Latest Gadgets News

Facebook's acquisition of popular GIF website Giphy is being scrutinised by the United Kingdom's competition watchdog for possibly reducing competition.

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Latest Gadgets News

Zynn on Friday blamed its removal from Google Play Store on an "isolated incident" that should soon be resolved following accusations that stolen content appeared on the Chinese-made TikTok rival.

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Latest Gadgets News

The NASA official who managed the inaugural private crewed flight into space last month has been promoted to become the first female head of human spaceflight, the agency said Friday, as it prepares to return people to the Moon in 2024.

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Facebook fired an employee who had criticised Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg's decision not to take action against inflammatory posts by US President Donald Trump this month, citing his tweet challenging a colleague's silence on the issue.

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Stimulus check tracking tool: What to know about using the IRS Get My Payment portal - CNET

For useful information about your stimulus check, turn to the IRS' online tracker. We'll get you started with the information you need and explain how the tool works.

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Funky fossil footprints point to ancient crocodiles walking on two legs - CNET

A scientist described the tracks as looking like "a crocodile balancing on a tightrope."

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Latest Tech News

The Xiaomi Mi Note 11 could be one of the best phones of 2020 - its predecessor, the Mi Note 10, sits in our list of the best smartphones, and the company has likely learnt a lot from its early-2020 premium handsets - the Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro - too.

We say 'could' because not only have we not tested the phone, but we don't even know if it's coming. The Mi Note 10 was a surprise launch, given that the Mi Note phone before it was the Note 3 years prior, and it's not clear if this is a new range from Xiaomi or if that was a one-off handset.

We'd like to see a Xiaomi Mi Note 11 though, because as we said the Mi Note 10 is one of the best phones you can buy right now, with a fantastic array of cameras, premium-feeling body and screen and, most importantly, a surprisingly low price.

In late 2020 (when we'd expect the Mi Note 11 to launch) the Note 10 might not fare as well against a year's worth of competition, though, and a Mi Note 11 could bring some newer features and tweaks that keep Xiaomi on top.

We haven't heard much about the Xiaomi Mi Note 11 yet - there are a few rumors and leaks that weren't attributed to any particular phone, which we'll list below - but while we wait for more rumors, we've come up with a wish list of what we want to see in the Mi Note 11.

Cut to the chase:

• What is it? Xiaomi's next anticipated mid-range smartphone
• When is it out? Likely around November 2020
• How much will it cost? Possibly around £459 / AU$888 (roughly $590)

Xiaomi Mi Note 11 release date and price

The Xiaomi Mi Note 10 was launched in November 2019 - it's likely, then, that we'll see the newer version launched around the same time in 2020. However that date could be affected by the Covid-19 pandemic in one way or another, so the phone could be delayed until 2021.

Regarding price, the Mi Note 10 cost £459 / AU$888 (about $590) for its most affordable variant, so it's possible the Mi Note 11 will cost that much or perhaps a small amount more.

Saying that, the Xiaomi Mi 10 was quite a bit pricier than the Mi 9. It's possible the company will replicate this leap in the Mi Note line, but we'd hope not as the low price was the Mi Note 10's real strength.

Xiaomi Mi Note 10

Xiaomi Mi Note 11 leaks and rumors

We haven't heard a single rumor or leak surrounding the Xiaomi Mi Note 11 right now. However we have heard about various new Xiaomi tech that wasn't attached to a named smartphone, so it could debut in the Mi Note 11 - this is just speculation, though.

For example, Xiaomi has patented an under-display camera for the front-facing snapper, tech that would allow a phone to have an all-screen front without any moving parts or novelty gimmicks to ensure there was still a front-facing camera. Gimmicks like, for example, this other Xiaomi patent which shows a phone which twists in half to take selfies.

We'd expect a mid-range chipset in the Xiaomi Mi Note 11, and the company is said to be working on a smartphone with a Dimensity 1000 Plus processor from MediaTek. This would make the phone 5G-compatible, and would also allow for a 144Hz refresh rate display. Saying that, Xiaomi has also seemingly considered using Samsung's Exynos chipsets in its phones too.

In terms of camera capabilities, it seems Xiaomi is working on a phone with a 108MP camera and a whopping 120x digital zoom, presumably through a separate telephoto lens, which would blow all competitors out of the water in terms of numbers.

Since this super-powerful camera phone is said to be a Mi CC phone, it could be the Mi Note 11 too (as the Mi Note 10 was known as the Mi CC 9 Pro in China).

Finally, we've heard Xiaomi is working on a 120W charger which would power up a phone to full in minutes. The Xiaomi Mi Note 11 might not be the phone this debuts in, since this phone is set to be a mid-ranger and that's a decidedly premium feature, but the Mi Note 10 was the first Xiaomi phone with a 108MP camera so it's possible.

Xiaomi Mi Note 11: what we want to see

These are all the features and specs we want the Xiaomi Mi Note 11 to come with.

1. An improved 'main' telephoto camera

Xiaomi Mi Note 10

The Xiaomi Mi Note 10 had five rear cameras, but only three were really impressive or useful. One in the bad pile was the 8MP telephoto snapper. In theory it was useful, with 5x optical zoom, but because of the low-res sensor, pictures looked a little fuzzy, and you could get better pictures by taking 108MP snaps and cropping down manually.

We'd like to see the Mi Note 11 pack a better sensor with its telephoto or periscope lens for zoomed shots, so there was a reason to close the distance with the camera.

2. A longer-lasting battery

Xiaomi Mi phones typically have fine battery lives, but we're rarely as impressed by how long they last as we are handsets from another Xiaomi brand, Redmi. Mi phones will last a day, fine, but you'll be hard pressed to get them to run for a second day - or even one full day if you're pushing the camera to its limits.

We'd like the Xiaomi Mi Note 11 to last longer without needing a charge, either with a better battery or - possibly a better option - with some software optimizations that means it drains power slower.

3. An improved chipset

Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro

The Xiaomi Mi Note 10 didn't have a top-end processor - instead, it used a mid-range Snapdragon 730. This was a decision we initially found rather curious, but after using the phone we didn't notice the lack of processing power too much. 

The Mi Note 11 needs an improved processor though in one key regard - the 730 had quite a bit of trouble taking and processing 108MP pictures, and if the newer phone is set to keep or improve on this snapper, it needs to handle pictures better.

Qualcomm (which makes Snapdragon chipsets) has since launched the 765G, which is a great processor for gaming and long battery life, and is also 5G-enabled, so that would be an obvious choice, but there are others which would work too.

4. A low price

Xiaomi Mi Note 10

The Xiaomi Mi Note 10 had impressive specs, but it also had one thing handsets with similar features didn't have - a low price.

Xiaomi is known for putting out affordable phones, and the Mi Note 10 certainly was one, but the Mi 10 series that launched afterwards arguably wasn't, as the Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro cost twice what the Mi Note 10 did. Evidently Xiaomi realized it could put out pricey phones as well.

We'd like to see the Mi Note 11 stay affordable though, not have an inflated price like the Mi 10, as that would keep it hugely competitive against plenty of rivals and give more people the chance to check out what's likely to be an impressive phone.

5. Faster charging capabilities

Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro

Xiaomi phones typically have fast charging speeds, some of the best available perhaps, but each year the top available charging tech gets quicker and quicker. We'd like to see the Xiaomi Mi Note 11 stay ahead of the curve.

While the Mi Note 10 had 30W charging, which is faster than lots of the competition already, possibly Xiaomi could bump the Note 11 up to 50W or even 65W to really trump its rivals. Xiaomi has shown off 100W fast charging tech before, so it's not that unreasonable either.

• Check out our Xiaomi Mi Note 10 review

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AWS has announced that the sixth generation of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances are now generally available with three new instances powered by the company's own, Arm-based Graviton2 processors.

The new general purpose (M6g), compute-optimized (C6g) and memory-optimized (R6g) instances deliver up to 40 percent better price to performance over comparable current gen x86-based instances.

A year ago, AWS introduced Arm-based Amazon EC2 A1 instances powered by its first generation Graviton processor and they have provided customers running scale-out workloads or containerized microservices and web tier applications with significant savings. However, customers now want to be able to run even more demanding workloads on AWS Graviton-based instances which is why the company has released its new M6g, C6g and R6g instances.

• Amazon wants to crush Intel Xeon and AMD Epyc with new Graviton2 chips
• AWS opens first African region
• Also check out our complete guide to Amazon Web Services & features

All of these instances are powered by AWS' new Graviton2 processors that offers up to seven times more performance, four times more computer cores and five times faster memory than A1 instances.

Graviton 2

In addition to offering better price for performance, AWS Graviton2 processors also introduce a number of powerful optimizations, features and capabilities. AWS' new processors use 64-bit Arm Neoverse cores and custom silicon designed by the company, built using advanced 7 nanometer manufacturing technology.

When compared to first gen Graviton processors, Graviton2 processors provide two times faster floating point performance per core, optimized instructions for faster machine learning inference, customer hardware acceleration, always-on fully encrypted DDR4 memory and 50 percent faster per core encryption performance for enhances security.

Vice president of Amazon EC2 at AWS, David Brown provided further insight on the benefits of the company's new EC2 instances in a press release, saying:

“Today more than ever, customers are looking for innovative ways to increase performance and reduce cost, and Arm processors have emerged as an exciting and mainstream alternative to x86 processors for a wide variety of existing and emerging workloads. The new Amazon EC2 instances powered by AWS-designed, Arm-based, Graviton2 processors represent a significant generational leap for customers, delivering 40% better price/performance over comparable x86-based instances, and already we’ve seen a broad set of customers embrace them across a wide variety of general purpose, compute optimized, and memory optimized workloads.”

• These are the best cloud computing services of 2020

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Missing stimulus check? How and when to report your no-show payment to the IRS - CNET

What do you do if your stimulus check never comes? We'll help you rule out any major, fixable problems and show you how to contact the IRS.

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Best grills for 2020: Top charcoal, gas and kamado models compared - CNET

Pass the ketchup: Your summer cookouts and sizzling steak nights just got a whole lot tastier.

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The best Father's Day gifts for dad in 2020 - CNET

From the practical to the extravagant, these unique gifts will keep fathers happy.

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Second stimulus check: July 2020 payment, how much you could get, latest news - CNET

Everything we know about when a second stimulus payment could arrive, who's for it and who isn't, and where the debate stands now.

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Employee who protested Facebook's stance on Trump posts fired over tweet - CNET

The fired employee called out another worker for not adding a Black Lives Matter banner to a website.

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Wonder Woman 1984 sets release date for Oct. 2 - CNET

DC's next superhero movie has been delayed again.

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Latest Tech News

Intel’s first Lakefield processors, two of which were launched on Wednesday, feel like the start of a new era. Never in the past decade have so many new technologies been packed into a new processor aimed at end-clients (businesses and consumers).

In fact, the Core i3 variant is a first in many respects. It's the first x86 processor with five cores, the first to have heterogeneous cores (similar to ARM’s big.LITTLE), the first to use the 3D stacking technology known as Foveros and the first to integrate an 4G/LTE modem.

It also has the second lowest per core TDP (average of 1.4W per core) and one of the highest base-to-turbo frequencies in its category, meaning this is one of Intel’s most frugal processors ever.

• Check out our list of the best business laptops around
• Here's our list of the best mobile workstations of 2020
• We've built a list of the best laptops for video editing available

Two other features took a backseat when the processor was announced, but are critical to some of the most fundamental form factor shifts we'll see in personal computers arriving in the next decade.

First, this chip can drive up to four 4K displays at 60Hx (i.e. 35.4 megapixels in all) - that’s equivalent to an 8K resolution, which is jaw-droppingly high.

An Intel spokesperson confirmed there will be two internal and two external displays, but specific support will depend on the OEM implementation. In other words, the vendors will decide.

The second is its support for six cameras in total, with four able to operate at the same time (totalling 48 megapixels). That’s neither an add-on nor an afterthought, but rather an intrinsic part of the fabric of this processor. So, what does that mean in practice?

The beginning of a new era

Well, a flurry of form factors. Microsoft could fancy having a look at it for a cheaper version of Hololens and plenty of vendors are considering it for ultra light laptops with very long battery lives. We could also see the rise of plug computers - x86 devices that fit in a plug and connect to monitors wirelessly.

Assuming laptop vendors follow the same trend as smartphone vendors, we could see the end of low-resolution front facing cameras. Even mid-range smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy A51 or the Huawei P30 Lite have front facing cameras that are far more capable than anything found on laptops.

A 32-megapixel selfie camera is perhaps a bit of a stretch, but the new Lakefield processors will deliver significantly better pictures, enhanced by onboard imaging capabilities like HDR. Multiple cameras could also mean the ability to generate virtual, 3D avatars in real time and better facial recognition.

The products based on Lakefield processors are likely to be high-end, premium models and it will be interesting to see how they perform, compared to other less expensive but equally frugal processors like the latest 10th generation Ice-Lake processors. 

• Here's our list of the best laptops for programming on the market

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