The world's largest contract chip maker is raising prices by 20% as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing plans to increase the prices of its most advanced chips by roughly 10%, while less advanced chips will cost about 20% more. The price increases come in the wake of a global semiconductor shortage that affected Apple and most car makers.
Scientists have built an AI tool that forecasts Arctic sea ice conditions, which could help protect local wildlife and people from changes caused by global warming. The deep learning system, named IceNet, was trained on climate simulations and observational data to forecast the next six months of sea ice concentration maps, almost 95% accurate in predicting whether sea ice will be present two months ahead.
Netflix will allow subscribers in Poland to play Stranger Things 1984 and Stranger Things 3 as part of their membership. The company says it will work hard to deliver the best possible experience in the months ahead with no ads and no in-app purchases. The games will be available in the Google Play store.
Zendesk announced the acquisition of Cleverly, which is based in Lisbon, Portugal, and has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. The financial terms of the deal are not being publicly disclosed at this time and Cleverly has not been entirely public about the size of its funding.
Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said that the company will continue to point users to authoritative information from the CDC when dealing with misinformation related to COVID-19. However, he will not ban communities that challenge the consensus views on the pandemic. The statement doesn't reference a specific community or incident, however, it comes from a thread from r/vaxxhappened.
Yara International is planning to sail an autonomous cargo ship by 2021. This is the first all-electric ship of any kind, but it will not be the first to venture forth. The company estimates the ship would replace 40,000 truck trips per year. The ship would also help alleviate traffic congestion and keep humans out of danger.
Microsoft will end support for the Office and Outlook Android apps on Chrome OS and start pushing Chromebook users to its web apps instead, making the offline situation for Office users more complicated. While certain Office web apps have a dedicated offline mode, Tofel reports not being able to open existing documents using Microsoft’s progressive web app for Chrome OS while offline.
Western Digital Corp. is in advanced talks to merge with Kioxia Holdings Corp. in a deal that could be valued at more than $20 billion and further reorder the global chip industry, long-running discussions between the companies have heated up in the past few weeks and could reach agreement on a deal as early as mid-September.