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Fitbit Charge 5 leaks in official-looking renders w/ color display

Image: Fitbit

Fitness trackers are the bread and butter of the Google-owned Fitbit brand, and despite Google’s focus on smartwatches, it seems Fitbit is not done with that market. After we first leaked the design last month, a new set of renders is showing off the alleged Fitbit Charge 5.

Evan Blass took to Twitter earlier today to post a collection of renders of what he claims is the Fitbit Charge 5. The renders show off the device in three colorways — black, green/silver, and white/gold.

Read More at 9to5Google

AMD is making unprecedented gains on Intel, but it has one surprising weakness

AMD Ryzen Processor placed over a black background.
Image: AMD

AMD is not seeing improvements all across the board, however. When it comes to the x86 desktop processor space, the company is experiencing a downward trend. In the first quarter of this year, AMD’s market share in this sector was at 19.3%. Now, AMD is at 17.1% compared to Intel’s 82.9%. On the other hand, AMD’s standing has gone up both in the mobile CPU and the server CPU sectors, where its Epyc CPUs are rivaling against Intel Xeon.

The drop in the x86 desktop CPU market share likely stems from the ongoing chip shortage. The entire tech industry is affected by it, from cars to graphics cards, processors, and gaming consoles. Low silicon availability has forced most manufacturers to choose where to direct the majority of their chips.

It’s possible that AMD has chosen to focus on its console and mobile CPUs, allowing Intel to fill the gap in the desktop sector.

Read More at Digital Trends

Messenger Gets End-to-End Encryption for Voice and Video Chats

Facebook disappearing messages
Image: Facebook

Facebook has long realized the value in offering end-to-end encryption, as the option to encrypt text chats has been in the app since 2016. However, the company is now rolling out the same level of privacy and security toand video chats.

The company claims that it handles more than 150 million video calls per day on Messenger, so providing the option to encrypt them is a smart move.

With end-to-end encryption, nobody else, including Facebook, will be able to see or hear your voice and video chats. However, you will need to enable encryption, as it won’t be on by default. You’ll have to flip to a “Secret Conversation” (Messenger’s name for end-to-end encrypted chats) for your voice and video chats to receive encryption.

Read More at Howtogeek

Google Stadia’s first game that responds directly to touch is coming this August

Image: Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Amplitude Studios’ upcoming strategy game, Humankind, will be the first Stadia release to feature a new touch-focused control scheme when it comes out on August 17th, according to 9to5Google and confirmed to The Verge by Google“Direct touch” is designed around multitouch finger inputs like a traditional mobile game, rather than the previous way you may have played Stadia on your phone, with a Bluetooth controller or gamepad overlay.

The screenshots Google shared give a pretty good idea of how playing with direct touch works in Humankind. A single finger tap selects in-game objects, holding a finger down previews content, two fingers cancel, dragging your fingering around moves your view in-game, and three fingers brings up the pause menu.

Read More at The Verge

Galaxy Watch 4: 48 hours with Samsung’s new smartwatch

galaxy-watch-4-faces

The two watch models feel pretty interchangeable, which means you should probably get the model you like the looks of most. Or the most affordable one: I prefer the sleeker Watch 4, which starts at $250 (£249, Australian prices TBD). The Classic starts at $350 (£349), and does have a stainless-steel body instead of aluminum, but it’s that physically spinning bezel that’s really different.

What do you use it for? Mainly, swapping between quick views of information mini apps, called Tiles. On the Watch 4 they’re mainly health metrics, and a few extras like calendar and messages. More are likely to arrive as Wear OS 3 continues to evolve, but the point is not every app has a tile. You could also just swipe with your finger instead, making the bezel effectively cosmetic.

Read More at Cnet

Lamborghini’s Countach LPI 800-4 is an 802-horsepower hybrid supercar

Countach LPI 800-4
Image: Lamborghini

After all the leaks and teases, Lamborghini has finally announced its new hybrid-engine Countach.

Thankfully, almost everything you need to know about the car is in its model designation: LPI 800-4.

The first part is short for Longitudinale Posteriore Ibrido, referencing how the powertrain is mounted lengthwise toward the back of the supercar and the fact that it’s a hybrid.

Meanwhile, the two numbers point to the approximately 802 horsepower the Countach’s V12 6.5-liter engine and 48-volt electric motor can output together, as well as the fact that it has four-wheel drive.

Read More at TechCrunch

Acer’s Nitro XV282K KV monitor is great for next-gen console gaming, but it comes at a high price

Image: Jay Peters / The Verge

The monitor offers a lot of real estate with its 28-inch 3840 x 2160 resolution (aka 4K) LCD display. Acer says the monitor has a one millisecond response time, and while I didn’t test that specifically, I haven’t felt input lag with anything I’ve tried.

The Nitro has two HDMI 2.1 ports and a DisplayPort, so you can plug both next-gen consoles and your PC into the monitor if you want. It also has two built-in speakers, but they’re quite tinny. You’ll definitely want to pair the screen up with a set of external speakers or headphones of your own.

Read More at The Verge

Realme X series is officially dead

Realme Freedom Sale: Massive Discount on Smartphones | Latest & Breaking  News, India News, Political, Sports- Since independence
Image: Realme

If you were for some reason enamored with Realme’s X series of smartphones, time to start mourning. Madhav Sheth, the company’s CEO for Europe and India, has exclusively revealed to TechRadar that the X series is dead. There will be no more devices in this line, which makes the X7 Max 5G launched in India back in June the last of its kind.

However, this doesn’t mean that Realme will have one less smartphone family going forward. In fact, the X line is going to be replaced by the GT series. “GT is the new X”, Sheth confirmed.

Read More at Gsmarena

Xiaomi Mix 4 presale stock is already snatched-up and supply will likely remain very limited

Xiaomi Mix 4 presale stock is already snatched-up and supply will likely remain very limited
Image: Xiaomi

The Xiaomi Mix 4 (no Mi this time around) was unveiled a few days ago and is apparently already in very short supply. While we were under the impression that initial sales in China are scheduled for August 16, it has become clear that Xiaomi recently had a presale event, which quickly exhausted the first batch of phones on the company’s home market.

The disappointment among eager fans, unable to secure a unit, was, so big that company president and senior VP, Lu Weibing took to Weibo to apologize for the inconvenience and shed some light on the situation.

Read More at Gsmarena

Supernova shoots a dying star made of metal out of Milky Way at 2 million mph

Image: CfA/Mark A. Garlick

When astronomers first spotted the white dwarf designated LP 40-365 about 2,000 light years from Earth back in 2017, it was hard not to take notice. 

Rocketing against the rotation of the Milky Way, the white dwarf was travelling almost 2 million mph (about 3.2 million km/h), which is about four times faster than our sun rotates around the galactic core. At this speed, the star is well on its way to escaping the gravitational pull of the Milky Way and entering intergalactic space.

Even more noticeable, according to LiveScience, was its composition, laden with heavy metals like oxygen, carbon, and magnesium (any atom larger than helium is considered a metal by astronomers).

Read More at Techradar

I’m a tech savvy person who occasionally cook and party. I am an engineer by profession and tech enthusiast by passion.
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