Tech news is like your fingers, something you can count on.
But unlike fingers, tech news is far less vulnerable to firework accidents.
Apple's upcoming AI features may not impress or surprise
those already familiar with AI tech, according to Mark Gurman.
The only surprise may be that the features
won't be fully on device. In his most recent Power On newsletter,
Gurman discusses how Apple is apparently focusing on tools
that people may actually want to use, generally a good idea.
A big part of this is Project Grey Matter, an AI toolkit that Apple will integrate
into its core apps like Safari, Photos, and Notes.
It's probably similar to Microsoft's Co-Pilot,
but with the revolutionary idea of not overusing the name Co-Pilot.
Many familiar AI-powered features will be introduced by the fruit fraternity, including photo retouching
and suggested email replies and messages. Apple also wants to generate smart recaps
that will summarize users' missed notifications, text messages, notes, and other media.
But while it's really exciting that Apple is doing what everyone else has already done,
Tim and the team are apparently also backsliding
on their promise to keep users' data on their devices for privacy.
This comes after the company has repeatedly criticized
its competitors for not keeping user data on device only.
But Apple has to add AI.
I mean, it's not like any consumers actually want it, but because every other company's already doing it,
and if they don't, Tim Cook is gonna look like a loser.
Cinder Pichai and Sachin Adele are gonna give him a swirling.
He's gonna have flashbacks, it sucks. AMD's next motherboard chipset will be skipping a number,
according to Chinese outlet Bench Life. AMD's current flagship chipset is X670,
but it appears the company's follow-up will be X870,
not X770, because apparently no one cares about consistent numbering anymore,
which is evidenced by the fact we don't have an iPhone or Windows 9.
You can skip them when you want to, it's a free country. The name was initially leaked earlier this year
by YouTuber Moore's Law Is Dead, who also claimed that the boards will be shown off
at this year's Computex. This would make sense, since AMD is giving
the opening keynote at the event, which the company promises will showcase their next generation
of high-performance PC. The Computex debut may also be part
of the reason for the naming change. It seems Intel will also be debuting new MOBOs
at the event, specifically the Z890 motherboard.
AMD doesn't want their number to be smaller than Team Blues, everyone will point and laugh.
See the Tim Cook example. It's all rock locker rooms, hazing at this point.
Swirlies all around. This follows countless examples of tech companies
changing their naming scheme to compete with other naming schemes.
Just last week, a leaker claimed that AMD renamed their upcoming mobile chips
from Ryzen AI 100 to Ryzen AI 300
to appear bigger than Intel's upcoming core Ultra 200 CPUs.
Frankly, I'm tired of manufacturers trying to appeal to us size queens.
Many of us actually prefer a smaller form factor.
I'm just gonna say, J-Growth at, ah. Ah.
Samsung is denying a report citing quality issues
with its high bandwidth memory or HBM products.
Last week, Reuters published a report claiming that Samsung's HBM chips failed NVIDIA's quality tests
due to problems with heat and power consumption. Frankly, I'm just surprised NVIDIA has efficiency standards.
I mean, this is a big deal because HBM is used mostly in AI applications
to process the massive amount of data generated.
Since NVIDIA holds about 80% of the global AI hardware market,
it would be a massive hit to Samsung's reputation
if this Reuters report is true. And it might be.
Samsung said its newest HBM products work fine with many processors,
but doesn't specifically say that those products work
with NVIDIA's processors, leading to speculation that Samsung
is simply trying to save face. That would be understandable
since memory is the only Samsung silicon anyone really cares about.
I mean, Google will apparently be moving manufacturing for the tensor chips found in Pixel phones
from Samsung to TSMC. Like Samsung's HBM products,
the tensor processors the company manufacturers have had issues with thermals and power efficiency.
Wait a second. But hold on, easy solution for Samsung.
Just stop making everything you manufacture run hotter than the cast of Baywatch.
So easy and simple, you should do it. Hey, I had some extra news lying around,
so I made you these quick bits. Yeah, okay, so go on.
Take them. ASUS has issued a second statement
committing to improving their warranty and repairs process
in response to customer backlash. In what kind of seems like an apology
for the first apology it made two weeks ago in response to customer backlash.
This time, the company got a lot more specific about its plans, mentioning video and photo documentation,
accurate quotation, repairing instead of fully replacing specific components,
leaving cosmetic damage unless asked to fix it,
and overall trying to not address customers dealing with broken hardware
by making their lives even worse. It seems like it should be obvious, but here we are.
ASUS has also taken another whack at its ROG Ally handheld,
and right on the heels of a leak about the upgraded ROG Ally X,
news about another Windows handheld was revealed to Windows Central.
Lenovo's reportedly working on a Legion Go Lite,
powered by an AMD Z1 series processor, just like the OG Go.
Windows Central says the Go Lite will feature some refinements,
but doesn't go into specifics, leaving me no choice, but to assume it will be covered
in some kind of exotic silk. When you play it, you have your pinkies up.
In Space News, Boeing's long-troubled Starliner launch
faced another setback, as NASA discovered both a helium leak
and a design vulnerability that was in the Space Capsules propulsion system.
Engineers have found a workaround for the propulsion issue, but the leak will still be there
when Starliner launches on June 1st.
That doesn't seem right. You know about it, you're not gonna fix it. Meanwhile, SpaceX, who has been beating Boeing for years,
may have faced a setback in its next Starship launch
after one of the company's Raptor 2 engines literally exploded.
Man, say what you will about rocket failures, but it's kinda crazy that Boeing
can't even fail as good as SpaceX. YouTube Music is rolling out a feature on Android
that will allow users to search for songs by humming, singing, playing, or whistling them,
similar to Shazam or even Google Search.
But apparently it's faster than both of those and pretty accurate from the look of it,
though far from 100%. At least for the Verge,
the app interpreted a snippet of Tom Waits fumbling with the blues for Boom Boom Boomerang
by D. Billions, what appears to be a bootleg,
courgestani version of the Wiggles that somehow has more cumulative YouTube views
than Taylor Swift. This is gonna be a great journalistic tool.
And a Swiss startup called Final Spark is renting out online access
to the world's first living processor.
It's the Zerg, we made the Zerg. The service called Neuro Platform
costs $500 per month per user for access
to a computer made of 16 human brain organoids,
3D cell masses of brain tissue.
Okay. Three dozen universities are interested
in Neuro Platform access for biocomputing research,
but the bioprocessor is only good for experiments lasting several months
since the organoids only live for 100 days.
Do we bury them? Is there like a little cellular funeral?
How do you handle this situation? What is, what are we doing here?
I've been making some version of this show for about 10 years and things are getting weird, okay?
And how will you handle coming back on Wednesday for more delightful tech news?
I'm sorry, you have to come back. It is mandatory. I don't make the rules, okay?
I just say them and then feel anxiety.