Category: Technica Aquarius

Enlarge (credit: SOPA Images / Contributor)

LG Electronics quit the Android world last July, and while the company never produced a flagship smartphone capable of hanging with the best in the market, LG was a prominent source of cheap smartphones, especially in the US. Thanks to a new report from Counterpoint Research, we’re now getting a look at what a US market without LG looks like, and the big winner is apparently Lenovo’s phone division, Motorola.

Counterpoint Research shows Motorola capturing the number three spot in the US smartphone market, with 10 percent market share. Apple takes the top spot with 58 percent, and Samsung grabs a 22 percent share. It looks like LG supply cratered around September 2021.

Counterpoint’s current market-share chart for the US. (credit: Counterpoint Research )

Counterpoint says Motorola’s rise is mostly due to its success at the lower end of the market and its good relationship with US carriers. Research Director Jeff Fieldhack notes in the report that “Motorola has been a key OEM filling the void left by LG’s exit. The OEM has all the key characteristics major carriers look for—a full portfolio, ability to ramp volumes, and low return rates. Motorola’s sub-$300 portfolio—Moto G Stylus, Moto G Power and Moto G Pure—has driven its success in the US. Thanks to its reliability, Motorola has been a key free ‘switch’ device, a device carriers use to move subscribers from networks that are being shut off or as a device MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators) use when changing network partners.”

Enlarge / If you can’t buy Loop Hero, the developers encourage you to pirate it.

With Russian gamers effectively cut off from purchases on most major gaming platforms due to corporate sanctions against the country, the Russian game developer behind indie darling Loop Hero is encouraging Russian customers to pirate the game.

In a Sunday post on Russian social network VK (Google translated version), Loop Hero developer Four Quarters said, “In such difficult times, we can only help everyone to raise the pirate flag (together with vpn)” to get the game. The developer then included a link to a copy of Loop Hero on a popular Russian torrent tracker to aid in that process directly.

In a follow-up post the next day (Google translated version), Four Quarters insisted that “we didn’t do anything special, there’s nothing wrong with torrents.” The company also notes that players wanting to offer the developer donations in lieu of buying the game should refrain. “The truth is that everything is fine with us, send this support to your family and friends at this difficult time,” they wrote.

Enlarge / A Deepmind Health webpage sits displayed on the screen of an Apple Inc. iPhone in this arranged photograph in London, U.K. on Monday, Nov. 26, 2018. Three years ago, artificial intelligence company DeepMind Technologies Ltd. embarked on a landmark effort to transform health care in the U.K. Now plans by owner Alphabet Inc. to wrap the partnership into its Google search engine business are tripping alarm bells about privacy. Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg via Getty Images (credit: Bloomberg | Getty Images)

A former DeepMind employee has accused the artificial intelligence group’s leadership of mishandling multiple allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment, raising concerns over how grievances are dealt with at the Google-acquired company.

The female member of staff, whom we call Julia to protect her identity, claimed in December 2019 that a senior researcher at the London-based group had sexually assaulted her twice, threatened suicide, and alluded to previous instances of rape, among other concerning behavior.

DeepMind, one of the world’s most respected AI companies, employs more than 1,000 people, including renowned research scientists. It said Julia’s “allegations were investigated thoroughly, and the individual who was investigated for misconduct was dismissed without any severance payments.”

Enlarge / Intel’s Arc GPUs will begin shipping in laptops soon. (credit: Intel)

Maybe you’ve heard about it: After years of rumors and occasional false starts, Intel is leveraging its experience building integrated GPUs to enter the dedicated graphics business. The company’s Arc GPUs will be trickling out throughout 2022, and Intel’s stated goal is to shake up a market that has been dominated by Nvidia’s products (and AMD’s, but let’s be honest, mainly Nvidia’s) for years now.

That process formally begins Wednesday with the launch of the first Arc GPUs for laptops. These Arc mobile GPUs first made an appearance in January when they were obliquely mentioned (with no model numbers, specs, or other technical information) in some of the laptop makers’ product announcements. Now that those PCs are closer to shipping, Intel is talking a bit more about what you can expect from its first serious effort to produce modern dedicated GPUs.

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  The five Arc GPU models being announced today are based on two chips: the low-end ACM-G11 and the high-end ACM-G10.

The Arc mobile GPUs’ branding mirrors the division between Intel’s Core i3, i5, and i7 processors; the company is launching a pair of Arc 3 GPUs now, and one Arc 5 and two Arc 7 models will be coming in the “early summer.” These five products are based on two different dies. The lower-end die, the ACM-G11, is the basis for the two Arc 3 GPUs, while the Arc 5 and Arc 7 are based on the larger ACM-G10.