Technology

vendredi 7 juin 2024

What is ‘nature-based carbon removal’ and is it any better than carbon offsets?

An aerial view of workers among a field of tree saplings. — *Workers plant trees at an ecological afforestation demonstration zone on April 11, 2023.* | Photo: Getty Images

Big tech companies are increasingly turning to nature to do the dirty work of cleaning up their greenhouse gas emissions. The idea is to use plants and ecosystems that naturally absorb CO2 to compensate for industry pollution, a tactic brands have come to call “nature-based carbon removal.”

At first glance, these attempts sound a lot like carbon offset projects that have a checkered past. For decades, companies have purchased credits from offset projects to try to cancel out some portion of their carbon footprint, typically by planting trees, restoring or protecting ecosystems that sequester CO2 through photosynthesis.

It all sounds green and dandy on paper. But studies have shown that this strategy repeatedly fails to have any meaningful impact on climate change and can even lead to more environmental harm. It’s very difficult to measure how much CO2 is stored in nature through processes that can easily be reversed, releasing the greenhouse gas again to heat the planet. Is all this talk of nature-based carbon removal just a rebranding of carbon offset projects that have gotten a bad rap?

The answer, of course, is complicated — and depends on whom you ask. At this point, no one denies that there have been problems in the past when it comes to relying on trees to clean up climate pollution. What remains to be seen is whether there can be safeguards put in place to lead to better outcomes or whether we’re simply repeating past mistakes.

Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Salesforce, for example, are all in on nature-based carbon removal. They collectively committed to purchasing up to 20 million tons of carbon credits from nature-based removal projects last month as part of a newly launched coalition called Symbiosis.

Meanwhile, tech companies’ scramble to develop new AI tools is leading to more greenhouse gas emissions from increasingly energy-hungry data centers. The more these companies try to wipe out that pollution using nature-based initiatives, the higher the stakes if those projects fail. And everyone vulnerable to rising seas and worsening weather disasters could pay the price.

The trouble with planting trees

Rather than changing the way they do business to reduce CO2 emissions, companies have typically purchased offset credits to essentially buy their way out of the problem. Many companies have relied on carbon offset credits from forestry projects to counteract a majority of their carbon pollution. Each credit represents a ton of carbon dioxide pollution avoided by planting a tree or preventing deforestation. The strategy is often criticized as a get-out-of-jail free card if the company isn’t actually reducing its emissions at the same time — especially if it buys junk carbon credits.

When it comes to nature-based carbon removal versus carbon offset initiatives, “It’s exactly the same thing. It’s the same animal,” says Wijnand Stoefs, lead carbon removal expert at the nonprofit watchdog group Carbon Market Watch. “I don’t think [carbon offsets] can ever work.”

Symbiosis, notably, didn’t use the term “offset” in its launch. It says its goal is to rally support for “carbon projects that meet the highest quality bar for planet and people, integrating the most recent science and data on the climate impact of restoration.”

To do that, Symbiosis plans to facilitate deals between carbon removal projects and companies that want to pay for their services. For now, those projects mostly encompass tree-planting on farms, previously deforested areas, and in areas that never had forest at all.

But there’s been backlash recently against big, corporate tree-planting schemes. A World Economic Forum plan to plant a trillion trees, backed by Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, rests on research disputed by dozens of scientists. That research, published in the journal Science in 2019, claimed that planting over a trillion trees could draw down up to two thirds of humans’ historical carbon dioxide emissions. The authors ultimately had to issue a correction after more than 40 other researchers said the paper overestimated the potential climate benefits by a factor of 5.

That wasn’t their only qualm. Planting so many trees, especially in places where they haven’t been before, could cause new problems, they wrote. New trees on snowy terrain could actually lead to landscapes that absorb heat, whereas vast expanses of white snow previously reflected the sun’s energy.

A separate study published in the journal Science this year called out a forest restoration campaign in Africa backed by the Bezos Earth Fund and Meta, saying it misclassified grassy ecosystems as deforested areas. Around half of the land targeted for reforestation was never supposed to be forest, according to the study, and were at risk of being razed to make way for trees.

Even when trees are planted in the right place, it can be difficult to quantify the climate benefits. For them to meaningfully slow climate change, they have to live for hundreds of years. Double-counting is another problem — if the company that pays for the associated carbon credits and the country where the trees were planted both count the emissions reductions toward their separate climate goals. Efforts to protect certain tracts of forest in the name of climate change have also inadvertently led to deforestation elsewhere, wiping out the climate gains.

Lessons learned

These problems have been so persistent that even some of the biggest buyers of carbon offset credits have backed off and pivoted to other solutions that might actually prevent CO2 emissions in the first place. A Carbon Market Watch investigation into offset credits offered by eight major European airlines found that nearly all the companies bought offset credits from suspicious forestry projects, for example. Recently, airlines have started to pivot away from relying as heavily on carbon offsetting to meet sustainability goals and say they are instead prioritizing developing more sustainable aviation fuel.

Stoefs is still skeptical that the Symbiosis Coalition can avoid the same pitfalls as previous carbon offset programs with its new nature-based projects. Looking at Symbiosis’ criteria for carbon removal, he says it’s still similar to criteria from old-school carbon offset credit registries. “I think they’re doing offsetting,” Stoefs says. “I think that they’re probably looking for a cheap supply of [credits].”

For its part, Symbiosis says it worked with independent experts to develop its own strict criteria for forestry projects to create “durable, long lasting projects.” It thinks it can drive up demand for carbon credits from projects that might be more costly but have more controls in place to hopefully lead to real-world reductions in carbon dioxide.

“Nature-based projects are complex and challenging to get right and haven’t always lived up to their intended impact. Symbiosis aims to address challenges around nature-based project integrity to date by setting a high-quality bar that builds on best in class market standards and the latest science, data, and best practice,” Symbiosis executive director Julia Strong said in an email to The Verge after Symbiosis launched in late May.

The Verge spoke with experts at the nonprofit The Nature Conservancy (TNC), which provided technical expertise in developing Symbiosis’ criteria. They say that the pivot to nature-based carbon removal reflects ways that the carbon market has corrected itself after all the fuss over faulty carbon credits.

Now, after a wave of companies committing to become carbon neutral, there are stricter standards for how they can use carbon credits. Last month, the Biden administration announced new federal guidelines for carbon offset credits. They’re voluntary, but they’re meant to hold companies to higher standards by urging them to take measures like seeking third-party verification.

The Science Based Targets Initiative, a nonprofit that assesses companies’ sustainability pledges, says companies should plan to eliminate at least 90 percent of their carbon dioxide emissions. That allows for carbon removal to “counterbalance the final 10% or more of residual emissions that cannot be eliminated” through clean energy.

In other words, companies shouldn’t be offsetting more than 10 percent of their carbon footprint. “That idea of using the carbon credits to address what’s leftover is sort of different than the old traditional idea of offsetting. And so we’re starting to see different words for use of carbon credits showing up,” says Campbell Moore, TNC’s managing director of carbon markets.

Hopefully, companies like Microsoft whose emissions have ballooned since making splashy climate pledges in recent years, are taking that to heart. Outside of joining Symbiosis, Microsoft in December signed a 15-year agreement to purchase “high-quality carbon removal” credits from afforestation, which describes tree-planting where there was previously no forest. In 2020, the company said it would strive to take more CO2 out of the atmosphere than it produces by the end of the decade. But its emissions have grown 30 percent since making that commitment.

The Nature Conservancy, which Microsoft has funded, also had to make changes to its approach with carbon credits, after a Bloomberg investigation in 2020. It turned out that some of TNC’s forest preservation projects were not actually threatened — so selling credits for “preserving” them didn’t actually lead to additional climate benefits. Since then, Moore says, TNC has developed a new methodology to have a more accurate, dynamic baseline against which additional carbon removal is measured.

The term “nature-based carbon removal” also signals a pivot away from preserving trees to planting new trees to combat climate change, according to Kirstine Lund Christiansen, a PhD fellow in political ecology at Copenhagen University.

Nature-based carbon removal can be thought of as an umbrella term that incorporates carbon offsetting and other efforts to restore ecosystems that might be divorced from the risky credit business. Companies could opt to restore ecosystems without the climate strings attached — simply for the value of a healthy ecosystem. Doing so would likely be good for the climate anyway — it just wouldn’t be exploited for carbon credits. If companies want to have a clear climate impact, Carbon Market Watch advocates for a “contribution claim model,” in which companies can give funds to less affluent nations so they can more easily afford to switch to clean energy and meet their own climate goals.

“There’s a clear understanding within the market that they have had a lot of bad press,” Christiansen says. “So they need to improve. They need to raise the bar for what is appropriate.”

Where the CHIPS Act money has gone

The image is an illustration of a semiconductor chip. — Illustration: Alex Castro / The Verge

Since the passage of the CHIPS and Science Act last August, eight companies have already received more than half of the planned government direct funding.

These companies have collectively received $29.34 billion in funding through the CHIPS Act for semiconductor factories across the country. The law, a $280 billion package to support innovation in the US, includes $52 billion in subsidies for semiconductor manufacturing and was passed last year.

These investments only concern the construction or expansion of semiconductor fabrication facilities and do not include government funding for other chip research facilities.

As of writing, Intel, Micron, Global Foundries, Polar Semiconductor, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), Samsung, BAE Systems, and Microchip Technology have been the direct beneficiaries of the law.

These include projects like Intel’s factories in Arizona, New Mexico, and Oregon, the $20 billion fab in Ohio, and Micron’s $ 100 billion plant in Syracuse, New York, to build memory chips.

Intel received the biggest direct investment through the CHIPS Act, with $8.5 billion for its semiconductor projects. TSMC received $6.6 billion in funding, while Samsung rounded out the top three with $6.4 billion from the US government.

The CHIPS Act is intended to restart the US semiconductor industry and start competing against Chinese dominance in the chip manufacturing space. However, the amount set aside to jumpstart the industry cannot be the only source of capital to bring the US up to speed, according to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, as the goal of the law “was never to provide the semiconductor industry with every dollar it requests.”

Raimondo has said leading-edge chip manufacturers have asked for $70 billion in funding for chip fabrication, more than the government initially expected to spend. She said the department is prioritizing projects that will be operational by 2030 and some “very strong” proposals from companies may never get funding through the act.

Fabricating chips is an expensive affair. TSMC, one of the CHIPS Act beneficiaries, earmarked $44 billion in 2022, up from $31 billion in 2021, just to expand its chip-making capacity.

The Semiconductor Industry Association says in an email to The Verge that the industry garnered more than $450 billion in private investments after the announcement of the CHIPS Act, and it expects it to grow even further.

Demand for chips has grown as generative AI models, which are primarily trained using powerful chips, have also grown in prominence. The US wants to start providing more high-powered chips and even start making next-generation semiconductors. The Biden administration announced in February that it will also start funding research into substrate packaging technologies, which would help create more leading-edge semiconductors.

Microsoft explains how its DLSS competitor uses AI to improve any game

Illustration: The Verge

Microsoft is launching a new Automatic super resolution (Auto SR) feature on its upcoming Copilot Plus PCs that will compete with upscale technologies like Nvidia’s DLSS. The AI-based Auto SR feature will automatically upscale game resolutions and improve frame rates, and Microsoft is now detailing exactly how it’s different to DLSS, XeSS, and FSR.

Auto SR will be integrated into Windows 11, and available on Copilot Plus devices that have a dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU). It’s designed to work with existing games with no manual configurations required and no need for game developers to change how their games are rendered.

“Auto SR is different from super resolution technologies like AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution, Intel XeSS, and NVIDIA DLSS Super Resolution built into games,” says the DirectX team in a blog post. “These approaches require games to alter their rendering, for example, by using jitter and MIP bias to add finer details. In contrast, Auto SR tackles the task of enhancing games without the extra information to improve games as they exist today.”

*Microsoft’s example of Auto SR upscaling a game at 720p (right) and improving the frame rate.*

Auto SR uses larger on-device AI models combined with the NPU on Copilot Plus devices to apply AI enhancements to game visuals, all while rendering a game at a lower resolution to improve frame rates. Microsoft is offloading the work directly to the NPU here so it’s not even hitting the GPU to get upscaling working. “This strategic shift not only improves framerates but also enhances the energy efficiency of each frame rendered, significantly boosting the overall gaming experience,” says the DirectX team.

There is a slight latency tradeoff, though. “While running our large model, Auto SR introduces a single frame of latency on average as it uses AI to significantly boost your game’s visuals,” admits Microsoft. We’ll have to test this fully to see if that single frame is noticeable, and which games it impacts more than others.

*Microsoft’s Copilot Plus PCs are launching later this month.*

At launch on June 18th, Microsoft is only automatically enhancing 11 games that have been tested to improve visual quality, framerates, or a combination of both. Borderlands 3, Control (DX11), Dark Souls III, God of War, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3, Sekiro Shadows Die Twice, Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 and The Witcher 3, are all on the launch list that have been verified by Microsoft.

That list will grow over time, and it’s easy to toggle the Auto SR feature on or off and adjust settings for individual games. Microsoft says you can also “explore this feature on additional untested games,” and force the setting on. “There may be some quirks and we can’t guarantee it will apply or improve your experience,” warns Microsoft.

The first set of Copilot Plus PCs are set to launch on June 18th with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite chips, so it won’t be long until we see how well Microsoft’s Auto SR works in reality. The feature will also eventually be available on new AMD- and Intel-powered Copilot Plus PCs, although it sounds like these machines won’t have Copilot Plus AI features until a post-launch update ships.

Microsoft is now working on Auto SR improvements, including support for HDR and multiple-monitor configurations. “As we continue to explore Auto SR capabilities, we look forward to exploring bringing Auto SR to more devices and a broader selection of x64 emulated games,” says the DirectX team.

A Conversation With Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, and an OpenAI Whistle-Blower Speaks Out

A Conversation With Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, and an OpenAI Whistle-Blower Speaks Out It turns out A.I. is surprisingly Canadian.

jeudi 6 juin 2024

That Much-Despised Apple Ad Could Be More Disturbing Than It Looks

That Much-Despised Apple Ad Could Be More Disturbing Than It Looks Tech companies are running low on new experiences to offer us. A new ad for the iPad contains revealing hints of where they could go next.

mercredi 5 juin 2024

The Rise and Fall of BNN Breaking, an AI-Generated News Outlet

The Rise and Fall of BNN Breaking, an AI-Generated News Outlet BNN Breaking had millions of readers, an international team of journalists and a publishing deal with Microsoft. But it was just an A.I. chop shop.

Microsoft reopens Windows 10 beta testing for ‘new features’ and improvements

Microsoft Windows 10 stock — Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

Microsoft is ending support for Windows 10 in October 2025, but the company is now taking the unusual step of reopening its beta program for Windows 10 to test new features and improvements.

Windows 10 already got the AI Copilot feature that was originally exclusive to Windows 11, and it may well get other features soon. “To bring new features and more improvements to Windows 10 as needed, we need a place to do active feature development with Windows Insiders,” explains Microsoft’s Windows Insider team in a blog post. “So today, we are opening the Beta Channel for Windows Insiders who are currently on Windows 10.”

Microsoft hasn’t revealed what additional Windows 10 features it plans to test next, but Windows Insiders can opt into the beta channel to get them early. Crucially, the Windows 10 end of support date of October 14th, 2025 is still unchanged. “Joining the Beta Channel on your Windows 10 PC does not change that,” says Microsoft.

Microsoft originally said it was done with major Windows 10 updates last year, before its change in approach to bring more features to an OS that will be officially unsupported in around 16 months time. The software giant describes this change as a way “to make sure everyone can get the maximum value from their current Windows PC.”

Consumers using Windows 10 will also be offered paid security updates for the first time ever once the OS hits end of support in October 2025. Microsoft recently revealed businesses will need to pay $61 per device for a year of security updates. That fee doubles to $122 for the second year and then doubles again in year three to $244. Pricing for consumer security updates hasn’t been revealed yet, with Microsoft promising it “will be shared at a later date.”

Microsoft continues to try and get consumers to upgrade to Windows 11, but millions of PCs can’t upgrade officially to Windows 11 due to its strict hardware requirements and Microsoft’s security push with its latest OS. Windows 11 is only supported on CPUs released from 2018 onward and with devices that support TPM security chips.

Windows 11 usage has lagged behind Windows 10, with StatCounter listing Windows 11 at nearly 28 percent of all Windows version market share for May 2024. Windows 10 is still at 68 percent, nine years after its release in 2015.

The Dexcom G7 now lets you monitor real-time blood sugar on the Apple Watch

Person looking at blood sugar readings on Apple Watch — *The Dexcom G7 will be able to send real-time blood sugar readings straight to the wrist.* | Image: Dexcom

Starting today, Dexcom G7 continuous glucose monitor (CGM) users will be able to monitor their real-time blood sugar data straight from an Apple Watch.

According to Dexcom’s press release, the Direct to Apple Watch feature was one of the most requested by users. Once paired to the Apple Watch, the G7 will use its own dedicated Bluetooth connection to send both glucose readings and personalized alerts to the wrist. Meaning, you don’t have to whip out your phone if you want to view your data, nor does your phone have to be on your person. For instance, G7 users will still be able to get real-time data while on a phone-free run / walk or if your phone is charging in a different room. Previously, the G7’s Apple Watch app allowed you to have a watchface complication, but there was a three-hour delay with synced data.

Render of the Direct to Apple Watch feature in the Dexcom G7 app. — *You’ll be also be able to receive alerts on the wrist.*

This is more of a secondary way to view data and receive alerts, not a replacement for your smartphone or Dexcom receiver. You still need a compatible iPhone to initially set up the G7 CGM and pair it with the Apple Watch. Sharing data with family and friends also requires your phone to be within 20 feet of range. You’ll also need your phone if you want a more holistic view of your blood glucose data alongside other metrics (e.g., activity, menstrual cycles, sleep, etc.) in the Apple Health app.

At launch, the Direct to Apple Watch feature will be available in the US, UK, and Ireland. The feature will roll out to additional markets later this month, though Dexcom didn’t specify exactly which. Folks interested in the feature should update the Dexcom G7 app to version 2.1 and will need at least an Apple Watch Series 6 running watchOS 10 or later. They must also have an iPhone running iOS 17 or later.

It’s important to note that this feature is more a step in making existing CGMs more convenient to use, rather than making smartwatches a standalone, non-invasive blood glucose monitoring tool. (While many companies are actively investing that tech, it’s still not likely we’ll see it anytime soon.) Along that vein, Dexcom also recently announced it got FDA clearance for the Stelo CGM, an over-the-counter device geared toward non-insulin dependent, Type 2 diabetes patients. The Stelo, which was introduced at CES 2024, is expected to be available later this summer.

Israel Secretly Targets U.S. Lawmakers With Influence Campaign on Gaza War

Israel Secretly Targets U.S. Lawmakers With Influence Campaign on Gaza War Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs ordered the operation, which used fake social media accounts urging U.S. lawmakers to fund Israel’s military, according to officials and documents about the effort.

mardi 4 juin 2024

Zotac Zone official: this handheld has twin trackpads, jog wheels, adjustable triggers and OLED

It’s handheld season, and the Asus ROG Ally X and MSI Claw 8 AI Plus aren’t the only second-gen Windows gaming handhelds in town — GPU manufacturer Zotac has officially revealed its Zone at Computex, and it does a few things differently than the competition.

Zotac already teased that the Zone would have an OLED screen, something that only the Steam Deck OLED has managed in PC handhelds before — as well as two-stage adjustable triggers like an Xbox Elite gamepad and drift resistant Hall effect joysticks. But did you know it’ll also have symmetrical PlayStation-esque joysticks, programmable dials around each one, twin Steam Deck-like trackpads, a small built-in kickstand, a Windows Hello camera instead of a fingerprint reader, and both top and bottom USB4 ports?

Thanks to journalists who descended on Taipei this week, we do — some of whom took good photos, including the entire spec sheet. PCWorld even filmed a 20-minute long video tour:

J'ai pu approcher la Zone, la console de ZOTAC. Elle est encore en phase "beta" mais elle est super prometteuse. On est clairement sur un mélange entre un Steam Deck et une ROG Ally. Son argument fort ? L'écran OLED de 7 pouces. Hâte de jouer à The War Within dessus pic.twitter.com/6hqBRNggCq
— Pierre Le Goupil (@SireGoupil) June 4, 2024

The handheld’s powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 8840U chip, and you shouldn’t necessarily expect a lot from it — it’s largely the same as the 7840U that powered prior handhelds, with the same Radeon 780M iGPU inside. But like the ROG Ally X and Lenovo Legion Go, it does upgrade to LPDDR5X-7500 memory, which seemingly gave the Legion a slight performance bump over the original Ally — and at a more modest 1080p resolution.

Less pleasingly, Zotac appears to have outfitted it with a modest 48.5 watt-hour battery pack as well, smaller than that of the Steam Deck OLED and vastly smaller than the 80Wh packs that Asus and MSI just announced — and its 7-inch 120Hz OLED screen doesn’t support variable refresh rate any more than the Steam Deck’s one did. It does sound nice and bright at 800 nits, however, and I’m intrigued by the programmable jog dials.

As you may know, Zotac was one of the first companies to try AirJet’s intriguing solid-state cooling tech in a mini-PC, and PCWorld’s Adam Murray took the opportunity to ask if Zotac was planning to use the tech in a handheld, too. But while AirJet maker Frore Systems seems to think it’d work, Zotac suggested the current AirJet isn’t yet designed to cool chips as high wattage as the 8840U — and that cost might also be a concern. For now, the Zone has a single traditional fan and a couple of smallish vents to help keep it cool.

According to Geeknetic, the Zone should cost around $800 in September of this year. That’s on the high end of consumer gaming handhelds, though the Ally X, with its dramatically bigger battery, is also launching at that price.

Zotac, if you’re reading this: we’re happy to get the details from you next time!

lundi 3 juin 2024

This is Lunar Lake — Intel’s utterly overhauled AI laptop chip that ditches memory sticks

*Intel’s Lunar Lake held aloft by Intel client chip boss Michelle Johnston Holthaus.* | Image: Intel

Last year, Intel boasted that its Meteor Lake processors, dubbed Core Ultra, represented the company’s biggest architectural shift in 40 years. But Intel didn’t settle down after that: today it’s revealing how Lunar Lake, its next laptop chip coming this fall, will overhaul the formula yet again.

Facing the existential threat of Arm and the opportunity of AI PCs, Intel has apparently ditched its famous tick-tock cadence for a whole new system-on-chip design, one that not only triples the size and more than quadruples the performance of its AI accelerator, but promises up to 14 percent faster CPU performance at the same clockspeed, 50 percent more graphics performance, and up to 60 percent better battery life than last year’s model.

“It’s x86 power like you’ve never seen it before,” claims Intel technical marketer Rob Hallock, who says Intel tweaked every part of the chip to make it happen. He says it’ll “definitely” beat Qualcomm, too.

*Here’s an early glimpse at a real Lunar Lake chip, where you can clearly see its two chunks of onboard memory below the main silicon.*

The biggest change? If you buy a Lunar Lake laptop, it won’t have separate memory sticks or chips! Lunar Lake now bakes 16 or 32GB of LPDDR5X memory into the package itself, with no ability to connect more RAM. It’s a change that reduces the power consumption of moving data through the system by approximately 40 percent, according to Intel. For those who need more memory, Hallock says a separate Arrow Lake architecture is coming to laptops later this year.

After hours of poring through slide decks and presentations, plus a quick chat with Hallock, here’s everything else I just learned.

8 cores, no hyperthreading

Last year’s Meteor Lake contained a wild new “3D performance hybrid architecture” with loads of Performance (P), Efficiency (E), and even a pair of brand-new Low Power Efficiency (LP-E) cores on a separate tile dubbed the “low power island.”

That island was built like a smartphone, a first for Intel, with its own Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, display controllers, memory, and those low-power CPU cores. The idea: you could theoretically save battery life by never heating up other tiles and bigger cores unless you’re doing bigger tasks.

But it didn’t work. Apps like Microsoft Teams wound up warming the entire chip. So Intel is axing the LP-E cores after only one year — in favor of a new 4 by 4 system. You get up to four new “Lion Cove” P-cores and four new “Skymont” E-Cores in a Lunar Lake chip. Those E-cores now run as fast as an LP-E core at one-third the power, or scale to 2x or 4x the performance (single-threaded vs. multi-threaded).

And with a new thread director, Windows can now create “containment zones” that actually keep “most real workloads” on the Skymont E-cores, Microsoft and Intel claim.

The LP-E cores “did not constrain all the workloads we had hoped or wanted the island to handle, so we were not getting the full entitlement of battery life and efficiency we had hoped for,” says Hallock.

“This is key to Lunar Lake battery life: we can run more workloads in a lower power environment on a lower power core with fewer things turned on, and still give you a great user experience,” says Intel fellow Stephen Robinson.

Microsoft Teams uses 35 percent less power on Lunar Lake thanks to those changes, Intel claims — though Intel says it can’t yet translate that to hours for me.

Similarly, Intel has finally axed Hyper-Threading because the SMT technology eats more power and real estate than it’s worth. “Adding more cores is slightly more die area” than the doubled portions of circuitry needed to make HT work, Hallock admits, but he says the E-cores are so compact and capable now that HT simply no longer makes sense.

More performance everywhere

Speaking of capable E-cores, Intel’s Skymont has another surprise: this year’s E-core is more powerful and efficient than last year’s P-core at typical laptop clockspeeds — with up to 20 percent more single-threaded performance. It just can’t scale up to nearly as many gigahertz:

*“Raptor Cove for peak performance, Skymont for more performance ISO power or ISO performance at lower power,” says Intel.*

*Here we are zoomed into the blue box on the companion graph. Label your axes, Intel!*

The four “Lion Cove” P-cores, meanwhile, offer a 14 percent performance increase clock for clock, though Intel wouldn’t provide clockspeed numbers so we can truly compare. But overall, says Hallock, performance is “generationally very significantly up” compared to last year.

*Intel’s new P-cores also have more performance at lower power.*

In the GPU realm, Intel is even more sure of itself: the company says its Xe2 GPU offers 1.5x the graphics performance of Meteor Lake (in 3DMark Time Spy) which itself was 2x the performance of the previous generation. It’s still got the same number of Xe cores and other functional units, but with a variety of performance and efficiency improvements.

And while assuredly not all Lunar Lake chips will be equal, Intel says it didn’t have to split its Xe laptop GPU into two different flavors for lower and higher wattage: Xe2 can now scale across the spectrum of light and medium-weight laptops all by itself. Intel also says the GPU offers 67 TOPS of AI performance, in addition to the NPU.

*Xe2 replaces both Meteor Lake H and Meteor Lake U GPUs.*

A tripled NPU

Meteor Lake didn’t truly kick off the AI laptop generation the way that Intel hoped. In fact, you could argue it left early adopters in the cold — with just 11.5 TOPS worth of AI acceleration, their NPU falls far shy of Microsoft’s 40 TOPS requirement for Copilot Plus PCs.

But Lunar Lake triples the amount of NPU hardware on the die, doubles the memory bandwidth, and boosts the clockspeed from 1.4GHz to 1.95GHz —offering up to 48 TOPS and an estimated 2x to 4x performance overall.

The tripled hardware does draw a little more power, but Intel says it’s substantially faster: just 5.8 seconds for 20 iterations of Stable Diffusion for Lunar Lake vs. 20.9 seconds for Meteor Lake, while pulling 11.2 watts instead of 9 watts previously.

Intel says its software partners are currently building 350 AI features for PCs due through 2025.

Everything else that caught my eye or ear

Lunar Lake now natively supports H.266 VVC video for an additional 10 percent filesize reduction over AV1 “at the same quality”.
You get Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 baked into the chip — though it still requires a companion PCIe module for the physical radios and antenna connectors.
Intel claims it takes 55 percent less time to wake up wireless when waking up the machine.
eDP 1.5 with “panel replay” and other techniques can save up to (emphasis on “up to”) 351mW of power by not repeatedly drawing the same images on screen.
There’s a new dedicated Partner Security Engine on the chip that’s “effectively Microsoft Pluton,” Intel says, with its own processor, fuse, and crypto portion.
Lunar Lake’s onboard memory means motherboards can and will shrink — “there are some interesting design win decisions coming,” says Hallock.
Lunar Lake’s Compute Tile is indeed built on TSMC’s N3B processor, with the platform controller on TSMC’s N6, though Intel says it does all the design, assembly, and packaging.
Intel says it can dynamically adjust the speed of the RAM to reduce Wi-Fi interference.
Intel says it can dynamically adjust clockspeed in 16.67MHz intervals (down from 100MHz) to optimize performance.
Every Lunar Lake system gets two Thunderbolt 4 ports — “You are guaranteed a minimum of two Thunderbolt 4 ports on every Lunar Lake system that you touch,” says Hallock.
Intel, like Qualcomm, will sell a Mac Mini-like AI PC development kit later this year — one that Intel says will be upgradable to Panther Lake chips when they’re available.

The Intel AI PC Development Kit, with 32GB of RAM, two USB-C, two USB-A, and HDMI.

Intel says a big wave of Lunar Lake laptops will arrive later this year, with 80 different designs across 20 hardware partners at launch, including all the biggest PC vendors — though not Microsoft, which chose to go with Qualcomm’s chips for its Surface Laptop and Surface Pro instead. Intel’s client chip boss Michelle Johnston Holthaus says all 80 designs should be available ahead of the holidays this year.

Microsoft layoffs hit HoloLens, Azure cloud teams

Image: The Verge

On Monday, Microsoft announced layoffs reportedly affecting around 1,000 employees. As reported previously by CNBC, the mixed reality department working on HoloLens 2 is one of the areas affected. Separately, Business Insider reported that Azure for Operators and Mission Engineering has also seen cuts of “hundreds” of employees.

Microsoft spokesperson Craig Cincotta said in a statement emailed to The Verge, “Earlier today, we announced a restructuring of Microsoft’s Mixed Reality organization. We remain fully committed to the Department of Defense’s IVAS program and will continue to deliver cutting-edge technology to support our soldiers. In addition, we will continue to invest in W365 to reach the broader Mixed Reality hardware ecosystem. We will continue to sell HoloLens 2 while supporting existing HoloLens 2 customers and partners.”

This round of layoffs comes more than a year after Microsoft laid off more than 10,000 people, and CEO Satya Nadella said the company was changing its hardware portfolio. Since then, Microsoft has closed its acquisition of Activision-Blizzard, invested heavily in AI, and recently begun a push for “AI PCs” with a new round of Surface devices powered by Qualcomm chips.

“Organizational and workforce adjustments are a necessary and regular part of managing our business. We will continue to prioritize and invest in strategic growth areas for our future and in support of our customers and partners,” said Cincotta.

Microsoft formed the Azure for Operators and Mission Engineering department in 2021 to encompass “moonshots,” like the Azure Space unit seeking to work with companies like SpaceX and roll out a portable data center in a box. Other teams in the group work on projects like support for telecoms and work on quantum computing.

Can Artificial Intelligence Rethink Art? Should it?

Can Artificial Intelligence Rethink Art? Should it? There is an increasing overlap between art and artificial intelligence. Some celebrate it, while others worry.

Snowflake says there’s no evidence attackers breached its platform to hack Ticketmaster

Illustration of a phone with yellow caution tape running over it. — Illustration by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

A Ticketmaster data breach that allegedly includes details for 560 million accounts and another one affecting Santander have been linked to their accounts at Snowflake, a cloud storage provider. However, Snowflake says there’s no evidence its platform is at fault.

A joint statement to that effect made last night with CrowdStrike and Mandiant, two third-party security companies investigating the incident, lends additional credibility to the claim. Also, an earlier third-party report saying bad actors generated session tokens and may have compromised “hundreds” of Snowflake accounts has now been removed. Hudson Rock, the security firm behind that report, posted a statement of its own today on LinkedIn: “In accordance to a letter we received from Snowflake’s legal counsel, we have decided to take down all content related to our report.”

A post from Snowflake says, “To date, we do not believe this activity is caused by any vulnerability, misconfiguration, or malicious activity within the Snowflake product. Throughout the course of our ongoing investigation, we have promptly informed the limited number of customers who we believe may have been impacted.”

The joint statement says the attacks appear to be a “targeted campaign” focused on accounts without multifactor authentication. Snowflake has also released instructions for customers to review their accounts for unusual activity and ways to set up account and network policies to prevent similar attacks.

Snowflake, CrowdStrike, and Mandiant:

We have not identified evidence suggesting this activity was caused by a vulnerability, misconfiguration, or breach of Snowflake’s platform;

We have not identified evidence suggesting this activity was caused by compromised credentials of current or former Snowflake personnel;

This appears to be a targeted campaign directed at users with single-factor authentication;

As part of this campaign, threat actors have leveraged credentials previously purchased or obtained through infostealing malware; and

We did find evidence that a threat actor obtained personal credentials to and accessed demo accounts belonging to a former Snowflake employee. It did not contain sensitive data. Demo accounts are not connected to Snowflake’s production or corporate systems. The access was possible because the demo account was not behind Okta or Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), unlike Snowflake’s corporate and production systems.

Ticketmaster's parent company, Live Nation, which waited 11 days to confirm the data breach in a note to investors late Friday evening, has not provided any additional details about what information has been compromised or responded to inquiries.

dimanche 2 juin 2024

AMD’s first Zen 5 CPU is the ‘monster’ Ryzen 9 9950X

AMD is launching its first Zen 5 desktop processors in July, with the Ryzen 9 9950X flagship leading the pack as “the world’s most powerful desktop consumer processor.” Based on AMD’s existing AM5 platform, the new Ryzen 9000 series of CPUs include the Ryzen 9 9950X, Ryzen 9 9900X, Ryzen 7 9700X, and Ryzen 5 9600X.

The flagship Ryzen 9 9950X is a 16-core, 32-thread CPU, with 80MB of L2+L3 cache and a 5.7GHz boost clock. AMD is promising around a 16 percent instructions per cycle (IPC) uplift in performance over the previous-generation Ryzen CPUs, with big promises of performance gains in productivity as well as gaming.

“It’s a big leap, and we’re very very proud of it,” says Donny Woligroski, senior technical marketing manager for consumer processors at AMD, in a press briefing with The Verge. “It’s a monster. This processor does really well against the competition.”

AMD is promising gains of up to 56 percent in Blender against Intel’s Core i9-14900K with the new flagship 9950X, and even 21 percent in Cinebench 2024. On the gaming side, AMD’s benchmarks show a 4 percent frame rate bump over the 14900K in games like Borderlands 3, all the way up to 23 percent better performance in Horizon Zero Dawn.

At the heart of the 9950X is AMD’s new Zen 5 architecture. It’s still using the AM5 socket, with the usual PCIe Gen 5 and DDR5 support, but there are some updates under the hood to deliver more performance that AMD argues make this not a trivial update. “Sometimes there are updates of Zen that are not as fundamental, but Zen 5 is a sweeping update with vastly improved branch prediction for both accuracy and latency,” says Woligroski. “It’s a really impressive difference, and this delivers up to twice the instruction bandwidth, up to twice the data bandwidth, and up to twice the AI performance of the last gen.”

*AMD’s IPC promise for the latest Zen 5 CPUs.*

*AMD’s benchmark claims against the 14900K.*

AMD originally promised that the AM5 socket, which launched in 2022, would keep seeing new processor support until at least 2025, but it’s now extending that commitment at Computex to 2027 or beyond. The previous AM4 socket was introduced in 2016, and it’s still going strong today, almost a decade later. AMD is even launching new 5900XT and 5800XT processors for AM4 motherboards in July. The original 5900X was a 12-core processor, but the 5900XT is now a 16-core, 32-thread CPU, designed to take on Intel’s midrange 13th Gen desktop CPUs. The 5800XT has 8 cores, 16 threads, and a boost clock up to 4.8GHz.

AMD’s commitment to AM4 and now AM5 is seriously impressive, especially compared to Intel, which is about to launch its fourth desktop socket since 2015. The upcoming LGA 1851 socket replaces LGA 1700, which debuted in 2021, replacing 2020’s LGA 1200, which replaces the LGA 1151 Intel used from 2015 to 2019.

*AMD’s new Ryzen 9 and Ryzen 7 CPUs for the AM4 socket.*

“This really speaks to the success of socket AM4 and previous-gen processors that are lasting so much longer than anyone thought a platform could,” says Woligroski. “It’s the real advantage of having a commitment from your CPU supplier that says we’re in this for the long haul — if you want to upgrade at some time, you don’t have to throw your system away and start from scratch.”

While AM5 is being extended, AMD is also launching new X870 and X870E motherboard chipsets for these new Ryzen 9000 series CPUs. You don’t need these new boards for these new CPUs, but they do come with USB 4.0 as standard, and they all include PCIe 5 Gen 5 on the graphics and NVMe sides, even on the non-E X870 boards this time around. They also support higher EXPO memory overclock support, which is great for enthusiasts who want the best memory speeds possible.

The four new Ryzen 9000 series CPUs and 5900XT / 5800XT will all launch in July, but AMD isn’t providing pricing for any of the processors yet. The Ryzen 9 9900X will include 12 cores, 24 threads, and a 5.6GHz boost. Interestingly, it also has a 50-watt lower TDP than the 7900X. The Ryzen 7 9700X ships with eight cores, 16 threads, and a 5.5GHz boost clock. Finally, the Ryzen 5 9600X will have six cores and 12 threads, alongside a 5.4GHz max boost.

Here is what’s happening at Computex 2024

More chips, more AI.

We’re only halfway through 2024, and there’s no sign of AI-related announcements slowing down — especially with Computex 2024 here. This year’s Taipei-based convention starts on June 4th and ends on June 7th, and you can expect to see big keynotes from AMD, Qualcomm, Intel, Nvidia, and Arm detailing their upcoming strategies for processors that better handle the AI workloads we’re increasingly foisting on computers.

Prior to Computex, we heard a lot about new Copilot Plus PC laptops powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite and Plus chips, a bunch of new Microsoft Copilot features, and where Apple slots into the AI bandwagon now that it has competition from another Arm processor.

Keep on scrolling for all the latest news out of Computex.

PewDiePie ‘avenged’ as MrBeast becomes YouTube’s most-subscribed channel

MrBeast smiling at a camera. — *MrBeast is now the most-subscribed YouTube channel.* | Photo: Chris Unger / Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Bollywood music label T-Series had the most-subscribed YouTube channel for years after Felix Kjellberg, aka PewDiePie, conceded his protracted and problematic fight for the top spot to it. But now that honor belongs to YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson, who posted yesterday that his MrBeast YouTube operation had ‘avenged’ PewDiePie by overtaking T-Series.

The news apparently prompted a rush, as Donaldson published a screenshot showing he’d gained 2 million more yesterday, which he said is a one-day record for the channel. The online tracker Social Blade now puts him at 268 million subscribers.

After 6 years we have finally avenged Pewdiepie pic.twitter.com/V1znbyqw27
— MrBeast (@MrBeast) June 2, 2024

Donaldson made a big show of supporting Kjellberg’s campaign to stay on top back in 2019, having plastered every billboard in his town with ads promoting PewDiePie. He also showed up to the Super Bowl with several friends who wore shirts that together spelled out “SUB 2 PEW DIE PIE.” Given his 2-million-subscriber gain yesterday — a number it recently took T-Series a month to accumulate — it seems unlikely that T-Series will be able to catch up.

A better way to take video on your phone

Image: David Pierce / The Verge

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 40, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, send me all your recommendations immediately, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)

This week, I’ve been reading about Shein and Reese Witherspoon and Hollywood Ponzi schemes, journaling in Papery, testing Lazy for all my link dumps and notes, drinking a lot of Poppi soda, developing a mac and cheese recipe my toddler will actually like, and pricing out plane tickets for the Wu-Tang Clan listening party in Australia.

I also have for you a great new app for capturing video, a nifty new Chrome trick, a MoviePass documentary worth watching, a smartwatch for kids, and much more. It’s a short week, so we have a relatively light one but still plenty of good stuff to talk about. Let’s go.

(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you into right now? What should everyone else be playing, reading, watching, eating, or making? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, tell them to subscribe here.)

The Drop

Kino. The team at Lux doesn’t really miss. They made Halide for photos, the nifty Orion iPad monitor tool, and now Kino, a video app that is somehow both really simple and absurdly powerful. I love a good noir filter. (I got a lot of recommendations for this one this week — thanks to everyone who sent them in!)
The Fitbit Ace LTE. This smartwatch is for kids, but… I want one. It has some fun games designed to get you moving, a really charming bunch of colors and accessories, and a surprising amount of power inside. Don’t love the $230 price, but love just about everything else.
Jim Henson Idea Man. I don’t know if it’s just that I have a toddler who’s obsessed with Sesame Street and the Muppets, but even the trailer for this Disney Plus doc made me cry. It’s a story about creativity and wonder and is full of fun behind-the-scenes Muppets stuff.
Carrot 6.0. Some really fun updates to the most fun weather app! I like the new layouts and data viz stuff in particular, and the game-mechanic robot gardener feature is charming but not really my thing. Still: more silliness in weather apps, you love to see it.
Jon Bellion on The George Janko Show. This episode has been all over my For You page on TikTok, with Bellion explaining how the Ticketmaster / Live Nation monopoly works and the overall business of being an artist in 2024. Really interesting listen.
Chrome’s Minimized Custom Tabs. A terrible name for a really clever product: basically, picture-in-picture for a browser tab that makes the whole in-app browser idea much more seamless. It’s only Chrome for Android for now, but Google says it’s hoping every browser supports the feature, and I hope so, too.
Trip Tunes. Large language models turn out to be really, really good at making playlists. This app is only for iOS and only for Apple Music, boo, but I love the whole mixtape-y aesthetic and that you just tell it where you’re going and the mood you’re in, and it fills the ride with music.
The Nomad Tracking Card. I had an AirTag in my wallet for a while, but it was just a little too big. I’d much rather just slide this into the card slot since Nomad says it’s only as thick as two credit cards. The battery apparently lasts five months and charges via any MagSafe charger.
MoviePass, MovieCrash. I mentioned this last week, but figured I’d re-up now that it’s out. It’s really good! I covered MoviePass a lot, and I still learned a lot about how this company took off — and how it failed so spectacularly and so quickly. (Also, more on this coming on Tuesday’s Vergecast, so keep an eye out.)

Screen share

You know those people you hear on podcasts all the time and you’re, like, best friends even though you don’t know them and have never met them? For me, Sean Rameswaram was one of those people until very recently. He’s one of the co-hosts of Today, Explained, the wonderful daily news show from our friends over at Vox — and over the last couple of months, they’ve let me guest host a few times! (We did a really interesting episode this week about storm chasers and extreme weather if you want to take a listen.)

Anyway, Sean’s one of those people who seems to be interested in everything, always, all the time, so I wondered what his homescreen would reveal about what he truly cares about most. Here it is, along with some info on the apps he uses and why:

The phone: I had an iPhone SE (the original one) for six or seven years. Retiring it reminded me of an episode of Married… with Children — the one where Al Bundy had held onto his car so long that the manufacturer was going to hook him up with a new one on the house for hitting 1,000,000 miles. I wondered if I qualified for a similar deal for sticking with the original SE for a Senate term but never asked. I eventually replaced it with an iPhone 13 Mini. I don’t like the big phones. It looks like there’s an iPad in your pocket.

The wallpaper: It’s Leo hailing a cab in NYC with a no-hands whistle. He’s done it a few times in the movies, too — most recently in Killers of the Flower Moon. For more years than I care to remember, I’ve wanted to learn how to belt one. I think living in New York City for half a decade was the impetus. I’ve tried to sit down and master it a few times but almost passed out from shortness of breath. Recently, I found out it’s a months-long learning process. I keep Leo as my background to remind myself to figure it out before I die.

The apps: WNYC, Calendar, NYTimes, KCRW, Merriam-Webster Dictionary, YouTube, Calculator, Seek, Yelp, Chrome, Camera, Weather, Apple Music, Slack, Settings, Mail, Instagram, Photos, Clock, App Store, Podcasts, Google Maps, Spotify, Radio Garden, Phone, FaceTime, Messages, WhatsApp.

I promise I don’t organize my books by color, but I couldn’t help it with my apps. In the four corners, we’ve got my main squeeze: audio (née radio). Radio Garden is the most unbelievable (and admittedly underused) on the page. It enables you to spin around the globe and listen to thousands upon thousands of live radio streams. It’s the cheapest vacation you’ll ever take. Shouts to Breakmaster Cylinder for the intro.

The rest of this screen is pretty stock and self-explanatory, but I want to single out Seek and all apps like it for helping us identify bugs, birds, plants, and trees. This is the future we were promised.

Has anyone else used this weather app? It’s constantly wrong.

I also asked Sean to share a few things he’s into right now. Here’s what he sent back:

I was lucky to do a decent amount of traveling this past year, and I was constantly looking for restaurant recommendations online. Eater’s “38 Essential Restaurants” was consistently the best curator. Since the Eaters are colleagues of mine, I had the chance to ask their publisher, Amanda Kludt, why they always shoot for 38. She said, “It’s just a great number.” Fair!
I swear I like things that aren’t produced by Vox Media, but have you played Cinematrix? I hit the Vulture homepage every morning because I’m a geriatric millennial who still appreciates a homepage. When I first saw Cinematrix, I thought it was cute but didn’t make it a habit. Then one day, a dear old friend texted me and my brother his grid, and we were all immediately hooked because — duh — it’s a social game. It’s a daily conversation starter and a really fun ritual when you’re doing it with other people. My personal Cinematrix universe has since expanded with a few colleagues. We’re all feeling very Vulture blue-pilled.
Am I the first person to plug a strip show on Screen Share? No, because Magic Mike Live is not what you’d expect. Sure, there was a butt, but it was mostly a rapturous and liberating celebration of sexuality, consent, and some really impressive six-packs. Remember when you were watching the original movie, and all of a sudden, you were blown away by how good a dancer Channing Tatum was? This is that, on steroids. Maybe literally. Dare to skip the Sphere the next time you’re in Vegas and hit the Sahara for MML instead. Or at least try and do both.

Crowdsourced

Here’s what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you’re into right now as well! Email installer@theverge.com or message me on Signal — @davidpierce.11 — with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we’ll feature some of our favorites here every week. For even more recommendations than I could fit here, check out the replies to this post on Threads.

“My go-to phone games are Flipflop Solitaire and Retro Bowl (both of which are available through Apple Arcade). Retro Bowl is a fun riff on Tecmo Bowl, and Flipflop Solitaire is a fun twist on solitaire, which I play a lot when I’m killing time and don’t want to get sucked into social media.” — Jared

“TV Launcher is an awesome utility that gives a full TV guide, which can deep link into most streaming apps and open the exact channel automatically. It basically turns my Apple TV into a full-blown replacement for a cable box.” — Bilaal

“Kinda controversial but Yann LeCun & Musk trash talking on Twitter. Also, I ended up re-reading a bunch of Yann’s old papers because why not.” — Kruti

“After searching for years for the best open-ear earbuds that allow me to roam about outside without endangering myself by blocking out traffic or other noise or blocking out the voices of my family when I’m at home, I was pleased to discover that they exist and are sometimes on sale for even less than their list price of $50.” — Christopher

“This week’s The Jeff Gerstmann Show (hosted by this week’s surprise host: Jeff Gerstmann, joined by guest Arthur Gies) was full of insight on the upcoming summer gaming events.

Always recommend Jeff’s work during this time of year.” — Paul

“The greatest game ever made: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.” — Max

“Watched The Fall Guy, which was honestly a treat for anyone who has worked with / around / or on movies in general just from the variety of stunts showcased. It hit streaming early due to fairly mediocre box office performance.” — Amanda

“I am addicted to Threes. I don’t know if anyone plays it anymore, but I love it so much. I played those ‘free versions’ for so many years I can’t even remember now.” — Kruti

“DaisyDisk. Like WizTree and SequoiaView but for Mac and a really nice-looking UI.” — Sinan

“Been playing three years’ worth of Destiny 2 campaigns after they were included in PS Plus. The game is hilariously lacking in onboarding for return players, but even just sticking to solo story missions, there’s a staggering amount of content from the (IMO) best FPS studio to ever do it.” — Jonathan

Signing off

It’s important to me that you know how hard I try not to talk about Dune: Part Two every week in this newsletter. I want to talk about it all the time! But did you know Dune: Part Two is streaming now? Which means, if you haven’t seen it, you can watch it — and then watch this awesome video about its sound design and this other awesome video about its sound design and this great interview with Hans Zimmer about the score and this truly epic scene breakdown with Denis Villeneuve and this great chat with cinematographer Greig Fraser and all of the 50,000 other eye-opening YouTube videos about this terrific movie. My YouTube recommendations have been basically all Dune for two months, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

See you next week!

The Asus ROG Ally X is official — and I took a peek inside

$799 for twice the battery, twice the storage, and loads of small improvements.

When Valve introduced the Steam Deck OLED, I called it “everything the original should have been.” Asus is trying to do the exact same thing with the new ROG Ally X.

After months of leaks, teases, and exclusive early details from yours truly, it’s official: the ROG Ally X handheld gaming PC is going on preorder today for $799.

When it ships on July 22nd, it’ll come with double the battery, double the storage, double the USB-C ports with quadruple the USB bandwidth, 50 percent more (and faster) 7500MHz memory for up to a 15 percent performance boost, dramatically revised ergonomics, an overhauled internal layout, and an extensive list of other tweaks.

There are so many changes, in fact, that I spent two hours on the phone with Asus technical marketing director Sascha Krohn to hear about them all. I also went to the company’s US headquarters to open up an ROG Ally X with my own screwdrivers and play with the new build. I took plenty of pics, because I want you to nerd out with me.

But first, let me remind you what the ROG Ally X is not. Here’s what I wrote last month:

Don’t call it an Ally 2: when it ships in the second half of the year, the Windows-based Ally X will have the same AMD Z1 Extreme chipset and the same 7-inch 48–120Hz VRR screen. It’s not quite like the Steam Deck OLED, where Valve got AMD to revise its chip for better battery life and stability and added a larger, brighter, gorgeous new OLED panel with improved response time and slimmer bezels.

The ROG Ally X is a revision, not a sequel, and it’s a pricier one. It still runs Windows, and I still firmly believe Windows drags gaming handhelds down. But the Ally X might be the best Windows handheld yet — because Asus has crammed a monster 80 watt-hour battery into a handheld that doesn’t feel heavy, one that fits my average-sized hands better than any Windows handheld I’ve tried.

At 1.49 pounds (678g), the ROG Ally X is only 0.15 pounds (70g) heavier than the original, and it’s only 0.18 inches (4.5mm) thicker at its thickest point. It’s almost exactly the same weight as the original Steam Deck, and almost half an inch thinner, but with twice as much battery capacity inside.

How? While the bigger battery added over 120 grams of weight, Asus was able to offset half of it by making other components lighter. Krohn says a stronger, thinner, lighter chassis offered the biggest savings — the weight of the talcum-filled ABS / polycarbonate composite went from 176 grams to 134 grams by the time Asus was done. (I did run into one side effect of the stiffer plastic blend: it’s harder to pop it open for repair.)

The Ally X has lighter circuit boards, too, shaving away lots of unnecessary board, and a lighter cooling module — including 23-percent smaller fans that are actually more powerful, because the company’s in-house design team created its own custom set of 77 ultra-thin blades that trump the 47 of the original. Krohn says you might see the Ally run a couple degrees cooler, and the thinner blades help reduce the audible noise bump at around 5,000Hz, too.

And, there’s a new series of vents that let the Ally X cool its touchscreen more effectively — up to 6°C cooler.

The joysticks are another place where they’re both better and lighter: completely revised modular boards now use the same high-grade potentiometer based ALPS sticks you’ll find in a PS5 or Xbox gamepad, with far tighter throw than the original Ally, delightfully tacky concave tops a la Steam Deck OLED, wider bases for better dust resistance, and low friction POM plastic stems for smoother action when they scrape against the joystick ring’s edge.

They’re rated to 5 million rotation cycles, up from 2 million, and if that’s not enough, they’re modular — ready for a drift-resistant Hall Effect magnetic joystick upgrade kit that Gulikit already has in development. (Krohn says not enough gamers prefer Hall Effect sticks for them to come standard, which... maybe?)

And, Asus has seemingly addressed almost all of the biggest complaints about I/O:

You get a full-length M.2 2280 PCIe 4 SSD slot now, one which supports double-sided drives too, opening up both the highest capacity and the most cost effective storage options on the market.

*Ports and vents: ROG Ally X vs. ROG Ally.* *Tap here for a closer look*.

Asus has also ditched its proprietary XG Mobile eGPU port for a second USB-C port, one that offers all the benefits of Thunderbolt 4 too: 40Gbps speeds, 100W USB-C PD charging, DP 1.4 video output, and 4 lanes of PCIe for standard eGPUs. (No Oculink, sorry.)

Both ports are top-mounted, but Krohn says that lets even the weaker one offer 100W charging and 10Gbps data.

And yes, Asus says you get a new SD card reader that is not the same as the one that Asus won’t admit has an issue.

*The ROG Ally X one-pager. 24GB RAM means the GPU and system basically no longer need to share.*

Here are some of the smaller details I learned:

The D-pad is not only eight-way now, it’s also larger and more comfortable. I vastly prefer it.
The face buttons are 3mm taller, inside a longer tube for more stability. I found they have a flatter press.
The speakers have a slightly larger chamber for slightly more volume and bass.
The haptic actuators have moved to the edges of the device, beneath palms, for more pronounced feedback and weight distribution.
The shoulder buttons are mounted differently on the board so they don’t break as easily in a fall.
The triggers are wider and made of smoky semi-transparent plastic that looks cool.
The rear intake vents are slightly larger.
The joystick tops are now attached with screws, so you could theoretically 3D print your own tops or stem extenders.
Similarly, the new back buttons are screwed into the rear shell now, so you could theoretically move their position in your own 3D printed rear shell.
There’s a ring around the fingerprint power button now to find it easier by feel.
The Turbo mode still operates at 25W, but Silent has been bumped from 10W to 13W, and Performance from 15W to 17W.
The battery is now rated to have 80 percent remaining capacity after 3 years of cycling, up from 70 percent
The handheld uses a different IMU now.
It still has magnetic Hall Effect triggers, but revised slightly to make sure they don’t interfere with the speakers or vibration motors.
While it does support 100W charging now, it still comes with the same 65W adapter.
It’s not compatible with existing cases and mounts, but Asus is in touch with fan favorites JSAUX, Deckmate and Dbrand to offer new ones.
Existing Ally owners will be able to migrate settings to an Ally X with a cloud backup.

Last but not least, there’s an easter egg in the comfy new grips — just like the PS5’s controller is studded with incredibly tiny PlayStation symbols, the ROG Ally X’s grips are covered with “ROG ROG ROG”:

I can’t wait for a review unit of this handheld, because battery is king in handheld gaming PC world, and the Ally X is about to be king of handheld battery packs. Just don’t necessarily expect it to dethrone the Steam Deck OLED, because there’s only so far Asus can go without a more efficient chip and screen — and because I’m still not sure how I feel about Asus’ deteriorating reputation for support.

Some small news today there too, though: Asus has just announced that all ROG Ally devices in North America now have a two-year warranty.

Photography by Sean Hollister / The Verge

samedi 1 juin 2024

Lego debuts its first Minecraft set for adults

Minecraft is 15 years old, so it’s only natural that Lego should honor the anniversary with a set just for the game’s many adult fans. The company has started taking preorders for The Crafting Table, a 1,195-piece 18-and-up build, as Jay’s Brick Blog writes. The set will cost $89.99 in the US when it’s released on August 1st.

Lego says the set will include “familiar biomes, favorite mobs and hidden Easter eggs.” As the name suggests, the kit looks like an in-game crafting table. But inside of it is a Minecraft diorama featuring 12 biomes including Plains (with a village), Taiga (with a dripstone cave), and Cherry Grove (with an abandoned mineshaft).

Animated GIF showing The Crafting Table spinning.

It also has eight microfigures; among them are Steve, Alex, a skeleton, a Creeper, and a pig. And it incorporates five mini-builds and stickers that feature phrases from the game. The whole kit, once built, will measure 5.5 inches x 6 inches x 6 inches.

The Crafting Table is part of Lego’s adult-oriented collection. It looks a little intimidating than, say, the five-times-as-many-pieces Lord of the Rings Barad-dûr set that just came available. Other notable kits from the series include the once-rumored, now very much real Legend of Zelda Great Deku Tree, a delightful Retro Radio kit, and the drool-worthy Star Wars TIE Interceptor.

It’s a big week for Minecraft fans, as the game is also getting a new animated series on Netflix. (And let’s not forget that live-action movie with Jack Black and Jason Momoa that’s on its way next year.)

The Crafting Table will also be available in Australia (AU $129.99), the UK (£79.99), the EU (€89.99), Canada (CAD $119.99), and Singapore (SGD $149.99), according to Jay’s Brick Blog. Lego insiders get 585 points for picking up The Crafting Table.