ZEERA MacForge gives the Mac Mini M4 a Mac Pro makeover (and makes the power button easier to reach)

Apple’s new Mac Mini is a tiny powerhouse of a computer. It’s a 5″ x 5″ x 2″ computer that supports up to an Apple M4 Pro processor, Thunderbolt 5, and 10 GbE LAN ports. But Apple made at least one strange decision with th…

Apple’s new Mac Mini is a tiny powerhouse of a computer. It’s a 5″ x 5″ x 2″ computer that supports up to an Apple M4 Pro processor, Thunderbolt 5, and 10 GbE LAN ports. But Apple made at least one strange decision with this little computer: the company put the power button on the […]

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Arm and Qualcomm fight in court over the future of Snapdragon X Elite chips

At issue: Arm SoC designs that Qualcomm acquired when it bought Nuvia in 2021.

Arm and Qualcomm's dispute over Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite chips is continuing in court this week, with executives from each company taking the stand and attempting to downplay the accusations from the other side.

If you haven't been following along, the crux of the issue is Qualcomm's purchase of a chip design firm called Nuvia in 2021. Nuvia was originally founded by ex-Apple chip designers to create high-performance Arm chips for servers, but Qualcomm took an interest in Nuvia's work and acquired the company to help it create high-end Snapdragon processors for consumer PCs instead. Arm claims that this was a violation of its licensing agreements with Nuvia and is seeking to have all chips based on Nuvia technology destroyed.

According to Reuters, Arm CEO Rene Haas testified this week that the Nuvia acquisition is depriving Arm of about $50 million a year, on top of the roughly $300 million a year in fees that Qualcomm already pays Arm to use its instruction set and some elements of its chip designs. This is because Qualcomm pays Arm lower royalty rates than Nuvia had agreed to pay when it was still an independent company.

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Intel quietly launches Intel Core 200H Raptor Lake laptop processors

Intel’s new Core (Series 2) processors are mobile chips designed for laptops. But while the processors are new, their architecture isn’t. The new chips are based on the same Raptor Lake technology Intel introduced in 2022, and which the com…

Intel’s new Core (Series 2) processors are mobile chips designed for laptops. But while the processors are new, their architecture isn’t. The new chips are based on the same Raptor Lake technology Intel introduced in 2022, and which the company has used for several different laptop and desktop chip families since then. The company has […]

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Supreme Court to decide if TikTok should be banned or sold

TikTok won’t get injunction but will get SCOTUS review ahead of potential ban.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court confirmed it would review whether a federal law that could ban or force a sale of TikTok is unconstitutional.

The announcement came just one day after TikTok and its owner ByteDance petitioned SCOTUS for a temporary injunction to halt the ban until the high court could consider what TikTok claimed is "a massive and unprecedented speech restriction" ahead of a change in US presidential administrations.

“We’re pleased with today’s Supreme Court order," TikTok said in a statement. "We believe the Court will find the TikTok ban unconstitutional so the over 170 million Americans on our platform can continue to exercise their free speech rights.”

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Call ChatGPT from any phone with OpenAI’s new 1-800 voice service

1-800-CHATGPT telephone number lets any US caller talk to OpenAI’s assistant—no smartphone required.

On Wednesday, OpenAI launched a 1-800-CHATGPT (1-800-242-8478) telephone number that anyone in the US can call to talk to ChatGPT via voice chat for up to 15 minutes for free. The company also says that people outside the US can send text messages to the same number for free using WhatsApp.

Upon calling, users hear a voice say, "Hello again, it's ChatGPT, an AI assistant. Our conversation may be reviewed for safety. How can I help you?" Callers can ask ChatGPT anything they would normally ask the AI assistant and have a live, interactive conversation.

During a livestream demo of "Calling with ChatGPT" during Day 10 of "12 Days of OpenAI," OpenAI employees demonstrated several examples of the telephone-based voice chat in action, asking ChatGPT to identify a distinctive house in California and for help in translating a message into Spanish for a friend. For fun, they showed calls from an iPhone, a flip phone, and a vintage rotary phone.

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Report: US considers banning TP-Link routers over security flaws, ties to China

Founded in China, TP-Link makes routers popular in US homes and businesses.

US government authorities are reportedly investigating whether to ban TP-Link wireless routers, which have been targeted in some high-profile attacks linked to the Chinese government. TP-Link, which was founded in China in 1996 and said it relocated its headquarters to the US in October this year, has racked up significant market share in US homes and businesses.

US authorities are investigating whether TP-Link "poses a national-security risk and are considering banning the devices," The Wall Street Journal reported today. The WSJ notes that TP-Link is "the top choice on Amazon.com, and powers Internet communications for the Defense Department and other federal government agencies."

The WSJ wrote:

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Z-Wave Long Range and its mile-long capabilities will arrive next year

Few homes will need it, but the (literal) edge cases are quite intriguing.

Z-Wave can be a very robust automation network, free from the complications and fragility of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Just how robust, you ask? More than a mile long, under the right circumstances, as hardware soon to hit the market promises.

All claims of radio distances should be taken with amounts of salt unhealthy for consumption. What can be accomplished across an empty field is not the same as what can be done through buildings, interference, and scatter. But Z-Wave Long Range (or Z-Wave LR), operating "in long range mode at full power," can hit 1.5 miles, according to the Z-Wave Alliance, presuming you've got the right star-shaped hub network.

By using a star network topology instead of a more traditional mesh, Z-Wave LR reduces the need for hubs and repeaters, relying instead on a central hub. It can be more reliable for larger commercial spaces, security setups, and bigger homes, and also more power efficient. Devices automatically adjust their signal strength while on Z-Wave networks, extending the battery life of a single coin cell up to 10 years—again, under best-case circumstances. If you're really a glutton for punishment, you can fit up to 4,000 devices on a network running Z-Wave LR, because LR can co-exist on the same network as standard Z-Wave meshes.

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The $700 price tag isn’t hurting PS5 Pro’s early sales

A sizable early adopter niche will still pay for the most powerful console possible.

When Sony revealed the PlayStation 5 Pro a few months ago, some wondered just how many people would be willing to spend $700 for a marginal upgrade to the already quite powerful graphical performance of the PS5. Now, initial sales reports suggest there's still a substantial portion of the console market that's willing to shell out serious money for top-of-the-line console graphics.

Circana analyst Matt Piscatella shared on Bluesky this morning that the PS5 Pro accounted for a full 19 percent of US PS5 sales in its launch month of November. That sales ratio puts initial upgrade interest in the PS5 Pro roughly in line with lifetime interest in the PS4 Pro, which recent reports suggest was responsible for about 20 percent of all PS4 sales following its launch in 2016.

That US sales ratio also lines up with international sales reports for the PS5 Pro launch. In the UK, GfK ChartTrack reports that the PS5 Pro was responsible for 26 percent of all console sales for November. And in Japan, Famitsu sales data suggests the PS5 Pro was responsible for a full 63 percent of the PS5's November sales after selling an impressive 78,000 units in its launch week alone.

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EPA lets California set its own stricter emissions standards until 2035

The regulations will phase out the sale of new internal combustion cars by 2035.

Today, the US Environmental Protection Agency granted a pair of waivers to California, allowing the Golden State to continue regulating vehicle-caused air pollution within its borders. The first is for the California Air Resources Board's Advanced Clean Cars II regulations, which apply to light- and medium-duty vehicles like passenger cars, SUVs, and smaller trucks. The second waiver is for regulations that control the amount of nitrogen oxides (NOx) that can be emitted by heavy-duty vehicles as well as off-road vehicles.

The Clean Air Act allows states to apply for a waiver from the EPA to set their own emissions standards in cases where the federal regulations are insufficient to prevent deleterious pollution. The state applied for the latest waivers late in 2023, and after a public comment period and then a review by the agency, the EPA decided to approve them.

"California has longstanding authority to request waivers from EPA to protect its residents from dangerous air pollution coming from mobile sources like cars and trucks," said EPA Administrator Michael Regan. "Today's actions follow through on EPA's commitment to partner with states to reduce emissions and act on the threat of climate change."

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