Qualcomm is betting it can become a cornerstone in the augmented reality world. The chipmaker has unveiled a Snapdragon Spaces platform that helps developers create apps for "next generation" AR glasses. The toolset includes tech to help understand environments and users (including gesture and hand tracking from the newly acquired HINS), software kits for 3D engines like Unreal, OpenXR support and hooks for platforms like Niantic's Lightship and Unity's AR Foundation.

The ultimate aim is to make AR more accessible. Ideally, developers will make apps directly available to you through mobile app stores, using glasses tethered to smartphones. You might not see Snapdragon Spaces used for stand-alone glasses, at least not at first.

The manufacturer support will be there. Spaces won't be widely available until spring 2022, but Qualcomm has lined up partners like Lenovo (including Motorola), Oppo and Xiaomi. Carriers like T-Mobile and NTT DoCoMo will help build "5G experiences" using Spaces. Lenovo will be the first to make use of the technology, pairing its ThinkReality A3 glasses with an unnamed Motorola phone.

It's too soon to know if Snapdragon Spaces will have a meaningful effect on AR. While this should streamline app work, that will only matter if there are both compelling projects and AR glasses people want to buy. This also won't be much help for iPhone owners waiting on possible Apple AR devices. Efforts like this might lower some of the barriers, though, and it's easy to see a flurry of AR software in the near future.

The rumors of a Sony-TSMC chipmaking partnership were true. Nikkeireports Sony and TSMC are teaming up to build a semiconductor factory in Kumamoto, Japan that would tackle "strong global market demand" for specialized chips. That is, it would address chip shortages that have plagued everyone from car makers through to phone brands. The deal has TSMC creating a local subsidiary, Japan Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing, where Sony will have a minority stake of roughly $500 million.

This fab wouldn't be used to make cutting-edge chips on 5-nanometer and smaller processes. Instead, it would start out with 22nm and 28nm parts. That may sound outdated (even Intel's 14nm CPUs have been around for several years), but they could be ideal for tasks where cost and reliability are more important than raw performance, like cars and industrial equipment.

As with many chip shortage solutions, you won't notice the impact for a while. Sony and TSMC only expect to start construction of the factory sometime in 2022, and the plant won't start production until sometime before the end of 2024. The initial crunch that prompted the effort may have been solved by then. Nonetheless, this could help the tech industry keep up with demand and prevent any future crisis from hobbling whole economies.

NVIDIA has been steadily advancing its AI assistant technology in recent months, and now it's clear just how all the pieces fit together. The company has introduced Omniverse Avatar (for 3D assistant creation) and Riva (custom AI voice creation) platforms that, combined, lead to surprisingly realistic virtual personas with relatively little effort — or, in one case, deliberately unrealistic.

In one demo, used to highlight NVIDIA's AI-powered Maxine toolkit, the company created an Omniverse Avatar from a woman's photo and used Riva to train the voice based on that woman, convert text to speech and translate to different languages. The digital stand-in looks and sounds much like the real person (aside from a couple of stiff-sounding translations), and can even turn its head while maintaining natural-looking eye contact. As you might imagine, this could lead to more relatable virtual helpers at kiosks and websites.

Another demo, for NVIDIA's Project Tokkio "talking kiosk" reference app, shows what could happen when you created a wholly artificial character. The tech showcase centers on a 3D, ray-traced toy version of CEO Jensun Huang (complete with his signature outfit and a Riva-trained voice) using AI to hold a conversation with real people on subjects like climate change and the role of proteins in the body. Various Omniverse systems animate his face and hands. It's not meant to be highly authentic, of course, but it shows how you can craft a 3D virtual assistant considerably more engaging than a disembodied voice.

Most of the Maxine development kit is already available. Riva is usable now in an open beta, and will be free for "small-scale" work. Larger rollouts will depend on a Riva Enterprise program launching early in 2022. You'll have to wait longer for Omniverse Avatar, though. While the basic Omniverse platform is in open beta now, Avatar is only "under development" with no specified launch date. Still, this points to a future where an airport or favorite restaurant can provide an assistant that's (hopefully) useful without seeming too robotic.

AMD has unveiled its first processors based on its new Zen 4 architecture, and they promise a lot of brawn... at least, for some users. AnandTechnotes AMD has outlined its early Zen 4 roadmap during a virtual data center event, and the first two CPU families are Epyc chips aimed at servers and other heavy-duty computing tasks. The first, nicknamed Genoa, is built for general-purpose computing and packs up to 96 cores (thanks in part to a 5nm process) as well as support for DDR5 memory and PCIe 5.0 peripherals. It arrives sometime in 2022, and partners are sampling chips now.

The star of the show, however, may be Bergamo. It's designed for cloud computing and emphasizes core density — AMD is promising up to 128 cores in a single CPU. The design relies on a modified Zen 4c architecture (the C is for "cloud") that offers similar functionality, but optimizes cache and power consumption to boost the core count and offer as many processing threads as possible. Bergamo doesn't surface until the first half of 2023, but it may be useful for internet giants juggling many simultaneous users.

If you were expecting news on Zen 4-based Ryzen processors, you'll be disappointed. AMD was unsurprisingly focused on corporate customers at its event, and there was no mention of mainstream parts. With that said, it won't be at all surprising if AMD shares more about next-gen Ryzen hardware in the months ahead.

WhatsApp group chats may soon behave more like Discord servers. WABetaInfo and The Verge have learned WhatsApp is developing a Communities feature (initially spotted at XDA) that lets administrators unite group chats under a larger umbrella. You'd have a top-level Community chat with smaller group chats tied to it — for instance, you could have a Community for a college course with study group chats linked to that parent.

All of the chats would behave much like they do today, with end-to-end encryption. Admins could invite people to join the community either manually or by sharing an invitation link. Those overseers would also have tools to manage a given community, although details aren't available at this stage.

WABetaInfo expected Communities to appear in a future WhatsApp beta for Android and iOS, although it didn't know when. We'd add that features like this aren't guaranteed to launch, and might get cut.

It's easy to see Communities launching before too long, though. This wouldn't replace Discord for gamers, but it might fulfill a similar role for classes, fan groups and others that want to tie multiple chats together. It could be particularly important in countries like Brazil and India, where WhatsApp is frequently a mainstay of people's digital lives.

MacOS Monterey didn't have the most graceful launch for some users. According to 9to5Mac, Apple told YouTuber Rene Ritchie it fixed a firmware issue preventing some Macs with T2 security chips from starting. New upgraders who install Monterey will now get updated firmware alongside the OS. The T2 chip exists in most Macs released between 2018 and 2020.

Apple didn't say which systems were most likely to be affected. However, it said only a "very small number" of users ran into the problem.

Unfortunately, there's no easy way to recover if your Mac bricked as a result of the update. If you ran into trouble, you'll have to contact Apple technical support. It's not clear if you'll have to send your Mac in for service, but it's safe to presume this could sour your Monterey experience. As common as OS launch bugs may be, they're seldom this serious.

Now that Netflix is offering mobile games on Android, there's a lingering question: how will iOS players join in when Apple's policies bar all-in-one gaming services? The hard way, apparently. In his "Power On" newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman (with help from developer Steve Moser) claimed to have seen code indicating Netflix would release all its games "individually" on iOS, through the App Store. They won't all be downloadable and playable within the app, Gurman added.

The main Netflix app would still offer access to the game catalog, but you'd merely be launching a separate app when you tap a game. That's currently how it works with Android, but Netflix has the option of folding games into its Android app. On iOS, it would have no choice but to make games available separately. Apple requires that every game on the App Store receive an individual screening, even if it's only available through the cloud.

You could see this coming in light of Apple's approach, but it still indicates that Netflix will have to make some compromises if it's going to bring mobile games to iOS. This also underscores a growing rivalry between Apple and Netflix, as Gurman explained. The two are competing on an increasing number of fronts, ranging from gaming to streaming video services, but neither can afford to estrange the other. The potential exists for a significant conflict, especially if Apple has to make further concessions on App Store rules. 

Ask Pixel 6 owners about their top gripe and they'll likely point to the slow, finicky fingerprint sensor. There may be an explanation for that momentary anguish, though. Google is telling users that the Pixel 6's fingerprint reader is using "enhanced security algorithms" that may either take longer to check your digits or require better sensor contact.

Google hasn't elaborated on its statement. We've asked Google for comment.

Some users have suggested the sluggish performance might be due to Google's use of an optical under-display fingerprint reader instead of the ultrasonic sensor found in phones like the Galaxy S21. However, Reddit users noted there are phones with optical sensors that perform faster, such as the OnePlus 9. There's a real chance software may play a role in the Pixel 6's quirks.

It's not certain if Google can or will address this through a software update. Whether or not it can, it's unlikely to provide an alternative beyond entering your passcode. Face unlock is typically insecure without a depth sensor present, as facial recognition systems can sometimes be fooled by masks and photos. Short some kind of revision, you might just have to be patient when using the latest Pixel flagship.

SpaceX and partners are still struggling to put Crew-3 into orbit. NASA has delayed the mission's launch yet again, to November 10th at 9:03PM Eastern. They moved the liftoff date after deciding to return Crew-2 (itself delayed to November 8th) first and avoid "weather considerations" affecting launch as well as recovery, according to the European Space Agency. SpaceX noted there was an 80 percent chance of favorable weather for the new date.

Crew-3 should dock with the International Space Station at roughly 7:10PM Eastern on November 11th. The launch was originally set for Halloween but was pushed to November 3rd due to weather. NASA postponed the launch again, aiming for a late November 6th launch, after a crew member suffered a "minor medical issue."

Delays are common in spaceflight, including for Crew Dragon flights, but Crew-3 mission has suffered more headaches than you might expect given weeks of setbacks. While SpaceX and its agency allies clearly don't have much choice in the matter, this isn't what they'd want to endure as they try to make privately-operated spaceflights more routine.

Drones are apparently turning into assassination tools. According to CBS News and Reuters, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi says he survived a drone-based assassination attempt today (November 7th) at his home in Baghdad's highly secure Green Zone. The country's Interior Ministry said the attack involved three drones, including at least one bomb-laden vehicle. Six bodyguards were injured during the incident, and an official speaking talking to Reuters claimed security forces obtained the remnants of a small drone at the scene.

While the Iraqi government publicly said it was "premature" to identify culprits, CBS sources suspected the perpetrators belonged to pro-Iranian militias that have used similar tactics against Erbil International Airport and the US Embassy. The militias directly blamed al-Kadhimi for casualties in a fight between Iraqi security forces and pro-militia protesters who objected to their side's losses in an October 10th parliamentary vote.

Iraq, the US, Saudi Arabia and Iran have publicly condemned the attack. Militia leaders, however, suggested the drone attack might have been faked to distract from protesters' reported deaths.

Drone-based terrorism isn't a completely novel concept. ISIS, for instance, modified off-the-shelf drones to drop explosives. Attacks against political leaders are still very rare, though. If accurate, the reported Iraqi plot suggests drone terrorism is entering a new phase — extremists are using robotic fliers to hit major targets too dangerous to strike using conventional methods.