Google just finished its live Google I/O 2021 keynote, where the company unveiled a huge number of announcements, including a new look coming to Android, a bunch of features coming to its Google Workspace productivity suite, and even a new AI that talked as if it were Pluto.
Nilay Patel and Dieter Bohn followed the whole thing in real time right here on our live blog.But if you just want to get caught up on the biggest news from the show, read on for our recap.
Android 12 has a radical and bubbly new look
Image: Google
Google revealed that Android 12 will have a brand-new “Material You” design with a whole lot of new changes. It offers a lot of color and customization, and the new mobile OS will even be able to change system colors to be able to better match your wallpaper. It also offers some new privacy features, including a new privacy dashboard. A beta will be available today, and it works with phones from 11 device makers.
Google is making Workspace more interconnected
Google announced “smart canvas,” a new initiative for its Workspace office software that will make it easier to work between products. Features include “smart chips” that let you link to other Workspace apps and the ability to start a Meet video call right from Google Doc, Sheet, or Slide.
Google showed off its new LaMDA AI language model and demoed conversations with Pluto and a paper airplane
Image: Google
Google CEO Sundar Pichai showed off some impressive (but pre-recorded) demos of someone having a conversation with an AI powered by its new LaMDA conversation technology. In the demos, the AI “talked” as Pluto and a paper airplane.
Google and Samsung are merging Wear OS and Tizen
Google announced Wear OS (now called just Wear) and Samsung’s Tizen will be combined into a unified platform. That should lead to apps launching faster and longer battery life.
Project Starline creates a 3D model of a person sitting across from you
Image: Google
Google demonstrated Project Starline, which uses high-resolution cameras and depth sensors to create a real-time 3D model of a person who is “sitting” across you to re-create the feeling of having a face-to-face meeting.
Google is building a camera that’s more inclusive of skin tone
Image: Google
Google is working on updates to its camera and imaging products to make them better at capturing and reproducing skin tones accurately in images.
Google Photos will be able to make animated photos from still shots
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Google Photos is getting impressive new “cinematic moments” that use two photos to create a moving image. You can see what they look like in the GIF above. Google is also adding new types of Memories, including ones based on visual patterns in your photos.
Google Photos will let you store photos in a locked folder
Image: Google
Google is adding a feature in Google Photos to let you store photos in a password-protected space on your phone. These photos won’t appear when you’re scrolling in the app. It’s launching first on Google Pixel and coming to more Android devices “throughout the year.”
Google will let you change a site’s password right from inside its password manager
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Google announced that it’s adding a way to change a stored password for a website right from inside Google’s password manager. It’s rolling out gradually to Chrome on Android in the US and will be widely available in the coming months.
Google Maps’ AR Live View tool will show more information
Google is making some changes to Google Maps, including rolling out new features for its Live View augmented reality tool. Google is also adding features to make maps more informative, such as showing different restaurants at different times of day, pointing out local landmarks if you’re visiting a new city, and showing how busy a certain area is.
Google is adding a privacy-friendly sandbox for machine learning data in Android
Google is adding a number of privacy-focused features to Android, including a sandbox in Android, the Private Compute Core, that will securely store data used for machine learning.
There are now 3 billion active Android devices globally
Google announced that there are now more than 3 billion active Android devices. That’s a lot!
Android will support digital car keys so you can unlock your car with your phone
Image: Google
Google will let “select Pixel and Samsung Galaxy phones” work as digital car keys starting with Android 12. The feature supports UWB and NFC, though BMW is the only automaker confirmed to support Android’s digital car key so far.
Google debuts new health tool to identify skin conditions using your camera
Image: Google
Google revealed a new health tool that lets you take a photo of a problem skin area and answer questions about their skin type and symptoms to help you better identify skin conditions. Google aims to launch a pilot of the tool this year.
In yet another sign of the growing alliance between Google and Samsung, today both companies announced that they are essentially combining Wear OS — Google’s operating system — and the Tizen-based software platform that has been foundational to Samsung’s wearables for many years. The resulting platform is currently being referred to simply as “Wear,” though that might not be the final name.
Benefits of the joint effort include significant improvements to battery life, 30 percent faster loading times for apps, and smoother animations. It also simplifies life for developers and will create one central smartwatch OS for the Android platform. Google is also promising a greater selection of apps and watch faces than ever before.
“All device makers will be able to add a customized user experience on top of the platform, and developers will be able to use the Android tools they already know and love to build for one platform and ecosystem,” Google’s Bjorn Kilburn wrote in a blog post.
Wired has more details on what’s to come, including the tidbit that Samsung will stick with its popular rotating bezel on future devices — but it’s finished making Tizen-only smartwatches. There will also be a version of Google Maps that works standalone (meaning without your phone nearby) and a YouTube Music app that supports offline downloads.
Wear will make it easier to multitask across smartwatch widgets and apps.Image: Google
Samsung confirmed that its next Galaxy Watch will run on this unified platform. And future Fitbit devices will also run the software. Aside from merging the technologies of both platforms, the new Wear OS will include improvements that make it easier to multitask between wrist apps. And some of Fitbit’s “most popular” fitness tracking features will also be included.
Microsoft is confirming today that it no longer plans to release Windows 10X. The operating was originally supposed to arrive alongside new dual-screen devices like the Surface Neo, with a more lightweight and simplified interface and features. This was all before the pandemic hit, and Microsoft then decided to prioritize Windows 10X for single-screen laptops instead. Windows 10X is now officially over, and Microsoft is now planning to bring its best bits into Windows 10.
“Instead of bringing a product called Windows 10X to market in 2021 like we originally intended, we are leveraging learnings from our journey thus far and accelerating the integration of key foundational 10X technology into other parts of Windows and products at the company,” confirms John Cable, head of Windows servicing and delivery.
Some of that has already started appearing in the form of a new app container technology, better voice typing, and a modernized touch keyboard for Windows 10. Microsoft says it will now “continue to invest in areas where the 10X technology” makes sense for both software and hardware in the future. It’s unlikely that we’ll ever see the Surface Neo device now, though.
Microsoft’s Surface Neo device was supposed to ship with Windows 10X.Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Windows 10X was going to appear in 2021 as more of a Chrome OS competitor, and Microsoft had spent years trying to modernize Windows in an attempt to bring a more lightweight version to market. Windows RT first released alongside the original Surface tablet in 2012, and then Windows 10 S arrived in 2017. Both failed to simplify Windows, but Windows 10X had some promising features that will now start to appear in Windows 10 instead.
While Microsoft released a smaller Windows 10 May 2021 Update today, a larger one is planned for October. This next major update includes some big visual changes in the form of new system icons, File Explorer improvements, and the end of Windows 95-era icons. Microsoft is also focusing on some key features and additions like fixing the rearranging apps issue on multiple monitors, adding the Xbox Auto HDR feature, and also improving Bluetooth audio support.
At the I/O developer conference on Tuesday, Google announced a range of new privacy measures, including a new partition within Android to manage machine learning data more securely.
Android’s new Private Compute Core will be a privileged space within the operating system, similar to the partitions used for passwords or sensitive biometric data. But instead of holding credentials, the computing core will hold data for use in machine learning, like the data used for the Smart Reply text message feature or the Now Playing feature for identifying songs.
While neither feature is sensitive in itself, they both draw on sensitive data like personal texts and real-time audio. The partition will make it easier for the operating system to protect that data, while still keeping it available for system-level functions.
“This means that all sensitive audio and language processing happens exclusively on your device and isolated from the network to preserve your privacy,” Google explained in a post announcing the feature.
Despite the name, the Android Private Compute Core is not a separate hardware chip; the partition exists entirely in software. While that lowers the absolute level of data protection, it should also make the system easier to deploy across a range of devices.
The new system was announced alongside a range of other privacy features for Android, including a new privacy dashboard and a new setting for approximate location sharing.
Developing… we’re adding more to this post, but you can follow along with our Google I/O 2021 live blog to get the news even faster.
The Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 is so good that it makes us wonder why Dell didn’t team up with AMD on a laptop sooner.
For
+ Strong gaming performance
+ Excellent productivity performance
+ Unique chassis
+ Not too costly for it power
Against
– Internals run hot
– Middling audio
– Bad webcam
It’s been 14 years since Alienware’s used an AMD CPU in one of its laptops, but AMD’s recent Ryzen processors have proven to be powerhouses that have generated a strong gamer fanbase. It also doesn’t hurt that AMD-based laptops have frequently undercut Intel in price. Point being, times have changed and now Team Red can easily compete with the best gaming laptops that Intel has to offer.
So it makes sense that Alienware’s finally been granted permission to board Dell’s UFO. And with the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5, it’s getting a first class treatment.
Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 Specifications
CPU
AMD Ryzen 7 5800H
Graphics
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 6GB GDDR6, 1,702 MHz Boost Clock, 125 W Total Graphics Power
Memory
16GB DDR4-3200
Storage
512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD
Display
15.6 inch, 1920 x 1080, 165Hz, IPS
Networking
802.11ax Killer Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2
Ports
USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 x 3, HDMI 2.1, USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 x 1 (DisplayPort), RJ-45 Ethernet, 3.5mm combination headphone/microphone port
Camera
720p
Battery
86 WHr
Power Adapter
240W
Operating System
Windows 10 Home
Dimensions(WxDxH)
14.02 x 10.73 x 0.9 inches (356.2 x 275.2 x 22.85 mm)
Weight
5.34 pounds (2.42 kg)
Price (as configured)
$1,649
Design of the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5
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Unlike other recent Alienware laptops, the m15 R5 Ryzen Edition only comes in black. The “lunar light” white isn’t an option here. Still, it’s a bold design that puts the emphasis on the laptop’s build quality rather than on decoration, and it pays off. The m15 R5 feels sturdy in the hand and its smooth edges give it a unique premium flare. It’s not too plain, since lighting options for the Alienware logo on the lid plus a circular LED strip along the back rim add a touch of flair. On that note, the stylized “15” on the lid is stylish, though it can look a bit much like a “13” from the wrong angle.
Hexagonal vents that sit above the keyboard and along the back also give the m15 R5 a bit of functional decoration and help make up for the small and well hidden side vents. The keyboard on this model has four-zone RGB, but it can be a little dim in well-lit areas.
This laptop veers on the large and heavy end for systems with an RTX 3060. At 14.02 x 10.73 x 0.9 inches large and 5.34 pounds heavy, it’s generally bulkier than the Asus TUF Dash F15 we reviewed, which has a mobile RTX 3070 and is 14.17 x 9.92 x 0.78 inches large and weighs 4.41 pounds. The Acer Predator Triton 300 SE, which manages to fit a mobile RTX 3060 into a 14 inch device, is also especially impressive next to the m15 R5. Granted, both of those use lower-power processors designed for thinner machines. Specifically, the Acer is 12.7 x 8.97 x .70 inches large and weighs 3.75 pounds.
The Alienware m15 R4, which has a 10th gen 45W Intel Core i7 processor and an RTX 3070, is 14.19 x 10.86 x 0.78 inches large and weighs 5.25 pounds. That leaves it not as bulky as the m15 Ryzen Edition R5, but about as heavy.
Port selection is varied, although distribution differs from my usual preferences. The left side of the laptop only has the Ethernet port and the 3.5mm headphone/microphone jack, which is a shame as that’s where I typically like to connect my mouse. The back of the laptop has a few more connections, including the DC-in, an HDMI 2.1 port, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port and a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port that also supports DisplayPort. The right side of the laptop has two additional USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports.
Gaming Performance on the Alienware M15 Ryzen Edition R5
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Our review configuration of the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 came equipped with an 8-core, 16-thread Ryzen R7 5800H CPU and an RTX 3060 laptop GPU. It’s the first time we’ve tested a 45W CPU with an RTX 3060 and, to that end, we’ve decided to compare it to one 35W laptop with an RTX 3070 CPU, the Asus TUF Dash F15 with an Intel Core i7-11370H, and one 35W laptop with an RTX 3060 GPU, the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE with an Intel Core i7-11375H. We’ve also thrown the Alienware m15 R4 into the mix, which has a 45W 10th gen Intel CPU and an admittedly more powerful RTX 3070, plus a significantly higher price tag than any other competitor even on its cheapest configuration (the thing starts at $2,149).
I played Control on the Alienware laptop for a half hour to get a personal feel for gaming on the system. I tended to fall between 60 – 70 fps at high settings throughout, and turning ray tracing on using its high preset dropped that to 30 – 40 fps. The fans are certainly noticeable but aren’t ear-splitting, and the laptop neither got hot-to-the-touch nor did it spray hot air on my hands.
In Shadow of the Tomb Raider’s benchmark running at highest settings, the m15 Ryzen Edition R5’s CPU seemed to do it a favor, as its 73 fps average only barely fell behind the m15 R4’s 77 fps average. The Acer laptop was next in line with 61 fps, while the Asus laptop was significantly behind all other options at 54 fps.
Scores were a bit more even in Far Cry: New Dawn’s benchmark running at ultra settings. While the m15 R4 hit 91 fps, everything else was in the 70s. The m15 Ryzen Edition R5 had an average of 79 fps, while the Asus scored 74 fps and the Acer reached 73 fps.
The m15 Ryzen Edition R5 fell to third place in the Grand Theft Auto V benchmark running at very high settings, where it hit an 82 fps average and the Asus laptop achieved an 87 fps average. The Acer laptop was significantly behind at 72 fps, while the m15 R4 was significantly ahead at 108 fps.
Red Dead Redemption 2’s benchmark running at medium settings saw the m15 Ryzen Edition R5 once again stay in third place, though by a more significant margin this time. The R5 achieved a 53 fps average, while the Asus led with 61 fps score. The Acer was once again behind at 48 fps, while the m15 R4 stayed ahead at 69 fps.
We also ran the Alienware M15 R5 Ryzen Edition through the Metro Exodus RTX benchmark 15 times in a row to test how well it holds up to a sustained heavy load. During this benchmark, it hit an average 56 fps. The CPU ran at an average 3.63-GHz clock speed while the GPU ran at an average clock speed of 1.82 GHz. The CPU’s average temperature was 90.36 degrees Celsius (194.65 degrees Fahrenheit) and the GPU’s average temperature was 82.02 degrees Celsius (179.64 degrees Fahrenheit).
Productivity Performance for the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5
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While Alienware is a gaming brand, the use of a 45W AMD chip does open the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 up to high productivity potential.
On Geekbench 5, which is a synthetic test for tracking general PC performance, the m15 Ryzen Edition R5 hit 1,427 points on single-core tests and 7,288 points on multi-core tests. While its single core score was on the lower end when compared to the Asus TUF Dash F15’s 1,576 points and the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE’s 1,483 points, the Alienware blew those laptops away on multi-core scores. The Asus’ multi-core score was 5,185, while the Acer’s multi-core score was 5,234.
The Alienware m15 R4 was a bit more even with its AMD cousin, scoring 1,209 on single-core Geekbench 5 tests and 7,636 on the program’s multi-core benchmarks.
Unfortunately, the m15 Ryzen Edition R5 couldn’t maintain that momentum for our 25GB file transfer benchmark. Here, it transferred files at a 874.14 MBps speed, while the Asus hit 1,052.03 MBps and the Acer reached 993.13 MBps. The m15 R5 hit speeds of 1137.34 MBps.
The m15 Ryzen Edition R5 was the fastest contender in our Handbrake video encoding test, though, where we track how long it takes a computer to transcode a video down from 4K to FHD. The m15 Ryzen Edition R5 completed this task in 7:05, while the Asus took 10:41 and the Acer was even slower at 11:36. The m15 R5 almost caught up to its AMD cousin with a time of 7:07.
Display for the Alienware M15 R5 Ryzen Edition
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Our configuration for the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 came with a 15.6 inch 1920 x 1080 IPS display with a 165Hz refresh rate. While it boasted impressive gaming performance and strong benchmark results, it still proved problematic for viewing content.
I watched the trailers for Nomandland and Black Widow on the m15 Ryzen Edition R5, where I found the blacks to be shallow and the viewing angles to be restrictive. In my office during the daytime, I couldn’t easily see the screen’s picture unless I was sitting directly in front of it. Turning my lights off and closing my curtain only extended viewing angles to about 30 degrees. Glare also proved to be an issue in the light, although turning lights off did fix this problem.
Colors were bright enough to pop occasionally but not consistently, with bolder tones like reds and whites holding up better than more subdued ones. Here, Black Widow came across a bit more vividly than the naturalistic style of Nomadland, so this screen might be better suited for more colorful, heavily produced films.
Our testing put the m15 Ryzen Edition R4’s color range above its closest competitors, the Asus TUF Dash F15 and Acer Predator Triton 300 SE, though not by much. With an 87.3 DCI-P3 color gamut, it’s only slightly ahead of the Asus’ 80.6% DCI-P3 score. The TUF Dash F15 had a starker difference, with a 78.5% DCI-P3 color gamut.
Our brightness testing saw the Alienware pull a more solid lead. With an average of 328 nits, it easily surpassed the Acer’s 292 nits and the Asus’ 265 nits.
The Alienware m15 R4 blew all of these systems out of the water, although the OLED screen our configuration had makes the comparison more than a bit unfair. Its DCI-P3 gamut registered at 150% while its average brightness was 460.2 nits.
To test the m15 Ryzen Edition R5’’s 165Hz screen, I also played Overwatch on it. Here, I had a much more pleasant experience than I did when watching movie trailers. The game’s bright colors appeared quite vivid and the fast refresh rate was perfectly able to keep up with the 165 fps I was hitting on Ultra settings.
Keyboard and Touchpad on the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5
The Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 configuration we received has a 4-zone RGB membrane keyboard, though other configurations do offer mechanical switches made in collaboration with Cherry. You can currently get that upgrade for an additional $98.
The membrane nature of this keyboard didn’t mean it wasn’t impressive, though. Keys have a noticeable resistance when pressed and 1.7mm of key travel gives you plenty of tactile feedback. I consistently scored around 83 words per minute on the 10fastfingers.com typing test, which is impressive as my average is usually around 75 wpm.
In an unusual choice, the Alienware’s audio control keys sit on the keyboard’s furthest right row rather than being mapped to the Fn row as secondary functions. Instead, the Page Up and Page Down keys that would normally be found there are secondary functions on the arrow keys.
The 4.1 x 2.4-inch touchpad doesn’t fare as well. While it has precision drivers and is perfectly smooth when scrolling with one finger, I felt too much friction when using multi-touch gestures to pull them off comfortably or consistently. For instance, when trying to switch apps with a three-fingered swipe, I would frequently accidentally pinch zoom instead.
Audio on the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5
The Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 has two bottom firing speakers that are loud with surprisingly decent bass, but tend to get tinny on higher notes.
I tested the m15 Ryzen Edition R5’s audio by listening to Save Your Tears by The Weeknd, which easily filled up my whole two bedroom apartment with sound. I was also surprised to be able to hear the strum of the song’s bass guitar, as it’s not uncommon for other laptops to either cut it out, make it quiet, or give it a more synth-like quality. Unfortunately, higher notes suffered from tinniness and echo.
Upgradeability of the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5
The Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 is easy to open and has plenty of user customizability. Just unscrew the four screws closest to the back of the laptop, then loosen the four screws on the front (we used a PH0 Phillips Head bit).
Gently pry the case off, and you’ll see the networking card, two swappable DIMMs of RAM, the M.2 SSD and a second, open M.2 SSD slot (if you don’t buy the laptop with dual SSDs).
The only tradeoff here is that the SSDs are in a smaller, less common M.2 2230 form factor (most are 2280) , so you’ll probably need to buy a specialized drive for this laptop.
Battery Life on the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5
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The Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 is a power hog, with half the non-gaming battery life of the RTX 3060 and RTX 3070 35W laptops we tested it against. This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, since it also has a 45W CPU, but don’t expect to be able to spend too much time away from an outlet.
In our non-gaming battery test, which continually streams video, browses the web and runs OpenGL tests over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness, the M15 Ryzen Edition R5 held on for 3:29. That’s about 3 hours less time than we got out of both the Asus TUF Dash F15, which had a 6:32 battery life, and the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE, which lasted for 6:40.
The Alienware m15 R5, with its 45W Intel chip, also had a shorter battery life than our 35W laptops, though it was slightly longer than the m15 Ryzen Edition R5’s. It lasted 4:01 on our non-gaming test.
Heat on the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5
The Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5’s surface temperature was impressively cool during non-gaming use but could get toasty in select areas during our gaming benchmarks. For our tests, we measured its temperature both after 15 minutes of streaming video and during the sixth consecutive run of the Metro: Exodus extreme benchmark.
The laptop’s touchpad proved coolest during the video test, registering 81.1 degrees Fahrenheit. This was only slightly behind the center of the keyboard’s temperature, as the typer hit 85.5 degrees Fahrenheit in between the G and H keys. The bottom of the laptop was warmer, hitting 90.9 degrees, although the center-left of the display hinge is where it was hottest, registering 101.1 degrees Fahrenheit.
Our gaming test saw a mild jump in temperatures in all areas except the bottom and the hinge, where numbers spiked much higher. The touchpad was 83.3 degrees Fahrenheit and the center of the keyboard was 90.9 degrees Fahrenheit. By contrast, the bottom of the laptop was now 121.5 degrees Fahrenheit and the hot zone on the hinge was now 136.1 degrees Fahrenheit.
Despite these higher numbers, though, the laptop never became too hot to touch while gaming. It did feel pleasantly warm, however.
Webcam on the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5
The Alienware M15 R4 Ryzen Edition’s 720p webcam is, like many premium gaming laptops, a bit of an afterthought. Regardless of lighting conditions, its shots always have a blocky and fuzzy appearance. Adding light also adds a distracting halo effect to silhouettes, while dimming your surroundings will just bring down detail even further.
Software and Warranty on the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5
The Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 comes packed with software, although most of it serves a genuinely useful purpose.
Most of these are apps like Alienware Command Center, which lets you customize lighting and thermals as well as set up macros. Some are less useful than others — Alienware Customer Connect simply exists to get you to fill out surveys — but apps like Alienware Mobile Connect, which lets you easily mirror your phone’s screen, transfer its files or take phone calls from your laptop are definitely a standout. It might be easier to navigate these functions if they were all centralized into one hub app rather than being their own standalone programs, though. My Alienware tries to be this hub app, although it’s mostly just a redirect to Alienware Command Center with a bunch of ads on the side.
This laptop also comes with typical Windows pack-ins like Microsoft Solitaire Collection and Spotify. Its default warranty is limited to one year, although you can extend it at checkout.
Configurations for the Alienware M15 R5 Ryzen Edition
Our configuration of the Alienware M15 R5 Ryzen Edition came with an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H CPU, an RTX 3060 laptop GPU, 16GB of RAM, a 512GGB SSD and a 1920 x 1080, 165Hz display for $1,649. That actually puts it towards the lower end of what’s available.
You can upgrade this laptop’s CPU to the Ryzen 9 5900HX, which has the same thread count but boosts up to 4.6 GHz, and its GPU to an RTX 3070 laptop card. Memory options range from 8GB to 32GB, while storage options range from 256GB to 2TB. You can also add on an additional SSD with the same range of options, making for up to 4TB of total combined storage.
There’s also a 360Hz version of the FHD display available, as well as a QHD version with a 240Hz refresh rate and G-Sync support.
Perhaps the most interesting option that wasn’t included on our configuration is the mechanical keyboard, which features physical ultra low-profile switches made in collaboration with CherryMX.
These upgrades can raise your price up to $2,479, with the display and keyboard upgrades being the most costly components in Dell’s customization tool. The Cherry MX keyboard will add $98 to your price at checkout, while the QHD display costs $78. The FHD @ 360Hz display is only available on the highest preset option, which locks you into a Ryzen 9 5900HX chip and starts at $2,332.
By contrast, the low end of this laptop starts at $1,567.
Bottom Line
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The Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 proves that Team Red and Alienware make a strong pairing . While it’s not quite the beast that the minimum $2,149 Alienware m15 R4 is, it still manages performance that equates to and sometimes beats peers in its price range on most titles, all while rocking Alienware’s unique premium looks. At $1,649 for our configuration, it’s an easy premium choice over the $1,450 Asus TUF Dash F15. And if you prefer power over size, it’s also a better option for you than the $1,400 Acer Predator Triton 300 SE.
While it’s certainly not the most portable contender and could do with more even port distribution and stronger audio, its 45W CPU lends it just enough of an edge on power to make it a solid first step into Dell’s flagship gaming brand.
What exactly is lost in translation when TV shows and films are subbed or dubbed into a new language? It’s a hard question to answer, but for the team at AI startup Flawless, it may be one we don’t have to think about in the future. The company claims it has the solution to this particular language barrier; a technical innovation that could help TV shows and films effortlessly reach new markets around the world: deepfake dubs.
We often think of deepfakes as manipulating the entire image of a person or scene, but Flawless’ technology focuses on just a single element: the mouth. Customers feed the company’s software with video from a film or TV show along with dubbed dialogue recorded by humans. Flawless’ machine learning models then create new lip movements that match the translated speech and paste them automatically onto the actor’s head.
“When someone’s watching this dubbed footage, they’re not jolted out of the performance by a jarring word or a mistimed mouth movement,” Flawless’ co-founder Nick Lynes tells The Verge. “It’s all about retaining the performance and retaining the original style.”
The results — despite the company’s name — aren’t 100 percent flawless, but they are pretty good. You can see and hear how they look in the demo reel below, which features a French dub of the classic 1992 legal drama A Few Good Men, starring Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise. We asked a native French speaker what they made of the footage, and they said it was off in a few places but still a lot smoother than traditional dubbing.
What makes Flawless’ technology particularly interesting is its potential to scale. Flawless’ pitch is that deepfake dubs offer tremendous value for money: they’re cheap and quick to create, especially when compared to the cost of full remakes. And, with the advent of global streaming platforms like Netflix, Disney Plus, and Amazon Prime Video, it’s easier than ever for such dubbed content to reach international markets.
As a recent report in The Wall Street Journal highlighted, demand for streaming services in the US is saturated and companies are now looking abroad for future growth. In the first quarter of 2021, for example, 89 percent of new Netflix users came from outside the US and Canada, while the service’s most watched show, Lupin, is a Parisian thriller.
“What you’re seeing is more and more streamers come online realizing the vast majority of their consumers are going to be outside the US, over time,” Erik Barmack, a former Netflix executive responsible for the company’s international productions, told the WSJ. “The question is how international does your content need to be to be successful.”
As Barmack suggests, there are different ways to answer this demand. You can create shows with local flavor that still entertain domestic viewers. You can do remakes of local hits for new audiences. And you can roll out the subs and dubs. But Flawless is betting that its technology provides a new option that will be particularly enticing for filmmakers.
This is because the company’s deepfake dubs preserve, to some degree, the performance of the original actor, says Lynes. Flawless’ technology is based on research from the Max Planck Institute for Informatics first published in 2019. As you can see in a showcase video below, the dubs it produces are somewhat sensitive to the facial expressions of the performers, retaining their emotion and line delivery.
Flawless has developed these techniques over the past three years, says Lynes, speeding up production time and reducing the amount of input footage. The end results are still a balance of automated dubbing and manual retouching (about 85 percent to 15 percent) but speedy to edit. “If something comes out we don’t particularly like we’ll do a few iterations; resubmit the training data in different forms and get another result,” says Lynes.
The company hopes that preserving the original performance will be appealing to filmmakers who want to retain the magic of their original casting. Lynes gives the example of the 2020 Oscar award-wining Danish film Another Round,which stars Mads Mikkelsen as one of a group of teachers who experiment with low-level alcoholism to see if it improves their lives. After its success at home and on the international award circuit, the film is set to be remade for English-language audiences with Leonardo DiCaprio in the main role.
The news sparked discussion about the value of such remakes. Is the Danish drinking culture that forms the film’s backbone really so alien to American audiences that a remake is required? Is Mikkelsen, an actor who’s appeared in such mainstream fare as Hannibal, Doctor Strange, and Rogue One, such an unknown that he can’t attract viewers in the US? And is the “one-inch barrier” of subtitles (to quote Parasite director Bong Joon Ho) simply too much for audiences to overcome?
From Lynes’ point of view, a deepfake dub would at least be a cheaper way to bring Another Round to English-language audiences while retaining its original flavor. “They’re quoting $60 million to make that movie,” he says. “If we’re offering something that’s two percent the cost of the remake, we only need to be half as appealing to offer 10 times better value.”
Those in charge of the remake will have concerns other than money, of course. No matter how beloved Mikkelsen is, he’s not as bankable as DiCaprio. But Lynes hopes that as deepfake dubs become common it’ll change the calculations for such remakes in future. Much more than that, he says, it’ll could even reshape the international film landscape, allowing actors and directors to reach new audiences with minimal effort.
“I think the pulling power of actors will change globally as a consequence of this technology,” he says. “Different people’s performances and directors’ choices will be better recognized, because a wider audience will be able to see them.”
Perhaps so, but for the moment, Flawless needs to prove that audiences actually want its technology. The company, which launched earlier this month, says it’s already got a first contract with a client it can’t name, but there’s no timeline for when we might see its wares in a commercial TV show or film and that will be the real test. The proof is in the dubbing.
Since Google I/O was canceled completely last year due to COVID-19, this year’s festivities — which will be available online to anyone who wants to watch — are sure to be, well, festive. Today’s two-hour event will introduce what is expected to be a full treasure chest of new hardware and software.
Of course, nothing’s for sure when it comes to Google, but it’s very likely we’ll get some information about the latest version of its OS, Android 12. (There have already been some developer previews.) This could be very interesting since rumors have it that there are some major UI changes in the works. We’ll also be looking for the much-anticipated Pixel Buds A-series and a custom processor for Pixel phones. We might even get a preview of the Pixel 5A phone — and who knows? Google may have some other surprises planned.
We’ll be watching live and keeping you updated here with everything Google announces.
Oculus will soon roll out its v29 software for Quest and Quest 2 headsets, and this one adds more features and functionality to the lineup. The most exciting one is a new Live Overlay casting feature that will give you an easy way to capture a mixed reality view of you using VR superimposed over the content displayed in your headset. Any VR app that supports casting and recording will work with this feature, according to Oculus.
All you’ll need is at least an iPhone XS or newer, a Quest headset, and the Oculus app for iOS updated to a new version that’s coming to “a subset of users.” Then you turn on the feature and have someone aim the camera at you (or aim it at yourself).
There are other highlights to mention in this software version, but I want to focus a moment longer on how big of a technical achievement Live Overlay seems to be. The company’s previous solution, its Mixed Reality Capture Tool on PC for Quest and Rift S, required a bunch of expensive hardware, including a rig with 16GB of RAM, a decent graphics card, your own 1080p webcam, a 5GHz Wi-Fi router, and — of course — your own green screen. But for lucky iOS users who get the app update, Oculus’ improved feature has eliminated the need for almost all of those gadgets. You just need your headset and your phone.
In other casting news, Oculus is allowing you to capture what you’re saying into your headset’s built-in microphone during casting sessions or when you’re recording a video clip. It’s also extending multi-user support and the app sharing feature to owners of the original Quest, so multiple people can share games on a single headset. These features were originally limited to the Quest 2, but Oculus is making good on its pledge to bring them to the Quest.
There’s a Files app coming with this update, and it’ll be located within your app library. Oculus says in its blog post that you’ll be able to download and upload media files “to and from your favorite websites” through the browser built into the headset. In other words, it should be a lot easier to upload content to social media sites other than Facebook.
The last couple of additions include an Infinite Office update that lets iOS users (using an iPhone 7 and newer, with Android support coming soon) see lock screen notifications from within a Quest headset. Oculus is also adding a shortcut for its Passthrough command to the user interface in the Quick Settings menu, giving you an alternative method of triggering it instead of physically double-tapping the side of your headset.
Lastly, Oculus will begin showing ads for VR experiences within the mobile app with the intent to broaden discovery for both developers looking for an audience and users to find new content. This could be useful for smaller developers who have built quality experiences but don’t have the awareness of more popular apps. That said, if you’re a curious Quest owner looking for new experiences, I suggest checking out SideQuest on PC or from an Android phone.
Aside from churning out some limited edition colors, Beats has been in a bit of a quiet period since the release of the Beats Flex last October. But it seems that the Apple-owned brand is preparing to launch some new, high-end earbuds. As spotted by MacRumors, there are images of “Beats Studio Buds” in the latest beta releases of iOS and tvOS. 9to5Mac also uncovered images of the charging case and some system animations of the earbuds.
The unannounced earbuds look much different than the Powerbeats Pro, which have become a popular pick among the fitness crowd. These don’t have any ear hooks whatsoever, and they seem to have a diagonal steam that extends slightly upward.
Image: MacRumors
These images being included in “release candidate” builds of Apple’s software could mean that the Beats Studio Buds are due to be announced in the near future. The Verge has reached out to Beats for comment. According to 9to5Mac, the code pertaining to the earbuds confirms they’ll have noise cancellation, which is something that all Beats earbuds currently lack.
Apple is also expected to update its main AirPods earbuds sometime this year with a revamped design featuring shortened stems and other aesthetic details borrowed from the AirPods Pro. But they’re likely to retain the hard plastic, one-size-fits-most fit. Beats, however, seems to be sticking with silicone tips for an in-ear seal.
Beats has been going through a transition period after former president Luke Wood departed Apple last year. Recently, it’s been rumored that Scott Croyle, formerly of HTC, is playing a significant role in Beats hardware design.
Blending Optane memory and QLC flash, Intel’s Optane Memory H20 is an innovative M.2 NVMe SSD that delivers a unique caching experience. It is ultra-responsive to most consumer workloads, especially repetitive tasks.
For
+ Optane caching improves system responsiveness
+ Rivals high-end NVMe SSDs in light and mixed workloads
Against
– Low endurance
– Optane caching not beneficial in all workloads
– Limited to specific systems and 1TB maximum capacity
– Slow sustained write performance after the SLC cache fills
– Lacks AES 256-bit encryption support
Features and Specifications
Not too long ago, Intel killed off most of its client Optane products to focus on one — the Optane Memory H20. The H20 marries the company’s latest QLC flash with Optane Memory to provide fast performance for most client workloads, but it can fall short in large sequential transfers. It’s a clever blend of innovation and technology, bringing improvements over the Optane Memory H10, but it still isn’t quite something that has fully won us over for day-to-day use. It also isn’t available for stand-alone purchases at retail, so it doesn’t make our list of Best SSDs.
Data caching isn’t anything new. For years, Intel has accelerated performance through data caching via various implementations. The company even has competition in the space from software vendors like Enmotus. My first experience with this technology started with the company’s Smart Response Technology a decade ago, which allowed you to use an SSD to cache data from an HDD for faster retrieval. But that was just the beginning.
Intel further refined the technology to leverage its very own Optane Memory to offer unparalleled response times compared to traditional SSDs. The company released products like the M10; low-density, fast access Optane SSDs for use with supported systems. Shortly after, Intel progressed to new designs.
Two years ago, the company released the H10, a dual-controlled, hybrid SSD that was very unique and unlike anything we’ve seen before. The idea was simple: combine the best of both worlds onto a single, slim M.2 SSD stick – high-density NAND flash for capacity along with bleeding-edge Optane Memory for speed. However, our initial impression of the NVMe SSD was rather underwhelming compared to the best SSDs available.
Since then, the company has tweaked and tuned the Rapid Storage Technology caching software with multiple optimizations and improvements. Concurrently, the company focused on advancing the H-series hardware, too. Today, we analyze the latest version of the software in use with the H10’s successor, the H20. Leveraging essentially what is an Intel SSD 670p in conjunction with a newer Optane controller, and of course, that sweet, sweet Optane Memory, Intel’s Optane Memory H20 is quite similar to the H10, only improved.
When Optane caching is enabled, the SSD aggregates the performance of both storage mediums for fast peak performance and fast access times. Intel’s H20 is an OEM-only-oriented product, however, meaning that it is highly unlikely you would ever find this SSD on sale in retail outlets. Still, they may trickle down to eBay or similar marketplaces, so purchasers of systems containing this unique SSD can upgrade their capacity.
Specifications
Product
H20 512GB
H20 1TB
Capacity (User / Raw)
512GB / 512GB
1024GB / 1024GB
Form Factor
M.2 2280 S3
M.2 2280 S3
Interface / Protocol
PCIe 3.0 x4 / NVMe 1.3
PCIe 3.0 x4 / NVMe 1.3
Optane Controller
SLMXT
SLMXT
Optane Media
1st Gen 3D Xpoint
1st Gen 3D Xpoint
Optane Capacity
32GB
32GB
NAND Controller
SM2265
SM2265
DRAM
DDR3
DDR3
NAND Flash
Intel 144L QLC
Intel 144L QLC
Sequential Read
3,300 MBps
3,300 MBps
Sequential Write
2,100 MBps
2,100 MBps
Random Read
65,000 IOPS
65,000 IOPS
Random Write
40,000 IOPS
40,000 IOPS
Security
Pyrite 2.0
Pyrite 2.0
Endurance (TBW)
185 TB
370 TB
Intel’s H20 comes in limited capacities of just 512GB and 1TB, and both models come equipped with 32GB of Optane Memory. Intel rates both for the same up to 3.3/2.1 GBps read/write speeds and up to 65,000/40,000 random read/write IOPS at a queue depth (QD) of 1. While the sequential figures aren’t groundbreaking, no flash-based SSD comes close to delivering the same random IOPS performance at low QDs.
As it is an OEM-only product, the pricing for the device is not clear, but the company states it will ship in June for PCs priced at roughly $800 and up. Additionally, the H20 comes with tight hardware requirements. The H20 is only compatible with 11th-Gen Intel Core series processors and Intel 500-series chipsets or newer. Also, you will need Windows, Intel’s RST Driver 18.1 or newer, and there is no planned retroactive support for previous-gen systems.
The H20 supports Pyrite 2.0 security but lacks AES 256-bit hardware-accelerated encryption. It also supports S.M.A.R.T. data reporting, Trim, and is rated to consume as little as 35mW at idle to reduce power consumption and heat generation.
A Closer Look
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Intel’s H20 comes in an M.2 2280 single-sided form factor. The drive interfaces with the host over four PCIe 3.0 lanes and communicates via the NVMe 1.3 protocol. The H20 takes advantage of the same components found in the company’s 670p and a newer and faster Optane controller. As with the H10, the H20’s SSD controllers are given two lanes each, meaning that sequential performance is limited if you don’t enable Optane Memory acceleration.
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Silicon Motion developed the NAND controller specifically for Intel and the company’s 144L QLC. The SM2265 is a dual-core, four-channel NVMe controller that interfaces with the flash at fast speeds of up to 1,200 MTps, roughly double the speed of the previous-gen flash. The drive does have DRAM, but very little – our 1TB sample contains only 256MB of DDR3.
Intel’s 144L QLC uses a floating gate design with three 48-layer decks stacked atop each other. Each deck can operate as SLC or QLC. Each deck can also be erased without disturbing the data on other decks, which helps reduce latency spikes caused by garbage collection. It also has four planes for handling parallel data operations and a few new reading and writing techniques to improve responsiveness.
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Intel made revisions under the hood of the Optane Media controller, too. It features both performance and power management improvements that reduce overall power consumption, something that is needed when handling power-hungry Optane media on an M.2 form factor in its own right, and even more important when combining it with the secondary storage components. The Optane Memory is still first-gen media, however.
Arduino may be the last of the official partners to release its RP2040 powered board, but it seems it may have left the best till last. Here we see the Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect, the first official Raspberry Pi Pico alternative with onboard WiFi.
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The Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect is powered by the same RP2040 SoC, a dual-core Arm Cortex M0+ running at up to 133 MHz, 264KB of SRAM, and 16MB of flash memory as the Raspberry Pi Pico, but this is where the similarities end.
The biggest addition is onboard WiFi and Bluetooth 4.2, provided by a u-blox NINA-W102 chip, used on some models of Arduino for the past few years. This means that the 1.7 x 0.7 in (43.18 x 17.78 mm) board is ready for IoT projects with no additional extras. Other notable additions are a built-in mic that you can use for sound activation, audio control, and voice recognition and an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) which can be used to measure angular forces, orientation and be used for simple gesture inputs.
The GPIO pin layout does not follow the Raspberry Pi Pico layout; rather, Arduino has quite rightly used the same pinout as previous Arduino Nano boards, such as the Arduino Nano 33 IoT. This means we have 14 digital pins, some of which have double duty for UART, SPI and I2C. There are also eight analog inputs, the most of any RP2040 board.
Software support comes via the usual options. The Arduino IDE, including version 2.0, is compatible with the Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect. Arduino’s IoT cloud platform is also supported, enabling GUI applications to be written for common data science and remote control projects. Support for MicroPython and CircuitPython will also be present, but tweaks may need to be made to use WiFi / Bluetooth and the onboard sensors.
How much will this board cost? The launch price is €22 (excluding taxes), which converts to around $27, making it currently the most expensive RP2040 board on the market.
(Pocket-lint) – The Pulsefire Haste is HyperX’s answer to the trend of superlight honeycomb gaming mice out there. It ticks a number of boxes too – unless you love RGB lighting by the bucket load.
We’ve been happily working, surfing, and gaming away with the Pulsefire Haste to bring you our thoughts on how this lightweight mouse stacks up against the competition.
Lightweight design and an agile frame
Honeycomb design with 59g lightweight shell
Hyperflex USB cable
Dustproof TTC Golden Micro dustproof switches
Virgin-grade PTFE feet
When we started using the HyperX Pulsefire Haste we noticed a few striking things about it. First up, it’s one of the lightest gaming mice we’ve used, weighing just 59 grams.
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However, it is wired – which detracts from that sense of freedom. That said, the floppy Hyperflex cable ensures that the USB connection doesn’t weigh you down or get in the way while gaming.
Although the Pulsefire Haste might not be the best-looking gaming mouse we’ve seen, it’s still a satisfying mouse to use with plenty of features that make it appealing for the price.
Its body verges on being a good fit for medium to small hands – we suspect that large-handed gamers might struggle with it – and we found it comfortable to use during our play sessions.
Pocket-lint
If you’re worried about the honeycomb shell presenting a problem for dust and dirt ingress, you don’t need to fret as the Pulsefire Haste sports dust-proof switches. We’re also fairly confident a spray of compressed air would soon sort the insides out. But we wouldn’t recommend spilling a drink on it.
The outer shell also has a nice PBT-esque finish to it, making it easy to grip, and there’s not much danger of it slipping around in the hand. A nice addition to this is the included textured grip tape which can be applied to the main mouse buttons and either side of the mouse. This tape is easy to apply, without the annoyance of bubbles, and maintains the overall honeycomb finish too.
In the box, you also get some replacement PTFE skates, so if and when those wear out you can replace them and rejuvenate the mouse without much hassle.
One area the Pulsefire Haste lacks is in RGB lighting. We’ve seen much nicer-looking lightweight mice with snazzier appeal. The SteelSeries Aerox 3, for example, sports some nice RGB lighting that glows from within the honeycomb shell, but that’s sadly lacking on the Pulsefire Haste.
The Pulsefire Haste only has RGB on the mouse wheel, which is customisable within the software. Where thing this does shine though is the way it changes when you change DPI level. The mouse wheel lights up with different colours showing briefly as you change levels, so you know at a glance what you’re in.
Capable gaming setup
1000Hz polling rate, Up to 16000dpi
Speed: 450ips / Acceleration: 40G
6 programmable buttons
When it comes to gaming, we found the Pulsefire Haste to be a relative joy to use. Like other lightweight gaming mice, it’s easy to flick about the desk which makes it perfect for fast-paced first-person shooters and battle royale games.
Pocket-lint
With 450ips and 40G acceleration, it’s more than capable too. We wish the PTFE feet were a bit bigger, as we’ve certainly seen larger ones on other mice, but generally the HyperX mouse is easy to grip and even easier to move.
The DPI switching button on top also makes it easy to set and switch between various different DPI levels within the HyperX Ngenuity software. From there you can also programme macros, reprogramme keys, and adjust other settings.
Pocket-lint
The software is a bit barebones compared to the likes of Razer’s Synapse software or Corsair’s iCue, but it’s easy to use and allows you setup and tweak most things with ease. We found macros easy to record and set, with the easy adjustment of delays and tweaking a doddle also. Macros don’t seem as fast to activate as with other mice though.
Verdict
All told, the HyperX Pulsefire Haste is an appealing lightweight gaming mouse. It’s not the fanciest we’ve seen, but it has a number of highlights both in design aesthetics and specification terms.
It’s comfortable, capable and agile – which is obviously an appealing part of any mouse design, but it’s also so much more. The affordable price tag and the overall finish of this mouse make it well worth considering if you’re after something light and pleasing for your gaming sessions.
Also consider
Corsair Sabre RGB Pro
Pocket-lint
If you’re not bothered about having a super lightweight mouse, don’t like holes in your peripherals and want something built for pros then consider this instead.
The Corsair Sabre RGB Pro is another affordable mouse with some serious specs that include an 8,000Hz polling rate and some pro-level specs that include Nvidia Reflex Latency Analyser compatibility.
Best gaming mice: The best wired, wireless and RGB gaming mice to buy today
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SteelSeries Aerox 3 Wireless
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It might be more expensive, but the SteelSeries Aerox 3 Wireless is snazzier too. With some nice RGB lighting and other highlights that include P54 dust resistance, up to 200 hours battery life and both 2.4Ghz and Bluetooth connectivity options.
Best gaming mice: The best wired, wireless and RGB gaming mice to buy today
According to a Reuters report, a group of four U.S. senators might unveil their $52-billion microelectronics industry backing proposal on Friday or early next week. The chip industry support plan is set to include funding of R&D and production and the establishment of national programs. The $52 billion five-year plan pales in comparison to South Korea’s intention to support its semiconductor industry with $450 billion over the next 10 years. Still, the real question is if we can compare the plans directly.
$52 Billion U.S. Semiconductor Bill
Various companies in the U.S. design the vast majority of chips used globally, yet only 12% of semiconductors are produced on American soil. The microelectronics industry funding bill is designed to at least partially change that and bring more chip production back to the USA.
(Image credit: GlobalFoundries)
The U.S. semiconductor industry funding law is developed by senators Mark Kelly, John Cornyn, Mark Warner, and Tom Cotton. According to a draft document seen by Reuters, the plan is expected to include $39 billion in production and R&D incentives and $10.5 billion to implement various national programs over a five-year period. Among the government-supported R&D initiatives are the National Semiconductor Technology Center and National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program.
The chip industry supporting bill will be a part of a bigger $110 billion effort to fund U.S. technology research in a bid to better compete with China. The same bill is also set to include semiconductor requirements of this year’s National Defense Authorization Act, which will obviously somewhat help the American microelectronics industry, too.
“There is an urgent need for our economic and national security to provide funding to swiftly implement these critical programs,” the summary of the bill seen by Reuters reportedly reads. “The Chinese Communist Party is aggressively investing over $150 billion in semiconductor manufacturing so they can control this key technology.”
Typically, when a semiconductor company builds a fab in the U.S. and Europe, it gets incentives from federal and local governments. As a result, expect states to provide incentives to companies like Intel, so in the end, these chipmakers will get considerably more than $39 billion. Yet, even when federal and state chip funding initiatives are combined, the total sum will be considerably lower than South Korea’s planned spending on its microelectronics industry.
$450 Billion South Korean Chip Plan
Earlier this week South Korea unveiled an intention to support its local chip industry with $450 billion over the next 10 years.
(Image credit: Panasonic)
Historically, automotive and chemical/petrochemical products were South Korea’s main export items. Today, semiconductor sales account for around 14.6% of Korea’s exports and represent the largest exports category. Furthermore, since chips enable the vast majority of today’s products, from mice to TVs and from smartphones to vehicles, the importance of the semiconductor industry is hard to overestimate, especially for South Korea.
There is a catch, though. Samsung and SK Hynix — Korea’s largest chip companies — mostly export commodity DRAM and 3D NAND memory chips, not advanced logic chips, like CPUs and SoCs. Samsung, of course, has leading-edge process technologies, yet it produces chips developed by others and in different parts of the world. In fact, there aren’t many designers of sophisticated processors in South Korea – even parts of Samsung’s Exynos SoCs are designed in the USA.
The multifaceted $450 billion plan is set to change this. In a bid to revamp its domestic semiconductor industry, South Korea intends to help train 36,000 engineers between 2022 and 2031 and contribute $133 billion (1.5 trillion won) to semiconductor R&D programs. Furthermore, the country will help chip designers, manufacturers, and suppliers with tax breaks, lower interest rates, eased regulations, and strengthened infrastructure (which includes ensuring adequate water and power supply for chip makers), reports Bloomberg. South Korea has already gained endorsements from ASML and LAM Research that announced plans to expand their presence in the country.
In general, South Korea wants to build a vertically integrated semiconductor industry that will include leading-edge R&D operations, the development of world-class processors, and the production of chips using the most advanced fabrication technologies.
Different Goals
While the U.S. and South Korean semiconductor industry supporting plans are both unveiled in May and are aimed at the same industry, they are designed for different purposes, and to that end should not be compared directly as they pursue different goals.
(Image credit: TSMC)
American companies like AMD and Nvidia are focused on developing advanced logic chips that they can sell for thousands of U.S. dollars per unit and earn great margins. Some other U.S.-based companies like Apple and Tesla design chips so they could add unique capabilities to their products, such as smartphones, PCs, and automobiles. Manufacturing in the USA is something that these companies might prefer, yet their business efforts are focused on the development of products (which includes hardware and software) that they actually sell, not on the production of microelectronics.
For the U.S. as a country, manufacturing advanced semiconductors at home makes a lot of sense both from commercial and national security points of view. The USA already has the world’s leading developers of CPUs, GPUs, SoCs, and process technologies. Hence, the $52 billion bill is mostly designed to support domestic manufacturing, perhaps not the most lucrative (yet crucially important) portion of the global semiconductor supply chain. Considering that companies like TSMC and Samsung spend around $30 billion a year on capital expenditures (i.e., building new fabs and upgrading existing ones), $39 billion planned to help U.S. chip production over a five-year period is not much, though.
South Korea is the world’s leading producer of commodity memory chips. In contrast, it is not known for leading-edge microprocessors and system-on-chips. Refocusing the industry from commodities to premium products requires investments in education, the attraction of foreign companies and talent, and stimulating local chip designers, all while helping Samsung and SK Hynix to remain the world’s leading makers of memory and logic chips.
South Korea’s plan is much more ambitious and much more complex than the one U.S. senators are about to announce, which is why it costs a lot more money.
There are two big questions here. Can the U.S. remain on top of the global semiconductor supply chain now that other countries are pouring in hundreds of billions in their microelectronics industries? Can South Korea buy its way into the major league with money? Only time will tell.
(Pocket-lint) – The e-bike space is a fascinating one at the moment, with big brands hopping on board to release their own electrified bikes, but a very healthy independent scene also pumping out unique options too.
The best electric bikes: Get around fast on these top ebikes
One such bike is the Angell, a French bike that doesn’t look like anything else on the market (although that’s a statement increasingly true of a bunch of e-bikes), so we’ve put it through its paces to see how it fares compared to the increasingly spicy competition.
Design
Available in silver or black finishes
Integrated touch display and lights
15.9kg (including removable battery)
Every bike has to share a few commonalities with others, and a frame is one of them – but Angell manages to find some unique design tweaks to ensure that it’s got a look all of its own. Riding the black version of the e-bike, you get a super slimline frame that’s angular and eye-catching.
Its core boast is how lightweight it looks, though, and it’s not just an appearance. The Angell has been designed smartly to carry the bulk of its weight in the removable battery pack behind the saddle. It’s just 13.9kg without that battery, making it easy to pick up, and with it onboard you’re looking at 15.9kg, which is on the lighter side for an e-bike.
Pocket-lint
The two standout parts of the bike’s design are at the front and back of it. Staying with the battery pack, its u-shaped bulk can slide off the back of the Angell after being unlocked with a small key. It has a charging port to let you charge up without needing to lug the bike indoors (a key point of convenience in our experience with ebikes of all stripes), and two integrated rear lights. These lights can be turned on and off using a button on the handlebars, and also have indicator functions to flash amber if you want to feel even more futuristic.
That brings us to the front of the bike, which is rounded and snazzy, with a small integrated display between the handlebars and another integrated light to illuminate forwards. That display area makes for a chunky look between your arms, but is a useful way to both check what assist mode you’re using, or a variety of metrics including your current speed and how long you’ve been cycling, as well as the all-important battery meter.
Best fitness trackers: Top activity bands to buy today
We’re slightly torn on the design. Some people we checked with found it unobtrusive and elegant, while others rightly pointed out that it’s a bit of a eye-catching way to advertise the smartness (and value) of your bike. In that way, it’s very much a matter of taste.
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There are four buttons on the handlebars in total – two for indicating left and right, one for swapping assist modes, and another to turn your lights on and off – which all work well and are simple and intuitive. There are more involved touch controls on the display if you want to check out further settings and options.
Whether you actually want to use the indicators is another personal point. Although they feel like a futuristic approach to a bike’s place on the roads of our cities, we also found ourself entirely doubting whether drivers were fully aware of how we were using them, despite the brightness of the tail-lights and indicator lights on the end of each handle. Maybe in time smart bikes with indicators will become more commonplace, but for now we still fell back on good old fashioned arm-waving to make sure busses knew where we were headed.
All in all, between the sleek front-end and a battery pack that looks for all the world like the engines of a spaceship, Angell is among the most progressive and interesting-looking e-bikes we’ve tested.
Pedal assistance
Up to 90km / 56mi range
Three pedal assist modes
25kmph/15.5mph maximum speed (regional limits may apply)
Angell thankfully manages to match its new-fangled looks with a smooth and responsive ride. There are no gears for you to worry about here, just an automatic shifter and a few assist modes to choose from.
You can ride it without any help if you like and its lightness makes this bearable if the battery runs out. But the main options are FlyEco, FlyDry and FlyFast – each one ramping up the amount of boost you get, and consuming more battery as a result.
Pocket-lint
In Eco the boost means a gentle bit of help from a standing start, while Fast gives you a palpable whoomph as you start to pedal. It’s the Dry middle option that most people will default to, we feel, as it gives a great balance of comfortable acceleration with ease and safety.
Best turbo trainers: Get bike training indoors
The overall ride is up there with Cowboy and VanMoof in terms of its smoothness, with only occasional hitches as the assist kicks in a second late. It’s perfect for urban riding, with disc brakes making for great stopping distances as well. You’ll find Angell gives you a welcome boost when you start pedalling, and it’s easy to manoeuvre and navigate around obstacles.
The integrated lights are a bit divisive in terms of design, but they’re super functional in use, lighting up nice and brightly so that you can forget about taking external lights with you everywhere you go.
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A maximum range of 90km on the lightest assistance setting is entirely respectable and pretty much par for the course. That said, having a percentage counter for the battery on the display did give us a surprising bit of range anxiety as it ticked down, for all that the information was welcome.
The display, meanwhile, is relatively easy to use – but at times seems a bit extraneous. Being able to see your speed or route on it is helpful, but we did sometimes think we’d prefer a cleaner frame that we could mount our phone to if we really wanted all this data.
Software and smart
Companion app
Automatic locking and alarm
The software experience using Angell is a slightly complicated one because of that display. It lets you control a bunch of functions on the bike without needing to resort to the capable companion app.
One key function is unlocking the bike with a pin-code, which is part of a security system that’ll sound a loud alarm if the bike detects it’s being moved jarringly. We found this theft alert a little too hair-trigger, and it wasn’t always the easiest thing to tell if it was activated.
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However, the display and app combine to make it fairly easy to set up navigation, or music controls on your bike, letting you keep your phone pocketed for safer riding. Whether it’s truly much safer than a mounted phone isn’t clear, but it’s certainly more sleek.
As a French bike, the app still has some slight translation issues to be worked out, but it’s nothing that’ll actually impede you as you use it. For the most part, it’s a solid software experience, but it can’t match up to the best we’ve tried from the likes of Cowboy.
Verdict
Riding the Angell was a great time in central London, and reiterated that it, and other e-bikes like it, are absolutely perfect for mid-length commutes and recreational rides. If your concern is getting from A to B without getting tired, this will do the job brilliantly.
It’s got a hefty serving of smart features, some of them unique, and an app that makes it pretty easy to explore them, plus a design that looks like nothing else we’ve tried. Being able to remove the battery to charge, meanwhile, is one of our top criteria in a modern e-bike, and it’s present and correct here.
That makes for an impressive package, and while it’s got a premium price tag to go with its charms, if you’re happy to spend some cash then the Angell will give you an all-new way to enjoy your travel.
Also consider
Pocket-lint
Cowboy
With a removable battery and the best app we’ve yet used, Cowboy’s third-generation bike remains the most persuasive one we’ve tried, and it comes in cheaper than the Angell. It doesn’t have the same design chops, but it’s brilliant fun to ride and its pedal assist is just as impressive.
Read our full review
Pocket-lint
VanMoof S3
While VanMoof’s bikes lack the removable battery as standard, in every other regard they’re the smoothest ride we’ve experienced from an e-bike, making for gorgeous cycling trips and ease of living. While still premium priced, they’re even more affordable than the Angell.
Read our full review
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Writing by Max Freeman-Mills. Editing by Mike Lowe.
After you’ve gone through the process of building Chia Coin plots on a PC (see how to farm Chia Coin), there’s no need to waste the electricity and tie up expensive computer hardware keeping those plots connected to the Internet. Instead, it’s best to take an external drive or drive(s) with the plots on them and hook them up to a Raspberry Pi where they can stay online, without gulping down too much juice.
In this tutorial, we will create a custom Raspberry Pi Chia farming device powered by the latest Ubuntu 64-bit release for the Raspberry Pi. The unit is designed to be hidden away, farming Chia Coin silently while we go about our lives. As such we chose to house the Raspberry Pi 4 inside of a passively cooled case. Our choice this time was the Akasa Gem Pro which has great cooling for the SoC, PMIC and PCIe chip and a rather tasteful, if unusual design.
For This Project You Will Need
Raspberry Pi 4 4GB
Raspberry pi case, perhaps one of the best Raspberry Pi cases, with cooling
An external USB storage drive or SSD / HDD with USB 3.0 caddy.
16GB Micro SD card or larger
Raspberry Pi Imager tool
Accessories to use your Raspberry Pi 4
Installing Chia On Raspberry Pi 4
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
1. Install Ubuntu 21.04 to a 16GB micro SD card using the official Raspberry Pi Imager tool. You can also try a headless installation.
2. Connect your keyboard, mouse, screen and Ethernet cable. If you did a headless install, you can skip the keyboard / mouse / screen. Boot your Raspberry Pi 4 and complete the Ubuntu 21.04 installation process. Reboot the Raspberry Pi for all the changes to take effect.
3. Open a terminal and update the software repositories, then upgrade the system software.
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt upgrade -y
4. Install the openssh server to enable remote monitoring via an SSH session. After installation this will automatically start the SSH server as a background service.
$ sudo apt install openssh-server
5. Install and start Byobu, a terminal multiplexer that will enable us to log out of the Pi and leave our Chia farm running.
$ sudo apt install byobu
$ byobu
6. Make a note of your Raspberry Pi’s IP address and hostname.
$ hostname -I
7. Install the Git version control software and a number of essential dependencies to build the Chia application.
9. Change directory to chia-blockchain and run the installer.
cd chia-blockchain
sh install.sh
10. Activate the Chia virtual environment and create a new Chia config.
$ . ./activate
$ chia init
11. Connect your USB 3.0 hard drive containing your Chia plot to the blue USB 3.0 ports on the Raspberry Pi 4. The drive will mount to a directory inside of /media/.
12. In the terminal change directory to your USB drive. Our test drive is at /media/les/Chia/
$ cd /media/YOUR USERNAME/DRIVE NAME
13. Add the plot from your USB drive to the Chia config using the 24 word key, created when the plot was created. Enter the command and then type the 24 words with a space between each word.
$ chia keys add
14. Start farming the plot; this will also start services for your wallet. This command will only show that the process has started.
$ chia start farmer
15. Use this command to see the process of syncing our machine to the network and to confirm that farming has begun. The command will update every two seconds. This command can be stopped by pressing CTRL + C.
$ watch 'chia show -s -c'
16. Press F6 to detach from the current Byobu session. This releases us from the running session but it keeps the previous command to view our farming progress running in the background. Should you wish to go back to that Byobu session type this command.
$ byobu
It will take some time for the Pi to sync with the Chia network but it will still continue to farm as it syncs. Right now if you wish, you can unplug the monitor, keyboard, mouse. Leaving just the power, network and USB 3.0 drive connected. Your Pi will happily farm Chia quietly in the corner of the room. But to access the Pi we now need to use SSH, a secure shell terminal and for that we need to instal a client on our computer.
Should you ever need to manually start the Chia farmer, for example after a reboot, start byobu and repeat steps 14 to 16.
How To Remotely Access Your Raspberry Pi Chia Coin Farm
1. Install PuTTY on your PC. PuTTY is used to make remote serial connections, SSH, with our Raspberry Pi 4.
2. Open PuTTY and in the Host Name or IP Address field enter the hostname or IP address of your Raspberry Pi 4. Click Open.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
3. Enter your username and password to remotely login to the Raspberry Pi 4.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
4. Open the Byobu session to see the current progress.
$ byobu
Auto Mount USB Drive on Boot
Should we need to power off our P, or there is power loss, we need the drive to automatically be ready to farm Chia with little interaction. It is best to connect your keyboard, mouse and screen for this part of the project but it can also be done remotely using an SSH connection.
1. With the USB drive connected, open a terminal and list all the attached devices. Our device is sda1 which is connected to the mountpoint /media/les/Chia. Make a note of your mountpoint, we will need this later.
$ lsblk
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
2. Run this command to identify the UUID of your drive. Copy the text which starts UUID=. For example our UUID was UUID=”b0984018-3d5e-4e53-89d9-6c1f371dbdee
blkid /dev/YOUR DRIVE
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
3. Open the filesystem configuration file, fstab with sudo.
$ sudo nano /etc/fstab
4. Add this line to the end of the file. Add your UUID after the =, and leave a space before entering the mountpoint. Here is how our drive is configured.
UUID=b0984018-3d5e-4e53-89d9-6c1f371dbdee /media/les/Chia/ auto nosuid,nodev,nofail,x-gvfs-show 0 0
5. Press CTRL+ X then Y and Enter to save.
6. Reboot the Raspberry Pi.
$ sudo reboot
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