Month: November 2019

Two months after being announced, the Intel SSD 665p is set to be released today. The 665p is the successor to the 660p, the most (only?) successful consumer SSD based on four bit per cell (QLC) NAND flash memory. The 665p makes minimal changes to the design of the 660p; the most important of which is switching from Intel’s 64-layer 3D QLC NAND to their newer 96-layer 3D QLC NAND.

Intel claims to have the first 96L QLC in production, though Western Digital has already announced they are shipping products using their own 96L QLC (albeit not in internal SSDs yet). It appears that production of Intel’s 96L has not ramped up much yet, because today we are only getting the 1TB SKU of the 665p—the 2TB model won’t be arriving until Q1 of 2020. The 512GB model won’t be happening at all. The 512GB 660p was much more susceptible to the performance downsides of QLC NAND than the larger models, and given the pricing of 512GB-class TLC-based drives, it’s reasonable for QLC product lines to start with a minimum of 1TB.

The 665p continues to use the Silicon Motion SM2263 NVMe SSD controller, with a small DRAM cache and a massive variable-size SLC cache:

The switch to 96L QLC has enabled minor performance improvements. The basic performance specs have been boosted by up to 13.6%, which isn’t enough to noticeably impact real-world use cases. This is still an entry-level NVMe SSD that could get by just fine with a mere PCIe 3.0 x2 connection even though it supports an x4 link. As usual, these specs are for burst performance where the SLC cache is in use; post-SLC write speeds are still slower than what any vendor wants to put on a spec sheet. When Intel announced the 665p in September, they showed CrystalDiskMark results for the 660p vs the 665p that cast the 665p in a much better light, but their numbers for the 660p were suspiciously low.

Much more important than the performance changes is the write endurance boost the 665p brings compared to the 660p. Both capacities of the 665p have 50% higher rated write endurance than the 660p, bringing them up to about 0.16 drive writes per day (DWPD) from the 660p’s 0.11 DWPD. This is still a lot lower than the 0.3 DWPD that is typical for low-end consumer SSDs that use TLC NAND, but the increase does show that Intel’s feeling more confident in their second generation of QLC.

Looking to the future, Intel’s next step after 96 layers will be to 144 layers. That generation of 3D NAND will be QLC-only at first and will arrive in the second half of 2020. So Intel may end up doing a second refresh of this SSD about a year from now before this product segment is ready to move to PCIe 4.0.

Newegg is currently selling the 1TB 660p for $82.99 as part of their Black Friday sales, making it one of the cheapest SSDs on a per-GB basis, in any form factor, interface or capacity. We’re not expecting the 665p to debut at such a low price, but after the holiday sales are over the 665p will probably overtake the 660p as the most affordable NVMe SSD.

Intel is not sampling the 1TB 665p for review at this time, but we’ve asked for a review sample of the 2TB model when it becomes available.

With more than 1.5 billion active users, WhatsApp is the most popular mobile messenger app in the world.

If you’re an avid user then you’ll most likely have the basics of the app covered, but there are several features that you could be missing out on.

Speaking exclusively to Mirror Online, WhatsApp has revealed its top ten tips for making the most of the messaging service.

From bookmarking messages to reading them in stealth mode, these commonly unknown tips and tricks are sure to make you a WhatsApp wizz.

1. Record hands-free voice notes

Voice notes are a great way of easily telling your friends an in-depth story by saving minutes of typing. It’s also handy if you’re walking and can’t be looking down at your phone.

While many users know to hold down the voice-note icon and speak, you can actually create a message hands-free.

WhatsApp said: “Did you know that if you hold down the microphone icon and swipe up, it locks the voice note function to ‘record’, leaving you able to record your message hands-free?

“Once you have finished recording your message, just press send!”

2. Bookmark your main messages

If you’re looking for something in your chat history, you can use the search function, but it’s still sometimes tricky to find what you’re after.

Thankfully, there’s actually a way to bookmark key messages to make sure you can easily find them in the future.

For example, if your friend has sent you their new address, this way, you can quickly go back and view it when you need it.

WhatsApp said: “Make use of the ‘star’ message function where you can bookmark key messages that you can easily view again in one central location. Just press down on the message that you want to bookmark and then tap the ‘star’ icon.

“For iPhone users, you can find all your starred messages by going to Settings & Starred Messages or click the name of your chat and tap ‘Starred messages’. For Android users, tap ‘More options’, and tap ‘Starred messages’.”

3. Tailor your status to every occasion

We may be familiar with updating our friends with statuses on Facebook, but they can be used in the same way for Whatsapp for telling all your contacts something at once.

WhatsApp explained: “You can set your ‘About’ status to a pre-existing option, or you can create your own for whatever activity you may be up to.

“To do so, go to Settings; [Tap your name]; About; Status, and select a pre-existing option, or, to personalise it, click Edit, select any of the pre-existing options, and share with the world what you’re currently up to.”

4. Set your phone aside but still be online

Sneaking your smartphone out to check your WhatsApp messages at work can be tricky, but if you really need to stay in touch, there is a way to check your messages without even touching your phone.

WhatsApp said: “Download the WhatsApp Web desktop app, which mirrors your phone’s conversations on your computer. This means you can send the normal WhatsApp messages, photos and GIFs from your computer, but now in double quick time.”

5. Elevate your conversations with Stickers

While many people use emoji in their messages, Stickers can offer a fun alternative to jazz up your conversations.

WhatsApp said: “When you open a conversation, next to the field you input text into, there is a little square icon with a folded side page. When you click that, it comes up with your stickers – but you can add more! Find out how to download more stickers in WhatsApp’s FAQs.”

6. Read your messages in super-stealth mode

Sometimes you’ll want to see what your friend has messaged without them knowing. You can hide ‘Read Receipts’ but then you also won’t be able to see theirs.

However there’s a sneaky alternative that lets you read a full message and avoid blue ticks.

WhatsApp explained: “If you see a message come in on your iPhone’s lock screen, press down slightly on the message on the screen and it pulls up the full text, but you won’t appear to the other person that you’ve read the message. Stealthy!”

7. Pin your most important friends or groups

If you’re a Whatsapp user, you’re bound to have a number of different chats going at one time so it’s hard to find your favourite groups when scrolling down your list of conversations. It can even be easy to mistakenly send a message to the wrong group.

But there’s actually a way to pin their conversation to the top of your inbox.

WhatsApp said: “On the iPhone, swipe to the right on the chat you want to pin to the top and then tap ‘Pin’. On Android, tap and hold on the chat and then tap the pin icon.”

8. Regain control of your groups

A group chat name and icon photo is very important.

Sometimes members of the group change them, and if you don’t agree with it, you can’t really do anything about it without kicking up a fuss.

But if you’re an admin, there’s a way to change the group settings so only you can allow these changes.

WhatsApp said: “You can change the group settings so that only admins are allowed to change group info. To do so, click on your group name and go to Group Settings; Edit group info.”

9. Find out who you talk to the most

If you’ve ever wondered who your favourite person on WhatsApp is, you’ll be happy to hear that it’s fairly straightforward to find out.

WhatsApp said: “You can find out who you send the most messages to and how much storage each person you speak to takes up by going to: Settings; Data and Storage Usage; Storage Usage; Select Contact.”

10. Manage who adds you to groups

While group chats are a useful way to communicate with your friends and family, there’s nothing more annoying than being added to a chatty group with no relevance to you.

WhatsApp recently rolled out the ability to manage who adds you to groups.

It added: “To ensure that you only join groups that you want to be in, you can manage your group permission settings.

“Once enabled, the friend who wants to add you to a group will be required to first send you an invitation link in the app. If you accept it, you will then be added to the group. If not, the link will expire in three days.”

To enable it, go to Settings; Account; Privacy; Groups and select one of three options: ‘Everyone,’ ‘My Contacts,’ or ‘My Contacts Except’.

‘My Contacts’ means only users you have in your address book can add you to groups and ‘My Contacts Except’ provides additional control for who among your contacts can add you to a group.

Today, almost 3 months after the start of sales of the controversial bestseller Redmi Note 8 Pro, Xiaomi showed off the device in a new Ocean Blue color, confirming recent leaks.

Just a week ago, Xiaomi introduced a new version of Redmi Note 8 Pro for the Chinese market with an increased storage capacity of 8/256 GB (previously two versions were available: 6/64 GB and 8/128 GB). However, it remains unknown whether the blue version of Redmi Note 8 Pro will receive an enlarged storage capacity.

Also, live photos of the smartphone in the new color have appeared on the network, which will complement the three existing colors since the device was released: Shadow Black (black), Gamma Green (green) and Halo White (white).

REDMI NOTE 8 PRO SPECIFICATIONS

6.53-inch (2340 × 1080 pixels) Full HD+ display with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection

Octa Core MediaTek Helio G90T 12nm processor (Dual 2.05GHz A76 + Hexa 2GHz A55 CPUs) with 800MHz Mali-G76 3EEMC4 GPU

6GB LPPDDR4x RAM with 64GB (UFS 2.1) storage, 6GB / 8GB (LPPDDR4x) RAM with 128GB (UFS 2.1) storage, expandable memory up to 256GB with microSD

Dual SIM (nano + nano + microSD)

Android 9.0 (Pie) with MIUI 10, upgradable to MIUI 11

64MP rear camera with 1/1.72″ Samsung GW1 sensor, 0.8μm pixel size, f/1.8 aperture, LED flash, EIS, 8MP 120° ultra-wide angle lens with 1.12μm pixel size, 2MP depth sensor and 2MP camera for 2cm macro with 1.75μm pixel size, f/2.4 aperture

20MP front camera with f/2.0 aperture

Fingerprint sensor, IR sensor

3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio

Built-in Alexa with dual wake word

Splash resistant (IP52)

Dimensions: 161.37×76.4×8.79mm; Weight: 199.8g

Dual 4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 ac (2.4GHz + 5GHz), Bluetooth 5, GPS + GLONASS, USB Type-C

4500mAh battery with 18W fast charging

A new update to the free metadata photo and video app Metapho for iPhone has brought what looks like the first way to tell when your iPhone 11 shots were taken with Deep Fusion (at least for now). Follow along for more on this neat app that not only allows you to check if Deep Fusion was used, but also view and edit EXIF metadata.

Metapho launched its latest update over the weekend that includes data on whether or not Deep Fusion was used in a photo (via MacStories). This is notable, as the feature was made by Apple to be intentionally invisible to users even when inspecting an image’s details (and it’s also very difficult to tell by just looking at photos, even side by side with the same conditions).

Metapho looks to be the very first app to offer a way to inspect for Deep Fusion, although the functionality likely won’t be around for long. Fellow camera app creator Sebastiaan de With mentioned that they skipped adding the functionality into Halide because Apple is planning to kill it soon.

In any case, Metapho is free and easy to use with an in-app purchase to unlock all features like editing metadata. And it’s fantastic to see a strong privacy focus here… no servers are involved with everything happening on-device.

Once you download and open Metapho, you’ll just need to give the app access to your photo library. There’s even a Share Sheet extension you can add to quickly check photo metadata.

At the top of the metadata under “Image Information” you’ll see “Deeply Fused” if Deep Fusion was used. Under the “Camera” section, you’ll also see an image count for Deep Fusion photos.

Metapho now also indicates if Night mode was used.

etapho 3.4.3 full release notes:

Supports new camera features of iPhones 11

Indicates Night Mode and Deeply Fused photos under Image Info

Reveals more details about Night Mode exposures under Camera Info

Shows Outside The Frame assets in the list of assets, if available

Save as… feature in Action extension works on iOS 13

Improves compatibility with ProPhoto RGB profile

Fixes an issue that Date Edit did not make date tags for a photo without metadata

Fixes a bug: Sharing in nested Action in Action extension did not work

Fixes an issue caused crashes on iOS 13.1

Palo Alto Networks on Monday announced plans to acquire Aporeto Inc., a machine identity-based microsegmentation company, for $150 million in cash. Aporeto’s technology should bolster Palo Alto’s cloud security suite, Prisma. The deal is expected to close during Palo Alto’s fiscal second quarter.

Founded in 2016 and based in San Jose, Calif., Aporeto uses identity-based access control to secure workloads across all infrastructures. Its technology should help strengthen the Prisma suite of cloud security services, which it launched earlier this year.

Aporeto co-founders Dimitri Stiliadis and Satyam Sinha have agreed to join Palo Alto Networks.

Separately, Palo Alto on Monday published its first quarter financial results, beating market expectations.

Non-GAAP net income for the quarter was $104.8 million, or $1.05 per diluted share. Revenue came to $771.9 million, up 18 percent year-over-year.

Wall Street was looking for earnings of $1.03 per share on revenue of $767.8 million.

“Palo Alto Networks’ multi-platform approach to security is clearly resonating with our customers. Our Next-Gen Security offerings performed extremely well in our first fiscal quarter, bolstering our confidence in our long-term prospects for Prisma and Cortex,” CEO Nikesh Arora said in a statement. “At our recent Ignite conference, we introduced significant product enhancements, including Cortex XDR 2.0, SD-WAN and DLP capabilities for Prisma Access and the integration of Twistlock and PureSec into Prisma Cloud, that should sustain this momentum.”

For the fiscal second quarter 2020, Palo Alto expects total revenue in the range of $838 to $848 million. It’s forecasting diluted non-GAAP net income per share in the range of $1.11 to $1.13, which incorporates net expenses related to the Aporeto acquisition.

Meanwhile, Nutanix on Monday also published its first quarter financial results, beating market expectations.

The company reported a non-GAAP net loss of $135.3 million, or 71 cents per share, on revenue of $314.8 million, up from $313.3 million a year prior.

Wall Street was expecting a per-share loss of 75 cents on revenue of $306.4 million.

“Our solid Q1 performance, particularly in the Americas, gives us confidence that we have the right formula for global sales leadership as demonstrated by improved productivity and sales hiring over the last six months,” CEO Dheeraj Pandey said in a statement. “We have also seen momentum in key areas of our business, including the transition to subscription and an improved 28% attach rate of new products onto our core HCI platform.”

Total billings came to $380 million, down from $383.6 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2019. The decrease, Nutanix said, reflects billings compression from the company’s ongoing transition to subscription and the significant reduction of hardware billings from the prior year.

Subscription billings in Q1 grew 41 percent year-over-year to $276 million, representing 73 percent of total billings.

Subscription revenue increased 72 percent year-over-year to $218 million, representing 69 percent of total revenue.

Nutanix also highlighted its expanded customer base, after ending the quarter with 14,960 total customers. The company closed a record high of 66 deals worth more than $1 million.

On this episode of the Windows Central Podcast: 20H1 RTM is near, Surface Earbuds delayed, Cortana mobile is going away, and more.

We’re back with another exciting episode of the Windows Central Podcast, and this week, Windows 10 20H1inches closer to reality with a new build in the Fast ring. Cortana mobile apps are going away for users in most markets, except for the United States. The release of Surface Earbuds has been delayed until Spring 2020, possibly to address their value compared to other Bluetooth earbuds?

Zac also reviews Google Stadia as he and Daniel discuss the company’s image problem. And speaking of image problems, Apple is attempting to address their own issues with the new 16-inch MacBook Pro. They’re also actively hiring developers to work on Windows UWP apps.

The ASRock Radeon RX 5700 XT Taichi OC+, which debuted in September at $480, is currently sale on Newegg for $429.99, its lowest price ever. ASRock’s offering is a souped up version of AMD’s latest Navi-based Radeon RX 5700 XT graphics card.

The Radeon RX 5700 XT Taichi OC+ bears a 10+1 phase power delivery subsystem and has a default base and game clock of 1,810 MHz and 1,935 MHz, respectively. However, it also comes with an overclocked profile that bumps the base clock up to 1,885 MHz and the game clock to 2,000 MHz. The graphics card’s 8GB of GDDR6 memory remains untouched at 14 Gbps.

In our ASRock RX 5700 XT Taichi X 8G OC+ review earlier this month, we were pleased with how quiet the graphics card was and the power behind its three-fan cooling. At the time, however, we were concerned about the competitive of its price, considering you could find lesser rivals with three-fan cooling for $400. Now, the card just got a bit more competitive.

One thing to take into consideration is that the Radeon RX 5700 XT Taichi OC+ is a very beefy graphics card. It measures 324.5mm long and requires up to 2.5 slots in your system. Nevertheless, the graphics card’s oversized body means cooling won’t be an issue on the Radeon RX 5700 XT Taichi OC+.

ASRock has slipped in a very thick heatsink, reinforced metal frame for the PCB, two 90mm and one 80mm cooling fans. The fans themselves are equipped with the 0dB silent cooling feature, meaning you will only see them spinning when the graphics card is under a heavy load. ASRock has also endowed the Radeon RX 5700 XT Taichi OC with the brand’s Polychrome Sync RGB lighting on the middle fan and an attractive 3D metal backplate.

The Radeon RX 5700 XT Taichi OC has six display outputs that include two HDMI 2.0b ports and four DisplayPort 1.4 ouputs. In terms of requirements, the graphics card draws external power from a pair of 8-pin PCIe connectors. We recommend a 700W power supply as the minimum.

Lastly, ASRock includes it’s own Taichi Tweak software so you can monitor and tweak the Radeon RX 5700 XT Taichi OC.

If you’re looking for more graphics card recommendations, check out our Best Graphics Cards breakdown, understand where different cards rank in our GPU Hierarchy and get shopping assistance from our Graphics Card Buying Guide. 

Normally hunting for the best Black Friday tech deals means finding the best discount on typical selling prices, but we’ve spotted a deal this time around that also sweetens the pot by including a phone. The deal in question is the Asus ZenBook 14 for $899.99, which comes a Asus ZenFone Max included .

The ZenBook 14 itself doesn’t lack for specs either. It comes packed with an Intel Core i7-8565U CPU, which is a U-series, ultra-low voltage processor but still a genuine quad-core unit with Hyper-threading, and it can boost (albeit briefly), up to a clock speed of 4.6 GHz for when a little more oomph is needed. Other specs include 16GB of LDDR3 2133 MHz RAM, a 512GB PCIe SSD, and an Nvidia MX150 GPU. All things considered, those aren’t shabby specs for a thin-and-light notebook.

The display is standard at FHD resolution, and the laptops runs off 47Whr battery, which is said to be able to power the notebook for up to 10 hours (although, your experience will vary depending on usage).

The included smartphone is the ZenFone Max (M1) in sunlight gold. It’s not a flagship phone, and whilst Newegg claims that it’s worth $299.99, that’s obviously the MSRP price. The phone came out in May 2018 and comes with a 5.5-inch 720×1440 resolution IPS display, has 2GB of memory and is paired to a Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 quad-core system-on-chip (SoC).