An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft had last week said that it wouldn’t be releasing a new Windows 10 build for insiders on Fast ring this year. But the supposed build has leaked online. The build 14997 contains a few new features, such as a refreshed Settings app, theme support from the Store (you might recall that with 14986, you could download them from the Store, but had to install them manually), a number of Edge improvements such as tab expansion, blue light reduction features, and more. Since it’s a leaked build, we would suggest treading carefully before downloading it. You might just want to avoid it until it’s available from the official channel. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Tag: desktop
Huge Fire Torches 140 Buildings in Japanese City
A large fire has engulfed scores of houses, shops, and other buildings in the Japanese coastal city of Itoigawa. The blaze, which started mid-morning local time, shows no sign of slowing, and fire crews are frantically working to put out the flames. Read more…
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Huge Fire Torches 140 Buildings in Japanese City
Linux Mint 18.1 ‘Serena’ Is Here For Christmas
Long time reader BrianFagioli writes: if you love Linux Mint and use it regularly, I have very good news — version 18.1 ‘Serena’ is finally here. There are two desktop environments from which to choose — Cinnamon and Mate. Regardless of which version you choose, please know that it is based on Ubuntu 16.04, which offers long-term support (LTS). In other words, Linux Mint 18.1 will be supported until 2021. Linux Mint 18.1 comes with the updated Cinnamon 3.2 which looks to be wonderful. The Mint team touts a new screensaver/ login screen in the desktop environment, and yeah, it looks good. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
How to Turn a USB Stick into an Ultra Portable PC
Image: Gizmodo Who doesn’t hate carrying around their laptop? Even the lightest ones weigh a couple of pounds and can be a huge burden to lug around the city. That’s where portable apps, ones stored on a USB drive, come in. Read more…
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How to Turn a USB Stick into an Ultra Portable PC
Microsoft Stops Selling Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 To Computer Makers
An anonymous reader shares a report on VentureBeat: Out with the old, and in with the new. Microsoft yesterday stopped providing Windows 7 Professional and Windows 8.1 licenses to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), including its PC partners and systems builders. This means that, as of today, the only way you can buy a computer running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 is if you can still find one in stock. Two years ago, Microsoft stopped selling Windows 7 Home Basic, Windows 7 Home Premium, and Windows 7 Ultimate licenses to OEMs. Now Windows 7 Professional and Windows 8.1 are also out of the picture, leaving Windows 10 as the only remaining option, assuming you want a PC with a Microsoft operating system. This is Microsoft’s way of slowly phasing out old operating systems. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Microsoft Stops Selling Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 To Computer Makers
Microsoft Juices Its Surface Book With More Power and 16-Hour Battery Life
Microsoft blew our minds last year when it announced the Surface Book—and its crazy detachable display. This year, the company’s refreshing the product, and claims it has stuffed two times as much processing power and 30 percent more battery life in the exact same design. Read more…
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Microsoft Juices Its Surface Book With More Power and 16-Hour Battery Life
Steam will soon natively support PlayStation 4 controllers
While it’s been possible to link a DualShock 4 to a PC to play Steam games, the functionality has been provided by third-party apps, not the companies themselves. Luckily, that will soon change, after Valve’s Jeff Bellinghausen confirmed to Gamasutra that the game company is working to include native support for other gamepads, starting with the PlayStation 4 controller. “Believe it or not, when you use the PS4 Controller through the Steam API, it’s exactly the same as a Steam Controller. Not only is it a really nice, high quality controller, but it’s also got a gyro and a touchpad.” says Bellinghausen. “Existing native support for the PS4 controller on the PC is a bit weak; in this case Steam itself is communicating directly with the device so everything that’s nice and reliable.” In the past, Steam users have relied on apps like DS4Windows to connect DualShock controllers to their PC. However, with native Steam support and the new DualShock 4 USB Wireless Adaptor , which already helps PC users play PlayStation Now games on their desktop, it won’t be long before Sony’s gamepad can be fully utilized — touchpad and all — without any additional customization. Via: Polygon Source: Gamasutra
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Steam will soon natively support PlayStation 4 controllers
AT&T Gigabit Internet Coming To 11 More US Regions
AT&T is bringing its gigabit Internet service to 11 new metro areas. Currently available in parts of 29 cities around the country, the ultra-fast network — which the company is now calling AT&T Fiber — is expected to reach another 45 locations by the end of this year, reads a PCMag article. From the report: That includes 11 new markets: Florida: Gainesville and Panama City, Georgia: Columbus, Kentucky: Central Kentucky, Louisiana: Lafayette, Mississippi: Biloxi-Gulfport and Northeast Mississippi, Tennessee: Southeastern Tennessee and Knoxville, and Texas: Corpus Christi. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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AT&T Gigabit Internet Coming To 11 More US Regions
Colin Powell’s Private Email Account Has Been Hacked
According to The New York Times, Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has been hacked and a password-protected archive of his personal emails has been published by DC Leaks. The Verge reports: DC Leaks is the same site that first published emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee, which many took as an explicit effort to influence the U.S. election process. Many experts in the U.S. intelligence apparatus have attributed that attack to the Russian government, although no public attribution has been made. Thus far, there’s no evidence tying Powell’s hack to Russia, and similar hacks have been carried out by mischievous teens without government affiliation. The immediate result of the hack has been political fallout for Powell himself. Last night, BuzzFeed News reported on an email in which Powell called Republican nominee Donald Trump a “national disgrace, ” and another in which he said the candidate was “in the process of destroying himself.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Colin Powell’s Private Email Account Has Been Hacked
NVIDIA brings desktop-class graphics to laptops
With the GeForce GTX 1080, NVIDIA pushed the boundaries of what a $600 graphics card can do . That flagship card was joined by the GTX 1070 and GTX 1060 , two lower-power cards based on the same 16nm Pascal architecture at a much more affordable price. Now, it’s bringing mobile versions of those cards that match their desktop counterparts in almost every area — including being VR ready. That’s not hyperbole. The top-of-the-line 1080M has 2, 560 CUDA cores and 8GB of 10Gbps GDDR5x memory. The desktop chip has the same. The only difference is clock speed: it’s set at 1, 556MHz, while the desktop version is 1, 607MHz. The two do share the same boost clock (1, 733MHz) though, and both have access to all the new technology introduced for the Pascal architecture . That means simultaneous multi-projection, VRWorks, Ansel and the rest. If you want an idea what those specs translate to in real-world performance, how’s this: when paired with an i7-6700HQ (a quad-core 2.6GHz chip with 3.5GHz turbo), Mirror’s Edge Catalyst , 126; Overwatch , 147; Doom , 145; Metro Last Light , 130; Rise of the Tomb Raider , 125. Those are the 1080M’s FPS figures when playing at 1080p with “ultra” settings at 120Hz. NVIDIA is really pushing 120Hz gaming, and many of the first crop of Pascal laptops will have 120Hz G-Sync displays. 4K gaming, too, is more than possible. At 4K with “high” settings the same setup can push 89FPS on Overwatch , 70FPS with Doom , and 62FPS with Metro Last Light ( according to NVIDIA). Only Mirror’s Edge Catalyst and Rise of the Tomb Raider fall short of 60FPS, both clocking in at a very playable 52FPS. At the chip’s UK unveil, NVIDIA showed the new Gears of War playing in 4K in real-time, and there were absolutely no visible frame drops. With figures like that, it goes without saying that VR will be no problem for the 1080M. The desktop GTX 980 is the benchmark for both the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, and the 1080M blows it away. If you’re looking for more performance, the 1080M supports overclocking of course — NVIDIA suggests as high as 300MHz — and you can expect laptops sporting two in an SLI configuration soon. The major drawback for the 1080M is power. We don’t know its exact TDP yet, but given the near-identical desktop version runs at 180W, you’d imagine it’s got to be at least 150W. NVIDIA has tech that counters that heavy power load when you’re not plugged in, of course. Chief among these is BatteryBoost, which allows you to set a framerate (i.e. 30FPS), and downclocks the GPU appropriately to save power — if your card is capable of pushing 147FPS plugged in, that’s going to be a fair amount of power saved. Whatever the battery savings possible, though, it won’t change the fact that the 1080M is only going to slide into big laptops. That’s fine for those already used to carrying around behemoths on the go, but plenty of gamers prefer something more portable. Enter the 1070M. NVIDIA says this chip will fit into any chassis that currently handles the 980M, which covers a lot of laptops. Just like the 1080M, the 1070M matches its desktop sibling in many ways. You’ve actually got slightly more in the way of CUDA cores — 2, 048 vs. the desktop’s 1, 920, but again they’re clocked slower (1, 442MHz vs. 1, 506MHz). Memory is the same — 8GB 8Gbps GDDR5 — and it too benefits from both the Pascal architecture itself and the new software features that come with it. GTX 1080 GTX 1080M GTX 1070 GTX 1070M CUDA cores 2, 560 2, 560 1, 920 2, 048 Base clock 1, 607MHz 1, 556MHz 1, 506MHz 1, 442MHz Boost clock 1, 733MHz 1, 733MHz 1, 683MHz 1, 645MHz Memory 8GB GDDR5X 8GB GDDR5X 8GB GDDR5 8GB GDDR5 Memory speed 10Gbps 10Gbps 8Gbps 8Gbps Memory Bandwidth 320GB/sec 320GB/sec 256GB/sec 256GB/sec When faced off against the desktop 1070, the 1070M holds its own. In nearly every test we saw, it got within a couple of percentiles of the desktop card. We’re talking 77FPS in The Witcher 3 (1080p maxed settings, no HairWorks) vs. 79.7FPS on the 1070; 76.2FPS in The Division (1080p ultra) vs. 76.6FPS; and 64.4FPS in Crysis 3 (1080p very high) vs. 66.4FPS. The one outlier was Grand Theft Auto V , which dropped down to 65.3FPS vs. 73.7FPS on the desktop 1070. 4K gaming is a stretch on the desktop 1070, and that carries over here, but this card is more-than VR ready. NVIDIA says that it’ll support factory overclocking on the 1070M soon, so you may see laptops offering a little more grunt “in a couple of months.” Rounding off the lineup is the 1060M, the mobile version of NVIDIA’s $249 “budget” VR-ready card. It’s something of the exception to the rule here. Yes, it offers 1, 280 CUDA cores and 6GB 8Gbps GDDR5 memory, which is equal to the desktop 1060. But at the lower end of the range the fact that they’re clocked lower (1, 404MHz vs. 1, 506MHz) hurts performance quite a bit more. In side-by-side comparisons, NVIDIA’s benchmarks suggest you’ll get within ten percent or so of the desktop card. That’s not to say that the 1060M is a slouch. For traditional gaming, you’re not going to hit 60FPS at 1080P in every game without thinking about settings, but if you can play it on a desktop GTX 980, it’s probably a safe bet that the 1060M can handle it. That’s insanely impressive when you consider that the 1060M will fit into the same chassis as the 970M — think “ultra portable” gaming laptops. GTX 1060M GTX 1060 GTX 980 CUDA cores 1, 280 1, 280 2, 048 Base clock 1, 404MHz 1, 506MHz 1, 126MHz Boost clock 1, 670MHz 1, 708MHz 1, 216MHz Memory 6GB GDDR5* 6GB GDDR5 4GB GDDR5 Memory speed 8Gbps 8Gbps 7Gbps Memory Bandwidth 192GB/sec 192GB/sec 224GB/sec *Up to In reality, the 10-percent gap between the 1060 and the 1060M probably makes it slightly slower than the GTX 980, but the difference is almost negligible. I wasn’t able to push the 1060M too hard on the “VR ready” promise — you can read about the demo and why the 1060M matters in a separate article — but the demo I had was solid. And really, being able to plug an Oculus into something as slim as a Razer Blade was unthinkable a few months ago, so it’s probably best not to complain. Acer, Alienware, Asus, Clevo, EVGA, HP, Gigabyte, Lenovo, MSI, Origin, Razer, Sager and XMG are just some of the OEMs signed up to make laptops with the new Pascal chips. Many will announce updated and all-new models today, while some might hold off a while. But expect lots of super-powerful, VR-ready gaming laptops very soon.