GeForce RTX  30 Series

Nvidia announced next generation of the graphics cards, and they are beasts. Based on Ampere architecture they come with incredible core count. The RTX 3090 has 10,496 CUDA cores, the RTX 3080 has 8,704, and the RTX 3070 has 5,888. They also come with 24GB, 10GB, and 8GB of either GDDR6X or GDDR6 respectively.

Those specs ensure incredible performance, the RTX 3090 is 1.5x faster than the Titan RTX, the RTX 3080 is twice as fast as the RTX 2080, and the RTX 3070 can outperform the RTX 2080 Ti.

In terms of pricing., RTX 3090 will cost $1,499, the RTX 3080 coming in at $699 and RTX 3070 at $499.

RTX 3090 and RTX 3080 will be available in September, and RTX 3070 in October.

Dope links

• Public APIsFilter
• Dutch photographer Bas Uterwijk used AI to re-create Doomguy's face
• 200 Mpix photo  of the Milky Way over Tatra Mountains

Image credits: Nvidia

Faking trafic jam on Google Maps

Google Maps monitors traffic data using various sources, including phones with location services turned on.  Sam Wecker tricked Google Maps and created virtual traffic jam by walking through empty streets of Berlin with 99 second-hand phones loaded on a small wagon.

Google is aware of this flaw and, in response to 9to5Google, stated that they liked the idea, and hope that it will somehow improve the service.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip leaked

A video showing upcoming Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip has been shared on Twitter. Phone itself looks more like a traditional flip phone that folds up into a compact device. There is not much information about this phone, but here is what we know so far based on the leaks:

• It will have 6.1- inch foldable main screen,
• Smaller screen on the back for clock & notifications,
• Front facing camera built into the main screen,
• Double camera system on the back.

The Galaxy Z Flip is expected to be revealed at Samsung's Unpacked event on February 11.

GeForce Now finally released

Nvidia's game streaming service -  GeForce Now - left the beta and is finally available for everyone. At the moment, players can choose one of two tiers:

Free

• Play session is limited to 1 hour,
• Raytracing is disabled.

Founders

• Costs $4.99 a month,
• Unlimited play time,
• Priority access to servers,
• Raytracing is available.

GeForce Now allows to play already purchased games from Steam, Uplay, and Epic Store. The list of compatible games is impressive.

At the moment, the client is available for Windows, macOS i Android, but Nvidia also plans to release the PWA version.

Microsoft forgot to renew a certificate, again

Microsoft Teams went down for nearly three hours after Microsoft forgot to renew a critical security certificate. Teams users couldn't sign into the service because the app was failing to establish an HTTPS connection to Microsoft’s servers.

This is not Microsoft's first incident with expired certificate. In 2013,  Microsoft Azure was not available for couple of hours.

AMD Powered macs?

New beta of macOS 10.15.4 Catalina continues to reference the AMD processors. Those references could mean one of couple of things:

• Apple is just playing with AMD's hardware and there is nothing more to the story,
• AMD's CPU and GPU will power rumored gaming computer,
• Apple is going to replace Intel's chips with AMD ones in future iMacs and MacBooks.

Dope Links

• Introducing Swift Crypto
• Creating a macOS App - SwiftUI Tutorials by Apple
• SwiftUI for Mac - Part 1,  Part 2, Part 3  & Extras
• Using UIKit views in SwiftUI
• SwiftUI basic Shape operations
• How to integrate Vue and Asp.Net Core 3.1 app using VS Code
• Improved accessible routing in Vue.js
• UVue - Server Side Rendering (SSR) for VueJS
• Microsoft Announces Playwright Alternative to Puppeteer
• 2020 Java Technology Report
• Why Discord is switching from Go to Rust
• Diagrams: A Brand New Diagram Editor for Mac
• Setting Up Your Webcam, Lights, and Audio for Remote Work, Podcasting, Videos, and Streaming
• One year ago I shared my highest resolution picture of our moon. Last night I created an improved version, combining 140,000 pictures
• On 21 January a fireball meteor crashed to Earth causing a cascade of bright light to trail through the sky
  

Image credits: Google Maps

This week Nvidia unveiled the new GeForce RTX 2000 series of graphics cards at Gamescom. New series is a long-awaited successor of GTX 1000 series. Based on new Turing architecture, the RTX 2080 is a big step forward into achieving real-time ray-tracing effects in games. Beside new effects, Nvidia also promises a 6 times more performance comparing to previous generation of GPUs.
Cards were available for preorder with shipment scheduled for 20th of September. The reference pricing for the cards is following:

• RTX 2070 is $499
• RTX 2080 is $699
• RTX 2080 Ti is $999
• RTX 2070 Founders Edition is $599
• RTX 2080 Founders Edition is $799
• RTX 2080 Founders Edition Ti is $1,199

Despite the high prices, all cards are already sold out. And thanks to crypto-miners, I would not expect to see them available before premiere or with lower prices.

This is it for this week. Before you leave, please check this list of interesting things out.

The 10 Secrets to Indie Game Success (and Why They Do Not Exist)

This is Windows 95, running in an Electron app

Splash - A fast, lightweight and flexible Swift syntax highlighter for blogs, tools and fun!

The Firebase Database For SQL Developers Series

How you can style your terminal like Medium, freeCodeCamp, or any way you want

Lolcat, Colorls, Catpix, and other Ruby Gems to add color to your terminal

Image credits: Nvidia.