Here are a few of the stories I’ve found interesting over the past few days
Intel Announces Massive Change to Foundry Business
Big changes are coming to Intel. The company’s new CEO has announced a massive shift in the company’s strategy on building the various products it offers. Intel says that it will outsource some of its chips to third party foundries like TSMC and Samsung. This will mean that in the future, Intel products may be built by other companies. This is not a first for Intel, as it does outsource a small amount of its production already, but it will now increase that outsourcing.
But that doesn’t mean Intel is done building processors. The company also announced that it will invest $20 Billion USD into two new foundries in Arizona, and will actually open its existing foundries to third party companies to manufacture. This could mean that a future AMD processor in a laptop or desktop computer might actually have been built in an Intel facility.
All of this news is good for the industry as it grapples with a massive shortage of production capacity. While it will be several years before all of these plans are realized, this does show the path forward as companies all over the world deal with this shortage.
Quebec Government, Canadian Federal Government Reach Deal for High Speed Internet Access for 150,000 Homes
Another good news story out of the Canadian Broadband Fund established by the Government of Canada is seeing a plan to connect 150,000 more homes in Quebec to high speed internet. The Government of Canada and Government of Quebec are splitting the costs that will see several Internet Service Providers build out infrastructure to more areas in rural Quebec.
https://mobilesyrup.com/2021/03/22/governments-unprecedented-agreement-high-speed-internet-quebec/
NASA Details Plans for Mars Helicopter
NASA has detailed its plans to unload the Ingenuity helicopter from the Perseverance Lander, and the plans over the next few days to test to see if the small helicopter can actually fly on Mars.
I have nothing intelligent to add except to say that space is cool and I really hope a week from now we’ll be able to say that we are flying helicopters on another planet.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/03/nasa-lays-out-plans-for-its-first-flights-on-mars/
Microsoft Rebrands Xbox Live to Xbox Network
A few months ago Microsoft attempted to double the Price of Xbox Live Gold. That price hike would have made the service cost as much as Xbox Game Pass, which already included Xbox Live Gold. Microsoft backtracked literally hours later after justifiable backlash from the industry, but it did lead to speculation that the company was going to start to move away from the Xbox Live brand.
It appears that regardless of the status of the Xbox Live Gold program, that plan is still in the works. Microsoft has announced that it will rename the service that it calls Xbox Live to simply “Xbox network”.
Xbox Live launched in 2003 as the brand name for the online gaming services on the original Xbox. The service itself was called Xbox Live, and the service that users subscribed to to use the Xbox Live Service was called Xbox Live Gold. Through the Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and into the Xbox Series generation the full online service has retained the name Xbox Live
Microsoft is clearly trying to wind down the Xbox Live brand, and in the future it will call the Xbox online service the Xbox network. For now there is no change to the Xbox Live Gold subscription service, that will remain as is, with the name Xbox Live Gold, but from this point on when I turn my Xbox Series X on, instead of connecting to Xbox Live, it’ll be the Xbox network.
https://www.thurrott.com/games/xbox/248413/microsoft-renames-xbox-live
OnePlus 9 Pro Reviews
OnePlus has announced its new OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro smartphones. The OnePlus phones are known for being popular among the tech community as phones that offered almost the same experience as the biggest brands on the market at a lower price. In the last couple years OnePlus has gradually changed that brand and is now trying to compete more directly with the likes of Samsung and Apple, with the prices to match.
Reviews of the OnePlus 9 Pro seem very positive, but with the caveat that there isn’t necessarily a reason to choose OnePlus over Samsung in 2021, especially with Samsung now promising more and better Android updates than OnePlus.
https://www.theverge.com/22344840/oneplus-9-pro-review-price-camera-screen-specs