Facebook is giving up on using face recognition in its app a decade after introducing the feature, and in the coming weeks Facebook’s parent company Meta says it will delete facial recognition templates for a billion different people.

In other recent tech news from around the web, we have a deep-dive into performance of the new Google Tensor processor that powers the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro smartphones, a look at new features coming to ARM, RISC-V and MIPS processors in the latest Linux kernel, and news that Netflix is getting a little more serious about games, and Microsoft’s Edge web browser is now available for Linux.

Google Tensor processor: A Look into Performance & Efficiency of the Pixel 6 chip [AnandTech]

Google says it designed the Tensor chip for Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro specifically for on-device machine learning. AnandTech put it through the paces and found that it delivers, at least for natural language processing. CPU and graphics are less impressive.

Linux 5.15 LTS release – Main Changes, Arm, RISC-V and MIPS architectures [CNX Software]

Linux 5.15 was released over the weekend. It’s a long term support kernel with support through at least October, 2023. CNX Software has a nice run-down of key new features for ARM, RISC-V and MIPS chips.

Facebook, Citing Societal Concerns, Plans to Shut Down Facial Recognition System [New York Times]

Meta announced plans to “limit the use of facial recognition,” including shutting down face recognition in Facebook and deleting face profiles for a billion individuals. It removes a kind of useful feature, but also addresses a major privacy concern. Facebook first introduced Face Recognition in 20210 as a way to automatically detect individuals in a photo, so the app could suggest people to tag or provide other information. 

Facebook

Amazon Music launches its first true podcasts feature: synced transcripts [The Verge]

Amazon Music launches synchronized transcripts for select podcasts, letting you read automatically generated transcripts while you listen in the iOS and Android apps. Moving through the transcript will jump to that spot in the audio. The feature will only be available on a limited set of shows at launch, including those from Amazon Music and Amazon-owned Wondery, as well as some third-party partners that have worked with Amazon including American Public Media, Stitcher, TED, and The New York Times. 

Let the Games Begin: A New Way to Experience Entertainment on Mobile [Netflix]

After launching a few mobile games in recent years, now Netflix is rolling out exclusives that are available to play ad-free with a Netflix membership. Available via Google Play now, but coming to the Netflix app November 3rd. More games on the way.

Microsoft Edge browser is now available for Linux [Microsoft]

Microsoft Edge browser is now available for Linux in a stable channel version (it was previously dev/beta-only). It’s available in .deb and .rpm packages.

Huawei E-reader a.k.a ink screen with Harmony OS to launch soon [GizmoChina]

Huawei may be planning to launch an eReader with an ePaper display and the company’s Android-like HarmonyOS software. We don’t know the name or specs yet, but it’s said to have the model number HMW-1L10.

It’s ‘RIP’ for the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL [Droid Life]

Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL have stopped receiving security and feature updates, three years after launch.

Audacity 3.1 – A Significant Audio Editing Improvement [Audacity / YouTube]

Audacity 3.1 released with initial support for non-destructive audio editing, among other things. Clip trimming lets you cut the start or end of an audio clip without deleting that section, allowing you drag the edge back out again at any time.

Royole F3 foldable phone leaked [@evleaks]

Chinese display maker Royole beat Samsung (and everyone else) to market by unveiling the first smartphone with a foldable OLED display a few years ago. It wasn’t a very good phone, but it was first. Now we have a first look at the company’s 3rd-gen model.

Maemo Leste update (mobile Linux distro) [Maemo Leste]

The Maemo Leste describes recent changes including the addition of the modest mail client, Tor integration for private communication, Wireguard support, support for hidden wireless access points, audio improvements, and much more.

Keep up on the latest headlines by following Liliputing on Twitter and Facebook and follow @LinuxSmartphone on Twitter and Facebook for the latest news on open source mobile phones.

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3 replies on “Lilbits: Facebook abandons facial recognition, Linux 5.15 released, Netflix games, Microsoft Edge for Linux, and more”

  1. Yeah, there’s no way that “societal concerns” is the whole story. Not with a social engineering giant like Facebook. There must be something else, but I’m not sure which ones of the theories I have heard are correct:
    1. everyone is supposed to be wearing masks at all times, now and forevermore, diminishing the value of a face. Doesn’t fully stop facial recognition from working, though.
    2. Some law or regulation changed.
    3. The more valuable global demographics have largely moved to Instagram (which isn’t getting rid of it) and Discord.
    4. They won’t really delete anything.
    5. They got enough data to make machine learning models that they think are good enough for something or other and that they’ll never need to improve them.
    6. They managed to sell all the data.
    7. It’s being replaced, for some applications, with iris recognition.

  2. Abandons facial recognition? do they need an update of user’s biometrics with Meth-a?> new virtual-reality googles reads iris in real time.
    Are they getting biometric data from another source?
    Worldcoin project is sharing their iris database with Meth-a?>Soon you’ll see iris scanners in every city, sell your iris data for money, what could be wrong?…

  3. “Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL have stopped receiving security and feature updates, three years after launch.”

    Perfectly usable hardware and software being tossed on the garbage pile. Talk about bad for the environment! Where’s all the “Green” outrage?

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