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The AS SSD Benchmarks sequential read test confirms what we now know, the 950 Pro is blistering fast. That said at almost 2.2GB/s it did fall short of the 2.5GB/s target in this test. The 950 Pro did a better job of getting near its claimed sequential write performance in AS SSD Benchmark, though it did fall short of matching the SM951. The 4K-64 thread performance of the 950 Pro was on target with the SM951 NVMe drive, which made it quite a bit slower than the Intel drive....

There’s still plenty of demand for mobile storage devices and flash-based thumb drives have come a long way over the years. It’s now possible to purchase a 1TB storage device that fits in your pocket – albeit for nearly $1,000. If you don’t need a huge amount of storage, however, thumb drives are a cost effective way to store data. A common 16GB stick can be purchased with spare change and larger, snappier models such as the Patriot Supersonic Magnum 128GB cost less than $100....

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to learn that the incident revolves around Musk’s controversial revamp of Twitter’s verification system, which is now part of the $8 per month Twitter Blue service—subscribers automatically receive a blue checkmark. To highlight the problems with Musk’s verification system, a Washington Post reporter set up a fake account named @realEdMarkey pretending to be the senator. Not only was the imitation verified, but the account also showed a pop-up stating that it received verification because the holder is a “notable person in government....

The inclusion of ray tracing in Shadow of the Tomb Raider marks the implementation of the third and final ray tracing technique we currently have at our disposal. Battlefield V uses ray traced reflections, Metro Exodus uses ray traced global illumination, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider uses ray traced shadows. In the future we’ll likely see games that use a combination of these techniques but right now each game is choosing one of the three and after today we should have a good idea at how each works to improve visuals....

Old but Good iPhone shortcuts/tricks Start with the Keyboard settings: Maybe you don’t want auto-correction or auto-capitalization enabled by default, so set that up to your liking. Perhaps most importantly, add “Text Replacement” for phrases you may use often: “fg” can become Freaks and Geeks or “@@” can become your email address. Add a symbol faster: Tap and hold the 123 button then slide your finger to the symbol you want....

Using the graphics settings turned to the max we found that even at 1680x1050 the budget cards were no longer good, with the Radeon HD 7770 for example rendering just 24fps. The GeForce GTX 650 Ti was far more impressive averaging a playable 32fps. Here we’d recommend the Radeon HD 7850 or the GeForce GTX 660 from the current generation line-up which went above the 30fps mark. For 40+ fps the GeForce GTX 660 Ti is required or the Radeon HD 7870, while the much older GTX 480 was get there as well....

Apple didn’t release a new iPhone this past June as it has in previous years, however the company is expected to bring out the guns sometime around September with new hardware and the next version of iOS – which is enough reason to be excited about. Meanwhile, Microsoft is slowly getting more Windows Phone 7 devices in the market, and with the arrival of Mango this fall and Nokia on board as its shiny new partner things are about to get much more interesting....

According to several Reddit posts, the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro are automatically rejecting phone calls and directing them straight to voicemail. This is happening even when the caller is someone in the recipient’s saved contacts list. The same reports have also appeared on Goolge’s Pixel support forums. Redditor merryjaina writes that people have tried to call them but been unable to get through. Their call log shows the incoming calls as being declined, which wasn’t the case....

How about a little Matrix flair? A modder who goes by Halfmillz on Nexus Mods has created a series of Sifu modifications that give the game a real Matrix look. I say “look” because the game is still Sifu and lacks a Matrix storyline, but the aesthetic is quite well done (video below). In total, there are four mods that reskin the game into something that fits perfectly into the Wachowskis’ sci-fi universe....

I’m not going to go into a lot of detail on the Snapdragon 801 as I’ve already talked about it in detail in past reviews, but I will give a quick breakdown of what you’ll be getting. In the Xperia Z2 is the MSM8974AB, which isn’t the highest-end SKU, but it’s certainly powerful. What’s interesting here is that the 8974AB is rated for a maximum clock speed of 2.36 GHz across its four Krait 400 CPU cores, however the Xperia Z2 reports a top clock of 2....

I was actually pretty disappointed in the battery life of the Z5. Previous Xperia devices had terrific stamina, and that was a standout feature of the handset that made it worth considering over other devices. The Xperia Z3 in particular was a fantastic performer in terms of battery life. With the Z5, however, the smaller battery capacity combined with a more power hungry SoC has relegated this device to merely average battery life, as you’ll see in the benchmarks below....

Just like in previous years we’ve thoughtfully compiled a list of technology toys and gadgets from least to most expensive. Whether you’re looking to keep your spending in check or go all out and buy that big bad HDTV you’ve been gazing at, we hope you’ll find this guide handy. So without further ado here are our suggestions: Razer is known and loved for its gaming gear. The DeathAdder is not their highest end mouse but at $60 it’s a solid mid-range, all-around’er and a favorite among the TechSpot staff....

For around $450 to $600 you can expect to find an Intel Core i3, i5 or AMD A/E-Series processor, integrated graphics, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, a DVD burner, and around 4 hours of battery life. Samsung Series 3 305E5A The Samsung Series 3 features a brushed metal look exterior with brushed chrome trim. Although it features a 15.6" display the thin bezel allows for a smaller chasis overall compared to other 15....

Is this finally a good time to buy or build a new PC? For the past year, the market has been plagued with component shortages and skyrocketing prices, but things are starting to look better. Let’s take a look at how the market has changed in the past few months… With Alder Lake, Intel has mostly retaken the gaming throne, at least until the release of AMD’s Ryzen 5800X3D, but the differences are nothing like they were in previous generations, and arguably limited to unrealistic situations....

Swiss “water battery” with 20 million kWh of capacity is finally functional The project took 14 years to complete It’s taken Switzerland €2 billion and 14 years, but the country’s underground “water battery” is now complete and operational. The project took so long to complete in part because workers had to tunnel through more than 11 miles of the Swiss Alps. Alien life confirmed? China says it could have detected evidence of extraterrestrial civilizations Don’t get too excited/terrified just yet Has China discovered signs of alien civilizations?...

On Thursday, Pavel Durov wrote in his Telegram channel that people should use any messaging app they like, “but do stay away from WhatsApp – it has now been a surveillance tool for 13 years.” Durov was referencing two security issues discovered in WhatsApp last week that could allow remote code execution on specific devices. Hackers just needed to establish a video call with a victim or send them a specially crafted video file....

The project started in the Spring of last year when Stack Overflow kept showing a tongue-in-cheek pop-up notifying users that they were almost out of free copies every time they used a keyboard command to copy characters from the site. “If they wanted unlimited access to copy and paste from Stack Overflow, all they needed to do was purchase The Key,” said Ben Popper, director of content for Stack Overflow....

While most of the recent coverage of 5G in the US has understandably been focused on the C-Band fiasco that the FAA and airline industry are unfairly foisting onto the cellular industry, another big bit of news hit late last week. (Side note: if you’re looking for a backgrounder around the issues of the C-Band connection and airline safety, check out this column I wrote for USA Today last November)....

Journalist David Sax and author of The Revenge of Analog: Real Things and Why They Matter, explains that pushback is inevitable. “We are analog creatures in an analog world,” he summarizes. “The digital world is simulating that in some way or another.” Pressing Records It’s not some half-baked theory, there are whole new companies that follow up on the desire for analog experiences. Others are having to cope with higher demand....

The world’s richest man has long claimed he abandoned the Twitter deal because it lied about the number of accounts that are fakes/bots. Twitter says it’s around 5%; Musk claims it could be higher than 20%. On May 13, Musk tweeted that the Twitter deal was on hold while he investigated Twitter’s 5% claim. A month later, Musk said the acquisition was in “serious jeopardy” over the issue. He hired two analysis companies to look into it: Cyabra, which estimated the number of fakes/bots to be 11%, and CounterAction, which said that bot accounts made up 5....