The Tech Report

Stick with this theme for my parentheticals I will not.

The Bureau of Industry and Security within the U.S. Department of Commerce has added Chinese device maker Huawei and its affiliates to the Bureau's Entity List. That list is comprised of companies prohibited from trading with American businesses without a special license. According to the Commerce Department's announcement, the move comes in the wake of the Department of Justice's allegations that Huawei both directly violated and conspired to violate trade sanctions against Iran. These charges are covered by the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). This creates an immediate import ban in the United States for all products made by Huawei and prohibits American businesses from dealing with the electronics giant.Because Huawei's smartphone lineup relies on Android and Google Play—a product of the United States—the company will face technological hurdles going forward. Reuters reports that Google says it's complying with the order and that future devices won't have access to its services. According to Google's spokesperson, "Huawei will only be able to use the public version of Android and will not be able to get ...Read more...

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Nothing says "I'm a fish nerd again" like feeding live food. So, I had to test this thing out. Review incoming?

HP would like you to know that it's got a new line of gaming products out. Normally I'm not overly concerned with what HP would like, but there's some pretty cool stuff in there, so let's play along and pick through the latest offerings from the company formerly known as Hewlett-Packard. There's five laptops, two new displays, a couple of mice, and a few other goodies to peek at. ...Read more...

Greeting, folks. There isn't much time for pleasantries today, other than to mention that it's real sunny out there and I wish I wasn't swamped with work. Today's crop of deals is plentiful, however, and it's as hard as ever to not bring out my own credit card and acquire some of these fine sundries. Check them out. ...Read more...

Of course, there's more than one way to dance like a chicken.

How was your weekend, gerbils? I spent a huge portion of mine without internet access after spending the majority of Friday without power thanks to hurricane-force storms on Thursday. Today I'm back in business though, so let's talk about some hardware. Specifically, let's talk about AMD's upcoming third-generation Ryzen processors.

Greetings, folks. You may have noticed Colton's notice of the date for the TR BBQ XVI, taking place on August 10. If you have the means to do so, I'd advise you to attend. I did so a couple years ago during my first-ever trip stateside, and I have nothing but the best memories from the couple days there. In the meantime, before you do your travel planning, check out today's crop of PC hardware deals. ...Read more...

The countdown for the TR BBQ XVI has officially begun. If you're unfamiliar, the TR BBQ is a yearly gathering of TR forum goers on the shores of Lake Michigan in Holland, MI, where we all partake in juicy ribs, a cornhole tournament, a hardware swap, and general tomfoolery. I started up this year's TR BBQ thread a few months back, but things get real once we reach the three-months-to-go threshold.Yes, that means TR BBQ XVI is coming up on August 10. Last year's BBQ was a big success even though we didn't have beach access or the traditional ...Read more...

Aww!

Gerbils make up a slightly older audience than you're likely to find on most tech sites. So saying, I suspect we're likely to have a whole bunch of folks that remember the original Windows PowerToys fondly. For those who don't recall—or who weren't born yet—the PowerToys were a collection of tools and tweaks that could be used to modify Windows 95 (and later, Windows XP) into a form more functional for enthusiasts and power users. Now, Microsoft is reviving the PowerToys name with a new series of utilities with the same overall goal, this time for Windows 10. ...Read more...

To date, Google's Pixel phone sales have not exactly set the world on fire. The Android maker's phones have long offered great cameras and excellent software support at flagship prices, but competition is fierce. Yesterday at IO 2019, Google announced the Pixel 3a and 3a XL, which will purportedly bring those features to a mid-range price point.Arguably the most important question is that of price. Let's get that out in front for context. The Pixel 3a retails for $399 and the Pixel 3a XL will set you back $479. That puts the Pixel 3a family at a price point somewhat below even the cheapest $549 OnePlus 6T. According to The Verge's liveblog ...Read more...

Unsalable and only appreciable by the most hardcore packaging nerds, this is my proudest creation.

Greetings, gerbils. I'm typing this intro and deals posts furiously fast, as I've still got lots of work to do today before I get into the studio to record bass for my band's EP. If you're wondering, yes, that all sounds a little too professional for what really means "I'm praying I can at least muddle through getting the five songs done in an afternoon without needing 100 takes for each." Wish me luck. In the meantime, here are today's PC deals. The crop was good, and it was hard to pick out the top six. ...Read more...

The year of Linux on the desktop is finally upon us. Microsoft tried to make it happen in 2017 when it released Windows Subsystem for Linux. Back then, Microsoft wrote a wrapper for Linux system calls that translated those calls into Windows NT kernel functions. It works, but it's not very fast and many apps won't run. Microsoft knows this, and yesterday at the annual Build conference, the Windows maker announced the second iteration of Windows Subsystem for Linux.

Greetings, folks! After half a dozen sessions with a physical therapist and a few chiropractor adjustments, my back and shoulder have seen massive improvements. This whole deal left me with two big pieces of advice for those who, like me, have work patterns that require a long time sitting down or doing repetitive motions. The first one is: stretch, stretch, stretch. The importance of those exercises can't be understated, especially as time moves on and you're not 18 and stop being able to heal with a night's rest and a beer. The second bit of advice is also simple: if you feel that something's not quite kosher with your back or limbs, don't hold on for very long in hopes that it'll improve—chances are you're just making a bad situation worse. Anyway, here are today's PC hardware deals. It's a good crop, if I may say so. ...Read more...

It would have been all too easy to overlook a blog post about professional rendering and visual effects over at Intel's IT Peer Network site. Most of the post talks about Intel's rendering framework and how it gets used in the VFX industry. However, a kernel of information about the company's upcoming Xe graphics chips was buried in the post. Given how starved we are for details on the all-new lineup, it's pretty tantalizing. Here, I'll spoil it for you: Xe is going to have hardware-accelerated ray-tracing.

Historically, I prefer photos in this space. I couldn't pass this one up, though.

AMD had something of a disappointing first quarter of 2019 according to the company's first quarter financial report. Revenue, operating income, and net income were all down while operating expenses were on the rise. Gross margin was actually up bit. Let's see how it looks in table form.Source: ...Read more...

The only bubble tea place by me somehow manages to freeze their bobas. It's tragic.

Greetings, gerbils. It's a fair day today, and when I'm done with work, I'll be going into my power armor in Fallout 4. I'm a sucker for open-world RPGs, and lately I've been spending my time revisiting both that title and the magnum opus The Witcher 3. For both games, I've installed unobtrusive enhancement mods that improve the experience without really altering it, as it should be. Alas, sweet gaming goodness will only come later today—right now it's time for PC hardware deals. ...Read more...

If you read the entirety of this post about the launch of the GeForce GTX 1650, you may recall that we noted the release of a new GeForce driver at that time as well. Well, it so happens that that driver, GeForce driver 430.39, shipped with a few stowaways—mainly in the form of a couple of annoying bugs. Fortunately, Nvidia's already busted out a patch in the form of GeForce beta driver 430.53 Hotfix.

UPDATE: Newegg contacted us to let us know that there will not actually be a drawing for a free Ryzen 3000 CPU for purchasers of the Ryzen 7 2700X 50th Anniversary edition as we were originally told. The retailer says that the "reference to a product drawing" was "erroneously posted" and that it has since been removed.Are you a die-hard AMD fanboy? Do you have the original green logo tattooed on your body? If so, then you definitely don't need me to tell you that AMD's just released the 50th Anniversary "Gold Editions" ...Read more...

Hi, guys! I'd have a mildly amusing intro, but there's nothing amusing about the situation I'm in right this second. I have to attend a wedding tomorrow, and my overnight reservation location isn't picking up their phones. Wonderful. Anyhow, here's the top PC hardware deals of the moment. I particularly fancy the laptops, if I may say so. ...Read more...

I don't normally get into gaming laptops, but exceptions can be made. The best portable gaming PCs have plenty of horsepower, don't look like typical garish gaming laptops, and have displays with pixels you actually want to look at. Razer's newly-updated Blade 15 Advanced appears to make a run at all three of those qualifications. ...Read more...

This was too ridiculous not to share.

As it happens, it's not just Nvidia that's popping out some new products this week. With relatively little fanfare, Intel's dropped the rest of the ninth-generation Core series on us yesterday. That includes the remainder of the current series' desktop lineup—mostly multiplier-locked and lower-end chips—as well as a full lineup of laptop processors. Let's have a look at the mobile parts first. ...Read more...

Go for it!

Well, to the surprise of absolutely no-one, the leaked specifications for the GeForce GTX 1650 that showed up last week were completely correct. So saying, the card is out now, and you can buy one. Both Newegg and Amazon have multiple listings for the cards, but caveat emptor: some of the listings on Amazon appear to be early third-party sellers selling GTX 1650 cards at inflated prices.

Greetings, folks. Colton's published a big piece yesterday, and you should totally go check it out if you have any sort of interest in solar power or renewable energy. He's placed what look like a couple square miles' worth of panels atop his abode, and the rig's taking in kWs like they're going out of style. In the meantime, here's what you came here for: sweet, juicy PC hardware deals. ...Read more...

Greetings, fellow deal seekers! Bruno's got the day off, so, while the code-monkey's away, the gerbils will play. A couple of us have picked a couple deals we like and we submit them for your approval. Personally, I've been immersing myself back into the wonderful world of aquariums and fishing for the kind of deals unlikely to make a splash on the front page. That leaves me a bit out of touch with the latest and greatest PC hardware deals and means my picks aren't tried and true bargain basement fare. But I still think they're worth a look.Colton's ...Read more...

Close enough? The coincidental egg was what really sold it to me.

We all like to salivate over the capabilities of high-end graphics cards. The reality is that most folks—perhaps even most gerbils, these days—are going to end up with something more affordable in their machines. The GeForce GTX 1050 Ti was a killer value when it launched, but it's looking a bit long in the tooth these days, so it's terrifically convenient that Nvidia's got the next model ready, according to VideoCardz. The site claims to have the full specifications for the GeForce GTX 1650.GeForce GTX 1650

The folks over at Wired have been blessed with an exclusive look at the next-generation PlayStation, courtesy of an interview with Mark Cerny, the lead system architect for the system. As befits the mag's audience, Wired's article is a little fluffy, but we can gin the seeds of information and break it down, gerbil-style.Here are the big reveals: the as-yet-officially-untitled fifth PlayStation will once again be based on a semi-custom chip from AMD, just like the PS4. Wired revealed that the new chip will use eight 7 ...Read more...

G'afternoon. Yesterday I scratched a very minor item off my bucket list—I took a short ferry ride from São Jacinto to Gafanha da Nazaré, except I took the car into the water. The trip was quite short but it was loads of fun and a little surreal to just drive a car right onto a boat, no fuss, no muss. The 15-minute journey was uneventful save for a little choppy water that made it more fun. Today, however, there's no time for fun and games—it's all about them hardware deals. Here they are. ...Read more...

No snark today, just pretty flowers.

This afternoon as I try to avoid getting real work done, I'm listening to Digital Eclipse producer Frank Cifaldi's talk from GDC entitled It's Still Emulation: Saving Video Game History Before it's Too Late. This is a sequel to his 2016 talk to game developers about repackaging and re-selling old games. You can watch the older video if you want, but Cifaldi sums up that talk at the start of his March 2019 presentation. Since Cifalid runs the Video Game History Foundation charitable organization, emulation is obviously something near and dear to his heart....Read more...

A fair day, good gerbils. While I'd like to think that I have a decent enough moral compass, I've been considering the infliction of bodily harm these past couple days. You see, my apartment building is glued to the next one over, and someone over there is apparently doing some serious remodeling. Given that I work remotely with a multiple-hour timezone difference, I usually sleep over the morning. The hammers started at 08:00. I'm becoming angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry. The only thing that soothes me right now is sweet PC hardware deals. Here's today's catch. ...Read more...

So you're curious about this "RTX" thing but not curious enough to plonk down the money for an RTX-enabled graphics card that may not be a huge upgrade from your existing one. Never fear—Nvidia would like you to know that its latest GeForce driver (version 425.31) adds support for Microsoft DirectX Raytracing (DXR) to ten more graphics cards so you can enjoy the technology without needing an RTX card. You can check out the list of supported cards below. Oh yeah, the new drivers are also "Game Ready" for Anno 1800, in case you're into that.

Oh, jeepers creepers, where'd ya get those peepers?

We missed this one during CES, but back in January, Asus announced the ProArt PA32UCX display. That's a 32" monitor with some seriously high-end specs, which we'll go into in a moment. However, a 32" 16:9 display is a lot of desk space, and some individuals may not desire a display that big. Those folks might prefer the just-announced PA27UCX, which is nearly the same display in a smaller size. Let's check 'em out.

Howdy, folks. Home improvement is a fine endeavor, but it just takes up so much time. Even after you've picked out the stuff that you want installed, there's still bits of logistics to take care of, doors to open, questions to answer, and by the time you're done, some simple cabinets took the better part of an entire day to get right. At least the results are worth it. Among other things, I now have the best-lit pantry in town thanks to 4' LED tubes under each shelf. Next person walking in there saying "oh I can't find it" gets bonked. Anyway, here's today's selection of deals. ...Read more...

I'll try, but I'm anti-litigious by nature. So, sue me.

Last December, Microsoft announced plans to dump Edge's HTML and JavaScript guts in favor of Chromium, shortly after anonymous reports surfaced. At the time, Windows VP Joe Belifore pointed out that the mobile versions of Edge used open-source roots, so it made sense to do the same on the desktop. Now Microsoft is ready to show off the fruits of its labor: Edge Insider builds are ready to download to a Windows 10 PC near you.The Edge team said in its blog entry posted today that the new builds are available in two experimental release channels: Canary and Dev. Neither of those channels is guaranteed to be stable, though—they're not even labeled "beta", and an actual beta ...Read more...

Have you tried a laptop with one of AMD's recent Ryzen Mobile APUs? They're actually pretty great. My buddy picked up a machine with a Ryzen 5 3500U and after putting an SSD in it (because, sigh, it came with only a hard drive), it's super speedy. If you'd like to deploy a whole bunch of similar systems to your corporate workforce, don't worry—AMD's just released "Pro" versions of some models from that series. Check 'em out:Only four of the second-generation Ryzen Mobile chips—just the 15 W models—made it to the Pro lineup, and unsurprisingly, the core configurations, clock rates, and basically everything else remain the same as the non-Pro chips. One of the chips that made the grade is the Athlon 300U, ...Read more...

Nintendo's first attempt at virtual reality back in 1995, the Virtual Boy, was not very well received. The House of Mario is trying to turn that around through its Labo line of DIY cardboard project kits. Nintendo will combine its upcoming Toy-Con VR Goggles with new VR modes for its hottest selling properties: Super Mario Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.Experience 2 beloved games in new ways with the Toy-Con VR Goggles from the ...Read more...

Greetings, folks. My latest tussles with my spine over its inability to stay straight has led me to a hunt down the chair aisle. I'm taking Jeff's long-ago-given advice to acquire something from Steelcase or Herman Miller, and I've been looking for appropriate butt buckets. The problem is, the quality ones are, my lawd, so expensive. The things we do for vertebrae. In the meantime, here's today's deal collection. ...Read more...

I prefer Purritos.

Amid all the excitement about upcoming products, it's easy to forget that the day-to-day business of supporting all that hardware must continue. On that note, AMD just released Radeon Software version 19.4.1. This is—as the version number indicates—the first Radeon driver release in April, and while there aren't any big-ticket items like game-specific support, there are still a few fixes to appreciate.