Today, Google announced its next generation of Chromebook devices, called the Chromebook Plus, said to improve upon the legacy set by Chromebooks over a decade ago. Starting at an enticing price point of $399, this new breed of Chromebooks integrates powerful AI capabilities and a range of built-in Google apps. Notably, it features tools like the Google Photos Magic Eraser and web-based Adobe Photoshop, positioning itself as a dynamic tool for productivity and creative exploration. In collaboration with hardware manufacturers such as Acer, ASUS, HP, and Lenovo, Google is launching a lineup of eight Chromebook Plus devices on the launch date, with more possibly coming in the future.

Each model boasts improved hardware configurations over the regular Chromebook, including processors like the Intel Core i3 12th Gen or the AMD Ryzen 3 7000 series, a minimum of 8 GB RAM, and 128 GB storage. Users are also in for a visual treat with a 1080p IPS display, ensuring crisp visuals for entertainment and work. And for the modern remote workforce, video conferencing gets a substantial upgrade. Every Chromebook Plus comes equipped with a 1080p camera and utilizes AI enhancements to elevate video call clarity, with compatibility spanning various platforms, including Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams. Set to be available from October 8, 2023, in the US and October 9 in Canada and Europe, the Chromebook Plus is positioning itself as the go-to device for many users. On the other hand, the AI features are slated for arrival in 2024, when companies ensure their software is compatible.Below you can see the upcoming models.

NVIDIA joined Pixar, Adobe, Apple and Autodesk today to found the Alliance for OpenUSD, a major leap toward unlocking the next era of 3D graphics, design and simulation. The group will standardize and extend OpenUSD, the open-source Universal Scene Description framework that's the foundation of interoperable 3D applications and projects ranging from visual effects to industrial digital twins.

Several leading companies in the 3D ecosystem already signed on as the alliance's first general members—Cesium, Epic Games, Foundry, Hexagon, IKEA, SideFX and Unity. Standardizing OpenUSD will accelerate its adoption, creating a foundational technology that will help today's 2D internet evolve into a 3D web. Many companies are already working with NVIDIA to pioneer this future.

ASUS today introduced the ProArt GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB graphics card series. These cards offer a cooling solution that's essentially the same as the ROG Strix RTX 4060 Ti, but with a more sober product design suitable for design studios. The 16 GB of memory should benefit certain kinds of creator applications with large data sets. Memory size aside, this is essentially the same RTX 4060 Ti, and while for gaming it's a 1080p thru 1440p class product, for creator applications, the GPU should easily suit higher resolutions such as 4K Ultra HD. You can also benefit from the GeForce Studio drivers that offer certification for several key content creation application suites.

There are three sub-variants of the ProArt RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB based on the clock-speeds on offer. The regular one sticks to NVIDIA-reference clock speeds of 2535 MHz with the default BIOS, and 2565 MHz with the OC BIOS. The ProArt RTX 4060 Ti Advanced Edition steps this up to 2580 MHz in the OC BIOS. The top ProArt RTX 4060 Ti OC Edition significantly dials up the clock speeds to 2685 MHz, which is close to that of the ROG Strix O8G. All three cards come with a complimentary 3-month Adobe Creative Cloud subscription.

Intel Graphics today released the latest version of Arc GPU Graphics Drivers. Version 101.4499 beta adds optimization for F1 23, Aliens: Dark Descent, Forever Skies, and Counter Strike 2. There are major performance uplifts to be had. Counter Strike 2 sees up to 8% uplift at 1440p with high settings, and up to 10% at 1080p with Very High settings. F1 23 players can expect up to 33% uplift at 1080p with Ultra High settings and RT on, and an 18% uplift with RT off; and a 27% uplift at 1440p with high settings. Intel also updated its Destiny 2 optimization, with a neat 11% uplift to be had at 1080p with the highest settings. An error or black screen seen on applications embedding WebView2 frames, has been fixed.

DOWNLOAD: Intel GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4499 Beta

Today, Adobe unveiled Generative Fill in Photoshop, bringing Adobe Firefly generative AI capabilities directly into design workflows. The new Firefly-powered Generative Fill is the world's first co-pilot in creative and design workflows, giving users a magical new way to work by easily adding, extending or removing content from images non-destructively in seconds using simple text prompts. This beta release of Photoshop is Adobe's first Creative Cloud application to deeply integrate Firefly with an exciting roadmap ahead that will transform workflows across Creative Cloud, Document Cloud, Experience Cloud and Adobe Express.

Adobe has over a decade-long history of AI innovation, delivering hundreds of intelligent capabilities through Adobe Sensei into applications that hundreds of millions of people rely upon. Features like Neural Filters in Photoshop, Content Aware Fill in After Effects, Customer AI in Adobe Experience Platform and Liquid Mode in Acrobat empower Adobe customers to create, edit, measure, optimize and review billions of pieces of content. Firefly, Adobe's family of creative generative AI models, now brings even more precision, power, speed and ease directly into workflows where content is created or modified.

Graphics cards are most famously used for gaming, but gamers are far from the only folks who eagerly anticipate each new generation of GPUs. The highly specialized hardware in graphics cards offers potent parallel processing power, and professionals put it to work in fields like artificial intelligence, finance, game development, manufacturing, and robotics. While creators in these fields often use the same hardware as gamers, the needs of these two groups of users aren't identical.

To give these professionals options better suited for their lines of work, we're excited to announce the very first ProArt graphics cards: the ProArt GeForce RTX 4080 and ProArt GeForce RTX 4070 Ti. Tuned for quiet operation, styled for professional contexts, and slimmed down for wide chassis compatibility, these graphics cards are built from the ground up to serve the needs of creators.

Today, Adobe introduced Firefly, a new family of creative generative AI models, first focused on the generation of images and text effects. Firefly will bring even more precision, power, speed and ease directly into Creative Cloud, Document Cloud, Experience Cloud and Adobe Express workflows where content is created and modified. Firefly will be part of a series of new Adobe Sensei generative AI services across Adobe's clouds.Adobe has over a decade-long history of AI innovation, delivering hundreds of intelligent capabilities through Adobe Sensei into applications that hundreds of millions of people rely upon. Features like Neural Filters in Photoshop, Content Aware Fill in After Effects, Attribution AI in Adobe Experience Platform and Liquid Mode in Acrobat empower Adobe customers to create, edit, measure, optimize and review billions of pieces of content with power, precision, speed and ease. These innovations are developed and deployed in alignment with Adobe's AI ethics principles of accountability, responsibility and transparency.

"Generative AI is the next evolution of AI-driven creativity and productivity, transforming the conversation between creator and computer into something more natural, intuitive and powerful," said David Wadhwani, president, Digital Media Business, Adobe. "With Firefly, Adobe will bring generative AI-powered 'creative ingredients' directly into customers' workflows, increasing productivity and creative expression for all creators from high-end creative professionals to the long tail of the creator economy."

During the Snapdragon Summit 2022, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and Adobe announced an expanded collaboration to support creative experiences on Snapdragon powered devices across mobile, compute, and XR platforms. Together, the companies will push the boundaries of creativity and document productivity for Snapdragon users.

Building on the rich experiences already found with Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom for Windows on Snapdragon devices, Adobe remains committed to bringing the best of Creative Cloud natively to the Snapdragon platform, including Adobe Fresco and Adobe Acrobat. Bringing the strength of Adobe Sensei, Adobe's artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, alongside the dedicated on-device Qualcomm AI Engine on Snapdragon compute platforms, users can experience enhanced device performance for creative workflows and tasks including super-resolution, background removal and color enhancement, editing content on-the-go, and more.

ASUS today announced the end-of-September availability of ProArt Display PA147CDV, a creative tool that's designed to empower creators and streamline creative workflows. It features a 14-inch, 32:9 (1920 x 550) IPS panel with 10-point multitouch and Microsoft Pen Protocol 2.0 stylus support. It also includes the intuitive ASUS Dial and customizable Control Panel for shortcuts in supported Adobe creative software. The panel is pre-calibrated to Delta E 2 and covers 100% sRGB and Rec. 709 color spaces for exceptional color. The multi-award-winning PA147CDV is well-equipped to cater to creators' needs: it includes a specially designed mechanical kickstand for perfect viewing and working positions, plus it features one HDMI and two USB-C ports. PA147CDV has a multi-award winning design, earning accolades that include the 2021 Good Design and Computex d&i Gold awards.

ProArt Display PA147CDV empowers creators and helps streamline creative workflows both in and out of the studio. Content creators can connect PA147CDV to a laptop for a dual-screen setup and fine-tune their projects on compatible Adobe software via ASUS Dial and Control Panel, or take notes or sketch with a stylus. The customizable Control Panel on PA147CDV puts the tools and functions creators need front and center, enabling quicker adjustments for a more efficient workflow. Additionally, a split-screen mode allows for different apps to be shown side by side.

ASUS, a global technology leader renowned for continuously reimagining today's technologies for tomorrow, expands its suite of tools for creators with the debut of the ProArt Display (PA248CNV), which will be displayed for the first time at Siggraph 2022 (booth #933) alongside other ProArt Displays, Studiobook OLED and Zenbook Pro OLED laptops, ASUS Server and ProArt Z690 motherboard. ASUS will also highlight motion capture technology and invite creators to develop their own 3D characters in metaverse, with giveaways of a ProArt X Reallusion software and other products, conducted live on Instagram (@proart) from August 8 to 11, 2022. See details of the event and giveaway here.

The ASUS ProArt is an ecosystem of laptops, computers, monitors, motherboards, and accessories that provide designers, creators, and artists a stable foundation on which creativity can thrive. Users can rely on ProArt computing and displays' exceptional color control and accuracy, reliable performance, and powerful computing to deliver inspired ideas for art, video games, films and TV, animation, product design, and more. These solutions streamline the path to creativity with the updated ProArt Creator Hub, which unifies the color calibration, settings, monitor performance, and workflows across all of users' ASUS creator devices to enable creativity from anywhere. It also includes the ASUS Dial, a precision-engineered rotary control (not limited to Adobe creative apps such as Photoshop, Lightroom Classic, Illustrator, Premiere Pro and After Effects and other apps such as Autodesk and Unreal Engine) that puts app settings and color values at users' fingertips for smooth, efficient working. Backed by NVIDIA Studio technologies for creators, ProArt products with NVIDIA RTX GPUs benefit from optimizations in over 200 creative apps, Studio Drivers for the highest levels of stability and performance in creative apps, and exclusive AI-powered NVIDIA tools: Omniverse, Canvas and Broadcast.

When Intel announced the company's first hybrid design, codenamed Alder Lake, we expected to see more of such design philosophies in future products. During Intel's 2022 investor meeting day, the company provided insights into future developments, and a successor to Alder Lake is no different. Codenamed "Raptor Lake," it features a novel Raptor Cove P-core design that is supposed to bring significant IPC uplift from the previous generation of processors. Using Intel 7 processor node, Raptor Lake brings a similar ecosystem of features to Alder Lake, however, with improved performance across the board.

Perhaps one of the most exciting things to note about Raptor Lake is the advancement in core count, specifically the increase in E-cores. Instead of eight P-cores and eight E-cores like Alder Lake, the Raptor Lake design will retain eight P-cores and double the E-core count to 16. It was a weird decision on Intel's end; however, it surely isn't anything terrible. The total number of cores now jumps to 24, and the total number of threads reaches 32. Additionally, Raptor Lake will bring some additional overclocking improvement features and retain socket compatibility with Alder Lake motherboards. That means that, at worst, you would need to perform a BIOS update to get your previous system ready for new hardware. We assume that Intel has been working with software vendors and its engineering team to optimize core utilization for this next-generation processor, even though they have more E-cores present. Below, we can see Intel's demonstration of Raptor Lake running Blender and Adobe Premiere and the CPU core utilization.

Adobe's Premiere Pro, one of the most common video editing tools in the industry, has received a February update today with version 22.2. The new version brings a wide array of features like Adobe Remix, an advanced audio retiming tool. Alongside that, the latest update accelerates offline text-to-speech capabilities by as much as three times. However, this is not the most significant feature, as we are about to see. Adobe also enabled 10-bit 420 HDR HEVC H/W encoding on Window with Intel and NVIDIA graphics. This feature allows the software to use advanced hardware built-in the NVIDIA Quadro RTX and Intel Iris Xe graphics cards.

The company managed to run some preliminary tests, and you can see the charts below. They significantly improve export times with the latest 22.2 software version that enables HEVC 10-Bit hardware encoding. For Intel GPUs, no special drivers need to be installed. However, for NVIDIA GPUs, Adobe is advising official Studio drivers in combination with Quadro RTX GPUs.

NVIDIA today reported record revenue for the third quarter ended October 31, 2021, of $7.10 billion, up 50 percent from a year earlier and up 9 percent from the previous quarter, with record revenue from the company's Gaming, Data Center and Professional Visualization market platforms. GAAP earnings per diluted share for the quarter were $0.97, up 83 percent from a year ago and up 3 percent from the previous quarter. Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share were $1.17, up 60 percent from a year ago and up 13 percent from the previous quarter.

"The third quarter was outstanding, with record revenue," said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. "Demand for NVIDIA AI is surging, driven by hyperscale and cloud scale-out, and broadening adoption by more than 25,000 companies. NVIDIA RTX has reinvented computer graphics with ray tracing and AI, and is the ideal upgrade for the large, growing market of gamers and creators, as well as designers and professionals building home workstations.

Wacom introduces its new Cintiq Pro 16 creative pen display to professional and serious creators of digital content who wish to take their art and design work to the next level. Building on over 35 years of product innovation and valuable customer feedback, the Wacom Cintiq Pro 16 combines the company's most natural and precise pen performance with newly improved ergonomic features into a sleek and portable form factor to help artists, designers, photographers or anyone with a passion for art let their creativity flow from pen to screen.

"The launch of the Cintiq Pro 16 puts the power of our flagship creative pen display line into an extremely portable device that is more adaptable than ever before - giving artists not only better precision, but also flexibility in how and where they work," said Faik Karaoglu, Executive Vice President of Marketing for Wacom's Creative Business Unit. "Wacom continues to build products that help artists and designers reach their full potential and reimagine what is possible."

Today, Adobe kicked off Adobe MAX 2021, the largest creativity conference in the world. The company delivered innovation across Creative Cloud flagship applications and introduced new collaboration capabilities to fuel new levels of creativity for millions of customers worldwide, from students to social media creators to creative professionals.

At Adobe MAX, the company announced major updates across Creative Cloud flagship applications powered by Adobe Sensei, accelerated the video creation process with the addition of Frame.io and advanced 3D and immersive authoring abilities. Adobe also previewed new collaboration capabilities with the introduction of Creative Cloud Canvas, Creative Cloud Spaces and betas of Photoshop and Illustrator on the web.

Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, has introduced its first product designed to empower the next generation of immersive storytellers. The new RF5.2 mm F2.8 L Dual Fisheye lens brings stereoscopic 3D virtual reality (VR) capture to the EOS R5 camera as part of the EOS VR System, which also includes a future firmware update for the EOS R5 camera to support use of this lens with new VR shooting specific functions, as well as new upcoming Canon EOS VR software solutions for conversion and processing.

As the world's first digital interchangeable dual fisheye lens capable of shooting stereoscopic 3D 180° VR imagery to a single image sensor the complexities of virtual reality production and the ability to view the content in full capacity, are greatly streamlined for seasoned professionals and newcomers to the craft. In order to truly experience the captured content by this system in its truest form, a compatible VR headset is recommended for use such as the Oculus Quest 2, allowing the viewer to immerse themselves in the content—by simply moving their head to provide a vivid, incredibly wide view.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) today reported record revenue for the second quarter ended August 1, 2021, of $6.51 billion, up 68 percent from a year earlier and up 15 percent from the previous quarter, with record revenue from the company's Gaming, Data Center and Professional Visualization platforms. GAAP earnings per diluted share for the quarter were $0.94, up 276 percent from a year ago and up 24 percent from the previous quarter. Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share were $1.04, up 89 percent from a year ago and up 14 percent from the previous quarter.

"NVIDIA's pioneering work in accelerated computing continues to advance graphics, scientific computing and AI," said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. "Enabled by the NVIDIA platform, developers are creating the most impactful technologies of our time - from natural language understanding and recommender systems, to autonomous vehicles and logistic centers, to digital biology and climate science, to metaverse worlds that obey the laws of physics.

The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, today announced an intent to form the Open 3D Foundation to accelerate developer collaboration on 3D game and simulation technology. The Open 3D Foundation will support open source projects that advance capabilities related to 3D graphics, rendering, authoring, and development. As the first project governed by the new foundation, Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) is contributing an updated version of the Amazon Lumberyard game engine as the Open 3D Engine (O3DE), under the permissive Apache 2.0 license. The Open 3D Engine enables developers and content creators to build 3D experiences unencumbered by commercial terms and will provide the support and infrastructure of an open source community through forums, code repositories, and developer events. A developer preview of O3DE is available on GitHub today. For more information and/or to contribute, please visit: https://o3de.org

3D engines are used to create a range of virtual experiences, including games and simulations, by providing capabilities such as 3D rendering, content authoring tools, animation, physics systems, and asset processing. Many developers are seeking ways to build their intellectual property on top of an open source engine where the roadmap is highly visible, openly governed, and collaborative to the community as a whole. More developers look to be able to create or augment their current technological foundations with highly collaborative solutions that can be used in any development environment. O3DE introduces a new ecosystem for developers and content creators to innovate, build, share, and distribute immersive 3D worlds that will inspire their users with rich experiences that bring the imaginations of their creators to life.

Samsung is readying a powerful Arm-based SoC rivaling Apple's groundbreaking M1 silicon, under its Exynos brand. This chip is being designed for thin-and-light notebooks, as well as premium tablets, essentially letting Samsung target Apple's MacBook (M1) and iPad Pro form-factors. Unlike Apple, Samsung won't be burdened with having to rally its ISV partners to develop specifically for its hardware; the company is preparing to launch notebooks in the second half of 2021 that are powered by a Windows 10 on Arm derivative. This would give the notebook access to all of the applications already developed for the OS, including Office and certain Adobe Creativity Suite apps. The M1-rivaling Exynos chip will pack the latest-generation 64-bit Arm CPU cores, as well as an integrated GPU designed by AMD.

NVIDIA today released the latest version of GeForce Game Ready drivers. Version 466.11 WHQL comes with optimization for "Mortal Shell," including support for raytracing and DLSS. The drivers also add NVIDIA Reflex support for "Valorant" with its latest patch. The drivers also integrate NVIDIA Broadcast noise reduction feature into OBS. The list of monitors with support for NVIDIA G-SYNC grows, with the addition of LG's 2021 G1, B1, C1, and Z1 series monitors; and the MSI MAG301RF.

Among the bugs fixed with GeForce 466.11 drivers are low frame-rates on "Supreme Commander/Supreme Commander 2," RAW files showing up black on Adobe Lightroom; "Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 VR" stuttering on machines with hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling disabled; and some displays showing incorrect color levels after booting into Windows. Grab the drivers from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 466.11 WHQL

NVIDIA Wednesday released a Hotfix update to its GeForce software. Version 461.33 Hotfix addresses a few glaring bugs with the software that need to be immediately put out than waiting for the next WHQL update to take shape. For starters, the update fixes an Adobe Premiere Pro crash observed when using Mercury Playback Engine with CUDA GPU acceleration.

An application hang with NVIDIA Broadcast camera filters seen after GeForce 461.09 drivers has been fixed. Certain stuttering and lagging issues observed with Steam VR have been fixed. Random crashes with "Detroit: Become Human" have been fixed. Incorrect colors on Zoom video calls when using NVENC have been fixed. "Assassin's Creed Valhalla" crashing after extended gameplay has been fixed. "X4: Foundations" game crashes on GeForce RTX 30-series GPUs, and a broken HUD in Vulkan API mode, has been fixed. Grab the drivers from the links below.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce Hotfix 461.33 Standard | NVIDIA GeForce Hotfix 461.33 DCH

ViewSonic Corp., a leading global provider of display solutions, showcases its latest display solutions ranging from monitors for gaming and work-from-home environments to projectors for entertainment and portability. Packed with the latest technology features for functionality and designed for multiple applications, these ViewSonic display solutions deliver performance that remains uncompromised.

ViewSonic will introduce its line of new display solutions, including the company's first 8K ColorPro monitor with Adobe RGB and color-sensor and -blind modes; new ViewSonic ELITE gaming monitors including a 32-inch, 4K, HDMI 2.1 monitor with FreeSync for next-generation PC/console gaming; a value-rich 4K projector for astounding entertainment and casual gaming experiences, and an upgraded LED-based, 1080p portable projector with smart connectivity.

Over the last year, we've seen a lot of interest in a new category of PCs designed for content creators. With high-end specifications and serious styling, these new creator PCs are being marketed to animators, designers, photographers, videographers, musicians and other digital content creators. Today, to meet growing demand from our press and retail partners, we're releasing two new benchmarks for measuring the performance of creator PCs. These two benchmarks use popular Adobe applications to test PC performance for photo editing and video editing work.

Enthusiast creators now have easy access to many of the same software tools used by professionals. Add increasingly powerful, yet affordable PC hardware, and creators have everything they need to develop their talent and unlock their potential. For creators who make a living from their craft, focus and productivity are key. When the process gets in the way, creativity suffers. Even the smallest interruption can break the flow. Longer delays from loading images or exporting video files are even more frustrating. Creator PCs promise to smooth out the wrinkles in the production process. Many manufacturers are now offering dedicated systems for content creators. Benchmark scores offer an easy way for creators to compare the performance of these different systems.

Today at Adobe MAX, HP Inc. announced its latest innovations to the HP Create Ecosystem to capture, create, and experience. HP continues evolving the Create Ecosystem, offering creators new remote solutions and the necessary tools to collaborate, accelerate workflows, and iterate, ensuing they can truly share their creations and work in real-time from any environment. Additionally, the next-generation Z by HP and DreamColor displays are reimagined with the creator in mind, providing seamless color accuracy, industry-leading performance, and an ultra-thin frameless design.

As creators work in new hybrid work environments, the need for the right technology and tools to keep them productive, connected, and collaborative has never been more essential. Eighty percent of companies are doing what they can to keep up with today's new normal by accelerating the adoption of collaboration applications for workers. Even in a pandemic, the creative community never stops creating as consumers still crave the entertainment and the escape that artists, designers, and engineers bring to the world. The importance of enabling remote work for creators will continue to increase, with 80% of creators reporting a desire to continue to work from home post-pandemic.

Without question, MSI is not only the market leader in the gaming hardware industry but also the pioneer in the Content Creation market with an innovative range of technologies. As the world tends to be unpredictable, MSI keeps on developing products with stylish, stable, and the best performance for all kinds of creators. Today, MSI launched the brand new Content Creation Desktop PCs: Creator P100X and Creator P100A with another new monitor, Creator PS321QR & Creator PS321URV, designed for creators and multi-taskers.

George Nelson, one of the most creative designers in the mid-20th century, played a very important role in that period and was representative of the Mid-Century Modern style. George Nelson always foresaw the unknown world and put his imagination into the creation of living objects. The MSI Creator P100 series was gifted with clean lines, geometric forms, gentle organic curves, a love for different materials, and functionality that meet the desires of different creators. Instead of making just a "PC", Creator P100X and P100A will be part of creators' life with a stylish, luxury & aesthetic design.