In addition to announcing the Core Ultra “Meteor Lake” processors, Intel’s AI Everywhere event in New York City also served as the launch point for 5th Gen Xeon Scalable “Emerald Rapids” server processors. Emerald Rapids is an incremental improvement over Sapphire Rapids with emboldened AI capabilities, energy efficiency improvements, and now up to 64 cores per socket.
Source: Phoronix – Intel Launches 5th Gen Xeon Scalable “Emerald Rapids” Server Processors
Monthly Archives: December 2023
Intel Announces Xeon E-2400 & Xeon D-1800/D-2800 CPUs
While Intel’s AI Everywhere event today was primarily focused on Core Ultra “Meteor Lake” laptop processors and 5th Gen Xeon Scalable “Emerald Rapids” processors, Intel also briefly announced their newest Xeon D and Xeon E series processors…
Source: Phoronix – Intel Announces Xeon E-2400 & Xeon D-1800/D-2800 CPUs
The Apple Watch Ultra 2 Just Hit Its Lowest Price Yet
Apple is notoriously stingy with their discounts, the idea being that it will keep the perception of high value and exclusivity. It has clearly worked for them thus far. That’s why it’s surprising to see that their latest top-of-the-line smartwatch, the Apple Watch Ultra 2, released fewer than three months ago, is already discounted $100 off its $799 price tag. To get it for $699 (the lowest price it has ever been, according to Camelcamelcamel’s price history), you will need to click the on-screen $50 coupon before adding the smartwatch to your Amazon cart.
Apple’s latest and highest-tier smartwatch
The Apple Watch Ultra 2 was released in September of this year and is Apple’s flagship smartwatch. It is different than the previous first-generation Apple Watch Ultra, which you can find for $659 at Best Buy;but for $40 more, you might as well get the latest one. It’s also different from the Apple Watch Series 9, which you can get for $449 on Amazon right now. If you’re looking for a budget-friendly Apple watch, consider the second generation Apple Watch SE available for $199 (originally $249). Just keep in mind that this one will arrive after Christmas.
The Apple Watch Ultra 2 is packed with fitness-focused features, but even if you aren’t a health nut, it still has a lot of great features for casual users as well. People who want a reliable sleep tracker can learn a lot about their sleep habits with the Ultra 2 as long as they keep it well-charged. And the great thing is that Apple is still upgrading their watchOS 10.2, listening to their users, and improving it little-by-little.
The model currently available for $699 is the larger size, which fits people with wrists measuring 165 to 210mms. The medium size, for those with wrists measuring 145 to 190mms, is $729.99 after applying the same $50 on-screen discount.
Source: LifeHacker – The Apple Watch Ultra 2 Just Hit Its Lowest Price Yet
Intel Launches Core Ultra "Meteor Lake" Mobile Processors
At Intel’s AI Everywhere event they officially launched their new Core Ultra branded Meteor Lake processors that will begin appearing in new laptops. Intel Core Ultra aims to deliver their most power efficient client processors, deliver around twice the GPU performance of existing integrated graphics, and via the NPU feature more robust AI capabilities.
Source: Phoronix – Intel Launches Core Ultra “Meteor Lake” Mobile Processors
Lenovo's Latest Laptops Tap Intel's Meteor Lake CPUs To Drive New AI Experiences On PC
As you may have heard, today is launch day for Intel’s Core Ultra processors, likely better known by their codename, Meteor Lake. These parts are not only Intel’s first disaggregated design, but also the company’s first CPUs to include a bespoke Neural Processing Unit (NPU) designed to accelerate AI processing. Naturally, Lenovo is updating
Source: Hot Hardware – Lenovo’s Latest Laptops Tap Intel’s Meteor Lake CPUs To Drive New AI Experiences On PC
Intel Core Ultra Meteor Lake Mobile CPUs Launch With Gaming Grade iGPU And AI Brawn
If you’re a regular HotHardware reader, we probably don’t have to explain to you that Intel’s new Core Ultra processors launching today were codenamed Meteor Lake, and that they represent not only Intel’s first “disaggregated” consumer CPUs built from disparate tiles, but also the debut of Intel’s “Intel 4” process technology.
We’re not
Source: Hot Hardware – Intel Core Ultra Meteor Lake Mobile CPUs Launch With Gaming Grade iGPU And AI Brawn
Overclocking AMD Blows a Fuse
Certain Threadripper 7000 Series processors contain fuses that permanently blow when the processor gets overclocked.
The post Overclocking AMD Blows a Fuse appeared first on FOSS Force.
Source: FOSS Force – Overclocking AMD Blows a Fuse
Razer Turns A Lexus TX Into A Luxury Gaming Vehicle With RGB, Do You Dig It?
Razer and Lexus sounds like an unlikely partnership, right? Well, this concept gaming vehicle may change your mind. Simply dubbed the Razer Lexus TX, it shows off what happens when you combine luxury with serious gaming aspirations on-the-go.
Revealed at the 2023 Esports Awards Show in Las Vegas recently, the Lexus-Razer gaming vehicle
Source: Hot Hardware – Razer Turns A Lexus TX Into A Luxury Gaming Vehicle With RGB, Do You Dig It?
How to Change a Password in Linux
Quick guide covering a few command-line examples on how to change a user password in Linux.
Source: LXer – How to Change a Password in Linux
LinkedIn Shelved Planned Move To Microsoft Azure, Opting To Keep Physical Data Centers
LinkedIn has set aside an effort to relocate its data center technology out of its physical facilities and into Microsoft’s Azure cloud, CNBC reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. From a report: The decision not to proceed with the project, code-named “Blueshift,” marks a major reversal for LinkedIn, which announced its plan to move to Azure in 2019, three years after Microsoft acquired the company for $27 billion. LinkedIn had been using Azure for specific tasks.
The U-turn represents a setback for Microsoft, which is chasing Amazon
Web Services in the lucrative cloud infrastructure market and has been counting on cloud technology and services to fuel much of its growth. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella ran the cloud business before elevation to his current job in 2014. Mohak Shroff, LinkedIn’s vice president of engineering, wrote in a 2019 blog post announcing Blueshift that “moving to Azure will give us access to a wide array of hardware and software innovations, and unprecedented global scale.” Staffers started to learn of the decision not to follow through with the Azure migration last year, said the sources, who asked not to be named because of confidentiality. Executives stressed that the project was being put on hold, rather than getting canceled altogether, they said.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – LinkedIn Shelved Planned Move To Microsoft Azure, Opting To Keep Physical Data Centers
What People Are Getting Wrong This Week: The 'War on Christmas'
It’s the holiday season, so I thought I’d take a look at the state of the supposed “War on Christmas.” I was hoping to point to a bunch of outrageous beliefs religious people have about Christmas this year, but instead, it seems the furor over the holiday being under siege has died down.
This is not, however, a sign of progress.
The War on Christmas isn’t new
The phrase “War on Christmas” originated in 2000 on this blog post by Peter Brimelow, but it caught on shortly after a 2004 broadcast by Bill O’Reilly featuring a segment called “Christmas Under Siege.”
“All over the country, Christmas is taking flak,” Reilly intoned, before pointing out that cities were erecting “holiday trees” instead of “Christmas trees” and pointing out instances of public schools banning religious content. From there, books were written, tweets were tweeted, and outrage was stoked until the phrase “War on Christmas” was known by all.
But the sentiment behind the “War on Christmas” dates back way further than its heyday in the early 2000s, to at least 1921, when noted antisemite (and car manufacturer) Henry Ford wrote: “Last Christmas most people had a hard time finding Christmas cards that indicated in any way that Christmas commemorated Someone’s Birth.”
While O’Reilly and his ilk tend to not specifically name an enemy in the War on Christmas, Ford wasn’t shy. As you might suspect, according to Ford, the Jews were to blame:
Not only do the Jews disagree with Christian teaching — which is their perfect right, and no one dare question it — but they seek to interfere with it. It is not religious tolerance in the midst of religious difference, but religious attack that they preach and practice. The whole record of Jewish opposition to Christmas, Easter and certain patriotic songs shows that.
Post-war America’s religiosity eventually led to prayer and Christmas celebrations in public schools, and that led to a backlash where courts ruled much of it was unconstitutional, and that time of uncertainty led to the publication of ur-War on Christmas texts like the pamphlet “There Goes Christmas?!” by Hubert Kregeloh of the John Birch Society:
The UN fanatics launched their assault on Christmas in 1958, but too late to get very far before the holy day was at hand…They are already busy, however, at this very moment, on efforts to poison the 1959 Christmas season with their high-pressure propaganda. What they now want to put over on the American people is simply this: Department stores throughout the country are to utilize U.N. symbols and emblems as Christmas decorations.
Scary stuff. Still, the John Birch society were not a potent cultural force, and weird ideas about “U.N. fanatics” churned under the surface of the U.S.’s cultural consciousness—until Fox New’s early 2000s ascendency brought them to the surface.
The War on Christmas isn’t over
While the sentiment behind the War on Christmas—”evil globalists/democrats/Jews are oppressing Christians”—is alive and thriving, right now the religious right is quiet about the “War on Christmas” itself, so quiet it’s almost like they’re embarrassed.
The outrage from years past is just gone. Even Starbucks’ once-reliable choice in holiday cup design is failing to rile anyone up—the sources for this recent Sun article with the headline “Starbucks fans continue to boycott the popular chain and slam its ‘War on Christmas’ over controversial cup campaign” are:
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Three links to the Facebook search for the phrase “war on christmas starbucks cups”
Gone are the days when Conservatives could base an entire book on the War on Christmas premise, or political figures could score easy points by promising they’ll bring saying “Merry Christmas” back to the White House (even though it never left). Even the inclusion of a Satanic Christmas tree at a Wisconsin train museum this year didn’t move the outrage needle. The War on Christmas is over, right?
Not exactly. It would be nice to think the people behind popularizing the “War on Christmas” concept have shut up about it because it’s such a ridiculous idea, but really they’ve moved on because it’s not sexy anymore. Consistently generating cultural outrage requires novelty. The enemies—modernity, Jews, “U.N. fanatics,” liberalism, people of color, etc.— remain the same as they were when Henry Ford was around, but they have to be dressed in new costumes or people would stop paying attention. So Bud Light cans take the place of Starbucks cups. New scapegoats replace the old, and new, nonsensical, arguments are constructed. In the 1970s, opponents of the ERA helped shoot down the amendment by repeating the shibboleth that it would result in unisex bathrooms (like you have in your house.) In 2023, it’s “trans people might use a bathroom I don’t approve of!” It’s always bathrooms with these people.
If you miss making fun of people for taking the “War on Christmas” seriously, don’t despair. It will be back. The popularity of using Christmas as a flashpoint for our ongoing cultural conflicts ebbs and flows, but it’s as much of a holiday classic as Maria Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You.” Once people have sufficiently forgotten, some future Henry Ford/Hubert Kregeloh/Bill O’Reilly will say, “Look! The bad people are attacking Christmas!” and the war will be back on. Because it’s not actually a war; it’s just one of a million battles in a war that will never end.
Source: LifeHacker – What People Are Getting Wrong This Week: The ‘War on Christmas’
Kotaku's Best Last-Minute Gaming Gifts Of 2023
It’s that time of year again! By which I mean, that dread-inducing season when you realize the holidays are mere days away, instead of weeks. Maybe you were planning to give that special someone something one-of-a-kind and handmade. Perhaps you’d planned to make a run to the local mall, only for the sweet, sweet siren…
Source: Kotaku – Kotaku’s Best Last-Minute Gaming Gifts Of 2023
Google Chrome's third-party cookie phaseout begins on January 4
It’s finally time. Google already announced that as part of its ongoing “Privacy Sandbox” initiative, it’ll begin to restrict third-party cookies in Chrome starting in Q1 2024, and now, we have the exact launch date: January 4. At first, only a random one percent of Chrome users globally will see “Tracking Protection” enabled in their browser, meaning third-party cookies will be blocked by default. If you happen to be one of these lucky folks, you’ll see a prompt on the address bar indicating as such, thus limiting cross-site tracking in the name of privacy.
Assuming everything goes smoothly, Google will then gradually ramp up the rollout to 100 percent of Chrome users by the second half of 2024. Of course, hiccups are expected during this transitional period. Should you find yourself repeatedly loading a website to no avail, Chrome will let you temporarily re-enable third-party cookies. Simply click on the eye icon on the right side of the address bar to toggle this aging feature.
According to StatCounter’s November 2023 report, Google’s Chrome took up 62.85 percent of the worldwide browser market share, with Apple’s Safari in second place at 20.04 percent, and Microsoft’s Edge in third place at a mere 5.5 percent. Considering that there are billions of Chrome users today, it is perhaps fair for Google to call the initial one-percent rollout “a key milestone” for its “responsible approach to phasing out third-party cookies.”
That said, Google may still face some final hurdles set by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, as well as similar administrations from other countries, which are looking into minimizing the impact on their local ad businesses.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-chromes-third-party-cookie-phaseout-begins-on-january-4-140051834.html?src=rss
Source: Engadget – Google Chrome’s third-party cookie phaseout begins on January 4
Cadillac plans new electric SUV to fit between the Lyriq and Escalade IQ
Enlarge / I’m not 100 percent sure but it looks a lot like the Vistiq will be a three-row SUV. (credit: Cadillac)
Cadillac’s product planners sure love the letter Q. Last year the American luxury automaker started building the Lyriq, a rather competent midsize electric SUV. Last month, it revealed plans for an entry-level electric crossover called the Optiq, that goes on sale next year. And today, it tells us there’s another new SUV due in model year 2026 called the Vistiq.
Size-wize, the Vistiq slots between the Lyriq and the rather ginormous Escalade IQ due for model year 2025—the brand recognition on that name is far too good to Q-icize it directly. Although we have no details other than the model year and the name right now, there’s a fairly good chance the Vistiq will be an electric analogue to the Cadillac XT6.
(Similarly we have no further details on the Optiq yet, other than it will share the same smaller crossover architecture as the forthcoming Chevrolet Equinox and will arrive in 2024.)
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Source: Ars Technica – Cadillac plans new electric SUV to fit between the Lyriq and Escalade IQ
Intel Releases Core Ultra H and U-Series Processors: Meteor Lake Brings AI and Arc to Ultra Thin Notebooks
Intel has released their first mobile processors based on their highly anticipated Meteor Lake platform, the Core Ultra H and the Core Ultra U series. Available today, the Ultra Core H series has four options, including two Ultra 7 16C/22T (6P+8E) SKUs and two 14C/18T (4P+8E) Ultra 5 SKUs, and offers a base TDP of 28 W, with a maximum turbo TDP of up to 115 W. The Core Ultra-H series is designed for ultra-portable notebooks but offers more performance in both computing and graphics within a slimline package.
Also announced is the Intel Core Ultra U-series, which includes four 15/57 W (base/turbo) SKUs, with two Core Ultra 7 and two Core Ultra 5 SKUs, and all coming with a variance in P, E-core and Intel’s latest integrated Arc Xe graphics frequencies. All of Intel’s announced Core Ultra U-series processors for mobile feature 10C/14T, with two Performance cores and eight efficiency cores, making them ideal for lower-powered and ultra-thin notebooks.
The launch of Intel’s tile-based Meteor Lake SoC marks the first step in a series of power-efficient and AI-focused chips on Intel 4 for the mobile market, which is ultimately designed to cater to the growing need to utilize AI inferencing on-chip. Both the Intel Core Ultra H and U families of chips include two new Low Power Island (LP-E) cores for low insensitive workloads, with two Neural Compute Engines within the Intel AI NPU designed to tackle generative AI inferencing.
Source: AnandTech – Intel Releases Core Ultra H and U-Series Processors: Meteor Lake Brings AI and Arc to Ultra Thin Notebooks
Christmas Morning Is Better With Cookie Dough Pancakes
When I was a kid I didn’t really understand the allure of pancakes. They were fine, but I always found them to be disappointingly bland. Then I slept over at a friend’s house and their pancakes had chocolate chips in them. My world changed forever. The fact is, pancakes are better with stuff in them, and there’s no breakfast more important to stuff with surprises than Christmas breakfast. Try this cookie dough pancake recipe and turn any pancake into an extra special breakfast worthy of Christmas morning.
This trick is encouragingly simple. You can make the pancakes any cookie flavor, but it doesn’t actually involve any raw cookie dough. Simply add ground up cookie crumbs to any pancake recipe you like. It’s really as simple as that, along with a little ratio consideration. I made two versions of cookie dough pancakes; I wanted some recognizable cookie flavor, so one recipe used Chips Ahoy cookies, and another used Oreos.
Use a recipe from scratch
To make the Chips Ahoy pancake batter, I started with a basic from-scratch pancake recipe. I measured out the flour, baking powder, and salt. To those dry ingredients I added a cup of ground-up Chips Ahoy cookies. I wanted a 2:1 ratio of flour to cookie crumbs, so I eyeballed it and tossed 12 cookies into a food processor. To make crumbs, just pulse the cookies a few times and then blend them for 15 or 20 seconds. Little chocolate chip pieces are expected to remain. To the crumb-and-flour mixture, add the oil, eggs, and milk. Whisk until combined (a few lumps are okay), and fry on the stovetop as usual.
Use boxed pancake mix
For Oreo-dough pancakes, I used the same ratio and method but this time with complete pancake mix. As expected, it worked like a charm. Actually, I’d like to adjust my grading—it exceeded expectations because Oreos have such a distinct flavor and color. I ground up six Oreos in a food processor until they broke down into a half-cup of small crumbs. Then I mixed the crumbs with a cup of dry pancake mix. I whisked in the water and my batter was thick and dark gray. While that doesn’t sound like anything you’d normally want to eat, it works if it’s Oreo. I let the batter sit for five minutes because Oreos like to absorb liquid, then got to frying my pancakes as I normally do.
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
The Oreo cookie pancakes were the winner for me, but I wouldn’t turn away a plate of Chips Ahoy pancakes either. The only thing that I would do differently for the Oreo pancakes is crush two or three more cookies by hand and mix them into the batter. Similar to how the best part of Oreo ice cream is coming across a cookie hunk, I was craving that experience in my pancakes.
This pancake recipe will work with any type of dry cookie and you can adjust the thickness to make cookie dough waffles too. Keep in mind that different cookies will absorb liquids differently. To adjust for this, add the milk as the final step. Only pour in half at first and then adjust the amount to reach the pancake or waffle consistency you’re looking for. A waffle batter should be thick and mound up when you scoop it. Pancake batter should be a bit thinner and pour like a ribbon, but it shouldn’t be watery.
Cookie Dough Pancake Recipe
Ingredients:
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1 cup cookie crumbs (about 10-12 small cookies)
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2 cups all-purpose flour
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1 scant tablespoon baking powder
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2 tablespoons sugar (optional)
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½ teaspoon salt
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1 tablespoon oil
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2 eggs
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1 ¼ to 2 cups milk (adjust for consistency)
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Butter for frying
1. Add the cookie crumbs to the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar (if using) in a medium-sized bowl. Whisk the ingredients to combine them.
2. Add oil and eggs to the dry mixture, along with about ¾-cup of the milk. Whisk until mostly combined; it’s okay if some dry spots are in the bowl at this point. Drizzle a bit more milk in to reach the consistency you need for pancakes or waffles. You might not need all of the milk.
3. Fry or waffle the batter as you usually would.
Source: LifeHacker – Christmas Morning Is Better With Cookie Dough Pancakes
Google Will Turn Off Cookies for 30 Million People on January 4
Google announced Thursday that it will start its long-anticipated slaughter of the internet’s cookies starting on January 4th, when it will block them for 1% of Chrome users, or about 30 million people. It’s the first major step in its Privacy Sandbox project, which aims to replace cookies with a different kind of…
Source: Gizmodo – Google Will Turn Off Cookies for 30 Million People on January 4
Dropbox Spooks Users With New AI Features That Send Data To OpenAI When Used
Dropbox has enabled a default setting to share user data with OpenAI for an AI search feature, but says it’s only accessed when the feature is used, not to train models, and deleted in 30 days. From a report: Even with assurances of data privacy laid out by Dropbox on an AI privacy FAQ page, the discovery that the setting had been enabled by default upset some Dropbox users. The setting was first noticed by writer Winifred Burton, who shared information about the Third-party AI setting through Bluesky on Tuesday, and frequent AI critic Karla Ortiz shared more information about it on X.
Wednesday afternoon, Drew Houston, the CEO of Dropbox, apologized for customer confusion in a post on X and wrote, “The third-party AI toggle in the settings menu enables or disables access to DBX AI features and functionality. Neither this nor any other setting automatically or passively sends any Dropbox customer data to a third-party AI service.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot – Dropbox Spooks Users With New AI Features That Send Data To OpenAI When Used
God Of War Ragnarök: Valhalla: The Kotaku Review
God of War Ragnarök’s free DLC, Valhalla, is so good I can’t believe it’s free. While the original Ragnarök was robust and a worthy successor to the 2018 reboot, it was also a bloated attempt to wrap up a trilogy’s worth of story in one game. Valhalla, meanwhile, is such a lean encapsulation of everything Ragnarök and…
Source: Kotaku – God Of War Ragnarök: Valhalla: The Kotaku Review
You Can Now Play Xbox Game Pass on Your Meta Quest Headset
One of the best parts of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is that you can play your favorite Xbox games on just about any device, including Androids, iOS devices, a browser on your laptop, and even directly on a Samsung Smart TV.
Starting today, you can the Meta Quest to that list. Now, you can play Xbox Game Pass games on Quest 2, Quest 3, and Quest Pro headsets with the new Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta) app. That includes hundreds of games, such as Starfield, Halo Infinite, and Forza Motorsport, all streamable to your headset on a large virtual screen.
Requirements to use the Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta) app
Before you start using the Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta) app on your Meta Quest headset, there are a couple of requirements. First, you need to be an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscriber. If you’re not, you can join for $1 for your first month and then $16.99 per month after.
Next, you’ll need a supported controller, such as an Xbox controller, PlayStation 4 controller, or Nintendo Switch Pro controller. Meta says that support for the PS5’s DualSense controller is coming in the future. Finally, you’ll need an internet connection speed of 20Mbps or higher.
Recommended products
Pick up any of the three Meta Quest devices to play Xbox Game Pass games (as well as Steam games via Steam Link) in Meta’s VR headset:
Getting started with the Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta) app
After you’ve checked the requirements, getting started with the Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta) app for Meta Quest is fairly easy. First, make sure your Quest headset is running the latest software update (it should be the v60 update).
Then, download the Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta) app on your headset. After that, the app will take you through a setup process to pair your controller to your headset and change settings like your display size and virtual surroundings. If you have a Quest 3 or Quest Pro, you can also play your games in stereoscopic full-color passthrough.
Source: LifeHacker – You Can Now Play Xbox Game Pass on Your Meta Quest Headset