Dominique Luchart's Blog, page 607
June 2, 2021
Judge dismisses charges against Apple chief accused of bribing police officers with iPads,
A Californian court has dismissed bribery charges against Apple’s Chief Security Officer Thomas Moyer, Reuters reports, who was accused of offering iPads as bribes to obtain concealed-weapons permits for Apple employees. Judge Eric S. Geffon dismissed arguments of corrupt intent as “pure speculation” that were “not supported by the evidence presented to the grand jury.”
Moyer was accused last November of trying to bribe Santa Clara County officials by offering to donate 200 iPads to two officers in the sheriff’s office following a meeting in 2019. Moyer had indeed made the offer, but evidence suggests he believed the permits were already approved at this time, Judge Geffon wrote. This, combined with the fact that Moyer followed Apple’s rules about donations and was donating the iPads to the Sheriff’s Office rather than the officers themselves, was seen as further evidence against him acting with corrupt intent.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Apple halted plans to donate the computers to the Sheriff’s Office following media reports about the incident.
In a statement reported by Reuters, Moyer thanked the court for its decision. “I also want to thank Apple, my friends and family for their unwavering support,” he added. Last November, Apple told Ars Technica that an internal investigation had found no wrongdoing. Moyer has reportedly been at Apple for around 15 years, and has served as its global security head since November 2018.
Despite the bribery charges being dismissed, Santa Clara District Attorney Jeff Rosen said prosecutors believed Moyer had been “correctly indicted… for bribery.” Rosen said they “stand by the grand jury’s decision and are evaluating our options.”
The post Judge dismisses charges against Apple chief accused of bribing police officers with iPads, appeared first on NEWDAWN Blog.
Etsy targets Gen Z shoppers with $1.6 billion Depop acquisition, James Vincent
Clothes hangers with Depop’s logo appear in a pop-up shop in Selfridges, London. | Photo by David M. Benett/Getty Images for DepopE-commerce site Etsy, best known for selling handmade and vintage wares, is buying up a cooler, younger rival, UK-based secondhand shopping app Depop.
The $1.6 billion acquisition lets Etsy access Depop’s young and growing userbase. Etsy says more than 90 percent of Depop’s users are under 26, meaning they mostly belong to Gen Z, while Etsy’s own users are firmly millennial, with a median age for sellers of around 39. Etsy claims that Depop is the 10th most visited shopping site for Gen Z consumer in the US.
“We are simply thrilled to be adding Depop — what we believe to be the resale home for Gen Z consumers — to the Etsy family,” Etsy chief executive Josh Silverman said in a press statement. “Depop is a vibrant, two-sided marketplace…
The post Etsy targets Gen Z shoppers with $1.6 billion Depop acquisition, James Vincent appeared first on NEWDAWN Blog.
Etsy targets Gen Z shoppers with $1.6 billion Depop acquisition,
E-commerce site Etsy, best known for selling handmade and vintage wares, is buying up a cooler, younger rival, UK-based secondhand shopping app Depop.
The $1.6 billion acquisition lets Etsy access Depop’s young and growing userbase. Etsy says more than 90 percent of Depop’s users are under 26, meaning they mostly belong to Gen Z, while Etsy’s own users are firmly millennial, with a median age for sellers of around 39. Etsy claims that Depop is the 10th most visited shopping site for Gen Z consumer in the US.
“We are simply thrilled to be adding Depop — what we believe to be the resale home for Gen Z consumers — to the Etsy family,” Etsy chief executive Josh Silverman said in a press statement. “Depop is a vibrant, two-sided marketplace with a passionate community, a highly-differentiated offering of unique items, and we believe significant potential to further scale.”
Depop, founded in 2011, shares Etsy’s love of secondhand clothing. But while Etsy’s brand leans more towards the vintage and cosy, Depop’s is more fashionable. Depop’s revenues doubled last year to $70 million, with most of this income derived from sales commissions.
While Etsy will get access to Depop’s users, Depop itself will be able to draw on Etsy’s experience to scale internationally. “Many of the challenges that we are going through as a business are things that Etsy has gone through before,” Maria Raga, Depop’s chief executive, told The Financial Times. “Etsy has made massive improvements in terms of search and discovery, and this is something that we can definitely learn from.”
The acquisition is the latest sign of activity in the secondhand clothing market, though things are not exactly stable. Depop rivals Poshmark and Thredup, for example, have both seen market caps soar on successful IPOs only to fall again when financial earnings revealed widening losses amid sales growth. And Etsy itself has seen its shares drop from a pandemic high as global lockdowns begin to lift and physical retailers reopen. Grabbing Depop seems like a way to reduce that exposure and access a mobile-first userbase.
The post Etsy targets Gen Z shoppers with $1.6 billion Depop acquisition, appeared first on NEWDAWN Blog.
Elon Musk blames ‘supply chain price pressure’ for Tesla’s increasing prices, Jon Porter
Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeTesla CEO Elon Musk has blamed supply chain price pressure for incremental price increases the company has made to its Model 3 and Model Y vehicles over the past several months. “Prices increasing due to major supply chain price pressure industry-wide,” the CEO tweeted in response to a complaint about the changes. “Raw materials especially.”
Today, the CEO followed up to say that “microcontroller chips” are a particular challenge right now. But although Musk said that he’s “never seen anything like it,” he added that he doesn’t expect this to be a long-term issue. “Fear of running out is causing every company to overorder – like the toilet paper shortage, but at epic scale.”
Musk had previously indicated in an April earnings call that…
The post Elon Musk blames ‘supply chain price pressure’ for Tesla’s increasing prices, Jon Porter appeared first on NEWDAWN Blog.
Elon Musk blames ‘supply chain price pressure’ for Tesla’s increasing prices,
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has blamed supply chain price pressure for incremental price increases the company has made to its Model 3 and Model Y vehicles over the past several months. “Prices increasing due to major supply chain price pressure industry-wide,” the CEO tweeted in response to a complaint about the changes. “Raw materials especially.”
Today, the CEO followed up to say that “microcontroller chips” are a particular challenge right now. But although Musk said that he’s “never seen anything like it,” he added that he doesn’t expect this to be a long-term issue. “Fear of running out is causing every company to overorder – like the toilet paper shortage, but at epic scale.”
Musk had previously indicated in an April earnings call that Tesla was well placed to weather the global chip shortage by “pivoting extremely quickly to new microcontrollers.”
Our biggest challenge is supply chain, especially microcontroller chips. Never seen anything like it.
Fear of running out is causing every company to overorder – like the toilet paper shortage, but at epic scale.
That said, it’s obv not a long-term issue.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk)
Electrek has been tracking Tesla’s price changes in recent months. The Standard Range Plus version of the Model 3 has increased from $36,990 in February to $39,990 in late May, for example, while the Model Y Long Range AWD version has gone from $49,990 to $51,990 over the same period. Tesla has updated its prices almost half a dozen times since February this year.
Tesla is far from unique in seeing its prices affected by the global chip shortage, which has had a wide-reaching impact on the manufacturing of everything from games consoles to toasters. Automakers have been particularly badly hit by the shortage, and have had to temporarily shut down production lines even as demand for new cars and trucks increases.
Moving lumbar was removed only in front passenger seat of 3/Y (obv not there in rear seats). Logs showed almost no usage. Not worth cost/mass for everyone when almost never used.
Prices increasing due to major supply chain price pressure industry-wide. Raw materials especially.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk)
The post Elon Musk blames ‘supply chain price pressure’ for Tesla’s increasing prices, appeared first on NEWDAWN Blog.
June 1, 2021
Watch live now: Russian cosmonauts taking a spacewalk, ,
Two Russian cosmonauts will take a spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Wednesday (June 2), and you can watch it live!
Expedition 65 Flight Engineers Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov are expected to begin their spacewalk at 1:20 a.m. EDT (0520 GMT), and live coverage will begin on NASA TV at 1 a.m. EDT (0500 GMT). You can watch it live in the window above, courtesy of NASA TV, or via the agency’s website.
Novitskiy and Dubrov will spend about 6.5 hours working outside the orbiting laboratory to decommission the Pirs docking module, which will be removed from the station later this year for disposal.
Full story: Spacewalking cosmonauts will decommission an old space station module early Wednesday. Watch it live!
Two Russian cosmonauts are scheduled to conduct a spacewalk outside the International Space Station Wednesday, June 2, to continue preparing the Pirs docking compartment airlock for undocking and disposal later this year.
Live coverage will begin at 1 a.m. EDT, with the spacewalk beginning about 1:20 a.m. on NASA Television, the agency’s website, and the NASA app.
Expedition 65 Flight Engineers Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov of Roscosmos will emerge from the Poisk module on the space-facing side of the Zvezda service module for a spacewalk expected to last about six and a half hours. The two cosmonauts will disconnect all external mechanical links between Pirs and the station, reposition spacewalk hardware and antennas, and relocate other gear previously used for spacecraft dockings to Pirs.
During the spacewalk, the cosmonauts will prepare Pirs for removal from its port by the uncrewed Progress 77 cargo ship on the Earth-facing side of Zvezda, clearing the way for the arrival of the new Russian Multi-Purpose Laboratory Module named “Nauka,” which is Russian for “science.” The undocking of Pirs is scheduled for this summer, about two days after Nauka launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The cosmonauts also will replace a fluid flow regulator on the nearby Zarya module and replace biological and material science samples on the exterior of the Russian modules.
Novitskiy, who is designated as extravehicular crew member 1 (EV1), will wear a Russian Orlan spacesuit with red stripes. Dubrov will wear a spacesuit with blue stripes as extravehicular crew member 2 (EV2). This will be the first spacewalk for both cosmonauts and the 238th spacewalk overall in support of space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades. It also marks the sixth spacewalk of 2021.
SpaceX is launching its 22nd Dragon cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station this week, and you can preview the mission with two news conferences on Wednesday (June 2).
The mission, called CRS-22, is scheduled to launch Thursday (June 3) on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Liftoff is at 1:29 p.m. EDT (1729 GMT).
Wednesday’s first briefing, which begins at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT), will cover all the science experiments on board the Dragon capsule — including baby squid and tardigrades. A prelaunch news conference with NASA and SpaceX officials will follow at 1:30 p.m. EDT (1730 GMT). You can watch them live in the window above, courtesy of NASA TV.
NASA commercial cargo provider SpaceX is targeting 1:29 p.m. EDT, Thursday, June 3, to launch its 22nd commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station. Liftoff will be from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft will deliver new solar arrays to power future work aboard the orbiting laboratory, along with new science investigations, supplies, and equipment for the international crew. Live coverage will air on NASA Television, the NASA app and the agency’s website, with prelaunch events starting Wednesday, June 2.
Dragon’s pressurized capsule will carry a variety of research, including an experiment that could help develop better pharmaceuticals and therapies for treating kidney disease on Earth, a study of cotton root systems that could identify varieties of plants that require less water and pesticides. The research also will include two model organism investigations: One will study bobtail squid to examine the effects of spaceflight on interactions between beneficial microbes and their animal hosts. The other will examine tardigrades’ adaptation to conditions in low-Earth orbit, which could advance understanding of the stress factors affecting humans in space.
The mission will include technology demonstrations, including a portable ultrasound device. Additionally, astronauts will test the effectiveness of remotely operating robotic arms and space vehicles using virtual reality and haptics interfaces.
Dragon’s unpressurized trunk section will deliver the first two of six new roll-out solar arrays based on a design tested on the space station in 2017. A robotic arm will extract them and astronauts will install them during a series of spacewalks this summer.
About 12 minutes after launch, Dragon will separate from the Falcon 9 rocket’s second stage and begin a carefully choreographed series of thruster firings to reach the space station. Arrival to the space station is planned for Saturday, June 5. Dragon will autonomously dock to the space-facing port on the station’s Harmony module, with Expedition 65 Flight Engineers Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur of NASA monitoring operations.
The spacecraft is expected to spend more than a month attached to the space station before it splashes down in the Atlantic Ocean, returning with research and return cargo.
Full coverage of this mission is as follows (all times Eastern):
Wednesday, June 2
11 a.m. – Want an in-depth look at the science aboard Dragon? Watch on NASA TV or join us on Kennedy Space Center’s Facebook and YouTube pages as we chat with some of the principal investigators. If you have questions for them, use #AskNASA on Twitter. They may answer in real-time during the segment.
1:30 p.m. – NASA TV will broadcast a prelaunch news conference from Kennedy with representatives from NASA’s International Space Station Program, SpaceX, and the U.S. Space Force Space Launch Delta 45. For the dial-in number and passcode, please contact the Kennedy newsroom at ksc-newsroom@mail.nasa.gov no later than 1 p.m. Wednesday, June 2. The public can also ask questions by using #AskNASA on Twitter. They may be answered in real-time during the segment.
Thursday, June 3
1 p.m. – NASA TV coverage begins for the targeted 1:29 p.m. launch.
Saturday, June 5
3:30 a.m. – NASA TV coverage begins for Dragon docking to space station.
5 a.m. – Docking
NASA TV Launch Coverage
Live coverage of the launch on NASA TV will begin at 1 p.m. Thursday, June 3. For NASA TV downlink information, schedules, and links to streaming video, visit:
Audio of the news conference and launch coverage will be carried on the NASA “V” circuits, which may be accessed by dialing 321-867-1220, -1240, -1260 or -7135. On launch day, “mission audio” countdown activities without NASA TV launch commentary, will be carried on 321-867-7135.
On launch day, a “clean feed” of the launch without NASA TV commentary will be carried on the NASA TV media channel.
NASA Website Launch Coverage
Launch day coverage of the mission will be available on NASA’s website. Coverage will include live streaming and blog updates beginning no earlier than 1 p.m. Thursday, June 3, as the countdown milestones occur. On-demand streaming video and photos of the launch will be available shortly after liftoff. For questions about countdown coverage, contact the Kennedy newsroom at 321-867-2468. Follow countdown coverage on the agency’s launch blog at:
https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacexcrs22/
Attend This Launch Virtually
Members of the public can register to attend this launch virtually. Attendees will receive mission updates and activities via email. NASA’s virtual guest program for this mission also includes curated launch resources, notifications about related opportunities, as well as a stamp for their NASA virtual guest passport following a successful launch.
Watch and Engage on Social Media
Let people know you’re following the mission on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram by using the hashtags #Dragon and #NASASocial. You can also stay connected by following and tagging these accounts:
Twitter: @NASA, @NASAKennedy, @NASASocial, @Space_Station, @ISS_Research, @ISS National Lab, @SpaceX
Facebook: NASA, NASAKennedy, ISS, ISS National Lab
Instagram: @NASA, @NASAKennedy, @ISS, @ISSNationalLab, @SpaceX
Learn more about the SpaceX resupply mission at:
Find out what the astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station are up to by tuning in to the “ISS Live” broadcast. Hear conversations between the crew and mission controllers on Earth and watch them work inside the U.S. segment of the orbiting laboratory. When the crew is off duty, you can enjoy live views of Earth from Space. You can watch and listen in the window below, courtesy of NASA.
“Live video from the International Space Station includes internal views when the crew is on-duty and Earth views at other times. The video is accompanied by audio of conversations between the crew and Mission Control. This video is only available when the space station is in contact with the ground. During ‘loss of signal’ periods, viewers will see a blue screen.
“Since the station orbits the Earth once every 90 minutes, it experiences a sunrise or a sunset about every 45 minutes. When the station is in darkness, external camera video may appear black, but can sometimes provide spectacular views of lightning or city lights below.”
Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
The post Watch live now: Russian cosmonauts taking a spacewalk, , appeared first on NEWDAWN Blog.
Samsung and AMD are working on an Exynos mobile chip with ray tracing, Sam Byford
Illustration by Alex Castro / The VergeAMD is partnering with Samsung to provide RDNA 2 graphics technology for an Exynos mobile system-on-chip, potentially giving a boost to GPU performance in flagship Samsung phones. The announcement was made today at Computex Taipei.
There aren’t many details on the chip or which products it’ll be used in, but AMD describes the chip as a “next-generation Exynos SoC,” and says Samsung will provide further information later in 2021. The GPU will use AMD’s RDNA 2 architecture, enabling features like ray tracing and variable rate shading. AMD says it’ll make its way to “flagship mobile devices.”
“The next place you’ll find RDNA 2 will be the high-performance mobile phone market,” AMD CEO Lisa Su said on stage. “AMD has partnered with industry…
The post Samsung and AMD are working on an Exynos mobile chip with ray tracing, Sam Byford appeared first on NEWDAWN Blog.
The original Dune movie is also getting a 4K release this year, Jon Porter
The steelbook edition comes with an extra copy of the film on Blu-ray. | Image: Arrow FilmsDennis Villeneuve’s Dune isn’t the only film adaptation of Frank Herbert’s novel getting a 4K release this year. That’s because the original adaptation, made in 1984 by a young David Lynch, is getting a limited edition 4K Blu-ray release on August 30th. The film was both a critical and box office bomb that Lynch later disowned, but it’s also a fascinating historical artifact and sci-fi cult-classic.
Arrow Films, the distributor handling the release, says the 4K restoration is sourced from the film’s original camera negative, scanned at 4K 2160p and mastered in Dolby Vision HDR. It also includes uncompressed stereo audio and a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround sound mix.
NEW UK/US/CA TITLE: Dune (Limited Edition 4K UHD) h…
The post The original Dune movie is also getting a 4K release this year, Jon Porter appeared first on NEWDAWN Blog.
May 31, 2021
AMD confirms it’s powering the gaming rig inside Tesla’s Model S and Model X, Sean Hollister
Remember when Elon Musk claimed you’d be able to play The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 on a 10 teraflop gaming rig he’s stuffing into the new Tesla Model S and X? AMD is officially providing the guts — during its Computex 2021 keynote, the chipmaker just revealed that the new Tesla infotainment system consists of an AMD Ryzen processor paired with an AMD RDNA 2 GPU.
“So we actually have an AMD Ryzen APU powering the infotainment system in both cars as well as a discrete RDNA2-based GPU that kicks in when running AAA games, providing up to 10 teraflops of compute power…. we look forward to giving gamers a great platform for AAA gaming,” says AMD CEO Lisa Su.
And if you combine that information with another piece of news AMD revealed…
The post AMD confirms it’s powering the gaming rig inside Tesla’s Model S and Model X, Sean Hollister appeared first on NEWDAWN Blog.
AMD confirms it’s powering the gaming rig inside Tesla’s Model S and Model X,
Remember when Elon Musk claimed you’d be able to play The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 on a 10 teraflop gaming rig he’s stuffing into the new Tesla Model S and X? AMD is officially providing the guts — during its Computex 2021 keynote, the chipmaker just revealed that the new Tesla infotainment system consists of an AMD Ryzen processor paired with an AMD RDNA 2 GPU.
“So we actually have an AMD Ryzen APU powering the infotainment system in both cars as well as a discrete RDNA2-based GPU that kicks in when running AAA games, providing up to 10 teraflops of compute power…. we look forward to giving gamers a great platform for AAA gaming,” says AMD CEO Lisa Su.
And if you combine that information with another piece of news AMD revealed today, plus a earlier leak in January, we may now have a passing idea of how powerful that “10 teraflop” infotainment system could theoretically be: likely a little less than Sony’s PS5.
You see, leaker Patrick Schur dug up a Tesla block diagram in January that singled out an AMD Navi 23 GPU specifically for Tesla’s new vehicles, and today AMD announced the new Radeon 6800M, 6700M and 6600M laptop graphics chips — the weakest of which just so happens to use Navi 23, AnandTech reports.
— Patrick Schur (@patrickschur_)
As we learned today, that Radeon 6600M chip comes with 28CUs and 1792 shader units– compared to the 36CUs and an estimated 2304 shader units worth of RDNA 2 GPU in Sony’s PlayStation 5, which also claims to be a 10-teraflop gaming rig. While it’s not quite apples-to-apples, it’s largely the same technology beneath, and a smaller number of cores on the same GPU architecture suggests we should expect slightly less performance from a Tesla compared to Sony’s console. (The higher-end Radeon 6700M / Navi 22 has the same number of CUs as the PS5, for what it’s worth.)
Performance depends on the software platform, though, as we’ve seen with the 10-teraflop PS5 and the 12-teraflop Xbox Series X — and a recent job posting by Tesla suggests game developers may actually be building for Linux if they want to target the new Tesla in-car gaming rigs.
For my gamer/dev/gamedev followers: we’re looking for Linux game devs to work on something *extremely* exciting at Tesla!
If you’re interested, DM me!
: https://t.co/dPcr4SlhpW pic.twitter.com/94GOmPUWjs
— Daniel James (@ATTlKA)
Linux isn’t necessarily a benefit when it comes to gaming performance, though. Google’s Stadia cloud gaming also boasted 10 teraflops of performance from its AMD GPUs, but ports of games from Bungie and Square Enix didn’t look nearly as good as they did on weaker Xbox and PC hardware at the service’s launch.
The most important question is probably still the one I asked back in January, though: Who is going to sit in their $80,000 sports car and play a triple-A video game?
Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Saturday that the Model S Plaid, which includes the new AMD system, will start deliveries on June 10th.
The post AMD confirms it’s powering the gaming rig inside Tesla’s Model S and Model X, appeared first on NEWDAWN Blog.
