Germany’s COVID-19 contacts tracing app to link to labs for test result notification

A German research institute that’s involved in developing a COVID-19 contacts tracing app with the backing of the national government has released some new details about the work which suggests the app is being designed as more of a ‘one-stop shop’ to manage coronavirus impacts at an individual level, rather than having a sole function of alerting users to potential infection risk.

Work on the German app began at the start of March, per the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft institute, with initial funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Federal Ministry of Health funding a feasibility study.

In a PDF published today, the research organization reveals the government-backed app will include functionality for health authorities to directly notify users about a COVID-19 test result if they’ve opted in to get results this way.

It says the system must ensure only people who test positive for the virus make their measurement data available to avoid incorrect data being inputed. For the purposes of “this validation process”, it envisages “a digital connection to the existing diagnostic laboratories is implemented in the technical implementation”.

“App users can thus voluntarily activate this notification function and thus be informed more quickly and directly about their test results,” it writes in the press release (which we’ve translated from German with Google Translate) — arguing that such direct digital notification of tests results will mean that no “valuable time” is lost to curb the spread of the virus.

Governments across Europe are scrambling to get Bluetooth-powered contacts tracing apps off the ground, with apps also in the works from a number of other countries, including the UK and France, despite ongoing questions over the efficacy of digital contacts tracing vs such an infectious virus.

The great hope is that digital tools will offer a route out of economically crippling population lockdowns by providing a way to automate at least some contacts tracing — based on widespread smartphone penetration and the use of Bluetooth-powered device proximity as a proxy for coronavirus exposure.

Preventing a new wave of infections as lockdown restrictions are lifted is the near-term goal. Although — in line with Europe’s rights frameworks — use of contacts tracing apps looks set to be voluntary across most of the region, with governments wary about being seen to impose ‘health surveillance’ on citizens, as has essentially happened in China.

However if contacts tracing apps end up larded with features that are deep linking into national health systems that raises questions about how optional their use will really be.

An earlier proposal by a German consortium of medical device manufacturers, laboratories, clinics, clinical data management systems and blockchain solution providers — proposing a blockchain-based Digital Corona Health Certificate, which was touted as being able to generate “verifiable, certified test results that can be fed into any tracing app” to cut down on false positives — claimed to have backing from the City of Cologne’s public health department, as one example of potential function creep.

In March, Der Spiegel also reported on a large-scale study being coordinated by the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research in Braunschweig, to examine antibody levels to try to determine immunity across the population. Germany’s Robert Koch Institute (RKI) was reportedly involved in that study — and has been a key operator in the national contacts tracing push.

Both RKI and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft institute are also involved in parallel German-led pan-EU standardization effort for COVID-19 contacts tracing apps (called PEPP-PT) that’s been the leading voice for apps to centralize proximity data with governments/health authorities, rather than storing it on users’ device and performing risk processing locally.

As we reported earlier, PEPP-PT and its government backers appear to be squaring up for a battle with Apple over iOS restrictions on Bluetooth.

PEPP-PT bases its claim of being a “privacy-preserving” standard on not backing protocols or apps that use location data or mobile phone numbers — with only arbitrary (but pseudonymized) proximity IDs shared for the purpose of tracking close encounters between devices and potential coronavirus infections.

It has claimed it’s agnostic between centralization of proximity data vs decentralization, though so far the only protocol it’s publicly committed to is a centralized one.

Yet, at the same time, regional privacy experts, the EU parliament and even the European Commission have urged national governments to practice data minimization and decentralized when it comes to COVID-19 contacts tracing in order to boost citizen trust by shrinking associated privacy risks.

If apps are voluntary citizens’ trust must be earned not assumed, is the key argument. Without substantial uptake the utility of digital contacts tracing seems doubtful.

Apple and Google have also come down on the decentralized side of this debate — outting a joint effort last week for an API and later opt-in system-wide contacts tracing. The first version of their API is slated to be in developers’ hands next week.

Meanwhile, a coalition of nearly 300 academics signed an open letter at the start of this week warning that centralized systems risked surveillance creep — voicing support for decentralized protocols, such as DP-3T: Another contact tracing protocol that’s being developed by a separate European coalition which has been highly critical of PEPP-PT.

And while PEPP-PT claimed recently to have seven governments signed up to its approach, and 40 more in the pipeline, at least two of the claimed EU supporters (Switzerland and Spain) had actually said they will use a decentralized approach.

The coalition has also been losing support from a number of key research institutions which had initially backed its push for a “privacy-preserving” standard, as controversy around its intent and lack of transparency has grown.

Nonetheless the two biggest EU economies, Germany and France, appear to be digging in behind a push to centralize proximity data — putting Apple in their sights.

Bloomberg reported earlier this week that the French government is pressurizing Apple to remove Bluetooth restrictions for its COVID-19 contacts tracing app which also relies on a ‘trusted authority’ running a central server (we’ve covered the French ROBERT protocol in detail here).

It’s possible Germany and France are sticking to their centralized guns because of wider plans to pack more into these contacts tracing apps than simply Bluetooth-powered alerts — as suggested by the Fraunhofer document.

Access to data is another likely motivator.

“Only if research can access sufficiently valid data it is possible to create forecasts that are the basis for planning further steps against are the spread of the virus,” the institute goes on. (Though, as we’ve written before, the DP-3T decentralized protocol sets out a path for users to opt in to share proximity data for research purposes.)

Another strand that’s evident from the Fraunhofer PDF is sovereignty.

“Overall, the approach is based on the conviction that the state healthcare system must have sovereignty over which criteria, risk calculations, recommendations for action and feedback are in one such system,” it writes, adding: “In order to achieve the greatest possible usability on end devices on the market, technical cooperation with the targeted operating system providers, Google and Apple, is necessary.”

Apple and Google did not respond to requests for comment on whether they will be making any changes to their API as result of French and German pressure.

Fraunhofer further notes that “full compatibility” between the German app and the centralized one being developed by French research institutes Inria and Inserm was achieved in the “past few weeks” — underlining that the two nations are leading this particular contacts tracing push.

In related news this week, Europe’s Data Protection Board (EDPB) put out guidance for developers of contacts tracing apps which stressed an EU legal principle related to processing personal data that’s known as purpose limitation — warning that apps need to have purposes “specific enough to exclude further processing for purposes unrelated to the management of the COVID-19 health crisis (e.g., commercial or law enforcement purposes)”.

Which sounds a bit like the regulator drawing a line in the sand to warn states that might be tempted to turn contacts tracing apps into coronavirus immunity passports.

The EDPB also urged that “careful consideration” be given to data minimisation and data protection by design and by default — two other key legal principles baked into Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation, albeit with some flex during a public health emergency.

However the regulatory body took a pragmatic view on the centralization vs decentralization debate — saying both approaches are “viable” in a contacts tracing context, with the key caveat that “adequate security measures” must be in place.

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Nextdoor and Walmart partner on a new neighborly assistance program

Neighborhood social network Nextdoor and Walmart are teaming up today to launch a new “Neighbors Helping Neighbors” program that will make it easier for vulnerable community members to get assistance from neighbors who are already planning a trip to Walmart. The new in-app feature will allow Nextdoor users to post to groups associated with their local Walmart store to request shopping assistance.

To find the new option, Nextdoor users can either use the Nextdoor website or mobile app.

From there, users will click on the “Groups” tab where they’ll see local Walmart stores pinned to the top of the page. Members can then post a message to the group feed where they can ask for help or offer to help others.

Members who connect in the feed can then work out the details on the message board or through direct message, where they can share more private details like their address and what they need from the store.

The feature is designed to help elderly, high-risk or other vulnerable members find someone who will pick up groceries, medications, or other essentials when they’re planning a trip to the store.

This could also offer a low-cost alternative to using online grocery delivery services, which require tipping. In the case of a neighbor helping a neighbor, the assistance is offered on a volunteer basis, not as someone’s job. That could be potentially life-saving for low-income community members who can’t risk shopping in a store during the coronavirus pandemic, but who also struggle to afford alternatives like online grocery.

Walmart isn’t moderating or managing these Nextdoor groups, to be clear, but worked with Nextdoor to make the feature available.

For the retailer, the addition isn’t just beneficial in terms of directing customers to Walmart to shop, it’s also seen as a way to reduce the number of people who come to the store in-person.

“I’ve seen first-hand the countless ways our Walmart team is working together during this challenging time, leading with humanity, compassion and understanding to serve our customers,” said Janey Whiteside, Walmart’s Chief Customer Officer, in a statement about the feature’s launch. “We’re continuing to do that through our new program with Nextdoor. We’re connecting neighbors to each other so that more members of our communities have access to essential items, while limiting contact and the number of people shopping in our stores,” she added.

Nextdoor has launched several new features in response to the coronavirus pandemic in recent weeks.

Its new “Help Maps” allowed members to post and offer help in their neighborhood, for example. But this feature had been buried on the “More” menu in the app and was being underutilized as a result. A dedicated place within Nextdoor Groups for these sorts of requests is more visible, making it easier to offer assistance or to ask for help.

Over the past few weeks, Nextdoor says it’s seen a 7x increase in people joining groups to help one another, a not surprising figure given its recent exit from beta.

Nextdoor will also make the Walmart groups easy to find by pinning them to the top of the Groups tab, it says.

Meanwhile, Walmart store locations and hours where “Neighbors Helping Neighbors” is available can be found on Nextdoor’s “Help Map.”

“We’re inspired everyday by the kindness of people around the world who are stepping up and helping out. In recent weeks, we’ve been blown away by the number of members who have raised their hand to run an errand, go to the grocery store, or pick up a prescription for a neighbor,” said Sarah Friar, Nextdoor CEO, about the feature. “We’re grateful for Walmart’s partnership to make this important connection between neighbors around vital services, and we’re proud to come together to ensure everyone has a neighborhood to rely on,” she said.

The new initiative is launching nationwide starting today, but may not be immediately available in the app as the rollout could take time to complete.

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First version of Apple and Google’s contact tracing API should be available to developers next week

The first version of Apple and Google’s jointly developed, cross-platform contact tracing API should be available to developers as of next week, according to a conversation between Apple CEO Tim Cook and European Commission for internal market Thierry Breton. Bretton shared a photo from his office which shows him having a video conversation with Cook, and told Les Echos that the Apple chief executive told him April 28 would be the day the contact tracing API will be available to software developers building apps that employ it on behalf of public health agencies.

Apple and Google announced that they were working on the contract tracing system, which works across iOS and Android mobile device, on April 10, and detailed how the opt-in network would use randomized IDs not tied to a user’s actual identify information to communicate potential contacts with individuals with a confirmed positive COVID-19 diagnosis. It’s a decentralized system that never collects any geographic data in order to preserve individual privacy, and Apple and Google chose to collaborate on the project so that any apps built to use it will have the furthest potential reach possible in terms of user base.

The rollout of the contact tracing system is happening in two parts: First, the API is being made available to developers – that’s the part that’s happening next week. This phase was originally set for a mid-May release, but it sounds like the companies have stepped up their timeline (at least on the Apple side) based on this conversation between Thierry and Cook. That makes sense, given the urgency of the need for contact tracing in order to better understand how and when to alter or relax social distancing measures.

The second part of the plan is issuing a system update to build in contact tracing at the OS level. Opt-in would be managed on the device, and both Android and iOS smartphones with this toggle enabled would automatically be able to participate in local contact tracing efforts –whether or not they had any specific health agency apps installed. Apple and Google clarified in a follow-up Q&A session about the system that users would still be prompted to download and install a public health app from their local authority should their phone notify them of a possible contact, so that they could get additional info about next steps from a trusted source.

Note that the second phase isn’t expected until sometime later this year, but the early arrival of the first version of the API for developers is a promising sign that suggests both companies are focusing considerable effort and resources on getting this to market.

There are myriad contact tracing systems either in development or already being implemented, but a common technological backbone that makes it possible for them to cross-communicate, and that opens up broad participation across the most popular mobile devices currently in use has the greatest chance of actually being effective.

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Daily Crunch: There’s a major iPhone email security bug

Apple plans to fix an iPhone email security bug, Magic Leap cuts 1,000 staffers and Google is requiring all advertisers to identify themselves.

Here’s your Daily Crunch for April 23, 2020.

1. A new iPhone email security bug may let hackers steal private data

According to security firm ZecOps, the bug is in the iPhone’s default Mail app. By sending a specially crafted email to the victim’s device, an attacker can overrun the device’s memory, allowing the attacker to remotely run malicious code to steal data from the device.

The bug dates back to iOS 6, but on the latest version of iOS 13, it doesn’t require any user interaction. Motherboard, which first reported the story, said the bug has been fixed in a beta version of the software, and a fix will be rolled out in an upcoming update.

2. Magic Leap reportedly slashes 1,000 jobs and steps away from consumer plans

Magic Leap announced today that it has laid off a “number of employees” and is backing away from its consumer ambitions to focus more heavily on selling to enterprise customers. Bloomberg reports that half of the company’s employees were laid off, roughly 1,000 in total.

3. Google is extending identity verification requirements to all advertisers

The identity verification feature was first introduced in 2018, requiring political advertisers to provide documents to verify their identity, which is then displayed as part of the ad itself. Moving forward, Google says it will make identity verification a required part of the ad buying process, regardless of topic.

4. JustEat Takeaway $7.6B merger approved, pair pick up $756M in new funding

The UK’s competition watchdog officially gave a nod to the merger between UK’s JustEat and the Netherlands’ Takeaway.com. And the merged company announced that it had raised an additional €700 million ($756 million) in funding.

5. Cowboy VC’s Aileen Lee: Your coronavirus scenario planning should be more conservative

Lee and her fellow Cowboy Ventures partner Ted Wang joined us for our first episode of Extra Crunch Live, a virtual speaker series for Extra Crunch members. They covered a wide range of topics, including PPP loans, advice for business leaders around layoffs, the right time to seek funding and the right firms from which to seek that funding, how to pitch during a downturn and which sectors in particular Cowboy is interested in financing right now. (Extra Crunch membership required.)

6. Boston Dynamics’ Spot finds a new career in telemedicine amid COVID-19 pandemic

For two weeks, Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot has been walking the halls of local hospital Brigham and Women’s. Telemedicine wasn’t generally listed as one of the primary applications for the company’s first commercial product, but Boston Dynamics is only one in a long list of tech companies that’s found itself shifting on the fly as the COVID-19 pandemic has become an all-consuming part of life.

7. Bill Gurley is stepping away from an active role at Benchmark, 21 years after joining the firm

Gurley’s transition out of the firm won’t surprise many. Benchmark — which has always run a fairly small operation — has routinely groomed new investors as veterans of the firm have moved on.

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.

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Google is extending identity verification requirements to all advertisers

In a blog post today, Google’s Director of Product Management, Ads Integrity. John Canfield, announced that the company will be extending its identity verification policy for all advertisers. Introduced in 2018, the feature required political advertisers to go through a verify their identity, which was then displayed as part of the ad itself.

The process was designed to created increased transparency, amid growing mistrust around the sources behind political ad buys in recent years. Moving forward, the company will make identity verification a required part of the ad buying process, regardless of topic.

Google rolls out new policies for U.S. election ads

Personal identification and business incorporation documents will be required for all parties buying an ad on Google’s network. That information will begin popping up in the ad unit units over the summer, letting users click through to view information including the name and location of the party that purchased the ad.

“This change will make it easier for people to understand who the advertiser is behind the ads they see from Google and help them make more informed decisions when using our advertising controls,”  Canfield writes. “It will also help support the health of the digital advertising ecosystem by detecting bad actors and limiting their attempts to misrepresent themselves.”

The political verification process is currently in place in 30 countries. The wider push will begin in the U.S. and build out from there. Google says it expects the entire thing to take “a few years” to be in place globally, given the massive scale of its advertising network. Once advertisers have been notified, they will have 30 days to fill out the form. The documents will then be vetted by a Google employee.

Tying advertisements to real people and businesses could go a long way in identifying bad actors on the massive network.

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Apple and CMU researchers demo a low friction learn-by-listening system for smarter home devices

A team of researchers from Apple and Carnegie Mellon University’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute have presented a system for embedded AIs to learn by listening to noises in their environment without the need for up-front training data or without placing a huge burden on the user to supervise the learning process. The overarching goal is for smart devices to more easily build up contextual/situational awareness to increase their utility.

The system, which they’ve called Listen Learner, relies on acoustic activity recognition to enable a smart device, such as a microphone-equipped speaker, to interpret events taking place in its environment via a process of self-supervised learning with manual labelling done by one-shot user interactions — such as by the speaker asking a person ‘what was that sound?’, after it’s heard the noise enough time to classify in into a cluster.

A general pre-trained model can also be looped in to enable the system to make an initial guess on what an acoustic cluster might signify. So the user interaction could be less open-ended, with the system able to pose a question such as ‘was that a faucet?’ — requiring only a yes/no response from the human in the room.

Refinement questions could also be deployed to help the system figure out what the researchers dub “edge cases”, i.e. where sounds have been closely clustered yet might still signify a distinct event — say a door being closed vs a cupboard being closed. Over time, the system might be able to make an educated either/or guess and then present that to the user to confirm.

They’ve put together the below video demoing the concept in a kitchen environment.

In their paper presenting the research they point out that while smart devices are becoming more prevalent in homes and offices they tend to lack “contextual sensing capabilities” — with only “minimal understanding of what is happening around them”, which in turn limits “their potential to enable truly assistive computational experiences”.

And while acoustic activity recognition is not itself new, the researchers wanted to see if they could improve on existing deployments which either require a lot of manual user training to yield high accuracy; or use pre-trained general classifiers to work ‘out of the box’ but — since they lack data for a user’s specific environment — are prone to low accuracy.

Listen Learner is thus intended as a middle ground to increase utility (accuracy) without placing a high burden on the human to structure the data. The end-to-end system automatically generates acoustic event classifiers over time, with the team building a proof-of-concept prototype device to act like a smart speaker and pipe up to ask for human input. 

“The algorithm learns an ensemble model by iteratively clustering unknown samples, and then training classifiers on the resulting cluster assignments,” they explain in the paper. “This allows for a ‘one-shot’ interaction with the user to label portions of the ensemble model when they are activated.”

Audio events are segmented using an adaptive threshold that triggers when the microphone input level is 1.5 standard deviations higher than the mean of the past minute.

“We employ hysteresis techniques (i.e., for debouncing) to further smooth our thresholding scheme,” they add, further noting that: “While many environments have persistent and characteristic background sounds (e.g., HVAC), we ignore them (along with silence) for computational efficiency. Note that incoming samples were discarded if they were too similar to ambient noise, but silence within a segmented window is not removed.”

The CNN (convolutional neural network) audio model they’re using was initially trained on the YouTube-8M dataset  — augmented with a library of professional sound effects, per the paper.

“The choice of using deep neural network embeddings, which can be seen as learned low-dimensional representations of input data, is consistent with the manifold assumption (i.e., that high-dimensional data roughly lie on a low-dimensional manifold). By performing clustering and classification on this low-dimensional learned representation, our system is able to more easily discover and recognize novel sound classes,” they add.

The team used unsupervised clustering methods to infer the location of class boundaries from the low-dimensional learned representations — using a hierarchical agglomerative clustering (HAC) algorithm known as Ward’s method.

Their system evaluates “all possible groupings of data to find the best representation of classes”, given candidate clusters may overlap with one another.

“While our clustering algorithm separates data into clusters by minimizing the total within-cluster variance, we also seek to evaluate clusters based on their classifiability. Following the clustering stage, we use a unsupervised one-class support vector machine (SVM) algorithm that learns decision boundaries for novelty detection. For each candidate cluster, a one-class SVM is trained on a cluster’s data points, and its F1 score is computed with all samples in the data pool,” they add.

“Traditional clustering algorithms seek to describe input data by providing a cluster assignment, but this alone cannot be used to discriminate unseen samples. Thus, to facilitate our system’s inference capability, we construct an ensemble model using the one-class SVMs generated from the previous step. We adopt an iterative procedure for building our ensemble model by selecting the first classifier with an F1 score exceeding the threshold, 𝜃&'( and adding it to the ensemble. When a classifier is added, we run it on the data pool and mark samples that are recognized. We then restart the cluster-classify loop until either 1) all samples in the pool are marked or 2) a loop does not produce any more classifiers.”

Privacy preservation?

The paper touches on privacy concerns that arise from such a listening system — given how often the microphone would be switched on and processing environmental data, and because they note it may not always be possible to carry out all processing locally on the device.

“While our acoustic approach to activity recognition affords benefits such as improved classification accuracy and incremental learning capabilities, the capture and transmission of audio data, especially spoken content, should raise privacy concerns,” they write. “In an ideal implementation, all data would be retained on the sensing device (though significant compute would be required for local training). Alternatively, compute could occur in the cloud with user-anonymized labels of model classes stored locally.”

You can read the full paper here.

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Apple said to sell Macs powered by in-house ARM-based chips as early as 2021

Apple’s long-rumored Mac ARM chip transition could happen as early as next year, according to a new report from Bloomberg. The report says that Apple is currently working on three Mac processors based on the design of the A14 system-on-a-chip that will power the next-generation iPhone. The first of the Mac versions will greatly exceed the speed of the iPhone and iPad processors, according to the report’s sources.

Already, Apple’s A-series line of ARM-based chips for iPhones and iPads have been steadily improving, to the point where their performance in benchmark tests regularly exceeds that of Intel processors used currently in Apple’s Mac line. As a result, and because Intel’s chip development has encountered a few setbacks and slowdowns in recent generations, rumors that Apple would move to using its own ARM-based designs have multiplied over the past few years.

Bloomberg says that “at least one Mac” powered by Apple’s own chip is being prepared for release in 2021, to be built by chip fabricator and longtime Apple partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC). The first of these chips to power Macs will have at least 12 cores, including eight designed for high-performance applications, and four designed for lower-intensity activities with battery-preserving energy efficiency characteristics. Current Intel designs that Apple employs in devices such as the MacBook Air have four or even two cores, by comparison.

Initially, the report claims Apple will focus on using the chips to power a new Mac design, leaving Intel processors in its higher-end pro level Macs, because the ARM-based designs, while more performant on some scores, can’t yet match the top-end performance of Intel-based chip technology. ARM chips generally provide more power efficiency at the expense of raw computing power, which is why they’re so frequently used in mobile devices.

The first ARM-based Macs will still run macOS, per Bloomberg’s sources, and Apple will seek to make them compatible with software that works on current Intel-based Macs as well. That would be a similar endeavor to when Apple switched from using PowerPC-based processors to Intel chips for its Mac lineup in 2006, so the company has some experience in this regard. During that transition, Apple announced initially that the switch would take place between 2006 and 2007, but accelerated its plans so that all new Macs shipping by the end of 2006 were powered by Intel processors.

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The 5 Best Bone Conduction Headphones

Headphones have changed the way we interact with the world. They aren’t perfect, though. Noise-cancelling technology is effective but shuts out everything around you. This makes them especially problematic if you need to maintain a safe distance from others while exercising.

Bone conduction headphones, on the other hand, use vibrations instead of audible sound waves to get your music into your ears, so you can still interact with the world around you. As you aren’t inserting anything into your ears or covering them, they are generally more comfortable, too.

If you’ve been considering switching, these are the best bone conduction headphones available today.

1. AfterShokz Titanium

AfterShokz Titanium AfterShokz Titanium Buy Now On Amazon $79.95

One of the most popular sets of bone conduction headphones are the AfterShokz Titanium. These are primarily aimed at active users as they even come with a set of reflective stickers for exercise in low-light. Bone conduction audio products lend themselves well to outdoor exercise as you must have an awareness of your surroundings.

To that end, the Titanium are IP55-rated for sweat resistance. The AfterShokz Titanium come equipped with Bluetooth 4.1 and are designed to wrap around your head, with the conduction points resting just alongside your ear. The company’s Premium Pitch technology can be found here, too, ensuring that you get a full dynamic range of audio reproduction.

This set also has microphones built-in, so you can still take calls on the go. Two external mics also provide noise-cancellation, so the outside world doesn’t interfere with the sound quality. This headset should last for up to six hours on a single charge.

2. Vidonn F1 Sports Headset

Vidonn F1 Sports Headset Vidonn F1 Sports Headset Buy Now On Amazon

The Vidonn F1 Sports Headset has also been designed with exercise in mind. The IP55-rated device is protected against sweat and light rain for peace of mind while exercising outdoors. Most bone conduction headphones use a standard wrap-around design, and that can be found here, too.

The F1 Sports Headset are equipped with Bluetooth 5.0 for an efficient and reliable connection to your device. They take just two hours to charge and can last up to six hours, long enough for most fitness sessions. The 180mAh battery even ensures that the headphones can last 10 days on standby, too.

There are also onboard mics so you can take calls and interact with your chosen voice assistant. A single button on the right-hand conduction pad gives you easy access to music controls. The headset is lightweight as well, thanks to the titanium alloy design. Vidonn evens offer a 12-month warranty on for F1 Sports Headset.

3. Zulu Exero

Zulu Exero Zulu Exero Buy Now On Amazon $59.99

The Zulu Exero are an affordable set of bone conduction headphones. These aren’t an entry-level option, though; they still come equipped with all the crucial features. The Exero weigh just one ounce. Thanks to this lightweight design, they’ll provide hours of comfortable use. Unlike traditional over-ear headphones, the Exero are even suitable to wear alongside glasses.

The wrap-around set rests just near your ear so that the vibrations can be felt around your upper-cheek and ear bones. Like the other options we’ve discussed, the Zulu Exero also have six-hour battery life on a single charge. Recharging the set is easy, too, thanks to the included micro-USB charging cable. The headset uses a Bluetooth 5.0 wireless connection.

There are built-in microphones as well, so you can take calls or talk to your phone’s voice assistant. When you need to mute the microphone, just press the button on the left conduction pad. This set is IPX5-rated for splash proofing and weigh just 0.96 ounces. The Zulu Exero are available in either black or grey editions.

4. AfterShokz Aeropex

AfterShokz Aeropex AfterShokz Aeropex Buy Now On Amazon $159.95

If you’re after a high-performance set of bone conduction headphones, then you’ll want to check out the AfterShokz Aeropex. This headset offers similar advantages to other devices in the company’s range. However, each feature here is a slight upgrade on other models. For example, audio reproduction has been engineered to perform well at both low and high frequencies.

This is no mean feat as bone conduction sets often struggle with treble frequencies. The Aeropex also offers an eight-hour battery life. The redesigned charging port means faster charging, too; they can reach a full charge in just two hours. To further enhance the Aeropex’s fitness credentials, they even come with a free sport belt for you to store your belongings while exercising.

The headset is IP67-rated for sweat and waterproofing. Due to this, they are the ideal companion for extreme weather conditions. There’s even a moisture detection alert, so you don’t damage the headphones while charging. Despite these improvements, the Aeropex clock in at less than 26 grams. You can even connect the Aeropex to two devices simultaneously.

5. Tayogo Bone Conduction Headphones

Tayogo Bone Conduction Headphones Tayogo Bone Conduction Headphones Buy Now On Amazon $33.99

Perhaps you want to try bone conduction technology. In this case, you may not want to spend large amounts on a device. If you’re after a budget set, consider the Tayogo Bone Conduction Headphones. Despite their low price, they are still feature-packed.

This set can last up to eight hours and uses a Bluetooth 5.0 wireless connection. The headphones are lightweight and are even IP65-rated for sweat and water resistance. There are physical controls on the conduction pads, too, for music selection. You can even make calls using the built-in mics.

With all of these features, they are great value for money. Tayogo even includes a one-year warranty with the headphones. However, don’t expect superior audio quality from this set. That said, if you’re on a budget and need a set of headphones for safe outdoor exercise, then this Tayogo set is an ideal choice.

The Best Bone Conduction Headphones for You

Bone conduction headphones leave your ears uncovered, enabling you to stay aware of your surroundings. This is in contrast to noise-canceling headphones, which aim to remove external sounds. You may even find wearing a set of bone conduction headphones more comfortable.

If you don’t enjoy the fit of over-head or in-ear headphones or need to be situationally aware, then bone conduction headphones are a great choice. That said, if you’d rather opt for a set of in-ear AirPod alternatives, check out the best affordable true wireless headphones instead.

Read the full article: The 5 Best Bone Conduction Headphones

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Upgrade Your Work-From-Home Setup With These HP Deals

Working from home has just taken on an entirely new and world-changing meaning. As a growing number of companies across the country are shutting their doors and altering their business models, millions of workers have found themselves setting up shop in their living rooms for the foreseeable future.

That once-humble home office setup that was up until recently only used for the occasional evening email has now been transformed into an all-out 9-5 work bunker, and it looks as though this is going to be the new normal for most workers in a variety of industries.

And while it’s tempting to bemoan the loss of your high-speed office internet connection and that fancy HD monitor that remains untouched in your walled-off corporate office, you should instead take advantage of this unprecedented work-life shakeup by upgrading your home office to the point where you’ll never want to leave.

From now until May 3rd, HP is making it easier than ever to work from home by allowing you to pick from a wide range of office gadgets and accessories that are available for a fraction of their usual cost with this mix-and-match deal.

You can get 20% off accessories with purchase of PCs as well as protect your PC with 20% off HP Care Packs when added at checkout.

From tablets and HD monitors to wireless keyboards and USB docks, the online HP store is stocked with best-selling products that will transform your home office into a full-fledged productivity behemoth.

Land a best-selling HP Elite Dragonfly Notebook that will help you craft captivating reports while you lounge on the sofa, treat yourself to an HD 24-inch monitor that allows you to multitask like a pro, grab a streamlined USB dock that makes it easy to simultaneously connect and sync all of your various devices at home, or perhaps grab a top-rated Jabra portable speaker system that can fuel your late-night work sessions by pumping out your favorite tracks in all of their sonic glory.

There’s no limit to the number of deal combinations you’ll be able to find, but the offer is only available until May 3rd, so stock up on these discounted work-from-home deals while you can.

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Find New Podcasts Using Spotify’s Podcast Playlists

Spotify has launched a host of podcast playlists designed to help you discover new podcasts. These playlists will be curated by actual humans, and recommend the best podcasts based around a theme. These include true crime, celebrity, and climate change.

Spotify Starts Recommending Podcasts to People

In November 2019, Spotify launched the Your Daily Podcasts playlist. This was Spotify’s first official playlist dedicated to podcasts, and, similar to what Discover Weekly and Release Radar do for music, it recommends podcasts based on your listening habits.

Now, Spotify is ready to recommend more podcasts to you. A lot more podcasts. And its new podcast playlists are based around different genres and subject matters rather than your listening habits. Which means they could seriously broaden your podcast horizons.

How to Discover New Podcasts on Spotify

The three flagship podcast playlists are Best Podcasts of the Week, Crime Scene, and Brain Snacks. Best Podcasts of the Week curates a list of the week’s top podcasts, Crime Scene features true crime content, and Brain Snacks boasts short, educational episodes.

Finding your new favorite podcast just got easier. Introducing new Podcast Playlists- handpicked by us, for you. ? Only on Spotify: https://t.co/K1QgkWgmED pic.twitter.com/uqMTsHM03K

— Spotify (@Spotify) April 21, 2020

Spotify’s other podcast playlists are:

• Murder Monday – For bone-chilling murder stories.
• Who Run the World? – Inspiring stories of women.
• This Week in Hollywood – Pop culture and entertainment news.
• Family-Friendly Fun – Educational podcasts for the family.
• Latinx and Proud – Latinx stories from cultural commentators.
• Talk Flirty to Me – Stories from the world of dating.
• Fodder for Foodies – A menu of tales from the world of food.
• LGBTQ+ Voices – Stories from within the LGBTQ+ community.
• Unsolved Crimes and Mysteries – Haunted houses and cold cases.
• Climate Crisis – Conversations about climate change.
• Real People, Real Stories – Personal stories about everyday life.
• Let’s Talk Women in Hip Hop – Redefining the culture of hip hop.
• Stay in the Know – Engaging podcasts going behind the headlines.
• 100% Celebrity Interviews – Interviews with your favorite celebrities.

You’ll be able to find all of these playlists on Spotify. Either head to the Podcasts tab and browse through the available playlists, or search for an individual playlist by name. They will all be updated regularly, and Spotify is also promising to add more playlists soon.

Spotify Is Taking Podcasts More Seriously

Spotify is clearly getting into podcasts in a big way, taking the format more seriously over time. And these podcast playlists should help people discover new podcasts, just as Spotify’s algorithmic playlists help people discover new music to stream.

If you regularly listen to podcasts, be sure to check out these other articles:

• How to find the best podcasts to listen to
• The best podcasts to listen to on Spotify
• What’s the difference between podcasts and audiobooks?

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Polar’s Grit X Smartwatch Is the Ultimate Outdoor Fitness Companion

Fitness-focused technology brand Polar has been releasing well-received fitness trackers and smartwatches for many years now. Their products are the ideal choice for exercise enthusiasts.

The company has just launched its latest wearable, the Polar Grit X. The smartwatch has been designed with outdoor exercise in mind, combining hardware and software to track your workout effectively.

What Is the Polar Grit X?

The Polar Grit X is a rugged smartwatch, packed with sensors and equipped with Google’s Wear OS operating system. It builds upon its high-end Vantage range of watches. However, the Grit X is one of Polar’s most comprehensive devices to date.

Adding to its outdoor credentials, the watch is designed to the US military-grade standard MIL-STD-810G. Despite this, it won’t weigh down your wrist, as it measures just 64 grams. If you plan to be away from home for an extended period while hiking or on endurance events, you won’t need to worry about the battery dying on you, either.

The Polar Grit X has an estimated 40-hour battery life while in use. When combined with the various power-saving settings available on the watch, you may be able to stretch this out to an incredible 100 hours.

Polar Grit X Features

One of the most notable inclusions is the new Hill Splitter feature. This enables the watch to detect the uphill and downhill parts of your workout automatically. As a result, the Polar app can then offer you detailed performance reporting. This is a common theme among the Grit X’s features. Most of them don’t just record your workout; they analyze it, too.

Software capabilities like FuelWise, a rehydration and nutrition companion, and Komoot, turn-by-turn GPS guidance, alongside two-day weather forecasts, provide an end-to-end assistant to your workout. This is coupled with Polar’s Smart Coach, which combines heart rate data, FitSpark training plans, and personalized sleep analysis courtesy of Nightly Recharge.

Of course, other much-loved Polar highlights are here too, including their mobile app and web hub. The watch provides some of this analysis and feedback, but it’s using the Polar Flow software that you can really dig into your performance and training tips.

Where Can You Buy the Polar Grit X?

The Polar Grix X smartwatch is available to purchase now from Polar’s website for $429.95 and comes in black and green for medium and large sizes. The small/medium edition comes in white.

As with most smartwatches, you can customize the Grit X with accessory bands, available in Green Tundra, Red Paracord, and Blue Paracord. There’s a leather strap available, too.

If you don’t think you’d use many of the features on offer here but are still interested in fitness tracking, you do have options. Fitbit has a range of devices at multiple price points. So, be sure to check out our Fitbit comparison guide to decide which is right for you.

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The Best Free Voice Chat Apps for Gaming

Voice chat is now standard fare in video gaming communities. Gone are the days when you had to share a couch to socialize while playing. Why bother when you can stay at home and chat over the internet instead?

However, with so many options available, you may be confused as to which one is right for you and your circle of friends. So, here are the best free voice chat apps for gaming, along with their pros and cons.

1. Discord

Discord is a free app that runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, and as a web app (which sadly isn’t as feature-rich as the desktop versions). If you’ve ever used Slack or IRC, then you’ll feel right at home on Discord. In addition to voice chat, Discord supports text chat and video chat (for up to 10 people).

The Pros of Discord

Anyone can create a Discord server for free. Users can join up to 100 different servers, and each server is essentially its own independent community. Servers can have text channels and voice channels, and the server owner can tweak pretty much everything about it. Discord hosts the servers itself, and here’s how to find the best Discord servers to match your interests.

You and your friends can get set up and running within minutes. Servers are private and people can only join them through invite links (a “public” server is one with a permanent public invite link that anyone can use). Discord has many features beyond just the voice chat client, and is well worth checking out.

The Cons of Discord

Since all servers are hosted through Discord, an outage means all Discord servers go down and you can’t do anything about it except wait.

Furthermore, Discord servers are hosted in the following locations: U.S. East, U.S. Central, U.S. West, U.S. South, Europe, Russia, Brazil, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, Japan, South Africa, and Australia. If you’re outside those regions, then latency may cause delays in your voice chat.

Discord may actually be a little overkill if you only want voice chat. It’s best to use if you’re already participating in a few other Discord servers, in which case you’ll already be running the Discord app and have nothing to lose.

For more help getting started with the app, look at our Discord tips and tricks.

2. Mumble

Mumble is a free and open-source app that runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. On mobile, you can use a third-party app: Plumble for Android and Mumblefy for iOS. It’s mainly used for voice chat, though it also supports primitive text chat.

The Pros of Mumble

Mumble specializes in low-latency communication, which makes it great for high-octane games with lots of fast action, especially ones that involve teamplay. It can also do positional audio based where you are in the game world, but this is only supported on some games (such as most Source Engine games and Guild Wars 2).

Everything is within your control. If you want to host a server, you just download the server version of Mumble and run it on your computer. Then everyone else downloads the client version of Mumble to connect to your IP address. You can create channels to keep everything organized.

If you want 24/7 uptime without leaving your computer on all of the time, you can buy Mumble server hosting. Expect to pay about $2.50/month for five slots, although the price-per-slot drops drastically as slots increase. And you can get hefty discounts by paying for multiple months at once instead of paying monthly.

The Cons of Mumble

You can only connect to one Mumble server at a time.

The clunky interface is probably its worst aspect, followed by the learning curve. While Mumble is extremely easy to use once you get familiarized, that initial experience can be pretty frustrating, especially when you’re trying to set up the server software on your computer and can’t figure out why your friends can’t connect. Tip: You need port forwarding (what is port forwarding?)

3. TeamSpeak

TeamSpeak is a free app that runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS (the mobile apps are client apps only). TeamSpeak is very similar to Mumble in design and operation, but offers some unique features while also falling short in certain aspects.

The Pros of TeamSpeak

TeamSpeak has an easy-to-use interface with high-quality audio, though with slightly more latency than Mumble. However, the difference is negligible in most cases.

TeamSpeak also has a flexible and powerful permissions system that allows different users to have control over different areas of the server based on their “power level.” The permissions also divide into groups, so you can grant control over a channel to one user and grant control over the server to another. This makes community management much easier.

Like Mumble, you can self-host TeamSpeak or you can pay for hosting.

The Cons of TeamSpeak

You can only connect to one TeamSpeak server at a time.

Self-hosted TeamSpeak servers have a maximum capacity of 32 simultaneous users. If you request and acquire a non-commercial non-profit license, you can raise that limit to 512. Otherwise, you’ll need to pay an annual fee based on maximum capacity. Thi won’t be a big deal for private groups of friends, but is a possible deal-breaker for public communities.

4. Steam Voice Chat

Despite being one of the most popular gaming platforms on the planet, Steam had no integrated voice chat option until 2018. Which given the astronomical amounts of money spent on the platform, the 100 million users, and the astounding range of games available, is somewhat shocking.

In fact, the lack of an integrated Steam Voice Chat option has helped some of the alternative options on this list grow into a better alternative, building dedicated communities of their own.

The Pros of Steam Voice Chat

If you’re already playing a game on Steam, you don’t have to mess around with a third-party voice chat app. Everyone you play with is using the same game launcher, playing the same game, so all of your friends can chat using the same app.

As you might expect with a Steam product, Steam Voice Chat works well. You can drop different media types, such as a GIF or audio clip, into the Steam Voice Chat to share with ease. Plus, the chat hub makes managing your Steam Voice Chat simple.

Another plus to Steam Voice Chat is the global coverage of Steam servers. Wherever you are, you’re not far from a Steam server location. That proximity is good for latency, helping your voice sound clear.

If you want to boost your connectivity further, check out the best gaming routers.

The Cons of Steam Voice Chat

There aren’t many downsides to using Steam Voice Chat. The voice calling quality is poor at times, but this is often explained through other internet issues.

If you rely on Steam Voice Chat to communicate with specific friends or gamers, you won’t be able to reach them if the Steam network goes down. In that, some users prefer to use an alternative voice chat client because it stops one company from consolidating the market (even further).

In terms of chatting to other people or different gamers, Steam Voice Chat is limiting. You’re most likely to chat with your friends on Steam Voice Chat. Whereas, with other options such as Discord, you can join different servers and chat with different people.

5. Tox

Tox is slightly different from the other voice chat options on this list. Unlike the alternatives, Tox has a strong focus on user privacy, using end-to-end encryption to protect your data. It also uses a peer-to-peer connection model to boost your privacy further while chatting and playing games.

Tox is actually a protocol that has several different implementations, depending on your operating system. Voice chat software using the Tox protocol is available for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS, as well as a web-based option.

The Pros of Tox

The Tox protocol offers a secure voice chat option for gamers. Privacy is important, and many voice chat options overlook this important issue. Furthermore, as the Tox source code is open source, you can make sure nothing untoward is taking place with your data.

You can find a Tox app for almost any modern operating system, meaning cross-platform chat is a possibility. Also, because Tox is cross-platform, you’ll find developers innovating around the protocol and adding features to their chat clients where possible.

The Cons of Tox

Because Tox is peer-to-peer, the voice quality can suffer. The quality is only as good as your connection to one another. By extension, you cannot send messages if the other user is not connected to the Tox messenger. Some apps might show the message as sent when, in reality, it is waiting to complete transmission.

Moreover, because of the open-source nature of the Tox protocol, developers come and go. There are at least seven different abandoned instant messaging services at the time of writing. That number could increase if a service doesn’t attract enough users, or even if the development team lose interest in the project.

Notable Mentions: Google Hangouts and Skype

The options above are some of the best voice chat apps for gaming. Almost every gamer develops a preference for one of them. If you don’t like any of them for whatever reason, there are two other voice chat solutions you can use: Google Hangouts and Skype. But be warned… they have some glaring flaws.

Google Hangouts lets you make free voice calls to other Hangouts users, plus video conferences with up to 10 total participants. It’s fine for lounging around with fellow gaming friends, but isn’t the best to use while actually gaming because the quality isn’t optimized for it, you don’t have options for push-to-talk, and there’s no persistence between calls.

Skype is a better fit for gaming because you can have persistent group chats between voice chats, but the Skype software itself leaves much to be desired. It’s buggy and prone to errors, plus the voice quality is generally bad and has a distinct tinniness to it.

These Voice Chat Apps Will Keep You Gaming

In this article, we have listed a handful of free voice chat apps for gamers. All of which we would happily recommend. However, if we had to choose just one, we would recommend Discord.

If you’re looking for more free apps for gamers, check out this list of free apps for PC gamers. Or, if you’re all about squeezing more juice out of your gaming rig, here’s how to optimize your PC for gaming.

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You Can Now Download Fortnite From the Google Play Store

Fortnite is now available on the Google Play Store. After 18 months of offering Fortnite on Android directly from its website, Epic Games has now made it available on Google Play too. But not before telling Google exactly what it thinks of the situation.

Why Was Fortnite Not on the Google Play Store?

In 2018, Epic Games released Fortnite for Android and iOS. However, while Fortnite for iOS was available from the Apple App Store, Epic Games decided to bypass the Google Play Store and release Fortnite for Android from the official Fortnite website instead.

Why? To avoid Google taking a 30 percent cut from the sale of in-app purchases. As the game itself is free-to-play, Epic makes its money on IAPs, and didn’t want to give a chunk of that money to Google for doing nothing other than hosting the game.

How to Download Fortnite From the Google Play Store

Now, 18 months on, Epic Games has decided to release Fortnite on the Google Play Store after all. This is because, according to Epic, “Google puts software downloadable outside of Google Play at a disadvantage, through technical and business measures”.

These measures include “scary, repetitive security pop-ups for downloaded and updated software, restrictive manufacturer and carrier agreements and dealings, Google public relations characterizing third party software sources as malware, and new efforts such as Google Play Protect to outright block software obtained outside the Google Play store.”

Fortnite is now available on the Google Play Store.

Check it out now! pic.twitter.com/EOA3jpMIu8

— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) April 21, 2020

The upshot being that Fortnite is now available to download from the Google Play Store. However, Epic Games is set to continue operating the Epic Games App and keep Fortnite available from sources other than the Google Play Store. Namely, its own website.

Still, this is good news for those people who have avoided playing Fortnite on Android due to the game not being available on Google Play. All you need to do now is get good enough at the game to actually beat the people who have been playing it for years.

Download: Fortnite on Android

How to Download Fortnite From Epic Games

To download Fortnite on Android, you now have two options. You can either head to the Google Play Store and grab it from there, no questions asked. Or you can sideload Fortnite using Epic’s dedicated launcher, with a little help from our guide.

Whether you’re new to Fortnite or a veteran, here are some other articles to check out:

• How to get started with Fortnite Creative
• The best PCs you can buy to play Fortnite
• The only Fortnite essentials cheat sheet you need

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What Is an APU? The Accelerated Processing Unit, Explained

The Central Processing Unit (CPU) is the brain of the computer, handling most of the processing. However, one area where it doesn’t excel is graphics.

To compensate for this, Graphics Processing Units (GPU) deal exclusively with visual output tasks. However, designing and manufacturing two units to handle this data is inefficient.

The solution is the Accelerated Processing Unit or APU.

What Is an APU?

Image Credit: omur12/DepositPhotos

The Accelerated Processing Unit is designed to combine the two separate units onto a single die. In this case, a die is a small segment of semiconducting material, containing a copy of a mass-produced circuit.

Although placing two circuits onto a single die doesn’t sound that forward-thinking, it is the manufacturing and design decisions that dictate the performance of your computer.

Reducing the footprint of the processing units brings down the cost, allows more room for other hardware, and is more efficient. Keeping the components close together increases the data transfer rates and reduces power consumption, too.

If you haven’t heard of APU technology before, there may be a reason; the term is almost exclusively used by a single manufacturer, AMD.

The Benefits of an APU

bodkins18/Pixabay

When considering upgrading your CPU or GPU, things can quickly become overwhelming. There are many products out there, with similar numerical names, and tall marketing claims. Each new release is touted as a vast improvement over the last, even if this isn’t strictly borne out in benchmarking tests.

Of course, it’s natural that a company should want to sell their product, so you’d be right to be skeptical of APUs, too. However, there are some real benefits to using the technology. The most immediate transformation is in system performance.

If your computer previously used just a single CPU and integrated graphics, then you’ll see a noticeable bump in performance. Tasks will be quicker, videos will run smoother, and speeds will generally increase. In the long-term, you’ll also see a reduction in power usage.

Although it is a significant change, the actual reduction may be minimal. Given the global climate, many of us want to decrease our energy usage. This is especially the case when it comes to our technology. You can, however, find out how much energy your PC uses and how to reduce it.

As the two processors reside on the same die, they can share resources, too. This makes your computer more efficient, increases speeds, and reduces the cost of manufacturing. For this reason, APUs are often good value for money and are a more affordable way of upgrading your hardware.

Should You Buy an APU?

jarmoluk/Pixabay

Despite these performance improvements, choosing whether to buy an APU isn’t as straightforward as it seems. The first point to consider is that AMD’s APUs are just one variety of combined processing unit. Intel and other manufacturers also produce components that are APUs in all but name.

Given that you can purchase devices that look and behave like APUs, you may wonder why you’d opt for AMD’s implementation. While others turned their focus solely toward combined processors, AMD has continued to develop unique ranges; CPUs, GPUs, and APUs.

You should also consider, though, that APUs are a step up from your motherboard’s integrated graphics, but are still trumped by an independent GPU. If gaming or video is a vital part of your setup, then an APU will only offer you limited improvements.

In this case, it would likely be preferable to purchase a high-end CPU and GPU separately. If you aren’t sure of the function of a Central Processing Unit, then you may be interested in finding out more about the CPU and what it does.

Furthermore, APUs were impactful when they were first released in 2011, but technology has since moved on. As a combined processor became an industry standard, designers looked for other improvements they could make to the electronics. This led to the transformation of the APU into the System-on-a-Chip.

The Evolution of APUs

Monoar Rahman Rony/Pixabay

AMD released its first APU in January 2011. As mentioned before, APU was the firm’s marketing term for combining two processing units on a single die. However, they weren’t the only company to explore the benefits of this union.

Another notable processor manufacturer was also moving in the same direction. Intel began development on its own combined processing units, released under multiple Intel product names. If you’re unsure of all the differences, check out our guide to Intel’s CPU models.

As predicted by Moore’s Law, the cost of technology has reduced, while the capability has increased. APUs were the first stage in the evolution of computer processing and electronics manufacturing.

If combining two computer components on a single die brings performance benefits, then it would follow that adding more onto that die would do the same. This led to the creation of System-on-a-Chip (SoC) designs.

SoCs combine the majority of all critical components on a single chip. The benefits of APU design—reduced power consumption, lower heat generation, increased performance—hold true here, too.

This design trend was prompted by the explosion in mobile devices, which happened around a similar time that APUs first launched. Mobile devices, like smartphones and tablets, needed to be both cheaper and more portable than their desktop counterparts.

Thus, the SoC became an industry-standard. However, this was only possible thanks to the advances made through APU design.

The Best Processor for Your Computer

While APUs were instrumental in the development of processors, these days, they are mostly a relic of an older time. The units were a stepping stone between standalone CPUs and GPUs and the SoC designs in use today. That said, their combined power offers an advantage over your motherboard’s integrated graphics.

Still, times have moved on, and there’s a lot of choice out there if you want to upgrade your setup. To find the most effective option, consider the parts of a computer and how to upgrade them.

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