رغم أن شركة TSMC قد أحبطت محاولات هواوي لتصنيع شريحة Ascend 910B باستخدام تقنيتها المتقدمة، إلا أن العملاق الصيني لم يتوقف، وواصل البحث عن حلول بديلة للحصول على معالجات قوية مخصصة لتدريب نماذج الذكاء الاصطناعي.وفعليًا، طرحت الشركة بعدها شريحة Ascend 910C، التي أظهرت إمكانات واعدة وفقًا لتحليل Semianalysis، رغم وجود بعض التحفظات التقنية.واليوم، يكشف تقرير جديد صادر عن Digitimes أن هواوي تستعد لإطلاق الجيل الجديد من هذه السلسلة، وهو المعالج Ascend 920، خلال الفترة القادمة.ووفقًا لما نقله المسرّب المعروف Jukanlosreve عبر منصة X، سيتم تصنيع هذه الشريحة باستخدام عقدة N+3 بدقة 6 نانومتر من شركة SMIC، مع توقعات ببدء الإنتاج الضخم خلال النصف الثاني من عام 2025.من المنتظر أن يقدم معالج Ascend 920 أداءً هائلًا يصل إلى 900 تيرافلوب من نوع BF16 (على الأرجح)، إلى جانب عرض نطاق ترددي للذاكرة يبلغ 4000 جيجابايت/ثانية، بفضل استخدام ذاكرة HBM3 عالية الأداء.ويُتوقع أن يُستخدم هذا المعالج كبديل مباشر لشريحة Nvidia H20، التي كانت مُخصصة للسوق الصيني قبل أن يتم حظرها.إلى جانب ذلك، يمثل إطلاق Ascend 920 بداية لتوسّع استخدام تقنية SMIC بدقة 6 نانومتر في منتجات هواوي الأخرى، مثل رقائق Kirin المخصصة للهواتف الذكية. ورغم أن الشائعات السابقة عن شريحة Kirin 9100 لم تتحقق، إلا أن التوقعات تشير إلى احتمال طرحها في وقت لاحق من هذا العام.وفي المقابل، ما زالت SMIC تعمل على تطوير عقدة تصنيع جديدة بدقة 5 نانومتر، لكن التقدم فيها يسير ببطء نتيجة غياب تقنيات الطباعة بالأشعة فوق البنفسجية (EUV)، التي لا يمكن للشركات الصينية الوصول إليها حاليًا بسبب القيود التقنية والتجارية.المصدر

In the ever-expansive world of Grand Theft Auto Online, players need money to do a lot of stuff, such as buying properties and vehicles, and customizing their favorite vehicles. When the game was launched, there were not a whole lot of ways to earn money. However, Rockstar Games has been continuously expanding the ways through which players can earn millions of dollars in their bank accounts. These include heists, contact missions, and running different businesses.

If you have a Samsung Galaxy phone, then you also have access to the Good Lock app from the Galaxy Store or the Play Store. This free app provides a host of extra ways to tweak and customize your handset, above and beyond what you get in One UI, and it covers everything from 3D wallpapers to advanced camera settings.There's a lot to explore in Good Lock, and you can pick and choose from its various modules (mini-apps) as needed. Samsung recently shared the three modules that have been most popular with users since Good Lock first launched back in April 2016, and they're good starting points for anyone new to the app or wanting to explore it further.When you open up Good Lock on your Galaxy phone, you'll see all the various modules listed under the Plugins tab—tap any of the filters at the top of the list to narrow down your search. When you've found something you want to use, tap the download button (the downward arrow) next to it on the right.Sound Assistant Tweaking the volume slider in Sound Assistant. Credit: Lifehacker Sound Assistant gives you access to a host of different tweaks for the sound settings on your device. For example, you can change how the volume slider looks, change how much the volume increases and decreases by every time you press either of the volume buttons, set specific volume levels for specific apps, and have alerts (for notifications and alarms) only sound through headphones rather than the phone speaker.Tap the top Customize volume panel option inside Sound Assistant to do just that. You're able to change the layout, lighting effects, and colors used in the panel as you see fit. If you then go back to the previous screen, you can drag across the Change step volume slider to set volume increments to anything from 1 to 10.The ability to set different volume levels for individual apps means that you can, say, keep your white noise app to a murmur while your podcast app is at full volume. Tap Individual app volumes to get started, then the + (plus) button to add an app. You then get a 0-100 percent slider for each of the apps you've selected.Theme Park Theme Park lets you play around with icon shapes and colors. Credit: Lifehacker The Theme Park module enables you to let loose when it comes to customizing the visual interface of your phone. You can edit the colors of your keyboard, the Quick Settings pane, and the volume panel, as well as change the shape and color of icons, and set up a gallery of wallpapers. You can switch between different theme options with a tap.Choose Create New and follow the instructions on screen to pick out an image to use for your phone wallpaper, which you can crop as needed. You then get suggestions for color schemes based on the wallpaper you've picked, which you can override. To save your new theme, tap the downward arrow (top right) and give it a name.The other tabs inside the module work in a similar way. It can take a little while to get a grip on everything in Theme Park, but most of it works intuitively, and if you invest some time and effort into your theme building, you can create something that looks quite different from the default One UI interface.One Hand Operation+ Setting up options in One Hand Operation+. Credit: Lifehacker The third module showcased by Samsung is One Hand Operation+. As the name suggest, this enables you to control more actions on your phone with a single thumb, whether you're right or left-handed, so it's easier to operate One UI and your apps if you only have one hand free.Once you've switched on the module, you get two "handles" at either side of the screen you can configure. You're able to assign different gestures to different actions via these handles. So a quick swipe in from the right, for example, will take you back to the home screen. You can have just one handle on either the left or the right, or use both of them.You can also change the size and touch sensitivity of the handles to make sure they work well for you, and there are additional settings to exempt specific apps from using the handles, and to disable the one-handed interface when certain conditions are met (such as you're watching a movie in landscape mode).Other modules You can tweak the lock screen clock and widgets with LockStar. Credit: Lifehacker Those are the three Good Lock modules that have proved popular with users down the years, but there are plenty of other ones to try. One I particularly like is LockStar, which gives you additional options for customizing how the lock screen looks: You can change the lock screen layout, switch between clock styles, and more.Home Up is also well worth a look. It lets you build a freeform home screen layout with the widgets and app icons of your choosing, and you can add stickers, tweak the gesture controls for navigating around, and even adjust animation speeds and smoothness. You also get more control over the share panel and the recent apps view in One UI.If you make a lot of use of the Camera app on your Galaxy phone, give Camera Assistant a look as well. The extra options it adds include zoom shortcuts, HDR handling, picture softening, switching between different camera lenses, and photo resolutions.

A VPN (virtual private network) can come in handy on a regular basis to keep you safe online, and you can save on one of our favorites right now. Our top pick for the best VPN, ProtonVPN, is on sale for just $86.16 for two years of access. That's a 64-percent discount, and it comes out to about $3.59 per month for the whole, two-year period. This deal gives you access to ProtonVPN Plus, which lets you connect up to 10 devices simultaneously — that should cover your smartphone, tablet, laptop, smart TV and anything else you'd want to protect with VPN coverage. Proton also has more than 8,600 servers to choose from across 110 countries, so you shouldn't have any problem finding one that best suits your preferences. ProtonVPN is our pick for the best VPN overall due to a blend of its security, usability and privacy. ProtonVPN has a no-logs policy. That means it doesn't keep any records of information that passes through its network. In other words, it doesn't track your internet activity while you're using it, helping to protect you and your anonymity. Other features of ProtonVPN Plus include ad-, malware- and tracker-blocking, as well as fast performance. In our testing, ProtonVPN had a minimal impact on connection speeds in our geoblock, streaming and gaming tests. ProtonVPN is also open source, meaning that anyone with enough knowhow can take a look under the hood and validate Proton's technical claims. Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/protonvpn-deal-get-64-percent-off-a-two-year-plan-152355358.html?src=rss

Here's everything you need to know about Outer Banks season 5.

Venice is charging day-trippers to the famed canal city an arrivals tax for the second year starting Friday, a measure aimed at combating the kind of overtourism that put the city’s UNESCO World Cultural Heritage status at risk. A UNESCO body decided against putting Venice on its list of cultural heritage sites deemed in danger after the tax was announced. But opponents of the day-tripper fee say it has done nothing to discourage tourists from visiting Venice even on high-traffic days. Here’s a look at Venice’s battle with overtourism by the numbers: 5–10 euros (about $6–$11) The fee charged to visitors who are not overnighting in Venice to enter its historic center during the second year of the day-tripper tax. Visitors who download a QR code at least three days in advance will pay 5 euros ($5.69)—the same amount charged last year throughout the pilot program. But those who make last-minute plans pay double. The QR code is required from 8:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. and is checked at entry points to the city, including the Santa Lucia train station, the Piazzale Roma bus depot and the Tronchetto parking garage. 54 The number of days this year that day visitors to Venice will be charged a fee to enter the historic center. They include mostly weekends and holidays from April 18 to July 27. That is up from 29 last year. The new calendar covers entire weeks over key holidays and extends the weekend period to include Fridays. 2.4 million euros That is the amount Venice took in during a 2024 pilot program for the tax. The city’s top budget official, Michele Zuin, said last year the running costs for the new system ran to 2.7 million euros, overshooting the total fees collected. This year, Zuin projects a surplus of about 1 million euros to 1.5 million euros, which will be used to offset the cost of trash collection and other services for residents. 450,000 The number of day-trippers who paid the tax in 2024. Officials say 8,000 day-trippers paid in advance to enter the city on Friday, among the 77,000 who have already registered so far to enter the city this year. Another 117,000 have registered for exemptions, which apply to anyone born in Venice, those paying property taxes in the city, studying or working in the historic center, or living in the wider Veneto region, among others. 75,000 The average number of daily visitors on the first 11 days of 2024 that Venice charged day-trippers. That’s about 10,000 people more than the number of tourists recorded on each of the three important holidays during the previous year. City council member Giovanni Andrea Martini, an opponent of the measure, said the figures show the project has not deterred visitors. 48,283 The number of official residents in Venice’s historic center composed of over 100 islands connected by footbridges and traversed by its famed canals. The population peaked at 174,000 in 1951, when Venice was home to thriving industries. The number shrank during Italy’s postwar economic boom as residents moved to the mainland for more modern housing—including indoor plumbing, which was lacking in Venice. It has been shrinking dramatically over recent decades as local industry lost traction, families sought mainland conveniences, and housing prices rose. Activists also blame the “mono-culture” of tourism, which they say has emptied the city of basic services like shops for everyday goods and medical care. 51,129 The number of beds for tourists in Venice’s historic center, including 12,627 in the less regulated short-term rental market, according to April data from the Ocio housing activist group. The number of tourist beds surpassed the number of permanent residents in 2023, according to Ocio’s monitor. Anyone staying in a hotel within the city limits, including on the mainland districts of Mestre and Marghera, pays a lodging tax and is therefore exempt from the day-tripper tax. 25 to 30 million The number of annual arrivals of both day-trippers and overnight guests roughly confirmed by cellphone data tracked from a Smart Control Room since 2020, according to city officials. —Colleen Barry, Associated Press

The pitfalls of designing with AI.

Macworld You’ve seen the viral rotisserie chicken. The giant snack jars. The modular greenhouse with thousands of likes. Deals at Costco become internet-famous nearly every day.Right now, when you purchase a 1-Year Costco Gold Star Membership online, you’ll receive a $20 Digital Costco Shop Card* after redemption. That means you can scroll, shop, and save while accessing the Kirkland Signature™ items and brand-name finds that keep showing up in your feed. Whether it’s the 680-thread-count Kirkland Signature™ Sheet Set or that air fryer everyone’s talking about, shopping viral Costco finds is more fun than watching someone else do it. What’s the deal with Gold Star? 1-Year Costco Gold Star Membership for $65 $20 Digital Costco Shop Card* sent by email after redemption Free Household Card for another adult in your household Access to 500+ Costco warehouses across the U.S. Shop online at Costco.com, plan trips with Costco Travel, and explore Costco Services* To qualify for the $20 Digital Costco Shop Card, purchase and redeem your membership online by June 30, 2025, and provide a valid email address at checkout. This promotion is for new or former members whose memberships have expired for 18 months or more. Get the Costco 1-Year Gold Star Membership + $20 Digital Costco Shop Card for $65 now. *Services are provided to Costco members by third parties.**Insurance products are not underwritten or guaranteed by Costco. Costco 1-Year Gold Star Membership + $20 Digital Costco Shop CardSee Deal StackSocial prices subject to change.