T3 India

Dan Grabham

Apple powers up the MacBook with new Intel Core M chips and longer battery life

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Apple has relaunched its diminuitive MacBook line with a version featuring the latest sixth-generation dual-core Intel Core M processors up to 1.3 GHz, longer battery life and a new rose gold finish to add to the gold, silver and space grey (yeah, we’re not sure what that will look like in Starbucks, either).

Battery life is now cited at “10 hours of wireless web browsing and up to 11 hours of iTunes movie playback”, meaning that for email and web-work most of us should be able to get a full day’s work out of it. We can’t wait to see whether that works in practice.

The new Intel chips can Turbo Boost up to 3.1 GHz, and there’s faster 1866 MHz memory under the hood, too. There’s also new Intel integrated graphics (HD Graphics 515) that Apple says will give a 25 per cent boost.

Again, there’s a 12-inch retina display, Force Touch trackpad and the now-famous USB-C port on the side of the 13.1mm-thick body. At least, a year on, USB-C is starting to get wider adoption, even if not everybody is up for it.

The new MacBook is available starting today. Here’s the pricing. Configure-to-order options include a 1.3 GHz dual-core Intel Core m7 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.1 GHz.

1.1 GHz dual-core Intel Core m3 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 2.2 GHz, 8GB of memory and 256GB of flash storage for Rs 1,06,900
1.2 GHz dual-core Intel Core m5 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 2.7 GHz, 8GB of memory and 512GB of flash storage for Rs 1,29,900

There’s also an extra snippet of news as Apple has also confirmed it is shipping 8GB of memory as standard across all configurations of the 13-inch MacBook Air.

Yep, Twitter really is altering your timeline to show the ‘best’ tweets first

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As suspected over last weekend, Twitter has announced the introduction of a new Home timeline – you’ll see the ‘best Tweets’ first. Or rather, what Twitter thinks are the ‘best tweets’ first. So expect top tweets from the people you follow, which will be grating if you don’t want that kind of thing.

Twitter says it will be listening to feedback and making the feature even better over the next few weeksn before turning on the feature for EVERYBODY in coming weeks – look out for a notification in your timeline. Twitter is appealing for any feedback our way, and you can turn the new timeline off in settings.

This is what Twitter has to say about the new system:

“If you turn on the feature in your settings, then when you open Twitter after being away for a while, the Tweets you’re most likely to care about will appear at the top of your timeline – still recent and in reverse chronological order. The rest of the Tweets will be displayed right underneath, also in reverse chronological order, as always. At any point, just pull-to-refresh to see all new Tweets at the top in the live, up-to-the-second experience you already know and love. We’ve already seen that people who use this new feature tend to Retweet and Tweet more, creating more live commentary and conversations. Once it’s live just go into the timeline section of your settings and choose ‘Show me the best Tweets first’.”

Nvidia teams up with Volvo to test its new self-drive ‘supercomputer’

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At its CES 2016 press conference, Nvidia talked up the potential of its new AI ‘supercomputer’ for self-driving cars – the Nvidia Drive PX 2.

Volvo will launch a public test next year with 100 autonomous cars that will hit the road at Volvo’s homeground, Gothenburg, Sweden.

Nvidia chief Jen-Hsun Huang believes that self-driving vehicles will make a big contribution to society, simply because humans are the most unreliable element in driving today. But the problem, it turns out, is that driving is rather difficult. That’s the key issue for machine learning to solve.

The main thing is that a series of events on any street is not easily predictable. Hazards such as pedestrians and bad driving from other drivers just can’t be legislated for. And there are huge numbers of different objects to be learnt; not every bus will look the same, for example.

That’s where Deep Learning comes in – training on neural networks. This does take time, but GPU acceleration is helping to speed this up.

Over the course of just a few hours, Audi trained a network that can recognise German road signs at a level that beats every hand-coded computer-vision approach. It achieves better perception of road signs than a human could.

Daimler has achieved perfect pixel recognition. Also using the technology is ZMP, a Japanese company creating a self-driving taxi; and BMW, Toyota partner Preferred Networks and Ford.

Nvidia also demonstrated that the technology can now identify different classes of item on the road, such as pedestrians or motorcyclists as well as what the in-car display could look like.

As you’d expect, the Drive PX 2 itself is no slouch, with 8 teraflops of compute power, which Nvidia says is equivalent to 150 MacBook Pros (spec unspecified, of course). There are 12 CPU cores and a Pascal graphics processor – it’s all water-cooled for maximum efficiency (and you can plumb it into existing water-cooled self-drive motors for testing).

Asus reveals ZenWatch 2 release details – and it’s brilliantly-priced

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The ZenWatch 2 again runs Android Wear, is powered by a Qualcomm chip and features longer battery life than its predecessor (up to 400mAh), with a new crown button and pogo-pin charger.

There’s now support for Wi-Fi as well as Bluetooth, while there are also now two different sizes like the Apple Watch (49.6 x 40.7mm and 45.2 x 37.2mm with 320×320 or 280×280 pixel displays). It’s also water resistant and there’s 4GB of memory on board.

The ZenWatch 2 will be available in October, starting at a remarkably cheap 149 Euros (Rs. 11,000) for the smaller model and 169 Euros (Rs. 12,500) for the bigger version. Asus reckons you can get around 60 hours of standby time from it. 

Another very interesting consumer product is the new VivoStick PC. It  essentially looks like a more stylish Chromecast but with two USB ports and full Windows 10 on board.

For the players

Asus also spoke about its Republic of Gamers (ROG) brand, revealing a new “plasma copper, armor titanium and lava red” mobile chassis. The new laptop – the G752 series – features Intel’s new 6th generation Core i7- processor (formerly codenamed Skylake) and Windows 10. The new i7-6700HQ processor is also joined by Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 965M graphics, a 17.3-inch Full HD display (no, not 4K, though an option is available) and up to – wait for it – 64GB of memory.

Thunderbolt 3.0 is also included, which is interesting as so few periperals support it. The keyboard has also been specially configured so gamers can press up to 30 keys simultaneously. 

Currently the G752 is slated at $1499 USD and will be available later in the year. 

Asus also teased a remarkable water-cooled ROG laptop that will be out later in the year – the GX700. Presumably the laptop will be running Skylake, but there's no word on the Nvidia graphics processor that will be inside. 

Check out all the latest from IFA 2015. 

Windows 10: a triumph that OS X El Capitan will struggle to match

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If you want to upgrade your current PC, check out Windows 10 upgrade guide for how to get the OS for free.

Windows 10 Design

Windows 10 has a new design, but most of it isn’t brand new. It borrows heavily from the flat design ethos we’ve seen in serval operating systems now including Windows 8 and 8.1. Windows 10 flows better than Windows 8 thanks mainly to the removal of interface elements like the Charms (the things you used to swipe or mouse in from the right to get to).

The main interface element is the new Start menu, but there’s a mobile-style Action Centre where notifications are gathered and where you can turn key elements on and off, such as Wi-Fi, Location settings and so on. This works well, as the Centre is there when you need it and unobtrusive if you don’t.

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Windows 10 Features

Also in the Action Centre is a feature called Tablet Mode. This can be initiated manually, but is designed to be automatic for 2 in 1 PCs when you detach the keyboard. The desktop becomes more touch-friendly and the Start menu goes full screen. App switching has also been given an overhaul, with a new Task View feature that also enables you to have virtual desktops so you can, say, have one for work and another for your personal apps.

There’s also a new browser, called Microsoft Edge. It is lightning quick, but currently lacks some of the features so useful in Chrome and Firefox like extensions. It is already good enough to be used day-to-day.

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The Cortana virtual assistant is also integrated into Windows 10, though you have to manually enable it and you don’t have to use it. It does get better as it learns your likes and dislikes and presents you with decent information even if you don’t talk to it. Talking to our PC is still something we’re not sure about.

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The integrated apps have also undergone a complete overhaul. They’re now called Universal apps and are designed to work across Windows 10 desktops, laptops, new Windows 10 phones and even the Xbox One when it gets a forthcoming update. There is also a new Video and TV app, plus Xbox Music is now Groove Music. 

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Windows 10 apps now show on the desktop rather than in a separate environment as with Windows 8. But the jury is still out on them; Microsoft hopes it can encourage developers by making it easy for them to port apps from iOS and Android to Windows, but that’s no guarantee that they actually will.

Both Universal and desktop apps can now be downloaded from the Windows Store.

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Xbox gamers will also love Windows 10. As well as a revamped, integrated, Xbox app there will be the ability to stream games from your console to your desktop (or Windows tablet). 

Windows 10 will form the basis of the Xbox One's next major software update.

Windows 10 Performance

Windows 10 is very quick on every PC we’ve used. Basic navigation of menus and functions like file copying don’t cause a problem. Performance benchmarks put the Edge browser ahead of Firefox and Chrome, though expect both to bounce back.  Task View makes app switching fast, with multiple desktops adding virtually no slowdown in performance.

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Graphically, gaming platform DirectX 12 is also coming with Windows 10. Game developers will also be able to significantly push the limits of what’s possible.

The performance of the integrated search is a big bonus. We love the new Search that finds basically anything including files, folders, settings and apps (yes, we know Spotlight in OS X has been able to do that for ages).  It will also offer to do web searches for you if that’s what you want. And it’ll use your default browser to do it.

Windows 10 Usability

Windows 10 is clever because it will be a shallow learning curve for those used to Windows 7 yet can be fully customised for Windows power users.

Despite appearances, the new Start menu does everything the Windows 7 equivalent did and more. The familiarity should ensure that almost anybody can pick up Windows 10 and get going straight away. Although Microsoft tried to claim this was the case with Windows 8, it was plain wrong.

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The new Settings app is a worthy replacement for the Control Panel (which is still there in the background), and it’s testament to the strength of the new app that we’ve hardly seen the Control Panel in the nine months we’ve been using the early development version of Windows 10.

The new Action Centre could be a little more visible to the user, but clearly the decision has been taken that it’s there if you need it but otherwise it should be as unobtrusive as possible.

The ability to snap Windows to the side of your desktop (Aero Snap) is a feature that we first saw in Windows 7, but it gets powered up in Windows 10 with the ability to do a four-way snap. This isn’t useful for a laptop monitor, but if you’ve got a 28 or 32-inch display it will be awesome.

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T3 Verdict

Windows 10 is a triumph, but it’s not without a few question marks. While it seems strange to question an OS that’s as dominant as Windows, it has a weakness in terms of mobile. Microsoft is unifying the app store and wants to make Windows 10 a Windows for every device, but it is so far behind in the mobile market as to be non-existent. App developers also need to get more on board with the Windows Store, though we wouldn’t bet against Microsoft making this happen.

As an operating system for getting things done though, Windows can’t be beaten. Apple’s OS X is brilliant, but the sheer variety of devices that will run Windows 10 reveals that support from manufacturers is second to none. We’ll see some terrific new Windows ultraportables and tablets over the next few months, too as well as the new version of Apple's rival in the form of OS X El Capitan – we can’t wait. 

Liked this? Why not check out T3 Opinion: Windows 10 corrects Microsoft's stupid mistakes of the past