Author: batteryforpc

IN 2021 Huawei will be introducing a massive change – dropping Android for their in-house HarmonyOS software. But the P40 Pro and P30 Pro makers aren’t the only tech giant that looks set to shun a Google-made operating system.

Rumours are circulating that OnePlus could be about to drop a Google-made operating system on an upcoming device. But Nord fans who are worried about seeing a massive Android shake-up like their Huawei counterparts are getting needn’t be concerned. According to the rumour mill, OnePlus won’t be switching things around on their Android devices – it will be on their upcoming OnePlus Watch.

As reported on in a post by 9to5Google, OnePlus surprisingly won’t be using Google’s Wear OS platform on their upcoming OnePlus Watch.

Wear OS is the typical go-to choice for smartwatch makers who don’t have the resources to make their own operating system for their wearables.

Exceptions to this is the Samsung’s Tizen OS which runs on Samsung Galaxy Watch devices, while Huawei are designing HarmomyOS to be used on a wide range of devices – including watches and smartphones.

So the latest rumours come as a big surprise, with it unclear what platform the Shenzhen-based tech giant will be using on their OnePlus Watch.

The rumour comes courtesy of reliable OnePlus insider Max Jambor who on Twitter posted: “OnePlus Watch does not run Googles WearOS”.

It remains to be seen what operating system the OnePlus Watch could run – are OnePlus looking to build their own bespoke platform, or could the Nord makers even pivot to Huawei’s HarmonyOS?

The latter would be a big boost for Huawei and a major blow to Google, but we’ll have to sit tight and wait for official confirmation one way or the other.

Rumours of a OnePlus Watch have been circulating for some time now, and recently it had looked like the highly talked about wearable could at last launch in 2020.

It had been thought the OnePlus Watch would launch in October 2020, but it later was claimed that the device had been put on hold.

This rumour came once again for Jambor, who in a post on Voice said “the OnePlus Watch announcement has been postponed without any new date”.

The insider wrote: “In 2016 first rumors about a OnePlus Smartwach surfaced. At the beginning of this month, OnePlus itself gave a hint at the OnePlus 8T Launch Event that a smartwatch could be launched in the near future that might bear the name OnePlus Watch.

“A few weeks ago, I announced that the OnePlus Watch would be presented in October, but according to latest information from multiple sources, there are some changes regarding the launch.

“According to my information, the OnePlus Watch announcement has been postponed without any new date. Now I don’t know the reasons for this step, but my guess is that there are some complications with the production or software development.”

In other OnePlus news, November will see the launch of two new OnePlus handsets – including the cheapest phone the firm has ever released.

OnePlus is expanding its OnePlus Nord line-up with the upcoming release of two new devices in this range, known as OnePlus N10 5G and N100.

Both of these new Nord phones sit below the inaugural Nord device in terms of specs and price.

The OnePlus N10 5G starts at £50 less than the original Nord, setting you back £329, and is powered by a Snapdragon 690, and boasts 6GB of RAM and 128GB of expandable storage.

While the N100 is priced at just £179 – making it the cheapest handset that OnePlus has ever launched.

As to be expected, to help get to that price tag the N100 is down on specs when compared to the original Nord and the upcoming N10 5G.

Both devices will be running Android 10 straight out of the box, and their release dates are fast approaching.

The OnePlus N100 is first up, launching in the UK on Tuesday November 10 with the N10 5G arriving later on in November.

A Redditor has received one of MSI’s looming GeForce RTX 3090 Suprim as a replacement for the Asus ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming, which the U.K. retailer didn’t have in stock. The lucky owner shared some photographs and interesting information on the unreleased graphics card.

If you don’t take into account the exclusive Lightning series, the Gaming X series has always delivered the fastest gaming graphics cards from MSI. However, the latest evidence lends credence to the rumors that MSI might have reshuffled its products. The introduction of the Suprim series would logically relegate Gaming X series, suggesting that the new offerings should be the highest-end models with steeper price tags.

The GeForce RTX 3090 Suprim measures 13.1 inches (332mm) long and judging by the provided photograph, the graphics card probably features a 2.9-slot cooler. We should accept the fact that the bulky designs are here to stay since high-end graphics cards, such as the GeForce RTX 3090 (Ampere) are carrying a 350W TDP (thermal design power).

In terms of cooling, the GeForce RTX 3090 Suprim relies heavily on a triple-fan cooler. The graphics card should be using MSI’s Tri Frozr 2 cooling system, although the shroud’s design looks a bit different from the one that MSI uses on the GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming and Gaming X Trio models. Three proprietary Torx 4.0 cooling fans are on duty to provide the GeForce RTX 3090 Suprim with adequate active cooling. According to the Redditor, the included metallic backplate features a nice logo of the MSI dragon with RGB backlighting.

Specification-wise, the GeForce RTX 3090 Suprim will arrive with the same 10,496 CUDA cores, 328 Tensor cores and 82 RT cores as the Founders Edition. Unless MSI overclocks the memory, the 24GB of GDDR6X should still be operating at 19.5 Gbps across a 384-bit memory interface, amounting to a theoretical maximum memory bandwidth up to 936.2 GBps. The clock speeds will be the biggest difference maker. 

The Redditor indicated that the GeForce RTX 3090 Suprim comes with a 1,965 MHz boost clock out of the box. For comparison, the Founders Edition has a 1,695 MHz boost clock, while MSI’s own GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio rocks a 1,785 MHz boost clock. Therefore, the Suprim boasts 15.9% and 10% higher boost clock speeds than the Founders Edition and Gaming X Trio, respectively.

The typical display output configuration on the GeForce RTX 3090 includes three DisplayPort 1.4a outputs and one HDMI 2.1 port. The Redditor didn’t reveal the GeForce RTX 3090 Suprim’s layout so it’s uncertain if MSI made any changes in that department. However, the three 8-pin PCIe power connectors are visible. The Redditor stated that the power limit on the GeForce RTX 3090 Suprim is 450W.

The GeForce RTX 3090 Suprim comes with dual-BIOS support, a feature that isn’t present on MSI’s GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming and Gaming X Trio models. The photograph reveals a Silent mode, which likely prioritizes accoustics over performance, and a Gaming mode that does the vice-versa.

For the sake of confidentiality, the Redditor didn’t reveal the name of the U.K. retailer. However, he confirmed that he didn’t pay extra for the GeForce RTX 3090 Suprim, suggesting that it shares a similar price tag with the Asus ROG Strix GeForce RTX 3090 Gaming. When in stock, the OC Edition sells for $1,799.99 so the regular variant and MSI’s Suprim model should sell for below that price. Given that the GeForce RTX 3090 Suprim is evidently in stock at an U.K. retailer, it shouldn’t take long until MSI makes an official announcement.

Director of technical marketing at AMD, Robert Hallock, is promising new and improved undervolting capabilities are on the way for Ryzen 5000 chips, to be bundled into a future AGESA firmware update.

Currently AMD’s Ryzen 5000 processors do not offer undervolting in any capacity, and that means you’ll have to stick to only positive voltage tweaks today. AMD does offer the ability to run your processor within the constraints of a lower TDP, such as taking a 105W TDP part down to 65W TDP, but beyond that you’re a bit stuck at the stock configuration.

At least for the time being. AMD’s Robert Hallock has listed a couple of PSAs over on his Twitter account, including one that details a new ‘hype’ undervolting functionality. 

AMD has not offered an exact time-frame on when the AGESA update containing the new functionality will arrive, but when it does we can expect “better frequency, voltage, and performance tweaking.”

Which AGESA update you’re running on, and which you should download, can get a little confusing. You can read more over on AMD’s community website, but essentially it’s down to manufacturers to implement the code. You’ll often see which AGESA, or “AMD Generic Encapsulated System Architecture”, has been implemented on a per BIOS basis on the manufacturer’s downloads page.

New functionality expected to arrive with AGESA versions beyond existing AGESA 1.1.0.0 includes:

Returning support for negative core voltage offsets (“undervolting”) with all-new AMD functionality for better frequency, voltage, and performance tweaking

Additional AMD optimization for performance and stability at ~2000MHz fabric clock

Additional functionality tuning for benchmarking under extreme OC conditions (e.g. LN2)

The flck optimizations will help ensure you’re able to run your AMD Ryzen 5000 processor at a 1:1 ratio with 4,000MHz DDR4 RAM. Currently that functionality is limited to those lucky enough to own the better performing samples of Zen 3, as our Alan discovered when his chip turned out to not be up to the task.

If you can’t wait to mess with your chip’s internals, however, there’s always overclocking. While we didn’t have much luck with the Ryzen 9 5900X, a chip that’s seemingly at its very limits out of the box, we’ve had much greater success overclocking the cheaper Ryzen 5 5600X. Alan managed to push this 65W chip (which is likely the key to its success) to 4.7GHz at 1.3v or 4.6GHz at 1.2v. And with a bit of fine tuning there’s probably more to be gained, too.

Shuttle has announced its latest mini-PC, the XH410G. While the machine may look like a run of the mill mini-PC, the XH410G packs a punch. Measure 250 x 200 x 79 mm, the XH410G supports with a choice of 65 W Intel processors, an expansion slot and multiple ports.

Specifically, Shuttle has designed the XH410G with an LGA1200 socket, meaning that it supports Comet Lake S from the Celeron G5900 to the Core i9-10900. The machine also has two SO-DIMM slots, an M.2 2280 slot and a 2.5-inch bay that can take up to 9.5 mm drives. Additionally, Shuttle has included an M.2 2230AE slot for Wi-Fi cards.

The XH410G has multiple ports, including Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI 2.0a, VGA and four USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A ports. There are also four USB 2.0 ports and dedicated headphone and microphone jacks.

Another highlight of the XH410G is its PCIe slot, which supports X16 PCIe 3.0 and up to 75 W. Shuttle has left enough space in the chassis to accommodate a graphics card, so you could install something like the GeForce GTX 1650. The XH410G supports up to 208 x 120 x 33 mm expansion cards, for reference.

The Shuttle XH410G will be available from €283. It is unclear when the machine will be purchasable, though.

Have you ever tried to use your Chromebook for note-taking with a stylus? Some devices are more suited to the task than others, with the Lenovo Chromebook Duet being the best, in my opinion. There are a lot of pen-enabled apps that you can use, but which ones are truly the best? Today, we’re going to tell you which three we think are the most featureful and provide the best experience on Chromebooks. Then, we’ll give you a few runners up that you can try out as well. If you’re interested in seeing which apps are best for sketching and drawing on a Chromebook, you can check out our round-up for that as well. Let us know in the comments if you feel we missed any note-taking apps that you use or recommend!

Squid Notes

The king of the hill, by far, is Squid Notes. This app is really the go-to for testing for pen latency on a Chromebook because, well, there is none. Where others have failed, Squid has somehow created a perfectly optimized app that – aside from the fact that you’re drawing on glass – feels like you’re drawing on paper. There’s no delay between what you’re thinking and what you’re writing and that’s probably the most vital feature of such an app. I won’t gush much longer over this, because you can just read our review from a few years ago. It’s stood the test of time and the fact that we’re still talking about it today, says something.

For just one dollar per month, you can also use it to sign PDFs. There is the ability to create individual notebooks to separate your work, but compared to Noteshelf, it’s pretty bare. While it has great features, its speed is truly the reason to be excited about it. Besides, Chromebook owners get it for free for six months! If you’re an educator, there’s also an EDU version with special bulk pricing because Google does not support payments from Play apps through Google Workspace for Education.

Noteshelf

Every now and then an app comes along that I feel has great potential, but many people don’t get a chance to see it. Noteshelf is that app. I first discovered it via the Chromebook Perks page years ago and instantly loved it. Some of its best features include separate notebooks with unique covers paper types that feel more tangible than that of Squid Notes, rich text formatting, smart shapes, the ability to mark up PNG, JPG or PDF files, audio recording and backup to Dropbox or Google Drive.

The best thing is that the paper doesn’t zoom in and out on you as you try to write as Google Keep does. You can pinch and zoom on the paper, but there’s quick access to a pen-only mode that disables touch input while you write with your stylus. Aside from your Chromebook shelf sliding upward (please fix this, Google), Noteshelf is the app that feels the most like a real notebook to me – and I’ve tried what I believe are all of the top apps. A big differentiator here is that the pen tracks well with my intentions when I write much smaller whereas Bamboo Paper does not, even after buying Wacom’s pro pack to get more writing utensils.

Lastly, there is an awesome store where you can buy extra page templates, paper types, and notebook covers. This means that you can easily customize your journals for a wide range of use cases. There are templates for parents, students, travel, home planning, creativity, and logging workouts, to name a few. Apart from it having a tiny bit of latency compared to Squid, this app would have my top pick for its level of personalization.

Bamboo Paper

By far the cleanest and most professional – yet still somehow cozy – note-taking app is Bamboo Paper by Wacom. It prominently features your digital notebooks on a carousel and allows you to customize their cover and paper type similar to how Noteshelf does. Their built-in store features packs of paper, notebook covers, and pens that are themed to different types of people – the thinker, the maker, the artist, and the writer – but if you’re serious about using this app, just buy the Pro Pack for $5.49 because it includes them all. I just wish the notebooks came with the sweet image strips they advertise in the store or the ability to add your own.

Bamboo Paper can be used for note-taking or drawing, so as an artist, it wins points from me there. Also, I own several bamboo products, so I like the synchronicity between them with Wacom’s proprietary service called Inkspace (which I keep typing out as Inkscape). Inkspace allows you to synchronize your notes and drawings across the cloud and turn them into image, vector, or video file formats that you can then edit in any program. It works in harmony with their Bamboo Slate and Bamboo Folio smartpads and Intuos Pro Paper Edition pen tablet so that you don’t have to sacrifice the joy of drawing on real paper or a standard graphics tablet if your main computer for creative design is a Mac or Windows.

For those wondering how this app handles palm rejection while taking notes, a pen-only mode was added just this month and it works pretty well. Because I can gripe twice in one day about the Chrome OS shelf sliding up while writing, I will. Google, pretty please find a way to lock the shelf gesture while an active stylus is in use. I don’t know how you’ll do it, but I believe in you – we all do.

More note-taking apps

At this point, you may be wondering why we haven’t placed Google Keep as one of our top three picks. Those of you who have tried to use Keep for note-taking with a stylus probably already understand our frustrations with it. The app’s palm rejection is pretty terrible and no matter what you do, you can’t prevent the page from zooming in or out as you try to type. I love Keep’s simplicity and the fact that it syncs with my Google account, so it’s great for typing out quick ideas, but I don’t really think anyone serious about using their Chromebook to take notes should consider using its pen-based features. It breaks my heart to say that, but Google really needs to revisit the app and add page zoom locking, pressure sensitivity, rich text markup, and more before it becomes a serious contender.

Other great note-taking apps for your Chromebook include INKredible, Evernote, OneNote, and even Nebo, but this one is only compatible with specific Chromebooks and active styli. If you’re into the idea of having a physical notebook that coincides with a digital space and of keeping them in sync with one another, you can try out Moleskin Notes or Rocketbook.