Tuesday, February 25

Geek

Daily News Stuff 25 February 2020

Winking Olympic Vikings Edition

Tech News

  • Microsoft's Xbox Series X will be twice as fast as the Xbox One X.  (AnandTech)

    For graphics, that is.  Four times faster on the CPU side.

    The Xbox One X is four times faster on the graphics side than the Xbox One, but unchanged on the CPU, so overall the Xbox Series X is four times faster on CPU and eight times faster on graphics than the Xbox One non-X.

    Clear?


  • Mobile World Conference got cancelled by Corona-chan, but the industry burbles on, even if we sometimes wish it wouldn't.  

    Huawei announced the Mediapad Pro 5G, an update to the Mediapad Pro 4G, now with an extra G.  (AnandTech)

    It's a 10.8" Android 10 tablet, with a 2560x1600 screen and an A76-powered Kirin 990 CPU.

    Starting at €549 with no Gs at all, and up to €949 with 5G, 8GB RAM, and 512GB of storage.  Plus €129 for the keyboard and €99 for the stylus.  So...  Not exactly a budget device.


  • Speaking of Android tablets, I found this one on Amazon Australia.

    It's an older model, but it has basically the same specs as my Mediapad M3 and you can't beat the price.

    However...  The seller has a rating of zero.  100% negative.  And if you search the site for Teclast T8, it doesn't exist.

    For $280 they have a superseded Samsung tablet with specs in between the 2012 and 2013 Nexus 7 models.

    For $941 plus $312 shipping you could get the also superseded Mediapad M5.

    Or for $998.91 you could get the 2019 Galaxy Tab A 8" model with S-pen which matches or exceeds the specs of the 2013 Nexus 7 and has an almost up-to-date version of Android, and comes from a seller with 100% positive feedback.  Which feedback consists, unfortunately, entirely of this single review:
    The Green Elephant Ceramic Sharping Rod Sharpens my knives with ease and gets them sharp quicker than outer Sharping rods
    I spent years wishing Amazon would open an Australian storefront.  Now I want them to go away again.  Amazon Australia sucks.

    Which reminds me, though - I have a Sony Xperia tablet around here somewhere that I haven't been using since I got the Mediapad.  I should dig it out.  I can't remember if it had 16GB or 32GB of storage; if it was 32GB it's high time I swapped out my Nexus 7.  Something weird is going on with the Nexus 7 and its storage is slowly disappearing no matter what I do.  The Xperia tablet has a 128GB microSD card in it which would help a lot with that.

    Come to think of it, the last time I used it was probably that failed experiment to force adoptable storage to work.  Damn you, Sony.


  • Where was I?  Oh, right.  Kvetching.

    Speaking of 8" tablets at unreasonable prices Huawei announced the Mate Xs, the successor to the Mate X which as far as I am aware nobody anywhere ever actually bought.  (AnandTech)

    It also has a Kirin 990 CPU, with an 8" 2480x2200 AMOLED display, which folds and also - an advance over the original model - unfolds.

    It has 5G because why not and pricing starts at €2499.


  • What a tangled web we weave when first we venture to segment the market.  (AnandTech)

    People have been pointing out for weeks that a single $4000 64-core Epyc or Threadripper part can outperform two $10,000 28-core Xeon Platinum CPUs.

    Intel's response is a $2600 28-core Xeon Gold.  It's the same chip - it is literally the same chip - but with some interconnects spiked so it only supports up to two sockets instead of 8.

    There's also a new 26-core part for $1900, 24-core for $1550, and 20-core for $1270.  For Xeons, those are really good prices.

    Still not competitive with AMD, but really good for Intel.

    Serve the Home has further analysis.


  • TechDirt seems to be drunk today.


  • The specs for Big Navi have leaked unless they haven't and I suspect haven't but I could be wrong.  (WCCFTech)

    Supposedly the Radeon 5950X will be an 80 CU card with 24GB of HBM2 providing 2TB per second of bandwidth.  But that would mean four 6GB modules, and while that is certainly possible I've never seen such a configuration.

    Source is, well, Twitter.




  • You used to need a PhD to understand AWS pricing.  Now you need an entire research department.  (Andrew Wray)

    Some Amazon services are fixed price.  Some variable.  Some cost you nothing until a user lands on your page.  Others cost you a fortune even if you have no users at all.

    The only way I am able to wade through this nonsense and emerge with my sanity mostly intact is a childhood misspent min-maxing D&D characters.


  • Second Sock Syndrome and How to Solve It.  (Sheep Among Wolves)

    The article is talking about actual literal socks, but it works even better as a metaphor.


  • Pinterest is a train wreck.


  • China is hunting down anyone who tries to harsh Corona-chan's mellow.  (Vice)

    Because the Wuhan Bat Soup Death Plague is less of a threat than an informed populace.


  • We apologise for starving your cat to death.  (Ars Technica)

    Only not very much.


  • If you missed out on the excitement of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum due to not having been born yet, now is your chance.  (Slashdot)

    The ZX Spectrum Next, just slightly delayed, is now shipping.  (Kickstarter)

    It includes a 28MHz Z80 implemented in an FPGA, with hardware sprites and 1MB of RAM.  It actually looks quite nice, very professionally designed and manufactured.

    If you missed out on the original Kickstarter due to not having paid any attention to Kickstarter lately, they will be running another Kickstarter soon for a second production run.


Anime Music Video of the Day



Disclaimer: Unless it doesn't not isn't hasn't won't.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 11:27 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Post contains 976 words, total size 9 kb.

1 Looks like the MediaPad will have a good GPU, at least, based on the "MP12" part.  Lack of Google software will probably be a bummer.

Posted by: Rick C at Wednesday, February 26 2020 12:07 AM (Iwkd4)

2 "Amazon Australia sucks."
I clicked the link for the Samsung tablet.  The summary bar showed 0 reviews, and had 5 of those 0 reviews right next to it,with a link underneath the last one saying "go to amazon.com for all 77 reviews."  OK then.
Also I didn't see a wrong-item review, but that stuff happens on US Amazon too.

Posted by: Rick C at Wednesday, February 26 2020 12:11 AM (Iwkd4)

3 You'd think for a trillion dollars they could build a website that works.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Wednesday, February 26 2020 12:48 AM (PiXy!)

4 I wouldn't assign that much competence to a company that sends me two packages in a single day and manages to deliver one, but fails the other, saying "our driver was unable to get into the building", only to be able to make the delivery the next day.
Twice.

Posted by: Rick C at Wednesday, February 26 2020 07:56 AM (Iwkd4)

5 To try to prevent this, I went to the management office today and asked how delivery drivers get in the building.  She told me that they have to come to the office to get a key fob to get in, and leave a driver's license, just like you do when you're touring apartments.  According to her, sometimes subcontractors just leave at that point rather than do that.
Standing delivery instructions say to call my cell, but nobody ever has.

Posted by: Rick C at Wednesday, February 26 2020 08:03 AM (Iwkd4)

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Apple pies are delicious. But never mind apple pies. What colour is a green orange?




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