At Microsoft's Surface event today, the company announced its Surface Duo 2 dual-screen Android smartphone, featuring a trio of new cameras, a faster processor, larger displays, and support for 5G. The company also unveiled a successor to the Surface Book line of laptops, the Surface Laptop Studio, as well as the Surface Pro 8. From a report: The first-generation of the Duo made a splash thanks to its unique design. While the original Duo had no exterior screen at all, the Duo 2 now has a sliver of screen called the Glance Bar that peeks out from where its displays come together and provides you with the time and notifications when the Duo is closed. Microsoft has seemingly addressed a number of the original Duo's shortcomings with its Duo 2. One of the biggest issues with the first-generation version was its lack of any truly capable camera. [...] This time around, Microsoft has outfitted the Surface Duo 2 with a trio of external cameras. Like Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy line of smartphones, the Duo 2 gets a wide-angle camera, an ultra-wide angle camera, and a telephoto camera. There's also a dedicated night photography mode, 2x optical zoom with the telephoto lens, and the ability to record 4K video at 60 frames per second. As for the occasionally sluggish performance, the Duo 2 should have that sorted out. This time around, Microsoft has dropped Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 888 processor into the Duo 2, which means the phone should run as smoothly and quickly as any of the leading smartphones on the market. What's more, the Duo 2 gets 8GB of RAM and 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB of storage. On top of that, the Surface Duo 2 gets 5G connectivity, something that was conspicuously absent from the first-generation Duo. The Duo 2 also gets two larger displays this time around. Rather than two 5.1-inch panels, the Duo 2 gets two 5.3-inch screens that open up to an 8.3-inch display that you can use to move your apps across or as a single canvas for more expansive apps. [...] The gist of the Surface Duo 2 is that two screens are better than one. To that end, Microsoft has combined two panels with a hinge to make an Android-powered device that lets you not only use both displays at the same time, but also seamlessly move apps and content between them. That capability will cost you a pricey $1,499 when the Duo 2 hits store shelves. It's available for pre-order today.

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Facebook Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer, a 13-year veteran who oversees the social network's work in artificial intelligence, virtual reality and the blockchain, will step down next year. From a report: Another longtime Facebook executive, Andrew Bosworth, will take over as CTO, according to an internal message on Wednesday from Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg. Schroepfer's move marks the most significant departure from the company in years and follows the recent exits of several other top executives. Known as "Schrep," Schroepfer joined Facebook in 2008 and has been CTO since 2013, reporting to Zuckerberg. He sits atop many of Facebook's most ambitious organizations -- including groups that the social network is depending on for future growth -- such as engineering, infrastructure, augmented reality and VR, and the blockchain and finance unit. His desk sits next to Zuckerberg's and operating chief Sheryl Sandberg's at Facebook headquarters.

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YouTube is testing an official way to download videos on your desktop web browser. From a report: If you want to see if you're eligible for the test, which runs through October 19th, check out YouTube's experimental features page, which lists tests available for Premium subscribers. If you're opted-in and on a supported browser ("the latest versions of Chrome, Edge, or Opera," according to Google), when you're watching a video, you should see an option to download the video under the player. When you click it, YouTube will download the video, which you can then watch from the Downloads section that's accessible from the hamburger menu on the left side of the screen.

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Phoronix reports: Google's Android had been notorious for all of its downstream patches carried by the mobile operating system as well as various vendor/device kernel trees while in recent years more of that code has been upstreamed. Google has also been shifting to the Android Generic Kernel Image (GKI) as the basis for all their product kernels to further reduce the fragmentation. Looking ahead, Google is now talking of an "upstream first" approach for pushing new kernel features into mainline Linux before deploying them on Android. Google's Todd Kjos talked today during Linux Plumbers Conference (LPC2021) around their Generic Kernel Image initiative. With Android 12 and their Linux 5.10 based GKI image they have further cut down the fragmentation to the extent that it's "nearly eliminated." With the Android 12 GKI, most of the vendor/OEM kernel features have now either been upstreamed into the Linux kernel, isolated to vendor modules/hooks, or merged into the Android Common Kernel. They are making good progress on the GKI front and also ensuring vendors adapt to the new approach to cut down on the kernel mess. But perhaps most exciting is their outlook for 2023 to 2024 for further reducing technical debt. They are going to pursue an "upstream first development model for new features" in making sure new code first lands into the mainline Linux kernel rather than aiming straight for lodging within the Android source tree.

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New submitter iarlakd writes: The U.K. government on Wednesday released its 10-year plan to make the country a global "artificial intelligence superpower," seeking to rival the likes of the U.S. and China. The so-called "National Artificial Intelligence Strategy" is designed to boost the use of AI among the nation's businesses, attract international investment into British AI companies and develop the next generation of homegrown tech talent. "Today we're laying the foundations for the next ten years' growth with a strategy to help us seize the potential of artificial intelligence and play a leading role in shaping the way the world governs it," Chris Philp, a minister of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, said in a statement. The National AI Strategy includes a number of programs, reports and initiatives. Among them, a new National AI Research and Innovation program will be launched as part of an effort to improve coordination and collaboration between the country's researchers. Elsewhere, another program will specifically aim to support AI development outside London and Southeast England, where much of the nation's AI efforts are currently concentrated.

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One of the largest providers of HTTPS certificates, Let's Encrypt, will stop using an older root certificate next week -- meaning you might need to upgrade your devices to prevent them from breaking. From a report: Let's Encrypt, a free-to-use nonprofit, issues certificates that encrypt the connections between your devices and the wider internet, ensuring that nobody can intercept and steal your data in transit. Millions of websites alone rely on Let's Encrypt. But, as warned by security researcher Scott Helme, the root certificate that Let's Encrypt currently uses -- the IdentTrust DST Root CA X3 -- will expire on September 30. After this, computers, devices and web clients -- such as browsers -- will no longer trust certificates that have been issued by this certificate authority. For the overwhelming majority of website users, there is nothing to worry about and September 30 will be business as usual. Older devices, however, could run into some trouble, much like they did when the AddTrust External CA Root expired back in May. Stripe, Red Hat and Roku all suffered outages as a result.

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Apple plans to keep Fortnite off of its App Store until appeals are exhausted in its legal battle with Epic Games, the maker of the popular battle-royale game. From a report: Apple sent a letter to Epic Tuesday saying that it "will not consider any further requests for reinstatement until the district court's judgment becomes final and nonappealable." The letter, sent to Epic's lawyers from a firm representing Apple, was published on Twitter by Epic Chief Executive Officer Tim Sweeney. That process could take five years, he said. Epic sued Apple in August 2020 after the iPhone-maker removed Fortnite from its App Store, citing a workaround that circumvented Apple's commission on purchases.

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Lithuania's Defense Ministry recommended that consumers avoid buying Chinese mobile phones and advised people to throw away the ones they have now after a government report found the devices had built-in censorship capabilities. From a report: Flagship phones sold in Europe by China's smartphone giant Xiaomi have a built-in ability to detect and censor terms such as "Free Tibet", "Long live Taiwan independence" or "democracy movement", Lithuania's state-run cybersecurity body said on Tuesday. The capability in Xiaomi's Mi 10T 5G phone software had been turned off for the "European Union region", but can be turned on remotely at any time, the Defence Ministry's National Cyber Security Centre said in the report. "Our recommendation is to not buy new Chinese phones, and to get rid of those already purchased as fast as reasonably possible," Defence Deputy Minister Margiris Abukevicius told reporters in introducing the report.

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The WHO is slashing recommended maximum limits of key pollutants as evidence of danger mounts.

Microsoft is announcing the Surface Laptop Studio today, a successor to the Surface Book line of powerful laptops. It presents a total redesign for Microsoft's flagship laptop, ditching the removable display in favor of one that pulls forward to transform from laptop into tablet (or what Microsoft calls studio mode). From a report: "Surface Laptop Studio is the most powerful Surface we've ever built," says Pete Kyriacou, vice president of devices at Microsoft. "It is the culmination of years of Surface innovation -- on hinges, display, silicon, and more -- and brings the best of the Surface heritage together in one powerhouse device." The most immediate and obvious change to this Surface Book successor is the display and hinge. The 14.4-inch PixelSense Flow display (2400 x 1600) supports up to 120Hz and Dolby Vision. Microsoft is using a new flexible Dynamic Woven Hinge, which it says is durable and allows this laptop to transition between modes much like the larger Surface Studio. The Surface Laptop Studio supports three modes: laptop, stage, and studio. The laptop mode arranges the display just like a regular laptop, with a full keyboard and a new touchpad with haptics. The stage mode is where things get interesting, as you can pull the display forward to an angle that's designed for gaming, streaming, or presenting. This will cover the keyboard, and the angle is more suited toward watching Netflix or playing games, touching the display, or using the new Surface Slim Pen 2 for digital inking.

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As an experiment, I created a blog post out of a tweet stream, with no editing. Copy/paste.

The Dems should run ads saying how much the average retirement account will go down if the Repubs crash America's credit. Make it concrete. Estimate how the market will react. Now is the time to run those ads. If the campaigns didn't go to sleep between elections...

Microsoft has unveiled the Surface Pro 8. Engadget: Microsoft's new Surface Pro 8 tablet can actually go toe-to-toe with most ultraportables. It features a 13-inch PixelSense screen, a significant upgrade from the previous 12.3-inch display. Even better, it's one of the first non-gaming notebooks we've seen that supports a 120Hz refresh rate, which makes scrolling through web pages and jotting down notes a lot smoother. And of course, it's built with Windows 11 in mind. Together with some of Intel's latest 11th-gen processors, as well as long-awaited support for Thunderbolt 4, the Surface Pro 8 could tempt over potential buyers who were turned off by the limitations of previous models. Thankfully, the Surface Pro 8 finally supports Thunderbolt 4 on its two USB-C ports. That means you'll be able to connect fast external hard drives, several 4K external monitors or even an external GPU. As for other updates, the rear camera is now 10MP instead of 8MP, and it also supports 4K video. The front-facing camera is still 5MP with 1080p video, but it should offer better low-light performance.

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If only we had journalism covering itself we'd probably learn they've been doing the exact same thing since the dawn of journalism. This is a big defect in our system, no one is watching journalism. (link)

• For example, what do you think the Pulitzer Prize is, other than a bunch of ads they do about journalism every year. No doubt the awards are highly politicized, and stories looking too deeply into corrupt journalism probably don't stand much chance of getting an award.
• Until there's some way for journalism's corruption to be exposed, why would any intelligent person think there's anything but corruption in journalism? In an Occam's Razor sort of way. I'm watching The Wire, about to start Season 5, btw, if you know what that's about. ;-)
• There's this great scene at the end of Season 4, with Bodie and McNulty on a park bench. Bodie is talking about how fucked up the bosses are in the drug mob in Baltimore. It sounds just like what McNulty would say about the police department. That's the point.

Yesterday's Now & Then podcast, about the history of NYC, was the first one that was disappointing. At one point Heather Cox Richardson said, almost proudly, that the only thing she knows about NYC is the line in the song New York, New York "If you can make it there you can make it anywhere." This is one of my big problems with podcasts, the thing that tunes me out, when people speak from a position of false expertise. They're having a grand time, and while I (the listener) and deciding whether or not to cut them off, based on the probability that they'll ever say anything interesting before the end. Yesterday I cut them off and listened to music for the second half of my ride. It's the same reason I can't watch any MSNBC show for more than 3 minutes. They're filling the air, meantime I know there are things going on they should be informing me of, and add to things my mind can think about. Okay so N&T had a bad episode, not the end of the world, the other most recent episodes are totally worth listening to, I highly recommend them, and I will keep listening in the hope that the NYC episode was just a bad idea they followed through on instead of canning.