Month: December 2018

AMD is getting ready to fight back against Nvidia’s powerhouse GeForce RTXgraphics cards, preparing some impressive GPUs to be launched in 2019.
At least that’s what the company’s chief executive asserts – as is her job, naturally – with Lisa Su making some interesting comments on a recent conference call, as highlighted by Wccftech.
Su commented that AMD “will be very competitive overall and that includes the high-end of the GPU market”, adding: “Obviously there are new products out there from our competition. We will have our set of new products as well and we will be right there in the mix.”
She was also drawn to make comments on ray tracing, which is hardly surprising seeing as this is what Nvidia is busy pushing with its new GeForce RTX range.
Su conceded that it’s an important technology, but “as with all important technologies it takes time to really have the ecosystem adopt [it]. And we’re working very closely with the ecosystem on both hardware and software solutions and expect that ray tracing will be an important element especially as it gets more into the mainstream, frankly, of the market.”
In other words, AMD will be ready when ray tracing is ready – ready for a mainstream market, that is.

Worried about ray (tracing)

From what we’ve seen thus far, Nvidia’s ray tracing technology cuts frame rates massively, even with powerful hardware. A case in point: our Battlefield Vbenchmarks with a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, even at Full HD resolution, show that the frame rate is halved even with ray tracing on low (and cut by almost two-thirds on ultra).
That said, Nvidia has just promised some big gains – to the tune of up to 50% – coming to Battlefield V initially thanks to the refinement of the technology, including the use of a new trick called variable rate ray tracing that allows for much more optimal performance.
And further progress on this front is promised, presumably with other games, too.
At any rate, AMD clearly believes that its incoming 7nm-based graphics cards are poised to be highly competitive, and importantly, not just at the more wallet-friendly end of the market, but at the top-end against Nvidia’s mighty (and mightily expensive) RTX range (the just-revealed Titan RTX in particular costs an eye-watering $2,499 – around £2,000, AU$3,400).
Fingers firmly crossed that this isn’t just bluster from AMD, as obviously it’s good news for everyone to have a competitive marketplace in terms of helping to tame any excesses of GPU pricing.

• These new AMD GPUs could make our list of best graphics cards

Razer on Tuesday introduced its all-new Razer Blade Stealth 13 laptop that became a bit more compact than its predecessors, yet gained a higher resolution display, a discrete GPU support, and potentially a longer battery life.
Razer’s ultra-thin Blade Stealth 13 laptops are based on Intel’s quad-core Core i7-8565U processor paired with 8 or 16 GB of LPDDR3 memory as well as a 256 GB or 512 GB M.2 SSD (see exact specs in the table below). Being loyal to its customers among gamers, Razer now equips premium versions of its Blade Stealth 13 notebooks with NVIDIA’s GeForce MX150 discrete GPU outfitted with 4 GB of GDDR5 memory and operating at up to 25 W. While not matching the prowess of some of their larger gaming laptops, the new dGPU will provide a healthy bump over the integrated Intel graphics processor. Furthermore, those who would like to get higher FPS can always attach an external graphics solution using the system’s Thunderbolt 3 port.
Starting from its late 2018 ultrabook lineup, Razer will no longer offer a 4K 12.5-inch model, but will unify dimensions and display sizes of its ultra-portables. That was a large bezel relic of their original design. From now on, the Blade Stealth will be available with a 13.3-inch monitor featuring a 1920×1080 or 3840×2160 resolution. It is noteworthy that the LCDs will cover 100% of the sRGB and AdobeRGB color gamut and will come factory-calibrated, something that will please graphics professionals.
Just like its predecessors, the new Razer Blade Stealth 13 comes in a CNC-machined 6000-series aluminum chassis that now features thinner display bezels, which enabled the manufacturer to reduce width of the product by 16.4 mm. At the same time, the company had to increase its thickness by one millimeter and its depth by four millimeters, possibly in a bid to integrate a new and more sophisticated cooling solution to for the CPU (15 W) and the GPU (25 W) to avoid thermal throttling.
Apart from the new cooling system, Razer says it extensively uses its Synapse 3 software to boost battery life and ensure quiet operation. In fact, the company claims that the base model of the Razer Blade Stealth 13 can now work for up to 13 hours on one charge, up from 10 hours supported by the previous-gen model, despite having a similar battery capacity.
Moving on to connectivity of the new Razer Blade Stealth 13. The latest laptop is equipped with Intel’s Wireless-AC 9560 802.11ac Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 5.0 solution that supports 1.73 Gbps throughput over 160 MHz channels, a clear improvement when compared to the predecessor. On the wired side of things, the notebook has a Thunderbolt 3 connector (controlled by Intel’s Alpine Ridge chip), two USB 3.0 Type-A ports, and one USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port.
As for other I/O, the notebook has a RGB-backlit Razer Chroma keyboard, a large trackpad, a 720p webcam with IR sensors for Windows Hello, four stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos support, a TRRS audio connector, and so on.
Razer’s new Blade Stealth 13 notebooks will be available immediately from the company and select retailers in Canada and the US for $1,399 – $1,899 depending on the SKU. Later this year the machines will be available on other markets, including Australia, European Union, China, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, and so on.

Microsoft is open sourcing WPF, Windows Forms and Win UI via GitHub and making available the first public preview of Visual Studio 2019.
Microsoft is making three of its most popular Windows frameworks — Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Forms and the Windows UI XAML Library (WinUI) available under open source licenses. And the company is launching the first public preview of Visual Studio 2019 today, December 4.
Microsoft is making a number of developer-related announcements today, timed with the company’s annual Connect(); conference. The open sourcing of WPF, Windows Forms and WinUI via GitHub is definitely one of the biggest Connect (); announcements, especially given Microsoft’s shift from trying to distance itself from these frameworks several years ago to re-embracing them given their continued popularity with developers.
At Build 2018 earlier this year, Microsoft officials said that with .NET Core 3.0, developers would get support for building client apps using WPF, Windows Forms and XAML Islands(native Universal Windows Platform controls in WinForms and WPF applications).
Speaking of .NET Core 3.0, Microsoft also announced today that the first preview of that technology is available today. In addition to adding support fro WinForms and WPF, .NET Core 3 adds updates to the web, cloud IoT, AI and Windows desktop workloads for .NET developers. On December 4, Microsoft also made .NET Core 2.2 generally available.
Microsoft forked the .NET Framework to make the .NET Core subset of it more portable across platforms in in 2014. .NET Core became the open-source cross-platform implementation of the .NET development platform that runs on Windows, Linux, and macOS.
But back to Visual Studio… The initial public preview of Visual Studio 2019 is available for download today. That release is meant to help developers start and resume coding faster and more easily. VS 2019 also will add increased coding space, more refactoring capabilities and smarter debugging, according to company officials.
Microsoft execs said VS2019 is designed to work better with Git repositories, whether they’re local repos, online Git repos on GitHub, Azure repos or others. The new pull-request experience allows developers to review, run and debug pull requests without having to leave the developer experience. It includes a new search experience, replacing the existing “Quick Launch” box, which allows developers to search for settings, commands and install options.
Microsoft is building access to Visual Studio Live Share — its coding collaboration service — directly into Visual Studio with the 2019 release. Microsoft is adding more collaboration capabilities to the version of Visual Studio Live Share in VS 2019, and is making them available as well as an extension for its lightweight cross-platform Visual Studio Code developer tool.
Microsoft plans to talk more about the full feature set and VS 2019 SKU line-up in the coming months as it releases more previews. Devs can install VS 2019 side-by-side with their current VS 2017 installations or use the VS 2019 images on Azure. Microsoft officials haven’t said if VS 2019 will ship in 2019, but I’d assume so.
Microsoft also announced today that it’s making available a first public preview of Visual Studio 2019 for Mac. (VS for Mac is a rebranded version of Xamarin Studio.) The 2019 release adds a new welcome screen and new code editor.

We already know Samsung’s 10th-anniversary Galaxy S10 is the biggest shake-up of the Galaxy range in years. There will be four models (including a new, more affordable version), up to six cameras, massive displays and ‘gradient’ colour schemes. And now Samsung isn’t even trying to hide its biggest upgrade of all…
In a pair of official announcements which are about as subtle as a brick, both Verizon and AT&T have announced a partnership with Samsung to deliver a ‘5G Galaxy smartphone’ in the first half of 2019. And yes, we know exactly what this is.
“5G is going to be about more than just a network. Customers will eventually be able to connect in near real-time to unforeseen possibilities,” said David Christopher, president of AT&T Mobility and Entertainment. “Together with Samsung, we plan to bring the best in technology and innovation to our customers. The future we imagine with 5G is just beginning, and it is a great time to be a consumer.”
Christopher is right. 5G is fast enough and reliable enough to replace home broadband and its integration in phones is big deal, so its good to know Samsung has been testing 5G in the Galaxy S10 for some time.
Why would the announcement only be for one phone when the Galaxy S10 has four different models? Because only the flagship Galaxy S10 ‘Beyond X’will get 5G. Samsung does have plans to integrate 5G into its folding ‘Galaxy F’ but that will be a limited release which is not expected to be sold outside Asia and it certainly won’t arrive in the US before the Galaxy S10.
Could Samsung have another 5G capable phone? Not before the Galaxy S10 and, as a 10th-anniversary model, Samsung is not looking to undermine its 2019 headline release straight after launch.
Furthermore, there’s another interesting plot twist: the news hits Apple hard.
The simultaneous announcements from Verizon and AT&T come in the week it has been confirmed Apple will not have 5G in its iPhones until late 2020, at the earliest. Given 5G is already rolling out at a breakneck pace nationwide, this is not like Apple previously missing the launch of 3G or 4G. This one will impact immediately due to technical problems and come with a cost penalty.
All of which makes this a pretty great day for Samsung, and adds credence to the company’s promise that the Galaxy S10 will be a very significant upgrade.
Is it all smooth sailing? Not quite. Samsung still has to sell its customers on the controversial decisions to scrap not just one, but two beloved featuresdue to a controversial redesign. And that’s not going to be easy…