Deep Mind Craft

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Deep Mind Craft
Number 3608
Broadcast Date SEPTEMBER 3, 2019
Episode Length 29:47
Hosts Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, Roger Chang
Guests Patrick Beja

Researchers at Facebook are developing a virtual assistant to help Minecraft players letting users type in requests in natural language to an in-game avatar and the assistant will carry out requests if it can. How does this change machine learning and how can players benefit?

Guest

Quick Hits

Huawei announced on Twitter that it'll unveil the upcoming Mate 30 on September 19th in Munich. Huawei is currently in its second 90-day reprieve from the US government's export ban, which would mean Google can't certify new Android phones, which would mean no Google Apps on the Mate 30. Huawei hasn't said whether or not it plans to launch the Mate 30 with its own Harmony, or HongMeng, OS.
Nintendo announced a Nintendo Direct Livestream set for Wednesday, Sept. 4, focusing on Switch games still to come this year, including two notable titles: Luigi’s Mansion 3 and Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield. Nintendo says the presentation will last about 40 minutes and will be available on its YouTube, Twitch, and Twitter channels at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT.
Facebook Face Recognition notifies you when someone uploads a picture of you anywhere on Facebook. Starting today that setting will be turned off by default by all users. Once the new settings have rolled out to your account you'll see a notification in your news feed.
Android Q which is officially Android 10 and not Android Quite Sugary, is rolling out to Pixel phones now, with updates to other phones to follow. Android 10 adds gesture navigation, dark mode, and action buttons in the notification panel. It includes Google Play System Update which handles OS updates for components like OpenGL without needing a full system update. Android 10 also has a new option to give an app location info only if it's in the foreground.

Top Stories

Samsung's long foldable nightmare is over. After five months Samsung is once again letting customers pre-register to purchase the Samsung Galaxy Fold which Samsung believes will launch later this month presumably at the $1,980 price point it previously announced. Pre-registering does not require any money. At the same time, Bloomberg reports it has sources that say Samsung has a different foldable in the works for next year. The Samsung Galaxy Fold is a 7.3-inch tablet that folds into a phone form factor. The new foldable that Bloomberg says is in the works would be a 6.7-inch phone form factor that would fold up into a square like a flip phone. It supposedly uses bendable glass, where the Galaxy Fold uses bendable plastic. Bloomberg's sources say Samsung partnered with designer Thom Brown on the look. Lenovo is working on what sounds like it might be a similar foldable RAZR.
CNET's Stephen Shankland reports on the state of development of WiFi 6 and WiFi 7 expected to arrive in 2024. At Qualcomm's WiFi Day in August, VP of Technology VK Jones said Wi-Fi 6's first improvement will be more capacity if US and European governments open up radio transmission in the 6GHz bands. That may happen next year. Then, an update to Wi-Fi 6 in 2022 should do for upload speeds what WiFi 6 already does for download thanks to UL MU-MIMO. After that, upgrades will come in 2024 as part of 802.11be, or WiFi 7. That will have something called Coordinated multiuser MIMO or CMU-MIMO, which, if it works, could use antennas from multiple devices together to get more out of the spectrum. A great way to take advantage of mesh network systems. WiFi 7 may also be able to send data on multiple frequencies at the same time, like over 2.5 and 5 GHZ for instance. And 4096-QAM could squeeze more information into the radio signal itself.
Mozilla launched Firefox 69 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android Monday, which includes Enhanced Tracking Protection on by default, blocking third-party tracking cookies, fingerprinting and cryptomining among other things. Firefox 69 also improves performance on Windows 10, and better battery life on macOS. It will also ask for permission before running Flash, which is planned for total retirement in 2020. Firefox 69 for desktops is available for download on firefox.com and existing users can upgrade automatically. Firefox for Android is rolling out slowly to Google Play users. Next up, Firefox 70 in mid-October.
The USB implementers forum announced the completion of the technical spec for USB4, the successor to USB 3.2. That means companies can start building projects that use it-- devices with USB4 are expected to arrive late in 2020. USB 4 will be capable of speeds up to 40 Gigabits per second, partly by incorporating Intel's Thunderbolt 3. USB 4 devices are also required to include USB Power Delivery also called USB PD. That should help reduce the confusion over USB-C cables and devices. And USB 4 cables will be passive up to 0.8 meters though active cables will be an option. USB 4 will be backwards-compatible with older USB standards and it will use the USB-C style port.
The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or MTA tells the Wall Street Journal it is considering a public service announcement asking commuters not to take AirPods on or off when entering or exiting train cars. The number of lost ear buds rose significantly starting in March with the new version of Air Pods and retrieval efforts can cause delays. WSJ says on a recent Thursday, MTA maintenance received 18 request to fetch lost items that fell on the tracks, six were AirPods. Workers use an 8-foot pole with two rubber cups on the end to grab small objects like AirPods. Though some people do it themselves with one passenger using a broom and some duct tape.

Discussion

Thing of the Day

Amateur Traveler Chris Christensen has some insight on how blockchain is removing confusion between hotels and travel management companies.

Mailbag

I'm using a Windows 10 laptop in tablet mode while listening to you debate using a Windows machine in tablet mode.

I'm flat on my back due to a back injury and I wanted to monitor Twitter for work. Being able to read in portrait mode is nice and some of the Microsoft apps work well in this format. However, during the course of drafting this email I've switched keyboards 3 times, due in part to my screen being too big to type comfortably and Gmail putting the compose window in the bottom third of the window and not adjusting for an on-screen keyboard.

This brings me to the biggest flaw in Windows as a tablet- the lack of software or hardware support for Windows in tablet mode. While I use my computer in laptop mode 90% of the time, but fund it helpful in tablet mode for note taking, reading, or drafting on the fly cramped in the back of a car or flying in coach.
Sent by Mike in Dusty Riyadh


A few weeks ago you were talking about Locast. I’d never heard of that before so I checked out. What a great service. I like football but don’t have cable or satellite, so was going to shell out money to YouTube TV, Sling, or one of the other providers so I could watch games, but with Locast I don’t have to.

Since you saved a bit of money, I decided that I should thank in the form of Patreon. I just signed up and am happy to support independent journalism instead of paying money to large corporations.
Sent by Gary

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Links



Preceded by:
"Don't Leave the Nest"
Deep Mind Craft
Followed by:
"Speakin' of Speakers"