Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2023 i APC

“Don’t get me started on the wonders of the form factor. That little sliver of storage that hides away in your case without a single cable necessary. Just so nice. Apart from M.2 screws, which are now the most annoying little bastards of any new PC build.” Remember when SSDs were sexy? That moment your very first SATA SSD loaded up Windows in what seemed like the blink of an eye. Your videos for viewing or editing hitting the screen mere moments after you clicked the mouse button. Game levels loading quicker than your mates so you get get in there first. What a blissful time. And don’t get me started on the wonders of the form factor. That little sliver of storage that hides away in your case without…

Intel announced 16 new Raptor Lake CPUs spanning its 65W mainstream PC chips and 35W “T-Series” categories. The new chips extend from the Core i3 to high-end Core i9 families and come with more cores and higher frequencies along with higher gen-on-gen pricing, mirroring the price increases we noticed with Intel’s 12th-gen chips. They also have significantly increased peak power consumption compared to their predecessors. Most of Intel’s new 13th-gen processors announced today come with the same Raptor Cove architecture as the flagship models that launched last year, but some of the Core i5 and the lone Core i3 model reportedly come with the same die and architecture used for the 12th-Gen Alder Lake CPUs, albeit bulked up with more generous core counts and/or higher clock rates to enable higher…

Creating a modern microprocessor involves myriad decisions, including size and transistor counts, but even with a finalised design, there are still a few knobs that can be used for further tuning: voltage and frequency. These tools are often available to end users and lie at the heart of overclocking. As the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility. I mean that literally in this case. Power increases directly in proportion with frequency and with the square of the voltage. That’s why higher clock speeds require more power, but if you also need more voltage to stabilise those higher clocks, you get a double whammy. The reverse is also true, naturally – drop the voltage and/or frequency and you can reduce power requirements. There’s been a lot of noise about…

WE EXPLORE THE TRENDS AND TECHNOLOGIES THAT ARE SET TO SHAPE THE FUTURE Robotics developer Boston Dynamics has a reputation for making robots that jump, crawl and run, sharing online videos of its creations that veer between impressive in their capabilities and hilarious in their limitations – but always terrifying in their potential. Though it’s amusing to watch the company’s Atlas humanoid robot dance a jig or stumble attempting parkour, strap a gun to it and the laughs cease. And Boston Dynamics doesn’t want to see that happen. The Massachusetts-based firm is one of six industry leaders, alongside Agility Robotics, ANYbotics, Clearpath Robotics, Open Robotics and Unitree, that jointly published an open letter pledging not to weaponise their general-purpose robots and asking customers to do the same. “We believe that…

■ AUTHY | $free | www.authy.com ■GOOGLE AUTHENTICATOR | $free | www.googleauthenticator.net Logging in to a service can be a real pain these days, in between being asked to change your password every six months, having to remember which street you grew up on as a child, or requiring you to check your phone for a text message code before you can gain access. So a request to set up two-factor authentication (also known as 2FA) might seem like yet another annoying layer between you and whatever account you’re trying to access. But it is really important to enable 2FA on any services that offer it, because it means that, even if your password is compromised, any malicious users won’t be able to log in to your account without that…

■ $2,599 | microsoft.com/en-au ■ W11 Home on ARM; 13-inch PixelSense 120Hz display at 2880 x 1920 pixel resolution; Microsoft SQ3 processor built by Qualcomm; Microsoft SQ 3 Adreno 8CX Gen 3 Graphics; 16GB RAM; 46Wh battery (14h 18min 1080p movie playback); 28.7x209x9.3mm (without keyboard); 879g (without keyboard). Perhaps the biggest update of the Surface Pro 9 range is that Microsoft has rolled in its Surface Pro X range into the standard ‘Surface Pro 9’ named lineup, suggesting this device might be ready to keep up with Intel’s offerings. We hate to be the ones to burst that bubble, but Microsoft’s Qualcomm built SQ3 ARM-based processor requires a willingness to massively sacrifice hardware performance and software compatibility in order to have a more smartphone-like experience, so in our opinion it…

■ $258.50 | www.dell.com It’s no secret that keyboards are creeping up in price, and the Alienware 510K definitely falls into the pricier end of the spectrum. For $258.50 you’re getting a full sized mechanical keyboard with low profile Cherry switches and passthrough, but does it have enough bells and whistles to justify the price? Right out of the box, the keyboard feels very light. It only weighs 910g and, at first glance, it looks a little odd – that’s because the shape of it isn’t typical of most other keyboards with some pointed outer edges towards the bottom. This gives the keyboard some additional stability, especially when it’s up on an angle, but it’s not really noticeably different to typically rectangular keyboards. Once it’s plugged in and lights up…

macOS 12 or later | (Pro subscription $7.99/month, $47.99/year, $89.99 lifetime) | focusedwork.app Focused Work is an app that’s designed to help you with two problems related to working on your Mac. The first is when you can find yourself distracted by things like social media and become less productive. The second and somewhat opposite problem is when you work too hard for too long, causing a sense of burnout. Michael Tigas developed the app to help with his own working methods and a desire to be more productive. Running on your Mac but also syncing to iOS versions of the app via iCloud, it is not as you might perhaps expect an app that ‘blacks out’ your screen and shows you just the app you are working with. Rather,…

■ $1,619 | www.amd.com ■ AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT; 5,376 stream processors; 2,394MHz boost clock; 20GB GDDR6 20Gbps memory, 800GB/s memory bandwidth; 2x DisplayPort 2.1, 1x HDMI 2.1a, 1x USB Type-C; 300W TDP; 2x 8-Pin power connectors. The Radeon RX 7900 XT is the more affordable of the two RDNA 3 cards. It’s based on a trimmed down variant of the Navi 31 GPU. It’s priced at $1,619, which – relatively – isn’t too bad. The RX 7900 XT has 84 out of the maximum possible 96 GCD compute units enabled plus five out of six MCDs. This gives it 5,376 shader processors, 84 Ray Accelerators and 168 AI processors. There’s 20GB of 20Gbps GDDR6 memory over a 320-bit interface, which delivers 800 GB/s of memory bandwidth. After testing…

WHAT YOU CAN DO • Stop Google and Microsoft spying on your email usage • Encrypt messages so only the recipients can read them • Block all spam and stop safe senders being blocked • Automatically remove hidden trackers from emails • Access Gmail and Outlook through an alternative inbox • Set your private emails to expire after a specific time • Keep using Google tools without a Gmail address Gmail and Outlook may be the most popular webmail services, but as with Chrome and Edge – two other Google and Microsoft tools – that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re the best. They’re certainly far from the most private and secure, not only because their parent companies are notorious for collecting users’ data, but also because their high-profile nature makes their…

YOU’LL NEED Windows 11 and the 22H2 update If you’ve not yet received it, check the box for troubleshooting tips. "Let’s start our look at Windows 11 22H2 by acknowledging the ongoing process of streamlining and modernizing the Windows user interface" The first major update to Windows 11, 22H2, is here, and with it, a whole new way of delivering future updates. In this month’s tutorial, we’re going to take you on a tour of all its major new features and a few minor ones, too. Crucially, though, we’re not going to simply provide you with a list of what’s new and improved and then leave you to find it all yourself. No, we’ll show you exactly where to find each new feature and reveal how to make the most…

Whether it’s a cool desktop effect, cleverly designed application or a bizarre problem to be solved, we all have had to capture screenshots at one time or another. Most desktop distributions feature a default screenshot utility, and you have the choice of several more in your software repositories. More often than not, though, the default screenshot utility is limited to capturing either the entire desktop, the active window or a portion of the screen. But what if you could do all three and, more importantly, create a screencast recording of your screen – and all from the comfort of the CLI? Written in Rust and released under the GPLv3 licence, Menyoki bills itself as a screenshot, screencast utility that can also perform myriad image-related tasks, such as creating GIFs and…

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) took place in Las Vegas right after New Year’s, and is where all the big companies announced breakthrough products. While TVs, cars, and smaller gadgets get a lot of attention, it’s also where HP, Dell, Lenovo, Intel, AMD, Nvidia, and even Microsoft reveal what is hitting store shelves later this year. New PCs, new form factors, updated processors, some whacky concept devices (usually from Razer), and more can be expected. Here are some of the highlights that have us excited. Asus glasses-free 3D OLED display Thought 3D was dead? Think again. Asus has debuted its most impressive new tech of CES 2023 in the form of the first glasses-free 3D panel found on a laptop. The all-new ProArt StudioBook 16 and VivoBook Pro 16X have…

Something odd is going on in the PC graphics market. Nvidia and AMD have launched their latest GPUs, but they seem priced to fail. I’m not talking about the $2,959 Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090. No, it’s every other graphics card launched by the dynamic duo that’s the problem. In case you’ve been living under a rock, that’s the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 16GB, and the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT and 7900 XTX. The GeForce card is priced at $1,659, while the AMD boards are $1,619 and $1,789 respectively. Of course, those are RRPs, rather than real-world street prices. Recent history has seen prices of pretty much all GPUs outstrip any RRP. Indeed, I recently saw an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 from the previous generation priced at $1,199 for the…

Major tech specs • Compatibility: Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, Windows PC • Dimensions (HWL): 23 x 130 x 292mm • Wireless Protocols: Xbox Wireless Adapter, Bluetooth • Mount Compatibility: 1/4-20 screw for AMPS, °-20 tripod screw • Charging: 9ft USB-C cable, 7.79 Wh rechargeable Li-Po battery • Ports: 19x 3.5mm, 2x USB 2.0, USB-C, 3.5mm stereo jack • Weight: 552g • Price: $129 Key findings • Microsoft’s Xbox Adaptive Controller is the most customisable game controller ever made, and is designed to be as adaptable as possible, at least on the outside. The main unit is flat and can be mounted onto a tripod for those who may struggle to grip a traditional controller. The rear panel has an astonishing 19 3.5mm connection ports, representing each of the buttons,…

1 CAKE KALK& You may not be able to eat it, but you can at least have this sci-fi cake. US$14,860 | ridecake.com If you’re into a sci-fi aesthetic then there’s really only a handful of cars that you can get right now… but electric motorbikes are a totally different story. The Kalk& street-legal off-road electric bike from Cake, for example, is an app connected full-future looking electric bike available at Deus stores locally. You can ride this as your daily commuter or take it up the steepest goat tracks you’re willing to tackle. The lightweight bike offers 252Nm of instant torque to get you to the 90km/h max speed impressively quickly and you’ll get a maximum range of 86km for urban rides. 2 ASTELL&KERN AK HC3 Get…

■ $2,699 | microsoft.com/en-au ■ W11 Home: 13.5-inch PixelSense display at 2256 x1504 pixel resolution; Intel Core i7-1255U CPU; 16GB RAM; Intel Iris Xe GPU; 512GB PCIe SSD; WiFi 6 802.11ax; 47Wh Battery (9h 12min 1080p movie playback); 30.8x22.3x1.45cm; 1.3kg. When you’re updating a range of laptops frequently the level of change you can (or would want to) introduce to a device contracts, since many of the things consumers want are already included in the existing package. While this might make new devices less exciting, it’s often actually a sign that a device has a lot going for it already, but it does mean that if the company gets one of the few things it updates wrong, it suddenly makes the entire update seem a bit futile. Microsoft’s New Surface…

■ $209 | corsair.com There’s no denying that $210 is a lot to pay for a keyboard, particularly a small one that doesn’t come with a number pad. The reason for this premium price is that you can customise this wireless keyboard in brilliant ways. "The mechanical Cherry MX Red switches located under the keys can be exchanged if you wish.” For example, the mechanical Cherry MX Red switches located under the keys can be exchanged if you wish. That means that should a key wear out or malfunction, it’s a simple matter of unclipping the key cap and replacing the switch. And should you tire of the feel of the keys when typing, you could even install different switches across the entire keyboard. Corsair supplies an app that lets…

Windows 7, 8.1, 10 or 11, .NET Framework 4.5 | Free | patchmypc.com/home-updater It’s important to keep the software on your PC up to date, both to fix bugs and security vulnerabilities, and to ensure you have access to the latest features. But while some programs – such as browsers – automatically install new versions as soon as they’re available, others need to be updated manually. Patch My PC makes this task much easier by letting you update more than 300 popular tools in one go. Download and run Patch My PC Home Updater (it doesn’t require installation) and you’ll be presented with a list of all the programs installed on your computer, plus others in the software’s database. Previously, these were organised into categories such as Browsers, Multimedia and…

LABS AMD’s much hyped third generation RDNA architecture is here! And it’s an exciting one. The Radeon RX 7900 XT and 7900 XTX are here to take the fight to Nvidia. With a launch price of $1,619 for the RX 7900 XT and $1,789 for the RX 7900 XTX, The’re halo products priced above what most mainstream gamers are willing to pay, though notably both are priced well below the RTX 4080, which starts from about $2,199. Under the hood Both cards are built around the Navi 31 GPU, the first to feature the new RDNA 3 architecture. But this isn’t just another GPU on a smaller node with some tweaks, higher clocks and more shaders. It comes with a chiplet-based architecture. Though not the first chiplet GPU, it is…

■ $TBD | www.sapphiretech.com ■ Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 7900 XTX Vapor-X; 6,144 stream processors; 2,680MHz boost clock; 24GB GDDR6 20Gbps memory, 960GB/s memory bandwidth; 2x DisplayPort 2.1, 2x HDMI 2.1a; 420W TDP; 3x 8-Pin power connectors. During our testing of the reference RTX 7900 XTX, we believe it to be power constrained, preventing it from reaching its full performance potential, likely a deliberate characteristic to preserve efficiency. That doesn’t apply to the mighty Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 7900 XTX Vapor-X. In every way, it’s bigger and brawnier than the reference card. It really looks impressive. The Nitro+ features Sapphire’s stunning 3.5 slot Pantheon cooling solution. Its matte grey finish is minimalistic but beautiful in look and feel. Among its many features are the Vapor-X vapour chamber, wave fins for…

It’s a sad but inevitable fact that wars bring inventions and world-changing inventions, like the cavity magnetron, weren’t just limited to the Allies during World War II. For nearly 40 years, machines had been magnetically recording sound onto compact spools of very thin steel wire. These ‘wire recorders’ were still to have their brief heyday in the U.S. in the late-1940s and early-1950s. But in 1941, German engineers had already invented and discovered a technology combination that would revolutionise the entertainment industry around the world during the latter half of the 20th century. The 1935 Berlin Radio Show The idea of recording high-quality audio isn’t new (just ask any podcaster), but neither are the tenants that determine recorded quality. You need a device capable of capturing sound but generates no…

YOU’LL NEED An Nvidia, AMD, or Intel GPU Display Driver Uninstaller. "Occasionally, things don’t go so well. Sometimes you end up with corrupted drivers that won’t uninstall properly, or they uninstall but leave behind undesired cruft." Most people typically buy and install a new graphics card and leave it alone. Perhaps years may pass before it’s again time for a GPU upgrade. In the interim, though, there will inevitably be plenty of driver updates made available. That’s especially true when a new GPU architecture that comes along, such as Nvidia’s Ada Lovelace, Intel’s Arc Alchemist, or AMD’s RDNA 3. – Jarred Walton All going swimmingly? You might think updating to new drivers is a relatively simple and painless process, and on the surface, it is. All three major GPU manufacturers…

Switch on an 8-bit computer from the 1980s and you’re likely to see a “ready” prompt. As an APC reader, no doubt you have a good idea of what to do next, but most people would struggle. After all, these machines were created in the days before the graphical user interface (GUI) was commonplace. Computers had a much steeper learning curve as a result; it’s just we didn’t realise it at the time. “The original 8-bit operating systems of the early 1980s were mostly BASIC programming language interpreters with additional DOS features,” recalled Jörn Mika, a digital creator from Germany. “You could either start developing your own programs right away or simply run programs from tape or floppy disk, but it wasn’t frustrating since you didn’t know anything other than…

Intel released nine research papers at IEDM 2022 that lay the groundwork for future chip designs, as the company looks to deliver on its promise of developing processors with over a trillion transistors by 2030. The research includes new 2D materials for transistors, new 3D packaging technology that narrows the performance and power gap between chiplet and single-die processors to a nearly-imperceptible range, transistors that ‘don’t forget’ when power is removed, and embedded memories that can be stacked directly on top of transistors and store more than one bit per cell, among other innovations. Intel’s Components Research (CR) Group lays the initial groundwork for the company’s future technologies, but not all of these initiatives will result in products that ship to market. Those that do come to market would typically…

The PC industry is under pressure. Following the work-from-home pandemic boom, supply chain issues and the GPU mining craze, the market is on a downward trend. Of course, we’ve had the launch of Intel 13th Gen and AMD’s Ryzen 7000 platforms, plus Nvidia’s RTX-40 series and AMD’s RX 7000 series of graphics cards. What’s to come in 2023? Firstly, almost all of those products are expensive, particularly the graphics cards. To most, the idea of spending over $1,000 on a graphics card is ridiculous, let alone over $2,000. But, unlike those high-end releases, the 2023 GPU market will be dominated by more affordable options. Performance depending, sales of cards like the RTX 4060 and 4050 will drive the market, along with AMD’s competing RX 7700 and 7600 alternatives. That’s where…

Internet scammers are becoming increasingly sneaky. In the past, I grew used to regular phone calls claiming to be from Microsoft, or some equivalent organisation. They would tell me, in a very stern voice, that my computer was infected with viruses and that they were calling from Microsoft technical support. And that I needed to follow their instructions to remove this malware. Immediately. At first, it was just easier to hang up the call. But when this happened for the fourth time one morning, I decided it was time to switch tactics and waste as much of their time as possible. I would respond with an appropriate, “Oh no, I did wonder why things were going so slow” and generally play along with their script. The goal was to get…

■ $2,549 | microsoft.com/en-au THE HOTTEST GEAR LABS TESTED ■ W11 Pro; 13-inch PixelSense 120Hz display at 2880 x 1920 pixel resolution; Intel Core i7-1265U CPU; 16GB RAM; Intel Iris Xe GPU; 256GB PCIe SSD; 46Wh battery (8h 29min 1080p movie playback); 27.8 x 20.9 x 9.3cm; 879g (1.173kg with keyboard). Microsoft has kept the Surface Pro a leading 2-in-1 device by offering predictable updates, and while the integration of the Surface Pro X range is a big shift this year, for the most part, the Surface Pro 9 is another iterative update. Seven of the eight new Surface Pro 9 models from Microsoft use 12th generation Intel i5 or i7 processors that improve overall performance and offer even better battery life over previous generations. We were not impressed by…

■ $3,699 | gigabyte.com ■ W11 Home; 17.3-inch 360Hz IPS display at 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution; Intel Core i7-12700H CPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti GPU; 32GB RAM; 1TB PCIe SSD; 99Wh battery (1h 34 min 1080p movie playback); 39.8x25.4x2.7cm; 2.7kg. The Aorus 17 from Gigabyte is your classic gaming rig: it’s got a big fast screen, it’s bulky and it’s borderline a portable PC with how much battery life you get. That said, when it comes to gaming capabilities there’s not much more you’d want and while nothing with a 3080 Ti GPU is going to ever be super affordable… the Aorus 17 is as cost efficient as you can make a high end gaming rig. Aorus used to go in for all the premium high-end finishes you…

Various licences available | www.raspberrypi.com/software The latest Raspberry Pi OS 32-bit update has landed, with little fanfare and just a smattering of new features. Let’s cut to the chase: it’s more of a bug fix and update of included software. That said, the release is well implemented and we see new features such as a searchable main menu. If you favour keyboard shortcuts over the mouse, pressing the Super (Windows) key and typing in an application name will bring you great joy. This leads nicely into new keyboard shortcuts for Bluetooth (Ctrl-Alt-B) and Wi-Fi (Ctrl-Alt-W) menus. An interesting new feature is audio control. Gone is the unified controller for input and output, and in its place we find two icons for input and output. Rightclicking on the input icon enables…

■ $1,789 | www.amd.com ■ AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX; 6,144 stream processors; 2,499MHz boost clock; 24GB GDDR6 20Gbps memory, 960GB/s memory bandwidth; 2x DisplayPort 2.1, 1x HDMI 2.1a, 1x USB Type-C; 355W TDP; 2x 8-Pin power connectors. The Radeon RX 7900 XTX naming hearkens back to the ATI days, where refreshes and die shrinks sometimes came twice a year. Technology has changed a lot over the last 20 years. Prices have gone up a lot, but so has the performance – by orders of magnitude. The $1,789 XTX is well positioned in the market. It’s significantly cheaper than the competing RTX 4080, though it’s a little too close to the XT, which hurts that cards’ position in the market. Even if it offers relatively good value, the XTX is…

LABS FEATURE If there’s one constant in computing, it’s that we’ll always need more storage. If there’s a second, it’s that the faster it is the better. Currently, the best storage option on both fronts is an M.2 SSD drive. If the move from mechanical drives to solid state was a step forward, then the move from 2.5in SSDs to M.2 has been a staggering leap in terms of performance and efficiency, and the technology continues to improve. Mostly ditching the old SATA interface, which was designed for hard disks, M.2 drives primarily run using PCI Express, delivering speeds that seemed impossible a few years ago. What’s more, M.2 drives combine power and data in one connector, so there’s less cable clutter in your PC and, as the drives plug…

The hubris Nvidia continues to show towards customers reached new heights in the middle of November, with the release of its newest RTX 4080 graphics card. A fantastic card in the technical sense, but Nvidia’s ‘80’ class of graphics cards have always been the go-to for gaming enthusiasts wanting great performance at not so ridiculous pricing. That’s what the ‘90’ or Titan class of cards are for – those who want the best at any cost. The ‘80’ class should offer a modicum of value. With the 4000 generation, however, Nvidia is charging the same performance per dollar for the RTX 4080 as the RTX 4090, creating the situation we’re in where the asking price is circa $2,400. Crazy! The RTX 4090 can get away with its higher $3,200 price…

TOP TIPS TO TACKLE TECH TROUBLES Drive stopped working I have a 3.5-inch hard drive that has been attached to my PC via an external SATA adapter for over a year now. Recently, I booted into Windows only for the computer to hang. I eventually traced the problem to this drive – powering it off ‘fixed’ the problem but introduced a new one. Now, when I power the drive back on, its drive letter appears in File Explorer but shows no drive space information. If I double-click the drive to try and open it, I eventually get a ‘Location not available: The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable’ message. If I open Disk Management, the drive shows up as healthy, but as a RAW partition. Does this mean the…

IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to control your smart home devices in the Home app on Mac YOU’LL NEED macOS 13, and one or more HomeKit-compatible smart devices The Mac version of Apple’s Home app has always seemed like a bit of an afterthought – especially as it was only released with Mojave in 2018, two years after the app first appeared on the iPhone. And, to be honest, it hasn’t made much progress since then, with Amazon’s Alexa attracting far more support from manufacturers of smart lights, security cameras and other smart home devices. But, behind the scenes, Apple has been working with Amazon and other companies over the last couple of years to develop a new smart standard called Matter, that will allow smart…

$59.95 | PC, XBS/X | playdarktide.com Just like Vermintide before it, Darktide is not about the most powerful characters in the setting. That’s not to say it doesn’t make you feel powerful, but it’s a kind of measured power. A handful of Space Marines could probably free Tertium by lunchtime, but alas, it’s up to you and your band of misfits to save the hive; or what’s left to be saved anyway. First off, it’s important to acknowledge how Darktide is different from Vermintide. The game represents a shift in Fatshark’s storytelling – where Vermintide II depicted the past exploits of the Ubersreik five, in Darktide you are part of a developing narrative. As it stands, Darktide feels more like a prologue or a first chapter right now, introducing you…

CHIP CHAT JOEL BURGESS REPORTS ON THE UNUSUAL SIDE OF TECH NEWS Despite realistically still being a long way off fully-autonomous driving, Tesla is rolling out beta Steam compatibility that’ll allow you play thousands of games while sitting in some of its cars. We suspect that the system will still be locked down enough to prevent the driver from playing while the car is in motion, but the announcement trailer showed that you can game on the main or rear seat screen using a wireless controller while the car is parked. A comparison against current consoles by VideoCardz shows that the $107K-plus Model S or $135K-plus Model X actually stack up pretty well against current gaming consoles … if you ignore the price difference. It’s definitely not the worst place…