After nearly 20 years, the Segway PT model is going away. Dean Kamen's invention didn't quite live up to the city-reshaping hype, but the self-balancing two-wheeler has, at long last, ushered in a new wave of electric urban mobility.
Segway
Mall cops and tourists will miss it the most, while Segway's current owner Ninebot will continue to manufacture electric scooters, as well as self-balancing skates and chairs. I'm not sure that Kamen foresaw bored teens and NBA dunk contest participants applying their creativity to the tech, but the future is a weird place to live sometimes.
— Richard
Do Apple's new Mac chips mean ARM has won?
Apple is dropping Intel and the x86 architecture in favor of ARM and RISC.
Engadget
At WWDC, Apple announced a radical change to its computers. The company is dropping Intel as its CPU provider, transitioning its laptops and desktops to custom Apple-designed chips over the next two years. Based on Apple's current smartphone and iPad chips, these new processors are launching a development platform that is essentially a Mac mini with an iPad Pro's A12Z crammed into it.
These Apple chips follow ARM architecture, a RISC design. Now, ARM underpins pretty much every smartphone and mobile device in the world, but in the last 15 years, it's struggled to gain traction in high-performance computing. In the latest episode of Upscaled, Chris Schodt walks us through the history of ARM, RISC and everything related to it all. Continue reading.
iOS 14 will respond to taps on the back of your iPhone
Your AirPods will also charge intelligently to maximize battery life.
On one hand, watchOS 7 kills the force touch feature, where sustained pressing offered a 'right click' style secondary input. The company has already removed the feature from its iPhones, where it was called 3D Touch.
Meanwhile, testers have noticed a new "Back Tap" feature that lets you perform actions and shortcuts by double- or triple-tapping the back of your iPhone. It's intended as an accessibility function and could clearly be helpful for those with limited motor skills, but it's easy to see this being helpful for anyone who'd rather not reach across a massive phone screen to perform a common task. Is this your new camera button shortcut? Continue reading.
Acer's new ConceptD PCs are for creatives on a budget
And the Predator gaming laptops have a surprise.
Acer
This year's iteration of creative-focused ConceptD PCs from Acer maintains the line's innovative styling but with a twist: They're a bit more affordable than usual. Along with 10th-generation Intel CPUs inside, this ConceptD 3 Ezel has a floating hinge and a price that starts at $1,500.
Acer
The company has also refreshed its Predator gaming laptops with the latest Intel hardware. While they feature a second Thunderbolt 3 port and up to 64GB of RAM, the showstopping feature on its Helios 700 flagship is a sliding keyboard that exposes extra cooling vents on top. Is it entirely necessary? Maybe not, but it does stand out. Continue reading.
Dell's latest gaming PCs include large G7 laptops and a G5 desktop
Beefier options for folks who aren't ready to go full Alienware.
Dell
The PC maker is introducing a trio of gaming machines headlined by its new G7 series in 15- and (most notably) 17-inch sizes. It's relatively sleek with a design as thick as 0.72 inches, optional four-zone RGB keyboard lighting and plenty of chassis lighting. The real allure, apart from the existence of a 17-inch model, is performance. You can opt for up to an eight-core Intel Core i9 processor, GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q graphics, 32GB of RAM, a 4K OLED screen and a 1TB PCIe SSD.
An updated version of the G5 desktop can pack 10th-generation Core CPUs inside its case, and there are some new peripherals to choose from. Continue reading.
Apple's 2020 Worldwide Developers Conference will probably be known for two things: it was the first time the forum was staged virtually, and it's when Apple announced it would start making Macs based its own processor designs.
Cisco and the Importance of Empathy in a Technology Vendor
Cisco Live was last week, and this was their first large scale virtual event. What made this event very different from the other games was the amount of effort they put into socially responsible projects. Many of the customer projects they highlighted are dealing with a variety of world problems, be they related to the pandemic or not.
Women in Tech: 20 Trailblazers Share Their Journeys
Successful women in the tech trenches share their insights and tackle subjects ranging from how to search out a strong mentor to how to be one -- from how to advance in a large company to how to start your own firm.
This book is an excellent guide for students considering STEM courses, graduates pondering job choices, and career changers at any stage in life. It's also a useful tool for school and career counselors, recruiters, and HR pros eager to diversify their workplaces.
Teen Inventors Tackle Viability of Commercial Drones
Welcome to the world of four Naperville North High School students in a western suburb of Chicago. Their entrepreneurial and technical skills earned them the Pete Conrad Scholar award for their invention of Airlyft, a versatile drone. TechNewsWorld recently met with these student innovators to discuss how they applied teamwork and persistence to overcome constant setbacks imposed by COVID-19.
Ubuntu Unity Distro: An Unofficial Desktop Revival
Perhaps one of the most missed Linux desktop environments is Ubuntu Unity Desktop. It was either loved or hated by users otherwise endeared to the vastly popular Ubuntu Linux OS. An infant cottage industry of sorts has made a smattering of appearances and disappearances with replacement Unity integrations. That brings us to this week's Linux distro review of Ubuntu Unity Distro 20.04.
Qualcomm Introduces 5G and AI-Enabled Robotics Platform
Qualcomm has announced its Robotics RB5 platform, with 5G and 4G connectivity, on-device AI and machine learning. The platform's Qualcomm QRB5165 processor, which is customized for robotics applications, offers a heterogeneous computing architecture coupled with the 5th-generation Qualcomm AI Engine that delivers 15 Tera Trillion Operations Per Second (TOPS) of AI performance.
Intel Says 'Tiger Lake' Will Drown Control-Flow Malware
The next generation of Intel mobile processors will include malware protection built into the chip. The protection, provided by Intel's Control-Flow Enforcement Technology, will first be available in the company's "Tiger Lake" mobile processors....
A browser that has received plaudits for privacy protection has been exposed for redirecting Web searches to make money. Brave, a browser with some 15 million monthly users, has been redirecting searches for cryptocurrency companies to links that ...
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