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Microsoft Edge

Microsoft announces the retirement of Internet Explorer as the Future is in Microsoft Edge.

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After more than 25 years, Microsoft is retiring its long-running browser, Internet Explorer, next year. For years, users have avoided using outdated web browsers due to the advent of better alternatives. On June 15, 2022, Microsoft will phase out Internet Explorer.

The Extinction of Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer, which was released in 1995, became the dominant browser for more than a decade because it was bundled with Microsoft’s Windows operating system, which came pre-installed in billions of computers. The browser, on the other hand, began losing ground to Google’s Chrome in the late 2000s and has since been the target of numerous internet memes for its sluggishness. Despite the fact that Microsoft has aggressively promoted its Edge browser to consumers, the company has continued to provide Internet Explorer 11 in Windows 10. One of the primary factors may be that many older enterprise applications and websites only operate with Internet Explorer.

Last year, Microsoft ended support for Internet Explorer 11 for the Microsoft Teams web app. Later this year, the company intends to block Internet Explorer from accessing Microsoft 365 services. Microsoft recommends that if you use Internet Explorer, you switch to Microsoft Edge before June 15, 2022, for a quicker and more stable browsing experience. If your company uses Internet Explorer, you may have a large number of legacy Internet Explorer-based websites and applications that have been built up over time. According to Microsoft, the typical company has 1,678 legacy applications.

Switch to Microsoft Edge Today

According to Statcounter, Google Chrome dominates 65 percent of the sector. Safari, which was developed by Apple and is available on Apple computers and tablets, is the runner-up, with a roughly 19 percent market share as of April of this year.

Internet Explorer and Edge
Image Source: techrepublic.com

To compete more effectively, Microsoft released the Edge browser in 2015, which uses the same technology as Google’s browser. With 3.59 percent and 3.39 percent, respectively, Firefox and Edge are third and fourth. Microsoft advised its web developers to schedule an orderly transition away from Internet Explorer support based on user needs.

Some Exciting Features Of Microsoft Edge

Collections help you to quickly compile information from various websites, arrange it, export it into various folders, or simply return to your work at a later time and pick up right where you left off. Microsoft Edge is the only browser that lets you access your sidebar tabs with a single click. Vertical tabs are expected to appear in the Insider networks in the coming months. The tracking prevention feature in Microsoft Edge is intended to shield you from being monitored by websites you are not specifically visiting, giving you more power over what you see and don’t see. Whether on mobile or desktop, you can choose between three options: Basic, Balanced, or Strict.

Password Monitor is a function that, when activated, notifies you if the credentials you’ve saved to autofill have been found on the dark web. If Microsoft Edge finds a fit with any of your saved usernames and passwords, you will be prompted to take action from inside the browser. You will display a list of all leaked passwords in Settings and be directed to their respective websites to update your password. Microsoft Edge is the only desktop browser that has built-in InPrivate Bing search. As a result, when I browse in InPrivate mode, my searches aren’t associated with me or my account.

Microsoft Edge is the only browser on Windows 10 that allows you to view Netflix in 4K resolution. It is also the only browser on Windows 10 that supports Dolby Audio and Dolby Vision. If you choose to check-in Bing, you can receive reward points as part of the Microsoft Rewards program. You can donate your reward points to a cause of your choosing by activating the new Give Mode tab in your rewards settings. There is no cost to you; simply use Bing to browse. With over 1 million charities to choose from, you can help a cause that is important to you, such as the CDC Foundation and others that are assisting with the COVID response.

How to Get Microsoft Edge?

The new Microsoft Edge is now available for download at Microsoft.com/Edge. It is compatible with Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android. If you have Windows 10 and do not yet have the latest Microsoft Edge, you can download it today or expect it to arrive on your PC beginning next month as we begin the roll-out. And, whether you download it yourself or wait for it to be sent to your PC, switching is a breeze, with your favorites, passwords, form fill information, and simple settings all transferring to the new Microsoft Edge with a single click.

Snapdragon 778 5G

Qualcomm revealed Snapdragon 778 5G Mobile Platform during the Annual 5G Summit.

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The new 5G Mobile Platform, that is, the Qualcomm powered Snapdragon 778 is designed by the company with cutting-edge technology and better implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Qualcomm has announced the new platform for the next generation of high-tier mobile phones from Honor, Motorola, Oppo, Xiaomi, Realme, and IQOO. The new Snapdragon 778 5G claims to enhance the gaming experience and also video and imaging with better AI.

The demand for OEMs for more platforms is increasing at a global rate, especially for high-tier smartphones. Qualcomm designed the new 5G mobile platform to address this problem as it brings many latest premium technologies and a wide range of features for a better experience in the future. The demand for quality tech has accelerated especially during the pandemic so the companies are trying to design better products that will be highly efficient in terms of performance and provide a top-notch entertainment experience as well. So, let’s have a look at all the new features and tech of the Snapdragon 778 5G Mobile Platform.

Snapdragon 778 5G Features

The new Snapdragon 778 5G Mobile Platform is featuring a Triple ISP which will allow the user to capture three photos or videos simultaneously. The options included in this shooting type are wide-angle, ultra-wide, and zoom along with the option of shooting from three different lenses all at once. So, when the user is capturing or recording the same subject from three different aspects, the camera system automatically merges these shots to finally produce a professional photography-like result. The videos can be also captured in 4K HDR10+ which is hard to differentiate if recorded in a mobile phone or a DSLR camera. The Snapdragon 778G also has Staggered HDR image sensors which allows one to capture computational HDR videos with improved detailing.

Snapdragon 778 5G
Image Source: qualcomm.com

6th Generation Qualcomm AI Engine

With every new platform released in the market, there is always improved technology behind it and one of the main reasons is more efficient AI-based applications. The Snapdragon 778G is featuring the latest 6th generation Qualcomm AI Engine with the Qualcomm Hexagon 770 processor. This assures high-performance delivery of up to 12 TOPs and twice the performance. The performance per watt has also increased as compared to its predecessor.

The capability of AI has been heightened as it will use AI-based noise suppression, AI-based camera, etc for a video call, zoom meeting, and even a voice call. The Snapdragon 778G also has the 2nd generation Qualcomm Sensing Hub which integrated a low power consuming AI processor for contextual awareness use cases. Honor has collaborated with Qualcomm as the brand new HONOR 50 series will be powered by Snapdragon 778G and this will set new industry standards for Honor.

Enhanced Gaming Experience

The new gaming features are one of the main attractions of the Snapdragon 778G. The platform is delivering select Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite Gaming features along with Variable Rate Shading (VRS) and Qualcomm Game Quick Touch. These are the features that have been unlocked in the 7-series. Users are looking for better gaming experience be it smartphones, laptops, or gaming consoles. The VRS feature which is enabled by the Qualcomm Adreno 642L GPU allows the user (developer) to specify and group the pixels being shaded with different game scenes. This helps in reducing the workload of GPU which leads to power saving by a huge amount while maintaining the highest visual fidelity. Along with this, the Qualcomm Game Quick Touch allows 20% faster input response which is also an advantage for a gamer.

Connectivity and Performance

Snapdragon 778G comes with the integrated Snapdragon X53 5G Modem-RF System which will deliver mmWave and sub-6 5G capabilities to more users around the globe. This new mobile platform is featuring Qualcomm FastConnect 6700 Connectivity and also supports multi-gigabit class Wi-Fi 6 speeds (up to 2.9 Gbps) with 4k QAM and access to 160MHz channels in both the 5GHz and 6GHz bands. It will support Bluetooth 5.2, lightning-fast Wi-Fi 6/6E, and 5G. The Qualcomm Kryo 670 is designed to generate up to 40% uplift in overall CPU performance and the Adreno 642L GPU will deliver up to 40% faster graphics rendering compared to the previous generations.

Windows 10x

Windows Cancels 10x, Launched a New Update for Windows 10 Instead.

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Windows 10 have been one of the most popular OS by Microsoft, and before the pandemic, the company had announced an even better version of the OS, i.e., Windows 10x. But today, Microsoft took it to their official blog and revealed that the company doesn’t have any plans to release the much-anticipated Windows 10x, also known by the codename ‘Santorini’. Rather, it will revamp the existing Windows 10. Microsoft also released a new version of the OS, version 21H1.

The Early Announcement

In 2019, Microsoft had announced that the company will release a new OS, Windows 10x, along with Microsoft’s new dual-screen devices. It was at the time when Microsoft announced its dual-screen foldable laptop, the Surface Neo, in October 2019. The company called Windows 10x, and the dual-screen laptops, its most ambitious projects of all time. But exactly one year ago, the company changed its statement and revealed that it is also planning to release the OS for the single-screen laptops, and those will be the first to get access to Windows 10x. Even during the last announcement, Microsoft had not given any dates on when it will officially launch the OS for any of the devices.

The Cancellation of Windows 10x

Though the company was really excited about the new OS for its lightweight devices, Microsoft today announced that it is has pulled the plug on Windows 10X. The company revealed the information in a blog post that included the announcement of the new update to the existing Windows 10.

In the announcement, Microsoft said that it was intending to launch the 10x technology for a certain group of customers. But in the past two years of exploration and experiments, the company has concluded that 10x can serve a larger group of people, so launching it for only a specific group won’t be fair. So instead of launching a separate OS, windows 10x, the company will be incorporating the key foundational 10X technology into the existing Windows 10 and other products of the company so that all the Windows customers can get benefitted.

Windows 10x
Image Source: storial.in

“Instead of bringing a product called Windows 10X to market in 2021 like we originally intended, we are leveraging learnings from our journey thus far and accelerating the integration of key foundational 10X technology into other parts of Windows and products at the company,” said the head of Windows servicing and delivery, John Cable, in a statement. 

Microsoft also confirmed that it has already started to include some of the 10x features into the Windows products, like the new app container technology has already been integrated into the Microsft products like the Microsoft Defender Application Guard and the Voice Typing.

The New Version 21H1 Update

Microsoft, along with announcing the cancellation of Windows 10x, also announced the rollout of the new version 21H1 update for Windows 10. The company announced the update release in February 2021 and finally launched it in May. Microsoft claimed that the new update is a result of the ongoing work from home situation, and it will provide a better experience for the customers in terms of security, remote access, speed and quality.

According to the blog post, the update won’t be available right away, and the company is trying to help the customers to get the most out of it, so it is going to offer a reliable download to them. The update’s preview build was already available for the Windows Insider Program, and after the positive feedback from the community, the update is finally out for the customers.

How to Get the Update

The company has announced the new update for the devices running the Windows 10 version 2004 and further. The users can go to their Windows settings and select “Windows Update” under “Update & Security”. Here they have to select “Check for Updates”. The screen will show the “Download and install” option, and then, after clicking on that option, the update will download onto the computer. The update is similar to a monthly Windows update, and you can directly start updating the OS by running the downloaded file. According to the company, the update will run faster on Windows 10, version 2004, and version 20H2.

Colonial Pipeline

The White House working to aid the recent Colonial Pipeline Cyberattack.

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Colonial Pipeline is the top U.S. pipeline operator which was recently attacked by a ransomware group. The U.S. government said that this group of hackers might be new but they aren’t amateur hackers. This attack has plummeted the oil supply thus forcing the company to shut down the oil supply in the eastern states of the nation. The White House is working closely with Colonial Pipeline to help them recover the losses after the cyberattack.

The suspect behind this Colonial Pipeline cyberattack is not yet made official but a couple of industry resources have informed Reuters that the group DarkSide is one of the suspects. Cybersecurity has mentioned that veteran cybercriminals constitute the group of DarkSide whose main focus is to squeeze as much as possible from their target. Tension among government officials and lawmakers has increased and this attack is one of the most disruptive digital ransom schemes ever reported. (Reuters)

Colonial Pipeline

After the change of the political scenario in the U.S., the pipeline fix became one of the top priorities for the Biden administration and Washington, said Gina Raimondo, Commerce Secretary. The U.S. government was working vehemently so that Colonial Pipeline could restart the 8,850km pipeline network stretching from Texas to New Jersey. She further mentioned that the White House is working closely with the company, state, and local officials so that the company gets back and up running as soon as possible.

Colonial Pipeline
Image Source: bloombergquint.com

Colonial Pipeline has mentioned on Sunday that the main pipeline network is not in operation at this moment. But there are some smaller lines between the terminals and delivery points which are currently operational. The company is uncertain as to when the company can resume the entire pipeline network again.

Oil Supply Disrupted

Colonial Pipeline is responsible for transporting approximately 2.5 million barrels of gasoline per day and other fuels. It is shipped from the Gulf Coast refiners to the mid-Atlantic and southeastern United States consumers. This pipeline network supports the major airports of the U.S. including  Atlanta’s Hartsfield Jackson Airport. One spokesperson from the Charlotte Douglas International Airport said that the airport has a supply on hand which is supplied by another major pipeline along with Colonial.

The compromise of the oil supply network will have a significant impact on the regional fuel supplies. Since the company is uncertain about when the company will be fully operational again, this outage will affect the southeastern United States, said American Automobile Association. Once the crisis tends to continue prices will accelerate substantially in the southeastern states. Some of the U.S. states that are very vulnerable to this situation are Tennessee, Georgia, and Maryland.

Suspected Criminals for the Cyberattack

The investigation led by the U.S. government is in its early stage but still many of the industrial experts and a former U.S. official suspect it to be the cybercriminal group called DarkSide. DarkSide is a professional ransomware group that avoids setting targets in the post-Soviet states. Their goal is to break into a network and then use software to encrypt the data while they steal data at times. Once this is done they ask for payment to decrypt the data. Additional payments are charged as they continuously threaten to publish the stolen content.

An unnamed source has said that this time the hackers stole more than 100 gigabytes of data from Colonial. While the FBI was working with both government and private officials, the hackers took the cloud computing system offline that they used to collect the stolen data. It seems that the data of Colonial was not further transported to any other system. The company has declined to make any further comments regarding DarkSide.

The Biden Administration

On Saturday, President Joe Biden was briefed about the Colonial Pipeline cyberattack and that the government was trying to restore the company and prevent disruption in supply. The lawmakers are looking forward to working more with privately-held critical infrastructure companies to guard against cyberattacks. (Reuters) U.S. Senator, Bill Cassady has said that this is a question and threat to national security and something that the Democrats and Republicans can work on together.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is issuing temporary hours of service exemption so that refined products are transported to 17 southern and east coast states including Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, and New York. Alternative transportations can be required at any hour and the oil refining companies are looking into it.

IBM

IBM Introduces the World’s First 2-nm Node Chip.

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Every decade checks the boundaries of Moore’s Law, and this decade is no exception. The complexities of multi-patterning techniques built on previous technology nodes can now be implemented with the finer resolution that EUV offers, thanks to the advent of Extreme Ultra-Violet (EUV) technology. This, along with other more technological advancements, could result in a reduction in transistor size, paving the way for the future of semiconductors. To that end, IBM announced today that it has developed the world’s first 2-nanometer node chip.

IBM 2-nm Node Chip

To be clear, though the process node is referred to as ‘2 nanometers,’ nothing about the transistor measurements resembles a conventional expectation of what 2nm would be. Previously, dimension was an analogous metric for 2D feature size on the chip, such as 90nm, 65nm, and 40nm. However, with the introduction of 3D transistor designs such as FinFETs and others, the process node name is now an interpretation of an ‘equivalent 2D transistor’ design.

IBM 2-nm Node Chip
Image Source: spectrum.ieee.org

Some of the features on this chip, such as transistor fin leakage safety layers, are likely to be in the low single digits in real nanometers, however, it’s crucial to remember the disconnect in how to process nodes are actually called. The debate often pivots to transistor density as a more precise measure, which IBM is sharing with us.

Density of the Transistors

According to a recent announcement, IBM’s 2nm development would boost efficiency by 45 percent at the same capacity, or 75 percent energy at the same performance, as compared to current 7nm processors. IBM is quick to point out that it was the first academic organization to demonstrate 7nm in 2015 and 5nm in 2017, the latter of which upgraded from FinFETs to nanosheet technologies that allow for greater customization of individual transistors voltage characteristics.

According to IBM, the device will fit ’50 billion transistors on a chip the size of a fingernail.’ We contacted IBM to get feedback on the scale of a fingernail since we were coming up with numbers ranging from 50 square millimeters to 250 square millimeters internally. According to IBM’s press ties, a fingernail, in this case, is 150 square millimeters. This equates to 333 million transistors per square millimeter (MTr/mm2) for IBM.

Different foundries have different official names and densities. It’s worth noting that these densities are often classified as peak densities, for transistor libraries where die area is the primary concern rather than frequency scaling – the fastest sections of a processor are often half as small as these numbers due to power and thermal considerations.

GAA Transistors

Although IBM has not expressly announced the transition to Gate-All-Around / nanosheet transistors, photographs reveal that this new 2nm processor is using a three-stack GAA architecture. GAA will be introduced by Samsung at 3nm, while TSMC will wait until 2nm. Intel, on the other hand, we believe would implement some kind of GAA on its 5nm technology.

IBM’s 3-stack GAA has a cell height of 75 nm, a cell width of 40 nm, and discrete nanosheets that are 5 nm tall and 5 nm apart. The poly pitch of the gate is 44nm, and the gate length is 12nm.

According to IBM, its design is the first to use bottom dielectric isolation channels, allowing for the 12 nm gate length, and its inner spacers are a second-generation dry process design that aids in nanosheet production. This is supplemented by the first use of EUV patterning on the FEOL sections of the process, allowing EUV at all stages of design for essential layers.

Users may be perplexed as to why we are hearing that IBM is the first to develop a 2nm chip. IBM is one of the world’s leading research centers on potential semiconductor technologies, and while not having a foundry offering of their own, IBM produces IP for their manufacturing facilities in conjunction with others.

Back in 2014, IBM sold its manufacturing to GlobalFoundries with a 10-year collaboration commitment. IBM also deals with Samsung and recently announced a partnership with Intel. No doubt, the latter two would collaborate with IBM on some level to ensure the feasibility of this new invention in their own supply chain.

The chip was developed and manufactured at IBM’s Albany testing plant, which has a 100,000-square-foot clean space. The aim of this facility is to leverage IBM’s extensive patent and licensing portfolio for partner partnerships.

Epic Games vs Apple

Fortnite Developers Epic Games Drags Apple into Court; Calls Apple a Monopoly “Walled Garden”

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Apple and Epic Games attended the US court for the trial over App Store practices and regulations on Monday. Epic Games is the developer company of the famous Fortnite game, which accused Apple mainly for its high fees on App Store and Apple trying to establish its monopoly in the industry. The two companies clashed at the California federal court, and the revelations in the court have made people’s jaw drop.

Epic Games

Epic Games is a North Carolina-based video game and software developer and publisher company, best known for the development of Fornite and Unreal Engine. The company was founded by Tim Sweeney in 1991, who is also the current CEO of the company. Apart from Fortnite and Unreal Engine, Epic Games Store, Unreal series, and Gears of War series are Epic’s main products.

Why the Court Case?

Epic Games create games for both iOS and Android platforms. But recently, the company accused Apple of abuse of the power it holds over the software developers at the California federal court. According to Epic Games, Apple has an audience base of over 1 billion, and it charges up to 30% on in-app purchases and conducting App Store reviews, which is too much. Also, the company has got all the control over the apps on App Store, which gives Apple the power to deny access to apps whenever it wants.

The Epic lawyer, Katherine Forrest, stated in her first statement that Apple is trying to have its monopoly in the market and has turned into a monopoly “walled garden”, luring in developers and users to get more and more money out of them. Forrest also claimed that the tech giant currently is earning a profit of up to 78 percent from the apps. “The evidence will show unambiguously that Apple is a monopoly,” said Forrest while representing the case in the court.

Epic Games Vs Apple
Image Source: techstory.in

Karen Dunn is defending Apple in the case, and she refused to accept that Apple is trying to have a monopoly. Despite she claimed that Apple has no problems if Epic Games run its games on rival companies’ devices. Apple is just trying to sell a broad array of services and making ways in different fields. She also said that Apple has created a safe and open environment for the developers and the users for easy access to apps, and it not at all charging a high fee for providing privacy, reliability, and quality to the developers and its consumers.

Fortnite Brought in Over $9 Billion in 2019, Shows Documents

The court case has made the two companies public their important financial records of the past few years. These documents have given a glimpse of the gaming company Epic Games’ annual reports. According to these financial documents, Fortnite made more than $5 billion in its first year for Epic Games, and by 2019, it had brought in over $9 billion in total for the company in the two years. Though the number is quite high, Epic Games revealed that it only gained around $5.5 billion in profit from the two years.

These documents also showed a prediction for the year 2020. It revealed that the predicted revenue for 2020 was $3.6 billion, but according to CEO Tim Sweeney’s recent testimony, the company made around $5.1 billion from Fortnite alone. The documents also show that the company gained around $8 million in 2018 and $100 million in the next year through its other games.

Is Apple Being Monopolistic?

For many years, Apple has been charging developers a heavy fee for letting users download their app from the App Store. The company has banned downloading of apps from other sources to be used on Apple devices. So the developers are forced to pay the ‘fee’ so that they can access the huge Apple user base.

According to Tim Sweeney, Apple forces its unfavorable rules on the developers or they can’t have the access to the one billion iPhone users. Many other app developers are on Epic Games’ side and have criticized Apple for its monopolistic behavior. The debate in the court is on whether Apple should have the power to set all the rules and control the payment system or not.