What’s new
Tesla brings self-driving hardware to its entire fleet
Every Tesla car produced from today, including the most affordable Model 3, will be equipped with “full self-driving capability” the EV automaker has announced today. The news makes Tesla the first mainstream car company to commit to self-driving technologies. It’s a hugely significant step, not least because the Model 3, deliveries of which are expected to begin toward the end of next year, is going to open Tesla’s technology up to a far broader audience than the current Model S sedan and Model X SUV. Still, initially it’ll be those two existing cars which get the self-driving functionality. Examples of the Model S and Model X with the new features are already in production now, Tesla says, and new orders will receive them. “All Tesla vehicles exiting the factory have hardware necessary for Level 5 autonomy,” CEO Elon Musk says.
You can read more here.
Rumor no more: First glimpse of Nintendo NX is close
Nintendo is set to raise the curtain on its upcoming NX console tomorrow with a preview trailer, the company said in a tantalisingly short statement. Nintendo hasn’t said much about the upcoming gaming platform to date, beyond confirming the “Nintendo NX” codename, calling it a “brand-new concept”, and promising that it would be released in March 2017. As these things often go, the official announcement was preceded by a flurry of online rumours earlier in the week. The hotly anticipated console has provided plenty of grist for that particular mill, with early speculation around price, portability and a remote control-style controller.
More info are available here.
New products
LeEco takes aim at Samsung Gear VR with its own mobile ‘ExploreVR’
At its first major US event, the Chinese tech giant LeEco showed off an entire ecosystem of products: from TVs to phones to cars to bicycles. As part of its ecosystem of connected devices and on demand entertainment, the company also showed off a mobile VR headset it calls ExploreVR. The ExploreVR looks to a Gear VR competitor, complete with a USB C connector that plugs one of the company’s smartphones into the front of the headset. There are a number of sensors built-in, including a gyrometer, accelerometer and magnetometer and a proximity sensor. The device will be be powered by the Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 821 inside LeEco’s new smartphone, the Le Pro 3. For comfort it promises “premium memory foam lining,” that molds to the contours of your head.
You can read more here.
Nvidia announces entry level graphic cards GTX 1050 and GTX 1050 Ti
The GTX 1050 and the GTX 1050 Ti are both based on the Pascal GPU architecture. The GTX 1050 Ti has 768 Cuda cores, with a base clock speed of 1290 MHz, a boost clock speed of 1392 MHz. On board memory is 4 GB GDDR5 with a memory speed of 7 Gbps. The GTX 1050 Ti has 640 Cuda cores, with a base clock speed of 1354 MHz, a boost clock speed of 1455 MHz. On board memory is 2 GB GDDR5 with a memory speed of 7 Gbps. Both cards support display resolutions up to 7680 x 4320@60Hz. The frame rate delivered by the cards are a smooth 60 frames per second.
The Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti will be available from October 25, while the Nvidia GTX 1050 will be available starting 8 November.
More info here.
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Samsung produces mobile DRAM, equal to best notebook
Samsung Electronics has produced and begun supplying 8Gigabyte (GB) DRAM for mobile, the company has announced. Based on 16Gigabit LPPDR4 made in the 10-nanometer process, it will level smartphone specs to equal that of a premium ultraslim notebook. It boasts a writing speed of 4,266 megabits per second, two times faster than that of conventional premium PCs, Samsung said, and will further enhance the playing of 4K UHD videos on phones.
You can read more here.
Dell Technologies has unveiled its new all-flash Isilon scale-out NAS, aimed at delivering massive storage capability and performance
Dell Technologies has announced the latest addition to its Isilon family, an all-flash scale-out network-attached storage (NAS) system offering up to 92.4 petabytes of storage capacity and up to 25M IOPS and 1.5TB per second of bandwidth, designed to handle next-generation applications and unstructured workloads, such as DNA sequencing. Senior vice president and general manager of Isilon Phil Bullinger said there are a number of vertical markets the organisation believes the Isilon all-flash is going to have a significant impact in, with life sciences, DNA sequencing in particular: one of the markets he is most excited about. Bullinger explained that with DNA sequencing comes mountains of unstructured data, with datacentres at capacity trying to keep up.
More info can be found here.
Fun stuff
SkunkLock is a lock that stinks when a thief tries to steal your bike
Although it looks and (mostly) works just like a regular U-lock, the Skunklock has an interior chamber that runs throughout the length of its hardened medium-carbon steel shackle. Sealed within that chamber is a pressurized legal-but-noxious “unique chemical deterrent.”
Under regular use, that chemical stays inside the lock. If the shackle is cut into and the chamber is breached, however, the deterrent gets out. It then creates a cloud of very unpleasant-smelling gas which will irritate the thief’s eyes, cause them to have difficulty breathing, and may even make them vomit. Additionally, it’s claimed that the chemical will permanently permeate their clothing, ruining it.
You can read more here.
