Battle royale shooter Apex Legends now has more than 100 million unique players globally, EA and Respawn announced on Wednesday. The free-to-play game surpassed the big milestone just over two years after its February 2019 launch.
Apex Legends’ success is just the latest indication that free-to-play battle royale shooters remain very popular, despite the genre becoming quite crowded over the past couple of years. Activision’s Call of Duty: Warzone hit more than 75 million players last August, reaching that mark less than five months after its March 2020 launch. And Epic Games said that its smash hit Fortnite had an eye-popping 350 million registered players last May — presumably, that number has only climbed.
Since Apex Legends’ launch on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC, Respawn has continued to add new content and updates to the game, and it even released a (delayed) port to the Nintendo Switch in March. The game now has 16 playable characters, three different maps, and is currently in its eighth season.
Nintendo broadcast its latest “Indie World Showcase” today, and the 20-minute event was pretty packed full of announcements for upcoming Switch games. There’s a good amount of variety, too: everything from fantastical skateboarding worlds to procedurally generated road trips to a puzzle classic that’s available later today. If you missed out on the presentation, here are the highlights.
Road 96.
Road 96
Described as “a narrative-focused game with a mix of adventure, exploration, and puzzle-solving,” Road 96’s story features procedurally generated elements, meaning no two road trips will be exactly alike, and choice will also play a big part in how it unfolds. It’s expected to launch on the Switch later this year.
Oxenfree II: Lost Signals
A surprise sequel to the incredibly surreal adventure game Oxenfree, which has some strong Stranger Things vibes. The sequel is set five years after the first game and will be launching sometime this year.
OlliOlli World
One of the best skateboarding games around is getting a bit… weirder. OlliOlli World trades in real-world locations for a strange fantasy world where you set out in search of mystical skate gods, but it looks to keep the same tight 2D skateboarding action as its predecessors. It’s due out this winter.
Aerial_Knight’s Never Yield.
Aerial_Knight’s Never Yield
Aerial_Knight’s Never Yield is a runner, but one with an incredible amount of style. It takes place in a futuristic take on Detroit, one inspired in part by Tokyo, and it has a soundtrack that jumps between hip-hop and jazz. It’ll be available on the Switch starting on May 19th, with a demo out later today.
The Longing.
The Longing
The Longing is already out on PC, but the Switch version — which is out today — gives a new audience a chance to experience this strange game that takes 400 real-world days to finish. Seriously. Here’s the basic premise:
Play as a lonely Shade, the last servant of a king who once ruled an underground kingdom. The king’s powers have faded and he falls asleep for 400 days to regain his might. It is your duty to stay in the earthen palace until he awakens.
As soon as you start, the game inevitably counts down the 400 days: even when you stop playing and exit the game.
It is now up to you to decide what to do with your solitary existence beneath the soil. Don’t stress yourself, you have plenty of time.
Fez
One of the most influential indie games of all time, the perspective-shifting puzzle game Fez is making its much-belated debut on the Switch. Even better: it’s out today.
Last Stop.
Hindsight and Last Stop
Annapurna Interactive — a publisher with an incredible track record, thanks to games like Florence and Sayonara Wild Hearts — revealed that two of its upcoming games are headed to the Switch. They include Hindsight, a game about discovering memories through objects, and Last Stop, the next release from Virginia studio Variable State. Both are expected to launch this year.
Parallels is releasing an update to its Desktop virtual machine software that allows M1 Mac owners to install Windows 10 on Arm. Parallels Desktop 16.5 now includes the necessary native support to run the Arm version of Windows on M1 chips, following Apple’s decision not to support Boot Camp on M1 Macs.
The latest version of Parallels Desktop for Mac now allows M1 Mac owners to run Windows 10 on Arm apps or traditional x86 apps side by side with Mac or iOS apps on Big Sur. There will be some app limitations on the Windows 10 on Arm side, thanks to its own app emulation, but Windows 10 on Arm will soon support x64 app emulation, too.
Windows 10 running on an M1 MacBook Pro.Image: Corel
Parallels Desktop maker Corel says its latest update also results in some impressive performance and battery improvements over running the software on Intel-based Macs. According to Corel, the 16.5 update uses up to 250 percent less energy on an M1 Mac, compared to an Intel-based MacBook Air. There’s also a promise of up to 60 percent better DirectX 11 performance and up to 30 percent better overall virtual machine performance running the Arm version of Windows 10 on an M1 Mac instead of a Windows 10 VM on an Intel-based MacBook Pro.
The main drawback is that you’ll need to run a preview version of Windows to make this all work. Microsoft only currently licenses the Arm version of Windows 10 to PC makers, so there’s no official way to buy a copy yet. The software maker does provide a Windows 10 on Arm preview build, which can be downloaded from Microsoft’s Windows Insider website.
Alongside the Windows 10 on Arm support, Parallels Desktop 16.5 for Mac also supports Linux distros like Ubuntu 20.04, Kali Linux 2021.1, Debian 10.7, and Fedora Workstation 33-1.2.
Open Broadcaster Software (OBS), the go-to software for streamers, is getting native support for Nvidia’s excellent noise-removal technology, the graphics card manufacturer announced today. Although it was previously possible to get the same effect by combining OBS with Nvidia’s Broadcast software, you’ll now be able to adjust the background noise-removal feature directly from within OBS. It’s currently available with the beta version of OBS Studio 27 and will be coming in a full release soon.
Nvidia’s noise-removal technology has been around for a little while, first as RTX Voice and then as one of the features built into Nvidia Broadcast. The AI-powered tool can cancel out everything from keyboard clacking to your PC’s loud fans. It’s a great addition to a streamer’s arsenal, helping to filter out distracting background noise so viewers can focus on game audio and a streamer’s commentary.
The integration means you can control the noise-removal feature from OBS.Image: Nvidia
According to Nvidia’s announcement, you’ll need to download its Broadcast Audio Effects SDK to get the feature to work with the new beta version of OBS Studio 27. You’ll also need the company’s latest game-ready driver. Once you’ve got those downloaded, here’s how Nvidia describes the setup process:
To use the new feature, open OBS, right click on your audio source in the Audio Mixer, select “Filters”, click on the “+” on the lower left of the new Filters window, pick the “Noise Suppression” filter, enter a name, click on the new filter in the list, expand the “Method” dropdown, select “NVIDIA Noise Removal”, tweak the intensity based on how loud your background noises are, then close the Filters window. NVIDIA Noise Removal is now active.
The new integration arrived with Nvidia’s latest game-ready driver, which also adds support for Mortal Shell’s RTX update as well as six new G-Sync-compatible displays.
Sony’s new PS5 software update is live right now, and includes some surprise improvements to HDR and 120Hz support. While Sony already detailed a big new feature to let players store — but not play — PS5 games on an external hard drive, there’s also a new option to automatically switch video output to non-HDR when you’re using a game or app that doesn’t support HDR.
This is a key improvement for those using HDR on the PS5, as it now means you no longer have to dig into the settings menu to manually disable HDR when you’re viewing SDR content.
Alongside these HDR changes, this update also adds two new HDMI controls in the system part of the PS5 settings menu. You can now toggle one-touch play, which will automatically turn on a connected TV when you power up a PS5 and switch it to the correct input. You can also toggle power off link, which allows the PS5 to enter rest mode if you turn off the TV connected to your console.
Sony is also supporting 120Hz with more PC monitors with this update. If you have a 1080p PC monitor that supports 120Hz, it should now work at this refresh rate with the PS5. Unfortunately, Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) support is still missing on the PS5, though.
This latest software update also includes better options for quickly disabling in-game chat, an option to search for purchased games, and the ability to hide games in a library.
Oculus is announcing that wireless PC streaming, a 120Hz refresh rate, and improvements to Infinite Office will be coming to the Oculus Quest 2 with the v28 software update, which the company says will be rolling out soon.
Infinite Office is a feature that Oculus includes as part of Oculus Home, which lets users work in a virtual environment. With the v28 update, Infinite Office will have an experimental feature that allows users to add a virtual desk where their real-life desk is, letting users know where they can sit and put real-life physical objects down without having to leave VR. The Quest 2 will also be able to show a virtual representation of the Logitech K830 keyboard, though Facebook says that support for visualizing more keyboard models will be coming in the future.
Another feature coming with the update is the ability to stream games or applications from your desktop PC wirelessly. Oculus calls its wireless streaming feature Air Link, named after the Link cable that can be used to connect the headset to a PC. The feature will only work well with some network setups — the instructions to turn it on are pretty clear that you’ll need good Wi-Fi to get an acceptable experience, and that the Link cable will still provide the best visual quality.
Facebook says that it hasn’t ruled out the possibility of bringing Air Link to the original Quest at some point in the future, but it does say that it’s “focused on optimizing Air Link to be the best possible experience for Quest 2 first.”
We do know that the original Quest hardware is capable of wireless PC streaming, because indie developer Guy Godin has built it into his app, Virtual Desktop. The app gives users a virtual space to use their computers in, and it also supports streaming games over Wi-Fi. This is, however, where we have to talk about the controversy.
If you thought the description of Virtual Desktop sounded a little like Facebook’s Infinite Office, you’re not alone — Godin has been talking about how Facebook has been essentially building his app idea into its own Oculus experience then offering it for free for a while now. His case may have been helped by the fact that Facebook blocked the update that allowed Virtual Desktop to be used wirelessly until early this year, requiring users to go through a complicated sideload procedure to get the functionality working.
UploadVR talked to Godin about Facebook introducing Air Link, and got this comment from him:
“In 2017, Facebook copied the base functionality of Virtual Desktop on Rift and incorporated it in their platform, essentially making my app obsolete. I’m not surprised to see them do this again on Quest. They copied the fitness tracking app YUR last year and released Oculus Move; essentially killing the company. They also released App Lab as they saw how popular SideQuest was. That’s what they do. If you have a popular app on Quest today, expect Facebook to copy you and leave you in the dust. As for the fate of Virtual Desktop on Quest, we will have to see how Facebook’s solution competes. Judging by the number of issues plaguing Oculus Link today, I’m confident Virtual Desktop will remain a valuable solution for a while. I’ve also got a lot of cool features in the works that I can’t wait to share with the community.”
Despite the warnings about Facebook copying ideas, he still seems confident in his ability to compete. It’s an open question as to how well Air Link will work initially, and how fast improvements will come.
The update also includes an experimental mode for 120Hz refresh rates, up from the current 90Hz, and the original 72Hz. It’s a slight delay from Oculus’ original estimated March launch. Oculus’ post hints that you many not immediately get to try it out — the Quest 2’s software will still run at 90Hz, so you won’t get to see what it looks like until developers release builds of their games and software that can run at the higher refresh rate. The wait may not be that long, though: Guy Godin has already tweeted that he’s got a 120Hz update for Virtual Desktop ready to go when v28 becomes available.
Yep, the 120hz update is ready to roll out whenever the Quest 2 update lands
Microsoft’s long-awaited new webcam is finally here, alongside a number of accessories designed for the work from home era. Rumors of a new Microsoft webcam have been circulating for years, and the result is what Microsoft calls the Modern Webcam. It’s a fairly basic and affordable 1080p webcam that will start shipping for $69.99 in June.
The Microsoft Modern Webcam will support up to 1080p HDR output at 30fps and connects via USB-A, not USB-C. It’s not the 4K webcam found on Microsoft’s Surface Hub 2, and it doesn’t include Windows Hello support either. It’s really a simple webcam designed for students or workers to quickly add a better video calling option to an existing laptop or PC. Microsoft is also including a privacy shutter and LED indicator to let people easily see when the webcam is active.
Microsoft’s Modern USB-C Speaker.Image: Microsoft
Microsoft is also launching a new USB-C speaker. The Modern USB-C Speaker is designed primarily for Microsoft Teams, and it even includes a button to launch a control panel for Teams with quick actions for meetings. Microsoft’s USB-C speaker includes omni-directional microphones and background noise cancellation to improve audio quality. There are also the usual mute, volume, and call-button controls on the top deck of the dark fabric design.
It’s a compact speaker that’s just five inches wide, with cable storage for the USB-C connection and even a carrying case for protection when moving it around. While it’s designed primarily for meetings, you’ll be able to output any audio out of the speaker so it should be fine for music, too. Microsoft’s USB-C speaker will be available in June priced at $99.99.
Microsoft is also launching new USB and wireless headsets, as well as Surface Headphones 2 Plus today. All three devices include a Microsoft Teams button, and you can read more about them right here.
The PC market had a great first quarter, despite the global shortage of semiconductor chips. Research firm Gartner estimates that shipments of “traditional PCs,” meaning laptops and desktops, are up by 32 percent compared to Q1 2020 (via CNBC). IDC puts the number even higher, estimating 55 percent growth year-over-year. This seems to be the continuation of a trend — the PC market had a great 2020 as well.
Both firms agree that the growth is atypical — Gartner says that the growth is the fastest it’s seen since it started tracking the market in 2000, and IDC says that the drop in shipments from Q4 to Q1 is the smallest it’s seen since 2012. The raw numbers are also impressive — Gartner estimates that just under 70 million PCs were shipped, while IDC estimates around 84 million.
Of course, these numbers don’t exist in a vacuum — you may have already realized that the time period being compared against, Q1 2020, was rough for… well, everything, which includes the manufacturing and shipping of PCs. But while the growth comparison is definitely tilted in favor of Q1 2021, both firms estimate that the numbers could’ve been even higher, had it not been for the chip shortage.
The silicon shortage has affected almost everything, from trucks and cars, consoles, and the gaming PC component market. There are even reports that Apple has had to delay production of MacBooks and iPads. IDC points out that the shortage has contributed to higher average prices in the PC market, and that the shortages are likely to make PCs more difficult to get for the rest of the year.
It’s also worth noting that the pandemic is also likely affecting demand, and the return to normalcy on the horizon may affect people’s buying habits in future quarters. Whether demand will stick around or not isn’t certain, but both IDC and Gartner seem to think it will.
It seems that Realtek has joined the long list of supply chain bottlenecks. DigiTimes today reported that the company is struggling to meet demand for the various chips manufacturers use in their notebooks, automobiles and other kinds of devices.
In the story, DigiTimes remarked that Realtek has extended their delivery lead times to 32 weeks as the capacity of the foundries is currently tight and there are shortfalls in the supply of the necessary raw materials.
Those chips are found in a wide variety of products. The audio+LAN chips are used in notebooks, for example, and the xDSL chips are being used in “smart city projects” by Samsung. But the shortage of networking equipment might be most worrisome.
Realtek is reportedly falling short of demand for wired networking (Ethernet chips and switches) and wireless communication chips such as Bluetooth. There are alternative solutions, of course, but Realtek is said to supply 70% of the audio+LAN chips used in the global notebook market. Manufacturers can’t just find alternative suppliers for all those notebooks—especially during a global chip shortage.
All of this means that Realtek’s problems are in many ways the rest of the world’s problems. DigiTimes said the company’s supply issues have caused production delays for notebook makers, the automotive industry and other sectors.
DigiTimes reports that Dell, HP, and other notebook manufacturers have raised concerns with Realtek, exerting pressure to ship more chips to meet the demand. But with supply issues extending even to Apple, the world’s most valuable company, the relaying of concerns seems unlikely to solve the issue.
Those companies will just have to wait for Realtek’s chips. Many will also be looking for improved supplies of other chips, display panels, display drivers, and many other components besides. Just don’t expect those shortages to be addressed overnight.
(Pocket-lint) – With some LCD TV makers – including LG! – making a big song and dance about the introduction of Mini LED backlight technology for 2021, the pressure on mainstream OLED TVs to deliver their own substantial hardware leap that’s been rumbling along for years now has become particularly intense.
Just as well, then, that LG’s OLED G1 is stepping up to the plate with a new ‘Evo’ panel design that promises both more brightness and better colour than any LG OLED TV has managed before. Besides that, it’s got all the bells and whistles that cinephiles, gamers and designers will crave in a wall-mount TV. So just how good is it?
Design
4x HDMI 2.1 inputs, 3x USB ports
LAN & Wi-Fi multimedia options
As with LG’s debut Gallery OLED TVs in 2020, the OLED G1 – reviewed here in 65-inch, there’s also 55- and 77-inch versions – is designed very much with wall-mounting in mind. So much so that it only ships with a wall bracket. If you want to place it on desktop legs you’ll have to pay extra for them. And even then they won’t really do the G1’s thin, elegant profile justice.
Pocket-lint
The G1 wall-mount is designed to sit within a recess on the TV’s rear, allowing the screen to hang perfectly flush to a wall. Its impact on your living space is minimised even further, too, by the extreme narrowness of the screen’s frame. You can even choose to play artworks on the screen in a low power mode when you’re not watching it, further justifying the Gallery name.
The only issue with the design, perhaps, is that most people actually don’t wall-mount their TV, but may well still want to get their hands on the G1 series’ unique high brightness panel. If that sounds like you, be prepared to pay the extra for those optional support feet – or a new tripod-style Gallery floorstand LG has introduced for 2021.
The OLED G1’s connections put those of most rivals to shame. Especially when it comes to its four HDMIs, which all meet the latest HDMI 2.1 specification and so can support all the latest features of 4K HDR playback at 120Hz, automatic low latency mode (ALLM) switching for faster gaming response times, and variable refresh rates (VRR). Even in 2021 most rival premium TVs are only offering one or two full-spec HDMIs.
What is ALLM and VRR? TV gaming tech explained
Picture Features
HDR Support: HDR10, HLG, Dolby Vision
Processing engine: Alpha 9 Gen 4
The advances of the OLED G1’s new Evo panel (which is exclusive to the G1 series) come in two main areas.
First, a new ‘luminous element’ is included to enhance brightness without using lots more power or, so LG claims, increasing the likelihood of the OLED G1 suffering with the permanent image retention issue that can affect OLED technology.
Second, LG has introduced a new green layer into the OLED G1’s panel construction that should, in conjunction with new narrower wavelengths for the red and green colour elements, lead to more dynamic and precise colours across the spectrum.
With Panasonic and Sony also using brightness-enhancing panels on their premium OLED ranges for 2021, though, LG has one other bit of the OLED G1’s picture story it’s keen to talk about: its new Alpha 9 Generation 4 processor. Without this, LG argues, the OLED G1 would not be able to unlock the new panel’s full potential.
The Alpha 9 Gen 4 processor also boasts a few potentially important new more general image tweaks. These include new Natural and Cinema Movement motion processing modes, and enhancements to both LG’s AI Picture Pro and AI Sound Pro automatic picture and sound optimisation options.
On the AI Picture Pro front, the latest processor can now use AI learning to identify when an image may be showing a city scene, a landscape or a night shot, and apply specific rules to the image accordingly. It can even apply ‘rules’ to specific objects or areas of specific content within any overall image, creating a more three-dimensional and natural effect than would be possible by just applying the processing rules equally across the whole image.
The OLED G1’s use of an OLED rather than LCD panel – no surprise given the name, eh? – brings with it innate picture quality advantages too. For instance, it can be watched from almost any angle without its colour saturations or contrast deteriorating significantly. It can also deliver light control down to individual pixel level, so that the darkest blacks the panel is capable of can appear literally right next to the brightest whites, without any dimming/greyness/backlight clouding trade-offs. This sort of local light control just isn’t possible with LCD TVs – not even those that use Mini LED technology.
As usual with a premium LG TV, the OLED G1 supports the Dolby Vision and HLG formats of high dynamic range (HDR) technology, alongside the industry standard HDR10 format. There is no support for the rarer (in source terms) HDR10+ format.
The OLED G1 picks up where the company’s popular 2020 X series OLEDs left off when it comes to gaming, continuing to offer 4K resolution, HDR, 120Hz refresh, plus variable refresh rates (VRR) across all four HDMIs.
Pocket-lint
It introduces a roster of new gaming options via a Game Optimiser ‘dashboard’ too. These options include a series of selectable game genre-based picture presets, an AI Game Sound mode, separate tweaks for the bright and dark extremes of gaming graphics, a Reduce Blue Light option for shifting game graphics to a warmer, less fatiguing colour tone, and separate Standard and Boost input lag reduction options that deliver exceptionally fast response times of just 12.4ms and 9.4ms respectively.
There’s also a new Fine Tune Dark Areas option for VRR gaming that provides a counter-measure to the tendency of OLED TVs to exhibit raised black levels when playing VRR images. So LG is clearly hell bent on retaining the legion of gaming fans it picked up with its forward-thinking 2019 and 2020 LG OLED series.
Smart Features
Smart system: WebOS 6.0
After years of merely refining its much-loved webOS platform, LG has finally introduced some really significant changes on the OLED G1.
A new full-screen interface takes over from the old and familiar strip of app icons along the bottom of the screen. This interface focuses for the most part on recommending content based on household viewing habits and currently popular shows from across the wide range of apps the TV supports. There’s a substantial box to top right, too, that takes you to a well-presented and wide-ranging content search page.
LG
While it makes sense these days to shift the webOS focus to providing recommended content curated from across supported apps rather than making users explore content on a per-app basis, the layout and ‘weighting’ of the new home screen doesn’t feel quite right. The three link options along the top of the screen in particular feel like they’re been given more weight than they really warrant.
The signature webOS source icon strip does still continue along the bottom of the new full-screen home page, and you can scroll down from there to a small selection of further shelves containing a list of all your connected devices, and direct content links to some of the most popular streaming apps. Strangely there’s no Netflix shelf at the time of writing, though, and you can’t change the order the shelves appear in.
LG’s voice control and recognition features – Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and LG’s own ThinQ options are all available – continue to be excellent. As does the system’s level of app support, with all the key streaming services covered. This includes the UK’s terrestrial broadcaster catch-up services via Freeview Play.
Picture Quality
The OLED G1 undoubtedly delivers overall better picture quality than any of LG’s 2020 OLED TVs. Whether it delivers as much of an improvement as some quarters might have been hoping for, though, is another question.
The new Evo panel makes an impact in two ways. First, where an HDR image, such as a shot of sun-drenched blue sky, features almost full-screen brightness, there’s a slightly higher level of overall intensity to the picture than 2020’s LG models can provide. Second, the very brightest parts of HDR images – naked bulbs and lights, reflections on glass or metal, sun-drenched clouds and the like – look punchier and, as a result, more natural.
LG
It’s noticeable, too, that since the Evo panel is designed to handle slightly lighter peaks of brightness, it typically delivers more subtle detailing and shading in the brightest HDR areas.
These differences, along with a slightly richer, more refined HDR-content colour palette, are more consistently noticeable when playing HDR console and PC games than they are with typical video.
Even with the punchiest games, though, the OLED G1 step up from 2020’s LG OLEDs don’t elevate the brand’s OLED performance into a whole new ball park. It’s more refinement than revolution. While this initially feels slightly disappointing, it doesn’t take long living with the OLED G1 to start feeling as if this initial assessment is a bit foolish.
After all, the OLED G1 is providing a 10-20 per cent HDR performance boost to 2020 LG OLED TVs – which were themselves sensational performers. And that’s actually a pretty remarkable achievement in a premium TV world now so good that even the tiniest improvements should be embraced like long lost relatives.
What’s more, the G1’s picture improvements aren’t just down to its new Evo panel. The new Alpha 9 Gen 4 processor has its part to play too, on two levels.
First, the new AI Picture Pro option is a substantial advance over its predecessor. Its ability to apply more effective enhancements on a more local basis yields pictures which look both more eye-catching and more natural. This eye-catching/natural combination is key, since while LG AI processing has previously delivered enhancements to colour, sharpness and contrast, those enhancements have always been accompanied by distracting side effects. On the OLED G1 the improvements are not only more pronounced, but come at the expense of practically no downsides.
There are, of course, people who won’t use the AI Picture Pro mode because they don’t like the idea of a TV’s processor taking over the way a picture looks. And for those people the OLED G1 still supports all the calibration tools and accuracy of other recent LG generations. The much improved AI Picture Pro is very much worth trying for most users, though.
The other key processing improvement comes from LG’s new motion options. The new Natural motion processing mode used by default with most of the OLED G1’s picture presets is a little too smooth and can cause unwanted processing side effects. The new Cinematic Movement mode, though, does a superbly well-balanced job of gently reducing the rather ‘hard’ judder with 24p movie sources that OLED TVs can exhibit without creating really any distracting side effects. It’s outstanding.
LG
The OLED G1’s improvements have not, thankfully, compromised any of LG’s traditional OLED strengths. Black levels still look inky, actually exhibiting slightly less noise in areas of near-black detail, despite also showing more shadow detail in most picture presets.
Colours hardly ever look forced or over the top despite the slight brightness increase and marginally purer presentation, and sharpness is slightly improved without making the image look brittle or harsh. With HD sources, in particular, the new Alpha 9 Gen 4 upscaling really earns its corn by delivering a markedly crisper finish than seen with previous LG OLED generations without exaggerating noise.
The OLED G1’s pictures are not completely perfect though. There’s noticeable flickering in dark scenes when gaming in VRR, for starters. All Dolby Vision presets (bar Vivid) can cause some crushing of detail in dark areas. There’s a new hint of magenta over pictures if you watch from a wide angle, too, although contrast and colour intensity still benefit from OLED’s viewing angle advantage over LCD in this area.
The OLED G1 can also still exaggerate compression noise in dark (usually SDR) streamed scenes, and even with the G1 it’s still important to stress that while OLED is untouchable when it comes to local (as in, pixel by pixel) contrast, premium LCD TVs can still get significantly brighter with both peak and full-screen HDR content.
Sound Quality
Since LG doesn’t join Sony in using the screen surfaces of its premium OLED TVs to produce sound, there isn’t much space in the OLED G1’s super-skinny design for a big old set of speakers. With that in mind, though, in many ways the OLED G1 sounds pretty good.
For starters, a new Virtual 5.1.2 upconversion system introduced by the Alpha 9 Gen 4 processor does a surprisingly convincing job of adding a mild sense of height to soundtracks that don’t have height channels built-in. At least the sound expands nicely from all of the TV’s edges, even if there isn’t any sense of actual overhead sounds. Voices tend to sound clear and believable, and detail levels are quite high for a sound system that doesn’t have any forward-facing drivers.
LG
There are two fairly significant issues, though. First, while it’s cool that the OLED G1 decodes Dolby Atmos soundtracks (though there’s no DTS support), it doesn’t do so very well. The speakers just can’t deliver anywhere near as much impact as they should with very loud, dense Atmos moments. In fact, the speakers tend to become more subdued just when they’re supposed to be ratcheting up.
This makes LG’s own AI Sound Pro setting a much better option for most content. This does amp up to take on loud moments, as well as somehow make the sound fill the room more.
However, whenever a film soundtrack features low rumbles – especially in AI Sound Pro mode – the TV’s low frequency drivers start to fall prey to significant amounts of break up and distortion. So much so that it can become quite hard to listen to, and a clear distraction from the onscreen action.
Best go buy a separate soundbar/surround system then.
Verdict
At the time of writing there’s a question mark over whether the OLED G1 is sufficiently superior to the upcoming C1 mid-range OLEDs – which don’t get the Evo panel – to justify its extra cost. Based on the type of enhancements it brings over last gen’s CX models, though, it most likely is a worthy step up from the C1 – if you’re looking to wall-mount anyway.
So while it doesn’t quite shatter the OLED rule book in the way some had hoped, the OLED G1’s new Evo panel in conjunction with LG’s latest processing engine delivers comfortably the best OLED TV LG has ever made. That’s what makes this TV special. A fact which should rightly have both AV and gaming fans drooling, given how good LG’s previous OLEDs have been.
Also consider
LG
LG OLED GX
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If you can live without the Evo panel’s enhanced HDR performance and Game Optimiser functionality but like the Gallery design, 2020’s OLED GX is still available for a chunk of cash less.
Read our review
Panasonic
Panasonic HZ2000
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Panasonic was the first brand to introduce new high brightness OLED technology, and 2020’s version of this technology is still available at a slightly lower price than the LG. Stocks are apparently starting to run low, though, so get a move on!
I have been in the modding scene since 2005, creating mostly scratch build projects out of wood, acrylic and aluminum. The most notable of these have been Sangaku, Yuugou and Chiaroscuro with Chiaroscuro having been completed back in 2008. After a long hiatus, I completed Morphosis for the Cooler Master World Series 2019 and, for the Cooler Master World Series 2020 contest, which just announced winners in March 2021, I built something really special.
Meet Ikigai (生き甲斐) a Japanese concept meaning “a reason for being”, my latest case mod project. The word refers to having a meaningful direction or purpose in life, constituting the sense of one’s life being made worthwhile, with actions (spontaneous and willing) taken towards achieving one’s ikigai resulting in satisfaction and sense of meaning to life. In other words, It means I really enjoy building computer cases and I devoted four months of my life to bringing this case to fruition working most nights and weekends. It’s a passion project in every sense.
The case started as a simple concept, like most of my cases. I wanted a vertical tower style case with less than 20 liters of volume that would take up little space on my desk, one that is water cooled and combines my love of handmade wood joinery, and Japanese design aesthetics. It also uses CNC machining techniques and integrates the water cooling and electrical systems. Like I said, simple. I also wanted to keep the case open to show off every component, making sure that every angle of the case was aesthetically pleasing.
Components
Motherboard
MSI B550I Gaming Edge Wifi
CPU
AMD 5600X
GPU
MSI AMD Radeon 5700 Gaming X
PSU
Cooler Master 650 SFX
Memory
G Skill Ripjaws V 3600mhz 32GB
Storage
Western Digital SN750 1 TB, SN550 1 TB
Watercooling
Alphacool GPU Block
Radiator Optiumus CPU Block
EKWB fittings and tubing
Fans
Cooler Master SF360R
Proof of Concept Models
Before I began my build, I prototyped with some basic, non-functional wooden models. While the models might not be functional, they are to scale. I wanted to stay under 20L so I needed to be sure to make use of every mm of space. I decided on a central acrylic panel which would contain the watercooling distribution panel, hide the cabling, and allow the components to be attached. The top section would hold a SFX power supply and the back would have room for a 360mm radiator with full size fans to provide ample cooling power. I went through several iterations of these wood models because, even though I was modeling in cad, things change once you have the real hardware, in the real world and it’s all part of my design process.
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
With some of the final components arriving, I could mock up the case more accurately. Here I have the radiator and fan assembly in along with the motherboard and graphics card to check for clearances in the watercooling. This would all be hard piped PETG tubing and I was trying to avoid any surprises later on by planning ahead.
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Wenge Dovetail Joints
After at least 3 practice mockup cases, I finally had my final dimensions nailed down and it was time to start the final case design. I wanted a wood that was beautiful in its own right with a modern-looking grain that didn’t distract from the clean lines of the case design. I decided on Wenge as my wood of choice, a very hard, dense, and brittle wood which seems to be a cross between charcoal and concrete. It was difficult to work with by hand but sharp tools plus perseverance made it happen.
Case Joinery
I started with the main mitered dovetails of the case by first making a practice joint out of cherry. By doing this, I not only made a visual reference that I could use later to avoid confusion but I dusted off the mental cobwebs; it’s been a long time since I’ve done a joint like this.
I wanted the grain to flow around the case so I cut the entire frame out of one piece of wood, matching the grain around the case as it went along. This also meant my joints would need to be good the first time around or the grain wouldn’t match up.
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
I used a dovetail guide by Lee Valley to make the dovetail cutting easier. Here I am cutting the tails first.
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
With the first side cut, I transferred the lines to the next piece with a marking knife. By using the kerf of the joint as a guide, I can be sure the knife marks will be exact.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Next, I repeated this process to make the pins of the dovetail joint, making sure I am cutting on the correct side of the line. A little pencil marking helps with this also.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Once all of the cuts were made, I used a coping saw to remove the bulk of the waste. Then I used a guide block and chisels to creep up to my marking knife lines.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Once the main part of the joinery was done, I cut the miters on all four corners with a crosscut handsaw.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
To ensure the accuracy of the miters I made a guide block and used a chisel to sneak up on my lines, ensuring a perfect 45 degree angle. Given how hard this wood was, I had to resharpen my chisels multiple times for this to work well.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
After quite a bit of time spent cleaning up the joints, testing and refitting as I went, while trying not to break them, I ended up with tight fitting joints. This process took about two days and a lot of patience.
If you don’t know what to do with your old Nerf guns or maybe just want to upgrade them, you could always turn them into working video game controllers as Alfredo Sequeida did with his latest Raspberry Pi project.
The best Raspberry Pi projects offer more than just proof of concept, they have real-world applications. Sequeida not only transformed his old Nerf gun into a controller but successfully uses it in Call of Duty.
The project required installing a few new buttons as well as integrating existing hardware like the trigger, which was soldered to open GPIO pins. An old Android phone retrieves the accelerometer data and the Pi uses this information to determine the aim of the controller.
(Image credit: Alfredo Sequeida)
A custom Python script interprets the controller input, which is then translated into output for the PC. You can read more about the code in detail on the official GitHub page. If you want to see how well it works, you can check it out in action on Sequeida’s official YouTube where you can also follow him for more updates and cool projects.
News stories about chip shortages for various applications have become so common in the past few months that they now sound like background noise. It’s no secret that demand for PCs and other electronics is high, but sales of personal computers have actually beaten all the expectations in the first quarter as they increased by 55% year-over-year, according to the latest data from IDC. Apple seems to be the biggest winner here since its shipments have more than doubled.
The industry shipped as many as 83.981 million PCs in Q1 2021, up 55.2% from the same quarter a year ago and a modest 8% decline from Q4 2020, which is a seasonally strong quarter. In fact, most Top 5 PC suppliers demonstrated over 50% year-over-year PC unit sales growth, an indication that they were eating the lunch of smaller players, which is not particularly surprising as they could procure more components and ship more machines.
(Image credit: IDC)
Lenovo remained the market leader, selling 20.4 million computers and controlling 24.3% of the market. HP came in second with 19.237 million systems shipped and 22.9% market share. Dell landed in third with 12.946 million PCs and a 15.4% share.
Apple was in the distant fourth place, shipping 6.692 million Macs and owning 8% of the market. But Apple’s sales were up a whopping 111.5% year-over-year, probably one of the biggest YoY jumps that the company has ever seen. Acer was the No. 5 PC maker in Q1 2021 with 5.837 machines sold and 7% of the market.
“Unfulfilled demand from the past year has carried forward into the first quarter, and additional demand brought on by the pandemic has also continued to drive volume,” said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC’s Mobile Device Trackers. “However, the market continues to struggle with setbacks including component shortages and logistics issues, each of which has contributed to an increase in average selling prices.”
Demand for PCs began to skyrocket in Q1 2020 as many countries went into lockdown, sending hundreds of millions of employees and students home. All of these people had to buy new PCs for their remote work and learning, yet the supply chain was not ready, so shipments of PCs dropped year-over-year in Q1 2020 to 54.1 million units (from 59 million in Q1 2019), creating a large number of backorders. This differed demand has been affecting the supply chain since then, and shortages are expected to persist for quarters to come. But that decline in Q1 2020 created a low base effect for Q1 2021, which is why we can observe such tangible growth.
“There is no question when entering 2021 the backlog for PCs was extensive across business, consumer, and education,” said Ryan Reith, program vice president with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. “The ongoing shortages in the semiconductor space only further prolong the ability for vendors to refill inventory and fulfill orders to customers. We believe a fundamental shift has occurred around the PC, which will result in a more positive outlook for years to follow. All three segments — business, education, and consumer — are experiencing demand that we didn’t expect to happen regardless of many countries beginning their ‘opening up’ process. Component shortages will likely be a topic of conversation for the majority of 2021, but the more important question should be what PC demand will look like in 2-3 years.”
We haven’t heard much about Age of Empires IV since it was announced in 2017, but we’ve finally been given a look at the game, which includes the Mongols and Delhi Sultanate as playable civilizations. Microsoft and developer Relic Entertainment showed off a healthy amount of gameplay footage as well as new features and civilizations coming to the series in a “Fan Preview” event. The game also has a release window: fall 2021.
The last main entry in the long-running historical strategy series was released in 2005, and the new game looks to build on the formula created by previous entries, while adding features made possible by 15-ish years of technological improvements. That includes the obvious things — like 4K and HDR — to more strategy game-centric upgrades, like new pathfinding that will accommodate tons of units.
According to the team behind the game, there will be eight civilizations in the initial release of the game. So far, we know four of them: the Mongols and Delhi Sultanate are making their first appearances in Age of Empires, and the Chinese and English will be returning. So far, there hasn’t been a lot of information about the unique abilities and traits of each civilization. However, we did get to see that the Delhi Sultanate will include elephant units and that the Mongols will have the ability to pack up and move their buildings and towns (which is mind-blowing to see in action).
A highly portable Mongol camp.Image: Microsoft
During a Q&A, Relic talked a lot about adding asymmetry to civilizations; the team wanted to make sure that each played differently, with the randomly generated maps playing to different civilizations’ strengths and weaknesses. For example, a wide-open map could benefit the Mongols with their highly mobile units and towns, while a map with a lot of chokepoints could benefit the defense-heavy English. There will still be similar classes of units, but the developers wanted to make sure that players could switch up the gameplay style if they wanted to and even main a certain civilization if they really like its mechanics.
The game’s creators also talked about the evolution of campaigns, which act as a sort of story mode in Age of Empires. They revealed that there would be four campaigns in the game but only shared details about one: the Norman conquest. I’m not enough of a history buff to know anything about that, but it seems like the game will be trying to teach me. The team talked extensively about the fact that campaigns would include documentary footage with narration about the real-life historical events that you’ll be playing through.
I bet this campaign screenshot is really cool if you know the historical context.Image: Microsoft
The game will also include some new mechanics. The studio showed off a very interesting feature called stealth force, which allows players to create ambushes where enemies will not be able to see their units hiding and waiting. It’s a feature the creators hope will not only add excitement and tension to gameplay, but will actually give you a reason to keep scout units around, as you’ll need to make sure there isn’t an entire army hiding along your route.
The event also showed off wall combat, where units were able to fight both in front of and on top of castle walls, and siege mechanics, where a base could be surrounded by units and — as the name implies — siege weapons. These two mechanics should help to make raiding and defending castles more strategic. We also got a brief glimpse at an area-of-effect wololo, something that’s very intriguing for fans of Age of Empires and memes alike.
Wololo.GIF: Microsoft
Fans of older entries in the series also have things to look forward to. The developers talked about Age of Empires IV being a spiritual successor to AoE II, while still incorporating some elements from III, such as the addition of choice into the aging-up mechanics. The Definitive Edition of Age of EmpiresII and III are also getting updates.
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition is getting its second expansion pack, titled Dawn of Dukes, which will focus on Eastern Europe. Co-op will also be coming to the game at some point this year, which will allow you to play through certain campaigns and battles with friends.
Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition is getting the United States added as a civilization in an update. Cleverly, the update will be free if you play through a challenge, but players who don’t want to go through the effort will be able to purchase it from Steam or the Microsoft Store. It was also revealed that the first AoE III: Definitive Edition expansion is being worked on and will feature African civilizations.
As someone who played hundreds of hours of Age of Empires II, I’m excited for the tech tree advancements in Age of Empires IV. Of course, I’d also love more details, especially after such a long wait since the announcement. What other civilizations will we get to play? What do the plans for future expansions look like? Will there be fun cheat codes? These questions are unanswered for now, but it seems like it won’t be entire age before we find out. I look forward to finding out that I forgot everything about how to play the game and immediately getting crushed by an easy AI when it finally releases.
Age of Empires IV will be available on Windows 10 PCs through Steam, the Microsoft Store, and Xbox Game Pass for PC in fall 2021.
Aaeon, a leading maker of embedded and commercial systems, has quietly unveiled a rather unique 3.5-inch single-board computer (SBC) that supports socketed Intel’s Comet Lake processors. The SBC is designed mainly for embedded applications, but with some luck and DIY skills, you could use it to build an ultra-compact form-factor (UCFF) desktop with up to eight high-performance cores as well as advanced media playback capabilities.
Aaeon’s Gene-CML5 subcompact motherboard is based on Intel’s Q470E/H420E/Q470 chipset (depending on the SKU) and comes with an LGA 1200 socket that can support various Comet Lake processors with two, four, or eight cores as well as a 35W TDP (i.e., up to Core i7-10700TE with eight cores clocked at 2.0 GHz ~ 4.40 GHz).
For some reason, the manufacturer decided not to officially support 10-core CPUs with a 35W TDP, perhaps because the bundled cooling system cannot handle it. The motherboard has two slots for up to 64 GB of DDR4-2933 memory, an M.2-2280 slot for an SSD featuring a PCIe 3.0 x4 or SATA interface, and two SATA ports.
For DIY enthusiasts, it is not going to be easy to find a proper chassis for a 3.5-inch motherboard, but there are companies like Supermicro that offer them, so it is doable.
(Image credit: Aaeon)
Intel designed its Comet Lake processors primarily with high-performance systems in mind, so these CPUs are widely used on Intel’s gaming platforms for desktops and notebooks. Meanwhile, the family also includes low-power T and low-power TE SKUs for UCFF and low-power embedded applications, respectively. So far, we have not heard of many UCFF LGA 1200 systems in general, so Aaeon might be the first company to offer a 3.5-inch SBC that can handle an eight-core socketed Comet Lake processor. It is noteworthy that the company has not made any formal announcements about the product — LinuxGizmos found this board in an ad.
Not many embedded systems can benefit from an eight-core CPU today, but a lot of new applications are emerging, so some of them might take advantage of the combination of performance offered by Intel’s Comet Lake and the diminutive system size enabled by the Aaeon Gene-CML5. PC makers who have access to custom PC cases can also use the SBC to build tiny systems that boast up to eight cores and potential upgradeability.
(Image credit: Aaeon)
The miniature 3.5-inch Gene-CML5 SBC — which measures 146×101.7mm — has an essential choice of connectivity that includes two GbE ports (managed by Intel controllers with or without vPro), three display outputs (one DisplayPort++ with MST support, one D-Sub, one LVDS header), two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A connectors, four USB 2.0 ports using an onboard header, two internal RS-232/422/485 headers, a header for audio in/audio out jacks, and a PCIe 3.0 x4 through Flexible Printed Circuit interface (on Q470/Q470E SKUs only).
(Image credit: Aaeon)
Of course, since the Gen-CML5 SBC is aimed at embedded and commercial applications, the board is equipped with a TPM module, a watchdog timer, and other perks. As for operating temperatures, the SBC can function in a 0°C ~ 60°C(32°F ~ 122°F) range, so it is not suitable for industrial or outdoor applications.
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