Google claims ‘Willow’ chip paves way in quantum computing, reveals UK’s most searched topics
Google has unveiled a new chip which it claims takes five minutes to solve a problem that would currently take the world’s fastest super computers ten septillion – or 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years – to complete. The chip is the latest development in a field known as quantum computing – which is attempting to use the principles of particle physics to create a new type of mind-bogglingly powerful computer. Google says its new quantum chip, dubbed “Willow”, incorporates key “breakthroughs” and “paves the way to a useful, large-scale quantum computer.” BBC
Google has revealed the UK’s most searched topics in 2024. After Oasis announced they were reuniting for a UK tour back in August, they instantly became the most searched musicians of the year, with ‘how to get Oasis tickets’ the second top trending ‘how to’ question of the year. Loads of us also asked when the US presidential election would be and searched for teenage darts sensation Luke Littler as he made history as the youngest player to reach the PDC World Championship final in January. Sky News
Virtual assistant units have become a staple in many UK households, telling people whether it is expected to rain, what the time is, and what the result in the football was. Among the most common used is Alexa, whose parent company Amazon has released the top questions and requests given to the software during 2024. Some were ones you would expect: “What is the value of bitcoin?”; “what is the population of earth?”; and “what does AI mean?”. But some of the other most popular questions were slightly more leftfield, such as “how long do you cook a sausage for?” and “how tall is Tom Cruise?”. The Guardian
Social networking startup and X competitor Bluesky is working on subscriptions. The company first announced plans to develop a new revenue stream based on the subscription model when detailing its $15 million Series A back in October. Now, mockups teasing the upcoming Bluesky subscription, along with a list of possible features, have been published to Bluesky’s GitHub. Though the company warns on GitHub that the list here is a user interface mockup only and the paid features could very well change ahead of launch, there’s reason to believe that at least some of these are under consideration for Bluesky’s premium subscription. Tech Crunch
Last week I was invited to a fancy industry dinner in Mayfair that required an electronic ticket. Strictly no admittance without it, I was warned, and no print-outs would be accepted. Not confident that my phone’s email app would work on the door, I took a screenshot as a precaution. Better safe than sorry. Across Britain today, it’s wise to take such precautions. The UK has fallen to 46th out of 56 developed countries for mobile download speeds, according to OpenSignal. And despite a decade of promises about “making the UK a 5G leader”, we’re 22nd out of 25th for our 5G rollout. Telegraph
Huawei launched the Mate 70 series two weeks ago, and today, the company CEO shared that all of its components are made in China. In front of an audience at the Baoan Middle School in Shenzhen, China, Huawei CEO Richard Yu announced that Huawei has achieved 100% domestic production of chips, which is a testament to the true autonomy of the semiconductor industry in China.
Richard Yu speaking in front of audience
There has been just a handful of teardown videos online, and they emphasize the new Kirin 9020 chipset, manufactured by SMIC – a Chinese semiconductor manufacturer working closely with Huawei. GSMArena
