Google launches Pixel 8a
On May 8, Google launched the Pixel 8a, a mid-range phone with a Google Tensor G3 processor and a 120Hz refresh OLED screen with 8GB of RAM. The Pixel 8a is a mid-range model with Google’s Tensor G3 processor, a 120Hz OLED screen, and 8GB of RAM, and a 64-megapixel wide-angle lens and a 13-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens, and is priced at $499. You can get this phone on Google Store or Best Buy.
One of the tags that I have kept for myself in my various social media platforms is ‘photography’. Although I did some commercial work when I was a student and time permitted, I have never really considered photography as a “career”, but rather as a “hobby”. During the years I’ve been with photography, my equipment has changed from iPhone to Canon to Sony, from one camera with one lens to one camera with multiple lenses, and back to one camera with one lens.
John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, had this to say after the introduction of the MacBook Pro with M3-series chips. Cutting-edge industrial design, great hardware performance, and an equally unique macOS – I’d have to agree; next to the iPhone, the MacBook Pro is arguably my favorite Apple product.
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The PlayStation 5 Slim is a half-generation upgrade of the next-generation console, PlayStation 5, which simply means that it only upgrades the appearance and some of the features of the console, with no significant changes in performance.
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Mozilla Launches Monitor Plus Service
Mozilla announced on February 7 a new service, Monitor Plus, designed to help users remove personal information from the Web, such as names, current and former addresses, phone numbers, and other sensitive data. The service is based on Mozilla Monitor’s free privacy scanning service, which allows users to have their personal information deleted from more than 190 data integrators for $8 per month. Mozilla Monitor Plus will also periodically check to make sure that users’ information does not appear on those data integrators’ Web sites. Mozilla promises to treat information provided by users in a highly Mozilla promises to handle user-provided information in a highly encrypted manner, and the service also supports the ability to locate potential breaches of information, including social security numbers, credit card details, bank accounts and passwords, and guides users through the process of fixing and resolving them.
App Store Rejects HEY’s App Again
On January 6, David Heinemeier Hansson, founder of the email service HEY, posted on X that Apple had notified him that it would be rejecting his new calendar app HEY Calendar from the App Store, but declined to provide a specific reason. This is the second time after more than three years that Apple has rejected a HEY app. During the call, reviewers reportedly acknowledged that the calendar feature would be fine if it was in the existing HEY email client, but did not agree to allow it to be shelved as a standalone app.
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Microsoft Plans to Add Copilot Keys to Keyboards
On January 4, 2024, Microsoft, along with a number of OEMs, plans to add an additional Copilot key to the keyboards of several new PCs and laptops to allow users to quickly turn on the AI-powered Windows Copilot.The Copilot key will replace the traditional menu key (app key), and will be located next to the Alt key on the right side of most keyboards. Windows Copilot, built into Windows 11, is said to be a ChatGPT-like chatbot that can answer questions and even perform actions within Windows.
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Xiaomi previews Xiaomi Auto SU7/Max technology
Xiaomi has previewed the technology of Xiaomi SU7/Max on December 28 at the automotive technology conference. The Xiaomi SU7 is available in three colors – Gulf Blue, Elegant Gray, and Olive Green – and its exterior design includes teardrop-shaped headlights, 2.48m halo taillights, and rippling surfaces, etc. Features of the SU7 Max include 8 groups of air ducts, 17 air vents, and a motorized tail, etc. The vehicle measures 4997mm in length, 1440mm in height, and 1963mm in width. Vehicle dimensions are 4997mm long, 1440mm high, 1963mm wide and 3000mm wheelbase. As for the interior, the SU7/Max is available in Galaxy Gray, Twilight Red, and Obsidian Black interior colors, and is equipped with a large 16.1-inch touchscreen, a 56-inch HUD, and a 7.1-inch flip-up instrument screen. The rear seats can be expanded to Xiaomi Tablet x2, and the center control screen supports keyboard expansion. In terms of space, the SU7 has 1012mm of longitudinal space in the front, 105 liters of luggage space in the front and 517 liters in the trunk. In terms of power, SU7 Max provides 495kW peak power and 838N-m peak torque, accelerating from zero to 100 in just 2.78 seconds, with a top speed of 265km/h. Equipped with a 101Kwh Nintendo Kirin battery, the CLTC range is up to 800km, and it supports super fast charging. In terms of chassis, SU7 adopts front double-wishbone + rear multi-link design, equipped with CDC electromagnetic suspension and air suspension, and supports a number of adaptive functions. In terms of safety, SU7 adopts 2000MPa strength steel-aluminum hybrid body, provides 7 airbags, and comes standard with 16 active safety features. In terms of privacy and security, it is equipped with the Xiaomi Surge OS system, which supports account privacy isolation and end-to-end encryption. Xiaomi SU7 has begun small batch mass production and will be officially released in a few months, the price has not yet been announced.
Rockstar Source Code Leaked
On December 24th, local time, during the Christmas holiday, a large amount of source code for Rockstar games was leaked to a Discord channel. According to YouTuber SKizzle, who discovered and publicized the news, the leak includes all of the source code for GTA 5, the RAGE engine, parts of the sequel to Bully, and parts of the sequel to the GTA series codenamed Project Americas. There are speculations that this leak is concurrent with last year’s Rockstar live gameplay leak, which has only now been made public.
Anthropic Releases Claude 2.1
On November 22nd, the Anthropic team announced the release of version 2.1 of Claude. In this new version, Claude can handle 200,000 tokens of long content, which is equivalent to about 150,000 English words. In addition, Claude 2.1 reduces errors or misrepresentations by half and increases the ability to handle complex requests.