5 reasons gamers should get the BenQ W1210ST projector

Games are all about being as immersed as you can be in the experience. Whether you’re hurtling along a race track or trying to battle your way out of a dungeon, playing on a big TV is certainly one way to do it, but having that experience magnified up to 100-inches projected on your wall is always hard to beat.

A projector, therefore, is surely the best way to play. So, here are five reasons gamers should consider the BenQ W1210ST projector:

1. It can cope with fast paced action

BenQ

The W1210ST is the world’s first gaming projector with 16.67ms low input lag. What that means in practice, is that you won’t suffer any lag on games regardless of whether you are playing on an Xbox One, PS4 or the new Nintendo Switch.

The projector also works to reduce motion blur and, as all gamers know, getting rid of lag and blur is really important, especially on games where making sure every spilt-second counts.

Gone are the days of missing that crucial final blow to an end of level boss because your technology wasn’t quick enough, or scenery just becoming one big haze because you’re going too fast and the screen can’t keep up.

2. Special Game and Game Bright modes

BenQ

Keeping up with the pace of the game is one thing, but you also want it to look good too. As well as specific movie modes for when you’re watching films, the BenQ W1210ST projector features two dedicated gaming modes.

Game Mode is aimed at taking advantage of darker rooms while Game Bright Mode works really well in well-lit rooms. It automatically adjusts to perfectly match environmental light, providing balanced brightness and contrast to bring out every detail.

3. 100-inch screen from just 1.5 metres

The biggest myth with projectors is that you need a cinema-sized room in your house to create a cinema-sized picture. That’s not the case. The W1210ST can produce a 100-inch Full HD 1080p image from just 1.5 metres away from the wall. That means you don’t have to worry about having a massive room to get a massive picture. And because of the compact size of the BenQ projector you can easily get it out when you need it and simply rest it on a coffee table to get started.

4. Great picture quality

The W1210ST delivers Full HD 1080p visuals with a 6x-speed RGBRGB colour wheel for lifelike colours especially calibrated for gaming. Furthermore, with a huge amount of control within the settings you can adjust for different-coloured walls, brightness settings, zoom, focus and contrast. It is hard not to deliver the perfect picture regardless of the room.

5. Built-in speakers deliver great audio

Quickly plugging in a games console is easy, but trying to connect sound systems can be a faff on many devices. The W1210ST features two 10W chamber speakers housed in resonant sound chambers for excellent stereo sound. They are powered by BenQ’s proprietary CinemaMaster Audio Enhancer to deliver great sound without you having to worry about a host of cables.

Xiaomi Mi 6 specs leak online, Snapdragon 835 processor but a full HD display

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi released the Mi5s and the Mi5s Plus toward the end of 2016, but the company is already planning the next version of its flagship device. The Mi 6 has appeared on GFXBench under the codename Xiaomi Sagit, where the majority of its specs have leaked. 

• Xiaomi’s new smartphones feature embedded fingerprint scanners and dual lens cameras

Once again, Xiaomi has, on paper at least, developed a phone that can comfortably rival the major flagships of 2017 such as the Samsung Galaxy S8, LG G6 and Sony Xperia XZ Premium. 

The Mi 6 has shown up with an unnamed Qualcomm processor, but given the speeds: oct-core 2.2GHz and oct-core 2.4GHz, it’s highly likely it will be the Snapdragon 835 processor that has been used by both Samsung and Sony in their flagship devices.

GFXBench

There will be two versions of the Mi 6, one with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, and one with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage but interestingly, both will come with a 5.1-inch full HD display. While most of 2017’s flagships are coming with Quad HD and 4K displays, it’s unusual to see a potential flagship worrier come with an HD display instead. Of course, by having a full HD display, it will keep the cost of the Mi 6 down, and increase battery life.

Both the rear 11-megapixel and front-facing 7MP cameras are both capable of recording 4K video too, which can only benefit from being viewed on a 4K display, so again it’s strange that Xiaomi hasn’t fitted its phone with a screen to play video back on.

• Xiaomi launches Mi Note 2 with curved OLED screen and 23MP camera

There’s no word on when the Mi 6 will be released, but it probably won’t be until at least May because of the development cycle of the Snapdragon 835 chipset. It was previously thought that Samsung had exclusive rights to the new chip until the Galaxy S8 was released, but this was quashed by Qualcomm at Mobile World Congress 2017.

Asus Transformer Mini T102HA review: Great battery and price point, but limited performance credentials

The Asus Transformer Mini T102HA is a hybrid for people who want a Surface Pro 4 but can’t face the price.

It’s smaller, far cheaper and, simply put, not as good. But it is really quite a lot cheaper – around £360 at the time of writing – and still has a stylus and more connections than some £1,000 laptops offer these days.

The main reason to leave the Asus Transformer Mini T102HA on the shelf is its performance. As it uses an Intel Atom CPU, it starts tripping up as soon as you ask it to do more than one basic thing at a time. Keep that in mind, however, and this dinky machine could be the basic on-the-go device for you.

Asus Transformer Mini T102HA review: Design

• Magnesium-aluminium alloy build
• 800g including keyboard
• wide-ranging, if dated connections

Asus has borrowed the basics of the Microsoft Surface design DNA for the Asus Transformer Mini T102HA. What this means is that the keyboard sticks to the screen portion using magnets, and that the main part has a kickstand, rather than relying on the base to stand up.

Pocket-lint

The obvious benefit is that you can treat the Asus Transformer Mini T102HA as a giant picture frame. Probably not one to look through old holiday photos with, but to watch Netflix or BBC iPlayer idly while you do something else.

The kickstand almost opens up to 180-degrees, making almost any angle possible. It’s not quite as smooth as the Surface Pro 4’s, but it’s not bad for the price.

Asus hasn’t skimped too much on construction overall. The tablet part of the Transformer Mini is made using a magnesium-aluminium alloy, with glass on top of the display, and the keyboard does its best to feel like a laptop keyboard rather than a tablet accessory.

Magnesium’s top-billing feature is that it’s very light for its strength. In its laptop config, the Mini weighs 800g, which is even lighter than the new breed of laptops so thin they can’t fit in USB ports.

The Asus does have a USB, and all the basics you’d ask for in a laptop, albeit in a miniaturised form factor. There’s a video out (microHDMI) and a memory card slot (microSD). The battery charges via microUSB too, letting you use your phone cable as long as you have an Android (or Windows phone) that isn’t so new it uses USB-C instead. That USB-C is the one obvious missing bit: most new higher-end laptops have one.

Pocket-lint

There’s also a fingerprint scanner on the back, a bit of a modernist consolation prize. However, you tend to need to put a finger over it a couple of times for it to work, making it less useful.

The two questions to ask of any hybrid are: is it any good as a laptop and does it work as a tablet? As the Asus Transformer Mini T102HA is slim and its screen comes off entirely, it looks and feels the part. However, even with Windows 10 tablet mode, there are still real shades of “tiny all-in-one PC” to it. Android and iOS models feel far more like pure tablets.

Asus Transformer Mini T102HA review: Keyboard and features

• Removable keyboard with 1.5mm-deep keys
• Slightly cramped typing feel
• Pressure-sensing stylus

It’s also not perfect as a laptop, though, as the Asus Transformer Mini T102HA is pretty small (clue is in the name, we suppose). It has a 10.1-inch screen, where laptops of 12-inches and above give you that feeling of a machine you can work on all day long. The Surface Pro 4 has a 12.4-inch screen, for example.

Pocket-lint

Using the Asus to type a 1000-word article, hands feel cramped after a while as your wrists are forced into a less than entirely comfortable position. If you’re after something to complement your desktop or home laptop while you’re travelling or on your hols, it’ll do just fine. But we wouldn’t want to use it eight hours a day, every day.

When you attach the keyboard to the screen, it flicks into place using a series of magnets. The keyboard doesn’t sit absolutely flat on whatever surface the Asus Transformer Mini T102HA is put on, but rests at a slight upwards angle to make typing that bit more comfortable.

There are a lot of worse keyboard accessories out there, and the key action here is actually a lot deeper than, for example, that of the 12-inch MacBook. However, it’s still a bit of a step down from a real laptop as, even without the space issue, the key feel isn’t as satisfying.

Cut-outs can be an annoyance too. Despite connecting directly with some contacts on the screen, slight movements tend to cause the keyboard to disconnect momentarily. It can get annoying, particularly if you have the sound on as that classic Windows chime plays as it loses and then regains the connection.

One cool part of the keyboard is the loop on one side. This hold the stylus, a surprisingly expensive-feeling aluminium pen with a couple of buttons on its barrel. Rather than being a dumb stylus, this is a pressure-sensitive tool with 1,024 levels of pressure. Roll back to a few years ago and this was a top-end spec, although bedroom digital artists might not want to throw away their Wacom tablets just yet.

Pocket-lint

There’s a slight delay to the input that means the input seems to trail behind the pen slightly, and the hard plastic nib doesn’t feel all that smooth on the glass top surface. Consider the iPad Pro’s Pencil costs £99 on its own, though, and we can’t complain that loudly. It’s still fun to use if you match it up with a pressure-sensing program like Adobe Photoshop, and a 10.1-inch screen isn’t a bad size for sketching, much as it is pretty small for a laptop.

Asus Transformer Mini T102HA review: Display

• 10.1-inch IPS LCD screen
• Good top brightness
• Limited WVGA resolution

The Asus Transformer Mini T102HA’s screen is relatively low-res as well as being small. Its 1280 x 800 pixels looks a bit blocky even when used as a laptop. And as a tablet? Get the screen a bit closer to your face and those pixels become very apparent. Small fonts look a bit Lego-like.

Pocket-lint

You can get much nicer tablet screens at the price, but look for larger laptops sub-£400 and you’ll actually find a lot of worse screens. The Asus Transformer Mini T102HA has a nice ‘n’ bright IPS LCD panel, where a lot of budget laptops still have TN screens in the lowest price brackets (which are displays that look strange when tilted the wrong way).

This display isn’t fancy, but it is practical and up to the job, able to cope with use outdoors thanks to a powerful backlight. Display colours are fine too. They’re not as deep or rich as the Surface Pro 4’s, but aren’t weak either.

Asus Transformer Mini T102HA review: Performance

• Low-power Intel Atom CPU
• Not good for gaming or advanced apps
• Limited storage

So far we’ve dug up some good and bits of the Asus Transformer Mini T102HA. They even out, for the most part, when you look at the sheer breadth of features against the price.

Pocket-lint

However, performance is the main reason to be put off by the Asus Transformer Mini T102HA. It has an Intel Atom x5-Z8350 CPU, paired with 4GB RAM. This is close to bottom-rung stuff, much less capable than even a Core i3 system. It’s not too bad if you’re mostly just going to faff about on Facebook, send some emails and browse the internet. However, the Transformer Mini won’t thank you if you try to do these things at the same time, or do anything more advanced. A bit like a netbook of old.

Try to create a 50-layer masterpiece in Photoshop using the stylus and the Asus Transformer Mini T102HA will probably start screeching. We tried some editing of images and it wasn’t at all fun. All apps take longer to load than normal and there are some stutters with basic navigation too, and it’s no use for gaming beyond the real basics.

This is where the Transformer really isn’t a direct replacement for a Surface Pro 4 or a meat and potatoes laptop. Just like the keyboard, the performance means we wouldn’t recommend this as a laptop to use as your main computer. It also has very limited storage. There’s 64GB of solid state storage, but when Windows 10 eats around half of this, you’ll be left juggling files before too long.

Asus Transformer Mini T102HA review: Sound and battery life

• Excellent battery life
• Decent stereo speakers
• MicroUSB charging

Maybe that’s not such a big deal if you’ve already bought into media streaming and aren’t intending to download too many data-heavy apps. It’s not as if the Asus Transformer Mini T102HA can play demanding games, after all.

Pocket-lint

The Asus Transformer Mini T102HA has enough stamina for long-haul travel too. We may not like the Atom CPU, but it goes seriously easy on the juice. This hybrid lasts for around 12 hours of normal use, which is mammoth, and even better than Asus’s own claim of 11 hours. It does use USB charging, though, which is slower than a good laptop charger.

One other nice extra is that the speakers aren’t too bad given they live in the 14mm tablet part. There are two drivers, one firing out of each side.

Verdict

The Asus Transformer Mini T102HA has a wide breadth of features, including a pressure-sensitive stylus, fingerprint scanner, hybrid design and fairly versatile connectivity.

However, it doesn’t ace the basics. Performance is pretty poor, which is perhaps stretching what’s acceptable for the price. That said, it is pretty cheap. An iPad with a keyboard or Android hybrid will feel much less compromised – but you’ll have to pay more.

Perhaps the biggest reason to buy this Transformer Mini is that its battery life is great. It’ll last for a strong 12-hours when doing basic tasks, so if you’re looking for a machine to do some casual tasks then don’t write it off entirely. Just make sure you’ve considered the serious power limitations before buying.

The alternatives to consider…

Pocket-lint

Microsoft Surface Pro 4

It’s an awful lot more expensive than the Asus Transformer Mini T102HA without seeming to have that many more features on the surface. However, you could use this a Surface Pro 4 as your only computer with no issue, where the Transformer Mini isn’t really up to the task unless your demands are minimal and you have some patience.

Read the full article: Microsoft Surface Pro 4 review

Pocket-lint

iPad Pro

If you like the idea of the Transformer Mini’s stylus but want a real pro feel, the iPad Pro is what you need. The 9.7-inch version costs £200 more when you consider the added cost of the Pencil stylus, though. And that doesn’t include a keyboard either. As ever, Apple gear isn’t cheap.

Read the full article: iPad Pro review

HP Pavilion x360

Sure, this is much more laptop-like than the Asus Transformer Mini T102HA, using a 360-degree hinge and much larger screen. However, if you’re turned off by poor performance, the x360 solves this by using proper Intel Core-series processors. We’d much rather use this for all-day working.

Read the full article: HP Pavilion x360

NVIDIA’s Titan Xp is the new king of graphics cards

Much to the consternation of last-gen Titan X owners, NVIDIA recently unveiled the GTX 1080 Ti, a GPU that offers more performance for nearly half the price. Luckily, rich gamers can get regain bragging rights by dropping another $1,200 on the Titan Xp, NVIDIA’s new top-of-the-line consumer GPU. It’s based on the Pascal GP102 chip, which also powers NVIDIA’s $5,000-plus Quadro P6000, so you can look at the Titan Xp as a relative bargain.

The new card uses 3,840 unlocked CUDA cores, besting the 3,584 in the 1080 Ti. It still packs 12GB of GDDR5X RAM, the same as the last model, but does so at 11.4GHz, up from 10GHz before. That helps it push pixels and voxels at 547.7 GB/s, up from 480GB/s, enough speed to let it handle Crysis as if it were Candy Crush.

The new card re-establishes Titan as NVIDIA’s flagship, pushing back that usurper, the GTX 1080i. However, the latter $699 card is still the one you want unless money is simply no object — it’s fairly easy to overclock it to the same performance level of the Titan Xp if you need that to feel better about yourself.

There’s another piece of good news from NVIDIA coming along with the new card. It’s about to launch beta OSX drivers for all 10-series cards, including the Titan Xp, GTX 1080 Ti, GTX 1070 and GTX 1060, finally giving Mac users access to NVIDIA’s latest products. That will be especially helpful for Adobe CC users on Mac, allowing for much faster CUDA GPU rendering. The NVIDIA Xp is now available on NVIDIA’s site for $1,200 (£1,179.00 in the UK), but is limited to two per customer.

Source: NVIDIA

The Morning After: Friday, April 7th 2017

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

We’ve got a lot to cover, with a curious energy that can only mean it’s finally Friday. There are concrete details on the next Xbox, a new iPad to review, and an AI trying to paid while on “digital LSD”. They know how to party.

But is it too late?Xbox One Project Scorpio specs promise ‘the most powerful console ever’

Last year at E3 Microsoft overshadowed its own Xbox One S by revealing a more powerful version on the way. Now, we have some official hard specs for its Project Scorpio box, which uses a custom GPU and 12GB of RAM to power 4K gaming that even the PS4 Pro can’t pull off. In a demo for Eurogamer, it ran Forza Motorsport at 4K and 60fps without breaking a sweat. Even if you haven’t upgraded to 4K by the time it arrives later this year, Scorpio can run Xbox One games in high-res then downsample them to reduce aliasing on 1080p displays, just like the PS4 Pro does. Expect more information on games (and a price) at E3 in June.

It’s a free video editor that’s social-friendlyApple’s Clips app hits iOS today to make video creation a cinch

Clips, Apple’s new video-editing app, despite its dead-simple interface, is capable of some pretty impressive feats. After recording a video, you load it into a project’s timeline, and load it up with symbols, filters and emoji, and share away. If that sounds simple, well, it is. Mostly. After all, it’s meant to sit in between the pure automation of iOS’ photo memories and the more in-depth work that comes with using mobile iMovie. And sure, you could piece together a similar video project in an app like Instagram or a similar Snapchat store. Clips’ surprisingly handy list of features sets it apart. It almost feels like Apple baked extra bells and whistles into the app to give it a leg up on other social platforms without having to build a social network of its own. It’s available, free, on iOS now.

The My Passport SSD packs USB-C and a reasonable price.Western Digital unveils its first portable SSD

Western Digital only just started accepting that SSDs are ready for the mainstream, but it’s making up for that lost time by launching its first portable SSD just months after unveiling a desktop drive. The simply-named My Passport SSD gives you 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of flash storage in a pocketable and ever-so-slightly fashionable design. While it’s not the absolute fastest drive we’ve seen with a peak 515MB/s sequential read speed (it’s a bit faster than Samsung’s T3), the new drive is definitely keeping up with the Joneses. It’s designed for USB-C (there’s a USB-A adapter in the box), touts 256-bit hardware encryption and is tough enough to survive a 6.5ft drop.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a better tablet at this priceReview: Apple iPad (2017)

Apple’s newest iPad is a budget model that samples the best parts from past hits. We’ve got the original iPad Air’s body stuffed with the iPhone 6s’s A9 chipset and paired with a brighter version of the iPad Air 2’s display. We have no complaints about performance, and battery life is excellent. But, Apple’s compromises are evident in the tablet’s relative thickness and the glare-prone screen. What the iPad lacks in sheer thrills, it more than makes up for with adequate power and a price that’s hard to resist.

Wait, where are you going?Comcast reveals Xfinity Mobile

Now that AT&T, YouTube and others are biting into its TV business, Comcast is attacking in the other direction by launching a wireless service. Called Xfinity Mobile, it’s sort of like Google’s Project Fi because it will use a combination of Comcast hotspots and the Verizon network. If you’re a fan of the bundle, it does offer phone service with unlimited data, voice and text for as low as $45 ($65 if you only have Comcast’s internet service).

Futurecraft 4DAdidas is ready to make 3D-printed sneakers a mass market item

Adidas revealed its latest shoe with a 3D-printed midsole, the Futurecraft 4D, but that’s not the most interesting part of its announcement. While these shoes will have a very limited release this month, it claims that by using Carbon’s Digital Light Synthesis method, it will have 5,000 pairs ready for sale by the holidays. Carbon specializes in printing items from a liquid pool T-1000 style, and Adidas expects this combination will be able to produce 100,000 pairs of shoes by the end of 2018.

It’s like someone spiked your computer’s drink with ‘ASCIID’What AI sees and hears when it watches ‘The Joy of Painting’

Bay Area artist and engineer Alexander Reben has produced an incredible feat of machine learning in honor of the late Ross, creating a mashup video that applies Deep Dream-like algorithms to both the video and audio tracks. The results are… weird.

Who’s behind an account that’s tweeting from inside US immigration officesTwitter sues feds over attempt to identify anti-Trump account

Twitter is suing the government to resist giving up the identity behind @Alt_uscis, an account tweeting out anti-Trump messages. The account is allegedly run by rogue members of US immigration agencies. The suit is a twofold resistance to the government’s disclosure request, opposing both the method and the nature of demanding these particular identities. First, it openly attempts to block the Department of Homeland Security and CBP from “unlawfully abusing a limited-purpose investigatory tool to try to unmask the real identity of one or more persons who have been using Twitter’s social media platform, and specifically a Twitter account named @ALT_USCIS, to express public criticism of the Department and the current Administration.”

These phones are the best ones at this priceReview: Moto G5 and G5 Plus

Another year, another pair of great affordable handsets from Motorola. The smaller, 5-inch Moto G5 offers reliable performance thanks to Android 7.0 Nougat and a surprisingly good 13-megapixel camera. The design is a little uninspiring, and the display is hard to read in direct sunlight, but this little smartphone does everything you need it to for a bargain price

Just LED, no Q or OSamsung takes aim at Vizio with its ‘MU’ line of Ultra HD TVs

While Samsung’s latest QLED tech fights a picture quality battle with LG and OLED, value-conscious buyers will want to look at the MU line of TVs it’s rolling out. Still featuring 4K, HDR and other high-end options, they use standard LED edge lighting to keep the price down, no matter which version you might choose.

The DevLoop in Nevada has been ‘finalized’ ahead of testingHyperloop One’s test route is ready to run

It was August 2013 that Elon Musk, under pressure from Shervin Pishevar, published his white paper on the Hyperloop. Just three years and seven months later, and the world’s first Hyperloop tube has been declared ready for testing. Hyperloop One has announced that DevLoop, its Nevada test facility, has been “finalized,” and will serve as the testbed for the future of transportation.

But wait, there’s more…

• Explore Japanese gaming culture in 360 degrees with MatPat
• Zunum Aero’s hybrid-electric planes could halve the cost of US flights
• Australian regulator sues Apple bricked ‘Error 53′ iPhones’
• Xbox One now supports Dolby Atmos and DTS:X

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‘Inside’ wins big at the 2017 BAFTA Games Awards

The annual BAFTA game awards were held at London’s Tobacco Dock last night, celebrating the best software and creative, talented individuals from 2016. Playdead’s quiet, thought-provoking Inside was easily the most successful, picking up the awards for artistic achievement, game design, narrative and original property. Fellow indie Firewatch took home best debut game, while Virginia was recognised for its music and That Dragon, Cancer won the game innovation category. Four-player frenzy Overcooked also had a good evening, winning the best family and British game awards.

In the “triple-A” sphere, Overwatch won the multiplayer category and The Last Guardian snagged the audio achievement award. The coveted ‘best game’ trophy was given to Uncharted 4, pipping fellow nominees Firewatch, Inside, Stardew Valley, Overwatch and Titanfall 2. For a full breakdown of the winners, check out the list on the BAFTA website.

Source: BAFTA

McLaren’s F1 team will 3D print parts trackside

When McLaren Racing heads to the Bahrain Grand Prix next week, the constructor will take with it something the motorsport has not yet seen trackside: a 3D printer. The Formula One team has confirmed that as an expansion of its partnership with 3D printing specialist Stratasys, it will print “race-ready” parts for the new McLaren MCL32 car in order to quickly integrate design modifications and reduce its weight.

The parts include carbon-fiber reinforced nylon material hydraulic line brackets, rubber-like flexible radio cables, brake cooling ducts and rear wing flaps, which help increase the rear downforce on the car during high speeds. In most cases, 3D printing has reduced manufacturing time from weeks to days or even hours, which helps the team during testing and when readying its cars for race days.

“We are consistently modifying and improving our Formula 1 car designs, so the ability to test new designs quickly is critical to making the car lighter and more importantly increasing the number of tangible iterations in improved car performance,” said Neil Oatley, McLaren Racing’s Design and Development Director. “If we can bring new developments to the car one race earlier – going from new idea to new part in only a few days – this will be a key factor in making the McLaren MCL32 more competitive.”

While the Stratasys uPrint SE Plus will perform important duties on the road, McLaren Racing employs more complex machinery at the McLaren Applied Technologies headquarters in Woking, England. Both fused deposition modelling (FDM) and PolyJet printing technologies are being used for prototyping new car models, production tooling and development of custom parts, which McLaren hopes will translate to faster race times on the track.

Source: McLaren Racing

TSMC Drops Out of Race to Acquire Toshiba Flash Unit, Foxconn Highest Bidder

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has withdrawn its offer for Toshiba’s highly sought-after NAND flash memory business, leaving major Apple supplier Hon Hai in the driving seat to acquire the unit.

Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn, has offered up the highest bid so far, with almost 3 trillion Japanese yen ($30 billion) said to be on the table, according to Japanese paper Asahi Shimbun on Friday. Shares in Toshiba jumped 7 percent on the news.

Toshiba is said to have narrowed down the number of bidders for its semiconductor business, which it is seeking to sell in order to raise at least $9 billion to cover U.S. nuclear unit charges that threaten the conglomerate’s future.

Out of the initial 10 interested parties one of which was reportedly Apple, the smaller group of bidders includes Western Digital, Korea’s SK Hynix, U.S. investment fund Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, and a combined partnership bid from Silver Lake Management and U.S. chipmaker Broadcomm. Media reports made no mention of whether Apple made the cut, making the prospect seem unlikely.

Japan’s government could oppose a sale to Taiwan-based Foxconn because of the strategic value of Toshiba’s technology to the national interest, according to sources who spoke to Bloomberg. Toshiba reportedly wants to encourage Japanese companies to participate in the bidding process, since none are in the current group.

The second round of the bidding war is expected to be held before the end of May, with the winner is expected to be announced in June before Toshiba’s next shareholder meeting.

Tags: TSMC, Foxconn, Toshiba
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Facebook Beats Apple to AI Assistant Chat Integration With ‘M’ For Messenger

Facebook announced its first virtual assistant on Thursday in the form of “M”, which privately interjects in chat threads on Messenger to offer users suggestions related to the conversation.

The feature goes beyond the platform’s chat bot technology, offering recommendations for relevant stickers, GIFs, payments, rides and meeting times now appear to each user above the message composer in chat threads. The service launched as a beta test in December but was rolled out to all iOS and Android users in the U.S. as part of an app update.

According to Facebook, M relies on AI machine learning techniques and is capable of learning the more it is used. Users can ignore or dismiss suggestions if they’re not helpful, and the assistant can easily be muted it in settings. The full list of possible suggestions are as follows.

• Sending stickers: M shares fun sticker suggestions for your daily life interactions like “Thank you” or “Bye-bye.”
• Paying or requesting money: M recognizes when people are discussing payments and gives them the option of easily sending or requesting money.
• Sharing your location: M can suggest an option to share your location during a conversation.
• Making plans: If people are talking about getting together, M helps coordinating a plan.
• Starting a poll (in group conversations only): Have a hard time making decisions in a group? M lets you set a poll topic and vote in group conversations.

  Getting a Ride: Talking about going somewhere? M suggests “Get A Ride” and shares an option of Lyft or Uber.

Apple is known to have looked at a similar implementation of Siri in its iMessage platform. A patent published last November for a “virtual assistant in a communication session” depicts a scenario in which users can invoke Siri from within chat threads to get answers to relevant queries, complete scheduling tasks, and more.

A rumor last month claimed that Apple plans to introduce Siri iMessage integration in iOS 11, which is expected to be announced at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference held in June. The feature is said to be part of a major upgrade to Siri’s capabilities that would fit out the virtual assistant with powerful contextual learning abilities and iCloud integration.

Tag: Facebook Messenger
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Periscope Rolls Out 360-Degree Video Broadcasting to iOS Users

Live video broadcasting service Periscope on Friday announced full support for 360-degree broadcasting from its iOS app, following testing with a small number of users.

The change means that iPhone users with compatible 360-degree camera equipment, such as the new Samsung Gear 360, can broadcast immersive video feeds of their entire surrounding environment.

As a broadcaster, 360 video allows you to spend less time and energy on framing your shot so you can focus on adding new dimension to your viewers’ experience. In 360 broadcasts, viewers will be able to look anywhere while also having the broadcaster present to anchor the broadcast.

If a Periscope broadcast is marked with a “Live 360” badge, viewers can change the point of view by moving their phone or tapping and scrolling around the screen.

Periscope has published a Live 360 broadcasting guide here. Users will need to have downloaded the latest version of the iOS app to broadcast in 360. Periscope is a free app for iPhone available on the App Store. [Direct Link]

Tag: Periscope
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