Here are the top trending news from the world of technology. News that every tech enthusiast should keep a tab on.
1)
Intel gives peak into its Lunar Lake, its Copilot + AI PC Chip
The AI chip race has really intensified with Intel on Tuesday giving a cursory peek into its upcoming Lunar Lake chips. This launch comes barely 24 hours after AMD announced its Ryzen AI 300 chip. According to Intel’s announcement, Lunar Lake comes with upgraded neural processing unit (NPU) delivering up to 48 tera operations per second (TOPS. This is a significant improvement compared to Intel’s previous Meteor Lake chips that sported a 10 TOPS NPU. It also comes with a new Xe2 GPU that Intel claims it boasts an 80% improvement in gaming performance over Meteor Lake, along with enhanced ray tracing and AI-powered XeSS tech for improved visuals. Lastly, this new AI chip comes with built-in RAM options of 16GB or 32GB, very similar to AI silicon.
2)
TikTok confirms hacking of high-profile accounts
TikTok on Tuesday confirmed that its engineers are looking into issues that gave unidentified hacker access to the accounts of high-profile celebrities and big brands. This includes Paris Hilton, Sony and CNN. As per reports, CNN’s TikTok account was hacked last week, forcing CNN to take down its account for several days. The goals and intention of hackers are still not known. It is being claimed that hackers used TikTok’s direct messaging service to insert malware into the hacked account. This incident has come at a time when TikTok is facing impending ban in the US market and is facing public scrutiny over security issues.
3)
Instagram ads may soon become harder to ignore (here’s why)
Instagram is testing a new type of ads, which is non-skippable. This means that users will have to watch the ads mandatorily even if they wish not to watch it. Termed as ‘ad break,’ these ads will be few seconds long though it is not sure if the length of the ad will be increased if Meta decides to implement this ad format. Non-skippable ads are not new concept, other popular platforms like YouTube have successfully adopted this format. As things stand today, Meta is currently testing this new ad format only in its main feed and not in Reels and Stories.
4)
X now officially allows adult and porn content
X, formerly known as Twitter, has always allowed adult content to upload on its platform, albeit it did so unofficially. Now that has changed. X has inserted a new clause to its set of rules that officially allows its users to upload adult and porn content on its platform. However, this clause comes with many caveats and conditions. Users can only upload consensually produced adult contents and they will have to label these content as ‘adult’ or ‘sexually explicit content.’ Users will also have to disclose if they have used AI tools. This tweak in the guidelines has been met with mixed reactions with many welcoming the change, especially the NSFW (Not Safe for Work) communities who have substantial presence on X.
5)
In a first, Twitch is increasing US subscription prices
Twitch is increasing the monthly subscription prices in the US market for the first time in its history. The price of Tier 1 subscriptions will go up by $1, from $4.99 to $5.99 per month starting July 11th, 2024. The company claimed that this will help in giving a better pay and compensation to its content creators. As of now, only Tier 1 subscribers will be affected by this decision will be affected by this decision. Tier 2 and Tier 3 subscriptions will continue to pay old subscription fees, which is $9.99 and $24.99 monthly respectively.