Author: batteryforpc

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.

In most functional ways, Google’s Virtual Desks for Chrome OS fully arrived in the latest version: Chrome OS 78. With all the animations, features and new set of keyboard shortcuts now available to users right out of the box, Virtual Desks feels nearly complete. We talked briefly about the last, lingering piece that was missing in gesture navigation with Chrome OS 78 and that was the inability for users to move between active Virtual Desks with a gesture on the trackpad.

When turning on the single flag needed to enable this feature, the choice of gestures is a tad bit questionable. Again, as we’ve talked about in the past, there are many folks who’ve been using Chrome OS for a very long time and certain multi-finger moves on the trackpad surface are inexorably tied to certain things in our minds now. The biggest one for me is the 3-finger swipe left and right to scrub through tabs.

For me, this is one of those tiny gestures that sets using a Chromebook apart from other devices. If you’ve not tried it, you most definitely should get it into your normal workflow. With a quick 3-finger slide left or right on the trackpad, you can seamlessly move between your open tabs in the browser and it is easily my favorite productivity gesture on a Chromebook that you can’t leverage on any other operating system.

Here’s the issue. With the addition of Virtual Desks, Google chose to take that 3-finger gesture and apply it to Virtual Desk navigation instead. So, when you turn on the flag for Virtual Desk gesture navigation right now, your 3-finger swipe will no longer move you through open tabs in your browser. Instead, this behavior has been mapped to a 4-finger swipe left or right and my brain has not been able to handle it. 

I’m not kidding: I’ve had Virtual Desks turned on in every way, shape and form since they were introduced and ever since they changed around the 3/4-finger gestures, I’ve been trying to retrain my brain with absolutely no success. As a matter of fact, right before this paragraph started, I was going to swipe over to my Gmail tab and check something and instead went to my adjacent Virtual Desk. It’s starting to get aggravating.

Thankfully, we’ve spotted a bug report entry that shows clearly that Google is planning on implementing Virtual Desk gestures in a way that keeps the beloved 3-finger gesture mapped to tab scrubbing. I and many other users can breath a bit easier knowing that one of the best navigation moves in the OS is here to stay. No need to retrain my brain. No need to force myself to forget years of habit. Check it out below:

Desks: Prepare Virtual Desks Gestures for launch

This CL makes the following changes:

– Tab scrubbing will always use 3-finger gestures.

– 4-finger horizontal swipes will switch desks only if

the flag “–enable-virtual-desks-gestures” is enabled.

– 3-finger horizontal swipes while in Overview will always

move the highlighter.

This CL is meant to be merged back to M-79.

A follow-up CL will remove the “–enable-virtual-desks-gestures”

flag entirely on M-80, so that virtual desks gestures will always

be enabled going forward.

Instead, moving between Virtual Desks will happen with a 4-finger left/right gesture. I know other operating systems use a 3-finger gesture, but I genuinely feel like Google is making the right call, here. After all, mapping the more-complex navigation (moving entire desks) to the more-complex gesture makes way more logical sense. And, as much as I love Virtual Desks, the more useful navigation is really tab scrubbing in Chrome OS, so I’m extremely excited to see it will continue forward as it always has: untouched and unmatched.

A Geekbench 4 submission today shows off the power of two AMD EPYC Rome 7H12 64-core, 128-thread server-grade processors in one Cray Shasta supercomputer. AMD added the 7H12 to its second-gen EPYC line in September.

AMD currently has three 64-core, 128-thread EPYC chips in its arsenal; although, more might be on the way. With a 2.6 GHz base clock and 3.3 GHz boost clock, the EPYC 7H12 is the fastest performer out of the three existing models. The chip is rated rated for 280W, which is 55W higher than the EPYC 7742, so the 7H12 should have a higher all-core turbo clock.

The Shasta was rocking two EPYC 7H12 processors, meaning it had 128 cores and 256 threads at its disposal. The system put up a single-core score of 4,512 points and a multi-core score of 181,580 points.

Surprisingly, Shasta’s configuration wasn’t enough to put the supercomputer in first place on the Geekbench 4 rankings. The current Geekbench 4 multi-core record belongs to a Gigabyte R282-Z92 system, which sports a pair of EPYC 7742 chips. Shasta lags behind the R282-Z92 by roughly 3.4% and 7.6% in the single-and multi-core scores, respectively.

On paper, the EPYC 7H12 should outperform the EPYC 7742. Due to the lack of detailed information, we can only assume that the discrepancy is attributed to the fact that both systems were running different memory, operating systems and versions of the Geekbench 4 software.

Gigabyte has added an interesting feature to its newest Aorus RGB memory kit, one that allows it to run faster in certain motherboards with minimal fuss. It’s called “Aorus Boost,” and it gives users up to a 4 percent bump in performance.

Even without the boost feature, Gigabyte’s new 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4-3600 memory kit is the fastest one it has released so far. At 3600MHz, the timings are configured at 18-19-19-39, according to the RAM’s main product page and Gigabyte’s press release. (Curiously, the specifications section lists slightly higher timings—19-19-19-43 on Intel platforms and 20-19-19-43 on Ryzen configs, so go figure.)

It’s the boost feature that is somewhat interesting, though.

“Many users often look to overclock their RAM and tweak their timings for higher memory frequencies and better performance. Memory overclocking can be a hit or miss though with users often spending lots of time trying to unlock better memory performance to little effect as their overclocked memory performance falls short of their expectations,” Gigabyte explains.

This is where Aorus Boost comes into play. On certain Aorus X570 and Z390 motherboards, there is an Aorus Memory Boost setting in the BIOS that will apply the necessary settings to increase the frequency up to 3733MHz. Compatible motherboards include the following models:

Z390 Aorus Xtreme Waterforce 5G

Z390 Aorus Xtreme Waterforce

Z390 Aorus Xtreme

Z390 Aorus Master

Z390 Aorus Ultra

Z390 Aorus Pro WiFi

X570 Aorus Xtreme

X570 Aorus Master

X570 Aorus Ultra

X570 Aorus Pro WiFi

X570 Aorus Pro

X570 I Aorus Pro WiFi

It’s not clear what effect this has on timings; I presume they get loosened a touch. Outside of the boost feature, Gigabyte says this kit is built on a “10-layer, sophisticated PCG that ensures the stability and performance” of the memory chips, which are “100 percent sorted and tested.” Binning is a common practice on the best RAM kits, though, so this is not unique to Gigabyte.

There are two versions of this kit available. Both sport a pair of 8GB modules, but the second version also includes a couple of “demo modules.” These are dummy modules for people who want to fill all their DIMM slots with RGB lighting, without buying more RAM.

Gigabyte did not say when this RAM will be available or how much the two versions will cost. As a point of reference, Gigabyte’s Aorus RGB 16GB DDR4-3200 memory kit with demo modules sell for $169.99 on Amazon.

That said, if you are in the market for RAM (or pretty much anything else), it might be worth waiting a week to see what of Black Friday deals emerge.