ARM Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)

AT&T Promises Bill Credits For Future Outages (arstechnica.com)

(Thursday January 09, 2025 @05:00AM (BeauHD) from the embarrassing-blunders dept.)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica:

> AT&T, following [1]last year's embarrassing botched update that kicked every device off its wireless network and blocked over 92 million phone calls, is now [2]promising full-day bill credits to mobile customers for future outages that last at least 60 minutes and meet certain other criteria. A similar promise is being made to fiber customers for unplanned outages lasting at least 20 minutes, but only if the customer uses an AT&T-provided gateway. The "AT&T Guarantee" [3]announced today has caveats that can make it possible for a disruption to not be covered. AT&T says the promised mobile bill credits are "for wireless downtime lasting 60 minutes or more caused by a single incident impacting 10 or more towers."

>

> The full-day bill credits do not include a prorated amount for the taxes and fees imposed on a monthly bill. The "bill credit will be calculated using the daily rate customer is charged for wireless service only (excludes taxes, fees, device payments, and any add-on services," AT&T [4]said . If an outage lasts more than 24 hours, a customer will receive another full-day bill credit for each additional day. If only nine or fewer AT&T towers aren't functioning, a customer won't get a credit even if they lose service for an hour. The guarantee kicks in when a "minimum 10 towers [are] out for 60 or more minutes resulting from a single incident," and the customer "was connected to an impacted tower at the time the outage occurs," and "loses service for at least 60 consecutive minutes as a result of the outage."

>

> The guarantee "excludes events beyond the control of AT&T, including but not limited to, natural disasters, weather-related events, or outages caused by third parties." AT&T says it will determine "in its sole discretion" whether the disruption is "a qualifying" network outage. "Consumers will automatically receive a bill credit equaling a full day of service and we'll reach out to our small business customers with options to help make it right," AT&T said. When there's an outage, AT&T said it will "notify you via e-mail or SMS to inform you that you've been impacted. Once the interruption has been resolved, we'll contact you with details about your bill credit." If AT&T fails to provide the promised credit for any reason, customers will have to call AT&T or visit an AT&T store.

>

> To qualify for the similar fiber-outage promise, "customers must use AT&T-provided gateways," the firm said. There are other caveats that can prevent a home Internet customer from getting a bill credit. AT&T said the fiber-outage promise "excludes events beyond the control of AT&T, including but not limited to, natural disasters, weather-related events, loss of service due to downed or cut cable wires at a customer residence, issues with wiring inside customer residence, and power outages at customer premises. Also excludes outages resulting from planned maintenance." AT&T notes that some residential fiber customers in multi-dwelling units "have an account with AT&T but are not billed by AT&T for Internet service." In the case of outages, these customers would not get bill credits but would be given the option to redeem a reward card that's valued at $5 or more.



[1] https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/24/02/22/2127240/att-restores-service-after-massive-nationwide-outage

[2] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/01/att-promises-bill-credits-for-outages-see-fine-print-many-exceptions-apply/

[3] https://about.att.com/story/2025/guarantee.html

[4] https://www.att.com/why-att/guarantee/?source=EC1NAT10600aff12A&cjevent=d3706641cdfe11ef8048001b0a1eba24&wtExtndSource=100017430



Apple's $1 Billion Indonesia Investment Fails To Unlock iPhone 16 Sales Ban

(Thursday January 09, 2025 @05:00AM (msmash) from the tough-luck dept.)

Indonesia will continue to [1]block iPhone 16 sales despite Apple's planned $1 billion AirTag factory investment, as the facility [2]does not meet local content requirements for smartphones, Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita said on Wednesday. Indonesia banned iPhone 16 sales last year after Apple failed to meet rules requiring 35% locally-made components in smartphones sold domestically.



[1] https://apple.slashdot.org/story/24/10/28/1254235/apple-banned-from-selling-iphone-16-in-indonesia

[2] https://www.reuters.com/technology/apple-still-barred-selling-iphone-16-indonesia-despite-investment-deal-minister-2025-01-08/



Microsoft Kills Free OneDrive Storage Loophole (theregister.com)

(Thursday January 09, 2025 @05:00AM (msmash) from the no-free-lunch dept.)

Microsoft will begin enforcing storage limits on unlicensed OneDrive accounts from January 27, 2025, ending a loophole that [1]allowed organizations to retain departed employees' data without cost .

Data from accounts unlicensed for over 93 days will move to recycle bins for another 93 days before permanent deletion, unless under retention policies. Archived data retrieval will cost $0.60 per gigabyte plus $0.05 monthly per gigabyte. Organizations must either retrieve data, add licenses, or risk losing access, Microsoft has warned.



[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/07/unlicensed_onedrive_fun_ends/



Japan Says Chinese Hackers Targeted Its Government and Tech Companies For Years

(Thursday January 09, 2025 @05:00AM (msmash) from the growing-tension dept.)

The Japanese government published an alert on Wednesday accusing a Chinese hacking group of targeting and [1]breaching dozens of government organizations , companies, and individuals in the country since 2019. From a report:

> Japan's National Police Agency and the National Center of Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity attributed the years-long hacking spree to a group called MirrorFace.

>

> "The MirrorFace attack campaign is an organized cyber attack suspected to be linked to China, with the primary objective of stealing information related to Japan's national security and advanced technology," the authorities wrote in the alert, according to a machine translation. A longer version of the alert said the targets included Japan's Foreign and Defense ministries, the country's space agency, as well as politicians, journalists, private companies and tech think tanks, according to the Associated Press. In July 2024 Japan's Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center (JPCERT/CC) wrote in a blog post that MirrorFace's "targets were initially media, political organisations, think tanks and universities, but it has shifted to manufacturers and research institutions since 2023."



[1] https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/08/japan-says-chinese-hackers-targeted-its-government-and-tech-companies-for-years/



Boxed Video Game Sales Collapse in UK as Digital Revenues Flatten (theguardian.com)

(Thursday January 09, 2025 @05:00AM (msmash) from the to-nobody's-surprise dept.)

An anonymous reader shares a report:

> As music sales and streaming revenue reaches a high of $3 billion -- the highest since 2001, not accounting for significant inflation -- the UK video game market, which has grown almost continually for decades, has shrunk by 4.4%. The most significant decline was in boxed video game sales, [1]down 35% .

>

> Data from Digital Entertainment and Retail Association (ERA) puts the total worth of the UK video game market in 2024 at $5.7 billion, double the music market and behind TV and movies at $6.2 billion. The numbers show a shift in players' purchasing habits that has been ongoing for years, from physical games to digital downloads and in-game purchases in popular, established games such as Fortnite and Roblox. Boxed games now account for 27.7% of new game sales in the UK, according to ERA data.



[1] https://www.theguardian.com/games/2025/jan/08/boxed-video-game-sales-collapse-in-uk-as-digital-revenues-flatten



MoviePass Ex-Chief Pleads Guilty To Fraud Over 'Unlimited' Cinema Scheme (justice.gov)

(Wednesday January 08, 2025 @10:30PM (msmash) from the too-good-to-be-true dept.)

Former MoviePass CEO Theodore Farnsworth has [1]pleaded guilty to securities fraud and conspiracy charges for misleading investors about the movie subscription service's "unlimited plan" and its parent company's capabilities, U.S. prosecutors said.

Farnsworth falsely claimed the $9.95 monthly unlimited movie plan was sustainable and that Helios & Matheson Analytics could monetize subscriber data through artificial intelligence, knowing both statements were untrue. He faces up to 20 years in prison for MoviePass-related fraud and five years for a separate conspiracy charge involving Vinco Ventures.



[1] https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/chairman-and-ceo-moviepass-parent-company-pleads-guilty-securities-fraud-scheme-and



Samsung is Rolling Out a Smartphone Subscription Next Month (theverge.com)

(Thursday January 09, 2025 @05:00AM (msmash) from the up-next dept.)

An anonymous reader shares a report:

> It looks like Samsung is finally ready to [1]roll out a paid subscription for its AI-powered smartphones, but it might not look like what we were expecting.

>

> According to ETNews, Samsung Electronics vice chair Han Jong-hee has confirmed that the company's AI Subscription Club, which launched last December for some of Samsung's home appliances in South Korea, will soon roll out to both Galaxy phones and the upcoming Ballie AI robot.

>

> "We will apply the subscription service to Galaxy smartphones starting next month," he says. "Ballie will be introduced first in Korea and the US, and we plan to supply it as a subscription in Korea."



[1] https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/8/24338974/samsung-galaxy-subscription-smartphones-ballie



Six Big US Banks Quit Net Zero Alliance (theguardian.com)

(Wednesday January 08, 2025 @10:30PM (msmash) from the times,-they-are-a-changin' dept.)

An anonymous reader shares a report:

> The six biggest banks in the US have all [1]quit the global banking industry's net zero target-setting group , with the imminent inauguration of Donald Trump as president expected to bring political backlash against climate action.

>

> JP Morgan is the latest to withdraw from the UN-sponsored net zero banking alliance (NZBA), following Citigroup, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs. All six have left since the start of December. Analysts have said the withdrawals are an attempt to head off "anti-woke" attacks from rightwing US politicians, which are expected to escalate when Trump is sworn in as the country's 47th president in just under a fortnight. Trump's vows to deregulate the energy sector, dismantle environmental rules and "drill, baby, drill," were a big part of his campaign platform and are expected to form a key part of his blueprint for governing the US, the world's biggest oil and gas producer.



[1] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jan/08/us-banks-quit-net-zero-alliance-before-trump-inauguration



Nvidia's Huang Says His AI Chips Are Improving Faster Than Moore's Law (techcrunch.com)

(Wednesday January 08, 2025 @05:42PM (msmash) from the pushing-the-limits dept.)

Nvidia's AI chips are [1]advancing faster than Moore's Law , the semiconductor industry's historical performance benchmark, according to chief executive Jensen Huang. "Our systems are progressing way faster than Moore's Law," Huang told TechCrunch. Nvidia's chips have improved thousand-fold over the past decade, outpacing Moore's Law's prediction of doubled transistor density every year, Huang said. He adds:

> We can build the architecture, the chip, the system, the libraries, and the algorithms all at the same time. If you do that, then you can move faster than Moore's Law, because you can innovate across the entire stack.

>

> [...] Moore's Law was so important in the history of computing because it drove down computing costs. The same thing is going to happen with inference where we drive up the performance, and as a result, the cost of inference is going to be less.



[1] https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/07/nvidia-ceo-says-his-ai-chips-are-improving-faster-than-moores-law/



Nvidia's Huang Says 'Very Useful' Quantum Computers Likely Decades Away (yahoo.com)

(Wednesday January 08, 2025 @05:42PM (msmash) from the reality-check dept.)

Nvidia founder and chief executive Jensen Huang believes "very useful" quantum computers are [1]likely decades away , tempering expectations for the emerging technology. "If you kind of said 15 years for very useful quantum computers, that would probably be on the early side. If you said 30, it's probably on the late side," Huang said during Nvidia's analyst day. "If you picked 20, I think a whole bunch of us would believe it."



[1] https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/quantum-computing-stocks-drop-nvidia-005300972.html



Akamai To Quit Its CDN in China (theregister.com)

(Wednesday January 08, 2025 @05:42PM (msmash) from the end-of-road dept.)

An anonymous reader shares a report:

> Akamai has [1]decided to end its content delivery network services in China, but not because it's finding it hard to do business in the Middle Kingdom. News of Akamai's decision to end CDN services in China emerged in a letter it recently published and sent to customers and partners that opens by reminding them the company has a "commitment to providing world-class delivery and security solutions" -- and must therefore inform them that "Effective June 30, 2026, all China CDN services will reach their decommission date."

>

> Customers are offered a choice: do nothing and then be moved to an Akamai CDN located outside China, or use similar services from Chinese companies Tencent Cloud and Wangsu Science & Technology.



[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/08/akamai_eol_china_cdn/



Pre-Lunch Coffee Drinkers Enjoy Lower Risk of Death, Analysis Finds (theguardian.com)

(Wednesday January 08, 2025 @05:42PM (BeauHD) from the drink-up dept.)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian:

> People who get their coffee hit in the morning reap benefits that are [1]not seen in those who have shots later in the day , according to the first major study into the health benefits of the drink at different times. Analysis of the coffee consumption of more than 40,000 adults found that morning coffee drinkers were 16% less likely to die of any cause and 31% less likely to die from cardiovascular disease during a 10-year follow-up period than those who went without. But the benefits to heart health appeared to vanish in people who drank coffee throughout the day, the researchers found, with medical records showing no significant reduction in mortality for all-day drinkers compared with those who avoided coffee. [...]

>

> The study suggests that a morning dose of coffee is better for the heart than an evening one, but it does not explain why. One possible explanation is that drinking coffee later in the day can disrupt circadian rhythms and levels of hormones such as melatonin. This in turn affects sleep, inflammation and blood pressure, all of which can harm heart health. In an [2]accompanying editorial , Prof Thomas Luscher, a consultant cardiologist at the Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals in London, notes that many all-day drinkers sleep poorly, adding that coffee seems to suppress melatonin, a hormone that is important for inducing sleep in the brain. The effects are driven largely by caffeine, but coffee contains hundreds of other bioactive compounds that affect our physiology. The researchers say some substances in the blood that drive inflammation often peak in the morning and could be countered by anti-inflammatory compounds in a morning coffee. "This explanation applies to both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee," they write.

"Overall, we must accept the now substantial evidence that coffee drinking, particularly in the morning hours, is likely to be healthy," Luscher writes. "Thus, drink your coffee, but do so in the morning!"

The study has been [3]published in the European Heart Journal .



[1] https://www.theguardian.com/food/2025/jan/08/coffee-drinkers-reap-health-boost-but-only-if-they-do-it-in-the-morning

[2] https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/eurheartj/ehae823

[3] https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/eurheartj/ehae871



Chinese RISC-V Project Teases 2025 Debut of Freely Licensed Advanced Chip Design (theregister.com)

(Wednesday January 08, 2025 @11:41AM (BeauHD) from the technological-self-sufficiency dept.)

China's Xiangshan project [1]aims to deliver a high-performance RISC-V processor by 2025 . If it succeeds, it could be "enormously significant" for three reasons, writes The Register's Simon Sharwood. It would elevate RISC-V from low-end silicon to datacenter-level capabilities, leverage the open-source Mulan PSL-2.0 license to disrupt proprietary chip models like Arm and Intel, and reduce China's dependence on foreign technology, mitigating the impact of international sanctions on advanced processors. From the report:

> The prospect of a 2025 debut appeared on Sunday in [2]a post to Chinese social media service Weibo, penned by Yungang Bao of the Institute of Computing Technology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The academy has created a project called Xiangshan that aims to use the permissively licensed RISC-V ISA to create a high-performance chip, with the Scala source code to the designs [3]openly available .

>

> Bao is a leader of the project, and has described the team's ambition to create a company that does for RISC-V what Red Hat did for Linux -- although he said that before Red Hat changed the way it made the source code of RHEL available to the public. The Xiangshan project has previously aspired to six-monthly releases, though it appears its latest design to be taped out was a second-gen chip named Nanhu that emerged in late 2023. That silicon ran at 2GHz and was built on a 14nm process node. The project has since worked on a third-gen design, named Kunminghu, and published the image [ [4]here ] depicting an overview of its non-trivial micro-architecture.



[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/08/chinese_riscv_project_teases_2025/

[2] https://m.weibo.cn/status/5119262297426864

[3] https://github.com/OpenXiangShan/XiangShan?tab=readme-ov-file

[4] https://regmedia.co.uk/2025/01/08/handout_kunminghu.jpg?x=648&y=605&infer_y=1



Scientists Find 'Spooky' Quantum Entanglement Within Individual Protons (space.com)

(Wednesday January 08, 2025 @11:41AM (BeauHD) from the would-you-look-at-that dept.)

Scientists have [1]discovered that quarks and gluons inside protons are quantum entangled , challenging traditional views of proton structure and revealing a more complex, dynamic system influenced by strong interactions. Space.com reports:

> Entanglement is the aspect of quantum physics that says two affected particles can instantaneously influence each other's "state" no matter how widely separated they are -- even if they are on opposite sides of the universe. Albert Einstein founded his theories of relativity on the notion that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, however, something that should preclude the instantaneous nature of entanglement.

>

> As a result, Einstein was so troubled by entanglement he famously described it as "spukhafte Fernwirkung" or "spooky action at a distance." Yet, despite Einstein's skepticism about entanglement, this "spooky" phenomenon has been verified over and over again. Many of those verifications have concerned testing increasing distances over which entanglement can be demonstrated. This new test took the opposite approach, investigating entanglement over a distance of just one quadrillionth of a meter, finding it actually occurs within individual protons.

>

> The team found that the sharing of information that defines entanglement occurs across whole groups of fundamental particles called quarks and gluons within a proton. "Before we did this work, no one had looked at entanglement inside of a proton in experimental high-energy collision data," team member and Brookhaven Lab physicist Zhoudunming Tu said in [2]a statement . "For decades, we've had a traditional view of the proton as a collection of quarks and gluons, and we've been focused on understanding so-called single-particle properties, including how quarks and gluons are distributed inside the proton. "Now, with evidence that quarks and gluons are entangled, this picture has changed. We have a much more complicated, dynamic system." The team's research, the culmination of six years of work, refines scientists' understanding of how entanglement influences the structure of protons.

The team's research was [3]published in the journal Reports on Progress in Physics .



[1] https://www.space.com/spooky-action-small-distance-entanglement-quarks-gluons

[2] https://www.bnl.gov/newsroom/news.php?a=122215

[3] https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6633/ad910b



Man Used ChatGPT To Plan Las Vegas Cybertruck Blast (thehill.com)

(Wednesday January 08, 2025 @11:41AM (BeauHD) from the first-such-instance dept.)

According to police, the man killed in the January 1st Las Vegas Cybertruck blast [1]used ChatGPT to plan the explosion . The Hill reports:

> In a [2]press conference , Tuesday, Las Vegas police released more details of the intentions of 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger, who died of a gunshot wound prior to the car exploding. Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill said it was concerning that Livelsberger used ChatGPT, a popular artificial intelligence model created by OpenAI, to carry out the explosion. According to police, Livelsberger asked ChatGPT various questions, including where the largest gun stores in Denver were, information about the explosive targets Tannerite and pistols.

"We knew that AI was going to change the game at some point or another in really all of our lives and certainly, I think this is the first incidence that I'm aware of on U.S. soil where ChatGPT is utilized to help an individual build a particular device, to learn information all across the country as they're moving forward," McMahill said.

"And so, absolutely, it's a concerning moment for us," he continued.



[1] https://thehill.com/policy/technology/5072577-las-vegas-cybertruck-blast-chatgpt/

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnB6xVjxRmg



Religious Leaders Experiment With AI In Sermons

(Wednesday January 08, 2025 @11:41AM (BeauHD) from the faith-based-tech dept.)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times:

> To members of his synagogue, the voice that played over the speakers of Congregation Emanu El in Houston sounded just like Rabbi Josh Fixler's. In the same steady rhythm his congregation had grown used to, the voice delivered a sermon about what it meant to be a neighbor in the age of artificial intelligence. Then, Rabbi Fixler took to the bimah himself. "The audio you heard a moment ago may have sounded like my words," he said. "But they weren't." The recording was created by what Rabbi Fixler called "Rabbi Bot," an A.I. chatbot trained on his old sermons. The chatbot, created with the help of a data scientist, wrote the sermon, even delivering it in an A.I. version of his voice. During the rest of the service, Rabbi Fixler intermittently asked Rabbi Bot questions aloud, which it would promptly answer.

>

> Rabbi Fixler is among a growing number of religious leaders [1]experimenting with A.I. in their work , spurring an industry of faith-based tech companies that offer A.I. tools, from assistants that can do theological research to chatbots that can help write sermons. [...] Religious leaders have used A.I. to [2]translate their livestreamed sermons into different languages in real time, blasting them out to international audiences. Others have compared chatbots trained on tens of thousands of pages of Scripture to a fleet of newly trained seminary students, able to pull excerpts about certain topics nearly instantaneously.

The report's author draws a parallel to previous generations' initial apprehension -- and eventual embrace -- of transformative technologies like radio, television, and the internet. "For centuries, new technologies have changed the ways people worship, from the radio in the 1920s to television sets in the 1950s and the internet in the 1990s," the report says. "Some proponents of A.I. in religious spaces have gone back even further, comparing A.I.'s potential -- and fears of it -- to the invention of the printing press in the 15th century."



[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/03/technology/ai-religious-leaders.html

[2] https://pastors.ai/sermon-translations



Science Paper Piracy Site Sci-Hub Shares Lots of Retracted Papers (arstechnica.com)

(Wednesday January 08, 2025 @11:41AM (BeauHD) from the staying-up-to-date dept.)

The shift from paywalled to [1]open-access scientific publishing is progressing, driven in part by platforms like Sci-Hub -- a website that allows users to upload PDFs of published papers and share them with anyone. While the shadow library website has faced ongoing [2]attempts by publishers to block access, it has another problem: the platform [3]features many outdated or retracted papers that could spread misinformation or flawed findings. Ars Technica reports:

> Sci-Hub works a bit like a combination of cache and aggregator for published materials. Whenever it gets a request for a paper that's not already in its database, it uses leaked login credentials to go to the website of whatever journal published the paper and obtain a copy. If it already has a copy, however, it will simply serve that up instead. This leaves open the possibility that it will have obtained a copy of a paper prior to its retraction and continue to distribute that copy after the paper has been retracted.

>

> To check this, the researchers [4]obtained a list of nearly 17,000 retracted papers and searched for them on Sci-Hub. They then visually examined the documents that were returned. They found that 85 percent of them contained no indication that the paper had been retracted. "The availability of [unlabeled retracted articles] in the field of health sciences is particularly high," they note, "which indicates a significant risk of their unintended use and further citation in future research."

>

> While corrections are less severe than retractions, they're likely to suffer a similar problem. And corrections will often involve the technical details of a paper -- the experimental approaches or raw data that will be critical for anyone wanting to replicate or extend previously published results. So, if anything, their impact will be more significant.

Ars notes that a [5]system called Crossmark is available to help find the most up-to-date version of a paper, including any corrections or retraction notices.



[1] https://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/news-updates/2022/08/25/ostp-issues-guidance-to-make-federally-funded-research-freely-available-without-delay/

[2] https://science.slashdot.org/story/16/05/05/1613206/sci-hub-faces-millions-of-dollars-in-damages-elsevier-complaint-shuts-down-domain

[3] https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/01/science-paper-piracy-site-sci-hub-shares-lots-of-retracted-papers/

[4] http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08989621.2024.2446558

[5] https://www.crossref.org/services/crossmark/



Lenovo Officially Announces the Legion Go S Handheld With SteamOS (phoronix.com)

(Wednesday January 08, 2025 @11:41AM (BeauHD) from the no-more-Windows dept.)

At CES 2025 today, Lenovo [1]introduced the Legion Go S handheld gaming console . It marks the first officially licensed handheld that comes pre-loaded with Valve's Arch Linux based SteamOS operating system. Phoronix reports:

> This first officially licensed SteamOS handheld is making use of the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme SoC with Radeon 700M graphics, an 8-inch 1200p LCD touchscreen with VRR support, up to 32GB of LPDDR5x-6400 memory, up to 1TB of PCIe Gen4 SSD storage, and a 55 Whr battery. Pricing starts at $500 USD with availability beginning in May. Sadly this Lenovo Legion Go handheld running SteamOS is making use of the Ryzen Z1 Extreme and not the Ryzen Z2 announced by AMD yesterday with the Zen 5 cores. But at CES Lenovo is showing off the Lenovo Legion Go (8.8", 2) prototype that uses the AMD Ryzen Z2 Go SoC along with an OLED display albeit a Windows gaming device.

Additional details are available in Lenovo's [2]press release .



[1] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Lenovo-Legion-Go-SteamOS

[2] https://news.lenovo.com/pressroom/press-releases/lenovo-legion-unleashes-next-gen-gaming-power-at-ces-2025/



Lenovo's Latest Laptop Has a Rollable OLED Screen (wired.com)

(Wednesday January 08, 2025 @11:41AM (BeauHD) from the what-will-they-think-of-next dept.)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired:

> Laptop screens can feel cramped. But what if you could magically get more real estate without having to carry around a portable monitor? That's precisely the purpose of Lenovo's ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 Rollable AI PC -- yes, rollable. It has an OLED display that, with the push of a button, extends the 14-inch screen upward to make for an awkward aspect ratio, but [1]roughly doubles the screen space to 16.7 inches . Two screens are better than one for productivity, but what if one screen could be two but still one? Yes.

>

> It plays a fun animation and some music when it does its rolling thing. You can also activate the rolling action with a palm gesture; once it scans your palm, shift it up or down to raise or lower the screen. (Pressing the button on the keyboard is way faster.) You can take advantage of Windows 11 window snapping features to put apps one on top of the other. I stacked two browser windows, but you can put other apps below too. Considering I'm already that guy who brings a spare portable monitor everywhere, this just seems like a more elegant solution that takes up less space in my bag. And of course, anyone can take advantage of the long aspect ratio to get a better look at documents, PDFs, and web pages.

>

> Lenovo says it has tested the rolling function 30,000 times, and it has performed without flaws, so you can rest a little easier about reliability, though repairing this machine sounds like it will be a task. The whole laptop doesn't feel significantly different from a normal machine, weighing just 3.7 pounds -- that's 1 pound less than the 16-inch MacBook Pro. However, walking with your laptop open in your hand might be weird, as it feels a little top heavy. When closed, it's 19.9 mm thin -- the 16-inch MacBook Pro is 15.4 mm, so Lenovo's machine is thicker, but not as thick as a gaming laptop.

Lenovo published a concept video [2]on YouTube .



[1] https://www.wired.com/story/lenovo-ces-2025-rollable-oled-laptop-steamos-legion-go-s/

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxKTCys6pRE



Review Roundup: OnePlus 13

(Wednesday January 08, 2025 @11:41AM (BeauHD) from the new-and-improved dept.)

The OnePlus 13 launched in the North American market today, making it the first flagship smartphone of 2025. As the smartphone market continues to consolidate, it has become increasingly difficult for non-Samsung, Google, and Apple devices to gain significant traction in the competitive U.S. market. Nevertheless, OnePlus has continually released premium flagship-tier devices at relatively modest price points, hoping to pry users away from the Big Tech monoliths.

The OnePlus 13 features Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, up to 16GB of RAM, a 6.82" QHD+ OLED display, a triple Hasselblad-branded camera system, a massive 6,000mAh battery, and support for 5G networks across all major carriers in the U.S. and Canada. A full list of specifications can be found [1]here .

Based on the early reviews, the OnePlus 13 appears to set the bar high with not a lot of faults to highlight among reviewers. Here are some of our favorite reviews published today:

[2]OnePlus 13 review: finally, a flagship that can hang (The Verge)

[3]OnePlus 13 review: I'm dumbfounded, I can't find anything wrong with this phone (TechRadar)

[4]OnePlus 13 Review: Ship Shape? (Michael Fisher)

[5]OnePlus 13 Review: The Bar Has Been Set! (Marques Brownlee)

[6]The OnePlus 13 is finally a OnePlus flagship I trust to do it all (Android Authority)

[7]OnePlus 13 Review: 2025's First Flagship Finds Success (Forbes)

[8]OnePlus 13 review: The complete package (BGR)

[9]The OnePlus 13 sets a new bar for smartphone performance (Business Insider)

This is not a Slashvertisement. We just like shiny, new tech.



[1] https://www.oneplus.com/us/13/specs

[2] https://www.theverge.com/24336534/oneplus-13-review-specs-screen-camera-battery

[3] https://www.techradar.com/phones/oneplus-phones/oneplus-13-review

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDJNd8XWJIU

[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kuG6RgL32c

[6] https://www.androidauthority.com/oneplus-13-review-3512919/

[7] https://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2025/01/07/oneplus-13-oxygenos-snapdragon-elite-supervooc-charging-camera-review/

[8] https://bgr.com/reviews/oneplus-13-review/

[9] https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/tech/oneplus-13-13r-release-date-price-specs-features



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