Month: May 2018

Enlarge / The evolution of a chaotic quantum system. (credit: Joint Quantum Institute)

One of the near-term (but somewhat irrelevant) goals of quantum computing is something called quantum supremacy. Quantum supremacy is not, sadly, a cage fight between proponents of competing interpretations of quantum mechanics. It is a demonstration of a quantum computer performing a computation, no matter how trivial, that cannot be performed on a classical computer.

The key question: what computation should be performed? A team of researchers is suggesting that computing the state of a random quantum circuit that exhibits chaotic behavior would be perfect for the task. Let’s delve into why that might be.

Getting all superior

The idea of quantum supremacy goes a bit like this. Yes, we have all of these different versions of quantum computing. And yes, they all seem to behave how we expect a quantum computer to behave. But they are all remarkably slow and can easily be beaten by classical computers.

Enlarge (credit: Amazon)

On the heels of announcing the new Echo Dot Kids Edition, Amazon has a new offering tailored to parents who want more convenient, kid-friendly content for their family. The company now offers Prime Book Box, a curated box of two or four children's books available for Prime members for $22.99.

If you've dabbled in subscription boxes before, you'll know how the Prime Book Box works. Prime members who sign up for the new offering will get a box of books shipped to their home every one, two, or three months. Parents indicate the age range of their children to get books that best suit their reading levels—infants and kids up to two years old get four board books, while all other kids from ages three to 12 get two hardcover titles.

The Prime Book Box doesn't follow rules as strict as some other book subscription boxes. In addition to choosing the frequency of the box, parents can also skip a box whenever they want and choose from a selection of four alternative books if they don't want one of the books that Amazon selects for their box by default. Amazon curates everything, including the alternative book options, so parents can't get any book they want, but that's still a good option to have in case they already own a selected title.

During an announcement-loaded F8 Developer Conference keynote speech, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a new product coming soon to the company's mobile app: Facebook Dating.

Facebook

Zuckerberg described the service as "totally opt-in" and "not for hook-ups," and he stressed that the service will, among other things, consciously not connect people who are already connected on the site as "friends."

Enlarge / T-Mobile CTO Neville Ray details T-Mobile's plans to build a nationwide 5G network. (credit: T-Mobile USA)

One of the US' most successful mobile broadband providers is acquiring a struggling, smaller competitor, but it needs government approval of the merger. To make their case, the merging companies tell regulators that they can't fully upgrade to the next generation of wireless technology as standalone firms. They must join forces, or US wireless consumers won't benefit from an upgraded network, the companies say.

That description applies equally well to AT&T's attempted takeover of T-Mobile USA in 2011 and to T-Mobile's just-announced plan to buy Sprint. Obama administration regulators rejected the AT&T/T-Mobile claims in 2011 and forced the companies to continue operating separately. Each one thrived on its own.

Trump administration regulators might see similarities between the network upgrade claims of AT&T in 2011 and T-Mobile today. They could even look at statements made by T-Mobile and Sprint just a couple of months ago, when each company said it was on track for a huge 5G deployment—without any mention of needing a merger. But the Federal Communications Commission's new Republican leadership is far more friendly to telecoms than Democrats were, and it could approve the T-Mobile/Sprint combination without much fuss.

Enlarge / Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chairman of Iran's Parliament Committee of National Security and Foreign Policy. (credit: KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images)

On Monday, Iranian law enforcement authorities ordered Internet service providers to block traffic from the Telegram anonymous chat application, four days after Iran’s Telcommunications Infrastructure Company rescinded Telegram’s license to operate in the country. Tehran’s chief prosecutor claimed that the service is used by pornographers and terrorists and ordered that the ban be enforced in a way that would prevent users from bypassing it via a virtual private network.

Iran had previously tied Telegram to the ISIS attacks in Tehran in July of 2017. And the Iranian government had previously blocked Telegram temporarily in January during nation-wide demonstrations for what officials claimed were national security reasons. But according to Iranian press agency MNA, Iran's Parliament Committee of National Security and Foreign Policy Chairman Alaeddin Boroujerdi said in an April 1 radio interview that the service would be permanently banned and replaced with a domestically developed alternative.

Iran’s move mirrors that of the Russian government, which continues its efforts to block Telegram after the application’s developers refused to provide encryption keys to access users’ messages. Efforts to block Telegram in Russia have led to Russian ISPs blocking large swaths of Internet addresses at cloud providers, including Google and Amazon, as Telegram users began to employ proxy services and VPNs set up in the cloud. Protests continue in Russia over the government’s move, including a protest on Monday in which thousands of people threw paper planes representing Telegram’s logo.

Enlarge / Facebook just announced the immediate retail availability of Oculus Go—and we've already had a week to test it. (credit: Sam Machkovech)

Surprise! Oculus released a new virtual reality headset today. The Oculus Go standalone headset is now for sale at Amazon, Newegg, and Best Buy starting at $199—yes, $199, with no other hardware required—following a retail-launch unveil at Facebook's annual F8 conference.

What's more, Oculus sent us a working headset last week for the sake of a review—and I have no shortage of thoughts about what Oculus has gotten right with its first "budget" VR product. Before I break down performance, software, features, and limitations, I want to set the scene by rewinding to another era in which a "futuristic" gadget sector began plummeting in price.

Let's travel back to the very beginnings of the portable MP3 player market.