The Cortex-X2 and Mali-G710 are ready for ARM-based PCs.

99 million solid-state drives were shipped in Q1

In brief: We’ve come a long way since solid-state drives were the expensive alternative to traditional HDDs, making up only a small part of the market. Falling prices and increasing capacities have seen their popularity rise in recent times, to the point that in Q1 2021, SSD shipments outpaced their hard disk drive counterparts by 3:2, while in 2020, SSDs saw 28% more unit sales than HDDs.

According to a Trendfocus report (via Tom’s Hardware), three hard drive makers shipped as many as 64.17 million HDDs in Q1 2021, while fewer than a dozen SSD suppliers shipped 99.438 million SSDs during the same period.

We all know the typical speed and physical size advantages that come with SSDs, so the figures aren’t too surprising; a recent IDC report revealed that nearly 60% of new PCs shipped in Q1 used SSDs.

The trend of SSDs outselling HDDs isn’t new. A jump in fourth-quarter sales last year helped SSDs push past 333 million units for the entirety of 2020, moving ahead of the 260 million HDD units sold.

One area where HDDs have an advantage, of course, is their superior $/gigabyte ratio, which makes them ideal for enterprise solutions. And while datacenters do still use SSDs for caching, it means the total exabytes (EBs) shipments for HDDs in the first quarter far exceeded that of SSDs: 288.28 EBs vs. 66 EBs.

Solid-state drives are bringing in more money, too. Analyst firms had the SSD market valued at $34.86 billion in 2020, while HDDs lagged behind with $22.6 billion.

As with so many tech products, Samsung, the top supplier of NAND flash memory, is the industry leader when it comes to SSDs, boasting the largest market share for units shipped (25.3%) and exabytes (34.3%). It’s followed by Western Digital (18.2% units and 15.8% EBs) then Koxia—formerly Toshiba Memory (13.3% units and 9.4% EBs).

SSDs, and the storage market in general, is facing a tough time right now—despite the positive report. The shortage of SSD controllers is expected to affect sales, while the introduction of cryptocurrency Chia, which can ruin a 512GB SSD in 40 days, is starting to impact drive supply and prices in some areas.

Source: SSD shipments outpaced HDDs by 3:2 last quarter, but hard disks still lead the storage race

Qualcomm has just announced the Snapdragon 7c Gen2, a new entry-level ARM chipset designed for PCs. You may recall that Qualcomm first introduced the Snapdragon 7c back in 2019, and it was the most affordable entry point into Windows on ARM devices, and it also eventually allowed Qualcomm to be in the Chromebook market.

The Snapdragon 7c Gen2 is a minor refresh of the original chipset, similar to the upgraded Snapdragon 8cx Gen2. It comes with an upgraded clock speed up to 2.55GHz, up from the maximum 2.4GHz of the original chipset, and Qualcomm promises over 19 hours of battery life on a single charge, as well as 10% more performance over competing systems.

These are some of the big advantages of ARM processors over most x86-based laptops in the same price range, but there's another one - always-on connectivity. PCs with the Snapdragon 7c Gen2 have a built-in 4G mode, the Snapdragon X15, meaning they can always have access to the internet, even when no Wi-Fi is in range, or if a Wi-Fi network is overloaded.

Qualcomm is also touting AI performance with the fifth-generation Qualcomm AI Engine, though that isn't new. There's also support for cameras up to 32MP (which you're unlikely to find on a PC), 4K HDR video streaming, and more. It comes with "enterprise-grade security"as well, with the chipset being supported on Microsoft's Secured-Core PCs.

PCs with the Snapdragon 7c Gen2 Compute Platform will be available this summer. This includes a new Snapdragon Developer Kit for Windows developers, which was also announced today.

Source: Qualcomm introduces the Snapdragon 7c Gen2 for always-connected PCs

A confirmation of Windows 10X’s demise, a better vertical tab experience in Edge, and an unsurprising announcement of a joint Xbox – Bethesda E3 event. You can find info about that, as well as much more below, in your Microsoft digest for the week of May 16 - 22.

No more Windows 10X

If you were expecting the arrival of Courier v2 (aka Surface Neo) and its companion OS, Windows 10X, sometime this century, that won’t be happening anymore.

Microsoft has officially announced that Windows 10X is for all intents and purposes dead, but that some of its features will live on in Windows 10 proper. Among those, improvements in the voice typing experience, an enhanced touch keyboard, and much more.

What did however make it to market was the May 2021 Update, now available to everyone. It adds some Windows Defender Application Guard performance improvements, as well as enhancements to Windows Hello for systems with multiple cameras that are face-recognition capable. In other words, not much to write home about.

As was the case with previous updates, some features have been deprecated or outright removed. For example, the XDDM-based remote display driver and the legacy version of Edge have been stripped out, with the Windows Management Instrumentation Command line (WMIC) tool and personalization roaming now showing up as deprecated. What this means for the latter two is that Microsoft is no longer developing them and will most likely remove these in a future update.

Staying a little longer on the subject of updates, folks on 1909 may experience problems logging into Microsoft 365 apps following the installation KB5003169. A suggested fix for now is simply to restart the system, and if that doesn’t do the trick, the firm suggests that the web-based variants or clients on other operating systems be used, as those are not affected by the bug.

Flipping over to exploits, one was released, targeting a flaw in the Windows 10 HTTP protocol - CVE-2021-31166. Luckily, this has been fixed with KB5003173 as part of the May 2021 Patch Tuesday set of updates.

Insiders got some updates too, namely build 21382.1000 which landed in the Dev channel to test the servicing pipeline, followed by build 21387, which retires the IE11 desktop app and temporarily shuts down ‘Eco mode’ in Task Manager.

For insiders across the Release Preview and Beta channels, Microsoft also released builds 19042.1023 and 19043.1023 with an impressive list of fixes. What needs to be highlighted here is that those on 2004, 20H2, and 21H1 will all receive these same exact fixes when the Redmond firm rolls out the next set of cumulative updates, seeing as they share the same bits.

And speaking of bits, a rather sought-after bit of news by ARM enthusiasts and, in particular, Surface Pro X owners, is the announcement of apps running natively on the platform. Well, one such announcement was made this week, as Photoshop can now run natively on Windows 10 on ARM, shedding the ‘Beta’ tag that’s been put on it since November of last year.

Joint E3 conferences

Surprising perhaps three people, Xbox Game Studios head honcho Matt Booty has confirmed that Xbox and Bethesda will in fact be combining their E3 presentations into one big show.

Along with news about Halo Infinite and Age of Empires IV, both launching later this year, we might also get a glimpse at BGS’ Starfield, which will benefit from the big improvements to the Creation Engine. Said improvements, as per BGS studio head Todd Howard, are some of the biggest in the engine’s history, perhaps even dwarfing the improvements made from Morrowind to Oblivion.

Of course, let’s not forget that id Software, MachineGames, Arkane, and others are also now under XGS, so it wouldn’t be too unexpected for Microsoft to showcase some unannounced projects from those studios.

Until then, we have some things that are a tad more official. For example, there’s a Halo: MCC Insider test which brings visual improvements to Halo: Combat Evolved, the usual array of Deals with Gold, and the reveal that the next-gen variant of GTA V will be making its debut on Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 on November 11, 2021.

For fans of Paradox’s grand-strategy games, the publisher has announced Victoria 3. While still early in development, the game has been confirmed to hit Steam and Xbox Game Pass for PC on launch day, mimicking the launch of Crusader Kings 3.

And speaking of Game Pass, the service is soon set to welcome in its ranks Peggle 2, Conan Exiles, MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries, SpellForce 3: Soul Harvest, Slime Rancher, and many more throughout the month of May, covering cloud, console, and PC availability.

We’ll end the section with a rather interesting original Xbox Easter egg. Though Xbox’s 20th anniversary is upon us (more specifically on November 15), certain aspects about the original console are still shrouded in mystery.

Among them is this rather quirky Easter egg, which for some reason involves an audio CD and the typing of the name Timmy, followed by the letter ‘y’ 24 more times, and an exclamation mark. It’s just about as weird as it sounds, if not more so, and you can read more about it here.

Better vertical tabs

At the rate Microsoft is adding things to its Chromium Edge browser, we’re bound to cover its development to some extent. This week in particular highlights some good news for fans of the vertical tabs feature.

As per Leopeva64-2 on Reddit, Edge was set to soon support the hiding of its title bar when using vertical tabs, something which perhaps should’ve been there from the start. This was first seen in Canary v92.0.891.0, and not long after its initial discovery, made its way to the Dev channel.

The Redmond firm also took a moment to update its password monitor and health dashboard, though the feature is expected to roll out to users starting this month, so some folks may not have it just yet.

If you’re in one of the Insider channels however, you will have access to Math Solver. The experimental feature does pretty much what it says on the tin, allowing students to take a picture of a math problem, import it into Edge, and use Microsoft’s AI capabilities to find out an answer and instructions on how to solve said problem.

Dev channel

• Personal features in Teams are now generally available.
• A preview of Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management is out now.
• LaLiga and Microsoft have expanded their partnership to transform the digital sports experience.
• O2 has partnered with Microsoft to trial Mobile Edge Computing.
• The Redmond giant has explained how it’s making gaming more accessible.
• Teams on mobile will soon get support for large gallery view.
• Dark mode is rolling out for the unified Office app on Android.
• According to Microsoft, this is how meeting rooms will look like in the future.

Logging off

We round off this week’s column with a look at the EOL of Internet Explorer. Version 11 to be more precise.

With the focus on its Chromium-based Edge browser as of late, as well as the inclusion of IE mode in its latest browser, the Redmond software giant has decided to put a firm date on the end of IE11: June 15, 2022.

While the deprecation of the feature will affect Windows 10 client and IoT versions 20H2 and later. For now, the IE platform (MSHTML/Trident), IE11 on Windows 8,.1, 7 ESU, 10 Server, 10 IoT LTSC, Server LTSC, and client LTSC are spared.

Should the time come for IE mode in Edge to be retired, the company says it will give at least a one-year notice for organizations to prepare. Beyond the all-important EOL date, Microsoft has provided additional details in regards to how businesses can get ready for the browser’s end of support.

Missed any of the previous columns? Be sure to have a look right here.

Source: Microsoft Weekly: No more Windows 10X, joint E3 conferences, and better vertical tabs

A robot paramedic is being used for the first time in the UK to carry out chest compressions on patients in ambulances to free up the emergency team to carry out other vital treatments.

South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) – an NHS ambulance service for the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, and Hampshire – is the first in the country to take the novel technology, known as LUCAS 3, onboard its vehicles.

The device is a mechanical system that can deliver high-quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) chest compressions consistently from the moment crews arrive on the scene and throughout a patient’s journey to a hospital without interruption.

“Once paramedics arrive and begin CPR or take over from bystanders who may have initiated it, paramedics can complete the transition from manual compressions to LUCAS within seven seconds, ensuring continuity of compressions,” a SCAS spokesperson said.

The system uses wireless Bluetooth connectivity, allowing it to configure the compression rate, depth, and alerts specific to an organisation’s resuscitation guidelines. Paramedics can also collect and review data post-event and share this information with other clinicians, its developers said.

Dr John Black, medical director at SCAS, said: “We know that delivering high quality and uninterrupted chest compressions in cardiac arrest is one of the major determinants of survival to hospital discharge, but it can be very challenging for several reasons.

“People can become fatigued when performing CPR manually which then affects the rate and quality of compressions, and patients may need to be moved from difficult locations, such as down a narrow flight of stairs, or remote places, which impedes the process.”

Black added there are also significant safety risks to ambulance personnel being unrestrained and performing CPR in the back of vehicles travelling at high speed. “These devices don’t fatigue or change the delivery, meaning it can deliver high-quality CPR for as long as required while freeing up the paramedic, keeping them seated and belted and able to focus on other critical aspects of patient care on a journey. It ultimately acts as a robotic third crew member for our teams.”

The experts at SCAS upgraded the model used from a version which clinicians at SCAS evaluated in 2014 as part of the PARAMEDIC trial led by the University of Warwick and published in the journal The Lancet.

“The LUCAS device transforms the management at a cardiac arrest and allows paramedics to focus on the key aspects of clinical care,” said Professor Charles Deakin, divisional medical director for SCAS and lead for resuscitation. “It will be an invaluable part of the team and contribute to the already outstanding results that SCAS have achieved in saving lives of these patients.

South Central Ambulance Charity has funded 28 of the devices to support crews across Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, and Hampshire.

The NHS also use LUCAS devices for resuscitation in hospital emergency departments and to support patients in cardiac arrest in intensive care units, as well for patients undergoing life-saving coronary balloon angioplasty and stenting procedures to widen narrowed arteries.

Source

As we previously learned, Seagate developed its Mach.2 technology to maximize performance across large-capacity enterprise HDD products.

Mach.2 drives also allow for 2x the performance of sequential bandwidth for streaming applications. What’s more, it’s the first HDD tech to introduce parallelism, enabling two independent streams of data (or, dual channel access).

In Seagate’s newly published data sheet, the company notes that its 14TB Helium- sealed drive spins at 7200 RPM and affords a maximum sustained transfer rate of 524 MB/s with an average latency of 4.16ms. Power consumption is rated at 7.2w average at idle and up to 13.5w under load.

The drive carries a 2.5 million-hour MTBF rating and is backed by Seagate’s five-year limited warranty.

During a February analyst meeting, Jeff Fochtman, SVP of marketing, said they started shipping Mach.2 drives in volume in 2019 and have over a dozen major customers using them. That said, Mach.2 remains in what Fochtman called a “technology-staging mode.”

Once capacities climb above 30 terabytes, however, we should start seeing the tech become a standard feature in many large data centers.

Source

However, there are drawbacks to all this progress: most notably, the PS5's mediocre 825GB of available storage space. As game file sizes climb higher and higher (sometimes upwards of 150GB on consoles), having less than a terabyte of available storage space is far from ideal.

Fortunately, the PS5 has a bit of a trick up its sleeve. As reported by Computer Base, the console is capable of extreme file compression. For example, Subnautica on PS5 takes up a mere 5GB of storage, while eating up 14GB on the PS4. That's a reduction of over 60 percent, and this isn't an isolated example.

To use a bigger-budget (and more graphically intensive) game as an example, Control's Ultimate Edition reportedly uses around 25GB of space on the PS5, while requiring 42.5GB on the XSX.

While we're not sure precisely what tech is working behind the scenes to enable such significant results, it's impressive nonetheless. Hopefully, the stronger compression we saw with Subnautica will become the norm moving forward; the PS5 will certainly need it if gamers are to have any hope of installing more than a few AAA titles at a time.

The situation should improve when Sony allows PS5 users to expand their consoles' storage capacity with additional NVMe drives, but it might be a while before that happens.

Source

The 2021 MacBook Pro line, which is reported to drop this summer, is not just expected to see a redesign, but powerful internal specifications, according to a new rumor. One of those internal changes is in addition to the M1X chip, followed by the removal of ‘MacBook Pro’ branding at the display’s chin.

New M1X Is Said to Be an Extension of the M1, Featuring More CPU and GPU Cores

According to 9to5Mac, the source has a decent track record and claims that the M1X will differ from the M1 in the following manner.

“The M1X is an extension of the M1 that will contain more thunderbolt channels, cpu cores, gpu cores, multiple external monitor support, and greater power draw. These devices will both feature a 1080p webcam, SD card reader, three thunderbolt usb c ports, an updated MagSafe port, and an HDMI port.”

While no specifics have been added, a previous Bloomberg report states that Apple is working on two custom chips codenamed Jade C-Chop and Jade C-Die. Both of them are expected to feature a total of 10 cores, where eight of them will be focused on performance, while the remaining two will be developed for power efficiency. The difference between the two could be the number of GPU cores, which the report claims will be offered in 16 and 32 configurations.

Now here is the confusing part. It is possible that both M1X and M2 are separate Apple Silicon in development and meant for different 2021 MacBook Pro versions. After all, Apple is reported to refresh the 13-inch MacBook Pro too while offering redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch models to customers. It is possible the higher-tier M2 is present in the newer MacBook Pro models, while the M1X is offered with the older chassis.

Of course, we are playing on mere speculation here, and Apple’s actual plans might be completely different, so we will wait for more updates. In the meantime, you can check out our roundup of the next-generation Apple Silicon, where we have discussed everything from CPU cores to performance differences between the M1 and more.

As for removing the ‘MacBook Pro’ branding, this move would be consistent with Apple removing the logo from the M1 iMac. It appears that the company wants to present a cleaner look when talking about the 2021 MacBook Pro design. However, since mass production is expected to start in the second half of this year, there could be more changes on the horizon, so stay tuned for more updates.

Source: 2021 MacBook Pro to Feature M1X Chip, With Apple Expected to Remove the Front Logo From the Chin

How many more secrets are lurking on the OG Xbox?

In brief: Microsoft’s first home game console, the Xbox, launched way back in November of 2001. More than 24 million units were sold worldwide before Microsoft officially discontinued the system in 2006 to focus on its successor, the Xbox 360. Nearly 20 years later, the console is still hiding secrets that gamers somehow never managed to stumble across.

Kotaku was recently contacted by an anonymous source that worked on the original Xbox. The person shared an Easter egg that, to the best of their knowledge, has remained undiscovered for almost 20 years.

It’s nothing groundbreaking, mind you, and the leaker even said they didn’t expect it to be found unless the source code leaked or someone reverse-engineered the Dashboard, but it’s still pretty remarkable that none of that has happened yet.

To activate the egg, fire up an original Xbox follow these steps:

• Go into “Music” and insert an audio CD. (A short album will take less time.)
• From the Audio CD screen choose “Copy,” “Copy” again, then “New Soundtrack.”
• Delete the default soundtrack title and replace it with (no quotes) “Timmyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!” (That’s the letter “y” 26 times. No need to count; just fill the entire field and replace the last one with a “!”.)
• Sit a spell. Enjoy the sounds of the hard drive stealing the disc’s essence.
• When ripping completes, back out to the main menu.
• Choose “Settings” and then “System Info.”
• You should now see a new screen listing members of the “Xbox Dashboard Team.”

The trick replaces the standard contents of the “System Info” screen with a new listing that shows the names of the Xbox Dashboard team. Like I said, it’s not groundbreaking, but neat nevertheless.

Kotaku further confirmed that this “is not the final secret hidden within the original Xbox” that Seamus Blackley referenced in 2017.

Yes. An there's an Easter egg than nobody has noticed as far as I can tell.

— Seamus Blackley (@SeamusBlackley) September 26, 2017

The publication reached out to Blackley for clarification, who said the egg he has in mind involves the Xbox’s boot animation. When asked if controller inputs were needed to trigger it, he said “Nope, it doesn’t. But I’m tempted to say it does. But no it doesn’t really. At all. For sure. I’m pretty sure at least.”

Source: Newly disclosed Xbox Easter egg has remained hidden for nearly 20 years

(Reuters) -Netflix Inc is looking to hire an executive to oversee its expansion into videogames, The Information reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The company has approached veteran game industry executives in recent weeks, the report said.

The move comes at a time when the video-streaming pioneer is stepping up efforts to grow beyond its traditional business as competition heats up and subscriber growth slows.

The gaming industry has been a big pandemic winner thanks to a surge in demand from customers staying at home during the crisis.

The report said Netflix had discussed offering a bundle of games similar to Apple’s online subscription offering, Apple Arcade, as an option.

While the details of the company’s games strategy are still very much in flux, it has decided that the games will not feature advertising, the report added.

Netflix did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Source: Netflix looking to hire executive for gaming expansion - The Information

The Viking sandbox world game Valheim gave a big boost to Embracer Group by selling 6.8 million copies since February. And Embracer announced with its fourth fiscal quarter (first calendar quarter) results that it now has 160 games in development.

Today, Embracer Group reported its revenues for the fourth fiscal quarter (first calendar quarter) for the three months ended March 31 grew 80% to $289.5 million while operating profits (or operating EBIT, earnings before interest and taxes) grew 216% to $108.7 million.

For a change, Embracer didn’t announce any acquisitions. But it’s been so busy with acquisitions that its games under development has now increased from 103 a year ago to 160 now. Total headcount has increased 103% to 6,325, and its total number of game developers has increased 116% to 5,115. By contrast, Electronic Arts has more than 6,000 developers.

Embracer saw a huge bump in sales for its Coffee Stain Studios division, which published Valheim, with division sales rising to $94 million from $9.9 million a year ago. In early April, Embracer acquired Aspyr, Easybrain, and Gearbox Entertainment. Easybrain is exceeding management’s expectations for its mobile games.

Studio division sales

THQ Nordic sales grew slightly to $42.6 million, Deep Silver dipped 9% to $55.8 million, Saber Interactive came in at $32.5 million, and Deca Games came in at $12.5 million. The sales of partner publishing and the film business came in at $51.6 million.

The EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) was $141.2 million, corresponding to a 49% EBITDA margin.

For the full year, sales were $1.08 billion, up 72% from the previous year. Net sales for the game business was $776.8 million, up 102%. EBITDa for the year was $480.1 million, up 119%.

CEO Lars Wingefors said in a shareholder note that the strategy has been to build a diverse business that stands on many revenue streams from a diverse portfolio, and that strategy is increasingly paying off. (See Wingefors in a fireside chat with Nick Tuosto of Liontree/Griffin Gaming Partners at GamesBeat Summit here).

He said Valheim could sell another 1 million to 1.2 million copies before the close of the current quarter on June 30. While much of the growth came from acquisitions, organic growth has been strong as well.

Since 2016, when Embracer went public in Sweden, the company’s adjusted earnings per share have increased 14 times.

In five days, THQ Nordic has another big game launching in Biomutant, an open-world martial arts RPG. Preorders are ahead of expectations.

Wingefors said SnowRunner has now sold more than 2 million copies, as has Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Re-Hydrated, while Destroy All Humans has sold 1 million copies.

Big investments

In the past two years, Embracer has invested $240.9 million in game development. More than two-thirds of the works in progress are new intellectual properties or IPs that the company is revitalizing because they haven’t had new titles in the past five years.

In the year ending March 31, 2022, Embracer expects to complete more than 90 games. This includes projects from the newly acquired Gearbox and Aspyr studios.

Wingefors pointed out that in the past year, the fees paid to platform owners (console makers and Steam) are estimated to be two times the actual costs spent on game development in the past fiscal year.

“We will continue to challenge these paradigms and pursue opportunities to reduce costs and increase the relative investment into content creation,” Wingefors said.

TimeSpliters is back

Embracer recently acquired five more studios: Appeal Studios, Kaiko Massive Miniteam, Frame Break, and Gate21. Combined, these entities are currently employing around 90 developers.

And Embracer raised another $915 million for further acquisitions. The company has more than $2.04 billion in cash and credit facilities.

“The determination not to become a ‘corporate machine’ is as strong as ever,” Wingefors said. “Our philosophy is and will continue to be one that encourages founder creativity.”

During the quarter, Wingefors said his team talked to more than 150 companies about acquisitions, including larger companies that could form additional operating groups. About 20 deals are in late-stage talks.

Source: Embracer sells 6.8M copies of Valheim, has 160 games in development

The fourth-gen glasses have built-in AR displays

Snap’s new Spectacles glasses are its most ambitious yet. But there’s a big catch: you can’t buy them.

On Thursday, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel unveiled the company’s first true augmented reality glasses, technology that he and rivals like Facebook think will one day be as ubiquitous as mobile phones. A demo showed virtual butterflies fluttering over colorful plants and landing in Spiegel’s extended hand.

The new Spectacles have dual waveguide displays capable of superimposing AR effects made with Snapchat’s software tools. The frame features four built-in microphones, two stereo speakers, and a built-in touchpad. Front-facing cameras help the glasses detect objects and surfaces you’re looking at so that graphics more naturally interact with the world around you.

These Spectacles, however, aren’t ready for the mass market. Unlike past models, Snap isn’t selling them. Instead, it’s giving them directly to an undisclosed number of AR effects creators through an application program online. (Another indication they aren’t ready for everyday use: the battery only lasts 30 minutes.)

Tapping the vast potential of @Snap’s AR platform, the next generation of Spectacles allow you to overlay Lenses directly onto the world in front of you, for an immersive AR experience. #SnapPartnerSummithttps://t.co/r4XnSC886z pic.twitter.com/UTDDoxwBOO

— Spectacles (@Spectacles) May 20, 2021

The idea is to encourage a small portion of the 200,000 people who already make AR effects in Snapchat to experiment with creating experiences for the new Spectacles, according to Spiegel. Like the bright yellow vending machines Snap used to sell the first version of Spectacles several years ago, the approach could end up being a clever way to build buzz for the glasses ahead of their wide release. Spiegel has said that AR glasses will take roughly a decade to reach mainstream adoption.

“I don’t believe the phone is going away,” he told The Verge in an interview this week. “I just think that the next generation of Spectacles can help unlock a new way to use AR hands-free, and the ability to really roam around with your eyes looking up at the horizon, out at the world.”

The first two generations of Spectacles, released in 2016 and 2018, looked like sunglasses with a single camera in the corner of the frame. They let you snap videos (and later photos) in a unique, spherical format that could then be transferred to your phone and posted to Snapchat or another social network.

Above: Snap’s new fourth-generation Spectacles. Lower: the Spectacles in their case, and a side-view showing their touch panel. Images: Snap

Snap, which calls itself a camera company, started moving more toward AR in 2019 with the launch of its third-generation Spectacles. That model added a second camera to detect depth in videos, allowing for more advanced effects to be applied afterward. But they lacked displays. You had to shoot a video, import it to Snapchat, and then apply AR effects — which Snap calls Lenses — later.

The new fourth generation of Spectacles come from a secretive hardware division of the company called Snap Lab, which is also working on a camera drone. They weigh 134 grams, more than double the weight of the previous version but far less than Microsoft’s Hololens AR headset. They’re designed to be worn indoors or outdoors with up to 2,000 nits of display brightness, a tradeoff the company clearly made to favor display richness at the expense of battery life.

Two front-facing cameras use the software Snap built for its mobile phone Lenses to automatically detect physical surfaces and place effects in a way that doesn’t obstruct the real world. Two stereo speakers capture audio and allow for the wearer to control them by voice. A touchpad on the side of the frame operates an interface in the displays that Snap calls the Lens Carousel, allowing the wearer to switch AR effects they’re seeing.

Above: two images show AR effects as seen through the new glasses. Lower: the lens carousel interface lets you select different AR effects. Images: Snap

The new Spectacles were announced Thursday at Snap’s virtual Partner Summit for developers, where the company previewed a number of new augmented reality features for Snapchat. Its AR clothing try-on tech can now handle watches and glasses, and businesses will be able to more easily add AR versions of their online catalogs for Snapchat’s 500 million monthly users to try and purchase.

A new feature, called Connected Lenses, allows multiple people to see and interact with the same scene in AR. Snap is also launching an AR “innovation lab” called Ghost and is committing $3.5 million to support creators making effects, with another $1 million in funding with Verizon to fund AR experiences used over 5G.

While Snap is known primarily for the Snapchat app now, these Spectacles indicate how the company’s ambition is to be a major player in the race to build AR glasses. Facebook, Apple, and other tech giants are currently working on their competing devices. Facebook plans to debut its own pair of smart glasses in partnership with RayBan later this year, though they won’t feature AR displays.

According to Spiegel, head-worn devices like these new Spectacles will create a big shift in how we interact with computers. While Snap is betting that millions of people will eventually want to wear Spectacles, the company is content for now to build in public alongside its creators.

“You have to invent a whole new way of interacting with computing when it’s volumetric and integrated with the space around you,” Spiegel said. “So I don’t see Snapchat transitioning to wearables that directly, but one of the things that’s really fun is to think about what the new interaction paradigms can look like.”

Source: Snap’s new Spectacles let you see the world in augmented reality

As reported by Kotaku, UnNameD became the first person to complete a One Hit KO (OHKO) run on GTA V using utilized strategies. A mod was installed that kills the player if a single point of damage is received, thereby ensuring his claim was genuine. It took 48 attempts to complete the campaign successfully, and you can watch the whole thing in the three embedded videos, assuming you have a spare nine hours.

The run hasn’t been without controversy, not that anyone’s arguing about its legitimacy. Another speedrunner, DarkViperAU, had been trying to become the first person to OHKO run GTA V since early last year and recently uploaded his 27th attempt.

As per PC Gamer, a Reddit post displays a now-deleted comment from DarkViper that claims he shared strategies on how to complete the OHKO run publicly, while other speedrunners refused to do the same. “The result was that anyone running alongside me was getting far more information about what was needed to be done and what was needed to be avoided,” he wrote. “They additionally had a rich foundation to build off for their runs, something I lacked when I started, meaning anyone who begun later was far ahead compared to where I was when I began.”

UnNameD says he never intended to beat his fellow OHKO speedrunner to the punch and claims he did attempt to share some strategies with DarkViper but received no reply. He’s now been banned from DarkViper’s Discord channel.

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Tenstorrent is currently working on the Grayskull AI processor, which has already been sampling with select early customers. The Grayskull architecture uses proprietary Tensix cores, with each core using a programmable single instruction multiple data (SIMD) processor, a high utilization packet processor, and five single-issue RISC cores. Grayskull is slated to hit the market in the back half of 2021.

“Our goal is to continue creating AI focused hardware for developers. Having a great investor like Fidelity is going to help us build a sustainable company for the long term,” said Ljubisa Bajic, Tenstorrent’s CEO, of the recent funding.

The funding round was led by Fidelity Management, and also included capital injections from Eclipse Ventures, Epic CG, and Moore Capital. Tenstorrent is currently backed by Eclipse Ventures and Real Ventures.

Tenstorrent is led by processor architects Ljubisa Bajic and Jim Keller, the latter of whom left Intel in 2020 after a short two-year stint. Keller's decades of experience come from working at DEC, AMD, Tesla and Apple, where he worked among other things on the Athlon processors, Zen architecture, as well as iPhone's A4 and A5 mobile chips.

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Bang & Olufsen, the Danish audio giant famed for its high-end, pricey products, has added to its portfolio of portable Bluetooth speakers with the Beosound Explore, which is rugged enough to take on all your outdoor pursuits.

The B&O Beosound Explore appears tough enough to survive the likes of hiking and the beach while offering a sound quality that can satisfy audiophiles' tastes. It's protected by a type 2 anodised aluminum exterior that’s scratch resistant, so you don’t have to worry about cosmetic damage when it's clipped to a rucksack (or something else) using the aluminum carabiner. It’s also IP67 rated water- and dust-proof.

The internal specs are impressive, too. The Beosound Explore packs two 1.8-inch full range drivers, powered by two 30W Class D amplifiers, tuned for outdoor use. These deliver 360-degrees of sound through the True360 omnidirectional performance and circular speaker grille while pumping out 59dB of bass. Bang & Olufsen says the frequency range is 56Hz – 22.7kHz, and the speaker can reach 91dB.

Elsewhere, battery life comes in at an impressive 27 hours as long you stick to typical listening volumes, which B&O lists as 70dB. It also features Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity, is compatible with Apple Fast Pair, Google Fast Pair and Microsoft Swift Pair, and you can use two of them for a stereo setup.

The Beosound Explore is available now from Bang & Olufsen online and retail stores for $199. It comes in in Black Anthracite or Green finishes, with Grey Mist arriving in summer.

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HP’s new Omen 16 and Omen 17 feature 16.1-inch and 17.3-inch displays, respectively, with QHD and 165Hz panels available. The smaller machine can be equipped with up to a Core i7-11800H or Ryzen 9 5900HX processors and GeForce RTX 3070 graphics or "AMD RDNA 2 architecture-based graphics," alongside up to 32GB of DDR4 memory and two 1TB PCIe SSDs in a RAID 0 array.

The Omen 17 can accommodate up to an Intel i9-11900H processor and a GeForce RTX 3080. The same max RAM and storage configurations apply here, too.

Both machines can be equipped with either a 4-cell, 70Wh or a 6-cell, 83Wh battery. Runtime on the Omen 16 is rated at up to 9 hours, but HP didn't mention how long the Omen 17 could last.

The new HP Victus is being positioned as the younger "mainstream" sibling of the Omen, with pricing starting well below $1,000. The Victus packs a 16.1-inch display driven by up to an Intel Core i7-11800H / AMD Ryzen 7 5800M CPU, RTX 3060 / AMD Radeon RX 5500M graphics and up to 32GB of DDR4.

Like the Omen, the Victus can also accommodate single or dual SSDs in RAID 0, and can even support Intel Optane memory.

The Omen 16 and Omen 17 are slated to launch in June starting at $1,049.99 and $1,369.99, respectively. The 16-inch Victus also goes on sale in June, but with a lower starting price of $799.99.

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With the use of silicon in semiconductor manufacturing approaching its limits in recent years, chipmakers are constantly looking for new materials that will allow them to keep shrinking their manufacturing processes, which in turn will enable them to pack more transistors in the same area.

Not to be outdone by IBM’s recent announcement of its 2-nanometer nanosheet technology, TSMC, the world's largest contract semiconductor manufacturer, in conjunction with the National University of Taiwan and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have announced the development of such a material called semi-metal bismuth, which they hope will enable the production of 1-nanometer chips in the coming years.

As fabrication processes get smaller, chipmakers face the problem of higher resistance and lower currents at transistor contact electrodes, which are responsible for bringing power to transistors. According to the research results published in the journal Nature (paywall) accessed by TomsHardware, by using semi-metal bismuth as the transistor’s contact electrode, the company and its partners claim they can significantly reduce the resistance while simultaneously increasing the current that can be transferred.

The technology is still at the experimental stage though and high-volume production of 1-nanometer chips is many years away. TSMC’s current top-of-the-line volume manufacturing process is its 5-nanometre node, while the company has also stated that it will begin risk production of 3-nanometer chips sometime this year.

Source: TSMC claims breakthrough in the development of 1-nanometer chips

Ampere has had a big year with the launch of two Altra server processors that have outgunned rivals Intel and Advanced Micro Devices in some key server features. Now the company plans to race ahead with even more powerful chips in the next couple of years, CEO Renee James told VentureBeat in an interview.

Such Arm-based chips are a key part of the datacenter ecosystem, as the world needs ever bigger and more powerful datacenters that consume less power than the PC-based processors rivals sell.

Ampere’s Altra processor shipping now has 80 cores and operates on much less power per core than rival Intel and AMD chips, Ampere chief product officer Jeff Wittich said in an interview with VentureBeat. The Altra Max processor has 128 cores and is going to ship later this year. And Wittich said Ampere’s next-generation processor will be sampling on a 5-nanometer manufacturing process (where the width between circuits is 5 billionths of a meter) in the first half of 2022.

An ambitious roadmap

Above: Ampere’s roadmap

That processor will be based on Ampere’s own uniquely designed core, as will another next-generation chip scheduled for 2023, James said. Ampere has collected more than 100 patents since it was founded a few years ago.

“For a lot of people, what they’ve been waiting to hear from us is our long-term roadmap and who are the customers for all of this,” James said. “We’ll have Tencent and Oracle and Microsoft, and then many, many others are also going to be public. So it’s a very exciting day for us. Because I would say that after three and a half years since we started the company, it’s our real showing of the vision for Ampere and the caliber of customers that are working with our products.”

Ampere’s earlier chips used the Arm-designed Neoverse N1 core. But Ampere’s own core is a big deal, as it’s the equivalent of Apple offering its Arm-based M1 processor. Ampere is an Arm architecture licensee, which means it can develop its own instructions and unique features for its Arm-based processors. The 2022 and 2023 processors will use Ampere’s unique cores, which will help those devices become even more power-efficient and can handle specific customer requests, like better telemetry.

“We’re developing a CPU from the ground up that’s built for the cloud,” Wittich said. “The infrastructure demands a new CPU. And for us, that means predictable high-performance platform scalability and power efficiency. As we walk through the product roadmap, it becomes more clear how we’re uniquely delivering these things.”

James added, “If you want leading-edge performance, you have to use the leading-edge manufacturing.”

Big customers

Above: Ampere’s list of key customers.

Microsoft will talk today at Ampere’s event about how it uses Ampere in datacenters and why power efficiency really matters, as Ampere Altra will help Microsoft hit its carbon-neutral goals by 2030.

Major internet infrastructure company Equinix is another customer trying to lower its carbon footprint, with customers coming in asking for more power efficiency.

“We have a really rapid cadence,” Wittich said. “We can move at the speed we need to with our customers. From a customer perspective, this is not that complex. We have big ambitions every year to deliver the leading-edge processors for the cloud and deliver them horizontally across the entire market. Having our own core really allows us to do that.”

Above: Ampere claims better performance than Intel and AMD.

If you’re struggling to buy a graphics card, relief may be on the horizon as cryptocurrency Ethereum is preparing to phase out GPU-intensive mining in the coming months.

The news was contained in a blog post from the Ethereum Foundation. For years now, the nonprofit has been working to move Ethereum away from traditional mining to what’s called a “Proof-of-Stake” protocol, which promises to streamline the cryptocurrency. 

On Tuesday, the foundation provided an update. “Ethereum will be completing the transition to Proof-of-Stake in the upcoming months, which brings a myriad of improvements that have been theorized for years,” the group wrote. 

Ethereum mining has been among the factors blamed for the ongoing GPU shortage. To generate the cryptocurrency, miners have been buying up desktop graphics cards, taking away supplies from consumers. In the meantime, the value of Ethereum has shot up from $700 in December to almost $3,000 now, adding more incentive for people to get into mining.

Credit: Pixabay

The situation is so bad that Nvidia is even installing Ethereum mining-restriction software on its graphics card to discourage miners from hoarding them. However, the cryptocurrency’s coming migration to Proof-of-Stake is expected to kill off the need for powerful GPUs to maintain the Ethereum blockchain. Instead, hardware requirements should dramatically fall, enabling a regular PC to help validate the blockchain. 

The blog post from the Ethereum Foundation goes on to say Proof-of-Stake could end up cutting down the cryptocurrency’s electricity usage by 99.95%. The foundation didn’t offer a specific date for when the transition will be completed, but it did say this: 

“While Ethereum continues to use PoW (Proof-of-Work) for now, that won’t be the case for much longer. In the past few weeks, we have seen the emergence of the first testnets for The Merge, the name given to the moment Ethereum switches to from PoW to PoS. Several teams of engineers are working overtime to ensure that The Merge arrives as soon as possible, and without compromising on safety.”

In the meantime, Ethereum miners can continue to generate the cryptocurrency using their GPUs. But once Proof-of-Stake kicks in, many PC users are hoping miners will quit the market and begin reselling their graphics cards on third-party marketplaces. Others say don't get your hopes up—the mining community might simply migrate to another cryptocurrency.

Source: Hope for Prospective GPU Buyers? Ethereum Prepares to Phase Out Mining

Although Intel's Iris Xe DG1 GPU was never designed to be released as a consumer-ended desktop graphics card, it looks like CyberPowerPC is shipping its pre-built gaming PCs with the said graphics card.

Intel Iris Xe DG1 GPU Powered Graphics Card Featured Inside CyberPowerPC's Pre-Built Gaming PC, Starting at $749.99 US

Intel has on several occasions clarified that the Iris Xe DG1 GPU is designed for mobility and the only desktop variants we will see is the SDV (Software Development Vehicle) which was shipped to the developer community. Aside from that, the GPU wasn't meant for a consumer release, however, a few months back, we saw the graphics cards show up in OEM flavors from ASUS and Colorful.

Now as spotted by Videocardz, the Intel Iris Xe DG1 graphics card is shipping within CyberPowerPC Gamer Xtreme Gaming Desktop PCs which features a price of $749.99 US. The base variant of this system features an Intel Core i5-11400F (Rocket Lake) CPU, 8 GB DDR4-3000 memory, 500 GB SSD & accompanied by a PSU, Casing, and gaming peripherals. The most interesting component is the graphics card itself.

The pictures of the system aren't well-lit but we can see that the card features a single-slot design and comes with either a passively cooling design or a small heatsink fan. There's no external power connector required since the Intel Xe DG1 GPUs are entry-level designs with TDP under 75W. As for the specifications, the Intel Iris Xe DG1 GPU is based on the Xe-LP graphics architecture that features 80 Execution Units or 640 cores. It comes with 4 GB of LPDDR4X memory which offers a bandwidth of 68 GB/s.

This isn't even the full iris Xe DG1 configuration as that rocks 96 EUs or 768 cores. It is likely that Intel is supplying OEMs with some DG1 chips for entry-level gaming PCs. While the performance they have on offer is good compared to built-in (integrated) graphics, it will still be a better option to look for discrete graphics solutions. Intel's proper DG2 (Xe-HPG GPU) discrete graphics cards are pitted for a launch later this year and will be aiming at the mainstream and high-end gaming segment, more on those here.

Source: Intel Iris Xe DG1 GPU Powered Graphics Cards Shipping With CyberPowerPC’s Pre-Built Gaming PCs

Tuesday marked the return of Google’s annual developer conference. The 2020 edition of the event was canceled because of the pandemic, but today Google IO returned as a virtual event. The three-day conference began with an opening keynote address, where Google executives and project managers took turns showing off new software features, new AI-powered tools, and a zany prototype video booth made for hyperrealistic teleconferencing.

 

Here’s everything Google announced.

 

A New Look for Android

Android 12 brings many visual changes that make the next version of the mobile operating system a little more personal and playful. Pick up your phone and the lock screen will light up from the bottom, but tap the power button instead and the pixels will illuminate from the side of the phone. If there are no notifications on the lock screen, the clock will take up more space. Small touches like this even apply to the system’s design—the color tones of widgets and the notification drop-down menu can adjust to match your wallpaper.

 

Many of these changes fall under a new design language Google calls Material You. It’s coming first to Google hardware and software this fall, and it lets you change the color palette of all your apps, though you’ll be confined to the colors Google has chosen for its “Material palette.”

 

Android’s interface has also been given an overall redesign with new widgets, a fresh look for larger and bolder quick settings tiles, and a simpler settings menu. You’ll find new types of tiles in the quick settings menu too, such as Google Pay and smart-home control options. Thanks to under-the-hood improvements, the OS is smoother and animations are more responsive. Everything about the interface is a little faster and more efficient. The first beta version is available now, and the official release will likely roll out in August or September.

 

New Android 12 Privacy Features

Perhaps in response to Apple’s recent announcement that it would disable ad tracking between apps by default, Google has emphasized newfangled privacy features of its own.

 

You can read a detailed rundown Android’s new privacy features by our own Lily Hay Newman. There’s a new privacy dashboard that allows users to view app permission settings, see which data is being accessed by which apps, and revoke app tracking privileges all from one screen. Also, an indicator will now pop up in the top corner to let you know if an app is using your mic or camera. More nuanced “approximate location” features allow you to give an app a general sense of where you are, rather than being able to pinpoint exactly which bathroom stall you’re in.

 

Project Starline’s ‘Video Booth’

It’s the Zoom of the future! Kind of. Maybe the Google Meet of the future. While still a prototype, Google’s Project Starline is a virtual meeting booth with holograms. (Don’t miss our exclusive first look at the tech.) Two people sit in their respective booths in different locations, and your chat companion beams right in using tech that makes them look like they’re sitting across the table from you. Thanks to depth sensors, multiple cameras, and spatial audio, Starline makes you feel like you’re really there with the other person, as opposed to staring at yet another talking head on a video screen. It’s currently just a proof of concept, and we might see it in the real world within five years, according to Google.

 

Wear OS Updates

 

Google is revamping its smartwatch operating system, with some help from Samsung. You can read our exclusive deep dive on the changes coming to Wear this year, but here are some highlights.

 

The next version of Wear OS—for now, just called Wear—will include some features pulled right from Samsung’s current wearable OS, Tizen. (Samsung’s forthcoming wearables will also use the Wear operating system.) Google says this and other optimizations will offer better battery life and up to 30 percent faster performance. Some Google apps will work directly on the Wear platform without requiring a constant phone connection, including turn-by-turn directions on Google Maps and offline music listening on streaming services like YouTube Music and (eventually) Spotify. Google is also putting its acquisition of Fitbit to use, imbuing the tech with standard Fitbit features like health tracking and workout progress.

 

Improved Photo Discovery

 

Google gives all of its users a free place to upload all of their pictures, and that policy affords the company a huge benefit: a massive dataset it can use to hone its computer vision prowess. Today, we saw some enhancements coming to Google Photos that are powered by these machine intelligence experiments. First is a feature that automatically collects photos into albums using visual patterns in the images to identify photos that probably belong together. The AI engine looks at all your photos to find similar shapes and colors, and it can spot patterns the human eye might miss. As an example, Google showed pictures from one of its engineers. The Photos AI was able to assemble a gallery of photos from a specific backpacking trip he took by pulling in all the pictures where his orange backpack appears. Another example: The AI can spot all of your shots with a menorah in them, and put together a collection of Hanukkah memories.

 

Importantly, Photos users can control which photos show up in these collections. You can remove specific photos from memories, rename the memories, or prevent specific photos from ever showing up. This is a boon for anyone who’s lived through a heavily photographed life experience they’d rather forget.

 

On the creepier end of things, the company showed a new tool that can turn two static images into one animated image. It looks at the objects in the two images, then inserts interpolated frames to make animations that were never actually captured by the camera. Yes, it makes two still photos come to life. The effect is very unsettling.

 

A Better Password Manager

 

Google is enhancing Chrome’s built-in password manager to aid users in keeping better track of their various account credentials across desktop and mobile. First, there’s a new password import tool that helps new users aggregate their many passwords into Google’s manager. Once the passwords are stored in Google’s password manager, users will have an easier time deploying them outside of Chrome; better integrations between Chrome and Android will store passwords and auto-fill information for apps as well as websites in a way that feels more seamless. Google’s password manager currently alerts you to security breaches on the web that may have compromised your passwords. Now, there’s a new feature in the password manager that adds one helpful step to that alert: a quick-fix tool that guides you through the process of changing any passwords that have been compromised.

 

Of course, Google isn’t the only company that wants to manage your passwords for you. We have a list of excellent options in our password manager guide—including some advice about why in-browser options like Google’s are more limited.

 

New Tools for Remote Work

If you’ve been lucky enough to have a job that’s allowed you to work from home for the past 14 months, you’re probably used to living your work life in the cloud. Google’s new remote working tools aim to make that a little easier. Smart Canvas is a project management tool that lets multiple users work together across different document types. They can keep track of progress with checklist items tagged to specific dates and people, and brainstorm ideas live in one place.

 

Google Meet, the video chat platform, will soon be integrated directly into Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. You’ll be able to click the little Meet button in the top corner, and collaborators can pop up on video in a column alongside the doc to argue about what gets edited. A new Companion Mode in Meet is meant to display members of a team in more equally placed tiles, along with better noise cancelation and automatic visual tweaks to zoom and lighting to make all participant videos more visually consistent. For anyone watching who needs captions, those can be turned on using live transcription, or even translated into one of Google’s supported languages.

 

Improved Natural Language Skills

 

Google showed off some new AI-powered conversational capabilities that will eventually turn up in products that use Google Assistant. First, it’s developed a new conversational model called LaMDA that can hold a conversation with you, either typed or spoken, about any topic you’re curious about. The AI will look up information about the topic while you’re talking, and then enhance the conversation in a natural way by weaving facts and contextual info into its answers. What we saw on Tuesday was just a controlled demo, but the LaMDA model really does look like it could make conversations with a computer feel even more human.

 

There’s another natural-language processing model headed to Google’s Search tools. Dubbed the Multitask Unified Model, or MUM, Google says the feature is intended to make sense of longer, multi-pronged questions submitted by users. In theory, you could ask it to compare different vacation locations, or tell you what kind of gear you’ll need to bring on a hike. It can gather information from websites in other languages, then use what it finds to uncover even more relevant information published in your native language. That way, what may be the most pertinent info on the web is not locked behind a language barrier.

 

These enhancements are part of Google’s larger effort to understand the meaning and context of questions in the way a human might. Still, Google says the features are still in the experimental phase, so it’ll be a while before the Assistant starts making decisions about any pod bay doors.

 

More Detailed Maps

 

Google is tweaking bits of its Maps app in an effort to offer users more real-time information. When you’re asking for directions, Google will present an option for “eco-friendly routes” that factor in distance and road or traffic conditions to find a more fuel-efficient way to get where you’re going. A “safer routing” feature in Maps can analyze road lanes and traffic patterns to help you avoid what it calls “hard braking moments,” when traffic slows down unexpectedly.

 

If you’re walking around, there are also improvements to Google’s AR mode, Live View, that help contextualize where you are by analyzing streets signs and providing information like “busyness” levels for whole neighborhoods instead of just specific restaurants and shops. Live View also now works indoors, so you can see that contextual info inside a train station or a mall. The main Maps tool will also tailor what it shows you to the time of day and your location. Open Maps in the morning and you’ll see pins for breakfast options. Open Maps in a city you’ve never visited and you’ll see tourist spots and popular attractions.

 

Don’t Forget About Shopping

 

In an effort to make you even more likely to buy stuff on the internet, Google has tweaked some of its shopping tools. Now users can use Google Lens to search images in screenshots taken on their phone and link third-party memberships directly to their Google account. Also, the days where you could idly add a 5-pound bag of gummy bears to your shopping cart and then forget about it are gone. Now, whenever you open up a new tab in Chrome, Google will show you all of the pending purchases you have sitting in shopping carts around the web.

 

Google also announced a Shopify integration feature, which will let sellers who use Shopify make their products appear across search, Maps, images, Google Lens, and YouTube.

 

Update, Tuesday May 18 at 6:20 pm: This story was updated to further clarify the way the Multitask Unified Model gathers information across websites published in different languages. 

Everything Google Announced Today: Android, AI, Holograms (may require free registration)