Peugeot previews its futuristic Inception concept EV at CES 2023

Peugeot has presented its vision for the future of electric cars at CES 2023, where it previewed its latest concept sedan called the “Inception.” The car is all angles and sharp lines with panoramic glass windows that go all around its middle, paired with a glass roof. Peugeot says its body shade is made of very fine metal pigments, while the lights on the front bumper incorporate the brand’s three emblematic claws.

Inception — named after the Latin word “Inceptio,” which means the beginning — was built on one of Stellantis’ four future BEV-by-design platforms, specifically the one for low sedans. It uses an 800-volt, 100kWh battery technology that gives it the capability to travel 800 km or 497 miles on a single charge and can suck enough juice to travel 150 km (93 miles) within five minutes of being plugged in. The four-wheel drive vehicle can also be recharged by induction, eliminating the need for cables. When it comes to power, Inception’s two electric motors can generate 680 horsepower combined and give it the ability to accelerate from 0 to 100kmh in less than 3 seconds. 

The concept also marks the debut of the brand’s next-gen cockpit. It replaces the classic steering wheel with a rectangular one called the “Hypersquare,” which comes with a tablet-type screen at the center that displays information. There’s a circular recess at each corner of the screen that users can program to control certain aspects of their vehicle, so they can easily use their thumbs to access them without having to take their hands off the wheel. 

Peugeot says the Inception will inspire its future electric vehicles, including its most compact models. The first cars based on the design will arrive as soon as 2025. 

Peugeot
Engadget
Peugeot
Engadget

Apple’s new audiobook narration service uses AI voices

When you browse Apple Books for your next audiobook, you might come across a few titles with a note that says they were “Narrated by Apple Books.” That’s because the tech giant has released a catalogue of titles that make use of its new AI-powered digital narration service. The company said the service uses the advanced speech synthesis technology it developed “to produce high-quality audiobooks from an ebook file.” 

According to The Guardian, Apple approached independent publishers who may be interested in teaming up for the project’s launch in recent months. Authors were reportedly told that the company behind the technology would shoulder the costs of turning their books into audiobooks and that they would be earning royalties. Apple, as secretive as ever, apparently remained unnamed at that point of the process and required partners to sign non-disclosure agreements. 

In its announcement, Apple touched on how commissioning voice actors and producing audiobooks could cost writers and publishers thousands of dollars. For independent authors, especially those just starting out, it’s not always possible to spare that much money. But thing is, the audiobook market has grown tremendously in recent years — it earned $1.6 billion in sales in 2021, and experts reportedly believe the market could be worth over $35 billion by 2030. Authors wouldn’t only be missing out on potential income by not creating audiobook versions of their titles, but also the opportunity to build their brand and following while the market is still growing. 

The tech giant said its digital narration technology will make audiobook creation more accessible. There is truth in that, and if the project turns out to be successful, it could change the future of audiobooks. Books narrated by a digital voice aren’t exactly new, though, and they’re typically hard to listen to due to how robotic they sound. David Caron, a co-producer at a large audiobook publisher in Canada, also raised an important point in his statement to The Guardian: “The narrator brings a whole new range of art in creating audiobook… They’re creating something that is different from the print book, but that adds value as an art form.”

At the moment, Apple offers authors two digital voices to choose from: One soprano and one baritone. They sound pretty human, based on the samples the company shared, but the sound clips were short and might not be a genuine representation of the whole audiobook’s quality. Apple is only accepting books in the romance and a limited number of other fiction genres for now. The books must already be available on Apple Books, must be in English and must pass and editorial review. It’s working to expand AI narration’s availability, however, and will soon offer it to nonfiction and self-development authors. The company will also launch two more digital voices for those genres. For now, you can listen to audiobooks that use Apple’s AI by searching for “AI narration” in Apple Books.

Watch Samsung’s keynote at CES 2023 in 6 minutes

Samsung introduced new QD-OLED TVs and a 57-inch 8K gaming display, the 2023 Freestyle projector and new Bespoke smart appliances at this year’s CES. During the company’s keynote, it also talked about its products’ new features and upgrades in detail, including a new wash cycle for washing machines that can reduce microplastic pollution. 

Presenters talked about SmartThings Workspace, which lets you connect to linked devices remotely, and SmartThings Pet Care, as well. Samsung’s pet service can send you alerts when your dogs bark and put on a show or video on a connected display to keep them entertained. Plus, it enables the camera on the brand’s robot vacuum to recognize dogs and cats. 

In addition, Samsung introduced the latest SmartThings hub, which is its smallest yet. The SmartThings Station, as it’s called, has a button that you can use to program smart lights, air conditioner or other home devices like smart blinds. It’s the first Samsung product to come with built-in Matter support, giving it the capability to connect with Matter-enabled devices from other manufacturers.

Any content played on the latest Samsung smart TVs can now sync with Philips Hue Lights for immersive lighting effects. The company also talked about the Knox Matrix, its security solution that acts as your private blockchain system for its smart home devices. Finally, Samsung presented the in-cabin car technology it developed in partnership with Harmon, as well as a new display technology called Relumino mode that can help people with low vision to see images more clearly. 

You can watch a condensed version of the event to get the gist of Samsung’s announcements in the video above.

Microsoft is reportedly integrating ChatGPT’s technology into Bing

Microsoft’s Bing search engine might soon become more attuned to users’ needs and return results in a more human-like fashion. According to The Information, the tech giant is planning to incorporate the OpenAI software powering ChatGPT into Bing in hop…

Google brings spatial audio to Pixel 7 and Pixel 6 phones

Google has been working on giving its Pixel phone users access to spatial audio since at least September last year. Now, the tech giant is finally rolling out the feature with the rest of the January 2023 security updates for its flagship devices. In the list of changes arriving with the package, Google included spatial audio support for all Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro, Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro devices running Android 13. 

Spatial audio simulates an environment that makes users feel as if sounds are coming at them from different directions, sort of like the surround sound effect in movie theaters. As Android Police notes, it mostly became popular in mobile after Apple brought the feature to the AirPods Pro. Google started introducing code for it with the Android 13 beta released in September 2022 but disabled it upon that beta’s stable release. Now, the feature has officially been enabled. 

According to 9to5Google, the company previously said that users can take advantage of spatial audio on the “Pixel phone with movies from Netflix, YouTube, Google TV, and HBOMax that have 5.1 or higher audio tracks.” Users, however, “must wear headphones or earbuds” to be able to enjoy the immersive experience. 

In addition to activating the feature on Pixel devices, Google is also working on bringing head tracked spatial audio to the Pixel Buds Pro that will provide users with another layer of immersion, so long as the earbuds are connected to any of the aforementioned Pixel phones. The company says it will release another update for the earbuds that will enable head tracking in the coming weeks.

OnePlus 11 5G and Buds Pro 2 will be available in China on January 9th

OnePlus has officially launched its new flagship phone and earbuds in China, more than a month before their global debut. The OnePlus 11 5G and OnePlus Buds Pro 2 will be available in the company’s home country starting on January 9th before their worldwide release on February 7th. OnePlus had already revealed most of the new phone’s features back in December, and its most notable offerings include the Alert Slider, which was absent from the OnePlus 10T. True to its name, the slider makes it easy to shift from alert mode to silent or vibrate and vice versa. 

The OnePlus 11 5G is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset that promises AI, camera and 5G speed upgrades and comes with support for ray tracing. In addition, it uses Oppo’s SuperVOOC charging technology to be able to quickly charge its 5000 mAh dual-cell battery, has 16GB of RAM and has a 6.7-inch 2K AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. It has three camera sensors, with the main one being a 50-megapixel lens, and it marks the return of Hasselblad camera tuning on the brand’s phones. 

As for the OnePlus Buds Pro 2, they feature MelodyBoost Dual Drivers, which is what the company calls the “technology derived from premium speakers” that it had developed with Danish loudspeaker manufacturer Dynaudio. They also come with one default equalizer (EQ) and three customized EQs. OnePlus says it will reveal more information about the earbuds during its February 7th event in New Delhi, India. 

We asked the company for information regarding pricing in China and will update this post when we hear back.

Louisiana residents will now need a government ID to access porn online

We’re now in the first week of 2023, and that means different things for different people, such as taking another stab at a New Year’s resolution that’s been on the list forever or getting started on a plan to reach a goal before the year ends. For Louisiana residents, it also means having to verify their ages if they want to access porn online. 

A new state law (PDF, courtesy of Motherboard) went into effect on January 1st, requiring websites containing “a substantial portion” of “material harmful to minors” to ask users to prove that they’re 18 or older. “Substantial portion,” according to the new law, is more than 33.3 percent of a website’s content. As Gizmodo notes, Pornhub, Youporn and Redtube have already started asking visitors to verify their age.

Websites that host content that can be considered porn have to implement “reasonable age verification methods,” including asking users to present a government-issued ID or a digitized form of it. Pornhub, Youporn and Redtube had chosen to ask visitors to prove their age by using their LA Wallet app, which is the state’s digital wallet app for drivers licenses. A video posted on Twitter shows how Pornhub uses the app to check for a user’s age. 

In the document detailing the law, its authors said: “Due to advances in technology, the universal availability of the internet, and limited age verification requirements, minors are exposed to pornography earlier in age. Pornography contributes to the hyper sexualization of teens and prepubescent children and may lead to low self-esteem, body image disorders, an increase in problematic sexual activity at younger ages, and increased desire among adolescents to engage in risky sexual behavior. Pornography may also impact brain development and functioning, contribute to emotional and medical illnesses, shape deviant sexual arousal, and lead to difficulty in forming or maintaining positive, intimate relationships, as well as promoting problematic or harmful sexual behaviors and addiction.”

Speaking to TechCrunch, Olivia Snow, sex worker and research fellow at UCLA’s Center for Critical Internet Inquiry, described the need for verification to access porn as “surveillance.” She also said that it can harm LGBTQ populations in extreme cases: “As homophobia and transphobia — especially homophobia in the context of porn — is rising, I could totally see the state zeroing in on people consuming gay porn, or lesbian porn, and either surveilling them further or criminalizing that.” Critics are also raising security and privacy concerns about having to present IDs to access porn online even if Pornhub promises that one’s “proof of age does not allow anyone to trace [their] online activity.”

Watch SpaceX’s first launch of the year take 114 satellites into orbit

SpaceX is gearing up to launch the Transporter-6 mission today, January 3rd, and is hoping that the Falcon 9 rocket taking it to space will begin making its way to low-Earth orbit by 9:56 AM ET. The Transporter-6 mission will take off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral in Florida using a first stage booster responsible for taking over a dozen other previous missions to orbit, including 10 Starlink launches. It’s the company’s first launch of the year and the latest in SpaceX’s series of dedicated rideshare Transporter missions.

Transporter-6 will take 114 payload to space. As NASA Spaceflight notes, those include tiny picosatellites only a few centimeters in size to microsatellites that weight around 200 pounds for both scientific institutions and commercial entities. One customer is EOS Data Analytics, which will launch the first satellite for its agriculture-focused constellation on this mission. A couple of companies is also launching space tugs, or spacecraft that can transfer cargo from one orbit to another, that will deploy payload for customers of their own at a later date. 

SpaceX will livestream the Transporter-6 launch on YouTube, with coverage starting 10 minutes before liftoff is expected to happen. You can watch the live webcast below:

Arlo will stop supporting some of its older security cameras starting in April

Arlo’s older security cameras will lose access to future updates and some perks users have been enjoying these past years, now that the company has started implementing a new end-of-life policy for its products. As users reported on Reddit (via 9to5Google), the company has sent out emails to announce the new policy and the first products to be affected: the Generation 3 (VMC3030) and Pro (VMC4030) cameras, which were released in 2014 and 2016, respectively. The two models will lose access to the seven free days of cloud storage Arlo bundles with its cameras starting on April 1st, 2023. They’ll also be the first models to stop receiving firmware and security updates, as well as bug fixes. 

In its full announcement (PDF) for the policy, Arlo explained that it will pull its cameras four years after the last time they were mass produced. Following the first two models above, the next Arlo cameras to lose access to updates and features include the Arlo Baby (ABC1000), Pro 2 (VMC4030P), Q (VMC3040) and Q+ (VMC3040S). Their end-of-life date is on January 1st, 2024. The company will also stop supporting Arlo Lights (ALS1101) and Audio Doorbell (AAD1001) on the same date. 

To note, users don’t have to throw them out as soon as those dates arrive. They can continue using the cameras to access livestreamed videos, as well as video clips stored locally with compatible Arlo base stations. But they’ll have to pay for Arlo’s Secure subscription service to have access to cloud storage, and the cameras will likely lose features over time since they’ll no longer get firmware upgrades. 

In addition to putting an EOL date on its products, Arlo is also phasing out its email notifications and E911 emergency calling service on April 1st, as well as its Legacy Video Storage on AWS S3 on January 1st, 2024. The company said it will provide a 30-day advance notice for products that will be affected by the EOL rule, though, so people can decide whether to buy newer devices or to continue using their old ones.