Latest Tech News

The next version of 3DMark, a popular graphics benchmarking tool, will feature support for NVIDIA's RTX tech allowing adopters to test the ray tracing abilities of their cards. UL Benchmarks, the developer behind 3DMark, is hopeful of a release aligning with the next major feature update to Windows 10 slated to rollout in September.

The world's most populated economy continues its growth in the internet users department. According to a recent report backed by the China Internet Network Information Centre, the total number of internet users hit 802 million at the end of June — a 30 million growth in six months.

Samsung has a sequel to the Odyssey Windows 10 Mixed Reality headset released in 2017. As confirmed in a new Bluetooth certification, the new device will be called the Odyssey+ and it will be headed to store shelves soon.

At the ongoing VMworld 2018 conference in Las Vegas, AMD announced the Radeon Pro V340 dual-GPU for Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) applications. The Radeon Pro V340 can power demanding datacenter workloads such as CAD, rendering, and Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) applications. The V340 can support up to 32 VMs, each with its own independent memory access for extra security along with support for independently compressing H.264 and H.265 video streams.

Nvidia is betting big on ray tracing technology while charging users an arm and a leg for the latest GeForce RTX GPUs. A few new quiet laptop releases round up a week that was dominated by Nvidia announcements and previews.

The upcoming Intel Core i7-9700K was recently spotted running on an ASRock Z370 Professional Gaming i7 motherboard and was found to have been overclocked to 5.5 GHz on water cooling. The overclocked Core i7-9700K showed impressive Cinebench performance scoring 250 in single and 1827 in multi-core tests.

A document believed to have originated from the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) specifies a new model number associated with the smartphone maker OnePlus. Given the compatibility of the number with the company's naming scheme of the last few years, the document may pertain to the hotly anticipated 6T.

The Poco F1 that was launched in India last week combined performance, essential features, and price into an unbeatable package. The device will make its way to Europe this week but will leave one of those features behind, making it a relatively uninteresting release.

HTC is set to unveil yet another device in a few days. It's unknown what device the company has lined up but there's a chance it's the U12 Life, or a special edition of the U12 Plus.

The name Huawei may not be a fan favorite in the US but you'd be wrong if you thought the company was just another upstart unknown Chinese OEM. According to IDC, Huawei overtook Apple to become the second-largest smartphone brand in Europe last quarter.

Google disclosed a vulnerability in the Fortnite Mobile APK that allows a pre-installed malicious application to exploit the way the game installs for the first time in Samsung Galaxy devices. Thankfully, Epic has patched this vulnerability in the latest version of the installer but is not very happy about Google disclosing it prematurely.

When Tom's Hardware published an article titled "Just Buy It: Why Nvidia RTX GPUs Are Worth the Money," many figures in the tech press denounced the article as "insane" and "ridiculous." However, Avram Piltch, the author of the article, says his work has been "misunderstood."

DJI has finally released its long-awaited update to the Mavic Pro aerial drone. The device now has not one but two successors. The Mavic 2 Zoom has some advanced optics and videography tricks, whereas the 2 Pro features a Hasselblad camera. Both may offer improved flight times and anti-collision sensors.

Version 62 of Firefox will integrate a new add-on called Firefox Monitor that basically informs users if their email accounts have been compromised. The add-on uses the popular Have I Been Pwned database backend to check if the account has been compromised in data breaches.

The UMIDIGI Z2 line has jumped into a ring increasingly full of phones with features associated with more well-known names such as the Huawei P20/P20 Pro. These new phones is powered by an octa-core processor, has dual cameras and a dual SIM slot, both of which have 4G/LTE. It also has a notch and color-shifting variants.

New Acer laptops powered by Intel 'Whiskey Lake-U' CPUs have started showing up in online retail stores in Europe. The Acer Swift 3 and the Acer Aspire 5 are powered by the Intel Core i7-8565U and apart from the CPU refresh, nothing much seems to have changed compared to their respective variants already in the market. The listed prices are close to €1,000 and the laptops are expected to be announced during IFA 2018.

An image of the upcoming Sony Xperia XZ3 flagship Android smartphone has leaked and it is largely reminiscent of the renders we've seen so far. The image confirms that the Xperia XZ3 will be devoid of any notch and that it has a single-lens camera at the back.

OPPO has taken the wraps off a better-equipped variant of the recently launched R17. The new model includes the premium Super VOOC charging feature that first debuted on the OPPO Find X Lamborghini Edition.

When Intel banned testing the performance of its newest microcode patch for security vulnerabilities, many tech enthusiasts spoke out against the company. Finally, Intel has listened to the backlash and will soon be revising the restrictions on testing performance.

The Xiaomi Mi Notebook is the Chinese juggernaut's latest foray into the laptop market. Featuring a Kaby Lake-R CPU and a low-end Nvidia GeForce MX110, the laptop is a decent midrange device. Unfortunately, Xiaomi's aggressive pricing won't translate to western markets, where import costs push the device out of "value buy" territory.

While users have been able to connect an XBox One controller to their Android device for a few years, the process has always been a bit buggy. A Google developer announced yesterday that the bug should be fixed in Android 9.0 Pie, which will have native support for XBox One controllers.

Just like AMD, things went unexpectedly well for Nvidia in the second quarter of this year, even though the crypto market decline was heralding a gloomy period. Nvidia managed to pull this off by forcing some AIB partners into overstocking Pascal GPUs, and the green team is doing this again with 10 major partners that were forced to contract shipments for the RTX 2000-series in order to be the first to deliver the new cards.

The Garmin vivofit jr. 2 is a fitness tracker for kids that comes with Disney Princess-themed bands and a mobile app capable of offering an interactive experience which includes popular characters such as Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Mulan, and Rapunzel. This smart wearable is already available for US$79.99.

European online retailer CentralPoint has listed the Intel Core i9-9900K and the Core i7-9700K for pre-order. CentralPoint expects the stocks to arrive as early as September 7 and has listed the i9-9900K for €689 + VAT and the i7-9700K for €539 + VAT. Given that we will not know the MSRP of these chips before September, the listed prices are to be taken with a grain of salt.

Following the successful release of the Matebook D powered by the AMD Ryzen 2500U CPU, Huawei now releases two version with Intel's Kaby Lake-R CPUs and Nvidia's MX150 GPUs. The chassis and display are unchanged, but users can choose among the Intel Core i5-8250U and the i7-8550U CPUs coupled with 8 GB of DDR4 RAM and 256 GB / 512 GB, respectively.

The international version of the 8-inch Xiaomi Mi Pad 4 tablet with 4 GB of memory and 64 GB internal storage can be acquired for less than US$240 via GearBest by those in a hurry. Those who can live without LTE and with lower specs should be able to grab the 3 GB RAM/32 GB storage WiFi version for around US$170, but the price depends a lot on the retailer.

The new Samsung Galaxy J2 Core rolls out in India and Malaysia today, but other markets should follow in the near future as well. This handset's list of specs includes a low-resolution 5-inch display, 1 GB of memory and 8 GB internal storage space, 5 MP and 8 MP cameras, and the Exynos 7570 processor.

According to reports, the LG V40 may be coming on November 16 with a rectangular notch, tri-rear cameras, two front-facing cameras, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Word of ZTE's upcoming flagships has surfaced once again, and it would appear that we will be getting an Axon 9—and a Pro model—soon, perhaps even sooner than one would expect.

A new report has detailed Huawei's upcoming flagship, the Mate 20, with notable takeaways including the presence of a notch, a single selfie camera, a headphone jack, and a slightly inebriated tri-rear camera design.

According to market analysts, the new Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is currently on course to outsell the S9. What's more, it would appear that most buyers prefer shelling out over US$1000 for the premium model.

New details of Motorola's new device have surfaced, and there's a chance we may be dealing with the Moto P30 Note, a device initially listed alongside the Moto P30 that was launched last week.

Virtual private networks (VPNs) are not just for individuals trying to get around geo-restrictions. Companies may also use them to streamline their online connections. However, a managing director for a UK IT and networking company thinks an emerging alternative is about to make these VPNs obsolete.

Huawei and ZTE provide hardware for mobile data networks, including modems, in addition to mobile devices. Therefore, it may be a blow to both companies to find they cannot tender for supplier contracts as Australia prepares for 5G connectivity. Both companies have a good track record of mobile network product sales in the country.

Microsoft has confirmed that it has fired four employees and terminated business relationships with four partners in Hungary over ongoing probings for bribery and corruption. The investigation is on for sale of Microsoft software to middlemen for a discounted price who then resold the same to the Hungarian Government at full price.

CEO Jensen Huang somehow found it adequate to mention nothing about the DLSS tech that would boost the performance of the new RTX 20xx cards in his official announcement. If we are to believe Nvidia's graphs, the GTX 2080 is up to 50% faster than the GTX 1080 on its own, but the DLSS tech also adds up to 60% more fps when activate, leading to more than 100% performance gains in some cases.

The first Apple store in Kyoto will open its doors to the public on August 25. This retail venue is located on Shijō Dori, the street that has been known as the city's main shopping corridor for almost five centuries. Back in 2003, Apple opened its first retail store outside the US in Tokyo.

The latest approved patent filed by Motorola in May this year seems to confirm the previous rumors launched around MWC time in February regarding the return of the RAZR brand. However, this time Motorola may equip the clamshell design with a flexible display and special hinges with flex sensors, so the new RAZR might actually be Motorola's first foldable phone.

GameStop will be selling the 500 Million Limited Edition PlayStation 4 Pro bundle tonight starting from 12.01 am CDT / 1.01 am EDT. Sony will be making only 50,000 of these consoles, which are being crafted to commemorate the PlayStation brand selling 500 million units of the console since the introduction of the PlayStation 1 in December 1994.

These family-friendly tablets include a "Kid's Bumper" to protect the edges from drops and nicks. Both models share the same Snapdragon 450 SoC and design language but with notable differences in battery capacity, screen brightness, and speaker quality.

NVIDIA's next generation GeForce RTX cards come with support for Ansel RTX, which enables creating high quality in-game ray traced photos. Invoking Ansel RTX in a supported game increases the level of ray tracing — to a level which is not possible in real time — to create a high quality in-game photo. Games that do not yet support the Ansel SDK can still use some of the platform features to create Super Resolution in-game shots.

The new Exynos i S111 is Samsung's latest narrowband solution for IoT applications that includes a modem, processor, memory, and Global Navigation Satellite System on the same chip. The Exynos i S111 comes as the successor of Samsung's first IoT solution, namely the Exynos i T200, which arrived last year.

PUBG now has a version for Xbox One: however, it won't have an official release until September 4, 2018. Many fans may have to wait until then to play the Sanhok map with the console. On the other hand, there will be some new features that may be worth waiting for.

Games supporting NVIDIA's RTX technologies are assumed to have some form of ray tracing enabled but NVIDIA has clarified that RTX support not only refers to ray tracing but also to Deep Learning Super Sampling as well. NVIDIA has also released a list of games that support ray tracing and DLSS.

The PS42 is notable for carrying the faster '1D10' GeForce MX150 GPU instead of the slower '1D12' variant found on many sub 15-inch Ultrabooks. MSI has priced its 14-inch system to compete with popular 13-inch Ultrabooks like the XPS 13, Spectre 13, or Yoga 920.

Even though the ray tracing technology is adding a whole new dimension of realism to some soon-to-be-released games, everybody is wondering if the latest RTX 2000-series flagships are indeed worth the money. Initial reviews claim that the cards are clearly breaking records in current games at 4K, but the ray tracing experience is not that impressive as far as fps counts are concerned.

Will the GTX name live on for gaming laptops after Pascal? Eurocom will soon be updating its high-end Sky series of laptops to support both Coffee Lake Intel CPUs and mobile Turing.

Nvidia announced the RTX 2000-series and the market reacted immediately with substantial price cuts for the Pascal flagships. Currently priced 30% lower than MSRP, cards like the GTX 1080 and 1080 Ti from Zotac are leading the "promotional offers." Additional price cuts could occur when the Turing GPUs hit the shelves in late September.

Xiaomi's popular mid-range Mi A1 smartphone continues to receive full software support, the latest update for this handset bringing the official security patch dated August 5. Even better, the new firmware also addresses the notification LED bug that arrived earlier this summer with the Android 8.1 Oreo update.

The next generation Qualcomm Snapdragon SoCs are being sampled to OEMs according to Qualcomm. The upcoming Snapdragon Mobile Platform will be built on the 7nm process and will work together with the Snapdragon X50 5G modem to power the next generation of mobile devices as we head into 2019.