Intel unveils 10th Gen Comet Lake-H mobile processors with up to 8 cores clocked at 53 GHz Boost

Intel has announced their new 10th Gen Intel Core CPU line-up codenamed, Comet Lake-H. The CPUs announced today are all incremental upgrades to their existing 9th Gen Coffee Lake-R (Coffee Lake-Refresh) CPUs that were announced around the same time last year. The underlying microarchitecture is still Skylake but it now uses the latest iteration of Intel’s 14nm process node. Today’s announcement includes six processors in total, all of whom have a nominal TDP of 45W and feature Hyper-Threading. Other improvements include higher memory support since these new CPUs can handle DDR4 memory clocked at 2933 MHz. Four of the six CPUs also sport Intel’s new Thermal Velocity Boost technology. Here are the SKUs that were announced today.

Intel 10th Generation Core Processors (Comet Lake-H)

At the top of the stack is the Intel Core i9-10980HK which has a similar 8 Core / 16 Thread configuration as the Coffee Lake-R Core i9-9980HK with a 300 MHz bump in Turbo Boost clock thanks to TVB (Thermal Velocity Boost) followed by the Core i7-10875H which sports a base clock of 2.3 GHz and a Turbo or 5.1 GHz. The cache configurations across the stack is the same as what we saw with Coffee Lake-R processors at launch.

It should be noted that four of the top processors in the Intel 10th Gen Comet Lake-H line-up have Intel’s Thermal Velocity Boost feature whereas CLF-R only had two SKUs with TVB. The clock speeds mentioned here include the improvement afforded by TVB. In CFL-R, the TVB increment was 100 MHz but we aren’t certain how much of an improvement TVB has in Comet Lake-H.

Base clock improvements can be seen in the Core i7-10850H, Core i5-10400H and the Core i5-10300H. All of these are high-volume SKUs which are predominantly seen in the vast majority of gaming laptops from all manufacturers. So for gaming workloads, we are going to see a slight improvement in titles which are primarily CPU-bound.

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Nvidia RTX 2070 Super and RTX 2080 Super coming to laptops, but thats not all

Nvidia, today, has made a number of announcements that are bound to make gamers look forward to the lifting of this lockdown. Today’s announcements have three main components; two new GPUs for laptops, improvements to the Max-Q technologies and a price reduction on the RTX 2060 laptops.

Laptops go Super

Nvidia has today announced that some of their Super series of GPUs will now be available on the mobile platform as well. Gamers will be able to pick up laptops with either an RTX 2070 Super or an RTX 2080 Super GPU from later this month. The new Super GPUs come with more CUDA cores in comparison to their non-Super counterparts, but surprisingly, clock speeds that are a hair slower too. Both the RTX 2070 Super and RTX 2080 Super (Review) GPUs for laptops will feature 8GB GDDR6 memory operating at speeds of up to 14GB/s, with a memory bandwidth of up to 448GB/s.

New Max-Q

Nvidia had introduced the Max-Q platform as a means of making gaming laptops more efficient both in terms of power and performance. Nvidia has today announced a new set of improvements to the Max-Q platform that seeks to double the efficiency. The first of these improvements is at the hardware level, where Nvidia says they are now using low voltage GDDDR6 memory modules as a sure-shot way of being more energy-efficient. Additionally, Nvidia is now employing Dynamic Boost, a way for the “system” to shift power between CPU and GPU on a per-frame basis, so that both the CPU and GPU can always have the power they need. Nvidia says that typically the CPU gets limited to 35W of power and the GPU to 85W, but Dynamic Scaling would be able to move power below and over those limits to the components as and when needed. Besides these two features, we also get DLSS 2.0 which is the result of a much improved neural network and can generate imagery at a lower-than-native resolution, which appears to be as good, if not better than the native one.

RTX 2060 Price Drop

Up until now, gaming laptops with the RTX 2060 (Review) GPU have had a starting price of roughly $1200 or more, depending on the OEM. Nvidia has today announced that laptops powered by the RTX 2060 will now start at $999, making it a lot more affordable. According to Nvidia’s press release, “RTX 2060-powered laptops starting at $999 include the Acer Nitro 5, ASUS ROG Strix G15, HP Omen 15, MSI GF65 Thin, the Lenovo Legion Y540 and 5i and the MSI GF65 Thin, with more to be announced later.”

If you have been in the market looking for a new gaming or even a creator laptop, it would be a very good idea to simply wait a few weeks for these new machines to hit the market. Even if you don’t care much for the 2070 Super or the 2080 Super, the newer Max-Q technologies rely on new hardware features such as low voltage GDDR6 memory and new regulators to improve the overall performance of the platform. We expect that new SKUs coming out start mid-April will incorporate these newer hardware improvements, so might be a better idea to just wait a few weeks.

Image Courtesy: Nvidia

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YouTube Shorts will be a rival to TikTok: Report

Ever since TikTok rose to stardom, video viewership has somewhat migrated over to the short-video format from YouTube, and now according to a report by The Information, YouTube is working on its own TikTok rival.

Reportedly called ‘Shorts’, it will live inside the YouTube and will be a hub of short videos posted by users. The company hopes it will be able to entice users to make videos on its platform through its vast collection of licensed music as backing tracks for these videos.

Short-format videos took off courtesy of TikTok which launched in China in 2016 and over time has taken over the world. In India especially, it’s one of the most downloaded apps.

But TikTok is not free of controversies, either. An endless feed of short videos has been blamed for internet addiction among many Indians. The app was also banned for apparently being a threat to national security. YouTube here may have a chance of toppling it, even though the popular video-streaming app is not void of controversy either.

The report claims YouTube is planning to launch the feature by the end of 2020, although looking at the present situation where people are mostly stuck indoors, this could be the best time for YouTube to launch the short video format.

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JK Rowling launches Harry Potter at Home hub to help cast a spell on boredom

For all you Harry Potter fans at home, we’ve got some good news for you. J.K Rowling has just launched ‘Harry Potter at Home’ which is a digital hub for all things Harry Potter. According to a report from Variety, the hub includes various puzzles and videos which have been contributed by publishers like Bloomsbury and Scholastic. You also get a free audiobook of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone that you can listen to on Audible without a subscription. The tagline for the hub is ‘We’re casting a Banishing Charm on boredom’. If you have a passing interest or are a fan of Harry Potter, you should have a great time. 

Rowling tweeted out the announcement on Wednesday and said,” Parents, teachers and carers working to keep children amused and interested while we’re on lockdown might need a bit of magic, so I’m delighted to launch http://harrypotterathome.com.” A post on the hub also says, ”For over twenty years now, Hogwarts has been an escape for all -- for readers and fans, young and old. During the strange times we now find ourselves in, we want to welcome you back to Hogwarts, where you will find a friendly retreat for you, your family and those you are caring for.”

Parents, teachers and carers working to keep children amused and interested while we’re on lockdown might need a bit of magic, so I’m delighted to launch https://t.co/cPg0dZpexB pic.twitter.com/i0ZjTplVoU

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 1, 2020

With the Coronavirus outbreak bringing life around the world to a halt, this is an excellent step to keep people occupied during this trying time Rowling has also relaxed copyright permissions for Harry Potter as she allowed teachers to post videos of them reading the books for all their students online. 

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Sony launches WF-XB700 true wireless earbuds and WH-CH710N noise cancelling headphones: Price, features and more

Sony has announced two new headphones - one is a pair of truly wireless earbuds and the other, a pair of noise-cancelling headphones. Kicking things off with the truly wireless earbuds - the Sony WF-XB700 have an in-ear design and are a part of Sony’s Extra Bass series of audio products. They are sweat-resistant designs with an IPX4 rating. They, however, do not have a fin to help hold them securely in one's ears. How well they fit is something we will know when we get our hands on it. 

The Sony WF-XB700 does not support noise cancellation. They also do not have gesture support. Instead, they come with physical controls. They also have voice assistant support. Speaking of the battery life, the earbuds come with 9 hours of battery life and can be charged for another 9 hours via the charging case, bringing the total battery life up to 18 hours. Sony claims that charging the earbuds for 10 minutes can give up to 60 min of playback. 

The Sony WF-XB700 has a price tag of $130 (Rs 10,000 approx directly converted) and will be available in black or blue colour options. There is no information on when the headset will come to India.

Moving over to the headphones, the Sony WH-CH710N claims to feature improved noise cancellation when compared to its predecessor, the WH-CH700N. The improved noise cancellation comes with the help of dual microphones. The headset claims to have a battery life of 35 hours. The Sony WH-CH710N has a price tag of $200 (Rs 15,300 approx directly converted) and comes in black, white or blue colour options. The headset features 30mm drivers and also supports voice assistants. There is no information on when the two headsets will come to India.    In other headphone news, Sennheiser recently launched two headphones in India - the HD450BT and the HD350BT. The HD350BT is priced at Rs 7,490 while the HD450BT is priced at Rs 14,990. Both the headphones have the same specifications and design with the difference being that the HD450BT has active noise cancellation. You can read more about them here.

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Apple acquires weather app Dark Sky, removes Android and WearOS version

Dark Sky, one of the most popular weather apps on iOS and Android has been acquired by Apple. The app’s website now states that “Dark Sky by Apple,” and with this, marks the beginning of a number of changes.

For those who are iOS users, nothing changes. However, Android users of the app are going to be sorely disappointed. There is no longer a link to the Android version of the app and it is no longer listed in the app store either. The WearOS version of the app has been removed as well. For those Android users who already have the app, or find ways to get it through the APK, the app will cease to function on July 1, 2020. This, is again, only for the Android version of the app. For those who were embedding Dark Sky data on their own websites, that support will also end on July 1, 2020. For those who were signed up for Dark Sky’s APIs, you will be able to continue using them through to the end of 2021. Dark Sky is, however, no longer accepting any more registrations for the use of their APIs.

Apple’s weather app has not been the most feature or information-rich but has always been functional. With the acquisition, the question really becomes if Apple’s weather app is going to be spiritually be replaced by the Dark Sky app. It is also possible that Apple would cherry-pick aspects of Dark Sky to integrate back into its Weather app. Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference is scheduled to take place in June, although it will be in an all-new format due to the recent Coronavirus outbreak. It is possible that Apple may showcase the new features resulting from this acquisition during its reveal of iOS 14. The new version of Apple's mobile operating system is expected to bring a number of very lucrative features, such as being able to define default apps to non-Apple apps, along with being compatible with all devices that currently support iOS13.

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Mobile internet usage jumps 10 percent since lockdown

Over the last few weeks, as the Coronavirus puts parts of the world under lockdown, Europe was quickly starting to notice a major strain on its internet infrastructure. Then, India went into a 3-week lockdown and given that everyone is now home, it was assumed that we too would start taxing the ISPs with our incessant binge-watching. Turns out, that just isn’t the case, and that bandwidth consumption has only jumped up a mere 10 percent ever since the country went into lockdown.

Complete lockdown of the country has meant that the entire population is now indoors, sparking off speculation that this would result in a massive spike in internet usage, mostly via due to streaming. Many ignored some obvious facts, facts being that even though most of us are locked indoors, we’re still all working. Additionally, we forgot about all the bandwidth that was now NOT being used up in office premises. For the last few days, there has been a lot of talk about streaming services being asked to reduce the stream quality, with YouTube actually hard-limiting their app to 480p for mobile devices.

According to Economic Times, “Data consumption on mobile networks has increased by about 10-12% and in fact, in places like Delhi, it has inched by 3% while in some areas of the capital, it has actually fallen.” ET attributes the quote to a senior government official who had requested to remain anonymous. In conjunction with this, Rajan S Mathews, DG, COAI said that “Over the past few days, the industry, in concert with actions coordinated with the DoT, has seen a flattening of traffic demand on member’s networks. Some of these actions relate to streaming services reducing their content from HD to SD, local municipalities working with Operators to bring sealed towers back on line, some redistribution of traffic on the network, among other things. As a result, Operators believe there is no present need to request for any additional spectrum. Based on the present condition of Member networks, we believe there is no such present need and Operators remain confident the steps they have taken presently can maintain the relatability and quality of their networks and services.”

Essentially, the steps taken by the DoT, COAI and steaming services put together has prevented the networks from coming under strain, and hence, there is no need for any extra spectrum to be allotted.

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