Month: October 2019

The Surface Pro 7. The Kindle Fire HD 10. The PlayStation 5. All major gadgets announced or detailed this week, each with a bevy of enhancements. But more important than any of those flagship products on its own is the fact that together they embraced something their predecessors did not: USB-C.

You know USB-C. If you own a premium Android smartphone, chances are you’re already using it. But its ubiquity otherwise has been slow in coming. WIRED and others first anointed USB-C as “the port of the future” in 2015, when Apple’s entry-level, 12-inch MacBook introduced it to the masses. That’s well over four years ago, a long time in the tech world—so long, in fact, that said MacBook has since been discontinued.

Now, though, USB-C has claimed its rightful place. “USB-C has become the industry standard for about every personal computing and connectivity device,” says Patrick Moorhead, founder of Moor Insights & Strategy. That “about” includes some notable exceptions—the iPhone, mostly—but otherwise, including USB-C has finally become the default.

The reason for USB-C’s ascent is simple: It’s just better. It can charge both ways, letting you use a laptop to power your smartphone, for instance. It can also charge fast, pumping 18 watts to your device to get you from empty to 80 percent full in only an hour. It can transfer data at blistering speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second—and eventually much faster, as Intel’s Thunderbolt protocol converges with USB4. It can power video to external displays. And it’s reversible, meaning it works whichever way you plug it in.

Even so, the road has been bumpy. Just because USB-C can do all these things doesn’t mean that it always does. Take charging. While the body that governs USB protocol, the USB Implementers Forum, sets a Power Delivery standard, manufacturers have come up with their own unique implementations as well. Qualcomm has Quick Charge, Samsung has Adaptive Fast Charging, and so on. The result, as nicely detailed by Android Authority earlier this year, is a landscape where you’re never quite sure what you’re going to get, especially once you reach for a third-party cable. Your phone will still charge, just not as fast as advertised if all of the involved components aren’t built for the same spec. And in extreme cases, some dodgy cables have been capable of frying devices altogether by drawing too much power for a specific task.

The situation has improved over time, but it’s still something of a tangle. To know exactly what you’re getting, you’re best off sticking with the USB-C cable that comes in the box. If you need a replacement, either get it straight from the same manufacturer, or something with clear labeling from a reputable vendor like Amazon or Monoprice.

It’s an issue that the USB-IF readily acknowledges. “There were definite growing pains and differences on OEM implementations during the initial USB-C industry ramp,” the group said in a statement to WIRED, “but we expect that as the adoption of USB Type-C products and USB Power Delivery continues to increase the market will guide [manufacturers] toward a common implementation.” Which feels like another way of saying that eventually enough people will complain loudly enough that the problem will fix itself. USB-IF can’t force every manufacturer to get on the same page, but they could have made the text more legible from the start.

In its statement, USB-IF pointed to the USB Audio Device Class 3.0 specification as an example of its successful clean-up efforts, although that example also underscores just how bad the problem was. In the early days, USB-C headphones weren’t universal by default; some manufacturers actually sold USB-C earbuds that were only compatible with specific smartphone brands. The current availability of a standardized approach is great, but would have been even better if it were there from the outset.

Still! Despite the confusion, USB-C momentum has become unstoppable. “I’m not seeing any product which has USB-A not shipping with USB-C,” says Dinesh Kithany, the lead power supply analyst for IHS Markit. “The shift is happening.” Look no further than the Fire HD, Surface Pro 7, and PS5 for proof. USB-C’s complications may not be totally solved yet, but the benefits—smaller port size, versatility, high speeds, fast charging—outweigh the muddle.

“While [USB-C] had some early fits and starts, users can rely on the notion that if [a device] has a port, it will work,” says Patrick Moorhead. “There are still some nuances around the highest level of power and performance, but that doesn’t overshadow its pervasiveness and usefulness.”

Which brings us to the asterisks. While Apple pushed USB-C early in the MacBook, and has since implemented it in the iPad Pro as well, the iPhone remains a holdout. The other is the automotive industry, albeit for different reasons.

In Apple’s case, the hesitation at least makes some sense. As long as USB-C compatibility is more tangled than a late-stage game of Twister, it will remain anathema to Cupertino’s mantra of “it just works.” USB-C can still feel more like “it works, just not always how you were expecting.” Apple already achieved USB-C’s space-saving and reversibility benefits seven years ago with the introduction of its Lightning cable. And in those seven years, an expansive ecosystem of Lightning peripherals has emerged, all of which would head straight for the scrap heap with a jump to USB-C. Of course, that hasn’t stopped Apple before—the switch to Lightning sent countless 30-pin hotel-room speaker alarms to the dump—and there are persistent rumors the company will make the smartphone switch, but for now the iPhone remains USB-C-less. Apple declined to comment for this story.

The auto industry, meanwhile, has a more straightforward excuse. When each of your products costs tens of thousands of dollars, you tend to change things up a little more slowly. “Maybe because of Apple, but also other market factors, automotive has still not picked up USB-C. There are many reasons for that,” Kithany says. “They can only have one or two ports. At the same time, when you see the cycle of automotive, they’re around a five- or six-year change cycle. It takes a long time to accept a technology and put it into a market.”

Still, hope springs. Apple’s latest MacBook Pro features up to four USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 3 connectivity. The iPad Pro added USB-C last fall, as did the resurrected MacBook Air. Then again: These are productivity devices, which stand to benefit from USB-C’s video chops as well as data speeds. The positives outweigh the negatives. On the iPhone? Maybe not so much. At least not yet.

Maybe the good news, though, is this: USB-C didn’t need the iPhone to come into its own. It still has its wrinkles to iron out, as manufacturers coalesce around the same standards within the standard. Even so, it’s largely fulfilled the promise it showed in 2015. And now that it’s finally the default port of the present, it should only get easier to wrangle from here.

HMD has already posted teasers about its 5G Nokia value flagship with a new Snapdragon 7XX processor coming in 2020. It even teased the design of the upcoming 5G Nokia value flagship with a bezel-less, notch-less display.

Now, our sources confirm to us that this display will not even have a punch-hole and rather will have a pop-up selfie camera. This was in fact posted as part of a rumor and we can now confirm that a proto with pop-up selfie camera and 5G capability is already in testing.

One more important detail that our sources want to add is about the rear camera that they claim will have a 64MP round-camera module with four cameras. It will also feature an even bigger sensor than the one on Nokia 7.2 and will use pixel-binning for getting smaller final images.

Optics will be from Zeiss and it will feature the latest OZO audio innovations and even more powerful Night Mode than one seen on Nokia 7.2.

As per the information we have received, Nokia 8.2 or whatever the 5G Nokia value flagship will be finally marketed as will be MWC 2020 bound. There are chances of HMD launching the 5G value flagship with a fancy new name other than Nokia 8.2 but we can’t confirm it at this stage.

The Nokia value flagship will be priced around $500, if we consider what Juho hinted at in the interview. Talking about the Snapdragon 7XX processor with 5G support Qualcomm revealed that it will be based on 7nm platform. It will bring next-gen AI Engine, gaming and other premium features to the affordable category.

You can cover our complete Nokia 8.2 coverage by clicking here. Check detailed Nokia 8.2 probable specs, features and other details at our dedicated page.

We will keep you updated about the 5G Nokia value flagship leaks, rumors, and launch details. You can follow us on our Twitter or Facebook account.

Arm, Synopsys, and Samsung Foundry have developed a set of optimized tools and IP that will enable chip designers to build next-generation SoCs based on Arm’s Hercules processor cores on Samsung’s 5LPE (5 nm, Low Power Early) node faster. The three companies expect the tools and IP to be used by designers of SoCs for a wide variety of applications.

The set of Synopsys tools are certified by Samsung Foundry for its 5LPE manufacturing technology, and now includes the Fusion Design Platform as well as QuickStart Implementation Kit that are enabled to optimize power, performance, and area for 5LPE designs. Meanwhile, Arm will provide Artisan Physical IP and POP IP tailored for Samsung’s 5LPE process. The IP packages will enable Arm’s partners to quickly develop 5LPE-optimized SoCs based on the Arm Hercules general-purpose CPU cores.

Samsung Foundry’s 5LPE fabrication process is the company’s 3rd Generation refinement of its 7LPP node that uses more EUV layers and features other improvements. The new technology provides an up to 25% higher ‘logic efficiency’, it also allows chip designers to lower power consumption of their SoCs by 20% (at the same performance and complexity) or improve their performance by 10% (at the same power and complexity). While developers can reuse 7LPP IP on SoCs build for 5LPE while taking advantage of the benefits the latter provides, to extract the maximum value of the new technology, optimized tools and IP are needed.

Considering that Arm’s Hercules are the company’s next-generation advanced CPU cores and 5LPE is a leading-edge process technology, Samsung expects the new tools and IP to be used for SoCs aimed at HPC, automotive, 5G, and AI applications.

Samsung expected to tape out the first 5LPE chips in the second half of 2019 and plans to start volume production using the node in the first half of 2020.

An official statement of Jaehong Park, executive vice president of Foundry Design Platform Development at Samsung Electronics, reads as follows.

“Synopsys’ Fusion Design Platform and QuickStart Implementation Kits provide a design-ready solution for next-generation Arm-based processors. This is a great example of how Samsung 5LPE technology can be utilized to give designers a competitive advantage in their high-performance CPU designs. Through our close partnership with Arm and Synopsys, customers will now be able to extract maximum value out of our 5-nanometer processes for design applications targeted at high-performance and low-power markets.”

Want to make a Wear OS watch with personality? It’s not easy. These days, most smartwatches have the stand-out appeal of bags of white flour.

Misfit does not fall into the trap of trying too hard with its design. The Vapor X looks clean, clear and tasteful, unlike the fairly ugly TicWatch watches.

It also has all the features you need, including GPS, Google Pay and a heart rate sensor. However, getting around a day of battery life under real world usage won’t impress anyone, especially when there are longer-lasting alternatives like the Fitbit Versa, Samsung Galaxy Watch and Huawei Watch GT. So on balance, is the Misfit Vapor X a smartwatch you should be considering?

Misfit Vapor X price and availability

Out now in the US

Costs $279 (around £225 / AU$410)

UK and Australian availability TBC

The Misfit Vapor X was announced in August 2019. This series has been around since 2017, and this new model is a little more expensive than earlier versions.

It costs $279 (around £225 / AU$410), which makes it roughly $80 more than the original Vapor and $30 more than the Misfit Vapor 2 from 2018.

This price rise has just become more important too. You can buy an Apple Watch 3 for $199 /£199 / AU$319, and the Huawei Watch GT is cheaper too at $199 / £199 (around AU$365), though the latter can often be found for even less.

So while the Vapor’s pricing is fairly standard for a Wear OS watch, the array of alternatives based on other platforms is wide.

The Misfit Vapor X also isn’t widely available at the time of writing – it’s out in the US, but UK and Australian availability haven’t been confirmed.

Design

Part-aluminum case

11.4mm thick

43.2g

Many of the big names in wearables like Huawei and Samsung now use their own software. Wear OS watches are largely left to smaller brands like TicWatch, Fossil and Misfit. TicWatch has earned a lot of attention for its low prices, but a day with the Misfit Vapor X will make you consider spending a bit more.

The Misfit Vapor X is a very pleasant wearable. It’s much thinner and lighter than the original Vapor and is far better-looking than any TicWatch smartwatch. Misfit hasn’t changed the look too much since the Vapor 2, but we don’t mind.

Its case is aluminum, and elegant-looking stems attach the silicone strap. This is one of the smartest-looking Wear OS watches around, and it is very comfortable. It’s light at 43.2g and not bulky at just under 12mm thick.

The silicone strap also has little lines cut into its back, which act as ventilation and make the strap more flexible. These indents will pick up salt deposits from your sweat after a while, particularly if you use the Misfit Vapor X to track exercise, but a quick rinse will get rid of them.

You don’t need to remove the strap to do this either. The Misfit Vapor X is water-resistant to 5ATM, enough for not just showering but swimming too.

Misfit has not really altered the standard Wear OS watch bezel design much, though. There’s a roughly 5mm gap between the end of the display and the edge of the watch, and the case diameter is the standard 42mm. The Misfit Vapor X doesn’t move smartwatch design forward in any way, but it is among the better-looking Wear OS models.

The physical controls match the best too. Its crown cycles between the watch face and apps screen, but also acts as a rotary dial, letting you scroll through menus and your notifications without touching the screen.

The two buttons, one to each side, open up Google Fit and Google Pay. They give you easy access to two of the more advanced uses for a smartwatch: paying for stuff and actively tracking exercise. These shortcuts can’t be customized.

Display

1.19-inch 390 x 390 AMOLED screen

Bright and offers good contrast

Misfit has not changed its screen tech either. The Misfit Vapor X has a 1.19-inch 390 x 390-pixel AMOLED screen, just like the 42mm version of the Vapor 2.

Look closely and you’ll see a hint of PenTile fizz (caused by the panel’s pixel arrangement) but from a normal distance it is sharp. Colors are bold and the very high-contrast OLED lets the screen blacks blend into the surround, at least when viewing from the front.

The Misfit Vapor X’s screen is plenty bright enough, has an ambient light sensor to allow automatic brightness changes, and there’s a boost mode for very bright conditions. We found this very useful when using the watch to track outdoor runs during the tail end of the UK summer. Sometimes the sun shines in London.

Fitness tracking

GPS provides good route tracking

HR sensor is not quite as ‘best-in-class’ as claimed

A decent fitness tracker overall

The Misfit Vapor X has all the crucial elements of a good exercise tracker: GPS, a heart rate sensor, a bright screen, music playback, and water resistance.

Misfit does not add any of its own software, so you’ll have to use Google Fit unless you hunt down another app from Google Play. There’s nothing wrong with Fit for those who run 5K a couple of times a week to keep off the pounds, though.

The Misfit Vapor X’s GPS provides very good route tracking. Run with your phone and it will use its location data as standard, but the smartwatch seems to lock on to a location about as quickly when using its own chip.

Heart rate measurements are mixed, though. The Misfit Vapor X frequently over-estimates resting heart rates, and we spotted a few unexpected peaks when recording walks and runs. Misfit claims this watch has a ‘best-in-class’ heart rate scanner, but it is an update or two away from perfection at the very least.

The Misfit Vapor X isn’t great for day-long heart rate monitoring either. Some fitness trackers provide measurements for every minute of every day, seemingly without killing the battery. But the all-day tracking mode here just offers readings every now and then.

If exercise tracking is your main goal, consider a Garmin Forerunner 735XT, Garmin Vivoactive 3 or Forerunner 235 instead. And cheap GPS bands like the Huawei Band 3 Pro are arguably just as useful. Any tracker with decent GPS and a reasonable heart rate monitor is great for casual run tracking.

The Vapor X is a good fitness tracker, but every Wear OS band at the same price has the same core fitness features nowadays.

Features and performance

Newer Snapdragon Wear 3100 does not hugely revitalize Wear OS

NFC for Google Pay

4GB of storage (1GB accessible) for music and apps

Wear OS watch features largely plateaued some time ago, but the Misfit Vapor X has all the parts you might ask for.

There’s NFC for Google Pay transactions, and an internal microphone lets you talk to Google Assistant. Just long-press the crown and its interface appears on-screen.

The Misfit Vapor X has 4GB of storage for extra apps, or music and podcasts downloaded for listening without a phone. You can connect a pair of wireless headphones directly to the smartwatch for this purpose. You don’t get all 4GB of that to play with, of course – the majority is taken up by the operating system and preinstalled software. Before installing any third-party apps, our Misfit Vapor X had 0.95GB left, enough for a few albums but not a whole music collection.

There were no extra apps pre-installed on our Misfit Vapor X, but the watch does come with a handful of tasteful, if fairly vanilla, watch faces.

None of these features are special for a Wear OS watch. But the Misfit Vapor X does have the Snapdragon Wear 3100 chipset, rather than the older Snapdragon Wear 2100 used in the Misfit Vapor 2. This had raised a few eyebrows at the older watch’s release as the 3100 was already available, so it’s good to see its successor included in this smartwatch.

The newer version adds a Cortex-M0 co-processor. This handles certain very low-intensity jobs, with the aim of increasing power efficiency.

It does not make the Misfit Vapor X much more powerful than its predecessor, though, as the Snapdragon 3100 has four primary Cortex-A7 cores just like the previous-generation version.

Sure enough, the Misfit Vapor X is not a hugely responsive watch, just like most other Wear OS bands. The basics of flicking between the watch face and apps screen are usually quick enough, and there’s little-to-none of the pervasive scroll lag that affects some old watches, but it’s simply not that snappy.

Recently-run apps tend to appear in about a second. Those you open fresh take around 2.5-3 seconds to appear. It affects the shortcut hardware buttons on the watch too. The competition brings this into renewed focus.

Companies like Fitbit, Huawei and Samsung have wearable software platforms with much less scope than Wear OS, but these very limitations often help make them feel more responsive. Even Huawei’s much cheaper Band 3 Pro feels faster than the Misfit Vapor X. Sure, the former doesn’t do a great deal, but it does what it can do quickly.

The Misfit Vapor X and other Wear OS watches are not painfully slow, but the real uses for an extra-smart smartwatch are no clearer now than they were in 2014. Okay, apart from smart lights. Controlling those from a watch is neat.

Battery life

1-day battery life

Battery-saving watch mode

The Misfit Vapor X has a 310mAh battery, and its stamina is the dismal Wear OS norm. We find it lasts around 25 hours. This is without having done anything of note. No GPS tracking, no app use, just the occasional brief look at some incoming notifications.

This is at the lower end of the Wear OS norm, only nudging its way into ‘acceptable’ longevity because the Misfit Vapor X uses the always-on screen mode as standard. Turn it off and you’ll be able to squeeze out a few more hours.

At this point, though, the limited distinct benefits of Wear OS arguably just aren’t worth its high maintenance style. Living with a smartwatch that lasts several days instead of one is much easier.

The Misfit Vapor X’s fitness tracking stamina is reasonable. An hour-long GPS-tracked run took 25% off the battery. Faster runners can use this wearable to track a marathon. Slow ones can’t.

There’s also a battery-saver mode. This presumably makes best use of the co-processor of the Snapdragon 3100, as it doubles the battery life to two days. However, it also turns the watch into a basic timepiece. You can see the time and date, but that’s it.

Is there any more proof of quite how restrictive Wear OS is in a real-world sense? The Huawei Watch GT lasts up to two weeks doing all sorts, not just showing the time.

You recharge the battery using a little magnetized dock. This isn’t a wireless charger. It has two little metal prongs that make contact with rings on the Misfit Vapor X’s underside. Charging takes around an hour, which is faster than most competitors.

The Misfit Vapor X is a nice smartwatch marooned on a withered platform. It is comfortable, looks good and has all the right hardware features. But even a new ‘efficient’ chipset can’t drag it beyond one-day battery life.

Okay, you can get two days using a watch-only mode. But if you want a watch that just tells time, buy a watch.

It demands more maintenance, and feels less responsive, than the best lower-tech fitness trackers. And the almost complete lack of progress in Wear OS watch apps over the last year or two makes you wonder if all the effort is worth it.

Who’s this for?

The Misfit Vapor X is for people who want a smartwatch, but not an Apple Watch or one with lower-key smarts like the Huawei Watch GT. The ideal buyer will also need either patience or organizational skills, as it needs charging regularly.

Should you buy it?

Think carefully before buying a Wear OS watch. While this is a mostly fine example of one, its fairly short battery life will likely try your patience. Dead set on Wear OS? The Misfit Vapor X is more expensive than the TicWatch models but is also far more stylish and has a newer chipset.

Most people may be better off with a smartwatch with fewer smart features but better battery life, or an Apple Watch 3. It’s cheaper.

A lesser-known but very useful feature included with iOS 13, iPadOS 13, and macOS Catalina is improved sharing in the Notes app. Follow along for how to share Notes app folders on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Folder sharing for iCloud Drive in the Files app was originally planned for the launch of iOS 13, but it’s been pushed back for now. However, folder sharing in the Notes app is live now for iPhone, iPad, and Mac with the latest software and is handy while we wait for iCloud Drive folder sharing as well for the long term.

How to share Notes app folders on iPhone, iPad, and Mac

Open the Notes app and open a folder

Tap the circled … icon in the top right corner (top left-ish on iPad or look for the +person icon)

Choose Add People

You can change the Share Options to give view only permission (edit permission is default)

Choose how you’d like to share your invites

You can invite multiple people to your shared Notes app folder.

Here’s how the process looks on iPhone:

The default permissions setting is for others to be able to edit your shared folder and notes. Tap Share Options to switch to view only.

Tap the +/person icon to add more people to your shared Notes app folder in the future.

SAMSUNG will pay owners of its smartphones to use a new feature that has just released for the S10, Note 10 and numerous other Galaxy devices.

Samsung has announced a new feature dubbed Samsung Pay Cash. This virtual card wallet will compliment its existing tap-to-pay system, Samsung Pay.

While the latter lets you hold your smartphone near a contactless payment point (as well as those infuriating swipe-based terminals the USA insist on using) to pay with your debit or credit card.

Using Samsung Pay Cash, Galaxy smartphone owners will be able to keep money within the Samsung Pay app – just like keeping some lose change in your wallet. This can be used to make payments online, within apps, and by tapping your handset at payment terminals – exactly as if you’re using a debit or credit card.

The only difference is that Samsung is holding onto the cash for you.

So, why would you skip the bank and load-up a pre-paid card from Samsung instead? Well, there are a few reasons.

First of all, Samsung will pay you.

Dubbed Samsung Rewards, the South Korean company will hand over points each time you pay using Samsung Pay Cash. And better yet, the company is even offering free $5 credit to the first 20,000 users who register for the Samsung Pay Card (which is what your Pay Cash resides on).

“We envision a future in which people can leave their cash and cards at home, take care of everyday financial matters easily, and earn rewards all along the way,” said Sang W. Ahn, Vice President and Division Head, Content and Services, Samsung Electronics America. “Shopping is fun, and Samsung Pay Cash is one way we can help empower people to be knowledgeable about where their money is going.”

Samsung believes Pay Cash will be most useful for those on a budget, who want to pre-load the card with enough cash for the week and then juggle their outgoings so they’re always within budget – rather than blindly tapping and racking up a hefty credit card bill. New banks like Monzo have enjoyed enormous success by allowing customers to keep closer tabs on their outgoings to help stick within a predetermined budget.

If all this sounds familiar, it’s because Apple launched a very similar feature back in December 2017. Dubbed Apple Pay Cash, the virtual card could be used to store funds that could then be used to pay for goods online, or in-store, and sent securely to friends via iMessage. Apple’s new credit card – Apple Card – pays out its cash back rewards to an Apple Pay Cash card, too.

So any money you get back from spending on credit can be used to buy – or send to friends – using Apple Pay Cash.

The only difference with these services is that while Apple first launched Apple Pay Cash back in 2017 with iOS 11.2 in the United States, and Brazil the following year – there is no sign of the roll-out going any further for now. While some UK-based iPhone owners spotted a set-up page appear last year (hinting at an imminent arrival) Apple has stayed mum on the subject ever since.

We’re now on iOS 13.1.2 and there’s still no sign of the virtual payment card (although the tap-to-pay Apple Pay option is available in an ever-growing number of countries worldwide). Meanwhile, Samsung wants to roll-out to new countries fast. While it’s only available in the US right now, Samsung wants to add more countries in 2020.

Samsung is clearly looking for an international impact. After all, it has also added a new transfer service to its Samsung Pay service.

Developed in partnership with Travelex, Samsung Pay now supports international money transfers. From today, US customers can now send payments to 47 countries using their existing debit or credit cards. Samsung supports all major currencies in these regions.

AMD and the team at Radeon Technologies Group have been bolstering their feature stack in their software side for quite some time now and taken to an annual major update that started back when they moved away from Catalyst Control Center to their Radeon Software Crimson Edition. Currently sitting in their Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition we now know, thanks to the eagle eye of Mark at OC3D, that Frank Azor of AMD has taken the stage in China to talk about Radeon and what to expect from them and that’s even more, come this December.

We’ve seen some of the biggest innovations from Radeon roll out to users through these major updates to their Radeon Software, some of the biggest for them being ReLive, Wattman, and Radeon Chill. Lately, we’ve seen Radeon rollout features like Anti-Lag and Radeon Image Sharpening. Radeon Image Sharpening was debuted with the launch of the Radeon RX 5700 Series and has since been expanded to the Polaris and the Vega line of graphics cards. It wasn’t that long ago that Radeon rolled out a survey asking what they would like to see most and while the Radeon Image Sharpening being expanded was on the list there was one at the top, Integer Scaling. Integer Scaling is something that Radeon’s competitors, including Intel, have addressed in their recent updates. While Intel’s requires their 10th Gen Ice Lake CPUs and NVIDIA’s requires a Turing based GPU Integer Scaling is a highly requested feature from users of all kinds. Integer Scaling is the one feature I would like to see most implemented into the new update coming in December. Radeon Software already has a ton of features for users to get lost in and adding more only bolsters their offering to their customers, so this is a very welcome move from the company and I am looking forward to what they bring to the table this time. I would love to hear what our readers would hope to see them deliver on.

Included in the new specifications are G.SKILL’s Trident Z Royal and Trident Z Neo ranges of high-speed DRR4 memory. All of the new series will offer 32GB capacity modules and, in some cases, offer to support the demands of Intel’s new HEDT Cascade Lake-X Platform which allows for up to 256 GB memory.

New Trident Z Royal Kits will be available in DDR4-3200 CL16 256GB (32×8) configurations which will offer high density, high-performance memory at consumer level. G.SKILL Trident Z Royal DDR4-3200 CL16 256GB is validated on the latest Intel X299 ASUS ROG Rampage VI Extreme Encore motherboard, with an Intel Core i9-9820X processor, which makes these high-capacity memory kits the ideal choice for HEDT workstations, running multiple virtual machines, according to G.SKILL.

A further G.SKILL Trident Z Royal kit will be available in a DDR4-4000 CL18 128GB (32×4) configuration, to provide consumers with a High-capacity high-frequency alternative option to the 256GB kits, along with two new Trident Z Neo configurations.

The first new Trident Z Neo kit will offer a high-speed, high-capacity memory solution to AMD Ryzen users with the introduction of an AMD Ryzen optimised, Trident Z Neo DDR4-3600 CL18 128GB (32×4) configuration. Even with desktop systems, it is possible to reach a total of 128GB on AMD’s X570 platform. G.SKILL has stress-tested these Trident Z Neo DDR4-3600 kits using an MSI X570 Godlike motherboard and the Ryzen 5 3600 CPU to ensure optimal performance.

Continuing to push the limits of Ryzen 3000, G.Skill has also introduced a Trident Z Neo DDR4-3800 CL18 64GB (32×2) memory kit which G.SKILL describe as a blazing dual-module behemoth which was validated on the MSI MEG X570 Godlike motherboard using an AMD Ryzen 9 3900X CPU.

G.SKill is due to release these new high-performance memory modules worldwide by the end of this year. However, a specific date and pricing are yet to be confirmed.

Corsair is once again refreshing its Void headset with the promise of better audio, courtesy of new custom tuned 50mm neodymium drivers with an expanded frequency range.

Incidentally, the original Void Wireless we reviewed in 2015 also used 50mm drivers. However, the custom tuned drivers in the new Void Elite series gives these headsets a rated frequency range of 20Hz to 30,000Hz, up from a 20,000Hz at the top end. Whether or not this expanded range will be enough to crack our list of the best gaming headsets remains to be seen (er, heard).

There are three Void Elite models, depending on the preferred connection. They include the Void RGB Elite Wireless with a 2.4GHz wireless dongle (good for up to 40 feet), Void RGB Elite USB with a USB cable, and Void Elite Surround with both a universal 3.5mm connector and USB adapter.

All three feature virtual 7.1 surround sound, and in addition to the apparent driver upgrade, they also feature a “completely redesigned” omnidirectional microphone that is Discord-certified.

Alongside the new Void Elite series, Corsair also announced the HS45 Surround, HS50 Pro Stereo, HS60 Pro Surround, and HS70 Pro Wireless. These also feature 50mm neodymium drivers, albeit with a lower frequency range (20Hz to 20,000Hz) along with an updated detachable microphone.

Pricing breaks down as follows:

Corsair Void RGB Elite—$99.99

Corsair Void RGB Elite Wireless—$79.99

Corsair Void Elite Surround—$79.99

Corsair HS70 Pro Wireless—$99.99

Corsair HS60 Pro—$69.99 (on sale for $49.99)

Corsair HS50 Pro Stereo—$49.99

Corsair HS45 Surround—$49.99

Features vary by model, and so does the design. The Void Elite has RGB lighting (the top two, anyway) and swivel earcups, whereas the HS series is more of a traditional headset design.

All of the new headsets are available now.