Need a graphics card for mining? Pick your pickaxe from this list

Looking for a graphics card for mining? You’re in luck, as AMD and Nvidia have teamed up with their hardware partners to produce graphics cards dedicated to the lucrative art of cryptocurrency mining. The move is presumably to help keep the gaming and professional markets saturated with products given that miners can at times scoop up the vast majority of available high-powered, low-cost graphics cards, leaving supplies scarce and overpriced.

That said, these cards are built to run 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That means AMD, Nvidia, and their partners had to go back to the drawing board to provide long-lasting products built with high endurance components to handle the the ongoing cryptocurrency mining process. From what we’ve found so far, most will not have video output, which makes sense given their dedication to digital currency mining.

That all said, we’ve broken our list into two sections: listed products, and cards that are supposedly hitting the market over the next two months. Ready to find your next graphic card for mining?

Listed Products

Asus

Asus was one of the first companies to list cryptocurrency mining cards on its website. The company provides one AMD-based and one Nvidia-based graphics card for mining, although at the time of this writing, these products aren’t listed for sale through online retailers. Note that the AMD-based card does have a single DVI-D video output while the Nvidia-based card has no video interface. Both models include dual-ball bearing fans, support for GPU Tweak II, and IP5X-certified dust resistance.

Card Name
Base Speed
Boost Speed
Memory
Video Output
Price
Mining-RX470-4G
926MHz
1,206MHz
4GB @ 7,000MHz
Yes (1)
?
Mining-P106-6G
1,506MHz
1,708MHz
6GB @ 8,008MHz
No
$226?

Biostar

Currently, Biostar lists only one graphics card for mining. This is the only card in our batch of cryptocurrency mining cards that has more than one video output: one DVI-D port, one HDMI port, and one DisplayPort connector. The base speed is unknown for now along with the card’s prictag and availability.

Card name
Base Speed
Boost Speed
Memory
Video
Price

VA47D5RV42 (Mining)
?
1,200Mhz
4GB @7000MHz
Yes (3)
?

Manli

This company sells two graphics cards dedicated to cryptocurrency mining based on the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 chip. They appear to be identical save for their overall size, as the F347G unit is slightly larger than the other. According to Manli, both cards have an Ethereum hash rate of 23 mega-hashes (MH) per second or more. They also use 100 watts while Ethereum mining.

Card Name
Base Speed
Boost Speed
Memory
Video Output
Price
P106-100
Mining Card
(F336G)
1,506MHz
1,708MHz
6GB @ 8,008MHz
No
?
P106-100
Mining Card
(F347G)
1,506MHz
1,708MHz
6GB @ 8,008MHz
No
?

MSI

Online retailer NCIX shows that MSI is gearing up to release a graphics card for mining based on the GTX 1060 graphics chip. However, the product listing provides absolutely no detail outside the name and estimated price. There’s also supposedly a version in the works based on the GTX 1070 or GTX 1080 with 8GB of on-board memory. Presumably these cards will not have video output.

Card Name
Base Speed
Boost Speed
Memory
Video Output
Price
P106-100 Miner 6G
?
?
6GB
?
$348
P104-100 Miner 8G
?
?
8GB
?
?

 Sapphire

This company doesn’t list it’s heaping cryptocurrency mining cards on its website. Instead, they can be found on Newegg and Overclockers. All listed models are based on the Radeon RX 470 GPU save for one graphics card for mining relying on the Radeon RX 560. Even more, one pair is based on memory provided by Samsung while the second pair does not, thus you’ll see a slight price difference between the two sets. All Radeon RX 470 models have the same GPU and memory speeds, although Sapphire isn’t listing their base speed on the product listings.

Card Name
Base Speed
Boost Speed
Memory
Video Output
Price

Radeon RX 470 Mining Edition 8GB (11256-38-10G)

?
1,236MHz
8GB @ 7,000MHz
(Samsung)
No
$386

Radeon RX 470 Mining Edition 4GB (11256-36-10G)

?
1,236MHz
4GB @ 7,000MHz
(Samsung)
No
$334

adeon RX 470 Mining Edition 8GB (11256-37-10G)

?
1,236MHz
8GB @ 7,000MHz
(Non-Samsung)
No
$373

Radeon RX 470 Mining Edition 4GB (11256-35-10G)

?
1,236MHz
4GB @ 7,000MHz
(Non-Samsung)
No
$320

Radeon RX 470 Mining Edition 4GB (11256-21-21G)

?
1,236MHz
4GB @ 7,000MHz
(Non-Samsung)
Yes (1)
$250

Radeon RX 470 Mining Edition 4GB (11256-31-21G)

?
1,236MHz
4GB @ 7,000MHz
(Non-Samsung)
Yes (1)
$260

Radeon RX 560 Pulse Mining Edition 4GB (11267-11-10G)

?
1,300MHz
4GB @ 7,000MHz
(Non-Samsung)
Yes (1)
$219

Zotac

Right now, Zotac only lists one graphics card for mining. The specifications state that this card doesn’t support video output, but product images show a physical DVI-D connector. There’s also spaces for one HDMI port and a DisplayPort connector, although they’re not physically present. Other than that, the card’s name listed below stems from Google Translator, so don’t expect Zotac to sell a card based on “nuggets.” North American details have not been released, so expect a better name when (or if) that happens.

Card Name
Base Speed
Boost Speed
Memory
Video Output
Price
Sauter P106-100 Nuggets
1,506MHz
1,708MHz
6GB @ 8,008MHz
No
?

What’s (Probably) Coming

The remaining four cards on our roundup aren’t listed on any online retailer or manufacturer website. Instead, we’ve provided a batch of cards rumored to be arriving within the next several months. These include one from Colorful, one from EVGA, and two from Inno3D. We will add more to this section as other rumored cards surface.

ColorfulModel: P106-100 WK1/WK2
Base speed: 1,506MHz
Boost speed: 1,708MHz
Memory amount: 6GB
Memory speed: 8,008MHz
Video output: None
Size: 8.66 x 4.92 x 1.57 inches

EVGAModel: GTX 1060 6G P106 Miner Edition
Base speed: 1,506MHz
Boost speed: 1,708MHz
Memory amount: 6GB
Memory speed: 8,008MHz
Video output: None
Size: Dual-slot

Inno3DModel: P106-100 Compact
Base speed: 1,506MHz
Boost speed: 1,708MHz
Memory amount: 6GB
Memory speed: 8,008MHz
Video output: Unknown
Size: Dual-slot (6.77 inches long)

Model: P106-100 Twin X2
Base speed: 1,506MHz
Boost speed: 1,708MHz
Memory amount: 6GB
Memory speed: 8,008MHz
Video output: Unknown
Size: Dual-slot (8.58 inches long)

University of Washington’s battery-free cell phone could be a genuine lifesaver

Why it matters to you

A cell phone that can never run out of battery could mean the difference between life and death for people in emergency situations.

Whether it’s not being able to live-stream your latest tech unboxing or suffering the indignity of being rendered unable to stream music on your commute to work, there are plenty of reasons why phone batteries running flat are the absolute dirt worst. As hard as it is to believe, however, there are situations in which a phone running out of battery is even more devastating than making us endure a boring subway ride to the office.

A few examples: A firefighter needing guaranteed communication with his or her colleagues; a person trapped following a natural disaster and needing to call for help; or a person in the developing world with limited alternate means of staying in touch with family.

Fortunately, that’s where researchers from the University of Washington can help. They’ve invented a prototype cell phone that requires no batteries; instead harvesting the few microwatts of power it needs to run from ambient radio signals — or even light.

“The reason we chose to build a battery-free phone is because phones are one of the most important devices that virtually everyone uses,” Vamsi Talla, a former UW electrical engineering doctoral student and Allen School research associate, told Digital Trends. “Most of us have experienced the situation where our phone battery has died at an inopportune time, such as when we want to make an important phone call.”

The battery-free cell phone saves on power by taking advantage of analog, as opposed to digital, voice encoding. The device’s range comes from tiny solar panels called photodiodes.

Talla said that there are two directions for the project from here. One is to license the technology to existing smartphone makers who could incorporate it into their devices so that emergency calls can be made, even if your iPhone or Samsung Galaxy is out of juice. “That could be a real lifesaver,” Talla explained.

The other direction is to build on the existing prototype to make bare-bones phones that could be used by people who might not otherwise have the luxury of being able to charge their handset whenever they want. “A phone like this would never need to be recharged, and could still be used to make phone calls and send text messages,” Talla said.

At present, the phone is extremely basic — comprising off-the-shelf components on a printed circuit board. Talla said that future versions could be more advanced, though.

“This is the first-generation model,” he said. We’re going to add more functionality in the future. The goal is to make a fully functional smartphone.” Future improvements, he said, could include the same kind of low-power display technology used in Kindle e-readers, as well as a low-power camera.

A paper describing the technology is published in the latest issue of the journal Proceedings of the Association for Computing Machinery on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies.

Best Motorola Phones

Motorola continues to make compelling phones in a few different categories

The last year has been one of quiet overhaul for Lenovo-owned Motorola, bringing all of its disparate product lines, from the inexpensive Moto E to the premium Moto Z, into a familiar aesthetic. While the Moto Z2 Play, the newest member of the family, continues the tradition of Mods compatibility, it’s the completely redesigned Moto G and E series that is worth considering if you’re in the market for a budget phone.

And with new phones like the Moto Z2 Force and potentially a new entry into the Moto X lineup, there’s plenty of reasons to be excited about Motorola in 2017 and beyond.

Moto Z2 Play

Released June 2017 Motorola followed up the Moto Z Play pretty quickly, and the Moto Z2 Play is a worthy sequel that tries to bridge the gap between the more affordable Play and the regular “Z” flagship from last year. The phone features a much sleeker design than its predecessor, shaving a full millimeter of thickness, but doing so cuts down on the battery by 15%.

Aside from the improved, all-metal chassis, the Z2 Play sports a much-improved 12MP camera with a wider aperture and Dual Pixel Focus technology, as well as a newer version of the oft-lauded Moto Display feature that we’ve grown to love so much.

Of course, the Z2 Play also supports Moto Mods, and was announced alongside three new add-ons that are also compatible with older versions.

Moto Z2 Play review

See at Motorola

Moto E4 and Moto E4 Plus

Released June 2017 As with the company’s Moto G lineup, the Moto E series has received a big revamp for 2017. Aligning with the visual flair (or lack thereof) of the more expensive Moto Gs, the Moto E4 and E4 Plus are aimed at the budget market while retaining many of the company’s best qualities, including excellent software with worthy additions to Android 7.1.1, along with better-than-their-price cameras and battery capacities. In fact, the Moto E4 Plus has a 5,000mAh battery that should last two full days on a charge.

Moto E4 review

See at Amazon

Moto G5 and G5 Plus

Released March 2017 The newest version of Motorola’s most popular product line, the Moto G series, features two models of differing size, capability, and price. The Moto G5, which is not officially available in the U.S., cuts costs by sticking with plastic and only a splash of metal, while the G5 Plus goes decidedly mid-range with its Snapdragon 625 chip and up to 4GB of RAM. Both models feature improved cameras and batteries, but the G5 Plus manages to compete with devices twice the price thanks to a large-pixel sensor and a wide-open lens.

The Moto G5 and G5 Plus also reinforce a recognizable design language that began in 2016 with the Moto Z and Z Force. A wider, easier-to-use fingerprint sensor (now on the cheaper model, too), rounded sides and a circular camera module maintain visual continuity with the Moto Z line, and the metal makes both phones feel very good.

Moto G5 Plus review

See at Amazon

Moto Z and Moto Z Force

Released July 2016 Motorola brings its own take on a modular design with the Moto Z and Moto Z Force. The first flagship devices to be launched since Lenovo bought the Motorola brand, the Z family uses detachable backplates called Moto Mods to add more functionality.

While the Moto Z launched as a Droid Edition on Verizon, it has since expanded to be sold unlocked from Motorola directly, compatible with carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile.

Motorola’s take on a modular system looks to be a novel approach. With no disassembly required, your baseline Moto Z can transform into a battery beast or a mini home stereo just by switching the backplate. Though the early examples of Moto Mods are quite successful, the real potential is what hardware entrepreneurs can cook up.

The Moto Z Force continues to be a Verizon exclusive, much to our chagrin, because its ShatterShield technology and 21MP camera are truly impressive, as is its bigger battery.

Moto Z review

See at Motorola

Moto Z Play

Released September 2016: Like the Moto Z, the Play began its life as a Verizon-exclusive Droid Edition, but expanded to be sold unlocked directly from Motorola.

A little portlier than its Moto Z counterpart, the Play has a massive two-day battery, and cuts down on costs with a slower Snapdragon 625 chip, 3GB of RAM and a lower-resolution 1080p display. The 16MP rear camera also lacks OIS, but otherwise this phone is nearly identical to the Z line, right down to the support for Moto Mods.

Moto Z Play review

See at Motorola

What’s in MrMobile’s bag for 2017?

It’s been a full year since I last gave you a peek into my pockets for a tour of MrMobile’s Everyday Carry. That’s equivalent to four years on the planet Mercury, seven years for the common canine — and roughly a century when it comes to mobile technology. In that time, I’ve traded Windows Mobile for BlackBerry; shed the Microsoft Band in favor of some even bigger smartwatches; and upgraded to the new iPad Pro, while leaving my MacBook as-is. Oh, and I bought a wallet at a comic book store. Because YOLO, or something.

So whether you’re seeking early ideas for Prime Day or just wondering what populates the pockets of a crazy contrarian like me, come check out the gadgetry that gets me where I’m going — in MrMobile’s 2017 Everyday Carry!

Featured Products

• “Stay Mobile, My Friends” T-Shirt
• Star Trek Bluetooth Communicator
• BlackBerry KEYone
• Casio ProTrek WSD-F20
• Apple iPad Pro 10.5
• LG G6
• Huawei/Honor Selfie Stick/Tripod
• DJI Osmo Mobile
• LG Watch Sport
• Microsoft Surface Book with Performance Base at Amazon
• Bose QC35
• Sony MDR-1000X
• Herschel Supply Charlie Wallet
• KeySmart
• Ring Theory Sesame Ring
• TYLT Energi Pro Battery Backpack at Amazon

Stay social, my friends

• YouTube 
• The Web
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Snapchat
• Instagram

Amazon working on big expansion of in-home gadget setup service

Sometimes the best way to get things done is to hire someone.

Amazon knows the “smart home” isn’t always user-friendly and is expanding an internal program that will actually send someone to your home to get you started. The program has actually already been running in a few U.S. cities, but Amazon is reportedly poised to dramatically expand it as it sees very high return rates for smart home tech.

Not unlike the famous house calls made by Best Buy’s “Geek Squad” technicians, for a fee Amazon will send a vetted expert in the tech you’re trying to install and walk you through the process. The emphasis is of course centered around making sure people get their Amazon Echo properly installed but expands to other areas of the smart home where Amazon also sells a whole lot of products.

Amazon understands that bypassing the initial frustration of configuring an Echo (or three) to work with your other smart home components is critical to long-term customer satisfaction. The in-home service is already available in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Jose and Orange County — but expectations are the service would expand beyond the West Coast, as Amazon is currently hiring for “field technicians” in a variety of cities.

Amazon Echo

• Amazon Echo review
• Echo Dot review
• Top Echo Tips & Tricks
• Tap, Echo or Dot: The ultimate Alexa question
• Amazon Echo vs. Google Home
• Get the latest Alexa news

Amazon

Google Daydream: The Ultimate Guide!

Google Daydream delivers an excellent way to enjoy VR from the comfort of the couch.

Google is continuing their efforts to deliver a superb VR experience that is accessible with just your phone, through a new platform they call Daydream. The first Daydream headset is absurdly comfortable, and already has access to tons of great games and experiences for you to explore. With Cardboard, they introduced a new generation of users to simple and inexpensive VR. With Daydream it’s obvious refining the goal was to refine that experience into something stellar for everyone.

Read more at VR Heads!

Cheddar is the new home of crowd-controlled StockStream

Watching other people play video games is a big business. At any time, you can hop on Twitch and see gamers take on Demon’s Souls, Pokemon, and even Sudoku. It’s not all video games, either, with Let’s Robot and Instapainting exploring internet-controlled robots. Last May, software developer Mike Roberts created StockStream, a Twitch channel that encourages viewers to vote on which stocks to buy or sell using Roberts’ own $50,000 stock portfolio. Now, Roberts and his trading game have been acquired by Cheddar, the “millennial business news” network that broadcasts from the New York Stock Exchange. StockStream will continue, though its balance will double and the portfolio extended to ” commodities, industry portfolios, indexes, and other asset classes,” according to a Cheddar blog post.

Roberts has relocated to New York City and will take on the newly-created role of Manager, StockStream within the larger Cheddar organization. Cheddar is available on Sling TV, Amazon, Twitter, Pluto TV, Vimeo and Facebook. The company claims it is also on 60 percent of smart TVs in the US. “Mike is a genius software developer who loves stocks. When I read about him, I knew he had to join our journey,” Cheddar’s founder and CEO Jon Steinberg said in a statement. “He’s going to bring StockStream to all our platforms and continue to let his imagination run free.”

Source: Cheddar

People won’t stop stealing this company’s rentable umbrellas

Sharing E Umbrella, a Chinese startup that allows people to share umbrellas as they would bicycles has run into some early problems with its business model: specifically, people don’t bother to return the items once they are out of the rain. According to a report in the Thepaper.cn last Thursday, the company announced that most of its umbrellas had gone missing within just weeks of the sharing scheme’s launch.

“We were really impressed by the bike-sharing model,” the company’s founder, Zhao Shuping, told Thepaper. His system envisioned umbrellas being made available at shops, bus stations, kisoks and generally anywhere with a railing to hang them from. People would put down a 19 yuan deposit and pay half a yuan for every half hour they keep it. However, unlike obviously-branded bicycles, these $9 umbrellas are far easier to abscond with.

What’s more, the system, which launched in 11 mainland cities back in April, doesn’t appear to have any sort of enforcement or recovery mechanisms. “Umbrellas are different from bicycles,” Zhao said. “Bikes can be parked anywhere, but with an umbrella you need railings or a fence to hang it on.”

Still, the fact that most of his product has been spirited away, Zhao plans to forge ahead and expand the rollout of the program to include 30 million umbrellas throughout the country by the end of the year.

Source: South China Morning Post

Twitter adds more mute options to help filter out abuse

Twitter has added a few new options to its filter settings. Now you’ll be able to disable notifications from accounts that you don’t follow that are new, or don’t follow you or just accounts you don’t follow altogether. These additions follow a handful of others meant to help you keep out content that you don’t want to see.

Now you have even more control over your notifications. Mute accounts that don’t follow you, new accounts, and more. https://t.co/UapP6DtTtY pic.twitter.com/RcBQGx219k

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) July 10, 2017

Last year, Twitter launched its quality filter tool as well as an option to mute notifications and messages from people you don’t follow. Later, it began muting conversation reply notifications from people you’ve blocked or muted, even if they @ you and began restricting the reach of accounts deemed abusive. Earlier this year, Twitter introduced filter settings that let users mute accounts if they had the default egg avatars or unverified email addresses or phone numbers and it began testing a feature that would grey out profiles that might contain sensitive content. And in May, the website started siphoning off DMs from people you don’t follow and putting them into a new “Requests” inbox.

All of these changes have been introduced in order to help with Twitter’s rampant abuse issues and it will be interesting to see if the latest changes have any effect. You can find instructions on how to implement the new mute features here.

Source: Twitter

Experimental drug could restore memories after brain injury

An experimental drug could have major implications for patients suffering from memory disabilities caused by traumatic brain injury (TBI). In tests, the drug known as ISRIB completely restored the ability to learn and remember in brain-injured mice — even on those that were treated up to a month after injury. The findings are contrary to most research on brain trauma, which claims treatments must be carried out urgently to preserve normal function.

Although scientists have had some recent breakthroughs countering memory loss, TBI has been tougher to crack. Dozens of promising treatments have failed clinical trials, and no approved therapies are available. Currently, TBI (commonly caused by accidents, collisions, falls, and violent assaults) affects close to 2 million people every year in the US — that boils down to one person every 21 seconds. Additionally, sports injuries (such as concussions) and military combat are other leading causes of TBI. Concerns over brain trauma have even led the army to start working on blast amor that can detect whether an explosion has hurt your brain.

As part of the latest batch of tests, researchers injected ISRIB into brain-injured mice to see whether it would improve their ability to find their way out of a water maze. Despite struggling in comparison to normal mice at first, the injured mice quickly caught up after being administered the drug. And their ability to learn persisted a week after their last injection.

Scientists are calling it a surprising, yet promising, start. They warn that many more tests must be carried out before the drug is ready to undergo clinical trials on humans.