Kalakshar US

It’s been a while since a company has thrown out a truly silly number of megapixels for a new phone. After all, the double-digit pixels found on most flagship handsets are just used to pixel bin the size down without harming the quality. Rejoice, then, when I tell you Honor’s new midrange 400 series is shipping with a 200 megapixel sensor working hand-in glove with an AI to make use of all that data. 200 megapixels, in this economy? Apparently so.

The 400 series is the latest in Honor’s not-at-all-confusingly-named “N” series of midrange handsets which bear numbers. Naturally, while there’s also a low end version of the 400 to buy, the company’s focus here (as always) was on the 400 Pro 5G and the regular 400 5G. Both models get that 200 megapixel primary camera tied to a Samsung-made 1/1.4-inch sensor with both optical and electronic image stabilization. Both are also equipped with a 12-megapixel macro/wide camera, plus a 50-megapixel front-facer.The Pro, however, also gets an additional 50-megapixel telephoto that the company claims will produce some impressive digital zoom.

Of course, these handsets are less about the raw numbers and more about what they can do when the images are run through the AI. Honor says the phones will capture and enhance portraits, erase passers-by, create videos from still images and can even remove reflective glare when taking pictures through panes of glass. Plus, on-device generative expand will expand the edge of an image if you feel the original was too closely cropped when you shot it. And Honor says the phone will use AI to create film simulation models to annoy all your Fuji-owning frenemies. Honor hasn’t yet been clear about how much of these AI innovations will be part of the phone and how much will require an extra subscription.

As for the rest of the phone, the 400 Pro’s spec list is no slouch: It’s got a Snapdragon 8, Gen 3 processor, 16GB RAM and a 5,300mAh silicon carbon battery. Up front, you’ll be staring into a 6.7-inch 2,800 x 1,280, 120Hz AMOLED display with a peak brightness of 5,000 nits. If you opt for the regular 400, then you’ll get a Snapdragon 7, Gen 3, 8GB RAM and a 6.55-inch, 120Hz AMOLED with a similarly beefy peak brightness. Both handsets will get Honor’s often-ballyhooed AI thread optimization for better sustained performance under load, such as if you’re gaming on the go. And the company has tweaked the graphics engine to better handle people’s massive photo libraries without stuttering.

The Honor 400 series is available to buy in Europe and the UK from today, with the Pro 5G setting you back €800 / £700. The regular 400 5G can be snapped up for €500 / £400 if you want 256GB storage and €550 / £450 if you want 512GB instead. Naturally, if you’re looking for a cheaper alternative, the “Lite” version can be picked up for €300, but the company didn’t share any specs for that particular handset. As usual, there’s no word on if this handset will come to the US unless you import it yourself.

What Honor has been eager to point out, is the company has committed to providing six years of Android support for these handsets. That means buyers should expect to get at least that many OS and security updates, and Android 16 will be coming to the handsets by the end of the year.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/honors-midrange-400-series-pairs-a-200-megapixel-camera-with-the-usual-ai-tools-150018371.html?src=rss 

The team behind GeoGuessr is withdrawing the location-guessing game from the Esports World Cup (EWC) after fans protested its decision to participate in the event. Community members pulled many popular custom maps from the game after it emerged the game’s publisher, GeoGuessr AB, was going to hold a tournament at the EWC, which takes place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in July.

Map creators who removed their community creations from GeoGuessr claimed that the EWC is “a sportswashing tool used by the government of Saudi Arabia to distract from and conceal its horrific human rights record.” Many other prominent game franchises will be featured at the event, including Call of Duty, Overwatch, Rocket League, Street Fighter and EA Sports FC.

In a statement posted on X and Reddit, GeoGuessr AB CEO and co-founder Daniel Antell said the community stated loud and clear that the decision to take part in the EWC “does not align with what GeoGuessr stands for.” As such, the team is pulling out of the event.

Here is Antell’s full statement:

Hi everyone,

I’ve seen your reactions over the past few days regarding our decision to participate in the Esports World Cup in Riyadh. When we made that decision, it was with positive intentions. To engage with our community in the Middle East and to spread GeoGuessr’s core mission of let everyone Explore the World.

Since Erland, Anton, and I founded GeoGuessr in 2013, we’ve always strived to be a community-first game. Everyone here at the Stockholm office is a passionate GeoGuessr fan, doing our best to build something meaningful, with you and for you.

That said, you – our community – have made it clear that this decision does not align with what GeoGuessr stands for.

So, when you tell us we’ve got it wrong we take it seriously. That’s why we’ve made the decision to withdraw from participating in the Esports World Cup in Riyadh.

We will come back with information on how the wildcards will be distributed as soon as possible.

Thank you for speaking up and sharing your thoughts.

/Daniel

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/geoguessr-pulls-out-of-the-esports-world-cup-after-a-community-protest-151138984.html?src=rss 

Amazon is testing a new feature that involves AI-generated hosts talking through product summaries. It looks fairly similar to Google’s audio overviews, which also include AI-generated hosts that seem plucked from a middling podcast.

Amazon says that these “AI shopping experts help save time by compiling research and providing product highlights for customers from product pages, reviews and insights.” This leads me to an obvious question. Amazon is notorious for hosting fake reviews. Some studies suggest that fake reviews account for more than 40 percent of the sum total. Do these AI hosts pull from those reviews? We’ve reached out to Amazon and will update this post if we hear back.

Each audio summary will remind you that it was generated by AI, just before an introduction from the “expert” hosts. Amazon says these hosts are “like having helpful friends discuss potential purchases to make your shopping easier.”

You might be able to try this out right now. It’s currently available to some US customers on the mobile app for certain products, like this Ninja Blender, OSEA Undaria Algae Body Oil, SHOKZ OpenRun Pro headphones and a couple of other items. Just tap the “Hear the highlights” button under the product. Amazon has stated it’ll be rolling this out to more customers and more products in the near future.

I can see this being a boon for those with visual impairment issues, but I listened to a couple of summaries and they certainly don’t save any time. I could peruse reviews, look at product information and even conduct a web search of my own in a fraction of the time it took the friendly experts to complete their spiel.

The company says this feature is useful when “multitasking or on the go” but I don’t tend to mindlessly spend money in that way. Do you? This seems like another AI thingamabob that nobody really asked for, but maybe it’ll find a niche somewhere. Again, this could be seriously useful for the visually impaired, but that’s not how Amazon is pitching it.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/amazon-is-testing-ai-generated-hosts-that-talk-customers-through-product-features-153112886.html?src=rss 

The first device OpenAI is putting out with Jony Ive won’t be a phone or a wearable and may not even have a screen at all, according to The Wall Street Journal. OpenAI chief Sam Altman reportedly talked about the company’s plans to employees after announcing that it has purchased Ive’s startup called io. The Journal said Altman told employees that they have “the chance to do the biggest thing [they’ve] ever done as a company.” 

Altman and Ive gave out clues for what the company’s first device could be: They said it will be fully aware of its environment and the user’s activities, that it will unobtrusive and could either be carried around in one’s pocket or placed on a desk. The executives also believe that it’s bound to become one of people’s “core” devices after a laptop and a phone. According to the Journal, it won’t be a phone and that one of Ive’s and Altman’s goals is to wean people off screens, which means it most likely wouldn’t come with a display. Altman reportedly said that it won’t be a pair of glasses, and Ive wasn’t keen on building a product users can wear in the first place. 

Whatever the device is, they intend on guarding specifics until it’s time to release it in order to prevent their competitors from copying it. They’re hoping to launch their new AI device late next year and are hoping to ship 100 million units “faster than any company has ever shipped 100 million of something new before.” Ive’s team, the Journal said, has been talking to vendors that can mass produce the device over the past four months. 

OpenAI apparently started working with Ive’s startup a year-and-a-half ago. The original plan was to have Ive’s company build a product that uses OpenAI’s technology, but they realized that it could become the primary way users will interact with OpenAI’s generative AI models. And that is why OpenAI ended up acquiring the startup founded by Apple’s former chief design officer for $6.5 billion. We’ll have to wait and see whether the combination of Ive’s design and OpenAI’s tech is compelling enough to convince people to buy yet another device from a new category. A company called Humane, for instance, tried and failed to get people to purchase the Ai Pin, which it marketed “as a tiny replacement for smartphones.” In February, the company disconnected all the Pins it had sold, leaving customers without access to all of its features.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openais-first-device-with-jony-ive-reportedly-wont-be-a-phone-or-a-wearable-130024787.html?src=rss