APC December 2021

In June last year APC celebrated 40 years in print. Today, we’re passing through the lovely big issue number 500. Our next major milestone will be our 50th birthday. These are truly awesome and humbling achievements, and the credit for making it this far is spread far and wide, and well into the past. All of the current and former staff deserve a slice of this cake. To our current main squad: Joel, Troy, Shaun, Chris, Nick, David, Cam, Mark and Darren – thank you for your ongoing amazing work. Plus of course the behind the scenes team, without whom we’d be in a hopeless mess. A small army brings you APC, and they’re all champions. I had the enormous pleasure of speaking with many of the last couple of decade’s APC…

ASHAMPOO WINOPTIMIZER 18 Comprehensive system optimisation for Windows PCs. Ashampoo WinOptimizer 18 makes Windows PCs faster, cleaner and safer. The built-in cleaners are among the most popular features and safely remove web browsing traces, junk files and installation leftovers to free up valuable disk space. AntiSpy and Privacy Control put a muzzle on Windows telemetry broadcasts and protect your privacy. Three automatic modules reduce clutter, speed up Windows startup times and program launches and optimise gaming performance. For better system performance and PC stability, WinOptimizer also fixes Registry errors, removes broken shortcuts and disables unnecessary background processes and Autostart entries. Several analysis tools that display detailed information about installed hard and software and that track down resource hogs have been included for better system transparency. The tweaking module allows for individual Windows customisation…

“Championing technology doesn’t mean we’re unrelenting yes-men and -women, however, and APC aims to be as objective as possible in all our coverage.” APC is Australia’s oldest consumer technology magazine – having been consistently in print for forty years, since our first issue way back in May 1980 – and we take that heritage and responsibility very seriously. While our focus is obviously on the personal computer the very definition of the PC has changed and shifted markedly since the early 1980s. As such, we touch on many other areas of tech, too, from smartphones and apps to peripherals, accessories, and beyond. We have two goals: to find the best modern tech and to help you make the most of it. We’re also an open church in terms of platforms. We know…

In a recent round table interview about its Arc Alchemist GPUs, Intel revealed that it won’t be employing any hardware or software limiters or locks to dissuade cryptocurrency miners. This could be seen as something of a missed opportunity for Intel, as Nvidia’s hash rate limiter has been welcomed by gamers, despite the numerous hacks to unlock it. In Intel’s defence, these new GPUs are purely focused on gaming, not on trying to dissuade certain parties. As Intel’s Roger Chandler says, “we’re not designing this product or building any features at this point that specifically target miners.” So while there won’t be anything there to dissuade miners, there’s nothing that’s particularly attractive to them either.…

Microsoft has revealed its plans to shutter its localised version of LinkedIn in China later this year, though the company isn’t giving up entirely on helping Chinese professionals find jobs online. First launched in February of 2014, Microsoft was well aware that it would have to adhere to the requirements of the Chinese government on internet platforms when operating a localised version of its social network for professionals in the country. Faced with a significantly more challenging operating environment and greater compliance requirements in China, Microsoft has made the decision to sunset the current localised version of LinkedIn later this year, while announcing a much simpler jobs site is in development.…

The semiconductor shortage will definitely extend well into 2022 after the chip provider for some of the largest tech companies in the world said that production will struggle to meet the soaring demand for its products. In an online conference in October, TSMC CEO Dr. C.C. Wei said that TSMC foundry production capacity was still insufficient to satisfy the demand for its chips, especially orders for components used for high-performance computing (HPC) systems and 5G devices using the company’s 5nm process node. If TSMC is stretched thin across its most important process nodes, then a far greater number of industries are going to be impacted by the constrained capacity than if Intel were facing the same production constraints which impacts the more “traditional” computing market more than anything else. In fact, even Intel…