China made the world’s fastest supercomputer using its own chips
There’s a new computing champion… and unlike past years, this one doesn’t depend on any Western tech to crunch numbers. Top500 has declared that China’s Sunway TaihuLight, a 40,960-node system powered entirely by Chinese processors (the 260-core ShenWei 26010), is the world’s fastest supercomputer. And it’s leading by a wide margin, too. At 93 petaflops of processing power, it’s nearly three times more powerful than the previous record-setter, the 33.85-petaflop Tianhe-2.
The new system uses a custom interconnect format to link its nodes, and there’s a custom Linux variant that serves as its software foundation. The technology isn’t especially exotic (the interconnect is based on PCI Express), but it doesn’t need to be to achieve a breakneck pace. It’s even more power-efficient than Tianhe-2 at a relatively modest 15.3 megawatts of energy consumption.
The irony? As Top500 says, a 2015 US embargo may have helped TaihuLight’s chances of claiming the top spot. Many expected Tianhe-2 to get an upgrade to Intel’s Xeon Phi processors and push 100 petaflops, but the trade restriction prevented that from happening. The embargo also persuaded China to step up its processor development, so any successors to TaihuLight might be that much faster. Having said this, TaihuLight may solve engineering and science problems for everyone — we’re not going to knock a supercomputing breakthrough if it’s useful well beyond its native soil.
Via: Popular Mechanics
Source: Top500
What’s on your HDTV: ‘Game of Thrones,’ ‘Mighty No. 9’
As usual, the season’s penultimate Game of Thrones episode was explosive, leaving us to wonder what’s left for the season finale this week, along with the season finale of Silicon Valley. Before we get there however, we’ve got the series finale of Person of Interest, and a special episode tonight laying out Mr. Robot before season two of that show kicks off on USA. Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune’s crowdfunded project Mighty No. 9 is finally ready to roll on several systems, while Midnight Special is coming home on Blu-ray. Fans of Bill Simmons can check out his HBO show on Wednesday night, while fans of Weeds, Breaking Bad and Narcos may want to check out Queen of the South. Look after the break to check out each day’s highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).
Blu-ray & Games & Streaming
- My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2
- Midnight Special
- The Crush
- The Wave
- Rollercoaster
- The Brothers Grimsby (4K)
- Mighty No. 9 (PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox One)
- Fallout 4: Contraptions Workshop DLC (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
- Star Wars Battlefront: Bespin DLC (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
- Grand Kingdom (PS4)
- Umbrella Corps (PC, PS4)
- Lumo (Xbox One)
- N.E.R.O. (PS4)
- Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE (Wii U)
Monday
- So You Think You Can Dance, Fox, 8PM
- WWE Raw, USA, 8PM
- Reign (season finale), CW, 8PM
- American Ninja Warrior, NBC, 8PM
- The Fosters (season premiere), Freeform, 8PM
- American Dad, TBS, 8:30PM
- Suited, HBO, 9PM
- Guilt, Freeform, 9PM
- Rizzoli & Isles, TNT, 9PM
- Angie Tribeca, TBS, 9PM
- Top Gear, BBC America, 9PM
- 12 Monkeys, Syfy, 9PM
- Triptank (season premiere), Comedy Central, 10PM
- Major Crimes, TNT, 10PM
- Spartan: Ultimate Team Challenge, NBC, 10PM
- Mistresses, ABC, 10PM
- Turn, AMC, 10PM
- Extra Gear, BBC America, 10:30PM
- Mr. Robot Decoded (special), USA, 11PM
- Scream, MTV, 11PM
- Hunters, Syfy, 12AM
- After the Thrones, HBO, 1:15AM
Tuesday
- Powers, PSN, 3AM
- The Mindy Project, Hulu, 3AM
- Casual, Hulu, 3AM
- America’s Got Talent, NBC, 8PM
- The BET Life Of: Ciara, BET, 8PM
- The Greeks (series premiere), PBS, 9PM
- Animal Kingdom, TNT, 9PM
- Uncle Buck, ABC, ABC, 9PM
- Inside the Label: Slip-n-Slide, BET, 9PM
- Coupled, Fox, 9PM
- 60 Minutes Sports, Showtime, 9PM
- Containment, CW, 9PM
- Deadliest Catch, Discovery, 9PM
- Inside the Label: Terror Squad (season finale), BET, 10PM
- Feed the Beast, AMC, 10PM
- Maya & Marty, NBC, 10PM
- Person of Interest (series finale), CBS, 10PM
- Tosh.0, Comedy Central, 10PM
- Wrecked, TBS, 10PM
- Not Safe with Nikki Glaser, Comedy Central, 10:30PM
Wednesday
- Chelsea, Netflix 3AM
- Big Brother (season premiere), NBC, 8PM
- Unsung: E-40, TV One, 8PM
- Serena, Epix, 8PM
- Young & Hungry, Freeform, 8PM
- In A Perfect World, Showtime, 8PM
- Baby Daddy, Freeform, 8:30PM
- Dual Survival, Discovery, 9PM
- Kingdom, DirecTV, 9PM
- Maron, IFC, 9PM
- Wayward Pines, Fox, 9PM
- Any Given Wednesday with Bill Simmons (series premiere), HBO, 10PM
- Another Period, Comedy Central, 10PM
- Royal Pains, USA, 10PM
- The Night Shift, NBC, 10PM
- The Real World/Road Rules Challenge, MTV, 10PM
- The Ultimate Fighter, Fox Sports 1, 10PM
- Cleverman, Sundance, 10PM
Thursday
- Chelsea, Netflix, 3AM
- Battlebots (season premiere), ABC, 8PM
- Bones, Fox, 8PM
- WWE SmackDown, USA, 8PM
- Big Brother, CBS, 9PM
- Beauty and the Beast, CW, 9PM
- Aquarius, NBC, 9PM
- Home Free, Fox, 9PM
- Streets of Compton, A&E, 9PM
- Beauty and the Beast, CW, 9PM
- Live from Daryl’s House (season finale), MTV Live, 9PM
- Spartan: Ultimate Team Challenge, NBC, 9PM
- Red Nose Day, NBC, 9PM
- Alone, History, 9PM
- Queen of the South (series premiere), USA, 10PM
- Aquarius, NBC, 10PM
- Lip Sync Battle (season finale), Spike TV, 10PM
- Thirteen (series premiere), BBC America, 10PM
- Ladylike, MTV, 11PM
Friday
- Annedroids (S3), Amazon Prime, 3AM
- Dreamworks Dragons (S4), Netflix, 3AM
- The Fundamentals of Caring, Netflix, 3AM
- Justin Time Go! (S1), Netflix, 3AM
- Chelsea, Netflix, 3AM
- Kimbo Slice, Spike TV, 7PM
- The Ranch: Home of an American Sports Dynasty, NBC, 8PM
- Masters of Illusion, CW, 8PM
- Outcast, Cinemax, 10PM
- ELeague, TBS, 10PM
- Wynonna Earp (season finale), Syfy, 10PM
- Comedy! Bang! Bang!, IFC, 11PM
- Vice, HBO, 11PM
Saturday
- Center Stage: On Pointe, Lifetime, 8PM
- US Olympic Trials: Diving, NBC, 8PM
- People’s List, ABC, 8PM
- Showtime Boxing on CBS: Porter vs. Thurman, CBS, 9PM
- US Olympic Trials: Men’s Gymnastics, NBC, 9PM
- Hell on Wheels, AMC, 9PM
- In An Instant, ABC, 9PM
- Outlander, Starz, 9PM
- American West, AMC, 10PM
- Being, Centric, 10PM
- Deon Cole: Cole-Blooded Seminar, Comedy Central, 11:59PM
Sunday
- Cooper Barrett’s Guide to Surviving Life, Fox, 7PM
- 2016 BET Awards, BET, 8PM
- Shark Week: Tiger Beach, Discovery, 8PM
- US Olympic Trials: Swimming, NBC, 8PM
- Big Brother, CBS, 8PM
- The Girlfriend Experience, Starz, 8PM
- Vicious, PBS, 8PM
- US Gymnastics Championships: Women’s, NBC, 9PM
- The $100,000 Pyramid (series premiere), ABC, 9PM
- Ray Donovan (season premiere), Showtime, 9PM
- Shark Week: Return of the Monster Mako, Discovery, 9PM
- Endeavour, PBS, 9PM
- Preacher, AMC, 9PM
- Game of Thrones (season finale), HBO, 9PM
- The Last Ship, TNT, 9PM
- Match Game (series premiere), ABC, 10PM
- Motive (season finale), USA, 10PM
- Roadies (series premiere), Showtime, 10PM
- Shark Week: Isle of Jaws, Discovery, 10PM
- Ride with Norman Reedus, AMC, 10PM
- Feed the Beast, AMC, 10PM
- Silicon Valley (season finale), HBO,10PM
- Declassified, CNN, 10PM
- Murder in the First (season premiere), TNT, 10PM
- Tunnel, PBS, 10:30PM
- Veep (season finale), HBO, 10:30PM
- Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, HBO, 11PM
(All times listed are ET)
BitTorrent to launch peer-to-peer streaming news network
BitTorrent is looking to expand its live streaming offerings by launching a TV news network in time for the November election, Variety reports today. The news network would be an expansion of the OTT News app the company released for Apple TV, iOS and Android earlier this year, as well as its BitTorrent Live offerings. According to Variety, the San Francisco-based peer-to-peer company’s in-house network will be called “BitTorrent News” and the company is currently hiring a news director and a team of journalists to round out the offering.
Whereas OTT News was “a test case” for live streaming, BitTorrent News looks to be a legitimate grassroots competitor to cable news, albeit without the nonstop, 24/7 coverage of CNN or MSNBC. According to the job listing, the network will stay focused on breaking news events like “political campaigns, sporting events, tech and cultural events.” Overall, BitTorrent has been shifting focus from file sharing into a media company, starting with music and movie releases. Earlier this month, Variety also reported BitTorrent would be spinning off its enterprise file sharing software Sync into a separate company dubbed Resilio, led by BitTorrent’s own former CEO Eric Klinker.
Your iBooks price fixing credit is on its way
Don’t fret about your piece of Apple’s e-book price fixing settlement — the check is in the mail, virtually speaking. The attorneys behind the class action lawsuit have revealed that digital credits from the case will start reaching book buyers from various online bookstores (including Apple’s iBooks as well as Amazon and Barnes & Noble) as early as June 21st. What you’ll get depends on what you bought, mind you, and it’s not exactly a windfall.
You’ll receive a $6.93 credit for every title you bought on the New York Times bestseller list, and $1.57 for every e-book beyond that. While that’s twice the estimated losses from Apple’s alleged collusion with major publishers, you probably won’t go on a spending spree. It certainly won’t look as good as other tech-related settlements unless you snapped up a lot of e-books during the relevant period. Look at it this way, though: if you are a bookworm, there’ll likely be enough credit for a good summer read.
Via: MacRumors
Source: BusinessWire
Google Prompt streamlines two-step verification
It seems like not a week goes by without news of a major password hack, and the subsequent reminders to turn on two-factor verification for all of your devices and services. So, to make the process that much simpler on your end (but not any potential hacker’s end, hopefully) Google has announced a streamlined method for approving sign-in requests. Google Prompt, as 9to5Google is calling the service, allows you to approve these requests with a simple yes or no pop-up, rather than receiving a confirmation email, text or setting up a separate security key.
The setup is simple: when logging into gmail or other Google apps product, a Google Prompt notification on your phone will ask you to approve or deny the login request, along with information about the profile, location and device you’re trying to log in from. Making things even easier: the new feature is actually baked into Android using Google Play services, users only need to update to the latest version to get it. On iOS, users will need to have the Google Search app installed.
Users can enable the new feature on Google’s My Account page and the older methods are still available, if that’s your preference.
Sasha Morse Flashlight: A handy flashlight app with some new tricks
Overview:
Sasha Morse Flashlight is a flashlight app with a built-in Morse Code generator and guide, to help you learn to read and write, as well as send messages automatically, in Morse Code.
Developer: Sasha Lab
Cost: Free (with ads)
Impressions:
Sasha Morse FLashlight is a pretty standard flashlight app. It has the same switch and sounds, and triggers your camera flash as you’d expect. However, if you press the little purple button above the lightswitch, a new menu appears, and grants you access to the morse code generator.
1 of 5
The morse code generator allows you to input text, then press the send button and it will transcribe whatever you have written into morse code that flashes from your flashlight. The app also offers a handy guide to the letters and symbols of morse code, in case you wanted to try to write it for yourself. The feature works as expected and is harmless, but I really can’t see a practical application for it outside of a bit of fun. Very few people I know can read morse code, so sending them a message in it seems rather pointless, and I imagine many are in the same boat.
Otherwise, Sasha Morse FLashlight isn’t a terribly unique app. The flashlight app has been around in some form or another since the earliest smartphones, and some have more practical and useful features than Sasha Morse does. The morse code is a nice novelty, and works well but just isn’t something that makes it a must have over other flashlight apps, if you still use them.
Conclusion:
I can see this app as appealing to someone who wants to learn morse code, or uses it regularly for whatever reason, or maybe someone who is interested in morse code for historical reasons. Other apps do flashlights better, and even now they are becoming obsolete as phone manufacturers include flashlight functionality baked into the phone at launch, making this an even harder sell.
Download Sasha Morse Flashlight from the Google Play Store
Tumblr is getting into the crowded live video space this week
Tumblr thinks it can take on Facebook Live, Twitter-owned Periscope, Amazon-owned Twitch, and others. It’s getting into live video.
The company quietly posted a promotional webpage over the weekend to announce it will launch a live-streaming video feature on 21 June. The page also appears to offer a programming schedule for live video events (such as: “A Harlem Globetrotter will teach you how to basketball” on 21 June at 4:45 pm EST, and “We will broadcast live from the surface of Mars” on 21 June at 4 pm EST).
Tumblr launched in 2007 and was acquired by Yahoo about six years later. It currently has about 555 million monthly visitors and hosts more than 300 million blogs. You can use it to post GIFs, create standalone sites, and soon, apparently, broadcast. Tumblr hasn’t yet shared any details on how it will uniquely offer live-streaming capabilities in a space that has become increasingly crowded.
That said, it seems to be developing a content strategy for launch day, at least. It’s unclear if Tumblr will consistently offer a live programming schedule but such a strategy could help it to stand out from the competition. Facebook, for instance, green-lighted its Live video feature last spring – when Periscope turned a year old and announced its users had created more than 200 million broadcasts.
It’ll therefore be interesting to see whether Tumblr Live Video is able to capture that sort of interest and growth from the get-go.
Elmo takes the spotlight in new YouTube series
Sesame Street’s producers realize that kids these days are spending their days glued to devices other than their TVs. Its presence on YouTube has more than two million subscribers, and it recently launched Sesame Studios to test new ideas on web-savvy kids. But that doesn’t mean that the regular Street channel is being neglected, since it’s about to devote the next six months to making Elmo a YouTube star. The Sesame Workshop is launching the “Love to Learn” campaign that’ll see the channel providing a series of themed videos between July and December. Each month will tackle a different topic, from Animals and Music through to Cooking and Kindness.
The TV version of Sesame Street often ropes in a famous actor, politician or musician to do a little sketch with the adorable muppets. The show has played host to such figures as Johnny Cash, Richard Prior, Oprah Winfrey, Hillary Clinton and Julia Roberts. But, since this is YouTube, producers have sought out partnerships with figures who have become stars from shows on the video-sharing service. So, Elmo will appear in clips with Simon’s Cat, Eh Bee and Jerome Jarre, while Cookie Monster gets a lesson in food preparation from Rosanna “Nerdy Nummies” Pansino.
Sesame Street is something of a towering institution that, you feel, is a permanent fixture of our culture. But the truth is very different, with Sesame Workshop (formerly known as the Children’s Television Workshop) suffering from a funding crisis. In 2009, the nonprofit felt the bite of funding cuts, and began operating at a significant loss, which was only exasperated by the decline in physical media sales, which had previously been covering the shortfall. These days, HBO has stepped in to help, which has given the Workshop time and space to develop new projects online as well as launching its own startup incubator.
Facebook Messenger’s SMS push might break Android app rules
Did you think Facebook was a little too eager to have you using Messenger for SMS on your Android phone? You’re not alone. Concerns are mounting that Facebook’s SMS prompt might violate Google Play’s policies prohibiting deceptive device settings changes. You see, the prompt offering to switch SMS to Messenger offers only a big “OK” button and a tiny “settings” button — there’s no obvious way to decline the change. You can, of course, but it’s buried.
We’ve asked both Facebook and Google for their stances on the app and will let you know what they say. Whatever their reactions, though, it’s not surprising why Facebook would push so hard. The more you use Messenger for your chats, the more likely it is that you’ll use Messenger for purchases and other services that might help Facebook’s bottom line. It’s just a question of whether or not the social network is being completely honest with users who don’t realize that SMS integration is strictly optional.
VERY aggressive prompt by Facebook to add SMS to @messenger. Ain’t no “No” button. A violation of Google Play rules? pic.twitter.com/7tZzAE5MGh
— Amir Efrati (@amir) June 20, 2016
Source: Amir Efrati (Twitter), Google Play
Tumblr to launch live video with an hour of wacky streams
It seems Tumblr is planning to jump on the live video bandwagon to join Facebook, Twitter and Amazon. The blog platform has posted eight updates on a subdomain that features a logo with the words “Live Video on Tumblr,” accompanied by a caption that says, “Launches Tuesday, June 21.”
Each update shows an upcoming time on June 21 and a brief description of what Tumblr will be streaming then. For instance, a post for 4pm ET says the company “will broadcast live from the surface of Mars.” The rest of the schedule includes a Harlem Globetrotter teaching you how to play basketball, inflating a “very big thing in a very small room” and learning the “metaphysical truth about your Tumblr.”
The programs appear to be part of a Tumblr power hour between 4pm and 5pm ET, which is presumably when the company will take the wraps off its live video service. Not much else is clear about the tool, as the company has not yet made an official announcement.
Without a full feature set for comparisons, it’s hard to tell if Tumblr will be able to measure up to live video’s big players. But Tumblr does have a large base of content creators with massive followings that could help it eke out a niche in the self-broadcast space.
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Live Video on Tumblr
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