lake Core architecture and Tiger Lake Graphics architecture. Support for PCIe 4.0 - 20 lanes (four to storage) New microarchitecture for the desktop AVX-512, Thunderbolt 4 support Intel plans to launch Rocket Lake in March 2021 Intel 12th-gen Xe LP Graphics increase graphics performance by 50% Support for DDR4-3200 for Rocket Lake, DDR4-2666 for Comet Lake Refresh New overclocking features for more flexible tuning performance Intel Deep Learning Boost and VNNI support Backward compatible with 400-series motherboards (caveats apply) Intel Rocket Lake Release Date and Availability Intel has given an official Q1 2020 release window for Rocket Lake-S processors, but MSI narrowed it down to late March. We've also seen Intel's Rocket Lake packaging emerge, which takes a new design approach to liven up the series, so it's clear we're on the cusp of Intel's launch. Intel also officially announced that its 10nm hybrid Alder Lake-S chips would launch in the second half of 2021. That timeline indicates that Rocket Lake will likely serve either as a short-lived stopgap or as part of a split product stack for the mainstream desktop, with the Alder Lake chips stepping in as the high core count flagships. The Alder Lake-S processors are thought to come with DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 support, marking a big step forward for the desktop PC. Intel 11th-Gen Rocket Lake Specifications Intel 11th-Gen Core Rocket Lake and Comet Lake Refresh SKUs* *Specifications are not official; credit @harukaze5719 and @momomo_us A flurry of leaked benchmarks have emerged from Asian regions, including full-on reviews of some Rocket Lake-S chips. That, along with listings at retailers and submissions to public databases, has given us a decently clear image of the new Rocket Lake family. However, these specifications are not official, and clock speeds can change as the chips come closer to market. Most of the tests are conducted on Intel reference validation platforms (RVP), indicating the silicon is still under development. As we can see above, Intel spreads the Rocket Lake (RKL-S) chips into the familiar Core i9, i7, and i5 families, but there's a fly in the ointment: Intel has purportedly decided to use refreshed Comet Lake (CML-R) chips for its Core i3 and Pentium families. Those chips feature the same architecture as other Comet Lake chips but come with slightly increased clock speeds. As before, Intel offers graphics-less F-series models across its Core i9, i7, i5, and i3 families. The F-series models come with the same clock speeds and other features as the fully-featured models. Intel has confirmed that the Core i9-11900K, the new flagship model, comes with a dual-core 5.3 GHz boost and 4.8 GHz all-core boost, matching the previous-gen Core i9-10900K. It's noteworthy that these are Thermal Velocity Boost frequencies that only activate if the processor is under a certain temperature limit, but most motherboard makers ignore those limits anyway. That means the chips will likely operate at these speeds regardless of temperature limits, at least on higher-end motherboards. Intel has confirmed the chips feature a 150W PL1 power rating (at the base frequency), a 25W increase over the 10900K, and an identical 250W PL2 (boost) rating. Intel has also bumped up Rocket Lake's memory throughput to DDR4-3200, a nice step up from the prior gen's DDR4-2933, but some of the early benchmark leaks have shown the chip running at slower memory frequencies, meaning they aren't a good measure of what we'll see in the final shipping models. Additionally, the Comet Lake Refresh chips (Core i3 and below) support DDR4-2666, so we won't see marked improvements in terms of memory speed with the lesser Rocket Lake models. The Rocket Lake chips generally expose higher boost frequencies across the entire range, and Intel has confirmed that the chips come with the Xe LP graphics engine. Intel says it added a 'third more' EUs to the chips to boost performance up to 50% over the previous-gen UHD 630 graphics. It isn't clear if the increased EU count is over the existing UHD 630 graphics, which would mean we're looking at chips with a maximum of a lackluster 32 EUs, seemingly confirmed by the architecture breakdown below and the leaked specifications, or if it represents an increase over the Tiger Lake chips, which would beef up the Rocket Lake processors with 128 EUs. Unfortunately, 32 EUs would hamper gaming performance significantly. On the other hand, doing 128 Xe EUs on 14nm would use up a considerable amount of die space, and most desktop users (at least in the DIY space) will simply use a dedicated GPU anyway. For now, it appears that Intel has carved the Xe LP graphics engine into UHD Graphics 750 (GT1) with 32 EUs, UHD Graphics 730 (GT1) with 24 EUs, and an as-yet-undefined UHD Graphics P750 (GT1) that may encapsulate the Iris graphics offerings. Advertisement Intel's Xe graphics also bring in-built AV1 decode acceleration, which is helpful because the codec reduces bandwidth up to 20% for video streaming (such as 4K and 8K content). Rocket Lake also features Intel's 'new' Always-On QuickSync Video. This feature allows Xe Graphics to run concurrently with a discrete GPU so you can offload some workloads, like video streaming with QuickSync, to alleviate the burden on your discrete GPU. This feature has already been around for several years, but it required BIOS support, and you had to manually enable the integrated graphics unit after you installed a video card. Intel says the technique is now a supported and validated configuration that's enabled by default in the BIOS. Intel Rocket Lake Price Pricing details have emerged in the form of retailer listings in several foreign countries, but it's important to note that Intel hasn't revealed the official pricing for Rocket Lake yet. 2Compute, a Belgian retailer, currently lists the Core i9-10900K, Core i7-10700K, and Core i5-10600K for $555, $398, and $282, respectively. Using this as a gauge of its Rocket Lake listings, we see that Core i9-11900K and Core i7-11700K could cost up to 8.8% and 14.3% more, respectively, while the Core i5-11600K may arrive with a 3.9% higher price tag than the Comet Lake chips. However, we should take this information with a grain of salt - other retailers have listed the chips at slightly lower pricing than the Comet Lake equivalents. For now, the jury is out for Intel's Rocket Lake pricing, but given the general indications, we shouldn't expect a huge pricing delta compared to the Comet Lake processors.

If you did not already know, BlizzConline 2021 is happening, starting tomorrow. However, it seems that Blizzard has jumped the gun in sharing its announcements, specifically for World of Warcraft. As spotted by by Wowhead, the press portal of Blizzard was discovered to contain two new press releases, one for World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Classic and another for World of Warcraft‘s 9.1 update, Chains of Domination. Although Blizzard has taken down those links, by now, plenty of information is already out in the open. These World of Warcraft leaks are pretty significant. Perhaps more significant is that of World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Classic. This will bring players back into the past once more, but this time, for the MMORPG’s first expansion released in 2007. It is expected to be similar in experience to World of Warcraft Classic. This would suggest that content such as new raids and dungeons will arrive just as it did back in the day. The World of Warcraft leaks pointed to something interesting as well, in that players have a choice of either staying at level 60 or jump into Burning Crusade Classic. Hard choices might be in the future. Future of Shadowlands The other big part of the World of Warcraft leaks has to do with the next update for World of Warcraft: Shadowlands. We now know that it will be called Chains of Domination. As the BlizzConline press release states, this is a big update for the game. What we can tell is that the endgame zone of The Maw will add a new area. Korthia, the City of Secrets, will give players more to do. The story will also be continued with Chains of Domination. As part of the 9.1 update, you will also be able to utilize your flying mounts. Travelling around will be even easier than before. The World of Warcraft leaks also revealed the addition of both a new raid, as well as a new mega-dungeon. Imagine a regular dungeon, but way bigger. The new raid is called the Sanctum of Domination. In total, players will be going up against 10 bosses, with the final bout against none other than Sylvanas Windrunner herself. If you ever felt like getting back at one of the biggest villains in Shadowlands, here is your golden opportunity. The mega-dungeon, on the other hand, features eight bosses, and is called Tazavesh, the Veiled Market. Judging from the description, players will be in for quite a good time. There will be exotic wares and strange creatures to be found in this bazaar of mysterious Brokers. It will all culminate in a high-stakes heist to obtain powerful artifacts from Azeroth. A caper in World of Warcraft? BlizzConline 2021 is definitely bringing the fire. Future unclear However, the different World of Warcraft leaks made no mention of any release date. Both World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Classic and Chains of Domination are expected to hit later this year. With the 9.0.5 update scheduled for March, the money is on summer release for the Chains of Domination update. We can expect Blizzard to show off even more regarding these two substantial updates for World of Warcraft during BlizzConline 2021. The opening ceremony will start on February 19 at 5 PM ET.

Land Rover Classic is building 25 heavily modified versions of the original Defender, inspired by the formidable Camel Trophy off-road expeditions, and all models sold within three days of going on sale. The Camel Trophy took place annually from 1980 to 1998. With the exception of the inaugural event, teams raced factory-supplied, modified Land Rover models across some of the harshest terrain in the world, stopping to take part in special tasks including timed rally stages, winching trials and orienteering. Priced from £195,000 and built in both three-door 90 and five-door 110 forms, Land Rover Classic's modern tribute to the competition is based on the Defenders that starred in the event for much of the 1980s. The Defender Works V8 Trophy shares a 5.0-litre petrol V8 and eight-speed ZF automatic gearbox with the limited-run Defender Works V8, packing 399bhp and 380lb ft for a significant performance increase over the original-specification 4x4s. It is finished in a retro-inspired shade of Eastnor Yellow with black contrasting wheel arches, bonnet and tailgate, while a 'Heritage'-style front grille and 16in colour-coded steel wheels are a further nod to the Defender's origins. Customers can also specify personalised competition graphics. Like the original competition cars, the V8 Trophy gains extensive upgrades to help it cope on rough terrain, including a winch, a heavy-duty roof rack, underbody protection, LED spotlights and chunky off-road tyres. Upgrades inside include black leather upholstery with contrasting yellow stitching, Recaro sports seats and Land Rover Classic's infotainment system with integrated sat-nav and smartphone compatibility functions. All buyers are invited to a three-day off-roading expedition at Eastnor Castle later this year, where they will drive their car for the first time in a series of challenges "inspired by famous global adventures and competitions spanning more than seven decades of Land Rover production". Expert off-roaders will be on hand to provide one-to-one tuition and guidance, and a 'grand prize' - to be unveiled later this year - will be awarded to the event's winner. Land Rover Classic director Dan Pink said: “The Land Rover Defender has always been more than just a vehicle; its engineering capability and suitability for overland expedition and all-terrain competition means it’s renowned with getting away from it all. The new Land Rover Trophy will bring this to life for a new generation of adventurers. “We’re looking forward to an exciting and memorable event, full of camaraderie, and continuing the Land Rover Trophy legend for years to come. Seeing the silhouette of these vehicles which you’ll instantly know as a Land Rover, traversing the hills at Eastnor, will be a defining moment of the adventure.”