Over the past several months, Twitter has been working hard to bring its Clubhouse-like audio chat rooms feature, Spaces, to users on iOS and, as of last month, Android. A logical next place for Spaces to show up would be on the web, and unsurprisingly, Twitter is working on the feature for browsers, the company confirmed to The Verge.
We decided to ask Twitter about Spaces on desktop after seeing this tweet from app researcher Jane Manchun Wong, which shows what Spaces preview cards could look like when viewed on the web.
And Twitter itself hasn’t been entirely secret about developing the feature, either. A Twitter Spaces developer posted some designs of how a Space’s intro screen might look on the web last Friday.
Given that Spaces is only available on mobile right now, bringing it to the web would be a significant expansion. And that broader reach could help Twitter in its race to compete with Clubhouse, which is still only on iOS (though an Android version is on the way). It would also bring Twitter in closer parity to Discord, which just yesterday launched its social audio rooms feature, Stage Channels, on all platforms where Discord is available.
LinkedIn, Mark Cuban, Slack, and Spotify are also working on Clubhouse-like live audio features, while Facebook reportedly has one in development.
The Supreme Court has unanimously decided that Facebook text message alerts don’t violate laws against unwanted auto-dialed calls. The court ruled that a lower court defined illegal “robocalls” too broadly and that the term should only apply to systems that generate lists of numbers and call them indiscriminately, not a system that simply stores numbers and automatically calls them.
The lawsuit involves text messages that notify Facebook users of an attempted login. Its plaintiff, Noah Duguid, sued after receiving unwanted, erroneous notifications despite not having a Facebook account. Duguid argued that Facebook was violating the 1991 Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). An appeals court agreed, but the Supreme Court interpreted the law’s definitions differently.
Closely parsing the TCPA’s grammar, the court concluded that an illegal auto-dialing system “must use a random or sequential number generator,” and this definition “excludes equipment like Facebook’s login notification system, which does not use such technology.”
Facebook argued that the earlier court decision could have defined basic smartphone functions as illegal autodialers. The Supreme Court agreed. “Duguid’s interpretation of an autodialer would capture virtually all modern cell phones,” the opinion says. Although robocalls are a huge problem on American phone networks, it says “expanding the definition of an autodialer to encompass any equipment that merely stores and dials telephone numbers would take a chainsaw to these nuanced problems.” So it’s opting for a much more limited definition — both for Facebook and any similar future system.
Twitter is adding stickers to its ephemeral, Snapchat Stories-like Fleets, the social media company announced on Wednesday. Stickers are available for users on both Android and iOS.
When you’re making a Fleet, you’ll be able to add stickers by tapping the smiley face icon on the bottom row of your screen. When you do, you’ll see a collection of Twitter-made animated stickers and emoji (the latter of which Twitter calls “Twemoji”). And if you search for something in the search bar at the top of the screen, Twitter will pull up GIFs sourced from Tenor and Facebook-owned Giphy.
Your Fleets just got an upgrade.
Now you can express yourself in the conversation with stickers. Add GIFs and Twemojis to a Fleet by tapping the icon, on Android and iOS. pic.twitter.com/Ihh9ZZh70a
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) March 31, 2021
If you’ve ever used stickers on Snapchat or Instagram, this new feature should feel quite familiar to you. That said, the feature might feel so familiar because both Snapchat and Instagram have offered it for years. But Twitter is still in early days with Fleets, which only became available to everyone back in November, so perhaps stickers are just a first sign of more additions to come.
Google plans to open its US offices in a limited capacity in April for employees who want to work in person, the company tells The Verge. The announcement follows Microsoft, Facebook, and Uber’s plans to return to offices in the coming months.
Offices will likely open in April, “based on specific criteria that include increases in vaccine availability and downward trends in COVID-19 cases,” Google says. All employees who prefer to work remotely will also be able to do so until September 2021, which is in line with Google’s previous announcement. Anyone who decides to work in person will be required to follow safety guidelines like wearing a mask, practicing social distancing, and passing a health survey, according to an email The New York Times read announcing the plans.
Amazon has also shared an update on when it expects most of its employees to return to working in person. The company never closed its offices, but Amazon says only 10 percent of its corporate employees still head in for work. Given the improved availability of vaccines, Amazon expects “more people will start coming into the office through the summer, with most back in the office by early fall,” it says. The company still views returning “to an office-centric culture as [its] baseline.”
In contrast, when Google extended its remote work plan to September, CEO Sundar Pichai said the company would explore flexible work weeks, where employees would spend three days at the office and the remainder of their time at home.
Periscope, the app that popularized live streaming from smartphones, is shutting down today, just over six years after it launched. The service has already been removed from app stores, and most features will no longer be accessible after today.
Live streaming will live on inside of Twitter, which has owned Periscope since March 2015, just weeks before the service launched. Twitter announced the impending shutdown in December, saying usage was declining, and the app had been in an “unsustainable maintenance-mode state” for a while.
The Periscope website will remain online with an archive of public broadcasts. Periscope users will still be able to download their data through Twitter.
Live streaming became an overnight phenomenon in March 2015 with the debut of Periscope and another app called Meerkat. Though Meerkat came out first, Periscope was able to quickly dethrone it with Twitter’s backing and become the leader in live streaming.
The phenomenon seemed to subside just as quickly, however. Facebook heavily pushed live streaming on its own service, and no platform developed a dominant community around the feature. In December 2016, Twitter added the ability to live stream directly from its own app, removing much of the need for Periscope as a standalone service.
This is it. Our final goodbye. Today is the last day the Periscope app will be available.
We leave you with our gratitude for all the creators and viewers who brighten the Periscope community. We hope to see you all live on Twitter.
Google is telling workers they are allowed to discuss pay and working conditions as part of a settlement agreement with the Alphabet Workers Union (AWU), Bloomberg reports. The move settles a labor dispute brought by AWU in February.
The initial complaint alleged that managers at Adecco, a Google subcontracting firm, banned workers from talking about wages and bonuses. It also said that Adecco retaliated against contractor Shannon Wait after she posted pro-union messages on Facebook. The complaint said Google was a joint employer and should therefore be held liable for the treatment of contractors. Google did not admit to this classification in the settlement.
Wait, who’d been suspended from her job, was reinstated a week after the complaint was filed. She left the company shortly after, as her contract was only for two years, according to Bloomberg.
On Twitter, she credited the union with helping her get her job back. “The external pressure of our #union, which is only 3 months public, held both Google and its subcontractor accountable for violating labor law,” she wrote. “It’s 2021 — the year that tech companies like #Amazon and #Google stand face-to-face with workers.”
Google is posting signs at the data center in South Carolina as part of the agreement. “WE WILL NOT tell you that you cannot discuss policies with other employees,” the notice reads, according to Bloomberg. “WE WILL NOT discipline you because you exercise your right to discuss wage rates, bonuses, hours and working conditions with other employees.”
It’s a symbolic victory for the Alphabet Workers Union. The organization, which launched in January, is not currently recognized by the National Labor Relations Board. The complaint brought against Google and Adecco, however, shows the union still has teeth. Its status as a solidarity union also allows it to welcome contractors to the group. The treatment of these workers is a primary concern for union organizers.
News of the settlement comes as workers at Amazon face off with management in a union fight that could change the fabric of the tech industry. Warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama voted this month on whether to form a union. The vote count began yesterday.
Discord is the latest company to introduce a Clubhouse-like feature that lets people easily broadcast live audio conversations to a room of virtual listeners. Discord says its take, called Stage Channels, is available now on all platforms where Discord is available, including Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, and the web.
If you’ve used Discord before, you might know that the app already offers voice channels, which typically allow everyone in them to talk freely. A Stage Channel, on the other hand, is designed to only let certain people talk at once to a group of listeners, which could make them useful for more structured events like community town halls or AMAs. However, only Community servers, which have some more powerful community management tools than a server you might share with a few of your buddies, can make the new Stage Channels.
The feature’s broad availability makes Discord the first app to offer an easy way to host or listen in on social audio rooms on most platforms. Clubhouse is still only available on iOS, though an Android version is in development. Twitter’s Spaces feature works on iOS and Android, but only some users have the ability to make audio rooms right now. (The company plans to let anyone host a Space starting in April.) LinkedIn, Mark Cuban, Slack, and Spotify are also working on live audio features, and Facebook reportedly has one in the works, too.
At the top of this post, you can see what a Discord Stage Channel looks like on desktop, and here’s what one looks like on mobile:
Image: Discord
I got to participate in a Stage Channel to be briefed on the feature, and it was quite similar to using Clubhouse or Twitter Spaces. When I joined the Stage Channel, I was automatically put on mute and listed as an audience member. I could see who was speaking and who else was with me in the virtual crowd.
When I wanted to ask questions, I pressed a button to request to speak, and a Stage moderator brought me “on stage” so I could talk. Stage moderators can also mute speakers or even remove them from the room if they are being disruptive.
Belkin has a new iPhone stand that’s useful enough to be interesting but annoyingly limited.
The company’s “Magnetic Phone Mount with Face Tracking” works with the iPhone 12’s MagSafe feature, clipping your phone into place using the device’s built-in magnets. It then uses face tracking to follow you around the room, rotating so it’s always facing you.
The catch is that this feature doesn’t work with video calls on Zoom, FaceTime, or any other similar service — surely one of the biggest potential use cases in a pandemic. In fact, judging by the product description, the tracking feature only works when recording video through Belkin’s own iOS app. That would mean you can’t even use the stand to make sure your phone is always facing you as you follow along with an exercise video or recipe. We’ve reached out to Belkin to double check this and will update this article when we know more.
You can track yourself recording video but not watching it. Image: Belkin
Being able to record video that tracks you will definitely be useful to some people, and Belkin says its iOS app can connect directly to social media accounts (including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and others) to make posting easy. But it still means the mount is more of a specialist tool than a device that could help more consumers.
Other relevant specs: the mount works in landscape and portrait orientations, can be tilted vertically from -15 to 30 degrees, rotates horizontally through 360 degrees, and is powered by three AA batteries. And of course, because it uses MagSafe to attach to your phone, it only works with the iPhone 12, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max. The mount will sell for $65, but it’s only listed as “coming soon” on Belkin’s website.
Britain Lockhart never knows what he’ll find when he scuba dives for treasure. Neither do his viewers on Facebook who tune in for a surprise reveal. His page, Depths of History, has been steadily growing on the social network since he started posting videos there about two years ago. He now has 70,000 followers on his page, which has started generating thousands of dollars a month in ad revenue.
“I really didn’t think it would be that profitable at all, but Facebook has such a variety of users on their interface that don’t even use YouTube, but they’ll be on Facebook,” he says, adding that he’ll post his YouTube videos on Facebook to make ad revenue on both.
His income varies, although he says he’ll typically make between $2,000 and $3,000 per month through Facebook. But in 2021 so far, that income has unexpectedly dried up. The January payout was only $931, leaving him thousands of dollars short. In February, it was even lower, coming in at just $664. He double-checked his creator backend, and the numbers didn’t make sense there, either. Facebook’s revenue estimation tool projected that he should have received $3,397 for January and $1,747.52 for February. When the checks came in, he ended more than $4,000 short
“It was like a slap in the face,” Lockhart says. “I was looking forward to buying more camera gear to increase my business, buying things that could prolong me working with Facebook and me working with YouTube.”
And he’s not the only one who hasn’t been entirely paid out. The Verge spoke with two other Facebook video creators, all of whom say the company shorted them on cash and ignored their requests for help. The creators had no reason to initially question the amount they were paid since Facebook’s estimated revenue tool almost always mirrored their actual payouts. Usually, they’d be short only a couple hundred dollars. But after their revenue seemed off two months in a row, the creators say they looked into the issue. All three say the problems began in January, around the time Facebook transitioned to its new Pages experience and made updates to how creators can monetize.
The sudden change is particularly alarming because of Facebook’s ambiguous approach to revenue-sharing in general. The company’s core business has always been direct, targeted advertising, but Facebook now sees an opportunity in sharing revenue with video creators, along the lines of YouTube or Twitch. Facebook has courted all sorts of creators — gamers, writers, and video hosts — through broader monetization options, like in-stream ads, shopping, and even subscription newsletters. It’s still unclear how many creators are on Facebook, but the strategy seems to be somewhat working. Facebook says there are more than 1 million shops across its app and Instagram, and that from 2019 to 2020, the number of content creators on Facebook earning the equivalent of $10,000 USD per month grew 88 percent, and creators earning $1,000 per month grew 94 percent.
But these creators say Facebook only cares about advertisers, leaving them with no one to turn to when their payments are unexpectedly short. They reached out for help, but the company gave them no feedback on what could be wrong.
After The Verge reached out for comment, however, Facebook said it “resolved a technical issue that prevented a small number of video creators on Facebook from receiving their full in-stream ads payouts.”
“We’re notifying these partners that they’ll receive those remaining in-stream payments during the April payout cycle, and we apologize for any inconvenience,” a spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
It’s good news for the creators getting a rebate but still an alarming precedent — holding thousands of dollars back for months with little explanation or guarantee the same problem won’t pop up again in the future.
Volodymyr Popkov, the creator of the page Painting Inspiration, which demos acrylic paint art tutorials, suggests that Facebook doesn’t value the creators who make the platform thrive. “They have live chat Facebook support for the people who spend money for the ads, who bring [Facebook] their money, but for people who are like us, the creators, they owe us money right now, and they’re not doing anything,” he says.
Facebook estimated that Popkov would get $13,000 in January, he says, but he only received $4,600. In February, he was estimated to receive $29,000 but made only $6,400. He knows the number is just an estimate, but he says he hasn’t seen any change in the numbers of viewers on his videos — at least not enough to explain a $32,000 shortfall. It’s a particular problem because Popkov employs artists to make artwork for the page. His Facebook income serves as payroll for them, along with his revenue from YouTube.
Another creator, Erik Reed, of the Outdoors With Erik page, says he’s owed over $10,000, going off the estimate tools. He specifically joined Facebook because other creators told him the monetization options and engagement levels were worthwhile.
Facebook has a long history of shoddy metrics causing problems for partners. Earlier this month, court documents showed that Facebook provided advertisers with “inflated and misleading” metrics for years on how many people their ads were reaching. The company apparently knew that the reach of these ads was amplified by fake and duplicate accounts, but chose not to delete them. A Facebook spokesperson told The Verge at the time that this reach tool provided only “an estimate,” although Facebook allegedly knew advertisers based decisions around the metric. The company also previously faced a lawsuit that claimed it knowingly overestimated how much video content users watched. Facebook settled the suit in 2019.
The creators who spoke with The Verge have all diversified away from Facebook to avoid being overdependent on one platform; they all run YouTube channels along with their Facebook Pages as well as with other social pages. For the revenue-sharing model to work, Facebook needs creators to stay happy and posting. But increasingly, creators are skeptical of the company’s incentives.
“Working with platforms is hard,” Popkov says. “And you’re not working on your [own] platform, so it’s not like I can trust them.”
Facebook is introducing a handful of new features that will give users greater control over their News Feed, including an easier way to turn off the feed’s algorithmic ranking and display content in the order it was posted instead.
The changes build on previous tweaks to News Feed functionality. Last October, Facebook introduced a “Favorites” tool that allows users to select up to thirty friends and pages, prioritizing their content or displaying it in a separate feed. The company also offers users the option to sort their feeds by “most recent,” but buries these options in obscure menus.
Facebook is now making these “Favorites” and “Recent” filters much more prominent, putting them right at the top of the News Feed as separate tabs that users can switch between. You can see what that looks like in the screenshots below:
The News Feed filter bar will let users swap between algorithmic, chronological, and “favorites” filters. Image: Facebook
This filter bar is launching globally on Facebook’s Android app today and coming to iOS “in the coming weeks.” It’s not clear if it will be available on the web version of Facebook.
But there’s a big caveat: the filter bar isn’t a permanent addition to Facebook’s user interface. The company told The Verge that the feature will disappear if users don’t access the Favorites tool for seven days. They will then have to find their favorites through the preferences menu for the News Feed and the filter bar will return. Similarly, the “most recent” tab will also disappear if not regularly accessed.
In addition to the filter bar, Facebook is introducing a new tool that lets users limit who can comment on their posts (this can be restricted to friends or just to tagged people and pages) and expanding the content covered by its “Why am I seeing this?” feature.
This latter tool was introduced last April and lets users click on posts suggested by Facebook’s algorithms to see why it was recommended to them. These explanations will now cover suggested posts from pages or people that users don’t follow, showing how posts’ related topics, interactions, and location led to them being suggested.
“Why am I seeing this?” will offer more information about why posts were suggested to users. Image: Facebook
These changes are relatively minor, but overall give people more control over Facebook’s often opaque algorithms. The changes suggest that the world’s largest social network is keen to deflect criticism over choices made by its algorithmic systems. This is not surprising considering that the company has repeatedly come under fire over studies that show these automated systems amplify misinformation and extremist content in an apparent bid to drive up user engagement — a metric that rules Facebook’s design choices.
Such criticisms have been levied against the site for years, but have become increasingly sharp in recent months as legislators and the company’s own Oversight Board mull more intrusive regulation of Facebook’s algorithms. With this in mind, it’s makes sense for the company to give its users the ability to opt-out of algorithmic sorting altogether.
But as is often the case with Facebook, the company seems hesitant to commit to changes that might undermine its own engagement stats. If the filter bar disappears after seven days of inactivity, it invites an obvious question: is Facebook really serious about letting users choose what they see on the site, or does it just want to give the appearance of control?
It feels like just about every big tech company is working on a Clubhouse-like social audio feature — Twitter’s Spaces feature is rolling out now, Facebook is reportedly building one, Spotify is making one, Mark Cuban has one, even Slack is getting in the game. But now, the idea of the shared audio space, which started on Clubhouse largely as an exclusive club for tech venture capitalists and elites, has come full circle. Professional social network LinkedIn is working on an audio networking feature of its own, the company confirmed to TechCrunch.
“We’re doing some early tests to create a unique audio experience connected to your professional identity,” LinkedIn said in a statement to TechCrunch. “And, we’re looking at how we can bring audio to other parts of LinkedIn such as events and groups, to give our members even more ways to connect to their community.”
LinkedIn said the feature will begin beta testing soon. Below is a mockup of what the feature might look like, which LinkedIn shared with TechCrunch. Like Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces, it features a stage of speakers front and center and a list of people in the audience lower down the screen.
Image: LinkedIn via TechCrunch
LinkedIn has already been working to make itself a destination for creators with tools like a new Creator mode that denote you as a LinkedIn content creator on your profile. A Clubhouse-like feature actually seems like a natural fit.
Snap, the company behind Snapchat, is planning to continue its push into hardware devices with a new pair of augmented-reality glasses and a drone, according to a report by The Information. The Spectacles will reportedly include displays so the wearer can see the AR effects without having to use their phone — a feature that was notably missing from the all the Spectacles that came before.
One of The Information’s sources says that the new Spectacles will be meant for developers and creators, rather than consumers — though you could probably argue that, at $380, the Spectacles 3 are already mostly limited to that market as well. As the article points out, though, the intention is likely to have the developers make lenses and experiences that consumers will use at some point in the future.
If the new Spectacles act as an AR headset, it could be the culmination of what the company has been working towards with the first three versions of the product. Currently, the Spectacles are mainly capture devices, acting as head-mounted cameras with the bulk of the processing being done on the user’s phone. This hasn’t necessarily been a recipe for success: the company lost $40 million when it was stuck with unsold inventory of the original pair, and the company’s hardware head left shortly after the second-generation glasses came out.
If the reports about the new Spectacles are true, it could indicate that Snap isn’t backing down from its hardware dreams — the company’s CEO has said that AR hardware will be part of what defines Snap by the end of this decade. If it wants to continue pushing its AR glasses, it seems like it will have to contend with competition from the likes of Apple and Facebook— both companies seem to be developing their own face-mounted wearables.
As for the drone, there’s precious little information about it. There have been rumors about Snap working on a drone for years, and back in 2017 it acquired a drone company. The Information also reports that Snap invested $20 million into a Chinese drone company as well. There’s no information on when the drone will ship, but the report’s sources say that it’s recently been made the priority of Snap Lab, a hardware group at Snap.
In other AR headset news, The Information also reported today that the headset teased by Pokémon Go creator Niantic is actually a reference design made by Qualcomm — the two companies announced that they were partnering back in 2019. Niantic is also reportedly looking to go the developer-first route as well.
Four years after accusing Qualcomm of abusing monopoly power to charge phone makers additional licensing fees for its modems — and seven months after seemingly losing that battle in a federal circuit court — the Federal Trade Commission has decided to throw in the towel. It’s no longer planning to appeal to the Supreme Court, which means the case is done.
If that were all, I probably wouldn’t be writing it up for The Verge since things are exactly where we left off in August.But then I saw the FTC’s explanation for why it’s dropping the case, and… well, just read it:
Given the significant headwinds facing the Commission in this matter, the FTC will not petition the Supreme Court to review the decision of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in FTC v. Qualcomm. The FTC’s staff did an exceptional job presenting the case, and I continue to believe that the district court’s conclusion that Qualcomm violated the antitrust laws was entirely correct and that the court of appeals erred in concluding otherwise. Now more than ever, the FTC and other law enforcement agencies need to boldly enforce the antitrust laws to guard against abusive behavior by dominant firms, including in high-technology markets and those that involve intellectual property. I am particularly concerned about the potential for anticompetitive or unfair behavior in the context of standard setting and the FTC will closely monitor conduct in this arena.
Let me get this straight: the FTC believes it was right about this case, believes it was important, believes that “now more than ever” it needs to “boldly enforce the antitrust laws” and is “particularly concerned” about cases like this… and yet, it’s not even taking the step of seeing whether the Supreme Court will agree to hear the case because of “significant headwinds”?
Perhaps the FTC has bigger fish to fry right now, or perhaps it’s afraid it will simply lose again. It’s not cheap to petition the Supreme Court, after all; in 2013, a lawyer who’s done it repeatedly told Marketplace that a petition can easily cost a quarter of a million dollars. Or perhaps the FTC’s acting chair simply doesn’t think a vote to petition the Supreme Court would pass, given the current staffing split between two Republican and two Democratic FTC commissioners.
But the FTC’s tortured public statement doesn’t say those things. It feels a little more like a cry for help from America’s antitrust enforcer, an enforcer with a budget that’s admittedly less than $350 million a year and an enforcer that’s repeatedly let big tech companies go with a slap on the wrist — such as fining Google roughly 37 hours worth of profit for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) with YouTube or issuing a record-breaking $5 billion fine to Facebook that was so weak, Facebook’s stock price actually went up.
There are signs the FTC might possibly change in meaningful ways, and my colleague Makena Kelly has written about them at length, including Congress potentially modifying the law to make it easier to bring lawsuits against Big Tech, and the strong possibility that influential antitrust scholar Lina Khan may soon help run the FTC with President Biden’s nomination. In the meanwhile, the agency that believes Qualcomm has a monopoly — the agency we expect to bust such a monopoly if so — is just going to let this one go.
The MSI Aegis RS 11th is a powerful gaming desktop with the latest parts from Intel and Nvidia and off-the-shelf components that allow for easy upgrades.
For
+ Off the shelf parts
+ Powerful gaming performance
+ Decent pack-in peripherals
Against
– MSI Center software is clunky
– Middling file transfer speeds
It’s hard to build a computer right now, because many of the key parts are sold out everywhere you look . If you can get a quality desktop prebuilt, it may be worth springing for it just to get the components you want. The MSI Aegis RS11th ($1,999 to start, $2,499) as tested, delivers the latest with Intel’s 11th Gen Rocket Lake and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080. If those are the parts you’re looking for, this PC should be in your consideration.
MSI isn’t using a weird, proprietary
chassis
that’s hard to open; This is made of standardized parts, just mostly MSI-branded ones. That does mean that when parts are easier to buy, this is a PC you’ll be able to upgrade and grow with.
The MSI Aegis RS 11th’s gaming performance is strong, which makes one of the
best gaming PCs
, but Rocket Lake’s modest core count holds it back in productivity workloads.
Design of the MSI Aegis RS 11th
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How much you like the design of the Aegis RS will rely heavily on how much you like one of MSI’s existing PC cases, the MPG Gungnir 110R, s a mid-tower chassis with both tempered glass and black aluminum.The front is split between the two, making it look like the
Two-Face
of computer cases. Considering our review unit had three RGB fans up front, I didn’t love that they were half covered up. It’s a weird design choice.
The rest of it, however, is far more conservatve. The left side panel is tempered glass, which lets you see your components, while the right side is opaque and covers up the cable management. There are two dust filters: a magnetic one on top of the case, and a second one in front of the intake fans.
There are three 120mm intake fans on the front. There’s another on the rear, as exhaust, but it also cools the radiator on the MSI Coreliquid 120 liquid cooler for the CPU. I would like to see the radiator mounted up top, where there is room for one up to the 240mm in size, and have a regular exhaust fan in the back, since there is no obstacle to that with this case. (In fact, I wouldn’t mind a beefier cooler for this processor, too.) Still, unlike many custom chassis we’ve seen lately, this one doesn’t seem to have particular issues with where to put fans.
The front three fans and CPU cooler have RGB lighting, which can be controlled with a button labeled “LED” on the top of the case, or with a module in the MSI Center software.
At 17.72 x 16.93 x 8.46 inches, the Aegis RS is smaller than the Alienware Aurora R11 (18.9 x 17 x 8.8) and iBuypower Gaming RDY IWBG207 (18.9 x 19.2 x 8.5 inches). The HP Omen 30L, however, is slightly smaller at 17.7 x 16.8 x 6.6 inches.
2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, 3.5 mm headphone and microphone jacks
Rear Ports (Motherboard)
4x USB 2.0, 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C, PS/2, DisplayPort, HDMI, audio connectors
Video Output (GPU)
3x Displayport 1.4a, HDMI 2.1
Power Supply
MSI MPG A750GF – 750W
Cooling
MSI Coreliquid 120R liquid cooler, 3x 120mm case fans
Operating System
Windows 10 Home
Dimensions
17.72 x 16.93 x 8.46 inches
Price as Configured
$2,499
Ports and Upgradeability on the MSI Aegis RS 11th
There are five ports on the top of the Aegis RS chassis: a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, a pair of USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, and separate 3.5 mm headphone and microphone jacks.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The rear ports are from the MSI Z590 Pro Wi-Fi motherboard, and include four USB 2.0 Type-A ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C, as well as audio connectors and PS/2 for legacy peripherals. There’s also DisplayPort and HDMI, though you’ll likely use the options on the graphics card.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Internally, the Aegis is easy to update or repair, because it’s built just like a PC you might put together yourself. There aren’t any weird custom chassis tricks or hidden parts. MSI makes the case, power supply, graphics card, motherboard and liquid cooler as separate components. There’s nothing proprietary about this that you couldn’t change or update later.
You can get to most of the parts by removing the tempered glass side panel. It’s held into the back of the chassis with two thumb screws, so no tools are needed. There’s a handle to pull it straight back from the case. One highlight here is a sled for a 2.5-inch drive for easy extra storage. The RAM and M.2 SSD are easy enough to access without moving anything.
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The right side panel comes off the same way as the glass door, and it’s the easiest (only, really) way to access the HDD and the PSU, which are hidden beneath a shroud. The case’s RGB controller is also back here, and there’s another 2.5-inch drive sled.
I’m not going to say the cable management is beautiful compared to some other prebuilts, but it’s functional enough (I honestly probably don’t have the patience to do any better) and, unlike some cases, you can easily access it.
Gaming and Graphics on the MSI Aegis RS 11th
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 and Intel Core i7-11700K proved potent for gaming.
I played a bit of Control on the Aegis RS, which I like to try because of how well it integrates ray tracing and stresses even the most powerful components. I ran it at 4K with the high preset and medium ray tracing.
In the beginning of the game, which features exploration sequences, combat with hiss guards in the Oldest House and fights on the Astral Plane, the game typically ran at around 57 frames per second. During fights inside the house, the rate dropped as low as 37 fps when I used lots of Jesse’s melee attacks, which bring about large telekinetic explosions with lots of objects moving. In the Astral Plane, which is rendered on a largely white background, it often stayed in the low 70’s, even during combat. With a slightly lower resolution or a few tweaks, you could be at a steady 60 fps fairly easily.
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On the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark (highest settings), the game ran at 147 fps in 1080p and 57 fps at 4K. It was beat in both only by the Alienware Aurora R11 (149 fps at 1080p, 64 fps at 4K) with an RTX 3090.
In Grand Theft Auto V (very high settings), the Aegis RS had superior 1080p performance at 163 fps and ran in 4K at 54 fps. The Aurora won out in 4K, while the Omen and iBuypower both had identical 4K performance to the Aegis.
On the Far Cry New Dawn benchmark, The Aegis dominated again at FHD, running at 134 fps. In 4K, it ran at 94 fps, behind the iBuypower and the Aurora by a few frames but tied with the Omen.
The Aegis came just behind the Alienware in Red Dead Redemption 2 (medium settings) at 113 fps, but had the highest 4K score at 40 fps. It beat the Omen by 10 frames, though the iBuypower was closer.
On Borderlands 3 (badass settings), the Aegis RS hit 136 fps at FHD and 58 fps in 4K. That’s the worst of the 4K showings, but on par with the HP Omen 30L for 1080p. The Aurora, with its RTX 3090, did the heavy lifting, winning at both resolutions.
Productivity Performance of the MSI Aegis RS 11th
This is the first pre-built desktop we’ve reviewed with the Intel Core i7-11700K. MSI has paired it with 16GB of RAM, a 1TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD and a 2TB HDD. The CPU has 8 cores and 16 threads. Its competitors, though, pose a threat, as many high-end PCs come with Core i9 processors that have more cores. It should be noted that even the Core i9 Rocket Lake has just 8 cores, so this isn’t a limitation of testing the Core i7.
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On Geekbench 5, an overall performance benchmark, the Aegis RS 11th notched a single-core score of 1,676 and a multi-core score of 10,102. While that was the highest single-core score, the other three desktops had higher multi-core scores. All of those used Intel Core i9-10900K chips, which have 10 cores rather than the 8 cores in the 11700K.
The PCIe Gen 4 SSD in the Aegis didn’t show off. It transferred 25GB of files at a rate of 635.3 MBps, just edging past the iBuypower and falling far short of the Omen (978 MBps) and Aurora (1,201.87 MBps).
On our Handbrake video editing test, the MSI Aegis RS 11th transcoded a 4K video to 1080p in 5 minutes and 19 seconds. That’s faster than the iBuypower, but the Aurora and Omen both beat the Aegis’ time by five seconds.
MSI Vigor GK30 Keyboard and Clutch GM08 Mouse
MSI includes a keyboard and mouse in the box, which are good enough to use if you don’t have a lot else lying around, but that you may want to replace if you already have favorite peripherals.
The mouse, the Clutch GM08, has rubberized grips on the side, though it felt a bit narrow for my wide claw grip. Still, there are some higher-end features here, including adjustable weights (two 3-gram weights and one 5-gram weight) to make the mouse lighter or heavier. It has a PixArt PAW351 sensor that goes up to 4,200 DPI. The mouse has a DPI switch button that lets you adjust sensitivity, and has two buttons on the left side of the mouse, but they aren’t programmable in MSI Center. It typically
sells separately for around $20
, so don’t get your hopes up too much, but it gets the job done in a pinch. The red LED light can’t be changed in MSI’s software, either.
The keyboard, the Vigor GK30, is the same one that came with the MSI Aegis Ti5 I recently reviewed. It’s just OK. The keyboard, which MSI suggests is “mechanical-like” has keys that are stiff and not quite clicky. There’s perhaps too much RGB lighting in a sea around the keys. They can’t be controlled in MSI’s software, either, but can be customized with buttons on the keyboard.
MSI Center, Software and Warranty on the MSI Aegis RS 11th
This is the first MSI PC that’s crossed my desk with MSI Center, the company’s replacement for its two previous swiss army-knife applications, Dragon Center (for gaming) and Creator Center (for, well, creating).
MSI Center, though, seems barebones. Sure, it has an optional light/dark mode switcher, which is nice, and you can still see CPU and GPU temperatures and usage, and there are still different usage scenarios to choose from, though they’re buried behind menus. But some features from Dragon Center are nowhere to be found, including one-click optimization for games, Mystic Light and the LAN manager are optional modules to add on. This feels like it’s in beta; there’s an area to “downlaod, update or uninstall” (MSI’s typo, not mine).
But MSI still includes its share of bloat, including MSI App Player, its version of BlueStacks, which runs Android apps, as well as LinkedIn. It notably doesn’t have the Cyberlink suite that I’ve complained about on previous systems, though no one can escape the bloat that comes with
Windows 10
, like Facebook Messenger, Hulu and Roblox.
MSI sells the Aegis RS 11th with a one-year warranty.
MSI Aegis RS 11th Configurations
We reviewed the Aegis RS with a new Intel Core i7-11700K “Rocket Lake” processor, 16GB of RAM, and MSI RTX 3080 Ventus 3X OC GPU, a 1TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD and a 2TB, 7,200-rpm HDD. When the system becomes widely available in mid-April, it will run for $2,499.
When we were reviewing this model, MSI told us that the RS 11th series would start at $1,999. It didn’t have completely finalized specs, but suggested the base model would have an RTX 3070 and 650W GPU and ditch the HDD. Several configurations may continue to utilize a Z490 motherboard and then transition to Z590 as supply levels out. The Aegis RS series is expected to top out at a Core i9-11900K, RTX 3090, 32GB of RAM, an 850W power supply and a 240mm CPU cooler, going possibly as high as $3,899.
Bottom Line
If you’re looking for the latest and greatest, the MSI Aegis RS 11th delivers you the most recent parts from Intel and Nvidia (at least, as long as it’s in stock).
Unlike some other prebuilts, there’s nothing proprietary here. It’s all standardized parts, mostly from MSI, that you can easily upgrade down the line.
Intel’s Core i7 Rocket Lake and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 in our review configuration worked potently together. In productivity, though, Rocket Lake’s limited core count didn’t stand up to some competition, which affects some workloads.
MSI needs to add polish to its MSI Center utility.. If you use the app to monitor CPU usage, check temperatures or change RGB colors, it will feel a bit like beta. If you prefer other applications, you may not notice.
As a whole package, the Aegis RS 11th is a powerful gaming rig with few frills. If you need a PC to play games, this will stand up, even in 4K with the right settings.
Apple just announced that its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will take place on June 7th through June 11th this year, and that like last year it will be an online-only event.
The announcement, as is typical for Apple, is opaque when it comes to details, but there might be a tantalizing hint: is the memoji character’s glasses simply showing a reflection from their laptop? Or could Apple finally be gearing up to announce its long-rumored VR headset or AR glasses?
“We are working to make WWDC21 our biggest and best yet, and are excited to offer Apple developers new tools to support them as they create apps that change the way we live, work, and play,” said Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of worldwide developer relations, in a press release.
WWDC is when Apple typically details changes coming to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS with the occasional hardware surprise. Last year it also dedicated a significant portion of its keynote to announcing its Mac lineup’s transition to its own Apple Silicon processors. With this transition still underway, it seems likely that Apple will have an update to share about its progress.
New hardware tends to be less of a focus at the developer conference, but it’s not unheard of. Apple used WWDC 2019 as its venue to announce the new Mac Pro, and at WWDC 2017 it announced its HomePod smart speaker, updated iMac desktops, and a new 10.5-inch iPad Pro.
It’s not surprising that Apple has opted to make its global conference for developers online-only given the impact of COVID-19 is still being felt around the world. Facebook’s F8 developer conference will be virtual this year, and San Diego Comic-Con and the 2021 Anime Expo have also confirmed that their physical events will not take place. But some organizations are attempting to make limited physical events happen like Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Developing…
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