We’re here in sunny Hawaii for day two of Qualcomm’s annual Snapdragon Summit.
Yesterday, of course, was the company’s prime keynote, where they announced their forthcoming Snapdragon X Elite SoC for laptops, as well as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for smartphones. As well, the company gave us our first look at their Oryon CPU architecture, which will be driving the X Elite, and eventually Qualcomm’s smartphones, automotive chips, and more.
For day two of their event, today Qualcomm is going to take us through the technical side of their new chips, revealing a bit more about how they work and what new features and abilities have been added in this generation. So please join us for our live blog coverage of Qualcomm’s technical track disclosures.
Qualcomm announced the release of a pair of chips, the S7 and the S7 Pro that companies can use in their earbuds, headphones, and speakers to benefit from Wi-Fi in addition to Bluetooth. The semiconductor company announced that it will leverage its Snapdragon Sound platform to bring Wi-Fi to audio peripherals.
It’s been a long time coming—especially so for a Time Lord. The BBC and Disney have now officially confirmed that Doctor Who’s trio of anniversary specials will begin airing from November 25, kicking off three weeks of new adventures in time and space.
Cost overruns for the new Air Force One jets continue to pile on massive losses for Boeing. From a report: Boeing on Wednesday reported another $482 million in red ink on the contract to retrofit two 747 jets into the next generation of the presidential plane. Boeing has now lost more than $1 billion on each of the two jets. The company has been reporting losses on the planes for years, as CEO Dave Calhoun admitted last year that the company should never have signed the contract with the Air Force to produce the jets for $3.9 billion. Supplier costs have soared since then, and the delivery date has been continually pushed back. Boeing took $1.45 billion in losses on the planes last year, and $318 million in 2021.
“Air Force One, I’m just going to call a very unique moment, a very unique negotiation. A very unique set of risks that Boeing probably shouldn’t have taken,” Calhoun said in April last year when discussing $660 million of those losses reported at that time. “But we are where we are.” The company said the latest loss on the program is a result of engineering changes, labor instability, as well as the resolution of negotiations with one of its suppliers. Very often higher costs on defense contracts can be passed onto US taxpayers, but under pressure from then-President Donald Trump, who was threatening to cancel the contract for the planes, Boeing agreed to a fixed price contract on the two new jets.
Intel may have downplayed a killer feature for its new 14th-gen processors, which can reach 6GHz. The company hasn’t marketed the chips’ new Intel Application Optimization (APO), but an enterprising Reddit user (viaTom’s Hardware) reports that it offers attention-grabbing performance boosts for supported games. Why the lack of advertising for such a potent feature? One guess is that APO seemingly only supports two older titles at launch: Rainbow Six Siege (2015) and Metro Exodus (2019).
One of the more dramatic examples of APO upgrading performance was detailed in the Intel subreddit by u/LightMoisture. With their setup using the Intel i9-14900K, the feature boosted Metro Exodus’ frame rate from 273 FPS to 339 FPS, a 24 percent increase. Rainbow Six Siege had even more eye-opening gains, going from 659 FPS to 867 FPS, a nearly 32 percent enhancement.
The Redditor notes that they ran the games in 1080p resolution on low settings with a high-end memory setup to test what APO can do in ideal conditions. It won’t likely reproduce those numbers on higher settings, and we don’t know how it would handle newer and more graphically demanding games.
The Verge’s Tom Warren tested the feature on “very high” presets at 1080p resolution. APO boosted Rainbow Six Siege (with a Core i9-14900K system and an RTX 4090 GPU) from 615 FPS to 688 FPS, nearly a 12 percent increase. Meanwhile, Metro Exodus Enhanced on the same rig rose from 177 FPS to 207 FPS, almost a 17 percent rise. Those numbers aligned closely with Intel’s guidance, which estimated a 13 percent increase in Rainbow Six Siege and a 16 percent increase in Metro Exodus.
Intel
Unfortunately, in addition to APO’s slight problem of supporting just two games at launch, the feature also has a clunky setup. You’ll need to track down motherboard drivers (always a fun task) that support Intel’s Dynamic Tuning. (To make matters worse, not all vendors have posted them online.) Once you find and install the right ones, navigate to your PC’s BIOS settings to enable the feature.
After that, you’ll want to install the APO app from the Microsoft Store, which lets you manage settings and toggle it quickly. Adding even more joy to the task, several Redditors reported that following external links to the Microsoft Store won’t work and that you’ll need to open the storefront and search for Intel APO manually. In addition, if you haven’t installed all of the necessary drivers, the app installation will reportedly fail. However, once set up, the feature should automatically detect compatible games (hopefully more than two before long) once you launch them. If future setups are easier and Intel adds new game support regularly, it could wind up outshining 6GHz as the new chips’ marquee attraction.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/an-overlooked-feature-for-intels-14th-gen-chips-boosts-gaming-performance-with-one-click-183335312.html?src=rss
AstraZeneca submitted a request for the FDA on Wednesday to approve a self-administered nasal flu vaccine for people ages two to 49 years old. The vaccine, FluMist, would be the first at-home vaccine that would allow anyone 18 years of age and older to administer it to themselves and those underage.
Lenovo’s Motorola mobile brand is resurfacing the idea of the bendable, bracelet-like smartphone. Demoed at Lenovo Tech World ’23 in Austin, Texas, yesterday, Motorola’s “adaptive display” revisits a concept that we’ve seen discussed for years but that doesn’t seem any closer to actually being sold.
On stage at the event, Lexi Valasek, 312 Labs innovation strategy and product research Lead for Motorola Mobility, proudly held a prototype. The smartphone looked ordinary to start: a slab of OLED with a chassis that’s a bold orange on the backside. But Valasek quickly bent the phone into an arch shape, where it stood on her hand before she wrapped it around her wrist like a cuff.
The phone seemed to adapt to its new positioning rapidly, quickly showing a large clock, making the device feel like a smartwatch.
As Apple continues to struggle with what exactly to do with its overpriced Vision Pro, discussions behind the scenes reportedly included using the mixed-reality headset to diagnose—and potentially treat—mental health.
Apple has released iOS 17.1. The iPhone update, which is available now for all users, brings improvements to AirDrop, more control options for StandBy, new Apple Music features and further customization for Photo Shuffle on the Lock Screen. It also brings a slew of bug fixes.
The iOS 17.1 update is available now for all recent iPhones (2018 and later), and can be downloaded by going to Settings > General > About > Software Update. The most notable addition with iOS 17.1 is an improvement to AirDrop that will allow content to continue transferring over the internet even if you leave AirDrop range, which should help to cut down on the headache of failed transfers.
It also brings some new features for Apple Music, now giving users the option to add songs, albums, and playlists to their Favorites, and have these show in their library. Apple Music is also getting new color-changing cover art collections, and song suggestions at the bottom of playlists. These features are also coming to Apple Music on Mac with the macOS Sonoma 14.1 update, which was released today as well.
With iOS 17.1, Apple has also added Home key support for Matter locks, fixed a pairing issue with the Apple Watch that caused users’ Significant Location privacy setting to reset and resolved issues with keyboard responsiveness, among other things. Apple released iOS 17.1 today alongside watchOS 10.1, which brings the Double Tap gesture to the latest Apple Watch lineup, and macOS Sonoma 14.1.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ios-171-is-here-with-improvements-to-airdrop-and-new-flair-for-apple-music-180740395.html?src=rss
Enlarge/ Starliner touches down in December 2019 for the first time. (credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)
Boeing released its third-quarter results on Wednesday, and there were promising numbers showing increasing revenues and narrowing losses as the multinational corporation continues its economic recovery.
However, amid these improving results, Boeing’s financials continued to be dragged down by its Defense, Space & Security division. This division, which includes missile production for the military and space activities such as satellites and the Starliner spacecraft, lost $1.7 billion during the first three quarters of this year.
In a conference call with analysts on Wednesday, Boeing’s chief executive, David Calhoun, and chief financial officer, Brian West, expressed disappointment in these results from the defense and space division. They reiterated their goal of returning the company’s defense and space businesses to profitability by the 2025 to 2026 period.
Apple is planning to update its entire lineup of AirPods in 2024 and 2025, Bloomberg reports. The company will apparently begin with new versions of its “regular” AirPods and AirPods Max headphones next year. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman also reports that a new AirPods Pro model will follow in 2025.
The company’s current lineup includes the second-generation AirPods that debuted in 2019, priced at $129, and the third-gen model that arrived in 2021. The more recent version is pricier at $169, but it comes with an updated design, longer battery life, wireless charging and better sound quality of its own. However, Bloomberg explains that customers don’t see the benefit in the third-generation model as the cheaper second-gen version and the noise-canceling AirPods Pro are better sellers.
For this reason, Apple will reportedly replace both the second- and third-gen models in 2024 with two new versions with more varied spec sheets. Bloomberg reports that the two new models will have a design that blends the 2021 AirPods with the look of the AirPods Pro and both with have short stems. What’s more, the more expensive version will offer active noise cancellation (ANC) and speakers in the case for Find My sounds — both of which are features of the current AirPods Pro. Both of the new models will have a better fit, but Bloomberg reports that neither of them are expected to have replaceable tips. Unsurprisingly, the fourth-gen models will make the switch to USB-C on the charging cases following this year’s update to the Pro.
Rumors of an AirPods Max refresh have been circulating for a long time now, mostly focusing on the timing of an updated model rather than any real details. Bloomberg reports that Apple will make the change to USB-C for its over-ear headphones late next year, with some new colors but not much else. A new version of the AirPods Pro isn’t coming until 2025, according to the report. The outlet explains that Apple is working on new health features for AirPods Pro centered on hearing. The company debuted its H2 chip in the second-gen AirPods Pro last year, a component that powers features like Adaptive Audio, Personalized Volume and Conversation Awareness.
Engadget has reached out to Apple for comment and will update this article if we hear back.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-will-reportedly-bring-anc-to-its-regular-airpods-next-year-180153720.html?src=rss
Intel’s latest 14th Gen chips aren’t a huge improvement over the 13th Gen in gaming performance, but a new Intel Application Optimization (APO) feature might just change that. From a report: Intel’s new APO app simply runs in the background, improving performance in games. It offers impressive boosts to frame rates in games that support it, like Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege and Metro Exodus. Intel Application Optimization essentially directs application resources in real time through a scheduling policy that fine-tunes performance for games and potentially even other applications in the future.
It operates alongside Intel’s Thread Director, a technology that’s designed to improve how apps and games are assigned to performance or efficiency cores depending on the performance needs. The result is some solid gains to performance in certain games, with one Reddit poster seeing a 200fps boost in Rainbow Six Siege at 1080p. “Not all games benefit from APO,” explained Intel VP Roger Chandler in a press briefing ahead of the 14th Gen launch. “As we test and verify games we will add those that benefit the most, so gamers can get the best performance from their systems.”
If I get my hands on a $5,000 foldable laptop, I have certain expectations for it. It’s got to have power, speed, and portability. The last thing on my mind is whether or not the thing is easy to open and close. However, this was the case when I first tried to crack open HP’s new Spectre Fold 3-in-1, which pretty much…
No one in the world seems to know how Google’s privacy controls work, and the company probably likes it that way. The latest example is from Rodriguez v. Google, an ongoing 2021 class-action lawsuit over Google’s infamous “Web & App Activity” privacy check box. The box claims to stop Google from saving a user’s “activity” to Google’s servers, but the lawsuit says that isn’t true. The interesting bit today comes from an expert witness called by the plaintiffs, who testified that even Google CEO Sundar Pichai incorrectly described how this check box works to Congress.
Like a lot of Google court cases, this case has most of the records sealed so that embarrassing comments and testimony about the reality of Google’s business don’t reach the public. The Register noticed that a transcript of the expert’s video deposition is public, though, so we can see just a glimpse of what is going on in this case.
The expert witness, Jonathan Hochman, called Google’s “Web & App Activity” check box “a fake control, because it doesn’t do—technically doesn’t do what it seems it should do.” Hochman later said, “It looks like even Sundar Pichai is confused about how this control works because he testified in front of Congress and told them something that is just wrong from a technical perspective.”
Apple’s buy now, pay later system is finally available to all customers in the US after its soft launch back in March. To pay later and begin making equal payments over the course of six weeks, you must be set up on Apple Pay with an eligible debit card.
There is a limit, though. Pay Later only works for purchases that cost between $75 and $1,000 made on iPhone or iPad through a vendor that accepts Apple Pay. The company says during the repayment period you won’t accumulate interest and there are no late fees. However, in the fineprint, Apple says your bank could charge you extra fees “if your debit card account contains insufficient funds to make loan repayments.” After opting to finance a purchase during checkout, your Pay Later loan and payment history gets shared with credit bureaus.
In a video tutorial, Apple breaks down how to start. Simply choose between paying in full through Apple Pay or paying later. If you choose the latter, the tool will automatically tell you how much each payment will cost every two weeks, which is subject to approval. You need to confirm your personal information and ‘Agree & Apply’ before beginning a repayment program.
Apple
Once you start making payments, Apple makes it easy to track your progress. Your total remaining balance, upcoming and previous payments are all laid out through the Wallet app. Here, you can set up autopay and change the bank or debit card you’re sourcing your payments from and if you’d like to, tap to pay early. Apple also integrated the calendar tool with the Pay Later feature so that an iPhone user can see everything they owe in a single place to keep tabs on progress.
The introduction of Pay Later puts Apple in competition with other digital repayment apps like Afterpay, Klarna and Affirm, which partnered with big tech giants like Amazon to expand their services. Roughly three in four US iPhone users have activated Apple Pay, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The popularity of the company’s tap-to-pay tool among iPhone users could help it gain a foothold in this new market.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-pay-later-is-available-to-everyone-in-the-us-174654047.html?src=rss
Enlarge/ Apple’s iOS 17.1 release includes updates to the Settings for StandBy on the iPhone. (credit: Apple/Ars Technica)
A plethora of point-one updates have arrived for Apple devices, adding a few features and some useful bug fixes to iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, Apple Watches, and Apple TVs and HomePods. It also addresses French regulators’ concerns that the iPhone 12 produced too much electromagnetic radiation in certain conditions.
The biggest new features among the software refreshes are on the Apple Watch and HomePods. If you’re a frequent user of AirDrop, however, and find yourself throwing huge files to people, iOS 17.1 adds a new “Use Cellular Data” option. If both the sender and recipient have iCloud accounts, an AirDrop transfer can continue over a cellular connection if your phone leaves Wi-Fi or Bluetooth range or drops the connection. MacRumors shows the changes and settings involved.
Elsewhere in iOS 17.1, StandBy gets new display options, including display-off timers. No Journal app has arrived yet. One new thing that has arrived is a patch to the iPhone 12’s radio operation to accommodate, as Apple put it, “the protocol used by French regulators.” France’s National Frequency Agency (ANFR) found that the iPhone 12 exceeded a “limbs” limit of radiation, for when the phone is in a pocket or purse or otherwise against the body, and called for Apple to stop selling the device and potentially recall it. Apple, noting that the device was “certified by multiple international bodies,” still agreed to address the issue in iOS 17.1.
Enlarge/ Image showing a dust storm over the northern hemisphere of Mars. (credit: ISRO)
If the explorers from Journey to the Center of the Earth were to journey to the center of Mars instead, they definitely wouldn’t come across the subterranean oceans or live dinosaurs they encountered in the movie, but they would probably see something different from our planet’s core.
Earth has a mantle of rock that moves like a sluggish liquid. Beneath the mantle is a liquid iron outer core and solid iron inner core. Because Earth and Mars are both rocky planets, and might have even had similar surface conditions billions of years ago, does that mean we should expect the same interior on Mars? Not exactly.
When two teams of researchers used data from NASA’s InSight lander and other spacecraft to get as close to the core of Mars as they could in a lab, they found that the red planet is not much like Earth on the inside. Data from NASA’s InSight lander’s SEIS (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure) project had previously suggested that Mars has a large core that is not very dense. But the new analysis, which included additional seismic signals, indicates that what was once thought to be the surface of the Martian core is actually a thick molten rock layer. The actual core of Mars is most likely much smaller.
