Continued Conversation Is Now Available for Google Smart Displays

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March 10, 2019

Google Home Hub — Screen Capture from Google

“Continued Conversation” is the feature introduced by Google in June 2018. It is only available for audio-only Google Home devices, such as the Home Mini and Home Max. This week, Google is finally rolling out the feature to the smart displays.

Continued Conversation allow users to use Google Assistant in a more natural way. Instead of shouting “Ok, Google” or “Hey, Google” every time you ask a new or follow-up question/command, the Assistant will keep on listening after its first response.

All available smart displays should be compatible with Continued Conversation, like Google Home Hub and Lenovo Smart Displays. Currently, only users in English is able to use the new feature. It will have to manually activated through the Google Assistant’s settings.

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There Are Now Over 800 Million Active Windows 10 Devices

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Anson

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March 8, 2019

Microsoft Windows 10 — Screen Capture from Microsoft

In early 2018, Windows 10 had surpassed the older Windows 7’s worldwide market share for the first time. It is crucial for Microsoft to push more users to the latest Windows 10, because the official support for Windows 7 will be ended in 2020. Now, the company’s Vice President, Yusuf Mehdi, has announced that there are now over 800 million active Windows 10 machines.

In November 2017, there were about 600 million devices running on Windows 10, after 2 years of release. The number increases to 800 million within another 16 months, which is a big milestone. Also, Windows 10 is the operating system with the highest customer satisfaction ever. However, Microsoft original goal is to reach 1 billion users within two to three years, when they first unveiled Windows 10 in 2015.

Thank you to all our customers and partners for helping us achieve 800 million #Windows10 devices and the highest customer satisfaction in the history of Windows. https://t.co/G3CRdkFoPT pic.twitter.com/je9kvBvYhj

— Yusuf Mehdi (@yusuf_i_mehdi) March 7, 2019

With Windows 7 approaching its End-of-Support date, the market share of Windows 10 should see a noticeable increase, unless people are willing to pay to extend support till 2023.

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Maxon Releases New Cinebench R20 CPU Benchmark

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Anson

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March 7, 2019

Cinebench R20

Maxon’s Cinebench R15 has been widely used by the tech industry and consumers to quickly measure the performance of a specific CPU. But the software was released back in 2013, which was not optimized for today’s high core-count processors. Today, Maxon updates the software with Cinebench R20.

Compared to the older R15, the Cinebench R20 uses a more complex test scene, which would require up to 8 times more computational power and 4 times more memory. It has implemented the latest rendering architecture, such as Intel’s Embree raytracing technology. Cinebench R20 should be able to provide more accurate benchmark results for newer generation processors from both AMD and Intel. However, there will no longer have the OpenGL GPU test in the software.

Cinebench R20 will remain free of charge as before, which supports operating systems from Windows 7 Service Pack 1 64-bit or higher and macOS 10.11.6 or higher. Your system will need to have a 64-bit AMD or Intel CPU with support to SSE3 instruction set and at least 4 GB RAM.

Instead of offering a standalone installer like previous version, you will have to visit the Microsoft Store and Mac App Store in order to download Cinebench R20. In my opinion, this is much less convenient and take extra steps to install the software.

Update:

Maxon finally provides users a link to directly download standalone versions of the software for Windows and macOS.

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Tesla Will Be Unveiling The Model Y Electric SUV on 14 March

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Anson

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March 5, 2019

Tesla Model Y

The rumors of Tesla making a mid-size electric SUV are around for quite some time. We never hear any official statement about it, until Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk announced that the company will unveil the Model Y SUV on 14 March at Los Angeles.

The Model Y will be the fifth electric vehicles from Tesla, after the Roadster (2008), Model S, Model X and Model 3. According to Musk, the SUV will be based on the existing Model 3 sedan’s platform, which will share up to 75% of the components with Model 3. But the Model Y will be about 10% bigger in size and also 10% more expensive. It will be fitted with the same amount of battery, which means it will have slightly inferior range.

Model Y unveil event on March 14 at LA Design Studio

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 3, 2019

In Tesla’s Q4 2018 Finical Report, Model Y is hoped to achieve volume production by the end of 2020. Musk also expects the Model Y to have 50% more demand than Model 3, due to the high popularity of mid-sized SUV worldwide.

On 14 March, a launch event will be held at L.A. Design Studio. Detailed specifications and pricing of the Model Y will be available at that time, as well as test rides.

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USB4 Will Have The Same Speed As Thunderbolt 3 at 40 Gbps

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Anson

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March 5, 2019

Just a few days before, USB 3.2 was announced to be ready for consumer later this year (2019), along with its confusing name. Today (4 March), USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) unveils the initial specifications of the upcoming USB4 standard, which is expected to have the same throughput as current Thunderbolt 3 at 40 Gbps.

The new USB4 architecture will be based on Thunderbolt 3 specifications, which Intel has recently made it available to the other companies (Royalty-Free). This allow USB4 to be able to transfer both data and display protocols simultaneously.

USB4 will be backward-compatible with existing USB 3.2, USB 2.0 and Thunderbolt 3 devices, but it will only limit to USB Type-C connectors and cables. USB4 will be utilizing two-lane operation to achieve a maximum bandwidth at 40 Gbps (about 5 GB/s), doubling the 20 Gbps of USB 3.2. It also support the same 100 W of power delivery through USB-C.

USB4 will not be implemented in consumer devices earlier than 2021. Currently, the USB4 specifications are still in draft, which may have little changes and tweaks before the final version is confirmed in late 2019.

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Razer Phone 2 Is Getting A Massive $300 USD Discount for Limited Time

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Anson

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March 3, 2019

Razer Phone 2 is one of the few smartphones in the market to have a high refresh rate display, dual front-facing speakers and other “gaming” features. It recently received the latest Android 9.0 Pie software update in late February. Now, the Razer Phone 2 is having a $300 USD discount on Amazon and Razer Store for a limited time.

If you haven’t known already, the Razer Phone 2 is equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC, 8 GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal storage. The main selling point of the phone is the 5.72-inch IGZO LCD discplay, with a resolution of 2560×1440, which is capable of operating at up to 120 Hz. The Dolby Atmos certified dual front-facing speakers should also make media consumption more enjoyable.

According to Razer, there is an ongoing promotion for the Razer phone 2 starting from 1 March. A massive $300 USD is cut from the original $799.99 USD (MSRP) price, which is equal to 37.5% off. If you want to have a decent smartphone with constant update from the manufacturer, the Razer Phone 2 may worth your consideration now.

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USB 3.2 Standard Has Gotten A More Confusing Naming Scheme

By

Anson

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March 2, 2019

USB 3.2 Standard

Back in September 2017, the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) officially announced the specifications of the upcoming USB 3.2 standard. Finally, supported devices are going to release later this year (2019), which can achieve transfer speed of up to 20 Gbps. However, the USB-IF decides to add more confusion to the already complicated naming scheme of the USB standard.

It was all organised and easy to understand when USB 1.0, USB 2.0 are the mainstream standards. Then, USB 3.0 and 3.1 were released, which were later changed to USB 3.1 Gen 1 and Gen 2. Now, their name will be altered once again with the new USB 3.2 standard.

USB-IF:

USB 3.2 Gen 1

Product capability: product signals at 5Gbps

Marketing name: SuperSpeed USB

USB 3.2 Gen 2

Product capability: product signals at 10Gbps

Marketing name: SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps

USB 3.2 Gen 2×2

Product capability: product signals at 20Gbps

Marketing name: SuperSpeed USB 20Gbps

The updated naming scheme will be based on the maximum theoretical transfer speed and used lanes of the USB standard. The new USB 3.2 standard, with up to 20 Gbps of transfer speed, will be called USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 or SuperSpeed USB 20Gbps. At the same time, the older USB 3.1 Gen 1 and Gen 2 will be named USB 3.2 Gen 1 and USB 3.2 Gen 2 or SuperSpeed USB and SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps respectively.

In my opinion, USB-IF should think of a simpler way to allow less tech-savvy consumers to distinguish between different standards and their rated speeds. Renaming and re-branding older standards frequently just is not the way to improve it.

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Micron And SanDisk Both Announce Their First 1TB microSD Cards

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Anson

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March 2, 2019

1TB microSD Card — Photo from Micron and SanDisk

Smartphones and other mobile devices, that are able to support up to 2 TB of expandable storage via microSD cards, are available since 2016. But the largest capacity we seen so far is only 400 GB. With the advancement of NAND flash technology, both Micron and SanDisk have unveiled their 1 TB microSD cards to the public.

The Micron c200 microSD card will be utilizing Micron’s own 96-layers 3D QLC NAND Flash in order to reach the targeted 1 TB capacity. The card will be able to reach read speed at 100 MB/s and write at 95 MB/s.

The SanDisk Extreme, Extreme PLUS and Extreme PRO microSD cards both get a 512 GB and 1 TB model into their lineup. Western Digital/SanDisk does not reveal which NAND technology is being used on the card. The SanDisk 1 TB microSD cards are able to read and write at 160 MB/s and 90 MB/s respectively. They do have an edge on the Micron c200 in read performance.

Micron says the c200 microSD card will start shipping in the 2nd quarter of 2019. The 1 TB SanDisk Extreme microSD card will be priced at $449.99 USD (MSRP), available in April 2019.

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