Six months into the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is still short of N95 respirators (e.g. masks) — a product most people probably knew nothing about before this year. Here in California, we’ve been using them for wildfire smoke, but typically only for a few days or weeks each year. In normal times they are used and then thrown away. But shortages have required all sorts of innovative ways to allow them to be sterilized and re-used, up to a point. Now, researchers at MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have come up with a partial solution to the shortage.
There’s been a lot of debate in the past 12 months over whether RDNA2 would deliver a huge improvement over RDNA. The Radeon 5700 and 5700 XT were significant leaps forward for AMD’s products, but they failed to cleanly beat Turing on absolute power efficiency, and while they challenged Nvidia’s RTX GPUs, they weren’t enough to deliver knockout blows. RDNA was important because it demonstrated that after years of iterating on GCN, AMD was still capable of delivering significant advances in technology. AMD raised eyebrows when it claimed RDNA2 would offer a 1.5x performance per watt improvement over RDNA, in the same way RDNA had improved dramatically over GCN.
AMD has announced its upcoming Ryzen 4000 G-series desktop chips, with availability expected in Q3. It’s a significant event for the company, given the current strength of its overall product line, and it’s intended to put pressure on Intel in the mainstream consumer and business desktop segment. AMD is only launching these chips for business and consumer OEMs, however — if you like what you see, you’ll need to plan to buy a system instead of building one. AMD has been building APUs for nearly a decade, and the chips have spent much of that time with a hand tied behind their back.
US regulators are taking aim at big tech firms like Google, Apple, and Amazon, with the potential for antitrust cases later this year. A House committee is gearing up to question the CEOs of major technology companies, but Microsoft President Brad Smith has already chatted with the committee. Smith reportedly , specifically when it comes to its handling of the App Store. Apple and Microsoft used to trade blows on a regular basis during the Mac-versus-Windows era, but Apple’s increasing focus on mobile has left Microsoft behind. Twenty years ago, Microsoft found itself the target of a similar antitrust probe, so lawmakers were curious to hear the company’s thoughts on the state of big tech, and it was happy to sling a little mud.
You might not realize it, but those apps on your phone that you love so much…they’re working for someone else. Even if one of your apps was created by a lone creator — or even someone you know — it might still be stealing information about you and watching your every move. Many apps today are filled with SDKs. Software development kits are given to app developers for free to help make the app run better or even make some money. Trouble is, SDKs are deals with the devil…because those features are also often harvesting information for the original maker, tracking users, and collecting data for their own purposes.
Even the best locks and doors are little more than an inconvenience to a motivated person with the proper tools. However, engineers from Durham University and the Fraunhofer Institute have created the first synthetic that can block even the most determined intruders. Researchers claim the material, known as Proteus, cannot be cut. In fact, it’s so tough it . Natural materials like diamond and sapphire are strong because of the dense lattice of atomic bonds, but they’re inflexible. With the right tools (also made of diamond), you can cut and fracture a diamond. But Proteus takes its inspiration from a much different natural source: seashells.
If you need a new work computer, today you can take advantage of some deals to save hundreds on your purchase of a high-performance laptop from Dell. There are also some excellent deals on a few high-end gaming monitors. Dell upgraded this laptop with one of Intel’s new 10th generation Core i7-10510U processors, which have four CPU cores that can hit clock speeds as high as 4.9GHz. The system also comes with a fast NVMe SSD storage device and a 1080p display, which makes it well suited for everyday tasks. It can even run some games with low settings thanks to a low-end Nvidia GPU.
Last week, Microsoft canceled the Xbox One X and the Xbox One S Digital Edition. It also declared its intent to keep the Xbox One S in-market as a low-end, entry-level product for the next generation of hardware. It’s an interesting decision and it could potentially signal a shift in how Microsoft approaches console generations. Historically, we’ve seen a specific pattern play out during console transitions. At first, games ship for both systems simultaneously. In the beginning, the cross-generational ports are pretty good. As focus shifts to the new platform, however, the quality gap between older and newer games begins to widen.
The combination of loosened medical regulations for hearing aids and growing demand from an aging population has generated a boom in hearing and audio innovation. Although slowed down a bit by the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the major players in the market have finally launched their new products for 2020. We’ve been using two of them over the last few weeks. First up was the consumer-focused, but still medical-device-approved, Audicus Wave ($899 per ear, before discount, or part of a full-service membership plan at $39/month). Audicus is able to offer lower prices than traditional audiologist-prescribed hearing aids by having its own in-house staff and dedicated stores.
