Software

Intel's Raja Koduri laid out the position of the company in key markets such as PC, CPU, GPU, FPGA, data center, interconnect, and memory compared to the competition. During the presentation, Raja felt that AMD has no meaningful software ecosystem without Intel and that the 'Red' team lacks a memory and interconnect strategy. He also dwelt upon Intel's OneAPI strategy to make it easy for developers to code for multiple Intel architectures.

Google has unveiled its latest Nest product at I/O 2019. It is called the Nest Hub Max: a possibly more extensive, useful and powerful version of the Google Home Hub released earlier. It will retail for US$229, or its regional equivalent.

Recently, a Vivo phone with the model number V1901A (or V1901T) has surfaced on Geekbench. With its 4GB of RAM, Android 9 ROM and 2.3GHz SoC, its specs hint at a new solid budget option waiting in the wings. Its TENAA listing supports this, as it states that this phone (possibly the Y3) has 3 cameras on its rear panel.

A new entry into the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) may show where Samsung may think foldable displays and their use in the future are headed. It depicts an electronic product that can lay flat, but can also be folded...into a 3D rectangle. This "display device", therefore, may be a new kind of convertible, although it does not really seem that portable.

The popular audio company Skullcandy has unveiled Indy, a pair of truly wireless earbuds aimed at those wishing to get into this product category at a decent price. They offer IP55 ingress protection, Bluetooth 5.0 and a combined battery life of 16 hours for US$79.99.

The latest driver update for NVIDIA GeForce cards, labeled 430.64, brings a performance boost of up to 18 percent in World War Z, as well as day-one support for Rage 2 and Total War: Three Kingdoms. However, the HD Audio Driver and PhysX System Software components have not been updated this time around.

Google announced that the newest preview for the next version of Android would be made available on a total of 21 devices, including the more recent Pixel phones. Therefore, a relatively large number of users may have gained access to it already. Unfortunately, some of them now report that using Google Pay as normal is impossible while running this beta.

A number of 'new brands' are emerging rapidly in the US smart TV market, despite being less than readily associated with this product category. Prominent examples include Hisense, TCL and Vizio. Recent research indicates that, of these, Hisense is regarded as the superior option among US customers.

Microsoft has unveiled ElectionGuard, a software development kit (SDK) intended to make e-voting technology more secure. This open-source, encryption-enabled kit is intended to improve the polling systems to which it is applied. It will become available to polling officials via GitHub from the summer of 2019.

Today (May 9, 2019), Qualcomm unveils support for Google Fast Pair and for Google Assistant on its current Smart Headset hardware platform. It incorporates the most up-to-date low-power Bluetooth audio SoCs the chip-maker has to offer. The new levels of support may enhance the advanced mobile-device audio experience consumers may expect these days.

Crytek explained about the process that went into making of ray tracing effects in the Neon Noir demo and said that most modern GPUs have enough computational power for implementing ray tracing (to various degrees). The demo showed an AMD Vega 56 being able to easily render ray tracing effects at 1080p 30 fps with the possibility of higher framerates with reduced reflection resolutions.

The video game John Wick Hex has appeared in an interesting announcement trailer that gives gamers a brief insight into what the title holds for the grizzled hitman. The strategy game is being created by Bithell Games in collaboration with Good Shepherd Entertainment and Lionsgate. John Wick Hex will initially be available for the PC and Mac.

There are those who prefer their home cinema with the accent on the 'cinema'. To this end, Epson has made the Pro Cinema 6050UB 4K PRO-UHD projector. The OEM claims that its HDR10 rating, strong brightness and proprietary UltraBlack tech give the best and most accurate domestic theater experience possible.

The Nubia Alpha is an innovative device that may pioneer a trend of wrap-around displays on wrist-worm devices. Its latest trick is to have appeared on the JerryRigEverything channel for durability testing. Can this much really be expected of a wearable with a flexible screen?

The X is Realme's next smartphone release. Previous leaks about this phone have suggested that it will have premium camera specs, in that its main sensor will be 48MP. This has been confirmed by its OEM ahead of its launch. Furthermore, the module in question will be the high-end Sony IMX586 that also graces the Redmi Note 7 Pro.

According to some recent rumors, Motorola will release a phone called the One Vision. It is touted as a combination of a punch-hole display, a dual camera that incorporates a 48MP sensor and Android One. Its latest leak shows it in a new color, which makes only 2 for the prospective device so far.

Vivaldi 2.5 is now live and this update turns Opera 12's spiritual successor into the first browser to feature full integration with Razer Chroma — the world's largest lighting ecosystem for gaming devices. Other noticeable changes are the ability to resize Speed Dial thumbnails and improved Tab Selection options.

Google I/O is now in full swing, and it will be until May 9, 2019. However, at least one major hardware-related announcement is out of the way already. The new mid-range Pixels are here, and they start at US$399.

The new Linux kernel update integrates support for using persistent storage as regular system memory, a new Linux Security Module (LSM), live patching, as well as multiple minor tweaks and fixes. All these will be included in the first point release that should go live later this month, but those in a hurry can grab the sources and compile the new kernel right now.

ZTE's newest Axon-brand flagship, the 10 Pro, has been released for sale in China. It is touted as the world's first phone to be powered by the Snapdragon 855 and have the F2FS filesystem. Otherwise, the phone has a 48MP main camera, stereo speakers and a 5G variant.

Microsoft has revealed some of its upcoming plans for the new Chromium-based Edge browser at Build 2019. Future builds of the new Edge browser will offer a Collections pane to neatly organize and export research, a new user-friendly privacy dashboard, a built-in IE mode, and improved developer tools for working with WebView and PWAs. These features are yet to make their way to public builds, but users can try out existing builds from the Dev and Canary channels to get a feel of the new browser.

At the Build 2019 developer conference that kicked off today, Microsoft announced that it will soon introduce a Windows Terminal app that consolidates all command line interfaces including PowerShell, Command Prompt, and WSL into a single interface that supports tabbed views, GPU acceleration, and emojis. The company also announced that WSL 2 will also be made available later this year that will bring improved filesystem I/O, faster Linux startup, and native Docker container support.

The Financial Times claims that its sources have told it that the EU will indeed probe Apple's potential anti-competition business practices. The decision follows 'surveys' of interested parties such as Spotify, who claim that the Cupertino company rigs music consumption on the iOS platform in its own favor.

Nebra put its innovative projector, the AnyBeam, up as a reward for its crowdfunding campaign. The start-up claims that this product is the "world's first pocket laser projector". This, apparently, was quite the draw among backers, as this project has gained 1.57 times its original goal.

The open-source OpenGL and Vulkan Linux drivers for the upcoming Intel Gen11 GPU are now considered to be complete according to code updates spotted by Phoronix. The drivers will be a part of the Linux 5.2 kernel and are said to be working at full performance.

Those who use the latest version of Firefox (66.6) may have noticed that their usual extensions have disappeared. This is due to a bug in this browser in which an expired certificate gives the impression that all of these add-ons are corrupt. Mozilla has stated that a fix is being rolled out at present.

Spotify has reportedly rolled out a new kind of ad to grab user attention in the United States. The messages involved apparently encourage the user to give a voice command in order to navigate to relevant sponsored content. These ads are scarce at present, but could conceivably become more common should Spotify find them successful.

Following up on a promise to combat cheating in Apex Legends more than ever, developer Respawn announced in a blot post today that the company has banned over 770,000 players for cheating so far. The company also banned over 4,000 spam accounts in the past 20 days alone.

The World Video Game Hall of Fame welcomes four new inductees this week. Windows Solitaire, Mortal Kombat, Super Mario Kart, and Colossal Cave Adventure were chosen from a group of 12 finalists for their impact on the gaming world and society as a whole.

Dell reportedly sat silently on a critical SupportAssist vulnerability for nearly 6 months, according to the security researcher that reported it to the company. If you have the software installed, then chances are that your laptop will be affected, and it will be open to attackers unless you have recently updated SupportAssist.

Are you a fan of open source? Do you like making things? If so, then the SmarchWatch, a homebrew smartwatch, could be the ideal project for you. You will need a 3D printer and plenty of patience though.

Launched in India back in January 2017, Samsung Mall will apparently go down on June 30. This piece of bad news reached the users of this service in the shape of a notification message on their handsets. However, the official website still does not show any information regarding its imminent closure.

Google will release its first mid-tier smartphones on May 7, 2019. It has been all but confirmed that they will be called the Pixel 3a and 3a XL. New tips on the subject claim to have more details on their prices in USD, as well as a new possible Geekbench score for the 3a.

The latest BIOS updates (version 1.4.0 and above) to the Dell XPS 15 9575 2-in-1 have become a cause for concern as they seem to render the keyboard and touchpad unresponsive whenever a user tries to login to the Linux desktop environment. Those who have filed this bug have confirmed that this is indeed a BIOS issue as the problem was resolved upon downgrading to the older 1.2.0 BIOS version.

With the 1.5 update, World of Tanks brings a few new Swedish medium tanks that feature hydropneumatic suspension, the ability to choose which map to avoid in standard battles, changes — mainly nerfs — to Japanese heavy tanks, the infamous FV 4005, and the artillery branch. A special deal for Twitch Prime members is also available.

Huawei is rumored to release its first TV this year. Most recently, the outlet Nikkei Asian Review has reported that this product could have an 8K resolution when it comes out. It also alleges that the same device will have its own 5G connectivity.

LG had planned to release its first-ever 5G smartphone, the V50 ThinQ, by now. However, some less-than-specified technical difficulties obliged the OEM to delay this event. It has now announced a new launch date for the phone: May 10, 2019.

Intel is currently preparing for the release of its new line of discrete graphics cards. Today (May 1, 2019), the company's senior principal engineer has officially confirmed that these new GPUs will support ray-tracing on a hardware basis. This puts them directly in Turing's firing-line - or possibly vice-versa.

Samsung has unveiled a new line of TVs in South Korea recently. However, rather than being mere flat content-displays, this new line is apparently designed to fit into the 'millennial' lifestyle. To this end, one of them, the Sero, can be switched between horizontal and vertical orientations.

The latest update for the Galaxy Note 9 makes it easier to switch between taking regular and wide-angle selfies. The firmware updates the device to the April Android security patch too and introduces an option to automatically schedule Night Mode. Frustratingly, not all devices will receive these features this month though.

Anki, the startup which attempted to make robotics mainstream through tiny, but relatively expensive, toys has folded. Based in San Francisco, CEO Boris Sofman broke the news to emotional staff that all 200 have been laid off with just one week of severance pay.

In addition to the anniversary packaging, the Gold Editions of the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X processor and Radeon VII graphics come with coupon codes for free copies of Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 Gold Edition and World War Z. The AMD50 promotional period also brings various special deals — depending on the retailer — and is set to last until early June.

Today (28 April 2019), Nikon opens its "Capture the Savings" event. It offers "instant savings" on products such as the award-winning Z Series full-frame camera bodies, as well as the D-series DLSRs and many types of Nikkor lenses. Most of these deals are available until 1 June 2019.

Some users of Android smartwatches have complained that Google Maps fails to show any information following its newest updates. This issue was originally thought to affect Ticwatch devices only, but has also been reported on watches from other OEMs. To date, it appears that uninstalling updates is the only valid fix.

Firefox for Android will begin to fizzle out later this year. Mozilla is moving their ailing mobile browser into an extended-support update scheme in order to focus on a new mobile browser: Fenix. Firefox for Android will continue to receive minor updates until Fenix is ready to launch, at which point Firefox will move into end-of-life.

Motorola has just released the kernel source code for Android 9 Pie for the Moto G6 Play. This release should make it much easier for modders and developers to create Android Pie-based custom ROMs for the handset, extending its life a bit. Motorola is one of the few companies left that still routinely releases source code for its handsets.

A law firm has filed a suit against Epic Games on behalf of its client, a musician who believes his trademark appearance and moves have been stolen in order to build one of the Emotes found in the game Fortnite. These Emotes are Battle Royale features that often require micro-transactions in order to be enabled.

The OnePlus 5 and 5T have been updated to OxygenOS 9.0.5, a software update that raises the 2017 flagships' security patch level to April 2019. It also addresses some problems with calls in third-party apps reported by users. This update also makes the first-party phone app more stable.

The latest OPPO smartphones use OZO, a form of audio capture developed by Nokia. This claim can reportedly be found in the latter's first-quarter financial report for 2019. The rest of this report apparently makes for less intriguing reading.

Nintendo's latest earnings report covers the years ending March 2018 and 2019. They show generally positive results, including a 13.7% year-on-year increase in net sales. The text of this report also states that the release of Pokemon Shield, Pokemon Sword and the Link's Awakening remake are indeed set for this year.