Feb 05
Samsung Electronics executive chairman Lee Jae-yong will not have to put his prison uniform back on—for now, at least.
Feb 05
Yandex, often described as Russia’s Google, has sold its domestic businesses at a knock-down price. Bloomberg reports the search and services giant, now headquartered in the Netherlands, has handed off its Russian operations for 475 billion rubles ($5.2 billion) in cash and shares. The new owners include the management group, as well as Russia’s biggest domestic energy company, Lukoil, and Russian businessman and a former executive at Gazprom, Alexander Ryazanov, among others. Now that Yandex has cut ties with Russia, it will be able to grow and partner more freely given the sanctions affecting businesses with Russian ties following the invasion of Ukraine.
Since the war, Yandex has faced repercussions such as removal from Nasdaq. Its founder, Arkady Volozh, faced European Union sanctions in the summer of 2022 due to the company reportedly supporting Russian propaganda. The company soon sold its news aggregation service, and Volozh openly condemned the war.
Reports that Yandex would cut ties with Russia first emerged in late 2022. At the time, the company was facing sanction repercussions and was rumored to have no path forward to grow projects without Western technology. However, it took a year and a half of negotiations between Yandex and the Kremlin (a necessary step) for Yandex NV to be allowed to separate from its Russian businesses. The final deal came with at least a 50 percent discount, a customary practice when the Kremlin deems the registered country — in this case, the Netherlands — unfriendly.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/yandex-sells-its-russian-operations-to-local-executives-for-52-billion-131554719.html?src=rss
Feb 05
Your Phone Is Not Listening to You
Posted in: Today's Chili
Have you ever talked about a product, and then suddenly got an ad for it on your phone? We’ve all been there, and then skeptically looked over our shoulders for the advertiser lurking in the shadow. But there’s no one there, so we all simply conclude that our phone must be listening to our conversations. You wouldn’t…
Feb 05
Microsoft is teaming up with media website Semafor on a new project that uses ChatGPT to aid in the creation of news stories, The Financial Times has reported. It’s one of several journalistic collaborations Microsoft is set to announce today, and follows a New York Times lawsuit filed against the software giant and its partner, OpenAI, for copyright infringement.
Semafor, co-founded by former Buzzfeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith, will create a feed called “Signals” that will be sponsored by Microsoft for an undisclosed but “substantial” sum, the report states. It will highlight breaking news and analysis, offering a dozen or so posts per day. All stories will be written entirely by journalists, with the AI effectively acting as a research tool.
Signals responds to the deep and continuing shifts in the digital media landscape and the post-social news moment, and to the risks and opportunities posed by artificial intelligence, Semafor wrote.
Specifically, Semafor’s team will use AI tools to rapidly find breaking event reporting from other news sources around the world in multiple languages, while providing translation tools. An article might therefore include Chinese, Indian or other sources, with reporters adding context and summarizing the different viewpoints. “Journalists need to adopt these tools in order to survive and thrive for another generation,” former AP journalist Noreen Gillespie, now with Microsoft, told The Financial Times.
The use of ChatGPT and other AI chatbots has been controversial in newsrooms, with sites like CNET recently using them to generate entire feature-length articles (albeit with the help of human editors). This despite the fact that AI can “hallucinate” (make up untrue content) and exhibit other kinds of bizarre behavior. Newsrooms are trying to figure out how to use them to improve reporting and potentially compete against chatbots churning out reams of SEO-friendly content.
Late last year, The New York Times announced that it was suing OpenAI and Microsoft for using published news articles to train its chatbots without providing compensation. The lawsuit, which potentially seeks billions in statutory and actual damages, marks the first time a major news organization has pursued ChatGPT’s developers for copyright infringement.
Microsoft also announced collaborations today with the Craig Newmark School of Journalism, the GroundTruth Project, the Online News Association and other journalism organizations.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-is-teaming-up-with-semafor-on-ai-assisted-news-stories-124320277.html?src=rss
Feb 05
We love our big phones here at Gizmodo. The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is one giant phone making headlines for being the brand new hotness for Android users. It’s also the first time a third-party manufacturer is waving the freak flag for Google’s AI initiatives. The Galaxy S24 series is the first to debut Galaxy AI,…
Feb 05
Samsung chairman Jay Y. Lee’s legal troubles may be in the rearview mirror as a Korean court acquitted him of stock manipulation and accounting fraud charges over a 2015 merger, The Financial Times has reported. The ruling allows Lee to continue leading Samsung, which saw a sharp decline in revenue last year.
Seeking a five year jail term, prosecutors accused Lee of manipulating the share price of two Samsung subsidiaries to smooth the way for a merger that allowed him to consolidate his power. However, the Seoul Central District Court ruled that the prosecutors failed to prove that. “It is hard to say that Lee Jae-yong [aka Jay Y. Lee] . . . spearheaded the merger, and that the merger was done just for the sake of Lee’s succession,” the judge stated in the ruling.
The verdict will allow Lee and Samsung to focus on its declining smartphone and memory chip businesses. Samsung recently lost its smartphone sales crown to Apple, and is now behind SK Hynix in the new and hot market of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used by NVIDIA and others to create artificial intelligence (AI) models.
The decision was heralded by business groups including the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, but not everyone in the country agreed. “The ruling will free Lee of legal risks, but I am at a loss for words in terms of the country’s economic justice,” Park Ju-geun, head of corporate thinktank Leaders Index, told the FT. “This goes totally against all previous court rulings on the merger.”
Lee was originally sentenced to five years in prison in 2017 after being found guilty of bribing public officials over the same merger. He walked free after a year in detention, but the South Korean Supreme Court overturned that decision and ordered the case to be retried.
While Lee was sentenced with two-and-a-half years of prison time in early 2021 in that retrial, he was paroled half a year later in a development that civic groups had described as another example of the justice system being lenient towards the country’s elite. (Korea’s former president Park Geun-hye also went to jail for her role in the same affair.)
In 2022, Lee was given a pardon by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, ostensibly so he could help the country overcome its economic crisis. Ironically, Yoon is the country’s former chief prosecutor and oversaw the original convictions of Lee and Park.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/samsung-chair-acquitted-in-korean-stock-manipulation-case-114530368.html?src=rss
Feb 05
Bad actors keep using deepfakes for everything from impersonating celebrities to scamming people out of money. The latest instance is out of Hong Kong, where a finance worker for an undisclosed multinational company was tricked into remitting $200 million Hong Kong dollars ($25.6 million).
According to Hong Kong police, scammers contacted the employee posing as the company’s United Kingdom-based chief financial officer. He was initially suspicious, as the email called for secret transactions, but that’s where the deepfakes came in. The worker attended a video call with the “CFO” and other recognizable members of the company. In reality, each “person” he interacted with was a deepfake — likely created using public video clips of the actual individuals.
The deepfakes asked the employee to introduce himself and then quickly instructed him to make 15 transfers comprising the $25.6 million to five local bank accounts. They created a sense of urgency for the task, and then the call abruptly ended. A week later, the employee checked up on the request within the company, discovering the truth.
Hong Kong police have arrested six people so far in connection with the scam. The individuals involved stole eight identification cards and had filed 54 bank account registrations and 90 loan applications in 2023. They had also used deepfakes to trick facial recognition software in at least 20 cases.
The widespread use of deepfakes is one of the growing concerns of evolving AI technology. In January, Taylor Swift and President Joe Biden were among those whose identities were forged with deepfakes. In Swift’s case, it was nonconsensual pornographic images of her and a financial scam targeting potential Le Creuset shoppers. President Biden’s voice could be heard in some robocalls to New Hampshire constituents, imploring them not to vote in their state’s primary.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/scammers-use-deepfakes-to-steal-256-million-from-a-multinational-firm-034033977.html?src=rss
Feb 05
One of Vision Pro’s most intriguing features is undoubtedly the EyeSight display, which projects a visual feed of your own eyes to better connect with people in the real world — because eye contact matters, be it real or virtual. As iFixit discovered in its teardown, it turns out that Apple leveraged stereoscopic 3D effect as an attempt to make your virtual eyes look more life-like, as opposed to a conventional “flat” output on the curved OLED panel. This is achieved by stacking a widening optical layer and a lenticular lens layer over the OLED screen, which is why exposing the panel will show “some very oddly pinched eyes.” The optical nature of the added layers also explain the EyeSight display’s dim output. Feel free to check out the scientific details in the article.
While iFixit has yet to do more analysis before it can give the Vision Pro a repairability score, so far we already know that the front glass panel “took a lot of heat and time” to detach from the main body. That said, the overall modular design — especially the speakers and the external battery — should win some points. As always, head over to iFixit for some lovely close-up shots of the teardown process.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-vision-pro-teardown-deconstructs-the-weird-looking-eyesight-display-083426548.html?src=rss
Feb 05
Lenovo Yoga Book i9 Review
Posted in: Today's Chili
Since its launch, the Lenovo Yoga Book i9 has sparked the imagination and desire of countless PC users. It was the first true OLED dual-screen laptop, which competitors have since copied. The laptop has a detachable Bluetooth keyboard, a stylus pen, and a mouse. It also includes a folio stand.
We have speculated about this laptop’s potential, but after using it for a while, we can finally draw real-world conclusions and share our findings and opinions. Are the dual screens worth it? Find out now.
Specs Highlights
- 13th Generation Intel Core i7-1355U Processor
- Integrated Intel Iris Xe Graphics
- 16 GB LPDDR5X 6400MHz
- 512GB PCIe SSD Gen 4 (up to 1TB)
- 80Wh battery capacity
- 2 x 2W + 2 x 1W Bowers & Wilkins speakers
- WiFi 6E* 802.11AX (2 x 2)
- Starting at 1.34kg / 2.95lbs
- Bluetooth keyboard and mouse included. Lenovo Digital Pen 3 stylus included.
Design
The Lenovo Yoga Book 9i is remarkable for its sustainability and design ingenuity. It has a Carbon Neutral Certification, utilizing eco-friendly materials like 90% recycled plastic in the power adapter case and 100% recycled aluminum in the top cover. The striking Tidal Teal (metallic blue) color adds vibrancy, departing from the usual grey or silver tones.
Like Lenovo’s Yoga 9i series, the Yoga Book 9i features curved edges for enhanced grip and comfort. Its groundbreaking dual-screen design, a world-first for 2-in-1 laptops, improves productivity with multitasking capabilities. At 0.63 x 11.8 x 8 inches (15.95mm x 299.1mm x 203.9mm) and 2.95 lbs (not counting the included mouse and keyboard), it balances portability and functionality.
As you can imagine, the dual screens facilitate seamless multitasking and other possibilities, but we’ll get to that later. The included device’s stand doubles as a cover for the detachable keyboard and stylus. It’s important to note that the kickstand provides stability only on flat surfaces like desks or tables. You can, of course, use the computer as a regular clamshell laptop of course.
The inclusion of the Tidal Teal folio/stand complements the device’s aesthetics while providing practical support and protection.
Keyboard, Pen, Mouse and virtual inputs
The Yoga Book 9i’s Bluetooth keyboard provides users a compact yet functional typing experience. Despite its compact size, the keyboard retains essential Function keys, ensuring users can access key features and commands conveniently.
There’s an undersizing of the up and down arrow keys, a deliberate adjustment to accommodate the device’s overall chassis. This design decision maintains the device’s sleek profile while providing tactile feedback and usability for directional inputs. In addition to the keyboard, the Yoga Book 9i includes a compact mouse, akin to a travel mouse.
I found the physical keyboard inferior to the built-in keyboards on high-end Yoga laptops. Lenovo wanted to make this one as thin as possible, so it might not have the best key switches and tactile feedback. If you’re looking for a high-performance travel keyboard, look at the Logitech MX Mechanical Mini.
The Lenovo Digital Pen 3 included with the Yoga Book 9i offers users a comfortable and responsive stylus experience. It works on both screens and is excellent for taking notes or basic sketching. You might need something else for professional applications, but it’s not obvious if fancier Lenovo pens are compatible with these screens.
Both Pen and Mouse require AAA and AA batteries, respectively, and are not rechargeable. The Keyboard has a USB-C connector for charging.
A virtual keyboard and virtual trackpad are available when not using the physical keyboard. Each can occupy up to half of the bottom screen, while content is presented on the top screen. That’s much more screen space than you would get on even the largest tablet. The virtual keyboard experience was fine, but the trackpad does not feel as good and accurate as the physical one. Instead of the trackpad, I prefer using the dual touch-screens whenever possible.
Lenovo has custom software called Yoga Book 9 User Center to tweak various user experience settings, from Window management and dual-screen gaming to virtual keyboard settings. It can help make the laptop yours.
Ports
The computer boasts three USB Type-C Thunderbolt 4 connectors, a versatile feature offering high-speed data transfer, extensions, and charging capabilities. All three ports support charging, ensuring convenient power access wherever you go. One Thunderbolt 4 connector is positioned on the left edge, while the remaining two are located on the right, providing flexibility for peripheral connections.
Notably absent are traditional USB-A ports and a headphone jack. Fortunately, the 65W AC power supply connects to USB-C, streamlining power management and reducing clutter. Depending on your needs, you might consider a USB-C HUB with additional ports such as USB-A, HDMI, and more. They are reasonably inexpensive.
Sound quality
The Lenovo Yoga Book 9i integrates Dolby Atmos technology with Bowers & Wilkins speakers, offering a stellar audio experience. Its 360-degree rotating sound bar delivers immersive sound quality. The system impresses with better-than-average bass and clear sounds on other frequencies.
The Dolby Access software adds versatility with music, movies, games, dynamics, and voice presets, along with an equalizer for personalized adjustments. With its loud, bass-heavy audio output, the Yoga Book 9i promises a great entertainment experience, making it a top choice for users who prioritize superior sound performance in their multimedia devices. The sound bar is placed right in front of the user, the best possible location to maximize the available sound energy.
Displays
This computer stands out for its excellent performance and visual experience. Featuring two identical 13.3-inch OLED touchscreens with a resolution of 2.8K (2880 x 1800), users can expect stunning clarity and detail in their content.
With a brightness of 400 Nits, the displays ensure vivid and vibrant colors, even in well-lit environments. The 16:10 aspect ratio offers a wider viewing area, ideal for productivity and multimedia consumption. Moreover, the display covers 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, producing accurate and lifelike color for professional-grade content creation and multimedia editing.
The inclusion of Dolby Vision HDR further enhances the visual experience by delivering richer contrast and deeper blacks.
The only thing we would immediately ask Lenovo to “improve” here is to build a 16″ or even 18″ version of this laptop to increase the display area further, which is the primary value of the innovative laptop.
The other thing Lenovo should consider is video input via USB or mini-HDMI. This laptop could be a standalone dual-display for another computer, console, etc. It might lose some of its computing value as it ages, but the display’s lifespan is probably 4X longer than its computing one.
Dual-Display User Experience
The unique dual display setup can be used in many ways, some obvious and some… “creative. ” Lenovo has done a great job pitching what it thinks you can do with it, and I’ve embedded a video below. Here, I’ll focus on use cases that resonate with me: productivity and Entertainment.
We can probably all agree that having a 100% extra display surface is a good thing, and we already know it will make everyone more productive. Less Window and Task switching, information available at a glance, etc. Amazing. Sign me up.
I also often do light work, such as catching up with emails or browsing for information while having YouTube, music, or a TV show playing on the other screen.
Finally, taking written notes with the Stylus during online meeting calls has never been easier and more comfortable. I typically do that on an iPad mini 6, but the 13.3 screen(s) is a lot better because of the virtual paper size.
Generally, I consider this laptop best used in a fixed location, such as your hotel room, cafe, etc, during your travels. Its compact size and light weight make it easy to transport even with an external mouse and keyboard. If you need to use the laptop for 10 minutes here and there, you might want to look at the ThinkPad X1 nano gen2 (which is phenomenal) or a Lenovo Android tablet.
Here are more use cases as Lenovo envisions them. See if you connect with some of them:
Webcam
This 5MP webcam has convenient features and high-quality performance in the laptop market. It can be turned OFF using the physical shutter button for added privacy, ensuring the webcam won’t accidentally turn on.
In portrait mode, the webcam is perfectly positioned in front of the user’s face: the best possible angle. Its microphone delivers clear audio, complementing its good video capabilities. Unsurprisingly, a larger standalone microphone would deliver higher recording performance if you need to appear on podcasts.
With a video resolution of up to 1440p and 30 frames per second, it ensures reasonably sharp and smooth video even in moderately lit environments. The integrated Windows Hello facial recognition support enables seamless biometric login, adding a layer of convenience and security for users. Unfortunately, there is no fingerprint reader.
System Performance
Equipped with an Intel Core i7-1355U (1.70 GHz), 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD, this computer can handle office productivity and multimedia tasks with ease and quietly. Conceptually, it could also be a good web development system because of the large display surface. However, if you rely heavily on Docker containers, you might want a system with more RAM.
The U-series Intel core processors are designed for power efficiency rather than performance. With two displays using a significant amount of power, something had to give, and overall, it’s a good tradeoff between increasing usability and acceptable performance.
The same thing is true for storage performance. It’s great for the use cases we recommend (productivity, entertainment) with this laptop, but in the grand scheme of things, benchmarks such as 3DMark Storage Benchmark classify this computer’s storage performance as slightly below average.
Geekbench 5: 1743 (Single). 7202 (Multi), 18751 (OpenCL)
Geekbench 6: 2457 (Single), 8171 (Multi), 14454 (OpenCL)
3DMark TimeSpy: 1679
Battery Life
The 80Wh battery capacity is relatively large for a sub 3 Lbs laptop, and with it, this laptop can last ~9 hours in a standard benchmark such as PCMark 10 modern office.
Obviously, having two screens is not an advantage regarding battery life benchmarking, especially if said screens have a 2.8K resolution. While you can find laptops that score higher (14+ hrs) in that particular benchmark, it is obvious that absolute battery life isn’t a priority for prospective buyers who are likely to use this computer on a desk.
However, if you want to use it on the go (in-flight, etc.), you still have a decent battery life, thanks to the low-power CPU choice.
Conclusion
The Lenovo Yoga Book i9 satisfies a specific need: maximizing the available display area to increase user productivity. Countless studies have proven that having more monitors leads to drastic productivity gains, and we know this very well since we travel with a ThinkVision M14 / M14D or ThinkVision M15.
This Yoga Book i9 makes lugging a portable display a thing of the past, or it could take our existing setup to the next level by working alongside one of these mobile displays. This depends on how much equipment you want to carry. Additionally, its 360-degree hinge allows more use cases, making it a very versatile computer.
This dual-display emphasis has a cost: this is not a cheap computer or one that provides excellent computing value (performance per dollar spent). If that’s what you want, there are better options elsewhere, with Lenovo or otherwise. But if you feel cramped within your current laptop display, this computer could unlock your productivity immediately.
, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Feb 05
The rise of AI-generated voices mimicking celebrities and politicians could make it even harder for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to fight robocalls and prevent people from getting spammed and scammed. That’s why FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel wants the commission to officially recognize calls that use AI-generated voices as “artificial,” which would make the use of voice cloning technologies in robocalls illegal. Under the FCC’s Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), solicitations to residences that use an artificial voice or a recording are against the law. As TechCrunch notes, the FCC’s proposal will make it easier to go after and charge bad actors.
“AI-generated voice cloning and images are already sowing confusion by tricking consumers into thinking scams and frauds are legitimate,” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement. “No matter what celebrity or politician you favor, or what your relationship is with your kin when they call for help, it is possible we could all be a target of these faked calls.” If the FCC recognizes AI-generated voice calls as illegal under existing law, the agency can give State Attorneys General offices across the country “new tools they can use to crack down on… scams and protect consumers.”
The FCC’s proposal comes shortly after some New Hampshire residents received a call impersonating President Joe Biden, telling them not to vote in their state’s primary. A security firm performed a thorough analysis of the call and determined that it was created using AI tools by a startup called ElevenLabs. The company had reportedly banned the account responsible for the message mimicking the president, but the incident could end up being just one of the many attempts to disrupt the upcoming US elections using AI-generated content.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-fcc-wants-to-make-robocalls-that-use-ai-generated-voices-illegal-105628839.html?src=rss
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