TSMC To Spend $100B On Five New US Chip Factories To Meet Booming AI Demand

TSMC To Spend $100B On Five New US Chip Factories To Meet Booming AI Demand
TSMC announced plans to invest an additional $100 billion on advanced chip manufacturing in the United States, bringing its total US investment to $165 million. As part of the bolstered spending, TSMC will build five new factories, including three fabrication plants and two advanced packaging facilities. It’s also planning to erect a “major

These Exercise-Friendly JBL Earbuds Are $40 Right Now

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.

If you’ve been looking for a solid pair of workout earbuds that won’t slip out mid-burpee, the JBL Endurance Peak 3 is down to $39.95 on Woot (originally $99.99) this month (or until they sell out). That’s a steal for earbuds that scored an Editor’s Choice from PCMag for their workout-friendly design and secure fit. This deal includes a one-year JBL manufacturer warranty, and if you’re an Amazon Prime member, you get free standard shipping (otherwise, it’ll cost you $6).

These wireless earbuds come with ear hooks that wrap snugly around your ears, ensuring they stay put even during the most intense sessions. And unlike some other hook-style earbuds, these reportedly don’t clash with glasses frames (an underrated feature for anyone who wears specs). That said, the ear hooks double as a power switch, turning off when the tips magnetically touch the body of the earpiece—that’s useful in theory, but it can be frustrating if you’re just taking them out for a quick break. Also, the touch controls take some getting used to since the panels have a larger surface area than most earbuds.

Sound-wise, JBL packs a punch with 10mm dynamic drivers that cover the full frequency range from 20Hz to 20KHz (with fully customizable EQ settings in the companion app), delivering a sound profile with strong bass that stays clear of distortion, even at top volume. If you’re an Android user, you’ll appreciate Google Fast Pair for easy setup, though the earbuds stick to basic AAC and SBC codecs—no AptX support here, notes this PCMag review. They do, however, boast an impressive IP68 rating, meaning they’re fully dust-proof and can survive full submersion in water for over 30 minutes. Rain, sweat, or a quick rinse under the tap? No problem. Battery life is another win, with JBL estimating 10 hours per charge, plus an additional 40 hours from the charging case (your mileage may vary depending on usage). So unless you’re planning to run an ultramarathon, you should be covered.

Note: Woot does not ship these earbuds to Alaska, Hawaii, or PO box addresses.

We Probably Won’t See A Console Launch As Good As The Nintendo Switch Ever Again

We’re just a month out from the big Nintendo Direct giving us the full rundown on the Switch 2. Fans have been patiently waiting for the new hardware for years, excited to see what the future holds for the successor to one of the best video game consoles ever made. I’m excited too, but I also know that no matter what…

Read more…

How to Finally Stick With a Fitness Habit

Have you committed to a new habit—exercising, let’s say—but keep falling off the wagon? Do you give up when the going gets tough? Does this whole “pursuing goals” idea seem really daunting? You may have low self-efficacy. But don’t worry: Self-efficacy is something that you can build with practice. Here’s how.

What is self-efficacy?

Self-efficacy, as psychologists understand it, is related to the idea of confidence, but it’s not just being cocky for no reason. It’s a feeling something like determination and related to discipline and motivation.

When you have high self-efficacy, you believe that you can do the thing. Whatever that thing may be. Maybe you’re just getting started on a long journey, but you know you’ll make it to the end. You see the obstacles in your path as speed bumps, not barriers. If you run into a problem, you’ll find a way to solve it. You just know you will.

These beliefs aren’t something you’re born with or something you get from luck or miracles. You build them over time, with practice and experience.

At the heart of self-efficacy is the idea that you can control what you do, and that you can control at least some of the things around you in your life. If there’s a snowstorm on the day you were going to go to the gym, for example, you don’t just give up on exercise for the week. You might rearrange your schedule so you can go another day, or you might do a home workout, or you might just remind yourself that your routine will survive a missed day and that your long-term plan is still on track.

Here are some of the ways that psychologists say we can build self-efficacy:

Congratulate yourself for small wins

Past successes are fuel for future success. This applies to tiny things like habits: If you managed to make it to the gym once, it’s a lot easier to show up on day two.

It also applies to bigger projects. If you did a beginner running program and “graduated” by running a 5K race, that’s huge. You learned that you can follow a program. You learned that you can run farther than you ever thought you could. You learned what it feels like to go out for a run when you’re tired, but finish anyway. You learned what that finish-line glow of accomplishment really feels like. And you can harness all of that, all over again, when you start working on a new goal.

Another thing I like to do, especially when I haven’t seen success in something lately, is to look for things I can be proud of in the process. I didn’t lift the 140-pound log at my last strongman meet, but I hit 127 pounds in training, which is a hell of a lot more than I could do when I started.

Watch people doing the thing you want to do

The second-best thing to reflecting on your own past experiences is to vicariously experience others’ success. You’ll want to choose your role models carefully; pay attention to who really inspires you.

For some people, looking up to a world-class athlete can inspire them in the gym. For others, it can be helpful to look at somebody who is closer to you in skill level or experience. When your buddy hits a new deadlift PR, you’ll cheer for them, right? Even though you weren’t the person walking up to the bar, you’ve still experienced a taste the whole rollercoaster of emotions from being nervous at the attempt to celebrating the success.

Seek out people who encourage you

Believing in yourself doesn’t have to be a solo project. Just as you can cheer on a gym buddy, your buddy can cheer you on as well. Also, make an effort to seek out instructors, coaches, and mentors who make you feel unstoppable. If somebody you trust thinks that you can do something, you’ll start to believe it too.

Visualize success (and failure)

When you’re trying to stay on a path, it helps to know where that path leads. What will it look like to make it to your goal? How will you feel when you cross that finish line, when you lift that goal weight, when you’ve been eating vegetables with your meals for a whole year?

While you’re at it—if you’re ready for this—also imagine scenarios where you’re trying to do the thing and you momentarily can’t. How will you feel if you get injured, if a vacation knocks you off track, or if your gym buddy stops being able to come with you on deadlift day? Your plan is big enough to survive these obstacles, but it will help to think them through ahead of time and plan out how you will handle them. Then, when the time comes, you won’t hesitate to execute your plan.

Google Releases SpeciesNet, an AI Model Designed To Identify Wildlife

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Google has open sourced an AI model, SpeciesNet, designed to identify animal species by analyzing photos from camera traps. Researchers around the world use camera traps — digital cameras connected to infrared sensors — to study wildlife populations. But while these traps can provide valuable insights, they generate massive volumes of data that take days to weeks to sift through. In a bid to help, Google launched Wildlife Insights, an initiative of the company’s Google Earth Outreach philanthropy program, around six years ago. Wildlife Insights provides a platform where researchers can share, identify, and analyze wildlife images online, collaborating to speed up camera trap data analysis.

Many of Wildlife Insights’ analysis tools are powered by SpeciesNet, which Google claims was trained on over 65 million publicly available images and images from organizations like the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, the Wildlife Conservation Society, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, and the Zoological Society of London. Google says that SpeciesNet can classify images into one of more than 2,000 labels, covering animal species, taxa like “mammalian” or “Felidae,” and non-animal objects (e.g. “vehicle”). SpeciesNet is available on GitHub under an Apache 2.0 license, meaning it can be used commercially largely sans restrictions.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

“Never Give Up”: Meta CTO Responds To Leaked “Legendary Misadventure” Memo Discourse

Meta’s CTO has responded to the negative discourse around his leaked “2025: The Year of Greatness” memo.

In the viral memo from November which leaked last month, Andrew Bosworth told the staff of Meta Reality Labs, the company’s hardware and metaverse division, that 2025 will determine whether it’s “the work of visionaries or a legendary misadventure”.

But one line in the memo sparked particular concern from the XR community, wherein Bosworth declared that “Horizon Worlds on mobile absolutely has to break out for our long term plans to have a chance”. For some, this was interpreted as a sign that Meta might ditch its Quest headset efforts if Horizon Worlds on smartphones isn’t a major success.

Meta CTO: 2025 Will Determine Whether AR/VR Bet Is Visionary Or “A Legendary Misadventure”
In a leaked memo, Meta’s CTO told staff that 2025 will determine whether its hardware & metaverse division is “the work of visionaries or a legendary misadventure”.

Now, a month after the memo leaked, Andrew Bosworth has responded to these concerns in an answer to a question during his latest Instagram “ask-me-anything” session.

“Social connection has always been the core of what we do, and owning the social substrate of whatever the next platform is, that’s always going to be important,” Bosworth explains.

“So I think we probably never give up. Never, never, never give up!”



0:00

/1:00





Bosworth’s full response.

“One of the problems with reading these kinds of internal documents is that you don’t always get the full context,” he continues. “The context around it collapses.”

Internal all-hands memos are often rallying cries to staff, akin to a general riling up an army before a battle, rather than literal expressions of a company’s exact position, and Bosworth seems to be suggesting that his memo is no different.

“For us, the real context of that memo is that this is an exciting year. It really feels like a lot of things are breaking our way.”

“Is this a make-or-break year? Well, sometimes they all are.”

The Morning After: At MWC 2025, Lenovo is experimenting with its screens, a lot

Lenovo hasn’t even released its futuristic laptop with a rollable screen, but it’s rejigged all those parts into a whole new thing for MWC in Barcelona. Officially called the ThinkBook codename Flip AI PC Proof of concept (no typos), the laptop uses the same flexible OLED in its rollable, revealed earlier. However, instead of disappearing inside its chassis, the display folds outwards. This allows what is normally a 13-inch panel to double to 18.1 inches. Notably, because the Flip’s screen bends instead of sliding in and out of the bottom half of the system, Lenovo can use the panel’s full area.

And, just to drill home that it’s a concept, Lenovo also added a Smart ForcePad, with a three-layer illuminated dashboard with customizable controls and icons.

TMA
Engadget

Then there’s the Lenovo ThinkBook 16P, which ostensibly is a lot like other 16-inch ThinkBooks. But, if you use the company’s Magic Bay docking system, you can really amp up the screen space. The Magic Bay 2nd Display Concept is a small 8-inch screen that attaches magnetically to the ThinkBook 16P, while the Magic Bay Dual Display Concept adds two 13.3-inch panels that flank the notebook’s primary screen, giving you that true I’m-a-00s-hacker aesthetic in your local coffee shop.

Sadly, the ThinkBook 16P Gen 6 is not slated to be available in North America, so it may have to be a Parisian cafe. Or a cafetería in Barcelona?

— Mat Smith

Get this delivered direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here!

The biggest tech stories you missed


Employees with the Federal Aviation Administration were reportedly told on Friday to “begin finding tens of millions of dollars for a Starlink deal,” after The Washington Post reported the FAA may cancel its $2.4 billion contract with Verizon to overhaul the US’s airspace management systems and go with Elon Musk’s company instead.

This was a few days after Musk claimed on X that the situation around air traffic control communications is “extremely dire,” saying the existing system (which he wrongly attributed to Verizon before, later adding a correction) is “breaking down very rapidly.”

Hundreds of FAA employees were fired in February by Musk’s DOGE.

Continue reading.


TMA
Engadget

The Galaxy A56 has broken cover and will be available later this year, starting at $499 (or £499 in the UK), which is slightly cheaper than the Pixel 8a at launch. Samsung also announced the Galaxy A36 and A26 today, starting at $399 and $299, respectively. (But, Mat whispers, don’t bother with those.) The A56 is thinner than its predecessor, down to 7.4mm. The phone has a brushed metal frame and a minor design twist: a slightly protruding bump on the side where the volume and power buttons sit.

The front of the A56 now has a lower-res 12-megapixel selfie camera, while on the back sits an upgraded 12MP ultrawide, 50MP main sensor with an f/1.8 lens and optical image stabilization. There’s still a 5MP macro lens for someone out there. Those new cameras feature many of the latest upgrades on the S25 family, including improved image signal processing for better low-light performance, as well as a raft of AI features.

I’d argue not to hit the pre-order button just yet: It’s peak midrange phone season. The Galaxy A56 goes up against the iPhone 16e, while rumors suggest Google’s Pixel 9a could break cover very soon. Oh, and there’s challenger Nothing, with its 3a series set to be revealed later today.

Continue reading.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-121633661.html?src=rss

Waymo and Uber’s Austin robotaxi expansion begins today

Waymo and Uber’s robotaxi service is launching today in Austin, exclusively in the Uber app. The companies announced their plan to expand to Austin and Atlanta in September 2024, and Waymo raised a cool $5.6 billion in October to help pay for it.

Unlike the Waymo One service offered to riders in San Francisco and Los Angeles, interested Austin riders will get a chance to ride in a Waymo just by ordering an UberX, Uber Green, Uber Comfort or Uber Comfort Electric ride, similar to how things are handled in Phoenix. You’re not guaranteed to receive a Waymo when you do order one of those rides, but Uber says you can increase your chances of receiving one by changing your “Ride Preferences” in the app. Upfront prices remain the same whether you get a Waymo or not, though if you do end up in a robotaxi, you won’t be prompted to tip. You’ll use the Uber app to unlock the Waymo, open its trunk and start your ride, too.

How Waymo rides appear in the Uber app.
Uber / Engadget

Uber says Waymo One will cover 37 square miles in Austin, and in a first for the company, Waymo vehicles themselves will be stored, cleaned and maintained by a third-party partner, Avomo, theoretically making the experience even more taxi-like than before.

Waymo won’t be the only major self-driving shop offering rides in Austin. Tesla’s robotaxi service is supposed to launch in the Texas capital in June. They’re not evenly matched so far, though. In May 2024, Waymo said it makes 50,000 paid trips every week. It remains to be seen how quickly Tesla will reach the same scale. For its part, Uber has expressed interest in offering Tesla rides through its app, too, though so far the EV company is operating on its own.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/waymo-and-ubers-austin-robotaxi-expansion-begins-today-120035908.html?src=rss

Quest+ Catalog Gets Job Simulator, Ghosts Of Tabor, Eleven Table Tennis

Job Simulator, Ghosts of Tabor, and Eleven Table Tennis have all been added to the Meta Quest+ games catalog.

For the unfamiliar, the Meta Quest+ subscription offers two pre-selected games each month alongside a rotating selection of titles in its Games Catalog. After confirming sports hit GOLF+ and VR roguelike The Light Brigade as the latest Quest+ monthly games, Meta’s now introduced three new titles to the catalog alongside this.

Initially spotted on X (via @Martin76x), this includes two of VR’s more established older hits that first released in 2016. Job Simulator by Owlchemy Labs needs little introduction for most, and it’s joined by Eleven Table Tennis from For Fun Labs. Then we have Combat Waffle Studios’ more recent extraction-based shooter, Ghosts of Tabor, which reached $20 million in revenue last September.

Elsewhere with the Quest+ games catalog, there are a few differences between the February and March lineups. We’re not sure exactly when they were removed, but 2MD: VR Football Unleashed ALL☆STAR, Fruit Ninja, Jurassic World Aftermath Collection and Until You Fall have left. However, other new games include Angry Birds VR, Broken Edge, Espire 2, and Mini Motor Racing X.

The Quest+ Monthly Games For March Have Been Revealed
From a golfing hit to a roguelike shooter, these are the Meta Quest+ monthly games for March.

‘Stranger Things VR’ Studio’s Next Project ‘Face Jumping’ Looks Like Another Patently Weird VR Experience

Tender Claws, the studio behind Stranger Things VR (2024) and Virtual Virtual Reality (2017), announced they’re debuting another patently weird VR experience at SXSW this week, which is all about swapping perspectives by making eye contact.

The VR experience, called Face Jumping, certainly sounds like another one of Tender Claws’ wildly inventive experiments into virtual reality, as it’s debuting alongside a host of others in the XR Experience Exhibition at SXSW’s Fairmont location next week.

The 30-minute experience is slated to serve up eye-tracked interactions that lets the player change perspectives by making eye contact with characters, animals, and objects. The studio says Face Jumping invites players to “reflect on the act of seeing and being seen, evoking questions about perception, consciousness, and how we connect to others through a glance.”

While most recently known for developing Stranger Things VR, the LA-based studio was also behind the mind-bending theatrical experience The Under Presents (2019), which included live performers interacting with at-home users.

It calls Face Jumping “a return to Tender Claws’ roots in experimental storytelling, multi-layered narratives, and absurdist explorations of technology and human connection.”

Tender Claws hasn’t revealed whether it’s releasing Face Jumping beyond the experience’s debut at SXSW, which will be open to badge holders on March 9th – 11th in Austin, Texas.

Since it primarily makes use of eye-tracking, it could hypothetically come to any number of platforms, including Apple Vision Pro, Meta Quest Pro, and PSVR 2. We’ve reached out to the studio to clarify this, and will update this piece when/if we know more.

The post ‘Stranger Things VR’ Studio’s Next Project ‘Face Jumping’ Looks Like Another Patently Weird VR Experience appeared first on Road to VR.

Linux’s AMD Radeon Vulkan Driver Adds Experimental Support For The BC-250 Mining Board

The AMD BC-250 is a crypto mining GPU launched by AMD back during the Bitcoin mining craze when it was profitable using GPUs for mining. At its heart is a Navi “RDNA1” GPU similar to the APU found within the Sony PlayStation 5. The AMD BC-250 can be found used these days for $50~100 USD and with the latest open-source Mesa graphics driver code for Linux systems can now be used with the Vulkan API for graphics/gaming…