Final Fantasy VII Remake Hands-on Demo Experience

We at Pokde.net were invited by Sony Interactive Entertainment Singapore today to get a first-hand experience with the Final Fantasy VII Remake demo. It was based on the same build from E3 2019, which covers the early portions of Midgar, and we’re here to share our thoughts on the game.
We were explicitly told to not take pictures or videos of gameplay so there will be none of that in this post.
The Final Fantasy VII Remake demo starts out with Jesse from AVALANCHE giving you instructions on what you need to do inside the Mako Reactor. Afterwards, you primarily take control of Cloud Strife with Barret as the secondary party member. While journeying downwards, you will fight against Shinra soldiers and weird plant-like creatures for three battles. It serves as a warm-up for you to be acquainted with the new battle system.

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This picture is purely for decoration. It is not from the demo we tried.
Unlike the original game where you take turns to initiate actions, this one uses an action-oriented hack & slash-style combat. You do still have an Active Time Battle (gauge) which fills up over time and by attacking enemies. You can use up the gauge to enter Tactical Mode, where you can execute special actions such as using items, casting magic, and skills.
Interestingly, Cloud has Braver listed as a regular offensive skill and has both Fire and Blizzard as magic options whereas Barret is the one with Thunder. As this is a demo, things may differ in the final game. You do have access to Limit Breaks, which are only accessible when the Limit gauge is filled up.
The game feels more responsive than Final Fantasy XV, making you feel like you’re doing actual damage upon hit. Furthermore, the game gives you incentive to switch between Cloud and Barret as they serve different purposes in combat. For example, Cloud is more useful in close quarters but Barret is ideal for ranged attacks, which is needed at times when enemies are out of range.

As I progress through the demo, I’m treated with a cutscene where Barret gives Cloud a bomb to detonate in the Mako Reactor. Cloud then suffers a headache and starts seeing an odd, hazy vision. Then, we see a feather falling down beside the detonation spot, a clear allusion to fan-favourite antagonist Sephiroth.
Afterwards is where the fun truly begins as you enter a boss fight against Scorpion Sentinel. Unlike grunt enemies, this one won’t budge when hitting. This is where you start to truly maximize your chances to guard and evade as the boss can dish out some serious damage upon hit.
This is when I realized they have one additional battle mechanic that’s seen in Final Fantasy XIII; the Stagger gauge. As you attack the boss, the Stagger gauge will slowly fill up. When it maxes out, it will enter into a Staggered / Break state where it stops moving and becomes far more vulnerable. This is the perfect chance to dish out your best attacks, especially Limit Breaks, for maximum damage.

There is even a sequence where Scorpion Sentinel will jump off and stick itself to a wall where melee attacks cannot reach. This is where Barret shines as he’s the only one that can freely do ranged attacks without costs. The boss battle itself is pretty easy and takes about five minutes to beat. Afterwards, the Final Fantasy VII Remake demo comes to its conclusion.
Personally, I find the combat system pretty enjoyable. It feels like a slower paced Dark Souls (sans the frustrating difficulty) with elements that still bring it back to its roots with the Tactical Mode. My only complaint is that the button configuration is a bit messy and the camera angles can get wacky. At one point, the camera literally went through the boss and I can see the insides.
It’s a minor complaint which I’m sure can be easily fixed and optimized. I’m also certain that you can customize, or at least choose a different preset, the controls in the final game. All that’s left now is to wait for the final release.
In case you missed it, the game’s release has been delayed. If you want to know why, click right here.
Final Fantasy VII Remake will be coming exclusively to the PlayStation 4 on 15th April 2020.
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Samsung Odyssey G7 Gaming Monitors With 1000R Curvature Arriving In Malaysia

Samsung Malaysia has announced that their Odyssey G7 curved gaming monitors has made it to the country, in the form of a 27-inch model and a 32-inch version.
Samsung Odyssey G7

The front bezel is designed with a dynamic curved shape and if you turn the monitor, circular lighting on the back will emit a subtle blue light.

With the Samsung Odyssey G7, you’ll get a response time of 1ms (GTG) as well as a fast refresh rate of 240Hz. It features a curved QLED panel that comes with a maximum curvature of 1000R.

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Other than that, the monitor comes with Eye Comfort certification by TÜV Rheinland. If you are interested in getting the Samsung Odyssey G7, they will be available for pre-orders starting from 29th June till 5th July 2020. Should you do so in that period, you will also get a complimentary soundbars as free gifts.
ModelRRPFree Gift32-inch Samsung Odyssey G7RM2,899HW-T450 Soundbar (2020) worth RM79927-inch Samsung Odyssey G7RM2,399HW-T420 Soundbar (2020) worth RM649
You can make your pre-orders by heading to the link right here.
Pokdepinion: If only they could add a 24-inch model, that would’ve been nice. I find that’s the perfect size for me.
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You Can Soon Transfer Your WhatsApp Chat History To Other Phones

Have you ever wished that you could transfer all your WhatsApp chats to another device? Well it seems that the Facebook-owned company is about to introduce the feature soon according to sources.
WhatsApp Chat history transfer

According to the leak, it appears that WhatsApp will soon allow you to migrate chat history from one phone number to another. This feature would be ideal for those who have more than one single device or planning to change their phone numbers.

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In addition to that, it seems that they are working for the feature not to only work for Android devices but also for the iOS platform. The feature will also work as a cross-platform sync, in case you’re an Android user moving to iOS or vice versa.
There has been no details of a release date just yet but seeing how it’s been leaked already, we could see it sooner rather than later.
Previously we’ve wrote on what will happen should you not agree on WhatsApp’s latest terms and conditions. You can read more on that by heading to the link right here.
For more on the latest tech and gaming news plus reviews, stay tuned to Pokde.net.
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Pokdepinion: It’s definitely something that people with device more than one would appreciate. For me personally, I just hope that they can come out with an update that allows you to use the app on multiple devices at the same time such as Telegram. That would save me a lot of time when reviewing smartphones.
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ROG Mothership Confirmed To Land In Malaysia Soon

Many people were in disbelief when ROG unveiled the ROG Mothership laptop at CES 2019. Why? Well it packs an Intel Core i9 9980HK processor as well as an RTX 2080 graphics inside. All that in a mobile form factor. Now it seems that ROG Malaysia has confirm that the gaming machine will make its way to our shores here.
ROG Mothership
Adding to the powerful CPU and GPU combo, it also offers a RADI 0, consisting of three NVMe SSDs for top of the line performance. Besides that, it comes with support of up to 64GB DDR4 RAM and the 8C/16T CPU runs up to 5.0GHz when maxed out.
One of the things that make the ROG Mothership stand out is its form factor, where it takes the form of a tablet (while packing all those power inside!). Its display is 17.3″ big and it offers a 144Hz refresh rate with G-Sync.

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ROG Mothership coming soon to Malaysia
The news was revealed from their official product guide for this year, where it was labelled as ‘Coming Soon’. We’ve gone and asked ROG Malaysia themselves and they have confirmed that we will be hearing more details on the ROG Mothership on the 26th of June 2019.
Needless to say, when it does indeed comes out, expect a big sum to come with it for all it offers.
To learn more on the ROG Mothership, you can check out our original coverage here.
Pokdepinion: I wouldn’t dare to even dream of buying the ROG Mothership. Don’t think a kidney or two will suffice here.. Adding to that, I’m curious on how many units that they are offering here in Malaysia. It’s hard to think that they’ll ship a lot of units to the country..
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Core i9 variant of MacBook Pro overheats and throttles — Instead of letting you overclock, Apple has to underclock it

We have always wanted Apple hardware, due to the way everything seems to be just right, allowing for a user experience unattainable with most other brands. Given Apple’s limited number of SKUs, it’s much easier for them to do that, than say, ASUS, with the barrage of laptops unveiled when the new 8th Gen Coffee Lake CPUs hit the market. But apparently even Apple is having trouble taming the latest Intel Core i9 8950HK’s heat output.

The latest Intel Core i9 8950HK variant of the latest MacBook Pro 15 retails from RM12 898, and it throttles. Heavily. In fact so much so that it is actually slower than the previous generation of the MacBook Pro equipped with an i7 when tested by Dave2D. It really doesn’t make sense for a newer, higher clocked, more expensive laptop with more cores to perform worse.

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The thermal throttling is noted to cause the i9 8950HK to drop down below the 2.9 GHz core clocks. That’s some serious throttling right there. Perhaps Apple will be forced to release a firmware update that forces the MacBook Pro to run slower to produce less heat. You have to throw it into a freezer to get it to run cooler and faster.

Once Dave2D shows us the internals of the MacBook Pro, it sort of becomes clear as to why the throttling was happening. Apple was expecting a single fat heatpipe to wick heat away from both the CPU and GPU. The Radeon Pro 560X might not be the hottest GPU out there, but the CPU here is a desktop-class 6 core, 12 thread monstrosity. To cool two chips with such a cooling design?
Pokdepinion: I have always wondered how Apple cools their laptops. There are no apparent vents, but now we can see that there is a sacrifice made for good design.
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AMD Radeon’s Rare Bug Caused Windows Failing To Boot, Investigation Ongoing

The latest 23.2.x driver is pointed as the culprit – but only a handful of user has seen this rare glitch so far.

PCWorld editor Brad Chacos has found out his GPU benchmarking system has failed to boot since last week, and subsequent investigation found out that the new Radeon 23.2.x driver is the root cause. There are workarounds – as AMD is currently investigating the issue.

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The story started off with a rather normal GPU installation process as the editor swaps in a new AIB Radeon RX 7900 XT for testing, as the “Factory Reset” option is checked (which forces a clean driver install), the system is then likely corrupted as there could be a Windows Update running concurrently in the background during the driver installation. The mishap has caused the system to spit out INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE error in the form of Blue Screen of Death (BSoD), and attempting to reboot into automatic repair mode has in fact made the situation worse.
It turned out that this bug has surfaced since mid-February when the 23.2.1 driver was released: (Editor’s note: we have in fact reviewed the Radeon RX 7900 XTX using this particular driver, however we opted for standard driver install after DDU so this bug never occurred to our benchmarking system.)

Be careful when you install the latest Adrenalin 23.2.1. Backup your data!#AMD #Driver https://t.co/dOVZSth7OQ
— CapFrameX (@CapFrameX) February 15, 2023

A back-and-forth with AMD representative has narrowed down the cause of the bug with turned out to be an extremely rare case of unfortunate luck with Windows Update and Radeon drivers crashing into each other. It took the company dozens of attempts to recreate the issue due to the rarity of this bug, but the temporary workaround is very simple – just deselect ‘Factory Reset’ in the driver install.
Image: AMD
What if you are among the affected users that now has a system unable to boot? In that case, AMD says you can attempt to force the recovery menu to appear by cutting power in the very small time window between the BIOS prompt (i.e. Press ‘F2’ to enter BIOS Menu) and the Windows boot process (a spinning circle in the bottom half of the screen). This will take a few tries – as that window can go past easily in merely a second. From that point you can choose System Restore to recover the state of the OS – though the editor warned not to use Startup Repair as that can worsen the situation.
As it stands right now, AMD is working on a fix to this extremely rare bug so in the meantime, just avoid selecting “Factory Reset” option until a fix has arrived. (Alternatively, if you do need to perform a clean install, use DDU instead. It has an option to prevent automatic default installation on system reboot should you need an absolutely clean driver installs.)
Source: PCWorld
Pokdepinion: Amongst all of this I feel like it could’ve been easily solved with the good old F8 boot menu. Why did Microsoft chose to remove that option since Windows 10 and forces everyone to deliberately fail the system 3 times in order to enter recovery mode in the event of complete boot failures?
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Intel ARC Alchemist targeted at RTX 3070, RX 6700 XT performance levels

We have already previously seen hints at the Intel DG2 GPU being around the same performance as the GeForce RTX 3070, which is a pretty good result for Intel’s first go at an enthusiast-class gaming GPU. Now leaked slides seem to confirm Intel’s intentions to compete against the GeForce RTX 3070 in terms of pricing and performance with the Intel ARC Alchemist.
In these slides, Intel is positioning the higher-end SOC1 against the GeForce RTX 3070, RTX 3060 Ti and RTX 3060 GPUs. On the AMD end, the SOC1 will go up against the Radeon RX 6700 XT and the RX 6600 XT. This GPU will be configured with TDPs ranging from 175W to 225W, which is pretty efficient if these performance figures are really to be trusted. Prices will be in the $300~500 range.

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There will also be a lower-end SOC2 set to run at 75W, with set to be in direct competition against the GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER. This will be priced at around $100 to $200. Of course, intended MSRPs and market pricing are evidently very different things in today’s market, so it remains to be seen how much we will have to pay for one of the sweet Intel ARC Alchemist cards.

The Intel ARC Alchemist GPUs are set to arrive early next year, so stay tuned. It sure looks like it is shaping up to be an interesting option though!
Source
Pokdepinion: I am most interested in how well will Intel’s drivers work from the get go…
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PUBG MOBILE’s New “Summer Rich” Event Is Now Live

For all users and followers in Malaysia, PUBG MOBILE has launched an event named “Summer Rich.” The event comes with a plethora of appealing prizes, including 30 actual gold bars, USD200,000 in phone credit, and the most outrageous of all, a Yamaha MT-25 motorcycle as a special gift. From 9 July through 30 August, you can earn rewards.
Get awesome rewards during PUBG MOBILE’s Summer Rich event

To further pique fans’ interest, PUBG MOBILE is hosting a “Best partner” event, which is part of a series of events taking place in Summer Rich. Incorporating buddies into a game will undoubtedly increase the thrill and excitement. Especially when combined with specific gaming awards that players may earn, such as permanent Bad Panda Customs costumes, Rap Style clothing, and a total of USD200,000 (RM838,100) in phone credit.

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Players who want to participate can go to the event menu and register their name as a partner. They’ll have to complete several assignments with their buddy each day in order to earn points. The points you earn can be swapped for a variety of fun in-game benefits.

From August 3 to August 16, there will be a “Cyber Discount” event that fans will not want to miss. During this event, players will have the chance to receive limited Dark Goth Set costumes, Neon Punk Hoodie Set, and neon-AWM weapon skins at a discounted price by purchasing any item in the PUBG MOBILE game.
For more information, catch a glimpse of the PUBG MOBILE Summer Rich event, in this teaser video below.

The Summer Rich event on PUBG MOBILE is available now on both Android and iOS devices.
Pokdepinion: The Summer Rich event looks pretty fun but at the same time I’m not entirely excited about it. It doesn’t have that grandeur feeling as some of the recent events.
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Capcom Sound Team Adds A Plethora of Game Music on Spotify

If you love game music as much as I do, then this piece of news will definitely brighten up your day. It appears that the Capcom Sound Team has added a bunch of game music on Spotify.
Listed under the artist name Capcom Sound Team, the Spotify list has included tracks from the likes of Devil May Cry, Monster Hunter, Street Fighter, Mega Man, and many more. You would be genuinely surprised to see how extensive the list is.

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But of course, it’s not to say that every game under the Capcom umbrella is included here. However, we would not be surprised to see more game music being added here so it’s definitely worth keeping your eyes and especially your ears out for this one.
If you been wanting to have some game music on the go, this would be the best time to check out Capcom Sound Team on Spotify. Just keep in mind that if you’re a free user, you can’t simply listen to music that you want.  It will be randomized but hey, it’s still something.
Click right here to check out the vast library of game music.
Pokdepinion: Not gonna lie, I listed to a lot of Undertale music and remixes. It has nothing to do with Capcom but I do love my game music, that’s for sure.
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Malaysians are getting shortchanged by the local Samsung Galaxy Note10+?

Samsung proved that they were pretty courageous by doing exactly what they trolled Apple for back then. First notches, then the headphone jack. While Apple still provided a Lightning to 3.5mm dongle in the box all the way until last year’s iPhone XS, XS Max and XR, Samsung decided to do away with it from the get go with the Samsung Galaxy Note10. Great courage there.
But Samsung’s courage doesn’t stop just there. An unboxing performed by SoyaCincau on a global set revealed that it came with Samsung’s usual OTG adapter and a microUSB to USB-C adapter. Pretty standard stuff for anyone who has used a recent Samsung flagship. However the Malaysian set does not come with any of those.
Image credit: SoyaCincau
The local Samsung Galaxy Note10+ only comes with replacement S Pen nibs and the tweezers to remove them. There’s also a TPU case included with local units that the global units lack, but I am still somewhat appalled by Samsung’s decision to cut back on the contents of the Samsung Galaxy Note10+’s package for Malaysians. How much would it have saved them? RM5, at the most? It’s probably an easy purchase for some who can afford a flagship that costs RM4199, but on the flip side of the coin, I would have expected more when I pay in excess of RM4000 for a smartphone.

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Samsung Galaxy Note10 Specs

Exynos 9825, octa-core, 7nm EUV
Mali-G76 MP12
8GB RAM
256GB storage
6.3″ FHD+ Dynamic AMOLED display, punch hole selfie camera
12MP F1.5/F2.4 + 12MP f/2.1 telephoto + 16MP f/2.2 ultra wide)
10MP selfie camera
3500 mAh battery, 25W Super Fast Charge
RM3699

Samsung Galaxy Note10+ Specs

Exynos 9825, octa-core, 7nm EUV
Mali-G76 MP12
12GB RAM
Up to 512GB storage
6.8″ WQHD+ Dynamic AMOLED display, punch hole selfie camera
12MP F1.5/F2.4 + 12MP f/2.1 telephoto + 16MP f/2.2 ultra wide + 3D ToF Samsung DepthVision camera
10MP selfie camera
4300 mAh battery, 45W Super Fast Charge
12GB + 256GB: RM4199
12GB + 512GB: RM4799

I do understand that there will always be minor difference in package contents, like some regions receiving cases bundled in the box, and some don’t, but this is just weird when it comes to remove some useful adapters that should come in handy, especially given how the Galaxy Note10+ is such a productivity-oriented device.
Pokdepinion: Well, a bit too much courage there, Samsung. Just a bit too much.
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Redmi A1 Released As Xiaomi’s Most Affordable Model In 2022

Xiaomi has announced the availability of the cheapest offering in 2022 – Redmi A1, at the low price of just RM359.

This no-frills smartphone provides all the basic features while minimizing the cost to consumers. Up front, there’s a 6.52″ HD+ display with 1600×720 resolution, and a 5MP selfie camera placed within the teardrop notch. Rear camera is powered by the 8MP module with auxiliary lens; with both sides loaded with various camera modes for portrait, night shots and more.

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Performance is courtesy of MediaTek Helio A22 – providing reasonable performance at this price point. Expandable storage up to 1TB is available on top of the 32GB onboard storage, with 2GB RAM paired in this sole configuration. A 10W charger (included in-box) tops up a 5,000mAh battery for all-day use.
Three colors are available to choose from: Black, Light Green and Light Blue. The Redmi A1 is offered with 2GB+32GB configuration with RRP of RM359, available now in following sales channels: Shopee | Lazada | More Stores
Pokdepinion: If you know someone who needs just the ‘smartphone’ and not much else, this will do the job at an affordable price.
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Xiaomi Mi7 Could Feature Snapdragon 845 – Expected Early 2018 Release!

Qualcomm’s chipset Snapdragon 845 is expected to be in Xiaomi’s upcoming smartphone, the Xiaomi Mi7. The device is said to come out early of next year.
Xiaomi Mi7

It’s been rumored that Xiaomi’s new Mi7 will have an early 2018 release to get a head start over their competitors. The device is poised to to rock a 6-inch 18:9 ratio bezel-less OLED display. The Mi7 should feature Adreno 630 graphics and Qualcomm’s fast X20 LTE modem, all inside of its Snapdragon 845 chipset.

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Xiaomi may not sell their devices as much as Samsung or iPhone but benefiting from this collaboration is Qualcomm, as Xiaomi also has an in-house System on Chip (SoC) development team. Xiaomi has the forthcoming Surge S2 smartphone designed on 16nm FinFET, while its subsequent successor will be knocked down to 10nm.
Getting back with the device itself, the Mi7 is reputed to also include a dual rear-facing cameras, while having a glass/ceramic body design.
While other details of the phone are still kept in the dark, the phone will have variants on the storage and RAM department. That saying, they are expected to be offered at a competitive price, in order to grab a larger piece of the mobile market share. We guess we’ll have to play the waiting game first to get official details about the device itself.
Pokdepinion: I know we still haven’t reach 2018 just yet, but I can’t wait to see what the mobile phone market is going to be like next year and what will they bring new to the game.

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Acer Predator Triton 500 SE Brings Gaming Prowess with Portability

At the [email protected] Global Press Conference 2021, we were shown a number of new laptops that will be coming our way soon. For this one, it’s focused on gaming, especially those who want one within a thin, portable body. It’s the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE and Predator Helios 500.
Acer Predator Triton 500 SE

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The idea behind the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE is to push the boundaries of performance-per-pound limits, by packing as much firepower within a portable body. The result is a machine that you can get with up to the 11th Gen Intel Core i9 CPU, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 GPU, 64GB DDR4 3200MHz RAM, and a 16-inch 240Hz WQXGA IPS PolarBlack panel display in a 19.9mm thin chassis with up to 12 hours of battery life.

But of course, packing all of this power comes with the challenge of having it adequately cooled. As such, we have the Acer Vortex Flow cooling design consisting of a triple-fan cooling system with the 5th Gen AeroBlade 3D Fans, 5 dedicated heat pipes for both CPU and GPU, and strategically placed intake and exhaust vents..
Pricing and availability for Malaysia has yet to be announced so stay tuned for further updates.
Acer Predator Helios 500

If your focus is more on practicality and maximizing gaming performance, perhaps the Acer Predator Helios 500 could be what you’re looking for. It’s powered by up to an 11th Gen Intel Core i9 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080. As for memory, you have up to 64GB DDR4 3200MHz RAM and two NVMe SSDs in RAID 0 with one SATA HDD, giving it an enormous amount of storage space.
The Acer Predator Helios 500 uses a 17.3-inch 4K Mini LED 120Hz display powered by AUO AmLED technology. This means it’s capable of full-array local dimming, comparable to VESA Display HDR 1000 for excellent colour saturation and contrast. If you’re into competitive gaming, you can opt for the AUO Full HD 360Hz display instead.

Acer isn’t skimping out on the cooling system for this one either as it comes with the Acer PowerGem, a custom-engineered technology made from a metal-alloy polymer, Acer Vortex Flow design consisting of two fans, including a 5th Gen AeroBlade 3D Fan. You can optimize the cooling potential, as well as customize the Predator Pulsar lighting along with all the other RGB lighting, via the PredatorSense software.
Like in previous Predator models, the MagForce keys are back. For those of you who aren’t aware, it makes use of MagTek mechanical switches to make keypresses simulate the use of a controller’s joystick for added precision and control. For this, it would be the keyboards WASD keys.
Pricing and availability for Malaysia has yet to be announced so stay tuned for further updates.
Source
Pokdepinion: I really want to see the thermal capabilities of the Predator Triton 500 SE. Depending on the situation, I might just consider upgrading from my old Triton 500 laptop…not that it’s really old, but an upgrade sounds nice.
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AMD Raven Ridge appears on Geekbench; leaves desktop Bristol Ridge in the dust, also benchmarked on Android!

AMD’s next-generation APU codenamed Raven Ridge will pair Ryzen CPU cores with a Vega GPU. Compared to the last generation Bristol Ridge, it is not only clocked lower, but sports better single-core and multi-core performance than its predecessor. Is this the reason behind Intel making all their new 15W ULV Intel Core parts feature four cores and eight threads?

AMD’s Ryzen 5 2500U will feature 4 cores and 8 threads, and is also expected to be a mobile part with a 15W TDP, which makes it even more impressive. Compared against the scores obtained by the desktop AMD A12 9800 in Geekbench, that’s a 37% increase in single-core performance and 49% better multi-core performance, all while the AMD Ryzen 5 2500U is running at just 2.0 GHz versus the 3.8 GHz of the A12 9800. Of course, we cannot discount the fact that the Raven Ridge APU is actually running at a much higher boost clock. Even then, the CPU performance is a great improvement over the Bristol Ridge APU. Next up, the GPU performance.

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What’s even more interesting is the fact the AMD Ryzen 5 2500U was actually benchmarked on Android way back on 31st August and more recently on 13th September. Does this mean that we will see AMD make an appearance in the Android x86 market as well? Color me excited as I am really interested to see AMD eat into the 2-in-1 space where they run Android as tablets and run Windows when docked!
Source: Guru3D
Pokdepinion: I can’t wait to see AMD put up a fight in the mobile space. Intel has conquered the mobile market for too long. And that Android benchmark? I would love to see Android devices powered by AMD APUs! The future is fusion, indeed.
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Get A Chance To Meet And Greet Fazura – See The Celebrity In Person This 16 December 2017!

Fans of Fazura are in for a treat as Neffos will be hosting a meet and greet session for her followers to get up close with her.
Neffos Fazura Meet And Greet
As the product ambassador for Neffos, Fazura will be making a special appearance in a meet and greet session at DirectD Gadget Mega Store PJ this coming 16 December 2017. Get a chance to join an autograph session and a chance to take pictures with the local celebrity which will start from 3PM to 6PM on the day itself.
This session is made available to 100 lucky fans across the country who have made a purchase of the Neffos X1 series and holding receipts from November 2017 until 7 December 2017. If you haven’t made a purchase, fret not. You can still purchase directly from DirectD Gadget Mega Store, PJ, from the 8 – 16 December 2017. The celebrity will be giving away her latest autographed CD away to fans.

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Fans at the event will stand a chance to win some Neffos merchandise during the Q&A session with Fazura on that day. There’s also a lucky draw session where five winners will be walking away with a Neffos Y5L, a Jabra Headset, or a TP-Link Bluetooth speakers, which is made opened to all participants of the event.
Besides that, the Neffos X1 Lite will be at a promotional price of RM449 (previously RM499) at the DirectD store itself from the 15 to 17th of December.
Another joint promotion from Neffos and DirectD will be starting on the event day until the 3rd of January 2018, where X1 series customers will be entitled for Fazura’s latest album and include a RM10 AEON voucher and Neffos merchandise giveaway for DirectD members and other series’ customers.
Pokdepinion: If you ever wanted affordability, look not far away from Neffos smartphones. It would be interesting to see a high-end device from them though.
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Intel Arc to debut in laptops with the Intel Arc A350M and A370M

After much teasing, Intel has finally announced the Intel Arc GPUs based on the Intel Xe HPG microarchitecture. Those who were hoping for a new graphics card to chuck into their desktops will be left waiting for a while though, as Intel is entering the laptop market first with the Intel Arc 3 GPUs, the Intel Arc A350M and Arc A370M.
Intel Arc A350M and Arc A370M now available in laptops

Intel will be going with an Arc 3, Arc 5 and Arc 7 naming scheme, which is analogous to their CPU naming with the Core i3, i5 and i7 monikers. For the GPUs that have just launched, we have the Intel Arc A350M and Intel Arc A370M, which are pretty entry level stuff featuring 4GB GDDR6 and will appear in laptops priced starting from $899.

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Based on the pricing, it would be safe to assume that Intel is gunning for the entry-level gaming laptop scene, currently dominated by the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050/3050 Ti. Similarly, Intel will also be equipping the Arc A350M and Arc A370M with 4GB of GDDR6 memory. Oddly enough though, Intel is not comparing them against NVIDIA’s offerings, and instead comparing them to their own built-in graphics… Not a good sign.

TGPs range from 25W to 35W for the Arc A350M, and 35W to 50W for the Arc A370M. This bodes well for thinner and lighter designs, which is what Intel is targeting with the Intel Arc and 12th Gen Intel Core combos. Or is Intel’s way of rating their GPU power draws similar to their CPUs, where the TDPs are somewhat irrelevant?

In any case, the Intel Arc graphics will be capable of hardware-accelerated raytracing, as well as their own brand of AI-powered upscaling: XeSS. While the technology appears very promising, adoption is always an issue with these brand-specific features. Whether it can match the incumbent DLSS in terms of ease of implementation, image quality and performance will probably determine how popular it gets.
More than just gaming

Intel is also targeting creators with the Intel Arc graphics, a market which is currently dominated by NVIDIA. Intel will be working with creative applications like Adobe Premiere Pro and Gigapixel AI to harness the Xe Matrix Extensions (XMX) available in the Intel Arc GPUs. Along with that, the Intel Arc GPUs will also be the first GPUs in the industry to feature not just AV1 decode, but also hardware-accelerated AV1 encode to enable 50x faster encoding.

We will also be seeing Intel Deep Link, for not just power envelope sharing across the CPU and GPU. but also to deliver faster export times by taking advantage of the media engines in both Intel CPUs and Intel GPUs with Hyper Encode. Then there’s Hyper Compute that takes advantage of the AI capabilities of both the CPU and GPU as well.

The first laptop to feature the Intel Arc 3 graphics is going to be the Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro, although Intel has also listed out a most of their partners who will be putting the Intel Arc graphics in their designs soon. For those looking for the beefier Intel Arc 5 and Arc 7 GPUs, as well as the Intel Arc desktop GPUs, stay tuned, as they are coming in Q2 2022.
Pokdepinion: I think that Intel is targeting the laptop space because there’s only NVIDIA to compete against there, since AMD mobile GPUs are practically non-existent in the market. I am definitely looking forward to see whether its raytracing and XeSS capabilities can go toe-to-toe against NVIDIA’s mature solutions though!
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If you’ve been looking forward to new things in Genshin Impact, we have received word of what’s coming your way ahead of update 1.4. This came in the form of a Q&A session with the developers, and it concerns the use of Condensed Resin.
Genshin Impact 1.4 Details Upcoming Changes for Condensed Resin

【運営開発チームQ&A】
旅人さん、運営・開発チームからの特別な手紙をご用意いたしました。ぜひご覧ください！
▼文字のみのバージョンはこちらhttps://t.co/EbljkHrGSU
他にも「原神」に対するご質問やご意見がある場合は、本ツイートにリプライでお伝えいただけると幸いです！#原神 #Genshin pic.twitter.com/p8Lz6ZqkhB
— 原神（Genshin）公式 (@Genshin_7) March 2, 2021

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For the upcoming Genshin Impact 1.4 update, the amount of Condensed Resin you can bring around with you is expected to be adjusted. It’s most likely an increase, but there’s no word yet on exactly how much. Either way, it’s especially useful if you’re looking to farm Artifacts in the game.
For those of you who are not aware, Condensed Resin is made by using 40 Original Resin. The function of it is to double the number of rewards you get in Domains and Ley Line Blossoms. In other words, you can grind twice as fast for things that you are looking for in the game.
At the moment, you can only carry up to three pieces of Condensed Resin at once, which means you will have to go out of your to craft more relatively fast. This can be troublesome if you’re looking to grind as quickly as possible.
There will be a Genshin Impact 1.4 preview stream coming later at an unspecified date, which will detail the changes in full. There may also be other changes and additions to the Resin system, such as the previously discovered Resin Daily Pass. We will report more on this as soon as information becomes available so stay tuned.
Source
Pokdepinion: Well, if it lets people grind more efficiently, I’m sure many gamers will be happy about it.
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[CES 2022] Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 Reimagines the Secondary Display

The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 has been revealed, featuring a brand new secondary display that will surely pique your interest. Here’s what you need to know about it.
Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 3

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The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 is a 17-inch laptop that comes with an 8-inch touchscreen display next to the keyboard. This is a big departure from its predecessor, which has an external e-ink display.
The primary display is a 17.3-inch IPS display 21:10 aspect ratio and a resolution of 3072 x 1440. It also features 120Hz refresh rate, 400 nits brightness, 100% DCI-P3, and Dolby Vision. The secondary display on the other hand is an 8-inch touchscreen display with an 800 x 1280 resolution.

You can think of the secondary display as a built-in tablet as it includes a number of interesting functions such as mirroring your Android smartphone, be used as a notepad, drawing board, and as a way to quickly launch your apps. To further bolster its functionality, the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 comes with a built-in stylus, which uses the ColourKing Plus technology for a more accurate colour matching experience.
The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 3 itself is powered by the 12th Gen Intel Core H-series CPU with Intel Iris Xe graphics and can be configured with up to 32GB LPDDR5 RAM and 1TB SSD storage. It will all be juiced up by a 69WHr battery, which is said to give the laptop up to 11 hours of battery life per full charge. Apart from that, you also get Thunderbolt 4, Wi-Fi 6E, and Bluetooth 5.1 support.
This laptop will be retailing from USD $1,399 starting May 2022. No word yet on pricing and availability in Malaysia but we will be reporting more on this as soon as information becomes available so stay tuned.
Source
Pokdepinion: This might just be the ultimate portable productivity machine. Would be nice if we could fit in a strong GPU for added versatility but it’s still something.
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Samsung teases DDR6 with 2X bandwidth, 4 channels per module

DDR5 has just entered the market, but Samsung has already teased DDR6 memory that’s slated to come in 2024. The DDR6 specifications have yet to be finalized by JEDEC and the rest of the industry, but Samsung is providing pretty good insight into what to expect from DDR6, GDRR6+ and GDDR7.
Samsung DDR6 goes up to DDR6-12800, 4-channel per module

Samsung is looking at speeds of up to DDR6-12800 for the initial modules following JEDEC’s specifications, with overclocking modules taking it up a notch to DDR6-17000. Aside from the frequency improvement, memory efficiency is also slated to make a huge leap. DDR5 brought with it two channels per module, and DDR6 is going to make that four channels per module. On top of that, we should also be looking at support for up to 64 banks, which should increase not only performance but also memory density per module.

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Along with DDR6, Samsung also teased their LPDDR6 memory. Similar to the normal DDR6, you can expect to see up to LPDDR6-17000 memory on offer. The main advantage is that it should consume 20% less power, making it perfect for mobile devices in the future.
Samsung GDDR6+ with up to 27Gbps speeds
NVIDIA worked with Micron to develop the GDDR6X memory featured on the GeForce RTX 30 series cards, with the GeForce RTX 3090 topping out at 21Gbps memory. Samsung’s GDDR6+ will go up to 27Gbps, which is close to 30% faster. However, if you want a bigger jump, you will have to wait for the upcoming GDDR7. While it is still unknown when it will arrive, it is expected to bring up to 32Gbps speeds, or more than 50% faster than the fastest GDDR6X memory in the market.

There’s also HBM3 in the works, but as we have seen, HBM technology appears to be too pricey to be incorporated into consumer products. Instead, we have seen enterprise and server-class GPUs getting paired up with HBM2, like the NVIDIA A100. Samsung is targeting around 800GB/s for their HBM3 solutions, and it is slated to come in Q2 2022.
Source
Pokdepinion: I wonder how much will DDR6 cost, now with DDR5 already tearing holes in our wallets.
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“Lamphone” Hack Allows Hackers To Spy on People Using Lightbulb Vibrations

Researchers have uncovered a new method of spying on people by just interpreting the vibrations of a common household lightbulb. Dubbed the “Lamphone” hack, the method involves examining minute vibrations caused by a hanging lightbulb which are caused by the sounds in its environment.
The “Lamphone” hack is relatively easy to achieve and can be done from a hundred feet away. All the hacker or spy needs is a laptop, a decent telescope and an electro-optical sensor, fairly simple tools for a hacker to obtain. After the equipment has been set up, the hacker or spy can then proceed to place himself at any location near a window where the hanging lightbulb is located.
Image credit: Cyber Security Labs @ Ben Gurion University
The researchers with the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Weizmann Institute of Science explained that the “Lamphone” hack is easily the most reliable mode of sound frequency hacking. As explained in their research paper, there are three well-known methods typically deployed by a spy, the first method utilises radio signals sent from a victim’s room to recover sound. This is achieved by a network interface card that captures Wi-Fi packets sent from a router placed in physical proximity of a target/victim. The main disadvantage of this method however is that the data collected cannot be recovered as speech and can only interpreted via precollected list of words.

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The second method uses a laser microphone which relies on a laser transceiver that is used to direct a laser beam into the victim’s room through a window. The beam is then reflected off of an object and returned to the laser transceiver which is then converted to an audio signal. The problem with this method however is that the laser beam can be detected using a dedicated optical sensor.
The third method exploits vibrations caused by sound from various materials in a room by using a Voice Microphone. This method uses a video camera that supports a very high frame per second (FPS) rate (over 2200 Hz) to recover speech and is a lot more difficult to detect as it is a totally passive method of hacking. The main issue with this method is that it takes a huge amount of time, usually hours to process even a few seconds of speech due to the complexity in rendering high FPS footage. Not to mention that a high FPS camera is expensive.
Lamphone Demonstration
Which brings us back to the “Lamphone”. To demonstrate this method, Ben Nassi and his team of researchers performed an experiment by placing themselves in an area 25 feet away from a target room with a hanging lightbulb.
Image credit: Cyber Security Labs @ Ben Gurion University
The researchers then played sounds that they asserted could not be heard from their location by normal means. At the end of the experiment, they managed to interpret two songs; “Clocks” by Coldplay and “Let It Be” by The Beatles as well as a speech from US President Donald Trump.
Image credit: Cyber Security Labs @ Ben Gurion University
You can watch the whole experiment done in the video below.

The researchers explained that there are little countermeasures against “Lamphone” as of now. They did however suggest a couple of approaches to prevent such an attack.

The first method would be to reduce the amount of light emitted by using a weaker bulb or by using curtain walls. These will significantly limit the light emitted from a room.
The next method is to use a heavier bulb which will help in reducing a hanging bulb’s vibration. Seeing that “Lamphone” relies on the fluctuations in air pressure on the surface of a hanging bulb which result from sound and cause the bulb to vibrate.

Pokdepinion: Wow this is kinda scary. I mean getting spied on with just the vibrations of a lightbulb? Bad enough our privacy is getting ransacked by our devices and now this.
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HUAWEI MateBook D 15 Review — a lightweight laptop that’s not light on features

The HUAWEI MateBook series come with a very enticing calling card: HUAWEI Share. It’s only available on HUAWEI smartphones and HUAWEI’s laptops, but previous HUAWEI laptops we looked at were relatively pricey, positioning them out of the average laptop users’ reach. But the HUAWEI MateBook D 15 is in a relatively affordable price segment, which makes it a lot more accessible as a companion to HUAWEI and HONOR’s smartphones.
Unboxing

Unlike their smartphone packaging, HUAWEI seems to pay little attention to the packaging here. It’s a pretty standard brown cardboard box with white prints.

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The contents are pretty spartan, with the laptop, a USB-C charger and a Quick Start guide. HUAWEI used a simple wrapper to protect the laptop itself and it is suspended by large foam blocks in the box. Simple yet effective.
No frills

It’s a pretty unassuming looking laptop, with vast expanse of bare sandblasted aluminium. The HUAWEI logo is smack dab in the center, and fortunately HUAWEI is using their new branding here instead of the rather classic looking “flower” emblem.

Meanwhile over on the bottom we get yet another vast expanse of bright silver aluminium, with some strategically positioned vents for the speakers and the intakes.

Slim bezels surround the screen, and since there’s no need to make room for a webcam on the bezels, it cuts pretty close to the actual display panel itself. Meanwhile the keyboard is a contrasty black with bright, brushed aluminium palm rests all around. The touchpad is probably the biggest I have seen thus far, especially in a laptop of this segment.
Specifications

CPU
AMD Ryzen 5 3500U @ 2.1 GHz (up to 3.7 GHz Boost), 4C/8T, 15W TDP, 12nm FinFET

RAM
8GB DDR4 2400 MHz, dual-channel (soldered, non-upgradeable)

GPU
AMD Radeon Vega 8 Graphics

Storage
256GB Samsung PM981 PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe SSD
1TB Seagate ST1000LM035 2.5″ SATA 6 Gbps HDD

Software
Microsoft Windows 10 Home
AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 19.10.30.14
Display Manager
PC Manager

Connectivity
Realtek 8822CE WiFi 802.11ac, 2×2 MIMO
Bluetooth 5.0
1 x USB 3.0
1 x USB-C (USB 2.0)
2 x USB 2.0

Display
15.6″ FHD (1920 x 1080) AUO B156HAN02.8 IPS panel, 60 Hz refresh rate, 250-nit brightness
1 x HDMI

Audio
2 x 2W stereo speaker
1 x combo jack

Power
65W USB-C power adapter
42 WHr Li-ion battery

Dimensions
357.8 x 229.9 x 16.9 mm

Weight
1.62 kg

Performance
In terms of hardware, there really isn’t much that’s lacking from the HUAWEI MateBook D 15. The RAM might be slightly limited with just 7GB of usable RAM (1GB is reserved for the Radeon Vega graphics) but aside from that, it’s pretty solid.
          HUAWEI MateBook D 15 (Samsung PM981 PCIe SSD)            HUAWEI MateBook D 15 (Seagate 2.5″ HDD)
HUAWEI adopts a pretty old yet flexible storage configuration with the HUAWEI MateBook D 15. Unlike the recent crop of laptops we reviewed, the HUAWEI MateBook D 15 comes with room for a 2.5″ drive, and they actually filled it up with a 1TB Seagate hard drive. Performance is as you would expect of a standard 2.5″ 5400 RPM drive, but if you have a need for speed, the 256GB Samsung PM981 should satisfy you.

CPU performance is interesting. HUAWEI has apparently managed to optimize the AMD Ryzen 5 3500U in the HUAWEI MateBook D 15 to deliver slightly better performance than the other laptop we have tested with the same chipset.
          Superposition            Time Spy
GPU performance is also pretty interesting, with the HUAWEI MateBook D 15 coming out on top of its peer packing the Ryzen 5 3500U too. You would also be enjoying better graphics chops than what Intel has to offer, and even better than the discrete NVIDIA MX230 graphics. It’s definitely a great option if you are looking for a laptop for light gaming.

Thermals are decent, with the Ryzen 5 3500U heating up to around 81°C after a 3DMark run, but the all-aluminium chassis does get noticeably toasty. Using it on your lap may not be a comfortable experience, nor a healthy one. There’s also no mechanism to raise the bottom of the HUAWEI MateBook D 15 off your lap, so you have full contact with the bottom panel, thus transferring more heat to your thighs.
Battery life is good too, with it clock 4 hours 4 minutes in PCMark’s Modern Office run. It’s a pretty good run, considering that the screen was at full brightness. The screen doesn’t really go all that bright in the first place, so you would be looking at it quite often at maximum brightness in well-lit places. Four hours is actually pretty good for a 15.6″ laptop with this level of performance, and since the charger is so compact, you can easily chuck it in your backpack without being weighed down by it.
User Experience

For a 15.6″ laptop, the HUAWEI MateBook D 15 is really quite light at 1.62 kg. And with the fantastically narrow bezels around the screen, its a remarkably portable package, especially for one with such a large display.
Ideal for catching up on K-drama?
          sRGB: 56.6% coverage          DCI-P3: 40.8% coverage            Adobe RGB: 39.9% coverage
While the display lends itself to being a very nice, portable package, the panel itself isn’t exactly ideal for color sensitive work. With it capable of displaying less than 60% of the sRGB gamut, you would probably want to look elsewhere if you want to really dial in the colors in your footage. With that said, you would be perfectly fine if you only want to do some basic adjustments to your photos. Media consumption is unhindered, although for those who are accustomed to the vivid colors of AMOLED displays, the colors are indeed noticeably dull. The HUAWEI MateBook D 15’s display brightness might be a problem too if you often work in brightly lit places or areas with strong backlighting as it peaks out at just 245.68 nits, according to our measurements. The display is surprisingly well calibrated though, with a whitepoint of 6437K, pretty damn close to the 6500K standard.

Audio is solely powered by the two downward firing speakers on the underside of the laptop. Quite a shame, considering there’s plenty of space beside the keyboard for two more speakers. They go very loud, but you won’t be getting any bass from them. Good for the random K-drama or YouTube vlog. And of course, as with all downward firing speakers, you will only be getting the best experience if you put it on a solid hard surface. So yes, you don’t enjoy the best experience if you are using it on your lap.
Keyboard is OK, but that trackpad tho

Speaking of the keyboard, there’s a hidden piece of hardware: the popup webcam. It’s great for those who are worried about privacy as you can just push it in when you aren’t using it, but this position is not exactly ideal as it does capture a very unflattering angle. Well, I guess some sacrifices had to be made for the thin bezels around the display. The keyboard itself offers decent tactility, but the short travel distance does leave me wanting for more. HUAWEI’s configuration of the function keys above the number row is rather unique too, with a Fn lock function instead of holding down the Fn key to use the hotkeys. Not exactly ideal because while it meant that I don’t have to stretch my hand to hold the Fn key to use the hotkeys, it meant that I have to tap the Fn key quite frequently to switch between hotkey and function key mode.
The trackpad on the HUAWEI MateBook D 15 is actually pretty nice, as its way larger than what I am used to from other laptops. It’s also centered, which is my preferred location. During my Chinese New Year holidays I was using it all the time because I decided not to bring my mouse back, and luckily it didn’t disappoint me. It was pretty accurate and small movements were tracked precisely too. One of the best trackpads I have used this year, and did I mention it’s size? Yes, size definitely matters when it comes to trackpads.
Way too much USB 2.0 for a 2020 laptop

To better work alongside their slew of smartphones, the HUAWEI MateBook D 15 comes with a 65W USB-C charger that also delivers a nice selection of voltage-amperage combinations that includes the QC 3.0-compliant 18W charging. I do wish HUAWEI designed the charger with an earth connection though, as the laptop gets charged with static when it connected to the wall. The USB-C port itself is far from ideal too, as it only supports USB 2.0 speeds, and has no support for display output or any other goodies that USB-C supports. Beside the charging port is a tiny charging LED, the USB 3.0 port and full-sized HDMI port. Unfortunately, this is the only USB 3.0 port you get.

The other side is home to two USB 2.0 ports and a 3.5mm headphone jack. This is quite disappointing as we now have three USB 2.0 ports on this 2020 machine. There’s also no built in SD card reader, which might be a bummer for those of you who intend to use it for some basic image editing. I do believe that HUAWEI doesn’t really intend this laptop for media editing anyways, so I can look past that. But only ONE USB 3.0 port and THREE USB 2.0 ports isn’t exactly something I can simply overlook.
But wait, there’s more!

One of the highlights of getting a HUAWEI laptop would definitely be the HUAWEI Share feature. This allows you to send files wirelessly from your HUAWEI/HONOR smartphone to the HUAWEI MateBook D 15 by simply tapping the device against the HUAWEI Share NFC tag on the laptop. It’s a really nifty feature, and now with HUAWEI adding the Multi-Screen Collaboration feature, it’s even more functional as you can now use your smartphone from the laptop. The only thing I wish the HUAWEI MateBook D 15 had was a touchscreen, so using the phone on the laptop could be more intuitive.

You would definitely benefit from HUAWEI’s integration of the software on both the smartphone and laptop, as both devices will also share their clipboards when synchronized. It’s a great feature and definitely helps when working on multiple apps. There’s one missing feature though: recording your laptop’s screen and transferring it your phone. That feature is apparently only offered on HUAWEI’s Intel laptops. But then again, that’s a pretty niche feature I can live without.
Verdict: Not for heavy users
The HUAWEI MateBook D 15‘s HUAWEI Share feature is definitely a major selling point if you are using a HUAWEI smartphone, as it virtually eliminates the need for cables for transferring files between your phone and your laptop, which is something I do on a daily basis. If you don’t own a HUAWEI smartphone, it is still a pretty compelling package as its very portable for a 15.6″ laptop, although there are some drawbacks like non-upgradeable RAM, poor selection of I/O ports and a pretty basic display. For RM2499, it is pretty affordable, and it is almost possible to forgive some of the shortcomings, especially if you aren’t a heavy user. I would recommend the HUAWEI MateBook D 15 for students as its relatively inexpensive and definitely capable of some casual gaming, and if they use a HUAWEI smartphone, it makes their daily tasks even more convenient because students have a terrible habit of making groups in Whatsapp for discussions. Yes, you know who you are.

Our thanks to HUAWEI Malaysia for sending us the HUAWEI MateBook D 15 for review.
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Rockstar Games Looking to Bolster Workforce for a New Open World Game

One of the hottest rumours around as of late is that Grand Theft Auto VI will be a launch title for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Scarlett next year. While this may still be unconfirmed, Rockstar Games seem to be bolstering their workforce for a new open world game.
Over on Rockstar’s website, a variety of new jobs just appeared for Rockstar North in the UK. Over 30 positions are currently being hired which includes a variety of roles such as artists, animators, and programmers. What’s more interesting about these jobs is what they seem to point to.
Seen in the Animation Systems Programmer position summary, Rockstar says it is looking for help “in developing advanced animation systems for large open world character-based games.”

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This clearly seems to convey that Rockstar is once again at work on an open world game, which isn’t a huge surprise considering the developer’s past work. That said, it does seem to correspond to many gamer’s expectations, which is a new Grand Theft Auto game.
While none of the job listings on Rockstar Games’ site specifically mention Grand Theft Auto VI, it stands to reason that this would be what they’re working on. Following the overwhelming success of Grand Theft Auto V, it’s safe to assume that the 6th numbered installment in the series is surely on the way.
Even if what Rockstar is hiring for here isn’t specifically related to Grand Theft Auto, a new installment in the series seems very likely to arrive at some point during the next generation of consoles.
We’re not surprised by Rockstar Games keeping mum prior to revealing new games, and it may still be some ways to go before they officially announce it. One thing’s for sure, it will certainly be a blockbuster announcement whenever it’s made.
If you want to check out all the available jobs, click right here.
Pokdepinion: I am really hoping that it is Grand Theft Auto VI. I’m so excited for it.
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Marvel’s Spider-Man 2: A Possible Co-op Mode Teased by Voice Actor Nadji Jeter

As the second half of the year brings forth a lineup of highly anticipated games, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 stands out as one of the most sought-after titles, alongside Starfield. Following the massive success of the 2018 game, Insomniac captured both critical acclaim and remarkable sales, solidifying its position as one of the best superhero games ever made. With the recent release of both games on PC, the Marvel’s Spider-Man series has gained even more popularity, selling over 33 million units to date.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Could Have A Possible Co-op Mode

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 was announced during the September 2021 PlayStation Showcase, unveiling a thrilling trailer that showcased Peter Parker and Miles Morales teaming up to face a new adversary – Venom. Since then, fans have been eagerly speculating about potential features in the sequel, particularly whether a co-op mode will be included.

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Nadji Jeter, the voice actor for Miles Morales, recently attended a SacAnime panel, where he seemingly teased the possibility of a co-op mode in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. When asked about co-op support, Jeter responded with a suggestive comment:
I believe it has been… I think it has been announced. I don’t know if it’s been announced or not, but I think so.
Jeter’s comment has sparked excitement and speculation among fans, hinting at the potential inclusion of a co-op mode in the highly anticipated sequel. While it’s possible that Jeter misspoke or misunderstood the question, there’s a chance he accidentally revealed an announcement that was meant to be made at a later date.

Voice actor slips and leaks are not uncommon in the gaming industry. Recently, we witnessed a similar occurrence with the revelation of Remedy’s Alan Wake 2 launch target by the protagonist’s voice actor. Furthermore, a writer for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 previously ‘leaked’ the Fall 2023 release window, adding to the anticipation surrounding the game.
With the next PlayStation Showcase approaching, scheduled to be broadcasted in two days, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is expected to take center stage. Fans eagerly await further details and potential confirmation of the rumoured co-op mode. If the announcement does happen, it would be the perfect time to unveil such a highly anticipated feature.
As the countdown begins, fans can’t help but wonder if Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 will deliver an immersive co-op experience alongside its thrilling single-player campaign. Stay tuned for the latest updates and announcements regarding one of the most anticipated games of the year.
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Pokdepinion: Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 has become a hot topic among gaming enthusiasts, with the possibility of a co-op mode adding to the excitement. Nadji Jeter’s recent tease at a SacAnime panel has sparked speculation about the game’s multiplayer capabilities, leaving fans eagerly awaiting the next PlayStation Showcase for more information.
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New NVIDIA RTX GPUs arrive with up to 8192 CUDA cores to accelerate workstation

NVIDIA has just announced new additions to the NVIDIA RTX lineup, successors to their last-gen Quadro RTX graphics based on Turing. The new NVIDIA RTX GPUs are based on Ampere and harness the massive advantage that the new architecture brings to the table for professionals to do what they do, better.
For desktop machines, there are the NVIDIA RTX A4000 and RTX A5000 GPUs, while laptops have a whole range, ranging from the NVIDIA RTX A2000 all the way up to the NVIDIA RTX A5000 laptop GPU. As a professional-oriented card, the NVIDIA RTX A5000 also supports NVIDIA RTX Virtual Workstation (vWS) software and also NVIDIA NVLink.

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It seems that NVIDIA tuned the NVIDIA RTX GPUs towards power efficiency rather than flat out performance like the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 series. As such, the flagship NVIDIA sips power with a 230W TGP.

Meanwhile the laptop GPUs also benefit from all the 3rd Gen Max-Q technologies introduced with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 series Laptop GPUs like Dynamic Boost 2.0, WhisperMode 2.0, Resizable BAR and DLSS.
NVIDIA RTX GPU Specs

NVIDIA RTX A6000
NVIDIA RTX A5000
NVIDIA RTX A5000 Laptop GPU
NVIDIA RTX A4000
NVIDIA RTX A4000 Laptop GPU
NVIDIA RTX A3000 Laptop GPU
NVIDIA RTX A2000 Laptop GPU

GPU
NVIDIA GA102
10752 CUDA cores
336 Tensor cores
84 RT cores
NVIDIA GA102
8192 CUDA cores
256 Tensor cores
64 RT cores
NVIDIA GA104
6144 CUDA Cores
192 Tensor cores
48 RT cores
NVIDIA GA104
6144 CUDA Cores
192 Tensor cores
48 RT cores
NVIDIA GA104
5120 CUDA Cores
160 Tensor cores
40 RT cores
NVIDIA GA104
4096 CUDA Cores
128 Tensor cores
32 RT cores
NVIDIA GA106
2560 CUDA Cores
80 Tensor cores
20 RT cores

Memory
48GB GDDR6, ECC
24GB GDDR6, ECC
16GB GDDR6
16GB GDDR6, ECC
8GB GDDR6
6GB GDDR6
4GB GDDR6

Memory bus width
384-bit
384-bit
256-bit
256-bit
256-bit
192-bit
128-bit

TGP rating
300W
230W
80~165W
140W
80~140W
60~130W
35~95W

NVLink
2-way NVLink 3
2-way NVLink 3
No
No
No
No
No

NVIDIA also announced the NVIDIA T1200 and NVIDIA T600 laptop GPUs based on the last-gen Turing architecture. For data centers there are the new NVIDIA A10 and A16 GPUs.
The new NVIDIA RTX desktop GPUs and data center GPUs will be available starting later this month, while the new laptop GPUs is slated to arrive in Q2 2021.
Pokdepinion: It is interesting how NVIDIA staggers out their SKUs based on the GA102 GPU, while the full GA104 GPU is used for everything from the GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU to the NVIDIA RTX A4000.
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LIAN LI GALAHAD 240 and 360 sports a unique triple-chamber pump design

There are plenty of options to choose from if you want a new AIO liquid cooler, but most of them are just based upon the same designs from Asetek or Coolit. That’s what makes something like the LIAN LI GALAHAD 240 and 360 interesting, as LIAN LI decided to go with a different triple chamber water pump design, instead of adopting one of the ready-made pump designs, slapping on a custom cover and calling it a day.

The new triple-chamber pump design that LIAN LI is using is claimed to eliminate water flow dead zones while allowing for maximum pressure across the fins of the cold plate to improve heat dissipation. It also runs relatively quietly at below 20 dBA. The highlight however is on the aluminium enclosure, which gives the GALAHAD 240 and GALAHAD 360 their unique, premium look. LIAN LI will also be throwing in a customizable magnetic cap for you to customize the outlook of the pump module.

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For fans, you will be getting high-static pressure PWM fans with ARGB lighting with the GALAHAD. These fans are capable of pushing up to 69.17 CFM of air flow and 2.6 mmH2O of pressure through the fins of the radiators at 1900 RPM. LIAN LI will also be throwing in an ARGB controller that serves up 17 different modes for you to customize your lighting, in case you don’t have an ARGB-capable motherboard.

Both sizes will be available in black and white, giving enthusiasts the option to choose the color that best suits the theme of their builds. The LIAN LI GALAHAD 240 will be priced at RM539, while the GALAHAD 360 is priced at RM649.
Pokdepinion: Kinda digging the aluminium pump, but not a big fan of the RGB bubbles…
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ASUS WiGig Display Dock Review – Bringing Mobile Gaming To larger Screens Wirelessly

Televisions might be out of fashion, but large displays never will be. We crave for wider viewing area because a larger viewing estate makes up for the little claustrophobia in us, but of course I’m just making that up. What I am not making up today is the fact that projecting your smartphone to a larger screen is no longer rocket science today. While Chromecast has been the ultimate choice to do this for years, it has its shortcomings and this thing right here addresses them ALL in a very versatile way. Introducing, the ASUS WiGig Display Dock.
Unboxing the ASUS WiGig Display Dock

Now, you could guess that this is indeed an accessory that was made available for the ROG Phone, and its getting weirder by now that all ROG Phone accessories are not branded as ROG as well and that makes me cringe a bit. Maybe ASUS is planning to extend this accessory to be used with other products as well, but for now, we will keep the scope within the ROG Phone ecosystem.

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What you get in the package is a 12V 2A power adapter that powers the ASUS WiGig Display Dock, along with two extra exchangable pins, the ASUS WiGig Display Dock itself and a quick start guide. You might have noticed that the 3-pin UK plug is missing but that is because our unit is a Taiwanese set. The Malaysian set will include the 3-pin UK plug option as well.
Appearance

The body shell of the ASUS WiGig Display Dock is entirely made of Polycarbonate plastic but that doesn’t stop it from looking good. The front facade has a brushed metal look and the sides are rough matte making it surprisingly rather fingerprint resistant – not that you would be touching it that much though.

The ASUS WiGig Display Dock is slanted to about 75° when viewed from the side and this provides a better center of gravity to the unit itself. The base is rather wide giving it a large footprint too; which is good.

The interesting part is right here, at the back of the ASUS WiGig Display Dock. At the left most, we have a reset button that sets the ASUS WiGig Display Dock back to its default settings. This is followed by a HDMI port and a USB 3.0 Gen 1 Type-A port for hardware interconnection. Next, we have the power socket and the power button. I have to say, the ASUS WiGig Display Dock looks very neat with all the ports located at the back for easier cable management.
With that looks, it also makes a beautiful piece of decoration that completes your home theater system’s outlook.
Specifications

Input / Output Options
1 x HDMI port
1 x USB 3.0 Gen 1Type-A

Color
Black

Dimensions
124mm x 48mm x 100mm (WxDxH)

Weight
345g

Phone Case Support
Yes

AeroActive Cooler Support
Yes

Since it’s a wireless casting hardware, the Phone Case and AeroActive Cooler can be used with the ROG Phone while using it.
User Experience

Before you make any assumptions, let me explain this upfront. WiGig is not a fancy name that ASUS just thought out of the blue and give it some funny character case. WiGig stands for Wireless Gigabit of which there is an official alliance that houses some of the big names in the technology industry like Apple, AMD, Nvidia, Nokia, just to name a few. Having this alliance, the WiGig standard can be set, allowing devices to communicate at multi-gigabit speeds. Devices that support the WiGig standard are capable of running at 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 60Ghz. No, you did not read that wrongly.
This insane wireless speed is achieved by adopting the 802.11ad wireless protocol which the ROG Phone already has built-in. The AC standard using 5GHz band would create two problems; first, the bandwidth transfer rate would not be as fast as that of 60GHz and there would be higher latency. Second, to make the ROG Phone work with the wireless display port would mean connecting the dock to the router instead of having a direct connection which again leads to latency. You wouldn’t be able to connect to the dock AND the Wi-Fi router separately at the same time, plus using your mobile data while having Wi-Fi around sounds like a silly idea.

Connecting to the ASUS WiGig Display Dock couldn’t have been easier. Plug in the power adapter and insert the HDMI cable from your TV to the back of the dock and you’re ready to go. The ASUS WiGig Display Dock has a status LED that will be lit in blue to show that its booting up, getting ready to initiate a connection. Subsequent steps are all done on the ROG Phone and it has always been there if you may have realized.

Just pull down the notification drawer and look for the WiGig icon that looks like the image above to begin. You can long press it to be taken to the WiGig menu if it doesn’t automatically pop for you.

After a short scan, you will see your ASUS WiGig Display Dock appear in the menu. Just tap on it to connect.

If there is an available firmware update, it will prompt you accordingly. This is a pretty awesome touch!

That’s about it. The ASUS WiGig Display Dock is now connected to your ROG Phone. As you can see in the notification bar, there are two wireless connection symbols, one for the Wi-Fi and the other for the WiGig. You’re all set. If your TV is turned on and switched to the correct channel, you would now see your ROG Phone’s UI on the screen.

At this point the status LED on the ASUS WiGig Display Dock would have turned to amber to indicate that its now connected to your ROG Phone and ready to rock some hardcore gaming.

You’re all set to start gaming on the larger screen. At 60GHz connection, the latency of the ASUS WiGig Display Dock is so low, you can literally game by just looking at the larger screen. Your little screen is still turned on because after all, we are mirroring the content, apart from the fact that you would still need the phone screen for the controls. Speaking about controls.

I don’t know why would you only want to cast your ROG Phone screen and not game with it, but I’m not judging. However, is gaming is the sole reason why you are using the ASUS WiGig Display Dock, then you MUST couple it with the Gamevice Controller that we reviewed earlier. Combining both, you pretty much have an Android version of the Nintendo Switch in your hands – apart from one of the best mobile gaming experience that you can ever get.

So how does it actually feel like playing games with the ROG Phone connected to the ASUS WiGig Display Dock? I think the only one word that I have to describe this is, addictive. You still have to jump your vision back and forth between the larger screen and the phone because after all, the controls are still on the smartphone and switching between the is something you can’t estimate just by looking at the larger display. However, if you are using the gamevice controller, running a gamevice certified game, and connected to the ASUS WiGig Display Dock, the whole experience gets elevated even higher.
Let’s talk about the one USB port that we have on the ASUS WiGig Display Dock. It’s a USB 3.0 Gen 1 Type-A and there is only one of this port on it. I know, feels like it’s short of another port, but what you are thinking is something that we will be reviewing next, the Desktop Dock. But if your question is as mutual as mine, then yes, it does support keyboard or mouse when plugged to the USB port. Then again, there is actually a better use of this port.

Yup, what you are seeing, is a pendrive plugged to the ASUS WiGig Display Dock but it gets detected on the ROG Phone instead. This is mind blowing because the 802.11ad can totally benefit from the 60GHz that it can push from the device to the storage, back and forth. This way, you don’t need to mount a storage to your ROG Phone and keep this exclusive to only the time when you connect the ROG Phone to the ASUS WiGig Display Dock.
The range on the ASUS WiGig Display Dock is pretty short. At 60GHz you wouldn’t expect the range to cover your whole house, that’s for sure. From my tests, ideal position is within 2 meters from the dock for zero latency. You can still use it within 5 meters but the experience is improved a lot the closer you are to the unit.
So what’s the battery life of the ROG Phone when continuously using the ASUS WiGig Display Dock?

This is the battery usage graph that I got after continuously playing game on the ROG Phone connected to ASUS WiGig Display Dock and the Gamevice controller. This is pretty impressive if you ask me. I clocked 5 hours of continuous gaming with both accessories. Take note that the Gamevice controller also sips some battery so you can get a minor tad better than this if you’re not using it. Let’s also not forget that the display is always turned on when you are connected to the ASUS WiGig Display Dock which means, there is SOT included here as well. 5 hours of continuous gaming from your mobile phone on a large screen? I’m sold!\
Conclusion
The ASUS WiGig Display Dock completes the large screen mobile gaming environment like no other hardware does. It brings the beast out of the ROG Phone, turning it into a console like experience. Combine it with the Gamevice controller, and play for a few hours and you will forget that you are actually gaming on a smartphone. If you think that smartphone gaming is a joke and it has no future, try having a PUBG Mobile round with this setup and you will never want to play the PC PUBG ever again. You want to know about the advantages of playing on the larger screen? Well, you know what to get. Just prepare to fork out RM899 for that.

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Geely to buy Meizu to kickstart smartphone business

Last year, Geely’s chairman Eric Li has stated his intention to compete in the smartphone industry. He started a new company by the name of Hubei Xingji Shidai Technology Co. Ltd., and it was set to target the premium smartphone market. More recently, they are reportedly going to acquire Meizu to achieve their goals of releasing their first smartphones in 2023.
Geely to buy Meizu to launch their first smartphones in 2023?
Meizu is a pretty prolific smartphone manufacturer, with some rather unique offerings back then when they were active. They have been relatively quiet now though, with their smartphones not quite making the same shockwaves as they did a few years ago. Meizu is a brand that has focused primarily on bringing flagship-class devices at reasonable prices, so this acquisition is probably a very strategic one for Geely.
Aside from acquiring Meizu, the Geely sub-company is also allegedly poaching R&D talent from OPPO and Xiaomi, offering up to three times the pay at Xiaomi. Head of System Software at OPPO, Wang Wenjun, who was also previously in Xiaomi, has reportedly been snatched up by Geely. Xingji Shidai is currently led by ex-VP of ZTE, Wang Yong. The report also goes on to hint that Geely will most probably look towards Foxconn as an OEM to produce their smartphones.

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The Meizu Pro 7
Eric Li has a vision of integrating their smartphones and automobile software, which will be really interesting to see. Considering that our very own Protons are now practically rebadged Geelys, we might see some very interesting features brought to the table with Geely’s smartphone lineup that can be used in conjunction with their automobile offerings.
Source
Pokdepinion: I wonder if they will market it in Malaysia as a Proton Phone. I honestly would love to rock a device with the Proton tiger logo on the back!
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Nokia Extends Smartphone Promo – Get Them While The Promo Lasts!

December of last year saw Nokia making a special promo for their Nokia 3 and Nokia 5. Now they have decided to extend the period which includes free gifts with each purchase.
Nokia Extends Nokia 3 And 5 Promo
We’ve posted on the promo before, you can click here to read it, but here’s what on offer. With the promo, you’d save RM100 on the Nokia 3 with it being at a discounted price of RM499.
Nokia 3 features a 5-inch fully laminated HD display which uses a MediaTek MTK67 chipset and has 2GB RAM paired with 16GB of internal memory. You can opt to expand it up to 128GB through microSD. It sports 8MP cameras for both main and front camera, offering f/2.0 and autofocus for the main.

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With the promo, customers will be getting a gift pack worth RM150 when they purchase the Nokia 3 during this period.
The other phone on promo is their Nokia 5. It offers a bigger display at 5.2-inch which has HD IPS display. Powering it is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 chipset. Similar to the Nokia 3, it has 2GB RAM with 16GB of internal memory (expandable to 128GB). Under the hood, it houses a 3000mAh non-removable battery.
Its main camera features a 13MP shooter that comes with PDAF, as for the selfie shooter, it sports a 8MP lens that comes with autofocus. As you can see from the picture, previously the Nokia 5 retailed at RM799, now you can get it at a cheaper price of RM699. You’ll also be getting a gift pack which is worth RM200 of phone accessories.
Interested buyers can go to all participating Nokia stores in Malaysia, which you can click on the link right here to find out where. The extended period of this promo is now until the end of January 2018.
Pokdepinion: Well that was kind of Nokia to extend their promo period. So get them now before the period is over!
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OBS Studio 28.0 Update Comes With NVIDIA Broadcast, And More

The popular open-source streaming application, OBS celebrates its 10th year anniversary with the latest OBS Studio 28.0 release. This update brings new features such as:

NVIDIA Broadcast AI-powered virtual background technology, enabling streamers to remove and replace the backgrounds without the need of green screen
Room echo removal suppresses unwanted echoes during streams
HEVC (H.265) encoding support, improves video compression by 15%
HDR support on supported platforms such as YouTube

NVIDIA has also kicked off a challenge to students and digital artists worldwide to share their #CreatorJourney and present their progression in art style over the time. Head over to NVIDIA Studio on Instagram or click the hashtag to view their stories and works.

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NVIDIA Broadcast and Room echo removal is exclusively supported on NVIDIA RTX GPUs. For details on the features added to this update, click here to read the official blog post from NVIDIA.
Pokdepinion: Streamers who use OBS will get a big quality boost with this update, which should give their viewers a better watching experience.
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Beat Traffic Jams this Ramadhan – We have some awesome tips for you!

We would like to wish all our muslim readers Ramadhan Mubarak and happy fasting. The biggest problem during Ramadhan is the hectic of commute as majority of muslims begin leaving their offices at an earlier than usual time, creating a surge of traffic. This Ramadhan, let’s travel smarter by following these tips.
#1 Avoid the Rush Hours

Here’s some analytical data based on last year’s traffic data provided by Waze. In Ramadhan, most companies let their staff to leave at around 4pm which is when the massive surge begins. This remains on until 7pm before it starts to soothe down. On other months, this traffic pattern occurs around 5pm to 9pm. We suggest, those who are not in the rush to buka puasa, avoid these hours and give way to the muslims to reach their destinations in time so you also gain the convenience to travelling in clearer traffic.

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#2 Special Planning for Friday Drives

Things become a little different on Fridays according to the data provided by Waze. In fact, in Ramadhan, people drive most on Fridays particularly because of Friday prayers before a long rest on the weekend. If you are planning to drive on Friday, do check your Waze app in advance to determine traffic conditions before making a speedy escape from work to Buka Puasa. Friday prayers rush hours commence around 12pm to 3pm.
#3 Better Safe than Sorry on Highways

It’s always convenient to take the highways but we advise you to be extra alert during this month. Waze reported that the areas most commonly reported to have road accidents are on Lebuhraya NKVE, Jalan Kuching and Lebuhraya Salak highways. Don’t forget to check your Waze app daily if you travel regularly on these highways as they have higher likeliness of road accident occurrences.
#4 See it? Report It!

Of course, if you see an incident on the road, whether its an accident, a car stuck on the road side, or potholes, do some good by reporting it. You might just save someone’s life by doing this. A little effort goes a long way but do report it safely and always have your hands on the steering wheel when you’re driving. It’s best to have a companion during these times so he/she can report the incident on your behalf and carpool saves another car being on the road. Two bird, one stone!
#5 Use Waze even if you know the way
Even if you are familiar with the roads and travel regularly, fire up Waze and let it run. Waze is smart enough to determine the density of travellers on the road just by you doing this.
Pokdepinion: Driving during Ramadhan can be hectic. A little tolerance here, a little courtesy there, and we can all make a huge difference to all commuters. Let’s all do our part and be safe on the road at all times.
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4K recording on the Nokia Lumia 1520 with Lumia Denim

4K has been quite the fad lately with a lot of flagship smartphones offering 4K recording. Not wanting to be left out, Microsoft provides support for 4K recording @ 24 fps with the Lumia Denim for the Lumia 1520 and Lumia 930. While the benefits of 4K recording in the other flagships pales in comparison to the massive file sizes for the recordings, it may be different in the case of the Lumias since they are already established as some of the best in video recording thanks to the Nokia Rich Recording technology which allows for a higher dynamic range in the audio recorded. Now with 4K, content creators have even more options.
Is 4K on the Lumia 1520 another fad to be dismissed? Watch the video (remember to tweak the settings in youtube) and tell us in the comments below!

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SOURCE: GSMArena
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XPG Brings GaN Into Its Fusion 1600 Titanium PSU To Power Four GeForce RTX 4090s
Image: XPG Global (YouTube)

ADATA, the company behind the XPG gaming sub-brand has introduced a new PCIe 5.0 / ATX 3.0 PSU. Called the Fusion 1600 Titanium, this 1600-watt, 80+ Titanium certified unit is demonstrated by powering four fully-loaded ASUS ROG STRIX RTX 4090s (with Furmark and OctaneBench) in the Computex show floor.
Image: Tom’s Hardware
If you did the math, you may have realized that four RTX 4090s combined with full load should demand at least 1800 watts of power. Matter of fact, in the bench rig the PSU managed to power four GPUs uninterrupted at the peak power draw of 2200 watts, which is 37.5% more than stock figures!
Image: ADATA
That’s partly thanks to a new GaN (gallium nitride) based design with planar transformers – with the former greatly contributed to the mass adoption of high-powered USB-PD chargers rated beyond 100 watts. The PSU is designed in collaboration with Delta Electronics, makers of fans and PSUs seen in either OEM builds or datacenter environments. The unit is fully digitally-driven, meaning greater control over the voltage regulation and limits such as OCP (overcurrent protection) thresholds.

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The Fusion 1600 Titanium will go on sale beginning next month, at least in select markets – so it’s unclear if Malaysia will be on the launch list in the immediate future. As far as pricing goes, don’t expect this will be a cheap one, especially with GaN involved.
Source: Tom’s Hardware
Pokdepinion: Since ATX standards are pretty rigid when it comes to sizes, I can imagine the introduction of GaN will make SFX units a lot more capable than before.
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Shopee Sellers Will Be Charged for Failed Orders and Return Shipping

It looks like Shopee will be making a big change soon as sellers on their platform will be charged for failed orders and return shipping. Here’s what you need to know.
Shopee Sellers Will Be Charged for Two New Fees

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Starting 9th May 2022, Shopee will begin to charge sellers on their platform with unsuccessful order fees by logistics partners. This is specifically referring to two types of fees; Forward Shipping Fee (FSF) and Return Shipping Fee (RSF), which are applicable for returns and / or refunds due to faulty, incomplete, wrong, or counterfeit orders.
For those of you who aren’t aware, FSF refers to the actual shipping fee rates charged by logistics partners, with the shipping fee rebated by Shopee. RSF on the other hand is the rate charged for the return delivery service. If a buyer were to opt for a non-Shopee supported courier or failed to collect the order for self-collection, sellers will not be charged for it.
There are other exceptions when it comes to sellers being charged for FSF and RSF. For instance, if a buyer didn’t receive the item from the courier, a sudden change of mind, no physical item being returned, or damaged goods during the shipping process.
For returns and refunds, sellers will be charged for the fees upfront but this can be disputed for any of the aforementioned reasons and more. If it’s found that the seller is no way at fault, the fee will immediately be reimbursed.
Source
Pokdepinion: For a moment, it sounded like there will be plenty of areas ripe for abuse against sellers but in this case, it’s a pretty okay change for the sake of convenience and speed. It’s also an understandable change given the sheer volume of sales happening on the platform on a daily basis.
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HUAWEI P20 Pro Wins “Best Smartphone of the Year” Award From EISA

HUAWEI today received the award of “EISA Best Smartphone 2018-2018” from the European Image and Sound Association (EISA) for their flagship smartphone, the HUAWEI P20 Pro.
HUAWEI Wins EISA Best Smartphone Award 2018
EISA have selected the HUAWEI P20 Pro as the best smartphone of the year for being “the most advanced, innovative, and technically superior smartphone ever” as well as “the perfect companion for mobile users and also a trendsetter in the mobile photography field”.
With its Leica Triple Camera on the P20 Pro, it boasts the highest total pixel count among all smartphone cameras on the market today. It also supports 3x optical zoom and 5x hybrid zoom, plus innovative features including HUAWEI AIS (AI Image Stabilization).

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The members from EISA include expert media across the full spectrum of consumer electronics from 27 countries, with each member contributes to one or more of EISA’s six Expert Groups that includes photography, mobile devices, Hi-Fi, home theatre audio, home theatre display and video, and in-car electronics. Each year, the members will nominate a list of products that they consider to be the standout among these each groups. The award will be formally presented to HUAWEI during IFA at the EISA Awards Ceremony on August 31 in Berlin.
Previously, HUAWEI won EISA’s award for Smartphone Camera 2017-2018 through their P10 smartphone.
Pokdepinion: If you have argued with someone on what is the best smartphone that’s on the market, well now you have the answer already. Congratulations to HUAWEI, that needs to be said.
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[E3 2019] Ninja Theory Reveals New 4v4 Brawler Bleeding Edge

The trailer for Ninja Theory’s newest title, Bleeding Edge, leaked online yesterday. Even in that blurry video with no sound, the game looked like an interesting new 4v4 online melee combat game. Now that we’ve gotten a proper look at it, it only gets even more exciting. Check out the official trailer at the top of this post.
Bleeding Edge has that Borderlands-style visuals crossed with the game modes found in For Honor. Much like For Honor, you’ll be engaging in small scale skirmishes with your team of four against another team of four. However, Bleeding Edge looks much more bombastic than the Ubisoft property.
The game will include numerous different characters for you to play as. Each character has their own unique visual flair, which makes them immediately recognizable in combat. It’s hard to miss a large woman becoming a motorcycle in the middle of your fist fight, after all.

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You won’t have to wait long to try the game out, as a technical alpha is coming 27th June 2019. No word yet on an official release.
Pokdepinion: Sounds like a new game to play with friends. I’m down with that.
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