Author: batteryforpc

It’s that time of the year again: X019, Microsoft’s annual celebration of all things Xbox, is upon us once more. This year the global Xbox celebration is taking place in the Copper Box Arena, London with Microsoft promising the event will be “filled with news, first looks and surprises, and Xbox FanFest, all livestreamed and starting on Inside Xbox”.

Last year’s event saw Microsoft announce the big news that Obsidian Entertainment and inXile Entertainment had joined Microsoft Studios, alongside Xbox Game Pass updates, some Black Friday deals news and a bunch of new Xbox One game reveals.

However, with Xbox Project Scarlett due for release in late 2020, we’re expecting X019 to be a much bigger show – we may even get a closer look at Microsoft’s next-generation hardware.

TechRadar will be reporting live from X019 in London, bringing you the biggest announcements as they happen.

X019: what is it?

Outside of E3 2019, X019 is Microsoft’s biggest event of the year. Marketed as “the annual global celebration of all things Xbox”, the event is typically Microsoft’s way of updating fans on the things it announced at E3 as well as making big new announcements or providing first looks at upcoming games and/or hardware.

With Xbox Project Scarlett releasing in late 2020, we think (and hope) X019 will be dominated by news on Microsoft’s next-generation console.

X019: when is it?

X019 runs from November 14 to November 16. The annual celebration begins with the fifth anniversary of Xbox FanFest, which kicks off at the Copper Box Arena, London at 7pm GMT / 2pm EST / 11am PST on November 14. This is a ticketed event, but it will be streamed as well.

Shortly after, a special Inside Xbox stream will take place at 8pm GMT / 3pm EST / 12pm PST on November 14.

The rest of the annual event is broken into sessions – which tickets are required for. Morning sessions will run from 10am to 2pm GMT / 5am to 9am EST / 2am to 6am PST, while afternoon sessions will run from 3pm to 7pm GMT / 10am to 2pm EST / 7am to 11am PST.

Most of X019 will be available to watch online.

X019: how to watch

If you haven’t got a ticket, you can watch X019 from the comfort of your own home (or sneakily at work).

X019: what we’re expecting

Here’s everything we’re expecting from Microsoft’s Xbox X019 (and what we’re not):

Xbox Project Scarlett

As much as we’re hoping we’ll hear more about Xbox Project Scarlett, it doesn’t actually look all that likely. For one, it’s probably not a great plan for Microsoft to reveal Xbox Scarlett this close to Black Friday and Christmas when the company will be aiming to shift as many current-gen consoles as possible.

Secondly, in reply to a fan asking if X019 will focus on games or just controllers, Xbox Games Marketing general manager Aaron Greenberg replied with the following:

Whether that means X019 will have a primarily games focus is up for speculation, but that has often been the case in previous years. However, we’re still holding out hope for some juicy new details on Xbox Project Scarlett – and its launch title, Halo Infinte.

Black Friday deals

Yep, every year Microsoft uses the event to announce its annual Black Friday Xbox One deals.

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Game announcements/first looks

We’re definitely expecting some game announcements at X019, especially based on Greenberg’s tweet. We’re hoping for a closer look at Halo Infinite and maybe even a few surprise announcements, alongside DLC for the likes of Gears 5.

Surprises?

In an interview with Twinfiniteat Gamescom 2019, Xbox’s Aaron Greenberg stated that there is some big news coming at X019 for titles coming in early-mid 2020.

“We have some surprises planned,” he said. “I’ll just leave it at that. But yeah, I think that we’ll have a great show. We also have a lot of games coming out in the spring. It’s I think the biggest lineup of games we’ve ever had in the spring. In that window of time between X019 and E3, we have a lot of stuff to show, and people can get hands-on with it and talk about it.”

Related product: Microsoft Xbox One X

Our Verdict:

☆☆☆☆☆

The Xbox One X does what no console has done before: native 4K HDR gaming. However, while games look stunning – with a fantastic level of detail accentuated by the console’s HDR support – their larger file sizes will mean that the 1TB hard drive fills up fast. Memory issues aside, the Xbox One X fulfills the promise of 4K HDR gaming and offers the most premium gaming experience on a console, bar none.

FOR Native 4K HDR gaming

4K Blu-ray player built-in

Improves 1080p experience

AGAINST 1TB HDD fills up fast

Games aren’t always 60fps

Skewed price-performance ratio

Asus Japan announced this week that it’ll show off two new single-board computers at the upcoming ET & IoT Technology 2019 event kicking off November 20 in Yokohama, Japan. The latest Tinker Edge T and Tinker Edge R are designed specifically for IoT (Internet of Things) and edge AI applications.

The Tinker Edge T measures 85 x 56mm, which is around the size of a credit card. The Tinker Edge R adheres to the Pico-ITX form factor (100 x 72mm). Both single-board computers depend on a small heatsink with an accompanying cooling fan to stay cool during operation.

Asus Tinker Edge T

The Tinker Edge T utilizes a NXP i.MX 8M SoC, consisting of a quad-core Cortex-A53 up to 1.5 GHz with one Cortex-M4F real-time core. The system also relies on the Vivante GC7000 Lite 3D graphics engine and Google’s Coral Edge tensor processing unit (TPU), which is optimized for Tensorflow Lite and boasts performance up to 4 tera operations per second (TOPS).

Asus Tinker Edge R

The Tinker Edge R employs a Rockchip RK3399 Pro system on chip (SoC) that boasts a three-in-one design. The chip combines the dual-core Cortex-A72, which runs a clock speed of up to 1.8 GHz and quad-core Cortex-A53 up to 1.4 GHz with a quad-core Mali-T860 GPU at up to 800 MHz. It’s also equipped with a neural processing unit (NPU) capable of delivering up to 3 TOPS of performance.

Asus’ announcement states that the Tinker Edge R and Tinker Edge T are compatible with the Debian and Android operating systems. However, we expect them to support other Linux distributions and operating systems, such as Windows 10 IoT Core or FreeRTOS.

With a focuses on AI processing, both boards face competition in Nvidia’s Jetson Nano, which features a quad-core Arm A57 at 1.45 GHz, along with Nvidia Mawell graphics.

Asus didn’t reveal the pricing or availability of the new single-board computers.

Microsoft is allowing Surface Pro X owners to get access to early native ARM copies of its Edge Chromium browser today. The software giant is making the ARM version of Edge available in the daily Canary channel, and it will mean that devices like the Surface Pro X will gain access to a more capable and more performant browser.

Microsoft released the Surface Pro X earlier this month with the older Edge browser preinstalled, but owners have so far had to use an x86 copy of Chrome or Edge Chromium in emulation mode. This hits battery life and performance on ARM-powered devices significantly. The Verge has been testing early Canary versions of the ARM64 Edge Chromium release, and it’s far better for performance and battery life than using Chrome in emulation.

We’ve seen big improvements in switching tabs, rendering web content, and scrolling speeds. While the speed improvements are obvious, this is an early copy of Edge Chromium for ARM and tabs do occasionally crash. Still, it’s worth trying out if you own a Surface Pro X.

While the ARM64 version enters into the Canary channel today, Microsoft revealed last week at Ignite that a final version of Edge Chromium won’t launch on ARM in time for the January 15th release. Microsoft will make Edge Chromium available on Windows and macOS in January, with an ARM64 release to follow. You can download the ARM64 Edge Canary version over at Microsoft’s Edge Insider site.

Videocardz has done it again. Looks like Intel is working on a powerful new Xe-based 7nm GPU codenamed “Ponte Vecchio” – after an old bridge in Florence, Italy. A quick Google search of the codename also comes up with a Linkedin recruitment ad for an Engineer that will be working on Arctic Sound/Ponte Vecchio-based solutions. Intel’s 7nm Xe-based Ponte Vecchio GPUs will be featured in Project Aurora – an exascale supercomputer from Intel which is expected to go online in 2021.

Intel Ponte Vecchio GPUs will be featured in Aurora Exascale Supercomputer – based on 7nm Xe GPU architecture

Videocardz states that up to six Ponte Vecchio GPUs will be utilized in an upcoming exascale supercomputer called Aurora in conjunction with two Sapphire Rapids Xeon processors. The GPUs will be connected using CXL (Compute Express Link) with a OneAPI software stack. The leak further states that Ponte Vecchio GPUs will utilize Foveros packaging technology along with CXL. While Ponte Vecchio is not a gaming GPU, it will feature ultra-high cache and high memory bandwidth.

Intel’s Ponte Vecchio GPU will have high double-precision FP throughput as well. The company also further mentioned all the other segments that Xe GPUs will be operating in including HPC/Exascale, DL/Training, Cloud GFX, Media Transcore Analytics, Workstation, Gaming, PC Mobile and Ultra Mobile. WhyCry mentions that Intel is planning to reveal more details about its upcoming 7nm based Xe GPU ‘Ponte Vecchio’ on November 17, 2019.

I did a bit of googling and the codename turns up several Linkedin job listings including the word “Ponte Vecchio” along with the already-known codename “Arctic Sound”:

This not only shows that Ponte Vecchio is something Intel has been working on for a while now, but also indicates that P.V is a derivative of the Arctic Sound GPU family – which was targetted directly at the Data Center. While you will have to wait for the 17th for the full disclosure according to VCZ, we can assume that this is going to be a bleeding-edge product that is not going to be aimed at gamers.

Intel’s plans for gamers remain up in the air and while we know that the company will be launching in late-2020, it is unclear whether this is going to be a gaming GPU or just a data-centric one. Chances are that Intel is going to launch with a low powered training vehicle (DG1?) before ramping up to something powerful that can potentially take on NVIDIA’s TITANs and give AMD a run for its money in the entry-level segment as well.

Over the past few years, we’ve spilled a fair amount of digital ink talking about what a Chrome OS phone could or should look like. (If someone were to take the initiative to make one.) For the most part, I’ve imagined a device that looks and functions just like any other smartphone, only running Chrome OS and Android in tandem. That device would work as a phone but then be able to dock and extend a full version of Chrome OS to another display.

It seems that one company has decided to take the leap into this arena but have come up with a very unique twist on the concept and I must say, I am very intrigued. castAway™ Case has launched on IndieGoGo and is offering to turn your smartphone into a foldable, dual-screen workhorse that matches a Chromium OS-powered tablet with your Android or iOS device. The concept is quite fascinating as it solves a number of problems that have often come up when talking about bridging mobile and desktop.

The tablet side of the device features an OP1 processor, 4GB of RAM and 32Gb of storage. This is all shoved into a tiny 6.3″ or 5.8″ QXGA touchscreen. Essentially, we’re looking at the same internals found in the original Samsung Chromebook Plus or the Acer Chromebook R13. The case cradles the tablet and your phone and connects them with castAway’s “magic” magnetic hinge system.

On the software side, the tablet and phone will be synced using castAways’ MultiTask+™ app which allows them to “communicate over encrypted Wifi.” Even when the tablet is detached and functioning as a standalone PC, it will continue to sync with your phone via the MultiTask+™ application. The team is also working on a dock for the castAway tablet that features power, LAN and HDMI connections which means you could seriously use this as not only a companion to your smartphone but your desktop device, as well.

I’ll be interested to see castAway in action. As a prototype that’s built on a low-powered ARM platform, you shouldn’t expect a premium Chrome OS experience but I don’t think that’s the big takeaway here. The castAway crew will be creating an Open Source project around their MultiTask+™ to encourage developers to find new and inventive ways to leverage this concept. With Qualcomm headed to Chrome OS, I could imagine a newer ARM-based version of this concept could be very appealing to a variety of users.

If you’re interested in learning more or perhaps supporting this project, you can get all the details on castAways’ IndieGoGo page where you can reserve yours. The castAway case is slated for launch in May of 2020. Looking forward to seeing how this one pans out. The only missing piece is support from Google that would allow an official build of Chrome OS to run on the tablet.

According to the most recent leaks, Tokina is preparing to reveal a redesigned 100mm f/2.8 Macro lens for Canon and Nikon full-frame DSLRs very soon. The lens will allegedly replace the brand’s current 100mm f/2.8 AT-X M100 AF Pro D seen above.

The news comes to us from the ever-reliable Nokishita, who tweeted about the upcoming lens last night. “It seems that Tokina will announce ‘ATX-i 100mm F2.8 FF MACRO’ in the near future,” reads the translated tweet. “The mount is Canon EF and Nikon F.”

According to Nikon Rumors, the lens will feature Tokina’s more modern Opera design found in lenses like the Opera 16-28mm f/2.8 FF and Opera 50mm f/1.4 FF, and based on the model name it will be the second ATX-i lens from the brand, joining the Tokina ATX-i 11-16mm CF f/2.8 for crop-sensor DSLRs.

This is good news for everybody, since Tokina’s latest lenses tend to punch above their price point, and neither Nikon nor Canon have released a new full-frame, 100mm DSLR-mount macro lens in over 10 years—Nikon’s 105mm f/2.8 Macro lens was released in 2006, and Canon’s 100mm f/2.8L USM Macro in 2009.

Stay tuned for the official release “in the near future.” If previous experience is anything to judge by, Nokishita’s leaks often come within weeks, if not days, of an official announcement from the brand.