Friday 13 November 2020

ET Deals: $50 Off Apple Watch SE 44mm Smartwatch, Dell Alienware Aurora R11 Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming Desktop for $1,763

Apple’s new Watch SE comes with many of the same features as Apple’s more expensive Watch Series 6, but with a significantly lower price tag. Now you can get the 44mm version of this smartwatch discounted with a $50 discount, which makes it that much more affordable and an excellent deal.

Apple Watch SE 44mm GPS Smartwatch ($259.99)

Apple’s Watch SE is a more affordable alternative to the new Watch Series 6. It’s more than twice as fast as the old Apple Watch Series 3 and comes loaded with useful features to track your fitness activity. By default this watch is priced over $100 lower than Apple’s Watch Series 6, but now you can get one from Amazon marked down from $309.99 to just $259.99.

Dell Alienware Aurora R11 Intel Core i7-10700F Gaming Desktop w/ Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, 8GB DDR4 RAM and 1TB HDD ($1,763.99)

If you’re looking for a gaming desktop, you can’t go wrong with one of Dell’s newly redesigned Alienware Aurora R11 PCs. This version of the Aurora features an Intel Comet Lake Core i7-10700F CPU as well as an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card. This GPU is currently one of, if not the fastest single graphics card in the world, and it’s able to run games with maxed settings with exceptional ease. Currently, with promo code SAVE10AFF, you can get this system from Dell marked down from $1,999.99 to just $1,763.99.

Samsung 970 Evo 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD ($142.49)

Reading data at 3,500MB/s, this SSD hits the limits of what the M.2 interface is capable of when connected using PCI-E 3.0 lanes. With a total of 1TB of storage capacity, this drive removes any need to have a second drive to store files as it can hold more data than the average user typically needs. The drive was built using Samsung’s V-NAND 3-bit MLC NAND, which offers excellent performance. The drive is also rated to last for up to 1.5 million hours before failing. Right now you can get it from Amazon marked down from $249.99 to $142.49 with a clickable coupon.

Samsung Galaxy Buds Wireless Earbuds ($89.99)

Samsung’s Galaxy Buds were made to compete with Apple’s Airpods headphones and they have many similar features, including a fully wireless design and Bluetooth support. The Galaxy Buds also features up to 6 hours of battery life on a single charge and they can charge enough to play for an entire hour in just 15 minutes. Right now you can buy these high-end earbuds from Amazon marked down from $129.99 to just $89.99.

Featured Deals

Note: Terms and conditions apply. See the relevant retail sites for more information. For more great deals, go to our partners at TechBargains.com.

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from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/deals/317359-et-deals-50-off-apple-watch-se-44mm-smartwatch-dell-alienware-aurora-r11-nvidia-geforce-rtx-3080-gaming-desktop-for-1763

Snag these Apple Watch Accessories at Killer Pre-Black Friday Sale Prices

Whether an Apple Watch is on your wrist or your Christmas list, there are dozens of accessories that make life with the fun gadget even sweeter. And if someone on your list is a big fan of their Apple Watch, we bet they’d love to see any of these additions underneath their tree.

Thanks to this pre-Black Friday sale there’s 15 percent off sitewide on these handy Apple Watch gadgets. And since they’re only available for a limited time, it might be smart to snag some of these perfect stocking stuffers ahead of the holiday rush.

HEDock Apple Watch Dock

Let’s face it, Apple Watch chargers aren’t all that aesthetically pleasing. That’s where HEDock Apple Watch Dock comes in, providing a stylish place to simultaneously charge and display your Apple Watch. Its urethane coating prevents scratches and the sleek design hides the charging cable behind the dock for minimal clutter.

Get the HEDock Apple Watch Dock for $11.89 (Reg. $15) with promo code SAVE15NOV.

NightStand for Apple Watch

Want a place to keep your Apple Watch that isn’t an eyesore? NightStand for Apple Watch, the brainchild of a group of engineers and designers, is a super sleek charging dock that’s both convenient and aesthetically pleasing. Suction sticks to your desired surface to keep your Apple Watch safe, and a simple design makes it easy to dock and undock at anytime. 

Get the NightStand for Apple Watch Dock for $12.74 (Reg. $29) with promo code SAVE15NOV.

Oakywood iPhone And Apple Watch Charging Dock

If you’re hoping to keep a certain aesthetic going in your bedroom and have been dreaming of a pretty place to charge up your gadgets, look no further. The Oakywood iPhone and Apple Watch Charging Dock is hand-shaped from solid wood and features a detailed finish that adds a little pizazz wherever you place it. It also has an adjustable backing to fit your iPhone and a sleek design that reduces unsightly cable clutter. 

Get the Oakywood iPhone and Apple Watch Charging Dock for $50.99 (Reg. $79) with promo code SAVE15NOV.

BatteryPro Portable Charger for iPhone and Apple Watch

If you’re often taking your gadgets on the go, the BatteryPro Portable Charger for iPhone and Apple Watch is your go-to companion to keep your devices powered up. It features an integrated MFi-certified Apple Watch magnetic charger and a smart high-speed USB output, giving you the ability yo charge anytime and anywhere. And with its 8,000 mAh capacity, it can provide over two weeks of Apple Watch charging or 3 days of iPhone charging. 

Get the BatteryPro Portable Charger for iPhone & Apple Watch for $67.99 (Reg. $99) with promo code SAVE15NOV.

OMNIA Q2 True Wireless 2+1 Fast Charging Stand

Sometimes you just need your devices powered up quickly. That’s where the OMNIA Q2 True Wireless 2+1 Fast Charging Stand comes in. It’s compatible with Apple’s 7.5W fast-charging specification and allows a maximum power of 10W to allow for rapid charging. Its trickle-charging mode enables optimized charging, and thanks to its overvoltage protection, multiple circuit protection, and overheating protection, you can recharge with 100 percent safety. 

Get the OMNIA Q2 True Wireless 2+1 Fast Charging Stand for $64.56 (Reg. $89) with promo code SAVE15NOV.

Portable Keychain Apple Watch Charger

Since our electronics are our lifelines, it’s always nice to have an emergency charger on hand. The Portable Keychain Apple Watch Charger can just pop on your keyring and deliver a fast original wireless charging speed in less than 2.5 hours. It comes equipped with a USB tip that allows you to plug the charger into your laptop or device with a USB port, and then just place your Apple watch on top for easy wireless charging.

Get the Portable Keychain Apple Watch Charger for $14.44 (Reg. $29) with promo code SAVE15NOV.

Apple Watch Wireless Charger Keychain

Keychain chargers are among the handiest way to power up your devices, and the Apple Watch Wireless Charger Keychain can tag along wherever you go. It features a microcomputer electronic system that wirelessly charge your Apple Watch — all you need to do is place the watch on the black magnetic charger. Its 950 mAh lithium-ion battery lets you charge up any iWatch series. 

Get the Apple Watch Wireless Charger Keychain for $16.99 (Reg. $49) with promo code SAVE15NOV.

Triple Dock: 3-in-1 Apple Device Charging Station

Eliminate cable clutter with the  highly rated Triple Dock: 3-in-1 Apple Device Charging Station. It scored a 4.8/5 Editor’s Rating on GadgetFlow thanks to its micro-suction tape technology that allows one-hand operation and its adjustable backing that makes it compatible with any phone case. Made of real solid wood and finished with ecological oils, it’s not only convenient, but nice to look at as well!

Get the Triple Dock: 3-in-1 Apple Device Charging Station for $57.79 (Reg. $79) with promo code SAVE15NOV.

Apple Watch Magnetic Charging Cable

When it comes to convenience, having a little extra flexibility with a lengthy charging cable makes all the difference. The Apple Watch Magnetic Charging Cable is a 1-meter cable that combines Apple’s MagSafe technology with inductive charging, giving you wiggle room when you need it. All you have to do is hold the connector near the back of the watch, and the magnet will snap it into place and start powering up automatically. And there’s also a 2 meter option available for even greater flexibility!

Get the Apple Watch Magnetic Charging Cable (1m) for $22.09 (Reg. $31) with promo code SAVE15NOV. The Apple Watch Magnetic Charging Cable (2 meter) is available for $22.94 (Reg. $59) with promo code SAVE15NOV.

Griffin WatchStand Powered Charging Station for Apple Watch + iPhone

If you’re the owner of different Apple gadgets, it’s hard to find the perfect product to power them all up at once. That’s where the WatchStand comes in, serving as an all-in-one powered charging station for both the Apple Watch and the iPhone or iPad. It has a built-in power supply with two dedicated USB ports that free up a wall outlet, while simultaneously removing cable clutter and offering the perfect amount of charging power for the devices.

Get the Griffin WatchStand Powered Charging Station for Apple Watch + iPhone for $14.44 (Reg. $65) with promo code SAVE15NOV.

QUAD Wireless Charging Station

This sleek QUAD Wireless Charging Station is more than meets the eye. With a 5-coil full surface area, built-in MFI-certified Apple Watch charger and an integrated Lightning port, you can charge multiple Apple devices simultaneously. And there are two different options to go with your aesthetic — as you can select a wood or black base to fit your design needs.

Get the QUAD Wireless Charging Station in wood or with a black top and base for $127.49 (Reg. $154) with promo code SAVE15NOV.

Porta 3-in-1 Power Bank for Phone, Apple Watch, and AirPods

We love a good multi-tasker, and the Porta 3-in-1 Power Bank for Phone, Apple Watch and AirPods does just that. With an 8,000 mAh capacity, it delivers a 100 percent charge to your iPhone Apple Watch or AirPods. And you can bring it along anywhere thanks to its lightweight and compact design.

Get the Porta 3-in-1 Power Bank for Phone, Apple Watch & AirPods for $42.49 (Reg. $119) with promo code SAVE15NOV.

Note: Terms and conditions apply. See the relevant retail sites for more information. For more great deals, go to our partners at TechBargains.com.

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from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/deals/317358-snag-these-apple-watch-accessories-at-killer-pre-black-friday-sale-prices

Time to Update: Google Patches 2 Severe Zero-Day Chrome Vulnerabilities

A spate of zero-day attacks have hit Google’s Chrome browser in the last few weeks, and you can add two more to the list. Google released a patch this week to fix the security flaws in its browser, but we don’t know exactly what the flaws are. Unlike the last few zero-days, Google didn’t find these security holes itself. Instead, it was tipped by anonymous third-parties, and the problems are severe enough that it hasn’t released full details. Suffice it to say, you should stop putting off that update. 

Google’s internal security team is constantly trying to break Chrome in order to uncover potential bugs before they become the basis for a harmful malware campaign. And indeed, Google catches a lot of glitches and pushes out patches before anyone outside the company notices. A zero-day exploit is one that Google and the developer community didn’t catch, and could therefore leave millions of machines open to attack. 

We usually get details on patches in Chrome, but Google has temporarily withheld details of these latest flaws because both have been used in the wild as attack vectors. One of the flaws, CVE-2020-16013, is related to Google’s V8 JavaScript engine. The second is CVE-2020-16017, and this one is a “use after free” problem in memory management that allows code to leak out of Chrome’s Site Isolation sandbox. 

chrome logo

Without more details, we can’t say if these bugs are any more severe than the others we’ve seen lately. However, they could have a much greater impact simply by virtue of the fact that internet ne’er-do-wells figured out how to exploit them before Google even knew there was a problem. 

You’re protected as long as you’re on Chrome version 86.0.4240.198 or higher. You can check on that in Settings > Help > About Chrome. If you haven’t updated yet, you might have a nagging “update” badge at the top of Chrome right now. Just give in. These are serious bugs that are being actively used to take over computers. Granted, high-value vulnerabilities like these are usually used to target a specific set of individuals. This still isn’t a chance you want to take, and the details of these vulnerabilities won’t stay secret forever. You don’t want to be running an old version of Chrome when the details are widely known.

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from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/internet/317352-time-to-update-google-patches-2-severe-zero-day-chrome-vulnerabilities

Nvidia Will Mimic AMD’s Smart Access Memory on Ampere: Report

We haven’t even gotten to talk about the results of features like AMD’s Smart Access Memory, and Team Red’s competitors are already lining up to pledge support for an equivalent feature. SAM is AMD’s first-ever method of taking advantage of the fact that it owns its entire IP stack — CPU, GPU, and platform. According to AMD, it can use this fact to boost system performance when you combine an RDNA2 card and a Ryzen CPU with an X570 motherboard.

Specifically, AMD claims that it can give the CPU full access to GPU RAM rather than limiting the system to a 256MB aperture window for data transfers. We don’t know if the large Infinity Cache integrated into RDNA2 plays a part in this. No one has stuck a 128MB cache in a GPU before, so the idea that it could play a role in boosting data transfers in and out of VRAM isn’t crazy, especially since cache latency is presumably quite a bit lower than the time it takes to go out to GDDR6.

According to GamersNexus, Nvidia is capable of doing something similar:

Nvidia claims that the feature is part of the PCIe specification, that it has the capability working internally, and that it is already seeing similar performance results. There’s no ETA on when the feature might be available in-driver.

AMD has not publicly disclosed whether Smart Access Memory depends on features beyond the ability to adjust the size of this aperture (Intel refers to this as the IGD Aperture Size), or if it is additionally enhanced by capabilities of Zen 3 or the B550 / X570 chipset. It would definitely change the framing of the feature if Nvidia were capable of activating it on both Intel and AMD systems — but if it is, the likely end result would be AMD activating the capability for Intel systems as well.

Historically, in order for capabilities to become common, both GPU manufacturers have to agree to use a common standard. Nvidia introduced ray tracing using Microsoft’s DXR, for example, but it was only when AMD added the capability to next-gen consoles and its own GPUs that it really began taking off in the mass market. If Nvidia and Intel can both take advantage of a feature that AMD currently only enables for AMD customers, the company will likely enable it on Intel platforms as well, or risk losing match-ups to its biggest rival.

AMD is unlikely to want to risk that outcome. It’s one thing for the company to enable additional performance by leveraging commonalities within its own ecosystem and another to artificially limit performance on competitor platforms.

No matter what, though, the end result seems to be a consumer win. If Nvidia successfully adds this feature, game performance goes up for Nvidia customers. If AMD responds by enabling it for Intel as well, performance goes up for AMD + Intel customers. If, on the other hand, Nvidia (or hypothetically, Intel) can’t match AMD’s gains or fundamental capabilities, we’ll have evidence that the company really is taking advantage of its cross-product IP in new and interesting ways.

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from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/317344-nvidia-will-mimic-amds-smart-access-memory-on-ampere

Jose Mourinho: Tottenham boss given suspended one-match European ban

Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho is given a suspended one-match ban in European competition over the late kick-off at Royal Antwerp.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/54936058

National League: Wealdstone v Dover Athletic postponed

Saturday's National League match between Wealdstone and Dover is postponed under Covid-19 protocols.

from BBC News - London https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/54850655

Western Digital Changes Its Reported Drive Speeds to Reflect Reality

Western Digital has made some changes to how it brands its WD Red Plus hard drive family after taking heat for its decision to mislabel its hard drive speeds earlier this year. At the time, individual customers performed some rather clever acoustic analysis to confirm that the hard drives Western Digital claimed were 5400 RPM drives were actually 7200 RPM drives.

Western Digital protested that this labeling was fine, because “5400 RPM class” isn’t the same as “5400 RPM”, but it ignored the fact that 5400 RPM and 7200 RPM drives typically have different power and thermal requirements, and that products designed explicitly for 5400 RPM products might have trouble with 7200 RPM drives. The idea that communicating honestly about its products is the best way to cultivate and maintain consumer trust doesn’t appear to have occurred to anyone, either.

The company has now announced that it will retire certain WD Red Plus model numbers and launch new ones to replace them. Nothing is changing about the drives themselves; Western Digital is just being honest about the fact that these are 7200 RPM drives instead of 5400 RPM drives. Heise.de reports that the new model numbers are:

8 TByte: WD80EFBX (-68AZZN0) instead of WD80EFAX (-68KNBN0)
10 TByte: WD101EFBX (-68B0AN0) instead of WD101EFAX (-68LDBN0)
12 Tbytes: WD120EFBX (-68B0EN0) instead of WD120EFAX (-68UNTN0)
14 TByte: WD140EFGX (-68B0GN0) instead of WD140EFFX (-68VBXN0)

Heisse reports that WD has also updated its WD Red Pro product sheet to read “7200 RPM” instead of “7200 RPM class.”

 

The actual WD Red Plus product sheet hasn’t been updated yet, but presumably that’ll happen soon.

Why Did Western Digital Do This in the First Place?

The big question it’d be nice to have an explanation for is why on Earth WD did this at all. When Western Digital introduced performance classes with its Green drives, it did so as a way of hiding the fact that they spun at less than 5400 RPM, not to cleverly imply they had a slower spindle speed than they actually did.

I can imagine a scenario in which it just became easier for WD to run every drive at 7200 RPM. Back when the hard drive market was crippled by extensive flooding in 2011, one of the expected outcomes that came true was the disappearance of smaller SKUs. When companies replaced their damaged equipment, they phased out smaller and older products that had been cost-effective to produce so long as old factory equipment was still in play. Maybe WD decided to standardize all of its production on 7200 RPM motors — but why not just run the same motor at a slower speed? Alternately, why not just advertise that you now ship 7200 RPM drives standard in all product lines as a way of thumbing your nose at the competition?

It’s not strange for a company to sell a component variant that compensates for lower performance in one category with higher performance in another, such as compensating for slower spindle speeds with larger caches, or clocking a CPU with a smaller L2 at a higher frequency to compensate. But why did Western Digital go to such lengths — to the point of programming its hard drives to misreport their own SMART data — to fake the speed of its hard drives? Was it trying to prop up artificial market segmentation because it believed margins would drop if it sold mostly 7200 RPM drives?

The chances that consumers were injured by this misrepresentation are small, but WD has yet to explain its thinking.

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from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/317327-western-digital-changes-its-reported-drive-speeds-to-reflect-reality