Month: December 2019

AOC is coming with not one but two new ultrawide gaming monitors: the CU34G2 and the CU34G2X, which are almost identical, with just a couple subtle but very relevant differences, as spotted by ComputerBase this week.

They both share identical chassis and similar panels, offering 34-inches with a 3440 x 1440 resolution. The panels are 8-bit VA units with WLED backlighting and a 3,000:1 static contrast ratio.

The design is clearly oriented at gamers with a sleek housing, elegant stand and red accents. Plus, both support AMD FreeSync.

That’s where the similarities end and the differences begin. The CU34G2 (non-X) has a panel that can refresh at up to 100 Hz, whereas the CU34G2X will go up to 144 Hz. Their color space is also slightly different, with the CU34G2 covering 124% of the sRGB space and 92% of AdobeRGB, whilst the CU34G2X covers 119%of sRGB and 88% of AdobeRGB.

Weirdly, the lower refresh rate variant is said to have HDMI 2.0, and the 144 Hz CU34G2X is said to only have HDMI 1.4. Both do have DisplayPort 1.2 though, so the most important base is covered.

ComputerBase is reporting the prices to be €469 for the CU34G2 and €579 for the CU34G2X, so expect similar figures for U.S. pricing if it does come here. Availability is slated for January.

Long-awaited by storage enthusiasts like myself, today UL Benchmarks released an update to the company’s PCMark 10 dedicated storage benchmarking tools.

The new benchmarks enable provides the tools to test and compare drive performance. Unlike previous versions of PCMark’s Storage Benchmark, it aims to be the modern benchmark for modern drives. PCMark 10’s storage benchmarks are designed to be used with both the slowest and fastest storage devices, including Intel’s Optane SSDs.

Real World Relevance

Unlike synthetic benchmarks, PCMark 10’s aims to relate manufacturers’ technical specifications to practical real-world performance data in a simple-to-use way. The test suite features four separate storage benchmarks covering various real-world traces from common tasks to popular applications.

Some traces are as simple as launching applications and booting Windows 10, while others include copying several large files and many small files and can even track performance while working with common office applications. This gives storage enthusiasts like me some extra insight into how a product truly stacks up.

PCMark 10 Storage Tests

Full System Drive Benchmark – This benchmark uses a wide-ranging set of real-world traces to fully test modern drive performance.

Quick System Drive Benchmark – This benchmark is shorter and features fewer demanding traces for smaller system drives that are unable to complete the Full System Drive benchmark.

Data Drive Benchmark – This benchmark was designed to test a drive’s file’ storage performance rather than application performance. It is also able to run on USBs, NAS drives, and other external storage devices.

Drive Performance Consistency Test – This test isn’t your run of the mill storage benchmark; this thing hammers the device under test hard. It is a long-running test with heavy work-load access patterns that shows in-depth reporting on how the device adapts to different conditions.

Once testing completes, PCMark 10’s Storage Benchmarks calculate an overall score showing relative drive performance so that you can compare devices by simply looking at their score. Bandwidth and average access time are also reported. And, you can also compare up to four test results at once in the PCMark 10 app, or as I do, export the results into Microsoft Excel for thorough analysis.

Available now

It’s available now as a free update for those who already own a professional edition license. For those who haven’t purchased it, PCMark 10 Professional Edition starts at $1495 per year for new customers. If you are interested, you can visit the UL Benchmarks website to request a quote for your specific use.

If a recent sighting on Android Gerrit is to be believed, the process of installing updates on Android devices could be receiving a significant speed boost. The listing discusses a new feature called “Resume on Reboot” which would allow certain phones to complete the update process without requiring a manual unlock.

Currently, an OTA update does not finish without forcing the user to unlock their phone. This step occurs once the device has been rebooted — after the reboot, many apps still need to update to work properly with the new software. This means that even if you leave your phone alone for several hours while the install occurs, the process won’t actually finish until you unlock the device and allow all your apps to update.

Resume on Reboot changes that. The new feature would store your login information and simply “unlock” the device for you. This would allow the entire update to proceed without any intervention by the user. However, this functionality requires a HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) called IRebootEscrow. That isn’t on every device, so this won’t be a universal feature for Android phones. Resume on Reboot is being tested on the Pixel 4 and should be available to the public in a future update.

Tablets and 2-in-1 convertibles from the CHUWI brand are quite often equipped with the stylus support, so the company is also famous for making quality stylus pens. The latest one in their portfolio is the CHUWI HiPen H6, which is compatible not just with their new UBook Pro, but also with Microsoft Surface models and more. All that of course with a pretty customer-friendly price point, unlike some of the comparable models from the competition.

CHUWI HiPen H6 can offer quite a delicate drawing experience with 4096 pressure levels so even professionals will not be limited by it. It also has intelligent palm rejection for accurate writing including multi-touch mistakes. And because it’s equipped with a rechargable battery you don’t have to worry anymore about replacing the AAAA batteries like other styluses. With 90 days of battery life with continuous writing you don’t have to worry about battery at all in fact. And like we said before it uses the same MPP (Microsoft Pen Protocol) as the Surface series so you can get it for them too at a price of fifth of the original pen.

And now the stylus drivers got upgraded to the latest 01.03.06 version, bringing optimized performance and smoother experience in writing. The update process is pretty simple, but can’t hurt going through it, just in case.

Copy the file “Phoenix-hid-update” to the tablet, open the file, click twice “ConfigUpdate ” to run.（About 5 seconds)

Upgrade has completed when the running interface displays the version 01.03.60, close the running window to finish.

You can find more information about the CHUWI HiPen H6 stylus and of course all the tablet, laptop and 2-in-1 devices from this brand on the official website. So make sure to check it out, because maybe just out there is hiding some late idea for Xmas gift for yourself or your loved ones.

It’s felt like we’ve waited for years, but Google Assistant users can finally make notes using Google Keep from their phones, a speaker, or other devices. However, the functionality isn’t enabled by default. Here’s how to connect Google Keep Notes to Google Assistant.

How to connect Google Assistant to Keep Notes

Open Assistant settings

Find “Notes & Lists”

Set Google Keep as your default notes service

Note: This integration started rolling out on December 6th and may take time to hit all devices.

Open Google Assistant settings

First and foremost for this long-awaited functionality, we’ll have to dive into the labyrinth that is Google Assistant’s settings menu. To access the Assistant settings, you’ll want to open the Google app on your phone and tap More at the bottom of the screen. From there, tap Settings and then Google Assistant.

Set Google Keep as your default notes service

Next, locate the Services tab and finally, Notes & Lists.

Under the Notes & Lists section, Google will provide you with a handful of providers for syncing your notes. This includes Any.do, AnyList, Bring, but most importantly, Google Keep. Simply tap on the Google Keep section to set it as your default notes provider.

How to manage your Notes w/ Assistant

Once you’ve linked Google Keep with the Assistant, your future notes will all be saved to the app. On top of that, you can also access other lists and notes from Keep via Google Assistant on your phone, Home speaker, and the like.

However, it won’t work the same everywhere. On a smartphone you can say, “Show me my notes,” but a Home speaker or smart display can’t do that. Instead, they can only access a note titled “Shopping list.”

To start a new note from your phone, you can simply ask Google Assistant to “take a note.”