Month: January 2022

RGB keyboard feature renews hope for RTX Chromebooks

Hopefully, RTX on Arm isn’t too far behind.

RGB keyboard feature renews hope for RTX Chromebooks

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It has been two years since Google sparked dreams of PC gaming coming to Chromebooks. We've yet to hear word on when we'll be able to frag on Chrome OS, but we now know that work is being done to bring RGB-backlit keyboards to the operating system. And since RGB and gaming go hand in hand, these keyboards could find their way into potential Chromebooks with Nvidia RTX graphics cards.

In April, Nvidia announced that it is working with MediaTek, which makes the SoCs in many Chromebooks, to create a reference platform that supports Chromium and Nvidia SDKs, as well as Linux. In a press release, the GPU maker promised to bring together RTX graphics cards and Arm-based chips to deliver ray tracing "to a new class of laptops." In 2021, Nvidia demoed RTX on a MediaTek Kompanio 1200, a chip that MediaTek says will be in "some of the biggest Chromebook brands."

The news came more than a year after Google announced that it was working on bringing Steam to Chromebooks. It doesn't matter if the laptops have RTX graphics if there are no PC games worth playing on them. There hasn't been much news on RTX or Steam support since. But at least we know that work is underway on another part of making gaming on Chromebooks a thing: RGB.

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Gaming Chromebooks with RGB keyboard on the way?

Chromebooks may have gotten their start as simple, usually cheap laptops with an operating system based around the web browser. But Chrome OS has gotten a lot more powerful in recent years, with support for running Android and Linux apps as well as web apps. You can even use a Chromebook for gaming thanks to […]

The post Gaming Chromebooks with RGB keyboard on the way? appeared first on Liliputing.

Chromebooks may have gotten their start as simple, usually cheap laptops with an operating system based around the web browser. But Chrome OS has gotten a lot more powerful in recent years, with support for running Android and Linux apps as well as web apps.

You can even use a Chromebook for gaming thanks to cloud gaming services like Stadia and GeForce Now.  And Google has been working to add native support for the Steam game client to Chromebooks for quite a while. Now, in what might be the most obvious (and gaudy) signs that gaming Chromebooks are on the way, Google has added support for keyboards with RGB lighting to Chrome OS.

Razer Blade Stealth RGB backlit keyboard (Liliputing / 2018)

As spotted by 9to5Google, a recent code commit will allow Chrome OS to take full advantage of backlit keyboards with RGB lighting. There’s support for per-key lighting effects as well as adjusting the brightness of all keys at once.

It looks like the feature is still designed for developer testing purposes only, but that makes sense since there aren’t any Chromebooks available with RGB backlit keyboards… yet.

While building support for RGB lighting into Chrome OS could theoretically be about allowing users to plug in third-party keyboards, 9to5Google reports that the feature seems to be tied to at least three specific unreleased devices, suggesting that some upcoming Chromebooks will have backlit keyboards with RGB lighting.

At least two appear to be Chrome OS devices feature 12th-gen Intel “Alder Lake” processors, while the third is a detachable keyboard that could possibly be used with next-gen 2-in-1 tablets.

A few years ago it might have seemed strange to think of Chrome OS as a platform for gaming. But not only are there now multiple cloud-based game streaming services that allow you to play games on low-end hardware, but Valve has done a lot of work to bring support for gaming to Linux (including support for playing many Windows PC games) ahead of the February 28 ship date of the Steam Deck handheld gaming PC running the Arch Linux-based Steam OS.

Chrome OS is based on Linux and already has support for running many native Linux applications. With support for Steam gaming on the way, new Chromebooks with fast processors (and maybe discrete graphics) expected soon, and now the RGB keyboards that are so often associated with gaming laptops, maybe that will change.

The post Gaming Chromebooks with RGB keyboard on the way? appeared first on Liliputing.

Anzeige: Leichter Einstieg in Elastic Stack

Wenn es darum geht, aus einer Unmenge an Daten die wichtigen
herauszusuchen, hilft der Elastic Stack. Einen Einstieg in die
Stack-Komponenten vermittelt die Golem Akademie. (Golem Akademie, Server-Applikationen)

Wenn es darum geht, aus einer Unmenge an Daten die wichtigen herauszusuchen, hilft der Elastic Stack. Einen Einstieg in die Stack-Komponenten vermittelt die Golem Akademie. (Golem Akademie, Server-Applikationen)

Porsche’s new hybrid Le Mans car breaks cover as testing begins

It’s not due to race until 2023, but Porsche is getting an early start.

The LMDh regulations cap the cars' downforce:drag ratio, so designers don't have to spend as much time worrying about aerodynamics and can use more road car styling cues. Not that you can really make that out on this wrapped prototype.

Enlarge / The LMDh regulations cap the cars' downforce:drag ratio, so designers don't have to spend as much time worrying about aerodynamics and can use more road car styling cues. Not that you can really make that out on this wrapped prototype. (credit: Porsche)

If there were any doubts about Porsche taking its return to prototype racing seriously, they're now gone.

The company's new car is not due to race in earnest until this time next year; in fact, it's so early in the car's development that it hasn't been officially named. But that hasn't stopped the automaker, together with Penske Racing, from starting the new car's track testing program ahead of competing in two championship series in 2023, beginning with next year's 24-hour race at Daytona in Florida.

"The rollout of the LMDh racing car was also the first track outing for Porsche Penske Motorsport," said Urs Kuratle, project manager for Porsche's LMDh program. "The squad worked well together right from the start. This shows a high level of professionalism in all areas. After all, the operational requirements for the safe running of a hybrid vehicle are very high. In the next outings, we will focus on going deeper into the required processes and procedures. During these first test days at Weissach, the V8-biturbo impressed us in every respect. We're convinced that we’ve chosen precisely the right unit."

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SPD und Linkspartei im Niedergang

Von “No-GroKo” zur Ampel: Was wird aus der “alten Dame SPD”. Und dem Ableger, der Linkspartei. Eine Bestandsaufnahme

Von "No-GroKo" zur Ampel: Was wird aus der "alten Dame SPD". Und dem Ableger, der Linkspartei. Eine Bestandsaufnahme