JBL’s $399 Android TV soundbar now up for pre-order, sales kick off in Oct.

JBL’s Link Bar is an Assistant-integrated soundbar that’s also an Android TV device.

JBL announced the Link Bar — a $399 soundbar that doubles up as an Android TV device along with Google Assistant integration — back at I/O 2018, and we now have mode details on availability. The Link Bar is now up for pre-order on B&H Photo for $399, and retail availability is set to kick off from October 16.

As spotted by Android Police, the soundbar offers a PrivacySwitch option that lets you mute the microphones when not using Assistant, and there’s also the option to stream music directly to the device as it also has Bluetooth functionality.

Hands-on: JBL Link Bar soundbar with Android TV and Google Assistant

The Link Bar is turning out to be one of the more interesting products in this space, as you’re essentially getting an Android TV box in addition to an Assistant-integrated soundbar for the price of a Google Home Max. If you’re interested, hit up the link below to pre-order the Link Bar.

See at B&H photo

Xiaomi Mi Band 3 brings enough great features for the price (review)

Xiaomi seemed to have a sleeper hit on their hands with the Mi Band 2; a smartwatch/fitness tracker that lacked several high-end features, but was offered at a price (about $20 US) low enough to tempt a whole lot of people to give it a try.

Including our household- I personally bought one for my wife, who to that point was not a fitness stats-based person in the least. While she was appreciative but hesitant at first, she quickly got into using it all the time; particularly with tracking steps or just using it as a funky little watch.

Now comes its its successor, the Mi Band 3. At about $40 US, you get an updated design (with multiple band color options in addition to matte black), capacitive touch interaction, sports modes, larger screen, water resistance, sleep tracking, weather info, and distance tracking are some of the big improvements you’ll find over the last generation.

Unboxing

The packaging to the Mi Band is pretty minimal, consistent with the device itself. You get the body floating front-and-center, with the band and charging cord hiding behind it. No wall pack is included; you need to supply your own.

What you get.

The box contents.

Unfortunately, the cord is short, about 6″, with a proprietary 2-prong connector. The body snaps in & out of the strap and slides into the charger on its own.

Advantages

Appearance, Comfort, Fit

On my son’s wrist.

One of the biggest changes to the Mi Band is its looks. In contrast to the Mi Band 2, the main body now sports a super-glossy water drop-type rounded oval to it. It almost borders on gem-like shininess, and you will likely get a comment or two while exposed on your wrist.

In contrast to the physical button from the Mi Band 2, The Mi Band 3 uses a capacitive button low & center. The rest of the screen is also capacitive, allowing navigation by swiping through screens as needed. Another change is the screen has grown from 0.42 inches to 0.78. The pixel density is plenty high enough for detailed text, though the brightness can struggle a bit in bright sunlight.

The silicone band is very comfortable (the Mi Band 2 was also a comfort winner), split between the soft material feel and the generally diminutive stature of the entire device. Unlike a lot of smartwatches/activity trackers that seem to get progressively bigger & bulkier with each iteration, the Mi Band 3 seems to disappear on your wrist with its small size and lack of bulk. With the sleep tracking functionality, this is especially advantageous as you could easily wear this device comfortably while snoozing.

Battery

Another main draw for me with the Mi Band 2 was battery life. Reading other reviews it seemed that one could get weeks of life with normal use. Read that again: weeks of battery life. That phrase is seldom heard beyond the e-reader realm. But it was true; we normally went 1-2 month between needed recharging.

Read more: Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S first impressions: Looks great, handles like a dream

Similarly, the same can be said for the Mi Band 3. While the display is nicer and brighter, a better chip-set and bigger battery balance this to give you a very similar battery life experience. Expect to go weeks between recharging. In the age of smartwatches barely going a day or two, this type of lifespan is beyond refreshing!

Water Resistance

Also, Xiaomi added hearty water resistance to the Mi Band 3; offering a stated resistance down to 50 meters. Feel free to swim, bike or run in the rain, and shower while using your Mi Band.

Disadvantages

Lacking sensors

The Mi Band 3 uses (depends, actually) on the Mi Fit app (found here in the Play Store). Once you download the app to your phone, you open it and set up your account for using the watch.

The type and breadth of info to capture on the Mi Band 3 is where its price starts to reflect what you get for the money. Heart rate monitoring is certainly available, though you do need the phone app within Bluetooth distance. Heart rate monitoring is manually activated, either on the watch or within the app. The accuracy of the monitoring was ok, with a notable delay sometimes in the numbers being shown on the display. If health-wise you’re beyond just a curious user, you may want to look for a more accurate device.

While you can track distance right on the watch, unfortunately, that’s really about it. Also, you can only activate activity-specific tracking through the app, not the watch; and if you want GPS-level accuracy to your activities, your paired phone needs to be in tow. Again, if you’re approaching a more serious approach to fitness, having to carry your phone with you could be a deterrent… a higher-level device may be better suited to you.

Within the app, the level of detail is not the most exhaustive. You can find and track your basic stats, but as with aforementioned metrics, if you’re looking to really drill down into your performance, you just won’t find it here.

Final thoughts

All that said, the Xiaomi is not looking to challenge the extreme super-watches that cost hundreds of dollars here. In contrast, the Mi Band 3 knows exactly what it is, and who it’s for.

Its appearance is sleek and minimal. Furthermore, usability is very easy. If you’re new to fitness tracking, or just aren’t worried about uber-deep statistics, you get a colorful, well-designed interface. If you have any experience as a modern smartphone owner, battery life on the Mi Band is almost unbelievable.

Similar to the previous version, you can allow notifications to be displayed on your Mi Band using the settings within the app. This includes incoming calls, texts, alarms, and notifications from other apps.

As a result, the Xiaomi Mi Band 3 is everything it claims to be. If you’re looking for a simple-to-use, attractive, and functional device, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better option to give a new health tracker a try.

Do you want to pick up the Xiaomi Mi Band 3? We suggest you begin your search at GearVita, who was nice enough to supply our review unit. GearVita was nice enough to pass along the following discount codes:

• Xiaomi Mi Band 3 Chinese version – Coupon code: MIBAND3CN – $5 off
• Xiaomi Mi Band 3 International version – Coupon code: MIBAND3GE – $5 off

Read next: Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 review: Still worth it in 2018?

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Google Home is awesome; here’s how to make it even better!

Check it out!

A MacBook Air with Retina display and Mac Mini “Pro” could arrive this fall

Mac faithful who swear by their Mac Mini desktop and MacBook Air, which kickstarted the Ultrabook revolution in consumer laptops, may have reason to celebrate this fall. Apple is planning on updating both Mac models later this year with new features, and the company’s miniature desktop is said to be getting a pro-centric focus.

Rumors of a refreshed MacBook Air have picked up steam in recent months, and like earlier reports, Bloomberg claims that the laptop will come with a huge screen update. As the only current notebook in Apple’s laptop lineup without a high-resolution Retina screen, Apple will be giving its 13-inch laptop a Retina makeover this year, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar with Apple’s products. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has a solid track record with Apple leaks ahead of the company’s product launches, previously reported that the refreshed notebook could come in at $1,000, essentially replacing the current MacBook Air at that price point.

In addition to the MacBook Air refresh, Apple could also give its Mac Mini desktop a refresh, with some features catered to professionals. Given that Apple recently refreshed a high-end iMac Pro for its prosumer audience, this move makes sense. With the pro-centric Mac Mini, Apple will focus on more premium components that could increase the starting price of the laptop.

“For this year’s model, Apple is focusing primarily on these pro users, and new storage and processor options are likely to make it more expensive than previous versions,” Bloomberg reported and similarly cited people familiar with Apple’s plans.  This would be the first Mac Mini refresh in several years, and given the available technology today — like Intel’s eighth-generation processors — it could be the most powerful update to the beloved desktop computer ever.

The Mac Mini remains a popular option for many users given its compact size and low cost. Unlike the all-in-one iMac and iMac Pro, the Mac Mini doesn’t ship with a display, keyboard, or mouse, and users will have to add their own peripherals to use the computer. However, with a starting price at just $499, it remains one of the most affordable ways to enter Apple’s MacOS ecosystem.

Apple’s hardware refresh could happen as early as October. Historically, Apple announces its new iPhone and Apple Watch in September, and a Mac hardware event could follow a few weeks later in October. Apple is also slated to release MacOS Mojave in the fall as well.

Another Mac model that is getting refreshed is the Mac Pro. Unlike speculations surrounding the MacBook Air and pro-centric Mac Mini, Apple already confirmed its plans to update the Mac Pro, and the company previously announced that the updated hardware will arrive next year in a move to appease high-end professionals and creatives. These hardware updates will help Apple recover from stagnant Mac sales and improve its market share in the PC space.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Another Mac-less Apple event has come and gone
• Mac Mini could make a comeback this year with a rumored refresh
• Apple preps production of updated MacBook Air for a 2018 launch
• Apple’s new MacBook Air with Intel’s 8th-gen processors expected this year
• A cheaper MacBook Air could still arrive in late 2018

Nvidia’s new GPUs look amazing, but that doesn’t mean you should buy one

To the delight of the enthusiast gaming community, Nvidia finally announced its GeForce RTX 20-series GPUs at Gamescom. In many ways, these GPUs are everything we’ve all been waiting for, showcasing powerful technologies like real-time ray tracing, dedicated tensor and RT cores, and a densely packed array of transistors on the new Turing architecture. Nvidia claims these new cards, which range from $500 to $1,200, perform at six times the level of the company’s previous graphics cards.

But no matter how large the leap forward is, these new GPUs won’t matter for the majority of PC gamers. Unless you were planning on upgrading this fall anyways, there’s not a big incentive to go and pick up these cards for at least a couple of years.

Limited games

The highlight of the GeForce RTX series is its ray tracing capabilities. This highly-anticipated feature is now finally available for the first time ever on consumer graphics chips — that’s according to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang during his keynote presentation in Germany. In short, ray tracing brings real-time processing of lighting to scenes in a game, bringing cinematic effects to gameplay by showing how reflections, lights, and shadows in up to 4K resolution. Nvidia partner Electronic Arts demonstrated how ray tracing can be enabled in a game to show the reflection of a burning fire on the side of a car door in a demo of Battlefield V.  The results are noticeable and present a serious step in the journey toward photorealism.

But even if ray tracing is the holy grail of graphics technology, its impact on gamers will be more limited, at least in the beginning. The technology certainly looks promising, but the reality is that only a limited number of games will come with ray tracing support this year. 

You likely won’t notice much of a performance improvement for most real-world tasks.

Given that most of the most popular games on Steam are older titles that run fine on even hardware with moderate power, the added power of Nvidia’s RTX 20 series may be overkill. Unless you’re one of the very few people who are pushing the envelope with high frame rates in 4K resolution, a lot of the power of the RTX 20 series will be wasted. If you already own a higher-end Nvidia GTX 10 series graphics card, you likely won’t notice much of a performance improvement for most real-world tasks. That’s even truer if you primarily play competitive-style games where detailed shadows, lights, and reflections aren’t game-changers.

Over time, as developers add support for ray tracing, the content may grow. But like a technology like DirectX 12, don’t expect Nvidia’s vision to be fully realized at the onset. We’re not talking years here — not months.

Virtual reality is still not fully a reality

Another benefit that Nvidia was promoting with the RTX GPU is better support for virtual reality. The company is pushing the VirtualLink standard that allows VR headsets to connect to the PC with just a single USB-C cable. This will lead to a simpler experience out of the box for users looking to adopt VR, but it’s always possible that not all manufacturers will support this feature.

Nvidia

“All of the Turing-based cards support the new VirtualLink specification for VR headsets, though it’s possible some manufacturers won’t provide the actual USB-C connector, as well as DisplayPort 1.4 to drive 8K video,” CNET stated in its report.

Gamers who purchase the RTX cards are buying into Nvidia’s vision for the future of graphics.

But to take advantage full advantage of this, you’ll need to invest in a new VR headset that supports VirtualLink and wait for 8K VR content to arrive. Not only is that a far-off proposal, VR itself is still in its infancy. While it’s a use case for high-end hardware, most of the statistics show that interest in VR isn’t exploding the way it was supposed to.

Again, it’s a technology that has the potential to pay off in the long haul. As for now, you’re paying for something you probably won’t use.

Waiting may be worth it

When the new cards arrive, you may be able to find some deals on Nvidia’s GTX series, and that may be a better investment over the next few years unless you’re ready to upgrade all your peripherals to take advantage of all the advancements of the RTX cards. That means a new 4K gaming monitor, new VR headsets that support VirtualLink, and purchase new limited number of game titles that come with support for ray tracing.

At this time, gamers who purchase the RTX cards are buying into Nvidia’s vision for the future of graphics. But that future hasn’t arrived yet, and you’re making an investment up front for something that won’t immediately pay off. And given that this is the first generation of the consumer RTX card, you’re really making a blind purchase before seeing any real-world benchmarks and reviews. We still don’t even know how many tensor cores are on these RTX cards.

If you are already planning for an upgrade or a new system, it might not be a bad idea to pick one of these up. But for most people, the RTX 20 series will be overkill.

The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not reflect the beliefs of Digital Trends.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Nvidia’s Turing chip reinvents computer graphics (but not for gaming)
• Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 20 Series starts at $500 and features real-time ray tracing
• Here’s how to watch Nvidia’s GeForce event at Gamescom
• Nvidia’s GTX 11 Series may get people ready for the next generation of VR
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 11 Series’ arrival is uncertain after Computex remark

Cutting-edge paper-based battery is powered by electron-harvesting bacteria

Considering that they can contain ingredients like nickel-cadmium, alkaline, and mercury, batteries represent a potentially dangerous form of waste. For this reason, it’s no wonder that researchers are busy trying to come up with environmentally future-friendly batteries, which could one day be used to power similarly biodegradable devices.

That’s where a new project from Binghamton University, State University of New York, comes into the picture. Scientists there have been working to develop a new type of paper-based battery, which is powered by electron-harvesting bacteria. The battery is composed of waxed paper, printed with thin layers of metals and polymers. These hold a type of freeze-dried bacteria called exoelectrogens, which are capable of harvesting electrons and then using them to provide power. The batteries also contain a pouch of liquid bacteria food. When the battery is squeezed, the liquid comes into contact with the bacteria, thereby causing the battery to start functioning.

The innovative project comes from the lab of Professor Seokheun Choi, whose work we have previously covered on a couple of occasions. Choi’s earlier battery projects include a stretchy, textile-based, bacteria-powered bio-battery, and a paper-like microbial fuel cell which produces electricity when activated by saliva.

At present, the new paper battery is capable only of powering low-power devices, such as miniature calculators or LED lights. Each battery has a shelf life of around four months and can provide power for a period of up to two days. In the future, the team hopes that it will be possible to extend this so that it can help power medical technologies. One possible way to achieve this might be to stack multiple paper batteries on top of one another, or potentially to create multiple batteries on one long sheet, which could then be folded. Given the growing amount of biomedical research projects involving ingestible biosensors, it is easy to see where a biodegradable battery such as this one would find a home.

Because of what a major game-changer this could be if executed correctly, we will certainly be following the future development of this project with interest. The research was recently presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Genetically engineered bacteria paint microscopic masterpieces
• Engineers have made a new type of lithium battery that won’t explode
• Science says waste beer could help us live on Mars
• Cornell’s popcorn-powered robots are far more practical than they sound
• Astrobiologists think the moon might have hosted simple life-forms long ago

Samsung Galaxy Note 9 vs. OnePlus 6: Does more expensive mean better?

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is finally here, boasting perhaps the best specs ever to show up in an Android smartphone, as well as a big and beautiful display. But it’s not the only new flagship phone to turn heads — OnePlus also unveiled its latest flagship, the OnePlus 6, not too long ago — and it has some pretty spectacular specs of its own.

But which device is the way to go? Is one clearly better than the other? We put the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 and OnePlus 6 to the test to find out.

Specs

Samsung Galaxy Note 9
OnePlus 6

Size
161.9 x 76.4 x 8.8 mm (6.37 x 3.00 x 0.35 inches)
155.7 x 75.4 x 7.8 mm (6.13 x 2.97 x 0.31 inches)

Weight
201 grams (7.09 ounces)
177 grams (6.24 ounces)

Screen size
6.4-inch Super AMOLED display
6.28-inch AMOLED

Screen resolution
2,960 x 1,440 pixels (516 pixels-per-inch)
2,280 x 1,080 pixels (402 pixels-per-inch)

Operating system
Android 8.1 Oreo
Android 8.1 Oreo

Storage space
128GB, 512GB
64GB, 128GB, 256GB

MicroSD card slot
Yes
No

Tap to pay services
Google Pay
Google Pay

Processor
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845

RAM
6GB, 8GB
6GB, 8GB

Camera
Dual sensor 12MP rear, 8MP front
Dual sensor 16MP + 20MP rear, 16MP front

Video
2,160p at 60 frames per second, 1,080p at 240 fps, 720p at 960 fps
2,160p at 60 frames per second, 1,080p at 240 fps, 720p at 480 fps

Bluetooth version
Bluetooth 5.0
Bluetooth 5.0

Ports
USB-C, Headphone Jack
USB-C

Fingerprint sensor
Yes
Yes

Water resistance
IP68
Yes

Battery
4,000mAh
3,300mAh

App marketplace
Google Play Store
Google Play Store

Network support
T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint
AT&T, T-Mobile

Colors
Ocean Blue, Lavender Purple
Midnight Black, Mirror Black

Price
$1,000
$529

Buy from
AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, Amazon, Samsung
OnePlus

Review score
4 stars
4.5 stars

Performance, battery life, and charging

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

While these two phones come at drastically different prices, they actually offer very similar specs. Both devices boast Qualcomm’s latest and greatest processor, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, and either 6GB or 8GB of RAM, depending on the model you go for. Of course, there are a few differences in power — the Galaxy Note 9, for example, features a new water-cooling system that Samsung says will help push the processor a little more than it otherwise could be pushed.

On top of that, the Galaxy Note 9 features more storage than the OnePlus 6 — while the OnePlus 6 has options for 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB of storage, the Galaxy Note 9 boasts either 128GB or a whopping 512GB of storage — which is perfect for those who want a little more space for their files. There’s also room for a MicroSD card in the Note 9.

The battery on the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is also quite a bit bigger than the one in the OnePlus 6. The Galaxy Note 9 features a 4,000mAh battery, and it can be charged through wireless charging and supports fast charging. The OnePlus 6’s battery is 3,300mAh, and while it does support OnePlus’ fast charging tech, it does not have wireless charging.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy Note 9

Design and durability

Andy Boxall/DigitalTrends.com

One of the biggest differences between expensive flagship phones and more affordable ones is often the design — and while both the OnePlus 6 and Samsung Galaxy Note 9 look great, there are a few key differences in how they look.

The OnePlus 6, for starters, is the first OnePlus phone to feature a nice, big edge-to-edge display, which comes in at 6.28-inches. Like many other edge-to-edge phones, you will find a notch on this device with a speaker and front-facing camera, and there is a small chin on the bottom. The back of the phone features a dual-sensor camera and a fingerprint sensor. On the bottom of the phone, you’ll find a USB-C port and headphone jack. The overall design is basic, but it’s also sleek and stylish.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9, on the other hand, is a little more complex. Unlike the OnePlus 6, the Galaxy Note 9 does feature a small forehead and chin, though thankfully they’re not overly pronounced. The curved display comes in at 6.4-inches, and on the bottom of the phone you’ll find a USB-C port and a headphone jack, along with a slot for the S-Pen.

When it comes to durability, neither of the two phones are great. They both feature a ton of glass, meaning that if you drop them, there is a possibility that they could crack or break. The Galaxy Note 9, however, has an official IP68 rating, meaning it’ll withstand being in up to 1.5 meters of water for up to 30 minutes. While the OnePlus 6 does feature some water-resistance, it’s not officially rated. Because the Galaxy Note 9 is more durable, it edges out the OnePlus 6 here.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy Note 9

Display

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

Smartphone displays are getting better in general, but there are a few differences between the displays on the OnePlus 6 and Samsung Galaxy Note 9.

The OnePlus 6 has a 6.28-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 2,280 x 1,080 pixels and a pixel density of 402 pixels per inch. The display ratio comes in at 19:9, which is even longer than the 18:9 displays that have been popular over the last year or so.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9’s display is also an AMOLED display, and it comes in with a resolution of 2,960 x 1,440 pixels and a pixel density of 516 pixels per inch. The aspect ratio is very similar at 18.5:9.

Because of the higher resolution, Samsung is the clear winner here.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy Note 9

Camera

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

Both the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 and the OnePlus 6 have dual-sensor cameras, but the specs on the two are a little different. The OnePlus 6, for starters, boasts a dual 16 megapixel and 20 megapixel camera, with an aperture of f/1.7 and optical image stabilization. The front-facing camera also comes in at 16 megapixels with an aperture of f/2.0.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9, on the other hand, has a dual 12 megapixel and 12 megapixel camera, with a variable aperture of between f/1.5-2.4, and optical image stabilization. The front-facing camera comes in at 8 megapixels with an aperture of f/1.7.

Now, while the OnePlus 6 has a higher number of megapixels, megapixels alone don’t make for a great camera. In our testing, the variable aperture and camera software in the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 makes it the better choice when it comes to smartphone cameras.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy Note 9

Software and updates

Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

Both the OnePlus 6 and Samsung Galaxy Note 9 are Android phones, but it’s not that simple. While the OnePlus 6 features a relatively stock version of Android 8.1 Oreo, and a few tweaks that are aimed at making certain features easier to access, all of the software tweaks are optional — so if you don’t like them, you can easily turn them off. That makes the OnePlus 6 a great choice for stock Android fans.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9, on the other hand, features a heavily edited version of Android, which is typical of Samsung phones. The device ships with Android 8.1 with the Samsung Experience skin over the top of it. There’s plenty of customization here, but you will be stuck with a bunch of pre-installed apps and a design that you may not like.

Then there are updates, and neither of the two companies are amazing at them — but of the two, OnePlus will likely be a little better. Because of that, we’re giving this one to OnePlus.

Winner: OnePlus 6

Special features

Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

OnePlus is known for offering a flagship experience at a great price, but the trade-off for that is that OnePlus’ phones don’t offer too many special features. The phone does offer facial recognition through its front-facing camera, but it’s not necessarily as secure as phones like the iPhone X.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9, on the other hand, offers a host of special features. The device comes with the Samsung S Pen stylus, with which you can write and draw. Now that it has Bluetooth, you can also use it as a remote for things like the camera, making it a pretty handy feature. The Galaxy Note 9 also has both Samsung Bixby and Google Assistant — though most users will probably want to stick with Google Assistant considering how much better it is right now. The camera in the device also boasts a bunch of cool features, like object recognition and a Scene Optimizer feature that often helps make photos look better. Then there’s DeX mode, which allows you to use your Note 9 as a desktop computer replacement by plugging into a monitor.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 simply offers more features, so it’s the winner here.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy Note 9

Price

Price is perhaps the main difference between these two phones. While the OnePlus 6 starts at $529, the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 starts at almost double that at $999. It’s safe to say, you have to really want the extra features and better camera in the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 to want to spend that much cash on it.

Overall winner: Samsung Galaxy Note 9

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 is the clear winner here — it performs better, has a better camera, and simply offers more features. That does not, however, necessarily mean you should buy it. If you like the idea of still getting a flagship-spec phone and want to save some cash, the OnePlus 6 is an excellent way to go. If, however, the camera is super important to you and you’re interested in things like the S Pen, you may want to shell out a lot more cash for the Samsung Galaxy Note 9.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Samsung Galaxy Note 9 vs. Galaxy Note 8 vs. Note 5: All the changes of note
• Samsung Galaxy Note 9 vs. Huawei P20 Pro: Two high-end phones clash
• Moto Z3 Play vs. OnePlus 6: Can Motorola’s latest beat our midrange pick?
• Samsung Galaxy Note 9 vs. BlackBerry Key2: Productivity powerhouse punch-out
• Samsung Galaxy Note 9 vs. Pixel 2 XL: Flagship face-off

Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 20 Series starts at $500 and features real-time ray tracing

Nvidia

As expected, Nvidia introduced its new GeForce RTX 20 Series of add-in desktop graphics cards for gamers during its pre-show Gamescom press event. The new family is based on Nvidia’s new “Turing” architecture focusing on real-time ray tracing for believable, photo-realistic gaming.

Available to pre-order today and available on the market August 20, the GeForce RTX 2070 will have a starting price of $500, capable of eight giga rays per second and packing 8GB of on-board GDDR6 memory. Moving up the line will be the RTX 2080 with a starting price of $700 packing the expected 8GB of GDDR6 memory and capable of eight giga rays per second. The third card is the RTX 2080 Ti with a starting price of $1,000 with 11GB of on-board memory and capable of pushing 10 giga rays per second.

That said, Nvidia’s prices for its Founders Edition models are a little higher. You can pre-order the 2080 Ti model for $1,200 while the RTX 2080 costs $800 and the RTX 2070 model costs $600. So far, there’s no sign of the rumored RTX 2060 version that’s slated to arrive later this year. Note that the RTX 2070 currently does not have a ship date while the other two cards are slated to arrive September 20.

• 1.
  GeForce RTX 2080 Ti
• 2.
  GeForce RTX 2080
• 3.
  GeForce RTX 2070

According to Nvidia, the underlying “Turing” architecture is the biggest leap forward in graphics technology since the company introduced CUDA. The big push with this design is accelerating ray tracing, a method of rendering area illumination, shadows and reflections realistically in real time. That’s where the “RT” aspect in the labeling comes into play.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said during the show that the company spent the last ten years developing its Turing design. The resulting chip is the “second-largest” ever made packing 18.9 trillion transistors. The chip includes three key components: RT Cores dedicated to real-time ray tracing, Tensor Cores to accelerate artificial intelligence, and the Turing SM processor cores.

Based on the presentation, hardware still isn’t at a level where a single card can “brute force” photo-realistic visuals at an extremely high frame rate and resolution. That’s still performed by multi-GPU servers. And while the new RT Cores can perform 10 giga rays per second versus the non-ray tracing cores in the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti performing at 1.21 giga rays per second, they need AI to correctly “fill in the gaps.”

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But Nvidia isn’t just revealing a new family of cards. Part of the presentation discussed how neural networks will pre-generate these lighting calculations. The data will then be provided through driver downloads and used by the Tensor Cores as the new RTX 20 Series renders the scene using ray tracing.

What was interesting about the demos showcased during the presentation was that the ray tracing could be switched on and off, revealing the environments before and after ray tracing illuminated the scene. The demos included Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Battlefield 5 and Metro Exodus.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Nvidia’s Turing chip reinvents computer graphics (but not for gaming)
• Here’s how to watch Nvidia’s GeForce event at Gamescom
• Nvidia teases new GeForce RTX 2080 launch at Gamescom next week
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 11 Series’ arrival is uncertain after Computex remark
• Nvidia vs. AMD

Nvidia GeForce RTX GPUs are coming to Alienware and Predator gaming desktops

Dell and Acer have both announced support for the new GeForce RTX GPUs across the companies’ lineup of gaming desktops. The pair of announcements was timed with Nvidia’s Gamescom keynote where CEO Jensen Huang introduced the world to the next generation of consumer graphics cards, dubbed the GeForce RTX 2000 series.

In particular, Nvidia announced three specific cards: The RTX 2070, 2080, and 2080 Ti. These GPUs all come with real-time ray tracing, a highly anticipated feature in graphics that dramatically increases the realism of lighting and shadowing in games.

On the Acer side of things, these new graphics cards will be coming to Predator Orion 9000, 5000, and 3000 gaming desktops. The cheaper Predator Orion 3000 will include the RTX 2070, the Orion 5000 will go up to the RTX 2080, and the Orion 9000 can be configured all the way up to the RTX 2080 Ti.

“Acer is excited to be among the first to provide gamers the choice of the latest NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs on our Orion series gaming desktops,” said Acer in a press release. “With our commitment to bringing the latest technology in time to the market, gamers will be able to enjoy the latest breakthroughs in graphics for an incredible gaming experience.”

Acer hasn’t announced exact pricing and availability specifics, though it says it will vary by region.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

As for Alienware products, Dell has announced next-generation GPU support for both its Alienware Aurora and Area-51 gaming desktops. Dell hasn’t provided specifics as to which systems will feature which GPUs, but we’d expect the Area-51 to be maxed out with up to the RTX 2080 Ti. The configuration options for the Alienware Aurora system currently start at a GTX 1050 Ti, maxing out at the GTX 1080, which might clue us in on what options will be available in the RTX series.

Dell also mentioned that the systems would include support next-generation AMD graphics cards, though those cards haven’t been announced just yet.

While we don’t have pricing or availability details yet for the Area-51, we do know the Aurora will be available for purchase in October and will start at $900. That’s the same starting price as the current Alienware Aurora, though we don’t know what exact GPUs will be included in the base model.

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• Acer’s new lineup includes white gaming laptop and Pixelbook-esque Chromebook
• Acer crams a Ryzen 7 CPU, discrete RX Vega 56 graphics into a 17-inch laptop
• Nvidia announces the GeForce RTX 20 Series GPUs, featuring real-time ray tracing
• Nvidia vs. AMD
• Nvidia’s GTX 11 Series may get people ready for the next generation of VR

Scarily realistic ‘deep video portraits’ could take fake news to the next level

If you think it’s been a problem up to this point, the fight against fake news is about to get a whole lot harder. That is thanks to artificial intelligence technology which is making the creation of so-called “deep fake” videos more convincing at a frankly terrifying rate. The latest development comes from an international team of researchers, lead by Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Informatics.

They have created a deep-learning A.I. system which is able to edit the facial expression of actors to accurately match dubbed voices. In addition, it can tweak gaze and head poses in videos, and even animate a person’s eyes and eyebrows to match up with their mouths — representing a step forward from previous work in this area.

“It works by using model-based 3-D face performance capture to record the detailed movements of the eyebrows, mouth, nose, and head position of the dubbing actor in a video,” Hyeongwoo Kim, one of the researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Informatics, said in a statement. “It then transposes these movements onto the ‘target’ actor in the film to accurately sync the lips and facial movements with the new audio.”

The researchers suggest that one possible real-world application for this technology could be in the movie industry, where it could carry out tasks like making it easy and affordable to manipulate footage to match a dubbed foreign vocal track. This would have the effect of making movies play more seamlessly around the world, compared with today where dubbing frequently results in a (sometimes comedic) mismatch between an actor’s lips and the dubbed voice.

Still, it’s difficult to look at this research and not see the potential for the technology being misused. Along with other A.I. technologies that make it possible to synthesize words spoken in, say, the voice of Barack Obama, the opportunity for this to make the current fake news epidemic look like paltry in comparison is unfortunately present. Let’s hope that proper precautions are somehow put in place for regulating the use of these tools.

The “Deep Video Portraits” research was recently presented at the SIGGRAPH 2018 conference in Vancouver, Canada.

Save $40 on a laptop backpack that has its own USB charging port

A backpack can be so many different things. It can be a place to house your books, a laptop carrier, a gym bag, and even a suitcase. No matter what you use it for, however, chances are pretty good that you’ll be carrying it on your back. That’s the beauty of the classic backpack — it’s convenient, comfortable, and compact. If you want something a bit more tech-savvy, you can take it one step further and charge your phone with it. This laptop backpack from Amazon comes with a USB charging port, and it’s only $30 right now.

Is there anything more convenient than being able to charge your phone with your backpack? Plugging it into yourself maybe, but since that isn’t possible and potentially really gross, a USB backpack is as good as it gets. The bag itself does not come with a portable power bank, so if you don’t already have one, you’ll need to pick one up online. Just keep in mind that anything under 10,000 mAh will probably only charge your phone one time before it needs some charging itself.

The USB port is definitely the coolest feature of this travel backpack, but its actually a pretty great bag on its own. With lots of storage space, including a separate laptop compartment, you’ll have no problem finding a place for all your stuff. The laptop pocket can accommodate laptops as large as 15.6 inches with its cushy interior. It also has a waterproof design, so you won’t have to worry about books or electronics getting wet in the rain. And with ample back support, you’ll barely even notice you’re carrying it.

If you’re looking for a new backpack for school, work, travel, or all three, this USB laptop bag is an excellent option. With thousands of great reviews, this backpack has even been backed by Amazon as one of its best-selling backpacks, though that might have something to do with the price. With a $40 discount, this deal is hard to pass up.

$30 | Amazon

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