Meta has revealed more of how NFTs will work on Instagram. In the US-based test, you can show what you've bought or created for free by connecting your Instagram account to a compatible digital wallet and posting for the world to see. If you like, the social network can automatically tag both creator and collector using public blockchain data. You can display info like a description, too. And yes, as mentioned, NFTs will shimmer to help you flaunt your art collection.
Instagram will initially support wallets from MetaMask, Rainbow and Trust Wallet. Coinbase, Dapper and Phantom are "coming soon." Public data will come from Ethereum and Polygon at first, with the previously promised Flow and Solana support arriving in the near future.
The social site also stressed that NFTs were still subject to community rules. It was also aware that NFTs, like cryptocurrency and other blockchain products, can be harmful to the environment. The company hoped to offset the CO2 emissions from displaying digital artwork by purchasing renewable energy.
Meta will expand NFT support to Facebook, and will let Instagram users display their pieces as augmented reality stickers in Stories. There will be "additional features" for both creators and collectors, the company added. Whether you think NFTs are fads or permanent fixtures, it's clear Meta will be invested them for a while as it builds out its vision of the metaverse.
Cre8Audio has made a name for itself by building dirt-cheap Eurorack gear, putting what has traditionally be an extraordinarily expensive endeavor — building modular synth — in the reach of mere mortals. Now it's branching out to self-contained semi-modular synthesizers with the East Beast.
As the name implies, the East Beast is an east coast style synthesizer, meaning it features a big sounding oscillator and a resonant filter for tone shaping. Those two particular components were built with help of the analog weirdos over at Pittsburgh Modular. The filter is a multi-mode design with high, low and bandpass options. The PGH filter is also lauded for its lack of "dead zones". And the oscillator has sine, triangle, saw, and square waves, along with pitched noise, that can be combined.
Of course and filter and oscillator alone do not a synth make. There's also a VCA, an envelope generator, an LFO, a 32 step sequencer and a digital multi-mode tool that can be an extra envelop, LFO or a random generator. It also has an arpeggiator and even a playable (but rudimentary) keyboard.
Of course, a an analog synth with all those features isn't that unheard of. What makes the East Beast exciting is that it includes all of that, and a 20 point patch bay, for just $250. Being able to get something that, at least on paper, seems like a shrunken Moog Mother 32 for less than half the price is stunning.
There are still a lot of unanswered questions. But, considering that you can also take the East Beast out of its case and slap it in a Eurorack case, means this one of the most affordable ways to get into modular synthesis.
The Cre8Audio East Beast is available to pre-order now and should start shipping by the end of May.
With the price of graphics cards starting to normalize, AMD has decided to refresh its desktop GPU lineup with the new Radeon RX 6950 XT, RX 6750 XT and RX 6650 XT.
While all three new graphics cards have similar specs as their predecessors (including the same amount of GDDR6 vRAM and number of compute units), AMD has tweaked their game clocks and memory speeds to deliver a small bump in performance. The result is that when combined with new drivers in the latest version of AMD Software (which is also coming out today), the company says its new GPUs should provide between 5 and 13 percent higher framerates compared to previous models. Furthermore, when paired with a late-model Ryzen CPU, AMD claims its new Radeon cards can use Smart Access Memory to boost performance by up to 14 percent in games such as Forza 5 Horizon.
With suggested pricing of $1,099 and $549, the RX 6950 XT and RX 6750 XT are intended to be direct replacements for the outgoing RX 6900 XT and RX 6700 XT. That said, while the two new cards will be available direct from AMD, customers may see higher prices from third-party retailers as the supply of GPUs continues to fluctuate. Meanwhile, the $399 RX 6650 XT will only be available from AMD's board partners (e.g. Gigabyte, MSI, XFX, etc.) and will exist alongside other entry-level Radeon GPUs like the RX 6600 XT.
The RX 6950 XT is designed for 4K gaming and is expected to compete with NVIDIA's RTX 3090, It features a total board power of 335 watts, 16GB of vRAM, 80 compute units and a game clock of 2,100 MHz. Meanwhile, the RX 6750 XT is intended to support 1440p gaming while going up against the RTX 3070, with specs including a TBP of 250 watts, 12GB of vRAM, 40 compute units and a game clock of 2,495 MHz. And for entry-level or budget-conscious folk, the RX 6650 XT is targeted at 1080p gaming and looks to take on the RTX 3060 with TBP of 180 watts, 8GB of vRAM, 32 compute units and a game clock of 2,410 MHz.
Finally, rounding out AMD's latest updates is expanded support for AMD Privacy View across a wide range of systems and a new UI slider that gives more control over image sharpness when using AMD Super Resolution 1.1. And while it won't be available until sometime later this summer, the company is also announcing that Deathloop will be the first game to support FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.0 via a public beta patch slated to go live on May 12th.
The new RX 6000 series cards should be available today from both AMD and AMD's board partners.
With every release, DJI seems to pack more features into smaller and smaller drones. The Mavic 3 that launched last year was a relatively small drone with a mirrorless camera sensor, pro video quality and more. Now, it has brought a lot of that technology to an even tinier drone, the Mini 3 Pro. It’s more capable on paper than the Mavic Air 2, a model more than twice its size.
At 249 grams (8.8 ounces), the Mini 3 Pro is light enough to avoid most drone regulations. But DJI has managed to fit in a sensor larger than most smartphones, and it can detect obstacles all around. Unlike the Mavic Mini 2, it offers 4K at 60 fps and 120 fps slow-mo, plus most of the AI features on the Mavic 3 like ActiveTrack, QuickShots and MasterShots.
Its tiny size and light weight makes it more maneuverable than the Mavic 3, and it’s launching with an all-new remote that has a built-in screen. The Mini 3 Pro costs between $679 to $910, though, so it’s one of the most expensive lightweight drones out there. To see if it could justify that price, I took it for a spin with help from my drone pilot friend Samuel Dejours.
Features
The Mini 3 Pro is so small that you can fit it, the RC remote, three batteries and a charger into a tiny bag. That in turn makes it ideal for travel, adventure activities and more. And as it’s under 250 grams, you don’t have to register it or have a drone pilot’s license in the US and other countries.
The standard Intelligent Flight Battery delivers up to 34 minutes of flight time, according to DJI, but you’ll need to take that figure with a huge grain of salt. We ran it to exhaustion several times and saw about 30 minutes max, with the return to home (RTH) warning kicking in after about 25 minutes. With a drone so light, those numbers of course depend heavily on wind and other factors.
If that’s not enough, DJI offers the optional Intelligent Flight Battery Plus that boosts endurance to 47 minutes max (while keeping the weight unchanged), something that’s unprecedented for a drone this size. Again, don’t count on achieving that figure very often, but even if you hit 40 minutes, that’s still incredible for a lightweight drone. DJI notes that the higher-capacity battery isn’t available in the EU and other regions due to local regulations, but it can be sold in the US.
To aid in endurance and keep it more resistant to wind, the Mini 3 Pro has a new aerodynamic body that tilts when flying forward to reduce drag. The redesign also allowed DJI to use bigger propellers to increase propulsion efficiency.
Steve Dent/Engadget
While the Mini 2 was completely lacking in obstacle avoidance features, the Mini 3 Pro has DJI’s APAS 4.0 system and can detect objects in front, behind and below, all with fairly wide sensing visibility. That system is key for mountain bikers and others who want to film their adventures in forests and other tricky environments.
DJI claims its 1080p OcuSync 3.0 RC video transmission works over 12 km (7.5 miles), but we found this to be a weak point in our tests. If you don’t have direct line of sight, it tends to lose the signal far more rapidly than the Mavic 3. For example, we tried multiple passes under a nearby bridge and it either nearly or completely lost the signal, forcing the drone to find its own way out. So if you don’t have line of sight to the drone, you won’t get anywhere close to 12 km.
The camera gimbal tilts down 90 degrees and up 60, more than double the Mini 2 and Mavic Air 2. The higher upward angle makes it useful to capture dramatic shots of buildings, cliffs and so forth. It has a relatively large 48-megapixel 1/1.3-inch sensor, bigger than the one on the iPhone 13 and only about 40 percent smaller than the DJI Mavic 2 Pro’s 1-inch sensor. It offers Dual Native ISO for improved HDR and low-light sensitivity, and a 24mm-equivalent f/1.7 fixed aperture lens.
Just as DJI’s Mavic 3 borrowed features from mirrorless cameras, the Mini 3 Pro has taken a page from smartphones. You can shoot high-res 48-megapixel photos or combine four pixels into one for 12-megapixel images with improved night sensitivity, just like on many smartphones. It has a two times digital zoom for 4K and four times for 1080p.
Video specs are impressive for a small drone, too. 4K and 2.7K are supported at up to 60 fps, or you can shoot 1080p at 120 fps. That compares to 4K at 30fps for the Mini 2 and Autel’s EVO Nano+, the Mini 3 Pro’s principal rival. Videos and photos are saved on microSD cards and there’s a small 1.25GB of internal storage.
Steve Dent/Engadget
Another cool trick is true vertical video mode for social media sharing. To maximize quality, the gimbal physically turns the camera sideways for both video and photos. So just as with a smartphone or camera, you get up to 48-megapixel videos and 4K video whether shooting in portrait or landscape modes.
If you’d rather not use a smartphone and the usual DJI RC-N1 remote, for an extra $240 you can get the Mini 3 Pro with the new RC remote that features a built-in screen. It looks and feels cheaper than DJI’s $1,100 RC Pro, of course, and the display isn’t nearly as bright or crisp. Using it in bright sunlight, we found we had to stay in the shade to get a clear view.
But the screen is large and usually bright enough, and it’s extremely convenient compared to the RC-N1. It makes shooting that much more easy and fun when you don’t have to take out a smartphone, connect it and so on.
It has power, home and a cinema, normal and sport switch on top. Photos and video are taken with the front triggers and the joysticks can be stowed underneath for travel. Unlike the RC-N1, though, it has separate triggers for photos and video. Hitting either trigger will automatically change the mode between video and photos, so you can avoid diving into the menus..
It has USB-charging and host ports, along with a microSD card slot for screen recording. Overall, it’s a nice addition to DJI’s remote RC lineup. The company has yet to say whether it will offer the remote separately or for use with other drones.
Performance
Steve Dent/Engadget
One big complaint with the Mavic 3 was that many key features like ActiveTrack weren’t available on launch and didn’t arrive until months later – too late to review them. Luckily, I was able to test nearly every function on the DJI Mini 3 Pro.
With its small size and potential maneuverability, the first thing we wanted to see was the APAS 4.0 obstacle detection and ActiveTrack following. To test those functions out, we grabbed a mountain bike and headed to a forest, pitting the Mini 3 Pro against a Mavic 3. The aim was to drive through some tree-lined trails and see which drone could keep up.
As we expected, the Mini 3 Pro destroyed the larger drone. It followed Nathanael with greater agility, avoiding nearly all trees. Only once did its sensors miss a small branch, but the minor crash didn’t even cause a scratch. That’s another benefit of a small drone – they’re less likely to be damaged in an accident. The Mavic 3, meanwhile, was much slower and often stopped completely rather than going around obstacles.
Steve Dent/Engadget
There are a few caveats with subject tracking. FocusTrack 4.0 and ActiveTrack only work at 4K 30p, not at 4K 50/60p or 1080 120p. Also, a feature that allows the drone to go around obstacles rather than stopping first isn’t yet enabled.
The Mini 3 Pro also acquitted itself well in various QuickShots and MasterShots scenarios. In one instance, while trying to use the Helix mode function, it detected an obstacle (a roof) and stopped. Those functions (Helix, Boomerang, Dronie, Rocket and Circle) all give you some cool shots to share on social media and worked flawlessly on the Mini 3 Pro, though quality was limited to 1080p. We also used the Hyperlapse function to create a nice time lapse video over a city at night.
Image quality
When it comes to image quality, the news is mostly good. By and large, the video was sharp and colors accurate, to the level of what you’d expect on a good smartphone. With a smallish sensor, the Mini 3 Pro is not at the same caliber as a mirrorless camera or the Mavic 3 though, of course.
I did have a few issues. For video, the automatic mode tended to overexpose bright objects, like a boat, so I had to adjust the settings to reduce that. In sunny weather, I found -0.3EV of exposure compensation worked best.
It does offer a fully manual pro mode to control color balance, shutter, ISO and more. However, most users likely will leave it in automatic mode and tweak the exposure compensation settings. You’ll have to be careful though, because exposure change transitions in automatic mode (when pointing at the ground then the sky, for example) aren’t as smooth as they are on the Mavic 3.
Where most lightweight drones are limited to 4K 30p, the Mini 3 Pro offers 60 fps at 4K for smoother video with fast-moving subjects. The addition of true 120 fps slow mo at 1080p is also a great option for birds in flight, action sports and so on. As mentioned, though, keep in mind that ActiveTrack doesn’t work in those modes. That’s kind of a shame, as high-frame rate video is just what you need for tracking action.
Movie files are limited to a maximum of 8 bits of color depth, 4:2:0 sampling and a 150 Mbps bit rate. Without 10-bit or log video modes, there’s not a lot of room to adjust exposure afterwards, so you’ll need to get it right the first time. It does come with a CineLook-D mode that helps boost dynamic range a bit, but you need to be in the manual Pro settings to use it.
As with any smallish sensor, low-light sensitivity is decent but not great. Shooting over a brightly lit town at night, Mini 3 Pro video was far less clear than a similar scene shot with the Mavic 3. When I tried to boost shadows to get more detail, I saw a considerable amount of noise.
Unlike with video, you can fix over- or under-exposed photos if you use the RAW DNG format. The 48-megapixel images are very sharp, and with the binned 12-megapixel mode enabled, RAW images retain extra detail in low light.
Overall, though image quality isn’t perfect, it helps to remember that this is a $670 lightweight drone. It beats all other models in that category, and is better than many heavier drones, too.
Wrap-up
Steve Dent/Engadget
DJI’s Mini 3 Pro is the new king of the lightweight drones. It’s well suited for adventure sports, nature, hiking and more, thanks to the impressive tracking and obstacle avoidance. It’s also a great camera for social activities and even pro shoots for weddings and events. Samuel, who does exactly those types of things, thinks the Mini 3 Pro and a Mavic 3 would make a killer combination for his business.
Its main competition is the $899 Autel Evo Nano Plus, currently the best lightweight drone available. It has a similar 48-megapixel 1/1.27-inch camera sensor, three-way obstacle avoidance, subject tracking, and more. However, battery life is only 28 minutes, it’s limited to 4K 30p with no 120fps option and doesn’t offer a remote with a screen.
With DJI’s name recognition and marketing punch, the Mini 3 Pro is likely to be a winner, sales-wise. Samuel and several of my Engadget colleagues have expressed interest in purchasing one – and they won’t be disappointed. It’s now available starting at $670 or you can get one for $910 with the new RC controller. You can also pick up a kit with a two-way charging hub, two regular batteries, two sets of propellers and a shoulder bag for an extra $189.
If you missed the sale at the end of last month, you have another chance to grab one of Samsung's Galaxy S22 smartphones at their lowest prices yet. All three of the handsets have hit new record lows on Amazon: the Galaxy S22 is $125 off and down to $675, while the Galaxy S22+ and S22 Ultra are both $250 off and down to $750 and $950, respectively. And the previous offer on the Galaxy Buds 2 still stands — you can save up to $60 on a pair of the earbuds when you buy them along with the handset.
Picking up the Galaxy S22 Ultra at under $1,000 is a great deal considering it has all of the latest features you can get on a Samsung phone. Marrying features of the Note family with the flagship S lineup, the Galaxy S22 Ultra sports a 6.8-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen with a 120Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 1,750 nits. It also comes with a built-in S Pen, so Note lovers will be able to use the handset as a small notebook, jotting things down, doodling and the like. Samsung improved the latency to 2.8 milliseconds, so writing with the S Pen will feel even more natural than it did before.
The Galaxy S22 Ultra runs on Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, 12GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. It also has a triple rear camera array that includes a 108-megapixel main sensor, a 12MP ultrawide shooter and two 10MP telephoto lenses. We were impressed with the photos it took as well as Samsung's host of photography improvements like better auto-framing and video stabilization, and new features like Adaptive Pixel.
Overall, the Galaxy S22 Ultra is one of the most impressive Android phones you can get right now. If you're looking for the deepest discount, though, the Galaxy S22+ takes that title in this sale. Yes, both it and the S22 Ultra are $250 off, but that's the equivalent of a 25 percent discount for the S22+ (and only a 21 percent discount on the S22 Ultra). We gave the S22+ and the standard S22 a score of 87 for their slick designs, strong performance and lovely displays. And with the S22+, you'll get a few extra perks including slightly faster WiFi speeds, UWB and WiFi 6E support and a longer battery life.
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Google's I/O developer conference is finally returning as an (limited) in-person keynote for 2022, but that's not the biggest story likely to emerge from the event. This year, in addition to the customary Android update, it’s likely to involve some of the company's most important hardware introductions in recent memory — including the first Pixel smartwatch. Here's what to expect when Sundar Pichai and crew take the stage.
It will be easy to tune in, we’d add. Google is streaming the presentation live through its YouTube channel on May 11th at 1PM Eastern, including in a version with American Sign Language interpretation. You can expect coverage and commentary from Engadget during and after the keynote.
Pixel Watch and Wear OS 3
Android Central
The true star of I/O may have already been outed despite Google’s attempts to keep it under wraps. Rumors of an official Google smartwatch have circulated for years, but the company now appears close to introducing one in the form of the Pixel Watch. A prototype of the device was apparently found at a restaurant by an Android Central source, but Google has also filed for a Pixel Watch trademark in recent weeks. It may be just a matter of when the timepiece arrives, not “if.”
The prototype may speak volumes about Google’s plans. True to past rumors, the Pixel Watch appears to have a sleek rounded case, a rotating crown and virtually no bezels. Think of it as Android’s answer to the Apple Watch’s elegant design, just with a circular screen. Much like its rival, the smartwatch would use proprietary but easily swappable bands to help you customize the look. Photos also suggest there will be at least some form of heart rate monitoring, while a previous code leak from 9to5Google hinted at an Exynos processor inside.
However, the real centerpiece may be the software. The Pixel Watch is believed to serve as a showcase for Wear OS 3, a major smartwatch interface developed with help from Samsung. It’s expected to include easier navigation, Tiles support (read: widgets) for third-party apps, improved performance and more customization for watchmakers. Fitbit activity tracking will be key to the experience, and code discovered in the new OS’ emulator hinted the fitness app might be integrated into some watch faces. While Wear OS has long included some exercise-friendly functionality, the Pixel smartwatch might not need any aftermarket apps to deliver truly robust tracking.
There’s no guarantee Google will debut the Pixel Watch at I/O, and details like pricing remain a mystery. However, reporter Jon Prosser, who generally has a strong track record with leaks, has claimed the watch could arrive on May 26th, just a couple of weeks after I/O. If so, we’d expect Wear OS 3 to roll out to compatible third-party watches (such as recent examples from Fossil, Mobvoi and Samsung) in the weeks ahead.
Pixel 6a
OnLeaks/91Mobiles
Google hasn’t introduced a meaningfully new mid-range phone since 2020’s Pixel 4a 5G (the Pixel 5a was virtually identical), so we’re overdue for new hardware. Thankfully, that might just be in the pipeline. Murmurs have persisted for months of a Pixel 6a that would bring the Pixel 6 aesthetic and key features to a more affordable handset.
Where previous budget Pixels typically preserved the camera tech of high-end models while using slower processors, Google might reverse its strategy with the 6a. The 6.2-inch phone will reportedly use the same speedy Tensor chip as in the Pixel 6, but rely on the 5a’s 12-megapixel main rear camera instead of the Pixel 6’s more advanced 50MP unit.
There would also still be an OLED screen with a (hopefully improved) under-display fingerprint reader, and fast millimeter wave 5G could be available with at least one variant. However, you might have to wave goodbye to the headphone jack on lower-cost Google phones.
As with the Pixel Watch, there are hints Google might unveil the Pixel 6a at I/O and launch it soon afterward. FCC filings for the 6a emerged last month, suggesting the company might ship the phone sometime in May. The biggest unknown at this stage is the price: Google sold the 5a for $449, but it’s not clear if the follow-up will be just as affordable.
Android 13
It's no secret that Google will reveal more about Android 13 at I/O 2022. The company has been testing developer previews of the new operating system since February, and it historically uses I/O to share many of a future Android revision’s user-facing features for the first time, such as Android 12’s Material You interface. All the minor, developer-focused tweaks you’ve seen so far likely won’t represent everything you’ll get when the OS is finally ready (likely late summer).
There haven’t been many clues as to what those larger changes will entail, but Google has so far focused on minor interface revisions and under-the-hood technology upgrades. The Android 13 beta already includes expanded Material You theming, an improved media playback box, a speedier QR code reader and (at least for some users) smart home control while the device is locked.
Behind the scenes, you’ll also see more conveniences as well as greater respect for both your privacy and free time. Android 13 will introduce Bluetooth LE audio support, and Fast Pair should be built-in to help you quickly set up earbuds and other accessories. A form of spatial audio might also be available, too. Apps, meanwhile, won’t have quite so much free rein. Software built for the new platform will have to request permission for media access and notifications. Even Google’s photo picker is now more restrictive. You should see fewer apps overstepping their boundaries, not to mention nagging you with unwanted alerts and promos.
It won’t be at all surprising if there are more substantial changes in store. From all the evidence so far, however, Android 13 is more of an iteration of Android 12 than a radical rethink. And that’s okay – Google now has more of an opportunity to polish its code and address complaints about last year’s overhaul.
Wildcards: Pixel Buds Pro, Nest Hub tablet and a foldable
Billy Steele/Engadget
While there are only a few expected hardware unveilings at I/O this year, we wouldn’t rule out some out-of-left-field teasers. Most recently, Jon Prosser floated the possibility of Pixel Buds Pro earbuds that would come in a range of colors. While he didn’t provide details or images, the “Pro” badging might hint at active noise cancellation and other features that haven’t found their way into existing Pixel Buds. While they might not appear at I/O (if ever), they would make sense given Android 13’s support for spatial audio and Bluetooth LE music.
We also wouldn’t completely rule out the oft-rumored Pixel foldable. Google designed Android 12L with foldables and tablets in mind, and the company’s leaked “Pipit” could demonstrate what that software could do. Don’t count on it arriving at this month’s event, though. Although 9to5Googleunearthed camera code implying a 2022 release, there haven’t been any real signs alluding to an I/O appearance. If Pipit is still on track, it might not arrive until late in the year.
We wouldn’t hold out hope for a rumored detachable Nest Hub where the screen can be removed and used like a tablet. The first discussions of this convertible Nest model only surfaced in March, and Google has frequently reserved its Nest announcements for the fall.
Instead, the most likely surprises are those you most often see at I/O. You might well see Google update Android TV (plus its Google TV front-end), and it’s easy to see upgrades coming to services like Maps and Photos. AI-based products using Duplex and similar technologies could appear at the conference. And then there’s the more audacious experiments — few would have anticipated the Project Starline AR video chat booth, even in the throes of a pandemic.
The LGBTQ+ dating app is going public through a blank check firm or Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) called Tiga, Bloombergreports. They're merging to form a combined entity with a $2.1 billion valuation, which will give Grindr access to $384 million in funds to be used for debt payments, as well as to support growth areas and to launch new endeavors.
Grindr Chief Financial Officer Gary Hsueh told the media organization in an interview that the company had been approached by several SPACs in the past. It ultimately chose the SPAC route instead of a traditional IPO, he said, because it makes more sense. "[I]t had certainty and that’s even more important today than it was a year ago when the market was different," Hsueh explained.
As Bloombergnotes, SPACs became hot over the past couple of years after the pandemic made traditional IPOs much riskier than usual. They offer better returns and protections and could provide an easier route to become a public company. However, the market has become oversaturated of late, and at least one analyst told CNBC that the SPAC bubble is bursting.
At the moment, Grindr's revenue mostly comes from subscription, though it does earn some money from ads. It remains to be seen if a recent report that it sold user data would affect its future earnings: According to The Wall Street Journal, Grindr location data was for sale for at least three years, putting users' privacy at risk.
Last week, a group of Apple employees wrote an open letter criticizing the company's hybrid work-from-home policy, which requires employees to be at the office three days a week starting May 23rd. Now, Apple has lost director of machine learning Ian Goodfellow over the policy, according to a tweet from The Verge's Zoë Schiffer. Goodfellow may have been the company's most cited machine learning expert, according to Schiffer. "I believe strongly that more flexibility would have been the best policy for my team," he wrote in a note to staff.
A group of Apple staffers called "Apple Together" opposed to the RTO (return-to-office) strategy cited multiple arguments against it. They noted that in-person collaboration isn't needed that often, thanks to apps like Slack. They also countered Apple's argument that in-person work allows for "serendipity" when people bump into each other, saying that Apple's siloed office structure makes that difficult.
It also noted that a daily commute "is a huge waste of time as well as both mental and physical resources," and that the policy will lead to a "younger, whiter, more male-dominated, more neuro-normative, more able-bodied" workforce.
Mainly though, the group cited Apple's hypocrisy in the way it markets its products. "We tell all of our customers how great our products are for remote work, yet, we ourselves, cannot use them to work remotely? How can we expect our customers to take that seriously? How can we understand what problems of remote work need solving in our products if we don't live it?" the letter states.
Apple, which brought in a Q3 record $97.3 billion last quarter, has been facing employee discontent of late. On top of issues around RTO, it's facing an NLRB complaint over hostile working conditions, and Apple Store employees are quietly attempting to unionize.
Yesterday, as Russia celebrated Victory Day, marking its role in defeating Nazi Germany, many of the country’s online platforms were defaced in protest of the ongoing war in Ukraine.
According to reports, Russians with smart TVs saw channel listings replaced with a message implicating them in the ongoing conflict. “The blood of thousands of Ukrainians and hundreds of murdered children is on your hands,” the message read. “TV and authorities are lying. No to war.”
According to The Washington Post, the hack apparently targeted several of the country’s largest internet companies, including Yandex and Rutube, Russia’s alternative to YouTube.
Russia passed a law this year that bans any efforts to discredit the country’s military, but that hasn’t stopped some media outlets from protesting the war. Articles on Lenta.ru noted they had “not been agreed with the editorial leadership” and that “the Presidential Administration will punish the publication for publishing this.”
Sony announced it sold just two million PlayStation 5 units last quarter (Q4), bringing its overall total to 19.3 million. That's down considerably on the same quarter last year when it sold 3.3 million units. Game sales went up, though, with 70.5 million PS4/PS5 titles sold compared to 61.4 million a year ago.
While Sony contends with supply constraints, it’s expecting better days ahead. It forecast a 34 percent increase in sales next quarter to 929 billion yen ($7.13 billion) due to better parts supply and higher sales of third-party games. Sony is also launching PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium, its take on Xbox Game pass, in June. While PS Plus subscriber levels were flat, the new tiers could help draw more subscribers — and some might pay more than they do right now.
Kendrick Lamar’s new music video for The Heart Part 5 revolves exclusively around deepfake celebrity faces superimposed on Kendrick's body as he raps across topics including mental illness, murder and more.
Lincoln College was unable to access recruitment and fundraising systems for months.
Lincoln College says it will close this week in the wake of a ransomware attack that took months to resolve. While the impact of COVID-19 severely impacted recruitment and fundraising, the cyberattack seems to have been the tipping point for the Illinois institution.
Lincoln says it had "record-breaking student enrollment" in fall 2019. However, the pandemic caused a sizable fall in numbers. The college — one of only a few rural schools to qualify as a predominantly Black institution under the Department of Education — said it affected its financial standing. Barring a last-minute respite, the combination of the pandemic and cyberattack may have brought an end to the 157-year-old institution.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says they're on the way to Facebook as well.
As promised (or threatened), NFTs are coming to Instagram. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the app will this week start testing a way for users to display non-fungible tokens on their profiles.
"We're starting building for NFTs, not just in our metaverse and Reality Labs work but also across our family of apps." Zuckerberg said in a post on Facebook. "We're starting to test digital collectibles on Instagram so that creators and collectors can display their NFTs."
A similar feature is coming to Facebook in the near future, and Meta is considering enabling NFTs in its other apps, such as Messenger and WhatsApp. Also in the works is a way for people to display 3D NFTs in Instagram Stories using augmented reality.
Forty years after it first began to dabble in quantum computing, IBM is ready to expand the technology out of the lab and into more practical applications — like supercomputing! The company has already hit a number of development milestones since it released its previous quantum roadmap in 2020, including the 127-qubit Eagle processor that uses quantum circuits and the Qiskit Runtime API. IBM announced on Wednesday that it plans to further scale its quantum ambitions and has revised the 2020 roadmap with an even loftier goal of operating a 4,000-qubit system by 2025.
Before it sets about building the biggest quantum computer to date, IBM plans release its 433-qubit Osprey chip later this year and migrate the Qiskit Runtime to the cloud in 2023, “bringing a serverless approach into the core quantum software stack,” per Wednesday’s release. Those products will be followed later that year by Condor, a quantum chip IBM is billing as “the world’s first universal quantum processor with over 1,000 qubits.”
This rapid four-fold jump in quantum volume (the number of qubits packed into a processor) will enable users to run increasingly longer quantum circuits, while increasing the processing speed — measured in CLOPS (circuit layer operations per second) — from a maximum of 2,900 OPS to over 10,000. Then it’s just a simple matter of quadrupaling that capacity in the span of less than 24 months.
To do so, IBM plans to first get sets of multiple processors to communicate with one another both in parallel and in series. This should help develop better error mitigation schemes and improve coordination between processors, both necessary components of tomorrow’s practical quantum computers. After that, IBM will design and deploy chip-level couplers, which “will closely connect multiple chips together to effectively form a single and larger processor,” according to the company, then build quantum communication links to connect those larger multi-processors together into even bigger clusters — essentially daisy-chaining increasingly larger clumps of processors together until they form a functional, modular 4,000-qubit computing platform.
“As quantum computing matures, we’re starting to see ourselves as more than quantum hardware,” IBM researcher Jay Gambetta wrote on Wednesday. “We’re building the next generation of computing. In order to benefit from our world-leading hardware, we need to develop the software and infrastructure capable of taking advantage of it.”
As such, IBM released a set of ready-made primitive programs earlier this year, “pre-built programs that allows developers easy access to the outputs of quantum computations without requiring intricate understanding of the hardware,” per the company. IBM intends to expand that program set in 2023, enabling developers to run them on parallelized quantum processors. “We also plan to enhance primitive performance with low-level compilation and post-processing methods, like introducing error suppression and mitigation tools,” Gambetta said. “These advanced primitives will allow algorithm developers to use Qiskit Runtime services as an API for incorporating quantum circuits and classical routines to build quantum workflows.”
These workflows will take a given problem, break it down into smaller quantum and classical programs, chew through those processes in either parallel or series depending on which is more efficient, and then use an orchestration layer to “circuit stitch” all those various data streams back into a coherent result that classical computers can understand. IBM calls its proprietary stitching infrastructure Quantum Serverless and, per the new roadmap, will deploy the feature to its core quantum software stack in 2023.
“We think by next year, we’ll begin prototyping quantum software applications for users hoping to use Qiskit Runtime and Quantum Serverless to address specific use cases,” Gambetta said. We’ll begin to define these services with our first test case — machine learning — working with partners to accelerate the path toward useful quantum software applications. By 2025, we think model developers will be able to explore quantum applications in machine learning, optimization, finance, natural sciences, and beyond.”
“For many years, CPU-centric supercomputers were society’s processing workhorse, with IBM serving as a key developer of these systems,” he continued. “In the last few years, we’ve seen the emergence of AI-centric supercomputers, where CPUs and GPUs work together in giant systems to tackle AI-heavy workloads. Now, IBM is ushering in the age of the quantum-centric supercomputer, where quantum resources — QPUs — will be woven together with CPUs and GPUs into a compute fabric. We think that the quantum-centric supercomputer will serve as an essential technology for those solving the toughest problems, those doing the most ground-breaking research, and those developing the most cutting-edge technology.”
Together, these hardware and software systems will become IBM Quantum System Two with the first prototype scheduled to be operational at some point next year.
