Intel Optane DC could boost Xeon servers with up to three terabytes of memory

Intel has debuted a new entry in its Optane range which it calls DC Persistent Memory. It’s designed to act like both RAM and SSD storage, offering larger capacities and higher speeds than its individual counterparts. Aimed at servers — at least for now — the new standard will be built in 512GB sticks and is said to offer huge improvements to server reboot times, as well as to supported user numbers.

In a similar manner to the Optane modules that Intel has released so far, Optane DC Persistent Memory is a bridge that exists between longer-term storage and fast response memory. Offering masses more memory than traditional RAM sticks — as much as three terabytes per CPU socket — it will dynamically move data from longer-term solid state storage to memory chips as and when required much closer to the processor. That allows it to minimize the latency typically associated with fetching data from system storage.

Designed for datacenters and servers, the Optane DC Persistent Memory modules were found to offer big performance improvements in early testing. Intel claims that they can reduce restart times from minutes to seconds, thereby improving uptime and reducing penalties associated with system crashes. They also increase performance for virtual machine storage and cloud applications considerably, whilst allowing for much larger numbers of users per server.

Intel also suggests that analytics and applications that leverage large quantities of data can see big performance improvements when using the latest Xeon CPUs in conjunction with the Optane DC persistent memory.

The new memory/storage standard is in the sampling phase and will be shipping out to retail partners before the end of the year. Intel plans to make it broadly available to datacenter customers in 2019. Since developers need to program for DC Persistent Memory in order for users to take advantage of it, however, while production is ramped up, Intel will provide remote access to systems equipped with it in order to accelerate software development.

None of this is likely to speed up your new gaming PC any time soon, but the increase in user numbers supported by individual servers could offer some potential performance improvements for larger scale MMOs.

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False civil emergency alert text panics Oregon’s Marion County

KATU Photo

A vague but false civil emergency alert text sent to many residents of Marion County, Oregon, caused a significant panic on Tuesday evening, KATU reported.

The text message, sent at 8:29 p.m. PT on May 29 read:

Emergency Alert
Civil Emergency in this area until 11:28PM PDT
Prepare for Action OEM,1,OR

The message was supposed to notify residents of Salem, Oregon, the state’s capital city, about a tap water advisory. Instead, recipients of the whole county in which Salem is located were advised to “prepare” for some unqualified “Action.”

According to the Marion County Sheriff’s office, residents immediately started calling 911 to find out what was going on and what they should do about it.

Dispatchers at the 911 center told people not to call 911, that there was no emergency.

More than two hours after the disturbing text alert went out, the Marion County Sheriff’s office tweeted, “THERE IS NO CIVIL EMERGENCY. The message was intended to notify those affected by the water issue in Salem. PLEASE DO NOT CALL 911.”

A subsequent tweet by the City of Salem in response to a citizen’s query stated, “@OregonOEM sent this on our behalf. You can find out more information about the drinking water advisory on the City’s website: cityofsalem.net/Pages/drinking-water-advisory.aspx”

In a message to KATU, the Oregon Office of Emergency Management (OEM) explained a “technology issue” resulted in dropped data including the water advisory link in the message that went to phones. The message went out correctly to televisions but reverted to a default message on phones.

“The alert that was sent had to do with the water drink notice, sent on behalf of Marion County,” OEM spokesman Cory Grogan told KATU. “There were additional details that were supposed to go out, but for some reason, it went to the default message instead.”

The Salem tap water issue that was intended for the text alerts is a serious concern. The drinking water advisory explained that routine water testing of treated drinking water found low levels of cyanotoxins created by algal blooms in the city drinking water source, the Detroit Reservoir. Children under six, people with compromised immune systems, and other sensitive populations were advised not to drink tap water until otherwise advised.

Oregon OEM Director Andrew Phelps followed up later Tuesday evening with a statement that read in part:

“Beginning this evening, we are conducting a forensic analysis of the steps we took to send the message and ensure our procedures are written and practiced in a way that will prevent a confusing message from being sent from our system in the future.

“We understand the importance of emergency alerts and need to get it right, every time.”

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Dell is reportedly working on its dual-screen version of the Surface Phone

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Dell may become one of the first PC manufacturers to bring Microsoft’s vision of a dual-screen computer to life. Like Microsoft’s long-rumored Courier concept, Dell’s dual-screen device makes use of two folding screens, and it has been reported that Dell has been working on this concept since at least last summer. The endeavor is also known by its Januss code name.

It’s still too early to know specific details about Januss, but it appears that Dell may be borrowing ideas from the recent crop of Always Connected PCs. Januss will make use of an ARM-based processor and, more specifically, WinFuture reported that the device will arrive in the second half of this year with Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon 850 chip and an LTE modem.

The use of an ARM processor from Qualcomm, rather than Intel’s x86 chips, should help the device in the battery life department, and an LTE modem will ensure that users will have access to the internet no matter where they go. There is even a demo of Dell’s Januss Prototype 2 that’s hosted on a Dutch product prototyping firm’s website, according to ZDNet, however, the simulation requires two PCs to operate the left and right panels.

Januss is said to be manufactured by Compal Electronics with at least one USB Type-C port, which could also be used to recharge the device, along with several cameras, and a number of sensors like an electronic compass, accelerometer, and gyroscope. Given the sensors, it appears that Januss may resemble a smartphone or tablet more than a traditional laptop.

Code found in a recent Windows 10 SDK suggests that Microsoft may be readying Windows to support dual-screen devices. According to Twitter user WalkingCat, Microsoft made references to both hardware and software within the code with mentions of Andromeda OS and an Andromeda device. Andromeda OS is said to support both ARM and x86 processors, but the Andromeda hardware will be based off of an ARM chipset. Following the Courier concept, Andromeda became Microsoft’s rumored code name for a dual-screen Surface Phone.

It’s unclear if Microsoft’s long-rumored Surface Phone or if Dell’s project Januss will come to market first, but when they do, these devices will be met with strong competition from the Android camp. Samsung, Huawei, LG, and a number of Android smartphone manufacturers are working on foldable smartphones. A foldable design allows the device to maintain a compact footprint for travel, but when unfolded, consumers will benefit from a larger screen area for more productive tasks.

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Apple is most definitely working on augmented reality glasses

There is now more evidence suggesting that Apple is working on its own smart glasses for augmented and virtual reality experiences. In a new job listing, Apple is seeking to hire a 3D user interface engineer to “drive the next generation of interactive experiences for our platform.”

“You will work with some of Apple’s most advanced technologies including the Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) support offered in ARKit and Metal 2,” Apple said of the 3D UI Frameworks Engineer position within The Technology Development Group in a job post spotted by 9to5 Mac.

A prior report suggested that Apple could ready its AR glasses by 2020, with company exploring wireless technologies to create a consumer-friendly untethered augmented and virtual reality experience. Unlike some current AR and VR solutions on the market today, Apple’s implementation will reportedly not need trackers or cameras. Instead, all the hardware will either be packed into the glasses or an accompanying box. The headset will rely on the WiGig 2.0 wireless standard to communicate with the box, eliminating clunky wires.

“We have been and continue to invest a lot in this,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a 2016 earnings call when asked about the technology. “We are high on AR for the long run, we think there’s great things for customers and a great commercial opportunity.”

Apple’s mixed reality glasses would be a natural progression of the company’s efforts in the augmented reality space. Apple has been experimenting with AR through its smartphones. The iPhone X, for example, allows users to create AR emojis called Animoji, and Apple allows third-party apps to deliver AR capabilities by using the cameras on its smartphones.

In addition to software, Apple had also been working on the hardware side for its glasses, and the company had filed a patent application for a lens system that would allow for a more compact set of glasses. Given that AR glasses are worn on the face, reducing the bulk and weight of the glasses would lead to a more comfortable experience, especially if the glasses are worn for a longer duration.

When it launches, Apple’s mixed reality glasses will face competition from Microsoft, Facebook, HTC, and others. Microsoft is pushing its Hololens at enterprise customers, while less expensive Windows Mixed Reality headsets are designed for AR experiences on Windows 10. Facebook’s Oculus and HTC Vive are also popular options.

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Snapdragon 710 chips mean nobody has to spend $1,000 on a phone

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 710 announcement has the potential to shake things up when we are ready to buy our next phone.

I’ve always been a fan of “mid-range” silicon. Whether that means overclocking the living daylights out of a Intel Core i5 or AMD FX CPU or optimizing software parameters for middle of the road SoCs in mobile (my HTC Hero was hella fast with my own version of Android on it), squeezing every last drop out of a clock cycle is my kind of fun. Most of the time any optimization also scales upwards and downwards, meaning low-end hardware becomes more usable and high-end hardware seems like magic when you turn it on.

More importantly, I’m a fan when a company that makes these parts does it itself. And Qualcomm looks to have outdone itself with the coming Snapdragon 710. It’s more than a better Snapdragon 600 series; it’s an entirely new type of product that has the potential to change buying habits.

Snapdragon 845 “lite”

On paper, the 710 looks like a really good mid-range SoC. In reality, it’s more like an inexpensive high-end SoC and shares more features with the Snapdragon 800 series — the chips that power the Pixel phones and Galaxy S phones and every other phone creeping towards the $1,000 line — than it does with the tried-and-true 600 series.

This chip is not an improved Snapdragon 660. It’s a Snapdragon 835 that’s been sensibly scaled back.

I thought the Snapdragon 600 line was a great value. By using one, a manufacturer could shave money off the price and still have enough hardware at its disposal to do almost anything you would want a smartphone to do. But there was a fairly large performance gap between the 600 and 800 series of chips, especially when it came to the things other than raw performance per clock cycle. Other, equally important performance metrics like image processing and network speeds were far superior on a phone with a Snapdragon 800 series than any other chip Qualcomm had to offer.

That’s where the 710 shines. From the ground up it’s designed to deliver flagship-class performance without the flagship price. Its built on the exact same 10nm process as the 845 (and future 800 chips), which means it’s incredibly power-efficient. This is more than “better battery life” because power efficiency affects thermal performance and longevity of almost every other component on a phone’s board and the battery. If this were the only change from the 600 line of SoC, it’s enough; better battery life, better performance for a longer time, and an increased life for all the hardware is nothing to sneeze at.

10 nanometer fabrication is the biggest advancement in chip design in the past 10 years. Sometimes less is more.

It’s not the only change though. A mobile SoC (System on Chip) isn’t the CPU. It’s a piece of hardware that can be soldered to a board that includes the CPU, the GPU, various signal processors, and networking components, all in one module. The 710 is using the newest generation of individual components inside the SoC just like the 845 is, which nobody expected and makes me very happy.

A quick peek into the specs — don’t worry, I won’t let it get too boring here — shows a BIG.little CPU configuration with the same high-powered cores as the 800 series paired with a new set of efficiency cores based on the A55 CPU design. There’s a 600 series Adreno GPU, a 685 Hexagon DSP, a 200 series Spectra ISP, on-board system cache, an upgraded X15 LTE modem package and pipes for 10-bit HDR. These components are what you would expcet to see in an 800 series chip, not a mid range chip.

In real world usage, that all translates into a few important upgrades over the previous mid-range champ, the Snapdragon 600. Your photographs will be processed using the same engine that the Galaxy S9 uses, as will the effects engine for features like bokeh and portrait mode.. So will your phone audio. Modem features like 4X4 MIMO and LAA (License-Assisted Access) are also something we see in the 800 series chips and will mean better data speeds, though capped at only 800 Mbps. The 10-bit wide pipelines mean HDR capture and display, which should pair well with a GPU capable of 4K-30/60 playback while using less power than a 660 chip to do so.

This isn’t a mid-range chip the way we know mid-range chips.

A new class of phones

I think the 710 will also do something you can’t list on a spec sheet — allow companies to build phones we want to buy that don’t cost $1,000.

Allow me the liberty to use Apple as an example here. Apple’s iPhone 8 is the company’s bread and butter flagship for 2018. It’s an engineering marvel, and ranks up there with the Galaxy S9 and Pixel 2 as the best phones you can buy in 2018. But it’s not the expensive model — that’s the iPhone X.

Unless Samsung starts adding a bunch of COM overhead to Android, the next Galaxy phone does not need a Snapdragon 855. (Please don’t do that, Samsung.)

A Snapdragon 710 would let Samsung build a Galaxy SX (yes, I went there) that does everything we expect and does it very well without driving the price any higher than the Galaxy S9 retail. The Note X could then use the newest breed of Snapdragon 800 chip for users who wan’t the most performance possible and are OK with paying more for it.

The Snapdragon 845 was designed to power a Microsoft Windows laptop, complete with overhead like Direct X and about a gazillion mismashed 32 and 64-bit background processes running. Many of the components used in an 845 SoC aren’t being used to their full potential when it’s inside a phone. In plain English, that means you don’t need a Snapdragon 845 to power your Galaxy S9, but a Snapdragon 660 just isn’t going to cut it. In comes the Snapdragon 710 to fill that void with hardware fully capable and everyone is happy and Timmy was rescued from the well.

Am I dreaming out loud here? Of course, that’s what I do best. Odds are the next big thing from the next company to release a flagship smartphone will use the newest Snapdragon 800 SoC and be sure to tell us all about it in product sheets and an unveiling event. But you need to know it doesn’t have to, and that the phone not getting all the attention which uses the Snapdragon 710 chip is probably everything you ever wanted and needed. And it won’t be $1,000.

Is the LG V35 worth its $900 asking price?

Checking in with the AC forums.

On May 30, LG announced a brand new flagship called the V35 ThinQ. The phone’s a mashup between the LG G7 and the V30, using the V30’s design and notch-free display with the G7’s upgraded internals and cameras.

It’s an interesting mix, to say the least, but one that’ll cost you a pretty penny. The V35 will set you back $900 on AT&T and Project Fi (the two carriers it’s being sold at), and with a price that large, phones like the Galaxy S9 and Pixel 2 easily undercut it between $200 and $300.

With that being the case, are you even considering buying the V35 ThinQ? Our forum users recently answered this very question, and this is what they had to say.

Almeuit
05-30-2018 11:36 AM

“

$900? LOL.

Reply

Laura Knotek
05-30-2018 05:21 PM

“

This is way too overpriced for a carrier-exclusive device. $600 would be a more reasonable price.

Reply

eric12341
05-30-2018 03:40 PM

“

$100 cheaper than the iPhone X and is more capable.

Reply

ScottsoNJ
05-30-2018 12:34 PM

“

for the first 2 weeks. After that it will $699…. if they plan to sell any phones that is

Reply

What do you think? Is the V35 worth $900?

Join the conversation in the forums!

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Alcatel 1X Android Go phone launching in the U.S. next week for $99

The phone will be sold at Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart.

Alcatel showed off a lot of phones at MWC this past February, but one that caught our attention the most was the Alcatel 1X. The 1X is Alcatel’s first Android Go smartphone, meaning that it offers an Android experience optimized for lower-end hardware at a very affordable price.

The Alcatel 1X is made out of plastic but features a suede-like back that should offer a great deal of texture. There’s a fingerprint sensor below the 8MP rear camera and around the front is a 5-inch 480 x 960 display with an 18:9 aspect ratio.

Inside the 1X, you’ll find a MediaTek MT6739 processor, 1GB RAM, 16GB of expandable storage (up to 32GB), and a 2,460 mAh battery. Also included is a 5MP selfie camera, support for all GSM networks, and Android 8.0 Oreo (Go Edition).

Those specs may not sound all that impressive on their own, but that quickly changes when you factor in the 1X’s price of just $99.99.

You’ll be able to purchase the Alcatel 1X next week from Amazon, and in the coming weeks, it’ll roll out to Best Buy and Walmart.

See at Amazon

Marcelo Claure is no longer the CEO of Sprint

Claure’s now serving the company as Executive Chairman.

In late April, T-Mobile and Sprint announced the two brands were merging together to form one new company to spearhead the 5G revolution. Current T-Mobile CEO John Legere will act as CEO of the new venture, but as part of the deal, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure will be stepping down from his existing role.

May 30, 2018, was officially Claure’s last day. His new position within the company will be Executive Chairman and Sprint CFO Michel Combes is being promoted as the company’s new CEO — at least until the merger is officially completed.

Claure became CEO in 2014, and in a thread on Twitter, highlighted the transformed company culture, Sprint Says Thanks initiative, the Hulu partnership, and more as some of his most memorable accomplishments.

As for Michel Combes, he joined Sprint just a few months back in January as a replacement for former CFO Tarek Robbiati. Prior to his time at Sprint, Combes was acting as CEO of Alcatel-Lucent at the time it was being sold to Nokia.

T-Mobile and Sprint Merger FAQ: The good, the bad, and the ugly

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NVIDIA Shield TV Android 8.0 Oreo update rollout on hold for bugfixes [update]

NVIDIA Shield TV is still the gold standard for Android TV. It starts at $179 on Amazon.

The only Android TV box you should buy just got better.

Update: NVIDIA seems to have found some bugs in the 8.0 update during the early stages of the rollout, and has paused the update while fixes are applied.

Big news for those of you who have NVIDIA Shield TV — which, by the way, is the only Android TV box you should consider right now. The Android 8.0 Oreo update (which brings it up to the latest major version of Android) is available starting today.

This’ll bring along a major update to the user interface. You’ll get new sections along the left side of the screen, with your favorite apps (customizable, of course), play next (where what you’ve been watching and playing recently will appear) and channels (which is what apps are now called, sort of).

In addition, Amazon Prime Video will get a major refresh, Plex Media Service is improved, and a whole bunch more.

And, of course, Google Assistant still plays a big role here, and that means you can take advantage of all the smart stuff you’ve got scattered throughout your home, accessible via the Shield remote or game controller.

A few other things NVIDIA says to look out for:

• Hold the back button to access to the settings menu from the home screen
• A higher polling rate for gaming mice for NVIDIA GameStream
• Improved support for game controllers like the Shield controller, Xbox 360 and DualShock controllers
• Can connect to Wifi without disconnecting Ethernet
• Improves Bluetooth re-pairing

To update your Shield TV, just head into the settings menu, then About, then choose the update option.

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YouTube Music Premium doesn’t make sense, and that’s exactly why it exists

Audio-only and casting to Google Home are Premium features, but please don’t pay YouTube Music Premium to get them.

Let’s call a spade a spade: This is a price jump.

YouTube made several announcements this month, from the announcement of a “brand-new” YouTube Music to the evolution of YouTube Red into YouTube Premium. There were many things to get excited about in the new YouTube Music, but one thing made absolutely no sense: the pricing for YouTube Music Premium.

Well, the pricing makes a tiny amount of sense, but only in one way: YouTube Music Premium is here so that you feel better about paying more for the same service millions of subscribers have enjoyed for years.

Confusingly easy: The Google Play Music combo pack

There’s no point in denying how confusing Google’s subscription offerings for music have been for years now to the average consumer, but up until May of 2018, things were actually pretty easy to sum up:

If you subscribed to one of Google’s music/media apps, you subscribed to all three of them.

If you signed up for Google Play Music back in 2013 when it was called All Access, you paid $7.99/month ($9.99/month is the price today), and you have an unlimited subscription in Google Play Music, YouTube Red, and premium service in YouTube Music. And to early adopters still paying $7.99 today, meaning that you have saved $120 over the life of your subscription. Good for you.

If you signed up for YouTube Red back in 2015, you paid $9.99/month, and you have an unlimited subscription in Google Play Music, YouTube Red, and premium service in YouTube Music.

This meant that while there may be some surface confusion about which subscription to get, the bottom line was dead simple: you buy one, you get them all.

Enter YouTube Music Premium

With the new Premium models, YouTube is splitting up if benefits. Now, you can:

• Pay $9.99/month for YouTube Music Premium to get rid of ads and enable background/offline playback in YouTube Music. (This includes the audio-only mode and the ability to cast to Chromecast Audio devices like Google Home).
• Pay $11.99/month for YouTube Premium to get rid of ads and enable background/offline playback in YouTube, YouTube Music, YouTube Kids, YouTube Gaming, YouTube VR and Google Play Music (maybe), AND access to YouTube Originals content.

Google Play Music’s inclusion in YouTube Premium for new subscribers is unclear. We know that anyone currently subscribing to YouTube Red will continue to receive Google Play Music, and Google Play Music subscribers will get all YouTube Premium benefits in addition to their current GPM subscription (and early adopter price, if you have it).

YouTube Music premium is 83% the price of YouTube Premium with less than 20% of the benefits. While it matches the subscription prices for Spotify Premium and Apple Music, no one in their right mind should pay for YouTube Music Premium. You will be dramatically overpaying for your benefits. Pay for YouTube Premium instead.

Price hikes are a part of any long-term service. Netflix has raised prices, Amazon Prime has raised prices, and Hulu has used subscription add-ons for channels, No Commercials, and Live TV to stave off doing the same. Even with a $2 price hike, YouTube Premium is still a great value, eliminating ads and giving us background and offline capabilities for the most popular video platform in the world.

But the bottom line should be this: if you haven’t bought YouTube Red yet, go sign up now to lock in $10/month before the price goes up.

YouTube Red ($9.99/month individual, $11.99/month family)