Technology

Nvidia is promising “the biggest breakthough in PC gaming since 1999” today with its GeForce event. The graphics card maker looks set to launch a new range of GPUs for PC gaming, based on the company’s new Ampere architecture. Rumors suggest we’ll see the RTX 3000 Series, with an RTX 3080 card and possibly even a Titan-style RTX 3090 flagship GPU. Nvidia focused heavily on raytracing with its previous RTX 2000 Series cards, so it’s likely we’ll hear more about the advancements today especially as both the PS5 and Xbox Series X will support raytracing. When is Nvidia’s GeForce event? Today, Tuesday, September 1st, 2020, at 12PM ET (9AM PT). Where can I see the event? Nvidia will be live streaming its event over on Twitch, and the company is already streaming a countdown to what it describes...

Last year, the US Interior Department, which is responsible for maintaining federal land, grounded its fleet of more than 800 drones over fears they could be compromised by Chinese spies. Now, an internal memo from the department leaked to The Financial Times says the decision is hampering the federal government’s ability to fight wildfires. The grounding of the fleet led to a de facto ban on the purchase of Chinese drones and drones containing Chinese parts. This caused the Interior Department to cancel plans to buy 17 Ignis drones, says the FT. These are specialist UAVs used to start managed burns, a key tool in controlling wildfires. 28 percent fewer controlled burns by the end of the year Without the drones, says the leaked memo, the department has been forced to use crewed aircraft to...

Apple is planning to ship between 75 and 80 million 5G iPhones this year, according to a new Bloomberg report. The figure is in line with or slightly higher than iPhone launch shipments for the last couple of years, suggesting that Apple doesn’t expect the coronavirus pandemic to dampen demand — even though the company has already said the phones will be delayed into October. Bloomberg’s report also contains a broad roundup of what Apple is said to be planning for its fall hardware announcements. Here’s what Mark Gurman and Debby Wu expect: Four new iPhones with OLED screens coming in sizes of 5.4, 6.1, or 6.7 inches; the 6.1-inch size will be an option for both the steel-edged “Pro” line and the lower-end aluminum equivalent to the current iPhone 11. There’ll be a new dark blue color opti...

Sennheiser is today introducing a lower-cost set of true wireless earbuds that slot in below the company’s flagship Momentum True Wireless 2. At $199.95, the new “CX 400BT True Wireless” — so much for simple names, eh Sennheiser? — aim to retain the strong sound quality of the pricier set, though you’re losing out on active noise cancellation. The CX 400BT True Wireless are not what you’d call subtle. They come in either black or white, but there’s no getting around how big they look in the ear no matter which finish you choose. There’s been a trend recently of companies progressing towards more discreet true wireless earbud designs, but Sennheiser obviously isn’t going in that direction. Image: Sennheiser I don’t know whether it’s because the company needs more space for audio components ...

It’s not often I receive a phone I immediately want to show off to everyone around me, but the Asus Zenfone 7 Pro is exactly that. The second I got the device set up, I ran into each of my flatmates’ rooms in turn and happily flipped and un-flipped its three rear cameras, swinging them around the top edge of the phone to turn them into selfie cameras. It’s far from a unique trick (you can find a similar flipping array on last year’s Zenfone 6, among other handsets), but it’s still hardly mainstream. That means the Zenfone 7 Pro is almost guaranteed to get a reaction, whether it’s from friends when you try to take a selfie together or from strangers when you go to make a video call in public. There’s a lot to like about the Zenfone 7 Pro, but you’ve got to get behind the idea of cameras tha...

Astro’s latest wireless gaming headset, the A20 Gen 2, is an upgraded version of the 2017 model. It will ship in October for $119, which is considerably down from the $149 that the previous-generation A20 was priced at. Despite the price cut, Astro says it has increased the wireless range from the 30 feet offered by the first-gen model to 50 feet, and it charges via a convenient USB-C port. The A20 Gen 2 headset will ship in two different color mixes: blue, white, and black for a PlayStation-like vibe or green, white, and black for an Xbox look. Each includes a USB Type-A wireless adapter that lets it easily connect to the console their color mix corresponds to as well as a PC. Each headset can work with the other console out of the box (e.g., the blue headset can work with the Xbox Series...

American Airlines and Delta Air Lines both said they would permanently eliminate fees associated with changing or canceling a flight. The news comes less than a day after United Airlines first announced a permanent end to its change fee policy. All three carriers have been waiving change fees since March 2020, when the novel coronavirus pandemic first disrupted global air travel. With demand dried up, the airlines are seeking to make flying look safe, stress-free, and, most of all, cheap. And that means eliminating many of the fees and surcharges associated with air travel. “We’ve said before that we need to approach flexibility differently than this industry has in the past, and today’s announcement builds on that promise to ensure we’re offering industry-leading flexibility, space and ca...

Videoconferencing platform Zoom had a huge second quarter, with $663.5 million in revenue compared to $145.8 million a year ago, the company announced on Monday. It now has around 370,000 customers with more than 10 employees, an increase of 458 percent year over year. “Our ability to keep people around the world connected, coupled with our strong execution, led to revenue growth of 355% year-over-year in Q2,” Zoom founder and CEO Eric S. Yuan said in a statement announcing the earnings. On a call with analysts— over Zoom, of course— Zoom CFO Kelly Steckelberg said subscriptions from new customers accounted for 81 percent of the second quarter revenue growth. The company did not see the customer churn it had expected, she added. Yuan noted that those new customers included ExxonMobil and A...

Google’s Chromecast is a fantastic way to fling streaming video from phone to TV — but these days, you can often get a Roku Streaming Stick or Amazon Fire Stick with a dedicated remote control for the same money. But what if Google launched an Android TV dongle with its own remote control for the same $50 you’d pay for a high-end Roku or Fire stick? That’s exactly what 9to5Google seems to have discovered, thanks to a new Home Depot leak. The home improvement story briefly listed a Google “Sabrina” for $49.99, and 9to5Google’s sources were able to provide pictures of that price tag in the Home Depot’s internal systems as well. Sabrina, of course, would be that Android TV dongle that leaked in June, only to seemingly appear again at the FCC just last week, ahead of a rumored “summer” launch ...

Facebook plans to block the sharing of local and international news stories on its platforms if legislation requiring tech platforms to pay publishers for content becomes law, the company said in a blog post Monday. “Australia is drafting a new regulation that misunderstands the dynamics of the internet and will do damage to the very news organisations the government is trying to protect,” Will Easton, managing director of Facebook Australia and New Zealand wrote in the blog post, arguing that the commission overseeing the process “ignored important facts,” including the relationship between social media and news media. “Assuming this draft code becomes law, we will reluctantly stop allowing publishers and people in Australia from sharing local and international news on Facebook and Instag...

OnePlus may have accidentally revealed a first look at the OnePlus 8T, thanks to an image found in the latest Android 11 developer preview for OnePlus 8-series devices by OxygenUpdater. The leaked image doesn’t offer much to go on, just a front-facing view of the device, which appears to be pretty similar to the existing OnePlus 8. It’s possible that this image — which is labeled OnePlus_8T.webp and is a distinct file from the images for the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro — is simply a placeholder for a different, final design for the OnePlus 8T. But given the timing of the leak (OnePlus usually releases its fall T-series refreshes in the October to November range) and the fact that it was found in OnePlus’ own firmware update, it seems likely that this will be what the OnePlus 8T will look l...

The Google Photos app for iOS is getting an updated video editor that adds several useful new features, including the ability to trim video clips, add filters, crop, and make adjustments like exposure, contrast, and saturation. The new video editor options work similarly to the existing image editing tools. Simply tap the “edit” button when previewing a video, and you’ll be taken to the new editor, which adds several new tabs, in addition to the existing “export frame” option. There’s a variety of filters, including an “Auto” filter that intelligently adjusts your video. There are manual adjustment controls, divided into a Light menu (for exposure, contrast, whites, highlights, shadows, blacks, and vignette sliders) and Color (to adjust saturation, warmth, tint, skin tone, and deep blue). ...