| Newegg Daily Deals: Thermaltake Chaser Case, AMD A10-7870K, and More! Posted: 28 Mar 2016 11:10 AM PDT |
| World's First Ubuntu Tablet is Available to Pre-Order Posted: 28 Mar 2016 10:50 AM PDT Ubuntu on the go  It was just less than two months ago when Canonical said it wanted to reinvent the personal mobile computing experience with the first Ubuntu tablet, the Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition. If you've been anxiously awaiting your chance to order one since then, your wait is over—the Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition is available for pre-order starting at €259 (around $290 in U.S. currency). That's for the HD version; there's also a Full HD 1080p model that goes for €299 (around $335). In addition to a higher resolution 10.1-inch display, the FHD model gets a faster clocked 1.5GHz quad-core Mediatek System-on-Chip (SoC) compared to its lower resolution sibling's 1.3GHz chip. The other specs are the same—2GB of RAM, 16GB of eMMC memory that's expandable via microSD, 8-megapixel rear camera, 5-megapixel front camera, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, micro HDMI, micro USB, 3.5mm jack, 7,280 mAh battery, and of course Ubuntu on the software side (version 15.04). Will an Ubuntu tablet find an audience? Canonical believes it will. The company notes that Ubuntu is the preferred desktop OS of over 30 million users around the world, adding that the first three Ubuntu phones quickly sold out when they launched to market last year. Even so, Ubuntu is entering the tablet market long after the initial excitement has worn off. Tablet sales have been on the decline and though Ubuntu brings something unique to the table, it remains to be seen if it will be enough to spark renewed interest in the category. As part of a special launch offer, both versions of the Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition come with a cover and screen protector. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Microsoft 'Deeply Sorry' for AI Chatbot's Racist Twitter Posts Posted: 28 Mar 2016 10:11 AM PDT Not Microsoft's finest moment  Somehow or another, Microsoft failed to anticipate that Twitter users would intentionally try and corrupt its millennial AI chatbot named Tay. For that, Microsoft is "deeply sorry." "As many of you know by now, on Wednesday we launched a chatbot called Tay. We are deeply sorry for the unintended offensive and hurtful tweets from Tay, which do not represent who we are or what we stand for, nor how we designed Tay," Microsoft's Peter Lee stated in a blog post. "Tay is now offline and we'll look to bring Tay back only when we are confident we can better anticipate malicious intent that conflicts with our principles and values." Microsoft designed Tay to speak like a teen girl. She isn't the first chatbot that Microsoft has released into the online social world—that distinction belongs to Xiaolce, a chatbot tht's currently being used by 40 million people in China. "The great experience with XiaoIce led us to wonder: Would an AI like this be just as captivating in a radically different cultural environment? Tay – a chatbot created for 18- to 24- year-olds in the U.S. for entertainment purposes – is our first attempt to answer this question," Lee added. Believe it or not, Microsoft implemented a lot of filtering into Tay and stress-tested the chatbot under a variety of conditions. But Microsoft didn't take into account the pack mentality of Twitter's bottom-of-the-barrel users. "Unfortunately, in the first 24 hours of coming online, a coordinated attack by a subset of people exploited a vulnerability in Tay," Lee said. "Although we had prepared for many types of abuses of the system, we had made a critical oversight for this specific attack. As a result, Tay tweeted wildly inappropriate and reprehensible words and images. We take full responsibility for not seeing this possibility ahead of time." That flaw was a simple "repeat after me" game that Twitter trolls used to corrupt Tay, Buzzfeed says. While Tay was programmed to filter certain vulgar speech, the repeat after me game allowed users to inject hateful speech into the chatbot, which was learning on the fly how to communicate. From there things snowballed until Microsoft grounded its chatbot. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Nvidia Releases Oculus Rift-Ready GeForce 364.72 WHQL Drivers Posted: 28 Mar 2016 09:33 AM PDT Let's get this party started  The first batch of pre-ordered Oculus Rift headsets are being delivered to consumers today, and to make sure they're ready for the full experience, Nvidia has released Rift-ready GeForce 364.72 drivers that are WHQL-certified. "Virtual reality is here! This Game Ready driver brings full support for the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, optimizations and enhancements for virtual reality games such as EVE: Valkyrie, Chronos, and Elite Dangerous, and the latest support for Nvidia VRWorks. Make sure your PC is GeForce GTX VR Ready before stepping into the Rift!," Nvidia states. In addition to preparing users for the ultimate Rift experience, Nvidia added an SLI profile for Dark Souls III to its latest driver fix. It also fixed a handful of issues, the majority of which apply to Windows 10. Here's a look at those: - [364.54] System hang or BSOD on express installation of 364.54 driver over 364.51 driver with single HDMI monitor connected.
- [Razer Dock] Hot unplug then plug causes "Display driver has stopped responding and has recovered" notification.
- [SLI, Tom Clancy's The Division] Frequent freezes and pauses as well as low GPU usage result in low FPS.
- [364.51, SLI] BSOD when SLI enabled on 364.51 or 364.47.
- [364.51, SLI] In a multi-monitor configuration with one G-SYNC monitor and one nonG-SYNC monitor, the FPS in games drops to single digits if Chrome hardware acceleration is enabled and V-SYNC is off.
And here's a look at the issues fixed in Windows 8.1 down to Windows Vista: - [SLI, Tom Clancy's The Division] Frequent freezes and pauses as well as low GPU usage result in low FPS.
- [359.00] PowerDirector crashes in nvspcap64.dll.
There's also a number of known issues that Nvidia's working on, such as performance drops in Street Fighter V when playing at 4K with SLI enabled. You can download the latest Nvidia GeForce drivers here. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
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