Danh mục: Tin tức

Earlier this year at CES, Samsung pulled the wraps off a stunning 57-inch gaming monitor. The new Odyssey Neo G9 is a towering beast, even eclipsing the stunning, rotating 55-inch Odyssey Ark.

At the time of its announcement, Samsung didn’t reveal pricing or availability for the Odyssey Neo G9. However, the company is now at least giving us the lowdown on when it will hit stores: August 23. The company has revealed the launch date in a teaser video posted to YouTube, but remains mum about pricing.

For some perspective, the Odyssey Ark features a 55-inch Mini-LED panel and a $2,999 MSRP direct from Samsung, but Amazon currently offers it for $2,500. Given its slightly larger size and even loftier specs, we could see the 57-inch Odyssey Neo G9 crossing well over the $3,000 threshold.

According to Samsung, the 57-inch Odyssey Neo G9 uses a Mini-LED panel (with a native contrast of 1,000,000:1) featuring a Dual UHD resolution (7680 x 2160) and VESA Display HDR 1000 certification. In other words, that’s like having two 4K monitors sitting side-by-side, giving you an effective aspect ratio of 32:9. Given how expansive this monitor is, it’s not surprising that Samsung went with a tight 1000R curve to help wrap the display for a more immersive viewing experience.

As you might expect, given its Dual UHD resolution and a fast 240Hz refresh rate, the monitor supports HDMI 2.1 and is the first monitor on the market to adopt DisplayPort 2.1.

When it announced the 57-inch Odyssey Neo G9 in January, Samsung also noted that the screen would adopt its Smart Hub, which provides access to streaming media apps like Netflix, Prime Video, and YouTube. This is hardly surprising, given how massive this monitor is — we expect many will want it to pull double duty as a television. It will also support the Samsung Gaming Hub, with native access to Xbox Cloud Gaming and Nvidia GeForce Now game streaming services.

With the official release of the 57-inch Odyssey Neo G9 less than two weeks away, the only thing left to ponder is how many mortgage payments it will cost.

What do you think would happen if I tried this? I stroll into a bank and see a wad of cash within arm’s reach behind an unoccupied teller window. I grab the dough and start walking out the door with it when a police officer, very rudely, stops me. “I’m entitled to take this money,” I say. “Because nobody at the bank told me not to.”

If you think my defense is implausible, then you don’t work for Google. This week, the search giant said that it wants to change copyright laws so that it can grab any content it wants from the Internet, use it as training data for its AI products, and argue “fair use” if anyone objects to the plagiarism stew Google’s cooking up. Google’s figleaf to copyright holders: they’ll find a way to let you opt-out.

In a recent statement to the Australian government, which is considering new AI laws, Google wrote that it wants “copyright systems that enable appropriate and fair use of copyrighted content to enable the training of AI models in Australia on a broad and diverse range of data while supporting workable opt-outs for entities that prefer their data not to be trained in using AI systems.”

Google obviously wants the same thing in the U.S., UK, and Europe that it does in Australia: the right to scrape and ingest copyrighted content with impunity. But the company may not need to have any new legislation passed. Some argue that existing “fair use” doctrines already allow for this type of machine learning, making AI providers immune from copyright infringement claims right now. However, that question is still very much up in the air – with billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of jobs at stake.

Is Machine Learning a Form of Fair Use Currently?

At present, there are several lawsuits filed against Google and OpenAI from publishers and authors who think the practice of scraping copyrighted content for training is illegal and want damages. In June, novelists Paul Tremblay and Mona Awad sued OpenAI after they found that ChatGPT had likely ingested their books. A few weeks later, Comedian Sarah Silverman sued OpenAI and Meta claiming that it took content from her book. Another group filed a class action lawsuit in California against Google for taking data for its Bard AI without permission.

Fair use, which is called Fair dealing in Australia and the UK, is a doctrine that allows limited use of copyrighted materials without permission for the purpose of criticism, commentary, news reporting, or research. Fair use is not an absolute right, but an affirmative defense for someone who is facing a copyright infringement lawsuit. The U.S. Copyright Office lists four criteria American courts use to determine whether a use is fair:

1. Purpose of the work: Is the goal of the use research, reporting, or commentary? Is the use “transformative,” in that it adds something new or changes the character of the work?
2. Nature of the original work: Forms of creative expression – novels, songs, movies – have more protection than those based on facts. Facts are not protected but the expression of them is.
3. Amount of the work reproduced: Did you use more of the original content than you needed to?
4. Effect upon the market for the original work: Does your material compete with the original or make it less likely that people will purchase it? If so, that’s a strike against fair use.

There’s a lot of room for debate about whether using copyrighted material as training data is “fair use” as a matter of law. The answer to the question may vary based on whether the work Google takes is creative or factual. Journalistic publications such as Tom’s Hardware deal primarily in facts, so we likely have less protection than someone who wrote a novel. 

“Training generative AI on copyrighted works is usually fair use because it falls into the category of non-expressive use,” Emory Professor of Law and Artificial Intelligence Matthew Sag said in testimony to a U.S. Senate subcommittee in July. “Courts addressing technologies such as reverse-engineering search engines and plagiarism-detection software have held that these non-expressive uses are fair use. These cases reflect copyright’s fundamental distinction between protectable original expression and unprotectable facts, ideas, and abstractions,”

When I interviewed Sag a couple of weeks before his testimony, he told me that fair use really depends on how closely the AI bot’s output resembles the works it used for training. “If the output of an LLM doesn’t bear too close a resemblance, then generally it’s going to be fair use,” he said.

Google SGE Copies Text Word-for-Word

But, as I talked about in a previous article, Google’s SGE (Search Generative Experience), which is still in beta but is likely to become the default experience soon, often copies text word-for-word from its training data and isn’t even ashamed to show you where it plagiarized from. For example, when I Googled “iPhone 14,” I was presented with a bulleted list of three things to consider when buying an iPhone 14. Each of the things was taken word-for-word from a different web page, in this case: gizchina.com, androidauthority.com and uswitch.com.

I didn’t have to hunt for the original sources as they are exposed by you clicking on the quotation mark button with the text itself highlighted if you click through to the listed website. While Google defenders might say that these quotation marks are citations and valuable backlinks, they are neither. A real word-for-word quotation is in quotes and has direct attribution (ex: “According to Gizchina.com, …”). These are related links that are buried behind an icon and often there are two or three links when the content was only copied from one of the linked sites (you’d have to go through all three to figure out which one the content came from).

To be fair to Google, plagiarism is an academic and moral term, but it’s not part of copyright law. Providing proper and detailed citations isn’t much of a defense against copyright infringement. I can’t tell the police who stop me while I’m leaving the bank “what I’m doing is legal, because I’ll tell everyone that I took this cash from Citibank.”

The real problem, from a fair use perspective, is that Google is using the plagiarized content to directly compete with and stymie the market for the original copyrighted sources (criteria 4 above). The “market” in this case is the open web where readers come looking for helpful information. Google is taking the insights and expressions out of the original articles, using them to publish its own AI-generated content and then putting that content at the top of your screen far more prominently than the actual search results.

No matter what your business does, if you run a website, you need people to visit it in order to succeed. If you rely on ads and ecommerce links for revenue, you need readers to see and click on them. If you expect people to pay subscription fees to view your content, you need them to find your site in the first place before they can subscribe. With 91 to 94 percent of all searches, Google holds a monopoly on search and, with SGE, the company is using that monopoly power to push its own low-quality AI answers over and above the very articles they copy from.

Copying from Creative Works

Google could have bigger problems if its AI bot provides fine details from creative works such as novels, poems, movies or songs. I recently asked the Google Bard chatbot to reproduce the first paragraph of Catcher in the Rye, a copyrighted novel, and it gave me the first several sentences verbatim, but stopped short of providing the whole paragraph. It would be difficult to read a significant portion of a book this way, particularly because when I asked for the fourth sentence, it gave me one it made up. So I’m not sure if this would harm the market for the novel.

On the other hand, Google SGE and Bard are more than willing to write about copyrighted characters and concepts. Bard was more than happy to write a story about Holden Caulfield beating up Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, providing a 588-word tale about Salinger’s protagonist going to Disneyland and getting into a brawl with the two cartoon characters.

Now, I should note that writing stories about copyrighted characters is generally infringement when you are profiting from the work. There are millions of fan fiction stories published online and, provided that the authors don’t charge money for them, they are usually ok. The legal question, should Salinger’s estate or Disney wish to use, would be whether Google is profiting by generating this content for users.

“You’d have to ask, is the AI service that’s providing this infringing on the copyrights when it’s producing these copyrighted outputs at the prompting of a user,”  James Grimmelmann, Tesla Family Professor of Digital and Information Law at Cornell Law School, told me. “The answer is not obvious to me. I think you could possibly make the argument that, hey, if Google is willing to write you a not-safe-for-work story about Star Trek or Mickey Mouse or whatever, that they are making a profit from the use of those characters because you’re using their service and they’re making money off of that.”

Considering that Google makes money from the ads on its pages and the user data it collects from searchers, the lawyers at big creative companies such as Disney and Warner Brothers would seem to have a strong case if they chose to pursue it. Interestingly, Google’s MusicLM tool, which converts text prompts into songs, has refused any prompt where I ask it to make a song that “sounds like” or is “in the style of” a musical artist.

The problem for Google might not even be that it is reproducing characters and storylines but that it is subtly copying the writing style of every book it ingests. In their lawsuit against OpenAI, the lawyers for novelists Paul Tremblay and Mona Awad claim that OpenAI’s entire language models are infringing works even if they aren’t talking directly about the characters and situations in a particular book. The plaintiffs note that text from books is a key ingredient in training the LLMs how to write, because they provide great examples of longform text. That data allows the models to write stories, poems and even detailed factual answers on command.

“Because the OpenAI Language Models cannot function without the expressive information extracted from Plaintiffs’ works (and others) and retained inside them, the OpenAI Language Models are themselves infringing derivative works, made without Plaintiffs’ permission and in violation of their exclusive rights under the Copyright Act,” the complaint states.

Is Scraping Illegal?

If this case or others like it make it to court, one question will be whether using the text from a book to learn about writing in general is “transformative” enough to constitute fair use. But simply scraping copyrighted content from the web and storing it on your server isn’t necessarily infringement.

“Scraping data is technically reproduction under copyright law,” Grimmelmann said. “The courts have pretty consistently held that scraping is allowed, at least where there’s a robots.txt or robots.exclusion protocol file saying you’re allowed to do this. The reasoning of the scraping decision depends upon the fair use of the downstream purpose. And if the downstream uses aren’t all fair use, then the scraping itself is at least a little more questionable.”

In a 2006 case, Field v. Google, one author sued Google for storing 51 of his works in its cache, which is available to readers when they visit the search results page. The court held that Google caching was fair use because it was transformative: keeping the information for archival purposes and allowing readers to track changes in it.

Is storing copyrighted text (or images) on your server for the purpose of using them as training data equivalent to storing them for search indexing and caching? That’s still an open question.

Some argue that machine learning is legally and morally equivalent to human learning and that, if a person had the time to read and summarize every page on the Internet, no one would question it. “Rather than thinking of an LLM as copying the training data like a scribe in a monastery, it makes more sense to think of it as learning from the training data like a student,” Sage said in his Senate testimony.

I’ll leave the question of whether machines have the right to learn like people for a different article. However, we all know that there’s a strong legal distinction between human experience and digital reproduction. I can go to a concert, remember it forever and even write an article about it, but I can’t publish a recording without permission.

“I don’t think there’s a general legal principle that anything I could do personally I’m allowed to do with a computer, “ Grimmelmann said. “There are frictions built into how people learn and remember that make it a reasonable tradeoff. And the copyright system would collapse if we didn’t have those kinds of frictions in the system.”

Opt in vs Opt Out

If you’re unhappy that your content is being used as training data, Google has a reasonable compromise for you – at first blush, anyway. According to its statement, you’ll be able to opt out of having your content used for machine learning. I presume this will probably work the same way that opting out of web search works today, with something like the robots.txt file or an on-page META tag that instructs bots to stay away.

Back in July, Google VP of Trust Danielle Romain published a blog post referring to robots.txt and saying that the web today needs something similar to block machine learning.

“As new technologies emerge, they present opportunities for the web community to evolve standards and protocols that support the web’s future development. One such community-developed web standard, robots.txt, was created nearly 30 years ago and has proven to be a simple and transparent way for web publishers to control how search engines crawl their content,” Romain wrote. “We believe it’s time for the web and AI communities to explore additional machine-readable means for web publisher choice and control for emerging AI and research use cases.”

By putting the onus on copyright holders to protect their work, however, Google is forgetting how copyright laws and most property laws work. If you open my front door and walk into my house uninvited, it’s still breaking and entering, even if I don’t have a lock on my door or a “no trespassing” sign. The end result will be that many websites won’t realize they have the right to opt out or they won’t know how and Google will be able to take advantage.

Some publishers already have the equivalent of a “no trespassing” sign up on their websites, in the form of a terms of service agreement. But Google is, so far, ignoring those. Recently, the New York Times updated its terms of service to prohibit “use [of] the Content for the development of any software program, including, but not limited to, training a machine learning or artificial intelligence (AI) system.” Whether that’s enforceable in court remains to be seen.

“Consent is very important,” Matthew Butterick, a lawyer who is involved in several AI-related lawsuits, told me in an interview. “I don’t feel it should be an opt out because it just puts the burden on the artist to basically be in the mode of how are they going to possibly chase around all of these AI models and all of these AI companies. It doesn’t make sense and it’s not actually consistent with copyright. The idea of copyright is ‘I made it. It’s mine for this duration of time; that’s what the law says and if you wanna use it, you’ve gotta come deal with me. That’s the deal. It’s opt in. Opt out, I think, really inverts the whole policy of U.S. copyright law.”

Also, given Google’s monopoly on search and very commercial websites’ dependence on referrals, the disadvantages of opting out are unclear. Will my website appear or rank lower in organic search results? If Google SGE effectively replaces search and it has some external links in it, will I lose the opportunity to be linked there? Is letting Google use my copyrighted work a fair trade for what might be a handful of clicks? Many sites won’t opt out on the theory that even a few clicks from buried links in SGE are better than none.

What Truly Fair Usage Would Look Like

The problem caused by Google, OpenAI and others ingesting content without permission is not a technology problem. It’s an issue of large companies using their market power and resources to exploit the work of writers, artists and publishers without affirmative consent, compensation or even proper credit. These corporations could hire an army of human writers to transcribe text from copyrighted materials into their own articles and have the same effect.

The solution is simple: have AI bots respect intellectual property as much as professional humans have to. Every fact and idea that SGE or Bard outputs should have a direct, inline citation with a deep link in the text. If they are taking a sentence word-for-word, it should be in quotation marks.

Instead of claiming to be all-knowing geniuses that “create” the answers they output, bots should present themselves as humble librarians whose job it is to summarize and direct readers to helpful primary resources. That’s what a truly useful bot would do.

Why Google Would Want New Laws

Though each of the types of content copying above has a possible fair use defense, there’s clearly a risk that Google could lose on any or all of them. Courts could rule that its word-for-word copying of informational text is infringement and award huge damages to publishers.

Lawyers from creative media companies with deep pockets like Disney are probably licking their chops over the damages from misuse of their copyrighted stories and characters. Even if Google eventually prevails, all the litigation and negative publicity is costly and could take years. However, given the controversy around this topic, it seems unlikely that legislators in any country would create new laws that expand the definition of fair use. We’ll almost certainly find out the limits of current fair use laws in court rulings.

Note: As with all of our op-eds, the opinions expressed here belong to the writer alone and not Tom’s Hardware as a team.

Instagram now lets you add music to photo carousels. Unveiled in partnership with pop star Olivia Rodrigo to promote her single “bad idea right?”, the feature allows you to pick licensed music to soundtrack your slideshows. In addition, the company announced that you can create Collabs with up to three co-authors and post audience-response prompts to Reels.

The carousel soundtracking feature adds a missing piece already found in TikTok’s Photo Mode, launched last year. “Whether you’re sharing a collection of summer memories with friends or moments from your camera roll, you can now add music to your photo carousels,” Instagram wrote in a blog post today. “Building off our launch of music for feed photos, anyone can add a song to capture the mood and bring their carousel to life.”

Also announced today, Instagram Collabs adds the ability to invite up to three friends (up from one) to help co-author feed posts, carousels or reels. The platform says each contributor’s audience will see the content (perhaps hinting that it could be a handy way for influencers to benefit from each other’s followings) and will feature on each account’s profile grid. In addition, the company says private profiles can still start posts / reels and invite collaborators as long as they follow the private account.

Instagram

Instagram also updated how the Add Yours sticker works. When a creator adds the new Add Yours prompt to a Reel and followers contribute content as a response, the creator can now highlight their favorite posted replies for all their followers to see. “With the Add Yours sticker, a creator or artist can invite their followers to join in on a fun prompt or challenge they create on Reels, and then hand-pick their favorite submissions to celebrate their fans’ creativity.” It essentially sounds like a way to use the human social desire to connect with high-status figures (especially celebrities like Rodrigo) to build engagement for creators and the platform as a whole.

Finally, Instagram noted that it’s bringing its music library “to more countries over the coming weeks,” although it hasn’t yet announced specific nations or dates. However, it did mention that Instagram is partnering with Spotify in Mexico and Brazil to showcase 50 of the most popular songs on Instagram Reels on the music platform’s Reels Music Chart.

This week marks the official availability of Samsung’s two new foldable phones and our reviews are in. While you wouldn’t expect a deal this early, Amazon is throwing in a gift card if you order either the foldable or flip phone from it site. Other deals include a decent $50 discount on the disc version of the PlayStation 5 from multiple retailers and $100 off Apple’s 5th-gen iPad Air. Google Pixel devices are also on sale, with a $55 discount on the very capable Pixel 7a smartphone and $60 off on both the Pixel Tablet and the Pixel Buds Pro. Music makers might want to check out the summer sale at Arturia and live streamers in may like Amazon’s discount on Razer’s Stream Controller X. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today. 

PlayStation 5

Once upon a time (last year) it was tough to find a PlayStation 5 in stock, and now it’s on sale at multiple retailers for its lowest price yet. Right now the pricier disc-enabled version is $50 off at Amazon, Walmart, Verizon and Best Buy —you can even get the same deal directly from Sony if you prefer. We think the PS5 is the best premium gaming console you can buy. The graphics are stunning and the performance is seamless, thanks to big improvements in power and visual fidelity over the PS4. Plus PlayStation has a deep bench of exclusive titles to play. 

The console also comes with an excellent DualSense controller that gives you precise and intense haptic feedback along with triggers that adjust the tension in response to your in-game actions. And speaking of…

PlayStation DualSense controller

Your new PS5 comes with one DualSense controller, but if you need another for couch co-op games or if you want a spare just in case, this is a good time to buy as Amazon has multiple shades of the Sony controller on sale for up to 35 percent off. That brings it down from $75 to $40 or $50, depending on the color. Note that the discount doesn’t apply to the DualSense Edge controller, which is holding strong at $200. That gamepad includes swappable joysticks, additional paddles and easy button remapping, which we liked overall, but did take some issue with a battery life that could be longer. 

Apple iPad Air (5th gen)

Of all available Apple tablets, the 5th generation iPad Air is the one we think will work best for most people and right now it’s down to $500. That’s the same price it went for during Amazon’s Prime Day last month, but now you can also snag the deal from Best Buy or Target. This sale price applies to the 64GB model with WiFi connectivity. The models with more storage and added cellular capabilities are also on sale, for between 13 and 22 percent off. 

The iPad Air arrived in 2022, carrying Apple’s own M1 system-on-a-chip processor. The screen is bright and sharp, which is great for gaming and watching shows. Pair it with a keyboard and other accessories and it becomes a capable productivity machine, handling writing, drawing, moderate photo editing and work-related apps like Airtable, Slack and Zoom. 

Google Pixel 7a

Our favorite mid-range Android smartphone is Google’s Pixel 7a and right now unlocked handsets are down to the lowest price we’ve tracked, selling for just $444 at multiple outlets, including Amazon, Best Buy and directly from Google. The price applies to all colorways, though if you’d like it in coral, you’ll have to get it from Google’s storefront as that hue is exclusively available there. 

We gave the Pixel 7a 90 in our review, calling it a slightly smaller Pixel 7, but cheaper. It’s got the same processor, same 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage as the base base model Pixel 7 and actually contains a bigger battery and higher-res cameras than its pricier sibling.

Other Pixel devices are on sale too, including a 12 percent discount on the new Pixel Tablet, which brings it down to $439 at Amazon, Target, Best Buy or from Google’s shop. You can check out our review of the tablet (and its particularly useful charging speaker dock) here. 

Google Pixel Buds Pro

Our favorite wireless earbuds for Android users are the Google Pixel Buds Pro, which are currently $140 at Amazon, Walmart, Target or from Google’s storefront. That’s a 30 percent discount and close to an all-time low. We like the deep, punchy bass and good noise cancelling capabilities. They have intuitive touch controls and a few extra features for Android and Pixel devices including Google Translate Conversation Mode. If you want something even cheaper, the Google Pixel Buds A-Series are down to $60 from $100 — a 40 percent discount.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 + $200 Amazon Gift Card

Samsung’s new foldables are now available, but Amazon is continuing to offer the $200 gift card bonus it included for pre-orders. Previously the retailer also threw in a free storage upgrade, but that deal looks to be expired. Still, $200 at Amazon is a decent perk — I’m confident most people can find something to buy. 

Cunghoctin’s review of the new Galaxy Z Fold 5 just hit our site yesterday, and in it, Sam Rutherford noted that Samsung seems to be losing momentum after getting a sizable head start in the foldable race. But the new foldable is still faster and sleeker than its predecessor and has a new hinge that makes it thinner overall. It’s just not a major upgrade from what we’ve seen previously. That said, if you’re interested in a powerful foldable with bright and useful screens, this $200 gift card should take some sting out of the still-high price tag. 

Amazon has a similar deal going for the Galaxy Z Flip 5, shipping a $150 gift card when you order the phone. Cunghoctin’s Cherlynn Low reviewed that device and deemed it “the best flip foldable,” partly thanks to the much larger 3.4-inch external display that’s now actually useful.  

Razer Stream Controller X

Razer’s Stream Controller X is back down to an all-time low of $125, or 16 percent off its usual $150 price tag. The brand released the programmable streaming deck earlier this year and now it’s back down to the low it hit over Amazon’s Prime Day in July. The desktop device has 15 programmable shortcut buttons to get you streaming faster and in far more style than operating your apps, lights and effects manually. The button icons are customizable and you even have the option of swapping in different magnetic face plates so you can make your live stream setup your own.  

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

Foldables are generating most of Samsung’s buzz right now, which is possibly why their latest no-fold smartphone is seeing a sizable discount. The Galaxy S23 Ultra is our current pick for the best Android smartphone you can buy and right now it’s cheaper than ever on Amazon, down to $950 after a $250 discount. We gave the S23 Ultra an Cunghoctin review score of 89 and particularly appreciated the brilliant AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, the excellent cameras and substantial battery life that went for 19 hours and 26 minutes in our rundown tests. 

The Galaxy S23+ is also cheaper than ever, currently $800 instead of $1,000. Both that discount and the sale on the Ultra beat the all-time lows we saw back in July, but unfortunately, the base model Galaxy S23 handsets are sold out at Amazon as of this writing.  

13-inch MacBook Air (M2, 2022)

A few different Apple laptops with M2 chips are seeing discounts right now. That may be due to the fact that machines using a newer M3 chip are imminent. The 13-inch MacBook Air from 2022 is down to $949 at B&H Photo and Best Buy, which matches the lowest price we’ve tracked. The discount applies to the configuration with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD, which usually goes for $1,099. 

It’s our top pick for the best overall laptop, and earned a review score of 96 when it first came out. The ultraportable weighs just 2.7 pounds and has a thin, balanced design (the wedge shape of earlier Air laptops is gone). The screen is bright and accurate and the battery should last through 16 and a half hours of use, as it did in our video rundown test. Overall, it’s a dependable computer for everyday entertainment and typical productivity — if you want something for heavy media editing, you may want to go for the Pro model, below. 

If you want a little more screen real estate, you can go for the new 15-inch MacBook Air, which is currently $100 off, though earlier this week it saw a $200 discount at Amazon, a sale that will likely come around again, considering the coming M3 machines. 

14-inch MacBook Pro (M2, 2023)

The M2 Pro and M2 Max chips give the MacBook Pro models a lot of processing power, which is ideal for music producers, video makers and other heavy users. The 14-inch model with 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage is down to $1,799 at Amazon, which is a $250 discount off the current MSRP and $50 lower than it went for during Amazon’s Prime Day sale in July. We gave the MacBook Pro a review score of 92 when it came out in January of 2023. We like the sturdy design, plethora of ports and the clarity and lushness of the Liquid Retina XDR display.  

Again, Apple is likely to release the M3 chips later this year, but if history is any indicator, they probably won’t release the supercharged M3 Pro or Max chips until many months later. Either way, Apple is likely to keep these laptops in their lineup after the new chips arrive. 

Google Chromecast HD

Google’s HD Chromecast dongle turns a regular TV into a smart one and right now is back down to $20, which matches its lowest price this year (it went for $2 less during last November’s Black Friday sales). This is the HD version of the dongle, which is best for people with 1080p screens (the 4K version isn’t currently on sale). We reviewed the Chromecast with Google TV when it came out last year and appreciated the easy set up, the useful remote and dead-simple streaming interface. If you’ve got a standard TV that could use more smarts, or are heading out on vacation and want to watch your shows on the hotel’s (HDMI-enabled) TVs, this is a great device to have on hand. 

Samsung storage sale

Cunghoctin’s Jeff Dunn named Samsung’s Pro Plus microSD the best option for most people in his latest guide and right now multiple capacities are down to their lowest prices so far. The largest 512GB version is $35 instead of $60 while the 128GB size is just $12. These are the newer versions of the Pro Plus cards, which had the nearly the best sequential write performance and had faster random read/write speeds of all the cards we tested. 

Other Samsung storage devices are on sale too, including the 970 EVO Plus 500GB internal SSD for 23 percent off and the external 1TB T7 Shield portable SSD for 56 percent off. 

Arturia Summer Sale

Musicians looking for some new sounds would do well to check out Arturia’s summer sale, which is running through August 15th. Many of their digital instruments, sound bank packs and effects are 50 percent off. Cunghoctin’s Terrence O’Brien had good things to say about their Pigments synthesizer, which is now $99 instead of its usual $199. The Dist Coldfire plugin, which Terrence says “might be might be the only distortion plugin you need” is now $49 instead of $99. Many more instruments and effects are on sale, so this is a good time to look around. Just note that the sale doesn’t include combo packs or hardware instruments and the sale ends August 15th. 

HyperX Cloud Alpha Wireless gaming headset

The top wireless pick in our guide to gaming headsets is the HyperX Cloud Alpha, which is now just $154 at Amazon or Best Buy. Cunghoctin’s Jeff Dunn particularly liked the impressive battery life, which can go for 300 hours on a charge. The set is also comfortable to wear for hours on end so you can test out that capacity for yourself. The sound is a little bass heavy and the mic isn’t as great as others in its field, but the headset is perfectly serviceable. Jeff does point out that HyperX’s companion software has been known to introduce latency, so you’re better off going with third-party or built-in controls for audio EQ adjustments. It’s also not compatible with Xbox and requires the use of its USB dongle. 

Instant Pot Sale

As part of a larger Amazon sale on Instant Pot appliances, the Instant Pot Duo is on sale for $60 instead of the usual $80. The do-nearly-everything cooker is an Cunghoctin favorite, so it’s great to see a few different iterations on sale. The sale also covers the brand’s air friers, including the Instant Vortex Plus ClearCook fryer in the 6-quart size, which is $130 instead of its usual $170. That’s our current pick for the best overall air fryer you can buy. 

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Bose is reportedly preparing to launch some new headphones and earbuds, a refresh in the QuietComfort line,  The Bose QuietComfort Ultra earbuds will be a successor to the and the QuietComfort Ultra headphones look to be a more premium-take on the company’s

One of the highlights of any Bose product, and particularly the QuietComfort II earbuds, is active noise cancellation. The company’s ANC technology is unparalleled and these new products offer it in spades. Both new products offer fully-integrated ANC technology so you can safely ignore the person next to you on your next flight.

Beyond ANC, the QuietComfort Ultra earbuds ship with a variety of soft ear tips, with a similar exterior design to its predecessor. They are available in black or white and should include a built-in microphone, touch controls, Bluetooth v5.3 support, IPX4 water-resistance and more. Bose hasn’t officially announced these yet, so some specs remain under wraps.

MySmartPrice

The Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones will also be available in black or white, with physical buttons to adjust volume and control music similar to other products in the QuietComfort line. There’s also a USB-C port for both charging and for making wired connections, and a sleek design reminiscent of the

Remember, these are leaks from a reputable third-party, so Bose hasn’t announced pricing or availability. however, suggests that the QuietComfort Ultra earbuds will cost around $380, and the QuietComfort Ultra headphones will cost $550. As for availability, Bose tends to release new product lines in September, so look for a launch around then.

Today at Amazon, users can find the Asus TUF VG279QL1A gaming monitor for one of its best prices to date. If you’ve been looking for a quality gaming monitor that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, this offer is very much worth a closer look. It’s been priced around $219 as of late, but right now is marked down to just $175.

This is the lowest price we’ve seen for the monitor since it was first released and is currently the best price for it across multiple vendors. This 27-inch gaming monitor is AMD FreeSync Premium certified and features Display HDR 400 support.

The Asus TUF VG279QL1A gaming monitor features a 27-inch IPS panel with an FHD resolution (1920 x 1080). The AMD FreeSync Premium certification guarantees things like a high refresh rate (in this case, it caps out at 165Hz) and low framerate compensation. This monitor also has a short response time of just 1 ms.

This gaming monitor supports Display HDR 400 and can reach a maximum brightness of 350 nits. Users have one Display Port to take advantage of and two HDMI ports for video input. A 3.5mm audio jack is available for external audio peripherals, but it also has two integrated 2W speakers for audio output.

Visit the Asus TUF VG279QL1A gaming monitor product page at Amazon for more details and purchase options.

Intel has disclosed a new vulnerability (INTEL-SA-00812) that affects the company’s Arc A770 and Arc A750, two of the best graphics cards. Classified with a medium severity rating, the potential security flaw may permit denial of service or information disclosure.

It certainly hasn’t been a good week for Intel. After a year-long embargo, the chipmaker had finally lifted the curtains Downfall, a vulnerability with costly performance penalties that impacts multiple generations of Intel processors. And now, Intel’s internal team has discovered vulnerabilities with Arc A770 and Arc A750 graphics cards sold between October and December 2022. The advisory seemingly indicates that the flaw isn’t widespread but only affects batches sold during the mentioned timeframe.

The security vulnerability encompasses two issues. CVE-2022-41984 describes a protection mechanism failure in some Arc A770 and Arc A750 graphics cards where a privileged user can enable a denial of service. On the other hand, CVE-2022-38973 talks about improper access control in a scenario where an authenticated user can allow denial of service or information disclosure. In both occasions, the user can exploit the vulnerability through local access.

Intel doesn’t confirm whether it has or will release a firmware update or software fix to mitigate the recently-unearthed vulnerabilities. The chipmaker recommends that consumers who bought an Arc A770 or Arc A750 between October to December 2022 contact Intel product support in their region for help.

Gambling is big business, and a casino’s revenue will make the highest of high-stakes bets on the floor look like peanuts. Therefore, casinos implement rigorous procedures and processes, to make sure there is no cheating by customers. However, compared with computers, some security researchers reckon gambling regulations and security technologies are “a bit out of date.” and this leads to interested parties fabricating its own proof of concept tools, using the Raspberry Pi Zero.

Last September there was a particularly controversial Los Angeles Hustler Live Casino game streamed on YouTube. To cut a long story short, a relative novice bluffed a veteran, and Wired reports that “thousands of outraged poker players,” cried foul play, implying the novice had cheated in some way.

A subsequent months-long casino investigation concluded there was no foul play. However, the conclusion grated with Joseph Tartaro, a computer researcher and consultant with security firm IOActive. What particularly inflamed Tartaro’s spider senses was that the Deckmate shuffling machine (which some had suspected as being compromised) was totally beyond suspicion. “The Deckmate shuffling machine is secure and cannot be compromised,” stated the investigation conclusion, rather too confidently.

This statement was like showing a red rag to a security bull. It was even more interesting as a topic for further investigation, as the Deckmate is the most widely used automated shuffling machine in casinos.

Thus, a months-long investigation into Deckmate technology, by Tartaro and IOActive colleagues, began. The results were presented at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas on Tuesday.

IOActive acquired a few Deckmate machines and talked with experienced operators and engineers. Interestingly, the newest version is the Deckmate 2, often sits under a table next to players’ knees, and the device has an exposed USB port. If hackers have access to the device, then all bets are off. 

The security researchers found that a hacking device inserted into the Deckmate 2’s USB port could “alter the shuffler’s code to fully hijack the machine and invisibly tamper with its shuffling.” Most people with a little knowledge of cards and gambling (or even movies featuring gambling) know that knowledge is power in these card games. In other words, someone who could garner any extra knowledge of the cards dealt could have a small to massive advantage.

The hacking device used by IOActive for its proof-of-concept casino cheating demonstration, plugging into the Deckmate 2 USB interface, was based around a Raspberry Pi Zero. IOActive say that a determined cheater could probably fashion a purpose-built device with the same functionality in a form factor as small as a typical USB dongle. With bags of money at stake, a cheater might be tempted to invest.

Moreover, you don’t even to be a card-playing genius to make sense of the Deckmate 2’s data, it even has a built-in camera, for deck verification purposes. IOActive found that the camera feed could be accessed to learn the entire order of the deck in real time. An obvious cheating method which could stem from this is that visual data could be sent to a nearby smartphone via Bluetooth, which the IOActive team also tested. The second person could work in cahoots with the player at the table, to signal a decision or strategy. 

Tartaro said of the rather extensive sounding Deckmate 2 hack: “Basically, it allows us to do more or less whatever we want … We can, for example, just read the constant data from the camera so we can know the deck order, and when that deck goes out into play, we know exactly the hand that everyone is going to have.”

There were some other interesting research findings shared by IOActive. The team noted that the original Deckmate has no USB port, but could be tampered with in other ways, especially if there was a willing casino insider. Also some Deckmates were said to include a cellular modem for the manufacturer to monitor them. This opens it up more attack surfaces for man-in-the-middle attacks, or cellular signal spoofing.

Looking at quotes in the Wired report, the makers of the Deckmate series Light & Wonder, seemed to exhibit a head-in-the-sand approach to the warnings from IOActive. The firm stated that there is no known evidence of one of their devices being hacked on the Casino floor. However, an exec from the International Gaming Standards Association which sets standards in casinos, talked constructively about assembling a technical committee to look into IOActive’s findings. Ideas for better security were already suggested like removing the external USB port or some software / firmware modifications. We think it is probably a good idea to view IOActive’s work as constructive criticism, rather than dismiss it out of hand.

Backside power delivery network (BS PDN) for next-generation chips is a well-known and widely discussed advantage of future process technology. While Intel and TSMC have talked about BSPDN for a while, Samsung only recently shared details about its backside power delivery experiments. It appears the company expects quite noticeable advantages from this innovation.

In a paper presented at the VLSI Symposium in late June, Samsung Electronics reported that the application of a backside power delivery network resulted in a 14.8% reduction in the area of an undisclosed processor compared to the traditional frontside PDN, reports The Elec (via @harukaze5719). Meanwhile, the paper specifically highlighted two Arm circuits, where they observed area reductions of 10.6% and 19%, respectively. A 10% to 19% die area reduction is a major advantage as it enables one to either pack 10% to 19% more transistors and gain performance or reduce the costs of a given chip.

Another thing that Samsung mentioned in its paper was a 9.2% reduction in the wiring length. The backside power rail typically enables thicker wires with lower resistance and, therefore, can drive higher currents for higher performance. A further reduction of wiring length will also bring additional performance advantages.

Additional benefits facilitated by backside power delivery that Samsung revealed were design technology co-optimization knobs that enabled 3.6% Fmax improvement, a 2.4% reduction of standard block area, and 1.6% standard block performance improvement.

Earlier this year, Intel detailed its PowerVia backside power delivery network that will be used for its 20A (2nm-class) fabrication technology and beyond. The benefits of using a backside power rail are widely recognized, and Samsung’s findings prove the theory. Power wires can be made more substantial by shifting power rails to the rear and isolating them from I/O wiring. This thickening reduces resistances in the final production stages, enhancing performance and decreasing energy use. Additionally, this separation leads to a reduced logic area, resulting in cost savings.

Samsung has not disclosed when it plans to implement its BS PDN and with which node. The company is currently polishing off its 2nd Generation 3nm-class gate-all-around transistors-based SF3 fabrication technology and aims to use it for mass production in 2024. The company also has SF3P and 2nm-class SF2 due in 2025. While it is unlikely that Samsung will use a backside power rail for SF3 next year, the company may consider implementing its BS PDN in SF3P or SF2 in 2025.

New Apple iPhone 14 owners should think about the accessories they want for their new handset not long after unboxing it. Like with last year’s iPhone 13s, this year’s models don’t come with ac power adapters, so that’s one thing you’ll probably need to have on hand. If you plan on going all-in on wireless charging, you can take advantage of the best MagSafe technology with the many accessories to choose. We’ve tested out some of the best iPhone accessories available, from the Apple AirTag to wireless headphones to phone cases, and gathered the best ones here.

Apple MagSafe wireless charger

There are often better and cheaper alternatives to Apple’s first-party accessories, but the company’s MagSafe wireless charger is worth considering if you have a new iPhone. Like all other MagSafe accessories, this charging pad uses magnets to attach to the back of the latest iPhones and it’s surprisingly strong. Not only can you safely pick up your handset and use it with the disk still attached, but the iPhone can dangle by the charger’s cord without falling off. (You still probably shouldn’t do this.)

The charging plate itself is about a quarter-inch thick so it barely adds any heft to the iPhone. The magnets only attach to the latest iPhones, but it will still charge older models wirelessly, going back to the iPhone 8. I only wish the cable were longer than three feet so that you had more leeway to use your iPhone on the couch or in bed while powering it up.

Apple’s MagSafe charger accessory comes in at $39 (although we’ve seen it go on sale a few times), but if you want to spend a bit less, Spigen’s $25 ArcField magnetic wireless charger is a decent dupe. It’s magnets are nowhere near as strong as those on the Apple MagSafe charger — so you definitely shouldn’t pick up your iPhone by this cable — but it’ll power up your handset and stay put while doing so.

Mophie 4-in-1 wireless charging mat

You may have accumulated a number of devices that support wireless charging at this point and Mophie’s 4-in-1 charging mat is an easy way to power them all. It’s an 11-by-8-inch rectangle with four spaces for different items to charge simultaneously. Two of those spots are large enough to accommodate smartphones while the other two in the center are smaller and fit things like AirPods perfectly. It also has an optional attachment for an Apple Watch, which means it could actually charge up to five devices at the same time.

I found the mat useful as a charging hub, turning to it each night to charge my iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods Pro. It’s worth noting that both my iPhone and my AirPods Pro live in cases, and I didn’t have to remove either in order to charge them with Mophie’s mat. But while the mat’s size allows it to do a lot at once, it’s also tough to find a big enough spot for it. It’ll fit on most nightstands, but you may have to rearrange things first. Mophie has a 3-in-1 wireless charging station that takes up less space and has dedicated spots for your iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods.

AirPods

It’s well known now that Apple AirPods are the best wireless earbuds for those with iPhones. Apple made its standard AirPods even better with the introduction of the third-generation models, which have an improved design, noticeably better sound and longer battery life. We appreciate the new “contoured” design, which is way more comfortable than previous AirPods, and the H1 chipset makes features like hands-free Siri and speedy pairing and switching between iPhone, iPad, and Mac possible. They’re well worth their $179 price tag — but if that’s a bit steep for you, Beats’ new Studio Buds are a good alternative. At $150, they have the same H1 chip inside along with balanced sound that doesn’t sacrifice the punchy bass that Beats devices are known for.

Anker Nano II 45W GaN charger

While Apple’s 20W charger works just fine, you can opt for a more versatile adapter in Anker’s Nano II 45W charger. Not only can it fast-charge an iPhone, but it can also power up a 2020 MacBook Air at full speed, along with mid-sized devices like iPads. This USB-C power adapter is 34 percent smaller than other 45W chargers, and it uses GaN technology to prevent overheating. We also appreciate that its connector prongs flip down to make the adapter even more compact when you need to travel with it. The 45W model will set you back $40, but Anker also makes a 30W version and a 65W two-port model for when you want to charge your phone and your laptop at the same time.

Apple’s AirTags make it easy for iPhone users to locate things they might misplace. Just attach one of the tiny Bluetooth trackers to your keys, backpack or wallet and then use the Find My app to keep track of them. If you know your stuff is within reach, you can force the AirTag to play a tune to lead you to it. And when you truly don’t know where something is, you can enable Lost Mode to be automatically notified when the Find My network locates the item. AirTags only have compatibility with iPhones, but iPhone users have other Bluetooth tracker options (namely Tile’s). But Apple’s gadgets have a convenience level that’s similar to AirPods — your iPhone will automatically identify a new Apple AirTag nearby and immediately pair with it, and it’s quite simple to manage multiple AirTags in the Find My app.

Anker 623 MagGo 2-in-1 Wireless Charging Station

Apple’s MagSafe technology makes it much easier to go all-in on wireless charging, and Anker’s 623 MagGo 2-in-1 charging station is a great pick to keep by your bedside or on your desk. The cylindrical gadget is slightly smaller than a soda can, and its top can flip upward up to 60 degrees to let you charge your phone at an angle that makes the screen easier to see. And when you do that, you free up the second wireless charging pad sitting underneath it, where you can power your AirPods at the same time. We like this stand for its clever design, but also because it’s weighted and has a non-slip bottom; it’s not going anywhere once you pick a spot for it. Plus, there’s a light ring on the bottom that glows every time you magnetically snap your phone into place. And when you buy the charging station, you’ll also get Anker’s 20W USB-C charger and a connecting cable, so you have everything you need to use it immediately after unboxing.

Anker Powerline II USB-C to Lightning cable

We’ve been fans of Anker’s Powerline charging cables for a long time and its Powerline II USB-C to Lightning cord is no exception. First, it’s more affordable than Apple’s — you’ll pay $19 for a three-foot cable from Apple, whereas Anker’s three-foot cord costs $13. It also has MFi-certification, which means it’s passed enough tests to get Apple’s seal of approval as a safe, reliable iOS accessory. While not all of them are made out of braided nylon, those that don’t still have a 12,000-bend lifespan so you can use it without fear of wire fraying after a few weeks. Anker also has a similar USB-C to C cable in the Powerline III series that should work well for charging the latest iPads and MacBooks.

Belkin MagSafe Car Vent Mount Pro

Belkin’s MagSafe car mount is easier to use than one of those fussy clamps you pray will stay put on a vent while you’re driving. The strong magnets truly make this one of the best iPhone accessories — the iPhone 14 snaps into place on the mount’s credit-card sized plate and doesn’t budge even if you have to quickly swerve to avoid hitting a squirrel. The clip that attaches to your car’s vent is also quite snug and you can swivel your cell phone into landscape or portrait mode.

Even if you don’t drive to work on a daily basis anymore, this will come in handy on the days you’re in the office and when you need to consult Google Maps during your next roadtrip. Just remember that this mount won’t charge your iPhone; it’s just a magnetic holder. You can, however, weave a charging cable through an opening in the back of the mount so you can neatly power up your phone while driving.

Peak Design Mobile Tripod

There are plenty of ways to prop up your iPhone, but Peak Design’s mobile tripod is one of the more elegant solutions I’ve tried. This iPhone accessory is a 0.3-inch thick plate made of anodized aluminum with strong magnets inside and three legs that fold down and out. It attaches to the back of the latest iPhone and delivers a generous lift off the surface it’s sitting on. Out of all of the stands I’ve used, it’s the one that looks and feels most like a tripod thanks to its micro ball-head, which lets you adjust the angle of your phone nearly 360 degrees, and its three legs, which provide much more support and functionality than your standard phone-case kickstand.

The Mobile Tripod is a solid option for those who use their phone cameras for everything from family photos to vacation landscape shots, and those who want to use their phone almost as a second screen while traveling. It’s a bit steep at $80, but you’re paying for a sturdy accessory with a thoughtful design — plus the Peak name. Of course, there are plenty of more affordable MagSafe phone stands such as Moft’s Snap-On Stand and Wallet, which props up your iPhone while holding a few credit cards, Anker’s MagGo phone grip, and the now-ubiquitous PopSockets. Just keep in mind that, while MagSafe accessories like these are convenient, they ultimately won’t be as sturdy as something securely snapped onto your smartphone. All of the MagSafe stands, wallets, chargers and other accessories I’ve tried eventually fell off if I applied enough force.

Spigen Ultra Hybrid case

There are many more MagSafe cases available now than there were just a year ago, and they run the gamut from affordable to quite expensive. You could always go with one of Apple’s first-party options, but just know that even if you like the style of the company’s silicone cover or its hard-shell clear cases, you can probably find a decent dupe for much less money. We’ve got a whole list of the best iPhone cases we’ve tried, and a good all-purpose option is Spigen’s Ultra Hybrid MagFit case. It’s a clear cover that has anti-yellowing properties, which should keep your iPhone 14 Pro looking clean and new for longer than other cases, and it’ll work well with any screen protector you might already have on your phone. Raised edges help protect the screen and camera array from making too much contact with other surfaces, and you’ll be able to use it with any magnetic accessories you want.

The Raspberry Pi community is huge and a great place to make friends—literally. Today we’re showing off one of the coolest friends you can make with the help of our favorite SBC. This bipedal companion robot was created by maker and developer Dan Nicholson and relies on a Raspberry Pi as it’s main driving component. It’s also aided by a couple of custom PCBs as well as an Arduino.

According to Nicholson, the goal of this project wasn’t just to make a cool bipedal robot but also to develop something that others could experiment with at home. Whether you’re new to robotics or a well-seasoned pro, this project was intended to be a platform for makers of any ability to explore and build upon. It’s intentionally modular and can work with a variety of systems, components.

This is the third iteration of his work which has been progressing over a few years. The first was mostly just a proof of concept while the second was a more impressive albeit less stable edition. You can see how far along this third version has come by checking out the playlist on YouTube he shared detailing version 2’s creation.

There are quite a few pieces in this robot created from scratch just for the project. You can find two custom PCBs—one for the Pi 3B+ and one for the Arduino Pro Mini that controls the servos. The body is also 3D printed with files available for anyone to download and print at home. A Google Coral TPU is attached to the head to enhance the Pi’s image processing capability. Additional components include things like a camera module, microphones, buttons, a microwave sensor and even a snazzy NeoPixel LED ring for one of the eyes.

The software for the project is also open source and available for anyone to check out. There is a full build guide over at GitHub which includes detailed information for specific parts of the project like setting up speech recognition and implementing a battery monitor for power management.

If you want to get a closer look at this Raspberry Pi project, check out the video shared to YouTube showing it off and explore the project in greater detail over at GitHub. Be sure to follow Dan Nicholson for future updates, as well.

Gaming keyboards are plentiful and diverse right now. You can buy them in black or white, wired or wireless, and with at least a dozen key switch options. And every year they’ve gotten bigger and more complex, with media buttons and macro keys and bright rainbow LED backlighting. However, this past year has seen some manufacturers go in the opposite direction, introducing 60 percent keyboards that are cute and compact, taking up less desk space. But are they worth buying?

How many keys does a 60 percent keyboard have?

Kris Naudus / Cunghoctin

First off, it’s worth noting that the best gaming keyboards tend to follow one of three different configurations. The most common one is the full-size keyboard, which will usually have somewhere between 100 and 110 keys, depending on whether the manufacturer includes media buttons or macro keys. There’s always a function row located along the top of the keyboard, and a number pad on the far right. Most gamers will prefer a full-size model rather than a compact keyboard because it lets them perform many different functions with just one press, and set up macros for activities that aren’t already built-in to the keyboard.

Tenkeyless decks have been pretty common for a while now; those are keyboards that omit the number pad on the right. That’s it. They still have function keys and media controls, but they’re narrower since they omit 17 keys. Yeah, it’s actually more than 10 keys but “seventeenkeyless” doesn’t have the same ring to it. Gamers might opt for one of these when they need a little more space on their desk, and they don’t need a quick way to enter numbers or do calculations (which is my number one use case for the right-hand pad).

Then there are 60 percent keyboards which, as the name indicates, drop 40 percent of the standard keyboard size and only have 61 keys. Not only do they just remove the num pad, but the function keys are gone, along with the arrow keys and those weird system keys like “print screen” and “home” that are only useful when you happen to need them. On some computers they don’t even work.

On a 60 percent keyboard you’ll access these buttons by using the function key; there’s no standard layout between companies so you’ll have to learn new hotkeys and shortcuts if you switch between manufacturers like Razer, HyperX or Corsair. They also lack built-in wrist rests that would make them more ergonomic, though the height is at least adjustable.

Razer also just introduced a 65 percent keyboard, a less common configuration which keeps the arrow keys and some functions but still tosses the rest to maintain a reduced profile. This is probably a preferred option if you use the arrow keys a lot. I need them because I edit a lot of text, and some games may use them instead of the standard WASD array for controlling your character.

What are the benefits of a 60 percent keyboard?

Kris Naudus / Cunghoctin

With so many functions removed, why buy a 60 percent keyboard? The number one reason to use a compact keyboard is space of course. If you’re gaming in tight spaces or just have a lot of crap on your desk like I do, not having to shove stuff aside just to make some elbow room is nice. It’s especially helpful if you tend to eat near your computer, as a 60 percent keyboard’s small size makes it easy to push out of the way to rest a plate or bowl on your desk. It actually keeps the keyboard a lot cleaner, too, since I can easily shake crumbs out of it with one hand.

A smaller keyboard size also makes it more portable, obviously, with a 60 percent keyboard taking up less space than a laptop in your bag, though it’s still a little thick. They do have lower-profile keys than standard decks at least, though if thickness is your number one concern then carrying around a mechanical keyboard is probably not for you.

One big feature that doesn’t get talked about a lot is that all of the recent 60 (and 65) percent decks are not wireless keyboards and use detachable USB-C cords. So if you switch between workspaces often, you can easily leave a cord at each desk to quickly plug in your keyboard. As someone who tests a lot of keyboards I’ve found this handy because I have connection options and can switch out the deck and leave the cord intact. It’s often a real pain to have to unplug cords and untangle them from my office setup every time I try a new keyboard, but for the 60 percent models I’ve been using the same wire for all of them.

The best for most gamers: Razer Huntsman Mini

The best of the major 60 percent keyboards out there right now is the Huntsman Mini. It uses Razer’s opto-mechanical switches, which I haven’t been too fond of in the past, but the company seems to have made some changes that make it a much more pleasant typing experience. This gaming keyboard is quiet and smooth with good response time, though people who prefer a springy key feel should look elsewhere. It’s not a wireless keyboard, so if you take it on the go you’ll need to make sure you always have a USB-C cable handy. The Huntsman Mini gaming keyboard also comes in white, which means it’ll blend into your decor more than most gaming accessories, especially if you choose to customize the LED lighting effects.

Pros: Attractive; good typing feel; comes in white.

Cons: No wireless connectivity; not everyone will be a fan of opto-mechanical keys.

Runner up: HyperX Alloy Origins 60

If you need a solid, sturdy brick of a 60 percent keyboard, the HyperX Alloy Origins 60 is a mechanical deck on a metal baseboard. The downside is that it’s heavier than the other options on the market, so it might not be the best if you’re aiming to keep your travel bag as light as possible. But if you’re a particularly rough typist this is the one with the build quality that will best hold up against hard keystrokes. It also earns points for being the one 60 percent keyboard that puts the secondary arrow functions at the bottom right of the deck where you’d normally look for those, instead of tucking them away in the middle.

Pros: Solidly built; lower price point than other 60 percent options; well-placed arrow keys.

Cons: Heavy; no wireless.

The best with arrow keys: Razer BlackWidow V3 Mini HyperSpeed

Razer’s BlackWidow line has long been a favorite of the gamers here at Cunghoctin, and the V3 Mini is no exception. Unlike the other keyboards on this list it’s a 65 percent keyboard, which means it still has arrow keys and a column of miscellaneous keys on the right side that can double as macro buttons. There are two switch types available to suit different typing preferences, either clicky and tactile (green) or linear and silent (yellow). It’s worth noting that the latter description is the company’s term for it, and the V3 Mini’s typing is still noticeably audible to those around you.

Pros: Two types of key switches available; has both 2.4G and Bluetooth connectivity; includes keys other keyboards don’t have.

Cons: Expensive; the lip at the bottom is bulky.

A cheaper but underwhelming option: Corsair K65 RGB Mini

Corsair usually makes pretty great keyboards, but I couldn’t necessarily say that of the K65 RGB Mini, its entry into the 60 percent market. The materials and overall durability were substandard for the company, with a plastic casing that felt hollow and keys that made a ringing noise when hit. But it’s not a completely terrible accessory, and users already invested in Corsair’s iCUE software might want to keep their accessories streamlined under one customization suite instead of having to bounce between different interfaces. If that isn’t a concern for you, the HyperX Alloy Origin 60 is the best budget option.

Pros: Uses Corsair’s iCUE software; key feel is good.

Cons: Cheap materials; noisy typing experience; no wireless.

We’ve all been in Samsung’s position, promising something before quickly realizing we couldn’t, or didn’t want to, actually follow through. But the Korean giant might get a record for the speed at which it walked back its initial pledge. It had intended to give Galaxy S23 owners the . Users in the US, Germany and South Korea would be able to see what tweaks the company had added to Android 14 and see what worked, and what didn’t.

Or that was the plan. Not long after the news dropped, Samsung began to walk back its promise. It told Cunghoctin (and the rest of the media) it would delay the launch of the beta test until further notice, but with no justification. The initial announcement disappeared from Samsung’s press site, and everyone’s left mulling what could have been so problematic as to require this sort of scorched-earth approach.

—Dan Cooper

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The biggest stories you might have missed

No spoilers here, I promise.

Michael Gibson / Paramount+

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds . “Hegemony” pits the Enterprise crew against a formidable foe that requires every bit of their collective cunning for them to triumph. I jotted down nine thoughts both about this episode and also about the shape of the second season more generally. Which, it’s easy to say, has cemented itself as the best run of a live-action Trek in the streaming era.

A cynic might say this is to fend off antitrust action.

Amazon is , including Lark & Lo, Goodthreads and Stone & Beam. Reports say it’s canning 27 out of 30 brands, with Amazon saying the marques haven’t resonated with consumers. A cynic might argue this is Amazon getting its house in order ahead of potential antitrust action by the FTC. The US has previously probed Amazon’s ability to spot popular products made by third party sellers on its platform and produce a homegrown, er, variation under one of its own brands.

Including the company’s first paying customer.

Virgin Galactic

Yesterday saw Virgin Galactic’s . It included its first paying customer, former Olympian Jon Goodwin, who coughed up $250,000 for his ticket all the way back in 2014. He was joined by a mother and daughter team of Keisha Schahaff and Anastatia Mayers, who won their seats in a fundraising draw. The stream of the event is available and, I’ll be honest, it’s worth a watch just for the chest-tightening moment when the crew starts floating in zero gravity.

Because, sure, that’s its priority right now.

Xwitter CEO Linda Yaccrino has announced as part of its plan to become an “everything” app. The CEO said video calls would bolster work to turn X into a global town square, full of people exercising their right to free expression. Given the sort of free expression the company is currently endorsing, you might want to stick to your free video calling platform of choice — it’s not as if we’re hurting for those right now.

Tweaks include widescreen support, 120Hz refresh rates and 4K.

Bethesda Softworks

The long-awaited remaster of Quake II wasn’t just announced, it’s . If you own the original on GOG or Steam, you’ll get a free bump to the new edition, with plenty of modern-day quality-of-life upgrades. The remastered edition also includes content cut from some versions and the original expansion packs, as well as a new expansion from MachineGames. Well, that’s your weekend sorted.

TSMC is facing opposition over its decision to bring 500 workers from Taiwan to its delayed Arizona fab to complete installation. The fab is not set to come online until 2025. An Arizonian labor union and two political action committees (PACs) have started a campaign to prevent foreign workers from obtaining visas and coming to the country, reports AppleInsider. 

The “Stand with American Workers” campaign, backed by Arizona Pipe Trades 469 (a labor union), Revitalize Arizona (a PAC), and Residents for Accountability (a PAC) is urging residents to contact local congressional and senate leaders. They demand that TSMC’s foreign worker visas be denied, insisting that the company should employ locals, especially given the CHIPs Act’s implication of predominant U.S. employment.

“The CHIPS Act promised to amp up domestic manufacturing, generate employment opportunities, fortify supply chains, and bolster emerging industries,” a statement by the campaign reads. “Instead, Arizona workers are getting the boot in favor of cheap labor, taking a major toll on American workers and their families.”

The campaign claims TSMC is showing disregard for American labor and the CHIPs Act’s principles. Arizona Pipe Trades 469 additionally argues that TSMC is prioritizing profits over worker safety and falsely portrays the skills of the Arizona workforce. They offer a formal letter for individuals to send to representatives, emphasizing these points.

TSMC workers relocating to the U.S. require EB-2 visas, reserved for those with ‘exceptional ability.’ The Arizona Pipe Trades 469 union believes this is a breach of TSMC’s commitment to American jobs and has petitioned Congress to block these visas. 

Nonetheless, TSMC reiterated its respect for local trade unions and its intention not to replace local workers with foreign staff. TSMC emphasizes that the addition of 500 skilled professionals from Taiwan will not impact the hiring of 12,000 local employees or TSMC’s broader U.S. recruitment plans. 

To celebrate the upcoming launch of Bethesda’s new space game Starfield, AMD has unveiled a new set of limited-edition Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPUs in celebratory boxes and Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics cards featuring the game’s white, blue, red, and yellow color theme. There will be 500 units of each built in total, including 7800X3Ds and 7900 XTXs, but sadly AMD is not planning on selling any of these units to its wider audience. Apparently, its plan is to aim these limited-edition products at collectors instead, with giveaways starting at Quakecon.

What’s clear is that the two units are not for sale. It’s in the fine print in AMD’s announcement video, and can also be seen in AMD’s dedicated Starfield page:

“Explore the galaxy with unparalleled freedom with a Limited-Edition AMD Radeon™ RX 7900 XTX GPU and AMD Ryzen™ 7 7800X3D CPU. Inspired by the first new universe from Bethesda in over 25 years, our custom shrouded GPU evokes the boundless creativity and unique style of Starfield™. With just 500 graphics cards and CPUs being produced, they’re bound to be the most sought-after collector’s items in the cosmos.”

The limited edition Starfield Ryzen 7 7800X3D will come in a custom-painted Starfield-themed box, featuring the game’s black, white, and orange color theme as well as the Starfield logo on the side of the box. AMD says the box is the only custom design of the unit, with the chip itself apparently not having any sort of Starfield branding on it.

Conversely, the Starfield limited edition RX 7900 XTX is a custom reference design, featuring a painted shroud. The new paint job replaces the standard black paint scheme with a white color theme, accented by blue, red, yellow, and orange stripes and indentations. The full list of changes includes a matte white finish for the shroud and backplate, with black-painted heatsink fins and fans (like the standard design). The Radeon logo has been painted in a red and white finish, and the right end of the shroud has been painted entirely red, with a circular logo stamped on the side as well. The entire card is also stamped in unique spaceship text and features two white LED strips surrounding the middle fan (which we suspect might be RGB enabled). The little red stripe painted on the heatsink fins of the original card has also been changed to incorporate blue, yellow orange, and red stripes.

Again, it’s sad to see that AMD won’t be selling any of these units to mainstream consumers, but it sounds like there will be chances to win them. Don’t forget, AMD’s Starfield Game Bundle is still available if you want to get the game for free with the purchase of a qualifying Ryzen CPU Radeon GPU or AMD-powered system.