Tech Advisor August 2022

AMD’s Financial Analyst Day is when it reveals a peek at its upcoming line-up for all the people who really matter in the world of consumer electronics: insanely rich investors. But fortunately we lowly consumers get to see the same information, which included details on upcoming plans for the Zen CPU line and RDNA3 graphics processors. On the desktop side of things, we got more details on Zen 4 AKA Ryzen 7000, which is already known to be coming later this year and will provide a singlethread performance boost of 15 per cent over Zen 3. The new series of 5nm and 4nm chips will also feature higher clock speeds (which we’ve already seen hinted at in an earlier demo of a Ryzen 7000 chip hitting 5.5 GHz), plus boost…

AMD’s Financial Analyst Day is when it reveals a peek at its upcoming line-up for all the people who really matter in the world of consumer electronics: insanely rich investors. But fortunately we lowly consumers get to see the same information, which included details on upcoming plans for the Zen CPU line and RDNA3 graphics processors. On the desktop side of things, we got more details on Zen 4 AKA Ryzen 7000, which is already known to be coming later this year and will provide a singlethread performance boost of 15 per cent over Zen 3. The new series of 5nm and 4nm chips will also feature higher clock speeds (which we’ve already seen hinted at in an earlier demo of a Ryzen 7000 chip hitting 5.5 GHz), plus boost instructions…

The continued use of AI to improve conversations in Microsoft Teams is delivering improvements across several areas, the company said recently. Here’s an important one: you might not need your computer headset any more. Microsoft began work in this area years ago, adding the capability to help filter out background noise from other conversations, dogs barking, and so on. The Teams team has outlined several other improvements in both voice and video that are being rolled out. For one, Microsoft said that it’s been able to achieve better performance during Teams calls where users aren’t using a headset. Mics and speakers are often placed close to one another on a laptop, and they could easily create a feedback loop as incoming audio from a speaker was received from a mic…

The continued use of AI to improve conversations in Microsoft Teams is delivering improvements across several areas, the company said recently. Here’s an important one: you might not need your computer headset any more. Microsoft began work in this area years ago, adding the capability to help filter out background noise from other conversations, dogs barking, and so on. The Teams team has outlined several other improvements in both voice and video that are being rolled out. For one, Microsoft said that it’s been able to achieve better performance during Teams calls where users aren’t using a headset. Mics and speakers are often placed close to one another on a laptop, and they could easily create a feedback loop as incoming audio from a speaker was received from a mic and then…

Would you consider buying a new laptop or desktop today with a conventional platter hard drive? Microsoft seems to think that you shouldn’t. Such is the indication of a recent TrendFocus report, which claims that the Windows maker is pushing OEM system builders to install the software only on a solid-state boot drive. A soft deadline is reportedly set for 2023, after which Microsoft would no longer sell Windows licences to manufacturers that intend to sell laptops and desktops with only a standard hard drive. Windows 11 technically requires only 64GB of storage to install with no guidelines on the nature or speed of the storage device, according to the official recommended specifications. That’s unlikely to change as far as endusers go. Microsoft is pushing hard for people to upgrade…

Just the name alone should give you goosebumps: Microsoft has a free Top Gun: Maverick expansion for Flight Simulator, and it’s available now. Microsoft rhas eleased a trailer of the new expansion, which starts kicking in the 1980s nostalgia as soon as the opening bars of the original Top Gun theme begin to play. (Unfortunately, Microsoft hasn’t licenced Kenny Loggins’ Danger Zone for the trailer, but Spotify is just a click or two away.) Microsoft doesn’t say anything about what you can or can’t do as far as the expansion is concerned, but we can assume the plane you’ll fly is an F-18 Super Hornet, based upon what we know about the movie itself. (Sorry, we can’t confirm whether or not the plane in the trailer is an F-18 or…