I agree with Volvo's opinion in this article. It is highly irresponsible to advertise a vehicle as being able to drive itself when that's not really the case. As noted in the article, several people have died after turning on "AutoPilot" because they assumed the vehicle would do all the work for them.
The ever-popular iPhone SE is being put back on sale for a limited time. What is it that makes the iPhone SE model so popular? Is it just the reasonable price?
We've all read the disconcerting articles about the lack of regulation and safety protocols being followed for foods and treats our pets consume. This article does a really good job explaining how blockchain tech being adopted by the pet food industry is going to help keep our friends safe and healthy. I have two dogs so this article put a big smile on my face.
My worry with Google is that it seems to gather a lot of personal data but I hadn't realized that there is a lot more that we can do with this popular search engine. What interests me most (from this list) is the 'Google Finance' feature.
We've all been not-so-patiently waiting for Apple to upgrade iPhone charging capabilities. The day might finally be coming! I really hope they made the right decision and went with the USB-C for new iPhones.
Netflix ravaged the movie and TV industry when it launched. Spotify dominated the music industry when it too was released to the public. Streaming, it seems, is the future of content consumption. Will it be the same case for the gaming industry with Google Stadia?
It’s Google’s latest project and judging from the company’s other streaming service, YouTube, it’s bound for success too.
Sure, other big companies had paved the way for Google but they never really took off. As they say, first one through the door gets shot. Google’s late entry into the game streaming service could be the one to make it.
It makes high-end gaming portable like a Nintendo Switch, powerful like a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, and social like iOS and Android games. It’s a gaming trifecta that’s sure to disrupt the billion-dollar gaming industry.
Versatile Cross-Platform Gaming Machine
Since it’s a game streaming service, you don’t have to have a high-end gaming beast of a machine to play the latest games. You can launch it right from your browser. This potentially means you can play games with any sort of hardware that can run Google Chrome.
This means you can play on a low-powered PC, a Chromecast, or even through your Android device. It wasn’t clear if you can play on a MacBook though, so we have to wait on that until they specifically announce it.
Since you’re playing your games on Google Cloud Servers, your saved game can easily be shared across your devices in real time. This means you can begin your game on your PC at home, pick up your Android device and continue exactly where you left off from the PC. This portability is a feature that Nintendo Switch owners love about their device. Knowing that you can now do that on Android devices makes a lot of sense for Nintendo users to switch on over to Google Stadia.
Having your game progress saved online on Google’s servers also lets you share that progress with other people. This is especially useful for games that are difficult to beat. With a puzzle game like Tomb Raider, you’ll be able to easily share your game with a friend and let them help you try to beat the game together. You don’t even have to worry about your friend’s hardware because they can play it on anything that can run a browser.
Another way to find a way to finish tough-to-beat games is by using YouTube integration and the Stadia Controller. You can find out how that works in the Stadia Controller section of this article.
Unprecedented YouTube Integration
As most internet denizens already know, PewDiePie is the top YouTuber we have today. He began his million-dollar career by streaming himself playing, reviewing, and commenting on the latest games. Other gamers are also successful YouTubers by streaming their matches live. It’s become so lucrative that some players have even made it a career out of game streaming. The Google-owned streaming site, therefore, has a huge following from the gaming community.
However, Google’s gaming arm for the past couple of years was limited to Android games. They aim to change that with the Google Stadia. More importantly, they’re taking a direct aim at the YouTube gaming community that other game streaming platforms such as NVidia's GeForce Now, Sony's PlayStation Now, and Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass couldn’t break into.
In the Game Developers Congress, the software giant demonstrated that Google Stadia can be launched directly from YouTube in various ways. The first one was through a videogame trailer. This instant access is a great way to jump right into the video game immediately after getting hyped up by the promotional content.
Another promise is that you can jump right into a YouTube content creator’s game so you can help them out. Google calls this feature the Crowd Play and it’s potentially a huge gaming community draw where creators and fans can interact via the game that they’re bonding over. Never has there been this kind of interactivity between creator and consumer.
If successful, not only will Google be able to launch a brand new product, they can also raise YouTube’s success bar even higher.
Stadia Controller
While Google has made sure that you can game with any sort of USB enabled controller, they've also announced their own controller that's better integrated with the Google system - The Stadia controller. It's specifically designed to work with the service by having a better connection to Google's servers than other controllers via its own Wi-Fi. This gives it better latency and lower input lag.
Furthermore, they’ve also installed a microphone and a quick-access button on the Stadia Controller so you can access Google Assistant. With the Stadia Controller, you wouldn’t have to shout at your laptop or Chromecast to talk to Google Assistant.
As for the tough-to-beat puzzle game I had told you about earlier, there’s an option in-game to access YouTube content related to the specific part of the game you can’t beat. This is via the Google Assistant button on the controller. It’s a nifty feature that I can imagine a lot of users will be excited for.
Performance Still Questionable Until It Launches
Since Google didn’t really give journalists any real hands-on time with the system at GDC, the similarity to the GeForce Now experience is pretty difficult to deny. It's also a game streaming service where you can access games via NVidia's cloud service. If that is the case, then we can assume that the performance is hinged on the internet connection you have available to you.
Sure you can play the latest AAA games even on trashy gaming machines with the GeForce Now but you have to contend with the high-volume of data needed to crunch the numbers between your computer and Google’s servers. As for the beta testing from Google themselves, the minimum requirements were at 25Mbps.
The video quality is decent but it’s still a bit lacking compared to games that natively run on a physical device. It’s understandable because of all the hoops that the data has to go through before it appears on your screen. But overall, it’s a lag-free experience which is much more important to gamers than clarity.
Furthermore, Google promises to have 8K gaming at 60fps available to the service as well. This will definitely entice more gamers into the service.
Unlike the others that came before it, Google Stadia has a massive market so this will surely have some eyeballs on it when it launches. Whether those eyeballs translate into a subscription is another question.
It’s no secret that Apple products are preferred by digital creative professionals. The Cupertino giant’s ecosystem is just built for that lifestyle. There’s simply a congruence between hardware and software that just draws them in.
I’m not saying that all creatives are on Mac or iOS or that it is a superior system for content creation. It’s just a statement of fact that there are a lot of digital creatives such as YouTubers, digital artists, and photographers have expressed that they use Apple’s ecosystem in their creative process.
However, if you're a professional who requires the latest and greatest in terms of processing power, you'd be hard pressed to find a Mac Pro for you. That's because it had not been updated since 2013. Sure, it was cutting edge back in the day but today, it’s already showing its age.
Generally speaking, it was a flawed system. It had thermal issues which prevented it from being used under heavy load for a long period. It bet on Thunderbolt 2 which didn’t exactly become the standard in peripherals. It worked for some but the flaws just got bigger and bigger as the system aged. So, the recent announcement that a new Mac Pro is set to arrive from Apple is a welcome development.
From what we’re hearing from rumour mills, there’s going to be a lot to like about this one.
What Needs to Change for the Current Generation Mac Pro
Design
The design, albeit it was well-received back then, is also wearing thin on some of the creatives that patronize it. While the circular design looked nice when it was released, now it just looks like a really expensive garbage bin. It’s going to be difficult to remain inspired when you have that on your desk.
This design also makes it impossible for Apple to install a full-sized workstation GPU. As a remedy, they installed two smaller GPUs instead. This results into what Apple’s chief of marketing describes as a “thermal corner”. The two GPUs got so hot that it had to throttle after a certain period of usage. For a device made for professionals who work 8-hour days, this has become a problem for Apple.
Hardware
For prosumers, the hardware is the pivotal point of assessment. If you're buying a brand-new professional-grade device in 2019 and expect quite a bit of work to be done on it, the specs should at least be modern.
The 12-core Xeon was indeed powerful and even up to today, 6 full years after the current generation Mac Pro was launched, it can still handle tasks well. However, purchasing one right now in the midst of TVs and monitors, and even consumer-grade video cameras being upgraded to 8K, it may show some signs of wear. So, buying one now might be an exercise short-sightedness.
This is one of the most complained about aspect of the current Mac Pro. It's powerful and, by all means, it's a capable workstation especially when used with Apple's suite of software for digital creatives. But the fact of the matter is, the hardware is on the edge getting euthanized. It's so outdated that other processors have become just as powerful yet energy efficient. The Mac Mini, for example, overtakes the Mac Pro in video exporting times which is absurd coming from a higher-end device.
IO
Apple isn’t the most progressive when it comes to modern IO adoption. The Mac Pro might be the culprit. They went all out with 6 Thunderbolt 2 ports on the 2013 version but not a lot of peripherals went with them on that journey. Sure, there was a handful but that legacy port did not have its time in the sun like Thunderbolt 3 ports are having right now.
There were also 4 USB-A ports that are plenty by some standards. But, that can only do so much for a prosumer who needed to plug in a lot of powerful peripherals.
Updated Hardware Specs… Finally!
It goes without saying that the Mac Pro 2019 will come with modern specs. So, expect the latest workstation processor to come out of the box. Whether it’s going to be from AMD or from Intel is yet to be confirmed. If we were to use historical data to predict which one though, I would put my money on Intel’s latest 10-nanometer Xeon Chips nicknamed Sunny Cove.
Much Anticipated Modularity
The most significant development that’s set to arrive for the new Mac Pro is not in what’s inside it. It’s in how you can expand it. According to marketing head Paul Schiller himself, the new Mac Pro is going to be modular.
This means you can expand the base system in any direction that Apple allows.
In this light, it is almost certain that there is going to be a GPU module to be made available for the device. So, if the work that you plan on doing with the Mac Pro is GPU intensive, you can add that to your system. However, if it’s not something that you’d need, there’s no reason to spend extra just to get a feature that you’re not going to need anyway.
Whether Apple makes specific modules for the specific professional requirement is still unknown.
Depending on how you look at it, the modularity can either be a boon or a drawback to making the system more competitively priced. On one side, you can see it as Apple giving consumers the choice to pay only for the features they want and not for the ones that they don’t. On the other side, you can see it as Apple hiking up the prices for higher-end features by adding the cost of housing and connectivity to each planned module.
What’s for certain is that people who buy this will be able to future-proof their Mac Pro. This, in itself, is something that a lot of prosumers would love.
The most exciting possibility, however, is if Apple opens up their walled-garden to modules from other developers. For example, there can be an audio module for audio professionals that have all the ports that they need. For content creators can also benefit a lot from this vision.
Maybe the word mini isn't accurate, but that's how I describe both the S10e and XR. Apple is newer to this fight, so which one do you think is the winner? Personally, I can't take my eyes off of the S10e.
