Surface Earbuds are great for Powerpoint
TechLinked
·TechLinked
·2021-05-05
·
1,057 words · ~5 min read
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- Aah! So it's tech news you want? Well, my isolation beard and I are happy to oblige,
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aren't you Francis? Microsoft has taken the wraps off of a plethora
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of new surface devices. The Surface Book 3 uses the same basic hardware
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as the Surface Book 2 with a 13 and 15 inch version.
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But it's now powered by Intel 10th Gen CPUs and NVIDIA 16 series GPUs and starts at 15.99.
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The Surface Go 2 also shares the original's basic design
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but has a 10.5 inch screen with thinner bezels
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replacing the original 10 inch one. It's also got brand spanking new,
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blazing fast, Pentium Gold and Core m3 processor options starting at just 3.99.
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But weirdly the products that might just be the most exciting are the new Surface Headphones 2
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and Surface Earbuds. The headphones now come in matte black
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with improved battery life and Bluetooth 5.0 for 250 bucks.
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While the Earbuds go for 1.99 with 24 hours of battery life
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and fancy new touch controls. You can even advance PowerPoint slides with them.
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Get excited gamers! Facebook is busy working on a new version
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of the wildly popular Oculus Quest VR Headset.
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Multiple iterations of the product are in development but some key targets for it's design
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reportedly include a smaller form factor. Yes!
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Faster refresh rate, double yes! And new controllers, nah, the controllers were all right.
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Rather than a straight up sequel, this headset might be a supplementary entry
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into the company's VR lineup, something like a Quest S.
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Oculus was originally planning on releasing the device this year,
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but it looks like the impact of COVID-19, may delay its launch to 2021.
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The original Oculus Quest has been selling out virtually every time it gets restocked.
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So this new headset can't come soon enough. Although there is no guarantee
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that it will make me look any cooler when I'm playing Beat Saber,
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to anyone who's watching in the real world. In other Facebook news, the company is taking another swing
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at providing basic internet to the developing world. The Discover app will provide users with free
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low bandwidth data to load website text while avoiding more resource intensive elements
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like video and audio. The app is launching it's first trial in Peru
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with further expansion planned in Thailand, the Philippines and Iraq.
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Facebook tried something similar to this in its Free Basics program in India
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before the country banned it in 2016 for violating its net neutrality rules.
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Maybe Facebook can convince these other countries that it just wants to provide free internet
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out of the goodness of its heart and not because it feeds on people's data
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like Sarlacc feeds on Boba Fett. Boba Fett, excuse me, sorry (coughs).
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Now it's time for the back crack brought to you by Brilliant.
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So click the link below to check it out. The back cracks, I hear them everywhere, everywhere!
3:24
Lenovo is planning to release a pretty BA gaming phone
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and we know that because it leaked. According to XDA Developers, the Legion Gaming Phone
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has a 144 hertz display, 90 watt charging
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and a pop-up camera on its side. So that it will be at the top,
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when you're playing games in landscape mode and you wanna like stream or whatever.
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The rear camera module is also in the middle of its back,
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for some reason and it looks weird, and for that reason I want it,
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actually I don't but look cool. Volvo says it's building cars with built-in LIDAR sensors
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for mass production. Thanks to its partner company Luminar,
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which can produce LIDAR modules for less than a thousand bucks.
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They normally cost around 70,000, which is why they haven't been plumped
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into every consumer vehicle up until this point. Is Volvo about to overtake Tesla
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in self-driving capability? I guess Elon has been too busy coming up with confusing
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baby names to address this threat. But he'll get back to it soon enough.
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Valorant's annoying anti-cheat program, Vanguard, has been bricking some player's mice and keyboards.
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(exclaims) more good news. If reports on Reddit are anything to go by,
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it appears that Vanguard is using its kernel-level access to disable mouse and keyboard control software,
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because it thinks those apps are for cheating. Which I guess is fair enough.
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But what's also fair, is me just deciding not to play Valorant anymore.
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Checkmate. And Microsoft is basically begging to be hacked.
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No, but really. The company has launched a Bug Bounty Program, inviting hackers to break into the company's
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custom Linux OS called Azure Sphere. Discovery of a dangerous exploit could net you $100,000.
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It's kinda like the hacky equivalent of Morpheus doing that, like a, you know, by beckon thing.
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And finally NASA is working with Tom Cruise of all people, in an effort to shoot a movie on board
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The International Space Station. The first time a fictional film
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would actually be shot in space. Actually, that makes perfect sense,
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'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.
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It might just be Tom Cruise flying around the ISS, yelling about how he does his own stunts,
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but (laughs) I'd pay to see that, wouldn't you?
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All right that's enough tech news for today. Come back on Friday for more tech news.
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For now Francis and I need to get back to our daily nap and snuggle session.
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That was tiring, wasn't it little guy?