Apple CEO Tim Cook appeared at the new store in Shanghai: the scene was crowded, and the store closed after an hour of opening
It opened on March 21 in the heart of Jing'an Temple, Apple's largest retail store in Asia and the second largest in the world after its Fifth Avenue flagship store in New York. Apple CEO Tim Cook was present to unveil the flagship store.
At 7 p.m. Beijing time on the 21st, Cook officially opened the door of Apple's Jing'an flagship store and waved to people for a long time. He shook hands with fans at the front of the line and left for an autographed photo outside the store, without speaking.
After Cook left, Apple fans poured into the newest Apple store, and the band was played. According to Apple, the new Apple retail store in Shanghai will showcase Apple's latest product lineup and has 150 employees serving customers.
While "high-profile marketing" has boosted sales in China, the challenges facing Apple have not diminished. After the U.S. stock market opened on March 21, Apple's stock price plunged nearly 3%. On the news side, the U.S. Department of Justice sued Apple on suspicion of monopoly on the same day, which is the first major antitrust lawsuit launched by the Biden administration against Apple, accusing it of monopolizing the smartphone market. (Source: Yicai)
Elon Musk: Neuralink's next product will be "blindness" to help visually impaired people restore their vision
On March 21, Musk announced in a post on X (Twitter) that after "Telepathy", the next product of his brain-computer interface company Neuralink will be "Blindsight" (Blindsight).
Musk made the announcement below a video clip of Musk's previous speech shared by blogger DogeDesigner. In the video, Musk said, "Even if someone has never had vision, like being born blind, we will believe that we can still restore sight with Neuralink. 」
Yesterday, Elon Musk's brain-computer interface company Neuralink live-streamed the latest situation of its first brain-computer chip implanted subject, and said that the quadriplegic man has been able to play games such as "Civilization" and chess through his mind. (Source: IT House)
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang predicts that within a decade, AI will be able to generate all the pixels in a game in real time
After unveiling the new Blackwell GPU architecture at NVIDIA GTC 2024 on March 21, Huang made bold predictions about the future of AI in gaming during a Q&A session. According to Tom's Hardware, the CEO believes that it will only take a decade or less for AI to be able to generate all the pixels in the game in real time.
"In my opinion, most of the advances in technology follow the S-curve, and once the technology becomes practical and better, it often only takes about a decade to go from germination to maturity. "ChatGPT is a great example of how it is not only useful, but it is even better in many ways. So I think this technology is less than a decade away from us. Ten years from now, we'll be at the other end of the S-curve. And in five years, we may be in the middle of the S-curve, where everything is going to change so quickly that people will be amazed at how much change has occurred. So where exactly are we in this decade? Maybe two years? Quite possibly. So, I think in the next five to ten years, AI will become mainstream in real-time to generate game footage. (Source: Phoenix Technology)
The job posting hints that Apple will launch the Vision Pro in Australia and Japan as soon as April
On March 21, Apple recently released a job announcement in Australia and Japan, hinting that the Vision Pro headset will be available in the above two markets in April/May this year.
Apple is currently recruiting "Briefing Experience Specialists" in both markets to demonstrate Apple Vision Pro product features, report marketing progress to executives, design, customize demos, and more.
As is customary, it usually takes 1 month to recruit the right person, which means that Apple will launch the Vision Pro headset in Australia and Japan in April/May. It was previously reported that Apple is about to add 12 new languages to the Vision Pro's virtual keyboard. Currently, the Vision Pro keyboard only supports English (US) and emojis. (Source: Sohu Technology)
The U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple over the iPhone
On March 21, according to foreign media reports, the U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple over the iPhone, in which the U.S. Department of Justice said that Apple's iPhone ecosystem was in a monopoly position, and the company allowed the company to obtain an "astronomical market capitalization" at the expense of consumers, developers and competitors. Apple responded that the U.S. Department of Justice's lawsuit accusing it of illegally monopolizing smartphones was "factually and legally wrong." Apple shares were lower on the news, falling 2.70% to $173.9 as of press time.
In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, the U.S. Department of Justice and 16 attorneys general said Apple's monopolistic practices were designed to maintain the company's monopoly power while capturing as much revenue as possible. The plaintiffs also allege that Apple's anticompetitive practices are not limited to the iPhone and Apple Watch businesses, but also involve Apple advertising, browsers, FaceTime and news services.
"Every step of Apple's actions has built and strengthened the moat of its smartphone monopoly," the lawsuit said. To keep consumers buying iPhones, Apple has taken steps to block cross-platform messaging apps, limit compatibility with third-party wallets and smartwatches, and block apps and streaming services downloaded from non-Apple App stores. (Source: Tencent Technology)
Li Xiang, CEO of Li Auto, sent an internal letter to reflect on MEGA: Desire transcends value
On March 21, Li Xiang, chairman and CEO of Li Auto, issued an internal all-staff letter, reflecting on the sales rhythm of its first pure electric model, MEGA, and proposing solutions to the current problems faced by Li Auto.
According to the internal letter, Li Xiang reviewed the problems presented by Li Auto in March from the "rhythm problem of Ideal MEGA" and "the desire problem of excessive attention to sales", and proposed that the essence of these problems is that "from top to bottom, too much attention is paid to sales and competition, so that desire surpasses value, so that the user value and operational efficiency that we are best at have significantly decreased". To this end, the solution proposed by Li Xiang is to "reduce the expectation and desire of sales, return to healthy growth, and return to the improvement of user value and management efficiency that we do best."
Yesterday, Li Auto updated its delivery outlook for the first quarter of 2024 as pre-orders fell short of expectations. Li expects its first-quarter deliveries of 76,000-78,000 units, which is about 25,000 units lower than its previously announced delivery forecast of 100,000-103,000 units. (Source: Finance Associated Press)
Chairman of Pinduoduo: Temu has entered 50 countries and regions
On March 21, Chen Lei, chairman and co-CEO of Pinduoduo, talked about the progress of the company's overseas business at the performance exchange meeting. He said that the cross-border e-commerce platform Temu has entered 50 countries and regions since its launch in September 2022.
At present, Pinduoduo's global business is still in the early stages, but the company will implement the high-quality development strategy into its global operations and be prepared for long-term investment. Temu has entered many countries and regions, but it is facing different consumption habits, cultures and rapidly changing market environments of consumers in each country.
Chen Lei believes that "despite these changes, consumers' demand for e-commerce platforms has always been more affordable and better services. He also revealed Pinduoduo's achievements during last year's Double 11: the number of subsidized users exceeded 620 million, and the number of orders for "10 billion subsidized" also doubled year-on-year.
According to reports, Pinduoduo released its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2023. Fourth-quarter revenue was RMB88.88 billion, up 123% year-on-year. (Source: Zhongguancun Online)
Zhou Hongyi: Manufacturers who do not turn to AI mobile phones will become the next "Nokia"
At 7 p.m. on March 21, OnePlus Ace3V was officially launched, at which OnePlus not only brought new phones, but also invited Zhou Hongyi, the founder of 360, to talk about AI mobile phones. In his view, the combination of large models and hardware will bring about a new industrial revolution, and mobile phones will be the best hardware carriers in the next five years. Zhou predicts that the best tools for young people to embrace AI are mobile phones and browsers. Mobile phones represent entertainment and life, while browsers are the main entrance to work. In the future, AI will be embedded in mobile phones, so AI phones will become more meaningful in the future.
Zhou Hongyi also predicts that the large model running on the mobile phone will appear this year, but the AI mobile phone is not exactly equal to the "large model on the machine", it should be realized through the cloud + mobile phone, which is a hybrid large model model; the basic functions of the mobile phone will be fully AI, and the large model will be combined with the mobile phone API and the underlying system to change the rules of the game. Zhou Hongyi also predicts that mobile apps may disappear in the future, and large models will subvert the existing form of mobile phones. Zhou Hongyi also said that manufacturers who do not turn to AI mobile phones will become the next "Nokia", and AI will enable Chinese mobile phones to achieve corner overtaking. Domestic manufacturers can work a little harder. Exceeds GPT4.0 in individual capabilities. (Source: Sina Technology)
NIO's global pilot driving function has launched the second batch of experience user recruitment, with a scale of 20,000 people
On March 21, NIO officially announced the launch of the second batch of user experience recruitment for the global pilot driving function (i.e., NOP+), with a scale of 20,000 people. Officials said that this is "the largest urban intelligent driving experience recruitment", and "726 cities across the country have achieved a network".
In the event announcement, the person in charge of the official community intelligent driving product and experience said, "Route coverage, capability iteration, and user growth are the three components of global pilot assistance from a product perspective. NIO has opened more than 1.08 million kilometers of swarm intelligence verification routes, including more than 720,000 kilometers of urban areas (excluding urban expressways), and 726 county-level cities have achieved a network of convergences, covering 99% of the country's cities. At present, NIO's NOP+ route coverage has been basically completed, and it will enter a wider area of long-tail coverage next. (Source: IT House)
Samsung plans to launch the AI chip Mach-1 in early 2025
On March 21, Samsung Electronics announced at its 55th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders that the company is preparing to launch its own AI accelerator chip, Mach-1, in early 2025, as reported by Sedaily.
The move means it will compete with the likes of Nvidia, but the South Korean company has no plans (at least not yet) to compete with Nvidia's ultra-high-end AI solutions like the H100, B100 or B200.
Samsung's Mach-1 is an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC)-based AI inference accelerator with LPDDR memory, which is ideal for edge computing applications. Samsung's Mach-1 has a unique feature that significantly reduces the memory bandwidth required for inference by about 0.125 times compared to existing designs, but it doesn't elaborate on how it does this, so be cautious about this claim. (Source: Pinwan)
Tencent released GiiNEX's self-developed game AI engine
On March 20, at the 2024 Global Game Developers Conference (GDC), Tencent unveiled its self-developed game AI engine, GiiNEX. Based on generative AI and decision-making AI technologies, GiiNEX will provide a wealth of AI solutions for the entire life cycle of games.
With the help of generative AI technologies such as large models, GiiNEX provides a variety of AIGC capabilities for AI NPCs, scene production, content generation, and other scenarios, including 2D images, animations, 3D cities, stories, dialogues, levels, and music, to help developers improve the efficiency of high-quality content generation. At the same time, GiiNEX will also use decision-making AI technology in scenarios such as game development and testing, simulation gameplay, etc., to accelerate game innovation and iteration, so as to quickly adapt to the personalized needs of players and changing market trends.
It is understood that GiiNEX includes three cores: cutting-edge algorithm model, efficient training platform, and online inference engine, which can support the full life cycle needs of games from R&D to operation. Among them, the underlying model of unified algorithms built based on basic AI research capabilities such as reinforcement learning and natural language processing can support more than 10 game types such as MOBA, FPS, and party games, a high-performance training platform customized for agents and large models, which can support the scheduling of 10,000-scale resources, and an online inference engine that is compatible with mainstream devices, realizing the hybrid deployment of mobile and cloud to ensure multi-terminal collaboration. (Source: Heart of the Machine)
The Epic Games Store is coming to iOS and Android, with a 12% rake, just like on PC
On March 21, Epic announced that the Epic Games Store will soon be available on iOS and Android.
Epic also said that for games distributed through the Epic Games Store, Epic will take a 12% cut, which is the same percentage it takes on Windows and Mac devices. App developers will receive 100% of the first six months of revenue at no cost to Epic, and no fees will be charged to apps that offer in-game purchases and use their own payment methods.
According to reports, games sold through the Epic Games Store require a 12% fee to Epic, and if there are more than 1 million downloads, a new installation will require a core technology fee (CTF) of 0.50 euros per year. Under Apple's updated EU terms of commerce, CTF is paid a commission of 10% to 17% for apps distributed through the App Store, which is lower than Apple's standard commission of 15% to 30%. (Source: Sohu Technology)
The Netflix version of "The Three-Body Problem" was launched: "Game of Thrones" was created by the main creator, and Liu Cixin served as a consultant
On March 21, the much-talked-about Netflix version of "The Three-Body Problem" premiered at 3 p.m. on the same day, the show is adapted from Liu Cixin's science fiction novel, with a total of 8 episodes of 60 minutes each, created by "Game of Thrones" creator David Benioff & D.B. Weiss and Alexander Wu, Liu Cixin and English translator Liu Yukun as consultant producers, and Zeng Guoxiang ("Young You") directed the first episode.
The first audience also revealed some parts of the adaptation: Ye Wenjie lives in the United States and has ties to a group of scientists known as the "Oxford Five". These scientists are all going through a career crisis, reunited after the suicide of Vera, a former Oxford University professor (presumably Yang Dong's character), committed suicide. (Source: cnBeta)