German Porsche modifier Ruf has revealed the new Bergmeister at Monterey Car Week, drawing inspiration from Porsche’s hillclimb heritage. With design cues from the Porsche 906, Porsche 909 Bergspyder and Porsche 718 RS 60 Spyder, the Ruf Bergmeister partners a retro design with more modern engineering, which the German firm says suits both road and track. The rear-engined speedster is the lightest car Ruf has yet built, weighing in at just 1100kg. It’s driven by a 3.6-litre turbocharged flat six that produces 450bhp and 442lb ft of torque, managed by a six-speed manual gearbox. Ruf has also added carbon-ceramic brakes to bolster the Bergmeister’s stopping power, as well as a set of 19in centre-locking wheels. The car features all-carbonfibre bodywork, no roof and bespoke LED lights at the front and rear. Its white paint and green racing stripes are inspired by the 909 Bergspyder, while the lights resemble those from the 718 RS 60 Spyder. Inside, the Bergmeister features manual dials and Alcantara headlining on the doors, dashboard, glovebox, steering wheel and gearstick. A set of bucket seats is also included as standard. Bergmeister appears alongside new Ruf SCR The Bergmeister isn’t the only Ruf to appear at Pebble Beach. It's joined by the Ruf SCR, which has made its North American debut at the event. Powered by a naturally aspirated 4.0-litre flat six, the SCR produces 510bhp and 346lb ft. Like the Bergmeister, the rear-wheel drive coupé is equipped with a six-speed manual gearbox. It also features a carbonfibre monocoque and carbonfibre bodywork to reduce weight and improve rigidity. The addition of an integrated roll cage and a rear spaceframe has led Ruf to dub the SCR “a race car built for the street”. On the firm’s appearance at The Quail, boss Alois Ruf said: “When we began building our own automobiles in 1974, it was all for the thrill of the drive. We're honored to be featured at The Quail and to celebrate the passion for driving with our friends. The Bergmeister embodies the most elemental driving experience, while the SCR highlights the latest technology offerings from our team in Pfaffenhausen.” Link : https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/new-ruf-bergmeister-lightweight-hillclimb-inspired-racer

Ukrainian strikes on Crimea are having major psychological and operational effects on Moscow's forces, Western officials have told journalists. Explosions at the Saki airbase on 9 August and other assaults have put more than half of the Black Sea fleet's naval jets out of action, they said. The fleet has a revered history, but it has suffered a series of humiliations since the invasion began in February. Officials said the setbacks have forced it to adopt a defensive posture. In March, the fleet's flagship, the cruiser Moskva, was sunk by Ukraine. The 510-crew missile cruiser had led Russia's naval assault on Ukraine, and its sinking was a major symbolic and military blow. At the time, the Russian defence ministry said ammunition on board the Moskva exploded in an unexplained fire, and the ship tipped over while being towed back to port. In June, the fleet suffered another embarrassment when it was forced to abandon Snake Island, a tiny outpost in the north-west of the Black Sea seized by Russia on the first day of its invasion, after coming under sustained Ukrainian bombardment. In recent weeks, the fleet's home in the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014, has come under attack from Ukrainian forces. At least eight fighter jets were destroyed in the bombardment of Saki airbase on 9 August. Following the attacks, scores of holidaymakers were seen fleeing the peninsula, which was previously untouched by fighting. Images acquired by the BBC showed queues of traffic on roads leading out of Crimea three days after the attack. The 9 August strikes were not the only apparent Ukrainian strikes in Crimea. In July, Russian officials alleged that a Ukrainian drone attack forced an end to Navy Day celebrations in Sevastopol, and on 16 August there were explosions at at arms depot on the peninsula. The fact that explosions in Crimea - a place previously considered to be well beyond the reach of any Ukrainian attack - were watched by thousands of Russian tourists, many of whom have since fled Crimea back into Russia, has had a psychological effect in Moscow, officials told the media. The Western officials, who spoke unattributably on background, meaning they cannot be named, said that Russia's Black Sea fleet has been reduced to little more than a coastal flotilla that is now having to adopt a cautious attitude due to Ukrainian attacks. They added that Russia's ability to launch an assault on the port of Odesa in western Ukraine is highly unlikely in the short term. On Wednesday, Russian state media reported that the fleet's commander, Igor Osipov, had been replaced in light of the attacks. The RIA news agency said the fleet's new chief, Viktor Sokolov, has been introduced to military leaders at the port of Sevastopol. Moscow also seems to be trying to re-arm its beleaguered fleet. State media reported that Admiral Sokolov told a group of young officers that they will receive 12 new vessels, alongside additional aviation and land-based vehicles later this year. He insisted that the fleet has been "successfully completing all the tasks set for it" during the invasion, Russia's Tass news agency reported. But on Wednesday, UK defence officials said that the Kremlin's plans have been "undermined" by the navy's failure to assume full control over the Black Sea. The Black Sea fleet has generally pursued an "extremely defensive" position and remained near the Crimean coast, they said. Link : https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62608526

Hello CSBD FAMILY ❤️ ! I want to ask all of you something! Please try to comment on this topic, a video of a song that is played by your national instrument! This topic will be closed after 1-2 weeks! I await your responses. My response will be the last one.

The next eagerly awaited Samsung Unpacked event is scheduled for August 10, with the Galaxy Z Fold 4, the Galaxy Z Flip 4, the Galaxy Watch 5, the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, and the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro on the agenda – and we now have an early look at all of that hardware. Over at 91mobiles(opens in new tab) they have a whole host of leaked renders showcasing the phones, smartwatches and wireless earbuds that are due to be officially unveiled next week. What's more, all the products in the pipeline are revealed from a variety of angles, and in a variety of different colors. We're even treated to a look at some extras and accessories – the charging case for the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro, for example, the S Pen case that will be available for the Galaxy Z Fold 4, and some of the additional straps on the way for the Galaxy Watch 5. Color choices These renders match up with previous leaks that we've seen for these products, but we haven't seen such a comprehensive dump of pictures in one go until now. It should be enough to keep you going until Wednesday at 6am PT / 9am ET / 2pm BST / 11pm AEST. One detail that's noticeable here is that there's a lot of Bora Purple around: that's the new shade that just got added to the Galaxy S22 range, and it has been talked about in rumors around the new devices too. There are also plenty of more conventional color choices here as well, so there should be something for everyone. We will of course bring you all the news and announcements as they're made on Wednesday, so make sure you stick with TechRadar when the day comes. After that, the next major Samsung product launch should be for the Galaxy S23. Analysis: Samsung's big day We're used to product launches here at TechRadar, but the Unpacked event that Samsung has lined up for August 10 is undoubtedly in the top tier in terms of expectations and scale. We've already seen official teaser trailers for the upcoming showcase. While most of the attention might be on flagship phones – iPhone vs Galaxy vs Pixel – here Samsung has a chance to improve on its head start in terms of foldable phones. Neither Apple nor Google has a folding device on the market yet, whereas Samsung is about to unveil its fourth-generation model. In the other categories, Samsung is playing catch up to Apple: its Galaxy Watch and Galaxy Buds product lines are still some way behind the Apple Watch and the Apple AirPods in terms of sales and brand recognition, but that could start to change once these new devices go on sale. What is certain is that Samsung is apparently pulling out all the stops: with two foldable phones and two smartwatch models on the way, it can't be accused of a half-hearted effort in its 2022 product range. Link : https://www.techradar.com/news/major-leak-reveals-all-the-samsung-gadgets-that-are-launching-next-week

The new 64-core AMD Threadripper Pro 5995WX and 32-core Threadripper Pro 5975WX are finally available at retail, breaking free from the confines of pre-built OEM systems to contend for a spot on our list of best CPUs for workstations. They have a tough act to follow: AMD's previous-gen Threadripper CPUs delivered a crushing blow to the entrenched Intel's HEDT and workstation lineup, with the consumer models essentially muscling Team Blue out of the high end desktop (HEDT) market entirely while the Pro models relegated Intel to an also-ran in the workstation market. But there's a problem for enthusiasts — Intel abandoned the consumer-oriented high end desktop (HEDT) market after its crushing defeat three years ago, and now that AMD is the only game in town for HEDT chips, it's also dropping the segment. AMD says it will no longer make the more affordable non-Pro Threadripper models. Instead, we get the Threadripper Pro chips that are priced for professionals and come with all the trimmings to justify the price tag, like the Zen 3 architecture, clock speeds up to 4.5 GHz, 128 lanes of PCIe 4.0, and eight DDR4 memory channels that deliver unmatchable workstation performance. AMD's original Threadripper chips (and supporting motherboards) were geared for HEDT, meaning they came with higher core counts and access to more memory and PCIe connectivity than mainstream desktop PC chips. However, pricing was still mostly within reach for us mere mortals. After several generations, AMD released its Threadripper Pro models with twice the number of memory channels (eight) for professional users and unique motherboards, but the beefy chips carried the eye-watering pricing to match their incredible performance. AMD then maintained two lineups, one for consumers and one for professional workstations, but they had different pricing tiers even though they were based on the same underlying architecture. AMD changes that with the Threadripper 5000 WX-series, unifying the standard HEDT models with the professional lineup, meaning there's now only one line of chips and motherboards for both OEM workstations and DIYers — Threadripper Pro and the WRX80 platform. Threadripper Pro chips come with the 'WX' suffix to denote they are designed for the workstation market. AMD didn't introduce more cores with the two top-end models, but they're faster due to the step up from the Zen 2 architecture to Zen 3. AMD has increased prices on the 64-core model by $1,000 and bumped up the 32-core chip by $550. All retail Threadripper Pro models have a top dual-core clock speed of 4.5 GHz, a generational increase of 300 MHz for the 5955WX and 5975WX. The 24-core 3975WX didn't have a previous-gen Pro counterpart, but its clock speeds are the same as the consumer 3960X. We also see a 100 MHz improvement to the base clock speed on all models except the 64-core, 128-thread Threadripper Pro 5995WX. The Threadripper Pro chips have the same 280W TDP envelope as the previous-gen chips. Notably, the 280W limit is likely imposed by the sWRX80 socket design, so AMD doesn't have much room to increase frequencies for the highest-end part. As we've seen in previous tests, the core-heavy Threadripper models reach peak power consumption long before all of the cores are fully saturated, but the support for overclocking/PBO will help break those bonds. Threadripper Pro has 128 PCIe 4.0 lanes (the CPU exposes 120 lanes to the user) compared to Intel's 64 lanes, an advantage because most workstations have plenty of additives, like GPU accelerators, NVMe storage, and high-speed NICs. Except for the quad-channel Ryzen Threadripper 3000 chips, all of the above AMD and Intel processors support eight channels of DDR4-3200 ECC memory. Threadripper Pro supports a maximum of 2TB of memory in UDIMM, RDIMM, and LRDIMM flavors, while Xeon W-3300 supports up to 4TB. That's not to mention that AMD's core/thread counts weigh in at 64/128 compared to Intel's 38/76. As you can see, AMD slightly undercuts Intel's suggested pricing for the 24- and 32-core models, but the flagship 64-core 5995WX costs $2000 more than the highest-end 38-core Xeon W-3375. The Threadripper Pro chips drop into single-socket WRX80 motherboards, so existing WRX80 motherboards support the 5000 series chips after a BIOS update. The LGA4094 socket (aka Socket sWRX8) is physically identical to the previous-gen Threadripper consumer and EPYC data center platforms, so coolers are also compatible. However, the socket features different pin assignments: AMD enabled some pins to support more memory channels and PCIe lanes than are available on the old Threadripper consumer chips and disabled certain pins used to support multiple sockets on EPYC platforms. Threadripper Pro is based on a lightly-modified EPYC Milan design, so they move up from Zen 2 to the Zen 3 architecture. The Threadripper Pro chips still top out at an incredible 256MB of L3 cache on the highest-end models, but the cache is now a contiguous 32MB block for each eight-core cluster, improving performance over the prior gen. In contrast, Xeon W-3300 tops out at a paltry 57MB. The chips also bear all of the other benefits of Zen 3, like a 19% increase in instruction per cycle (IPC) throughput. The chips support AMD's Pro Security, Manageability, and Business Ready suites (18-month software stability, 2-year chip availability), an area where Intel's competing chips are lacking. AMD's Pro Security suite includes the same Secure Architecture, Memory Guard (memory encryption with a slight performance penalty), and Secure Processor features as the prior-gen Threadripper Pro models, but AMD added Shadow Stack, a mechanism to counter control flow attacks. In contrast, Intel's Xeon W-3300 series doesn't have an enterprise-class feature set. AMD Threadripper Pro 5995WX and 5975WX Benchmark Test Setup There are quite a few caveats to our testing. First, we tested the Threadripper 5995WX and 3995WX in the Lenovo ThinkStation P620 workstation, which is unabashedly designed for 100% stability and doesn't support the auto-overclocking Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) or any other form of overclocking. Additionally, we're constrained to the systems' installed cooler and power limits, not to mention that the 128GB of ECC memory operates at JEDEC memory speeds. Lenovo uses AMD's vendor-locking Platform Secure Boot (PSB) feature to prevent using the processor with any other motherboard, which you can read about more in-depth here. This technique is used to improve security but is irreversible by the end user, which has terrible implications for the second-hand market. It also impacts our testing — we're stuck with testing the 64-core chips in an unalterable environment. Our results are still plenty valid for our stock configurations, but we can't test overclocking. It wouldn't be surprising if an enthusiast-class motherboard and cooler can extract slightly more performance from the 64-core models, even at stock settings. Luckily we didn't face the same restrictions with the Threadripper Pro 5975WX. AMD sent us a sample, so we're free to test with any platform. We chose an MSI WS WRX80 motherboard because it features all of the high-end features you'd expect from an enthusiast-class motherboard, including overclocking (remember, only a few WRX80 motherboards support overclocking). The MSI WS WRX80 gives you a good idea of some of the features you can expect from a high-end WRX80 motherboard, including eight DIMM slots, seven PCIe 4.0 x16 slots, two M.2 slots, two U.2 connectors, eight SATA ports, and a 10Gbps Aquantia AQC113CS LAN controller. We tested the 5975WX at stock and PBO settings, with the latter using Advanced Motherboard settings with a 10X scalar setting. We used the 128GB of ECC memory from the Lenovo system with the MSI motherboard to keep our test pool consistent (we didn't have an eight-DIMM consumer kit for testing). As such, we use eight channels of DDR4-3200 and JEDEC timings for all tested Threadripper Pro configurations. The other platforms in our test pool have varying memory configurations, listed in a chart at the end of the article. Intel hasn't sampled us any Xeon W-3300 chips, so our testing feels a bit incomplete. While the W-3300 chips lack the connectivity options and sheer threaded heft of the Threadripper Pro 5000-series models, they are known to have competitive performance in single-threaded work. That pays off in some workloads. We're using our Windows 10 test suite for this round of testing, which does necessitate using our older game roster but allows us to compare to our historical results from the previous-gen 64-core 3995WX that we no longer have in the lab. All of the normal caveats of Threadripper 3000 performance still apply. Windows splits cores into 'processor groups' of 64 threads apiece, so some applications and benchmarks that aren't tuned to span across the groups don't benefit from the increased thread count. For applications that can't span processor groups, some professional users will run multiple program instances in VMs to extract the utmost performance. Even without that type of arrangement, we see a marked uplift in several applications that benefit from 128 threads. Additionally, the software is rapidly evolving to support such large processors. AMD's Ryzen Master software, which allows you to tune consumer Threadripper processors, is available with the Threadripper Pro chips, but only if the platform supports overclocking. For instance, the software is locked out on the Lenovo ThinkStation but works perfectly with the MSI WS WRX80. Link : https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-threadripper-pro-5995wx-5975wx-cpu-review

Name of the game: Raft Price: 16,99$ Link Store: https://store.steampowered.com/app/648800/Raft/ Offer ends up after X hours: 11 August Requirements: MINIMUM: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 7 or later Processor: Intel Core i5 2.6GHz or similar Memory: 6 GB RAM Graphics: GeForce GTX 700 series or similar DirectX: Version 11 Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 10 GB available space Additional Notes: 64-bit operating system is required RECOMMENDED: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 7 or later Processor: Intel Core i5-6600 3.3GHz or similar Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: GeForce GTX 1050 series or similar DirectX: Version 11 Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 10 GB available space Additional Notes: 64-bit operating system is required

This revised BMW M8 Competition Coupé, the explosive 616bhp V8 range-topper in the ever-growing BMW M range, is more model-year change than mid-life refresh. It is billed as the latter but is in reality the former because the changes only really go skin deep. They extend to new colour, wheel and trim options, a bigger infotainment screen inside and lightly tweaked front-end styling. However, BMW now wants you to consider the 7- and 8-baged models at the top of its range as true luxury cars rather than mere premium ones. Thus, the M8 is labelled by its maker as a luxury sports car, one that swells to just over £150,000 with the £20k of options as fitted here and into Aston Martin Vantage territory and not a million miles away from a Bentley Continental GT. So it’s with this fresh branding and approach in mind that we will assess it. Whatever the marketeers at BMW might say, these changes and that repositioning have had no impact on the main elephant in the room with the M8: that it does not successfully satisfy either the role of a sports car or a GT. The M8 never quite knows what it wants to be. The performance and acceleration is equivalent to that of a supercar, and so easily and effortlessly accessed with monster levels of grip and stability to boot. That’s of course in no small part to the excellent 4.4-litre V8 engine, and the eight-speed automatic gearbox and all-wheel drive system. It’s less the power, more the 553lb ft of torque you notice the most. Peak torque arrives at just 1800rpm and stays with you for more than 4000rpm more, and surges the M8 relentlessly forward in almost any scenario and gear. Shifts are slick and the way it gathers and carries speed is quite remarkable. Yet all this power and torque is delivered in a way that’s all rather undramatic, as if the engine is shy of making any kind of V8 growl. It’s almost eerily quiet. If you’re buying a car like the M8, surely you want to make a bit of an entrance? As for the handling, it’s unwilling or perhaps more likely unable to immerse you fully in attacking your favourite B-road due to the sheer size and weight of it. Our road test of the M8 a couple of years ago found hidden depths to the car when on a track, but on the road, it just falls a bit flat for an M car and feels precise and predictable in its handling rather than exciting. And it’s by these standards you must judge it: it is not an M Performance model, remember, and is sold and marketed as a full-fat M car. More engaging handling should be a given. So the M8 doesn’t handle like a sports car, yet the road noise and firm ride remove it from serious consideration as a GT. It’s never uncomfortable, but it also never really settles and flows down a road at low or higher speeds. What does impress is the interior. The infotainment and technology are well integrated and easy to use, while it’s also supremely comfortable and the material quality is excellent. It’s not at Bentley levels, but it also feels an awfully long way from a BMW 1 Series. As it should for the price, mind. Still, the M8 feels like a car set up for a fall by BMW for being given an M badge in the first place. It just never feels as sporty as an M car should, and in chasing that M dream, it also ends up being compromised in what could have been a more compelling and interesting GT car. Consider it a technical showcase, then, a car that’s easy to be impressed by for much of what it does but difficult to love. Big front-engined V8s are an endangered species, sports car or GT, so while they’re still around, their ilk is best enjoyed elsewhere. Link : https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/bmw/m8/first-drives/bmw-m8-competition-coupe-2022-uk-review

A ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip appears to be holding. The Egypt-brokered truce followed three days of violence with Israel targeting the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and militants firing rockets into Israel. At least 44 Palestinians died in the most serious flare-up since an 11-day conflict in May 2021. On Monday, Israel began lifting its blockade of the Strip, allowing the first fuel tanks to enter. The latest violence began with attacks by Israel on sites in the Gaza Strip, which its military said was in response to threats from a militant group. It followed days of tensions after Israel arrested a senior PIJ member in the occupied West Bank. By Sunday evening, the Palestinian health ministry said that 15 children had been confirmed among the 44 deaths recorded. Gaza's health ministry has blamed "Israeli aggression" for the deaths of Palestinians and for the more than 300 people wounded. Israel, for its part, says it hit 170 PIJ targets during the operation, codenamed Breaking Dawn, killing several high-ranking PIJ members and destroying tunnels and weapon storage sites. A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they had information about 35 Palestinian deaths: "11 of them were uninvolved civilian casualties, including the wives of the terror group's commanders in the south - victims of the IDF attacks." "Another 15 civilians were killed by PIJ fire," Brig Gen Ran Kochav said. Gen Kochav said 1,100 projectiles were fired from the Gaza Strip during the flare-up, with 200 landing inside Gaza. He said more Palestinians had died from those rockets that exploded inside the Strip than from IDF fire, and added that Israel would investigate the deaths of civilians, including children. No Israeli casualties have been reported, with the exception of a few people lightly injured from debris on Saturday. The Israel-Palestinian conflict explained The children who died in the 2021 conflict The ceasefire was mediated by Egypt, which has acted as an intermediary between Israel and Gaza in the past. But as it came into effect late on Sunday, the Israeli military confirmed it was striking Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) targets in Gaza, in response to rockets fired just before. Israeli media also reported some isolated rocket fire from Gaza in the minutes after the deadline. US and United Nations leaders urged both sides to continue to observe the ceasefire. In a statement, US President Joe Biden praised the truce and called on all parties "to fully implement [it] and to ensure fuel and humanitarian supplies are flowing into Gaza". He also urged that reports of civilian casualties should be investigated in a timely manner. Concerns over the humanitarian situation in Gaza, where health officials warned that hospitals only had enough fuel to run generators for another two days, led to the ceasefire deal being agreed. line Gaza Strip: The basics Home to about two million people, it is one of the most densely po[CENSORED]ted areas in the world It is run by the militant Islamist group Hamas, with rival Palestinian Authority - recognised internationally as representing all Palestinians - governing part of the West Bank Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)- one of several militant groups operating in Gaza - co-operates with Hamas, but also maintains independence line As the truce held, restrictions on Gaza began to be lifted. Humanitarian aid started arriving as the major crossings into the Strip, closed six days ago, were reopened, Israel said. They would return to "full routine... subject to calm in the area," a statement said. The latest conflict closely follows Israel's arrest of Bassem Saadi, reported to be the head of PIJ in the West Bank, a week ago. He was held in the Jenin area as part of a series of arrest operations, after a wave of attacks by Israeli Arabs and Palestinians that left 17 Israelis and two Ukrainians dead. Two of the attackers came from the Jenin district. Large crowds gathered on Sunday for the funerals of those killed in strikes on Rafah, in the south of the territory. These included senior PIJ commander Khaled Mansour - the second top militant to have died. Demonstrations in support of Gaza have also been held in the West Bank city of Nablus. PIJ, which is one of the strongest militant groups operating in Gaza, is backed by Iran and has its headquarters in the Syrian capital, Damascus. It has been responsible for many attacks, including rocket fire and shootings against Israel. A ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip appears to be holding. The Egypt-brokered truce followed three days of violence with Israel targeting the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and militants firing rockets into Israel. At least 44 Palestinians died in the most serious flare-up since an 11-day conflict in May 2021. On Monday, Israel began lifting its blockade of the Strip, allowing the first fuel tanks to enter. The latest violence began with attacks by Israel on sites in the Gaza Strip, which its military said was in response to threats from a militant group. It followed days of tensions after Israel arrested a senior PIJ member in the occupied West Bank. By Sunday evening, the Palestinian health ministry said that 15 children had been confirmed among the 44 deaths recorded. Gaza's health ministry has blamed "Israeli aggression" for the deaths of Palestinians and for the more than 300 people wounded. Israel, for its part, says it hit 170 PIJ targets during the operation, codenamed Breaking Dawn, killing several high-ranking PIJ members and destroying tunnels and weapon storage sites. A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they had information about 35 Palestinian deaths: "11 of them were uninvolved civilian casualties, including the wives of the terror group's commanders in the south - victims of the IDF attacks." "Another 15 civilians were killed by PIJ fire," Brig Gen Ran Kochav said. Gen Kochav said 1,100 projectiles were fired from the Gaza Strip during the flare-up, with 200 landing inside Gaza. He said more Palestinians had died from those rockets that exploded inside the Strip than from IDF fire, and added that Israel would investigate the deaths of civilians, including children. No Israeli casualties have been reported, with the exception of a few people lightly injured from debris on Saturday. The Israel-Palestinian conflict explained The children who died in the 2021 conflict The ceasefire was mediated by Egypt, which has acted as an intermediary between Israel and Gaza in the past. But as it came into effect late on Sunday, the Israeli military confirmed it was striking Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) targets in Gaza, in response to rockets fired just before. Israeli media also reported some isolated rocket fire from Gaza in the minutes after the deadline. US and United Nations leaders urged both sides to continue to observe the ceasefire. In a statement, US President Joe Biden praised the truce and called on all parties "to fully implement [it] and to ensure fuel and humanitarian supplies are flowing into Gaza". He also urged that reports of civilian casualties should be investigated in a timely manner. Concerns over the humanitarian situation in Gaza, where health officials warned that hospitals only had enough fuel to run generators for another two days, led to the ceasefire deal being agreed. line Gaza Strip: The basics Home to about two million people, it is one of the most densely po[CENSORED]ted areas in the world It is run by the militant Islamist group Hamas, with rival Palestinian Authority - recognised internationally as representing all Palestinians - governing part of the West Bank Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)- one of several militant groups operating in Gaza - co-operates with Hamas, but also maintains independence line As the truce held, restrictions on Gaza began to be lifted. Humanitarian aid started arriving as the major crossings into the Strip, closed six days ago, were reopened, Israel said. They would return to "full routine... subject to calm in the area," a statement said. The latest conflict closely follows Israel's arrest of Bassem Saadi, reported to be the head of PIJ in the West Bank, a week ago. He was held in the Jenin area as part of a series of arrest operations, after a wave of attacks by Israeli Arabs and Palestinians that left 17 Israelis and two Ukrainians dead. Two of the attackers came from the Jenin district. Large crowds gathered on Sunday for the funerals of those killed in strikes on Rafah, in the south of the territory. These included senior PIJ commander Khaled Mansour - the second top militant to have died. Demonstrations in support of Gaza have also been held in the West Bank city of Nablus. PIJ, which is one of the strongest militant groups operating in Gaza, is backed by Iran and has its headquarters in the Syrian capital, Damascus. It has been responsible for many attacks, including rocket fire and shootings against Israel. Link : https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-62457780

I like to listen to a progressive rock band called Coheed and Cambria. Maybe you know them? If so hi and we should be friends. But my point is that my colleagues now also know of this excellent act, because when I listen to Vaxis II: a Window of the Waking Mind, they do too. This is because of the Grado SR80x open-back headphones. I have been trialling them with a view to recommending these open-back headphones, and I can tell you two things: if you want some of the best over-ears headphones going for clarity, neutrality, and detail, these are they, and secondly, if you listen to Taylor Swift more than you ever want anyone to know, ever, you're going to have to give them a miss. But here's the thing: the world of audiophile headphones is usually a realm where cash is king and getting truly great sound means lacing the palm of whichever manufacturer is providing your listening gear with more than a few bits of silver. However, Grado (or to give the Brooklyn family-run firm its full name, Grado Labs) released these particular headphones with an asking price of just $125 / £130 / AU$179, a fee which has since dropped to around about £90 in the UK (where I am) and frankly, they're worth every penny of this nominal fee. They're worth double that, in fact. The Grado SR80x were relased in May 2021 and are fashioned from the SR80, which Grado considers its first-ever pair of headphones – built on the Grado family kitchen table in 1991. “We wouldn’t be here today without it,” Grado literature states. And they feel far more expensive that the price-tag that accompanies them. It's a brutalist, almost steampunk aesthetic too; their open-back nature is emphasized by distinctly honeycomb-like metal mesh on the ear cups – and sound simply leaks through these holes like water through a strainer. Audiophiles will tell you these otherwise simple headphones (don't expect noise-cancellation, although the passive isolation is actually quite good) are most suited to home use, but of course, for most of us headphones aren't for when you're at home alone. So I say use them at work anyway! As long as your work colleagues are a fairly understanding bunch, and you're prepared for the occasional judgement. These gorgeous headphones succeed the 2014-issue SR80e from the outgoing Prestige E Series, but Prestige X is now the company's entry-level headphone range, sitting below the Reference Series, with the SR80x the second-most wallet-friendly option in Grado's headphone offering after the SR60x. The long cable (the spec sheet tells me this is 1.8m) is a four-conductor, thick, braided jacket affair which also feels decidedly high-end. And the 4.4mm balanced connector can simply be pulled gently off to reveal an unbalanced 3.5mm jack underneath. Beautiful. I'm currently listening to The Crowing and Claudio Sanchez is singing about Ambelina (I don't know who this is or why they are mentioned. Answers on a postcard if you do). Everyone in my immediate vicinity can also hear it, but the clarity, detail, neutrality and crisp inflections of his voice are addictive to me alone. If you only have your laptop as a source device, use a portable DAC to level up the power and audio quality. Link : https://www.techradar.com/opinion/ive-started-using-cheap-grado-open-back-headphones-and-now-i-can-never-go-back

Last year, it was nearly impossible to find reasonable prices on the best graphics cards, never mind finding anything that would qualify as a "budget" or cheap option. The GeForce GTX 1650 Super and Radeon RX 6500 XT we're looking at today basically weren't available in 2021, despite the former having launched in late 2019 — it was selling for as much as $350, according to our historical GPU pricing data. 2022 has thankfully brought an end to the GPU drought, and AMD's Navi 24 cards are selling for less than their official MSRPs. The RX 6500 XT can be had for as little as $180(opens in new tab), and the GTX 1650 Super is back in stock as well, at least in some places — the EVGA 1650 Super SC goes for around $200 now, at Amazon(opens in new tab) and Newegg(opens in new tab) as well. Which means we can put these two sub-$200 graphics cards up against each other to see which cheap GPU is the better choice. We'll look at performance, price, features and tech, drivers and software, and power and efficiency in order to determine a winner. Those categories are listed in order of decreasing importance, in our view at least, so we'll start with the critical aspects and move on down the list from there. Gaming Performance: GTX 1650 Super vs RX 6500 XT Gaming remains the main draw for graphics cards, though they can also help with video encoding and other tasks — or at least some of them can. Budget GPUs aren't intended for high-resolution gaming, instead delivering performance similar to previous-generation midrange and high-end GPUs at substantially lower prices. We put the GTX 1650 Super and RX 6500 XT to the test with our updated 8-game test suite, looking at three different settings and resolution combinations. 1080p gaming is the real target for these cards, though some lighter games might manage 1440p at lower quality settings. 1440p ultra obviously pushes things too far, with sub-30 fps performance in most of the games we tested. So let's just ignore the 1440p ultra numbers and focus on 1080p performance. It's a bit of a mixed bag, with wild swings in relative performance, depending on the game. Overall performance at 1080p medium basically ended up a tie, with the GTX 1650 Super holding a negligible 2% lead. In the individual games, the 1650 Super was anywhere from 4% slower (Borderlands 3) to a whopping 31% faster (Total War: Warhammer 3). But for the most part, the two provided a comparable experience. Bumping the quality settings from medium to ultra creates problems in several of the games, which start to use more than the 4GB of VRAM that's available on these GPUs. Forza Horizon 5, Red Dead Redemption 2, Total War: Warhammer 3, and Watch Dogs Legion all see performance basically cut in half, sometimes more. Most of the games remained playable, meaning 30 fps or more, but TWW3 and WDL both dropped below that mark. Technically, AMD's RX 6500 XT has the advantage of also supporting DXR (DirectX Raytracing), which the GTX 1650 Super fails to run (you need a 6GB GTX 10- or 16-series GPU for limited DXR support). However, performance in DXR games on the 6500 XT, even at 1080p medium, is typically so slow as to be meaningless. In our 6-game DXR test suite, the RX 6500 XT averaged 13.5 fps and failed to run Control (which requires 6GB or more to enable DXR). Fortnite was the best result, at 20 fps, while a couple of the games didn't even break 10 fps. Don't bother, in other words. It's interesting what AMD is able to do with significantly less memory bandwidth, even with a relatively small 16MB Infinity Cache. The RX 6500 XT has just 144 GB/s of bandwidth, compared to 192 GB/s for the GTX 1650 Super, due to the 64-bit memory bus on Navi 24. However, the 232 GB/s of Infinity Cache bandwidth basically makes up the difference, most of the time. It starts to fall short at ultra settings, but those mostly aren't playable anyway. Incidentally, while we're only showing average fps, the 99th percentile lows are mostly the same story, except Nvidia's lead is slightly larger. Overall, the GTX 1650 Super was 4.9% faster on minimum fps at 1080p medium, 10.0% faster at 1080p ultra, and 43.7% faster at 1440p ultra. In other words, the framerate consistency was slightly worse on the RX 6500 XT. While the performance might look like a tie, that's using a modern test system that supports the PCIe 4.0 interface. We also tested RX 6500 XT with PCIe 3.0 speeds, and performance dropped by 9% overall, but there were instances where it was up to 40% slower. Testing the GTX 1650 Super on the same two PCs showed a 2% improvement in performance on the older Core i9-9900K system, so the drop in AMD performance can safely be attributed to the PCIe interface and platform. That gives Nvidia the overall lead for this category. Winner: Nvidia GTX 1650 Super Nvidia came out ahead at all three tested settings and resolutions, using a modern test PC. 1080p medium performance was pretty much tied, and we could throw AMD a bone for its ray tracing hardware. However, for budget hardware, we feel there's a far greater chance these cards will end up in a PC that doesn't support PCIe 4.0, which means Nvidia gets the lead. Neither one of these GPUs are particularly potent, of course. You're getting the equivalent of an RX 580 8GB (but with less VRAM), or a bit faster than a GTX 980, half a decade after those GPUs were in their prime. Link : https://www.tomshardware.com/features/nvidia-geforce-gtx-1650-super-vs-amd-rx-6500-xt

Name of the game: PlateUp! Price: 14,39$ Link Store: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1599600/PlateUp/ Offer ends up after X hours: 11 August Requirements: MINIMUM: Processor: Quad Core I5 or AMD equivalent Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 530 or AMD equivalent Storage: 2 GB available space RECOMMENDED: Processor: Quad Core I5 / Ryzen 5 Memory: 16 GB RAM Graphics: GTX 960 or AMD equivalent Storage: 2 GB available space

“The day after I left school, I had a job cleaning cars. My dad wanted to teach me the value of a pound, but I also learned about the value of doing a job with pride and passion.” If that mantra needs justifying, the Bentley, Bugatti and Ferrari that flank Paul Jaconelli, now 72 and owner of the Romans International emporium in the Surrey town of Banstead, do a pretty good job of it. If you will excuse the pun, the teenaged car washer came, saw and continues to conquer the world of supercar and luxury car sales. “After washing the cars for a few years, I started trading them when I was 18,” recalls Jaconelli. “I would buy what I could afford, clean it up and then put it back in the paper and sell it on. I wasn’t an overnight success; I was working at the BBC as a scenery technician to top up my salary. “I enjoyed it and made some money, but it was very gradual growth. I didn’t have the money to have more than three or four cars for sale at a time initially, but eventually I got my first premises – in Wimbledon, under a driving test centre – and grew from there.” Success kept coming. Jaconelli opened premises in nearby Sutton and then Epsom, but even then he couldn’t have dreamed being where he is today His big break came when he was offered the chance to run neighbouring car business HF Edwards, a Fiat dealership. “It had been established in 1938 and was run by a chap called Stanley Pickard,” he recalls. “We got on, we had lunch together, but then he got ill and I was asked if I wanted to buy the business. I had to be honest: there was no way I could afford it. But he turned round and asked if I would run it for him and pay it off that way. We became Fiat’s biggest dealer in Europe, winning the Dealer of the Year title three times. From that point on, I started to believe that I could make a success of it.” Underlining the drive that has underpinned his career, Jaconelli credits his move into high-end car dealing to a fear that he wouldn’t be able to give his children the education he felt he had missed out on. “I know it sounds crazy, but I was determined to give them chances I didn’t have, to the extent that I ended up taking A-level maths at the age of 40. I never had the opportunity to do it at school, so I thought I would show them that I could!” Continuing this theme of embracing every opportunity, Jaconelli pounced when a business that he had long admired, Romans of Woking, closed down. “I’m Italian, so I guess that appealed, and I had admired the business too,” he recalls. “That was 30 years ago. They had spent a lot of money building their brand, and it was ill health that prompted the closure, nothing else. I went to the receivers and have never looked back.” Today, Romans is regarded as one of the premier independent supercar dealers in the country, remarkable not just for its stock but also for its early adoption of video and social media, as well as a source of valuations that are used across the industry. An Italian with a large family running a business called Romans… Is this the birth of an empire? Sure enough, the rest of the Jaconellis got involved too, although they have also forged their own success elsewhere . As such, business is booming, even in these challenging times. “Last year was our best ever and this year is shaping up to be better again,” says the boss. “At one point in the pandemic, there was an element of people not being able to spend their money on holidays, so they were buying cars. That helped us, as has the fact that the very top-end cars have become fantastic investments. “But the key is treating customers properly. In this game, there are always egos and there are always chancers. I don’t want either; I want to treat my customers correctly, because I’ve learned a customer you look after will be a customer for life. Link : https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/features/supercars-e-scooters-story-romans-international

French officials desperately trying to rescue a beluga whale trapped in the River Seine have come up with a new strategy - a vitamin cocktail. According to AFP, rescuers hope it will help the lost whale regain its appetite and the energy needed to return to sea. The visibly malnourished mammal was first spotted in the river on Tuesday, around 70km (44 miles) north of Paris. After failed attempts to encourage it to swim out, the animal remains stuck and scientists worry for its health. So far rescuers have offered up frozen herring and live trout for the four-metre whale to eat, but a local official in Eure, Isabelle Dorliat-Pouzet, said the animal did not appear to have accepted either. "It's quite emaciated and seems to be having trouble eating," AFP quoted her as saying on Saturday. Authorities hope that injecting the stranded animal with vitamins will stimulate its appetite and help it to make the long 160km (100 mile) return journey back up the river and out to the English Channel, where it can swim back to its Arctic habitat. Another option being considered is to remove the whale from the river entirely, but this would require the mammal having enough strength to survive an even riskier journey. Officials said on Saturday that small spots had appeared on the whale's skin, but it was not clear yet whether this was a reaction to the fresh water of the River Seine - as opposed to its natural salt water habitat - or a sign of the animal's deteriorating health. Scientific observers said the whale was behaving skittishly, rising to the surface only briefly, and emitting fewer of the songs expected of a whale - raising further concerns over its wellbeing. Experts are puzzled how the whale managed to stray so far from its natural habitat - the cold waters of the Arctic and sub-Arctic. Belugas occasionally venture south in the autumn to feed as ice forms, but it is rare for them to travel so far from their native home. But similar stories are not unheard of. In May, a killer whale was found dead after swimming up the River Seine in Normandy. A plan to guide the four-metre male orca back to the sea using sound stimuli failed, and experts later concluded it was seriously ill. In 2019, a dead whale was found in the River Thames near Gravesend, UK officials said. This came just weeks after a humpback whale seen swimming in the same stretch of water had died. It was thought to have found its way into the Thames because of a navigational error, possibly during high tides. Link : https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62453347

I choose V2 V2 Border Brush & Text .

When we think about PC gaming, generally speaking, we don’t think about the Mac. Most PC gaming rigs are brightly colored tower cases, acrylic or glass panels, and if you’re lucky, some fantastic custom water cooling solution that raises the best gaming PC to the level of artwork. But the only thing that remains constant is change, and Apple, which has long been counted out of the PC gaming conversation (for very legit reasons) is finally turning its sights back on the gaming field it had all but abandoned two decades ago, and the company feels like it’s in a much better position to compete with Windows PCs than ever before. “All MacBooks are gaming MacBooks,” Jeremy Sandmel, Apple's Senior Director, GPU Software, told me shortly after Apple’s WWDC 2022 conference back in June, where he took the stage to announce No Man’s Sky and Resident Evil Village would be coming to Macs as native titles, rather than post PC-launch, third-party ports. And while there’s a certain amount of bravado in that statement, it’s also a revealing one. While I wouldn’t put an Intel-based MacBook anywhere close to the best gaming laptops on the market, or honestly even the best cheap gaming laptops either, Apple silicon really is another matter, entirely. And while Sandmel’s quip might strike some PC gamers as strange – if not downright offensive to the more hardcore among the audience – he's right in ways that even a lot of people might not yet realize. One of the things that has struck me the most about the current state of PC gaming in the past few years is how a once exclusive hobby-by-choice has increasingly become an exclusive hobby-by-attrition. Playing the latest games with the best graphics cards and the fastest processors used to be the raison d'être of PC gaming. Consoles just couldn’t match the image quality and performance of even the best budget gaming PC and, later, gaming laptops brought to the table. PCs were what the truly dedicated game developers targeted for their titles, since only PCs could really give life to increasingly cinematic games like Half-Life, Crysis, Call of Duty, and other legendary PC titles. But for many years now, console gaming has shifted to become the primary platform for AAA gaming, largely because too many gamers are being priced out of PC gaming by the shocking cost of the required hardware. The Nvidia RTX 3080 Founders Edition costs $699 / £649 / AU$1,139 at MSRP, which is enough money for a gamer to buy a PS5 or XBox Series X | S and a cheap 4K TV to play it on. It might not be the face-melting 8K graphics teased by Nvidia for the RTX 3090, but at roughly double the price of the RTX 3080 Founders Edition, most gamers have long given up on experiencing 8K gaming on their PC. This has shifted the way game developers are starting to approach the games they make. As more players migrate to next-gen consoles over gaming PCs, developers are realizing the benefit of targeting console development over the various configurations of high-end gaming PCs that exist on the market, and console gaming is now powerful enough to deliver PC gaming-like experiences at a much cheaper cost. Since Sony and Microsoft can tell game developers years in advance what kind of hardware to target, and even provide early dev kits years in advance, this gives developers the ability to optimize a game to a tightly controlled and specific hardware configuration. It’s this advanced and focused knowledge that enables an AMD Zen 2 processor and an AMD Radeon RDNA 2 GPU with about as much power as the 1080p card in our AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT review to pump out 4K graphics, with ray tracing, at 120 fps on the PS5. A lot of the quality depends on the developer itself, but knowing what your game is going to be playing on gives you a considerable advantage. There’s another platform that shares this same essential characteristic: Macs, and particularly those with the Apple M1 chip and its more powerful variants. Again, I think back to what Apple’s Sandmel told me when I asked him when Apple would develop and release a gaming MacBook: “All MacBooks are gaming MacBooks.” In a PC gaming landscape where so much different hardware exists that must be accounted for, it’s little wonder why developers are starting to primarily target consoles, rather than developing for high-end PCs and porting to weaker consoles afterwards. The release of Elden Ring earlier this year is a perfect example of a game that ran brilliantly on consoles, but ran into persistent issues when running on a PC, despite its more accessible requirements for major AAA launch. Making sure that as many PCs can play your game as possible is a growing bottleneck in game development made especially problematic when developers regularly face long periods of unpaid crunch time, even for console releases. Ultimately, it’s an obvious weak spot in a game studio’s roadmap, one that once made developing AAA games natively for Macs entirely unthinkable. With a shrinking user base, the math simply fails to math at some point: if it costs more to develop for a platform than you’re ever likely to make from releasing on that platform, you simply don't release it on that platform. With every new hardware generation adding a dozen or more additional components to account for, the cost of PC development grows, creating a diseconomy of scale for Windows PCs from which there is no easy way out from a business perspective, other than to cut bait and raise the minimum system requirements that a game will support, further locking out players from the PC gaming experience. Meanwhile, as the price of PC gaming components continues to soar and more and more gamers move away from the traditional gaming rig out of necessity, the platform incentives for game developers are going to continue to shift away from high-end PC builds. Both the financial and practical incentives all point toward more predictable and simpler console configurations that allow for more time spent on optimization, rather than providing the broadest base of support possible. This is a shift that Apple is well-positioned to capitalize on, thanks to Apple silicon and Apple's very exacting hardware specifications. “It's great!” Adrian Gurney, the Producer & Development Manager for CCP Games’s space-faring MMO EVE Online, told me a few weeks ago. “I mean, just to kind of look at it from my point of view with my tech hat on, it's a real big advantage to have not only the CPU and the GPU integrated, but also the memory all being on one package.” “I mean, obviously, you get better performance naturally,” Gurney continued, “because you haven't got all the interconnects between the devices. But more importantly than that, when it comes to things like testing … testing how it looks, and does it render correctly, and all that, you can come in and validate that the result is correct, it doesn't matter which Mac we're testing it on. If it's an M1-based architecture, we get the same result from all of them.” As a life-long Windows PC gamer – my formative PC gaming experience was unloading the Windows 3.1 operating system with a .bat file on bootup from a floppy disk to free up the 3MB RAM so I could play MechWarrior 2 on PC-DOS. So don’t come at me, gamers, I’ve been at this since you’ve been in diapers. There is something about Apple silicon that feels like the future to me, whether PC gamers like it or not. Nobody is pretending that the Mac gaming catalog doesn’t have some very notable gaps – including many of the best PC games of the past several years, like Elden Ring – or that it doesn’t have a tendency to mix the world of mobile and PC gaming together into a hodgepodge called Apple Arcade and present it to battle-hardened PC gamers as if Shadow of the Tomb Raider and the Tomb Raider endless runner on iOS are kinda the same thing because they both have Lara Croft in it. This has definitely contributed a lot to the skepticism around Mac gaming from the PC gaming community, and you can’t really let Apple off the hook for that, but it’s no small thing that Capcom is bringing Resident Evil Village, natively, to Apple silicon, and the developers I’ve spoken to (as well as Apple itself) have confirmed that there is a growing interest in what Apple has to offer with its new hardware. “We developed the Metal 3 software and [Apple M1] hardware in concert together,” Apple's Sandmel told me, “and it's really this tight integration of the software and hardware development that we believe enables developers to use Metal API to directly access all of this high-power performance and power efficiency of the GPU hardware.” And it really can’t be understated how much something like this can make a difference for game developers working on increasingly complex games, with teams of dozens, if not hundreds, of programmers, computer graphics artists, and QA professionals trying to corral millions of lines of code into an enjoyable gameplay experience without absolutely destroying themselves with overwork in the process. “Since Apple has been able to take all of the creation of the drivers for the GPUs and supporting systems in-house,” Gurney said, “if we ever do have a problem, and we need to reach out and get some support, it means that the problem will be fixed across the board on all of their systems, which is it's just such a big advantage for game development, being able to say, this specific machine, we can test and we can validate it's going to work across the board.” Link : https://www.techradar.com/features/macs-look-like-the-future-of-pc-gaming-whether-pc-gamers-like-it-or-not

The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1630 started popping up in rumors in leaks a few months back. Part of me thought, "Surely Nvidia won't release a new and pathetically slow Turing variant this late in the game." But the realist in me knew it was only a matter of time — the GT 1030 and GT 730 cards that started shipping again last year was the only evidence we needed. Let's be blunt: The GTX 1630 isn't anywhere close to being one of the best graphics cards, and in fact it lands near the very bottom of our GPU benchmarks hierarchy. The only slower GPUs that we've tested are the GTX 1050, RX 560, RX 550, and the aforementioned GT 1030. None of those are worth your time or money either, but at least they're not being released in mid-2022. The only real contender for the GTX 1630 is AMD's recently launched Radeon RX 6400, but this new Nvidia card actually makes the lackluster 6400 look good. Actually, the real competition — and the reason no one should give the GTX 1630 the time of day — comes from the existing GTX 1650 and GTX 1650 Super. The latter basically doubles the specs of the 1630, and pretty much doubles performance as well. Colorful sent us this sample for review, but there doesn't seem to be an official price from Nvidia. What we can find online suggests that the soft MSRP has been set at $199, which is just silly. EVGA lists its own GTX 1630 for $199, or you can also buy the far superior GTX 1650 Super for $199. The 1630 also nominally replaces the GT 1030, which had a launch price of $79 — $70 for the faster GDDR5 variant. It feels as though the GTX 1630 was priced according to mid-2021, but it's now laughably expensive. Here's how the specifications for Nvidia's old-timer Turing TU117 GPUs stack up, with the RX 6400 and RX 6500 XT for comparison. AMD's RX 6400 basically tied the GTX 1650, so there's little question it will easily beat the lower spec GTX 1630. About the only advantage that the GTX 1630 has is the presence of video encoding hardware — the TU117 has Pascal-era hardware, not the improved Turing encoder, but it's still better than nothing. What's particularly odd with the GTX 1630 is that Nvidia has been shipping the same TU117 GPU in laptops as the MX450 (and more recently MX550) for a couple of years, though granted NVENC is disabled on those parts. Apparently, there were enough chips that couldn't reach the required 14 SMs for the MX450 or GTX 1650, and Nvidia and its partners figured a cut-down 10 SM variant might still sell on desktops — to the uninformed, anyway. You basically get all the same features as a GTX 1650, just with less performance. You don't even necessarily get a lower power card, as the GTX 1630 models we've seen still come with a 6-pin power connector. That might be because these were less desirable chips with defects, or maybe it's because Nvidia tried to make up for the lack of GPU cores with slightly higher clocks. At least the RX 6400 can be found in half-height models and doesn't require additional power. The 4GB GDDR6 comes clocked at 12Gbps, with a 64-bit interface. As noted already, that's exactly half of what the GTX 1650 Super provides. Also note that, unlike AMD's RDNA 2 GPUs, there's no Infinity Cache to make up the difference, though the 512 GPU cores are already going to be a limiting factor. With most modern graphics card selling at close to MSRP, the GTX 1630 feels like far too little, far too late. Last year we saw GTX 1650 cards going for $300 or more, and a $200 GTX 1630 might have made some kind of warped sense. Today, you can get the RX 6500 XT, RX 6400, GTX 1650, and even GTX 1650 Super for $200 or less. Maybe this was supposed to be for big OEMs, so they could toss in a weak GPU and claim to still offer dedicated graphics, but that's ultimately just going to lead to disappointed customers. Link : https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-geforce-gtx-1630-review

Can certain supercar makers get away with offering an engine that isn’t an event in its own right? Undoubtedly, but Ferrari isn’t one of them. You might therefore have reservations about the 296 GTB, driven here for the first time in the UK. This is a car whose hybridisation and 250 LM-inspired design are big talking points but not the big talking point, which is the engine: never before has a mere V6 found a home inside an official Ferrari road car. In cold terms, it represents something of a downgrade from the V8 configuration the company has used for its mid-engined mainstays since 1973. More to the point, when was the last time anyone gave us an outstanding V6, Alfa Romeo’s Busso aside? There are other non-trivial concerns. Compared with the Ferrari F8 Tributo it indirectly replaces, the 296 GTB is 35kg heavier, despite its fewer cylinders. The steering has also morphed from electrohydraulic assistance (an attribute retained for the McLaren Artura) to electromechanical, which is generally regarded as being less feelsome. Because of the need to integrate the retardation potential of an electric motor at the rear axle, braking is now by wire, too. Finally, unlike Maserati and McLaren, Ferrari still refuses to use a carbonfibre monocoque, which is something you might reasonably expect for £240,000 before even the box for £2880 upshift LEDs is ticked. On paper, all this leaves the 296 GTB looking less evocative than its predecessors; less Ferrari. Yet this is possibly also the most complete supercar ever made. We say only ‘possibly’ because our test car – dolled up in Rosso Corsa and Baby Blue in tribute to the Maranello Concessionaires, take it or leave it –has the £25,920 Assetto Fiorano package. Along with some extra aerodynamic appendages, a lighter engine cover (made from polycarbonate rather than glass) and carbonfibre door cards, it brings the magnetorheological fixed-rate dampers used by the Ford GT and in sports car racing. These are serious dampers, requiring serious speeds to hit their sweet spot, and otherwise give the 296 GTB the kind of sinewy, reactive ride that, if never outright brittle, feels only just on the right side of abrupt. Porsche 911 GT3 owners will know this level of intensity. However, GT3-ophiles aren’t able to opt for a softer suspension set-up. My hunch would be to leave Multimatic’s very special dampers in the box, although only another test of this Ferrari in its basic form will confirm the benefits of doing so. Now for the undeniably great bits, of which there are many, even in an environment far from the picture-perfect ribbons of asphalt enjoyed on the international launch in Spain. Far from an intolerable disappointment, this wide-angle 3.0-litre V6, whose 180,000rpm turbos nestle between the banks for keener response and cleaner thermal management, is an utter peach. Start the car and it stays dormant by default, but explore the lightly sprung accelerator pedal or flick the powertrain setting from Hybrid to Performance (for engine-always-on driving; select eDrive for electric) and it wakes, initially in spine-tinglingly loud cold-start style, exhaust valves pinned open, wanting for no drama. Alone, this compact V6 makes 654bhp at 8000rpm, but even if it made only 354bhp, I suspect you'd still fall for it. The juxtaposition of its crisp higher register with the pneumatic outbursts and barrel-chested mid-range of an engine heavily dependent on forced induction is unique. No other turbo engine gets so close to sounding naturally aspirated or, just as importantly, feeling naturally aspirated; although it still manages to make its turboness a virtue. Electric assistance unsurprisingly means response is never less than clinical, and even from 2000rpm in fifth gear, the 296 GTB bolts forward. However, it’s the shape of the new F163 engine’s delivery and its aural performance thereafter that really let you understand why Maranello calls it the ‘piccolo V12’. Its character evolves in a similar way, finishing with a frenzied rush to 8500rpm. Equal to this engine is the same dual-clutch automatic gearbox found in the Ferrari Roma and SF90 Stradale. Blistering redline upshifts are an event in their own right, yet lazy, in-traffic downshifts are generally just as deft. The paddles also have arguably the most engaging action in the business, should you toggle to manual mode and do it all yourself. It’s the finishing touch on an outstanding powertrain that integrates electrification with acute finesse but also an understanding that it’s only ever going to be the supporting act in such a car. Actually, it can be more than that. The slim, 165bhp electric motor slotted between the V6 and gearbox represents a paradigm shift. Apart from the legislative breathing space that it gives Ferrari, there’s the fact that its efforts can be decoupled from those of the V6 via a dedicated clutch, allowing for electric-only running. Charge for up to 15 miles of electric driving is supplied by a 73kg battery in the car’s floor, between the seats, although you rarely use it all in one go. Short, driver-prescribed stints are likelier, and for a certain sort of owner – one who has less to prove – the ability to unobtrusively arrive or leave in near-silence will be priceless. However, the 296 GTB as an EV still needs polish. Lift off and the regenerative braking sometimes feels unexpectedly strong, and you also occasionally experience hiccups in the pure-electric torque delivery, apropos of nothing. But now to the real question: how does the 296 GTB go down good UK roads? Well, to help you out, you have eSSC, ABS Evo, eTC, 6w-CDS, SCM and, who could possibly forget, FDE2.0. What it all boils down to is an electronically controlled limited-slip differential working with gyroscopes and sensors that all inform the behaviour of the brake distribution, power steering, traction control and stability control. The aim – and part of this depends on which e-manettino mode you’ve selected – is to ensure that the car is always just the right blend of playful, agile and stable. Ferrari has been honing this ecosystem since the F430, and the result in the 296 GTB is fantastically no-bullshit. Fantastically fluid and intuitive, too. The steering isn’t grittily involving, admittedly, but the gearing and weighting have been nailed. On smooth roads, the leading axle feels unusually soft, even by the standards of mid-engined cars, with their low front spring rates, only there’s no sacrifice in precision. The car, which to its credit never feels awkwardly wide or low, is joyful to guide this way and that and has all the delicate throttle adjustability that you would expect of something with double wishbones at one end and bags of torque at the other. However, of equal significance to all that are the dimensions. The 296 GTB’s wheelbase is notably shorter than the F8 Tributo’s. In fact, you have to go right back to the 360 Modena to find a mid-engined Ferrari with axles quite so close together. This feels key to the car’s character: there’s natural, innate verve here, the car seemingly to shrink around you from the get-go. Best of all, and despite its towering performance ability, you can really have honest fun in the 296 GTB on the road. Perhaps our car’s unusual specification helped in this regard. The Assetto Fiorano pack includes severe Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2R tyres, but the 296 GTB before you wears a standard Pilot Sport 4S set. Limits of adhesion therefore lowered and Race selected to allow more chassis freedom, after some stabilising understeer through second- or third-gear corners, the back will squat and smudge its tyres ever so slightly out of line if you chase the throttle early. It will do it benignly, and in this way, it isn’t much unlike the Alpine A110, only with thrice the torque. There are other excellent aspects of the 296 GTB that, although proasic, will make the car enjoyable to own. For one thing, visibility is superb – not quite McLaren-esque in terms of the view forward, because the scuttle doesn’t cut quite so low, but close. However, the flat engine cover and panoramic breadth of the rear screen make backward visibility class-leading, and the GTB is easy to punt around town, reverse park, and generally manoeuvre in a fashion conducive to steady heart rates. This contributes to what’s an intimate but in no way claustrophobic cabin and one that, were it not for our overly firm carbonfibre race seats, would be well suited for long drives. And on the subject of touring, the front boot is also more capacious than that of the F8 Tributo. So here’s an 819bhp mid-engined Ferrari that you can drive every day, take on holiday, fire down your favourite B-roads – whatever you like, within reason. Worried about the PHEV takeover of the supercar class? Don’t be – certainly not on this evidence. The electric element of the 296 GTB’s powertrain only ups its usability and, yes, perhaps even brings net dynamic benefit in the real world. Equally, you need not fret that Ferrari has migrated to V6 power for what will be, with the probable exception of the Purosangue SUV, its best-seller. Aside from the V12s, which will continue to exist for some time yet, this is the best-sounding and most spirited engine since the 458 Italia’s naturally aspirated V8. Altogether, the 296 GTB is an exceptionally good supercar, and the head-to-head with the Artura will be something to savour. Link : https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/ferrari/296-gtb/first-drives/ferrari-296-gtb-assetto-fiorano-2022-uk-review

The Israeli military says it is attacking targets in the Gaza Strip in response to threats from a Palestinian militant group there. At least eight Palestinians, including a child and a Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) commander, have been killed, Gaza's health ministry says. It follows days of tensions after Israel arrested a senior PIJ member in the occupied West Bank. The Gaza-based PIJ had threatened to hit back by bombing central Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said Israel would not allow "terrorist organizations to set the agenda". "Let anyone who rises up to harm Israel know that we will get to them. Our security forces will act against Islamic Jihad terrorists to remove the threat from the citizens of Israel," he said. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was striking sites linked to the PIJ. They include the high-rise Palestine Tower in Gaza City, hit in a loud explosion which left smoke pouring from the building. Four PIJ militants - including the commander, Tayseer Jabari - and a five-year-old girl have been among those killed since the strikes started, local health officials say. An Israeli military spokesman said the IDF was "assuming about 15" militants had been killed. Israel's interior minister Ayelet Shaked told Channel 12 News: "We don't know how this will play out… but this could take time… This could be a lengthy round [of conflict] and a hard one", the Times of Israel reported. Speaking while on a visit to the Iranian capital, Tehran, PIJ secretary general Ziyad al-Nakhala said "we will respond forcefully to this aggression, and there will be a fight in which our people will win". "There are no red lines for this battle... and Tel Aviv will be under the rockets of the resistance." On Monday night, Israel arrested Bassem Saadi, reported to be the head of PIJ in the West Bank. He was held in the Jenin area as part of an ongoing series of arrest operations after a wave of attacks by Israeli Arabs and Palestinians that left 17 Israelis and two Ukrainians dead. Two of the attackers came from the Jenin district. After Bassem Saadi's arrest, Israel heightened security measures for communities near its border with Gaza, warning that PIJ intended to attack civilians and soldiers. Road closures brought towns and villages in southern Israel to a grinding halt. PIJ, which is backed by Iran, has its headquarters in Damascus, Syria, and is one of the strongest militant groups in Gaza. It has been responsible for many attacks, including rocket-fire and shootings against Israel. Israel and PIJ fought a five-day conflict in November 2019 after fighting erupted following the killing by Israel of a PIJ commander who Israel said was planning an imminent attack. The violence left 34 Palestinians dead and 111 injured, while 63 Israelis needed medical treatment. Israel said 25 of the Palestinians killed were militants, including those hit preparing to launch rockets. Link : https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-62440155

The rumored DJI Avata drone has been inching closer to take-off in recent weeks –and the FPV model's launch just got a little closer thanks to a leak of its intriguing new Goggles headset. FPV (first person view) drones are flown via a headset that gives you a bird's-eye view from the aircraft. And it seems that the DJI Avata's headset will be much smaller than previous versions, with a leak from the reliable @Dealsdrone(opens in new tab) Twitter account (below) showing the new Goggles 2 being worn by a pilot. Although a 'DJI Goggles V2' headset already exists, a recent FCC filing revealed that DJI would simply be naming the new Avata-compatible version the 'DJI Goggles 2'. According to that filing, this headset will be technically identical to the current Goggles V2, with the main difference being its design. What's interesting about the new headset is how small it looks compared to previous versions of DJI's Goggles. Earlier versions have been face-hugging affairs (see below), but the ones in the leaked photo appear to be less bulky and have fewer antennas. A separate leak(opens in new tab) on Chinese social media also compares the headset to the size of a water bottle. This compact form factor could be good news for flying in warmer environments like indoors, which is expected to be the DJI Avata's natural habitat. It's been tipped to be a 'cinewhoop' drone, which are designed to be flown in confined spaces near to people. What isn't clear from the leak is whether or not the DJI Goggles 2 will be compatible with other drones like the DJI FPV, or are a dedicated model for the DJI Avata. We'll likely have to wait for the official launch to find out, but that's seemingly around the corner. Another regular DJI leaker, @OsitaLV(opens in new tab), has also now claimed that the DJI Avata "has been sent to KOLs for evaluation", with KOL being a marketing term for 'Key Opinion Leader'. With the intriguing new drone and its headset now leaked and registered by the FCC, it seems a launch is imminent for what would be a new style of flying camera for the world's biggest drone maker. FPV drones are still relatively niche, but it seems that both DJI and GoPro are keen to fly them closer to the mainstream. We used the DJI Goggles V2 (above) during our test of the new GoPro Hero 10 Black Bones camera, which is a bare-bones action camera designed to be mounted to FPV drones. As you can see, that headset is fairly bulky, so it makes sense for DJI to make a more compact version for its rumored indoor-friendly DJI Avata 'cinewhoop' drone. This hopefully means that the DJI Goggles 2, as the new headset is expected to be called, will also be a little more affordable than current version. The Goggles V2 cost $568 / £609 / AU$999, although you can also buy them in a bundle with the DJI FPV drone. This kind of cost is a pretty big barrier to widespread FPV adoption. The leaked photos of the DJI Avata suggest that it'll be cheaper than the DJI FPV drone, given its build and weight (which is expected to be sub-500g, compared to the 795g DJI FPV). So a similarly stripped-down headset makes sense, particularly if it's compatible with other FPV drones. While FPV drones will likely continue to be more niche than mainstream models like the DJI Mini 3 Pro, the DJI Avata is shaping up to be a promising option for beginners and those who can't afford the DJI FPV. And that could make it a strong contender for a spot in our guide to the best beginner drones. Link : https://www.techradar.com/news/dji-avata-drone-cleared-for-take-off-as-intriguing-new-goggles-leak

Samsung announced its Memory-Semantic SSD that combines flash and DRAM to provide a claimed 20X performance improvement compared to a traditional SSD. Modern solid-state drives with a PCIe Gen4 or PCIe Gen5 interface enable extremely high sequential read/write throughput and random access performance. But for many performance-hungry applications, this is not enough as they need storage devices explicitly tailored for their usage patterns. So, to meet the requirements of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) workloads, Samsung is turning to its new CXL-connected SSD. AI and ML applications usually process large datasets, but they do it in relatively small-sized data chunks, which is why traditional data center grade SSDs optimized for mixed workloads are usually not the best storage devices for those types of workloads. To address such workloads, Samsung developed its special Memory-Semantic SSD that combines a huge built-in DRAM cache, traditional NAND storage, and a PCIe Gen5 interface with the CXL technology on top. Applications can write data to the DRAM cache at DRAM speeds and with low latency enabled by the CXL.mem protocol. Then, Samsung's proprietary controller (or controllers) of the drive transfers data to NAND memory. The result is a 20 times random read/write performance uplift compared to traditional SSDs. The CXL cache-coherent protocol promises to enable substantial performance uplift for applications that use various memory expansion modules and compute accelerators by enabling memory/cache coherency and dramatically reducing memory access latency by various compute devices. With its Memory-Semantic SSD, Samsung takes advantage of high-performance DRAM (like other Type 3/CXL.mem devices) and high-capacity NAND storage memory. To a large degree, Memory-Semantic SSD is a unique storage solution tailored to read and write small-sized data chunks at very high speeds. Samsung hasn't announced which version of the CXL protocol it supports, but the newly-announced CXL 3.0 revision will support mixed-media (like DRAM and storage) devices that can be connected to the fabric. However, these new Global Fabric Attached Memory (GFAM) devices are newly defined, so although Samsung's device meets the general description of this type of device, we likely won't see the expanded GFAM functionality until future generations of the SSD. Samsung has not provided any details or specifications of its Memory-Semantic SSDs, so we do not know what kind of DRAM, 3D NAND, and controller the company uses. In fact, the company even did not disclose the actual performance numbers for the drive. Perhaps, that's because Memory-Semantic SSD is tailored for next-generation platforms (such as AMD's Genoa and Intel's Sapphire Rapids) that are quarters away, and Samsung cannot disclose relevant performance numbers as they are confidential for now. Another reason why Samsung does not publish even raw performance numbers or specifications is that its Memory-Semantic SSD is also quarters away. As a result, some of its specs may change by the time it becomes available. Link : https://www.tomshardware.com/news/samsung-memory-semantic-cxl-ssd-brings-20x-performance-uplift