April 2023 – Page 25 – news.buyenne.com

Asus ROG Ally handheld gaming PC launches May 11 – here are most of the key specs

The Asus ROG Ally is a handheld gaming PC that’s been generating a lot of buzz since it was announced at the start of the month. Powered by AMD’s new Z1 series processors, it’s expected to deliver up to twice the performance Valve&#8…

The post Asus ROG Ally handheld gaming PC launches May 11 – here are most of the key specs appeared first on Liliputing.

AMD’s Ryzen Z1 chips could power a new wave of handheld Steam Deck clones

The Z1-series is already coming to at least one handheld PC, the Asus ROG Ally.

AMD's Ryzen Z1 chips are APUs tuned specifically for handheld gaming PCs.

Nvidia GPUs power the vast majority of gaming PCs, but for more integrated game systems like consoles and handhelds, AMD's ability to offer tightly integrated Ryzen CPUs and Radeon GPUs has earned it many customers (and lots of revenue). The most notable of these is Valve's Steam Deck, which combines a Zen 2-based CPU and RDNA 2-based GPU cores to provide passable performance for most games.

Though AMD designed the Steam Deck's chip exclusively for Valve, today, the company is announcing a pair of Ryzen chips aimed at the growing number of Steam Deck-esque handheld PCs from other companies. The Ryzen Z1 and Z1 Extreme (respectively) combine 6 or 8 Zen 4-based CPU cores with 4 or 12 RDNA 3-based GPU cores, using AMD's latest architectures and a 4 nm manufacturing process to outrun the Steam Deck's APU.

The Z1 and Z1 Extreme are new APUs made specifically for handheld gaming PCs like the Steam Deck. (credit: AMD)

AMD says (via The Verge) that the Ryzen Z1 can run games about 55 percent faster than the Steam Deck, reflecting the improved performance and efficiency of the newer architectures and manufacturing process. Interestingly, the Z1 Extreme's extra GPU cores (12, up from 4 in the Z1) improve gaming performance, but they don't come anywhere near tripling or even doubling it. The extra hardware helps, but we're still dealing with integrated GPUs here, attached to a relatively slow pool of DDR5 that they share with the rest of the system rather than dedicated GDDR6 or GDDR6X memory.

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Drohne: DJI bringt Mavic 3 Pro mit 3 Kameras auf den Markt

DJI hat mit der Mavic 3 Pro eine Drohne vorgestellt, die mit gleich drei Kameras ausgerüstet ist und unter 1 kg wiegt. (DJI, Kameras)

Messengerdienst: Whatsapp unterstützt jetzt bis zu vier Handys

Bislang lässt sich ein Whatsapp-Konto nur auf einem einzigen Smartphone verwenden. Das wird sich jetzt ändern. (Whatsapp, Instant Messenger)

Bulgaria Approves Draft Law That Turns Pirate Site Operators Into Criminals

A draft law that aims to criminalize and prosecute those who “create conditions for online piracy” has been approved by Bulgaria’s Council of Ministers. The proposed amendments are Bulgaria’s response to heavy criticism from the United States, most publicly via the USTR’s Special 301 Reports. It’s hoped that prison sentences of up to six years will send a deterrent message.

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

When countries are placed on the USTR’s ‘Watch List’ for failing to combat piracy, most can expect years of pressure punctuated by annual Special 301 Reports declaring more needs to be done.

Bulgaria was on the Watch List in 2015 when the USTR reported “incremental progress” in the country’s ability to tackle intellectual property infringement, albeit nowhere near enough to counter unsatisfactory prosecution rates. In 2013, Bulgaria’s Ministry of Culture had carried out 743 checks related to online copyright infringement but a year later, it conducted just 13 (pdf).

Still, the United States reported that Bulgaria was continuing its efforts to draft a new Criminal Code with the goal of significantly reducing piracy. That would eventually arrive, but not for quite some time.

Bulgaria Promises to Deliver

In 2018 the United States softened its position toward Bulgaria, removing it from the Watch List on the basis that the government would probably deliver. In the wake of that reprieve in 2020, local prosecutors filed just one copyright indictment. In the following year, not a single person was charged with a copyright infringement offense.

That led to a warning in the 2022 Special 301 Report that the USTR would conduct an Out-of-Cycle Review to assess if “any material progress” had been made.

In September 2022, Bulgaria was further criticized in a trade barriers report for “poor IP protection” and as recently as this month, the U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator reported (pdf) that these issues are just part of Bulgaria’s “larger rule of law problems.”

To this background, Bulgaria might ordinarily have found itself edging toward the Watch List once again, but last week it took a significant step that will be welcomed in the United States.

Draft Criminal Code Amendments

Just eight short years after the United States reported Bulgaria’s work on legal amendments, things appear to be coming together. Last week the Council of Ministers approved draft amendments to the Criminal Code that aim to protect authors, rightsholders, and state revenue.

“Crimes against intellectual property should be perceived as acts with a high degree of public danger, not only considering the rights and interests of the individual author, which they affect, but also considering the financial losses for the holders of these rights, which also affects the revenues in the state budget,” the explanatory notes read.

The stated aim of the bill is to solve identified weaknesses by upgrading substantive law to counter computer-related crimes against intellectual property. The text references those who “build or maintain” an information system or provide a service to the information society for the purpose of committing crimes. The notes offer further clarification.

“The bill aims to prosecute those who create conditions for online piracy – for example, by building and maintaining torrent tracker sites, web platforms, chat groups in online communication applications for the online exchange of pirated content, and any other activities that may fall within the definition of ‘information society service’ within the meaning of the Electronic Commerce Act (pdf) and which are carried out with the specified criminal purpose.”

Bulgaria’s Response to U.S. Criticism

The Bulgarian government notes that the amendments are part of its response to criticism in the USTR’s Special 301 Report. The fact that Bulgaria has been absent from the ‘Watch List’ for the last five years is down to “specific commitments” made by the authorities, with progress being monitored closely by the United States in respect of Bulgaria’s future status.

The draft approved by the Council of Ministers last week envisions sentences of up to six years imprisonment and a fine of up to BGN 10,000 (US$5,600). According to the draft, there is no intent to prosecute individual users who simply consume pirated content.

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.