Parler has reportedly cut ‘majority’ of staff in recent weeks

Parler parent company Parlement Technologies has cut the “majority” of its staff in recent weeks, according to a new report. The Verge reports that the company has slashed close to 75 percent of staff, including several executives, in recent weeks with…

Samsung’s first Unpacked event of 2023 takes place February 1st

The rumors were true, apparently. Samsung has announced that its first Galaxy Unpacked event of 2023 will take place February 1st at 1PM Eastern. And unlike last year’s events, the company is comfortable with an in-person presentation — it’s inviting …

Apple will reportedly use in-house wireless chips in iPhones by 2025

Apple’s long-rumored plans to use its own wireless chipsets in iPhones may be solidifying. Bloombergsources claim Apple is not only prepping its first cellular modem (now slated for late 2024 or early 2025), but is working on a combination Bluetooth and WiFi chip to replace the Broadcom chip that handles those duties. That part would arrive in 2025, according to the tipsters.

The company is also said to be working on a follow-up that would combine the Bluetooth, cellular and WiFi functionality in a single design. A move like this could both simplify production and save space in the iPhone’s tightly packed chassis.

Apple and Qualcomm have already declined to comment. We’ve asked Broadcom for comment. Qualcomm said in November that it would supply the clear majority of iPhone cellular modems for 2023 models, but that it expected a “minimal contribution” from Apple hardware in its fiscal 2025. Broadcom chief Hock Tan, meanwhile, said in December that he believed Apple would continue to use his firm’s components.

While the exact reasoning for the transition wasn’t mentioned, it’s no secret that Apple started designing its own silicon to have more control over its products and reduce dependence on companies that might not always be on friendly terms. The tech behemoth notably got into a bitter royalty dispute with Qualcomm that led to a costly settlement, and Broadcom is known to strike hard bargains. Apple-made parts wouldn’t completely avoid problems like these, but they could reduce the chances of third parties effectively holding Apple captive.

There’s still no guarantee things will go according to plan, provided the rumor is accurate. Earlier scoops suggested Apple could switch to its own cellular chips as soon as 2023, and analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims Apple cancelled a fourth-gen iPhone SE that would use the company’s first internally-designed modem in 2024. If there are development troubles, Apple may have to lean on Broadcom and Qualcomm for a while yet.

DJI’s lightweight RS 3 Mini camera stabilizer is designed to be used with one hand

Where DJI’s RS 3 and RS 3 Pro stabilizers were about maximum convenience and power, the company’s latest is designed to reduce as much weight as possible. The new RS 3 Mini weighs in at just 1.8 pounds, but can carry cameras up to 4.4 pounds, which inc…

微軟新春優惠 2023，折上折入手 Surface Laptop 4 連 Xbox 遊戲主機

Microsoft 網店上正在推出喜迎 2023 年到來的優惠，讓大家以新筆電迎接新一年的挑戰。除了購買特定 Surface 筆電時享減價優惠以及贈送配件以外，在結帳時輸入「HAPPY2023」更可獲得折上折優惠，在購滿 HK$500 減 HK$40、滿 HK$5,000 減 HK$400 或滿 HK$10,000 減 HK$1,000 的優惠。…

Microsoft’s VALL-E AI can mimic any voice from a short audio sample

Microsoft has shown off its latest research in text-to-speech AI with a model called VALL-E that can simulate someone’s voice from just a three-second audio sample, Ars Technica has reported. The speech can not only match the timbre but also the emotional tone of the speaker, and even the acoustics of a room. It could one day be used for customized or high-end text-to-speech applications, though like deepfakes, it carries risks of misuse. 

VALL-E is what Microsoft calls a “neural codec language model.” It’s derived from Meta’s AI-powered compression neural net Encodec, generating audio from text input and short samples from the target speaker.

In a paper, researchers describe how they trained VALL-E on 60,000 hours of English language speech from 7,000-plus speakers on Meta’s LibriLight audio library. The voice it attempts to mimic must be a close match to a voice in the training data. If that’s the case, it uses the training data to infer what the target speaker would sound like if speaking the desired text input.

Microsoft's VALL-E AI can simulate any person's voice from a short audio sample
Microsoft

The team shows exactly how well this works on the VALL-E Github page. For each phrase they want the AI to “speak,” they have a three-second prompt from the speaker to imitate, a “ground truth” of the same speaker saying another phrase for comparison, a “baseline” conventional text-to-speech synthesis and the VALL-E sample at the end. 

The results are mixed, with some sounding machine-like and others being surprisingly realistic. The fact that it retains the emotional tone of the original samples is what sells the ones that work. It also faithfully matches the acoustic environment, so if the speaker recorded their voice in an echo-y hall, the VALL-E output also sounds like it came from the same place. 

To improve the model, Microsoft plans to scale up its training data “to improve the model performance across prosody, speaking style, and speaker similarity perspectives.” It’s also exploring ways to reduce words that are unclear or missed.

Microsoft elected to not make the code open source, possibly due to the risks inherent with AI that can put words in someone’s mouth. It added that it would follow its “Microsoft AI Principals” on any further development. “Since VALL-E could synthesize speech that maintains speaker identity, it may carry potential risks in misuse of the model, such as spoofing voice identification or impersonating,” the company wrote in the “Broader impacts” section of its conclusion.

Apple’s iPad mini is back on sale for an all-time low of $400

Here’s a quick PSA for anyone who has been looking to pick up Apple’s iPad mini: The 64GB version of the diminutive tablet is back on sale for $400 at Amazon and Best Buy, matching the lowest price we’ve tracked. Though we’ve seen the 8.3-inch slate hi…