China orders telecoms to block personal VPNs by February

China declared that virtual private networks were illegal back at the start of the year, and now it’s giving telecoms no choice but to fall in line. Bloomberg sources understand that the government has told carriers to block individual access to VPNs by February 1st. Companies can still use VPNs internally, and will reportedly be allowed to use leased lines (registered with officials, of course) to access the full internet, but everyone else appears to be out of luck.

It’s no secret as to why China would set a firm deadline. Officials know VPNs are regularly used to get around the Great Firewall and access blocked services that might host political dissent, but merely making these private, secure connections illegal won’t deter people. It has to make the very act of accessing a VPN difficult if the law is going to have any teeth.

This is bad news for free speech in China, of course, as it makes eluding censorship that much harder. Moreover, it may hurt businesses that are just trying to get work done. What if you’re visiting China and need to use a VPN account to access business info while you’re away? Not every company needs or can justify internal VPNs in China, and it’s not always an option to visit someone else’s offices just to check a website or send a message.

Thankfully, this isn’t the only way of dodging the censors. Open proxies like Shadowsocks are still around. The question is whether or not China will clamp down on these alternatives as swiftly and thoroughly as it is with VPNs. Historically, solutions like Shadowsocks tend to be reborn or adapt in the face of threats — there’s just no guarantee that they can keep it up forever.

Source: Bloomberg

Starz pads its streaming library with more kids’ and Spanish options

Starz is turning its attention to “underserved audiences” in the world of streaming video, adding a raft of children’s shows and Spanish-language programs to its $9-a-month library and on-demand platforms. Bob the Builder and Thomas and Friends are among the fresh kid-focused titles, while adults can enjoy nearly 300 new Spanish-language movies and TV show episodes, including Columbian telenovelas La Promesa and El Cartel de los Sapos.

When Starz launched its app in April 2016, it brought 2,400 movies and television episodes along for the ride. Fourteen months later, that figure across all of Starz’s on-demand and over-the-top platforms has ballooned to 5,500, and the network plans to offer a total of 7,700 episodes and movies by the end of the year. A lot the focus has been on children’s programming: There are roughly 1,250 kids’ episodes on Starz streaming services, and the company hopes to push that figure past 2,000 by December.

Children’s programming has a prominent place in the streaming world — Netflix has said about half of its members watch kids’ content, and it just launched a slate of interactive, choose-your-own-adventure shows for wee ones. Even HBO, an adult-focused network, found it worthwhile to save Sesame Street from extinction in 2016.

By the end of 2017, Starz plans to add more than 60 new series to its kids’ lineup, including Alf, Speed Racer: The Next Generation, Kid Diners, Zatch Bell, The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, The Cat in the Hat TV specials, Jim Henson’s The Storyteller, Naruto and Garfield and Friends. As for Spanish-language programming, look out for critically acclaimed films I’m So Excited, Chico and Rita and No, plus children’s shows Exploradores de la Historia and Horacio y los Plasticines.

The push for more content overall makes sense as Starz attempts to infiltrate a market dominated by Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video. These providers offer award-winning original programming and they regularly swap out shows, making their total title counts difficult to pin down. But, in March 2016, research firm Barclays estimated Netflix offered 7,008 films and TV series, while Hulu had 10,244 and Amazon Prime had 20,386. Note this is counting the number of series, not episodes, on each platform — Starz presents figures based on the number of episodes it offers, rather than franchises as a whole.

But, clearly, quantity isn’t everything. High-quality original and exclusive programming has become more important to streaming giants as the market has matured, and Starz is in on this movement. It exclusively offers American Gods and Outlander — shows that, for many fans, are worth $9 per month alone.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: Starz

In astronomy, women of color face the most discrimination

There’s tons of evidence that women face a gender bias in the STEM fields. Last May, one report found that Facebook rejects female-authored code more often than code written by men. A female engineer who featured prominently in a recruiting advertisement faced a backlash for her gender alone. Even US governors are taking up the fight to get more girls interested in science and engineering because it’s crucial to the field and the national economy. Unfortunately, a study by Girls Who Code found that the gender gap in computing is getting worse. The bad news continues with results from a new study that show women of color working in the astronomical and planetary fields experience “the highest rates of negative workplace experiences, including harassment and assault.”

The study, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, surveyed nearly 500 astronomers and planetary scientists between 2011 and 2015. 40 percent of women of color reported feeling unsafe in the workplace due to their gender or sex, while 28 percent of women of color felt unsafe due to their ethnicity. 18 percent of them skipped professional events due to a “hostile climate,” with 12 percent of white women reporting the same. The study’s authors point out that this results in a “significant loss of career opportunities.”

This isn’t the first study into gender or racial bias in the sciences. The study’s authors point out other papers that show a host of other examples in the literature, including gendered language on science curriculum, implicit bias related to gender and race in mentorship opportunities and an outsider experience that leads to women faculty of color having their views validated less often than their colleagues. The community of scientists still needs to figure out how to combat this bias, of course. For now, the current study’s authors conclude that the results represent “a significant failure in the astronomical community to create safe working conditions for all scientists.”

Source: Journal of Geophysical Research

Watch Lucid Air’s EV reach 235MPH on the track

Electric cars are quick off the line by their very nature (they have gobs of torque available at all times), but what about top speed — how are you supposed to know how quickly they can go when they’re usually capped at an artificial 155MPH ceiling? Lucid Motors is happy to help… sort of. The fledgling electric car maker has posted video of a Lucid Air prototype reaching a whopping 235MPH on a test track after removing its speed limiter, or 18MPH more than it managed in April. That’s performance you rarely see from supercars, let alone a luxury sedan. That doesn’t mean that it would beat a conventional supercar in a drag race (gas-powered vehicles tend to catch up once they hit their peak torque levels), but it’s impressively fast for a company’s first car. At least, until you realize that you won’t see those numbers on the street.

It’s not just public speed limits that will keep the Lucid Air below 235MPH. As with Tesla, Lucid is unlikely to lift that 155MPH software speed limit on production cars lest it anger rival luxury brands who’ve informally agreed to that restriction in the name of safety. You certainly wouldn’t get this kind of breakneck pace from the base-model Lucid Air — you’d need to pony up for a high-powered variant to achieve this feat even if there were no restrictions. Also, notice how this prototype is both stripped down and includes both a roll cage and a large spoiler? It’s going to have a much easier time hitting 235MPH than a production car loaded with creature comforts and no real racing amenities, especially when it’s driving on a road instead of the track.

As such, this is more of a theoretical exercise than a representation of what you’ll actually get. With that said, it’s still useful as a demonstration of how far EVs have come from the days when they were barely quick enough to keep up with traffic.

Via: The Verge

Source: Lucid Motors

Valve bans 40,000 cheating accounts after the Steam Summer Sale

More than 40,000 disingenuous gamers lost access to their games, items — and in some cases, their entire accounts — last weekend after the Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC) system flagged them for violations. No, that’s not a typo, 40,411 players have been nicked by the company’s robotic rule enforcer. That’s nearly triple the previous banning record from 2016, which stood at a meager 15,227 players.

Valve’s VAC system doles out around 3,500 suspensions on an average day. However, on Thursday July 6th, an unprecedented wave of bannings took place. The VAC had hammered nearly 30,000 accounts by noon Pacific. Valve launched this operation immediately after the end of its annual Summer Sale, presumably to prevent scofflaws from taking advantage of the event’s discounted prices on games.

What’s more, another 4,972 players got the hammer for their abusive in-game behavior. VAC bans prohibit accounts from connecting to Valve’s servers, which render their in-game purchased skins and items useless. All in all, the Vac-Ban website, which monitors and reports on these incidents, estimates that cheaters forfeited $9,580 worth of real world money due to their online shenanigans. Seriously guys, it’s just Counter-Strike. Not like you can even gamble in it.

Via: Kotaku

Source: DOTA Sports

Apple Maps Transit Directions Now Available in Las Vegas and Western Nevada

Apple Maps has been updated with comprehensive transit data in several higher populated areas of Nevada, enabling iPhone users to navigate with public transportation directions throughout the Silver State.

Newly supported areas include Las Vegas, including the nearby cities of North Las Vegas and Henderson, as well as the state capital Carson City and the Reno-Sparks metropolitan area in Western Nevada.

In Las Vegas, Apple Maps can provide directions for the Las Vegas Monorail and RTC Transit buses, including The Deuce and The SDX operating in and between the Las Vegas Strip and Downtown Las Vegas.

Many popular destinations are supported in Las Vegas, including McCarran International Airport and the Las Vegas Convention Center.

RTC Transit bus routes extend to North Las Vegas and Henderson, while RTC Washoe bus directions are available in and between Carson City, Reno, and Sparks. Jump Around Carson (JAC) bus routes are also supported within Carson City.

Apple Maps can also provide directions for Silverado Mainline buses, which travel between each of the cities, such as Reno to Las Vegas.

Apple Maps gained a Transit tab in iOS 9. The feature lags several years behind Google Maps, but Apple’s public transportation support is exhaustive, mapping all station entrances and listing departure times.

At launch, the feature was limited to Baltimore, Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Sydney, Toronto, and over 300 cities in China. Since then, Apple has been working to expand support for public transportation to other cities around the world.

Newer additions include Atlanta, Calgary, Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Honolulu, Houston, Kansas City, Madrid, Manchester, Melbourne, Miami, Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Montréal, New Orleans, Paris, Portland, Pittsburgh, Prague, Rio de Janeiro, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, Seattle, and Singapore.

For a complete list of cities with Apple Maps transit, visit the iOS Feature Availability page on Apple’s website.

(Thanks, Bill!)

Tags: Apple Maps, transit
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Keep an extra eye on your home with link-U (review)

dav

Webcams are nothing new in the world of tech. Heck, webcams that run off of mobile data are not new either. The truth is, cameras are a tough market to get into with lots of competition at great prices. link-U has sent us one of its 4G Hybrid Connection Smart Cameras to help show what sets them apart from some of the competition.

Setup

The setup for the link-U is incredibly simple. Starting off it is powered by POE (Power Over Ethernet) which means that the only cable you need is an ethernet cable. It comes with a POE injector in case you don’t have a $200 POE router sitting around. Once plugged in, you can install the link-U app and setup an account. Account setup is simple, all it needs is a name, email address, and password to get you going.

profile creation

additional setup settings

Once you get logged into the app, the next step is to sync your camera with your account. If your camera is already on the network, then the app should find it without any issues. If it is not, there is a QR code on the back that you can scan to sync up the camera with your app.

The Good

The link-U camera brings one major thing to the table, the ability to use a 4G LTE sim card to stream your HD camera videos to your mobile device, wherever you might be. The camera also houses an 8-hour battery so that it can function during a power outage without any issues, giving you peace of mind no matter how far away from home you might be.

The HD camera takes a great picture and streams a very clear picture, making it perfect for surveying any location you choose. The HD picture looks great whether you are connected to the internal network or over 4G on your smart device.

The app gives you the ability to customize the triggers for when you want recordings to take place and how long to record after a trigger occurs. The recordings can be found in a somewhat confusing calendar button that takes you to a search screen.

The final nice addition of this device is a built-in Bluetooth radio which allows you to control other smart devices from your phone. Within the app, you can allow the camera to be a hub for some other smart devices.

The Bad

The first thing I want to bring up here is the app. As an Android site first and foremost, I want to address the app that is associated with this camera. I cannot speak to the iPhone app, but the version for Android is simplistic and basic. The simple blue background with a list of cameras is not what I would expect to see for an app that is associated with a $300 webcam.

While there is 4G capability, the handoff between the two is not what I would expect. In my testing, it could take up to a full minute for the camera to become available again. I, again, would expect the experience to be superior to this for a camera in this price range.

Conclusion

While the link-U bring brings 4G LTE to the security camera game, I’m not completely convinced this camera is a must have. The hardware included in the package is good quality and the premise of the camera is a great idea, my issue is with the execution of some aspects of the software package. If you were pressed to get a webcam at this price point I would say to give this one a pass.

If you’re interested in purchasing the link-U with LTE, you can find it here. Additionally, link-U offers the camera without LTE and other accessories like smart lights, plugs, and more. You can find them all here.

Nox App Player – an easy-to-use Android emulator packed with features (Review)

Overview:

Ever wanted to play your favorite Android games on a bigger screen? Well, thanks to Android emulators like BlueStack or Droid4X now you can.

But today we’re going to talk about, the Nox App Player which is another, relatively new Android emulator (simulator) that packs an extensive host of handy features and a clean interface. And unlike other emulators, it’s completely free and not plagued by advertisements or premium subscription offers.

Getting Started:

Download the Nox App Player app and install it on your PC. This shouldn’t take more than a few minutes. Once the software is up and running on your computer, you’ll be able to start searching and downloading games right from the integrated Google Play Store.

Experience:

On my Windows PC, the Nox App Player ran smoothly at first. But as I performed various tasks like installing and running apps, customizing settings or snapping screenshots, I noticed the PC’s performance getting quite sluggish. I don’t have the most advanced desktop computer, so for those of you with better configurations, the Nox App Player should work just fine.

There’s also the option of running numerous Android circumstances at the very same time for multiplayer purposes. The app allows you to play a different game or different accounts of the same game concurrently. As long as the computer supports it, you could run unlimited Nox Android instances, but mine couldn’t handle more than two.

Nox runs on Android 4.4.2 KitKat kernel and includes a user-friendly interface that’s super easy to explore (no App drawer available).

Nox allows you to customize your settings any way you want it so you can opt for a completely full screen or for 720p or fullHD resolution. You can also change graphic properties like Direct X and Open GL, as well as performance settings including CPU speed and RAM usage.

Other customizations include allowing users to change the keys instead of just “tapping” with your mouse on the virtual screen.

Nox also offers pre-enabled Root access. All you need to do is enable Root from the System Settings. This will get SuperSU automatically installed and then you can start granting root access to your installed apps. Users can also easily install apps by drag and dropping APK files.

I found it a bit annoying when titling games automatically rotated the screen, but fortunately, most of them have the option to turn it off.

While most games install without a problem, I experienced a few issues where I couldn’t get the apps to install. They just aborted the installation and shut down Nox altogether. The games installed fine on my Android phone, so a bug in Nox was to blame.

You can also connect your controller/gamepad to the Nox App Player, but I didn’t have any around to try out this feature.

Last but not least, if you’re using Nox don’t forget to check out the additional strip of features located on the right side. You can easily take a screenshot, set your virtual machine’s location or use Macro/Video recorder from there.

Conclusion:

Nox App Player is a great Android emulator that offers an abundance of customization options and features. Unfortunately for those who aren’t fans of Windows or Mac, the application is not currently available for Linux OS.

I liked the clean interface that’s super intuitive to use. But if you have questions about how to do something in the Nox App Player (example: how to connect your controller to Nox), the official website is home to a wide range or tutorials to help you get the most out of it.

However, I’d recommend you to try and use the app on a PC with a more advanced configuration, if you want optimal results, especially if you’re planning to go multiplayer.

Nox App Player is also a great solution for those who want to quickly test some apps, but they don’t want to download them on their phones. Are you ready to give it a go?

Download the Nox App Player here

Velocity Micro Raptor M60 Gaming Desktop Review

Research Center:
Velocity Micro Raptor M60

Velocity Micro’s Raptor M60 gaming desktop finds itself in a bizarre middle ground between mid-range and high-end PCs.. The line between these two markets continues to blur as prices go down and performance goes up. PC builders like Velocity Micro have made a niche for themselves in the gray area between these two markets, offering up powerful computers at reasonable prices by using off-the-shelf components, like those in our Raptor M60 review unit.

Our review model of the Raptor M60 featured an eight-core Ryzen 7 1800X processor, 16GB of memory, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics card, and two hard drives — a 512GB SSD, and a 3TB hard disk — for $3,000.

That’s a hefty price tag for a desktop, even a gaming desktop — but at first glance it’s not a bad deal. Mix together high-end graphics, AMD’s latest and greatest processor, and round it all out with a few mid-range components, and you have a rock-solid gaming PC. But occupying the middle-ground between mid-range and high-end PCs means the Velocity Micro Raptor M60 faces stiff competition on both ends of the price spectrum.

Just the essentials

The Velocity Micro M60 is a big black rectangle. It offers smalls windows on the side and on the top, where the glowy-blue fans show through, but otherwise it’s form over function. It’s not the flashiest design we’ve ever seen, but a striated pattern on the otherwise matte-black chassis does give everything a quality feel, and a certain understated elegance.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

The case itself doesn’t call attention to itself, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s nice to see that not every gaming desktop has to be decked out in black-and-red, with a big open side-window to show off a fancy lighting rig inside.

Origin and Digital Storm, for instance, offer similarly specced and priced desktop PCs with exterior designs more reminiscent of what you’d expect from a gaming desktop. More lights, more colors, more angles.

The Raptor M60 isn’t an unattractive PC, and it would blend in to really any décor, but if you’re looking for something that screams “gaming PC” you might want to look elsewhere.

Every plug in every place

Sometimes being unremarkable is a good thing. When it comes to ports, the Velocity Micro Raptor M60 is just that. It has everything you’ll need, and that’s it. On top of the chassis, toward the front, there are two USB 3.0 ports, beside a headphone jack and microphone jack. In the back, it has six USB ports, two HDMI and two full-sized DisplayPorts, Ethernet, five audio jacks, a PS/2 port, and even an old-school VGA port.

Everything is easily accessible on the back, and the top-facing USB ports are conveniently located for anyone who has the Velocity Micro Raptor M60 situated under a desk. On top of a desk, and the top-facing ports are a little less convenient, but given its understated design, it practically begs to be put under a desk.

Hold the door

The Raptor M60’s straightforward case facilitates easy access to its internals by offering a side-panel that just pops right off without any thumb screws. It’s an elegant exterior design, but once you get inside, it’s a different story.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Pop the side off, and everything inside is obscured by an internal fan array. Those two fans visible on the exterior of the case are seated on a little flange that swings open, granting access to the motherboard. Well, it’s supposed to swing open, anyway.

To open the little fan-door, you must reach in and awkwardly disconnect the two fans from the motherboard. Otherwise, it won’t open all the way. The cable pulls dangerously taut just by moving the fan door enough for one hand to reach inside and fumble for the power cords to disconnect the fans.

It kept up beautifully even while doing some particularly heavy multi-tasking, devouring everything we could throw at it.

Frankly, that’s just a bad design, the likes of which we just don’t see elsewhere. The Digital Storm Velox, for instance, offers unobstructed access to its internals, and so does the AVADirect Avant. This isn’t rocket science. Once the side panel is removed, the internals should be easily accessible.

The convenience of being able to effortlessly pop the side panel off without thumbscrews is completely counteracted by the inconvenience of dealing with that internal swinging fan-door. Un-plugging the fans to open the door all the way is an awkward exercise, but plugging them back in is just as much a pain. If the door is too far open the cords don’t reach, and if it’s closed too far, the power supply obscures the little plugs that connect the fans to the motherboard.

Unfortunately, it’s not a problem with an easy solution. If the fan cables offered enough slack to open the internal door all the way, they would run the risk of getting tangled in the CPU fan. It’s like the case goes out of its way to get in your way.

Eight cores walk into a bar

Featuring one of AMD’s brand-new Ryzen 7 1800X chips, the Velocity Micro Raptor M60 is very quick on its feet. With eight physical cores, 16 processing threads, and a 4.8GHz overclock, it has an insatiable hunger for daily computing tasks. It kept up beautifully even while doing some particularly heavy multi-tasking, just devouring everything we could throw at it. But let’s look at the numbers to see how it stacks up against stock Ryzen 7 1800X chips, and comparable Intel processors.

In single-core performance, the Ryzen 7 1800X isn’t quite as capable as the latest Intel Core i7-7700K — the processor driving the Digital Storm Velox, AVADirect Avant, and pretty much every other gaming rig on the market right now. In our tests, a stock i7-7700K easily outperforms the Ryzen 7 1800X in per-core performance but that’s not to say the Ryzen chip is slower all around, though.

Looking at multi-core performance, the Ryzen 7 1800X narrowly outperforms the i7-7700K. With all eight cores firing, there’s a small — but noticeable — gulf between the Ryzen CPU and both the overclocked and stock versions of the Intel i7-7700K.

Will that always mean better performance? Not exactly. It’s important to point out that not every application or game makes use of hyperthreading, or if they do, they might not do it very well. So, the Ryzen 7 1800X won’t always outperform an Intel i7-7700K, but it will sometimes.

Moving on to a real-world use case, encoding a 4K video, the Ryzen 7 1800X proves that those eight cores aren’t just for show. While it may not have run circles around the Intel Core i7 on our Geekbench tests, it comes close in our Handbrake test.

In fact, the stock and overclocked versions of the Intel Core i7-7700K both took a few seconds longer to encode the same 4K video file. Those aren’t the kinds of gains you’ll see across the board, but those extra cores can really come in handy with operations like video encoding.

The quick and the slightly less quick

A fast hard drive doesn’t have the kind of impact on system performance that a fast GPU or CPU does, but slow hard disk speeds can really weigh down your overall experience, especially when moving massive game-sized files.

This is not an issue the Raptor M60 suffers from, not by a long shot. Its 512GB Samsung 960 Pro PCIe SSD is not only surprisingly quick, but it also obliterates the competition in read and write speeds. But don’t take our word for it. Look at the results.

Only the Cybertron CLX Ra, a $5,575 behemoth, even comes close to the Velocity Micro Raptor M60’s read or write speeds, but the Raptor M60 still wins out by a sizable margin. Capable of reading 2,876 megabytes per second, and writing 2,042MB/s, the Raptor M60 just runs circles around its nearest competition up and down the price scale.

Looking at closer competitors like the Velox and Avant, it’s clear that the Raptor M60’s solid state drive is something special. Neither PC is capable of coming close to the Raptor’s read or write speeds. The Velox achieves an admirable read speed of 1360MB/s and a write speed of 1329MB/s, offering quick and balanced performance.

The AVADirect Avant came closer, hitting read speeds of 2013MB/s, and write speeds of 1414MB/s. That’s quick, but the Raptor M60 still beats both by about a gigabyte-and-a-half-per second when it comes to write speeds.

To SLI or not to SLI

What does $3,000 worth of gaming performance look like? For most other price ranges, there’s an acceptable or unacceptable level of compromise we would expect. At less than $2,000, 1440p game performance might be a little inconsistent. However, in systems priced above $4,000, any performance hiccups are pretty unacceptable.

Between those two extremes, performance becomes a precarious balancing act. Should you expect more because it’s so expensive, or should you cut it some slack because it’s not as expensive as its competitors? Well, let’s have a look at how the Velocity Micro Raptor M60 stacked up to its nearest competitors on both ends of that spectrum.

There are a lot of different results here, but starting off with the 1080p benchmarks, we can see consistently high performance from medium-detail settings in Civilization VI, all the way through ultra-high settings in For Honor.

The two desktops we compared in the Civilization VI, Battlefield 1, and Deus Ex tests were both running two graphics cards in SLI configurations — essentially the highest performing graphics setup you can currently get. There’s plenty to debate about whether SLI setups offer much in the way of actual FPS gains, but here we can see that the single Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti with 11GB of video RAM is an exceptionally capable solution.

It kept up surprisingly well with two different SLI configs in Civilization VI at 1080p, and even pulled ahead of Digital Storm Velox, and its GTX 1080 SLI, setup in Battlefield 1. Notoriously challenging Deus Ex, however, saw the Raptor M60 and its GTX 1080 Ti fall behind the Velox, and its twin GTX 1080s.

The AVADirect Avant’s twin GTX 1080 Ti setup completely overpowers the Velocity Micro Raptor M60’s single GTX 1080 Ti, of course. The Avant eclipsed the Raptor M60 by a sizable margin in For Honor, further illustrating that the 1080 Ti is an incredibly powerful graphics card — particularly when it’s running in an SLI setup.

However, the gain is not as much as might be expected. Even in For Honor, which proved most favorable towards SLI, netted a mere 25 percent increase over the Velocity Micro M60’s single GTX 1080 Ti.

We see similar results here in 1440p performance, with the Raptor M60 keeping up with the Digital Storm Velox and AVADirect Avant. In one instance, Battlefield 1, it even eclipsed the Velox in average FPS, if only just.

The For Honor results bring to light just how the Raptor M60 performs against one of its own kind — the MSI Armor GTX 1080 Ti in our test rig running an Intel Core i7-6950X and 16GB of RAM. Despite having a top-of-the-line Intel ten-core behemoth under the hood, our test rig managed nearly identical numbers to the Velocity Micro Raptor M60, with its Ryzen 7 1800X processor and GTX 1080Ti graphics card. While neither one came close to the AVADirect Avant’s performance, this close margin between these systems really proves that the GTX 1080 Ti can hold its own in a variety of configurations.

Again, remember that Velocity Micro sent us a system with one GTX 1080 Ti. Most companies send us a SLI setup. While those are quicker, they’re also much more expensive. AVADirect’s Avant, which we used for comparison, was $3,850 as-tested – and it’s one of the least expensive SLI-capable desktops we’ve reviewed.

Warranty

The Velocity Micro Raptor M60 comes with a standard one-year parts and labor warranty against manufacturer defects, and offers call center support during normal business hours. This is a reasonable warranty, but some competitors offer better terms in the form of longer warranties and/or 24-hour support.

Velocity Micro Raptor M60 Compared To

Origin Neuron

Alienware Area 51 (2017)

MSI Trident 9S6-B90611-02S

Digital Storm Velox (Kaby Lake)

Cybertron CLX Ra

Acer Predator G1

Origin Millennium (2016)

Falcon Northwest Mach V (2016)

Digital Storm Aventum 3

AVADirect Avant gaming desktop

Acer Predator G6

AVADirect Z170

Digital Storm Bolt II

Acer Predator G3 (AG3-605-UR20)

Falcon Northwest Mach V

Our Take

Despite a few flaws, the Velocity Micro Raptor M60 is a solid gaming desktop. Aside from its problematic internal layout, it stands up to its nearest competitors and performs well for the price — but does it perform well enough?

Are there better alternatives?

Yes, lots of them. Just running through the configuration tools from Digital Storm and AVADirect and speccing out a nearly identical PC, each one spits out a price just a hair above — or even below — the Raptor M60’s $3,000 price tag, depending on your choice of case and cooling.

It’s a tricky price point, and the Raptor M60 doesn’t make a very good case for itself. At $3,000 it’s too expensive to forgive some weird design choices, and too inexpensive to feature impressive performance or proprietary components that could justify the price — like liquid cooling, or unique lighting.

How long will it last?

The Velocity Micro Raptor M60 will provide impressive gaming performance for at least the next couple years. The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics card, paired with the AMD Radeon Ryzen 7 1800X processor, makes for a formidable machine capable of taking on just about anything you could throw at it for the foreseeable future.

Should you buy it?

Maybe, but only after shopping around. The Raptor M60’s performance is great, but that’s a credit to off-the-shelf internals, not anything unique to this PC. In fact, you can get these specs at this price from nearly any other manufacturer — and you’d end up with a PC without a wonky internal fan-thing.

Yes, we’re still talking about that internal fan-door-thing. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense, it gets in your way, and it complicates what can already be a complicated process — internal maintenance. It’s the kind of lackluster design we just don’t see elsewhere, as neither of its nearest competitors feature internals that actively obstruct your ability to swap out components, or just admire your hardware. This one does, and that’s something potential buyers should consider when weighing their options.

HTC U11 could get improved video recording and color calibration in update

Why it matters to you

If true, HTC’s eagerness to support its shiny new flagship with new features immediately after release is good news for owners.

The HTC U11 has already proved to be a modest success for the Taiwan-based smartphone manufacturer, which has had a bit of a rough go of it over the past several years as it struggled to compete with the latest from Apple, Samsung, and, oddly enough, Google’s Pixel line. Although the company is responsible for building the Pixel, its own HTC-branded products have received considerably less attention — though the U11 could be turning that tide somewhat.

Now, a new report from XDA Developers claims HTC has a few notable enhancements waiting in the wings for U11 owners. Some of these are more sweeping and significant than others but, either way, HTC is adding crucial functionality to its new high-end handset outside of typical Android system updates. That said, the rumors come from one of XDA’s forum members — a supposed “HTC insider” — so take these suggestions with the requisite level of caution.

Anyway, the most noteworthy addition looks to concern the camera. While we found the U11’s camera to be capable and fast in our review, some have reported lag in the app and shutter. A new update that has made its way to international models intended to fix the issue should arrive for users in the United States and the United Kingdom shortly. However, on top of that, HTC is also said to be bringing a 1080p60 video recording mode to customers in the future.

The HTC U11, like many smartphones, can record at full-HD resolution — but only at 30 FPS. Higher-end devices support a 60 FPS mode for smoother video and the U11 could hopefully join them with an upcoming feature update.

Another tweak is related to the color calibration of HTC U11’s display. HTC reportedly intends to tone down the saturation a bit, bringing the panel closer to the industry-standard sRGB spec. However, if you would rather keep the ultra-vibrant colors, you can choose to leave them on, as the update will only provide a switch in the settings menu. Many other phones already do this as well, like Sony’s Xperia line, which offers several different viewing modes and post-processing on colors depending on user preference.

There is no word on when exactly we can expect to see these updates drop. We reached out to HTC for clarification. Since this is an unofficial report, it is possible they will never show up, or be modified before release. Watch this space to keep up-to-date as details emerge.

Conversely, if you own another HTC device, the HTC 10, One A9, One M9, and Bolt have all received Nougat at this point. You can check our handy guide for more details. The company also keeps a constantly updated list of the most recent Android versions for all its devices, along with convenient download links.