Tag: #dial

EPAM launches Generative AI orchestration platform, DIAL

EPAM Systems, Inc. , a leading digital transformation services and product engineering company, today announced the launch of its AI-powered DIAL Orchestration Platform (Deterministic Integrator of Applications and LLMs), which merges the power of Large Language Models (LLMs) with deterministic code — offering a secure, scalable and customisable AI workbench to streamline and enhance AI-driven business solutions.

Produced by EPAM’s Reliable AI Lab (RAIL), DIAL helps enterprises speed their experimentation and innovation efforts across an extensive range of LLMs, AI-native Applications and Custom Add-ons as well as provides a practical approach for engineering business solutions with reliable AI capabilities.

The DIAL Platform offers a unified user interface, empowering businesses to leverage a spectrum of public and proprietary LLMs, Add-ons, APIs, Datastores and Business Applications. This integration promotes the development of novel enterprise assets that co-exist seamlessly with an organisation’s existing workflows.

Moreover, Applications and Add-ons can be implemented through diverse approaches, encompassing LangChain, LLamaIndex, Semantic Kernel or custom code — all within an integrated, secure and scalable framework. The DIAL Platform aggregates multi-cloud assets libraries including components, routing, rate-limiting software, monitoring tools, load-balancing solutions and deployment scripts. This extensive, curated toolkit supports a wide range of business use cases and integration scenarios and offers approaches to significantly optimise the consumption of external LLMs.

“Since 2021, we have experimented with thousands of AI use cases, helping EPAM and our customers to identify and adopt Generative AI scenarios to power business transformation initiatives,” said Elaina Shekhter, Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer at EPAM. “The learnings from these efforts have led us to design and engineer a platform that accelerates the cost-effective development, reliability testing and operations of AI-embedded business applications.”

“RAIL, as part of EPAM’s broader R&D initiatives, concentrates on creating accelerators and components that encompass a full scope of advanced technologies, including Generative AI. These are designed to expedite the implementation of enterprise-scale solutions, embodying our commitment to innovation and our vision for a transformative future, driven by cutting-edge technology,” – added Ilya Gorelik, Head of EPAM’s RAIL Lab.

In keeping with EPAM’s long-standing commitment to Open Source, portions of DIAL will be released under an Apache 2.0 licensing scheme as part of its launch. This initiative encourages responsible use, community innovation and the adoption of responsible AI enterprise standards within the industry.

To learn more about EPAM’s AI-powered DIAL Orchestration Platform, visit https://epam-rail.com.

Tech Review – HUION Inspiroy Dial 2 ( Model Q630M)

The HUION Inspiroy Dial 2  professional-grade drawing tablet with and slim design with 6 buttons which can be configured and 2 dials. The two dials can be set to cycle between three different controls (scroll, zoom, and brush size) by pressing the dial. The texture of the tablet is similar to paper without the rubber feeling you might expect.

Accessories

 

Setup and use:

The setup is standard in terms of plugging in the USB cable to the laptop and downloading software from the website with the supplier user guide giving clear instructions. Alternatively, this can be connected via Bluetooth 5.0 with a range of 10 meters. The Bluetooth while good to have seems impractical as to use the drawing tablet required the use of a monitor to view the work.

The supplied software allows the configuration of the dual dial controllers and supports the quick-access Windows Radial Menu. These can be programmed with a  menu of options in terms of Zooming in or out, changing the brush size,  scrolling through the pages, adjusting the volume and my favourite  – Undo.

The software allows the configuration to allow for “Left hand / right hand “  use,  & the monitor to use as a selected area,  if using dual monitors

The tablet came with a pen that is responsive and accurate, making it easy to create detailed and intricate drawings. The holder stores 5 standard pen nibs and 5 felt pen nibs made of fibre, the latter of which can provide a greater level of resistance, thus making you feel like you are drawing with a traditional pen.

Warranty  This came with a two-year warranty,

Conclusion 

The HUION Inspiroy Dial 2   is solid, slim and lightweight  ( 10.5 x6.5″active area is ideal. 0.3″ ultra-thin design) while does not come with a travel case if moving in a laptop bag etc, the drawing tablet allows a multitude of configurations in terms of the 2 dials and 6 buttons which can be configured via the supplied software. The setup in terms of the mechanics is standard with no latency noticed in the pen use. Once set up this works but required a lot of practice to allow drawing on the tablet while viewing a separate monitor to see where the pen is located.

The drawing tablet does have coordinated listed when the pen is located and is compatible with Windows. Mac, chrome, Linus, and Android allow for a  versatile experience  with 18 hours of battery  life if used via Bluetooth, this can be used with  most  creative software like Adobe Photoshop, Clip Studio Paint, SAI, Lightroom, Affinity Designer, ZBrush, etc

Overall a response drawing tablet with a multitude of configuration options with a pen-like feel of a standard pen used with an array of options to provide a delightful drawing experience.

Buy

https://www.amazon.co.uk/HUION-Inspiroy-Bluetooth-Battery-Free-Compatible-Black-Silver/dp/B0B1V1JBNX

Video Review

#Microsoft announces new Surface Studio PC and updated Surface Book i7. #Surface #Windows

During an event yesterday, Microsoft unveiled their two new offerings in the computer department.

Aiming not only to consumers that need portability but also the ones that need a powerhouse at home, we now see the company focusing once again in hardware…Well except mobile phones anyway..

Surface Book I7

 

 

There’s no big news on the portable side as what we have is a revindication of what I should have been the first offering.

The Surface Book is a great device, but for the more demanding professionals is was aimed, Not having the greatest battery life and some compatibility issues was a let down. But those flaws were attacked and now we have a new offer with the latest I7 processor (hence the name).

Also, they improved the graphics performance and increased the battery by 30%, everything else remains the same as previous models.

They even made a video just to say that, take a look:

The new model will be available starting in November and will start at $2,399 with pre-orders already open.

Surface Studio

This was the main attraction during the event, dubbed as “Surface Studio” this All-in-one PC is aimed to professional photographers, designers as well as Illustrators.

With a huge 28″ LCD PixelSense Display and a resolution of 4,500 x 3,000 (3:2 aspect), the Studio is Microsoft take on Apple’s iMac series.

Only one big difference though, the panel is completely tactile, which offer a whole new world of possibilities.

The spec sheet is quite impressive:

Display

Screen: 28″ PixelSense Display
Resolution: 4500 x 3000 (192 DPI)
Color settings: Adobe sRGB, DCI-P3 and Vivid Color Profiles, Individually color calibrated
Touch: 10-point multi-touch
Aspect Ratio: 3:2
Surface Pen
Zero Gravity Hinge

Processor

Quad-core 6th Gen Intel Core i5 or i7

Graphics

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M 2GB GPU GDDR5 memory or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M 4GB GPU GDDR5 memory

Storage

Rapid hybrid drive options: 1TB or 2TB

Memory

8GB, 16GB, or 32GB RAM

Wireless

Wi-Fi: 802.11ac Wi-Fi wireless networking, IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n compatible
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 4.0 wireless technology
Xbox Wireless built-in3

Dimensions and weight

Display: 25.09 x 17.27 x 0.44 in (637.35 x 438.90 x 11.4 mm)
Base: 9.84 x 8.66 x 1.26 in (250.00 x 220.00 x 32.20 mm)
Weight: 21.07 lbs max (9.56 kg)

Connections and expansions

4 USB 3.0
Full-size SD card reader (SDXC compatible)
Mini Displayport
3.5mm headset jack
Compatible with Surface Dial onscreen interaction1

Cameras

Windows Hello2 face sign-in camera 5.0MP front-facing camera with 1080p HD video

Audio

Dual microphones
Stereo 2.1 speakers with Dolby Audio Premium
3.5mm headset jack

Buttons and keyboard

Physical buttons: Volume and power
Surface Pen
Surface Keyboard
Surface Mouse

In the box

Surface Studio
Surface Pen
Surface Keyboard
Surface Mouse
Power cord with grip-release cable

The Surface Studio will be available in December with some pre-orders being available for the holiday season, the next batch will have to wait till next year.

The price tag of the base model will be $2,999.00 going all the way up to $4,199.00 for the high-end model.

Capable of Pen input as you’d expect from a Surface product, that’s not the only trick under the sleeve.

Pair with the “Zero Gravity Hinge” that allows it to go from monitor to drawing desk, the addition we are really impressed is the Surface Dial.

As You can see from the video above, the Dial is not just an extra tool to have around, Its what will complement the experience when your primary work is on the designing or editing process.

With haptic feedback to let you know you’re changing option without seeing using the radial input, add free location on the screen and you ready to work whenever you want.

As extra, the little gadget with not only be compatible with the new Studio Pc, but also with the Surface Book and the Surface Pro 4.

The can get a standalone Dial once available for $99 with just one color option (looks fine to me), but if you pre-order the Surface Studio before next month you’ll one for free.

But tell us, Do you think Microsoft is offering a solid option against the iMac or the MacBook that are currently on the market? Will be good enough to compete with today’s announcements from Apple?

Let us know in the comment section or join the conversation on Twitter