Showing posts with label gadgetry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gadgetry. Show all posts

Thursday

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The new cards are currently being tested in South Africa, and MasterCard hopes to roll them out to the rest of the world by the end of 2017. Even if that happens, though, you’ll still have to wait for your bank or financial institution to get on board.


Once the technology is ready for the public, here’s how it should work. Your bank will inform you that the biometric card is available, and if you’re interested, you’ll have to go to an enrollment center (most likely a bank) to get your fingers scanned. An encrypted digital template of your fingerprint is stored on the card’s EMV chip. You can save up to two prints, but they would both have to be yours — you can’t authorize someone else to use your card with their fingers. After your templates are saved, your card is ready to be used at compatible terminals worldwide — merchants don’t have to get new equipment to accept your fingerprint-enabled plastic.



The card itself is surprisingly no thicker than a regular credit card. The fingerprint sensor is a small, thumbnail-sized rectangle that sits at the top right corner, and is easily accessible when you stick the card into a payment terminal.


During a recent demo, I tried to use a MasterCard rep’s biometric card with my finger, and received a “Transaction denied” message from the test payment terminal. When she carried out the faux-purchase, the payment went through, and the machine began printing a receipt. What really surprised me was the speed at which it happened.


When the terminal asks you to insert the card, it’s communicating to the bank information like your identity and the amount of the transaction. Then, it verifies your identity by asking for your fingerprint. The sensor reads your finger, and sends the information to the card’s chip, which determines if you’re the owner. If you are, it sends a “Yes” or “Authorized” message to the bank, which then allows the payment to pass.



At my demo, the authorization process happened almost instantly, which is reasonable given it’s all happening on the card instead of going through the bank. When it was me using the card, however, it took a slight pause to register that I wasn’t certified. I didn’t have trouble learning the new process at all, either — it’s intuitive and straightforward to simply leave your finger on the card as you slide it into a payment dock.


Of course, this method is only compatible with chip-and-pin cards, so it won’t work with stores that only accept the older magnetic stripe models. But embedded chip technology has become increasingly popular in the US, thanks largely to regulations making financial institutions and merchants liable for breaches resulting from a lack of support for chip-and-pin cards. Getting a new biometric card is troublesome, since it would require a trip to the bank and a potentially long wait. But the convenience and the joy you’ll get from waving that fancy new plastic in your friends’ faces may make that agony worthwhile.




[ Source:-http://q.gs/DgVcc ]
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The LTE model released first only comes in the Book’s larger 12-inch size and sells for $1,300, but you can only buy them from Verizon. Pre-orders for the WiFi version start on April 21st, with the 12-inch going for $1,130 and the 10.6-inch for $630. Those will be available in select retailers nationwide on May 21st in silver while Best Buy will exclusively offer the Book in black.



[ Source:-http://q.gs/DgUyp ]

Tuesday

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While these cards aren’t enough of an improvement for 400-series owners to upgrade, their hardware changes are worth noting. They’re second-generation Polaris GPUs built on a third-gen FinFET (a type of 3D transistor) architecture. The 400-series cards, meanwhile, were manufactured on a much earlier FinFET process. All of that means AMD was able to make the new cards more efficient, as well as clock them to higher speeds (the RX 580 is around 150MHz faster than the RX 480).



Just like last year, AMD is targeting dedicated gamers who are still running older GPUs, so it’s placing a priority on affordability. Prices will fall in line with the previous models, with the RX 580 going for around $229 with 8GB of RAM and $200 with 4GB. The RX 570, which aims for “maximum” 1080p gaming, will go for around $169, while the slightly slower RX 560 will start at $99. At the lowest end there’s the RX 550, which AMD sees a step up from integrated graphics for $79. The RX 580 and 570 should hit stores today, while the 550 will come on the 20th. You’ll have to wait until May to see the RX 560, unfortunately.


While the 500-series are improvements, they’re still very much mid-range video cards. We’re still waiting for AMD to announce its high-end Vega GPUs, which will likely go toe-to-toe with NVIDIA’s powerful GTX 1080 Ti in the 4K gaming arena. Rumors previously pointed to a Vega announcement in the second quarter, but at this point it seems more likely we’ll get something around E3 in June.



[ Source:-http://q.gs/DgI0P ]

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