Lifeboat Foundation

Chromium compounds could soon replace the rare and expensive metals osmium and ruthenium.

Scientists have found a way to make solar panels and phone screens from readily available chromium. This is according to a report.

The article highlights how a major breakthrough sees material “almost as rare as gold” replaced by everyday components, significantly reducing “the price of manufacturing the technology that relies on it.”

Continue reading “Scientists find way to create solar power from common chromium” »

Now that’s something. Funny this came up on my feed as I’m jamming to music on my phone to destress.

Breakthrough raises hopes that musicality of natural speech can be restored in patients with disabling neurological conditions.

Part of the reason that these chips are becoming so much more efficient and getting so many more cores on a similar die size to the chips that have come before is the 3nm process. Apple is heavily invested in the new chip creation tech, having ordered almost the entirety of the first printing of the process, making sure that it has an advantage over the competition. The first device that we might see with a 3nm process chip is the iPhone 15 Pro, and then it’s likely that the M3 chips will follow.

Whatever happens with these new chips, it’s looking like it’s going to be an exciting time for Apple silicon and the latest Apple hardware to use it.

The chip’s components work in a way similar to synapses in human brains.

Tech corporation IBM has unveiled a new “prototype” of an analog AI chip that works like a human brain and performs complex computations in various deep neural networks (DNN) tasks.

The chip promises more. IBM says the state-of-the-art chip can make artificial intelligence remarkably efficient and less battery-draining for computers and smartphones.

Circle October 14th on your calendar for a solar eclipse and news about Humane’s AI Pin.

Humane, a startup founded by ex-Apple employees, plans to share more about its mysterious AI-powered wearable on the same day as a solar eclipse in October, co-founder Imran Chaudhri said in a video on the company’s Discord (via Inverse.

Continue reading “Humane will share more about its mysterious ‘Ai Pin’ the same day as October’s eclipse” »

It’s been rumored for several months now that Apple will be using a new 3 nm manufacturing process from Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) for its next-generation chips, including M3 series processors for Macs and the A17 Bionic for some next-gen iPhones. But new reporting from The Information illuminates some of the favorable terms that Apple has secured to keep its costs down: Apple places huge chip orders worth billions of dollars, and in return, TSMC eats the cost of defective processor dies.

At a very high level, chip companies use large silicon wafers to create multiple chips at once, and the wafer is then sliced into many individual processor dies. It’s normal, especially early in the life of an all-new manufacturing process, for many of those dies to end up with defects—either they don’t work at all, or they don’t perform to the specifications of the company that ordered them.

On the cusp of the iPhone 15 debut, Apple has finally admitted what has long been clear: The industry is facing a smartphone slowdown. Also: Another M3 Mac goes into testing, Apple seeks to downplay its Goldman Sachs rift, and Vision Pro developer labs get off to a sluggish start.

Last week in Power On: The iPhone 15 will have thinner bezels in another step toward Apple’s dream phone.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced a record-breaking $299,997,000 fine imposed on an international network of companies for placing five billion robocalls to more than 500 million phone numbers over three months in 2021.

The fined companies operated as Sumco Panama, Virtual Telecom, Davis Telecom, Geist Telecom, Fugle Telecom, Tech Direct, Mobi Telecom, and Posting Express.

“The enterprise violated a multitude of robocall prohibitions by making pre-recorded voice calls to mobile phones without prior express consent, placing telemarketing calls without written consent, dialing numbers included on the National Do Not Call Registry, failing to identify the caller at the start of the message, and failing to provide a call-back number that allowed consumers to opt out of future calls,” explained the FCC press release.

Dumbphones seem to be making a return.

Call someone, right after a quick game of Snake.