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Qualcomm launches Snapdragon Wear 3100 for wearables

What you should know about Qualcomm’s latest chip for wearables

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Image Credit: Joshua Vergara, Youtube.com/JoshuaVergara

After two years, Qualcomm has finally unveiled a new chip for wearables and it’s looking like the future.

Snapdragon Wear 3100, announced earlier today in San Francisco, is “designed to allow consumers to enjoy the beauty of a fashion watch with the power of a smartwatch, the battery life of a sports watch with the richness of a smartwatch, and the utility of an analog watch with the flexibility of a smartwatch.” Just how does it attempt to do all that? Well…

It’s built for smartwatches

Snapdragon Wear 3100 features new architecture that boasts high-performance quad-core A7 processors. In so many words, expect this chip to be highly efficient for your next smartwatch experience. Which brings me to the next point:

It will stretch your battery power

Designed specifically for wearables, Wear 3100 adds four to twelve hours of active use (compared to the previous Wear 2100) and can bring you a total of 1.5 to 2.5 days of battery time.

There are new smartwatch modes

For those who like stylish but capable smartwatches, Wear 3100 offers a new Enhanced Ambient Mode with smooth second-hand movement and brighter colors. This new chip allows for 20 times less power when animating that second hand, something most watch faces have omitted because it drains battery power. There’s also a Dedicated Sports Experiences mode for the adrenaline junkies which promises 15 hours of continuous GPS and heart rate monitoring, and a Traditional Watch Mode with a week-long battery capability.

More Wear 3100 smartwatches are coming!

Montblanc has announced that the Summit 2, coming out in October, will be powered by this new chip. According to Qualcomm, this luxury watch brand together with Fossil Group and Louis Vuitton are the first Wear 3100 customers, so expect smarter smartwatches from those brands soon.

Because different manufacturers will have different smartwatch implementations when it comes to Wear 3100 devices, it’s a little too early to tell which watches to look out for. One thing’s for sure, though: Qualcomm stepped up the wearables game and now the ball has left their court.

Accessories

Logitech introduces a dedicated shortcut for ChatGPT

Compatible with most keyboards and mice

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Artificial intelligence is already meant to simplify a workflow. However, despite the ease, there are still a few ways to optimize the process. Today, Logitech has launched a new shortcut to launch ChatGPT straight from your mouse or keyboard.

Minus programmable hotkeys or buttons, there are hardly any built-in way to easily access an AI model. For a typical workflow, it still consists of manually opening the model on a separate window and keeping it within cursor’s reach throughout the day.

Logitech is simplifying the process by adding a dedicated shortcut for its devices. With a Logitech keyboard or mouse supported by the Logi Options+ app, users can program a keyboard or mouse button for the new Logi AI Prompt Builder.

Once activated, the AI Prompt Builder automatically accesses easy options for highlighted text. For example, users can easily rephrase or summarize the text. Likewise, they can input their own custom queries. By eliminating a few clicks and some typing throughout the day, the new tool hopes to save you time.

While most Logitech keyboards and mice are compatible with the new tool, it is also more easily accessible with the new Logitech Signature AI Edition Mouse. The new mouse has a dedicated button just for AI prompts. If you’re an AI power user, this one is perfect for you.

SEE ALSO: Logitech unveils G Pro X 60 gaming keyboard: Price, details

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X’s AI accused Klay Thompson of vandalizing houses with bricks

AI thought joke posts were real

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Image source: Keith Allison, Wikimedia

Despite the ease that the technology promises, artificial intelligence still isn’t the most reliable thing you can depend on. Today’s models can still flub answers. Now, the pitfalls of AI are abundantly clear with a few mishaps on X. Golden State Warrior Klay Thompson was just “accused” of a vandalism spree involving bricks.

Late Tuesday night, X presented an AI-generated news snippet. The article, posted soon after the Warriors’ play-in loss to the Sacramento Kings, reads: “Klay Thompson Accused in Bizarre Brick-Vandalism Spree.”

The snippet hilariously described an incident where Thompson supposedly vandalized houses in Sacramento with bricks. Thankfully, according to the snippet, no one was hurt. It even had a few sources for its claims below the news summary.

The sources, however, are just joke posts stemming from the recently concluded game. In that do-or-die game, Thompson put up a staggering 0 points on ten shot attempts, the most misses without a make by a Warrior since the ’68 season. Naturally, everyone joked that the Warriors guard just threw bricks all over Sacramento.

Now, X is currently experimenting with a new AI feature called Grok. The model collates trending topics and creates snippets of what’s happening for X users. However, it’s not exactly the smartest in determining real news from satiric ones. The feature notes as much, carrying a fine-print caveat warning users to “verify its outputs” because it’s an early feature and can make mistakes.

SEE ALSO: New X users must pay a dollar per year to post and reply

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New X users must pay a dollar per year to post and reply

Rolling out globally now

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New users on X might soon face a tough time on the platform. The social media website will likely start charging new accounts a small fee for the right to post on the platform.

Now, the fee isn’t a new one. Almost six months ago, the company tested the paid system in New Zealand and the Philippines. New users in those countries had to pay a dollar per year for the ability to post and reply to content.

As spotted by X Daily News on the same platform, the company might be ready to take the experiment to a larger market. New text strings have shown that the policy is rolling out worldwide.

The policy is designed to combat a wave of bots appearing on the platform. By preventing new accounts from creating posts, X hopes to stave off the standard behavior of bots these days. You might have noticed them as OnlyFans creators in unrelated posts, peddling NSFW content on their bio.

Though the global rollout was only just spotted, owner Elon Musk has seemingly confirmed the change. Replying to X Daily News, Musk says that it is “the only way to curb the relentless onslaught of bots.” He says that the current breed of bots can easily bypass simple checks these days.

SEE ALSO: X will no longer let you hide your blue checkmark

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