All this innovation we are seeing centers on new ways to access that data (a.k.a. the “cloud”) and the speed with which we can convert massive amounts of data into something useful. Not to diminish the very real innovation taking place here, but like the rest of technology it is driven by trade-offs – speed in one area slows another, optimize for readability and writing slows down. Editor’s Note: Guest author Jonathan Goldberg is the founder of D2D Advisory, a multi-functional consulting firm....

The Meta team worked with Professors Lav Varshney and Nishant Garg from the University of Illinois to conduct the initial model’s training using the Concrete Compressive Strength data set. The data set, which includes more than 1,000 formulas, their attributes, and corresponding strength data, provided the basis for reviewing the new mixture’s properties according to the Cement Sustainability Initiative’s tools and standards. The team’s research resulted in the selection of several potential formulas that would undergo further review, testing, and refinement until they surpassed standard strength metrics while dropping carbon requirements by up to 40%....

New York Mag reports that Meta’s half-a-trillion-dollar decline since the rebranding has resulted in a drop from its lofty position as the sixth-largest company in the world by market capitalization to 11th position, replaced by the likes of Nvidia and Tencent. A lot of Meta’s problems don’t stem from the new name but are a result of Apple’s privacy changes introduced in iOS 14 that allow users to opt out of targeted ads and prevent apps from tracking cross-app behavior....

Reports earlier this week revealed that in its annual report to the US securities and exchange commission, Meta wrote about its concerns over rules governing data transfer between countries, which are under scrutiny from regulators. One section stated that if it is no longer allowed to use current data transfer agreements or similar alternatives, Meta will “likely be unable to offer a number of our most significant products and services, including Facebook and Instagram, in Europe....

The Lumia 640 we are reviewing today is one of those affordable devices. It’s aimed at the upper segment of the entry-level market, priced at $200 - $250 unlocked (will vary depending on the market). It’s got a decent hardware package for the price and runs Windows Phone 8.1 out of the box, with a promised upgrade to Windows 10 Mobile later this year. The use of a Snapdragon 400 SoC is a little strange, considering Qualcomm’s newer 410 silicon is already available....

So how about grabbing Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for just $49.99, which includes all the essentials like Word and Excel, in addition to Outlook, Access, Publisher, and OneNote. That’s over 85% off the regular price for a standalone license, and it’s available for Windows and macOS, too. This deal went live for Black Friday and expired, but it’s back for a limited time to this all-time low price. The most recent revisions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint include real-time co-authoring and collaboration from within the apps (an advantage to using browser-based tools), in addition to several new features and a modern UI that offers high DPI support and dark mode....

Release Date: Q3 2011 | Genre: Action | Also on: PS3, Xbox 360 Batman: Arkham City is the upcoming sequel to action-adventure stealth video game Batman: Arkham Asylum. The game builds upon the intense, atmospheric foundation of its predecessor and brings both new gadgets and villians. Players will once again control Batman as he makes his way around Arkham City to complete mission objectives. There will also be secondary missions featuring a number of key characters and their stories within the city....

The front camera is Sony’s IMX132, which is a 1/6.9" 1080p (2-megapixel) sensor paired with an f/2.2 lens. Despite both cameras having enough resolution to provide 1080p video capabilities, and the Snapdragon 400 having a 1080p video encoder, the Moto G can only record 720p video. Thanks to the inclusion of a new sensor, the Moto G’s camera is significantly better than its predecessor. Improvements can be seen across the board, delivering superior color quality, accuracy, metering, clarity and dynamic range....

The comet is still too far away for its solid nucleus to be visually resolved by Hubble, so astronomers had to make a computer model of the surrounding coma and adjust it to fit Hubble’s images. Then, the coma was subtracted, leaving behind the starlike nucleus. The data was then compared to earlier observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile. All data considered, it is believed the icy comet has a nucleus measuring approximately 80 miles across....

After years of sitting comfortably as the most successful streaming service in the world, Netflix’s decade of sustained growth came to an end in Q1 when it recorded its first decline in subscribers—around 200,000—following a massive boost in users throughout the Covid-19 lockdowns. It was the same story in the second quarter when almost a million subs decided to leave, though that figure was better than the two million Netflix predicted would cancel their subscriptions....

At CES 2023, Razer unveiled a new sound system that combines beamforming with an AI neural network to try to offer the quality of a surround sound setup in a soundbar. It does this by combining AI, head-tracking, beamforming, and spatial audio. Razer’s first soundbar to use this system – the Leviathan V2 Pro – contains IR cameras that can see the position of the user’s head. It sends that information to a neural-network processor, which tracks the head position in real-time to know where to direct its beamforming sound....

The homescreen layout is very reminiscent of Windows Phone. Nokia has removed standard widgets and the app drawer in favor of a single homescreen which has all of your apps inside square tiles. Like with Windows Phone you can resize these tiles, and there’s also the ability to change the color of the tiles. You can also add in a selection of custom square widgets which act in a similar way to tiles, like a gallery widget or a clock....

Calling the Phone (1) “unlike anything else” might be a bit of stretch, considering Nothing’s debut into smartphones will most likely be with a candybar form factor, running a customized Android skin. However, the company does have a unique, discreet way of hyping up its products, and we’re told to expect plenty of transparent material going into the Phone (1)’s design. Although Nothing didn’t even share a glimpse of what the hardware will end up looking like, it’s safe to assume the see-through aesthetic of the company’s Ear (1) earbuds will be present here as well....

Nothing confirmed its plans to launch the Phone (1) back in March, with CEO Carl Pei promising it would ignite a change in the “sleepy” smartphone market and be “the most compelling alternative to Apple.” But it seems those in the US and Canada won’t find out if the Phone (1) lives up to Pei’s bold claims when it arrives on July 12. In a statement to PCMag, the company said, “While we’d love to bring phone (1) to the entire community around the world, we’re focusing on home markets, including the UK and Europe, where we have strong partnerships with leading local carriers....

Last year, AMD introduced its FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) technology — the much-awaited answer to Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS). Since then, several developers have implemented FSR into their titles, and Team Red claims over 110 existing and upcoming games support its upscaling tech – that’s between FSR and FSR 2.0 though, the former of which is generally inferior. The company achieved this level of support relatively quickly. However, DLSS is still superior when considering the number of released games and applications that can leverage it....

The 3Dmark Vantage results suggest that the stock clocked GeForce GTS 450 will provide a level of performance situated right between the Radeon HD 5750 and 5770. The overclocked Palit GTS 450 Sonic Platinum board scored 18% higher placing it well in front of the Radeon HD 5770 (non overclocked). However, the most interesting result came when testing the GeForce GTS 450 SLI configuration which performed as a rough equivalent of the Radeon HD 5770 Crossfire cards making them faster than both the Radeon HD 5850 and GeForce GTX 470 graphics cards....

Looking at the DirectX 12 performance in Total War Warhammer we see that the GTX 1050 is 3% faster than the RX 460, though this was just a 1fps advantage so much the same performance here. The GTX 1050 Ti was 15% faster than the standard 1050 and consequently 18% faster than the RX 460. Impressively, the GTX 1050 Ti also matched the performance of the GTX 960. Focusing on Doom’s Vulkan performance, we find that the GTX 1050 is 19% slower than the RX 460 though it did deliver the same 68fps using OpenGL as the RX 460 did using Vulkan....

When running Just Cause 2’s benchmark at 1920x1200, the GTX 660 was capable of 51fps, 9% slower than the GTX 660 Ti, 6% faster than the HD 7870 and 25% faster than the HD 7850. The GTX 660 averaged 48fps when testing with Max Payne 3 at 1920x1200, 2% slower than the Radeon HD 7850 and 16% slower than the 7870. Gigabyte’s overclocked managed to produce another 3fps.

The Arc 100 240GB was unable to max out the SATA 6Gb/s bus when testing with AS SSD Benchmark, which is a rare sight these days, even for a value SSD. Unlike the CrystalDiskMark results, we see that this time the sequential write performance is slightly lower than the read performance. The Arc 100 240GB and MX100 512GB are quite evenly matched when measuring 4K-64 thread read performance, with OCZ’s drive being just 7% slower....

The CrystalDiskMark graphs look a little jumbled, but please note that we have arranged them according to their write performance, slowest to fastest. This puts the OCZ Summit at the top of the graph for sequential write performance, with an impressive throughput of 193MB/s. The read performance is also very good at 188MB/s, though the Intel X25-M achieved 259MB/s in the same test. The OCZ Summit was more impressive when looking at the random 512KB performance....