Month: August 2019

The $79 Razer Viper is the lightest wired gaming mouse I’ve ever used. It weighs just 69 grams, which I learned is the weight of two standard-sized light bulbs. What are the benefits of such a feather-light gaming mouse? It depends on who you ask. Those who prefer a hefty mouse with added weights won’t want much to do with it, but during my week with the Viper, I really liked how easy it was to flick along the mouse pad whenever the in-game moment demands some brisk, twitchy movement.

The relative weightlessness — at least compared to the Logitech G502 Lightspeed I’ve been using, which weighs 130 grams with all of its added weight installed — doesn’t come at the expense of ergonomics. The Viper molds well to my hand, and its ambidextrous design accommodates both left- and right-handed people with two macro buttons on each of its sides. It also doesn’t come at the expense of innovative hardware features.

The Viper uses optical switches in place of mechanical ones under its main left and right mouse buttons. These improve on standard mechanical switches in some important ways. Physical switches have to hit a metallic contact to send a signal to your PC, and that signal is inherently slower and sometimes more prone to accidental misfires due to the fact that they bounce several times when you press them. Optical switches are more responsive, says Razer, and more reliable than their physical counterparts.

This is Razer’s first mouse with optical switches, though it’s not the first to market on the technology. Razer says that it helps to boost the Viper’s lifespan to an impressive 70 million clicks, which is 20 million more than the mechanical switches in Razer’s DeathAdder Elite (which is featured in our best gaming mice roundup) are capable of, and generally, well ahead of where its competitors are.

Razer is also making a big deal of its new braided “Speedflex” cable leading off of the mouse. It’s lightweight, like the mouse, and its smooth texture aids in preventing snags as it glides along your mouse pad. Razer says that it’s especially useful if you use a low DPI setting and really like to make large, sweeping arm movements when you play. The fabric that wraps around the cable looks similar to what’s used on most other braided cables, but the Viper’s cable is far more bendy, and it feels more like actual fabric than other braided cords that I’ve used.

The Viper is lean in terms of features, but, unsurprisingly, Razer squeezed a Chroma LED inside. The color and lighting pattern of the Razer logo on its top can be customized in Razer’s Synapse companion app, and it’s easy enough to find a setting that looks subdued, or if you want, the complete opposite of that. The only other LED on this mouse is on the bottom where you’ll find a textured button next to it that switches DPI settings. I’m accustomed to this button being on the top of most mice that I use, but Razer said that the overwhelming majority of professional gamers wanted it on the bottom to avoid accidental toggling it during a match.

The five DPI levels default at 400, 800, 1,200, 1,800, 2,400, and 3,200 DPI, though each can be customized in Synapse (up to 16,000 DPI). Reaching for this button might take some getting used to, but Synapse helps you stay focused on the screen with a small pop-up window that tells you what DPI selection that’s been made.

Personally, I do miss having the button on top, since I don’t play games with thousands of dollars at stake (or any dollars, for that matter), but Synapse lets me remap the buttons to my liking. Since I’m right-handed, the side buttons reserved for left-handed players are perfect candidates to handle DPI switching. It’s still a little cumbersome, but Razer’s software mostly solved this problem for me.

Like most gaming PC peripherals, the new Razer Viper is built with professional gamers, and those who aspire to be one, in mind. But this one isn’t built for all gamers. For some, its lack of a customizable weight and a small selection of macro buttons might be deal-breakers. Though, if you’re not in that crowd, the Viper’s lightweight, ambidextrous build makes it a fun addition to Razer’s lineup. And, with its optical switches advertised 70-million click limit, the $79.99 investment should last you quite some time.

With the release of Android Q Beta 5, Google announced that they would be hosting a Reddit AMA, to answer our burning questions about Android Q and almost everything else Android related. That AMA took place this afternoon, with the Android engineering team providing fun and interesting tidbits about, among other things, Android Q and what may be coming with Android R.

Screen recording

In the early releases of the Android Q beta, it was possible, with only a minor Settings change, to enable a handy, built-in screen recording UI. Unfortunately, this screen recorder was short-lived, disappearing in the third beta, outside of a change via ADB.

One redditor asked when we should expect built-in screen recording to return, outside of “super sketchy apps.” To this, the product manager for Android UI, Allen Huang, shared that screen recording is just one part of what we should expect for Android R.

Given Dave’s signed us up for scrollable screenshots AND how often users are taking screenshots – we’re taking a close look at how we can improve the whole screen-[X] experience for R. We certainly think that these types of functions are things that should be core to the operating system.

Dark theme improvements

One of the hottest topics of Android Q has been native dark mode support. Naturally, it came up multiple times throughout today’s Android Q AMA. More specifically, a few redditors asked about Dark Mode being able to be triggered automatically.

One model Google had previously considered for switching to and from dark mode was based on sunset and sunrise time, but this was scrapped due to it requiring fairly accurate location data. Allowing users to set dark mode based on time of day is being considered, but will apparently not be possible in stock Android Q.

Privacy improvements

Having been asked a question about Play Store policy enforcement, product manager for privacy on Android, Charmaine D’Silva, shared an interesting statistic. You may recall last year that Google made a significant change, restricting permission to Android call and text logs almost exclusively to the primary phone call or texting app on your device. While that change was controversial at the time, D’Silva has shared the upside to that privacy change:

For example, last fall, we introduced the SMS and Call Log policies that limited the types of apps that could request for these permissions. As a result, today, the number of apps with access to this sensitive information has decreased by more than 98%. The vast majority of developers were able to switch to an alternative or eliminate minor functionality.

Open Source Wear OS?

As you may know, Google’s Wear OS, having once been called Android Wear, is based heavily on Android. However, unlike Android, Wear OS is not open source, meaning OEMs and developers are not able to read through the code to gain a deeper understanding of the system or even make changes.

When asked whether Wear OS would ever be open sourced, tech lead manager of the Android Open Source Project, Jeff Bailey, had “nothing new to share at this time.”

Changes to Android’s future development

As you may know, Google has a public bug/issue tracker where users and developers can share issues with Android — and certain other Google products — more or less directly with Google. However, while some issues posted may catch traction with some public attention, many go ignored for months at a time or are rejected in a confusing manner — this was the case for the original request for scrolling screenshots earlier this year.

A concerned redditor brought up the possibility of Google taking issues raised by developers and the public more seriously in the future. Jeff Bailey tackled this question first by pointing out that the issue tracker has high potential to be overwhelmed, as more tech-savvy people become aware of it. But he didn’t close the door on the idea, stating that it’s possible that some teams may work directly with “external” bugs in the future.

Google is adding an automated text-to-speech feature to the Phone app on Pixel devices, enabling a one-tap system to relay location information to medical, fire, or police responders without the need for speech.

The system is simple: when on an emergency call, the Phone app will now offer three additional buttons, labeled “Medical,” “Fire,” or “Police.” Tapping the button will activate a text-to-speech feature that will read out a message informing the operator that the caller is using an automated service, describing the kind of help the caller needs and the caller’s current location. Google says that the new feature is designed for situations in which someone needs emergency services but cannot verbally communicate with an emergency call operator due to injuries, a dangerous situation, or a speech disability.

It’s an expansion of a feature Google added to its default Phone app for Pixel devices back in 2017, which would automatically display a location card on the dialing screen when calling an emergency number like 911 to make it easier to relay that information to responders directly from the phone app. The new text-to-speech system makes that even simpler by cutting out the need for the person in an emergency situation to be able to read out that information at all.

The new feature is set to roll out to Pixel phones in the US in the coming months, with “select Android devices” set to get it, too.

Intel today introduced its first 10th-generation Core processors, codenamed Ice Lake. Built on a 10-nanometer process, the chips are designed for thin-and-light notebooks, meaning they could potentially make their way to future entry-level 13-inch MacBook Proand MacBook Air models.

Intel says the Ice Lake chips have increased board integration, allowing manufacturers like Apple to release notebooks with sleeker designs. The chips also feature Intel’s all-new Gen11 graphics architecture for up to double the graphics performance, and integrated Thunderbolt 3 and Wi-Fi 6, aka 802.11ax.

The lineup of 11 new processors includes six U-series chips and five Y-series chips:

Intel is also introducing a new processor number naming structure starting with this first set of 10th-generation Core processors, doing away with Y and U series identifiers and instead emphasizing graphics. The new structure is a bit confusing, but The Verge has a nice breakdown for deciphering them.

Intel expects the first notebooks with Ice Lake chips to be available in time for the holiday shopping season.