HyperX Fury RGB LED SSD 

Most PC cabinets don't put 2.5-inch SSDs on display — they're usually enclosed in metal cages or screwed onto the back of the motherboard baseplate where their wires won't get in the way of a nice view. Still, there are people who will buy an RGB LED SSD just for the novelty value, no matter what its performance is like. We're hoping that the HyperX Fury RGB SSD from Kingston that we're reviewing today isn't just about looks, but also delivers on performance.

HyperX Fury RGB specifications and features

Coming to the primary purpose of this SSD, you have a choice of 240GB, 480GB, and 960GB models. Kingston has used 3D TLC NAND flash, which is now the norm. The controller is the widely used though somewhat dated Marvell 88SS1074. The sequential read speed is rated at up to 550MBps which is near the limit of what the SATA standard itself can handle, but the rated sequential write speed is lower than expected at up to 480MBps. Kingston has not specified whether these figures apply to all capacity versions or whether they are the best case values for the product family as a whole.

Endurance in terms of total bytes written (TBW) is 120TB for the 240GB model; 240TB for the 480GB model; and 480TB for the 960GB model. These values are the amounts of data you should be able to write to your drive before it shows any sign of failure. The warranty period is three years, whereas other manufacturers typically offer five-year warranties.

Kingston says the HyperX Fury RGB's power consumption is just 0.2W at idle, and 2.5W at most in use. It isn't clear whether these figures account for the RGB LEDs, because they're in line with most normal SATA SSDs.

RIP, Google Plus

Google begins shutting down its failed Google+ social network

The day has officially come for Google to subtract Google Plus.

The move has been a long time coming. Last year, the search giant said it would shut down Google Plus after it found and fixed a security flaw that may've exposed the personal data of 500,000 users. On Tuesday, Google began shutting down pageson the platform.

Leave it to people to use other social media platforms -- namely, Twitter -- to share their reactions. 

"So long, @GooglePlus. We barely used ye," tweeted Killed by Google, which tracks the company's discontinued products. 

 Launched in 2011, Google+ was expected to be the company's answer to Facebook with a number of similar features. However, it didn't gain much traction over the years.

Google has officially started the process of shutting down and deleting all consumer accounts on its Google+ social network platform, bringing an end to the company’s attempt to directly compete with the likes of Facebook and Twitter. “The shutdown is underway as of this morning,” a Google spokesperson confirmed to The Verge by email on Tuesday.

Google+ is being phased out due to “low usage” and because it turned into something of a security liability for Google; the company has disclosed two significant data leaks that could have exposed information for tens of millions of Google+ users to outside developers. The first vulnerability, which was kept secret for months, prompted Google to decide it was time to close Google+ for good, and the second led to the company accelerating those shutdown plans by four months, meaning the service will meet its end in April instead of August.

In both cases, Google said there’s been no evidence that developers were aware of these bugs or took advantage of them. Access to Google+ APIs has already been cut off per Google’s timeline for the shutdown.

Google has acknowledged that Google+ failed to meet the company’s expectations for user growth and mainstream pickup. “While our engineering teams have put a lot of effort and dedication into building Google+ over the years, it has not achieved broad consumer or developer adoption, and has seen limited user interaction with apps,” Google’s Ben Smith wrote in October. He then revealed a pretty damning stat for where the service stands today: “90 percent of Google+ user sessions are less than five seconds.”

But even if it never rose to anything that had a chance of challenging Facebook, the platform has been home to a small-but-loyal community of users through the years. I really like this piece by CNBC’s Jillian D’Onfro as a reflection on what stood out about Google+: people took to it for its topic-focused discussions, which helped conversations feel more substantial and constructive than the squabbling that is so often found on the public square that is Facebook or even Reddit. Google+ let you organize people into circles, which the company hoped would feel more true to the way we share things in day-to-day life.

Windows 7 Users Now Being Warned of the Impending End of Security Updates

Microsoft has been pushing legacy Windows users to upgrade to Windows 10 through a number of incentives, including free upgrades. But for a number of reasons, there are still many PC users who are not making the jump. The number is big enough for Microsoft to push a patch on Windows 7 warning users of the January 14, 2020 deadline for rolling out software fixes and security patches on the now 10-year-old operating system.

Windows 7 is present on nearly as many desktops as Windows 10, which makes it understandably essential for Microsoft that these users have a smooth path forward. We had earlier reported that the nagging notification to upgrade to Windows 10 would start soon for Windows 7 users, and surely enough, the notifications have commenced with the new patch.

Though the notification presents a deadline of January 14, 2020, enterprise users have the option to pay for security updates till 2023. For others, a lack of security updates could put their essential data and private information at risk. This makes upgrading to Windows 10 essential especially if the PC is being used for business, educational or even record-keeping purposes.

Microsoft had earlier incentivised upgrading to Windows 10 by making it free, which was an option available all the way till December 2017.

iMac Lineup Refresh Brings 9th-Gen Intel Chips, Radeon Pro Vega Graphics

Apple on Tuesday updated its iMac lineup, bringing 9th generation octa-core Intel processors into the fray and also introducing Radeon Pro Vega graphics on iMac computers for the first time. The non-Retina display 21.5-inch model continues to be available. Apple has revealed the India prices of the updated 21.5-inch iMac with Retina 4K display and the 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display, as well as their availability.

With the refresh, Apple says the 21.5-inch iMac with Retina 4K display and new Intel hexa-core processor will offer up to 60 percent faster performance. The 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display with its new Intel hexa-core and octa-core processors will offer up to 2.4 times faster performance.

As for the addition of the Radeon Pro Vega graphics, Apple says users can expect up to 80 percent faster graphics performance on the 21.5-inch iMac and 50 percent faster graphics performance on the 27-inch iMac. The launch of the refreshed iMac lineup comes a day after Apple introduced its new iPad Air and iPad mini lineup on Monday.

Happy Holi..

Microsoft Surface Book 2 With Quad-Core Intel CPU Listed Online, Hints at Mid-Cycle Refresh of 13-inch Model

Microsoft's Surface Book 2 convertible is reportedly in line to get a processor upgrade, as numerous sellers have already listed a refreshed version of the laptop. Specifically, the base model of the Surface Book 2's 13-inch variant will soon get a quad-core CPU, replacing the dual-core seventh gen Intel CPU, which was present in the version launched back in 2017. The processor upgrade appears to be a mid-cycle refresh for the smaller Surface Book 2 model. However, Microsoft is yet to officially announce the upgraded variant or reveal when it will become available.

To recall, the base variant of the Surface Book 2 was launched packing the seventh gen Intel Core i5-7300U processor. This particular processor has two cores and has a peak clock speed of 3.5GHz. Now, some sellers in Germany and US have listed a new variant of the 13-inch Surface Book 2 powered by the Intel Core i5-8350U processor. This Intel offering has double the number of cores at 4 and also has a slightly higher turbo frequency of 3.60GHz. Additionally, the Core i5-8350U has 6MB of smart cache while the Core i5-7300U has 3MB of smart cache memory.

New Nokia phone with triple rear cameras, no notch leaked in images

All eyes may be focused on HMD's upcoming Nokia 9 PureView flagship smartphone, but it seems the company is also working on another new Nokia phone as well. Some leaked images have been spotted online that reveal a mysterious new Nokia smartphone that interestingly does not come with a notch of any kind. We also know this isn't the Nokia 9 PureView because the images are of a phone with triple rear cameras rather than a penta-camera setup.

The leaked images were spotted on micro-blogging site Weibo, and we cannot verify its authenticity just yet. Going by the images, this new Nokia phone will offer a triple rear camera system on the back vertically placed on the center. We can see the Nokia branding as well and no sign of a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, which seems to suggest HMD is going with an in-display fingerprint sensor. This year, HMD has released a few phones with dual cameras, but we are yet to see a triple camera phone from the company.

What's more interesting is the display of this new Nokia smartphone. There is no notch on the top and no clear indication of a front-facing camera at all. The side and top bezels are slim, while the chin bezel is fairly thick and houses the Nokia logo. It would be quite surprising if HMD launches a Nokia phone without a front-facing camera in today's time. It's possible that the front camera is in the chin bezel, but the image shows no sign of that as well. The other option is a pop-up selfie camera like the Vivo Nex or a slider mechanism like the Mi Mix 3.