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Geeks Know

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The U.S. Department of Justice is considering forcibly separating Android from Google; Hongmeng Zhixing S9 received over 4,800 orders within 72 hours of its launch; Pinduoduo founder Huang Zheng became China's richest man

Meiyi2024/08/10

summary

X agrees to suspend EU data processing for training Grok; Intel postpones its innovation conference originally scheduled for September to 2025 due to poor financial situation; Apple Vision Pro headset now has more than 2,500 native apps

Under the heavy hammer of antitrust, the US Department of Justice is considering forcibly separating Android from Google

On August 9, The Information reported that after winning the antitrust lawsuit against Google, the U.S. Department of Justice will not only weaken the company's alliance with Apple, but may also seek to make the company implement major changes, such as forcing the separation of Android.

In the next phase of its campaign to punish Google for illegal monopolistic behavior, the U.S. government may hit the company’s efforts in the new generation of conversational AI search that it dominates and makes it easier for competitors to eat into its 95% market share, according to lawyers.

Gene Burroughs, a former assistant general counsel at Microsoft, said Justice Department lawyers will almost certainly ask the judge to take "structural remedies," such as forcing Google to divest Android, rather than just "behavioral" restrictions on how Google operates its search business and cooperates with companies such as Apple. (Source: IT Home)

Musk posts first ignition photo of SpaceX Raptor 3 engine, with simpler black paint

On August 9, Musk shared a photo of the first ignition of the SpaceX Raptor 3 engine on social media, which is expected to bring it one step closer to mass production.

As can be seen from the picture, the appearance of the Raptor 3 has been greatly simplified compared with the previous two generations, and the overall appearance is more compact. The engine is painted black and emits blue flames. If you zoom in on the picture, you can see that there is a layer of white frost on the upper surface of the Raptor 3, which is expected to be related to its cooling system.

Musk once said that the Raptor 3 does not need any heat shield, which also avoids the mass and complexity problems brought by the heat shield, so it will be lighter, more powerful and more efficient than the Raptor 2.

According to official SpaceX data, the sea level thrust of the Raptor 3 engine is 280 tons. When combined with the 35 engines of the next-generation super-heavy booster, its takeoff thrust can reach 9,800 tons, which is about 30% higher than the current model. (Source: IT Home)

X agrees to suspend EU data processing for Grok training

Musk has agreed to temporarily stop turning Europeans' X posts into AI training material for his Grok chatbot. The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), which oversees X's privacy under the bloc's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), announced the development in a press release on Thursday, saying it welcomed the social media company's decision to "suspend the processing of personal data used to train its AI tool 'Grok'."

The legality of AI models trained using illegally obtained data and how to deal with them is another relevant issue. But it remains unclear how privacy regulators will interpret the law in this regard. (Source: cnBeta)

Due to poor financial conditions, Intel's innovation conference originally scheduled for September was postponed to 2025

On August 9, according to foreign media reports, Intel will postpone the Intel On Technology Innovation Conference (Intel Innovation), originally scheduled for September 24-25, 2024, local time, to 2025. Intel has begun notifying attendees that the event will be postponed.

Intel told foreign media that given that our financial performance and outlook for the second half of 2024 were more severe than expected, we had to make some difficult decisions.

The postponement of the event could hamper Intel's efforts to promote its upcoming desktop and laptop processors, including Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake. However, Intel may simply shift its focus to IFA, a large consumer electronics show held in Berlin from September 6 to 10. (Source: TechWeb)

Hongmeng Zhixing's luxury sedan Xiangjie S9 received over 4,800 orders within 72 hours of its launch

On August 9, it was reported that within 72 hours of the launch of Hongmeng Intelligent Driving's luxury sedan Xiangjie S9, the number of pre-orders exceeded 4,800 units.

In addition, Hongmeng Zhixing officially announced today: Starting from August 7, 2024, the delivery of Xiangjie S9 has started in the national first-come-first-served plan, and large-scale delivery is expected to start in late August. At present, vehicles in the first-come-first-served plan have been shipped to stores on a large scale. (Source: IT Home)

Pinduoduo founder Huang Zheng becomes China's richest man with a net worth of $48.6 billion

On August 9, Bloomberg reported today that the Bloomberg Billionaires Index showed that Huang Zheng, the 44-year-old founder of Pinduoduo, has become China's richest man. With a fortune of US$48.6 billion, he replaced the "King of Bottled Water" Zhong Shanshan (US$47.4 billion), who had been in the first place since April 2021.

He is also the first technology giant to top the wealth list in three years. Huang Zheng has kept a low profile since he stepped down as CEO of Pinduoduo in 2020 and resigned from the board of directors in 2021. (Source: IT Home)

Apple's Vision Pro headset now has more than 2,500 native apps

On August 9, Apple announced today that the Vision Pro headset has crossed a new milestone, and the visionOS app store now has more than 2,500 native spatial applications.

Apple previously reported a milestone of 2,000 visionOS apps in June, which means that about 500 native apps have been added in two months.

In contrast, the Meta Quest app store has about 3,000 apps, most of which are games. (Source: IT Home)

Tencent Cloud: A large number of domestic home routers have been detected to be hijacked by DNS, and the server has now been restored

On August 9, Tencent Cloud DNSPod officially announced that it had detected that the DNS resolution configuration of a large number of home routers in China had been tampered with, thus affecting normal website and app access.

This situation began to occur in May 2024, and reached a peak on August 5. As of August 7, after testing and confirmation, the domain name that caused the large-scale outbreak of this failure has been restored on the abnormal DNS server, but due to the influence of TTL and client local cache, the client's recovery time will have a certain lag.

If you are sure that you have encountered the above situation, Tencent Cloud recommends that home router users upgrade their home router firmware and change the DNS server to the operator's recursive DNS or well-known public DNS such as 119.29.29.29 to ensure normal resolution. (Source: IT Home)

In July this year, the retail sales of new energy passenger cars exceeded that of fuel passenger cars for the first time

On August 9, the China Automobile Dealers Association released a national passenger car market analysis report for July 2024, showing that in July, conventional fuel vehicles sold 840,000 units, while new energy vehicle sales reached 878,000 units. For the first time, the monthly domestic retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles exceeded those of fuel passenger vehicles.

The report shows that in July, the retail sales of conventional fuel vehicles reached 840,000 units, a year-on-year decrease of 26% and a month-on-month decrease of 7%. In July, the retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles reached 878,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 36.9% and a month-on-month increase of 2.8%. The penetration rate reached 51.1%. This is the first time that the monthly retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles in China have exceeded those of fuel passenger vehicles.

Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the National Passenger Car Market Information Joint Conference, analyzed that the recent national "old for new" passenger car scrapping and renewal policy has gradually taken effect, and various regions have actively introduced follow-up measures, which have effectively stimulated automobile consumption. (Source: TechWeb)

Apple plans to launch the smallest desktop computer to date: Mac mini changes design for the first time

On August 9, according to the latest news, Apple plans to launch a new version of Mac mini, which will be the company's smallest desktop computer to date.

This is also the first design revision of this product line since Steve Jobs launched the Mac mini. The previous design has been used for more than ten years, but it is still a classic today.

The new device is much smaller than its predecessor and is about the size of an Apple TV, according to people familiar with the matter.

Apple has already been testing the new models, and there are two versions, one with a standard M4 chip, similar to the iPad Pro, and another with an M4 Pro chip.

Among them, the standard version equipped with the M4 chip will start production this month, while the high-end version will have to wait until October. (Source: Fast Technology)

Proton now supports Windows Hello biometric authentication

On August 9, Proton launched a new version of its cross-platform password manager, Proton Pass.

The latest version brings several new features to the service, including biometric authentication on Windows and macOS. The latter means that Windows users can now use Windows Hello (PIN, facial recognition, or fingerprint) to open "Proton Pass" without having to enter a password.

In addition to biometric authentication on desktop systems, Proton Pass now also has an "Identities" feature that helps you create customized sets of personal information for various purposes. Supported data includes name, email, phone number, social media profiles, and more.

Different identities in ProtonPass can help you fill out various forms faster, and you can also set different information for work, entertainment, shopping, etc.

Currently, everyone can use Proton Pass for free, but some features require a paid subscription. (Source: cnBeta)

This crowdfunded GBA-style game console has a screen size of only 0.85 inches

How small can you make a Nintendo Switch? TinyCircuits' Thumby Color is the answer. This GBA clone is just two inches in size, but it still packs in a D-pad, shoulder buttons, a vibration motor, a 16-bit color screen, and the ability to connect two consoles via a USB-C cable for multiplayer gaming.

Thumby Color isn't a handheld game you can play for hours on end, but it's a great excuse to sneak in a few rounds whenever you need a distraction. It's also a good excuse to learn a programming language, as TinyCircuits has made tutorials and guides available for free on its website.

TinyCircuits chose to launch a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to bring Thumby Color to consumers. The original Thumby is still priced at $42, but this new color screen version only requires a pledge of $49 to purchase the purple version, which is expected to be shipped as early as November. (Source: cnBeta)

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