Flash memory breakthrough could help supercharge NAND production for SSD, memory cards - but does it actually matter? - Related to its, cards, actually, supercharge, commercially

Adobe releases its first commercially safe Firefly video generating AI

Following on the success of its IP-friendly Firefly Image model, Adobe presented on Wednesday the beta release of a new Firefly Video model, as well as two subscription packages with which to access its audio and video generating abilities. Generate Video, , “empowers creative professionals with tools to generate video clips from a text prompt or image, use camera angles to control shots, create professional quality images from 3D sketches, craft atmospheric elements and develop custom motion design elements.”.

The model will initially be able to generate video in 1080p resolution to start, though the business plans to release a 4k model for professional production work in the near future. Like the image generator, Firefly Video is trained exclusively on Adobe stock, licensed, and public domain content, making its outputs usable in commercial applications without fear of them running afoul of copyright or intellectual property protections. And, unlike Grok 2, there’s minimal chance of it outputting racist, offensive, or illegal content.

Firefly Video will be accessible both through Adobe Premiere Pro (as the Generative Extend tool) and through a new web application , [website] customers will be able to generate video clips from both text prompts and reference images, as well as add atmospheric effects and custom motion design elements. They’ll even be able to lock in the first and last frames of a clip, “to preserve visual continuity, keep colors and character details consistent.”.

The new Scene to Image feature allows customers to “seamlessly render production-ready assets” using a 3D sketching tool, converting a creator’s concept art into high resolution images and structure references that can then be used to iterate a generated video clip. Firefly Video can also generate audio to translate spoken dialog into any of 20 languages.

Adobe is rolling out a pair of subscription plans alongside Firefly Video, either of which will grant you full access to the new model. The $10 per month Firefly Standard plan offers 2,000 video/audio credits per month worth as many as 20 5-second video generations at 1080p. The $30 per month Firefly Pro plan, on the other hand, provides 7,000 video/audio credits per month which will get you up to 70 5-second clips at 1080p. Adobe also revealed that a “Firefly Premium” plan is in the works, geared towards professionals looking to generate high volumes of video and audio, though there’s no word yet on what it might cost or when it will be released.

Adobe Firefly Video Model Coming Soon | Adobe Video.

Adobe first teased the Firefly video model in April of last year before providing a preview of its capabilities in September. It enters an increasingly crowded market with competition from both premium and free-to use models alike, such as Kling AI, Meta’s Movie Gen, and OpenAI’s Sora.

Crytek hat bekannt gegeben, dass das Frankfurter Entwicklerstudio 15 Prozent seiner 400 Mitarbeiter, also 60 Angestellte, entlässt und die Arbeiten an......

A recent leak from the reliable analyst Evan Blass has revealed a bunch of new ThinkPad, ThinkBook, and Yoga devices set to see the light of day at MW......

Microsoft has released the KB5051974 cumulative upgrade for versions 22H2 and 21H2, adding security fixes and patching a memory leak. However, as Bleep......

This breakthrough holographic display could make AR glasses a reality in 2026

Table of Contents Table of Contents Swave’s HXR display What’s a holographic display? Swave HXR in AR glasses Swave HXR in 2026? Alternatives for 2025.

Consumer AR glasses could soon become a reality thanks to a breakthrough holographic chip from Swave. Lightweight, low-power, affordable AR glasses have thus far been a distant dream.

The best smart glasses can display massive virtual screens but require a phone or other device for video and power. The buzz around AR glasses has been growing, spurred by an impressive Meta Orion prototype demonstration and the powerful new Snap Spectacles improvement. However, we’re still waiting for comfortable, affordable glasses that display bright, crisp images over a wide field of view.

Swave’s holographic extended reality (HXR) display should be lighter and more compact than the birdbath optics used in leading smart glasses, yet it could significantly boost resolution and brightness. The latest smart glasses with heads-up displays (HUDs) use waveguides, which limit the field of view (FoV) and often lack color.

With a densely packed holographic display powered by lasers, Swave’s full-color HXR will provide up to 64 gigapixels of resolution with minimal light loss. Using phase-change technology similar to rewritable DVDs, it’s a low-cost solution with pixels that are 170 times smaller than standard displays, tiny enough to diffract light.

While this holographic display technology is ideal for AR glasses, it can be scaled to fill the windshield of a car for visible navigation cues, similar to BMW’s Panoramic iDrive display shown at CES 2025. Swave is exploring automotive screens and larger, wall-sized volumetric displays for enterprise use.

You’ve seen holograms before as the rainbow shimmer of a security symbol on a credit card or an eye-catching image that seems to pop off the surface of a card when the light hits just right. Holograms capture a three-dimensional snapshot of an object or scene for later viewing from different angles.

The process is complex and quite technical. In short, precisely arranged lasers reflect off objects to encode interference patterns on a recording medium. When light hits the finished hologram, nanometer-scale variations in these patterns diffract light to decode and reconstruct the 3D image.

Using holographic techniques in technology requires a display that can encode microscopic interference patterns. Ideally, it should be easy to improvement the pattern to quickly change what’s shown without drawing too much power. Swave’s breakthrough meets these demands with a low-cost solution.

Swave’s holographic technology could make AR glasses as affordable as today’s smart glasses, while reducing the weight, increasing brightness and resolution, extending battery life, working with prescription lenses, and solving the vergence accommodation conflict (VAC) that makes near-eye displays uncomfortable for some people.

Swave CEO Mike Noonen told me the bill of materials (BOM) is just $50 per eye and the expected weight of AR glasses using HXR technology could be less than 50 grams. The FoV and apparent resolution are tunable with a view as wide as 120 degrees and a retina-like resolution of up to 60 pixels per degree (PPD). Battery life is estimated at more than 10 hours, making these suitable for daily wear. A display intensity of over 2,000 nits makes virtual images visible outdoors.

If Swave can deliver on these promises, next-generation AR glasses could eclipse everything else on the market. For comparison, Xreal One smart glasses boast an FoV of 50 degrees, a resolution of 38 PPD, and brightness of 600 nits in an 84-gram product. They’re comfortable and deliver performance and quality good enough that I use Xreal One as an ultrawide monitor replacement.

Swave also developed a real-time holographic processing unit (HPU) to handle the calculations required to convert an 3D or 2D image into subpixels that form interference patterns. When a low-power laser illuminates the HXR display a holographic image appears.

Since the HXR is a phase-change system, it takes no power to retain an image, providing a way to maximize efficiency by slowing the refresh rate in HUD mode. For AR use and immersive experiences, pixels can be updated in 300 ns.

So far, Swave has been quietly working in their labs and demonstrating only conceptual designs at trade demonstrates. We’re eager to see the first prototype of Swave-powered AR glasses, which should be available within a few months.

If this holographic display technology is as good as Swave indicates, it could greatly accelerate the availability of full-featured AR glasses. Swave’s Mike Noonen estimates HXR and HPU technology could become available to consumers as early as 2026. Swave won’t be launching consumer products itself so the timing depends on manufacturing partners.

If you’re intrigued but don’t want to wait until 2025, there are plenty of great solutions you can buy and start using immediately. I in recent times reviewed several Meta Orion alternatives that give your phone a HUD in glasses form. Notifications, turn-by-turn directions, live captions, translations, and AI assistance work hands-free.

If you want to watch videos or play games on a virtual cinematic screen with a pocket-sized device, the best smart glasses with displays make that possible. Audio smart glasses double as open-ear earbuds and voice-enabled AI assistants. Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses combine AI smart glasses with a camera that can record high-quality first-person videos and take hands-free photos.

You can even connect Xreal One and Viture One smart glasses to your computer to enjoy an ultrawide screen without the bulk and expense of a big monitor. That’s great for laptops that have small screens that rest far below eye level.

The current selection of smart glasses have relatively small FoVs so you’ll see the edge if you use software that simulates ultrawide screens or multiple windows. If you’re looking for a more immersive experience, check out the best VR headsets that can transport you to other worlds or place virtual objects anywhere in your space with mixed reality.

Stay tuned for more coverage of Swave and other exciting AR and VR news. 2025 is shaping up to be a huge year for XR technology.

This is a modern enterprise platform engineered for the hybrid world, designed with innovative security and control capabilities to help companies pre......

Despite being the new hotness in online multiplayer, I haven’t been especially grabbed by Marvel Rivals. Maybe it’s my lack of excitement for Marvel p......

If you’re like me and you consistently forget to turn off your lights, only to remember them when you’re cozy in bed, then you might benefit from upgr......

Flash memory breakthrough could help supercharge NAND production for SSD, memory cards - but does it actually matter?

Researchers find a faster way to etch deep holes for 3D NAND.

Plasma-based cryo-etching technique doubles etch speed, improving efficiency.

Faster etching might mean cheaper storage, but real-world impact is TBD.

3D NAND flash memory is different from traditional single-layer NAND because it vertically stacks memory cells to cram more storage into smaller spaces.

The process involves carving precise, deep holes into alternating layers of silicon oxide and silicon nitride, and this has always been a bit slow, until now.

A team of researchers from Lam Research, the University of Colorado Boulder, and the [website] Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) has developed a plasma-based technique that can etch the deep, narrow holes required for 3D NAND memory at a much faster rate, a paper & Technology A claims.

The team’s approach uses a cryogenic etching process using hydrogen fluoride plasma rather than the traditional method.

"Cryo etch with the hydrogen fluoride plasma showed a significant increase in the etching rate compared to previous cryo-etch processes, where you are using separate fluorine and hydrogen information," noted Thorsten Lill of Lam Research. Using the new method saw etching rates for the layers soar from 310 nanometers per minute to 640 nanometers per minute - more than doubling the efficiency.

"The quality of the etch seems to have improved as well, and that's significant," Lill added.

The researchers also looked at the impact of phosphorus trifluoride. Adding it during the process quadrupled the etch rate for silicon dioxide, but it only had marginal impact on the silicon nitride layer. They also looked at ammonium fluorosilicate, a chemical which forms during the etching process when silicon nitride reacts with hydrogen fluoride. This slows down the etching process, but adding water was found to counteract this.

While the technical achievement is to be applauded, the practical implications are less clear. Faster, improved etching rates may simplify and speed up production, but whether these savings trickle down to improved or cheaper storage devices remains to be seen.

“Most people are familiar with NAND flash memory because it’s the kind that is in the memory cards for digital cameras and thumb drives. It is also used in computers and mobile phones. Making this type of memory denser still - so that more data can be packed into the same footprint - will be increasingly critical as our data storage needs grow due to the use of artificial intelligence,” explained Igor Kaganovich, a principal research physicist at PPPL.

Nvidia revealed the next generation of gaming laptops powered by RTX 50 series GPUs at CES this year, and now we have a date. On February 25, manufact......

European PC hardware retailers are readying themselves with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti partner models, ahead of the GPU's freshly scheduled launch on ......