- Aah! So it's tech news you want? Well, my isolation beard and I are happy to oblige,
aren't you Francis? Microsoft has taken the wraps off of a plethora
of new surface devices. The Surface Book 3 uses the same basic hardware
as the Surface Book 2 with a 13 and 15 inch version.
But it's now powered by Intel 10th Gen CPUs and NVIDIA 16 series GPUs and starts at 15.99.
The Surface Go 2 also shares the original's basic design
but has a 10.5 inch screen with thinner bezels
replacing the original 10 inch one. It's also got brand spanking new,
blazing fast, Pentium Gold and Core m3 processor options starting at just 3.99.
But weirdly the products that might just be the most exciting are the new Surface Headphones 2
and Surface Earbuds. The headphones now come in matte black
with improved battery life and Bluetooth 5.0 for 250 bucks.
While the Earbuds go for 1.99 with 24 hours of battery life
and fancy new touch controls. You can even advance PowerPoint slides with them.
Get excited gamers! Facebook is busy working on a new version
of the wildly popular Oculus Quest VR Headset.
Multiple iterations of the product are in development but some key targets for it's design
reportedly include a smaller form factor. Yes!
Faster refresh rate, double yes! And new controllers, nah, the controllers were all right.
Rather than a straight up sequel, this headset might be a supplementary entry
into the company's VR lineup, something like a Quest S.
Oculus was originally planning on releasing the device this year,
but it looks like the impact of COVID-19, may delay its launch to 2021.
The original Oculus Quest has been selling out virtually every time it gets restocked.
So this new headset can't come soon enough. Although there is no guarantee
that it will make me look any cooler when I'm playing Beat Saber,
to anyone who's watching in the real world. In other Facebook news, the company is taking another swing
at providing basic internet to the developing world. The Discover app will provide users with free
low bandwidth data to load website text while avoiding more resource intensive elements
like video and audio. The app is launching it's first trial in Peru
with further expansion planned in Thailand, the Philippines and Iraq.
Facebook tried something similar to this in its Free Basics program in India
before the country banned it in 2016 for violating its net neutrality rules.
Maybe Facebook can convince these other countries that it just wants to provide free internet
out of the goodness of its heart and not because it feeds on people's data
like Sarlacc feeds on Boba Fett. Boba Fett, excuse me, sorry (coughs).
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Lenovo is planning to release a pretty BA gaming phone
and we know that because it leaked. According to XDA Developers, the Legion Gaming Phone
has a 144 hertz display, 90 watt charging
and a pop-up camera on its side. So that it will be at the top,
when you're playing games in landscape mode and you wanna like stream or whatever.
The rear camera module is also in the middle of its back,
for some reason and it looks weird, and for that reason I want it,
actually I don't but look cool. Volvo says it's building cars with built-in LIDAR sensors
for mass production. Thanks to its partner company Luminar,
which can produce LIDAR modules for less than a thousand bucks.
They normally cost around 70,000, which is why they haven't been plumped
into every consumer vehicle up until this point. Is Volvo about to overtake Tesla
in self-driving capability? I guess Elon has been too busy coming up with confusing
baby names to address this threat. But he'll get back to it soon enough.
Valorant's annoying anti-cheat program, Vanguard, has been bricking some player's mice and keyboards.
(exclaims) more good news. If reports on Reddit are anything to go by,
it appears that Vanguard is using its kernel-level access to disable mouse and keyboard control software,
because it thinks those apps are for cheating. Which I guess is fair enough.
But what's also fair, is me just deciding not to play Valorant anymore.
Checkmate. And Microsoft is basically begging to be hacked.
No, but really. The company has launched a Bug Bounty Program, inviting hackers to break into the company's
custom Linux OS called Azure Sphere. Discovery of a dangerous exploit could net you $100,000.
It's kinda like the hacky equivalent of Morpheus doing that, like a, you know, by beckon thing.
And finally NASA is working with Tom Cruise of all people, in an effort to shoot a movie on board
The International Space Station. The first time a fictional film
would actually be shot in space. Actually, that makes perfect sense,
'cause he's just kind of crazy enough to do it. I don't know if there's even an idea for the movie yet.
It might just be Tom Cruise flying around the ISS, yelling about how he does his own stunts,
but (laughs) I'd pay to see that, wouldn't you?
All right that's enough tech news for today. Come back on Friday for more tech news.
For now Francis and I need to get back to our daily nap and snuggle session.
That was tiring, wasn't it little guy?