Category: Technology

The latest Pixel feature drop is here with Google rolling updates across its family of smartphones and wearables. If you’re a Pixel 9 owner in the US, you’ll soon have access to a new version of Pixel Studio capable of creating stickers and images of people. As a refresher, Pixel Studio is an AI image app that is exclusive to Pixel devices. “Just type a description of a person or scene you’d like to see, or choose the style you want, like ‘video game’ or ‘3D cartoon,'” Google says of the new feature. The approach Google taking here is similar to the one Apple currently employs with Image Playground. Photorealistic images are off the table so that you can’t use Pixel Studio to confuse your friends and family.

Beyond Pixel Studio, Google is bringing other AI features to the Pixel family in the US and beyond. Most notably, the company’s live scam protection, which Google brought to testers last fall, is expanding to more devices, with additional functionality for those with Pixel 9 handsets in the US. 

If you own a Pixel 9, it will start screening English calls to protect you from scams. On the Pixel 6 and newer, Google is expanding the availability of scam text detection, with the feature rolling out to phones in the US, Canada and United Kingdom. Meanwhile, Pixel 9 and Pixel 8 Pro users in Japan can look forward to a large portion of the brand’s AI suite, including Pixel Screenshots and Pixel Studio, rolling out to their devices. Similarly, Google is making many of those same features available to Pixel 9 users in Germany.

If AI features aren’t your thing, this month’s Pixel drop won’t leave you disappointed. To start, Google is updating its Find My Device app to allow users to send and receive the location of friends and family, “so you can rest easy knowing where they are, or that they got where they were going safely.” This is rolling out to recent Pixel devices, and more broadly the wider Android ecosystem. One other nifty new feature allows Pixel 9 owners to connect their phone to a recent GoPro camera or another Pixel phone to stream video from multiple angles.

Google hasn’t forgotten about Pixel Watch users. If you’re running the latest model, the company has obtained clearance from the FDA to offer its Loss of Pulse Detection feature. “This first-of-its-kind feature can detect when you’ve experienced a loss of pulse,” Google explains. A loss of pulse can occur due to a cardiac arrest, a respiratory or circulatory failure, overdose or poisoning. Whatever the case, the Pixel Watch 3 will automatically call emergency services if the user is unresponsive.

Google is also rolling out on-device menstrual tracking to the Pixel Watch 3, and the entire Watch family will start tracking steps with greater precision and accuracy. This is due to the fact Google has made the underlying algorithm better at recognizing when you deviate from your usual walking pattern to go do something like push a shopping cart or wheelchair. “The improved algorithm ensures that not only are your steps accurately counted toward your daily goal, but that you’ll get reliable insights into your daily activities.”

The March Pixel drop is starting to roll out today. As usual, it may take a few days before the update is available to download on your device.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/googles-pixel-studio-can-now-generate-images-and-stickers-of-people-170032821.html?src=rss 

I’ll cut right to the chase: If you’re an RTX 4070 owner looking to upgrade to NVIDIA’s latest video cards, the $549 RTX 5070 won’t be much different than what you’re used to. Aside from DLSS 4’s ability to generate multiple extra frames, the 5070 is practically the same as the 4070 Ti in our testing (and in some cases it’s worse). So if you’re already committed to spending more than $500 for a new GPU, you’re likely better off saving up a bit more for the $749 5070 Ti, which has more VRAM (16GB instead of the 5070’s 12GB) and more capable hardware for gaming in 4K.

Given the current state of the video card market, though, those prices are basically just theoretical. NVIDIA’s previous RTX 50-series cards are already selling well above their retail prices at most stores, if you can find them in stock at all. So I wouldn’t be surprised to see the RTX 5070 suffering the same fate. For now, though, Best Buy has NVIDIA’s Founder’s Edition card and an ASUS model listed for $549.

The RTX 5070 comes in $50 cheaper than the RTX 4070’s original launch price, so at least we’re edging closer to the days of the $500 RTX 3070 (again, if you were lucky enough to snag it for that MSRP). The 5070’s price alone made it the new NVIDIA GPU I was most looking forward to test. But after spending some time with it, I can see why NVIDIA was able to keep it relatively affordable: It’s simply not a huge jump from the 4070.

Hardware

As the runt of the litter (so far), the RTX 5070 is clearly behind its siblings on paper. It sports 6,144 CUDA cores, compared to the 5070 Ti’s 8,960, and the aforementioned 12GB of GDDR7 memory. Notably, the RTX 4070 also shipped with 12GB of memory, though that was slightly slower GDDR6X RAM. The new card has a 33 percent memory bandwidth advantage — 672 GB/s vs 504 GB/s — but it would have been nice to see more RAM, especially since AMD managed to deliver 16GB in the upcoming $549 Radeon 9070.

The NVIDIA Founder’s Edition RTX 5070 we reviewed looks similar to the 5090, with a gorgeous metal case and dual fans to cool down the PCB sandwiched in the middle. A dongle with two 8-pin PSU connections is included in the box, and the 5070 requires a 650W power supply at a minimum. (Though I’d recommend going for at least an 800W PSU if you want to future-proof a bit.) Around the back, the 5070 features three DisplayPort 2.1 connections and an HDMI 2.1 port.

RTX 5090RTX 5080RTX 5070 TiRTX 5070RTX 4090Architecture

Blackwell

Blackwell

Blackwell

Blackwell

Lovelace

CUDA cores

21,760

10,752

8,960

6,144

16,384

AI TOPS

3,352

1,801

1,406

988

1,321

Tensor cores

5th Gen

5th Gen

5th Gen

5th Gen

4th Gen

RT cores

4th Gen

4th Gen

4th Gen

4th Gen

3rd Gen

VRAM

32 GB GDDR7

16 GB GDDR7

16 GB GDDR7

12 GB GDDR7

24 GB GDDR6X

Memory bandwidth

1,792 GB/sec

960 GB/sec

896 GB/sec

672 GB/sec

1,008 GB/sec

TGP

575W

360W

300W

250W

450W

In use: Solid 1440p and 4K, especially with multi-frame generation

I was a bit worried that testing the RTX 5070 would meaning scaling down my Avowed settings from maxed out 4K to 1440p. First-world problems, I know. But the 5070 managed to stay above 60 fps in 4K with ray tracing and graphics settings cranked up — so long as I was using DLSS upscaling. I typically saw between 65 fps and 75 fps in a variety of areas, which played smoothly on my 32-inch Alienware QD-OLED monitor.

I saw a smoother 120 fps while playing Avowed in 1440p, but I preferred sticking with 4K since it’s not a very fast-paced game. Instead, it’s a title where you’re often moving slowly through the world and absorbing breathtaking vistas and gorgeously constructed environments. Without DLSS, the 5070 crawled along at just 15 fps in 4K. In comparison, the 5070 Ti reached 90 fps in 4K with DLSS, and 32 fps in 4K without any upscaling.

Clearly, the RTX 5070 is best-suited to 1440p gaming, just like the 4070. But it’s more capable if you don’t mind the interpolated frames from DLSS 4’s multi-frame generation. It can generate up to three frames from every one that’s natively rendered. That led to me seeing 168 fps in Dragon Age: The Veilguard while playing in 4K with graphics settings cranked up. The 5070 Ti, meanwhile, hit over 200 fps while playing Veilguard in 4K, while the 5090 reached 250 fps.

Your experience with the RTX 5070 will mostly come down to the amount of games you play with DLSS 3 and 4 support. Halo Infinite, which doesn’t work with any upscaling technology yet, hit an acceptable 97 fps in 4K. Still, I think most players would prefer the smoother 138 fps performance in 1440p, or even the 178 fps I saw in 1080p. Cyberpunk 2077, meanwhile, flew in 4K with multi-frame gen in ray tracing overdrive mode, reaching 115 fps.

None

3DMark TimeSpy Extreme

Geekbench 6 GPU

Cyberpunk (4K RT Overdrive DLSS)

Blender

NVIDIA RTX 5070

10,343

178,795

115 fps (4x frame gen)

6,015

NVIDIA RTX 5070 Ti

12,675

238,417

153 fps (4X frame gen)

7,365

NVIDIA RTX 4070 Ti Super

11,366

220,722

75 fps (1x frame gen)

7,342

NVIDIA RTX 4070

8,610

N/A

55 fps (1x frame gen)

6,020

Benchmarks paint a far starker picture for the RTX 5070. It was practically identical to the RTX 4070 Ti in 3DMark’s TimeSpy Extreme and Speedway tests. And it lagged behind that card in the Port Royal and DirectX ray tracing tests, as well as in Blender’s benchmark, where it was a full 1,200 points behind the 4070 Ti! NVIDIA clearly leaned more on tensor core performance for DLSS for the 5070, rather than raw rasterized or ray tracing speeds.

Unsurprisingly, NVIDIA’s Founder’s Edition cooling setup shined on the RTX 5070, where it kept temperatures between 35C and 40C while idling, and under 75C while I was gaming and running benchmarks. The fans were audible but not annoying when I was really stressing the card, thoughI didn’t notice much since I also had audio blasting on my speakers.

Should you buy the RTX 5070?

As I mentioned up top, I don’t think the RTX 5070 is a compelling upgrade if you’re already satisfied with an RTX 4070. But if you’re coming from an older GPU, and you’re not ready to shell out $750 (or likely more) for the 4070 Ti, it’s currently the best value NVIDIA is offering. The 5070 will handle 1440p gaming well, and it’ll be acceptable for basic 4K gaming for non-DLSS titles. Throw multi-frame generation in the mix, and things look even better.

Still, for the price, I really wish the 5070 was more of a step up from the 4070. If the 5070 Ti ever comes back down to its $750 retail price, it’s likely a better longterm purchase since it has 16GB of RAM. That’ll make it better equipped for handling massive 4K textures, and it’s also more powerful in general to deal with more demanding gaming engines and ray tracing. The 5070 is a GPU that might satisfy you for a few years, whereas I think the 5070 Ti could handle most of what you throw at it for the next four years.

For now, though, my advice is the same as it was in my 5070 Ti review: Don’t rush out to buy a new video card right away. NVIDIA’s pricing and stock availability is incredibly volatile, and it’s not worth paying over $900 for something like the 5070 Ti. In a few months, prices may fall back down to Earth, especially with AMD’s more reasonable $549 and $599 Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT in the mix. In fact, it’s worth waiting a bit just to see how well those two cards compare to the 5070.

Wrap-up

While NVIDIA mostly succeeded with delivering a semi-affordable midrange GPU with the RTX 5070, it’s competing against itself when compared to the excellent RTX 4070. It’s limited by having only 12GB of VRAM, and without the magic of DLSS AI upscaling, its performance isn’t that much different than the 4070 Ti. In the end, the 5070 feels a bit like a missed opportunity to deliver a truly performant card for close to $500. Instead, it’s more of the same, with a healthy dose of AI.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/nvidia-geforce-rtx-5070-review-basically-a-4070-ti-thats-better-at-4k-140016718.html?src=rss 

Peak Design may have recently begun dabbling in tripods and dedicated smartphone accessories, but it started as a bag maker. It’s continuing that tradition by announcing its first-ever roller luggage, the Roller Pro Carry-On. This bag is appropriate to stow away overhead during flights, thus the name, but also comes with some tech-friendly features.

First of all, there’s a hidden compartment specifically for an AirTag tracker. That would come in mighty handy in the case of a mistaken identity/swapped luggage type of deal like in the movies. It also boasts external gear loops for hooking stuff like tripods. There’s a protected pocket for chargers, headphones, tablets and laptops.

The Roller Pro has been designed to accommodate the company’s newly-announced XL-sized Camera Cube. This container fills the entire volume of the Roller Pro and holds a 400mm prime lens, along with other camera accessories. The company says it turns the bag into a “mobile creative workstation for photographers on location or in the studio.” It also eliminates the need for a dedicated camera roller.

Tech aside, this is a piece of luggage. To that end, the carbon fiber handle has been designed for “maximal strength in a minimal volume.” Peak Design says it’s “significantly stiffer” than rival handles, but takes up “just a third of the volume.” This allows for more packing space, which is always good. The 60mm wheels also nestle into the corners, further maximizing space. The capacity is expandable from 34L to 39L, which is great for piling on last minute gifts while traveling.

It’s covered in a lightweight polycarbonate shell and Peak Design’s proprietary VersaShell fabric. The Roller Pro is available in a few colors and preorders start today via Kickstarter. This is a Peak Design product, however, so get ready to empty that bank account. The price ranges from $140 to $600, depending on add-ons.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cameras/peak-design-made-a-roller-suitcase-thats-perfect-for-techies-and-content-creators-140035490.html?src=rss