Table of contents for November 2022 in APC

AMD has unveiled its 5nm Ryzen 7000 lineup, outlining the details of four new models that span from the 16-core USD$699 Ryzen 9 7950X flagship, which AMD claims is the fastest CPU in the world, to the six-core USD$299 Ryzen 5 7600X, the lowest bar of entry to the first family of Zen 4 processors. Ryzen 7000 marks the first 5nm x86 chips for desktop PCs, but AMD’s newest CPUs don’t come with higher core counts than the previous-gen models. However, frequencies stretch up to 5.7 GHz – an impressive 800 MHz improvement over the prior generation – paired with an up to 13 percent improvement in IPC from the new Zen 4 microarchitecture. That results in a 29 percent improvement in single-threaded performance over the prior-gen chips. That higher…

I’m not going to be buying an iPhone 14 for many different reasons, but there is one thing about it I really like – the fact that the “lesser” models are using last year’s Bionic chip. This is something I hope we see more of because it’s really the best thing that could happen to the smartphone industry. Apple’s iPhone 14 comes in several different flavours. You have the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus that are positioned as models for most users, and the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max that are marketed towards the smartphone professional, whatever that is. The cheaper models are using the older but very capable A15 Bionic that debuted in last year’s models, while the more expensive Pro models are using a…

It seems like Wi-Fi 6 and 6E have hardly established themselves in the market yet. But wait! Here comes Wi-Fi 7! Wi-Fi 7, also known as 802.11be is set to become the de facto next generation wireless networking standard. Wi-Fi 7 is being designed to cope with the ever higher demands of modern bandwidth hogging devices. Support for technologies such as untethered AR and VR, gaming, and 8K media streaming and a greater number of simultaneous connections are among the primary design goals. Add to that lower latency, dynamically optimised connections and enhanced security, and Wi-Fi 7 is well placed to take its place as the global Wi-Fi standard for the rest of the decade. Importantly, it remains back compatible with previous Wi-Fi devices too. Getting a bit more technical,…

The history of the computer user interface is long and complex, but let’s boil it down to one pivotal moment: the arrival of the graphical user interface. Suddenly, we needed a way to move a pointer around the screen. Which brings us to touchscreens. These were universally awful until capacitive panels came along, together with the software behind it to work out where the centre of your finger should point. At a literal stroke, we moved from a pixel-perfect mouse world to a statistically calculated pointer. But something was afoot with laptops. The need to carry a mouse around was always going to be clumsy, as were early “solutions” such as integrated trackballs, and nothing quite worked until the work around touchscreens merged with touch panels to bring us trackpads.…

$5,799 | rog.asus.com/au There’s no denying that the Strix Scar 17 is a beast. A laptop that’s over 3kg is almost unheard of these days, but this gaming powerhouse is packing a top shelf Intel Core i9-12950HX CPU, a 175W Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti GPU and all the cooling architecture required to keep these powerful components from turning into a molten mess. We haven’t actually tested anything with a GPU drawing this much power in some time, so it’s unsurprising that it was a good 15 percent faster than any other laptop we had on file. Translating this into meaningful metrics means that you can expect 100fps plus performance on basically any game using 1080p Ultra settings and more like 200fps plus on less demanding esports titles. That’s well…

$1,499 | www.dell.com Since the tail end of 2021 there has been no shortage of monitor manufacturers releasing their own take on the 4K 144Hz large-format monitor, so Dell’s 32-inch 4K 144Hz gaming monitor has quite a bit of competition. With an RRP of $1,499 it’s not cheap, but it lines up pretty nicely with the competition based on the particular feature set it offers. You can get bigger displays at similar prices if you sacrifice a bit on the refresh rate and you can get cheaper units, but they’re usually a little dull. Looking at the spec sheet you can see that this screen is premium in all the places it can be. In addition to being a proper 4K panel with a 144Hz refresh rate, this device offers…

$350 | www.dlink.com.au Last year, TP-Link realised that its Wi-Fi products were among the best on the market. It subsequently evolved into a premium purveyor of Wi-Fi and launched a new junior brand: Mercusys. The brand’s first Wi-Fi router offered such impressive performance at a budget that we cited its existence as proof that the Wi-Fi 6 market was finally mature. However, usability was hampered by having no phone app and all set-up requiring an old-school web browser. Now we have a three-node Mercusys Wi-Fi 6 mesh kit and there is a phone app. Would it impress? The quick-set-up guide told us to download the Mercusys app and follow the instructions. This involved turning a single node on, waiting a minute for the LED to stop flashing, seeing the app…

$349 | consumer.huawei.com Technically, these tick a few boxes. They feature dual-speakers – being a standard 11mm driver for bass and mids, and a planar diaphragm for highs. There’s an adaptive EQ that adjusts the sound based on ear pressure, and like the Google Buds Pro there’s also a seal test. A game mode with “up to” 90ms latency is here, and they support Huawei’s HWA lossless audio standard, which is capable of extreme sampling rates over Bluetooth. They also look a treat with a shiny metallised finish (black and white also available), and they’re certainly comfortable and stay in place well. But to cut to the chase, they just don’t sound good, at least at this price tier. The audio was “co-developed” by Huawei and French audio specialist Devialet.…

Pairing an iPad with an Apple Pencil is something that’s often been thought of in terms of enabling artists to create art, which of course they do. Another, somewhat overlooked application is for creating a digital version of a notebook or sketchbook, for jotting down notes or sketching ideas. This is possible in iPadOS’ Notes app of course, but only in a fairly basic form. Penbook takes this idea several steps further, aiming to combine the tactile feel of a real notebook with the smarts of modern tech. Although you can draw in this app using touch, an Apple Pencil is highly recommended to get the most out of what it offers. You begin with a notebook, either your own blank one or one of the presets, and you can…

It’s a sobering thought that many of the world’s greatest discoveries and inventions have come about through war or the threat of war. The development of radio-direction and ranging – or ‘radar’ – is an example, becoming a universal electronic warfare tool during WWII. But even at the end of the war, the concept of radar had barely been around for a decade, yet the chance to turn radar antennas towards peace-time discoveries was already on the cards in Australia – a move that would put us at the forefront of the emerging science of radio-astronomy. Humble beginnings Sydney was considered a prime target for attack during WWII, a fact that led to the tall sandstone cliffs of Dover Heights in the city’s east becoming home in 1940 to a…

VPN confusion I looking at ways I can make my own VPN, but I’m slightly confused about WireGuard VPN. Do I have to install this software on my network server, or can I run it just on a desktop or laptop? WireGuard’s website is confusing too. On the subject of browser fingerprinting, couldn’t I just use my DuckDuckGo browser? I would greatly appreciate any information. Ariana Arsenault APC responds: The key thing about VPNs is that there are two basic types: client-based, where you encrypt your internet connection using a third-party provider, and server-based, where you configure a VPN server on your home network. This then allows you to ‘dial in’ securely and connect to your local network while away from home. Once connected, you have full access to the…

YOU’LL NEED THIS A copy of TRS80gp Windows, Linux, and Mac OS are supported System ROMs and boot software are supplied. http://48k.ca/trs80gp.html In this installment of this series, we are covering the third machine in the ‘Holy Trinity’ of microcomputers launched in 1977. Tandy/Radio Shack’s TRS-80 was the plucky underdog of the trio but played a big part in helping to establish home computing. Pitched against rivals from Commodore and Apple, the TRS-80 was the cheapest option of the three, bringing computing to the masses long before Commodore would seize the lower market. For those willing to dive in, the TRS-80 has a large gaming library with plenty of classic titles. However, emulating the platform can be tricky, so, after a brief history lesson on the machine, let us guide…

The semiconductor industry analysts at TrendForce have highlighted a likely seismic shock on the way to the NAND Flash market – the firm’s investigations indicate that manufacturer inventories are reaching a “breaking point” because the usual “peak season” demand surge failed to materialise this year, with a fall of around 30-35 percent predicted. These estimates are all the more jarring as they are expected to occur in a single quarter, the current Q3 2022. Moreover, with NAND flash ICs being a key cost component of SSDs, we should expect price cuts to seep through to consumer SATA and NVMe SSD models. Moving into Q4 2022, TrendForce expects manufacturers to strive to maintain market share at all costs, exacerbating oversupply and the need to make irresistible deals with NAND Flash consumers.…

Word on the street is that we could see Nvidia’s Ada Lovelace GPUs launch in the next few months. Nvidia isn’t saying much, but the number of leaks is a sign the hardware is nearing completion and may be getting into the hands of early testers and add-in card partners. The latest rumours, if true, indicate the ultimate Ada graphics card will be an absolute monster. Many of the core specs haven’t changed much since the Nvidia hack earlier this year. We’re expecting a GPU built on TSMC’s 4N (“4nm Nvidia”) custom process node, similar to that already being used for Hopper H100. Like the H100, the AD102 chip will have eight Graphics Processing Clusters (GPCs), with 18 Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs) per GPC, and 128 FP32 CUDA cores per SM.…

FUTURESWE EXPLORE THE TRENDS AND TECHNOLOGIES THAT ARE SET TO SHAPE THE FUTURE Flying cars are set for take-off in in Europe soon, and we’ll all be watching closely as Australia shouldn’t be far behind, with regional airline Rex hoping to begin testing these machines by 2024. And they’re not flying cars, but electric aircraft. At this year’s Farnborough Air Show, a host of organisations including Virgin Atlantic, Atkins and Vertical Aerospace unveiled the Advanced Mobility Ecosystem Consortium (AMEC), which will spend a $16 million grant from the government to set up a trial of electric aircraft between Heathrow, London City Airport and Bristol beginning in 2024. “We’re hoping to prep the industry for as close to commercial operations as we can,” said James Richmond, head of advanced air mobility…

1 FITBIT SENSE 2 Live happier and healthier with the best wellness wearable around. $449.95 | fitbit.com Fitbit has updated its flagship health tracker with new sleep, stress and activity tracking to help you get a more nuanced picture of your overall wellness. Using its enormous dataset of all-day heart rate tracking, Fitbit is able to get a better understanding of your stress levels throughout the day and can provide timely insight on the impact of intense emotions and offers proactive solutions for improving your health and mental wellbeing. This combines with the advanced sleep tracking and a more diverse set of exercise modes to be one of the best health tracking wearables around. 2 TCL NXTPAPER 10S A tablet that’s also an ereader seems like a no brainer. $TBC…

$2,136 | anz.dynabook.com The Portégé range from Dynabook is a little thinner, a little lighter and a little more premium than the Tecra devices that we’ve covered recently (APC 510). And with all those premium features naturally lead to a price tag to match… meaning that this device is taking on Apple’s MacBook Air, Dell’s XPS and a long list of other seriously competitive ultrabooks. Let’s touch first on what the Dynabook Portégé 40L-K does well. The first area that it’s ahead is in its weight. At just 1,022 grams it’s around 200g lighter than just about all the competition and it even manages to do this without making the shell out of cheap feeling plastic. The bezels and screen surround is a plastic sheet, but the rest of the…

$999 | www.prismplus.com.au Prism+ is making a big push into the Australian market. Prism may not be a household name just yet, but many of its products come with an excellent spec and offer good value for money. With those two things to build upon, there’s little reason you shouldn’t give Prism a look when considering your next monitor purchase. Following on from the C315 Max in our last issue, which we praised, Prism sent over a PG270 Ultra. It’s a 27-inch flat IPS monitor with a 4K resolution. It’s a gaming-oriented model with a 144Hz refresh rate and a 1ms GTG response time. Add to that FreeSync support and you’ve got the ingredients for a high quality and very capable gaming screen. Assembly is about as easy as it…

$169 | logitech.com Logitech’s MX Master mice have carved a niche for themselves as the navigation product of choice for people who want good quality, lots of features, and loads of customisation options. The MX Master 3S aims to continue this tradition by building on the success of the MX Master 3 with a brand new higher DPI sensor, quieter switches, and Logitech’s new Bolt dongle which can be used across a range of the company’s new wireless products. By building on such a solid foundation, this remains the best productivity mouse on the market. This is an extremely comfortable mouse to have in the hand for long periods, it feels built to last, and Logitech’s Flow software allows you to move seamlessly between devices and applications. This makes it…

AmOs is a new distro that’s based on ArcoLinux, which itself has only been around for just over five years. ArcoLinux is pitched as a platform to learn Linux the Arch way. Its developer has broken up the Linux learning process into six phases and the various ArcoLinux distros are part of those phrases. The final phase of the learning process calls for the creation of your own custom distro. AmOs is one such derivative. Its sole developer has done a nice job of utilising the tools at his disposal to create a desktop-friendly Arch distro. AmOs uses a heavily customised Xfce desktop. One of its major attractions are the dozens of themes that you select with a single click. The distro boots into a Live environment, before firing up…

Today’s laptops are locked up tighter than Fort Knox, keeping out intrepid DIYers with their soldered CPUs, integrated batteries and threats of voided warranties. If you’re lucky, you can swap out the memory, storage and Wi-Fi modules, but that’s it. Considering today’s batteries can potentially only have a useable lifespan of two or three years if driven daily, this single failure point alone is enough to force an upgrade of the entire device. The result is a rapidly growing tech trash problem, not to mention many bruised bank accounts. Sadly, manufacturers are now addicted to the profit-earning cycles of forced obsolescence. It’s not that they can’t build a laptop with a removable battery – they simply don’t want to, as it would see a huge drop in sales. The same…

When Microsoft first launched Windows 11 a year ago, it said it would only launch one major update for the operating system every year instead of two. Well, a year on, it’s time for Windows 11’s first major makeover – and it doesn’t disappoint. There’s no single new feature in Windows 11 that’s going to blow your mind or make any of the Windows 10 holdouts suffer enormous pangs of regret. However, there are plenty of worthwhile tweaks and new features that make Windows 11 feel much more like a grown-up OS and less like Windows 10 with a new shopfront. The update, named 22H2 to signify that it will be released in the second half of 2022, covers a lot of ground. There are major updates to Windows 11’s…

YOU’LL NEED Windows 11 File Explorer plus some optional free apps to give you additional or improved functionality: WizFile, TeraCopy, ViVeTool, Win Subst, and TreeSize Free There’s no getting away from it: a core part of Windows 11 is File Explorer, the tool used to navigate and manipulate the files and folders on your PC. But for all the time you’re using it, are you maximising your use of File Explorer? It has come on leaps and bounds in the last few iterations of Windows, and there may be some hidden features you aren’t aware of that could revolutionise the way you interact with your PC’s drives. That’s where this latest collection of tips and tricks comes in. We’ll start by highlighting some of the lesser-known tools within File Explorer…

Free or $59 | PC, PS4/5, XBS/X | multiversus.com I’m Adventure Time’s Jake the Dog, standing on the edge of a Rick and Morty-themed arena. I’m about to beat Shaggy from Scooby-Doo into a bloody pulp while my teammate Arya Stark is casually stealing Batman’s face. A few years ago this would have given me severe whiplash, but in a world where tennis star Naomi Osaka is throwing hands at Naruto in Fortnite, nothing surprises me any more. MultiVersus’ biggest inspiration is still clear. Anyone who has spent a modicum of time with Nintendo’s Smash Bros will quickly get the gist: smack your opponent with a mixture of normal, air, and special attacks in order to increase their damage meter; avoid letting them do the same to you. Victory has…

It was only a few months ago that NFTs were the hottest trend in tech. Celebrities from Paris Hilton to Snoop Dogg were cashing in, and tech visionaries were imagining how the metaverse could be built on the back of non-fungible tokens. Now it appears that – like tulips and Beanie Babies before them – the hype-train may have hit the buffers. According to The Block, a site that compiles NFT data, weekly NFT trading volume fell dramatically from a high of $1.63bn last May to a much more sluggish $77.36m in mid-August. Similarly, weekly NFT sales have fallen from almost a million per week at the end of last year, to around 280,000. The downturn can also be seen in the behaviour of crypto firms. OpenSea, the largest NFT…

After reviewing the new M2 MacBook Air from Apple in the last issue of APC (issue 511, page 34) we couldn’t help but wonder why Apple even has a MacBook Pro 13 anymore. From a consumer perspective more choice is always better, so we by no means think it’s a bad thing that Apple is offering a 2022 M2 MacBook Pro 13, but Apple hasn’t been afraid of radical product shifts in the past and if you break it down, there’s really no need for the 13-inch MacBook Pro anymore. When Apple shifted from using Intel processors to its own in-house silicon, it had to make a big change to using an ARM-based reduced instruction set processor (RISC). The type of coding language used by RISC processors simplifies the commands…

Despite the building narrative of multi-modal catastrophe at Intel and a stock price that’s tanked by about 35 percent in the last few months, the reality is that not much has changed. Most of Intel’s current problems were baked in years ago. At the risk of sounding smug, four months ago, I called it regarding Intel’s Arc graphics woes. So, let’s just say recent rumours that Intel is seriously evaluating whether it should nuke the whole sorry saga aren’t exactly surprising. But here’s the thing. Arc isn’t Intel’s core competence. Intel did not bet the farm on Arc. Should Arc fail entirely, it would be costly and embarrassing, but it’s not even nearly an existential issue. It’s a bet gone bad. Another bet gone bad, of course, is Intel Optane…

FIND THE BEST DEALS ON NEW GEAR AT GETPRICE.COM/AU PREMIUM LAPTOPS APPLE MACBOOK PRO 14IN STUNNING CREATIVE POWER Alongside its 16-inch sibling, this is simply the world’s best laptop for demanding users. The amount of power on tap via the M1 Pro or M1 Max processor is staggering, and it’s backed up by a terrific screen and stunning battery life. With all the ports you could ask for, the only negatives are its relative bulk (especially compared to the Air) and high price. From $2,999, apple.com/au ALTERNATIVES NEW ENTRY DELL XPS 15 (2022) Surely the best Windows all-rounder money can buy, with a slim design, gaming potential and plenty of power courtesy of Intel’s 12th gen Core processors. From $2,799, dell.com APPLE MACBOOK AIR The MacBook Air M2 looks like…

$2,699 | online.acer.com.au Historically, we’ve loved the Nitro range of gaming laptops from Acer for their use of near end of season components to make competitive gaming rigs that were a little bit better value than what you might be used to. And while this year the Nitros are by no means the first Intel 12th gen gaming laptops to hit shelves, they’re not quite as late as they usually are either. Unfortunately they also don’t seem to be quite as budget conscious as they once were. The 2022 Nitro 5 is a performance-first 15.6-inch gaming rig that is 2.7cm thick and weighs 2.6kg. This profile makes sense when you’re looking at fitting it out with an Intel Core i7-12700H CPU, 16GB of RAM and a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070…

$4,599 | lenovo.com/au The pitch for Lenovo’s Legion 5i Pro 16” is “Stylish outside. Savage inside.” and while the first part of that equation might be a bit of a stretch, the spec sheet definitely backs up the potential for serious gaming. There are a handful of configurations locally, but they all take a slightly thicker performance-first shape that is just a tad bigger than your average gaming ultraportable. That by no means makes it hard to transport, since this 16-inch device weighs just 2.5kg, but there is a distinct wedge in the tail end of the 2cm thick unit to accommodate all the vents and thermal architecture. Lenovo has done a decent job of tying this all into a relatively neat package that could just as easily pass as…

$999 | www.tp-link.com/au The idea of mesh Wi-Fi systems is that they, not only spread Wi-Fi around your premises by adding nodes that enhance a core signal, they maintain performance levels too. But, after testing every key model on the market, we can vouchsafe that they don’t – performance inevitably collapses near a secondary node and the best we can say is that, at least mesh systems enable constant (if reduced) performance at range. The move to Wi-Fi 6 didn’t help but now here’s Wi-Fi 6E... will mesh finally live up to its promise? The first thing to note is that the tri-band Deco XE75 uses a 2.4GHz channel (574Mbps theoretical maximum), a 5GHz channel (2,402Mbps) and the extended (much-less-crowded) 6E spectrum which operates between 5.925GHz to 7.125GHz but still…

One of Microsoft’s strangest decisions in Windows 11 was to remove the option to launch Task Manager from the taskbar, effectively hiding this useful tool. MiTeC Task Manager DeLuxe (MTMD) version 4.4 is an enhanced version of the feature, giving you a clearer and more detailed view of what’s happening in the background on your PC. This helps you to monitor resource hogs, and prevent system crashes. We’d been planning to include the program in this section since version 4.1 was released in May, but the download kept triggering a security warning in our browser. Thankfully, this problem has now been fixed and MTMD is verified as completely clean on VirusTotal. Despite the ‘Deluxe’ in its name, all its options are free to use for personal, non-commercial purposes. Version 4.4…

Over the years, Microsoft has tried a few different ways of providing at-a-glance information inside the main Windows interface. In Windows Vista and 7 we had gadgets, which then turned into Live Tiles in Windows 8 and 10. Those disappeared in the move to Windows 11, to be replaced by a set of widgets that live in their own slide-out drawer. Windows 11 is limited to a curated selection of built-in widgets, but that will soon be changing. Microsoft recently announced that developers will be able to start creating their own widgets for Windows 11 this year, using a framework called Adaptive Cards. If you’re fluent in JSON you can try it out now at adaptivecards.io. Not everyone wants to get hands- on with code, however, and frankly not everyone…

IT WILL TAKE 60 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to set up a secure and private email account YOU’LL NEED A web browser, macOS 10.12 or later ProtonMail has long been a popular end-to-end encrypted email service. The company behind it has offered other services too, including a Virtual Private Network (VPN). It recently revamped and consolidated its product line, neatly bringing together its Mail, Calendar, Drive (for storage) and VPN tools. Privacy remains the focus throughout, as consumers show ever greater interest in what their data is used for. Proton offers free email accounts, but there are paid upgrades available too. These include an Unlimited package that offers all the services for $229. Charlotte Henry "This country and its clever people have contributed much to the technology that has…

Video compression doesn’t seem to create the same excitement as cryptocurrencies and artificial intelligence, but it’s safe to say that without it, there’d be no streaming services and no binge-watching House of the Dragon. We’ve come a long way from the days of MPEG-2 compression on DVDs, but the latest video compression-decompression or ‘codec’ formats to hit the airwaves are quietly creating a new scramble amongst streaming services and device manufacturers alike. Video what? If you’re watching your big 4K TV, you’re probably looking at 3,840 x 2,160 picture elements or ‘pixels’, each one capable of showing at least 16.7 million colours. Those colours come about by varying the proportions of the three primary subpixel colours – red, green and blue (RGB). Each primary colour requires at least one byte…

CHIP CHATJOEL BURGESS REPORTS ON THE UNUSUAL SIDE OF TECH NEWS Usually when getting official support from a company on how to exchange a faulty product under warranty, you’ll be encouraged to send a device back to the manufacturer ‘as is’, but when that device is a corrupted SSD containing highly sensitive material you might think twice about whether it’s worth just buying a new drive. Fortunately a customer support staffer in Germany advised an Igor’s Lab writer that they could destroy the SSD using a ‘drill’ or a ‘hammer’ before returning it to ensure the data remained secure. This option was only offered after extensive testing to ensure the drive was faulty, so we wouldn’t recommend drilling first and asking for a replacement later. AI GENERATED SHORT FILM WINS…