Cord-cutting offers a bounty of free and cheap content to stream, but it also has a hidden cost. Behind the ads you see on streaming services like Hulu, The Roku Channel, CBS All Access, and Tubi, there are sprawling data collection operations aimed at figuring out the kind of person […]
Month: July 2020
Intel’s Core i9-10850K is a 100MHz slower, $35 cheaper 10900K
What’s the value of 100MHz? Apparently $35. At least that’s how much of a discount Intel will give those who buy the new Core i9-10850K “Comet Lake-S” CPU it officially unveiled today. That makes it fairly easy to memorize the specs of the newest 10th gen chip: Take the 10-core […]
Why AMD says we’ll be buying a lot of PCs this year
AMD has a dream that we’ll all buy more PCs, including AMD-based ones, of course—and that dream just may be coming true. Citing data from the National Retail Federation, Rick Bergman, AMD’s VP of Computing and Graphics, said he believes the sudden shift to working and learning from home during […]
Roku’s “neutral platform” days are over
Roku got far in the streaming wars by framing itself as a neutral party. With its inexpensive, straightforward streaming devices that practically anyone could publish on, Roku became a hit with cord-cutters and a valuable platform for content providers. “We are a neutral OTT platform, making us an attractive partner,” […]
AMD inside: Lenovo’s latest Legion gaming laptops, desktops deploy Ryzen CPUs
If you need yet more proof that AMD’s modern Ryzen processors are on a roll, consider Lenovo’s latest move. This week, the company added Ryzen options to five different Legion gaming systems, spanning laptops and desktops alike. That would’ve been unthinkable just a year or two ago, but AMD’s Ryzen […]
Microsoft will add free Project xCloud gaming to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate
Microsoft’s Project xCloud remote-gaming service has faded somewhat as the world has retreated indoors. This September, however, Project xCloud will become part of Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass Ultimate service for no additional cost. Microsoft began calling for people to help test its Project xCloud service last September, and we went […]
Chrome and Edge’s magic memory-reducing tech is dead for now
In June, Microsoft bragged that its new, Chromium-based Microsoft Edge could see a 27-percent drop in memory use in conjunction with the Windows 10 May 2020 Update. Google said it would follow Edge’s lead. Now both browsers will see that advantage eliminated after a performance bug was found. While the […]
The Dell XPS 17 9700 has a charging problem
The new Dell XPS 17 is drop-dead gorgeous, thin, relatively fast, and has what looks like a potentially show-stopping charging problem. How serious is it? We’ll just say that based on our review unit, it’s enough to recommend that you put a pause on a potential purchase until the problem […]
AMD Threadripper Pro has 64 cores, 128 PCIe lanes and 8-channel memory support
AMD Threadripper Pro CPUs are coming to take down Intel’s Xeon workstation chips, offering up to 64 cores, 128 threads, 128 lanes of PCIe Gen 4, and up to 2TB of RAM. The company announced four Threadripper Pro chips: Ryzen Threadripper Pro 3995WX with 64 cores, 128 threads, and a […]
Ubisoft Forward shows off Far Cry 6, Watch Dogs Legion, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and Hyper Scape
We are now more than a month past the point when E3 2020 would’ve ended. But Fake E3? That’s eternal. It lives in your heart, in your soul, and on your television. (Or maybe your phone?) Today we finally reached the “1PM Monday Afternoon” slot, a.k.a. Ubisoft. Much of what […]