Alienware's 17-inch laptops have always offered strong performance. But now thanks to an update that's adding support for up to a Radeon RX 6850M XT GPU and a new 480Hz display, Alienware says the refreshed m17 R5 is the most powerful AMD Advantage laptop yet.
Engineered to make use of features like AMD's Smart Access Memory, SmartShift Max and FreeSync Premium, the m17 R5's latest config is meant to wring out every last framerate while keeping Alienware's signature sci-fi aesthetic. Specs include either an AMD Ryzen 7 6800H CPU or a Ryzen 9 6900HX chip, up to 64GB of DDR5 RAM, 4TB of NVMe storage and a Radeon RX 6850M XT graphics card with 12GB of vRAM. That said, for people who don't care about the AMD Advantage platform or just prefer NVIDIA cards, the m17 R5 can still be configured with up to an RTX 3080 Ti GPU as well.
Alienware
As for display options, new for 2022 is a blisteringly fast full HD 480Hz panel (that will also be available on the x17 R2), which is the highest refresh rate you can get on a laptop today. However, if you're not a hardcore competitive gamer, you may want to consider Alienware's UHD display instead, which features a much wider gamut (99 percent of DCI-P3 vs 100 percent sRGB) and significantly better brightness (500 nits for UHD vs 300 nits for FHD).
Another bonus for AMD fans is that systems sporting a Radeon RX 6850M XT GPU will also get Alienware's Cryo-tech cooling, which includes a 3.5x larger vapor chamber compared to older m17 R4 models along with a smaller but more efficient CPU fan. And like all of its recent M-series gaming laptops, the m17 R5 comes with support for both Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos and Alienware's ComfortView Plus blue-light filtering tech.
Alienware
However, the one major downside aside from its price is that with a max weight of 7.3 pounds (depending on the exact config), the new m17 R5 definitely ain't light. So regardless of which model you get, you better make sure you have a sturdy bag for taking it on the go.
The refreshed m17 R5 is available today for a starting price of $1,600, or around $2,800 when kitted out with a Ryzen 9 CPU and a RX 8650 M Xt GPU.
New Alienware laptops with optional 480Hz displays aren’t the only computers Dell announced today. The company also has a new option for those looking for something more affordable. The G16 represents the first 16-inch laptop for the company’s Dell Gaming brand. Dell went with a 16:10 panel that features a 2,560 x 1,600 resolution, 165Hz refresh rate, G-Sync compatibility and a modest 300 nits of peak brightness.
No word on response rate or panel type, but the company notes the decision to go with a 16:10 aspect ratio allowed it to fit the G16’s display into a 15-inch chassis. As a result, the laptop has 11 percent more screen space than the G15.
Internally, the G16 comes with Intel’s 12th-generation Core i7 12700H processor. The 14-core, 20-thread chip features a maximum boost clock of 4.70GHz. Straight from the factory, Dell will let you configure the G16 with up to 16GB of 4,800MHz DDR5 RAM. You can add 16GB of RAM on your own to max out the laptop’s memory. Storage starts at 512GB via a Class 35 M.2 NVMe. You can configure the G16 with up to 2TB of total storage.
As for your video card options, you have three. The base model has an RTX 3050 Ti with 4GB of GDDR6 memory that can draw 90 watts of power. Alternatively, you can buy the G16 with either an RTX 3060 or 3070 Ti. The latter can pull up to 140W of power and features 8GB of GDDR6 memory, making it the most sensible option for a gaming laptop with a QHD display. Your GPU will also decide whether the G16 comes with a Thunderbolt 4 port. The connection is only available on models with an RTX 3060 or 3070 Ti. Otherwise, both variants come with HDMI 2.1, three USB-A connections, a headphone jack and an Ethernet port. WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity are also standard across all variants. Powering everything is either a 56WHr or 86WHr battery.
You also have three options when it comes to G16’s typing experience. By default, the laptop comes with a one-zone RGB keyboard. You can upgrade to a model with per-key lighting, with the option to add CherryMX switches as well. The Dell 16 will start at $1,400 when it goes on sale on July 20th.
Many PS5 owners were thrilled when Sony finally unlocked the console to accept expandable SSD storage last year. However, as we explained in our guide, adding extra space to the PS5 isn't as easy as buying the highest-capacity drive possible and installing it. You'll need a certain style of drive, plus a heatsink among other things. We've got a whole list of compatible SSDs that we like for the console, and one of our favorites that comes with a heatsink is down to its lowest price ever. The 1TB model of Samsung's 980 Pro SSD with heatsink is on sale for $140 right now, or 39 percent off its usual price. You'll find a similar discount on the 2TB version, which is 38 percent off and down to $250.
The 980 Pro is a good choice for the PS5 because it comes in an M.2 form factor and supports read speeds up to 7,000 MB/s. It also has a nickel coating plus a special thermal control algorithm that both help manage heat levels, and its 8.6mm housing helps it fit nicely into PS5 machines. You can also use Samsung's Magician software to do things like monitor drive health, optimize performance, receive updates and more. Considering $140 is the best price we've seen on the 1TB model with the heatsink, it's a good option for anyone looking for an all-in-one solution to their console storage needs. But if you'd prefer to DIY it a bit more, you can pick up a PS5-compatible heatsink for as low as $6 and the Samsung 980 Pro drive by itself for $120.
A couple of other PS5-compatible SSDs that we like are also on sale, so you have other options, too. PNY's XLR8 CS3040 in 1TB is 42 percent off and down to $105, and even at its normal price of $180, we considered it to be one of the best affordable drives out there for the console. There's actually a great deal on this drive with a heatsink, but it's not one that's compatible with the PS5. It'll work just fine for desktops and other systems, but you'll have to buy a different heatsink if you want to use this drive with the console. On the flip side, Seagate's 1TB FireCude 530 with a PS5-compatible heatsink is down to $170, which is only $10 more than its all-time low.
Netflix has introduced a new way people can share accounts — and, hence, a new way to curb password-sharing — for five Latin American countries. Starting on August 22nd, users in Argentina, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras will have to pay for extra "homes" if they want to access the streaming the service outside of their primary residence for longer than a short vacation.
Subscribers can watch Netflix on their phones or tablets anytime and as much as they want even while they're traveling or visiting another place. But if they want to stream on a TV, they can only access Netflix at no additional charge for two weeks while away from their primary residence. Further, they can only stream for free at a particular location once. After those two weeks are up, or if they go back to a location where they previously maxed out free access to the service, Netflix will ask if they would like to add a home for an additional fee per month.
Basic tier subscribers can add one extra home, standard up to two extra and premium up to three extra. Netflix says it uses information such as IP addresses, device IDs and account activity to detect homes, but it's advising people to make sure their devices are using the same internet connection and aren't using VPN or proxy services in case its system is insisting that the viewer is outside their primary residence when they aren't. The company will also allow members to stop paying for an extra home whenever they want and to replace their added home up to three times every six months.
Earlier this year, Netflix said it lost about 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2022 due to stiffer competition and the abundance of account sharing. According to Bloomberg, password sharing has been especially rampant in Latin America, which is most likely why that's where the company is testing new features meant to prevent the behavior. In its announcement, Netflix said the service will cost users 219 Pesos per month per home in Argentina and $3 per month per home in the Dominican Republic, Honduras. El Salvador and Guatemala.
With the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) now powered up and snapping some spectacular images – some of them huge captures – where does it put them all? On an SSD, of course. It’s a relatively tiny 68GB SSD, according to IEEE Spectrum, which is just enough to handle a day's worth of JWST images ahead of broadcasting them back to Earth.
Why so humble in size? The JWST is a million miles from Earth, getting bombarded by radiation and temperatures of less than 50 degrees above absolute zero (-370 degrees F). So the SSD, like all other parts, must be radiation hardened. Samsung’s latest pro-level SSD might not cut it. Plus, JWST sends data back to Earth much faster than Hubble – up to 57GB in the four hours it’s in range each day. It seems like just about enough storage.
Three-quarters of popular VPNs 'misrepresented their products,' the letter states.
US Democrats have urged the FTC to crack down on deceptive practices in the Virtual Private Network (VPN) industry. In an open letter, Representative Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) cited research indicating that three-quarters of the most popular VPNs "misrepresented their products," leading consumers to have a false sense of security.
We were impressed with the Lucid Air Dream Edition earlier this year, even though it was just a pre-production vehicle. Well, the automaker gave us time behind the wheel of its latest top-of-the-line Grand Touring Performance model with all the proper hardware and software ready to go. The Lucid Air GT models are shaping up to be more than just fast electric sedans. Check out our test-drive.
Stray is a cyberpunk playground where players are rewarded for trusting their instincts, and it offers a beautiful balance of exploration, puzzle solving and soothing cat activities. And somehow manages to tell a heart-wrenching human story without any people at all. Cat people are going to love it, says Engadget’s Jessica Conditt – and she’s one of our resident dog people!
A court orders the antitrust watchdog to review the original decision.
The UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal has ordered the country’s antitrust watchdog to review its decision to force Meta to sell Giphy. “We have agreed to reconsider our decision in light of this finding,” a spokesperson for the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) told the outlet, adding the agency hopes to complete the process within three months. The ruling comes after the tribunal sided with the watchdog on five of the agency's six claims against the company. However, on the one ruling that went in Meta’s favor, the tribunal said the CMA had failed to properly inform the company of Snapchat’s acquisition of Gfycat, undermining its defense.
Amazon warehouses in New York City and elsewhere are being investigated by federal prosecutors and the US Department of Labor over unsafe workplace conditions, ABC News has reported. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) conducted inspections "related, among other things, to Amazon's required pace of work for its warehouse employees," a spokesperson said in a statement.
On top of probing potential safety hazards, the investigators were also looking into "possible fraudulent conduct designed to hide injuries from OSHA and others," the agency added. It said that it opened the inspections based on referrals from the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York regarding allegations of safety and health violations. It's also probing Amazon workplaces outside of Illinois and Florida.
Over the last several years, Amazon has faced a number of complaints and probes over workplace safety, particularly around demanding tasks. Earlier this year, Washington state's Department of Labor cited and fined the company for "strenuous work at an unsafe pace" in Kent. Last year, the company issued a rare apology for tweets attacking criticism of working conditions, specifically that drivers and other workers were forced to pee in bottles to achieve objectives.
Following the collapse of a warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois during a hurricane, the company was criticized by members of congress and the senate for "wholly inadequate" warehouse safety. In April, workers at New York's Staten Island warehouse voted to form the company's first US union.
Netflix has launched a full trailer for its upcoming animated adaptation of Tekken, Bandai Namco's famous fighting game franchise, and with it comes the show's premiere date. Tekken: Bloodline is arriving on the streaming service on August 18th and will be available in several languages, including English and Japanese. The show focuses on Jin Kazama and takes place between the events of Tekken 2, which features his mother Jun Kazama as one of The King of Iron Fist Tournament competitors, and Tekken 3. Jin made his debut in the franchise's third entry released back in 1996 after losing his mother and his home to Ogre, one of the franchise's antagonists.
In the series, Jin trained under his grandfather Heihachi Mishima, the tournament's founder, in his quest for revenge. You'll hear Heihachi tell Jin to shed the pacifist Kazama ways and to "stoke [his] Mishima fire." Yes, Heihachi sounds positively villainous, because he's the franchise's main antagonist. The trailer also shows faces that would be familiar to long-time fans, as characters from the games also appear in the show. They include Hwoarang, Julia Chang, Nina Williams, Paul Phoenix, Ling Xiaoyu and Heihachi's son Kazuya Mishima.
Vizio has long been known as a budget TV brand, but over the past few years the company started to push into premium territory with its P-Series and OLED TVs, as well as the rotating Elevate Dolby Atmos soundbar. This year, Vizio is focusing on its more affordable mid-range devices. That includes its M-Series Quantum X (MQX) TVs, which deliver a bevy of features that gamers will appreciate, as well as the M-Series Elevate soundbar, which brings the rotating Dolby Atmos functionality of the original Elevate down to a lower price-range.
All of the devices make it clear that Vizio is trying to aim for a market that's demanding better specifications and features, but also doesn't want to pay too much for Vizio's most premium hardware. The 50-inch 4K MQX TV is particularly geared towards gamers, as it offers a 240Hz refresh rate while playing in 1080p. Players who want to see faster frame rates typically lower their resolutions to 1080p, even with 4K or higher-resolution monitors. So it's not hard to imagine the 50-inch MQX being paired up with a gaming PC, especially since it supports AMD FreeSync Premium VRR.
The MQX family of TVS — at 50, 65 and 75-inches — are loaded up with Quantum dot technology and VIzio's new IQ Ultra Plus Processor. The company says they'll cover 80 percent of the Rec. 2020 color space, which technically makes it one of the best TVs on the market for color accuracy (at least, according to RTings's testing). The MQX TVs also have full-array backlighting and 32 local-dimming zones, which should help to improve contrast and black levels, as well as 1,000 nits of peak brightness.
When it comes to gaming, the MQX sets offer a 120 Hz native refresh rate (the 50" model is a bit unique with its 1080p 240Hz mode), as well as sub-8ms lag at 120Hz. That may sound a bit high compared to PC monitors touting less than a millisecond of lag, but it's on the faster end of current TVs. There are also four HDMI 2.1 ports, enough for every new console and a PC, as well as a new "Game" menu that should make it easier to adjust your settings.
Vizio
During a brief demo on Vizio's traveling demo bus (which definitely stood out in a nearby suburban park), the MQX TVs looked almost as good as Vizio's 2020-era P-series TVs. Colors popped off the screen during daytime scenes in Moana, and the bevy of local dimming zones kept light from bleeding into dark areas of the screen. It's clear that Vizio has made plenty of progress since the last batch of M-series sets. The new MQX TVs will start at $630 when they arrive later this month.
Vizio is still keeping its existing higher-end sets on the market, but you'll see some changes across the rest of its lineup too. The M-series Quantum 6 TVs also feature Quantum Dots and Full Array backlighting and a few helpful gaming features like FreeSync VRR, Dolby Vision and three HDMI 2.1 ports. The 43-inch MQ6 TV will start at just $350, but there will also be sizes between 55 and 75-inches to choose from.
Vizio
Stepping another level down, there's Vizio's new V-series TVs, which also have quite a few gaming smarts with a much lower $290 starting price for the 43-inch entry. Those will also range up to 75-inches and will include features like VRR and three HDMI 2.1 ports. From the demos I've seen, these appear to to be the ideal choice for gamers on a budget. At the bottom end, once again, are the D-series 1080p sets. These have always excelled at being cheap TVs for small rooms, and it looks like Vizio is continuing that trend this year. Still, even they have some gaming features, like low input lag and VRR. They'll range from 24 to 43 inches and will start at $160 when they arrive this month.
Vizio
If you've been eyeing Vizio's first Elevate soundbar, which features rotating speakers that can bounce off of your ceiling for over-head Dolby Atmos sound, you've now got a cheaper option to consider: the aptly-titled M-Series Elevate. Starting at $800, it offers 5.1.2 sound (five speakers, a subwoofer and two height channels) across 13 speakers, along with two small rear speakers for surround sound. During normal programming, the Dolby Atmos speakers point towards you to widen the sound stage, but once it detects an Atmos source, they flip up to give you enveloping sound.
Judging from the bevy of Moana songs I listened to, the M-Series Elevate sounds impressive, but I was surprised that it felt a bit tinnier and weaker than Sonos's Arc soundbar. That device goes for the same price, and while it doesn't include rear speakers or a subwoofer, it delivers far richer sound and more believable Atmos imaging. The M-Series Elevate may make more sense if Vizio lowers the price a bit. The original Elevate is only $200 more, after all, you'd think there would be a bigger difference for a mid-range alternative. If you're looking for something more compact, there's also the new M-Series All-in-One, which features dual built-in subwoofers, DTS:X and a low $200 starting price.
The zealous online campaign that helped pave the way for the "Snyder Cut" version of Justice League was boosted by a large number of bot and fake accounts, according to a report from Rolling Stone. An investigation commissioned by WarnerMedia seen by RS found that "at least 13 percent of the accounts that took part in the conversation about the Snyder Cut were deemed fake, well above the three to five percent that cyber experts say they typically see on any trending topic." In other words, while many real fans certainly pushed for the new version, their voices were amplified disproportionately by bots.
As a reminder, director Zack Snyder stepped down during the editing of Justice League for personal reasons and Joss Whedon completed the film as an uncredited director, overseeing reshoots and other changes to reduce runtime and increase humor. When the film was released in 2017, it was a critical and commercial failure. Following that, an online fanbase pushed for Snyder's darker original vision, aka the Snyder Cut. When released in 2021, it became the fourth most viewed film on HBO Max and was generally praised as superior to the original.
However, questions arose as to whether the fan interest was completely organic. WarnerMedia decided to launch an investigation following some severe cyber harassment that included calls for boycotts, firings and even death threats. It identified communities "made up of real and fake authors that spread negative content about WarnerMedia for not restoring the 'SnyderVerse," and directed harassment toward Warner Bros.' then-CEO AnnSarnoff and other executives and creatives involved with the project.
Rolling Stone also hired a security company to check suspicious activity, and it said that "there's no question that bots were involved." Another firm used by WarnerMedia to investigate inauthentic activity around the forsnydercut.com domain traced it to a defunct ad agency promising "cheap, instant Avatar traffic to your website." Snyder fanned the online flames with social media posts including one showing a photo labeled "JL Director's Cut Running Time 214 [minutes]," but it's not clear what role, if any, he played in the online campaign.
As we implied in our review of Zack Snyder's Justice League last year, the report shows the power but potential pitfalls of fandom. "There are positive ways to influence change for any piece of pop culture, but shouting at each other on social media, not to mention sending death threats, shouldn't be normalized," wrote Engadget's Devindra Hardawar.
Some TikTok employees have already lost their jobs, while others are told to prepare for a meeting with the HR department as part of the video platform's global restructuring efforts, Wired reports. According to the publication, European employees were warned that their jobs were at risk and to expect an HR meeting in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, employees in the UK were told to expect colleagues across departments to lose their jobs. In the US, some personnel were told that they were being let go shortly after they came in for work on Monday morning.
One of those US employees was David Ortiz, who was among the first executives TikTok parent company ByteDance hired outside of China. In a LinkedIn post, Ortiz said that his "role is being eliminated in a much larger re-organization effort." A TikTok spokesperson did not deny that layoffs were taking place when Wired asked. However, they also didn't confirm that the company is going through a global restructuring and didn't provide the publication with a detailed statement on why TikTok is cutting jobs.
A staffer who talked to the publication said the company is only cutting employees and teams that managers believe haven't been contributing enough. They claimed that only 100 employees are being laid off, which is but a small percentage of around 10,000 employees across the US and Europe. That said, TikTok is merely one of the companies in the big tech, gaming, AV/EV and social media sphere that's downsizing its workforce.
Some of the companies in the industry that had to let people go due to the economic downturn include Netflix, Unity and Twitter. Tesla reportedly laid off 200 Autopilot employees and closed an office in California. Bloomberg said Rivian plans to lay off 5 percent of its workforce. Finally, Meta told employees to identify low performers, The Information said, and move them to exit the company if they're unable to get back on track.
