Month: January 2022

Members of Activision’s Raven Software QA team form a union

Formal move comes five weeks into strike over laid-off workers.

Warmly dressed and mostly masked workers hold protest signs.

Enlarge / Striking employees demand the reinstatement of Raven Software QA contractors who were let go in December. (credit: A Better ABK)

The members of Activision Blizzard subsidiary Raven Software's quality assurance department are seeking voluntary recognition of their union, a first for workers at a major American video game publisher.

The newly formed Game Workers Alliance union is asking Activision to recognize its right to represent the 34 QA testers at the studio, which works primarily on the Call of Duty series. The union has formed with the help of the Communication Workers of America—which has for years been publicly working to organize the game industry through its Campaign to Organize Digital Employees (CODE)—and A Better ABK Workers Alliance, which is working to organize the much broader group of over 9,500 Activision employees.

(Ars Technica writers are members of the NewsGuild of New York, a subsidiary of the CWA.)

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Intel says Ohio “megafab” will begin making advanced chips in 2025

Intel will start with two fabs, but it has space for eight.

Intel's rendering of its two new leading-edge processor factories planned to be built outside Columbus, Ohio.

Enlarge / Intel's rendering of its two new leading-edge processor factories planned to be built outside Columbus, Ohio. (credit: Intel)

Intel announced the location of its megafab today, a 1,000-acre parcel on the outskirts of the Columbus, Ohio, metro area. The semiconductor manufacturer plans to break ground on two leading-edge fabs by the end of the year and enter production in 2025.

“This is all part of the strategy that our CEO Pat Gelsinger announced back in March,” Intel Senior Vice President Keyvan Esfarjani told Ars.

“We are starting with two fabs, and that’s all in line with the growing demand for what the industry needs,” he said. “It’s also critically important for the balance of the supply chain around the world.”

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Klimaschutz: Schiffe könnten sauber fahren

Eine Studie zeigt, dass sich die Schadstoffemissionen von Schiffen stark reduzieren lassen können. Allerdings würden Schiffstransporte dadurch signifikant teurer. (Schiff, Studie)

Eine Studie zeigt, dass sich die Schadstoffemissionen von Schiffen stark reduzieren lassen können. Allerdings würden Schiffstransporte dadurch signifikant teurer. (Schiff, Studie)

Joseph Ratzinger und der sexuelle Missbrauch – es bleiben Fragen (Update)

Hat der Verstorbene Gutachter zu Sexualstraftaten belogen? Bericht zu Erzbistum München zählte 2021 fast 500 Geschädigte und erschütterte Glaubwürdigkeit Ratzingers. Der nimmt wichtige Antworten mit ins Grab unter dem Petersdom.

Hat der Verstorbene Gutachter zu Sexualstraftaten belogen? Bericht zu Erzbistum München zählte 2021 fast 500 Geschädigte und erschütterte Glaubwürdigkeit Ratzingers. Der nimmt wichtige Antworten mit ins Grab unter dem Petersdom.

Orange Pi 4 LTS single-board computer with RK3999 coming in February for $55 and up

The makers of the Orange Pi line of single-board computers have announced a new model with a Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core processor, Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI, and USB ports, support for up to 4GB of RAM and optional support for a 16GB eMMC module as well as a microSD card reader and USB ports for storage. It’s […]

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The makers of the Orange Pi line of single-board computers have announced a new model with a Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core processor, Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI, and USB ports, support for up to 4GB of RAM and optional support for a 16GB eMMC module as well as a microSD card reader and USB ports for storage.

It’s called the Orange Pi 4 LTS, and it’s expected to go on sale in mid-February with prices ranging from $55 to $70.

While the RK3399 processor is a bit on the older side at this point, it’s a reasonably well-supported processor that was widely used in Chromebooks a few years ago, and which powers a number of Linux-friendly devices including Pine64’s PineBook Pro laptop and the new PinePhone Pro smartphone. It’s also a chip that Orange Pi has used in the older Orange Pi 4 which has similar specs, but a slightly different design and set of features.

The chip features two ARM Cortex-A72 CPU cores, four ARM Cortex-A53 CPU cores and ARM Mali-T860MP4 graphics and Orange Pi says the new board will support operating systems including Ubunt, Debian, and Android.

Measuring 91 x 56mm (3.58″ x 2.2″), the Orange Pi 4 LTS is a little larger than a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B, which measures 85 x 56mm (3.35″ x 2.2″), but it’s still a pretty compact and versatile mini computer or development board with USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 Type-A ports, a USB 3.0 Type-C port, a 24-pin mini PCIe connector, a 26-pin GPIO header, dedicated connectors that can be used for cameras and/or LCD displays, and a power jack for a 5V/3A DC power supply.

According to a graphic released by Orange Pi, there’s room on the board for two LPDDR4 memory modules available in 1.5 GB or 2GB versions, suggesting the board may be available in 3GB and 4GB variants.

The Orange Pi 4 LTS should be available from Amazon and from the Shenzhen Xunlong Software store on AliExpress in mid-February.

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Fernwartung: Der Kundenansturm, der Teamviewer nicht gut getan hat

Wie schätzt man die weitere Geschäftsentwicklung ein, wenn die Kunden in der Pandemie plötzlich Panikkäufe machen? Das gelang bei Teamviewer nicht. Ein Bericht von Achim Sawall (Teamviewer, Börse)

Wie schätzt man die weitere Geschäftsentwicklung ein, wenn die Kunden in der Pandemie plötzlich Panikkäufe machen? Das gelang bei Teamviewer nicht. Ein Bericht von Achim Sawall (Teamviewer, Börse)

The reviews are in: AMD’s mining-averse RX 6500 XT also isn’t great at gaming

But buying a GPU is so hard that even a bad graphics card is better than none.

The Sapphire AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT, yet another GPU that you probably won't be able to buy.

Enlarge / The Sapphire AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT, yet another GPU that you probably won't be able to buy. (credit: Sapphire)

When AMD announced its budget-friendly RX 6500 XT graphics card at CES early this month, the company suggested that the product had been designed with limitations that would make it unappealing to the cryptocurrency miners who have been exacerbating the ongoing GPU shortage for over a year now. But now that reviews of the card have started to hit, it's clear that its gaming performance is the collateral damage of those limitations.

Reviews from Tom's Hardware, PCGamer, TechSpot, Gamers Nexus, and a litany of other PC gaming YouTube channels are unanimous: the RX 6500 XT is frequently outperformed by previous-generation graphics cards, and it comes with other caveats beyond performance that limit its appeal even further. (Ars hasn't been provided with a review unit.)

The core of the problem is a 64-bit memory interface that limits the amount of memory bandwidth the card has to work with. Plus, the card has only 4GB of RAM, which is beginning to be a limiting factor in modern games, especially at resolutions above 1080p. Many tests saw the RX 6500 XT outperformed by the 8GB variant of the RX 5500 XT, which launched at the tail end of 2019 for the same $199 (and you could actually find and buy it for that price).

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MINISFORUM UM700 mini PC now available with Manjaro Linux (or Windows 10 Pro)

The MINISFORUM UM700 is a small desktop computer that measures 5″ x 5″ x 1.8″ and features a 35-watt AMD Ryzen 7 3750H processor. First released more than a year ago, the little computer has been available for around $569 and up ever since, with Windows 10 Pro pre-installed. But now you can also opt […]

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The MINISFORUM UM700 is a small desktop computer that measures 5″ x 5″ x 1.8″ and features a 35-watt AMD Ryzen 7 3750H processor. First released more than a year ago, the little computer has been available for around $569 and up ever since, with Windows 10 Pro pre-installed.

But now you can also opt to purchase the DeskMini UM700 with Manjaro Linux pre-installed instead.

The Linux model has the same hardware as the Windows version, including AMD’s 4-core, 8-thread processor with 1st-gen Zen CPU cores and Radeon Vega 7 graphics, two SODIMM slots for DDR4-2400 memory, an M.2 2280 slot for PCIe NVMe storage, and a 2.5 inch drive bay for a 7mm hard drive or SSD.

Ports include HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort, 2.5 Gbps Ethernet, and USB ports including a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, three USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A ports, and a USB 3.0 Type-A port plus a 3.5mm audio jack.

There’s also an Intel AC7265 wireless card with support for WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 4.2.

Pricing options now include:

Model / OS RAM Storage Price
DeskMini UM700 + Manjaro 8GB 256GB $499
DeskMini UM700 + Manjaro 16GB 256GB $529
DeskMini UM700 + Manjaro 16GB 512GB $569
EliteMini UM700 + Win10 Pro 16GB 256GB $569
EliteMini UM700 + Win10 Pro 16GB 512GB $599

MINISFORUM says the first 1000 customers to order a UM700 with Manjaro will also get a license for CrossOver software which allows you to run some Windows apps and games on Linux.

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Meet 2022’s World Rally cars: Much more power, much more sustainable

500 hp hybrids and synthetic fuel are new for this year.

A brightly colored rally car drives through a rock tunnel

Enlarge / Sébastien Loeb (FRA) and Isabelle Galmiche (FRA) of team M-Sport Ford World Rally Team are seen performing during the World Rally Championship Monte Carlo in Monte Carlo, Monaco, on January 20. (credit: Jaanus Ree/Red Bull Content Pool)

The 2022 World Rally Championship got underway on Thursday with the first night stages of the Monte Carlo Rally. It's a year of big change in the WRC with the introduction of all-new Rally1 cars—the most powerful vehicles to compete in the sport since the demise of the flame-spitting Group B cars in 1986.

For some time, WRC cars have used turbocharged four-cylinder 1.6 L engines, and that standard continues for Rally1. The engines drive the front and rear wheels via prop shafts and differentials, as you might expect, but there's no center differential between the front and rear axles, just a fixed 50:50 distribution of torque front to rear.

And the engine isn't the only thing that sends power and torque to the rear differential; there's now a hybrid unit behind the fuel tank that has its own shaft to that differential. This is a spec component, supplied to all the teams by Compact Dynamics, a subsidiary of Schaeffler, which worked closely with Audi's Formula E program.

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Andromeda OS: Microsoft’s scrapped dual-screen Windows OS for phones revealed

Microsoft’s Surface Duo smartphones feature dual displays and ship with a series of Microsoft mobile apps and a customized version of Google’s Android operating system because Microsoft has pretty much given up on making a Windows-based smartphone operating system. But a few years ago the company was working on a version of Windows 10 Mobile […]

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Microsoft’s Surface Duo smartphones feature dual displays and ship with a series of Microsoft mobile apps and a customized version of Google’s Android operating system because Microsoft has pretty much given up on making a Windows-based smartphone operating system.

But a few years ago the company was working on a version of Windows 10 Mobile designed for dual-screen phones. Code-named Andromeda OS, it was scrapped when Microsoft gave up on Windows Mobile. But last year Windows Central published a report detailing how the operating system would have worked, based on leaked info. Now Windows Central has way more information thanks to a leaked build of Andromeda OS itself.

This build was designed for testing the operating system on the Microsoft Lumia 950, one of the last smartphones to ship with Windows 10 Mobile software. While it was a phone with a single screen, this was allegedly the phone Microsoft was using to test Andromeda OS, so the company issued builds of the operating system for the phone.

That said, the project was canceled before it was ever finished, so the software is pretty rough around the edges – rather than showing a fully polished OS that was never released, Windows Central has published pictures and a hands-on video that hint at what we might have seen had Microsoft continued down this path.

One thing that’s clear is that Microsoft was putting pen & handwriting features front and center. For example, you could begin taking notes straight from the lock screen by tapping the pen to the display – you don’t even have to unlock your phone first. There’s also a “Journal” feature constantly running in the background, allowing you to take notes at any time.

The operating system retains a Windows 10 Mobile-style user interface that includes a tile-based Start Menu, Quick Settings panel, and Settings app. But there’s also support for gesture-based navigation: when viewing a full-screen app you could swipe from the left side of the screen to bring up the Start menu or from the right to bring up notifications and Cortana. Swiping down from the top brings up the Control Center.

Some of these ideas were eventually carried through to the Android-based Surface Duo or Windows 11. But overall the Windows Central report is a time capsule of an operating system that will never actually see the light of day.

 

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