Month: September 2022

Enlarge (credit: Bloomberg / Contributor | Bloomberg)

After Amazon made a blockbuster of a deal to acquire Roomba-maker iRobot in August, it looked like Amazon was primed to suddenly dominate the consumer robotics industry. However, earlier this month, Politico reported that the deal won’t go through unless the Federal Trade Commission approves.

Weeks in already, like a Roomba in a dusty basement, the FTC’s investigation already looks like it won’t finish without some serious back and forth. On Tuesday, the FTC announced in a regulatory filing that it needs more information before it gives Amazon the go-ahead.

The filing cites a federal regulation specifying that the FTC is requesting "any soliciting material published, sent or given to security holders."

Enlarge / Comcast's xFi Advanced Gateway. (credit: Getty Images | Jeff Fusco )

Comcast announced today that it has tested "the final technical component necessary to deliver multi-gigabit symmetrical speeds" and said it's on track to deliver multi-gigabit download and upload speeds to at least some cable customers "before the end of 2023." The test using Broadcom equipment delivered download speeds of 6Gbps and uploads of 4Gbps, Comcast said.

Cable broadband lags far behind fiber-to-the-home in upload speeds, a frustration for many Internet users who lack access to fiber. Comcast and other cable companies have been promising a major upgrade to uploads for years without ever saying exactly when the improvement would reach customers.

Comcast is starting to get a bit more specific—although that "end of 2023" promise doesn't specify what percentage of customers will get the upgrade when it first rolls out. Upgrading Comcast's entire cable territory is expected to be a multi-year process.

Enlarge / LG announced the Ultra PC 17" (17U70Q) this week. (credit: LG)

LG on Tuesday announced the LG Ultra PC 17" (17U70Q), offering a large screen and an RTX 3050 Ti mobile graphics card in a laptop measuring 0.78 of an inch thick. LG's announcement described it as a "mobile workstation" that's in line with the style of LG's Gram series of ultra-portable laptops; however, there are more powerful competitors out there.

LG announced one configuration for the 17U70Q, and it has 512GB of storage. The laptop is said to have one NVMe PCIe 4.0 slot and one older, slower NVMe PCIe 3.0 slot. More storage would help the machine better compete with other thin workstation-esque clamshells, like the Dell XPS 15 9520. We asked LG if the machine is user-upgradeable and will update this piece if we hear back.

Like the XPS 15, the Ultra PC 17" has an Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti graphics card with 4GB of GDDR6 and 16GB of DDR5-4800 dual-channel RAM.

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Microsoft has quietly updated its Xbox Series X system software to remove the need for a one-time online check in before playing Xbox One discs and certain "Smart Delivery" cross-generation discs.

When we first wrote about this issue last May, we noted how the Series X hid the download of certain required config files behind a "Getting your game ready..." message during the first load of an affected disc-based game. If the system wasn't connected to the Internet, though, Series X users would be presented with a "This game isn't ready yet" error, completely preventing them from playing their disc-based game.

Fast forward to last week, when YouTuber Hikkomori Media noticed that the online check-in had apparently been removed. Discs that previously presented an error when run offline can now be installed and played directly from the disc, even if the system has no Internet connection.

Enlarge / A PC running Windows 11. (credit: Microsoft)

When we reviewed Windows 11 last fall, one of our biggest concerns was that we’d need to wait until the fall of 2022 to see changes or improvements to its new—and sometimes rough—user interface:

Throughout the rest of this review, we'll identify a sizable list of early problems with Windows 11. We can probably expect bugs to be fixed quickly. But when it comes to larger changes—like restoring lost functionality to the taskbar and system tray or continuing to modernize still-untouched parts of the user interface—will we need to wait a year for that to happen?

Any design that shifts as much as Windows 11's has is going to benefit from a bunch of small, quick updates and tweaks to address the most common complaints and pain points. I hope Microsoft leaves itself room to make those kinds of changes without having to wait until this time next year to implement them.

Nearly a year later, it has become abundantly clear that Microsoft isn't holding back changes and new apps for the operating system's yearly feature update. One notable smattering of additions was released back in February alongside a commitment to "continuous innovation." Other, smaller updates before and since (not to mention the continuously updated Microsoft Edge browser) have also emphasized Microsoft's commitment to putting out new Windows features whenever they're ready.

There has been speculation that Microsoft could be planning yet another major shake-up to Windows' update model, moving away from yearly updates that would be replaced by once-per-quarter feature drops, allegedly called "Moments" internally. These would be punctuated by larger Windows version updates every three years or so. As part of the PR around the Windows 11 2022 Update (aka Windows 11 22H2), the company has made clear that none of this is happening.

Enlarge (credit: Microsoft)

As predicted, Microsoft is formally releasing Windows 11 version 22H2 to the general public today. Also called the "Windows 11 2022 Update," version 22H2 is a major update that brings a plethora of fixes and refinements to the operating system, improving the taskbar and Start menu, jettisoning some more Windows 8-era user interface designs, adding new touchscreen and window management features, and more. We covered many of the new features earlier this year, when the update was still undergoing beta testing.

Users of Windows 11 21H2 may be able to see the 2022 Update in Windows Update starting today, but Microsoft is planning its typical phased rollout to monitor for major problems. The update will eventually be offered to all Windows 11 users, but if you don't see it, you can use the Windows 11 Installation Assistant or download a fresh copy of the Windows 11 install media to trigger the installation manually.

In keeping with Microsoft's promise of "continuous innovation," there are even more updates on the way for people who install the 22H2 update. Microsoft says the tabbed version of the File Explorer (among other as-yet-unannounced things) will be available as an optional update in October and rolled out more widely to all Windows 11 22H2 users in November.

Enlarge / A press handout showing the Nvidia H100 Hopper GPU and its applications. (credit: Nvidia)

At today's GTC conference keynote, Nvidia announced that its H100 Tensor Core GPU is in full production and that tech partners such as Dell, Lenovo, Cisco, Atos, Fujitsu, GIGABYTE, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, and Supermicro will begin shipping products built around the H100 next month.

The H100, part of the "Hopper" architecture, is the most powerful AI-focused GPU Nvidia has ever made, surpassing its previous high-end chip, the A100. The H100 includes 80 billion transistors and a special "Transformer Engine" to accelerate machine learning tasks. It also supports Nvidia NVLink, which links GPUs together to multiply performance.

According to the Nvidia press release, the H100 also reportedly delivers efficiency benefits, offering the same performance as the A100 with 3.5 times better energy efficiency, 3 times lower cost of ownership, using 5 times fewer server nodes.