Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings TV series gets a name and a teaser video

The new teaser video shows the forging of a ring—and not much else.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power teaser video.

Amazon has been hyping its Lord of the Rings TV series for a while now, but details have been scarce. That changed a bit this week, as Amazon finally announced the name of the series and released its first teaser video.

The name of the series is The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

The title is a mouthful (and maybe redundant), but it ties in with the time period in which the show is set. Amazon has previously said the series is set in the Second Age, the era preceding the events depicted in author J.R.R. Tolkien's most famous books (The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy).

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Lilbits: Samsung Galaxy Tab S8, Fanless Tiger Lake mini PCs, and iSIM could eventually supplant eSIM technlogy

Once upon a time you needed a physical SIM card in your phone to connect to cellular networks. Then came eSIMs, which were built into a chip pre-installed on the phone. Soon you may not even need a separate chip, thanks to iSIM technology that Qualcomm and partners are starting to demonstrate. In other recent […]

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Once upon a time you needed a physical SIM card in your phone to connect to cellular networks. Then came eSIMs, which were built into a chip pre-installed on the phone. Soon you may not even need a separate chip, thanks to iSIM technology that Qualcomm and partners are starting to demonstrate.

In other recent tech news from around the web, Samsung’s unannounced Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra has made another appearance – this time on Samsung’s own website. Zotac’s fanless mini-desktop computers with Tiger Lake processors unveiled last summer are now available… in Europe. And Google’s free version of G Suite (which I had signed up for way back when it was called Google Apps for your Domain) is going away in a few months, with the company pushing customers to upgrade to a paid plan.

iSIM saves space & energy by integrating SIM into the main processor [Qualcomm]

Qualcomm, Vodafone, and Thales have demonstrated a new technology called iSIM that allows SIM card functionality to be integrated into a device’s main processor rather than with a separate chip like existing eSIM solutions.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra makes an appearance on official Samsung support page [91mobiles]

Samsung leaked the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra design via a picture on the Bixby support website. It has a notch in the display for what’s expected to be two front-facing 12MP cameras (other specs may include quad speakers, 14.6″ display and Snapdragon 8 Gen 1).

Tiger Lake ZBOX available in Europe [FanlessTech]

Zotac ZBOX CI6xx nano fanless mini PCs with 28W Intel Tiger Lake-U chips were unveiled in August and now they’re available in France and Germany, but you can’t buy them in the US or other areas just yet. Prices start at 530€ for barebones systems.

G Suite legacy free edition goes away on May 1, 2022 [Google]

Google is killing G Suite legacy free edition in May 2022. It hasn’t been offered to new users since 2012, but some of us have been using it for custom email addresses and other features for over a decade and now need to migrate or upgrade to paid Google Workspace plans. 9to5Google has some more details

Progress update: Ubuntu MATE optimized for the GPD Pocket 3 mini-laptop [Martin Wimpress]

The GPD Pocket 3 is a mini-laptop with an 8 inch touchscreen display, a convertible tablet-style design, pen support, and a modular port system. It ships with Windows, but Martin Wimpress has been making progress porting Ubuntu MATE to support the hardware. 

Keep up on the latest headlines by following Liliputing on Twitter and Facebook and follow @LinuxSmartphone on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news on open source mobile phones.

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Silicon-based qubits take a big leap forward

The race to scale quantum-computing hardware gains another option.

Subatomic particles create a shape like a four-leaf clover.

Enlarge / A representation of the two phosphorus nuclei (Q1 and Q2) with the electron (Q3) that helps mediate their interactions. (credit: Tony Melov / UNSW)

Over the last few years, the big question in quantum computing has shifted from "can we get this to work?" to "can we get this to scale?" It's no longer news when an algorithm is run on a small quantum computer—we've done that with a number of different technologies. The big question now: When can we run a useful problem on quantum hardware that clearly outperforms a traditional computer?

For that, we still need more qubits. And to consistently outperform classical computers on complicated problems, we'll need enough qubits to do error correction. That means thousands of qubits. So while there's currently a clear technology leader in qubit count (superconducting qubits called transmons), there's still a chance that some other technology will end up scaling better.

That possibility is what makes several results being published today interesting. While there are differences among the three results being announced, they all have one thing in common: high-quality qubits produced in silicon. After all, if there's anything we know how to scale, it's silicon-based technologies.

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Apple stops offering iOS 14 security updates, users have to upgrade to iOS 15 future updates

When Apple released iOS 15 last fall, iPhone users got a bunch of new and improved features including support for portrait mode and spatial audio in Facetime calls, Focus modes for reduced distractions, and the ability to detect and interact with text in photos thanks to Live Text. But last year Apple also offered folks […]

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When Apple released iOS 15 last fall, iPhone users got a bunch of new and improved features including support for portrait mode and spatial audio in Facetime calls, Focus modes for reduced distractions, and the ability to detect and interact with text in photos thanks to Live Text.

But last year Apple also offered folks who weren’t ready to upgrade another option: stick with iOS 14 and continue receiving security updates. And that worked… until it didn’t.

iOS 14

The last security update released for iOS 14 was iOS 14.8.1, which was made available October 26, 2021. But last week some folks noticed that Apple had stopped offering folks running older builds of iOS 14 an option to upgrade to version 14.8.1. Want the latest security fixes? Then you’ll need to upgrade to iOS 15 to get them.

Ars Technica reached out to Apple for comment and received confirmation that this isn’t a bug – the company says the security updates were supposed to be a temporary option, which… fair enough. I don’t think anybody expected them to be available forever. But it seems like they were only available for a few months, which is a little surprising, especially since Apple never said anything about how long it would continue offering updates until after it had stopped (and after someone specifically reached out to ask the company).

In fact, if you visit Apple’s iOS 15 features page, there’s still a Software Updates section that reads “iOS may now offer a choice between two software update versions in the Settings app. You can update to the latest version of iOS 15 as soon as it’s released for the latest features and most complete set of security updates. Or continue on iOS 14 and still get important security updates.”

Here’s a screenshot from January 19, 2021 in case that text does change at a later time:

From Apple’s iOS 15 website

Given that every time Apple rolls out a new version of iOS, complaints will inevitably arise that it makes some older phones feel slower, I suspect some folks were happy to have the option of skipping this upgrade. But it looks like that option just got more complicated: you can still avoid updating your phone, but you shouldn’t expect any more security updates. And that could eventually leave your phone vulnerable to malware.

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Garmin’s new Fenix 7 maximizes solar power and finally adds a touchscreen

Newly minted with touchscreens, Garmin’s top-tier wearables stay rugged and reliable.

Garmin’s new Fenix 7 maximizes solar power and finally adds a touchscreen

Enlarge (credit: Garmin)

Garmin has released two new high-end smartwatches, the Fenix 7 and Epix, less than two weeks after launching the Venus 2 Plus and Vivomove Sport at CES. The Fenix 7 is the latest iteration of the company's robust, multi-sport flagship, while the Epix picks up the torch of a similarly high-end watch that hasn't seen an update since its release in 2015. Both are aimed at the outdoor adventurer who treks far and wide.

That's why all three sizes (42 mm, 47 mm, and 51 mm) of the Fenix 7 can be equipped with solar charging. The smallest and mid-sized variants (Fenix 7s and Fenix 7) make this feature a $100 premium add-on, while the largest (Fenix 7X) has the feature standard. That tacks on an extra nine days of battery (on top of 19 days without solar charging) in smartwatch mode, according to Garmin's estimates.

The Fenix series has always been a more utilitarian, yet highly specced device. Garmin has only now added traditional smartwatch comforts, like a touchscreen, to accompany the Fenix line's button-based navigation. Tracking features like marathon performance prediction, trail ascent and descent evaluation, and downloadable maps for trails and courses have long set the Fenix apart from traditional smartwatches, though.

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The Bentley Flying Spur Hybrid proves electric motors improve the breed

It’s hard to argue with near-silent, efficient, torque-packed propulsion.

Bentley's Flying Spur sedan is now available as a plug-in hybrid.

Enlarge / Bentley's Flying Spur sedan is now available as a plug-in hybrid. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)

Over the last few years, I've been fortunate enough to drive many different vehicles, and one thing has become abundantly clear: electric motors make cars better. They're highly efficient, and they can recapture energy that would otherwise be wasted under braking. They make massive amounts of torque almost instantly and respond in a fraction of the time it takes an internal combustion engine to take a deep breath. And they do all that in near-silence, which makes them ideally suited to applications in luxury cars.

And cars don't get much more luxurious than Bentley's new Flying Spur Hybrid.

This new plug-in hybrid is Bentley's second PHEV and follows the hybrid version of its Bentayga SUV ahead of the introduction of the brand's first battery EV in 2025. As in the SUV, a 2.9L V6 gasoline engine sits under the expansive hood, generating 410 hp (306 kW) and 406 lb-ft (550 Nm).

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Autonomous battery-powered rail cars could steal shipments from truckers

Advances in batteries, autonomy could extend the reach of freight railroads.

Parallel Systems

Enlarge / Two Parallel Systems rail vehicles transport a container down a test track in Southern California. (credit: Parallel Systems)

For the last 200 years, freight trains haven’t changed much; massive locomotives still move relatively dumb freight cars. Certainly, rail fans could argue that plenty has changed—they’re not wrong!—but from a distance, trains work pretty much the same today as they did in the 1800s.

That may change, though, if three former SpaceX engineers have placed their bets properly. Today, their startup, Parallel Systems, has emerged from stealth mode with a prototype vehicle that promises to bring advances in autonomy and battery technology to the relatively staid world of freight railroads. In the process, they hope to not just electrify existing routes but also bring freight rail service to places that don’t have it today.

Whether their bet pays off will hinge on whether freight railroads and their customers will buy into a new way of operating. Parallel Systems isn’t just taking an existing freight train and swapping its diesel-electric locomotive for a battery version. Instead, it’s taking the traction motors and distributing them to every car on the train. It’s how many electric passenger trains operate, but it's a system that has been slow to migrate to the freight world.

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Wi-Fi 7 hardware demos herald next-gen wireless networking

Semiconductor company MediaTek expects 2023 release date.

Wi-Fi 7 hardware demos herald next-gen wireless networking

Enlarge (credit: Andriy Onufriyenko/Getty Images)

Wi-Fi 6E products only started arriving in the US last year, but the tech world is always looking toward what's next. Wi-Fi 7 represents the next generation of the wireless network protocol, and today marks the first time someone has claimed to make the technology work.

Wi-Fi 7 isn't available yet, since the Wi-Fi Alliance is still creating the standard. Also known as the IEEE 802.11be standard, Wi-Fi 7 is expected to provide a max throughput of "at least 30GBps," according to the Wi-FI Alliance, which is quite a bump from Wi-Fi 6's 9.6GBps claim and an even bigger jump from WiFi 5's 3.5GBps. Keep in mind, however, that all three speeds are theoretical. Don't expect to hit these numbers while surfing the web at home.

The next Wi-Fi standard aims to manage the growing networking needs of evolving technologies, like 4K and 8K streaming, virtual and augmented reality, and cloud gaming and computing, by reducing latency and jitter through improvements to the physical (PHY) layer and medium access control (MAC).

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