De-lidded Threadripper processors look a lot like AMD’s Epyc chips

Why it matters to you

Now that Threadripper processors are out in the wild, we’re about to learn plenty more about how they fit into AMD’s range of high-end components.

This week saw the release of AMD’s Ryzen 3 chips, with the affordable 1200 and 1300X models hitting the scene. Alongside that expansion of the Ryzen family, AMD is also starting to field its Threadripper processors in pre-built systems, ahead of a standalone release for the components scheduled for early August.

That’s too long to wait for PC builders who are curious about what the Threadripper line has to offer, and so noted overclocking specialist der8auer set about de-lidding one of the processors to see what’s under the hood. Thanks to his efforts, we now know a little bit more about what to expect from these components.

Der8auer had to work outside of his comfort zone to gain access to the inner workings of the chip, according to a report from Hexus. He was on the road when he managed to get his hands on the processor, so rather than his standard set of tools, he was forced to make use of several razor blades and a pair of hot air soldering guns.

The lid didn’t come away as easily as expected when 180-degree heat was applied, despite the temperature being slightly higher than the melting point of indium solder. There were some concerns about damaging the chip itself, but in the end a combination of pressure from above and several razor blades did the job.

Inside the component, der8auer found something rather surprising — rather than the two dies he was anticipating, there were four, resembling the layout of AMD’s Epyc chips. He attempted to use temperature probes to figure out which dies were active when the chip was in use, but unfortunately it failed shortly after being powered on, likely as a result of the de-lidding process.

AMD did provide some more details on the construction to Hexus. Apparently, two of the four dies in the 16-core 32-thread chip are completely unused.

We’ll know more about the specifics of the Threadripper line when the high-end CPU is made available next month. At present, the parts are only available as part of pre-assembled PCs offered by companies like Dell and CyberPowerPC, as documented by Tech Report.

Become a full stack coder for only $15

The online industry has got to be one of, if not the biggest in the world. So many companies are moving to completely online models, and that means that fine websites abound. There is so much work in web development that everyone and his brother can build a site, but can they build a good site and maintain it well? If you want to get a foot in the interweb development door, you’ll need great fundamentals and solid knowledge of coding so that you can create websites that stand out among the billion.

Become a full stack coder for only $15 Learn more

Sure, you could go to a university or college and take a computer course, but you might need to take a multi-year program, and the short courses offered likely don’t cover everything you need to truly succeed. You would also have to abide by the schedule of whichever institution. But if you have a full-time job, how can you go to school during the week?

Through Android Digital Offers, you can learn to be a full stack coder with the Complete Web Developer Course. This course, which provides 28 hours of instruction, regularly retails for $199, but you can enroll at Android Central Digital Offers for only $14.99, a savings of 92%.

Through the Complete Web Developer Course, you’ll learn to build 14 websites, starting with the fundamentals of HTML and then moving on to CSS, Javascript, jQuery, Twitter Bootstrap, WordPress, PHP, MySQL, APIs, Mobile apps, and more. If you’re ever had an interest in coding and web development, now’s your chance to test the waters and learn everything you need to know for only $14.99.

Become a full stack coder for only $15 Learn more

Unlocked BlackBerry KEYone now available in Canada from Walmart

Grab a KEYone while you grab a rotisserie chicken.

When the BlackBerry KEYone was initially announced as coming in an unlocked version in Canada, BlackBerry Mobile planned to have the device available starting in June but that release eventually got pushed to ‘later this summer’ due carrier partner demand. It’s now later this summer, and Walmart has begun selling the KEYone unlocked in Canada.

Through the Walmart site, unlocked versions of the BlackBerry KEYone are available for $650 with free shipping and can be received in as little as two days depending on where you live, and while there’s no indication of how many Walmart has available, right now, the site does state they are ‘in stock’. For how long? Not sure, but probably best to not wait if you’ve been holding out for an unlocked version to be available in Canada.

Folks in the CrackBerry Forums have already got their shipping notices.

See at Walmart

Users are reporting that DTEK60 devices were being shipped rather than KEYone units due to what looks like a UPC listing error on Walmarts end. BlackBerry Mobile’s last update made clear that KEYone would be available unlocked in Canada later this summer. There is a new listing on Walmart CA that has KEYone at $729 and is currently out of stock… Developing.

Deal: Grab the LG Watch Style for just $140

Excellent Style at a stylish price.

The LG Watch Style has seen another price cut, and it should put the simple-yet-satisfying watch back on a lot of folks’ radar at this price. eBay has a vendor selling the LG Watch Style in Silver for $140.

The LG Watch Style isn’t the most future-proofed Android 2.0 watch on the market, but it’s small, comfortable, and runs Wear 2.0 smoothly for your entire day. There’s regrettably no NFC, heart-rate monitoring, or GPS, but the Style is sleek and easily blends into both business casual and everyday outfits easily. It also quite easily adapts to a large variety of bands and wardrobes to fit in whether you’re dressed for business or pleaure.

In short, it’s not ugly as sin and will get the job done for most of us who don’t have wrists the size of coffee mugs. With this sale, it’s finally down to a price that most of us are willing to pay for one. $140 isn’t cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but for a watch without all the bells and whistles that’s still pretty new and quite spry, it’s more than reasonable.

See at eBay

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!

What are you looking forward to with Android O? [Roundtable]

Changes big and small are coming to Android and these are our favorites.

Android O will soon be here, though it will take a while for most of us to see it.

With it comes more of the tweaks under the hood with each release: changes to make batteries last longer, apps run better, and to keep our information safer. But there is also a lot of other cool stuff there! Things that sound small but will make a big difference like better ways to manage fonts and emojis, as well as bigger changes like new ways to show notifications.

Everyone has a favorite feature from the list of changes, and that’s what we’re going around the table with this week. See what we’re most looking forward to when Android O arrives.

Jerry Hildenbrand

I have two things, but they kind of go together so it’s not cheating. The new window controls like picture-in-picture combined with new ways to use the keyboard mean developers can build apps that work even better on Chromebooks.

It’s great that Android works on Chrome OS. But it would be even greater-er if a few changes in the way you can position multiple apps on the big screen were to happen, and we had some dedicated keyboard shortcuts to flip through them or bring one into focus. To do that, we needed both of these changes.

Of course, it’s going to depend on more than just the changes being in the code. Developers will have to do their part and Google will need to integrate everything in a way that doesn’t break everything else. I’m looking forward to it, and think both parties will step up to the plate.

Alex Dobie

We’ve had windowed mode for a while on Android — going back to 2014 in the Samsung world — but proper picture-in-picture capability is going to be far more useful for me, particularly on larger phones. Rather than using clunky long-presses and gestures to shrink down an app into a portion of the screen, picture-in-picture lets you take the bits of apps you really care about — the video window — and display them in the foreground while doing other things in the background.

Sure, on your average 5-inch (or even 5.5-inch) phone, it’s not going to make a huge difference. But as handsets continue to grow bigger (and taller), being able to easily reclaim a portion of that screen space for the kind of multitasking most of us do on our phones is a big deal.

I just hope app developers are quicker to take advantage of picture-in-picture in Android O than some were with the adoption of multi-window.

Daniel Bader

Notifications are deadly. They are distracting and addictive and mostly terrible. They are a scourge on our ability to pay attention to what’s in front of us. And worst of all, they’re mostly poor quality — who cares whether your friend has returned to Words With Friends for the ninth time?

That’s why Notification Channels appear to be a salve for our beleaguered attention spans; they allow you, the user, to specify the type of notification you’ll receive within an app. So instead of banning an app from sending you notifications entirely, you can easily design a situation that makes sense for your workflow while staying insane and not murderous.

I’m also a big fan of how Google is making notifications more attractive, especially in the media space. Increasingly, “headless apps” are those we don’t open but just interact with through the notification shade, and the updates in Android O allow for even greater differentiation and customization. Of course, there’s room for abuse in such an environment, but let’s hope the bad actors will be few and far between.

Andrew Martonik

I’m excited to see the whole new slate of notification features come together. I am definitely not a fan of the current Dev Preview’s media notification styling (let’s hope that changes) but everything else as an improvement. Notification channels will give users more control, the notification shade is surfacing more information and I’m even starting to enjoy the notification dots just a little bit. One of Android’s core strengths is how it handles notifications, and O makes it even better.

Though it may not make a big difference right away, I’m also equally excited about Project Treble and how it will potentially speed up software updates going forward. Creating an abstraction layer between the core firmware and top-level software is a really great idea, and will theoretically give manufacturers a better shot at keeping phones and tablets up to date. This one will take several months (or a couple years) to play out, but Android O is the starting point.

Ara Wagoner

There’s a lot to like in Android O, and a lot that I don’t like (give me back my dark quick settings!), but the one I’m most looking forward to seems quite small, but will mean huge things if it is actually implemented properly: Android O’s emoji solution. Since emoji on Android have required system updates till now, it means that unless you had a Pixel or Nexus, chances were it’d be months between new emoji being announced and new emoji finding their way to your phone, assuming they came to your phone at all.

Android O is looking to fix that with the new EmojiCompat support library, which will be back-compatible all the way back to Android KitKat… but it’ll rely on application developers actually implementing EmojiCompat in their apps to ensure their users can see the emoji they’re being sent. Look for social media and messaging app developers to update their apps quickly, as this feature will help them stand out.

But how many manufacturers are going to add it to their system apps? Will Samsung Messages ever see EmojiCompat, or will users have to jump ship to third-party SMS apps to see that all-important mindblown emoji? And how will third-party emoji keyboards like Disney Emoji Blitz handle the changes in Android O that would allow them to be set and sent as actual emoji rather than stickers?

Only time will tell, and that makes me nervous.

Harish Jonnalagadda

The feature I’m looking forward to the most is the Autofill API. There aren’t a lot of apps that sync passwords and settings across to a new device, and I end up signing into the same services over and over again whenever I’m setting up a new phone.

With Android O, that won’t be as big a hassle, as password managers will be able to store and autofill data system-wide.

Your favorite?

Even if you know it will be a while before the folks who made your phone get the update out to you, it’s still fun to think about changes that are fun, will make you more productive or are just plain cool. Which one are you looking forward to the most?

Google is giving a $1 Play Store credit to some users

Google Play is giving out money.

Google Play has an offer for some select users right now that gives them $1 of Play Store credit to use on apps or paid content before the end of September. Not everyone’s getting the lucky offer, but hey, shouldn’t you head to Google Play and check?

Google giving away promotions to only some users is nothing new. A few months back, select users got half off a movie or TV season. This promotion is a bit less valuable, but far more flexible than those, as that dollar of credit can go towards apps, books, music, movies, TV and, of course, games!

A dollar can’t buy you much, but if you’ve got an icon pack on your Wishlist or a book you’ve been dying to read, this could help push you to pull the trigger — which is probably the point.

Check to see if you have $1 of credit at Google Play

Honor 6A hands-on: Premium style, budget price

Honor’s latest budget model is going on sale in the UK. Here’s our first look.

Honor, the sub-brand owned by Huawei, is putting out some great phones. We love the Honor 9, and over the past year or so even the less-expensive models have also been pretty noteworthy.

The latest phone hitting European shores is the Honor 6A, and in the UK it’ll be available to pre-order from Monday, July 31 ahead of a general sale on August 4 with carrier Three. This phone has previously been announced in China, but this is the first time we’re seeing it further west.

With a low price of £149.99, it’s sure to interest those looking for a great phone on a budget, and after a brief hands-on we’re quite impressed.

There’s no fingerprint sensor, but everything else here is solid.

For the price, there’s a fair amount of phone crammed in. Powering the Honor 6A is a Snapdragon 430 CPU, paired with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage expandable by microSD card. It’s also dual-SIM, accepting one nano SIM and one micro SIM.

Inside is all well and good, but it’s outside where the Honor 6A shines, frankly. In times past, budget phones would look like they were designed to be cheap. Then you look at the Honor 6A, with its sleek metallic body that comes in at 8.2mm thin, and you imagine the possibilities. It’s a very clean looking phone, in part due to not having a fingerprint sensor on it at all.

That’s one area where the 6A does fall short, even for a budget phone. It’s possible to buy cheap and get a fingerprint sensor nowadays, and if you’re moving from a phone that had one you’ll probably miss it. There’s also no NFC, so no Android Pay.

That slight disappointment aside, the Honor 6A is a really nice little phone, The 5-inch display is 1280 x 720 resolution but has nice colors and seems bright enough to use outdoors in the London morning. It’s light, too. And while it’s only coming to the UK in the gray and black combo seen here, that’s OK, because it looks great.

This is one of the cheapest phones to run EMUI 5.1.

Battery life should be pretty good, too, all things considered. Honor has squeezed a 3020mAh cell inside, which should be adequate for even the most demanding of days. We’ll put that to the test in the course of a full review. Additionally, Honor says that the battery inside should retain at least 80% of its total capacity after two years of charging and discharging.

On the back, you’ll find a 13MP camera with phase-detect auto focus, and on the front a 5MP shooter with the usual beauty mode software you find on any Huawei or Honor phone. Additionally, the screen will light up in darker conditions to act as a flash to better illuminate your late night selfies.

The software doesn’t seem to pack any surprises for anyone familiar with EMUI. The Honor 6A runs EMUI 5.1 atop Android 7.0 Nougat, and at least on the tester units we saw weren’t particularly loaded with any bloat to speak of. However, we’ll reserve final judgment until we’ve a retail unit in hand.

The Honor 6A is a direct replacement in the lineup for last year’s Honor 5C, and for £150 seems like a pretty nice smartphone. It combines styling you might expect to find on a more expensive phone with solid hardware and EMUIs own take on Android. No fingerprint sensor is disappointing, but potentially not a deal breaker for everyone shopping in this price point.

We’ll be spending more time with the Honor 6A soon for a full review. Pre-orders go live in the UK on vMall as of Monday, July 31 for £149.99. On August 4 it’ll become available from Three, too, for £149.99 on pay as you go and with no upfront cost on a new contract from £11 a month.

See at vMall

The Best VPN Services of 2017

What are the best Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)?

A VPN can be described as an encrypted tunnel that shuttles your internet activity between your PC, Mac, or phone and a host server. While the internet is a public space, a VPN works by extending an invisibility cloak across the user’s activity and allows people to send and receive data in a mostly-anonymous manner. In the simplest terms, a VPN makes it hard for someone to track your activity.

There are many different reasons people would want to use a VPN. In some countries, VPNs become a journalist’s main tool to get around government censorship and geo-blocks.

It’s true, there are plenty of free VPN services out there, but paid services are almost always a better option. You need a service that has fast speeds even when streaming video, and you want a service that doesn’t keep logs of its users’ activities. To help you decide which VPN is best, here are some great options that are available now.

NordVPN

NordVPN is operated in Panama, which means it has no legal obligation to record any of the activities of its users. You’re free to connect to any of the 1,109 VPN servers in 61 different countries, and you can use NordVPN on up to six different devices at once. To get around this restriction, however, it can be set up on your router, in which case it will handle any devices connected to your network.

Windows Central awarded NordVPN a near-perfect score in their review, focusing on the large set of extra features available to users. Want to watch Netflix from a different country? No problem. You can also take advantage of a double VPN, P2P-dedicated servers, a DNS leak resolver, and a dedicated single IP service.

With rock-solid encryption and plenty of connection protocols for you to use, including OpenVPN, this is one of the best VPNs operating today. Grab a yearly subscription for about $5.75 per month.

See at NordVPN

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ExpressVPN

Voted the top VPN by BestVPN, this service has plenty of servers all over the world, it doesn’t keep a log of user activity, and torrenting is allowed on all servers. In BestVPN’s review, it stated:

ExpressVPN is a British Virgin Islands-based VPN provider that has always led the way when it comes to offering a customer-focused service. Ease of use, a highly responsive 24/7 customer service team, and an industry-leading, no quibbles, 30-day money-back guarantee ensure ExpressVPN’s place at the top of the VPN industry.

The service is easy to use with a simple setup (if you get stuck, there’s always a live customer support chat on their site), and it has strong encryption with minimal logs. If you’re ready for unlimited bandwidth, unlimited server switches, unlimited speed, servers in 94 countries, and more, have a look at ExpressVPN. A yearly subscription costs about $8 per month.

See at ExpressVPN

IPVanish

IPVanish is one of the easiest VPNs to use, thanks to an app with a user interface that appeals to both novices and experts alike. In our review, we gave IPVanish a high rating for their strong encryption, excellent performance, and large set of servers. While it is based in the U.S., they promise to keep no logs other than payment information, which can be avoided by paying with Bitcoin.

IPVanish has more than 40,000 shared IP addresses on more than 850 servers in more than 60 countries. That’s some serious diversity, and there’s no limit on how many times you can switch servers. You can essentially move around until you find one that’s fastest. Toss in a kill switch, IPv6 and DNS leak protection, and manual port selection, and this becomes a very attractive option. Yearly plans start at about $6.50 per month.

See at IPVanish

Private Internet Access VPN

When it comes to a VPN and its apps, some people want a UI that has only what is needed. Private Internet Access is exactly this. With one click, you’ll be connected to a server of your choosing. There are over 3,200 servers in 25 different countries, and they support torrenting without jeopardizing speeds. Private Internet Access is based in the U.S. but does not log its users’ activity beyond payment information.

Private Internet Access VPN received a high rating at TopTenReviews and was chosen as an Editor’s Choice at PCMag. The latter site concluded its review with this:

With government spooks, hackers, and advertisers all hungry for our personal information, virtual private networks (VPNs) are essential tools. And Private Internet Access is among the best, offering a robust collection of features in a feather-light package for less than the price of a Netflix subscription.

Toss in some ad-blocking features as well as varied, budget subscription options — get a full year for just $40 — and this service might be your first choice, especially if you like your UI as simple as possible.

See at PIA

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How do you stay anonymous?

Do you have a favorite VPN service? Have you ended up with a dud before? Let us know your experiences in the comments.

Updated July 26, 2017: We’ve refreshed this list to ensure you’re still getting the best VPNs available right now.

The ‘Final Fantasy XV’ bromobile invades ‘Forza Horizon 3’ next week

Final Fantasy XV’s Regalia hot rod is coming to Forza Horizon 3 next week. So yup, you can continue that game’s epic road trip across Horizon’s digital Australia come August 1st. Assuming you’ve played either game on Xbox, next week you’ll get an Xbox Live message containing a download code.

Horizon has had rides from other games appear in it prior. The Warthog from Halo was more than just a gimmick and actually worked pretty well as a stunt car or as a main in the snowy “Blizzard Mountain” expansion. Hopefully that utility carries over to the Regalia. It’s just a shame this one won’t fly. That’s to say nothing of Fallout-4-branded cars appearing in Horizon’s serious simulation cousin, Forza Motorsport 6.

No, you won’t have Noctis or Prompto along for the ride here, but if you squint the Outback almost looks like Eos in spots. Fire up the Cup Noodles.

Source: Forza

Amazon debuts its own fashion label for women’s shoes and purses

Amazon has been making their foray into fashion for awhile now (really, what area are they not at least exploring?), and now they’ve announced a new private label. Called “The Fix,” and available exclusively to Prime members, it will focus on women’s shoes and handbags inspired by current design trends.

This isn’t the first in-house brand Amazon has created. It has several, all of which are aimed at being affordable, and The Fix is no different. Footwear News, which first reported the label’s launch, claims that items in the collection will start around $50 but will not be priced higher than $140. Additionally, The Fix’s shoes and handbags won’t rely on traditional fashion seasons; instead, new products will be rolled out on a monthly basis, to more quickly be able to keep up with what is currently fashionable.

If your mental alarm bells are telling you that this sounds a whole lot like Amazon is getting ready to rip off trendy designs, well, you probably aren’t wrong. TechCrunch reports that there are already knock-off Birkenstocks in the Fix collection. And the fact that they are introducing new items on a monthly basis, rather than seasonal, means they can copy designs and roll products out a lot faster than other retailers. The fashion industry might be unwilling to work with Amazon, but it looks like the retail giant is carving its own path, and the results might be bloody.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Footwear News