Huawei reveals their new high-end phones, the P9 and P9 plus

Huawei might be a relative newcomer in the US given their presence is only just recently more popular due to their design-win with Google and the Nexus 6P, but they're actually one of the largest phone makers in the world and are making more waves with the announcement of their newest phones at an event in London, the P9 and P9 Plus.

Huawei reveals their new high-end phones, the P9 and P9 plus

These new phones are being targeted squarely at the high-end market, and have the specs to match. The P9 has a 5.2-inch screen, a Leica partnered 12-megapixel camera, 3,000mAh battery, USB-C port for connectivity, 3GB of RAM, and the company's own octa-core Kirin 995 processor inside of a very nice looking aluminum body. The P9 Plus has all of the above except has a much larger 3,400mAh battery, 4GB of RAM and a 5.5-inch screen instead. Both of them will have a fingerprint sensor located on the back of the chassis.

The most interesting spec is the camera, even though the resolution is rather normal at 12-megapixels, it's the partnership with Leica that means it could potentially be a powerhouse of a secondary, or dare I say, primary photo-taking device. There's a second 12-megapixel monochrome sensor that's supposed to be able to improve contrast within photos, and likely add a few more levels of dynamic range by tripling the amount of light that the whole camera can take in.

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Lian Li PC-J60 is a case that helps you organize those pesky cables

Jeff Williams | Cases, Cooling & PSU | Apr 6, 2016 7:46 PM CDT

Lian Li just announced a new mid-tower case that's part of a new line of cases coming from them. The new aluminum case from them keeps the general classic lines that they're known for but modernizes it with a nice red accent on the side, a subtle but nice touch. It's designed around helping keep cable clutter under control in an easy to do fashion.

The J60 is a mid-tower chassis that can fit up to an ATX-sized motherboard inside. It has room inside for a full 210mm PSU's in the bottom and can accommodate seven 410mm (16.1-inches) GPU's, which means that there's no GPU too long to fit inside. To help with airflow and keeping things cool, the PSU and HDD's are contained in a compartment that's sectioned off below, with a 140mm fan that brings in air from the main case to be exhausted out of the PSU. That shroud is what's there to help any build look immaculate on the inside, even if it's a bit messy underneath that. The idea is that you can hide the PSU and the cables coming from it to have a much more clean look.

Two 120mm fans are on the front and the top panel can fit an additional three 120mm fans, or maybe even be a good place to put a radiator, up to 430mm in length. That flourish on the edge? It actually serves a purpose other than helping to look good, it's slotted to help bring in air from the outside. In the compartment below you can mount two HDD cages that can each hold five 3.5" drives and one 2.5" drive. The new case can be had with or without a window, though if you're going to great lengths to tidy up inside, why not show it off?

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'Star Wars' fan builds full scale AT-ST from 'Return of the Jedi'

Ben Gourlay | Celebrities & Entertainment | Apr 6, 2016 6:36 PM CDT

I love 'Star Wars' just as much (if not) more than your average nerd, but my lack of any real life skills means I have to passively consume media, while some dedicated fans have the capacity to build. And that's what someone has done in building a full size replica of the Empire's AT-ST walker seen in 'Return of the Jedi'.

According to The Verge, the builder requested to remain anonymous, but allowed some video and photos to be taken of his impressive creation. Standing at over 8 metres tall and constructed from "timber, plastic, and bits of scrap metal" the walker has a ladder which leads to a cockpit built for two, its own movable turrets and, in a nice touch, movie quality sound effects.

The owner also doesn't seem to have any Ewoks on the premises - this AT-ST must have finished them off.

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DOOM getting an open beta next week for those that missed it

Jeff Williams | Gaming | Apr 6, 2016 6:04 PM CDT

The new DOOM's multiplayer beta was only available for a limited number of people who pre-ordered Wolfenstein: The New Order, which came out two years ago, so it wasn't exactly a "closed" affair, though it wasn't that inclusive either. Thankfully id Software and Bethesda are about to be open to anyone who dares from April 15th through the 17th.

So far the beta hasn't exactly been the most enjoyed or successful of tests. The general consensus is a a bit mixed about it, likening it either to the fast-paced rocket-powered FPS action of Quake 3 or even comparing it favorably to the Halo franchise, but there's also been plenty of complaints. Specifically when it comes to a lack of PC specific features and how smoothly it runs. This is a beta test, meaning that it won't exactly be the best or final representation of the revitalization of DOOM, but we expect it to at least be somewhat of a showcase. There's also concern that this isn't a DOOM game, and strays from the usual formula that's made it so successful.

Opening up the game to more people will let them test that network infrastructure and any new fixes on a much larger scale, which is good, and something all fans of the originals should at least take a look at, to see for yourself whether it does indeed follow the DOOM idioms of yesteryear, or even those from Doom 3. You'll get to play through two levels and two different modes; Heatwave, Infernal and team deathmatch and warpath respectively.

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DOTA 2 getting an alluring VR capable spectator mode

Jeff Williams | Gaming | Apr 6, 2016 5:02 PM CDT

VR is here to stay and definitely a large part of the future of gaming. Not only can you get more into a game than ever before, but VR is also being used in non-standard ways to help re-define what being a spectator of an eSports match might be. Valve teased what might just be a cool new VR interface for spectating DOTA 2 matches, in VR.

Inside you'll be able to see the game itself unfold right in front of you, but if you happen to look around you then you'll get to interact with the stats for each competitors heroes. It also looks like there's a dynamic map that updates with more info than you could ever possibly need. The whole setup looks very well done and ups the ante for how we watch games. This could just be the beginning of a movement to do similar things for other spectator sports, even other more physical sports too.

Being a part of Steam, this might require the use of the HTC Vive to actually work, but the idea is still incredibly interesting concept. This combined with 360-degree footage of the event might let you transport yourself to the event without actually having to fly all the way out. And it might end up being a better experience the just being there anyway.

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Latest Windows 10 Preview build adds dark mode, tons of other features

Sean Ridgeley | Software & Apps | Apr 6, 2016 4:28 PM CDT

Last month, the Windows 10 Twitter app offered up a dark mode, and now the whole OS is doing it. If you're a Windows Insider, you can grab the new 14316 build and try it out for yourself now. Note that some UWP apps won't be affected by dark mode.

That's far from all: also included is notifications customization (choose priority level and amount of notifications per app), native Bash support (for you Linux lovers), more cross-device Cortana syncing, a 'Find my phone' feature (locate your phone with your PC), a slew of bug fixes, and much more.

If you want the nitty gritty, hit the source.

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Bernie Sanders wishes Apple would manufacture locally, pay all taxes

Sean Ridgeley | Business, Financial & Legal | Apr 6, 2016 3:33 PM CDT

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders -- sounding off on corporate America in an interview with the New York Daily News -- had some frank words for Apple this week. While he doesn't believe the company is destructive on the scale of JPMorgan and General Electric, he does take issue with a couple of its key practices.

"No, Apple is not destroying the fabric of America," he explains. "But I do wish they'd be manufacturing some of their devices, here, in the United States rather than in China. And I do wish that they would not be trying to avoid paying their fair share of taxes."

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iPhone SE demand outstripping supply

Apple's iPhone SE -- effectively an upgraded 5s -- wasn't full-blown hyped, but it seems to be selling like it anyway: demand for the 4'' device is outstripping supply as most stores are now posting stock-outs and delays, saying that new orders won't ship for as long as a few weeks from now. This includes both online and retail outlets (including Apple stores), not just nationally but internationally.

The fastest you get can one as of press time is April 12, and there you're likely limited to the smaller $399 16GB models. If you want a $499 64GB model, you'll have to wait until April 20-27. This is all assuming you're willing to pay for faster shipping, mind you.

The iPhone SE launched March 31.

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HBM2 is incredibly small when compared to GDDR5, and even HBM1

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Apr 6, 2016 2:04 PM CDT

GTC 2016 - On day two of NVIDIA's GPU Technology Conference, we walked around the exhibition halls with the super-awesome Dimitry from Hardware Canucks and ran into the SK Hynix booth. What did we see? HBM2. HBM1 was there side-by-side with a 1GB chip, while the HBM2 chip was a much larger 4GB chip.

Last year at GTC 2015, we did the same thing and walked into HBM1 - because at the time it was only becoming available, and was still months away from AMD using it on their Fiji-based Radeon R9 Fury X. Fast forward a few months, and HBM1 made its way onto the Fury X.

NVIDIA announced its new GP100-based Tesla P100 video card yesterday, which is the first video card to feature the Pascal architecture, and HBM2. Seeing HBM2 at GTC 2016 was great, as we could see how small it was in person, but we weren't allowed to get close to it - which is why the image isn't exactly up close. If we get closer later in the day, we'll take another photo and update the article.

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Overwatch finally gets a competitive mode, wanna know how it works?

Jeff Williams | Gaming | Apr 6, 2016 1:03 PM CDT

Overwatch has been in a beta state for some time now though it's been missing a competitive, ranked system of play a they continue to bring everything online and the game running smoothly. A new patch has been released that'll enable competitive league play, well before the final release.

Overwatch finally gets a competitive mode, wanna know how it works?

But how does it work? In a pretty logical way actually. There are different tiers and divisions so that skills are adequately divided and matched to those in the same group; normal matchmaking. In order to queue you'll need to be level 25 and above. Groups will be matched with other groups of similar size, if possible. Really it's normal matchmaking but taking in account the fat that you don't always have to fight in strict group size.

Winning competitive matches will get you some different cosmetic rewards but otherwise, the focus will be solely on winning, or needing to practice and get better so you can win next time. They want you to be able to enjoy the underlying game instead of focusing on winning skins, new weapons or any other rewards. All in all it looks like a very logical and well implemented system.

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