Daily Tech News 19 August 2023

• Microsoft: AI is a tidal wave of change as big as the internet.
  
  Also Microsoft: The Ottawa Food Bank is a top-ten must-see tourist spot when you travel to Canada. (Ars Technica)

  Consider going into it on an empty stomach.

  Thanks for the tip!
  
  To be fair, this is Canada, and after you've finished carving your initials into a moose and then fended off MAID Team Six while seeking treatment for the resulting moose bite there is not a whole lot to do.

• A key feature of NFTs that never actually worked no longer works. (The Verge)
  
  They're talking about royalty payments, which are supposed to pay the creator of an NFT (the article talks about the "artist", another disconnect) every time an NFT is sold, just like in the real world where such royalty payments are enforced by the Secret World Government's Unicorn Death Squads.
  
  Which is to say, nothing in the real world works this way, and it never worked for NFTs either. You could set it up to work on specific marketplaces, but anyone could just not sell their NFTs on those marketplaces.
  
  
  
• AI could be the saviour software companies need. (Tech Crunch)
  
  Or unicorns, one of those two.
  
  Worth noting that when the article says "saviour" it means "insanely unethical tool for milking more money out of customers trapped in subscription plans for what used to be a one-time purchase".
  
  
  
• In the market for a rather large and somewhat expensive tablet running Linux - and not the Android variety either, but a choice of distributions including Ubuntu and Mint? The StarLite Mk V might be what you're after. (Liliputing)
  
  With a 12.5" screen it's not pocket-friendly, but the 2880x1920 resolution is nothing to complain about, and that's paired with an Intel N200 CPU - so yes, it can also run Windows, 16GB of RAM, and up to 2TB of storage. Which is user-replaceable, like recent Microsoft Surface devices. It doesn't say but it's safe to assume it uses an M.2 2230 SSD.
  
  
  
• Speaking of tablets that can also run Windows, the Lenovo Legion Go is one. (WCCFTech)
  
  This is a handheld gaming device - like the Steam Deck - but with detachable game controllers so you could in theory just use it as a tablet.
  
  It will be powered by AMD's Z1 CPU - all these devices are, except for the Steam Deck itself - and will come with... Uh, that's all the details we have.
  
  
  
• Remember the days when phones came with headphone jacks and microSD slots, and even, sometimes, replaceable batteries? Nokia apparently does, because the G310 5G has all of those. (Liliputing)
  
  And it costs $186.
  
  It comes with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, which are both adequate for a budget phone, and the CPU has two A76 cores and four A55 cores, which should also be fine. (A70 series cores are much faster than A50.)
  
  The main camera is a 50MP autofocus, with an 8MP selfie camera.
  
  And you can buy a replacement screen for $55 and swap it yourself if you happen to drop it.
  
  Only real shortcoming is that screen, which is a 720p model and not 1080p, but given all the other good points I think this could be a solid little device for anyone who wants a phone and not a status symbol.
  
  On sale in the US next week.
  
  
  
• 25% of Gen Z is retarded. (The Verge)
  
  They don't trust mainstream media - wise - so they instead get their news from TikTok and find themselves distressed that nobody is investigating Katy Perry for murdering a nun.

  A recent study by Google's Jigsaw unit, published alongside the University of Cambridge and Gemic, found this to be the case on TikTok as early as 2018 – the year it debuted in the US – with a participant investigating a rumor that Katy Perry had killed a nun.
  "They were disappointed to find no stories from major news sources that definitively answered this question," the study says. "They went to TikTok and concluded that if Katy Perry fans hadn't weighed in, the story must not be true. They trusted Katy Perry fans, who engaged with and reported on her activities daily, to know the truth."

  So yes, there are even worse places to get your news than The Verge, incredible though that may seem.
  
  
  
  

posted by Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM

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