Month: August 2024
Nvidia Revenue Beats Expectations
Expectations for the chipmaker have been through the roof because of its dominance in a key component for artificial intelligence systems.
Expectations for the chipmaker have been through the roof because of its dominance in a key component for artificial intelligence systems.
Office Usage Has Peaked in North America
An anonymous reader shares a report: While people in Asia are spending more time in the office, workers in the US and UK are not, according to a new report from XY Sense, a company that uses sensors to track office occupancy in more than 40,000 workspaces. While office space utilization — the share of used spaces within an office out of all available space — in the Asia-Pacific region grew 10 percentage points last quarter to 41%, that rate stayed at 28% in North America and declined in the UK. The so-called return to the office has been much slower in the US than abroad, partly because of factors like longer commute times, larger homes, and cultural individualism here.
Office utilization in North America is about half what it was pre-pandemic, according to XY Sense. When people do go into the office, meeting spaces are much more in demand. On average, time spent using collaborative spaces like conference rooms (4 hours a day) was 54% higher than individual desks (2.6 hours), and lack of communal space has become a big pain point for companies. Meanwhile XY Sense found that half of office desks were utilized for less than one hour per day, while 30% were never used at all.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
An anonymous reader shares a report: While people in Asia are spending more time in the office, workers in the US and UK are not, according to a new report from XY Sense, a company that uses sensors to track office occupancy in more than 40,000 workspaces. While office space utilization — the share of used spaces within an office out of all available space — in the Asia-Pacific region grew 10 percentage points last quarter to 41%, that rate stayed at 28% in North America and declined in the UK. The so-called return to the office has been much slower in the US than abroad, partly because of factors like longer commute times, larger homes, and cultural individualism here.
Office utilization in North America is about half what it was pre-pandemic, according to XY Sense. When people do go into the office, meeting spaces are much more in demand. On average, time spent using collaborative spaces like conference rooms (4 hours a day) was 54% higher than individual desks (2.6 hours), and lack of communal space has become a big pain point for companies. Meanwhile XY Sense found that half of office desks were utilized for less than one hour per day, while 30% were never used at all.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Beats and Verdy Debut Collectible Bear Figure That Holds Your Beats Pill
Apple’s Beats brand is partnering with Japanese graphic artist Verdy for a limited edition collectible art figure that doubles as a holder for the new Beats Pill speaker. The $500 hyper-limited drop includes a matte black Beats Pill and a cream-colored bear named Vear that holds the speaker between its paws.
Beats has a tradition of fun characters associated with the Beats Pill, including ad campaigns and speaker stands for previous models centered around the Beats Pill Characters or “Dudes” in various colors. Apple revived the Dudes for the launch of the updated Beats Pill this year, so the new Vear character fits right into that theme even though it won’t be seeing a wide release.
Beats and Verdy also have a history of collaborations, most recently in 2023 for Beats Flex earphones themed around Verdy’s Girls Don’t Cry brand.
The Vear and Beats Pill bundle will be available to order this Friday, August 30, exclusively through Complex, with shipping following in two to three weeks.Tag: BeatsThis article, “Beats and Verdy Debut Collectible Bear Figure That Holds Your Beats Pill” first appeared on MacRumors.comDiscuss this article in our forums
Apple’s Beats brand is partnering with Japanese graphic artist Verdy for a limited edition collectible art figure that doubles as a holder for the new Beats Pill speaker. The $500 hyper-limited drop includes a matte black Beats Pill and a cream-colored bear named Vear that holds the speaker between its paws.
Beats has a tradition of fun characters associated with the Beats Pill, including ad campaigns and speaker stands for previous models centered around the Beats Pill Characters or “Dudes” in various colors. Apple revived the Dudes for the launch of the updated Beats Pill this year, so the new Vear character fits right into that theme even though it won’t be seeing a wide release.
Beats and Verdy also have a history of collaborations, most recently in 2023 for Beats Flex earphones themed around Verdy’s Girls Don’t Cry brand.
The Vear and Beats Pill bundle will be available to order this Friday, August 30, exclusively through Complex, with shipping following in two to three weeks.
This article, “Beats and Verdy Debut Collectible Bear Figure That Holds Your Beats Pill” first appeared on MacRumors.com
Discuss this article in our forums
Google AI reintroduces human image generation after historical accuracy outcry
Ars testing shows some historical prompts no longer generate artificially diverse scenes.
Imagen 3’s vision of a basketball-playing president is a bit akin to the Fresh Prince’s Uncle Phil. [credit:
Google / Ars Technica ]
Google’s Gemini AI model is once again able to generate images of humans after that function was “paused” in February following outcry over historically inaccurate racial depictions in many results.
In a blog post, Google said that its Imagen 3 model—which was first announced in May—will “start to roll out the generation of images of people” to Gemini Advanced, Business, and Enterprise users in the “coming days.” But a version of that Imagen model—complete with human image-generation capabilities—was recently made available to the public via the Gemini Labs test environment without a paid subscription (though a Google account is needed to log in).
That new model comes with some safeguards to try to avoid the creation of controversial images, of course. Google writes in its announcement that it doesn’t support “the generation of photorealistic, identifiable individuals, depictions of minors or excessively gory, violent or sexual scenes.” In an FAQ, Google clarifies that the prohibition on “identifiable individuals” includes “certain queries that could lead to outputs of prominent people.” In Ars’ testing, that meant a query like “President Biden playing basketball” would be refused, while a more generic request for “a US president playing basketball” would generate multiple options.
OpenAI’s Converge 2 program has been shrouded in mystery
For months, a tech forum ran wild asking if the Converge 2 accelerator program actually happened. We finally found out.
© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
For months, a tech forum ran wild asking if the Converge 2 accelerator program actually happened. We finally found out.
© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Meta is going to let preteens use Horizon Worlds
Image: Meta
Meta is opening up Horizon Worlds, its 3D social platform, to users between the ages of 10 and 12, the company announced on Wednesday. As part of the rollout, parents will have a significant amount of control over what experiences their preteens can access, and experiences will get age ratings to help parents determine which ones are appropriate for their children.
For a preteen to use Horizon Worlds, they’ll have to have a parent-managed Meta account and request access to Horizon Worlds itself. Once a parent has approved that, preteens can request access to individual experiences, or parents can mark a setting that lets their preteen jump into all experiences that fall within a certain age rating. (Meta will rate experiences as appropriate for ages 10 and up, ages 13 and up, and ages 18 and up.)
Meta has a few other protections in place for preteens, too. Voice chat is disabled for Meta accounts managed by parents, though parents can allow voice chat with certain contacts. Preteens will be shown as offline by default unless a parent changes that. And Horizon Worlds’ personal boundary setting will be on for accounts managed by parents to prevent other users from getting too close in virtual space.
Horizon Worlds used to only be available in VR, but some experiences are now accessible from the Meta Horizon mobile app, too. Meta recently redesigned the app to put a bigger focus on Horizon Worlds.
Last month, Meta also announced that preteens with parent-managed accounts would, with parental approval, be able to chat or call with others in mixed reality and virtual reality experiences.
Image: Meta
Meta is opening up Horizon Worlds, its 3D social platform, to users between the ages of 10 and 12, the company announced on Wednesday. As part of the rollout, parents will have a significant amount of control over what experiences their preteens can access, and experiences will get age ratings to help parents determine which ones are appropriate for their children.
For a preteen to use Horizon Worlds, they’ll have to have a parent-managed Meta account and request access to Horizon Worlds itself. Once a parent has approved that, preteens can request access to individual experiences, or parents can mark a setting that lets their preteen jump into all experiences that fall within a certain age rating. (Meta will rate experiences as appropriate for ages 10 and up, ages 13 and up, and ages 18 and up.)
Meta has a few other protections in place for preteens, too. Voice chat is disabled for Meta accounts managed by parents, though parents can allow voice chat with certain contacts. Preteens will be shown as offline by default unless a parent changes that. And Horizon Worlds’ personal boundary setting will be on for accounts managed by parents to prevent other users from getting too close in virtual space.
Horizon Worlds used to only be available in VR, but some experiences are now accessible from the Meta Horizon mobile app, too. Meta recently redesigned the app to put a bigger focus on Horizon Worlds.
Last month, Meta also announced that preteens with parent-managed accounts would, with parental approval, be able to chat or call with others in mixed reality and virtual reality experiences.