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ASUS ZenFone 3, ZenFone 3 Deluxe details, images leaked by design website

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If you’re a fan of ASUS’ budget ZenFone smartphone series, 2016 hasn’t been too kind to you so far. Two major tech conferences have passed, and yet the Internet still hasn’t gotten a solid clue as to what the ZenFone 3 might look like.

The situation is particularly worrisome because it’s already April, and the next-generation ZenFone has been tipped for a launch event at Computex 2016 in June.

Will it have two rear cameras like the LG G5? A curved screen like the Samsung Galaxy S7? A smaller screen to match the trajectory of Apple’s recent product announcements? Or will ASUS surprise the bejeezus out of the industry by unveiling a flip phone, or today’s equivalent of a joke goldmine?

At this point, you might be asking yourself: “When will someone throw a bone to us fans who have been waiting for that bloody phone to show up?”

Wish granted. Meet a couple of leaked — albeit convincing — images of ASUS’ upcoming ZenFone 3 and ZenFone 3 Deluxe. And we’re not using the term “convincing” loosely here. Let us count the ways.

ASUS ZenFone 3 Deluxe leak

ASUS ZenFone 3 Deluxe leaked image

For starters, the images come from Red Dot 21’s design directory. If the name rings a bell, it should, especially in the context of ASUS phones: In 2014, the original ZenFone series bagged the Red Dot design award for mobile devices; the year after that, ASUS won a bunch of other awards for products, including, but not limited to, tablets and notebooks.

So, yes, the connection between Red Dot and the Taiwanese manufacturers is, if nothing else, strong.

A paragraph to describe the ZenFone 3 also appears on the Red Dot website. It reads:

ASUS Zenfone 3 Series is a mainstream smartphone that displays the beauty of craftsmanship and engineering. With 2.5D glass on both front and back sides, we intend to bring the meticulous glass artistry used in watches to smartphone. Beneath those glass lays a thin layer of decoration film with metallic spin texture, portraying the ASUS identity in a new form. A curved aluminum frame offers a robust architecture and a comfortable grip. Zenfone 3 consist of type C USB for speedy charging and file transfer, front flash for selfie in low light situation, laser focus for instant snapshot and finger print recognition for spontaneous ID check.

Going by that description, it sounds like the next ZenFone will have a curved-edge glass on both panels held together by a metal frame, a USB-Type C port with fast-charging capability, front-facing flash, laser autofocus, and a now-ubiquitous fingerprint sensor. It will also support some sort of smart flip cover that lights up to indicate different things.

Meanwhile, the description for the all-metal ZenFone 3 Deluxe reveals far less details.

Metal is the best material to enhance and present the craftsmanship of creating the best smartphone. However, it is also the obstacle to the antenna signal. As the result, the designers and engineers always challenge each other to balance the aesthetic of smartphone appearance design and the possibility of the engineering. Look back to every metallic smartphone, without exception, has some “necessary aesthetic flaws”for antenna on the back. These flaws could be the plastic lines, decorations, etc. By absolutely breaking down the principles of radio transmission, combining the design creative thinking and overcoming the limitation of manufacturing, ASUS Zenfone 3 Deluxe no longer needs to compromise and presents the first full-metallic smartphone in the world.

And then there’s the alleged design of the ZenFone 3: It looks a bit like the outcome of ZenFone Zoom and ZenBook engineers reaching a compromise after months of trying to brainstorm for a smartphone. We’ll let you guys handle the front and sides of the phone — but only if you let us do what we want with the back.

That ASUS would rather take a lot of inspiration from previous ASUS products than go back to the drawing board in an effort to get people excited about the ZenFone 3 seems likely. ASUS isn’t the most adventurous when it comes to designing handsets, after all. And if you need proof, look no further than past ZenFone models.

As always, we’ll keep our eyes and ears open for more details about the ZenFone 3 as they come. For now, feel free to speculate wildly over the authenticity of the images and information from Red Dot’s website.

[irp posts=”3880″ name=”ASUS ZenFone 3 review”]

Source: Red Dot 21, Android Police

Computers

AMD expands Ryzen AI Embedded P100 series lineup

Scalable, efficient AI compute for industrial, edge solutions

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AMD has recently announced the expansion of its AMD Ryzen AI Embedded P100 Series processor lineup.

This enables scalable and power-efficient AI compute tailor-built for industrial and AI edge systems. Scenarios include factory automation, physical AI in mobile robotics, and other AI-driven edge applications.

With eight to 12 high-performance Zen 5 cores, AMD ROCm support, and up to 80 total system TOPS, the new x86 embedded APUs deliver up to:

  • 2x more CPU core counts
  • 8x higher GPU compute
  • 36% higher system TOPS

This way, developers and system designers get an expanded and scalable portfolio of power-efficient edge computing solutions. These processors support real-time AI from vision to control and reasoning, as well as offer advanced graphics capabilities.

On a single chip, clients get up to 80 TOPS physical AI acceleration, AMD RDNA 3.5 graphics for real-time visualization, and an NPU based on the AMD XDNA 2 architecture.

Moreover, the processors can withstand industrial temperature ranges (-40° C to 105° C) and can support continuous 24/7 operations for up to 10-year life cycles. That’s along with low-latency and power-efficient AI inference.

Real-life applications include intelligent factories, autonomous robots, and medical imaging devices. For instance, the processors can deliver CPU performance required for real-time inspection and process optimization.

For mobile robots, meanwhile, processors can manage navigation, motion, control, and route planning while the GPU processes multi-camera feeds for spatial awareness.

Furthermore, for 3D health imaging, the processors can enable the powering of 3D imaging for ultrasounds, endoscopes, tissue classification, and tumor detection at the edge. This is done with models like U-Net, nnU-Net, and MONAI.

The processors then accelerate image-to-report workflows with MedSigLIP and support clinical reasoning and Q&A with Med-PaLM 2.

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Gaming

Valve is embroiled in a lawsuit with New York over loot boxes

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Valve has been embroiled in an odd war as of late. A few weeks ago, the New York Attorney General filed a lawsuit against the gaming company for allegedly encouraging children to gamble through loot boxes primarily found in Counter-Strike 2. Today, Valve is fighting back by declaring how little its loot boxes have to do with gambling.

For years, governments have had a problem with loot boxes. To them, the mechanic makes it too easy for gamers to fall into a gambling addiction. In essence, loot boxes are earnable packs that contain a single or a number of random items that the player can use for their game. Most of the time, these items are purely cosmetic and don’t give a gameplay advantage.

Like Blizzard before it, Valve is also defending its loot boxes as non-essential to how players engage with their games. “There is no disadvantage to a player not spending money,” their statement reads.

Additionally, Valve says that their loot boxes are no different from Pokémon cards and Labubu blind boxes. As such, the company is also defending their users’ right to transfer obtained items to other users, as with two players trading cards or Pop Mart figurines.

Now, these items have monetary value in the market. In the same way, a rare Counter-Strike 2 skin can fetch thousands of dollars. However, Valve says that they are already proactive in shutting down accounts made only to gamble and avoiding pro-gambling businesses.

Valve is capping off its statement by saying that the NYAG is forcing the company to collect more information from its users, especially those using VPNs to prevent being located in New York. The company says that it will continue to protect user data, despite the demand.

SEE ALSO: Valve is delaying the launch of the Steam Machine

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Gaming

Microsoft is launching Xbox Mode to Windows 11 PCs

It collects all your games in one place.

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What is an Xbox? For the past year and a half, Microsoft will tell you that anything can be an Xbox. Now, with Project Helix on the horizon, Xbox wants to bring the idea of playing anywhere to the next level. Microsoft will start rolling out its new Xbox Mode to PCs in April.

Since the very first device out in the market, handheld consoles have changed how people play games. Naturally, a lot can already be said about the portability and the convenience of its hardware. But the software needs a special shoutout, too.

Though they are essentially PCs at heart, these consoles are built explicitly for gaming. Fiddling around with Windows isn’t ideal. Instead, they have special software that can collate all of a user’s games into one hub.

The new Xbox Mode, adapted from the ROG Xbox Ally X’s Xbox Full Screen Experience, will do just that but on an actual PC. As announced via an official blog post, Xbox will release the new mode to Windows 11 devices in April, starting with select markets. Like the software used in handheld consoles, Xbox Mode should include all the available games from the Game Pass, Steam, and the Epic Games Store.

Right now, the feature will likely go up against Steam’s Big Picture Mode, which does the same thing but only for Steam titles. However, it should also transition neatly to Project Helix. Xbox is now ramping up the development of its next-generation console codenamed Project Helix. The upcoming machine will be a high-end PC and a gaming console rolled into one, making it perfect for Xbox Mode.

SEE ALSO: Project Helix is Xbox’s next console, and it plays PC games

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