Ever since Apple announced it would move to its own custom ARM CPUs for laptops and desktops, there’ve been questions about what kind of platform we should expect and how the company will position its first entry into homegrown product design. There are now rumors that the firm will launch its first ARM-based Mac hardware next month rather than using the “Hi, Speed” event scheduled for tomorrow to do the job. Originally, the Mac was tipped to arrive in November, so we don’t know if Apple will launch and ship the device quickly, or if it’ll launch in November but ship in December.
Malware goes where people go, and there are many people around the world using Android to do the bulk of their computing. Naturally, ransomware has found its way to Android, and there’s a new, particularly devious strain of it floating around. According to Microsoft’s Defender Research team, MalLocker.B manipulates multiple Android OS functions to . MalLocker.B won’t just appear on your phone like magic — it’s being distributed on sketchy third-party app stores and forums. Users have to go through several steps to deactivate Google’s built-in app security before they can install the malicious app, which hides in a seemingly unrelated app.
These days, everyone needs a professional website. So, the latest statistics on web developers, a.k.a. the guys and gals who design and program websites for a living, shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. According to the , web developers’ employment is projected to grow 8 percent from 2019 to 2029, which is double the average growth rate (4 percent) for all occupations. Put another way, there will be around 14,000 new web development opportunities created over that ten year period. Best of all, though, is that a career in web development is rewarding, both from a creative perspective and a financial one — the median salary for a web developer in May 2019 was $73,760.
AMD is said to be in to buy Xilinx in a move that would be worth an estimated $30B and would give AMD a foothold in the FPGA market. Such a move could be a good one for the CPU manufacturer, as it would open new markets for the company where it doesn’t currently compete. Xilinx is the inventor of the Field-Programmable Gate Array, which are integrated circuits designed to be reconfigured at-will (hence “Field Programmable”) and can be reprogrammed for a huge range of logic functions, including any function that an ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) can perform. CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs, and ASICs are part of a continuum of hardware stretching from CPUs (most flexible, least efficient) to ASICs (least flexible, most efficient), as shown in this diagram from Intel below (ignore the “core counts,” as they’re not relevant for our purposes).
Today you can get a highly versatile laptop from Dell with over $700 marked off the retail price. This system is perfect for work, but it also has a 100 percent sRGB compatible display for editing images and a GPU that’s powerful enough to keep the average gamer happy. The new Vostro 15 7500 laptop is a true jack-of-all-trades. Dell’s Vostro systems are oriented as business solutions, and this system is no different, but it also has fairly strong gaming capabilities. Its 100 percent sRGB display is also well suited for editing images. No matter what you need a laptop for, this system should fit the bill.
I thought the Bluetooth was going to be the worst idea I wrote about this week, but apparently Google took one look at that concept and said: “Hold my beer.” Well, no, that’s not quite right. One half of CEO Sundar Pichai and his team apparently said “Hold my beer,” while the other half said: “Business opportunity!” “Is that real neoprene and a GENUINE matte paint job?” “I do believe it is, Gunther. Just 12 easy payments of $99.” Google’s big idea, to Bloomberg, is to turn YouTube into QVC and directly monetize products. Instead of seeing someone review a product and having to visit a website like Amazon or Newegg to buy it, you’ll just be able to click on a link and buy the goods directly, with YouTube getting a cut somewhere along the way.
SpaceX has made history too many times to count in the last few years, but the 2018 Falcon Heavy test stands out. Not only did SpaceX ace its first heavy-lift demonstration, but it also gave us all a good laugh by . It’s still up there, complete with the spacesuited mannequin known as Starman. SpaceX has noted that Starman has made his first close pass of Mars, getting within a few million miles of the red planet. The Falcon Heavy began life as the Falcon 9 Heavy, the first heavy-lift SpaceX vehicle that could reach destinations like Mars. The rocket is actually three rockets—a central Falcon 9 with structural reinforcement and then two more Falcon 9s mounted to the side.
For those who don’t need the power or want the complexity of the full version of Photoshop or Premiere Pro, Adobe’s Elements offerings have long been a strong alternative. Their optional annual upgrades also appeal to those who don’t like the idea of having to subscribe to software licenses. I’ve been testing an early version of the 2021 editions of Adobe Premiere Elements ($99.99) and Adobe Photoshop Elements ($99.99). There are some nice new bells and whistles in both, which I’ll cover below, but it’s probably not a “must-have” upgrade for users on a tight budget. Home Page Gets More Interesting
MSI has acknowledged that one of its subsidiaries, Starlit Partners, was able to access stockpiles of RTX 3080 GPUs that the reseller should not have had access to, and that at least a few of these cards ended up being sold on eBay at much higher prices. End users discovered the relationship between the two companies and called it out on Reddit. MSI has posted a brief note on Twitter, in which they claim that Starlit Partners is a reseller that’s supposed to handle refurbished equipment and excess inventory. According to the company, no RTX 3080 GPUs should have been sold through Starlit in the first place.
