Victoria Fox's Blog, page 162

Valve advises against smelling the Steam Deck air exhaust

Since the introduction of the Steam Deck in early 2022, posts have been circulating from users sharing their experiences after smelling the air extracted by the handheld console’s cooling system. Peculiar or not, some say it is a pleasant scent. Redditor Metapod100 wondered what Valve thinks about this and contacted customer service.

The exhaust air from the recently introduced Oled version would smell less good than that from the original Steam Deck.

Not surprisingly, the company has responded that, as with all electronics, it is generally not advisable to inhale the ‘exhaust fumes’. Although they say there are no safety risks with general use, direct breathing of this air is “best avoided”.

While it is understood that it may be an internet meme, it is urged to avoid such behavior and in turn health problems. In any case, the aforementioned Reddit user appears not to be convinced of the answer and will “just keep doing it”.

Sources: Reddit, Tom’s Hardware, Eurogamer

SOURCE

EXPANSIÓN launches account on Threads, Meta's new social network

EXPANSIÓN, the leading newspaper in economic and business information, has just launched its new account on Threads, Meta’s social network, with the aim of bringing the latest news and the best news to the public of this new platform.

Threads is Meta’s new social network, oriented toward microblogging and emerging as an alternative to Twitter. After its launch on July 5, the American giant controlled by Mark Zuckerberg has launched Threads in the European Union with the message “Today we open Threads to more countries in Europe. Welcome everyone.”

The arrival of Threads to the European Union, and therefore to Spain, was delayed due to alleged regulatory problems.

The application is now available to download on both iOS and Android and users will be able to use it either by linking it with their Instagram account or without creating a profile.

EXPANSIÓN thus increases its offer on social networks with its new profile on Threads, which joins the existing ones on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Instagram. The latest news can also be followed through the WhatsApp broadcast channel, inaugurated last October.

EXPANSIÓN profile in Threads: https://www.threads.net/@expansion_com

SOURCE

Threads: When will it be as beautiful as it never was?

One of the most fascinating online phenomena is the nostalgia of new beginnings. It always becomes apparent when a new place for social encounters is created somewhere on the Internet. People who have been on the Internet since the beginning of the World Wide Web, or at least like to pretend to be, then whisper to each other on the newest social network that everything here is so nice and fluffy, so authentic, and that everyone is still seriously interested in each other. Here everything feels like it was at the beginning of the Internet again.

Of course, this is mainly due to the fact that the enthusiastic first movers took their handle from the old network and followed the same people whose handle they knew from the other networks. The difference to your previous digital home is mainly due to the fact that not everyone who you followed there, who you networked with because you happened to meet in person at the re:publica yard, is there yet, even though the content only appeals to you moderately interested people – not to mention everyone else who you didn’t actually want to have anything to do with, but who spoiled your mood and your network and clogged up your algorithmically sorted timeline.

SOURCE

Deepnudes: The nude picture that was never taken

In September, the small Spanish town of Almendralejo caused a national outcry. 22 girls between the ages of 11 and 17 were victims of so-called deepnudes: The word is a combination of deepfake and nude image and describes fake photos using artificial intelligence. The perpetrators, all classmates and acquaintances of those affected, had mounted the girls’ faces on AI-generated naked bodies using special software and distributed the images via WhatsApp groups. In Spain, the case brought both the data protection authority and the justice minister into action.

SOURCE

Review: JBL Authentics 500 streaming speaker. Sonos competitor and then again not.

Introduction

JBL is a brand that you probably mainly know for its portable products such as headphones, earphones and Bluetooth speakers. The American brand has a rich history and has been part of Harman, which specializes in audio, since 1969. That company was swallowed up by the gigantic Korean electronics group Samsung in 2017.

In addition to the aforementioned products, JBL has soundbars in its package and supplies professional products and equipment for cars. One of the brand’s newest products can be found in the Authentics series. In this article we highlight the top model of that series, the 500.

JBL has opted for a retro design that harks back to speakers from the past. That fits in well with today’s taste, with black and gold. Tastes differ, so there is a chance that you may find this disgusting. The 500 stands for more than 600 euros in our comparator.

Retro design is in fashion.

The large device has dimensions of 44.7x24x25.5cm and weighs almost eight kilos. That makes it a product that you won’t move too often. Unlike other models in this series, it does not use a battery and you must always have a socket nearby.

To put it completely flat: it is simply a huge Bluetooth speaker. It is not a multi-room device and you cannot simply connect it to similar devices in other rooms. In that area it does not compete with, for example, Sonos. If you use it in a room, it is an alternative to, for example, a Sonos Five . You can find it for about 100 euros less in the comparator. The advantage of the Sonos is that this device can also stream music itself. With the JBL it is always done via another device such as a smartphone, tablet or computer.

Advertisement 1 product discussed

This article appears to continue on subsequent pages which we could not extract

SOURCE

EU reportedly wants to settle Apple-Spotify dispute in Spotify's favor

Spotify and Apple have been feuding with each other for some time and now some of the disputes between the companies appear to be settled in the EU. EU regulators are reportedly planning to sanction Apple over App Store terms that make it impossible for Spotify to promote subscriptions outside the App Store. This possible decision by the EU could help not only Spotify, but also many other software providers that offer subscriptions for their services.

In early 2021, the European Commission began filing anti-trust charges against Apple after finding that the company may be abusing its dominant position when it comes to music streaming apps. At the beginning of this year, some charges were dropped and the focus was on the fact that Apple is prohibited from alerting users to, often cheaper, alternative payment methods for subscriptions outside the iOS app. According to Bloomberg, European regulators are still finalizing the i’s, but a formal decision is expected early next year.

Thanks to EU regulations, the iPhone 15 comes with USB-C instead of a Lightning port

There is a good chance that the EU will order Apple to stop banning the promotion of alternative payment methods on iOS and that the company could face a hefty fine. A fine could potentially amount to as much as 10 percent of Apple’s global profits, which in Apple’s case could mean as much as $40 billion. However, the fine will most likely be much lower, as the EU wants to stop anti-competitive behavior by companies in particular. Previously, rules within the Apple ecosystem were slightly relaxed following an anti-trust investigation in Japan. This now makes it possible to place links within apps to your own subscription payment services, so it is only prohibited to actively promote them. In the US, there is a similar lawsuit against the company started by Epic Games. Apple recently also made USB-C the standard in all its mobile devices, following obligations from the EU. It is not unlikely that this ruling could also have a decisive effect on Apple’s global App Store policy.

Source: engadget

SOURCE

Brain-on-a-chip takes step towards becoming a real SoC

Small pieces of organs have been used in research for some time in combination with chips to directly obtain information about their functioning under the influence of, for example, medicines. Research into brain tissue is also regularly conducted. We have now even managed to get a bunch of brain cells to do some calculations.

At Indiana University Bloomington in the US, a team led by researcher Feng Guo has managed to grow single brain cells from stem cells and then link them to a computer chip. This has been successful before, but this team then linked the brain-computer interface to an AI tool. It subsequently turned out to be possible to perform some calculations with this system, but also to learn and remember things, and even do a little bit of speech recognition. The research was published in Nature on December 11.

The Indiana University Bloomington campus.

It is a first major step towards the use of brain tissue for certain types of calculations. While standard computers are very good at calculations, biological computers are a lot better, and especially more efficient, at processing more complex data sets. A human brain only uses between 100 and 150 watts while constantly processing large visual and audio data streams. An efficiency that traditional computers cannot come close to when it comes to processing large amounts of data.

The goal of Brainoware, as the researchers call their brain-computer interface, was to use the brain cells to send and receive data. This worked, but the researcher also found changes in the neural pathways in the tissue, which would mean that the data was processed in a certain way. The team then tried to give the piece of brain tissue tasks, such as solving some mathematical calculations. Then they tried a speech recognition benchmark test, where 240 audio clips were played of eight different people pronouncing Japanese vowels. This first had to be converted into electronic signals and when the brain had finished it had to be decoded by the AI tool. It was clear that the cells could decode the audio fragments, and improved after some training. However, the brain-AI combination did not exceed an accuracy of 78%, which is not as good as artificial neural networks. However, further steps are still far away, because it is difficult to keep brain organoids alive and make them larger in a lab.

Source: Technology Review

SOURCE

From increases to stability: EU works to protect against high energy prices

The European Union wants to better protect its citizens against volatile energy prices. Last year, after the start of the war in Ukraine, everyone noticed that electricity and gas prices rose enormously. Although prices have now stabilized somewhat and you have been able to take out a fixed energy contract again since last summer, the fact is that prices are still volatile and higher than before the war. There is a real chance that gas and electricity prices could skyrocket again during a cold winter. It is therefore not without reason that the ACM recommends concluding a permanent contract.

The EU, in turn, also wants to do something about this, and therefore reform the energy market at European level. The intention is for the government to enter into a contract with energy suppliers for the long term. These are contracts for difference (CfDs). These contracts offer energy suppliers a minimum price for electricity. If such a supplier decides to start a new renewable energy or nuclear energy project, they can agree on such a fixed price. If the current electricity price is lower than the agreed price, the government will make up the difference up to the minimum price. If the price is higher, the energy supplier must pay the difference between the market price and the minimum price to the government. By offering a higher price for electricity, energy suppliers have room to invest in CO2-free and renewable energy plants.

The principle of the current energy market remains the same: power supplies that supply the cheapest energy, such as wind energy, are used first. But if there is more demand or less wind, gas-fired power plants, for example, are used to meet demand. These are more expensive than renewable energy and therefore largely determine the price.

However, the Greens within the European Parliament are not happy with the new proposal. German MEP, Michael Bloss, said: ‘On the day of the historic agreement at the Dubai climate conference, the EU is actually giving a new fossil subsidy to coal-fired power plants. This makes the EU completely unreliable.’ Although most citizens will certainly be happy with more stable energy prices, I think people do not want this to be at the expense of the climate goals that the countries have jointly decided to maintain.

SOURCE

Finetwork increases its workforce by 22% in 2023 to 338 employees

Finetwork, the telecommunications company of Alicante origin that uses the Vodafone network, has reported having created a total of 99 jobs in the last year, increasing its workforce by 22%. With these additions, the operator now has 338 employees between its headquarters in Madrid, Elda and Alicante, of which practically half (49%) are women.

The firm points out that the increase in hiring is driven by the growth that the company has experienced, which recently announced having reached one million customers, of which approximately 700,000 are mobile lines and about 300,000 are fixed broadband lines. By the end of 2023, it expects to reach 1.02 million customers, 19% more than the previous year. The goal for 2024 is to exceed one and a half million customers. Born in 2015, in 2019 it made the leap to the national market and since then its income and clients have not stopped growing. Recently, Óscar Vilda, its new CEO, pointed out that between January and September, Finetwork managed to increase its income by 13% in revenue and a 12% increase in adjusted EBITDA. And its forecast is to close the 2023 financial year with a turnover of 150 million euros, which represents a growth of 22%, and an adjusted EBITDA of 13 million, 12% more.

89% indefinite

Of all new jobs created in 2023, 88.9% are permanent. In addition, Finetwork ‘s employment offer has been very varied, offering positions such as call center teleoperator, administrative, developer, territorial sales manager and project manager , among others. In 2023, new business areas have been launched, such as Business, Purchasing and Digital Transformation, which will continue to grow throughout next year. Likewise, in recent months the Brand and Communication department has been reinforced and a new Management Committee has been established. The average age of new hires is 39 years.

At the same time, Finetwork promotes the creation of indirect employment in its telesales, direct sales and distribution channels, contributing to the generation of approximately 2,000 jobs. By the end of the year, the company plans to have a force of around 700 telesales agents for the residential segment (B2C) and 200 additional agents for the SME and self-employed business (B2B). In direct sales, the volume of commercials will exceed 200 for the residential market and 150 for the B2B segment at the end of the year. In relation to its retail strength, the operator is developing an ambitious plan to reach 200 exclusive stores by 2025, which will involve the creation of more than 400 jobs. Finally, Finetwork is present in approximately 1,200 non-exclusive points of sale, contributing fundamentally to the sustainability of its workforce.

SOURCE

Digi prepares the sale of its fiber network to Macquarie

The ‘teleco’ maintains advanced negotiations to transfer 100% of its Spanish fiber to Onivia’s partners, which include Abrdn, Daiwa and Arjun.

The Romanian telecommunications operator Digi is in advanced negotiations to sell to a consortium led by Macquarie Capital 100% of the fiber optic network to the home (FTTH) that it has deployed in Spain in recent years for an i

To continue reading go Premium
Try it for €1 the first month

and enjoy unlimited access to all Expansión web content

I love you

Or sign up with your Google account in two clicks

SOURCE