Samsung Electronics has unveiled its latest 200-megapixel camera sensor with some of the smallest pixels yet, allowing manufacturers to keep their premium smartphones slim. At the same time, the HP3 sensor offers technology such as autofocus in every pixel, binning for better low-light performance and multi-gain ISO for maximum dynamic range. The sensor is 1/1.4-inch…
Amazon’s new pitch: let Alexa speak as your relatives from beyond the grave
At Amazon’s Re:Mars conference, Rohit Prasad, Alexa’s senior vice president, showed off a surprising new voice assistant: the supposed ability to mimic voices. So far, there isn’t any timeline on when or if this feature will be released to the public. Stranger still, Amazon designed this copy ability as a way to memorialize lost loved…
Hitting the Books: Summer reading list
Over a million new titles are published in the US every year, far more than even the most bibliophile secret agent could get through. Even with a weekly publishing schedule, we can only bring you 52 Hitting the Books a year. To highlight all the great stories that can’t be featured in our weekly column,…
PCI Express 7 will be eight times faster than PCI Express 5
The PCI-SIG committee has unveiled the latest PCI Express 7.0 standard with blazing fast speeds, even though we are still waiting for the arrival of two generations of older PCIe 5 devices. The launch is planned for 2025 and will probably hit the shelves around 2027. PCIe 7 provides up to 512 GB/s throughput, 8…
Former Tesla contractor rejects $15 million payout in racial abuse lawsuit
Last year, Owen Diaz, a former contract elevator operator at Tesla’s Fremont assembly plant, successfully sued the automaker for creating a hostile, racially abusive work environment, receiving $137 million from the jury. That price was reduced to just $15 million by a judge who gave Diaz two weeks to accept or reject the new amount….
Amazon is opening a center for quantum networking research
Several major companies are working on quantum computing projects, including IBM and Google. Amazon is also in the mix. The company opened the AWS Center for Quantum Computing last year and has been offering quantum computing through Amazon Web Services since 2019. It extends that work into what it says is an essential aspect to…
Tesla sued by ex-employees who claim that mass layoffs violated federal law
Tesla is being sued by two former employees of the Sparks, Nevada gigafactory over mass layoffs, Reuters has reported. They allege that more than 500 factory workers were fired without the required 60 days notice, in violation of federal laws. “Tesla simply informed employees that their termination would be effective immediately,” the complaint reads. They…
Canada is banning the sale, production and import of some single-use plastics
Canada will ban companies from producing and importing a handful of single-use plastics by the end of the year, Reuters reports. The country does not allow the production of items such as plastic shopping bags, takeout containers and six-pack rings to hold cans and bottles together. The federal government will then ban the sale of…
Spray-on plant coating could replace wasteful plastic food wrap
Plastic food packaging may not be a curse to the environment much longer. Researchers from Rutgers University and Harvard University have developed a plant-based coating that is said to be greener and safer than plastic packaging. The approach “sprays” biopolymer- and polysaccharide-based fibers (the most common carbohydrates in food) that wrap around your food. The…
Telegram now offers a Premium subscription costing $5 per month
Telegram has launched its $5 per month paid Premium subscription tier that was first unveiled last month, it announced in a detailed blog post. Some of the standout features include a larger maximum file upload size, faster downloads, more channels, and unique new stickers. The current file upload limit is 2 GB, but Premium users…