Looks like Google TV could soon support different user profiles on the home screen. 9to5Google has dug into the source code of the latest version of the operating system and found mention of personalised home screens, which would offer a much more tailored experience for anyone watching.
Google TV already lets you sign in with multiple Google Accounts, and offers Kids Profiles, which only offer age-appropriate content. But with adult profiles, no matter who’s watching, the homepage will only be personalised to the main account. That means anyone watching will only see recommendations for the main account holder.
But it looks like that could soon change. Source code for the latest update to the Google TV Home app – version 1.0.370 – contains mentions for individual profiles on the home screen.
The mentions include: “Add another account to this device to have their own personalized Google TV experience”. Which seems pretty clear cut.
However, just because this text appears in the code that doesn’t mean the feature will definitely make an appearance. Google might just be considering adding it for now, though given how it would enhance the user experience – and bring it in line with lots of other streaming services – we reckon it’s close to a dead cert.
The code also reveals a new tutorial video that would show parents how to hide certain content from kids’ profiles.
Google TV features on the stellar Google Chromecast with Google TV – a dongle that earned five stars in our review. The operating system recently added support for Amazon Music, bolstering its offering even further.
MORE:
Read all about Google TV: apps, features, compatible TVs and more
Check out our guide to the best video streamers
Or go in-depth with one of the best, with our Amazon Fire TV 4K review
Ring is adjusting how public agencies such as police and fire departments are able to request video clips from Ring camera owners in its Neighbors app. Starting next week, agencies will only be able to request clips be sent to them through public posts that are viewable in the app’s main feed; they will no longer be able to send individuals specific requests for clips.
Ring says this new method provides greater transparency to what public agencies are requesting, as all requests will now be logged on the agency’s profile and reviewable by anyone using the app. Agencies will not be able to remove or delete the posts, according to Ring, though they can be marked as “resolved.” Ring says it limits video clips requests to “verified public safety agencies” and has a set of guidelines that agencies must abide by in order to be able to request footage.
Prior to this change, law enforcement agencies were able to send private emails through Ring to owners who lived in an area of active investigation in order to request footage, which the owners could then approve or deny. Though the app allowed Ring owners to blanket deny all requests for footage, these emails were not publicly available for review.
Once the change is live in the app, Ring owners will see posts from their local authorities in the main app feed. They can then click on those posts to securely share footage from their cameras. Ring says that if you previously opted out of receiving requests for video clips, you will not receive notifications when agencies post to the feed. It will also be possible to hide the requests from the feed entirely. In general, the change makes the whole process more opt-in than opt-out, as it was before.
The Neighbors app has been one of the most controversial aspects of Ring’s product line, as it has long faced criticism for amplifying mundane issues and providing a way for minorities to be harassed. It is a separate app from Ring’s main app, which is used for setup and control of Ring cameras, and is similar to hyperlocal social networks such as Nextdoor.
The agency has picked two new robotic missions to explore the hot hell-world of Venus, Earth’s neighbor and the second planet from the Sun, administrator Bill Nelson announced on Wednesday. The two missions, DAVINCI+ and VERITAS, were among four competing proposals under the latest round of NASA’s Discovery Program, which manages smaller planetary exploration missions with a slim budget of roughly $500 million each.
“These two sister missions both aim to understand how Venus became an inferno-like world capable of melting lead at the surface,” Nelson said during his first “State of NASA” address at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, DC on Wednesday. “They will offer the entire science community a chance to investigate a planet we haven’t been to in more than 30 years.”
DAVINCI+, slated to launch around 2029, will mark the first US-led mission into the atmosphere of Venus since 1978, when NASA’s second Pioneer mission plunged into Venusian clouds for scientific study. The spacecraft will fly by Venus twice to snap close-up photos of the planet’s surface before tossing a robotic probe into its thick atmosphere to measure its gasses and other elements.
An image of Venus captured by NASA’s Parker Solar Probe last summer showing the planet’s mysterious nightside and revealing a surprisingly clear view of its surface.NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Naval Research Laboratory/Guillermo Stenborg and Brendan Gallagher
Interest in Venus spiked last year during NASA’s review of the four missions, when a separate international team of researchers published findings that the noxious gas, phosphine, was possibly floating in the clouds of Venus — an intriguing theory that hinted at the first signs of off-world life, as phosphine is known to be made primarily by living organisms. But other researchers disputed the team’s findings, leaving the phosphine theory open-ended. DAVINCI+’s plunge through Venus’ atmosphere could decisively settle that mystery.
When the research was published, NASA’s previous administrator, Jim Bridenstine, said “it’s time to prioritize Venus.” NASA’s science associate administrator, Thomas Zurbuchen, tells The Verge that although the two probes could help confirm the phosphine research, they were picked for their scientific value, proposed timeline, and other factors independent of the phosphine findings.
The second mission, VERITAS, is a probe slated to launch around 2028, just before DAVINCI+. It’ll orbit Venus and map its surface much like NASA’s Magellan probe did for four years beginning in 1990, but with a much sharper focus that will give scientists a better picture of the planet’s geological history. It’ll use a synthetic aperture radar and track surface elevations to “create 3D reconstructions of topography and confirm whether processes such as plate tectonics and volcanism are still active on Venus,” NASA said in a statement.
Another camera on VERITAS will be sensitive to a wavelength that could spot signs of water vapor in Venus’ atmosphere, which, if detected, could hint that active volcanoes had been degassing on the planet’s surface sometime long ago.
Taken together, the two missions make clear that NASA is finally going all in on Venus, a spicy-hot planet long sidelined by other, more scientifically popular planets like Mars. The two Discovery-class missions that competed with DAVINCI+ and VERITAS were TRIDENT, which would’ve studied Neptune’s icy moon Triton, and the Io Volcano Observer (IVO), which would’ve studied the tidal forces on Jupiter’s moon Io.
The twin missions to Venus aim to confront the possibility that the planet was once habitable. “Venus is closer to the Sun, it’s a hot house now, but once upon a time it might’ve been different,” NASA’s Discovery program head Thomas Wagner tells The Verge. Studying the planet’s atmosphere up close could give scientists clues on how it evolved over time to allow Venus to become the hell world it is today, with surface temperatures of around 900 degrees Fahrenheit.
The missions could also help scientists learn how to look at exoplanets, distant planets in other solar systems. Though hot and unlivable, Venus sits in the Goldilocks zone of our solar system, a term scientists use to characterize the position of exoplanets whose distances from the Sun sit in just the right spot to foster life. Venus, Wagner says, could be a model, right next to Earth, to help us understand exoplanets farther away. The planet’s distance from our Sun also raises equally intriguing questions about why Venus turned into the hell-world it is today.
“Since Venus is in the goldilocks zone, we want to know what the heck went on on Venus,” Wagner says.
After adding Apple TV to its Chromecast with Google TV earlier this year, Google is now rolling out the app to all Android TV devices.
Previously, Google’s ecosystem only supported Apple’s streaming service on Sony Bravia TVs as well as Chromecast with Google TV. The app is currently available in the Play Store for any Android TV device running 8.0 Oreo or higher that’s not an operator-tier device.
The update means that owners of TVs from the likes of Phillips, TCL and Hisense can now access exclusive content on Apple TV Plus (so long as they’ve subscribed) and Apple’s full library of pay-as-you-go movies and TV shows.
Apple’s catalogue of films to rent and buy is second-to-none, particularly when it comes to HDR, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. And while original programming on Apple TV+ has lagged behind other services in terms of quantity, the app’s release onto Android coincides with a huge drop of new content, including anticipated second seasons of Home Before Dark, Central Park and Ted Lasoo.
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Read our Chromecast with Google TV review
Here’s our round-up of the very best video streamers
Spotify loves when people share its annual Wrapped music breakdown on social media, so it’s making that more of a year-round treat. The company is announcing a new digital experience today called Only You, which will give users personalized playlists in a shareable form. The in-app experience will give users a variety of playlists and data insights based on their music listening habits, and a new feature called Blend will let two friends automatically merge their musical tastes into a playlist.
Among the new experience highlights is “Your Dream Dinner Party,” which lets users pick three artists they’d invite to a dinner party with Spotify making a mix for each artist. Another is “Your Artist Pairs,” which highlights unique pairings that show off a listener’s musical range, as well as “Your Audio Birth Chart,’ which gives users their “Sun artist,” or the person they listened to the most over the past six months; their “Moon artist,” which is the artist they listen to that shows off their emotional side; and their “Rising artist,” which is one they’ve recently found. The Audio Birth Chart and Dream Dinner Party will update daily, while the other data visualization aspects of the feature, like Your Artist Pairs, is based on a limited set of time and won’t update regularly.
Spotify’s Your Dream Dinner Party feature lets people pick the artists they’d want at a dinner party and receive playlists in return.Image: Spotify
None of these features are revolutionary, but people seemingly love seeing visualized data on their listening habits. During Wrapped season last year, when Spotify gives users a year-in-review look at their listening data, its stock jumped 16 percent and the app rose rapidly in the App Store rankings. Clearly, the company is trying to replicate that success and build buzz with another data visualization offering. The idea is, of course, that if you want access to these unique features, you’ll have to sign up and listen on Spotify to do so. Peer pressure works wonders.
Last year’s Nvidia RTX 3080 was the first GPU to make 4K gaming finally feasible. It was a card that delivered impressive performance at 4K, especially for its retail price of $699 — far less than the 2080 Ti cost a generation earlier. That was before the reality of a global chip shortage drove the prices of modern GPUs well above $1,000. Now that the street prices of RTX 3080s have stayed above $2,000 for months, Nvidia is launching its RTX 3080 Ti flagship priced at $1,199.
It’s a card that aims to deliver near identical levels of performance to the $1,499 RTX 3090, but in a smaller package and with just 12GB of VRAM — half what’s found on the RTX 3090. Nvidia is effectively competing with itself here, and now offering three cards at the top end. That’s if you can even manage to buy any of them in the first place.
I’ve spent the past week testing the RTX 3080 Ti at both 4K and 1440p resolutions. 4K gaming might have arrived originally with the RTX 2080 Ti, but the RTX 3080 Ti refines it and offers more headroom in the latest games. Unfortunately, it does so with a $1,199 price tag that I think will be beyond most people’s budgets even before you factor in the inevitable street price markup it will see during the current GPU shortage.
Hardware
If you put the RTX 3080 Ti and the RTX 3080 side by side, it would be difficult to tell the difference between them. They look identical, with the same ports and fan setup. I’m actually surprised this card isn’t a three-slot like the RTX 3090, or just bigger generally. The RTX 3080 Ti has one fan on either side of the card, with a push-pull system in place. The bottom fan pulls cool air into the card, which then exhausts on the opposite side that’s closest to your CPU cooler and rear case fan. A traditional blower cooler also exhausts the hot air out of the PCIe slot at the back.
This helped create a quieter card on the original RTX 3080, and I’m happy to report it’s the same with the RTX 3080 Ti. The RTX 3080 Ti runs at or close to its max fan RPM under heavy loads, but the hum of the fans isn’t too distracting. I personally own an RTX 3090, and while the fans rarely kick in at full speed, they’re certainly a lot more noticeable than the RTX 3080 Ti’s.
Nvidia has used the same RTX 3080 design for the 3080 Ti Model.
That quiet performance might have a downside, though. During my week of testing with the RTX 3080 Ti, I noticed that the card seems to run rather hot. I recorded temperatures regularly around 80 degrees Celsius, compared to the 70 degrees Celsius temperatures on the larger RTX 3090. The fans also maxed out a lot during demanding 4K games on the RTX 3080 Ti in order to keep the card cool. I don’t have the necessary equipment to fully measure the heat output here, but when I went to swap the RTX 3080 Ti for another card after hours of testing, it was too hot to touch, and stayed hotter for longer than I’d noticed with either the RTX 3080 or RTX 3090. I’m not sure if this will result in problems in the long term, as we saw with the initial batch of 2080 Ti units having memory overheating issues, but most people will put this in a case and never touch it again. Still, I’m surprised at how long it stayed hot enough for me to not want to touch it.
As this is a Founders Edition card, Nvidia is using its latest 12-pin single power connector. There’s an ugly and awkward adapter in the box that lets you connect two eight-pin PCIe power connectors to it, but I’d highly recommend getting a single new cable from your PSU supplier to connect directly to this card. It’s less cabling, and a more elegant solution if you have a case window or you’re addicted to tidy cable management (hello, that’s me).
The RTX 3080 Ti inside my case.
I love the look of the RTX 3080 Ti and the pennant-shaped board that Nvidia uses here. Just like the RTX 3080, there are no visible screws, and the regulatory notices are all on the output part of the card so there are no ugly stickers or FCC logos. It’s a really clean card, and I’m sorry to bring this up, but Nvidia has even fixed the way the number 8 is displayed. It was a minor mistake on the RTX 3080, but I’m glad the 8 has the correct proportions on the RTX 3080 Ti.
At the back of the card there’s a single HDMI 2.1 port and three DisplayPort 1.4a ports. Just like the RTX 3080, there are also LEDs that glow around the top part of the fan, and the GeForce RTX branding lights up, too. You can even customize the colors of the glowing part around the fan if you’re really into RGB lighting.
Just like the RTX 3080, this new RTX 3080 Ti needs a 750W power supply. The RTX 3080 Ti even draws more power, too, at up to 350 watts under load compared to 320 watts on the RTX 3080. That’s the same amount of power draw as the larger RTX 3090, which is understandable given the performance improvements, but it’s worth being aware of how this might impact your energy bills (and the cost of your PC build to run it).
1440p testing
I’ve been testing the RTX 3080 Ti with Intel’s latest Core i9 processor. For 1440p tests, I’ve also paired the GPU with a 32-inch Samsung Odyssey G7 monitor. This monitor supports refresh rates up to 240Hz, as well as Nvidia’s G-Sync technology.
I compared the RTX 3080 Ti against both the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 to really understand where it fits into Nvidia’s new lineup. I tested a variety of AAA titles, including Fortnite, Control, Death Stranding, Metro Exodus, Call of Duty: Warzone, Microsoft Flight Simulator, and many more. You can also find the same games tested at 4K resolution below.
All games were tested at max or ultra settings on the RTX 3080 Ti, and most exceeded an average of 100fps at 1440p. On paper, the RTX 3080 Ti is very close to an RTX 3090, and my testing showed that plays out in most games at 1440p. Games like Microsoft Flight Simulator, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, and Watch Dogs: Legion all have near-identical performance across the RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3090 at 1440p.
Even Call of Duty: Warzone is the same without Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) technology enabled, and it’s only really games like Control and Death Stranding where there’s a noteworthy, but small, gap in performance.
However, the jump in performance from the RTX 3080 to the RTX 3080 Ti is noticeable across nearly every game, with the exception of Death Stranding and Fortnite, which both perform really well on the base RTX 3080.
RTX 3080 Ti (1440p)
Benchmark
RTX 3080 Founders Edition
RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition
RTX 3090 Founders Edition
Benchmark
RTX 3080 Founders Edition
RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition
RTX 3090 Founders Edition
Microsoft Flight Simulator
46fps
45fps
45fps
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
147fps
156fps
160fps
Shadow of the Tomb Raider (DLSS)
154fps
162fps
167fps
CoD: Warzone
124fps
140fps
140fps
CoD: Warzone (DLSS+RT)
133fps
144fps
155fps
Fortnite
160fps
167fps
188fps
Fortnite (DLSS)
181fps
173fps
205fps
Gears 5
87fps
98fps
103fps
Death Stranding
163fps
164fps
172fps
Death Stranding (DLSS quality)
197fps
165fps
179fps
Control
124fps
134fps
142fps
Control (DLSS quality + RT)
126fps
134fps
144fps
Metro Exodus
56fps
64fps
65fps
Metro Exodus (DLSS+RT)
67fps
75fps
77fps
Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla
73fps
84fps
85fps
Watch Dogs: Legion
79fps
86fps
89fps
Watch Dogs: Legion (DLSS+RT)
67fps
72fps
74fps
Watch Dogs: Legion (RT)
49fps
55fps
56fps
Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla performs 15 percent better on the RTX 3080 Ti over the regular RTX 3080, and Metro Exodus also shows a 14 percent improvement. The range of performance increases ranges from around 4 percent all the way up to 15 percent, so the performance gap is very game dependent.
Even when using games with ray tracing, the RTX 3080 Ti still managed high frame rates when paired with DLSS. DLSS uses neural networks and AI supercomputers to analyze games and sharpen or clean up images at lower resolutions. In simple terms, it allows a game to render at a lower resolution and use Nvidia’s image reconstruction technique to upscale the image and make it look as good as native 4K.
Whenever I see the DLSS option in games, I immediately turn it on now to get as much performance as possible. It’s still very much required for ray tracing games, particularly as titles like Watch Dogs: Legion only manage to hit 55fps with ultra ray tracing enabled. If you enable DLSS, this jumps to 72fps and it’s difficult to notice a hit in image quality.
The RTX 3080 Ti stays quiet during heavy loads.
4K testing
For my 4K testing, I paired the RTX 3080 Ti with Acer’s 27-inch Nitro XV273K, a 4K monitor that offers up to 144Hz refresh rates and supports G-Sync. I wasn’t able to get any of the games I tested on both the RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3090 to hit the frame rates necessary to really take advantage of this 144Hz panel, but some came close thanks to DLSS.
Metro Exodus manages a 14 percent improvement over the RTX 3080, and Microsoft Flight Simulator also sees a 13 percent jump. Elsewhere, other games see between a 4 and 9 percent improvement. These are solid gains for the RTX 3080 Ti, providing more headroom for 4K gaming over the original RTX 3080.
The RTX 3080 Ti comes close to matching the RTX 3090 performance at 4K in games like Watch Dogs: Legion, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, Gears 5, and Death Stranding. Neither the RTX 3080 Ti nor RTX 3090 is strong enough to handle Watch Dogs: Legion with ray tracing, though. Both cards manage around 30fps on average, and even DLSS only bumps this up to below 50fps averages.
RTX 3080 Ti (4K)
Benchmark
RTX 3080 Founders Edition
RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition
RTX 3090 Founders Edition
Benchmark
RTX 3080 Founders Edition
RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition
RTX 3090 Founders Edition
Microsoft Flight Simulator
30fps
34fps
37fps
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
84fps
88fps
92fps
Shadow of the Tomb Raider (DLSS)
102fps
107fps
111fps
CoD: Warzone
89fps
95fps
102fps
CoD: Warzone (DLSS+RT)
119fps
119fps
129fps
Fortnite
84fps
92fps
94fps
Fortnite (DLSS)
124fps
134fps
141fps
Gears 5
64fps
72fps
73fps
Death Stranding
98fps
106fps
109fps
Death Stranding (DLSS quality)
131fps
132fps
138fps
Control
65fps
70fps
72fps
Control (DLSS quality + RT)
72fps
78fps
80fps
Metro Exodus
34fps
39fps
39fps
Metro Exodus (DLSS+RT)
50fps
53fps
55fps
Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla
64fps
70fps
70fps
Watch Dogs: Legion
52fps
55fps
57fps
Watch Dogs: Legion (DLSS+RT)
40fps
47fps
49fps
Watch Dogs: Legion (RT)
21fps
29fps
32fps
Most games manage to comfortably rise above 60fps in 4K at ultra settings, with Microsoft Flight Simulator and Metro Exodus as the only exceptions. Not even the RTX 3090 could reliably push beyond 144fps at 4K without assistance from DLSS or a drop in visual settings. I think we’re going to be waiting on whatever Nvidia does next to really push 4K at these types of frame rates.
When you start to add ray tracing and ultra 4K settings, it’s clear that both the RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3090 need to have DLSS enabled to play at reasonable frame rates across the most demanding ray-traced titles. Without DLSS, Watch Dogs: Legion manages an average of 29fps (at max settings), with dips below that making the game unplayable.
DLSS really is the key here across both 1440p and 4K. It was merely a promise when the 2080 Ti debuted nearly three years ago, but Nvidia has now managed to get DLSS into more than 50 popular games. Red Dead Redemption 2 and Rainbow Six Siege are getting DLSS support soon, too.
DLSS also sets Nvidia apart from AMD’s cards. While AMD’s RX 6800 XT is fairly competitive at basic rasterization at 1440p, it falls behind the RTX 3080 in the most demanding games at 4K — particularly when ray tracing is enabled. Even the $1,000 Radeon RX 6900 XT doesn’t fare much better at 4K. AMD’s answer to DLSS is coming later this month, but until it arrives we still don’t know exactly how it will compensate for ray tracing performance on AMD’s GPUs. AMD has also struggled to supply retailers with stock of its cards.
That’s left Nvidia in a position to launch the RTX 3080 Ti at a price point that really means it’s competing with itself, positioned between the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090. If the RTX 3090 wasn’t a thing, the RTX 3080 Ti would make a lot more sense.
The RTX 3080 Ti comes close to RTX 3090 performance.
Nvidia is also competing with the reality of the market right now, as demand has been outpacing supply for more than six months. Nvidia has introduced a hash rate limiter for Ethereum cryptocurrency mining on new versions of the RTX 3080, RTX 3070, and now this RTX 3080 Ti. It could help deter some scalpers, but we’ll need months of data on street prices to really understand if it’s driven pricing down to normal levels.
Demand for 30-series cards has skyrocketed as many rush to replace their aging GTX 1080 and GTX 1080 Ti cards. Coupled with Nvidia’s NVENC and professional tooling support, it’s also made the RTX 30-series a great option for creators looking to stream games, edit videos, or build games.
In a normal market, I would only recommend the RTX 3080 Ti if you’re really willing to spend an extra $500 to get some extra gains in 1440p and 4K performance. But it’s a big price premium when the RTX 3090 exists at this niche end of the market and offers more performance and double the VRAM if you’re really willing to pay this much for a graphics card.
At $999 or even $1,099, the RTX 3080 Ti would tempt me a lot more, but $1,199 feels a little too pricey. For most people, an RTX 3080 makes a lot more sense if it were actually available at its standard retail price. Nvidia also has a $599 RTX 3070 Ti on the way next week, which could offer some performance gains to rival the RTX 3080.
Either way, the best GPU is the one you can buy right now, and let’s hope that Nvidia and AMD manage to make that a reality soon.
With photogrammetry, hundreds of still photos can be transformed into an incredibly realistic 3D model of a real place on Earth — assuming you capture them all.
This Memorial Day weekend, a self-flying robot cameraman did that entire job for me. I simply designated where to fly and where not to fly, kicked back in a chair, and a Skydio 2 drone nabbed those photos all by itself.
Today, Skydio is launching Skydio 3D Scan, an optional software suite for its self-flying drones that lets them build incredibly detailed models for far more important tasks than my holiday backyard BBQ. We’re talking about scanning bridges that might be in need of structural repair, accident reporting at crash sites, and allowing clients to inspect construction sites from most any angle, anywhere in the world, during and after structures are built.
Those aren’t theoretical, by the way: Skydio says the North Carolina Department of Transportation is using it for bridges; the Boston Police Department for crime and accident scene reconstruction; and, below, you can see an real-life interactive 3D example of a water treatment plant for an upcoming semiconductor facility being built in Chandler, Arizona by Sundt Construction, presumably for Intel. (Skydio says it doesn’t know for sure.)
As you can imagine with that kind of clientele, the feature doesn’t come cheap: $2,999 per year, per drone, for the ability to autonomously grab all those photos given a designated volume that you’d like to capture. That also doesn’t include the drone, a controller, or the software you’ll need to actually stitch the images together: $99+ a month for DroneDeploy, or several thousand dollars per year for Bentley Systems’ ContextCapture, as a couple examples — the embedded Sketchfab models in this post use Bentley’s solution. 3D Scan will come to the company’s $10,999-and-up Skydio X2 drone later this summer as well.
Though it’s aimed at professionals with money to spend, a few short sessions showed me you don’t need to be a pro to use 3D Scan, or necessarily even know how to fly a drone. Assuming you’re following all local drone laws, it’s simply a matter of powering up a standard Skydio 2 drone (with two high-capacity microSD cards) and a Skydio controller, then following a series of prompts on a phone. You fly the drone to the top, bottom, and corners of the area you’d like to capture, pick how much detail you want, and then it does the rest on its own — taking pictures with its 12-megapixel front camera while the drone’s other six eyes and navigation system keep it from crashing.
The larger and more detailed your scan, the longer it’ll take, but you can resume after a battery swap — Skydio recommends you don’t stay out longer than four batteries.
Like I wrote in our Skydio 2 review, you can trust this drone not to crash, and the 3D Scan mode adds a geofencing feature that can help you keep it from flying into unwanted areas, too. Frankly, I didn’t feel a pressing need to hang onto the controller during my backyard patio scan, so I left it on a table while I watched. The only thing that confused me was knowing when the scan was done: it turns out you have to land the drone, then leave it powered on to finish processing. Then, it was a matter of uploading a couple gigabytes of photos to DroneDeploy or Bentley and waiting for them to process.
There’s an AR mode where you can keep track of a virtual Skydio drone as it makes its rounds.
As you’ll no doubt see in the 3D models (or failing that, YouTube), they’re not quite seamless yet — not something you’d want to explore in virtual reality, for instance. (I tried.) Even though I can make out the exact texture of the cement slab and tiles in my backyard, and the metal carnage in this Swiss cheese of a busted helicopter, here are loads of holes and smudges that photogrammetry is just failing to provide.
Skydio CEO and co-founder Adam Bry admits that 3D isn’t everything, and that some clients will simply use 3D as a guide to all of the individual high-res photos that Skydio also provides. “If you set the closest resolution, you’re talking about something like .5mm per pixel … it’s enough to see fine cracks in concrete, it’s enough to see rust on a bolt, it’s enough to see details of a skid mark on the ground.” And while he says the system works in indoor environments, it’s currently optimized for flying around an object you’d like to capture instead of capturing the world around the drone, like you might for an indoor tour. (Skydio is “fairly active” in pursuing inside-out capture as well.)
Long term, Bry thinks the automated aerial scanning might come in handy for digitizing the world for other reasons, like augmented and virtual reality, but for now it seemed like simple, detailed 3D structure modeling was a problem Skydio could solve. “There are countless examples of the world’s best drone pilots keeping this mental model of the path they’ve flown,” says Bry. Now, scanning may not need to be about flying, or even programming a path on a map. It’s just another app on your phone.
Skydio’s holding a special live webinar at the US Space and Rocket Center today at 9AM PT / 12PM ET to show a bit more of what 3D Scan can do. They’ll be scanning some exhibits inside the center, Bry tells me.
The Spectrix D50 Xtreme DDR4-5000 is one of those luxury memory kits that you don’t necessarily need inside your system. However, you’d purchase it in a heartbeat if you had the funds.
For
+ Good performance
+ Gorgeous aesthetics
Against
– Costs an arm and a leg
– XMP requires 1.6V
When a product has the word “Xtreme” in its name, you can tell that it’s not tailored towards the average consumer. Adata’s XPG Spectrix D50 Xtreme memory is that kind of product. A simple glance at the memory’s specifications is more than enough to tell you that Adata isn’t marketing the Spectrix D50 Xtreme towards average joes. Unlike the vanilla Spectrix D50, the Xtreme version only comes in DDR4-4800 and DDR4-5000 flavors with a limited 16GB (2x8GB) capacity. The memory will likely not be on many radars unless you’re a very hardcore enthusiast.
Adata borrowed the design from Spectrix D50 and took it to another level for the Spectrix D50 Xtreme. The heat spreader retains the elegant look with geometric lines. The difference is that the Xtreme variant features a polished, mirror-like heat spreader. The reflective finish looks stunning, but it’s also a fingerprint and dust magnet, which is why Adata includes a microfiber cloth to tidy up.
The memory module measures 43.9mm (1.73 inches) so compatibility with big CPU air coolers is good. The Spectrix D50 Xtreme still has that RGB diffuser on the top of the memory module. Adata provides its own XPG RGB Sync application to control the lighting or if you prefer, you can use your motherboard’s software. The Spectrix D50 Xtreme’s RGB illumination is compatible with the ecosystems from Asus, Gigabyte, MSI and ASRock.
Each Spectrix D50 Xtreme memory module is 8GB big and sticks to a conventional single-rank design. It features a black, eight-layer PCB and Hynix H5AN8G8NDJR-VKC (D-die) integrated circuits (ICs).
The default data rate and timings for the Spectrix D50 Xtreme are DDR4-2666 and 19-19-19-43, respectively. Adata equipped the memory with two XMP profiles with identical 19-28-28-46 timings. The primary profile corresponds to DDR4-5000, while the secondary profile sets the memory to DDR4-4800. Both data rates require a 1.6V DRAM voltage to function properly. For more on timings and frequency considerations, see our PC Memory 101 feature, as well as our How to Shop for RAM story.
Comparison Hardware
Memory Kit
Part Number
Capacity
Data Rate
Primary Timings
Voltage
Warranty
Crucial Ballistix Max
BLM2K8G51C19U4B
2 x 8GB
DDR4-5100 (XMP)
19-26-26-48 (2T)
1.50
Lifetime
Adata XPG Spectrix D50 Xtreme
AX4U500038G19M-DGM50X
2 x 8GB
DDR4-5000 (XMP)
19-28-28-46 (2T)
1.60
Lifetime
Thermaltake ToughRAM RGB
R009D408GX2-4600C19A
2 x 8GB
DDR4-4600 (XMP)
19-26-26-45 (2T)
1.50
Lifetime
Predator Apollo RGB
BL.9BWWR.255
2 x 8GB
DDR4-4500 (XMP)
19-19-19-39 (2T)
1.45
Lifetime
Patriot Viper 4 Blackout
PVB416G440C8K
2 x 8GB
DDR4-4400 (XMP)
18-26-26-46 (2T)
1.45
Lifetime
TeamGroup T-Force Dark Z FPS
TDZFD416G4000HC16CDC01
2 x 8GB
DDR4-4000 (XMP)
16-18-18-38 (2T)
1.45
Lifetime
TeamGroup T-Force Xtreem ARGB
TF10D416G3600HC14CDC01
2 x 8GB
DDR4-3600 (XMP)
14-15-15-35 (2T)
1.45
Lifetime
Our Intel platform simply can’t handle the Spectrix D50 Xtreme DDR4-5000 memory kit. Neither our Core i7-10700K or Core i9-10900K sample has a strong IMC (integrated memory controller) for a memory kit.
The Ryzen 9 5900X, on the other hand, had no problems with the memory. The AMD test system leverages a Gigabyte B550 Aorus Master with the F13j firmware and aMSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming Trio to run our RAM benchmarks.
Unfortunately, we ran into a small problem that prevented us from testing the Spectrix D50 Xtreme at its advertised frequency. One of the limitations with B550 motherboards is the inability to set memory timings above 27. The Spectrix D50 Xtreme requires 19-28-28-46 to run at DDR4-5000 properly. Despite brute-forcing the DRAM voltage, we simply couldn’t get the Spectrix D50 Xtreme to run at 19-27-27-46. The only stable data rate with the aforementioned timings was DDR4-4866, which is what we used for testing.
AMD Performance
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There’s always a performance penalty when you break that 1:1 ratio with the Infinity Fabric Clock (FCLK) and memory clock on Ryzen processors. The Spectrix D50 Xtreme was just a hairline from surpassing the Xtreem ARGB memory kit where DDR4-3600 is basically the sweet spot for Ryzen.
It’s important to bear in mind that the Spectrix D50 Xtreme was running at DDR4-4866. As small as it may seem, that 134 MHz difference should put Adata’s offering really close to Crucial’s Ballistix Max DDR4-5100, which is the highest-specced memory kit that has passed through our labs so far.
Overclocking and Latency Tuning
Memory Review (Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Due to the motherboard limitation, we couldn’t pursue overclocking on the Spectrix D50 Xtreme. However, in our experience, high-speed memory kits typically don’t have much gas left in the tank. Furthermore, the Spectrix D50 Xtreme already requires 1.6V to hit DDR4-5000 so it’s unlikely that we would have gotten anywhere without pushing insame amounts of volts into the memory
Lowest Stable Timings
Memory Kit
DDR4-4400 (1.45V)
DDR4-4500 (1.50V)
DDR4-4600 (1.55V)
DDR4-4666 (1.56V)
DDR4-4866 (1.60V)
DDR4-5100 (1.60V)
Crucial Ballistix Max DDR4-5100 C19
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
17-25-25-48 (2T)
Adata XPG Spectrix D50 Xtreme DDR4-5000 CL19
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
19-27-27-46 (2T)
N/A
Thermaltake ToughRAM RGB DDR4-4600 C19
N/A
N/A
18-24-24-44 (2T)
20-26-26-45 (2T)
N/A
N/A
Patriot Viper 4 Blackout DDR4-4400 C18
17-25-25-45 (2T)
21-26-26-46 (2T)
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
At DDR4-4866, the Spectrix D50 Xtreme was cool operating with 19-27-27-46 timings. However, it wouldn’t go lower regardless of the voltage that we crank into it. We’ll revisit the overclocking portion of the review once we source a more capable processor and motherboard for the job.
Bottom Line
The Spectrix D50 Xtreme DDR4-5000 C19 won’t offer you the best bang for your buck by any means. However, the memory will make your system look good and give you some bragging rights along the way. Just make sure you have a processor and motherboard that can tame the memory before pulling the trigger on a memory kit of this caliber.
With that said, the Spectrix D50 Xtreme DDR4-5000 C19 doesn’t come cheap. The memory retails for $849.99 on Amazon. Not like there are tons of DDR4-5000 memory kits out there, but the Spectrix D50 Xtreme is actually the cheapest one out of the lot. For the more budget-conscious consumers, however, you should probably stick to a DDR4-3600 or even DDR4-3800 memory kit with the lowest timings possible. The Spectrix D50 Xtreme is more luxury than necessity.
NVIDIA today refreshed the top-end of the GeForce RTX 30-series “Ampere” family of graphics cards with the new GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, which we’re testing for you today. The RTX 3080 Ti is being considered the next flagship gaming product, picking up the mantle from the RTX 3080. While the RTX 3090 is positioned higher in the stack, NVIDIA has been treating it as a TITAN-like halo product for not just gaming, but also quasi-professional use cases. The RTX 3080 Ti has the same mandate as the RTX 3080—to offer leadership gaming performance with real-time raytracing at 4K UHD resolution.
NVIDIA’s announcement of the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3070 Ti was likely triggered by AMD’s unexpected success in taking a stab at the high-end market after many years with its Radeon RX 6800 series and RX 6900 XT “Big Navi” GPUs, which are able to compete with the RTX 3080, RTX 3070, and even pose a good alternative to the RTX 3090. NVIDIA possibly found itself staring at a large gap between the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 that needed to be filled. We hence have the RTX 3080 Ti.
The GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is based on the same 8 nm GA102 silicon as the RTX 3080, but with more CUDA cores, while maxing out the 384-bit wide GDDR6X memory bus. It only has slightly fewer CUDA cores than the RTX 3090, the memory size is 12 GB as opposed to 24 GB, and the memory clock is slightly lower. NVIDIA has given the RTX 3080 Ti a grand 10,240 CUDA cores spread across 80 streaming multiprocessors, 320 3rd Gen Tensor cores that accelerate AI and DLSS, and 80 2nd Gen RT cores. It also has all 112 ROPs enabled, besides 320 TMUs. The 12 GB of memory maxes out the 384-bit memory bus, but the memory clock runs at 19 Gbps (compared to 19.5 Gbps on the RTX 3090). Memory bandwidth hence is 912.4 GB/s.
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Founders Edition looks similar in design to the RTX 3080 Founders Edition. NVIDIA is pricing the card at $1,200, or about $200 higher than the Radeon RX 6900 XT. The AMD flagship is really the main target of this NVIDIA launch, as it has spelled trouble for the RTX 3080. As rumors of the RTX 3080 Ti picked up pace, AMD worked with its board partners to release an enthusiast-class RX 6900 XT refresh based on the new “XTXH” silicon that can sustains 10% higher clock-speeds. In this review, we compare the RTX 3080 Ti with all the SKUs in its vicinity to show you if it’s worth stretching your penny to $1,200, or whether you could save some money by choosing this card over the RTX 3090.
MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Suprim X is the company’s new flagship gaming graphics card, and part of NVIDIA’s refresh of the RTX 30-series “Ampere” family, to bolster its position in the high-end segment. The Suprim X is an MSI exercise at leveling up to the NVIDIA Founders Edition in terms of original design and build quality. The most premium materials and design combine with the company’s most advanced graphics card cooling solution, and overclocking-optimized PCB, to offer the highest tier of factory overclocks.
NVIDIA announced the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3070 Ti at its Computex 2021 event to answer two very specific challenges to its product stack—the Radeon RX 6900 XT outclassing the RTX 3080, and the RX 6800 performing well against the RTX 3070. The RTX 3080 Ti is designed to fill a performance gap between the RTX 3080 and the halo-segment RTX 3090.
The RTX 3080 Ti is based on the same 8 nm GA102 silicon as the RTX 3080, but features a lot more CUDA cores, but more importantly, maxes out the 384-bit wide GDDR6X memory bus of the GA102. NVIDIA is giving the card 12 GB of memory, and not 24 GB like on the RTX 3090, as it considers it a halo product, even targeting certain professional use-cases. The RTX 3080 Ti is also endowed with 320 TMUs, 320 Tensor cores, 80 RT cores, and 112 ROPs. The memory operates at the same 19 Gbps data-rate as the RTX 3080, but due to its increased bus-width, results in a memory bandwidth of 912 GB/s.
The MSI RTX 3080 Ti Suprim X supercharges the RTX 3080 Ti with its highest clock speeds—1830 MHz vs. 1665 MHz reference. It features the most elaborate version of the company’s TriFrozr 2S cooling solution, with a metal alloy shroud, a dense aluminium fin-stack heatsink, three TorX fans, a similar power-delivery to the company’s RTX 3090 Suprim X, and a metal back-plate. In this review, we take the card for a spin across our test-suite to tell you if shelling RTX 3090 kind of money for a top custom RTX 3080 Ti is worth it. MSI hasn’t provided any pricing info yet, we expect the card will end up at around $2100, $100 higher than our estimate for the NVIDIA baseline price.
The ASUS ROG Strix LC GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is the company’s flagship custom-design RTX 3080 Ti graphics card, characterized by its factory-fitted, all-in-one liquid cooling solution. The cooler combines an AIO liquid cold-plate to pull heat from the GPU and memory; while a set of heatsinks and lateral blower provide additional cooling. Interestingly, this cooler debuted with the Radeon RX 6800 XT Strix LC, which along with the RX 6900 XT, are believed to have triggered product-stack updates among NVIDIA’s ranks, to begin with.
The GeForce RTX 3080 Ti replaces the RTX 3080 as NVIDIA’s new flagship gaming product. The RTX 3090 is still positioned higher, but that SKU is more of a TITAN-like halo product, with its massive 24 GB memory favoring certain professional use-cases when paired with Studio drivers. The RTX 3080 Ti utilizes the same GA102 silicon, maxing out its 384-bit memory interface, with 12 GB of it. There are more CUDA cores on offer—10,240 vs. 8,796 on the RTX 3080, and proportionate increase in Tensor cores, RT cores, and other components. The GeForce RTX 3080 Ti is based on the new Ampere graphics architecture, which debuts the 2nd generation of NVIDIA’s path-breaking RTX real-time raytracing technology, combining 3rd generation Tensor cores, with 2nd generation RT cores, and faster Ampere CUDA cores.
As mentioned earlier the ASUS ROG Strix LC lugs a bulky all-in-one liquid cooling + air hybrid solution, without coming across as ugly and tacked on. ASUS appears to have taken a keen interest in adding to the industrial design of the card and radiator. The cooler also ends up supporting a major factory-overclock of 1830 MHz, compared to 1665 MHz reference. This puts its performance way above even the RTX 3090, while also costing higher than its starting price. In this review we show you whether it’s worth just picking this card over an RTX 3090 if one is available.
The EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti FTW3 Ultra is the company’s premium offering based on NVIDIA’s swanky new RTX 3080 Ti graphics card, which the company hopes will restore its leadership in the high-end gaming graphics segment that felt disputed by the Radeon RX 6900 XT. Along with its sibling, the RTX 3070 Ti, the new graphics cards are a response to AMD’s return to competitiveness in the high-end graphics segment. It has the same mission as the RTX 3080—to offer maxed out gaming at 4K Ultra HD resolution, with raytracing, making it NVIDIA’s new flagship gaming product. The RTX 3090 is still positioned higher, but with its 24 GB memory, is branded as a TITAN-like halo product, capable of certain professional-visualization applications, when paired with NVIDIA’s Studio drivers.
The GeForce RTX 3080 Ti features a lot more CUDA cores than the RTX 3080—10,240 vs. 8,796, and maxes out the 384-bit wide memory interface of the GA102 silicon, much like the RTX 3090. The memory amount, however, is 12 GB, and runs at 19 Gbps data-rate. The RTX 3080 Ti is based on the Ampere graphics architecture, which debuts the 2nd generation of NVIDIA’s path-breaking RTX real-time raytracing technology. It combines new 3rd generation Tensor cores that leverage the sparsity phenomenon to accelerate AI inference performance by an order of magnitude over the previous gen; new 2nd generation RT cores which support even more hardware-accelerated raytracing effects; and the new faster Ampere CUDA core.
The EVGA RTX 3080 Ti FTW3 Ultra features the same top-tier iCX3 cooling solution as the top RTX 3090 FTW3, with a smart cooling that relies on several onboard thermal sensors besides what the GPU and memory come with; a meaty heatsink ventilated by a trio of fans, and plenty of RGB LED lighting to add life to your high-end gaming PC build. The PCB has several air guides that let airflow from the fans to pass through, improving ventilation. EVGA is pricing the RTX 3080 Ti FTW3 Ultra at $1340, a pretty premium over the $1,200 baseline price of the RTX 3080 Ti.
The Zotac GeForce RTX 3080 Ti AMP HoloBlack is the company’s top graphics card based on the swanky new RTX 3080 Ti “Ampere” GPU by NVIDIA. Hot on the heels of its Computex 2021 announcement, we have with us NVIDIA’s new flagship gaming graphics card, a distinction it takes from the RTX 3080. The RTX 3090 is still around in the NVIDIA’s product stack, but it’s positioned as a TITAN-like halo product, with its 24 GB video memory benefiting certain quasi-professional applications, when paired with NVIDIA’s GeForce Studio drivers. The RTX 3080 Ti has the same mandate from NVIDIA as the RTX 3080—to offer leadership 4K UHD gaming performance with maxed out settings and raytracing.
Based on the same 8 nm “GA102” silicon as the RTX 3080, the new RTX 3080 Ti has 12 GB of memory, maxing out the 384-bit GDDR6X memory interface of the chip; while also packing more CUDA cores and other components—10,240 vs. 8,796, 320 TMUs, those many Tensor cores, 80 RT cores, and 112 ROPs. The announcement of the RTX 3080 Ti and its sibling, the RTX 3070 Ti—which we’ll review soon—may have been triggered by AMD’s unexpected return to the high-end gaming graphics segment, with its “Big Navi” Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards, particularly the RX 6900 XT, and the RX 6800.
The GeForce Ampere graphics architecture debuts the 2nd generation of NVIDIA RTX, bringing real-time raytracing to gamers. It combines 3rd generation Tensor cores that accelerate AI deep-learning neural nets that DLSS leverages; 2nd generation RT cores that introduce more hardware-accelerated raytracing effects, and the new Ampere CUDA core, that significantly increases performance over the previous generation “Turing.”
The Zotac RTX 3080 Ti AMP HoloBlack features the highest factory-overclocked speeds from the company for the RTX 3080 Ti, with up to 1710 MHz boost, compared to 1665 MHz reference, a bold new cooling solution design that relies on a large triple-fan heatsink that, and aesthetic ARGB lighting elements that bring your gaming rig to life. Zotac hasn’t provided us with any pricing info yet, we’re assuming the card will end up $100 pricier than the base cards, like Founders Edition.
Palit GeForce RTX 3080 Ti GamingPro is the company’s premium custom-design RTX 3080 Ti offering, letting gamers who know what to expect from this GPU to simply install and get gaming. Within Palit’s product stack, the GamingPro is positioned a notch below its coveted GameRock brand for enthusiasts. By itself, the RTX 3080 Ti is NVIDIA’s new flagship gaming graphics product, replacing the RTX 3080 from this distinction. The RTX 3090 is marketed as a halo product, with its large video memory even targeting certain professional use-cases. The RTX 3080 Ti has the same mandate as the RTX 3080—to offer leadership gaming performance at 4K UHD, with maxed out settings and raytracing.
The GeForce RTX 3080 Ti story likely begins with AMD’s unexpected return to the high-end graphics segment with its Radeon RX 6800 series and RX 6900 XT “Big Navi” graphics cards. The RX 6900 XT in particular, has managed to outclass the RTX 3080 in several scenarios, and with its “XTXH” bin, even trades blows with the RTX 3090. It is to fill exactly this performance gap between the two top Amperes—the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090, that NVIDIA developed the RTX 3080 Ti.
The RTX 3080 Ti is based on the same 8 nm GA102 GPU as the other two top cards from NVIDIA’s lineup, but features many more CUDA cores than the RTX 3080, at 10,240 vs. 8,704; and more importantly, maxes out the 384-bit wide memory bus of this silicon. NVIDIA endowed this card with 12 GB of memory. Other key specs include 320 Tensor cores, 80 RT cores, 320 TMUs, and 112 ROPs. The memory ticks at the same 19 Gbps data-rate as the RTX 3080, but the wider memory bus means that the bandwidth is now up to 912 GB/s.
Palit adds value to the RTX 3080 Ti, by pairing it with its TurboFan 3.0 triple-slot, triple-fan cooling solution that has plenty of RGB bling to satiate gamers. The cooler is longer than the PCB itself, so airflow from the third fan goes through the card, and out holes punched into the metal backplate. The card runs at reference clock speeds of 1665 MHz, and is officially priced at the NVIDIA $1200 baselines price for the RTX 3080 Ti, more affordable than the other custom designs we’re testing today. In this review, we tell you if this card is all you need if you have your eyes on an RTX 3080 Ti.
Facebook employees are circulating an internal petition calling for the company to investigate content moderation systems that led many Palestinians and allies to say their voices were being censored, the Financial Times reports. The news comes weeks after Israeli airstrikes killed more than 200 people in Gaza, including at least 63 children. Israel and Hamas have now reached a cease fire.
Palestinian activists and allies have long accused social media companies of censoring pro-Palestinian content — and the issue has only gotten worse during the recent conflict. At Facebook, content moderation decisions are made by third-party contractors and algorithms, and the process is less than perfect, particularly in non-English speaking countries. After Instagram restricted a hashtag referring to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, pro-Palestinian activists coordinated a campaign to leave one-star reviews of Facebook in the app store.
It appears Facebook employees are taking note. “As highlighted by employees, the press, and members of Congress, and as reflected in our declining app store rating, our users and community at large feel that we are falling short on our promise to protect open expression around the situation in Palestine,” they wrote in the petition. “We believe Facebook can and should do more to understand our users and work on rebuilding their trust.”
The letter was posted on an internal forum by employees in groups called “Palestinians@” and “Muslims@.” It reportedly has 174 signatures.
Employees are asking Facebook to do a third-party audit of content moderations decisions surrounding Arab and Muslim content. They also want a post by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he allegedly called Palestinian civilians terrorists, to be reviewed by the company’s independent oversight board.
Last month, employees at Google, Apple, and Amazon wrote internal letters calling for executives to support Palestine. Employees at all three tech giants said they felt executives were unsupportive of Muslim workers. Some also wanted Google and Amazon to review a $1.2-billion cloud computing contract the companies had recently signed with the Israeli government. Yet no company had as immediate an impact on information surrounding the fighting as Facebook.
In a statement emailed to The Verge, a Facebook spokesperson said the company has committed to an audit of its community standards enforcement report. “We know there were several issues that impacted people’s ability to share on our apps,” the spokesperson added. “While we fixed them, they should never have happened in the first place and we’re sorry to anyone who felt they couldn’t bring attention to important events, or who believed this was a deliberate suppression of their voice. We design our policies to give everyone a voice while keeping them safe on our apps and we apply them equally, regardless of who is posting or what their personal beliefs are.”
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