Feed aggregator

Surprise Google Chrome 131 Update For Windows, Mac, Linux, Android  Forbes

Google’s work in health is centered around advancing healthcare through AI. And that includes supporting healthtech entrepreneurs through programs like Google for Startu…

China's Xiangshan project aims to deliver a high-performance RISC-V processor by 2025. If it succeeds, it could be "enormously significant" for three reasons, writes The Register's Simon Sharwood. It would elevate RISC-V from low-end silicon to datacenter-level capabilities, leverage the open-source Mulan PSL-2.0 license to disrupt proprietary chip models like Arm and Intel, and reduce China's dependence on foreign technology, mitigating the impact of international sanctions on advanced processors. From the report: The prospect of a 2025 debut appeared on Sunday in a post to Chinese social media service Weibo, penned by Yungang Bao of the Institute of Computing Technology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The academy has created a project called Xiangshan that aims to use the permissively licensed RISC-V ISA to create a high-performance chip, with the Scala source code to the designs openly available. Bao is a leader of the project, and has described the team's ambition to create a company that does for RISC-V what Red Hat did for Linux -- although he said that before Red Hat changed the way it made the source code of RHEL available to the public. The Xiangshan project has previously aspired to six-monthly releases, though it appears its latest design to be taped out was a second-gen chip named Nanhu that emerged in late 2023. That silicon ran at 2GHz and was built on a 14nm process node. The project has since worked on a third-gen design, named Kunminghu, and published the image [here] depicting an overview of its non-trivial micro-architecture.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Nvidia Project Digits: A Linux-powered desktop for AI developers  ZDNet

Update with New Year’s promotions. I’ve tried out my share of robo-advisors, which always sounded nice in theory but I eventually became disillusioned as they kept generating lot of unnecessary taxes every time they change their model portfolios to chase the latest and hottest trends. My favorite service for those that want a little extra help is one where I can pick my own custom target portfolio, but the robo still does the hard work: M1 Finance. Here’s a quick rundown of what makes them different:

• Fully customizable. You pick your own target asset allocation “pie”. (You can add ETFs or individual stocks.) You can simply copy one of the many model portfolios out there, or make your own custom pie as you like. You have full control! M1 handles the tedious stuff, like rebalancing or dividing a $100 contribution across 8 different ETFs.
• No commissions. Free stock/ETF trades with a low $100 initial minimum for taxable accounts and a $500 minimum opening amount for retirement accounts. After your initial deposit any amount greater than $10 can be deposited.
• Free with $10,000 balance. Otherwise $3/month. Most robo-advisors charge an annual management fee of 0.25% to 0.50% of assets, or force you to own something bad, like a lot of low-interest cash. (Looking at you, Schwab…)
• Free dynamic rebalancing. All new deposits (and withdrawals) will be invested (or sold) dynamically to bring your portfolio back toward your target asset allocation. M1 will also rebalance your entire portfolio back to the target allocation for you with a few clicks (for free) whenever you choose, on demand. You don’t need to do any math or maintain any spreadsheets.
• Fractional shares (dollar-based). For example, you can just set it to automatically invest $100 a month, and your full amount will be spread across multiple ETFs. Dollar-based transactions were one of the advantages of buying a mutual fund, but fractional shares solve this problem. ETFs are also usually more tax-efficient than mutual funds.
• Real brokerage account with off-the-shelf investments that you can move out. Some robo-advisors hold special, proprietary funds that you have to sell if you ever leave, possibly creating a big tax bill. (Looking at you, Fidelity…) M1 is built on a regular brokerage account, so you can move your Vanguard/iShares/Schwab ETFs and stock shares out to another broker whenever you want.

Now, for a long time, Vanguard didn’t offer automatic fractional investments into ETFs. But as of October 2024, Vanguard now offers fractional ETF investments.

Still, M1 Finance checks off many of the boxes of my brokerage wish list. The only thing they could add would be to have the high availability of knowledgeable customer service of a huge company like Fidelity or Schwab.

If you want to invest in newer factor ETFs that focus on Small-Cap, Value, Momentum, or Quality factors like those from DFA and Avantis, or a mix of dividend-oriented ETFs like SCHD/VIG/VYM, their service makes it much easier to set up a portfolio mix of different ETFs.

M1 Plus features are now available to everyone. M1 Plus was their premium subscription tier with several additional perks. As of May 2024, everyone gets these features, but they are only free with a $10,000 balance and $3/month otherwise.

• High-yield savings (currently 4.00% APY as of 1/8/24). FDIC-insured up to $5 million.
• M1 Owner’s Rewards credit card (2.5%, 5%, or 10% cash back at 70+ brands, no annual fee).
• Lower interest rates on margin borrowing (1.5% rate discount).
• Custodial accounts for kids.
• Extra 3pm PM ET trade window.
• Automated “smart” transfers.

$75 referral bonus. M1 has a $75 referral bonus if you open a new account with $10,000 and maintain it for 30 days. Here is my M1 referral link (thanks if you use it!) from which you must start opening your new account.

A bonus that amounts to 0.75% of your initial deposit with only a 30 day hold is technically a 9% annualized yield. After opening a new account, you can stack the ACAT transfer promo below.

0.5% ACAT Transfer bonus. M1 will pay 0.5% of the amount transferred into a taxable brokerage account, up to $25,000. Must transfer at least $10,000. Valid for both new and existing M1 customers. See ACAT transfer promo fine print for full details. Expires 1/31/25. Minimum hold period of one year (Can’t move money out until January 31, 2026).

$100,000 transfer would net you $500. $1,000,000 transfer would net you $5,000.

During the Promotion Period, this promotional offer is valid for new and existing M1 customers who successfully complete and settle a Brokerage Account Transfer (“BAT”) of at least $10,000 in aggregate across your account(s) (“Transfer Account Value”) (together, the “Promotion”). The appropriate M1 account must successfully receive settled funds prior to expiry of the Promotion Period (e.g., IRA to IRA). Any unsuccessful BAT will be deemed ineligible (including but not limited to, any incorrect instructions, or unsettled funds). This offer is non-transferable, and not valid with any of the following: (i) internal transfers, (ii) ACH deposits (bank transfers), (iii) wire transfers, or (iv) direct 401(k), 403(b) and/or 457(b) rollovers.

If you satisfy the aforementioned conditions, M1 will make a one-time deposit equal to 0.5% (one-half of one-percent) of the total aggregate Transfer Account Value successfully completed across your account(s) (“Promotional Payout”) not to exceed $25,000 (the “Payout Maximum”), into the cash balance of your M1 taxable investment account (the “Payment Account1”) within thirty (30) days of the Promotion Period expiry (the “Payout Date”).

1-Year 0.50% APY boost. If you open a new M1 Cash Account, they will give you an extra 0.5% APY interest for 12 months. So instead of the standard 4.00% right now, you’d get 4.50% APY. See APY boost promo fine print.

During the Promotion Period, all eligible new M1 clients, or existing M1 clients with neither an open Cash Account nor an open M1 High-Yield Savings Account (“Boosted Clients”) who successfully open and fund an M1 Cash Account with M1 Finance LLC (a “Cash Account”) can receive a one-time 0.50% APY increase over the then-applicable standard APY (a “APY Promotional Boost”) on the balance in their Cash Account (on up to a maximum balance of $200,000 per Boosted Client (the “Maximum Balance”)) for up to twelve (12) months, if all applicable requirements are satisfied (the “Promotion”).

Bottom line. M1 Finance is a brokerage account that acts like a customizable robo-advisor with automatic rebalancing into a target portfolio. You control the model portfolio, and they do the tedious work. Great for implementation of a low-cost, index or passive ETF portfolio. New pricing structure as of May 2024: Free for those with $10,000 in assets, otherwise $3 a month. New promos as of January 2025.

Scientists have discovered that quarks and gluons inside protons are quantum entangled, challenging traditional views of proton structure and revealing a more complex, dynamic system influenced by strong interactions. Space.com reports: Entanglement is the aspect of quantum physics that says two affected particles can instantaneously influence each other's "state" no matter how widely separated they are -- even if they are on opposite sides of the universe. Albert Einstein founded his theories of relativity on the notion that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, however, something that should preclude the instantaneous nature of entanglement. As a result, Einstein was so troubled by entanglement he famously described it as "spukhafte Fernwirkung" or "spooky action at a distance." Yet, despite Einstein's skepticism about entanglement, this "spooky" phenomenon has been verified over and over again. Many of those verifications have concerned testing increasing distances over which entanglement can be demonstrated. This new test took the opposite approach, investigating entanglement over a distance of just one quadrillionth of a meter, finding it actually occurs within individual protons. The team found that the sharing of information that defines entanglement occurs across whole groups of fundamental particles called quarks and gluons within a proton. "Before we did this work, no one had looked at entanglement inside of a proton in experimental high-energy collision data," team member and Brookhaven Lab physicist Zhoudunming Tu said in a statement. "For decades, we've had a traditional view of the proton as a collection of quarks and gluons, and we've been focused on understanding so-called single-particle properties, including how quarks and gluons are distributed inside the proton. "Now, with evidence that quarks and gluons are entangled, this picture has changed. We have a much more complicated, dynamic system." The team's research, the culmination of six years of work, refines scientists' understanding of how entanglement influences the structure of protons. The team's research was published in the journal Reports on Progress in Physics.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: To members of his synagogue, the voice that played over the speakers of Congregation Emanu El in Houston sounded just like Rabbi Josh Fixler's. In the same steady rhythm his congregation had grown used to, the voice delivered a sermon about what it meant to be a neighbor in the age of artificial intelligence. Then, Rabbi Fixler took to the bimah himself. "The audio you heard a moment ago may have sounded like my words," he said. "But they weren't." The recording was created by what Rabbi Fixler called "Rabbi Bot," an A.I. chatbot trained on his old sermons. The chatbot, created with the help of a data scientist, wrote the sermon, even delivering it in an A.I. version of his voice. During the rest of the service, Rabbi Fixler intermittently asked Rabbi Bot questions aloud, which it would promptly answer. Rabbi Fixler is among a growing number of religious leaders experimenting with A.I. in their work, spurring an industry of faith-based tech companies that offer A.I. tools, from assistants that can do theological research to chatbots that can help write sermons. [...] Religious leaders have used A.I. to translate their livestreamed sermons into different languages in real time, blasting them out to international audiences. Others have compared chatbots trained on tens of thousands of pages of Scripture to a fleet of newly trained seminary students, able to pull excerpts about certain topics nearly instantaneously. The report's author draws a parallel to previous generations' initial apprehension -- and eventual embrace -- of transformative technologies like radio, television, and the internet. "For centuries, new technologies have changed the ways people worship, from the radio in the 1920s to television sets in the 1950s and the internet in the 1990s," the report says. "Some proponents of A.I. in religious spaces have gone back even further, comparing A.I.'s potential -- and fears of it -- to the invention of the printing press in the 15th century."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Arch Linux User Repository Requires Packages To Support x86_64: No ARM-Only Software  Phoronix

A Handheld Computer Free of Walled Gardens  Hackster.io

The shift from paywalled to open-access scientific publishing is progressing, driven in part by platforms like Sci-Hub -- a website that allows users to upload PDFs of published papers and share them with anyone. While the shadow library website has faced ongoing attempts by publishers to block access, it has another problem: the platform features many outdated or retracted papers that could spread misinformation or flawed findings. Ars Technica reports: Sci-Hub works a bit like a combination of cache and aggregator for published materials. Whenever it gets a request for a paper that's not already in its database, it uses leaked login credentials to go to the website of whatever journal published the paper and obtain a copy. If it already has a copy, however, it will simply serve that up instead. This leaves open the possibility that it will have obtained a copy of a paper prior to its retraction and continue to distribute that copy after the paper has been retracted. To check this, the researchers obtained a list of nearly 17,000 retracted papers and searched for them on Sci-Hub. They then visually examined the documents that were returned. They found that 85 percent of them contained no indication that the paper had been retracted. "The availability of [unlabeled retracted articles] in the field of health sciences is particularly high," they note, "which indicates a significant risk of their unintended use and further citation in future research." While corrections are less severe than retractions, they're likely to suffer a similar problem. And corrections will often involve the technical details of a paper -- the experimental approaches or raw data that will be critical for anyone wanting to replicate or extend previously published results. So, if anything, their impact will be more significant. Ars notes that a system called Crossmark is available to help find the most up-to-date version of a paper, including any corrections or retraction notices.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

According to police, the man killed in the January 1st Las Vegas Cybertruck blast used ChatGPT to plan the explosion. The Hill reports: In a press conference, Tuesday, Las Vegas police released more details of the intentions of 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger, who died of a gunshot wound prior to the car exploding. Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill said it was concerning that Livelsberger used ChatGPT, a popular artificial intelligence model created by OpenAI, to carry out the explosion. According to police, Livelsberger asked ChatGPT various questions, including where the largest gun stores in Denver were, information about the explosive targets Tannerite and pistols. "We knew that AI was going to change the game at some point or another in really all of our lives and certainly, I think this is the first incidence that I'm aware of on U.S. soil where ChatGPT is utilized to help an individual build a particular device, to learn information all across the country as they're moving forward," McMahill said. "And so, absolutely, it's a concerning moment for us," he continued.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

At CES 2025 today, Lenovo introduced the Legion Go S handheld gaming console. It marks the first officially licensed handheld that comes pre-loaded with Valve's Arch Linux based SteamOS operating system. Phoronix reports: This first officially licensed SteamOS handheld is making use of the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme SoC with Radeon 700M graphics, an 8-inch 1200p LCD touchscreen with VRR support, up to 32GB of LPDDR5x-6400 memory, up to 1TB of PCIe Gen4 SSD storage, and a 55 Whr battery. Pricing starts at $500 USD with availability beginning in May. Sadly this Lenovo Legion Go handheld running SteamOS is making use of the Ryzen Z1 Extreme and not the Ryzen Z2 announced by AMD yesterday with the Zen 5 cores. But at CES Lenovo is showing off the Lenovo Legion Go (8.8", 2) prototype that uses the AMD Ryzen Z2 Go SoC along with an OLED display albeit a Windows gaming device. Additional details are available in Lenovo's press release.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Laptop screens can feel cramped. But what if you could magically get more real estate without having to carry around a portable monitor? That's precisely the purpose of Lenovo's ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable AI PC -- yes, rollable. It has an OLED display that, with the push of a button, extends the 14-inch screen upward to make for an awkward aspect ratio, but roughly doubles the screen space to 16.7 inches. Two screens are better than one for productivity, but what if one screen could be two but still one? Yes. It plays a fun animation and some music when it does its rolling thing. You can also activate the rolling action with a palm gesture; once it scans your palm, shift it up or down to raise or lower the screen. (Pressing the button on the keyboard is way faster.) You can take advantage of Windows 11 window snapping features to put apps one on top of the other. I stacked two browser windows, but you can put other apps below too. Considering I'm already that guy who brings a spare portable monitor everywhere, this just seems like a more elegant solution that takes up less space in my bag. And of course, anyone can take advantage of the long aspect ratio to get a better look at documents, PDFs, and web pages. Lenovo says it has tested the rolling function 30,000 times, and it has performed without flaws, so you can rest a little easier about reliability, though repairing this machine sounds like it will be a task. The whole laptop doesn't feel significantly different from a normal machine, weighing just 3.7 pounds -- that's 1 pound less than the 16-inch MacBook Pro. However, walking with your laptop open in your hand might be weird, as it feels a little top heavy. When closed, it's 19.9 mm thin -- the 16-inch MacBook Pro is 15.4 mm, so Lenovo's machine is thicker, but not as thick as a gaming laptop. Lenovo published a concept video on YouTube.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The OnePlus 13 launched in the North American market today, making it the first flagship smartphone of 2025. As the smartphone market continues to consolidate, it has become increasingly difficult for non-Samsung, Google, and Apple devices to gain significant traction in the competitive U.S. market. Nevertheless, OnePlus has continually released premium flagship-tier devices at relatively modest price points, hoping to pry users away from the Big Tech monoliths. The OnePlus 13 features Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, up to 16GB of RAM, a 6.82" QHD+ OLED display, a triple Hasselblad-branded camera system, a massive 6,000mAh battery, and support for 5G networks across all major carriers in the U.S. and Canada. A full list of specifications can be found here. Based on the early reviews, the OnePlus 13 appears to set the bar high with not a lot of faults to highlight among reviewers. Here are some of our favorite reviews published today: OnePlus 13 review: finally, a flagship that can hang (The Verge) OnePlus 13 review: I'm dumbfounded, I can't find anything wrong with this phone (TechRadar) OnePlus 13 Review: Ship Shape? (Michael Fisher) OnePlus 13 Review: The Bar Has Been Set! (Marques Brownlee) The OnePlus 13 is finally a OnePlus flagship I trust to do it all (Android Authority) OnePlus 13 Review: 2025's First Flagship Finds Success (Forbes) OnePlus 13 review: The complete package (BGR) The OnePlus 13 sets a new bar for smartphone performance (Business Insider) This is not a Slashvertisement. We just like shiny, new tech.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"Nvidia has officially introduced its highly anticipated GeForce 50 Series graphics cards, accompanied by the debut of DLSS 4 technology," writes Slashdot reader jjslash. "The lineup includes four premium GPUs: the RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 are slated for release on January 30, with the RTX 5070 and RTX 5070 Ti following in February. TechSpot recount of the Jensen Huang keynote tries to differentiate between dubious performance claims and actual expected raw output": The new RTX 5090 flagship comes packing significantly more hardware over its predecessor. Not only does this GPU use Nvidia's new Blackwell architecture, but it also packs significantly more CUDA cores, greater memory bandwidth, and a higher VRAM capacity. The SM count has increased from 128 with the RTX 4090 to a whopping 170 with the RTX 5090 -- a 33% increase in the core size. The memory subsystem is overhauled, now featuring GDDR7 technology on a massive 512-bit bus. With this GDDR7 memory clocked at 28 Gbps, memory bandwidth reaches 1,792 GB/s -- a near 80% increase over the RTX 4090's bandwidth. It also includes 32GB of VRAM, the most Nvidia has ever provided on a consumer GPU. [...] As for the performance claims... Nvidia has - as usual - used its marketing to obscure actual gaming performance. RTX 50 GPUs support DLSS 4 multi-frame generation, which previous-generation GPUs lack. This means RTX 50 series GPUs can generate double the frames of previous-gen models in DLSS-supported games, making them appear up to twice as "fast" as RTX 40 series GPUs. But in reality, while FPS numbers will increase with DLSS 4, latency and gameplay feel may not improve as dramatically. [...] The claim that the RTX 5070 matches the RTX 4090 in performance seems dubious. Perhaps it could match in frame rate with DLSS 4, but certainly not in raw, non-DLSS performance. Based on Nvidia's charts, the RTX 5070 seems 20-30% faster than the RTX 4070 at 1440p. This would place the RTX 5070 slightly ahead of the RTX 4070 Super for about $50 less, or alternatively, 20-30% faster than the RTX 4070 for the same price. These GeForce 50 series wasn't the only announcement Nvidia made at CES 2025. The chipmaker unveiled a $3,000 personal AI supercomputer, capable of running sophisticated AI models with up to 200 billion parameters. It also announced plans to introduce AI-powered autonomous characters in video games this year, starting with a virtual teammate in the battle royale game PUBG.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The US Justice Department today announced it filed an antitrust lawsuit against "six of the nation's largest landlords for participating in algorithmic pricing schemes that harmed renters." One of the landlords, Cortland Management, agreed to a settlement "that requires it to cooperate with the government, stop using its competitors' sensitive data to set rents and stop using the same algorithm as its competitors without a corporate monitor," the DOJ said. The pending settlement requires Cortland to "cooperate fully and truthfully... in any civil investigation or civil litigation the United States brings or has brought" on this subject matter. The US previously sued RealPage, a software maker accused of helping landlords collectively set prices by giving them access to competitors' nonpublic pricing and occupancy information. The original version of the lawsuit described actions by landlords but did not name any as defendants. The Justice Department filed an amended complaint (PDF) today in order to add the landlords as defendants. The landlord defendants are Greystar, LivCor, Camden, Cushman, Willow Bridge, and Cortland, which collectively "operate more than 1.3 million units in 43 states and the District of Columbia," the DOJ said. "The amended complaint alleges that the six landlords actively participated in a scheme to set their rents using each other's competitively sensitive information through common pricing algorithms," the DOJ said. The phrase "price fixing" came up in discussions between landlords, the amended complaint said: "For example, in Minnesota, property managers from Cushman & Wakefield, Greystar, and other landlords regularly discussed competitively sensitive topics, including their future pricing. When a property manager from Greystar remarked that another property manager had declined to fully participate due to 'price fixing laws,' the Cushman & Wakefield property manager replied to Greystar, 'Hmm... Price fixing laws huh? That's a new one! Well, I'm happy to keep sharing so ask away. Hoping we can kick these concessions soon or at least only have you guys be the only ones with big concessions! It's so frustrating to have to offer so much.'" The Justice Department is joined in the case by the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington. The case is in US District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. Further reading: Are We Entering an AI Price-Fixing Dystopia?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Thailand has banned plastic waste imports over concerns about toxic pollution, as experts warn that failure to agree a global treaty to cut plastic waste will harm human health. From a report: A law banning imports of plastic waste came into force this month in Thailand, after years of campaigning by activists. Thailand is one of several south-east Asian countries that has historically been paid to receive plastic waste from developed nations. The country became a leading destination for exports of plastic waste from Europe, the US, the UK and Japan in 2018 after China, the world's biggest market for household waste, imposed a ban. Japan is one of the biggest exporters of waste plastic to Thailand, with about 50m kg exported in 2023. Thai customs officials said more than 1.1m tonnes of plastic scraps were imported between 2018 and 2021. Imports of plastic were often mismanaged in Thailand, with many factories burning the waste rather than recycling it, leading to damage to human health and the environment.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Hackers claim to have compromised Gravy Analytics, the parent company of Venntel which has sold masses of smartphone location data to the U.S. government. 404 Media: The hackers said they have stolen a massive amount of data, including customer lists, information on the broader industry, and even location data harvested from smartphones which show peoples' precise movements, and they are threatening to publish the data publicly. The news is a crystalizing moment for the location data industry. For years, companies have harvested location information from smartphones, either through ordinary apps or the advertising ecosystem, and then built products based on that data or sold it to others. In many cases, those customers include the U.S. government, with arms of the military, DHS, the IRS, and FBI using it for various purposes. But collecting that data presents an attractive target to hackers.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Valve wants SteamOS on every device, and I couldn't be happier that a public beta is coming soon  XDA Developers

Sony-owned anime streaming service Crunchyroll plans to launch a manga reading app in 2025, its second attempt at entering the digital manga market after shuttering a similar service in 2023. The new app, Crunchyroll Manga, will be available initially in the United States and Canada in English, as a premium add-on for subscribers. The move comes amid broader changes at Crunchyroll, including its recent decision to put popular anime series "One Piece" behind a paywall and Sony's pending merger with publisher Kadokawa.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.