NVIDIA Limits RTX 3060 Crypto Speeds As it Introduces Mining Cards

Worried that the GeForce RTX 3060 will be sold out as cryptocurrency miners snap up every GPU in sight? NVIDIA thinks it has a simple way to help: make the new card unattractive to the crypto crowd. From a report: The company has revealed that it’s cutting the hash rate (mining efficiency) of the RTX 3060 in half for Ethereum miners….

Graphics Cards Are About To Get a Lot More Expensive, Asus Warns

Ever since Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 30-series and AMD’s Radeon RX 6000-series graphics cards launched last fall, the overwhelming demand and tight supply, exacerbated by a cryptocurrency boom, has caused prices for all graphics cards to go nuts. Brace yourself: It looks like it’s about to get even worse. From a report: In the Asus DIY PC Facebook group, Asus technical marketing…

AWS Engineer Puts Windows 10 on Arm on Apple Mac M1 — and It Thrashes Surface Pro X

An Amazon Web Services (AWS) virtualization engineer has shown what Windows 10 on Arm could be like if Microsoft licensed its Arm-based OS to the public rather than just to Windows 10 manufacturers. From a report: With Apple’s new M1 Arm-based system on chip, Mac users who need to use Windows 10 can’t run Microsoft’s Arm-based version of Windows using Apple’s…

No, the New MacBook Air is Not Faster Than 98% of PC Laptops

Gordon Mah Ung, writing at PC World: Let me just say it outloud, OK? Apple is full of it. I’m referring to Apple’s claim that its fanless, Arm-based MacBook Air is “faster than 98 percent of PC laptops.” Yes, you read that correctly: Apple officials literally claimed that the new MacBook Air using Apple’s custom M1 chip is faster than 98…

New Benchmark Shows iPhones Throttle So Hard They Lose Their Edge Over Android

MojoKid writes: Apple has repeatedly asserted its dominance in terms of performance versus competitive mobile platforms. And it has been historically true that, in cross-platform benchmarks, iPhones generally can beat out Android phones in both CPU and GPU (graphics) performance. However, a new benchmark recently released from trusted benchmark suite developer UL Benchmarks sheds light on what could be the iPhone’s…

Qualcomm To Launch Its Own Premium Snapdragon Branded Phones

According to Taiwanese publication DigiTimes, Qualcomm is planning to launch new premium smartphones under its own brand name. It’s reportedly partnering with ASUS to manufacture and distribute the devices globally. HotHardware reports: It would appear that Qualcomm’s intent is to showcase ultra-premium experiences for Snapdragon Android phones in the market. This would in effect be a “super phone” of sorts that…

Google Patches ChromeOS Update Bug That Caused 100% CPU Usage

“Hello Chrome OS Community,” posted one of Google’s community managers Wednesday. “Thank you for raising this issue, and for your patience as we work to resolve this. Our team has identified the issue and is rolling out a fix to affected devices.” The issue? ChromeOS users reported the latest updates “cause a Google Play Store service to utilize 100 percent of…

Ask Slashdot: How Long Do You Expect Your Smartphone To Last?

Long-time Slashdot reader shanen is facing “the death of another smartphone from acute battery swelling.” And he wants to know if you’re having the same problem: It seems to me that they’ve become quite good at designing smartphones to last two years and little longer, which is a bit worrisome since my primary phone is entering into its third year. Can…

Over 100 Wi-Fi Routers Fail Major Security Test — Protect Yourself Now

schwit1 shares a report from Tom’s Guide: Using its own analytical software, the [Fraunhofer Institute] tested the most recently available firmware for 117 home Wi-Fi models currently sold in Europe, including routers from ASUS, D-Link, Linksys, Netgear, TP-Link, Zyxel and the small German brand AVM. The models themselves were not physically tested. A full list of the tested models and firmware…

Intel Launches NUC 9 Extreme Ghost Canyon Small Form Factor PC Platform

MojoKid writes: Intel unveiled its NUC 9 Ghost Canyon platform back at CES earlier this year, but the company has just announced general availability and lifted the embargo on full product reviews. An array of NUC 9 systems are launching today, with the top-end Intel NUC9i9QNX featuring a Core i9-9980HK Comet Lake-H 8-core CPU. The NUC 9 is built around Intel’s…