An Ode To Raichu, The Best Pokémon Who Can’t Get Any Respect

Here on Exp. Share, Kotaku’s weekly Pokémon column, I look back at various nonsense and cool shit from the series’ long history. But as players and fans, we all experience that history in our own way. So much of my experience of the series and so many of my own cherished memories of it over the years are closely…

Read more…



Source: Kotaku – An Ode To Raichu, The Best Pokémon Who Can’t Get Any Respect

Linux Foundation Creating The High Performance Software Foundation (HPSF)

Kicking off an exciting Supercomputing SC23 week, The Linux Foundation announced this morning that they are forming the High Performance Software Foundation (HPSF) to help advance an open-source core software stack for high performance computing (HPC). Already a number of national labs, Intel, NVIDIA, and other stakeholders are involved…

Source: Phoronix – Linux Foundation Creating The High Performance Software Foundation (HPSF)

SpaceX Dragon Cargo Ship Docks At Space Station Carrying A Big Science Payload

SpaceX Dragon Cargo Ship Docks At Space Station Carrying A Big Science Payload
SpaceX Dragon cargo ship delivers supplies and new experiments to the crew aboard the International Space Station. Dragon will remain docked for about a month before returning to Earth with cargo and research.

NASA’s SpaceX 29th commercial resupply mission launched on November 9, 2023, from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center

Source: Hot Hardware – SpaceX Dragon Cargo Ship Docks At Space Station Carrying A Big Science Payload

Nvidia Upgrades Processor as Rivals Challenge Its AI Dominance

Nvidia, the world’s most valuable chipmaker, is updating its H100 artificial intelligence processor, adding more capabilities to a product that has fueled its dominance in the AI computing market. From a report: The new model, called the H200, will get the ability to use high-bandwidth memory, or HBM3e, allowing it to better cope with the large data sets needed for developing and implementing AI, Nvidia said Monday. Amazon’s AWS, Alphabet’s Google Cloud and Oracle’s Cloud Infrastructure have all committed to using the new chip starting next year.

The current version of the Nvidia processor — known as an AI accelerator — is already in famously high demand. It’s a prized commodity among technology heavyweights like Larry Ellison and Elon Musk, who boast about their ability to get their hands on the chip. But the product is facing more competition: AMD is bringing its rival MI300 chip to market in the fourth quarter, and Intel claims that its Gaudi 2 model is faster than the H100. With the new product, Nvidia is trying to keep up with the size of data sets used to create AI models and services, it said. Adding the enhanced memory capability will make the H200 much faster at bombarding software with data — a process that trains AI to perform tasks such as recognizing images and speech.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – Nvidia Upgrades Processor as Rivals Challenge Its AI Dominance

Nintendo's next Indie World showcase takes place on November 14

It’s widely believed that Nintendo will unveil the Switch’s successor in 2024, but you can still expect a steady stream of games to hit the current console for the foreseeable future. To that end, the company has announced its latest Indie World showcase, which will start at noon ET on November 14. You can watch it below.

The stream will feature around 20 minutes of announcements and updates related to indie games on the Switch. Typically when an Indie World or Nintendo Direct takes place, a few games that are featured hit the Switch eShop on the same day. So, you’ll likely have something unexpected and new to play on Tuesday (that is, if you don’t already have an obscene backlog of games to dive into).

As for what games Nintendo will show off, that remains a mystery for now. I know we mention this every single time there’s a Nintendo showcase, but there’s always the possibility that Hollow Knight: Silksong makes an appearance and we finally learn its release date. Fans can but hope.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nintendos-next-indie-world-showcase-takes-place-on-november-14-143518226.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Nintendo’s next Indie World showcase takes place on November 14

How the MTA's MetroCard vending machine became a New York design icon

In its 119-year history, the NYC subway system’s straphangers went from tickets, to tokens, to mastering the swipe. In 1997 the MetroCard debuted, and 1999 saw the introduction of the MetroCard vending machine. Together they became a beloved, iconic part of New York’s visual identity. They were also the first public-facing project by Antenna Design, whose founders Masamichi Udagawa and Sigi Moeslinger have since left their distinct, thoughtful design all over New York City with projects like LinkNYC.

It’s now 2023, and the MetroCard is being phased out in favor of the MTA’s next-generation fare system, OMNY. Having made its debut in late 2019, OMNY trades magnetic swipes for the tap-and-go infrastructure now common across public transportation systems worldwide.

As the city prepares to say goodbye to a vending machine that has served millions, we wanted to know: How did something designed in the 1990s withstand the test of time — and New York? Watch the video below for the full story.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/how-the-mtas-metrocard-vending-machine-became-a-new-york-design-icon-143051318.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – How the MTA’s MetroCard vending machine became a New York design icon

SK Hynix Starts Shipping Turbo-Charged LPDDR5T Memory To Speed Up Next-Gen Phones

SK Hynix Starts Shipping Turbo-Charged LPDDR5T Memory To Speed Up Next-Gen Phones
SK hynix announced today that it has begun supplying 16-gigabyte (GB) packages of its Low Power Double Data Rate 5 Turbo (LPDDR5T) memory to global smartphone makers, after having announced development of the turbo-charged chips back in January of this year. Though 10 months have elapsed since then, SK hynix still can (and does) boast having

Source: Hot Hardware – SK Hynix Starts Shipping Turbo-Charged LPDDR5T Memory To Speed Up Next-Gen Phones

AMD Radeon Pro W7700 Review: Hitting The Sub-$1000, Pro-Vis Sweet Spot

AMD Radeon Pro W7700 Review: Hitting The Sub-$1000, Pro-Vis Sweet Spot
AMD Radeon Pro W7700: $999 MSRP The RDNA 3-based AMD Radeon Pro W7700 features 16GB of memory, the company’s latest GPU architectire, and aggressive pricing. Good Performance 16GB Of Memory Aggressive Pricing Quiet Operation Unmatched Display Output Config Manageable Form Factor Ray Tracing Trails NVIDIA Sometimes Trails W6800 We Miss The…

Source: Hot Hardware – AMD Radeon Pro W7700 Review: Hitting The Sub-00, Pro-Vis Sweet Spot

[$] The rest of the 6.7 merge window

By the time that the 6.7 merge window closed on November 12, 15,418
non-merge changesets had been pulled into the mainline kernel. That makes
this one of the busiest merge windows ever; if one discounts the lengthy
bcachefs development history (some 2,800 commits), though, then the patch
volume is roughly in line with other recent kernels. Over 5,000 of those
commits were merged after our first-half
merge-window summary
was written.

Source: LWN.net – [$] The rest of the 6.7 merge window

NVIDIA announces its next generation of AI supercomputer chips

NVIDIA has launched its next-generation of AI supercomputer chips that will likely play a large role in future breakthroughs in deep learning and large language models (LLMs) like OpenAI’s GPT-4, the company announced. The technology represents a significant leap over the last generation and is poised to be used in data centers and supercomputers — working on tasks like weather and climate prediction, drug discovery, quantum computing and more. 

The key product is the HGX H200 GPU based on NVIDIA’s “Hopper” architecture, a replacement for the popular H100 GPU. It’s the company’s first chip to use HBM3e memory that’s faster and has more capacity, thus making it better suited for large language models. “With HBM3e, the NVIDIA H200 delivers 141GB of memory at 4.8 terabytes per second, nearly double the capacity and 2.4x more bandwidth compared with its predecessor, the NVIDIA A100,” the company wrote. 

In terms of benefits for AI, NVIDIA says the HGX H200 doubles inference speed on Llama 2, a 70 billion-parameter LLM, compared to the H100. It’ll be available in 4- and 8-way configurations that are compatible with both the software and hardware in H100 systems. It’ll work in every type of data center, (on-premises, cloud, hybrid-cloud and edge), and be deployed by Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, among others. It’s set to arrive in Q2 2024. 

NVIDIA announces its next generation of AI supercomputer chips
NVIDIA

NVIDIA’s other key product is the GH200 Grace Hopper “superchip” that marries the HGX H200 GPU and Arm-based NVIDIA Grace CPU using the company’s NVLink-C2C interlink. It’s designed for supercomputers to allow “scientists and researchers to tackle the world’s most challenging problems by accelerating complex AI and HPC applications running terabytes of data,” NVIDIA wrote. 

The GH200 will be used in “40+ AI supercomputers across global research centers, system makers and cloud providers,” the company said, including from Dell, Eviden, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Lenovo, QCT and Supermicro. Notable among those is HPE’s Cray EX2500 supercomputers that will use quad GH200s, scaling up to tens of thousands of Grace Hopper Superchip nodes. 

NVIDIA announces its next generation of AI supercomputer chips
NVIDIA

Perhaps the biggest Grace Hopper supercomputer will be JUPITER, located at the Jülich facility in Germany, which will become the “world’s most powerful AI system” when it’s installed in 2024. It uses a liquid-cooled architecture, “with a booster module comprising close to 24,000 NVIDIA GH200 Superchips interconnected with the NVIDIA Quantum-2 InfiniBand networking platform,” according to NVIDIA. 

NVIDIA says JUPITER will help aid scientific breakthroughs in a number of areas, including climate and weather prediction, generating high-resolution climate and weather simulations with interactive visualization. It’ll also be employed for drug discovery, quantum computing and industrial engineering. Many of these areas use custom NVIDIA software solutions that ease development but also make supercomputing groups reliant on NVIDIA hardware. 

The new technologies will be key for NVIDIA, which now makes most of its revenue from the AI and data center segments. Last quarter the company saw a record $10.32 billion in revenue in that area alone (out of $13.51 billion total revenue), up 171 percent from a year ago. It no doubt hopes the new GPU and superchip will help continue that trend. Just last week, NVIDIA broke its own AI training benchmark record using older H100 technology, so its new tech should help it extend that lead over rivals in a sector it already dominates. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nvidia-announces-its-next-generation-of-ai-supercomputer-chips-140004095.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – NVIDIA announces its next generation of AI supercomputer chips

AMD Radeon PRO W7700 Launches As $999 GPU With Fully Open-Source Upstream Linux Drivers

AMD today is announcing what they call “the most powerful PRO GPU under $1,000” with the Radeon PRO W7700 that has a suggested price of $999. Like the rest of the Radeon PRO W7000 series, the W7700 enjoys fully upstream and working open-source Linux graphics driver support for launch day. I received an AMD Radeon PRO W7700 and have been putting it through its paces successfully under Linux.

Source: Phoronix – AMD Radeon PRO W7700 Launches As 9 GPU With Fully Open-Source Upstream Linux Drivers

Google Fights Scammers Using Bard Hype To Spread Malware

Google is suing scammers who are trying to use the hype around generative AI to trick people into downloading malware, the company has announced. From a report: In a lawsuit filed today in California, the company says individuals believed to be based in Vietnam are setting up social media pages and running ads encouraging users to “download” its generative AI service Bard. The download actually delivers malware to the victims, which steals social media credentials for the scammers to use. “Defendants are three individuals whose identities are unknown who claim to provide, among other things, ‘the latest version’ of Google Bard for download,” the lawsuit reads.

“Defendants are not affiliated with Google in any way, though they pretend to be. They have used Google trademarks, including Google, Google AI, and Bard to lure unsuspecting victims into downloading malware onto their computers.” The lawsuit notes that scammers have specifically used promoted Facebook posts in an attempt to distribute malware. Similar to crypto scams, the lawsuit highlights how interest in an emerging technology can be weaponized against people who may not fully understanding how it operates.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – Google Fights Scammers Using Bard Hype To Spread Malware

The best gifts for cyclists in 2023

Other than a bike, helmet and a few emergency maintenance essentials, there aren’t many things a person needs to enjoy a bike ride outside. But having the right accessories can go a long way towards making the experience more fun, more safe and, ultimately, more rewarding. The list of recommendations below cover the gamut of things you can give to the cyclist in your life, from must-have safety accessories like bike lights, to more techie gadgets like bike computers. However, each represents an item the staff here at Engadget have personally tested or swear by, and would make for a great holiday gift.

Crankbrothers M19 Multi-Tool

Knog Rear Blinder or Rear Plus Lights

Garmin Varia Radar

Knog Oi Luxe Bike Bell

Kryptonite New York U-Lock

PS Bagworks Rider Strap

Patagonia Houdini Jacket

Planet Bike Waterproof Bike Seat Cover

Park Tool Cyclone Chain Scrubber

Wahoo Elemnt Bolt V2

Ortlieb Back-Roller Plus Panniers

Outdoor Research ActiveIce Sun Sleeves

Steadyrack Vertical Bike Rack

Burley Kazoo Trailercycle

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-gifts-for-cyclists-140100878.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – The best gifts for cyclists in 2023

The best Black Friday deals we’ve found so far from Amazon, Walmart, Target and others

With each passing year, the phrase “Black Friday” becomes more of a misnomer. What was once a day of post-Thanksgiving special offers has become a month of sales promotions from retailers across the web. It’s happening again in 2023: Target, Best Buy and Walmart are already advertising their early Black Friday deals, while Amazon is price matching many of those discounts and has its own “Holiday Deals” landing page. Many other shops and manufacturers have (or will soon have) early deals as well.

This barrage of sales promos can be aggravating, but it also presents a good opportunity to get your holiday shopping done at something closer to your own pace. To help, we’ve rounded up the best Black Friday deals you can get right now below. There’s always a chance we get bigger discounts on November 24, but we’re already seeing all-time lows on LG’s A2 OLED TV, PS5 bundles, the 9th-gen iPad and other gadgets we like. We’ll be updating our list regularly in the lead-up to Black Friday, so check back if there’s anything else you’ve had your eye on. 

Apple AirPods Pro (2nd gen)

The latest version of Apple’s AirPods Pro is back on sale for $200 at Amazon and Target. That’s about $10 more than their record-low price and $50 off their usual going rate. The AirPods Pro are the “best for iOS” pick in our wireless earbuds buying guide thanks to their easy pairing and deep integration with Apple devices. Effective active noise cancellation (ANC), a superb transparency mode and a pleasingly warm sound profile help as well, as does a new “adaptive audio” mode that can adjust the earphones’ noise control settings based on your surroundings. That said, their battery life is just average at six-ish hours per charge, and you really have to use an iPhone to get anything out of them. We gave the Lightning-based version of the second-generation AirPods Pro a review score of 88 last year; this new iteration is almost identical, only it comes with a USB-C charging case and has a higher IP54 dust-resistance rating.

Apple iPad (9th-gen)

Apple’s 9th-gen iPad is down to $249 at Amazon, Walmart and Target, which is a deal we’ve seen for much of the past month but still matches the tablet’s lowest-ever price. This is the budget pick in our iPad buying guide, and it earned a review score of 86 in 2021. It’s the last iPad to use Apple’s old design language, so it has thick bezels, a Lightning port, a Home button and a non-laminated display. This variant also comes with a paltry 64GB of storage. At this price, though, it’s still hard to do better if all you want is a large screen for streaming video, playing games and browsing the web. Its 10.2-inch display remains a step up from cheaper slates, its A13 Bionic chip is plenty fast for casual media consumption and its battery still lasts around 10 hours per charge. Most importantly, it’s the cheapest route into Apple’s huge app library, customer support and years of software updates.

If you want a more modern design, the iPad Air is the top pick in our guide, and it’s now on sale for $500. Be warned, though: A recent Bloomberg report says that Apple plans to launch new tablets in the spring. If you don’t need an iPad right away, it’s probably worth waiting.

Apple Watch Series 9

The new Apple Watch Series 9 has dropped to $349 at Amazon and Walmart in an early Black Friday deal. That’s $50 off its usual price and the lowest we’ve seen since it debuted in September. That’s the price you’ll pay for the 41mm model, and the 45mm models have the same $50 discount, bringing them down to $379 each. The Series 9 took the crown of the best smartwatch you can get right now in our guide thanks to its new S9 SiP that brings slightly speedier performance and on-device Siri processing, the new Double Tap feature and other improvements.

Apple AirPods (2nd gen)

Starting on November 8, Walmart has the second-gen AirPods for only $69 — a new record low and the cheapest we’ve ever seen. These AirPods are a bit old at this point, but at this Black Friday price, they’re a great deal for anyone who just wants a pair of earbuds that will work seamlessly with their iPhone, iPad or MacBook.

Apple M2 Mac Mini

Amazon has discounted the M2-powered Mac Mini desktops: the 256GB model has dropped to $500 thanks to a discount and a clippable coupon added on top of that, while the 512GB model is on sale for $690 with similar bundled discounts. It’s a great option if you want a speedy desktop running macOS, with a bevy of ports as well. It earned a score of 86 in our review, and it has a headphone jack, a Gigabit Ethernet port, two USB-A connectors, two Thunderbolt 4 USB-Cs and an HDMI 2.0 port.

Sony WH-1000XM5

The Sony WH-1000XM5 is down to $328 at Amazon and B&H. Though this isn’t an all-time low, it’s about $70 off Sony’s list price and $20 lower than the headphones’ usual recurring sale price. The XM5 is the top recommendation in our guide to the best wireless headphones, as it offers a comfortable design, powerful ANC, crisp call quality and 30 or so hours of battery life. It also comes with a number of useful bonus features such as “Speak to Chat,” which automatically pauses your music when you start talking to somebody else. By default, its bass-heavy sound plays well with hip-hop and EDM, though you can easily customize the EQ curve through Sony’s app. We gave the XM5 a score of 95 in our review last year.

Echo Show 5 + Ring Video Doorbell bundle

Prime members can save 65 percent on this bundle that includes an Echo Show 5 and a Ring Video Doorbell, now that it’s down to only $65. The Show 5 is one of our favorite smart displays thanks to its compact design and a few useful features that make it a solid smart alarm clock like an ambient light sensor and its tap-to-snooze function. It also works well with the Ring doorbell because you can program it to see video feeds from the doorbell directly on the Show 5’s screen. There are a number of other Ring doorbells and security cameras on sale at the moment as well for as low as $30.

Samsung T9 SSD

The latest Samsung T9 portable SSD is on sale for $130 right now for a 1TB drive, which is the best price it’s been since it came out last month. You can snag these Black Friday deals from Amazon or Samsung direct, and you’ll save $40 if you spring for the 2TB version or $100 on the 4TB model. The T9 is the newest iteration of Samsung’s popular portable drive that we’ve long been fans of, and it supports read and write speeds of up to 2,000 MB/s. It also has dynamic thermal guard to prevent overheating, plus it comes with a USB-C to C and USB-C to A cords so you can use it with a variety of devices.

PlayStation DualSense Wireless Controller

Amazon has discounted a bunch of PlayStation DualSense controllers ahead of Black Friday, including many of the colorways that typically go for $75. You can pick up Cosmic Red, Starlight Blue, Nova Pink and other models for $50 each, which is just about a record-low price. These controllers work with the PS5 as well as PC, and they sport adaptive L2 and R2 triggers, haptic feedback and a built-in mic array.

PS5 + Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 bundle

If you or someone you love hasn’t gotten their hands on a PS5 yet and is itching to do so, this bundle with the console and the new Spider-Man 2 game is down to its cheapest price yet — $500. The PS5 remains one of the best gaming consoles you can get right now, and when we reviewed the new Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, we found it to be even better than its predecessor. In it, you can swap between playing as Peter Parker and Miles Morales, and it includes expanded combat mechanics.

DJI Osmo Action 3 Creator Combo

As part of a larger sale on DJI cameras and accessories, the DJI Osmo Action 3 is seeing a discount as part of a bundle that includes two batteries, a 32GB microSD card and a case. Separately and not on sale, the set would run you $379, but is now down to $319. This isn’t the newest version of DJI’s GoPro Alternative camera, that one, the Osmo Action 4 isn’t on sale. The newer version has a larger sensor and improved dynamic range, but at a higher price. But if you don’t plan on shooting a lot of low-light footage, you may be happy with the performance of the Action 3. We put it through its paces in our review and liked the excellent video quality, and found it to be on par with GoPro’s Hero 10. The the magnetic clip mount and long-lasting, fast-charging battery are also reasons to buy. 

Surfshark VPN

Surfshark’s Black Friday deal knocks up to 86 percent off two-year plans, and you’ll get a few extra months of service for free depending on the plan you select. We consider Surfshark to be one of the best VPN services available right now, particularly if you want a solid VPN at an affordable price. We believe the mid-tier plan, Surfshark One, will be the best for most people and a two-year plan is down to $2.69 per month, with an additional four months of services thrown in for free.

Samsung M80C Smart Monitor

Samsung’s Smart Monitor M80C is $300 off and down to $400 right now. You’ll see a $200 discount on the product page, but a clippable coupon will take the extra $100 off at checkout. The selling point for this display, and really any Samsung Smart Monitor, is that it pulls triple duty as an external display, a smart TV and an IoT hub. In addition to connecting it to your computer, you can use it standalone as a TV thanks to the built-in TV operating system and included remote, and the embedded SmartThings hub lets you directly connect things like smart lights and other gear to the display.

Motorola razr+

The Moto razr+ is 30 percent off and down to a record low of $700. It earned a spot in our best foldable phones guides thanks to handy exterior display that’s actually easier to use than that on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 and its ability to fold in half and get super compact and pocket-friendly. It’s cameras are not on par with those on Samsung’s foldables, but it’s a generally solid flip phone with a ton of personality.

Reverb music gear holiday sale

Reverb is currently hosting a holiday sale with discounts on a number of synths, pedals, guitars, and recording devices. One callout is the Native Instruments’ Maschine MK3, which is seeing a $300 discount making the $600 groovebox/drum machine/synth combo/controller just $299. The pad based controller will let you build full tracks from scratch without having to touch your mouse and keyboard. We’re fans of Native Instruments and have covered and reviewed their gear many times over the years. If you’re getting into desktop music-making, this is likely a sale you’ll want to check out.  

Bose Quiet Comfort Earbuds

The Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II are down to $199 at Amazon, which is the same as they went for for October Prime Day. During that sale you needed to be a Prime member to save, but now anyone can take advantage of the discount. They retail for $299, but have sold for $279 for the past few months, so this is still an $80 discount. We think they’re best wireless earbuds you can buy for noise cancelation, as they do a great job of blocking out the world. They also have a smaller, more comfortable fit than the previous generation and offer good audio quality.

Samsung 85-inch The Frame smart TV

The 85-inch Samsung The Frame smart TV is 23 percent off and down to a new record low of $3,300 at both Amazon and Samsung direct. The Frame has been super popular thanks to its design, which mimics framed artwork when not in use. It has a matte, anti-reflective display and an included slim wall mount so you can get the true “artwork” effect when you hang it on the wall. As an actual TV, it supports 4K content and Quantum Dot technology, plus it runs on Samsung’s Tizen TV operating system.

Logitech G203 gaming mouse

Amazon is having a big sale on Logitech gaming accessories and peripherals, including gaming headsets, mice, keyboards and more. Of note is the Logitech G203 Lightsync wired gaming mouse, which is half off and down to only $20. It’s one of our favorite gaming mice thanks in no small part to its affordable price, but it’s also fairly lightweight and sturdily built with an ambidextrous design that will work for right- and left-handed users. Also discounted is the Logitech G733 Lightspeed wireless gaming headset, which is 20 percent off and down to $120. It has an attractive design with subtle LED lighting and a stretch band, and it has a solid wireless connection with audio to match.

Solo Stove early Black Friday deal

Solo Stove’s Black Friday deals have knocked up to $245 off fire pit bundles, up to $100 off fire pits by themselves and even more. A standout is the Ranger Backyard Bundle 2, which is $145 off and down to $320. It includes the company’s most compact fire pit along with its accompanying shield, stand, lid and shelter. Everything you’d need for an easy setup right out of the box is included in this bundle, and the 2.0-version of the Ranger includes a removable base plate and ash pan, both of which make the fire pit much easier to clean.

TP-Link Kasa Smart Plug

The smart plug we recommend for most homes is TP-Link’s Kasa Smart Plug mini. A four-pack is on sale for $35 which is about $3 more than it sold for during Amazon’s October Prime day sale, but still a decent $15 savings. Plugs like these are a simple way to add some smart capabilities to any home, letting you turn on lights with just your voice, set automated schedules and routines that are triggered by other activities. These would make a great stocking stuffer for anyone you know who’s curious about smart home connectivity but hasn’t yet taken the plunge.  

ProtonVPN early Black Friday deal

Our favorite VPN service, ProtonVPN, is having a rare sale for Black Friday that brings a monthly subscription down to only $4 for a total of 30 months. That means you’ll pay $120 for two and a half years of access, which is a pretty good deal. ProtonVPN passed our tests with high marks, but what made it stand out among other VPN security services was its independently audited no-logs policy, and the fact that the company has proven they don’t comply with law enforcement requests to reveal data. If you want to jump in head-first with Proton services, the company has discounted Proton Unlimited, which includes access to VPN, Mail, Calendar, Drive and Pass, to just under $9 per month for the first year.

Google Nest Hub

If you’re partial to the Google Assistant, Google’s Nest Hub is also on sale for $60 at Target, B&H, Best Buy, Google’s online store and others. That’s $20 higher than its all-time low but still $40 off Google’s list price. The Nest Hub is the top overall pick in our smart display buying guide, and we gave it a review score of 89 back in 2021. It has a 7-inch screen, so it’s a bit bigger than the Echo Show 5 but should still be compact enough to fit neatly in a bedroom or small office. While it lacks a built-in camera, that may be a selling point for those who especially sensitive to their privacy (though no smart display is truly privacy-conscious). 

Ultimately, whether it’s worth getting a Nest Hub or Echo Show depends on what services you use: If you own a bunch of Nest devices and depend on apps like Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Photos, Google’s display will make sense. If you want a larger model with a webcam and stronger speakers, the 10-inch Nest Hub Max is also on sale for $129. That’s a $100 discount. 

LG A2 OLED TV

We expect to see many more TV deals as we get closer to Black Friday, but for now one standout is LG’s 48-inch A2 OLED TV on sale for a new low of $550 at Best Buy. This is an entry-level model from 2022, so it’s limited to a 60Hz refresh rate, lacks HDMI 2.1 ports and doesn’t support other gaming-friendly features like VRR. That said, it’s still an OLED TV, so it delivers deep contrast, bold colors, wide viewing angles and low input lag. At this price, it should be a nice step-up option for smaller or secondary rooms. Just note that it can’t get as bright as higher-end OLED sets, so it’s best situated away from direct sunlight. 

FAQs

When is Black Friday 2023?

Black Friday 2023 lands on November 24 this year, with Cyber Monday 2023 following up a few days later on November 27. However, the early deals have already begun. The entire month of November might as well be renamed Holiday Shopping Month as that’s when companies really start to get serious with their discounts.

What day is Black Friday 2023 at Walmart?

Walmart Black Friday deals will begin early this year on November 8. Walmart+ members will get a few hours of early access to Black Friday deals if they shop online on November 8, with access for everyone else starting later that day. Walmart will match its online Black Friday deals in stores starting November 10.

Will Amazon have a Black Friday sale in 2023?

Amazon will likely have a Black Friday sale in 2023. While the online retailer hasn’t made its deals known yet like Walmart has, Amazon will almost certainly have deals across all of the types of products it sells, including electronics. We anticipate seeing record-low prices on Amazon devices in particular, like Echo speakers, Fire TVs, Kindles and more. In years past, Amazon Black Friday deals have brought some of the best prices of the year on our favorite gadgets and gear, including headphones, tablets, smartwatches, robot vacuums and more.

What other retailers have Black Friday sales in 2023?

Most retailers have Black Friday sales, so you can expect to see Target, Best Buy, and others join Walmart and Amazon in discounting inventory to capitalize on holiday shopping interest. In the consumer electronics space, we expect most companies to have some sort of Black Friday promotion, so that means you will likely be able to get big-ticket items from brands like Apple, Samsung, Google, Sony, LG, Sonos and others for much cheaper prices.

Your Black Friday Shopping Guide: See all of Yahoo’s Black Friday coverage, here. Follow Engadget for Black Friday tech deals. Learn about Black Friday trends on In The Know. Hear from Autoblog’s experts on the best Black Friday deals for your car, garage, and home, and find Black Friday sales to shop on AOL, handpicked just for you.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-best-black-friday-deals-weve-found-so-far-from-amazon-walmart-target-and-others-134510813.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – The best Black Friday deals we’ve found so far from Amazon, Walmart, Target and others

AMD Intros Radeon Pro W7700: Rounding Out RDNA 3 For Workstations

Although AMD doesn’t have any major HPC announcements for this year’s SC23 show, the company isn’t starting this week empty-handed. For the workstation market the company is introducing its latest (and likely final) Radeon Pro W7000 series card, the Radeon Pro W7700.


Based on AMD’s latest-generation RDNA 3 architecture, the W7700 slots in between the Navi 31-based Radeon Pro W7800 and the Navi 33-based Radeon Pro W7600. As the final member of the lineup, the Navi 32-based card is designed to split the difference between AMD’s high-end and low-end Radeon Pro cards, offering a more modest level of performance for a far more modest price tag. Priced at $999, AMD is looking to hit a sweet spot in terms of hitting the high-end workstation market, edging out more expensive NVIDIA cards with a combination of higher performance and lower pricing.





















AMD Radeon RX 7000 Series Specification Comparison
  AMD Radeon Pro W7800 AMD Radeon Pro W7700 AMD Radeon Pro W7600 AMD Radeon Pro W5700
ALUs 8960

(70 CUs)
6144

(48 CUs)
4096

(32 CUs)
2304

(36 CUs)
ROPs 128 96 64 64
Boost Clock 2.5GHz ~2.3GHz 2.43GHz 1.9GHz
Peak Throughput (FP32) 45 TFLOPS 28.3 TFLOPS 19.9 TFLOPS 8.89 TFLOPS
Memory Clock 18 Gbps GDDR6 18 Gbps GDDR6 18 Gbps GDDR6 14 Gbps GDDR6
Memory Bus Width 256-bit 256-bit 128-bit 256-bit
VRAM 32GB 16GB 8GB 8GB
ECC Yes

(DRAM)
Yes

(DRAM)
No No
Infinity Cache 64MB 64MB 32MB N/A
Total Board Power 260W 190W 130W 205W
Manufacturing Process GCD: TSMC 5nm

MCD: TSMC 6nm
GCD: TSMC 5nm

MCD: TSMC 6nm
TSMC 6nm TSMC 7nm
Architecture RDNA3 RDNA3 RDNA3 RDNA (1)
GPU Navi 31 Navi 32 Navi 33 Navi 10
Launch Date Q2’2023 11/13/2023 Q3’2023 11/2019
Launch Price (MSRP) $2499 $999 $599 $799


Under the hood, the Radeon Pro W7700 looks a lot like a Radeon RX 7800XT that’s been dialed down to make a lighter TDP. We’re looking at a Navi 32 GCD with just 48 CUs enabled, and a more modest peak clockspeed of around 2.3GHz. The total rated throughput of the card is 28.3 TFLOPS FP32, trailing the more powerful (and more power-hungry) consumer cards a bit.


The Radeon Pro W7700 is paired with Navi 32’s full suite of Memory Cache Dies (MCD) however, giving it a better-than-usual ratio of FLOPS to memory bandwidth. With 16GB of GDDR6 attached to a 256-bit memory bus, the card offers 576GB/second of memory bandwidth – and ECC-protected memory, at that, a feature carried over from the high-end Radeon Pro models.


As noted earlier, AMD is aiming a bit more conservatively in terms of power consumption for this card, looking to offer something between the toasty 250W+ flagship cards, and the more petite 130W W7600. The end result is that AMD has set the TBP for the W7700 at 190W, allowing for the construction of an easily-cooled dual slot card.


In terms of features, as the fifth RDNA 3 video card in AMD’s Radeon Pro lineup, the W700 is on par with its peers. Like the flagship parts, we’re looking at a fairly performant version of AMD’s RDNA 3 architecture, with the company looking to leverage various optimizations and new features throughout the card to offer better performance, and for specific tasks, new features. The core architecture includes a significant update to the CUs to improve the total number of compute FLOPS attainable, as well as optimizations to improve the kind of dense matrix math used in AI inference calculations. As well, the ray tracing units have been updated to provide better performance and a larger overall ray rate.



RDNA 3’s marquee video feature of AV1 encoding support also makes it over to the card as well. The W7700 can encode a single AV1 stream at up to 8K60, a very useful feature as AV1 adoption increases – though it doesn’t get the more powerful dual media engine found on the flagship W7800/W7900’s cards.


Meanwhile, AMD’s ace in the hole on the display output side of matters is their support for DisplayPort 2.1 connectivity, something all of NVIDIA’s cards in this generation lack. Still, Pro users intending to take advantage of DP 2.1 will want to pay close attention to the specifications for AMD’s Radeon Pro lineup, as support is not consistent throughout the cards. Whereas the cheaper W7500/W7600 only have UHBR 10 data rate support, the W7700 gets faster UHBR 13.5 support for higher resolution/color depth displays. Still, this is a step down from the W7800/W7900, which can uniquely drive a max-bandwidth UHBR 20 display.



As for the physical W7700 card itself, it is a fairly typical-for-workstations dual slot blower design. AMD is using their standard DisplayPort configuration here, equipping the card with a quartet of full-sized DisplayPorts. In terms of length, the W7700 is a bit shorter than its W7800/W7900 counterparts, though AMD hasn’t sent over the exact dimensions for the card. And while not shown in any of AMD’s pictures, the card is fed additional power a single 8-pin PCIe power connector.



Wrapping things up, the Radeon Pro W7700 is getting a hard launch, and will be available today in stand-alone card form from the usual PC parts retailers at an MSRP of $999. Meanwhile, OEMs are expected to start shipping the card in their workstations beginning later this month.






Source: AnandTech – AMD Intros Radeon Pro W7700: Rounding Out RDNA 3 For Workstations

Why All the Gen Z Kids Love ‘Soft Saving’ (and How to Do It)

I’ve written before how you should treat your budget like a healthy diet. Sure, you can try intense restriction—like the FIRE movement’s math-heavy approach—to get you an early retirement. But on the other end of the spectrum, you may spiral out into revenge spending, dooming your finances the same way binge-eating…

Read more…



Source: LifeHacker – Why All the Gen Z Kids Love ‘Soft Saving’ (and How to Do It)

AlmaLinux Becomes More Than Just Another RHEL Clone With 9.3 Release

For the first time in its three year’s of existence, AlmaLinux didn’t release its new version within hours of a new RHEL release. That’s because AlmaLinux is no longer just a copy and paste RHEL clone.

The post AlmaLinux Becomes More Than Just Another RHEL Clone With 9.3 Release appeared first on FOSS Force.



Source: FOSS Force – AlmaLinux Becomes More Than Just Another RHEL Clone With 9.3 Release