Tech News

• Samsung has entered production of uEFS 3.1 modules, which are the same as eUFS 3.0 only .1 better.  (AnandTech)
  
  Huge improvement on sequential write performance, from 410MB/s to 1200MB/s.  How much phones really need that I don't know, but in some situations, like saving raw photo data, that would be a big help.
  
  
  
• The 70s are back, and this time they're fractal.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  Fractal Design, to be specific.

  The blue and rose-gold options both also come with the dark tempered glass pane, but if you want a more natural look, there is also a grey option with a walnut top insert and a white silver choice with a white oak top.

  Only walnut and white oak?  What about beech and cherry?
  
  
  
• American journalists encounter actual totalitarianism.  (TechDirt)
  
  And they don't like it much.
  
  
  
• An Italian hospital ran out of valves for much-needed ventilators, so they 3d-printed them for $1 each.  (TechDirt)
  
  The manufacturer (a) wanted $10,000 each, (b) couldn't supply them, (c) refused to provide the 3d model so that they could be manufactured locally, and (d) threatened to sue.  In all, not a good PR move during a global pandemic.
  
  
  
• Sony is having their PS5 launch event right now.  It's soporific, but amusingly they've composited a shadow audience into the video, MST3K-style.
  
  
  
• Apple's brand new iPad Pro hsa a trackpad.  (Apple)
  
  And a really ugly camera module.
  
  Okay, the trackpad is in the optional keyboard, making it a potential laptop alternative if it didn't suck at being a laptop.
  
  Also, LiDAR for collision detection.
  
  
  
• Apple also updated the MacBook Air and Mac mini.  (Six Colors)
  
  The Air gets the new, slightly less sucky keyboard from the MacBook Pro.  The mini gets more storage.
  
  
  
• Why all([]) returns True in Python.
  
  Mathematically Python is doing the right thing here, no question; the article instead discusses why mathematics is the way it is.