News

Xperia 5 II goes official with Zeiss cameras, Snapdragon 865

The perfect phone?

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Sony’s Xperia 5 lineup focuses on delivering a compact phone that houses state-of-the-art specifications. The brand has launched the Xperia 5 II (Xperia 5 Mark 2) today and it aims to deliver the best gaming, cinematography, and entertainment experience on the go.

The design is similar to the Xperia 1 II and it’s clearly visible the two phones belong to the same generation. Xperia lineup has always maintained a distinctive design language that subtle and screams premium. Now that Sony is chasing a niche market like LG, it has more room for fresh ideas. Both, the front as well as the back, is protected by Gorilla Glass 6.

On the front is a 6.1-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display and Sony has incorporated a lot of proprietary technology like Bravia HDR and creator mode. In-line with other Android phone makers, it also gets a 120Hz refresh rate.

Powering the phone is a Snapdragon 865 processor and it’s sure to be blazing fast. To make things more interesting, Sony has collaborated with Qualcomm via with Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite Gaming. Sony is also the official smartphone sponsor of Call of Duty: Mobile World Championship Tournament 2020.

The most exciting part of the phone is it’s triple-rear camera setup. The three are 12-megapixel sensors with focal lengths — 16mm, 24mm, and 70mm. In simpler terms, it has a primary camera, a telephoto lens, and a wide-angle lens. The three are Zeiss optics and leverage many features like real-time Eye AF, continuous autofocus, and 20fps shooting from Alpha brand of professional cameras.

It’s the world’s first phone to support 4K HDR 120fps slow-mo recording and 5x slo-mo at 24fps. On the software front, the phone Xperia 5 II features Photography Pro for manual controls.

Sony is a trusted brand for audio products and it has squeezed some interesting features including a 3.5mm headphone jack, stereo speakers, Dolby Atmos support, and enhanced wireless audio Backing these internals is a 4000mAh battery that charges 50 percent in just 30 minutes.

The Xperia 5 II will be available as an unlocked phone in the US for US$ 950 and pre-orders start from September 29.

Entertainment

KPop Demon Hunters is officially getting a sequel

Maggie Kang and Chris Applehans will return to write and direct.

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This feels like a formality at this point. Netflix and Sony have officially confirmed that KPop Demon Hunters is getting a sequel.

If you feel like you’ve read this exact title before, then you’re not alone. Since its massive success last year, the hit animated film constantly spawned talks of a potential franchise. It probably helped that the title quickly became Netflix’s most-watched film of all time. From the last we’ve heard of the rumors, Netflix was reportedly eyeing a 2029 premiere for the sequel.

Now, it’s official. As posted by Netflix itself, KPop Demon Hunters will get a sequel soon. Even better, the follow-up will be written and directed by the same duo, Maggie Kang and Chris Applehans.

Kang, who celebrated the first movie’s ability to tell a Korean story, says that there’s a lot more to explore in the film’s universe. “There’s so much more to this world we have built and I’m excited to show you. This is only the beginning,” she said.

Right now, the plot’s sequel is still unknown, especially since the Saja Boys were defeated in the first film.

Given how big the original movie got, the sequel is no surprise. Besides bagging the top spot on Netflix’s charts, the film also got an eventual release in theaters. KPop Demon Hunters is up for a potential Oscars win after it was nominated for Best Animated Feature. Its hit song, “Golden,” is also nominated for Best Original Song.

SEE ALSO: KPop Demon Hunters is now Netflix’s most-watched movie

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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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