Tom – Digitex Solutions

I use Google Maps daily, and these 5 features make my commute so much easier

digitex — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 11:34:38 +0000

When your one way commute to work is over 40 miles, you need reliable directions that get you to/from with as little hassle as possible. That’s why I often go crawling back to Google Maps, even after I’ve put it to the test against Wave — or exploring what advantages Apple Maps might offer over it.I do a lot of driving every week testing many of the best electric cars around, frequently relying on Google Maps for all driving navigation. But I also remember how it’s evolved since the early days when it upended the industry in 2009 by offering free turn-by-turn driving directions.However, Google is constantly coming out with new features, which is tough for the average driver to remember. That’s why I want to share my favorite Google Maps features that make my driving experience better. Not only is my commute to work easier, but these five features inadvertently make me a better driver.

Meta defends using pirated material, claims it’s legal if you don’t seed content

digitex — Sat, 22 Feb 2025 05:51:14 +0000

Meta claimed in a court filing this week that despite torrenting an 82 TB dataset of pirated, copyrighted material from shadow libraries to train its LLaMA AI models, that employees “took precautions not to “seed” any downloaded files”.The act of Seeding in torrenting terminology refers to sharing a file with other users during, (or commonly after) downloading it. Since torrenting is a peer-to-peer system, every user downloading a file can also upload parts of it to other users.Meta’s lawyers claim that there are “no facts to show that Meta seeded Plaintiffs’ books”. This means that the company’s defense is pinning hopes on the fact that there isn’t currently any proof that Meta shared the material during the torrenting process.Though Meta claims that there is no evidence of seeding, Michael Clark, an executive at Meta in charge of project management testified that the configuration settings they were using were modified “so that the smallest amount of seeding possible could occur”.Following this statement, a question regarding why Meta chose to minimize seeding was asked, attorney-client privilege was invoked so that Clark could not answer.Interestingly, the statement issued by Clark shows that Meta sought methods to minimize seeding, but has yet to offer up indication that it entirely prevented seeding copyrighted material.Additionally, an internal message from Frank Zhang, a Meta researcher, could point toward alleged concealment of potential seeding from Meta’s servers, to avoid “risk of tracing back the seeder/downloader” to Facebook servers.Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.Meta’s defense seems to hinge around the lack of evidence around not sharing the large amount of data they have allegedly downloaded to train its AI models. Should Meta win on this defense and prove that downloading copyrighted content isn’t illegal, but distribution is, it could shake up future cases of piracy and unauthorized distribution of copyrighted content.The defense relying on torrenting terminology could also a way for Meta to aim in tripping up courts. Focusing on seeding could further muddy the claim that Meta allegedly knew that it was violating laws by torrenting copyrighted material.Meta has yet to respond to claims surrounding on whether it knew that it was sharing data during the download process.Authors of the copyrighted material alleged to have been obtained by Meta without prior licensing agreements have alleged [PDF] that “Meta’s decision to bypass lawful acquisition methods and become a knowing participant in an illegal peer-to-peer piracy network”.With the court battle expected to continue, no final decision around the case has been made. Even following a final decision, it’s expected that Meta will attempt to appeal the decision if they were to lose, meaning that final judgements could be a long while away.But, similar cases do exist. OpenAI was sued by novelists in 2023, with the New York Times also suing OpenAI and Microsoft over “millions” copied news articles. As the long list of LLM-related litigation continues, this is likely not going to be the last we hear from Meta’s specific case.

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Apple rolls out its C1 modem six years after buying in the technology from Intel

digitex — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 15:58:57 +0000

Apple on Wednesday formally introduced its first in-house developed 5G modem that will be used in the company’s new $599 6.1-inch iPhone 16e smartphone, aimed at the mainstream audience. The modem is the first fruit from Apple’s acquisition of Intel’s 5G modem business unit six years ago.Apple says its C1 is the “most power-efficient modem ever on iPhone” and delivers “fast and reliable 5G connectivity.” Indeed, the modem supports most key 4G and 5G technologies, including sub-6 GHz 5G with 4×4 MIMO, Gigabit LTE with 4×4 MIMO, FDD-LTE, TD-LTE, as well as 3G and 2G capabilities for compatibility.Yet, the company does not disclose how this energy efficiency was achieved. Apple could use its own custom Arm or RISC-V-based cores with optimized power consumption. Also, the company uses one of TSMC’s 4nm-class process technology (presumably N4P) to make C1 chips (according to an interview with Reuters), which assists in reducing power consumption. Since Apple tends to tightly integrate its hardware (C1) and software (iOS 18), it can enable its own proprietary power states that allow it to cut power consumption without performance degradation.For now, Apple’s C1 is used exclusively inside the iPhone 16e, which is a mainstream handset that does not support a number of performance-enhancing yet power-hungry capabilities, such as Wi-Fi 7, mmWave 5G, TDD (time division duplex) 4G and 5G networks, and DC-HSDPA.mmWave 5G can deliver very high data rates, but to achieve them, the phone has to pack phased-array antennas and rely heavily on beamforming. 5G handsets with mmWave support must constantly adjust beams and manage multiple antenna elements in real-time, which means greater signal processing, more frequent power amplifier usage, and higher power consumption.TDD networks use a single frequency channel for both uplink and downlink transmissions but at different time intervals, which adds flexibility and improves spectrum efficiency, making them beneficial in dense urban areas. However, TDD networks require strict timing synchronization between the phone and the base station, as well as switching between UL and DL, so the phone has to continuously adjust its transmission timing and radio circuits, which adds processing overhead and increases power consumption. Also, in weak signal areas, a phone has to increase its transmission power to maintain a connection, which is more taxing in TDD than in FDD.The same applies to DC-HSDPA: the feature increases data rates by using two carrier frequencies instead of one, which inherently means that the device’s radio components are working harder, leading to increased power consumption. However, this can all be optimized.Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.At this point, we do not know whether Apple’s C1 lacks support for certain power-hungry features altogether, or if it is the iPhone 16e that omits certain features to cut its costs and power consumption. For example, the smartphone does not feature Apple’s ultra-wideband chip, Thread networking technology, or MagSafe charging (although it does support Qi wireless charging and lacks magnets for MagSafe), and even the Camera Control button — four features that are cheap and easy to implement.On the bright side, Apple’s iPhone 16e is based on a rather powerful A18 processor with six cores and a cut-down quad-cluster GPU that comes equipped with enough memory to run Apple Intelligence applications.Apple tends to use its own silicon instead of third-party chips whenever possible, so expect the C1 and its successors to be used more widely over time. For now, the C1 enables Apple to cut its costs (as it does not need to pay a premium to Qualcomm) and perhaps use it as bargaining leverage when negotiating prices with Qualcomm. Nonetheless, over time, Apple plans to use its own modems across all of its devices.”C1 is the start, and we’re going to keep improving that technology each generation, so that it becomes a platform for us that will be used to truly differentiate this technology for our products,” Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware technologies, told Reuters.

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Intel cancels Falcon Shores GPU for AI workloads — Jaguar Shores to be successor

digitex — Fri, 31 Jan 2025 10:29:03 +0000

In a surprising twist, Intel announced on Thursday that its Falcon Shores GPU for AI and HPC applications will not be released to the market but will remain an internal test processor to develop the hardware and software foundations for its successor, codenamed Jaguar Shores. This decision makes Intel’s struggling Gaudi 3 processor, which has suffered from limited uptake amid the company’s disclosed software issues, the company’s only viable solution for AI applications for the next two years. Meanwhile, the company will work on developing rack-scale solutions, the only true way to compete with AI behemoth Nvidia.”Many of you heard me temper expectations on Falcon Shores last month,” interim co-CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus said during the company’s earnings call on Thursday. “Based on industry feedback, we have decided to leverage Falcon Shores as an internal test chip. Without bringing it to market, we will support our efforts to develop a system-level solution at rack scale with Jaguar Shores to address the AI data center more broadly.” The company originally expected Falcon Shores to serve the AI and HPC markets currently covered by Gaudi processors. However, a quarter ago, Intel’s interim co-CEO told analysts and investors to temper their expectations, as Falcon Shores would mostly serve as a vehicle to develop a hardware and software ecosystem around its hybrid processors. Apparently, after careful consideration, Intel decided not to launch Falcon Shores commercially at all but to use it solely for internal development to perfect hardware and software rather than launching a half-baked product commercially that could potentially damage the company’s reputation. Intel described Falcon Shores as its first multi-chiplet design featuring Xe-HPC (or Xe3-HPC) GPU chiplets for highly parallel AI and HPC workloads. The product was meant to greatly increase performance and performance-per-watt efficiency compared to Intel’s AI and HPC processors, though the company refrained from giving actual numbers. Oddly, Intel stated that Falcon Shores would be an “internal test chip.” When developing an ecosystem, some processors that are not launched commercially are still shipped to external partners, including independent hardware vendors (IHVs) and independent software vendors (ISVs). For example, Intel’s first-generation Xeon Phi processor (derived from the company’s Larrabee GPU project), codenamed Knights Ferry, was not offered as a mainstream, fully supported commercial product. It was provided in limited quantities to select developers and research partners to begin porting and optimizing code for Intel’s Many Integrated Core (MIC) architecture, which later became the commercial Xeon Phi product family. Since Falcon Shores and its successor, Jaguar Shores, have entirely new GPU microarchitectures, Intel would typically send samples of these processors to ISVs to ensure their software can work efficiently with the hardware. Also, since Intel is focusing on rack-scale solutions, it would stand to reason that it would also supply samples of Falcon Shores to its IHV partners. However, with Falcon’s new designation as an internal test chip only, that strategy doesn’t appear to be planned. Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.

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