GIGABYTE announces its own variant of GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970 G1

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GIGABYTE, the world’s leading premium gaming hardware manufacturer, today announced the release of GV-N980G1 GAMING-4GD and GV-N970G1 GAMING-4GD, two new graphics cards from the next generation G1 Gaming Series. Both cards are respectively powered by the highly-anticipated GeForce® GTX 980 and GTX 970 Maxwell GPUs and combined with GIGABYTE technologies and innovations to outperform the reference.

GIGABYTE G1 Gaming graphics cards are crafted for perfection in pursuit of the ultimate graphics experience for gaming enthusiasts. Through GPU Gauntlet Sorting, the graphics cards are forged with only the top-notch GPU cores to deliver the maximum processing power for going Super Overclock. Further armed with the acclaimed WINDFORCE cooling system and innovative Flex Display technology(patent-pending), the G1 Gaming graphics cards ensure incredibly fast, cool and quiet performance, whilst providing gamers with greater flexibility in output connectivity options for multi-display.

The G1 Gaming graphics cards provide an ultimate solution to what gamers truly care about in terms of processing power, cooling, and immersive multi-display for a complete upgrade and enhanced overall gaming experience.

WINDFORCE 3X cooling system

Both G1 Gaming graphics cards are equipped with WINDFORCE 3X cooling system. With the unique blade fan design, the air flow is split through and guided smoothly through the fan by special 3D stripe curve design. It effectively enhances air flow by 23% while reducing air turbulence. The cooling capacity of the GV-N980G1 GAMING-4GD is reinforced with WINDFORCE 600W cooling system by only using 2 slot heights. Featuring GIGABYTE patented Triangle Cool technology and special fin architecture, the WINDFORCE 600W cooling system delivers superior cooling performance than traditional fin module up to 35% for an unprecedented cool and quiet gaming experience.

Flex Display technology (patent-pending)

G1 Gaming graphics cards support multi-display and take it further by taking advantage of the Flex Display technology with auto output detection and dual DVI support in addition to the 3 DisplayPort and 1 HDMI. This patent-pending technology provides gamers with much more flexible output connectivity options compared to those of the reference. For gamers looking for a multi-display gaming rig using 2 DVI monitors, or enthusiasts going all in for a full 4K surround view using multiple DisplayPort monitors, the G1 Gaming graphics cards can flexibly fulfill different gaming needs

GPU Gauntlet™ Sorting

With GPU Gauntlet™ Sorting, GIGABYTE G1 Gaming Series graphics cards provide the best power efficiency and lowest power consumption. Only the strongest processors survived the stringent sorting can be qualified for G1 Gaming graphics cards for fully meeting both gaming enthusiasts’ and extreme overclockers’ expectations with the super overclocking capability.

Abundant features make G1 a complete package

The GIGABYTE OC GURU II provides gamers with an unlimited overclocking capability through an intuitive interface. Users can easily perform precise control on the graphics card include core clock adjustment, fan speed control and setup the power or temperature
target
. The G1 Gaming graphics cards also feature DualBIOS for a reliable backup. Ultra Durable components provide improved stability and power efficiency, ensuring that all overclocking adventure is an easy, joyful ride.


GIGABYTE Battle 2015 by Ban Leong Technologies, DOTA 2 Tournament

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Attention to all Dota 2 players and teams that are looking for a tournament to join in Malaysia. You are in luck because GIGABYTE Malaysia will be working together with Ban Leong technologies in organizing a Dota 2 tournament. The tournament will be held at Orange eSport Stadium Prima Setapak from October 3, 2015 to October 4, 2015. The format for the tournament will be single elimination with the best of one.

Registration fee is required, therefore all the teams are required to pay RM 30 for each team. Good news for all visitors and participants because there will be lucky draw during the event and you are able to bring home GIGABYTE GTX950 graphics card and GIGABYTE Gaming Mouse. Besides that, participants will bring back RM 3,500 for first prize, RM 2,000 for second prize, RM 1,000 for third prize, and RM 500 for the fourth prize.

For players that are interested to join the tournament, you can head over to Orange eSport Stadium Prima Setapak on October 3, 2015. Registration opens at 9 A.M to 8 P.M on the first day itself. Good luck for the teams that will be joining this tournament.

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GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 950 OC Edition Review

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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 have a solid build and cost-effective foundation in the 28 nm GM206 silicon, which you can get on its brother – the GTX 960. The chip on GTX 950 is tiny compared to the R7 370, with a narrower 128-bit memory but just four memory chips on the card. NVIDIA disable two of its eight streaming multiprocessor (SMM) units. The base core is clocked at 1024 MHz, with a GPU Boost frequency up to 1188 MHz, and the memory ticks at 6.60 GHZ (GDDR5-effective). In this review, we will be testing the GIGABYTE GTX 950 WindForce OC, which has been pre-overclocked to 1102 MHz from 1024 MHz out of the box.

Specifications

Overview

The Gigabyte Windforce cooler is a compact variant with two fans that will cool this awesome graphics card, which cost less than RM1,000.

Unlike the previous ZOTAC GTX 950 AMP! Edition we reviewed earlier on, the GIGABYTE doesn’t have a backplate but that isn’t a huge concern.

The graphics card offers a DisplayPort, HDMI, DVI-D and DVI-I connectivity.

The fans on the cooler might look small, but it’s sufficient enough to cool down the small core on this graphic card.

In order to have more performance, the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 950 OC requires 6-Pin power in order to have sufficient power to run the card to its ideal performance.

Test Rig Configuration

Games Benchmark

In term of performance, the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 950 OC is slightly outperformed by an insignificant margin from its competitor ZOTAC GeForce GTX 950 AMP! Edition. However, it blew away the AMD R7 370 on some top-tier games like GTA V and Batman: Arkham Knight.

Synthetic Benchmark

As expected, the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 950 OC edition is falls slightly behind compared to its competitor ZOTAC GeForce GTX 950 AMP! Edition.

Overclocking

The Fire Strike Extreme score without overclocking for the GIGABYTE GeForce GX 950 OC.

After 230 MHz to the GPU clock and 100 MHz to the memory clock, we’re able to gain an additional 372 points to the score.

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GIGABYTE GeForce GTX960 G1 Gaming 2GB First Look and Initial Review

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We’ve seen NVIDIA launched its new Maxwell powered GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970 a few months back and its power efficiency and performance has been dramatically improved over its previous Kepler based GPUs. The company has now released a mid-range model from its flagship, the GeForce GTX960 is what the company calls it the ‘Sweet Spot’ graphics card for gamers who doesn’t want to spend too much on a GPU yet without compromising too much graphics quality and performance for the cash that you are paying for. And today, I have got GIGABYTE’s very own GeForce GTX 960 G1 Gaming 2GB GDDR5 graphics card in the labs and since this is our very first GPU review on the site and given that this is a card meant for intermediate gamers, our test bed here isn’t pack with the most powerful and recent muscle here. So here goes:

Test System Hardware Specifications

Processor:
 Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz Quad-Core, up to 6MB cache, Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz
RAM:
 8GB Kingston
ValueRam
 DDR3-1333MHz
Motherboard:
 GIGABYTE Z77P-D3
Harddisk:
 Kingston SV300 120GB SSD/WD Green 500GB 7200RPM HardDrive
Power Supply:
 CoolerMaster PowerXtreme 550W

GIGABYTE GeForce GTX960 G1 Gaming Specifications

Core Base Clock: 1241MHz (Ref: 1127)
Core Boost Clock: 1304 MHz (Ref: 1178)
Core/Process: GM206/28nm
Memory Clock: 7010 MHz
Memory Size: 2048 GDDR5 – 128Mx32
Bus Type: PCI-Express 3.0
Memory Bus: 128-bit
CUDA Cores: 1024

Hardware Design

Gamers familiar with GIGABYTE’s signature G1 GAMING graphics card will not be a stranger to the card’s design, the PCB is long and heavy just like what you would expect from a high performance gaming card. The card’s
cooling fan
 looks pretty cool and promises a great cooling performance as it sports the company’s unique WINDFORCE cooling technology, you’ll find copper heatsink underneath that is connected to the core of the GPU.

GIGABYTE’s GeForce GTX960 utilizes a 6-phase GPU power design, which is able to accept a maximum TDP of 160W (Ref: 120W) and the design results in a better load balance with lower temperature, pretty useful if you are the person who does overclocking and want to ensure that the GPU doesn’t give up too easily.

According to GIGABYTE, the WINDFORCE
Cooling Fan
 design will also allow 23% more air flow and it features a new Fan Stop Mode, in which the fans will come to a stop once you are on idle and not running any graphics demanding applications while its temperature is below 43 degree Celsius. Since our test bed is in a close cramped chassis, the GPU maintains a pretty cool 47 degree Celsius when idle and up to 70 degree Celsius on full load, fan speeds are really incredible at an average of 1600RPM on load and when it gets idle, it goes down to a crazily low 22RPM, hardly even spinning at all.

GIGABYTE isn’t stingy on ports as well, the GTX960 G1 Gaming has a pair of DVI-D and DVI-I ports, 4 DisplayPorts, and 1 HDMI 2.0 port, it sports the company’s Flex Display feature which is intelligent enough to automatically combine four multiple displays into one single huge display if you have intended to that.

In conclusion, NVIDIA has certainly put on hard work on making Maxwell really standout in the competition, not only the company focuses on performance and efficiency, the GTX960 features the all new Maxwell features which include Dynamic Super Resolution (DSR) that brings 4K quality gaming to a Full HD screen, MFAA that improves anti-aliasing performance in games, and NVIDIA GameWorks that brings incredible graphics quality improvement into supported games.

And with GIGABYTE’s reputation of having great factory overclocked graphics card, we are hungry to try out the performance of GIGABYTE’s new baby.

Initial Tests

We received our GIGABYTE GeForce GTX960 G1 Gaming in less than 48 hours and have done some pretty quick tests on some games here without overclocking it. In a couple of weeks, we’ll be updating this section on more games that we’ve tested with the graphics card.

GRID AutoSport

One of the best racing games from CodeMasters that features extremely beautiful graphics while not requiring strong graphics power in order to have a smooth experience, the GTX960 performs beautifully in the game when we have DSR enabled at 4K resolution on mostly High graphic settings, it delivers and impressive average 35FPS and a minimum 27FPS in our tests, it should look even more impressive when you are on a real 4K display

Far Cry 4

Similar to Crysis, the Far Cry series have been one of the most GPU tested games in the industry and with the fourth iteration of the game, its graphical requirement becomes more hungry than ever. The GeForce GTX960 performs decently if we didn’t push its settings too hard, while it fails to run in DSR 4K resolution, it still has a pretty tolerable average 27FPS on Full HD resolution with High graphics setting, it won’t do good for hardcore gamers but for the average joe who seldom play games, the GTX960 is going to suffice. One thing to note, turn on all the GameWorks effects like Fur, Occlusion and etc. and you’ll experience superb realistic graphics detail.

Tomb Raider

Now, one might complain that this is an old game, but guess what? The GeForce GTX960 isn’t able to handle Ultimate graphics yet in 4K resolution, which results in a terrible 11FPS on its main menu and it should be worse in its gameplay. However when we tried it on Full HD resolution with Ultimate graphics setting, the game’s benchmark provides us an impressive playable average 38.9FPS and minimum 18.9FPS frame rate, which still isn’t too bad.

Verdict

While time is short, we have yet to compared the GeForce GTX960 to the rest of the competition however we dare ourselves to be able to conclude that GIGABYTE has already done a very decent job in improving NVIDIA’s reference design, keeping the GPU quiet most of the time and having some pretty impressive overclocking capabilities (we’ve tested but yet to finalize results), the GTX960 is truly a ‘sweet spot’ graphics card for gamers who simply want their games to look and play good on an old but modern PC system, it is expected to retail at USD$199, which costs $20 more than its nearest competitor the AMD Radeon R9 280, while we’ve kept in mind on what GameWorks can do to improve graphics quality on games, we’ll definitely take a look into what its competitor has to offer over itself.


Gigabyte Introduces Affordable Z97X-Game Plus Gaming Motherboard

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All this while we have been familarize with Gigabyte’s black and red themed motherboards, this time the company brushed a refreshing stroke of green with its latest socket LGA1150 motherboard: the Z97X-Game Plus, which is comes with an affordable price tag around USD$150 mainline and challenges products such as the ASUS Z97-Pro Gamer, these motherboards are loaded with gamer-centric features and product design, despite missing premium gaming brands such as ROG or G1.Gaming.

At the same time, the board has an 8-phase VRM that conditions it for the PCU, which is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, and three PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (x16/NC/NC or x8/x8/NC or x8/x4/x4). Other expansion slots include three PCI-Express 2.0 x1 and one legacy PCI. Storage connectivity includes 6 SATA 6 Gb/s ports, and one M.2 (PCIe 2.0 x2 physical layer). Notable features include Gigabyte’s famed AMP-UP onboard audio, with an EMI-shielded 115 dBA SNR Codec, ground-layer isoluation, audio-grade electrolytic caps, and an OPAMP with tuning for music and gaming. Nevertheless, Gigabyte also included Broadcom Killer E2200 gigabit Ethernet, six USB 3.0 ports, and dual-UEFI BIOS. Prices are estimated to set below USD 160 (RM 600).


Gigabyte Jolt Duo 360 Action Camera Review

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Just like drones, 360 degree cameras are expensive content creation devices, but they are just so fun to use and you will definitely want to show off to your friends what’s around you when you are on a road trip. Here’s a product that we’ve received in our office a couple of weeks back, the Jolt Duo 360 action camera by Gigabyte Communications, this is a fairly affordable 360 camera that comes with a lot of accessories as a sales package and retails for less than RM1000, if  you are the type of person who wants to create 360 degree content without breaking the bank, you may want to continue reading this review.

Hardware and Build

The Jolt Duo 360 looks like a typical action camera with its boxy form factor, it is a little bulky as it houses two 4-megapixel cameras and you will definitely feel the weight when you have it in your pockets. The build of this camera is rather solid and it seems capable of withstanding any accidental drops, however don’t just drop it into the pull or bring it to the beach just yet, because you will need the included waterproof casing to do just that.

The camera features a LCD display that shows you the status of the camera with information such as battery life, remaining amount of photos and video duration that can be taken depending on the  size of the memory card inserted. In addition, there’s a rather simple menu that can be easily accessed by holding the WiFi button.

On the left, you will find a rubber flap that hides away the MicroUSB port and MicroSD card slot very well, the camera doesn’t support connecting an external display and microphone.

The accessories that come with the camera is very comprehensive and useful, it comprises of a selfie monopod, a mini tripod, a floating stick with a waterproof case and bike mounts, saving you a lot of cash if you compare to other action cameras, very commendable indeed.

Software and Features

Viewing the Jolt Duo 360’s footage is straightforward by downloading the companion app on your Android or iOS devices, although the app requires very minimal effort to learn with very straightforward navigation, it would be great if Gigabyte could include contextual menus to help users understand better the features of each button.

The app is rather limited when it comes to features, there’s no support for live streaming platforms and no additional camera modes such as time lapse and slow motion videos, the software also doesn’t allow shooting with a single lens so you are stuck with taking 360 videos all the time, which can be rather annoying when you merely want to use it purely as an action camera.

Gigabyte has also provided a free PC suite for PC and Mac for converting videos taken with the camera to be used with video editors.

Image Quality and Samples

The Jolt Duo 360’s takes stitched 360 photos with a 3008×1504 resolution with its dual 4-megapixel cameras combined, which is a lot lower when you compare to devices like the Samsung Gear 360 and LG 360 Cam, pictures are a little grainy but looks OK when you view it on your phone, however when I upload it to Facebook, it compresses the quality so much that my 360 degree photo looks really pixelated.

Since the camera takes 360 content with both its cameras, I have expected the resolution to remain the same as still images, but sadly the camera records video at an even lower 1920×960 resolution at 30 fps, which you will not enjoy watching on YouTube or with a pair of VR goggles.

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Gigabyte P55G v5 Gaming Laptop Review: Future Proof Hardware Design

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Gigabyte may be a renowned for making motherboards and other PC hardware, but many in fact do not know that the company has been making laptops for a while now, when I got to have the chance to visit the company’s Computex VIP showroom last year, I was in awe on how solidly built their laptops are, the premium Aorus notebooks showed that gaming laptops do not necessarily need to be heavy and bulky, while the P series laptops tell me that high performance laptops do not necessarily need to look like a gaming laptop. I’ve recently received the P55G V5 laptop from our local Gigabyte notebook reseller for review, this isn’t any premium laptop but it is no slouch as well, in fact this has been my daily driver for a week, given that I do a lot more work on my laptop than playing games, it sure is interesting to find out how this machine will work for casual gamers.

Design and Hardware

The laptop may not look as premium as the company’s Aorus laptops, but it still looks really good with a smooth matte black finishing and an orange stripe that runs across both corners of the laptop, it is also rather solid in terms of build, the display hinges doesn’t flex as much as other similar ranged laptops I’ve tested which I can even lift the display singlehandedly without toppling the laptop over. With that said, the laptop is a rather cumbersome machine to transport around, it weighs 2.4kg and measures 34mm at its thickest point, this means it will easily take up the entire space of a round Starbucks coffee table, but given that this is a 15-inch gaming laptop, you really have to dismiss those numbers because performance laptops don’t really come in slim chassis with an affordable price tag.

So, what’s the big deal of a huge chunky laptop? Expandability of course. The P55 has a generous amount of modern input ports, including three USB 3.0 Type-A ports, one USB 3.1 Type-C port, HDMI and heck, it even has a VGA port so that you can connect to old monitors and projectors. You will also be happy to know that the laptop’s internals are easily accessible by removing a number of screws, which will enable you to increase the system’s RAM and storage.

One of my favourite features is the laptop’s dual storage system, which gives you the flexibility to install a secondary storage on top of its already huge 1TB storage, you can also opt for an optical drive if you really need one, my review unit already comes with an enclosure installed that gives me the option to slot in a secondary SATA hard drive, such feature is usually only available on higher end gaming laptops and it is really commendable of Gigabyte to make this available in the P55.

With a rather huge working area, the laptop has a full size keyboard that works really well in my case, the keys give a solid feedback and doesn’t feel too cramped, hence enabling a very enjoyable typing experience, I also like the font and glossy finishing on the keys, but the keyboard’s backlighting could be a little brighter, you can barely notice its existence unless viewed closely even though it will still do well under dim lighting. On the other hand, the huge trackpad is unfortunately a disappointing one despite having a decent tracking, it simply doesn’t do well with gestures and the buttons feel to stiff to press on, palm rejection isn’t good as well and I would recommend that you use an external mouse when possible.

User Experience and Performance

Gigabyte has preloaded Windows 10 Home on the P55 and I was glad that the stock image didn’t come with any bloatware installed apart from Gigabyte’s utility programs, hence there weren’t any major slowdowns but merely the performance limitation on the laptop’s provided Hitachi made 7200RPM hard drive, it still works decently on my day to day tasks, but I do highly recommend that you spend a little extra cash to install a SSD into the secondary SATA slot.

I have mainly used the laptop for video editing work and some fair amount of gaming, the laptop’s GTX 960M GPU will do well in video rendering, however with a 2GB video RAM, it doesn’t really handle most modern game titles properly and I have to turn off some graphics effect to achieve a playable frame rate, while Gigabyte could have installed the 4GB RAM model of the GTX 960M which is available on other competitor laptops, the GPU is not intended to render high quality graphics, it will however perform effortlessly in MOBA games.

I was underwhelmed by the laptop’s speakers, though it produces a reasonably loud volume that easily fills up our studio office, it lacks bass and oomph that doesn’t gives you an immersive listening experience when playing music with drums, gunshots and explosions, its really a shame because for the laptop’s form factor, I have expected a decent audio quality from the speakers but fortunately sound is good on headphones.

The laptop’s battery life is one of the most decent ones I’ve experienced on a gaming laptop, I ran a Full HD video loop test with hardware acceleration enabled, 60% brightness and 40% volume, while having wireless radios turned on, the laptop managed to last 4 hours before prompting me to connect the charger, I’ve also used it for my field assignments and haven’t find the need to carry the power brick along, which is the reason why I actually don’t find it too heavy to carry around at the end of the day.

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GIGABYTE Releases G1.Sniper B7 Socket LGA1151 Motherboard

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Thinking to have a green theme with PC building, GIGABYTE has you covered with the company latest green and black motherboard – G1.Sniper-B7. This socket LGA 1151 motherboard, designed for 6th generation Core “Skylake” processors, is based on Intel B150 Express chipset, and should
target
 a mid-range priced around the USD 100 to USD 120 mark. It draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors and offers a 7-phase CPU VRM.

The CPU is wired to four DDR4 DIMM slots, and one PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot, meanwhile the second x16 slot is electrical gen 3.0 x4 and wired to the B150 PCH. Two each PCIe 3.0 x1 (legacy PCI), and an mPCIe 3.0 x1, with preparation for WLAN antenna on the rear panel, make for the rest of the expansion area.

Thinking to have a green theme with PC building, GIGABYTE has you covered with the company latest green and black motherboard – G1.Sniper-B7. This socket LGA 1151 motherboard, designed for 6th generation Core “Skylake” processors, is based on Intel B150 Express chipset, and should
target
 a mid-range priced around the USD 100 to USD 120 mark. It draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors and offers a 7-phase CPU VRM.

The CPU is wired to four DDR4 DIMM slots, and one PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot, meanwhile the second x16 slot is electrical gen 3.0 x4 and wired to the B150 PCH. Two each PCIe 3.0 x1 (legacy PCI), and an mPCIe 3.0 x1, with preparation for WLAN antenna on the rear panel, make for the rest of the expansion area.

Other than that, storage connectivity includes one each of M.2 32 Gb/s and SATA-Express 16 Gb/s; and eight SATA 6 Gb/s ports. Networking is care of an Intel i219V gigabit Ethernet controller and the board has an AMP-Up onboard audio solution by combining an 115 dBA SNR CODEC with ground-layer isolation, audio grade electrolytic caps, and a user-replaceable OPAMP.

This motherboard will an absolute worth your money because of the features that it offer the aesthetic look on the motherboard. However, the pricing and availability still a mystery, so stay tuned for further updates.

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GIGABYTE Releases GeForce GTX 970 Twin-Turbo Graphics Card

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It’s been a while since the launched of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970. But, Gigabyte trying their best to make a better custom design cooler for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970. The company successfully equipped the graphic card with a lateral blower-type cooling solution, which pushes hot air out of the
case
, through its I/O shield air-vents and this makes it “twin-turbo”. According to Gigabyte, this cooler has intakes on both sides of the card, thanks to the company opting for the short GTX 970 PCB to make it possible.

The graphic card offers factory-overclocked speeds of 1101 MHz core, 1241 MHz GPU Boost, and a memory clock of 7012 MHz (GDDR5-effective). Therefore, the GTX 970 Twin Turbo also available in a non-OC SKU which has the same clock speed as reference clocks of 1076 MHz core, and 1216 MHz GPU Boost. For power consumption, Gigabyte successfully squeezes in a single 8-pin PCIe power connector (will draw around 225 Watt). Display outputs include three DisplayPort 1.2, and one each of HDMI 2.0 and dual-link DVI.

The price for non-OC version will be expected to be priced at USD 300 (approx. RM 1,150), while the OC-SKU will be around USD 330 (approx. RM 1,260).

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GIGABYTE releases the Z170X-Gaming 6 Motherboard

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GIGABYTE refreshed its premium socket LGA1151 motherboard lineup with the new Z170X-Gaming 6. Slotted in the company’s coveted G1 Gaming series, this motherboard is targeted at premium gaming PC builds with fairly high CPU and memory overclocks. Built in the ATX form-factor, the board draws power from a combination CPU of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors; and conditions it for the CPU with an 11-phase CPU VRM. There are large heatsinks spotted on the VRM area, which extend into an I/O area cover. You’re capable of running multiple graphics card with x8 with x8 in both slots, with the third slot being electrical gen 3.0 x4 and wired to the PCH.

Storage connectivity includes a pair of 32 Gb/s M.2 slots, three 16 Gb/s SATA-Express, which are made up of six SATA 6 Gb/s ports. USB connectivity includes two USB 3.1 ports (1x type-C, 1 type-a), and a number of USB 2.0/1.1 ports. On the other hand, GIGABYTE includes two gigabit Ethernet connections, one of which is powered by an Intel controller, and the other a Killer E2201. The 8-channel AMP-UP onboard audio solution features an 115 dBA CODEC, user-replaceable OPAMP, electrolytic capacitors ground-layer isolation, and gold-plated analog jacks.

The suggested retail price for GIGABYTE Z170X-Gaming 6 hasn’t been announced at the moment, so stay tuned for the latest news.

SOURCE:
GIGABYTE

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GIGABYTE Releases XTREME GAMING Line of Graphics Cards

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GIGABYTE, one of the world’s leading premium gaming hardware manufacturer, proudly to announce the GV-N950XTREME-2GD from the brand new XTREME GAMING series designed to deliver extreme gaming experience for dedicated enthusiasts. From unmatched overclocking performance to rock-solid durability, XTREME GAMING takes PC gaming to the extremes in every aspect that gamer need.

This graphics card built with the Super Overclock GPU along with the well-acclaimed WINDFORCE cooling solution featuring 3D-Active Fan to deliver the finest gaming experience and silent cooling performance in the same category. The memory is overclocked to 7 Gbps for the sharpest and smoothest gameplay results.

GIGABYTE GTX 950 XTREME GAMING offers WINDFORCE 2X cooling system with pure copper heat pipes which connect directly to the GPU to improve the speed of heat dissipation. The air flow is effectively enhanced by the unique blade fan design to increase the cooling capacity while reducing air turbulence at a very low noise level with the 3D-Active fan is the industry’s first 0dB semi-passive fan design that allows gamers to enjoy their gameplay.

The graphics card PCB has a breathable coating to shield against moisture, dust, and corrosion for a complete protection. The coating is an aerospace-grade coating that ideal for most of the gamers who live in regions with high humidity or extreme temperature which benefit for extreme overclocker that use LN2 or water-cooling could also benefit from this feature to prevent damages from coolants or possible leaks.

The graphics card is further strengthened with a
metal
back
plate
, adding rigidity to the structure while protecting delicate PCB components from handling during installation. Additionally, the graphics card is equipped with a stylish backplate, a new stealth aesthetics and multi-color illumination of the GTX 950 XTREME corresponds to the excitement of XTREME GAMING with a premium gaming look.

The GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 950 XTREME GAMING price and availability will be confirmed soon, stay tuned for the latest news.

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GIGABYTE Releases Z170N-Gaming 5 Mini-ITX Motherboard

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GIGABYTE is one of the world’s leading motherboard manufacturer that deliver superb performance and aesthetic, they announce its premium SFF gaming PC motherboard that supports 6th generation core processors – Z170N-Gaming 5. Bearing the company’s coveted G.1 Gaming branding, this mini-ITX motherboard supports socket LGA, 1151 processors, with the dual-channel DDR4 memory. The board capable of drawing power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors, and conditions it for the CPU using a 5-phase VRM. Besides that, the CPU is wired to two full-size DDR4 DIMM slots, supporting up to 32 GB of dual-channel memory; and the board’s lone expansion slot, a PCI-Express 3.0 x16, with a reinforcing brace.

Other than that, the motherboard offers storage connectivity includes an M.2 slot with 32 Gb/s bandwidth (reverse side of the board), two SATA-Express 16 Gb/s ports, and six SATA 6 Gb/s ports. Display outputs include dual-link DVI and HDMI. USB connectivity includes two USB 3.1 ports (one type-C, one type-A), five USB 3.0 ports (three on the rear panel, two by header), and four USB 2.0/1.1 ports by headers. Next on the specifications will be the network, the motherboard features a gigabit Ethernet (Killer E2200 controller), 802.11 ac WLAN (up to 867 Mbps), and Bluetooth 4.2. Besides that, the motherboard also had an onboard 8-channel audio solution by combining an 115 dBA SNR CODEC with audio grade electrolytic capacitors, and a
headphones
 amp.

The release date for this motherboard haven’t been unveiled at the moment, but the pricing expected will be around USD 150 (approx. RM 630).

Source :
TechPowerUp

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GIGABYTE Releases Z170X-UD5 TH Thunderbolt 3 Certified Motherboard

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GIGABYTE technology is one of the world’s leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics card is proud to announce the first motherboard with Thunderbolt 3 technology to the desktop PC by launching the GIGABYTE Z170X-UD5 TH motherboard with support for the 6th Generation Intel Core processors.

The motherboard powered by Intel’s own Thunderbolt controller the new Thunderbolt 3 protocol, which is available over two USB Type-C connectors on the back I/O of the GIGABYTE Z170X-UD5 TH, brings an unprecedented single-wire bandwidth of up to 40 Gb/s that is twice more than the previous generation of Thunderbolt. The increased value in bandwidth is accompanied with support for different protocols such as DisplayPort 1.2 and USB 3.1, and it’s backwards compatible with compatible with USB 3.0 and USB 2.0.

GIGABYTE offers a way to optimum graphics, the Z170X-UD5 TH features support for multiple graphics cards in SLI or Crossfire configuration and includes GIGABYTE’s industry leading Ultra Durable PCIe one piece metal shielding, which give you the peace of mind knowing that your money is pay off. Additionally, GIGABYTE’s Z170X-UD5 TH supports the latest NVMe protocol over the M.2 connector which allows high-performance storage devices such as the Intel 750 Series U.2 SSD, with the use of GIGABYTE’s M.2 to U.2 adaptor, to perform at their best on your system.

The pricing and availability for GIGABYTE Z170X-UD5 TH haven’t been unveiled at the moment, stay tuned for the further update.

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Gigabyte unveils two variants of GeForce RTX 3080 cards

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Its RTX 30 Series time and Gigabyte has got you covered with two GeForce RTX 3080 cards – the GeForce RTX 3080 GAMING OC 10G and GeForce RTX 3080 EAGLE OC 10G, they both feature the company’s WINDFORCE 3X cooling system, which comes with three unique blade fans that supports alternate spinning to ensure a more efficient airflow.

The GeForce RTX 3080 introduces improved performance over the RTX 2080 Ti with the Ampere architecture, offering up to 1.9X performance-per-watt over the previous generation and realizing lag free 8K ray-traced gaming, early reviews have shown that the RTX 3080 is at least 20% faster in most game benchmarks.

With a factory overclocked core clock of 1.8GHz, both cards have a 15% increase in clock speed than the Founder’s Edition, they also have 10GB of GDDR6X memory and 760GB/s of memory bandwidth when installed on a PCIe 4.0 x 16 slot.

In terms of power, the cards requires two 8-pin connectors and at least a 750W PSU to operate optimally, Gigabyte has implemented a multi-phase power supply design to allow the MOFSET to operate at a lower temperature, while the Ultra Durable certified chokes and capacitors will ensure these cards lasts longer over the ownership.

Lastly, both cards get addressable RGB lighting which will support most motherboards including the company’s own RGB Fusion 2.0 solution. Gigabyte is offering a 4-year warranty for both RTX 3080 cards, the RTX 3080 Gaming OC will retail at RM3,899, while the RTX 3080 EAGLE OC will retail at RM3,789.

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Gigabyte Tegra Note 7 Review

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Tablets and smartphones that run on NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 SoC were badly received two years back due to thermal and performance issues. Last year, NVIDIA announced its Tegra 4 SoC which is a much more efficient chip with significant performance improvements, and we finally get to have a hands on with the SoC on Gigabyte’s Tegra Note 7, a powerful 7-inch
Android tablet
 with a built-in stylus.

The Tegra Note 7 features a magnetic cover that can be used in three different viewing angles.

Video Review

First Impressions

The Tegra Note 7 is an official NVIDIA reference
tablet
 manufactured by Gigabyte, the
tablet
’s design is clearly positioned at gamers, with it’s rugged-like textured back cover and a black colour chassis, the tablet sure looks handsome when carrying it around. The 7-inch
tablet
 weighs 320g and has a thickness of 9.4mm, while not the lightest tablet around, it does have a solid and reliable feeling. The Tegra Note 7 is meant to be a work and entertainment powerhouse, with its dual frontal stereo speakers, built-in microHDMI port and expandable microSD storage.

Gigabyte Tegra Note 7 Specifications

Processor: 4+1 Core NVIDIA Tegra 4 1.8GHz
RAM: 1GB
Storage: 16GB built-in, expandable via MicroSD
Display: 7-inch IPS 1280×800 resolution with NVIDIA DirectStylus
Camera: 5MP Main HDR Camera, 0.3MP Front-facing camera
Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.0, AGPS, WiFi B/G/N, Miracast, USB OTG, HDMI 1.3
Battery: 4100mAh
Other features: Dual frontal stereo speakers with NVIDIA PureSound, Built-in stylus

Best in class Android experience on a 7-inch
tablet

After the 2013 Nexus 7, we’ve never seen another 7-inch
tablet
 performing as good as it. The Tegra Note 7 may not have the best display quality, its touch responsiveness is superbly accurate and smooth, the WXGA resolution isn’t too bad to look at while we were certainly spoilt with 1080p screens, it doesn’t make sense to put such a display in a high performance gaming tablet.

The Tegra Note 7 ships with a stock version of Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, our unit here has been upgraded to the official Android 4.4.2 KitKat update from the start of our review. If you love the stock Android experience, you will fall in love with the Tegra Note 7, thanks to performance optimizations on KitKat, the tablet is able to run every app smoothly and reliably despite having a meagre 1GB of RAM, we still face refreshes at times but speed of recovery is really fast. While most of the operating system has been kept at its original state, Gigabyte does add on some customizations which makes full use of NVIDIA’s technology.

NVIDIA DirectStylus and Built-in Stylus

NVIDIA DirectStylus is a feature which involves both hardware and software, taking the stylus out of the tablet reviews a launcher which lets you add any of your favorite stylus usable apps. Gigabyte included a drawing and note taking app in the launcher, which works pretty well with the stylus.

While the built-in stylus isn’t able to perform “Air View” features like you see on Samsung’s
GALAXY
 Note series, it is one of the most impressive stylus that we’ve used to date. The curved tip on the stylus makes it easy to perform thin and thick curves in drawing, and writing notes is as very natural as if you’re using a pen. Most importantly, the length of the stylus fits into your hand perfectly.

Dual frontal stereo speakers with NVIDIA Puresound

The dual frontal stereo speakers on the tablet makes us think instantly of HTC’s Boomsound speakers, and they seriously look alike.

One extra thing that Gigabyte has added is a tiny subwoofer beneath the tablet. NVIDIA’s PureSound technology makes the speakers really nice to hear,

they may not produce low frequencies as well as HTC’s Boomsound, sound played from the speakers is clear and undistorted even at high volumes, and the tiny subwoofer does its job well in making a little bit of oomph.

HDR Camera

When we saw the Tegra Note 7’s keynote, the company mentioned that the sensor is a hardware based HDR camera, which aims to produce pictures with more realistic colors than other camera sensors.

Firstly, we are truly impressed with the camera software (named “Awesome Camera”), the camera app gives users lots of customisations and shooting modes, some of which includes stabilisation, burst shots, and even gives you a stabilisation grid. Therefore, we’ve put on very high hopes on the camera to expect some fantastic pictures coming out from a tablet.

Unfortunately, we were underwhelmed, although the tablet’s HDR feature does its job well in making some great colours on pictures, we think it can be too saturated at times and most pictures came out to be quite grainy which doesn’t make sense for a 5-Megapixel camera. Check out sample pictures down below and you be the judge.

Video recording is also average to us, which most of the time the camera tends to refocus itself on the video and frame rates can sometimes be unstable.

Gaming

Gaming is obviously the Tegra Note 7’s strength as it runs almost any game that is available on Android. Playing Tegra optimized games isn’t all about smooth frame rates, but it is all about emphasizing on graphics quality and detail.

The Tegra Note 7 is simply the best gaming tablet that we’ve used to date, the size and the ergonomics makes it nice to hold thetablet for long hours. Best of all, the tablet stays warm when fully loaded.

Unfortunately, the number of Tegra optimized apps are still very limited on Tegra Zone, which most titles are already a year old, an avid gamer could’ve easily finish them all. We hope NVIDIA will get more game developers to make their titles to be THD certified.

Benchmarks and Power Consumption

Benchmarks on the Tegra Note 7 shows scores on par with Snapdragon 800 devices, the Tegra 4 SoC impressed us and proves how significant the improvements are over its predecessor.

The Tegra Note 7 scores 34865 points on Antutu and 15379 points on Quadrant Standard Edition.

Power consumption on the Tegra Note 7 is reasonably good, with a 4100mAh battery onboard, the tablet is able to last a day and a half with 2-3 sessions on gaming with an average of 30 minutes per session, web browsing, Spotify music streaming and watching 15 minutes of YouTube videos. The tablet lasts less than 3 days on very lightweight usage.

Verdict

Gigabyte has made the Tegra Note 7 a really capable device, it is the best performing 7-inch tablet we’ve ever seen to date after the 2013 Google Nexus 7. The tablet isn’t perfect in everything, as in display and imaging capabilities, it still managed to serve us as a great and reliable companion during our review period, we would love to see the LTE version of the Tegra Note 7 coming up soon. Additionally, we really hope that Gigabyte make the tablet’s availability here as this will be the most affordable and powerful
Android tablet
, given that it is being priced at NTD$6990 (RM760) at Taiwan. Here’s a summary of what’s good and bad.

The Good:

+ Affordable

+ Solid and reliable build quality with great ergonomics designed for gaming

+ Powerful performance by Tegra 4 SoC

+ Stock Android experience

+ OS updates directly from NVIDIA

+ NVIDIA Puresound optimized dual frontal stereo speakers

+ NVIDIA DirectStylus display ensures accurate stylus input with reduced delay

+ Gaming graphics top notch with Tegra optimized games

+ Optional smart
case
 allows tablet to be used in different angles

+ Built-in HDMI port and Miracast display

+ Reasonably good battery life

The Bad:

– Outdated display technology

– 1GB RAM causes refresh at times

– Overhyped camera performance

– Tegra optimized games limited in Tegra Zone

– Limited stylus optimized apps

We rate the NVIDIA Tegra Note 7 at 4 out of 5 stars.

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GIGABYTE Z170-SOC Force motherboard pictures spotted

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Previously, we caught a few pictures and details on the upcoming Z170 chipset. Gigabyte finally unveils their next generation Z170 motherboard that will targeted at professional overclockers – Z170-SOC Force. This powerful motherboard offers strong CPU and memory VRM, and yet offers a connectivity loadout that’s in league with “gaming” class motherboards. There will be a 24-pin ATX, 8-pin EPS, 4-pin ATX and 6-pin PCIe power connectors that will give you extra voltage to your component that eventually will increase the overclocking potential.

In addition, Gigabyte also prepares a CPU socket is wired to four DDR4 DIMM slots that capable supporting up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR4-3200 memory. A thoughtful from Gigabyte to include a 24-phase VRM powers for the CPU and it has heatsink that is made to ready for liquid cooling. Expansion slots include four PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (electrical x16/NC/NC/x4 or x8/NC/x8/x4 or x8/x4/x4/x4); and three PCI-Express 3.0 x1.

The motherboard has three M.2 slots (32Gb/s), three SATA-Express 16 Gb/s ports, and a total of eight SATA 6 Gb/s ports. USB connectivity includes two USB 3.1 ports (one type-A, one type-C). You definitely will be a surprise when you know how many USB ports there will be on this motherboard, eight USB 3.0 ports. Display outputs include one each of DVI, HDMI and mini-DisplayPort. Besides that, the motherboard also features Gigabit Ethernet and GIGABYTE’s latest generation AMP-UP audio solution.

We expect there will be more details going to surface soon and stay tuned for the latest update.

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Gigabyte’s new Aero 15 and 17 notebooks are geared towards content creators

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Content creators have long depended on gaming notebooks for mobility and performance, and that demand has led to a new category of notebooks, which Gigabyte has today unveiled its new Aero 15 and 17 notebooks here in COMPUTEX 2019.

The new Aero series notebooks are completely redesigned with a minimalist approach, while they still offer per-key RGB keyboards as part of the hardware package, they come in either black or white color options. Both Aero notebooks are powered by 9th Gen Intel Core processors and mated to either a GTX 16 series or RTX 20 series GPU, they also come with the fastest WiFi 6 AX standards and Bluetooth 5.0, while supporting up to 64GB DDR4 RAM.

At Gigabyte’s launch event, the Aero 15 caught my eye with its stunning 15-inch AMOLED 4K panel, never before has a notebook display impressed me this much with its color saturation and accuracy, all thanks to X-Rite Pantone color calibration, content creators can finally depend on the display to make the best of their creation as it covers 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. Ports selection is pretty good too, you get three standard USB ports, a Thunderbolt 3, Gigabit Ethernet and a UHS-II SD card reader.

Both Aero 15 and 17 will support Microsoft Azure AI, which automatically tunes the systems over the cloud to ensure creators get better performance out of certain applications, as a benchmark, these notebooks can run Adobe Premiere Pro at least 20%-40% faster than competing notebooks. Also, they are both cooled well with 2 fans, 5 heatpipes and 11 air inlets/outlets, Gigabyte claims a low noise level of 40dB and temperatures under 36 degree Celsius under heavy workload.

Gigabyte’s Aero notebooks are well known for their exceptional battery life and this time is no different, as they offer up to 8.5 hours of usage on a single charge. The Aero 15 and 17 are expected to make their debut in the Malaysian market in June 2019.

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GIGABYTE’s FORCE H1 is a Bluetooth Headphone for mobile gaming

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While serious PC gamers most probably won’t use a wireless headset for gaming, mobile gamers like you and me probably do need one. GIGABYTE, being one of the pioneers manufacturing gaming peripherals has just announced the FORCE H1 Bluetooth Stereo
Headphones
 for mobile gamers.

The FORCE H1 connects using Bluetooth 3.0 and has dual 40mm gold-plate driver that produces rich and clear all-round stereo quality, it also has ultra-soft ear cushions that helps isolate noise, allowing mobile gamers to be fully immersed in gaming or enjoying media content. The FORCE H1
headphones
 has a sensitivity of 121+/-3dB, frequency response of 20Hz-20KHz, Maximum Power Input of 50mW and weighs 248g. The headphones will charge conveniently via its MicroUSB port and will have music controls around the ear cups, a built-in mic is also present and its battery life is pretty impressive, with up to 10 hours of music listening time, 25 hours of talk time and 300 hours of standby time.

We should be expecting the FORCE H1 to reach the Malaysian shores in a couple of weeks time and expect prices to be around RM150-RM200 for such capabilities and specifications, GIGABYTE also includes a storage
case
 for the headphones so that’s really a plus point for buying this for some great mobile gaming.


GIGABYTE’s Next Gaming 3 Motherboard Spotted

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Apparently, there is more new Skylake support motherboard being unveils this week and this time is the new GIGABYTE Gaming 3 motherboard. There isn’t any name for the chipset at the moment because GIGABYTE want to keep it secret. However, this motherboard still features the new socket LGA 1151 motherboard and it’s designed to strike a price-features sweet spot.

In addition, the motherboard also supports 2-way NVIDIA SLI and AMD CrossFireX and features an ATX form-factor, the motherboard draws power from a combination of 24-pin and 8-pin EPS connector with a surprisingly it only uses a 7-phase CPU VRM. The socket is wired to four DDR4 DIMM slots, supporting up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR4 memory, and two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots.

For storage, the motherboard includes two 32 Gb/s M.2 slots, three SATA-Express 16 Gb/s, and six SATA 6 Gb/s. Besides that, there will be two USB 3.1 ports with one of it will be a type-C port, at least eight USB 3.0 ports, and a number of USB 2.0/1.1 ports. Fortunately, GIGABYTE includes AMP-UP audio solution combines an 115 dBA SNR CODEC with ground-layer isolation, an OPAMP tuned for gaming and music, audio-grade capacitors, and EMI shielding.

The company didn’t forget about the networking part for gamers too, and they introduce the Killer E2200 chip on the motherboard. Display outputs include D-Sub, DVI, and HDMI. There will be also a TurboOverclock+, a hardware-based overclock automation and stability testing system and this will be the GIGABYTE’s first wave of next-generation motherboards.

The motherboard pricing and availability still unknown, we will update you as soon as possible when we got the news.

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GIGABYTE’s Raptor is an ergonomic FPS gaming mouse

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GIGABYTE today announced its latest gaming mouse to its line of PC gaming peripherals, the Raptor FPS gaming mouse is designed by gamers for gamers and its design is the winner of its in house Make It Real Mouse Design competition. The Raptor FPS mouse has an ergonomic low profile and lightweight design that aims to reduce hand fatigue in long gaming duration.

Resembling the sickle-shaped raptor claws, the GIGABYTE Raptor gaming mouse outlines a deadly weapon crafted for serious FPS players. Its compact body offers them with the agility to perform with sharp and precision movements quickly during intense in-game shooting. The optimally positioned sniper hotkey also provides a valuable tool in the combat, helping gamers immediately lower the cursor speed while aiming at the
target
 to assure accuracy for every single headshot whilst making a rapid move or a sharp turn.

Weighing merely 85g, the low profile Raptor significantly reduces hand fatigue as the battle goes further, which makes the Raptor perfect for fingertip grippers who rely on fingers to control the mouse. The anti-slick ergonomic rubber grip on both sides of the mouse provide proper resistance for fingertips to ensure a firm grip during quick movements or even when lifting the mouse. For claw grippers, the added rubber supporting area on top of the mouse further stabilizes mouse balance with this sixth contact points as the palm comfortably sits on the mouse. The Raptor further adopts a weight adjusting design, allowing gamers to personalize the mouse mass best suited for their feel and control.

Built for precision, the Raptor’s 4000dpi pro-optical sensor supports 4-stage, on-the-fly DPI switching, offering precise tracking capability for enhanced gaming control. The ultra-durable Omron switches can survive the most click-intensive FPS game with a guaranteed lifespan of 10 million clicks coupled with the perfect clicking response. What makes it even better is that all keys on the Raptor are programmable via GHOST engine to ensure the maximal flexibility is met for customizing each personal skillsets.


Gionee introduces the Elife E8 and Marathon M5 that comes with crazy stuffs

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Gionee has just announced two new smartphones in its China event, the Elife E8 with a high 24-megapixel resolution main shooter and the Marathon M5 with a 6020mAh battery, these are two really crazily specced smartphones that will at least give us a break of what we have been seeing recently. In addition, the Elife E8 and Marathon M5 retails at RMB2299 (RM1384) and RMB3999 (RM2410) respectively.

The flagship E8 is targeted at smartphone photographers, while its 24-megapixel resolution isn’t something to WOW about, its resampling software trick, similar to a ‘Super Resolution’ mode found on most smartphones, is able to produce a 120-megapixel picture when activated, allowing users to crop subjects in a picture as clear as possible with the huge amount of pixels. The E8’s camera is also capable of taking 4K videos and has optical image stabilization that corrects shakes up to 1.5-degrees, lossless zoom and a dual tone LED flash.

The phone’s hardware power is managed by the familiar Mediatek X10 Helio 64-bit Octa-Core system-on-chip mated to 3GB RAM with 64GB of internal storage, it also features a 6-inch QHD Super AMOLED display that delivers beautiful display colors.

On the other hand, the Marathon M5 didn’t exactly pack one single 6020mAh battery under its chassis however, Gionee has cleverly installed two 3010mAh batteries inside that challenging 8.5mm slim form factor of the phone. To be able to charge up these two batteries, Gionee has included a dual fast charging chip in the phone that allows the
charger
 to provide juice to both batteries at the same time. Specs of the M5 isn’t too shabby as well with 2GB of RAM and 16GB ROM, its camera setup is still pretty decent at 13MP/5MP and the phone will support dual SIM standby with a combo SIM tray that supports MicroSD expansion.

Gionee is upping its game in the smartphone market by trying to make both camera and battery tech go further than what other manufacturers could do, if only the company could make its way out of China just like Xiaomi, otherwise these two phones could be something that users here would want to consider buying.

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Gionee launches two full screen smartphones with quad cameras

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Gionee plans to make a name of its own in its own country China, and in other potential markets such as India. This time, the smartphone maker has launched two new smartphones with a total of 8 cameras from both of them. The Gionee S11 and S11S are attractive looking devices, both of which come with decently impressive flagships.

First off, the Gionee S11. Gionee has opted for a 3D glass build for the S11’s body, similar to the one seen on the Xiaomi Mi 6, with curved corners. On the front you will find a 5.99-inch full screen display at Full HD+ resolution with an 18:9 aspect ratio. Underneath the hood lies a MediaTek Helio P23 processor with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. The phone comes with a 16MP + 5MP rear camera setup and a 16MP + 8MP front facing camera setup. It packs a 3,410mAh battery for its power consumption needs.

The Gionee S11S sports the same build as the regular S11, but comes with a slightly larger 6.01-inch display with the same display aspect ratio. The S11S features a more powerful MediaTek P30 processor with 6GB of RAM and the same amount of 64GB storage. It will theoretically produce sharper images with its 16MP + 8MP rear camera setup and the high resolution 20MP + 8MP selfie camera configuration. It also comes packing a larger 3,600mAh battery with 18W fast charging support.

The Gionee S11 and S11S come with price tags of CNY 1,799 (RM 1,118.35) and CNY 3,299 (RM ,2050.82) respectively. They will go on sale in China beginning December the 4th.

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The Gionee M7 comes with tiny bezel-ed front, dual cameras and large battery

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While some smartphone companies are still holding back on the design on their handsets, there are some that will just go all out with the flow of the current trends. Gionee is one of those companies, and its latest offering tells it all – the Gionee M7.

First of all, the Gionee M7 comes with a brushed metal black, which means that it won’t support wireless charging like majority of today’s flagships. It does however, sport a near bezel-less display on the front. It measures at 6.01-inches in 2160 X 1080 resolution, making it 85% screen to body ratio. Underneath the hood is where we will find the MediaTek Helio P30 chipset for the first time ever, coupled with 6GB of RAM plus 64GB of expandable storage.

The dual camera setup of the Gionee M7 consists of a 16MP sensor with an f/1.8 aperture and an 8MP sensor which captures depth of field information for blurred background and portrait shots. The dual rear camera package is also capable of producing 3D images, along with better low light shots with Gionee’s multi frame noise reduction. The handset even comes packing a large 4,000mAh battery, which sums up a really attractive package of a phone.

The Gionee M7 will probably remain as a China exclusive device for the near future. The phone will go for a price of 2,799 CNY (RM 1,777.68), and will come with a pair of Edifier Bluetooth headphones.

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Gionee M7 Power heads out of China

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Chinese smartphone maker Gionee has always been focused on its local market, putting out smartphones that are appealing to the Chinese crowd. It was not until recently that the company decided to send some of its phones out to other markets, and the Gionee M7 Power is the latest to expand out of China, having launched at India.

The Gionee M7 Power is Gionee’s entry level full screen display smartphone which comes with an affordable price tag. The phone comes with a tall 6-inch display at HD+ resolution, which actually pales a lot in comparison to the QHD+ flagships out there. Underneath the hood is a Snapdragon 435 processor, alongside 4GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable storage.

Unlike the regular Gionee M7, the Gionee M7 Power comes with only a single rear camera at a standard 13 megapixels, plus an 8MP front facing selfie camera. The main selling point of this handset is its huge 5,000mAh battery, which should be capable of providing well over a day’s battery life.

Gionee has definitely started to make its name on the world stage outside of China. With the likes of the Gionee M7 Power coming in at an affordable INR 16,999 (RM 1,087.45), the company should see more of its phones being put out on the global market.

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The Gionee M7 will be going against the 18:9 display smartphones of 2017

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It hasn’t been a really smooth journey for Gionee in the smartphone industry. The Chinese market has been dominated by the local big players such as OPPO, Vivo and Xiaomi, causing the likes of Gionee to be less popular than household brands. Gionee used to have a good run of glory days, but has since declined in general popularity. That might change as the company will be unveiling a near bezel-less display smartphone later this month.

The upcoming handset by Gionee is known as the M7 Power. The M7 Power is probably the successor to Gionee’s M6 series from last year, which packed at least 5,000mAh of battery, depending on the variant. While battery power and longevity might not be the focus of this year’s M7 Power, Gionee will be taking on the trending feature – bezel-less front displays.

The image teaser posted on Chinese micro site Weibo reveals it all. The Gionee M7 Power will sport an extremely thin bezeled front display, most likely of 18:9 aspect ratio. It is claimed to be “More than FullView Display”, as stated in the teaser itself. The handset is probably aimed to contend the elite folk of tall display smartphones such as the Galaxy S8, LG G6 and the LG V30.

The teaser image of the Gionee M7 Power definitely seems promising. Hopefully we won’t be disappointed when it launches on September 28 in Thailand. What do you think of this underdog?

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Gionee revives the flip phone trend with the launch of the W909

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Remember those days when the Motorola RAZR flip phones were in the hands of every youth around you? That was more than a decade ago, where flip phones and clamshells were the trend among consumers. We’ve pretty much moved on from that era, but Chinese OEM Gionee thinks otherwise. The company has launched two smartphones this week in mainland China, one of which, is a flip phone.

We’ll start with the non-flip phone first, the Gionee S8. The handset comes with a industry standard 5.5 inch 1080p AMOLED screen, which is capable of supporting Apple’s ‘Force Touch” like gestures and controls. Underneath the hood is a MediaTek Helio P10 octa-core processor, alongisde 4GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable storage. Powered by a 3,000mAh battery, the S8 sports a 16MP rear camera and a 8MP selfie shooter. The handset runs its own Amigo UI on top of Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

Moving on to the flip phone, the Gionee W909 features the same processor, amount of RAM and storage as the Gionee S8. While it doesn’t sport a 1080p display, it comes with two 4.2 inch LCD displays at 720p. The handset has a 16MP rear camera and a 5MP front facing camera. Below the rear camera lies a fingerprint sensor. Gionee didn’t really size it up when it comes to the W909’s battery, coming at 2,530mAh. Considering that the handset sports two displays, we’re uncertain as to how the battery will hold up. While there’s a USB Type-C port for future-proofing, unfortunately, the W909 only comes with Android 5.1.1 Lollipop out of the box.

As far as we know, both handsets will first launch in China. We will be expecting the Gionee S8 and W909 to be heading to other Asian markets, notably India. The S8 and W909 will be available at 2,599RMB (RM1,577.08) and 3,999RMB (RM2,426.61) respectively. What do you think of Gionee’s attempt on making flip phones popular again?

Source:
Android Headlines

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Gionee unveils premium M2017 with 7,000mAh monster battery

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Emerging Chinese manufacturer Gionee is certainly no stranger when it comes to big battery phones. But this time, the company has put together a luxuriously designed battery beast of a smartphone. The M2017 packs mostly high end specs with a premium price tag slapped on it.

On the front of the Gionee M2017 phone is a 5.7-inch curved edge display with an impressive QHD resolution, housed by a neo-classical desgin combination of metal, leather and sapphire glass to give it a premium touch. Underneath the hood, the M2017 unfortunately only packs a Snapdragn 653 processor, but with a whopping 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage.

The M2017 sports the trendy dual camera configuration of 13MP + 12MP, capable of 2x optical zoom and 8x digital zoom. The selfie camera is of 8 megapixels. The fingerprint reader on the front is of sapphire glass, and it supports mobile payments, like Alipay for example. The handset carries a staggering 7,000mAh worth of battery, which is apparently two 3.500mAh batteries fitted into the bulky chassis of the phablet itself. Gionee claims the phone to be capable of putting out 25.89 hours of video playback on a single charge.

A premium design, decently impressive internals including a whopping 7,000mAh battery will set you back 6,999 CNY (RM4,510.27). That’s a huge price to pay, but the Gionee M2017 phone has already been fully booked on Gionee’s website. The phone will be released on the 6th of January. How much would you pay for a premium experience like this.

Source:
Gionee

7000mah
battery
china
gionee
m2017


The Gionee X1s has a Beautified Video feature

324

Gionee is one of the many smartphone companies that make affordable handsets with respectable spec sheets. Of course, the brand does not have mainstream fame, but it has a couple of smartphones worth having a look at as well, like the Gionee X1s. The Gionee X1s is another reason why selfies might be more important than rear camera shots.

Before we talk about the selfie camera of the Gionee X1s, let’s get some specs out of the way first. On the front, you’ll find a rather mediocre screen at 720p resolution, measuring at 5.2-inches. Underneath the hood, the handset is powered by a quad core MediaTek 6737T processor clocked at 1.5 GHz with 3GB of RAM. Storage might be small at 16GB but is expandable up to 256GB via the micro SD slot.

The rear camera of the Gionee X1s is a standard 13MP sensor. The front facing camera however, is one of the main highlights of this mid range smartphone. At 16MP, the selfie camera is also equipped with a selfie flash, and is capable of producing quality photos and videos with the Face Beauty 2.0 and Beautified Video technology by Gionee. The phone packs a large 4,000mAh battery for its power consumption needs.

The Gionee X1s is an India exclusive device, and will be sold in the country’s major retail stores starting September 21 for a price tag of INR 12,999 (RM 847.32).

batterys
camera
gionee
gionee x1s
india
mid-range
selfie


Giphy introduces new GIF keyboard extension for iOS devices

290

Giphy has udpated its iOS app to include a new sticker-making tool and a keyboard extension that you could incorporate into text. Starting from today onward, Giphy users are able to add the keyboard extension to their iOS devices to share GIF’s quicker.

To use this new feature, you are required to update or download the latest version of the Giphy app. Once that’s done, you should be able to see a globe icon on the bottom left corner on your iPhone or iPad devices. By clicking into the globe, it allows you to change the keyboard language to Giphy, where the search functionality is similar to the web version. However, this feature will only be available and supported on iOS 12 or later.

User who’s using iPhone X or newer devices will have the privilege to record their own animated Giphy stickers to send to others through Apple’s TrueDepth camera technology. Users are also able to save GIFs and stickers as favorites, and edit their media by adding captions, trimming and looping videos.


GIPHY opens up service that allows users to transfer their Vine videos to their site

320

Twitter’s announcement
 that they would be discontinuing the Vine app didn’t really go over well with its userbase. Although the company has mentioned that the Vine website will remain available will all videos being archived on the site, many are skeptical over whether or not Twitter would live up to their word. To that end, GIPHY is extending an olive branch to the Vine users, as they have announced that GIPHY ❤ Vine has gone live.

In essence, GIPHY ❤ Vine will allow Vine users to transfer and safe their Vine videos into GIFs instead. A user must first sign up for a GIPHY ❤ Vine account. Once done, they’ll be able to link their Vine account to the website. Each GIPHY ❤ Vine account is permitted to one Vine account import, so for those who have multiple Vine accounts, they’ll need to talk to the GIPHY staff difrectly. Once the account is linked, GIPHY would begin the process of transferring and converting the Vine videos, sound and all, into GIFs. These GIFs would then be archived in the user’s GIF channel, and the service will send out an email notification when the user’s entire Vine library is imported.

If you’re one of the few who has a substantial amount of Vine videos that you would like to have access to, you should probably take GIPHY up on its offer as a precautionary measure.

Source:
Medium

archive
audio
gif
giphy
videos
vine


Girl buys more than RM1,000 worth of Pokemon merch using sleeping mom's fingerprint

312

6 year old Ashlynd took her Christmas wishlist into her own hands when she purchased 13 items of Pokemon merchandise all by herself, with the exception and assistance of her mom’s fingerprint, thanks to Apple’s Touch ID. Bethany Howell, an iPhone user from Arkansas, USA was shocked after receiving 13 confirmations of purchases made online. According to the Wallstreet Journal, Howell initially thought she got hacked by someone else, until her daughter explained to her.

It turns out that Ashlynd took the opportunity to do some independent shopping on mommy’s iPhone when Howell was fast asleep on her couch. All Ashlynd had to do is to get Howell’s thumb on the fingerprint sensor, and as simple as that, a purchase can be made online. The whole shopping session amounted to $250 (RM1,120.50), to the shock of her parents.

The 6 year old assured her mom that it wasn’t a hack, explaining, “No, Mommy, I was shopping. Don’t worry. everything I ordered is coming straight to the house.” Unfortunately for Howell, only 4 items could be returned, which leaves 9 other Pokemon items for Ashlynd’s Pokemon themed Christmas. A classic example of how convenience in technology can bite you back in different ways. Let us know your thoughts at the comments section below!

Source:
The Wall Street Journal

fingerprint
id
iphone
online
pokemon
purchase
sensor
thumb
touch


Give your laptop and PCs an instant network upgrade with this stylish wireless adapter from Asus

277

Having good internet is one thing, but it is important to also have good and stable internet connection especially when it comes to wireless connection. Asus has just introduced a stylish pocket-sized USB 3.0 wireless adapter that doesn’t only offer AC1900-class performance but takes looks into consideration as well. The USB-AC68 is a dual-band 801.11ac Wi-Fi USB 3.0 adapter that gives you instant wireless networking upgrade for your laptop of desktop PC.

This little gadget is fitted with a 3×4 MIMO configuration and Asus AiRadar beanforming for optimum reception, and with its USB-AC68 dual internal antennas and two external 3-position folding antennas, you can improve your wireless reception in any environment. In order to remove potential data bottlenecks that might slow down your internet experience, the Asus USB-AC68 uses USB 3.0 interface, making it up to 10 times faster than USB 2.0.

So, how does it upgrade your laptop or desktop PC Wi-Fi connection instantly? Well, most laptops and desktop PCs are fitted with previous-generation Wi-Fi, which makes your unable to take full advantage of the capabilities of modern 802.11ac routers. Instead of spending money and effort to open up your machine to upgrade its internals, you can just plug in the Asus USB-AC68 into your spare USB port and enjoy speeds up to 1300Mbps on a 5GHz frequency band or 600Mbps on a 2.4GHz band.

The Asus USB-AC68 is priced at RM449 with 3 years local warranty.

ac68
asus
usb30
wifi
wirelessadapter


GIVEAWAY: Assassin's Creed Movie Premiere Tickets

666

Played Assassin’s Creed? Watched the movie trailer? Here’s your chance to win a pair of Assassin’s Creed ticket from KLGadgetGuy on behalf of MSI Malaysia, the leading gaming notebook manufacturer is hosting a series of Assassin’s Creed themed event throughout December, which you will be able to experience Assassin’s Creed cosplay performance, great Christmas sales deals and grab some Assassin’s Creed merchandise, so mark your dates and make sure you visit the following events:

1) MGA Pacific Championship 2016: 9th December 2016 – 11th December 2016, Berjaya Times Square
2) MSI’s Fans Gathering: 17th December 2016 – 18th December 2016, TGV Cinema The Mines
3) MSI MITF Fair: 31st December 2016 – 2nd January 2017, Mid Valley Megamall

Now, if you want to be one of the first to watch the premiere of Assassin’s Creed, here’s how you can win a pair of tickets from us:

1) Comment in this post or on our
Facebook posting
 of “Why do you want to win a pair of Assassin’s Creed movie premiere ticket?”
2) Like MSI Malaysia and KLGadgetGuy Facebook page by using the embed widget down below

KLGadgetGuy x MSI Assassin’s Creed Movie Premiere Ticket Giveaway

3) Stay tuned and we shall announce the winner on 9th December 2016, 12PM (GMT+8) on this post and our official Facebook page
4) Terms and conditions apply. KLGadget Creative Media Sdn Bhd reserves the right to amend these terms.

That’s not all, the chosen winner will still get to win some Assassin’s Creed merchandise on the movie premiere day, so grab your chance and participate in our giveaway!

For more information on MSI Gaming products, visit the following links:

Where to Buy – https://goo.gl/tqaLWB
Product Information –
http://goo.gl/UmyvrN

assassinscreed
gaming
msi
msigaming
msimalaysia


Glacier White PlayStation 4 Slim will be coming to Malaysia

278

Looking to get a PlayStation 4 Slim but you don’t quite fancy a black-coloured console? We have some good news for you as it appears that Sony will be bringing in the “Glacier White” variant of the PS4 Slim to Malaysia.

Starting on the 19th of January, those who wish to purchase a PS4 Slim can choose between the standard black version or the white-coloured version of the console. Much like the black console, the Glacier White PlayStation 4 Slim will come in two storage variants: 500GB or 1TB.  The 500GB Glacier White PS4 will retail for RM1,349 while the 1TB version will go for RM1,499.

Alongside the PS4 Slim console, Sony will also be releasing two new colour variations for its DualShock 4 controller. These new colours include “Glacier White” like the PS4 Slim, as well as the military-inspired “Green Camouflage” variant.

dualshock4
glacierwhite
greencamouflage
playstation4
sony


Global version of HTC One X9 unveiled

281

After the exclusive launch at China of the HTC One X9 last December, the device has finally made its appearance as MWC as a global variant.

The HTC One X9 is largely similar to the HTC One A9 in terms of design. The One X9 sports a metal body with curved edges. On the front is a 5.5 inch 1080p Super LCD display with HTC’s Boom Sound speakers located above and below the display. The look of the speakers however, slightly differ from the ones on HTC’s flagship One M line. Apart from that, HTC has also included capacitive buttons right below the display.

The One X9 is powered by an Octa-core MediaTek Helio X10 SoC, coupled with PowerVR G6200 GPU alongside 3GB of RAM. It also packs 32GB of internal storage, expandable up to 200GB via micro SD. A 3,000mAh battery lies underneath the hood of the One X9. On the camera side, the device features a 13MP rear camera with f/2.0 aperture and a standard 5MP selfie shooter.

HTC hasn’t revealed a release date for the One X9 and its price, but this handset is one to tinker with before HTC’s next flagship is revealed. What do you think? Tell us your thoughts!

Source:
HTC

htc
mwc
one
x9


Global version of MIUI 8 currently on the rollout

328

Worry not, Xiaomi hasn’t forgotten the older Mi handsets, if that’s what you’re wondering. The Chinese manufacturer has announced on its MIUI forums that the all new MIUI 8 is heading to a bunch of Mi phones as we speak. MIUI 8 was first introduced to the public a couple of months back, launched with the colossal phablet – the Mi Max.

MIUI 8 offers a slew of new features, including a redesigned Notes app, a more feature added gallery app, spam filters for the messaging app, plus a new power saving mode, just to name a few. Having released the public beta last month, the MIUI 8 OTA update should be heading your way if you’re using the Redmi 1S, Redmi Note 3G, Redmi Note 4G , Mi 2, Mi 2S, and Mi 4i.

Other devices that will be guaranteed MIUI 8 in the near future include the Redmi 2, Redmi 2 Prime, Redmi Note 2, Redmi Note 3, Mi 3, Mi 4, Mi 5 and the Mi Note. Further details can be found at the MIUI forums right
here
, but do note that the site has happened to crash at the time of writing. Have you gotten your OTA update yet? Let us know your thoughts at the comments section below!

Source:
MIUI Forums

8
mi
miui
note
ota
redmi
update
xiaomi


Gmail and Google Drive are facing issues – Google are working on a fix

1.2K

Heads up Google Suite users, you may be experiencing issues with Gmail and Google Drive today; but rest easy knowing that its not just you. Google has acknowledged a global outage of the two services – particularly when it comes to uploading and downloading files on both Gmail and Google Drive.

According to The Star, over 2000 reports have been submitted over the past day regarding the issue – there has been reports of error messages on Gmail, Google Drive and even YouTube.

Image credit: The Star

Our personal experiences also confirm that the problem persists until now and may still affect a large portion of users globally. There are currently no details on what’s causing the problem but Google are reportedly investigating the issue and are expected to release more updates soon.

For now, its suggested that you find alternatives to send files and e-mails to your peers.

email
fix
glitch
gmail
google
google drive


Gmail can now receive email attachments up to 50MB

363

Google has long placed a cap on email attachments. The 25MB limit to email attachments may be alright to some, but most people definitely hope for a larger limit to attachments as the sizes of files and folders increase alongside the content and quality of these files. Google has changed up that feature which might give most of us a certain ease when it comes to email attachments, on the receiving end at least.

Google has announced that starting today, Gmail users will be able to receive email attachments larger than 25MB, up to 50MB, which is double the previous limit. The company has acknowledged that sometimes users have to receive large files as direct email attachments. Before you rejoice, do bear in mind that the sending size limit still remains at good ol’ 25MB. How is that possible then? Not everyone uses Gmail and certain email services allow users to send files as attachments larger than 25MB, just to clear up the confusion.

That means if you intend to attach a file larger than 25MB on Gmail, you will still need to use Google Drive to share the larger file, which isn’t actually much of a hassle since Google does that part of the job for you. This new feature upgrade might not be as signifcant to the average consumer, but it might just make a huge difference to some out there.

Source:
Google

25mb
50mb
attachment
email
file
folder
gmail
google
limit


Gmail and other Google services are down globally

500

There have been reports of a worldwide outage affecting Google’s services such as Gmail, Docs, Drive and more. The company has reported the issue on the
G Suite Dashboard
.

The issue took place in the wee hours of the morning today, so it has been
resolved
 for the most part – including in Malaysia, but there are instances where users are unable to send e-mails until now.

The Verge reports that
Downdetector
 showed a spike for reports regarding Gmail and Google Drive – so, if you you’ve been encountering issues of either of these services, just hold on tight as the issue is being resolved; good thing it’s a public holiday today eh guys?

drive
email
gmail
google


Google Meet to be integrated into Gmail, allowing 16 people in one video call

369

With much of the global white-collar
workforce
 now forced to work from home, there’s been an increasing
reliance
 on video conferencing software of late; Zoom looked to be software to capitalize on this by allowing large virtual meeting rooms; but with their recent downfall for lapse security measures, it leaves a gaping hole for another company to step in.

Image credit: Google Blog

Google is looking to take the mantle by implementing their Meet video conferencing feature to Gmail. The latter is, of course, a widely used e-mail feature;
so
 it makes a whole lot of sense that users can start video calls immediately with anyone in their Gmail list.

But here’s the catch, this Gmail-Meet implementation only allows up to 16 participants in one video call, which is a far cry from the 250 participants the standalone software allows. On top of that, Meet is only available to businesses, schools, and governments. But you let’s rem So, its focus is clearly for productivity, not fun reunions.

This also means that people with free Gmail accounts won’t have access to this, only organizations with paid G Suite accounts.
So
 if your school or work place uses G Suite, then you’ll be in for a
treat
 once this feature rolls out gradually in the coming weeks

g suite
google
google chats
hangouts
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zoom


Gmail to drop support for older versions of Chrome by the end of 2017

1.8K

If you’re a Gmail user who’s still using an older version of Google’s Chrome browser, do note that Google has announced that Gmail will no longer be supporting versions of Chrome that are older than v53.

Beginning on the 8th of February, a banner will be shown above the Gmail interface for people who are still using Chrome v53 and below. Said banner will encourage users to update to Chrome v55 as soon as possible. Once the cut-off date arrives, all Chrome users who are still stuck with the older versions of Chrome will be redirected to the basic HTML version of Gmail. Doing so will leave Google more vulnerable to security risks and users will not have access to new features and bugfixes. This could occur as early as December 2017.

The announcement that Google will be ceasing support for older versions of Chrome is particularly important for those who are still on Windows XP or Windows Vista as the latest version of Chrome on both operating systems is Chrome v49. If your computer is still running on either OS, perhaps the time is right to upgrade to a newer one.

Source:
GSuite

chrome
gmail
security
update
windowsvista
windowsxp


Gmail to introduce new right-click features for added productivity

351

Good news productivity junkies, Gmail will be adding upgrades to the right-click feature soon. Gmail and G Suite are arguably the leading brand of cloud computing and e-mailing software for end users.

In an
update
 posted by Google yesterday, Gmail’s right-click feature will see a list of options added to it. At the moment, when you right click on an e-mail, the only actions available are ‘archive’, ‘delete’ and ‘, ‘mark as unread/read’.

Image credit: G Suite

The update will see more options added to the context menu such as ‘reply’, ‘forward’, ‘move to’, ‘mute’ and more. This will be a welcome change to those who frequently use Gmail. These quality of life improvements should allow for better productivity and efficiency.

The update will be on a roll-out for Rapid Release domains starting today, while Scheduled Release domains will receive the updates starting February 22.

email
gmail
google
gsuite


Gmail updates Smart Compose and introduces email scheduling

413

Google first launched Gmail back in April 1, 2004 and it has been 15 years since. Throughout the years, Gmail has been constantly changing with more improvements and fixes, and now Google is bringing in more features for its 15th birthday.

Smart Compose is a feature that uses AI to help users write emails quicker by providing suggestions, and now it’ll include more languages. The updated Smart Compose — previously only on Pixel 3 — will also be available on Android devices, and soon it’ll do the same for iOS.

Image credit: Google

In addition, the updated Smart Compose will be even smarter because the suggestions are now personalised, meaning that it can analyse your writing style and suggest words/phrases accordingly.

Image credit: Google

Gmail also emphasised on convenience by introducing email scheduling. Users can now schedule emails to others, so you can actually write an email beforehand and schedule it to send anytime you want. Not only can you avoid interrupting other’s vacation, you can also get your work done before you yourself go for vacation.

For now, iOS users can only be patient and wait for Smart Compose to be available in their devices.

gmail
google
Smart Compose


Gmail will no longer let you send JavaScript attachments next month

319

Those of you who frequently send JavaScript attachments via Gmail will no longer be able to do so as Google has announced that the service will begin blocking JavaScript file attachments on the 13th of February.

Once the 13th of February arrives, any attempt to attach a .js file to an email will be greeted with a notification that warns you that the “content presents a potential security issue.” And just in case you decide to get creative with sending your JavaScript file, Google has made sure that Gmail will be able to detect the existance of a .js file even if they were to be sent as a compressed file (.zip etc). For those who require the use of a .js file, Google has suggested the use of Google Drive, Google Cloud Storage or other third-party cloud storage solutions.

JavaScript isn’t the first file format that was banned from being sent as an attachment. Some other files that were banned includes .exe, .bat and .msc files.

Source:
G Suite Update
,
Engadget

attachment
file
gmail
javascript
security


Gmail’s “All inboxes” is coming to iOS devices

471

While this is old news for Android devices, iOS devices will finally have the multiple accounts feature in their Gmail app.

Image credit : Gmail

iOS users have been switching between accounts when they want to read the messages in their inboxes but with the new update, there will be an all inboxes option that displays all the messages regardless of the different accounts. It might not seem like a big deal, but it is handy as users will be able to check all their messages at once and yet reply with the respective email accounts.

It is also worth noting that the Mail app on iOS devices has already been offering the feature for quite some time so if you’re used to the Mail app, the Gmail app’s update is probably of irrelevance. If you’ve been using the Gmail app because you didn’t know your Mail allows multiple accounts, here’s how you do it.

Go to your Settings and click on Passwords & Accounts, then click on Add Account. Once you’ve added your account, you can choose whether to sync your data whether it is from Mail, Contacts, Calendars or Notes. To be able to view your emails from the Mail app, make sure you switch on the sync option for your Mail. You will then be able to see your added account in your Mail app, and also an All Inboxes tab to keep track of all your emails.

all inboxes
gmail
google
iOS devices


Gmail’s new update puts emphasis on dynamic content viewing

490

Are you done with static e-mails – tired of the mundane routine of opening page after page of messages and links? Well, Google has got you covered (this is not an ad, even though it may seem like one), with the roll out of their new Gmail update!

Google released an official blog post about the change that’ll be coming to Gmail in stages – and it talks about becoming more dynamic in its presentation.

Image credit: Google

The update will apparently make replying e-mails more interactive – a few gifs within the blog showcases the new update in action and we see that replying e-mails now will be similar to replying comments on social media rather than you having to click on a reply button and composing the text.

Other points from the blog also mention more “actionable” content referring to e-mails from sites like Booking.com, Pinterest and more where clickable images will take over text, which allows you to pin a picture or book a room from within the Gmail app itself.

Image credit: Google

That being said, the issue of security comes to mind and Google claims that the “best-in-class security” will be used to protect your data when you send, receive and perform actions on your e-mails.

The update is live for both Android and iOS apps as well as the web version, but will be rolled out in stages.

android
email
gmail
ios
update


Gmail’s new update will turn addresses and phone numbers into links

313

It is annoying when we need to copy and address or phone number on our phones as we have to drag the two ends to highlight the text that we want to copy. This issue can be seen in many apps but slowly, apps are turning phone numbers and addresses into blue links that will either open your default GPS app or phone dialer.

You will be glad to know that after so long Google has updated their Gmail app to do just that. It will now change numbers, addresses and links into clickable links opening them in your default apps. This would mean that users now don’t have to take the extra effort to convert these links into hyperlinks anymore, something most email apps are already capable of doing. Even Whatsapp now makes phone numbers and web addresses into hyperlinks.

The feature should already be enabled for you as at the time of writing, my Gmail app has highlighted numbers and addresses already. However, Google did mention that it could take up to three days to roll out completely to all users

addresses
app
emails
gmail
google
hyperlinks
phone
update


Gmail’s update brings better optimizations for the iPhone X

349

Gmail is getting an update that makes it more optimized for the iPhone X. Prior to this, there are black borders on the top and bottom of the app which is a waste as it does not utilize the full extent of the screen on the iPhone x.

With this new update, users will see a more utilization of the screen, whereby the app will wrap around the notch at the top and the bottom will have no more black borders, making the experience much better when using the app. In addition to that, Gmail has also added a new feature where they will support adding non-Gmail accounts using IMAP. A feature that a lot of users have been looking forward to, mainly for the ease of use and UI that Gmail has.

Google has been updating their apps to support the iPhone X, where recently they have added support for Google Sheets, Slides and Docs last week, YouTube was also updated which brought better battery optimizations to the iPhone X where previously it used to drain too much battery on the X

gmail
google
iphone
optimizations
update
x


GNARBOX lets you edit HD videos on your smartphone with RAW hardware power

300

GNARBOX 4K Edit Demo
 from
GNARBOX
 on
Vimeo
.

Your smartphone may have a powerful CPU and GPU, however that doesn’t mean that it is a powerhouse that could process your HD videos real smooth and fast. Meet GNARBOX, a kickstarter project that allows you to edit HD footage on your smartphone without using your phone’s processing power, but rather, the device itself has all the processing power that you will need to edit videos on your smartphone smoothly.

The GNARBOX may look like a
mini
PC

itself as under the hood, it comes with a 2.2GHz quad-core processor, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, an 8-core 3D GPU, 128GB of flash storage, two USB 3 ports and one
SD
card

slot, built-in WiFI, up to 8 hours of continuous battery life, IP67 waterproof certified hardware. The device will work simply by allowing you to connect your camera and inserting your camera’s
SD card

on to it, access them from the smartphone app and voila, you’ll be able to edit those HD footage on the go without using any of your phone’s processing power. Best of all, you could even edit your footage with up to three connected users and it supports up to 4K video editing and uploading directly to video platforms such as Vimeo and YouTube.

Literally speaking, the GNARBOX is pretty much a rendering server for your smartphone and while it sounds practical for some users out there, it will take a while for the team to made the hardware accessible for third party smartphone video editing apps, GNARBOX is available to be backed over at Kickstarter starting from $149 as the only available early bird pricing as of now, the team has since reached its goal and will be shipping the device in March next year. Head on to the source link if you want to back this project.

4k
content
creation
gnarbox
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videography


Bike-hailing service Go-Jek might be available in Malaysia really soon

335

The Malaysian government agrees to let Go-Jek operate in the country, meaning that the bike-hailing company will soon make its appearance in Malaysia.

Go-Jek is a bike-hailing service that has begun in 2011 base in Jakarta, Indonesia. The service has since expanded to other countries such as Singapore, Vietnam and Thailand. Malaysia is its current target and according to Reuters, Go-Jek has been trying to enter the Malaysian market since the beginning of this year.

Aside from being an e-hailing service, Go-Jek also offers on-demand services so it’s pretty similar to Grab right now. In fact, Go-Jek might become Grab’s greatest competitor if it manages to enter the market; the Cabinet mentioned that it has to review several laws beforehand.

Alhamdulillah!
 Kabinet sebulat suara meluluskan modal Ekonomi Gojek-DegoRide. Terima kasih kepada semua yang membantu dalam merealisasikan impian ini, khususnya YAB
@chedetofficial
 & Menteri Pengangkutan, Anthony Loke. Let’s work even harder for the Youths!
#Gojek
#YouthPower

pic.twitter.com/ZM2al2cRax

— Syed Saddiq (@SyedSaddiq)
August 21, 2019

Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq is very supportive of the project as he believes that it will create more job opportunities and also help in short-distance public transportation. He also hopes that through Go-Jek, the elderly and young, small-scale entrepreneurs can sell their products and whatnot.

However, there are many other issues that have been brought up since. For instance, Big Blue Taxi Services founder Shamsubahrin Ismail mentioned that being a Go-Jek dispatchers “will not ensure a promising future,” and that there may be complications in Malaysian women hugging riders due to the difference in cultures between Indonesia and Malaysia.

What do you think? Will the proposal be approved and if so, will Go-Jek be able to outmatch Grab?

e-hailing
Go-Jek
grab
malaysia


GoatZ is the Zombie Version DLC of Goat Simulator coming soon at $4.99

386

If you don’t have some cash to buy GTA V or just simply want a game to de-stress yourselves, you might probably have checked out Goat Simulator on Steam, an open ended third-person perspective game that lets you control a goat and do all sorts of crazy stuffs – flying with rockets, creating a mess in a household, causing petrol stations to explode and many more, game developer Coffee Stain Studios is releasing a pretty cool DLC called GoatZ, which is literally the zombie version of the game coming in at $4.99.

GoatZ is an interesting DLC and we are imagining if games like GTA V will ever attempt something like this, the goat that you are controlling will be a zombie goat, in which you are able to infect people around you, get killed by any other infected zombie human or real human, its disgusting but nonetheless cool for those who are seeking for some sadistic pleasure, here are the least of things you can do in the DLC:

Mandatory crafting system because everyone else is doing it

Zombies that bug out. There’s a pun here about actual living bugs, but we’re not going to bother

You can craft anything in the world, as long as it’s one of the half dozen weapons in the game

Zombies, because this is a zombie game, remember?

A pretty big new map with some stuff in it

Completely realistic survival mode where you have to eat every damn five minutes to survive because Dean Hall & Garry Newman said so

The folks over at Coffee Stain Studios are really creative and funny people to be honest and if you have some cash to spend, you really should give these developers some sugar by buying the DLC over at
Steam
 on May 7th. On a side note, the zombie goat poster reminds me of a movie.


God of War 4 artwork leaked

334

Much like any successful franchise, it was only a matter of time until a God of War 4 comes out. Now, rumours surrounding the game has been leaked and it seems that Sony is changing up the series in a rather big way.

…to the halls of Valhalla.

My boy.
#GodofWar4

— shinobi602 (@shinobi602)
April 4, 2016

So far, what we do know is that God Of War 4 will not be returning to Olympus. For the next installment in the franchise, Sony is looking to build the game around Norse Mythology. A tweet by Shinobi602, who is a known insider, has since published a tweet that reinforces the leak.

Further digging by
NerdLeaks
 revealed a portfolio of Finnian MacManus, who was a concept artist that worked at SIE Santa Monica Studio from September 2015 to December 2015. By going through MacManus’ website, NerdLeaks managed to discover a bunch of concept art that is presumed to be from God Of War 4.

An interesting note to point out is that the concept art states that the playable character would be Kratos. Of course, as the game has yet to be officially announced, Sony may decide to use Kratos as a placeholder for now before switching to a different character.

In any case, it would be interesting to see if Sony would reveal more about God Of War 4 during this year’s E3. Seeing as Sony is rumoured to be developing the PlayStation 4K, we wouldn’t be surprised to find out that GoW4 would be a launch title for Sony’s updated console.

Source:
NeoGAF
,
Gematsu
,
NerdLeaks

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sony


God of War will receive a New Game Plus mode

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God of War is getting new content, sadly, it is not an update to gain access to Asgard and the other two realms that are blocked off, it comes in the form of a New Game Plus. This information was confirmed by PlayStation Head, Shawn Layden.

He did not share more information on what the New Game Plus will offer players, but he assured that more news will come in the new couple of days. If you are a gamer, then you know a New Game Plus basically means that you keep your level, stats, items and play the game from the start. Some companies will even increase the difficulty and some add more content to the New Game Plus. We should assume something along the lines of that but then again, Sony might offer us a surprise and break out of the norm of a New Game Plus format.

We really recommend that you play God of War, it is different from the previous games, but retains the essence of what made the God of War series great.

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