After years of hinting, Nvidia announced yesterday that it would be open-sourcing part of its Linux GPU driver, as both Intel and AMD have done for years now. Previously, Linux users who wanted to avoid Nvidia’s proprietary driver had to rely on reverse-engineered software like the Nouveau project, which worked best on older hardware and offered incomplete support at best for all of Nvidia’s GPU features.

“This release is a significant step toward improving the experience of using NVIDIA GPUs in Linux, for tighter integration with the OS, and for developers to debug, integrate, and contribute back,” says a blog post attributed to several Nvidia employees. “For Linux distribution providers, the open source modules increase ease of use. They also improve the out-of-the-box user experience to sign and distribute the NVIDIA GPU driver. Canonical and SUSE are able to immediately package the open kernel modules with Ubuntu and SUSE Linux Enterprise Distributions. “

Nvidia is specifically releasing an open source kernel driver under a dual MIT / GPL license and is not currently open-sourcing parts of the driver that run in user space. This includes drivers for OpenGL, Vulkan, OpenCL, and CUDA, which are still closed source, in addition to the firmware for the GPU System Processor (GSP). Nvidia says these drivers “will remain closed source and published with pre-built binaries,” so it doesn’t sound like there are immediate plans to release open source versions.

Nvidia is still behind both Intel and AMD when it comes to open source GPU drivers — both companies maintain open source kernel and user space drivers, along with closed-source firmware. But this is a first step toward open source parity for Nvidia’s Linux driver packages.

Nvidia’s open source drivers only support the company’s Turing-based GPUs and newer, including the GeForce GTX 1600 series, the RTX 2000 and 3000 series, and Quadro workstation GPUs based on the same architecture. The company’s proprietary drivers go all the way back to 2012’s Kepler architecture.

The open source drivers also won’t be integrated upstream into the Linux kernel yet, since, as Phoronix reports, the API, ABI, and the interface between the kernel driver and the GSP firmware interface have not been finalized. This means that everything, from the firmware to the kernel driver to the user space drivers, needs to match versions to work properly (today’s release is version R515.43.04). Once those interfaces have been finalized, the driver can be upstreamed into the kernel, and different versions of the firmware, kernel driver, and user space drivers should be able to interoperate.

Nvidia says that support for its data center GPUs in the current drivers is “production ready” in this initial release but that support for GeForce, Quadro, and other consumer GPUs is “alpha quality” —this isn’t software you’ll want to rush to install unless you’re wanting to kick its tires on a testbed system or contribute to the code yourself.

Hector Martin, one of the developers behind the Asahi Linux distribution, criticized Nvidia for moving many functions into its closed-source firmware, which the open source driver then calls into. Martin calls the open source driver “a net win for practical purposes” since the blob of proprietary code can be sandboxed more readily. “But no freedom was gained, for people who care about that,” he writes. “[About] the same amount of code is closed [as before]. “

<p>The post Nvidia takes first step toward open source Linux GPU drivers first appeared on harchi90.</p>

The latest Japanese charts are in and thanks to ‘Golden Week’, today’s figures cover two weeks’ worth of sales, from April 25th to May 8th. This means, of course, that’s it’s the debut entry of Nintendo Switch Sports, which storms to the top of the pile with 304,588 units sold.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land continues to sell well, clawing back into second spot with 77,330 units sold. Elsewhere, it seems to be business as usual for the heavily Switch-centric charts, with just one PS4 game making its way into the line-up.

Here are the full figures for the week:

1. [NSW] Nintendo Switch Sports (Nintendo, 04/29/22) – 304,588 (New)
2. [NSW] Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Nintendo, 03/25/22) – 77,330 (695,811)
3. [NSW] eBASEBALL Powerful Pro Baseball 2022 (Konami, 04/21/22) – 61.209 (153.933)
4. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo, 04/28/17) – 41,802 (4,621,427)
5. [PS4] eBASEBALL Powerful Pro Baseball 2022 (Konami, 04/21/22) – 26,444 (80,983)
6. [NSW] Minecraft (Microsoft, 06/21/18) – 22,952 (2,635,396)
7. [NSW] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Nintendo, 12/07/18) – 20,417 (4,873,950)
8. [NSW] Ring Fit Adventure (Nintendo, 10/18/19) – 17,309 (3,144,888)
9. [NSW] Mario Party Superstars (Nintendo, 10/29/21) – 16,686 (959,773)
10. [NSW] Pokemon Legends: Arceus (The Pokemon Company, 01/28/22) – 15,235 (2,243,757)

Hardware sales for the two weeks show no major surprises. Switch continues to sell well, with the OLED model in particular having a grand ol ‘time there at the top of the pile. PS5 sees a nice increase in sales, despite factoring in the two-week period, and the New 2DS LL is still hanging out and chilling in eighth place.

1. Switch OLED Model – 101,489 (1,721,151)
2. Switch – 53,092 (18,268,375)
3. PlayStation 5 – 46,415 (1,382,888)
4. Switch Lite – 22,011 (4,710,282)
5. Xbox Series S – 10,610 (99,288)
6. Xbox Series X – 3,508 (99,364)
7. PlayStation 5 Digital Edition – 3,383 (235,257)
8. New 2DS LL (including 2DS) – 452 (1,185,724)
9. PlayStation 4 – 81 (7,819,526)

Share your thoughts on the latest charts in the comments section below. Have you bought Nintendo Switch Sports yourself?

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<p>The post Japanese Charts: Nintendo Switch Sports Dominates As Kirby Holds Strong first appeared on harchi90.</p>

Following reports that Google has been developing AR glassesthe company indeed announced a prototype pair of glasses at this year’s Google I / O conference.

Google’s focus with these glasses appears to be helpful features such as language translation. Google acquired smart glasses maker North in 2020and its work with Google Glass pioneered smart eyewear nearly a decade ago.

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Google’s tease of its glasses was brief, but the company’s continued strides in AR tools through its phones, search and Lens look ready to carry over to its glasses, too. But there’s no clear indicator when these glasses might be available to buy.

Google has been active in VR and AR for years. While no company has everyday smart glasses in regular use, Google looks like it’s going to try again.

One of the most interesting parts of its new glasses initiative is a focus on practical utility. The ability to understand and be understood is actually useful. These glasses aren’t focusing on floating dinosaurs or magic experiences; they’re trying to assist. Meta’s recent smart glass ambitions also aim at providing utility, but Google’s experience and tools seem well suited for the challenge.

As Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai noted in a blog post, the company is working on making these prototype glasses deliver language in a line-of-sight experience. Google’s work with AR will likely be incremental, but it also looks like it’s trying for services first. In that sense, these glasses already seem a lot different than the more magical VR headset that Daydream was. In many ways, it seems like the sort of stuff I always expected Google Glass to do someday.

<p>The post Unlike Google Glass, These New AR Glasses Unveiled at I / O Might Actually Be Practical first appeared on harchi90.</p>

It’s once again time for a new Dealmaster. Our latest roundup of the best tech deals from around the web includes a nice discount on Apple’s latest iPad Mini, which is currently down to $ 409 at Amazon and Walmart. While that’s $ 10 more than the all-time low we saw earlier this month, it’s the best discount we’ve seen otherwise, still coming in at $ 90 below Apple’s MSRP and about $ 50 below its recent street price online.

We gave the new Mini a positive review upon its launch last September, praising its refreshed, iPad Pro-inspired design, solid performance aided by Apple’s A15 chip, accurate display, and respectable front and rear cameras, among other features. In general, it does what it sets out to do: be a small iPad that works about as well as any other modern iPad. Just note that it’s really only for people who specifically want the more diminutive 8.3-inch display; the roomier iPad Air and iPad Pro are generally better suited to the kind of multitasking and productivity-focused updates Apple has been pumping into iPadOS in recent years, and the M1 chip in those tablets is more performant (albeit to the point of overkill in some cases).

The $ 329 iPad, meanwhile, still does the job for more casual uses at a much lower price, though its design is far more dated. The iPad Mini is meant for a particular niche, in other words, but if you really want a higher-quality, one-handed tablet for e-reading, web browsing, or doodling with an Apple Pencil, the Mini is the one to get , and this deal makes its typically high price a bit more approachable.

Besides that, we also have the best price we’ve tracked on the latest Apple TV 4K, which is currently available for $ 150, down from its usual going rate of $ 170. We still recommend most people consider a (far) more affordable 4K streaming dongle like the Google Chromecast first, but if you’re sensitive to the ads that cheaper streamers tend to stuff in their UIs, the Apple TV still has all the requisite bells and whistles and performs well. Its remote is vastly improved from prior horror shows as well.

Elsewhere, our roundup includes the first major discount we’ve tracked for the PS5 and PS4 versions of the popular RPG Elden Ringdeals on a number of recent Pokémon games for the Nintendo Switch, discounts on Anker wireless headphones and Razer gaming mice we like, Nintendo eShop gift cards, Wacom drawing tablets, USB-C chargers, and much more. You can take a look at our full curated list below.

Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.

Featured deals of the day

• Apple iPad Mini (64GB) 8.3-inch tablet for $ 409 ($ 460) at Amazon, Walmart
• Apple TV 4K (32GB) 4K media streamer for $ 150 ($ 170) at Amazon, Costco
• Elden Ring (PS5, PS4) for $ 50 ($ 59) at Amazon, Walmart, GameStop
• Pokémon Legends: Arceus (Switch) for $ 50 ($ 60) at Amazon, Walmart
• $ 50 Nintendo eShop Gift Card for $ 45 ($ 50) at Amazon
• Anker Soundcore Life Q30 wireless ANC headphones for $ 68 ($ 85) at Amazon, Walmart
• Wacom Intuos (small) drawing tablet for $ 50 ($ 65) at Amazon
• SanDisk Ultra (1TB, U1, A1) microSD card for $ 125 ($ 138) at Amazon, B&H
• Razer Viper Ultimate wireless gaming mouse + RGB charging dock for $ 80 ($ 95) at Amazon, Best Buy
• LEGO Architecture Taj Mahal (21056) building kit for $ 96 ($ 120) at Walmart
• RavPower RP-PC150 (2-pack) 20W USB-C PD charger for $ 9 ($ 25) at RavPower (use code: DNLP50)

Electronics deals

Laptop and desktop PC deals

• Apple Mac Mini (Apple M1, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) for $ 570 ($ 650) at Amazon, Costco (discount in cart)
• Acer Swift 3 13.5-inch laptop (2256 × 1504, Intel Core i5-1135G7, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD) for $ 499 ($ 700) at Walmart
• Apple MacBook Pro (2021) 14.2-inch laptop (Apple M1 Pro, 3024 × 1964, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) for $ 2,250 ($ 2,400) at Amazon (discount in cart)
• Lenovo Legion Slim 7 15.6-inch gaming laptop (Ryzen 7 5800H, 1080p, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, GeForce RTX 3060 Max-Q 6GB GPU) for $ 1,100 ($ 1,350) at Best Buy
• SK Hynix Gold P31 (2TB NVMe) PCIe 3.0 internal SSD for $ 199 ($ 215) at Amazon
• LG 27GP850-B 27-inch gaming monitor (1440p, 180 Hz, IPS, FreeSync, G-Sync Compatible) for $ 347 ($ 400) at Amazon, Adorama
• AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 8-core / 16-thread desktop processor for $ 310 ($ 345) at Amazon, B&H
• AMD Ryzen 7 5600X 6-core / 12-thread desktop processor for $ 200 ($ 230) at Amazon, B&H
• AMD Ryzen 5 5600G 6-core / 12-thread desktop CPU for $ 179 ($ 215) at Amazon, B&H

Video game deals

• Pokémon Legends: Arceus (Switch) for $ 50 ($ 60) at Amazon, Walmart
• Pokémon Brilliant Diamond (Switch) for $ 40 ($ 55) at Amazon, Best Buy
• Pokémon Shining Pearl (Switch) for $ 40 ($ 55) at Amazon, Best Buy
• New Pokémon Snap (Switch) for $ 40 ($ 55) at Best Buy, GameStop
• LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (Switch) for $ 45 ($ 60) at Woot
• Triangle Strategy (Switch) for $ 50 ($ 60) at Amazon, Walmart, GameStop
• Elden Ring (PS5, PS4) for $ 50 ($ 59) at Amazon, Walmart, GameStop
• Deathloop (PS5, PC) for $ 25 ($ 33) at Amazon
• Ghostwire: Tokyo (PS5, PC) for $ 40 ($ 60) at Amazon, Target, Best Buy
• Person 5 (PS4) for $ 10 ($ 15) at Amazon, Best Buy
• Resident Evil 2 (PS4, Xbox) for $ 11 ($ 20) at Best Buy
• Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PS4) for $ 4 ($ 15) at PSN
• The Yakuza Remastered Collection (PS4) for $ 16 ($ 25) at PSN (also on Game Pass)
• Heavenly (PC) for $ 5 ($ 15) at Humble
• Before Your Eyes (PC) for $ 3 ($ 8) at Fanatical
• Inscryption (PC) for $ 14 ($ 19) at Humble, Steam

Enlarge / The haunting and punishing RPG Elden Ring is set in a massive yet wonderfully realized open world.

Accessories and miscellaneous deals

<p>The post Today’s best deals: iPad Mini, Apple TV 4K, Elden Ring, and more first appeared on harchi90.</p>

While there are as yet no concrete rumors related to which devices iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 will support, the discontinuation of the iPod touch earlier this week may be an indication that as many as nine devices could be about to lose support for Apple’s upcoming operating systems .

iOS and iPadOS 13, 14, and 15 support all of the same devices, with the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus, seventh-generation iPod touch, iPad Air 2, fifth-generation iPad, iPad mini 4, and first-generation iPad Pro being the oldest supported iPhones and iPads.

While Apple could simply drop support for the oldest iPhones and iPads that still receive the latest updates, memory is likely to be the deciding factor about which devices iOS 16 and iPadOS 16. When Apple introduced iOS 13, it dropped support for all devices with less than 2GB of memory. This wiped out support for a large number of A7- and A8-based devices, such as the iPhone 5S, iPhone 6, and iPhone 6 Plus, as well as the first-generation iPad Air, iPad mini 2, iPad mini 3, and sixth-generation iPod touch. This is also why the iPad mini 4, which features 2GB of memory, has continued to be supported by iOS 13, 14, and 15, even though it has the A8 chip.

It seems plausible that if iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 require 3GB of memory, nine devices with the A9 and A10 Fusion chips could lose support. Even though the iPhone 7 Plus and seventh-generation iPad contain the A10 Fusion chip, both devices feature 3GB of memory, meaning that they are more likely to retain support when Apple next drops support for older devices.

There is also little evidence to suggest that Apple will support the seventh-generation iPod touch, an A10-based device with 2GB of memory, simply because it continued to sell it until now. Apple discontinued the sixth-generation iPod touch in May 2019 and it was excluded from receiving iOS 13, which was released just four months later. The company could repeat this pattern with the seventh-generation iPod touch, discontinuing it in May 2022 before excluding it from iOS 16 support just months later. Moreover, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes that watchOS 9 will drop support for the Apple Watch Series 3 later this year, even though it is still on sale.

If Apple chooses to make 3GB of memory a requirement to run iOS 16 and iPadOS 16, the following devices could be supported:

This would make the iPhone 7 Plus the oldest supported iPhone, and the third-generation iPad Air, seventh-generation iPad, fifth-generation iPad mini, and first-generation iPad Pro the oldest supported iPad models. That being said, Apple could look to avoid any confusion about why the iPhone 7 Plus is supported while the iPhone 7 is not by dropping support for both devices simultaneously, regardless of the iPhone 7 Plus’s added memory.

It is important to note that iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 could continue to support all of the same devices as iOS and iPadOS 13, 14, and 15. Nevertheless, it seems like just a matter of time before Apple drops support for some older devices, be it this year or next. When that does occur, it seems probable that only the above devices will retain support.

In line with previous years, Apple will introduce major updates to all of its operating systems at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 6, 2022. iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and watchOS 9 are rumored to offer a large number of features and improvements, including enhanced notifications, car crash detection, a new multitasking interface for iPad, the Apple Classical app, and more.

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<p>The post Which Devices Will iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 Support? first appeared on harchi90.</p>

If you like the idea of ​​a robot that can clean and mop your floors but dislike having to clean up before it runs and really dislike those $ 800 price tags, budget vac maker Yeedi has a bot for you. The new $ 449.99 Yeedi Vac 2 Pro can vacuum and mop simultaneously using an oscillating mopping system that actually scrubs. It also intelligently avoids mopping your carpets and has 3D obstacle avoidance, so it can get through the job without being derailed by a pair of shoes.

Available starting today, the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro launches alongside the $ 349 Yeedi Vac 2, which also has obstacle detection but just a standard mopping system with no carpet avoidance, although it does have a larger water tank. Both models have 3,000Pa suction power and can work with Yeedi’s auto-empty bin ($ 199.99), but the Pro has longer battery life.

I’ve spent a week or so with the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro, and while it does a good job at vacuuming and mopping and avoiding obstacles, it still costs $ 450. Throw in the auto-empty base, and you’re up to $ 650. For that amount of money, you can buy a Roomba i3 Plus (iRobot’s $ 550 midrange auto-empty bot that doesn’t mop) and have some cash left over to buy a decent manual mop. While the Yeedi is a good robot with some high-end features for a lower price, it’s not cheap enough or smart enough to really disrupt the big boys.

I have used and like Yeedi’s very budget robots, such as the $ 179.99 Yeedi K650. It does a simple job well. There’s no obstacle avoidance or room-specific cleaning, but it has a huge bin, and it really sucks up the dirt as it bumps and rolls around your house. By jumping up into the robot vacuum arena where smart mapping, obstacle avoidance, and oscillating mopping are playing, the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro is punching above its weight, and while it holds its own on the hardware front, the mapping / software experience is lackluster .

The best feature of the new Yeedi is its oscillating mopping action, meaning it scrubs your floors rather than just wiping them. And this worked well, leaving my floors much cleaner than most standard robot vac mops (not as clean as the Roborock S7, but that’s $ 200 more). But it has a cheap-feeling, thin scrap of a mopping pad that doesn’t seem like it will stand up to more than a couple of washes and doesn’t come with any extra pads (you can buy replacements for $ 20 for a three -pack). Also, the water reservoir only holds 180mL, so you need to refill it on every run.

While the Yeedi can now auto-avoid carpeted areas when mopping and increase suction as it goes over rugs in vacuum-only mode, this is a standard feature on a lot of mopping vacs today. You also have to remove the mopping tank if you want to vacuum your carpets as it can’t vacuum them with its mop on. It’s not a big chore but does mean you are less likely to use the mopping feature regularly if you have a lot of rugs or carpets you also want to keep clean. Higher-end options like the Roborock S7 have found a way to address this, by lifting the mop when going over carpet. The Roborock also uses this feature to air dry the mop while charging, with the Yeedi you have to remove it after every mopping run.

The Yeedi vacuum has an impressive 3000Pa of suction power and a big 5,200mAh battery that promises over three hours runtime, easily on par with most top-of-the-line models. But it never ran for more than 85 minutes in testing and often returned with a low battery. The Yeedi did a good job of cleaning my house in neat, methodical rows, carefully navigating around objects without banging into things, and covering most of my floor. Although it did occasionally skip large areas for no obvious reason.

This is probably due to its navigation and mapping tech. Most high-end robot vacuums use lidar-based SLAM mapping, deploying a more precise laser tech to determine where your rooms are. Yeedi uses a camera on top of the robot for navigation, which is a cheaper technology and much less precise. This visual SLAM mapping failed to properly identify the rooms in my house, struggling to see the wider doorways.

The robot could only find two rooms in my five-room, 800-square-foot downstairs area, and that was after two tries. After its first mapping run, it was convinced I lived in one giant room. But even without specific rooms, I could create digital keep-out zones, areas I don’t want the robot to go to, which are another basic necessity on any decent robot vacuum these days. You can only have one map at the moment, but Yeedi says multi-floor mapping is coming.

Yeedi did recently push a software update that added the ability to divide and merge rooms on the map, so I was able to manually create rooms and use the room-specific cleaning features. However, its navigation smarts failed it a few times, with the robot missing an entire room a couple of times and ending the cleaning job before it had reached everywhere.

Obstacle avoidance is also less effective compared to more expensive competitors deploying AI-powered avoidance tech. The robot uses 3D structured light technology to detect items that are over an inch tall, so floor mats, cables, pencils, and your kitty’s little accident won’t be avoided. It does do well at avoiding bigger items, such as a pair of shoes or a school backpack left in the hall, but pencils, headphones, cables, and socks all tripped it up.

The Yeedi is good at navigating around things, maneuvering through chair legs and over thick rug tassels with no trouble. In fact, it’s one of the only bot vacs I’ve tested that figured its way out of my lounge chair trap (skinny flat lounger feet next to an ottoman with skinny flat feet). I could hear its motor getting louder and quieter as it navigated its way around the problem like it was thinking really hard, finally freeing itself after a few minutes. All this means while you don’t have to tidy up as much if you want to make sure the robot finishes its run, you can’t be totally carefree about it all.

The Yeedi Vac 2 Pro works with Yeedi’s self-empty station for emptying the bin, an add-on I highly recommend for anyone considering a robot vacuum. It’s no fun dumping dust out of those tiny bins, and with a self-empty station, the robot can empty its own bin into a bag that Yeedi says will hold about 30 days of dust (replacement bags costs $ 17 for three). You just pull out the self-sealing bag and dispose of it easily without getting dust everywhere. But for an extra $ 200, this makes the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro a lot more expensive.

The Yeedi’s auto-empty station worked fine in testing, it didn’t get clogged and effectively emptied the 420mL bin onboard the bot on most attempts (I had to help it out once because the bin was really full). Be warned, it is a very loud process that goes on for about 20 seconds. Unlike a couple of higher-end mop / vac robots, the Yeedi auto-empty station is for dust only; it can’t empty or refill the mop reservoir. You’ll need to do that yourself before and after every mopping session.

Yeedi’s app has seen a lot of improvements since I first tested it a couple of years ago when it was rather flaky. But it still has its moments including slow loading and poor grammar in some areas. But the main features you want are there – room-specific cleaning (if it can find your rooms), clean zones, and the option to set a cleaning sequence (go to the kitchen first, then the living room, then the dining room, and so on), set schedules for the robot, and adjust the cleaning levels.

There are four vacuum suction levels – and the robot is super quiet on the lowest setting – plus three water-flow levels for the mop (I always use the highest setting for the best clean). You can turn on continuous cleaning so that it will go back to its base and recharge if it needs to finish a job; plus, there’s a handy Do Not Disturb setting.

The Yeedi Vac 2 Pro ticks all the right boxes – but some of its features, such as mapping, just aren’t as well-executed as those on the Roborocks and iRobots of this space. That’s not a big surprise as this is a budget bot, and for $ 200 less than the nearest comparable competitor, the Roborock S7, it might suit you fine.

If you do step up to the Roborock (which has sonic mopping, lidar mapping, and standard obstacle avoidance), your robot can vacuum and mop your floors and vacuum your carpets, all in one go. If you can dispense with robot mopping, the Roomba i3 is $ 100 cheaper and delivers a better clean and significantly better app / ecosystem experience, but it doesn’t have obstacle avoidance. Ecovacs has several remarkably similar options at various price points, but, as I noted in my review of its flagship robot vacuum, its mapping also suffers from accuracy issues. However, if you have a budget of $ 450 for a robot vacuum, really want a mop that can scrub and won’t get stuck, and don’t care about super-accurate mapping, the Yeedi Vac 2 Pro will get the job done.

Photos by Jenifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge

<p>The post Yeedi Vac 2 Pro review: this vacuuming and mopping robot has high-end features for a lower price first appeared on harchi90.</p>