Lilbits: Intel’s 13th and 14th-gen desktop chip issues, AMD’s Ryzen AI 300 arrives, and a $56 Casio watch that’s also a (basic) fitness tracker

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Over the past year or two there have been a growing number of complaints that some 13th and 14th-gen Intel Core chips for desktop computers were crash-prone and generally unstable.

Now Intel has confirmed the issue is real, promised to roll out a microcode update that will prevent it from happening on chip that hasn’t yet been affected… and noted that if you’ve got a chip that’s already started having problems, the damage is irreversible. The chip maker is not planning to recall any processors that have already been sold, but will replace chips for customers that have started encountering issues.

Here’s a roundup of recent tech news from around the web.

Intel’s microcode update will prevent instability and crashes for 13th and 14th-gen desktop chips, but already-damaged chips cannot be salvaged (The Verge)

The bad news is that the issue is more widespread than some had initially thought, and basically affects every Intel Raptor Lake (13th-gen and 14th-gen Intel Core branded) processor with a 65W or higher TDP. The good news is that this means laptop processors are not susceptible. The even better news is that a new microcode update is coming in August that should prevent vulnerable chips from failing.

But overall none of this is great news either for Intel or for folks who’ve been struggling with this issue and have to deal with the RMA processor to return a defective chip.

The AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 Review: Unleashing Zen 5 and RDNA 3.5 Into Notebooks (AnandTech)

The first laptops with AMD Ryzen AI 300 series chips are now shipping, and the review embargo lifted this weekend. Most reviews so far look at the Asus Zenbook S 16 OLED with a Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor featuring 12 Zen 5 CPU cores, Radeon 890M graphics with 16 compute units, and an XDNA 2 NPU with up to 50 TOPS of AI performance. And it seems like a winner, with significant improvements in CPU and graphics performance, and a BIG boost in AI performance (if you can find applications that can leverage the NPU).

You can also find some other reviews at Digital Trends, Hot Hardware, NotebookCheck, Tom’s Guide, Tom’s Hardware, Ultrabook Reviews.

There are two other Ryzen AI 300 series chips available so far: the Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 is nearly identical, but has 55 TOPS of AI performance, while the Ryzen AI 9 365 is a 10-core, 20-thread chip with Radeon 880M graphics featuring 12 compute units.

This $56 Casio watch is a retro step tracking dream (The Verge)

The Casio WSB1000-1AV features a classic Casio style wristwatch design with basic features like an alarm clock, world time, and stopwatch. But it’s also a very basic fitness tracker with an accelerometer for step counting and Bluetooth support for syncing with a smartphone. And that’s about all it does. It sells for about $56.

Android Cross-device services rolling out: Call casting, Internet sharing (9to5Google)

Google now lets you set up a “device group” so that you can transfer calls between Android phones, tablets, or other devices linked to your account or share hotspot access with your devices including Chromebooks and Android devices linked to your Google account. Note that the call transfer feature only works with supported apps – and right now the only supported app is Google Meet.

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