Apple expands Mac trade-in program to US retail stores

Apple has finally expanded its Mac Trade In program to retail stores in the US and Canada.

Apple has long allowed users to trade in other products, such as iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches, in store, but Mac trade-ins have been limited to online-only. This means you had to mail in your old MacBook to Apple and patiently wait to receive your gift card or credit.

However, as spotted by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple has tweaked the wording on its trade-in website to confirm that users can now hand over their ageing MacBook in-store.


Previously, in answer to the question “Can I see what my device is worth online, then bring it with me when I buy a new device in the store?" Apple's response read: "Yes, the Apple Trade In program is available on apple.com as well as in all our retailer stores. The only exception is that Mac trade-ins are only available online." 

That has since been reworded to state: “Yes, the Apple Trade In program is available on apple.com as well as in all our retailer stores."

This is good news for Mac users eyeing up a brand-new MacBook, such as the MacBook Air (2020) or newly-souped-up 16-inch MacBook Pro


What's it worth?

If you've got a 12-inch MacBook, for example, Apple will give you $480 (around £390, AU$700) trade-in credit to put towards a new machine. This goes up to $690 (£567, AU$1,000) for a MacBook Air, $1,760 for a MacBook Pro (£1,420, AU$2,560), and up to a whopping $3,850 (£3,110, AU$5,600) for an iMac Pro.

It's worth remembering if the condition of your device doesn’t match what you described, a new estimated trade-in value will be provided. And if Apple finds your device is worth nothing, it will generously recycle it “for free”. 

Another limiting factor is whether your local Apple Store is open to accept trade-ins. The company last month announced plans to open almost 100 Apple Stores across the US, but in most locations they still won’t let you walk inside: instead, they’re offering curbside or storefront service only.

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AMD Radeon Pro 5600M may make the 16-inch MacBook Pro the fastest ever

Apple’s newly-launched 16-inch MacBook Pro, which comes with an Apple-exclusive 8GB AMD Radeon Pro 5600M GPU, has outperformed the iMac and iMac Pro in early benchmarking tests. 

The new 16-inch MacBook Pro model is now available to purchase, and YouTube channel Max Tech has already put the specced-out laptop through its process. 

In Geekbench 5 Metal tests, the 16-inch MacBook Pro with 5600M graphics scored an impressive 43,144. That's a huge improvement compared to the previous top-end model with an 8GB AMD 550M GPU, which scored 28,748, and doubles the performance of the entry-level model with the 4GB 3500M, which scored 21,328.

The 16-inch MacBook Pro with 5600M graphics also looks set to outperform its predecessors when it comes to gaming. In the Unigine Heaven Gaming Test, the new model scored an impressive 75.7 FPS. By comparison, the 5500M and 5300M models scored 51.1fps and 38.4 fps, respectively. 

The new AMD Radeon Pro 5600M GPU even tested better than the AMD Vega graphics in Apple's more-powerful desktop machines, namely the Vega 48 and the Vega 56 in the iMac and iMac Pro.

This performance gains can largely be credited to the AMD's Radeon Pro 5600M’s use of "ultra-fast, low-power" High Bandwidth Memory (HBM2) rather than GDDR6. The 7nm Navi GPU also boasts 40 compute units and delivers up to 5.3 Tflops; by comparison the Radeon Pro 500M has 24 CUs delivers up to 4.0 Tflops. 

Although the new AMD Radeon Pro 5600M GPU makes the 16-inch MacBook Pro an even more expensive machine, the upgrade will set you back some $800, making the cost of the machine an eye-watering $3,199. 

Via Wccftech

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Windows apps are coming to Chrome OS – but there’s a catch

Google's low-cost Chromebook devices are finally getting support for fully-fledged desktop Windows applications – to a point.

While Chrome OS has been able to run Windows apps for some time, users have only been able to access apps that are streamed via the cloud through a Parallels Remote Application Server.


Google has announced that starting this Fall, Parallel Desktop will be integrated into the cloud-based OS, enabling Windows apps to run on Chromebooks using the company's virtualization technology. 

This will vastly improve the performance of the apps, according to Google, and will also enable offline access to legacy software such as Microsoft Office

There's always a catch

There's a pretty major catch, however. This functionality will only be available to Chromebook Enterprise customers initially, and Google hasn't yet said whether it will roll out to all of its low-cost laptops

Still, the move – which means Chromebooks can now run both Android and Windows applications – will no doubt make budget ChromeOS laptops a more enticing prospect for businesses that rely on Windows software, and are looking to deploy cheaper hardware among their newly-remote workforce. 

"The Chrome OS team is working on new ways to make sure every company can benefit from the velocity created by supporting a cloud workforce," John Solomon, VP of Chrome OS, wrote in a blog post.

"For example, our new partnership with Parallels brings legacy application support - which includes Microsoft Office desktop apps – to Chromebooks."

It remains unclear how exactly desktop Windows apps will look on Chromebooks, though Google has confirmed that Parallels will run locally on Chrome OS, rather than in cloud. Parallels, which is being known for bringing Windows apps to macOS, emphasizes its software will enable collaborative remote work with Windows apps, whatever that means.

Google has said it will reveal more about its partnership with Parallels over the "coming months." 

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Intel Tiger Lake processors will thwart future Spectre and Meltdown attacks

Intel has announced that its 10nm Tiger Lake CPUs will be boast a new hardware-based security feature to protect against Spectre-like malware attacks.

The laptop processors will be the first to come with would be the new Intel Control-Flow Enforcement Technology (CET), which Intel claims offers protection against the misuse of legitimate code through control-flow hijacking attacks, a type of malware that has been notoriously difficult to mitigate through software. 

Jointly developed by Intel and Microsoft, the technology provides two new key capabilities to help guard against control-flow hijacking malware: Shadow Stack (SS) and Indirect Branch Tracking (IBT).

Shadow Stack refers to a copy of a program's intended execution flow which is used  to ensure no unauthorized changes take place in an app's intended execution order to defend against ROP attack methods. IBT, on the other hand, delivers indirect branch protection to defend against jump/call-oriented programming (JOP/COP) attack methods.

"Intel CET is designed to protect against the misuse of legitimate code through control-flow hijacking attacks–widely used techniques in large classes of malware," Intel VP & GM of Client Security Strategy and Initiatives Tom Garrison said. 

Intel's CET will be available in mobile CPUs that use the Tiger Lake microarchitecture, and the technology will also be available in the firm's future desktop and server platforms. 

No future Meltdowns


As has been well documented, Intel has had a rough few years when it comes to CPU security. Most notably, it was discovered in 2018 that all Intel CPUs produced in the last 20 years were vulnerable to the "catastrophic" Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities

These hardware flaws enabled normal user programs, such as database applications and JavaScript in web browsers, to identify some of the layout or contents of protected kernel memory areas of the vulnerable chips.

More recently, a flaw called 'Spoiler' was discovered that, like Spectre, enabled an attacker to exploit the way the PC’s memory works to glimpse data from running programs and other critical data which should otherwise not be accessible.

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These are the PS5 games that are coming to PC as well

More than half of the games announced for the PlayStation 5 will also be made available to PC gamers. 

While many of the 26 PS5 games announced at yesterday’s launch will be exclusive to the space age-looking console, including Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Horizon sequel Horizon Forbidden West, more than half of the new titles will also be coming to PC.

This bumper list includes Project Athia, which Square Enix originally said was "designed exclusively for the PS5". However, while no release date has yet been announce, the company has since confirmed that the otherworldly adventure game will also be available on PC. 

Hitman 3, the dramatic conclusion to IOI’s Hitman series, will also be available on PC when it's released in January next year, as will Capcom’s Resident Evil 8: Village. 

Below of the full list of PS5 games that will be released on PC: 

  • Bugsnax
  • Deathloop
  • Ghostwire: Tokyo
  • GodFall
  • Goodbye Volcano High
  • Hitman III
  • JETT: The Far Shore
  • Kena: Bridge of Spirits
  • Little Devil Inside
  • Oddworld: Soulstorm
  • Pragmata
  • Project Athia
  • Resident Evil VIII
  • Solar Ash
  • Stray

While this is good news for those who prefer a custom gaming setup, along with those who think the PS5 looks more like a Wi-Fi router than a high-spec gaming console, not all of these games will be available on Steam.

As reported by KitGuru Bugsnax, Solar Ash, Godfall, JETT: The Far Shore, Kena: Bridge of Spirits and Oddworld: Soulstorm will be, as it stands, available exclusively on the Epic Games Store.

All the other titles however have been confirmed for Steam – except for Hitman 3 and Project Athia which have yet to confirm which PC stores they'll be coming to.  

As well as announcing showcasing 26 new game trailers during its PS5 reveal event on June 11, Sony also gave us our first official glimpse at its next-generation console, which will launch later this year in two variants: the standard PS5 and the PS5 Digital Edition.

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Death Stranding system requirements point to a surprisingly adept PC port

Death Stranding is finally coming to PC next month, and the minimum and recommended PC requirements been revealed ahead of its imminent release.

If you run the minimum requirements, you can expect the game to display in 720p and run at 30fps. You'll need to be using a Windows 10 machine with at least an Intel Core i5-3470 or AMD Ryzen 3 1200 CPU and a GeForce GTX 1050 3GB or AMD Radeon RX 560 4GB graphics card. 

505 Games and Kojima Production have released two sets of recommended specs, one for playing Death Stranding in 1080p at 30fps, and one for playing 60fps. 

For the former, you’ll need an Intel Core i5-4460 or AMD Ryzen 5 1400 processor, along with a GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB or Radeon RX 570 4GB GPU.

If you're looking to play Death Stranding at the best possible settings, your rig will need to be kitted out with Intel Core i7-3770 or AMD Ryzen 5 1600 CPU, and a GeForce GTX 1060 6GB or AMD Radeon RX 590 graphics card. 

No matter how visually-impressive your gameplay, all PCs installing Death Stranding will need at least 8GB of RAM, version 12 of DirectX, a DirectX sound card and a hefty 80GB of available storage. 

The specs released today don't mention anything about the game's ultra widescreen mode or 4K options, though it's safe to assume that running the game with those settings will require even more power. And, you better believe that we here at TechRadar will put the game through its paces, just like we did with games like Resident Evil 3 and Doom Eternal.

Along with added support for ultrawide monitors, the long-awaited port of the third-person action game promises some other nice bonuses for PC players, including support a neat Photo Mode and some Half-Life bonus content

Originally slated for a June 2 release, the game will arrive on Steam and the Epic Games Store July 14 and it’s available to pre-order now

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6-core AMD Ryzen APU spotted: could this be a new budget champion?

A mid-range AMD Ryzen 4000 'Renoir' APU has been spotted in 3DMark ahead of its rumored arrival next month. 

Details of the listing, shared by Twitter tipster @TUM_APISAK, reveal that the AMD Ryzen 4400G will be a 6-core, 12-thread processor with a base clock of 3.7GHz and a boost clock of 3.3GHz. 

Details about the Ryzen 5 4400G’s onboard iGPU remain a mystery, though previous rumors suggested it would support seven Compute Units (CUs) with its engine clock set at 1.90GHz. 

In 3DMark 11, where it was benchmarked with 8GB of DDR4-3200 RAM, the APU racked up a score of 10,241 in the physics test and 4,395 in the graphics test.

Compared to the last-generation Ryzen 5 3400G, the AMD Ryzen 4400G falls short in the former, though it shows around a 9% uptick in  GPU performance. These results are unlikely to reflect the final performance of the Ryzen 5 4400G, though. 

In fact, according to an earlier leak, AMD Ryzen 4000 desktop APUs could offer up to a 90% performance increase over last year's Ryzen 3000 processors. 

AMD’s Ryzen 4000 APUs will be based on Team Red’s Zen 2 CPU and Vega GPU architecture based on TSMC's 7nm process node and will be compatible with the existing AM4 platform. Meanwhile, the rest of the upcoming Ryzen 4000 series will be based on Zen 3.

The lineup will be headed-up by the Ryzen 7 PRO 4700G, an 8-core, 16-thread APU was spotted with default clocks set at 3.6GHz and boost clocks running at 4.45GHz. The Ryzen 5 4400G will sit in the middle, while the 4-core, 8-thread Ryzen 3 4200G will round off the lineup as an entry-level option. 

When they debut later this year, likely alongside AMD's Zen 3-based Ryzen 4000 CPUs, incoming Ryzen 4000 in entry-level desktops and all-in-ones due to their integrated graphics capabilities. 

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AMD dominates Intel in CPU sales – at least according to one retailer

Intel's newly-released Comet Lake processors are failing to make a dent in sales of AMD CPUs, according to Mindfactory. 

New sales data released by the German retailer and spotted by Hexus shows that in the week of June 1 to June 7, it sold 5,270 AMD processors, compared to just 770 Intel CPUs. 

That sees Team Red outselling its biggest rival by 82% to just 13%, and taking home the lion's share of the revenue; AMD revenues at the Mindfactory came in at €1,106,065 (about $1,248,970, £983,950, AU$1,785,630) (81%), compared to just €246,605 (about $278,490, £219,400, AU$398,120) (18%) from Intel.

The best-selling CPU was the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 with some 1,710 units shifted, followed by the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X and two-year-old Ryzen 5 2600, with some 970 and 700 sold, respectively.

Though Intel’s newly-released Comet Lake CPUs appear in Mindfactory’s data for the first time, the processors are doing little to challenge AMD's dominance. The Intel Core i7-10700K, for example, sold just 50 units during the seven-day period, while the Intel Core i5-10600K sold a mere 40 units. 

Team Blue's most popular processor was the Intel Core i7-9700K, which racked up a slightly more respectful sales tally of 170 units. We reached out to Intel for comment about these sales figures, and will update this article if we hear back. 

Future gazing

While these figures are to be taken with a pinch of salt, they suggest that Intel's 10th-generation Comet Lake series has failed to make much of an impact on the market, particularly among PC enthusiasts. 

Intel will no doubt be hoping that its upcoming 11th-generation Rocket Lake series, which will be based on its upcoming Willow Lake architecture, will do more to shake AMD's dominance, at least in the German market.

However, AMD is also gearing up to release its Ryzen 4000 desktop CPUs, which will reportedly be headed up by 16-core successor to the Ryzen 9 3950X.

While Willow Cave will continue to be based on 14nm, AMD's Zen 3-based Ryzen 4000 CPUs will use TSMC’s 7nm process and are expected to offer a major performance boost compared to the current Zen 2-based Ryzen 3000 processors. 

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Intel Tiger Lake leaked benchmarks suggest good – and bad – news for AMD

Intel’s 11th-generation Tiger Lake quad-core CPU has been spotted once again in online benchmarks, and this time it's been pitted against the AMD Ryzen 7 4800U. 

The processor in question is the Intel Core i7-1165G7, a quad-core, eight-thread APU based on the chipmaker's new 10nm+ Willow Cove architecture.

It looks set offer a big boost on the integrated GPU front too, with Intel Xe graphics - based on the same underlying architecture that will power the company's discrete GPUs later this year - coming into play. 

Twitter tipster TUM_APISAK has shared the latest benchmarks for the Tiger Lake-U processor, which has an alleged base clock of 2.8GHz and a boost clock of 4.7GHz. 

In 3DMark 11, the Intel Core i7-1165G7 racked up a score 8,020 in the physics test and 6,217 in the graphics test, given the as-yet-unannounced processor and overall score of 6,211.

Tiger Lake vs Renoir

When compared to the AMD Ryzen 7 4800U, which offers the same 15W TDP but double the number of cores and threads, the Tiger Lake-U chip falls short in the performance stakes. Team Red's 8-core, 16-thread Renoir-U chip scored an impressive 12,494 in the physics test - around 56.% higher than the incoming Intel CPU. 

However, the Intel Core i7-1165G7 also fails to match its Ice Lake-based Core i7-1065G7 predecessor, suggesting the Tiger Lake CPU is still far from its final form.

Saying that, the Intel APU managed to best AMD’s Ryzen 7 4800U in the graphics tests, with Team Red's Vega iGPU delivering a slightly lower score of 6,104 points. This suggests that even though it’s still in its early stages, Intel’s Xe architecture will give AMD a run for its money - at least until Big Navi shows up. 

Intel Tiger Lake processors, which will be kept exclusive to notebook devices, are expected to show up in mid-2020, with Intel confirming that it'll appear in some 50+ laptop designs at the end of the year.

However, it's worth remembering that AMD's Ryzen 4000 mobile chips are expected to debut in something like 150 notebooks through 2020.

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Leaked Intel Rocket Lake-S benchmark hints at 4.3GHz boost clock

Intel's 10th-generation Comet Lake CPU lineup may have just made its debut, but a processor from the chipmaker's upcoming 11th-generation Rocket Lake-S lineup has already surfaced in benchmarks.

The leaked benchmark, shared by Twitter tipster TUM_APISAK, suggests the top-end Rocket Lake-S CPU will 8-cores and 16-threads, in line with previous rumours that Intel wouldn't launch a 10-core variant

The processor, which is expected to bring an architecture change from Skylake for the first time in five years, is listed as having a base clock of 3.2GHz and boost clock of 4.3GHz, though given this is an early engineering sample, these figures are undoubtedly subject to change.

The Rocket Lake-S chip has also been put through its paces in the 3DMark Fire Strike and Time Spy tests. In the former, the CPU scored an overall score of 1746 points, with the graphics score coming in at 1895 and the physics score at 18989 for a combined score of 592 points.

For Time Spy, the overall score comes in at 605, with a CPU score of 4963 points and a graphics score of 524. 

Rocket Lake-S rumors

These scores are far from what you’d expect from a top-of-the-line Intel CPU; the Time Spy score puts the Rocket Lake-S in the same range as the AMD Ryzen 3 3100 and Intel Core 17 7000K

However, that's no doubt because the CPU benchmarked is an early engineering sample. Though Rocket Lake will continue to be based on 14nm, it's expected that Intel's upcoming incoming Willow Cave architecture - which will also be used for Tiger Lake CPUs - will deliver decent IPC (instructions per clock) gains, with early rumors suggesting a boost of up to 25%. 

Intel's Rocket Lake-S chips are also rumored to work with the chipmaker's new Z490 motherboards, will boast PCIe 4.0 support and will benefit from the new Intel Xe graphics architecture. 

The early emergence of benchmark scores has some speculating that Intel’s 11th-gen CPUs could show as soon as late-2020, though given Comet Lake has only just arrived, this seems unlikely to us. And, a leaked roadmap has appeared, courtesy of VideoCardz, that further suggests that 2020 is going to come and go without an 11th Gen Rocket Lake launch. 

Though Intel has yet to confirm details, it's more likely a launch in the first half of 2021 is on the cards.

Via Tom's Hardware

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Intel’s 8th-generation Coffee Lake processors reach end of life this year

Intel has announced plans to discontinue its 8th-generation Coffee Lake CPUs. 

The chipmaker has issued a product change notice (PCN) confirming the discontinuation of its 8th-generation Core desktop processor family up to the flagship Intel Core i7-9700K, along with Pentium Gold and Celeron processors based on the 14nm Coffee Lake silicon.

Intel isn’t yet calling time on its Coffee Lake-based Xeon processors, which are aimed at high-performance data centre workloads. 

The Coffee Lake lineup will be discontinued as of June 1, with Intel confirming that suppliers and OEM customers can last order their products on December 18.

Intel has also announced that a range of Compute Sticks and NUCs that use 8th-generation chips will reach end of life status later this year. 

Intel's decision to discontinue its 8th-generation CPUs is hardly surprising. By now, the 9th-generation chips have long-replaced the Coffee Lake parts, and it's no doubt potential buyers will opt for its newly-launched 10th-generation Comet Lake-S processors.

This lineup is headed up by the flagship Intel Core i9-10900K, which is expected to arrive on shelves any day now. Intel has yet to announce official pricing and release date details, but a US retailer is currently flogging the processor for $600 (around £480, AU$1,095), making it more expensive than the Core i9-9900K, which fetched around $525 (around £420, AU$810) at launch. 

If you don’t fancy coughing up that much for the 10-core, 20-thread CPU, which is built on the same 14nm process as Intel’s 8th-generation processors, chances are you'll be able to pick up a cut-price Intel Core i7-9700K over the coming weeks. 

Intel has also announced that it will stop selling the Core i9-9900K and Core i9-9900KS in the special edition dodecahedron packaging. This will unlikely be that important to many, but could mean early adopters will soon have a collector's item on their hands. 

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AMD Ryzen 4000 ‘Renoir’ benchmarks show a 90% performance boost over Ryzen 3000

AMD Ryzen 4000 desktop APUs will offer up to a 90% performance increase over last year's Ryzen 3000 processors, according to leaked 3DMark scores.

The 3DMark submissions, shared by hardware tipster @_rogame, give us an indication of the performance on offer from Team Red's incoming Ryzen 7 PRO 4700G, Ryzen 5 PRO 4400G and Ryzen 3 4200G parts.

The top-of-the-line Ryzen 7 Pro 4700G 8-core, 16-thread APU was spotted with default clocks set at 3.6GHz and boost clocks running at 4.45GHz, while the onboard iGPU sports eight Vega Compute Units (CUs) clocked at 2,100MHz.

Compared to the recently-launched Ryzen 9 4900H, AMD's flagship mobile APU, the desktop APU delivered up to 9.9% higher processing performance. On the graphics side, the Ryzen 7 4700G's iGPU offered 5.3% performance uplift compared to its mobile counterpart. 

The flagship Renoir desktop APU was also pitted against last year's flagship, the Ryzen 5 3400G. The 3DMark results showed that while the graphics performance was pretty close between the two, the Ryzen 7 4700G delivers a massive 91.2% performance uplift over the Ryzen 5 3400G.

Budget performance

Next up is the 6-core, 12-thread Ryzen 5 Pro 4400G, which boasts a base clock of 3.7GHz and a boost clock of 4.3GHz and performed up to 56.2% faster than the Ryzen 5 3400G. It wasn't so impressive in graphics performance; the Ryzen 5 3400G came out on top, with its iGPU performing 7.9% faster.

Last but not least is the Ryzen 3 4200G APU, which according to the 3DMark entry, packs 4 cores and 8 threads, has a base clock of 3.8GHz and a boost clock of 4.1 GHz, and a 6 CU Vega iGPU is clocked at 1.7 GHz. While the processor wasn't compared to other processors, it managed to rack up 6,825 points for the physics test and 3,486 points for the graphics test, which means it should deliver similar performance to the Ryzen 3 3100 CPU. 

When they debut later this year, likely alongside AMD's Zen 3-based Ryzen 4000 CPUs, incoming Ryzen 4000 in entry-level desktops and all-in-ones due to their integrated graphics capabilities. 

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Windows 10 May 2020 Update is available now – here’s how to get it

After almost a year and a half of beta testing, Microsoft's Windows 10 May 2020 Update is finally available to download. 

The update, also known as Windows 10 version 2004, brings a host of noteworthy features to Microsoft’s desktop OS. These include an all-new File Explorer, enhanced search functionality, support for password-free logins and new Cortana experience, with the digital assistant being transitioned to become a separate app while offering more conversational interactions.

Other additions include a Cloud Download feature to make resetting Windows 10 back to its default configuration a much easier task, along with changes to virtual desktops, DirectX 12 Ultimate support and more.

To download the Windows 10 May 2020 Update, you can check if it's available in Windows Update. To do this, head to Windows Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > Check for Updates. 

If the update is ready for your PC, you’ll see a 'Feature update to Windows 10, version 2004' message appear under Optional Updates. You can then begin downloading by clicking 'Download and install now.'

Microsoft notes, however, that the update is being released on a staggered basis, which means it won't be available to all Windows 10 users at the same time.

"You may not see [the update] on your device as we are slowly throttling up this availability over the coming weeks, or your device might have a compatibility issue for which a safeguard hold is in place until we are confident that you will have a good update experience," Microsoft says.

Though it might not arrive on your PC for a few more weeks, you can the Update Assistant tool to force the installation of the Windows 10 May 2020 Update. 

However, given the number of issue-ridden updates Microsoft has released in recent months, there will inevitably be problems for some people, so it could be worth holding off for now.

Microsoft’s next major update for Windows 10, currently known as Windows 10 20H2, will be released later in the year. However, rumours suggest the update will be a low-key affair; much like the November 2019 Update, it will likely focus on minor tweaks and fixes, rather than new Windows 10 features. 

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Windows 10X features could be coming to Windows 10 sooner than expected

Windows 10X features could be making their way to Windows 10 sooner than expected, with Microsoft reportedly gearing up to let beta testers try out the OS on single-screen devices. 

When it first announced Windows 10X during last year's Surface event in October, Microsoft positioned the OS, codenamed 'Windows Lite', as software designed for flexible and dual-screen devices, such as its own Surface Neo. In April, however, Microsoft announced that it Windows 10X would first be coming to single-screen devices. 

At the time, it remained unclear what exactly will Windows 10X would do for traditional single-screen portables and when it could be coming, but a new report at WindowsLatest suggests some of the operating system's key features will be coming to Windows 10 "sooner rather than later."

One of the first Windows 10X features to come to single-screen devices will be Win32 container support, according to Windows Latest, enabling users to run existing Win32 apps "virtually" in a sandboxed environment. Faster Windows updates, touted as one of the headline features of the Windows 10X, is also said to be coming to single-screen devices first, which could mean that future full-feature updates on Windows 10 will take less than 90 seconds. 

The company is also said to planning to bring a new trust system from Windows 10X to single-screen devices too, whereby signed codes and apps with a "good reputation" can be installed safely on the desktop OS.

Windows 10X, which will exist separately to Windows 10 is also expected to bring with it a redesigned Star Menu with a focus on productivity, a stripped-back taskbar and dynamic wallpapers. It remains unclear whether these features will make their debut on single-screen devices.


Windows 10X release date

Though its unconfirmed when these features will arrive on Windows 10, Windows Latest notes that Microsoft will "soon" let beta testers try out these once-exclusive Windows 10X features on single-screen devices.

However, Windows 10X isn't expected to be ready for a mass rollout until next year. Neither will the first dual-screen Windows devices; as well as delaying its own Surface Neo until 2021, Microsoft in April announced that no other third-party dual-screen devices would be shipping with Windows 10X this year either.

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Intel has acquired the company behind ‘Killer’ Wi-Fi cards

Intel has bought the company behind the popular Killer brand of Wi-Fi products found in laptops from Alienware, Dell, Lenovo, HP and more.

Rivet Networks, which was previously acquired by Qualcomm in 2011, makes network interface cards (NICs) that are geared towards gamers and performance users. Its technology boasts gaming-centric features such as minimizing latency and maximizing Wi-Fi bandwidth, prioritizing network traffic for applications that need it the most.

Intel confirmed on Wednesday that the Rivet Networks’ portfolio of Ethernet controllers, wireless chips and management software will join its Wireless Solutions Group, a subset of its Client Computing division. The chipmaker said plans to roll the Killer brand into its broader PC WiFi portfolio, as well as license Rivet Networks' software to customers.

“We are committed to enabling our customers to deliver the best PC experiences, especially when we have become more reliant on technology,” Chris Walker, corporate vice president and general manager of Intel’s Mobile Client Platforms Group said in the announcement. 

“We know how important connectivity is in enriching our lives. We will keep you updated on our progress and look forward to having the Rivet Networks team as part of the Intel family, developing technologies that matter to you.

Wise move

Intel’s latest acquisition makes sense. Not only has Rivet Networks has been a competitor to Intel in the NIC space for over a decade, but as reported by Anandtech, the two companies previously joined forces to develop the Killer Wireless-AC 1550 NIC. What’s more, the Intel-Killer combination can be seen in recent laptops such as the new Dell XPS 17, which features a Killer Wi-Fi 6 AX1650 module built on Intel chipset. 

Intel hasn’t said how much it paid for the company, nor when we’ll see the first fruits of the acquisition. However, chances are we’ll be seeing a souped-up Intel NIC appearing in laptops in the near future, further positioning the company as the go-to brand for gaming hardware; the company’s flagship Intel Core 9 10900K CPU continues to best out AMD Ryzen when it comes to single-core performance. 

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