Important announcements
Google introduces neural machine learning to improve translation, approach human-level accuracy
Though Google Translate is one of the most powerful language translation tools, the company still thinks there’s room for major improvement. And it is now working towards creating a model which can translate phrases from one language to another automatically. Much like every other product, Google has been working on integrating machine learning translation techniques into this system as well. Google Neural Machine Translation system, or GNMT which utilizes state-of-the-art training techniques for improved translations has today been introduced into one of the most difficult language pair: Chinese to English.
“We believe we’re at a seminal moment in next 10 years and want to take next step to be more assistive. We want to be there for our users. We want to help you get things done in the real world and understanding your context. The real test is whether humans can achieve a lot more with AI assisting them. We look forward to building this future” said CEO Sundar Pichai.
You can read more about it here.
Samsung Galaxy Note 7 recall: replacement units reported to have overheating, battery issues
South Korean TV network YTN has reported, as noted by the Wall Street Journal, that some customers in South Korea are having issues with their Galaxy Note 7 replacement units. As per the report, the replacement units of the device that were issued through the exchange program are overheating and losing some amount of battery power even when they are plugged in for charging.
Even though the company has not revealed the number of cases that have been registered for these issues, a Samsung spokesperson has reportedly said that the issues are completely unrelated to the battery on the device. He further said that the issues are related to mass production of the smartphone and company is closely observing the situation.
More info about this subject here.
Google, Facebook and other tech titans form ‘Partnership on AI’
This is a nonprofit organization to increase understanding of AI technologies and formulate best practices. Members of the Partnership on AI (Amazon.com, Facebook, Google, IBM, and Microsoft ) will conduct and publish research under an open source license in areas such as ethics, fairness, and inclusivity. Other aspects to be researched include transparency, privacy, interoperability, trust, reliability, and interaction between people and AI systems.
The Partnership on AI has yet to select its board of directors, which will eventually include an equal number of corporate and non-corporate members, including representatives from each of the founding companies.
You can read more details here.
Top new products
Alcatel unveils the Pixi 4 Plus Power
The Pixi 4 Plus Power’s main attraction is its huge 5,000mAh battery, which promises to deliver 22 hours of Wi-Fi browsing, 14 hours of video streaming, and five days of non-stop music listening.
Alcatel Pixi 4 Plus Power comes with 1GB of RAM. The phone packs 8GB of internal storage that can be expanded up to 32GB via a microSD card. As far as the cameras are concerned, the Alcatel Pixi 4 Plus Power packs a 13-megapixel primary camera on the rear and a 5-megapixel front shooter for selfies. Also it runs Android 6.0.
You can read more about the smartphone here.
Nvidia’s new Xavier SoC is an AI supercomputer for cars
The CPU will be made up of eight custom ARM cores designed by Nvidia, possibly using a new design that succeeds Denver used in their Parker SoC. The GPU will use Nvidia’s next-generation Volta architecture and pack 512 CUDA cores, up from 256 in Parker. Because it’s used in cars, Xavier was designed to meet the ISO 26262 functional safety spec, which is an international standard that sets expectations for electronics used in cars designed for road use. Xavier is intended for use by carmakers, suppliers, research organizations and startups looking to field and test their own self-driving cars.
More info here.
Sony Xperia XZ available for pre-order on Amazon
The Xperia XZ comes with a 5.2-inch FHD display with Gorilla Glass 4 and runs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset, coupled with Adreno 530 graphics processing unit. It also features 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal memory, which can be expanded to 256GB using a microSD card. As for optics, a 23-megapixel shooter can be found on the back of the device, while a 5-megapixel snapper is placed on the front of the device. As far as connectivity is concerned, this smartphone offers Bluetooth 4.1, NFC, USB Type-C to charge the 2,600mAh battery, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, WiFi Direct and location tracking using A-GPS and GLONASS.
You can read more here.
Top interesting info
Moto Mods Dev Kit launches to help anyone make more Mods
Motorola is opening up its modular Moto Z line to people who want to develop Mods for it. It has released a development kit for the Moto Mods, allowing anyone to build any accessory they can conceive. The dev kits come with a reference mod, which is a computer itself with its own processor, input and output ports (including a DisplayPort), perforated board with 364 solder points. The Lenovo-owned brand is also selling add-ons and sample mods separately to show off the capabilities of these mods. These include a HAT adapter which can be slapped onto any Raspberry Pi HAT and “Personality Cards” for audio, display, and sensors that can connect to the Reference Moto Mod.
The Dev Kit is currently available for US$125 in China, Europe, and South America.
You can read more about it here.
IBM meshes AI with analytics in new Project DataWorks platform
Big data is in many ways still a wild frontier, requiring wily smarts and road-tested persistence on the part of those hoping to find insight in all the petabytes. IBM announced a new platform it hopes will make things easier. Dubbed Project DataWorks, the new cloud-based platform is the first to integrate all types of data and bring AI to the table for analytics, IBM said. IBM’s big claim is that Project DataWorks is able to ingest data at a faster rate than any other kind of data platform. It’s capable of ingesting data from fifty to hundreds of Gbps. It can also pull data from just about any source, be it databases, Internet of Things sensors and devices or social media. Meanwhile, the platform sports cognitive capabilities from Watson.
More info are available here.
Samsung and SAP will cooperate on next-gen in-memory platforms
Samsung Electronics and SAP will work together to develop in-memory platforms that will substantially increase processing for next-generation computing, the companies have announced. The in-memory database allows the saving of massive amounts of data on the main memory of a device that processes information of the CPU. It also allows for a faster data processing speed. At the center, the two firms will provide customers with optimized solutions through extensive test runs of the SAP HANA and review of Samsung’s memory solutions.
You can read more here.
