Were you looking forward to buying a shiny new ZTE Phone
*Fighting about Zee vs. Zed*
after the Trump administration decided to let them off the hook for providing US-made hardware to North Korea and Iran?
Well, you might want to temper your excitement a little bit as the US Senate has
OVERWHELMINGLY voted to put the import ban on ZTE phones
back in place by a vote of 85 to 10.
I don't remember the last time this many senators agreed on something since Caesar was stabbed to death.
*Et Tu Linus?*
Anyway, the ban still needs to be approved by the house
and, while President Trump could veto the bill, remember that two-thirds of Congress can override a veto
if you think back to high school civics
which might be likely if the Senate vote is any indication.
The senators that voted for the ban cited national security concerns over jobs as their rationales.
But, maybe it's all a conspiracy
to increase Apple's market share.
One phone maker that probably won't be banned from US shelves anytime soon though is
Samsung who is looking at implementing a sound-emitting display into their upcoming Galaxy S 10.
Instead of speakers, Samsung wants to use small vibrations within the display itself
to create sound when a user presses the phone against his or her ear,
eliminating the need for that top speaker.
The technshzjns...
*Forgets How To English*
the technology is also coming to the Vivo Nex
as phone makers are looking to pull as many tricks out of their bags as possible
to make their devices as bezel-free as possible
and of course avoid having to incorporate a controversial...
Notch
Not that controversial notch
A previous report indicated that the front of the Galaxy S10 will be 93% screen
so this fancy speaker-less design could go a long way toward making that a reality.
Now if only we could find a way to bury the selfie cam under the screen instead of putting it on a very breakable looking...
pop-up piece.
Meanwhile, Nvidia, suddenly apparently stuck with a bunch of excess product that
I hope they don't have to bury in the desert, Atari style.
A report from Taiwan indicates that a major, as-yet-unidentified, board partner
has sent back, allegedly, THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND GPUs;
not because of any kind of defect but, simply because they had way too many of them.
The blame for the glut of GPUs is being placed on
NVIDIA's overestimation of not only demand from gamers,
but also on how long the GPU crypto mining rush would last,
and since NVIDIA has a history of being stingy with how many GPUs it hands out to board partners,
this news is a pretty good indicator of just how badly NVIDIA may have messed this one up
with some speculating that this is part of the reason that it's taking so long
for us to see new team green graphics cards on the market.
I wonder if they could just use all of those extra GPUs to mine themselves the revenue they lost.
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So, DDoS attacks are often carried out as pranks, but one Arizona man has earned a
20 month prison stay for his trouble or the trouble he caused as it were.
He was convicted of DDoS-ing government infrastructure in Madison, Wisconsin, including
9-1-1 Dispatch
Uhh...
I don't think:
"It's just a prank Bro, it's just a prank"
is gonna smooth things over with someone who's waiting impatiently
for those heart zapping paddles elsewhere in the city.
Speaking of death
You wrote heart zapping paddles in there. Don't give me crap about it!
Speaking of death, Google's neural networks are now able to predict whether a patient admitted to a hospital will die
After a patient has been in the hospital for 24 hours
Google's AI is predicting outcomes with 95% Accuracy
using medical histories, doctor's notes, and vital signs.
I wonder how long it will be before?
Ok Google: "Is my aunt about to buy the farm?" becomes a real voice command
On a far lighter note, Android's Messages App is about to get another layer of
Fanciness (✿◠‿◠)
as you're now able to go to
http://messages.android.com/
Scan a QR code with your phone and send and receive text on the desktop, finally...
Finally!
Another nice feature to go with Google migrating the app to RCS
especially if you still haven't gotten the hang of tappity tapping on your phone screen in just the right spot.
Unfortunately, Facebook's messenger app is also adding functionality
But it's probably not what anybody wants as they are set to roll out auto-playing video ads in the app
after finding that less intrusive ads didn't affect usage patterns.
But I can't imagine that users will be too pleased after commercials for stuff they don't want
start eating into their data limits
On the subject of ads the popular mobile browser Brave
which is notable for blocking ads and trackers
is now going to offer specific ads
but with an interesting twist:
You will be opting into the ads
and you will get paid 70% of the gross ad revenue through a Cryptocurrency Exchange
Could this be any more convoluted and sketchy sounding?
No word yet on how much an average user could end up receiving,
but I don't think for me personally
you could pay me enough to sit through that "What's a computer?" spot from Apple again?
And that's it for the news join us again on Friday to see what exciting ad will make you sit through right before Quick Bits
Unless you're on Floatplane in which case, here's a quick message for you about Floatplane:
You can go to https://www.floatplane.com/ and get
No wait, no don't turn it off!
Hold on
I.. I think it won't affect their usage patterns, Let's just keep going.