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Google will bring Gemini, the company's new large language model, to Pixel 8 smartphones after all. The phone will incorporate Gemini Nano, a version of the model built to run locally on personal devices. This follows a successful rollout to the Pixel 8 Pro late last year and the Samsung Galaxy S24 in January.
The Pixel 8 features the same proprietary Tensor G3 chip as the Pro, which was designed to speed up AI performance. So the overall experience should be similar with both gadgets. It'll be coming in the next Pixel Feature Drop, but only as a developer preview for now. Google wants to collect feedback and make sure everything is running smoothly on the slightly lower-specced phone.
This is a fairly sudden change for Google. The company originally said that the Pixel 8 couldn't handle on-device Gemini because of "hardware limitations", despite having the same chip as the Pro model. The main difference between the two phones is the RAM allotment, which doesn't seem like a deal-breaker when it comes to running an on-device AI. It looks like Google also came around to that line of thinking.
So what can you do with this thing? The company's expanding two features that make use of the LLM, and both of these tools have been available for Pro users. The Reco
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Amazon today launched the Amazon One app, which is designed to allow customers to scan their palms to make device-free purchases at Whole Foods, Panera Bread, and 150 third-party locations in stadiums, airports, fitness centers, and convenience stores.
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NYC Mayor Eric Adams has a new plan to make the city's subways safe: metal detectors. But these are not just any metal detectors because these detectors come with AI. As for how well they work, it's not looking so good.
Read more...
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The Grok AI chatbot that X has been testing is becoming more widely available.
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Microsoft's Copilot AI service is set to run locally on PCs, Intel told Tom's Hardware. The company also said that next-gen AI PCs would require built-in neural processing units (NPUs) with over 40 TOPS (trillion operations per second) of power — beyond the capabilities of any consumer processor on the market.
Intel said that the AI PCs would be able to run "more elements of Copilot" locally. Currently, Copilot runs nearly everything in the cloud, even small requests. That creates a fair amount of lag that's fine for larger jobs, but not ideal for smaller jobs. Adding local compute capability would decrease that lag, while potentially improving performance and privacy as well.
Microsoft was previously rumored to require 40 TOPS on next-gen AI PCs (along with a modest 16GB of RAM). Right now, Windows doesn't make much use of NPUs, apart from running video effects like background blurring for Surface Studio webcams. ChromeOS and macOS both use NPU power for more video and audio processing features, though, along with OCR, translation, live transcription and more, Ars Technica noted.
So far, the processor with the fastest NPU speed is Apple M3, which offers 18 TOPS across the lineup (M3, M3 Pro and M3 Ultra). AMD's Ryzen 8040 and 7040 laptop
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Oregon this week signed a Right to Repair bill into law, and it is notable because it is the first such law that puts a stop to the practice of parts pairing. Manufacturers like Apple are not able to require customers to use Apple-sourced parts that then have to be authenticated, with the bill giving Apple device owners the right to use new parts, used parts, or third-party parts.
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Gravity Technologies is working hard to make electric vehicle charging faster and more widely available, particularly in populous cities like its home base of New York. Just weeks removed from launching the fastest charging station in the United States, it's revealed new 200-kW curbside chargers designed to bring its world-beating fast-charging tech to the streets. The company says its latest hardware is the same size as a conventional Level 2 charger but 30 times faster - quick enough to give a substantial charge while parked for short bodega or deli stop.
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Portable speakers can come in handy in all kinds of situations, from camping trips to simply keeping one with you as you move throughout your home (just don't use one on public transit unless you like being hated with the fire of a thousand suns). JBL makes some of our top picks for portable Bluetooth speakers, and several models are currently on sale for up to 34 percent off. The JBL Charge 5 has dropped by $50 (or 28 percent) to $130, just $10 more than the lowest price we've seen for it to date.
This is one of our favorite portable Bluetooth speakers. It has a battery life of up to 20 hours and, handily, you can use it to charge other devices via USB-C. The Charge 5 is IP67-rated for water and dust resistance too.
There are less expensive and still-capable options out there, but the Charge 5 delivers bigger audio than many rivals. The sound quality is good too, thanks to i
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You can find even more monitor recommendations in our roundup of the best monitors.
Updated March 26, 2024: Dell's Ultrasharp U4025QW joins our list of picks as the best 5K ultrawide. Read our summary below to find out more about this impressive display that not only offers unparalleled clarity across its 40-inch IPS Black panel, but a generous array of ports for ultimate productivity, and a 120Hz refresh rate that makes it suitable for gaming. It's so capable that you might even forgive its premium price.
Alienware AW3423DWF - Best ultrawide monitor
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Thankfully, though, VPNs currently have the upper hand. With the right VPN service and a little elbow grease, you can access most, if not all, of the content you want to watch no matter your physical location.
How to watch streaming services with a VPN
1. Find the right VPN service and subscribe.
The first crucial step is to choose the correct VPN for your needs. While traveling, it's important to pick a VPN that has a larger server network, with many servers in your home country. You can usually find a list of the available servers on a VPN's website.
You'll then want to make sure that the VPN's servers will be able to unblock major streaming services. You can check out our best VPNs for Netflix roundup, or read our individual reviews to learn about any particular service's unblocking capabilities.
PCWorld's favorite VPN for streaming netflix
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GitHub, the online developer platform that allows users to create, store, manage, and share their code, has been on a generative AI (genA) journey since before ChatGPT or Copilot was widely available to the public.
Through an early partnership with Microsoft, the dev platform adopted Copilot two-and-a-half years ago, tweaking it to create its own version — GitHub Copilot.
The genAI-baed conversational chat interface is now used as a tool for both GitHub users and internal employees to assist in code development, as well as an automated help desk tool.
To read this article in full, please click here
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