Intel’s Xe gaming GPU testing is well underway, suggesting a 2021 release
Intel’s high-end gaming graphics card will make the GPU world a three-horse-race.
Read MoreNew analysis from web hosting providers LCN identified clothing retailer H&M’s homepage as the most accessible UK website for the visually impaired.
H&M’s homepage received a score of 100 on Google Lighthouse when being marked for website accessibility, and is the only retain website that caters for all types of visual impairments, according to LCN.
At the bottom of the scoring board, motoring retailer Halfords’ homepage scored 49 overall, despite other retail websites posting worse scores across specific impairment categories.
Other than H&M, Laura Ashley, Beauty Bay and B&Q were at the top of the score board. The least accessible websites other than Halfords were Carphone Warehouse, Wilko and New Look.
The report noted that over two million people in the UK suffer from vision loss – with an additional three million people suffering from colour blindness, resulting in a large number of the UK population that struggle with certain online tasks.
Each homepage studied was also assessed for which type of impairment they may be neglecting. The report found that most of Halfords’ homepage issues were related to accessibility problems for screen readers and colour-blind users.
Over half of Brits claim a slow webpage is the key reason for abandoning an online purchase and just under half refuse to revisit a website following a bad experience, making it double difficult for sluggish e-commerce sites to win their audience back, according to Fasthosts data.
Phil Dunsford, Front-End Web Developer at LCN, commented: “Moving forward, accessibility for disabled users should be at the forefront of any web designers’ goals. Beyond the obvious moral responsibility and emphasis on equality, it is in a retail business’ best interests to make their site accessible to all.
“Five million people in the UK have some sort of visual impairment that impacts their ability to use and buy products on the web. This is a significant customer base to be neglecting. Especially as many of these changes can be made quickly and easily by developers.”
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are designed to help websites meet accessibility standards for colour blind users. These state web pages should strive for a contrast ratio of 4:5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text to pass level AA.
This comes shortly after a similar report by Fasthosts uncovered that a slow performing website could set retailers back by a reported £59.6bn each year in lost sales.
With 60% of Brits claiming to have upped their shopping habits since the outbreak of COVID-19, Fasthosts says that website accessibility should be "top priority" for retailers.
Intel’s high-end gaming graphics card will make the GPU world a three-horse-race.
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Read MoreThe Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) was announced at the 'Unleashed' event on October 18, and from what we've seen so far, it looks like it could be an absolute monster, and perhaps even one of the best laptops ever made. Powered by either the new 10-core M1 Pro or M1 Max chips, which feature eight performance cores and two efficiency cores, the new MacBook Pro 16-inch is a major step up performance wise, but it doesn't end there. Apple says both the new M1 Pro and M1 Max chips are twice as fast as the Intel Core i9 in the MacBook Pro 16-inch (2019). The M1 Pro maxes out at at 32GB RAM, while the M1 Max maxes out at 64GB. If you'd like to know more about how the new 16-inch MacBook Pro stacks up against its predecessor, check out our MacBook Pro 16-inch (2019) vs MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) comparison. Apple also says that efficiency of the new MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) can extend the battery life as long as 21 hours, which is well beyond what even the longest lasting Intel or AMD laptop processors are capable of. That Although the MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) launch date isn't until Tuesday October 26, Apple has already shared quite a bit of information about its new flagship, including specifications and price details, so read on to find out everything we know so far. The new Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) is available for preorder now, with deliveries expected to begin on October 26. The starting price for the Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) M1 Pro model is $2,499 (£2,399, AU$3,749), with the M1 Max model starting at $3,499 (£3,299, AU$5,249). That's a bit of a price hike from the previous model. The MacBook Pro 16-inch (2019) started at $2,399 (£2,399, AU$3,799) for a 6-core Intel Core i7 processor, AMD Radeon Pro 5300M 4GB GPU, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. However, during the launch event, Apple was keen to stress how much of a performance boost the new MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) has received over the last model, so Apple will be banking on the better performance and improved screen to justify this higher price. As far as the design of the Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021), the new look is more revolutionary than first thought. While it keeps the iconic MacBook look, and comes in two colors, it now also boast a huge increase in ports. The MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) will feature three Thunderbolt 4 ports, one HDMI port, an SDXC card slot, and a MagSafe 3 port, along with a Magic Keyboard with Touch ID, Force Touch trackpad, and a 140W USB-C power adapter (you can still charge via USB-C if you'd prefer). There's also a 3.5mm headphone jack, too. Some people had been hoping for a choice of bright colors to match the new iMac (24-inch, 2021) and iPhone 13, but Apple stuck with the two dark colors. Perhaps we'll see a more colorful MacBook Air (2022) instead? Apple has also killed of the Touch Bar that ran above the MacBook Pro's keyboard. This mini display would show context sensitive buttons and shortcuts depending on what tools or apps you were using. While some people found the feature useful, others saw it as merely a gimmick that only increased the price (and size) of the MacBook Pro laptops it appeared in. Dropping the Touch Bar hasn't seemed to cut the price of the MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021), but it's allowed it to hit dimensions of 0.66 x 14.01 x 9.77 inches (1.68 x 35.57 x 24.81cm), which is roughly the same as the 0.64 x 14.09 x 9.68 inches (1.62 x: 35.79 x 24.59cm) dimensions of the previous model, despite the more powerful components and slightly larger screen size. The display of the MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) Is another stunner from Apple, with a Liquid Retina XDR display featuring mini-LED technology that delivers up to 1,000 nits of sustained, full-screen brightness. Better still, the MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) is capable of up to 1,600 nits of peak brightness and a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio. The display offers P3 wide color gamut coverage and supports one billion colors for the smoother gradients. Best of all, the display also comes with the expected 120Hz refresh rate, making it the fastest MacBook Pro 16-inch display yet. Because the bezels around the screen have been slimmed down for a more modern look, it's allowed Apple to increase the screen size to 16.2-inches from the 16-inches of the previous model. It also offers 7.7 million pixels thanks to its 3,546 x 2,234 - which Apple says is the most ever in a MacBook. Boy howdy, where to start. Well, we guess we should start with the M1 Pro chip and the M1 Max chip. The M1 Pro chip offers a huge boost over the first generation Apple silicon, the Apple M1 chip. Apple promises that the M1 Pro and M1 Max are twice as powerful as the Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (2019) powered by an Intel Core i9 processor, and while we still need to see it for ourselves before accepting that claim, its definitely in the realm of possibility given that the Intel Core i9 is an eight-core chip with no efficiency cores at all. Here are some of the stats Apple has provided for its expected performance gains of the MacBook Pro 16-inch (2019): According to our Jackie Thomas, the 16-core M1 Pro GPU features a clock speed of about 1.26GHz, based on her calculations, though we don't know about the 32-core GPU in the M1 Max, since the M1 Pro is a 30W GPU according to Apple but the M1 Max is a 100W GPU, so with more power comes a higher clock speed, but not in a linear fashion, so it's hard to predict what the ultimate speed of Apple's most powerful laptop GPU will be. Another major step forward for Apple with its new MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) is a significant boost in battery life, even above the earlier M1 MacBook Pro 13-inch (2020) and the MacBook Air (2020), according to Apple. The company says that their new MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) will achieve up to 21 hours of video playback, which is 10 hours longer than the last-gen MacBook Pro 16-inch (2019). Per Apple's online listing, the company expects the laptop to last up to 14 hours when wirelessly browsing the web, which we interpret as casual to moderate use. In addition to video playback, Apple says that developers will be able to compile four times as much code when working in Xcode and photographers will be able to get up to twice the battery life when using Adobe Lightroom Classic on the go.Cut to the chase
MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) release date and price
MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) design
MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) display
MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) specs
MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) battery life
We’re seeing more leaks around Intel’s Xe-HPG cards, perhaps suggesting that a reveal could come sooner rather than later.
Read MoreWant to hire best people for your project? Look no further you came to the right place!