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hardwarecomponents · 5 years ago

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Zigbee vulnerability lets hackers use Hue bulbs to hijack your network

A team of researchers just revealed that it’s possible for a rogue light bulb to hijack your Philips Hue bridge—and, in turn, your entire network—using a vulnerability in the Zigbee wireless protocol. The good news? Your bridge has probably already patched itself. Check Point Research published its findings on Wednesday, three months after alerting Signify-owned Philips Hue of the vulnerability. Signify confirmed the security hole and released a patch for the Hue Bridge in January. If your bridge is online and you’ve enabled automatic updates, the patch should already be installed. Also, a Philips Hue rep told TechHive that Hue bulbs manufactured since 2018 aren’t vulnerable to the attack. According to Check Point, hackers can exploit the Zigbee vulnerability by taking control of an older Hue bulb and making it turn on and off or change color, in hopes of tricking the owner into thinking something’s amiss with the bulb. Ben Patterson/IDG Your Hue Bridge has, most likely, already been patched to prevent hackers from attacking it using a compromised Hue bulb. If the user removes the bulb from the Hue app and re-pairs it to the bridge, the hackers can then use the compromised bulb to send a “heap-based buffer overload” to the bridge, essentially overwhelming it with data and paving the way for a malware attack on the user’s entire network, the Check Point report says. Check Point notes that it focused its research on Philips Hue because it’s the “market-leading” Zigbee smart-bulb manufacturer, leaving open the possibility that other Zigbee-based smart devices are open to the attack. A detailed report won’t be published until “a later date” to “give users time to successfully patch their vulnerable devices,” Check Point said. Hopefully, we'll hear soon from manufacturers of other Zigbee-enabled devices about how they have (or will) tackle the security hole. Check Point’s findings come a few years after researchers used a drone to remotely inject a worm into a Zigbee bulb, which then allowed the worm to jump from bulb to bulb. Check Point said it used a “remaining vulnerability” from that earlier research to discover the latest exploit. Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details.

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hardwarecomponents · 5 years ago

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Graphics cards comparison and rankings, from fastest to slowest

When it comes to gaming PCs, nothing matters more than your graphics card. To push as many pixels as possible you’re going to want the fastest graphics card you can afford—but ever-shifting prices and product lineups make it difficult to keep track of what’s available. In honor of keeping frame rates high, we decided to rank all the major available discrete GPUs from Nvidia GeForce and AMD Radeon, starting with the fastest graphics card available and working on down. This list focuses on each company’s most current GPU lineup, and doesn’t include older graphics cards. Price to performance is not a consideration here—just performance. (Concrete example: The original GeForce RTX 2080 is technically more powerful than the GeForce RTX 2070 Super, and hence higher on this list, but it’s awfully close and the GeForce option is significantly cheaper, making it a better buy.) We’ve verified this information through hours of blood, sweat, and benchmarking. Feel free to hit up the individual reviews to see our work in greater detail. Or, if you want more concrete buying advice for your specific budget or display resolution, be sure to read our guide to the best graphics cards for gaming. It provides much more information than this simple list, complete with discussion about considerations like value, various form factors, and what to look for in a customized model. But if you just want to know if GPU A is faster than GPU B, starting with the current consumer gaming champion, read on. The higher up a graphics card is on this list, the faster and more powerful it is. Editor’s note: This article was last updated on February 5, 2019 to add AMD’s Radeon RX 5600 XT and remove the company’s Vega 56 and 64 graphics cards. You’ll also find (literally) lower-powered consumer graphics cards like the GeForce GTX 1650, GeForce GTX 1030, and Radeon RX 550 available, which can all be powered by your motherboard alone in their stock configuration. Unless you’re extremely budget-constricted, however, or can’t accommodate additional power connections, avoid everything below the Radeon RX 570. AMD’s RX 570 provides an incredible amount of value at the $130 sale price you can consistently find it for—often while bundled with free games—and damned fine 1080p gaming if you don’t mind dialing visual settings back from Ultra. Its GeForce rival, the GTX 1650, isn’t as fast as the Radeon RX 570 and costs more with a $150 starting price, damned near the cost of the much-superior GTX 1650 Super and Radeon RX 5500 XT. …But that’s beyond the scope of this list. Again, be sure to check out our guide to the best graphics cards for gaming if you want our GPU recommendations for any budget and other helpful information designed to help you choose the best graphics card for you. Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details.

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hardwarecomponents · 5 years ago

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Microsoft combines Windows and Surface, potentially making it tougher on PC makers

Microsoft is combining its Windows client and Surface teams into a dedicated unit led by product chief Panos Panay, according to a report Wednesday, potentially aligning its operating system and PC hardware under the same roof. According to ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley, the combination will be named “Windows + Devices,” and will be led by Panay. Joe Belfiore, who leads the Windows Experience team, will move over to the Office side of the house later in the year. A source close to Microsoft confirmed the report, though Microsoft's not confirming it publicly for now. “Personally I’m very excited to lead the Windows Client for Microsoft, which will help us streamline our decision-making processes, be clear on our priorities, and deliver the best end user experiences from silicon through operating systems across all Microsoft apps and service connected devices (OEMs and Surface),” Panay wrote in an internal memo, as reported by Foley. “We believe this will make the Windows Client experience better for the entire PC ecosystem.” The combination will align Windows and Microsoft’s PC business even closer, in much the same way that Apple’s software and hardware teams work closely together, or Google’s Chromebook and Pixel teams talk to the Android and ChromeOS developers. That’s worked out well for Apple, of course, and the Android ecosystem is thriving. The PC industry, of course, is a much more fragmented and fragile business. A surprising jolt in sales during 2019 was immediately being followed by predictions of a corresponding drop once the industry navigated the transition from Windows 7 to Windows 10. Microsoft, meanwhile, saw its Surface sales grow to nearly $2 billion even as company executives noted execution problems within the consumer Surface business. Obviously, the Windows teams and the Surface hardware group work at the same company, so a certain amount of collaboration would be natural. This does take it to the next level, however. Microsoft has traditionally synchronized its Surface announcements with corresponding updates within Windows, although it was really the October, 2018 Surface launch when Panay and Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of what Microsoft then called Modern Life and Devices, overtly tied products like the Surface Pro 6 to collaboration, Office, and Windows. PC makers worried that Microsoft was trying to take over the PC business when Microsoft launched the original Surface many years ago. In response, Microsoft positioned devices like the Surface tablet and the Surface Studio as trailblazers, establishing a market that PC makers could then fill out. Of course, Microsoft’s “trailblazing” efforts haven’t always led to a surge in similar products. Consider the Windows tablet market: The Surface Pro (2017), Surface Pro 6, and the recent Surface Pro 7 simply haven’t faced much competition, as OEMs somewhat de-emphasized tablets in favor of more traditional clamshell designs. On the other hand, Microsoft will follow companies like Lenovo and its ThinkPad X1 Fold into the market with the foldable Surface Neo, due this fall. Does Microsoft’s reorg pose a dire threat to the greater PC industry? Of course not. But it might have a demoralizing effect on PC makers, some of which have to feel that Microsoft’s moves make it tougher for everyone to compete. Microsoft’s recent emphasis on the cloud—and in effect, away from the PC—likely fuels such concerns. It will be up to Microsoft to make the case that the move benefits the PC industry as a whole, and not just Microsoft. We’ll have to see what Microsoft says in that regard as it publicly spins its latest reorganization. Updated at 10:02 AM with additional details. Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details.

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hardwarecomponents · 5 years ago

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AMD's PC market share soars during the fourth quarter, thanks to Ryzen

If, like us, you’ve been impressed with AMD’s recent run of Ryzen products, you’re not alone: AMD’s market share has climbed to a point not seen since 2013. According to AMD, the company’s market share in the desktop PC space climbed to 18.3 percent during the fourth quarter, up 2.4 percentage points from the same time a year ago. AMD’s mobile share for the same period now stands at 16.2 percent, an increase of 4 percentage points from a year ago, too. The numbers come from a report from Mercury Research, which confirmed AMD’s figures. AMD AMD’s summary of the Mercury Research data. Because of the essentially zero-sum nature of the PC market, AMD’s gains come at the expense of Intel, which saw market share decreases of nearly the same amount. In desktop, Intel’s fourth-quarter share stands at 81.7 percent, and at 83.8 percent for mobile. The third player, Zhaoxin (which uses Via’s technology) has a scant 0.1-percent share in the desktop CPU market, Mercury reports. All of Mercury’s numbers also exclude the impact of any IoT products, though that’s probably an unnecessary caveat in the desktop PC space. “Desktop CPUs were up due to strong high-end gaming CPU demand, and also because Intel improved entry-level CPU supply during the quarter,” Mercury Research principal analyst and president Dean McCarron said in an email. “AMD had very strong growth in the ‘Matisse’ core Ryzen 3000 series, and in addition to the improved entry-level supply Intel had strong growth in [Core] i9. Much of the growth for both AMD and Intel happened at the very very top of the market for CPUs with the highest core counts.” The mobile market was weaker, but saw growth at the top like desktop CPUs, McCarron added. Intel does have something to cheer about, at least in the short term. For one thing, it controlled 95.5 percent of the X86 server market during the fourth quarter (although AMD stole about one point of market share, giving it 4.5 percent). AMD's semi-custom business suffered short-term declines as the market awaits the next generation of gaming consoles, Mercury reported. Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details.

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hardwarecomponents · 5 years ago

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Update: Windows 10's search is broken. Here are some workarounds

Nope, it’s not just you. Windows 10’s search bar is broken for many people, according to reports flooding in across social media. Mine’s broken too. It sucks. Trying to use Windows 10’s native search tool results in an empty, unresponsive black box, rather than the expected list of results. Rebooting doesn’t help. It appears something’s broken on Microsoft’s end. Update 12:33 PM: According to Microsoft, the search issue is a "server-side issue" that Microsoft is fixing, though it's not fully solved. Here's Microsoft's statement: "We are aware of a temporary server-side issue causing Windows search to show a blank box. This issue has been resolved for most users and in some cases, you might need to restart your device. We are working diligently to fully resolve the issue and will provide an update once resolved." Tying into that theory, some users have reported that disabling Windows search’s native Bing integration fixes the issue. How To Geek has a step-by-step primer on how to do just that, and if you don’t find the Bing results useful in general, they’re worth disabling anyway. I found a simpler workaround: Open File Explorer and use its search bar instead to find local files. Works like a charm on my system. It’s not a good look a mere month after Windows 7 and its rock-solid search were put out to pasture. Windows 10’s search results have never been as good as Windows 7’s, in my opinion. If you want a quick, awesome third-party tool that behaves much better and won’t ruin your day when Bing freaks out, check out Everything by voidtools. It’s an excellent no-cost program, but the developer accepts donations, so if you wind up liking it, toss a coin to your searcher. We covered it in an older article on 9 free tools that make Windows much better—especially today, it seems. Additional reporting by Mark Hachman Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details.

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hardwarecomponents · 5 years ago

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PCWorld's February Digital Magazine: Windows 7 is dead

Stay on top of the latest tech with PCWorld’s Digital Magazine. Available as single copies or as a monthly subscription, it highlights the best content from PCWorld.com—the most important news, the key product reviews, and the most useful features and how-to stories—in a curated Digital Magazine for Android and iOS, as well for the desktop and other tablet readers. Windows 7 is dead. In the February issue of PCWorld we tell you how to stay safe after the security updates stop. Check out our Android Frankenphone, which contains all the best features from the Android ecosystem. We’ve also got the 17 most anticipated games of 2020. Watch: Lenovo showcased two intriguing PCs at CES: The ThinkPad X1 Fold, which will be the first foldable PC available, and the ThinkBook Plus, which has a second screen on the cover so you can glance at notes without opening your laptop. You can now read any issues as part of your subscription through a browser on Mac or PC. Simply go to this link. Click on the icon in the upper right (a box with an arrow in it). Existing app users should click on ‘Already have an account?’ below the sign up form and then log in there with your Macworld digital magazine app credentials. From there you will have access to all issues that are part of your subscription. Subscribers can visit this page to learn how to access PCWorld on any device and start reading the current issue right away. Subscribers: Update your PCWorld app to the latest version today! Not a subscriber? With the PCWorld's subscription, you get access to the digital magazine on as many devices as you’d like. Subscribe today! Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details.

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hardwarecomponents · 5 years ago

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Google celebrates Maps' 15th 'birthday' with new features and design

It’s been a decade and a half since Google Maps first started telling us where to go, and Google is giving it a proper celebration. So, to mark 15 years of service, Google has refreshed the Google Maps app on Android with a new design, a new icon, and new features. Google isn’t reinventing the wheel here, but users will notice several changes. The new Google Maps design is rolling out on iOS and Android beginning today. Google New Google Maps tabs provide easier access to contributions and saved places. The most obvious tweak (other than the icon) is with the navigation menu. Instead of three simple Explore, Commute, and For You tabs, you’ll now find five tabs spanning the bottom of your screen: Explore and Commute as before, along with Saved, Contribute, and Updates. The Saved brings your favorites out of the sidebar, while Contribute makes it quicker to share missing places and reviews. Finally, Updates is basically For You, with a feed of stories, trending nearby spots. It’s also where you’ll be able to send messages to businesses. Public transportation is also getting some new features to help you plan your trip, including the temperature, accessibility options, security, and even the number of carriages that are available on the subway you will be taking. Google is using crowd-sourcing and user surveys to estimate this information, which will appear alongside public transit routes. Google says the new features will begin rolling out globally in March. Google Google will provide updates on temperature, security, and accessibility inside the subway car you’re riding. Finally, Google is also beefing up its AR-powered Live View walking directions to show exactly how far a place is from where you’re standing. Additionally, Google says Live View will be receiving updates over the coming months, “starting with better assistance whenever you’re searching for a place.” Along with the new features, Google Maps chief Jen Fitzpatrick has taken a look at the first 15 years of the service and what a “gargantuan task” it is. Thanks to AI and machine learning, Fitzpatrick says Google has “mapped as many buildings in the last year as we did in the previous 10,” and is using the technology to better identify handwritten building numbers in areas where formal street signs are uncommon. In Lagos, Nigeria, she says machine learning has helped Google Maps add 20,000 street names, 50,000 addresses, and 100,000 new businesses. Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details.

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hardwarecomponents · 5 years ago

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How to make Alexa lower her voice to a whisper

If you’re leery about chatting with Alexa late at night because her blaring replies might wake the whole house, you can turn on a setting that’ll lower Alexa’s voice to a whisper. Once you switch on Alexa’s Whisper Mode, Alexa will whisper to you if you whisper to her first. It’s a nifty trick, and one that apparently required a fair amount of research and technical expertise to pull off. The bottom line, though, is that Whisper Mode makes for an effective way to chat with Alexa on the down-low. It’s worth noting that Whisper Mode only works on Echo speakers, such as the Echo and Echo Dot. If you try to whisper to Alexa using, say, the Alexa app for Android or iOS, Alexa will talk back to you in her normal voice. Now, here’s an annoying thing about Alexa’s Whisper Mode: while the setting will apply to all the Echo speakers signed into your Amazon account, you’ll essentially need to prime it for each speaker before Alexa starts recognizing your whispers automatically. That’s because the first time you whisper to a given Echo speaker, Alexa will say in her normal voice, “I think you just whispered to me,” and then she’ll continue to explain what Whisper Mode is before finally lowering her voice. Once that’s done, however, Alexa should correctly respond to your whispers on the first try, as well as go back to speaking normally when you talk to her in a normal voice. Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details.

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hardwarecomponents · 5 years ago

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The Full Nerd ep. 124: Why Nvidia's GeForce Now rocks, Z490 and B550 motherboard rumors

In this episode of The Full Nerd, Gordon Mah Ung, Brad Chacos, Alaina Yee, Adam Patrick Murray, and special guest Leif Johnson geek out over gaming from the cloud. Yes, Nvidia’s GeForce Now game-streaming service is finally launching out of beta three long years after its reveal, and Brad says it obliterates Google’s Stadia. Leif took GeForce Now for a whirl for Macworld, and he says it’s as good as Mac gaming’s ever going to get. Adam’s been playing with it too. We explain what you need to know about Nvidia’s kick-ass, dirt-cheap new service, while Gordon wonders where cloud gaming fits in around slaying noobs on local hardware. After that, Alaina tags in to join in a conversation about Z490 and B550 motherboard rumors, and then we wrap things up—like always—by fielding questions from you, our viewers and listeners. You can witness it all in the video embedded above. You can also watch The Full Nerd episode 124 on YouTube (subscribe to the channel while you’re there!) or listen to it on Soundcloud if you prefer the audio alone. Speaking of audio, you can subscribe to The Full Nerd in iTunes (please leave a review if you enjoy the show). We’re also on Stitcher, Google Play, or you can point your favorite podcast-savvy RSS reader to: http://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:226190044/sounds.rss Have a PC- or gaming-related question? Email [email protected] and we’ll try to answer it in the next episode. You can also join the PC-related discussions and ask us questions on The Full Nerd’s Discord server. Finally, be sure to follow PCWorld on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch to watch future episodes live and pick our brains in real time! Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details.

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hardwarecomponents · 5 years ago

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Black wallpaper bug from Windows 7's 'final' update will get fixed

Windows 7 may have gone end-of-life earlier this month, but Microsoft’s preparing a postmortem patch to fix a bug introduced in what was supposed to be the final update. After installing the KB4534310 update on Patch Tuesday, many users complained that their wallpaper turned black. While some forum-goers were quick to grab their torches and pitchforks, convinced it was a last second-middle finger to lingering Windows 7 users, that’s not the case whatsoever. It’s a bug, and Microsoft’s readying a fix for it despite Windows 7 being out of support. “We are working on a resolution and will provide an update in an upcoming release, which will be released to all customers running Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1,” the update’s support page now says. At first, Microsoft only promised a fix for organizations paying for Extended Security Updates, as the Verge noted, but a change of heart’s occurred and now everybody’s getting it. Good. In the meantime, the black screens happen when you set your wallpaper to Stretch. Using another configuration option when you’re setting your wallpaper works around the issue—Center or selecting a custom-sized image matched to your screen resolution are probably the best Stretch alternatives, but Fill, Fit, and Tile work too. Once you’ve switched away from a stretched wallpaper, your imagery should return. Better yet, you could move to a still-supported operating system at no cost, as Microsoft’s free Windows 10 upgrade is still officially-unofficially available. Staying on an operating system that isn’t receiving security patches is a bad idea. But if you’re dead-set on sticking with an end-of-life OS, be sure to grab a security suite and read our guide to staying safe on Windows 7 after the security patches stop. It’ll keep you as protected as possible. Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details.

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hardwarecomponents · 5 years ago

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New 'CacheOut' attack targets Intel processors, with a fix arriving soon

Researchers have discovered and published information on what they’re calling CacheOut, a vulnerability in most Intel CPUs that allows an attacker to target more specific data, even stored within Intel’s secured SGX enclave. Intel assigned what’s known as the CVE-2020-0549 vulnerability a threat level of “medium,” acknowledging the danger of a targeted attack. The company noted that CacheOut has never been used outside of a laboratory environment. Among the threats CacheOut poses is to cloud providers, and leaking data from hypervisors (virtual machine monitors) and the virtual machines running on them. Because the researchers disclosed the CacheOut vulnerability privately to Intel some time before making it public, those cloud providers have already deployed countermeasures against CacheOut. Intel said that it plans to release mitigations to address the issue in the near future. These normally are sent to users in the form of BIOS or driver updates. Virtually all Intel processors are potentially affected by CacheOut, save for processors released after the fourth quarter of 2019. AMD processors are not affected, according to details released on a dedicated CacheOut site. Processors made by IBM and ARM may be affected, but have not been confirmed. The paper, by lead author researcher Stephan van Schaik of the University of Michigan and colleagues, has also been made public. CacheOut is another in the line of side-channel exploits that have targeted Intel processors, taking advantage of flaws in Intel’s architecture to attack data as it moves though various data buffers. (Those came to light as part of the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities.) The CacheOut authors suggest that while older speculative execution attacks have resulted in data dumps, the new vulnerability could be used to generate more targeted attacks—that when combined with data-cleaning techniques, specific data could be more easily obtained than before. The CacheOut vulnerability cannot be stopped with Intel’s Spectre/Meltdown mitigations. The CacheOut authors said the vulnerability can be used to attack the unmodified Linux kernel, specifically attacking kernel address space layout randomization (KASLR) and recovering secret kernel stack canaries. The latter is specifically designed to protect against stack-based buffer overflow attacks. In addition, the authors believe that the attack could be used to break virtualization, leaking info from virtual machines that run on top of the same CPU core. Finally, the attack can force Intel’s Software Guard Extensions (SGX) to flush out decrypted data into a cache, where it can be read and analyzed using data-cleaning techniques. While van Schaik and the other researchers suggested that CacheOut could be mitigated by disabling hyperthreading or disabling TSX within Intel’s processors, the authors also noted that Intel will release mitigations to address the problem. Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details.

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hardwarecomponents · 5 years ago

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Ring admits its Android app uses third-party trackers following EFF report

A new report from the Electronic Frontier Foundation once again has Amazon’s Ring in the hot seat regarding the privacy and security of its fleet of home monitoring devices. According to the nonprofit industry watchdog, the Ring app on Android is “packed with third-party trackers sending out a plethora of customers’ personally identifiable information.” In its study, EFF found four main analytics and marketing companies—Branch, Mixpanel, AppsFlyer, and Facebook—to be on the receiving end of Ring’s data, which includes such information as screen resolution, names and email addresses. EFF notes that all of the data they monitored was sent using encrypted HTTPS and “was delivered in a way that eludes analysis.” The organization used a Ring Video Doorbell and a Nexus 5X running Android Oreo to conduct its testing. The app has since been updated from version 3.21.1 to 3.22.1, but it’s unclear whether the activity of the trackers was changed. In a statement to TechHive, a Ring spokesperson admitted to the use of the trackers but downplayed the risk. “Like many companies, Ring uses third-party service providers to evaluate the use of our mobile app, which helps us improve features, optimize the customer experience, and evaluate the effectiveness of our marketing,” the spokesperson said. “Ring ensures that service providers’ use of the data provided is contractually limited to appropriate purposes such as performing these services on our behalf and not for other purposes.” Ring’s Privacy Notice uses the catch-all “with your consent” when discussing when personal information is shared, but also notes that, “We do not authorize our service providers to use or disclose your personal information except as necessary to perform services on our behalf or comply with legal requirements.” EFF found no evidence that the collected data is being used for any nefarious or illicit purposes. At the very least, Ring’s list of third-party analytics services appears to be out of date. Last updated in May 2018, it only lists four platforms, only one of which (Mixpanel) was identified by EFF’s report. Mixpanel lists Expedia, Uber, Twitter, and Ancestry among its 26,000-plus clients, and is used by the Ring app to highlight new features as they are made available. Ring does allow users to opt out of data collection from the services listed, but it’s not very user-friendly. Hopefully, that will change with the imminent launch of a new Control Center dashboard, which will allow users to control their privacy and security settings from within the Ring app, and offer transparency as to how Ring keeps its data private and secure, including third-party services. At its CES announcement, Ring said the new Control Center will arrive in January. Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details.

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hardwarecomponents · 5 years ago

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AMD soars to record Q4 earnings on Ryzen, Epyc sales

AMD enjoyed a well-deserved victory lap during its earnings call on Tuesday, in which it reported record revenue for the fourth quarter of 2019. There’s an even rosier future ahead: The company said it expects 42-percent revenue growth during the first quarter alone, compared to a year ago. Interestingly, the real questions surrounding AMD’s future didn’t concern the company’s Ryzen CPU or Radeon GPU businesses—together, the two accounted for the highest quarterly client processor shipments in more than six years, AMD said. Instead, it’s the semi-custom business that analysts wanted to know about: How are the SoCs AMD is providing to the next-gen Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 expected to fare? The company responded with a promise of growing momentum. For the first quarter, the quantity of chips AMD supplies to the current Xbox One and Sony PlayStation 4 is expected to be negligible, AMD executives said during a conference call. During the second half of the year, though, when volumes begin to ramp, AMD is expected to deliver double-digit growth compared to a year ago, delivering about 80 percent of the year’s semi-custom processor revenue, according to Devinder Kumar, AMD’s chief financial officer. As a whole, AMD reported net income of $170 million, up steeply from the $38 million the company reported a year ago. Revenue climbed by 50 percent, to $2.13 billion—a record for the company. Close AMD watchers could also take heart that AMD actually increased its cash position, raking in $400 million to give it a war chest of $1.5 billion. That’s significant, following years and years of declining cash reserves. “We enter 2020 well positioned to continue gaining share across the PC gaming and server markets, based on having an unmatched portfolio of leadership products spanning from desktops to laptops, data centers and game consoles,” said Lisa Su, AMD’s chief executive, during the call. As enthusiasts already know, AMD’s Ryzen is sitting pretty, and it paid off. AMD’s Computing and Graphics segment recorded a whopping 69-percent increase in revenue compared to a year ago, to $1.66 billion. Reports from the Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom segment were a mixed bag: up 7 percent to $465 million, with higher Epyc server processor revenue, which climbed by double-digits sequentially. Semi-custom sales fell, naturally, as console buyers delayed their purchases until next-gen hardware launches this holiday season. AMD AMD’s mobile Ryzen chips should help boost AMD’s revenue over the course of 2020. In the CPU space, the next bump should come from the launch of the recently announced Ryzen 4000 Mobile processors, the first to use the Zen 2 architecture and the 7nm manufacturing technology. Su told analysts that the chips had begun shipping at the end of the fourth quarter. During 2020, AMD expects about 100 mobile devices to ship with Ryzen 4000, including PCs from major brands such as Lenovo, HP, and Dell, she said. Su also confirmed that, unsurprisingly, AMD would refresh its “Navi” GPU lines with what she called a “next-generation RDNA architecture” in 2020. More details about that will be provided at AMD’s analyst day on March 5, she said. Su somewhat dodged a question asking about processor shortages at rival Intel, referring to “some discussions of, let’s call it pockets of shortages.” She also expressed optimism when asked about concerns that the PC market would trail off in the second half of 2020, as companies finished refreshing and replacing their Windows 7-era PCs. Though she said that wafer foundry TSMC had “supported us very well during our 7nm ramp,” she also described the wafer situation as “tight,” necessitating tight relationships between AMD and its customers. “I think our outlook expects growth in all businesses, including the PC business...with expanding market presence in consumer as well as commercial PCs,” she said. She said AMD expects the PC market during the second half of 2020 to be “flat to down, very slightly,” she said. AMD predicts that first-quarter revenue will be approximately $1.8 billion, plus or minus $50 million, an increase of approximately 42 percent year-over-year and a decrease of approximately 15 percent sequentially, the company said. (The sequential drop is due to the expected lack of SoC sales to game consoles.) For all of 2020, AMD expects revenue growth of between 28 to 30 percent. Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details.

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hardwarecomponents · 5 years ago

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Nomad Base Station Stand review: Easily the best-looking wireless charger I've used

Top to bottom, Nomad’s product line consists of high-quality accessories and devices. From its iPhone and Pixel cases to cables and wireless chargers, the common theme is premium. The Base Station Stand is no different. With an aluminum housing and leather pad, it’s clear the moment you unbox it that this wireless charger is a step above the competition when it comes to overall design. Of course, that premium design comes with a premium price tag. At $99.95, the Base Station Stand costs the same as Nomad’s standard Base Station that’s capable of charging two devices at the same time, thanks to its flat design and quad Qi-compatible wireless charging coils. With the Base Station Stand, you can charge only one device at a time. Still, it features two coils, capable of 10 watts each, making it possible to charge your Android phone or iPhone in either a vertical or horizontal orientation. You can even charge your AirPods on the Stand. If you have AirPods Pro, you’ll need to stand the case on its end, but it worked without any issues in my testing. A small light on the front of the stand lets you know the current charging status, and it has an ambient sensor that will reduce its brightness at night if you opt to put the stand next to your bed. Nomad In addition to charging your phone, the Base Station Stand can be used to charge your Apple AirPods or AirPods Pro. Included in the box are an 18W wall adapter and USB-C cable for powering the stand. If you’re in a hurry and need to top off your phone, you can use that 18W adapter to cut down on the charge time. Speaking of charge time, the Base Station Stand is the second-fastest wireless charging pad I’ve tested for Android phones, and the fastest for the iPhone. When charging a Galaxy S9 from empty to full, the Stand took an average of 158 minutes, or 2 hours and 38 minutes, over three different charge cycles. The only wireless charger that has beat that mark is Anker’s PowerWave Stand. When charging an empty iPhone 11 for an hour, the Base Station Stand averaged a charge level of 42 percent. After taking into account the battery size of the previous iPhone models we’ve tested, that’s good enough for the top spot. Not only does it look good, but it charges fast? It’s almost too good to be true. So, is the Base Station Stand worth its nearly $100 price tag? If stellar design and fast wireless charging are of utmost importance to you, then yes, it is. Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details.

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hardwarecomponents · 5 years ago

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Best wireless chargers 2020: Reviews and buying advice

As convenience goes, wireless charging can’t be beat. You simply drop your phone onto the charger and walk away. Gone is the headache of managing cables that inevitably break or get lost. Until recently, the main drawback to wireless chargers has been slow adoption and slow charging. This style of charging is still not ubiquitous, but you can now find Samsung, LG, Sony, and Moto phones that support it on the Android side, and Apple has adopted it for its iPhone lineup as well. And the technology itself is finally reaching a point where its speed is easier to live with, too. Now that it’s a good time to go out and grab a stand or pad, we’ve tested some of the most popular models out there for both Android and iPhone, and discovered our favorites among the bunch. Read on for our findings, and check back periodically for our latest updates. strong to include our review of the uber-stylish Nomad Base Station Stand, which happens to boast great performance in addition to good looks. Scroll to the bottom of this article to find links for all of our wireless charger reviews. Anker’s PowerWave 7.5 Stand is our current top pick. It charges faster on Android than any other pad we tested, looks nice, and has a stand that makes checking notifications very easy. A cooling fan in the base can be loud in a quiet environment, but it’s not a deal breaker—just something to keep in mind. From its attractive fabric finish—made from hemp and recycled water bottles, no less—to its flexible form factor that lets you charge your phone upright or prone, to its reasonable price, we already liked the Nimble Stand. Then we saw its performance! It was the fastest at charging an iPhone of any of the wireless chargers we’ve reviewed, and laudable at charging Android as well. (Read our full review.) Until recently, there were two different wireless charging standards that you had to be aware of when purchasing a wireless charging pad: the Power Matters Alliance (PMA) standard, and the Wireless Power Consortium’s Qi standard. Powermat has since agreed to join the WPC and embrace the Qi standard. (We’ve noted in our individual wireless charger reviews if it supports the PMA standard, in case you have an older Android device that only supports PMA.) Now you only have one factor to consider when choosing a wireless charging pad: Does it support fast charging? As technology has evolved, so too has the speed at which a phone can wirelessly charge. You will need to check the speed at which your phone can wirelessly charge, which is usually given in terms of 7.5 watts (W), 9W, or even 15W. Sometimes software plays a part in the speed. For example, an iPhone 8, 8 Plus, or X running iOS 11.2 or later charges at 7.5W, while any of the same iPhones running iOS 11.1 charges at 5W. The packaging for most wireless chargers will indicate its speed. Look for the wattage speed on the box or in the specification listing for a charger, then compare that with the speed at which your phone can charge. Do keep in mind that as fast as wireless chargers have become, the included charger for most phones will be your best bet when you’re in a hurry and need as fast a charge as possible. In order to properly test and measure how long a wireless charger takes to charge a smartphone from 0 to 100 percent, we followed the steps below each time we placed a phone on the charging pad. For the initial round of tests, we used an unlocked Samsung Galaxy S9. Testing a wireless charging pad with an iPhone requires a different procedure than with an Android handset. The iPhone doesn’t have an always-on display feature that constantly shows the current battery percentage. Because of this we opted to charge our iPhone X for a period of 60 minutes and measure the achieved charged level following the steps below: For an approximate ballpark of how long it’ll take to reach full charge with an iPhone, you can divide 60 (the number of minutes used for this test) by the percentage result listed in each review. So if the result is an average charge of 36 percent in 60 minutes, the soonest that a full charge will take is roughly 167 minutes, or 2 hours and 47 minutes. Keep in mind that this is an imprecise estimate: We say “approximate” because it’s possible for charging to slow down during a full charge. Curious about the other options out there? Below is a list of all the wireless chargers we’ve reviewed. We’ll keep evaluating new ones on a regular basis, so be sure to come back to see what else we’ve tested. Editor’s note, 9/17/2018: The original version of this article incorrectly stated that Powermat owns the PMA standard. We regret the error. Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details.

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hardwarecomponents · 5 years ago

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Microsoft Surface sales near $2 billion, but it's Azure cloud business is growing faster

Cloud, cloud, cloud, followed by Office, gaming, Surface and then Windows: By now, Microsoft has laid out its priorities, and the financial results Microsoft reported Wednesday afternoon reflected this. For consumers, the high point of Microsoft’s fourth-quarter calendar 2019 results was the fact that Microsoft reported $1.98 billion in Surface sales alone—almost, but not quite, making Surface a $2 billion-dollar business. Interestingly, chief financial officer Amy Hood implied that sales could have been higher, referring to unexplained “execution challenges” in the consumer portion of the Surface business. Overall, Microsoft reported profits of $11.6 billion during the second quarter of its fiscal 2020 calendar, up 38 percent from a year ago, from revenue of $36.9 billion, up 14 percent from the same period. The More Personal Computing business that includes Windows, Xbox, and Surface still generates the most revenue at $13.2 billion. However, it reported just two-percent growth—and that was better than expected, Hood said, due to strong Windows PC sales. Microsoft's growth is primarily being driven by the Intelligent Cloud business, and specifically Microsoft Azure. The Intelligent Cloud business recorded $11.9 billion in revenue, growing by a whopping 27 percent. Within that business, Azure grew by 62 percent just by itself. In all, Intelligent Cloud once again edged out Microsoft’s Productivity and Business Processes ($11.8 billion) in terms of revenue. Microsoft’s Productivity and Business Processes—Office and Microsoft Dynamics, plus related services—saw 17-percent growth, fueled by 20-percent growth in Office 365 consumer revenue and 37.2 million consumer subscribers. Microsoft’s MPC business faces more uncertainty than it has in the past. Revenue is expected to drop fairly substantially during the first quarter, Microsoft said, due to a variety of factors. The first, of course, is seasonality: Consumers buy far less during the first calendar quarter than they do during the holidays. Then there are flagging parts of the business, such as search advertising revenue, which dropped from 14-percent growth a year ago to just 6 percent. Microsoft also acknowledged that the PC market supply chain is changing to adjust for reduced demand. The corporate PC market hastily bought new Windows 10 PCs in advance of the January 14 deadline that just passed, when Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 7. Windows OEM revenue in the current quarter might grow just by low to mid-single digits, Hood said. Overall, the MPC revenue outlook ranges between $10.75 billion and $12.05 billion, a wider spread than normal. Hood called out the uncertainty of the public coronavirus health scare in China, too. It’s unclear what Hood meant when she predicted low single-digit growth for Surface as the company “works through challenges in the consumer segment.” Neither Hood nor Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella explained whether Hood was referring to slower-than-expected sales in consumer Surface devices (versus Surface for Business sales), or whether Microsoft had designated certain devices like the Surface Go as specifically consumer products. (A Microsoft representative declined to comment further when asked to clarify Hood's remarks.) Gaming revenue, which Microsoft said fell 21 percent, will be understandably slow at the moment. AMD, the supplier responsible for the chips powering the Xbox One as well as the upcoming Microsoft Xbox Series X, said that SoC chip sales would be negligible for the near future. Xbox content and services fell 11 percent, Microsoft said, in part because of strong sales of games a year ago. As sales of the Xbox Series X begin to come in, however, revenue contributions will begin to increase during the second half of the year, Hood added. Nevertheless, Microsoft said it reached a new record level in Xbox Live users, and that GamePass subscriptions had doubled. Microsoft’s Project xCloud, allowing consumers to play games on a cellular phone directly from the Azure cloud, has attracted “hundreds of thousands” of users, according to Nadella. Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read our affiliate link policy for more details.

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