Month: March 2020

We’ve finally got our hands on the new AMD Renoir Ryzen 9 4900HS, and if the ROG Zephyrus G14 is anything to go by, it looks like AMD’s success in desktops is going to continue in the laptop space. There’s plenty to like about the new laptop from Asus, but it’s that processor which really stands out as an absolute monster. The kind of monster that upsets the exclusive party Intel has enjoyed for, well, pretty much forever. Intel, you really need to up your game. 

The big news with the Ryzen 9 4900HS is the fact that it is an eight-core, 16-thread processor. Not only that but the operating frequencies are healthy too, with a single-core turbo of 4.3GHz, and 3.8GHz when all the cores are being thrashed together. So the single-core performance is strong, but the multi-core performance is even stronger. 

By way of example, Cinebench R20 produced an overall score of 4,183 pts using all the cores, while the single core performance of a 486 pts is impressive too.

If you’re in the mood for more comparisons, then Geekbench 4 produced a Single-Core Score of 5,343, while the Multi-Core Score of 29,920 is impressive. You have to keep telling yourself that these results are from a laptop processor, not a hulking desktop chip that’s being cooled by an all-in-one water cooler. The slightly more up to date Geekbench 5 meanwhile returned a Multi-Core Score of 7,871 and a single Core result of 1199.

The take away from this is that if you’re in the market for a new laptop, then things have suddenly got a lot more complicated.

Where traditionally you had one option of manufacturer, and a wealth of confusingly labelled chips, you now get to choose between AMD and Intel, and then drill down for the balance that works for you. If you’re in the market for a single, small form-factor machine that has the raw power for serious number crunching, and you like to enjoy the odd game, then the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 isn’t a bad option at all. 

Intel refreshed its Cascade Lake silicon in an effort to compete with AMD’s EPYC Rome server-grade processors. It consists of high-end models such as the Xeon Gold 6258R (which corresponds to the 6258), mid-range Gold and Silver chipsets (such as the Gold 6246R as opposed to the 6246) and some Bronze-class products (the 3206R, and so on).

The upper tier started at competitive prices relative to comparable Rome-series CPUs, although the AMD options often still delivered a better cost-per-core, have much higher caches and a higher TDP. The mid-range Gold and Silver refreshes also offer 4 to 6 more cores than original Cascade Lake silicon. Huawei has announced that its FusionServer Pro servers have been adapted to use these newer Intel processors.

This line comprises high-density, blade and rack servers. The 1288H V5 and 2288H V5 variants are examples of the latter. Huawei claims that they offer intelligent data and power-consumption management features. In terms of memory and storage, the 2288H V5 exhibits 24 DDR4 DIMM slots as well as 10 PCIe expansion slots, and support 28 NVMe SSDs, 20 3.5-inch drives, or 31 2.5-inch drives.

These servers also boast in-house technologies such as Huawei Fault Diagnosis & Management (FDM) and Dynamic Energy Management Technology (DEMT). The OEM claims that they function to maximize return on investment while reducing costs.

Some existing reports have pointed to upgraded quadruple rear cameras in the upcoming OnePlus 8 Pro premium smartphone. They are thought to be made up of 48+48+5+8MP sensors; now, a fresh leak purports to outline what each of them does and what they may offer the user.

This new tip, allegedly obtained by Ishan Agarwal and published through PriceBaba, states that the 8 Pro’s new main shooter will be the IMX689. This is the novel f/1.78 Sony sensor that debuted “exclusively” in the OPPO Find X2 flagship series. It is paired to the also-48MP IMX586, which had the role of primary lens in this upcoming OnePlus’ predecessor.

In the newer phone, it will apparently take on an ultra-wide role instead, with a new 120-degree field of view and a 2.2 f-stop. The remaining sensors are allegedly for “Color Filter” (5MP) and telephoto (f/2.44 8MP, with 3X optical & 30X digital zoom capabilities) purposes.

This new set-up reportedly comes with new features, each with a novel marketing name. They include a “Night Portrait Mode”, along with “Cinematic Effects”. OnePlus may have also developed something called “3-HDR Video” for the 8 Pro, not to mention improved OIS.

These new abilities have already been rumored to come packaged in a chassis that has not diverged greatly from the previous generation in terms of design – on the other hand, the 8 series is said to offer new colors: Green, Black and a more mysterious-sounding “Glow”. The blog WinFuture now claims to have discovered what this last term means: an innovative gradient in which an almost Thunder-like purple transitions to a gold-orange sunset effect.

Otherwise, the OnePlus 8 Pro is expected to offer the Snapdragon 865 SoC, a possibly next-gen form of Warp Charge and to introduce wireless charging by its OEM. However, all these potential details are still waiting on its launch event for their confirmation.

The bookmark bar for Chrome is prime real estate. Once it’s full, your bookmarks fall off the edge and disappear! 😩 But wait! There is a simple bookmark trick that will double the number of bookmarks you can save to your bookmarks bar! 😀

The elements of a bookmark

A bookmark has three basic elements: 

The title of the page

The location of the bookmark

The favicon (icon) of the website

To bookmark a website, click on the star at the end of the Omnibox (search box). You will see a window that looks like this.

The name field is filled in with the page description created by the author, but you can change it (that’s important…we’ll come back to that later). You can also select a folder for your bookmark. Most people want to see their bookmarks on the thin shelf under the Omnibox – the bookmarks bar. Once you click “done” you get a bookmark that looks like this:

HOW TO FIX YOUR BOOKMARKS AND MAKE THEM SMALLER

Look at how much space that bookmark consumes! It’s the same size as the 5 bookmarks to the left of it! Follow these simple steps to shrink your bookmarks and double the number of bookmarks you can fit on the screen. 

Right-click on an existing bookmark and select “edit”

Delete the description for the bookmark

Save

Your bookmark is now represented by the unique favicon for the website! By using this bookmark trick you can fit approximately 30 bookmarks on the bookmark shelf – double (or more) the number of pages you can typically save. The next time you add a new bookmark, make sure you delete (or shorten) the description so that it takes up as little space as possible. 

If you need to bookmark multiple pages from your work or school website, you will probably need to place them all in a folder with a description. To create a folder, right-click on your bookmarks bar and look for “add folder.” 

HANDY PAGES YOU SHOULD BOOKMARK (BUT DIDN’T THINK ABOUT IT)

Now that you have all of this extra space on your bookmarks bar, why not fill it with something useful! Here are some productivity-boosting bookmarks: 

Chrome Utility pages: You can bookmark the setting, flag, or extension page for Google Chrome (Example – Chrome://settings)

Creator Accounts: if you are a content creator, bookmark your YouTube creator studio or Facebook page manager, for easy, one-click access. 

Developer Tools: I save a direct link to my Google Cloudshell instance for quick access. 

Google Drive Files: I bookmark links to important Google Drive files for one-click access to my budget, content calendar, sales forms, etc. 

Microsoft has released a new Insider preview build for Windows 10, known as 19592, that introduces a “new tablet experience” for the operating system that should make using 2-in-1 PCs more intuitive than ever before. If you’ve ever used a convertible PC, you’ll know that using the full-fat version of Windows 10 with only touch input or stylus isn’t exactly intuitive.

In fact, that’s probably why Apple has refrained from putting macOS on its iPad series of tablets – the hardware’s form factor lends itself to customised software.

It seems Microsoft knows this and is making changes to Windows 10 accordingly. The new tablet experience makes a number of alterations to the hugely popular operating system, four of the most substantial being:

Taskbar icons are spaced out

• Search box on taskbar is collapsed into icon-only mode

• Touch keyboard auto invokes when you tap a text field

The new tablet experience was initially rolled out to Insiders in an earlier Windows 10 preview build – 18970. However, Microsoft said it removed the feature in build 19013 and is reintroducing it after making some tweaks.

Announcing the feature, the Redmond tech giant said: “We are beginning to roll out (again) the new tablet experience for 2-in-1 convertible PCs as a preview to some Windows Insiders in the Fast ring.

“This experience is separate from the Tablet Mode experience that you will still be able to use. This new experience allows users entering tablet posture to stay in the familiar desktop experience without interruption with a few key touch improvements.”

Windows 10 already has a dedicated Tablet Mode and has done for some time. However, this dramatically changes the look and feel of the software, placing app tiles front and centre.

The new tablet experience is designed for users who still want to use Windows 10 in its original form, but introduces a number of nifty tweaks to make using it more natural.

Microsoft has said the latest addition will arrive in a “future Windows 10 update”, although it’s unclear if this will be the forthcoming 20H1 or something coming later.