When it comes to building a high-performance PC, the power supply unit (PSU) often takes a backseat to flashy GPUs and cutting-edge CPUs. However, the Montech TITAN PLA 1200W PSU proves that the backbone of your system deserves just as much attention. Designed for enthusiasts and professionals alike, this PSU combines robust performance with modern compliance standards.

I first came across the Montech TITAN PLA 1200W whilst looking for a new PSU to power my RTX5080. A lot of the 1200W PSU’s on the market didn’t have the required 12V-2×6 connection, and I didn’t want to use any adapters given the recent horror story’s of burning cables. MONTECH is relatively new in the PSU space however they seem to be growing significantly. Don’t let that put you off as this specific PSU is manufactured by Seasonic (arguably one of the best PSU manufactures in the world). It also comes with a generous 10 year warranty for peace of mind.

Key Features

The TITAN PLA 1200W is built on the Seasonic Vertex platform, ensuring reliability and efficiency. It boasts:

• 1200W Maximum Output: Perfect for powering high-end processors like AMD Ryzen 9 9950X or Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, alongside GPUs like the NVIDIA RTX 5090.
• Cybenetics Platinum Certification: Achieving high efficiency at both 115V and 230V.
• Noise Control: With a Cybenetics A- noise certification, it operates at a whisper-quiet 25-30 dBA.
• Compact Design: At just 160mm depth, it fits snugly into most setups.

Unboxing Experience

The TITAN PLA is well packaged and included a bunch of really useful accessories such as small transparent cable ties and cable clips to help with your PSU’s cable management. The PSU and cables are also placed in branded cloth bags so that any cables you don’t use can be safely stored away for future use.

PSU Design

The TITAN PLA 1200W looks just as good as its specs. This PSU stands out with its pristine white finish, exuding a modern and clean aesthetic that complements a wide range of PC builds. Its minimalist design is accentuated by subtle branding and smooth contours, creating a refined yet understated look. The white shine not only adds a touch of elegance but also makes it a perfect choice for setups aiming for a bright, cohesive theme. That being said, my build is mainly black components and this still compliments by build very well.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• High build quality and efficient performance.
• Compliance with modern standards like ATX v3.1.
• Low noise output, even under load.

Cons:

• Slightly higher price compared to competitors.
• Borderline performance in transient response tests.

Performance Insights & Specifications

The TITAN PLA 1200W excels in delivering consistent power under demanding conditions. It supports ATX v3.1 and PCIe 5.x standards, making it future-proof for next-gen hardware. However, it does face competition from other models in Montech’s lineup, such as the Titan Gold, which offers similar capacity at a lower price.

Final Thoughts

The Montech TITAN PLA 1200W is a solid choice for those seeking a reliable and efficient PSU. While it may not outshine every competitor, its blend of power, efficiency, and quiet operation makes it a worthy investment for high-performance systems.

The post Unleashing Power: Review into the Montech TITAN PLA 1200W ATX 3.1 Power Supply first appeared on Helpful Penguin.

You’ve finally persuaded your other half to allow you to turn the garage or spare bedroom into the ultimate “Man Cave” gaming room, but you only have room for one table…You love pool but you’ve also been thinking of getting into table tennis too. That’s an issue! Or is it?

So, you want an all-out arcade table game experience, but you only have room for one games table? Not problem. Make sure that one table is this Revolver 3 in 1 Games Table!

With a clever lever design, you can quickly change this table to be either a pool table, an air hockey table, or a table tennis table. It’s got a high quality design with 18 mm thick composite MDF on the pool table, a powerful fan for the air hockey surface, and a black carbon fibre effect for the exterior. You even get a lid to put on it when not in use so you can use it as a regular table.

You get all the accessories for the different games. Plus, it has handy built-in storage racks to keep it all safe.

• One table… three types of table-top games!
• Play pool, air hockey, or table tennis
• Easy to transform, one person can do it
• Amazing quality with all accessories included
• Measures approx. 218 cm x 128 cm x 83 cm

I know what you’re thinking…”This must be expensive”. Well, actually it’s pretty reasonable coming in at just £799 for the full set (Including free delivery). The best part is you can spread the cost interest free over up to 4 months with Clearpay!

So, if you want to bring three times the fun to your games room, order this Revolver 3 in 1 Games Table now!

The post The Ultimate 3 in 1 Games Table first appeared on Helpful Penguin.

The surprising move was discovered by classic video game emulator developer Riley Testut (via Twitter (opens in new tab)), who shared screenshots confirming that iOS 16 works with both Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons and the Nintendo Switch Pro controller. Most impressively, the right and left Joy-Cons were spotted to work individually or appear as one single controller and can be dynamically swapped between. 

This now means those that own a Nintendo Switch controller and iPhone or iPad with iOS 16 can in theory utilise the former to play games from the App Store. Nintendo also has a handful of mobile games such as Super Mario Run, Mario Kart Tour, Fire Emblem Heroes, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and more recently. Pikmin Bloom. 

Each controller can be customised via the Bluetooth menu within the settings menu on IOS 16. This is now in beta for developers with a public beta set to follow in July and an official release set for later this year.

Apple previously rolled out support for the PlayStation 5 DualSense and Xbox Series X controller in April 2021 as part of iOS 13. Since then, many have been hoping Nintendo would be the next in line considering the company was the final of the big three in the video games space. 

Earlier this year, Nintendo finally added Bluetooth audio support for Switch, something that was absent from the system since it launched in March 2017. 

iOS 16 was officially unveiled during Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference 2022 on June 6th, 2022 alongside a new lock screen, enhanced maps, CarPlay and more. Meanwhile, at least one Apple iPhone 14 model is in jeopardy of not meeting its development schedule due to issues with lockdowns in China, according to a new report.  

The post Apple iOS 16 now supports Nintendo Switch controllers on iPhone and iPad devices first appeared on Helpful Penguin.

It’s a rock-solid phone for people who want an upgrade that opens them up to the 5G mobile internet speeds that are now standard in phone contracts in many countries. The Moto G62 also has a few of the characteristics that have made the Moto G series phones easy to recommend for so long. 

Overall, battery life is good, the design is unlikely to turn anyone off, the software is tasteful and uncluttered, and the price is right. 

Compromises naturally creep in when you deal with a tightly restricted budget, though. The Moto G62 does not have a particularly impressive camera array. Night images are poor, daytime pictures can look undersaturated or at least a little cool, and video is limited.

The Moto G62 is similarly so-so for gaming, as its Snapdragon 480 Plus is a poor fit for graphically-intensive titles, like Fortnite. 

In these two areas — the camera and high-end gaming — you’ll get much better results if you spend a little more money. However, if you’re interested in the Moto G62, it’s probably because you don’t want to spend more. If that’s the case, this phone is one of the best to buy right now.

Check out our rundown of the best Motorola phones and best cheap phones right now for more insight and alternatives.

This phone’s main job is to provide 5G mobile internet to those who haven’t experienced it yet and to do so on a tight budget. 

It costs £199, clearly intended to shimmy under specific price borders. (While not widely available in the US at the time of review, you can expect to pay around $280.)

The Moto G62 was released in June 2022 alongside the higher-end Moto G82, which is a bit more powerful, a bit slimmer and has a superior OLED display. If you’re importing, take note there is a different version of the Moto G62 for the Indian market, which has a better Snapdragon 695 SoC and more RAM. It will perform a bit better than the model reviewed here.

• Plastic build
• Headphone jack
• Water repellent design

The Moto G series aims to provide affordable phones for those who want a reliable, fairly easy-to-use Android. You rarely get many touches of high-end design or cutting-edge tech, they just don’t fit in the budget.

The Moto G62’s design slots into this ethos perfectly. It’s an unobtrusive but fairly good-looking phone. Its back has a light reactive finish, but one without the potentially off-putting attention-seeking of phones from Realme. The camera surround has just enough specificity to its shape to appear designed with a ‘look’ in mind.

If the Moto G62 were made of glass and metal, it would seem right at home next to phones twice the price. But like almost every phone in this family since 2019’s Moto G7, the Moto G62’s shell is almost entirely plastic.

The back and sides are plastic. Its top-most screen layer is glass, but it is not specified as Gorilla Glass; suggesting it is probably glass from another company, such as Dragontrail. However, we are yet to put a scratch on it.

The numerous budget style aspects of the build don’t matter much if you use the bundled case, which comes in the box. This leaves the one metal outer part of the phone exposed, the part you’ll touch a bunch of times a day: the power button.  

The power button doubles as a fingerprint scanner. The Moto G62’s design takes the case into account here and provides a clear guide as to where your thumb should sit, resulting in a completely intuitive unlocking experience. 

Fingerprint recognition is a touch slower than that of top-tier phones but still feels great. You don’t need to push the button in, the presence of your thumb is enough. You can also lightly double-tap the finger pad to bring up a box of app shortcuts. 

You’re hopefully getting a good idea of what the Moto G62 offers by now. It’s not flashy or high-end, but a few smart design choices mean its cheap parts don’t draw too much attention. Haptics is one lower-end part that will be immediately obvious if you’ve used a higher-end phone before. The vibration motor is unsophisticated and makes haptic feedback feel like farts of varying intensity, not the more refined knocks and clicks of a phone like the OnePlus Nord 2T. 

The phone isn’t waterproof either but, like previous Motos of this stature, it is water repellent. Here’s Motorola’s official line on exactly what that means:

“Water-repellent design creates a barrier to help protect against moderate exposure to water such as accidental spills, splashes, or light rain.”

The Moto G62 also has a 3.5mm headphone jack and stereo speakers. These offer decent maximum volume and a good stereo image for movies and games although, unsurprisingly, this speaker array does not have the bass output of the best phone speakers. 

The mid-range also sounds slightly less refined than that of the step-up Moto G82, although the tonal consistency between the bottom and above-screen drivers is good. Some stereo phone speakers have thin-sounding upper speakers: not the case here. 

• 6.5-inch 120Hz Full HD+ IPS LCD
• Customizable color profiles
• Middling viewing angles

The Moto G62 has a 6.5-inch LCD panel. In slightly more expensive models you’d get an OLED display, but at this price, it is the norm to see LCDs instead. 

What’s the difference? OLEDs have emissive pixels, meaning each pixel emits its own light source. LCDs use a separate backlight, where the entire screen is illuminated when anything is displayed. It means LCDs can’t deliver perfect black levels in a dark room. 

OLEDs typically offer richer color too, but there’s nothing wrong with the Moto G62’s own color depth. You can pick between Natural and Saturated modes. Both look good, but we’d suggest moving the color temperature slider a notch or two towards the warmer end, as the default skews cool in order to make the picture appear to ‘pop’ a bit more.

In typical LCD fashion, the Moto G62 loses a bit of brightness when viewed off-axis – not a big problem – and its peak brightness is not super-impressive either. In testing it delivered a maximum of 513 nits when out in strong direct sunlight, where some phones from a rung or two up can reach 650 to 770 nits. It makes a big difference for display visibility when outdoors.

There are some compromises here, but sharpness is just as good as that of phones twice the price. The Moto G62’s screen resolution is 2400 x 1080 pixels and is the key component that makes using the thing seem so similar to a higher-end Android, particularly with light tasks.

This resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate make the Moto G62 display a big upgrade over that of the Moto G50 5G — an older phone that played the same role, as a cheap way to get a 5G phone.

A high refresh rate like 120Hz makes scrolling through menus look much smoother. The Moto G62 isn’t the best showcase for the tech, as micro-stutters spoil the effect a bit. These tend to occur when you move from one part of the interface to another and are not a surprise or, in our opinion, a huge issue in a budget phone.

• Runs Android 12
• Snapdragon 480 Plus chipset
• Motorola-specific shortcuts/gestures
• Only 4GB RAM

The Moto G62’s interface is the same as on other Moto phones. It’s clean and simple, with much less added software than in rival phones from Xiaomi, Realme and Samsung.

There’s a Moto app to turn the handful of Moto extra features on and off, a Motorola Notifications app (this one is largely bloatware) and Dolby Atmos, which is behind the phone’s audio optimization.

What are those extra Moto features? Peek Display, Attentive Display and Gestures. Peek Display is a custom lock screen that lights up when you pick up the phone while in standby. It shows the time, battery life and icons, to denote any recently received notifications.

It’s a classy feature, and a big part of the visual identity of Moto phones. Attentive Display uses the front camera to keep the screen lit while you’re reading articles, for example. 

Finally, the G62 has Moto Gestures, which are also Moto mainstays. You can, for example, turn the torch on by karate chopping in the air with the phone in-hand twice. Or flip the phone over onto its screen when on a flat surface to enable the Do Not Disturb mode. 

These features sit on the foundations of Android 12, and the light approach to software skinning means you get to see the visual changes Google made in this version of the OS. Feature toggles in the drop-down menus sit in colorful blocks, for example, and you can choose the color to alter Android’s personality a bit.

Android feels OK in the Moto G62, but you can tell this is a lower-end phone. As mentioned in the display section of this review, there are micro-stutters during basic navigation that spoil the effect of the 120Hz display a little. 

App loads can be noticeably slower than those of phones from a step up, including the Moto G82 5G. This phone also has less RAM than Google recommends as the optimal minimum for Android 12; with 4GB rather than 6GB. It’s likely why the phone is not 100% smooth, and can lag in quite an obvious way if you’re a fast-fingered app juggler. 

However, you’ll find this spec repeated in other phones at the price, including the Realme 9i and Samsung Galaxy A33.

The Moto G62 has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 Plus processor – a tweaked version of the original Snapdragon 480 from early 2021. Its aims are largely the same as the phone’s, to deliver 5G on a budget.

Performance is just OK. The Moto G62 scores 1583 in Geekbench 5, a fairly unimpressive score. However, you’ll struggle to find anything better at the price without shopping around for deep discounts, spending at least $50 / £50 more, or giving up 5G mobile internet.

For example, the Samsung Galaxy A33 5G’s Exynos 1280 SoC has better CPU and gaming power but costs more. The same applies to the Xiaomi Poco X4 GT. If you need to stick to the Moto G62’s price, the obvious alternatives are the Honor X8 and Oppo A54, both of which use Snapdragon 480 family SoCs.

Without shopping around for sales, the Moto G62 is among the best-value 5G phones around. However, you shouldn’t buy this phone if you want to play some of the most demanding games. Fortnite doesn’t run well on the Moto G62. Frame rate stability is bad enough to render the game unplayable at default graphics settings, and even when you push settings to their minimum level, regular dips into single-figure frame rates make it a trial to play.

Bear in mind, though, that Fortnite is one of the most challenging mobile games to run, and the majority of casual titles will run perfectly well. There’s a lot of room for them too. The phone has 128GB storage, where some Samsungs that retail near the price only have 64GB to work with.

• 50MP-led triple rear camera system
• Quality lags behind competitors
• Lacklustre dynamic range and low light performance

The Moto G62 has three rear cameras, in a familiar arrangement. You get a 50MP main camera, a humble 8MP ultra-wide and a poor 2MP macro that’s barely worth using. 

Over the past year or so, 50MP has become something of a trendy resolution, but the Moto G62 has one of the weakest 50MP cameras out there. It uses the Samsung JN1 sensor, which packs an awful lot of pixels into a small sensor chip: not a good place to start.

Photos during the day can still look perfectly sound, but the importance of software and a phone’s ISP (image signal processor) are highlighted by the step-up Moto G82. It has the same sensor but tends to deliver much better color reproduction and its images look significantly less processed up close.

The Moto G62 can make grassy nature scenes look a touch anemic, an effect more obvious in the main camera than the ultra-wide. And there’s too much sharpening and manipulation of contrast when you zoom into pics. However, if you didn’t have the Moto G82 to hand to make such comparisons, the Moto G62’s camera isn’t what you’d call a failure.

It still has solid Auto HDR, which lets you shoot with no worries, about where the sun is in a scene. Highlights and shadows are balanced fairly well, considering this is a cheaper phone too. We’d give most a tweak or two before sharing online, but the Moto G62’s ability to avoid egregious blown highlights is a big plus.

Sky gradients reveal the limited raw ability of the sensor once more, with a tendency to turn green towards the horizon on bright blue days — an effect you don’t see in cameras with better native dynamic range. We also noticed a tendency for diffuse clouds to end up with a purplish hue around their borders. It’s another telltale sign the Moto G62 doesn’t have great camera hardware.

However, load images up in Photoshop, or your editing app of choice, warm up the mid-tones a bit and the Moto G62’s pictures suddenly look a good 30% more inviting.

There’s no saving the phone’s night pictures, though. While the Moto G62 has a Night Vision mode for low-light photography, night-time images are low on detail and dynamic range, and often have a sheen of granular noise over their surface.

Highly effective computational photography for solid low-light phone pics has rapidly worked its way down to cheaper models. But it hasn’t made it this low, yet.

The Moto G62’s ultra-wide camera uses another Samsung sensor, the ISOCELL 4H7. It suffers from the same issues as secondary cameras in other entry-level phones, like poor sharpness at the sides of the frame and lower dynamic range — which leads to blown highlights in some pics.

However, on occasion, its photos are more instantly charming than those of the main camera, thanks to their richer colors.

The Moto G62 lets you shoot 1080p video at 30fps or 60fps. You’re better off sticking with the former most of the time, as the 60fps mode doesn’t offer image stabilization. Video capture using the ultrawide (at 1080p) and macro camera (at 720p) is possible too – a nice touch.

Dig into the camera app’s Settings menu and you can switch the 16MP selfie camera between 4MP and High Resolution modes. However, despite pixel binning, selfies become quite soft and vague in dim indoor light, and you don’t really see the benefit of the higher sensor resolution in good lighting.

It’s an OK selfie camera for an affordable 5G phone, but nothing more than that.

The post Motorola Moto G62 review first appeared on Helpful Penguin.

The main specs stay the same, including the 20MP MFT sensor, 121-point phase-detect AF, and video up to 4K 30p. That might sound a little disappointing, but there’s more to the OM-5 than the headline specs. 

For a start, like the E-M5 III before it, it packs a lot of features, controls and performance into a very small body. This is a pocket-sized interchangeable lens camera that can shoot at 10fps, or 30fps with 14-shot pre-buffer in Pro Capture mode. It has Live Bulb and Live Composite modes for watching exposure build ‘live’ at night, and its pixel-shift High Res capture mode can create 50MP images handheld, and 80MP images on a tripod.

The external controls are remarkably well laid out for a camera so small, with a real quality feel to them, and as well as an EVF you get a vari-angle screen.

OM System is pitching this as a go-anywhere adventure camera, but it’s perfectly suited to travel and vlogging too, thanks in part to some excellent, compact and affordable lenses. 

The OM-5 may not break any technical barriers, but as a piece of intelligent product design, it’s pretty remarkable.

OM System OM-5 price and release date

• OM System OM-5 body only: $1,199.99 / £1,199
• OM System OM-5 with 12-45mm f/4 Pro lens: $1,599.99 / £1,499
• OM System OM-5 with 14-150mm f/5.6 II lens (UK only): £1,499

The previous Olympus OM-D E-M5 III was never a cheap camera, and that’s worth mentioning, because although the OM-5 has a new maker and a new model name, it’s largely the same camera.

So if the OM-5’s predecessor seemed stubbornly pricey back then, the same applies now. The OM-5 is a powerful little camera, but it does not do anything remarkable for the money; it’s worth its price tag in our opinion, but you’re not getting a bargain in terms of value for money.

It’s up against some good cameras in the same price bracket, including the Canon EOS R10, Fujifilm X-S10, Nikon Z50 and Sony A6400, all of which have APS-C sensors. But then the Canon and the Nikon don’t have any lenses to speak of (it’s true!), and the A6400 is an old camera with no IBIS, which leaves the Fujifilm X-S10 as the most serious competitor.

The OM-5 has a smaller MFT sensor, of course. A lot of folk are convinced this gives it a serious image quality disadvantage – wrongly, as it happens. What it also has is a range of lenses that’s broadar then those of it’s rivals, and the lenses themselves are physically smaller. You can’t use a camera without lenses.

OM System OM-5 design and handling

• Mini-DSLR style design
• Flip-out vari-angle screen
• Single SD card slot
• Twin control dials
• Dual mode function lever

For a camera packing this performance, power, and range of features, the OM-5 is very small. This could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on whether you’re using big professional, constant-aperture lenses, or the smaller zooms and primes from the Olympus range – and whether you’re looking for a tiny travel camera or a big do-it-all mirrorless with serious grunt.

With smaller lenses, the OM-5 is just divine. If you want to use larger lenses, it really needs the optional grip (this doesn’t take extra batteries; it’s just a bigger grip) in order for it to feel balanced and comfortable.

Regardless of that, OM System (not ‘Olympus’, remember) has done a remarkable job of getting a lot of very usable physical controls onto such a small body. 

The EVF is good enough, though it lacks the outright resolution of newer and more expensive rivals, and the flip-out vari-angle screen on the back is a nice feature on a camera as small as this, and a useful one too.

The single SD card slot might deter power users looking for the additional security and backup options of a dual-card setup, but there’s a limit to how much you can fit into a body as small as this. One reason for choosing two card slots is to cover the possibility of card failure, which is rare. Another is to separate stills and video, JPEGs and raw, captures and backups – all of which are reasonable pro requirements, but somewhat outside the remit of a camera like this.

There are two control dials on the top of the E-M5 and these work really well, and are given extra versatility by the dual-mode lever on the back of the camera which switches their functions. You do have to remember what you’ve set these dials up to do for each function mode, but if you can do that you’ll get a very quick system for changing a multitude of settings from shutter speed to aperture, and from white balance to EV compensation.

The OM-5’s external controls have a quality feel, and a logic that’s very endearing. Olympus (sorry, OM System – it still takes some getting used to) is very good indeed at making the controls on small cameras work as well as, or better than, those on larger ones.

OM System OM-5 features and performance

• 6.5-stop IBIS (7.5-stop with sync IS)
• Extensive and customizable Art Filters
• Pro Capture with pre-shot buffer
• In-camera focus stacking
• 50MP/80MP High Res Shot
• Live Composite, Live Bulb, Live ND

Practically every camera maker in the world now offers 5-axis in-body stabilization systems which it considers the best on the market. But OM System (see, we didn’t say ‘Olympus’!) and Panasonic between them have, we would say, the best. It’s perhaps to do with the smaller sensor size and mass, or the algorithms used, but the OM-5’s stabilization is pretty remarkable. It has its limits for video – an IBIS system simply can’t smooth camera movements like a gimbal – but for all the perceived ‘faults’ of MFT systems, the stabilization is remarkable.

The OM-5 has many other strengths. One of these is its Pro Capture mode, which can capture still images at 30fps with a 14-shot pre-capture buffer to allow for your reaction time. So you can half-press the shutter release for a ‘rolling’ capture, then press it the rest of the way when the action starts, and the camera will record the half-second of action while you were still thinking about it. That’s clever. The only drawback is that the focus is fixed from the start – but that’s fine for setups where you know where the action is going to happen, such as the jumps in a horse race or the bar in a high jump.

The OM-5 uses a lot of computational features that include in-camera focus stacking, which you can use handheld, and a 50MP High Res Shot mode, also handheld, for those times when you might actually need the resolution of a high-res full-frame camera – and it really does generate natively higher-resolution images, not some kind of lame substitute.

On top of that, you’ve got Olympus’s Live Composite, Live Bulb and Live ND modes. The first two are really good for night shots – once you’ve worked out the settings and parameters – while the second promises the same effect as ND filters for blurring skies, surf and water. This is limited to a 4-stop reduction, however, when for long exposures in bright light you really need a 10-stop reduction.

Finally, Olympus’s Art Filters are worth a mention. These are not the pretty plain ‘looks’ you might get from other cameras, but actually rather good analog effects.

The post OM System OM-5 review first appeared on Helpful Penguin.

“We’ve all been there before,” says Google (opens in new tab). “You try to use a spare USB-C cable to connect a docking station or monitor to your laptop and it just doesn’t seem to work. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you have a faulty cable.” 

The company is right. While USB-C offers a lot of innovations and will likely become the I/O cable over the coming years, getting the right cable is a minefield, especially if you want to do something “pro” like run multiple monitors. 

Google has a plan if you use a Chromebook though: a notification that explicitly tells you if the USB-C cable isn’t up to the task at hand once you’ve plugged it in. It’s available on ‘eligible’ Chromebooks to begin with.

Which means what exactly? Google says Chromebooks running 11th or 12th Gen Intel Core CPUs with USB 4 or Thunderbolt capability will be part of this upgrade. The company plans to expand to others at some point in the future, too.

USB-Confusing 

Unlike USB-A cables, USB-C cables come in all shapes and sizes, with a huge variety of functions and abilities. Charging and data speeds can vary across cables, for example. 

How fractured the market is happens to be one of the reasons that Apple got a decent amount of stick (opens in new tab) for selling a Thunderbolt 4 cable for $150, despite the cable being a unique product that can carry huge amounts of data over two metres. 

Microsoft and Apple would do well to look at Google’s example and try to build in features that demystify our new-age connection cables. And with major events forthcoming, such as WWDC 2022, who knows, maybe competitors will also get in on the USB-C speed-alert act. We sure do hope so, as it’s a great idea.

The post USB-C to get even smarter on Chromebooks first appeared on Helpful Penguin.

To celebrate, Google has revealed details of its latest Street View camera. No longer is it an entire car, but instead the whole thing weighs less than 7kg / 15 lbs and, helpfully, Google says it’s been shrunk to “roughly the size of a house cat.” Which is nice to know.

That’s actually rather impressive, given the camera has the same power, imaging resolution and processing capabilities as the Street View car we all know, love and point at. The benefits here is how the camera is far more portable than before, so can be taken to remote islands, Google says, to the top of mountains, or for a stroll through your local town square.

As well as being carried, it’s designed to fit to any vehicle with a roof rack, so in theory almost any car can be a Street View car, helping Google’s partners use it wherever they like.

It’s modular too. Ethan Russell, direct of product at Google Maps, said: “Previously, we needed to create an entirely new camera system whenever we wanted to collect different types of imagery. But now, we can add on to this modular camera with components like lidar — laser scanners — to collect imagery with even more helpful details, like lane markings or potholes. We can add these features when we need them, and remove them when we don’t.”

Google says we’ll start seeing the new camera, finished in fun colours inspired by the company’s logo, of course, in 2023.

Go back in time with Street View

Since Street View is 15 years old, it’s now possible to see how a particular location has changed over the last decade or so.

To make virtual time-travelling easy, Google has added a ‘see more dates’ option to Street View images viewed on iOS and Android devices. That way, you can see how a building development has grown over time, or how the surrounding landscape has changed since 2007.

“Street View is all about capturing the world as it changes, and it’s also a powerful way to reminisce about the past,” Russell says, adding: “Browse each of the images to see a digital time capsule that shows how a place has changed”.

The post Google Maps celebrates 15 years of Street View with excellent upgrade first appeared on Helpful Penguin.

The Nanoleaf Shapes line was part of that expansion, hitting the streets back in the summer of 2020 when boredom was at an all-time high and everybody was shopping their way through it. In a way, it was an ingenious move. Everyone was in lockdown and had nowhere to go, and so most people turned to home-based hobbies like playing video games, sprucing up their space, and throwing virtual DJ dance parties in their living room. And, Nanoleaf Shapes was just the ticket.

Not that these wall light panels wouldn’t have skyrocketed to fame otherwise. Nanoleaf Shapes, along with the other light panels, are the natural evolution of smart light bulbs, which are now the new normal. They are not just another great way to “smarten” our homes, they also make us feel like we’re living in the future, but in a Back to the Future way that’s also ironically nostalgic. There’s a lot of comfort in that.

Nanoleaf Shapes launched in May 2020, but wasn’t the first wall light panel line from the company. It followed 2018’s Nanoleaf Canvas, which in turn followed 2016’s ​​Nanoleaf Light Panels. Shapes, however, start off at a more accessible price than its predecessors. The Mini Triangle Starter Kit is $119.99 / £89.99 / AU$189.99 and gets you five 4.5-inch triangle light panels, five mounting plates, five linkers, six mounting tapes, a 42W power supply unit, and a power plug – essentially everything you need to get you started.

If you do want the flagship 9-inch triangles or hexagons, however, a starter kit will cost you $199.99 for seven panels. In the UK, you can get a four-panel, nine-panel, or 15-panel triangle starter kit, starting at £89.99 or a five-panel, nine-panel, or 15-panel hexagon starter kit starting at £119.99. In Australia you can get a five or nine panel hexagon kit from AU$229.99 and a nine-panel triangle kit for AU$349.99.  

Whichever you choose, Nanoleaf Shapes isn’t going to be a cheap purchase as far as lights go. You are, after all, paying for the privilege of having a smart, modular, customizable, and feature-filled device that’s both functional and decorative. 

What’s more, once you set up that starter kit, you’ll start to realize that having four or five light panels is not going to be enough, especially when you’re trying to achieve a certain look or design. Since Nanoleaf Shapes is all about expandability, expansion packs and accessory packs are on hand, which means spending more. A three-panel Shapes expansion pack will set you back $69.99 / £49.99 / AU$119.99.

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The trailer itself was light on actual details, but we can glean more from the game’s Steam listing, which dropped alongside the trailer. This should be exciting news for Steam fans, as Call of Duty has been skipping the PC storefront since Black Ops 4, preferring to stick to Activision Blizzard’s own launcher.

Per official details, Modern Warfare 2 will feature the return of Task Force 141 as they head out on missions across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, which include offshore sieges with underwater combat, air assaults, and stealth missions. It also is said to include a Special Ops tactical co-op mode, and a multiplayer mode that Activision promises will boast a “massive amount of free post-launch content” including new maps, modes, and events.

As for Activision’s multi-game-spanning battle royale, Warzone, that’s planned to be upgraded to 2.0 soon after Modern Warfare 2’s launch to take the new gameplay, features, and tech into account in the free-to-play experience, as well as add its content, systems, and more. However, Warzone will remain a separate experience and continue existing player progression as it has before.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 launches on October 28 of this year, though reports have indicated we may not see Call of Duty continue as an annual franchise following that. We have more details about Modern Warfare 2 available in preview form, both for the single-player and multiplayer content.

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