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Chromebooks with Intel dGPUs might be on the horizon
Chromebooks for hardcore gamers may soon be a reality
Every day we inch closer to an official release of Steam on Chromebooks. But as intriguing as that sounds, Chromebooks have a reputation for being mainly productivity laptops — are they even built to handle the demands of hardcore gamers? Well, with modern AMD and Intel integrated graphics, lower-end gaming is already a reality. For newer and more intensive games like Forza Horizon 5, though, there’s still a lot left to be desired. Luckily Intel has a solution up its sleeves that sounds like it might be just the trick — Intel Arc Alchemist dGPUs could be coming to Chromebooks near you.
Acer's 'Big Chungus' of Chromebooks gets badder with RAM and processor upgrades
Same great 17 inches, just more horsepower
The Big Chungus of Chromebooks is back. After a summer of speedy sales for the first Chromebook with a 17.3" display, the Acer Chromebook 317 has been upgraded with more RAM and a meatier processor.
Windows 11 will run the Android apps you want (from the app store you don't)
Also: maybe not all the apps you want, either
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Microsoft is announcing the next generation of Windows today, complete with an all-new look and feel to its interface. There are a ton of changes arriving with Windows 11, but one new addition was genuinely unexpected. Android apps are coming to Windows 11 in the Microsoft Store, with an unexpected partner bridging the two platforms.
Save $130 on a 15-inch touchscreen Asus Chromebook with the latest Intel processor
Best Buy has it for just $439
Asus Chromebooks tend to have a pretty good fit and finish. And they know it, too, which is why they tend to be a little pricey compared to similarly-equipped models from HP or Acer. Today Best Buy is selling the 15.6-inch Asus C536, with a latest-gen Intel processor and a touchscreen, for just $439. It's an impressive deal if you're in the market. This model is also called the CX5 in some listings.
HP's new Chromebook hits the magic sweet spot between budget and premium
Better stuff for the same price as last year
HP is breathing new life into its Chromebook x360 14 series with 11th-gen Intel chips and a step up in memory from eMMC format to PCIe SSD. All of that starting from the same prices as last year.
Google is gunning for faster hardware, whether or not you see it
That means doubling down on custom chips and making a big hire
Google is pushing harder on silicon investment and scaling down from what it can do with motherboards to focusing on systems-on-chips. Leading that effort will be Uri Frank who joins the company after two decades of custom chip design engineering and as an executive at Intel.
Acer's new Chromebooks for education include spill-proof keyboards and antimicrobial coatings
Durability is top of mind this year
Schools will be spoiled for choice from Acer as they consider upgrading their Chromebook fleets this year. Five new models are coming into play with all of them certified to take a beating from kids and a splatter of bacteria. Plus, one of them being a Qualcomm LTE-connectable device.
Leak depicts a seemingly much cheaper Galaxy Chromebook successor
It looks like the $1,000 original is intent on sticking around...
If, for whatever reason, you wanted a hotrod of a Chromebook, Samsung had it for you this year with the Galaxy Chromebook. With 10th-gen Intel silicon, a 4K display, and $1,000 price tag, it had everyone one could ever need for such a machine. But it looks like we could be getting a sequel as early as February. Says who? Says some stranger with a swiped presentation slide on Twitter.[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/_h0x0d_/status/1341780886954512387[/EMBED_TWITTER]@_h0x0d_, not a strange name in our coverage, dropped this image along with a message through self-retweet of "p.s. how about 699?" The bullet points tell the story: the Galaxy Chromebook2 will be the first QLED Chromebook — it's an LCD panel with a filter of crystals that affect how the LED backlight is expressed and is not an OLED display — with speakers that are 178% louder than, presumably, its predecessor, a lower base configuration with the Intel 10th-gen Core i3 processor starring, Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, and a target battery cycle of at least 12 hours.The question then becomes "would you pay $699 for a watered-down Galaxy Chromebook?" Or, "does it even make sense to call this thing the Galaxy Chromebook2 when it should have something like 'Lite' in the name?"Sure, there's a role for this thing to play and it would have a hand in helping keep that barely-year-old Galaxy Chromebook alive and stubborn at its $999 MSRP ($899 at Amazon), but is it a role worth playing? We'll have to see if this thing comes true in the first place before we can answer that.Source: @_h0x0d_
Apple wants to ditch Qualcomm completely, begins testing its own cellular modems
Apple currently uses modems from Intel and Qualcomm
Apple has been making strides with its in-house System-on-a-Chip (SoC) designs lately, especially with the company's new M1 desktop chipset. However, Apple is still using modems designed by other firms, which has sometimes become a point of contention with iPhones. According to comments by Apple's top chip executive, the company could soon use its own modem designs, bringing Apple even closer to designing every component of its mobile devices.
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The coronavirus outbreak is shaking up the tech world, leading to factory and store shutdowns all over China. This could mean we'll see some production shortages, but fears of the virus spread also have more tangible effects. Many companies have decided to withdraw from or limit their availability at MWC 2020, slated to begin February 24. To hinder contamination, the fair organizer GSMA has put a vast number of actions in motion to keep attendees as safe as possible.
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The USB Implementers Forum has published the USB4 specification after months feedback. The new rules, first announced in March, essentially make the latest iteration of the Universal Serial Bus standard almost exactly like Intel's Thunderbolt 3 standard, which the company itself has volunteered for codification.
Apple develops its own processors for its mobile devices, but it relies on modems from Intel and Qualcomm for network connectivity. While Apple fought with Qualcomm over patents and royalties, Intel became the company's top choice for modems. After the dispute was settled, Intel gave up trying to make a 5G modem, and now Apple is buying its entire modem division.
The writing has been on the wall for months, so it must not be a surprise for anyone that the Celeron Pixel Slates, the lower-end $599 and $699 models that were very briefly available and didn't impress much, are now completely gone from the Google Store. All mentions of both variants have been wiped off, as if they never existed in the first place.
Since the Department of Commerce added Chinese manufacturer Huawei to its 'Entity List,' thus limiting its ability to import U.S.-made products, we've seen some of the company's most important supplier relationships take a hit. Alphabet may have been the vendor with the highest profile as many of Huawei's Android products rely on software services from Google. But chip producers, including one in Germany, have also had to limit their ties to the telecommunications company.
Yesterday, Intel disclosed a new attack on its processor dubbed "ZombieLoad," following in the footsteps of last year's "Spectre" and "Meltdown" security snafu. The CPU producer has informed other companies of the problems before the public, and thus many devices and OS manufacturers have already patched their software. Among the now-secured products is Google’s ChromeOS, but not Android running on Intel silicon.
Apple and Qualcomm have settled their patent and royalty disputes, paving the way for the latter's 5G modems to be installed on the former's smartphones in the year 2020 and beyond. Intel, which staked its hopes on swooping up a meaty iPhone modem contract, has folded upon itself, announcing that it is ending development of its 5G modems for smartphones.
Yesterday, the USB Promoter Group revealed the next evolution of its ubiquitous peripheral spec: USB4. The new specification, which is still a draft in the final stages of review, is based on Intel's Thunderbolt 3 protocol, delivering up to 40Gbps throughput over existing, Thunderbolt spec-certified Type-C cables. That's twice as fast as current USB 3.2 maximums. It's also backward compatible with existing USB 3.2, 2.0, and Thunderbolt 3 specs and devices.
We're on the cusp of the 5G revolution, as big players like Qualcomm and Huawei would like us to believe. Not to be left out in the cold, Intel has sped up the timeline for the release of its 5G modem, which it calls the XMM 8160. According to the company, partners can expect to get their hands on the 8160 in the second half of next year.
Android Studio's device emulator used to be incredibly slow, even on capable hardware. Google has drastically improved the performance over the past two years, but a few issues remain. The Windows version of the Android Emulator uses HAXM, which only works on Intel processors. That means AMD-powered computers can only use non-accelerated ARM images.
Spectre and Meltdown are still fresh in our mind, but already researchers from Microsoft and Google have found a new vulnerability, named Speculative Store Bypass (SSB), that could allow for malicious software to indirectly read from memory. Some Intel and AMD processors are vulnerable, but of greater Android-related concern is the susceptibility of 5 ARM reference designs going back to 2011's Cortex-A15 and including the latest A75.