This week Google Stadia added the option to stream games on chrome at 2560x1440 resolution so that users with QHD monitors can now stream games at their monitors' native resolution compared to just 1080p or 4k previously. To play in QHD resolution users will need an active Stadia Pro subscription, a network speed of 35 Mbps or greater, and a Windows computer or Chromebook with VP9 hardware decoding and a QHD monitor.

In other news, this week the Stadia Store gained two new games those being Jotun: Valhalla Edition, and Sundered: Eldritch Edition. Stadia Pro subscribers are also set to receive The Elder Scrolls Online for Free on June 16 along with the Morrowind Chapter as free content. Stadia players can enjoy crossplay support with PC, which means you'll be able to play with friends across Stadia and PC.

ASUS today announced the all-new ASUS - Google Meet hardware kit, a smart video-conferencing solution that enables stunning HD visuals. The original ASUS - Google Meet hardware kit first launched in 2014, delivering a simple and intuitive video-conferencing solution. After the success of this product, ASUS is excited to continue working with Google on a redesigned hardware kit that delivers an enhanced user experience.

The new ASUS - Google Meet hardware kit includes the compact ASUS - Google Meet Compute System, which is designed with a magnetic chassis for easy installation and the ports all on one side for efficient cable management, while the slim design allows for installation in environments with restricted access. To ensure long-term reliability under prolonged use, the newly designed Meet Compute System is built and tested to exceed industry requirements.

Today the Hot Chips program committee officially announced the August conference line-up, posted to hotchips.org. For this first-ever live-streamed Hot Chips Symposium, the program is better than ever!

In a session on deep learning training for data centers, we have a mix of talks from the internet giant Google showcasing their TPUv2 and TPUv3, and a talk from startup Cerebras on their 2nd gen wafer-scale AI solution, as well as ETH Zurich's 4096-core RISC-V based AI chip. And in deep learning inference, we have talks from several of China's biggest AI infrastructure companies: Baidu, Alibaba, and SenseTime. We also have some new startups that will showcase their interesting solutions—LightMatter talking about its optical computing solution, and TensTorrent giving a first-look at its new architecture for AI.

There are two types of people in the world: tab minimalists who have just a few tabs open at a time and tab collectors who have...significantly more. For minimalists and collectors alike, we're bringing a new way to organize your tabs to Chrome: tab groups. This feature is available now in Chrome Beta. Now, with a simple right click, you can group your tabs together and label them with a custom name and color. Once the tabs are grouped together, you can move and reorder them on the tab strip.

The wait is over. The Lenovo Chromebook Duet, one of the thinnest, lightest and most hotly anticipated Chromebooks in the world, hits the North America market today. Designed for mobile productivity, the 2-in-1 detachable Lenovo Chromebook Duet has a 10.1-inch screen and comes with an ultrathin, detachable laptop-grade keyboard to help you get work done from the kitchen, to the home office or couch. The Lenovo Chromebook Duet runs Chrome OS - the powerfully simple operating system that boots up fast, and stays secure with seamless automatic updates for up to eight years.

As revealed during Microsoft's Inside Xbox show, Codemasters is delighted to announce DIRT 5, launching from October 2020 on Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5, Windows PC (via Steam) and the current generation of Xbox and PlayStation consoles. A Google Stadia version will be released in early 2021. Whilst respecting the heritage and retaining the DNA of the franchise, DIRT 5 writes a new chapter in the legacy of DIRT - bolder and braver than ever before. DIRT 5 is more than relentless rallying, more than suspension-shaking jumps, more than hairpins and handbrakes. Join an energised world of off-road racing, and be part of a vibe that delivers big on epic action, pure expression, and unbridled style.

The Google Stadia controller launched alongside Google Stadia 6 months ago and was touted as the controller for all platforms with integrated ultra-low latency features. However, PC users could not take advantage of the ultra-low latency features which connects the Stadia controller directly to your Wi-Fi router. PC users have instead had to connect their controller to their PC with a USB Type-C cable. Some users report that this will increase compatibility on obscure systems by offloading the input handling to Stadia's servers.

"Starting this week, you can now use the Stadia Controller to play wirelessly on your laptop and desktop. You no longer need to connect your Stadia Controller physically to your computer to play your favorite games. You'll be able to link your Stadia Controller and Stadia.com through your Wi-Fi network and play without a USB-C cable connection."

With the whole COVID-19 pandemic happening the Work From Home (WFH) situation is going well under its way. And some of the online meeting software publishers are making a good bank on it like Zoom has been doing for the fast few months. Now, it looks like Google wants to compete Zoom and launch a new service called Google Meet, which is predicted to be a killer app for online meetings. "We re-engineered the service we built for secure business meetings, Google Meet, to make it free and available for all. In order to give people the security and reliability they count on from Google, we will be rolling out access over the coming weeks.", says Google's website.

The Google Meet application will be capable of hosting a meeting with up to 100 participants. Client software will be available for iOS and Android users and for the desktop you are going to access it using the Meet website interface. Meeting session duration is so far unlimited, however, starting from September 30th you will be able to use a session only for 60 minutes, after which it expires. This service has the potential to eat some of the Zoom's market share as it is free features overlook the ones of Zoom by meeting duration. We shall see how things progress in the coming weeks as Google rolls out the service.

Google Stadia has unveiled several new games and changes coming to the platform in a recent Stadia Connect Event. Google Stadia will be adding 11 new games to the platform, along with updates for Stadia Pro subscribers. The Pioneer Edition of PUBG will be free for Stadia Pro subscribers and $39.99 USD for other users. Stadia also announced that EA would be joining the platform with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order coming this fall, along with Madden NFL & FIFA coming this winter. Stadia will also be launching some various other new games such as Crayta, Get Packed, Wave Break, Embr, Zombie Army 4: Dead War, The Turing Test, and SteamWorld Heist in the coming weeks.

Google Stadia is set to hold their first Stadia Connect event in over 8 months tomorrow the 28th April at 9 AM PT / 6 PM CET / 5 PM BST. Google has announced that several new games coming to the platform will be revealed at the event, whether these games will be from existing third parties or new Stadia exclusives is yet to be known. Google has not announced any exclusives for the platform this far, making it possible that Google might have some games lined up to announce. The stream can be viewed live on the Google Stadia YouTube channel and will be available to watch on-demand after the event. W̶e̶ ̶w̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶s̶u̶r̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶u̶p̶d̶a̶t̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶p̶o̶s̶t̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶a̶l̶l̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶d̶e̶t̶a̶i̶l̶s̶ ̶w̶h̶e̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶y̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶n̶o̶u̶n̶c̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶m̶o̶r̶r̶o̶w̶.̶ Google has unveiled 11 new games for the platform, full details can be viewed here.

In a recent report by CNBC, news that Google plans to slash its marketing budget in half for H2 2020 were revealed, this comes as COVID-19 wreaks havoc on the economy and shows that not even Google is immune to the effects. Google is also halting most hiring of full-time and contract employees particularly in Marketing long with reducing employee skills training as part of the company "recalibrating".

This news comes after Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai announced that Google would be scaling back its investments for the remainder of the year. At the time Sundar only said it would recalibrate "non-business essential marketing" and "significantly slow down" hiring. Action this drastic seemed unlikely at the time, Alphabet shares dropped nearly 2% after hours following the news.

Epic Games launched Fortnite for Android in 2018 players had to sidestep the Google Play Store and download the game directly from Epic as an APK. The reason Epic Games chose to go this route was the 30% fee Google Play takes on all in-app purchases, this move was understandable at the time. Over the last 18 months Google has vastly increased Android security measures with features such as Google Play Protect and "security pop-ups" in an attempt to increase control over Android. Epic Games wanted Google to revise their policies and take a smaller cut however Google has won out and Epic has announced that Fortnite will be available via the Google Play Store going forward in addition to the direct download from the Epic Games site.

Google is planning to take the Apple route in designing its own SoCs for its hardware. The company kicked off "Project Whitechapel," an initiative with technical assistance from Samsung (and possibly silicon-fabrication), to design Arm-based SoCs with specialized hardware to power Google's machine-learning tech. The first such chip will be 8-core Arm SoCs powering next-generation Pixel premium smartphones, but in the future, Google could use Arm-based SoCs to power Chromebooks.

Google has, in the past, collaborated with Intel and Qualcomm to put specialized hardware on smartphone SoCs, although the resulting chips would still be supplied by the two. "Project Whitechapel" would see Google play a dominant role in the SoC's design, with Samsung only providing technical inputs. It wouldn't be far-fetched to predict Google using lightweight variants of the SoC on its own IoT hardware, such as Chromecast and Home smart-speakers.

Microsoft has decided to shift its focus away from Windows 10X dual-screen laptop solutions in the near term, according to the report from ZDNet. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic that has happened recently, Microsoft's Chief Product Officer Panos Panay internally informed his team that Microsoft will not be focusing its efforts on delivering the Windows 10X based dual-screen laptops this year. However, Microsoft is committed to that idea and will not shift away from it completely, it is just taking a rest for now. This is bad news for everyone that was hoping to get Surface Neo dual-screen laptop that was meant for the Holiday season of 2020. In addition to Surface Neo not shipping this year, Microsoft isn't enabling any new Windows 10X dual-screen device to ship this year either.

What Microsoft is focusing on, however, is to get Windows 10X firstly on single-screen devices. That means that regular laptops should be getting the Windows 10X treatment sometime this year so vendors can launch products to compete with Chromebook devices, based on Google's ChromeOS.

The 25 Gigabit Ethernet Consortium, originally established to develop 25, 50 and 100 Gbps Ethernet specifications, announced today it has changed its name to the Ethernet Technology Consortium in order to reflect a new focus on higher-speed Ethernet technologies.

The goal of the consortium is to enhance the Ethernet specification to operate at new speeds by utilizing specifications that are developed or in development. This allows the organization to work alongside other industry groups and standards bodies to adapt Ethernet at a pace that aligns with the rapidly evolving needs of the industry. The ETC has more than 45 members with top-level promoter members that include Arista, Broadcom, Cisco, Dell, Google, Mellanox and Microsoft.

Today Google announced that it would be opening up registration for Stadia's free tier, and that all new and existing customers will receive two months of Stadia Pro for free in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Google Stadia is available in 14 countries and the pro tier will give users access to 9 free games including GRID and Destiny 2.

We're facing some of the most challenging times in recent memory. Keeping social distance is vital, but staying home for long periods can be difficult and feel isolating. Video games can be a valuable way to socialize with friends and family when you're stuck at home, so we're giving gamers in 14 countries free access to Stadia Pro for two months. This is starting today and rolling out over the next 48 hours.

Samsung today announced the Galaxy Chromebook, a premium Google ChromeOS 2-in-1 device that converts between a conventional notebook and a tablet with a stylus. This is the first time Samsung is bringing its Android-focused Galaxy brand over to its Chromebook family. The $999 price-tag may look like a tall ask for a Chromebook, until you look at some of its specs. The star attraction is the 13.3-inch AMOLED touchscreen with 4K UHD resolution. Samsung developed the Galaxy Chromebook in close coordination with Intel as part of its ambitious "Project Athena" initiative of developing next-generation portable computing devices that defy conventions on performance and battery-life.

Under the hood is an Intel Core i5-10210U "Comet Lake" processor with 8 GB of LPDDR3-2133 memory, a 256 GB NVMe SSD, UFS + microSDXC card slot, and 802.11ax + Bluetooth connectivity (at this price we'd have expected at least 4G cellular modem). It dumps type-A USB ports and instead features a couple of type-C ports, one of which doubles up as a power input. The 4K UHD display is pulled by integrated Intel UHD 630 graphics. A 47.9 Wh battery powers the thing, with Samsung claiming 8h 20m of run-time. Measuring 30 cm x 20.32 cm x 0.99 cm (closed), the Galaxy Chromebook weighs 1.03 kg. The included S-Pen stylus slots into the body. The Galaxy Chromebook is available in two color options, red and gray, both priced at $999.

Microsoft's latest Edge browser based on the open-source Chromium browser is now the 2nd most popular browser in the world. Having launched just three months ago, it already has increased its userbase around the world to become more popular than even some long-lasting alternatives such as Mozilla Firefox, which is now the 3rd most popular option, showing that Firefox's userbase is decreasing in favor of the new Edge browser by Microsoft. The number one is still Google's Chrome which owns the majority of users at 68.5%, while Edge is at 7.59%. Firefox is present with a 7.19% market share, placing it just below Edge. It is impressive to see a new browser gain big userbase in such a short time, as alternative browsers often take years to gain even 2% of the market. You can check out the whole browser market share chart below.

Ampere Computing, a startup focusing on making HPC and processors from cloud applications based on Arm Instruction Set Architecture, today announced the release of a first 80 core "cloud-native" processor based on the Arm ISA. The new Ampere Altra CPU is the company's first 80 core CPU meant for hyper scalers like Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. Being built on TSMC's 7 nm semiconductor manufacturing process, the Altra is a CPU that is utilizing a monolithic die to achieve maximum performance. Using Arm's v8.2+ instruction set, the CPU is using the Neoverse N1 platform as its core, to be ready for any data center workload needed. It also borrows a few security features from v8.3 and v8.5, namely the hardware mitigations of speculative attacks.

When it comes to the core itself, the CPU is running at 3.0 GHz frequency and has some very interesting specifications. The design of the core is such that it is 4-wide superscalar Out of Order Execution (OoOE), which Ampere refers to as "aggressive" meaning that there is a lot of data throughput going on. The cache levels are structured in a way that there is 64 KB of L1D and L1I cache per core, along with 1 MB of L2 cache per core as well. For system-level cache, there is 32 MB of L3 available to the SoC. All of the caches have Error-correcting code (ECC) built-in, giving the CPU a much-needed feature. There are two 128-bit wide Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) units, which are there to do parallel processing if needed. There is no mention if they implement Arm's Scalable Vector Extensions (SVE) or not.

Google announced cancellation of the 2020 edition of Google I/O, the company's largest annual expo and trade-show. The announcement comes in light of the COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) outbreak that is now quantitatively affecting all regions of the world. Google I/O was originally scheduled for May 12-14, held on Google's home turf of Mountain View, California. Google I/O is an annual gathering of software- and web developers, and consumer electronics manufacturers from within Google's various ecosystems, such as Android. Paying attendees will be given the option to get a full refund, or an option to buy a ticket to the 2021 edition of Google I/O.

zAnother day, another audio product quick look. This time, the folks over at Philips get some love with the US launch of their PH805 active noise cancelling (ANC) headphones, the news of which we covered before. The company has gone through big changes over the years, and one of the effects has been regional business units operating independently enough to have separate launch windows for products. Take this very product, for example, which had been out for purchase for a couple of months already last year in Europe and parts of Asia, and Philips USA only just got it in 2020. Somehow, we had no coverage on this to date, but that changes now.

The PH805, also referred to as the PH805BK or TAPH805BK, follows a trend of product names that make little sense, but all you need to know is that this is from the same company and team that brought out the excellent Fidelio series that offered great value for money to those wanting an open-back, over-ear headphones with a neutral signature without any real shortcomings across the frequency range. They are readying the new Fidelio x3 for launch soon, but the PH805 aims to interest a different segment entirely. In particular, the frequent traveler or mobile user that wants a lightweight set of cans with ANC and wireless connectivity. It ships in a retail packaging that is well designed, with the company and product name on the front along with a large render and marketing features throughout, with a clear note on Google Assistant compatibility. Sorry, iOS users! Read past the break for more on the Philips PH805BK, including an unboxing, user experience, and what it costs to get you one of these in the USA.

Envision Peripherals Inc. (EPI), the Brand license partner for Philips Audio in North America, announces today the latest addition to the Philips audio line with the Philips Wireless over-ear noise cancelling headphone (TAPH805BK). The headphones are now available on Amazon, competitively pricedat $199.99 USD. Ideal for at Home, in the Office, or on-the-go, the new Philips (TAPH805BK) headphones provide users with an unparalleled listening experience.

Music or Silence
Eliminate outside noise through a press of a button with Active Noise Canceling mode or flip to Awareness Mode to stay in tune with your surroundings. Users can control volume by swiping up or down on the ear-housing touch control panel. Activate or deactivate Active Noise Canceling or engage in Awareness Mode with a simple press. While carrying out a call over Bluetooth, its built-in mic with echo cancellation keeps sound crystal clear.

Today, The Khronos Group, an open consortium of industry-leading companies creating advanced interoperability standards, announces the release of the Vulkan 1.2 specification for GPU acceleration. This release integrates 23 proven extensions into the core Vulkan API, bringing significant developer-requested access to new hardware functionality, improved application performance, and enhanced API usability. Multiple GPU vendors have certified conformant implementations, and significant open source tooling is expected during January 2020.

Vulkan continues to evolve by listening to developer needs, shipping new functionality as extensions, and then consolidating extensions that receive positive developer feedback into a unified core API specification. Carefully selected API features are made optional to enable market-focused implementations. Many Vulkan 1.2 features were requested by developers to meet critical needs in their engines and applications, including: timeline semaphores for easily managed synchronization; a formal memory model to precisely define the semantics of synchronization and memory operations in different threads; descriptor indexing to enable reuse of descriptor layouts by multiple shaders; deeper support for shaders written in HLSL, and more.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today introduced Galaxy Chromebook, a premium 2-in-1 device that sets a higher standard in mobile computing. This new entrant to the Galaxy Computing portfolio redefines what a Chromebook can be. As the thinnest Samsung Chromebook ever released, it combines the best of Samsung technical innovation - such as an AMOLED display and built-in-pen support, offering users new ways to take advantage of Chrome OS experience that is simple, fast, and seamless.

"The notion that we do everything stationary at a desk is a thing of the past, and people need premium devices built for our new reality," said Alanna Cotton, Senior Vice President and General Manager at Samsung Electronics America. "By offering a seamless, premium user experience, Galaxy Chromebook helps you effortlessly switch between streaming, creative projects, word processing, and more."

Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page announced on Tuesday that they relinquished control of Alphabet, Google's parent holding company, to Google CEO Sundar Pichai. The two will remain employees of Alphabet and sit on its board of directors, but will no longer hold the positions of CEO or President. Brin was Alphabet's President, and Page its CEO. Pichai will now be CEO of not just Google, but also Alphabet. This gives him executive control over Alphabet's other subsidiaries, such as CaptalG, Google Fiber, Loon, Waymo, and DeepMind.

"Going forward, Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet. He will be the executive responsible and accountable for leading Google, and managing Alphabet's investment in our portfolio of Other Bets. We are deeply committed to Google and Alphabet for the long term, and will remain actively involved as Board members, shareholders and co-founders. In addition, we plan to continue talking with Sundar regularly, especially on topics we're passionate about!," the duo said in their blog post announcing the change. Google reorganized itself as Alphabet in 2015 with Eric Schmidt as executive chairman, making its core business, Google Inc., a subsidiary of a holding company named Alphabet, and its other non-web businesses being spread across as its other subsidiaries. Following Schmidt's 2017 exit, Brin and Page took direct charge.