Tag Archives: author_name|Will Shanklin

Google plans to run a fiber optic cable from Kenya to Australia

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Google said on Thursday it will build a fiber optic cable to connect Africa and Australia. Named Umoja (a Swahili word meaning “unity”), one end of the cable will start in Kenya and pass through Uganda, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa (with access points for the countries) before crossing the Indian Ocean to the land down under.

Google says the project is designed to “increase digital connectivity, accelerate economic growth, and deepen resilience across Africa.” In addition to the cable itself, the company says it will work with the Kenyan government to boost cybersecurity, data-driven innovation, digital upskilling and responsibly and safely deploying AI.

Umoja will join Equiano, Google’s private undersea cable running between Portugal and South Africa (with pitstops in other nations).

Google says the new route is critical to strengthen network resilience in the region, which has a history of “high-impact outages.” In other words, more network redundancy makes outages less catastrophic to the area’s broadband infrastructure.

“The new intercontinental fiber optic route will significantly enhance our global and regional digital infrastructure,” Kenyan President William Ruto wrote about the initiative in a Google blog post. “This initiative is crucial in ensuring the redundancy and resilience of our region’s connectivity to the rest of the world, especially in light of recent disruptions caused by cuts to sub-sea cables. By strengthening our digital backbone, we are not only improving reliability but also paving the way for increased digital inclusion, innovation, and economic opportunities for our people and businesses.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-plans-to-run-a-fiber-optic-cable-from-kenya-to-australia-191744476.html?src=rss

Spotify’s Car Thing will soon transform into Spotify’s Car Brick

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Spotify’s Car Thing, a limited hardware “test” the company began shipping only three years ago, is about to bite the dust. The company wrote on Thursday that the device, which brought Spotify to automobiles without Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, will “no longer be operational” as of December 9.

Car Thing was aimed at drivers who want to listen to Spotify in their cars but don’t have modern systems with built-in streaming apps. The $90 device let you control the service with voice recognition and preset buttons, and it had a four-inch color touchscreen. However, Spotify had already discontinued it by mid-2022.

In our 2021 preview, Engadget’s Billy Steele wrote that the gadget seemed unnecessary at first but proved useful after two weeks of use. “While it seems only Spotify die-hards would be interested in something like this, it does offer an upgrade for older cars,” our audio gear expert wrote. “I’m never getting built-in voice control in [the 2006 Honda] Element, and the ability to keep Waze on my phone and Spotify on another display definitely reduced the need to fiddle with either while driving.”

Left-side view of the Spotify Car Thing mounted in front of a car stereo.
Billy Steele for Engadget

Spotify’s official explanation for ditching its first hardware product is that it’s “part of our ongoing efforts to streamline our product offerings” (read: save money) and that it lets the streaming service “focus on developing new features and enhancements that will ultimately provide a better experience to all Spotify users.”

Those new features and enhancements are anyone’s guess because the company adds that it doesn’t plan on launching a replacement product or a new version of Car Thing. Of course, you can listen to Spotify in your car with your phone connected through Bluetooth or a cable, and many drivers now have Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, which provide access to much more than a single music app.

Spotify recommends factory resetting the Car Thing and disposing of it after it kicks the bucket in December. The company isn’t offering any refunds or trade-in options — something to keep in mind if it ever rolls out more limited hardware experiments.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/spotifys-car-thing-will-soon-transform-into-spotifys-car-brick-180208232.html?src=rss

The next Call of Duty is Black Ops 6

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Activision has confirmed that the next Call of Duty game will be Black Ops 6. The publisher updated the website for the military shooter franchise to reveal the title, promising that “official lines of communication have begun,” which essentially means the game’s marketing is shifting from teaser mode to slow-trickle reveal mode.

Xbox’s X (Twitter) account posted in late April that a “[REDACTED] Direct” event would follow the Xbox Showcase on Sunday, June 9. It was never much of a mystery that it would be a Call of Duty reveal: The logo matched the franchise’s military art style, and it had already been reported that the next installment in the long-running series would arrive this year.

On Thursday, a short teaser video on Xbox’s X account removed the redaction to reveal Black Ops 6. So you can look forward to a hype session for the first Call of Duty game unveiled under Microsoft ownership.

Marketing image for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Mount Rushmore, except the Presidents' eyes are covered with blindfolds that read
Activision

The Call of Duty website shows additional teasers that capitalize on conspiracy theorists’ worldviews. A shadowy video shows law enforcement body cam footage, building up to the (fairly corny) reveal of Mount Rushmore (Six Grandfathers Mountain before it was carved up) with blindfolds covering each of the four US Presidents’ eyes, reading “The Truth Lies” followed by a logo. Other videos on the website show vandals (also in found-footage style) placing posters with the same slogan around a city.

In other words, marketers are marketing.

Microsoft apparently plans to use the new installment to boost Game Pass subscriptions. The Wall Street Journal reported this month that the title will be the first Call of Duty installment to appear on Game Pass on launch day. We’ll have to wait to see whether that strategy provides enough much-needed lift for the service to justify the (potentially enormous) loss of direct sales to Xbox console owners.

You can hear about Black Ops 6 on June 9, immediately following the Xbox Games Showcase, which starts at 1 PM ET. Engadget will have full coverage of all the day’s reveals.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-next-call-of-duty-is-black-ops-6-161916709.html?src=rss

Volkswagen indefinitely delays the ID.7 electric sedan’s arrival in North America

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Volkswagen has delayed the launch of its ID.7 sedan in the US and Canada. Before Wednesday’s indefinite postponement, the automaker had slated the EV’s North American launch for this year. The ID.7, which was set to be Volkswagen’s first electric sedan in the US, has seen high demand in Europe, where it arrived last year.

“As market dynamics continue to change, Volkswagen is delaying the introduction of the ID.7 sedan in the U.S. and Canada,” the automaker wrote in a press release announcing the delay. Volkswagen added that its Microbus is still slated for a Q4 2025 stateside arrival. The company also touted in its press release how well its electric SUVs did in North America during Q1 2024.

Shadow sepia-like image of the Volkswagen ID.7 electric sedan.
Volkswagen

Volkswagen confirmed to Engadget sister site Autoblog that it doesn’t currently have a new timeline for the delayed ID.7 in North America, not an encouraging sign for folks who were eagerly waiting for the sedan. The Verge notes that the model would fill a gap in the American electric industry’s offerings: a decently affordable electric sedan. Right now, most non-SUV electric vehicles in the American market sit on the high end of the pricing spectrum, starting at around $70,000.

The European ID.7 is an “upper mid-size” EV sedan that merges a powerful and efficient 282-hp motor with a 77-kWh battery. Rated for around 300 miles of range, it was expected to start at around $50,000 in the US.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/volkswagen-indefinitely-delays-the-id7-electric-sedans-arrival-in-north-america-175929524.html?src=rss

The DOJ makes its first known arrest for AI-generated CSAM

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The US Department of Justice arrested a Wisconsin man last week for generating and distributing AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM). As far as we know, this is the first case of its kind as the DOJ looks to establish a judicial precedent that exploitative materials are still illegal even when no children were used to create them. “Put simply, CSAM generated by AI is still CSAM,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco wrote in a press release.

The DOJ says 42-year-old software engineer Steven Anderegg of Holmen, WI, used a fork of the open-source AI image generator Stable Diffusion to make the images, which he then used to try to lure an underage boy into sexual situations. The latter will likely play a central role in the eventual trial for the four counts of “producing, distributing, and possessing obscene visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct and transferring obscene material to a minor under the age of 16.”

The government says Anderegg’s images showed “nude or partially clothed minors lasciviously displaying or touching their genitals or engaging in sexual intercourse with men.” The DOJ claims he used specific prompts, including negative prompts (extra guidance for the AI model, telling it what not to produce) to spur the generator into making the CSAM.

Cloud-based image generators like Midjourney and DALL-E 3 have safeguards against this type of activity, but Ars Technica reports that Anderegg allegedly used Stable Diffusion 1.5, a variant with fewer boundaries. Stability AI told the publication that fork was produced by Runway ML.

According to the DOJ, Anderegg communicated online with the 15-year-old boy, describing how he used the AI model to create the images. The agency says the accused sent the teen direct messages on Instagram, including several AI images of “minors lasciviously displaying their genitals.” To its credit, Instagram reported the images to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), which alerted law enforcement.

Anderegg could face five to 70 years in prison if convicted on all four counts. He’s currently in federal custody before a hearing scheduled for May 22.

The case will challenge the notion some may hold that CSAM’s illegal nature is based exclusively on the children exploited in their creation. Although AI-generated digital CSAM doesn’t involve any live humans (other than the one entering the prompts), it could still normalize and encourage the material, or be used to lure children into predatory situations. This appears to be something the feds want to clarify as the technology rapidly advances and grows in popularity.

“Technology may change, but our commitment to protecting children will not,” Deputy AG Monaco wrote. “The Justice Department will aggressively pursue those who produce and distribute child sexual abuse material—or CSAM—no matter how that material was created. Put simply, CSAM generated by AI is still CSAM, and we will hold accountable those who exploit AI to create obscene, abusive, and increasingly photorealistic images of children.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-doj-makes-its-first-known-arrest-for-ai-generated-csam-201740996.html?src=rss

Pre-order Samsung’s first Copilot+ laptop and get a free 50-inch 4K TV

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Samsung was among the Microsoft hardware partners unveiling AI-powered PCs on Monday. If you pre-order the company’s Galaxy Book4 Edge, which uses Qualcomm’s Arm-based Snapdragon X Elite processor to run AI models locally, you can get a free 50-inch Samsung Crystal UHD TV as a bonus.

The Galaxy Book4 Edge supports the Windows Copilot+ features Microsoft announced on Monday, including Recall (an AI-powered “photographic memory” for everything you do on your PC) and Cocreator image generation. It processes these AI features locally, so your data won’t leave your device.

The laptop comes in several variants, starting at $1,350. That entry-level price gets you a 14-inch model with a base Snapdragon X Elite processor, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. Although Samsung accepts trade-ins when you buy the laptop, you can only get the free TV when you buy the Galaxy Book at its full price. Of course, if you return it, you’ll need to send the TV back, too, or you’ll have to pay its full $380 price.

The Galaxy Book4 Edge also comes in 16-inch variants. The base model in that size ($1,450) has the same entry-level Snapdragon X Elite processor (3.4GHz) and 512GB storage as the smaller variant. Meanwhile, a higher-end ($1,750) version, exclusive to the 16-inch model, uses a 3.8GHz variant of Qualcomm’s processor and gives you 1TB of storage.

Samsung product image for the 50-inch Crystal UHD TV. It sits at an angle against a plain white background.
Samsung

The 50-inch TV has a $380 retail price, making the pre-order offer quite the free perk. It has a 3,840 x 2,160 resolution and supports 4K upscaling, HDR and up to a 60Hz refresh rate.

You’ll see the television added to your purchase when you pre-order the Galaxy Book4 Edge from Samsung’s website. Samsung says the promotion is limited to one per customer and is only available while supplies last. The laptop will start shipping on June 18.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/pre-order-samsungs-first-copilot-laptop-and-get-a-free-50-inch-4k-tv-180242771.html?src=rss

The Sonos Roam 2 fixes the original speaker’s confusing button setup

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Headphones aren’t the only new product Sonos rolled out today. The company also refreshed its cheapest portable speaker, the Roam. The Sonos Roam 2 has the same audio as its 2021 predecessor but adds more streamlined controls and a quicker setup. The $179 speaker is available today.

Sonos says the Roam 2 “delivers the same rich, detailed sound and bass” as the original model, so owners of the first Roam would only notice some subtle quality-of-life upgrades. One is a separate power and Bluetooth button, which solves a common gripe from its predecessor about its multifunctional power / sleep / Bluetooth button. Customers found that the overloaded button was confusing and often led to accidentally triggering the wrong behavior.

The company says setup is also more straightforward in the Roam 2. The previous model required you to set up the speaker over Wi-Fi, so you couldn’t quickly connect to Bluetooth until you’d gone through the (potentially cumbersome) process of pairing with a home network. That meant you couldn’t buy the speaker and immediately use it on a day at the beach or camping. The Roam 2 lets you quickly connect your phone or other device over Bluetooth, so you don’t have to mess with the much lengthier Wi-Fi setup until it’s time to pair it with a Sonos home system.

Lifestyle photo for the Sonos Roam 2 portable speaker. It sits on a busy bedside table as a hand reaches in the frame (from the right) to touch its controls.
Leah Verwey

Besides adding a monochromatic logo that blends in better with the rest of the speaker, the Roam 2 appears to be the same as the original in other areas. It’s still rated for a solid 10 hours of battery life, has IP67 dust and water resistance and supports automatic Trueplay tuning to adjust its sound to any room’s acoustics.

As for sound, Engadget’s Nathan Ingraham was pleased with the original’s audio profile. “Fortunately, it sounds much better than its tiny size should allow,” he wrote in our review. “The Roam includes both a tweeter and a mid-woofer, rather than just a single driver, and that helps it produce clear highs and mids as well as more of a bass thump than seems plausible from a relatively tiny speaker. It also doesn’t distort or get overly boomy at max volume, a surprise for such a small speaker. Audio quality stays consistent throughout the volume range.” You can expect the same from the new model.

You can order the Sonos Roam 2 today from the company’s website and retail partners like Amazon and Best Buy. The $179 speaker ships in black, white, olive, sunset (orange-ish red) and wave (blue with a subtle gray tint) colorways.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-sonos-roam-2-fixes-the-original-speakers-confusing-button-setup-161311479.html?src=rss

Intel-powered Copilot+ PCs will be available this fall

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A gaggle of PC makers rolled out their first Copilot+ PCs on Monday, but they all run on Qualcomm silicon. Intel chimed in today to assure us that its Lunar Lake chips, the company’s first to support all the Copilot+ AI features, will arrive in Q3 2024.

Intel says more than 80 new laptops from over 20 hardware partners will begin shipping in time for the holidays. The PCs will add the new Copilot+ features, like Recall and Cocreator via a software update. (The company didn’t provide a specific window for those.) Intel expects to ship more than 40 million AI PC chips this year, which include an onboard neural processing unit (NPU) for generative AI features.

The chipmaker says Lunar Lake will have more than triple the AI performance of the current Meteor Lake models, supporting over 40 trillion NPU operations per second (TOPS).

“The launch of Lunar Lake will bring meaningful fundamental improvements across security, battery life, and more thanks to our deep co-engineering partnership with Intel,” Microsoft Windows and Devices VP Pavan Davuluri wrote in a press release. “We are excited to see Lunar Lake come to market with a 40+ TOPS NPU which will deliver Microsoft’s Copilot+ experiences at scale when available.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/intel-powered-copilot-pcs-will-be-available-this-fall-204049150.html?src=rss

ASUS’ first Copilot+ PC locks when you walk away and unlocks when you return

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ASUS isn’t sitting out the rush of AI-enhanced Copilot+ PCs, which also includes new models from Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Samsung and, of course, Microsoft. The “ultra-thin” ASUS Vivobook S 15 has Windows AI features like memory assistant Recall, the image generator Cocreator, and several ASUS-exclusive AI apps.

One of the more intriguing AI-powered features of the ASUS Vivobook S 15 is its use of the AiSense IR camera. ASUS says it can detect your presence and adjust the display accordingly. If you look away, the display will dim, and it will brighten up again when you look back. And if you step away from the computer, it will lock — and unlock when you return. While we can't vouch for its effectiveness before trying it, the feature sounds super handy for security and privacy if it delivers consistently.

Another baked-in AI feature is StoryCube, an app that ASUS says can automatically organize RAW photos and videos. In addition to the standard Copilot+ features announced on Monday, the laptop also includes Windows Studio Effects, which can automate lighting adjustments and noise removal in video calls. It also supports Microsoft’s Live Captions (real-time, AI-powered subtitles).

Straight-on marketing image of the Asus Vivobook S 15 laptop against a white background.
ASUS

On the hardware side, the Vivobook S 15 runs on the Snapdragon X Elite chip with a built-in Qualcomm Hexagon neural processing unit (NPU), which ASUS claims can process 45 TOPS (that’s 45 trillion operations per second). The PC ships with a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD and up to 32GB of 8448 MHz LPDDR5X RAM.

The laptop has a 15.6-inch OLED screen with a 2,880 x 1,620 resolution and an 89 percent screen-to-body ratio. It also includes a Harmon Kardon-certified audio system with Dolby Atmos sound. ASUS claims its 70 Wh battery can last up to 18 hours.

One of the Vivobook S 15’s selling points is its thin aluminum body: Its tapered design has a thickness ranging from only 0.58 to 0.63 inches (14.7 mm to 16 mm). The PC weighs a mere 3.13 lbs (1.4 kg), slightly lighter than Apple’s 15-inch MacBook Air.

The laptop has a healthy port selection, including two USB4, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type A, HDMI, an audio combo jack and a microSD slot. Its keyboard has customizable single-zone RGB lighting and a Copilot key for quick access to the ChatGPT-powered assistant.

The ASUS Vivobook S 15 is available for pre-order now through the company’s retail partners, starting at $1,300. The company says additional configurations will launch later this year.

Catch up on all the news from Microsoft's Copilot AI and Surface event today!

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/asus-first-copilot-pc-locks-when-you-walk-away-and-unlocks-when-you-return-195952186.html?src=rss

With Recall, Microsoft is using AI to fix Windows’ eternally broken search

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At its Build 2024 conference, Microsoft unveiled Rewind, a new feature that aims to make local Windows PC searches as quick and effective as web searches. Similar to third-party apps like Rewind, Microsoft’s Recall for Copilot+ PCs uses AI to retrieve virtually anything you’ve seen on your PC. Microsoft describes it like giving your PC a photographic memory.

At Monday’s event, Microsoft Product Manager Caroline Hernandez gave the example of searching for a blue dress on Pinterest using a Windows PC with Recall. Returning later, she can search the Recall timeline for “blue dress” (using her voice), which pulls all of her recent searches, saving her from having to sift through browser history. She further refined the query with more specific details like “blue pantsuit with sequined lace for Abuelita,” and Rewind brought up the relevant results.

It can also quickly find specific emails, documents or chat threads you’ve had on your PC. Microsoft says Recall uses semantic associations to make connections. For example, it connected the term “peacock” to blue hues in the dress search.

Other examples the company gave include using Recall to find a specific PowerPoint slide using her voice. Microsoft says it can start with exact information or vague contextual clues to find what you want. Another example in the demo was a marketing line from a Teams meeting that Hernandez couldn’t remember. By giving Recall contextual clues, it found it despite her not remembering the exact phrase.

Microsoft says Recall’s processing is all done locally and won’t be used to train future AI models, so your data should remain private, secure and offline. The company says over 40 local multi-modal small language models, which can recognize text, images, video and more are used to process Recall’s data.

Recall will be available exclusively on Copilot+ PCs after installing the latest Windows Updates on June 18.

Catch up on all the news from Microsoft's Copilot AI and Surface event today!

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/with-recall-microsoft-is-using-ai-to-fix-windows-eternally-broken-search-172510698.html?src=rss