Apple hardware engineering chief Dan Riccio leaves role for “new project”

Apple announced Tuesday that its longtime SVP of hardware engineering, Dan Riccio, will depart his current role and assume a new one focused entirely on a “new project.” Riccio had led hardware engineering since 2012. Prior to that role, he led iPad hardware engineering. He will report directly to CEO Tim Cook in his new role.

John Ternus, who has held the title of vice president of hardware engineering since 2001, will step into Riccio’s prior role leading the hardware engineering team. Ternus has appeared in recent Apple product announcements, and he was the lead for the iPhone 12, as well as a key team leader on AirPods, every iPad, and the M1 transition.

As is common with announcements like this, there are statements from key figures at Apple about it. Starting with Cook:

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Source: Ars Technica – Apple hardware engineering chief Dan Riccio leaves role for “new project”

The East Coast is suffering through major internet connection problems

If you’re having problems with your internet connection today, you’re far from the only one. There are widespread reports of outages on DownDetector at the minute, particularly on the East Coast of the US. Services like Zoom, Gmail, Slack (yes, again…

Source: Engadget – The East Coast is suffering through major internet connection problems

Gmail, Slack, Amazon, Spotify, Twitch, Hulu, Google Are Suffering Outages for Some Users

A wide-range of services including Gmail, Google, business collaboration service Slack, Amazon, Twitch, Hulu, and Spotify are suffering outages, several users and readers have reported. The reports started to come in half an hour ago, but the cause of the disruption is yet to be identified.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – Gmail, Slack, Amazon, Spotify, Twitch, Hulu, Google Are Suffering Outages for Some Users

Eavesdrop on Your Kids While They're Gaming

Our kids’ online lives can feel like a bit of a mystery. Particularly if they are into gaming, they might sit—headphones on and behind closed doors—for hours at a time, leaving you wondering who they’re interacting with and what those conversations are like. If that’s the case, one popular gamer has advice for…

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Source: LifeHacker – Eavesdrop on Your Kids While They’re Gaming

Qualcomm's Newest Snapdragon Platforms To Make Cars Smarter, Safer And Hyper-Connected

Qualcomm's Newest Snapdragon Platforms To Make Cars Smarter, Safer And Hyper-Connected
As technology takes over the automotive space for more intelligent driving experiences, there are increasingly more powerful processing platforms to control various powertrain, infotainment, and safety subsystems. Such is the case with Qualcomm’s new 4th generation Snapdragon Automotive Cockpit Platform. This new connected compute platform

Source: Hot Hardware – Qualcomm’s Newest Snapdragon Platforms To Make Cars Smarter, Safer And Hyper-Connected

Mary Chieffo Talks Returning to Her Klingon Roots for Star Trek Online

When Star Trek: Discovery shot itself into the 32nd century at the end of its second season, it left behind a pretty major chunk of its supporting cast in the process: most notably the Klingon factions helmed by the Empire’s newest Chancellor, L’Rell, played by Mary Chieffo. But now, by new time-twisting…

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Source: io9 – Mary Chieffo Talks Returning to Her Klingon Roots for Star Trek Online

Biden vows to electrify the federal government’s 600,000-vehicle fleet

WASHINGTON, DC: President Joe Biden speaks before signing an executive order related to American manufacturing in the South Court Auditorium of the White House complex on January 25, 2021 in Washington, DC.

Enlarge / WASHINGTON, DC: President Joe Biden speaks before signing an executive order related to American manufacturing in the South Court Auditorium of the White House complex on January 25, 2021 in Washington, DC. (credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The federal government owns more than 600,000 civilian vehicles—trucks, vans, and passenger vehicles—with a large large majority running on gasoline or diesel fuel. On Monday, Joe Biden vowed to change that.

“The federal government owns an enormous fleet of vehicles, which we’re gonna to replace with clean electric vehicles made right here in America,” Biden said at a press conference to announce a new “Buy American” initiative.

This won’t be easy. In 2019, the most recent year for which data is available, the federal government owned fewer than 3,000 battery electric vehicles—less than one half of one percent of the federal vehicle fleet.

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Source: Ars Technica – Biden vows to electrify the federal government’s 600,000-vehicle fleet

The U.S. Still Has a Big STI Problem

Sexually transmitted infections continue to be a major headache for Americans and their wallets, according to a new report released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About one in five Americans in the U.S. were thought to carry an STI in 2018, while there were 26 million new cases estimated…

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Source: Gizmodo – The U.S. Still Has a Big STI Problem

Twitter Acquires Newsletter Startup Revue To Expand Business

Twitter acquired the newsletter publishing company Revue for an undisclosed sum, part of an effort to expand its business and give writers who distribute their work on Twitter more features. From a report: Revue’s service, which lets people manage newsletter publishing and subscriptions, will continue operating as a “standalone service” within Twitter, the company said Tuesday in a blog announcing the deal. Twitter will eliminate some of the service’s fees to encourage more people to create newsletters, and will take a 5% cut on subscription revenue collected through Revue.

Part of Revue’s appeal to Twitter is that it could help expand the business outside of advertising, which generates more than 85% of Twitter’s annual revenue, and give some of the site’s more popular users a way to make money from their followers. “You can expect audience-based monetization to be an area that we’ll continue to develop new ways to support,” Twitter executives wrote in the blog. Twitter has also confirmed that it’s considering options for its own subscription service.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – Twitter Acquires Newsletter Startup Revue To Expand Business

Researchers built an AI that plays chess like a person, not a super computer

We mere mortals haven’t truly been competitive against artificial intelligence in chess in a long time. It’s been 15 years since a human has conquered a computer in a chess tournament. However, a team of researchers have developed an AI chess engine…

Source: Engadget – Researchers built an AI that plays chess like a person, not a super computer

Final Fantasy XV’s Photo Mode Captures Everything I Can’t

I’m going through Final Fantasy XV before it leaves Xbox Game Pass this Friday. It’s a game about having adventures with your best friends all while on a road-trip to, inevitably, save the world. Playing FF15, in addition to servicing my goal of finally completing beloved games I’ve left half-done, has become…

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Source: Kotaku – Final Fantasy XV’s Photo Mode Captures Everything I Can’t