Author Archives: editor9
Apple CEO Tim Cook is requested to ‘reverse course’ in Hong Kong
A bipartisan group of US Congress members wrote a Friday letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook criticized the tech giant’s decision to remove an app used by protesters in Hong Kong HKmap.live from the App Store.
The letter shows that Apple’s decision last week by taking down HKMaps is deeply concerning to accommodate the Chinese government. They urge him to reverse course in the strongest terms, to stand with the brave men and women fighting for dignity and basic rights, and to demonstrate that Apple puts values above market access in Hong Kong.
According to a report from Reuters, the letter follows Cook’s Thursday meeting with China’s market regulator in Beijing and the app’s removal.
Republican Sens, along with Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Marco Rubio of Florida, and Ted Cruz of Texas signed the letter. Another signals came from Democratic Reps. Tom Malinowski of New Jersey, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin.
A mapping app from the App Store crowdsourcing the location of police and protesters in Hong Kong HKmap.live was removed by Apple, saying it violated the local laws and store’s guidelines. Last Thursday HKmap tweeted that it disagreed with Apple’s claim that the app endangered Hong Kong residents and law enforcement.
The protests which were initially focused on legislation allowing people arrested in Hong Kong to be transferred to and tried in mainland China have been going on since March 2019. The demonstrations have expanded to include other grievances and demands for greater democracy although extradition bill has since been withdrawn.
In a recent memo to Apple employees, Tim Cook said that national and international debates would outlive them all, and they do not govern the facts while important. Cook met with Xiao Yaqing China’s State Administration for Market Regulation on Thursday to discuss consumer-rights protection, enhancing business development and investment in the country.
Google Nest Hub Max – new feature you shouldn’t miss
Google is having The Google Nest Hub Max with some notable differences and a brand new smart display packing. It has a display sitting on a fabric-covered which is similar to the Google Home Hub – known as the previous Google Nest Hub.
The size is one big exception. The Nest Hub Max with a 10in display looks like a large tablet, with while its predecessor has only 7in display. It has an Ambient EQ light sensor like the smaller model to adapt the display brightness to the surroundings of the room. Once again an ambient EQ light sensor is used to adapt on the environment the display’s brightness. It’s also HD and improve the overall viewing experience, allowing users to see what’s going on from a far greater variety of positions in the room.
A hand gesture detection feature is made to allow users to pause videos and do the same action again to resume it by pushing their hand in front of the camera. But in testing this feature did not detect hands all the time.
The Home app easily set up faces, each individual in the household can set their personalised information, don’t need to use their voicei by using calendar notices.
It now features a camera and physically bigger than before, but it can compete with the likes of Amazon’s Echo Show, can’t it?
Owners will make use of the full set of security features if they pay for a subscription. In doing so, while away on a smartphone, you can use the hub’s integration with Nest means as a security camera to check everything at home is fine.
Depending on how much you desire video history, a Nest Aware subscription ranges from £4 to £24 per month. It provides the ability to save clips, setting up activity zones alerts when a person time lapses and access to 24-hour continuous recording.
The trend of virtual streamer in Japan is causing fever on YouTube
In Japan, virtual streamer is becoming a phenomenon and even more attractive than real people. There are millions of stream followers on the Internet and the success of streamers has created a new concept in Japan as virtual YouTubers or VTubers.
Kizuna Ai, the most famous virtual streamer in Japan, is a lovely girl with long hair and a pink headband. More significantly, she is a completely bogus character with images and voices entirely created by 3D technology and artificial intelligence.
“What makes VTubers different from traditional anime cartoon characters is that you can believe that they really exist,” said Takeshi Osaka, founder of Activ8 Inc, the company behind Kizuna Ai‘s presence. will. “This has created an irresistible appeal.”
Beyond the time-consuming and labor-intensive processes of traditional animation, Activ8 uses Hollywood-class motion capture devices to daily create exchanges and content for its characters with 8 million followers. But Activ8 declined to disclose the techniques it is using. “The innovation here is a combination of real-time 3D computer graphics, motion recording technology and video streaming sites like YouTube to create two-way interaction with the audience,” the company said.
Kizuna Ai appeared on YouTube for the first time in December 2016. Technology also opened the door for many similar characters to appear that year. With many computer graphics and 3D models from Unity Technologies, anyone can create their own virtual characters.
It is not difficult to understand when VTubers is popular in Japan where anime and virtual reality are highly valued.
Market research firm User Local Inc estimates there are currently about 9,000 VTubers channels in Japan. The most famous characters were created by a handful of professional studios like Activ8. In less than 3 years, virtual streamer has become a cultural phenomenon. Kizuna Ai appears in many advertisements such as food, supplements and television. She even appeared in the Japan National Tourism Organization’s promotional campaign.
Not stopping here, Japanese VTubers are also being exported to China. Activ8 earlier this year introduced a Chinese version of Kizuna Ai and now attracts 820,000 followers on the video sharing service Bilibili.
Realme XT: The world’s first smartphone with a 64MP sensor
Realme, OPPO’s sub-brand on August 28, officially launched the Realme XT, the world’s first smartphone with a 64MP sensor. Realme XT is said to be a worthwhile upgrade of the camera of the Realme 5 Pro, and is a variant of its Realme X series. This is also the only smartphone launched by Realme to compete directly with the Redmi Note 8 series, specifically the Redmi Note 8 Pro also has a 64MP camera.
Regarding design, Realme XT possesses a quite luxurious and familiar design language. Like most other mid-range smartphones from Realme and OPPO, Realme XT is equipped with a water-drop design screen on the front, this screen uses AMOLED panels with Full HD + resolution and has 6.4 inch size is quite large, built-in optical fingerprint sensor below the screen.
The screen border of the device is also Realme optimized with thin bezels on both sides, while the lower edge is still a bit thick. The notch at the top edge will be where the 16MP f / 2.0 selfie camera is located. Unlike the Realme X that uses a “retract” mechanism, the Realme XT is faithful to the water-drop screen design. This is also a way to help Realme reduce product costs.
To the back, the most prominent feature on this back is a cluster of 4 cameras located vertically on the left corner, including a 64MP main camera using ISOCELL Bright GW1 sensor manufactured by Samsung, an angle camera 8MP ultra wide, a 2MP macro camera and a 2MP camra measure depth. The back is completely constructed from glass, with a layer of toughened Gorilla Glass 5 on both the front and back, helping to increase the durability of the machine. In addition, this back also has a pretty light roaming effect. There will be 2 color options for users to choose from white and pearl blue.
In terms of hardware configuration, Realme XT has quite similar specifications to the Realme 5 Pro, including a Qualcomm Snapdragon 712 chip, combined with 4GB / 6GB / 8GB RAM, 64GB to 128GB internal memory. It comes with a 4000mAh battery, supports fast charging VOOC 3.0 with a capacity of 20W.
Currently, the specific price of Realme XT has not been officially announced. The device will be sold and delivered to users in late September.
How Wimbledon and Watson use AI to edit autofocus for video (Part 3)
This collaborative approach really helps to show the role of people in training AI systems – at least so far. How far away are we to automate the data collection process? Boyden said that we could have done 70% or 80% of them in an automated way – this number is positive when coaching, but the challenge we have at Wimbledon is that the league requires 100% accuracy at all times.
In the future, a series of changes will be possible and Watson will gradually take on more responsibilities. Currently, it is only supporting people, but in the future, it may begin to make its own recommendations, which will then be confirmed by a tennis expert.
Objectives from this partnership:
Increase the fan experience on the platform by accelerating and improving the match focus production process over a 13-day period.
Expand the content by creating a solution that makes it easy to scale, providing highlights from the Wimbledon stadiums that have never been used before. Support Wimbledon’s strategic goal, reduce dependence on third parties, thereby helping Wimbledon enhance control of the output quality of the content.
Create quality outputs to hand over to international broadcast partners.
Reduce the pressure on editorial and content groups, allowing them to focus on other areas that add value to the content. Contribute to improving video performance on all Wimbledon platforms in the Championship.
In the competitive digital and sports environment, Cognitive Highlighs helped attract 69.9 million digital hits in the Championship (69.4 million in 2016) and 436 million page views (395 million in 2016)
14.4 million views of new accent videos were created without human intervention.
A total of 250 premium packages were created, an increase of 252% from the 2016 Championship.
Reduce turnaround time from a minimum of one hour to 15 minutes.
Automating the highlighting process of the match allows the content team to focus on serving the digital community, creating a total of 200 million video views on all platforms.
Outstanding scenes that are not used (due to limited rights) continue to be utilized by the team to maintain the audience’s engagement outside the Championship.
The new Cognitive Highlight approach drew the attention of the press with Wimbledon’s digital platforms, with 247 articles earning over 31 countries up 21%.
This is the first technical solution that uses existing IBM patents.
How Wimbledon and Watson use AI to edit autofocus for video (Part 2)
Applications of AI in Wimbledon
To do this, AI analyzes factors such as gestures and players’ reactions (such as punches on the air celebrating and greeting by touching two fists on each other) and listening to the sound of the crowd, like exhaling and cheering. For the highlights of Wimbledon 2019, IBM said it trained Watson to take advantage of more acoustical data, such as detecting every shot of the ball – making automatic cropping of match highlights closer around the main activities in the innings and can also help determine the series of pay backs.
Misleading AI
Of course, there are problems with deviations in the AI we face for a long time. Wimbledon has many situations that lead to fooling the automated system – the center of the stadium will have more fans (and therefore more noise), while a superstar like Roger Federer might have many fans, creating more cheering sounds than the 89-ranked players in the world. To detect the best action, regardless of these external factors, IBM trained Watson to better identify trends and patterns in acoustics – creating a fourth type of data point to reduce risk of deviation.
This result is enabled via AI OpenScale. IBM launched the AI OpenScale last year, providing a set of automated detection and mitigation tools – constantly monitoring bias-based decision-making based on AI applications. Specifically, for Wimbledon, this technology helps Watson plan to “learn” the overall crowd noise and use it as a neutral mechanism, from which other heights will be measured based on that basic measure.
Ace Index (to score the goal directly)
During the production of video accents, Watson also exploited match statistics for more context. These statistics are created by tennis players (usually players at the district level). They are people who are hired to sit next to the stage to identify subjective data points such as unforced error, other statistical information – such as handing the ball directly or double errors – and important moments in tennis matches, such as points that bring break points, set points, match points.
How Wimbledon and Watson use AI to edit autofocus for video (Part 1)
Audiences will surely remember the breathtaking tennis final between Novak Djokovik and Roger Federer at Wimbledon 2019 on July 14th. Wimbledon tennis championship is one of the most prestigious sporting events in the world. Wimbledon is also the oldest tennis tournament in the world when it was first organized in 1877.
Many things have changed in the last 142 years – from players’ costumes to the quality of their accompanying items. However, behind it is a continuous development of artificial intelligence technology, which has been changing the way images are captured and edited for the public.
Wimbledon has all 18 grass fields. It is also the venue for nearly 700 matches in a two-week period, including men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and women’s matches and many more forms of competition. Six main matches, holding matches attract the most attention, there are an average of about four matches a day. Last year, for the first time, all activities in 18 stadiums were broadcasted online, using a combination of cameras with operators and robots. Therefore, developments in the yard are provided to viewers with unprecedented numbers as before. However, it also created a lot of scenes, too much to screen information in time. This is where IBM believes automation can work.
IBM has worked with Wimbledon organizers at All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club (AELTC) for three decades. This unit is in charge of information technology, network security and all digital assets serving customers, including applications and websites, where fans update developments.
In the past six years, IBM has applied AI Watson’s intelligence in many ways, but IBM recently increased its use of Watson in Wimbledon. Here, Watson helped capture all the best bits of data in each match and packed them in a two-minute highlight at the end of the game, updating the section that was thought to cause the most labor-intensive.
Simon Boyden, chief architect at IBM, said in a briefing: “We are doing the job in a traditional way that will cost a lot of manpower, expenses and time, from which to support in making match points as quickly as possible. ”
Technologies make Formula 1 the safest race in the world
Biometric gloves, helmets withstand impact force of up to 20 tons and high temperature up to 800ºC, halo protects life even when a 2-floor bus falls … The most advanced technology and stringent regulations have turned seemingly unsafe F1 racing cars into utopian safety on every journey.
Formula 1 cars (F1) travel at an average speed of 250-300km / h. Each corner creates a fierce competition between 24 riders and always poses a threat to the lives of people in the car. Technology applications have solved that problem – making racing cars safer than ever.
The hat “accepts” all bumps and temperatures
Each driver is required to wear protective clothing to withstand high temperatures and fire during driving.
The first part of the driver’s face is protected by a helmet made of metamaterials. The hat must pass the tests of FIA (World Motor Vehicle Federation) such as: withstand impact force up to 20 tons, withstand temperatures up to 800ºC, withstand the impact of a Long and heavy steel bars fall freely at a height of over 5 meters … In return, the cost to complete each hat is usually up to over USD 9,000.
HANS – “talisman” of the lumbar vertebrae
Seat belts with HANS technology are one of the talismans of F1 riders
At speeds above 250km / hour, if crashing into a retaining wall, the driver’s neck will suffer a great force, a spinal fracture and it is difficult to preserve life.
Each rider when sitting in the cockpit will have to wear up to 5 protective straps containing the external force suppression technology: 2 shoulder cross wires, 1 rope around the abdomen, 2 wires on the legs. The foot / knee part of the driver is also designed with dynamic damping pads to avoid injury in the event of a collision.
In 1980, two biologists, Jim Downing and Bob Hubard, invented HANS, a device designed so that when a collision occurs, elastic belts absorb and destroy almost all forces. slide down the protective belt over the shoulder of the driver. HANS helps to reduce over 65% of the impact on the head, nearly 90% of the impact on the driver in any case – minimizing possible injuries.
The secret of high-tech football betting
In today’s life there are many different ways to make money. Some people sit in the salaried office, someone likes to go outside to work freely, some people make money by investing in stocks, some people make money from playing high-tech football betting …
- Do not bet without intention
You should not bet on a match without the intention of betting or without waiting patiently.
There were a lot of players who played the ball, even the long-time bets were still big losers because when it came to the match, there was no confidence to play or the budget of the bet was no longer played.
So participating in football betting need analysis and judgment very carefully. Most importantly, be confident in your own abilities.
- Don’t bet more than 3 games in a tournament all night
According to the betting experience of the players, each tournament in one night only has 1 to 3 matches and has a high win rate so that players can bet. If you beat more than 3 battles in a night, the risk is very high, the probability of winning seems to be zero.
- Bet in the ability that the bet allows
The bet is placed due to that amount of capital. Do not borrow or mortgage to get money to play. As a consequence, after you can’t figure it out, it’s okay to win, but if you lose, you become a debtor. This is also called being too poor to make that dose …
- Do not place bets without knowing the team information
Normally before participating in the bet, you need to learn carefully about the contract, information about the team, the performance of the players from there to make judgments should start.
If you do not have experience or have not captured information about that team, do not bet, do not close your eyes to play for fun or bet with trust.
Google wanted to “come back” with Huawei
US tech giant Google said the Trump administration’s ban on Huawei could prompt Chinese technology firm to build a more hackable Android alternative and threaten US interests.
According to the Financial Times, Google has issued a warning to the Trump administration about the risks to US national security if it continues to ban Huawei. Simutaneously, the US software firm wants the government to remove the ban with Huawei soon.
Google senior executives warn that no longer cooperating with Google will push Huawei to develop its own operating system. In fact, the company has developed its own operating system platform called Hongmeng OS or Ark OS for a long time and is gradually improving. It will be a customized “Android version” and an opportunity for hackers to steal information.
Especially, Huawei is a big smartphone company, so the risk of exposing users’ information in allied countries to the US or even the American people is very high.
In the short term, Huawei is clearly suffering from the ban because of losing an important operating system partner like Google. But according to industry experts, this actually brings significant benefits when pushing Huawei to become more independent.
Huawei will strengthen itself and develop technologies to help them stand firm in the wind. That is not to mention, the Chinese government has pledged to provide its full support, increasing R&D funding for technology companies and the country’s industry in the context of US trade sanctions. This inadvertently threatens the dominance of American companies in the long run.
Perhaps aware of the potential risks and significant impact of the ban on revenue from licensing and advertising, Google has hinted at the possibility of asking the government to exclude the company from the list of grants which cooperate with Huawei.
The move promises to help Google manage Android OS, continuously release important security updates to all Huawei smartphones in the world.
It has been more than half a month since the US government officially issued an ordinance to ban US companies from cooperating with Huawei, so far nothing has improved. The US government still considers Huawei, the world’s leading provider of 5G telecommunications network equipment, a leading threat to national security and said it was Beijing’s spy.
Even Mr. Trump once said that Huawei is a dangerous company but left open the possibility of resolving the company’s problems on the negotiating table with Beijing.
On the other hand, the US Department of Commerce has also postponed the ban for another three months to wait for new signals from both sides. During this time, many US companies, including Google, Microsoft, Intel, Qualcomm, and most recently, Facebook all stopped working with Huawei. US government
This week, awei chairman Liang Hua shared with reporters that Google is working with the US Department of Commerce to find a solution to solve problems, and to resume cooperation with Huawei.
He also confirmed that Huawei will not negotiate directly with the and will wait for Google’s negotiations to progress. Huawei representatives even insist, if the company is forced to develop a separate operating system, they can do it very quickly.