Month: May 2022

Enlarge / Microsoft’s Project Volterra is an Arm-powered developer desktop launching later this year. This image depicts two Volterra boxes stacked on top of one another. (credit: Microsoft)

Windows on Arm is arguably as successful as it has ever been—you can buy multiple Arm-powered Windows laptops and tablets, and those devices can run nearly the entire range of available Windows apps thanks to x86-to-Arm code translation. That said, Windows on Arm still accounts for just a fraction of the entire Windows ecosystem, and native Arm apps for the platform are still relatively rare.

At its Build developer conference Tuesday, Microsoft made a few announcements aimed at bolstering Windows on Arm. The first is Project Volterra, a Microsoft-branded mini-desktop computer powered by an unnamed Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC. More relevant for developers who already have Arm hardware, Volterra will be accompanied by a fully Arm-native suite of developer tools.

According to Microsoft’s blog post, the company will be releasing ARM-native versions of Visual Studio 2022 and VSCode, Visual C++, Modern .NET 6, the classic .NET framework, Windows Terminal, and both the Windows Subsystem for Linux and Windows Subsystem for Android. Arm-native versions of these apps will allow developers to run them without the performance penalty associated with translating x86 code to run on Arm devices—especially helpful given that Arm Windows devices usually don’t have much performance to spare.

Enlarge (credit: Nvidia)

A 24-inch PC monitor with the ability to update its image 500 times per second will be available soon, Asus and Nvidia announced Tuesday. The monitor should boost desktop monitors from the 360 Hz max native refresh rate they see today while putting a mysterious new spin on an old panel technology.

Aptly named the Asus ROG Swift 500 Hz Gaming Monitor, it manages high refresh rates with lower resolution. The 1920×1080 screen leverages a new take on TN (twisted nematic) panels called E-TN, with the “E” standing for esports. According to Asus, the E-TN panel offers “60 percent better response times than standard TN panels,” and in its own announcement, Nvidia claimed the E-TN panel brings “maximum motion and clarity.” But neither detailed how the technology differs from regular TN.

Standard TN panels have been becoming less common among PC monitor releases as IPS (in-plane switching) and VA (vertical alignment) panels continue catching up in speed while being known for stronger viewing angles, in the case of IPS, and larger contrast ratios, in the case of VA. Those opting for TN are willing to sacrifice some image quality in the name of speed or, often, lower prices. It’s unclear how much sacrifice E-TN may require (besides a max resolution of 1080p) or how much of a premium it’ll have compared to today’s standard TN monitors.

Enlarge / The “See more dates” option will soon appear on iOS and Android. (credit: Google)

Today is the 15th birthday of Google Maps Street View, Google’s project to take ground-level, 360-degree photographs of the entire world. To celebrate, the company is rolling out a few new features.

First up, Google is bringing historical Street View data to iOS and Android phones. The feature has long existed on desktop browsers, where you can click into Street View mode and then time travel through Google’s image archives. When you tap on a place to see Street View imagery, a “see more dates” button will appear next to the current age of the photo, letting you browse all the photos for that area going back to 2007. Google says the feature will release “starting today on Android and iOS globally,” though, like all Google product launches, it will take some time to fully roll out.

If you’d like to help Google with its plan to photograph the entire world, the company is launching “Street View Studio.” Google calls this “a new platform with all the tools you need to publish 360 image sequences quickly and in bulk.” The Street View app is still around for people who want to build a 360 photosphere from a regular smartphone camera, but Google imagines Street View Studio as a tool for people with consumer 360 cameras. Google has a store-style page that lists compatible 360 cameras; the options range from sub-$200 fisheye cameras to the $3,600, ball-shaped Insta360 Pro, which looks like something out of Star Wars.