Today, Dell is offering up a substantial discount on the Inspiron 15 5000 laptop. If you’re in need of a powerful 15.6-inch device, this is the perfect time to buy. With an HD display, a Kaby Lake CPU, and a fast SSD, this laptop offers a complete computing experience wherever you go. • (List price: $909.99 — Coupon code: EXTRA320SAVINGS) Inside, this model features a seventh generation dual-core 2.7GHz Intel Core i7-7500U CPU, integrated Intel HD Graphics 620, 8GB of DDR4 RAM (2400MHz), a 512GB solid-state drive, a DVD drive, Bluetooth 4.0, and 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi support.
Two years ago, Shenmue creator Yu Suzuki took to Sony’s stage at E3 and announced a third game in the Shenmue series. The Shenmue series had always been intended to run for four games but had prematurely died after Sega killed Dreamcast development. When Suzuki announced that the game would launch on Kickstarter, Shenmue fans immediately drove it into the stratosphere, setting a record for the fastest KS to break two million dollars (eight hours, 43 minutes). We haven’t seen much of the title since then, but a new teaser trailer has surfaced online. It’s… well, it’s really something.
The new 2017 Buick Envision brings luxury and a smooth ride to the crowded class of compact SUVs. It’s a comfortable town and country cruiser, with a price tag just under $50,000 when fully equipped. The Envision was new as a 2017 model introduced earlier this year, and the 2018 Envision due will be essentially the same vehicle. The Envision has its work cut out for it: There is a lot of standard tech equipment and features, but the price is not significantly below that of established luxury-brand crossovers. And the market has yet to fully value Buick’s high reliability scores.
If you’re looking for a simple music streaming system for your home or in the office, it’s hard to beat the Amazon Echo. Simply speak a command, and Amazon’s Alexa digital assistant will start playing your favorite music. And with today’s sale in play, now’s the perfect time to buy. • (List price: $179.99) Unsurprisingly, this assistant/speaker from Amazon works seamlessly with Amazon’s own music service, but it’s not limited solely to that ecosystem. You can also stream from services like Spotify, Pandora, and iHeartRadio just by asking. The selection here is simply staggering.
Beta testers evaluating Apple’s upcoming iOS 11 have discovered new emergency SOS functions, as well as what some are calling a “cop button.” Press the power button five times on an iPhone running iOS 11, and the device will do two things. First, it brings up an option to dial emergency contacts if you swipe right. Second, it disables Touch ID until you log in with your passcode again. This is a significant step for several reasons. First, it’s impossible to see Apple implementing this kind of feature without recalling the knock-down drag-out battle between Apple and the Department of Justice back in early 2016.
A leaked slide from China has confirmed much of the speculation we’ve heard about Intel’s upcoming Coffee Lake. Much of what we’ve previously heard is accurate, at least according to this slide, with Coffee Lake bringing quad-core i3’s, six-core i5’s, and a Core i7 with six cores and 12 threads. The graph below is, as best I can tell, understood in the following way: Slide courtesy of The horizontal lines between the two columns of CPU shows performance improvements in single-thread and multi-thread applications. The vertical lines are improvements when moving between chip families. For now, it doesn’t look as if Intel is bringing its Skylake-SP/Skylake-X core design to Coffee Lake; the Core i7-8700K is listed with 12MB of RAM, which is what we’d roughly expect from a chip with two extra cores.
Google first revealed the existence of Android O earlier this year with the . After four preview builds, it’s almost time for the final version to drop. Google has added a countdown timer to the Android O landing page, confirming that Android O’s release will coincide with the total solar eclipse in the US. O (version 8.0) is the follow-up to Android 7.0/7.1 Nougat, which was released last fall. The new update has been available for testing on Pixel and Nexus devices for most of 2017 in order to help developers get their apps ready for the update, and there are a lot of changes to take into account.
Renewable electricity could significantly offset the use of traditional coal or gas-fired power plants in the long term. But moving a meaningful percentage of our power use to a renewable source will require a degree of redesign. There are three broad issues that need to be addressed. First, the US electrical grid is meant to carry electricity to people, as opposed to absorbing electricity being generated by people. Second, the variable nature of solar and wind power means that the grid needs to be able to load balance to account for variable generation. Third, peak load power occurs in the early evening, after solar plants have begun to go offline (solar generates the most power at high noon, when the sun is directly overhead).
Is your current PC loud, bulky, and slow? Well, it must be time for an upgrade. Thankfully, you won’t have to spend much for a nice modern desktop — just take a look at this Inspiron 3000 from Dell. If you’re looking for a PC for everyday tasks like email and web browsing, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better deal than this. (List price: $595.85 — Coupon code: 299INS) So, what are the specs like on this desktop? On the inside, it sports a sixth generation dual-core 3.7GHz Intel Core i3-6100 CPU, integrated Intel HD Graphics 530, 8GB of DDR3L RAM (1600MHz), a 1TB 7200RPM hard drive, Bluetooth 4.0, and 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi support.
