MediaTek launches Kompanio 1380 processor for premium Chromebooks

Chromebook makers have been tapping low-cost MediaTek processors for budget models for years. But now MediaTek is making a play for the premium Chrome OS laptop market with the introduction of the MediaTek Kompanio 1380 processor. The recently announced Acer Chromebook Spin 513 will be one of the first models to feature the new processor when Acer’s […]

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Chromebook makers have been tapping low-cost MediaTek processors for budget models for years. But now MediaTek is making a play for the premium Chrome OS laptop market with the introduction of the MediaTek Kompanio 1380 processor.

The recently announced Acer Chromebook Spin 513 will be one of the first models to feature the new processor when Acer’s convertible Chromebook goes on sale for $600 and up in the second quarter of 2022. But we could see the chip show up in other devices in the coming months.

The processor is an octa-core chip with:

  • 4 x ARM Cortex-A78 CPU cores up to 3 GHz
  • 4 x unspecified efficiency cores
  • ARM Mali-G57 5-core GPU
  • Quad-channel LPDDR4X 2133 MHz memory support
  • MediaTek APU 3.0 multi-core artificial intelligence processor

MediaTek says the AI processor can help with AI-assisted camera and voice features as well as battery life optimization, while the chip’s graphics chops include support for hardware-accelerated AV1 video decoding and the ability to drive up to two 4K displays at 60 Hz or one 4K/60Hz display plus two additional 4K/30Hz displays.

Other features include support for WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5 and a dedicated audio digital signal processor with support for low-power voice-on-wake capabilities for use with voice assistant software.

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Public preview of Android apps for Windows 11 coming in February

The Windows Subsystem for Android is an optional Windows 11 feature that allows you to run Android apps on a PC as if they were native apps. While it wasn’t ready to go when Windows 11 was released last fall, Microsoft began rolling out preview builds to members of the Windows Insider program in October […]

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The Windows Subsystem for Android is an optional Windows 11 feature that allows you to run Android apps on a PC as if they were native apps. While it wasn’t ready to go when Windows 11 was released last fall, Microsoft began rolling out preview builds to members of the Windows Insider program in October 2021.

Now the company says it’ll launch a public preview in February, meaning that while the feature is still in beta, you won’t need to be running a pre-release version of Windows to run Android apps on your PC. It’s one of several Windows 11 feature updates planned for the coming month.

Microsoft says it’s also bringing redesigned versions of its Notepad and Media Player apps to Windows 11, plus taskbar updates with features like the ability to quickly mute or unmute calls and view weather conditions at a glance.

As for Android app support, it’s expected to work much the same way in the public preview as it has for folks running Windows 11 dev and beta channel preview builds. In a nutshell, the subsystem installs an Android 11 operating system that coexists with Windows and implements system calls that allow it to interact with Windows.

That means that once you install an Android app, it will show up in the Start Menu. You can run multiple Android and/or Windows apps at once. And when it’s running you can maximize, minimize, resize, or move the window it’s in. They also respond to Windows 11’s Snap Layouts and other features. And you can uninstall them with a right-click.

Officially the way to find Android apps that work with Windows 11 is through the Amazon Appstore, which can be downloaded and installed from the new Microsoft Store application. But there’s a limited selection of apps available for Windows in the store, and you won’t get Google apps and services like Gmail, Google Maps, or Google Play Services (which is required by many Android apps for full functionality).

WSA PacMan (unofficial Android app sideloader for the Windows Subsystem for Android)

But it’s relatively easy to sideload Android apps on Windows 11 after you’ve downloaded them from trusted third-party sources. You can even install the Google Play Store, although that’s a little trickier and possibly riskier, so I’d only recommend you try that if you know what you’re doing and/or are unafraid of uninstalling and reinstalling the entire Windows Subsystem for Android in the future if necessary.

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European court overturns 12-year-old €1.06 billion fine against Intel

It’s a major victory for Intel.

European court overturns 12-year-old €1.06 billion fine against Intel

Enlarge (credit: ony Avelar/Bloomberg)

Sometimes the wheels of justice turn very slowly. A €1.06 billion ($1.2 billion) fine levied against Intel back in 2009 by the European Commission has been wiped out. In a press release announcing the ruling (PDF) handed down on Wednesday morning, the General Court of the European Union said the financial assumption underlying the fine was based on faulty economic analysis. 

"The (European) Commission’s analysis is incomplete and does not make it possible to establish to the requisite legal standard that the rebates at issue were capable of having, or likely to have, anticompetitive effects," the court noted.

The "rebates at issue" were part of a program run by Intel between 2002 and 2007. The chipmaker offered rebates to OEMs that used Intel CPUs in at least 80 percent of their desktops. In one instance, Intel was found to have paid a manufacturer to delay shipment of AMD desktops, in turn hampering the ability of enterprise customers to buy AMD boxes. Another OEM turned down an offer of a million free CPUs from AMD so it could continue receiving rebates from Intel.

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