This week in Tech:

Good morning: Since this is the first newsletter in February, Congrats to everyone who made it through Dry January. As a prize, you will all be receiving one extra day in February

In today’s newsletter:

1. Apple vision

2. nuclear battery- No charging for 50 years

3. Tour de headlines (Google Lumiere, AI in football practice, and ALT school launches in Kenya)

Apple Vision

The long-awaited Vision Pro recently graced Apple's shelves across the US. Historically, pivotal devices have reshaped our lives, with many attributed to Apple, such as Steve Jobs' revolutionary iPhone. Today, there's a growing sentiment that the Apple Vision could mark another transformative moment in the tech sphere. Just envision the possibilities of experiencing this anywhere, simply by donning a headset.

This marks a potential turning point for the entire tech industry. Despite efforts from companies like Meta and Samsung, augmented, virtual, and mixed reality headsets have largely remained novelty gadgets for gamers. Apple aims to disrupt this trend by positioning the Vision Pro as an essential tool for work and play, heralding an era of "spatial computing" where users engage in 3D virtual environments akin to Tony Stark in his garage.

Preorders suggest Apple may have already sold around 180,000 headsets, with an expected total of 400,000 units sold this year, amounting to $1.4 billion in sales.

Using the Vision Pro

The headset boasts 600 specialized apps but notably lacks access to Meta, Netflix, Spotify, Google, and YouTube. Despite this, Avatar director James Cameron described his demo as a "religious" experience, while early reviewers expressed awe alongside some concerns:

Pros: The 23-million-pixel visuals, especially in the immersive content and theater mode, received praise from John Gruber. Navigating screens with eye movements was highlighted as a cool feature by Casey Newton.

Cons: Criticisms include the virtual keyboard, cumbersome battery pack, solitary use design, potential impact on productivity, and its weight (heavier than an 11-inch iPad Pro, as noted by The Verge). and its $3.5k (over Ksh 550,000). cost

 After experiencing the Vision Pro, some reviewers found their conventional 2D devices feeling outdated.

Tour de Headlines:

World:

nuclear battery- No charging for 50 years

A Chinese startup, Betavolt, introduces a groundbreaking battery designed to last 50 years without charging or maintenance. Their nuclear battery, featuring nickel-63 isotopes, is smaller than a coin and already in pilot testing. With potential applications in aerospace, AI, medical equipment, and more, it's part of China's push for AI innovation. The technology converts decaying isotopes into electricity, building on 20th-century research. Betavolt plans to scale production, aiming for a 1-watt battery by 2025. Safe and environmentally friendly, these batteries offer endless possibilities, from perpetual mobile phones to everlasting drones. Get more on Nuclear Battery: 50 Years of Continuous Power, No Charging Needed

AI advancements

Lumiere

Google has introduced Lumiere, a space-time diffusion model for realistic video generation using generative AI. Lumiere aims to generate realistic and coherent motion in synthesized videos, addressing a challenge in video synthesis. It utilizes a Space-Time U-Net architecture to generate the entire temporal duration of a video in a single pass, resulting in better global temporal consistency and realistic motion. 

Lumiere was trained on a dataset of 30 million videos and can generate 80 frames at 16fps for 5-second videos. Through diffusion, it supports image-to-video, text-to-video generation, video inpainting, and stylized generation. Evaluation shows that Lumiere produces higher motion magnitude while maintaining quality, and user surveys prefer it. The models are not available for testing yet, but Lumiere has the potential to make an impact in the AI video space.

EfficientBioAI

Researchers at the Leibniz-Institut für Analytische Wissenschaften (ISAS) and Peking University have developed EfficientBioAI, an open-source compression software aimed at improving the efficiency of artificial intelligence (AI) models used in bioimaging.

The software aims to address the increasing computing power and energy consumption associated with complex AI models. By applying techniques such as model compression and pruning, the software reduces latency and energy consumption while maintaining comparable prediction accuracy. 

Testing showed energy savings of up to 81%. EfficientBioAI can be seamlessly integrated into existing PyTorch libraries and is accessible to scientists in biomedical research. The software is available on GitHub and further developments are underway, including compatibility with MacOS. The focus is on improving inference efficiency for pre-trained models.

AI in football practice

Top footballers are using AI and VR tools to enhance cognitive skills like scanning, situational awareness, and decision-making. Tools like “Be Your Best” can improve these skills by generating VR simulations of football matches for scanning practice. Players train to receive the ball at the right moments. Tools track performance metrics and some let players adjust game speed, for recovering players or skill advancement. Clubs like Arsenal, Real Madrid, and FC Copenhagen have tested cognitive training systems, with some clubs co-developing assessment tools. 

Younger players are a focus as coaches seek to identify cognitive capabilities early to guide development. While not at the level of commercial games, VR training simulations are engaging and effective for skills development, with the potential to digitally disrupt coaching methods.

Africa:

1. Google Unveils First Africa Cloud Region in South Africa, Offering Local Businesses Access to Powerful Cloud Services. The launch addresses concerns raised by African founders regarding the steep expenses associated with cloud services.

2. AltSchool Africa, a Nigerian educational technology startup, expands its presence to Kenya, marking its second entry into an East African country following its launch in Rwanda last year. The move to Kenya is driven by the country's substantial user base, ranking second only to Nigeria.