Apple unveils new iPad starting at $449

Apple iPad

NEW YORK. Apple is refreshing and cutting prices on two of its iPads, but held back on updating its higher end tablets.

A much-speculated 10.5-inch iPad didn't materialize, nor did new versions of iPad Pros aimed at businesses and creative professionals. Apple unveiled the new iPads through a press release rather than a staged event, the opposite of the process reserved for bigger product releases, which typically are unveiled in September or October, in time for the holiday shopping season.
The tablet market is in an extended decline after a few years of rapid growth. According to IDC, tablet shipments fell 20 per cent, to 53 million in the final three months of 2016, compared with the same period in 2015.

The iPad Air 2 is replaced by a new model simply called the iPad. It retains a 9.7-inch screen, but the display is brighter and the processor faster. Its price starts at $449, according to Apple.ca.
The smaller, 7.9-inch iPad Mini 4 now comes with 128 gigabytes of storage starting at $549. It's eliminating 32-gigabyte model.

Apple also announced the release of a red edition of the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus; for each phone sold, Apple is donating an unspecified amount to HIV and AIDS programs. Apple is also doubling the storage on the smaller iPhone SE with a sticker price of $579.

The new iPad Mini 4 is available right away, while the standard-size iPad comes out next week, with orders to begin Friday. The new iPhone SE comes out Friday as well, while the red iPhones are expected by the end of the month, with advance orders beginning Friday

Instagram's advertising base tops 1M businesses

Instagram

Instagram is expected to announce on Wednesday that it has reached more than 1 million monthly active advertisers, as the Facebook Inc-owned photo-sharing app tries to become a centre of online commerce.

The number of advertisers has grown five fold from 200,000 a year ago, Instagram's vice president for business, James Quarles, said in a phone interview this week. He called the 1 million number a "milestone."

Facebook bought Instagram for US$1 billion in 2012, and initially, the app had limited advertising with only a handful of well known brands.

Last year, Instagram began pushing businesses that had created standard profiles to adopt business specific profiles, and 8 million businesses have done so, Quarles said. Instagram is able to use Facebook's ad technology to target specific audiences.

Facebook's apps compete against rivals such as Snap Inc (SNAP.N), Alphabet Inc's Google (GOOGL.O 0.54%) and Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) for slices of digital advertising spending.

Quarles declined to give projections for further growth. He said there was "tremendous upside" and added: "This is about getting as many businesses as we can to have pages."

Apple says software flaws outlined in latest WikiLeaks docs are all fixed

Apple

NEW YORK, Apple said purported hacking vulnerabilities disclosed by WikiLeaks this week have all been fixed in recent iPhones and Mac computers. The documents released by the anti secrecy site Thursday morning pointed to an apparent CIA program to hack Apple devices using techniques that users couldn't disable by resetting their devices. 

The iPhone hack was limited to the 3G model from 2008. In a statement late Thursday, Apple said the flaw was fixed with the release of the iPhone 3GS a year later. Apple also said the Mac vulnerabilities were all fixed in all Macs launched after 2013.

Apple's statement was consistent with assessments from security experts, who say that many of the apparent vulnerabilities were in older technology. Apple is going further in saying those flaws have all been fixed, based on its preliminary analysis.

Security experts say the exploits described in the WikiLeaks documents are plausible, but suggest they pose little threat to typical users. Besides being likely out of date, the techniques also typically require physical access to devices, something the CIA would use only for targeted individuals, not a broader population.

The CIA has not commented on the authenticity of this and earlier WikiLeaks revelations, but has previously said it complies with a legal prohibition against electronic surveillance "targeting individuals here at home, including our fellow Americans."

The leaks Thursday came about two weeks after WikiLeaks published thousands of alleged CIA documents describing hacking tools it said the government employed to break into computers, mobile phones and even smart TVs from companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft and Samsung. WikiLeaks has offered to share further details with tech companies to help them fix flaws, though accepting such information might subject companies to certain conditions and put government contracts at risk.

Apple addressed the offer for the first time in Thursday's statement.

"We have not negotiated with WikiLeaks for any information," the statement read. "We have given them instructions to submit any information they wish through our normal process under our standard terms. Thus far, we have not received any information from them that isn't in the public domain."

Apple said that while it takes users' security and privacy seriously, "we do not condone theft or co-ordinate with those that threaten to harm our users."

Earlier, Microsoft said WikiLeaks had made initial contact through its public reporting channel, "and we have followed up, treating them as we would any other finder." Mozilla, the organization behind the Firefox web browser, also said it had been contacted through the email address it uses for security vulnerability reporting. Mozilla said it would take steps necessary to fix any vulnerabilities reported that way.

Apple's Clips marks company's latest shot at competing with Facebook, Snap

Apple

Clips, which will hit Apple's App Store in April, lets customers take videos and add animated captions and titles, complete with colorful emoji symbols. The app also makes it possible to stitch together multiple video clips and add speech bubbles and filters.

The functions closely resemble those that drive Snap's wildly popular Stories feature. With Stories, Snap users string together photos and videos, embellish them and then post them to their feeds.

Apple's new Clips lets users post their video to Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo and more. But if users post them to Apple's own Messages app, Apple will recommend whom to share it with based on which friends are in the videos and whom the user frequently contacts - the kind of predictive social features Facebook excels at.

Apple has a huge number of users for Messages, the flagship app for short notes that is built into the iPhone's iOS 10 software. Apple does not say how many people use the app, but it does say that there more than 1 billion iOS devices on the market and that 79 per cent of them run iOS 10.

Apple also says that Messages is the most commonly used app on iOS devices, giving the company potentially up to 800 million users for its latest messaging platform. Snap, by contrast, has 161 million daily active users. While Apple's Clips competitor will technically be a separate app from Messages, it will be tied closely to it for the ability share Clips videos with other Apple users.

Facebook has more than 1 billion users for both Messenger, which was split off from the main Facebook service in 2014, and for WhatsApp, which it acquired for US$19 billion the same year.

Apple has been steadily matching the features of Facebook's Messenger. But Apple is also walking a fine line with other messaging players, cooperating with them often as it competes with them. For example, it has opened up the iPhone's dialer app, long closed off to developers, so that iPhone users could place and receive Skype and WhatsApp calls through the device's native interface.

Alphabet Inc's Google and Microsoft Corp have been scrambling to get into the game, too. Google has more than a half dozen messaging apps, including Allo, its latest. Microsoft has tried to integrate chat into its Skype app, and Microsoft-owned LinkedIn is a popular tool for business notes.

But tech giants obsess over messaging because it is where users are headed, according to analyst firm Gartner. Between 2015 and 2016, the percentage of U.S. and UK smartphone owners who used social media apps dropped from 85 per cent to 83 per cent while messaging apps jumped from 68 per cent to 71 per cent, a trend Gartner expects will continue.

Twitter explores subscription based Tweetdeck option

Twitter

Twitter Inc is considering whether to build a premium version of its popular Tweetdeck interface aimed at professionals, the company said on Thursday, raising the possibility that it could collect subscription fees from some users for the first time.

Like most other social media companies, Twitter since its founding 11 years ago has focused on building a huge user base for a free service supported by advertising. Last month it reported it had 319 million users worldwide.

Subscription fees could come from a version of Tweetdeck, an existing interface that helps users navigate Twitter.

Twitter is conducting a survey "to assess the interest in a new, more enhanced version of Tweetdeck," spokeswoman Brielle Villablanca said in a statement on Thursday.

She went on: "We regularly conduct user research to gather feedback about people's Twitter experience and to better inform our product investment decisions, and we're exploring several ways to make Tweetdeck even more valuable for professionals."

There was no indication that Twitter was considering charging fees from all its users.

Word of the survey had earlier leaked on Twitter, where a journalist affiliated with the New York Times posted screenshots of what a premium version of Tweetdeck could look like.

That version could include "more powerful tools to help marketers, journalists, professionals, and others in our community find out what is happening in the world quicker," according to one of the screenshots posted on the account @andrewtavani.

The experience could be adfree, the description said.

Apple's next iPhone will lead to a big paradigm shift

Apple iPhone

Apple's the next version of the iPhone will lead to a "paradigm shift," with augmented reality as its foundation, said Gene Munster, managing partner at VC firm Loop Ventures.

Augmented reality  which differs from virtual reality in that it is not completely immersive  will be the key to not just Apple's future but the future of tech. And while it may not impact the company's sales in the short term, Muster says it will "lay the foundation of the next computing paradigm."

That shift will ultimately be good for Apple's stock, he said. "You start to get more comfortable when you put together the services side of the business on top of the augmented reality side," Munster said.

Apple is investing heavily in augmented reality, though both acquisitions and hiring new talent, according to a report in Bloomberg.

Turns down Apple's tax incentive demand

Apple

The Department of Revenue has said no to the tax incentive demand of US based iPhone maker Apple, which wants to set up a manufacturing unit in the country. Sources said the demand of the technology major was sent by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) to its revenue counterpart.

In a communication to the government, the Cupertino based technology major has asked for incentives from the Department of Revenue and Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeITy).

Besides exemption from the Customs duty on imports of components and equipment for 15 years, Apple wants relaxation in the mandated 30 percent local sourcing of components.

Apple had earlier indicated to the government that it is ready with a blueprint to begin manufacturing iPhones in India, but wants fiscal concessions, including Customs duty waiver on import of components.

Apple executives had made a detailed presentation to an interministerial group headed by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion Secretary Ramesh Abhishek on its roadmap for setting up a manufacturing unit in India.

With sales tapering in the US and China, Apple is eyeing India  the fastest-growing smartphone market in the world and looking to set up a local manufacturing unit to cut costs.

It, however, does not manufacture devices on its own and rather does it through contract manufacturers.

The company sells its products through Apple owned retail stores in countries like China, Germany, the US, the UK and France, among others. It has no wholly owned store in India and sells its products through distributors such as Redington and Ingram Micro

Qualcomm unveils chipset for 4G feature phones

Qualcomm Technology

Telecom equipment company Qualcomm today unveiled Qualcomm 205, a chipset to be used for making 4G feature phones that are expected to be priced below USD 50 or Rs 3,500 a unit.

"India and South Asia regions present growth opportunities in the telecom space with rising 4G adoption and continued adoption of feature phones.

"The launch of Qualcomm 205 is a chipset for 4G feature phones which provides opportunity for OEMs, operators and content providers to extend experience of 4G on feature phones," Qualcomm Technologies Senior Vice President Jim Cathey said here.

The US based firm said that it has partnered with many vendors including Reliance Jio, Micromax, Borqs, Megaphone, Flextronics who plan to sell their 4G feature phones in India.

"Careers (telecom operators) will look at migrating their 2G customer to 4G because maintaining 2G is becoming more expensive. There will be devices (4G feature phones) in market in second quarter in sub USD 50 range," Qualcomm Technologies Vice President for Product Management Kedar Kondap said.

The chipset will enable phones to come with 4G modem that will support download speed of up to 150 megabit per second, access to 2G, 3G and 4G network.

Besides, it will support 3 megapixel front and rear camera, dual SIMs, High Definition video streaming, VGA display and Linux based operating system.

"We are using India as launch platform but there are other regions who are interested. The chipsets have been already shipped to various vendors in many countries," Kondap said.

Though memory size of 4G feature phones would be small, there would be native application on feature phone to support digital payments and other basic utilities, he said.

How to Start Your Own Computer Company

Start Your Computer Business

Starting your own company requires planning and organization. Research and choose a suitable business model before starting your own computer company. Begin by assessing your target market's needs. Structure your business to provide computer software and hardware products to your customers in an efficient, cost effective manner. Using the resources provided by the Small Business Administration Small Business Planner website, acquire the training needed to enable your success.

1. Assess your readiness to start your computer company by using the questions provided by the Small Business Administration to evaluate your skills and experience. Running a computer company typically requires industry expertise, product knowledge and customer support skills. Research different business models to run your operations. Franchise operations usually provide training and other materials to run a successful business. For example, purchase a franchise to buy, sell and service laptop computers. Open an attractive retail storefront and provide quality service and repair.

2. Conduct market research. Use industry outlook information about the computer industry to help you make decisions about your core business strategy. For example, review the economic indicators provided by the Census.gov website. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 75 percent of U.S. households own at least one computer. Use the American FactFinder website to get details about your local community. Use the information to target age groups. For example, the 55 to 64 age group increased by 33.3 percentage points from 2000 to 2008. To meet their needs, offer these retirees refurbished laptops at an affordable price.

3. Write a business plan. Your business plan should include a comprehensive description of your company, your products and services, your marketing strategy and your financial information. Use the tools and templates provided by the Small Business Administration website to fill out the details.

4. Use the resources provided by the Business.gov website to set up the legal structure of your computer company. For example, set up a partnership, sole proprietorship or limited liability corporation. Name your company and register the name. Get a tax identification number to pay your federal, state and local taxes.

5. Create a website to advertise your computer company. Establish a network to obtain business referrals. For example, volunteer at local community events to meet potential customers. Establish your expertise in your community.

6. Obtain resources and training from vendors, such as Microsoft, HP and IBM. These companies offer certification training and the opportunity to become an authorized reseller or service provider.

7. Manage multiple revenue streams, such as onsite service, online sales or mobile Internet information to maintain a competitive edge for your computer company. Get a mentor through the SCORE website who can advise you on how to set up these features in your local area.

Super Fast Wifi

WIFI

Slow wifi is a source of irritation that nearly everyone experiences. Wireless devices in the home consume ever more data, and it's only growing, and congesting the wifi network. Researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology have come up with a surprising solution, a wireless network based on harmless infrared rays. The capacity is not only huge (more than 40Gbit/s per ray) but also there is no need to share since every device gets its own ray of light. This was the subject for which TU/e researcher Joanne Oh received her PhD degree with the 'cum laude' distinction last week. The system conceived in Eindhoven is simple and, in principle, cheap to set up. The wireless data comes from a few central light antennas, for instance mounted on the ceiling, which are able to very precisely direct the rays of light supplied by an optical fiber. Since there are no moving parts, it is maintenance free and needs no power, the antennas contain a pair of gratings that radiate light rays of 

different wavelengths at different angles ( passive diffraction gratings ). Changing the light wavelengths also changes the direction of the ray of light. Since a safe infrared wavelength is used that does not reach the vulnerable retina in your eye, this technique is harmless.

No Interference

If you walk around as a user and your smartphone or tablet moves out of the light antenna's line of sight, then another light antenna takes over. The network tracks the precise location of every wireless device using its radio signal transmitted in the return direction. It is a simple matter to add devices they are assigned different wavelengths by the same light antenna and so do not have to share capacity. Moreover, there is no longer any interference from a neighboring wifi network.

Data Capacity of Light Rays

Current wifi uses radio signals with a frequency of 2.5 or 5 gigahertz. The system conceived at TU Eindhoven uses infrared light with wavelengths of 1500 nanometers and higher; this light has frequencies that are thousands of times higher, some 200 terahertz, which makes the data capacity of the light rays much larger. Joanne Oh even managed a speed of 42.8 Gbit/s over a distance of 2.5 meters. For comparison, the average connection speed in the Netherlands is two thousand times less (17.6 Mbit/s). Even if you have the very best wi-fi system available, you won't get more than 300 Mbit/s in total, which is some hundred times less than the speed per ray of light achieved by the Eindhoven study. The Eindhoven system has so far used the light rays only to download uploads are still done using radio signals since in most applications much less capacity is needed for uploading.

Also Read : A Computer Software Program Excels at Lip Reading

Five Years

The work of doctoral student Oh is part of the wider BROWSE project headed up by professor of broadband communication technology Ton Koonen, and with funding from the European Research Council. Joanne Oh focused predominantly on the technology of data transmission via directable infrared light rays. Other PhDs are still working on the technology that tracks the location of all the wireless devices as well as on the essential central fiber optic network connecting the light antennas. Koonen expects it will still be five years or more before the new technology will be in our stores. He thinks that the first devices to be connected to this new kind of wireless network will be high data consumers like video monitors, laptops or tablets.

Many Devices at the same time.

Koonen's group is not the only one working on indoor optical wireless networks'. A few other universities and research institutes around the world are also studying whether data can be transmitted via a room's LED lighting. However, the drawback here is that the bandwidth is not high and that the connected devices still have to share. A few other groups are investigating network concepts in which infrared light rays are directed using movable mirrors. The disadvantage here is that this requires active control of the mirrors and therefore energy, and each mirror is only capable of handling one ray of light at a time. The grating used by Koonen and Oh can cope with many rays of light and, therefore, devices at the same time. 

The work of Oh and Koonen comes under the auspices of the TU/e Institute for Photonic Integration, one of the world's leading research institutes for 'photonics', the use of light (photons) rather than electricity (electrons) to transmit data.

Oculus VR Spread with Rift Price Cut

Oculus Virtual Reality

Facebook owned Oculus on Wednesday slashed the price of its Rift headsets to speed the pace at which the virtual reality technology is working its way into homes. Rift headsets bundled with Touch controllers for letting people reach into faux worlds began selling for $598 as Oculus lopped $200 off the price of buying the VR hardware that hit the market last year.

The price of the Rift alone was dropped to $499 and Touch controllers to $99. Oculus broke the news at an annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco where scores of titles were being shown off for play using Rift, or competing hardware such as HTC Vive or Sony PlayStation VR headsets. 

"Our mission at Oculus is to drive VR into as many people's homes as we can," Said Oculus vice president Jason Rubin. "We believe this is a massive step and the people coming in at the lower price have a ton of software they can use."

The prices of computers needed to power Rift VR experiences has also come down hundreds of dollars in the past year in an overall cost reduction that he hoped would entice a new wave of customers to follow the "early adopters." Rubin referred to the new Rift and Touch prices as "aggressive," but declined to discuss how much money Oculus was making on each sale other than to say that the price is "sustainable."

Virtual Reality

Virtuous cycle

The more VR gear that sells, the more developers of games or other experiences will be motivated to create software for the technology in what Rubin called a budding "virtuous cycle" where sales of hardware are fueled in return. "We look at is as an opportunity it's a new frontier," Said Gunfire Games development director Ben Gabbard during a demonstration of its latest VR title, science fiction shooter game "From Other Suns." "Being at the forefront of a special and interesting medium to tell stories and make games has been very awesome for us, even though it hasn't taken off to the stratosphere." While games standout when it comes to using VR, Oculus believes "ultimately the killer app is social" with people interacting at virtual venues. Virtual reality sought its stride at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas early this year, where despite being a hot topic there was little sign that the technology was racing into mainstream culture.

Show floor space devoted to virtual reality abounded with companies diving into the market with headsets, content, or tools for better creating or delivering immersive experiences. Vive, PlayStation VR and Rift have been wooing software developers and refining hardware to better entice users.

A New Computer Software Program Excels at Lip Reading

Lips Reading Software

A new computer software program has the potential to lip read more accurately than people and to help those with hearing loss, Oxford University researchers have found.

Watch, Attend and Spell (WAS), is a new artificial intelligence (AI) software system that has been developed by Oxford, in collaboration with the company DeepMind.

The AI system uses computer vision and machine learning methods to learn how to lip read from a dataset made up of more than 5,000 hours of TV footage, gathered from six different programmes including Newsnight, BBC Breakfast and Question Time. The videos contained more than 118,000 sentences in total, and a vocabulary of 17,500 words.

The research team compared the ability of the machine and a human expert to work out what was being said in the silent video by focusing solely on each speaker's lip movements. They found that the software system was more accurate compared to the professional. The human lip reader correctly read 12 per cent of words, while the WAS software recognised 50 per cent of the words in the dataset, without error. The machine's mistakes were small, including things like missing an "s" at the end of a word, or single letter misspellings.

The software could support a number of developments, including helping the hard of hearing to navigate the world around them. Speaking on the tech's core value, Jesal Vishnuram, Action on Hearing Loss Technology Research Manager, said: 'Action on Hearing Loss welcomes the development of new technology that helps people who are deaf or have a hearing loss to have better access to television through superior real-time subtitling.

'It is great to see research being conducted in this area, with new breakthroughs welcomed by Action on Hearing Loss by improving accessibility for people with a hearing loss. AI lip reading technology would be able to enhance the accuracy and speed of speech to text especially in noisy environments and we encourage further research in this area and look forward to seeing new advances being made.'

Commenting on the potential uses for WAS Joon Son Chung, lead-author of the study and a graduate student at Oxford's Department of Engineering, said: 'Lip reading is an impressive and challenging skill, so WAS can hopefully offer support to this task for example, suggesting hypotheses for professional lip readers to verify using their expertise. There are also a host of other applications, such as dictating instructions to a phone in a noisy environment, dubbing archival silent films, resolving multitalker simultaneous speech and improving the performance of automated speech recognition in general.'

The research team comprised of Joon Son Chung and Professor Andrew Zisserman at Oxford, where the research was carried out, together with Dr Andrew Senior and Dr Oriol Vinyals at DeepMind. Professor Zisserman commented `this project really benefitted by being able to bring together the expertise from Oxford and DeepMind'.

Will artificial intelligence (AI) change the nature of work?

Will artificial intelligence (AI) change the nature of work? For EPFL theoretical biologist Marcel Salathé, the answer is invariably yes. To him, a more fundamental question that needs to be addressed is who owns that artificial intelligence?

"We have to hold AI accountable, and the only way to do this is to verify it for biases and make sure there is no deliberate misinformation," says Salathé. "This is not possible if the AI is privatized."

AI is Both the Algorithm and The Data.

So what exactly is AI? It is generally regarded as "intelligence exhibited by machines". Today, it is highly task specific, specially designed to beat humans at strategic games like Chess and Go, or diagnose skin disease on par with doctors' skills.

On a practical level, AI is implemented through what scientists call "machine learning", which means using a computer to run specifically designed software that can be "trained", i.e. process data with the help of algorithms and to correctly identify certain features from that data set. Like human cognition, AI learns by trial and error. Unlike humans, however, AI can process and recall large quantities of data, giving it a tremendous advantage over us.

Crucial to AI learning, therefore, is the underlying data. For Salathé, AI is defined by both the algorithm and the data, and as such, both should be publicly available.

Deep Learning Algorithms can be Perturbed.

Last year, Salathé created an algorithm to recognize plant diseases. With more than 50,000 photos of healthy and diseased plants in the database, the algorithm uses artificial intelligence to diagnose plant diseases with the help of your smartphone. As for human disease, a recent study by a Stanford Group on cancer showed that AI can be trained to recognize skin cancer slightly better than a group of doctors. The consequences are far reaching: AI may one day diagnose our diseases instead of doctors. If so, will we really be able to trust its diagnosis?

These diagnostic tools use data sets of images to train and learn. But visual data sets can be perturbed that prevent deep learning algorithms from correctly classifying images. Deep neural networks are highly vulnerable to visual perturbations that are practically impossible to detect with the naked eye, yet causing the AI to misclassify images.

In future implementations of AI assisted medical diagnostic tools, these perturbations pose a serious threat. More generally, the perturbations are real and may already be affecting the filtered information that reaches us every day. These vulnerabilities underscore the importance of certifying AI technology and monitoring its reliability.

Motherboard GIGABYTE GA AX370 Gaming 5

Motherboard GIGABYTE GA AX370 Gaming 5

GIGABYTE GA AX370 Gaming 5 AMD RYZEN AM4 is AORUS' motherboards boast the most advanced LED system in the market today. With more customizability than ever and a convenient and intuitive UI thanks to the RGB Fusion App, you’ll have a blast making your AORUS your own. LED enthusiasts now have even more options with the ability to customize multiple zones independently. For a more functional use, the bright and vibrant LEDs can be configured to display the PC’s temperature or load. For even more LED goodness RGBW strips are now supported for more true and vibrant whites. 

Enhanced BIOS Interface

The enhanced BIOS interface also has the advanced features seen in the Smart Fan 5 UI, such as: the ability to set triggers based on different temperature sensors on the board, fan curve definition and the temperature interval setting, which can prevent fan rotation noise caused by sudden temperature change all without having to load Windows.

Dual Smart Headphone AMPs

Automatically detects impedance of your head worn audio device, whether earbuds or high end headphones to provide optimal audio dynamics preventing issues such as low volume and distortion. With the AORUS AX370 Gaming 5 incorporates dual Smart Headphone AMPs guaranteeing that users will have a plug n play experience whether they connect their headphones to the front or the rear of their system.

Specification :

CPU :

AMD Ryzen™ processor

AMD 7th Generation A-series/ Athlon™ processor

Chipset : 

X 370

Memory :

1. 4 x DDR4 DIMM sockets supporting up to 64 GB of system memory.
2. Dual channel memory architecture

3. Support for DDR4 3200(O.C.)/2933(O.C.)/2667/2400/2133 MHz memory modules

4. Support for ECC Un-buffered DIMM 1Rx8/2Rx8 memory modules

5. Support for non-ECC Un-buffered DIMM 1Rx8/2Rx8/1Rx16 memory modules

Audio : 

2 x Realtek® ALC1220 codecs

Support for Sound Blaster X-Fi MB5

High Definition Audio

2/4/5.1/7.1-channel

Support for S/PDIF Out

LAN :

1 x Intel® GbE LAN chip (10/100/1000 Mbit) (LAN1)

1 x Rivet Networks Killer™ E2500 LAN chip (10/100/1000 Mbit) (LAN2)

Motherboard GIGABYTE GA AX370 Gaming 5

Expansion Slot :

1. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)   

2. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8)

3. 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x4 (PCIEX4)

4. 3 x PCI Express x1 slots

     

Just got this motherboard so based on looks, components, i'm giving this a 5 for now and will rank down if i find problems in the install. So this will be a preliminary review. So far just the box is pretty hefty, much heavier then other motherboards i bought in the past. I'm sure by the product pictures you have seen all the white plastic covers and heatsinks on various parts that say aorus. The memory slots and the video slots look reinforced. As some people stated, they didn't like the M.2 slot under where the video card will be, but i think it wont affect it too much as the heat usually is dissapated out of the video card out of the top. 

When you open the box of course the motherboard is the first thing you see, wrapped in it's electrostatic bag, pull this top layer off and you see all the parts. 2 packs of sata cables 4 in total. 2 aorus velcro cable straps. Gigabyte GC-SLI2P, assume this is for nvidias sli. motherboard mini connector, which you put all your cables like hd led, case led, on a connector then you just plug in the connector to the mobo, great idea. You get an extended LED hdr cable with the extra white pin. You get some cabling stickers, 2 heat sensors, the rear panel cover which is nicely labeled, an aorus sticker and of course a manual and install guide.

Motherboard ASUS ROG Crosshair VI Hero

Motherboard ASUS ROG Crosshair VI Hero

Powered by AMD Ryzen (AM4), the ROG Crosshair VI Hero strikes the perfect balance for gamers and enthusiasts alike with features they need, performance they crave, and easy to use interfaces for complete system control. Dynamic AURA Sync RGB lighting and 3D printing mounts deliver unmatched personalization options.

You don't need to be an expert to max out gaming performance on your ROG Crosshair VI Hero because 5 Way Optimization sorts all the complex settings with a click, for instant, highly controllable performance boosts. Exclusive ROG technology dynamically optimizes essential aspects of your system, based on real time use so you get superb CPU performance, everyday energy savings, ultra-stable digital power, cool and quiet fans and networking settings that are tailored for the apps that you are using. In short, 5-Way Optimization ensures that your PC is perfect for gaming, entertainment, and productivity.

Specification :

CPU :

AMD AM4 Socket for AMD Ryzen™/7th Generation A-series/Athlon™ Processors

Supports AM4 Socket 14 nm CPU

Supports CPU up to 8 cores

Chipset : 

X370

Memory : 

4 x DIMM, Max. 64GB, DDR4 3200(O.C.)/2666/2400/2133 MHz Non-ECC, Un-buffered Memory 

Multi GPU Support : 

Supports NVIDIA® 2 Way SLI™ Technology

Supports AMD CrossFireX™ Technology

Expansion Slots : 

2 x PCIe 3.0/2.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8) 

Storage : 

1 x M.2 Socket 3, with M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 storage devices support (SATA & PCIE 3.0 x 4 mode)

LAN : 

Intel® I211-AT, 1 x Gigabit LAN Controller

Anti-surge LANGuard

ROG GameFirst IV

BIOS : 

128 Mb Flash ROM, UEFI AMI BIOS, PnP, WfM2.0, SM BIOS 3.0, ACPI 6.1, Multi-language BIOS, ASUS EZ Flash 3, CrashFree BIOS 3, F11 EZ Tuning Wizard, F6 Qfan Control, F3 My Favorites, Last Modified log, F12 PrintScreen and ASUS DRAM SPD (Serial Presence Detect) memory information.

Motherboard ASUS ROG Crosshair VI Hero Back Panel

Back I/O ports : 

1 x LAN (RJ45) port(s)

1 x USB 3.1 (black)Type C

1 x USB 3.1 (red)Type A

8 x USB 3.0 (blue)

4 x USB 2.0 (one port can be switched to USB BIOS Flashback)

1 x Optical S/PDIF out

1 x Clear CMOS button(s)

1 x USB BIOS Flashback Button(s)

5 x Gold-plated audio jacks

1 x M.2 Wi-Fi Slot

Internal I/O Ports : 

2 x RGB Header(s)

1 x USB 3.0 connector support additional 2 USB 3.0 port

1 x USB 2.0 connector support additional 2 USB 2.0 port

1 x M.2 Socket 3 with M key, type 2242/2260/2280/22110 storage devices support

1 x TPM header

8 x SATA 6Gb/s connector

1 x CPU Fan connector

1 x CPU OPT Fan connector

3 x Chassis Fan connector

1 x W_PUMP+ connector

1 x AIO_PUMP connector

1 x 8-pin EATX 12 V Power connector

1 x 4-pin EATX 12 V_1 Power connector

1 x 24-pin EATX Power connector

1 x Front panel audio connector(AAFP)

1 x Slow Mode switch

1 x Thermal sensor connector

1 x Reset button

1 x LN2 Mode jumper

1 x ROG extension (ROG_EXT) header

1 x Safe Boot button

1 x ReTry button

1 x System panel connector

2 x 3D Mount screw port

1 x W_IN header

1 x W_OUT header

1 x W_FLOW header

1 x Start button

1 x USB 3.1 front panel connector 

Asus generally makes the best motherboards, and this one is currently their top of the line product. It is one of the many reasons why so many people have been and are still looking forward to buy one despite a VERY long waiting period. Also AM4 sockets are expected to last until 2020 so it might make sense to buy the best motherboard on the market available.