Motherboard maker leaks some details about AMD’s Ryzen 3 processor

Why it matters to you

If you’re planning on building an entry-level Ryzen 3 PC, here are some details that will help in that task.

AMD’s Zen architecture is slowly taking shape. The Ryzen 7 high-end desktop CPUs have already shipped, and the Ryzen 5 midrange chips will be released next week. That leaves just the Ryzen 3 entry-level processors to make their way into the limelight.

At this point, not much is known about Ryzen 3, as AMD has been slow in releasing details on the Zen chips prior to their release. However, as usual, information is leaking out, and one motherboard manufacturer has divulged some details about Ryzen 3, as Liliputing reports.

More: Early Ryzen 5 1600 test results suggest AMD could be on to a winner

The information comes from Computerbase.de, which discovered that motherboard maker ASRock posted an update to its CPU Support List page that references the Ryzen 3. As indicated by the table below, Ryzen 3 1200 will operate with a base clock frequency of 3.1GHz, sport 2MB of L2 cache, and draw 65 watts of power. The supported chipset will be the AMD B350.

ASRock

That’s not much to go on, of course. AMD has indicated that all Ryzen CPUs will be unlocked and thus overclockable, and so this provides potential Ryzen 3 buyers an idea of what they’ll be working with at Zen’s lowest end. We know that Ryzen 5 will start out at $169, which also provides an idea of where the Ryzen 3 line will max out in terms of cost.

Other questions remain regarding the Ryzen 3, such was whether or not it will support the same symmetrical multithreading (SMT) technology as Ryzen 5 and 7, and whether it will include twice as many threads as cores. We also don’t know how many cores each Ryzen 3 version will support.

That level of detail isn’t likely to be released for quite some time, as Ryzen 3 isn’t expected anytime soon.

A Chrome OS version of Lenovo’s Yoga Book might not be on the way after all

Why it matters to you

If you’ve been waiting impatiently for a Chrome OS version of Lenovo’s Yoga Book, then you may have been waiting in vain.

Lenovo took a bit of a left turn in its product line with the release of the Yoga Book, a smaller and relatively inexpensive 360-degree convertible device with a unique touch-sensitive and lighted keyboard. With a Wacom digitizer and active pen support, the Yoga Book is an interesting notetaking device that offers the intriguing choice between Windows 10 and Android.

Toward the end of 2016, Lenovo indicated that a Chrome OS version could make its way to the market at some point. Now, however, it appears that a Chromebook version of the Yoga Book might not become available after all, as Liliputing reports.

More: A Chrome OS version of Lenovo’s Yoga Book 2-in-1 PC will ship some time in 2017

It’s important to note that Lenovo never promised a Chrome OS version, but rather merely indicated “a lot of interest” in creating one. Lenovo’s vice president and general manager for the company’s Android and Chrome computing business group said during an interview that the overall saturation of Chrome OS machines meant that a Chrome OS Yoga Book could make some sense.

Based on some code that’s contained in the Chromium open source project that is involved with Chrome OS, the Chrome OS version of the Yoga Book was likely code-named “Pbody,” and that code contains a reference to Pbody now being “dead.” The same code goes on to provide a solution to an issue that was discovered with the keyboard that might help with further Chromium OS projects.

Chrome OS isn’t yet optimized for tablets and convertibles, and so perhaps Lenovo is simply going to wait until Google adds more features that would better support all of the Yoga Book’s functionality. It’s also entirely possible that Lenovo is looking farther down the road at new hardware.

In the meantime, if you’ve been looking forward to a Yoga Book running Chrome OS, then your wait might just have been extended. If the Yoga Book still appeals to you, then you can always break down and pick up the Android or Windows 10 version instead.

Your next Google Home could double as a Wi-Fi router

This is how Google plans to take on the Amazon Echo.

Wouldn’t it be great to have Google Home connect to an already existing mesh network? According to The Information, this sort of thing is just on the horizon.

Google is reportedly working on a two-in-one device that combines the helpful Assistant features of Google Home with the Wi-Fi mesh routing capabilities of Google Wifi. The existence of such a thing would not only cut down on the number of devices you have in any given room, but it’ll offer a one-up on the Amazon Echo, which does not currently offer a built-in Wi-Fi router.

There’s no mention of a launch date or a price point for the Google Frankenstein, but we’re excited to think of the prospects. Perhaps we’ll learn more at Google’s annual developer conference.

Google Home

• Google Home review
• These services work with Google Home
• Google Home vs. Amazon Echo
• Join our Google Home forums!

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Galaxy S8 DeX Station and other accessory now available to pre-order

Pre-orders are open now and you’ll have your stuff the same day the phone arrives.

If you’re all lined up to get a brand new Galaxy S8 or Galaxy S8+ when it lands on the virtual shelves you can preorder everything you need to go along with it from Amazon.

The DeX Station that lets you use your new S8 like a computer with a mouse, keyboard, and a monitor is $150 and ships April 20. USB ports, Ethernet, and an HDMI connection mean you can get set up in no time with zero fuss.

When you’re not chained to a desk you can hook up with Samsung’s official cases. The S View Flip Cover is $60, as is the new Keyboard Cover if you really need that BlackBerry feel. If you’re just looking for something to keep scratches, dirt, and random gunk away from your new shiny, the clear protective case checks in at $20.

April 21 will be here before you know it, and it’s always fun to buy stuff for your new phone. See everything Samsung has to offer for the Galaxy S8 family at the link below.

See at Amazon

Amazon will refund $70 million in accidental in-app purchases

A great reminder of why most app stores now require a passcode.

Amazon has effectively rescinded its appeal this week against the 2016 federal court decision which found the online retailer guilty of illegally billing users for unauthorized in-app purchases. Amazon had been ordered to provide refunds to those who had been affected.

In 2016, a US federal judge ruled that Amazon had failed to properly inform users before charging for in-app purchases, which are frequently found in free-to-play games. The in-app purchase mechanism failed to offer a password lock that could help parents block their children from making unwanted in-app purchases while playing games.

More than $70 million worth of in-app charges made between November 2011 and May 2016 will be eligible for the refunds. The refund program will be operated by Amazon, though there are no details on when it will start. Amazon won’t just be doling out store credit either; it was ordered to deliver the refunds as paper checks or direct deposits.

Pebble app update allows watches to (kind of) still work after Fitbit sale

Fitbit acquired Pebble late last year, and ever since then, Pebble owners have been wondering what will happen to their watches.

At the time, Pebble said devices would continue to work as normal with no immediate changes to the Pebble user experience, but it also admitted Pebble functionality or service quality “may be reduced in the future”. We haven’t heard much from the company since, but now, it has released an update that helps clarify what’s going on and whether your Pebble watch will be still useful in the near future.

• Pebble Time review: A smartwatch stepping stone
• Pebble is dead and your warranty expired, Fitbit finalises acquisition

The Pebble app update essentially removes the Pebble smartwatches’ dependency on cloud services. That means, when Pebble’s servers do ultimately shut down, Pebble owners will still be able to side-load apps and new firmware to their smartwatches. Pebble devices will keep working, even if the online servers are not accessible, Pebble explained in its changelog for the updated Pebble for iOS app.

Despite this fix, Pebble owners may still have a few questions about whether device features will continue working going forward. Dictation, messaging, and weather all hook into Pebble’s cloud services, so it’s unclear if users can still access to those features. The companion app update did mention that the ability to contact customer support and request new features has been removed, though.

It seems for now that Pebble owners will only get access to the basic features of their watches, while Fitbit gobbles up the rest of Pebble.

The Army could save hydrogen cars from a premature death

Over the past 25 years, hydrogen fuel cells (HFC) have been the butt of countless jokes in the automotive industry. Many critics see the technology as something long in the works that will never have a future. It’s seen some spotty progress over the past decade, existing alongside compressed natural gas vehicles. But in terms of public perception, HFCs are still on the fringe compared to plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles. In 2016, the Los Angeles Times reported that Toyota expected to sell 3,000 of its $60,000 Mirai sedans by the end of 2017 — and that was an optimistic forecast, mind you. In contrast, Tesla racked up over 232,000 pre-orders for its forthcoming all-electric Model 3 sedan in just 24 hours and Toyota crossed 3.9 million in global sales for the Prius in February.

But while HFC tech struggles in the civilian world thanks to high prices and a dearth of refueling infrastructure, there’s one area where neither of those shortcomings have much bearing: the military. As a way of exploring that application and possibly getting a return on the $2.5 to $3 billion investment it’s made in HFC research, General Motors has designed the Chevy Colorado ZH2, a brawny HFC-powered variant of its off-road-centric Colorado ZR2 midsize pickup. And now, after about two years of design and testing, GM is handing the truck off to the Army.

Aside from its ripped-out-of-Halo looks, the advantages the ZH2 offers over a Jeep or Humvee include near-silent operation, a low heat signature and exportable power. In fact, at GM’s Milford Proving Grounds outside of Detroit where the ZH2 was demoed recently, the truck was barely audible from 60 feet away. The Camaro or Corvette screaming around a distant test track was orders of magnitude louder than the nearby ZH2. Because a hydrogen-fueled engine isn’t using combustion for power, it isn’t going to light up on thermal imaging scans the way a traditional vehicle would, either.

To that point about exportable power, think of the ZH2 as a generator on 30-inch tires. With three tanks of hydrogen onboard (totaling 4.2 kilograms of capacity), the demo ZH2 could power eight homes for 10 hours on 25 to 50 kilowatts. Or four homes for 20 hours. Or a field hospital. Or a forward operating base. Or recharge a battery-powered drone. You get the idea.

On top of that, the only emissions the ZH2 produces are water vapor and deoxygenated air. In an hour, about two gallons of H20 will exit the tailpipe. Run that through a filter and you’ll have something to drink. Oh, and unlike an electric vehicle, the ZH2 doesn’t need to charge overnight; refueling takes around three minutes and extending the range is as simple as adding another hydrogen tank. You could even reclaim the water from the tailpipe and after a few processes, use it to fuel the truck again, albeit with diminishing returns on efficiency. This all makes the ZH2 incredibly attractive to the military.

“Fuel cell technology makes a lot of sense for fleets and installations,” said Brian Butrico, chief engineer for the Army’s TARDEC (Tank Automotive Research Division) in an interview earlier this month. “The Army has a lot of fleets and installations.”

Today, diesel reigns supreme in the military, but that could change. By Butrico’s estimate, over 50 percent of the time the Army’s vehicles are idling with the engines running. That means more than half of the JP8 jet fuel shipped into the theater of war from the United States is wasted during a given mission.

A closer look at the ZH2’s air intakes.

Timothy J. Seppala, Engadget

“It makes a lot of sense here,” he said. “We like the aspect of the hydrogen technology that it can be produced in a number of ways. We may be able to source a local resource such as natural gas, regular diesel, wind, solar or nuclear energy and convert that to hydrogen right there, in theater, where we need it.”

The ZH2 made its debut last October, but the Army and GM have been exploring fuel cell applications for awhile — first with a with a full-size truck in 2001, and then by including some of Chevy’s “Project Driveway” crossover SUV, the Equinox, into the military pool and installing refueling stations around bases.

2008’s Project Driveway was a 30-month pilot program to glean real-world data from drivers in New York, Washington DC and California (a fuel cell haven) to see how the alternative-fuel SUV performed in the real world. That accumulated data helped pave the way to a partnership between GM and Honda in 2013, and earlier this year, a $1.7 billion joint investment in a fuel cell production plant near Detroit.

Last year, GM engineers were able to shrink the size of an HFC power plant and fit it under a customized Colorado ZR2 hood. From there, GM removed the truck’s back window and rearview mirror, shifted the cab 400mm to make room for those massive tires, reinforced the front and rear body panels with kevlar and carbon fiber, and made “slight” adjustments to the vehicle’s front and rear frame overhangs.

Those giant intakes you see behind the rear doors don’t just look radical, they serve a functional purpose too, feeding the 1,000-pound-per-foot-of-torque propulsion system plenty of air for cooling. The ports are designed in such a way that even when the ZH2 is standing still (say, being used as a generator) they can still suck in enough air to keep the truck from overheating.

Oh, and inside there are the Recaro racing seats and Simpson five-point racing harnesses that keep you strapped into the truck. Essentially, GM took an already absurdly capable off-road vehicle (the diesel ZR2 outputs 369-pound-per-foot of torque) and made it even better. It just took 50 years or research and development to get here.

“You don’t just start these [initiatives], flip a switch and then go,” said Charlie Freese, GM’s executive director of fuel cell business. He should know. Freese has dedicated his entire career to diesel, serving as chief engineer of diesel tech at Ford for two years before moving to head up GM’s fuel cell program in 2008. Prior to that he spent 11 years at Detroit Diesel in various roles.

Freese sees an interesting contrast between the two power sources. On one hand, diesel can be incredibly efficient, but it always costs more. Then there are the inherent emissions issues. On the other hand, fuel cells are clean tech, but they’re prohibitively expensive. Freese wouldn’t say anything about price, but the base ZR2 starts at $40,000 before you add the diesel engine (typically a $5,000 option). For comparison’s sake, a Honda Clarity FCV sedan has a $63,000 MSRP. Cost could prove a temporary hurdle, as economies of scale can help bring the price down as more FCVs are produced regardless of who’s buying them.

Timothy J. Seppala, Engadget

Now that GM and the Army have done all manner of objective performance testing, it’s time for the ZH2 to undergo a different sort of Project Driveway: a year of hands-on time from soldiers. The truck won’t see live combat; instead it’s going on a tour of military bases around the country to see what it can do in simulated missions, with soldiers ranging from special forces and striker brigades to light infantry. Getting the ZH2 into the hands of soldiers is crucial because so far, Butrico and his engineers have never been downrange.

By this time in 2018, though, the truck will have been exposed to the Marines and Naval Special Warfare units as well. Butrico said it’s important that more than one type of soldier with more than one type of mission evaluate the ZH2.

“The soldiers are going to be who use it at the end of the day, so it’s their feedback that’s most important and most critical to us,” Butrico said.

That collective experience from the different branches of the military could be the ultimate test not just for the ZH2, but HFCs in general. The technology is scalable and can be used in many situations, too. For example, there are tests underway with an unmanned aquatic drone powered by compressed hydrogen.

Timothy J. Seppala, Engadget

But first, the ZH2 needs to prove its utility before any of that can happen. Assuming this next year of evaluation goes well, Butrico said it could take as long as 15 years for FCVs to be deployed on bases and the battlefield. There have been exceptions to that timeframe when the Army has been particularly interested in something, however.

“It’s not just overnight that I can say, ‘These fuel cells work great; turn on the switch and start producing hydrogen,’” he said.

That doesn’t seem to bother Freese too much, though. When he started his career, diesel technology was facing similar challenges. He remembers a time when the idea of a diesel passenger car was considered laughable, especially here in the US, as no one would want to refuel at a truck stop. Now, plenty of gas stations have at least one diesel pump.

“We’ve overcome that,” Freese said.

Hydrogen’s future in consumer vehicles is far from certain. Full EVs seem to be the future, especially once we’ve managed to solve the platform’s ever-present battery capacity problem. So why keep pursuing hydrogen? Because vehicles like the Colorado ZH2 do provide some unique properties — for the right customer.

The military might seem niche, but when you consider how much governments across the globe pay to protect their citizens, it’s a lucrative market. One that automakers might be wise to explore, at least until the kinks have been worked out. Next week, GM has a familiar task ahead of it: waiting and seeing if its multi-billion dollar fuel cell gamble will pay off.

WhatsApp’s digital payments push will begin in India

Three years after buying WhatsApp, Facebook still hasn’t quite figured out how to make money off of messaging service’s massive user base. According to a report from India-based media company The Ken and confirmed by Bloomberg WhatsApp will be jumping into the digital payments space, starting with the service’s 200 million users in India.

Facebook Messenger has gradually rolled out mobile person-to-person, in-store and online payments over the years, but this would be WhatsApp’s first entry into the space. While WhatsApp will be competing directly with Alibaba-backed PayTM in the market, the messaging service may be able to gain an advantage with it’s sheer number of users and some support of the Indian government.

India has more WhatsApp users than any other country and, according to the Financial Times, Indians are already using the platform as a digital marketplace similar to Craigslist or other classified listings in the US. Although WhatsApp and Facebook have butt heads with the Indian officials over data sharing in the past, the new effort will reportedly adopt the government’s Unified Payments Service (UPI) which launched last year as part of the country’s “Digital India” initiative.

“India is an important country for WhatsApp,” the company wrote in a statement to TechCrunch, “and we’re understanding how we can contribute more to the vision of Digital India. We’re exploring how we might work with companies that share this vision and continuing to listen closely to feedback from our users.” According to a job posting, WhatsApp is currently seeking a Digital Transactions Lead who will be based at the company’s Menlo Park headquarters and can navigate India’s Aadhaar digital ID service and while growing the forthcoming payments service beyond the subcontinent.

Via: Bloomberg

Source: The Ken

New York could open its roads to autonomous car tests in 2018

While automakers have successfully negotiated with certain cities to let them test their self-driving prototypes, other areas haven’t budged to accommodate. In New York’s case, a 45-year-old law requiring motorists to keep one hand on the wheel has been keeping car companies from deploying their autonomous cars. But buried in the state’s annual budget lawmakers started approving yesterday is a measure temporarily pausing the antiquated legislation. Should the embattled budget pass completely, for the next year, companies will be able to try out their self-driving cars on New York’s roads.

There are a few caveats. In addition to keeping a licensed driver in every autonomous car when it’s on the road, all testing must be done under the direct supervision of the New York State Police and NY’s Department of Motor Vehicles. After the measure expires in April 2018, both agencies will release a joint report in June 2018 analyzing self-driving tech’s effect on safety, traffic and emergency services. We’ll have to wait for the post-mortem to see if all this testing validates the fears of the New York driving groups opposing it — one of which wants it banned in the state for 50 years.

Source: Democrat & Chronicle

Major League Soccer gets its first eSports player

A number of European soccer teams have their own eSports players, but what about American clubs? Don’t worry, they’re catching up. New York City FC has signed Major League Sports’ first eSports player, Christopher Holly, to represent the outfit in FIFA tournaments. He’s definitely not a newcomer to the game — Holly has been playing some form of FIFA on PlayStation systems for the past 12 years, and plays well enough that he was the top-rated FIFA Ultimate Team player on the planet in December.

The signing isn’t coming out of the blue. The same group that owns NYC FC also owns Manchester City, which recruited its first eSports player last year. And the reasons are almost certainly the same: eSports serves as both a promo tool and, in the long run, a source of revenue. For Major League Soccer, it’s more important than usual. Soccer doesn’t get nearly the same attention in the US as it does elsewhere in the world, after all. An eSports player potentially draws gamers to the league and raises awareness of the sport as a whole.

Source: New York City FC