Have you ever caught yourself doing something mundane, like picking at a blade of grass or walking on the sidewalk’s curb, only to be hit with the intrusive thought that your group of friends won’t be able to attend each other’s funerals? Heavy stuff, right? Well, the new fantasy anime Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End…
Source: Kotaku – Crunchyroll’s Latest Fantasy Anime Will Make You Call A Friend Just To Catch Up
Air fried key lime pie is a cheater’s pie if I ever saw one. It doesn’t contain any true key limes, just your average, run of the mill, bottled lime juice. The batter is made in a food processor, and it bakes up in 10 minutes or less with the help of the air fryer. Is this even a baking project? Who can say? What I…
Source: LifeHacker – This Air Fried Key Lime Pie Is So Easy, It Feels Like Cheating
AMD announced today that the Windows games Immortals of Aveum and Forspoken are available today with their FidelityFX Super Resolution 3 (FSR 3) upscaling technology. More games making use of FSR 3 are on the way and the open-source code drop of FSR 3 is coming at a later date…
Source: Phoronix – AMD FSR 3 Now Available – Open-Source Code To Come Soon
France may finally allow Apple to sell iPhone 12s in the country again after Apple has seemingly met the country’s electromagnetic radiation standards.
Source: Gizmodo – The Saga of the High-Radiation iPhone 12 Is Finally Over
As Google faces a massive antitrust lawsuit, revelations surrounding the case have presented us with a glimpse into an alternate reality. Microsoft reportedly discussed selling Bing to Apple just a few years ago, and if the deal went through, Google would have no longer been the default search engine on iPhone.
Source: Gizmodo – All That Could Have Been: Apple Considered Buying Bing From Microsoft
The South Carolina Gamecocks are traveling to Knoxville this week to take on the Tennessee Volunteers in a primetime grudge match. There’s history between these squads: Last season, a Gamecock victory kept Tennessee from the championship, so the Volunteers are out for vengeance. Here’s how you can watch the action.
Source: LifeHacker – Where to Stream the Tennessee Vs. South Carolina Game
You may have suffered a moment of panic this morning when you tried to fire up Discord only to be told, “Sorry, you have been blocked.” Even more startling is a blurb of text explaining why you were supposedly blocked, which claims some unknown action by you “triggered the security solution” to deny you access. Don’t worry though, it’s not,
Source: Hot Hardware – Why Discord Is Telling Users They’ve Been Blocked And How To Access The Service
A team of researchers from around the world, led by Ohio State University, will be gathering data to create artificial intelligence-informed models to better understand the long-term impact of the climate crisis on biodiversity.
Source: Gizmodo – Ohio State University Researchers Are Using AI to Understand Changing Biodiversity
She’s watching me, I think. Her eyes, like her wrists, are obscured by gauze wraps, but I pickpocketed a corpse while exploring Bloodborne’s ruthless, forsaken Cainhurst Castle, and now she’s floating toward me.
Source: Kotaku – These Hidden Bloodborne Enemies Are The Best Part
Senator Dianne Feinstein, the trailblazing Democratic power broker who served in the Senate for 30 years, died on Thursday night, according to a family member. From a report: In recent years, Ms. Feinstein, 90, had suffered from frail health and memory issues that made it difficult for her to function alone and prompted calls for her to step down, which she consistently rejected. Her condition had grown more acute over the past several months, after a bout with shingles that caused serious complications, including a case of encephalitis, and prompted her to begin using a wheelchair in the halls of the Capitol.
Ms. Feinstein’s long and very public decline shed a spotlight on the advanced age of members of Congress and particularly the Senate, where many continue to serve long after retirement age. On Capitol Hill, where the Senate is racing to pass a temporary spending bill to avert a government shutdown at midnight on Saturday, her absence was unlikely to have an immediate impact. Her vote had not been expected to be determinative for passing that measure, which has broad bipartisan backing.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Senator Dianne Feinstein, Oldest Member of Congress, Dies at 90
BinDiff is a binary file comparison tool for finding differences and similarities in disassembled code quickly that is now open source.
The post BinDiff: Open-Source Comparison Tool for Binary Files appeared first on Linux Today.
Source: Linux Today – BinDiff: Open-Source Comparison Tool for Binary Files
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: New York state banned the use of facial recognition technology in schools Wednesday, following a report that concluded the risks to student privacy and civil rights outweigh potential security benefits. Education Commissioner Betty Rosa’s order leaves decisions on digital fingerprinting and other biometric technology up to local districts. The state has had a moratorium on facial recognition since parents filed a court challenge to its adoption by an upstate district.
[A]n analysis by the Office of Information Technology Services issued last month “acknowledges that the risks of the use of (facial recognition technology) in an educational setting may outweigh the benefits.” The report, sought by the Legislature, noted “the potentially higher rate of false positives for people of color, non-binary and transgender people, women, the elderly, and children.” It also cited research from the nonprofit Violence Project that found that 70% of school shooters from 1980 to 2019 were current students. The technology, the report said, “may only offer the appearance of safer schools.”
Biotechnology would not stop a student from entering a school “unless an administrator or staff member first noticed that the student was in crisis, had made some sort of threat, or indicated in some other way that they could be a threat to school security,” the report said. The state report found that the use of digital fingerprinting was less risky and could be beneficial for school lunch payments and accessing electronic tablets and other devices. Schools may use that technology after seeking parental input, Rosa said.
“Schools should be safe places to learn and grow, not spaces where they are constantly scanned and monitored, with their most sensitive information at risk,” said Stefanie Coyle, deputy director of the NYCLU’s Education Policy Center.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – New York Bans Facial Recognition In Schools
Even if you’re in the market for an Apple Watch, you may not be able (or willing) to shell out $400 for the newest Apple Watch Series 9. Fortunately, there are pretty great deals to be had on older Apple Watch models, if you’re willing to make some compromises on features. Right now, Woot is selling refurbished…
Source: LifeHacker – Refurbished Apple Watches Are As Cheap As on Woot Today
Microsoft announced Surface Studio 2, and I think it represents the best effort so far to create the perfect creator’s laptop. It isn’t a cheap date at around $2K for a base configuration that likely won’t meet the needs of many creators, but optioned-up with a professional NVIDIA graphics card, it’s a viable workstation-class PC, even though it lacks the certifications typically required of workstations.
But I’m talking hardware design here. The target competitor is the Apple MacBook Pro which the Surface Studio 2 appears to overcome with advancements that Apple doesn’t seem to want to match. Apple is known for focusing more on preserving margins than building the best tools for the creators that make up much of Apple’s existing installed base.
Don’t get me wrong. Many of my peers believe the MacBook is the best creator tool out there due to its performance and battery life, but I think there is room for improvement and Microsoft is exploring that with Surface Studio 2.
Most of the creators I’ve known live on either workstations or gaming rigs that are capable of workstation-performance loads but cost less than a true workstation. Over time, the loading has switched from the CPU to the GPU which means that the perfect creator product not only needs a decent GPU but the option for a professional grade GPU if the creator wants to run advanced applications for animation, editing pictures or specially designing things.
Creators generally like some kind of pen interface. This means a touch screen, but touch screens are difficult to use with a pen unless they lie flat. In addition, creators often need to stand while sketching, which means the laptop should have a tablet form even though it will be used as a more typical laptop for the paperwork that generally comes with most jobs (email, status updates, directions, descriptions etc.).
Most recently, creators need access to AIs, and AIs run best on hardware designed for them. The concept of a NPU (Neural Processing Unit) has been brought forward for that purpose, and this not only helps create AI-driven products and offerings but allows the user access to local generative AI instances so they can speed up their workflow and increase their overall productivity.
Both products start at around $2K, and both products can be configured with GPUs though the Surface Studio 2 can use one of three GPUs, including a professional grade. The Apple MacBook Pro comes in 14-inch and 16-inch versions, while the Surface Studio 2 only has a 14-inch+ display. Both products have unique displays tied to their platform: Pixel Sense for Studio 2 and the higher resolution retinal display from Apple. And both products weigh in around the 4- to 5-pound range. Both products should have similar battery life. Microsoft’s listed battery life is higher, but Apple has traditionally been more accurate in its representations, so they should be very similar to each other in this regard.
But the Surface Studio 2 has a NPU for generative AI creation and potentially improving the productivity of the user. Microsoft is rolling out its Copilot generative AI feature across Windows and Office 365 next quarter. The Surface Studio 2 has a cantilevered touch screen that allows the user to sketch out their ideas and create finished artwork on the screen, and it has the NPU that Apple’s solution lacks, giving a bit more protection against premature obsolescence than the MacBook Pro has.
This is more about the case design and the inclusion of the NPU than any other factors where the MacBook pro equaled or even exceeded what the Studio 2 offers. But creators often need to be able to draw things, work flat on a table and to present their work. The cantilevered touch screen is far better for this than Apple’s traditional laptop screen, and the NPU in the Surface Studio 2, once the AI technology is available, will allow the Studio 2 to cut down on the amount of work a creator has to do significantly.
I think the overall difference between the products is that Microsoft has targeted creators very tightly with its Studio 2 while the MacBook Pro is more similar to a high performance generic laptop. It performs admirably as a laptop, but it doesn’t embrace what creators need as well as a targeted product does.
Sadly, Microsoft continues to under-market Surface, which means Apple’s MacBook Pro will likely outperform it in the market. But if you are a creator, you might consider the Studio 2 as a better tool for what you do than more generic laptops, including the MacBook Pro.
Source: TG Daily – The Microsoft Surface Studio 2: Creating the Perfect Creator PC
The Kubernetes circus hits Shanghai and ponders how to connect engineers. Kubecon The Cloud Native Computing Foundation has returned to Shanghai for the city’s first Kubecon since the pandemic.…
Source: LXer – If the Linux Foundation was a software company, it’d be the biggest in the world
This week, it’s Meta’s turn to highlight AI during its device event. In this episode, Devindra and Cherlynn dive into all of the news from Meta’s Connect 2023 event, where it unveiled Meta AI and accompanying celebrity-powered chatbots. Oh yah, and it introduced the Meta Quest 3 and new Ray-Ban smart glasses, too. More so than the metaverse and VR, it’s really AI that Zuckerberg wants to push across all of Meta’s apps and devices.
And in other news, we discuss why the end of the WGA strike is a big deal for AI in Hollywood; ex-Microsoft exec Panos Panay officially heading to Amazon; and why the FTC is targeting Amazon over its potential ecommerce monopoly.
Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you’ve got suggestions or topics you’d like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcast, Engadget News!
Meta’s Connect event announces Quest 3 VR, Ray-Ban smart glasses and a slew of AI – 0:35
Hollywood Writers’ Guild ends strike with studio agreements on AI authorship, streaming residuals – 28:51
Panos Panay is officially going to head Amazon’s devices team – 32:03
FTC sues Amazon over ‘monopolistic practices’ – 35:30
FCC revives Obama-era net neutrality rules – 37:59
Jony Ive and Sam Altman are working on AI-powered hardware – 40:43
Top U.S. spy agencies are working on AI chatbots of their own – 55:56
Working on – 58:24
Pop culture picks – 59:23
Credits
Hosts: Devindra Hardawar and Cherlynn Low
Producer: Ben Ellman
Music: Dale North and Terrence O’Brien
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/engadget-podcast-meta-quest-3-ai-chatbots-123005634.html?src=rss
Source: Engadget – Engadget Podcast: Meta’s Quest 3, AI and Ray-Ban smart glasses
You’re standing in the middle of the aisle at the grocery store, holding a box of pasta, desperately wracking your brain: Do I already have this in my pantry?With inflation making all our lives increasingly expensive, one of the few things still in your control is how you shop. To avoid unnecessary spending—like on a…
Source: LifeHacker – The Best Ways to Streamline Your Grocery Shopping and Save Money
When you’re playing the New York Times’s Connections game, it’s important not to submit your guesses too soon. You may think that you’ve spotted four candies, or four things found on trees, but the game is trying to trick you. One of those candies may be an ambiguous word, like SUCKER, that belongs in a different…
Source: LifeHacker – Try Playing NYT Connections on Paper
After a month and a half delay from AMDVLK 2023.Q3.1 to AMDVLK 2023.Q3.2, the AMDVLK 2023.Q3.3 driver is out today after just one week. This AMD Vulkan driver update finally enables Radeon RX 7700 / RX 7800 series support and delivers on other improvements…
Source: Phoronix – AMDVLK 2023.Q3.3 Released With Radeon RX 7700 / 7800 Series Support
Netflix is shipping its final DVD rentals, marking the end of an era that helped make the company the streaming behemoth it is today. “Netflix will mail its final DVD on September 29, 2023,” the company said in a post on X yesterday. “But the red envelope remains an enduring symbol of our love of entertainment.”
Netflix announced in April this year that it would shut down its DVD rental business on September 29, saying the shrinking demand for physical rentals is making it “increasingly difficult” to offer the quality of service it wants. The company shipped its first disc (Beetlejuice) in 1998, and has since shipped 5.2 billion movies in those red envelopes to more than 40 million customers.
Netflix will mail its final DVD on September 29, 2023.
But the red envelope remains an enduring symbol of our love of entertainment. pic.twitter.com/vVdjuhJvrb
— Netflix (@netflix) September 28, 2023
DVD rentals paved the way for Netflix to introduce streaming on-demand in 2007, and it quickly grew to become the company’s most popular offering by 2009. The rest is history, as Netflix gradually expanded to produce its own streaming content and now counts over 238 million subscribers. Meanwhile, DVD rentals (which shifted to DVD.com) have gradually become a minor part of Netflix. And while video purists still love DVDs and Blu-rays, sales worldwide dropped 19 percent from 2021 to 2022 alone. In one recent blow, Disney announced that it was halting DVD and Blu-ray production in Australia.
While it’s sadly the end of an era, there is one silver lining. This summer, Netflix announced that anyone who still has a rental will be able to keep their discs, and can even request up to 10 more movies so that the company can clear out its stock. “Please enjoy your final shipments for as long as you like,” the company posted on X.