Gadget

A couple of images of a Leica full-frame mirrorless camera have been posted on a Japanese website, which claims the subject of the photos is the Leica SL2. The German manufacturer released the SL (Typ 601) in October 2015, which was generally well-received but noted for its high price tag and its cumbersome build.

A dedicated modder has managed to create a working portable game console by utilizing the motherboard from a slimline PlayStation 2 in conjunction with the capabilities of a Raspberry Pi 2 single-board computer. Although it has taken a long time to build the device, the end product has been shown offering impressive results in a video shared on YouTube.

A popular Sony digital camera news blog has published what it claims to be the first leaked image of the Japanese manufacturer’s A9II flagship camera. Sony released the full-frame mirrorless A9 camera in 2017 and there are many keenly awaiting its successor. The alleged A9II looks practically identical to its predecessor.

The successor to the GPUs powering Intel's new Ice Lake-U series has appeared on GFXBench, and boy is it currently a stinker. The GPU, identified as the UHD Graphics Gen12, performed miserably in benchmarks. However, as it is not slated to arrive for another eighteen months, we are certainly looking at an early engineering sample.

As always, GoPro will be releasing a new generation of action cameras this month. This year the company will introduce an update to the GoPro Fusion 360 called the GoPro Max, along with the GoPro Hero 8. Photos of both devices have leaked online too having made their way through the FCC.

Motorola's MotoMods were the last reasonably successful attempt to make modular smartphones with hot-swappable features, and now it appears that Huawei plans to introduce something similar. However, while MotoMods communicate via pogo pin connectors, Huawei and Honor's accessories will use Bluetooth, as recent Bluetooth SIG certifications suggest.

Garmin has refreshed its premium Fēnix smartwatch series, with the aptly named Fēnix 6. The series is available in three sizes and two material variants. There is a solar-powered version of the Fēnix 6X too.

LetsGoDigital has unearthed a patent filed by Google for a smartwatch with a twist. Filed over two years ago but dated August 27 2019, the design looks like a run-of-the-mill watch with its circular face, but at its centre is something that could disrupt the smartwatch market.

The VIM3L is the latest single-board computer that Khadas is bringing to market, with the company targeting the HTPC market this time. The VIM3L is powered by an Amlogic S905D3 SoC along with 2 GB of LPDDR4 RAM, 16 GB of eMMC flash storage and a neural processing unit capable of up to 1.2 TOPS of performance.

An 18 core Cascade Lake-X recently impressed on Geekbench, and now its 10 core sibling is doing the same. The processor, confirmed as part of the Intel Core 10000 X-series by prolific leaker @momomo_us, achieved a multi-core score that surpasses that of the Ryzen Threadripper 2950X and the Core i9-9900K.

The Genki Covert Dock has taken Kickstarter by storm, with it reaching its US$50,000 funding goal in just 40 minutes. The crowdfunding campaign has since received over US$1,000,000 from backers with 23 days to go. The Genki Covert Dock is designed as a portable dock for the Nintendo Switch but will charge other devices too thanks to its USB Type-C PD support. The Genki Covert Dock costs US$59, with the device shipping to backers in December.

AMD may be storming away with multicore performance crowns, but Intel is not going down without a fight. Now, an 18 core Cascade Lake-X processor has appeared on Geekbench, and it has the AMD Threadripper series in its sights.

Huawei and its sub-brand Honor has attracted attention recently as it has sent what seems to be a whole generation of new smartphones, tablets and assorted wireless accessories to the Bluetooth SIG for certification simultaneously. Now, however, it has done the same with even more products. They include 6 new models clearly labelled as TVs.

Shenzhen Xunlong Software is bringing a new, compact SBC to market. The Orange Pi Zero2 is slightly larger than its predecessor and more powerful to boot. The board comes with an Allwinner H6 SoC that integrates four ARM Cortex-A53 cores, 512 MB of LPDDR3 RAM, 4 GB of eMMC flash storage and a host of interfaces, while still weighing just 34 g. Pricing and availability are still unconfirmed but expect it to cost around US$20.

A new report by security experts at Check Point Research demonstrates a glaring vulnerability in modern DSLR cameras: Photo Transfer Protocol. Worse yet, the researchers were able to exploit vulnerabilities in PTP/IP, which transfers photos from a DSLR to a computer wirelessly. This allowed the researchers to infect a nearby DSLR wirelessly and encrypt all of the camera's photos.

The Allwinner H2+ powered SBC runs Armbian's Debian and Ubuntu images and measures just 52 x 46 mm. The tiny board features 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Ethernet, up to 512 MB of RAM, USB 2.0 Type-A and a microSD card slot. There is a 26-pin unpopulated GPIO header too, along with a 13-pin header for headphone, USB 2.0, TV-out, microphone and IR signals. The Orange Pi Zero LTS currently costs between US$8.49 and US$10.49 depending on the version you buy and is available to order on AliExpress now.

The SLAMTEC Mapper M1M1 is a ToF laser scanner with a 20-metre range that can map over 100,000 m². SLAMTEC promises that the device has a 5 cm resolution with a re-localisation accuracy of less than 0.02 m, while its inertial navigation system can compensate for up to 1 m/s of movement. The SLAMTEC Mapper M1M1 is available to order now from Seeedstudio for US$199 with free international shipping.

It is crazy what hype Huawei can conjure up for its upcoming Smart TV series. Over 100,000 people have already pre-ordered the Honor Smart Screen TV before its official launch in China, effectively doing so blindly.

The Gemini Lake Refresh series will feature at least six processors, all of which will be substantially higher clocked versions of the 14 nm Goldmont Plus chips that preceded them. The 6-10 W processors arrive in Q1 2020 at the earliest.

A new publication by Microsoft's Threat Intelligence Center points out an increasingly popular avenue used for cyber attacks: the Internet of Things (IoT). The publication states that researchers discovered a new attack that exploited vulnerabilities in simple IoT devices like a printer and a VOIP phone to access an enterprise network.

Nintendo is now offering the Switch Dock as a separate purchase for the first time. The Dock is an Authentic Nintendo product, albeit refurbished, so there is no chance of it bricking your Switch as is the risk with many third-party alternatives.

A new patent, allegedly found on the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) Design Database, has led to speculation that Xiaomi is working on a phone with an array of solar-conversion cells on its rear panel. However, its apparent design suggests other uses for this component.

Sony has invented a product called the Reon Pocket. It is a device that can change a user's personal temperature (or their perception of it, at least) while worn on the body. This unusual product is currently a part of the OEM's crowdfunded First Flight project, by which its chances of manufacture is determined by its ability to attract backers.

Drone racing is a rapidly emerging trend in applications for civilian aerial robots. DJI has announced plans to improve its support for this new sport with the first-person-view (FPV) goggles and controller set. It allows a given competitor to see and direct a race from their drone's point of view.

If the latest renders that surfaced online turn out to be the real thing, the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 will be available in silver, black, and rose gold. This smart wearable will be Samsung's first one to feature Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity and is expected to arrive next week.

The baby of the upcoming Comet Lake U series and its new iGPU have appeared on GFXBench, leaving the Core i5-8265U and Ryzen 7 2700U in its wake. The Core i3-10110U even edges the NVIDIA GeForce MX250 in some benchmarks, which is mighty impressive from a 15 W integrated GPU.

Samsung’s Galaxy Note Unpacked event is coming up soon on August 7 but it looks like it will launch its next flagship Android tablet and Galaxy Watch Active sequel in between times. It has just dropped a new video teaser for the two devices with the set to officially launch on July 31 and August 5 respectively.

A true legend has used an Arduino microcontroller, 128x64p display, and 300 mAh battery to create the world's smallest ThinkPad (and probably laptop). To top it all off, the ThinkTiny can play some classic games and is controlled by a TrackPoint-style nub.

The upcoming Ice Lake processor recently posted an impressive set of Geekbench scores, and now a set of SiSoftware benchmark results point to the CPU reaching up to 65 W. The quad-core processor will have a 3.9 GHz boost clock along with 2 MB of L2 cache and 8 MB of L3 cache too.

A clever developer has created a hack to allow the MacBook Pro's Touch Bar to act as a touch-enabled "Task Bar" when running under Windows 10 via Bootcamp.

Think of the Creoqode LYRA as a more affordable version of a Smach Z, GPD Win or GPD Win 2. The 5-inch handheld packs a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3 Lite that integrates a quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU and 1 GB of LPDDR2 SDRAM, giving it the power to emulate practically any retro games console. The Creoqode LYRA costs £149 (~US$186) and has already reached its funding goal on Kickstarter, with Creoqode aiming to ship to backers in December.

A prototype of a Smach Z handheld game console has been unboxed and tested in a YouTube video posted by The Phawx. The device was put through its paces in three 3DMark benchmarks and managed to outscore the GPD Win 2 in all three tests. It’s now possible to reserve one of the handhelds for as little as US$10.

The hitherto unknown Movado Connect 2.0 has been discovered in a recent FCC listing. The Wear OS smartwatch comes with 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of internal storage and will be powered by either a Snapdragon Wear 2100 or a Wear 3100.

Microsoft has marked an important NASA anniversary by taking part in Project Egress, in which engineering teams were challenged to re-make a component of the Apollo 11's landing module. The Redmond cohort were charged with making the craft's hatch, a small but complicated part that required advanced CNC to replicate.

The ASUS ROG Phone II looks set to be a gamer's dream, with a 6.59-inch 120 Hz AMOLED display, 49 ms touch latency, a Snapdragon 855 Plus SoC, 12 GB of RAM, 512 GB of UFS 3.0 storage and a vapour chamber to minimise throttling. Oh, and a huge 6,000 mAh battery. ASUS has developed a brand-new set of gaming accessories too, with the Chinese version of the ROG Phone II going on sale on July 23. Expect a worldwide release in early September.

Sony has launched the Alpha 7R IV (or a7R IV), its latest 35-millimeter full-frame camera. It is the first such product to feature the new, back-illuminated, Exmor R CMOS sensor with a 61.0MP resolution. The a7R IV is also capable of professional-grade 4K video, an APS-C mode and USB 3.1 Gen 2 transfer speeds via a type C port.

Researchers at the University of California created an AI that taught itself the shortest solution paths in several different one-goal logic puzzles, including a Rubik's Cube, sliding tile puzzles, Lights out, and Sokoban. While the AI is much slower than human-programmed robots, it gives an interesting look into how AIs arrive at solutions to problems.

The PanGu is an STMicroelectronics STM32MP1 powered single-board computer (SBC), which should offer good value for money for some developers. The board runs Debian Jesse and Yocto Linux and is available to order from Taobao for 499 RMB (~US$72.50).

The pi-top [4] allows you to code and program on the move thanks to its 5-hour internal battery life. The device comes with 14 electronic components including LEDs, buttons and programmable sensors, while it even works with an optional 2-in-1 screen and keyboard or an Advanced Vehicle Kit (AVK). The pi-top [4] is available to order on Kickstarter now for US$199 and will shop in November having already reached its US$100,000 funding goal.

Unexpectedly, SIGMA Corporation has introduced the world's smallest and lightest full-frame mirrorless camera. The SIGMA fp is extremely modular, weatherproof and comes with some very interesting features.

Smart glasses are useful in many contexts, most of them enterprise-related. However, it is also possible to replicate the smartphone experience to some degree using some of these devices, Vuzix-brand ones included. This company claims that a new development will bring peer-to-peer video calling to its Blade devices.

Nintendo looks to be giving the original Switch a mid-cycle revamp to match the internal specifications of the new Switch Lite. The company has made a filing seeking FCC approval for a variation in design to its flagship hybrid console noting changes to the SoC, NAND storage and CPU board.

Kali Linux is now compatible with the Raspberry Pi 4. Currently, the distro is only available as a 32-bit OS, but Offensive Security is planning on releasing a 64-bit version soon. In the meantime, security aficionados who have a spare Raspberry Pi 4 lying around can head over to the Kali Linux site and download the distro image.

After much speculation, Sony has announced a 35 mm f/1.8 lens under its FE series. The lens incorporates 11 elements, one being aspherical to suppress aberrations and maintain image resolution into the corners of a shot. The SEL35F18F weighs just 280 g (9.9 oz) too. The FE 35 mm f/1.8 (SEL35F18F) will be available to order in August for US$750 (£630).

Seeedstudio claims that the ICE Tower CPU Cooling Fan can reduce Raspberry Pi 4 core temperatures from 80 °C to 40 °C under load, which should eliminate thermal throttling. The ICE Tower is compatible with all previous RPi boards too and just requires 5 V power via a 40-pin GPIO. The ICE Tower is available to order now from Seeedstudio for US$19.90, which ships worldwide from July 19.

UMIDIGI's latest smartwatch, the Uwatch2, boasts a fully metallic unibody, an IP67 rating and a 1.33-inch 240x240 display. The OEM claims that it offers 25 days' worth of standby time and 7 to 10 days of active use. It is sold at US$33.32, although this comes down to $24 with an upcoming promotion.

The Cluster HAT v2.3 does what it says on the tin. It allows you to combine a Raspberry Pi A+/B+/2/3 with up to 4 Raspberry Pi Zeros. The latter connect via a Controller Pi GPIO and are configured to use USB Gadget mode, making it easy to simulate or test small-scale cluster computing. The Cluster HAT v2.3 is designed by Pimoroni and is available to order from SB-Components for US$49.22.

Wearables are currently projected to influence the way personal electronics are used more and more in the future. This technology now covers both devices that can double as accessories and as clothing. Their market is estimated to be worth up to US$51.6 billion in the next 3 years.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has released a USB firmware update for the Raspberry Pi 4 that reduces its SoC operating temperatures by up to 4 °C. The update is available to download now and should reduce throttling in multi-core tasks. Beware though, it will possibly reduce USB transfer speeds.

In an interview with a small group of media outlet, Samsung CEO D.J. Koh stated that the Galaxy Fold's flubbed launch was "embarrassing." However, Koh still sees foldable devices as the next logical step in the evolution of personal computing. Koh also stated that he envisions a future of connected devices that will replace even foldable phones in a few years time.