Friday, October 1, 2021

AirPods vs. AirPods Pro: Should you spend the extra $80? - CNET

Should you buy the standard AirPods or the AirPods Pro? Here's how Apple's truly wireless earbuds stack up.

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James Bond movies ranked: The best and worst of 007 - CNET

Our take on how the Bond movies stack up now includes No Time to Die.

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You have 3 days to stop the remaining child tax credit payments. Here's why you might want to - CNET

Parents with complicated household situations have until Oct. 4 to opt out of the last three monthly checks this year.

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Scientists X-ray letters between Marie Antoinette and secret lover to reveal hidden passages - CNET

It seems the queen's illicit paramour was delivering declarations of love along with political advice.

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Forget the iPhone 13 -- here's why the iPhone 11 is still a great buy in 2021 - CNET

Commentary: The iPhone 11's $500 price gives it all new appeal in Apple's lineup.

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Latest Tech News

A recently leaked Intel Core i9-12900K benchmark appears to show it crossing the 30,000 mark in Cinebench R23 test, but that same leaker is now showing the CPU's performance with new DDR5 RAM – and the results are impressive, if true. 

Newly published screenshots from REHWK on Twitter, first reported by VideoCardz, show the CPU running alongside the DDR5 memory overclocked to 8000 MT/s.

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The screenshots feature the CPU-Z software with a Gigabyte’s DDR5-6200 memory kit, according to REHWK. The Intel Core i9-12900K has been overclocked to 4004 MHz, which translates to 8008 MT/s. 

RAM timings are at 50-50-50-125-150 for CL, tRDC, tRP, tRAS, and tRC. The system used for testing was the Gigabyte Z690 Tachyon motherboard, which is designed for overclocking.

Overclocking is when CPUs use different algorithms for boosting its maximum frequency, which improves the numeric values. Benchmark tests assign scores based on speeds for a CPU’s cores and threads, with higher numbers meaning faster RAM.

CPU-Z is a type of benchmark test used to test a lot of component features, including the RAM access speed of a CPU. Timing tests are for RAM timings, which refers to maximum transfer rates in a CPU. Each category refers to a different aspect of RAM being tested, and in this case the smaller the numbers the better.

There are two types of benchmark tests: single-threaded/core or multi-threaded/core. Single-threaded/core tests are when Cinebench R23 uses only one of the CPU cores/threads to test out speeds, and these are useful to see how fast a CPU will run for simple tasks such as web-surfing, video playback, office tasks, or programming.

Multi-threaded/core tests use all available cores/threads to test out speeds, which is vital for tasks with heavy RAM usage such as gaming, video editing, or 3D modeling. In this case, the Intel Core i9-12900K has 16 cores and 24 threads that were used for this benchmark test.

Recently, a major accidental leak from the MSI website indicates that the Intel Core i9-12900K could be released November 4 of this year. And, according to leaked benchmark comparisons, the Intel CPU handily beat out the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X.



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Latest Gadgets News

Amazon Great Indian Festival sale is now live and is expected to run for the next 20-25 days. Amazon is offering great discounts on a wide range of products including never before seen prices for some very in-demand smartphones like the iPhone 11 and the OnePlus 9 series.

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Venom: Let There Be Carnage review: Sometimes the sequel is WAY better - CNET

Venom's origin story is complete, just in time for things to get interesting in the post-credits scene.

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Best home theater projector for 2021 - CNET

From portable projectors to affordable 1080p models to light cannons built for gaming or 4K HDR, these are the best projectors for the money.

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Missing iPhone 13 features that should have been on Apple's new phones - CNET

Apple's iPhone 13 lineup brings gains in battery life and camera performance. But it's still missing features like an in-screen fingerprint sensor and always-on screen.

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10 foods you absolutely should not cook in your Instant Pot - CNET

Before you plan to use your Instant Pot for every meal, read this guide to avoid some kitchen mishaps.

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Pokemon Sword and Shield's latest event lets you catch Sun and Moon starters - CNET

Sword and Shield players can encounter Rowlet, Litten and Popplio in Max Raids until Oct. 3.

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Latest Tech News

Mozilla is making it easier to access your saved passwords from its browser as part of a new update rolling out soon for Firefox on Android.

To commemorate this year's Cybersecurity Awareness month, the company has added several new features to Firefox for Android designed to help keep its user's passwords safe online.

Users of Mozilla's browser will be able to seamlessly access any of the passwords saved in Firefox's password manager. This means that they'll be able to log into any of their online accounts using their Firefox saved passwords without even having to open a webpage.

At the same time, users can also leverage biometric security, such as your face or fingerprint, to unlock the app and safely access the credentials for their online accounts.

Firefox saved passwords

In addition to making it easier to access your saved passwords, now when you create an account for any app on your Android smartphone, you can also create and add a new password which will be saved directly in Firefox. From here, you can use this new password on both mobile and desktop when signing into the online account associated with it.

Mozilla is also bringing the ability to autofill passwords on Android and users will be able to use any password saved in Firefox to log into their online accounts. However, if you have a Firefox account, then you'll be able to sync all of your passwords across both desktop and mobile devices.

Access to Firefox's password manager on Android can be further secured by using your fingerprint or face so that no one else using your smartphone can use your saved passwords to login to your online accounts.

While these new password features can help protect your online accounts, you can secure your device further by signing up for Mozilla VPN and using the company's VPN service to encrypt data sent from your smartphone. 



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Latest Tech News

There are eight recognized planets in our solar system, four inner rocky planets and four outer gas giants. But beyond the orbit of Neptune, dozens of dwarf planets the size of Pluto or smaller populate a region known as the Kuiper Belt, and new computer models show there may be something even bigger lurking out there – or at least there might have been in the past.

In a paper in the Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics this month, Brett Gladman of the University of British Columbia and Kathryn Volk of the University of Arizona argue that new models indicate that the likelihood that a Mars-sized planet orbiting in the Kuiper Belt region is at least 50%, though they also claim that it was ejected from the solar system entirely at some point in the past.

This would be a different planet then the theoretical one currently being called Planet Nine, which is believed to be a Neptune-sized gas giant far out beyond the Kuiper Belt.

To get a better sense of how the solar system formed, researchers like Gladman and Volk typically use powerful computers to run simulations with different variables to see how changes in any one variable affects the kind of solar system that would result. In several of Gladman and Volks' simulations, something like our solar system forms when there is ninth, rocky planet orbiting in the Kuiper Belt.

"I agree that it is likely that a Mars class planet was there initially,” David Nesvorny, a Southwest Research Institute planetary scientist, told Inverse, “but the question is whether it has survived and if we have any evidence for it.”

Other planetary scientists are also finding similar results in their simulations, including Kedron Silsbee, of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, and Scott Trmaine, of the Institute for Advanced Study.

In these simulations, the outer planets were not in their original orbits, and sometimes not even in the same order, and the simulations suggest that the gas giants might have had additional help to get to their current positions. 

Some other large object from the inner solar system might have been pulled out by the gas giants and eventually pushed out towards the periphery of the solar system, or even out of it entirely.

"Our simulations found that in about half of the cases, all of the Mars-scale planets in the outer Solar System were ejected into interstellar space,” Tremaine said. “But in the remaining half, one ‘rogue’ planet was left in an orbit similar to that of the detached population of Kuiper Belt objects."


Analysis: we really don't know a lot about the solar system we inhabit

We know a lot about the solar system, but sometimes we simply don't know what we don't know, which makes understanding the full history and evolution of our home system hard to decipher.

While the order of the planets, with the four rocky worlds on the interior and the four gas giants on the outer half might seem like a natural ordering, that is really only because it's the one we grew up with as a species.

Now that we've observed other stars and their exoplanets, our solar system isn't like the majority of solar systems in the galaxy. A system like ours, with rocky inner planets and large gas giants on the outer part, only make up 10% to 15% of the solar systems out there.

What's more, we don't even know if we have an accurate census of the planets in our own solar system, with the possibility of a Mars-sized rocky world out beyond Neptune or a Neptune-sized gas giant, the currently-theorized Planet Nine, even further out than the Kuiper Belt both being possible planetary candidates.

It might take years or even decades before we know for sure, if ever. After all, space – even our tiny part of it – is a very large place.



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Latest Tech News

If you're looking to score a cheap TV deal ahead of the upcoming Black Friday sale, then you're in luck. We've just spotted this 70-inch 4K smart TV from Hisense on sale for just $549.99 ($849.99). That's the lowest price we've seen and an incredible deal for a feature-packed big-screen TV.

Cheap TV deal

Hisense 70-inch H65 Series Smart HD TV: $849.99 $549.99 at Best Buy
Save $300 -  
Just ahead of Black Friday, Best Buy has this Hisense 70-inch 4K TV on sale for a record-low price of $549.99. Not only is this a fantastic price for a big-screen 4K TV, but you're also getting the Google Assistant and Chromecast built right in, and Motion Rate 120 and DTS Sound Studio.

Hisense's A6G series set features 4K HD resolution and DTS Virtual X technology for a cinema-like picture experience with bold, bright colors and an immersive audio experience. The big-screen TV also has smart capabilities, so you can enjoy your favorite movies and TV shows from apps like Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus, and more. You're also getting a handy voice remote and the Google Assistant built-in so you can control your TV and compatible smart home devices completely hands-free.

See more of the best cheap TV deals from Best Buy below, with prices starting at just $349.99. If you don't see a bargain you like today, you can keep an eye out for upcoming deals during the Black Friday 2021 sale.

More cheap TV deals

Toshiba 43-inch Smart 4K UHD Fire TV (2021): $369.99 $349.99 at Best Buy
$20 -
Best Buy has a $20 price cut on this 2021 Toshiba Fire display down to $349.99. That's the best price we've found and a fantastic deal for a feature-rich 43-inch 4K TV that comes with the Fire OS and a handy voice remote.

Insignia 55-inch F30 Series 4K UHD Smart Fire TV: $549.99 $379.99 at Best Buy
Save $170 -
Best Buy's latest TV deals has the all-new Insignia 55-inch 4K TV on sale for a record-low price of $379.99, thanks to today's massive $170 discount. The smart TV features HDR10, DTS Studio Sound, and the Fire experience for seamless streaming.

TCL 65-inch 4-Series 4K Smart Android TV: $699.99 $529.99 at Best Buy
Save $170
- This TCL 65-inch 4K TV is on sale for just $529.99 thanks to today's massive $170 discount at Best Buy's TV sale. You're getting Google Assistant and Chromecast built-in here, excellent smart capabilities, plus an easy-to-use remote that features voice search and control.

Insignia 65-inch F30 Series 4K UHD Smart Fire TV: $699.99 $549.99 at Best Buy
Save $150 -
For a limited time, you can pick up this Insignia 65-inch 4K TV on sale for $549.99 at Best Buy. This cheap smart TV comes with the Fire TV operating system and support for the Amazon Alexa voice assistant - a fantastic value for a 65-inch TV under $600.

See more of the best cheap TV deals that are happening now and the cheapest OLED TV deals and prices.

You can also look forward to upcoming offers with our guide to the best Black Friday TV deals of 2021.



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Could Apple's New Adaptive Power Feature Extend Your iPhone's Battery Life?

With this new feature being tested in the iOS 26 developer beta, you may be able to ditch the Low Power Mode setting in the future. from C...