Table of contents for Xmas 2021 in APC

I am so incredibly happy Intel is properly competitive again, and taking it toe-to-toe with AMD. It’s the best news possible for driving innovation forward, and – as I expect we’ll see soon – prices down. Is Intel #1 again? Well… it depends. Arguably, yes it is – at least today with pricing as it is. At a bare minimum this all means Intel is a serious option for your first choice. And depending on your tasks, it could be the better option. The Big/Little hybrid design still needs time to prove its real world value, and further, if this is the new way forward for desktops and Windows laptops, is AMD compelled to follow suit? Remember, ARM-based designs – which now includes Apple’s M1 – have been kicking winning…

It would appear that Nvidia’s 12-pin PCIe power connector may be here to stay. According to Asus’ marketing for the latest ROG Thor II power supplies, the Nvidia 12-pin connector complies with the PCIe 5.0 specification. During the brand’s Z690 motherboard livestream, Asus highlighted the importance of power supplies, as graphics cards are constantly drawing more and more power. Using the GeForce RTX 3090 as an example, Asus claimed that the Ampere-based flagship peaks up to 900W during gameplay, thus requiring power supplies with higher wattage. More importantly, Asus declared that Nvidia’s 12-pin connector is PCIe 5.0 ready and that the new ROG Thor II units will ship with “Gen 5 12-pin connectors.”…

According to a new driver release, Intel may be prepping as many as 32 Arc Alchemist discrete GPU models for desktops and laptops. The number may indicate that Intel will offer a rather broad family of standalone GPU offerings aimed at various applications. Intel’s graphics drivers v30.0.101.1002 for integrated and standalone GPUs indicate that Intel has reserved as many as 32 PCI IDs for its DG2 family of discrete graphics processing units set to be marketed under the Arc Alchemist brand, LaptopVideo2Go revealed (via VideoCardz). A PCI ID typically represents a separate product or a SKU (stock keeping unit). Intel’s official artwork for its Arc Alchemist family of discrete GPU only depicts two processors. This could mean Intel plans to release two graphics chips (a big and a small one)…

In a world where graphics cards are used to play games, mine cryptocurrency, and do scientific calculations, their value gets very high. Consequently, when they are in short supply, their actual selling prices skyrocket, which naturally makes them a target for thieves. A shipment of EVGA GeForce RTX 30-series graphics cards containing virtually the whole lineup starting from the GeForce RTX 3060 all the way to the GeForce RTX 3090, which are among the best graphics cards nowadays, was stolen from a truck in Southern California on October 29, 2021, the company said in a statement. It is unclear if an armed robbery took place, but a truckload of expensive graphics cards is certainly worth tens of thousands of dollars these days.…

Samsung recently unveiled two updates to its smartwatch line in the Galaxy Watch4 and Galaxy Watch4 Classic. Though externally similar to last year’s Watch3, there’s a good chance of internal differences, and we’re here to sniff them out. Time for a teardown! Major tech specs • Exynos W920 1.18GHz with dual ARM Cortex-A55 cores, Cortex-M55 display processor, Mali-G68 GPU, and integrated LTE • Circular Super AMOLED always-on display – 1.19-inch or 1.36-inch sizes (both models) 330 PPI • 1.5GB RAM and 16GB internal memory • 361 mAh battery, Watch4 Classic (46 mm). 247 mAh battery, Watch4 (40 mm) • Sensors, including accelerometer, barometer, gyro, geomagnetic, light, optical heart rate, ECG, bioelectrical impedance sensor, and a Hall sensor on the Classic • IP68 rating with water resistance to a depth of…

The 12600K offers a rather stunning level of performance for its price. It manages to beat out the 5800X in most cases, despite ostensibly being a six core CPU. $499 | www.intel.com The i9-12900K is the CPU that’s tending to grab the headlines, but the real hero of the 12th Gen range may well be the Core i5-12600K. The 12600K contains six performance cores and four efficiency cores for a total of 16 threads. It definitely sits in the sweet spot for value and performance. Its high clocks should see it get close enough to the 12700K and 12900K, particularly with single threaded workloads and it should turn out to be a capable gaming CPU. And, it adds welcome power efficiency to the mix too. As expected, you lose a…

Unfortunately there’s also a serious drop in graphical performance with the GPU taking a hit of between 16 and 78 percent depending on the benchmark. This is a seriously disappointing development and means that even light gaming and GPU heavy tasks will be a challenge on this device. $849 + $199.95 Type Cover | microsoft.com/en-au Now into its third iteration of the Surface Go tablet, the segment is starting to mature… which is an interesting aspect for a budget laptop range. Normally, you’d expect to find some concessions in an entry level device, but similar to other Surface products, the iterative process has ironed out a lot of the kinks and results in a refined device that offers an exceptional level of functionality. Up front the Surface Go 3 uses…

The Asus ROG Thor Platinum II is suited for high end builds only. It demands to be shown off and that’s its most compelling feature. $539 | www.asus.com As the power requirements of modern PCs continue to increase, so does the need for a quality power supply to keep it properly fed. As graphics cards trend towards 400w+ TDPs with CPUs pulling 300w or even more, even an 850w PSU can be considered the baseline for a modern high-end gaming rig once you factor everything else in. Enter the Asus ROG Thor 1000w Platinum II. This thing is heavy metal. It’s the most physically impressive power supply we’ve ever seen. The premium metallic appearance of the Thor Platinum II is complimented by the small OLED panel that displays the power…

WINDOWS/BROWSER YOUTUBE Free / $14.99 (per month) | www.youtube.com TWITCH Free / US$5 (per month) | www.twitch.tv.com Video streaming can be split up into several different sectors: Most TV channels have an additional website for catch-up TV; there are subscription sites, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney+, that charge a monthly fee to watch on-demand films and TV series: and then there are websites, such as YouTube and Twitch, that host unique content in the form of video clips or live streaming videos. These sites have helped the internet take over from traditional television as an entertainment medium. So, in this issue’s head-to-head, we’re going to focus on these two giants. Now one of the main players in the online video industry, YouTube had humble beginnings. In 2005, Steve…

Total War is perhaps the best example of a CPU-intensive title from our testing suite. It’s a game we choose specifically because it stresses the processor during regular benchmarking. For most of our testing, we typically have a set list of benchmarks designed around being run on systems with dedicated GPUs. Most of the time, that involves running X game at Y resolution – usually on the highest graphical settings profile the game comes with as default. That way, it makes it easy for you at home to replicate those same tests with your own machine. It also gives you a better idea of how your rig scores in comparison and, of course, gives us a level playing field to work with when it comes to carrying out any similar…

You’ll notice I’m delaying talking about how the Intel rig did in terms of in-game performance. That’s because, if we were to sum it up in two words, it’d be “not good”. What a ride this whole build process has been! If you skip the build guide starting on page 80, you can read about how our Intel build went “pop” during the photo shoot, taking out a power supply. We don’t know why, a fault somewhere along the line, maybe? But one fresh PSU later and we’re good to go. Fortunately, unlike our Team Red competition, the Intel build’s install process went a lot smoother. As we don’t technically rely on high-speed memory in anywhere near the same capacity, what you get with this build is exactly what you…

On Windows 11, the best VPN (virtual private network) services will provide an app to connect quickly to their private networks. However, you may still want to configure the VPN manually if the app isn’t working as expected or you don’t want to install an extra piece of software. Whatever the reason it might be, Windows 11 provides an option to configure and manage VPN connections from the Settings app, which you can use to connect to virtually any VPN service to improve your online privacy and access other locations’ restricted services. To set up a Windows 11 VPN connection, use these steps: 01 Open Settings. 02 Click on Network & internet. 03 Click the VPN page from the right side. 04 In the “VPN connections” setting, click the Add…

IT WILL TAKE 20 minutes, plus download time YOU WILL LEARN How to install and use virtual Ubuntu Linux YOU’LL NEED macOS 10.13 or later, Parallels Desktop 17 ($109.95, parallels. com) Intel Macs can run Windows in Boot Camp, but there’s no equivalent on Apple silicon Macs, where the best way to run Windows or Linux is in a virtual machine (VM) in Parallels Desktop. Until the release of Windows 11, running that or Windows 10 on an M1 requires you to join Microsoft’s Insider Program to gain access to pre-release versions for ARM systems. Fortunately, Linux is simpler, as Parallels offers four different distros for ARM systems, including the excellent Ubuntu. Until native Asahi Linux ships, that’s the best way to run Linux on your M1. Intel Macs have…

$28.95 | bonfirepeaks.com | PC, PS4/5, Linux, Mac, Switch The Bonfire Peaks setup is simple. Our unnamed protagonist has left for the woods to burn all his possessions, and it’s your job to push, drop, or slide the crates of his belongings into a fire. In this block-y, voxel world, you can only move forward, backwards, or pivot on the spot. Any block you’re holding will swing round as you turn too, so space is key. Early puzzles set the stage simply on how to navigate and manipulate that space – like how to be sure to climb stairs backwards, so you don’t brick yourself in. As Bonfire Peaks progresses, it introduces new elements – longer bricks, conveyor-belt like streams, and Indiana Jonesesque pressure traps among them. Unlike the smooth…

$44.99 | jett.fyi | PC, PS4/5 Jett: The Far Shore starts off as a familiar sci-fi tale. Humans have messed up the planet and in desperation to save civilisation must now look for a new home amongst the stars. The trope has been done to death, but in Jett it’s different. The humans are not only looking for somewhere to live, but have been contacted by ‘the hymnwave’, a divine invitation from a being situated on an alien planet. Desperate to escape their dying world, a group of space scouts is formed to head out into space and see whether this strange planet – dubbed ‘the far shore’ – could become a viable new home for the human race. You play as Mei, a scout pilot who has been chosen…

Free | katanalevy.itch.io | PC There’s an art to creating a game without dialogue, narration, or any overt story to define what’s going on, and Symphony of Seven Souls is a strong example of the form. The only text in the game is the title, and two simple instructions: right click to prep your violin, and hold left to make it play beautiful, context-sensitive music. You’re the game’s composer as much as you’re its main character, scoring a handful of locales – a gloomy church, a rain-drenched graveyard and hedge maze, a shadowy asylum that would surely house monsters in another horror game. Here you’re alone – minus the hidden souls you’ve come to collect. The seven souls only become visible when you are performing, however, so you’re encouraged to…

LEFT 4 DEAD After Portal, Ellen McLain took on the much more laconic but equally unsettling role of the witch in Left 4 Dead. The zombie is readily identified by her cries, and her ability to rip you to shreds when startled. TURRET OPERA McLain is also trained as an opera singer, and performed the aria sung at the end of Portal 2. While the music was composed by Valve composer Mike Morasky, McLain improvised the Italian lyrics. THE CHURCH IN THE DARKNESS This sees McLain working alongside her husband and fellow actor, John Patrick Lowrie. The couple have also starred in multiple Valve games together – although not Portal.…

ASHAMPOO BURNING STUDIO 2021 Worth $49.99 Reliable burning software for CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays. Ashampoo Burning Studio 2021 is a powerful disc burning software for CD, DVD and Blu-ray discs. The software quickly burns files, audio and video to all recordable disc types but also specialised media such as BDXL or M-Disc. The built-in disc ripping auto-detects track names and easily turns audio files into custom audio discs complete with individually designed covers and inlays. Playlists can be auto-generated during ripping for easy playback in the desired song order. The program can also finalise discs to make them playable on older retail players or car radios. Built-in disc spanning automatically spreads data across multiple volumes if it can’t fit on a single disc. This makes it easy to burn photo,…

A research team with Denmark’s University of Copenhagen has designed the world’s first quantum computing system that allows for simultaneous operation of all its qubits without threatening quantum coherence. The research is being hailed as a breakthrough, clearing one of the remaining key obstacles for quantum scaling and its eventual mainstream deployment. The Danish team achieved its breakthrough in one particular type of qubit, spin qubits. “To get more powerful quantum processors, we have to not only increase the number of qubits, but also the number of simultaneous operations, which is exactly what we did,” states Professor Kuemmeth, who directed the research. The team is now looking to AI control systems that could automatically keep the system tuned with no human intervention.…

Researchers with the University of Southampton, UK, published research eerily reminiscent of the sci-fi concept of a “data cube” – promising incommensurate storage in a palm-sized device. However, that concept may be much closer to reality than expected, as the research describes a new, high-speed laser method of writing onto 5D structures. The 5D structure, built out of silica glass, can support long-term writings – and achieve storage densities that are 10,000x higher than current Blu-ray technology. The new laser technology enabled the researchers to write in five dimensions – two optical and three spatial. The new approach can achieve write speeds of 1,000,000 voxels per second, the equivalent of 230 kilobytes of data (more than 100 pages of text) per second. That may sound ridiculously slow by today’s standards…

In pretty much every GPU review written over the last couple of years, there’s talk about inflated pricing, scarce availability and mining demand. Miners are willing to buy GPUs at prices well above RRP because they pay for themselves over time; such are the rewards for mining Ethereum. But, there’s something on the horizon that will reset the GPU market. It’s referred to as the ETH difficulty bomb, and as we move closer to its currently scheduled mid-2022 release, market availability of GPUs is set to improve. Ethereum 2.0 is a big deal for crypto markets as a whole. Part of this change involves switching to Proof-of-stake – an alternative method of securing the network that eliminates energy intensive GPU mining. Before that switch, the Ethereum developers plan to significantly…

Thumby A mini keychain-connected GameBoy that you can program yourself. US$19 | tinycircuits.com Imagine being out and about and both your phone and your smartwatch and all your battery banks have run out of power. There’s not even a powerpoint nearby that you can charge your devices with and you left your Nintendo Switch at home. What are you going to do till you can get back to alternating current? Thankfully the creators of a new Kickstarter know exactly how to solve this conundrum: a keychain connected mini GameBoy called Thumby. Other than the five included retro games, you’re going to have to build your own fun using MicroPython code, but if you’re good enough at the coding, you’ll never have to be alone with just your thoughts ever again.…

We have to stop short of unequivocally recommending the 12900K. There’s the very high power consumption levels, high platform cost and the requirement for a high end cooler to tame it. $1,049 | www.intel.com Here we go folks. Say hello to the Intel Core i9-12900K, the flagship processor of the 12th Gen range. The 12900K packs in eight performance cores and eight efficient cores for a total of 24 threads. The P-Cores can boost up to 5.1GHz while the E-cores can boost to 3.9. The 12900K contains the maximum available 30MB of L3 cache, Intel UHD770 Graphics and support for either DDR5-4800 or DDR4-3200 memory, though of course in reality it supports higher memory speeds than this. The 12900K is clearly built to deliver the best possible performance at all…

From $2,999 (14-inch), $3,749 (16-inch) | apple.com/au The late 2020 Macbook Pro 13 and MacBook Air models introduced the revolutionary M1 processor, which fundamentally shifted the parameters of laptop efficiency. Many, however, predicted that the next iteration of Apple’s in-house SoC would test just how far Apple can push the M1’s performance envelope. Turns out the RISC processors that were almost exclusively found in smartphones and tablets before the M1, can actually be amazingly powerful, at least when Apple is building them. On the handful of benchmarks where you can actually compare them, both the 10-core M1 Pro and M1 Max chips are capable of outpacing the most powerful laptop processors from either AMD or Intel. That’s a five percent performance bump over the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS and a…

The Corsair H100i Elite LCD isn’t the first display equipped AIO, but Corsair really did an amazing job with regards to the amount of customisation on offer. The IPS LCD screen boasts a 480 x 480 resolution and 16.7M colour support. It can be used to display monitoring information, images and GIFs though it doesn’t support video playback. $399 | www.corsair.com Corsair led the way with AIO liquid cooling, and though it’s a little late to the party as far as LCD-equipped coolers go, it’s made up for it with a truly premium entrant. Though its price will turn off a lot of buyers, if you’re looking for a top end Corsair cooler to incorporate into your build, you’ll want to check it out. We have the 240mm iCue H100i…

Android | Free with IAP Diets are generally fraught with drama but as someone who is a big fan of intermittent fasting, I had found it difficult to keep to the schedule and timeframes involved. Fastic is a great resource for this relatively simple task – providing both a timer as well as a great guide as to how your body is reacting and processing during the time you are fasting. Additionally, it also “rewards” successful fasting sessions with stars that allow you to ‘buy’ skip days when you’re needing a break or just want to have a cheat day or weekend. There’s also a host of information and guides on healthy eating, exercise, hydration and such provided by doctors and nutritionists. There’s also a Fastic Plus subscription that offers…

Windows 11 is slowly rolling out as a free upgrade for eligible devices known to have a good upgrade experience through Windows Update. However, you can also get it manually using the Installation Assistant, Media Creation Tool, or the official ISO file. A lot has changed. For example, Windows 11 now comes with a new interface that introduces a new simplified Start menu and redesigned Taskbar aligned to the center. Action Center is gone and replaced with Notification Center and Quick Settings, and the new “Widgets” feature will keep you informed with curated web content. Microsoft is shipping a new version of File Explorer that ditches the ribbon-style menu. The new Settings app brings a new design and more possibilities to configure Windows 11. You will also find an overhauled…

On Windows 11, Microsoft is also improving the way users work with multiple applications with new features, such as Snap layouts and Snap groups, to make snapping windows on the desktop a little easier, especially to manage windows in wider displays. The Virtual Desktop experience has also been updated with a new name (Desktops), a better interface, and the ability to choose a different background image per desktop. Windows 11 introduces new settings to make it easier to work with apps with external monitors, and you can now decide whether to enable or disable the title bar window shake feature. As part of the multitasking improvements, Windows 11 brings changes to Snap assist with Snap groups, Virtual Desktops becomes Desktops and includes a new design and various tweaks. And, you…

IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to plan daily tasks and create a schedule YOU’LL NEED Hour Blocks (free), iOS 14 or later Getting organised is a lot easier said than done. If you’ve ever tried to plan your days out but found yourself overwhelmed with everything that seems to be on your plate, you will know how hard it can be. Instead of showing a calendar view packed with events, the Hour Blocks app focuses on one day at a time. Each day is broken down into a timeline with hour-long slots, with one task for each block. This gives you a clear, uncluttered way to view your schedule that lets you focus your energy where it matters. The more you use Hour Blocks, the smarter…

Staying in control of your own data is vital. It goes deeper than personal data, too. All of those files and folders in your personal cloud storage with Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, Microsoft OneDrive and many others are subject to various degrees of – let’s say oversight – that you might not be entirely comfortable with. The solution is to run your own cloud server: a home-based storage system that can be accessed from anywhere. Available 24/7 for syncing data across your devices, mobile and desktop, such a server is best connected directly to your router for reliability. And you can do this with a Raspberry Pi and a suitably sized storage device. While several projects are available for building your own Raspberry Pi cloud server, perhaps the most complete…

Get ready to hear plenty about ‘Alder Lake’. It’s the codename for Intel’s new 12th-generation ‘Core’ processor series, which is set to make waves, not least for its use of heterogeneous cores. This month, we explain what this means, why it’s a great idea and why you’ve probably already seen it in Android and Apple devices. One core can’t rule them all It sounds easy enough – develop a CPU core that goes like the wind but thrifty enough to run for days off a battery. The only problem is that given current technology, it can’t be done – well, not to the extent that we’d all like. When Intel bolted two Pentium 4 CPU cores together inside a chip and called it the ‘Pentium-D’ back in 2005, I remember…

NEW TYCOON GAME LETS YOU BE A FAMILIAR CORRUPT POLITICIAN This is the President is unambiguously a satire of the Trump administration. Set to release on December 7, This Is the President is a satirical, story-driven game where you take the role of a “newly elected leader with a shady background.” That could be any number of leaders, but the game description goes on to narrow it down: you’re a “multi-millionaire businessman” who gets their own way by “persuading, blackmailing, bribing and bullying a large part of the political system into granting you lifelong immunity.” It’s an interesting hybrid of visual novel and grand strategy, and should appeal to anyone who has had dreams of becoming a ruthless, monomaniacal president with a proclivity towards hired assassins. It might even appeal…

Free | hwilson.itch.io/vespiary PC Vespiary is set in the gritty cyberfuture. The streets are packed with cyberscum, and it’s up to you – as one of three bounty hunters – to clean it up, one crime boss at a time. Essentially, you hop between randomly ordered events until you reach the boss and beat the scenario. Events include vending machines and traders, cops demanding ID, and violent gangs. Combat is turn-based, but not strictly ‘I go, you go’, as you can choose to use all four cards in row. Not all will likely be weapons, but you may want to chug a healing potion, or throw an unneeded ID card at the enemy. It’s worth a shot, as this frees up a slot for another card. However, after every action…

$79 | ea.com/games/fifa/fifa-22 | PC, PS4/5, XBS/X, XB1 If you love football, in whatever hue or flavour, FIFA 22 should be part of your life. It recreates everything special about the game – but also its greed and superficiality, encapsulated by FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT). Want to assemble your very own Galácticos? Then FUT delivers. Create that team of GOATs by slow grind, or real-world money, and challenge the world. This time there are returning greats and a new Elite Division. The challenges are fun, until you notice that advancement is glacial. It’s a loot box economy and a growing body of research states that there’s a verifiable link with problem gambling. It’s not the only loot box game in town, but it’s the biggest and most profitable. FIFA’s reach,…

RELEASE October 10, 2007 DEVELOPER Valve PUBLISHER In-houses LINK bit.ly/3DGTBRz Portal has a place in gaming canon that makes it difficult to argue why you should replay it. Either you’ve played it, and love it, or you know what it’s all about. It’s like pitching somebody on watching the original Star Wars trilogy for the first time: we all know who Luke’s father is. Its iconic moments are part of games culture – the companion cube is almost passé as a symbol of nerd culture, not quite old enough to be retro but old enough to be out of date – and ‘the cake is a lie’ was more thoroughly memed than ‘taking an arrow to the knee’ was for Skyrim. And in the meantime, plenty of other games have…

SOFTWARE ENGINEER CREATES FAKE RESUME THAT TRICKS RECRUITER SCREENING BOTS All links lead to Rick Rolls. Experience attributes like “Led a team of engineers to mine Ethereum on company servers” and “ensured a team of 6 was fully caffeinated with Antarctican coffee beans ground to 14 nm particles”, aren’t the kinds of things you would expect to win a job interview from if they were on your resume. Yet these exact points, and many others just as ridiculous, were enough for one software engineer to get a 90 percent response rate from Norton, ApartmentList, Quizlet, Outschool, LiveRamp, AirBnB and Blend. Fed up with getting her real resume turned down, Reddit user u/AngeleniaTheDev created this response to highlight issues with resume screening bots. EVE ONLINE MINI-GAME SAVES COVID RESEARCHERS 471 HOURS…

“Championing technology doesn’t mean we’re unrelenting yes-men and -women, however, and APC aims to be as objective as possible in all our coverage.” APC is Australia’s oldest consumer technology magazine – having been consistently in print for forty years, since our first issue way back in May 1980 – and we take that heritage and responsibility very seriously. While our focus is obviously on the personal computer the very definition of the PC has changed and shifted markedly since the early 1980s. As such, we touch on many other areas of tech, too, from smartphones and apps to peripherals, accessories, and beyond. We have two goals: to find the best modern tech and to help you make the most of it. We’re also an open church in terms of platforms.…

AMD CEO Lisa Su shared the company’s Zen 4 CPU roadmap at its AMD Accelerated Data Center event in November, including a 96-core Genoa model and a 128-core Bergamo chip. This adds yet more excitement to the event after AMD unveiled the EPYC Milan-X chips with up to 768MB of L3 cache and the Instinct MI250X GPU. AMD also shared its first details of the 5nm TSMC process it will use for the new Genoa and Bergamo chips, claiming it provides twice the density and power efficiency along with 1.25X more performance than the 7nm process AMD uses for its current-gen CPUs. The new roadmap covers the fourth-gen EYPC processors. The 96-core Genoa will come on the 5nm process in 2022, while the 128-core Bergamo, also on 5nm, will come…

Valve has notified customers that it is delaying the Steam Deck for two months, pushing it to February 2022. “We’re sorry about this,” Valve wrote in emails to customers and on its blog. “We did our best to work around the global supply chain issues, but due to material shortages, components aren’t reaching our manufacturing facilities in time for us to meet our initial launch dates.” The company said reservation updates would be updated soon. “All reservation holders will keep their place in line, with dates shifting back accordingly,” Steam wrote in an emailed statement. Valve was rapidly approaching the December release date prior to this announcement, so it’s unclear what further information the company may release between now and February.…

In the ever-starkly polarised world of social media, NFTs – or non-fungible tokens – are either a brilliant way to apply value to digital goods with blockchain tech, or a scam-laden scourge that will destroy the world. It’s still early days, but the truth seems somewhere in-between: the concept isn’t inherently bad, though its reliance on energy-intensive cryptocurrency is a perfectly legitimate cause for concern. Suffice it to say that NFTs are fairly controversial, but they cannot be ignored. NFTs have sold for millions of dollars, with digital artist Beeple (their real name is unknown) selling a work at auction for a mindblowing US$69 million. But chances are you’ve heard about all this lunacy, which over the course of 2021 has morphed from a seemingly radical and underground concept into…

$3,899 | rog.asus.com Asus’s Zephyrus G range has been an outstanding performer over the last few years, topping a heap of our best gaming and best professional laptops list. The only downside of these devices has been that they’re so in demand that they’re actually sold out more often than not. The Zephyrus G15 GA503 is no different in this regard, with everything but the most entry level units sold out anywhere we looked at the time of writing. All of the Zephyrus G15 units come with identical screens, an AMD Ryzen 9 processor, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, so the only option is what GPU you pair it with. At the entry level that could be an Nvidia RTX 3050Ti for a cost of $2,399, and this…

$3,999|au.msi.com/Content-Creation/Creator-Z16-A11UX MSI has always had its Prestige range aimed at business and creative professionals, but it’s pushed particularly hard into the more artsy side of this space over the last couple of years. The Creator range, which was released this year, is perhaps the culmination of this effort, offered in 15-inch, 16-inch and 17-inch models, the ultrabook laptops feature Nvidia GPUs and high resolution, colour-accurate screens that meet all the needs of visual professionals. The Creator Z16 has a 16-inch, regular LED, touchscreen display in a 16 by 10 QHD+ resolution that’s a little more price conscious than the OLED and MiniLED screens on the Creator 15 and 17 units. While it’s not the most cutting edge screen technology, this display has been designed to a level that makes it…

It doesn’t actually look that physically impressive. The fans lack RGB, there’s very little in the way of branding, and the head unit looks quite bland when it’s turned off. Don’t assume that this makes the cooler itself ordinary. It definitely isn’t! $409 | www.ttpremium.com.au Most people will laugh at the idea of spending $400+ on a CPU cooler, and they’d mostly be right. Sure, you can get an ordinary liquid cooler for $100 or so, but there’s little that’s ordinary about the Thermaltake ToughLiquid Ultra 360. This one is unmistakably a high-end cooler and thanks to its customisable pump head, you can integrate it into the theme of any build. The TT ToughLiquid Ultra 360 is something of a departure for Thermaltake. It doesn’t actually look that physically impressive.…

$169.95 | logitech.com/en-a Ever since the launch of the MX Keys, I was hoping Logitech would grace us with a tenkeyless model, and now that it has it’s everything I’d hoped for. Costing a full $60 less than its larger counterpart, the MX Keys Mini manages to offer the same quality, functionality and feature-set but in a more compact package. It even sports exactly the same battery life, lasting up to five months on a single charge (via USB-C) or ten days if you enable backlighting. This lighting is one of the major advantages the MX Keys series holds over the similarly sized and priced Magic Keyboard from Apple – the intensity of the key backlights adjusts automatically based on ambient lighting in the room, and disengages when proximity sensors…

MAC STORE & OTHER MAC APPS | macOS 10.14 or later | $22.99 | realmacsoftware.com Squash is a batch image processor that has a range of tricks up its sleeve. For starters, it can take any file formats that you throw at it and quickly convert them into easily shareable JPEG files. This is especially useful if you capture images on an iPhone as HEIF (High Efficiency Image Format) files or larger DNG (Digital negative) files shot in Apple ProRAW. While an HEIF file takes up less space (around 1MB) it is not as useful as a JPEG file that can be shared via email or uploaded to social media platforms. DNG files can weigh in at 25MB so are too large to be sent via email. They also need…

Linux | zorin.com/os CPU: 1GHz 64-bit Memory: 2GB HDD: 15GB Core, 30GB Pro Build: x86 64-bit only There are several Linux distributions that aim to provide an easy introduction to Linux for those coming from Windows. They may do this by providing a Windows-like appearance, or go deeper. Zorin OS falls into the latter category. It’s available in three versions: Core, Lite and Pro. Core, the version we have here, is a free distribution, in both senses of the word. Lite is a lightweight version designed for older computers and available in 32-bit as well as 64-bit flavours. The Pro version is a paid product, currently costing $39. Zorin OS is based on Ubuntu, which is clear when you run the installer. It follows the same process as the standard…

CPU Cooler - $80 BE QUIET! DARK ROCK TF 2 Unlike our competition over on Team AMD, the Core i5-11600K doesn’t come with its own cooler. So, we’ve chosen the Be Quiet! Dark Rock TF 2. With a super sleek design, twin fan construction, and epic six heat-pipe design, this twin pseudo-low-profile CPU cooler can chill any chip capable of running at near 230W of TDP, and at an impressively quiet 27.1dB(A). If you can’t get the Dark Rock, the Be Quiet! Shadow Rock TF 2 is also a good choice. Each manufacturer measures TDP differently, but this thing is more than capable of cooling even the Core i9-11900K. It also packs in a three-year warranty, and the fans even have a rated lifespan of 300,000 hours at 25C. www.bequiet.com…

But this is a test of the integrated graphics on each side of the battle, AMD and Intel. In an ideal world, we would accompany these CPUs with some hefty GPUs that would improve performance, but it’s a test of iGPUs, not discrete GPUs. On the AMD side of the head-to-head, the build itself was plain sailing to piece it all together, and yet the opposite once we tried to boot things up for the first time. With nothing but a blank display, we updated the BIOS (which was fairly easy as our Asus board has a BIOS FLBK port on its I/O) and then used a USB Windows 10 installer to get it ready for testing. Results were lackluster compared with what we’re used to seeing from a discrete…

Windows 11 comes with a new feature known as “Widgets,” which has been designed to provide different types of information. For example, weather, news, sports, stocks, traffic, entertainment, Microsoft To-Do tasks, and Family Safety activities without reaching your phone to get to the same information. The experience is similar to the “news & interests” feature already available on Windows 10. However, instead of flying out from the Taskbar, the new feature has a different interface and flies out from the left side of the screen. On Windows 11, the Widgets dashboard is accessible by clicking the dedicated “Widgets” button available in the Taskbar or using the Windows key-W keyboard shortcut (if you are on a touch-enabled device, you can also swipe from the left edge of the screen to open…

01 Uncheck ‘Enhance pointer precision’ Whether or not you have acceleration disabled in the bundled software of your chosen gaming mouse, it’s possible that Windows is still adding a little into the mix. The ‘Enhance pointer precision’ feature is handy to have enabled on a laptop, keeping your trackpad usable, but on a desktop gaming setup it’s worth turning off to make sure there is no acceleration in any of your games. Hit the Win key on your keyboard, type Mouse, and it will bring up the relevant screen from Settings. From here click on Additional mouse settings and it will open up one of those ancient Windows dialogue boxes that haven’t been redesigned since forever. Click on the Pointer Options tab and uncheck the Enable pointer precision box at…

As its name indicates, the INACCESSIBLE BOOT DEVICE BSOD reflects some kind of issue with a Windows installation’s designated boot device. When this error occurs, it means that the Windows file system tried to read the boot device and failed. Most often, this means the boot device failed to initialise. Alternatively, when the boot loader attempted to access the designated boot device, it did not recognise its data as a file system structure. In simpler terms, the boot process did not find a bootable system where the boot configuration data said it was supposed to be. At the highest possible level, this error indicates no boot device is known or accessible to the problem PC. Common causes of Inaccessible Boot Device BSODs Most of the time, the INACCESSIBLE BOOT DEVICE…

Most backup strategies lead to a lot of wasted space because you invariably end up making copies of the same data over and over again. In essence, data deduplication is the process of comparing chunks of data, and retaining only a single unique copy, thereby saving disk space. When deployed as a data backup strategy, this means that only changes since the last backup are stored. Backup tools for Linux are as prolific as browsers, video players or even text editors, BorgBackup, or just Borg, is a deduplicating backup utility. Released under the BSD license, the project was forked from Attic, a popular backup utility, in 2015. Thanks to the data deduplication technique, Borg is suitable as an everyday home or even enterprise backup solution, with a host of features…

This month, we head back to Japan to revisit the MSX standard with its 1985 sequel, the MSX2. While the original MSX machines were fairly middle-of-the-road 8-bit microcomputers, the second-generation version gained a big jump in performance. The MSX2 introduced key improvements to the base RAM (64K to 512K), video memory (64K to 128K, with higher resolution, more colour, and support for vertical scrolling), and sound chip specifications. For fans of the Sega Master System and Nintendo Famicom (NES), MSX2 computers provide a genuine alternative that will make any Japanese game geek salivate. A powerful update The MSX was a standard for 8-bit microcomputers developed by Microsoft Japan in cooperation with the ASCII Corporation. If every MSX computer had a set of standardised components, software written for one should, in…

$99.95 Ubisoft.com | PC, XB1, XBS/X, PS4, Stadia Ubisoft is determined to make Giancarlo Esposito’s Far Cry 6 despot, Antón Castillo, feel like a real and credible threat, he’s more of a satirical mash-up of Franco and Castro. He’s definitely a bad guy, with a vision for his country that he holds above all – even family, as he often reminds his son and protégé, Diego – but there’s a two-dimensional vibe I just can’t shake. Far Cry 6 is a quintessential Far Cry game. You begin as an underdog who quickly ends up with the moniker of hero, fleeing some tyrannical bastard who’s wrecking the lives of the locals to make his dream a reality. In this case, he’s made a smokable cancer cure, Viviro. Viviro is farmed and…

Free | bit.ly/2Zwf15t | PC Dagon retells the Lovecraft short story word for word. While the narrator relates his dreadful tale, the player is free to look around each scene and hunt down a collection of optional trivia. It’s only nominally interactive, but the sights do justice to the deliciously wrought text, as the POW protagonist escapes his captors only to arrive on an ocean floor that has risen to the surface, ancient fishy horrors and all. Dagon is an early and very brief short story that contains the mythos in a prototypical form. The game embellishes it with strong voice acting and slick slideshow art assets that support the text rather than overpowering it. I lingered in each scene, once the narration was done with it, taking in the…