Month: July 2023

Different monitors could get their own refresh rates applied, which is great news for saving system resources.

Windows 11 has a new preview build carrying a very useful change for those who run multiple monitors, in a move that’ll help save system resources to some extent.

The change is in testing right now – and the very earliest test channel, namely Canary – having been brought in with build 25915 late last week.

What Microsoft has done is improved the way Windows 11 handles refresh rates so that when a PC has two (or more) monitors, different refresh rates can be used on multiple screens.

Previously, Windows 11 would apply the refresh rate which is a system-wide setting to both monitors, so now in this preview version, they can each have different refresh rates. We’ll come back to discuss refresh rates in more depth, and why this is important, in a moment.

Elsewhere in build 25915, Microsoft has tweaked Dynamic Refresh Rate (DRR), a feature that intelligently adjusts your monitor’s refresh rate depending on what you’re doing. (If you’re reading emails or doing other basic tasks, DRR will employ a lower refresh rate – but when you need a smoother experience, such as when scrolling through a large document with embedded images, a higher refresh rate will be utilized).

The change to DRR now means that if you’re in battery saver mode on your laptop, Windows 11 will stick with the lower refresh rate no matter what, in order to conserve power. In short, battery saver overrules DRR completely, which is for the best when your notebook is on the verge of conking out.

Analysis: A very refreshing change

Refresh rate means the rate that the screen refreshes itself every second (measured in Hertz), or in other words, how many frames are displayed per second. Every monitor is essentially displaying a slideshow, and you’re seeing a number of images (slides, or frames) every second. (But always, in theory, so quickly that you’ll never see the ‘joins’ as it were – it should all happen fluidly, especially with a top-end PC and one of the best monitors out there).

The faster the refresh rate, the more fluid and smooth the image seems to your eyes (with caveats, such as with games for example, your GPU and other components need to have the horsepower to be able to produce the requisite frames, and with demanding titles and resolutions, that can be a steep hill to climb).

So, what this change does is allow a task like gaming on a primary high refresh rate monitor to hit, say, 240Hz, whereas if you have a second monitor where you’re just surfing the web, watching a video maybe, you can have that running at 60Hz. Because you won’t need any more than 60Hz on that second display, you can save your PC the trouble of having to push both monitors to a higher refresh rate.

That means fewer system resources are used, and they can be employed elsewhere, plus you might save a teeny-tiny bit of power to boot (it all adds up).

This means nothing to those who don’t have more than one monitor, of course, but the DRR change will still be useful for those with a laptop who want to conserve power when the battery gets to a low level.

Via Windows Central

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Developers, including those behind other Chromium projects, are really not happy about Google’s WEI API.

Google has received Internet-wide backlash for plans it has drawn up which consider the implementation of what it calls a Web Environment Integrity (WEI) API.

The four authors behind the WEI explainer article explain how such an API would allow servers to “evaluate the authenticity of the device” in order to prevent some types of fraud, however comments on the GitHub page were largely negative.

Among the many complaints, some users raised concerns about surveillance and discrimination, while others called for approval by regulatory bodies and indeed for Google to compare the preposition to the W3C code of Ethics.

Google backlash

To add insult to injury, Google is now facing criticism from rival browser makers, including some that use the Chromium foundations.

Brave co-founder and CEO (and ex-Mozilla CEO) Brendan Eich pointed out on Twitter that the browser will not be shipping with support for Google’s proposed API, comparing it to other “junk” that Google puts into Chromium which Brave disables.

Firefox developer Brian Grinstead posted on a GitHub thread that “Mozilla opposes this proposal,” suggesting that other avenues for detecting fraud and invalid traffic should be explored.

Vivaldi developer Julien Picalausa called the result of Google’s developers’ work “toxic” and “dangerous,” but in a glimmer of hope, Picalausa suggests that the EU will almost certainly want to look into the effects of the WEI API should it be given the green flag by Google.

So far, Apple and its workers have remained quiet on the matter. We gave the company the opportunity to share its thoughts on Google’s plans, but no response has been received as yet.

We also asked Google whether it had anything further to add beyond last week’s comment, when a company spokesperson told us that the program had been paused, and directed us in the face of early backlash to a response by the explainer article’s author, which concluded:

“We welcome collaboration on a solution for scaled anti-abuse that respects user privacy, while maintaining the open nature of the web.”

Again, Google did not immediately respond to our request. Further updates will be posted here.

Got your own concerns? Consider the best privacy tools and anonymous browsers

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Helldivers 2 has been rated as Mature by the ESRB in the US.

Highly-anticipated third-person shooter Helldivers 2 has received an official rating from the  ESRB, the official rating body in the United States.

The game is to have a ‘Mature/17+# rating attached to it, and the rating on the ESRB website goes into detail about why – and it’s mainly down to “intense violence”. As spotted by Eurogamer, Helldivers 2 getting a rating isn’t unexpected – and neither are the details that it contains, given what we know about the game already – however, a rating usually comes soonish before a release date, so we could be in for an imminent announcement. For example, a game wouldn’t be in a state to receive a rating from the ESRB if it were still deep in development, or even many months from release.

Fleshing out its rating, the ESRB description describes that “players layers use pistols, assault rifles, sniper rifles, flamethrowers, turrets, grenades, and rocket launchers to shoot and kill enemies (e.g., robots, cyborgs, giant insects). Players can continue to attack defeated enemies, causing additional blood-splatter effects and dismemberment. Players can also shoot and kill human civilians during rescue missions.” Nice.

The first Helldivers was an enjoyable, top-down co-op shooter, and a particular highlight was the game’s novel ability to be played with friends across the PS4, PS3, and PS Vita. As a result of the latter’s inclusion, it often features among the best PS Vita games conversation too.

Ditching the top-down view of the first game, Helldivers 2 embraces the third-person, over-the-shoulder this time around to get us closer to the action. It’s a co-op game with a committed fanbase and is already one of the most anticipated upcoming games. It’s still slated for release sometime this year, but we have no more information on a firm date aside from this rating coming now.

Helldivers 2 is likely to be one of the best co-op games of the near future, and certainly one of the top multiplayer PS5 games of the generation too.

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