News
DITO Telecom shares surge as Globe, PLDT earns PH President’s ire
Shares surge by up to 11%
Last July 27, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte delivered the penultimate State of the Nation address which contains the usual threats and tirades against companies and individuals. Two of those that received the president’s ire are Globe and PLDT — the Philippines’ biggest telco players. One of the unintended effects of the call-out, it seems, is a surge in interest for DITO Telecom — an up-and-coming telco that has a controversial background.
DITO Telecom had its shares surge last July 28. This comes a day after President Duterte threatened to close down its biggest rivals, PLDT and Globe. The company surged to 11% while its rivals fell 3%.
The surge is a clear indication that companies are wary of the chilling effects that a single threat from the government can do. This month, ABS-CBN — one of the biggest broadcasting networks in the country — shut down operations as Congress refused to renew its license to broadcast. Before its shutdown, President Duterte made pronouncements that their license won’t be renewed.
With Globe and PLDT earning the ire of the president, it doesn’t seem too far-fetched to think that the government may force its hand against these telcos. After all, it has demonstrated in the past that it has the resolve to make good of the president’s pronouncements. Congress may repeat its actions and investigate, or pass laws to the detriment of these two telcos.
Globe Telecom CEO Ernest Cu earlier responded to the Philippine President saying they understand the demand for better service and they are doing their part to deliver.
A telco with a controversial background
DITO Telecom getting a boost from the president’s threat is not surprising. Last 2018, the Philippine government chose the company as the third provisional player. Back then, the company was known as Mislatel Communications. Many critics pointed out that there was a conflict of interest with the selection of the telco. After all, the current owner of the telecom — Dennis Uy — is the biggest contributor to the president’s campaign trail last 2016.
Critics also pointed out the telco’s link to state-run China Telecom. Allegations of a possible security risk popped up since state-run Chinese companies are known for colluding with the Chinese government.
Still, DITO Telecom is setting its sights for a nationwide launch this 2021. With or without the president’s threat, it is up to PLDT and Globe to improve their services. After all, the telecom promises a more affordable price for high-speed Internet.
Computers
AMD expands Ryzen AI Embedded P100 series lineup
Scalable, efficient AI compute for industrial, edge solutions
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.
Gaming
Valve is embroiled in a lawsuit with New York over loot boxes
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.
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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