Google Home Can Now Make Hands Free Calls? Yes It Can, and Here's How

"OK Google, call mom", "OK, calling mom now". Yes folks, you read correctly, as of right now Google Home can now make outgoing calls, of course there is a catch but we'll get to that later. Let's look at this new feature in depth as it was rolled out this past Wednesday should not come as a surprise to many, Google did give a sneak feature peak this past May at Google lO.  Home user who dwell in the US and Canada will be able to call people that's in your Google Contact List and local business using voice and signature "OK Google " command. 

Google Home now brings itself in-line with Amazon's Alexa Echo, which itself introduced calling and messaging back in May. There is a glaring difference between the two,  with Google Home it allows users to voice any calls free of charge to anyone living within the United States and Canada, Alexa on the other hand is limited to just those who own a Alexa device or smartphones that have a Alexa app installed. If safe to say Google one up Amazon in itheir clap back feature  response.

Google Home is not impervious to faults as it cannot place calls to one another, meaning you can't receive incoming calls, it can for now only make outgoing calls. There not even close to competing with Amazon's newest iteration,  the Echo Show which can make video calls.

How to get Google Home to start making free calls is quite simple, requiring no type of software updates or device tweaks, just utter these two words, "OK Google",  then follow up with your command. Now the person you intend on calling must be in Google personal contact list, that would be your Android smartphone. You can also make personal calls to local businesses provided that you know it's location and once again stored in your contact list. 

At the moment there is no caller ID support which is the biggest drawback with this newly implemented feature, for now calls will register only as "Unknown" or "No Caller ID". Fret not, change is in the works from Google, by years end Google Home will be able to display mobile numbers from your smartphone. 

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The Fractal Design New Meshify C ATX PC Case: Lets Talk About It

Things are about to get a little Meshy with Fractal Design, I know it was a very lame headway to the article, but I'm making reference to Fractal Design new Meshify C ATX PC case. Shrouded in a Metalic mesh design makes this PC case quite different from what we're used to seeing from Fractal simplistic design, having  standout features such as sound damping material, anodized aluminum front panels, light in weight and importantly price is wallet friendly. 

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Yes, Meshify C ATX is quite different indeed, front panel sporting a angular mesh design that forms the shape of diamonds, a design which Fractal claims will increase airflow. The star feature on Meshify C Chassis for me is its distinctive tinted tempered glass that's on the right side of the case, giving users full interior visibility of all working components.  The main theme here with Meshify C PC case is its streamlined open air design ensuring key components get a full intake of air. 

Signature compact footprint design is main staple with Fractal.  Decked out with some pretty interesting useful features, starting with the easily accessible front panel connections that's placed on the very top of the chassis displaying the headphone jack, two USB 3.0 headers along with the power and reset buttons. The mesh panel that covers the top is fasten in place via magnetic strips. Moving over to the bottom of the case we have a full length dust filter, which I would say is rather convenient considering dust have a tendcency  to accumulate in mass abundance in the bottom of the case. You also have dust filters in full length in the front and side of the case, with an optional intake fan.

Moving over to the rear panel we have a removable power supply flange, with an exhaust fan mount that slides allowing access to seven expansion slots with screw-on covers. The exhaust fan screw slot give builders plenty of space for single-fan radiators, the power supply flange itself with ease allow users to insert the unit through rear of the PC case. 

In snapping off the Meshify C face panel you'll find a dust foam filter and a front panel mount that allows users to install 3-120mm or 2-140mm radiators and fans. By default  includes a single 120mm fan. The 5.4-inch removable panel gives room access to convert the Meshify C so it can support a much larger radiator. The 3.5-inch drive cage can easily be extracted from the top thanks in part to the panel being very large, which is needed if you have intentions of installing 3-120mm radiator or a bottom intake fan.

On the very bottom of the case there's two 3.5-inch trays with 2.5-inch secondary mounting holes which lies right above the mentioned dust tray. Following along trends,  most chassis manufacturers are incorporating a full-length power supply shroud who's main purpose is to conceal the entire drive cage and excess cables, this gives a nice clean exterior with limitless airflow. 

The physical dimensions of the Meshify C ATX PC case goes as follows: at length it measures 15.5-inches, 8.5-inches at width and 17.3-inches in height. The case is pretty hefty in weight which is expected at 14.3 pounds, but that's expected considering all of its added features.

So I'm guessing with a case like the Meshify C and all its features that it grant it's consumers you're thinking it maybe be an expensive price point, surprisingly it retails for just $89.99 on New Egg. Now some re-sellers are selling this PC case $20-$30 more than the manufacturers price, so interested consumers beware.

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Explanation Needed: What Do Hyper-Threading (Threads) Have To Do With The Processor?

Threads, no not the threads you use to stitch fabric together, but Hyper-threading technology that's used in a processor. You might have stumbled up the terminology when you read up the listed specs on a processor. The base clock speed, the number of cores and yes, threads. All determining factors on how well a processor performs. Let's focus on Hyper-threading  because it's an integral feature within the processor, the focal topic of Explanation Needed. 

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So what exactly are Hyper-threading? Without getting to overly technical, as best I can I'll simplify it so you can grasp the whole concept of what this technology actually does, and it's key benefits.

 Hyper-threading was first introduced by Intel as a way to bring on parallel computing to consumer desktop computers. The technology made its market debut in the year 2000 with the Pentium 4 single core CPU, though it was revolutionary at the time the processor had limited functionality, adding hyper-threading was an attempt to have the single core processor be multitasking capable, allowing each core to perform several tasks at once. 

 With Hyper-threading, one single physical CPU  appears as two logical cores to an operating system. Though it's a single CPU, the technology basically tricks the operating system into thinking that there's actually two CPU per core. Even though the OS sees two CPU for each core, the actual CPU hardware in reality have a single set of execution per core. Trickery comes to play as the CPU pretends as if there's more cores than there really is. In essence, unique technology is being used to add speed to program execution. With Hyper-threading, you have two logical CPU cores sharing a physical executed resources. So in theory this speeds up the whole operation, if one virtual CPU is slowed down and waiting for instruction, the virtual CPU borrows executed resources. Hyper-threading aids in speeding up your entire system, still and all having more cores within a processor always  supersedes Hyperthreading or threads, mainly because processor cores actually does the physical labor within the processor. Web browsing or a email software will not likely see the benefits.  

With processors today having an exuberant amount of cores, Hyper-threading is seen as an added "bonus". In the past, Hyper threading only had a single core that guise as multiple cores. Today, even with your low end processors you'll always have multiple cores along with Hyper-threading. Performance wise, a CPU with multiple cores is better than having hyper threading technology.

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ThreadRipper Is Here and Ready For Purchase: Here's What You Need To Know

This is the Ryzen Threadripper processor, we're talking about AMD's highest end consumer CPU, the most powerful of its kind on the market. Release date for this mega-processor is due this month, in August. Threadripper pose stiff competition to Intel's top tier performing processor, which has dominated high end desktop market for the past couple of years.

Suddenly we have a CPU arms race brewing where have chip manufacturers out doing the other. With that said, rather than over extend this intro, here's everything you need to know about  the AMD Threadripper processor.

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About The Specs

Threadripper will come in three different variants, the 1950X, 1920X and the 1900X. The 1950X will feature 16 working processing cores, SMT ( Simultaneous mullti-threading) with 32 Threads of compute power. The base clock goes as follows, 3.5GHz, with a 4GHz boost clock speed. This processor will run you $999, which you can order and purchase on Amazon.

The Ryzen Threadripper 1920X will feature 12 working cores with 24 threads of SMT compute power. The base clock speed will run at 3.3GHz with a 4GHz boost speed, priced at $799 (Amazon).

Meanwhile onto the Ryzen Threadripper 1900X, it will feature 8 working processing cores with SMT 16 threads of compute power, this particular processor closely mirrors the Ryzen 1800X, the only difference is this processor in profile needs a capable X399 motherboard. The base clock speed of the processor comes in at 3.5GHz with a 4GHz boost speed, with a $549 price point.

Both 1950X and 1920X will have a  180 watt TDP, this means you'll need a pretty decent CPU cooler, preferably a water cool solution if you plan on doing any overclocking. The Ryzen Threadripper processor will support up to 1TB of RAM when of course the LR-DIMM are in full use. If I'm not mistaken, and I'm going on a educated guess, this maybe the only processor of its kind that capable of supporting 1TB of memory on a single motherboard.

While we're on the subject of motherboards,  the Threadripper processor will be supported on the new X399 platform, with a entire new TR4 socket,  incompatible with current Ryzen processors that's on the market as the socket itself is rather large, more on the TR4 socket later on in this post. On the memory front, the chip will support Quad-channel DDR4 memory.

 The Memory Support In Full Depth

Lets observe the memory support in detail because it pretty interesting, if not amazing as it can support up to 1TB of RAM, that is if you already filled out all 8-DIMMs with the 128GB LR-DIMMs ( acronym for Load Reduced DIMMs). Most DIMMs today uses a embedded chip to re--drive signals to memory directly from the CPU. The LR-DIMM on the other hand uses  a certain type of memory buffer to re-drive all data and instruction sets, I must say a pretty unique piece of technology.

No gimmick, this is the actual  Threadripper package

 Using a 32GB LR-DIMM DDR4/2133 module is an expensive proposition as it will run you well over $1000, adding a 128GB LR-DIMM will likely double the price.

The X399 Chipset Though

The X399 chipset is very unique in that it is the very first of AMD's kind to venture away from the archaic pin PGA (pin grid array) which by the way is the same as Intel's land grid array (LGA). The Threadripper's  pins is not on the processor but in the motherboard's socket. Big advantage to having this sort of pin arrangement on the AMD chip prevents pins from being bent when you insert the processor onto the motherboard, being that there is no pins to begin with. But you most exercise caution when placing the processor in the socket, if you're not careful pins can still bend.

The Processor and Socket Is Fucking Huge

When I first saw images of the Ryzen Threadripper I thought maybe the images were somewhat doctored, then realize this is no Photoshop image enhancement, the processor is really huge, 13 percent bigger than Intel's LGA1151 processor in comparison. Just take a look at image below this passage and observe how large the  AMD TR4 socket is on this Asus Zenith Extreme motherboard.

With the processor and socket being so enormous in size, no ordinary AM4 CPU cooler would not come close to fitting this socket. You'll need a cooler that has a very large base plate that literally covers an entire human hand.

Image Source: Wccftech

Really, Who's The Threadripper For?

 If you're thinking about using Threadripper for the sole purpose of just gaming, then spending exuberant amount of money on a processor that rivals the cost of some gaming systems doesn't make any sense whatsoever. This processor with all the extra cores would be best serve for those who plan on partaking in video editing, rendering in 3D, and other resource intensive tasks.  Threadripper will simultaneously allow users to run 3D rendering, view 4K content, and play a series of video games without any system hiccup.

Threadripper Market Release Date

AMD will market release the Ryzen Threadripper the 1950X and 1920X on August 10th, along with X399 motherboards, The 8-core Threadripper will be release to market on August 31.

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AMD Raises The Curtains and Reveals The RX Vega Graphics Card, Starting At $399

Topic: High End GPUs

With all the bits of information and leaks that's been thrown around these past couple of months, the full unveiling of the RX Vega graphics card by AMD which took place a couple days ago should not come as a surprise, we all knew it would eventually come to full fruition, it's just a matter of when. Well the time is now, AMD gives us hardware pundits the full details on the graphics card specs, features and  accurate pricing.

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The  launching of the Ryzen processor has certainly  brought respectability back to the company in the gaming PC platform. With RX Vega, it'll now  definitely compete with NVIDIA  high end GPU's.  As you well know, Nvidia have been the dominant players in the PC gaming market for the past couple of years, launching some of the most powerful graphics cards in the business, the GTX 980 Ti and The GTX 1080 series certainly comes to mind. The Fury X, which was launched in 2015, two years since AMD launched a graphics card that was buzzworthy. 

With that said, for now, AMD's RX Vega is the star of the  show sporting some pretty interesting  features and specs. 

From all the information I've gathered, AMD will be releasing  three different  RX Vega graphics cards all based on the same GPU, those with eyes and ears to the industry should be familiar with Vega 10 as it powers the current Vega Frontier graphics card, having similar features and specs. AMD presents you the Radeon RX Vega 56 standalone edition, the Vega 64 air cooled and the top tier liquid cooled edition. As a bonus, in purchasing these graphics cards, AMD is throwing together a bundled package, it'll include  two video games,  Prey and Wolfstein II,  $200 discount on a Samsung 34-inch curved ultrawide display with AMD's own FreesSync technology, $100 discount on the Ryzen 7 1800X processor and 370X motherboard combo. You get all this impressive bundle package just forn purchasing a AMD RX Vega graphics card, not a bad way to entice consumer spending. 

 Anyway, bundled package and all, what matters most with any piece of hardware is specs, features and of course performance. Heres the main core specs that is of importance,  it goes as follows: RX Vega 64 liquid cool edition which packs some serious components inside its metallic shell boasts 1407MHz base clock, a 1677 boost clock, 8GB VRAM, 14nm process, 256 texture units. Now a graphics card of this magnitude will require immense power,  which in the case of this particular variant has 345W TDP. This explains the need for a liquid cooler unit.

Like with Nvidia's CUDA core technology, AMD have a pretty unique technology of their own call HBM which is acronym for High bandwidth Memory. Without going into the whole Wikipedia details, the technology achieves much higher bandwidth all while consuming less power. Its different  from VRAM and GDDR5 in terms with how the memory is constructed, HBM is much smaller stacked in 8 DRAM dies. The data travels within memory cells are fast, in the case of the RX Vega, the HBM2 memory is clocked at 1.89Gbps.

The other RX Vega 64 graphics card, though its rocking the same Vega 10 GPU is considered to be somewhat a watered down version as it minuses the liquid cooler with good reason, it has a slightly lower clock speed with a 1247MHz base clock and 1546 boost clock speed. The reduction in the GPU's frequencies is about the only thing that differs from the Vega 64 pairing as it retains the same VRAM 8GB capacity, still running a 1.89Gbps memory bandwidth. The card have a much lower TDP than the liquid cooled card at 295W,  down by 50W.

Then there's  the third member of the RX Vega series, the Vega 56,  the low end variant of the three. The overall GPU clock speed is reduced running at 1156MHz base and 1471MHz boost, the HBM2 memory bandwidth is also reduced at 1.6Gbps. With spec numbers being lower, there's less power consumption, making it most power efficient card of the trio as the wattage is well below the Vega 64 with a 210W TDP.  On the memory front, nothing changes as the  graphics card retains 8GB capacity. 

As for the design, the Vega RX Vega graphic cards mirrors the The Vega Frontier Edition with it minimalist brush metal structure,  solid black, space gray and silver gray as the main color schemes. With the Vega emblem place directly on the middle of the graphics card. Even the cooling setup is the same as the Vega Frontier. 

Good news, there is price options, it goes as follows:

•  Radeon Red Pack RX Vega air cooled-$499
• Radeon Black Pack RX Vega air cooled-$599
• Radeon Aqua Pack RX Vega liquid cooled edition-$699

For the Standalone Graphics cards:

• Radeon RX Vega 64 Air Cooled-$499
• Radeon RX Vega 56-$399

As best as I can, I've given you all the information on the new Radeon RX Vega series graphics cards and from my vantage point like with the Ryzen processor, AMD is once again winning over the masses with what appears to be a very impressive piece of hardware, on paper that is. How the graphics performs remains to be seen. 

What we're witnessing here  from  AMD is rise from the doldrums of mediocrity in the graphics card arena, bringing about stiff competition into the PC gaming market.  There will be an expected clap back from Nvidia once they launch their much anticipated Volt series GPU in 2018, which by have their own version high bandwidth memory. I mean isn't that how it always works in the graphics card industry? The proverbial anything you can do, I can make it better.

Anyway, you won't be waiting long to get your hands on AMD's latest creation as the launch date is set to take  place on Aug 14th, which is a mere week away.

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The Ryzen 3 1300X and 1200 Quad Cores Processors: Here's What You Need To Know

Topic: AMD CPU's

Its official,  AMD has just officially launched their new Ryzen 3 series quad core processor. This particular processor is priced under $150. The consumer target is the PC builder who want a processor that performs well,  that can multitask and can be overclocked right out of the box without breaking the bank.

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The Ryzen 3 series lineup full branding name is the 1300X and 1200, both processors will feature four cores with four processing threads. Missing from these processors are SMT technology (simultaneous threading), deploying a 2+2 CCX (CPU complex) configuration instead.

The main theme with the Ryzen 3 processor is its price friendly delivering decent application and gaming performance. The Ryzen 3 processor is on par with Intel's  Core i3 lineup which also features four cores and  falls in the price friendly category.

Lets examine the important meaningful spec numbers shall we? First up we have the Ryzen 3 1300X, it have a base clock frequency measuring in at 3.5GHz, a 3.7GHz boost clock frequency.  A 3.6GHz all-core-frequency, a 8MB L3 cache, a AM4 socket, 14nm process and a 65W TDP.

Onto the Ryzen 3 1200, it have a base clock frequency that measures at 3.1GHz  a 3.4 boost frequency,  3.1GHz all-core-frequency,  8MB L3 cache, a 14nm process and a 65W TDP.

Now interesting enough, both processors will come with a stock Wraith Stealth CPU cooler which a pretty decent cooler. I myself prefer after market cooler as there are plenty that can be outfitted for the AM4 socket. Plus after market coolers do a better job at lowering temperature and noise level.

First time PC builders who don't want to expend a great deal of currency on a processor or you're an experienced builder looking to put together a low budget gaming system, then the Ryzen 3 processor should be the ideal purchase. The Ryzen 3 1300 X retails for just $129.99, while the 1200 retails for $109.99. Both processors can be purchase at respective vendors, Amazon and NewEggg.

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Asus XG-100C 10 Gigabit Ethernet-Yes The NIC Still Exist

Topic: Networking technology

In reference to the title of this post NIC, better known as network interface controllers do still exist. Before we talk about the hardware of topic, the Asus XG-C1000 Gigabit Ethernet, here's a brief history of NIC. Back in the early days of desktop computers, circa early 2000's, you included NIC cards as part of your PC build mainly because networking interface controllers or Ethernet ports weren't included on the motherboard at that time. So in order gain access to the broadband Internet via Ethernet, you had purchase and install a NIC card and hope the drivers you installed actually work because they were sort of a bitch trying to connect the NIC to the Internet.

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To speed things up and bring it all into present day 2017, installing a NIC card is not a necessary option anymore as motherboards today come outfitted with a Ethernet ports or NIC controller that's embedded onto the motherboard in a form of a chip. Today, one would feel the need use a NIC card for two reasons, add more Ethernet ports or add a high end NIC so you can  increase bandwidth speed, this brings us to the Asus XG-1000 Gigabit, if you want to add bandwidth power then you should certainly purchase this piece of hardware.

 Speed is definitely the name of game with the Asus XG-1000 Gigabit Nic as its part of the 10GbE ecosystem capable of delivering over 1,000MBps. The main priority with this particular NICis queuing enhancing gaming support. 

Though the XG-1000 does support 10GbE and the latest 2.5 and 5GbE standard, and a much lower bandwidth standard, there seems to be no presence of a consumer branded switch that's used basically in homes and small businesses. When they are readily available, it will allow consumers to use the legacy CAT5e cabling which will avoid any expense of running any type of new wiring in the home. A battery of test performed by various published websites have discovered 10GbE speeds can be achieved in shorter distances when using CAT5e cable.

For me the standout feature on the Asus XG-C100C network card is its support of Priority Queing. This feature will give users full access of QoS, better known as Quality-of Service technology. This technology allows any user to prioritize gaming packets. This is will enable a much smoother gaming experience during heavy networking traffic.

For the casual PC user Asus XG-1000C is definitely not it, with it outputting 1,000MBps is a bit overkill for even the most experienced hardware enthusiast, but there are certainly advantages of having the extra bandwidth power, one of them we already mentioned, a smoother gaming experience. The other advantage is streaming media content such as movies will be made easy without any type of throttled bottle necking.

Networking hardware such as the Asus XG-1000C usually don't come cheap, price is usually range between $200- $400. Good news, Asus won't have consumers dive deep into the pocket for cash as the network interface card retails for just $100.

Vendors  such as New Egg and Amazon currently have the Asus XG 1000C 10 Gigabit NIC up for sell if you are interested in purchasing such hardware.

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Hardware Pick Of The Month: Thermaltake Contac Silent 12 Heat Sink Air Cooler

If you're on a budget constraint yet desire to build a computer without breaking the wallet, good news luckily for the penny pinching  PC I bring you the Contac Silent 12 CPU air cooler, at just $25 it definitely fits in the category of being price friendly.

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Reasonably price and all, the Thermaltake Contac Silent 12 air cooler have pretty decent specs in terms of cooling,  featuring a 120mm PWN controlled fan with a air-flow 7-blade fan design. It sports a non-interfering cooling design, which basically means the cooler itself will not impede you from placing the memory into the DRAM slot. The fins are thickly constructed out of aluminum with four Direct Contact copper heat pipes, this should deliver an effective heat dissipation.

For me, the standout feature on the Silent 12 cooler is the self lubricating hydraulic bearing, which will reduce heavy friction and noise. There's even a seal cap that will prevent any type of leakage of lubricant extending the life of the unit. Then there's the Low Noise Cable that comes with the unit, another standout feature which according to Thermaltake will reduce the noise level by about 24% and increase the fan speed by 27%. Under heavy workload the fan can go from 500- 1500 RPM, 400 - 1100 RPM (with LNC). Noise level measuring  at 28.8 dBA, 22.1 dBA (with LNC) .

The entire unit itself measures 6-inch at length weighing just 1.54 pounds, made for the AMD AM4 socket that is also compatible with Intel LGA socket 1366 ( quick note: I used the highest socket available for this post). 

As stated earlier in this post, the TermalTake Contac Silent cooler retails for just $25, price varies with different vendors give or take a few dollars. Nice compact cooler that have some pretty decent cooling features that's budget friendly for the budget conscious PC enthusiast, definitely should be included in your next system build.

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The Leaks: Google Pixel 2XL Specs and Photo Revealed

Around this time of year leading right up actual launch you'll see a bevy of leaked rendered smartphone images circulate around the internet, giving consumers preview on what might come to fruition. No matter if it's an iPhone or an Android smartphone,  it's a sure bet you'll see leaked specs and rendered images which I've always stated is a marketing ploy by the manufacturer. The latest such leaks that's generating a great deal of noise is the Google Pixel 2 XL.

First, lets give a brief summary on Google's flagship smartphone as it was released last year, earning positive praises from consumers and tech reviewers alike.Most stated that its by far best and smoothest software experience they ever came across on a smartphone. 

Google newest flagship smartphone is schedule to be release sometime in the fall, and of course inciting anticipation there's the rendered image leaks and specs.

Google Pixel and Pixel XL Generation one models

Thanks in part to Android Police there the web publication got that their hands on these speculative rendered images of the second generation Pixel XL and was one of the first publications to break. Now the Pixel 2 XL  ( actual code is name Taimen) may or may not come close to looking like the image that's provided on this post. If you have a close ear to what's going on in the tech industry then you know with smartphones, whether its the iPhone or Android, the final product is almost always closely matches the actual image leaks.

In looking at the rendered image in full detail, we see the Pixel 2 XL retains its two-tone finish and center-positioned finger print sensor. Notice the large cut for the rear camera lens which looks as if it'll be a dual camera setup. It seems as though Google following right along Samsung implementing a bezel-less display

As reported, LG along with Google will be the key players in the Pixel 2 / Pixel 2 XL production with the latter featuring a much larger 6-inch LG AMOLED display that will feature a 2:1 aspect ratio. In closely examining the rendered images, it seems as though there will be no physical home button. If the leaked images hold true then we're seeing the Pixel 2 XL design be a bit more refine from its predecessor. Lets just hope Google value consumer feedback and make the device water resistant, protection from the H2O on smartphones today has become industry standard.

 There is also leaked information on hardware specs, the Pixel 2 XL according to rumor is expected to feature a Qulacomm Snapdragon 835 processor, 4GB of RAM, 64GB internal storage, and a QHD display.

The Pixel 2 XL will no doubt win over the masses once again, provided Google and LG deal with its weak low quality speakers and give the device the IPV protection. With that said, we could have the best Android smartphone in 2017.

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The Best Camera You'll Ever Own Is Right In Your Pocket

Today it's safe to say that trustee smartphone you have in your pocket is a multifaceted tool that have limitless functions,  I myself call it the ultimate pocket computer.  Smartphones today now have quad-core processors, an exuberant amount of storage space that caps out at 128GB. Then there's the gorgeous Super AMOLED display. The hardware within the smartphone certainly justifies it being dubbed a pocket PC. Today if you said the smartphone is an luxury item it would be direct insult to a device that's become a necessary need. Try going a full day without your smartphone, I'm sure symptoms of withdrawal will start to set in. The smartphone is needed to perform and complete everyday tasks such as checking emails, paying off bills, view video content, even shop online.

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Aside from the obvious, the internal hardware and software, for some individuals the camera on the smartphone is the biggest selling point and rightfully so, for the vast majority its the most utilize feature on the device, especially  for those picture taking selfie hounds. Have you noticed the high quality HD imagery captured on these smartphones? That's all due in part to a much improved camera specs that sports a bigger sensor, implemented image stabilization, and phase detection auto-focus and a high dosage of mega pixels.  Most smartphones today that fall in the high end category are now capable of shooting videos in 4K. So yes, mobile devices have come a long way since the days of the 1.3MP camera on the old Motorola flip phones.

With all of its improved features and specs on a smartphone camera, it has all but nullify the point-and-shoot pocket camera.

With that said, lets put together a little experiment conducted by yours truly and compare a series of images I've captured using both my smartphone ( Samsung Galaxy s7 Edge) and my DSLR camera ( Cannon Rebel T3) . The whole basis of this experiment is see how these images mirrors each other in terms of picture quality.

Lets examine each picture in depth. What do the eyes see?

Canon T3 Rebel                                                                                          Samsung Galaxy s7 Edge

Canon T3 Rebel                                                                             Samsung Galaxy s7 Edge

Canon T3 Rebel                                                               Samsung Galaxy s7 Edge

Canon T3 Rebel

                                                                                                                        Samsung Galaxy s7 Edge

Both devices do an excellent job in capturing the moment, honestly if you were to quickly glance at all the images I've posted you probably wouldn't be able determine which image was shot from either the DSLR camera or smartphone. But if you really closely examine the images above, while shooting pictures under direct sunlight the Canon T3 Rebel does a good job at capturing the deep black shadows, dynamic range is also evidently better than what you have with probably any smartphone. Moving onto the Samsung Galaxy s7 Edge, the images though nicely crisp, there is a tinge of saturation. Bring your eyes over to the images that have flowers and the Android figurine, both devices do a good job at capturing objects that is vibrantly colored. The greens and pinks definitely grabs the visuals, do you not see the detail rust colored corrosion on the old can paint can? 

In conclusion to this little experiment I've conducted, I definitely proved that the smartphone is indeed one of the best cameras you'll ever own based on the images I presented you in this post, but it most certainly not an eventual replacement over the DSLR camera as it trumps the smartphone camera in overall specs and features. If you're that novice weekend photographer looking to capture  that perfect picturesque shot from any camera of sorts,  you best go with the DSLR. Not looking to spend a great deal of cash on a quality camera, then your second and best option is your smartphone. 

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The Frontier Vega Edition Graphics Card Is Now Readily Available By AMD With a $999 Start Price

Among all the rumors and information leaks that's taken place for the past few weeks, AMD will finally start shipping their next generation graphic cards at the end of June, the Radeon Vega Frontier Edition. This is a AMD's highest-end GPU with impressive specs to show for it. The graphics card will come in two variants, an air cooled model which will retail for $999, and a liquid cooled model retailing for $1499.

The component specification of the Vega Frontier Edition graphics cards goes as follows: the card itself will come with 4096 stream processing, clock speed exceeding well beyond 1550MHz delivering 13 TFOLPs of FP32 and 25 TFLOPs of FP16 compute performance. There will be a total of 16GB of HBM2 VRAM coming in stacks of 8GB. Total bandwidth is rated at 480 GB/s,  lower than AMD's Fiji graphic card which has 512 GB's total bandwidth. The graphic card will also feature a 90 GPixels/s rate.

Both graphics cards will display different color schemes and cooling features.  The air cooled variant is colored in a nice blue industrial texture with the illuminated "R" emblem situated right on the far corner. The label and logo on the graphics card which is the "Radeon"  is  place on both the front and side. the entire backplate is also covered with the same blue texture. Moving away from the color scheme, this particular card is air cooled featuring a dual 8-pin connector configuration with a 300W TDP. In describing the cooling setup in detail, its cooled by a single blower fan which pushes air out of the I/O side exhaust vents.

The second graphics card have a brushed golden texture with the logo placement being the same as the other graphic card sporting blue LED lighting. Overall design is identical, but different is the cooling setup featuring liquid cooling that displays tubing extended right from the frontal portion of the graphics card. Now liquid cooling is needed with this particular model mainly because it have a much higher TDP wattage at 375.  With this card being liquid cooled, increased speed is certainly expected. 

 Big question is can the Vega Frontier graphics card  be used for gaming? Technically yes. Though AMD intended  consumer target is the workstation driven content creator, the data scientist and CGI animators, AMD is offering dual-mode drivers, allowing user's to easily switch from complex software to video game acceleration. I'm betting you'll  have many hardware enthusiasts put this card through a battery of tests and see if indeed it can handle some the most graphically intensive gaming titles around.

At present, the Vega Frontier Edition is now available for pre-order, market release is expected to take place late July.

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Credit: credit video PC World

Gaming On a Fully Loaded 2017 iMac Can Be Achieve With a Few Twerks and Tweaks

The stigma that's placed on Apple computer's whether its a MacBook Pro or a iMac is it can't game. Meaning gaming on any of their flagship computers does not operate fluidly. Apple is trying to erase that stigma when it officially releases its macOS HIGH Sierra OS update later this year.

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The new 27-inch iMac Pro (2017) is packed with some serious hardware, the fully loaded option grants you a Intel Core i7 770K (7th Gen KabyLake), a Radeon Pro 580 graphic chip (8GBVRAM), 64GB of memory, 2TB SSD which sports a 2,650MB read and 2,100MB write speed. So yes if you were to up the cash for the fully loaded variant you pretty much have an Apple machine that rivals most gaming systems. Big question is can the new iMac handle graphically intense gaming? According to a widely popular YouTuber Dave Lee, it can with a bit of a twist of course.

Both the 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMac CPU and RAM can be upgraded, which the widely known You Tuber Dave Lee has performed, bumping up the RAM totaling 64GB, adding a 2TB PCIe NVMe SSD and combining a external GPU resulting in increased speed and responsiveness to the system. Now he stated in his latest video that upgrading hardware in particularly the RAM can be an expensive proposition. This is why it pays to perform upgrades yourself when dealing with Apple computers, you'll come out cheaply in the end.

Now before I post the benchmark results, I want to add that the YouTuber, Dave Lee manage to load Windows on the iMac, with simplistic ease the device was able to detect his external GPU solution via Thunderbolt 3 ports. Now there were some expected problems when gaming with the macOS, he states that problems will eventually solved once macOS High Sierra is released in the Fall.

According to what I've witnessed in the video, gaming performance wasn't bad at all, considering you have impeccable hardware crammed inside a rather thinly design iMac. Before you go on the watch the uploaded YouTube video, peep out the benchmark results I have posted below this passage.

BenchMark Test Done running macOS Ultra settings at 1440p

Diablo 3:   101 FPS

Starcraft 2:   87 FPS

Heroes of Storm:  73 FPS

Left4Dead 2:  73 FPS

Tomb Raider:  76 FPS

CS:GO:  187 FPS

BenchMark Test running Windows Bootcamp Ultra settings at 1440p

Diablo 3:  118 FPS

Starcraft 2:  104 FPS

Heroes of the Storm:  83 FPS

Overwatch: 72 FPS

Battelfield 1: 65 FPS

PlayerUnknown's Battlegraound: 52 FPS

As you can see gaming on the iMac running Windows Bootcamp clearly displays better benchmark numbers than macOS. So yes it is quite possible to play some resource hungry titles on the 27-inch iMac provided that you go with the fully loaded variant, keep in mind, the price point will be rather expensive.

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Credit: Wcc and Dave Lee (YouTube)

What You Know Need To Know About The AMD EPYC Server Processor

Thus far with the AMD Ryzen processor seeing success in the consumer market, its safe to say the company have risen to levels of respectability in a market which has long been dominated by Intel. AMD have other products on the horizon that's garnishing a lot of attention such as the Ryzen Threadripper processor which AMD is touting it as the most powerful consumer chip around, and how can you not get excited about AMD's newest flagship graphics card, the RX Vega.  But just when you thought AMD were done unleashing new hardware, we have yet another product launch from AMD the EPYC 7000 Series server processor, taking aim at Intel's Xeon processor server lineup.

Here's what you need to know about the AMD EPYC 7000 Series processor in so many words or less.

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Although the AMD EPYC series processor produces several variants (12 models to be exact), lets examine the specs on AMD's top of tier chip which is the EPYC 7601. Starting with 32 high-performing "Zen" Cores, 8 DDR4 channels, up to 2TB of memory per CPU, 128 PCIe lanes, 64 MB L3 cache, with 64 CPU threads, a 2.2 GHz base clock and a 3.2GHz boost clock. Now this particular processor draws a lot of power sporting a  180W TDP which means you'll need a quality cooling setup to keep this processor at a stable state. 

In outlining some of the processors impressive features, it appears that AMD main target is both the single (1P) and a dual (2P) socket systems which by the way make up a great portion of the server market share by 90%. The entire processor lineup is based solely off of AMD's Zen core foundation, using a multi-chip package.

Probably the most interesting features within the EPYC  7000 have many MB's of L3 cache that's  present within this processor going up an astounding 64MB with the low tier model ( EPYC 7251) having 16MB L3 cache.

In terms of performance, AMD have boasted that the entire system will be based on the EPYC 7601 achieving a SPECint_rate2006 scoring a 2360, which is the highest score achieved by any two-socket system. the one-socket system, the one-socket system on a 7601 it scored a  1200 which according to AMD beats the scores of several one-socket x86-based systems.

The specs and performance on the AMD  EPYC series processor is impressive on paper, how it really performs in real time remains to be seen. I'll be posting benchmark numbers once the chip is release to market.

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The Consumer Gadget Pick Of The Month: Lenovo ThinkPad T470's

What makes the Lenovo ThinkPad T470 my recommended consumer pick of the month of June? Let me explain in so many words. First off there's the design, its nicely compact with sharply squared corners. The entire chassis is constructed out of carbon fiber with color schemes of choice beingsilver and black. I myself prefer black because black carbon fiber devices have that nice sleek appearance.  The T470 is probably the lightest laptop on the market weighing in at just 2.9 pounds. 

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The keyboard placement on any ThinkPad is the best in the business, placed perfectly near the display, leaving you enough room to rest your hand for a comfortable typing experience. Lifting the ultra thin lid up you'll notice back lighting on key caps which if I'm not mistaken users have the option to adjust its brightness levels. Aside from the laptops award-winning ergonomic design, the ThinkPad T470 retains its signature red point tracking mouse that's situated in its usual place,  which is directly in the middle of the keys, I mean what's a Thinkpad without it.

I certainly can't leave out hardware specs from this discussion, the T470 hardware falls nothing short of impeccable. Lets start with the processor, it sports a Kaby Lake Intel-Core i5-7300U processor, for storage, present is NVMe SSD  with 256GB storage capacity, on the memory front, there's 8GB of RAM. The ThinkPad T470 1920 X 1080 HD display is powered by Intel's own HD Graphics 620 chip, bummer that there's no discrete graphics card embedded within this laptop which would've added more price value, with the laptop having 8GB of RAM it will definitely handle some of the video workload. Probably the devices downfall for me is the webcam, its 720p that's living in a 4K world. Even today's smartphones is capable is capturing video in 1080P HD or higher.

For me a good laptop is not all about performance and hardware, but its about having accessible features. The Think Pad T470 have plenty of features, having a myriad of ports on the left and right side of the laptop. First the right side, there's the Smart card reader, 1-ThunderBolt 3 port, 2 USB 3.0, HDMI, Ethernet, and a SIM card. The the laptop around to the left side you have the power connector port, USB 3.0, a headphone jack, and a SD card slot.

The Lenovo ThinkPad T470 have a lot of good things going on, which is a good thing and expected, it comes from a long of pedigree in terms of top tier quality and lasting power. The laptop have everything I'm looking for in a great portable machine. Its nicely compact with a semi thin design, it'll probably fit snugly into any knapsack without any space being compromised. Most importantly the hardware is not to shabby, there's actually enough under the hood that manage some mid-level gaming.

 The Lenovo  ThinkPad series are a big with the business types and students, the T470s will certainly continue that trend. 

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The New iPad Pro Outperforms The Mac Pro In Recent Benchmark Tests

Topic:Tablet Benchmarks

Barefeats is a website that mainly covers Apple products recently conducted benchmark test on the new 10.5-inch iPad Pro and to the surprise of many and myself included, compared to the  2016 13-inch MacBook Pro benchmark numbers the slate outperformed Apple's flagship notebook.

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Impressive benchmark numbers from the iPad Pro is made possible by its beefed up hardware that sports very powerful 2.39GHz A10X fusion chipset, 4GB of RAM, and a quad-core GPU. 

In the Geek bench 4 Multi core CPU we see a 9332 score,  while the 13-inch MacBook Pro using the same benchmark application posted a 8509 score.  In the Geekbench 4-Metal GPU Compute Score test, the iPad Pro posted a 27814 score,  27631 score for the MacBook Pro. Moving on to the GFXBench-Metal Manhattan FPS test, the 10-inch iPad Pro scored a 42 FPS and for the MacBook Pro it scored a 36 FPS. Finally we have the GFXBench-Metal T-Rex FPS test, once again the iPad Pro outperforms the MacBook Pro posting a 215 score to 199.

This proves one thing, obviously the new iPad Pro is a powerful tablet, but  the iOS software optimizes perfectly with its hardware. The same can be said about the current gen iPhone (iPhone 7 and Plus),  it to have software that seems to run smoothly over hardware resulting in impressive benchmark scores.

Now the iPad Pro is very limited in terms of functionality, in the end MacBook Pro will always be the laptop of choice for the power user. The iPad  in particularly the iPad Pro will always be regarded as the best tablet on the market.

Source: Barefeats

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My Top Three Video Games Unveiled At E3 2017

The E3, which is short for Electronic Entertainment Expo its an annual event where video game developers and Manufacturers show off the latest upcoming titles and merchandise. For example, Micro$oft just unveiled their newest gaming console, the Xbox One X. But for the most part E3 is all about the video games and there were some impressive games being demoed at this years event.

Here's  three video games that wowed me with impression and they are....

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 Marvels Spider-Man (PS4)

God Of War  (PS4)

eyond Good And Evil 2 (Xbox One , PS4)

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The Hardware Breakdown Presents: Xbox One X

The Xbox One X has a nice ring to it don't it? It was just highlighted at this year's E3 developers conference which is still ongoing  as I write this article. Anyway, though I'm a PS4 loyalist, the Xbox One X, formerly known as Project Scorpion, have some pretty impressive hardware buried inside the matte black coated box like gaming console. 

Let's begin dissecting the Xbox One X and first examine the  AMD Jaguar processor which up its clock speed from 1.7GHz  to 2.3GHz with 8 working cores ( octa core setup), miles ahead the Xbox One who processor have a 1.75GHz clock speed and 6 working cores. 

The  Xbox One is capable of outputting 4K content, this means you'll need a chip that can handle the extra bandwidth. Good news,  Microsoft got you covered, embedded is a powerful AMD chip that's on par with most discrete graphics cards that's found in most high-end gaming PC's. It boasts 40 compute units each running at 1172MHz, much faster than what the PS4 have to offer, its compute units runs at 911MHz. The One X will have 12GB of GDDR5 ( compare to 8GB  that's within the PS4 Pro) VRAM,  sporting  a total of  326GB/s memory bandwidth, with 9GB being dedicated to games and 3GB to the system.

On the memory front, the Xbox One X will have plenty of it, sporting  12GB DDR5 RAM which in itself is quite impressive considering most, if not all computers today are still using  DDR4 memory modules.  As for storage, as far as I know your only choice is 1TB by default which is plenty of drive space. The One X will  contain an AMD media blocks, this  allows players to capture games in 4K with HDR, and HD Blu-ray.

In using Forza MotorSport 7 to benchmark the Xbox One X, Micro$oft claims its 4K capable console can run true 4K set and locked at 60fps. Microsoft states that it is mandatory every single Xbox One X title run similar frame rates or higher than what's standard. There Should be no concern with with 4K content impacting any frame rates. 

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The Samsung New 49-inch QLED UltraWide Monitor Unveiled

Topic: Curved displays

 Samsung, the company that manufactures all things tech shocked the world this past Friday by unveiling the monstrous CHG90 ultra wide 49-inch QLED curved monitor,  just imagine gaming, watching 4K video or even running spreadsheet software on this visual beast.

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Aesthetically pleasing to the visuals is not the monitor only attributes, there's some serious features and specs going on here. The CHG90 features a 32:9 aspect ratio an HD ready display that packs 3840 x 1080 resolution. The monitor is capable of supporting 125 percent sRGB color space, 95 percent DCI-P3 color space and can literally output 1.07 billion colors. Viewing angles are at 178-degrees, there is a insane amount of 1ms response time and a 144Hz refresh rate.

The CHG90 is the first gaming monitor on the market that's implemented with AMD FreeSync technology for smoother game play without screen tearing or stuttering. This kind of technology is similar to what NVIDIA is running on most high end gaming monitors you have on the market.

Lets face it, Samsung main consumer target are gamer's, the CHG90 is perfect for first person shooters flight simulation, and sports games such as Madden and 2K basketball.

The CHG90 monitor is flooded with some impressive features, and lets not forget the 49-inch ultra-wideness that curves, the price though is rather costly at $1,499. You can right now pre order from Amazon, there is no conformation from Samsung on an actual release date, so stay tune.

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The 120Hz Refresh Rate On The iPad Pro: What Does It All Mean?

Topic: Graphic technology

I have big admiration for the iPad, yes I've owned a few since its inception, but its a tablet that's done right, very much imitated, but never duplicated. In my opinion Apple has created the best hand held slate on the market ,and I'm sure most will agree.

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 The new iPad Pro which was unveiled at WWDC this past Tuesday have me even more stoked with admiration than any tablet Apple have created, why you ask? It's that display. Newly added features to the display makes the tablet more brighter and animated than ever.

Of course the iPad Pro retains it's usual retina display technology, giving you assured visual crispiness. Its implemented with ProMotion technology, which is a technical way of saying the display have a 120Hz refresh rate instead of the usual 60Hz  found on most mobile devices today. 

Faster refresh rates at 120Hz means "inking" with the sold separately Apple Pencil will be much faster and smoother. The Apple Pencil will be even more responsive with an insanely high latency measuring 20-milliseconds, this will allow users to have fluidity in their drawings.

The huge upgrade to the new iPad Pro display is made possible with Apple's latest A10X Fusion processor, offering a very solid 40 percent improvement in graphics performance compared the latter gen models which has A9X processor.

With the new iPad Pro having a 120Hz refresh rate, you'll have less blurred images and distortion, making it the top selling point for the interested consumer.

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The iMac Pro Revaled: Here's What You Need To Know

Apple just held its annual WWDC, as usual the main theme here is to unveil upcoming products and software updates. One such product that have a drawn my interest is the new iMac Pro. So what you need to know about Apple’s newest all-in-one desktop? It retains it's signature sleek design and the entire chassis decked out with a space gray color scheme. But wait, there's more iMac Pro technical information, so read on.

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  As Apple keeps the same design,  I'm sure no complaints will be filed from the masses, but its under the hood of the iMac Pro is where all changes have taken place as there is a complete overhaul in hardware. The the 21-inch variant comes with a 8-Core and 10-Core Intel Xeon processor. If that's not enough processing power and you thirst for more, the 27 inch model takes it to the max with a 18-Core Xeon processor. Rest of the hardware specs goes as follows, 1TB SSD storage with an option configuration up to  2TB or 4TB. On the memory front,  you have access to 32GB of ECC 2666MHz DDR4 RAM, also as configurable option you can increase your RAM to 64GB and 128GB. 

Keeping all that impressive hardware nice and frosty, Apple overhauls their cooling setup with a new Dual Centrifugal design fans. The main purpose of having this type of cooling configuration is to increase airflow. 

For me the biggest selling point with iMacs has always been its beautifully crisp display, the new iMac Pro certainly doesn't disappoint as the display is 5K retina supporting 5120 x 2880 resolution, with a 500 nits of brightness, with over one billion known colors. Apple claims its display is 43% brighter than previous models . Powering all 14.7 million pixels is the Radeon's own Pro Vega 56 graphic processor, it has 8GB of HBM2 memory, consumers have the option to go with the Radeon Pro Vega 64 graphic chip doubling the amount gigs, equaling 16GB.  The graphic chip will provide 11 teraflops of computing performance.

The iMac Pro have count em,  4-Thunderbolt 3 ports that can support up to two 5K  displays. Connecting to the Internet is about be blazing fast as there is a  built-in 10 Gigabit Ethernet port, wireless connection made possible via 802.11ac WiFi networking and probably one of few devices on the market that have Bluetooth 4.2 as most device are still under the 4.0 standard.

 Apple is claiming that the iMac Pro is the most powerful computer ever assembled, in examining the hardware specs that boasted claim may be true. Accessing this powerful machine will come at an expensive cost, start price aggressively listed at $4999, want that top tier spec'd out system, that'll run you $7,000 large. Clearly Apple's consumer target is the video editor and CGI animator who needs the raw power and have very deep pockets.

Shipment for the iMac Pro will begin in December. 

One a side note: The new iMac Pro is VR capable.....

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