Category: Tech

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Tech

Google Chrome Has Increased RAM Consumption After Spectre ‘Improvement’

Yes it’s true: Google Chrome will now consume even more RAM in order to ensure that these pesky Spectre vulnerabilities will not endanger your system. The bad news is that short of changing your browser or adding more RAM you have no choice.

Short refresh: Spectre and Meltdown are chip-level security vulnerabilities that were discovered earlier in 2018. They affect both AMD and Intel processors among others, and may even be present on your PC/laptop. Since receiving a free processor upgrade is out of the question, the vulnerabilities can only be patched at a software level.

In a blog post, Google explains while your browser is even more hungry now:

Site Isolation is a significant change to Chrome’s behavior under the hood, but it generally shouldn’t cause visible changes for most users or web developers (beyond a few known issues). It simply offers more protection between the websites behind the scenes. Site Isolation does cause Chrome to create more renderer processes, which comes with performance tradeoffs: on the plus side, each renderer process is smaller, shorter-lived, and has less contention internally, but there is about a 10-13% total memory overhead in real workloads due to the larger number of processes. Our team continues to work hard to optimize this behavior to keep Chrome both fast and secure.

Site isolation has now been enabled by default for most of the users and you are not able to turn off, as it is mandatorily enabled. Google further elaborates that the purpose o the site isolation is to prevent extended data transfer between your machine and potentially malicious attackers that seek to gain access to your private information.

While better security is always good news, the cost may be a bit high for Chrome users with older machines that may be significantly slowed down by the update. The feature is here to stay, so as previously stated, should you not like it, only switching browsers may help you.

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News Tech

Microsoft Launches New Free Version of Teams Chat Tool

Microsoft launched a brand new version of Teams. Microsoft Teams is the tech giant’s collaborative tech tool, and the biggest novelty is the fact that it’s free. This free new edition also makes the app a viable solution in case you don’t want to use Slack.

Microsoft Teams free app comes with a few restrictions

This free version of the app comes with a few, but the most important thing is that up to 300 people can still use it. This should be more than enough to cover the needs of small to medium organizations.

The paid version provides 1TB of storage per user and the free version comes with 2GB and also includes 10GB of shared storage.

Main features of the free version of Microsoft Teams

  • The app provides unlimited messages and search.
  • It comes with built-in audio and video calling for groups, individuals, and full team meetups.
  • There are 10GB included of team file storage and 2GB more per person for personal storage as well.
  • Teams comes with integrated, real-time content creation with Office Online apps that include built-in Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote.
  • Teams also comes with unlimited app integration with over 140 business apps at users’ disposal that includes Trello, Evernote, and Adobe as well.
  • The free version of the app comes with the ability to communicate and collaborate with anyone inside or outside your organization.
  • Teams is backed by Microsoft’s secure infrastructure.

Ron Markezich, Corporate Vice President for Microsoft says in Microsoft official notes that Teams is available in this free version all over the world in 40 languages. “This new offering provides a powerful introduction to Microsoft 365. Teams in Microsoft 365 includes everything in the free version plus additional storage, enterprise security, and compliance, and it can be used for your whole organization, regardless of size,” he adds. You can read the whole blog post here.

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Tech

6 Clash Of Clans Golden Lessons You Learn While Playing

Addictive mobile games can teach you practical knowledge. Our phones have become glorified Gameboys, and we need to accept it because you sure played Doodle Jump and Angry Birds at least once.

An overall favorite game is Clash of Clans, one of the most versatile and engaging games from the market. It is not just a game as it takes alliances and tactics to fully take advantage of the Clash of Clans universe.

Here are seven lessons you learn while playing:

A bigger fish is always waiting to be fried

We all live in the fantasy of becoming a perfect human being, but actually, we should focus on our weaknesses and strengths because in the game, for example, no clan can be flawless no matter how good or for how long you play.

Everything can be healed with time

If those 75 raging barbarians demolished your city, it just takes a matter of our for your village to heal itself. It is exactly how life works. Sometimes you are discouraged and have a deep wish to give up, but patience will help you get over that problem of yours.

Responsibility

Keep in mind that the 1000 peasants in your village are all relying on you, so before engaging in this game, get ready for some responsibility lessons because they need your help non-stop.

Violence is the key

If you are out of gold, rob someone else’s village and get back on track.

Pay and this is what you get

We usually face the problem of choosing a brand article of clothing or a bad quality one, but Clash of Clans teaches you how to save the valuable items because if you settle for less so will be your experience.

Lives are expendable

If you lose your army, you can make a new one.

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Tech

Amazon Echo Dot 2 – Why Is It Better Than The Old Version?

Amazon has launched the Echo Dot 2, a better, smaller and smarter version of its fan-favorite Echo Dot product line.

Cheaper than the first generation, it is a very efficient and satisfying experience for users that desire a smart, voice-controlled hub.

Smaller than its cousins Echo and Echo plus, the Dot looks and feels good. Should you desire two devices instead of one, you receive a 20$ discount, for a total price of 80% (Keep in mind that Prime Day is coming, and you may find n even sweeter deal should you wait).

The Echo Dot is in two gloss variants, black or white. Custom cases are also available, should you like a more personal choice regarding the looks of your device.

Alexa will be able to play music, check the weather forecast, control other smart appliances available in your home, and other familiar skills such as book reading, call and message answering, food order and others tasks.

The number of skills is continuously growing, as more re-added with each firmware update. As of spring 2018, more than thirty thousand distinct skills are supported.

Hardware-wise the Dot comes with seven built-in microphones able to pick up your voice from no matter where you are in the room at the time. It features the Echo Spatial Perception protocol. Should you have more Echos or Dots in a room, only the one closest to you will trigger in order to minimize potential conflicts between the devices when the Alexa command is spoken.

While in theory this sounds great, in practice some devices can trigger simultaneously even when they are far away from each other. But Amazon assures that protocol improvements will come in the future in over to minimize any inconvenience. One workaround is to change the wake word in order to allow the devices to trigger differently.

For newcomers and old users alike, The Echo Dot is the perfect investment.  It’s the perfect heart for your smart home setup and for 50$ you get more than enough functions.

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News Tech

MacBook Pro 2018 Update Available with New Features and Specs

According to 9to5Mac, customers who pre-ordered the new 2018 MacBook Pro models from Apple will start receiving their brand new laptops today. Several shipmen notification has popped up, with screenshots showing a time stamp of 13 July.

While Apple estimates that new orders will be honored starting from July 16, people who pre-ordered the standard versions of the new MacBook Pros have been charged and will receive them in the following days.

Those who opted for a custom configuration will have to wait until next week and order to get their hands on the shiny new iDevice.

As it was previously reported, the MacBook Pro line received a serious hardware update. The 15-inch models feature brand-new current generation Intel processors, available in either I7 or I9 variants, according to user preference. RAM capacity has also been ramped up, with a maximum capacity of 32 GB of DDR4 RAM. For the first time, customers can also opt for a quad-core processor on the 13-inch model. It is estimated that the performance gain is around 70% for the 15-inch models and almost double for the 3-inch models. According to Verge, the price for a maxed out 15-inch model, with all the premium options included gravitates around an eye-watering 6000$.

For those that want a more beefier graphical solution, an external GPU is also available. Based on Radeon 580 with 8 GB of memory, the Blackmagic Design eGPU offers VR ready capacities for tech-savvy users and the promise of increased graphical capabilities for image designers and video editors. A main attraction of the eGPU is its architecture. Featuring several ports and plug-and-play capabilities, the device is designed to be as silent as possible. At around 18 dB minimal noise, it is geared towards video production and audio engineering environments. The eGPU is available for 699$.

Will you pick up the new MacBook Pro? Tell us more in the comments below.

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