Day: March 3, 2020

https://www.engadget.com/2020/03/03/google-makes-hangouts-meet-features-free-in-the-wake-of-coronavirus/

With no end in sight yet when it comes to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, Google says it wants to make it easier for people to work remotely. Starting this week through to July 1st, the company’s G Suite and G Suite for Education customers can use Hangouts Meet’s premium functionality for free. Those features mean individuals can now participate in virtual meetings with up to 250 people and live streams with up to 100,000 viewers. Additionally, they can save recordings of their meetings to Google Drive for free.

At least part of the decision to extend the functionality of Hangouts Meet comes out of recent usage stats Google has seen in places where there’s a good reason for people to stay home. In Hong Kong and Vietnam, the company says it’s noticed "hundreds of thousands" of students use its Hangouts Meet and Classroom apps to keep up with their classes while schools are closed. The move should also help the company keep up with competitors like Zoom, which have seen the usage of their apps jump due to the crisis.

We want to help businesses and schools impacted by COVID-19 stay connected: starting this week, we’ll roll out free access to our advanced Hangouts Meet video-conferencing capabilities through July 1, 2020 to all G Suite customers globally. https://t.co/OWWF7s5jjR

— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) March 3, 2020

"As more employees, educators, and students work remotely in response to the spread of COVID-19, we want to do our part to help them stay connected and productive," Google said. "We’re committed to supporting our users and customers during this challenging time, and are continuing to scale our infrastructure to support greater Hangouts Meet demand, ensuring streamlined, reliable access to the service throughout this period."

Since the disease started spreading, COVID-19 has had numerous effects on the tech industry, with conferences being one of the more visible casualties. Earlier this week, for instance, Google announced it will hold its upcoming Cloud Next conference virtually, instead of asking people to attend the event in person.

Source: Google

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

March 3, 2020 at 02:26PM

https://www.engadget.com/2020/03/03/honeywell-quantum-computer/

When it comes to quantum computers, we tend to think of companies like Google and IBM as the big players in the field, but there could soon be more competition in the space. Honeywell says sometime in the next three months it will unveil a quantum computer that is at least twice as powerful as any current device.

Breaking down that claim requires some context. As Protocol points out, most companies talk about qubits when they speak to the capabilities of their machines. For instance, Sycamore, the computer Google claimed last year achieved quantum supremacy, had 53 qubits. Honeywell is instead using a metric called quantum volume to talk up the capabilities of its machine. IBM coined the term, and here’s how it defines it:

"Quantum Volume takes into account the number of qubits, connectivity, and gate and measurement errors. Material improvements to underlying physical hardware, such as increases in coherence times, reduction of device crosstalk, and software circuit compiler efficiency, can point to measurable progress in Quantum Volume, as long as all improvements happen at a similar pace."

The point here is that quantum volume attempts to measure the performance of a computer by taking a holistic view of its different parts. Raw qubits are important in the calculation, but so is how they interact with one another. For instance, the lower the error rate those qubits generate, the better the score. Ultimately, however, the larger the quantum volume value, the more complex problems the computer can solve.

Honeywell claims its upcoming computer will have a quantum volume of at least 64. To put that number in perspective, IBM recently announced a 28-qubit computer it built had a quantum volume of 32. The company was able to achieve this feat in part to thanks to a breakthrough it made in 2015 when it developed a technology that uses lasers to trap electrically charged atoms in a superpositioned state.

As exciting as Honeywell’s achievement is, it’s probably best not to get too excited until the company properly details the computer. Last year, Google generated conflicting amounts of hype and controversy when it announced that it had achieved quantum supremacy. IBM, in particular, called the company’s claims "indefensible" based on the fact Google built Sycamore to solve one specific equation.

That said, it appears most other companies are at least optimistic about what Honeywell has managed to do. For instance, IBM’s Research arm told Protocol, "Honeywell’s paper shows exciting new progress in programmable trapped-ion quantum systems." The company has also gained the Microsoft seal of approval, with the two announcing a partnership that will give Azure clients access to Honeywell’s quantum computer.

Via: Protocol

Source: Honeywell (1), (2)

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

March 3, 2020 at 11:07AM

https://www.space.com/spacex-starship-sn1-prototype-test-failure-sn2-next.html

via Space.com https://ift.tt/2CqOJ61

March 2, 2020 at 04:46PM

https://www.engadget.com/2020/03/03/goodyears-smart-tire-concept-prints-its-own-treads/

The thunk-whumma-whumpa-whuppa sound of a tire puncturing and losing pressure at freeway speeds is unmistakable. However, if Goodyear has its way humanity might not have to endure the filthy, sweaty, swear-inducing process of swapping rubber on the shoulder of American roads ever again.

The Geneva Auto Show has been canceled, but that hasn’t stopped many of the companies due to present there from scheduling online alternatives to conventional press conferences. Today, Goodyear introduced its latest "stretch concept" tire, the ReCharge, which theoretically never needs replacing or even rotating because it can replace worn treads from the inside.

The idea is essentially the same as making PlayDoh spaghetti. However instead of squishing semi-edible "dough" through a child-size pasta press, ReCharge tires extrude a high-tech compound of renewable materials including dandelion rubber and synthetic spider silk. The mixture is fed through a series of fine pipes out to the surface of the wheel where they dry, cure and set into brand new, fully-functional treads. These offer a more environmentally responsible alternative to the standard tire composition of today, which requires the addition of either carbon black or silica to shore up the structural capabilities of petroleum rubber. In this case, the synthetic spider silk can help augment the natural properties of dandelion rubber to reduce wear and extend the functional life of the tire.

What’s more, this concept tire is reportedly structurally designed so that it doesn’t need to be pressurized so it’ll never go flat. Instead of relying on air pressure, the replacement tread solution would be stored in replaceable canisters within the wheel hub. As road conditions and driving style change throughout the seasons — ie, a summer of hoonin’ which fades into a slippery, wet fall and ice-bound winter — these canisters can be swapped out and activated to optimize the tire’s traction, fuel efficiency and mileage requirements. How it does this would be based on data gleaned from the vehicles myriad telemetry sensors. There’s no word yet on whether this would be responsive in real-time or whether driver’s would need to take their cars to a shop for that process to occur.

Obviously, this tire system has just as good a chance of hitting the market in its current form as Mercedes’ Avatar-mobile from CES 2020, so don’t go getting your hopes up for spike-strip-proof wheels in the foreseeable future. However as Goodyear CTO, Chris Helsel, explained to Engadget, many of the underlying processes and features could well be here within the decade. Goodyear already has prescriptive algorithmic systems in place that can monitor and estimate the life remaining on tires based on the driver’s style while environmentally-sustainable materials like dandelion rubber are primarily bottlenecked by their relative costs of production.

Still, Helsel remains confident that the industry will be able to overcome that supply shortage and be able to produce these materials at scale within the next half dozen years or so. Either way, expect to see this technology arrive in corporate vehicle fleets before it arrives in whatever you park in your driveway.

via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

March 3, 2020 at 03:01AM