MSI launches two teeny-tiny Radeon RX 460 graphics cards packed with dual fans

Why it matters to you

Small desktop builders looking for a compact, low-profile graphics card that doesn’t break the bank should take a look at MSI’s new solutions.

After launching the super-small Radeon RX-460-2G-OC and the RX-460-4G-OC graphics cards in August of 2016, MSI’s game of limbo continues with the release of two more Radeon RX 400 Series cards that are even smaller than what we saw with the previous two.

The new cards are the RX-460-2GT-LP and the RX-460-4GT-LP measuring a mere 6.65 x 2.71 x 1.53 inches. As a reference, the two cards released in August measure 6.77 x 4.60 x 1.30 inches.

With that out of the way, here are the hardware specs for the two new compact cards:

RX 460 2GT LP
RX 460 4GT LP
Architecture:
Polaris 11
Polaris 11
Number of cores:
896
896
Texture Mapping Units:
48
48
Render Output Units:
16
16
Base speed:
1,090MHz
1,090MHz
Boost speed:
1,200MHz
1,200MHz
Memory amount:
2,048MB GDDR5
4,096MB GDDR5
Memory interface:
128-bit
128-bit
Memory speed:
1,750MHz
1,750MHz
Afterburner OC:
Yes
Yes
CrossFire support:
Yes
Yes
Output:
1x HDMI 2.0
1x DL-DVI-D
1x HDMI 2.0
1x DL-DVI-D
Max number of displays:
2
2
Size:
6.65 x 2.71 x 1.53 inches
6.65 x 2.71 x 1.53 inches
Power consumption:
75 watts
75 watts
Recommended power supply:
400 watts
400 watts
Cost:
$110
~$138

Despite their size, both low-profile cards sport two cooling fans instead of one large fan as seen with the previous OC units. They also have a 10MHz slower boost speed than the previous OC models, which really isn’t a major difference in performance. However, the new cards appear to be $10 more than the OC models, costing $110 for the 2GT unit and an estimated $138 for the 4GT unit.

Outside the dual fans and super-low profile, MSI’s tiny new cards rely on Military Class 4 components (MILK-STD-810G), support for a 3,840 x 2,160 desktop resolution, and support for MSI’s Afterburner tool. This is an overclocking utility that includes means to customize fan profiles, benchmark the card, and record gameplay. This indicates that although the card isn’t overclocked out of the box, customers can tweak the speeds for optimal performance. The older OC units can be overclocked as well.

More: You might know MSI for gaming, but its latest laptops are ready to work

“Only these [military-certified] components have proven durable enough to withstand the torturous circumstances of extreme gaming and overclocking for extended usage,” the company states. “With their aluminum core design, Solid CAP’s have been a staple in high-end component designs and provides lower Equivalent Series Resistance (ESR) as well as its over-10-year lifespan.”

The MSI RX-460-2GT-LP model appears to be available now for $110. Currently, the official pricing and availability for the MSI RX-460-4GT-LP model is unknown, so keep an eye out on Newegg, Amazon, and other outlets.

What to do when an app freezes on Android watches

Android Wear apps don’t always behave.

Google’s Developer Preview program makes it easy for active developers to make sure their apps work great with new software updates before users get to touch them. Unfortunately, not every app in the Google Play Store is maintained by an active developer. That means sometimes your favorite watch app might misbehave on an Android Wear 2.0 watch.

The most common frustration with old apps on the new Android Wear is an occasional freeze. The app locks up, and the whole watch UI stops for a little while in order to sort things out. Most of the time this app freeze is temporary, not more than a second or two of inactivity. If you find yourself stuck for longer, here’s how to break free and get back to enjoying your watch.

Tap that power button

Every Android Wear watch has a brown button on the bezel of the watch, and in Android Wear 2.0 it’s called the Power Button. Pressing this button in from just about any screen in the OS should immediately return you to the watch face, basically closing the app you were just in and leaving you to either try again or move on to something else.

Android Wear doesn’t have an app switcher or system activity monitor — thank goodness — so you mostly have to trust that this power button has closed the app you were in instead of returning you to a frozen activity. In our testing, the apps are almost always closed.

Set you watch on its charger

The Android Wear charging screen often works as a decent bedside clock, because it’s basically a separate watch face that only exists when the watch is being charged. This charging UI interrupts anything currently happening on the watch, which means if you’re nearby your charger and an app misbehaves you can quickly drop the watch on the charger and reset the activity.

This should only ever be necessary if the power button reset didn’t work, which is extremely rare from our testing, but if you do need this reset it will work every time.

Reboot the watch

Some apps just weren’t meant to be installed on Android Wear 2.0, but before you can uninstall those unsightly creations you need to restore your watch to working order. That may mean a full reboot of your watch, and fortunately that doesn’t usually take long.

Press and hold the power button on your watch for five continuous seconds. You’ll feel an extended vibration, the screen will go dark, and as you remove your finger from the button the display will light back up and the Android Wear boot animation will begin. Once the watch has restarted, you can go eliminate the apps that weren’t behaving and leave a review for the next person eager to give this a try.

Android Wear

• Everything you need to know about Android Wear 2.0
• LG Watch Sport review
• LG Watch Style review
• These watches will get Android Wear 2.0
• Discuss Android Wear in the forums!

Grab a HP Chromebook 14 for just $211 right now, a savings of $39

Right now you can pick up HP’s Chromebook 14 for just $211 at Amazon, a savings of $39 from its regular price. Equipped with an Intel Celeron processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 16GB SSD, you’ll be able to breeze through tasks on the 14-inch display and get things done. Chrome OS may not have as many features as Mac OS or Windows does, but if you are looking for something to create documents, browse the internet, and play around on social media, a Chromebook may be the perfect choice for you.

If you’d rather, you can grab one for the same price at Walmart right now. These prices may not last long, so be sure to get your order in before the price goes back up.

See at Amazon

For more great deals on tech, gadgets, home goods and more, be sure to check out our friends at Thrifter now!

AT&T decides to get competitive, expands unlimited plan to everyone

AT&T is matching its competitors by opening up unlimited data to everyone.

AT&T has decided to throw up its proverbial hands after a week of intense competition in the mobile space, saying that as of February 17 its unlimited plan, which is currently only available to DirecTV customers, will be expanded to all postpaid customers.

Starting tomorrow, AT&T1 will launch a new AT&T Unlimited plan. The plan will be available to all consumer and business postpaid AT&T wireless customers.

The new AT&T Unlimited Plan will include unlimited talk, text and data on 4 lines for $180. Business customers can also take advantage of their additional corporate discount. You can also make unlimited calls from the U.S. to Canada and Mexico, and send unlimited texts to over 120 countries. Plus, customers on this plan can talk, text and use data in Canada and Mexico with no roaming charges when they add the Roam North America feature for no additional charge.

Prices remain unchanged — it’s still $100 for the first line and $40 for the others, with a $40 monthly discount on the fourth after two billing cycles. That’s considerably more than T-Mobile’s and Sprint’s options, but at $180 for four lines is right in line with Verizon, which AT&T considers its biggest competitor (though it shouldn’t given how many postpaid customers it is losing to T-Mobile).

Unfortunately, unlike T-Mobile’s most recent move, AT&T’s unlimited plan includes its data-compressing Stream Saver feature, which lowers video quality to 480p by default. And there’s no tethering, which is disappointing, especially when the other three big carriers include at least some tethering in their unlimited plans.

Are you switching to AT&T, or to this plan if you’re already a customer, now that its unlimited plan is open to everyone? Let us know in the comments!

Which unlimited plan should you buy?

‘Alto’s Adventure’ studio will launch its new game this fall

Indie game developer Snowman has built up quite a reputation based mostly on one game: Alto’s Adventure. But we now finally know when we’ll get to see the studio’s next creation. Where Cards Fall, a game the company has been teasing for a few years now, will be out this fall for Apple TV, iOS and Steam. If you haven’t seen any of the gameplay yet, Snowman has also released a new trailer today that gives a pretty extensive look at what to expect when the game arrives.

Players will see the 3D world from above and guide a group of teenagers through the world, running into puzzles that are solved by using stacks of cards to build structures and connect you to parts of the map you couldn’t otherwise reach. In some ways, it’s similar to how Monument Valley used impossible geometry to move you through the world. But the best way to grasp what’s going on is to see it in action — check out the trailer below.

Where Cards Fall will be Snowman’s first game to hit Steam, and it’s possible the game will also make its way to Android as well (Alto’s Adventure eventually hit the platform as a free-to-play game with some in-app purchases to help Snowman monetize it). And Snowman has a lot more in the works, as well. A sequel to Alto’s Adventure is in the works, along with the atmospheric Distant and an in-depth skateboarding game called Skate City.

Source: Snowman

A version of the pre-Trump EPA website is online

Longing for a time when the White House didn’t actively deny the effects humans were having on climate change? You aren’t alone. Following the sweeping changes made on Inauguration Day this year, at least three Freedom of Information Act requests were made (per Gizmodo) to bring a pre-Trump-presidency version of the Environmental Protection Agency’s website online.

“This is not the current EPA website,” a red banner on the page reads. “To navigate to the current EPA website, please go to http://www.epa.gov. This website is historical material reflecting the EPA website as it existed on January 19, 2017. This website is no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages may not work.”

On the page you’ll find information about the effects of acid rain, climate change (it exists!) and greenhouse gasses. Hell, there’s even a press release about Fiat Chrysler violating the Clean Air Act. But, as Gizmodo notes, it’s a mirror and can’t host everything thanks to the limitations of it not being a full website. For images from AirNow, info regarding the Historic Air Technology Transfer Network, a database of press releases from the EPA or graphs from the Radiation Network, you’ll have to navigate away from the site.

It doesn’t differ too much from the official EPA website that’s online now, but that could change in a heartbeat. Considering the current candidate to run the federal environmental watchdog agency, Scott Pruitt, is a vehement climate change denier, keeping this mirror site up and running could prove pretty valuable.

In his time as attorney general in Oklahoma, Pruitt sued the EPA more than a dozen times over the Clean Power Plan that curtails greenhouse gases, among other reasons. Pruitt’s LinkedIn page describes him as “a leading advocate against the EPA’s activist agenda.”

Via: Gizmodo

Source: 19January2017

Play a piano duet with Google’s AI partner

When Google tries to educate public about its AI research, it often releases tools that playfully explain the grittier, technical corners of artificial intelligence. Like, say, neural network software that looks at objects through your device’s camera and spits rhymes about everyday objects. But they also launch fun tools, like AI Duet, an interactive web-based app that accompanies your piano plinking.

Musician Yotam Mann first debuted the app at an event back in November after staying at Google Creative Lab in New York, then open-sourced the code for it. But since it was a bit of a pain to install, the search giant cleaned it up and released it with a simpler web-based interface. On desktop, your home keys activate a slice of the piano’s middle notes, while mobile users can tap directly on the screen. It’s playful and easy to use, if not totally intuitive about when your AI partner will jump in already.

The app runs off Tone.js, an audio library that Mann built himself, but its accompaniment logic is built off Magenta, Google’s TensorFlow framework for deep learning. But as Mann tells in the video above, it’s not just the AI that’s adjusting to humans: As their digital partner riffed new tones off their original notes, folks kept playing to build a simultaneous harmony, creating a continual play loop. Now that’s some biotech synergy.

Via: VentureBeat

Source: AI Duet

NASA crowdsources better ways to poop in spacesuits

Back in December, NASA and X Prize competition website HeroX announced the Space Poop Challenge to find a hands-free human waste solution that would work for six days in spacesuit. The winning entry was designed by Air Force Colonel Thatcher R. Cardon, Commander of the 47th Medical Group at Laughlin Air Force Base in Del Rio, Texas. Cardon’s background as a family physician and a flight surgeon certainly helped informed his system which features a hygiene wand.

Officially called the MACES Perineal Access & Toileting System (M-PATS), Inverse reports that the wand is covered in tubular fabric that can be used in place of toilet paper. The M-PATS also includes maxi pad-like underwear that unfold inside the space suit. Cardon was awarded a $15,000 prize for the winning entry.

The second place solution, the Air-Powered Urine and Stool Handling (Air-PUSH) system, was also designed by a team of doctors who met while studying chemical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. Air-PUSH uses body movements to keep waste away from the astronaut before it disinfects and dries it to keep things as clean as possible. Third place went to London-based designer Hugo Shelley who came up with SWIMSuit, a pair of zero-gravity underwear that offer waste management for up to six days.

Now that the competition is over, NASA says its engineers will test different options for waste management as it designs its new spacesuit. Judges selected the winners of the Space Poop Challenged based on which ones could potentially be turned into a viable solution within the next three or four years. Since astronauts typically have to wear spacesuits for several hours, any solution that’s more sanitary than the diapers that are currently used would certainly be a welcome change.

Via: Inverse

Source: HeroX

Google opens massive virtual collection of US presidential history

If you’re an American history buff, you’re in luck. To celebrate President’s Day, Google arts and culture team has just kicked off a monumental historical project focusing on our country’s top office with the American Democracy program.

History geeks will thrill to find out that George Washington’s dentures weren’t actually wooden, as is popularly thought, but rather made from human and cow teeth (and some ivory). Fans of more recent presidents might like to see Barbara Bush’s handwritten taco recipe, which features Doritos as the first ingredient.

That’s just two of the more than 2,000 artifacts in the collection, which includes 158 exhibits in total — a ton of information to get lost in. There are virtual tours of presidents’ homes, insights into their childhoods and even sections on favorite pastimes. That’s all in addition to our commander-in-chiefs’ more public accomplishments.

The massive archive includes pictures, video and text sourced from more than 30 institutions from across the nation, including individual presidential libraries, museums and historical institutions from across the nation. It joins the rest of Google’s plans to bring important cultural, artistic and historical works to the web.

In addition to the thousands of artifacts in this new collection, Google has made 17 new 360-degree virtual tours available, as well. Google Cardboard will let you access places like Mount Rushmore, the Lincoln Memorial and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. If you’re a teacher, you can use Google Expeditions to guide your students through 14 presidentially-themed tours, including an inside look at the White House.

Via: Mashable

Source: Google

President Trump plans to order a new travel ban next week

President Donald Trump said he will sign an executive order next week that updates his contentious January 27th ban on travelers and refugees from seven majority-Muslim countries. Last week, a federal appeals court ruled to keep a stay on the president’s travel ban, which has been openly opposed by leaders in the technology industry including Google and Facebook. The new executive order will address the legal pitfalls that have paused the first travel ban, Trump said at a press conference today.

“The new order is going to be very much tailored to what I consider to be a very bad decision,” he said. “But we can tailor the order to that decision and get just about everything, in some ways more, but we’re tailoring it now to the decision.”

The January 27th order places a 90-day ban on travelers from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen, halts all refugees from entering the US for 120 days, and places an indefinite ban on accepting refugees from Syria. The ban was enacted immediately, causing large-scale confusion and protests at airports, and spawning multiple lawsuits. More than 100 technology companies signed an amicus brief in support of lawsuits against the order.

State of Washington v. Donald Trump led a judge to put a stay on the travel ban. In a unanimous ruling on February 9th, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Justice Department’s attempt to overturn the stay.

In that hearing, Washington Solicitor General Noah Purcell argued the state had the right to sue on the grounds of proprietary harms, including lost tax revenue, and parens patriae. He also claimed the Trump administration drafted the executive order as a way to discriminate against Muslims, which would be unconstitutional. Purcell said there was “shocking evidence of intent to discriminate against Muslims” by the Trump administration, including public statements and tweets from the president and his aides.

The Justice Department argued, in part, that Trump’s decision was “unreviewable” because it pertained to the president’s authority to direct national security. The Ninth Circuit judges decided there was “no precedent to support this claimed unreviewability” and that this defense ran “contrary to the fundamental structure of our constitutional democracy.”

At today’s press conference, the president maligned the court’s ruling. “We’re going to put in a new executive order next week some time,” he said. “But we had a bad decision. That’s the only thing that was wrong with the travel ban.”

Trump claimed that the rollout of the travel ban was “perfect” and “very smooth.” However, it led to scenes of panic at airports as travelers were detained or denied boarding their flights to the United States entirely. The State Department estimates 60,000 visas were revoked under the original ban, and that’s not including refugees in the process of legally entering the US. It may have barred an additional 64,000 admitted refugees from entering the country.

The president also said today he initially wanted a one-month waiting period before the ban was implemented, but Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly advised him to enact it immediately. “And he was right,” the president said.

Source: The White House