Yearly Archives: 2024

PR Newswire

M31 Launches PCI-SIG Certified PCIe 5.0 PHY IP, Partnering with SSD Storage Chipmaker InnoGrit to Advance the Next-Generation PCIe 5.0

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HSINCHU, Feb. 20, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — M31 Technology Corporation (M31), a leading global provider of silicon intellectual property (IP), today announced that the PCIe 5.0 PHY IP has obtained the official certification mark from PCI-SIG as a high-performance solution that complies with PCI-SIG standards. Additionally, the IP has been adopted by the globally renowned SSD storage chipmaker ­InnoGrit for use in next-generation SSD storage chips.

With the continuous improvement of processor performance, the demand for upgrading the read and transfer speeds of SSD storage chips has been driven by Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe), which is used for the data transfer of solid state drives (SSDs), graphics cards, and other hardware, playing a crucial role in data transfer within storage chips and has become the mainstream transfer interface. PCI-SIG, as an open industry standard PCI specification alliance, consists of more than 900 leading industry member companies to formulate industry standard specifications that meet the needs of its members, and PCI-SIG official certification serves as a benchmark standard adopted by the industry for PCIe products. However, obtaining official certification from PCI-SIG is no easy feat, as it requires rigorous adherence to PCI-SIG’s strict consistency standard tests to ensure compliance with PCIe standards and interoperability and consistency among various products.

The PCIe 5.0 PHY IP developed by M31 provides high performance, multi-channel functionality and low-power architecture for high bandwidth applications, and has already completed 12-nanometer silicon validation, with maximum speeds up to 32Gbps. This IP integrates high-speed mixed-signal circuits to support a full series of PCIe 5.0 Base applications, and can accommodate both consumer electronics and enterprise-level server computing at significantly higher speeds. In addition, the design and development strictly follow the international PCI-SIG interface specification, and further pass the official PCI-SIG rigorous standards test, formally listed in the official PCI-SIG integration list. Therefore, customers can rest assured that they can adopt M31’s officially certified PCIe IP to meet their application needs.

Founder and CEO of InnoGrit, Dr. Zining Wu, stated, “InnoGrit is dedicated to advancing storage technology. By collaborating with M31 to adopt PCIe 5.0 IP, InnoGrit has launched a new generation of PCIe 5.0 SSD storage chips, which can significantly optimize the storage chips and improve overall performance, and comprehensively support data storage and transfer applications in artificial intelligence and big data centers.”

M31 CEO Scott Chang said, “M31 is pleased to have been working with InnoGrit on PCIe 4.0/3.0 IP for so long. We have now successfully integrated the latest PCIe 5.0 IP into InnoGrit next-generation SSD storage chips and have successfully mass-produced them. In the future, M31 will continue to work to build the PCIe 5.0 ecosystem together to support applications such as data centers, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, providing customers with faster and more power-efficient solutions.“

PR Newswire

Wondershare Edraw Introducing Wondershare Office Bundle: Unlocking the Power of Office Productivity

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VANCOUVER, BC, Feb. 19, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Wondershare Edraw proudly announces the launch of its revolutionary five-in-one bundled membership – Wondershare Office Bundle. This comprehensive suite of intelligent graphic services is meticulously crafted to elevate productivity and propel professional endeavors for Wondershare software users.

Wondershare Office Bundle
Wondershare Office Bundle

With the Wondershare Edraw Bundled membership, users gain perpetual access to the top five Wondershare productivity software solutions: EdrawMax, EdrawMind, EdrawProj, PDFelement, and BoardMix.

EdrawMax, the cornerstone of this membership, offers unparalleled diagramming capabilities, enabling users to create intricate flowcharts, mind maps, and organizational charts with ease. EdrawMind provides a powerful mind mapping tool, empowering users to visualize their thoughts and streamline their ideation process.

For project management enthusiasts, EdrawProj emerges as the ultimate companion. With its comprehensive set of tools, users can efficiently plan, track, and collaborate on projects, ensuring seamless execution from start to finish. Meanwhile, PDFelement serves as the go-to solution for PDF editing needs. With its intuitive interface, users can seamlessly edit, convert, e-sign, and protect the PDF documents, saving valuable time and effort.

Wondershare BoardMix rounds out the suite, offering collaborative advantages through real-time whiteboarding and brainstorming sessions.

Iris Liu, Brand Director of Wondershare, underscores the significance of this launch: “Cost-effectiveness is crucial, which is why Wondershare Office Bundle offers exceptional value for money. By combining these five essential tools into one package, we’re empowering users to unlock their full potential.”

For a trial experience, please visit our official website or follow us on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to learn more about Wondershare Edraw. 

About Wondershare:

Wondershare is a globally recognized software company committed to delivering innovative solutions for personal and professional use. With a focus on creativity and productivity, we have received prestigious awards from organizations such as The Shorty Awards, G2, and GetApp. Our mission is to empower individuals to pursue their passions and build a more creative world. With over 100 million users across 150 countries, we offer a wide range of software solutions for video editing, PDF editing, data recovery, diagram and graphics, and more. Together, we strive to provide high-quality, user-friendly software that enables individuals and businesses to bring their creative ideas to life.

PR Newswire

China Medical University Hospital (CMUH) in Taiwan Upgrades Smart Healthcare with Gen AI

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Establishing a comprehensive “AI-assisted Physician” using generative AI from Google Cloud, including MedLM

TAICHUNG, Feb. 17, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — China Medical University Hospital (CMUH) in Taiwan announced its collaboration with Google Cloud in mid-December 2023. Using Google Cloud’s generative AI technology, including MedLM, which is a large language model built on Med-PaLM 2, CMUH has developed a comprehensive “AI-assisted Physician” system which aims to assist healthcare professionals in disease diagnosis, treatment planning, patient education, and medical research, etc. 

Superintendent Der-Yang Cho of CMUH announced a collaboration with Google Cloud to develop a large language model, MedLM, based on Med-PaLM 2. CMUH is the first medical center in Asia to adopt Med-PaLM 2.
Superintendent Der-Yang Cho of CMUH announced a collaboration with Google Cloud to develop a large language model, MedLM, based on Med-PaLM 2. CMUH is the first medical center in Asia to adopt Med-PaLM 2.

The collaboration between CMUH and Google Cloud will introduce assistive tools designed to support medical professionals in precision cancer treatment. These tools, including “Customized Cancer Treatment Guidelines” and “Cancer Therapy Q&As,” aim to reduce the time spent searching for information and enable the quick capture of accurate data. This can aid professionals in developing cancer treatment plans, offering personalized treatment-related information to patients, and providing responses to patient health education inquiries.

CMUH is one of the first university hospitals in Asia to test MedLM. Through its collaboration with Google Cloud, CMUH is dedicated to driving AI innovation in smart healthcare to shape the future of healthcare in Taiwan. MedLM will help facilitate CMUH in the timely access of accurate medical information to establish the best Healthcare AI models for the Chinese-speaking market in Asia.

Prof. Der-Yang Cho, Superintendent of CMUH, pointed out that MedLM is advanced in its ability to provide precise and rapid data analysis for drug guidelines, disease gene sequencing, and medical records, among other areas. Such capabilities can significantly accelerate the discovery of new treatments for difficult-to-treat diseases by medical teams and assist in the rapid development of treatment plans to help patients. “We are excited about this collaboration, which positions smart hospitals in Taiwan at the forefront of providing more precision- and safety-oriented support to healthcare professionals and patients alike,” Prof. Der-Yang Cho said.

CMUH was already recognized as the world’s third smart hospital by the US. Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) in their 2022 Digital Health Indicator (DHI) ranking. Additionally, Newsweek named CMUH as one of the World’s Best Hospitals for 2023 and one of the World’s Best Smart Hospitals for 2024. With its widespread recognition, CMUH is deeply committed to advancing the diversification and precision of smart healthcare services.

“Life sciences problems are fundamentally data problems, and this is where AI can fully unleash its potential,” said Kathy Lee, Managing Director of Google Cloud, North Asia. “Generative AI solutions from Google Cloud can help healthcare and life sciences organizations operate more efficiently and improve patient outcomes. In this remarkable era of gen AI, we are excited to collaborate with medical industry leaders that drive innovation through AI like CMUH, and partner with them to build the future of healthcare in Taiwan.”

Aashima Gupta, Global Director of Healthcare Strategy and Solutions at Google Cloud, shared that healthcare professionals are committed to delivering the best care for patients, and gen AI can be a crucial ally in reducing their workload. Gupta pointed out that this technology will ease the cognitive burden for staff and improve personal care for patients. Furthermore, it will allow healthcare professionals at CMUH to devote more time to tasks that require human judgment and expertise. She mentioned that ensuring the safety and effectiveness of gen AI is fundamental to these benefits.

Greg Corrado, a Distinguished Scientist and Senior Research Director at Google Research, discussed how MedLM is designed specifically for the healthcare industry and is part of the growing family of gen AI technologies that have the potential to significantly improve the healthcare experience for professionals and patients. Corrado emphasized the importance of collaborating with healthcare institutions like CMUH in testing and implementing new gen AI solutions, underlining it as a critical step towards developing safe and effective AI technologies.

Prof. Oscar K. Lee, Vice Superintendent of CMUH explained that among global generative AI large language models, Med-PaLM 2 stands out in model performance. It scored 85% on MedQA-USMLE (US Medical Licensing Examination), reaching a level of excellence comparable to professional physicians. This makes it a pioneer among the world’s medical AI models in terms of outstanding performance. By training the model to analyze treatment guidelines and care cultures from various regions, MedLM will become even better at addressing the medical and healthcare needs of local populations.”

Currently, the collaborative applications between CMUH and Google Cloud include “Customized Cancer Treatment Guidelines” and “Cancer Therapy Q&As”. The “Customized Cancer Treatment Guidelines” are developed based on the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines and are integrated with MedLM, enabling clinicians to quickly capture accurate information based on the patient’s cancer staging, treatment methods, and risk assessments, etc. It can also generate cancer treatment plans and provide personalized treatment recommendations for clinicians to review, edit and use with patients. Focusing on health education for cancer patients, the “Cancer Therapy Q&As” application incorporated the cancer care-related health educational content of CMUH into the MedLM model for training and optimization, resulting in a system with extensive medical knowledge and Q&A capabilities. Such advancement not only diminishes the time healthcare professionals spend searching for information but also provides comprehensive treatment options. Furthermore, it contributes to enhancing overall clinical efficacy, improving patient understanding and engagement, and enhancing the quality of healthcare, thereby fostering warmer doctor-patient interactions and steering us collectively toward a healthier future.

In addition, in terms of new drug development, CMUH is leveraging Google’s unique AI accelerators, TPU (Tensor Processing Unit), to assist in calculations related to protein folding and the development of new drugs. Preliminary tests at CMUH have shown that utilizing these resources can reduce the computation time for related programs by over tenfold.

With its robust research and development capabilities, CMUH’s Artificial Intelligence Center has provided over 20 distinct AI medical services in recent years, assisting doctors in making fast and accurate medical decisions.

Media contact: Carolyn Chen, 100709@tool.caaumed.org.tw

PR Newswire

The Royal Thai Police, Supported By ACE, Shut Down Major Torrent Website

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Simultaneous raids take place in Bangkok, Surin Province and Surat Thani.

BANGKOK , Feb. 17, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — The Royal Thai Police’s Economic Crimes Department (ECD), with support from the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), has raided four locations in Bangkok, Surin Province and Surat Thani. Four Thai nationals have been taken into custody and are expected to be formally charged with copyright offenses in the coming days.

Siambit.me was the largest torrent tracker site in Thailand with average monthly visits of 5.5 million, and which provided access to a huge range of Hollywood, International and Thai content. The site had been in operation since 2005 and is known to regularly change its domain to avoid detection. According to statements by the Royal Thai Police, Siambit.me had over 100,000 VIP members and the operators were making an estimated 1.5 million baht (USD$41,000) on a monthly basis.

“We commend the ECD for their continued collaboration with ACE and for taking enforcement action against this large torrent site,” said Jan van Voorn, Executive Vice President and Chief of Global Content Protection for the Motion Picture Association and Head of ACE. “Illicit torrent sites put consumers around the world at risk of unwittingly downloading malware such as spyware, remote access trojans and even ransomware. The ECD’s action helps protect the livelihood of Thai and international creators and distributors, and it helps shield consumers from such malware.”

Suebsiri Taweepon, President of the Intellectual Property Association of Thailand (IPAT), said, “We would like to commend the professionalism of the ECD and ACE in taking down this large torrent tracker site. Piracy sites such as Siambit undermine local and international investment in our country’s content sector, reduce tax contributions to the government, and stifle creativity.”

About The Allliance for Creativity and Entertainment

The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) is the world’s leading coalition dedicated to protecting the dynamic legal market and reducing digital piracy. Driven by a comprehensive approach to addressing piracy through criminal referrals, civil litigation and cease-and-desist operations, ACE has achieved many successful global enforcement actions against illegal streaming services and sources of unauthorized content and their operators. Drawing upon the collective expertise and resources of more than 50 media and entertainment companies around the world and reinforced by the content protection operations of the Motion Picture Association, ACE protects the creativity and innovation that drive the global growth of core copyright and entertainment industries. The current governing board members for ACE are Amazon, Apple TV+, NBCUniversal, Netflix Studios LLC, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Paramount, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, and Warner Bros. Charles Rivkin is Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association and Chairman of ACE. For more information, please visit www.alliance4creativity.com.

PR Newswire

Creative Learning Platform Skillshare Helps Creative Professionals Maximize the Highly Anticipated Animation App Procreate Dreams™ with New Partnership and Exclusive Content from its Top Teachers

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Skillshare Top Teachers have created custom classes to help audiences expand their creative skills with the new animation software, Procreate Dreams 

NEW YORK, Feb. 17, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Skillshare, the world’s largest online community for creatives, has teamed up with the new animation app Procreate Dreams™ to develop a customized series of content that teaches students how to use and optimize tools from the highly anticipated animation software.

As part of the collaboration, Skillshare has enlisted a group of top teachers to create content, both free and for subscribers, focused on how to utilize the software to create 2D animation and expressive video, and leverage powerful storytelling techniques.

Amongst the participating teachers, Danni Fisher-Shin, Mimi Chao, Smitesh Mistry, Lisa Bardot, Marie-Nöelle Wurm, Priscilla Adei-Cardwell, Rich Armstrong, Simon Ip, Iva Mikles and Siobhan Twomey, span expertise across illustration, animation, film and video production, and content creation. Each Skillshare teacher brings their own unique style and engages an audience of creative professionals and hobbyists who want to expand their creative skills.

“This partnership underscores the powerful synergy between Procreate and Skillshare, both dedicated to bringing creative education and exploration to the fore,” comments Alicia Hamilton-Morales, SVP of Content, Community and Marketing with Skillshare. “Together, we aim to empower individuals to explore and enhance their skills with the newly released app, Procreate Dreams. Procreate has been a highly popular subject on our platform for years and we’re excited about how Procreate Dreams will spark even more creativity among our students. Our goal is to demystify creative disciplines like animation by inviting students to explore classes taught by our exceptional teachers and ignite their passion for learning something new and innovative.”

Content began rolling out in November and will continue through 2024, including original content across participating teachers’ individual profiles, and the partnership homepage, alongside a series of free live sessions which can be accessed here.

Procreate CMO Nathan Clegg comments, “Procreate Dreams marks a major chapter for both Procreate and the animation industry. Over the past 5+ years we poured our hearts and souls into producing an animation app that is approachable for beginners and powerful for professionals. With an aim to unlock creative potential and empower the next generation of storytellers. We are thrilled to partner with Skillshare to help creatives get started and make the most out of Procreate Dreams.”

Procreate Dreams is available on the App Store for a single-time purchase of $19.99 USD. No subscriptions. procreate.com

About Skillshare:
Skillshare is the world’s largest online learning community for creativity. With more than 26,000 video-based classes exploring a wide range of creative disciplines from graphic design to photography to painting and illustration to interior design—taught by industry experts including Jonathan Van Ness, Aaron Draplin, Emily Henderson, Thomas Frank, Rebecca Minkof and Jeff Staple and more. Skillshare is both a publisher of original content and an open platform, where anyone who meets our standards and guidelines can upload a class and earn income. Skillshare’s mission is to build the world’s most valuable creative learning community. To learn more, go to: www.skillshare.com.

About Procreate® 
Procreate is dedicated to making exceptional creative tools for creative people by combining beautiful user experiences with high-performance engineering. Procreate for iPad is used by millions around the globe, has been the best-selling paid iPad app on App Store for the past six years, and has received two coveted Apple Design Awards. Procreate’s three apps — Procreate, Procreate Pocket, and Procreate Dreams — are placing more power in the hands of creatives, amplifying the company’s guiding principle: Art is for everyone. procreate.com

Follow @procreate on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and X.

For all press enquiries, please contact:
Alicia Hamilton-Morales, Skillshare
press@skillshare.com

Sheila Lin, Procreate 
press@procreate.com 

First Look, Unboxing, Video

Acer Swift X 14 First Look & Unboxing

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Transcript

Acer’s Swift series has always been about being thin and light. Just recently, however, that formula is getting a supercharge with the Swift X lineup. The new Swift X series is marrying both portability and performance. You know the saying “X marks the spot”? Well, that might just be the case with this laptop.

So, the Acer Swift X 14 is a laptop that is bringing performance to the thin and light form factor. It’s not a brand new concept to Acer, in fact, this particular version is a refresh of the first-ever Swift X.

This version comes with a 13th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-13700H with 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. It’s also got an NVIDIA RTX4050 Laptop GPU. This setup gives it enough power to do everyday computing tasks like Word processing, excel, PowerPoint without hassle.

Let’s not be coy about it, it’ll power through those tasks and then some. But where it will shine is when you jump into creative work like video editing, using the Adobe Suite or even rendering things on apps like Blender or AutoCAD. Thanks to the RTX4050 Laptop GPU inside, it’s able to run these graphically intense tasks smoothly. You’ll also be able to take advantage of things like DLSS and RayTracing. Another plus is that this laptop comes with NVIDIA® Studio drivers which provides more stability and access to tools that will make content creation easier.

Of course, the GPU and processor are nothing if you don’t have the correct display to use it with. This laptop has one of the best OLED displays I’ve seen on a laptop. The screen is a 14-inch 2.8K OLED with a 120Hz refresh rate. It’s also colour accurate with a 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut and it also has a VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500 certification.

I know that seems like a lot of jargon. But essentially, what it means, is that the screen can produce deep blacks. On top of that, it will be able to reproduce colour more accurately and on a wider spectrum making it perfect for people who create content.

Of course, when it comes to content creation, we need our ports. The Swift X 14 has a full array of ports despite its thin form factor. It comes with two  USB-C ports that support charging, it charges at 5V; and 3A. So, you should be able to charge it with a 65W GaN charger in a pinch. Additionally, Thunderbolt 4 also supports high-resolution displays and up to 40Gbps high-speed data transfer.

When it comes to wireless connectivity the laptop supports WiFi 6E which should give you ample speed for uploading and working off the cloud. It’s also got Bluetooth 5.1 for fast file transfers or even connecting wirelessly to your smartphone or noise-cancelling headphones. It also comes with an FHD Webcam with Temporal Noise Reduction for your video conferences and presentations.

Acer claims that it has up to 10 hours of battery life on a single charge. Now we’ve got the specs out of the way, let’s talk about the build. It’s clearly a very pretty laptop. I’m definitely a fan of the finish Acer has given this laptop. It feels premium and sturdy. The aluminium chassis is definitely a plus here.

But one thing that I like about this off the bat, is that the premium feel of the laptop is also thanks to a significant amount of recycled materials being incorporated into the laptop.

And that’s the Acer Swift X 14. What are your thoughts on this laptop? Let us know in the comments below.

Gaming, News

Here’s What You Need to Know About Xbox After the Xbox Podcast

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Speculation has been rife since last week that Microsoft plans to move away from the current status quo of having exclusive games for its Xbox console. In fact, rumours hinted at the Xbox going the way of the dinosaurs. However, earlier this morning, Phil Spencer, Sarah Bond and Matt Booty – three of the top execs at Xbox – took to the Xbox Podcast to set the record straight. In the podcast, Phil Spencer stresses that the information was already in the pipeline to be shared but was expedited due to the leaks last week.

Updates on the Xbox Business | Official Xbox Podcast

There were a number of things discussed in the 23-minute episode of the podcast, but we’ve summarised everything here. So here’s what you should know:

1. Xbox Exclusives are Here to Stay… for now

Phil Spencer cut to the chase during the podcast and addressed the elephant in the room head-on. In a nutshell, Xbox exclusives are here to stay. Microsoft is not pivoting its strategy to get rid of platform exclusives. Phil Spencer stressed that exclusives remain a key component of Xbox’s go-to-market strategy. That said, he did highlight that the games market as a whole seems to be moving away from exclusive – hinting at a possible future without platform exclusives altogether. However, Matt Booty made one point very clear: GamePass will remain Xbox exclusive.

This isn’t too surprising though. We’ve seen platform exclusives slowly shift to timed exclusives. One of the most obvious examples of this is Sony itself with IPs like God of War, Final Fantasy and even Horizon making their way to the PC after a period of exclusivity.

2. Four Xbox Games are Heading to PlayStation 5 and the Nintendo Switch

With that said, four Xbox exclusives will be breaking exclusivity. These games will be heading to the PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch. While no specific names were given, the execs did highlight that these games are at least a year old and are – mostly – community-driven. Phil Spencer was very clear that Starfield and the upcoming Indiana Jones game will remain Xbox exclusives.

xbox kamil s SuPAbuuK7f4 unsplash
Photo by Kamil S on Unsplash

The games that are making their way to other platforms are seen as either “smaller games that were never really meant to be built as kind of platform exclusives” or “first iterations of a franchise” that would benefit from being on other platforms. It seems pretty likely that these games are likely live-service games; particularly because Phil Spencer did mention that this move would justify further investments.

3. It’s All About Growth

The decision to take these games over to other platforms lies solely in growing Microsoft’s games business. With the closure of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the company is focusing on growing the business and sustaining the double-digit revenue growth it has seen. To achieve this, the four games need to grow their player base and that is only achieved through expanding the availability of these games.

image

In addition to this, the move to make games more accessible is also aiming to create a larger awareness of the Xbox platform. Yes – they used the word “platform” instead of console. This is very likely how we can see the Xbox brand evolve in the future. Already, we have Xbox GamePass which covers the Xbox Console, XCloud and PC. The next generation of hardware is likely geared to take these experiences further. A cloud-based handheld Xbox anyone?

All in all, it seems like everything is still status quo at Xbox. However, it’s worth noting that the status quo at Xbox is very different than before thanks to the Activision Blizzard acquisition. The company’s growing footprint as a publisher is forcing it to grow beyond just Xbox exclusives. Studios like Activision Blizzard and Zenimax will continue to develop multi-platform games while Microsoft Game Studios continues to seek ways to grow its engaged user base.

PR Newswire

University of Technology Sydney (UTS) collaborates with Vietnamese university researchers to create water monitoring solution for aquaculture

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Thanks to a proven model of rapid technology transfer, an innovative real-time sea-water monitoring system is now supporting the aquaculture industry and environmental protection in Vietnam.

SYDNEY, Feb. 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — A groundbreaking collaboration between UTS, Vietnam National University and Ho Chi Minh University of Technology has led to the development of a real-time sea-water monitoring system in Xuan Dai Bay, Vietnam.

A water monitoring station in Xuan Dai Bay in Vietnam. Photo supplied.
A water monitoring station in Xuan Dai Bay in Vietnam. Photo supplied.

As the system is scalable and non-site specific, the technology has the potential to be used not just in further sites across Vietnam, but globally, and the team is actively seeking new partners to help them realise its full potential.

The project, funded by Aus4Innovation and part of UTS Rapido Vietnam, employs the latest Industry 4.0 technologies such as Internet of Things, data analytics, and mechatronics.

“Aquaculture is an important industry in Vietnam, generating an income of AUD$11 billion per year. But while it can have rich economic rewards for farmers and the regions they live in, it can be a precarious livelihood,” says Professor Eryk Dutkiewicz, the chief investigator of the project at UTS.

The system, launched in March 2020, monitors temperature, acidity, ammonia, dissolved oxygen, salinity, and turbidity, providing real-time data to farmers. The advanced technology withstands harsh conditions, offering alerts for timely decision-making. The monitoring stations, the first of its kind in Vietnam, are now permanent fixtures in the bay.

Mr Le Tan Ho is Vice President of Phu Yen province and was impressed with both the UTS team and the results of the project. He says the information it has provided has been invaluable for decision making.

“The data from the realtime seawater monitoring system allows the local government to assess and better plan aquaculture and other activities like tourism towards the sustainable social and economic development goals while protecting environment and coping with global climate changes, especially in coastal areas,” says Mr Le Tan Ho.

The research team hopes the application of IoT platforms for coastal water system management in Phú Yên will just be the start.

The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) is one of the top 100 universities in the world and a leading public university of technology with global impact. Visit discover.uts.edu.au to learn more.

News

Samsung Galaxy S24 Series Receives First Major Update Bringing Some Interesting New Features & Enhancements

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Samsung seems to be taking user feedback seriously with the Galaxy S24 series. The company is rolling out a significant software update to address user concerns and enhance the overall user experience. The first major update comes with a range of improvements, focusing on display customization, camera enhancements, and other user-centric optimizations.

Display Customization with the “Vividness” Slider

One notable addition in the update is the introduction of a “Vividness” slider under advanced display settings. Samsung recognizes that users have diverse preferences when it comes to their device’s display, and this new feature allows users to fine-tune the vibrancy of the screen. Whether you prefer a more natural tone or a punchier, vibrant display. The “Vividness” slider gives users the flexibility to tailor their viewing experience according to their preferences.

Samsung Galaxy S24 vividness mode AMOLED w1600

This particular update directly addresses feedback from early users who expressed concerns about the Galaxy S24 series’ display appearing “dull” or “washed-out” compared to its predecessor, the Galaxy S23 series.

Camera Optimizations for Better Imaging

In addition, the update also brings improvements to the camera. With the update, Samsung acknowledges user feedback and aims to address concerns related to inconsistent shots and certain camera modes.

Samsung Unpacked Galaxy S24 21

Specifically, the update targets improvements in the device’s zoom functions, Portrait Mode, Nightography, rear camera video shooting capabilities, and more. While the official release does not delve into specific details, it hints at a comprehensive enhancement of the camera system, promising users an elevated imaging experience.

User-Centric Approach and Future Possibilities

Samsung’s acknowledgement of user feedback and swift action in delivering updates indicates a shift in the company’s software approach. The S24 series seems to be adopting a more user-centric approach. The change seems aligned with the ethos of Galaxy AI as a whole. Catering to users with features that help make life simpler.

Rollout and Future Expectations

The updates began rolling out in February. However, the rollout schedule may vary based on regional variants, and you can manually check for updates in the device’s settings.

News

Is OpenAI Looking to Challenge Google’s Search Dominance?

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In a potentially game-changing move, OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is rumoured to be entering the web search arena. It looks like the company wants to challenge Google’s longstanding dominance. A report from The Information suggests that OpenAI has been quietly developing a web search product. The report claims that the information was shared by an anonymous insider.

Photo by <a rel=
Photo by Mojahid Mottakin on Unsplash

While details about the project remain unclear, speculation is rife about whether the search tool will be seamlessly integrated into ChatGPT or introduced as a standalone product. OpenAI’s ambitious move into Google’s territory seems to bring a whole new experience to how we navigate the internet with search. If the rumours hold, we might witness a shift from the familiar phrase “Google it” to “OpenAI it”.

However, the authenticity of the claims is yet to be verified. OpenAI, itself, has not officially acknowledged the project. The company has been notoriously vigilant about leaks, even resorting to hiring investigators to address potential insider threats.

According to the insider, OpenAI’s search engine might leverage Microsoft’s Bing for certain functionalities. This makes sense with Microsoft’s substantial investments in OpenAI. Not to mention, Microsoft’s ongoing integration of GPT-based AI into various products like Bing Chat and Copilot.

OPEN AI Search generated with Copilot
Open AI search landing page generated with Microsoft Copilot

The move follows OpenAI’s pattern of expanding the capabilities of ChatGPT which was initially limited by a data cutoff or silo. In recent months, OpenAI introduced web browsing features, utilizing Bing’s search capabilities. This strategic partnership with Microsoft suggests a collaborative effort to bring about a more contextual and conversational approach to web search. This approach could potentially surpass traditional keyword-focused engines.

Despite the challenges inherent in competing with Google’s established search dominance, OpenAI’s innovative approach and support from Microsoft may pave the way for a new way of searching. The emergence of a search tool with generative and contextual AI features introduces exciting possibilities for the future of search on the internet. However, we will still need to wait and see as OpenAI is playing its cards very close to its chest.