Новости за 27.09.2022

Intel's long-promised desktop GPUs are finally close to reaching gamers worldwide. As part of its flurry of announcements, Intel has confirmed the Arc A770 GPU will be available in a range of models on October 12th starting at $329. As the price suggests, this is aimed squarely at the GeForce RTX 3060, Radeon RX 6650 XT and other mid-tier video cards — Intel claims both "1440p gaming performance" and up to 65 percent stronger "peak" ray tracing performance than rivals, although it didn't name specific hardware. Читать дальше...

In between a few expected annoucements, Intel found time to share a surprise at its Innovation 2022 conference. After Samsung Display CEO JS Choi joined him on stage, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger showed off a concept “slidable” PC that featured an extendable OLED screen. By pulling on the edge of the prototype, Gelsinger made its 13-inch display turn into a 17-inch one. Put another way, the prototype went from being about the size of a large tablet like the iPad Pro to a small monitor.

Earlier this year, Universal Audio launched a new subscription service called "Spark" that gave Mac users affordable access to several plugins. Now, the company has announced that Spark is finally available for Windows 10 and 11 PCs. Similar to the service for Mac, it doesn't require any Universal Audio hardware or even the company's Apollo or Volt audio interfaces to work. The plug-ins included with the subscription, while include compressors, reverbs and delays, as well as preamps and several instruments... Читать дальше...

A critical element of the transition to electric vehicles is ensuring that the charging infrastructure is up to scratch. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law earmarked $5 billion in funding over five years to help states install chargers along highways, and that process just took an important step forward. The Department of Transportation has approved EV charging plans for all 50 states, as well as Washington DC and Puerto Rico. The proposals cover 75,000 miles of highways, as Reuters notes. 

After recently signing deals to purchase electric vehicles from GM and Polestar, Hertz is turning its attention to the infrastructure needed to support those cars. On Tuesday, the company announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with energy giant BP (formerly British Petroleum) to build a national charging network across the United States. At this stage, there aren’t a lot of details on the buildout Hertz and BP are considering, but the agreement calls for the oil company’s Pulse subsidiary to manage the potential network. Читать дальше...

Samsung may not have left its battery troubles completely in the past. YouTuber Mrwhosetheboss (aka Arun Rupesh Maini) and others have noticed that batteries in Samsung phones are swelling up at a disproportionately high rate. While this most often affects older devices where ballooning batteries are more likely, some of them are only a couple of years old — the 2020-era Galaxy Z Fold 2, for instance. It's usually obvious (the phone back pops loose), but it can be subtle enough that you may not realize your battery is in a dangerous state. Читать дальше...

Probably the biggest change Apple announced with iPadOS 16 earlier this year is Stage Manager, a totally new multitasking system that adds overlapping, resizable windows to the iPad. That feature also works on an external display, the first time that iPads could do anything besides mirror their screen on a monitor. Unfortunately, the feature was limited to iPads with the M1 chip — that includes the 11- and 12.9-inch iPad Pro released in May of 2021 as well as the M1-powered iPad Air which Apple released earlier this year. Читать дальше...

The Google Play Store is notorious for making it difficult to find apps optimized for non-phone devices —you've often had to guess and hope for the best. Now, however, it just involves a couple of taps. Google says it recently added Play Store home pages to its Android app with recommendations for Android Automotive, Android TV and Wear OS apps. Visit "other devices" and you can find a health tracker for your Galaxy Watch 5, or a video service for your Chromecast.

If you want to see the power of competition in action, just look at the race between Intel and AMD to deliver the fastest PC CPU. While Intel was plagued with production delays and design issues over the past decade, AMD doubled-down on its Zen architecture to create an impressive family of Ryzen chips suited to performance-hungry enthusiasts. Today, AMD's chips power some of our favorite gaming laptops, like the ASUS Zephyrus G14.

With the latest GPUs and CPUs from NVIDIA and Intel making their way to consumers, Alienware is updating its Aurora desktop to take advantage of those components. The new Aurora R15 is one of the first pre-built systems to come with a GeForce RTX 4090 option, but even if you don’t go for NVIDIA’s new flagship, the R15 looks to address one of the main flaws of its predecessor.

New Intel PCs will soon have a feature that Macs have offered for years: the ability to text, take calls and send files to their iPhones. That's all thanks to Intel's Unison app, which aims to keep Windows user in their workflow without being distracted by their phones. And yes, it also works with Android devices.

Alienware's existing QD-OLED monitor is a spectacular display, but its size and $1,300 price can make it difficult to justify even if you're a well-heeled enthusiast. Dell is tackling both of those problems with a revamped Alienware 34 Curved QD-OLED Gaming Monitor, the AW3423DWF. The new version is thinner, making it easier to mount on a wall, but also carries a lower $1,100 sticker. It's not exactly cheap, then, but you can at least roll some of the savings into an RTX 4080 or other PC components. Читать дальше...

Netflix has shared the trailer for its fictional Spotify series, and it appears to be just what you'd expect — for better and for worse. The preview clip portrays Spotify founder Daniel Ek (played by Vikings' Edvin Endre) as a revolutionary who not only wants to create a legal alternative to piracy, but hopes to reshape the entire music industry. Not surprisingly, the show pits Ek and crew against a range of enemies that include skeptical labels and wary politicians.

The 2022-23 NBA season is right around the corner and the league is stealing a march on opening night with a redesign of its iOS and Android app. The new version places a lot of focus on vertical videos, which fits right in with the modern age of social media.

I wasn’t expecting Apple, of all companies, to deliver the most competitively priced smartwatch you can buy in 2022. But with Apple shaving $30 off the cost, the new Watch SE is arguably the most compelling wearable on the market. For $150 less than the new Series 8, this year’s Watch SE delivers a comprehensive suite of health and fitness tools, emergency features and surprisingly few tradeoffs. It even uses the same new chip as the Series 8, and it looks indistinguishable to boot.

Last year, I tried the Freewrite Smart Typewriter — an expensive, single-purpose E Ink typewriter that does one thing very well. It lets you draft text with an excellent keyboard and zero distractions. If you're a serious writer, there's a lot to like about it, but it is most definitely not cheap; Astrohaus, the company behind the Freewrite, even raised the prices of its products, including the full-size model and the portable laptop-style Freewrite Traveler, earlier this year. 

Chipotle's tortilla-making robot will soon help out in a restaurant you can visit. The chain has unveiled a slew of technology updates that include moving the Miso Robotics-made Chippy robot to a real restaurant. The machine will start cooking tortilla chips in a Fountain Valley, California location in October. Feedback from customers and workers will help the company decide on a national rollout.

Volvo has introduced a number of important safety features in its vehicles throughout the years including the first three-point seatbelt back in 1959. But now the company has developed something a bit more techy with what it's calling the world's first interior radar system for cars. 

Almost exactly a year after Nreal unveiled its Air augmented reality glasses, the company is bringing the device to the US. Nreal Air, which the company is pitching as a device for streaming shows and playing games on, is available from Amazon starting today for $379. As with Nreal's $599 Light glasses, the Air will need to be tethered to a phone or other device. That could be a little easier if you snap up the new $59 Nreal Adaptor, an HDMI-to-Lightning dongle for iPhone.

Four years after releasing the X-H1, Fujifilm has finally followed it up with not just one but two models. One of those is the highest-resolution APS-C camera to date, the 40-megapixel X-H2. The other is what we’re looking at today, the high-speed X-H2S designed for sports, wildlife shooting and more.

Skullcandy hasn't offered gaming headsets for the better part of a decade, but it's willing to give them another go — and it's eager to catch up in some respects. The brand has introduced revamped PLYR, SLYR and SLYR Pro headsets that promise budget-friendly game audio on console, mobile and PC with a few perks. The flagship PLYR (shown above) includes Bluetooth 5.2 wireless audio, while it and the wired SLYR Pro offer Tile tracking to help you find your headset (or the device it's connected to). Читать дальше...

Netflix is forming its own in-house game studio and wants to go beyond relying on third-party developers to bolster its game catalog. The studio, based in Helsinki, Finland, plans to create "world-class" original games without ads or in-app purchases.

Apple's MacBook air is the thin and light notebook to own if you're looking for the best mix of small size and performance, but the more desirable 512GB version is fairly expensive at $1,499. Fortunately, you can now grab that model Amazon for just $1,349 for a significant savings of $150 (10 percent) — the lowest price we've seen to date. And if you don't need that much space, the 256GB model is also on sale

If you work in a noisy environment or travel a lot, high-quality noise cancelling headphones can be a godsend. One of the best of those is the Bose QuietComfort 45 wireless ANC headphones, and they're now on sale at close to an all-time low on Amazon. You can pick them up in either black or white for $249, for a savings of $80 off the regular price. 

There are plenty of robots that say they can vacuum and mop your floors, but never to anyone’s satisfaction. With some, you have to futz with the system to add the mop halfway through, others it’ll drag the dirty pad across your clean carpets and rugs. It’s a problem that iRobot has spent plenty of engineering resources trying to solve, saying that the new Combo j7+ is the solution. Co-founder and CEO Colin Angle describes it as the “first legitimate 2-in-1 vacuuming and mopping robot ever created.”

Instead... Читать дальше...