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Technology

Editor’s Desk: Apple’s back-to-school tech cycle examined

iPhones on a desk

It’s August. The hot, sticky summer air will slowly start to get cooler, and the leaves will start changing colors as the days get shorter. The bells will ring, and students will flood the halls of schools everywhere. These are the familiar sights, sounds, and feelings we get yearly around this time.

Like clockwork, the back-to-school season is in full swing, and for Apple, a bunch of new products — both hardware and software — will be released. The September event is highly anticipated across the tech world, and this year should feature the iPhone 14 (opens in new tab) as the cornerstone of the keynote presentation.

Think the September event is the only way Apple makes the school year work to its advantage? Think again.

August builds anticipation for Apple’s September event

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Australia

Adult entertainer in bullet-proof vest sparks Perth street shutdown

When police in Perth received several calls about an “armed man” outside a city jewelery shop, they rushed to the scene and shut down the road.

The man was wearing a bullet-proof SWAT vest and brandishing what appeared to be an assault rifle outside Linneys Jewelery store this afternoon, they were told.

King Street in the city was quickly shut down as detectives pounced on their suspect.

When police in Perth received several calls about an 'armed man' outside a city jewelery shop, they rushed to the scene and shut down the road. The man was wearing a bullet-proof SWAT vest and brandishing what appeared to be an assault rifle outside Linneys Jewelery store, they were told.
When police in Perth received several calls about an ‘armed man’ outside a city jewelery shop, they rushed to the scene and shut down the road. The man was wearing a bullet-proof SWAT vest and brandishing what appeared to be an assault rifle outside Linneys Jewelery store, they were told. (Nine)
When police in Perth received several calls about an 'armed man' outside a city jewelery shop, they rushed to the scene and shut down the road. The man was wearing a bullet-proof SWAT vest and brandishing what appeared to be an assault rifle outside Linneys Jewelery store, they were told.
The 31-year-old adult entertainer was booked for a nearby party and in the middle of preparing his costume. (Nine)

But all wasn’t quite as it seemed.

As officers spoke to the man, it became clear they weren’t dealing with an armed robber but rather an adult entertainer.

The 31-year-old was booked for a nearby party and in the middle of preparing his costume.

When police in Perth received several calls about an 'armed man' outside a city jewelery shop, they rushed to the scene and shut down the road. The man was wearing a bullet-proof SWAT vest and brandishing what appeared to be an assault rifle outside Linneys Jewelery store, they were told.
As officers spoke to the man, it became clear they weren’t dealing with an armed robber… but rather an adult entertainer. (Nine)

It included a SWAT vest, and while the gun wasn’t a rifle, officers believe it is a gel blaster, which are illegal in WA.

The man was arrested while police inspected the weapon and worked to determine whether he would face charges.

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US

We Went on a Lanternfly-Killing Rampage. They’re Still Here.

We Went on a Lanternfly-Killing Rampage. They're Still Here.

Last week, a pretty moth on a flower outside a window caught this reporter’s eye. Closer inspection confirmed suspicion: It was a spotted lanternfly, an invasive insect that New Yorkers are under scientists’ orders to kill without mercy.

By now it is clear that the lanternflies, which can devastate crops like grapes and apples, harm trees and make it unpleasant to sit outside, have embarked on their most robust metropolitan-area invasion since their first appearance here in 2020. And while New Yorkers have taken to bug murder with typical verve, relying on citizens as vigilante exterminators is proving inadequate.

Here is a partial list of the things New Yorkers have seen lanternflies do in the past few days: Crawl skyward past a ninth-floor window on Roosevelt Island. Get squished by day campers in Prospect Park, their carcasses carved for a competition. Settle on the lapel of a smartly dressed woman in a Midtown cafe. Hang out on a Frosé dispenser in the sculpture garden at the Museum of Modern Art. Lie drenched on Rockaway Beach, apparently drowned by waves. And brazenly occupy ledges, screens, trees and terraces across the five boroughs, sometimes evading multiple stomp attempts.

Since lanternflies, native to parts of Asia, arrived in the United States in 2011 — in a shipment of stones, scientists believe — infestations have been documented in 12 states, including across Pennsylvania and New Jersey, on Long Island, and in the Hudson Valley and Western New York. Sightings of individual lanternflies, tracked by the New York State Integrated Pest Management project, stretch further. The spread brings the bugs within range of upstate orchards and Finger Lakes vineyards — which the adult lanternflies can damage by feeding on leaves and stems.

All of which raises the question: Is citizen bug-stomping really the way to go?

Marielle Anzelone, an urban ecologist in New York, says the question is part of a bigger conundrum about the roles of individuals and governments in tackling sprawling, hard-to-solve environmental problems.

Just as asking individuals to recycle and drive less does not obviate the need for national and global government action to address the climate crisis and protect ecosystems, she said, freelance bug-stompers cannot turn back the lanternfly tide by themselves. In an ideal world, state agencies would do more to fight invasive species.

Still, these agencies tend to lack the personnel and resources, and every little bit of effort helps.

“The sole reliance on individuals is not going to get us there,” Ms. Anzelone said, referring to both lanternflies and the heating planet.

“But maybe individual action is a way of pulling people in,” she added. “It’s not so much about that individual person’s carbon footprint or those three lanternflies they kill in a summer. It’s about educating and engaging and perhaps turning them into the person who calls their council member to ask for more funding for the parks department, or votes for local and national candidates to take real action on climate.”

Lanternflies, Ms. Anzelone said, “invite a lot of participation.” They are easy to identify, they fly clumsily and they show themselves among humans, not just “out in the woods — and there’s something you can do,” she said.

City and state agencies have posted instructions on how to identify the insects (the larvae look like ticks, while adults resemble gray, spotted moths, with red coloring often hidden behind their wings), how to avoid spreading them (check cars and outdoor equipment before traveling), how to document and report them, and how to buy or build environmentally-safe traps.

Joseph Borelli, a Republican City Council member from Staten Island, recently urged the city’s Parks and Health Departments to take action against the flies. In a letter first reported by the Staten Island Advance, he called them a “new threat to our ecology” that is “reproducing at an alarming rate” and frightening some residents, though the flies do not harm humans or animals.

But Mr. Borelli did not wait for a city agency to take action. On Saturday, in a park in Staten Island’s Tottenville neighborhood, I sponsored a free trap-building workshop.

Participation, Ms. Anzelone said, may get people thinking and acting on wider threats, like other invasive species edging out bees and the native plants they prefer. There is already a growing movement among gardeners to grow pollinator-friendly species.

Some native-plant advocates see a silver lining to the ongoing invasion: Lanternflies feed on the tree of heaven, or ailanthus, another invasive, fast-growing Asian species imported in the 1700s to drain swamps and shade streets.

New York has a love-hate relationship with the ailanthus, a symbol of strength in the classic “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” and a stinky, more ambiguous botanical character in a more recent Brooklyn novel, “The Fortress of Solitude” — and now , for the first time, a species has appeared that could challenge it.

As for freelance killing, Ms. Anzelone voted yesterday with her feet — or foot. She saw a lanternfly on a Brooklyn sidewalk. She photographed it. Then she stepped on it.

“I did my own little part,” she said.

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Technology

MSI (Accidentally?) Confirms Ryzen 7000 Release Date

MSI (Accidentally?) Confirms Ryzen 7000 Release Date

msi mds logo

Earlier this week, information appeared online seemingly confirming the long-anticipated launch and subsequent release date/s of AMD Ryzen 7000. – At the time, and as often is the case with such leaks, however, it did clearly need to be taken with a grain of salt. – That is, until now!

Following an official post on their Weibo account (which you can check out here), MSI has pretty much 99.9% confirmed that AMD Ryzen 7000 processors, along with X670 motherboards, will be set for a general consumer release on September 15th. – Yes, AMD’s next generation of processors is less than 6 weeks away!

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MSI Confirms Ryzen 7000 Release Date!

With MSI seemingly confirming the previously alleged September 15th release date, this would also seem to add weight to prior rumors that Ryzen 7000 will be officially unveiled by AMD on August 29th. – And in this regard, there is already a lot of interesting building that AMD may take an incredibly aggressive strategy with its pricing with the 7600X (usually the most popular model in the Ryzen generations) said to be targeting a retail price of only around $200!

The bottom line though is that after months of speculation, we clearly don’t have much longer to go before the launch of Ryzen 7000 on its new AM5 socket platform. – One thing we can say for sure though is that MSI appears to be more than ready for it!

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!

Categories
Australia

Police search for handbag thieves after three women targeted at East Victoria Park shopping center

Police search for handbag thieves after three women targeted at East Victoria Park shopping center

Police are trying to track down some brazen thieves following a string of handbag burglaries at an East Victoria Park shopping center on Saturday.

Three women were targeted by the thieves throughout the afternoon, who snatched their handbags and purses while their backs were turned.

A woman in her 80s had her handbag stolen while she was unloading her shopping at about 2.00pm.

Your local paper, whenever you want it.

She was parked in a disability bay at the northern end of the shopping center on Albany Highway and placed her bag in the boot.

Two women approached the vehicle and stole the handbag.

Almost three hours later, a woman in her 30s realized her purse was missing after putting her shopping in the car at the same center. She initially went home, but returned to check whether it had been left in a trolley.

The purse was taken and the woman’s debit card had been used twice at a nearby bottle shop.

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Categories
US

Democrats fail to overrule parliamentarian on insulin price cap as GOP votes no

Democrats fail to overrule parliamentarian on insulin price cap as GOP votes no

Senate Democrats fell short of an effort Sunday to overrule a decision by the parliamentarian that effectively struck down a proposal sponsored by Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) to cap out-of-pocket insulin costs at $35 a month for people not covered by Medicare.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (RS.C.), the ranking member of the Budget Committee, sought to enforce the parliamentarian’s ruling that Warnock’s cap on insulin prices violated the Byrd Rule because it would set prices in the commercial market and therefore couldn’t pass with a simple majority vote.

Senate Democrats insisted on a vote to waive the procedural objection to put Republican senators on record, including Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), the most vulnerable member of the GOP conference, on the record as opposing a popular proposal to rein in insulin prices.

The Senate voted 57-43 to waive the procedural objection against the insulin price cap but Democrats scored a symbolic victory when seven Republicans voted with the Democrats: Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), John Kennedy (R-La.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska).

“We’re going to force them to vote no and put them on the record,” said one Democratic senator before the vote, explaining the political strategy ahead of a vote lawmakers knew ahead of time was going to fail.

All 43 “no” votes came from Republicans.

The vote was unusual as the majority party rarely insists on a vote to overrule the parliamentarian’s decision on whether a legislative proposal is protected by the special budgetary rules that allow it to pass with a simple-majority vote.

Senate Health Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said colleagues who voted to override the parliamentarian would allow “people to get insulin at $35 a month.”

“Thirty-seven million people in our country have diabetes, and it’s absolutely wrong that many of them cannot afford the insulin they need to live,” she said. “I’ve heard from people in my state who risk their life and ration insulin to make ends meet, all the while drug companies are jacking up prices.”

“The cost of insulin has tripled over the last decade,” she said.

Democrats won a partial victory, however, because the parliamentarian allowed Warnock’s $35 insulin cap to apply to Medicare beneficiaries, which could influence prices in the private market.

A Democratic aid called the cap on insulin for people covered by Medicare “a big deal.”

The aid noted that 1 in every 3 Medicare beneficiaries have diabetes and more than 3.3 million Medicare beneficiaries use common forms of insulin, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Senate Minority Whip John Thune (RS.D) told reporters on Sunday morning that Democrats knew well before the vote that the parliamentarian ruled a cap on insulin prices in the private market a violation of Senate rules.

“She knocked it out. They added it back in and basically, you know, wanted to tempt us to, I guess, vote against it,” Thune said, while taking aim at Democrats for “overruling the parliamentarian.”

He said the effort to overturn the parliamentarian undermined the integrity of Senate procedure and Senate rules.

“It undermines the whole reconciliation process if you start doing that,” he said. “So, I mean, I think there’s a right way and a wrong way to do it. They want to get that vote, there’s a lot of ways they can get that vote, but doing it this way, was the wrong way to do it.”

Warnock pushed back on Thune’s remarks, telling The Hill ahead of the vote that the blame would fall on Republicans if a major portion of the insulin cap fell out of the bill.

“The parliamentarians’ rules are not self-enforced,” Warnock said. “So, only when we don’t do what 20 other states have already done, many of them red states, is if folks here decide to put politics in front of the people.”

“We can get this done and if it doesn’t get done, it’s on them,” he said.

The vote on Sunday comes a day after another provision was struck from the bill that sought to lower drug prices by targeting drug companies with price increases that outpaced the rate of inflation.

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Technology

AMD Ryzen 7000 CPU Specs Leak: Up to 5.7GHz Boost Clock, 80MB Cache, and 170W Power Draw

AMD Ryzen 7000 CPU Specs Leak: Up to 5.7GHz Boost Clock, 80MB Cache, and 170W Power Draw

The entire specifications of AMD’s Zen 4-based Ryzen 7000 processors have leaked out. The 5nm chips will feature up to 16 cores with a single-boost clock of 5.7GHz and 80MB of cache, overall. The core counts have remained unchanged but the operating frequencies have been substantially increased. For example, the Ryzen 9 5950X has a base and (single-core) boost clock of 3.4GHz and 4.9GHz, respectively while the 7950X will top out at 5.7GHz.

CPUs Cores/Threads BaseClock SC Boost Clock Cache TDP Price
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X 16/32 4.5GHz 5.7GHz 80MB (64+16) 170W ~$700US
AMD Ryzen 9 7900X 12/24 4.7GHz 5.6GHz 76MB (64+12) 170W ~$600US
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 8/16 4.5GHz 5.4GHz 40MB (32+8) 105W ~$300US
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 6/12 4.7GHz 5.3GHz 38MB (32+6) 105W ~$200US

The L2 cache will be increased from 8MB (512KB per core) to 16MB (1MB per core) and the TDP to 170W (base) and 230W (PPT). In comparison, the Zen 3 flagship had a base TDP of 105W and a boost cap of 141W. Moving to the Ryzen 9 7900X, we’re looking at a base clock of 4.7GHz and a boost of 5.6GHz with the L2 cache being trimmed to 12MB along with six of the cores. The Ryzen 9 5900X, on the other hand, peaks at 4.8GHz. Like the 7950X, the 7900X also draws up to 230W under load.

Moving down the stack, we have the Ryzen 7 7700X and the Ryzen 5 7600X, both with a TDP of 105W and a boost power of 141W. The former clocks up to 5.4GHz and the latter to 5.3GHz on the fastest cores, up from 3.8GHz and 3.7GHz on the 5800X and 5600X, respectively. Like the higher-end SKUs, the L3 cache is unchanged but the L2 has been doubled to 8MB and 6MB.

Categories
Australia

Pedestrians saying with death by crossing in front of speeding trains

Pedestrians are saying with death, running across the tracks right in the path of fast-moving trains.

Exclusive footage showing the impatient South Australians putting their lives at risk has sparked an urgent warning from authorities for commuters to play it safe.

Some people come within just inches of their lives when crossing Adelaide train tracks, the heart-stopping videos show.

The close calls sparked serious concerns from the transport department, which says the dangerous behavior is on the rise.

Pedestrians are saying with death, running across the tracks right in the path of fast-moving trains. Exclusive footage showing the impatient South Australians putting their lives at risk has sparked an urgent warning from authorities for commuters to play it safe.
Pedestrians are saying with death, running across the tracks right in the path of fast-moving trains. Exclusive footage showing the impatient South Australians putting their lives at risk has sparked an urgent warning from authorities for commuters to play it safe. (Nine)

In one video as a train barrels down the tracks, a man opens the closed barrier gate.

After a brief moment of indecision, he makes a dangerous dash right in front of the 140-tonne train.

Scott White, executive director SA Public Transport Authority called the footage “very disturbing”.

“In some of those videos, people come within inches of losing their lives, and that’s a very traumatic experience for everyone involved,” he said.

In Christie Downs in Adelaide’s south, there was another frightening near miss when a runner made a last-minute sprint moments before a train speeds through.

Pedestrians are saying with death, running across the tracks right in the path of fast-moving trains. Exclusive footage showing the impatient South Australians putting their lives at risk has sparked an urgent warning from authorities for commuters to play it safe.
Some people come within just inches of their lives when crossing Adelaide train tracks, the heart-stopping videos show. (Nine)

“Recently what we’re seeing is a 40 per cent increase across the whole of our network,” White said.

Each year, South Australia records six collisions and 110 near misses between trains and pedestrians, as well as vehicles.

The fresh warning comes less than a week after a 64-year-old cyclist tragically lost his life after being hit by a train at the North Adelaide railway station.

White said for staff, being called out when somebody had been hit by a train was, “something that’s going to stick with you forever.”

Tomorrow marks the beginning of rail safety week, with authorities pleading with people to take care along the tracks and warning inattention can prove fatal.

Categories
US

Video catches group of teens crash stolen Kia, take off running on Minnesota highway

Video catches group of teens crash stolen Kia, take off running on Minnesota highway

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Video from traffic cameras on a Minnesota highway shows a group of teenagers crash a stolen Kia and take off running.

It happened Saturday on Interstate 35E northbound, according to Fox 9. Footage shows a stolen Kia smash into a median after the driver attempted to avoid police stop sticks. Four teens then jump out of the smoking car, run and dodge traffic to get to the other side of the road where state troopers were waiting. All four were arrested: a 14-year-old boy and three girls ages 15-17.

Two of the girls had minor injuries and were taken to the hospital, authorities said.

The incident began around 5:30 pm when a rental car company contacted St. Paul Police saying they had a GPS tracker on a 2021 Kia Forte that had been stolen in Minneapolis and was headed to St. Paul, a police spokesman said.

MINNESOTA IS GETTING LOST TO RADICAL POLICIES: ATTORNEY GENERAL CANDIDATE

FILE- This Oct. 5, 2012, file photo, shows a Kia optima's steering wheel inside of a Kia car dealership in Elmhurst, Ill. Kia says it will ignore the partial US government shutdown and recall more than 68,000 vehicles to fix a fuel pipe problem that can cause engine fires. The problem stems from previous recall repairs due to engine failures. Kia is only doing the fix on 68,000 of its 618,000 vehicles. The fuel injector pipe recall covers some 2011 through 2014 Optima cars, 2012 through 2014 Sorrento SUVs, and 2011 through 2013 Sportage SUVs, all with 2-liter and 2.4-liter four-cylinder engines. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)

FILE- This Oct. 5, 2012, file photo, shows a Kia optima’s steering wheel inside of a Kia car dealership in Elmhurst, Ill. Kia says it will ignore the partial US government shutdown and recall more than 68,000 vehicles to fix a fuel pipe problem that can cause engine fires. The problem stems from previous recall repairs due to engine failures. Kia is only doing the fix on 68,000 of its 618,000 vehicles. The fuel injector pipe recall covers some 2011 through 2014 Optima cars, 2012 through 2014 Sorrento SUVs, and 2011 through 2013 Sportage SUVs, all with 2-liter and 2.4-liter four-cylinder engines. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)

“St. Paul Police requested assistance from a State Patrol helicopter, and the pilot used the coordinates from the GPS tracker to locate the car as it came to a stop on Portland and Dale streets in St. Paul,” Fox 9 reports.

The teens got back in the car as police squad cars approached. Officers stood back as the car traveled through a residential neighborhood, but the helicopter continued to track the Kia as the driver drove erratically down city streets and onto the highway, the police spokesman said.

SI SWIM MODEL ELLA HALIKAS TALKS GOING VIRAL AFTER RECREATING JULIA FOX’S STYLE: ‘YOU HAVE TO OWN YOUR BODY

The crash occurred roughly 15 minutes after the incident first began.

Law enforcement in the area have expressed concern about a nationwide trend this summer involving Hyundai and Kia thefts. A viral Tiktok video from the so-called “Kia Boys” shows thieves how to use a USB cable to steal rides.

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The automaker is so familiar with the rash of thefts it has issued the following statement to media outlets, including Fox 29 Philadelphia.

“Kia America is aware of the rise in vehicle thefts of a subset of trim levels,” the statement read. “All 2022 models and trims have an immobilizer applied either at the beginning of the year or as a running change. All Kia vehicles for sale in the US meet or exceed Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. Kia customers with questions regarding their Kia vehicle should contact the Consumer Assistance center directly at 1-800-333-4542.

“Hyundai Motor America is concerned with the rise in local auto thefts. The safety and well-being of our customers and the community is and will remain our top priority. These vehicles meet or exceed Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards and engine immobilizers are standard equipment on all new Hyundai vehicles. Hyundai customers who have questions can always contact the Hyundai Consumer Assistance Center at 800-633-5151.”

Pilar Arias is a multimedia journalist with more than 10 years of experience in broadcast, digital and print production. She covers a wide variety of topics. @PilarFOXNews.

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Technology

Ordinary computers can match Google’s quantum computer performance: Researchers

Ordinary computers can match Google's quantum computer performance: Researchers

San Francisco, Aug 7 (IANS): After Google said they had achieved what quantum computing researchers had sought for years, a team of Chinese researchers now claim to have replicated the performance of Google’s Sycamore quantum computer using traditional hardware.

In 2019, Google researchers claimed they had passed a milestone known as quantum supremacy when their quantum computer Sycamore performed in 200 seconds an abstruse calculation they said would tie up a supercomputer for 10,000 years.

Now, scientists in China have done the computation in a few hours with ordinary processors. A supercomputer, they say, could beat Sycamore outright.

“I think they are right that if they had access to a big enough supercomputer, they could have simulated the task in a matter of seconds,” said researcher Scott Aaronson, a computer scientist at the University of Texas, Austin.

The team used a system comprised of 512 GPUs to complete the same calculation developed by Google to demonstrate it had passed the quantum supremacy milestone back in 2019.

The advance takes a bit of the shine off Google’s claim, said Greg Kuperberg, a mathematician at the University of California, Davis.

Still, the promise of quantum computing remains undimmed, the team said.

Sergio Boixo, principal scientist for Google Quantum AI, said in an email the Google team knew its edge might not hold for very long.

“In our 2019 paper, we said that classical algorithms would improve,” he said. But, “we don’t think this classical approach can keep up with quantum circuits in 2022 and beyond”.

The “problem” Sycamore solved was designed to be hard for a conventional computer but as easy as possible for a quantum computer, which manipulates qubits that can be set to 0, 1 or any combination of 0 and 1 at the same time.