U.S. off-road-only amphibious 8×8 ATV can seat your hunting expedition
Why it matters to you
If half your fun of off-roading is finding impossible places to test your vehicle and yourself, prepare to meet your match.
If you love off-road challenges, the Russian-built Wamah Avtoros Shaman 8×8 nine-passenger amphibious all-terrain vehicle (ATV) is ready to float, roll, and climb. There is no driving on U.S. streets. This ATV is for off-roading only and serious off-roading at that.
The Shaman is larger than a 4×4 Chevrolet Suburban in all dimensions. A Suburban measures 18.7 feet long, 6.8 feet wide, and 6.2 feet high. The Shaman, at 20.7 feet long, 8.2 feet wide, and 8.9 feet high is two feet longer, 1.5 feet wider, and a walloping 2.5 feet taller than the Chevy. This is a large vehicle.
Road clearance is about 18 inches and the turning radius is just under 25 feet. Since the front and rear wheels can be turned in opposite directions, the radius number is aided by the Shaman’s ability to almost drive around itself.
It’s not the sheer size that gives the Shaman its off-road prowess, however. All eight wheels are equipped with low-pressure tires and each wheel is a drive wheel, with its own independent suspension. There are several drive modes including Crab Mode and Thruster Mode. The latter drive setup will follow twisty, windy paths or trails nicely — in Thruster Mode the front four and rear four wheels are turned in opposite directions.
The Shaman’s underside has a hermetic boat-formed frame to keep water out. Just in case, however, standard high-performance pumps can remove up to 53 gallons of water a minute if any flows inside the frame.
In the Shaman’s standard configuration, the top speed on land is 44 mph and 1.3 mph in water. Equipped with an optional screw propeller, the water speed increases to 4.3 mph.
Fuel consumption may not be top-of-mind when selecting an off-road hunting or rescue vehicle, but the 146-horsepower Iveco diesel engine is rated at approximately 9.4 miles to the gallon. With the Shaman’s 69-gallon fuel tank, the maximum range is about 650 miles between fill-ups.
You can configure the Shaman with seats for eight passengers plus the driver, or in the “hunter” configuration with beds for four people.
The Shaman ATV’s base price is about $200,000. The screw propeller option is an additional $5,200. Picking every option in the website configuration tool drives the price up to almost $240,000. If you are intrigued by the Shaman, the bad news is it’s currently only sold in Russia. However, since you won’t be driving it on U.S. roads anyway, there are probably ways to buy one and have it transported to the U.S.
Weekly Rewind: A wearable for Parkinson’s, Lamborghini’s SUV, Tesla solar roofs
A lot can happen in a week when it comes to tech. The constant onslaught of news makes it nigh impossible for mere mortals with real lives to keep track of everything. That’s why we’ve compiled a quick and dirty list of this week’s top 10 tech stories, from what happened at Microsoft’s Build 2017 to the status of Tesla’s solar roofs — it’s all here.
Microsoft is laying the foundation for a sci-fi future at Build 2017
Microsoft Build is an annual event filled with keynotes, reveals, and more. Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s VP of Corporate Communications, made light of the event at a press preview the day before Build began.
“It’s a developer conference,” Shaw warned with a dead-pan tone. “There will be coding.”
This can make Build seem arcane and, well, a bit boring if you’re not a developer or engineer. Yet that doesn’t mean it’s unimportant. In fact, Build 2017 put forth a cohesive vision for not just Microsoft’s future, but also for how everyone will interact with technology in the coming years.
Read the full story here.
Lamborghini’s hybrid Urus could pave the way for a gas-electric supercar
Lamborghini is putting the final touches on the 2018 Urus, its first SUV in nearly a quarter of a century. Previewed by a concept introduced at the 2012 Beijing show, the Urus is an important model that will lure a new category of buyers into showrooms.
It was developed as a practical, family-friendly SUV with a spacious back seat and a big trunk. It’s endowed with the genes that make the Aventador S one of the best high-performance machines on the planet, yet it’s capable of holding its own off the beaten path.
The Urus will become Lamborghini’s very first turbocharged model when it breaks cover, and will later inaugurate the brand’s first series-produced plug-in hybrid drivetrain. In short, it’s unlike any model the Raging Bull carmaker has built in its illustrious 54-year history.
Read the full story here.
Robot eye surgeon is 10x more precise than the most steady-handed human
Mark Hillen/The Ophthalmologis
Once clumsy machines that couldn’t navigate down a hallway in a straight line, robots sure have come a long way in the past several decades. So why not reward them by teaching them a new, slightly more complex task — like carrying out an operation inside the human eye?
That’s exactly what a hospital in the United Kingdom did in a recent trial, in which robots competed against human surgeons to carry out a delicate surgery involving membrane removal on the retina. A group of 12 patients was divided into two groups, with half undergoing the traditional human surgeon-led procedure and the other half undergoing the operation as carried out by robot.
Read the full story here.
Despite surrounding controversy, ’13 Reasons Why’ is coming back for a second season
Netflix has found enough reasons to renew its controversial, albeit popular, new show. Despite the drama around the drama 13 Reasons Why, it appears that the Netflix original series is up for a second season.
As first reported by The Hollywood Reporter, 13 Reasons Why, which explores teen suicide and bullying, will make its sophomoric season debut sometime in 2018, hopefully addressing some of the questions left unanswered.
Read the full story here.
Scientists predict AI will allow us to translate dolphin language by 2021
AI-driven natural language processing is getting better at understanding languages spoken in every country around the world. It doesn’t have to stop at land-based languages, however, as Swedish-based language startup Gavagai AB is keen to prove.
Working with researchers from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Gavagai AB is currently involved in a four-year project, designed to gather as much “dolphin language data” as possible, and to use this to decode the chatter of everyone’s favorite aquatic mammals.
Read the full story here.
Amazon’s Echo Show speaker plays YouTube Videos, hosts conference calls, and more
Amazon’s long-rumored Echo speaker with a touchscreen is finally here, and it’s called the Echo Show. The touchscreen-based, Alexa-powered speaker sits vertically, like a desk clock, and does everything Amazon’s existing Echo speakers can do — and much more.
The Echo Show boasts upgrades aplenty. It’s equipped with eight ever-vigilant microphones — up from seven in Amazon’s Echo Dot, Echo Tap, and original Echo speaker — and an improved speaker array with Dolby-powered bass and stereo sound.
Read the full story here.
Everything you need to know about Fuchsia, Google’s mysterious new OS
Google’s best-known software ventures may be Android and Chrome OS, but the company is actually working on a third operating system. It’s called Fuchsia, and when it was first discovered last year, it only popped up as a single command line. Now, however, we know a lot more about the operating system. Fuchsia looks totally different than any other mobile operating system we’ve seen, including Android, but that could be the point.
Read the full story here.
Tesla’s stylish new solar roof expected to cost less than a traditional roof
Rejoice, fans of our closest star — you can start pre-ordering your solar roof from Tesla. To do so, you’ll need to put down a $1,000 deposit, though you can get a full refund should you decide against it before you sign the final contract.
As for the price, Tesla Solar has created a cost calculator (powered by Google’s Project Sunroof) that will give you a ballpark estimate specific to your needs. Simply enter your address, and you’ll get an estimate unique to your home, complete with the value of energy your roof will generate, the cost of the roof, and more.
Read the full story here.
Microsoft shows wearable that assists graphic designer with Parkinson’s disease
Graphic designer Emma Lawton was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease three years ago, at the age of 29. Now, with the help of a BBC project and Haiyan Zhang, Microsoft Research Cambridge’s innovation director, she’s been able to use a wearable device to reclaim her lifelong passion for drawing and sketching.
The Big Life Fix is a BBC series that got underway Wednesday. Lawton was featured in the first episode of the series, which focuses on people in need who turn to some of the United Kingdom’s top inventors for solutions to problems that affect their day-to-day life.
Read the full story here.
Weekly Rewind: A wearable for Parkinson’s, Lamborghini’s SUV, Tesla solar roofs
A lot can happen in a week when it comes to tech. The constant onslaught of news makes it nigh impossible for mere mortals with real lives to keep track of everything. That’s why we’ve compiled a quick and dirty list of this week’s top 10 tech stories, from what happened at Microsoft’s Build 2017 to the status of Tesla’s solar roofs — it’s all here.
Microsoft is laying the foundation for a sci-fi future at Build 2017
Microsoft Build is an annual event filled with keynotes, reveals, and more. Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s VP of Corporate Communications, made light of the event at a press preview the day before Build began.
“It’s a developer conference,” Shaw warned with a dead-pan tone. “There will be coding.”
This can make Build seem arcane and, well, a bit boring if you’re not a developer or engineer. Yet that doesn’t mean it’s unimportant. In fact, Build 2017 put forth a cohesive vision for not just Microsoft’s future, but also for how everyone will interact with technology in the coming years.
Read the full story here.
Lamborghini’s hybrid Urus could pave the way for a gas-electric supercar
Lamborghini is putting the final touches on the 2018 Urus, its first SUV in nearly a quarter of a century. Previewed by a concept introduced at the 2012 Beijing show, the Urus is an important model that will lure a new category of buyers into showrooms.
It was developed as a practical, family-friendly SUV with a spacious back seat and a big trunk. It’s endowed with the genes that make the Aventador S one of the best high-performance machines on the planet, yet it’s capable of holding its own off the beaten path.
The Urus will become Lamborghini’s very first turbocharged model when it breaks cover, and will later inaugurate the brand’s first series-produced plug-in hybrid drivetrain. In short, it’s unlike any model the Raging Bull carmaker has built in its illustrious 54-year history.
Read the full story here.
Robot eye surgeon is 10x more precise than the most steady-handed human
Mark Hillen/The Ophthalmologis
Once clumsy machines that couldn’t navigate down a hallway in a straight line, robots sure have come a long way in the past several decades. So why not reward them by teaching them a new, slightly more complex task — like carrying out an operation inside the human eye?
That’s exactly what a hospital in the United Kingdom did in a recent trial, in which robots competed against human surgeons to carry out a delicate surgery involving membrane removal on the retina. A group of 12 patients was divided into two groups, with half undergoing the traditional human surgeon-led procedure and the other half undergoing the operation as carried out by robot.
Read the full story here.
Despite surrounding controversy, ’13 Reasons Why’ is coming back for a second season
Netflix has found enough reasons to renew its controversial, albeit popular, new show. Despite the drama around the drama 13 Reasons Why, it appears that the Netflix original series is up for a second season.
As first reported by The Hollywood Reporter, 13 Reasons Why, which explores teen suicide and bullying, will make its sophomoric season debut sometime in 2018, hopefully addressing some of the questions left unanswered.
Read the full story here.
Scientists predict AI will allow us to translate dolphin language by 2021
AI-driven natural language processing is getting better at understanding languages spoken in every country around the world. It doesn’t have to stop at land-based languages, however, as Swedish-based language startup Gavagai AB is keen to prove.
Working with researchers from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Gavagai AB is currently involved in a four-year project, designed to gather as much “dolphin language data” as possible, and to use this to decode the chatter of everyone’s favorite aquatic mammals.
Read the full story here.
Amazon’s Echo Show speaker plays YouTube Videos, hosts conference calls, and more
Amazon’s long-rumored Echo speaker with a touchscreen is finally here, and it’s called the Echo Show. The touchscreen-based, Alexa-powered speaker sits vertically, like a desk clock, and does everything Amazon’s existing Echo speakers can do — and much more.
The Echo Show boasts upgrades aplenty. It’s equipped with eight ever-vigilant microphones — up from seven in Amazon’s Echo Dot, Echo Tap, and original Echo speaker — and an improved speaker array with Dolby-powered bass and stereo sound.
Read the full story here.
Everything you need to know about Fuchsia, Google’s mysterious new OS
Google’s best-known software ventures may be Android and Chrome OS, but the company is actually working on a third operating system. It’s called Fuchsia, and when it was first discovered last year, it only popped up as a single command line. Now, however, we know a lot more about the operating system. Fuchsia looks totally different than any other mobile operating system we’ve seen, including Android, but that could be the point.
Read the full story here.
Tesla’s stylish new solar roof expected to cost less than a traditional roof
Rejoice, fans of our closest star — you can start pre-ordering your solar roof from Tesla. To do so, you’ll need to put down a $1,000 deposit, though you can get a full refund should you decide against it before you sign the final contract.
As for the price, Tesla Solar has created a cost calculator (powered by Google’s Project Sunroof) that will give you a ballpark estimate specific to your needs. Simply enter your address, and you’ll get an estimate unique to your home, complete with the value of energy your roof will generate, the cost of the roof, and more.
Read the full story here.
Microsoft shows wearable that assists graphic designer with Parkinson’s disease
Graphic designer Emma Lawton was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease three years ago, at the age of 29. Now, with the help of a BBC project and Haiyan Zhang, Microsoft Research Cambridge’s innovation director, she’s been able to use a wearable device to reclaim her lifelong passion for drawing and sketching.
The Big Life Fix is a BBC series that got underway Wednesday. Lawton was featured in the first episode of the series, which focuses on people in need who turn to some of the United Kingdom’s top inventors for solutions to problems that affect their day-to-day life.
Read the full story here.
Weekly Rewind: A wearable for Parkinson’s, Lamborghini’s SUV, Tesla solar roofs
A lot can happen in a week when it comes to tech. The constant onslaught of news makes it nigh impossible for mere mortals with real lives to keep track of everything. That’s why we’ve compiled a quick and dirty list of this week’s top 10 tech stories, from what happened at Microsoft’s Build 2017 to the status of Tesla’s solar roofs — it’s all here.
Microsoft is laying the foundation for a sci-fi future at Build 2017
Microsoft Build is an annual event filled with keynotes, reveals, and more. Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s VP of Corporate Communications, made light of the event at a press preview the day before Build began.
“It’s a developer conference,” Shaw warned with a dead-pan tone. “There will be coding.”
This can make Build seem arcane and, well, a bit boring if you’re not a developer or engineer. Yet that doesn’t mean it’s unimportant. In fact, Build 2017 put forth a cohesive vision for not just Microsoft’s future, but also for how everyone will interact with technology in the coming years.
Read the full story here.
Lamborghini’s hybrid Urus could pave the way for a gas-electric supercar
Lamborghini is putting the final touches on the 2018 Urus, its first SUV in nearly a quarter of a century. Previewed by a concept introduced at the 2012 Beijing show, the Urus is an important model that will lure a new category of buyers into showrooms.
It was developed as a practical, family-friendly SUV with a spacious back seat and a big trunk. It’s endowed with the genes that make the Aventador S one of the best high-performance machines on the planet, yet it’s capable of holding its own off the beaten path.
The Urus will become Lamborghini’s very first turbocharged model when it breaks cover, and will later inaugurate the brand’s first series-produced plug-in hybrid drivetrain. In short, it’s unlike any model the Raging Bull carmaker has built in its illustrious 54-year history.
Read the full story here.
Robot eye surgeon is 10x more precise than the most steady-handed human
Mark Hillen/The Ophthalmologis
Once clumsy machines that couldn’t navigate down a hallway in a straight line, robots sure have come a long way in the past several decades. So why not reward them by teaching them a new, slightly more complex task — like carrying out an operation inside the human eye?
That’s exactly what a hospital in the United Kingdom did in a recent trial, in which robots competed against human surgeons to carry out a delicate surgery involving membrane removal on the retina. A group of 12 patients was divided into two groups, with half undergoing the traditional human surgeon-led procedure and the other half undergoing the operation as carried out by robot.
Read the full story here.
Despite surrounding controversy, ’13 Reasons Why’ is coming back for a second season
Netflix has found enough reasons to renew its controversial, albeit popular, new show. Despite the drama around the drama 13 Reasons Why, it appears that the Netflix original series is up for a second season.
As first reported by The Hollywood Reporter, 13 Reasons Why, which explores teen suicide and bullying, will make its sophomoric season debut sometime in 2018, hopefully addressing some of the questions left unanswered.
Read the full story here.
Scientists predict AI will allow us to translate dolphin language by 2021
AI-driven natural language processing is getting better at understanding languages spoken in every country around the world. It doesn’t have to stop at land-based languages, however, as Swedish-based language startup Gavagai AB is keen to prove.
Working with researchers from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Gavagai AB is currently involved in a four-year project, designed to gather as much “dolphin language data” as possible, and to use this to decode the chatter of everyone’s favorite aquatic mammals.
Read the full story here.
Amazon’s Echo Show speaker plays YouTube Videos, hosts conference calls, and more
Amazon’s long-rumored Echo speaker with a touchscreen is finally here, and it’s called the Echo Show. The touchscreen-based, Alexa-powered speaker sits vertically, like a desk clock, and does everything Amazon’s existing Echo speakers can do — and much more.
The Echo Show boasts upgrades aplenty. It’s equipped with eight ever-vigilant microphones — up from seven in Amazon’s Echo Dot, Echo Tap, and original Echo speaker — and an improved speaker array with Dolby-powered bass and stereo sound.
Read the full story here.
Everything you need to know about Fuchsia, Google’s mysterious new OS
Google’s best-known software ventures may be Android and Chrome OS, but the company is actually working on a third operating system. It’s called Fuchsia, and when it was first discovered last year, it only popped up as a single command line. Now, however, we know a lot more about the operating system. Fuchsia looks totally different than any other mobile operating system we’ve seen, including Android, but that could be the point.
Read the full story here.
Tesla’s stylish new solar roof expected to cost less than a traditional roof
Rejoice, fans of our closest star — you can start pre-ordering your solar roof from Tesla. To do so, you’ll need to put down a $1,000 deposit, though you can get a full refund should you decide against it before you sign the final contract.
As for the price, Tesla Solar has created a cost calculator (powered by Google’s Project Sunroof) that will give you a ballpark estimate specific to your needs. Simply enter your address, and you’ll get an estimate unique to your home, complete with the value of energy your roof will generate, the cost of the roof, and more.
Read the full story here.
Microsoft shows wearable that assists graphic designer with Parkinson’s disease
Graphic designer Emma Lawton was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease three years ago, at the age of 29. Now, with the help of a BBC project and Haiyan Zhang, Microsoft Research Cambridge’s innovation director, she’s been able to use a wearable device to reclaim her lifelong passion for drawing and sketching.
The Big Life Fix is a BBC series that got underway Wednesday. Lawton was featured in the first episode of the series, which focuses on people in need who turn to some of the United Kingdom’s top inventors for solutions to problems that affect their day-to-day life.
Read the full story here.
Oculus room-scale software moves from ‘experimental’ to fully supported
Why it matters to you
You will want to install the latest Oculus Rift software to get better results from all those extra sensors.
Virtual reality system maker Oculus has been working hard to add the same kind of room-scale experience to its Rift VR system as its main competitor the HTC Vive. Room-scale support has been present in the Oculus Rift software since version 1.14, but it has been saddled with the “experimental” tag.
That is changing with the next version, 1.15, which now live on the company’s Public Test Channel. That means that the support remains in beta status, but it is now available for more widespread testing.
The news came via the Oculus community forum, with the announcement that the 1.15 version of the Oculus Rift software will “fully support” a full three-sensor configuration. That means that larger rooms and more expansive VR environments will be available for Oculus Rift users to navigate.
The new three-sensor configuration expands the usual two-sensor Rift configuration to support not just head, hand, and 360-degree tracking but adds in the ability to walk around a room with the most accurate tracking and with minimal issues with occlusion. Occlusion can create positional tracking problems when one object blocks another from the tracking sensors, and the addition of a third camera helps alleviate jittering and other issues that improper occlusion handling can create.
Another change that is coming in the latest preview software is an improvement to how health and safety information is provided to users when firing up the Oculus Rift. Now, users will have the option to enable and disable health and safety reminders once they acknowledge the risks involved.
Hopefully, Oculus moving the software from “experimental” to fully supported status means that some of the issues that users have experienced with tracking and calibration have been resolved. In order to access and test the latest version, you will need to be enrolled in the Public Test Channel program and have multiple sensors in your Rift configuration.
This ambitious startup plans to start cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in 2018
Why it matters to you
Garbage and microplastics are wreaking havoc on our marine ecosystems. Ocean Cleanup looks to reverse this trend with a series of autonomous sea screens.
The massive oceanic concentration of debris and microplastics –not-so-affectionately known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch– has been growing for years. Thankfully, the non-profit, Ocean Cleanup, plans to use a sailing sea screen to clean up this and other “marine trash vortices” around the globe.
Originally, Ocean Cleanup had proposed anchoring a large “plastic-collecting trap” to the sea floor, nearly three miles beneath the Garbage Patch. However, the plan caused a stir among conservationists. Oceanographer, Dr. Kim Martini expressed concern about “the inevitable growth of marine life on the structure – which will change the hydrodynamics and may add considerable load to the structure.”
The project now utilize a series of drifting surface units to collect debris. The Ocean Cleanup system uses a “floater” made of high-density polyurethane. This apparatus is semi-rigid, meaning it is solid enough to maintain the necessary U-shape, while also being flexible enough to undulate with the ocean surface. When completed, this system will be more than one mile in length.
Ocean Cleanup testing one of its prototype models.
In the past, researchers have proposed using large nets to capture debris, however, these can be detrimental to local aquatic life. Instead, the Ocean Cleanup project incorporates a solid screen to catch this material. This screen is able to collect debris as small as one centimeter in size, and unlike traditional nets, the screen will allow sea life to safely pass beneath or around it. This permeable sea filter is made of fiber-reinforced thermoplastic polyurethane, which should be durable enough to sift the high seas for decades.
The screen attaches to a trailing sea anchor, preventing the system from drifting at the same speed as the ocean current. This minimal drag allows the floater and screen to collect material as it drifts. Once the screen is packed to the gills with sea garbage, a support vessel collects the captured debris using a system of belts and pumps. The collected waste is then shipped inland, where it can be processed, recycled, and reused.
Computer models estimate this Ocean Cleanup system could reduce the Great Pacific Garbage Patch by nearly 50 percent within five years. After a recent design change, donors contributed an additional $21.7 million to the initiative, bumping the total funding to $31.5 million. Ocean Cleanup plans to deploy a pilot in the North Pacific by late 2017 with the first operational design slated for mid-2018.
Purge the unclean and look good doing it, with our Dawn of War III performance guide
It’s easy to look at a real-time strategy game like Dawn of War III and underestimate just how much computing power it requires to look its best. But this is a very effects-heavy game, and when those bodies start piling up, your system might start to feel the pressure.
To get the most out of Dawn of War III, and to make sure those space marines look their best while they’re purging xenos in the name of the Emperor, we’re going to have to dig into the game’s graphics settings. Unlike first or third-person action games on PC, RTS games tend to have pretty unusual settings, so we’ve gone ahead and broken down each and every one, to determine which ones have the biggest impact on performance.
Testing conditions
Opening the options menu, the first thing we noticed was a conspicuous omission: there are no graphical presets for this game. We’re on our own.
To get an idea for how Dawn of War III might run on a variety of systems, we performed our tests on a system running an Intel Core i7-6950X clocked at 3.0 GHz, with 16GB of RAM, and three different graphics cards: an Nvidia GTX GeForce 1060, an Nvidia GTX GeForce 1080 TiZ, as well as an AMD Radeon RX 570.
Using these configurations, we tested each individual graphics setting with the internal benchmark, measured minimum, maximum, and average framerates, and took screenshots to compare the visual impact each setting had on the game.
It’s important to point out that every PC is a unique, even if you had the same exact components, your performance will vary based on a variety of environmental factors. What we’re really measuring here is the proportional impact each setting has on performance, graphical fidelity, and just overall look and feel. With that said, let’s dig into the results.
Setting up
Firing up Dawn of War III and opening the options menu, the first thing we noticed was a conspicuous omission: there were no graphical presets for this game. Most games have a few general tiers for tuning your graphics settings, overall sliders with options like Low, Medium, High, Ultra, and Custom. This saves users from the trouble of fiddling with toggles and sliders to get the most out of their game, but there are no pre-set graphical options here.
Instead, the game auto-detects your system’s capabilities and adjusts the settings accordingly. The only problem there is that these auto-detected configurations consistently underestimated our system’s abilities. Without any adjustments, Dawn of War III suggested our GTX 1080 Ti run with medium-high settings across the board on 1440p or 1080p.
The Dawn of War III graphics menu is peculiar for another reason as well, it’s oddly sparse. There’s just not much there. The only settings besides resolution, were: Resolution scale, image quality, texture quality, anti-aliasing, physics, and unit occlusion. There were no available options to individually tune shadows, lighting, post-processing, or even model detail. Well, there were and there weren’t.
See, those settings all exist in the graphics menu, but they’re bundled together and disguised. The game’s performance is almost entirely dependent on one setting: Image quality.
For one reason or another, nearly all the graphical settings present and individually adjustable in other games, have been tied together into one option in the Dawn of War III settings menu. Just to make sure, we tested, re-tested, and re-re-tested each and every graphics setting with all three graphics cards, and in the end the results were unanimous: Image quality is the most important graphical setting in the Dawn of War III options menu.
The results are in
Image Quality has six different settings — minimum, low, medium, high, higher, maximum — and each one has a profound impact on performance. Starting at minimum, and working our way up to maximum, all three graphics cards showed almost exactly the same degree of performance loss with each increase.
The GTX 1080 Ti started at 115 FPS on minimum Image Quality at 1440p, while the GTX 1060 and Radeon RX 570 started at 51, and 59 respectively. All three dropped down a little over or under 50 percent by the time we hit maximum Image Quality, with each increase dropping performance by about 10 percent. By the time we hit maximum on all three cards, the GTX 1080 was running at 58 FPS on 1440p, while the GTX 1060 and Radeon RX 570 were both hitting 24 FPS on average.
Scaling down the resolution to a more common 1080p had a predictable impact on performance, with very similar margins at every level of Image Quality. At minimum Image Quality, the GTX 1080 Ti was reliably scoring 147 FPS on average, with the GTX 1060 and Radeon RX 570 hitting 80 and 85, respectively. Moving up to maximum saw consistent returns, with the GTX 1080 Ti averaging 84 FPS, to the GTX 1060 and Radeon RX 570’s 39 FPS.
We didn’t see any significant changes to performance or graphical fidelity when lowering things like physics, texture detail, or unit occlusion.
Not only does Image Quality have the biggest impact on performance, it also has the biggest visual impact. In all of our screenshots, none of the other settings came anywhere close to the impact Image Quality had on the overall look of the game. With Image Quality dialed down, we lost volumetric lighting, fog, effects, model detail, terrain features, and post-processing effects. The other settings had very minimal effects on the overall graphical fidelity.
Texture detailing was noticeable in the model painter, where you can zoom way, way in on individual unit models, but in-game it was basically imperceptible. It even seemed to have almost no impact on overall performance. That sounds odd, but we checked and re-checked our findings and the results came out the same each time.
Moving the texture detail from low to maximum caused our minimum and maximum framerates to move around by a couple frames per second, but the averages came out the same each at each setting, at each resolution, for each graphics card.
That’s not to say the other options don’t have an effect on performance, the only other graphical option that moved our average FPS up or down significantly was Anti-Aliasing. Here we saw consistent, if minimal, returns moving between the available AA options: off, low, medium, and high. With AA off, and all other settings maxed, the GTX 1080 Ti was hitting 93 FPS at 1440p, while the GTX 1060 and Radeon RX 570 both managed 47 FPS on average.
Moving AA to high, all three cards saw significant frame-loss. The GTX 1080 Ti went down to 57 FPS, while the GTX 1060 and Radeon RX 570 both hit 24 FPS on 1440p.
Fine-tuning
With Image Quality dialed down, we lost volumetric lighting, fog, effects, model detail, terrain features, and post-processing effects.
Besides resolution, the two settings you should pay the most attention to are Image Quality and Anti-Aliasing. Both have a significant effect on performance, but only Image Quality is noticeable in actual graphical quality. So, if your system is having trouble handling Dawn of War III, you might want to lower or disable Anti-Aliasing before you start lowering your Image Quality.
Since all the important graphical settings are tied to Image Quality, each rung between minimum and maximum has a significant impact on the way Dawn of War III actually looks. So be sure to do some A/B testing of your own to see if the massive performance gains you’ll get from dropping shadow and lighting detail are worth the hit to how the game looks on your system.
With regard to some of the other settings available, we didn’t see any significant changes to performance or graphical fidelity when lowering things like physics, texture detail, or unit occlusion. You might notice some smoother gameplay by lowering texture detail, since it brought up our minimum and maximum framerates, but don’t expect any big improvements to average FPS. Also, if your CPU is a little outdated, turning off physics will save you some valuable clock-cycles and should also smooth things out a bit — especially when those bodies go flying, something we didn’t have issues with thanks to the Intel Core i7-6950X.
Bottom line
Dawn of War III has enough graphical detail to put your system to the test, especially if you’re running at 1440p. But because it is an RTS, you can get away with scaling things down significantly without hurting your overall experience. Sure, you’ll lose out on some volumetric lighting and cool effects, but the differences between the highest and lowest settings aren’t always noticeable when you’re in the thick of it.
After all, does it really matter how good your game looks when you’re scraping Ork blood off your boots and bringing glory to the Emperor of Man?
Everything you need to know about Android Pay
With Android Pay, you can start leaving your wallet behind. Anyone with the corresponding app on their device can pay for goods and services with a simple tap of their phone against a compatible point-of-sale terminal with near-field communication, or NFC.
Here’s everything you need to know about Android Pay, including the places and banks that support it.
Support in the U.S.
All four major banks in the U.S. support Android Pay — that’s Chase Bank, Wells Fargo, Citibank, and Bank of America. Chase Bank grossly lagged behind the rest of the major U.S. banks, but as of September 2016, it has finally added support for Android Pay. Of course, plenty of other banks are also lagging behind, but now the likes of BMO Harris have finally added support for the service.
In addition to adding your credit and debit cards to the service, Bank of America is installing NFC-enabled ATMs around the country — this would allow you to access your bank account to withdraw cash just by tapping your phone.
Other U.S. institutions, integrations
In May 2017, Google announced support for 71 new banks and credit unions, including 1st Constitution Bank, Central State Bank, and more. If your bank or credit union didn’t already support Android Pay, it may well do so now. You can check out the full list of supported banks and credit unions for yourself here.
Before that, Google added 46 new banks to its roster, but they are names many will not recognize, except for Fifth Third Bank. Some of the others, according to Android Police, include the Alaska USA Federal Credit Union, Greenfield Banking Company, and the Peoples Federal Credit Union. You can check to see if your bank supports the service here.
Most banks that already support Apple Pay will back Google’s service since both use similar NFC technology for payments — other top institutions include PNC, Capital One, TD Bank, HSBC, American Express, Ally Bank, and USAA.
In mid-December, the company added support for 31 additional rural banks and credit unions across the contiguous United States. They include Allegacy Federal Credit Union, the Bank of Walterboro, Canyon State Credit Union, First Piedmont Federal Savings, Jackson Community Federal Credit Union, Northeast Georgia Bank, San Francisco FCU, USC Credit Union, Verve, and Washington Trust Bank.
The expanded support comes on the heels of 19 additions earlier in December 2016. These include 1st Advantage Federal Credit Union, ACU of Texas, Alpine Credit Union, Alternatives FCU, Bank of the Ozarks, Union State Bank of Fargo, and Valley Federal Credit Union.
MasterCard, Visa, American Express, and Discover support Android Pay. Sites that support Visa Checkout and Masterpass will soon be able to handle Android Pay as well, thanks to a strategic partnership. You’ll be able to use your fingerprint to confirm payments as well, and Visa Checkout and Masterpass customers will be able to link their accounts with Android Pay as well. The integration will roll out in early 2017.
PayPal joins Android Pay
Android Pay is an excellent replacement for your credit or debit cards, but what about your PayPal account? Soon, Android Pay users running version 4.4 or higher of the mobile operating system will be able to link PayPal to their profile. Previously, the only way to use the popular web-based payment platform in-store was through a PayPal debit card, or by inputting your phone number and PIN into one of the few compatible terminals out in the wild.
At launch, Android Pay will only be able to pull from your PayPal balance for transactions but eventually, any cards you have saved on your PayPal account will also be supported. The integration will roll out over the coming weeks, according to Google.
Mobile banking app integration
Android Pay is now integrating with several banking apps around the world to make it a little easier to use Android Pay. Now, many customers will be able to add cards to Android Pay from their mobile banking apps at the tap of a button. At the launch of the new feature, there are a few banks that are supported, including Bank of America, Discover, Bank of New Zealand, mBank, and USAA.
In-App and mobile web purchases
Although you’ll probably use Android Pay mostly in shops, it will also let you make in-app purchases. When you’re about to purchase something in an app that supports the service, you’ll see a button that will allow you to pay using Android Pay, eliminating the need to get your wallet and pull out your credit or debit card. At the moment, Google has listed more than a dozen apps that support in-app purchases with Android Pay including Lyft, OpenTable, Hotel Tonight, Instacart, and, most recently, Etsy.
If you make purchases via the Chrome Browser app on your phone, you’re in luck. Google is adding support for Android Pay for certain sites, making the checkout process less of a hassle. It currently works with a handful of sites such as Groupon and 1-800-Flowers. The integration with Visa Checkout and Masterpass is sure to boost the number of sites that support Android Pay as well.
“Just like in stores and in apps, Android Pay does not share actual account numbers with merchants, so users can shop online with confidence, knowing that Android Pay keeps their card number secure,” according to the Android blog.
International release
Android Pay made its debut on the global stage when it launched in the U.K. in May, and the service has slowly continued to expand since. It’s now available in Japan, Ireland, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Poland.
Belgium
Google is officially bringing Android Pay to Belgium. The company announced the news in a blog post, which highlights that the service will be usable in as many as 85,000 institutions. It will work with both MasterCard and Visa and supports three major banks — BNP, Fintro, and Hello Bank. Not only that, but the company says that CBC, KBC, and KBC Brussels are all on the way.
Japan
Contactless and mobile payments are already widely used in Japan, and on December 12, Android Pay becomes the latest option for shoppers. However, it has launched with Rakuten Edy, an eMoney service accepted in more than 470,000 locations, rather than local banks. Operated through the usual Android Pay app, you create an Edy card or use an existing one, ready to use in supporting stores.
In 2017, Google says to expect more payment options, including Visa and Mastercard, through its cooperation with local payment specialists FeliCa Networks.
Ireland
On December 6, Android Pay made its way to Ireland, and it promises compatibility “at thousands of retail locations throughout Ireland that accept contactless payments.” From McDonald’s to supermarket Tesco to book retailer Eason, there are plenty of places in which Europeans can now use Android Pay. Here is a list of places where Android Pay is now accepted in Ireland.
New Zealand
In November, New Zealand received access to Android Pay, and according to Google, it will be available at a number of common locations, including The Warehouse, Domino’s, McDonald’s, etc. As of right now, it only supports the BNZ Flexi Debit Visa card, but it will expand to more services as time goes on.
Poland
Poland got Android Pay in November, and Google says it’s available at more than 400 retail locations such as Costa Coffee, Carrefour, and Rossman. You can add your Mastercard or Visa debit or credit cards from the following Polish banks: Alior Bank, Bank Zachodni WBK, and T-Mobile Banking Services. Google says support for mBank will come soon, as well as other banks in the coming months. The payment service will also be available in various apps soon, including Allegro, Ceneo, Fancy, iTaxi.pl, and Uber.
Hong Kong
In October, Android Pay launched in Hong Kong, with a related blog post announcement noting that the service would be accepted “at over 5,000 locations in Hong Kong where contactless payments are accepted, including stores such as at 7-Eleven, Circle K, Fortress, Mannings, Maxim’s Cakes, MX, McDonald’s, Pacific Coffee, ParknShop, SmarTone, Watsons, Wellcome, and more.” Moreover, it also works in several apps including Boutir Collect, Deliveroo, Kaligo, Klook, Snaptee, and coming soon, Uber. You can check here to see all the supported banks in Hong Kong, including Hang Seng Bank, DBS Bank, Dah Sing Bank, the Bank of East Asia, Standard Chartered Bank, and more.
Australia
In Australia, Google has listed an impressive number of supported banks — more than 25 including ANZ, Beyond Bank, and Macquarie. Unfortunately, ANZ is the only one out of the top four banks in Australia to support the payment service. To see the list of supported Australian banks, check here.
Aussies will also soon be able to use Android Pay within select apps such as Catch of the Day, Deliveroo, Domino’s, EatNow, Hotel Tonight, Kogan.com and more. That means speedier checkout times in apps as you won’t have to type out all your credit card information.
Singapore
In late June, Singapore became the third country to get Android Pay. It’s compatible with any contactless terminal in the country and supports loyalty cards and credit card rewards programs. The service is compatible with MasterCard and Visa cards from many of the country’s largest institutions, including DBS Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, OCBC Bank, POSB Bank, and UOB. You can check the full list of supported banks in Singapore here.
United Kingdom
Google’s first financial partners in the U.K. are the Bank of Scotland, First Direct, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, Nationwide, MBNA, and M&S Bank. The search giant recently added Santander, RBS, Ulster Bank, and NatWest to the list. Both MasterCard and Visa debit and credit cards from co-operating banks will work, and TSB customers should know only selected account types can use the service.
Even though it supports Apple Pay, it doesn’t look like Barclays will ever support Android Pay. The second-largest U.K. bank launched its own NFC payments service called Contactless Mobile. You can check this list to see which banks support Android Pay in the U.K.
Retailers that will accept Android Pay payments include Costa Coffee and Starbucks, Boots, Waitrose, Aldi, Superdrug, and KFC. Plus, like Apple Pay, transport for London’s ticketing system will support it. Various shopping apps such as Deliveroo, Fancy, Kickstarter, Zara, Takeaway.com, and Hotel Tonight will offer Android Pay as a payment option.
The contactless payment restriction of £30 remains in place, but in some situations, you’ll be able to spend up to £100 provided you authorize the transaction using a fingerprint or PIN code.
Montblanc Summit: Our first take
If luxury were measured by size, the $890 Montblanc Summit would be the most luxurious Android Wear smartwatch in the world.
Just when the world seemed to be losing interest in smartwatches, along comes a new luxury option from Montblanc, a German brand best known for its beautiful pens, leather goods, and a range of mechanical watches. It’s called the Montblanc Summit, and it’s going to cost you at least $890 if you want one on your wrist. That’s a lot of money for a smartwatch, especially when interest among regular people isn’t exactly high, so is it worth a look?
Made for (big-wristed) travelers
A hundred years ago, Montblanc identified a problem faced by many travelers at the time: fountain pens leaked in the pockets of well-to-do folk, so it made a fountain pen that didn’t leak. Since then, it has concentrated on seducing travelers with its products, and the Summit is no exception.
When we say the Montblanc Summit is for people with large wrists, we really mean it.
Strapped on the wrist of a jet-setter navigating airports, hotels, and cities, the Summit will be there to deliver notifications, fitness data, and handy travel tips and advice from a selection of partner apps. Google Assistant is onboard for voice control when your hands are full with boarding passes and Mont Blanc weekend bags.
It’s an evocative vision, and rest assured when you’re running through the airport lounge, everyone will notice the Summit on your wrist. Because it’s massive. The body measures 46mm, and on my wrist, the lugs extended over each side, so it refused to fit under the cuff of my shirt. Subtle it’s not, nor is it a watch for those of slender wrist.
Domed sapphire glass
For the Summit, Montblanc has taken inspiration from the design of its 1858 mechanical watch collection. The stainless steel watch comes in either a polished finish, black, a combination of both, or grade 5 titanium. Each has an IP68 water resistant rating. Look closely, and you’ll pick up on the design details taken from the 1858 watches, such as the satinated sides and horns, the polished section of the bezel, and the flashy crown.
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
Pay particular attention to the sapphire glass over the top of the 1.4-inch, 400 x 400 pixel, AMOLED screen, which has a slight dome to it. It looks superb, way better than the flat screens seen on most other smartwatches, and is an eye-catching feature that gives the Summit a unique style. It was a challenge to develop, as maintaining touch sensitivity was tough but essential.
After trying the different models on, it was the combined black and polished stainless steel that appealed most when matched with the black leather strap. For sporting use, Montblanc has made a special natural rubber strap, which actually looks and feels like soft fabric, but will stay comfortable when sweating it out in the gym. It comes in blue, green, and red, in an extraordinarily long length. We checked to see if it was simply a long version, but it’s not. The leather strap was also quite large, and even the tightest hole still saw the watch hang a little loosely. When we say the Montblanc Summit is for people with large wrists, we really mean it.
Technology inside
Unlike Tag Heuer’s Carrera Connected watch, which uses an Intel platform, the Summit has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 2100 processor that’s specially engineered for wearable technology. It comes with 512MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage space, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and the usual array of sensors. It doesn’t have GPS or the ability to make calls, but there is a microphone for conversing with Google Assistant, which is part of the Android Wear 2.0 operating system. It was smooth and fast in our brief time using it.
Underneath the body is a heart rate monitor, which rather than lay flat, sits slightly proud. This is to ensure a better connection with the skin, and therefore a more accurate reading. The 350mAh battery will last a day and is charged on a plastic plinth that’s the least luxurious aspect of the Summit.
Montblanc has teamed up with Uber, Foursquare, and Runtastic for the Summit, and each has its app pre-installed on the watch. There are various Montblanc watch faces, all modeled after the 1858 collection, with working chronographs, lap timers, clever complications, and some stylistic touches like digital reflective surfaces that glint when you move the watch, to add some glamor.
Price and availability
The Montblanc Summit is now available and the basic watch in stainless steel or black with a black leather strap costs $890, or $930 with the natural rubber or brown Italian leather strap. A limited edition alligator leather strap will also be made, and with it, the Summit will cost $980. Opt for the grade 5 titanium body, and the prices start at $980 and rise to $1,070 with the alligator leather strap. All the straps can be purchased separately, starting at $100 for the black leather version, up to $250 for the alligator leather strap.
Andy Boxall/Digital Trends
For the fabulously wealthy, Montblanc offers a personalization service, where you can design your own dial for the Summit, working directly with the designers. The price for this exclusive service? A mere 15,000 euros, or about $16,100.
For the first two weeks of release, which started on May 12, the Montblanc Summit will be exclusively available through online retailer Mr. Porter, after which it will reach Montblanc stores and partners in the U.S. and Europe.
Go big, or go home
There’s no doubt Montblanc is going all-in with the Summit, completely embracing the smartwatch, and giving its fans a version of which they will be proud. Outside of partnerships with Qualcomm and Google, the company went out and sourced the best components it could find for the Summit, then used Swiss expertise for the design, construction, and unique elements such as the natural rubber strap and domed screen. It considers the result the best smartwatch it could make, and one that shouldn’t be seen as a trendy fad, but as a genuine alternative to its mechanical watches, which fits in with the firm’s ethos.
The 350mAh battery will last a day and is charged on a plastic plinth.
That’s all fine if you’re a Montblanc devotee with enough disposable cash that spending nearly $900 on a smartwatch doesn’t warrant a second thought. For the rest of us, it’s a considerably more difficult decision. The Summit is technically the same as a $300 Fossil Q Marshal, and technically inferior to the new Huawei Watch 2 that may cost around $400; so if the specs matter to you, it’s unlikely to tick all the boxes.
Perhaps this could be forgiven if the Summit was utterly gorgeous, and we couldn’t take our eyes off it for more than a second. Sadly, although we like individual parts of it, the Summit didn’t grab us exactly that way. Sure, we couldn’t stop looking, but the only reason is because, at this size, it’s impossible to miss.
Highs
- Gorgeous domed sapphire glass
- Unique individual elements add style
- Water resistant
- Attractive watch faces and straps
Lows
- Expensive
- Massive
- Charging plinth looks cheap
Article originally published in March 2017. Updated on 05-12-2017 by Christian de Looper: Added news that Montblanc Summit is available.
Will buyers flip over a Samsung flip phone with modernized features?
Why it matters to you
Looking for a blast from the past? Samsung hasn’t given up on flip phones just yet, and if you haven’t either, you could get one with up-to-date features.
It looks like the humble flip phone isn’t dead just yet. According to a new report, Samsung is planning on launching a new flip phone with many of the high-end features that you would expect on any new smartphone.
The phone has the model number SM-W2017, and first hit the rumor mill when it was approved for wireless charging certification from the New Jersey Wireless Power Consortium.
But what kind of hardware can we expect from the phone? According to the report, which comes from The Investor, the device is expected to come with a 4.2-inch OLED display, along with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor. It will also come with a 12MP rear-facing camera, along with a 5MP front-facing camera. Like many of Samsung’s other offerings, the device will also reportedly be water resistant.
The device will also feature some key Samsung services, including Samsung Pay and the Samsung Knox security feature, which should help keep the device relatively safe.
We still don’t know much about how much the phone will cost, nor do we know exactly where it will be available — however the report cites an unnamed telecom official as saying that it will be “priced higher than any other folder phones here.” The official also noted that “depending on the pricing, there is a possibility that the phone will be launched as a special edition.”
Samsung has actually made quite an effort in flip phones over the past few years. It launched the Galaxy Folder in July 2015, and sources suggest that the Galaxy Folder 2 will launch at some point in the first half of this year. The Galaxy Folder 2 was first announced last year, and features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor and 2GB of RAM. It also offers a 3.8-inch display and 16GB of storage, though that storage can be expanded to 128GB through a MicroSD card slot.
AIVAnet 