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The Tech Thread

I figured this would expand into other areas...but Apple announced iPhone 8 and their new flagship iPhone X today:

https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/12/iphone-x/

Apple’s iPhone X, like the new iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, comes with a brand new design, ditching bezels and opting for a glass front and back. Apple says there is a deeper strengthening layer in the glass that makes it the “most durable in a smartphone.”

Thanks to this new design, the iPhone X is sealed for water and dust resistance.

It’s made from surgical-grade, stainless steel and comes in two finishes: space grey and silver.

Following the current trend in smartphones, Apple has done away with the bezels on the iPhone X, offering an edge-to-edge 5.8-inch display. In fact, Apple is upgrading quite a bit in that department, offering an OLED display for the very first time, calling it the Super Retina Display. This brings with it all the standard benefits of OLED, including more accurate colors, better image uniformity across the screen, etc.

The iPhone X Super Retina display supports 2046×1125 resolution, with 455 PPI, and HDR in both Dolby Vision and HDR.

The company is reportedly paying around $125 per panel, which is part of the reason for the reports of a more expensive iPhone.

This is also the first iPhone that will not have a home button, with the new screen reaching across the entire front of the device. Users can wake up their device by picking it up or swiping across any part of the screen. To close an app, simply swipe up on the screen and throw it away. Users can also reach Siri by simply saying “Hey Siri” or by pressing the side button.

Given that the home button has historically been central to the iPhone’s security, the replacement comes in the form of a depth-sensing front camera which will unlock the phone by detecting the user’s face. Apple is calling it FaceID.

This means that the iPhone will know what your face looks like from all angles and can unlock the phone while it’s, say, lying on a table. It also means that the feature shouldn’t be susceptible to trickery, such as unlocking for a two-dimensional photo of you instead of the real thing. Apple says the chances that someone can trick FaceID and break into your phone are 1 in a million.

“You’re wearing glasses, or wear a hat, or do it up any way you want to do it…” FaceID still works, day or night, according to Phil Schiller.

FaceID is enabled by a True Depth camera system, equipped with an infrared camera, flood illuminator, dot projector and more all packed into the top of your iPhone.

The feature is used for Apple Pay now, as well as a new feature called Animojis for messaging. Animoji’s use FaceID to lay your facial expressions into emojis, giving them your own unique take. You can pick from a dozen different animated emojis.

As far as cameras are concerned, the iPhone X is about as locked and loaded as one can get. The rear camera features a 12-megapixel sensor, with dual-lenses at f1.8 and f2.8 apertures (which is brighter than the 7 Plus telephoto). It comes with dual-image OIS quad-LED TrueTone flash.

Because of the combination of the new A11 Bionic and the enhanced camera, Apple is introducing a new Portrait Lighting, letting users select their lighting effects. These aren’t filters, but rather a real-time analysis of the light hitting the subject’s face, and these lighting effects can be added before and after the photo is taken.

Video is vastly improved as well. Combined with that A11 processor, video can be captured at 60FPS in low-light mode, with faster frame rate support and 4K capture. Slo-mo videos shot in 1080p will have 240 FPS.

The front-facing camera is powered by that True Depth camera system that supports FaceID. But the big news here is that Portrait mode and Portrait lighting is now available on the front-camera.

The iPhone X, as well as the other new iPhones announced today, comes with wireless charging capabilities, thanks to that new glass back. Wireless charging is supported by Qi, which is considered as the standard in the wireless charging industry.

Plus, battery life is two hours longer than the iPhone 7, with most of the improvement coming by way of software enhancements. But because Apple likes to take things to the next level, the wireless charging on the new iPhones is coming with a new accessory called AirPower. It’s a larger mat that lets users charge their iPhones, Apple Watch and AirPods all at the same time.

The iPhone X is packed with the new A11 Bionic processor: 64-bit design, six cores, two high performance processors that are 25 percent faster than the A10 and 4-high efficiency cores (two more than the A10) that are 70 percent faster. The GPU is 30 percent faster.

Part of the bigger news here is improved photographs. As Panzarino noted in the live blog, “The Apple ISP is one of its secret weapons in photography. If you’ve loved an iPhone picture you’ve ever taken then thank the image processor inside the phone for that result.”

The iPhone X starts at $999 for the 64GB model, with a larger 256GB option.

Pre-orders begin on October 27 and regular sales begin November 3, just in time for the Holidays.

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Don't know if anyone has been following the drama happening at OpenAI this past week (creators of ChatGPT).

At a high level:

  • The board of ChatGPT fired CEO Sam Altman as a big surprise to everyone
  • Microsoft (which owns 49% of OpenAI) offered to hire him and give him his own department for AI to run
  • 70 - 80% of OpenAI employees wrote an open letter to the board saying they would quit and go work for Microsoft if they didn't re-instate Sam Altman and resign from the board
  • Some board member who voted to out Altman pretty quickly changed their mind
  • It looks like Sam Altman will soon be returning to OpenAI with a new board.

What's interesting (aside from all of the above shenanigans) is this quote

Quote

It’s small (six members before Friday, and four without Mr. Altman and Mr. Brockman) and includes several A.I. experts who hold no shares in the company. Its directors do not have the responsibility of maximizing value for shareholders, as most corporate boards do, but are instead bound to a fiduciary duty to create “safe A.G.I.” — artificial general intelligence — “that is broadly beneficial.” At least two of the board members, Tasha McCauley and Helen Toner, have ties to the Effective Altruism movement, a utilitarian-inspired group that has pushed for A.I. safety research and raised alarms that a powerful A.I. system could one day lead to human extinction. 

So rumour is the board thought Altman was moving too fast and reckless with AI, was not forthcoming / honest with the board in what he was doing, etc.

Will be really interesting to see where AI goes and what future iterations of ChatGPT are capable of over the upcoming years.

11 minutes ago, Rich said:

Don't know if anyone has been following the drama happening at OpenAI this past week (creators of ChatGPT).

At a high level:

  • The board of ChatGPT fired CEO Sam Altman as a big surprise to everyone
  • Microsoft (which owns 49% of OpenAI) offered to hire him and give him his own department for AI to run
  • 70 - 80% of OpenAI employees wrote an open letter to the board saying they would quit and go work for Microsoft if they didn't re-instate Sam Altman and resign from the board
  • Some board member who voted to out Altman pretty quickly changed their mind
  • It looks like Sam Altman will soon be returning to OpenAI with a new board.

What's interesting (aside from all of the above shenanigans) is this quote

So rumour is the board thought Altman was moving too fast and reckless with AI, was not forthcoming / honest with the board in what he was doing, etc.

Will be really interesting to see where AI goes and what future iterations of ChatGPT are capable of over the upcoming years.

Altman is the James Gunn of AI :D

 

I've started using AI to generate bits of PowerShell code.  Works very well and saves me the time of googling for hours to find the bits of code I need to make something work.  Thankfully I'm near the end of my career so I don't have to worry about AI taking my job away, which it could easily do in the not-too-distant future.

 

  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

 

 

Edited by FrostyWinnipeg

Better off investing in UBlock origin desktop youtube users (Granted AdBlock says they fixed the problem but I have yet to get the update)

GD6YeQLWwAA27RD?format=jpg&name=900x900

  • 1 month later...

Sigh... can't Facebook do their down crap during a time when it doesn't matter to me (like when I'm sleeping?)

7 minutes ago, iHeart said:

Sigh... can't Facebook do their down crap during a time when it doesn't matter to me (like when I'm sleeping?)

It's working for me and I can provide an update on what it looks like....    one normal post followed by a dozen unrelated ads or junk videos.    You are not missing much!  

43 minutes ago, Brandon said:

It's working for me and I can provide an update on what it looks like....    one normal post followed by a dozen unrelated ads or junk videos.    You are not missing much!  

It wasn't working when I did that post

Reddit priced its stock on Wednesday at $34 a share, the top of the anticipated range, a signal that investors are excited about the company’s IPO on Thursday. 

  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...
6 minutes ago, Noeller said:

Love my Pixel... Can't remember which number, but I think it's the 8. 

Had the Pixel 6 and was really disappointed with it.  Was happy to trade it in for my Samsung S23.  Don't know that I'll ever go back to a Google phone.

5 minutes ago, bigg jay said:

Had the Pixel 6 and was really disappointed with it.  Was happy to trade it in for my Samsung S23.  Don't know that I'll ever go back to a Google phone.

I bounce back and forth between pixel and Samsung. I have an 8 now and love it but the S10 was the best phone I ever had. 

I am told by my kids though that Android is embarrassing to own and to never show anyone.

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