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If you have been hemming and hawing over whether to buy a new MacBook, then a current sale might just sway you. Right now, Apple's 15-inch MacBook Air with an M3 chip is down to $1,049 from $1,299 a 19 percent discount. The deal brings our choice for best budget MacBook to just $50 more than its all-time low price. Apple released the 15-inch MacBook Air with an M3 chip (along with a 13-inch model) in 2024. We gave it a 90 in our review thanks to features such as the M3's fast performance, with a much bigger speed boost than we expected. The 15-inch option also offers a six-speaker array, compared to the 13-inch's quad-speaker array. Plus, it has a sturdy design, along with a great keyboard and trackpad. Our big con was that this MacBook Air still doesn't have USB-C ports on both sides. Yes, it seems minor, but when your charging cable just reaches where you're sitting, having the option to plug it in on either side makes a big difference. Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-15-inch-m3-macbook-air-is-250-off-right-now-131324637.html?src=rss
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There's another development in the saga that is governments accusing Google of monopolistic practices favoring its search app and Chrome. The Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) has issued a cease and desist order to Google, demanding the tech company end all efforts to gain preferential treatment on Android phones. The watchdog alleges that Google required phone makers to preinstall Chrome and Google Search on Android phones along with setting Chrome as the default browser. It also claims they had to place the icons for each app on the home screen. This arrangement came due to the tech company's power as provider of the Google Play app ecosystem, which Android manufacturers need to install before distribution. However, the JFTC further claims that Google sweetened the deal, agreeing to give these phone manufacturers a slice of its ad revenue. As of last December, six Android phone manufacturers allegedly had these deals with Google. These arrangements have been ongoing since at least July 2020, if not earlier. The JFTC's decision follows an investigation, opened in October 2023. It comes the same week as a Japanese delegation, led by Economy Minister Ryosei Akazawa, will visit the US to negotiate tariffs. The US has expressed similar concerns to Japan. Last November, US federal judge Amit Mehta called Google "a monopolist" within the search engine industry and called on the company to sell off Chrome. An evidentiary hearing on the matter is set to begin later this month, with a trial commencing in May. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/japan-clamps-down-on-googles-android-app-pre-install-deals-130050220.html?src=rss
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At long last, NVIDIA has announced its budget GeForce RTX 50-series, but don't expect any major discounts over the previous models. The RTX 5060 will start at $299, just like the RTX 4060 did when it launched two years ago. Of course, it's unclear how many people will actually be able to nab it at that price, given the volatile nature of the GPU market and further fluctuations from the Trump administration's sloppy tariff deployment. NVIDIA is also launching two variants of RTX 5060 Ti GPUs with 8GB and 16GB of VRAM, priced at $379 and $429, respectively. Those faster GPUs will arrive on April 16, but we don't have a firm date for the RTX 5060 besides a vague May release. While NVIDIA touts the typical performance improvements, the real selling point of the RTX 5060 and 5060 Ti will be their full support of DLSS 4 upscaling and 4X multi-frame generation. In my reviews of the RTX 5070, 5070 Ti and 5090 cards, I was surprised how much DLSS 4 boosted frame rates while still delivering excellent image quality. But it'll be interesting to see if that technology will see much benefit from slower cards like the 5060 and 5060 Ti. NVIDIA Curiously, NVIDIA isn't divulging full specs for these GPUs just yet, even though plenty of early details have already emerged. Officially, the company says the RTX 5060 is powered by 8GB of GDDR7 VRAM, 19 TFLOPS Blackwell shader cores, 5th-gen tensor cores with 614 AI TOPS performance and 4th gen RT (ray tracing) cores that can hit 58 TFLOPS. Unofficially, reports claim it also has 3,840 CUDA cores. In comparison, the RTX 4060 had 3072 CUDA cores and 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM. The RTX 5060 Ti reportedly steps things up to 4,608 CUDA cores and the aforementioned 8GB and 16GB GDDR7 RAM options. NVIDIA says its Blackwell shader cores offer 6 TFLOPS more performance than the 5060, which should be plenty noticeable in typical gameplay. The RTX 5060 is mostly a 1080p-focused card, while the RTX 5060 Ti is far better suited to 1,440p gameplay as long as you don't need obscene framerates. According to NVIDIA's benchmarks, the RTX 5060 can reach 234 fps in Hogwarts Legacy while playing in 1080p with maxed out graphics settings and 4X frame-generation. The RTX 4060, in comparison, hits around 110 fps with 1x frame generation. NVIDIA claims the 5060 can also reach 148 fps in Cyberpunk 2077, 220fps in Avowed, and 330 fps in Marvel Rivals in 1080p with the same graphics settings and frame gen. It could be the perfect card if you're rocking a 240Hz 1080p screen. As for the RTX 5060 Ti, NVIDIA says it can reach 108 fps in Cyberpunk while playing in 1,440p with Full RT graphics settings and 4X frame generation. That's double the 4060 Ti, which reached 52 fps with 1x frame generation. Even when native performance is solid, NVIDIA also says DLSS 4's transformer upscaling model can improve overall image quality and latency. The 5060 Ti can reach 61 fps and 70ms latency in Hogwartz Legacy natively, but the latency drops to 47ms with DLSS 4 enabled (which also pumps up the frame rate to 171 fps). As usual, a scaled down version of the RTX 5060 is also headed to laptops, which NVIDIA says will start at $1,099. We don't have specs for that hardware either, but the company claims it'll be able to reach 146 fps in Cyberpunk 2077 while playing in 1080p with ultra graphics settings and 2X frame generation. In comparison, the mobile RTX 4060 reached 60fps with those settings, and it was also limited to 1x frame generation. The real challenge for NVIDIA with the GeForce RTX 5060 family lies in pricing. The company doesn't directly control how OEMs price their cards, and numbers could also fluctuate wildly depending on stock and economic conditions. So sure, the RTX 5060 and 5060 Ti sound compelling for their price, but it remains to be seen if those figures are actually realistic for consumers. And it'll be interesting to see how AMD responds with cheaper new GPUs, after its Radeon RX 9070 and 9070 XT cards walloped NVIDIA's current mid-range options. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/nvidias-geforce-rtx-5060-gpu-starts-at-299-rtx-5060-ti-at-379-130020340.html?src=rss
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