Meta Shares Fell on Big AI Spending; Biden Signs TikTok Bill-What Now; Threads Passes 150 Million Active Users; TSMC Moving to ‘Ultra’ Advanced Chips

Posted: April 25, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Meta shares dropped yesterday after the company forecasted higher expenses and lower than expected revenue. The expenses mainly due to its big investment in AI. Meta was still down 11% as of this recording…and lost some $200 billion in valuation yesterday, according to Reuters. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on an earnings call that the focus on AI would “grow our investment envelope meaningfully before we make much revenue from some of these new products.” Meta expects AI features like a new AI chat assistant will driver engagement on its platforms…in other words, a chatbot will make Facebook and Instagram bigger time sucks than they already are for some people!

President Biden signed the foreign aid package that includes the TikTok ban, so things are getting interesting for ByteDance, the China based parent company. Theverge.com reports that they have 9 months to sell control of TikTok to a non-Chinese owner. The president can give them an additional 3 months if it looks like they are moving towards that…otherwise it will be banned from both the Google and Apple app stores. TikTok has repeated that it will challenge the law in the courts. Although some 170 million users in the US use the app, it should be pointed out that the Chinese government forces both Apple and Google to block apps from downloading there on a regular basis. 

Threads has passed the 150 million active monthly user mark. As recently as February, they were at 130 million, so growth is accelerating quickly. Mashable.com notes that X claims 550 million active users worldwide, although some research firms dispute X’s numbers. Threads announced yesterday that they are testing the option to archive posts “with a small number of people.” Individual posts can be archived manually, but you can also automatically archive all posts after a certain period of time.

Taiwan Semiconductor will start building what they are calling ultra-advanced 1.6 nanometer chips by 2026. Right now, the fastest, most advanced chips are using 3 nanometer tech. Nikkei Asia repots that the A16 tech was revealed at the North America Technology Symposium in Santa Clara Yesterday. TSMC says the 1.6 NM chips will have greatly improved logic density and performance. The new tech delivers poswer to chips from the bottom up instead of top down…avoiding complex internal wiring and improving energy efficiency. Intel has already announced backside power, and will start making 2 NM and 1.8 NM chips in 2025. The present iPhones use TSMC’s 3 NM tech. Many tech experts believe that AI will eventually need even more advanced chips…with sizes under 1 NM. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now. 

Apple AI-Totally ‘On-Device’; TikTok Says US Ban Tramples Free Speech; Tesla Cuts Prices-Models S, X, & Y; Twitter Wannabe Post News Closing Down

Posted: April 22, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

In his latest Power On Newsletter, Bloomburg’s Mark Gurman says that the AI feature in Apple’s iOS 18 will be ‘entirely on-device.’ Apple will tout this as giving users more privacy and speed than with AI running from powerful server farms…although the AI Model..code named Ajax…won’t really be as powerful as the ones backed by monster servers. Apple feels that with their tight software and hardware integration that this is the best way for their users…at least for now. Cupertino is doing what all the other big tech firms are…dumping billions into AI, so we may see them open up more to server based large language models before long. We’ll know more after WWDC, which starts June 10th. 

With the passage over the weekend of a bill over the weekend in the House of Representatives that…in addition to foreign aid, demanded that TikTok must be sold to owners not affiliated with the Chinese government or army, a TikTok spokesman has said  the move “would trample the free speech rights of 170 million Americans, devastate seven million businesses, and shutter a platform that contributes $24 billion to the US economy annually”. BBC.com reports that the company went on to say that its owner ByteDance “is not an agent of China or any other country”. ByteDance points to the many global investment firms that own 60% of it. If signed into law, the bill would give ByteDance a year to sell TikTok to non-Chines owners…or else be blocked in the US. 

As business has slowed, in part due to prospective customers tiring of Elon Musk’s antics, as well as the tepid reception then recall of Cybertrucks…Tesla has chopped two grand off the base prices of their Models S, X, and Y. Engadget.com says the price reductions were posted on X Friday night. Tesla is also cutting its referral program in all markets as of April 30th. This all follows on the heels of the company laying off over 10% of employees worldwide. It should be noted that Tesla had just grown their workforce by 10% over the last couple of years. 

It’s kind of sad to report that Post.News is calling it quits. The Twitter wannabe site was started by the former CEO of Waze, and theverge.com notes that it just never got enough traction to be viable. I was on Post from the start, and it was a real seat of the pants operation…very little staff, and really only had about a half million users….compared to the over 100 million that Meta’s Threads got right away. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.

Google Fires 28 Employees Over Protest; Media Coalition Asks Feds to Investigate Google Dropping Cal News Links; Algorithm May Double Lithium-Ion Battery Life; Boston Dynamics Robot Goes from Hydraulic to Electric

Posted: April 18, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Google has fired 28 employees over the sit in protests at two of its offices this week. Theverge.com reports that 9 employees had been suspended and then arrested in both California and New York on Tuesday. The employees were protesting Google’s hand in Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion Israeli government cloud contract. Amazon is also involved in the Nimbus cloud project. The employees sitting in had to be forcibly removed by law enforcement from Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian’s office. There are claims that Project Nimbus has been used by the Israel Defense Force in its campaign against Hamas in Gaza, where thousands have died.

The News/Media Alliance, previously known as the Newspaper Association of America, has ask the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission…as well as the California  Attorney General…to investigate Google after Google removed links to California news media outlets. According to engadget.com, Google has acted in response to a pending legislative measure in Sacramento….which Google vociferously opposes. If the bill becomes law, it would require Google and other tech platforms to pay California media outlets in exchange for links. The bill passed the state Assembly last year. Heaven forbid that online platforms would have to actually PAY for news!

Researchers in Germany have come up with a new algorithm that may help double the life of lithium-ion batteries. Bgr.com says it works by changing the way electricity is sent to the batteries for charging. Right now, batteries get what’s called constant current. That tends to cause cracks in the battery electrodes over time. The new algorithm uses pulsed current. This results in a thinner interface and much less structural wear on the battery, allowing it to hold a higher energy capacity for longer. The researchers think the new algorithm can double the service life of lithium-ion batteries, keeping them at over 80% energy capacity retention. This will be particularly big for EVs, where the battery packs can be a huge expense to replace. 

Boston Dynamics has had their rather amazing Atlas robot for a while now…the one that can walk, stand, jump, and all. It has been cool…but noisy, with hydraulically actuated motors whirring away. Now, TechCrunch.com reports that the new version of Atlas is all electric, no hydraulics. You can still hear the motors humming, but it is much quieter, and a bit less jerky in movement than the old versions. It is smoother…no cables showing, and not such a top heavy torso. the Head is a bit freaky…it looks kind of like a giant searchlight…and it rotates 180 degrees. Boston still won’t say when it will be ready for production at scale.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.

Meta Oversight Board Will Rule on AI-Generated Content; Tesla Pauses Cybertruck Production; Apple Considers Expanding to Indonesia; Ecovac Window Cleaning Robot

Posted: April 17, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Meta’s Oversight Board is handling a couple cases involving AI generated explicit images of public figures. Although engadget.com notes that Facebook and instagram prohibit nudity, the board is concerned about what is known as deepfake porn. That usually involves AI generated images of female celebrities, politicians, and other public figures. The board seems to be leaning towards pushing Meta to adopt new rules to address harassment by use of deepfakes on Meta’s platforms. The oversight board is looking for public comment in the next couple weeks, and after that will publish a decision in a few more weeks. It’s debatable whether platforms can keep up with AI generated deepfakes, which continue to get better, but good they are trying. A realistic fake video of President Biden earlier got Meta to agree to label AI generated content.

Tesla has stopped production and deliveries for the Cybertruck…all due to a serious safety issue. According to mashable.com, the pedal cover can come loose and slide up the pedal. It becomes wedged in an indent in the floor of the Cybertruck when the vehicle is floorboard. After that, the truck tries to continue to go flat out…you can counter it by jamming on the brake and holding that down, but it has caused some scary moments for new owners. A couple of Elon fan sites say the production pause is just for 7 days, but as with a lot of things Tesla…since Musk fired the PR department years ago…no official word.

As Apple continues to pull away from dependency on production in China…having set up shop in India, Vietnam, and South America, now Cupertino is eyeing Indonesia. Macrumors.com says that CEO Tom Cook recently met with the president of Indonesia. During the meeting, Cook apparently highlighted mutual interest in boosting local manufacturing. Cook visited Indonesia right after a trip to Vietnam where he met with the Prime Minister. 

Lots of folks have robot vacuums. I even have a relative that has two of the handy…but pricy little rascals. Now, after some 10 years of making them, Ecovac has a really well working robot window cleaner. Zdnet.com reports that you can put on a cleaning pad, fill the tank…they recommend just water, and turn the little gadget loose and get those hard to reach outdoor windows sparkling clean. The latest greatest is called the Winbot W2 Omni, and while it sounds pretty great from reviews, it runs a substantial $600. When you can buy a Dyson vacuum for that or less, and robot vacuums for not a lot more, you may have to think twice about it…but what a slick deal. It can run about 110 minutes…unless you have a mansion or something like the Crystal Cathedral, you should be able to polish off your windows inside and out on one charge.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now. 

Samsung Retakes Top Smartphone Sales Spot; US Gives Samsung Billions for Chip Factory in TX; Tesla Lays off 10% Plus of Workforce; Super-Creepy Face Detecting AI Camera-Repeller

Posted: April 15, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Samsung has grabbed back the top spot in the worldwide smartphone race, passing up Apple. 9to5google.com reports that Samsung shipped 19.69 million smartphones first quarter, eclipsing Apple’s 17.41 million. Samsung is now reporting 20% market share, with Apple at 18%. Samsung had been the top smartphone maker for quite a while until being passed up by Apple. As Samsung comes out with new phones again this summer and then Apple in September, we’ll see if Cupertino can claw back the #1 spot. 

We reported last week on the over $6 billion the US has given TSMC for their chip plants in Arizona and $8.5 billion to Intel for chip production here. Now, the feds have ponied $6.4 billion to Samsung for its facilities it is building in Texas. Samsung is investing $45 billion in the facilities over the next 10 years. All the funds are from the 2022 Chips and Science Act. 

With sales softer first quarter, Tesla is now laying off over 10% of its workforce. Emails started going out yesterday. Engadget.com says that Tesla had over 140,000 employees as the end of December 2023. Elon Musk wrote in a memo “As part of this effort, we have done a thorough review of the organization and made the difficult decision to reduce our headcount by more than 10 percent globally.” It is notable that Tesla had doubled its headcount since 2020, and in fact added 10% in 2023 alone. Deliveries were down 8% year over year, and now are expected to continue to be soft. Tesla announces first quarter earnings April 23rd. 

The first thing that came to mind when I saw this is ‘lawsuit waiting to happen.’ Thenextweb.com reports that a startup in Slovenia has made an AI powered home security system. It has Via computer vision tech that works day and night. Owners can designate guests as friends or foe using an app…even designate pets. That’s all well and good, but this rig goes further. If someone unknown or listed as a foe comes on the property, a speaker warns them they have 5 seconds to leave. If they don’t, it shoots paintballs or tear gas at them. The system also records video. The Paintcam, as it is called, launches April 23rd…no pricing yet.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.

Google Builds Its First ARM CPUs; Microsoft Says Windows PC with Snapdragon Will Be Faster than M3 MacBook Air; WhatsApp Adding “Nudging”; Sam Altman and Former Apple Designer John Ive Look to Fund New Company to Make ‘AI Powered Personal Device

Posted: April 9, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Google is building its own custom ARM based CPUs to support its AI work and data centers….and introducing a more powerful version of it Tensor Processing Units AI chips. Theverge.com reports that the new Google ARM based CPU is called Axion. It will be used to support Google’s AI workloads before it rolls out to business customers of Google cloud ‘later this year.’ The Axion chips are already powering YouTube ads, the Google Earth Engine, and other Google services. Google won’t be selling these chips to customers, instead making them available for cloud services that businesses can rent and use. 

More about Arm chips. Microsoft is touting its upcoming Windows laptops with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite processor as being faster than a MacBook Air with Apple’s latest M3 chip. According to macrumors.com, internal documents say “Microsoft is so confident in these new Qualcomm chips that it’s planning a number of demos that will show how these processors will be faster than an M3 MacBook Air for CPU tasks, AI acceleration, and even app emulation.” The Snapdragon X Elite is ARM based, like Apple silicon. Note that Microsoft is comparing to the low end MacBook Air, and not Apple’s higher end M3 Pro and M3 Max chips. It will be interesting to see when the new Microsoft laptops come out what they do on independent benchmark tests against the Macs. 

It smacks of the old Facebook ‘poke.’ WhatsApp is going to start nudging you to ‘start chatting’ with contacts you have never messaged. Androidpolice.com says this new so-called feature, which just sounds annoying to me, has showed up for some beta users, in version 2.24.9.5. The nudge shows up as ‘suggested contacts.’ The idea is to suggest new people to reach out to that come from the user’s own contact list. It isn’t overbearing about it, fortunately, and should be widely available for Android users soon, should you want to try it. 

Former Apple design guru Jony Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are looking for backing to start a new company that will ‘produce what thy are calling an ‘artificial intelligence powered personal device’. Arstechnica.com reports that The Information picked up the story, but nothing is known so far about the device. Will it be a wearable, something like a smartphone, or maybe even a personal robot assistant? Altman and Ive are trying to raise at least a billion for the new company. A number of big Silicon Valley hitters have already been approached. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now. 

US Offers TSMC over $6 Billion for Arizona Chip Plant; Google Launches Find My Device Network; Apple Officially Allows Retro Game Emulators on App Store; OpenAI Transcribed Over a Million Hours of YouTube Videos

Posted: April 8, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

The Biden Administration has offered TSMC up to $6 billion in government funding under a preliminary agreement announced by the government today. Cnbc.com reports that The funding, under the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act, will support Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s more than $65 billion investment in three cutting-edge fabrication plants in Phoenix, according to the nonbinding agreement. The Taiwanese multinational semiconductor company is also eligible for around $5 billion in proposed loans under the CHIPS Act. TSMC Arizona has already created more than 25,000 jobs and attracted 14 semiconductor suppliers to the state. Intel got $8.5 billion in indirect funding and up to $11 billion in loans last month under the CHIPS Act.

At long last, Google has launched its Find My Device network. According to engadget.com, the tech leverages a crowdsourced network of over a billion Android devices to help folks find their lost gadgets. It essentially has the same functionality as Apple’s Find My network and that of the Tile system. The Google one rolls out to US and Canadian users today…and Google says the worldwide release will be coming soon. As with the others, you can use the app to locate your device with a map. The map data will work even if the device is off line. 

Apple has finally officially started allowing retro game emulators on the App Store. Engadget.com says updated Apple guidelines now say that retro gaming console emulator apps are welcome and can even offer downloadable games. Apple also reportedly confirmed to developers in an email that they can create and offer emulators on its marketplace. Apple warns developers, however, that they “are responsible for all such software offered in [their] app, including ensuring that such software complies with these Guidelines and all applicable laws.” Clearly, allowing emulators on the App Store doesn’t mean that it’s allowing pirated games, as well.

In the ongoing effort to train its Chat GPT4, OpenAI transcribed over a million hours of YouTube videos! Theverge.com reports that the company knew this was really questionable, but believed it to be fair use. OpenAI president Greg Brockman was personally involved in collecting the videos that were used. Google spokesperson Matt Bryant told The Verge in an email the company has “seen unconfirmed reports” of OpenAI’s activity, adding that “both our robots.txt files and Terms of Service prohibit unauthorized scraping or downloading of YouTube content.” Google has said it also trained its models on ‘some YouTube content,’ but did it into accordance with its agreements with YouTube creators. Apparently, all the Large Language Models are running out of content to scrape. Some data scientists think they may run out by 2028, and will need to train on ‘synthetic’ data…that seems scary.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.

Satellite Texting Maybe Coming to Android; X Adds Blue Checks Back Free for Some Big Accounts; TSMC Restarts Making Apple Chips in Taiwan Waymo and Uber Start Driverless Food Deliveries in Phoenix

Posted: April 4, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

iPhones have had emergency satellite texting since the iPhone 14, but it hasn’t been for general texting. Now, it looks like Android will leapfrog Apple with its version of satellite text. 9to5google.com reports that in a beta of Android 15, there are text strings that indicate things like ‘You can message with anyone, including emergency services,’ and ‘To send and receive, stay outside with a clear view of the sky.’ Another text string says ‘Satellite messaging may take longer and can’t include photos & videos.’ Apple has allegedly been working on satellite texting for other than emergencies, but not it appears that Android will beat them to the punch. The feature may be announced at Google I/O in May.

Much to the surprise of many X users, the platform has started giving out free Premium and Premium Plus memberships to accounts with a high number of verified followers. According to theverge.com, a number of big accounts started seeing the blue ‘Verified’ checkmark show up by their handles yesterday, and many have posted elsewhere that they are not paying a dime to X for the blue checks. Elon Musk…in a big backtrack…announced last week that X accounts with over 2500 ‘verified subscriber followers’ would get a free Premium membership, and those with over 5000 would get a free Premium Plus membership. 

Primary Apple chip maker TSMC has started up chip production again in Taiwan after the big 7.4 quake Wednesday. Macrumors.com says TSMC claims more than 80% of its production lines for chips are back up and running, and that there was no damage to its most critical equipment. TSMC doesn’t expect any major hiccups that will affect Apple. 

Waymo and Uber are partnering for driverless food deliveries in Phoenix. Arstechnica.com reports that Uber Eats customers can use the app to order food and may see the message “autonomous vehicles may deliver your order.” Waymo says you’ll be able to opt out of robot delivery at checkout if you want. You may actually want to depending on your situation…with the driverless deliveries, there’s no one to bring your food up to your door. You will have to run out to the vehicle when you get the note that it has arrived. The food is supposed to be in the trunk. If you do get a driverless delivery, your delivery tip will be refunded. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.

FCC Will Vote to Restore Net Neutrality; WhatsApp Outages; Apple Working on Home Robot; Spotify Readies to Hike Prices

Posted: April 3, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

The Federal Communications Commission will vote on restoring net neutrality later this month. It’s been a long time coming, but engadget.com notes it had to wait for Democrats to finally hold a majority on the Commission. A vote will fulfill an executive order from 2021 and bring back Obama era rules that the Trump administration FCC shredded in 2017. Net neutrality trades broadband services as an essential resource under Title II of the Communications Act, giving the FCC grater authority to regulate the industry.  It lets the agency prevent ISPs from anti-consumer behavior like unfair pricing, blocking or throttling content and providing pay-to-play “fast lanes” to internet access. I note that my provider 2 weeks ago voluntarily increased my upload and download speeds out of the goodness of its heart…that and the fact that new federal rules will not allow them to call it high speed broadband in their ads and promotion at the lower speeds! Republicans and Joe Manchin opposed Biden appointee Gigi Sohn to the Commission for 16 months. she withdrew, and Anna Gomez was sworn in last September, giving Democrats a majority.

Meta has had some issues yesterday and today. Yesterday, Threads wouldn’t allow uploads for several hours for some users. Today, WhatsApp and to a degree Messenger and Instagram, is facing outages and intermittent issues. According to techcrunch.com, Meta’s status page also shows disruptions to critical business services like Ads Manager, Messenger Platform, WhatsApp Business API, and others. WhatsApp confirmed the outage there on its X account, which must gall them. As of midday Wednesday, a number of users seemed to have services restored. Back on March 5th, Facebook, Instagram, and Threads all went down, so today’s outage is the second major one for Meta in a month.

The Apple Car may be gone, but something else is rolling out of the smoke from the Apple Car division….a robotics division. Appleinsider.com says Apple is working on a home robot…not just a vacuum, but an autonomous home robot companion for your home. This project is not close to completion, but involves a robot that would follow a user around the house. It might have issues with mine, as I have stairs, but perhaps they will give it a little rotor blade for folks like myself. The little robot will lean heavily on Apples AI, which they have called ‘machine learning’ until recently. Since we have robot vacuums that sweep and mop floors, and robot security guards, it will be interesting to see what Apple comes up with that people will really feel compelled to buy…at an Apple price!

Spotify is preparing to hike prices on some plans, and also thinking about adding new subscription options. 9to5google.com says the base US price is $11 a month for an individual Premium plan, and also the Duo plan that gives couples 2 accounts for $15 a month. Family Plan covers 6 users and is $17 a month. All those will change this month, as Spotify is raising prices about $2 across the board in the UK, Australia, Pakistan, and a couple un-named countries. The US account holders will get dinged for more money later this year. Meanwhile, the platform will introduce new Premium plans that are the same cost as the current ones, but won’t have the Audiobooks availability. How about the long promised Hi-Fi plan? Well that one is still in the works after 2 years…maybe due to cost.

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.

Gemini in Google Messages Rolling Out; Facebook Snooped on Snapchat Traffic; Apple Announces WWDC; Leak-3rd, SmallerPixel 9 model

Posted: March 27, 2024 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Google has started rolling out Gemini for some Google Messages beta testers. 9to5google.com reports that in addition to being a beta tester, you have to have RCS enabled, a Google Account, have English set, and have a Pixel 6 or later, Pixel Fold, Samsung Galaxy S22 or newer, or a Galaxy Z Flip or Z Fold. If all those criteria are met, you should see a Gemini AI option. Right now, voice messages aren’t supported, but you can upload images. Also..the conversations are not end-to-end encrypted. All that said, you can use Messages to query the AI about things, or have it draft a message or brainstorm ideas. Google does say that messages could go through human review, so keep that in mind if you are going to try it. 

Thanks to a lawsuit against Meta, we now know that in 2016, Facebook ran a secret project designed to intercept and decrypt the network traffic between people using Snapchat’s app and its servers. The goal was to understand users’ behavior and help Facebook compete with Snapchat, according to newly unsealed court documents. TechCrunch.com notes that it was called ‘Project Ghostbusters,’ which is a little freaky since the latest Ghostbusters movie just hit theaters last week. According to documents released from the suit, Meta also tried to gain a competitive advantage over Amazon and YouTube by analyzing network traffic. The suit is a class action filed in 2020 against Facebook, claiming that they lied about data collection activities. 

Apple has announced this year’s WWDC. It’s the 35 annual developers conference from the Cupertino company. WWDC will begin on Monday, June 10th and run to Friday, June 14th. Macrumors.com says it will be an online event as it has been since 2020. WWDC is open to all developers at no cost. Expect the keynote to hi light features from iOS 18, iPadOS 18, tvOS 18, MacOS 15, and WatchOS 11. 

A leak has a new addition to the Pixel lineup. 9to5google.com reports that images from @OnLeaks show a third handset in the 2024 flagship lineup. The additional Pixel 9 only has two cameras, while the previously leaked images for the Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 have 3. The new third model has a slightly smaller display than the Pixel 9 Pro. The Pro is 6.2 inches, the smaller phone is 6.03 inches. The body of the phones is the same, but the smaller screen unit has bigger bezels. One other difference…the newly leaked model loses a speaker cutout at the bottom…it has a SIM tray there instead. 

I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now. 

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