October 20, 2017 - The WAN Show Document

[LinusTech]

 

 

Main News Topics

Email from Gigabyte RE: Coffee Lake

Source 1: Linus’ email

 

• Intel ‘enhanced multicore performance’ policy is turned off by default on Gigabyte boards

• This feature pegs all cores at their max turbo frequency

  • One the 8700K, that’s 4.7 GHz per core instead of 4.3

 

Activision patents social engineering of Microtransactions

Source 1: posted by WMGroomAK https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/847798-activision-has-patented-social-engineering-of-microtransactions/

Source 2: https://www.rollingstone.com/glixel/news/how-activision-uses-matchmaking-tricks-to-sell-in-game-items-w509288

 

• Activision was granted a patent this month for a system it uses to influence players in multiplayer games to purchase game items through microtransactions.

• The system alters the matchmaking process.

• Typically, players are put in games together based on a wide variety of factors including

  • skill level,

  • Internet latency,

  • availability of friends

• In the new system, “the microtransaction engine may match a more expert/marquee player with a junior player to encourage the junior player to make game-related purchases of items possessed/used by the marquee player. A junior player may wish to emulate the marquee player by obtaining weapons or other items used by the marquee player."

• And it can use player information to make targeted suggestions:

  • The junior player may wish to become an expert sniper in a game.

  • "The microtransaction engine may match the junior player with a player that is a highly skilled sniper in the game. In this manner, the junior player may be encouraged to make game-related purchases such as a rifle or other item used by the marquee player. "

• The system then makes you feel good about your purchase:

  • "For example, if the player purchased a particular weapon, the microtransaction engine may match the player in a gameplay session in which the particular weapon is highly effective, giving the player an impression that the particular weapon was a good purchase.

  • This may encourage the player to make future purchases to achieve similar gameplay results."

• The technology is not currently in any games.

 

Apple reportedly cuts down iPhone 8 production

Source 1: posted by jammiescone https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/848609-apple-reportedly-cutting-iphone-8-production-already/

Source 2: https://www.kitguru.net/lifestyle/mobile/apple/matthew-wilson/apple-reportedly-cuts-down-iphone-8-production/

 

• Apparently iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus production has been reduced by around 50% for November and December. This would mark the first time that Apple has reduced iPhone production so early in the cycle.

• This comes on the heels of data suggesting that many people are  opting for the iPhone 7 instead of the 8.

• This could mean that those intent on upgrading this year are holding out for the more expensive iPhone X, which begins shipping in early November.

• Is Apple shifting their production resources from iPhone 8 to X? No: X production is bottle necked by Samsung OLED displays.

• However, with the iPhone 7 still selling well, this could also be a case of the iPhone 8 not offering a compelling enough upgrade for many.

 

Pixel 2 XL color issues

Source 1: posted by Ryan_Vickers https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/848579-google-pixel-2-xl-a-visual-catastrophe/

Source 2: https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/10/18/16489756/google-pixel-2xl-awful-lg-oled-screen

 

• See images in sources

• "We designed the Pixel display to have a more natural and accurate rendition of colors this year but we know some people prefer more vivid colors so we've added an option to boost colors by 10% for a more saturated display. We're always looking at people's responses to Pixel and we will look at adding more color options through a software update if we see a lot of feedback."

• The issues do not affect the smaller Pixel 2

 

Google’s first mobile chip...

Source 1: posted by zramsey11 https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/847747-googles-first-mobile-chip-is-an-image-processor-hidden-in-the-pixel-2/

Source 2:  https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/17/16487834/google-pixel-visual-core-ipu-custom-processor-chip

 

• Google’s first custom system-on-a-chip (SOC) for consumer products is actually already inside the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL

• It’s called the Pixel Visual Core and Google plans to use it to make image processing much smoother and faster, and to open up HDR+ to third-party camera apps.

• But right now it’s laying dormant until activation at some point “over the coming months.”

• Each of its eight Google designed processors has been tailored to handle HDR+ duties, resulting in HDR+ performance that is “5x faster and [uses] less than 1/10th the energy” of the current implementation

• Google says that it will enable Pixel Visual Core as a developer option in its preview of Android Oreo 8.1

• Google’s announcement today also says that HDR+ is only the first application to run on the programmable Pixel Visual Core, and with time we should expect to see more imaging and machine learning enhancements being added to the Pixel 2.

 

Asus believes Coffee Lake could work on Z270

Source 1: posted by NumLock21 https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/848419-asus-believes-coffee-lake-should-work-on-z270/

Source 2: http://www.bit-tech.net/features/tech/motherboards/asus-interview-andrew-wu-rog-motherboard-pm/1/

 

• In an interview with bit-tech, Andrew Wu, product manager for ROG motherboards at Asus said that Coffee Lake chips actually COULD run on Z270 boards

  • bit-tech: Can you go into more technical detail about why the new CPUs are not backwards-compatible with Z270 motherboards?

  • Andrew: Actually, it depends on Intel’s decision.

  • bit-tech: So it’s not a physical limitation? Intel said it was to do with power delivery.

  • Andrew: Not really. It [the power delivery] makes a little bit of difference, but not much.

  • bit-tech: So what are they referring to – the 20 or so unused pins from before?

  • Andrew: Yes.

  • bit-tech: So if you wanted and Intel let you, you could make Z270 compatible?

  • Andrew: Yes, but you also require an upgrade from the ME [Management Engine] and a BIOS update. Intel somehow has locked the compatibility.

  • bit-tech: The 20 previously unused pins that you mentioned, what are they now used for?

  • Andrew: Many of them are used for power control. It's possible that these are in preparation for the high-core count processors.

  • bit-tech: Intel has also said that overclocking has been improved with ‘enhanced package power delivery’. Do you know what that refers to? Is that also the 20 pins or something else?

  • Andrew: Because this is a refresh platform, Intel has somehow made it even more mature, so it will be even more stable than the previous generation. From what I can see, this refresh doesn’t mean a bad thing for users. Usually, the kind of customers that already have a Z270 board will probably not upgrade for this generation. For the majority of Z370 users, maybe they have been using their PC for three or five years, so these are still good products for them to upgrade to.

  • bit-tech: So you’re not looking to target Z270 customers, you’re looking at older customers?

  • Andrew: We’re targeting anyone that wants or needs to buy a new system. It’s logical that many people on Z270 don’t need to upgrade. But there are still some people that would like to try these six-core processors, and they will still upgrade their systems. For users that have older systems, Coffee Lake offers great performance. You’ve got better power efficiency, higher clock speeds, the option of more cores, and faster storage.  

 

Alpha Go AI beaten 100-0

Source 1: https://gizmodo.com/stunning-ai-breakthrough-takes-us-one-step-closer-to-th-1819650084

 

• AlphaGo, the first artificial intelligence to defeat a grandmaster at the game Go, just got a major upgrade.

• In a tournament that pitted AI against AI, the new version, called AlphaGo Zero, defeated the regular AlphaGo by a whopping 100 games to 0

• The original AlphaGo learned from thousands of previously played Go games, including those played by human amateurs and professionals.

• But AGZ had access to absolutely nothing aside from the rules of the game.

• After just three days of self-play training and a total of 4.9 million games played against itself, AGZ acquired the expertise needed to trounce AlphaGo

  • by comparison, the original AlphaGo had 30 million games for inspiration

• After 40 days it defeated a more sophisticated version of AlphaGo called AlphaGo “Master”, the version that defeated the world’s best Go players last year.

• The new system is more efficient, powered by just four tensor processing units (TPUS). Old AlphaGo needed 48 TPUs.

• “This technique is more powerful than previous versions of AlphaGo because it is no longer constrained by the limits of human knowledge,” notes the DeepMind team in a release. “Instead, it is able to learn tabula rasa from the strongest player in the world: AlphaGo itself.

 

SCRAPYARD WARSSSS What’s Coming Out on Floatplane? Go Over Current Week.

Rapid Fire

Apple Face ID Answers!

Source 1: posted by hey_yo_ https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/848549-apple-responds-to-senator-franken%E2%80%99s-d-mn-face-id-privacy-concerns/

Source 2: https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/17/apple-responds-to-senator-frankens-face-id-privacy-concerns/

 

• A few weeks ago on WAN show we discussed senator Al Franken’s concerns about Apple’s new Face ID feature.

• Now, Apple has released a statement in response, saying:

  • “Face ID data, including mathematical representations of your face, is encrypted and only available to the Secure Enclave. This data never leaves the device. It is not sent to Apple, nor is it included in device backups.

  • Face images captured during normal unlock operations aren’t saved, but are instead immediately discarded once the mathematical representation is calculated for comparison to the enrolled Face ID data.”

  • “Third-party apps can use system provided APIs to ask the user to authenticate using Face ID or a passcode, and apps that support Touch ID automatically support Face ID without any changes. When using Face ID, the app is notified only as to whether the authentication was successful; it cannot access Face ID or the data associated with the enrolled face,”

  • “The accessibility of the product to people of diverse races and ethnicities was very important to us. Face ID uses facial matching neural networks that we developed using over a billion images, including IR and depth images collected in studies conducted with the participants’ informed consent.”

• Apple also specifies that it has trained a neural network to “spot and resist spoofing”

 

Apple’s A11 Chip isn’t a giant leap

Source 1: https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/10/18/the-a11-bionic-probably-isnt-as-good-as-apple-inc.aspx

 

• According to Apple's claimed CPU and GPU performance increases over prior generation chips, the A11 represents the smallest performance jump since 2014:

 

Chip	CPU Improvement (%)	GPU Improvement (%)	Manufacturing Tech.
A8	25	50	20nm
A9	70	90	14nm/16nm
A10	40	50	16nm
A11	25	30	10nm

 

• Possible reasons:

  • Apple's engineering

  • Diminishing returns

  • Underlying chip manufacturing technology

• Perhaps TSMC's 10nm technology simply didn't deliver the kind of performance that Apple had hoped for, which ultimately forced Apple to run the A11 Bionic's CPU and GPUs at lower frequencies than expected.

• TSMC's 10nm technology could be analogous to its 20nm technology used to build the A8 -- it delivered a big improvement in chip area scaling, but it didn't enable a significant improvement in frequency, which ultimately held back performance.

• The good news is that TSMC's upcoming 7nm technology, which will likely be used to manufacture Apple's A12 processors, will be analogous to TSMC's 16nm technology -- a technology that doesn't deliver as aggressive an area reduction but enables a large performance boost.

  • TSMC's 7nm technology "provides >3.3X routed gate density and 35%-40% speed gain or >65% power reduction" compared to the company's 16nm technology.

 

Ransomware Costs Toshiba 400,000TB of SSD Storage Production

Source 1: posted by DiaSin https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/848778-ransomware-costs-toshiba-400000tb-of-ssd-storage-production/

Source 2: https://www.eteknix.com/ransomware-costs-toshiba-400000tb-ssd-storage

 

• Ransomware attacks forced Toshiba to cease NAND flash memory production, costing the business the equivalent of 400,000TB in SSD storage.

• Toshiba downed tools for 3-6 weeks following the attack, resulting in a production loss of 100,000 wafers

  • 100,000 lost wafers equal around 50,000,000 chips, or 400,000TB

• The production loss could trigger a NAND supply crisis.

  • NAND memory supply is already tight, so the mishap could to drive prices up in the short-term

• The company is investing nearly $1 billion in production equipment at its Yokkaichi Fab 6 plant, which should help counter supply issues long-term.

 

Bad PR: Google ditches Calorie Counter

Source 1: posted by Dan Castellaneta https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/848177-google-ditching-a-planned-walking-calorie-counter-in-google-maps-because-of-shaming/

Source 2: https://www.engadget.com/2017/10/17/google-maps-calorie-ios-test-dump/

 

• Google is abandoning a planned feature for Google Maps following criticism on social media.

• When searching for directions, the update displayed units of calories burned if you were to walk to your destination.

• By clicking on the walking option, the calories burned were represented in units of little pink cupcakes.

• During iOS testing, there was no way to turn the feature off.

• A number of people lambasted the feature on Twitter, suggesting it would "shame" and even "trigger" those with eating disorders, and that the pink cupcakes were quite obviously aimed at women.

• Others pointed out that the Maps app wasn't the appropriate place for the feature.

• The feature has been abandoned based on user feedback

 

A Phone with TWO screens?

Source 1: posted by AccordingOne https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/848060-multiple-display-smartphone-from-zte/

Source 2: http://www.ztedevice.com/press-center/news/201710/20171017

 

• See forum post for pictures

• The ZTE Axon M is a foldable smartphone with dual screens, giving it double the multitasking capabilities and the viewable screen size of a tablet all the while fitting easily into your pocket.

• Coming soon to consumers in the US, Japan, China and Europe

 

Razer Core V2

Source 1: posted by Cubbiefan03 https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/848275-razor-external-gpu-is-back/

Source 2: https://www.cnet.com/news/razer-core-v2-blade-stealth-quad-core/

 

• There’s a new Razer Core!

• It’s got:

  • A second Thunderbolt 3 controller so that the GPU and the extra ports each have their own dedicated PCI-Express lanes, likely meaning no dropped USB connections and more consistent bandwidth for the GPU.

  • 4 USB ports,

  • a wired Ethernet jack

• It's roughly half an inch taller inside now, and should fit practically any video card on the market.

  • It was made taller to accommodate oversized graphics cards that don't technically meet the PCIe standard.

  • Acceptable card dimensions: 5.71 inches tall x 1.69 inches wide x 11.81 inches long

• It has a new GPU release lever near the power supply, so you can quickly swap in another GPU without pinching your fingers or poking around with tools.

• Razer says the Core V2 will ship "soon," but doesn't provide a specific date.

• $500

 

Vodafone Germany announced 1Gbit LTE (4.5G)

Source 1: posted by Senzelian https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/847633-vodafone-germany-announced-1gbit-lte/

Source 2: http://www.computerbild.de/artikel/cb-News-DSL-WLAN-Vodafone-4-5G-Schnelles-Mobilfunknetz-kommt-19176631.html

 

• Vodaphone Germany is rolling out 1Gbit LTE in four cities:

  • Dusseldorf

  • Berlin

  • Hannover

  • Hamburg

    • 7-8% of Germany’s 82 million residents

• Not many devices can even handle these speeds.

  • The Huawei Mate 10 Pro can

 

Outrageous things cities did to lure Amazon for HQ2

Source 1: https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/19/16504042/amazon-hq2-second-headquarters-most-funny-crazy-pitches-proposals-stonecrest-new-york

 

• New York:

  • Key landmarks around the city like the Empire State Building, billboards, and Wi-Fi charging stations lit up in Amazon’s signature orange color.

• Tucson Arizona:

  • hauled a 21-foot saguaro cactus via truck to Amazon’s main Seattle headquarters.

  • Amazon refused to accept the gift.

• Ottawa Ontario:

  • Ottawans were told to cheer for Amazon during intermission for a hockey game between the Vancouver Canucks and the Ottawa Senators.

  • A gauge showed up on the Jumbotron, with Calgary at the bottom if the audience made the least noise and Ottawa on top.

  • It being Canada, the message to make noise was reiterated in French: “Faites du bruit!”

• Stonecrest, Georgia

  • This small, recently formed town, located close to Atlanta, offered to rename itself Amazon, Georgia.

 

[Guest]

This WAN show made me google vegetable jerky as an alternative for James.

The things that search conjured up were horrible.

[Ordinarily_Greater]

woah the two screen phone be like Nintendo 2DS XL

[Tech_Dreamer]

Gigabyte officials watch the WAN show?

[Siedge]

Oh wow, I didn't know you released an actual podcast version of the wan show, finally I can listen without buffering interruptions. Day made.

[King_of_Oz]

1 minute ago, Siedge said:

Oh wow, I didn't know you released an actual podcast version of the wan show, finally I can listen without buffering interruptions. Day made.

It’s been like that since the first wan show.

[mech]

I bet That asus guy is in trouble

[Siedge]

Just now, King_of_Oz said:

It’s been like that since the first wan show.

Yeah, I've never actually been to the forum before I've been watching on youtube for years, I usually just watched the videos live. Finally last week I ventured here to the forum and somehow got convinced into joining floatplane and what not.

[Tech_Dreamer]

You guys ever noticed WAN show thumbnails feel a bit cluttered ?  it's not supposed to be clicky stuff but a legit thumbnail with the brief titles, but too many words on the screen from all sizes just seem to fill up the thumbnails looks a lot unorganized.

[Q13E5]

I'm surprised ppl are not asking to disable turbo boost. (multi core enhancement) is basically turbo boost for AMD.

that's how i feel about this.

[MageTank]

Don't worry @LinusTech, I happen to be a level 10 Mage and I have had many of my prophecies come true on this forum. Intel is clearly shooting for Cannonlake compatibility on Z370.

 

One of these days, i'll be wrong.

[Cyracus]

Missed the WAN show... the topic on pay2win, I gotta say I just bought the witcher 3 goty for $20, almost felt like too much...

[HimymCZe]

1) according to HardWareUnBoxed channel, i5-8400 is the budget option today, not Ryzen 5. 
-1a) your unreleased vod is already outdated.
2) I really would LOVE to see more vods about camera in smartphones. Not really instrested in $9999 tech, but more budget oriented "How to get the best pictures in theese (multiple) price range." Hopefull you find even some in some chineese crap for $100/$150.
3) Z370 and what I understood.
- Did they change something to make the platform more stable? YES
- Did they HAVE TO do it? OBVIOUS NO. cause otherwise no one would talk about possible backwards compatibility.

- - Its all again the iPhone charging connector argument. Do you need bigger cable and different port to charge faster?
- - - You could argue that it is saver and more appropriate and sh*t, but if the answer is OBVIOUS NO, WHY THE F*** you change the connector?

[kaggez]

Where was luke?

[jermless]

Brandon just voiced my exact thoughts on the DSLR/Mirrorless vs. phone camera debates. Thank you, I share your frustrations. 

[SansVarnic]

Need to see James on the WAN show more often.

[Eduard the weeb]

1 hour ago, jermless said:

Brandon just voiced my exact thoughts on the DSLR/Mirrorless vs. phone camera debates. Thank you, I share your frustrations. 

I film and edit and I have wanted to strangle people because the work a budget Camera like the T6 ot T5i are much better cameras overall then your average smart phone and wall they are more convinvent but people with smart phones will never be able to out class me in photography, editing, and film.

[jermless]

Not just that, but almost 99% of the time the "shot on iPhone" or whatever is used as an argument there's never any mention of the supplementary equipment used to achieve that shot (ie. lighting, editing, etc.) - which isn't typically easily accessible to the average joe.

[captain_to_fire]

I still can't believe that many in the YouTube comments still ask why is Luke not present.

I'm sorry but Luke can't come to the WAN show right now. Why? Oh! 'Cause it's James. 

 

1 hour ago, SansVarnic said:

Need to see James on the WAN show more often.

I like it when James is trolling Linus and Linus has to remind James to keep the swear words away. 

 

[Master Disaster]

Screw James, that guys a douche. I want Laser James every week, Laser James is the real hero.

[Alariel]

5 hours ago, kaggez said:

Where was luke?

At TwitchCon, building computers and being trolled by a horrible audio setup.

[fourwordsalluppercase]

The mess that is the twitch chat: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8v3xrJEOHYrSlNvbUFiTHNUMG8/view?usp=sharing 

 

[mrchow19910319]

That phone camera comparison video is gonna be goooooooooooooood.

[NumLock21]

Luke is busy building a pc for Intel.

[wo0t]

In order to avoid misleading the audience LTT should release a new 8700K review without covert overclocking (like other reviewers already did) and mention in the video title of the first review, in an annotation and/or the video description that LTT is comparing an overclocked and potentially unstable 8700K (with ~10% performance boost) to non-overclocked CPUs. Otherwise LTT would let Asus/Intel harm its credibility and encourage even more cheating in the future. Also LTT should check clock speeds and BIOS settings next time to detect this kind of cheating in the future.

 

"Our next set of tests focuses on power consumption and thermals, and we intended to use Blender for the benchmark – but it just wasn’t stable on the ASUS Z370 board with multi-core enhancement enabled. The voltage couldn’t sustain the all-core Turbo at 4.7GHz, despite our manual overclocks sustaining at 4.9GHz for these tests. That’s one immediate reason you might want to avoid this setting, or a reason that crashes could be caused without much explanation as to why.
...
Enabling the 4.7GHz forced all-core Turbo pushes us to 145W, a substantial 42% increase in power consumption for our 8.9% increase in Cinebench performance."
https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3077-explaining-coffee-lake-turbo-8700k-8600k