Foundry Hardware‘s offerings include power supply units, immersion optimization kits, and control boards tailored to support various mining machine models. According to MK Sathya, Senior Vice President of Mining Services at Foundry, these products are engineered to streamline maintenance and adapt to diverse operational demands, ensuring miners can optimize their setups without extensive modification costs. “Our decision to enter the hardware market was driven by our desire to provide innovative products aimed at making miners’ lives easier through simpler maintenance while continuing to focus on improving mining efficiency and uptime reliability,” the Foundry vice president said. “Furthermore, we intend to provide miners with inventory flexibility by building hardware usable on multiple models of mining machines.” The company remarked on Friday that the introduction of Foundry Hardware reflects a strategic move by Foundry to address the needs of the crypto mining industry for durable and flexible hardware solutions. With the global cryptocurrency market evolving, Foundry said it aims to position itself as a key player in infrastructure support by delivering products that promise enhanced uptime and operational efficiency. Foundry USA currently leads as the largest bitcoin mining pool, controlling 27.19% of the global hashrate, which totals 595.74 exahash per second (EH/s), amounting to 161.96 EH/s. Historical data ranks Foundry sixth in terms of the number of blocks discovered annually. The most recent developments in Foundry Hardware will be featured at the forthcoming Mining Disrupt conference in Miami.

Samsung has rolled out a significant software upgrade for the Galaxy S20 FE model, not only in the United States but also in various countries across Europe and Asia. The latest firmware version, identified as G780GXXSAEXF1, has been made available to users in a wide range of regions including Australia, France, Malaysia, Portugal, Spain, and more. This latest software update brings a slew of enhancements and improvements to the Galaxy S20 FE user experience. Notably, the update includes a crucial security patch dated for June 2024, targeting and addressing a total of 59 vulnerabilities that were present in previous versions of the software. These fixes aim to bolster the device’s security protocols and ensure that users’ data and privacy are safeguarded effectively. Samsung continues to demonstrate its commitment to delivering timely updates and patches to its devices, ensuring that users across the globe can benefit from enhanced performance, security, and overall user satisfaction. With this latest software upgrade, Galaxy S20 FE users can enjoy a more reliable and secure smartphone experience, further solidifying Samsung’s position as a frontrunner in the mobile industry. Additional Facts: 1. The Samsung Galaxy S20 FE was introduced in September 2020 as a more affordable alternative to the flagship Galaxy S20 series. 2. The Galaxy S20 FE features a high-refresh-rate display, a versatile camera system, and 5G connectivity. 3. Samsung regularly releases software updates to improve performance, add new features, and enhance security on its devices. Key Questions: 1. What are the specific features and improvements included in the latest software upgrade for the Galaxy S20 FE? 2. How does Samsung ensure that users across different regions receive timely software updates for their devices? 3. Are there any known issues or bugs that users may encounter after installing the latest software update on the Galaxy S20 FE? Advantages: 1. Enhanced security: The inclusion of a crucial security patch in the software upgrade helps protect user data and privacy. 2. Improved performance: Software updates often include optimizations that can lead to better overall device performance. 3. Added features: Updates may introduce new functionalities, features, or improvements to the user interface, enhancing the user experience. Disadvantages: 1. Potential bugs: Software updates can sometimes introduce new issues or bugs that may affect the device’s stability or functionality. 2. Compatibility issues: Older devices may struggle to handle the requirements of new software updates, leading to performance issues. 3. User resistance: Some users may be hesitant to install updates due to concerns about changes to the user interface or preferences for the existing software version.

Artist: POP SMOKE Real Name: BASHAR BARAKAH JACKSON Birth Date /Place: July 20 1999/Brooklyn NY City Age: 20 Social status (Single / Married): Dead Artist Picture: Musical Genres: Rap/Drill Awards: Billboard Music Award for Top New Artist/Billboard Music Award for Top Rap Artist/Billboard Music Award for Top Rap Album Top 3 Songs (Names): Dior/Welcome to the party/For The Night Other Information: None

The 7 Best PlayStation 5 Accessories for Immersive Gaming The PlayStation 5 comes out of the box with a controller and all of the stuff you need to dive in and start playing its great selection of games, but if you’re looking to make the most of Sony’s newest console, there are a lot of fantastic accessories available to help you out. Whether you’re looking to up your game with a premium controller or simply install an internal SSD for additional storage, we've got you covered with our list of the best PlayStation 5 accessories. When it comes to grabbing accessories for your PlayStation 5, the most important thing to ask yourself is, “What will genuinely improve my gaming experience?” If you’re a casual gamer who doesn’t need much beyond a controller and some games, maybe you’re best off with a comfy controller and a good pair of headphones. But if you’re an enthusiast who wants to truly invest in the world of PlayStation, there are some excellent upgrades to consider, like SSDs, headsets, and specialty controllers. How We Selected All of these selections come from hands-on time with the accessories, as well as in-depth research that includes critical and customer reviews. We evaluated these items based on their performance, durability, and ease of use, as well as how instrumental they are in getting the most out of your PS5. As avid gamers, we only recommend the accessories that are well worth the investment, since we know neither the console (nor its accessories) come cheap.

How to Create a Custom Windows 11 Install Disk, With Only the Features You Need Windows 11 has been with us for some time now, and for those of us with the best desktops we can guarantee the best performance. But what about that five year old laptop that your aunt has? The one with 4GB of RAM and a CPU that fell out of the best CPUs category in the prior decade. Sure Linux is an option, but what if they really need that one Windows app? This scenario is common to many of us who work in tech. A family member needs tech support and we don’t have a lot of time to help them. So what if there were a way to create a custom Windows 11 install, one that install on older hardware and breathe new life into it? In this how to you’ll learn how to create your own custom Windows 11 image, ready for installation on your aunt’s old laptop, or on your gaming rig. An alternative to creating your own bespoke Windows 11 install is to use Tiny11 Builder. We sacrifice the ability to truly customize our install for a fully automated approach. If you are short on time, then perhaps this is a good compromise. But, if you want to truly tailor your Windows 11 experience, read on and learn exactly how. Downloading the latest version of Windows 11 from Microsoft is generally the way to go, but for this custom build, the absolute latest bleeding edge release will be needed. The source of the latest bleeding edge release is uupdump, and from there is where this how to begins. The source ISO is the latest public version of Windows 11, which will be put through two tools, MSMG Toolkit and NTLite, to produce a custom ISO for machines which don’t make Windows 11’s cut.

Lucid Software Announces 15 New Integrations with Top Enterprise Products, Launches New Marketplace to Enhance Visual Collaboration Experience SOUTH JORDAN, Utah, March 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Lucid Software, a leading provider of visual collaboration software, today announced the rollout of 15 new integrations with leading software providers across the Lucid Visual Collaboration Suite. These integrations can be found at Lucid's newly launched marketplace. "We know how important it is to connect the Lucid Suite with other top applications so teams can more fully utilize their tech stack to navigate their diverse workflows," said Dan Lawyer, Chief Product Officer at Lucid Software. "Lucid's latest deployment of integrations, which can be found in our newly launched marketplace, adds to our platform's abilities to help distributed teams achieve greater clarity and produce results quicker." Lucid's latest integrations add to the power of the Lucid Visual Collaboration ecosystem, which allows teams to communicate complex ideas and align at every stage of their workflow, from brainstorming to execution. Through its full library of integrations, Lucid streamlines processes and workflows within a company's tech stack and creates a foundation for the most effective and efficient collaboration across all teams and departments. New integrations announced today can improve a variety of workflows, including: Aligning Teams Internally: These integrations allow teams to embed documents, designs, and project-related work into Lucid documents so teams can align and create a single source of truth and a living blueprint within an organization. Clarifying Context and Workflows: Lucidspark and Lucidchart documents can be embedded into the following applications to drive alignment and keep teams informed of the latest changes, wherever they may be referencing project documentation. Connecting Work Across Projects and Teams: By importing tasks from the following applications as Lucid Cards, users will have a streamlined view of planning initiatives to help teams execute work across the entire project workflow. Enhancing Meetings and Communication: Lucid documents can be directly added to meeting invitations, so users are prepared and aligned on context. Teams can connect these Lucid integrations to their preferred solutions via the Lucid marketplace. Users can search integrations by Lucid's individual products, by categories ranging from productivity to task management, and by team functionality ranging from IT to project management. To learn more about Lucid's integration marketplace, visit https://lucid.co/marketplace. Lucid Software is a leader in visual collaboration, helping teams see and build the future from idea to reality. With its products—Lucidchart, Lucidspark, and Lucidscale—teams can align around a shared vision, clarify complexity, and collaborate visually, no matter where they're located. Top businesses use Lucid's products all around the world, including customers such as Google, GE and NBC Universal. Lucid's partners include industry leaders such as Google, Atlassian and Microsoft. Since the company's founding, it has received numerous awards for its products, business and workplace culture.

Coming with HyperBoost Gaming engine, is OnePlus 11R 5G a good choice? Want to play endless rounds of online games on your smartphone without experiencing lag in a single move, or without the phone becoming too hot to even hold at the end of a long session? If yes, then OnePlus 11R 5G is an option that you can consider buying. The smartphone comes powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor with an expansive 6.7-inch Super Fluid Display. There is a HyperBoost Gaming engine feature on the phone for gaming abilities. The handset houses a 5,000 mAh battery. All of these features together make OnePlus 11R 5G a powerful smartphone to take your gaming experience a few notches higher. OnePlus phones are known for the fast and smooth experience that they offer but this model, we experienced, comes as an upgrade to that as well. Whether it was the 5v5 Control Point Clashes or the 5V5 Deathmatch mode, the device could go on playing – and winning – non-stop, while the phone ‘smartly’ blocked off notifications from other apps running in the background. The server-level memory management system allows the OnePlus 11R 5G to prioritise what is important to users. With 16 GB RAM and an advanced RAM management system, it can keep as many as 44 applications active in the background as you concentrate on the game at hand, just like we did. OnePlus 11R 5G is powered by the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 Mobile Platform which offers up to 3.0 GHz peak CPU speed, and translates to a 30 per cent improvement in CPU power efficiency. This chipset also supports HDR gaming, which is enabled by an improved Qualcomm Adreno GPU with a 30 per cent improvement in GPU power efficiency, which increases clock speed by up to 10 per cent. A 4th Gen Snapdragon X65 5G Modem-RF System is also fitted into the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, which supports 5G speed of up to 10 Gbps1, along with more networks, frequencies, and bandwidth, no matter which part of the world you are in. The expansive 6.7-inch screen with Super Fluid Display on OnePlus 11R 5G made playing even more fun. The OnePlus 11R 5G brings a 120Hz Super Fluid Display with a resolution of 2772x1240 and a 450 PPI. As for brightness, it displays a typical 500 nit, with a peak of 1450 nit. This screen support comes with a variety of customizable features such as HDR 10+, 100% DCI P3, and SGS Low Blue Light Ex Certification. Every tap on the screen ensures that we do not miss a single point in the game with the HyperTouch Engine feature. This enabled the display to offer the best possible response latency, accuracy, and stability. The OnePlus 11R 5G utilises HyperBoost Gaming Engine with a General Performance Adapter 4.0 (GPA 4.0) to taper the fluctuation of frame rate when gaming so that you get a near-real experience with improved graphics and overall gameplay. This also translates into stable graphics processing, low response latency, precise scrolling, and a smoother, more immersive gaming experience. In addition, the GPA 4.0 technology is able to improve power efficiency by 5 per cent so that your gaming sessions can go on and on with one single battery charge. OnePlus 11R 5G is equipped with the best cooling system yet – an industry-leading Cryo-velocity VC and a Super Graphite structure that provides better heat dissipation through a built-in cooling system. The latest Phase Change Material is made of graphene slice and paraffin, which enables it to store instant heat and slowly release, and restrain any instant temperature increases.

Intel Axes Rialto Bridge GPUs, Delays Falcon Shores to 2025 Jeff McVeigh, the VP and GM of Intel's super compute group, announced today via a blog post that Intel is canceling its upcoming Rialto Bridge series of data center Max GPUs and moving to a two-year cadence for data center GPU releases. Therefore the company's next data center GPU offerings will come in the form of the Falcon Shores chiplet-based hybrid chips, but the blog notes these will be in production in 2025 — a year later than Intel's previous projections of 2024. The HPC-focused Falcon Shores XPUs are designed for supercomputing applications and merge both CPU and GPU technology into one mix-and-match chip package, but they will now first arrive as a GPU-only architecture in 2025. These were supposed to arrive as a CPU+GPU architecture in 2024, meaning Intel's positioning against competing AMD and Nvidia products, both of which will launch this year, is severely impacted — Intel will now be multiple years late to a key architectural inflection point for the highest-end chips (more on that further below). Intel's Falcon Shores XPU is key to competing with Nvidia's Grace Hopper Superchips and AMD Instinct MI300 Data Center APU. Nvidia's Grace and AMD's MI300 are both launching this year with both CPU and GPU cores on the same package with HBM memory. These designs represent a new type of architecture that confers massive advantages for HPC workloads, and that will be difficult to impossible to match with hardware based on existing designs. Intel tells us that the delayed Falcon Shores will first come with only GPU cores in 2025, but hasn't indicated when it will integrate CPU cores into the design. As such, Intel's HPC-centric designs will lag behind its competitors for several years. Additionally, Intel will be forced to compete with AMD and Nvidia's HPC-centric designs with its Xeon CPUs and Ponte Vecchio GPUs for several years, a significant disadvantage. Falcon Shores represents the continuation of Intel's heterogeneous architecture design arc with the end goal of delivering 5X the performance per watt, 5X the compute density in an x86 socket, and 5X the memory capacity and bandwidth of existing server chips. Intel's roadmap of both CPUs and GPUs for High Performance Computing (HPC) converge with Falcon Shores, indicating these chips will serve both roles in the future. This disaggregated chip design will eventually have separate tiles of x86 compute and GPU cores, but Intel can use those tiles to create any mixture of the two additives, like an all-CPU model, an all-GPU model, or a mixed ratio of the two. Intel notes that these tiles will be fabbed on an unspecified Angstrom-era process node, though Intel's 20A seems to fit the bill for the tiles it could fab itself. Intel's current-gen Ponte Vecchio GPUs were meant to be followed by Rialto Bridge, the planned next-gen data center GPU slated for 2023. That won't happen now, so Intel will be forced to use Ponte Vecchio to compete with Nvidia's Hopper H100, a key shortcoming at a time when LLMs like ChatGPT are coming to the fore and driving billions in Capex investments. Rialto Bridge wouldn't have helped Intel much in its competition against Nvidia's incredibly powerful H100, though. Intel originally divulged that Rialto would feature up to 160 Xe cores, a substantial increase over the 128 cores present on Ponte Vecchio. In addition, the chip was said to come with unspecified architectural enhancements, similar to a "tick,' that would confer up to a 30% performance improvement in applications over Ponte Vecchio. Intel listed Rialto Bridge's peak power consumption at 800W, an increase over Ponte Vecchio's 600W peak. Rialto Bridge was compatible with Ponte Vecchio packaging, so it was designed to be a drop-in upgrade. On the data center side of the house, Intel says that its Xeon products remain on track and, more critically, that its process node roadmap is on schedule as well. However, Intel doesn't plan to release of its Sierra Forest processors, a special hyperscale-optimized chip, until 2024. Meanwhile, AMD's Bergamo will arrive this year, meaning that Intel will lag its competition in yet another crucial architectural advance for an extended period of time. Likewise, Intel's decision to slow its GPU release cadence isn't ideal as it will have to leverage older products to compete with far more advanced architectures for HPC, like Nvidia's Grace Superchips and AMD's coming exascale APU, the Instinct MI300, that both launch in 2023. Additionally, Intel will cancel its upcoming Lancaster Sound GPU for its Flex Series of data center GPUs. These GPUs are designed for lower-intensity work, like media encoding. Instead of pushing forward with Lancaster Sound, Intel will focus on the next-gen Melville Sound products for the Flex series. Intel says the new release cadence is based upon customer expectations for data center GPU products, and it does generally match the incremental launch rate we see from other GPU companies, like Nvidia. The moves come in the wake of Intel's recent restructuring of its AXG graphics group to address the gaming and data center markets separately by placing it under two other business units. The restructuring was designed to increase focus on the end markets served by the GPU products, and these new developments represent a further narrowing of focus. In addition, Intel says that it will now improve its focus on its software ecosystem and provide continuous updates for the Max and Flex series GPUs that include more performance, features, and expanded operating system support.

Digital Wave Technology Acquires AI-Solution Software Company, GoalProfit The leader in AI-Powered Omni-Experience Management Platform for retailers and brands, announces that it has acquired GoalProfit, Inc., an Al & Optimization Solutions company based in Austin, TX, and Helsinki, Finland. Digital Wave Technology Establishes Market Leadership in Artificial Intelligence Powered Omni Experiences for Brands and Retailers (Graphic: Business Wire) Digital Wave Technology and GoalProfit formed a strategic partnership in early 2022, with a focus on the development and execution of Digital Wave’s leading-edge omnichannel platform and solutions, utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI), including Generative AI, amongst other types, providing retailers and brands with the most sophisticated enterprise platform in the industry. Digital Wave’s Omnichannel Maestro AI solution, coupled with Product Experience Management (PXM), orchestrates vastly improved product speed-to-market, digital content, romance copy, expanded assortments, and global growth. Additionally, Digital Wave links retailers and brands to marketplaces, social media, and other digital commerce through syndication, creating a ubiquitous network and reaching consumers wherever they shop. Accrued benefits include, and are not limited to, meaningful increases in conversion rates, average order value, drop-ship categories, and distribution, boosted SEO, and significant reduction in labor and product returns all producing significant financial metrics. Lori Schafer, CEO of Digital Wave Technology, commented, “We’ve made significant progress in a relatively short period of time, aided by our domain-experienced team. At the same time, we’re acutely aware that positioning for the next major step in growth requires world-class acumen in data science and low-code, no-code analytical architecture. The combination of Digital Wave’s management and enterprise technology team with GoalProfit’s strong data sciences and analytical architectural team provides us with a rapid development platform and solutions for omnichannel leadership.” Bernie Brennan, Chairman of Digital Wave, added, “The teams’ expertise and culture are very complementary. Together, we’re confident we can offer unparalleled value.” “We’re excited to join forces with Digital Wave,” said Maxim Morozov, CEO and co-founder of GoalProfit. “After nearly a year of working together, we see the unique impact our combined knowledge will have on the industry. Our vision is to introduce a new standard in building business applications based on big data and AI.” “We’re on the cusp of great technological and industry-changing breakthroughs in AI,” added Oleg Sidorkin, CTO and co-founder of GoalProfit. “Together with Digital Wave, we’re all excited to be the driver of these changes.” Digital Wave’s AI-Powered Omni-Experience platform was introduced and enthusiastically received at the NRF ‘Big Show’ in New York, NY this past January. For more information on the acquisition, visit Digital Wave’s website. About Digital Wave Technology Digital Wave Technology assists brands and retailers in accelerating omnichannel growth and direct-to-consumer digital sales, marketing, and merchandising. Digital Wave’s Enterprise-class AI-powered Omni-Experience Platform unifies the entire product journey from item creation, product information enrichment, management, syndication (PIM/MDM), planning, pricing, and merchandising. Digital Wave allows brands and retailers to centralize, organize, enrich, merchandise, and publish product content easily and efficiently, resulting in improved conversions and speed-to-market, increased channel distribution, lower returns, and labor costs, improved collaboration among internal teams and suppliers, and a more compelling customer experience. Learn more about how Digital Wave can significantly impact your company’s bottom line at https://www.digitalwavetechnology.com. About GoalProfit GoalProfit is a SaaS provider of a low-code retail optimization platform empowering retailers to build customized intelligence applications. GoalProfit is on a mission to make big data solutions accessible for all brands and retailers and help them thrive in a new post-COVID reality. Created by retail industry experts, GoalProfit’s SaaS solutions deliver a significant return on investment with a truly tailored user experience.

All the Best Gadgets We Saw at MWC 2023 MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS, the annual trade show dedicated primarily to the mobile communications industry, has returned to Barcelona. While not the first year of MWC since the pandemic started (it is now officially called MWC, maybe because Mobile World Congress sounds about as exciting as a legislative body), 2023 was the first with the truly bustling halls we remember from 2019 and before. What was announced there? True, manufacturers have got into the habit of revealing their top devices at their own events—but there was still plenty of new tech to tout at MWC 2023. Here are some of the highlights. Proving that “mobile” doesn’t have to mean mobile phone, Lenovo announced a bunch of refreshes of its brilliant, if reassuringly expensive, ThinkPad lines at MWC 2023. The ThinkPad X13 Gen 4 gets new-generation Intel Core I-series processors and, as senior product manager Matej Misturik explained, one of the heats vents has been moved to the rear. This stops the laptop from overheating if the underside is blocked. Lighter weight and an OLED panel bring a little 2023 gloss to one of the most respected business laptop lines. Want more obvious gloss? Lenovo Thinkpad Z13 Gen 2 line flips the order of priorities, as a high-end ultraportable with ThinkPad elements. At first glance, not much has changed here bar the use of 7000-series AMD processors. However, Sensel tells us its haptic touchpads replace those of the rather vague-feeling Thinkpad Z13 Gen 1. “Lenovo wasn’t happy with their solution, for a variety of reasons, so we were able to slot in for Gen 2,” says Sensel’s Mark Rosenberg. “You want a crisp click feel that fires and then dampens very quickly, to more closely emulate a mechanical button—otherwise it feels and sounds buzzy, which isn’t pleasant.” Laptop refreshes are conventional, but Lenovo-owned Motorola had something potentially tastier to show: new kind of flexible phone. Instead of being foldable, it’s rollable. In its standard orientation the rollable concept phone has a 5-inch screen. This becomes a 6.5-inch screen when you double-press a button on the side. With a brief motor whir, the extra display appears as if from a scroll, having before formed a second screen on the back. The Motorola rollable concept bears the name Rizr, evoking memories of the Motorola Razr series, but the maker actually had a Rizr slide-up phone way back in 2006. Its screen can also shift down a touch to reveal the front selfie camera. And if you’d rather use the rear one for selfies, you have the excess screen to use as a preview window if you like. Instead of a fat phone that turns into a mini tablet, the Motorola Rizr concept is a small-screen phone that turns into one with a more normal-size display (with extra benefits). Motorola also showed off a rollable laptop, with a screen that retreats behind, or into, the screen hinge. Neither of these will go on sale as they are, but may be a sign of gadgets to come. OnePlus Keeps Its Cool OnePlus continues the show's concept trend with another phone you won’t be able to buy, but perhaps should pay attention to. It’s a demo of a new liquid cooling solution called Active CryoFlux that OnePlus says can reduce device temperatures by up to two degrees when gaming. This demo device itself doesn’t feature this cooling, and is instead intended as a visual demo of the kind of liquid channels such a system will use in the future. In action it looks wild, as if an OLED screen under the surface were displaying little oxygen bubbles heading through a maze of tiny tubes. This is, we are assured by OnePlus, actually a mix of water and oil, with some mica power for good measure. LEDs light up the liquid inside, which moves heat away from the core components. Cooling is the theme of the show for OnePlus, as it also demo’d an even more unusual active cooling device for phones. A pads clamps onto the pack of the phone, and this connects to a box similar in size to a larger external hard-drive enclosure. Within a few seconds it had made the back of a OnePlus 11 downright cold, and it uses thermoelectric cooling interface to make this happen. Heat is then transferred from this plate interface to cooling fluid that runs through the system’s cabling, pushed around by a motor in the base unit. OnePlus claims it can reduce temperature by 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit), and it uses up to 45W of power doing so. It’s not the most practical solution to thermal throttling in most situations, particularly as it need to be plugged in, but is is a novel one. There’s no word on when this device will be out or how much it will cost just yet. Lastly, the brand announced that it's got its first foldable phone coming later this year. "We want to launch a device that aims to be at the pinnacle experience of today’s foldable market,” said Kinder Liu, president and COO of OnePlus at the show without offering any other information. Huawei has also been playing around with odd forms of mobile tech, and showed off what comes across as a companion piece to the Huawei Watch Buds—the smartwatch whose face flips open to reveal a pair of true wireless earphones. This is the Huawei Watch GT Cyber, a watch where the strap forms a complete casing for the core, including the bezel. Its entire outer can be replaced, and is indeed replaced when you switch straps. The actual brains, which Huawei bafflingly calls a “stainless steel movement” despite the whole thing being free of any analog watch moving parts, pops out and looks rather like a pocket watch. Two of the strap casings come in the box, and the feature set here is similar to that of a Huawei Watch GT 3, leaning more on the sports and fitness side than smarts. It’s also water resistant to 50 meters. The Huawei Watch GT Cyber is only available in China and SE Asia at the moment, and costs around £180 ($218). More interested in tech you can actually buy? MWC also saw the launch of a pair of true big-hitter phones. Honor unveiled the Magic 5 Pro, a high-price model for the Magic series that costs €899 ($954) in Europe. It has a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor and sparkly textured glass back. But the cameras stay the spotlight here, not least because they are arranged so drastically across its rear. These are a trio of 50-MP sensors, an ultrawide, a 1/1.22-inch sensor primary camera, and a 3.5x optical zoom that can be stretched to 100x magnification. And it debuts some new AI software from Honor that claims to be able to capture crisp shots of fast motion. The Honor Magic 5 Pro was shown off alongside the company’s Magic Vs foldable phone, which was announced in China back in November. Xiaomi one-ups Honor with a phone that, at arm’s length, looks more conservative: the £1,099 ($1,329) 13 Pro. It joins the still-small cohort of phones with 1-inch camera sensors. Once again it’s part of a trio of 50-MP rear cameras, including a 3.2x zoom lens that bears the Leica name. However, it will also need top-tier processing software if the Xiaomi 13 Pro is to challenge the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and iPhone 14 Pro. Phones a little too pedestrian for your tastes? Xiaomi’s prototype AR glasses might appeal. The Xiaomi Wireless AR Glass Discovery Edition were only shown off behind a wall of plastic, but the hardware inside sounds promising. The lenses are made of electrochromic glass, able to black out the outside world if necessary, if not with the absolute occlusion of a Sony PSVR 2. A mini LED display sits in front of each eye, capable of 1200-nit brightness and sharpness almost at the level where the individual pixels themselves are not perceptible—58 pixels per degree. It uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR 2 Gen 1 processor, the same found in the Meta Quest Pro. While we were not able to get a first-hand preview at what the headset is like to use, it’s a preview of what the next wave of AR hardware might look like. In most respects the Nokia G22 is unremarkable. It’s a plastic phone with humble specs that doesn’t cost much, just £169 ($205). However, the way it is put together is highly unusual. This is a phone you are meant to be able to repair, and Nokia has teamed-up with iFixit to offer kits to replace the battery and the screen. Having once spent the equivalent of a full day of work attempting the latter on a “normal” smartphone—with only partial success—I can tell you this is a handy feature. I took apart the Nokia G22 at the company’s MWC 2023 stand to replace the battery. And I timed it. Even with some tutorials from the iFixit rep thrown in, I managed to take apart the G22 and put it back together in under six minutes. Sure, you have to disconnect the fingerprint scanner ribbon cable, which feels (like all these cables) extremely fragile. And, sure, there are a couple of fiddly little mounting plates that could ping themselves under a couch. However, the process is an order of magnitude easier than it is in a standard smartphone, where the core parts of the phone are glued together. Here, though, the outer case and inner parts are clipped together. As a result, the Nokia G22 has a pretty dismal water-resistance rating of IPX2. Still, alongside the Fairphone series, repairablility is rarely made such an active concern. iFixit told me replacement batteries will cost €25 ($27), and kits with tools included are €30. For the battery replacement, I only needed a small crosshead screwdriver, a guitar plectrum-like lever and a little poker to help shimmy out a couple of components.

AMD Shares New Second-Gen 3D V-Cache Chiplet Details, up to 2.5 TB/s AMD's Ryzen 9 7950X3D is the fastest gaming CPU on the planet due to AMD's decision to bring its disruptive 3D chip-stacking tech to Zen 4, but curiously, the company didn’t share any details about its new Second-Gen 3D V-Cache in its Ryzen 7000X3D briefing materials. We initially found some details at a recent tech conference that we included in our review, and now AMD has finally answered a few of our follow-up questions and shared important new details, including that the chiplet remains on the 7nm process and now has a peak bandwidth of up to 2.5 TB/s, whereas the first-gen 3D V-Cache peaked at 2 TB/s (among lots of other new info). We also have new pics and diagrams of the new 6nm I/O Die that AMD uses for its Ryzen 7000 processors. AMD has moved to the second-gen of its 3D V-Cache, and Intel doesn't have a competing tech. That assures AMD a win in both the best CPUs for gaming and certain data center applications. Overall, AMD's second-gen 3D V-Cache technology is an impressive step forward over the first-gen because it allows the company to leverage the now-mature and less-expensive 7nm process node to boost the performance of its cutting-edge 5nm compute die. The new design represents AMD taking the key advantage of chiplet-based design methodologies — using an older and less-expensive process node in tandem with expensive new process tech — into the third dimension. Now for the nitty-gritty details. First, a quick high-level refresher. As you can see above, AMD’s 3D V-Cache tech stacks an additional L3 SRAM chiplet directly in the center of the compute die (CCD) chiplet to isolate it from the heat-generating cores. This cache boosts capacity to 96MB for the 3D V-Cache-equipped chiplet, thus boosting performance for latency-sensitive apps, like gaming. We’ve covered the deep-dive details of the first-gen of this technology here. We received new information on the second-gen implementation both direct from AMD and from the 2023 International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), where AMD made a presentation on the Zen 4 architecture. AMD’s previous-gen 3D V-Cache used a 7nm L3 SRAM chiplet stacked atop a 7nm Zen 3 CCD. AMD stuck with the 7nm process for the new L3 SRAM chiplet (called 'L3D') but now stacks it on top of a smaller 5nm Zen 4 CCD (see the table below). This creates a size mismatch, though, which required a few alterations. First, AMD made the 7nm SRAM die smaller, so it now measures 36mm2 compared to the previous-gen's 41mm2. However, the total number of transistors remains the same at ~4.7 billion, so the new die is significantly denser than the first-gen chiplet. As we saw with the first-gen SRAM chiplet, the 7nm L3 SRAM chiplet has incredible transistor density — we're looking at almost 3x the density of the first-gen 7nm compute chiplet, and surprisingly, the 7nm SRAM chiplet is significantly denser than the 5nm compute chiplet. That's because, as before, the chiplet uses a density-optimized version of 7nm that's specialized for SRAM. It also lacks the typical control circuitry found in the cache — that circuitry resides on the base die, which also helps reduce latency overhead. In contrast, the 5nm die includes several types of transistors along with data paths and other types of structures not present in the simplified L3 SRAM chiplet. As before, the extra latency from the additional L3 SRAM cache weighs in at 4 clocks, but the bandwidth between the L3 chiplet and the base die has increased to 2.5 TB/s, a 25% improvement over the previous 2 TB/s peak. The stacked L3 SRAM chiplet is connected to the base die with two types of through-silicon vias (TSVs — a vertical electrical connection). The Power TSVs carry power between the chiplets, while the Signal TSVs carry data between the units. In the first-gen design, both types of TSVs resided in the L3 region of the base chiplet. However, the L3 cache on the base die is now smaller due to the increased density of the 5nm process, and even though the 7nm L3 SRAM chiplet is smaller, it now overlaps the L2 cache (the prior gen only overlapped the L3 on the base die). As such, AMD had to alter the TSV connections in both the base die and the L3 SRAM chiplet. AMD had to extend the power TSVs from L3 into the L2 region due to the smaller size of the 5nm L3 cache on the base die (a result of the increased density and other factors). For the base die, AMD achieved a 0.68x effective area scaling across the L3 cache, data paths, and control logic compared to the old 7nm base chiplet, so there is physically less room for TSVs in the L3 cache. The signal TSVs remain inside the L3 cache area on the base die, but AMD shrunk the TSV area in the L3 cache by 50% by applying learnings from the first-gen design along with DTCO improvements to reduce overhead circuitry in the new interface design. AMD's 3D chip stacking tech is based on TSMC's SoIC technology. TSMC's SoIC is bump-less, meaning it doesn't use microbumps or solder to connect the two dies. You can read much more about the hybrid bonding and manufacturing process here. AMD tells us it used the same fundamental bonding process paired with continued process and DTCO improvements, but the minimum TSV pitch hasn't changed. Ryzen 9 7950X3D Chiplet Boost Frequencies and Voltages Tom's Hardware Measurements Single-Threaded Peak Multi-Threaded Sustained Voltage (peak) nT Power CCD 0 (3D V-Cache) 5.25 GHz 4.85 GHz 1.152 86W CCD 1 (No extra cache) 5.75 GHz 5.3 GHz 1.384 140W The L3 SRAM chiplet also remains on the same power domain as the CPU cores, so they can't be adjusted independently. This contributes to the lower frequency on the cache-equipped chiplet because the voltage can't exceed ~1.15V. You can see our in-depth testing of the two different types of chiplets here. AMD's ISSCC presentation also included plenty of new details about the 6nm I/O Dies (IOD) used in the Ryzen 7000 and EPYC Genoa processors. In the above album, you can see the zoomed-in images and an annotated die shot from chip detective @Locuza_. You can also expand the tweet below to read Locuza's excellent analysis of the Ryzen 7000 IOD. We put the specs in the table for easy comparison, and as you can see, the EPYC Genoa I/O Die is simply massive compared to the Ryzen 7000 variant — that's because AMD can wire up to 12 compute chiplets (CCDs) to the I/O Die for its EPYC Genoa processors. In contrast, the consumer chips are limited to two chiplets, an immutable limitation because, as you can see in Locuza's diagram, the Ryzen 7000 I/O Die only has two Global Memory Interconnect 2 (GMI2) links that connect the compute chiplets to the IOD. That's a bummer — the lower core-count Genoa models with four CCDs can have dual-GMI3 links (wide mode), a new capability that can offer advantages in some memory throughput-intensive tasks. That would've been interesting to add to the consumer chips.

Salesforce faces an underappreciated risk: Platform customers jumping ship like Veeva Workers at Salesforce , all the way up to co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff, could breathe more easily this week after the business-software company posted considerably more robust earnings and guidance than analysts had estimated, prompting plaudits from Wall Street. But challenges remain. Like other cloud software developers that have seen their shares beaten down because of rising interest rates, Salesforce is focusing more than ever on profit. That might make it harder for the company to build technology to address emerging threats, such as the evolution of a longtime partner into a competitor. That’s the dynamic playing out at Veeva Systems , which sells software to life sciences organizations. Veeva is also on an upswing, with shares rising 4% on Thursday after the company’s stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings. Veeva built its core software on top of Salesforce’s app-development platform, but that will be coming to an end in 2025. The risk is that other companies built on Salesforce might be inspired to follow Veeva. “If I was Salesforce, I would actually be worrying about the long-term implication of that,” said Rishi Jaluria, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets with the equivalent of buy ratings on both Salesforce and Veeva. Salesforce did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Jaluria pointed to banking software maker Ncino , whose CEO, Pierre Naudé, said in 2021 that it was the largest company building on Salesforce after Veeva. Salesforce and Veeva are closely intertwined. Peter Gassner, Veeva’s founder and CEO, ran the Salesforce platform before starting Veeva in 2007. “Peter has been an outstanding CEO,” Benioff was quoted as saying in 2017, as the two companies deepened their partnership. Veeva’s chairman, Gordon Ritter of Emergence Capital, invested in Salesforce before backing Veeva. The agreement between the companies holds that Veeva is on the hook to pay Salesforce as Veeva customers use Salesforce’s platform — and costs have risen as more people have come to rely on Veeva. In exchange, Salesforce won’t enter Veeva’s specialized, regulated market. That sort of arrangement might have been fine when Veeva was a startup. But it has grown into a profitable publicly traded software company with $2 billion in annual revenue and a $28 billion market capitalization. Veeva accrued about $7 million in fees payable to Salesforce in the October quarter, according to a regulatory filing. After Veeva announced the news alongside financial results in December, Gassner and other executives spent time fielding a variety of questions from analysts about the change during a conference call. “I think overall for customers, this is a positive,” Gassner said. “It simplifies their landscape.” Veeva, which pays Amazon Web Services for hosting capabilities, will transition its customer-relationship management software to its own Vault platform. The plan is to provide tools to help clients move over, although they have until September 2030 thanks to a five-year wind-down period specified in the agreement. Veeva will demonstrate its software using Vault at its Commercial Summit conference in Boston in May, Paul Shawah, Veeva’s executive vice president of strategy, said on a Wednesday call with analysts. Jaluria said he doesn’t think Salesforce will be able to compete effectively against Veeva after the agreement ends in 2025. Salesforce’s push toward increasing profits, which came about as activist investors asked questions about Salesforce’s balance of growth and margins, might not help, he said. “But even before that, Salesforce hasn’t shown us their ability to develop industry cloud organically.” Under Benioff, Salesforce has fueled a lot of its growth through acquisitions, and there was once a time when Gassner could have ended up back at Salesforce. A Salesforce presentation that leaked in 2016 included Veeva on a list of “potential acquisition targets.” Today that looks unlikely. Gassner is directing Veeva to move off Salesforce, and on Wednesday Benioff said that the Salesforce board has disbanded its committee on mergers and acquisitions.

The most immersive gaming gadgets every gamer swears by Want to create a realistic gaming setup? Then see our picks for the most immersive gaming gadgets right now. These accouterments are packed with features like haptics, surround sound, and more to make your gameplay more lifelike than ever. If you prefer sim-style racing, don’t miss the DrivePod professional driving simulator. According to its creators, this gadget can actually raise your adrenaline. Then, you can experience and interact with imaginary worlds when sitting in the Cooler Master Synk X. A cross-platform haptic chair, it turns sound waves into vibrations. Make your games unbelievably realistic with these cool gaming gadgets. 1. The DrivePod professional driving simulator creates an experience so realistic it raises your adrenaline. Contact the brand for price inquiries. Go on a breath-quickening experience with the DrivePod professional driving simulator. Tested by professional engineers and drivers, its high-caliber technology makes you feel like you’re actually racing. 2. The Samsung Odyssey Neo G8 32″ monitor immerses you in fantasy worlds with its 1000R [CENSORED]ture. Get it for $1,499.99 on the official website. Transport yourself with the Samsung Odyssey Neo G8 32″ monitor. Equipped with a 4K 1000R curved screen and a 240 Hz refresh rate, it makes you feel like you’re in the middle of the action. Even better, the powerful performance can help you win. 3. The VIVE XR Elite all-in-one XR headset has a lightweight, portable design helping you lose yourself in XR. Preorder it for $1,099 on the brand’s website. Blending the physical and virtual worlds, the VIVE XR Elite all-in-one XR headset brings you new possibilities. You get clear visuals thanks to the adjustable IPD and diopter dials. Meanwhile, the lightweight headset is comfortable and portable. It’s one of the most immersive gaming gadgets you can buy. 4. The CORSAIR XENEON FLEX 45WQHD240 45-Inch OLED monitor bends from completely flat to an immersive 800R [CENSORED]ture. It costs $1,999.99 on the company website. Switch from work to gaming mode easily with the CORSAIR XENEON FLEX 45WQHD240 bendable gaming monitor. Its adjustable design is pretty unique, making it the display fit for any situation. Plus, it has flicker-free images and eye-protecting technology. 5. The Cooler Master Synk X cross-platform haptic chair makes you feel like you’re there with haptics. It costs $1,299 at select retail locations. Add craftsmanship and haptics to your rig with the Cooler Master Synk X cross-platform haptic chair. With real-time haptic experiences, it creates a lifelike playing environment. Even better, it works across platforms, ensuring you can use it with nearly all your gaming gadgets. 6. The Razer Project Carol immersive head support brings surround sound and haptics. It’s coming soon for an unannounced price. You don’t have to spend a lot of time and money setting up immersive surround sound audio. Not when you have the Razer Project Carol immersive head support. It combines a surround sound speaker and haptic technology in a headrest, which makes it one of the most immersive gaming gadgets. 7. The OXS Thunder gaming sound system & neck speaker delivers 3D sound, centering you in the action. Preorder it for $264 on Indiegogo. Elevate your gaming audio with the OXS Thunder gaming sound system & neck speaker. With True Dolby Atmos 7.12, this set offers 3D surround sound, putting you in the middle of your games. Meanwhile, its 10 drivers are similar to Dolby acoustics, helping you locate opponents. 8. The Turtle Beach VelocityOne Universal Stand gives you a complete flight control setup. Purchase it for $199.99 on the official website. Make your Flight Universal Control System or Flightstick and Rudder Pedals all the more realistic with the Turtle Beach VelocityOne Universal Stand. It offers an immersive flight simulation experience at home and adjusts to any player and setup. 9. The JBL Quantum 910X/P headsets plunge you into your game with 360 audio with head tracking. They’re coming soon, with prices starting at $299.95. The JBL Quantum 910X/P headsets immerse you with JBL’s Quantum SPATIAL 360 audio with head tracking. This technology gives precise, accurate surround sound, while the noise cancellation keeps you focused. It’s one of the most immersive gaming gadgets right now. 10. The Nanoleaf Lines Squared color-changing LED bars create an atmospheric setup with RGB illumination. Buy them for $99.99 on the company website. Enhance your gaming setup with modular, backlit illumination from the Nanoleaf Lines Squared color-changing LED bars. Their versatile form lets you create any look. Not only that, but they can also turn music into a light show and mirror your screen. One thing’s for sure: these gadgets help you create your most immersive setup yet. Which ones do you want to own? Tell us! Want more news, reviews, and guides from Gadget Flow? Follow us on Apple News, Google News, Feedly, and Flipboard. If you use Flipboard, you should check out our Curated Stories. We publish 3 new stories every day.

SSD Prices Have Fallen 15 to 30 Percent Since January The price of SSDs is in rapid decline. Anyone who has been following the market for the last few months should not be surprised. We've long known that a glut of NAND flash memory and lowering manufacturing costs are now being passed along to the consumer, with typical reductions of 15 to 30 percent in just the last 60 days. Back in October, analysts predicted that, by mid-2023, the price of drives would drop by 50 percent. At the time, major suppliers such as Kioxia and Micron announced that they would reduce the production of NAND to keep supplies lower. However, there's only so much that a memory manufacturer can do to limit output before they are losing money by maintaining idle production facilities. Recently, we've seen a number of mind-blowing SSD deals on individual drives, but we wondered: just how much has the price of the average drive declined recently? To find out, I surveyed the current prices for 21 po[CENSORED]r SSDs at 1TB, and then compared them to their price on January 3rd (approximately two months ago). I repeated the exercise for 2TB and 4TB capacities, though not all of the drives were available with these higher capacities. It seems that the biggest percentage price cuts have come on 1TB SSDs. Of the 21 models we researched, 17 had lower prices today than they did on January 3rd, with only one drive being cut less than 16 percent, and a 23 percent average cut. RECOMMENDED VIDEOS FOR YOU... The best value here, by far, is the WD Black SN770. This DRAMless PCIe 4.0 SSD promises sequential reads and writes of 5,150 and 4,850 MBps and costs only $0.06 per GB after a 33.3 percent price cut. When we reviewed the WD Black SN770 last year, we gave it 4.5 stars out of 5 thanks to its blazing-fast performance and excellent value. While it's not the fastest drive on the market, it's just a step or two behind competitors that cost 50 to 75 percent more per GB. In fact, most of the drives that saw no price cut at all were among the fastest on the market: the industry-leading Samsung 990 Pro, the blazing WD Black SN850X and the speedy SK hynix Platinum P41. The 990 Pro and SN850X are ranked first and second on our list of the best SSDs. The WD Black SN770 is a great value at 2TB as well, costing just 6 cents per GB after its 20 percent price cut. However, the faster Crucial P5 Plus, which is only a few dollars more, has a built-in DRAM cache, better performance and saw a 32.3 percent price cut since January. Among SSDs with elite performance, the WD Black SN850X is the best value at just 8 cents per GB after a 15 percent price cut. The drive boasts sequential read and write speeds of 7,300 and 6,600 MBps and is second only to the extremely-expensive Samsung 990 Pro in performance. The average price cut among the 19 drives in this category was 15.3 percent. Here we saw much more modest price cuts among top performers and we even saw one drive, the SATA-powered Samsung 870 Evo, go up in price by $10. As NAND prices fall, we expect to see a greater selection of 4TB drives on the market. However, right now, only 8 of the 21 drives we researched had 4TB capacities available. Among these 8 drives, the average price cut was 15 percent, with only one drive, the WD Black SN850X not lowering its price at all. The biggest discount was on the Kingston KC3000, which had a 25.55 percent price cut. But this speedy drive, which promises 7,000 MBps sequential reads and writes, is not the cheapest, with a cost of 10 cents per GB. The best 4TB value right now is the Crucial P3, which clocks in at just 5 cents per GB. However, it's a PCIe 3.0 drive and, as such, is limited to maximum sequential reads and writes of 3,500 and 3,000 MBps. For a bit more, you can get the Crucial P3 Plus, which ups the performance to 5,000 and 4,200 MBps. Bottom Line Now is a great time to buy an SSD, because prices have dropped substantially. However, there's a decent chance that we're not at the bottom yet. If you're putting together a low-cost build, it's easy enough to get a name-brand, high-quality 1TB SSD for less than $60, and that's just amazing at a time when the price of so many things has gone up. And, if you're looking to add a secondary drive, you can do so more affordably than ever. Will prices be significantly lower when we revisit this list of drives next month? Only time will tell.

Ottawa on hook for software problem that caused deadly military helicopter crash OTTAWA — A software problem that caused a Canadian military helicopter to crash off the coast of Greece in 2020 will be fixed on the federal government’s dime. The Department of National Defence and Sikorsky Aircraft, which built the military’s Cyclone helicopters, say they have reached agreement to address the software issue on the rest of the fleet. But Defence Department spokeswoman Jessica Lamirande says Canada will end up paying for the upgrades because they fall outside the original $3.1-billion contract with Sikorsky for 28 of the helicopters. Six Canadian Armed Forces members were killed when the autopilot on their Cyclone code-named Stalker 22 took control of the helicopter and plunged it into the Ionian Sea on April 29, 2020. The crash cast a harsh spotlight on Cyclone’s long and problem-plagued development, which has more recently included the discovery of tail cracks on the rest of the fleet. Those repairs are being done at Sikorsky’s expense. This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 3, 2023.

All the best kitchen gadgets we’ve tested and loved If you’re a beginner in the kitchen and are looking for a smart tool to guide you every step of the way, you should consider the Breville Joule Oven Pro(Opens in a new tab). This air fryer teaches you how to cook with WiFi connectivity and a compatible smartphone app filled with recipes and detailed instructions. According to our reviewer, the Joule Oven streamlines the recipe-following process by controlling cooking time and temperature, giving you phone alerts when it's time to check on your food, and so much more. This is a great gadget for visual learners as the app contains tons of instructional videos. Although this oven requires elbow grease when cleaning, it's worth it for its convenience, efficiency, and connected features. While some milk machines are good for making large batches, the Nutr(Opens in a new tab) machine specializes in single servings. In addition to dairy-free milk, this machine can be used to make smoothies, yogurts, soups, and frozen drinks. It's a perfect gadget for reducing waste since it eliminates plastic milk packaging and only makes small servings that you can use up immediately. This machine makes it easy to make dairy-free milk quickly with its six functional buttons and gets rid of the need to pre-soak nuts and seeds before blending them. Mashable contributor Michelle Rostamian says “All in all, Nutr delivers as a sustainable, hassle-free way of making nut or plant-based milk at home — without the bulkiness (and ear-numbing sound) of a blender.” Included accessories: Stainless steel base, top, detachable Filter basket, collector cup, base, power cord Materials: Primarily stainless steel (but also made with plastic and silicone) If you’re big on dairy alternatives, the Almond Cow(Opens in a new tab) might be for you. With more than 1200+ five-star reviews, this milk maker is beloved by customers for its speed — it can make up to six cups of plant-based milk in under a minute thanks to a high-power blender mechanism and built-in mesh basket. During testing, Mashable’s Deputy Shopping Editor, Jae Thomas, tried making Almond Cow’s signature CocoCash milk without presoaking any of the ingredients. They said that the milk was “a tad on the thin side, but was definitely on par with other almond and cashew milks on the market.” During testing, we found that in addition to milk, the Almond cow also created thicker creamers good for adding to coffee, cereal, or to use for baking. Although the Almond Cow only has one setting, the end results are consistently impressive (and tasty). Outside of going to your local bar, the Bartesian Duet(Opens in a new tab) cocktail maker is hands down the best way to get a tasty drink without the hassle. Mashable reviewer and bartender Mallory Minich summarized this machine as “a Keurig that pours cosmopolitans instead of coffee.” The Duet is great for those who enjoy drinks but don’t know where to start when it comes to making them. We loved that there are over 50 capsule flavors to choose from (and that there's an app that makes it easy to reorder when you run out). If you don’t drink alcohol, but still want to join in, you can whip up non-alcoholic cocktails as well. If you’re worried about drinking too much, you can refer to the included spirit strength chart to see how much liquor you'll be sipping depending on your cocktail and pour strength setting. If you’re looking to make a fancy matcha drink but don’t feel like going to a cafe, you can make one at home using the Cuzen Matcha Maker(Opens in a new tab). Mashable reviewer RJ Andersen says that what makes this matcha maker stand out is its “ceramic mill that grinds the tea leaves into an incredibly fine powder just like the traditional stone milling process.” If you’re not sure what matcha blend you prefer, Cuzen includes three four-gram sample packets of their premium, signature, and latte blends for taste testing. The main downside to this machine is that you can’t use other brands of matcha leaves. We were all-around impressed with Magic Bullet’s Air Fryer(Opens in a new tab) with its easy-to-use features and evenly-crisp results. Before testing this air fryer, Mashable’s Deputy Shopping Editor, Jae Thomas, was an air fryer skeptic. After reviewing the appliance, Thomas said that “the Magic Bullet air fryer is just as reliable as the brand's namesake blenders.” We also loved how this product lived up to its promotional hype. The Magic Bullet air fryer claims to heat food by having hot air circulate 360 degrees inside the pot, and our tests definitely confirmed this. From popcorn chicken to raw pie dough, the Magic Bullet proved itself a versatile gadget. If you’re looking to save some money and start making your daily cold brew at home, the OXO compact cold brew maker (Opens in a new tab)can help. The nesting carafe and brew container design is ideal for small spaces, and makes a perfect amount of concentrated cold brew for one person. Reviewer Sam Stone says “the OXO Compact Cold Brew Coffee Maker is far and away the best cold brewing experience I’ve ever had.” We love how easy this dishwasher-safe, budget-friendly gadget makes the brewing process. Frozen treat lovers should consider adding the Yonanas Soft Serve Maker(Opens in a new tab) to their online shopping cart. This nifty machine turns fruit into thick, creamy ice cream — no milk or cream needed. Mashable reviewer Michelle Rostamian said “Yonanas is extremely easy-to-use and involves three basic steps: freeze your fruit, thaw your fruit, and insert it into the chute. Yep, it's that simple.” Regarding flavor and texture, Rostamian found that Yonanas produced wonderful “ice cream” from bananas and other assorted fruit. It's definitely one of the tastiest ways to boost your daily fruit intake. The 10-in-1 Instant Pot Pro Plus(Opens in a new tab) is great for the busy, tech-savvy cook. With wifi compatibility, the Pro Plus allows you to start cooking before you even get home, and has a ton of automated features. We love that many of the pasta recipes don’t require straining, and that the NutriBoost feature self-stirs rice to prevent it from sticking to the bottom. The only downside? It's not compatible with Instant Pot's air fryer lid.

ChatGPT Will Command More Than 30,000 Nvidia GPUs: Report Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be one of Nvidia's biggest income generators, according to the latest TrendForce(opens in new tab) projection. The research firm estimates that OpenAI's ChatGPT will eventually need over 30,000 Nvidia graphics cards. Thankfully, gamers have nothing to be concerned about, as ChatGPT won't touch the best graphics cards for gaming but rather tap into Nvidia's compute accelerators, such as the A100. Nvidia has always had a knack for sniffing out gold rushes. The chipmaker was at the forefront of the cryptocurrency boom, pulling in record-breaking revenues from miners. Nvidia once again finds itself on the front lines for what appears to be the next best thing: AI. And the AI boom is already HERE, as exemplified by all the AI-powered text and image creators that have emerged throughout the last several months. Using the A100 (Ampere) accelerator for reference, TrendForce gauged that ChatGPT required around 20,000 units to process training data. However, the number will increase significantly, potentially over 30,000 units, as OpenAI continues to deploy ChatGPT and the company's Generative Pre-Trained Transformer (GPT) model commercially. The A100 costs between $10,000 and $15,000, depending upon the configuration and form factor. Therefore, at the very least, Nvidia is looking at $300 million in revenue. The number may be slightly lower, since Nvidia will likely give OpenAI a discount based on the number of cards needed. Sponsored Links If Your Dog Follows You Everywhere, Here's What It Means Articles Stone Nvidia also sells the A100 as part of the DGX A100 system, which has eight accelerators and sells for a whopping $199,000. Given the scale of OpenAI's operation, the company will likely purchase the A100 individually and stack them into clusters. The DGX A100, on the other hand, is an attractive option for smaller businesses that want to dip their toes in AI. While the A100 is excellent for AI, Nvidia has already started shipping the H100 (Hopper), the direct replacement for the A100. On paper, the H100 delivers up to three times higher performance than its predecessor. Furthermore, according to Nvidia, the H100 scales even better than the A100 and offers up to nine times higher throughput in AI training. The H100 has a significantly higher price tag, though, as listings have shown that the Hopper accelerator costs over $32,000. Nvidia's latest earning report revealed that the company's data center business, including AI accelerators, improved by 11% compared to last year and raked in over $3.6 billion in sales during the quarter. Those numbers will likely skyrocket soon when big players like Microsoft get into the game. Microsoft is in the process of integrating ChatGPT into Bing and Edge. Considering the size of the user base (basically everyone running Windows), Microsoft may have to spend billions to scale in the coming months and years. Nvidia isn't the only option on the AI market, as Intel and AMD also offer rival AI accelerators. Then you also have companies like Google and Amazon, with their own AI solutions. During the cryptocurrency bonanza, miners bought every graphics card in sight, helping to contribute to the graphics card shortage. We don't expect another shortage, but GeForce gaming graphics card supply could be affected if Nvidia suddenly decides to prioritize AI accelerator production over its mainstream offerings. Only time will tell.

Linux Foundation Research Shows Economic Value of Open Source Software Rising in Terms of Benefits vs. Costs SAN FRANCISCO, March 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Linux Foundation, a global nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, today released a report measuring the economic value of open source and found that companies perceive the greatest benefits of open source software as cost savings, faster development, open standards, and interoperability. New research on open source by Henry Chesbrough finds cost savings and faster development the top benefits for companies Measuring the Economic Value of Open Source. Measuring the Economic Value of Open Source. Almost two-thirds of the companies surveyed reported that the perceived benefits of open source clearly exceed the perceived costs. What's more, the ratio of benefits to costs appears to be rising for nearly half of the respondents, while only 16% felt that the ratio was declining. "This research clearly underscores that open source software has substantial economic value to companies and that its value will increase for most organizations the longer and more they use it," said Jim Zemlin, Linux Foundation Executive Director. "By helping to quantify the impact, we help companies understand their own benefits, costs, and the value of supporting and contributing to the open source software that is foundational to the world's infrastructure and a force for innovation." Professor Henry Chesbrough, of Luiss University in Rome, Italy and the University of California at Berkeley Haas School of Business, a noted pioneer and author on the subject of open innovation, conducted the survey and analysis in partnership with LF Research, the Linux Foundation's research arm. Many of the surveyed organizations have worked with open source software for more than 20 years while a significant number started in the last five years. Not only do companies get more value out of open source software the longer they use it, they also get more value by being more active in contributing to open source initiatives, the research found. "It pays to be more open," said Chesbrough. "Software is a technology whose importance is steadily increasing and we're seeing companies reap the benefits of embracing the foundational technology of open source software. Adopting open source software allows companies to embrace a more vibrant, surprising, and exciting future." Because open source technologies, including the ubiquitous Linux operating system, are free to use, they are challenging to value in economic terms. The survey dug deep into open source software use by more than 430 companies, 43% with annual revenue in excess of $1 billion, and including many of the Fortune 500. Other key survey findings include: Most survey respondents say it would have cost significantly more to provide software functionality themselves than to use open source software. Almost 21% of respondents said the benefit of using or contributing to open source software was rising faster than the cost, another 21% said benefits were rising somewhat faster than costs and 7% said benefits were rising much faster than costs. The greatest perceived costs of using open source software were security gaps, hidden support costs, and those related to reducing legal uncertainties regarding licensing. Only one-fifth of respondents said perceived costs exceeded perceived benefits. About The Linux Foundation The Linux Foundation is the world's leading home for collaboration on open source software, hardware, standards, and data. Linux Foundation projects are critical to the world's infrastructure including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js, ONAP, PyTorch, RISC-V, SPDX, OpenChain, and more. The Linux Foundation focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users, and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit us at linuxfoundation.org. The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of The Linux Foundation.

Technology that encourages rest? Here are 10 tech gadgets that can help improve your sleep. A good night of sleep just makes everything better. Yet getting the recommended 7-8 hours of solid, peaceful slumber on a regular basis these days seems next to impossible. One recent survey says the average person has 10 sleepless nights per month. That means most of us spend about about a third of our lives sleep-walking like bleary-eyed zombies. On paper, that number seems ridiculously high. But anecdotally, it gels. We’re tired. Our friends are tired. None of us gets enough sleep anymore. We take forever to drift off, then wake up with minds racing and can’t get back to sleep. We talk about it. We worry about it. It keeps us up at night. Why do we want to sleep more? The state of sleep – or rather lack of it – is well documented. Adults between the ages of 18 and 60 are supposed to get seven-to-eight hours of sleep a night. People who are younger, and older, need more. A new Harvard Medical School study – one of the most comprehensive ever done on sleep over the course of 11-years and with more than a million people – shows that a persistent lack of quality sleep can cut years off of your life. Conversely, the study also shows that these five good sleep hygiene habits can add years to your life expectancy – as much as five years for men, and nearly 2.5 for women. Can technology improve sleep? I’ve had trouble sleeping most of my life. Stress, hormones, lack of work-life balance, and too many gadgets too close to bedtime make it all worse. Ironically, I’ve tested hundreds of devices and apps that promise to help, from a $7,000 mattress that literally rocks you to sleep, to a free podcast that bores you into a near-coma-like-lull. Some work really well. Here’s a look at very latest tech tools and trends that aim to help improve our sleep habits. . What does the Oura ring do? Late summer, I covered the Oura ring which has been called “a sleep lab on your finger,” and several other top picks including apps like Calm, Headspace, and intelligent alarm Hatch Restore ($130). Those are all still great choices, but let’s look at some of the newer sleep-tech players in the space. Amazon Halo Rise ($140) The Halo Rise is a bedside sleep tracker and smart alarm that works quietly from your nightstand. It uses radar technology to study your movement and breathing patterns to assess your sleep. A wake-up light simulates sunrise and a smart alarm senses the ideal sleep stage for making sure you wake up feeling well-rested. I know what you’re thinking… an Amazon device… in my bedroom? Creepy. But the company told me it’s designed with privacy in mind, there’s no microphone or camera, and you can delete data it tracks on the app. So there’s that. Amazon Halo Rise What I like most about it is that it tracks sleep metrics without anything strapped to my body, and it seems almost as accurate as my Fitbit 3 or Oura ring. (I haven’t done a sleep tracker smackdown with my Watch 8 – yet. That might show more discrepancies.) I like that it accounts for temperature, humidity, and light distractions. Does Halo Rise require a subscription? The biggest con that after an initial six months of Halo app membership, you’ll have to pay $4 a month. I hate that. While the companion app delivers all the personalized data and insights – and tons of other fantastic info to help you sleep better, stay active, eat well, and live a healthier life overall – the additional $4 a month might be enough to keep people some people up at night. Morphee Zen Pebble ($80) The Zen is a handheld device shaped like a smooth, flat stone that delivers 72 different audio sessions to help you relax and meditate. Pros of this smaller unit include using it anytime, anywhere. It comes with wired headphones and it really does help slow racing thoughts and ease into more relaxation. Cons? You have to listen with the wired headphones. Morphee says this is deliberate in making its devices Bluetooth-and-WiFi-free. Moonbird ($200) Moonbird is another palm-size breathing coach, but this one is cylindrical shaped and connects to an app on your smartphone to track various mindful metrics such as your heart rate and the time between beats (HRV). Any time you need to chill, you grab the little device, put your thumb on the sensor, and either go through one of the programmed breathing exercises or pick your own. Moonbird also gently expands and contracts for you to match your breathing to when you inhale and exhale. It's awkward shape aside, it delivers on its promise. The biggest con is its price. High-tech, high-priced space-age AI mattress For those with the cash to spare, the Bryte Balance Smart Bed ($6,300 for Queen, $7,000 for King size) is worth a look. I first tried this mattress at the Cavallo Point Lodge near San Francisco in 2021. The Lodge is one of 14 luxury hotels across the country that feature Bryte beds as a mainstay of the growing sleep tourism trend. Bryte Balance Bed The mattress connects to a tablet next to the bed and can be paired to an app on your smartphone – which is what you’ll do if you buy one for your house. You can program it to sense when you need a softer or firmer base, right down to specific areas of your body. For instance, I often sleep on my side and wake up with an achy hip that forces me roll over onto my other side. This frustrating flip-flop routine wakes me up a few times every night. The Bryte bed sensed when it needed to soften up the area under my hip bone, and gently rock me to a new position, without waking me up. It also sensed temperature drops and spikes, and for once, I didn’t wake up all sweaty and hot at 3 a.m., then too chilly to crawl out of the covers at 6 a.m. Apparently, the newer Balance model the company sells for home use does not include adjustable temperature control, which is a serious bummer. Still, each mattress has 90 individual coil-like cushions that can sense, shift, and relieve body pressure throughout the night. The coils roll like a gentle, top-to-bottom wave while the tablet plays soothing “sleep inducing sounds,” spa-like music that synched with the mattress movement and really did rock me right to slumberland. You can program both sides of the mattress so that you and your partner can have different experiences. In the morning, the bed gently vibrates you awake, and the app provides sleep statistics that include how much time you spend in various stages of sleep. It also makes suggestions based on the AI it gathers along the way. I haven’t tried two of the other top-rated smart mattresses myself, but hundreds of other testers, including USA Today’s sister site Reviewed, rave about these two: How much does Eight Sleep Cost? Eight Sleeps’ Pod 3 mattress ($3,195 for Queen, $3595 for King size) adjusts temperatures, wakes you with a gentle vibration, and pairs with a smartphone app to track your sleep metrics. The Sleep Number 360 p6 Smart Bed ($2,800 for Queen, $3,400 for King size) also get high tester marks, especially among couples who need two different beds in one. This one lets you adjust each side to your preferred firmness, and auto-adjusts during the night with its built-in air chambers, and also pairs with an app to track sleep. The main caveat with this mattress is that you’ll need to spend at least $550 more to get a branded base to support this tech. Do blue light blocking glasses do anything? Blue-light blocking glasses can help can stop techs’ azure hue from keeping you up at night. Blue light that we normally get from the sun during the daytime energizes us and helps regulate our bodies natural circadian rhythm. Too much blue light – from our phones, tablets, computers, video games, and more – messes with our natural wake and sleep cycles. Classic Night Swannies In a study published last year, researchers looked at 50 pairs of blue-light blocking glasses and concluded that orange and red lenses come out on top. Red lenses tend to block the most light that messes with our sleep, but the orange ones are easier to wear for long periods of time. How much does it cost to get blue light glasses? Top picks here include Swanwick’s Classic Night Swannies ($89) for the fashionista who wants to look cool while protecting their eyes from blue light. For less expensive, but still not embarrassing to wear in public, check out the Element Lux2 Blue Light aviators at Amazon ($40). If you don’t care that they look like something your 90-year old grandfather might wear home from getting his eyes dilated, the $13 Uvex Skyper blue light blocking computer glasses work well too. Jennifer Jolly is an Emmy Award-winning consumer tech columnist. The views and opinions expressed in this column are the author's and do not necessarily reflect those of USA TODAY.

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D Gets Overclocked to 5.9 GHz YouTube’s ScatterBencher has managed to overclock the new AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D to 5.9 GHz. Successfully overclocking these chips is no simple feat, and the skilled YouTuber (also known as Massman on HWBot) has published a detailed blog talking through three strategies to get the most out of your new Zen 4 with 3D V-Cache desktop processor. AMD’s 3D V-Cache enhanced 7000 Series CPUs aren’t as locked down as the previous generation X3D processors, and therefore provide several angles for overclockers to exploit. ScatterBencher decided to overclock his 7950X3D with the help of the Asus ROG Crosshair X670E Extreme motherboard and its highly configurable BIOS. Other key components worth mentioning were the ElmorLabs Easy Fan Controller ElmorLabs EVC2SX, an EK-Quantum Velocity2 EK-Quantum Power Kit Velocity2 360 CPU cooler, and the memory used was a G.Skill Trident Z5 DDR5-6400 kit. These same components were used for stock reference stats and all three overclocking strategies outlined below. However, please note that the G.Skill memory was run at DDR5-6000 for extra stability. ScatterBencher first looked at stock performance across a host of industry standard benchmarks with his capable setup – this obviously gives us a baseline to judge the OC attempts. In the graphics we have reproduced below, the stock performance in the various tests are represented by the blue bars, and overclocking gains are green extensions. The three overclocking strategies tested were; the use of AMD’s PBO 2 and EXPO, the use of PBO tuned using Curve Optimizer, and the use of PBO with an ECLK boost. The second and third methods of overclocking were significantly more successful at squeezing out extra CPU performance, as you can see from the charts above. The methodology which scored the headlining 5.9 GHz CPU clocks was the second one, using the Curve Optimizer AMD introduced with its Ryzen Master software last year, for use with the Zen 3 architecture processors. ScatterBencher talked us through the process of using the PBO 2 Curve Optimizer. In brief, he will broadly tune the whole CPU using a negative curve offset, gradually dropping the curve until the point of instability. He will simultaneously gradually increase Fmax Boost Override. Later, tuning is narrowed down to a per-core basis. As you can imagine, making small per-core adjustments then running through benchmarks with a CPU with 16 physical cores can be quite time consuming. During his overclocking tests with the top-end Ryzen 9 7950X3D, ScatterBencher made some interesting observations. For example, he provided some analysis of the System Management Unit (SMU) which enables PBO 2 on these chips. He also remarked upon the “severely more constrained,” CCD with V-Cache, and its impacts on overclocking strategy / methods. Head on over to the ScatterBencher blog for more details, or sit back and watch the half-hour video embedded below, if you prefer.

Intel Releases Quantum Software Development Kit Version 1.0 to Grow Developer Ecosystem After launching its beta version in September 2022, Intel today released version 1.0 of the Intel® Quantum Software Development Kit (SDK). The SDK is a full quantum computer in simulation that can also interface with Intel’s quantum hardware, including Intel’s Horse Ridge II control chip and Intel’s quantum spin qubit chip when it becomes available this year. The kit allows developers to program quantum algorithms in simulation, and it features an intuitive programming interface written in C++ using an industry-standard low-level virtual machine (LLVM) compiler toolchain. As a result, Intel’s SDK offers seamless interfacing with C/C++ and Python applications, making it more versatile and customizable. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230228005657/en/ “The Intel Quantum SDK helps programmers get ready for future large-scale commercial quantum computers. It will not only help developers learn how to create quantum algorithms and applications in simulation, but it will also advance the industry by creating a community of developers that will accelerate the development of applications, so they are ready when Intel’s quantum hardware becomes available.” –Anne Matsuura, director of Quantum Applications & Architecture, Intel Labs About the Intel Quantum SDK 1.0: Version 1.0 of the SDK includes an intuitive programming interface based on C++, providing a programming language that’s familiar to classical computing developers, enabling collaboration between them and quantum developers. The kit also features a quantum runtime environment optimized for executing hybrid quantum-classical algorithms. Developers have the choice of two target backends for simulating qubits to either represent a higher number of generic qubits or Intel hardware. The first backend is a high-performance open-source generic qubit simulator, Intel® Quantum Simulator (IQS). IQS has a backend capable of 32 qubits on a single node and more than 40 qubits on multiple nodes. The second is a target backend that simulates Intel quantum dot qubit hardware and enables compact model simulation of Intel silicon spin qubits. Intel’s qubits leverage the company’s expertise in silicon transistor manufacturing to build a large-scale quantum computer. With the SDK, users can develop small workloads to determine what functionalities are needed from the quantum computer’s system architecture to run algorithms efficiently and accurately on qubits. In addition, Intel is using the SDK internally to co-design quantum hardware and software in tandem, accelerating system development. The SDK is a customizable and expandable platform providing greater flexibility when developing quantum applications. It also provides for users to compare compiler files, a standard feature in classical computing development, to discern how well an algorithm is optimized in the compiler. It allows users to see the source code and obtain lower levels of abstraction, gaining insight into how a system stores data. Additional features include: Code in familiar patterns: Intel has extended the industry-standard LLVM with quantum extensions and developed a quantum runtime environment that is modified for quantum computing, and the IQS provides a state-vector simulation of a universal quantum computer. Efficient execution of hybrid classical-quantum workflows: The compiler extensions allow developers to integrate results from quantum algorithms into their C++ project, opening the door to the feedback loops needed for hybrid quantum-classical algorithms like the quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA) and quantum variational eigen-solver (VQE). High-performance simulation: Intel® DevCloud users can build executables capable of simulating applications and algorithms with up to 32 qubits on a single computational node and more than 40 on multiple nodes. How Intel is Building a Quantum Ecosystem: Intel is committed to advancing the quantum computing field and is working to build a community of developers. As a starting point for this effort, Intel has provided grants to five universities to develop quantum course curricula to share with additional universities and proliferate its use across academia: the University of Pennsylvania, Technische Hochschule Deggendorf, Keio University, The Ohio State University and Pennsylvania State University. Deggendorf Institute of Technology in Munich, Germany, is utilizing the SDK to explore a fluid dynamics problem important for aerodynamics and hydrodynamics. In January 2023, Intel hosted an Intel Quantum Computing Challenge at Deggendorf Institute of Technology. Submissions explored quantum use cases using the beta version of the Intel Quantum SDK, including image denoising and realistic image generation, and solving unstructured search problems. Leidos, another beta user, is exploring applications like quantum machine learning, simulation of materials and astrophysics problems like quantum teleportation, black holes and wormholes. Here’s what beta testers are saying: University of Pennsylvania: "The Intel Quantum SDK is easy to start, and since everything is on the cloud, all I need is a secure shell client and the simulator will generate very detailed reports so that I can analyze and debug the kernels I write,” said Gushu Li, assistant professor, Computer and Information Science Department. Deggendorf Institute of Technology: “The Intel Quantum SDK is a game-changer in the quantum development space because it readily allows the developer to operate at a level closer to the hardware for better resource utilization,” said Yaknan John Gambo, graduate student. Penn State University: “Intel's Quantum SDK offered a unique way to apply my knowledge of C to the quantum domain,” said Jeremie Pope, a student in the Computer Engineering Department. “It's helped me adopt quantum programming as if it were a classical language.” Leidos Innovation Center: “Leidos has enjoyed the versatility of their hardware-agnostic simulation for software development and comparative analysis,” said Elizabeth Iwasawa, Ph.D., quantum technology lead and research scientist. “Even with the beta version, we explored a broad variety of research topics from materials modeling and quantum machine learning to theoretical research into thermofield double states.” What’s Next: The Intel Quantum SDK 1.0 is available now on the OneAPI Intel Dev Cloud. In the future, Intel plans to release new versions of the SDK with added features and will integrate the SDK seamlessly with Intel’s quantum hardware. To learn more about Intel’s unique approach to quantum computing, read Intel’s quantum computing backgrounder. More Context: Intel Labs | Intel Quantum Computing | Intel Labs (Press Kit) About Intel Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) is an industry leader, creating world-changing technology that enables global progress and enriches lives. Inspired by Moore’s Law, we continuously work to advance the design and manufacturing of semiconductors to help address our customers’ greatest challenges. By embedding intelligence in the cloud, network, edge and every kind of computing device, we unleash the potential of data to transform business and society for the better. To learn more about Intel’s innovations, go to newsroom.intel.com and intel.com. © Intel Corporation. Intel, the Intel logo and other Intel marks are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

Want to be a vlogger? Here are some gadgets you can use If you’ve decided to use your phone to vlog but don’t plan to invest in a flagship phone with all the bells and whistles, how do you ensure that you shoot super-smooth videos? Invest in a good quality gimbal like the DJI OM 5. This is a handheld three-axis smartphone gimbal stabiliser that comes with a grip tripod and a built-in extension rod that helps capture jerk-free videos. Install the DJI Mimo App—it works with iOS 10.0 or above, and Android 7.0 or above—and you have access to smart features like ActiveTrack 4.0, which tracks the subject even when moving quickly, or ShotGuides, which suggests a shot sequence, especially useful if you’re a newbie vlogger. And it is compatible with a range of smartphones. If you aren’t keen to invest in a dedicated vlogging camera, Apple’s iPhone 14 Pro Max has you covered. Using its cinematic mode, you can shoot professional videos with a shallow depth of field and focus transitions for a cinema-grade look in 4K HDR at 24 fps. Its Action mode is the perfect way to avoid shaky videos—whether you’re walking, running or in a moving vehicle. Capable of capturing videos at multiple frame rates, this is a one-stop solution: using the A16 Bionic chip that powers the phone, you can edit heavy video files on the go and upload them right then and there on to your platform of choice. Plus, it’s a capable mobile phone. Action Hero Love adventure sports? You need a vlogging camera that keeps pace with your active lifestyle, like this one from GoPro. Boasting GoPro’s signature design, its latest action camera features a new 1/1.9-inch sensor capable of recording video at up to 5.3K resolution at 60 fps in 10-bit colour depth. Its large sensor enables an aspect ratio of 8:7 for the largest vertical field of view, which can be easily cropped into different aspect ratios for Instagram and other apps using the GoPro Quik app. In addition, the HyperSmooth 5.0 technology keeps the footage steady even if the camera is rotated 360 degrees while capturing footage. Three new Night Effect Time Lapse presets make capturing pro-quality Star Trails, Light Painting and Vehicle Light Trails easy. Sony’s ZV-1F is ‘the’ small camera meant for vlogging. Featuring the Exmor RS CMOS sensor and an ultra-wide 20-mm prime lens by Zeiss, it can capture detailed 4K/30p videos. Real-time tracking and Eye AF are a class apart, and it also has a boken button. The camera has 10 presets for pro-level footage, a built-in directional microphone, a fully articulating touchscreen and a dedicated record indicator. The Imaging Edge Mobile Plus app ensures seamless transfers to your smartphone, which can also be used as a remote.

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D Review: AMD Retakes Gaming Crown with 3D V-Cache AMD’s $699 Ryzen 9 7950X3D is geared specifically for gamers looking to blast through CPU-limited games while still having the threaded heft of 16 cores that can handle the heaviest of productivity workloads. The new chip comes packing sixteen Zen 4 cores and the company’s second-gen 3D V-Cache tech that unlocks 128MB of L3 cache, a combo that delivers the fastest gaming performance available on the market. In our tests, the 7950X3D beats Intel’s fastest chip, the 6 GHz Core i9-13900KS, by 13% on average and up to 40%+ in some games, taking the top spot on our list of the best CPUs for gaming. The 7950X3D uses AMD’s cutting-edge 3D chip-stacking technology, called 3D V-Cache, to enable an incredible 128MB of L3 cache. Like AMD’s inaugural X3D chip, the Zen 3 Ryzen 7 5800X3D, the extra L3 cache comes courtesy of a 3D-stacked SRAM chiplet fused atop the processor with hybrid bonding, which accelerates gaming to new heights in many titles. AMD also has a new thread-targeting technique designed to help apply the gains more evenly across a broad range of games. The first-gen 3D V-Cache chip gave AMD a lead over Intel’s competing processors, cementing it as the go-to chip for gamers, but it suffered in some productivity apps due to a limit of eight cores and its relatively low boost frequency. AMD’s new 16-core Ryzen 9 7950X3D is the first 3D V-Cache chip to employ two compute chiplets, boosting productivity apps and enabling a higher boost frequency of 5.7 GHz, a big improvement over the previous-gen’s 4.5 GHz peak. Intel’s Raptor Lake recently took the gaming performance crown from AMD’s Zen 4 Ryzen 7000 chips, but AMD has now broadened its X3D attack with three chips that come in 8-, 12- and 16-core flavors spanning from the $449 to $699, all of which come with the company’s newest Zen 4 architecture etched on the 5nm process. These chips drop into AM5 motherboards that support the latest connectivity tech, like DDR5 and PCIe 5.0, addressing another shortcoming of the first-gen model. AMD has also unlocked the chip for basic overclocking and undervolting. The 7950X3D is the highest-end model, but we haven’t tested the 12-core $599 Ryzen 9 7900X3D that also comes to market tomorrow — AMD doesn’t plan to sample that chip to press. However, if history is any indication, the 7900X3D should deliver nearly identical gaming performance to the pricier 7950X3D. The $449 eight-core Ryzen 7 7800X3D arrives later in April, and that will undoubtedly be the chip to beat: AMD tells us it will offer the lion’s share of 3D V-Cache’s gaming performance, but it comes at a much more affordable price point. There are some tradeoffs, though — some games don’t benefit from the 3D V-Cache, and the chip isn’t as fast in productivity apps as competing Intel chips. The 7950X3D also suffers from many of the pain points we’ve already seen with the fledgling AM5 platform — the motherboard ecosystem is more expensive than Intel’s offerings, and the strict requirement for DDR5 significantly increases costs compared to Intel’s DDR4-friendly platform. Of course, price isn’t as much of a consideration for the highest-end gaming systems like one you would build around the 7950X3D, and the chip draws far less power than Intel’s Raptor Lake. That means you’ll have a cooler and quieter machine that also happens to have the fastest gaming processor money can buy, all while doing well in other CPU benchmarks. Intel doesn’t have a comparable tech to boost L3 cache capacity, so the 7950X3D will hold the gaming title for this generation of processors. We also dug up some new details on AMD's second-gen 3D V-Cache tech. Let’s take a closer look. The Ryzen 9 7950X3D has 16 cores and 32 threads and only works on AM5 platforms. On the surface, the 7950X3D appears to merely be a Ryzen 9 7950X with an extra L3 cache chiplet and additional silicon and software tuning. As before, the 3D-stacked SRAM L3 chip weighs in at 64MB, so the 7950X3D comes with a beastly 144MB of total cache, with 128MB of that being gaming-boosting L3 cache. Even though they come with 8, 12, and 16 cores, AMD’s Zen 4 3D V-Cache processors all have a base TPD of 120W and a max 162W PPT. That means the 7950X3D’s ratings are 68W lower than the 170W/230W rating for the standard 7950X, which will have an impact on heavy work. The reductions aren’t entirely surprising, as the additional cache chiplet can result in slightly higher operating temperatures. In fact, the 7950X3D’s maximum supported temperature is 89C, which is lower than the 7950X’s limit of 95C and the previous gen 5800X3D’s 90C limit. AMD has significantly increased the boost speeds with the new X3D models — the 7950X3D boosts to 5.7 GHz, a big leap over the previous gen 5800X3D’s peak of 4.5 GHz, and the same as the standard 7950X. The base clock declines 200 MHz compared to the 7950X, a necessary accommodation for the lower power envelope. The chip doesn’t come with a bundled cooler — AMD recommends a 280mm water cooler, or better, for the Ryzen 7000X3D processors. AMD only allowed overclocking the memory and Infinity Fabric for the previous-gen 5800X3D but will now also allow both the auto-overclocking Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) and Curve Optimizer. AMD still doesn’t allow direct frequency overclocking due to a voltage limitation for one of the chiplets. The $599 12-core 24-thread Ryzen 9 7900X3D peaks at 5.6 GHz, the same as the standard 7900X, while base clocks decline a relatively minor 300 MHz. This chip comes armed with 104MB of cache, with 96 MB carved out as L3. The $449 Ryzen 7 7800X3D is a single-CCD chip that's comparable to the first-gen Ryzen 7 5800X3D, but it comes with a much faster Zen 4 architecture. The 8-core 16-thread 7800X3D has 96MB of L3 cache, the same core count and cache capacity as its Zen 3 predecessor. The 7800X3D has a 4.2 GHz base clock and a 5.0 GHz boost, both of which are higher than the 5800X3D’s 3.4 GHz base and 4.5 GHz boost. Sponsored Links Do You Speak English? You May Be Able To Work a USA job from home in Algeria USA Work | Search Ads CPU (Image credit: Tom's Hardware) Both the 7950X3D and the 7900X3D have two eight-core Core Compute Die (CCD) chiplets, marking the first time AMD has brought the 3D V-Cache tech to a multi-CCD processor. The above image shows that AMD only mounts a single 7nm SRAM chiplet atop one eight-core CCD, leaving the other CCD bare. This allows the chiplet without the 3D-stacked SRAM to operate at full speed, thus delivering the high boost clocks we see on the spec sheet for applications that prize frequency. Meanwhile, the SRAM-stacked CCD will operate at a slightly lower clock rate than the rated boost for the chip but satisfy the needs of applications that prize low-latency access, like games. The chip itself has a peak of 1.4V, enabling the high boost clocks, but the 3D V-Cache-equipped CCD has a ~1.1V limit to keep thermals in check. Only fusing the SRAM onto one CCD also reduces manufacturing costs, as the hybrid bonding process and additional chiplet make this an expensive technology. AMD also says that using two V-Cache chiplets doesn’t provide enough performance uplift to justify the extra costs. In either case, the new design requires the combination of a new chipset driver and Windows Xbox Game Bar to place threads for different types of workloads on the correct chiplet. Unfortunately, AMD didn’t share many details about the new second-gen 3D V-Cache’s hardware implementation, but we recently found plenty of new details at a recent tech conference. We have the details of AMD’s thread targeting implementation and the second-gen 3D V-Cache hardware on the following pages; then, it's on to the gaming benchmarks.