Categories
Featured

The socket is the motherboard, Part 2 — Intel archrival (and Nvidia’s BFF) plans to build giant chips that could use kilowatts of power but they won’t be as big as Cerebras trillion transistor behemoth

[ad_1]

A few weeks ago, we wrote how Eliyan’s NuLink PHY could do away with silicon interposers and integrate everything into an single, elegant package. How, essentially, the socket could become the motherboard.

At the recent 30th annual North America Technology Symposium, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) revealed plans to construct a version of its chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology that could lead to system-in-packages (SiPs) over twice the size of the current largest ones.

[ad_2]

Source Article Link

Categories
News

Apple Apologizes for ‘Crush’ iPad Pro Ad, Won’t Put It on TV

[ad_1]

When introducing the new M4 iPad Pro models, Apple showed a video of a hydraulic press crushing all manner of creative tools, including musical instruments, electronic equipment, arcade games, paint and brushes, computers, cameras, and more, with the aim of demonstrating how the iPad represents all of the tools condensed into a single device.

The ad was a play on the popular hydraulic press videos that are popular across social media sites, but creatives found the concept to be in poor taste. Actor Hugh Grant referred to the ad as the “destruction of the human experience,” director Reed Morano told Apple to “read the room” and called it “actually psychotic,” and Basecamp CTO David Heinemeier Hansson said it “symbolizes everything everyone has ever hated about digitization.”

apple crush ad
The upset over the Crush ad led Apple to issue an apology. In a statement to Ad Age, Apple marketing vice president Tor Myhren said that the video ultimately “missed the mark.”

Creativity is in our DNA at Apple, and it’s incredibly important to us to design products that empower creatives all over the world. Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad. We missed the mark with this video, and we’re sorry.

Apple left the Crush video on its YouTube channel, but the ad won’t be running on television.

Popular Stories

Apple Announces New iPad Pro With M4 Chip, OLED Display, and More

Apple today unveiled redesigned iPad Pro models featuring the M4 chip, Ultra Retina XDR OLED displays, a nano-texture display option, and more. The new iPad Pro offers a considerably thinner design and slightly larger 11- and 13-inch display size options. The 11-inch model is 5.3mm thick and weighs less than a pound, while the 13-inch model is just 5.1mm thick and weighs a quarter pound less …

Apple Event Live Blog: New iPad Pro, iPad Air, and More

Apple’s “Let Loose” event kicks off today at the unusual time of 7:00 a.m. Pacific Time, and we’re expecting to see an iPad-focused event with new iPad Pro and iPad Air models, updated Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard accessories, and perhaps some other announcements. Apple is providing a live video stream on its website, on YouTube, and in the company’s TV app across various platforms. We…

Everything Announced at Today’s Apple Event

Apple today held the first event of 2024, debuting new iPad Air and iPad Pro models and accompanying accessories. While the event was faster than normal and took 40 minutes, we’ve condensed it down even further for those who want a quick overview of everything that was announced. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. We’ve also got a full recap of all of the coverage…

Apple Announces Redesigned Magic Keyboard for New iPad Pro Starting at $299

Apple at its “Let Loose” event today announced a new Magic Keyboard for the latest iPad Pro models, with a thinner, lighter design. Apple says the Magic Keyboard has been redesigned to be thinner and lighter, while maintaing the same floating design. Two colors are available that match the new iPad Pro. New features include a function row with screen brightness controls, an aluminum…

Apple Says iOS 17.5 Coming ‘Soon’ With These New Features for iPhones

Apple today announced that iOS 17.5 will be released to the public “soon,” following over a month of beta testing. While the software update is relatively minor, it does have a few new features and changes, as outlined in the list below. “The new Pride Radiance watch face and iPhone and iPad wallpapers will be available soon with watchOS 10.5, iOS 17.5, and iPadOS 17.5,” said Apple, in its…



[ad_2]

Source Article Link

Categories
Life Style

Expat grants won’t fix Brazilian research

[ad_1]

On 16 April, the Brazilian National Research Council (CNPq) announced a bold initiative to combat the brain drain in Brazilian academia. Over five years, the talent-repatriation programme will invest 1 billion reais (US$190 million) into encouraging expatriated scientists to return to Brazil and expanding collaborations with Brazilian researchers overseas. In 2023, more than 35,000 academics were expats, or 14% of those active in research in Brazil.

As one such researcher, currently a biologist in the United Kingdom and a honorary professor in Brazil, I welcome these grants. But I know that a temporary injection of money alone will not solve the problem. What will happen after the five years? Brazil has too few tenure-track positions to sustain the returnees’ careers.

Short-termism has hampered previous initiatives to internationalize science in Brazil. For example, from 2011 to 2017, Brazil’s Science without Borders programme provided more than 100,000 scholarships to Brazilian students to study overseas. I was an early recipient, using it to pursue research in Italy and the United Kingdom. But there was no guaranteed position afterwards.

In my view, expats will not return in numbers until the Brazilian academic system is reformed. Achieving change in Brazil’s polarized political landscape is challenging but essential for fostering a vibrant academic environment.

The two streams of the repatriation programme demonstrate the problem. The first, with an 800-million-reai budget, covers salary and project costs for up to five years for academics and industry professionals seeking to return to Brazil. It is clearly aimed at researchers who are not yet established, but neither the CNPq nor public universities guarantee support after the term. The second stream, with a budget of 200 million reais, aims to foster partnerships between expatriate and resident researchers or industry partners. This might appeal to tenured academics overseas, but it offers no incentives for their permanent return.

In a wider context, it seems likely that the repatriation programme might have another aim — to lower the litigation costs relating to CNPq international scholarships. Brazil regards international scholarships as benefits that must be repaid. On signing the contract, recipients commit to returning to Brazil to further its science. If they do not fulfil this obligation, the CNPq can pursue legal action, requiring them to repay the scholarship amount.

Since 2016, the CNPq has offered an alternative pathway to returning, called ‘Novation’. Scholarship holders outside Brazil can substitute their obligation with approved activities that benefit Brazilian science, such as supervising and teaching students in Brazil — as I do. Some expatriates do neither, resulting in heavy costs (millions of reais per year) for the CNPq and other funding bodies.

In 2023, the CNPq reached out to expatriates to explore other ways to enforce these obligations. In this context, I interpret the repatriation programme as a way for the CNPq to financially help expatriates seeking to rectify their status to avoid legal action and contribute to Brazilian science. In this regard, the CNPq’s programme is generous. However, the initiative does not address the reasons many academics move abroad, including inadequate support for researchers in Brazil and the lure of higher salaries elsewhere.

A scarcity of tenure-track positions in public institutions — staff members with such positions being responsible for more than 95% of Brazil’s scientific output — compounds these issues. In 2022, the ministry of education estimated a deficit of around 11,000 jobs for technical and tenured staff. Bureaucratic and opaque recruitment processes for tenure-track roles, known as concurso publico, exacerbate inequity. Individuals who are not fluent in Portuguese, including Indigenous and international researchers, are rarely hired.

Although exceptions exist, such as the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) with its generous budgets, funding in Brazil is scarce, and awards are often modest. Public-university infrastructure is underfunded. Low salaries have triggered a national strike among public university staff, and postdocs lack basic employment benefits such as pensions. Collectively, these factors contribute to an insular academic system that aspires to be globally competitive but lacks the institutional processes and support to do so.

If Brazil recruited researchers in a more equitable and transparent way — as is done in the United States, United Kingdom and European Union — it would be better able to attract returning expats. It could issue fairer wages and benefits to postdoctoral researchers. The influx of ideas, perspectives and experiences would benefit academia and society.

A stronger research system would also attract international funding and strategic partnerships — two of the CNPq’s goals. The CNPq could look to FAPESP’s international partnerships with the US National Science Foundation and UK Research and Innovation, for example.

Brazil’s government has promised more funding for science and technology. A constitutional amendment, led by former minister of science and technology and astronaut Marcos Pontes and presented to the Senate last July, aims to double the allocation of resources to science and technology, to reach 2.5% of Brazilian gross domestic product by 2033.

To reap the benefits, action is needed now. Collective effort from academics, ministries and research councils to solve these challenges will pave the way for meaningful change to benefit all Brazilian scientists.

Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

[ad_2]

Source Article Link

Categories
News

Report: Five Things Apple Won’t Announce at Its Event Next Week

[ad_1]

Apple is holding at least five announcements for later in the year that will not arrive at the company’s “Let loose” special event next week, according to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman.

Apple Event Let Loose Pastel Green
In a report detailing his expectations for Apple’s upcoming event, Gurman noted that there are a total of five things that the company is holding for later in the year:

  • AI features: While Apple may tease new AI capabilities with the next-generation iPad Pro, Apple will not “formally unveil” the features until WWDC in June where iPadOS 18 will be previewed.
  • Lower-cost entry-level iPad: Apple is apparently working on a version of the 10th-generation iPad introduced in 2022 with a lower price. The current model is $449, sitting in the lineup above the $329 ninth-generation ‌iPad‌ that remains in the lineup. The company is likely to phase out this older model and bring the price down of the redesigned model, but Gurman says this “isn’t expected until the end of the year at the earliest.”
  • Seventh-generation iPad mini: A refreshed iPad mini is said to be in the works featuring improved performance thanks to a faster chip, but it is not due to be announced next week.
  • New Macs: While the new ‌iPad Pro‌ models may contain the M4 chip, a processor that will later come to the Mac, Apple is not planning to unveil any new Mac models at the “Let loose” event.
  • Fourth-generation AirPods: Apple is said to be nearing production of the fourth-generation AirPods, but these will not launch until the fall alongside the iPhone 16 lineup.

Apple’s “Let loose” event is expected to focus on the unveiling of redesigned ‌iPad Pro‌ models with OLED displays, two new iPad Air models, a high-end Magic Keyboard accessory, and a new Apple Pencil. It will take place on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual.

Popular Stories

iOS 18 Rumored to Add New Features to These 16 Apps on Your iPhone

Apple is expected to announce iOS 18 during its WWDC keynote on June 10, and new features have already been rumored for many apps, including Apple Music, Apple Maps, Calculator, Messages, Notes, Safari, and others. Below, we recap iOS 18 rumors on a per-app basis, based on reports from MacRumors, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, and others: Apple Maps: At least two new Apple Maps features are…

Check Out This Apple Watch iPad Demo Unit From 2014

With the 10th anniversary of the Apple Watch approaching, we thought it would be fun to take a look back at an interesting bit of Apple Watch history. After the Apple Watch was announced in 2014, and before it became available in 2015, Apple sent out custom Apple Watch iPad demo kiosks to retail stores. The Apple Watch and iPad units used for these devices were specially designed, had custom …

Will the New iPad Pro Really Have the M4 Chip?

While Apple’s upcoming iPad Pro models have been expected to feature the M3 chip for over a year, recent reports have unexpectedly suggested that the new devices will instead feature the as-yet-unannounced M4 chip. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Last week, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said that he now believes there is a “strong possibility” that the upcoming iPad Pro …

iOS 17.5 Includes ‘Repair State’ Option That Doesn’t Require Turning Off Find My for Service

With iOS 17.5, Apple is adding a “Repair State” feature that is designed to allow an iPhone to be sent in for service without deactivating Find My and Activation Lock. The fourth iOS 17.5 beta that came out today adds a “Remove This Device” option for all devices in Find My, and using it with an iPhone puts that iPhone into the new Repair State. Right now, sending an iPhone to Apple to be…

Report Examines GM’s Controversial Move to Abandon Apple CarPlay

An in-depth Bloomberg report today resurfaced General Motors’ decision to replace Apple CarPlay with its own software. Last year, GM announced that it planned to forgo Apple CarPlay in its new electric vehicles, starting with the 2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV. Instead, the automaker introduced a proprietary infotainment platform, aiming to control and customize the digital experience within its…

Amazon’s New Apple Sale Has Best-Ever Prices on AirPods Pro, Studio Display, Apple Pencil, and More

Amazon today kicked off numerous discounts across multiple Apple products and accessories, the highlight being the AirPods Pro 2 with USB-C for $179.99, down from $249.00. You’ll also find deals on the Apple Pencil 2, AirTags, and Studio Display. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep…

Apple Announces ‘Let Loose’ Event on May 7 Amid Rumors of New iPads

Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of “Let Loose” and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more …

[ad_2]

Source Article Link

Categories
Featured

Intel quietly launched mysterious new AI CPU that promises to bring deep learning inference and computing to the edge — but you won’t be able to plug them in a motherboard anytime soon

[ad_1]

Intel has launched a new AI processor series for the edge, promising industrial-class deep learning inference. The new ‘Amston Lake’ Atom x7000RE chips offer up to double the cores and twice the higher graphics base frequency as the previous x6000RE series, all neatly packed within a 6W–12W BGA package.

The x7000RE series packs more performance into a smaller footprint. Boasting up to eight E-cores it supports LPDDR5/DDR5/DDR4 memory and up to nine PCIe 3.0 lanes, delivering robust multitasking capabilities.

[ad_2]

Source Article Link

Categories
Featured

Your phone’s blue light won’t actually stop you sleeping, according to an expert – but your phone is still the problem

[ad_1]

We all have days when we use our phones right before going to bed, even though we know we shouldn’t. Admit it. We know our phones keep us awake. Some people try to mitigate the negative effects on sleep with blue-light glasses, which claim to block out rhythm-affecting blue tones in screen light, but if you’re using a fitness tracker (and if you are, it’s probably one of the best sleep trackers or best fitness trackers from our lists) you’ve likely had at least one morning when you’ve woken up, checked your stats and seen exactly how little sleep you had the night before. 

It turns out, it’s not the blue-light effect from your phone that’s keeping you awake at night, according to sleep scientist Dr Sophie Bostock. I met Dr Bostock at an event to celebrate the launch of the OnePlus Watch 2 Nordic Blue in Helsinki, and she was able to answer a few burning questions about late-night phone use. 

[ad_2]

Source Article Link

Categories
Featured

Assassin’s Creed Mirage won’t be getting any DLC, but the director has ideas on how to extend the story of protagonist Basim

[ad_1]

Assassin’s Creed Mirage‘s director has said that he has ideas on how to extend the story of protagonist Basim.

Although it’s been previously confirmed that the latest Assassin’s Creed title won’t be getting any downloadable content (DLC), in a recent Reddit AMA, game director Stéphane Boudon revealed that the team still has some ideas on how to add to Basim’s story (via VGC).

[ad_2]

Source Article Link

Categories
Featured

Brighter, low-energy OLEDs are going into production this year – but they won’t be coming to TVs just yet

[ad_1]

The best OLED TVs are about to get a whole lot better. A new panel technology known as eLEAP will officially go into production later this year, according to FlatpanelsHD. Although it won’t be going into any big-name TVs at first, the new screen technology promises to deliver brightness in excess of 3,000 nits and improved durability, which means that it could make screens last longer, helping to cut down on e-waste.

eLeap was developed by Japan Display (JDI), which is a firm that was created by the merger of the display businesses of Sony, Toshiba and Hitachi. And while we first started reporting on it in 2022, it’s only just starting to ramp up production with plans to expand this to the mainstream market in late 2024. 

[ad_2]

Source Article Link

Categories
Featured

I listened to Taylor Swift’s new songs on a 22-year-old Sony Walkman and it was a tortured experience I won’t try again

[ad_1]

The first time I heard Taylor Swift’s Fortnight, a new song off the Tortured Poet’s Department featuring Post Malone, it was through an FM radio built into a 22-year-old Sony Walkman CD player, but even with the poor reception, the lyrics resonated with this almost forgotten technology:

“I was supposed to be sent away

[ad_2]

Source Article Link

Categories
Life Style

NASA admits plan to bring Mars rocks to Earth won’t work — and seeks fresh ideas

[ad_1]

This animation shows NASA's Perseverance Mars rover collecting a sample from a rock using a coring bit on the end of its robotic arm.

NASA’s Perseverance rover collects a sample from a Martian rock using a bit on the end of its robotic arm.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA announced today that it is abandoning its longstanding plan for ferrying rock and soil samples from Mars to Earth. Instead the agency will seek proposals for quicker and cheaper ways to deliver the samples to Earth.

An independent review board concluded last year that NASA’s Mars sample return mission could cost as much as US$11 billion, more than what it cost to launch the James Webb Space Telescope. In a report released today, a separate NASA review team concluded that even if the agency spent that much money, the dropoff of the samples on Earth would be delayed until 2040. The agency had originally sought to land the samples on Earth in the early 2030s.

The $11 billion price tag is “too expensive,” said NASA administrator Bill Nelson at a press briefing, and “not returning the samples until 2040 is unacceptable.” Nelson said the agency “is committed to bringing at least some of the samples back” and later said NASA would return “more than 30” of the 43 planned samples.

Scaling back

NASA’s Perseverance rover has already collected more than 20 rock samples from Jezero Crater, where the rover landed in 2020. Scientists think that the crater was once filled with a lake of water, and samples from the crater and its surroundings could provide a window into the planet’s history and, perhaps, evidence of past life on the red planet.

In the agency’s original vision, a NASA spacecraft would have flown to Mars carrying a two-part retrieval system: a half-ton lander — which would have been the most massive vehicle to ever land on Mars — and a rocket to fly the lander and samples into Martian orbit. There they were to meet a spacecraft launched by the European Space Agency that would fly the samples to Earth.

Now NASA plans to solicit proposals — from companies as well as NASA centres — for a streamlined system, perhaps one that uses a lighter lander, Nicky Fox, the associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said at the briefing. The deadline for proposals is 17 May, and the revised mission will be chosen later this year. Fox did not respond directly to reporters’ questions about when the samples will reach Earth under the new scheme.

NASA recommends spending $200 million of its planetary-science budget in 2025 on assessing alternative architectures for Mars sample return, Fox said. Dedicating any more money to the mission threatened to “cannibalize” other planetary science missions, Nelson said.

Back to the drawing board

Vicky Hamilton, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, expressed disappointment that eight months after the independent review board released its report, the agency still lacks a solid plan for “a very valuable science goal.”

Returning these samples would also demonstrate capability for two-way trip to Mars before we can send astronauts, says Bethany Ehlmann, a planetary scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. “The sample return technology is here, it exists,” she says. “It’s a matter of putting the pieces together.”

But scientists were relieved by one announcement: Fox said the revised timeline for sample return will not affect the science goals for Perseverance, including plans for it to explore terrain beyond Jezero Crater.

Among samples collected outside the crater will be “some of the ancient crust of Mars, representing rocks older than we have seen yet in Jezero Crater, some of which may have been altered by near-surface water,” says Meenakshi Wadhwa, a planetary scientist at Arizona State University in Tempe and principal scientist for the Mars Sample Return program.

So far, the only Mars samples that scientists have been able to study on Earth are bits and pieces ejected from the red planet that made it to Earth as meteorites. All known Martian meteorites are “igneous” rocks, meaning that they solidified from lava, and all are very old. As a result, they provide valuable timestamps for Mars’ geological evolution, but carry little information about how the planet’s surface was shaped by the water that once flowed across it.

To achieve the mission’s main goal of searching for signs of past life, the real treasures are layered sedimentary rocks formed by minerals and organic matter deposited over the aeons by water. Perseverance’s instruments have already detected organic molecules in Martian samples, but whether those molecules are a marker of past life can only be determined by closer scrutiny in laboratories on Earth.

[ad_2]

Source Article Link