Apple's M2 SoC has been out for a while, but are the new MacBook Air and Pro models living up to the hype? Or is it just a lot of hot Air?

Xplora has a new lineup of connected watches for kids ages 4-11, spanning prices from $150 to $249. Xplora watches include a camera - so kids can check in with parents visually - as well as a connected step counter with reward-point system to encourage physical activity. These 4G devices include voice calling, messaging, and MMS (such as voice messages and photos). A companion app (for iOS and Android) lets parents set up approved contact lists, see GPS location, set up geofencing alerts, and enable "school mode", where only SOS is available during school hours.

• The entry-level XGO3 improves on the XGO2 with a 2 megapixel camera and larger 850 mAh battery, in a slimmer and lighter design. It has a 1.3-inch TFT LCD display and is rated IP68 for dust wand water. It's powered by a Unisoc W307 chipset. It comes in black, blue, green, orange and pink, and retails for $150. It's available now from Xplora.com, Amazon, Target, Best Buy, and other retailers.
• The mid-range X6 Play sports a larger, high-resolution 1.5-inch screen, faster response times thanks to a Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2500 chipset, and 5 megapixel camera. Improved battery life "will enable the watch to run for up to four days before recharging." It also has more physical-activity sensors. The watch comes with two wristbands and two bezels, with the option to purchase accessories in additional colors, for more than 3,465 possible style combinations. It will be available in late 2022 for $199, initially from Xplora.com.
• The premium X6 Pro (not shown) is designed to appeal to slightly older children with a high-resolution AMOLED screen, improved speaker, and the faster Snapdragon Wear 4500 chipset, "eclipsing the performance of other smartwatches for kids." It will be available in seven colors and cost $249. Like the X6 Play, it will be available first from Xplora.com, with "additional retail availability" in 2023.

It looks like Samsung Phones have a (Dangerous) Problem. Let me know if you've experienced anything similar!

Amazon has launched today its "smartest TVs ever" with the all-new Omni QLED 4K series. The new TV lineup, as the name suggests, is powered by Quantum Dot Technology (QLED) with full-array local dimming of up to 96 zones. These adjust independently to increase or decrease the lighting intensity to provide the best contrasts in an image. Additionally, they also pack other cutting edge display features like Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ Adaptive. The Omni QLED Series has a deep integration with voice-so no matter where you are in the room, you can interact with it easily. The TV also includes support for both Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10+ Adaptive and a new feature called Adaptive Brightness, which enables the TV to understand the lighting in the room and intelligently adjust the picture contrast to the surroundings. The Fire TV Omni QLED Series will be available in 65" for $799.99 and 75" for $1,099.99. All TVs will be available in the U.S. and Canada at Amazon and Best Buy.

NVIDIA today released the latest version of GeForce Game Ready drivers. Version 517.48 WHQL comes with optimization for Overwatch 2. It also offers optimization for Microsoft Flight Simulator with DLSS support. A number of bugs are addressed with this release. To begin with, display brightness settings not being applied correctly on certain kinds of Lenovo notebooks in dGPU mode, has been fixed. The "NVIDIA GPU only" toggle not persisting on reboots on certain notebooks, has been fixed. The "reduce noise" option with ray tracing in Adobe Illustrator appears pixellated, which has been fixed.

Random crashes in DirectML.dll with Adobe Photoshop have been fixed. Performance issues with VRR monitors in Fusion 360 has been fixed. Shadow flickering with "Jurassic World Evolution 2" has been fixed. Some UWP apps in Windows 11 exhibit lag with G-SYNC, which has been fixed. Language bugs with NVIDIA Control Panel has been fixed. External displays connected via USB-C or Thunderbolt dongles in Razer notebooks not correctly being detected, have been fixed. MS Flight Simulator exhibiting texture corruption after extended gameplay, has been fixed.

Game Ready for Overwatch 2
This new Game Ready Driver provides the best day-0 gaming experience for Overwatch 2. In addition, this new Game Ready Driver offers support for the latest releases and updates including the addition of NVIDIA DLSS technology to Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Fixed Issues

• [Advanced Optimus] Brightness setting is not getting applied correctly on certain Lenovo notebooks in dedicated GPU mode [3795453]
• [Windows 10][Advanced Optimus]: On certain notebook configurations, "NVIDIA GPU only" option does not persist on system reboot [3794921]
• [Adobe Illustrator] Using Reduce Noise with Ray Tracing appears pixelated [3709309]
• [Windows 11] Chaos Vantage fails to start when NVLink is enabled [3652930]
• [Adobe Photoshop] Resolves random crashes in DirectML.dll [3749935]
• [Fusion 360] Addresses performance issues when using variable refresh rate monitors [3724711]
• On rare occasions, video playback in browser may result in bugcheck code: 0x116 [3508109]
• [Jurassic World Evolution 2] Game may display shadow flickering [3682201]
• Native resolution is not available on the Samsung U28R55/ ASUS VG249Q1A monitors [3703073] [3768670]
• [Windows 11] Some UWP apps may display lag when G-SYNC is set to "Enable G-SYNC for windowed and full screen mode" and "Vertical sync" is changed from the default value [3753141]
• Resolves incorrect wording for NVIDIA Control Panel -> Manage 3D Settings -> Shader Cache Size in German language [3766571]
• External displays connected to certain Razer notebooks via USB-C/Thunderbolt docks/dongles are not detected [3690673]
• [Reallusion Hub] App will crash when launched on PC using a CPU with 32+ logical processors [3738397]
• [DirectX 12] Microsoft Flight Simulator may display texture corruption after extended gameplay [3762763]

Known Issues

• Toggling HDR on and off in-game causes game stability issues when non-native resolution is used. [3624030]
• Videos played back in Microsoft Edge may appear green if NVIDIA Image Scaling is enabled upon resuming from hibernate or booting with fastboot. [3624218]
• [DirectX 12] Shadowplay recordings may appear over exposed when Use HDR is enabled from the Windows display settings. [200742937]
• Monitor may briefly flicker on waking from display sleep if DSR/DLDSR is enabled. [3592260]
• [RTX 30 series] Lower performance in Minecraft Java Edition. [3702953]
• [Forza Horizon 5] Rainbow like artifacts in game after driver update. [3685123]
• [Marvel Spider-Man Remastered] Cutscene edges may appear blurry when DLSS is enabled on an ultra-wide monitor [3734989]
• Dell XPS 9560 may crash and reboot when using desktop applications [3737715]

The Ryzen 5 7600X is meant to be the best budget CPU right now for gaming and content creation with its Zen 4 architecture. So in this video let's look at the Ryzen 5 7600X vs Ryzen 5 5600X vs i5-12600K to see which processor has the best price to performance ratio, especially for gaming framerates.

So?

Thinking of purchasing a new stove and don't know which type to get? Helen Rennie compares how gas, electric and induction stoves fare with some browning tests and more.

Samsung will bring its newest rugged phone for enterprise customers - the Galaxy XCover6 Pro - to the US next month. The XCover6 Pro replaces the original XCover Pro, which launched with AT&T in late 2020. The XCover6 Pro has a wide range of features designed to appeal to business users in a wide variety of industries. Compared to the original, it sports (sub-6) 5G, a larger 6.6-inch FHD display, a better main camera, and better durability thanks to Gorilla Glass Victus+. Like the original, it has a durable, waterproof body, replaceable 4,050 mAh battery, side fingerprint reader, 8 megapixel wide-angle camera, expandable storage, and a headset jack. The new model is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G chip paired with 6 GB RAM and 128 GB storage. It supports Wi-Fi 6E as well as NFC designed to support the phone's use as a PoS (Point of Sale) payment terminal. The main camera is now 50 megapixel and supports "enterprise-grade" barcode scanning. The display is designed to work with gloved and/or wet fingers, and the phone has a "significant increase" in maximum speaker volume when using VoIP apps. It supports fast charging, including via pogo pins (for use with a dock). It also supports Samsung DeX for "PC-like productivity out in the field or in a vehicle". Samsung is providing industry-leading OS support for the XCover6 Pro at four OS upgrades and five years of security updates. Samsung did not announce which US carriers would offer the XCover 6 Pro, only that "select carriers" would offer it in the US starting Oct. 20th. Both AT&T and Verizon offered the original model, although the version approved by the FCC recently seems better suited to AT&T's network, including support for AT&T's new 3.45 GHz mid-band spectrum.

We joined AMD to film the company's world record attempt (and victory) with the new AMD Ryzen 9 7950X CPU vs. the Intel Core i9-12900K. This was the first public attempt AMD made at extreme overclocking on Zen 4 hardware, which looks like it'll be a lot of fun to work with for enthusiasts who enjoy overclocking of all kinds (air, water, and liquid nitrogen). GN got approval to publish this ahead of the impending launch as a behind-the-scenes look at what to expect for XOC on AM5.

Adventure strikes again! Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, and Helena Bonham Carter return in Enola Holmes 2 - where a mystery of historic proportions takes 2 Holmes to handle. Directed by Harry Bradbeer and also starring: Louis Partridge, Adeel Akhtar, David Thewlis, Susan Wokoma & Sharon Duncan-Brewster. ENOLA HOLMES 2 is only on Netflix November 4.

One of the scientific truths that the new James Web Space Telescope is bringing to the fore is the massive size of the universal! The space-based telescope has just detected a gigantic object lurking in the universe! What huge object has the JWST discovered? How large is it? What are the implications of the size? Join us to explore this wonder of the universe and more as we dive into how the JWST just detected a massive object that is 100 times larger than the Milky Way galaxy!

Apple released iOS 16.0.2 today. It fixes two high-profile bugs: one that cause the camera to loudly "vibrate and cause blurry photos" when using third-party apps on iPhone 14 Pro models, and another that caused excessive security prompts when copying and pasting between apps.

Only for US though ... in many parts of EU, for example, 3080 ti still costs between 1000 eur to 1150 eur.

The Apple Watch Ultra is $800, which makes it worth it only for a certain set of people...

Mat's once again got his hands on the HUGE Hennessey Mammoth, and he's about to find out what it's like to live with when undertaking everyday tasks in the UK! You see, driving one of these in America probably isn't an issue, given their huge highways. But here in the UK, roads are much smaller! So will Mat be able to cope? Well, it's time to find out! He'll start off driving it through small streets in a countryside village, after which he'll be visiting a retail park to try out a few different tasks. The question is, will he end up damaging the Mammoth? And more importantly, how many people do you think he'll annoy in this gas-guzzling behemoth?! You'll need to keep watching to find out!

Finally - an iPhone that's more reparable than an Android! Check out!

Update: Based on my testing with the iPhone 14 Pro it doesn't seem 3rd party repair is viable on this device, despite Apples introduction of the "Self Service Repair" program this year.

NVIDIA just announced the new GeForce RTX 4090, RTX 4080 16GB, and RTX 4080 12GB. The new cards use the Ada Lovelace GPU architecture and are priced at $900 for the 4080 12GB, $1200 for the RTX 4080 16GB, and $1600 for the RTX 4090 24GB cards. In this video, we also talk about the specs -- like CUDA core count, RT (ray tracing) performance expectations, power utilization and consumption targets, and memory bandwidth. NVIDIA additionally announced DLSS 3, which is a major step revision over DLSS 2 and could have wider-reaching implications outside of just the GPU space (and could impact CPU bottlenecked scenarios as well).

GeForce RTX 4090

Starting with RTX 4090, this model features AD102-300 GPU, 16384 CUDA cores and boost clock up to 2520 MHz. The card features 24GB GDDR6X memory, supposedly clocked at 21 Gbps. This means that it will reach 1 TB/s bandwidth, just as the RTX 3090 Ti did. Thus far, we have only heard about a default TGP of 450W, but according to our information, the maximum configurable TGP is 660W. Just note, this is the maximum TGP to be set through BIOS, and it may not be available for all custom models.

GeForce RTX 4080 16GB

The RTX 4080 16GB has AD103-300 GPU and 9728 CUDA cores. The boost clock is 2505 MHz, so just about the same as RTX 4090. This model comes with 16GB GDDR6X memory clocked at 23 Gbps, and as far as we know, this is the only model with such a memory clock. The TGP is set to 340W, and it can be modified up to 516W (again, that's max power limit).

GeForce RTX 4080 12GB

GeForce RTX 4080 12GB is what we knew as RTX 4070 Ti or RTX 4070. NVIDIA has made a last-minute name change for this model. It is equipped with AD104-400 GPU with 7680 CUDA cores and boost up to 2610 MHz. Memory capacity is 12GB, and it uses GDDR6X 21Gbps modules. RTX 4080 12GB's TGP is 285W, and it can go up to 366W.

The flagship RTX 4090 launches on October 12 starting at $1,599 with the RTX 4080 12GB and 16GB variants landing sometime in November from $899 and $1,199, respectively. All will be available from add-in partners including Asus, Gigabyte, MSI and Zotac, in both stock-clocked and factory overclocked variants.

The Alienware x15 R2 is an epic gaming laptop that also has some shortfalls. But if you want the thinnest and lightest gaming laptop without sacrificing much performance, then this might be the best option. But then there's the x15 R2 battery life we need to talk about.....

OMG, the very first woman was freaking perfect!

Apple has released the final version of iOS 16 as free update for iPhone 8 and newer. The new software has many new features, the most obvious of which is a completely new, customizable lock screen.

The new OS features a major revamp of the Lock Screen with new personalization, including font & color options, and widgets that are similar to complications on the Apple Watch. Third-party lock screen widgets will also be available. Custom photo wallpapers now intelligently pull out foreground elements, so the time appears slightly behind your dog's head, for example. Finally, notifications on the lock screen have been re-arranged to take up less space, and can be hidden completely. Apple is also introducing a new type of update-able notification for live activities, so that updates to sports scores or your Uber's location don't trigger a series of separate notifications. An update to Focus lets you designate separate custom lock screens and home screens for work vs. personal modes, etc. A new Focus Filter API will also extend Focus modes into apps, allowing you to designate certain browser tabs as only available in work mode, for example. In Messages, messages can now be unsent, edited after being sent, or marked as unread. Messages also now supports SharePlay, so you can have a text conversation while watching the same media. Dictation now adds punctuation automatically, and works more seamlessly when using both the keyboard and voice for input. Apple has also extended Live Text to video, so you can now copy text from paused video, and easily perform smart actions on that text, like translate language or convert currency. A new Live Text API will allow this feature to work in third-party apps. In Wallet, apps will now be able to request select info from a stored digital driver's license, for things like age verification. Apple is also adding Order Tracking into Wallet. Finally, Apple announced that it's working on making Key Sharing (for digital car and home keys) cross-platform, so digital keys can be shared with Android users from Wallet. Apple Maps now supports multi-stop routing, for up to 15 stops. When navigating while driving, Siri will now lets you add a stop to your current trip using just your voice. Apple has also revamped the Parental Controls setup process, and made it faster to set up a new Apple device for a kid. A new feature called Safety Check makes it easier for people in abusive relationships to make sure an abusive partner can't take advantage of shared accounts or additional signed-in devices when trying to leave that relationship. Finally, Rapid Security Response is a new OS feature that allows Apple to roll out urgent security fixes faster. The first developer beta comes out today. The first public beta will be released in July, with a final release coming in the "fall".

LOL!

Battery Life Drain test of the iPhone 14 Pro Max, plus the iPhone 14 Pro, vs iPhone 14, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Mini, iPhone 12, iPhone SE!

Camera Test comparison of Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra - including microphone, night mode, astrophotography, video, action mode and more!

Review of the WD Red Pro 22TB Hard Drive for NAS

It's been nearly 30 years since Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished. Now, a new team, led by physicist Ben Song (Raymond Lee), has been assembled to restart the project in hope of understanding the mysteries behind the machine and the man who created it. Everything changes, however, when Ben makes an unauthorized leap into the past, leaving the team behind to solve the mystery of why he did it. At Ben's side throughout his leaps is Addison (Caitlin Bassett), who appears in the form of a hologram only Ben can see and hear. She's a decorated Army veteran who brings level-headed precision to her job. At the helm of the highly confidential operation is Herbert "Magic" Williams (Ernie Hudson), a no-nonsense career military man who has to answer to his bosses who won't be happy once they learn about the breach of protocol. The rest of the team at headquarters includes Ian Wright (Mason Alexander Park), who runs the Artificial Intelligence unit "Ziggy," and Jenn Chou (Nanrisa Lee), who heads up digital security for the project. As Ben leaps from life to life, putting right what once went wrong, it becomes clear that he and the team are on a thrilling journey. However, Addison, Magic, Ian, and Jenn know that if they are going to solve the mystery of Ben's leap and bring him home, they must act fast or lose him forever. Quantum Leap premieres September 19, 2022, on NBC and Peacock.

Why can't Microsoft have such great designers and coders work for them.

One of the benefits with a physical SIM card is that you can easily pop in a new card to change providers. An eSIM could enable providers to change cancellation fees to change providers as they authorize the change.

Do you ever wonder where every great fairytale begins? Welcome to the School for Good and Evil....

Based on the epic international best-selling series by Soman Chainani, THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL is directed by Paul Feig and stars Sophia Anne Caruso, Sofia Wylie, Kerry Washington, and Charlize Theron. Also starring Laurence Fishburne, Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Flatters, Kit Young, Peter Serafinowicz, Rob Delaney, Mark Heap, Patti LuPone, and Rachel Bloom. The School for Good and Evil is only on Netflix, on October 19.

Check it out!

From the mind of Kid Cudi and executive producer Kenya Barris, ENTERGALACTIC is the story of two young artists navigating the twists and turns of finding love in New York City. ENTERGALACTIC releases globally September 30, only on Netflix.

After watching this video, I somehow got reminded of AMD and Nvidia GPU launch and how their GPUs only start selling after a month or so after the event. It would be so good if every GPU is released at the same time and is available just a week after their event or maybe even days.

Always interesting to watch Apple events to see what tech they finally managed to reverse engineer and claim is new.

Those MB prices are crazy, I won't be building a next gen PC in any hurry. I'm still rocking an old i5-9600k with 32GBb of RAM and a RTX 3070.

All Quiet on the Western Front tells the gripping story of a young German soldier on the Western Front of World War I. Paul and his comrades experience first-hand how the initial euphoria of war turns into desperation and fear as they fight for their lives, and each other, in the trenches. The film from director Edward Berger is based on the world renowned bestseller of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque.

At Apple's "Far Out" event, the company unveils new products including the iPhone 14, Apple AirPods Pro and Apple Watch Series 8.

Apple has revealed the iPhone 14 series, with new features, improved specs, and new size options. In place of a Mini option, the iPhone 14 will come in the same 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch screen size options as the Pro models. The larger model is called the iPhone 14 Plus, while the Pro models keep the same screen sizes and naming scheme (Pro and Pro Max) as last year. All of the new iPhone 14 models include at least 2x better low-light performance on all cameras, including front cameras. They also include Emergency SOS via Satellite and Crash Detection, and move completely to eSIM, eliminating physical SIM cards. The Pro models move from a notched display design to a "pill" shape for the TrueDepth camera-and-sensor system, which changes shape via software in a feature Apple calls Dynamic Island. Emergency SOS via Satellite uses a low-bandwidth satellite data network. It requires you to point the phone at the satellite, which the interface guides you through. It only supports short messages sent at low speed, even using 3x compression. Messages may take 15 seconds or up to a few minutes to send. The interface guides you through creating a concise message that contains the info emergency responders will need to provide help. For 911 call centers that can't receive text messages directly, Apple will call that center and relay your message. The service also supports non-emergency usage, but only in the form of location sharing. The feature will be available first in the US and Canada starting in November, and will be free for the first two years. Crash Detection utilizes a new high dynamic range gyroscope and dual-core accelerometer to automatically detect a car crash and alert emergency services. The new dual eSIM works with all major US carriers and can be set up even without Wi-Fi. The 12 megapixel main camera has a larger sensor and faster lens for 49% better low-light performance in low light via hardware alone, while Deep Fusion has been improved and renamed Photonic Engine, boosting low-light performance 2x on all cameras, for a total boost of 2.5x on the main camera. The front camera is also improved and now has auto-focus. A new Action Mode provides gimbal-like stabilization for video. The iPhone 14 and 14 Plus do not feature an all-new chip like the Pro models, instead using an A15 Bionic chip like last year's models. However, Apple has redesigned the aluminum body to provide better thermals, which may improve peak chip performance. Apple says the iPhone 14 Plus has the best battery life ever for an iPhone. The 14 series will come in five colors: blue, purple, Midnight, Starlight, and Product Red. The iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max have all the features of the standard iPhone 14 models, plus the new Dynamic Island display design, always-on display, better display specs, better cameras, a new A16 Bionic chip, and stainless steel bodies. The Dynamic Island takes up 30% less space than Apple's notch. Via software, the black pill area can expand a little to the sides to show background activity status, or split in two to show two different activities. For more important alerts or interactive controls, it can expand vertically as well. An API will allow third-party apps to access the Dynamic Island display area, such as a sports app showing a live-updating game score. The always-on display uses LPTO dimming and refresh down to 1 Hz to keep battery life in check. Unlike some always-on displays, it supports widgets and can show wallpaper over the whole display. The display also has thinner bezels and is (Apple claims) the brightest display on any smartphone, offering up to 2,000 nits peak brightness outdoors. The main camera is now 48 megapixel, enabling a high-quality 2x tele mode while leaving the dedicated telephoto camera to 3x. The camera also offers a 48-megapixel ProRAW mode. The wide camera offers 3x better low-light performance, while the other cameras offer 2x better. A sophisticated new LED flash offers nine discrete LEDS shining through a special lens that lets it effectively "zoom" to match the current focal length. The new A16 Bionic chip engages the whole chip for photography, able to perform 4 trillion operations per photo. It uses a 4nm manufacturing process that improves power efficiency. The Pro and Pro Max will be available in black, silver, gold, and purple. The iPhone 14 will start at $799, the iPhone 14 Plus: $899, the iPhone 14 Pro: $999, and the iPhone 14 Pro Max: $1,099. All models will be available with 128, 256, or 512 GB of storage, while the Pro series also gets a 1 TB option. Pre-orders start Friday, September 9th. Most models ship September 16th, except the 14 Plus which will ship October 7th.

Apple has also revealed its 2nd-generation AirPods Pro, now with ANC (active noise cancellation) that can cancel 2x the noise. It has has a revamped transparency mode called Adaptive Transparency, which samples outside sound 48,000 times per second so it can react quickly to dampen sudden loud noises. These features are thanks to a new Apple H2 chip, which also improves battery life 33%, to 6 hours of listening time. You can now adjust volume by swiping up or down on the stalk. The case is also upgraded, offering 6 more hours of battery life (for 30 total), precision finding when lost thanks to a U1 UWB chip, and a speaker that can also help locate the case when lost. The case can also now charge from a Apple Watch charger. A Personalized Spatial Audio feature uses the TrueDepth camera on your iPhone to create a 3D map of your unique ears, enabling more personalized sound. Finally, a new XS ear tip size enables a better fit for some users. The AirPods Pro 2nd Gen. will run $249 and ship Sept. 23rd.

Stallone is still doing his thing at his ripe old age!

AMD announced the Ryzen 7000 series with Zen 4 architecture but there are some important secrets they didn't talk about before release and availability. Let's talk about what details about memory compatibility, power consumption, IGP performance and more means for the Ryzen 9 7950X, Ryzen 9 7900X, Ryzen 7 7700X and Ryzen 5 7600X.

What's your favorite GPU this year, considering the price that YOU paid?

In this video we go over the some BEST GPU For Laptops In [2022].