Thread: Anandtech News

While Google has successfully moved its suite of productivity apps away from Google Drive and into their own Docs, Sheets, and Slides app on mobile, the separation hasn't always felt as clear on the web. The portion of the separate websites for each app that allowed users to view their files was essentially the same interface for Google Drive and they had a feel more similar to a Google Drive extension than separate applications with Google Drive integration. As of today this is no longer the case, as Google is rolling out new home screens for each web application which are similar in look and feel to Google's mobile apps for the same services. Each interface is similar apart from the different color scheme for each application, and below we have the new interface for Google Docs on the web.

As you can see, it's very similar to the interface on Google's mobile Docs application, particularly when the application is used on a tablet. The top bar features a menu that slides in from the left and gives the user links to navigate to the other productivity apps that Google offers, as well as a link to Google Drive and settings for language and offline editing. On the right side there is a button to change between a list view or a preview view, a button to change the method of file sorting, and a button to upload files to Google Drive for editing. At the bottom there is an ever-present circular button which creates a new document and brings the user to the editing interface.
This is a particularly important update for Google. It allows for Docs, Sheets, and Slides to be better separated from Google Drive but it also works toward accomplishing something Google focused on at Google IO which is creating an interface that looks the same and works the same across every sort of device. It will be very interesting to see where Google goes from here with making changes to both their mobile and web based applications and trying to keep them visually and functionally the same.
The update is rolling out now, and users will be prompted to switch to the new interface when they visit any of the websites for Google's productivity applications.

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Joining today’s launch of the SHIELD Tablet is a new GeForce driver set from NVIDIA. After last month’s release of the first R340 beta driver, 340.43, NVIDIA is back again with 340.52, which sees R340 reach WHQL status.
Not surprisingly, SHIELD Tablet support is the headlining feature for 340.52, as NVIDIA needs to update their drivers in order for GameStream to support their latest gadget. This driver is also being released as another on one of NVIDIA’s Game Ready drivers, this time for the forthcoming Metro: Redux and the China launch of Final Fantasy XIV. Other than that however this is a fairly low-key driver launch for NVIDIA; compared to the 340.43 betas there is only a handful of bug fixes (including a Chrome bug), functionally making this a WHQL version of the earlier beta driver for most users.
Update: AT Forums user code65536 has noted that these drivers unexpectedly remove all mention of Miracast support, which was first added in 340.43. We're currently chasing down NVIDIA to find out what happened.
As usual, you can grab the drivers for all current desktop and mobile NVIDIA GPUs over at NVIDIA’s driver download page.



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Last year Intel introduced the SSD Pro 1500, the company's first SSD for the business segment. The Pro 1500 brought support for hardware accelerated encryption in the form of TCG Opal 1.0 certification, but with the Pro 2500 Intel is updating the spec to 2.0 along with support for IEEE-1667 that is required for Microsoft eDrive. Can the Pro 2500 offer anything over the other drives with Opal support? Read on to find out!

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It hasn't been long since Microsoft began their rollout of the Windows Phone 8.1 update but they are already giving details of the next update which is slated to roll out in the coming months. The update isn't as significant as Windows Phone 8.1 was, but it still brings some good improvements to the platform. Cortana has been improved and is being rolled out to new countries with localization to make it more usable for different people in different parts of the world. Folders have been implemented in a clever way as well, and there are a whole bunch of other additions throughout the OS. We've detailed some of the bigger changes below, starting with Cortana.

Microsoft's virtual assistant, Cortana, is making its way to several different countries with this new update. Microsoft has put some focus on bringing the feature to the Chinese market with more localized information that would be relevant to someone living in China. The Chinese version of Cortana supports Mandarin Chinese for voice, text, and speech, but Microsoft is also including special features like an alternate form with a different appearance, different animations, and different sounds. Cortana in China also provides information like air quality on weather cards, information about driving restrictions, and the ability to track local TV shows and celebrities, all of which are features Microsoft hopes will make Cortana more useful to users in China.
Microsoft has done the same sort of thing for the new UK version, with a British accent and British English spelling in Cortana. Locally relevant info like info from the London Stock Exchange and local sport statistics are also included.
With the new update Cortana will also be rolling out to Canada, India, and Australia as an alpha. Users will have to choose between using Cortana with the US or UK English language model as Microsoft is not finished with any localization in those regions.

The big feature addition of this update is one that users have been asking for since the days of Windows Phone 7. Folders are coming to Windows Phone and Microsoft's implementation is clever by not destroying the functionality of live tiles within a folder. The folder takes up a dynamic amount of space on the home screen and the space is made up of all the live tiles within that folder along with a folder name running along the bottom. The user can make certain apps appear bigger or smaller depending on their importance and arrange them however they like. When tapped the folder expands to show all the tiles at their normal size.
Beyond that there are various improvements to parts of the OS. The Windows Phone Store now has a live tile that updates to show new apps and games that have been added to the store, the SMS app gains the ability to select multiple messages for forwarding or deletion, and there's a new apps corner section in the settings app which allows the user to set up a mode with restrictions to what apps can be used. Microsoft is hoping the apps corner feature will make it easier to deploy Windows Phone devices in business scenarios where only a few apps needs to be accessed like for barcode scanning and inventory management at a distribution center.
The last thing Microsoft detailed are improvements to privacy and security features.The new update to Windows Phone will include VPN support to better keep information secure when connecting to wireless networks like public hotspots where the user doesn't want to expose themselves to other users that may be on the network.
Microsoft's time frame for when the update will be released is just described as "in the coming months." For users running the Windows Phone 8.1 developer preview, the preview of this latest update will begin to roll out next week.

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Earlier this year I upgraded to the new Yoga 2 Pro, an Ultrabook with pretty typical specifications. The screen is one of the key differentiators with a QHD+ 3200x1800 resolution, four times the pixels of the original Yoga. After using the laptop for many months now, it's a very interesting experience, as the flexible chassis works as both a traditional laptop or a touch input tablet. Read on to find out what it's like living with the Yoga 2 Pro, and how it measures up in our suite of benchmarks.

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August will soon be here, with one of the perks being a new list of games available to PlayStation Plus members. Like last month, Sony is offering up six games across the PS4, PS3, and Vita. If you’ve missed July’s games, check them out here and get them before it is too late!
PlayStation 4

Road Not Taken

For August, the first game for free is actually a brand new to the store game from developer SpryFox. This game has a release date of August 5^th, and is a puzzle game where you play as a ranger travelling through a vast forest after a winter storm where you have to rescue lost children.

“From the creators of Triple Town, Road Not Taken is a rogue like puzzle game about surviving life’s surprises. You play as a ranger adventuring through a vast, unforgiving forest in the aftermath of a brutal winter storm, rescuing children who have lost their way. Randomly generated levels deliver a limitless supply of possibilities to explore and challenges to overcome. Your actions will influence not only your own story, but that of the villagers you hope to befriend and the town you call home.”
Fez

The second game for the PS4 is the puzzle platform game Fez, originally released on April 13, 2012. Indie developer Polytron Corporation created this award winning game which has an interesting 2D gameplay model in a 3D world, where rotating the aspect ratio is a key component of the challenge. Fez will also be available on the PS3 and Vita. Fez for the PS4 received a 90 Metascore and 7.2 User score on Metacritic.

“Gomez is a 2D creature living in a 2D world. Or is he? When the existence of a mysterious 3rd dimension is revealed to him, Gomez is sent out on a journey that will take him to the very end of time and space. Use your ability to navigate 3D structures from 4 distinct classic 2D perspectives. Explore a serene and beautiful open-ended world full of secrets, puzzles and hidden treasures. Unearth the mysteries of the past and discover the truth about reality and perception. Change your perspective and look at the world in a different way.”
PlayStation 3

Crysis 3

Crysis 3 is the award winning first-person shooter released by developer Crytek in February 2013. This sequel to the 2011 game Crysis 2 is set in New York City in 2047, where players take on the role of Prophet. Based on the Cryengine 3, Crysis is a stunningly beautiful game which scored a 77 Metascore and 6.1 User score on Metacritc.

“Seven Wonders of the Urban Rainforest – New York City has been contained in a giant nanodome and grown into a unique rainforest with seven distinct environments. Master the ultimate sandbox and turn it into your own personal hunting ground.
Assess, Adapt, and Attack – Crysis’s highly-acclaimed sandbox gameplay is back with more open levels to let players choose their path and approach. Your upgraded Nanosuit allows brute force or stealth, always giving you more than one option.
The Biggest and Most Explosive Arsenal in Franchise History – In addition to giving you an arsenal of human firearms, Crysis 3 lets you scavenge alien weapons and deploy an all-new Predator bow.”
Proteus

Developer Curve Studios release Proteus in January 2013. This open world exploration game (or anti-game?) is a first-person perspective game drawn in the pixel art style. Proteus got a 77 Metascore and 8.1 User score on Metacritic. Proteus will also be available to PS3 owners.

“Proteus is a game about exploration and immersion in a dream-like island world where the soundtrack to your play is created by your surroundings. The primary means of interaction is simply your presence in the world and how you observe it.”
PlayStation Vita

Metrico

Also brand new to the store on August 5^th is Metrico from Digital Dreams Games. This is a “atmospheric puzzle action game with a mindset of its own” which has received a lot of accolades by reviewers prior to it being released. The world looks fantastic with a great design theme.

“Metrico is a new world. A living world filled with infographics that react directly to your movement, actions and input. Metrico invites you to explore, experiment, test your skills and most of all: think outside the box.
Immerse yourself in this experience, exclusive to PlayStation Vita system, and see if you have got what it takes!”
Dragon’s Crown

Dragon’s Crown by Vanillaware Ltd was released July 25, 2013. This 2D fantasy RPG with side scrolling action is a multiplayer experience that lets players choose from six heroes with unique strengths and weaknesses. Dragon’s Crown received a 78 Metascore and 8.9 User score on Metacritic. This game will also be available to PS3 owners.

“Dragon’s Crown is a multiplayer hack and slash beat ‘em up game with breathtaking visual style, a design built around cooperative play and epic boss fights, and the ability to discover a new adventure in every play session. Dragon’s Crown allows up to four players to team up online to clear out monster-ridden dungeons, discover precious treasure, and destroy awe-inspiring bosses.”
Final Thoughts

August looks like a fantastic month for PlayStation Plus members, with a great selection of games from puzzles to first-person shooters to hack and slash games. Also nice to see is that two of these games will be brand new and instantly available to Plus members. Six games over three systems should keep owners entertained for the month of August.

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Kaveri was launched as a processor line, on desktop, back in January. At the time we were given information on three of the APUs, the A10-7850K, A10-7700K and A8-7600, and reviewed two of them, including the A8-7600 65W processor. However, at the time, AMD stated that the model we tested was to come out at a later date: that date is today, in a trio of 65W parts. The A10-7800 we are testing today is the locked down version of the A10-7850K with a slight speed reduction to hit 65W as well as a configurable TDP to 45W.

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Back in January when AMD launched their first Kaveri APUs, we tested the A10-7850K and the A8-7600, with the former being at the top of the product stack featuring two Steamroller modules and 512 GCN cores with a 4.0 GHz turbo frequency. This part, along with the A10-7700K that was also released at the same time, has a nominal TDP of 95W. The interesting element in the mix was the 65W A8-7600, which AMD provided as a sample to review at the time, but was to be released ‘at a future date’. Today is that date, six months after the initial reviews.
AMD’s reason for the delay revolves around the 65W nature of the APUs but also their configurable TDP element. Rather than launch a new APU every two months, they combined all three in an effort to get out this new message that the 65W APUs can all be adjusted to fit within a 45W TDP by reducing the clock speeds.
When we examined the A8-7600 at 45W, we found that the killer application for this APU would be in the integrated graphics segment, where it offered some of the best processor graphics for power consumption on the market. The other two APUs being releases today, the A10-7800 and the A6-7400K, both aim to continue that trend above and below the A8 market.

I am currently waiting for the full specifications for these APUs from AMD, including memory support as well as core counts/frequencies of the processor graphics.
Users will note that the listed price for the A8-7600 has been reduced from the initial review by AMD in order to align the stack better for price against performance. All three new APUs will register as 65W to begin with, and the user will have to enable 45W mode in the BIOS of the motherboard. Enabling the 45W mode corresponds to an ~400-500 MHz drop of full loading frequency while still enabling a high turbo:

AMD quotes a 6-7% drop in performance in PCMark 8 and 3DMark by moving down to the 45W TDP mode, with SFF or low power systems seeing the most benefit.
The technologies that were part of the first Kaveri APU launch are also present with the 65W models, including the Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA), Unified Memory for both CPU and GPU (hUMA), heterogeneous queuing of kernels (hQ), Graphics Core Next (GCN) with Mantle and AMD TrueAudio.
With the OpenCL support, AMD is keen to express their performance benefits in Adobe Photoshop CC (A10 vs i5), LibreOffice (A8 vs i3) and JPEG Decode (A6 vs Pentium). AMD also points out in its release that PowerDVD 14 is fully supporting HEVC compute via OpenCL on AMD APUs, with also AMD Fluid Motion Video in a later update.
AMD is running a promotion for the A10 series of Kaveri APUs during August through to October – purchase an A10 APU and choose from either a full copy of Thief, Sniper Elite III or Murdered Soul Suspect. This offer will be available in North America, Latin America, EMEA and Asia Pacific/Japan.

We have the A10-7800 APU in for testing, be sure to look out for that review. We have asked for an A6-7400K sample, which allows overclocking, and it will be interesting to see how the single module SKU stacks up against the Pentium CPUs we recently tested.
Gallery: AMD Officially Launches 65W/45W Kaveri APUs: The A10-7800, A8-7600 and A6-7400K





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One of the hot topics in computer upgrades for the next couple of years is going to be the move to DDR4. Intel has already announced that the Haswell-E / X99 platform will be based on DDR4, and we can only assume that other future platforms will use it as well. The shift from DDR3 to DDR4 is a the big jump for DRAM manufacturers as well, shifting gears to the new product and maintaining stocks of both for the meantime. ADATA is one of the first to officially launch their consumer memory, their Premier line of DDR4.
JEDEC specifications have the DDR4 base frequency at 2133 MHz with sub-timing latencies of 15-15-15 at 1.2 volts. This is where ADATA will be positioning their first DDR4 modules in the market, and we can assume that others will as well until higher frequency parts are binned. Compare this to the rate of DDR3-2133, which is often at 10-12-12 timings or similar, but uses 1.65 volts, and typically comes with heatsinks.
Because we are far from the launch of a consumer platform for DDR4, as one might expect this comes across more as a paper launch. ADATA in the past typically publishes a PR about new memory about two weeks before it goes on the market, and I am asking about pricing which was not mentioned. Given the pictures we received with the modules, it would seem that 4GB and 8GB modules will be first to market for DDR4 unless another DRAM manufacturer has something up its sleeve.
Source: ADATA

Gallery: ADATA Formally Announces DDR4-2133 CL15 UDIMMs

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Linksys and ZyXEL recently updated their product portfolio for SMB (small and medium business) networking gear. The updates came in the managed switches category for both companies. In addition, ZyXEL also introduced two new gateways.
Linksys

After Cisco's sale of the Linksys business unit to Belkin, things have been relatively quiet on their SMB side of things. Last month, they announced the Pro series wireless access point (LAPAC1750PRO) with support for cluster managment (handling multiple access points from a single interface) and a customizable branding portal. It also had dual GbE ports for increased throughput as well as redundancy. As with any AP in this market segment, the unit could be powered by PoE (Power over Ethernet). This 3x3 802.11ac AP was priced at $500.

However, the standout announcement came this month for their managed network switches. Usually, we see vendors putting out 24 and 48-port switches, but Linksys is introducing 28 and 52-port ones. There are four models: LGS528, LGS552, LGS528P and LGS552P. The P models come with PoE+ support (802.3at) and have a 30W power budget per port. The 52 port models come with two 10 GbE uplink ports (SFP+). The non-PoE+ models are priced at $550 and $850 for the 28 port and the 52 port versions,
while the PoE+ models are priced at $950 and $1300. Note that these switches support Layer 3 static routing also.
ZyXEL

ZyXEL announced an update to the venerable GS2200 layer 2 managed switches yesterday in the GS2210 series. The updated internals reflect in lower maximum power consumption. The GS2210 also has a larger packet buffer. The lineup consists of 24-port and 48-port models with PoE (HP models) and without PoE support. Pricing for GS2210-24 comes in at $499 while the HP variant will come in at $799. The 48-port versions are priced at $1099 (GS2210-48) and $1349 (GS2210-48HP). I have been using the GS2200-24 24x7 at home for the last three years (not just as part of a testbed), and I have to say that the unit has been silent and reliable all through after initial setup.

A couple of Internet Access Gateways were also announced, targeting the hospitality market. The UAG5100 supports up to 800 concurrent devices with dual WAN capabilities and an integrated WLAN controller for managing up to 32 Wi-Fi APs. The UAG2100 supports up to 200 devices, has a built-in 802.11n AP and an integrated WLAN controller to manage up to 8 Wi-Fi APs. The firmware features of both units are geared towards monetization of Internet services as well as recording of user access information for auditing and security purposes.

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