Eye protection is especially important in these times of uncertainty and work from home trend (no thanks to the COVID-19 situation, of course). You tend to sit in front of your digital display longer than usual too.What that means is that eye fatigue becomes a problem and that is when you need to start investing in glasses.
Since the average of screen time for both young and adults are increasing day by day. It is important to take care of our health. All that while also maintaining a high productivity at home in this trying times.
BenQ GW2780T Eye-Care Monitor
Source: BenQ
Welcome to the BenQ GW2780T Eye-Care monitor, a 27-inch display that is designed exactly to help you work more comfortably at home. It is designed to keep your eyes in tip top conditions. That, combined with something they call a Monitor Light bar makes the perfect combination to protect your eye in whatever work condition you are thrown into. Interesting stuff this.
BenQ says that this GW2780T Eye-Care monitor is built specifically for remote working and learning environments. The BenQ GW2780T is technically a successor to the GW2480T, but is 3 inches bigger than its predecessor at 27 inches vs 24 inches on the GW2480T. The GW2780T Eye-care monitor is the latest model in BenQ’s G-series LED monitors which offers users with health emphasis.
The GW2780T Eye-Care monitor uses their clever Brightness Intelligence technology to automatically adjust the screen’s brightness and light to cater to the user’s environment. The display automatically enhances dark areas of the display and adapts its brightness so that bright areas do not get overexposed as well. That way, you are not going to get blinded when working in low-light conditions just because you forgot to turn the lights on.
Source: BenQ
Source: BenQ
Source: BenQ
Source: BenQ
Source: BenQ
Source: BenQ
Source: BenQ
Source: BenQ
Source: BenQ
Source: BenQ
Both the GW2780T Eye-Care Monitor can be connected to your tablets, laptops, and even a smartphone as long as you have the right cables. Height adjustments on the display also means that you get to be really comfortable while working without straining your neck; the GW2780T Eye-Care Monitor does not only take care of your eyes. Speaking back on Eye-care, BenQ also introduced the Monitor Light Screenbar.
BenQ Monitor Light ScreenBar
Source: BenQ
This is a very simple hardware attachment to a monitor really. It is technically a very advanced, very cool looking, baseless desk lamp. It attaches to your display to give you the right lighting condition in any setting. It features auto-dimming too, just so that you do not have to keep readjusting your lights as it gets darker or brighter in the day.
Thanks to BenQ’s patented clip design, the ScreenBar does not need to be stood on a table. That eliminates the need to waste table real-estate for a lamp on your table. All you need is a monitor and you are set. It is also USB powered, so you just need to plug it into your PC, or find a spare charger somewhere.
Source: BenQ
Source: BenQ
Source: BenQ
There are 14 brightness levels and 8 colour temperatures to work with. You can go all the way to yellow for a more comfortable time reading stuff on your book, your tablet, or your smartphone. That is especially helpful when you are nearing your bed time. Then in the day, when you need some white light, the ScreenBar delivers. Its clever optical design also means that it will not shine to the glass of the display, creating an annoying reflective glare on the display.
Hot on the heels of the iPhone 12 launch, Google has sent out invites for a live stream event on October 15th at 12PM PT/ 3PM ET (3AM GMT+8/MST) called Search On. Google is looking to highlight how the company is applying the power of AI to help the people to understand the world better.
Source: Google
The event was announced through a brief tweet that revealed little about the virtual event. However, given the company’s focus, you can expect that the search giant will be updating the world, particularly developers, of the new features, services, and products from Google. More interestingly, Google is expected to update the world on how it is updating Search.
The event will be one of a series that has taken the place of I/O this year. The Their events have, in the past, had a singular focus – focusing on Assistant, Maps, and so on; so we are expecting that the search giant will be focusing their keynote on the advancements they will be introducing to Search.
Apple’s HomePod was introduced back in 2017. This was the dawn of a new era for smart homes and smart home peripherals. It was Apple’s first smart speaker, and it was the only one that featured Siri as a built-in assistant. Malaysia did not get the smart speaker love though.
It is 2020 now, and nothing has technically changed. You still cannot get the Apple smart speakers in Malaysia. You can import one though with prices starting from MYR 1,140 per piece. While that sounds like a bargain over the official US$ 299 (MYR 1,241*), you have to consider that it is a product that is about 3 years old, and the prices has not included taxes and shipping just yet.
Source: Apple
There is a more affordable option now though from Apple. They call it the HomePod mini and priced it at US$ 99 (MYR 411*). It is tiny too, which is fitting, since it is the HomePod mini.
Of course, being the more affordable option will not be as feature packed as the more expensive Apple HomePod. But it still has most of the capabilities that makes the HomePod an attractive smart speaker for the home in the first place.
For one, because it is more affordable, you can buy more of it, and place the speakers all around the house, including your kids, or parent’s room. That way, you do not have to shout at your kids from the kitchen to tell them dinner is ready, stop playing Call of Duty or Dota2 and come to eat.
Source: Apple
Like the original HomePod, the HomePod mini is designed for households. Siri now recognises different voices and connects those voices to individual devices. So now, if mummy needs to set a reminder or create a shopping list for herself, she can simply tell Siri and her smartphone or iPad will be updated. You need to send a quick text message to your other half to buy milk? Voila, the speaker will get your personal iPhone to do it. Mind you, you need to have an iPhone for it to work.
Apple said they designed the device to ensure that it will fill the room with the best sort of audio experience. For that, they employed a full-range dynamic drive that points down to a wave guide. The wave guide is supposed to distribute audio in all directions, creating an omnidirectional audio experience. Thanks to the Apple S5 chip, the speaker can tune itself to adjust for the environments. It is not a noise cancelling tool though.
Source: Apple
It is also clever enough when you put two speakers nearby each other. When that happens and Apple’s HomePod mini detects a buddy, the two speakers turn themselves into stereo speakers. If you bring your Apple iPhone nearer to it, the LED top flashes and give you some interesting colour play.
Like the Apple HomePod, it can be integrated into smart home systems as a controller. It is basically a smart home voice controller. You can even set scenarios with Siri too, just to get a pre-set mood, lighting, air-conditioning, curtain opening, and much more. Of course, you need to make sure that all these products are smart home products and is connected to the WiFi umbrella in your house.
Source: Apple
Source: Apple
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Source: Apple
Source: Apple
The Apple HomePod mini will be available in white or space grey. It will be priced, as mentioned, at US$ 99 (MYR 411*). Pre-orders in selected market starts on the 6th November 2020. It will be available from retailers from the 16th November 2020 onward. Unfortunately, Malaysia is not on that list just yet. You might just be able to import a unit though.
*Conversion based on approximate rate US$ 1= MYR 4.15 as of 15/10/2020
Malaysia’s largest pay TV operator, Astro Malaysia Holdings, is looking to start a streaming service to take on deep-pocketed, international rivals such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. According to a report by Nikkei Asia, Astro is planning to launch a new streaming service sometime in 2021. The service will mainly focus on the original content made by the pay-TV company. This includes their numerous productions spanning multiple genres such as movies, series, and variety shows. Naturally, the main audience Astro is looking at for now, is the Malaysian audience.
Source: Astro Malaysia
Astro’s ability to subsidize local content production and its understanding of the market gives it and added advantage over global competitors. The report by Nikkei also pointed out that Astro is relying on its knowledge on the Malaysian market as well as its extensive customer, marketing, and sales reach in order to attract other content providers. Astro will be a natural partner to welcome any companies that are seeking to enter the Malaysia market . Astro has so far partnered with HBO GO and China’s iQIYI which aligns with Astro’s efforts to position itself as a “super aggregator” of digital content.
As it enters the Streaming (known in the industry as over the top (OTT)) it will be looking at catering to different groups which have emerged. This can be seen from the pricing strategies adopted by its competition which caters to unique groups with different psychologies. However, it seems that one thing that may take anyone by surprise, the pay TV operator isn’t going to banking on its brand for the streaming service opting to go with a completely new brand.
People tell me that smartphones are getting boring. No one truly innovates anymore. Hardly anything is that exciting anymore. Most smartphones launched these days are minor upgrades from the previous generation of devices. They offer nearly nothing special, or nothing new that we have not seen before.
In that sense, nothing really excites us anymore. That is true until 2020 hits us. No, it is not the pandemic that changed anything. Tech has taken a step toward the right direction somehow in 2020. We see a very interesting Samsung Galaxy Note20 that is a true creator powerhouse. We see Sony launching their super powerful Xperia smartphone, and their highly acclaimed noise cancelling headphone – the WH-1000XM4. They even launched the Sony PlayStation 5, coming end of this year 2020. Apple already wowed the world over too with the introduction of the iPad Air, which is also a sign of what is to come yesterday (this early morning, rather).
Welcome to what we think is the most exciting Apple iPhone yet. Nay, welcome to the most exciting smartphone of 2020 yet. Welcome to the Apple iPhone 12 and Apple iPhone 12 Pro line-up.
Source: Apple
They kickstart the presentation of Apple’s highly anticipated iPhone for 2020/2021 with 5G. They say that all the iPhones from this point on will receive the 5G treatment, and 5G ready. Malaysia’s Maxis has already confirmed they are taking on 5G with the Apple iPhone and the Apple iPhone 12 series is compatible.
But it gets better from there. We are going to butcher the presentation flow a little bit and start with what is important to us. Bear with us, as we start from the inside out.
The Apple iPhone 12 & iPhone 12 Mini
Source: Apple
The Apple iPhone 12 is not just 5G capable because they have a new antenna. They have, in their own words, optimised the antenna placement for the best all-round reception, by the way. The 5G capability is also embedded in their new chip, the A14 Bionic.
If you find that the name of the A14 Bionic chip sounds familiar, you are right. It is the same powerful 5nm chip that powers the Apple iPad Air. It is the same chip that Apple says can make quick work of 4K videos. Now, it is powering a small smartphone in your palms.
Apple says that this is their most powerful chip yet. We believe them. We also know that this is the most advanced System on a chip (SoC) in the world so far. Until we see Qualcomm and Samsung, or even HUAWEI pushing their boundaries again, we maintain that Apple’s A14 Bionic is the world’s most advanced smartphone SoC to date.
As mentioned in the Apple iPad Air release, the A14 Bionic is a 5nm chip. That means it packs about 11.8 billion transistors spread across 6 CPU cores. There are 4 GPU cores to enable PC class gaming experience in your handheld multifunction device (according to Apple). There are also various machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) optimisations going on here. That also means things like SIRI can fully take advantage on being a better personal assistant on your smartphone.
Source: Apple
As usual, they did not mention the size of the RAM that comes with the device. All we need to know from Apple is that it is “enough”. You get up to 256GB in storage, which is actually more than decent. If you need more storage, Apple has the iCloud anyway. If not, just transfer your photos out to your PC or an external hard drive. We would like the MicroSD card format to be accepted on an iPhone, but we also accept that we may never see that day. Still, 256GB is ample space.
They omitted the battery information as well. We suspect that is also because there is no major improvement in battery life with the Apple iPhone 12. In that sense we also expect the Apple iPhone 12 to come with about the same battery size as the older Apple iPhone 11. Hopefully it gets the same battery life too.
All this is wrapped with an aluminium shell that holds together a ceramic piece on the front and a glass back of the device. They call the ceramic shells the “Ceramic Shield”. This is not the first time a smartphone works with ceramics. Xiaomi has done if before with their previous flagships. This is the first time though that a smartphone manufacturer has replaced the front with a ceramic material, instead of the usual Corning Gorilla Glass.
They say that ceramic is more durable than the glass. It is supposed to be more resistant to scratches and less likely to break or shatter when impacted. Somehow, you can make it thinner than glass too. It is also a more premium material though, means more expensive smartphones. The Apple iPhone is expensive enough though.
Under the display at the front of the device is an OLED display with double the resolution of the previous iPhone 11. That is an OLED Super Retina XDR retina 6.1-inch display with 2,532 by 1,170 pixels to create an immersive 460 pixel per inch (ppi) experience. Apple say that the display is Dolby Vision certified too, meaning HDR10 compatibility. No 120Hz or 90Hz refresh rate here, which is a little bit disappointing, but understandable. The display can display up to 1200nits though, a plus point for outdoor use cases. Of course, there is the regular notch on top.
Source: Apple
Move to the back and what you find is a very familiar Apple logo design with plain glass. There are new colours for 2020. There are now five funky colours to choose from including green, red, and blue colour variants. But that is not all the things that you get on the iPhone 12.
You still get the familiar looking camera arrangement too with the Apple iPhone 12. Instead of three cameras, the regular iPhone get two cameras. Both feature 12-Megapixel sensors. The main wide camera features 7-elements of glass to ensure stelar photo quality and to take advantage of the new larger sensor in the Apple iPhone 12. It is faster too at f/1.6 aperture. This also means that the device should perform better in low-light conditions. The new 7-element glass also allows 27% more light to hit the sensor, so that should help too. The other 12-megapixel sensor is lodged under an ultra-wide lens for breathtaking landscape shots.
Under that pretty looking glass back though is a new format of wireless charger. It is now 15W capable. But on top of that, it is now magnetic. We are annoyed with most wireless chargers because we cannot seem to find the right spot to lay our device. That also means that your device hardly charges when you lay your device on a wireless charger unless you make extra adjustments. Not on the iPhone 12.
Source: Apple
The magnets surrounding the wireless charging coil ensures that compatible wireless chargers will immediately pick up contact and charge the device. Even when you lift the device, the charger is still attached to it, means you do not have to reposition your device every time you pick up your phone. But it still works with compatible Qi chargers, only with about half the efficiency. But more than that, the magnetic mechanism they call ‘MagSafe’ gives a world of possibility in terms of modular accessorising. You can detach and attach a wallet at any given time. You can attach cool looking trinkets at the back of your device to personalise your smartphone. Heck, you can even attach extra lens modifiers made for the iPhone if they bothered to make one.
Then there is the iPhone 12 Mini, a smaller, more compact version of the Apple iPhone 12. That is the thing though. Smaller does not mean less power here. The iPhone 12 Mini is everything that the Apple iPhone 12 is, but way smaller.
They pack everything in a body that shrink wraps itself around a 5.4-inch OLED display with 2,340 by 1,080 (Full HD+) pixel to give you 476 ppi. That is a higher ppi than the iPhone 12 itself. Of course, you get a slightly smaller battery pack too, though they have not mentioned the size. Of course, with smaller battery pack, battery life is a little shorter.
Source: Apple
Source: Apple
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Source: Apple
You still get MagSafe, you still get the A14 Bionic chip, you even get the same colours. All of that in a more compact body. Of course, cheaper price too; US$ 100 cheaper than the full-sized iPhone 12.
Apple iPhone 12 Pro & iPhone 12 Pro Max
Source: Apple
The main star of the show is the Apple iPhone 12 Pro and the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max. These are the most powerful iPhone you can get for your money today. These are the culmination of Apple’s 2020 launches.
For starters, again, we are going inside out; the smartphone comes with Apple’s latest A14 Bionic SoC. We have pointed out the power of the A14 Bionic and out views on it earlier, so we are not going to elaborate. But it does sound like a huge generational leap compared to the previous generation Apple A13 Bionic chip.
You can opt for the same great display size at 6.1-inch or even bigger at 6.7-inch (Max) with the Apple iPhone. Bigger is definitely better here, with the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max. Instead of the regular 2,532 by 1,170 pixels on the display, you get 2,778 by 1,284 pixels on the 6.7-inch OLED Super Retina XDR display.
Like the regular iPhone 12, it has HDR capability as well of course. It also has Dolby Vision certification with it of course. They are also even more premium than before. With glossy metal sides.
Source: Apple
Why do you want to get the iPhone 12 Pro over the regular iPhone? It has two extra camera sensors. Well, that is not exactly the reason why you pay a premium over the regular smartphone.
The Apple iPhone 12 Pro really banks on the camera this time. You can still record 4K videos, like the iPhones before it. But it is also more powerful in the sense that they have shifted the whole image stabilisation platform to the sensor instead of the lens. The result of that is even steadier videos with less heft on the lens.
The details is helped by an extra sensor they also put on the Apple iPad though. They managed to shoehorn a LiDAR sensor to the back of the device. That also means that the Apple iPhone camera benefits from LiDAR 3D scanning the room or subject. The better understanding of the environment allows the Apple iPhone to add more lighting and texture detail to their photos. Apple also added something they call ProRAW mode into their camera app. That is Apple’s own RAW formatting mode that uses the camera and the LiDAR sensor to create even more detailed photos with flexibility like you never seen in a smartphone.
Source: Apple
Source: Apple
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Source: Apple
All these RAW photos and 4K videos can be edited internally thanks to Apple’s A14 Bionic chip. But 4K is not enough sometimes. So the Apple iPhone 12 Pro’s capable camera can shoot in HDR at 10-bit, benefiting from 700 million colours to create an almost true to life video. Dolby Vision certification on the camera means that this can really replace your expensive rig.
Price and Availability
The Apple iPhone 12 and Apple iPhone 12 Mini will be available in 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB variants. As mentioned, they come in five colours – blue, green, black, white, and (PRODUCT) RED. Prices start from US$ 799 (MYR 3,899*) and US$ 699 (MYR 3,399*) respectively. Pre-orders starts from 16th October 2020 onward to the 23rd of October 2020 for the Apple iPhone 12. The Apple iPhone 12 Mini will be available a little later with pre-orders starting on the 6th November 2020 to the 13th November 2020 (availability date). The global availability of the Apple iPhone 12 is reported to be on the 30th October 2020.
The Apple iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max will be available in 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB flavours. You get to choose between graphite, silver, gold, and pacific blue premium colour finishes for the Apple iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro max. Prices start from US$ 999 (MYR 4,899) and US$ 1,099 (MYR 5,299) respectively. Pre-orders for the Apple iPhone 12 Pro start from the 16th October 2020 to the 23rd October 2020, same as the Apple iPhone 12. The iPhone 12 Pro Max will be available for pre-order from the 6th November 2020 onward to the 13th November 2020 (availability date). The Apple iPhone Pro will be available in stores from the 30th November 2020 onward.
Alongside the pre-order of the Apple iPhone 12 Mini and the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max, most of the newly launched accessories will also be available on the 6th November 2020. The MagSafe Duo Charger and Leather Sleeve for the iPhone 12 series will be available later though. You also want to keep in mind that the new Apple iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Mini, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max will only come with a USB Type-C to Lightning cable and nothing else inside the box.
You would need to buy a separate charging brick or use an existing one that you already have. Your regular Apple charging brick will not take on the USB Type-C cable too, so to take advantage of that, you need a separate brick from Apple. You do not get the usual bundled earphone too, so you might want to consider getting a Bluetooth earphone for yourself too or use the one you already have. On the bright side, the box is half the size from before.
Western Digital (WD) has stolen the limelight of Samsung with their latest announcement of their newest PCIe 4.0 Solid State Drive (SSD) offering a serious performance for gamers, along with an NVMe SSD add-in-card, plus a game dock. They call it the Black, and it it serious. It is seriously fast.
Source: Western Digital
The latest WD Black SN850 is the fastest SSD to boot currently, faster than Samsung’s recently announced Samsung SSD 980 Pro. At least in write speeds, it is. The WD Black SN850 offers up to 7000MB/s and 5300MB/s (300MB/s faster than the Samsung) with a brand new cache technology that should help reduce load times on PC or in games.
Furthermore, WD also mentions that the SN850 offers a smooth and responsive gaming experience with up to 1,000,000 random read IOPS. The new drive is powered by the WD/Kioxia BiSCS4, which is a 96-layer TLC 3D NAND memory. What does that mean? It just means that your games will never run the same. That, or you will never play your games the same way.
Source: Western Digital
WD will also sell the SN850 with an optional heatsink. The heatsink features a gamer-aesthetic sleek design, along with an RGB lighting system that is customizable with the WD Black Dashboard software. The RGB system only comes with the heatsink-equipped WD Black SN850 drives, so if you are a fan of RGB, you know your pick. With that kind of read/write speeds too, you might want to ensure that your SSD remains cool to work with.
PCIe 4.0 drive became the most demanded type of drive since the Sony PlayStation 5 (PS5) demo and introduction, with good reason. While Sony hasn’t exactly published any sort of official compatibility list for the drives that can work best on the new console, WD has already marked the WD Black SN850 as PS5 compatible. We wonder if the WD Black SN850 with a heatsink would fit well on the PS5’s PCIe 4.0 M.2 slot.
Source: Western Digital
Source: Western Digital
Source: Western Digital
Source: Western Digital
Source: Western Digital
Source: Western Digital
Source: Western Digital
Maintaining that compelling price-performance ratio, the SN850 will likely prove a potent challenger for Samsung’s 980 Pro when WD’s drive goes on sale before the end of October (a heatsink-equipped version of the SN850 will follow in 2021, costing a bit more). The new drives come with an optional heatsink, RGB lighting, and comes in 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB capacities. If you want one, the 500 GB variant without the heatsink will set you back US$ 149.99 (MYR 618*), the 1TB will set you back US$ 229.99 (MYR 949*), and the 2TB (which we suspect might not make it to Malaysia) will set you back US$ 449.99 (MYR 1,862*). The heatsink will add US$ 20 (MYR 83*) to your purchase.
* Based on Approximate Rate US$ 1 = MYR 4.14 as of 12/10/2020
Fitbit is a name that comes to mind when you’re thinking of wearables which put fitness at the forefront. The company has been actively developing a platform that gives users actionable data on their health. What’s more, Fitbit has even taken steps to help their community better cope with these unprecedented times.
Malaysia is the latest country getting an infusion of Fitbit. The company has announced the local availability of its three new wearables: the Fitbit Sense, the Fitbit Versa 3 and the Fitbit Inspire 2. The three new devices mark the start of a new generation of wearables for Fitbit featuring new technology that gives users even more actionable health data. It is excited to see what is inside about it. Some call the app “ECG” and it allows users to gain insight into their heart performance and possible conditions, like irregular or erratic heartbeats.
The Fitbit Sense made its debut in August as the company’s new flagship smartwatch with brand new technology which allows users to monitor their heart’s rhythm via an ECG monitor. The Fitbit Sense is currently the most advanced health smartwatch available in the market for only RM1,498 with 6-months complementary access to Fitbit Premium. The Sense also features the world’s first electrodermal activity(EDA) sensor on a smartwatch to help users monitor stress levels. The Sense touts up to 7 days battery life depending on how you use it.
From the cutting edge to the accessible, Fitbit isn’t leaving anyone behind. The Fitbit Inspire 2 joins the foray with a price tag of only MYR498. It is designed to be slim and comes with a brighter screen and the longest battery life of any Fitbit device at 10 days. Purchases of the FitBit Inspire 2 also comes with a one year free trial of Fitbit Premium.
Together with the Sense and Inspire 2, Fitbit is also bringing the updated Versa 3. The Versa line up is their first smartwatch line up which marries Fitbit technology with the growing demand for smartwatches. The Versa 3 brings enhanced features including GPD tracking, wireless music and more. However, pricing and availability for the Versa 3 will be announced at a later date.
Rumours have been spreading about Samsung’s digital assistant being retired in favour of deeper integration of the Google Assistant. Lending more credence to the rumour is Samsung’s apparent removal of several AR features from Bixby Vision.
Samsung has already sent notices to its users that they will be discontinuing some of the features in Bixby Vision. The notice sent out late last month mentioned the removal of features such as Styling, Home, Decor and Places by the end of October. These features may return in some form with partnerships to enhance the AR features but the likelihood of that happening at this point seems slim.
While the discontinuation and removal of a bulk of AR features from Bixby may seem like a sudden move, it’s not surprising. Samsung was a late player to the game when it came to virtual assistants with companies like Google, Amazon and Microsoft spearheading development. However, more recent rumours point to Google actually offering Samsung a large sum of money to drop Bixby in favour for deeper Google Assistant integration into the company’s ecosystem.
That said, minimising or removing Bixby would be counter intuitive for Samsung. The company announced a few years ago that the Bixby would be the cornerstone of their Galaxy Ecosystem. In fact, they went in depth during their Southeast Asia – Oceania (SEAO) forum held in Singapore. They were detailing the integrations that would be pursued.
That being the case, this development is definitely one we’ll be keeping our eye on.
If you’re looking to buy or upgrade a new desktop, it may be worth waiting until next year 2021. AMD has just announced their AMD Ryzen 5000, technically their most powerful CPU yet. Recently, Intel has confirmed that its 11th generation, “Rocket Lake” CPUs will be launching in the first quarter of 2021. The update, of course, comes with other parts as well. The Z490 motherboard for example, and support for PCIe 4.0.
Intel’s Rocket Lake is expected to be built upon the same Skylake architecture as the previous five generation of 14nm. That, or it is built upon Intel’s Cove microarchitecture designs. Technically Rocket Lake will be more powerful just based on the fact that you have PCIe 4.0 support over PCIe 3.0. In this update as well, Intel technically matched the new AMD Ryzen chips with PCIe 4.0 support.
There are no mentions on whether or not there are more PCIe lanes supported compared to the previous generation CPU though. The ASRock Z490 Aqua, built for next generation Intel processors, is built with a PCle 4.0 storage M.2 slot. Using the PCIe 4.0 slot on the board will render the PCIe 3.0 slots useless, or unusable.
Mind you, these things are said before AMD’s big announcement of the AMD Ryzen 5000 series. At this point, no one knew or could expect the kind of progress AMD has made in their new CPUs. As we have discovered, it is a monumental swing of momentum in AMD’s favour, just based on AMD’s announcement.
Intel has been making pre-emptive move with updating the Skylake architecture and introducing Tiger Lake. Up until last week, Intel still holds the title of ‘most powerful gaming processor’ available in the market. In some sense, we can expect Rocket Lake to take that title back at least. With the likelihood of Intel not moving away from 14nm processes though, it might be a long shot. All we can do, is wait and see.
Vivo is that one smartphone brand that is not shy in introducing new and funky features in a smartphone. This is especially true with it comes to camera placements on a smartphone. They introduced the world to the idea of a deca-core smartphone. They were also the first to hide their front facing camera in a pop-up mechanism that appears only when you need it. This year, Vivo Apex spearheads the under-display selfie camera era. Today, Vivo is taking the spotlight once more with a novel smartphone camera that is not even on the smartphone.
The new concept device from Vivo comes with a front camera that they call IFEA. It is a camera front facing camera that can be detached from the body of the device. For all intents and purposes, it is still a regular pop-up front-facing selfie camera. It just happens to be removable once it has popped out and has been activated. Once detached, the camera module is supposedly voice activated. This modular design from the Chinese company has won the Red Dot Design Award.
It does sound like a very interesting feature, this pop-up detachable thing. This new IFEA smartphone design aims to provide consumers with a new photography system and experience which is totally different from what usually offered by a smartphone. It integrates enhanced users-friendly shooting features anytime and anywhere.
Beside, there is another one on the Red Dot website that shows the display and the back of Vivo phone. The screen is seamless, without notches or punch holes. The back features a dedicated main camera as well to suggest that the detachable stuff is only for the front camera.
Source: Vivo/Red Dot
Vivo also stated that the IFEA module will come with multiple accessories and support mechanisms with different modes to increase the stability and storage of the device. Some accessories were also shown such as a magnetic attachment, clips for wrists and a collar mount for dogs, to make better use of the removable camera.
It’s unclear how Vivo plans to use this modular camera design. So far, the device is just in its concept phase and there are no clear intentions from Vivo themselves to make the device commercially available. Stay tuned though, we are keeping our ears close to the ground, just in case Vivo changes their mind.
