Apple’s rumoured A14X chip could level up the performance of the next-generation iPad Pro, reports 9to5Mac.
A reference to the long-awaited processor, which is said to be “blisteringly fast”, was spotted in today’s iOS 14.5 beta release. The developer version of Apple’s next operating system mentions a chip named “13G”. But since no such chip exists, the mysterious “13G” is thought to refer to the A14X in disguise.
The tip seems to confirm a recent Bloomberg report, which claims the iPad Pro 2021 will boast “an updated processor that is on par with the faster M1 chip” found in the company’s current MacBook laptops.
If the latest leak checks out, it suggests the A14X – and therefore the next iPad Pro – could be unveiled sooner rather than later.
As it stands, the iPad Pro 2021 is tipped to launch next month. We’re expecting to see two versions, with the larger, 12.9-inch model boasting a Mini LED display. And with the A14X chip under the bonnet, there should be more than enough oomph to show off Mini LED’s LCD-beating contrast and colour reproduction.
The A14X chip is said to use a compact “System-on-Chip” design. There’s even been a leaked speed test by Geekbench that suggests the new chip is faster than the Intel Core i9 processor in the 2020 MacBook Pro (via AppleInsider).
Sounds impressive, but we’ll keep you up to date with all the latest leaks in the run up to Apple’s next launch event. We’re due a bumper crop of Apple devices this year, including the iPad Pro 2021, AirPods 3 wireless earbuds, AirPods Pro 2 noise-cancelling buds, iPhone 13 and new Apple TV.
MORE:
Read our in-depth review of the Apple iPad (2020)
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Apple’s first over-ear headphones rated: AirPods Max
OnePlus is switching to ColorOS, the variant of Android used by Oppo smartphones, for its new OnePlus 9 series in China. The move was announced on OnePlus’ forums by Gary C, the product lead on OxygenOS, which is what OnePlus phones use in the rest of the world.
“As a global technology company, we always look for ways to address the different usage habits and preferences among our users worldwide,” Gary C says. “We truly believe this customized new operating system will bring our Chinese users a software experience that is better suited to their liking.”
This doesn’t change anything for the global OnePlus 9 series that’s set to be unveiled in full tomorrow — it’ll still run OxygenOS. But it does appear to spell the end for HydrogenOS, which is the China-specific version of Android that OnePlus had previously been using for all of its phones that shipped in the mainland.
ColorOS is already used by a lot more people in China than HydrogenOS; Oppo recently became the biggest smartphone brand in its home country for the first time. I’m using it full-time right now as I review Oppo’s new Find X3 Pro flagship (pictured above), and I generally find it to be sleek and performant. There’s no denying that HydrogenOS (and OxygenOS) provide a more minimalist experience, though — if that’s your thing.
Oppo and OnePlus are both owned by Chinese conglomerate BBK Electronics, sharing a supply chain and often critical technology. Realme, another BBK brand, also used ColorOS at first before developing its own software called Realme UI. The companies tend to publicly downplay the connection between themselves, but OnePlus deciding to use Oppo’s software outright is one of the more conspicuous examples of collaboration to date.
Intel’s next generation NUC is coming soon and recent leaks have given us a good look at its planned specifications. The Intel NUC 11 Extreme Compute Element is a small, graphics card-sized PC designed for very compact cases. Despite its size, it looks like Intel won’t be cutting down on anything, offering up to a Core i9-11980HK CPU and 64GB of RAM.
Just like the previous NUC 9 Extreme, the slide leaked on Chiphell shows that the NUC 11 Extreme, codenamed “Driver Bay”, will have three CPU tiers to choose from. Options include Tiger Lake-H45 Core i9, Core i7, and Core i5 processors. These processors will be paired with up to 64GB of DDR4-3200 SODIMMs in a dual-channel configuration.
Image via Chiphell.
The slide further details the NUC 11 Extreme specifications, which include 3x M.2 slots for PCIe 4.0/3.0 storage and support for Intel Optane Memory M10, H10 and Optane SSDs. For display connectivity, there’s an HDMI 2.0b connector and 2x Thunderbolt 4 ports, supporting up to 3x 4K displays with the Intel iGPU. The mini-PC will also feature 6x USB-A 3.1 connectors, Intel 2.5G and/or 10G network interfaces, Bluetooth 5, and Wi-Fi 6.
Comparing both the NUC 9 Extreme and the NUC 11 Extreme, both units seem to be similarly sized with some aesthetic differences. The single 8-pin power connector is at the same position as its predecessor, on the top right corner. The cooling solution has been modified with a slightly bigger fan and located closer to the centre. The cover has also been changed, replacing the old Intel logo with Intel’s skull.
We recently spent some time modding the Intel NUC 9 Extreme, so if you are interested in mini-PCs, be sure to check out our series on that, HERE.
KitGuru says: The NUC 11 Extreme is shaping up to be very powerful, especially for its size. Have any of you used an Intel NUC before? What do you think of the upcoming NUC 11 Extreme?
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Windows 10X reportedly coming H2 2021 for education and business devices
Back in 2019, Microsoft announced an operating system dedicated to dual-screen devices named Windows 10X. …
João Silva 12 hours ago Featured Tech News, Operating Systems
Back in 2019, Microsoft announced an operating system dedicated to dual-screen devices named Windows 10X. Initially scheduled for a release in 2020, Microsoft changed its focus onto devices with a single screen and changed the release date to H1 2021. Now, a new report suggests the release has been delayed once again, with Microsoft planning to release it in H2 2021.
According to Windows Central, Microsoft plans to release the final build of Windows 10X in late spring, but the first devices featuring it may only arrive a few months after. Microsoft refused to comment on the delay, but it has likely occurred to ensure stability at launch.
Some have theorised that the delay could be down to Microsoft introducing support for Win32 apps. However, Windows Central’s sources claim that Microsoft still has no plans to support Win32 on Windows 10X. Instead, users will need to find alternatives, such as Windows Virtual Desktop, or cloud-based apps.
Windows 10X has been in the works for a couple of years now, aimed at entry-level and business PCs. Microsoft’s previous attempt at this came in the form of Windows 10 S, which was also aimed at students.
KitGuru says: This is Microsoft’s second attempt at re-building Windows 10 for the purposes of education and business. It could be a while before we see it in action though. Microsoft typically makes Windows OS announcements each year in April, so we should have an update on this soon.
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Intel NUC 11 Extreme Compute Element to feature up to Intel Core i9-11980HK
Intel’s next generation NUC is coming soon and recent leaks have given us a good …
It might take longer than expected for Windows 10X to debut. Windows Central reports that Microsoft planned to have the operating system ready to ship in the first half of the year; now it’s said to be aiming for the second half.
Windows 10X was revealed in February 2020 as Microsoft’s plan for dual-screen devices and foldable PCs. The operating system was supposed to debut in fall 2020 on the Surface Neo as well as products from Dell, Asus, HP, and Lenovo.
We even got a peek at Windows 10X via a virtual machine Microsoft released to help developers prepare for the dual-screen future that seemed oh-so-imminent until the COVID-19 pandemic forced much of the tech industry to scuttle their plans.
Microsoft announced in May 2020 that it was shifting Windows 10X’s focus to single-screen devices, and in July 2020 it said the operating system wouldn’t debut until 2021, with a version for dual-screen devices scheduled for release in 2022.
Windows Central said that, according to its anonymous sources, Windows 10X’s release window has shifted to the second half of 2021 “to ensure the product is ready and robust for a smooth release.” An exact timeframe wasn’t provided.
The report also indicated that Microsoft has developed this version of Windows 10X for “low-cost educational and enterprise focused PCs.“ Consumer products will instead receive the Sun Valley user experience update to Windows 10 this year.
We’ve reached out to Microsoft for more information about Windows 10X’s launch window and what device categories the company’s targeting with this initial version of the operating system. We’ll update this post if the company responds.
OnePlus’ long-awaited first smartwatch has made its first appearance ahead of the company’s upcoming March 23rd launch event, which is feeling increasingly irrelevant as almost every piece of news about its new product lineup trickles online in bits and pieces.
Revealed fully for the first time by Unbox Therapy, the creatively named OnePlus Watch doesn’t appear to break too much new ground when it comes to smartwatch design. Visible are two buttons on the right side of the watch (notably, there’s no scrolling crown-style wheel) on an otherwise normal-looking watch. Also of interest are what appears to be standard watch straps, instead of the proprietary bands that are popular among companies like Apple and Fitbit.
The image also gives a first look at the Watch’s new OS, which OnePlus CEO Pete Lau confirmed in a forum post is not running Wear OS, but instead an RTOS-style operating system. Lau’s post also promises “seamless connectivity” to OnePlus phones, headphones, and TVs, and an “affordable price point.”
Smartphone leaker Ishan Agarwal has also revealed more specific details on the specs of the OnePlus Watch claiming that it will measure in at 46mm, feature IP68 water resistance, and feature a version of OnePlus’ Warp Charge system (promising a week of battery life off a 20-minute charge). It’ll also have 4GB of storage and the ability to see notifications, incoming calls, and automatically detect workouts.
Exclusive: OnePlus Watch Specifications
– 46mm – IP68 – Warp Charge (A week of charge in 20 minutes) – Sleep, Stress, Blood Saturation, Heart Rate Monitoring – Check Notifications, Calls – Control OnePlus TV – 4GB Storage – Auto Workout Detection
Agarwal also says that the watch will be able to track sleep, stress, blood oxygen saturation, and heart rate — which could correspond to the four colorful tracking bars seen on the watchface in Unbox Therapy’s image.
Writing an operating system to a Raspberry Pi involves micro SD cards and a tool such as balenaEtcher. Around a year ago an official Raspberry Pi Imager tool was released, this tool offered a simple means to write an OS to a card and it came with a great choice of OS for retro gaming, 3D printing and general computing. In the latest update there is a hidden advanced menu offering more configuration options.
(Image credit: Future)
Raspberry Pi Imager v1.6 has an advanced menu which is hidden away from general users just looking to write an operating system for the Pi. To activate the menu we need to press CTRL + SHIFT + X and we then gain access to advanced options that enable advanced users to customize the OS to meet their needs before they write the software to a micro SD card.
In the Advanced Options menu we can change
Overscan, to remove borders from our screen.
Hostname, identify your Pi on a network.
SSH on boot, useful for headless and remote projects.
WiFi, setup your WiFi without editing a config file.
Locale, set your language and location.
These changes can be made for a single session, for example writing a one off OS to an micro SD card, or we can set Raspberry Pi Imager to use these settings each time. For Raspberry Pi users these advanced features are a welcome addition to an already great application. For they an now quickly and easily set these settings and then write the OS to a micro SD card, rather than tweak config files which could be quite a task if working with multiple cards.
The Corsair K65 RGB Mini is a well-performing highly customizable keyboard that should help raise awareness for the 60% form factor despite a few (mostly cosmetic) flaws.
For
+ Bounty of customization options
+ Polling rates up to 8,000 Hz
+ Doubleshot PBT keycaps
+ Custom spacebar, Esc key
Against
– Pinging on common keys
– Cosmetic problems with many keycaps
– 8,000 Hz polling rate may not be useful
Corsair today announced that it’s entering the 60% keyboard market with the Corsair K65 RGB Mini ($109.99). This diminutive board ditches the number pad, arrow cluster and other keys so it can occupy as little desk space as possible without compromising on the stuff that matters most to gamers. Mechanical switches? Present. RGB lighting? Accounted for. True love? Never say never.
This keyboard also shows that the 60% form factor is becoming mainstream among the best gaming keyboards. Other manufacturers have offered 60% keyboards for years, of course, and enthusiasts have designed even smaller boards for personal use. But the K65 RGB Mini’s arrival means Corsair has joined Razer, HyperX, and other prominent gaming manufacturers in embracing the form factor. And it looks to stand out with a unique custom spacebar and whopping 8,000 Hz polling rate that you probably won’t notice.
Corsair K65 RGB Mini Specs
Switches
Cherry MX RGB Red (tested), Cherry MX Silent Red or Cherry MX Speed Silver
The most important aspect of the K65 RGB Mini is its size. It measures in at 11.6 inches long, 4.1 inches wide and 1.7 inches tall at its peak, making it similar to the HyperX Alloy Origins 60 (11.5 x 4 x 1.5 inches). Although, Corsair’s 60% keyboard will feel slightly lighter than HyperX’s (1.6 pounds versus 1.3 pounds). The bad news for those who like some extra height (perhaps due to an extra thick wrist rest), the K65 RGB Mini’s height isn’t adjustable, as it doesn’t have any adjustable feet.
Corsair achieved those measurements by paring the keyboard down to the most essential keys, most of which pull double duty when they’re pressed at the same time as the Fn key. Many of those dual functions make sense. The Backspace key is also used as Delete, for example, and the number row serves as a de facto function row as well. But there are many other combinations besides: several keys have been assigned media functions Z to B’s secondary functions control lighting aspects of the keyboard, and the keys above them perform mouse functions. These functions are all reprogrammable if you download the keyboard’s software. We’ll talk more about that later.
For now, let’s get back to the basics. The K65 RGB Mini boasts a braided, detachable USB-C to USB-A cable that should make travel easier. Corsair makes the keyboard stand out a little more by including an extra Esc keycap with the Corsair logo on it and a fancy spacebar. These are a cheaper form of plastic, ABS, than the rest of the keycaps.
The custom spacebar looks cool, even if I prefer the topographic design HyperX used for the Alloy Origins 60. Its light texturing adds a bit of flair without becoming a distraction every time the key is pressed. And it probably would’ve been enough to help the K65 RGB Mini stand out. Corsair didn’t stop there, however. The company also used a custom finish on the standard keycaps that makes it look like someone with severe dandruff scratched their scalp over the keyboard.
The keycaps also suffer from a lack of clarity on their legends that can make it hard to see the RGB backlighting and make the keys seem a bit messy even when the lighting is off. This problem is most noticeable in the number row, but it affects other keycaps as well. That doesn’t really matter while the keyboard’s actually in use, of course, but it does undermine Corsair’s other efforts to make the K65 RGB Mini aesthetically pleasing.
It’s a shame, too, because the standard keycaps are doubleshot PBT plastic that should be able to withstand all sorts of abuse. (Not that any of us have ever been anything but totally gentle with a keyboard, of course.) Doubleshot PBT is typically more durable than ABS. And these succeed in preventing that shiny look. Beneath those 1.5mm-thick keycaps lies your choice of one of three Cherry MX switches rated for between 50 million and 100 million keystrokes, so the K65 RGB Mini should prove fairly durable, despite its plastic exterior.
Typing Experience
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
In an attempt to appeal to gamers who want switches that are easy to depress, the K65 RGB Mini comes with a range of linear switch options: Cherry’s MX Silent Red, MX Speed Silver or MX RGB Red. We tested the keyboard with the latter, essentially standard MX Red with a transparent casing meant to help the LEDs underneath them shine through. Cherry’s official website puts the MX RGB Reds at requiring 30 cN initial force and 45 cN actuation force with 2mm pretravel and 4mm total travel. It’s a solid linear switch that offers very little resistance throughout a smooth keypress.
After about a week with the K65 RGB Mini, I averaged 125.6 words per minute (wpm) with 97.7% accuracy on the 10fastfingers.com typing test. That’s faster than I was with the Alloy Origins 60 (117 wpm) but equally accurate. Some of that speed boost may have more to do with me getting more familiar with the test and 60% keyboards though.
While appropriate for gaming, I find Red switches a bit light to depress for heavy typing. Your experience may vary, but I find that any hesitation when pressing a key can result in an accidental keypress. Tactile mechanical switches would come in handy in that regard, but, again, the K65 RGB Mini is only available with linear ones. The 60% layout also takes some getting used to. People who need a number pad balk at tenkeyless keyboards; I bet they gasp in horror upon sight of a 60% board.
That’s all just a matter of acclimation, though, even if Corsair decided to put the arrow keys all the way on the “UHJK” cluster instead of somewhere closer to where they’d be on a larger keyboard. Buying a 60% keyboard is making a commitment to learning how to perform everyday functions on that particular board, and I don’t recommend switching between various models.
But the biggest problems with typing on the K65 RGB Mini are its noise levels and lack of ergonomic control. In a side-by-side comparison, the keyboard was louder than the Alloy Origins 60, the full-sized Asus ROG Strix Scope RX with optical mechanical switches and other boards I’ve reviewed lately, with notable pinging on certain keys. Every time I hit the “Shift” key or the spacebar it sounds like I’m operating an old-timey cash register.
The lack of feet on the bottom of the keyboard also means the K65 RGB Mini is limited to just one height. That might not bother some people, but it’s nice to have more control over a keyboard’s positioning.
Gaming Experience
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
When gaming, the K65 RGB Mini feels a lot like other keyboards with linear mechanical switches but with the added bonus of leaving more desk space available to the mousepad. Its keys feel responsive, which is exactly what people expect from linear switches. Sometimes that led to mis-presses for me but not as often as when I’m just typing.
None of these traits are exclusive to the K65 RGB Mini. By now we’ve come to expect that a gaming keyboard will offer reliable inputs, responsive switches,and features like n-key rollover; their absence would be more notable than their presence.
The K65 RGB Mini’s standout features are similarly hard to notice. It features the Corsair Axon Hyper-Processing Technology that was introduced in October 2020. Corsair said the feature is enabled by a 32-bit Arm Cortex SoC running a “purpose-engineered real-time operating system.” It’s supposed to offer up to an 8,000 Hz polling rate and key scanning at a rate of 4,000 Hz. Most gaming keyboards offer 1,000 Hz polling rates, so the K65 RGB Mini is eight times as fast, in theory.
Here’s how the math breaks down: A 1,000 Hz polling rate leads to a 1ms delay between a key being pressed and a PC registering a keypress. The K65 RGB Mini’s maximum 8,000 Hz polling rate reduces that to a 0.125ms delay. Corsair has strayed from the 1,000 Hz standard before with the Corsair K100 RGB, but that much pricier keyboard’s maximum polling rate is 4,000 Hz.
That would all be something to celebrate, if only human eyes could perceive the 0.875ms of time Corsair Axon is saving. Estimates vary—Tobii claims we react to visual stimuli in about 80ms, while MIT has said we can recognize images that appear for just 13ms—but the consensus is that we can’t detect the kind of sub-millisecond difference Corsair is enabling with the greater-than-1,000 Hz polling rates.
In-game I didn’t notice any improvements either. I was still lumbering around the generations-old landscapes of Halo: Reach and accidentally using my utility before the round even starts in Valorant at exactly the same speeds that I was with other keyboards. That doesn’t make Corsair Axon a detriment to the K65 RGB Mini, though. It just means that it’s another spec that sounds impressive on paper but isn’t noticeable in-game.
To use the K65 RGB Mini’s 8,000 Hz polling rate, you must have the iCue software installed, as well as a USB 3.0 Type-A port and Windows 10 or macOS 10.15 or later. iCue warns that higher rates are limited based on system performance but doesn’t offer minimum specs, and there is an option to enable the Corsair Axon-afforded polling rates despite those warnings. (We’ve reached out to Corsair about recommended system specs for 8,000 Hz and will update this review if we hear back.)
Software and Features
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The K65 RGB Mini offers a bevy of customization features via Corsair’s iCue software. Most settings can be saved directly to the keyboard, and Corsair claimed the 8MB of onboard storage has capacity for between 50 and 200 profiles. (We’ve reached out to the company for clarification; our reviewer’s guide claims 50 but the keyboard’s packaging claims 200.)
Settings that have been saved to the K65 RGB Mini’s onboard storage are easy to cycle through using various modifier keys. The default layout has profile settings, brightness levels, and lighting effects assigned to the “Z” to “B” keys. Keyboard shortcuts can also be used to record, assign, and delete macros without having to venture into iCue beforehand.
iCue splits its settings into six categories: Key Assignments, Hardware Key Assignments, Lighting Effects, Hardware Lighting, Performance and Device Settings. Changes made via Key Assignments and Lighting Effects are only effective when the software is running; changes made to the other categories persist, as long as they’re saved to onboard storage first.
The Key Assignment categories at their most basic enable remapping, the ability to switch between languages with a keypress and simulate mouse input. You can also set them to perform more sophisticated actions, such as inserting predetermined text, launching specific programs, controlling media playback and running macros.
Each key offers two levels of customization. The first is activated when the key is pressed by itself, so I wouldn’t recommend it for keys that see a lot of use. If you don’t use the right Shift key a lot, however, it might make sense to have it perform another function instead. The second level of customization performs the specified action when the key is pressed alongside the Fn and Menu modifier buttons, and Corsair said additional modifier keys will be available soon.
RGB lighting categories perform as expected. The K65 RGB Mini offers per-key RGB backlighting that you can modify with iCue’s built-in lighting effects. Each of those effects offers at least some level of customization as well, including the ability to control how bright they are, what colors they include, what areas of the keyboard they affect and how they behave.
Performance mostly offers control over how the Windows Lock feature activated by pressing Fn + Win functions: It also controls the indicator colors shown when a key is locked, a profile is activated or a macro is being recorded.
Device Settings is used to update the K65 RGB Mini’s firmware, manage profiles saved to its onboard storage, control the brightness of its lighting, and change the active keyboard layout. It also offers a choice of polling rate: 125, 250, 500, 1,000, 2,000, 4,000, or 8,000 Hz.
Bottom Line
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The Corsair K65 RGB Mini is a niche product. It’s a 60% form factor keyboard from Corsair that’s only available with linear switches. It’s also Corsair’s first attempt at a lot of things: The company said this is its first keyboard with a 60% form factor, detachable USB C-to-A cable, function layers on each key and the ability to hit polling rates up to 8,000 Hz.
The K65 RGB Mini isn’t cheap either, but that cost is justified by the doubleshot PBT keycaps, braided cable and per-key RGB backlighting, as well as all the extensive gaming features enabled by iCue. Opting for Cherry MX switches instead of their more affordable counterparts also helps to explain Corsair’s pricing.
That doesn’t mean the K65 RGB Mini is perfect. The pinging on some keys is frustrating, the all-plastic build could raise questions about the keyboard’s durability and the cosmetic flaws in the keycaps take some getting used to.
It will be interesting to see how Corsair improves upon the 60% form factor in the future. But the K65 RGB Mini is still an exciting first attempt at a 60% keyboard;
Although I assembled it myself, and its software all comes from an open-source DIY project, in many ways my MiSTer is the most versatile computer I own. It’s a shapeshifting wonderbox that can change its own logic to make itself run like countless other machines as accurately as possible. From old arcade boards to early PCs to vintage consoles, MiSTer developers are devoted to helping it turn into an ever-expanding range of hardware.
If you’ve ever wanted to use computer software or hardware that is no longer available for sale, you’ve probably run into emulation before. It’s a huge field that often involves a ton of people working on a technically challenging feat: how to write software that lets one computer run code that was written for another. But there’s only so much traditional emulators can do. There are always inherent compromises and complexities involved in getting your current hardware to run software it was never designed to handle. Emulated operating systems or video games often encounter slowdown, latency, and bugs you’d never have encountered with the original devices. So what if there was a way to alter the hardware itself?
Well, that’s MiSTer. It’s an open-source project built upon field-programmable gate array (FPGA) technology, which means it makes use of hardware that can be reconfigured after the fact. While traditional CPUs are fixed from the point of manufacture, FPGAs can be reprogrammed to work as if they came right off the conveyor belt with the actual silicon you want to use.
What this means is, you’re not tricking a processor into believing it’s something else, you’re setting it up to run that way from the start. A MiSTer system can theoretically run software from the NES to the Neo Geo, to the Apple II or Acorn Archimedes, and deliver responsive, near-as-dammit accurate performance next to what you’d get from the actual devices.
Of course, it’s not as easy as that makes it sound. In order to program an FPGA to act like a computer from three decades ago, you have to intimately understand the original hardware. And that’s what makes MiSTer one of the technically coolest DIY projects going today, building on the knowledge of developers around the globe.
The DE10-Nano sandwiched between the I/O and USB hub boards.
FPGAs aren’t new technology. Two early companies in the field (sorry) were Altera, now owned by Intel, and Xilinx, now part of AMD. The two have competed since the 1980s for market share in programmable logic devices, largely serving enterprise customers. One of the biggest advantages of FPGAs on an industrial scale is that companies can iterate their software design on hardware before they need to manufacture the final silicon. FPGAs are widely used to develop embedded systems, for example, because the software and the hardware can be designed near-concurrently.
You might be familiar with FPGAs if you’ve come across Analogue’s boutique console clones, like the Mega Sg and the Super Nt. Those use FPGAs programmed in a certain way to replicate a single, specific piece of hardware, so you can use your original physical cartridges with them and get an experience that’s very close to the actual consoles.
The MiSTer project is built around more accessible FPGA hardware than you’d find in commercial or enterprise applications. The core of the system is an FPGA board called the DE10-Nano, produced by another Intel-owned company called Terasic that’s based out of Taiwan. It was originally intended for students as a way to teach themselves how to work with FPGAs.
The DE10-Nano looks somewhat similar to a Raspberry Pi — it’s a tiny motherboard that ships without a case and is designed to be expanded. The hardware includes an Altera Cyclone V with two ARM Cortex-A9 CPU cores, 1GB of DDR3 SDRAM, an HDMI out, a microSD card slot, a USB-A port, and Ethernet connectivity. It runs a Linux-based OS out of the box and sells for about $135, or $99 to students.
MiSTer is inspired by MiST, an earlier project that made use of an Altera FPGA board to recreate the Atari ST. But the DE10-Nano is cheaper, more powerful, and expandable, which is why project leader Alexey Melnikov used it as the basis for MiSTer when development started a few years back. Melnikov also designed MiSTer-specific daughterboards that enhance the DE10-Nano’s capability and make a finished machine a lot more versatile; the designs are open-source, so anyone is free to manufacture and sell them.
You can run MiSTer on a single DE10-Nano, but it’s not recommended, because the board alone will only support a few of the cores available. (A “core” is a re-creation of a specific console or computer designed to run on the MiSTer platform.) The one upgrade that should be considered essential is a 128MB stick of SDRAM, which gives MiSTer enough memory at the right speed to run anything released for the platform to date.
Beyond that, you’ll probably want a case, assuming you’d rather not run open circuitry exposed to the elements. There are various case designs available, many of which are intended for use with other MiSTer-specific add-ons that vertically attach to the DE10-Nano. An I/O board isn’t necessary for most cores, for example, but it adds a VGA port along with digital and analog audio out, which is useful for various setups. (A lot of MiSTer users prefer to hook up their systems to CRT TVs to make the most of the authentic output and low latency.) You can add a heatsink or a fan, which can be a good idea if you want to run the system for extended periods of time. And there’s a USB hub board that adds seven USB-A ports.
For my setup, I ordered the DE10-Nano, a 128MB SDRAM stick, a VGA I/O board with a fan, a USB hub board, and a case designed for that precise selection of hardware. These largely came from different sources and took varying amounts of time to show up; you can order the DE10-Nano from countless computer retailers, but other MiSTer accessories involve diving into a cottage industry of redesigns and resellers. Half of my parts arrived in a battered box from Portugal filled with shredded paper and loosely attached bubble wrap.
MiSTer accessories are based on Melnikov’s original designs, but since the project is open-source, many sellers customize their own versions. My case, for example, includes a patch cable that hooks directly into the IO board to control its lighting, while some others require you to route the LEDs yourself. The USB board, meanwhile, came with a bridge to the DE10-Nano that seemed to be a different height from most others, which meant I had to improvise a little with screw placements. Nothing I ordered came with instructions, so it did take some time to figure out what should go where, but everything worked fine in the end. The only other thing I had to do was go buy a small hex screwdriver for the final screws in the case.
That’s part of the fun with MiSTer. There’s a base specification that everything works around, but you’re still ultimately assembling your own FPGA computer, and you can adjust the build as much or as little as you want.
Once your hardware is set, you need to install the MiSTer software. There are a few ways to do this, and you’ll want to dig around forums and GitHub for a while so you know what you’re doing, but the method I went with was simple in the end — essentially, you format your microSD card with an installer package, put it into the DE10-Nano, plug in an Ethernet cable and a USB keyboard, power on the system, and it’ll download all of the available cores. Your SD card will then be set up to boot the MiSTer OS directly, and you can run another script to make sure everything’s updated with the most recent versions.
The MiSTer OS is very simple, with a default background that looks like pixelated TV static and a basic menu in a monospaced font that lets you select from lists of console and computer cores. The first thing I did was load some old Game Boy Advance ROMs I dumped well over a decade ago, because for some reason Nintendo doesn’t want to sell them for the Switch. (Please sell them for the Switch, Nintendo.) The performance felt about as authentic as I could’ve expected, except for the fact that I was looking at a 4K TV instead of a tiny screen.
My main reason for getting into MiSTer is to have a hardware-based way to access the parts of computer history that I missed, or to revisit forgotten platforms that I was around for. I knew that computer systems like the Apple II and the Amiga were big gaps in my knowledge, so it’s great to have a little box that can run like either of them on command. I’ve also been getting into the MSX platform, which was popular in Japan in the ’80s. My next rainy-day project is to work on an install of RISC OS, the Acorn operating system that was on the first computers I ever used at school in the UK. (You can actually still buy licensed ROM copies of various versions of the OS, which was a neat surprise.)
MiSTer development is a vibrant scene. Melnikov has a Patreon that’s updated several times a week with improvements he’s made to various cores, but there are lots of other people contributing to the project on a daily or weekly basis. A colleague introduced me to the work of Jose Tejada, for example, who’s based in Spain and has made a ton of progress on replicating old Capcom arcade machine boards. There’s another project aiming to get the original PlayStation running, marking the biggest step yet into 3D hardware on MiSTer.
FPGAs are often talked about as if they’re a silver bullet for perfect emulation, but that’s really not the case — at least, not without a lot of effort. Anything that runs perfectly on MiSTer, or as close to perfectly as is otherwise imperceptible, is the result of a ton of work by talented programmers who have spent time figuring out the original hardware and applying the knowledge to their cores. Just read this post from the FPGA PSX Project about what it took to get Ridge Racer running on MiSTer, as well as the assessment of how far they have to go. The cores can vary in quality, accuracy, and state of completion, but a lot of them are still under active development and huge strides have been made in the past couple of years.
Analogue lead hardware engineer Kevin Horton spoke to The Verge in 2019 about the work that went into re-creating the Sega Genesis for the Mega Sg console. The process took him nine months, including two-and-a-half months figuring out the CPU at the heart of the console. “I didn’t know Genesis very well, and knew literally nothing about the 68000 CPU at all!” he said. “This was my first foray into both things and probably slowed the process down since I had to learn it all as I went.”
Ultimately, Horton confirmed the accuracy of his work by directly connecting a 68000 to an FPGA and comparing their performance on a test that ran for a week straight. It demonstrates the lengths that FPGA enthusiasts go to in pursuit of the most accurate results possible, but what makes MiSTer special is that this is largely the work of hobbyists. No one’s paying anyone a salary to make incremental tweaks to the performance of the arcade version of Bionic Commando, but that’s where Tejada has directed his passion.
MiSTer is an important project because it speaks to the concept of preservation in a way that all too often goes underserved by the technology industry. The project makes the argument that the way we run software is as big a part of our experience as its content. Yes, you can port or emulate or re-release software to run on modern hardware, but there’s always going to be a compromise in the underlying code that moves the pixels in front of your eyes.
Of course, that might sound like a pretty niche concern for anyone who’s satisfied with, say, the emulated software you can run in a browser at Archive.org. I’m often one of those people myself — emulation can be great, and it’s hard to beat the convenience. But the MiSTer project is an incredible effort all the same. I’ll never have a shred of the technical knowledge possessed by MiSTer developers, but I’m grateful for their effort. Once you build your own system, it’s hard not to feel invested in the work that goes into it; MiSTer is a never-ending pursuit of perfection, and there’s something beautiful about that.
Support for Microsoft’s Edge browser is ending today — not the new Chromium-based one, but the original Edge that was built as a replacement for Internet Explorer 11. Microsoft now calls it Legacy Edge, and the company announced it would be discontinuing the product back in August. That day has finally come: Legacy Edge will no longer receive security updates, and anyone still using it should start the process of switching to something else.
Legacy Edge was originally codenamed “Spartan” and was included with Windows 10 as the operating system’s default web browser before it was officially named Edge. The Edge mantle is being taken up by Microsoft’s Chromium-based browser, which was in beta throughout 2019 and officially launched in January 2020. This means Edge (the old Edge, that is) survived just over a year alongside its replacement. Microsoft also says Legacy Edge will automatically be removed by the April Windows 10 update, with the new Edge being installed in its stead.
If you’re the tech support person for your family, it’s worth checking in with your relatives to make sure Microsoft successfully bullied them into switching to the new Edge. If, somehow, it’s not installed on their computers (or your computer), you can download it directly from Microsoft’s website.
The death of Legacy Edge is bittersweet in some ways. By most metrics, the new Edge is vastly superior, but it does put the final nail in the coffin of Microsoft’s custom web-rendering engines, the history of which stretches back to early versions of Internet Explorer. It probably won’t be missed, given its… performance, but it’s still the end of an era. The old Edge is officially gone, and the new Edge has fully replaced it.
The Aya Neo — a Nintendo Switch-style handheld gaming PC that promises to offer a full-fledged PC gaming experience in the palm of your hands — is now available to back on Indiegogo, starting at $6,120 HKD (~$789 USD) for the 500GB model.
This version of the Neo is technically the second, following the limited, sold-out run of the “Founder’s Edition” that Aya offered back in January. The new, broader release promises several improvements over that initial version, including:
An improved operating system
Reduced weight
The option to toggle rumble
Better buttons
Better power consumption and performance presets
Improvements to issues that caused resolution scaling problems or blurry screens
The company also showed off a new optional $47 dock that adds two USB 3.2 Gen 1 type-A ports, one HDMI port, one SD card slot, one MicroSD card slot, and an ethernet jack — another similar concept to the Switch.
The rest of the specs for the Aya Neo are still the same: a 7-inch 1280×800 IPS display, a 10-25W AMD Ryzen 4500U CPU, 16GB of LPDDR4x RAM, three USB-C ports, and up to 6 hours of estimated battery life. Don’t expect to play triple-A games at high settings, but we were able to competently run Star Wars: Squadronsat 60fps with the Founder’s Edition, and it had nearly enough power to play the unfinished Valheim on the go.
All that said, the Aya Neo is still a crowdfunded product from a first time company. And while it’s certainly encouraging that Aya has managed to ship its initial Founder’s Edition run of Neos, there’s still the usual elements of risk when it comes to crowdfunded products — even ones that are technically second-generation models.
But if you are willing to roll the dice, you can back the Aya Neo on Indiegogo for $6,120 HKD (roughly $789 USD) for the 500GB model or $6,750 HKD (approximately $869 USD) for the 1TB model, which is about 10 percent off of what the products are planned to sell for after the crowdfunding campaign. Shipping is planned for May.
If you’ve ever needed remote access to a PC, you’ve probably tried VPN or other apps such as TeamViewer. However, this kind of software only works within the remote computer’s OS, which means that it can’t access the BIOS, reboot, install an operating system or power on the computer. There are several solutions that allow you to remote control a PC independently of its operating system, but using a KVM over IP is one of the most convenient and affordable.
While a store-bought KVM over IP device can cost hundreds of dollars, it’s easy to use a Raspberry Pi to create your own. A developer named Maxim Devaev designed his own system called Pi-KVM, which he is planning to sell as a $130 kit. However, if you have the right parts, you can use the software he’s developed and your Pi, to put it together for far less.
Below, we’ll show you how to build your own Raspberry Pi-powered KVM over IP that can output full HD video, control GPIO ports and USB relays, configure server power using ATX functions and more. You’ll be able to control the whole setup via a web browser from another device over the internet via TailScale VPN or on your local network.
Pi-KVM prototype v3 without case (Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
What You Need to Build a KVM Over IP with Raspberry Pi
Raspberry Pi 4 or Raspberry Pi Zero
16 GB or larger microSD Card. (See best microSD cards for Raspberry Pi)
HDMI-to-CSI bridge like this one or or USB HDMI capture dongle. (https://amzn.to/2ZO9tjo
USB female to dual male Type-A splitter like this one.
USB C to Type-A cable
5V, 3 amp power supply with USB Type-A output. You’ll be plugging a type-A cable into it so the official Raspberry Pi power supply won’t do.
Setting Up the SD Card for Raspberry Pi KVM Over IP
The software you need for the Raspberry Pi is all contained on a custom disk image that you must download and burn to a microSD card. Here’s how to do that with Raspberry Pi Imager, but you can also use other burning software such as balenaEtcher.
1. Download the Pi-KVM disk image. The first thing we will need is to download the ready made image from pikvm.org. Note that there are different versions, depending on which Pi you use and whether you use the HDMI-to-CSI bridge or an HDMI-to-USB capture dongle. The image file is in BZ2 format so you’ll need to uncompress it.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
2. Extract the IMG file from the BZ2 file you downloaded. If you have Windows, BZ2 support isn’t built-in, but you can use 7Zip to do it.
3. Launch Raspberry Pi Imager. If you don’t have it installed already, you can download it from the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s website.
4. Select “Choose OS” -> “Use Custom” and locate the Pi-KVM image.Pick your microSD card by clicking Choose SD Card. We will now “Choose SD Card”, make sure it’s the correct one you are choosing.
5. Click Write.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Setting Up the Raspberry Pi for KVM Over IP
Now that we have finished burning the microSD Card, we can move on to installing the HDMI-to-CSI-2 bridge or USB-to-HDMI dongle and prepping the OTG USB-c cable
1. Connect the CSI ribbon cable from the HDMI-to-CSI-2 bridge to the Raspberry Pi’s CSI camera port. Make sure that the blue marking faces the black clamp. If you are using an HDMI-to-USB dongle instead, connect it to a USB port on your Pi. If you are using a Pi Zero, you will need microUSB to USB Type-A hub.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
2. Disable the 5V pin on one of the USB Type-A male connectors from your splitter. The easiest way to do this is to place a small piece of Kapton tape over the right-most pin on the connector. You could also try cutting that leads to that pin, but that’s more complicated.
This will be the connector that attaches to a USB port on the PC you wish to control. If you don’t disable that 5V pin, it will back feed the power from your wall power to the PC, possibly causing damage to its USB port.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
3. Connect the USB C-to-A cable to the Type-A female connector on the splitter. This will provide power to the Pi. Your cables should look like the picture below.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
4. Connect the USB-C cable to the Raspberry Pi 4’s USB-C port.
5. Connect the unmodified Type-A male to your power supply.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
6. Attach the USB Type-A connector and HDMI to the PC you wish to remote control.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
7. Insert the microSD card we created and power on the Raspberry Pi.
Setting Up the Pi-KVM Software
At this point we are ready to start using the Pi-KVM. On first boot it will take longer then expected due to the initial process for enlarging the microSD card so be patient and it will boot.
1. Locate your Raspberry Pi’s IP address. You can do this looking through your router’s control panel to see what devices are logged on, or by using a little method I like to do called ARP.
To find the Pi’s IP using this method, launch Windows PowerShell, run the command “arp -a” and you’ll see a list of devices on your local network. Anything that begins with b8:27:eb: or dc:a6:32: is a Raspberry Pi.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
2. Navigate to the Pi’s IP address in a browser on your client computer (the one you are using to control the other PC). You will be redirected you to your login page.
3. Log in. The default username is admin and the password is admin also.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
4. Click the KVM icon.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
You should now be presented with a screen like the one shown below, providing you with access to the remote PC and a number of other menus. . I have more options then others and you can unlock them by going to the pikvm github for more instructions.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Keep in mind that the more storage you have on your sd card the more ISO images you can store and use for future PC setups.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
With the proper GPIO hook ups you can also enable the use of ATX controls
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
To expand the functionally of the PI-KVM to allow for more display inputs, you can connect it to an HDMI 4 port switch with USB control.
Pi-KVM Prototype V3 without case and KVM 4 port switch (Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Updating Pi-KVM to the Latest Version
Pi-KVM is always getting new features so it’s important to keep the software up to date. Fortunately, you don’t need to reflash the microSD card. To update:
1. Click the Terminal icon on Pi-KVM’s main menu. A CLI shell will appear.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
2. Become a super user by typing “su” and then entering “root” as the password.
3. Type “rw” to make the file system read/write.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
4. Enter “pacman -Syu” and “Y” to get updates.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Reminder: set the file system back to ReadOnly with “ro” in the command line when done.
Access Pi-KVM Over the Internet
You can use Tailscale to access Pi-KVM over the internet. This is a convenient and free (for private use) tool for organizing a small VPN network.
1. Create a Tailscale account choosing the Solo Plan will be free for personal use only
2. Click the Terminal icon on Pi-KVM’s main menu.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
3. Become a super user by typing “su” and then entering “root” as the password.
4. Type “rw” to make the file system read/write.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
5. Type “pacman -S tailscale-pikvm” to install tailscale VPN service on PI-KVM.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
6. Type “reboot” to perform a soft reboot on the Pi-KVM
7. After the reboot has been performed we will need to gain access to the terminal again so follow steps 1-4
8. Type “systemctl enable –now tailscaled” to enable to service
9. Type “tailscale up” to start the initiation process
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
10. Follow the Link to authorize this installation
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
11. Once connected successfully you will see “Success” appear on the terminal.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
12. Navigate to this URLhttps://login.tailscale.com/admin/machines to view the IP address assigned by tailscale VPN.
On the Client Side
This will show you how to install tailscale on the workstation side. Tailscale supports most operating systems including windows, mac, and linux.
1. Download tailscale for your OS from https://tailscale.com/download
2. Navigate to this URLhttps://login.tailscale.com/admin/machines to view the IP address assigned by tailscale VPN.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
3. Navigating to the IP address given by tailscale on your browser. It will connect you to your PI-KVM
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
This is a very affordable way to build a very modern, very fast KVM over IP without the high cost. This software is also provided to you for free. There are more features that I have not covered in this tutorial such as VPN, Sharing network from your PI to PC, VNC and many more and if you wish to learn about it, visit the Pi-KVM github page or join the Discord.
(Pocket-lint) – Redmi is fast becoming a key disruptor in the affordable phones market. The company’s Note 10 Pro, as reviewed here, makes it clear to see why: it’s dripping with specification that puts it a cut above its nearest of competition.
The brand name might not be instantly recognisable to all – Redmi is an offshoot of Xiaomi, hence no surprise the Note 10 Pro is like a watered-down Xiaomi Mi 11 in many respects – but when affordability is your main goal, and it simply functions as well as this, that’s not going to be a major barrier.
So if you’re seeking a phone that costs around a couple of hundred, is the Redmi Note 10 Pro appealing enough to knock the likes of the Motorola G30 out of contention?
Design & Display
6.67-inch AMOLED display, 1080 x 2400 resolution, 120Hz refresh rate
Upon pulling the Redmi Note 10 Pro from its box – here in “Onyx Gray”, which has a soft, almost blue hue about it – it’s comes across as a pretty good-looking slab of glass and plastic. There’s Gorilla Glass 5 to protect the front, and not a mass of bezel cutting into the screen either.
What is cutting into that screen more prominently than most is the punch-hole camera. It’s not even the scale of it – it’s a smaller diameter than you’ll find on recent Motorola handsets, for example – but because it’s got a silvery, shiny ring that can catch light and is a bit distracting. We’d rather it was pushed to the left side, more out of sight, and darkened please.
The Note 10 Pro’s rear is plastic, but not in a budget-looking way. Indeed it catches fingerprints in a similar fashion to glass, but it’s easy enough to wipe clean. And Redmi has chosen some pretty classy colour options too – none of the “Pastel Sky” (read: pink and mud-green) nonsense that Motorola opted for with the G30.
The only bother of the rear is that protruding camera bump. Not only is it large, it’s off-centre and, therefore, the phone wobbles about all over the place when laid upon a desk. Not that the main goal of a phone is to use it flat on a desk – you’ll normally have it in the hand – but it’s still a bugbear. A different camera enclosure would have negated this little aspect of the design.
The Note 10 Pro’s side-mounted fingerprint scanner is very neatly integrated, though, and we’ve found it to function very rapidly for logins. There’s also face unlock by using that front-facing camera, should you prefer. Oh, and if you’re still part of the wired headphones gang then the 3.5mm jack will prove a point of appreciation for you too.
And so to the screen. This is one aspect of the phone that really helps to sell it for a number of reasons. First, it’s large, at 6.67-inches on the diagonal. But, more important than that, it’s got a Full HD+ resolution that puts it a step beyond many of its near competitors. Motorola, for example, has dropped to just HD+ in its lower-end Moto G family (so around 50 per cent fewer pixels).
The Note 10 Pro’s screen is AMOLED based, too, meaning it can have an always-on display activated – which illuminates the edges in a subtle fashion when there’s a notification, as one example – for visuals to be available without actively needing to turn the display on.
That screen tech also means deep blacks, while colour is decent. As the software allows a brightness selection for night use we’ve not found the auto-brightness to be of any bother here either – which is refreshing, as it’s been a pain in basically every other MIUI software-based handset of recent times.
The other big feature of this screen is that it offers a 120Hz refresh rate. The theory here is that it can run at double the rate – 120 refreshes per second – to give a smoother visual experience. That can often be the case, too, just not in every single aspect of use. That’s the oddity of higher refresh rates: if you don’t have the hardware-software combination to handle it, then it’ll come a cropper. Thankfully it’s not too bad here, but there are some moments where the ultra-smooth swiping in, say, the Photos app gets stuttery when moving over to a different app instead.
Faster refresh is one of those nice-to-haves, sure, but 120Hz it’s not on by default – and even when you do go to activate it, MIUI describes it as a “medium” level refresh. It’s “low” for 60Hz, apparently, despite that being perfectly fine. And, um, there is no “high” – so the scale doesn’t make huge amount of sense. But it’s all a distraction really, from what’s an otherwise perfectly decent screen.
Performance & Battery
Qualcomm Snapdragon 732G platform, 6GB RAM
5,020mAh battery, 33W fast-charging
MIUI 12 software (over Android 11)
Even with the 120Hz refresh rate activated, the Redmi Pro doesn’t suffer from limited battery life. We’ve been using the phone for the week prior to the launch event as our own device – and in that time there’s usually 50 per cent battery remaining by bedtime. That’s 16 hours a time, so it’s on the edge of being a two-day laster.
The battery capacity is large, which is part of the reason for this longevity, but there’s also the instance of the processor and software combination. With Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 732G platform under the hood the Redmi hits that sweetspot of reasonable performance, limits overheating, and there’s no 5G possibility to grind it down either.
As chipsets go, the SD732 is capable of handling multiple apps, including games without particular graphical insufficiencies, meaning whether you want to run Zwift on your phone, dabble in a bit of PUBG Mobile, or hit some South Park: Phone Destroyer, it’s all within the Redmi Note 10’s reach.
The only slight stutters – and we mean very slight – tend to appear when jumping between apps. That’s when you can visually see a lowering of the frame-rate, hence the question over whether 120Hz is actually all that important here.
Running everything is Xiaomi’s MIUI 12 software, skinned over the top of Google’s Android 11 operating system. We’ve had very mixed experiences with this software in the recent past – with the Xiaomi Mi 11 it was limiting, in the Poco M3 it was irksome – but, oddly, in the Redmi Note 10 it’s caused us no significant issues. We’ve previously criticised Xiaomi’s software for being wildly inconsistent between devices (sometimes even on the same software version), but at least the Redmi gets the upper hand here.
That said, MIUI 12 does need some ‘training’, if you like. By default it battery limits every app, which you need to dig into in individual settings to rectify and ensure there’s no issue with limiting what an app can do and when, or how much power it can or can’t use in the background. However, even with the default option selected we’ve not had notification delays like we did have with the Xiaomi Mi 11. So there’s greater stability here.
In the past there’s been criticism for targeted ads in Xiaomi software, but that’s no proven a bother in this Redmi setup either. Yes, there’s still a separate Xiaomi store in addition to Google Play – which sometimes means apps will update from one, some from the other – but it’s enough in the background and out of the way that you basically needn’t worry about it.
So while we’d usually be criticising the software experience as the thing to hold a MIUI handset back, the Redmi Note 10 Pro actually fares well. In combination with its hardware loadout that makes for a generally smooth experience, too, plus a long-lasting one. Can’t say much better than that.
In terms of cameras the Redmi Note 10 Pro features what it calls a quad rear setup. That’s a bit of a stretch, really, as the depth sensor isn’t really needed or useful at all. And the ultra-wide angle isn’t the best of quality. But that’s most of the bad news out of the way.
The 5-megapixel macro sensor that’s on board is, just like that of the Mi 11, rather good fun. It’s not wildly accurate with autofocus, but at least it offers some. And sharpness isn’t pristine either – but it’s far better than what we’ve seen from umpteen lower-resolution so-called macro sensors on other phones.
The real take-way of the setup, however, is the 108-megapixel camera. If you can really consider it as that. While most makers use a four-in-one pixel methodology to gather more information and produce an image a quarter the size of the headline resolution, this Redmi goes with a nine-in-one pixel method. That means you’ll get 12-megapixel results as standard instead.
By using these nine pixels – think of it as a three by three row in a square – there’s the prospect of adding lots of comparison, more colour data, all of which can be processed into a sharp looking shot. Even in low-light conditions the Redmi Note 10 Pro’s results hold up well. We’ve been impressed.
There are limits though. As there’s no optical image stabilisation here, you’ll need a steady hand. And the Night Mode – which uses long exposure to combine multiple frames into one ‘brighter’ shot – doesn’t work well as a result. Without the stabilisation here things just don’t line-up well, making for soft, ‘mushy’ results. MIUI
No, there’s no zoom lens, so you don’t get any optical zoom fanciness, and the camera app is a bit compartmentalised in its approach, but the overall take-away from the Redmi Note 10 Pro’s camera is that the main lens delivers a lot from an affordable device. You could do a lot worse elsewhere.
First Impressions
As we said up top, Redmi is becoming a key disruptor in the affordable phone market. The Note 10 Pro makes it clear to see why: this device doesn’t just have a decent specification, it comes good on delivery too.
There’s more resolution here than on close rival Motorola handsets, the software is more stable than we’ve seen from other MIUI 12 handsets (although Motorola’s approach is clearly better), and that main 108-megapixel camera is most capable unit (although it does output at 12MP by default).
The shortcomings are only few and far between – that punch-hole camera is weird, the lack of optical stabilisation is a shame, and the camera bump (which causes ‘desk wobble’) jars somewhat – making the Redmi Note 10 Pro the most accomplished affordable phone we’ve yet seen in 2021.
Also consider
Moto G30
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Motorola always delivers better on software experience – and it’s the same here – but you’ll have to accept a lower-level processor and less attractive overall design as part of this otherwise well-priced budget handset.
Microsoft is starting to modernize some of the basic parts of Windows 10 by improving the system icons that are available in the operating system. A new preview build of Windows 10 is rolling out to testers this week, and it includes system icons that now adhere to Microsoft’s Fluent Design style.
The new icons include a more rounded and simplified look, and are available as a new font — Segoe Fluent Icons. Microsoft has also updated its new taskbar widget with the new icons, providing a good look at how basic icon changes can modernize even the smallest parts of Windows.
Some of the new system icons for Windows 10.Image: Microsoft
It’s a small change to Windows 10 that will appear later this year for most, but it’s part of a broader push by Microsoft to overhaul Windows 10. Microsoft updated some of its Windows 10 icons last year with colorful versions, and even tweaked the Start menu to make it a little more streamlined.
Microsoft is also planning a “sweeping visual rejuvenation of Windows,” codenamed Sun Valley. It might seem like Microsoft has been promising visual overhauls of Windows 10 for years with its Fluent Design push, but even bigger UI changes look set to appear later this year.
The Windows Start menu, File Explorer, and built-in apps are all expected to be overhauled as part of this UI refresh. Even basic things like buttons, controls, and sliders in apps should get some design love. This should mean Windows will look a lot more consistent, and hopefully a lot of the ancient icons and Windows 95-era prompts start to disappear.
The new system icons in action.Image: Microsoft
Microsoft has put a lot of work into improving its UI consistency in Windows 10X, an upcoming version of Windows that will be designed for Chromebook-like devices. Windows 10X includes a new Start menu, and lots of changes to basic controls like Wi-Fi, the notification center, and more. It feels like a stripped back, more simplified version of Windows.
How Microsoft markets Windows 10X could be a hint at where it sees Windows heading in the future. Rumors suggest the company is gearing up to use “the new Windows” as a marketing term, and we’re expecting Microsoft to have a lot more Windows news soon. Microsoft is planning events in the coming weeks to detail its future plans for gaming, Windows, and more.
While Microsoft held its Ignite conference this week, the company had very little to say about Windows. Microsoft’s head of Windows and devices, Panos Panay, acknowledged that news is on the way, though. “I haven’t talked about the next generation of Windows, and what’s coming next,” said Panay during an Ignite session earlier this week. “I’m so pumped. The future of Windows is incredible, but we’re here today to talk about Windows 10.”
It’s unusual to hear Microsoft talk about its “next generation of Windows,” particularly as the company has stuck to the Windows 10 branding since its debut nearly six years ago. I don’t think that means we’re about to see a Windows 11, but how Microsoft separates out Windows 10 and Windows 10X will be key to avoiding any confusion (hello, Windows RT). That’s especially true if Windows 10X doesn’t support legacy desktop apps at launch, as our recent look at the OS suggests.
CircuitPython, Adafruit’s enhanced fork of the MicroPython language, runs on nearly 200 different microcontroller boards, including the Raspberry Pi Pico, and it could soon become an operating system for regular (non-Pico) Raspberry Pis. While appearing as a guest on the Tom’s Hardware Pi Cast this week, CircuitPython Programming Lead Scott Shawcroft told us that he wants to create a version of the language that single-board computers like the Raspberry Pi Zero, Pi 4 and Pi 400 can boot straight into, without the overhead of a full operating system.
“I’d like to get CircuitPython running on the Raspberry Pi alone, without Linux underneath it,” Shawcroft said in response to our questions about whether he plans to add Pico VGA output support to the languages. “So, when I think of ‘I want to interface with a TV’ sorts of tasks, I want to actually go the route of getting CircuitPython running the A series chips on the regular Raspberry Pis instead of putting my time into the VGA sorts of things on the Pico, because that’s super limited.”
Recently, a number of Raspberry Pi Pico projects have used the chip’s ability to output to VGA. Ben Stragnell created a Pico-powered NES emulator and, on another recent episode of the Pi Cast, Raspberry Pi Pico SDK author Graham Sanderson showed off a BBC Micro emulator he had created for the microcontroller. However, to Shawcroft’s point, the Pico and its 133 MHz RP2040 processor will never provide the kind of high-res, high refresh rate video out that a regular Pi can.
“If we can get CircuitPython running on a CM4, a Pi 4 or a Pi 400, that means that you can have that nostalgia programming experience on a 4K display or two 4K displays and, if we’re running native on the devices, we can still have that experience of like plug it in and it shows up as a drive, depending on how its connected,” Shawcroft said.
Aside from just allowing better video out than a Pico can handle, bringing CircuitPython to Raspberry Pi as an OS would have other advantages. It would likely allow a regular Raspberry Pi to act more like a microcontroller, booting and running its default program almost instantly and turning off without the need for a safe-shutdown process.
We got more details about this idea from Shawcroft after the show was over and he noted that, while he thinks that bootable CircuitPython for Raspberry Pi will happen, it’s just an idea at this point with no scheduled rollout.
A more immediate priority, which Shawcroft is starting to work on now, is creating the framework for users to edit CircuitPython over Bluetooth LE from mobile devices. So anyone who only has access to a phone or tablet will be able to edit code on a Bluetooth-enabled microcontroller using a mobile app or perhaps a browser. This will allow children, who may not have PCs, to get in on the programming experience.
Whenever bootable CircuitPython comes to Raspberry Pi, its workflow could take one of several forms. First, if the Pi supports USB host mode as Pi 4 and Zero do, you would be able to connect it to a PC and have it appear as a storage device you can write files to, much in the way you write files to CircuitPython-powered microcontrollers.
However, it’s also possible that the Pi could boot to a command interpreter that looks and acts similar to the way people programmed in BASIC on a Commodore 64. Shawcroft has actually played around with this mode of Python input and placed a demo of it, along with an animation of the demo in action, on his github. You also might be able to program the Pi via Bluetooth LE.
Even though there’s no bootable version yet, Raspberry Pi users do have a way to use CircuitPython right now. The Adafruit Blinka library for Python, which you can install via pip, allows you to add CircuitPython code to regular Python programs.
While Shawcroft may not have time to work on bootable CircuitPython for a while, he noted that other developers are free and encouraged to take up the project.
“If folks like this idea, then I’d encourage them to reach out to help make it happen,” he said. “We’re always looking for more CircuitPython contributors. My highest priority is always to support others working on CircuitPython so I’m happy to give guidance and get things merged into CircuitPython proper. I’d love to see CircuitPython supported directly on Pis and other single board computers.”
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