US President Donald Trump has announced new tariffs on Nvidia and AMD as part of a novel scheme to enact a deal with the technology giants to take a 25 percent cut of sales of their AI processors to China.
In December, the White House said it would allow Nvidia to start shipping its H200 chips to China, reversing a policy that prohibited the export of advanced AI hardware. However, it demanded a 25 percent cut of the sales.
The new US tariffs on certain chips, announced on Wednesday, were designed to implement these payments and protect the unusual arrangement from legal challenges, according to several industry executives.
Verizon confirmed that it has resolved a frustrating service outage that left many wireless subscribers scrambling through posts on social media to see what was going on. Details are still light, but those who found their way to X (formerly Twitter) in search of answers on why their service suddenly went dark would have seen rivals AT&T and
White-collar workers stuck in a cycle of layoffs and stagnant wages might want to look past the traditional tech, finance and media job postings to an unexpected source of opportunity: the blue-collar sector, which faces a labor shortage and is seeing rapid transformation through private-equity investment. These jobs are generally less vulnerable to AI, and the earning trajectory can be steep, the WSJ writes.
At Crash Champions, a car-repair chain that has grown from 13 locations in 2019 to about 650 shops across 38 states, service advisers start at roughly $60,000 after a six-month apprenticeship and can double that within 18 months, according to CEO Matt Ebert. Directors overseeing multiple locations earn more than $200,000. Power Home Remodeling, a PE-backed construction company, says tech sales professionals earning $85,000 to $100,000 could make lateral moves after a 10-week training program.
The share of workers in their early 20s employed in blue-collar roles rose from 16.3% in 2019 to 18.4% in 2024, according to ADP — five times the increase among 35- to 39-year-olds.
After a widely hyped and successful Kickstarter campaign, Valerion’s 4K VisionMaster Max laser projector has finally arrived. It’s the company’s new flagship model in the VisionMaster series, offering better image quality and more convenience than its other models. However, it’s quite expensive and has some stiff competition from Anker’s Nebula X1 and XGIMI’s Horizon 20 Max.
I was eager to see how it compared to those models and if it delivers on Valerion’s promise of “pure cinema.” It does offer better image quality, but the difference isn’t quite enough to justify the big jump in price for most users.
Features and design
The VisionMaster Max has a classy squarish design with a glossy black finish up front and chrome fins on the side that house two 12W speakers. It’s smaller and fit my decor better than Nebula’s tall, plasticky X1, though to be fair the latter is also designed for outdoor use. The VisionMaster Max has a similar form factor to XGIMI’s Horizon 20 Max, but that model pivots on its stand, while the Valerion uses a kickstand-like support.
For setup, the VisionMaster Max is quite flexible. It comes with a 0.9-1.5x optical zoom, so it can be installed between 7.8 and 13 feet away for a 120-inch screen size, which covers a wide range of scenarios. It also features a +/- 105 percent vertical shift option that helps you get an optically perfect screen fit without moving the projector or employing digital “keystone” adjustments that affect picture quality.
If that still doesn’t work, you can swap out the included lens with a long-throw 0.9-2.0:1 option once it becomes available. The company has even promised an anamorphic lens for users with CinemaScope screens. Both of those items will be available for purchase separately with the prices yet to be disclosed.
Steve Dent for Engadget
For my space, I placed the VisionMaster Max on a table about 12 feet from my 120-inch screen and centered it horizontally as there’s no horizontal shift option (it can also be ceiling mounted, of course). Then, I went into the auto-alignment setting, made sure that the projected image was larger than my screen and hit “start alignment” to get a perfect fit to my screen. Though it lacks a motorized lens gimbal like the Nebula X1, the lens shift option provides the same flexibility, so setup was just as easy.
For inputs, the VisionMaster Max comes with three HDMI 2.1 ports, including one with eARC for a sound bar, along with S/PDIF optical and 3.5mm audio outputs. Impressively, it includes a gigabit ethernet connection so you can either hardwire it to the internet or connect via Wi-Fi.
The VisionMaster Max lacks liquid cooling like the Nebula X1, but Valerion claims a similar fan noise level of 28db. When I compared them side by side, it was only a touch louder than the X1 and not at all bothersome.
Google TV is built in for streaming and projector control via the high-quality, partially backlit remote. It provides a large library of apps via Google Play along with a familiar interface. You get certified versions of Netflix, YouTube, Prime Video, Disney+, Max and others, plus Chromecast and AirPlay support, and Google Assistant for voice control. With 4GB of RAM and 128GB of ROM, the software felt a bit more responsive than Google TV on the Nebula X1.
Image quality
Steve Dent for Engadget
The VisionMaster Max has a number of features designed to optimize image quality. It’s one of the few consumer projectors with a dynamic iris and a feature called Enhanced Black Level (EBL) for improved contrast. It uses an RGB triple-laser light source (rated for 25,000 hours) paired with a 0.47-inch DLP chip that projects 1080p natively or 4K video via pixel shifting. This same chip is used on almost every consumer-level 4K projector, but XGIMI’s upcoming Titan Noir Max projector will pack a much larger 0.78-inch DMD chip that should deliver a sharper picture.
The VisionMaster Max also supports every HDR format, including Dolby Vision and Samsung’s HDR10+, along with Valerion’s own tone-mapping HDR setting. You can choose from seven picture modes for SDR, eight for HDR, three for Dolby Vision and four for HDR10+. The projector handled most HDR content well, though it occasionally lost detail in extra-bright shots. However, that can largely be fixed using the extensive manual color controls.
With all those features, the VisionMaster Max can output 4K 60 fps video at up to 3,500 ANSI lumens with a 50,000:1 contrast ratio, easily besting its main rivals. On top of that, it promises an impressive 110 percent of the Rec.2020 HDR color spectrum, with a delta E (color accuracy) value of less than 0.8 straight out of the box (any delta E less than 2 is undetectable by the human eye). Another key feature is reduction of the rainbow effect that can occur with DLP projectors.
After some fine-tuning that’s typically required with new projectors, I was highly impressed with the image quality. Brightness was high enough in “standard” mode to watch content like sports or TV shows without lowering the blinds, and can be increased if you don’t mind compromising color accuracy.
When used in ideal conditions like a darkened room, the VisionMaster Max’s image quality is the best of any projector I’ve tested to date. In Filmmaker mode (with the EBL setting enabled), contrast levels are outstanding, with true blacks showing in dark-lit scenes instead of the washed-out greys seen on most projectors. However, I kept the EBL mode at the minimum setting as I noticed it caused some color shifting at the other levels. Dynamic iris projectors can cause excessive “pumping” or sudden changes in light levels, but after adjusting the iris to a medium setting, I saw no signs of that.
The famously dark Game of Thrones Night King battle scene was easy to see on the VisionMaster Max.
Steve Dent for Engadget
Color accuracy is outstanding straight out of the box both in HDR and non-HDR modes, particularly, again in Filmmaker mode. Visually, I couldn’t detect any anomalies when looking at color bars or other charts, though my Calibrite Color Checker told me that the gamut of hues was slightly less than what Valerion claims (under 100 percent of BT.2020).
Still, the Max’s high color accuracy allowed me to see TV series and movies exactly as the filmmakers intended for a range of HDR and non-HDR movies including White Lotus season 3, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Andor and Dune 2. The projector’s excellent dynamic range and contrast revealed shadow details in Game of Thrones’ Night King battle, which has famously dark scenes that are difficult to see on some TVs.
I have a slight amount of sensitivity to the “rainbow” effect, but the RBE Reduction feature effectively eliminated that visual artifact for me. However, it also introduced a slight amount of noise, so I disabled it. The feature might be a godsend for some users who are particularly susceptible, but it still needs a bit more refinement.
Audio and gaming
Of all the luxury projectors I’ve tested to date, the VisionMaster Max is the best for gaming — even compared to some dedicated models. It delivers latency as low as 4ms and a refresh rate up to 240Hz at 1080p, and 15ms for 4K at 60Hz. I tested a couple of PC titles including Cyberpunk 2077 and Hollow Knight: Silksong and found them to be as responsive as I’ve seen on any TV, but with far more immersion thanks to the huge, bright and color-accurate image.
Steve Dent for Engadget
You can output audio via the S/PDIF optical output, 3.5mm headphone jack, HDMI 2.1 ports and even USB 3.0 Type A ports. The built-in 12W stereo speakers work well and are fairly loud, so you can use them in a pinch. However, since it supports both DTS:X and Dolby Atmos, you’ll ideally want to connect it to a nice home theater audio system with support for at least 5.1 surround sound.
In comparison, the Nebula X1 doesn’t have Dolby Atmos support, but it does give you the option to purchase and easily connect stereo Bluetooth speakers at a relatively cheap price. For around the same cost as the Valerion Max, Anker is also offering the Nebula X1 Pro that comes with a giant outdoor sound system and does support Dolby Atmos.
Wrap-up
The Valerion VisionMaster Max is a highly capable indoor projector that offers the best image quality I’ve seen thanks to the dynamic iris and Enhanced Black Level features. However, it’s also a lot more expensive than rival models at $5,000. It’s pretty hard to justify that extra money, unless you’re really fussy about picture accuracy and gaming performance, or need other features like the 1Gbps ethernet port.
Most buyers would be better off spending a lot less on Valerion’s own $2,699 VisionMaster Pro2, Anker’s $2,999 Nebula X1 or the $2,999 XGIMI Horizon 20 Max. Again, the difference in picture quality is too slight to justify the huge price jump to the VisionMaster Max. You might also want to wait to see how much XGIMI’s incoming Titan Noir Max 4K costs, as it also offers a dynamic iris but has a much bigger DLP chip.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/home-theater/valerion-visionmaster-max-projector-review-near-perfect-image-quality-comes-at-a-price-140045939.html?src=rss
President Trump has signed a proclamation imposing a 25 percent tariff on “certain advanced computing chips,” the White House has announced. As The New York Times notes, the administration previously threatened much bigger and broader tariffs for chips. Trump even said that he was going to impose a 100 percent tariff on companies unless they invest on semiconductor manufacturing in the United States.
The new tariff will only affect advanced chips imported into the US and are meant to be re-exported to other countries to sell. In its announcement, the White House specifically named AMD MI325X and NVIDIA H200 as two products that will be affected by the tariff. The president recently approved H200 for export to China, saying that it isn’t NVIDIA’s most advanced AI chip anyway and that the company now has newer and more powerful products, such as its Blackwell semiconductors. “[W]e’re going to be making 25 percent on the sale of those chips, basically,” Trump said.
Semiconductors imported into the US for use in products to be sold in America or for use in data centers in the country, will not be affected by the new tariff. “This tariff will not apply to chips that are imported to support the buildout of the US technology supply chain and the strengthening of domestic manufacturing capacity for derivatives of semiconductors,” the White House wrote. But that could still change: The administration said that it may still impose broader tariffs on semiconductor imports and the products that use them in the near future.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/trump-administration-imposes-a-25-percent-tariff-on-high-end-chips-140000138.html?src=rss
Boyd is looking to expand with USA manufacturing. Boyd
Alongside its established alloy rim facility, Boyd is introducing carbon fibre production, where its carbon fibre rims will be made.
The Podium 36mm Carbon Disc SL features a carbon fibre rim construction with a 36mm rim depth and a 24mm internal width, optimised for 28-38mm tyres.
The rims are hooked carbon tubeless. Boyd
Boyd says the rim uses aerospace-grade T1000 carbon fibre in high-stress zones, with high-modulus carbon fibres placed at strategic cross angles in the layup.
Boyd says the wheels are hand-built for long-term durability. Boyd
This is said to result in an impact resistance exceeding 110 joules, more than 2.5 times the UCI’s requirement of 40 joules.
Multi-angle spoke hole reinforcement is used to distribute spoke tension forces across multiple directions.
This is said to enable higher, more stable spoke tension without adding unnecessary mass.
24 Pillar Wing 20 spokes pull the wheels together. Boyd
Alongside the new carbon rim, the brand has also released new Grade 36 and Grade 54 hub platforms, with the Podium 36mm Carbon Disc SL wheels using the later, which boasts 6.6° engagement.
The hubs weigh 85g for the front and 185g for the rear, and inside Enduro ABEC-5 bearings are used for rolling performance and longevity.
The wheels are priced at £1,860 / $2,100 / €2,150.
Say what you will about AI (and I’ve said plenty) but the progress in transcription and speech-to-text software is genuinely impressive. Whereas before such software was either clumsy or expensive, there are now all kinds of great open source tools that work well.
Which brings me to Pipit, a free Mac dictation app that works offline, meaning it’s totally private. Even more interesting, it can be used to do more than just transcribe speech—it can launch apps, toggle settings, and even launch a web search or query an AI service.
The first time you open the application, it will ask for permission to use your microphone before downloading the Parakeet model for offline transcription. Once everything is set up you can use the application by pressing and holding the Option key, then talking—the application will record what you say, turn that into text, and paste the text into the currently active text field.
I’ve been trying this for a couple of days and find that the transcriptions are generally pretty accurate, complete with punctuation. There is optional post-processing, which can turn unstructured speech into a properly formatted document, but using that requires an OpenRouter API key.
The settings window lets you change the trigger key, choose an input device, and toggle the menu bar icon. There’s also a tool for transcribing audio files, complete with speaker identification. Just drag over a file and you get a transcription.
The uploads screen for Pipit, allowing you to transcribe audio files. Credit: Justin Pot
Finally, on the Enhance tab, you can enable the Quick Actions feature. This allows you to verbally tell your computer what to do and see it happen. To use this, start transcription as normal, but say something like “open Safari” to open an app or “ask Claude” followed by a question to launch a conversation with that AI assistant in your browser. It’s a little gimmicky, granted, but I enjoyed using it.
The voice commands you can use with Pipit, as seen in the settings. Credit: Justin Pot
It’s excellent that tools like this are broadly free now, and Pipit has an interesting collection of features.
OpenAI has debuted a dedicated ChatGPT-powered translation tool. While folks have been using the main chatbot for translation for some time, you can now find ChatGPT Translate on its own webpage, as Android Authority spotted.
The tool can translate text, voice inputs and images into more than 50 languages in seconds, OpenAI says. There’s an automatic language detection function too.
Most interestingly, ChatGPT Translate can rewrite the output to take various contexts and tones into account, much in the same way that more general text-generating AI tools can do. With a single tap, it can rewrite the translation into something “more fluent,” for a business formal audience, to make it more child-friendly or for academic purposes. The tool’s webpage says ChatGPT Translate understands “tone, idioms and context.”
While those tone and context considerations are intriguing, ChatGPT Translate is a little underbaked compared with the likes of Google Translate — which has been around for decades and just got its own Gemini-based makeover with better support for understanding idioms and slang. The desktop version of ChatGPT Translate does not yet allow for voice inputs, though the mobile one does, as Android Authority notes. Despite claims that ChatGPT can translate text in an image, there’s currently no way to upload one to the tool. There’s no website, document or handwriting translation support as yet either.
Perhaps most crucially, ChatGPT Translate lives on a webpage right now and there’s no dedicated app. So using it offline appears to be out of the question as things stand. No app with on-device translation support could make ChatGPT Translate a no-go for travelers in rural areas with no Internet access. There’s no support for translating real-time conversations as yet either. Google’s Pixel 10, on the other hand, now supports voice translations for calls.
It’s not exactly clear when ChatGPT Translate debuted — it arrived with zero fanfare from OpenAI. There’s a snapshot of the webpage from November on The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine that looks just like the current one, but that may have simply been a case of OpenAI testing a live version of the tool.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-quietly-rolls-out-a-dedicated-chatgpt-translation-tool-133000974.html?src=rss
Spotify is raising the prices for its premium subscriptions by $1 to $2 across the board, starting this February. Those are similar figures to the company’s last price hike in 2024. Subscribers across the US, Estonia and Latvia will soon receive an email, notifying them that they’ll be paying a larger amount for their February bill.
The streaming service said it’s raising its prices occasionally to “reflect the value that Spotify delivers,” “to continue offering the best possible experience” and to “benefit artists.” It reported last year that it paid out $10 billion to music rights-holders in 2024. However, it’s worth noting that several Grammy-nominated songwriters boycotted an awards event it hosted to protest the supposed decreasing royalties songwriters are getting from Spotify plays.
Subscribers who choose to keep their accounts will now have to pay $13 instead of $12 a month for an individual plan or $7 instead of $6 for a student plan. The Duo plan will now cost users $19 a month instead of $17, while the Family plan will cost them $22, up $2 from its previous price of $20. Meanwhile, those who decide to cancel their plans can follow our guide right here.
Spotify came under fire late last year for running recruitment ads for ICE. It said the advertisements were part of a larger campaign by the US government that ran across platforms, including Meta and Google. The company also recently confirmed that the campaign has ended that there are no ICE ads currently running on the service.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/music/spotifys-getting-a-buck-more-expensive-in-february-132300118.html?src=rss
After reaching a proposed settlement last year, the FTC has banned General Motors from sharing specific consumer data with third parties, TechCrunch reported. The finalized order wraps up one of the more egregious cases of a corporation collecting its customers’ data and then using it against them.
Two years ago, the New York Times report released a report detailing how GM’s OnStar “Smart Driver” program collected and sold detailed geolocation and driving behavior data to third parties, including data brokers. Those brokers in turn sold the data to insurance providers, which jacked up the rates for some drivers based on the data. “It felt like a betrayal,” said a Chevy Bolt owner that saw his insurance rise by 21 percent based on the data. “They’re taking information that I didn’t realize was going to be shared and screwing with our insurance.”
According to the terms of the settlement, GM is barred from sharing specific user data with consumer reporting agencies for a five year period. The automaker is also required to request user permission before collecting, using or sharing vehicle data with any third party. It must do that when a consumer purchases a car at a dealership, with the customer asked in person whether they agree or not with the data collection, GM said.
Some of the settlement is moot as GM stopped its Smart Driver program for all brands in April 2024. The company unenrolled all customers and stopped its third-party relationship with LexisNexis and Verisk, the brokers that sold driver data to insurance companies.
GM faced other actions over the data collection, including lawsuits from Texas, Nebraska and other states. “Our investigation revealed that General Motors has engaged in egregious business practices that violated Texans’ privacy and broke the law. We will hold them accountable,” said Texas AG Ken Paxton at the time.
In a statement to TechCrunch, GM said: “The Federal Trade Commission has formally approved the agreement reached last year with General Motors to address concerns. As vehicle connectivity becomes increasingly integral to the driving experience, GM remains committed to protecting customer privacy, maintaining trust, and ensuring customers have a clear understanding of our practices.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/ftc-finalizes-gm-punishment-over-driver-data-sharing-scandal-130012313.html?src=rss
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Over the weekend, Neel Somani, who is a software engineer, former quant researcher, and a startup founder, was testing the math skills of OpenAI’s new model when he made an unexpected discovery. After pasting the problem into ChatGPT and letting it think for 15 minutes, he came back to a full solution. He evaluated the proof and formalized it with a tool called Harmonic — but it all checked out. “I was curious to establish a baseline for when LLMs are effectively able to solve open math problems compared to where they struggle,” Somani said. The surprise was that, using the latest model, the frontier started to push forward a bit.
ChatGPT’s chain of thought is even more impressive, rattling off mathematical axioms like Legendre’s formula, Bertrand’s postulate, and the Star of David theorum. Eventually, the model found a Math Overflow post from 2013, where Harvard mathematician Noam Elkies had given an elegant solution to a similar problem. But ChatGPT’s final proof differed from Elkies’ work in important ways, and gave a more complete solution to a version of the problem posed by legendary mathematician Paul Erdos, whose vast collection of unsolved problems has become a proving ground for AI.
For anyone skeptical of machine intelligence, it’s a surprising result — and it’s not the only one. AI tools have become ubiquitous in mathematics, from formalization-oriented LLMs like Harmonic’s Aristotle to literature review tools like OpenAI’s deep research. But since the release of GPT 5.2 — which Somani describes as “anecdotally more skilled at mathematical reasoning than previous iterations” — the sheer volume of solved problems has become difficult to ignore, raising new questions about large language models’ ability to push the frontiers of human knowledge.
Somani examined the online archive of more than 1,000 Erdos conjectures. Since Christmas, 15 Erdos problems have shifted from “open” to “solved,” with 11 solutions explicitly crediting AI involvement.
On GitHub, mathematician Terence Tao identifies eight Erdos problems where AI made meaningful autonomous progress and six more where it advanced work by finding and extending prior research, noting on Mastodon that AI’s scalability makes it well suited to tackling the long tail of obscure, often straightforward Erdos problems.
Progress is also being accelerated by a push toward formalization, supported by tools like the open-source “proof assistant” Lean and newer AI systems such as Harmonic’s Aristotle.
Today, we release the last of three special “full map” Rebel Routes. We recently published The Full Makuri and The Full New York, but today’s is the big one, covering every road in Watopia, Zwift’s biggest map!
But first, credit where credit is due: Zwifter Tim Nikkel gets the kudos for putting in the work to devise this route, sharing it with us via the ZwiftMap website. With so many intersections in Watopia, computing the shortest possible route is no easy task. But Tim figured it out!
We’ve released these three “full map” Rebel Routes in hopes that Zwift will adopt them as new fondo routes. It’s been way too long since we’ve had fresh fondos, and there are so many great new roads we could use!
This route in particular would make a splendid Gran Fondo course. It would be the second-longest route in Zwift (behind The PRL Full), with 250 meters more elevation gain than the PRL Full. A difficult but doable challenge for a well-trained rider!
About Rebel Routes
“Rebel Routes” are Zwift rides not available on Zwift’s routes list, thus requiring manual navigation.
The reward for your rebel ride? Exploring a new route, knowing you’ve gone where few Zwifters have gone before. And a Strava segment rank in the tens or hundreds instead of the thousands! Rebel Routes are also included as a separate category on our Veloviewer Route Hunter leaderboard.
Route Description
A complete turn-by-turn tour of this route would take much too much space. So we’ll summarize it instead.
Start by selecting the “Oh Hill No” route from the Watopia route picker.
The Full Watopia is bookended by the biggest climbs in Watopia, starting with The Grade + part of the Epic KOM (including the Radio Tower), and finishing on Alpe du Zwift.
After descending from the Radio Tower, you’ll loop around onto the Epic KOM Bypass road and head to the Mayan Jungle, then down to the southern coast road to take in this long stretch of shoreline.
Continue up and over the rollercoaster road through Titans Grove, then head into Watopia proper to cover most of those roads, including ascending the Volcano KOM. You’re well past the halfway mark!
Descend from the Volcano, head out to cover the Jarvis loop, then ride through the Ocean Blvd tube and hang a right to enter Fuego Flats.
From the Flats to the climbs, you’ll head up the Epic KOM forward, but turn left to head down The Grade, then turn right to descend the Mayan and Itza KOM roads. 20km to go!
Knock out the remaining Mayan Jungle dirt, then turn right and head up the Alpe. The route finishes at the top.
Please note that the Strava segment includes the turnaround road atop the Alpe, because we figured everyone would ride that road anyway as they finish their climb and want to come around to descend the Alpe. Being at the top of the Alpe means you get another ~12.5km of distance once the route finishes, if you just let your avatar coast to the bottom. Why not? You earned it!
Speaking of turnaround roads, it’s worth mentioning that this route doesn’t attempt to cover every bit of pavement on the roundabouts and turnarounds in Fuego Flats, the LAX Roundabout, and Ciudad La Cumbre. Doing so would add significant distance, and these are really just turnaround points built into the game.
Turn By Turn Directions
Be warned: this route has a lot of turns. Begin by choosing the Oh Hill No route, which starts you at the base of The Grade, heading in the right direction.
Meta and EssilorLuxottica are potentially set to double the expected production target for their smart glasses, according to a recent Bloomberg report.
Citing people familiar with the matter, the report maintains Meta has suggested increasing annual capacity to 20 million units by the end of 2026, as the company hopes to seize growing consumer interest in smart glasses.
Additionally, the report maintains that, provided demand is strong, capacity could exceed 30 million units. Talks are said to still be ongoing, Bloomberg says.
Meta Ray-Ban Display & Neural Band | Photo by Road to VR
The 10 million figure already represented a significant push past its 2 million units sold following the 2023 release of the first-gen Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.
Currently, Meta and EssilorLuxottica offer two fundamental smart glasses types: audio-only AI centric frames, styled in both Oakley and Ray-Ban variants, and Meta Ray-Ban Display, which includes a single full-color display embedded in the right lens.
This comes amid news that Meta is pausing the international rollout of the $800 Meta Ray-Ban Display smart glasses, which was set to arrive in the UK, France, Italy and Canada sometime in early this year. The company maintains the pause was due to “unprecedented demand and limited inventory.”
Meanwhile, Meta is laying off around 10 percent of staff at its Reality Labs XR division, according to a New York Times report. The move is seen as a strategic shift, moving focus from VR and its metaverse ambitions to AI and smart glasses.
On the first day of this year’s Mille Miglia, a voice rose from the crowds gathered on the shore of Lago di Garda to shout “no sound, no feeling!”at my Polestar 3. Italians love their cars, and they revealed a clear preference for internal combustion engines over the next four days and over 1,200 km of driving. But plenty of other spectators smiled and waved, and some even did a double-take at seeing an electric vehicle amid the sea of modern Ferraris and world-class vintage racers taking on this modern regulation rally.
I flew to Italy to join the Mille Miglia “Green,” which, for the past five years, has sought to raise awareness of sustainability and electric cars amid this famous (some might say infamous) race. And despite mixed reactions from the Italian crowds, our Polestar 3 performed quite well as it traced a historical route from Brescia to Rome and back.
The route snaked a trail through the Italian countryside based on the original speed race’s first 12 outings, but instead of going for overall pace, we spent five days competing against six other EVs for points based on time, distance, and average speed. Our team included a Polestar 2 and 4, and we faced a Mercedes-Benz G 580 with EQ Technology, an Abarth 600e, a Lotus Eletre, and a BYD Denza Z9GT saloon.
Libvirt 12.0 released today as this open-source virtualization API for management across different virtualization technologies/hypervisors. With libvirt 12.0, improving Bhyve as the FreeBSD hypervisor was a big focus…
