Samsung Australia is rolling out a new Fortnite Creative map for mobile gamers. The new experience called Clash of Commuters features “a uniquely Australian and public transport-inspired map.” And for a limited time, players will have the opportunity to win Samsung prizes.
The new map features Australian icons, including so-called bin chickens and the Sydney train. Clash of Commuters has a post-apocalyptic theme, and gamers will be tasked with defending an Aussie public bus across 5 checkpoints.
Virtual Galaxy S24 Ultra phones will also be hidden throughout the post-apocalyptic Australia Fortnite map, and players finding these hidden objects can unlock special bonuses.
As for the Australian player base, Samsung Electronics research suggests that 48% of Aussies most frequently use smartphones as their gaming devices. Meanwhile, 26% of Australians use consoles, and 24% use desktop PCs and laptops.
Play the map for real prizes
Clash of Commuters players have the chance to win prizes if they participate in the event before May 30.
This Fortnite Creative campaign consists of five rounds, and players who complete all five in the shortest amount of time will be eligible to win a Samsung gaming pack worth over $8,000.
This gaming pack prize consists of a 55-inch OLED TV, an Odyssey OLED G9 monitor, the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro earbuds, and the Galaxy S24 Ultra.
Samsung Australia offers additional prizes for players who compete in the event exclusively on mobile devices, and for players who complete the most side quest phones. Lastly, four winners will be picked at random from all completed time submissions.
Through this event, Samsung also invites Australians to experience the game on the Galaxy S24 Ultra at interactive pop-up locations in Melbourne and Sydney.
At MemCon 2024, Samsung showcased its latest HBM3E technology, talked about its future HBM4 plans, and unveiled the CXL Memory Module Box, also known as CMM-B, the latest addition to its Compute Express Link (CXL) memory module portfolio.
CMM-B is essentially a memory pooling appliance for rack computing leveraging CXL. It supports disaggregated memory allocation, allowing memory capacity available in remote locations to be shared across multiple servers. Through this, CMM-B enables independent resource allocation in the rack cluster and allows for larger pools of memory to be assigned as needed. With up to 60GB/s bandwidth, Samsung says CMM-B is ideal for applications like AI, in-memory databases, and data analytics.
CMM-B can accommodate eight E3.S form factor CMM-D (PCIe Gen5) memory modules for a total of 2TB. CMM-D memory integrates Samsung’s DRAM technology with the CXL open standard interface to deliver efficient, low-latency connectivity between the CPU and memory expansion devices.
Easy setup
Samsung says the CMM-B integrates seamlessly into Supermicro Plug and Play Rack Scale Solutions, ensuring not only faster productivity but also reduced total cost of ownership (TCO).
The CMM-B module comes pre-installed with Samsung’s Cognos Management Console (SCMC) software, which provides an intuitive interface for quick setup of the Rack-Scale server appliance. This software facilitates dynamic memory allocation, enabling memory to be allocated independently of the server to which it is attached.
During his keynote at MemCon, Jin-Hyeok Choi, Corporate Executive Vice President, Device Solutions Research America – Memory at Samsung Electronics said, “AI innovation cannot continue without memory technology innovation. As the market leader in memory, Samsung is proud to continue advancing innovation – from the industry’s most advanced CMM-B technology, to powerful memory solutions like HBM3E for high-performance computing and demanding AI applications. We are committed to collaborating with our partners and serving our customers to unlock the full potential of the AI era together.”
(Image credit: Samsung)
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A former UPS worker located in Winnipeg, Canada has been accused of stealing Apple products valued at more than $1.3 million, and reselling them for profit.
According to Canada’s Global News and the Winnipeg Free Press, UPS worker Orville Beltrano stole approximately 866 Apple devices from the warehouse where he had worked since 2013. Beltrano served as a supervisor at the location, and he was selling the products that he swiped on Kijiji.
Between September 2023 and January 2024, Beltrano deposited more than $232,000 in his bank accounts. He was fired by UPS on January 22, and arrested the same day. In his home and vehicle, investigators found $9,000 in cash, a Mac laptop, and jewelry valued at over $9,000.
Beltrano admitted to stealing Apple products and jewelry from UPS, and said that he used the money to purchase a home worth $680,000 and to pay off a $60,000 Audi hatchback purchased in 2021. He has been charged with theft over $5,000, theft under $5,000, possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000, and possession of the proceeds of crime.
The theft was discovered after UPS launched an investigation in December to determine why so many Apple devices were disappearing from the warehouse in Winnipeg. Surveillance cameras were installed, and Beltrano was found to be stealing products from pallets that were supposed to be shipped to Ontario. He allegedly stole more 120 iPhones in a single shift in January 2024.
Prosecutors have asked the court to approve the seizure of Beltrano’s house, cash, bank accounts, and vehicle.
The Perseverance rover drills a rock core from the edge of the ancient river delta in Jezero Crater on Mars.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The Woodlands, Texas
Scientists are on edge as they wait for NASA to answer two of the most consequential questions in Mars exploration. Where on the red planet will the Perseverance rover collect its final rock samples? And can NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) even afford to fly the mission’s hard-won samples — the prize at the end of a decades-long quest — back to Earth?
Flying Mars rocks to Earth could cost an astronomical $11 billion
Over the past few years, Perseverance has been exploring an ancient river delta in Mars’s Jezero Crater, with the aim of finding signs of past life. The rover’s belly is now stuffed with 17 tubes of Martian rock, dirt and air that scientists say represent an astounding geological collection. “The science is only getting better as we see what Perseverance keeps collecting,” says Laurie Leshin, director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. But the rover’s instruments aren’t sophisticated enough to determine whether molecules in the samples point to signs of life, or to determine the samples’ age, and so reveal something about the history of Mars. For that, laboratories on Earth are needed.
However, bringing Perseverance’s samples back could cost as much as US$11 billion, an independent panel concluded in a scathing engineering analysis last year. That’s more than NASA can afford. By the end of this month, it and ESA are supposed to find a cheaper way to achieve Mars sample return — or risk leaving the carefully collected rocks where they are.
Adding to the drama, Perseverance’s planners are debating what other science the rover should do before it has to stop exploring. The original mission plan was to explore the ancient river delta and then drive up out of the crater — where there are even older rocks that could tell scientists more about the history of Mars. But as Perseverance approaches Jezero’s rim (see ‘Epic journey’), some engineers are advocating for it to turn around and wait at a lower altitude, where it might be safer and cheaper to pick up the samples.
Source: Nature adaptation from NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/JHU-APL/Brown University
John Mustard, a planetary scientist at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, wants the rover to stick to the original plan. The rocks currently on board are “great, but they’re not sufficient to be the transformative samples that we want them to be”, he says. “They’re not Apollo-scale,” he adds, referring to the Moon rocks collected by Apollo astronauts in the 1960s and 1970s that revolutionized scientific understanding of the Moon and Earth.
He and other scientists pressed the case for exiting the crater last week at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, Texas. All eyes are now on NASA to see what it decides.
“Right now what we can say is, we’re committed to [Mars sample return] being the best value,” says Lindsay Hays, acting lead scientist for Mars sample return at NASA headquarters in Washington DC. “My focus is really on making sure that we get as much science out of what we can get.”
A long quest
NASA has been working on various concepts for bringing rocks back from Mars since the 1980s. Perseverance, the fifth in a string of increasingly sophisticated Mars rovers from the agency, landed in Jezero in 2021 to maximize scientists’ chances of finding signs of past life, if it ever existed. Jezero was once filled with water: a river flowed into it that created an ancient delta similar to those on Earth, which can preserve organic material — usually the remnants of plants and other organisms that came from upstream.
NASA Mars rover to cache first rock samples for delivery to Earth
So far, Perseverance hasn’t spotted any obvious signs of ancient life, such as fossils, with its cameras. The best chance of finding past Martian life would be to analyse the rocks the rover has collected for materials rich in carbon, including organic compounds, that might have been created by the decay of long-dead organisms, says Tanja Bosak, a geobiologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. This analysis would need to happen on Earth.
Two of the rock cores are particularly promising for this; they are fine-grained mudstones from the delta that could have trapped organic material. Other cores collected by Perseverance include once-molten rocks from the crater floor that could be analysed to determine the age of that region; sedimentary rocks from the river delta that hold a history of how Mars’s climate and habitability changed through time; and rocks from the delta’s edges that appear to have interacted with deep groundwater, another potentially habitable environment, for long periods.
Stay or go?
The rover is currently exploring a narrow band of rock near the crater’s rim that is rich in carbonate minerals. On Earth, carbonates commonly form along lake shorelines and can preserve evidence of life. But scientists are still debating whether Jezero’s band represents an ancient shoreline.
In the coming months, the rover will roll onto the rim; after that, the question is whether it will leave the crater. If so, it would explore ‘basement’ rocks from around 4 billion years ago — older than the 3.5-billion-year-old delta — and fossilized hydrothermal vents that could have been a haven for Martian life.
When Perseverance drills a rock core such as this one, collected in October 2023, with its robotic arm, it then seals the specimen in a sample tube for safekeeping.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
But going to this region, known as Nili Planum, might involve more risk than NASA is now willing to take. One concern is that Nili Planum is several hundred metres higher than the crater floor, so the atmosphere above it is thinner, making it more difficult — and expensive — for a sample-retrieval mission to land there.
Scientists are also concerned about how much farther the rover can physically roll before it gives out. Perseverance has travelled nearly 25 kilometres since landing, but mission scientists think it might be able to cover another 70–90 kilometres. If this is confirmed by testing at JPL, it might be able to reach some of Nili Planum’s most intriguing rocks, which are around 16 kilometres from the rover’s current location, and then make it back into the crater for pick up. If Perseverance does die unexpectedly, it has already left a backup collection of ten cores on the floor of Jezero Crater.
Budget constraints
Now the focus turns to money and how much NASA can invest in bringing the samples back. The mission is part of NASA’s planetary sciences portfolio, which currently spends $2.7 billion annually.
Mars rocks await a ride to Earth — can NASA deliver?
NASA has said it doesn’t want to spend more than 35% of its budget on the mission to retrieve the samples in any given year. “Whatever we implement for Mars sample return is going to be done in the context of a balanced planetary science portfolio,” Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s planetary sciences division, told the conference. But the uncertainty about how much funding might be available to work on Mars sample return forced JPL to lay off 8% of its employees last month.
Much of the cost for Mars sample return comes from its complexity. According to current plans, NASA would build a lander to retrieve the samples and a rocket to carry them off the surface to orbit Mars. ESA would contribute a spacecraft that would capture the samples in Mars orbit and transfer them to Earth. ESA has not discussed its budget for Mars sample return as publicly as NASA has, but European planetary scientists have expressed “consistent and strong science support” for the programme, says Gerhard Kminek, ESA’s lead scientist for Mars sample return in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.
If NASA and ESA can figure out a path forwards, the rock collection would touch down on Earth no earlier than 2033. Meanwhile, the agencies have competition: China has announced plans to return Mars rocks to Earth at around the same time.
Almost every major PC maker has dabbled with the idea of a dual-screen laptop at some point. Way back in 2011, sporting not one but two 14-inch displays. Then at CES 2017, Razer showed off which bumped the panel count to three before demoing something a bit less extravagant a year later in . Fast forward to 2020, when Dell dazzled us with the . Even Apple gave the category a go on the old , only to reverse course and .
Meanwhile, Lenovo has an entire family of devices dating back to the original and culminating most recently in the , with the latter coming extremely close to turning the promise of dual-screen laptops into an actual appealing choice. But now after several generations of its own devices, ASUS has put everything together with the It’s a super sleek machine with two screens that’s barely larger than a similarly sized clamshell. There’s also a detachable keyboard and a built-in kickstand for maximum adaptability. And starting at $1,500, the Zenbook Duo doesn’t command a massive premium for something with a ton of extra utility. So while it’s been quite a journey to get here, ASUS has finally made a dual-screen laptop that proves once and for all that two screens really are better than one.
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Starting at $1,500 and with dimensions that aren’t much bigger than a traditional clamshell, ASUS’ Zenbook Duo is the first dual-screen laptop you’d actually want to buy.
Pros
Sleek design
Gorgeous screens
Built-in kickstand
Good port selection
Solid battery life
Cons
Slightly pricier than a traditional clamshell
Windows 11 still isn’t optimized for dual-screen laptops
One of the most impressive things about the Zenbook Duo is that it doesn’t look like some kind of Frankendeivce. It’s just a regular-looking 14-inch laptop. Even after you open it, things still look normal with a physical keyboard and touchpad, not to mention a healthy selection of ports around the outside (two Thunderbolt 4, one USB 3.2 Type-A and a full-size HDMI 2.1 jack). A small part of me wishes ASUS had found room for some kind of SD card reader, but I understand if there just wasn’t space.
It’s only after you remove the keyboard that things get interesting because as soon as you do, the Duo’s second display springs to life. From here, you have a ton of options. Tapping three fingers on the lower panel summons a floating touchpad. Alternatively, eight fingers makes a virtual keyboard appear, which you can follow with a swipe up to reveal a traditional keyboard/trackpad combo. But the cool thing is that because these are all virtual stand-ins, it’s easy to swap in a new layout (like for other languages), move the touchpad off to the side or call up a numpad if you need to do some data entry. There’s just so much more flexibility when half of a laptop’s interior isn’t taken up by a rigid set of physical keys.
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
But things keep getting better, because on the bottom of the Duo is a flap that folds out into a kickstand. This allows you to prop the system up and use both screens as proper displays, sort of like a portable dual-monitor setup but all in a single self-contained system. And because the detachable keyboard connects wirelessly over Bluetooth, you can place it in front (or wherever you want) just like a desktop. The one small drawback to this design is that if you rotate the Duo’s displays into portrait orientation side by side, the design of the kickstand means there’s no way to adjust how far it tilts. This heavily favors the stacked setup with one display above, which is fine because I think that arrangement is more useful in most situations.
Another pleasant surprise is that for a device with two screens, the Zenbook Duo isn’t much bigger or heavier than a typical clamshell. It weighs 3.6 pounds and measures 0.78 inches thick versus the 2.82 pounds and 0.59 inches for a standard Zenbook 14 OLED. And when compared to something like a Dell XPS 14 (3.7 pounds and 0.71 inches thick), both systems are practically the same size.
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
My one gripe is that ASUS’ dark gray paint job color doesn’t help the Duo stand out. It’s almost like someone who wears subdued colors to avoid drawing attention. But this design is fantastic and I wish ASUS would give this laptop (and the engineers who designed it) the flowers it deserves.
Displays and software
The centerpiece of the Duo is its pair of 14-inch displays, which are an absolute delight. Not only do the matching OLED panels offer strong brightness (around 500 nits), they also pump out rich and accurate colors (100 percent of DCI-P3). But the real magic is when you use both panels together.
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Moving apps from one display to another is as simple as dragging and dropping or using the handy menus that appear at the top of the display. In addition, there’s a floating button in the bottom left for ASUS’ ScreenXpert software, which provides shortcuts for adjusting brightness (separately or as a pair), disabling specific panels or pulling up handy widgets for things like a control panel, a handwriting recognition tool, news and weather and more. If the goal was to get as much value out of the Duo’s two displays, I think ASUS’ software does a pretty good job.
The downside to all this is that despite ASUS’ best efforts, Windows 11 and many apps still aren’t fully optimized for systems like this. For example, when I played a round of Teamfight Tactics and wanted to pull up some game stats on the lower display, I ran into an issue where the virtual touchpad stopped working. It was only after I set the game to borderless window mode, closed the game and relaunched everything that it started working again. Granted, situations like this were rare, but it’s important to remember that when you’re using a cutting-edge device, there may be some bugs or awkward interactions.
Performance
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
The Zenbook Duo comes with an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB NVMe SSD. While you can upgrade it with double the memory and a faster Ultra 9 chip, I found the base configuration to be plenty fast. On tests like Geekbench 6 and PCMark 10, the Zenbook Duo turned in results that were identical to those from similarly equipped clamshells, including . This is great because it means there’s not a ton of overhead due to the addition of a second screen and even when setup in desktop mode, dragging apps from one display to another felt snappy and responsive. The obvious drawback is that unlike some 14-inch systems such as the XPS 14, there’s no room for a discrete GPU, which makes the Zenbook Duo better suited to general productivity than more demanding tasks like video editing.
Battery life
You might think a system with two screens would be a battery hog, but the Zenbook Duo fared better than expected. With just one screen on, it lasted 13 hours and 12 minutes on our video rundown test, which is pretty much equivalent to (actually a touch longer than) the Zenbook 14 OLED (12:43). And with both screens going, the Duo’s time only dropped to 10:17, which is still more than enough to survive an entire workday.
Wrap-up
Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget
OK, so the Zenbook Duo delivers on the promises of dual-screen laptops. But one question I get a lot is who are devices like this actually for? The most obvious application is for people who carry a portable monitor around while traveling. But more generally, this thing is aimed at anyone who appreciates multiple monitors and wants a system that can recreate that experience in a more travel-friendly way, which is something the Zenbook Duo does with aplomb. The best part though is that it doesn’t make major sacrifices to do so, because thanks to its detachable keyboard, it can function just like any other clamshell when space is tight (like on an airplane).
When you have room to spread out, it transforms into a portable workstation with plenty of screen space for a project up top and bonus real estate for Slack, email, video calls or anything else you might need down below. It’s got ample ports so you don’t need to carry a dongle around and thanks to its gorgeous OLED screens, your work (or play) always looks great. The Zenbook Duo can do everything a traditional laptop can and more. Yes, the software experience could be a bit more polished, though that’s not entirely on ASUS. We still need a new version of Windows to provide better OS support for dual-screen machines. But considering all the struggles and multiple generations it took to get here, the Zenbook Duo is a marvelous torchbearer for a new class of portable PCs.
Data centers produce a lot of waste heat that could one day be recycled and used to heat millions of homes.
Now, French data center company Data4 has partnered with the University of Paris-Saclay to launch a project that aims to use data center heat to grow algae, which can then be recycled into energy. The pilot project, set to commence early in 2024, will be trialed in the Paris region.
This initiative, led by a diverse team of experts from various fields, is driven by the French administration “Conseil Départemental de l’Essonne” and the Foundation Université Paris-Saclay. The project comes as a response to the escalating environmental impact of data centers, which have seen a 35% annual increase in data storage worldwide.
A more efficient alternative
(Image credit: Data4)
The algae grown from the captured CO2 will be recycled into biomass to create new circular energy sources and will also be used in the production of bioproducts for other industries.
According to a feasibility study conducted with start-up Blue Planet Ecosystems, the carbon capture efficiency of this method can be 20 times greater than that of a tree.
Data4 says using the data center waste heat for the growth of algae is a more efficient alternative to the common practice of using it to warm nearby homes, which only utilizes 20% of the heat produced.
“This augmented biomass project meets two of the major challenges of our time: food security and the energy transition. This requires close collaboration between all the players in the Essonne region, including Data4, to develop a genuine industrial ecology project, aimed at pooling resources and reducing consumption in the region. Thanks to this partnership with the Fondation de l’Université Paris Saclay, we have the opportunity to draw on one of the world’s most prestigious scientific communities to work towards a common goal of a circular energy economy,” says Linda Lescuyer, Innovation Manager, Data4.
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Less than four months after debuting its mid-range Accentum headphones, Sennheiser revealed another version at CES that remains more affordable than its flagship Momentum set. Dubbed the Accentum Plus, this more-expensive model swaps the physical buttons for touch controls while offering revised active noise cancellation (ANC), wear-detection and other conveniences the first version didn’t. All of the additions come at a price, though, as the Plus ($230) costs $50 more than the regular Accentum. For a set of headphones that mostly looks the same, are internal updates enough to justify a bigger investment?
Design
It’s difficult to tell the Accentum Plus and Accentum apart at first glance. That lack of physical controls on the older model is what primarily distinguishes the two. The Plus version still has one button which manages power, pairing and voice assistants, but all of the audio and call controls are touch-based and located on the outside of the right ear cup. They work well, from taps for playback to swipes for volume, but depending on your preferences, ditching the physical controls for touch may be a turn off. The other difference is that the Plus has a 3.5mm aux jack along with a USB-C connection whereas the first Accentum only has the latter.
Sennheiser
Despite changes to ANC and a few new features, the Accentum Plus isn’t a significant upgrade over the regular Accentum that debuted last year.
A nearly identical design means Sennheiser didn’t address my key criticism of the first Accentum. The headphones remain almost entirely made out of plastic, which gives them a cheap look and feel. Plus, it doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence in the build quality for a set of $230 headphones. The company introduced its new design style on the Momentum 4 in 2022, which it continued with the overall look on the Accentum line. But, the latest Momentums are a bit more polished than these two more recent models.
Software and features
For the most part, the Sennheiser Smart Control App offers the same features for the Accentum Plus as it does for the Accentum. Almost everything you’d need is on the main screen, with battery percentage at the top. Below that sit connection management for multipoint Bluetooth and My Sound audio customization. There, you can adjust a five-band EQ, select a prebuilt sound preset or make your own. The company also offers Sound Personalization that calibrates the audio based on your responses to a few samples in the app.
Sennheiser’s Sound Zones are here as well, giving you the ability to configure specific audio settings based on your location. You can create up to 20 of these for places like home, work, gym and more. Of course, you have to give the app permission to track your location, which could be a nonstarter for some users.
The last item on the main interface of the app is ANC control. Here, you can disable the automatic “adaptive” adjustment to the Accentum Plus’ noise cancellation and leave “regular” noise cancellation on. There’s a slider to blend of ANC and transparency as you see fit. You can cycle between ANC and transparency mode with a double tap on the right ear cup, but that action doesn’t allow you to activate any preferred blends. Instead, it only turns on full ANC or complete transparency.
Sound quality
Photo by Billy Steele/Engadget
Sennheiser’s flagship earbuds and headphones have consistently offered the best sound quality among all of the products I’ve tested. The company has a knack for a well-tuned audio profile that’s dynamic, but not overbearing, and that offers plenty of fine detail thanks to excellent clarity across the EQ. That trademark crispness returns on the Accentum Plus, but it’s at its best at around 65-75 percent volume. Knock that level down to around 50 percent and sound quality begins to suffer.
There’s a pleasant airy, atmospheric quality to tracks on Fever Ray’s Radical Romantics on the Accentum Plus, enveloping you the way the sound on more expensive headphones would. However, when you decrease the volume to about 50 percent, bass begins to overpower some of the details and the audio profile begins to muddy. The clarity that makes Sennheiser’s headphones so good is gone at this point, which is a bummer for those of us who don’t always desire louder listening.
While there’s ample bass that’s offset by crisp highs throughout most genres, more chaotic styles like metal can be a mixed bag. Boomy bass is still there on Texas In July’s Without Reason and Better Lovers’ God Made Me An Animal, but finer details in guitars and drum textures start to get lost. The overall performance is a bit flat with all of the instruments coming across compressed compared to other sets. Switch over to something more mellow like Charles Wesley Godwin’s Live From Echo Mountain and it’s like you put on different headphones. It feels much more like you’re in the room where this was recorded.
ANC performance
Sennheiser says the Accentum Plus has hybrid adaptive ANC where the Accentum just has hybrid ANC. This means that the Plus model adjusts to changes in environmental noise while the regular model has just one level of blocking ability. During my tests, I struggled to tell a big difference between the two, even when switching quickly from one set to the other. The overall ANC performance is solid in most circumstances, but it’s far from what you’d get on the best that Bose, Sony and even Sennheiser have to offer. And since the Plus version is more expensive, I expected an obvious improvement.
Call quality
Photo by Billy Steele/Engadget
Like most over-ear headphones, the Accentum Plus is just fine for calls. The audio quality isn’t pristine, but it’s certainly passable for most uses. That includes work calls, although I’d suggest something with a better mic if you’re actually leading the presentation. Overall, the voice quality comes across compressed and a bit tinny. It’s not the worst, but it’s also probably not what you want when how you sound really matters. You can choose to have the headphones automatically switch to transparency mode when you take a call. However, the Accentum Plus doesn’t pipe in your voice, so the overall audio isn’t as natural as more-expensive options like the AirPods Max.
Battery life
The Plus’ battery life remains unchanged from the regular Accentum at 50 hours. That’s definitely not a bad thing. In fact, I exceeded that figure during my tests, notching 57 hours of use with ANC enabled. This included a mix of listening and calls, and during the latter I switched to transparency mode instead of noise cancellation. There were also a few days in between sessions where the headphones sat unused. When you do find yourself out of juice, you can get five hours of listening time after plugging in for only 10 minutes.
The competition
Given that the upgrades on the Plus are marginal, it’s hard to recommend them over the cheaper Accentum. Both carry Sennheiser’s crisp, clear sound that performs well most of the time. The ANC improvements aren’t enough to justify spending more and the only thing you may truly benefit from is automatic pausing that wear-detection brings. The company’s Momentum 4 would definitely be an upgrade over either Accentum, but that costs around $300. Plus, Sennheiser’s flagship headphones still have its newer, more-boring design – albeit with a few refinements.
If you’re in the market for affordable noise-canceling headphones that don’t cut too many corners, consider the Sony’s WH-CH720N. Currently available for $105, this budget option won’t win any design awards as it’s also all-plastic, but it’s more comfortable and has great audio for the price. Noise cancellation is just okay, though Adaptive Sound Control allows you to automate audio settings based on activity or location and there’s support for Sony’s 360 Reality Audio.
Wrap-up
Sennheiser’s attempt to improve on its initial mid-range Accentum offering is a mixed bag. For all of its updates, the Accentum Plus isn’t the massive improvement you’d expect with its higher price. Sure, the sound is great at times and the ANC will get the job done, but the best thing about this Plus version is the better-than-expected battery life. However, you can get that same play time on the regular Accentum for $50 less. Some small design refinements and a more-obvious step up in terms of audio quality and ANC performance would’ve made a larger impact. But, as it stands, the Accentum Plus isn’t a significant upgrade over last year’s model.
1 / 9
Sennheiser Accentum Plus review
Sennheiser Accentum Plus headphones sitting on a table, propped up by two books with an iPhone playing music to the left.
By now, you likely know that your Galaxy A54 is no longer the newest kid on the block. Samsung announced the Galaxy A55 yesterday, and we don’t need to tell you that the newer model brings some improvements over your A54. That’s a given from any yearly upgrade. But what are those improvements, exactly? And are they enough for you to ditch the Galaxy A54 for the newer A55?
Right off the bat, the biggest upgrade introduced by the Galaxy A55 is arguably the newer Exynos 1480 chip and extra RAM options. If you’ve used the Galaxy A54 since launch, you probably know better than anyone that the UI stuttered sometimes and performance wasn’t always smooth. However, things got better as Samsung continued optimizing the Exynos 1380 chip.
That’s all in the past now, and the Galaxy A55 comes with a new Exynos chip, which might just be powerful enough (and paired with enough RAM) not to be a cause of concern regarding general performance.
More RAM than the base Galaxy S24 and a 4nm chip with an AMD GPU
You read that right. While there is a chance that your Galaxy A54 has 4GB of RAM, or, if not, 6GB or 8GB, the new Galaxy A55 offers 8GB minimum plus a 12GB option.
Meanwhile, Samsung’s new Exynos 1480 chip is the first mid-range solution with a GPU based on the AMD RDNA architecture. It was built on a 4nm node, similar to the flagship-grade Exynos 2400, and early benchmark figures are indeed very promising, not just for A5x users but the entire Exynos chip legacy.
Needless to say, if you’re unsatisfied with the way your Galaxy A54 performs, the Galaxy A55 might be your answer and a logical step up. However, we’ll have to test the device ourselves to be sure. We’re preparing a review as we speak.
Bigger screen and better build quality
Another change you might notice coming from the Galaxy A54 is that the newer A55 has a slightly larger 6.6-inch screen instead of a 6.4-inch panel. This also increases the phone’s overall dimensions slightly and contributes to a bit of weight gain. The new model tips the scale at 213 grams instead of 202g.
Whether the A55 fits better in one’s palm is subjective. Nonetheless, the new model offers a bigger screen, which generally is viewed as an improvement.
In addition to the bigger screen and the Key Island design, with which you’re probably already familiar thanks to leaks, Samsung also gave the Galaxy A55 better materials.
Your Galaxy A54 has a plastic frame sandwiched by two Gorilla Glass 5 panels. That glass sandwich design was a big deal last year, but Samsung gave the Galaxy A55 Gorilla Glass Victus+ protection at the front and back. And the pièce de résistance: the Galaxy A55 is the first in its series to boast an aluminum frame.
On a final note, Samsung also improved the camera slightly, if not through megapixels, then through better optimization and processing. For instance, the Galaxy A55 features Super HDR video recording capabilities, which could help you capture videos with better dynamic range.
Should you trade your Galaxy A54 for the newer Galaxy A55? Well, if you find a good trade-in deal and the exchange costs you pocket-change, we don’t see why you wouldn’t want to upgrade to the A55. It is a superior phone.
Unfortunately, that’s not the reality most of us live in. Trade-in deals are not ideal in many markets, and the A55 just might not be worth the trouble. It depends on how easily and cheaply you can transition from the Galaxy A54 to the A55 in your market.
But to answer at least part of the question, yes, the Galaxy A55 has your A54 beat in a few key areas, and the Exynos 1480 SoC paired with more RAM might be worth it. On the other hand, if you own the Galaxy A54 and don’t want to upgrade, your phone should still feel fresh and competent enough to stay relevant in a post-A55 world, at least for the foreseeable future.
Have you ever found yourself tangled in a web of iPhone charger cables, wondering if there’s a better way to power up your iPhone? Well, the age of wireless charging is upon us, and it’s time to untangle the cords and explore the options available. If you’re curious about the effectiveness of Apple’s $40 MagSafe charger compared to other contenders in the market, you’re in the right place.
Let’s dive into a detailed comparison from Max Tech between three leading wireless iPhone chargers: Apple’s MagSafe, the emerging Qi2, and a standard 7.5W charger. Our focus will be on their charging capabilities, efficiency, cost, and overall performance.
Charging Speed Test:
Imagine you have an iPhone 15 Pro Max, and it’s completely out of juice. You might wonder which charger gets it up and running the fastest. In a recent test, three identical phones were charged from zero using these three chargers. The MagSafe charger showed a bit of a slow start but was the first to bring the phone back to life. The Qi2 charger was not far behind, while the 7.5W charger trailed significantly.
Efficiency in the First 15 Minutes:
You will be pleased to know that both the MagSafe and Qi2 chargers demonstrated superior charging efficiency in the first 15 minutes compared to the 7.5W charger. Although the Qi2 charger had a slight edge in speed, it’s a close call.
Handling the Heat:
If you are wondering how these chargers fare in heat management, there’s an interesting twist. Despite its bulkier design, which was expected to dissipate heat effectively, the Qi2 transferred more heat to the phone than the MagSafe and the 7.5W charger.
Cost and Build Quality:
When it comes to cost, the Qi2 charger sits comfortably between the pricier MagSafe and the budget-friendly 7.5W charger. In terms of build, both the MagSafe and Qi2 are crafted from metal, offering a more premium feel than the plastic 7.5W charger. Additionally, the sleeker design and shorter cable of the MagSafe charger might appeal to those who prefer a minimalist setup.
Full Cycle Performance:
As the charging cycle progresses, an intriguing pattern emerges. The MagSafe charger gradually catches up with the Qi2, with both reaching the 100% mark around the same time. Meanwhile, the 7.5W charger remains significantly behind. Notably, the MagSafe excels in coolness and efficiency, keeping the heat at bay.
Overall Verdict:
After considering all factors, it appears that the Qi2 charger offers a reasonable balance between cost and performance for an iPhone charger. However, the MagSafe charger stands out in terms of its efficient heat management and overall charging efficiency. Although the 7.5W charger might tempt you with its low price, its slow charging speed and inadequate heat management make it a less desirable option.
Source & Image Credit: Max Tech
Filed Under: Apple, Apple iPhone
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When considering whether to part with your hardened cash and upgrade from the free OpenAI AI service to ChatGPT Plus or higher. It’s important to understand the array of features and enhancements OpenAI offers in its different subscription packages. As you probably already know OpenAI offers both a free version and a paid version of ChatGPT and it really depends on how much you are going to use the artificial intelligence on an hourly and daily basis as to whether it is worth considering upgrading to higher packages.
Conversations restrictions
The free version of ChatGPT allows you to enter less prompts or requests. When paying for the ChatGPT Plus, Team or Enterprise versions OpenAI allows you to send more requests to its AI per hour. For example on the ChatGPT Plus subscription you can send up to 40 requests every three hours.
Another benefit of ChatGPT Plus is the ability to maintain high performance even during peak usage times. Subscribers are given priority, which means that when many users are online, those with the Plus version are less likely to experience service interruptions. This can be particularly valuable for those who rely on the service for timely tasks and cannot afford delays.
Access to the new GPT Store
For users with specific needs, ChatGPT Plus offers the capability to create custom AI models. This feature is especially useful for specialized tasks that require a more tailored approach. By customizing the AI’s responses, you can ensure that the output aligns closely with your unique requirements, whether you’re working in a niche industry or need specialized assistance.
Recently OpenAI launched its new Team subscription model which allows families and small businesses to sign up a minimum of two users from $60 per month. The main benefit of this package at the moment is its privacy. Enabling you to remove your ChatGPT conversations from OpenAI’s training. This option is available in the ChatGPT Plus subscription model but unfortunately you will lose access to your conversation history. However of this is not a worry to you then the Plus subscription might be a better solution, and only requires one user to sign-up.
ChatGPT Plus benefits explained
Here are some other articles you may find of interest on the subject of ChatGPT
Other things to consider when deciding whether to upgrade to a paid ChatGPT subscription
It’s important to note that the advanced features of GPT-4 may result in slower response times compared to the previous version, GPT-3.5. Additionally, there is a limit of 40 messages every three hours, which may be adjusted depending on the server load. These are trade-offs that potential subscribers need to consider.
ChatGPT Plus also introduces the Explore feature, which grants access to pre-built custom GPTs designed for specific tasks, such as data analysis or web browsing. This can be a significant asset for those who need to perform complex research or data processing tasks, as it can streamline workflows and increase efficiency.
ChatGPT Pricing
Another innovative feature of ChatGPT Plus is the ability to generate images from text descriptions. This expands the creative possibilities for users, allowing them to produce visual content alongside text-based outputs. This feature could be particularly appealing to content creators who want to enhance their storytelling with visuals.
Developers looking to integrate ChatGPT into their own applications will find API access available with ChatGPT Plus. However, this comes with its own set of token limits and additional costs per thousand tokens, which developers need to factor into their decision-making process.
ChatGPT Plus vs ChatGPT Free
When evaluating ChatGPT Plus, it’s essential to consider both the benefits and the limitations. The service offers cutting-edge accuracy, the option to create custom models, and the ability to generate images, but it also comes with message caps and potential speed trade-offs with the use of GPT-4. The decision to upgrade to ChatGPT Plus should be informed by your specific needs and the value you place on the latest AI technology advancements. It’s crucial to balance the advantages against the drawbacks to decide if ChatGPT Plus is the right fit for your requirements.
Ultimately, the choice to subscribe to ChatGPT Plus is a personal one, influenced by how much you value the enhanced features and your reliance on AI for daily tasks. Whether you’re a developer, a content creator, or someone who frequently uses AI for specialized work, ChatGPT Plus offers a suite of tools that could potentially streamline your processes and elevate the quality of your outputs. However, it’s wise to carefully consider how these features align with your goals and whether the investment aligns with your budget and usage patterns.
Filed Under: Guides, Top News
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