ARM’s latest CPUs are ready for an AI-powered future

ARM processor technology already powers many of the devices you use every day, and now the company is showing off its plans for the future with DynamIQ. Aimed squarely at pushing the artificial intelligence and machine learning systems we’re expecting to see in cars, phones, gaming consoles and everything else, it’s what the company claims is an evolution on the existing “big.Little” technology.

Originally unveiled in 2011, that design allowed for multicore CPU designs with powerful, power-hungry chips to do the heavy lifting tethered to smaller, low-power chips that could handle background processing when a device is idle. It’s why your phone can edit HD or even 4K video at one moment before sleeping throughout the night without losing all of the battery’s charge. DynamIQ lays out a strategy for processors that combine cores specifically designed for whatever task is needed.

That could make for a 1+3 (quad-core) or 1+7 (octacore) layout, where each individual core has its own performance and power characteristics. The claim it’s making is that this setup can improve responsiveness for AI, with a 50x boost in AI performance over the next 3-5 years, and 10x between the (still Cortex-A9) CPU and specialized “accelerator hardware.” That matters, especially when one of these chips is using machine learning to drive your car, scanning the road ahead for potential hazards.

Of course, it also could be extremely profitable for ARM and the companies that build on its technology (like Qualcomm, NVIDIA, Samsung, Apple and even Intel), as it claims that after shipping over 50 billion ARM-based chips between 2013 and 2017, it projects the world will buy over 100 billion by 2021.

Source: ARM Blog

The next round of Xbox One tweaks include custom avatars

The next update for Xbox One Insiders doesn’t have any one huge feature defining it. Rather, the collection of them outlined on Xbox Wire add up to something noteworthy as a whole. Perhaps the addition that’s most emblematic of that is Captive Portal support. With it, you’ll be able to use the built-in browser for logging into WiFi networks at places like college campuses and hotels. Finally.

Other additions are mostly just quality-of-life improvements for the Clubs and Looking For Group system (player stats on a per-game basis, along with copying and pasting previous LFG posts are chief among them). What’s more, custom profile pictures are making a comeback. “We’re excited to bring this top fan-requested feature to Xbox Live and expect it to be in preview longer than other features to ensure it’s great for everyone when released,” Xbox Wire says.

So, it sounds like once the Xbox crew has a way to ensure that no one is adding anything obscene to their profiles, the greater Xbox Live community will have access to the feature. For the rest of the update notes, hit the source link below.

Source: Xbox Wire

How to link your Instagram to Facebook for unrivalled social synchronization

Instagram and Facebook go hand in hand. The two services offer the kind of integration that you simply won’t find across other social platforms. Unlike Twitter, which publishes your Instagram posts as basic web links, Facebook actually lets you share images directly from the photo-sharing app to your timeline and the News Feed.

More: Looking to back up your memories? Here’s how save photos from Instagram

It makes sense for Facebook to provide streamlined features for a popular app like Instagram, especially given the former bought the platform for $1 billion in cash and stock nearly five years ago. That said, the best thing about syncing is how effortless it is. Before guiding you through the process, let’s take a look at the benefits.

What’s not to like?

There are several reasons why you should consider linking your accounts. The overall benefit is straightforward: It will allow you to post the pics and videos you take using the photo-sharing app directly to Facebook.

More: Facebook ‘City Guides’ can help you find local sights on your travels

If you’re someone who enjoys getting likes on Instagram — and who doesn’t? — then that should translate to Facebook, too. Each image or video shared from one platform to the other links back to its original source, allowing you to potentially drive engagement, whether from your friends or a wider audience (if your posts are public).

The social network has a significantly larger user base (1.86 billion) than Instagram (600 million), so there’s a chance it could help you to reach more people. And, seeing as Instagram’s algorithmic feed is thought to prioritize posts with higher engagement, the extra likes could help your content rank higher in the News Feed. Even for those who are not looking for more exposure, cross-posting could allow your Facebook contacts that aren’t on Instagram to keep up with your activity.

Finally, due to the seamless integration between the two platforms, your Instagram post details (including captions) will be shared to Facebook, complete with any location data, hashtags, and emojis you’ve added. Your uploads will also be saved to Facebook — in their own album, titled “Instagram photos” — allowing you to quickly tag your friends on the social network.

Laptops and tablets expected to be banned from some flights to the U.S. over security fears

Why it matters to you

If you’re about to fly to the U.S. and you think your airline could be affected, you might want to check ahead so you can sort out your tech gear before you board.

U.S. security officials have reportedly told twelves airlines from around eight different countries to prevent passengers from taking particular tech devices into the cabin on flights heading to the U.S.

Multiple news outlets, among them Reuters and the Associated Press, suggested the move by the Transport Security Administration (TSA) was in response to a possible terror threat. An official announcement about the new rule is expected on Tuesday.

Passengers on mostly Middle Eastern and African airlines will be asked to check in electronic devices such as laptops, tablets, e-readers, and cameras rather than carry them on as hand luggage. Mobile phones and medical devices are expected to be allowed into the cabin.

U.S. airlines are unlikely to be affected by the new rule, the reports said.

Notification of the ban went out in a TSA email described as “confidential” on Monday, with airlines given 96 hours to comply, according to the Guardian.

More: TSA partners with American to improve airport security

An unnamed U.S. government official told CNN that embassy officials have been contacting affected airlines to inform them of the change in rules.

In a tweet that has since been deleted, Royal Jordanian Airlines told its passengers that on flights to and from the U.S., “carrying any electronic or electrical device on board the flight cabins is strictly prohibited.”

It added that “laptops, tablets, cameras, DVD players and electronic games … etc, can be carried in the checked baggage only.”

Sam Thielman/Twitter

The airline said the rule will go into effect on March 21, suggesting an official announcement could be coming from the TSA in the next 24 hours.

It’s currently unclear which specific airlines are likely to be impacted by the new regulations, though full details are expected to be disclosed some time on Tuesday.

The advice to passengers who don’t want to be caught up at check-in having to repack their possessions is to keep an eye on the news in the coming days, and, if in any doubt, to check with their carrier before heading to the airport.

Laptops and tablets expected to be banned from some flights to the U.S. over security fears

Why it matters to you

If you’re about to fly to the U.S. and you think your airline could be affected, you might want to check ahead so you can sort out your tech gear before you board.

U.S. security officials have reportedly told twelves airlines from around eight different countries to prevent passengers from taking particular tech devices into the cabin on flights heading to the U.S.

Multiple news outlets, among them Reuters and the Associated Press, suggested the move by the Transport Security Administration (TSA) was in response to a possible terror threat. An official announcement about the new rule is expected on Tuesday.

Passengers on mostly Middle Eastern and African airlines will be asked to check in electronic devices such as laptops, tablets, e-readers, and cameras rather than carry them on as hand luggage. Mobile phones and medical devices are expected to be allowed into the cabin.

U.S. airlines are unlikely to be affected by the new rule, the reports said.

Notification of the ban went out in a TSA email described as “confidential” on Monday, with airlines given 96 hours to comply, according to the Guardian.

More: TSA partners with American to improve airport security

An unnamed U.S. government official told CNN that embassy officials have been contacting affected airlines to inform them of the change in rules.

In a tweet that has since been deleted, Royal Jordanian Airlines told its passengers that on flights to and from the U.S., “carrying any electronic or electrical device on board the flight cabins is strictly prohibited.”

It added that “laptops, tablets, cameras, DVD players and electronic games … etc, can be carried in the checked baggage only.”

Sam Thielman/Twitter

The airline said the rule will go into effect on March 21, suggesting an official announcement could be coming from the TSA in the next 24 hours.

It’s currently unclear which specific airlines are likely to be impacted by the new regulations, though full details are expected to be disclosed some time on Tuesday.

The advice to passengers who don’t want to be caught up at check-in having to repack their possessions is to keep an eye on the news in the coming days, and, if in any doubt, to check with their carrier before heading to the airport.

Walmart is opening its own tech incubator in Silicon Valley

Like Target and Amazon, Walmart is trying to figure out what the future of retail looks like. The company already bought up startups like Jet.com and clothing store ModCloth to better compete online, but Walmart’s next move will invest some of its sizable coffers directly in the next generation of retail technology startups through its own tech incubator. According to Jet.com founder Marc Lore — now CEO of Walmart’s e-commerce division — the group will be called “Store No. 8” and will focus on investing in companies that cover all the buzzwords from virtual and augmented reality, to machine learning, robotics and artificial intelligence.

As Bloomberg reports, the new tech incubator was named after a shop in Arkansas where Sam Walton used to experiment with store layouts and will be based in (where else) Silicon Valley. While Lore didn’t reveal how much Walmart would be investing in the project, Store No. 8 will be headed up by Walmart SVP of Digital Store operations Seth Beal and VP of Incubation Katie Finnegan, who also came from Jet.com. While the companies at Store No. 8 will be operate independently of Walmart corporate and its research company @WalmartLabs in San Francisco, the end goal here is to create new tech that will help Walmart’s bottom line — whether that be through new online boutiques like ModCloth or new ways to skip the checkout lines in the store. Plus, when your competition is riding robots and planning a delivery service for the moon, the only smart move is to respond by opening a tech incubator.

Source: Bloomberg

YouTube pledges to ‘fix’ Restricted Mode’s LGBTQ+ censorship

After a post by Rowan Ellis, many people recently noticed that YouTube’s Restricted Mode filter consistently blocked videos containing LGBTQ+ related content. Despite tweeting that it is supposed to only filter mature content, users tracked down selections like this Tegan & Sarah video that were blocked despite being incredibly tame. In a blog post tonight, YouTube VP Johanna Wright stated that “we must and will do a better job.”

The exec admitted that “…this feature isn’t working the way it should. We’re sorry and we’re going to fix it.” While claiming that only 1.5 percent of traffic comes with Restricted Mode turned on, Wright also said that as a matter of principle, access to “important content and different points of view” should be allowed. YouTube has already manually unblocked a few videos where the system made “mistakes in understanding context and nuances,” but she also writes that it will take time to roll out more changes.

Source: YouTube Creators Blog

Federal appeals court upholds Nintendo’s win in 3DS patent battle

Just months after the Nintendo 3DS launched in 2011, it faced patent infringement allegations. Tomita Technologies was accusing Nintendo’s new handheld of using its glasses-free 3D display technology without paying royalties. Like most patent lawsuits, it dragged on for years — first awarding a victory to Tomita before handing the win to Nintendo in appeals. Now, a higher court has confirmed Nintendo’s victory. On Friday, the Federal Circuit court ruled that the Nintendo 3DS does not infringe Tomita’s patent.

The question at hand was never if the 3DS allowed for glasses-free stereoscopic images, but rather how it joined the two perspectives of a 3D image to create the illusion of depth. The court used two tests to sort this out — one that tested to see if the function itself was similar, and a second to determine if the differences between the methods were substantial. “Under both tests,” the court wrote in the ruling, “the district court found that the 3DS and the disputed limitation do not possess equivalent structures.”

In other words, the 3DS still offsets two images to create a 3D illusion, but not in a substantially similar way as Tomita’s old patent. It’s a big win for Nintendo, who would have had to pay $15.1 million in damages if its past victory had not been upheld.

Source: Law360

Alphabet’s new VP will grapple with self-driving car regulation

For Alphabet’s Waymo, technology might not be the biggest challenge to putting self-driving cars on the road — it’s making sure there’s a regulatory framework that allows those cars on the road. Appropriately, Waymo has hired a new vice president for public policy, Tekedra Mawakana, who will help the company fight for the regulation it wants. She’ll help “realize the enormous safety, mobility and economic benefits” of autonomous tech, Waymo CEO John Krafcik tells Recode.

This definitely isn’t Mawakana’s first dance with tech policy. She was most recently heading up government relations at eBay. And before that, she was Yahoo’s deputy general counsel as well as a key policy official at AOL. This is an executive who knows how to navigate the political world, which is more than a little important when you’re rallying support for a very young industry.

And it’s definitely a complex situation, at least in the US. States like Waymo’s home of California may be relatively open to self-driving cars, but others (such as Georgia, Maryland, Illinois and Tennessee) have considered slapping restrictions on autonomous rides. That’s not even considering other countries, and the firm will no doubt have to counter opposition from driver lobbying groups trying to protect jobs. Mawakana will have to strike a careful balance between pushing for loose-enough regulations and respecting very real concerns about job security and safety.

Source: Recode

AMD’s rumored Radeon RX 500 graphics card family won’t be a simple rebranding

Why it matters to you

Customers looking for an affordable solution for upgrading their PC for high-quality gaming and virtual reality may want to wait until April to purchase a new graphics card.

Although all attention is now seemingly focused on the upcoming Radeon RX Vega cards, given that AMD officially brought its Ryzen desktop processors to the market, there is still talk that the company will release a new Radeon RX 500 Series of graphics cards in the middle of April. These will reportedly be based on AMD’s older but improved Polaris graphics chip architecture (2016) and not the latest Vega design (2017).

The big deal with the updated Polaris design is that it will be based on a different chip manufacturing process called low power plus (LPP). The Polaris-based Radeon RX 400 Series cards on the market are based on 14nm low power early FinFET-based processing technology, which was an early version providing “area and power benefits.” The LPP version, also based on FinFET transistors, is an enhanced chip manufacturing technique providing more performance for less power.

So here is what we know about the rumored Radeon RX 500 family so far:

Radeon RX 580
Radeon RX 570
Radeon RX 560
Process Node:
14nm FinFET LPP
14nm FinFET LPP
14nm FinFET LPP
Graphics Chip:
Polaris 20 XTX
Polaris 20 XL
Polaris 11
Stream Processors:
2,304
2,048
896
Compute Units:
36
32
14
Texture Mapping Units:
144
128
56
Render Output Units:
32
32
16
Boost Speed:
1,340MHz
1,244MHz
1,287MHz
Performance Gain:
74MHz
38MHz
87MHz
Compute Performance:
6.17 TFLOPS
5.10 TFLOPS
2.63 TFLOPS
Memory Size:
Up to 8GB GDDR5
Up to 8GB GDDR5
4GB GDDR5
Memory interface:
256-bit
256-bit
128-bit
Memory Speed:
8GHz
7GHz
7GHz
Memory Bandwidth:
256GB/s
224GB/s
112GB/s
Power Connector:
1x 6-pin
1x 6-pin
1x 6-pin

That said, AMD is refreshing its RX 400 Series for the general population in April as affordable solutions for upgrading PCs to support virtual reality and high-quality PC gaming. The Radeon RX 580 will likely sell for $200 while the RX 570 will probably sell for around $150 and the Radeon RX 560 for $100. After that, AMD will unleash its Radeon RX Vega family of graphics cards for the high-end PC gaming crowd. The RX Vega prices should be competitive with Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 10 series of high-end cards currently on the market.

More: AMD rumored to be working on a 16-core, 32-thread Ryzen CPU due later this year

To that end, the RX 500 family won’t be just a rebrand of 2016’s RX 400 portfolio. Right now, they are slated to arrive on April 18 but that is a rumored release date and not confirmed by AMD. However, since the boost clock speeds are only slightly higher than what is offered with the RX 400 Series, the refreshed cards aren’t really meant to serve as replacements.

As with the Radeon RX 400 family, AMD will likely depend on its third-party partners to provide Radeon RX 500 Series solutions that push the reference design. Vendors will probably include Asus, Gigabyte, Micro-Star International, PowerColor, Sapphire, Visiontek, and XFX. Each will provide a customized experience to improve the visual fidelity of PC games and VR experiences even more than AMD’s base reference design.