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Comes Next, Computer Chips, Notebooks

Acer amazes with 3D without glasses

These are the new laptops, monitors and PCs for 2022

At the Global Press Conference 2022, Acer presented a variety of new products such as laptops, convertibles, desktop PCs and monitors. In addition to technical updates of the individual model series, the manufacturer wants to focus primarily on sustainability and 3D screens without glasses.

Acer’s Vero series: Many new devices made from recycled materials

In its Global Press Conference for the second half of 2022, Acer presented a large number of new products. It is striking that the Vero series, which stands for recycled materials, is being expanded again. In addition to laptops, there will also be an all-in-one PC, monitors and a projector from the Vero series. In addition, a keyboard and a mouse are already in the starting blocks for the fourth quarter.

The laptops are 14 and 15 inch models, which should be available from the third quarter. Acer asks for the Aspire Vero (AV14-51) from 799 euros and the Acer Aspire Vero (AV15-52) should be available from 999 euros. Both feature 12th generation Intel Core processors. The housings are made of 30 percent PCR plastic. In addition, you should be able to carry out minor repairs or upgrades yourself.

The Veriton Vero all-in-one desktop computer (VVZ4694G) is also made from 30 percent recycled plastic and has a 24-inch display that can also be wall-mounted. The scope of delivery includes a mouse and keyboard, which are also made of PCR plastic. The computer is equipped with an Intel Corei9 processor of the twelfth generation, an Nvidia GeForce MX550 graphics processor and up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR4 memory. It should be available from 919 euros in the third quarter.

The two new Vero monitors, the 27-inch Acer CB273 and the 24-inch Acer B247Y G offer Full HD resolution (1,920 x 1,080 pixels) and are made of 85 percent PCR plastic and 5 percent OBP plastic . The 27-inch model costs 39 euros, while the 24-inch model costs 269 euros.

Acer will also have the Vero PD2325W projector in its portfolio, which also consists of 35 percent recyclable plastic and whose LED lamp is said to last around 30,000 hours. It is said to consume around 50 percent less energy than a conventional projector. It offers WXGA resolution (1,280 x 800 pixels) and should be available in stores from the third quarter for around 549 euros.

Spatial Labs: 3D technology without glasses

The Acer SpatialLabs View Pro is a commercial 4K monitor that is supposed to enable glasses-free 3D.
The Acer Spatial Labs View Pro is a commercial 4K monitor that is supposed to enable glasses-free 3D.
Image credit : Acer

tial Labs: 3D technology without glasses

In addition, Acer will expand its 3D lineup with two SpatialLabs View Series displays, with the standard version aimed at end users and the Pro version at business customers. Both screens are 15.6 inches and offer 4K resolution (3,840 x 2,160 pixels).

The SpatialLabs View has the so-called “SpatialLabs TrueGame”, which should be able to show games in stereoscopic 3D. At the start there should be preconfigured profiles for more than 50 games that support this AI feature. Gamers should be able to have a completely new gaming experience in real time even without VR glasses.

Another application that supports both displays is “SpatialLabs Go”. This AI solution is intended to create stereoscopic 3D content from two-dimensional screen content at the click of a mouse.

The “SpatialLabs Model Viewer” function that bears its name, on the other hand, is only available for the Acer SpatialLabs View Pro. It should enable 3D design software such as Maya, Blender or Cinema 4D to create stereoscopic 3D models.

It is not yet known when the devices will be available and how expensive they will be.

The new gaming products

The gaming highlight of the new Acer lineup is likely to be the Predator Helios 300 in the SpatialLabs Edition. Acer has installed the aforementioned 15.6-inch “SpatialLabs View” display in the notebook, which has a resolution of 4K with 3,840 x 2,160 pixels and whose technology should enable stereoscopic 3D images without VR glasses. It is equipped with a twelfth-generation Intel Core i9 processor, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 in the laptop version and up to 32 GB of fast DDR5-4800 RAM. The device will probably be available from September at a starting price of 3,299 euros.

The slim Predator Triton 300 SE is a 14-inch laptop that is aimed not only at gamers but also at content creators. It is equipped with the latest 12th generation Intel Core CPUs and Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 laptop GPUs. Among other things, an OLED variant is available as a display. The device should already be available in June for a price starting at 1,499 euros.

In addition, two gaming monitors are in the starting blocks with the Predator XB273K LV and the Acer Nitro XV272U RV. The former is a 27-inch model and offers 4K resolution (3,840 x 2,160 pixels) at a frame rate of 160 Hz. It also supports HDR 600. It should be available from October for around 850 euros. The Acer Nitro, on the other hand, is a 27-inch monitor with WQHD resolution (2,560 x 1,440 pixels) and a refresh rate of 170 Hz, which has HDR 400 certification. This model should be in stores from October for 399 euros.

Minor upgrades from well-known brands

In addition, well-known model series will receive a technical upgrade. These include, for example, the Acer Swift 3 OLED (in July from 999 euros), the Acer Spin 5 (in July from 1,399 euros) and the Acer Spin 3 (in June from 999 euros).

The business line of the Tavelmate series will also be relaunched. Depending on the model, these will be available from August/September.

Acer will also continue the ConceptD notebook series: The ConceptD 5 notebook will probably be available from July for a price starting at 3,399 euros, the ConceptD 5 Pro probably from August at a starting price of 3,799 euros. Both are equipped with 12th generation Intel Core processors and powerful Nvidia RTX GPUs.

With the ConcetD series, Acer proves that desktop PCs are far from dead. Two new models will be launched here in September, the ConceptD 100 and ConceptD 500 desktop PCs. The 100 should start at 1,099 euros and the 500 at 2,199 euros.

Comes Next, Gaming

Twilight Princess HD Remaster for Switch

Did you know that both the HD remaster of the Zelda classic Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword were not developed in Japan but in Australia ? At that time, Tantalus Media was commissioned by Nintendo to refresh the games and publish them for Wii U or, in the case of Skyward Sword , for Nintendo Switch . Almost all Wii U exclusive games have now been ported to the hybrid console, but the two Zelda HD remasters are still missing.

© Nintendo

Tantalus CEO Tom Crago has now confirmed in an interview that the studio has not received a request from Nintendo to port The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD to Nintendo Switch. However, the Australian developers would jump at the opportunity if the Japanese company placed the order.Citation

No [we weren’t asked about porting the game], and of course we would, but that’s not a priority for Nintendo – at least not in the conversations they’ve had with us.

The way we work with our friends there is that we take every opportunity to work on one of their titles. There is a constant dialogue between our two companies. Oftentimes, a little time elapses between games and other ideas are discussed, but in the case of Skyward Sword, some time passed and then the email came: “Would you be interested in bringing Skyward Sword to the [Nintendo] Switch ?’ The answer, of course, was, ‘Yes, we would be.’ And then we talked to Nintendo about what that might look like, and finally we got going. So it was similar in many ways to how Twilight Princess (on Wii U) came about.

Comes Next

Netflix is ​​said to be launching live streams soon

According to a recent report by Deadline , Netflix is ​​said to be working on starting live streams for the first time. The streaming provider had already confirmed the development in the past.

Live streaming will initially be used on Netflix for some of the shows and stand-up comedy. The live transmissions would then also make it possible to carry out viewer votes. In general, this would give you the same options as in linear television.

Of course, Netflix might also get involved in sports rights and related broadcasts. But you should wait and see: sports rights are very expensive and recently Netflix had to accept a massive loss in share value.

When Netflix could start live streaming is still completely open. Internally, the experiments should just run. It is also conceivable that you will only get started in the USA before you go to work internationally.

Business, Computer Chips, Financial, TechNews

Why the chip shortage could keep us busy for longer

With the chip bottlenecks in the Corona crisis, months of waiting for washing machines and cars became just as normal as the futile search for new Playstation consoles. How long will this go on?

Source: dpa

Some experts are cautiously optimistic: Industry analyst Alan Priestley from the IT market researcher Gartner can imagine that overcapacities will occur again in the coming year. At the chip group Intel, however, company boss Pat Gelsinger warns that problems with production capacity and the availability of necessary machines are likely to last at least until 2024.

Expert Priestley is counting on the large-scale expansion of production soon bearing fruit. The industry has been investing in new factories since the first signs of bottlenecks at the beginning of the corona pandemic. “Therefore we will probably have overcapacity in 2023 or 2024,” he predicted. At least until the increasing demand eats them up.

This interplay is in itself typical for the chip industry, stressed Priestley. “As soon as demand and supply are in balance, investments are made in order to have capacities for the next surge in demand.” The current chip crisis was so severe because in some areas not enough was invested in expansion – and at the same time demand increased by leaps and bounds with the increased work and learning in the corona pandemic.

Different chips require different production processes

It makes everything even more complex that there is not just one semiconductor industry. Different chips are required for different tasks – and for these there are different production processes that cannot be arbitrarily interchanged. An important feature is the so-called structure widths – roughly speaking, how finely the circuits are worked. The narrower the structure widths in modern production processes, the more powerful and efficient the processors are.

For something like a transformer or other simple tasks, old production processes are sufficient – which are also less lucrative, so that the capacities for them had leveled off at a low level. And then came the Corona boom. It was often the lack of a few simple components that prevented cars or computers from being completed.

In addition, chip factories not only cost billions and have to be built over years – they are also not necessarily flexible. “If I build a factory for chips with a structure width of seven nanometers, I cannot easily convert them to five nanometers,” says Priestley. And it is not as easy as in other areas to simply let production rest. That’s why companies have to plan their expansion decisions with particular foresight – and new capacities in one area are not necessarily helpful for other parts of the industry.

Machines for chip production are still scarce

Another bottleneck are machines for chip production. With super-narrow structure widths, the only way forward is with UV lithography – and the European manufacturer ASML is practically the only supplier for this. He is accordingly fully booked.

Stories of desperate measures are doing the rounds in the industry. At the presentation of the latest quarterly figures, ASML boss Peter Wennink talked about his conversation with the management of a “very large industrial group”, whose name he kept to himself. “They actually told me that they buy washing machines to rip out semiconductors and put them in industrial modules.” Of course, one could say that this is just an anecdote, admitted Wennink. “But that happens everywhere.”

Another problem for the industry came with the war in Ukraine. The lasers of the lithography machines require neon in addition to other gases. And that’s a common by-product of steelmaking. The huge Azovstal steel works in Mariupol, which has been shelled and bombed by Russian troops in their war of aggression against Ukraine for weeks, was an important supplier of neon. The loss of shipments from Ukraine, while disruptive, will be something the industry will have to digest, Priestley said. “There are also other sources” – including the large steel mills in South Korea.

Business, Financial, TechNews

Apple left behind

German Press Agency (dpa)

Apple is no longer the most valuable company in the world. With the iPhone company’s share price falling five percent this week, oil company Saudi Aramco is now the new number one.

The world’s largest oil company, Saudi Aramco, replaced the technology group Apple as the world’s most valuable company on Wednesday. While Saudi Aramco’s share price has benefited from high oil prices in recent weeks, the iPhone manufacturer’s paper has come under increasing pressure due to rising capital market interest rates, supply bottlenecks and growth concerns. This Wednesday, Apple fell five percent to its lowest level since the end of October last year.

apple-stock-price

Saudi Aramco’s share price on the home exchange Tadawul in Riyadh had risen by more than 17 percent since mid-March. The Apple price, on the other hand, has lost more than 18 percent since the end of March. The prospect of rising interest rates caused investors to sell technology stocks in particular. Because in the long phase of cheap money, investors had increasingly relied on high-growth tech companies. Now, however, interest rates are likely to rise sharply in view of the high inflation, which could mean that Apple, Amazon, Microsoft & Co are clearly overvalued.

Apple is no longer the world’s most valuable company for the first time since 2020

The shares of Saudi Aramco, which went public at the end of 2019, had recently reached a record high. The company currently has a market capitalization of $2.43 trillion. In doing so, they left Apple behind for the first time since 2020. The company from Cupertino in California is only worth 2.37 trillion dollars with a loss of a good five percent this Wednesday. However, only a small proportion of Aramco shares are freely tradable, and the vast majority are in state hands. At the beginning of the year, Apple, at around $3 trillion, was $1 trillion heavier than the Saudi Arabian oil producer.

The US Federal Reserve is likely to raise interest rates by a further 1.5 percentage points this year. That and the prospect of an ongoing war in Ukraine mean that the big tech companies cannot be expected to return to their former strength anytime soon, said Tim Ghriskey, portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder. He spoke of “panic selling” at a number of technology stocks and other highly rated companies. Investors are likely to reinvest the funds that are freed up in the process, not least in energy stocks whose growth prospects are rosy. “Companies like Saudi Aramco benefit considerably from this mixed situation,” says the expert.