Abang Tech: March 2021

Wednesday 31 March 2021

Analogue Pocket delay gives me more time to buy random handhelds from China

I love that Analogue is delaying its Analogue Pocket handheld again. This is a good thing to me. It means that I can spend more time and money trying to fill the Game Boy-shaped hole in my heart with random handhelds I find on AliExpress.

Analogue announced today that the Pocket will not make its May release date. Instead, due to “the current global state of affairs,” the updated take on the Game Boy will release in October. If you’re wondering what global affairs Analogue is referring to, it specifically links to the semiconductor shortage and the ship that blocked the Suez canal for a week.

The Analogue Pocket will launch for $200 — although preorders have already sold out once. It has a cartridge slot that supports Game Boy games, and it uses an FPGA processor to hardware-emulate Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket Color, and Atari Lynx games. Oh, and it has a 1,600-by-1,440 pixel display, which is exactly 10-times the resolution of the original Game Boy.

And I don’t even want it.

I mean, who would need something like that when I’ve already ordered RK2020 and the Retroid Pocket 2? My Retroid Pocket 2 isn’t even here yet, and now I’m already looking at getting one of these ultratiny Funkey S portables that look like a shrunken GBA. Oh, and apparently Powkiddy, one of the many Chinese manufacturers responsible for these handhelds, is releasing a new device with a 5-inch screen in April. I’ll probably get that, too.

Personally, I think this is better. I’ll just keep buying handhelds instead of getting the one I really want. That’s more fun in the end. I’m not bitter.

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Samsung Galaxy M21 gets One UI 3.1 Core update

The Samsung Galaxy M21 announced last March with Android 10-based One UI 2.0 received One UI 2.1 in September and One UI 2.5 in November. The smartphone then picked up the Android 11-based One UI 3.0 update in January, and now it’s receiving the One UI 3.1 Core update.

The new firmware includes the March 2021 Android patch and improves the Galaxy M21’s security while also improving the camera and overall device performance. But aside from that, you can also expect it to bring new editing tools, Eye Comfort Shield, and improved stock apps to the smartphone.

Samsung Galaxy M21 One UI 3.1 Core update

The One UI 3.1 Core update carries version number M215FDDU2BUB6 and requires a download of around 960MB. It’s seeding in India at the time of writing this, but the rollout should expand to other countries soon.

If you live in India and haven’t received the new update on your Galaxy M21 yet, you can head to the phone’s Settings > Software update menu to check for it manually.

Source | Via

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European Renovation Wave Strategy Drives Demand for Home Automation Systems (HAS) Market, 2027 – GlobeNewswire

New York, March 31, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report “European Renovation Wave Strategy Drives Demand for Home Automation Systems (HAS) Market, 2027” – https://www.reportlinker.com/p06042210/?utm_source=GNW
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Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06042210/?utm_source=GNW

About Reportlinker
ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need – instantly, in one place.

__________________________

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Next Apple TV remote might offer far more buttons

Expect a significant Apple TV hardware update in 2021. There’s good news for those who don’t like the current Apple TV remote, shown here.
Photo: Apple

There could soon be an alternative to the current, simple Apple TV remote. A schematic showing a rumored new version has leaked out, and it includes a wide array of buttons. It’s therefore likely to please those unhappy with the present version.

An image of the device leaked to 9to5Mac.

Exclusive: Here’s our first look at the all-new Apple TV Remote https://t.co/LSZnV1nJv3 by @filipeesposito

— 9to5Mac.com (@9to5mac) March 31, 2021

Apple TV remote: touchpanel vs. buttons

The design shown stands in stark contrast to the current remote. That has a minimal number of buttons, depending instead on a touchpanel to perform many functions.

The leaked design — which supposedly has the designation B519 — has no touchpanel. Instead, it offers a large central navigation wheel. Around this are all the typical buttons one often sees on TV remotes… and far more than the present one offers. And it also lacks a design quirk of the current Apple TV remote that frequently draws criticism: users will be able to easily tell if they’re holding it correctly just by feel. That’s not possible now.

The B519 version might not replace the old one, however. 9to5Mac reports it could be an alternative that Apple sells separately.

But maybe not from Apple

Mark Gurman from Bloomberg threw a bit of cold water on 9to5Mac‘s leak. He retweeted a post from Screen Times’ Sigmund Judge pointing out the supposed schematic of the Apple TV remote looks exactly like one Universal Electronics is supposedly making. This will “likely become the official remote for service providers using Apple TV as way of distributing their streaming services,” according to Judge.

Looks like that remote isn’t from Apple https://t.co/lor6xh4o6K

— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) March 31, 2021

Still, rumors of an updated Apple TV with a new remote have been circulating for months. Even if this isn’t it.

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For VC Hans Tung, the personal becomes public in a growing campaign to ‘stop Asian hate’

Longtime venture capitalist Hans Tung is a big guy. His size might just be lifesaving.

A first-generation Taiwanese-American who came to the U.S. and to LA specifically in 1984, it was a fraught time for the then 14-year-old. Two years earlier, a 27-year-old, Chinese-American draftsman named Vincent Chin was beaten to death in Detroit by a Chrysler plant supervisor and his stepson, a laid-off autoworker, who reportedly believed that Chin was of Japanese descent and were angry over the growing success of Japan’s auto industry. He was killed the night of his own bachelor party.

Anti-Asian sentiment may have seemed to lessen over the following decades, but it has still remained constant, and Tung as been on the receiving end of it, he says. “Growing up, I faced my share of taunts, of racial epithets, whether it was in California or Boston or New York. I’m fortunate that I’m over 6’4″ tall and weigh more than 200 pounds,” or he might be physically harassed at some point, too.

Tung has never been more mindful of his dimensions than now, with anti-Asian sentiment abruptly worsening last year based on political rhetoric about the coronavirus. “As COVID broke out in China, we knew that Asian Americans would be blamed,” says Tung, who flies back and forth to China routinely for work as a managing director with the cross-border investment firm GGV Capital. “We saw this with SARS, too, but it wasn’t as big a pandemic, so people were being harassed and not killed.”

Anecdotally, Tung believes life is more dangerous right now for Asians in the U.S. based on conversations with friends and family members and the worrisome headlines to emerge of elderly individuals in particular being beaten on the streets of San Francisco and Oakland and on New York subways and outside of Times Square, as happened on Monday when a 65-year-old woman was viscously attacked in a scene that was filmed by an onlooker and has provoked national outrage.

The numbers back him up. From 2019 to 2020, overall hate crime rate declined while hate crimes targeting Asians increased, as first reported by NBC and based on analysis released by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. Overall, its examination revealed that while such crimes decreased overall by 7% last year, those targeting Asian people rose by nearly 150%, with the biggest surge in New York, where anti-Asian hate crimes rose from three in 2019 to 28 last year, an 833% increase.

With those numbers seemingly continuing to climb in 2021, Tung and his partners at GGV Capital decided to take action two weeks ago, quickly settling on what they do best, which is to respond to the rising violence with their financial muscle and network. A first step was publicly offering to match $100,000 in donations to organizations that support the AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) communities. GGV’s move was almost immediately matched by other investors and founders eager to help, including Jeremy Liew of Lightspeed Venture Partners and Eric Kim and Chi-Hua Chien of Goodwater Capital, who are also matching up to $100,000 in donations.

Fast-forward and Tung says that 11 days into GGV’s de facto Twitter campaign, roughly $5 million in donations have now been made by more than 175 founders (including Jen Rubio, Stewart Butterfield and Eric Yuan) and members of more than 30 venture firms in a kind of partnership that is “rare to see in the VC community,” Tung notes.

It’s a great start, says Tung, who is among the 15% of Asian-Pacific Islanders who are partners at U.S. venture firms, according to National Venture Capital Association figures.

At the same time, he notes that the problem is ongoing and that more resources — which everyone is sending on an individual basis to a variety of Asian-American community groups that are dealing with a spiking racism and its implications — are needed. Indeed, to help funnel donor interest in the right direction, GGV is recommending at least five organizations whose work it believes to be making an impact. These include Asian Americans Advancing Justice, Red Canary Song, GoFundMe Support the AAPI Community, Stop AAPI Hate and Compassion in Oakland.

Tung takes pains to note that GGV has been active in other campaigns, including AllRaise, the organization that’s bringing more gender equality to investment firms and to the board room. He says that his partners were also highly moved by the Black Lives Matter movement last spring, donating to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Southern Poverty Law Center, among other organizations.

He says that earlier movements — including an effort by investor Ryan Sarver of Redpoint last year to help both front-line workers and restaurant workers by devising a way for donors to “buy” chef-made meals for hospital staff — have been experiences from which he has learned.

One of those lessons is that when something is close enough to one’s heart, it’s worth the risk of being perceived as a “VC who is showing off” if it moves the needle.

In this case, says Tung, “so many of these crimes are treated as individual incidents and not as hate crimes,” which come with more severe penalties, he is determined to raise awareness and visibility into the matter, even if it means making himself more vulnerable about his own experience than he might be fully comfortable.

“When it comes to Asian hate, it’s such a personal matter,” he says.

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Realme GT Neo powered by MediaTek Dimensity 1200 SoC goes official

Realme has unveiled yet another flagship phone today named GT Neo. It comes packing the 5G-integrated MediaTek Dimensity 1200 chip. If you recall, the original Realme GT debuted earlier this year features a Snapdragon 888 instead. Anyways, the rest of the repertoire consists of a Super AMOLED 120Hz panel, Android 11 with Realme UI 2.0, a 64MP triple camera setup, and a 4500mAh battery with 50W fast charging. As you see, it is mostly the same set of specs as the standard model.

Here is a quick brief of its specifications:

Realme GT Neo Specs and Features

Model	Realme GT Neo
Display	6.43-inch sAMOLED display, 120Hz refresh rate, 360Hz touch sampling rate
Processor	MediaTek Dimensity 1200 SoC
Memory	6/8/12GB + 128/256GB UFS 3.1, No Dedicated card slot
Software	Android 11 (Realme UI 2.0)
Rear camera	64MP primary + 8MP ultrawide + 2MP Depth; 4K@60fps
Front camera	16MP; 1080p@30fps
Battery	4500mAh with 50W fast charging (65W comes in the box)
Misc.	5G, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, USB Type-C port, 3.5mm Audio jack, Under-display fingerprint reader,
Color options	Fantasy gradient, Geek Silver, or Hacker Black

So, the key differences between the GT and GT Neo are their processors, available memory configurations, and supported fast charging speed. The phone also bears dual graphite plates and a liquid cooling mechanism for efficient heat dissipation and smoother gameplay.

ALSO READ: Xiaomi Mi Laptop Pro 15 and Mi Laptop Pro 14 go official

Realme GT Neo price and availability

Realme GT Neo 6GB+128GB model is priced at CNY 1,799 (~₹20,000). Meanwhile, the 8GB+128GB and 12GB+256GB options carry a price tag of CNY 1,999 (~₹22,300) and CNY 2,299 (~₹25,700), respectively.

ALSO READ: Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G with Snapdragon 865 launches in India

The phone is currently released in China. International availability including India’s is expected soon.

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Otty Mattress review: Save up to 35% on an Otty mattress

Otty is one of the less well-known companies in the UK’s crowded bed-in-a-box market, but don’t let that fool you into thinking it’s inferior.

The company’s CEO, Michal Szlas, set up Otty in 2016 because there were no mattresses he liked that didn’t cost a small fortune. Specifically, he felt most memory foam mattresses were too warm and that inexpensive pocket sprung mattresses didn’t offer high enough levels of comfort.

The Otty mattress delivers emphatically in overcoming both of those problems and it’s competitively priced, too, making it one of my favourite bed-in-a-box mattresses.

READ NEXT: The best mattresses to buy today

Otty Mattress review: What you need to know

Although the company is based in the UK, Otty’s mattress is manufactured in China. Like the Simba Hybrid and Eve Hybrid mattresses, it’s a hybrid, which means it’s made from a combination of pocket springs and foam.

The top layer is 30mm of Otty’s “cool blue gel” memory foam, which helps prevent the heat from building up. Below this is another 30mm of “reflex” foam that relieves pressure points when you sleep.

At its core, though, the Otty mattress has 2,000 (in king size) pocket springs, which make up 140mm of its depth. That’s significantly more spring than you find in the Eve Hybrid or Simba Hybrid, which have 90mm and 20mm coils respectively. Finally, there’s a 50mm high-density foam base, which acts as a solid foundation for the mattress.

Buy now from Otty

Otty Mattress review: Price and competition

The Otty mattress has crept up in price quite significantly since launch, but still represents very good value among its rivals. It’ll set you back £350 in a single, £600 in double and £700 in king size. That’s a near-identical pricing structure to the Eve Lighter Hybrid, which is now £550 and £650 in double and king sizes respectively.

Otty’s other main rival, the Simba Hybrid, is more expensive, costing £850 in king size, which is the same as Brook and Wilde’s Lux hybrid.

If you’re after a more traditional pocket-sprung mattress with natural fillings, you won’t find much that can compete with Otty in terms of value for money, but John Lewis’ Natural Collection Hemp 2500 should give you a good point of comparison.

Otty Mattress review: Features

Unlike some bed-in-a-box mattresses, which lack edge support, another of the Otty’s key selling points is a strong foam side support that aims to increase the amount of usable sleeping space by as much as 25%. This structure is perforated so that air can still reach all areas of the mattress, and help you stay cool when sleeping.

In total, the Otty is 250mm deep, which means it’ll take standard fitted sheets. The company recommends you use a mattress protector, but another key benefit Otty boasts over most of its competitors is that it has a fully removable, machine washable cover.

The mattress works on all types of bed base including a solid platform, adjustable base, and solid or sprung slats, and to improve its longevity (and voiding the warranty), you should rotate it once a month for the first six months.

Although the Otty mattress has a 100-night money-back trial – during which the company will collect it for free if you don’t like it – you can try lying on one at the company’s Leeds showroom or at a select few Next Home stores before parting with your hard-earned cash.

The mattress is suitable for those weighing up 138kg (per person) and its warranty covers it against manufacturing defects for up to ten years.

READ NEXT: Our guide to the best pillows you can buy

Otty Mattress review: Performance and comfort

Considering it has large, 140mm springs and firm side supports, the first thing that struck me about the Otty mattress was how small it compresses down when it’s vacuum packed.

The only other bed-in-a-box mattress we’ve tested with comparably long springs – the Eve Hybrid – packs down just as small but measures only 180mm deep once fully expanded, which is 70mm thinner than the Otty.

Buy now from Otty

As with all bed-in-a-box mattresses, the first step before you can sleep on your new Otty mattress is to slide it out of its cardboard box and slit open its large polythene bag so it can expand fully. Otty says it takes around four hours before the mattress is ready to lie on but that it can take some time longer to reach its intended shape.

This means you’ll have no problems using the mattress the same day it’s delivered, should you need to. The only downside is that, during this period, like most memory foam mattresses it does smell a bit. It’s by no means unbearable but, if you can, it’s best to give the mattress a few days airing out to allow the odour to subside.

When it came to lying on the mattress for the first time, I was taken back at just how comfortable it was. Where most bed-in-a-box mattresses do a perfectly good job of combining firm, supportive foundations with soft comfort layers, the Otty just seemed to do it that little bit better.

Before elaborating, I should add that I’m partial to a firm mattress, and the Otty’s combination of different layers provide a feel that’s definitely at the firmer end of what I’ve experienced from all-foam and hybrid mattresses: perhaps 7.5 or 8 out of 10.

READ NEXT: The best mattresses to buy

Despite having 2,000 140mm pocket springs, what makes the Otty mattress feel so comfortable is that it’s not obviously sprung. While I could feel the springs when pushing down on the mattress shortly after unpacking it, this simply wasn’t the case when I laid on it.

There’s definitely more bounce than you get from Simba’s small, 20mm conical springs, but Otty’s coils offer a more subtle sensation than the Eve Hybrid. I’m not sure if that’s because it has two layers of foam (the Eve Hybrid has one comfort layer over a firmer, robust casing) or because it has more, lower diameter springs, but the overall feel is akin to lying on a luxury pocket sprung mattress, where you feel superbly supported without being able to pick out the different layers you’re lying on.

The mattress’ firmness does mean it’s probably better suited to heavier people who like to sleep on their backs, but I was comfortable on my side and front too, with the comfort layers compressing enough to prevent pressure points but not so much that I felt my hips were sinking.

What’s more, the mattress’ 250mm depth and solid-foam foundation mean it should work well on any type of bed. With some thinner mattresses, the yielding nature of a sprung slatted base can result in a drastically different level of support when compared to a solid platform but, having tested the Otty on both the floor and a sprung slatted bedstead, I can confirm the differences are fairly subtle.

Where the Otty mattress truly excelled, though, was temperature control. All-foam mattresses are normally noticeably warmer than sprung varieties, and even hybrid mattress can suffer from similar properties if they have foam top layers. Otty’s mattress stands apart, though and its “Cool Blue Gel” memory foam layer kept me cool and sweat-free during several nights of a recent heatwave.

I’d go as far as saying it’s the one synthetic mattress I’ve tested that can rival a traditional pocket sprung mattress with natural fillings for temperature-related comfort. Like some of its rivals, the comfort layers of the Otty mattress do feel a little softer when you get up in the morning than when you get into bed but the underlying foundation of pocket springs meant I always felt adequately supported.

Buy now from Otty

Otty Mattress review: Verdict

There are so many big bed-in-a-box brands to choose from, and it’s easy to be tempted into thinking bigger names have got where they are by making better products but that’s clearly not always the case.

The Otty mattress is one of the best, if not the best hybrid mattress, we’ve tested to date because it provides outstanding support, comfort and temperature control at a highly competitive price.

Mattresses preference is a very personal thing and, if you don’t like a firm bed, then you should probably give Otty a miss. Otherwise, it’s difficult to pick out any other mattress that offers everything the Otty does at such a low price. Moreover, it has a 100-day money back guarantee, so even if you disagree, you won’t be out of pocket as a result.

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Analogue Pocket portable console delayed again, this time until October

The Analogue Pocket, a $199 do-everything retro portable console capable of playing Game Boy, Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket Color and Atari Lynx games from their original cartridges, has been delayed again. It was originally scheduled for release in 2020, but then and now, supply chain challenges have pushed the small company to push back its plans.

Pocket is delayed and shipping in October 2021.

There are sudden and severe electrical component shortages and logistical issues leading to a domino effect of challenges for nearly everyone in the industry.

We’re sorry this is happening.

More info: https://t.co/XjjW8Forb1

— Analogue (@analogue) March 31, 2021

Analogue is offering full refunds to anyone who already pre-ordered a system and isn’t willing to wait until October, assuming the system is released then. According to the company’s blog post, “There have been sudden and severe electrical component shortages as well as logistical issues leading to a domino effect of challenges for nearly everyone in the industry.” Separately, it tweeted that the Super Nt system will be restocked in April, with Mega SG and DAC following shortly after. 2021 could still be a great year for alternative consoles, — as long as the worldwide chip shortage doesn’t interfere.

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What the CSPC Has to Say About Artificial Intelligence – The National Law Review

Wednesday, March 31, 2021

American households are increasingly connected internally through the use of artificially intelligent appliances.¹ But who regulates the safety of those dishwashers, microwaves, refrigerators, and vacuums powered by artificial intelligence (AI)? On March 2, 2021, at a virtual forum attended by stakeholders across the entire industry, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) reminded us all that it has the last say on regulating AI and machine learning consumer product safety.

Evolving Regulatory Landscape

The CPSC is an independent agency comprised of five commissioners who are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate to serve staggered seven-year terms. With the Biden administration’s shift away from the deregulation agenda of the prior administration and three potential opportunities to staff the commission, consumer product manufacturers, distributors, and retailers should expect increased scrutiny and enforcement.²

The CPSC held the March 2, 2021 forum to gather information on voluntary consensus standards, certification, and product-specification efforts associated with products that use AI, machine learning, and related technologies. Consumer product technology is advancing faster than the regulations that govern it, even with a new administration moving towards greater regulation. As a consequence, many believe that the safety landscape for AI, machine learning, and related technology is lacking. The CPSC, looking to fill the void, is gathering information through events like this forum with a focus on its next steps for AI-related safety regulation.

To influence this developing regulatory framework, manufacturers and importers of consumer products using these technologies must understand and participate in the ongoing dialogue about future regulation and enforcement. While guidance in these evolving areas is likely to be adaptive, the CPSC’s developing regulatory framework may surprise unwary manufacturers and importers who have not participated in the discussion.

The CPSC defines AI as “any method for programming computers or products to enable them to carry out tasks or behaviors that would require intelligence if performed by humans” and machine learning as “an iterative process of applying models or algorithms to data sets to learn and detect patterns and/or perform tasks, such as prediction or decision making that can approximate some aspects of intelligence.”³ To inform the ongoing discussion on how to regulate AI, machine learning, and related technologies, the CPSC provides the following list of considerations:

Identification: Determine presence of AI and machine learning in consumer products. Does the product have AI and machine learning components?
Implications: Differentiate what AI and machine learning functionality exists. What are the AI and machine learning capabilities?
Impact: Discern how AI and machine learning dependencies affect consumers. Do AI and machine learning affect consumer product safety?
Iteration: Distinguish when AI and machine learning evolve and how this transformation changes outcomes. When do products evolve/transform, and do the evolutions/transformations affect product safety?⁴

These factors and corresponding questions will guide the CPSC’s efforts to establish policies and regulations that address current and potential safety concerns.

Potential Regulatory Models

As indicated at the March 2, 2021 forum, the CPSC is taking some of its cues for its fledgling initiative from organizations that have promulgated voluntary safety standards for AI, including Underwriters Laboratories (UL) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). UL 4600 Standard for Safety for the Evaluation of Autonomous Products covers “fully autonomous systems that move such as self-driving cars along with applications in mining, agriculture, maintenance, and other vehicles including lightweight unmanned aerial vehicles.”⁵ Using a claim-based approach, UL 4600 aims to acknowledge the deviations from traditional safety practices that autonomy requires by assessing the reliability of hardware and software necessary for machine learning, ability to sense the operating environment, and other safety considerations of autonomy. The standard covers topics like “safety case construction, risk analysis, safety relevant aspects of the design process, testing, tool qualification, autonomy validation, data integrity, human-machine interaction (for non-drivers), life cycle concerns, metrics and conformance assessment.”⁶ While UL 4600 mentions the need for a security plan, it does not define what should be in that plan.

Since 2017, ISO has had an AI working group of 30 participating members and 17 observing members.⁷ This group, known as SC 42, develops international standards in the area of AI and for AI applications. SC 42 provides guidance to JTC 1—a specific joint technical committee of ISO and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)—and other ISO and IEC committees. As a result of their work, ISO has published seven standards that address AI-related topics and sub-topics, including AI trustworthiness and big data reference architecture.⁸ Twenty-two standards remain in development.⁹

The CPSC might also look to the European Union’s (EU) recent activity on AI, including a twenty-six-page white paper published in February 2020 that includes plans to propose new regulations this year.¹⁰ On the heels of the General Data Protection Regulation, the EU’s regulatory proposal is likely to emphasize privacy and data governance in its efforts to “build[ ] trust in AI.”¹¹ Other areas of emphasis include human agency and oversight, technical robustness and safety, transparency, diversity, non-discrimination and fairness, societal and environmental wellbeing, and accountability.¹²

***

Focused on AI and machine learning, the CPSC is contemplating potential new consumer product safety regulations. Manufacturers and importers of consumer products that use these technologies would be well served to pay attention to—and participate in—future CPSC-initiated policymaking conversations, or risk being left behind or disadvantaged by what is to come.

——————————————————-

¹ See Crag S. Smith, A.I. Here, There, Everywhere, N.Y. Times (Feb. 23, 2021), https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/23/technology/ai-innovation-privacy-seniors-education.html.

² Erik K. Swanholt & Kristin M. McGaver, Consumer Product Companies Beware! CPSC Expected to Ramp up Enforcement of Product Safety Regulations (Feb. 24, 2021), https://www.foley.com/en/insights/publications/2021/02/cpsc-enforcement-of-product-safety-regulations.

³ 85 Fed. Reg. 77183-84.

⁴ Id.

⁵ Underwriters Laboratories, Presenting the Standard for Safety for the Evaluation of Autonomous Vehicles and Other Products, https://ul.org/UL4600 (last visited Mar. 30, 2021). It is important to note that autonomous vehicles fall under the regulatory purview of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. See NHTSA, Automated Driving Systems, https://www.nhtsa.gov/vehicle-manufacturers/automated-driving-systems.

⁶ Underwriters Laboratories, Presenting the Standard for Safety for the Evaluation of Autonomous Vehicles and Other Products, https://ul.org/UL4600 (last visited Mar. 30, 2021).

⁷ ISO, ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 42, Artificial Intelligence, https://www.iso.org/committee/6794475.html (last visited Mar. 30, 2021).

⁸ ISO, Standards by ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 42, Artificial Intelligence, https://www.iso.org/committee/6794475/x/catalogue/p/1/u/0/w/0/d/0 (last visited Mar. 30, 2021).

⁹ Id.

¹⁰ See Commission White Paper on Artificial Intelligence, COM (2020) 65 final (Feb. 19, 2020), https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/commission-white-paper-artificial-intelligence-feb2020_en.pdf.

¹¹ European Commission, Policies, A European approach to Artificial Intelligence, https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/european-approach-artificial-intelligence (last updated Mar. 9, 2021).

¹² Commission White Paper on Artificial Intelligence, at 9, COM (2020) 65 final (Feb. 19, 2020), https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/commission-white-paper-artificial-intelligence-feb2020_en.pdf.

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source https://abangtech.com/what-the-cspc-has-to-say-about-artificial-intelligence-the-national-law-review/

Twitter users can now add GIFs and stickers to Fleets

Twitter today announced some nice changes coming to Fleets, which are basically stories shown within the Twitter app for iPhone and Android. Starting today, users can now add GIFs and stickers to Fleets, which makes the feature even more like Instagram Stories.

The new option will appear right next to the buttons for adding text or changing the background. By tapping the Smile button, users will find a variety of stickers and GIFs, as well as a search bar that shows GIFs from Tenor and Giphy (via The Verge).

Your Fleets just got an upgrade. Now you can express yourself in the conversation with stickers. Add GIFs and Twemojis to a Fleet by tapping the Smile icon, on Android and iOS.

Among the new stickers, there is also something called Twemojis, which are basically animated versions of some popular emojis like the flame, heart, laughing face, thinking face, and facepalm. You can simply tap on a sticker or GIF and then drag it wherever you want on the Fleet screen.

Twitter says the new feature is being rolled out to all users through the latest version of the app for iOS and Android.

Your Fleets just got an upgrade.

Now you can express yourself in the conversation with stickers. Add GIFs and Twemojis to a Fleet by tapping the icon, on Android and iOS. pic.twitter.com/Ihh9ZZh70a

— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) March 31, 2021

On a related note, Twitter also announced today that Periscope will be permanently shut down on Thursday, April 1st.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Check out 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news:

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source https://abangtech.com/twitter-users-can-now-add-gifs-and-stickers-to-fleets/

HUAWEI maintained its profit streak in a tough 2020, but US sanctions did hurt

HUAWEI has today released its annual financial report for 2020, a year that was marked by pandemic-related business disruption and sanctions imposed by the US government that had a drastic impact on the company’s business, especially smartphones. However, the company still recorded net revenue of CNY 891.4 billion (~ $136.04 billion), which amounts to a rise of 3.8 percent compared to last year. The net profit went up by 3.2 percent and touched the CNY 64.6 billion (~ $9.86 billion) mark.

HUAWEI’s net profit went up by 3.2 percent and touched the CNY 64.6 billion (~ $9.86 billion) mark.

The Chinese market alone accounted for 65.6% of the net revenue, contributing CNY 584.9 billion (~ $89.26 billion) to the overall figures. However, the revenue from other markets recorded a steep decline. For example, revenue generated from the Americas went down by 24.5 percent, while the EMEA and Asia Pacific region witnessed a negative growth of 12.2 percent and 8.7 percent respectively.

huawei financial report

From a business arm perspective, the carrier business remained relatively stable with only a 0.2 percent revenue growth, the enterprise business grew by 23 percent, while the consumer business only saw 3.3 percent growth. Talking about the consumer business, the downfall witnessed by the mobile business was negated by the other product categories that are a part of HUAWEI’s 1 + 8 + N strategy.

During the press conference, Hu mentioned that the ‘8’ and ‘N’ parts of the 1+8+N strategy compensated for the decline in smartphone business. For the unaware, here’s the breakdown: 1 (phones), 8 (AR/VR, tablet, PC, TV, smartwatch, speakers, vehicles, and audio wearable), and N (services like video and mapping, and a wide array of other hardware such as projector and printer).

HUAWEI’s smartphone strategy moving forward

“The supply restrictions for smartphone business have caused a great impact and we haven’t really been able to see a clear picture about the supply for smartphones. So at the moment, it is very difficult for us to make a forecast for our smartphone business,” Hu said while answering a question about HUAWEI’s strategy moving forward. However, the HUAWEI executive made it clear that the company will launch more flagship phones that are currently a part of its roadmap.

ken hu huawei Rotating HUAWEI Chairman Ken Hu

Hu’s statement also quashes rumors claiming that HUAWEI was planning an exit from the flagship phone game and might sell its Mate and P-series business to give it a chance of survival. The HUAWEI executive also pointed that interest in its latest foldable phone – the Mate X2 – was high, and the company aims to maintain that streak of smartphone innovation in the foreseeable future. However, the HUAWEI executive also pointed towards the global semiconductor industry shortage, and that a lot hinges on how the situation unfolds in th coming months.

“Because of the unfair sanctions placed on us by the US, our mobile phone business saw a revenue decline,” Hu said during the presentation. In its annual report, the company mentioned that the number of HUAWEI smartphone users has crossed the 730 million figure globally. The company also noted that the growth experienced by its HMS ecosystem has exceeded its expectations through 2020.

The road ahead is not an easy one for HUAWEI

“For the industry it has been a lose-lose situation. It [is] very unfair and caused a lot of damage to us” Hu was quoted as saying by MobileWorldLive regarding the impact of US sanctions, which has hurt sales of phones as well as its telecom gear. An executive told TheWashingtonPost that 2020 was ‘a really tough year for HUAWEI’ on conditions of anonymity. As per a Bloomberg report, smartphone shipments went down by 42% in the last quarter of 2020, falling behind international names (Apple and Samsung) as well as domestic rivals (OPPO and Xiaomi).

Huawei Mate 40 Pro review

The main reason behind HUAWEI losing smartphone market share following the US sanctions was the lack of access to core Google services such as Maps, Gmail, and Play Store. While the aforementioned software shortcoming doesn’t mean much for the Chinese market, users in other regions where these services are at the heart of Android experience find it extremely limiting. Additionally, the sanctions also chocked HUAWEI’s supply chain, which means sourcing core components for smartphones also became difficult for the company.

One key reason why HUAWEI lost market share in China was the inability to diversify its 5G smartphone portfolio across different price brackets in 2020. And with the US government showing no signs of making things easy for HUAWEI with respect to the existing trade restrictions – and made things even trickier for 5G equipment trade earlier this month – remains to be seen how the company charts its business plan for the international markets.

Nadeem Sarwar

I’ve been writing about consumer technology for over three years now, having worked with names such as NDTV and Beebom in the past. Aside from covering the latest news, I’ve reviewed my fair share of devices ranging from smartphones and laptops to smart home devices. I also have interviewed tech execs and appeared as a host in YouTube videos talking about the latest and greatest gadgets out there.

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source https://abangtech.com/huawei-maintained-its-profit-streak-in-a-tough-2020-but-us-sanctions-did-hurt/

5 machine learning essentials nontechnical leaders need to understand – TechCrunch

Snehal Kundalkar Contributor

Snehal Kundalkar is the chief technology officer at Valence. She has been leading Silicon Valley firms for the last two decades, including work at Apple and Reddit.

We’re living in a phenomenal moment for machine learning (ML), what Sonali Sambhus, head of developer and ML platform at Square, describes as “the democratization of ML.” It’s become the foundation of business and growth acceleration because of the incredible pace of change and development in this space.

But for engineering and team leaders without an ML background, this can also feel overwhelming and intimidating. I regularly meet smart, successful, highly competent and normally very confident leaders who struggle to navigate a constructive or effective conversation on ML — even though some of them lead teams that engineer it.

Integrating ML teams effectively into the business starts with an understanding of what makes the right candidate and how to structure the team for maximum velocity and focus.

I’ve spent more than two decades in the ML space, including work at Apple to build the world’s largest online app and music store. As the senior director of engineering, anti-evil, at Reddit, I used ML to understand and combat the dark side of the web.

For this piece, I interviewed a select group of successful ML leaders including Sambhus; Lior Gavish, co-founder at Monte Carlo; and Yotam Hadass, VP of engineering at Electric.ai, for their insights. I’ve distilled our best practices and must-know components into five practical and easily applicable lessons.

1. ML recruiting strategy

Recruiting for ML comes with several challenges.

The first is that it can be difficult to differentiate machine learning roles from more traditional job profiles (such as data analysts, data engineers and data scientists) because there’s a heavy overlap between descriptions.

Secondly, finding the level of experience required can be challenging. Few people in the industry have substantial experience delivering production-grade ML (for instance, you’ll sometimes notice resumes that specify experience with ML models but then find their models are rule-based engines rather than real ML models).

When it comes to recruiting for ML, hire experts when you can, but also look into how training can help you meet your talent needs. Consider upskilling your current team of software engineers into data/ML engineers or hire promising candidates and provide them with an ML education.

Image Credits: Snehal Kundalkar

The other effective way to overcome these recruiting challenges is to define roles largely around:

Product: Look for candidates with a technical curiosity and a strong business/product sense. This framework is often more important than the ability to apply the most sophisticated models.
Data: Look for candidates that can help select models, design features, handle data modeling/vectorization and analyze results.
Platform/Infrastructure: Look for people who evaluate/integrate/build platforms to significantly accelerate the productivity of data and engineering teams; extract, transform, load (ETLs); warehouse infrastructures; and CI/CD frameworks for ML.

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source https://abangtech.com/5-machine-learning-essentials-nontechnical-leaders-need-to-understand-techcrunch/

Facebook makes it easier for users to see News Feed stories in chronological order

For years, Facebook insisted that its algorithms were best placed to curate what people saw on their News Feed. It was like being told that the machine learning systems knew what you wanted better than you did. Only recently, the social media giant has taken an altogether different tack. After allowing users to prioritize posts from select friends and Pages, it’s now introducing a new “Feed Filter” menu that gives you quick access to its “Most Recent” setting, which allows you to switch off its algorithmically-ranked News Feed. That way, you’ll be shown posts from friends, Pages and groups in the order they were posted. The new menu also houses additional News Feed controls including the Favorites setting that boosts your chosen friends’ content.

The update is currently available to Android app users when they scroll up on their feed and is slated for the iPhone app in the coming weeks. It follows additional controls including a snooze option that lets you temporarily hide posts from a person, Page or group. Facebook also added the ability to turn off political ads, which have caused a furore over their alleged role in spreading misinformation and confusion.

In keeping with its latest strategy, Facebook is rolling out a separate tool that lets you choose who can comment on your public posts. Now when you go to share something on the social network, you’ll be able to restrict comments to friends or profiles and pages you’ve tagged. The setting should feel familiar to Twitter users who have had the ability to limit replies to their tweets since last August. In order to avoid suggesting posts you don’t like, Facebook is also expanding its context feature for News Feed posts from accounts you don’t follow. The “Why am i seeing this?” tool will now show you even more info when you tap on recommended content, which is catered to your browsing history, interactions and location.

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source https://abangtech.com/facebook-makes-it-easier-for-users-to-see-news-feed-stories-in-chronological-order/

ARM announces its next-gen ARMv9 architecture: focus on security, AI and vector processing

The ARMv8 architecture was announced in 2011, a full decade ago. It was a massive change as it moved from 32-bit to 64-bit. Over the last 5 years there have been more than 100 billion ARMv8 devices.

The company is now looking at the future – ARMv9 will be the architecture that will be at the heart of the next 300 billion ARM chips.