Apple : HERE Technologies launches navigation as a service tool for even smarter driving |
- HERE Technologies launches navigation as a service tool for even smarter driving
- AMD announces the Radeon RX 5600 XT to dominate 1080p gaming at CES 2020
- AMD flexes on Intel at CES 2020 with new CPUs and graphics
- Asus reveals world’s fastest 14-inch gaming laptop, and much more at CES 2020
- AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X is a ridiculous 64-core CPU – and it's coming February 7
- AMD takes on Intel at CES 2020 with Ryzen 4000 mobile CPUs for laptops
- Sony’s 2020 TV range is ready for PS5
- PS5 release date, specs, news and rumors for Sony’s PlayStation 5
- Sennheiser reveals cheap rival for Sony WH-1000XM3 at CES 2020
- AMD Navi release date, news and rumors
- Lenovo unveils the world’s first 5G PC at CES 2020
- Hisense sees a bright future for Laser TVs, but when will they be affordable?
- Acer TravelMate P6 is a superlight notebook for those on the go
- We finally know how much the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold will cost
- Royole reveals the Mirage Smart Speaker with wrap-around flexible display at CES 2020
- Origin’s hybrid gaming desktop Big-O goes small
- The future of driving: CES 2020 gives us a glimpse at the cars of tomorrow
- LG’s new OLED TVs are repeating the iPhone X’s tongue-twisting mistakes
- Panasonic HZ2000 OLED TV replaces one of last year's best TVs
| HERE Technologies launches navigation as a service tool for even smarter driving Posted: 06 Jan 2020 03:19 PM PST As part of its CES 2020 offerings, HERE Technologies has announced a new one-stop solution for automakers to enable full-featured and always fresh navigation experiences in their vehicles called HERE Navigation On Demand. The company's new navigation as a service product combines the benefits of embedded navigation with the experience and familiarity of a mobile navigation solution. HERE Technologies' fully integrated solution works off the shelf and and offers easy and cost-effective deployment in connected embedded systems as well as on mobile. Automakers can also leverage an out-of-the-box framework to sell connected services on-demand generate new sources of recurring revenue.
CEO of HERE Technologies, Edzard Overbeek provided further insight on HERE Navigation On Demand in a press release, saying: “HERE Navigation On Demand is the reinvention of in-car navigation for the era of the connected vehicle. Our solution gives automakers the agility and flexibility they need to deliver the most competitive navigation experiences on the market. Moreover, it provides them the freedom to create their own business models that support their unique strategies.” Navigation as a serviceHERE Navigation On Demand is a one-stop solution for automakers as it allows them to easily configure and deploy navigation experiences for different in-vehicle infotainment platforms, vehicle lines or trim levels. All of the required components are also fully integrated including a configurable HMI and the solution can be ported to other popular operating systems. To create its navigation as a service product, HERE Technologies leveraged its experience in over the air software technology to enable updates of maps, data and software when a car is in the distribution chain or in-market. Additionally, data transmissions between car and cloud are fully secure to enhance driver and passenger safety and privacy. By using the environment provided by the HERE Open Location Platform and a corresponding SDK, automakers and 3rd parties can create additional functionality for HERE Navigation On Demand based on their own or third party data. HERE Navigation On Demand enables all of the benefits of HERE automotive grade maps and navigation including the ability to feed automotive-grade map and dynamic road data to the vehicle's ADAS and automated driving control units. HERE Technologies also worked with Amazon to integrate its virtual assistant Alexa into the HERE Navigation On Demand experiences.
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| AMD announces the Radeon RX 5600 XT to dominate 1080p gaming at CES 2020 Posted: 06 Jan 2020 03:16 PM PST AMD's naming scheme made it all but apparent that the company would be coming out with a Radeon RX 5600-series graphics processor to slot between the RX 5500- and RX 5700-series GPUs. Sure enough, AMD announced just that at its press event for CES 2020. Specifically, AMD announced the Radeon RX 5600 XT. It touts the new graphics processor as the ultimate choice for 1080p gaming, with enough power to handle recent AAA games at max settings while delivering over 60 fps. The specsThe Radeon RX 5600 XT runs on the same RDNA architecture found in the RX 5500 and RX 5700 cards. It offers up 36 compute units running at a up to 1,560MHz boost clock and aiming for 1,375MHz as AMD's Game Clock. The cards will include 6GB of GDDR6 VRAM. AMD showed the new graphics card boasting 92 fps for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, 88 fps for The Division 2 and 87 fps for Gears of Wars 5. Those framerates show the RX 5600 XT beating out the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti by a decent margin, and the new AMD card happens to cost the exact same price as its Nvidia counterpart: $279 (about £210, AU$400) . AMD also wants to target competitive online titles. It showed the RX 5600 XT hitting 124 fps in Apex Legends, 126 fps in Fortnite and 147 fps in World of Warcraft: Battle For Azeroth. The new graphics card from AMD is shaping up nicely to compete with Nvidia in the mid-range graphics card market. And, it will do so soon, as AMD has set a launch date of January 21, with the card coming from all of AMD's AIB partners. A mobile version, the Radeon RX 5600M, was also announced for a launch in the first half of 2020 alongside a Radeon RX 5700M. These two new mobile graphics processor will likely play a large role in AMD's deeper push into the mobile computing space in 2020 alongside its Ryzen 4000 mobile CPUs.
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| AMD flexes on Intel at CES 2020 with new CPUs and graphics Posted: 06 Jan 2020 03:09 PM PST AMD is in a position where, at least in the desktop space, it's miles ahead of Intel. More cores on a smaller manufacturing process, Team Red has managed to take the crown in both the value and the performance categories. And, at CES 2020 AMD is ready to double down. At its press conference, AMD revealed its 4th-generation AMD Ryzen processors for laptops, a new graphics card for 1080p gamers and an absolutely massive chunk of silicon in the shape of the new Ryzen Threadripper 3990X. If this show proved anything its that AMD is coming for Intel where it hurts: laptops and Ultrabooks. We went ahead and gathered everything together in this one spot, so that you can figure out what the next front in the silicon wars will look like as we head into 2020. AMD Zen 3We've known AMD Zen 3 was on the horizon for a while now, ever since AMD announced that Zen 3 had finished its design phase when it launched the latest Epyc server chips. This architecture is a refinement of the 7nm Zen 2 architecture, and while it's not quite as revolutionary, it should bring some notable improvements. However, in a shocking turn, we didn't even get a tease for AMD Zen 3. This makes us think that the reveal will come much later, perhaps at Computex 2020.
Intel Project Athena better watch outOne of the areas where AMD has been lagging behind Intel for years, however, is in its mobile processors. With the AMD Ryzen 4000 mobile lineup, though, Team Red seems to be getting closer to where it needs to be. The actual performance of these chips in the real world remains to be seen, and while AMD still isn't behind any flagship devices - at least, beyond the 15-inch Surface Laptop 3 - increased performance could lead to a stronger presence for AMD. These processors will feature up to 8 cores and clock speeds of up to 4.2GHz, in the Ryzen 7 4800U - and that's with just a 15W TDP. All of this will 15% higher IPC and should see a much larger jump in performance over Intel's historically moderate bumps in power in each generation. AMD is also taking from Intel's naming schemes, by delivering U-series chips for Ultrabooks and H-series for gaming and professional laptops. AMD is claiming that these Ryzen 4000 mobile processors will be up to 90% faster than comparable Intel processors in multi-threaded workloads. If this is accurate, it could spell doom for Intel's Project Athena, especially if AMD can get solid battery life, too. The only laptop AMD announced, however, was the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 for Ultraportables and the Asus Zephyrus G14 for gaming. However, Team Red did suggest that more than 100 more Ryzen 4000 laptops will be coming to market, and the first of them will be coming in Q1 2020, so we shouldn't have to wait too long.
More NaviWhen AMD launched the Radeon RX 5700 and 5700 XT, it put the fire to Nvidia, making the mid-range graphics card market more competitive than ever. Later, the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT came around and made the entry-level market more competitive. But, AMD isn't done yet. AMD announced the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT, which its marking as the ultimate 1080p graphics card. With 6GB of GDDR6 and 36 compute units, it's coming straight for the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti. In fact, AMD is claiming that this graphics card can beat Nvidia's option at $279 - the same price as the 1660 Ti. The AMD Radeon RX 5600 series will also be coming to a laptop near you, along with (finally) the Radeon RX 5700. One more thing...Because AMD has a need to end everything on a high note, AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su finished off the CES 2020 press conference by announcing the Threadripper 3990X - a 64-core, 128-thread behemoth. A live demo of a rendering workload was shown off against dual Intel Xeon Platinum 8280s - a $20,000 configuration - and the $3,990 AMD Ryzen 3990X (see what it did there?) was 30% faster. This is definitely an expensive processor, but when you look at it like that, it seems like a bargain.
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| Asus reveals world’s fastest 14-inch gaming laptop, and much more at CES 2020 Posted: 06 Jan 2020 03:00 PM PST Asus has revealed a whole load of gaming hardware at CES 2020, with both desktop PCs and laptops, the latter of which are headed up by a model the firm claims is the world’s most powerful 14-inch gaming notebook. That would be the Asus Zephyrus G14 which certainly packs a decent amount of power into a pretty slim chassis which is 17.9mm thick, and the device weighs in at a palatable 1.6kg.
The G14 runs with one of AMD’s new mobile chips, and it’s powered by up to a Ryzen 7 4800HS with 8-cores and 16-threads. That’s partnered with up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 graphics card (boasting 6GB of video RAM). On the memory front, Asus provides up to 16GB of 3200MHz DDR4 RAM, and storage comes in the form of an M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD of up to 1TB capacity. There are a few options for the 14-inch screen, the top one of which – at least for gamers – has a Full HD resolution with a 120Hz refresh rate, plus AMD’s adaptive sync, 100% sRGB coverage, and it’s Pantone-validated. You can also opt for the same display but with a 60Hz refresh rate and no adaptive sync, or a 2,560 x 1,440-resolution panel which again is 60Hz (but does have adaptive sync). All of these are IPS-level panels, and sport very thin bezels. Asus claims that the G14 offers 10 hours of battery life, and it offers charging via one of the USB Type-C ports (although the other Type-C connector isn’t power delivery capable). The laptop also benefits from Wi-Fi 6 support, and a backlit keyboard with an ErgoLift hinge that tilts the keyboard to a more comfortable angle.
Asus also notes that the G14 has an innovative cooling system, and an ‘AniMe Matrix’ display on the laptop lid of certain models. The latter uses a matrix of 1,215 mini LEDs which can be used to display graphics such as animated GIFs or messages. DJs can potentially use the AniMe Matrix to display visualizations which react to the music being played, for example, and eventually Asus plans to add further practical aspects such as the ability to display the current battery level, or new email notifications. We’re certainly keen to see how the 8-core Ryzen 7 4800HS drives this apparently nippy 14-inch gaming laptop, and it looks commendably compact for the levels of power on offer, with some neat extras. The good news is that the launch date isn’t far off, with the Asus Zephyrus G14 expected to go on sale in late March (in the UK). No pricing has been announced yet, though.
When the going gets TUFNot content with the Zephyrus G14, Asus also revealed a bunch of new TUF Gaming laptops, with a pair of 15-inch models, and a pair of 17-inch notebooks. The initial products being pushed at CES are the TUF Gaming A15 and A17, which use AMD Ryzen 4000 chips, and these models should also be available in late March, just the same as the G14. TUF Gaming F15 and F17 notebooks will be released later in 2020 with 10th-generation Intel Core processors. So, with the A15 and A17 you’re getting a choice of Ryzen 4000 APUs (up to 8-cores, 16-threads), which can be paired with up to 32GB of 3200MHz DDR4 RAM. If you plump for the TUF Gaming A15, you’ll be getting a 15.6-inch Full HD screen with a refresh rate of 144Hz, and AMD’s adaptive sync technology, plus on the GPU front, you can specify up to an RTX 2060. Storage can be had in the form of up to a 1TB NVMe PCIe SSD. As for the TUF Gaming A17, that runs with a 17.3-inch Full HD display with a 120Hz refresh rate, again with adaptive sync. For a graphics solution, you can have up to a GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, and storage is again up to a 1TB PCIe SSD. As ever, the TUF laptops are designed to be robust and durable, manufactured to meet the meet MIL-STD-810H standard, meaning they should happily survive a few knocks and short drops. These models are also more compact than their predecessors, with the 15-inch variants being 7% smaller, and the 17-inch models shrinking a little further by 8%, according to Asus. Pricing is still to be confirmed. Gaming desktopsFinally, away from gaming-on-the-go, Asus introduced some new gaming desktop PCs, including the ROG Strix GA35 and GT35 which can be equipped with some serious firepower. We’re talking about gaming PCs configured with up to a Ryzen 9 3950X in the case of the GA35, which will be available from late April in the UK (with the GT35 to follow later on equipped with 10th-gen Intel Core processors rather than Ryzen). And for the graphics card, you’ll be able to specify up to a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, backed with up to 64GB system RAM, and storage of up to a 1TB NVMe PCIe SSD, alongside either a 1TB or 2TB hard disk for extra capacity. Nifty cooling is provided by a multi-zone chassis which Asus says is optimized for airflow, utilizing its Wind Shear design which includes elements such as widened air vents. Those high-end models are coming alongside a new ROG Strix GA15 and GT15, which are designed to be compact and portable – so you can easily take them to a LAN party – but still maintain a good level of performance. The GA15 will offer a choice of AMD’s Ryzen 7 3700X or Ryzen 5 3600X processor, with up to an RTX 2070 Super graphics card, and 16GB system RAM. Storage comes in the form of up to a 512GB NVMe PCIe SSD, alongside either a 1TB or 2TB hard disk. Despite the relatively compact case – which measures 17.8 x 34.3 x 42.7cm and weighs in at 10kg – Asus promises impressive cooling, with a similar take on the airflow design as seen in the GA/GT35. Asus says that the GA15 will be available from late February in the UK, and the GT15 will follow with 10th-gen Intel Core processors, just as with the GA/GT35. Again, all these machines are still to have pricing confirmed.
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| AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X is a ridiculous 64-core CPU – and it's coming February 7 Posted: 06 Jan 2020 02:52 PM PST AMD has announced the Ryzen Threadripper 3990X at CES 2020, confirming its incredibly powerful enthusiast processor, with an unprecedented 64-cores – something we've never seen in a consumer CPU. This will offer a level of performance that is usually reserved for servers and data centers, and the CPUs they run on usually cost huge amounts of money. WIth the Ryzen Threadripper 3990X, AMD wants to bring that kind of high performance component to enthusiasts and consumers, crucially with a price that is (relatively) affordable – and undercuts its chief rival Intel. Great specs, awesome priceSo, you're getting a processor with 64 cores and 128 threads, all for $3,990 (around £3,000, AU$5,700). It offers up to 4.3GHz boost and is apparently 30% faster than dual Intel Xeon 8280s, which cost around $20,000. That's an incredible achievement. It will be out February 7, 2020. We can't wait. As Dr. Lisa Su, CEO of AMD, states when revealing the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X, this will be a "game changer" for content creators.
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| AMD takes on Intel at CES 2020 with Ryzen 4000 mobile CPUs for laptops Posted: 06 Jan 2020 02:14 PM PST At CES 2020, AMD has revealed its Ryzen 4000 series of mobile processors, which will power its upcoming laptops. This should worry Intel, as most laptops run on Intel processors. If AMD's Ryzen 4000 processors are as successful as its Ryzen 3000 desktop CPUs, then Intel might find its dominance in the laptop market increasingly unstable. While we've seen laptops running on AMD processors before, they've not managed to match Intel when it comes to performance and popularity. However, a newly-emboldened AMD, which has been on a bit of a winning streak of late, promises that its Ryzen 4000 mobile processors will change all that. AMD's CEO, Dr Lisa Su, is confident enough to call it the "best laptop processor ever built" – and it will reportedly come with 8 cores and 16 threads.
The specsThe AMD Ryzen 7 4800U is what AMD claims is "the world's highest-performing ultra-thin laptop processor", with 8 Zen 2 cores, 16 threads and a base clock of 1.8GHz which boosts to 4.2GHz. It comes with 8 Radeon cores for graphics and has a TDP of 15W. It's also in the Lenovo Yoga Slim, which Su claims is the "world's thinnest and lightest 8-core laptop". Over 100 laptops will release in 2020 with AMD's Ryzen 4000 mobile processors.
AMD also showed off charts showing the performance gap these new processors offer over Intel's Ice Lake processors, including a huge 90% increase over the Intel Core i7 1065G7 in the CInebench R20 nt benchmark. The AMD Ryzen 7 4800U will appear first in the Asus Zephyrus G14 laptop, which is coming February 2020, and weighs just 3.5lbs. Coming for Comet LakeWhile Intel is expected to show of its Comet Lake mobile processors at its own event at CES 2020, AMD has stolen some of its thunder by announcing the details of its Ryzen 4000 series.
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| Sony’s 2020 TV range is ready for PS5 Posted: 06 Jan 2020 02:00 PM PST What does Sony have in store for 2020? We got a good look at the year ahead in Sony TVs at the CES 2020 expo this week, with a range of 8K, 4K, OLED and LCD sets focusing on a full home cinema experience – including premium audio features and the latest Android 9.0 smart platform. While not everyone will be buying a new Sony set with gaming in mind, it’s impossible to talk about Sony in 2020 without mentioning the PS5 – the next-gen console and rival to the incoming Xbox Series X. It’s hard to tell how closely Sony’s TV and gaming arms have worked together, but we’re told that the new fleet of televisions have been made specifically with “upcoming next-generation gaming consoles” in mind, with sets offering HDR in 8K resolution, 4K resolution at 120fps high frame rate, and “fast response time via HDMI inputs” (using the latest HDMI 2.1 standard) to maximize the performance of the PS5 and its competitor.
Playing niceWhile these aren’t new features per se, they’re still not widespread – and it’s telling that only two of the new sets named (out of a total five) will support 4K play at 120Hz. The flagship 8K model, the Z8H, will be able to play in both 8K (at 60Hz) and 4K (at 120Hz), while the X900H 4K LED will be able to support the latter through a software update possible some time after launch. The former set will feature Sony’s X1 Ultimate processor, with a Full Array LED, backlit remote, and audio drivers that coordinate sound with the location of images onscreen – available in 85-inch and 75-inch sizes. The X900H, meanwhile, is a more mid-range LCD model in five different sizes down to just a 49-inch screen. The remaining sets will still feature high-end panels and 4K resolution, but aren’t quite so closely engineered to the needs of the next-gen PS5 console. They include the A9S Master Series, an OLED set in the new 48-inch size (we imagine the ‘S’ is for ‘small’) with Dolby Vision and Atmos support, as well as the A8H OLED available in 55-inch and 65-inch sizes.
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| PS5 release date, specs, news and rumors for Sony’s PlayStation 5 Posted: 06 Jan 2020 01:56 PM PST Sony's next-generation PlayStation console is the PS5 (PlayStation 5) and it's landing at the end of 2020 – after a long and incredible decade that quite clearly put Sony at the top of the home console wars. (Sorry Xbox.) What do we know about the PS5 so far? The hysteria started in early 2019, when Mark Cerny, the chief architect on Sony's next console, confirmed that the company is working on the successor to the PS4 Slim and PS4 Pro. We didn't get the official name or release date until much later, but Cerny did shed light on the next-gen console's capabilities – including that it would retain a disc-player, and have something to do with Sony's game streaming ambitions – even if there was little else to go on. However, since then, Sony has been drip-feeding us juicy titbits such as an official PS5 release window, name and a few key details about features. In addition, we've had some surprising leaks, in the form of a Sony-registered patent that seems to show off the PS5's general shape, button inputs, and cooling vents – confirmed to be the PS5 dev kit in a leaked photo – though we expect the end product design will be different for the PlayStation 5's late 2020 launch. With 2020 now underway, Sony can only keep the finer details of the next-generation PlayStation a secret for a little longer – especially with Microsoft officially unveiling the Xbox Series X. But between the rumored specs, likely next-gen titles, and official features we are aware of, there's plenty to keep us busy for now. Here's everything we know about the PS5 so far, and what we hope will be revealed the closer we get to launch.
God of War (Image Credit: SIE) Sony has officially confirmed the PS5 will release "Holiday 2020", aka between October and December 2020. A leak has suggested that the release date will be November 20, 2020 but that's yet to be confirmed. It's in the right window, though, and it does leave time before Christmas to get those orders in. This will put the PlayStation 5 in direct competition with Microsoft's Xbox Series X (formerly Xbox Project Scarlett), which is releasing during the same period. Game on.
Death Stranding (Image Credit: Kojima Productions) Sony hasn't officially confirmed a PS5 price just yet, so we can't say for sure what it'll be. There have, however, been rumors. A leak has suggested that the console will cost $499 in North America when it launches. Naturally this should be taken with a pinch of salt, but it would be welcome news if the console did launch at this price as it's only $100 more than the launch price of the PS4 and PS4 Pro. There's also been a less believable rumor claiming the PS5 will cost up to £900 - but Sony has already debunked that. We can expect that the console's price will be in line with the technology it uses but Sony will also have to be aware of its competition. It's unlikely that Microsoft will want to make the same mistake it made in the last generation, with the prohibitively high price point of the Xbox One, so Sony will have to ensure it doesn't make a similar mistake in the next generation by making the PS5 too expensive.
Ghost of Tsushima (Image Credit: SuckerPunch)
So what is the PS5 packing under the hood? We don't know a huge amount about the PlayStation 5's specs, but here's what we do know. That AMD one-two-punch of CPU and GPU unlocks the powers of ray tracing, an advanced lighting technique that can bring next-level immersion to gaming visuals. It's a Hollywood technique that's used in big-budget CGI spectacles, putting the level of visual fidelity you can expect into context. Ray tracing is done by GPU hardware rather than software level, Mark Cerny told Wired. “There is ray-tracing acceleration in the GPU hardware,” Cerny explained. With 8K TV support comes far more detailed textures, and much larger ones at that. The news of a bespoke SSD drive will be heartening then – just because the games will be becoming more complex, that doesn't mean they'll be slower to load too. It's estimated that the new SSD is 19 times faster than traditional SSD storage methods (but given the speed difference between the SSD and the optical drive, installation of games will be mandatory). Not only that, by harnessing the power of the SSD, developers could potentially reduce the install sizes of games as “there is no need to duplicate data to compensate for slow seek times that optical drives and HDDs have.” The PS5 will benefit from simplified data management due to its SSD, and this will allow players to have more control over installing and removing games. This will allow players to install (or remove) only certain parts of a game. So instead of installing the full game, you could choose to just install the single-player mode and then do multiplayer later - or vice versa.
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (Image Credit: Naughty Dog) Physical games for the PS5 will use 100GB optical disks, inserted into an optical drive that doubles as a 4K Blu-Ray player and the next-generation hardware will boast a completely revamped UI. Speaking about the new UI to Wired, Cerny said: "Even though it will be fairly fast to boot games, we don't want the player to have to boot the game, see what's up, boot the game, see what's up. "Multiplayer game servers will provide the console with the set of joinable activities in real time. Single-player games will provide information like what missions you could do and what rewards you might receive for completing them - and all of those choices will be visible in the UI. As a player you just jump right into whatever you like." Audio will reach a new "gold standard" on PS5 too, according to Cerny, thanks to a new audio engine that will deliver immersive sound – particularly if you're using headphones. While the details remain unclear, expect something resembling the experience seen with a Dolby Atmos set-up. Sony's PS5 next-generation console will also offer improved cloud gaming performance and "dramatically improved graphics rendering" power. That's the word straight from the company itself, as it showed off a sneak peak during a corporate strategy presentation.
Marvel's Spider-Man (Insomniac Games) In a statement sent out following the presentation, Sony said the "two keywords for the future direction of PlayStation are 'immersive' and 'seamless'", with the 'immersive' experience "created by dramatically increased graphics rendering speeds, achieved through the employment of further improved computational power and a customized ultra-fast, broadband SSD". The company also reinforced the importance of its cloud-gaming plans with Playstation Now, and somewhat surprisingly doubled down on its underused Remote Play feature, saying the "evolution" of this would in the future "provide a seamless game experience anytime, anywhere". Remote Play is already available as part of the PS4 package, enabling you to stream a game direct from the console to a computer, smartphone, tablet or PS Vita handheld console. But Sony says that going forward it will be "leveraging the latest computing, streaming, cloud, and 5G technologies" to allow it, and the performance of PlayStation Now, to improve. If that's not enough, Sony has confirmed the PS5's 'incredibly powerful' backwards compatibility will let you play online with PS4 players. There have also been rumors that the PS5 could be backwards compatible with the PS3, PS2, and original PlayStation, meaning its games library could stretch right back to the glory days of the mid 90s.
We haven't actually gotten an official look at the PlayStation 5 yet but, if several leaks are to be believed, Sony's next-generation console will sport a very different look to its predecessors. The above render, courtesy of Let's Go Digital, is based on a spy shot received by Zone of Tech, which shows what's alleged to be a real, working PS5 development kit in its natural habitat – the offices of an anonymous PlayStation 5 developer. The image, if legitimate, all-but confirms the many leaked rumors and renders concerning the PlayStation 5's hardware design, one that sports an unusual V-shaped cavity and excessive amounts of ventilation. What does the image show us? There's a number of buttons: On/Standby, Reset, Eject (for the double layer 100GB-reading Blu-ray drive), System Initialisation and Network initialisation, all on the front left. There are also a number of status lights, numbering '0' to '7', which likely relate to CPU cores engaged, but could also be a status light for controllers connected. To the right there are 5 USB ports (one USB 2.0 and five likely USB 3.0 ports – the final port being obscured by a cable), as well as a USB type B port. A small circle above could well be a camera built into the console, according to earlier patent filings. Interestingly, rubber feet appear to be on the top side of the console, suggesting that devs are being encourage to either flip the console for stress testing and convenience, or to stack them when working on demanding games. We've seen several leaked images of the PS5 dev kit out in the wild, with each showing this same console design. However, these images should only really be used to speculate on what the final design of the consumer console will be, rather than considering it wholly indicative on the machine to come. Dev kits are specially designed to be robust, and to support a console working under extreme load so as to allow the developers to push their creations to the maximum without frying the hardware they are working on. It's also designed, at this stage, to help find any flaws in the final PS5 consumer hardware industrial design. With Sony less than a year away from the launch of the PlayStation 5, there's plenty of time for its team to create something a little less alien-looking.
The PS5 will come with its own controller, according to Sony. The PS5 controller (we don't know the official name yet) will include haptic feedback to replace the DualShock 4's rumble technology. This aims to improve the controller's feedback and therefore player's immersion. The PS5 controller will also feature adaptive triggers which Sony says have "been incorporated into the trigger buttons (L2/R2)". These adaptive triggers will allow developers to program the resistance of the triggers to simulate actions more accurately. A patent suggests new back buttons are coming to the PS5 DualShock controller – perhaps along similar lines to the Back Button Attachment that Sony just launched for existing DualShock 4 gamepads. But what will it look like? According to a Sony patent for a new controller, published by the Japanese patent office (via VGC), the PS5 controller could look very similar to the DualShock 4 – with some key differences. For a start, the potential PS5 controller seems to have a slightly chunkier design, built-in microphone, larger triggers, no light bar and smaller sticks. It also seems the DualShock 4's micro USB port has been replaced by a smaller USB-C port, which is placed on the top rather than the bottom of the controller. The lack of light bar does make us question how the PS5 would track the controller via when it comes to PSVR and PS Camera games. Usually this is done via the PS Camera, so we're hoping the console will have a different means of tracking the controller otherwise compatibility will suffer. Unless, of course, Sony is gearing up to move solely onto PSVR 2. However, this doesn't seem likely as Sony has promised the PS5 will be backwards compatible with PSVR. It also looks like the stereo headset jack and extension port at the bottom of the headset has been replaced by two larger circular ports. We think these will still be for plugging in headsets, but the two jacks could be headphone and microphone slots respectively, to increase compatibility with headsets. There's also a rectangular design that seems to wrap around the headset, which is potentially for compatibility with a charging dock. Again, this is all speculation on our part. Be careful of controller 'leaks' like these, though – as the rumor mill can work at a feverish pace without much to go on.
The entire PS4 library, including PSVR games, will be supported by the PS5. That much is known. But we're now hearing more about confirmed - and rumored - PS5 games. At this point, any first-party PS4 game in the pipeline – from Ghost of Tsushima to The Last of Us 2, would be prime candidates for PS5 cross-gen upgrades. We've also heard enough chatter around a Horizon Zero Dawn sequel and new God of War game to assume we'll be seeing both land on the PS5 console. But what about third-party titles? We've had confirmation that Gearbox's new IP Godfall is coming exclusively to PS5, as is a new title from Bluepoint Studios. In addition, Ubisoft has confirmed that Watch Dogs: Legion, Rainbow Six Quarantine, and Gods and Monsters are all coming to Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. Meanwhile Electronic Arts has confirmed that Battlefield 6 is on the way, and that it's coming to next-generation consoles - which probably means PS5. There's still no confirmation on what the PS5's launch titles will be but we're expecting first-party games to take the lead. In addition, Sony has confirmed the PS5 will prioritize AAA games over indie games in an effort to focus on "serious gamers".
A rumor has cropped up suggesting that Sony will cut to the chase and launch the PlayStation 5 Pro at the same time as its base-model PS5. As spotted by Wccftech, noted Japanese games journalist Zenji Nishikawa made the claim in a new video on his YouTube channel, and while that kind of thing normally wouldn't be considered a rock-solid lead, Nishikawa has proven accurate in the past with his predictions of the PS4 Pro and Switch Lite. According to Nishikawa, the PS5 Pro will cost around $100-$150 more than the basic PS5 console. The report states that Sony is taking this approach because it has "acknowledged the interest in a high-end model and wants to give players what they want right from the beginning of the generation".
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| Sennheiser reveals cheap rival for Sony WH-1000XM3 at CES 2020 Posted: 06 Jan 2020 01:42 PM PST Sennheiser has launched two new wireless headphones at CES 2020 in Las Vegas – one of which looks to be a real (cheaper) alternative to the class-leading Sony WH-1000XM3 Wireless Headphones. Building on the success of the HD 4.50BTNC (which we awarded 4.5 out of 5 stars in our review), the new HD450BT over-ear headphones offer a 30-hour battery life and instant access to your voice assistant of choice thanks to a dedicated button. Furthermore, the HD450BT also offer active noise cancelation, allowing you to listen to your music without distracting environmental noise cramping your style – and at $199 (around £150 / AU$280 based on current conversion rates), they could represent a compelling alternative to the $349 / £300 / $499 Sony WH-1000XM3 when they launch in mid-February. The HD450BT model also supports wired mode, for those wanting a more direct connection – say, to avoid disturbances to your Bluetooth connection in a public place with a lot of wireless headphones. Even cheaper, though, are the HD350BT, which will cost $119 (about £90 / AU$170) upon their release later this month – although they don't come with noise cancelation like their pricier sibling. Everything you can do, I can do cheaperBoth models support the latest Bluetooth 5.0 wireless standard, as well as the AAC, AptX and AptX Low Latency codecs (for syncing audio seamlessly with video). They'll come with a companion app, Sennheiser Smart Control, for firmware updates, instructions, battery status, and the like – as well as a dedicated 'podcast mode' to improve the "intelligibility of podcasts, audio books, and other speech content". Jermo Köhnke, Product Manager at Sennheiser, tells us that “Our new HD 350BT and HD 450BT headphones were made for everyone seeking to step up their everyday audio experience." While we haven't get gone hands on with either of the new Sennheiser headphones detailed here, we can usually count on the audio company to provide some real audio chops, whether it's the Sennheiser Momentum Wireless (2019) or Sennheiser PXC 550-II over-ears. With the HD450BT and HD350BT retailing around half the cost of both of those premium models, this could be a real competitor in the wireless headphones space – even for Sennheiser itself.
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| AMD Navi release date, news and rumors Posted: 06 Jan 2020 01:35 PM PST Team Red finally unleashed its AMD Navi graphics cards soon after their reveal, following the release of AMD Radeon VII earlier this year. And so far, things are excellent. Based on our very favorable reviews of the AMD Radeon RX 5700 and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, it’s certainly looking like the company have designed these cards to take the PC components world – not to mention, the best gaming PCs – by storm while also giving Nvidia a run for it money. At CES 2020, AMD is expected to show us more about its high-end Navi GPU, as well as the much-rumored Radeon 5600 XT at its CES 2020 press conference. AMD first showcased these two cards at E3 2019 as mid-range GPUs crafted to compete with Nvidia's highly popular Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 and RTX 2060, unveiling their specs and how they measure up against these top contenders. And, recently, it also unveiled the much talked about Radeon RX 5500, a graphics card for 1080p players. It boasts 22 compute units, 1,408 stream processors and up to 8GB of GDDR6 video memory (VRAM). Alongside these AMD Navi updates, AMD also released their brand new game-developer toolkit, Fidelity FX, which has been available for free since June 10. Fidelity FX is designed to enable game developers get more detail and crispness in low contrast textures, allowing them to take full advantage of what these AMD Navi cards are capable of. On top of that, AMD has also rolled out its new 19.8.2 driver for its graphics cards, expected to bring support for HDCP 2.3 to Radeon RX 5700 cards as well as deliver up to 10% better performance of the much talked about third-person shooter, Control. Be sure to keep this page bookmarked, and we’ll keep it updated with all the latest AMD Navi information that surfaces. Cut to the Chase
At Computex 2019, AMD took the stage and showed a mysterious Radeon RX 5000 graphics card. AMD Navi release dateBoth the AMD Radeon RX 5700 and Radeon RX 5700 XT were released on July 7, alongside the Ryzen 3rd generation processors. These cards are now available for purchase at the AMD store, and each comes with a 3-month subscription Xbox Game Pass for PC free. As for the AMD Radeon RX 5500, AMD hasn't shared pricing or specific release date information. However, we expect to see the new graphics card sometime within the next couple of months. As for Navi 20, the rumored lineup for 2020, it's still anyone's guess. We do know that the Xbox Project Scarlett, powered by Navi, will be out Holiday 2020, so we could see the more powerful Navi chips released around that time. In fact, we've just recently seen leaked roadmaps that suggest their successors could be hitting the streets sometime in 2020.
Both the AMD Radeon RX 5700 and Radeon RX 5700 XT were released on July 7, after their unveiling. AMD Navi priceAt Computex 2019, AMD took the stage and showed a mysterious Radeon RX 5000 graphics card going head to head against an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 in Strange Brigade, where it performed about 10% faster. It was later revealed that was the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT. However, with E3 2019, AMD proved it’s still king when it comes to components for the masses. AMD revealed its two new graphics cards to be drastically cheaper than their competitors. The Radeon 5700 is currently priced at $349 (about £275, AU$500), a price tag that’s $50 cheaper than the RTX 2060 when it was released in January 2019. The Radeon 5700 XT, on the other hand, is $399 (about £315, AU$580). And, that’s with offering similar performance at 1440p to the new Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Super at Ultra settings. Again, AMD has yet to share pricing or specific release date information on the AMD Radeon RX 5500. But, we’re hoping to get those soon before the year is over.
AMD Navi is the first mainstream AMD graphics card to break away from the aging GCN architecture. AMD Navi specsRight off the bat, we know that AMD Navi is based on the new 7nm RDNA graphics architecture, making it the first mainstream AMD graphics card to break away from the aging GCN architecture. At Computex 2019, AMD said that we’re going to see 1.25X faster performance per clock and 1.5X performance per watt over GCN. This means not just improved performance in the best PC games, but also increased power efficiency. In addition, AMD Navi is using faster GDDR6 memory, compared to the GDDR5 in the Radeon RX 500 series. The lower-end AMD Radeon RX 5700 features 36 compute units, 2,304 stream processors and a boost clock of 1,725 MHz, not to mention 8GB of 14Gbps GDDR6 VRAM on a 256-bit bus, with 65 render output units (ROPs) and 256 texture units. The mid-range AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, on the other hand, boasts 40 compute units, with 2,560 stream processors and a boost clock of 1,905MHz. This GPU also has 8GB of GDDR6 video memory (VRAM), 14Gbps GDDR6 VRAM, 64 ROPs and 256 texture units. That’s all well and good on paper, but what about their actual real-world performance? Well, AMD showed the Radeon RX 5700 XT in a demo against the RTX 2070, where it bested Nvidia's mid-range card in World War Z by about 10% at 1440p on Ultra. Indeed, during our tests of the card, we found the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT to be a 1440p monster, with no massive drops in performance, no matter how demanding the game is. The Radeon RX 5700, on the other hand, performed better against the RTX 2060 by 21% in Battlefield V and by 9% in The Division 2, also at 1440p on Ultra. In our review, we hailed the Radeon RX 5700 as an absolute powerhouse at its price point, bringing 1440p gaming at Ultra settings to the mainstream. Rather than taking on the RTX 2080 Ti at the high end, AMD is looking comfortable inhabiting the mid-range where it has traditionally excelled. That is, until the PS5 launches. Back in April, Sony Lead System Architect Mark Cerny revealed that the PS5 would be using a custom AMD Navi GPU, and that it would be capable of some pretty impressive things. For instance, the PS5 will likely support ray tracing, along with 8K resolutions. We think that’s a little pie-in-the-sky, and we’d take it with a grain of salt. But, AMD Navi could theoretically mark a true generational shift when the next generation of consoles hits the streets. AMD Navi GPUs will also be behind Project Scarlett – the next Xbox. We don't know the exact specs, but Microsoft made a point to talk up its capabilities, mentioning things like "real time ray tracing", 8K capabilities and up to 120 fps gameplay. Beyond that, we have heard rumors about another generation of Navi graphics cards on the high-end hitting the streets in 2020. These high-end graphics cards are rumored to be code-named Navi 20, and should feature improved performance that takes on Nvidia’s flagship. We could see AMD graphics cards capable of 2020 in the future if these rumors are to be believed. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Lenovo unveils the world’s first 5G PC at CES 2020 Posted: 06 Jan 2020 01:31 PM PST Lenovo has shown off the world’s first 5G laptop at CES 2020 in Las Vegas, with the Lenovo Yoga 5G becoming the first PC to be able to connect to 5G networks. We first saw an early version of the Lenovo Yoga 5G back at Computex 2019, where it was known as Project Limitless before its official name was unveiled, and now we’ve had a glimpse of the final product. As with other Yoga laptops, this is an ultra-portable 2-in-1 device, with a screen that can be folded backwards to turn it into a tablet. The Lenovo Yoga 5G is the first laptop to run on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx platform, which includes built-in support for 5G connections, allowing the Yoga 5G to connect via a service provider and access super-fast mobile internet. According to Lenovo, this will allow you to download large files easily, with download speeds of around 4Gb/s. If it manages this, it could be a real game changer. 24-hour battery lifeNot only does the Lenovo Yoga 5G offer 5G connections, but it can apparently manage up to 24 hours of battery life as well. Qualcomm Adreno 680 graphics and user-facing stereo speakers powered by Dolby Atmos means the Yoga 5G should be a decent entertainment machine as well. The 14-inch inch full HD IPS screen offers 400 nits brightness, so it should offer vibrant image quality, and it weighs just 2.86lbs (1.3kg), so it’ll be nice and portable. We’re looking forward to giving the Lenovo Yoga 5G a try soon – keep an eye out for our hands on review. Previous Snapdragon-powered laptops have been missed opportunities in our view, as they’ve been let down by poor performance. We hope the Lenovo Yoga 5G bucks that trend. The Lenovo Yoga 5G will go on sale in the first quarter of 2020, starting at $1,499 (around £1,200, AU$2,100), and in North America will be known as the Lenovo Flex 5G.
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| Hisense sees a bright future for Laser TVs, but when will they be affordable? Posted: 06 Jan 2020 01:18 PM PST For those of us at CES 2020, the Hisense press conference was certainly confident. With new high-end models of laser TVs and dual-cell LCDs, and bold comparisons between smart home connectivity and actual superpowers, it’s clear this is an electronics company not afraid to shout about its vision for the future of the home quite loudly. The stats do back up Hisense’s ambition: the company now ranks fifth in the US for overall TV sales, and is the fastest-growing TV brand. The question of laser TVs, though, does give us reason to pause. Much of Hisense’s message this year was regarding the potential for laser TVs, which are a kind of television / projector hybrid designed to keep the benefits of both – but which as a result will cost you more than both technologies combined. What are the benefits? Well, you get the vivid colors of a high-end projector, with Hisense’s TriChroma laser technology achieving 100% of the BT.2020 (or Rec.2020) color spectrum, which is more than most high-end televisions can claim. On top of that, though, you get built-in speakers, a TV tuner, and a capable smart TV platform (most projectors are quite lacking in this department) with the kind of interface most TV owners will be comfortable with already. Throwing in a panel to project onto, too, means you don’t have to make do with a bumpy, off-color living room wall that wasn’t intended to display cinematic images. The cheapest new model, the Hisense L5 Laser TV, starts at $5,999 (around £4,600 / AU$8,650), which is a staggering amount of money for any television, and will only really appeal to those with a lot of cash to burn when furnishing their home. That’s even before you get to the $8,999 (around £6,840 / AU$13,000) price tag of the brighter and larger 100-inch L10E – or the £10,999 RRP of the H100LDA in the UK. The question is, if this technology is here to stay, when are people going to start being able to afford it?
It’s all coming up... lasers
Hisense’s official line is that laser TVs are the future of home entertainment, calling it a “more natural way for human eyes” to watch TV, with reduced amounts of red light to contend with, alongside greater energy efficiency – with reportedly 40% less energy consumption than LCD sets of the same size. “We firmly believe laser display will dominate in the future,” we’re told – which is a bold thing to claim when so few people are still using the technology. Sales of laser TVs grew 107% in China in 2019, making it the fastest-growing TV category in the country – though it’s always easier to increase a small number of sales than a large one, and there just isn't the sample size or mass market penetration to really see where laser TVs are going. There’s plenty of cheaper Hisense TVs to reckon with, of course – with its premium ULED TVs, mid-range Roku sets, and budget LCDs below that – but as long as Hisense pushes its laser TVs as the pinnacle of what it can achieve in home entertainment, at a corresponding price point, it looks like it won’t be within reach of the rest of us for a long while yet.
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| Acer TravelMate P6 is a superlight notebook for those on the go Posted: 06 Jan 2020 01:04 PM PST At CES 2020, Acer introduced its new TravelMate P6 notebook designed for mobile and security-conscious professionals. The company's powerful and robust 15-inch notebook features up to 10th Gen Intel Core i7 processors, runs Windows 10 Pro and complies with MIL-STD-810G US military standards. General manager of notebooks and IT products business at Acer, James Lin provided further insight on the company's new TravelMate P6, saying: “Durable yet thin-and-light, the latest TravelMate P6 provides mobile professionals with performance they can rely on. We’re confident they’ll appreciate the ability to work for two days without having to recharge, in addition to the notebook’s military standard compliant chassis and enhanced security.”
The TravelMate P6 sports a magnesium-aluminum chassis that is stronger and lighter than standard aluminum alloys at the same thickness while weighing just 2.4 pounds and measuring only 0.6 inches. The notebook also offers up to 23 hours of battery life and can be charged up to 50 percent in less than 45 minutes. Users can even work and collaborate on the go with optional eSIM-enabled 4G LTE connectivity. TravelMate P6The TravelMate P6 was co-engineered with Intel as part of the chipmaker's Project Athena innovation program and the device itself underwent rigorous testing to ensure it consistently delivers the responsiveness, instant wake and battery life that mobile professionals need to work from anywhere. Vice president at Intel's client computing group, Josh Newman explained how the two companies worked together to deliver the TravelMate P6, saying: “Acer’s TravelMate P6 showcases the exceptional co-engineering efforts driven by Acer and Intel through the Project Athena program. Our Intel Core processor performance and the vPro platform provides standout capability for businesses and matches the ambition of on-the-go professionals.” Acer's new notebooks can be configured with up to 10th Gen Intel Core i7 processors, up to 24 GB DDR4 memory, up to Nvidia MX250 graphics and up to 1 TB of Gen 3 x4 PCIe SSDs using NVMe technology. The TravelMate P6 offers powerful security features to help safeguard user data. Users can log in using Windows Hello via the fingerprint reader on the power button or through the IR webcam that leverages biometric facial recognition. Additionally, an integrated Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 chip delivers hardware-based protection for passwords and encryption keys. Interested users in North America and Europe will be able to pick up the TravelMate P6 in February starting at $1,149 or €1,099.
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| We finally know how much the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold will cost Posted: 06 Jan 2020 12:48 PM PST If 2020 didn't already seem like it was going to be the year of foldable devices, Lenovo is making it seem even more likely with the official introduction of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold at CES 2020. Many of the key details of the new device have been shared by our sister site, Tom's Hardware. The ThinkPad X1 Fold isn't exactly new, as we'd already had a hands-on with an early prototype of the device in May 2019. The device is the next logical evolution for the Lenovo Yoga Book C930, taking what was a two-screened device and eliminating the gap in the middle where the hinge is. This new ThinkPad X1 Fold is effectively similar to the Samsung Galaxy Fold, but on a larger scale. It has a 13.3-inch 4:3 OLED display that can fold in half. When it's shut, the device is made to look like a classy, leather-backed notebook. When it's open, it can sit in a variety of positions. A kickstand on the back of the ThinkPad X1 Fold lets it stand up like a Surface Pro tablet, so you can use the full size of its display with a keyboard for a laptop-like experience. The display can also fold into a semi-open position. This lets you use it with the keyboard docked on the lower portion of the display, giving you more of a mini laptop to work with. In this position, you'd have about a 9.6-inch display space. Not the foldable for just anyoneAmong the new details to come out is the price. The ThinkPad X1 Fold will start at a stunning $2,499 (about £1,900, AU$3,600). It comes fitted with an unspecified Intel Core processor with Intel Hybrid Technology, which may be Intel's stacked Lakefield design. That's a high starting price for a laptop or tablet, especially one that only comes with 8GB of RAM. This is definitely going to start out as a business-class laptop. The leather and carbon fiber trappings are also suggestive of this. Given the uncertainties about flexible displays that have only been made worse by the Galaxy Fold's issues, the ThinkPad X1 Fold is likely only going to be in demand for people who have the money to risk on a product that may run into design faults. Lenovo has put extra efforts into testing the hinge for durability. But, the plastic display that enables its flexibility will be more scratch-prone than a standard glass display. At least we can count on Lenovo avoiding any unsightly hinge crease, as we've seen accomplished on the new Motorola Razr. The ThinkPad X1 Fold will launch in Q2 2020, per an earlier announcement from Lenovo.
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| Royole reveals the Mirage Smart Speaker with wrap-around flexible display at CES 2020 Posted: 06 Jan 2020 12:45 PM PST Last year, Royole stole the spotlight by revealing the first foldable smartphone, the Royole Flexpai - and at CES 2020, they’re following up with a pair of devices that bring folding screens into new arenas: a smart speaker with a wrap-around screen and a refined smart writing pad. The first and arguably more exciting device is the Mirage Smart Speaker, which features an 7.8-inch (1,920 x 1,440) Royole AMOLED flexible touch display wrapping about halfway around the device’s cylindrical body. With Alexa integration, this speaker is set up to be an alternative to smart screens like the Amazon Echo Show - except, of course, for folks who want a majorly curved screen instead. There are simple volume and microphone controls on the top in a transparent disc (you know, for looks). The Mirage Smart Speaker packs a 5MP camera - presumably for video chatting - and two far-field microphones that have a physical mute switch for privacy. And for audio, the Mirage has three 48mm full-range drivers and a passive bass radiator for 360 audio, per Royole. With its glossy tubular body looking like an old trashcan Mac Pro squeezed into a thinner profile, the Mirage is certainly a different look than the typical ‘airport carpet’-covered smart speakers. Which makes for an interesting product, but the price might scare away early adopters: the Mirage will retail for $899 / £799, far above even the pricey Apple HomePod and Google Home Max. It will be available in the US and UK (no other region or pricing info currently available) in Q2 2020. A smaller, slimmer smart writing padRoyole released its first smart writing pad at last year’s CES, and this year we get the refined version. The RoWrite 2 is nearly half the weight (420g, down from 775g) as its predecessor, and smaller, too, dropping down from 8.5 x 11 to around the size of a standard iPad. Like the original, the RoWrite 2 uses flexible sensors embedded in its case to transfer text written with the included wireless pen from mundane paper to digital devices. Battery life has been extended to 30 days of standby (lower depending on your use). The RoWrite 2 will be available in April 2020 for $129 / €129 (around £98 / AU$185) andwill ship in APril 2020, while it will be available in China a month earlier in March 2020 for ¥799.
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| Origin’s hybrid gaming desktop Big-O goes small Posted: 06 Jan 2020 12:39 PM PST The latest addition to the Origin PC Big-O family brings in a few changes this year. Recently launched at CES 2020, Big-O is smaller and more affordable than any of its previous builds, and well, just accessible to the public in general. Though unfortunately for Nintendo Switch users, the 2020 Origin Big-O only comes with a choice of two consoles. Whereas its 2019 predecessor came in three console choices – PlayStation 4 Pro, Xbox One X and Nintendo Switch – the 2020 model of this hybrid gaming desktop only comes with PS4 Pro or Xbox One S.
Not that we’re complaining. After all, when the manufacturer released all those exciting details about Big-O in 2019, they also told us that none of the models were up for purchase. This time around, these highly coveted hybrid gaming desktops, which combine a liquid-cooled PC and a liquid-cooled gaming console in one chassis (that of the CORSAIR Crystal Series 280X), are very much available for purchase, so long as you’ve got the cash to spare. In fact, you can order one of these babies now starting at $2,499 (about ₤1,900, AU$3,600). The Origin PC Big-O for 2020 is also highly customizable, especially its PC side, so you can choose your components – from the processor and graphics card down to the motherboard and cooling system – and build your own Big-O. Well, that is, based on the options on hand. Just know that you’ll be spending a lot more than the aforementioned price. How exactly does this hybrid gaming desktop work?We have yet to test the Origin PC Big-O ourselves, but according to the company, the both the PC side and the console side have separate power connections and HDMI outputs. So basically, you can use both sides at the same time, as long as you have two displays or a multiple input monitor. You can also decide to get an Elgato 4K60 Pro capture card, which allows you to stream and capture any of your console gameplay – up to 4K – to your PC. With this Frankenstein-level gaming contraption, you’ll never have to leave your chair again. The Origin PC Big-O may be configured to boast up to 2TB storage drive (for both PC and console), Intel Core i9-9900K or AMD Ryzen 9 3950X processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX Titan graphics card, and 64GB of memory.
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| The future of driving: CES 2020 gives us a glimpse at the cars of tomorrow Posted: 06 Jan 2020 12:15 PM PST An instrument, a conference room, and an entertainment center. According to Continental, the cars of tomorrow will be all these things and more. At CES 2020 in Las Vegas, the German car software and hardware manufacturer presented its vision for the automotive industry, in which consumer technology blends seamlessly into our cars, making our journeys more personalized, holistic, and ultimately, connected.
Speaking to press, a spokesperson for Continental said that “this is the largest transformation the automotive industry has seen since its birth”, as the company announced a number of innovative new technologies it would be bringing to the table. More than a vehicleOne of the most exciting new technologies comes as part of a new partnership with Sennheiser, which brings immersive Ambeo 3D audio to your car – and in turn, transforms your humble vehicle into an instrument, negating the need for space-consuming speaker systems. Continental’s Ac2ated Sound system uses specially designed actuators to "excite" specific surfaces in a vehicle, using the resonant areas of the car to amplify sounds being created by vibrating the vehicle's interior. In theory, this will create a bespoke, immersive audio experience, all in the comfort of your car. Another new technology shown off at the tech show was Natural 3D Centerstack, which turns the display on your car's dashboard into a 3D experience – without the need for special glasses or head tracker cameras. It works by emitting a lightfield that gives a 3D impression of the information on the center console display in your car, in 4K resolution – for example, accepting a call could generate a 3D hologram-like avatar of the caller. According to Continental, the display board can also be operated by touch and provides haptic feedback, increasing "convenience and safety".
Is it safe?While the idea of a car that doubles up as an entertainment center admittedly sounds cool and futuristic, it does raise questions around safety – driver distraction is already a big problem, accounting for 8.5% of fatal crashes in the US in 2019. With bleeping smartphones, crying children, and confusing sat-nav directions, our vehicles are already driving us to distraction. So, do we really need more sensory overload with immersive sound systems and holograms bursting from our dashboards? For its part, Continental is confident in the safety of these new technologies, and believes that they will improve transportation for the better – not just for the individual either, but for entire communities with truly connected cities and mobility solutions that work for everyone. It's even launched an Automotive Security Operations Center, which monitors data sent by cars to the cloud, looking out for cyber attacks, and enhancing the security of our increasingly connected vehicles. Continental is shaking up the automotive industry for sure, but it's arguably long overdue – since its invention in 1886, the car arguably hasn't truly evolved from a simple mode of transportation to get us from A to B, innovations in safety and functionality aside. However, if Continental's vision of the future turns out to be accurate, it could soon be so much more.
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| LG’s new OLED TVs are repeating the iPhone X’s tongue-twisting mistakes Posted: 06 Jan 2020 12:11 PM PST What’s in a name? A lot, actually – as we can see with LG’s latest series of OLED televisions, all of which have ditched the usual pattern of numbers (LG C7, C8, C9, etc) for some old-fashioned Roman numerals. LG’s 2020 TV lineup has differentiated from previous years with the numeral ‘X’, meaning ‘ten’ – mirroring what we saw with the iPhone X back in 2017. (Where’s the iPhone 9? We couldn’t tell you.) That means this year you can expect the budget BX, mid-range CX, wallpaper-thin WX, 8K display ZX, rollable RX, and new "gallery series" GX OLEDs acting as successors to LG's 2019 lineup.
Our time at CES 2020 so far has shown us that press representatives are still describing the sets verbally as “C10, G10” rather than spelling out the letter, in which case the branding seems like an unnecessary source of confusion for consumers, journalists (present!) and LG employees alike. To the letterWhile this likely won’t be a deal-breaker for those after a quality OLED TV – LG being the dominant seller of OLEDs worldwide – it’s another instance of divergent branding just muddling where successive TV ranges sit in relation to each other. When we first got wind of the new product names in a press release, our first instinct was that the ‘X’ was a placeholder before the official branding was decided, and it doesn’t make choosing between older and newer sets any easier. We doubt this confusion had much impact on the iPhone X’s sales, but the company’s willingness to commit to non-linear naming conventions just gets worse – especially with the iPhone ‘XS’ model, which somehow wasn’t a smaller model of the mainline phone. A fuss about nothing? Perhaps. But with eight new 8K TVs from LG, and a host of new OLED models at a smaller-than-ever 48-inch size, we need all the clarity we can get.
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| Panasonic HZ2000 OLED TV replaces one of last year's best TVs Posted: 06 Jan 2020 12:03 PM PST Panasonic has a new television darling for 2020: the HZ2000 OLED, available in 55-inch and 65-inch sizes. The successor to last year’s GZ2000, which garnered a full five stars in our review, it again features a custom-made OLED panel and broad HDR support, with a few enhancements that could again make these some of the best TVs in their price range. The first is Filmmaker Mode, which we first heard about in late 2019, promising to display movies ‘as intended’ by their directors and creators. These attempts at color control often make for flat viewing experiences, though, as they don’t allow home televisions to necessarily play to their strengths, or cover up their weaknesses with savvy processing techniques – as we saw with Netflix Calibrated Mode.
But if there’s one thing Panasonic is serious about, it’s cinematic-quality TVs. The Japanese manufacturer famously partnered with Hollywood colorist Stefan Sonnenfeld (A Star is Born, The Force Awakens) to ensure that its range of premium OLED televisions were outputting the kinds of images suitable for a production studio monitor, closing the gap between domestic and professional viewing. Now you see mePanasonic’s cinematic credentials could bode well for viewers' home theater experience, and we’ll be keeping a sharp eye on the HZ2000 to see how this new viewing mode performs. We also know that the HZ2000 will be brighter than previous OLEDs put out by the TV manufacturer, though how big a jump it gets, and whether it will make a meaningful difference is yet to be seen: you'll have to check out our hands on Panasonic HZ2000 review to see what we make of it.
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