Qualcomm, Alphabet team up for automotive AI; Mercedes inks chip deal

Qualcomm’s chips have long powered mobile phones with Google’s Android operating system.(Reuters)

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Updated 22 October 2024

Reuters

October 22, 2024 19:00

Qualcomm, Alphabet team up for automotive AI; Mercedes inks chip deal

Qualcomm on Tuesday also rolled out two new chips

Updated 22 October 2024

Reuters

October 22, 2024 19:00

Qualcomm on Tuesday said it was teaming up with Alphabet’s Google to offer a combination of chips and software that will let automakers develop their own AI voice assistants using technology from the two firms.
Qualcomm’s chips have long powered mobile phones with Google’s Android operating system and the company has expanded into the automotive business, with chips that can power both a car’s dashboard and automated driving systems that are used by General Motors and others. On Tuesday, Qualcomm said it is working with Google to create a version of the company’s Android Automotive OS that will run smoothly on Qualcomm chips.
While many consumers are familiar with Google’s Android Auto and Apple CarPlay that display apps from a phone when plugged into a vehicle, Google’s Android Automotive OS is an offering that automakers use behind the scenes to power a vehicle computing systems. Qualcomm and Google said automakers will be able to use the joint offering and Google’s AI technology to create voice assistants that are unique to an automaker and can work without relying on a driver’s phone.
“Typically, we have operated together, but independently — we plan a lot of things together, but we go to customers separately,” Nakul Duggal, group manager for automotive at Qualcomm, said of the Qualcomm-Google relationship. “We decided we should think about this differently because it will reduce a lot of friction and confusion.”
Qualcomm on Tuesday also rolled out two new chips, one called Snapdragon Cockpit Elite to power dashboards and another called Snapdragon Ride Elite for self-driving features. The company said Mercedes-Benz Group plans to use the Snapdragon Elite Cockpit chip in future vehicles, though the two companies did not specify when or in which vehicles the chip will appear.

Bollywood actor Allu Arjun held after stampede death at Pushpa 2 screening

Updated 13 December 2024

AFP

December 13, 2024 08:52

Bollywood actor Allu Arjun held after stampede death at Pushpa 2 screening

The 42-year-old actor was arrested on suspicion of three offenses
Allu Arjun is hugely popular in southern India

Updated 13 December 2024

AFP

December 13, 2024 08:52

NEW DELHI: An Indian actor was arrested Friday after his appearance at a movie screening allegedly prompted a stampede by fans that crushed a woman to death, police and local media said.
Huge crowds had gathered at a theater in the southern city of Hyderabad this month to catch a glimpse of actor Allu Arjun as he arrived for the screening of his film “Pushpa 2: The Rule.”
The 42-year-old actor was arrested on suspicion of three offenses, including voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means, a police officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.
The officer added that seven other people had already been arrested in the case.
A video on social media platform X, shared by broadcaster TV9, showed the actor holding a coffee mug as he spoke to officers who arrived at his residence to take him into custody.
The victim of the December 4 stampede was a woman in her 30s attending the screening with her son, who was also seriously injured.
The woman’s family later filed a complaint against Arjun, his security team and the theater management, media outlet India Today reported.
Arjun said he was “deeply heartbroken” two days after the accident.
“While respecting their need for space to grieve, I stand committed to extend every possible assistance to help them navigate through this challenging journey,” he wrote on X.
Arjun is hugely popular in southern India, and the Pushpa film franchise has made millions at the box office.
He won best actor at India’s National Film Awards for his title role in the first instalment of the series, released two years ago.

Topics: Bollywood

3 men say in lawsuits that Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs drugged and sexually assaulted them

Updated 13 December 2024

December 12, 2024 22:04

3 men say in lawsuits that Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs drugged and sexually assaulted them

Updated 13 December 2024

December 12, 2024 22:04

NEW YORK: Three men sued Sean “Diddy” Combs in New York on Thursday, claiming the hip-hop mogul drugged and raped them.
The lawsuits, which were filed anonymously in a state court, add to a wave of sexual assault litigation against the rapper, producer and record executive as he also faces federal sex trafficking charges in New York.
Thomas Giuffra, a New York attorney who filed Thursday’s lawsuits on the men’s behalf, said Combs used his power and wealth to take advantage of the accusers and then ensured their silence through threats and fear.
“This is a long overdue opportunity for the victims to take the power back after carrying the burden of the assaults in silence for several years,” he said in a statement. “While a lawsuit will not undo the wrongs done to them, it enables the survivors to regain the power and dignity that was stripped from them by Sean Combs.”
Attorneys for Combs, 55-year-old founder of Bad Boy Records, said the claims are baseless.
“These complaints are full of lies,” the lawyers wrote in a statement, declining to elaborate. “We will prove them false and seek sanctions against every unethical lawyer who filed fictional claims against him.”
The lawsuits involve incidents taking place from 2019 to 2022. The men, all identified as John Doe, say they were unwittingly served drugged drinks and then sexually assaulted by Combs and others.
They each seek a jury trial and to be awarded unspecified damages from Combs.
One of the men claims Combs drugged and raped him in 2020 when the two met at Combs’ suite at the InterContinental hotel in Times Square to discuss payments the man was owed as a longtime employee of the entrepreneur.
Another claims he met Combs in 2019 at a Manhattan nightclub and was invited to an afterparty at Combs’ suite at the Park Hyatt hotel, where he was also drugged and raped.
The man said he tried to resist before the drugged drink left him unconscious. He also said he was given $2,500 after the attack by a man who had been recording the bedroom assault.
The third man claims he was drugged and raped by Combs and associates from his record label during a summertime party in 2020 at Combs’ mansion in East Hampton, New York.
Combs has pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he coerced and abused women for years, using a network of associates and employees to hold drug-fueled, elaborately produced sexual performances known as “Freak Offs” involving male sex workers.
Prosecutors say he then silenced his victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.
Combs has been seeking to be released until his trial in May but was denied bail a third time last month and remains in a federal jail in Brooklyn.
___
Follow Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo.

Topics: Diddy

Nearly half of US teens are online ‘constantly,’ Pew report finds

Updated 13 December 2024

December 12, 2024 22:01

Nearly half of US teens are online ‘constantly,’ Pew report finds

YouTube was the single most popular platform teenagers use

Updated 13 December 2024

December 12, 2024 22:01

Nearly half of American teenagers say they are online “constantly” despite concerns about the effects of social media and smartphones on their mental health, according to a new report published Thursday by the Pew Research Center.
As in past years, YouTube was the single most popular platform teenagers used — 90 percent said they watched videos on the site, down slightly from 95 percent in 2022. Nearly three-quarters said they visit YouTube every day.
There was a slight downward trend in several popular apps teens used. For instance, 63 percent of teens said they used TikTok, down from 67 percent and Snapchat slipped to 55 percent from 59 percent. This small decline could be due to pandemic-era restrictions easing up and kids having more time to see friends in person, but it’s not enough to be truly meaningful.
X saw the biggest decline among teenage users. Only 17 percent of teenagers said they use X, down from 23 percent in 2022, the year Elon Musk bought the platform. Reddit held steady at 14 percent. About 6 percent of teenagers said they use Threads, Meta’s answer to X that launched in 2023.
The report comes as countries around the world are grappling with how to handle the effects of social media on young people’s well-being. Australia recently passed a law banning kids under 16 from social networks, though it’s unclear how it will be able to enforce the age limit — and whether it will come with unintended consequences such as isolating vulnerable kids from their peers.
Meta’s messaging service WhatsApp was a rare exception in that it saw the number of teenage users increase, to 23 percent from 17 percent in 2022.
Pew also asked kids how often they use various online platforms. Small but significant numbers said they are on them “almost constantly.” For YouTube, 15 percent reported constant use, for TikTok, 16 percent and for Snapchat, 13 percent.
As in previous surveys, girls were more likely to use TikTok almost constantly while boys gravitated to YouTube. There was no meaningful gender difference in the use of Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook.
Roughly a quarter of Black and Hispanic teens said they visit TikTok almost constantly, compared with just 8 percent of white teenagers.
The report was based on a survey of 1,391 US teens ages 13 to 17 conducted from Sept. 18 to Oct. 10, 2024.

Topics: social media Pew Research Center teenagers

Trump is named Time’s Person of the Year, will ring the New York Stock Exchange bell

Updated 12 December 2024

December 12, 2024 12:49

Trump is named Time’s Person of the Year, will ring the New York Stock Exchange bell

Honors for the businessman-turned-politician represent the latest chapter in his love-hate relationship with New York
Donald Trump was also Time’s Person of the Year in 2016, when he was first elected to the White House

Updated 12 December 2024

December 12, 2024 12:49

NEW YORK: About six months ago, Donald Trump was sitting in a courtroom in lower Manhattan listening to a jury make him the first former president convicted of a crime.
On Thursday, he will ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange just blocks from that courthouse and as he was recognized by Time magazine as its person of the year.
The honors for the businessman-turned-politician represent the latest chapter in his love-hate relationship with New York. They’re also a measure of Trump’s remarkable comeback from an ostracized former president who refused to accept his election loss four years ago to a president-elect who won the White House decisively in November.
Sam Jacobs, Time’s editor in chief, announced on NBC’s “Today” show on Thursday morning that Trump was Time’s 2024 Person of the Year. Jacobs said Trump was someone who “for better or for worse, had the most influence on the news in 2024.”
Trump is expected to be on Wall Street to mark the ceremonial start of the day’s trading, according to four people with knowledge of his plans who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Trump was also Time’s Person of the Year in 2016, when he was first elected to the White House. He was listed as a finalist for this year’s award alongside notables including Vice President Kamala Harris, X owner Elon Musk, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Kate, the Princess of Wales.
The NYSE regularly invites celebrities and business leaders to participate in the 9:30 a.m. ceremonial opening trading. Thursday will be Trump’s first time doing the honors, which have become a marker of culture and politics.
Last year, Time CEO Jessica Sibley rang the NYSE opening bell to unveil the magazine’s 2023 Person of the Year: Taylor Swift.
During Trump’s first term, his wife, Melania Trump, rang the bell to promote her “Be Best” initiative on children’s well-being.
Donald Trump’s trip to New York from his adopted home of Florida to sound the call of capitalism in the mecca of finance tops a string of visits that the former president has made to various spots in the city this year.
Outside of his required presence in a downtown courthouse for his trial, Trump, who is always attuned to the art of a photo op, held campaign events around the city: at a firehouse, a bodega and a construction site. He also held a rally in the Bronx, among the places in the city where Trump made inroads during the election.
To mark the final stretch of his campaign, he held a high-octane rally at Madison Square Garden, which drew immediate blowback after speakers there made rude and racist insults and incendiary remarks.
Trump has long had a fascination with being on the cover of Time, where he first made an appearance in 1989. He has falsely claimed to hold the record for cover appearances, and The Washington Post reported in 2017 that Trump had a fake picture of himself on the cover of the magazine hanging in several of his golf country clubs.
Trump crafted his image as a wealthy real estate developer, which he played up as the star of the TV reality show “The Apprentice” and during his presidential campaign. He won the election in part by channeling Americans’ anxieties about the economy’s ability to provide for the middle class.
After the Nov. 5 election, the S&P 500 rallied 2.5 percent for its best day in nearly two years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 1,508 points, or 3.6 percent, while the Nasdaq composite jumped 3 percent. All three indexes topped records they had set in previous weeks.
Trump, who often regards the stock market as a measure of public support, has said his coming term as president should be dated to the day after the election so he is credited for the gains.
Trump’s campaign promises have included pledges to deliver historic levels of economic growth, and the people he’s selecting to fill out his incoming administration skew heavily from the business sector.
The larger business community has applauded his promises to reduce corporate taxes and cut regulations. But there are also concerns about his stated plans to impose broad tariffs and possibly target companies that he sees as not aligning with his own political interests.
The US stock market has historically tended to rise regardless of which party wins the White House, with Democrats scoring bigger average gains since 1945. But Republican control could mean big shifts in the winning and losing industries underneath the surface, and investors are adding to bets built earlier on what the higher tariffs, lower tax rates and lighter regulation that Trump favors will mean.
In light of his election win, his lawyers have sought to have his conviction in the Manhattan case be thrown out.

Topics: Trump Returns Donald Trump Person of the Year

Puppy love as Czech prison inmates train assistance dogs

Updated 12 December 2024

AFP

December 12, 2024 03:43

Puppy love as Czech prison inmates train assistance dogs

Serving their last year in prison, David Hejny and Marek Kolar have their work cut out as they train puppies Zeus and Zirkon to be assistance dogs for the visually impaired

Updated 12 December 2024

AFP

December 12, 2024 03:43

JIRICE: Serving their last year in prison, David Hejny and Marek Kolar have their work cut out as they train puppies Zeus and Zirkon to be assistance dogs for the visually impaired.
The training is part of a project to help inmates at the Jirice prison northeast of Prague be better prepared for life outside jail.
“It certainly helps you mentally and you learn to be responsible, taking care of somebody else,” said 34-year-old Hejny, serving time in the open prison for drug dealing and human trafficking.
Twenty-nine of Jirice’s 800 inmates live in houses without bars, the only such establishment in the Czech Republic. The prison opened in 2017, inspired by the system in Norway, which puts a strong emphasis on rehabilitation.
Carefully selected inmates also take care of other animals including a llama and two kangaroos, as well as work in the garden.
“The animals fit our concept of boosting the work habits of the inmates,” Roman Farkas, a special educator at Jirice, told AFP, standing by the prison’s small football pitch.
“They also serve as a therapeutic element... as an anti-stress program,” he told AFP.
While the Czech recidivism rate for released convicts touches 70 percent, in Jirice’s open prison it is only 17.2 percent.
On a chilly, foggy morning, Hejny and Kolar have put the two-month-old Labrador Retriever pups on a leash and separate them to show what they have learned since they arrived on November 1.
The dogs — who are brothers — stay with the inmates most of the time. While Hejny’s pup Zeus can sit and give the paw, Zirkon sniffs around, wagging his tail happily.
“He’s quite a devil and it’s going to be tough,” said Kolar, cuddling the dog as he sat on a bed in the prison house.
“Care of the puppies makes us happy — we are not lonely, because we have someone here,” added the 31-year-old, who was jailed for drug dealing and theft.
“In prison, you meet people you don’t want to be with, but you have to meet them. But you always want to be with a dog, right?“
Jirice’s inmates have so far brought up 12 dogs. After a year, the prison sends them back to an organization which hands them over to people with visual impairments.
“The project is designed to socialize the puppies, to teach them to like people and get acquainted with the world around them,” said Farkas.
The inmates take the dogs to Prague to let them try out the metro, escalators or shopping malls to help them get used to the hustle and bustle of the city.
Farkas said the coaches did not need a guard: “We expect them never to abuse the freedom.”
The prison selects dog trainers for the “Paw in the Palm” project, inspired by a similar project in the United States, after assessing their profiles, with previous experience being a plus.
Zirkon is the second dog trained by Kolar, who said he always loved animals.
“I will leave together with Zirkon, in October 2025,” he said.
Hejny, who has 14 months to serve, will hand over Zeus two months before his own release.
“They will take Zeus away after a year and I will definitely be sad,” he said.
“So I will buy a puppy when I get out.”

Topics: PUPPY czech

Qualcomm, Alphabet team up for automotive AI; Mercedes inks chip deal

Qualcomm, Alphabet team up for automotive AI; Mercedes inks chip deal

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Bollywood actor Allu Arjun held after stampede death at Pushpa 2 screening

Bollywood actor Allu Arjun held after stampede death at Pushpa 2 screening

Priyanka Chopra Jonas eyeing Bollywood return in 2025, crossover star says at RSIFF

Bollywood star Swara Bhaskar praises Riyadh’s beauty, Saudi hospitality

3 men say in lawsuits that Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs drugged and sexually assaulted them

3 men say in lawsuits that Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs drugged and sexually assaulted them

Nearly half of US teens are online ‘constantly,’ Pew report finds

Nearly half of US teens are online ‘constantly,’ Pew report finds

Trump is named Time’s Person of the Year, will ring the New York Stock Exchange bell

Trump is named Time’s Person of the Year, will ring the New York Stock Exchange bell

Trump says he turned down Time’s ‘Person of the Year’

Time magazine names Donald Trump ‘Person of the Year’

Puppy love as Czech prison inmates train assistance dogs

Puppy love as Czech prison inmates train assistance dogs

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Qualcomm, Alphabet team up for automotive AI; Mercedes inks chip deal

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Bollywood actor Allu Arjun held after stampede death at Pushpa 2 screening

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