Employees of cloud-based surveillance firm Verkada had widespread access to feeds from customers’ cameras, according to new reports from Bloombergand The Washington Post.
Verkada’s systems were recently breached by a “hacktivist” collective which gained access to more than 150,000 of the company’s cameras in locations ranging from Tesla factories, to police stations, gyms, schools, jails, and hospitals. The group, who call themselves Advanced Persistent Threat 69420, stumbled across log-in credentials for Verkada’s “Super Admin” accounts online. They publicized their findings, saying they were motivated by “lots of curiosity, fighting for freedom of information and against intellectual property, a huge dose of anti-capitalism, a hint of anarchism — and it’s also just too much fun not to do it.”
Now, anonymous Verkada employees say the same “Super Admin” accounts that the hackers accessed were also widely shared in the company itself. More than 100 employees had Super Admin privileges, reports Bloomberg, meaning that these individuals could browse the live feeds from tens of thousands of cameras around the world at any time. “We literally had 20-year-old interns that had access to over 100,000 cameras and could view all of their feeds globally,” one former senior-level employee told the publication.
Verkada, meanwhile, says access was limited to employees who needed to fix technical problems or address user complaints. “Verkada’s training program and policies for employees are both clear that support staff members were and are required to secure a customer’s explicit permission before accessing that customer’s video feed,” said the Silicon Valley firm in a statement given to Bloomberg.
The Washington Post, though, cites the testimony of surveillance researcher Charles Rollet, who says individuals with close knowledge of the company told him that Verkada employees could access feeds without customers’ knowledge. “People don’t realize what happens on the back-end, and they assume that there are always these super-formal processes when it comes to accessing footage, and that the company will always need to give explicit consent,” said Rollet. But clearly that’s not always the case.”
Another former employee told Bloomberg that although Verkada’s internal systems asked workers to explain why they were accessing a customer’s camera, this documentation was not taken seriously. “Nobody cared about checking the logs,” said the employee. “You could put whatever you wanted in that note; you could even just enter a single space.”
Verkada’s cameras offer AI-powered analytics, including facial recognition and the ability to search footage for specific individuals.Image: Verkada
Verkada’s cloud-based cameras were sold to customers in part on the strength of their analytical software. One feature called “People Analytics” let customers “search and filter based on many different attributes, including gender traits, clothing color, and even a person’s face,” said Verkada in a blog post. Their cloud-based systems that gave customers’ easy access to their camera’s feeds also enabled the breach.
The hacker collective Advanced Persistent Threat 69420 (the name is a nod to the taxonomy used by cybersecurity companies to catalog state-sponsored hackers combined with the meme numbers 69 and 420) say they wanted to inform the public of the dangers of such ubiquitous surveillance. The breach “exposes just how broadly we’re being surveilled, and how little care is put into at least securing the platforms used to do so, pursuing nothing but profit,” one member of the group told Bloomberg. “It’s just wild how I can just see the things we always knew are happening, but we never got to see.”
Apex Legends is the latest major cross-platform Switch port. After years of availability on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC, EA has finally brought the battle royale shooter to Nintendo’s handheld console, adding a fresh wave of players to the mix and a new, on-the-go option for existing Apex Legends fans. But there’s a glaring issue with the Switch port: right now, there’s no cross-progression, making the Switch port effectively a nonstarter for dedicated players.
At launch, the new Nintendo Switch version of Apex Legends offers cross-platform gameplay — meaning that you can play with and against players on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC in addition to other Switch players. But any progress or purchases that players have made on those other platforms won’t carry over. Effectively, Apex Legends players on the Switch are starting from scratch.
Despite the “Season 8” branding that covers Apex Legends, there’s no continuity for players on the Switch version — so much so, that players have to replay the tutorial before they’ll actually be able to drop into a full match.
In an interview with Nintendo Life, Chad Grenier (Respawn’s game director for Apex Legends) said that cross-progression is planned for the future, but with the caveat that “we’re a ways out from being able to offer that.”
Grenier explains that there are a mix of issues preventing Respawn from offering cross-progression, with contractual, legal, and technical problems that need to be sorted out. “It’s a complex challenge of multiple accounts existing for various users that we have to resolve or merge, there are legal and contractual things to navigate with purchasing on other platforms and having those carryover and also some technical challenges.”
Apex Legends is by no means the first mainstream game to run into this issue. Unfortunately, the lack of cross-progression is more common than not for most cross-platform games, both on the Switch and on other platforms.
Overwatch, for example, has been struggling with the lack of cross-platform progression and gameplay for years, despite the emphasis that Blizzard puts on cosmetic content unlocks.
Control has been ported to plenty of platforms since its launch, including Amazon’s Luna, a cloud-based version for the Nintendo Switch, and a next-gen version for PS5 and Xbox One. But there’s no crossover for saves between those titles — if you started Control on a PS4, then that’s where your save is stuck forever, even if you want to try streaming it from an internet service or playing with fancier graphics on a next-gen console.
Obviously, there are real technical and legal issues here. Overwatch’s skins are heavily tied to its loot box economy, which are all purchased through the platform-specific stores, which can complicate things. Control’s lack of next-gen saves are tied to updates to the game engine that prevented Remedy from offering continuity for existing players.
But there’s also a wealth of games in 2021 that show that a better way is possible. Fortnite and RocketLeague are the gold standard here: simply log into Epic’s free-to-play games on your platform of choice, and all your stuff is there waiting for you. You can play with friends on any platform (well, except iOS), from any platform, with all of your skins, emotes, items, and unlocks.
And even recent Ubisoft games have added cross-play and cross-progression through Ubisoft Connect, letting players start playing sprawling RPGs like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla on one system and continue on another.
In 2021, offering cross-progression and cross-play is increasingly becoming table stakes for major games. With massive titles that can take dozens, if not hundreds of hours of players’ time, locking down progression to a single console or platform just doesn’t make sense.
And that’s doubly true for free-to-play games like Apex Legends, which live or die on the strength and size of their multiplayer community and the money that they can make off selling cosmetic items. When your game is free to download on any platform, it’s critical that the time and money that players invest into getting those digital rewards be consistent across those platforms, because the collection of those items is the main reward structure of those games.
Bungie figured that out a while ago, back when it transitioned Destiny 2 to a free-to-play title — it nowallows players to sync their in-game items to whatever platform they’re playing on (even if Bungie is still working out cross-platform gameplay).
The whole point of putting a game like Apex Legends on the Switch is to offer players another avenue to play the game. Sure, it may attract some new players, but for many others it’s a way to spend even more time with a game they already love. But by locking things like hero characters or items that players have painstakingly unlocked through time or money to a single platform, the game is still stuck in an outdated model of game design.
Players have a finite amount of time. And why would you open up Apex Legends to unlock all your old gear again when you pick up your Switch when you could make progress on your Fortnite battle pass — a far more substantial unlock that isn’t tethered to a single system — instead?
Lightroom was the first Adobe creative app to make the leap to Apple Silicon, and now the much-anticipated release of Photoshop is here. According to the company, Photoshop for M1 Macs completes most tasks 1.5 times faster than when running on Intel. But the speed improvements extend beyond actual editing; Adobe says a lot about Photoshop should now feel faster — including how quickly the app opens up.
Photoshop for Apple Silicon was previously in beta, but now it’s being widely rolled out to Creative Cloud customers with an M1 Mac: those include the MacBook Air, entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini“These great performance improvements are just the beginning, and we will continue to work together with Apple to further optimize performance over time,” Adobe’s Pam Clark wrote in a blog post.
In this case, “just the beginning” also means there are a small number of Photoshop features and tricks that haven’t yet made the move to the Apple Silicon version. According to Clark, these include recent additions like invite to edit cloud documents and preset syncing. “However, the performance gains across the rest of the application were so great we didn’t want to hold back the release for everyone while the team wraps up work on these last few features,” she added, noting that customers can always switch over to using the Intel build of Photoshop (with Rosetta 2) if they urgently need those features.
Adobe is also bringing new features to Photoshop for iPad: cloud documents version history and the ability to work on cloud files while offline. Cloud documents version history lets you revert to an old version of a file dating back as far as 60 days.
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 is the gaming laptop to beat.
When I tested Asus ROG’s Zephyrus G14 a year ago, I was blown away. Not only was it just over 3.5 pounds — a weight unheard of for a system with both a powerful processor and a discrete GPU — but it ran even the most demanding games at much better frame rates than any gaming laptop we’d ever seen at that size. And then everything else about it — the keyboard, the touchpad, the audio, the battery life — was also great. The G14 wasn’t just better than other gaming laptops in those areas: it was better than most other laptops at its price point, period.
Given the G14’s resounding success, it was only a matter of time before Asus put it in a 15-inch chassis. The formula wasn’t broken, and Asus didn’t fix it — Asus just made it bigger. While I had some questions when I heard the G15 was on the way (could it deliver the same combination of portability, battery life, and performance as a 14-inch product? Could it do that without costing over $2,000?), what’s become clear throughout my testing period is that the device isn’t just as good as its 14-inch counterpart; it’s somehow even better. Asus and AMD have done it again.
Gaming on Cloud 9.
The G15’s secret weapon is its processor. All models have AMD’s monstrous eight-core Ryzen 9 5900HS. My test model, priced at $1,799.99, pairs that chip with Nvidia’s new GeForce RTX 3070 (an 80W version, with dynamic boost up to 100W), as well as 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. This configuration is a step above the base model, which includes an RTX 3060 and 512GB of storage. There are also two RTX 3080 models — pair it with 16GB of RAM for $1,999.99 or 32GB of RAM for $2,499.99. (I think my test model hits a sweet spot: 512GB of storage isn’t a lot for a gaming laptop, and it seems like the RTX 3080 models are fairly low-clocked and don’t perform hugely better than the lower-tier options.)
Asus says the G15 has a “desktop-inspired layout” with separate keys to control the volume, toggle the microphone, and pull up Armoury Crate.
Another highlight, consistent across all models, is the G15’s 165Hz QHD display. We’re finally starting to see 15-inch laptops with QHD screens en masse this year, indicating that this is the first year that manufacturers think mobile hardware is powerful enough to take advantage of them. Traditionally, mobile gamers have had the option of a 1080p display or a 4K display. (Not only is the latter quite expensive, but very few laptops can run demanding games at playable frame rates in 4K.)
You get over 3.5 million pixels from this QHD display.
So, the big question: Can the Zephyrus G15 run games at QHD resolution? The answer is an emphatic yes.
Some raw numbers to start. The G15 averaged 178fps on CS:GO at maximum settings — dust particles, fires, and other graphically intensive effects looked just fine. Red Dead Redemption II, also at maximum settings, averaged 58fps. (Come on, that’s basically 60). Ray tracing was no problem for this machine: the system averaged 61fps on Shadow of the Tomb Raider with ray tracing on ultra, and a whopping 81fps with ray tracing off. Remember, the G15 is running these at QHD resolution, which is already a bigger haul than traditional 1080p.
Those frame rates mean you should be able to run whatever game you want in QHD without bumping down any settings. They put the G15 about on par with MSI’s GS66 Stealth with an Intel Core i7-10870H and a GeForce RTX 3080 Max-Q — the two laptops tied on Red Dead and were just one frame apart on Tomb Raider. MSI told us that the QHD GS66 model costs $2,599 — so the G15 with an RTX 3070 is getting the same frame rates for literally $800 less. The G15 also did better than the QHD / RTX 3070 Intel configuration of the Razer Blade 15 Base (53fps on Red Dead, 46fps on Tomb Raider), which costs $400 more. Those differentials should speak for themselves. Yes, the GS66 has a 240Hz screen, but that’s going to be excessive for most people at QHD resolution. If I didn’t already know where the G14 was priced last year, I would be emailing Asus to check if $1,799.99 was a typo. It’s an unbelievable value.
The games all looked great on this screen, which covers 100 percent of the sRGB gamut and 89 percent of AdobeRGB, and maxes out at 334 nits of brightness. It isn’t the highest refresh-rate screen you can get at 165Hz — Razer’s Blade 15 Advanced has a 240Hz QHD model, as does MSI’s GS66 Stealth — but it’s still a significant step above the Zephyrus G14’s 120Hz display. While the G15 doesn’t deliver the best picture I’ve ever seen, it still looks great and certainly improves upon the G14’s 1080p panel. Movement was all smooth, without a stutter in sight, and colors looked great. I saw a small amount of glare when using the device outdoors, but it was still quite usable at maximum brightness.
Cooling, while sometimes iffy on the G14, is stellar on this device. The G15’s “intelligent cooling” system includes two 84-blade fans and six heat pipes. It had no problem with any of the games I threw at it, spending the vast majority of its time between the mid-60s and mid-70s (Celsius) and never jumping above 80 degrees. That’s some of the best cooling performance I’ve ever seen from a gaming laptop, especially considering that this one was running heavy AAA titles, maxed out, at QHD resolution.
More impressively, the fans managed to do this without being deafeningly loud. I could certainly hear them while the machine was under load, but it was standard gaming-laptop noise, and I had no problem hearing game audio. You can also swap to the “Silent” profile in Asus’ Armoury Crate software. That toggle lived up to its name and completely silenced the fans, without causing any heat or performance problems that I observed.
Speaking of audio, the G15’s speakers also sound great. That’s to be expected — there are literally six of them, including two front-facing tweeters and force-canceling woofers under the palm rests. They deliver clear audio with very strong bass and powerful percussion. I don’t often get to say that about laptop audio, especially on gaming laptops. The G15 comes preloaded with Dolby Access, which you can use to jump between equalizer presets for gaming, movies, and music, and it makes a huge difference.
There are three microphones, which had no trouble picking up my voice. They also have presets for game streaming, music recording, and conference calls. Those are handy, but they’re not enough to make the G15 a good choice for remote work because it doesn’t include a webcam. The G14 also didn’t have a camera — Asus seems to have decided that webcams aren’t necessary on Zephyrus products. It’s the one significant knock against a device that is basically perfect otherwise. It’s also very odd to have such an advanced microphone setup and not have a webcam to go with it.
There are a couple other things to note about the G15’s chassis. Like many other Asus laptops, the G15 has an ErgoLift hinge, which folds under the deck when the laptop is open and lifts the keyboard above the ground. This is supposed to create a more ergonomic typing position, though I can’t say I ever noticed the difference. It does dig into your legs a bit if you’re using the laptop on your lap, though. The G15’s hinge isn’t as sharp as some other hinges, but as a frequent couch user, it’s still not my favorite feeling.
The keyboard and touchpad are both great as well. The G14 had one of my favorite keyboards of 2020, and the G15’s is quite similar. The click is comfortable, with 1.7mm of travel, and the dedicated volume keys (a Zephyrus staple) are quite convenient. There’s a fingerprint sensor built into the power button, which is on the top right of the keyboard deck.
The touchpad is massive, at 5.1 x 3.4 inches — 20 percent larger than that of the prior G15 generation. It’s so big that large portions of both my hands were resting on it when they weren’t typing, rather than on the palm rests. This was a bit annoying, but to the G15’s credit, it didn’t cause any palm-rejection issues. It’s also a bit loud and not the easiest or deepest click, but those are nitpicks — it’s a fine touchpad.
But what impressed me the most about the G15 is its battery life. This thing never dies. Using it as my daily driver with an office workload on Asus’ Silent profile around 200 nits of brightness, I averaged eight hours and 32 minutes. That’s just under what I got from the G14, and the G15 has a larger and higher-resolution screen to fuel. The result puts the G15 right up there with its smaller sibling as one of the longest-lasting gaming laptops we’ve ever seen. It has a large 90Wh battery inside, but plenty of gaming rigs with comparable bricks can only make it a few hours on a charge.
Gaming significantly shortens the G15’s life span, of course. I got an hour and 21 minutes of Red Dead out of one charge. Impressively, though, the game was quite playable for much of that time, avoiding stutters and performance issues. The game didn’t drop below playable rates until the G15 was down to 10 percent with six minutes remaining. The 200-watt charger also juices the G15 decently fast — during very light Chrome use, it got the device up to 60 percent in 37 minutes. If you don’t want to carry that heavy brick around and aren’t doing GPU-intensive tasks, the G15 also supports 100W Type-C charging.
G15s are available in eclipse gray (like this model) and moonlight white.
At the end of the day, there are things I can nitpick about this device. In particular, the lack of a webcam is egregious. And there are reasons it won’t be for everyone. Folks who are looking for a higher refresh-rate screen may prefer to spend more on a Blade 15 Advanced or a GS66. Those who want a jazzier design may find Asus’ Strix Scar 15 a better fit. And while $1,799 is a great value for these specs, anyone on a tighter budget has options like Lenovo’s Legion 5 on the table.
But almost everything about this laptop is fantastic. And not only is it fantastic, but it’s fantastic for several hundreds of dollars less than its QHD competitors. If you are willing to use an external webcam and you don’t need a 240Hz screen, there’s really no reason you should be buying any other QHD laptop in the thin 15-inch class. The G15 is superior on battery life, superior on power, superior on weight, and superior on price. It’s just the best.
(Pocket-lint) – It seems kinda mad that we’ve arrived here, but the Moto G is now up to number 10. It’s no surprise though: as the G series is Motorola’s most successful range and it has consistently delivered great value, simple and reliable phones.
But for 2021, the numbering and naming system has changed – the lower the number, the lower down it sits in the ranks. Therefore the G10 is the entry-level affordable phone in a series that’s long looked a bit crowded.
That causes a bit of a self-administered issue for the Moto G10, however, as it’s no longer the default choice in the range. Why? Because for a little extra money the Moto G30 also exists.
Design
Dimensions: 165.2 x 75.7 x 9.2mm / Weight: 200g
Finishes: Aurora Gray, Iridescent Pearl
Rear positioned fingerprint scanner
Glass front, ribbed plastic back
3.5mm headphone port
Single loudspeaker
microSD expansion
Moto G design has never been all that fancy or premium, which makes sense for a budget phone. Some corners need cutting to get it down to the right price. This generation Motorola has taken on something of an unusual finish with its ribbed back panel (it’s still better-looking than the G30’s odd colour choices though).
That wave pattern you see isn’t just a visual thing, it has texture too. It’s a little weird to begin with, but the texture has its merits. It definitely makes it feel less likely to slip out of your hand, and you’ll never find it randomly slipping off a surface like a completely glossy glass back might.
That’s not the only practical decision made here either. Unlike some more expensive phones, the Moto G10 is equipped with everything you could need. That means you get a 3.5mm headphone port at the top for plugging in your hands-free buds, or wired headphones.
There’s also a microSD card slot for expanding the storage. You might find that useful if you like to keep a physical copy of all your own media offline. And if you have have the 64GB phone, you may just find you fill up the internal storage quite quickly.
So what else is there? Well, you’ll find three buttons up the right side. One is the usual power button, and there’s the volume rocker switch, but then curiously there’s also an additional button which – when pressed – will launch Google Assistant. Which is fine, but we can’t imagine it’s used by most people all that much.
As for that fingerprint sensor on the back, usually we laud the appearance of physical scanners because they’re fast and reliable, but that’s not the case with this one. Most times it would take two or three goes before a successful scan, meaning it was often quicker just to type in the multi-digit PIN instead.
The G10’s front is pretty standard too, with its relatively skinny bezel up the sides and the dewdrop-style notch at the top of the display, barely cutting into the available screen real-estate. And while there’s only one loud speaker, placed on the bottom edge, the speaker grille is long enough that we didn’t find it was all that easy to completely block, meaning you can hear it whether you hold the phone in portrait or landscape.
Display
6.5-inch IPS LCD display
720 x 1600 resolution
269 pixels per inch
60Hz refresh rate
Android 11
On to that display and – as with most affordable phones – this one uses a long aspect ratio HD+ resolution panel. That means, specifically, it’s IPS LCD and has 720 x 1600 pixels spread across that 6.5-inch diagonal.
Pocket-lint
Obviously that means it’s not super sharp, but it’s adequate for daily use and won’t leave you squinting. In fact, it’s pleasant enough when inside and watching movies, gaming and browsing the web. It’s not the most vivid panel around though – its dynamic range does suffer, but that’s almost to be expected from an LCD screen on a cheap smartphone such as this.
The one place we did notice it struggle the most was outside in daylight. Trying to frame shots with the camera to shoot in sunlight was difficult. We could barely see what was on the screen, even with the brightness cranked right up.
Performance and battery
Snapdragon 460 processor, 4GB RAM
64GB or 128GB storage
5000mAh battery
If what you’re after in a phone is really solid battery life, we’re happy to report the G10 delivers that – by the bucket load. Even in a phone with a high-end flagship processor and a top-of-the-line display, a 5,000mah capacity battery would be generous. So stick it in a phone with a low power chip and only a HD resolution panel, and you get one of the longest-lasting phones on the market.
Pocket-lint
In testing we’d often get to the end of a second day and still have some juice left over, even after using it for testing the camera and playing a couple of hours of games each day. For most people we think this is a genuine two-day phone. You’ll never have to worry about it dying during the day if you’ve taken it off charge in the morning. It’s pretty epic.
Moto also takes care of battery life long-term too. It has a couple of different tools in the battery settings designed to get the most out of the battery for as long as you own the phone.
Optimised charging learns your usual charging pattern and then using that can predict when you need the battery to be fully charged. So if that is at 7am when your alarm goes off, it’ll charge all the way up to 80 percent, and hang there until it needs to charge the final 20 per cent, in time for you to wake up.
There’s also overcharge protection. So if you’re a really light user and have a habit of just leaving your phone plugged in costantly for days at a time, it will limit the charge to 80 per cent if your phone has been plugged in continuously for three days.
Pocket-lint
Being 5,000mAh does mean charging times are a little slow, especially with the charging speeds maxing out at 10W. So it’s definitely one to plug in at night while you sleep. Thankfully, you’ll probably only have to do it once every other night.
As for general performance, this is where the G10 slips up against its slightly more expensive sibling, the G30. The Snapdragon 400 series processor inside isn’t unusable by any means, but it does feel quite slow and laggy a lot of the time. Loading web pages, or backing up photos to Google Photos, seems to take longer than it should, while animations in the general interface appear quite stuttery.
In fact, Google Photos did – on a couple of occasions – just hang and crash, and then failed to upload our photos to the cloud. On a similar note, there were a couple of occasions where a chosen game would just freeze and crash too. It wasn’t just Google Photos getting up to these shenanigans.
The G30 just seems more reliable day-to-day in that regard, which is why we’d recommend that over this phone. It’s not that the G30 is super smooth and fast all the time, it just didn’t leave us hanging as much. Still, for most tasks, the G10 is fine, if unremarkable.
Best smartphones 2021 rated: The top mobile phones available to buy today
By Chris Hall
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Pocket-lint
As for software, that’s the usual Moto style of having an almost Google Android stock experience with a couple of added extras from Moto. That means all your default apps are Google’s, and you get fun gestures like swiping down on the fingerprint sensor to get your notifications, or a chopping motion to switch on the flashlight.
As for camera quality, the quad system is lead by a 48-megapixel primary camera, which is joined by an 8MP ultra-wide, and pair of low-resolution depth and macro sensors.
Stick to the main sensor and you’ll be mostly fine. In good daylight pictures will be sharp, colourful and feature decent depth. It’s not flagship level, naturally, but it’s good enough for social media use.
The ultra-wide is just ok. It often struggles to focus though, and often leaves colours looking unnatural, completely different to the main sensor.
The macro lens can be useful for close-ups at times, but results are not consistent, and being a low resolution sensor means details aren’t that great either.
So the G10 is yet another case of a budget phone having more cameras than it knows what to do with. Ignore the depth, macro and wide-angle and you’ve got a solid main camera – but that’s hardly selling itself to the “quad camera” standard, is it?
Verdict
The G10 might be the first entry-level Moto G we don’t unequivocally recommend as an easy purchase. There’s nothing wrong with it, per se – indeed, the battery life, software and practical design make it more than good enough for most people – but there’s the Moto G30 to consider.
Our experience with the G30 was just better, especially when it comes down to daily performance, so if you can afford the little extra then we’d recommend opting for that one.
With all that said, the Moto G10 offers great battery life, so if you don’t need anything too taxing then it’s still a decent option considering its asking price.
Also consider
Pocket-lint
Moto G30
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If you have the ability to stump up a little more cash, the G30 is the more sensible choice in Moto’s new G-series range. It has a smoother overall experience and is still great value for money.
Read the review
Pocket-lint
Redmi Note 10 Pro
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Few phones at this price point are as accomplished as the Redmi Note 10 Pro. It’s more expensive than the G10, but it’s more than worth it, if you can cope with inferior software.
Supermicro’s 1023US-TR4 is a slim 1U dual-socket server designed for high-density compute environments in high-end cloud computing, virtualization, and enterprise applications. With support for AMD’s EPYC 7001 and 7002 processors, this high-end server packs up to two 64-core Eypc Rome processors, allowing it to cram 128 cores and 256 threads into one slim chassis.
We’re on the cusp of Intel’s Ice Lake and AMD’s EPYC Milan launches, which promise to reignite the fierce competition between the long-time x86 rivals. In preparation for the new launches, we’ve been working on a new set of benchmarks for our server testing, and that’s given us a pretty good look at the state of the server market as it stands today.
We used the Supermicro 1023US-TR4 server for EPYC Rome testing, and we’ll focus on examining the platform in this article. Naturally, we’ll add in Ice Lake and EPYC Milan testing as soon as those chips are available. In the meantime, here’s a look at some of our new benchmarks and the current state of the data center CPU performance hierarchy in several hotly-contested price ranges.
Inside the Supermicro 1023US-TR4 Server
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The Supermicro 1023US-TR4 server comes in the slim 1U form factor. And despite its slim stature, it can host an incredible amount of compute horsepower under the hood. The server supports AMD’s EPYC 7001 and 7002 series chips, with the latter series topping out at 64 cores apiece, which translates to 128 cores and 256 threads spread across the dual sockets.
Support for the 7002 series chips requires a 2.x board revision, and the server can accommodate CPU cTDP’s up to 280W. That means it can accommodate the beefiest of EPYC chips, which currently comes in the form of the 280W 64-core EPYC 7H12 with a 280W TDP.
The server has a tool-less rail mounting system that eases installation into server racks and the CSE-819UTS-R1K02P-T chassis measures 1.7 x 17.2 x 29 inches, ensuring broad compatibility with standard 19-inch server racks.
The front panel comes with standard indicator lights, like a unit identification (UID) light that helps with locating the server in a rack, along with drive activity, power, status light (to indicate fan failures or system overheating), and two LAN activity LEDs. Power and reset buttons are also present at the upper right of the front panel.
By default, the system comes with four tool-less 3.5-inch hot-swap SATA 3 drive bays, but you can configure the server to accept four NVMe drives on the front panel, and an additional two M.2 drives internally. You can also add an optional SAS card to enable support for SAS storage devices. The front of the system also houses a slide-out service/asset tag identifier card to the upper left.
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Popping the top off the chassis reveals two shrouds that direct air from the two rows of hot-swappable fans. A total of eight fan housings feed air to the system, and each housing includes two counter-rotating 4cm fans for maximum static pressure and reduced vibration. As expected with servers intended for 24/7 operation, the system can continue to function in the event of a fan failure. However, the remainder of the fans will automatically run at full speed if the system detects a failure. Naturally, these fans are loud, but that’s not a concern for a server environment.
Two fan housings are assigned to cool each CPU, and a simple black plastic shroud directs air to the heatsinks underneath. Dual SP3 sockets house both processors, and they’re covered by standard heatsinks that are optimized for linear airflow.
A total of 16 memory slots flank each processor, for a total of 32 memory slots that support up to 4TB of registered ECC DDR4-2666 with EPYC 7001 processors, or an incredible 8TB of ECC DDR4-3200 memory (via 256GB DIMMs) with the 7002 models, easily outstripping the memory capacity available with competing Intel platforms.
We tested the EPYC processors with 16x 32GB DDR4-3200 Samsung modules for a total memory capacity of 512GB. In contrast, we loaded down the Xeon comparison platform with 12x 32GB Sk hynix DDR4-2933 modules, for a total capacity of 384GB of memory.
The H11DSU-iN motherboard’s expansion slots consist of two full-height 9.5-inch PCIe 3.0 slots and one low-profile PCIe 3.0 x8 slot, all mounted on riser cards. An additional internal PCIe 3.0 x8 slot is also available, but this slot only accepts proprietary Supermicro RAID cards. All told, the system exposes a total of 64 lanes (16 via NVMe storage devices) to the user.
As one would imagine, Supermicro has other server offerings that expose more of EPYCs available 128 lanes to the user and also come with the faster PCIe 4.0 interface.
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The rear I/O panel includes four gigabit RJ45 LAN ports powered by an Intel i350-AM4 controller, along with a dedicated IPMI port for management. Here we find the only USB ports on the machine, which come in the form of two USB 3.0 headers, along with a COM and VGA port.
Two 1000W Titanium-Level (96%+) redundant power supplies provide power to the server, with automatic failover in the event of a failure, as well as hot-swapability for easy servicing.
The BIOS is easy to access and use, while the IPMI web interface provides a wealth of monitoring capabilities and easy remote management that matches the type of functionality available with Xeon platforms. Among many options, you can update the BIOS, use the KVM-over-LAN remote console, monitor power consumption, access health event logs, monitor and adjust fan speeds, and monitor the CPU, DIMM, and chipset temperatures and voltages. Supermicro’s remote management suite is polished and easy to use, which stands in contrast to other platforms we’ve tested.
Test Setup
Cores/Threads
1K Unit Price
Base / Boost (GHz)
L3 Cache (MB)
TDP (W)
AMD EPYC 7742
64 / 128
$6,950
2.25 / 3.4
256
225W
Intel Xeon Platinum 8280
28 / 56
$10,009
2.7 / 4.0
38.5
205W
Intel Xeon Gold 6258R
28 / 56
$3,651
2.7 / 4.0
38.5
205W
AMD EPYC 7F72
24 / 48
$2,450
3.2 / ~3.7
192
240W
Intel Xeon Gold 5220R
24 / 48
$1,555
2.2 / 4.0
35.75
150W
AMD EPYC 7F52
16 / 32
$3,100
3.5 / ~3.9
256
240W
Intel Xeon Gold 6226R
16 / 32
$1,300
2.9 / 3.9
22
150W
Intel Xeon Gold 5218
16 / 32
$1,280
2.3 / 3.9
22
125W
AMD EPYC 7F32
8 / 16
$2,100
3.7 / ~3.9
128
180W
Intel Xeon Gold 6250
8 / 16
$3,400
3.9 / 4.5
35.75
185W
Here we can see the selection of processors we’ve tested for this review, though we use the Xeon Platinum Gold 8280 as a stand-in for the less expensive Xeon Gold 6258R. These two chips are identical and provide the same level of performance, with the difference boiling down to the more expensive 8280 coming with support for quad-socket servers, while the Xeon Gold 6258R tops out at dual-socket support.
Memory
Tested Processors
Supermicro AS-1023US-TR4
16x 32GB Samsung ECC DDR4-3200
EPYC 7742, 7F72, 7F52, 7F32
Dell/EMC PowerEdge R460
12x 32GB SK Hynix DDR4-2933
Intel Xeon 8280, 6258R, 5220R, 6226R, 6250
To assess performance with a range of different potential configurations, we used the Supermicro 1024US-TR4 server with four different EPYC Rome configurations. We outfitted this server with 16x 32GB Samsung ECC DDR4-3200 memory modules, ensuring that both chips had all eight memory channels populated.
We used a Dell/EMC PowerEdge R460 server to test the Xeon processors in our test group, giving us a good sense of performance with competing Intel systems. We equipped this server with 12x 32GB Sk hynix DDR4-2933 modules, again ensuring that each Xeon chip’s six memory channels were populated. These configurations give the AMD-powered platform a memory capacity advantage, but come as an unavoidable side effect of the capabilities of each platform. As such, bear in mind that memory capacity disparities may impact the results below.
We used the Phoronix Test Suite for testing. This automated test suite simplifies running complex benchmarks in the Linux environment. The test suite is maintained by Phoronix, and it installs all needed dependencies and the test library includes 450 benchmarks and 100 test suites (and counting). Phoronix also maintains openbenchmarking.org, which is an online repository for uploading test results into a centralized database. We used Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and the default Phoronix test configurations with the GCC compiler for all tests below. We also tested both platforms with all available security mitigations.
Linux Kernel and LLVM Compilation Benchmarks
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We used the 1023US-TR4 for testing with all of the EPYC processors in the chart, and here we see the expected scaling in the timed Linux kernel compile test with the AMD EPYC processors taking the lead over the Xeon chips at any given core count. The dual EPYC 7742 processors complete the benchmark, which builds the Linux kernel at default settings, in 21 seconds. The dual 24-core EPYC 7F72 configuration is impressive in its own right — it chewed through the test in 25 seconds, edging past the dual-processor Xeon 8280 platform.
AMD’s EPYC delivers even stronger performance in the timed LLVM compilation benchmark — the dual 16-core 7F72’s even beat the dual 28-core 8280’s. Performance scaling is somewhat muted between the flagship 64-core 7742 and the 24-core 7F72, largely due to the strength of the latter’s much higher base and boost frequencies. That impressive performance comes at the cost of a 240W TDP rating, but the Supermicro server handles the increased thermal output easily.
Molecular Dynamics and Parallel Compute Benchmarks
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NAMD is a parallel molecular dynamics code designed to scale well with additional compute resources; it scales up to 500,000 cores and is one of the premier benchmarks used to quantify performance with simulation code. The EPYC processors are obviously well-suited for these types of highly-parallelized workloads due to their prodigious core counts, with the dual 7742 configuration completing the workload 28% faster than the dual Xeon 8280 setup.
Stockfish is a chess engine designed for the utmost in scalability across increased core counts — it can scale up to 512 threads. Here we can see that this massively parallel code scales well with EPYC’s leading core counts. But, as evidenced by the dual 24-core 7F72’s effectively tying the 28-core Xeon 8280’s, the benchmark also generally responds well to the EPYC processors. The dual 16-core 7F52 configuration also beat out both of the 16-core Intel comparables. Intel does pull off a win as the eight-core 6250 processors beat the 7F32’s, though.
We see similarly impressive performance in other molecular dynamics workloads, like the Gromacs water benchmark that simulates Newtonian equations of motion with hundreds of millions of particles and the NAS Parallel Benchmarks (NPB) suite. NPB characterizes Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) applications, and NASA designed it to measure performance from smaller CFD applications up to “embarrassingly parallel” operations. The BT.C test measures Block Tri-Diagonal solver performance, while the LU.C test measures performance with a lower-upper Gauss-Seidel solver.
Regardless of the workload, the EPYC processors deliver a brutal level of performance in highly-parallelized applications, and the Supermicro server handled the heat output without issue.
Rendering Benchmarks
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Turning to more standard fare, provided you can keep the cores fed with data, most modern rendering applications also take full advantage of the compute resources. Given the well-known strengths of EPYC’s core-heavy approach, it isn’t surprising to see the 64-core EPYC 7742 processors carve out a commanding lead in the C-Ray and Blender benchmarks. Still, it is impressive to see the 7Fx2 models beat the competing Xeon processors with similar core counts nearly across the board.
The performance picture changes somewhat with the Embree benchmarks, which test high-performance ray tracing libraries developed at Intel Labs. Naturally, the Xeon processors take the lead in the Asian Dragon renders, but the crown renders show that AMD’s EPYC can offer leading performance even with code that is heavily optimized for Xeon processors.
Encoding Benchmarks
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Encoders tend to present a different type of challenge: As we can see with the VP9 libvpx benchmark, they often don’t scale well with increased core counts. Instead, they often benefit from per-core performance and other factors, like cache capacity.
However, newer encoders, like Intel’s SVT-AV1, are designed to leverage multi-threading more fully to extract faster performance for live encoding/transcoding video applications. Again, we can see the impact of EPYC’s increased core counts paired with its strong per-core performance as the EPYC 7742 and 7F72 post impressive wins.
Python and Sysbench Benchmarks
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The Pybench and Numpy benchmarks are used as a general litmus test of Python performance, and as we can see, these tests don’t scale well with increased core counts. That allows the Xeon 6250, which has the highest boost frequency of the test pool at 4.5 GHz, to take the lead.
Compression and Security
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Compression workloads also come in many flavors. The 7-Zip (p7zip) benchmark exposes the heights of theoretical compression performance because it runs directly from main memory, allowing both memory throughput and core counts to impact performance heavily. As we can see, this benefits the EPYC 7742 tremendously, but it is noteworthy that the 28-core Xeon 8280 offers far more performance than the 24-core 7F72 if we normalize throughput based on core counts. In contrast, the gzip benchmark, which compresses two copies of the Linux 4.13 kernel source tree, responds well to speedy clock rates, giving the eight-core Xeon 6250 the lead due to its 4.5 GHz boost clock.
The open-source OpenSSL toolkit uses SSL and TLS protocols to measure RSA 4096-bit performance. As we can see, this test favors the EPYC processors due to its parallelized nature, but offloading this type of workload to dedicated accelerators is becoming more common for environments with heavy requirements.
SPEC CPU 2017 Estimated Scores
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We used the GCC compiler and the default Phoronix test settings for these SPEC CPU 2017 test results. SPEC results are highly contested and can be impacted heavily with various compilers and flags, so we’re sticking with a bog-standard configuration to provide as level of a playing field as possible. It’s noteworthy that these results haven’t been submitted to the SPEC committee for verification, so they aren’t official. Instead, view the above tests as estimates, based on our testing.
The multi-threaded portion of the SPEC CPU 2107 suite is of most interest for the purpose of our tests, which is to gauge the ability of the Supermicro platform to handle heavy extended loads. As expected, the EPYC processors post commanding leads in both the intrate and fprate subtests. And close monitoring of the platform didn’t find any thermal throttling during these extended duration tests. The Xeon 6250 and 8280 processors take the lead in the single-threaded intrate tests, while the AMD EPYC processors post impressively-strong single-core measurements in the fprate tests.
Conclusion
AMD has enjoyed a slow but steadily-increasing portion of the data center market, and much of its continued growth hinges on increasing adoption beyond hyperscale cloud providers to more standard enterprise applications. That requires a dual-pronged approach of not only offering a tangible performance advantage, particularly in workloads that are sensitive to per-core performance, but also having an ecosystem of fully-validated OEM platforms readily available on the market.
The Supermicro 1023US-TR4 server slots into AMD’s expanding constellation of OEM EPYC systems and also allows discerning customers to upgrade from the standard 7002 series processors to the high-frequency H- and F-series models as well. It also supports up to 8TB of ECC memory, which is an incredible amount of available capacity for memory-intensive workloads. Notably, the system comes with the PCIe 3.0 interface while the second-gen EPYC processors support PCIe 4.0, but this arrangement allows customers that don’t plan to use PCIe 4.0 devices to procure systems at a lower price point. As one would imagine, Supermicro has other offerings that support the faster interface.
Overall we found the platform to be robust, and out-of-the-box installation was simple with a tool-less rail kit and an easily-accessible IPMI interface that offers a cornucopia of management and monitoring capabilities. Our only minor complaints are that the front panel could use a few USB ports for easier physical connectivity. The addition of a faster embedded networking interface would also free up an additional PCIe slot. Naturally, higher-end Supermicro platforms come with these features.
As seen throughout our testing, the Supermicro 1023US-TR4 server performed admirably and didn’t suffer from any thermal throttling issues regardless of the EPYC processors we used, which is an important consideration. Overall, the Supermicro 1023US-TR4 server packs quite the punch in a small form factor that enables incredibly powerful and dense compute deployments in cloud, virtualization, and enterprise applications.
Early indications suggest that, as with the current-gen EPYC Rome processors, AMD fabs the EPYC Milan chips with the 7nm process and they top out at 64 cores. The most significant change to the series appears to come with the infusion of the Zen 3 microarchitecture that lends a 19% in instruction per cycle (IPC) throughput improvement through several changes, like a unified L3 cache and better thermal management that allows the chip to extract more performance within any given TDP range.
AMD has obviously prioritized the production of its EPYC chips to continue its assault on Intel’s vaunted Xeon platform. As a result, AMD has continued to slowly whittle away at Intel’s commanding lead in the data center, a trend that still continues today despite supply constraints that have slowed the company’s advance in other segments.
Faced with unrelenting pressure from a surprisingly nimble competitor, Intel has significantly reduced gen-on-gen pricing with the debut of its Cascade Lake Refresh Xeon models, by 60% in some cases, by slightly adjusting the capabilities of the chips in a way that largely results in a price reduction that comes in the guise of new chips. To counter, AMD bulked up its EPYC Rome lineup with its workload-optimized 7F and 7H parts, which come with higher power consumption and thermals than the standard 7002 series chips but feature higher frequencies, allowing AMD to challenge Intel’s traditional lead in per-core performance.
The Milan launch, not to mention Intel’s pending 10nm Ice Lake launch, promises to reignite the heated data center competition once again. AMD has reiterated that EPYC Milan processors are on track for the formal launch in the first quarter of the year, and today’s announcement indicates those plans are on track. It’s noteworthy that the EPYC Milan chips already began shipping to select cloud and HPC customers in the last quarter of 2020, while the formal launch will mark availability for Tier 1 OEMs.
There are a lot of video doorbells on the market. You can get one from Amazon’s Ring, Google’s Nest, Arlo, Eufy, August, or countless other companies. But none of those video doorbells will natively work with Apple’s HomeKit platform.
For a long time, if you wanted a video doorbell and you were committed to building your smart home around HomeKit, the only option you had was to use hacky workarounds such as Homebridge to integrate unsupported devices into the Home app. That changed late last year as two HomeKit-compatible video doorbells finally hit the market.
I’ve been testing the one from Logitech, the $199.99 Circle View Doorbell (the other is the $299.99 Netatmo Smart Video Doorbell), on my front door for the past few months. It is a very capable video doorbell, with excellent performance and a number of useful features. But it also comes with some significant asterisks attached.
The Circle View Doorbell is a wired doorbell and does not have a battery option. In order to use it, you’ll have to have existing low-voltage doorbell wiring rated at 8-24 volts AC, 10vA or higher, or run wiring from an AC adapter wall wart (not included) to it, as I did. It supports existing doorbell chimes if you have one and includes the accessories you need to make it work. You can check the online installation guide (there aren’t any instructions included in the box, so you have to follow the instructions from your phone or a computer) to see if your existing hardware is compatible. I don’t have a chime in my home, so I skipped the parts of the setup related to that.
The Circle View comes with all of the other hardware necessary to install it, except for a Micro USB cable and A/C adapter, which is required to power the doorbell and configure it before you mount it at your door. It’s likely that you already have one lying around at home, but it’s still an odd omission.
Installation and setup are relatively simple: you get the doorbell powered up, scan the barcode on the back using the Apple Home app on your iPhone to add it to your virtual home, and then install the hardware at your door. The whole process took me about 15 minutes and shouldn’t be much of a challenge for anyone with a screwdriver, a power drill, and even the smallest amount of home repair experience. (Trust me, I’m no Bob Vila.)
But if you want to avoid all of that and just have someone else do it for you (an impulse that I strongly relate to, no judgment here), Logitech has partnered with HelloTech to have someone come to your home and install the doorbell. The service costs $100 on top of the price of the doorbell and includes setting it up and wiring it up at your door. It does not include running wire to your door; you have to have the wiring in place already (likely from an existing doorbell).
Because the Circle View doesn’t have an internal battery, it’s much more compact than something like the Ring Video Doorbell 3 and is closer in size to the Nest Hello or Ring Video Doorbell Pro. There’s the camera in its expected place, a built-in nightlight below that, and a round illuminated circle indicating where to press. The whole bottom half of the doorbell is the button to ring it, so you don’t have to be particularly precise when using it. In the box are straight and angled mounts to better position the camera’s view depending on your home layout. Unfortunately, the angled mount’s 20-degree tilt is not enough for me to see the one spot on my porch where most packages are left through the doorbell’s vertical view.
Lastly, the Circle View only comes in black and has a modern and gadget-y look to it. I don’t mind it, but it might not fit your home’s decor or your style, and there isn’t much you can do to change it. Other companies offer white or black versions of their doorbells, and some even have interchangeable faceplates.
The Circle View Doorbell has a 5-megapixel camera with a tall aspect ratio that lets you see visitors from head to toe.
At its core, the Circle View is very similar to other video doorbells. It will ping your phone with a push notification when someone rings the doorbell, including a video thumbnail preview; you can view a live feed from your phone; and use the two-way speaker to talk to the person at the door like an intercom. The video feed is a tall 160-degree view, which is meant to let you see a person from head to toe or be able to see if a package was left on the stoop. It has a 5-megapixel sensor with 1200 x 1600 HD resolution and HDR functions resulting in image quality that generally looks good.
It also functions very well. Pulling up the video feed from my phone or an iPad is noticeably faster than with other video doorbells, likely due to the Circle View’s support for 5GHz Wi-Fi and my strong mesh Wi-Fi network (a must for any smart home). Push notifications to my phone and watch are nearly instant, though the thumbnail preview rarely loaded on my Apple Watch, just showing a gray square. The speaker and microphone work well for two-way communication, should you desire to ever use it (I don’t). If you’re watching something on an Apple TV when someone rings the bell, you will get a thumbnail preview right there on your TV screen (though you can’t do anything but see it).
The built-in nightlight comes on automatically and is searingly bright, which is unpleasant for those walking up to your door.
The Circle View has some functions that make it slightly unique. The built-in nightlight below the camera will come on automatically when it’s dark out to enable what Logitech calls “color night vision.” It allows you to view a full-color feed even at night, unlike the grayscale view that most other video doorbells offer, and it’s much nicer to use as a result. The light is either on or off — there’s very little in the way of customization — and it is searingly bright, which is unpleasant if you’re the person walking up to the door to press the doorbell. If you have a porch light, the built-in nightlight is unnecessary, and I ended up just turning it off permanently. One thing to note is the Circle View doesn’t have any sort of IR night vision (that grayscale view other cameras offer), so it doesn’t quite have the same range in the dark as others. But in my experience, the range it has with the color night vision is more than adequate.
From left to right: the Circle View’s image at night with the nightlight on, the nightlight off, and with a porchlight on.
The other thing that makes it unique is its support for Apple’s HomeKit platform. The Circle View is so committed to HomeKit that there isn’t even a Logitech app to set it up — everything related to the doorbell’s functions is handled in the Apple-developed Home app on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac. It also supports Apple’s HomeKit Secure Video, which when paired with a HomeKit hub such as an Apple TV, iPad, or HomePod, allows for storage of video clips in iCloud and face detection features. You can also use a HomePod or HomePod mini as a chime for the doorbell — though in my tests, this was less reliable than I had hoped, working about half the time.
The Apple Home app allows you to see a live feed, timeline of recorded events, control nearby smart home gadgets, and manage the features of the Circle View Doorbell.
The HomeKit Secure Video features require an iCloud subscription of 200GB per month or more and allow you to view up to 10 days of end-to-end-encrypted clips captured by the camera. The clips don’t count against your storage quota in iCloud, but the base plan only supports one camera. If you have other HomeKit Secure Video cameras in your home, you’ll need to pony up for the 2TB plan that handles up to five. If you have more than that, well, I’m sorry, five cameras is all HomeKit currently supports. The facial recognition features can tie into your Apple Photos library to identify certain visitors and even announce their names on a HomePod when they ring the doorbell. I didn’t find this function very useful. Most of the people in my Photos library are my own family, and they aren’t ringing the doorbell to their own home very often.
Within the Home app, you can view the camera’s feed, see a timeline of recorded clips (if you use HomeKit Secure Video), manage notifications, choose when the camera will record video, set up the face recognition features, turn on and off the nightlight, and customize the activity zones for motion detection. You can also set up automations that control other smart home devices when the doorbell detects motion. (Third-party HomeKit apps such as Eve’s will let you set up automations triggered by the doorbell’s built-in light sensor as well.)
While all of that sounds like a lot of options, it’s actually quite limited compared to other doorbells. There’s no way to customize the sound of the doorbell chime, like you can do with Ring or Nest, so forget about any fun holiday-themed chimes. Motion detection alerts cannot be limited to just people or vehicles, so the branches of the tree near my porch would cause the doorbell to ping my phone whenever the wind blew. While you can set an activity zone, you can’t adjust the sensitivity of the motion detection or limit alerts to certain times of the day. I ended up turning the motion detection alerts off entirely as a result. I also couldn’t use the motion detection to trigger automations because of how often it would get tripped.
The Circle View is much smaller than battery-powered doorbells like the Ring Video Doorbell 3.
All of those limitations are because the Circle View relies entirely on the Home app, so it can only do what Apple has built support for. A dedicated Logitech app, while obviously more cumbersome, would likely allow for more options and customization.
A dedicated app would also address the other big limitation with the Circle View: it doesn’t work with anything other than Apple’s devices and platform. That’s fine if you’re fully committed to HomeKit and don’t ever think you’re going to buy a different phone or use a different platform.
But if you share a home with just one person who isn’t fully invested in Apple’s ecosystem and uses an Android phone, the Circle View is effectively a dumb doorbell to them. There’s no way for them to get alerts on their phone when the bell is rung or to view the video feed.
The Circle View also doesn’t work with Amazon Alexa or Google Home, so forget about hearing chimes through an Amazon Echo or viewing the video feed on a Home Hub. (More advanced smart home enthusiasts who are working with platforms like Home Assistant can skip right past the Circle View, too. It doesn’t support any standard protocols.) You are tied to buying an iPhone and using HomeKit for as long as you have this doorbell installed. It’s much like the Apple Watch in that respect. The Circle View Doorbell is effectively an accessory to an iPhone.
Other doorbells may not integrate as nicely with Apple’s platform, but all of them at the very least offer apps for both iOS and Android to view video feeds and manage features. And most of them support Amazon’s and Google’s smart home platforms, giving you a lot more flexibility should you ever want to change things. In my experience covering and using smart home tech for the better part of a decade, limiting yourself to compatibility with just one platform is a recipe for disappointment and frustration down the road.
Still, there are obvious advantages if you’re okay with the Circle View’s limitations. Nothing is ever sent to Logitech’s cloud, so you don’t have to worry about yet another privacy policy or potential security issues. The video that’s stored in iCloud’s HomeKit Secure Video service is end-to-end encrypted, so only you and those you give access to in the Home app can view it. It’s about the closest thing you can get in terms of security to local storage for video clips (which, no, the Circle View doesn’t support) while still having easy access to them from anywhere you might be. You also don’t have to worry about police partnerships or unsavory social networks tied to your doorbell’s camera, as you might with other devices.
The Circle View’s privacy features and platform limitations align so closely with the features of products that Apple itself produces that you could almost imagine an Apple logo on the front of the doorbell instead of Logitech’s. It’s fast, performs the basics very well, and provides a sharp, detailed view of your doorway from your phone. If that’s what you’ve been waiting for from a video doorbell, and you’re not turned off by its limitations, then the Logitech Circle View is an easy choice.
WhatsApp is reportedly working to increase the security of its cloud backups with a new password protection feature that’ll encrypt chat backups, making them accessible only to the user. WABetaInfo reported on the work-in-progress feature last year, and today it shared screenshots of how it could be presented in the service’s iOS and Android apps.
“To prevent unauthorized access to your iCloud Drive backup, you can set a password that will be used to encrypt future backups,” one of the screenshots reads. “This password will be required when you restore from the backup.” The app then asks the user to confirm their phone number, and select a password that’s at least eight characters long. Another screenshot warns that “WhatsApp will not be able to help recover forgotten passwords.”
• The chat database is already encrypted now (excluding media), but the algorithm is reversible and it’s not end-to-end encrypted. • Local Android backups will be compatible with this feature.
The chat DB and media will be encrypted using a password that only you know. https://t.co/WAliLUnF18
— WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) March 8, 2021
Although WhatsApp chats are end-to-end encrypted, meaning they’re only visible to the sender and recipient, the service warns that this protection doesn’t extend to online backups stored on Google Drive and iCloud. Once on these servers, the security of the backups is the responsibility of the cloud service providers, who in the past have made them accessible to law enforcement authorities with valid search warrants. Encrypting the backups with a password only you know would theoretically prevent anyone from accessing your chat history without your authorization.
These latest reports about the feature come as WhatsApp’s reputation has taken a hit from a new privacy policy, which has stoked fears that it may store more information with parent company Facebook. Although WhatsApp insists the new policy doesn’t affect the security of users’ personal messages, rival messaging services like Signal and Telegram have seen a surge in interest as users explore other options.
WhatsApp declined to comment on the unannounced feature when contacted by The Verge, but WABetaInfo has a good track record of unearthing features before they become official. It’s spotted features like adding contacts via QR codes or disappearing messages long before their official announcements.
Using a password manager is one of the best steps you can take to protect your security online. A good password manager makes it easy to generate unique, strong passwords, and it will then securely save them so they’re available wherever you need them, whether that’s on your phone, laptop, tablet, or desktop computer. Basically, they take 90 percent of the work out of being safe online.
Hopefully, at this point everyone knows why it’s important to use a unique password for all of your accounts online. But the short version is that using one password everywhere means that if just one site you use gets hacked, an attacker potentially has the password that unlocks your entire online life. Breaches still matter if you use a password manager, but at that point it’s a case of resetting just one password rather than dozens.
Although different password managers have different selling points, most offer the same core set of features. They generate passwords which they securely store, and they’ll prompt you to save passwords when you use them on websites. They’ll also sync your passwords across devices and autofill them into websites and apps when required.
There are many good password managers available that charge a monthly fee, but for this guide we’re going to be focusing on free services. All of them have paid subscription tiers, but for most, the free tier offers the essential core features of a password manager.
Our pick for the best for most people is Bitwarden.
The best for most people: Bitwarden
Bitwarden has basically everything you could want out of a password manager. It’s available across iOS and Android; it has native desktop applications on Windows, macOS, and Linux; and it also integrates with every major browser including Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge.
Bitwarden’s security has also been audited by a third-party security company, and although it uses the cloud to sync your passwords between devices, it says it stores them in an encrypted form that only you can unlock. You also have the option of protecting your Bitwarden account with two-factor authentication to provide an extra layer of security.
Importing our passwords was easy, and Bitwarden has guides for many popular password managers in its support pages. It supports biometric security on iOS and Android, and all of its software is nicely designed and easy to use.
Bitwarden does have paid tiers, but we think most people will be able to do without most of the features they offer. Paying gets you access to encrypted file attachments, more second-factor security options, and reports on the overall security of the passwords you have in use. But even on the free tier, you can perform checks to see if individual passwords have been leaked in a password breach. Paying also gets you access to a built-in one-time code generator for two-factor authentication, but it’s easy and arguably more secure to use a separate app for this.
Verge Score: 9
Good stuff: Well-designed apps and browser extensions; third-party security audit
Bad stuff: No bulk exposed password report with free tier; desktop prompt to save passwords a little small
Bitwarden
Runner-up
As part of our research, we also tried a variety of other password managers. Of these, Zoho Vault is another feature-packed free option, but its interface isn’t as good as Bitwarden’s.
Zoho Vault
Image: Zoho
Zoho Vault’s iOS and Android apps are nice enough, but its browser extension is a little clunky and buries useful features like its password generator behind one too many sub menus. It’s also unclear if the software has gone through a third-party security audit; the company didn’t respond to our query in time for publication.
Verge Score: 7.5
Good stuff: Cleanly designed apps; reports on strength of passwords
Bad stuff: Clunky browser extension; no native desktop apps
Zoho Vault
Also-rans
There were two other free password managers we felt weren’t up to Bitwarden and Zoho Vault’s standards. Norton Password Manager has the advantage of coming from a well-known cybersecurity company. But we found the way it attempts to simplify its setup process actually makes things more confusing, and Norton’s support pages didn’t do a great job at helping us work out where we’d gone wrong. Norton didn’t respond to our email asking whether the software has gone through a third-party security audit.
We also gave LogMeOnce a try, but we weren’t reassured by the presence of ads in its smartphone app. It also asked for many more permissions than the other password managers we tried. The company says this is necessary to enable its Mugshot feature, which attempts to give you information about unauthorized attempts to access your account, which is an optional feature. The company says it regularly hires third-party security researchers to test its products.
Until recently, LastPass would have been included as a free password manager, but it’s making some changes to its free tier on March 16th that mean it will be much less usable as a free password manager. After that date, free users will be able to view and manage passwords on just a single category of devices: mobile or computer. “Mobile” subscribers will have access to phones, tablets, and smartwatches, while “Computer” subscribers will be able to use the service across PCs, Macs, and browser extensions. Given how most people switch between these two classes of devices on a daily basis, we think this will severely limit how useful LastPass’ free tier will be for most people.
Our focus on simplicity also means we’ve excluded KeePass, a password manager that relies on third-party apps on non-Windows platforms. In addition, if you want to sync your passwords between devices, you have to use a third-party storage service such as Dropbox or Google Drive.
Beyond the free options, there’s a huge array of paid password managers out there. Some of these have free tiers, but they’re so restrictive that they’re effectively not usable as a day-to-day password manager. 1Password is perhaps the most well-known paid option, but others include NordPass, RememBear, Passwarden, Dashlane, RoboForm, and Enpass, all of which limit their free versions in ways that we think make them unsuitable for long-term use.
Finally, most modern internet browsers offer built-in password management features, but we think it’s worth taking the time to store your passwords in a standalone service. It gives you more flexibility to switch platforms and browsers in the future, and password managers also generally have interfaces that are better suited to the task of storing passwords. To make things simpler for yourself, you might want to turn off the built-in password manager in your browser once you’ve picked a standalone version to use, so you don’t run the risk of having passwords stored in two places at once.
T-Mobile announces a new platform for enterprise customers. It is launching three new products that leverage T-Mobile’s 5G network and a partnership with Dialpad. Among the products announced, T-Mobile will begin offering “Home Office 5G Internet” plans that compete with cable providers.
It will also be getting into the cloud-based collaboration business that can replace an office-based PBX, video and voice conferencing, and integrates with Office 365 apps. Finally, there’s a full enterprise solution that includes unlimited 5G data.
Starting with T-Mobile’s Home Office 5G, this will come with a dedicated 5G router. With the way T-Mobile is wording this, it looks like Home Office 5G is a dedicated internet connection for office work that’s designed for customers whose regional internet connection may be slow or unreliable. A Home Office 5G line will start at $90 per month and depending on tower congestion, they may be throttled after 50GB of usage during the month. As well, video streaming will be optimized for 480p resolution. This is certainly not a plan to replace your home internet.
T-Mobile Collaborate is a work platform that’s meant to replace a typical office PBX (switching phone box system). With more employees working from home, this solution would let businesses set up video meetings, conference calls, and would let employees transfer calls to other departments of the business. All these solutions are cloud-based so they virtualize the way an office communicates within or across departments.
T-Mobile Home Office 5G router
Collaborate will also integrate with Office 365 apps to further leverage an existing office suite subscription with Microsoft.
Finally, Enterprise Unlimited requires an account with 11 mobile lines or more. This will come with unlimited 5G/4G data, 10GB of tethering per line (after which you’ll be reduced to 3G speeds), and it comes with access to T-Mobile’s Collaborate.
These plans certainly do not cater to consumers, and the Home Internet 5G will not replace a home internet plan since there’s a data cap. These solutions may be beneficial for some small and medium sized businesses who might pay a lot to receive business internet and landline services, which are always priced at a significant premium compared to consumer plans.
It’s interesting to see how corporate solutions are changing to serve businesses who have switched to working almost completely from home. Mobile carriers might continue to take business from regional service providers as 5G becomes more and more able to support massive data infrastructures. We should see a jump in home 5G internet in the coming years.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s newest DLC characters, Pyra and Mythra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2, will be available in the game on Thursday, Nintendo announced. They’re included as part of the second Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Fighters Pass, or you can buy them separately for $5.99.
Series director Masahiro Sakurai showed off the new fighters in a video presentation Thursday morning. Pyra’s moves do more damage while Mythra moves faster and jumps higher, and you’ll be able to switch between the two fighters whenever you want during a match.
If you get the new fighters, you’ll also be able to play on a new stage from Xenoblade Chronicles 2, the Cloud Sea of Alrest, where you ride on the back of a giant monster traveling through the sky. Pyra and Mythra also come with new songs from Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
And if you were curious, here’s what Kirby looks like when you copy Pyra and Mythra’s powers:
Pyra and Mythra join Min Min from Arms, Steve and Alex from Minecraft, and Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII in the second Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Fighters Pass. Nintendo plans to release two more characters for the pass.
Eve Systems, a maker of smart home products that work with Apple’s HomeKit platform, is announcing an expanded range of devices that support the Thread smart protocol. The news consists of updated versions of its existing smart plug, a forthcoming firmware update for the company’s smart sprinkler, and a new outdoor weather station.
Thread is a wireless communication standard that was developed from the ground up for smart home purposes and is designed to replace legacy technologies such as Z-Wave and Zigbee. Benefits of Thread include more reliable connections between devices, faster response times, and longer battery life.
Though Thread support has existed in a handful of devices for quite some time, Apple’s HomePod mini is the first one to really make Thread a viable option in the smart home. It can act as a bridge between Thread-enabled accessories and connect them to the internet, which they can’t do on their own. Thread is also one of the pillar technologies of the Connected Home over IP (CHIP) project, a cooperation between all the major smart home platform and device providers to standardize around an interoperable wireless protocol.
It’s with that in mind that Eve is updating and expanding its device portfolio. The new Eve Energy, which will be available in either US or UK versions, is an updated version of Eve’s smart plug. It will support both Thread and Bluetooth and will be available in the US starting on April 6th and the UK starting on May 4th. The Energy is unique in that it can act as a repeater for the Thread network, letting it extend the signal to devices even if they are out of reach of a HomePod mini. In the US, the Energy will cost $39.95.
The latest version of the Eve Energy smart plug adds Thread support.Image: Eve
A forthcoming firmware update will add Thread support to the $99.95 Eve Aqua, the company’s smart sprinkler system. Thanks to Thread’s greater range, the updated Aqua can maintain its connection to the network better than it could with just Bluetooth. Eve says support for Thread will be released in April.
Lastly, the all-new Eve Weather is a wireless outdoor weather station that allows you to track the exact outdoor temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure at your home. It is a replacement for the Eve Degree, a similar product that relied solely on Bluetooth for its connectivity. The Eve Weather has a monochrome display that shows the current temperature, humidity, and weather conditions; the Eve app provides access to trends over time and more specific data. The Weather also has Siri integration for voice queries.
Eve claims the Weather is IPX3 water resistant and is specifically designed for outdoor use. It runs on a coin cell battery which should last between six and 12 months before needing to be replaced. The Eve Weather will be available starting March 25th for $69.95.
The Eve Weather shows current temperature, humidity, and weather trends on its monochrome display.Image: Eve
These aren’t the only products in Eve’s portfolio that support Thread. The company has already issued firmware updates with Thread support for its door and window sensors and European-spec Energy smart plug, and it says everything it has released since June 2020 has the hardware necessary to work with Thread. It is one of the first companies to really throw its hat into the Thread ring in a meaningful way.
Eve is a unique company in the smart home market as its products only work with Apple’s HomeKit platform and don’t support Amazon Alexa, Google Home, or any of the other platforms out there. That’s different from most other smart home companies, which try to reach the broadest possible audience by supporting the most popular platforms, which often means Amazon Alexa and Google Home. The HomeKit device ecosystem is much smaller in comparison, largely thanks to an onerous hardware certification that Apple used to require and has since rolled back. HomeKit is also completely inaccessible from outside of Apple’s ecosystem, so if you have an Android phone, you can’t control Eve devices.
Eve System’s CEO Jerome Gackel told me the company’s goal isn’t just to be a HomeKit accessory maker. It’s just that Apple’s platform is the only one that allows Eve to focus its efforts on its devices and apps without having to also maintain a cloud service to allow them to connect to the internet. All of the processing for Eve devices happens locally on your home network or between your own devices, without sending data to the cloud, which helps the company achieve its goal of a privacy-first smart home. (You can still remotely control Eve devices through Apple’s Home app, provided you have a HomeKit hub, such as an Apple TV, HomePod, or iPad running in your home.)
Gackel hopes that support for Thread and its key role in the CHIP project will open the door to working with the other smart home platforms in the future. But Eve won’t work with Alexa or Google Home so long as they continue to require a cloud connection to their platforms.
Eve’s bet on HomeKit has been successful so far — the company already has 18 products in its lineup and claims sales of over 1 million units by 2019, with two-thirds of its customer base in Germany and the rest in the US. Its lineup for 2021 will make it the largest provider of HomeKit accessories, with Thread support being a recurring theme throughout.
Microsoft’s newest Garage app, the company’s brand for more experimental apps, is Group Transcribe, which lets groups of people capture real-time collective meeting transcriptions using their phones. It’s available for free right now on iOS.
“This app uses a multi-device approach to provide real-time, high quality transcription and translation, so users can be more present and productive during in-person meetings and conversations,” Microsoft’s Lainie Huston said in a blog post.
Here’s how it works. Everyone who wants to participate in the group transcription needs to download the Group Transcribe app. Then, one person kicks off a transcription, and they can invite others to join by sharing a five-letter conversation code, a QR code, or by joining the group transcription with nearby sharing over Bluetooth.
Then, the app will begin transcribing the group’s conversation, noting who said what. Group Transcribe can even also auto-translate things people say and show those translations in line as part of the transcription. Transcriptions are saved in the app so you can review or share them after a meeting.
Here’s a screenshot of what the transcriptions and translations look like:
Image: Microsoft
Microsoft suggests that each person participating in the meeting should use their own phone “within arm’s reach” to have “the highest quality experience.” And in an FAQ, Microsoft says Group Transcribe doesn’t have a limit to how many people can join a transcription, but it notes that the app works best for “in-person meetings [with] up to four people.”
Microsoft doesn’t require you to sign in with any sort of account to use the app — you just have to enter your name and your preferred language. The app does send data to the cloud as part of the transcription and speaker identification process, but Microsoft lets you choose whether you want to share meeting recordings with the company that it will use to help improve Microsoft’s speech recognition technologies. And if you’re making a group transcription, everyone in the group needs to have agreed to share recordings before one is shared with Microsoft.
You can read more about the app and its privacy features in Microsoft’s FAQ.
The Samsung S21 FE (Fan Edition) will be the cheapest model of the 2021 S-series. How will this phone look like and what are the expected specs?
Last September, Samsung launched the Galaxy S20 Fan Edition, as an entry-level model within the high-end S20 series. The device was equipped with a relatively large display, a large battery, powerful hardware and the latest software. In addition, the S20 FE was marketed significantly cheaper than the other S-series models. It is therefore not surprising that this phone model became very popular. Now that the Galaxy S21 series has been officially announced, the question arises; will Samsung also release a Fan Edition of the S21 this year?
Although the S20 FE was the first Fan Edition within the S-series, it is likely that Samsung will release another FE edition in 2021, in the form of a Samsung Galaxy S21 FE. After all, the previous model was a direct hit and it was also a good replacement for the significantly less popular S10 Lite.
When is the Samsung S21 FE expected?
The timing of the release was also better. The S10 Lite was announced in January. While the S20 FE saw the light of day in September, so it was another half year wait for the new S-series models to be announced annually in February.
It is in line with expectations that Samsung will maintain this release schedule, in other words, an S21 FE will probably be released in the second half of 2021. Just as there seems to be a Samsung Galaxy Note 21 FE in the planning for the second half of the year.
This brings up the question; What can we expect from the S21 Fan Edition this year? Samsung has taken some unexpected steps within the S-series this year. Although flagship smartphones normally only get improved, this certainly wasn’t the case with the Samsung S21.
The S21 adopted various features of the cheaper S20 FE, such as the flat display with Full HD resolution and the plastic back. As a result, the S21 has also been marketed more cheaply than the S20 a year earlier. The first sales results show that Samsung has made the right decision in this regard. The pre-order sales of the S21 series went significantly better than the year before.
Now that the Galaxy S21 is cheaper than the S20, the question remains; what features will the S21 FE get. Which features will Samsung be able to omit to still deliver the same high-end experience, at a lower price level?
Design of the Galaxy S21 Fan Edition
For the time being, the specifications of this new model are still unknown. But now that the Samsung S21, S21 Plus and S21 Ultra have been officially announced, we can already look carefully ahead to the fourth model.
To give a first impression of the possible design of the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE, in-house graphic designer Giuseppe Spinelli, aka Snoreyn, made a series of product renders. The 3D images are designed based on the already available S21 and S20 FE and are cast in a matching Samsung style.
With the Galaxy S21 FE, Samsung will want to appeal to successful youngsters. That is why we have opted for four stylish colors with a light color palette; gray, blue, purple and green. The previous model appeared in no less than 6 sparkling colors, so you can assume that at least several color options will be offered.
Of course, the new Fan Edition is also made dust and waterproof (IP68), as you would expect from a high-end phone. Furthermore, the SIM compartment will most likely be moved to the bottom of the device, as is the case with the other S21 models. Audio enthusiasts will unfortunately have to do without a 3.5mm headphone jack.
What is immediately noticeable about the Samsung S21 FE, designed by Giuseppe, is the camera system. The three available S21 models are characterized by a specially designed camera, where the camera is merged with the frame on the side and top of the device. To make the Fan Edition cheaper, we decided not to implement this design twist in the S21 FE.
The design of the triple camera is comparable to that of the S20 FE. We have chosen to keep the color of the camera module the same as that of the housing. Last year, the camera island got a dark color scheme with a harder contrast, regardless of which color variant you chose.
In terms of camera specifications, we do not expect any major differences compared to last year. After all, the camera of the S21 and S20 is also largely identical to each other. The FE model was equipped with a 32MP selfie camera. The triple rear camera consists of a 12 megapixel wide angle and ultra wide angle camera and an 8 megapixel telecamera with 3x Hybrid zoom and 30X Space Zoom. The S20 FE can record videos in 4K resolution and played back in 8K.
The S21 FE will probably have the same camera configuration as the S20 FE. Additional functions are made possible by the renewed Android 11 OS, in combination with the One UI 3.1 interface. Think of the new features such as Object Eraser and Multi Mic recording, as well as an improved Single Take function and touch autofocus.
Expected technical specifications
The screen sizes of the S21 models have remained the same as last year. The S21 is the smallest with its 6.2 ” display, followed by the S21 Plus with its 6.7” display. The S21 FE will probably feature a 6.5 ”Full HD+ display again – meaning it will be positioned between the base and Plus model in terms of size.
The screen will most likely support the high 120 Hertz refresh rate, but HDR support will likely be lacking. Logically, a punch-hole camera system will again be chosen to accommodate the selfie camera.
Presumably the same Exynos 2100 will be used as with the other S21 models. However, less RAM will probably be built in, but two options may again be offered: 6GB and 8GB RAM. The storage capacity of 128GB / 256GB will probably be maintained.
It will be interesting to see whether the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE will have a memory card slot. With the other S21 models, Samsung has chosen to omit the microSD compartment, so that the options for expanding the memory are limited to cloud storage. Samsung may keep the microSD memory compartment with the Fan Edition, although it is just as likely that it will be left out for cost reasons.
Furthermore, it is in line with expectations that the S21 Fan Edition will also have an extra large battery. After all, this was also one of the strong features of the previous FE model. The S20 FE was equipped with the same size battery as the S20 Plus; 4500 mAh.
If Samsung continues this line, it would mean that the S21 FE will be equipped with a 4,800 mAh battery with support for 25W wired / 15W wireless charging. Since the FE has a slightly smaller screen than the Plus variant, it is likely that this model also delivers a slightly better battery life. The 4,800 mAh battery of the S21 Plus guarantees a battery life of more than 12 hours.
Probably the charger will not be included, the same goes for the earplugs. Samsung has already started this trend with the other S21 models. The official reason for this is that Samsung wants to counteract eWaste. By not supplying a charger / earplugs the environment can be saved.
Unfortunately, Samsung does not leave this decision to the consumer. If the environment is the main driver, why not offer the phone both with and without a charger for the same amount of money – as Xiaomi is doing with the Mi 11. At the end, many do want to purchase a fast charger which now needs to be packaged separately, be shipped separately etc. The environmental benefits will therefore be very limited.
How much will the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE cost?
The Samsung S20 FE 5G (128GB) carried a suggested retail price of € 750 last year, a 4G model was also released for € 650. The S21 models are cheaper than last year and, moreover, are only available with 5G. Most likely, the S21 FE will also be released exclusively as a 5G model, after all, 5G is the future and it will replace 4G in the coming years.
The basic model within the 2021 S-series is available for a starting price of € 850 (128GB). In six months’ time, the S21 will undoubtedly have dropped in price, making it plausible that the Galaxy S21 FE will also be marketed more cheaply than last year. This way, Samsung can prevent the Fan Edition from being even more expensive at launch than the basic model. You may be able to buy the new model for about € 650. By keeping the entry-level price the same as last year, but this time with 5G, the S-series will remain accessible to a wide audience.
For the already available S21 models, Samsung has chosen not to include a charger or earplugs in the sales package. This new trend, initiated by Apple last year, does not appear to have had a negative effect on sales numbers. It is therefore certainly not inconceivable that the new Galaxy S21 FE will also be delivered without a charger and earplugs.
Samsung will probably offer the Fan Edition in a range of standard colors. The S21 Plus and Ultra can also be purchased in various custom colors, which can only be ordered on request via the Samsung website. However, this option is not available for the base model, so it is unlikely that custom colors will be designed for the S21 FE either.
Nevertheless, different color variants will undoubtedly be made available. In addition, Samsung will undoubtedly announce a range of matching accessories, including phone cases made of a variety of materials such as silicone, fabric and leather.
The fourth model in the S-series will probably be announced around September, before then we first expect a new Galaxy Note smartphone. In the coming months, more details will undoubtedly be known about the technical specifications and design of the new Samsung Galaxy S21 FE.
Note to editors : The product images in this publication are created by in-house graphic designer Giuseppe Spinelli (aka Snoreyn). The presented concept renders are for illustrative purposes only. The images are copyright protected. Feel free to use the pictures on your own website, please be so respectful to include a source link into your publication.
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