Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the riding-on-the-walls department: An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Hyundai has agreed to spend nearly $1 billion on Motional, an investment that will give the automaker a majority stake while providing the self-driving startup with the necessary capital to keep operating. The Korean automaker invested $475 million directly into Motional as part of a broader deal that includes buying out joint venture partner Aptiv. As part of the deal, Hyundai will spend another $448 million to buy 11% of Aptiv's common equity interest in Motional, according to information revealed Thursday in Aptiv's first-quarter earnings report.
Aptiv also shared that it expects to reduce its common equity interest in Motional from 50% as of March 31 to about 15%, leaving Hyundai with the remaining 85% control. Aptiv Chairman and CEO Kevin Clark flagged in January that the company would reduce its ownership interest in Motional. The company said at the time that it would stop allocating capital towards Motional due to the high cost of commercializing a robotaxi business and the long road ahead to profits. Aptiv on Thursday reduced its full-year net sales forecast for 2024 to be between $20.85 billion and $21.45 billion, down from between $21.3 billion to $21.9 billion. Motional confirmed the new funding round and increased stake from Hyundai, but didn't confirm Aptiv's numbers. Hyundai, however, said the amounts listed in Aptiv's earnings report were accurate. "Motional started as Boston-based autonomous vehicle startup nuTonomy in 2013, before being acquired by Delphi for $450 million," reports TechCrunch. "Delphi would later split it's business with the Aptiv unit absorbing nuTonomy. The entity became Motional under a $4 billion Hyundai-Aptiv joint venture in 2019."
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Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the years-in-the-making department: "Aamrok 3.0, ported to Qt5/KDE Frameworks 5, has been released," writes Slashdot reader serafean. "With the heavy lifting being done, the Qt6/KF6 version is expected later in the year." Originally developed for Linux as part of the KDE desktop environment, Amarok is a free, cross-platform music player that supports various audio formats and a user interface that can be tailored to individual preferences. These are the main features/changes, as highlighted in a KDE blog post: FEATURES:
- Added a visual hint that context view applets can be resized in edit mode.
- Display missing metadata errors in Wikipedia applet UI.
- Add a button to stop automatic Wikipedia page updating. (BR 485813)
CHANGES:
- Replace defunct lyricwiki with lyrics.ovh as lyrics provider for now. (BR 455937)
- Show only relevant items in wikipedia applet right click menu (BR 323941), use monobook skin for opened links and silently ignore non-wikipedia links.
- Don't show non-functional play mode controls in dynamic mode (BR 287055) The changelog is available here. You can find the package on download.kde.org.
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the always-connected department: Aria Alamalhodaei reports via TechCrunch: Hubble Network has become the first company in history to establish a Bluetooth connection directly to a satellite -- a critical technology validation for the company, potentially opening the door to connecting millions more devices anywhere in the world. The Seattle-based startup launched its first two satellites to orbit on SpaceX's Transporter-10 ride-share mission in March; since that time, the company confirmed that it has received signals from the onboard 3.5mm Bluetooth chips from over 600 kilometers away.
The sky is truly the limit for space-enabled Bluetooth devices: the startup says its technology can be used in markets including logistics, cattle tracking, smart collars for pets, GPS watches for kids, car inventory, construction sites, and soil temperature monitoring. Haro said the low-hanging fruit is those industries that are desperate for network coverage even once per day, like remote asset monitoring for the oil and gas industry. As the constellation scales, Hubble will turn its attention to sectors that may need more frequent updates, like soil monitoring, to continuous coverage use cases like fall monitoring for the elderly. Once its up and running, a customer would simply need to integrate their devices' chipsets with a piece of firmware to enable connection to Hubble's network.
Posted by from MMO Champion
Dragonflight Hotfixes - May 2, 2024
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
Classes
Druid
Feral
Fixed an issue preventing Smoldering Frenzy (Season 4 (2) Set Bonus) from triggering effects like Seal of Diurna’s Chosen.
Dungeons and Raids
Algeth’ar Academy
Echo of Doragosa
Arcane Rift now spawns Uncontrolled Energy 20% less frequently.
Overwhelming Power now spawns Arcane Rift at 4 stacks (was 3).
The Nokhud Offensive
Addressed an issue where the rim visual on Static Spear and Crackling Upheaval can disappear under certain situations.
Items
Fixed an issue that prevented Eye of Awakening from functioning on rings purchased from Antique Bronze Bullion vendors.
Fixed an issue that prevented Tiered Medallion Setting from functioning on necklaces purchased from Antique Bronze Bullion vendors.
Rings and necklaces purchased from Bullion vendors should now be eligible for socket upgrades. This fix is retroactive.
Non-player Characters
Vaskarn in the Emerald Dream no longer erroneously mentions that they can upgrade your gear with the use of Flightstones. Vaskarn in Valdrakken is unchanged.
Quests
While Time Rifts are empowered, Cache of Embers will now be awarded once per character per week from the quest for defeating a Time Rift Boss.
Prince Farondis drank his Conjured Protein Shakes and bulked up, allowing players to complete “Save Yourself”.
Cataclysm Classic Hotfixes - May 2, 2024
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
Cataclysm Classic
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Posted by from MMO Champion
The War Within Alpha - Mage Updates
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
Hello Mages!
We have some Arcane Mage changes hitting the War Within Alpha today, and we want to go over them here. As mentioned a couple of weeks ago, we have goals that span all mage specializations.
These are:
Allow you to acquire each specialization’s core gameplay with less talent point investment.
Simplify rotational complexity.
Provide new nodes that can help you adapt your damage profile to better match a given encounter’s demands.
Provide competitive choice nodes that let you opt-out of complex gameplay.
Today we’re talking about Arcane, so let’s dive into the specifics.
Radiant Spark
Arcane Mage has long had the reputation of being one of the most complicated and skill expressive specializations in World of Warcraft. A large contributing factor to this is the way in which Radiant Spark asks you to optimize your rotation. Radiant Spark’s damage bonus was so substantial and so dramatically punished you for using Arcane Missiles, that you had to go about your big burn in a very scripted fashion. With the introduction of Shifting Power, Arcane Mage gained access to mini-burns that can also utilize Radiant Spark, but to facilitate optimal usage of the spell those also had to be very scripted-- and worse yet-- your mini burn script was different than your big burn script.
All of that to say, we don’t think that the exciting and challenging part of Arcane should be the memorization of a large script. Arcane’s burn gameplay should support and be enhanced by the mechanics and talents you have, not circumvent them. We feel confident that the removal of Radiant Spark in its current fashion is the right path forward to achieve that goal.
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Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the missing-features department: Several users on Reddit have noticed that Spotify has started hiding song lyrics behind a paywall. "This means you won't be able to sing along unless you know the lyrics already, or are willing to look them up in another app," reports Android Police. From the report: Still, you lose the convenience of real-time sync with the track and automatic scrolling. Like skips per hour, it appears Spotify will implement a limit system and accessing lyrics will count against the user's limit, which should ideally reset after a stipulated time.
Spotify usually requests lyrics from songwriters, publishers, and independent artists. However, in most other cases, the company has a working relationship with MusixMatch to provide lyrics, and perhaps Spotify isn't willing to absorb the costs of this partnership. That would explain why lyrics are now paywalled, but as a free-tier user, such changes are chipping away at the service's appeal.
Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the growing-pains department: An anonymous reader quotes a report from Techdirt: Last week, hundreds of nurses protested the implementation of sloppy AI into hospital systems in front of Kaiser Permanente. Their primary concern: that systems incapable of empathy are being integrated into an already dysfunctional sector without much thought toward patient care: "No computer, no AI can replace a human touch," said Amy Grewal, a registered nurse. "It cannot hold your loved one's hand. You cannot teach a computer how to have empathy."
There are certainly roles automation can play in easing strain on a sector full of burnout after COVID, particularly when it comes to administrative tasks. The concern, as with other industries dominated by executives with poor judgement, is that this is being used as a justification by for-profit hospital systems to cut corners further. From a National Nurses United blog post (spotted by 404 Media): "Nurses are not against scientific or technological advancement, but we will not accept algorithms replacing the expertise, experience, holistic, and hands-on approach we bring to patient care," they added.
Kaiser Permanente, for its part, insists it's simply leveraging "state-of-the-art tools and technologies that support our mission of providing high-quality, affordable health care to best meet our members' and patients' needs." The company claims its "Advance Alert" AI monitoring system -- which algorithmically analyzes patient data every hour -- has the potential to save upwards of 500 lives a year. The problem is that healthcare giants' primary obligation no longer appears to reside with patients, but with their financial results. And, that's even true in non-profit healthcare providers. That is seen in the form of cut corners, worse service, and an assault on already over-taxed labor via lower pay and higher workload (curiously, it never seems to impact outsized high-level executive compensation).
Posted by from MMO Champion
The War Within Alpha Development Notes - May 2, 2024
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(
Blue Tracker /
Official Forums)
The War Within Alpha has been updated with the following changes:
NEW ZONES AND DELVES
Hallowfall
NEW DUNGEONS
The Dawnbreaker
Priory of the Sacred Flame
WARBANDS
Class set tokens from legacy raids (
Shadowlands and earlier) are now Warbound and can be transferred to characters on the account.
Developer’s note: Based on community feedback and to match our overall philosophy on transmog collection, class set tokens from legacy raids (Shadowlands and earlier) are now Warbound, allowing them to be transferred to alts in order to collect the transmog of your choice. For clarity, current expansion tier set tokens will remain unchanged from their previous status of bind on pickup, as they represent a large amount of power for the character who collects them. CHARACTER LEVEL
Developers’ note: With each phase, we encourage players to make a new template character and avoid using their previous characters as they could potentially be in a broken state. After making a new template character, make sure to talk to Questzertauren and he will prepare you for any available content. Level 75 Character Template
Maximum Level: 78
CLASSES
The following Hero Talents are available for playtesting in Public Alpha 3.
PRIEST
Archon (Holy/Shadow)
Archons are highly devout and deeply connected to the Light and Shadow. Archons can be blessed from higher beings to enter into an ascended state, becoming an ultimate version of themselves.
ROGUE
Fatebound (Assassination/Outlaw)
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Posted by BeauHD from Slashdot
From the latest-twist department: Sony Pictures Entertainment and Apollo Global Management have made a bid to acquire Paramount for $26 billion and take it private. Variety reports: Sony and private-equity giant Apollo submitted a letter with the non-binding offer Wednesday to Paramount Global, as first reported by the Wall Street Journal. The bid, which would include the assumption of debt and could be negotiated, would be a premium over the company's current $22 billion enterprise value. Shares of Paramount Global jumped 13% on news of the offer from Apollo and Sony Entertainment, closing at $13.86 per share Thursday.
It's not clear how Paramount's board will proceed on the Sony-Apollo proposal, having rejected previous overtures from the private-equity firm. The company has an exclusive negotiating window with Skydance that ends Friday (May 3), but discussions among the parties could extend beyond that. If it happens, the combination of Sony Pictures with Paramount Pictures would likely result in mass layoffs -- and knock the number of major Hollywood studios from five to four, after Disney took over 20th Century. Sony Corp., which acquired Columbia Pictures in 1990 for $3.5 billion, is the largest studio operator in the industry that does not have a broad-scale direct-to-consumer streaming play.
Under the proposed bid with Apollo, Sony would be the majority owner of the combined company. Sony Corp. would merge Sony Pictures Entertainment into a joint venture with Paramount Global. Sony and Apollo would both contribute cash to finance the deal. What's unclear is what would happen to the 28 local TV stations CBS owns; FCC rules bar foreign entities (i.e. Tokyo-based Sony) from having majority ownership control of broadcast TV stations, so Sony would need to carve out a separate U.S. ownership structure for the station group.
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Hyundai Spending Nearly $1 Billion To Keep Self-Driving Startup 'Motional' Alive 2024-05-03 06:45:01
Starfield, Bethesda’s large open-world space RPG released last year, is set to receive a big new update later this month. One of the big features being added is 3D surface and city maps, something the game has needed since its launch. But these new maps also reveal that Starfield’s biggest cities are actually pretty… 
