The top news of the month, conveniently wrapped in a single post for you.

Google claims ‘quantum supremacy’ for computer

Google says an advanced computer has achieved “quantum supremacy” for the first time, surpassing the performance of conventional devices. 

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The Intel Core i9-9900KS Special Edition Review

5.0 GHz on All the Cores, All the Time. Intel’s Core i9-9900KS arrives with impressive gaming performance and the fine folks at TomsHardware have all you need to know.

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5G: everything you need to know

5G networks are already starting to appear and are expected to launch across the globe by 2020. It’ll open a new world of possibilities but 5G is still limited for now. 

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Google reportedly in talks to acquire Fitbit

According to Reuters, Google parent Alphabet is looking to acquire publicly traded wearables company Fitbit.

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You may be able to ask Amazon Alexa about your bills soon

Amazon announced that it will be partnering with the payment network Paymentus to develop a new Alexa feature.

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Office 2010 only has one year of support left

Users can upgrade to Office 2019 but Microsoft would prefer they switch to Office 365 ProPlus instead.

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Google Rolls Out Pixel 4 Phone, Pixelbook, Nest WiFi and Pixel Buds

Google’s annual hardware event in New York City brought up new gadgets many are excited about.

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The benefits of multi-cloud operations

Improve security and agility with private and public clouds, however, making the right choices around cloud is crucial for optimum business efficiency.

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Sandy Bridge is the codename of a microarchitecture for microprocessors developed by Intel as Westmere and Nahalem’s successor. Also called “second generation” Intel first showed a Sandy Bridge processor back in 2009 and launched the first Sandy Bridge-based processor to the market in 2011.

Since then, processors like the i7-2600K have become some of the most popular and iconic in Intel’s history over the last decade. The revolutionary design offered a considerable update regarding single core performance, efficiency, and ability to overclock.

Sandy Bridge was a notable evolution over Nehalem and Westmere with a significant number of technical changes but keeping the Intel Core i3, i5, and i7 monicker in their low, medium and high end models respectively. Another interesting change was that the numeration of the models went from hundreds to millions.

Sandy Bridge CPU’s Physical  Changes Over Time 

The LGA 1155 was one of the biggest physical changes in the Sandy Bridge generation. The addition of a new chipset generation and upgrade of the integrated GPU in these that went to be a part of the processor itself like it was another processing core were revolutionary at the time.

Sandy Bridge promised better power efficiency, performance and Turbo Boost upgrades, integrations of the Turbo Boost with the GPU, better graphic performance, a new group of AVX instructions (Advanced Vector Extension), coding and decoding algorithm optimization for video which made it them the best processors in the market at that time.

Better Performance, Lower Power 

Intel’s Core i7-2600K was the highest quad-core design that was used as base processor to launch Sandy Bridge cpu. Eventually, it became a staple through the next five generations of architecture for Intel, all the way through from Ivy Bridge, Haswell, Broadwell, Skylake, and Kaby Lake.

11.3% increase in performance over Nehalem.

5% decrease in power consumption as well.

Since Sandy Bridge, while Intel has moved to smaller process nodes and taken advantage of lower power, it has been unable to recreate that singular jump in raw instruction throughput. With incremental 1-7% increases year on year, using that power budget to increase operational buffers, execution ports, and instruction support.

Sandy Bridge Performance Test in 2019

The tech pros at AnandTech recently wrote about the Core i7-2600K in a detail article where they test the iconic processor with current performance benchmarks against newer models to see if it actually stood the test of time.

AnandTech’s 2019 test of the Sandy Bridge processor measured CPU Performance wit System Tests, Rendering Tests, Office Tests, Encoding Tests, Web and Legacy Tests as well as testing the processor with multiple games like Final Fantasy XV, Civilization 6, Strange Brigade, Grand Theft Auto V, Far Cry 5, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and F1 2018. Power Consumption was also tested for updated results.

We’ve gathered the highlight of the test but If you want to read the full review click here. 

These were the results from AnandTech’s test:

CPU Test: 

On our CPU tests, the Core i7-2600K when overclocked to a 4.7 GHz all-core frequency (and with DDR3-2400 memory) offers anywhere from 10-24% increase in performance against the stock settings with Intel maximum supported frequency memory. However, when compared to the Core i7-7700K, Intel’s final quad-core with HyperThreading processor, users were able to get another 8-29% performance on top of that. 

As for the Core i7-9700K, which has eight full cores and now sits in the spot of Intel’s best Core i7 processor, performance gains are much more tangible. It almost doubled in a lot of cases against an overclocked Core i7-2600K (and more than doubled against one at stock).

The CPU case is clear: Intel’s last quad core with hyperthreading is an obvious upgrade for a 2600K user, even before you overclock it, and the 9700K which is almost the same launch price parity, is definitely an easy sell. The gaming side of the equation isn’t so rosy though.

GPU test:

For our gaming benchmarks, we test with four test settings on each game (720p, 1080p, 1440p-4K, and 4K+) using a GTX 1080, which is one of last generations of high-end gaming card. It’s Something that a number of Core i7 users might own for high-end gaming.

With modern games at older resolutions like 1080p, we do see a sizable gain when the 2600K is overclocked. A 22% gain in frame rates from a 34% overclock sounds more than reasonable to any high-end focused gamer. Intel only managed to improve on that by 12% over the next few years to the Core i7-7700K, relying mostly on frequency gains.

However, all those gains are muted at a higher resolutions setting, such as 1440p. Going from an overclocked 2600K to a brand new 9700K only gives a 9% increase in frame rates for modern games. At an enthusiast 4K setting, the results across the board are almost equal. As resolutions are getting higher, even with modern physics and instructions and APIs, the bulk of the workload is still on the GPU, and even the Core i7-2600K is powerful enough for it. There is the odd title where having the newer chip helps a lot more, but it’s in the minority.

Final thoughts

Intel made a great leap ahead with a piece of hardware that was far and above anything we’ve seen, especially when compared with previous Pentium 4 models. Sandy Bridge marked a turning point in performance on x86 which took AMD another eight years to catch up with its Ryzen series.

As tests show, its great popularity was no coincidence, with people still happily using Sandy Bridge processors even today.

The top news of the month, conveniently wrapped in a piece of content.

Amazon event 2019 highlights

Echo Buds, Echo Frames, Alexa privacy updates, Amazon Smart Oven and everything else you need to know!
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WiFi 6 is here and it’s pretty awesome

When the general manager of Intel’s Wireless Solutions Group says it’s “the greatest advancement to WiFi in the last decade” the hype is real.
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All about McDonald’s big AI splurge

In the last year, McDonald’s has bought two artificial intelligence firms. Its goal? To turnaround its drive-through game and pull ahead of its foes.
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Apple warns that iOS 13 keyboards can leak your data!

Apple is warning about a security issue for iOS 13 users who installed certain keyboard apps. Find out if you’re secure.
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The process to cancel an OVH account is not as simple as it is with other providers since OVH doesn’t have a system by which the customer can cancel the service himself.

There’s also little to no information on how to cancel their services on their website or blog. Even for tech-savvy people, it’s proven to be quite the challenge, as Website Planet’s Shira Stieglitz (hilariously) describes in this post.

If you too signed up for OVH’s services and now can’t find a way to get rid of them, we’ve put together a couple of options you can try.

How to cancel an OVH account

According to OVH’s Billing FAQ 

“You can request the cancellation of a service directly from your customer control panel (Billing > My services), up until the 19th day of the month during which your billing cycle expires. Beyond that date, the cancellation will be registered but will only take effect at the end of the period for which your services will have been tacitly renewed.”

This might seem easy enough except multiple users across the web have reported problems with the cancellation process.

The other somewhat helpful information available as to how to cancel an OVH account we could find comes from a post in their community, where an OVH Cloud Support team member mentions 2 options: 

• Contact OVH Support and ask them to process the cancellation for you.

We recommend you straight up give them a phone call. OVH is fairly slow at answering tickets, but will usually deal with an issue straight away if you speak to them by phone.

• Disable any automatic renewal on the server and it will be terminated after expiry. 

We can’t assure you this would be either easy nor fast since most reviews and posts around the web regarding this issue point otherwise.

If a renewal has taken place after the cancellation request, you might also need to contact the billing team yourself and ask for a refund which can also take days to process. 

Downsides of OVH

Though OVH has many plans with affordable hosting plans, they’ve received several complaints from customers regarding their plans, frustrating customer support while others have cited issues with refund disbursement as a major problem.

Poor customer support

OVH has a clear hands-off approach to their customer solutions that many users have complained about. 

OVH customer support doesn’t offer assistance for applications, only for infrastructure, which can be a major problem for inexperienced users. If you’re expecting a more active customer support team, OVH may not be for you.

Many OVH customer reviews mention complaints about customer support for other reasons like a slow response for support tickets (something addressed in the before mentioned Website Planet’s blog) noting how it can take several days for them to reply.

Other customers complain about how getting a refund (even after just one day after signing up) can become a troublesome back-and-forth before you can get your money back.

Confusing interface

To start, OVH has a lot of different management interfaces which can vary by location, as well as the level of support offered. The interfaces aren’t user-friendly and can be confusing for new users that want to reconfigure their website.

The interface is clearly optimized for experienced users and can be seriously intimidating for everyone else. If you’re not exactly a hosting expert, finding your way around the panel can be a bit of a challenge. There are no cPanel-like collections of friendly icons, no easy way to review all your options at a glance. 

Product limitations

This TechRadar review mentions some of OVH limitations. Notably, you just get:

• One SQL database with a 200MB size limit 
• 30 simultaneous connections, maximum.
• 10 Email accounts. 
• 100GB of disk space. 
• No comprehensive one-click installer (the best OVH can do is preinstall WordPress or Drupal for you) 

Moving up the OVH tiers eases some of these restrictions, though at a notably higher price; if you want to expand your site’s server capacity, you’ll have to pay up. 

OVH hosts servers all over the world, but accounts are limited to one location per server, so if you want to set up a server in another location, you’ll have to sign up and pay for a new account.

Better hosting options

OVH has affordable servers but there are fees for every extra feature and very few perks, plus all the customer support issues they have are simply not worth it.

If you’ve decided to look for an American provider that can offer better customer support ServerPronto may be a better option for you. They offer affordable and comprehensible hosting plans for every type of business with 24/7/365 support.

There’s been a lot of hype surrounding cloud-based hosting services with AWS often leading the conversation though the service is still far from perfect.

If you gave it a try but now feel like it’s time to cancel your AWS account and try a different hosting provider, keep reading.

Steps to cancel an AWS account

Follow these steps to cancel your AWS account in just a couple of minutes:

(Note: If you want to close the master account in an organization, first delete the organization)

1. Sign in as the root user of the account that you want to close
2. Open the Account Settings page of the Billing and Cost Management console
3. Scroll to the Close Account heading
4. Read and accept the terms of closing the account
5. Select the checkbox, and then choose Close Account
6. In the confirmation box, choose Close Account

After finishing this last step, you’ll receive an email confirming your account was successfully closed. 

Before you cancel an AWS account

Here are a few things to keep in mind before you cancel your AWS account:

• If the account is a member account in an organization, remove the account from the organization before closing it.
• Member accounts created using AWS Organizations don’t have a root password by default. You must reset the root user password for these accounts before you can sign in as the root user.
• Back up any resources or data you want to keep before you cancel your AWS account.
• 90 days after you cancel your AWS account, it will be permanently deleted, inaccessible, and can’t be reopened.
• The email address associated with the account at the time it’s closed can’t be used to create new AWS accounts.

Cons of using AWS

As it is now, Amazon hosting is meant for a specific type of user and business. If you don’t fit into the category, you’ll probably be better off looking for server and hosting servers somewhere else. 

Though they offer many options, shared or VPS hosting and dedicated servers are not among them, leaving you with cloud hosting as your only choice.

Here’s a detailed look at the AWS platform disadvantages:

High Variance in Performance

Since their cloud servers manage a bigger workload compared to other cloud servers, the performance often varies. Sometimes can reach top performance while others it can fall way behind, making this service anything but reliable or stable.

Limited Service

Limited bandwidth and disk space are a couple of problems users have mentioned. Since their servers have to handle massive traffic daily, the resources the cloud has can get a little compromised. If you’re looking for a lot of storage, AWS may not be for you.

Confusing Pricing

AWS’ price scheme varies a lot, making it a little confusing for users to navigate. The pricing also changes a lot depending on the services you choose. 

There’s also the point about the prices being on the higher end compares to similar providers, even for the most active businesses

Too Many Options

Sometimes having too much to choose from can become a problem. Since AWS has so many options and services, it gets tricky to navigate, choose and customize a hosting solution through their infrastructure.

There are consultants available to help you pick the best services and AWS plans for you but then again, it’s an additional expense you have to pay just to know your way around Amazon’s services.

Technical downsides

• Reliability and functionality issues when scaling up due to EC2 limitations. 
• Since AWS storage solutions are internet-based, access is entirely reliant on connection causing cause speed problems.
• Companies migrating their legacy data and software into the AWS cloud might need a greater level of control than EC2 can offer.
• Instance controls are limited to one option. Each instance per host must be uniform that requires users to specify configurations like RAM, CPU, and bandwidth requirements. 
• The EC2 virtual hardware is reportedly not as robust as physical hardware.
• Several non-localized instances in a shared LAN compete for bandwidth resulting in latency issues.
• Widespread LAN leads to latency and congestion issues that result in problems for people who depend on quick database calls.

If you’ve made the decision to leave AWS and need a reliable and affordable hosting provider, consider looking into ServerPronto. Their services are cost-efficient and easily manageable, offering powerful solutions for every type of business.

Elegir una solución de alojamiento (o “hosting”) correcta para tu sitio web o aplicación, es la primera y una de las más importantes decisiones que debes tomar. Si bien hay bastantes opciones disponibles, pocas pueden igualar el nivel de versatilidad y control que ofrece un servidor dedicado.

No es coincidencia que desde 2010 el mercado global de alojamiento dedicado ha mantenido una tendencia creciente y según estudios, se espera que alcance 6.53 billones de dólares para 2020, con empresas grandes y pequeñas eligiendo servidores dedicados para sus negocios.

¿Por qué elegir un Servidor Dedicado para tu negocio? 

Puesto de forma sencilla, tienes acceso exclusivo a un servidor físico. Ese servidor solo está disponible para ti y tu sitio web; contrario a un servidor compartido, donde tu sitio ocupa un mismo servidor junto a otros varios usuarios.

Cuando usas un servidor dedicado, tienes a tu disposición un servidor que es únicamente para ti. Esto te asegura que ningún otro usuario compartirá los mismos recursos o tendrá acceso a tu información. También tendrás completo control sobre el servidor, así puedes asegurarte de que tu sitio sea más seguro y trabaje de forma óptima. 

Puedes verlo como la diferencia entre rentar un apartamento y ser dueño de una casa. Con tu propio servidor dedicado para negocio, tienes más libertad de configurarlo como desees y no estás forzado a compartir recursos con otros sitios. 

5 Razones por las cuales elegir un Servidor Dedicado para negocios 

Alojar tu aplicación o sitio web en un servidor dedicado tiene muchos beneficios para tu negocio y los usuarios que esperas recibir. Cada día es más común que empresarios y emprendedores elijan un servidor dedicado, una vez entienden que es la mejor opción según las necesidades de tu negocio.

Si aún no estás seguro de por qué elegir un servidor dedicado para negocios es la mejor opción para ti, considera las siguientes ventajas:

Más recursos

Con esto puedes ahorrarte varios problemas. Obtienes más ancho de banda, RAM dedicada y más potencia de procesador. 

Ya que los recursos de tu servidor solo son usados por ti, tienes el total control sobre su uso y distribución. La mayoría de planes de servidores dedicados para negocios también incluyen mayor capacidad de almacenamiento para los archivos de tu sitio.

Mayor seguridad

Ya que los servidores dedicados tienen su propia dirección de IP única, disminuye las posibilidades de que tu sitio caiga en la Lista Negra de Google, y los hace mucho más confiables y seguros. 

Estarás mejor protegido de malwares, malos scripts y hackers gracias a los estrictos controles de acceso y cortafuegos. También puedes implementar tus propios niveles de seguridad, con aplicaciones que añadan nuevos niveles de seguridad y control de acceso.

Menor carga y tráfico

El volumen del tráfico que llega a tu sitio web todos los días tiene un gran impacto en su funcionamiento. Si tu sitio o aplicación recibe alrededor de mil visitantes únicos diarios, un servidor dedicado es la mejor opción para tu negocio. 

Si el servidor que usas está alojando varios sitios con muchos procesos esperando ser ejecutados, puede comprometer el desempeño del tuyo, con un servidor dedicado esto no es problema. 

Una alta carga en el servidor también puede ser causada por otros usuarios acaparando los recursos del servidor. Elegir un servidor dedicado para tu negocio puede ahorrarte todo tipo de problemas relativos a altas cargas y tráfico en el servidor.

Mejor tiempo de carga de sitio

La mayoría de los usuarios espera entre dos y tres segundos a que una página cargue, después de eso prefieren regresar a la página anterior e ir al siguiente sitio web. Si las páginas de tu sitio web no carga rápido, tendrá un efecto negativo general en tu SEO, servicio al cliente y metas de venta.

Cada servidor tiene sus propias especificaciones y cuando tienes un gran número de cuentas de alojamiento web compartiendo los mismos recursos, puede saturar la RAM y CPU resultando en tiempo de inactividad, por eso es preferible tener un servidor dedicado.

Con un servidor dedicado no tienes que preocuparte por que tu sitio web no cargue o cargue lento, asegurando una mejor experiencia para quien lo visite.

Completa libertad y control

Una de las mejores cosas de tener un servidor dedicado en poder configurarlo según tus necesidades específicas y tener acceso completo a cada aspecto de tu sitio web o aplicación. Puedes correr e instalar cualquier sistema operativo, software o aplicación.

Puedes manejar tu servidor con total libertad y tener acceso completo al mismo. También puedes personalizar tu servidor para procesar shell scripts, cron jobs y cualquier otro tipo de software customizable. 

Con este tipo de servidor puedes elegir el software que quieras, cuáles especificaciones de hardware usar, qué sistema operativo necesitas y otras varias opciones de programación.

En resumen, te ofrece total control sobre tu espacio de alojamiento.

La mejor opción para negocios

Hemos hablado de los factores claves de por qué elegir servidor dedicado para negocio es una buena inversión, especialmente en términos de libertad, control y optimización de recursos.

Cuando contratas un servidor dedicado para tu negocio, puedes personalizar el equipo que utilizarás. Esto te da la oportunidad de elegir a la carta las especificaciones que cumplan perfectamente todas tus necesidades de alojamiento.

Si has decidido que un servidor dedicado es la mejor opción para tu negocio, solo necesitas encontrar un plan que cubra tus necesidades. Puedes empezar echando un vistazo a los planes de servidores dedicados que ServerPronto tiene para ti, los cuales te ofrecen una solución confiable, coherente y rentable.

Los servidores dedicados de ServerPronto son ideales para manejar sitios y aplicaciones con alto tráfico, requieran alta velocidad y tiempo de actividad constante. Conoce más sobre nuestras opciones de alojamiento en servidores dedicados aquí