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mercredi 31 août 2022

Microsoft adds 14 new functions to Excel and more in August

As we’re nearing the end of the month, Microsoft has rounded up the new features it added to Excel during August. These roundups include features for users in the stable channel, as well as Insider channels, and they cover all platforms Excel is available on. One of the highlights this month is the general availability of 14 new functions, mostly focused on text manipulation and dynamic arrays.

Starting with those new functions – which are available across the web, Windows, macOS, and mobile versions of Excel – they’ve been available to Insiders since March, but now they’re rolling out to everyone. Two new functions are TEXTBEFORE and TEXTAFTER, which let you output text from a cell only up to or from a specific point, simplifying the information in them. There’s also a TEXTSPLIT function that lets you split the text in one cell into two or more cells.

Other functions are related to dynamic arrays, which are also a relatively recent feature in Excel. These new functions let you combine, reshape, or resize arrays, so you can organize your data in a way that’s easier to understand.

Aside from this, the bulk of the changes seem to be in Excel for the web. The bigger changes including support for editing spreadsheets with legacy shared workbook features, as well as legacy data connections. Excel for the web also now supports Power Queries for Groups and you can also now create PivotTables that link directly to Power BI datasets. That last feature is also available in Excel for Windows if you’re in the Office Insider Beta channel.

The web version of Excel also now has a multi-line formula bar, and it supports rich text formatting in cells, so you can apply formatting changes only to specific parts of a cell.  Microsoft has also made it easier to delete data series from a chart by simply clicking the data series and pressing the Backspace key on your keyboard.  Finally, you can also now sort rows by color or icon.

On other platforms, most of the changes are exclusive to Office Insiders. If you’re in the Current Channel Preview on Windows, you can also use the new Show changes button, which lets you see the history of changes made to the entire workbook.

A screenshot of an Excel spreadsheet where one cell contains a link to an image file, and another cell uses the IMAGE function to display that image.

On Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS, you can now display images directly inside a cell using the new IMAGE function to link to an image resource, as long as you’re in the Beta channel.

And that’s about it for the new Excel features Microsoft added in August. If you’re not an Office Insider, most of these features will likely be available in the next month or two, but we’ll have to wait to know for sure. Of course, as we’ve mentioned, the new features in Excel on the web are available to everyone now.


Source: Microsoft

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mardi 30 août 2022

Instagram will begin testing a potentially powerful content filtering tool

Instagram has been busy as of late, adding lots of new features to its platform. While the company currently does have a way to customize what ends up on the Explore page, it doesn’t have a precise way to refine the images and videos that pop up daily. Thankfully, the firm has announced that it is testing a couple of new ways to hopefully allow users to improve the content on the Explore page in the future.

Instagram Feed options

The new test will allow users to refine their feed further and, hopefully, have recommended content delivered that is more in line with what they are looking for. Users can currently refine their feed by selecting content and marking it as “Not Interested.” While this is a great solution, sometimes it can be slow if several items need to be marked at once. The new test allows users to mark multiple items at once, making it faster and more efficient to filter out content they don’t want to see. Furthermore, Instagram will take things a step further, allowing users to filter out suggested content using words, phrases, or even emoji found in the caption and hashtags. Currently, the more granular filtering option is not live in the test. Instagram did not offer a timeline for when it would become available.

Instagram Feed options

Recently, Instagram has put a lot of focus into creating a safe place for teens. Last week, it updated the Sensitive Content Control, showing less sensitive content by default to teens 16 years and under. The firm has also introduced age verification in the United States, requiring users to provide a valid form of identification when signing up for Instagram. But, being able to filter content will take things to another level. If this kind of filtering goes live, it could become an extremely powerful tool for the platform and its users.


Source: Facebook

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Apple iPhone 14 Pro rumors indicate a better camera, stronger MagSafe, and more

We are a little over a week away from the release of the next iPhone, and more rumors and leaks are starting to roll in. As we count down the days to the “Far Out” event, let’s take a look at some of the more recent rumors that have popped up regarding the Apple iPhone 14 Pro.

While many things will change with the introduction of the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro, one of the most important changes rumored so far has been the look of the iPhone 14 Pro. The Pro devices this year will get a facelift, with the display notch being whittled down to a new pill and hole cutout. But, it appears the Pro model will get another improvement in the form of its camera. According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the ultra-wide camera on the iPhone 14 Pro will be getting an upgrade to a larger sensor going from the current 1.0µm to 1.4µm. This should allow the upcoming phones to take better images in lower-light scenarios, relying less on computational photography.

Although the new parts will be good for the phones, Kuo does state that the parts are going to be considerably more expensive, with an increase of up to 70 percent. Kuo did not state whether this cost would be passed on to consumers. There have been rumors over the past few months that indicate that the Pro models could see a price increase. When it comes to colors, as expected, for the new Pro models, last year’s Sierra Blue will be retired, and a new color, purple, will be brought in to replace it. Apple will most likely have a better moniker for the color when it debuts at the Apple event. There is also the possibility that a variation of the Alpine Green color will stick around.

In addition to the color change, Naver reports that MagSafe for iPhone could be gaining a small improvement, with Apple using stronger magnets to create improved connections with accessories. This should greatly improve the experience with heavier accessories like the MagSafe Battery Pack and Wallet with MagSafe. The source also discusses a new battery accessory, although specifics of this device were not mentioned. Furthermore, those hoping to get their hands on a titanium model of the iPhone might be disappointed, as it might not come to fruition in this release. Apparently, a prototype was made, but due to cost and the difficulty in manufacturing, it has reportedly been canceled. Last but certainly not least, coming from the same source, the new iPhone Pro models will start at 128GB of storage and will once again top out at 1TB.

While there is certainly a lot of information coming out about the iPhone ahead of its release, it’s important to note that none of these have been confirmed by Apple. Although some of the sources have had good track records, things can always change. With that said, we have a little over a week to go before we hear official news from Apple, so what are some of the things you are looking forward to from the September event?


Source: Ming-Chi Kuo (Twitter), Naver, DuanRui (Twitter)
Via: 9to5Mac

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lundi 29 août 2022

AMD Ryzen 7000 launch date is official, promises to be the best gaming chip

At CES back in January, AMD announced that while Ryzen 6000 laptops were on the way, desktops were going to skip that generation and go right to Ryzen 7000. While various details have been announced along the way, the company announced all of the details today. You’ll be able to buy any of four SKUs on September 27, ranging from $299 to $699.

Starting with some of the highlights, AMD says that it outperformed its goals for Ryzen 7000. It was looking to boost IPC (instructions per clock) by 8-10%, and it actually got to 13% over Zen 3. The firm is also saying that the new Ryzen 9 7950X, which sits at the top of the lineup, offers 57% better content creation performance than an Intel Core i9-12900K.

“The AMD Ryzen 7000 Series brings leadership gaming performance, extraordinary power for content creation, and advanced scalability with the new AMD Socket AM5,” Saeid Moshkelani, senior vice president and general manager, Client business unit, AMD. “With the next generation Ryzen 7000 Series Desktop processors, we are proud to uphold our promise of leadership and continuous innovation, delivering the ultimate PC experience for gamers and creators alike.”

As you’d expect, AMD brought out the benchmarks

That’s not all though. AMD compared its processor gen-over-gen, saying that the Ryzen 9 7950X has a 32% boost in DOTA 2, a 35% boost in Shadow of the Tome Raider performance, a 6% increase in Borderlands 3 performance, and a 13% increase in CS:GO performance over the Ryzen 9 5950X.

AMD Ryzen 7000 family

AMD didn’t just compare its new processors to Intel in content creation. It says that its Zen 4 cores are the best for gaming, a somewhat common claim for new desktop processors that Intel is sure to make when it launches 13th-gen next month. It pointed to Geekbench 5.4 single-thread scores. Where a Core i9-12900K came in at 2,040, a Ryzen 5 7600X came in at 2,175, and the Ryzen 9 7950X came in at 2275.

The company went so far as to say that the Ryzen 5 7600X, on average, offers 5% better gaming performance than a Core i9-12900K.

But what about everything else?

Obviously, speeds and feeds just tell you about, well, speeds and feeds. The Ryzen 9 7950X offers 16 cores with 32 threads, a boost clock of up to 5.7GHz, a total cache of 80MB (the L2 cache has been doubled), and a 170W TDP. Yes, that’s a significant boost in TDP, but AMD is promising a big boost in efficiency.

AMD Ryzen 7000 processor

With the new TSMC 5nm process as part of Zen 4, AMD has shrunken down the Core + L2 area to 3.84 square millimeters, while Intel’s is 7.46 square millimeters on the Intel 7 process (Alder Lake). With that, AMD is promising 1.47 times the performance per watt of Intel, a company promising to have the industry lead in performance per watt by 2025.

Model Cores/Threads Boost / Base Frequency Total Cache PCIe TDP
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X 16C / 32T Up to 5.7 / 4.5GHz 80MB Gen 5 170W
AMD Ryzen 9 7900X 12C / 24T Up to 5.6 / 4.7GHz 76MB Gen 5 170W
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 8C / 16T Up to 5.4 / 4.5GHz 40MB Gen 5 105W
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 6C / 12T Up to 5.3 / 4.7GHz 38MB Gen 5 195W

Other important improvements are support for DDR5 memory and PCIe 5.0, both of which are already supported by Intel’s latest generation of chips. One key difference, however, is that Ryzen 7000 only supports DDR5 memory. The company says that after so much time, DDR4 is at the end of its life.

It’s fair to say that the death of DDR4 has been dragged out a bit, thanks to component shortages that kept DDR5 prices high, and the fact that in this early stage of DDR5 evolution, there wasn’t that much of an advantage. The advantage simply wasn’t enough to cover the difference in price.

AMD sees that as changing, so it’s going with DDR5. It’s also announcing Expo memory, which is optimized for AM5 boards and can be overclocked. These are going to arrive from companies like ADATA, Corsair, Kingston, and more in November. There will be more than 15 kits available at launch, coming in at speeds of up to DDR5-6400.

The new AM5 platform, guaranteed to be used through at least 2025

Unlike Intel, which seems to rarely allow a CPU socket to last more than two generations at this point, AMD has boasted future-proofing as one of its value propositions. The AM4 socket has been around for over five years and lasted through five CPU architectures. It actually predates the Zen architecture and the Ryzen brand.

AM5 motherboard with AMD Ryzen processor

It’s time for AM5, which includes a 1718 pin LGA socket, including up to 230W socket power delivery. Most importantly though, it’s meant to be future-proofed, including DDR5 and PCIe 5.0.

PCIe 5.0 offers double the bandwidth of its predecessor. That means faster SSDs, which is great when we’re talking about things like DirectStorage. But along with other things, it can get you faster graphics. AMD has four platforms out of the gate: X670, X670 Extreme, B650, and B650 Extreme. They all offer PCIe 5.0 storage, but the Extreme options also offer PCIe 5.0 graphics.

The AM5 platform does support AM4 coolers, so while you’ll have to swap out your board, you should be able to keep your cooler.

As for how long AMD is planning to use AM5, it should be for at least three more years. The firm is promising to use the new platform until at least 2025.

AMD Ryzen 7000 pricing and availability

You’ll be able to pick up an AMD Ryzen 7000 processor beginning on September 27. There are four SKUs, with the following pricing:

Ryzen 9 7950X Ryzen 9 7900X Ryzen 7 7700X Ryzen 5 7600X
$699 $549 $399 $299

AMD Ryzen 7000 processors with the company’s new 3D V-Cache are going to be available later in 2022, but there’s no specific date yet.

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Instagram fixes Reels audio bug allowing iOS users to export video without issue

A little over a week ago, iOS Instagram users encountered a bug that removed sound from downloaded Reels video clips. This is probably something that wouldn’t normally cause too much of an uproar, but apparently, many TikTok and social media video creators rely on Instagram’s editing tools to create their videos. Thankfully, the issue has now been resolved, allowing iOS users to freely create and export their creations.

The latest update for Instagram that arrived on Friday has now fixed the bug according to Seine Kim, a spokesperson for Instagram’s parent company, Meta. Kim delivered the news to The Verge, in a follow up on its original story. Thankfully, the problem wasn’t intentional, so creators can feel a bit more confident using the tools found on Instagram going forward. The bug arrived at a really bad time for the company, as it had previously just rolled back changes to its platform following a massive uproar.

Short-form video has become quite popular over the past few years thanks to TikTok, and it has forced platforms like Instagram to adapt and change. Unfortunately, while it is currently catering to its users with recent changes, it has come out to say that the future of the platform is video. Platforms like Instagram and YouTube have been trying to combat TikTok for the better part of a year. Instagram has an algorithm that recognizes TikTok watermarked videos and once detected, does not promote those videos on its platform. YouTube has also become more protective of its content and it has begun watermarking its own short-form videos called Shorts in order to promote its platform.

Despite its recent blunders, Instagram has been adding numerous and much appreciated features over the past couple of months that aim to protect younger users. Most recently, it updated its sensitive content filters for teens, has started verifying the age of its users, and introduced a “nudge” feature that helps teens move on from subjects that they might be fixated on. So while not all of its new updates are appreciated, there are definitely some that are moving the platform in the right direction.


Source: The Verge 

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Samsung Galaxy S22 series receives new camera features and QR code scanner improvements

While Samsung has already started testing One UI 5 based on Android 13 for its flagship Galaxy S22 series, the company hasn’t forgotten those still on the Android 12 release. It is rolling out a fresh Android 12 update on the stable channel, bringing a host of new camera features to the Galaxy S22, Galaxy S22 Plus, and Galaxy S22 Ultra.

Samsung recently shared details about the latest Android 12 update for the Galaxy S22 series on its community forums. According to the company, the release brings telephoto camera support for the hyperlapse mode, QR code scanner improvements, AI engine optimizations for Photo, Night, and Video modes, and more. It has already started rolling out to users in South Korea (via Sammy Fans), and it should reach other regions in the coming days.

Samsung Galaxy S22 update Hyperlapse mode telephoto camera support.

While we currently don’t have access to the full changelog for the update, Samsung notes that it improves the QR code scanner performance by increasing the guide size and enhancing scan speeds when using the feature from the Quick Settings panel.

Samsung Galaxy S22 update QR code scanner bigger guide.

The update also fixes a bug in the QR code scanner in the Camera app, which prevented users from scanning a QR code if the Camera app recognized a document in the scene.

Samsung Galaxy S22 update QR code scanner bug fix.

In addition, the update addresses another usability issue for the QR code scanner in the Camera app because of which users couldn’t access the QR code prompt after accidentally canceling the original pop-up.

Galaxy S22 update QR code scanner camera app usability fix.

Other noteworthy improvements include picture quality optimizations for the motion picture feature, sharpness and contrast intensity adjustments for ultra-wide and telephoto cameras, sharpness and contrast intensity adjustments for the Pro and Portrait modes, and a few Night mode improvements. Samsung also notes that it’s also working on an “Astronomical Hyperlapse” mode and AI-enhancements for the ultra-low light mode, which will roll out with future updates.

As mentioned previously, the update is currently rolling out to Galaxy S22 users in South Korea. While Samsung has not shared a timeline for a wider rollout, the update should land in more regions in the coming days.


Source: Samsung Community forums
Via: Sammy Fans

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Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 specs detailed in new leak

Qualcomm rebranded its Snapdragon lineup of smartphone SoCs with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 late last year. The company extended the new branding to its mid-tier Snapdragon 7 series this May, with the launch of the new Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chip. While most Android OEMs are yet to launch devices featuring the latest Snapdragon 7 series chip, a new leak has revealed details about the upcoming Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 SoC.

The leak in question comes from Evan Blass, and it reveals pretty much everything about the next SoC in Qualcomm’s budget-friendly Snapdragon 6 series. Firstly, it confirms that Qualcomm will further extend its new SoC branding to Snapdragon 6 series SoCs and the upcoming chipset will go by the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 moniker. It also reveals that Qualcomm will use a 4nm manufacturing process for the SoC and offer a 2.2GHz Kryo CPU and an unspecified Adreno GPU. However, it does not highlight the number of CPU or GPU cores on the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1.

Although the leaked specs sheet does not share enough details about the CPU or GPU, it confirms that the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 will pack a Snapdragon X62 modem-RF system, bringing mmWave and sub-6GHz 5G support to budget-friendly devices. Additionally, the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 will support up to 12GB LPDDR5 RAM clocked at 2,750MHz and UFS 3.1 storage.

Other noteworthy features include support for 120Hz FHD+ displays, Bluetooth 5.2, Wi-Fi 6E, and Quick Charge 4 Plus. On the camera front, the Spectra ISP on the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 will support either triple 13MP rear-facing cameras, a 25MP and 16MP dual-camera setup, or a single 48MP camera, along with 4K HDR video capture.

Currently, Qualcomm has not made any official announcements about the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 SoC. But the company has confirmed that it will host this year’s Snapdragon Tech Summit between November 15 and November 17. It will likely unveil the next-gen flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC during the event, and it may also showcase the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 along with it.

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