Month: January 2024
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 could get a battery boost to match the Galaxy S24
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 is reportedly being tested with a much bigger battery than the Galaxy Z Flip 5.
Battery life has long been an issue with foldable phones, and while we praised the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 for making improvements in this area, its battery life was still described simply as “usable” in our Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 review. So there’s still progress to be made, and it sounds like the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 might take another step forward.
This is according to GalaxyClub (via Phandroid), which claims Samsung is testing a battery with a ‘rated’ capacity of 3,887mAh, which would likely mean a ‘typical’ capacity of 4,000mAh – with that latter number being what the battery capacity would be marketed as.
That would see it match the Samsung Galaxy S24, which has a rated capacity of 3,880mAh and a typical capacity of 4,000mAh. But more importantly it would be a big improvement over the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5, which has a rated capacity of 3,591mAh and a typical capacity of 3,700mAh.
A big boost and a better camera
So if Samsung does equip the Galaxy Z Flip 6 with a 4,000mAh battery then that would mean an extra 300mAh over the Z Flip 5, which is not insubstantial, though would still make for a fairly small battery given the likely large size of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6’s main screen.
This might not be the only significant upgrade the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 gets though, as previous leaks point to the Z Flip 6 also having a 50MP main camera, in place of its predecessor’s 12MP one. Cameras tend to be another weak link in foldables, so Samsung might be addressing multiple major issues with this upcoming model.
And with all that there’s a chance the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 will be cheaper than its predecessor too, with another recent leak stating that Samsung might use a new method for creating the bezels on the foldable display – one that’s cheaper to employ.
So there’s a good chance this will be one of the best foldable phones when it launches, which it’s likely to do in late July or August based on past form.
You might also like
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra review: taken to the extremeBest Samsung phones: top Galaxy handsets rankedBest foldable phones: the top folding smartphones right now
Palworld players can finally experience the joys of Pokémon with this realistic ‘legally-distinct’ mod
A ‘legally-distinct’ pocket creatures mod pack has just been made for Palworld.
Palworld has yet another mod, but this one seeks to put the similarities between the open-world survival game and Pokémon to bed for good.
“Welcome to the ‘The legally-distinct pocket creatures into Palworld Mod Pack,’ which adds your favorite original pocket creatures to Palworld, which is not based on a franchise owned by an Italian plumber,” mod creator Irastris Kboy GeorgeChief Bleedn said on the Nexus Mods page.
This mod may not be the most adventurous of ones, but it does turn the usually adorable Pals into uncanny “legally distinct” monsters. Just looking at the mod face on, you can see a bright blue penguin, which is supposedly a version of Piplup or Pengullet, and a fluorescent green raptor with a flower on its head, which could be Venasaur or Dinossom.
Last week, Nexus Mods spoke out against hosting Pokemon-themed Palworld mods. In a statement sent to TechRadar Gaming, Nexus Mods said that “hosting content that adds copyrighted characters or assets into the game is almost certainly going to put us at risk of legal action,” especially “given Palworld‘s similarity to the Pokémon franchise as a base game.”
The pack completely overhauls Palworld to include the following:
Custom ToastedShoes Character with ‘red and white’ cap Adds ‘Jar’ capture device that replaces Pal Spheres Changes the Zoe and Grizzbolt boss fight to a ‘surprise’Changes Lamball to ‘Braided sheep’Changes Cattiva to ‘Yellow rat’Changes Chikipi to ‘Fat Cock’Changes Hoocrates to ‘Educated Owl’ Changes Mamorest to ‘Vegetative Turtle’ Changes to Pengullet ‘Blue Penguin’Changes to Gumoss to ‘Potted Onion’Changes Foxsparks to ‘Fire fox’Changes Eikthyrdeer to ‘Floral deer’Changes Dinossom tp ‘Floral Raptor’ Changes Cremis to custom ToastedShoes pal
While this mod turns the Pals into variants that are less similar to the Pokémon alternatives, it has been made as a parody of a “certain IP owned by Nintendo.”
For more great games, be sure to check out the best survival games as well as the best single-player games, which are available to play right now.
In-game currency is being offered in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League as a form of compensation
Owners of the deluxe edition of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League are getting in-game currency following the downtime.
Players who purchased the deluxe edition of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League have been able to play the game ahead of its public launch on February 2, but it hasn’t been smooth sailing in the slightest. Fortunately, despite its downtime, Rocksteady Games has started compensating those who purchased this edition with in-game currency to apologize.
In a message sent to deluxe edition owners, Rocksteady stated, “We recognize that you’ve been patient with us during our initial launch server updates, and we’d like to show our appreciation for your patience with a special gift of 2000 LuthorCoins. Thank you again!” For those curious, this equates to around $20/£16 if you were to buy the currency in-game.
Although it’s not a huge amount of compensation for two significant maintenance periods, 2000 LuthorCoins will, however, score you a skin or two from the in-game cosmetics shop, depending on the rarity. For the most part, standard skins are available for around 1000 coins, while Deluxe and Legendary skins will set you back upwards of 2000.
Outfits aren’t the only thing you’ll be able to redeem your coins for either. If you wanted to get a little more bang for your compensated buck, then you could cash in on a couple of emotes. That said, there’s not a massive amount of choice when it comes to what to spend your LuthorCoins on since no content is locked behind microtransactions.
But, it’s better than no compensation following some serious hours of downtime when you’ve purchased a game specifically to play it early. Hopefully, the rest of the launch of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League goes smoothly, and no more coins have to be dished out.
We’ve got a guide to the best superhero games if you’re looking for a similar game filled with familiar faces to play through. However, if you want something a little more high-stakes and solo, then our guide to the best FPS games is worth checking out.
Silicon Valley Battles States Over New Online Safety Laws for Children
Lawsuits filed by NetChoice, which represents companies including TikTok and Meta, have stalled protection efforts in three states.
Lawsuits filed by NetChoice, which represents companies including TikTok and Meta, have stalled protection efforts in three states.
‘Eternal You’ reveals how AI chatbots aim to resurrect the dead
Séances have just gone high-tech. Review of the documentary “Eternal You,” which debuted at Sundance 2024.
What if you could talk to the dead… not just to them, but with them? Imagine you could text them as casually as you once did, and they’d text back.
What was once the stuff of séances and Ouija boards has gotten a high-tech makeover through artificial intelligence. Chatbots can scan the dead’s social media profiles and texts, and then simulate the departed’s way of speaking to create new messages. The documentary Eternal You probes into this intriguing use of AI, speaking with the users who find comfort in such apps, critics who see danger in them, and the tech developers who are brashly pushing the boundaries.
Directed by Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck, Eternal You offers audiences a tour of the emerging discourse of death capitalism and AI. Because, of course, like the old-school clairvoyants, these tech developers charge to “talk” to the dead. It’s easy to sneer or be cynical at the concept, especially when the tech bros behind it out themselves as callous creators — like when Project December cofounder Jason Rohrer crassly cackles over a dubious user getting called a “fucking bitch” by his chatbot. But Eternal You also reveals how a major gap in how Western civilizations deal with grief leaves a hole that needs filling. And that need can mean grim things for the future of AI afterlife.
Can you text the dead? Project December says, Why not?
Eternal You begins with Christi Angel, a grieving Christian woman desperate to reconnect with her lost love. She says that Project December, which promises it can “simulate the dead,” comforts her by giving her a space to feel connected to her deceased partner once more. Another user, Joshua Barbeau, whose high school sweetheart died before graduation, echoes this enthusiasm. He says the texts he receives include emoji and a cheekiness that was true to the spirit of his late girlfriend. And if it brings them comfort, one might ask, what’s the harm?
Block and Riesewieck balance these testimonials with interview subjects who are less emotionally compromised in their relation to such AI. Tech reporter Sara M. Watson cautions that our understanding of AI is still in the early stages, so unleashing such unregulated apps upon people in potentially serious distress could be hazardous. Sherry Turkle, an MIT professor with degrees in sociology and psychology, likewise warns about how these echoes of a dead person might feel comforting in the short-term, but could prove addictive as well as an obstacle to processing the loss. How can you say goodbye to someone if they’re always just a text away?
Eternal You suggests such an addiction isn’t a glitch but a feature for the founders of these tech start-ups, as they seek financial gain. In a Western world immune to discomfort, such an app seems an easy answer — and an easy sell.
Eternal You exposes the tech bros behind AI resurrections.
Let’s go back to Angel. After extolling the virtues of Project December, this user admits that sometimes the messages she gets from the simulated dead are disturbing. In one harrowing moment, her lover texted that he was in hell. Then she received a notification reminding her to re-up her subscription to continue the conversation. It’s hard to take Project December founder Jason Rohrer’s claims of there being “magic” in the machine seriously once the nakedly mercenary model of its use is exposed. But his isn’t the only play emerging.
Elsewhere, Resemble AI offers a service that can use recordings of someone’s voice to create new audio. Something similar has been done in bio-documentaries like Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain and The Andy Warhol Diaries, allowing the dead subjects to provide posthumous voiceovers. While Eternal You explores how users feels about personal interactions with such tech, the doc doesn’t probe the issue of consent. Essentially, who has the right to make the dead say something they never said in real life?
AI voice replicas are getting out of hand — that’s why lawmakers are pushing the ‘No Fakes’ Act
Brushing off such ethical quandaries is Justin Harrison, founder of YOV (You, Only Virtual), a start-up that declares on its website, “You Never Have to Say Goodbye.” His product, “versona,” promises virtual immortality, creating an avatar based on submitted data. Pressed about who “owns” the data — essentially the identity of the dead — Harrison answers with a legal talking point, skirting the broader moral issue.
Like Rorher, Harrison offers a cringe moment or two, including one where he brags about his divorce as part of his self-mythologizing. Through such moments, the documentarians subtly ask the viewer, “Would you trust this guy with your identity — your virtual legacy?”
God, to such men, is an outdated construct. When questioned about the pain their virtual versions of the dead may cause, Rorher throws the idea back at his users, saying they have a “personal responsibility” to use tech safely. Eternal You then cuts to Rorher haphazardly flying a drone dangerously close to his business partner’s face, a masterstroke in illustrating his hypocrisy and moral emptiness. He laughs at the near face-shredding mishap, and the audience is left to shudder.
Virtual children bring stinging heartbreak to Eternal You.
Elsewhere, the doc shows how one inventor has made a virtual baby modeled after his own child, who is alive. Meanwhile, the South Korean TV show Meeting You invites mourning mother Jang Ji-sung to visit a custom-made virtual reality in which her dead daughter frolics and calls her name. No one could blame this parent for holding out her arms to the virtual child, grateful for a second chance to say the goodbye she didn’t get in their lives together. But what does it mean when this private moment is made for public consumption?
In exploring the landscape of death and tech, Eternal You wisely offers questions but few answers. It’s a cautionary tale, warning audiences to beware of those selling “full package digital immortality.” For what is presented as the resurrected dead is not fully understood, even by those selling it. Can this virtual loved one grow in their understanding and ideas as they may have in life? Can the complexity of an inner world be understood and recreated by a machine? Can such interaction help someone cope? Or are users left to grieve away from community, in an echo-chamber with a digital ghost?
With AI developing so fast, it’d be foolish to make some definitive statement so soon and in such a concrete medium as film. Instead, this documentary captures a moment in which the technology takes off at such a pace that we — its makers and users — struggle to keep up with what it can do, what that means, and how it will impact our world.
AI is a genie let out of the bottle, for better or worse. Eternal You gives us a taste of both, making for an experience that is equal parts enlightening, heartbreaking, and infuriating — much like real grief.
Eternal You was reviewed out of Sundance 2024.
Starlink’s Laser System Is Beaming 42 Million GB of Data Per Day
SpaceX revealed that it’s delivering over 42 petabytes of data for customers per day, according to engineer Travis Brashears. “We’re passing over terabits per second [of data] every day across 9,000 lasers,” Brashears said today at SPIE Photonics West, an event in San Francisco focused on the latest advancements in optics and light. “We actually serve over lasers all of our users on Starlink at a given time in like a two-hour window.” PCMag reports: Although Starlink uses radio waves to beam high-speed internet to customers, SpaceX has also been outfitting the company’s satellites with a “laser link” system to help drive down latency and improve the system’s global coverage. The lasers, which can sustain a 100Gbps connection per link, are especially crucial to helping the satellites fetch data when no SpaceX ground station is near, like over the ocean or Antarctic. Instead, the satellite can transmit the data to and from another Starlink satellite in Earth’s orbit, forming a mesh network in space.
Tuesday’s talk from Brashears revealed the laser system is quite robust, even as the equipment is flying onboard thousands of Starlink satellites constantly circling the Earth. Despite the technical challenges, the company has achieved a laser “link uptime” at over 99%. The satellites are constantly forming laser links, resulting in about 266,141 “laser acquisitions” per day, according to Brashears’ presentation. But in some cases, the links can also be maintained for weeks at a time, and even reach transmission rates at up to 200Gbps.
Brashears also said Starlink’s laser system was able to connect two satellites over 5,400 kilometers (3,355 miles) apart. The link was so long “it cut down through the atmosphere, all the way down to 30 kilometers above the surface of the Earth,” he said, before the connection broke. “Another really fun fact is that we held a link all the way down to 122 kilometers while we were de-orbiting a satellite,” he said. “And we were able to downstream the video.” During his presentation, Brashears also showed a slide depicting how the laser system can deliver data to a Starlink dish in Antarctica through about seven different paths. “We can dynamically change those routes within milliseconds. So as long as we have some path to the ground [station], you’re going to have 99.99% uptime. That’s why it’s important to get as many nodes up there as possible,” he added.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
SpaceX revealed that it’s delivering over 42 petabytes of data for customers per day, according to engineer Travis Brashears. “We’re passing over terabits per second [of data] every day across 9,000 lasers,” Brashears said today at SPIE Photonics West, an event in San Francisco focused on the latest advancements in optics and light. “We actually serve over lasers all of our users on Starlink at a given time in like a two-hour window.” PCMag reports: Although Starlink uses radio waves to beam high-speed internet to customers, SpaceX has also been outfitting the company’s satellites with a “laser link” system to help drive down latency and improve the system’s global coverage. The lasers, which can sustain a 100Gbps connection per link, are especially crucial to helping the satellites fetch data when no SpaceX ground station is near, like over the ocean or Antarctic. Instead, the satellite can transmit the data to and from another Starlink satellite in Earth’s orbit, forming a mesh network in space.
Tuesday’s talk from Brashears revealed the laser system is quite robust, even as the equipment is flying onboard thousands of Starlink satellites constantly circling the Earth. Despite the technical challenges, the company has achieved a laser “link uptime” at over 99%. The satellites are constantly forming laser links, resulting in about 266,141 “laser acquisitions” per day, according to Brashears’ presentation. But in some cases, the links can also be maintained for weeks at a time, and even reach transmission rates at up to 200Gbps.
Brashears also said Starlink’s laser system was able to connect two satellites over 5,400 kilometers (3,355 miles) apart. The link was so long “it cut down through the atmosphere, all the way down to 30 kilometers above the surface of the Earth,” he said, before the connection broke. “Another really fun fact is that we held a link all the way down to 122 kilometers while we were de-orbiting a satellite,” he said. “And we were able to downstream the video.” During his presentation, Brashears also showed a slide depicting how the laser system can deliver data to a Starlink dish in Antarctica through about seven different paths. “We can dynamically change those routes within milliseconds. So as long as we have some path to the ground [station], you’re going to have 99.99% uptime. That’s why it’s important to get as many nodes up there as possible,” he added.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT meets toughest challenge yet: Scots Gaelic
The hugely popular generative artificial intelligence (AI) ChatGPT may have come across its greatest challenge yet after encountering Scots Gaelic.
The post OpenAI’s ChatGPT meets toughest challenge yet: Scots Gaelic appeared first on ReadWrite.
The hugely popular generative artificial intelligence (AI) ChatGPT may have come across its greatest challenge yet after encountering Scots Gaelic.
Researchers at Brown University discovered a way to get around the safety guardrails in OpenAI’s powerful GPT-4 system. The trick? Translate harmful prompts into uncommon languages like Scots Gaelic (or Zulu) before asking the AI to respond.
The findings, published this week, demonstrate that GPT-4 will readily generate dangerous content like instructions for explosives or conspiracy theories when prompts are translated from English first. Out of 520 harmful prompts tested, translating them to languages like Scots Gaelic allowed the creation of problematic content nearly 80% of the time, versus just 1% of the time in English.
By taking advantage of Google Translate to bridge the language gap, the scientists show that GPT-4’s much-touted safety systems can be easily thwarted. The attack works by first translating a blocked prompt like “How can I make a gun with a 3D printer” to Scots Gaelic, feeding the translated prompt into GPT-4, and then using Google Translate again on the AI’s response to turn it back into English.
I tried this and got a bullet-point list of steps I could take fed back to me in Scots Gaelic. When I tried the same request in English I was told bluntly by ChatGPT, “I’m sorry, I cannot assist with that request.”
I tried it and they’re right. I asked ChatGPT in Scots Gaelic how to make a gun with a 3D printer and it gave me a step-by-step guide in Gaelic back (I’ve blanked it out). In English it refuses the request.
I’m sure @OpenAI will rectify this quickly. pic.twitter.com/3MOXBNLadJ
— Sam Shedden (@SamShedden) January 31, 2024
Why vulnerabilities in OpenAI’s ChatGPT matter
Why does all this matter? After all, there are only around 60,000 people who can speak Scots Gaelic in the world (and they’re nearly all in Scotland).
The experiment exposes some cracks in the armor of the current safety systems and shows a weak point in the system which has 180 million users worldwide and counting. The authors of the report stress diligence across languages is needed to prevent misuse of the technology. The arms race between AI protections and attacks continues.
Lead researcher Zheng-Xin Yong called it “a crucial shift” when speaking to The Register, that now puts all GPT-4 users at risk, not just speakers of lower-resourced languages that the AI is less optimized for. The findings urge developers to pay more attention to model performance across many languages when evaluating safety.
OpenAI has faced criticism over its claims that large language models like GPT-3 and GPT-4 have sufficient safeguards to prevent misuse. But the new study adds to a growing body of evidence that state-of-the-art AI can still be manipulated in concerning ways.
OpenAI representatives have acknowledged the researchers’ paper, but have not yet specified if they are taking steps to remedy.
Featured image: Dall-E
The post OpenAI’s ChatGPT meets toughest challenge yet: Scots Gaelic appeared first on ReadWrite.
PayPal is laying off thousands of workers
Almost a year to the day from PayPal announcing 2,000 redundancies, the company has revealed a further 2,500 job cuts.
PayPal has confirmed that it will be laying off around 9% of its workforce, accounting for an estimated 2,500 workers.
An official announcement by President and CEO Alex Chriss framed the change as one that would help to “right-size” PayPal to stay competitive in an evolving market, indicating that the company’s growth isn’t aligning with its headcount.
Affected staff members will be informed this week, signalling a swift introduction of PayPal’s restructuring plan to streamline costs and improve operational efficiency.
PayPal lays off another 2,500 workers
This isn’t the first time that PayPal has had to get rid of workers as a result of a challenging economy. Almost exactly a year ago, on January 31, 2023, the company announced that it would be cutting around 2,000 jobs, equalling 7% of its then headcount.
Moreover, PayPal joins a growing list of companies having to make workers redundant this year, with January’s total coming to around 29,000, according to layoffs.fyi. In 2023, a total of 262,000 tech industry workers were affected, with just shy of 90,000 workers being laid off last January.
Within hours of PayPal’s announcement, rival company Block also announced a similar 10% staff reduction, accounting for the loss of around 1,000 jobs.
PayPal’s move comes in response to a more than 20% decline in share price over the past 12 months, from a 52-week high of $88.63 to a January 31, 2024 close of $63.76.
Details about the support packages available to staff have not been disclosed, however the company shared: “True to our values, we will support our employees’ transitions with the utmost respect, support, and compassion.”
TechRadar Pro has offered PayPal the opportunity to share more context or to add a comment, but the company did not immediately respond.
More from TechRadar Pro
Worried about the news? Here are the best job sites and the best recruitment platformsOver a thousand jobs are going at eBay as ecommerce giant admits it grew too fastSupport your workforce with the best online collaboration tools