Topps Blog

Wednesday, 25 May 2022

Microsoft Declares Windows 11 Ready For ‘Broad Deployment’

If you’ve been OK with the fact that Microsoft hasn’t pushed a recommendation to “upgrade” to Windows 11 to your PC yet, that will likely change soon. Microsoft has finally declared it ready for “broad deployment” almost seven months after it launched in October of 2021. This means it’ll begin pushing upgrade notices to people who haven’t yet received them. Upgrading is free, of course, should you choose to go along with it. You will need to be running Windows 10 version 2004 to upgrade.

The change in the operating system’s status was posted recently to the Windows Dashboard. This is seemingly the culmination of Microsoft’s “phrased rollout” of Windows 11. It began by offering it only on new PCs, and on “eligible” Windows 10 computers. Those eligibility requirements were a stickler for a lot of folks though. Not only does it require a semi-recent CPU from Intel or AMD, it also requires a Trusted Platform Module 2.0 (TPM). Windows 11 uses the TPM module for security features like Windows Hello and Bitlocker drive encryption. You also need a motherboard that offers a UEFI BIOS. Generally speaking, if your PC was more than five years old, you weren’t/aren’t getting Windows 11. Some people who built systems 3-4 years ago may also be impacted depending on what they built.

For some people, that will probably be just fine. Although Windows 10 was mostly praised — outside of its privacy concerns — Windows 11 has met a lukewarm reception. This follows the pattern of Microsoft alternating between “good” and “meh” releases that started in the 1990s. The list of good-then-meh OSes includes: Windows 98 –> Windows Me, Windows XP –> Windows Vista, Windows 7 –> Windows 8, and Windows 10 –> Windows 11. You can see the pattern here. Anyway, Microsoft has described Windows 11 as a “modern, fresh and beautiful experience” but not everyone feels that way. It certainly looks fresh, but not all the changes Microsoft made have sat well with people.

The tweaks the company made to the Start Menu and Taskbar have been discussed ad nauseam, so we won’t rehash them here. Suffice to say Microsoft has removed a lot of customization and features that were previously available in its operating systems. Some of these functions may be coming back. The company has already discussed adding tabbed windows to Explorer, bringing back Widgets,and has even made it easier to change your default web browser. That last change was only made after Microsoft initially made it very difficult to do, resulting in an online backlash. Still, Microsoft seems to be listening to (some) feedback it’s getting.

If you decide to upgrade, you need to pay attention during the honeymoon period. If you don’t like the “fresh and beautiful” experience, you have a 10-day period during which you can roll your system back to Windows 10. Personally, I upgraded last year and haven’t noticed any noteworthy improvements over Windows 10. All I did was lose some functionality, like being able to drag icons onto the taskbar. I also miss being able to right-click the taskbar to get to the Task Manager, but it’s only a right-click away on the Start button. I have more small gripes, but you get the picture. Of course, there’s always Thread Director, which should benefit people with Alder Lake CPUs. However, you’ll need to do your own testing as it’s unclear how much real-world benefit it actually offers.

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MSI Concept ‘Project Zero’ Motherboard Has No Visible Connectors

(Image: @Chi11eddog) With Computex happening this week a lot of interesting PC projects have appeared online. One of the trends we’re seeing emerge is a move towards hiding all of a PC’s cables. The result is not only a much cleaner appearance, but improved airflow. We previously covered an ambitious project from Gigabyte known as Stealth DIY. It involves a custom motherboard with all its connectors on the back, fitted into a custom case. The result is a case/motherboard pairing that is bereft of all connectors when viewed through its side window. Gigabyte even added a custom GPU to the kit that also has its power connectors mounted behind it. Now MSI is joining the “no visible cables” party with a motherboard called Project Zero.

The motherboard in question has a unique appearance, as there are no visible power connectors. Four photos were posted by Twitter user Chi11eddog, and the Project Zero label is prominently displayed on the VRM shield above the CPU socket. It’s not clear which motherboard family it belongs to, but OP suggests it’s a MEG Unify board. It certainly looks like nothing in the company’s current lineup. In the image above, you can clearly see the 24-pin PSU connector as well as a USB port. There’s also six SATA ports along the edge in the usual spot, but behind the motherboard. Front panel I/O looks to be sandwiched in the corner, so there mayA be some kind of adapter to make installation easier.

This MSI motherboard looks almost foreign without all its connectors. (Image: @Chi11eddog)

The board is clearly a high-end product. We’ve noted the cheeky “For Professionals Only” warning label on the bottom. However, it also has onboard power and reset buttons. This means it’s designed to be run on an open-air test bench. That’s the domain of power users who are always swapping parts, and overclockers. It’s also useful if you want to make sure your rig can POST before putting it in the chassis. In the Twitter photos it’s pointed out that the board’s I/O shield has a dragon logo that’s exactly the same as the company’s 360mm AIO CPU cooler. This makes us think perhaps there’s a “whole system” in the works, with a custom chassis as well.

It looks strikingly similar to Gigabyte’s Stealth PC, as mentioned previously. The only difference is Gigabyte also offered a compatible ATX case. On Gigabyte’s version, the motherboard connectors were set at a 90 degree angle to the board. So they had to be pushed through cut-outs in the chassis. This would make it a lot easier to plug in cables since it can all be done from right side of the chassis. MSI’s design has the connectors parallel to the motherboard, which seems like it’d be tough to connect some cables. The ones on the side, facing the front of the chassis, are fine. But the CPU fan/AIO pump and CPU auxiliary power are behind the motherboard, facing up. That seems like a nightmare to build with.

Have fun connecting your CPU fan to that. (Image: @Chi11eddog)

Hopefully MSI releases more info on this project, preferably with a compatible chassis. We’re all in favor of a cleaner chassis, especially for the airflow benefits. But if it’s too difficult to build, it’ll just be one step forward, one step backwards. Ideally, it’d be preferential if motherboard manufacturers can make a board that is easier to hide cables with, that doesn’t require a custom chassis. EVGA is leading the way it seems with its right-angle connectors for almost everything.

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Activision Blizzard Employees Are Joining a Union

(Photo: Coolcaesar/Wikimedia Commons) A group of employees at Activision Blizzard have made history by voting to join a union.

Jessica Gonzalez, a former Activision employee who helped the group of 28 quality assurance testers organize, live streamed the vote count Monday as 19 employees voted in favor of joining the Game Workers Alliance. All 28 QA testers work for Raven Software, an Activision subsidiary that employs about 350 people.

The organizers’ motivation is based on longstanding management issues, in which leaders communicate poorly, underpay staff, and require staff to work long hours. All three issues are reportedly exacerbated when the company is close to a new launch—a phenomenon known as “crunch” that occurs across the video games industry.

But if there’s any video game company we expected to experience unionization, it’s Activision. The developer has repeatedly made headlines over the last year for maintaining a gruesome company culture, in which employees have repeatedly been harassed, groped, and retaliated against—even to the point of committing suicide. And as recently as this week, Activision has been found threatening employees for attempting to organize and prohibiting social media activity that’s protected under workers’ collective action rights.

Happy union day! We won! pic.twitter.com/nzJ4A3J3RB

— Game Workers Alliance 💙#WeAreGWA (@WeAreGWA) May 23, 2022

It’s no surprise, then, that Activision employees have resorted to a form of worker protection making waves across multiple industries around the country. It also isn’t a surprise that Activision—which, one could argue, got itself into this mess in the first place—isn’t thrilled about this week’s vote. “We respect and believe in the right of all employees to decide whether or not to support or vote for a union,” Activision Blizzard spokesperson Kelvin Liu told NPR in an emailed statement. “We believe that an important decision that will impact the entire Raven Software studio of roughly 350 people should not be made by 19 Raven employees.”

Like it or not, a lot of change sits on Activision’s horizon. While Raven Software officially joins the Game Workers Alliance and Activision (supposedly) puts its back into changing its “frat boy” culture, the Federal Trade Commission is reviewing Microsoft’s bid to purchase the company. If the deal is allowed to go through, Microsoft could use Activision to turn some of its focus toward mobile-based entertainment. Until then, Raven Software’s organizing efforts just might embolden other members of the increasingly fed-up video games industry to seek out a union for themselves.

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Microsoft Announces ARM-Based Mini Desktop PC, ARM-Native Dev Tools

Microsoft has taken a few swings at making Windows work with ARM processors, stretching all the way back to Windows RT. It took that and a few more disasters before Microsoft realized it needed x86 software support. Today, Windows on ARM is a reality, though not an extremely widespread one. Microsoft’s new Project Volterra might not change that, but this tiny ARM-based desktop PC could be the start of something big.

Project Volterra was announced at Microsoft’s Build conference, alongside a new suite of ARM development tools. Microsoft didn’t reveal all the specs of Project Volterra, but we did get a good look at the exterior of the matte black box. There are a pair of USB-C ports on the front, and around back is a bank of three older USB-A ports, a Kensington lock, and an ethernet port. However, it uses an old-fashioned DC barrel connector for power. The enclosure is also stackable (there are two stacked up in the above image).

The mini desktop computer will run on an unnamed Qualcomm system-on-a-chip (SoC) with a built-in neural processing unit (NPU), giving it better AI computing than similar small form factor devices. It also appears to have a standard NVMe SSD and a small cooling fan, which could signal better performance than many small ARM desktops. Microsoft sees Project Volterra as an ideal testing platform for machine learning apps, and Microsoft is ready to provide the tools to make that a reality.

Microsoft plans to release ARM-native versions of its most popular development tools, including Visual Studio 2022, VSCode, Visual C++, Modern .NET 6, the classic .NET framework, and Windows Terminal. Windows will also have support for the Windows Subsystem for Linux and Windows Subsystem for Android on ARM-based systems. This is a major improvement for those who want to work on ARM because there’s a not-insignificant performance hit from converting x86 and x64 code to ARM using emulation.

Microsoft says Project Volterra will be available later this year for an undisclosed price. While we don’t know about the Qualcomm chip’s performance, it will almost certainly be lower than Apple’s M1-based computers. Thus, it should also retail for less than the Mac Mini, which starts around $700. The ARM-based development tools will begin rolling out in the coming weeks, allowing devs to run them using existing Windows on ARM devices.

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Dolphins Recognize Companions By the Taste Of Their Urine

(Photo: Peter Asprey/Wikimedia Commons) Earlier this week, we found out that bottlenose dolphins self-medicate by rubbing their bodies against coral. But this sea creature’s peculiar intelligence doesn’t appear to stop there. According to research out of Scotland, bottlenose dolphins can also recognize one another by the taste of their urine.

Three marine biologists at the University of St Andrews recently conducted a study on how dolphins use auditory and gustatory (taste) signals to distinguish between companions and strangers. Using dolphins at Dolphin Quest resorts in Hawaii and Bermuda—where tourists can pay to swim alongside marine life—the team verified that dolphins could tell the difference between regular water and water samples with urine. They then presented the resident dolphins with urine samples from other dolphins (both strangers and other residents) and found that the creatures paid more attention to samples from dolphins they knew, versus ones they’d never met.

(Photo: J. Bruck et. al/Science Advances)

The next step was to combine the urine samples with playbacks of “signature whistles” the dolphins routinely used to communicate with each other. The dolphins spent a longer time “investigating” the presentation area when the urine sample and whistle came from the same companion dolphin than when they mismatched (i.e. the urine sample was from a stranger while the whistle was from a companion, or vice versa).

“This demonstrates that dolphins recognize other individuals by gustation alone,” reads the paper, which was published last week in the journal Science Advances. For the researchers, it’s a potential confirmation that animals aside from humans can use concept labels to form predictions and “solve” mental simulations.

The study aligns with previous research that tells us dolphins make up unique whistles that they use to call one another, almost like individual names. And they aren’t the only animals that do this: similar research has revealed parrots likewise come up with and use “names” for offspring and companions. Dolphins just take it a step further by distinguishing friends from strangers via, well, their pee.

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Microsoft Will Let Developers Make New Windows 11 Widgets Later This Year

Windows 11 made several major changes in the operating system’s visual style and features, not all of which have been a huge hit. For example, a taskbar that cannot be resized or moved. One Windows 11 feature is now slated to get much better with the announcement of third-party support for widgets, reports The Verge.

Microsoft revealed its widget plans at the Build conference this week, saying there will be a third-party API for widgets that can run alongside traditional win32 or modern PWA apps. Currently, the selection of Windows 11 widgets available in the slide-out panel is pretty limited. There’s MSN weather, OneDrive Photos, and a Microsoft Start news feed (that opens in Edge no matter what you’ve set as your default browser). Noticing a pattern? They’re all heavily focused on Microsoft’s apps and services, which if we’re being honest, are not as popular as many alternatives.

At Build, Microsoft bigwig Panos Panay said that the company was “energized by the customer feedback on Widgets.” He went on to announce the “Adaptive Cards platform” that will enable developers to create new widgets for Windows 11. Details on how this system works are still scarce, but we are assured that developers will get access to the system later this year.

All Windows 11 widgets are currently restricted to the slide-out panel, but Microsoft is experimenting with a desktop option. The latest Insider builds of Windows 11 include a search widget on the home screen. That’s probably not the most useful widget considering most people have browser windows open all the time, but we’ve seen all this before.

The style might be a little dated, but Vista’s widgets were surprisingly useful.

In the Windows Vista era, Microsoft rolled out a platform for widgets, known as Desktop Gadgets. This feature supported third-party widgets, but very few developers showed interest. Given the inherent security issues, Microsoft opted to remove support for Desktop Gadgets in Windows 8. This is yet more evidence that software development, like time, is cyclical.

Personally, I liked the option to have widgets floating on my desktop because I use multiple monitors, but those who have to use every inch of available space for windows might not find them as useful. Still, a “big tent” operating system like Windows should include the option. There are third-party options, of course, but the fewer software platforms you need to have running on your PC, the more secure it will be.

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Tuesday, 24 May 2022

Corsair Launches AMD-Powered Voyager Notebook With Built-In Streaming Controls

PC component manufacturer Corsair has finally entered the gaming notebook market, but with a twist. Unlike other mobile gaming solutions, this one is designed for dual-duty: gaming and streaming. Since it owns streaming hardware company Elgato, it’s incorporated streaming controls directly into the hardware. The result is a first-of-its-kind laptop with unique features for streamers. It’s also one of the first laptops to launch with the AMD Advantage branding which are designed to boost gaming and overall system performance.

The laptop has a somewhat mysterious name of Voyager. Eagle-eyed storage mavens will recall Corsair used this name previously on some of its USB storage devices. It seems to be an attempt to define the laptop in vague terms so as to not pigeon hole it as only for gaming or streaming. It’s marketed as being effective at both.

The Voyager a1600 comes in two flavors, both of which are outfitted with an AMD 8C/16T 6000-series CPU. You can choose from a Ryzen 7 6800HS at 4.4GHz+, or a Ryzen 9 6900HS at 4.8GHz+. The Ryzen 7 version includes 16GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR5 while the Ryzen 9 version bumps it up to 32GB. Storage options are similar, with the lower-end model offering a 1TB PCIe 4.0 drive while the flagship goes with 2TB of NVME storage. Despite its potent hardware, its chassis is just 19mm thick, straddling the line between thin-and-light and desktop replacement.

Aside from those differences, both models offer the same hardware. That includes a Radeon 6800M GPU that is one rung down from the top-shelf offering (6850M). It sports 12GB of GDDR6 memory, 40 CUs, and runs at 2.3GHz. There’s also an integrated MUX switch so you can disable the iGPU in favor of the dGPU. The display is a 16″ 2560×1600 240Hz IPS panel with support for AMD FreeSync Premium.

The big news is the integrated Elgato controls, which include both hardware and software. It offers a built-in Elagato Stream Deck just above the keyboard. There’s ten shortcut keys to customize your stream, allowing you to add media, adjust volume, and so forth. You can use the Elgato software to customize the keys’ functions.

The keyboard features individually lit RGB keys with Cherry MX low-profile switches. Corsair says it also uses membrane switches to allow for half key-height. Low-profile mechanical switches also exist, so it’s not clear what kind of height savings Corsair achieved here. There’s a 1080p webcam that is capable of 30fps. A four-microphone array with ambient noise cancellation is used for audio capture, but we assume any streamer worth their salt will have an external mic. Still, it is probably passable for on-the-road streaming. Expansion options include two Thunderbolt 3 USB 4.0 ports, one USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C, and one USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A. There’s also an SDXC 7.0 card reader and a 3.5mm combo audio jack. Connectivity options include dual-band WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2.

The Corsair Voyager a1600 should be available soon. Since Corsair also owns OriginPC, that company is offering custom UV printing or laser etching on the lid if you so desire, price TBD. The base model will run you $2,699 while the flagship goes for $2,999.

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