Tech News Roundup for March 18, 2021
Here are a few of the stories I found interesting over the last couple days.
Google Chrome Can Now Caption Audio From Any Web Page
This is a great feature that could help a wide range of people. A new feature in Chrome 89 allows users to add captioning to audo from any website, even if the website doesn’t natively offer it. This is obviously fantastic for anyone hard of hearing or in the deaf community, but could also be useful for anyone. I love when companies add accessibility to products, as it makes them, well, more accessible to a wider range of people. This is a win for everyone.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/03/chrome-brings-live-captioning-to-any-web-audio-source/
Samsung Announces Midrange A52, A52 5G, and A72 Phones
Samsung’s A series of phones has quietly exploded into its best selling line. This is mainly due to the fact that they are less expensive than the Galaxy S and Galaxy Note lines, but the company has really put a lot of effort into making the A series phones compelling. Last year’s A51 and A71 were well regarded phones, and the A51 was the best selling Android phone on the planet in Q2 of 2020. The phones offered good screens, good battery life, good, but not great cameras, and good enough performance for reasonable prices.
This year’s A52, A52 5G, and A72 aim to continue to bring more features found in more expensive phones down to a lower cost segment. The A52 and A72 offer 90Hz fast refresh displays, something that some of the more expensive phones in 2020 didn’t even offer. That will make them feel more responsive, even if they don’t’ have as powerful of a processor as the Galaxy S21. The batteries are also bigger, and the cameras should be better. As the names may imply, the A52 5G is the only phone of the three that features 5G connectivity, but at lower price points that can be excused. The company has also said an A72 5G variant is coming later this year.
There is no word on Canadian pricing yet, but I think we can assumg it’ll be in the range of the A51 and A71, which retailed for $480 and $650 respectively. As a side note, the A71 can now be had for just $500 from Samsung, and those looking for a very good phone that doesn’t break the bank, that’s a really compelling option.
https://mobilesyrup.com/2021/03/17/samsung-galaxy-a52-5g-a72/
Nvidia Doubles The Price of GeForce Now
This one is a bit more niche, but hurts those who like to play PC games. Geforce Now is a unique game straming service from Nvidia that lets users stream PC games in a similar fashion to Google Stadia, except that Geforce Now lets you play games you already own on PC. It’s an interesting take on game streaming, and seemed to be getting some traction. With the current shortage of PC components (or basically any electronic component) making things like gaming video cards impossible to find, Geforce Now was an affordable alternative to those who wanted to play PC games but literally couldn’t buy the parts to do so… Until today.
Prior to today Geforce Now was priced at $5 USD per month, or $60 USD per year. That price has gone up substantially. New subscribers will now pay $10 USD per month or $100 USD per year, representing a doubling of the monthy price. Existing subscribers can keep paying $5/month indefinitely, but new subscribers, or those who let their subscription lapse, will be charged the new, higher rate.
Considering the state of the PC Gaming industry and the massive parts shortage, that one really stings.
https://www.engadget.com/nvidia-geforce-nows-price-increase-new-features-180648780.html
Some 2021 GM Trucks Will Get Worse Fuel Mileage because of the Chip Shortage
Speaking of that semiconductor shortage… It had been reported for some time that the shortage in manufacturing microchips of any kind. Ford paused some production of its most popular vehicle, the F-150, and now GM is going to start producing vehicles that don’t have a module that helps improve fuel efficiency. It is estimated that GM trucks produced without this module will get on average 1 MPG worse fuel efficiency than those with it. That will lead to more greenhouse gas emissions, and more fuel overall burned on vehicles that will be on the road for 15+ years.
Yikes.
https://www.crave.ca/en/support/how-can-i-watch-my-favourite-crave-content-in-1080p-43987902
NASA Successfully Test Fires SLS Core Stage
After a failed attempt a few months ago, the Space Launch System core stage that will launch the uncrewed Artemis I mission to the moon has finally successfully test fired for the full duration that the rocket will run during its actual flight. This is an important milestone for the brand new rocket. The successful test comes as US politicians consider whether to scrap the SLS rocket all together, as the costs of the program balloon. It is now estimated that it could cost NASA as much as $2 Billion USD for each SLS launch. For comparison, SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket costs just $133 Million USD for a launch. While the Falcon Heavy can only launch about 60% of the payload of the SLS, it could be launched about 15 times for the same price as a single SLS launch.
Yikes