This is a weekly series of news updates related to the tech community. This is the update for the second week of May. Let's get into it!
Microsoft to Shelve Windows 10X:
Microsoft it reportedly shelving the operating system Windows 10X, which was supposed to be Microsoft's answer to Chrome OS, a light-weight operating system for entry level and low-power devices such as chromebooks. Windows 10X was also supposed to power future Surface Pro lineup of tablets from Microsoft.
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| Leaked build of Windows 10X |
The company's officials refused to talk about Windows 10X since autumn last year and though they declined this officially, their original plan was to bring Windows 10X into the Surface Pro lineup by late 2021, without support for x86 applications, which would make the OS unattractive. This is why people speculate that Microsoft shelved the OS for the time being. Many of the features that were put into Windows 10X are now being plugged into regular windows updates making Windows 10X yet another product a Billion-Dollar didn't see any worth in.
This is rather dissappointing as this was Microsoft's first attempt at a Windows version for ARM, a very popular microarchitechture. You can learn more about ARM here. We will have to see what happens to it in coming years.
Epic vs Apple - The fight gets EPIC!
If you're not up to date on this lawsuit, EPIC games, the game developer, recently accused Apple and Google for taking an unfair cut of 30% from all of their earnings, be it in-game or on a game purchase. before the lawsuit, EPIC games made a way to purchase a pack in one of their games with a 30% discount and one that would bypass Apple pay in iOS App Store. In response, Apple removed the game from the App Store. EPIC didn't stop there. They filed a lawsuit that lodged the complaint that Apple and Google get an unfair cut of 30%, benefitting for free from the work of game developers, to whom EPIC has to pay. Bypassing the App Store is not possible, as iOS doesn't recognise installers apart from the App Store. Google has a similar lockdown on freedom and requires a dozen steps to enable third party app downloads that Bypass the Play Store, which makes it unattractive for novice users, which make up 90% of people who use the phones. EPIC argued that this was a duopoly by two billion dollar companies that were benefitting from the work of game developers such as EPIC, Tencent, Sony, Nintendo, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Supercell, Gameloft and many more including induvidual game developers.
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| EPIC games logo |
EPIC games set out to change the way the world saw mobile gaming, and allow the mobile game industry, which at this point is worth more than Hollywood, more profitable, attractive, affordable at least in terms of software and give usres more freedom, which means that the industry can prosper. If you're a fan of gaming by the way, I have an upcoming post on how Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 recreated the world and you do not want to miss it, so make sure you're following my blog.
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| Apple logo |
Then, a trial was conducted last week in which Apple's lawyers turned the lawsuit around by questioning what a video game even is defined as, as Apple says they treat all App Store apps as "Applications" and not specifically video games. EPIC turned the case in yet another way by accusing Microsoft's XBOX ecosystem as it is locked down in a similar way that the iOS App Store is locked, for which Apple and Microsoft argued that they offer more open alternatives such as Windows and macOS respectively and more specialised, locked down ecosystems such as iOS and XBOX. So, gamers could choose which platform they would go into. Microsoft also argued specifically that XBOX hardware never made a profit, and that game purchase cuts were the ones that made money for Microsoft thus justifying the 30% cut they receive from game purchases.
No matter who wins in this lawsuit, it has generated a huge amount of anti-trust in the gaming software market. For example, Sony has recently received a lawsuit for restricting digital game sales for PS5 special titles on the Playstation Store by preventing third parties from selling game codes. So, we'll have to wait and see what happens. Only the trial next week will give us answers or who knows? It might raise more questions. We'll just have to wait and see.
Intel Xe DG2 leaks:
The specifications for Intel's new Xe DG2 graphics cards has been leaked, with performance comparable to the RTX 3060, containing 4096 CUDA cores at 1.8 GHz with a TDP of 100W. Igor's lab has actually provided block diagram images for the functioning of the DG2 GPUs.
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| Intel DG2 Block Diagram |
Speculations state that the GPU may have at least 5 variants on the desktop and more interestingly, we see possibilities of mobile versions of the GPU it is good to see Intel focus on laptops as well. This means that we can see Laptops with Intel CPUs with a discrete GPU, and one that lays foundation for future NUCs as well. But, it uses TSMC's 7nm process node for manufacturing. So, Intel will be waiting on the same manufacturing queue that AMD and Nvidia are right now. More info on that here.
With performance comparable to a mid-range GPU from Nvidia on top of the line, Intel clearly has a way to go before they can compete with GPU offerings from AMD and Nvidia. Only time will tell.
Qualcomm's Mobile processors - Security Flaw:
A security firm has found a vulnerability in Qualcomm's mobile processors that could leave 30% of the world's mobile phones vulnerable to hackers. According to their report, such hackers can listen to phone calls, read text messages and see what apps you have installed. Qualcomm has no official statement on this matter, but apparently they are working on driver updates to fix this issue.
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| Qualcomm Snapdragon Logo |
Sony has a new PS5:
Sony plans to release a new and smaller version of the PS5 that is supposedly aimed at portability. They have a custom 6nm fabrication process for their SoC. No other confirmed information is available about this topic. Though 6nm looks impressive, it gets underwhelmed when we consider that IBM recently made a 2nm chip, which could be used to pack 50 billion transistors into the size of a fingernail!
AMD Ryzen 6000 Rembradt APU:
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| AMD Ryzen |
AMD's new Ryzen 6000 APUs with Zen 3+ cores (which is an improvement over Zen 3) and RDNA 2 GPU cores are supposedly in the works to launch this year. They are supposed to be using TSMC's 6nm process node. This has received much attraction among PC enthusiasts due to the ongoing shortage of graphics cards, especially Nvidia ones, for people upgrading. Sources say that the APUs should be capable of gaming at 1080p, and 4K video encoding, depending on where you set your budget. These APUs are given the codename "Rembrandt". With 12 compute units, RDNA 2 architechture and support for DDR5, LPDDR5 and PCIe Gen 4, these APUs are becoming the only logical choice for people who are looking to upgrade their existing PCs. Also, speculation of Zen 3+ desktop CPUs are rising for which company officials reported that they were being canned.
Apple, again!
Apple reportedly refused to admit that around 4,000 of the apps in the iOS App Store were infected by malware in septembet 2015, a news that was made public by EPIC games in the lawsuit. Apparently, they hadn't notified their 128 million people user base about the malware and about 40 million iPhones were hacked as a result. Apple instead published a general warning on their website instead of notifying affected users. This was also the Xcode Ghost malware that was supposedly responsible for the hack, through a bug in XCode. Apple denied this in 2015, but EPIC games made this news public to work in their favour of the lawsuit.
This is the third time!
iOS 14.5 allowed for user tracking and data collection, and required for user consent to be able to track. It seems people are not happy about some random person selling their details to advertisers, and only 13% of iOS 14.5 users seem to be opting in for the tracking consent, and only 5% of the users in the US. Some 5% of global users were so concerned that they apparently disabled any app to even have the right to ask for tracking at all!
Apple - 4th news, let's have a counter shall we?
Apple's air tags that launched in the Apple Spring 2021 event have already been jailbroken by flashing the device's firmware and using it for basically anything they could be useful for! A security researcher was able to acheive this and also change the link that users are directed to for pairing, making people visit basically any site he wanted! Apple, so far, has no official statement on this. But this is very bad compared to the company's incredible safety record for their device usage for the prior decade.
PS5 shortage to continue into 2022:
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| Sony PS5 |
Sony has confirmed that the shortage of the PlayStation 5 will continue not only into late 2021, but into 2022 as well. This news was made public when the company's CFO, Hiroki Totoki, said this in a anlytics report this month. He also mentioned that even if Sony could produce more PS5s then their expected amount, they would still not meet demand. So you're left looking at this picture instead of actually buying one. Maybe if another company could make consoles, supply could be increased..........
Apple No. 5:
Here is Apple again! for the fifth time! Apple is reportedly working on a new game console, with portability in mind, and concept images look a lot like the Mac Mini. Speculation also has it that these Consoles could be powered by a new family of Apple silicon processors. Although, it is quite possible that we won't see an Apple console as the company is known for shelving or cancelling a lot of their product development. As always, time will tell the answer.
Thanks for reading everyone. That's it for today, hope to meet you in the next installment of Tech News on Tech Inked, the blog for tech lovers. Do like and Follow to see more stuff just like this. Untill then, goodbye.
Sources:
1. https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-drops-windows-10x-before-it-ever-launched/
2. https://www.wsj.com/articles/epic-games-vs-apple-trial-week-one-everything-you-need-to-know-11620486001
3. https://www.pcgamer.com/intels-gaming-dg2-gpus-are-coming-to-laptops-too/
4. https://gizmodo.com/qualcomm-chip-flaw-could-leave-30-percent-of-the-worlds-1846837667
5. https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2021/05/ps5_redesign_to_manufacture_in_2022_will_likely_only_alter_internals
6. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-57009930
7. https://www.kitguru.net/components/apu-components/joao-silva/amd-ryzen-rembrandt-apus-to-come-with-zen-3-cores-and-rdna-2-graphics/
8. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/05/apple-brass-discussed-disclosing-128-million-iphone-hack-then-decided-not-to/
9. https://www.flurry.com/blog/ios-14-5-opt-in-rate-att-restricted-app-tracking-transparency-worldwide-us-daily-latest-update/
10. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/05/sony-says-ps5-could-be-difficult-to-find-into-2022/
11. https://www.engadget.com/airtag-nfc-hack-205735409.html
12.https://www.hexus.net/gaming/news/apple/147785-apple-rumoured-working-hybrid-games-console/
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