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12 MAXIMUMPC AUG 2019 maximumpc.com
Triumphs Tragedies
hard drives noT dead
Seagate has revealed the biggest
HDDs yet, the 16TB IronWolf and
Exos, which use a laser; prices
from $610. 20TB due next year.phoTonic ai chips
Researchers have built an
artificial neurosynaptic network.
Just four neurons, but 1,
times faster than the real thing.classic game geTs rTx
Nvidia has refreshed the
22-year-old Quake II with the
full ray-tracing treatment.BlueKeep paTch
Microsoft has patched Win XP in
an effort combat the BlueKeep
vulnerability, which can enable
nasty ransomware attacks.Keep iT simple
After spending over $10,000 on
MacBook Pro screen repairs,
an engineer realized the
brightness was just right down.ai sTill needs us
Real people handle about 15
percent of calls that Google’s
Duplex can’t manage to parse.A monthly snapshot of what’s good and bad in techTech Triumphs and Tragedies
This fall’s updaTe of the Mac OS, 10.15 Catalina,
will see the end of iTunes, sort of. Its functions will
be split across Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, and Apple
TV. Anything you’ve bought will appear in one of those; your
music and playlists are safe. Finder will take over the job of synchronizing
mobile devices. It isn’t dead yet, though—the Windows version will live on.
It has to, as not every iPhone user has a Mac. Why is this happening? Well, it
had become a bloated mess, with too many functions, and endless updates.
Legal issues over licenses added annoying DRM, too. Few are going to mourn
its passing. iTunes arrived in 2001, and introduced purchases in 2003. It,
and services like it, helped kill the CD market. From a high of 943m annual
sales at the turn of the century, sales slipped to 52m last year. Apple saw
the future, but not far enough ahead, it seems. Streaming and the cloud are
where the action is. If anything killed iTunes, it was Spotify, a victory for the
subscription model over ownership. That’s where Apple needs to head. –clRip, mix, burn
iTunes finally
crashes ouTfacebook money
faceBooK has lifTed The lid on its forthcoming blockchain currency, Libra. This isn’t a
bitcoin rival; it’s pegged to the value of real assets, a basket of stable currencies, so its
value won’t jump around alarmingly. Unlike typical blockchain “coins,” it will be tightly
controlled, too. It’s not really a cryptocurrency, but international online money. Wallets
are integrated into Facebook apps, and you can exchange money from within them.
Don’t panic, though: It won’t be controlled by Facebook, but by a separate association,
along with 27 other partners, including Visa and Uber. The fees are said to be “minimal,”
and interest will be earned on any holdings. A major target is the millions of people
around the world without access to banks, but with smartphones, which is a big market.
Facebook has created a subsidiary called Calibra to manage Libra within the
Facebook empire, so your financial dealings won’t be mixed in with the rest of your data,
which is good news. It should be as secure and private as any blockchain currency.–clNew digital cuRReNcy
due Next yeaRThe nexT round of console wars is
shaping up. Both sides are circling each
other, letting out teasers while we wait for
the fight to start. In the red corner we have
Microsoft’s Project Scarlet (still no idea of
the final name). At E3, Microsoft released a
few details, along with a slick promotional
video. It’ll arrive for holiday 2020—that’ll
be November, something of a tradition
for console launches. Hardware includes
SSD storage (said to be up to 40 times
faster than HDD), coupled to an eight-
core Ryzen 3000 Zen 2 processor and Navi
GPU. It’ll support ray tracing, and will
stretch to running at 120fps and 8K. Whilst
technically possible, this is an ambitious
target for practical use. We don’t expect it
to do both at once, or to run top-tier titles at
anything like this big or fast; 60fps and 4K
is more realistic. Project Scarlet is going to
be a powerful box, and it has to be—there’s
no replacement planned for three years at
least. The launch of the Xbox One famously
fell flat, with much talk about everything
except gaming. Lesson learned, the E
video put enthusiastic games developers
front and center. The cost? Rumors only:
Smart money is on $499, with an outside
chance of $449, although this has to be
near break-even on the production costs.
In the blue corner we have Sony’s PS5,
and the specs sound similar: SSD storage,
AMD silicon, ray tracing, and 8K support.
Launch and price to be confirmed, but both
are going to be close to the Xbox. Sony has
traditionally been the more affordable
option; the high cost was seen as a barrier
for the Xbox One, which was $100 more
than the PS4. Given the expensive innards,
it looks unlikely that Sony can repeat
that trick. Spec-wise, the machines look
similar, but it’s games that sell consoles,
not teraflops. Like previous console wars,
it looks likely to be about which has the
best games, which could mean you need
both if you want play every top title. –clBoth pick aMd innards
XboX And PS
neXt holidAy
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