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Hardware

The iPhone 14 will be a major upgrade, and it will be made of titanium

posted onJuly 27, 2021
by l33tdawg
Credit: Arstechnica

A new investor note from JPMorgan Chase seen by AppleInsider and MacRumors claims that Apple's high-end iPhone models will soon use titanium alongside or instead of aluminum or stainless steel. It also provides new insights about what to expect from 2022's iPhone lineup.

Here’s what you’ll need to upgrade to Windows 11

posted onJune 27, 2021
by l33tdawg
Credit: Arstechnica

Since Microsoft's announcement of Windows 11 yesterday, one concern has reverberated around the web—what's this about a Trusted Platform Module requirement?

Windows 11 is the first Windows version to require a TPM, and most self-built PCs (and cheaper, home-targeted OEM PCs) don't have a TPM module on board. Although this requirement is a bit of a mess, it's not as onerous as millions of people have assumed. We'll walk you through all of Windows 11's announced requirements, including TPM—and make sure to note when all this is likely to be a problem.

The Apple Watch Series 7 will have a new design, report says

posted onJune 14, 2021
by l33tdawg
Credit: Arstechnica

Like clockwork, Apple has released a new Apple Watch around the same time every year since the device was first introduced in 2015. So no one should be surprised that a new Apple Watch is due later this year. But a report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman and Debby Wu goes into much more detail than just "the Watch is coming soon."

Citing "people with knowledge of the plans," Gurman and Wu say the new smartwatch will "likely" be called the Apple Watch Series 7. No surprise there, either.

Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference begins Monday. Expect a slew of updates to the software that powers the company's devices.

posted onJune 6, 2021
by l33tdawg
Credit: Wired

Apple has been in sharp focus lately, as some of the inner workings of the infamously secretive and hugely powerful company were revealed in the Epic Games v. Apple trial last month. Apple often gets credit for creating the mobile app economy as we know it with its App Store, which has swelled into a multibillion-dollar business for the iPhone maker. But that also means that every software change the company makes can have a big impact for both app developers and consumers.

Apple planning MacBook Pro with 16-core GPU, Mac Pro with 128 GPU cores

posted onMay 19, 2021
by l33tdawg
Credit: Arstechnica

Apple plans to introduce significantly updated versions of the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac mini, iMac, and Mac Pro, according to a new report in Bloomberg citing people familiar with Apple's plans. The report shares much more detail about these machines than we've previously been privy to.

Intel’s Optane H20 is the latest attempt at “hybrid” laptop storage

posted onMay 19, 2021
by l33tdawg
Credit: Arstechnica

Intel has a new consumer-targeted storage product, called Optane H20—as in H twenty, not water. The new device is an M.2 2280 format drive, using QLC (Quad Level Cell) NAND storage running behind an Optane cache layer.

This isn't Intel's first try at an Optane-backed hybrid SSD—the first, 2019's Optane H10, made its way into a few consumer laptops but didn't make much of a splash. H20 is a second try, with a significantly improved QLC SSD and NAND controller.

Apple’s M1 is a fast CPU—but M1 Macs feel even faster due to QoS

posted onMay 17, 2021
by l33tdawg
Credit: Arstechnica

Apple's M1 processor is a world-class desktop and laptop processor—but when it comes to general-purpose end-user systems, there's something even better than being fast. We're referring, of course, to feeling fast—which has more to do with a system meeting user expectations predictably and reliably than it does with raw speed.

Raspberry Pi Zero W-Powered Password Thief Helps With Penetration Testing

posted onMay 4, 2021
by l33tdawg
Credit: Flickr

It turns out the Raspberry Pi might be one of the best tools to have on hand for any network engineer. This maker, who goes by Mr.Smashy online, has created a USB Raspberry Pi password thief using a Raspberry Pi Zero W.

The best Raspberry Pi projects have real-world applications and this one is ideal for physical penetration testing. It provides an open-source solution for analyzing one of the most critical barriers in network security.

YouTube is now building its own video-transcoding chips

posted onApril 22, 2021
by l33tdawg
Credit: Arstechnica

Google has decided that YouTube demands such a huge transcoding workload that it needs to build its own server chips. The company detailed its new "Argos" chips in a YouTube blog post, a CNET interview, and in a paper for ASPLOS, the Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems Conference.

Apple Stuffs the iPad Pro With a New Display and Its Mac M1 Chip

posted onApril 20, 2021
by l33tdawg
Credit: Wired

Apple showed off a new iPad Pro alongside a flurry of other hardware and software announcements at its virtual event on Tuesday. The successor to the 2020 iPad Pro adds Apple's M1 chip—the same as the one inside the most recent MacBook Air—along with Mini-LED display technology.The tablet comes in 11- or 12.9-inch sizes and was announced alongside a new iMac, AirTags, Apple TV 4K.