Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. have reached a preliminary agreement to form a joint venture operating Intel’s chipmaking facilities, with TSMC taking a 20% stake, The Information reports [non-paywalled source]. Intel and other U.S. semiconductor companies would hold the majority of shares in the proposed venture. Instead of capital investment, TSMC has discussed sharing chipmaking methods and training Intel personnel.

The talks face internal opposition from some Intel executives concerned about widespread layoffs and the abandonment of Intel’s own technology, according to the report. The deal could help TSMC neutralize a struggling competitor while potentially giving Taiwan more leverage with the U.S. administration, which recently imposed tariffs on Taiwanese goods excluding chips.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

It’s well-established that, on the whole, Americans die younger than people in most other high-income countries. For instance, an analysis from 2022 found that the average life expectancy of someone born in Switzerland or Spain in 2019 was 84 years. Meanwhile, the average US life expectancy was 78.8, lower than nearly all other high-income countries, including Canada’s, which was 82.3 years. And this was before the pandemic, which only made things worse for the US.

Perhaps some Americans may think that this lower overall life-expectancy doesn’t really apply to them if they’re middle- or upper-class. After all, wealth inequality and health disparities are huge problems in the US. Those with more money simply have better access to health care and better health outcomes. Well-off Americans live longer, with lifespans on par with their peers in high-income countries, some may think.

It is true that money buys you a longer life in the US. In fact, the link between wealth and mortality may be stronger in the US than in any other high-income country. But, if you think American wealth will put life expectancy in league with Switzerland, you’re dead wrong, according to a study in the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

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As AI hype permeates the Internet, tech and business leaders are already looking toward the next step. AGI, or artificial general intelligence, refers to a machine with human-like intelligence and capabilities. If today’s AI systems are on a path to AGI, we will need new approaches to ensure such a machine doesn’t work against human interests.

Unfortunately, we don’t have anything as elegant as Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics. Researchers at DeepMind have been working on this problem and have released a new technical paper (PDF) that explains how to develop AGI safely, which you can download at your convenience.

It contains a huge amount of detail, clocking in at 108 pages before references. While some in the AI field believe AGI is a pipe dream, the authors of the DeepMind paper project that it could happen by 2030. With that in mind, they aimed to understand the risks of a human-like synthetic intelligence, which they acknowledge could lead to “severe harm.”

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An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft’s business-oriented “Link” mini-desktop PC, which connects directly to the company’s Windows 365 cloud service, is now available to buy for $349.99 in the US and in several other countries. Windows 365 Link, which was announced last November, is a device that is more easily manageable by IT departments than a typical computer while also reducing the needs of hands on support.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

When Google announced Tuesday that end-to-end encrypted messages were coming to Gmail for business users, some people balked, noting it wasn’t true E2EE as the term is known in privacy and security circles. Others wondered precisely how it works under the hood. Here’s a description of what the new service does and doesn’t do, as well as some of the basic security that underpins it.

When Google uses the term E2EE in this context, it means that an email is encrypted inside Chrome, Firefox, or just about any other browser the sender chooses. As the message makes its way to its destination, it remains encrypted and can’t be decrypted until it arrives at its final destination, when it’s decrypted in the recipient’s browser.

Giving S/MIME the heave-ho

The chief selling point of this new service is that it allows government agencies and the businesses that work with them to comply with a raft of security and privacy regulations and at the same time eliminates the massive headaches that have traditionally plagued anyone deploying such regulation-compliant email systems. Up to now, the most common means has been S/MIME, a standard so complex and painful that only the bravest and most well-resourced organizations tend to implement it.

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After a January announcement that it would spend $80 billion on data center construction, Microsoft may already be adjusting its future plans. Sources told Bloomberg that Microsoft has delayed or slowed data center efforts in Indonesia, the UK, Australia, Illinois, North Dakota and Wisconsin. Some of the cases meant withdrawing from negotiations, while others have involved delays on planned construction projects, according to these insiders. These data centers would be central to Microsoft’s efforts to develop more capabilities around artificial intelligence.

Despite the apparent shift in its approach, a Microsoft rep told Bloomberg that the company still plans to hold to its $80 billion spending budget on data centers during its 2025 fiscal year. Engadget has reached out for confirmation and will update if we receive comment from Microsoft. That was the figure laid out in a blog post attributed to Vice-Chair and President Brad Smith. The post, published days before President Trump’s inauguration, included some ingratiating language for the new administration. “The country has a unique opportunity to pursue this vision and build on the foundational ideas set for AI policy during President Trump’s first term,” it reads. “At Microsoft, we are excited to take part in this journey.”

Microsoft’s plans could have been influenced by looming tariffs, which had been threatened and were finally introduced this week by President Trump. The trade policy is likely to make large infrastructure plans more expensive and has already caused uncertainties on Wall Street. It could be that the company will still spend in the ballpark of $80 billion but will not be able to complete as many locations as it had previously calculated. Or it could be that in the months since presenting its forecast, Microsoft has already seen a reduction in expected demand. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/microsoft-is-reportedly-walking-back-some-data-center-plans-210406748.html?src=rss

Traeger’s only gas-powered grill is its Flatrock flat-top griddle. Besides this one model, everything else in the company’s lineup runs on wood pellets. Since griddles continue to be insanely popular backyard cooking tools, Traeger is expanding its Flatrock line with a smaller, two-burner option. The Flatrock 2 Zone has all of the features from the larger version, which is now called the Flatrock 3 Zone, in a griddle that takes up less space on your deck, patio or porch. 

As the name suggests, the Flatrock 2 Zone has two separate cooking areas with precise heat control for each one. U-shaped burners consistently heat the entire cooking surface and an edge-to-edge, wind-blocking design helps keep the flame running smoothly without burnouts or flare-ups. Like the Flatrock 3 Zone, there are folding side shelves for resting tools and trays, plus the Pop-And-Lock (PAL) rail system allows you to add the snap-on accessories you need to complete your griddle setup. The EZ-Clean grease keg from other recent Traeger grills is here as well, making it easy to get rid of liquids and debris after cooking. 

Traeger

The main appeal of the Flatrock 2 Zone is that it’s smaller than the original model. You’ll still have the ability to make breakfasts, smash burgers, fajitas and more with the griddle’s 468 square inches of cooking surface, but this new version will fit better in smaller outdoor spaces. It’s also $200 cheaper at $700. Unfortunately, there’s no word on availability just yet: Traeger says the Flatrock 2 Zone is coming “soon” to its website and retailers in the US and Canada. 

If you’re looking for an alternative, Weber’s Slate griddles are well-built and offer various options depending on the size and features you’re after. Starting at $549, you can get the three-burner, 28-inch base model that comes on a basic cart similar to the company’s gas grills. Even this smallest Weber option offers more cooking area than the Flatrock 2 Zone at 504 square inches. At the top end, there’s a four-burner, 36-inch version that comes with an easy-to-read digital temperature gauge and enclosed storage for $999. What’s more, Weber offers a 30-inch size in between those two, with various storage configurations and an the option to include that battery-powered temperature gauge. This one is 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/kitchen-tech/traeger-built-a-smaller-flatrock-griddle-for-smaller-outdoor-spaces-210057199.html?src=rss

Around November of last year, when readers were certainly not paying attention to anything else, Nintendo briefly shared that the Nintendo Switch 2 would be backwards compatible with games for the original Nintendo Switch. Fast forward to this year, and it turns out that’s not so clear cut. According to Nintendo, the Switch 2 can play the vast majority of Nintendo Switch 1 games, but there are some caveats to keep in mind.

The Switch 2 uses emulation to play Switch 1 games

As Nintendo posted to its site yesterday and confirmed in a developer roundtable I attended, the Switch 2 does not have any Switch 1 hardware inside. This means that, unlike the Nintendo DS did with the Game Boy Advance, it can’t play Switch games “natively,” meaning it’s not able to run them exactly as they might work on original hardware. Instead, it uses what Nintendo said is a mix of hardware compatibility and software emulation to essentially trick these games into thinking they’re running on the original Switch.

This comes with both downsides and upsides. The good is that, because the Switch 2 has more powerful architecture than the original Switch, you might see some slight benefits from simply running your game on the new console, like faster loading times. The issues start to pop up when looking at game compatibility.

Credit: Nintendo

Not every game, it turns out, plays nice with this translation to the new device. According to Nintendo, the vast majority of Switch 1 games should work without issue, with some select games getting free patches to help bring them up to snuff, but the company has encountered problems with over 120 titles, some of which won’t even start up. These include popular games like Doom: Eternal and Rocket League, so if you depend on your Switch to play these, don’t expect the new console to be able to replace your old one right away. It’ll likely take some time for Nintendo to work out all the kinks here.

Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games

So how is Nintendo getting around these problems? Well, aside from painstakingly checking each Nintendo Switch game (more than 10,000) “one-by-one,” it’s also releasing new versions of certain Switch 1 games that are built to run on the Nintendo Switch 2 from the ground up.

These Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games will essentially be enhanced ports of certain Switch 1 titles, including The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild; The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom; Kirby and the Forgotten Land; Super Mario Party Jamboree; and even as-yet-unreleased games like Pokémon Legenda: Z-A and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond.

Switch 2 Edition games will come with improved graphics, higher resolutions, and much smoother framerates, as well as new content in the case of Kirby and Mario Party. You’ll also get new control modes when applicable, as Metroid Prime 4 will be able to use the Switch 2’s mouse controls.

The catch: you have to pay for these upgrades. While your Switch 2 should be able to play the above games just fine if you pop your Switch 1 cartridge into it, you won’t get any of the enhancements that let you use its extra power unless you pony up, and will instead be playing via the same emulation as every other Switch 1 game.

Luckily, if you already own the Switch 1 version of a game, you can get an upgrade pack (sold either at select retailers or via the Nintendo eShop) to get the Switch 2 Edition at a discount, as opposed to buying the Switch 2 Edition for full price (which, of course, is also an option). Even better—Nintendo has confirmed that your upgraded game will still be playable on Switch 1, just without the enhancements that come with the Switch 2 Edition. Plus, subscribers to the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack will at least get both Zelda upgrades included with their plan.

Official pricing for these Switch 2 Editions or their upgrade packs has yet to be revealed, but keep in mind that when you’re shopping for a Switch 2, you shouldn’t necessarily bank on the system being able to “play your Switch 1 games, but better.”

How to play a Switch 1 game on Switch 2

Now that I’ve broken down the ins-and-outs of backwards compatibility on the Switch, let’s talk about how to actually play your Switch 1 games on the Switch 2.

The first method is pretty simple. If you own a compatible physical Switch 1 game cartridge, you can just put it into your Switch 2 to start playing it just like on the original console.

Alternatively, if you want to move all of your game saves, wifi details, parental control settings, and digital games over to the Switch 2, you can use a System Transfer to do just that. Specific steps for the transfer system haven’t been published yet, but you’ll be able to use it to conveniently move pretty much everything from your Switch 1 to your Switch 2 all in one fell swoop.

Credit: Nintendo

Finally, for a more piecemeal approach, there’s Virtual Game Cards. This is a new way of categorizing digital games that’s set for release in April. Essentially, it’ll add a new icon to the Switch’s home screen, where you’ll be able to see your digital games as a series of “virtual game cards.” You’ll then be able to load these cards then and there to play them on the system you’re currently using, or click “Load on Another System” to move them over to another console linked to your Nintendo Account. With that, you can move your Switch 1 games over to Switch 2 on a more case-by-case basis.

Bonobos, great apes related to us and chimpanzees that live in the Republic of Congo, communicate with vocal calls including peeps, hoots, yelps, grunts, and whistles. Now, a team of Swiss scientists led by Melissa Berthet, an evolutionary anthropologist at the University of Zurich, discovered bonobos can combine these basic sounds into larger semantic structures. In these communications, meaning is something more than just a sum of individual calls—a trait known as non-trivial compositionality, which we once thought was uniquely human.

To do this, Berthet and her colleagues built a database of 700 bonobo calls and deciphered them using methods drawn from distributional semantics, the methodology we’ve relied on in reconstructing long-lost languages like Etruscan or Rongorongo. For the first time, we have a glimpse into what bonobos mean when they call to each other in the wild.

Context is everything

The key idea behind distributional semantics is that when words appear in similar contexts, they tend to have similar meanings. To decipher an unknown language, you need to collect a large corpus of words and turn those words into vectors—mathematical representations that let you place them in a multidimensional semantic space. The second thing you need is context data, which tells you the circumstances in which these words were used (that gets vectorized, too). When you map your word vectors onto context vectors in this multidimensional space, what usually happens is that words with similar meaning end up close to each other. Berthet and her colleagues wanted to apply the same trick to bonobos’ calls. That seemed straightforward at first glance, but proved painfully hard to execute.

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Yesterday, we learned a lot about the Switch 2 we didn’t know before, including the fact Nintendo that will offer a webcam alongside the new console. As far as accessories go, the $50 Switch 2 Camera looks boring, and judging from the footage the company shared on Wednesday, not particularly great at its intended purpose of, you know, capturing moving pictures. 

The good news? Nintendo is allowing third-party manufacturers to make their own webcams for the new console. Enter the Hori Piranha Plant Camera. 

Hori

Hori’s Switch 2 camera has a couple of features you won’t find on Nintendo’s first-party offering. First, the pot the Piranha Plant sits in functions as both as a stand and USB extension for the device. The part of the Piranha that houses the webcam can detach from the pot, allowing you to, ahem, plant it directly on the top of the Switch 2. In that way, you can take your new buddy on the road. Want to trash talk your friends over video in GameChat while on a domestic flight? With the Piranha Plant and in-flight Wi-Fi, you can. 

Second, the Piranha Plant camera has a built-in privacy shutter. You can simply close its mouth to obscure the lens. If that’s not clever, functional design, I don’t know what is.

Hori

Hori has yet to list the Piranha Plant camera on its US website, but over in Germany, retailer Media Markt has the accessory priced at €40 or €20 less than the official Switch 2 Camera from Nintendo. Practical, stylish and affordable, what’s not to love? 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/horis-piranha-plant-switch-2-camera-is-a-work-of-art-194430377.html?src=rss

Because who wouldn’t want to go to bed at night with a taste in your mouth that makes you feel like you didn’t brush your teeth, dental care company and novelty toothpaste manufacturer Hismile teamed up with KFC to make a fried chicken flavored toothpaste (not an April Fools’ prank, but currently sold out). That’s…something. Something to make your dogs love your breath. Still, call me old fashioned, but I prefer my toothpaste the same flavor it’s always been: bubble gum.

In the wake of the Switch 2 reveal, neither Nintendo nor Nvidia has gone into any detail at all about the exact chip inside the upcoming handheld—technically, we are still not sure what Arm CPU architecture or what GPU architecture it uses, how much RAM we can expect it to have, how fast that memory will be, or exactly how many graphics cores we’re looking at.

But interviews with Nintendo executives and a blog post from Nvidia did at least confirm several of the new chip’s capabilities. The “custom Nvidia processor” has a GPU “with dedicated [Ray-Tracing] Cores and Tensor Cores for stunning visuals and AI-driven enhancements,” writes Nvidia Software Engineering VP Muni Anda.

This means that, as rumored, the Switch 2 will support Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) upscaling technology, which helps to upscale a lower-resolution image into a higher-resolution image with less of a performance impact than native rendering and less loss of quality than traditional upscaling methods. For the Switch games that can render at 4K or at 120 FPS 1080p, DLSS will likely be responsible for making it possible.

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Anytime you’re looking for a good smartwatch, Garmin’s name is bound to come up. The Garmin Instinct 3 came out very recently, and that means the Garmin Instinct 2 has dropped in price—and even though that model is now a generation old, it’s still an incredible fitness and outdoor smartwatch. With this latest price drop, the Garmin Instinct 2 Solar is now $229.99 (originally $399.99), the lowest price it has reached, according to price tracking tools.

Garmin Instinct 2 Solar

Features: Recovery Time; MTB Dynamics; Wrist-Based Heart Rate; Stress Tracking; Sleep Score, etc.

$229.99
at Amazon

$399.99
Save $170.00

$229.99
at Amazon

$399.99
Save $170.00

The Garmin Instinct 2 Solar is a serious smartwatch, visually represented by its no-nonsense, black-and-white display. It puts all of its chips on functionality over other aspects a health smartwatch might offer. As the name implies, it’s a solar-powered watch. Three hours of being in the sun gives you about 24 hours of juice or one hour of GPS battery life. Even without sun, a full charge gives you 28 days of juice. The GPS and the heart rate feature are very accurate, so if that’s what you care about, the Instinct 2 Solar will not disappoint.

The Instinct 2 Solar has a lot of different sport profiles you can choose to track, making it great for triathlon athletes or people who like to practice many different sports. It also has Connect IQ app support, which opens the doors to many third-party apps for extra features, face watches, and widgets. And if you need some motivation or guidance with your fitness goals Training Status can suggest workouts for running and cycling. The watch also includes helpful tools like a built-in compass, altimeter, and barometer, making it great for hardcore hikers. Finally, since the Instinct 2 Solar has Connect IQ, you can configure your watch with the app instead of painstakingly doing it on the watch.

Humans have practiced some form of yodeling since at least the 13th century, when Marco Polo encountered Tibetan monks on his travels who used the vocal technique for long-distance communication. It’s since morphed into a distinctive singing style. But can animals also yodel? According to a new paper published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Biological Sciences, several species of monkey dwelling in the rainforests of Latin America employ “voice breaks” in their calls that acoustically resemble human yodeling—i.e., “ultra-yodels” that boast a much wider frequency range.

Many years ago, I wrote about the bioacoustics of human yodeling for New Scientist. In many respects, yodeling is quite simple. It merely involves singing a long note subjected to repeated rapid sharp shifts in pitch. It’s the unique anatomy of the human vocal tract that makes it possible, notably the larynx (voice box) located just behind the Adam’s apple. The larynx is comprised of cartilage and the hyoid bone that together support the vocal cords, which are attached to muscles on either side of the larynx.

When air flows through the trachea, the vocal cords vibrate at frequencies ranging from 110 to 200 Hz. We have the capability of contracting the muscles to change the shape, position, and tension of our vocal cords, thereby altering the pitch of the sound produced. Stiffer vocal cords result in faster vibrations, which produce higher pitches.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: Oracle has told customers that a hacker broke into a computer system and stole old client log-in credentials, according to two people familiar with the matter. It’s the second cybersecurity breach that the software company has acknowledged to clients in the last month.

Oracle staff informed some clients this week that the attacker gained access to usernames, passkeys and encrypted passwords, according to the people, who spoke on condition that they not be identified because they’re not authorized to discuss the matter. Oracle also told them that the FBI and cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike are investigating the incident, according to the people, who added that the attacker sought an extortion payment from the company. Oracle told customers that the intrusion is separate from another hack that the company flagged to some health-care customers last month, the people said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

As someone who’s planning to buy the Nintendo Switch 2, I’ve had my eye on the accessories I’d need to get with the console. Since Super Mario Party Jamboree, which is getting some new mini-games in its Switch 2 port, is one of the games I’m very interested in, the Switch 2 Camera accessory caught my eye. After all, who doesn’t want to make dramatic faces while playing with their friends? You can even use it for chat, too. However, I’m not sure I can justify spending $50 on an accessory that’ll probably gather dust after I’m done with Mario Party. Fortunately, it looks like the Switch 2 Camera is not the only way to play camera-based games or video chat with your friends on the Nintendo Switch 2.

How to check if the Nintendo Switch 2 supports your USB-C camera

Credit: Nintendo

A quick look at Nintendo’s Switch 2 Camera webpage reveals that you can use third-party USB-C cameras with the console, even ones that aren’t made with it in mind. Like me, if you already have a USB-C camera lying around, you can plug it into the Switch 2 and the console will tell you if it’s compatible. Whenever you end up getting the Switch 2, just go to the console’s settings and navigate to the Controllers & Accessories section. Once the camera is connected to the Switch 2, select Test USB Camera and the console will let you know if the camera is compatible with the system.

Why you might want to consider an alternative USB camera

I don’t want to discourage people from buying Nintendo’s Switch 2 Camera right away, since I haven’t tried it yet. But I won’t be buying it immediately, because it’s too expensive for me. Yes, you get guaranteed compatibility and a useful stand that lets you place it on any flat surface, but that doesn’t necessarily justify its price. At the time of writing, you can buy good USB-C webcams for as little as $20 each. These cameras ship with a privacy cover and adjustable stands that can be mounted on top of a TV or placed on a flat surface, and there’s a good chance you already own one. If you can use one for the Switch 2 instead, it might be worth opting for that instead of spending extra cash.