Hardware

Nvidia touts a slower chip for China to avoid US ban • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 8, 2022Posted in alibaba, China, chip, Government & Policy, Hardware, Huawei, nvidia, semiconductor, TSMCNo Comments

Two months after the U.S. choke off China’s access to two of Nvidia’s high-end microchips, the American semiconductor design giant unveiled a substitute with a reduced processing speed for its second-largest market. The Nvidia A800 graphic processing unit is “another alternative product to the Nvidia A100 GPU for customers in China,” a spokesperson for Nvidia said in a statement to ZebethMedia. “The A800 meets the U.S. government’s clear test for reduced export control and cannot be programmed to exceed it.” The new chip was first reported by Reuters on Monday. The A100 processor is known for powering supercomputers, artificial intelligence, and high-performing data centers for industries ranging from biotech and finance to manufacturing. Alibaba’s cloud computing business has been one of its customers. A100, along with Nvidia’s enterprise AI chip H100, were placed under a U.S. export control list to “address the risk that the covered products may be used in, or diverted to, a ‘military end use’ or ‘military end user’ in China and Russia.” Nvidia previously reported that the U.S. ban could affect as much as $400 million in potential sales to China in the third quarter, so the new chip seems to be an attempt to remedy the financial loss. The A800 GPU went into production in Q3, according to Nvidia’s spokesperson. Indeed, chip distributors in China, such as Omnisky, are already marketing A800 in their product catalogs. The chip looks to be designed to circumvent U.S. export rules while still carrying out other core computing capabilities. Most of the key specs of A100 and A800 are identical except for their interconnect speeds: A800 runs at 400 gigabytes per second while A100 functions at 600 gigabytes per second, which is the performance threshold set by the U.S. ban. According to an analysis from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a bipartisan think tank, “By only targeting chips with very high interconnect speeds, the White House is attempting to limit the controls to chips that are designed to be networked together in the data centers or supercomputing facilities that train and run large AI models.” Nvidia isn’t the only one slowing down its chips in order to evade U.S. sanctions. Alibaba and Chinese chip design startup Biren, which have been pouring resources into making rivals of Nvidia processors, are modifying the performance of their latest semiconductors, according to the Financial Times. That’s because Alibaba and Biren, like other fabless semiconductor firms, contract Taiwan’s TSMC to make their products. And because U.S. export controls cover chip sales by companies using American technologies, sales from TSMC fabs to China could be curtailed.

Apple warns of lower iPhone 14 Pro models shipment due to Covid-19 restrictions • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 6, 2022Posted in Apple, Gadgets, Hardware, iphone 14, iPhone 14 ProNo Comments

Apple warned investors and customers on Sunday that it expects to ship fewer iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max models as the world’s most valuable tech firm grapples with ongoing Covid-19 restrictions in China. The company said it continues to see strong demand for the pro models of the new iPhone 14 lineup, but has slashed its earlier shipment estimates. “The facility [located in Zhengzhou, China] is currently operating at significantly reduced capacity. As we have done throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we are prioritizing the health and safety of the workers in our supply chain,” the company said in a blog post. (More to follow)

Wii? More like Woof, as video games for dogs become a thing • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 3, 2022Posted in Hardware, JoiPaw, pet tech, StartupsNo Comments

File this in the “did not see that coming” category; JoiPaw, an U.K.-based startup, is building a series of video games for dogs, with the ultimate goal of helping do further research into dementia among our four-legged furry friends. Check out the video below and go “awww,” if you like, but the company’s founder is eager to highlight that this goes beyond entertainment. “We want to help the dogs live healthier lives through enrichment and also want to show the world how intelligent dogs are,” shares Dersim Avdar, founder at JoiPaw, in an email to ZebethMedia. “We humans tend to empathize and take better care of others when we realize they’re closer to us than we think.” I mean, with a pitch like that and a video like this, it would be im-paw-sible to say no.

There’s still green in climate robots • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 3, 2022Posted in Actuator, AMP Robotics, Climate, Google, Hardware, labrador systems, Robotics & AINo Comments

Kicking things off with a big funding round for AMP Robotics this week for a couple of reasons, but when push comes to shove, it comes down to something really simple: There are a lot of great reasons to be bullish on automation and there are a lot of equally great reasons to be bullish on climate tech. If you can manage to position yourself right in the middle of that Venn diagram, you’re probably sitting pretty right now. There are caveats, of course. There are always caveats. A big, scary bear market is the most immediate. We’ve alluded to current and coming layoffs in recent editions of this newsletter, and the truth is that there are going to be a lot more before we’re on the other side of this. As bright as your category is long-term, no one exists outside these macro trends. I certainly wouldn’t want to be in the position of raising a round to keep the lights on at my startup as the headwinds grow stronger. The days of the nine-digit Series A seem to have mostly drawn to a close for the foreseeable future, and I’m accordingly hearing more reports of decreased headcounts. But if I had to choose a tech startup space to ride this out in, climate and automation would be at or near the top. To steal a paragraph from Connie’s recent interview with Chris Sacca: [Climate investing] is recession proof, even without the IRA. Everything we’re doing is providing a substitute good. That’s what almost feels unfair. You spend years building Twitter and you put it up in the app store and you hope somebody gives a damn. It could be a really well-designed product, but maybe no one cares, whereas everything we’re building right now, we actually know the demand for it. And if we deliver a better, cheaper, faster, cooler, easier-to-use, sexier product, then we’ll even grow the market. So I actually think this is some of the easiest investing we’ve done. From where I sit, “recession proof” seems a little hyperbolic in the near term, but climate disaster isn’t a thing of the future. We’re living with it — and have been for some time. There are going to be plenty of bandwagon jumpers and green washers in the interim, but if you’ve got good vision and better vetting, the right climate-focused technology might be as close to a sure thing as you’re going to get as an investor. Ditto for robotics and automation for reasons we’ve outlined plenty of times over the last couple of years. Find the right solution for the right problem, and you might one day be looking at your own $91 million Series C. I’m far from a technological utopianist, and my feelings on the future of climate change are a lot darker than I’m comfortable discussing here. It certainly doesn’t help to prep for all of this by reading a recent Greenpeace report that notes, “The plastics, packaging, and recycling industries have waged a decades-long misinformation campaign to perpetuate the myth that plastic is recyclable.” Image Credits: AMP Robotics It’s important to be pragmatic to a fault here. We don’t do ourselves any favors by sugarcoating the size and scope of the current crisis. Nor do we have much to gain by going full doomer. Somewhere between the two exists the possibilities of achievable solutions. None will fix the problem, but if we’re lucky, the right one could serve to mitigate things. Recycling robotics firm AMP’s latest raise follows a sizable $55 million Series B raised in January of last year. Congruent Ventures and Wellington Management led this massive $91 million round, which also features participation from Blue Earth Capital, Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners, Tao Capital Partners, XN, Sequoia Capital, GV, Range Ventures, and Valor Equity Partners. “Advancements in robotics and automation are accelerating the transformation of traditional infrastructure, and AMP is seeking to reshape the waste and recycling industries,” said Wellington’s Michael DeLucia. “By bringing digital intelligence to the recycling industry, AMP can sort waste streams and extract additional value beyond what is otherwise possible.” All of this comes with the standard caveat that there are truly no surefire bets in this — or any — industry. There are still a million difficult to quantify factors, from timing to competition to sheer luck, which play a role in a product’s success. The more companies that enter a space, the more more failure we’ll ultimately see. Though, that’s kind of the deal with early stage investment — no one gets it right 100% of the time. But a few perfectly timed investments can make a career. The upshot of facing an impossibly large, seemingly insurmountable problem (if one can say such a thing) is that there’s still a ton of problems that need the right minds to tackle them. There are a million oversaturated categories in automation right now. Filtering out all of the aforementioned greenwashing, the same can’t be said for climate. It “almost feels unfair,” to steal a line from Sacca. Frankly, it’s also a space I’d love to see more of the bigger names operate in. Take Google, for example. The company had a big AI day here in NYC this week, showcasing some of its work in the category. Google has investments in both climate and automation, and it would be great to see these sorts of companies working to solve big problems with big ideas. Gaining advantages to move e-commerce to a same-day delivery model is all well and good, but ordering all of the sunscreen on Amazon isn’t going to do you much good in the face of true climate catastrophe. Image Credits: Google Google for Good did take centerstage at the event, however, with the company demonstrating how advances to ML are being used for the very important work of monitoring wildfires and floods. It’s also worth highlighting some of the company’s efforts in robotic learning. Code as Policies (CaP) is a newly announced

FlowForge nabs $7.2M to help companies integrate IoT using Node-RED • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 3, 2022Posted in Enterprise, FlowForge, Hardware, Node-RED, open sourceNo Comments

A new company from one of the original creators of the open source Node-RED project is setting out to make it easier for companies to bridge the gap between incompatible IoT ecosystems at scale. Node-RED, for the uninitiated, is a low-code, visual programming tool developed inside IBM for connecting APIs, hardware, and related assets that constitute the broader Internet of Things (IoT) — it’s all about enabling IoT developers to build applications at speed, while addressing the sheer number of IoT devices, manufacturers, and protocols they have to contend with. IBM transitioned stewardship of the project to the JS Foundation (a Linux Foundation project) back in 2016, and today it is used by organizations including Siemens, Hitachi, and Bosch. While Node-RED has been gaining traction within industry, it has also faced challenges typical of many open source projects, vis-à-vis the time and resources required to deploy and manage Node-RED beyond small-scale or prototype projects — which is where FlowForge enters the fray with a commercial platform-as-a-service (PaaS) that helps IoT companies run Node-RED at scale in production environments. Via the FlowForge UI, users can spin up Node-RED instances in seconds and manage them all from a single pane, as well as monitor the health of their project. Moreover, companies can elect to use FlowForge’s hosting, centralized audit logging, security, role-based access control, and more — basically, letting FlowForge take care of all the heavylifting. FlowForge in action Cashflow Founded out of the U.K. in 2021 by IBM’s former Node-RED lead and project maintainer Nick O’Leary, alongside early GitLab employee Zeger-Jan van de Weg, FlowForge has largely flown under the radar up until now. O’Leary told ZebethMedia that the company has previously received some $2 million in funding from GitLab cofounder and CEO Sid Sijbrandij through Open Core Ventures to get the business off the ground. And to help take things to the next level, FlowForge today announced a fresh $7.2 million in financing from Cota Capital, Westwave Capital, Uncorrelated Ventures, and Open Core Ventures. While there are a handful of similar commercial players out there already, such as Krysp.io, Sensetecnic’s FRED, and Prescient Devices, FlowForge is carving a path to market through adopting an open source ethos. And having Node-RED’s creator at the helm doesn’t hurt its outlook either. “Building FlowForge as an open source platform means we complement the open source nature of Node-RED,” O’Leary explained. “Many people have come to Node-RED as an open source alternative to the proprietary solutions that are out there today. For customers of FlowForge, it gives them much more direct access to what we’re building. They can provide feedback on items they care about from the very beginning of the development process.” With FlowForge version 1.0 fresh off the production line just last week, the company is now gearing up to develop bigger features, including collaboration tooling that will allow developers to work with each other in real time, a little like Google Docs. “So far we have been primarily focused on getting the core platform in place,” O’Leary said. “With our 1.0 release, we are now at a point to start working on the features that will really set us apart. Collaboration has always been a less-than-smooth user experience in Node-RED. That’s something we want to address and are looking at more real-time collaboration options.” With another $7.2 million in the bank, FlowForge is well-financed to ramp things up, targeting companies across all industries and sizes. “We see Node-RED being adopted by a wide range of companies, across many different industries and scales,” O’Leary continued. “We believe FlowForge will help solve problems faced by anyone wanting to take Node-RED into production in a well-managed environment.”

Amazon details Matter rollout for Alexa devices • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 3, 2022Posted in Alexa, Amazon, Gadgets, Hardware, matter, SamsungNo Comments

We’re still in the very early stages, but thus far Matter has proven to be a fairly peaceful collaboration between the biggest competitors in consumer electronics. Apple, Samsung and Google are among those that have detailed their plans to embrace the universal smart home standard following its recent launch. Today Amazon is offering some insight into its own approach. The company noted in a post this morning that 30 Echo and Eero devices are set to embrace the standard, accounting for around 100 million devices (give or take) across the globe. The company is starting the roll out with 17 Amazon devices (including Echos, plugs switches and bulbs), starting with an Android-based setup. That’s set for next month, with iOS availability following after and support for its Eero devices arriving at some point in early 2023. The company is also using the opportunity to announce Works with Alexa (WWA) for Matter devices, as a continued effort to ensure compatibility across devices. Amazon notes: As part of WWA for Matter requirements, devices will need to be Matter certified by the CSA, which if not already obtained can be started in parallel with the WWA certification process and maintaining the high quality bar customers rely on. For existing Works With Alexa certified devices that will receive over-the-air updates to support Matter and pass Matter certification, we will not require these devices to undergo re-certification. The company is also teaming with Samsung to simplifying the customer’s device setup experience using Alexa or SmartThings. Here’s Amazon again: This collaboration is built upon upcoming Alexa APIs enabling bi-directional multi-admin simple setup and Thread credential sharing for Matter devices. These cloud-based APIs are designed to make complex technology fade into the background, allowing customers to effortlessly add Matter devices to their preferred services, realizing Matter’s promise of simplifying our customers’ smart home experience.

Amazon: Coming soon to your eyeballs

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 3, 2022Posted in Alexa, Amazon, Gadgets, Hardware, mojo visionNo Comments

New computing paradigms are never not going to be weird, but such uncomfortability dramatically intensifies when the human body enters into the picture. There’s a sense in which the smart contact lens feels like something of an inevitability (whether it’s produced by Mojo Vision or someone is another question altogether), but that doesn’t mean each new application won’t feel a little strange. Today Mojo announced “the first major third-party consumer application on a smart contact lens,” with the introduction of Alexa Shopping List integration. This is still very much a test — a proof of concept, really — designed to demonstrate what something like a shopping list might look like on a contact lens-based computing interface. The implementation utilizes Alexa voice computing to add or remove items to the list, which pop up in the HUD interface while shopping. The user can futher navitate through the list with their eyes — and check items off when they’re in the cart. If a family member adds an item to the list remotely, it will pop up in the Mojo interface. If nothing else, the test feature demonstrates how additional interfaces like voice computing can be used to augment the limitations of this eyeball-based computing. Attempting to enter new items using the eye sounds like a bit of a nightmare, but that interface certainly makes sense for simpler tasks, like scrolling. Amazon’s team helped Mojo implement Alexa Shpping for the test feature. “At Amazon, we believe experiences can be made better with technology that is always there when you need it, yet you never have to think about it,” Alexa Shopping List GM Ramya Reguramalingam said in a release. “We’re excited that Mojo Vision’s Invisible Computing for Mojo Lens, paired with the demonstration of Alexa Shopping List as a use case, is showing the art of what’s possible for hands-free, discreet smart shopping experiences.” Mojo Vision is still reasonably cautious around whether or not such functionality is actually arriving. The company notes in the release, “The test integration shows how Mojo Vision could integrate the Alexa voice AI with Mojo Lens’ unique and powerful eye-based interface.” A demo of the technology debuted onstage today at a Wall Street Journal event in Southern California. Amazon: Coming soon to your eyeballs by Brian Heater originally published on ZebethMedia

Life360 to now integrate its service with Tile, following last year’s acquisition • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 3, 2022Posted in airtag, bluetooth trackers, Gadgets, Hardware, life360, tile, trackersNo Comments

Following last year’s $205 million acquisition of AirTag competitor Tile by family locator service Life360, the two companies today will now integrate their products and services. With an update arriving soon to Life360’s app, members will be able to see the location of the Tile Bluetooth trackers on the same in-app map where they also track their family members’ locations. In addition, Life360’s over 42 million members will also have the option to join Tile’s Finding Network, going forward. The Tile Finding Network is what makes it possible for people to locate their lost items when their Tiles are out of Bluetooth range. Unlike Apple’s AirTag, Tile doesn’t have a network of iPhones sold worldwide to tap into. So instead, it relies on the Tile app installed by its own customer base. When any Tile customer is in the presence of a missing item with a Tile tag attached, that information is shared across the network to allow the item’s owner to locate their missing item. Image Credits: Life360 If all Life360 members opted in to join this network, it would increase by 10x, the company says. That would make it the largest cross-platform finding network across both iOS and Android. (AirTag don’t work as a tracker with Android, so Life360 isn’t counting them here. Apple’s trackers, however, can be scanned by Android devices, because they include an NFC chip so they’re technically cross-platform in that way.) Tile members who want to track their items in the Life360 app will have to go through a few steps to get started. They’ll need to link their Tile trackers to their account in order for their “Circle” of family and trusted friends (like caregivers, emergency contacts, etc.) to be able to see the location of the Tiles on the map. They’ll also be able to track Tile-enabled products that have Tile’s functionality built-in, like various laptops and headphones. When an item goes missing or is misplaced, users can then tap “Find” in the Life360 app, which rings the item if it’s nearby. If it’s further away, users can select “Notify when Found,” to tap into the Tile network to be alerted to its location. Life360 sees the potential in tying Tile’s trackers to its broader family locator service as the small trackers are often used by families — to track kids’ backpacks, a teen driver’s keys, a parent’s wallet, a family pet, and so on. The company said the new functionality will roll out to its app over the next few weeks.

Labrador Systems deploys its first assistive elder-care robots • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 3, 2022Posted in eldercare, Hardware, labrador systems, Robotics & AINo Comments

We’ve been keeping tabs on Labrador Systems since we caught a very early demo of its elder care-focused technology in a hotel suite several CESes ago. Today the California-based robotics firm announced that it’s begun deploying its Retriever Pro system to a handful of early clients, including, On Lok PACE, Nationwide Insurance, Masonic Homes of California, Western Homes Communities, Eskaton, The Perfect Companion, Presbyterian Villages of Michigan, University of Michigan Flint and Graceworks Lutheran Services. The news follows extended piloting for the system in places like senior living communities. The Retriever Pro is designed to bring a kind of assistive freedom to people living on their own with mobility limitations. It’s a clever technology that effectively amounts to a semi-autonomous mobile shelving system that can be used to deliver objects they might otherwise have issues carrying. “The burden on caregivers is growing at a rate that is simply not sustainable. Organizations are already experiencing major caregiver shortages, and in the coming years there will be significantly more people in my parents’ age group (85+) with fewer people to help take care of them,” CEO Mike Dooley said in a release tied to the news. “Our mission is to provide relief on both sides of that equation, empowering individuals who need care to do more on their own while extending the impact of each caregiver’s visit well beyond the time they are physically present.” Image Credits: Labrador The world of elder-care robotics is still fairly nascent in the U.S. Japan may have the largest head start in the category due, in part, to its aging population, but the concept has been growing in acceptance. A number of firms working to design more all-purpose systems have pointed to living assistance as a potential application, but currently the robotic market isn’t exactly flush with this tech. The company says it also “continues to move forward with development and testing” of its more consumer-focused system, the Retriever. Dooley clarified the difference between the two in a comment to ZebethMedia, noting: The key added features for the Pro are for bringing caregivers and staff into the loop and overall supporting the care provider on their mission. A portion of that is on the software side, with integration with enterprise grade solutions for care management. So for example, caregiving organizations could have multiple users log on to set schedules for the robot, check activity reports and remotely assist with the robot operation. On the hardware side, we’d have more options for carrying and powering a 3rd party tablet or other screen device that the care organization may already be using, to move that device through the home. The Pro will also have provisions for supporting cellular connectivity as an upgrade.

Smartex sews up $24.7M to put smarter eyes on textile manufacturing • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 3, 2022Posted in Climate, Hardware, lightspeed venture partners, manufacturing, Smartex, textile manufacturingNo Comments

A lot of things might spring to mind when you hear “fashion,” but taking care of the planet generally isn’t on that list. Smartex just raised a couple of bolts’ worth of cash, sowing up a round of funding to bring smart tech to fabric manufacturing. The hope is to be able to detect textile defects in real time. The company is pushing hard on the green angle for its products. Smartex has developed machine-vision-driven software that makes fabric production more efficient by identifying defects, which primarily can be used to stop manufacturing if something is going wrong, preventing waste. In particular, the company argues that imperfect fabric can travel down the supply chain, with product issues only getting discovered much later in the manufacturing process. “I was born and raised by textile factory workers, I worked in factories when I was a teenager, I have a master’s in physics and the textile industry has been chasing me since ever,” said Gilberto Loureiro, co-founder and CEO of Smartex, in an interview with ZebethMedia. “We co-founded Smartex because we’re obsessed with solving problems — and the textile industry has big ones. It’s probably the industry with the worst ratio size / automation. Textile factories don’t have the tools to produce in a clean, transparent, efficient way… generating massive amounts of waste and other problems.” The company declined to share the valuation of its $24.7 million round, but told ZebethMedia it was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Tony Fadell’s Build Collective. Additional funds were raised from clothing giant H&M Group, DCVC, SOSV’s HAX, Spider Capital, Momenta Ventures, Bombyx Capital Partners and Fashion for Good. The company previously raised a $2.9 million seed round in 2019 co-led by DCVC and Spider Capital. Smartex’ founders, Antonio Rocha, CTO & Co-Founder, Gilberto Loureiro, CEO & Co-Founder, and Paulo Ribeiro, VP of Engineering & Co-Founder. Image Credits: Smartex. “It’s fantastic to work with such mentors that have invaluable experience. Lightspeed Ventures is a truly global firm and supports us in many geographies we operate, Paul [Murphy from Lightspeed VP] is also an operator with tremendous insights in scaling businesses,” said Loureiro, “Tony Fadell and his team are world-class mentors and operators with a unique product and marketing approach. Tony’s recent book “BUILD” is one of our bibles.” These Series A funds will enable Smartex to expand the business to new geographies and to continue to grow the team. “I’m so excited about textile production in Asia and all the mega-factories in Bangladesh, Vietnam, China, etc. No one will ever solve textile problems without having a deep understanding and presence in these markets. So, going into all the cultural aspects and making businesses here is really awesome,” said Loureiro. “Our ultimate vision and long-term goal is to expand into other industries to enable factories around the world to produce with significantly less waste. We won’t stop until we have made a massive difference.” It takes a rather sturdy stomach to take on an entrenched industry where a lot of the manufacturing facilities don’t have the necessary infrastructure to run AI-powered QA, but it’s a changing industry. “This industry is very challenging! That’s one of the reasons why few tech companies operate in here. We feel blessed to be already creating a massive impact — but when compared with the overall size of the industry, it feels like nothing,” Loureiro explains. “If there was ever a time to solve massive problems — it’s now!”