At the end of every financial call, invited financial analysts have an opportunity to probe the key members of the company on the numbers, as well as future products. We just had AMD’s Q4 2020 Financial call, covering all of Q4 developments as well as 2020 as a whole. On the call was CEO Dr. Lisa Su and CFO Davinder Kumar.
Source: AnandTech – AMD Reports Q4 2020 Earnings: Analyst Q&A Transcript
MojoKid writes: This morning, NVIDIA lifted its embargo on the performance and experiences of new GeForce RTX 30 Series-powered gaming laptops. Thinner, higher-performance form factors aren’t the only features NVIDIA is touting with this launch. A number of new laptops will also sport 1440p, high refresh rate IPS displays like the MSI GS66 Stealth with a GeForce RTX 3080 mobile GPU tested at HotHardware. This machine features a 15.6-inch IPS, 1440p panel with a 240Hz refresh rate and G-Sync support. However, the biggest difference between these new laptop GeForce RTX 30 series GPUs and their desktop counterparts, are their core counts. Desktop GeForce RTX 3080, 3070, and 3060 series GPUs have 8,704, 5,888, and 3,584 CUDA cores, respectively, whereas these new laptop offerings have 6,144, 5,120, and 3,840 — it is only the RTX 3060 laptop GPU that has more cores than its similar-branded desktop counterpart.
In the benchmarks, with a retail-ready Alienware m15 R4 gaming laptop powered by a GeForce RTX 3070 mobile GPU, the new platform offered sizable performance gains of 15-25% over the previous generation RTX 20 series mobile offering, and an even stronger performance lift with ray tracing enabled, sometimes in excess of 40%. NVIDIA GeForce 30 Series laptops are in production now and available in the next few weeks from major OEMs like Alienware, ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte and others.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30-Series Laptops Put To the Test
Good news, residents of the giant unnamed neon metropolis seen in the Godzilla Vs. Kong trailer. You have one extra week to evacuate your citizens, make sure all your insurance is up to date, and get your affairs in order, because the titanic tussle is now taking place on March 31.
Source: io9 – Giant City Briefly Escapes Destruction as Godzilla Vs. Kong Gets Delayed a Week
Kelly Marie Tran and Awkwafina star in Disney’s new animated feature Raya and the Last Dragon.
Disney has released the official full trailer for its upcoming animated film, Raya and the Last Dragon, with Kelly Marie Tran and Awkwafina voicing the titular characters. It has the distinction of being the first Disney animated feature to be remotely developed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, working with home equipment and mostly communicating via Zoom. The pandemic also caused the film’s release date to be shifted multiple times. It’s now slated for a March 5 release, both in theaters and on Disney+ with premier access.
Disney first announced the film during its 2019 D23 Expo and presented co-directors Don Hall (Big Hero 6, Moana) and Carlos Lopez Estrada (Frozen II, Blindspotting) at D23 the following year. The fictional fantasy land of Kumandra was inspired by several different Southeast Asian cultures—Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Laos, and the Philippines—and the production team traveled extensively to most of those countries to research the film. A Lao visual anthropologist also reviewed the final designs.
Per the official synopsis:
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Source: Ars Technica – Warrior princess fights to save humanity in Raya and the Last Dragon trailer
YouTube on Tuesday said it’s again extending its suspension of former President Donald Trump, who’s been banned from posting videos to his channel since Jan. 12. Comments on Trump’s videos will also remain disabled indefinitely. CNET reports: “In light of concerns about the ongoing potential for violence, the Donald J. Trump channel will remain suspended,” a YouTube spokesperson confirmed to CNET. “Our teams are staying vigilant and closely monitoring for any new developments.” YouTube first extended Trump’s suspension last week, saying it would reevaluate the situation in a week. The company gave no indication on Tuesday of how long the latest extension would last.
YouTube has a three-strikes policy when it comes to policing its platform. Three infractions within a 90-day period results in being permanently kicked off the platform. The first strike typically comes with a one-week ban that prohibits the posting of new content. A second strike comes with a two-week ban. YouTube also suspended Rudy Giuliani, former President Donald Trump’s lawyer, from a program that allows partners to make money from ads on their videos, after Giuliani broke YouTube’s rules by repeatedly sharing election misinformation.
Over the last three years, YouTube’s Partner Program paid out more than $30 billion to creators, artists, and media organizations.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – YouTube Extends Trump’s Suspension For a Second Time
The Environmental Protection Agency said on Tuesday that one of the garbage barges helping clear the federal Superfund site in Brooklyn’s infamous Gowanus Canal of toxic waste has itself sunk.
Source: Gizmodo – Garbage Barge’s Garbage Barges Back Down to Garbage Town
It’d be hard to top any movie in which a freshly decapitated head flies through the air hellbent on biting its nearest enemy, but the right filmmaking energy can certainly do something like that justice. Indonesian horror The Queen of Black Magic, a homage to the 1981 cult classic of the same name, does its…
Source: io9 – The Queen of Black Magic Pays Gruesomely Loving Homage to Its Namesake Classic
We’re now three trading days into some frothy drama between Reddit and Wall Street over the rocketing price of GameStop stocks. Largely believed to be the result of the subreddit WallStreetBets, pseudonymous Redditors are claiming absolutely bonkers returns on their Robinhood accounts from a company that has been in…
Source: Gizmodo – Reddit’s Anarchic Investors to Hedge Funds: ‘I Hope They Suffer’
The streaming-hub app Plex has long endeared itself to a certain kind of media consumer—one who’d prefer to rip and stream their own purchased content from a home computer instead of relying on subscriptions. But while Plex has experimented with new features and media options over the past decade-plus, this week sees the service take its first-ever stab at interactive media. As in, games.
Plex Arcade is now live as a paid add-on service, and it promises to let you stream your existing, classic gaming library from a home PC to a variety of Plex-compatible devices. That means you can put your favorite classic game ROMs next to your music, TV, and film libraries, and you can beam those to compatible devices, either at home or afar. For some users, this is a dream scenario: centralize your classic games on one device, then access them everywhere, instead of having to manually set up each phone and set-top box with emulators and ROMs.
But Plex Arcade’s first day is a bumpy one, and even if the service patches things up, it’s a clear reminder why streaming classic games from a hub computer isn’t nearly as handy as streaming other media.
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Source: Ars Technica – Plex adds game-streaming as paid add-on, completely botches the landing
While many gamers have been racking their brains trying to figure out what’s going on with PlayStation 4 and Xbox Series X inventory, and how to get their hands on one of the consoles, a Wall Street firestorm has been brewing at GameStop. You know GameStop, the staple of [dying] malls and strip malls across America where you can buy new and
Source: Hot Hardware – How Redditors Crushed Short Sellers, Gamed Wall St And Spiked GameStop Shares Over 300%
Late last year and early this year, gamers have been faced with a minimal stock of consoles and computer components. This in part due to extremely high demand, bots, and scalpers trying to get their hands on tech. It seems that the scalpers have gotten crafty in recent months, as some were able to buy PlayStation 5s before they were even available
Source: Hot Hardware – These Scalpers Raided A Retailer’s Recent PS5 Drop A Day In Advance Of Public Availability
Last week, 160 members of Congress sent a letter to the FCC raising concerns about some Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) winners’ ability to provide rural America with the broadband access they promised. The letter did not call out individual internet service providers or organizations by name, but it did call on…
Source: Gizmodo – Lawmakers Are Worried ISPs Can’t Deliver on Their Rural Broadband Promises
Tesla CEO Elon Musk seemed to rally behind GameStop’s epic surge on Tuesday, tweeting out a link to the Reddit board that’s largely hyped the stock. CNBC reports: Shares of GameStop, which jumped 92.7% Tuesday, were up more than 60% in after hours trading following Musk’s tweet, which linked to the “wallstreetbets” Reddit chat room that has more than 2 million subscribers. The Tesla CEO tweeted “Gamestonk!!” The stock surged earlier in the day after Social Capital’s Chamath Palihapitiya said in a tweet that he bought GameStop call options, betting the stock will go higher. The degenerates over at r/wallstreetbets don’t appear to be very fond of CNBC’s coverage of the investing forum. In an open letter to CNBC, u/RADIO02118 writes: Before you spend another day hosting your shill hedge fund buddies to come on the air and demonize r/wallstreetbets I hope you read this.
Your contempt for the retail investor (your audience) is palpable and if you don’t get it together, you’ll lose an entire new generation of investors.
I keep thinking about these funds that are short GME like your boys at Melvin Capital / your coverage of this subreddit and I’m getting madder and madder.
These funds can manipulate the market via your network and if they screw up big because they don’t even know the basics of portfolio risk 101 and using position sizing, they just get a bailout from their billionaire friends at Citadel. Then they have the nerve to turn us into public enemy #1 just because we believe in an underdog company getting a second chance.
We don’t have billionaires to bail us out when we mess up our portfolio risk and a position goes against us. We can’t go on TV and make attempts to manipulate millions to take our side of the trade. If we mess up as bad as they did, we’re wiped out, have to start from scratch and are back to giving handjobs behind the dumpster at Wendy’s.
Seriously. Motherfuck these people. I sincerely hope they suffer. We want to see the loss porn.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – GameStop Jumps After Hours As Elon Musk Tweets Out Reddit Board That’s Hyping Stock
Back when it announced the HomePod mini last year, Apple said it was working on a feature that would allow you to seamlessly transfer music, calls and podcasts between your iPhone 11 or iPhone 12 and the smart speaker. With the arrival of iOS 14.4 ea…
Source: Engadget – HomePod mini update adds UWB-enhanced handoff features
Consulting is a lucrative business if you can get it. Doubly so if you can traffic in conspiracy theories with no public accountability.
Source: Gizmodo – Alberta Inquiry Pays ,000 for Washed-Up Climate Denial Talking Points Written by a School Teacher
When Hitman developer IO Interactive’s James Bond game (working title Project 007) hits the scene, it will do so with an entirely new James Bond, studio head Hakan Abrak told the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (h/t TheGamer).
Source: Kotaku – Hitman Studio’s Project 007 Will Feature A New James Bond
Appareo’s IP67-rated, -40 to 75°C tolerant “Gateway 370” telematics gateway runs Linux on a Cortex-A9 SoC and supplies Iridium SBD, 433MHz (RFID), 4G LTE, WiFi/BT, and GPS plus LAN, BroadR-Reach, DIO, and CAN links. Fargo, ND based Appareo has launched a wireless telematics control unit (TCU) for heavy machinery in applications such as construction and […]
Source: LXer – Telematics gateway connects with Iridium, GPS, 4G, WiFi/BT, and 433MHz RFID
The rollout of covid-19 vaccines in the U.S. is finally starting to pick up steam, but as vaccination becomes more common, the antivax movement is pulling its same old tricks. The latest disturbing trend: blaming the coronavirus vaccine for deaths, illnesses, or injuries without any solid evidence.
Source: Gizmodo – Yes, the Anti-Vaxxers Are Coming for the Coronavirus Vaccines
The Sony Xperia Pro. Why is this $2,500? [credit:
Sony
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We’ve seen smartphones with stratospheric price tags before, but usually, something is special about them. Phones like the Samsung Galaxy Fold and the Huawei Mate X are anywhere from $2,000-$2,600, but those were first-gen foldable smartphones with brand-new display technology. Sony’s latest entry into the smartphone market, the Sony Xperia Pro, is a boring old slab phone that seems utterly forgettable until you look at the price: an astounding $2,500, or the price of three brand-new, $800 Samsung Galaxy S21s. Sony has really outdone itself.
Mostly the Xperia Pro seems a lot like the Xperia 1 II, Sony’s already-overpriced $1,300 flagship smartphone from 2020. Both have 6.5-inch, almost-4K, 3840×1644, 60Hz OLED displays, the Snapdragon 865 SoC, three rear cameras, an IP65 rating, and a 4000mAh battery. This year’s Xperia Pro gets a tier bump to 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, but that’s only usually worth $100 extra. There’s also mmWave 5G this year, two “app shortcut” buttons on the side, and a shutter button. Fancy.
None of that explains why this phone is at least $1,000 more than it should be. Sony’s justification for the outrageous price is (drumroll please) an HDMI port. Yes, in addition to the USB-C port on the bottom, there is also a Micro HDMI port that can be used as a video input. Sony suggests either hooking the phone up to a Sony Alpha camera and using it as a live video monitor or pushing an external video source out to the internet for live streaming. Just this one feature and the camera-adjacentness is worth $1,000 extra by Sony’s logic.
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Source: Ars Technica – Sony adds HDMI to last year’s Android phone, charges ,500
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Remember the app audit Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg promised to carry out a little under three years ago at the height of the Cambridge Analytica scandal? Actually the tech giant is very keen that you don’t. The UK’s information commissioner just told a parliamentary subcommittee on online harms and disinformation that a secret arrangement between her office and Facebook prevents her from publicly answering whether or not Facebook contacted the ICO about completing a much-trumpeted ‘app audit’. “I think I could answer that question with you and the committee in private,” information commissioner Elizabeth Denham told questioner, Kevin Brennan, MP.
Pressed on responding, then and there, on the question of whether Facebook ever notified the regulator about completing the app audit — with Brennan pointing out “after all it was a commitment Mark Zuckerberg gave in the public domain before a US Senate committee” — Denham referred directly to a private arrangement with Facebook which she suggested prevented her from discussing such details in public. “It’s part of an agreement that we struck with Facebook,” she told the committee. “In terms of our litigation against Facebook. So there is an agreement that’s not in the public domain and that’s why I would prefer to discuss this in private.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Facebook’s Secret Settlement On Cambridge Analytica Gags UK Data Watchdog
