ThePointblank
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2 hours ago, Granular said:
I've asked this before, but didn't get an answer.
What is your beef with MediaTek wifi? You are aware that MediaTek is in the business of making WiFI AP SoCs, while Intel dumped their equivalent division?
As someone who owns a 2023 G14, the MediaTek WiFi card is at best, hot garbage. Many users I've seen on Reddit swap the card out for an Intel card for better performance and consistency.
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Tom's Hardware recently noticed that in a recent update to an Nvidia support page, a number of consumer GPU's have had their video encoding performance improved, from only being able to encode 3 video streams to now 5 concurrently:
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-increases-concurrent-nvenc-sessions-on-consumer-gpus
Quotes
QuoteNvidia has quietly removed some of the concurrent video encoding limitations from its consumer graphics processing units, so they can now encode up to five simultaneous streams. The move may simplify the life of video enthusiasts, but Nvidia's data center grade and professional GPUs will continue to have an edge over consumer products as now Nvidia does not restrict the number of concurrent sessions on them. Obviously, the speed of encoding can suffer with more simultaneous encodes.
Nvidia has increased the number of concurrent NVENC encodes on consumer GPUs from three to five, according to the company's own Video Encode and Decode GPU Support Matrix (opens in new tab). This is effective for dozens of products based on the Maxwell 2nd Gen, Pascal, Turing, Ampere, and Ada Lovelace microarchitectures (except for some MX-series products) and released in the last eight years or so.
There is no change that affects the number of NVENC and NVDEC hardware units activated in Nvidia's consumer GPU's; the capability was always in the silicon, but was disabled in software, while Nvidia's workstation and data center focused GPU's technically could support 11–17 concurrent NVENC sessions depending on the quality and hardware.
It appears Nvidia has changed their stance and reduced the cripple hammer on hardware video encoding, and this should be positive news for people with a lower budget and want a video editing workstation or those working on a laptop, as depending on their needs, may no longer need a workstation GPU to multiple concurrent encodes.
- GuiltySpark_, da na, snappercayt and 3 others
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VESA has announced changes to the DisplayPort certification program that they hope will introduce clarity on how a certain DisplayPort cable will perform:
From Ars Technica:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/02/displayport-2-0-labels-specify-bandwidth-to-avoid-hdmi-2-1-like-confusion/Quotes
QuoteVESA, which makes the DisplayPort spec, today announced a certification program aimed at helping consumers understand if a DisplayPort 2.0 cable, monitor, or video source can support the max refresh rates and resolutions the spec claims.
Technology certifications, like DisplayPort and HDMI, generally provide an overview of associated products' capabilities to give shoppers an idea of expected performance, like a monitor's max speed or cable's max bandwidth, before even using them.
VESA is introducing the new Ultra-high Bit Rate (UHBR) Certification, which is aimed at removing any uncertainty about the performance of DisplayPort cables that meet the specifications.
This certification has two levels to it:DP80 UHBR, which supports a 20Gbps link rate (what VESA calls UHBR20) and a throughput of up to 80Gbps via four lanes, and a 20Gbps link rate (what VESA calls UHBR20) and a throughput of up to 80Gbps via four lanes, and;
DP40 UHBR, which supports a 10Gbps link rate (UHBR10) and a maximum throughput of 40Gbps via four-lane operation
As always, the new UHBR certified cables are backwards compatible with other DisplayPort link rates.
Right now, the only items that have the certification are cables, but monitors, TV's, and display outputs that have gone through the certification process will come out shortly.
My view? This almost seems... logical. Labeling and certifying cables by their bandwidth? What utter madness is this? You must label a standard with some unintelligible gibberish that confuses everyone, much like with USB 3!
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Leaked early renders of Samsung's future Galaxy S22 Ultra smart phone is revealing that Samsung might intend on bringing back the Galaxy Note as a concept, just not in name as the renders show the phone with the distinctive oval for Samsung's S-Pen:
From Ars Technica:
QuoteIt's never too early to start talking about new Samsung phones, is it? OnLeaks has a series of renders out for the Galaxy S22. These are usually based on CAD renders given to case manufacturers, and while they might get some of the smaller details wrong, the cutouts, camera block, and other major features should be correct.
First up is a Galaxy S22 Ultra render, and here's a shocker: it has an S-Pen! Samsung killed the Note line this year to focus on foldable phones, but it apparently still can't let the idea of phone handwriting go. Samsung has shipped pen accessories for the S21 Ultra and Galaxy Z Fold 3, but those required some kind of case for storage. This render shows the S22 Ultra with the telltale oval along the bottom edge, just like an old Note phone. Push it in and the pen will pop out.
The upside to an integrated S- Pen is that if you want to do handwriting on your phone, you'll always have the pen with you. The downside is that the S22 Ultra battery will be smaller than it could be, because a lot of space is taken up by the pen holder. It's also a huge bummer for anyone who wants a premium Samsung phone but has no interest in handwriting because they'll have to put up with the pen sucking up battery space. You don't get a choice.
Designing around the S-Pen holder means the S22 Ultra generally has a Galaxy Note 20-style design. There's a flat top and bottom edge, and the tall corners make the phone a full rectangle, giving the S-Pen a bit more space to be stored. The front screen is a full rectangle, too, with only minimally rounded corners. The phone still has a hole-punch camera, instead of the under-display selfie cameras that Samsung packed into the Galaxy Z Fold 3.
The leaked renders are here:
Spoiler
Spoiler
Spoiler
In contrast, the early renders for the S22 and S22+ reveal that they will for the most part going to be identical to the form factor and layout of the current S21 and S21+ phones.
Otherwise, Ars is reporting that Samsung intends on ditching Qualcomm for the SoC for this line up. instead of traditionally dual sourcing the SoC from Qualcomm in addition to using their own Exynos SoC's, Samsung is rumoured to be planning to to go all in on the Exynos SoC globally with the S22 series.
The upcoming Exynos SoC for the S22 will be the first phone to debut the fruits of Samsung's partnership with AMD, which was announced back in 2019. The upcoming SoC will use AMD's Radeon graphics architecture, which Samsung has licensed from AMD.
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GoPro has announced another iteration of their action camera lineup, with the new Hero 10 Black:
Via Tech Crunch and Engadget:
https://techcrunch.com/2021/09/16/gopro-debuts-the-hero10-black-action-camera/
QuoteGoPro today announced a new flagship action camera for its lineup, the HERO10 Black. The main update for the camera is a brand new processor inside, called the GP2, which enables big improvements to image quality and video captures, including recording at 5.3K revolution at up to 60 frames per second, 4K video capture bumped to a max of 120 FPS and 2.7K video at 240 FPS, which enables awesome slow-mo capabilities.
https://www.engadget.com/gopro-hero-10-review-a-big-invisible-upgrade-130041612.html
QuoteAlmost exactly 10 years go, we reviewed the GoPro HD Hero 2. It wasn’t the first flagship camera from the company, but I’d argue it was instrumental in bringing the GoPro to the attention of the general public. Back then, the maximum resolution was 1080p, photos topped out at 5-megapixel and it came shrouded in that iconic waterproof housing.
A decade later, the Hero 10 Black (revealed today) offers a whopping 5.3K max video resolution, 23-megapixel photos, no longer needs a waterproof housing (for most uses) and has a slew of fancy shooting modes that we couldn’t even have imagined three presidents ago.
Many hardware things from the Hero 9 Black carry over, including the sensor, but GoPro dropped in a new processor, the GP2, which improves image processing, improves camera responsiveness, boosts video recording frame rates across the board (adding 5.3K at 60; 4K at 120 and 2.7K at 240 among things), and updating the image stabilization to the new HyperSmooth 4.0.
Otherwise, externally it is identical to the old Hero 9 Black meaning your Hero 9 Black accessories will carry over, but GoPro has brought back the SuperView lens, which offers an even wider angle capture, and which will be available in new 5.3K 30/25/24 FPS capture modes when a firmware update arrives on November 16. That will also deliver support for GoPro’s Max Lens Mods, along with the ability to capture video in a variety of modes.
Battery life is an issue; it is being reported that the Hero 10 Black is even harder on the batteries than the old Hero 9 Black, meaning shorter recording times. Engadget reported that they could get the Hero 9 Black to record 4K at 30fps for about an hour and 40 minutes, while the Hero 10 Black only manages an hour and 10 minutes at the same resolution and frames.
Again, GoPro is pushing their yearly subscription service, pricing the GoPro Hero 10 Black at $399 USD with a bundled one-year GoPro subscription or for existing subscribers. Non-subscribers will pay $499 without the recurring sub, which will cost $49.99 annually or $4.99 per month after the trial. A bundle with a 32GB microSD card, a Shorty tripod mount, a magnetic swivel clip, and a additional battery will set you back $549USD without subscription, or $449 with one.
In short, this seems like a fairly minor update to the GoPro Hero Black lineup; I really don't see a need for anyone with the Hero 9 Black to upgrade, unless you need the small amount of additional features the Hero 10 Black brings. But for those with older GoPros or are looking to get one, this seems like something you should consider getting compared to the Hero 9 Black.
- adarw, thechinchinsong and da na
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You forgot Currywurst.
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I've heard them constantly mention Microsoft Teams, and have seen various screenshots from various members that are clearly from Teams...
And Microsoft Teams is part of the Office 365 in the business and enterprise plans, so yes, I will say they are using Office 365.
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On 6/21/2021 at 10:08 PM, lostcattears said:
I have no idea what hyundai would do with something like boston dynamics
Hyundai is a massive Korean conglomerate, with hands in many sectors, such as automation and robotics.
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Canon has released more details about the upcoming R3, including some more specs:
We already knew about the back-side illuminated CMOS sensor, and it's ability to shoot 30 fps in RAW. We now know the camera will also have in-body image stabilization, and with compatible RF lenses, will provide up to 8 stops of image stabilization.
Autofocus capabilities with improved face/eye/head and animal detection, plus new car and motorcycle tracking capabilities. It will be able to autofocus at light levels as low as -7EV.
With video specs, Canon noted that the R3 will shoot oversampled 4K, with no specified frame rates, with support for Canon Log3 and Raw internal recording. No mention of 8K though.
We have confirmation of both WiFi and wired LAN capabilities with the camera, CFexpress and SD card slots and a magnesium alloy body. The camera will take Canon LP-E19 batteries, which is shared with the 1DX series cameras.
The hot shoe also provides power and communication for future products, which Canon has not provided any hints regarding what could be potentially compatible. The R3 will be able to use a Speedlite with the electronic shutter, a first for one of Canon's cameras.
An image of the back was also released as well:
Spoiler
The camera clearly has a vari-angle touch screen on the back, the first for a Canon professional grade camera. Also present is the multi-controller and the smart controller as well.
Other than that, that's it for the updates to the development announcement. Rumour sites, such as Canon Rumors are suggesting that the camera is going to be priced to undercut the competition.
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Sharp Electronics, a name that isn't well known in the smartphone industry has debuted its new Aquos R6 phone with a new trick up it's sleeve; a enormous 1" sensor, the biggest yet fitted to a smartphone, and was jointly developed with Leica:
From GMSArena, Engaget and DP Review:
QuoteSharp has announced the Aquos R6 smartphone for the Japanese market - a flagship with only one functioning camera on the back, but one that comes with a huge 1” sensor. It is the biggest camera sensor put in a mobile phone ever, and it was developed jointly with Leica all the way from R&D through lens design to image quality adjustment.
QuoteWe don't hear much about Sharp's smartphones these days, largely because they're only available in Japan and a select few other regions. However, the company has just unveiled a new model, the Aquos R6, that's loaded with interesting tech, as Engadget Japan has reported. That includes a Leica-branded camera with a very large sensor that raises a few questions about Leica's relationship with Huawei.
QuoteSharp isn’t exactly known for its mobile devices, but its new Aquos R6 smartphone (translated) makes quite the statement with its 20MP 1-inch rear camera and 240Hz display.
Beyond the jaw dropping 1" sensor on the phone, this appears to be a fairly typical high end smartphone; it is equipped as follows:
- Snapdragon 888 chipset;
- 12GB RAM + 128GB of storage, plus up to 1TB of microSD expansion;
- 1" sensor with 20MP resolution behind a Leica Summicron 19mm (full-frame equivalent) F1.9 lens with electronic image stablization;
- 12.6MP F2.3 selfie shooter;
- variable-framerate ‘Pro IGZO OLED’ 6.6”display WUXGA+ (2,730 x 1,260 pixels) with a claimed max 2,000-nits of brightness;
- underscreen fingerprint scanner with the first application of Qualcomm's 3D Sonic Max ultrasonic fingerprint authentication system capable of using two fingers to authenticate at the same time;
- 5,000mAh battery;
- IPX5 / IPX8 / IP6X ratings for dust and water resistance;
- USB-C port, plus a 3.5mm headphone jack;
- Ships with Android 11;
- Available in black or white
The phone is initially going be available in Japan starting this June, and it is unclear if availability will expand to other nations.
In general, this seems like a fairly competent flagship smartphone with a lot of interesting features; I hope Sharp will release the phone to other markets outside of Japan. The only major omissions appears to be a lack of wireless charging and the lack of an IP68 water and dust resistance.
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The dispute between Roku and Google has intensified, with Google deciding to do an end-run and integrate Youtube TV directly into their Youtube app on Roku:
QuotePreviously on Google versus Roku: Roku and Google needed to renew the contract for YouTube TV, Google's $65-per-month cable TV replacement, on Roku's TV platform. The two companies weren't able to come to an agreement on the new contract, resulting in YouTube TV being pulled from the Roku store. Oh no! While existing customers could still use the YouTube TV app they had already installed, new users couldn't sign up. Will the two companies ever be able to settle their differences, or is their friendship ruined forever?
The next exciting episode in this saga aired on Friday, when Google announced in a blog post that it was just going to run an end-around on Roku and stick the YouTube TV app in the YouTube app. YouTube and YouTube TV exist as separate apps, and while the YouTube TV contract expired and the app was taken off the Roku store, the YouTube contract does not expire until December.Google is also considering sending free devices to Youtube TV subscribers as well, if they continue to face any issues with gaining access via their Roku devices.
It very much seems like the dispute between Google and Roku is heating up, with neither side budging.
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Google and Roku are now butting heads again, after Roku pulled the Youtube TV app from their App Store:
Via Ars Technica:
QuoteRoku warned us on Monday that this could happen. This morning, the company announced that YouTube TV is no longer available on the Roku Channel Store. Google and Roku are squabbling over Roku's carrying agreement, just like you might see in an old-school cable TV carriage dispute.
This primarily affects the Youtube TV app, which is a Youtube subscription service that delivers live TV streams over the internet. While the app has been pulled from the store, existing users of the app on Roku devices will still be able to use the app, but new users won't be able to sign up. Both companies have made press statements on the matter:
Roku's press statement:QuoteWe are disappointed that Google has allowed our agreement for the distribution of YouTube TV to expire. Roku has not asked for one dollar of additional financial consideration from Google to renew YouTube TV.
We have only asked Google for four simple commitments. First, not to manipulate consumer search results. Second, not to require access to data not available to anyone else. Third, not to leverage their YouTube monopoly to force Roku to accept hardware requirements that would increase consumer costs. Fourth, not to act in a discriminatory and anticompetitive manner against Roku.
Because our contract has expired, we have removed YouTube TV from our channel store. To continue to provide our users with a great streaming experience, we are taking the extra step to continue to offer existing subscribers access to YouTube TV on the Roku platform unless Google takes actions that require the full removal of the channel. Because of Google's conduct, new subscriptions will not be available going forward until an agreement is reached.
It is well past time for Google to embrace the principles that have made streaming so popular for millions of users by giving consumers control of their streaming experience, by embracing fair competition and by ceasing anticompetitive practices. We believe consumers stand to benefit from Google and Roku reaching a fair agreement that preserves these principles and we remain committed to trying to achieve that goal.
Google's press statement:
QuoteWe launched YouTube TV four years ago to bring you the TV content you love, delivered the way you want. From day one, we’ve worked to listen to your feedback to improve the experience, bring the content providers you enjoy and make the app available on as many devices as possible. We’ve been working with Roku to renew our deal to distribute YouTube TV on their devices. Despite our best efforts to come to an agreement in the best interests of our mutual users, Roku terminated our deal in bad faith amidst our negotiation. Unfortunately, Roku has often engaged in this tactic with other streaming providers.
The most important thing for us is to make sure you are taken care of, and that the experience of our shared users is a good one. As we post this, existing users still have access to YouTube TV on Roku devices. We encourage Roku not to remove the YouTube TV app so that existing users can continue enjoying the service.
We wanted to explain how we have been negotiating in good faith on behalf of our YouTube TV members:
- Our initial conversations started with Roku simply to renew the current terms of their ongoing deal with YouTube TV, which has been in place for several years. Our offer to Roku was simple and still stands: renew the YouTube TV deal under the existing reasonable terms.
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However, Roku chose to use this as an opportunity to renegotiate a separate deal encompassing the YouTube main app, which does not expire until December.
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Our agreements with partners have technical requirements to ensure a high quality experience on YouTube. Roku requested exceptions that would break the YouTube experience and limit our ability to update YouTube in order to fix issues or add new features. For example, by not supporting open-source video codecs, you wouldn’t be able to watch YouTube in 4K HDR or 8K even if you bought a Roku device that supports that resolution.
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We can’t give Roku special treatment at the expense of users. To be clear, we have never, as they have alleged, made any requests to access user data or interfere with search results. This claim is baseless and false.
We understand the concern members may have about this and we don’t take this lightly. We are committed to ensuring our members continue to have access to YouTube TV and will continue advocating on behalf of our members.
From reading both statements and from earlier reporting, it appears the dispute centers around the AV1 codec. Roku's statement seems to indicate that Google wanted Roku through their Youtube market share to accept hardware performance requirements that would significantly increase costs, which the Google statement seems to support.
The AV1 codec, the issue that appears to be at hand is a new open source codec being sponsored by Google and a number of other tech firms, such as Apple, Samsung, Amazon, Netflix, Microsoft, Facebook, Intel, et al. This codec does significantly increase the hardware performance requirements in order to enable playback on devices,which are obviously more expensive. Roku appears to be pushing back at the demand, since many of their devices would never be able to run the AV1 codec in the first place due to performance limitations, and due to how cheap Roku devices are, would dramatically increase the costs of said devices. In fact, the currently cheapest device that can handle AV1 codec playback is a Roku device; the $100 USD Roku Ultra, which seems to be the floor at which how cheap someone can make a device and still be able to handle AV1 code playback and not loose money on making them.
Personally, I can definitely see it both ways. I can understand why Roku is pushing back at Google, because of how expensive it is to support AV1 codec playback. But I can understand where Google is coming from; this is a future upcoming standard that other companies will be supporting, and I suspect those other companies will also be demanding AV1 codec support as part of their agreements.
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Atomos has announced a number of new products, including the Ninja V+ and Ninjia Stream.
Via DPReview:
QuoteAtomos has announced three new pieces of news regarding its Ninja V lineup. First up, the Ninja V gets H.265 codec support in a new, paid upgrade. Next, Atomos has announced the new Ninja V+, an expansion of the Ninja lineup that allows 8K/30p and 4K/120p capture in ProRes RAW. Lastly, Atomos has announced the Ninja Stream, a 5” 4K/60p monitor/recorder that includes built-in Wi-Fi and ethernet connectivity for sharing video feeds across the room — or globe.
The Ninja V+ is perhaps the most notable of all, as it supports recording 8K/30p and 4K/120p with Apple ProRes RAW support with their external recorders. It will also feature 10-bit HEVC codec out of the box. Currently, Atomos only mentions 8K/30p ProRes RAW recording with Canon’s EOS R5 and 4K/120p ProRes RAW recording with the Z Cam E2 and E2-M4, all via HDMI. Otherwise, the device features the same 5" 1000 nit display as the current Ninja V, and is powered by AtomOS.
Pricing for the Ninja V+ starts at $1,499, with the ‘Pro Kit,’ which includes the AtomX SDI adapter and likely other accessories, $1,699. Atomos says availability is looking at closer to end of 2021.
The next new product announced is the Ninja Stream. Basically, it is a new monitor/recorder that Atomos says per their marketing blurb ‘has been designed specifically to overcome the challenges of today’s socially distanced productions.’ Atomos says the device, which features the same 5” 1000-nit display found in the Ninja V and Ninja V+, ‘offers simultaneous recordings of both ProRes and H.264/5 proxy with shared file names and timecode, whilst sending video feeds to other Ninja’s, smart devices or web-based platforms simultaneously.’
The Ninja Stream can share video feeds with others on set via Wi-Fi or over Ethernet 1Gbe at up to 300m without the need for it to be connected to a PC for data transfer. No pricing or availability has been announced for it, yet.
The final piece of announcement from Atomos is a paid upgrade for the Ninja V, which Atomos says would add support for ‘H.265 workflows, with up to 4K/60p 10-bit 4:2:2 full ‘i’ frame with options for 8-bit at various data rates.’ Pricing for this update is $99, and will be available in May 2021.
In all, this seems like a fairly big update to the Atomos Ninja lineup, adding 8k support, and since they specifically mention Canon EOS R5 support for the 8K recording, it might actually be cheapest and easiest way to get into 8k for content creators, and have a reasonable workflow with the Apple ProRes RAW support. And you get to record on cheaper 2.5" SATA SSD's, which are MUCH cheaper than high capacity CFExpress cards.
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Canon EOS RP with the RF 24-105mm f/4-7.1 IS STM Lens? It'll be the only new full frame option near that price point.
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Youtube is building and using a custom-designed video transcoding chip for use to support video transcoding for uploaded content on Youtube. This is being reported by the Youtube Blog, and Ars Technica:
https://blog.youtube/inside-youtube/new-era-video-infrastructure
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/04/youtube-is-now-building-its-own-video-transcoding-chips/
QuoteGoogle has decided that YouTube demands such a huge transcoding workload that it needs to build its own server chips. The company detailed its new "Argos" chips in a YouTube blog post, a CNET interview, and in a paper for ASPLOS, the Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems Conference. Just as there are GPUs for graphics workloads and Google's TPU (tensor processing unit) for AI workloads, the YouTube infrastructure team says it has created the "VCU" or "Video (trans)Coding Unit," which helps YouTube transcode a single video into over a dozen versions that it needs to provide a smooth, bandwidth-efficient, profitable video site.
The new video transcoding chip is called "Argos", and is mounted on a full-length PCI-E card, with two chips per card. There is a giant heat sink that covers the entire card, and what appears to be an external power connector as well. They very much resemble a video card and this is apparently no accident; Google said that they chose the video card like format because it fits with their existing accelerator trays.
Per what Google claims, the Argos chip provides "up to 20-33x improvements in compute efficiency compared to our previous optimized system, which was running software on traditional servers."
The Google supplied chip diagram indicates some more details about the chip design. It lists 10 "encoder cores" on each chip, with Google's white paper adding that "all other elements are off-the-shelf IP blocks." Google further notes in the white paper that each encoder core can encode 2160p in realtime, up to 60 FPS (frames per second) using three reference frames.
It is being reported that Google already has thousands of these chips already in operation, and thanks to these chips, people can watch 4k content on Youtube within hours instead of the days it previously took with their previous Intel Skylake and T4 Tensor core GPUs based systems. With these chips, Google apparently can save tons of money, even factoring in development and manufacturing costs to develop these chips.
Reading over what Google is saying about their chip, I can definitely see why Google elected to develop their own video transcoding chip specifically for their workload; this appears to be a far more efficient and cost effective way to handle the workload compared to other off-the-shelf options.
- thechinchinsong, Tieox, soldier_ph and 2 others
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Details are a bit thin, but Canon has announced development of a new EOS R3 camera, along with a couple of lenses as well:
Via DPReview:
QuoteCanon has revealed the first details of its high-end EOS R3 full-frame mirrorless camera. The R3 has a dual-grip design and will be able to shoot at up to 30 frames per second with full AF, but isn't branded as a successor to the EOS-1D series of pro sports DSLRs.
https://www.dpreview.com/opinion/0931673290/canon-r3-what-do-we-know
QuoteCanon has just announced the development of what will be the highest-spec RF-mount camera yet, the EOS R3. The few details that have been released point towards a very interesting camera, but also something else; something even more capable, coming in the future.
DPReview has a picture supplied by Canon of the new R3:
Spoiler
So, what do we know?
1. It is using a brand new, Canon developed stacked, back-side illuminated (BSI) sensor with the traditional Canon Dual-Pixel auto focus, a first for Canon. Canon has traditionally used Front Side Illumination chips in their sensor design, and to see Canon jump directly to a stacked BSI sensor instead of any intermediate steps is a major jump in capabilities for the camera. Canon notes that with this sensor, the camera can shoot stills at 30 frames a second, much faster than current R5 or even the 1D series cameras.
2. Canon notes that the R3 has Eye Control AF via the viewfinder, which allows the camera to change autofocus points based upon where your pupil is looking in the viewfinder. This appears to be a resurrection of a technology from the the 1990's via Canon's EOS 3 SLR camera. This technology never made the jump to Canon's digital camera lineup, and died with the last of the EOS 3 series film camera almost 17 years ago, so it's interesting to see Canon bring this back into the digital age, on a mirrorless body.
3. The body is a bigger camera overall; it has a integrated vertical grip. This should mean that battery life is much longer as it is likely using either dual batteries, or a much beefier single battery inside, and overheating should be less of a concern because the camera has more mass and room for heatsinks. Weather sealing is apparently equivalent to the existing 1D series cameras, which means the camera is very rugged and water resistant.
4. Canon is slotting this in a revived 3-series camera, which means that it currently slots above the R5, but below a hypothetical 1 series camera. This should mean that the speculated mirrorless R1 should have even higher performance than the just announced R3, and would mean that price-wise, it would sit above the R5 at $3900 USD, and perhaps closer to the EOS 1DX Mark III's price tag of $6900 USD.
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Another major Microsoft acquisition, this time purchasing Nuance Communications for about $20 billion:
Via Axios and Ars Technica:
https://www.axios.com/microsoft-readies-deal-frenzy-bbc807a2-fd5b-48a7-99d1-cf06d0a41547.html
QuoteMicrosoft announced Monday it would buy Nuance Communications, a software company that focuses on speech recognition through artificial intelligence, in an all-cash transaction valued at $19.7 billion (including debt assumption).
QuoteEarlier today, Microsoft announced its plans to purchase Nuance for $56 per share—23 percent above Nuance's closing price last Friday. The deal adds up to a $16 billion cash outlay and a total valuation for Nuance of about $19.7 billion, including that company's assumed debt.
Nuance Communications is perhaps best well known for speech recognition software, in particular Dragon NaturallySpeaking, and being the core technology behind Apple's Siri voice recognition features.
This acquisition builds upon an existing Microsoft and Nuance partnership agreement from 2019 where both would cooperate to develop new artificial intelligence software for the healthcare sector, and Microsoft's purchase of Nuance means that it would give Microsoft access to Nuance's entire healthcare customer list and technology portfolio.
Nuance's current CEO is expected to remain with the company, and will join Microsoft, running Nuance as a Microsoft division.
To me, this probably explains why Microsoft is electing to ditch Cortana; they probably figured that buying out a potential competitor and acquiring their patents and research made far more sense than trying to home develop something, and moving into the AI software for healthcare, along with the existing high value customer list probably helped seal the deal.
- Taf the Ghost and soldier_ph
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This isn't new in advertising; see Wendy's Where's the Beef advertisement, and the advertisement that took the main character actor from that commercial and used in their's by Prego pasta sauce:
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Pro tip: If you are lying about your income on your taxes as a social media influencer, don't post about it on social media:
Via the National Post:
QuoteOTTAWA – Every time Kylie Jenner — a massively popular American social media influencer and member of the Kardashian family — posts an advertisement for a product on her online accounts, she reportedly earns over $1 million from the brand.
Canada also has its fair share of social media influencers. Take Evan Fong, a Toronto area videogame commentator and streamer better known as VanossGaming, who reportedly raked in US$17 million in 2018 by attracting eyeballs to his social media channels such as YouTube.
Another influencer, Laval-raised video game streamer Félix “xQc” Lengyel, reportedly earned nearly US$2 million in 2020 on Twitch, an extremely popular live streaming service online. His job? Playing video games in front of tens of thousands of fans, who often pay money to subscribe to his channel and can even donate money to him.
Fong and Lengyel (who is now based in the U.S.) are just two random examples of the breathtaking revenues that some Canadians are earning through online platforms. And numbers like those have caught the Canada Revenue Agency’s attention.
The CRA is jumping on hundreds of Canada’s top social media influencer’s pages, parsing their content to spot any obvious signs of wealth or gifts. Then, they open up the individual’s tax filings and compare what they see online with what the person previously declared as earnings.I suppose what they say is true about social media; if you choose to make a public post on social media, don't expect any privacy.
Obviously, people need to pay their taxes, but it's something interesting when the government is going through one's social media posts to look for any clues that you are not reporting income, and thus cheating on your taxes.
Per the article, the Canada Revenue Agency has about 60 people dedicated to a task force devoted exclusively to auditing people making money off the platform economy, doing a mixture of preventing non-compliance through something like e-invoicing, and then education, and then traditional audit. They've also conducted 40 exploratory audits of people and reassessed roughly $500,000 in total suspected unpaid taxes. There are another 200 audits currently underway.
They are also using two tools to also audit cryptocurrency transactions to help estimate what is the actual income flow so that they can compare that to the tax return the person filed to look for discrepancies as well.
The CRA is saying that right now, they are primarily focused on education over enforcement, but as time goes on, they will start using more traditional tools, such as tax audits to ensure compliance.
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OnePlus has signed a 3 year partnership agreement with Hasselblad, a camera manufacturer to ‘co-develop the next generation of smartphone camera systems’ inside OnePlus’ phones, starting with the upcoming launch of the OnePlus 9:
Via DPReview:
QuoteSmartphone manufacturer OnePlus has announced it’s partnering with Swedish camera manufacturer Hasselblad to ‘co-develop the next generation of smartphone camera systems’ inside OnePlus’ mobile devices, including the new OnePlus 9 Series, which will launch on March 23.
The partnership will see Hasselblad work alongside OnePlus to improve OnePlus' camera technology, starting first with the software side, such as colour tuning and sensor calibration, and will progress to other areas of development.
Already announced for the upcoming launch of the OnePlus 9 is the new colour calibration science, which is being claimed to "deliver more perceptually-accurate and natural-looking colors to images taken with flagship OnePlus devices," and a replacement of the OnePlus camera app with a Hasselblad branded app called ‘Hasselblad Camera for Mobile,’ which per a OnePlus press release will ‘allows for an unprecedented amount of control for professional photographers to fine-tune their photos, with the ability to adjust ISO, focus, exposure times, white balance, and more.’
The new 'Hasselblad Camera for Mobile' app will also have a Hasselblad Pro Mode, which is effectively a 12-bit Raw capture mode; it is unknown if this is will be a standard Raw capture or a more AI-powered approach akin to Apple's ProRAW approach.
The only hardware thing to note about the upcoming OnePlus 9 launch from a camera perspective is that OnePlus has noted that the OnePlus 9 will contain a customized variant of Sony’s IMX789 sensor, which OnePlus calls ‘the largest and most advanced main camera sensor ever on a OnePlus device.’
The OnePlus 9 will launch on March 23rd at 10am ET via the OnePlus website.
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1 minute ago, minibois said:
Top left of the screen: "you're gonna get a $500 fine and 180 days in jail for recording this."
The person recording this for us all to enjoy:
The judge and the court involved released the clip, per a Twitter statement:
But talk about grace under pressure... I'm surprised no one else on the call was giggling their heads off...
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A bit of humourous news, but please remember to check your Zoom settings before starting any important meetings!
Otherwise, you could end up in a unfortunate situation where you'll be in an important video conference, but thanks to a Zoom video filter, you'll be appearing as a talking cat, as one lawyer hilariously did during an virtual court hearing:
https://www.dailydot.com/debug/lawyer-cat-filter-zoom/
QuoteA lawyer in Texas became a viral sensation on Tuesday after accidentally activating a cat filter during a court hearing over Zoom.
Footage of the incident, which went viral on Twitter, shows attorney Rod Ponton struggling to deactivate the filter while appearing as a young feline.
Judge Roy B. Ferguson can be overheard attempting to help Ponton, to no avail.
“Mr. Ponton, I believe you have a filter turned on in your video settings,” Ferguson says.
In perhaps the best moment of the video, Ponton attempts to reassure the judge that he is in fact not a cat.
“I’ve got my assistant here, and she’s trying to remove it but uh… I’m prepared to go forward with it," Ponton says. "I’m here live. I’m not a cat.”
The actual video clip of the incident is here:
- minibois and dalekphalm
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Tony Northrop apparently doesn't like the A1, noting issues with autofocus (issues with autofocus wandering, and eye, animal and bird AF being inconsistent and front-focusing), an inability to reach the stated 30fps against moving subjects, and if you are using a non-Sony lens, the A1 is apparently hard-coded to drop down to lower frame-rates, down to 15fps, and 8K recording is limited to 16 minutes due to overheating in standard mode:
Otherwise, he praises the excellent EVF, the fast flash sync speed and the almost non-existent rolling shutter. But the price... the A1 makes the R5 look like a relative bargain.
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Any of the most recent Canon cameras can be used with Canon's EOS Webcam Utility, so you can use some of the most recent Canon cameras as a webcam directly with a USB cable.
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My Sponsor says Slower is… Better?
in LTT Releases
Posted
The standard USB-PD spec is not designed to handle loads in excess of 100W. The 2023 G14 draws close to 240W; the new 2024 draws about 180W at top load from what I can see. Even closer to idle with the discreet GPU turned off, I've seen my 2023 G14 draw around 60W; add in battery charging and you are already at the 100W top limit for conventional USB-PD.
Oh, and the current EU mandate only covers devices under 100W; higher performance devices are excluded from the mandate.
While in theory, USB-PD can supply more than 100W under the USB-PD 3.1 EPR spec, it comes with a ton of caveats.
For one, the pins in the connector aren't strong enough to deliver so many amps. Therefore you'd need to raise voltage to above 40V, send it with 5A, and then step it down back to 12V and other low voltages.
Just this process of stepping up and down would produce significant amount of heat.
240W via USB-PD is very sketchy. To have such power delivered on 20V, which is a standard now, you would need 12A. This is current almost as big as whole household circuits (15A). Imagine sending the same amount of current a standard household circuit provides via a USB cable; the cable and the connectors are not going to have a good time.
To use current standard of cables, rated up to 5A, you need exactly 48V to make it happen. Which is what the USB-PD 3.1 EPR specs call for. But that's a lot. It is possible, not ideal however.
Also, almost every PC laptop on the market is 20V. There are a very few non-20V ones but their market share is negligible. Asus would have to totally redesign the internal components on the G14 and G16 to handle more than 20V, which would be a very expensive undertaking.
You can achieve much safer results in much easier way using normal power connectors.
Not to mention that there aren't any commercially available 180W or 240W USB chargers on the market...
The only solutions I've seen that can provide such power from mainstream manufacturers are from HP and Lenovo with their high wattage docks for some of their workstation laptops; they are using standard USB C for data and a separate proprietary cable for high wattage power delivery and then snap a piece of plastic over the two cable heads to make the "plug a single thing" action possible; sure it has two separate metal plugs but who cares?
So they have a "single cable high wattage" use case already solved, and the above 100W space is so much smaller. Gaming laptops are so not interested in docking stations to begin with, and they aren't volume sellers; the driving force behind such high power docking stations are fleet purchases, and those are kinda edge case scenarios to begin with.
Honestly, I suspect that USB-PD 3.1 EPR is DOA. It will remain a paper only standard. Wouldn't be the first spec that nobody uses. And it seems like most laptop makers agree; German manufacturer Schenker/XMG has a pretty good writeup on this: https://www.reddit.com/r/XMG_gg/comments/13vl7sv/survey_should_traditional_charging_ports_be/
The TL;DR version is:
* With high-performance laptops, you want to do as much voltage conversion as possible in the brick / PSU, not in the laptop itself, because the heat situation caused by high-end CPUs and GPUs is already bad to the point where the fan noise becomes unbearable.
* Converting from around 20V to whatever voltage is needed for a specific component produces less heat than converting down from 48V.
* 48V is a clutch because the USB consortium was stupid and refused (for whatever reason, possibly cable width/thickness) to go above 5A.
* USB connectors are still fairly delicate and complex compared to a standard barrel connector, and requires a lot of very fine solder points that are susceptible to damage.
The last point is especially important; a more delicate power connector is NOT good for device longevity, and may in fact contribute to planned obsolesce. It is significantly much harder to fix broken USB ports, as when a USB port becomes damaged or is torn out accidentally, it causes a LOT of damage to the mainboard that is practically unrepairable; see what this repair specialist has to say on the topic: