News written by Matti Robinson (May, 2017)

Microsoft has informed us at Computex trade show that its partners are going to unveil a slew of new so-called Always Connected computers in the upcoming months. These computers, mainly laptops of varying form factors, will include an integrated LTE modem that allows the computers to be, well, always connected.

The concept has brewed a long time within Microsoft, and it is certainly not the first time company has tried to bring computers equipped with modems to consumers. ARM based computers were one of the main points in the Windows 8/Windows RT division.

Now the Redmond titan, however, believes that the technology is mature enough. Always Connected computers are said to be released from multitude of manufacturers, including ASUS, Hp, VAIO, Xiaomi, and the leading PC manufacturer Lenovo.

They come equipped with either Intel's or Qualcomm's chips, which include the popular smartphone flagship system-on-a-chip Snapdragon 835 found in for example the new Galaxy S8. All the computers run Windows 10, albeit different versions for ARM and Intel chips.

The computer come with their own eSIM slot and are thus mostly meant for people that are on the move, such as students and business customers, who don't want the hassle of sharing their mobile data from a smartphone.

Intel has announced that it will start the commercializing of a concept called Compute Card. This credit card sized computer concept is obviously incredibly small and light which means it will make a lot of new kind of computer applications possible, says Intel.

What makes the Compute Card great is that it allows the modular use of computer technology in a new way. When you can easily detach and reattach the computing part of whatever system is it a part of, this means that the separate hardware, whether it be the Compute Card or the remaining equipment can be modified or replaced easily.

This kind of feature would be essential in devices like TVs, refrigerators, and cars among other Internet of Things applications.

Compute Card will come available in four different models that vary in performance. The processors used include a dual-core and 1.2Ghz Kaby Lake Core i5-7Y57 and a less powerful quad-core Celeron 3450. All four versions of Compute Card include four gigabytes of RAM, 128 GB SSD storage, Wi-Fi (ac), and Bluetooth 4.2.

There are a few futuristic concepts in smart devices that are are persistent as the flexible display. Companies, especially the couple Korean ones, have been trying to create different kind of flexible and stretchable displays for quite some time.

One of the examples of this is of course the LG G Flex introduces first in 2013 and its successor Flex2. Samsung has been twisting displays in its own right with the curved displays since Note Edge, and now even with its most popular flagship Galaxy S8.

Now Samsung has unveiled a new kind of display that might revolutionize the smart devices yet again. This time it is a stretchable OLED display, first of its kind, the company says. The technology is on display at a international SID conference and you can also see it in action in a YouTube video below.

The display featured in the video is a 9.1 inch OLED panel – if you can call it a panel anymore – that would fit perfectly in a traditional tablet. Instead it stretches like a fabric. The stretch height is at maximum 12 millimeters, just under half an inch, so it can't compare to rubber-like materials, though.

Currently the technology is still very much a concept and needs more development. There still doesn't seem to be any real life applications for it but surely someone will come up with a use for that.

Samsung has been investing a lot on its semiconductor business in both Asia and even in the United States. Now the company is expanding even further and creating its own business around the chip manufacturing.

According to Bloomberg Samsung is separating the foundry business to show how serious it is in challenging the world's leading semiconductor manufacturer Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, better known as TSMC.

The Korean giant hopes that the new business will be more attractive to its core customers. Currently the company is competing with many of its most important chip customers in other areas. For example Apple has been buying chips from Samsung but there's fierce competition in the smartphone and tablet space among others.

Samsung and its foundry business can't risk losing important customers that are hard to attract because of competing intrests in other fields. Customers like Apple and Qualcomm are invaluable to retain and the move will ensure a stronger positions in the market, the Korean manufacturer believes.

Samsung has also revealed its future plans in chip manufacturing. On the main advanced will be a new EUV lithography in 7 nanometer process but before that the company will expand to 8 nm process. There will also be an upgrade to 6, 5, and even 4 nanometer processes as we head towards 2020.

If you are a computer hardware geek then this day is one that you might have been waiting for a while. Intel has unveiled today a new CPU brand called Core X.

When performance is what you live for the Core X series processors is where you look – unless you hate Intel and only use AMD products. The new CPUs will include Core i5, Core i7, and new Core i9 processors that are meant for the power hungriest.

As you might imagine, the three different series of processor offer a plethora of options. You start off with four core i5 processors and end up with 18 cores and impressive 36 threads in a new Core i9 Extreme. According to the manufacturer 7980XE is the first 18-core CPU sold to the masses. Well, at least if the masses have $1,999 to put towards a super performing CPU.

You can distinguish the regular models from the new X series straight from the model number. This means that for example the cheapest of the bunch at $242, the 4-core i5, is called Core i5-7640X. All the X series processors are designed for motherboard with X299 chipset.

When it comes to the architecture most of the Core X are an updated version of the 6th generation, namely Skylake, but there's two Kaby Lake (7th gen) based chips (i5-7640X and i7-7740X).

Google has been focusing a lot lately on artificial intelligence and its applications. Obviously one of the bigger steps forward in that area was the new Google Assistant that was unveiled last fall.

In the beginning the app was only available to a very small minority, namely the Pixel users, but the company has expanded to other Android phones as well as their new smart speaker Google Home. Now, however, Google has gone way further and even brought it to the biggest competitor's flagship, the iPhone.

Already Google Assistant has said to be in over 100 million devices but with the addition of iPhone and other phones Google aims capturing more of the enormous 2 billion smartphone market. Obviously Siri will still have the edge on iOS as it is the only assistant you can access straight from you home button but Google has created a widget which gets you to the Google Assistant pretty swiftly.

But this is still only the tip of the iceberg according to Google. At Google I/O the company announced Google Assistant SDK which allows developers and manufacturers to bring Assistant with its AI capabilities to any kind of application and hardware whether it be a speaker, a coffee maker or a completely new type of device.

Many Apple fans are probably already waiting for the upcoming iPhones that will be introduces in early September, if previous years are any indication. However, Apple has a lot more in store in terms of services and products.

Apple Watch hasn't been as relevant in recent history as it was when it first launched but the company is working on a major update. CEO Tim Cook has been seen wearing a new type of sensor added to a Apple Watch, CNBC reports.

Ever since unveiling the first Apple Watch with a heart rate sensor, the Cupertino giant has been more interested in health applications in both software and hardware. The upcoming new version could bring an even more important health related sensor.

The sensor is said to monitor glucose levels continuously without invasive measures. This "holy grail" of blood sugar tracking would be a huge help to people suffering from diabetes. Because the measurements are not necessary for the larger population it might be an external accessory.

Apple hasn't usually released new Apple Watches in its developer conference in June and it is unlikely this years WWDC is any different but with an update to watchOS we might get some indication if Apple is indeed going to add this function to their smartwatches.

The fantasy book series written by Andrzej Sapkowski became a huge success in the world of video games in 2007 when the first Witcher game was released. Now after a decade of The Witcher games we've been expecting a movie adaption but there has been a turn of events.

The producers of Sean Daniel Company, Sean Daniel and Jason Brown, have signed a deal with Netflix. This means that the movie production has taken a back seat and a new TV show adaption for Netflix is in the works.

The streaming giant has managed to acquire another valuable game franchise under its Originals umbrella after announcing a Castlevania animation in February. According to Engadget, the show will run multiple seasons but not much more – including any of the casting – is known at this point.

What we do know, however, is that Sapkowski is a creative consultant for the Netflix show and according to his statements really happy about the deal and the upcoming TV series. This should bode well to fans of both book and game series.

The Witcher is a story about Geralt of Rivia who is one of the last Witchers, a superhuman monster slayer, in the fantasy world with dwarves and elves.

HTC has unveiled today their newest flagship smartphone. The U11 is a top tier smartphone that comes with a proprietary pressure sensing technology that differentiates itself from the likes of Galaxy S8 and LG G6.

The Edge Sense technology, as the company calls it, is able to sense the pressure when the user squeezes the phone. This allows the device to perform tasks depending on the pressure level and duration. The sensors are located on the sides of the phone, which brings us to another difference to the aforementioned competitors.

Unlike LG or Samsung, HTC's flagship doesn't have a bezel-less display but instead a more traditional one we would have expected from every single smartphone last year. However, in 2017, it has become increasingly popular to remove the home button and stretch the display to all edges.

It is, though, not the fault of the new technology per se, as BGR as found out. According to HTC staff they just don't have the display prowess of manufacturers like LG and Samsung that can custom build their displays.

Even without the trendy display the U11 is a true flagship, make no mistake about that. The 5,5 inch QHD display is accompanied by the Snapdragon 835, 4 gigs of RAM, 64 gigabytes of microSD expandable storage, 12 MP UltraPixel camera and a 16 MP selfie shooter.

Raspberry Pi is where many ingenious gadgets of the future take their first steps. An affordable and very versatile platform allows tons of creativity and possibilities in molding your own gadgets.

Now Google is making the RasPi a little smarter.

The new edition of the official Raspberry Pi magazine MagPi includes a new type of accessory for the Raspberry Pi which lets you integrate Google's Assistant to your creation. In essence it's a piece of technology from Google Home that can be inserted into a Raspberry Pi 3, Pi Zero or Pi 2.

Obviously in addition to the actual Voice HAT, which stands for Hardware Accessory on Top, board the addon includes a speaker and a microphone for both delivering the voice commands as well as hearing the responses. You also get all the necessary wires.

The companies have coined a term Artificial Intelligence Yourself, or AIY, that describes the aim to make AI more accessible to hobbyist and homebrew software creators.

Unfortunately at this point the Voice HAT is only available with the MagPi magazine, and is sold out, but Raspberry Pi has told Wired that it might release it separately. That would seem smart, at least after the HAT has done its job and attracted more subscribers.

One would have thought that the time of handheld consoles would have come to an end, after all many, if not most, of us have a very powerful computer in our pockets already. The two Japanese gaming powerhouses, Nintendo and Sony, have been in the forefront of handheld gaming but have they given up already?

Well, PlayStation Vita, the latest handheld gaming console by Sony was released more than five years ago. Sony has placed its bets on PlayStation 4, and seems to be doing really well. Perhaps it might even release a new PlayStation 5 sooner than you'd think as it is not investing in the development of handheld consoles.

Nintendo on the other hand has been relying on their success with handhelds. Within the past 5 years, after PS Vita was announced, the company has released several upgrades to the DS line. Even its new home gaming console Switch can be used in handheld mode.

This regardless that the company has seen huge traction in smartphone games with Pokémon GO and Super Mario Run. Now the company has announced another DS product.

Nintendo has released a product called 2DS XL which is an updated version of the 2DS console released in late 2013. Unlike the 3DS which is designed for stereoscopic 3D the 2DS XL plays only traditional 2D games.

YouTube turned 12 this year and to celebrate the last pre-teen year the video platform is updating its look. The new user interface has adopted a design philosophy from the parent company Google.

The new UI takes the Material Design from Google's Android operating system which makes the website look more simplistic but does not affect the functionality in any meaningful sense. The layout hasn't been changed which isn't a susprise, after all people are very familiar with how the platform works, but YouTube hopes the new UI gives a more spacey and less busy feel to the site.

In addition to the new UI there are some new features though. For example, now users can choose to use a Dark Mode theme instead of the normal lighter theme. The Dark Mode is obviously good if you use the website in a dark room.

YouTube has also introduced a slight technical change in the use of JavaScript. They now use Google's own Polymer JavaScript libraries which should prove to be more efficient and faster.

You can try out the new UI here even though it has not been finished and officially launched yet.

Microsoft unveiled yesterday the new Windows 10 S operating system which in effect is a lite version of company's flagship product. Also revealed was the first traditional laptop to come out of Redmond.

It was quickly argued that the biggest problem of the laptop is the operating system that cripples such a well equipped and at least seemingly well built machine. Windows 10 S allows app installs only from the Windows Store and therefore millions of programs are not available for the system.

Fortunately The Verge has found out that Surface Laptop owners will be able to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro for free. Normally the fee is $49, which to be honest, doesn't sound too bad, considering the improvement that comes with app freedom.

This deal only lasts for the rest of the year, though, and if you are buying some other Windows 10 S product you are out of luck and have to shell out the money if you want to upgrade.

Microsoft also is giving away one year license of Office 365, which is coming to the Windows Store, with Surface Laptop.

Microsoft has today announced a new Surface product, which is the company's first traditional laptop. The device, aptly named Surface Laptop, is indeed not a hybrid like the Surface Book, and is more reasonably priced.

According to Microsoft, the 13.5 inch 3:2 display on Surface Laptop is the ever thinnest in a laptop. This and the fact that everything inside the device has been packed super tight means that at .57" and 2.76 lbs it is both thinner and lighter than even the MacBook Air.

The display is said to produce 3.4 million pixels so its resolution (2256 x 1504) is around the traditional QHD but with 3:2 aspect ratio differentiates itself from both the widescreen 16:9 or 16:9 (MacBook Air) laptops as well as the old school 4:3 displays.

According to Microsoft's own Panos Panay the Surface Laptop is also more powerful than the competition. With Intel's Core i5 and i7 processors Panay claims it is up to 50 percent faster than MacBook Air. With all that power the promised 14.5 hour battery life (with video playback) seems like a good deal, especially considering the weight.

The keyboard is surrounded by alcantara fabric that we first saw on Surface Pro 4 keyboard, and Microsoft has managed to retain a respectable 1.5 mm press depth.