Indice dei contenuti per May 2022 in APC

A privately owned collection of more than 500 pieces of retro computer and technology history has been destroyed by a Russian bomb in the city of Mariupol. The war in Ukraine is a tragedy on so many levels, but while it in no way matches up to the senseless taking of lives by the invading Russian forces, the destruction of the Mariupol Computer Museum is still saddening. The destruction was highlighted by Mark Howlett on Twitter, and confirmed by the Ukrainian Software and Computer Museum account, which operates museums in Kharkiv and Kyiv. The owner of the Mariupul collection, Dmitry Cherepanov, is reportedly safe, though his collection of computers, consoles, and assorted tech from fifty years of computing has been wiped out.…

“To stay competitive, we need to remove duplication of work now that we are one Arm; stop work that is no longer critical to our future success; and think about how we get work done.” According to The Telegraph, Arm chief executive Rene Haas advised staff that hundreds of employees will be let go after the acquisition fell through. Between 12 and 15 percent of the company’s employees are expected to be affected, mostly in the US and the UK. Given Arm’s workforce is over 6,500 people strong, that could be nearly one thousand jobs on the chopping block across the company. “This is going to be a tough time for everyone, so I want to be clear on why we are doing this,” Haas said in an email according…

Asus has confirmed that it is slashing graphics card prices by up to 25 percent. In an email statement an Asus representative added that price reductions will be applied to its entry-level, mid-range and high-performance models. The company cited cuts to the tariffs on US imports from China as a major reason behind the MSRP reductions. “As a result of the latest tariff lift on Chinese imports from the Office of the United States Trade Representative, Gamers and PC enthusiasts will see lower prices on Asus GeForce RTX 30-series graphic cards starting on April 1st, 2022,” an Asus rep told us. The MSRP cut of 25 percent isn’t being applied across the board. As Asus puts it, “Consumers should expect prices to decline up to 25 percent on different models…

As we begin to emerge from a global silicon shortage with the second wave crypto mining boom pretty securely in the rear view, Intel has unveiled its new range of discrete GPUs designed to accompany the next generation of thin and light gaming-capable Ultrabooks. It’s actually a great time for Intel to test the market since there’s still a bit of pent up demand for gaming devices, and Intel’s pitch of three simple tiers of better-than-integrated graphics is a sensible option for converting people quickly. The only trouble is we’re not really sure there’s any need for a third major graphics card maker, especially one that produces products like those recently launched by Intel. Intel’s rough plan here is to release the Arc 3 first using a six- or eight-core…

I don’t normally take much notice of the memes that clutter up timelines on Facebook and Twitter, but this one made me pause: 1970 to 2022 is as far apart as 1970 and 1918. I remember 1970. I was six at the time, and 1970 was just before the computing world burst out from the industrial confines of the mainframe and minicomputer and into the era of home computers. Apple unveiled its first computer in April 1976, while the Sinclair ZX80 arrived in February 1980. IBM was famously late to the game with its epoch-defining Personal Computer in 1981, and we had to wait until the Lisa (1983) and Macintosh (1984) for anything resembling the graphical user interface we’ve become so used to. But then we were off. Intel set…

05 STEELSERIES APEX 3 TKL The only non-mechanical keyboard on this list, the SteelSeries is still a fantastic board with lots of features. We love SteelSeries’ “Whisper-Quiet” switches that feel great to type on, the dedicated media controls, and PrismSync lighting control, but we don’t love the non-removable USB cable. SteelSeries also claims the Apex 3 TKL is the world’s first water-resistant TKL keyboard. $110, steelseries.com 04 ASUS ROG STRIX SCOPE TKL DELUXE This Asus uses the popular Cherry MX Red switches. It scores points for having a larger CTRL key for FPS players, a newer-style USB-C connector, and a magnetic wrist-rest included, but it loses out for its lack of dedicated media controls and the overly stylised font on the keys. It also works with Aura Sync and has…

$9,399 | apple.com/au Apple has launched a series of M1 processors alongside different consumer products over the last couple of years, and each has dramatically changed our perceptions of what’s possible from a laptop computer processor. The Mac Studio is the first time Apple has attempted to use its own processors in a creative workstation going head-to-head with the best consumer processors Intel and AMD make. The new M1 Ultra processor used on some models of the Mac Studio is essentially two M1 Max processors fused together using a novel UltraFusion silicon interposer that allows enough low latency bandwidth for the chips to act as a single SoC. This system works so well that only one $6K plus AMD workstation CPU – the Threadripper 3990X – just barely outperforms the…

$3,399 | rog.asus.com/au There’s quite a few devices and even plenty of software that merges the handheld, console and PC gaming arenas these days, but being able to game at your desk and then move into the living room or even to bed without stopping is a luxury that you still need to jump through a few hoops to do. The Flow Z13 is a Surface-Pro-like tablet that houses some impressive components to allow you to take your high-res PC gaming anywhere you want, out of the box. While it might be a 13.4-inch tablet that’s just 1.2cm thick 1.18kg, it’s actually the first device we’ve seen with the absurdly powerful Intel Core i9-12900H CPU under the hood. This is backed up by 16GB of RAM, a Nvidia GeForce RTX…

$669 (13.3in), $749 (15.6in) | espres.so The new Espresso Display 2 is an iterative improvement on the first model, which launched in mid-2021 via a healthy $307,000 Kickstarter campaign. The Version 2 model is a little thinner (5.3mm vs 5.5mm), but is otherwise similar in appearance to its predecessor. The important improvements are internal, with upgraded hardware that’s designed to deliver better pen and touch compatibility. This improved touch support is intended to benefit Mac users mostly and addresses a key weakness of macOS overall – in a unique and proprietary way. The original V1 Espresso Display operates in mouse emulation mode for touch and pen when connected to a Mac, but with the new V2 internals, and – crucially – an updated version of Espresso’s espressoFlow software, Mac users…

MAC STORE & OTHER MAC APPS | Free/US$39.95 for premium | redsweater.com If you’ve ever done more than dabble with AppleScripts, or any other scripting on the Mac, you’ll know that macOS’ Script Editor gives the option to put a Scripts menu in your menu bar. That menu gives you access to scripts in the default Scripts folder, so you can view and edit them easily. FastScripts also does that and a whole lot more. Version 3 has been updated with a host of new features and makes it even more of a ‘must-have’ for anyone who uses AppleScripts on a regular basis. There’s a new search box at the top of the menu, enabling you to use Spotlight to search for scripts. Click the menu, start typing (there’s no…

WINDOWS APPS | US$13 per year | iobit.com Over the years, the ArchLabs distro has deviated considerably from its origins. It now suits users who want to exploit Arch’s famed customisability to build their installation from scratch, but with some added conveniences to minimise the time it takes to deploy a pure Arch system. ArchLabs caters to users who aren’t afraid of the command line, but want to run a desktop distro without spending a lot of time to compile everything from scratch. Unlike some of the other popular Arch-derivatives, the 64-bit only distro doesn’t boot into a Live environment. Instead, its install-only medium takes users to its text-based installer dubbed AL-Installer. It’s fairly straightforward to navigate and includes all the conveniences of a modern distro installer, without the bloat.…

$1,598 | acer.com OS Windows 10 Processor AMD Ryzen 7 5700U Graphics Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 RAM 16GB LPDDR4X Storage 512GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD Display 14in 1080p LCD IPS non-touch 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, Connectivity 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, 1x HDMI, 1x 3.5mm combo audio jack Battery 59WHrs 4-cell Li-ion Size 322 x 212 x 179 Weight 1.39Kg The Acer Swift series of notebooks has been around for a while, but the Swift X is a step forward for the manufacturer. While previous Swift models ran the gamut of budget to premium, the Swift X is looking to be all things to all people – discrete graphics for gaming and creative tasks, a powerful Ryzen 5000 CPU, all-day battery life, and a sleek, lightweight form…

The big one was Google’s own Pixelbook Go, a premium Chromebook that offers the best of what the platform can do. The Go features a sturdy but thin design, stellar battery life, and one of the best keyboards found on any notebook laptop. Higher-spec models also offer a 1080p webcam and even a 4K touch display. We’d also point the ChromeOS curious towards Lenovo’s IdeaPad Duet, a Chromebook with a detachable keyboard for a true tablet experience. The Duet’s hardware specs are modest (4GB of RAM and a MediaTek ARM processor) but given its sub-$450 price tag, we can’t be too critical. HP’s Chromebook x2 11 also uses a detachable keyboard but ramps up the quality with a 1440p touchscreen and fingerprint scanner built into the power button. It’s powered…

Buy a Windows computer today and it’s all but certain to contain a TPM. That’s a Trusted Platform Module – an unassuming component that performs a standard set of security functions. Those are defined by the Trusted Computing Group, an industry body with more than 100 members, including AMD, Dell, Google, Intel, Lenovo and Microsoft, working together to improve security across computing devices and applications. The group has been around in various forms since 1999, but it was in 2009 that it published the first TPM standard (curiously presented as version 1.2). This was quickly adopted across the industry, thanks partly to support built into Windows Vista. In 2015, the TPM 2.0 standard brought extra features, and remains the state of the art for trusted computing. Despite its ubiquity, the…

When we see a string of numbers such as “192.168.0.1”, most of us know that we’re looking at an IP address. But what exactly is an IP address, and why does it take that form? These are things you might not know – and that’s fine, because you don’t need that level of knowledge to keep your home or small office network running smoothly and securely. Even so, the information can be useful when it comes to troubleshooting and optimising your network – and it’s interesting, too, in a geeky sort of way. Here’s a quick guide to the mysteries of IP and how it works. 01 What needs an IP address? The full name of IP is “internet protocol”, but it’s not just used for internet connections. In fact,…

You probably don’t spend a lot of time thinking about how files and data are organised on your hard disk. You don’t need to: when you buy a new PC, its system drive will invariably come formatted as NTFS. This is Windows’ native file system, and using it ensures that you get the full performance and storage features supported by the platform. NTFS isn’t your only option, however. For example, if you buy a second hard disk for your desktop PC, or an external SSD to connect to a laptop, you have several options for formatting it. That also applies when you divide a hard disk into separate partitions, perhaps so you can dual-boot a PC into Linux. NTFS may be the default choice, but it could be that a…

What you need: AskAdmin Time required: 30 minutes If you share your PC with other family members – especially younger ones or those new to computing – you may want to restrict what they can access. There are various tools you can use to do this, but one of the most effective is AskAdmin. Tell it what software you want to restrict, and it will prevent it from launching, without you having performed any complex configuration behind the scenes. And, should you later want to authorise a program you need to use, rolling back your changes is very straightforward. 01 Visit www.sordum.org/downloads/?askadmin and, if AskAdmin doesn’t start downloading automatically, click Direct Download. When the download is completed, switch to File Explorer and click Downloads in the sidebar. Double-click ‘AskAdmin.zip’ to…

$89 | PC, PS4/5, XB1/S/X | eldenring.com Elden Ring, FromSoftware’s successor to the Souls series, spreads the mysteries and challenges of Dark Souls across an open world in a more conventional sense. There are castles to infiltrate from several angles, swamps to ride through on horseback, and gargantuan beasts to chase you down. The sheer amount of freedom is a first for the series, and it results in a game packed with what’s so beloved about it: idiosyncratic characters and buckets of truly horrifying monsters. Elden Ring features the same deliberate combat that’s now iconic for these types of games, except here it’s fully refined. You swing, the enemy swings, and both of you can interrupt each other’s attacks with acute timing. This is upended by the new weapon abilities…

Free | PC | bit.ly/3vr6wX9 You may have been hoping for a remake, but instead here’s a demake of classic RTS Dune II. It’s the game that birthed a genre, and for the last three years developer Paul Nicholas has been recreating it in micro game engine PICO-8. It’s a bang-up job, I’m happy to report. All three factions, units and building types, and all the campaign missions are included here. It’s a fully featured RTS (given the limitations of PICO-8), with a neatly streamlined interface and art that’s clear and readable, despite the low resolution. However, there are a few wrinkles that make it slightly awkward to play. There’s no build queue and, worse, no way to drag-select units, meaning you have to select them individually when throwing everything…

Free | PC, Linux, browser bit.ly/3BKiWua The world is falling apart. Literally, it’s falling off in clumps, which plummet into the abyss as you lead a caravan to safety. Can you make it to a mystical portal before you run out of food and, eventually, terra firma? It’s a great idea, with some interesting systems holding up the hex-based world. Initially moving just one unit, you’ll soon steer it into villages to recruit farmers, woodcutters, and miners, which tag along on the hexes behind you. Farmers will harvest berries (for food), while the others will gather wood and precious gems from adjacent hexes. Wood is used to build bridges over otherwise impassable water, while gems are the currency for magical spells. You can swap certain tiles around, or flatten mountains…

UKRAINIAN DRONE VOLUNTEERS STALL GIANT RUSSIAN TANK CONVOY IT hobbyists stifle primary Russian military assault with clever tech tactics. According to The Guardian, a team of 30 Ukrainian special forces that began eight years ago as a group of volunteer tech specialists and drone hobbyists, played a critical role in stifling a 40 kilometre long convoy of Russian tank battalions as it rolled towards Kiev. The Aerorozvidka air reconnaissance unit used quad bikes to access the roads the tank regiment was advancing on at night by driving through the forests either side of it. Using night vision goggles, sniper rifles, and drones carrying small bombs, the Ukrainian tech team was able to destroy vehicles at the head of the convoy and effectively block the Russian advance. FACEBOOK INVESTS HEAVILY IN…

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Tuesday warned US organisations that hackers are now targeting Internet-connected uninterruptible power supply (UPS) devices. Such attacks can literally fry PCs, or at least their power supplies, but the more dangerous outcome is that they can cause fires in datacentres, homes, and offices. In a bid to avoid attacks on mission critical machines, CISA recommends organisations ensure that their UPS is not reachable via the internet. Since this is sometimes impossible to do, CISA also recommends using strong passwords or passphrases, enabling multifactor authentication where available, implementing login timeout/lockout policies, and hiding any UPS devices behind virtual private networks.…

AMD might be taking the APUs (the combined CPU and GPU chip) from broken PlayStation 5 consoles and repurposing them for expensive crypto mining rigs. The Asrock BC-250 mining rig, which features 12 AMD BC-250 mining cards, might have the APUs from defective Sony PlayStation 5 consoles, according to leaker Komachi. There’s no CPU listed on the product page, which means that one of the PS5 APUs’ CPUs is most likely handling non-mining related tasks. The rig uses 16GB GDDR6 RAM, which is coincidently how the PlayStation 5 is set up. With something like 10 million PlayStation 5s out there globally, it makes sense that a percentage of them would be bricked but still have a serviceable APU.…

BaM essentially enables Nvidia GPUs to fetch data directly from system memory and storage without using the CPU, which makes GPUs more self-sufficient than they are today. Microsoft’s DirectStorage application programming interface (API) promises to improve the efficiency of GPU-to-SSD data transfers for games in a Windows environment, but Nvidia and its partners have found a way to make GPUs seamlessly work with SSDs without a proprietary API. The method, called Big Accelerator Memory (BaM), promises to be useful for various compute tasks, but it will be particularly useful for emerging workloads that use large datasets. Essentially, as GPUs get closer to CPUs in terms of programmability, they also need direct access to large storage devices. Modern graphics processing units aren’t just for graphics; they’re also used for various heavy-duty…

ATX12VO 2.0 spec introduces some other features including better reliability, tolerance for power spikes and particularly welcome changes to low load efficiency, which is a weakness of even the most efficient of today’s PSUs. Intel has published the final ATX 3.0 specification, and it’s the biggest change to power supply specifications in almost 20 years. Given how much modern hardware has evolved, it’s a surprise it took that long. What this means is that it’s advisable to hold off on buying a high-end power supply right now if you can avoid it. Probably the biggest change is the inclusion of PCIe 5.0 graphics card support. The new 12VHPWR connector provides up to 600 watts for supporting PCIe 5.0 graphics cards. This 12-pin connector includes four additional sideband signals that improve…

Robots. Drones. AI. Whenever a new technology creeps into the public consciousness, we can’t resist considering its potential in extremes: smart city tech will either be a clean, convenient utopia or a centrally controlled dystopia. The positive vision is often pushed by venture-capital investors, startup marketing teams and over-eager journalists, while the nightmare view is heralded by activists, regulators, overly cynical journalists – as well as in science fiction shows such as Black Mirror, created by Charlie Brooker. The reality for most technologies is somewhere in between those extremes, and largely dependent less on the innovation itself than how we humans choose to make use of it. Self-driving cars should reduce accidents, but could require pedestrians to be sequestered away from roads. AI may help cure cancer, but it could…

ZOOM Zoom Basic $free, Zoom Pro $21/month, Zoom Business $28/month, Zoom Enterprise $28/month. | www.zoom.com GOOGLE MEET Google Meet $free, Google Workspace Individual $8.40/month, Google Workspace Enterprise (contact company for pricing). | meet.google.com Over the past decade, the proliferation of camera-enabled devices and free video calling platforms has made video conferencing accessible to all. Even your grandparents have probably been getting in on the act. Of course, the pandemic really kicked things up a gear but, even as life slowly returns to normal, we’re still heavily reliant on the technology. Whether it’s business meetings, remote working, or family gatherings, video conferences kept our lives going during a tricky couple of years. And now we’ve gotten used to it, that doesn’t look like it’s going to change. In this comparison, we…

$3,599 | apple.com/au The Studio Display is a 27-inch 5K Retina monitor from Apple that is designed to tick all the boxes many creatives need without being unnecessarily expensive. Starting at $2,499, the Apple Studio Display is still definitely not cheap, but it’s a very different ballpark to the $10K Pro Display XDR that Apple offers. The 5,120 x 2,880 resolution monitor has a pixel density of 218ppi, much higher than we’re used to seeing, even on pro monitors. This hi-res picture is bolstered by a higher than usual 600nit brightness and full DCI-P3 colour space reproduction capabilities. When using the P3-600 nits preset the screen combines with either the included low reflectivity glass or, for an additional $500, an even less reflective nano-texture glass to create an extremely vibrant…

$2,299 | dell.com Between the low latency response times and the lower overall brightness requirements of computer monitors, OLED displays are arguably the perfect technology for gaming displays. Yet, due to a combination of production costs and concern around the potential for burn-in, we haven’t really seen many examples of OLED computer monitorsto date. The Alienware AW3423DW is the first gaming desktop monitor to market that uses a new 34-inch curved ultrawide OLED panel from Samsung. But if that wasn’t noteworthy enough, this Samsung panel also integrates the company’s proprietary Quantum Dot technology for the first time on any kind of display. Samsung has announced it’ll be releasing its own gaming monitor that’ll use the same panel, but Alienware is leading the charge in bringing this curved high-res QD-OLED gaming…

$275 | www.asrock.com It’s a tough time for the whole world right now, for many well-known reasons. Here in Australia, inflation and supply chain issues mean that a good value-for-money motherboard is relatively hard to find. At $275 the Asrock B660 Steel Legend is a board that tries to find the right blend of offering a decent feature set and value for money without looking like it’s cheap. Is it a board that you should consider? Some cheaper B660 boards really look cheap. The Asrock doesn’t give that impression. It’s got a VRM and cooling that can happily handle a 12900K, and – like all B660 boards – it has memory OC support, so straight away you have a board that can run a mid-range to high end system. Many…

$349 | steelseries.com While there’s no doubt SteelSeries has nailed its gaming headset designs, the ever-expanding nature of its range can be confusing. Take this 7+ model – it’s an upgrade on the standard 7, but below the more premium 9-series, which also has a Pro version. On the design front, it’s no surprise this is a comfortable pair of headphones. SteelSeries’ ski-goggle headband is one of the best on the market, suspending the headset from a steel band and creating an even pressure across your head thanks to the elasticated headband. This makes the headphones feel lightweight while still being durable. The rest of the construction is strong, with soft-touch black plastic feeling pleasant to hold, with no sharp edges in sight. The earcups are cozy around the ears,…

While Chromebooks may be disparaged by tech-heads, they’ve come a long way since their introduction in 2011. Google describes today’s ChromeOS laptops as ‘speedy, simple and secure’, with virus protection built-in and effective cloud-based storage for files and user data. Chromebooks – plucky little brother to the Windows laptop, typically trading performance for portability and ease of use. An affordable option for performing basic tasks such as word processing and web browsing. While Chromebooks may be disparaged by tech-heads, they’ve come a long way since their introduction in 2011. Google describes today’s ChromeOS laptops as ‘speedy, simple and secure’, with virus protection built-in and effective cloud-based storage for files and user data. So, how do modern Chromebooks compare to their Windows counterparts? We break down some of the best ChromeOS…

$2,839 | msi.com OS Windows 10 Processor Intel Core i7-1185G7 Graphics Intel Iris Xe Graphics RAM 16GB LPDDR4X-4267 Storage 512GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD Display 13.4-inch 1200p IPS touchscreen 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, Connectivity 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, 2x Thunderbolt 4, 1x 3.5 combo audio jack Battery 70WHrs 4-cell Li-ion Size 150 x 300 x 223 Weight 1.35Kg At over $2,800, this is the most expensive product on this list. It’s still decidedly mid-range as laptops go, although you’ll struggle to spend that much money on a Chromebook. The Summit E13 Flip Evo works hard to justify its pricing, with some dedication on MSI’s part to make it feel like a premium ultrabook with a hybrid tablet design aimed at fast-movers. The Flip Evo is an…

One of the best features of the internet is that nothing is scarce. If I were to lend you a CD, I would no longer be able to listen to it, but if I send you an MP3, we can both enjoy the music. Similarly, there’s never any risk of the newsstand running out of newspapers, as the sharing of information has been liberated from the physical constraints of newsprint. Every bit and every byte can be copied, duplicated and shared with relative ease, and this is a very useful thing. So, it’s odd that arguably the most talked about new technology today is designed to make digital goods scarce again. NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are digital certificates of authenticity. They use complex mathematics to prove beyond any doubt that…

$1,619 – tinyurl.com/APC506NZX NZXT STARTER PC Coming in as the second most expensive in this month’s round-up of systems, having just gone on sale down from $1,799, this system unfortunately still isn’t good value. The case and power supply are particular highlights of this build, both worthy of keeping through upgrades. The CPU, while two generations old, is still common in this price class. Oddly Nzxt is slapping a big Deepcool heatsink on it. Great for temperatures, but rather unnecessary and pretty much a waste of money versus the free stock Intel cooler. The slow by modern standards 2666MHz RAM is also disheartening, as is the complete lack of secondary mass storage, a common pairing with sub 1TB SSDs. The main pain point though is the graphics card; a GTX…

IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to backup and move your music library, and run two libraries YOU’LL NEED Apple Music In this Apple Music tutorial, we’re going to deal with libraries. In Apple-speak, your music library is where Music stores details of all the files you have imported, downloaded or added from Apple Music’s streaming service, as well as information about playlists. The library is not, as we’ll see, necessarily where the music itself is stored. That could be on Apple’s servers, in a different folder on your Mac, or on an external drive. Whatever you like It’s likely that the music you play in Apple Music is stored in multiple places. And if you use iTunes Match, everything will also be stored on Apple’s servers,…

Wireless audio has transformed the way many of us listen to music, but I find portable Bluetooth speakers often leave me a bit flat. Sure, they’re convenient and everything, but in some cases, I think I’d almost rather listen to a cat stuck up a drainpipe. Ever since British engineer Alan Blumlein invented stereo in 1931, scientists and engineers have pushed the boundaries to improve audio quality and, as usual, Australia has punched well above its weight in this pursuit. Neville Thiele is remembered as an Australian engineer, who, along with Dr. Richard Small from the University of Sydney, developed scientific methods for measuring speaker parameters and speaker enclosures in the 1960s. They’re collectively known as ‘Thiele/ Small’ or ‘TS’ parameters and are still used in high-performance speaker systems all…

$59.95 | PC, XBS/X, PS4/5, Stadia | bungie.net If The Witch Queen does one thing right – and, in fact, it does many – it’s that it brings a sense of consistency and stability to the game. It adds new features, yes, but they’re all enhancements and progressions of systems and ideas introduced in Beyond Light. That rare sense of continuity allows The Witch Queen to instead stand out in a more meaningful way: by being Destiny 2’s best expansion. Finally, that future is here. The centrepiece is the campaign, which for the first time in Destiny 2’s history is itself a compelling reason to recommend this expansion. Previously, Destiny 2 campaigns were little more than a path into the endgame – a handful of short missions, linked by rigidly…

$28.95 | PC, BX1/S/X, PS4/5, Switch | farchangingtides.com Civilisation has seemingly washed away on the tide. What remains is you and your boat, which you acquire shortly after the game begins. As you learn the boat’s peculiar ways, Far keeps unveiling new surprises. By the end, I knew every nuance of this trusty vessel, like a beloved car. When you liberate the boat, the only things you have to worry about are the wind and natural or man-made obstacles. The latter are generally cleared by hopping back off the boat and solving (mostly intuitive) mechanical puzzles, while the wind is something you manage from atop the deck. It’s a simple enough system – dragging the sail around to follow the breeze – but the physics, sound design and animation all…

RELEASE 2009 DEVELOPER Maxis PUBLISHER Electronic Arts LINK bit.ly/3vtE1b4 For some, The Sims series is a wonderful sandbox simulation in which wacky fake people survive a gauntlet of unlikely house fires or where approximations of school crushes become spouses. For me, it’s always been about the building. I’ve removed a few pool ladders in my day, but I’ve rarely given Live Mode the time of day since the original The Sims. It’s always been about the architecture – learning to create floating houses tethered by staircases or designing mansions and realising I don’t know what kinds of rooms mansions have. Piano rooms are a thing, right? I happened to skip over The Sims 3 – I was leaving for university and was really quite enamoured with MMOs when it launched…

“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.” Independent reviews 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. That means identifying the best products from multiple perspectives – the best performance, best value and best features and, ideally, the products that offer the best mix of these three attributes. As a matter of policy, reviews published in APC are not shared with product-makers prior to print. We will contact vendors under certain conditions; for example, if we have a problem testing a product that seems to indicate it may be faulty, or to invite a vendor to clarify how a…

The Arc A-Series mobile GPU lineup will see the first laptops sporting the new GPUs slated to arrive in April. But desktop users need not worry: Arc graphics cards for desktops are still coming, just not first. Intel Arc Alchemist officially enters the GPU fray, turning this two-pony race into a three-way battle for supremacy. The Arc A-Series mobile GPU lineup will see the first laptops sporting the new GPUs slated to arrive in April. But desktop users need not worry: Arc graphics cards for desktops are still coming, just not first. Similar to its CPU stack, Intel’s Arc Alchemist will have multiple tiers of performance: Arc 3, Arc 5, and Arc 7. The various models will be based off two chip designs, one with up to 96 Xe Vector…

The cybersecurity company Kaspersky Labs has become the first Russian company to make the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) list of entities that present an “unacceptable risk to US national security.” What this means in practice is that US businesses are forbidden from using federal subsidies to purchase equipment or services, which is obviously some distance from an outright ban or the trade embargo that crippled Huawei’s ability to use Android back in 2019. Nonetheless, Kaspersky is understandably affronted by the decision, and put out a press release claiming that the move “is a response to the geopolitical climate” rather than being based on any concerns about the quality or otherwise of the company’s products.…

Intel hasn’t said exactly what we can expect from BMZ2, but rumours are it will use TSMC’s N5 process. Assuming a similar chip size to BMZ1, it could potentially double the hashing power within similar power constraints. Perhaps a sign of the coming cryptapocalypse, Intel recently disclosed that it has been testing the waters for mining ASICs for years. It also revealed its first-generation BMZ1, codenamed Bonanza Mining, and looked ahead to BMZ2, its second-generation chip that will be manufactured on a cutting-edge node rather than the 14nm process used for BMZ1. Most surprisingly, it was noted that BMZ1 was created as a ‘product exploration’ in 2018. The initial BMZ1 foray into cryptocurrency mining took a similar approach to other Bitcoin ASICs, packing about 137 GH/s of SHA-256 hashing power…

Samsung Odyssey Ark Big enough for all the animals. $TBC | samsung.com This display behemoth is a mammoth 55 inches across – more than double Apple’s largest 27-inch iMac – and uses a heavily curved screen to make using it a little more comfortable and immersive. Like the latest MacBook Pro and iPad Pro, the Odyssey Ark uses Mini-LED tech to ramp up the display quality and offer increased contrast and brightness. You can rotate the screen 90 degrees into a portrait orientation, and thanks to its curvature and enormous wingspan, this makes the monitor loom ominously overhead – to the height of three 16:9 monitors stacked on top of each other, in fact. It’s frankly terrifying. POLYMEGA For an old-school gaming fix. US$449.99 | polymega.com Old-school games consoles can…

$3,149 | microsoft.com/en-au It’s been a couple of years since Microsoft released the Surface Book 3, so it’s about the right time for an update to this line. But in a minor surprise the Windows developer seems to have reinvented the branding of these powerful ultraportables and has renamed it the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio. Instead of offering a detachable tablet experience like the Surface Book, the Surface Laptop Studio has a screen that can fold into a drafting table shape to make it easy to draw on. The design (and title) is clearly borrowed from the company’s desktop all-in-one, the Surface Studio, and is perfectly suited to be used with the recently updated Surface Slim Pen 2. The laptop has a recessed edge that we originally thought was to…

$479 | benq.com/en-au We’d all love the latest $2,000 ultrawide monitor, but for many this just simply isn’t an affordable option for a monitor you primarily use for work tasks. And that’s exactly who BenQ’s GW2785TC is built for, someone looking for an entry-level work monitor that allows you to look at spreadsheets and web pages till you crack that bonus threshold. The BenQ 27-inch Full HD GW2785TC isn’t the cheapest monitor out there, instead it’s attempting to coax buyers over the line with a raft of eye saving features that should appeal to people who spend the whole work day at their screen. The validity of these eye saving features will vary depending on who you ask, but there’s plenty of science backing up the impact of blue light…

The 1TB version is rated for 5,150/4,900 MB/s sequential read and write speeds and 740K/800K read/write IOPS. The 1TB drive features a 600TBW endurance rating. For a drive at this price, those are outstanding specs. $199 | www.westerndigital.com Ever since PCIe 4.0 drives were released, they’ve tended to occupy the upper end of the market, leaving PCIe 3.0 drives to fill the entry and mid-range SSD markets. That’s all changing now. PCIe 3.0 drives are set to gradually disappear. As PCIe 5.0 drives are set to make their introduction later this year, affordable PCIe 4.0 drives like the Western Digital SN770 set a new baseline performance expectation that promises to elevate what you can expect from a mainstream NVMe SSD. The 1TB SN770 we have in for review costs $199,…

WINDOWS APPS | US$13 per year | iobit.com IObit Software Updater is a device optimisation tool developed by the American software company IObit which is a recognised industry leader in optimisation and security software tools. It produces many other types of software apart from Software Updater, including a VPN, a software uninstaller, and an antivirus. IObit released the first version of Software Updater in 2018 and has dropped consecutive updated versions yearly. It released the latest (fourth) version in January 2022, which we’ll review based on specific criteria, including features, compatibility, customer support, ease of use, etc. There’s a free version of the IObit Software Updater that anyone can download. It has the basic software updating features but lacks compared to the premium version. You need to pay for the…

$1,199 | hp.com OS Windows 10 Processor AMD Ryzen 3 4300U Graphics AMD Radeon Graphics RAM 8GB DDR4-3200 Storage 256GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD Display 15.6-inch 1080p IPS touchscreen 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, Connectivity 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, 1x HDMI, 1x 3.5mm combo audio jack Battery 41WHrs 3-cell Li-ion Size 690 x 520 x 305 Weight 2.34Kg HP’s Pavilion 15 range is broad, with models ranging from this sensible budget model to more powerful iterations with dedicated GPUs. This version is a reserved affair, with a Ryzen 3 4300U processor, 8GB of DDR4 memory, and 256GB of speedy NVMe storage. The Pavilion 15’s defining feature is right there in the name: a lovely 15.6-inch touch panel, offering excellent brightness and plenty of screen real estate for…

When you spend your work hours drooling over high-performance hardware, Google’s sensibly-priced, security-focused laptops aren’t exactly a turn-on. But Chromebook design has come a long way from its origins (check out that Acer AC700, for instance!). Modern Chromebooks can match mid-range laptops for aesthetics; the Asus Chromebook Flip CX3400 is the perfect example, combining thin-and-light design requirements with a clean, refined look. While older Chromebooks looked most at home in the IT rooms of elementary schools, cash-strapped university students no longer need to feel ashamed by their hardware if they opt for Chrome. If you’re on a tight budget or looking for ‘Baby’s First Laptop’, Chromebooks just make sense. They won’t break any performance records, but ChromeOS is so well-optimised for low-end hardware at this point that these laptops can…

AMD’s 5300G, a quad-core y-cruncher (a CPU benchmarking app) record holder, has been smashed by the i3-12300 with a time almost 40 percent faster with an overclock of 5.44GHz. The joy of unlocking hidden performance in a CPU via overclocking has been around for decades. In the last few generations of CPUs AMD and Intel have wised-up to how GPUs have been self-boosting based on thermals and available power overheads available at any moment, meaning that while high-end CPUs can still be overclocked manually, how hot a CPU gets is typically the main factor in unlocking extra performance. That for the most part means that under-volting of all things, is now the primary way to gain more performance in these hot top-end CPUs. If your chip can use a little…

I’m trying to prep an old laptop for a Windows 11 upgrade. It’s compatible, but I’ve not used it in so long that when I go to Windows Update it tells me the current version has reached end of service. PC won’t post to BIOS I’ve had my computer since 2013: Intel i5-4670K, Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UDH3, 16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz RAM (two 8GB sticks), housed in a Thermaltake case and powered by a CX Series 80 Plus Bronze CPU. When I try to boot, the PC turns on for about two seconds, then turns off and tries to reboot without success. I can’t even get into the BIOS. I’ve switched out the power supply, tried only one stick of memory, and switched out the CPU cooler to no avail. I…

When looking for files on the desktop, you may often rely on the search feature of your favourite file manager. The conventional searching approach is to apply an exact search, so that only files or directory that are a perfect match to the search string are displayed. A fuzzy search, on the other hand, performs an approximate search, and instead of identifying exact matches, displays matching results with each keystroke. The fzf utility identifies itself as a general-purpose fuzzy finder. Released under the MIT License, the cross-platform tools can be used across all flavours of Linux. Installing fzf Despite the usefulness of the tool, the project isn’t offered as part of the default installation of desktop Linux distributions. However, it’s available in the software repositories of quite a few. Despite…

You’ll need this A copy of SimCoupe Windows and Linux are both supported. Extra BIOS files aren’t needed. www.simcoupe.org Specifications CPU: Zilog Z80B @ 6MHz RAM: 256KB/512KB (4.5MB maximum) Graphics: V512 x 192 maximum resolution, 128 maximum colours Sound: Philips SAA1099 Storage: 3.5-inch 780KB floppy, cassette OS: SAM BASIC, CP/M via software Released: December 1989 Production: 1989-1992, 1999 Worldwide sales: 12,000. If you’re a fan of obscure computing gems, you’re in for a treat this month. With sales figures only numbering in the thousands, the SAM Coupé is a true rarity and any working collection will cost a king’s ransom. However, this hasn’t stopped it from becoming a darling of the cult computing scene. The SAM Coupé sits in a strange gap between the 8-bit and 16-bit worlds, and uses…

Free | PC | b0tster.itch.io/bbpsx Here’s PS4 favourite Bloodborne finally ported to PC – but as a PS1 game, complete with wobbly, warping textures, rigid controls, and loading screens galore. Of course, Bloodborne PSX is a fangame, but one that goes beyond a jokey tech demo or prototype to offer a pretty faithful recreation of Bloodborne’s opening hours, its cobbled streets, bosses, and all. I’ve played Bloodborne. I’ve explored every inch of the city of Yharnam, and wow does this feel uncannily like it. The opening cutscenes have been recreated, but with low-poly character models and textures that look like a patchwork quilt. The enemies are as I remember them, in mostly the same places. It didn’t take long for me to see past the downgrade, and let my memory…

$28.95 | PC, XB1, Switch | nomorerobots.io/not-tonight-2 Not Tonight 2 features one of the bleakest opening sequences in the history of videogames. A crowd of black and brown 20-somethings are protesting outside a bar in Seattle when a van pulls up and a modern-day American Gestapo tosses one of them into the back of a van. Your friend is now incarcerated in a Miami ‘gulag’ on the other side of the continent, and it’s up to you and your comrades to find a way to rescue them. Like the first game in the series, it borrows nearly the full breadth of its mechanical functions from Papers, Please. You play as a bouncer, and the only way to generate enough gas money to make it to Miami on time is by…

It is often said that our mobile phones are far more powerful than the computers used to put Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon in 1969. In fairness, that’s to be expected. Half a century is a long time in technology. More surprising is that the computer on board the US space agency’s New Horizons probe, which reached Pluto in 2015, was also less smart than a smartphone. So too is the computer on board NASA’s Orion spacecraft that will, one day, send humans to Mars. It may appear rather strange. NASA has been at the forefront of technology for decades, giving us cordless vacuum cleaners, solar cells, wireless headsets and air purifiers, among others. Yet it also tends to lean towards the tried and tested. “For us,…