Month: October 2022

On the morning of October 9, multiple space-based detectors picked up a powerful gamma-ray burst (GRB) passing through our solar system, sending astronomers around the world scrambling to train their telescopes on that part of the sky to collect vital data on the event and its afterglow. Dubbed GRB 221009A, astronomers say the gamma-ray burst is the most powerful yet recorded and likely could be the "birth cry" of a new black hole. The event was promptly published in the Astronomer's Telegram, and observations are still ongoing.

“In our research group, we’ve been referring to this burst as the ‘BOAT,’ or Brightest Of All Time, because when you look at the thousands of bursts gamma-ray telescopes have been detecting since the 1990s, this one stands apart,” said Jillian Rastinejad, a graduate student at Northwestern University. Rastinejad led one of two independent teams using the Gemini South telescope in Chile to study the event's afterglow.

“This burst is much closer than typical GRBs, which is exciting because it allows us to detect many details that otherwise would be too faint to see,” said Roberta Pillera, a graduate student at the Polytechnic University of Bari, Italy, and member of the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) Collaboration. “But it’s also among the most energetic and luminous bursts ever seen regardless of distance, making it doubly exciting.”

Enlarge / The new (not old) Razer Edge. (credit: Razer)

After trying for years with gaming phones, the next big product category hardware manufacturers are trying to make happen is apparently "Android gaming tablets." You basically throw a Nintendo Switch into a photocopier, load Android on it, and hope users will be content picking through Android games and the growing (shrinking?) collection of cloud gaming services out there. Logitech kicked things off with the G Cloud Gaming Handheld last month, and now Razer is throwing its hat into the ring with a new Razer Edge handheld. This was teased last month and got a full unveiling over the weekend, and there are actually some interesting specs to go over.

First off, a major differentiator for Razer over the Logitech handheld is that the Razer has active cooling. Razer neglected to show any internal pictures, but the 10-mm-thick body and six vents on the back make it look like there's some decent heat dissipation going on. Even if Razer slapped a normal phone chip inside, a fan would probably make it outperform any phone, thanks to not having to instantly throttle. Razer and Qualcomm say this is the first device with a "Snapdragon G3x Gen 1 Gaming Platform" SoC, but that seems to just be marketing fluff rather than any new technical development.

The back, featuring a lot of cooling vents and shoulder buttons. (credit: Razer)

Qualcomm's page on the new G3x Gen 1 doesn't provide any technical details, a major red flag that suggests there's nothing here worth bragging about. Razer only says the chip runs at 3 GHz. Unofficially, we can pick through the Geekbench listings for some details. The chip codename "Lahaina" means this should be a rebranded Snapdragon 888 SoC, Qualcomm's flagship smartphone SoC from 2020. That would make it a 5 nm chip with one 3 GHz Cortex X1 core, three 2.42 GHz Cortex A78 cores, and four 1.8 GHz Cortex A55 cores. Those frequencies are all reported from Geekbench, and they're all normal compared to the phone version, meaning this chip didn't even get a frequency bump. Again, though, the phone chips throttle extremely quickly, so the fan should give this product decent sustained gaming performance not found on a phone. It seems like Qualcomm just didn't want to admit it's shipping a 2-year-old chip in this device.

Enlarge / Linux 6.0, implemented in a Fienix distribution on dedicated Amiga user xeno74's desktop. (credit: xeno74 / Hyperion Entertainment)

The last commercial Amiga computer available for sale was the AmigaOne X5000, a PowerPC-based revival machine released in 2017. The Amiga platform itself is 37 years old, but you'd better believe Amiga fans have the latest Linux kernel, 6.0, up and running on newer Amiga machines. The first true PC for creatives has a dedicated posse.

On the forums of Amiga OS developer Hyperion Entertainment, user Christian, aka xeno74, announced the availability of a final kernel 6.0 for AmigaOne X5000 and X1000 machines. The announcement featured the requisite images of 3D games like Cro-Mag Rally and Otto Mattic, along with system profile images to verify the up-to-date kernel. Work has already started on alpha builds of the 6.1 kernel further in the thread.

By itself, "Linux is available on quirky hardware" might not be that surprising, but there are other encouraging developments in the Amiga realms worth noting.

Enlarge / Kanye West during Paris Fashion Week on October 02, 2022 in Paris, France. (credit: Getty Images | Edward Berthelot )

Kanye West has struck a deal to buy the "free speech" social network Parler, about a week after antisemitic posts got West locked out of his Twitter and Instagram accounts.

"Parlement Technologies announced today that it has entered into an agreement in principle to sell Parler, the world's pioneering uncancelable free speech platform, to Ye (formerly known as Kanye West)," the company said in a press release. "Ye has become the richest Black man in history through music and apparel and is taking a bold stance against his recent censorship from Big Tech, using his far-reaching talents to further lead the fight to create a truly non-cancelable environment."

"The proposed acquisition will assure Parler a future role in creating an uncancelable ecosystem where all voices are welcome," the press release also said.

Enlarge / FedEx has been testing robots for last-mile deliveries since 2019, but now it has learned all it can. (credit: Tracy Wilcox/PGA TOUR via Getty Images)

The courier company FedEx is abandoning a project to develop last-mile delivery robots. In 2019, FedEx partnered with New Hampshire-based DEKA Research and Development Corp, founded by Segway inventor Dean Kamen, to develop a wheeled robot called Roxo for last-mile deliveries.

But FedEx decided to end the project in early October, according to a report in Robotics 24/7. FedEx employees were told of the decision via an email from the company's chief transformation officer, Sriram Krishnasamy, who explained a new corporate strategy called "DRIVE."

"Although robotics and automation are key pillars of our innovation strategy, Roxo did not meet necessary near-term value requirements for DRIVE. Although we are ending the research and development efforts, Roxo served a valuable purpose: to rapidly advance our understanding and use of robotic technology," Krishnasamy wrote.