Alienware didn't wait long to release its redesigned Aurora gaming desktop. The Dell brand has released both the Intel-powered Aurora R13 (above) and AMD-based Aurora Ryzen Edition R14 with their expected chassis redesign and, for the R13, a processor upgrade. The Intel machine now uses 12th-generation Core (aka Alder Lake) processors ranging from a 10-core 3.7GHz Core i5 through to the unlocked 16-core, 3.2GHz Core i9K and i9KF. The AMD models continue to use Ryzen 5000-series chips up to and including the 16-core 5950X.
The highlight, as you might expect, remains that distinct Legend 2.0 chassis. You can expect 50 percent more internal volume, tool-free entry, more customizable lighting and a more widely available clear side panel. That and an overall cleaner layout should help the Aurora run cooler and quieter than its predecessor while still allowing for easier upgrades. It probably won't sway you if you're determined to build your own rig, but it could make life easier if you're content to buy a pre-built system.
The R13 and Ryzen R14 models are available today starting at $1,250 for the AMD machine and $1,480 for its Intel-equipped counterpart. Upgrade options will remain familiar and include up to 128GB of RAM, GeForce RTX 3090 or RX 6900 XT graphics and 4TB of total storage (2TB SSD and 2TB spinning disk).
And don't worry if you're a creator who'd prefer a more sedate case — Dell has you covered as well. The company has teased a new XPS Desktop (below) that maintains the 'safe' design of before, but in a much larger (27L versus 19L) form that improves airflow and customization in the toolless chassis. You'll have to be content with 'just' 12th-gen Intel Core i5, i7 and i9 processors, but you'll have the same memory, graphics and storage choices. You can use liquid cooling, too, if fan noise or throttling are issues.
The new XPS tower arrives later in the fall starting at $919. As such, it might be the better buy if you're more interested in raw power than an attention-grabbing enclosure.
We've been hearing about Intel's powerful hybrid chips for so long, they've achieved almost mythical status. The idea behind them is intriguing: they feature both performance-cores (P-cores) and and efficient-cores (E-cores) on a single die, giving you chips that can be beefy and a bit more power-conscious, depending on the task. Previously, all of Intel's CPU cores were pretty much the same, which led to the energy-hungry designs we've seen over the last few years.
Now the company is ready to launch those chips, previously codenamed "Alder Lake," as its 12th-gen desktop processors. And maybe, just maybe, it'll be able to steal the spotlight back from AMD and Apple.
In addition to their hybrid configuration, these 12th-gen chips are also the first under the "Intel 7" process technology, which was previously seen as a refined 10nm design. When Intel revised its product roadmap in July with new names, it seemed to just be steering us away from its 7nm delays. But the performance of these 12th-gen chips may be enough to justify the new branding.
Intel
Intel is throwing some major numbers around: it says 12th-gen chips are up to 19 percent faster than 11th-gen CPUs overall, and they're twice as fast in the Adobe After Effects Pulse benchmark. When it comes to multithreaded performance (tasks built specifically for more than one core, like video and 3D rendering), the company claims the top-end i9-12900K is 50 percent faster than last year's 11900K while using less power. And even better, it can achieve performance parity while using only around a quarter of the power. Basically, everyone who held off on upgrading over the last few years is in for a treat, as these chips promise to be a big leap forward.
Intel's 12th-gen Core chips can fit in up to 16 cores on the i9-12900K. That's a combination of 8 P-cores and 8 E-cores, with a total of 24 process threads (every P-core counts double, since they support hyper-threading, but the E-cores don't). Given that this is an entirely new way of designing its chips, the company also worked together to develop a new Thread Director with Microsoft, which intelligently assigns tasks to the appropriate core. That way you don't have to manually assign a background thread to an E-core, or start mucking about your settings once you start working on concurrent tasks. (If the hybrid core design seems familiar, it's because ARM has been pushing something similar for the past decade with its big.LITTLE technology on mobile CPUs.)
Intel
Intel claims P-cores can perform up to 28 percent faster than its 10th-gen Comet Lake S chips in single-threaded performance. The E-cores, meanwhile, are just as fast as the 10th-gen hardware on their own. As you'd expect, these chips shine best when you're throwing serious workloads at them. Intel says the i9-12900K can get around up to 84 percent higher framerates while playing Mount and Blade II and streaming over OBS, compared to the previous generation chip. Similarly, it's 47 percent faster while multi-tasking with Adobe Lightroom Classic and Premiere Pro.
Intel
Intel's figures sound impressive when compared to its own hardware, but the company also noted that its Ryzen benchmarks were run before AMD and Microsoft deployed Windows 11 updates to fix some performance bugs. At the time of its testing, the i9-12900K appeared to have a commanding lead over the Ryzen 5950X in many games, like Troy: A Total War Saga and Grid 2019. But it'll be interested to see what those numbers look like now. And of course, AMD could easily come back with speedier hardware of its own early next year.
The new 12th-gen chips are also looking towards the future, with support for up to 16 lanes of PCIe 5.0 and DDR5-4800 RAM. Intel's new 600-series chipset will feature PCIe 4.0 support, integrated WiFi 6E, and an updated Direct Media Interface (DMI) that'll offer "double and faster bandwidth between the chipset and the processor." There's also support for up to 4 USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 ports, as well as far more USB 3.2 Gen 2 connections in general.
As you'd expect, it'll cost a bit more to jump into Intel's 12th-gen chips. The Core i9-12900K will go for $589, compared to the 11900K's $539 to $549 price range. You could always save $20 or so by getting the "KF" chip without onboard graphics, but in general I'd recommend keeping graphics in case your GPU gets fried. The more approachable Core i7-12700K, thankfully, hasn't budged from its predecessor's $409 price, while the Core i5-12600K is around $20 more than before if you want onboard graphics.
The real question for Intel is how this new hardware stacks up against what AMD and Apple have coming. Benchmark leaks suggest that the i9-12900K is faster than Apple's M1 Max chip, but that's also a power-sipping laptop part. A faster, desktop-focused chip from Apple would likely leave Intel lagging behind again. Still, this uncertainty is a good thing for the PC industry as a whole. Now we've got several companies producing powerful processors. Their attempts to one-up should ultimately be a very good thing for consumers.
Samsung doesn't want to cede the game streaming space to the likes of Google, Microsoft or NVIDIA. IGNreports Samsung has teased plans for a TV-based "Cloud Game Platform" during its developer conference presentation. Details were scarce, but this would let Samsung TV owners play games without "high-end hardware." This would be more likely used to play console- or PC-quality titles, then, rather than mobile games.
The tech firm tried cloud gaming through a team-up with Gaikai in 2012, although that clearly didn't go far when Gaikai sold to Sony and transitioned to working on PlayStation Now. However, circumstances were also different then — internet connections are much faster, and many more people are familiar with the concept of game streaming. Samsung's potential audience is considerably wider, even if it's focused primarily on TVs.
Whether or not Samsung grabs that audience is another matter. The cloud gaming market already has a few heavyweights, and even those are facing challenges. Google closed Stadia's internal game studios in February, and this month started licensing Stadia tech to companies like AT&T. Samsung hasn't yet shown how it might stand out from that pack.
In the summer and fall of 2020, smoke filled the skies above San Francisco, hanging heavy over the coast and bathing the city in an eerie orange glow. Massive wildfires were tearing across California, eating up piles of dead trees on the mountains and razing nearby housing developments. By the end of the year, 33 people would be killed in fires across California and 2020 would go down as the largest wildfire season in the state’s modern history.
Cecil Powell was living and working in the area at the time, helping develop Call of Duty: Vanguard as a senior lighting artist at Sledgehammer Games. For days on end, he and his teammates would wake up to a red-tinged world filled with ash, and then they’d sit in front of their computers and attempt to recreate the ravaged landscapes of World War II. As a lighting specialist, one of Powell’s jobs was to build the skies above Stalingrad, a bloody city scene marked by bombed buildings and raging fires.
Fires — just like the ones burning across California, painting the Bay Area a Martian red.
“It was a pretty weird feeling,” Powell told Engadget. “But I remember talking to the team about it, and we were actually thinking, man, it kind of feels like war time. Like destruction.”
Call of Duty as a series has found years of success turning tragedy into entertainment, using the real-world horrors of war to build lifelike digital playgrounds for soldiers, snipers and spawn campers alike. To Powell and the Sledgehammer crew, the orange skies caused by the fires in California made for natural, serendipitous source material, especially since color photography wasn’t ubiquitous during WWII. Powell’s Vanguard reference photos were all in black and white.
The Sledgehammer team agreed that it’d be a good idea for Powell to capture images and light readings of the fiery California skies to use in the Stalingrad level, but they were concerned about his health. After all, the air looked radioactive. So, Powell bought an air-quality monitor, tested it outside and got the green light. He did some quick research and discovered that marine wind patterns in the Bay were pushing the smoke up and circulating fresh air on the ground, and the all-consuming toxic glow was simply due to light refracting through the clouds.
“As soon as I found that out, I grabbed all the camera gear that I had from work and ran out, and decided I was just going to capture this because it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Powell said. “I've never seen anything like this before and I hope I never see anything like that again, to be honest. Because, you know, it's pretty sad to think about what is causing it. And I remember while I was out there, no one was really outside walking around.”
Cecil Powell
Powell made this trek in September 2020, at the height of California’s wildfire season and in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic. The city was largely shut down, streets abandoned, hot smoke collecting above empty buildings. He headed toward the coast.
Powell set up his camera and captured a panorama of the sky, and also took some light readings. His girlfriend at the time came along and he asked her to document the process, for history’s sake.
When he brought the photos and readings back to Sledgehammer, “everyone was shocked at actually what it did to the lighting in the level,” Powell said. “The sky’s the most important thing lighting-wise, because for exterior lighting, it really sets the mood and the tone for levels. And when we brought it in, we're like wow, this actually looks pretty good for coming from such destruction.”
Powell’s wildfire captures are used in the Stalingrad level, one of the only theaters in the game to feature a full city destroyed by bombs and flames. The light throughout the level glows a hellish orange, just like the coasts and valleys of California last year.
“Nature to me is the best artist, you know?” Powell said. “If you can replicate that, you're pretty much winning.”
The Stalingrad level may be an automatic win for Powell, but everyone else is still going to have to shoot their way through it when Vanguard comes out on November 5th.
Spotify isn't the only service PlayStation 5 owners can stream music from while they're playing Deathloop, Returnalor other games. Starting today, you can fire up tracks from Apple Music as well.
The PS5 is the first console with Apple Music integration. Subscribers can access the service's library of more than 90 million songs, playlists, Apple Music Radio and 4K music videos on a PS5. You can control playback while playing games by hitting the PS button on the controller and going to the music tab. You'll also see music recommendations for the game you're playing.
The Apple Music app (which you can download via the Media section) will let you view music videos too. If you're watching a video and leave the app to switch to a game or another screen, the music will keep playing.
Spotify has been a part of the PlayStation ecosystem since it arrived on PS4 in 2015. Six years later, it's neat to see players getting another option for streaming music. It'll be a nice perk for Apple Music subscribers who've managed to score a PS5.
More than two years after announcing the Osmo Action, DJI is back with a new rugged camera that not only drops the Osmo name but also adopts a fresh new design. The Action 2 features a 155-degree field of view lens and 12-megapixel sensor that can capture 4K footage at up to 120 frames per second, and 240 frames per second slow-motion video at 1080p. In 2021, that’s not impressive for an action camera when you consider GoPro’s latest top-end model, the Hero 10 Black, can do 5.3K at 60 frames per second and 240 frames per second at 2.7K. So what makes Action 2 into something interesting? It’s all about the form factor.
DJI
DJI’s latest device weighs just under two ounces and includes a magnetic mounting system you can use to expand the functionality of the camera. We’ve seen companies like Insta360 pull off similar designs, but DJI’s execution looks particularly handy. Want to add a front-facing display to make the Action 2 into a vlogging camera? You can with a touchscreen module that adds a secondary OLED display and three additional microphones to the camera, as well as allows you to record up to 160 minutes of footage without stopping. A separate battery module extends the Action 2’s battery life from 70 minutes to three hours and adds an extra microSD slot. Other accessories allow you to mount the camera to a floating handle, a 3-in-1 extension rod and a lanyard, among other things.
Other nifty features include a dedicated sensor that can help the camera produce accurate color tones in challenging lighting conditions and underwater. A feature called SnapShot allows you to turn on the device and start recording right away by holding down the power button. It also comes with all of DJI’s usual camera features, including the ability to double as a web camera and capture time-lapses.
The Action 2 is available to buy today from DJI’s website. The company isn’t selling the camera on its own. Instead, you can either buy it as part of either a $399 or $519 bundle. The former comes with the aforementioned battery module while the latter includes the touchscreen accessory. Both bundles also come with a variety of mounts.
81 percent. That’s the current battery level on the pair of Urbanista’s Los Angeles headphones sitting on my desk. When I took them out of the box about a week ago, the battery level was 75 percent. Number of charges? Zero. Hours of use? Around 10. In short, with some fairly typical listening and precisely no interaction with a charging cable, the headphones have more battery life than when I received them. Impressive, though not without some caveats.
First, let’s back up a little bit. If you missed the announcement, the Los Angeles’ main selling point was that they came with “Powerfoyle” solar charging cells in the headband for $200. The promise was simple: even indoors, these headphones will slowly charge when not in use. Go outside? They might even maintain their level while playing music; if it’s a particularly sunny day they could even gain battery life while you listen, even with ANC on.
The headphones themselves have a classic Scandinavian understated look. Acoustically, they don’t offer too many surprises. That’s to say, expect a slightly bottom-heavy EQ experience, but overall they deliver robust clear audio that won’t tire your ears. They are Bluetooth only, though, so no wired option here. More on that in a bit.
James Trew / Engadget
Of course, the real interest is that claim of a “nonstop audio experience.” As my intro suggests, the company’s claims are true. Or should I say, can be true? The headphones definitely charge themselves, even indoors, but it’s not time to throw away the (included) USB cable just yet.
If you plan on using these mostly indoors, then you will almost certainly be charging them. Even about as much as you might any other pair. That’s because while the claim about indoor charging is true, it’s barely a trickle and only really under direct light. If you place them near a window between uses you can expect a little more juice, but it’s still more of a modest top-off than a flow of free energy.
This I can say with relative confidence thanks to the companion app which kindly shows you power coming in versus power being used with a fancy little circular chart. When the photons are abundant, the chart turns a pale green and a reassuring “up” arrow lets you know the headphones are gaining power. Enter the shadows, however, and things turn red to let you know you’re draining the battery. You can even see the amount of energy coming in or being used at any one time.
James Trew / Engadget
With this info we can start to get an idea of how effectively the solar charging works. For example, just by turning the headphones on they will use about 2.6mA to maintain a connection to a phone. Play music, and this goes up to around 9mA. Add on either ANC or Ambient mode and this can creep up to around 13-15mA. Those are our numbers to “beat.”
In my testing, when laid flat on a table in a room without direct sunlight or any lights on during the day, they won’t charge at all. If I placed them directly under a lamp or bulb you might get between 0.2 and 1mA of charge. Place them near a window during the day and this can climb to about 3mA. Open that window and it’ll increase to maybe 4mA (indirect sunlight). So far, you’re only really slowing down their battery use by a tiny amount.
As I already hinted at, things get a lot more interesting once you head outside. Walking in the shade in the street you can expect about 3-5mA of input. Again, you’re still in net loss. Head out directly into the sun, however, and everything springs to life. I was frequently able to achieve 24mA of “gain” while listening to music with ANC (for around 8-10mA of drain).
The short version is… that the Urbanistas will charge when there’s ambient light. A bit. But take them outside (and with good sunshine) and they will even charge while in use. All this to say that, if I used these like I do any other wireless headphones, I would expect the solar charging to maybe add a few hours to their battery life. If I only used them outdoors, they would live forever.
This is all good news though. What Urbanista has done here is set a benchmark. JBL tried something similar, but that project was tabled due to COVID travel restrictions making them unviable. Urbanista is actually shipping its version and it can only get better from here.
Perhaps the most understated achievement here is that the headphones don’t look like they have a solar panel attached. At least if you opt for the black pair. The cells in the head strap more or less blend into the design of the Los Angeles, just with the Powerfoyle logo on them (also in black so it’s fairly subtle). The headphones are also available in “sand gold” which is more of a cream/mushroom color. On those, the solar strip is painfully obvious but done in such a way it could be passed off as a style choice.
There are some other minor notes to consider. Most notably, for me, the volume. Urbanista says the pair I received for review are set at about 2dB below what the retail model will offer. But using them with an iPhone I have to almost always have them on full volume if I want to be immersed in a song. I found myself frequently mashing the volume button in vain when a banger came on and I wanted to get truly lost in sound but there was never anywhere left to go. I listen to a lot of bangers.
For people that don’t assault their ears, the volume is probably fine. It’s not hugely lower than, say, the AiAiAi TMA-2s I use. Connect things to a computer and, well, you can go a bit louder, so some of this, the company suggests, is down to your device’s chipset and regional limitations.
James Trew / Engadget
If there was a second bugbear, it’d be the buttons. The Los Angeles has three buttons on the right side for volume/play/pause and skipping tracks and power. Then there’s a lone button on the other side for switching between ANC, Ambient mode and “default” mode or activating your phone’s assistant. The problem is, the buttons on the right side — i.e. the ones you interact with most — are tiny and very close together. This means that swift volume changes are difficult. Instead, you have to sort of fondle around to “count” the buttons with your finger to find the first or third one.
I do also wish there was the option to use them with a 3.5mm cable. Not only does that give you an option for whenever the battery does run out (or you’re in an Airplane mode situation) it would ameliorate some of my volume woes for when I really do need to feel a drop right to the core of my amygdala. (DACs are wonderful things.)
As for other small positives, the app is a nice touch and opens up the door for possible firmware updates or new features. It was a little flakey in connecting sometimes. Or rather, once it had been connected and then left idle, I’d sometimes have to restart it, but for the amount of time you need it it’s not a major pain to swipe it away and open it again.
There’s also auto-pause when you take the headphones off. This is a subtle but welcome addition that gives things a slightly more premium feel.
All in all, the Los Angeles’ features and pricepoint come together to make a pleasing experience. The sound is very capable without being too aggressive in the lower frequencies. The battery life is obviously a selling point if you frequently find yourself without gas while on the go. And the small touches like Ambient mode/ANC, auto pause and so on just round them out to be a little more comprehensive than other options in this price range. If they were a smidge louder and had a 3.5mm port then these would be a solid pick for me, but even without those features, it’s hard not to admire what Urbanista has done here for $200.
Ahead of the UN's COP26 climate change conference, which starts on Sunday, Microsoft has revealed more details about its plans to make its data centers greener. Among those is a goal of reducing the amount of water its data centers use by 95 percent by 2024 — around 5.7 billion liters each year.
Data centers often use water to keep servers cool. Microsoft has researched server performance at higher temperatures and found that it's able to "create higher set points for a variety of different climates for when water-based, evaporative cooling is necessary to preserve server performance and reliability," as Noelle Walsh, Microsoft's corporate vice president of cloud ops and innovation wrote in a blog post.
The company says this project, which it expects to be fully implemented by 2024, could completely eliminate the need to use water for cooling in locations such as Amsterdam, Dublin, Virginia and Chicago. It may reduce water use in desert data center locations (like Arizona) by up to 60 percent.
Meanwhile, Microsoft continuing its research into liquid immersion cooling to reduce its dependency on water. The company says that, this year, it became the first cloud services provider to run "two-phase liquid immersion cooling in a production environment." It's been looking into overclocking as well and found liquid cooling can increase performance of some chipsets by 20 percent.
"Because of the efficiencies in both power and cooling that liquid cooling affords us, it unlocks new potential for datacenter rack design," Walsh wrote. "In short, liquid cooling paves the way for more densely packed servers in smaller spaces, meaning increased capacity per square foot in a datacenter — or the ability to create smaller datacenters in more strategic locations in the future. This adds to the benefits of waterless cooling design."
Last September, Microsoft announced plans to become "water positive" (i.e. to replenish more water than it uses) by 2030, and these data center efforts will be a key part of that goal. It also aims to be carbon negative by the end of the decade by removing more carbon than it emits. By 2050, the company plans to remove more carbon from the atmosphere than it has generated since it was founded in 1975.
In addition, Microsoft says it's designing data centers with local ecosystems in mind "to renew and revitalize the surrounding area so that we can restore and create a pathway to provide regenerative value for the local community and environment."
It's attempting to use more environmentally friendly processes in designing and building data centers to reduce its carbon footprint. The aim is to use building materials that reduce "embodied carbon," or emissions linked to materials and construction during a building's life cycle. Concrete and steel are said to be major contributors of such emissions. Microsoft says it has found ways of reducing embodied carbon from those materials by up to 60 percent.
Elsewhere, the company has opened up a public preview of a tool called Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability to help companies and other organizations record and report their carbon emissions. The tool will also offer suggestions on how to reduce emissions. Earlier this month, Google announced similar features for its Cloud Platform customers.
It can be difficult to 'make it' as a full-time streamer, but Pokimane (aka Imane Anys) thinks there's a better way to nurture budding internet broadcasters. The well-known Twitch personality is co-founding RTS, a talent management and brand consulting company that plans to fix "what is broken" for both game streamers and esports. The firm will rethink management to help creators run a "stable business" that survives in the long run, and to support game developers and other brands wanting to make a significant impact.
Pokimane saw RTS tackling the problems she and others faced getting started. There are plenty of talented streamers who are "spinning their wheels on basic stuff" and forging partnerships that don't work for either side, she said. Ideally, her new company will reflect her experience and give rookies the support they need to avoid many of those early headaches.
The startup will include a slew of game industry veterans, not to mention some major customers. Twitch and Endeavor veteran Stuart Saw will serve as CEO, while the remaining executives include alumni from Twitch, Blizzard and PAX. The board includes Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin, PUBG Corp's Americas head Brian Corrigan and Endeavor Executive VP Karen Brodkin. RTS will work with Pokimane as well as Epic Games and Facebook. It will own and co-manage the Evo fighting game tournament.
It could take a while before it's clear how well RTS fares compared to existing online talent management outfits. However, it's notable that Pokimane and her team are focused on growing small-time streamers rather than courting big names can already fetch major deals. While this certainly won't guarantee fame, it might lead to more people pursuing streaming as a job (if not a full-fledged career) instead of a hobby.
If you haven't yet been able to add a sticker containing a link to an Instagram Story, fret not. The platform has been gradually expanding access to the feature over the last several months, and now Instagram says it's rolling out the option to just about everyone.
It works in a similar way to any other sticker in Stories. Tap the sticker icon at the top of the screen, scroll down to or search for the link option, select it, paste in the URL and position the sticker on your photo or video. Instagram says it's working on options for users to customize the sticker and provide more context to viewers about the page it leads to.
The "swipe up" link function that the sticker replaces was only available to verified accounts or those with at least 10,000 followers. But soon enough, almost all users will be able to add links to their Stories.
It's worth noting that not every single person will be able to use the link sticker. New accounts and those that often share misinformation and hate speech will be blocked from using the feature, as will those who post other content that goes against the community guidelines. Instagram says that this is part of its efforts to limit harmful content on the platform.
However, some users say they lost access to the sticker unfairly. BuzzFeed News reported last week, for instance, that Instagram prevented one creator from using the sticker after they shared a photo of kids from the waist up in a bath that was pulled for “nudity or sexual activity.” Instagram said it would look into claims of users being mistakenly told they won't be able to use link stickers anymore.
