Astronomer on Wednesday unveiled its latest data orchestration release, which includes support for DBT Labs’ open source platform and aims to provide customers with improved data pipeline performance and security.
Astro, the vendor’s suite for readying data for analysis, is built on Apache Airflow, an open source data orchestration tool that provides more than 1,600 integrations with databases, AI frameworks and other platforms key to developing AI and analytics models and applications and analyzing data.
By adding support for DBT Core, the open source version of the vendor’s data transformation platform, Astronomer is enabling customers to run Airflow and DBT together to enable improved data pipeline performance over running Airflow alone.
Data transformation is part of the overall orchestration process. While Airflow provides general-purpose capabilities for the entire orchestration process, DBT provides a specialized set of features that improve the transformation stage.
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As a result, the Astronomer Astro update adds a useful capability for the vendor’s users, according to Donald Farmer, founder and principal of TreeHive Strategy.
“Astronomer’s integration of DBT into their Astro platform is quite significant,” he said. “This integration means that the pipeline can be managed with a single set of tools rather than in parts. Now that Astro users can access these capabilities, they may be able to do more sophisticated and flexible data modeling within their pipelines.”
Based in New York City, Astronomer is a 2018 startup that specializes in helping customers manage data pipelines to ready their data for analysis.
To date, the data orchestration vendor has raised $282.9 million in financing, including $213 million in March 2022. This was just before funding for tech vendors tightened and tech stocks slid amid fears of a recession as well as worldwide events, such as the Russia-Ukraine War and repeated supply chain disruptions, causing economic uncertainty.
Problems such as data isolation, data duplication, incomplete data and incorrect data hamper data quality. Without high quality data, organizations can’t rely on their data to inform decisions. Until the last decade or so, when most data was kept in on-premises databases and real-time decision-making was a luxury, enterprises could address data quality over time and use data products such as weekly, monthly and quarterly reports.
Now, however, the speed of business moves faster than ever. Organizations must be able to act and react as events happen. In addition, the volume of data organizations collect is increasing exponentially, and the complexity of that data is also rising, making human oversight of data quality an impossibility.
In response, specialized vendors such as Astronomer, Acceldata, Monte Carlo and Rivery have emerged with AI-powered automation tools to help enterprises address data quality as they ready data to inform AI and analytics models and applications.
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While Acceldata and Monte Carlo address data quality by enabling users to automate data observability as data moves through pipelines, data orchestration vendors, including Astronomer and Rivery, enable customers to automate combining and organizing of data from disparate sources.
“The aim is to reduce data silos and give a unified view of data,” Farmer said. “However, automation also improves and reduces manual intervention, saving time and resources while, in theory, minimizing errors.”
As a result, data orchestration vendors such as Astronomer and Rivery address a real need as data volume and complexity increase and as real-time insights are needed, he added.
While Astronomer specializes in data orchestration, DBT Labs specializes in transforming data from one format, such as a database file or Excel spreadsheet, to another so it can be combined with other data to inform AI and analytics tools.
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Astronomer first added support for DBT Core to its support for Apache Airflow in 2023 in an open source package named Cosmos. The feature enables users to integrate DBT Core projects into Airflow with just a few lines of code.
Astronomer’s integration of DBT into their Astro platform is quite significant. This integration means that the pipeline can be managed with a single set of tools rather than in parts. Donald FarmerFounder and principal, TreeHive Strategy
Now, Astronomer is adding support for DBT Core in Astro. Users can manage DBT Core and Airflow from a single interface that uses the same code deploy process for two distinct platforms that otherwise don’t share the same code. The result is a reduction the context switching required by using Airflow and DBT Core in Cosmos, which adds to wasted time, and an experience designed to improve efficiency to speed decision-making.
While saving time is one benefit of support for DBT Core in Astro, its main benefit is the full integration of a set of tools that improve the overall data orchestration process by better preparing disparate data types to be combined, according to Stephen Catanzano, an analyst at TechTarget’s Enterprise Strategy Group.
“The DBT integration is highly significant,” he said. “DBT has become a standard for data transformation. And combining it with Airflow’s orchestration capabilities creates a powerful and flexible data engineering stack. This integration simplifies complex data pipelines, improves collaboration and accelerates development cycles.”
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The impetus for combining Astronomer’s support for Airflow with support for DBT Core came largely from Astronomer’s customer feedback, according Julian LaNeve, the vendor’s CTO.
He noted that Astronomer has an integration with DBT Cloud, which is DBT Labs’ fully managed service, but that he has observed some DBT users migrating off Cloud and onto Core instead. Those Astronomer customers using Airflow and DBT Core together, therefore, asked for more seamless integration between the open source tools.”
“We’re at a point where we want to start making consolidation plays around making sure our customers can simplify their vendor relationships and run everything on one platform using the same infrastructure,” LaNeve said. “That was where the feedback from customers around DBT in particular was helpful.”
Customers told Astronomer that the pre-existing experience was “fine,” he continued, but that it could be better.
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Beyond adding support for DBT Core in Astro, Astronomer’s latest platform update includes the following features aimed at improving the data orchestration process:
Universal Metric Export, a tool that lets customers export metrics to Prometheus, an open source platform that, among other capabilities, enables users to view metrics across the various platforms that make up their data stack so they can take proactive measures to ensure the health of their data.
Self-Healing Workers, a feature that monitors Airflow infrastructures to find and stop idle processes so systems aren’t running unnecessarily.
Astro Terraform Provider to simplify managing Airflow infrastructures by using HashiCorp’s Terraform infrastructure management capabilities to automate tasks to ensure consistent, scalable deployments.
Customer Managed Workload Identity on AWS, a feature that enables governed access to AWS data services to improve security and compliance. Astronomer provides similar governance tools for Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.
While the efficacy of the new features depends on how well they’re developed, Self-Healing Workers and Universal Metric Export hold promise, according to Farmer.
“The pipeline resilience features are promising,” he said. “Self-Healing Workers, if well implemented, could address a joint irritation for Airflow users by managing idle processes and stuck tasks. Similarly, the Universal Metrics Export solves an irritation but should also be very valuable for organizations optimizing large and complex orchestrations.”
“Universal Metrics Export provides essential visibility into data pipelines, enabling proactive monitoring and troubleshooting, [while] Self-Healing Workers enhances pipeline resilience,” he said.
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LaNeve, meanwhile, pointed to Astro Terraform Provider as a significant addition, noting that Terraform is gaining popularity with large enterprises deploying the infrastructure management capabilities to standardize code across different departments.
“It’s something our customers have been asking for,” he said.
Customer feedback provided the motivation for developing most of the new Astro features, LaNeve continued. The exception is Self-Healing Workers, which resulted from Astronomer’s attempt find ways to proactively help users.
Looking ahead
As Astronomer evolves, one of its goals is to add support for more tools such as DBT Core that enable customers to use specialized tools to augment Airflow’s general-purpose data orchestration capabilities, according to LaNeve.
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“As our customers give more feedback around where they want us to step in and help, we’ll pay active attention and continue to look for opportunities,” he said.
The vendor holds a lot of telemetry data based on its customers’ use of Astro. That telemetry data provides insight into data reliability that can be used to help Astronomer develop data observability capabilities.
“Today, we give users the operations to make sure everything runs on time,” LaNeve said. “In the future, we want to give you the observability to build trust and confidence.”
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Catanzano noted that Astronomer’s plan to support additional tools through integrations is a sound strategy. In addition, advanced analytics, machine learning and improved collaboration capabilities all are areas in which the vendor could expand beyond data orchestration, he said.
Farmer, meanwhile, suggested that Astronomer focus on upgrading its tools to better handle the scale and complexity of enterprise deployments. For example, the startup vendor could add advanced compliance and policy management tools, more data governance capabilities and multi-region support.
“They must improve enterprise-level support for large-scale, complex … environments,” Farmer said.
Eric Avidon is a senior news writer for TechTarget Editorial and a journalist with more than 25 years of experience. He covers analytics and data management.
No sooner has the Phone 16 lineup arrived than the folks at iFixit start taking them apart, a process made easier this time around by the day-one release of repair manuals from Apple. The disassembly process shows the Camera control is a real button that moves, along with a flex cable that likely measures force, and the heat sink that appears positioned to keep the A18 chip’s Neural Engine cool while it handles AI workloads.
After disconnecting the battery from the board, you apply electric current from a power source (a 9-volt battery for 90 seconds will do it), and the previously glued-in battery slips out easily enough that gravity alone can do the job. Then to make the adhesive stick for the new battery, it just needs pressure.
Apple notes that over time, the time to release could get longer, but on these brand-new phones, iFixit found that using 20V current was enough to undo the bond in five seconds, and Apple says you can use up to 30V. iFixit also brought in some microscopic close-ups of the frame that holds the battery and the machined ridges it has to give the battery something to stick to.
24TB storage in a super fast mini PC — HX 370 powered challenger can run three SSDs, has an OCuLink connector and its APU is as powerful as an RTX 3050
We’re beginning to see the arrival of mini PCs running AMD‘s powerful Zen 5-based Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 Strix Point processor, the latest of which is Aoostar’s GEM10 370.
First teased on X (formerly Twitter). The AI 9 HX 370 processor features four Zen 5 cores, eight Zen 5c cores, RDNA 3.5 Radeon 890M integrated graphics, and a Ryzen NPU capable of up to 50 TOPS of AI performance.
GEM10 370 supports up to three PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 2280 SSDs, offering potentially up to 24TB of storage. There’s also an OCuLink connector, allowing you to connect an external GPU without consuming any NVMe channels.
Glacier cooling
The mini PC offers a variety of connectivity options. On the front, it features two USB 3.2 Gen2 ports, a USB4 port for high-speed data transfer, a microphone jack, and an audio jack for headphones or speakers. There is also an OCuLink port. On the back, there are two 2.5G LAN ports for fast, reliable networking, two HDMI 2.1 ports, and an additional USB 3.2 Gen2 port. Wireless connectivity is provided by WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2.
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GEM10 370’s cooling will be handled by Aoostar’s “Glacier 2.5” cooling system, which offers a default BIOS TDP setting of 35W, adjustable to 28W, 35W, or 45W.
The new mini PC has the same chassis as the company’s previous Gem10 model, which is powered by a 7840HS processor, and measures 10.7 x 10.7 x 6 cm, with a volume of 0.6 liters.
Aoostar’s GEM10 370 is expected to begin shipping October, around the same time as Beelink’s SER9, which also features the HX 370. That said, according to Videocardz, both companies are awaiting AMD stock before mass production can begin.
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There’s no word yet on pricing for the GEM10 370, but it is expected to be cheaper than Beelink’s offering, depending, naturally, on the configuration.
It can sometimes be difficult to spot AI-generated videos such as deepfakes, in which a person’s facial expression or speech is generated or altered. Deepfakes’ potential to misinform or disrupt democratic processes is huge, especially given we are entering an era where anyone can create them with just a simple text prompt. Andrea Hickerson at the University of Mississippi and Edward J. Delp at Purdue University in Indiana discuss the rising threat from AI-created content and what we can do about it.
It’s been two years since Google burst into the smartwatch market, and that means we’ve seen a few upgrades since Google launched the very first Google Pixel Watch. If you’re still using that watch, you may wonder if now is the time to upgrade and whether the third-generation Pixel Watch 3 is worth it. Or you may be getting your first smartwatch and considering buying either a cheap first-generation Pixel Watch or the latest and greatest of Google’s wearables.
Choosing between these two devices is surprisingly easy. Sometimes, the newest is the best, and this is the case with the Pixel Watch 3. However, there’s a significant price difference, so is the Pixel Watch still worth buying? Let’s examine the differences to help determine which you should pick, and explain why now is the best time to upgrade from the original Pixel Watch.
Put the Pixel Watch 3 and Pixel Watch alongside each other, and aside from the size, it’s difficult to tell the difference. Google’s design language hasn’t changed a huge amount in three generations, and the minimalist look is attractive and works with most outfits.
The Pixel Watch 3 is the first of Google’s smartwatches to come in two sizes. The smaller 41mm size is identical to the original but 5 grams lighter, while the bigger 45mm version is just 1 gram heavier than the original. The larger size is ideal if you have bigger wrists or find the original Pixel Watch too small for daily use.
The new AMOLED-LTPO display gives the Pixel Watch 3 display a big upgrade over previous generations. Both sizes get the upgrade, which offers a variable refresh rate of 60Hz and shrunken bezels to maximize the screen real estate.
Joe Maring / Digital Trends
The display represents a significant upgrade in legibility, but otherwise, these two watches share the same physical traits. Domed Gorilla Glass displays provide protection, a rotating bezel allows you to scroll and select — a feature sorely missing from the new Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra — and the same lug-style watch band system lets any Pixel Watch band work with the third-generation model.
Each watch has the same 5ATM water resistance, which provides protection when submerged up to 500 meters, and a suite of sensors on the rear. The Pixel Watch 3’s sensors are improved over the original’s, and they have a different design, but otherwise, these two watches share many similarities.
The Pixel Watch 3 shares the same sensors as last year’s Pixel Watch 2, which saw Google improve the accuracy of the data collected. The heart rate sensor is one of the most accurate on any smartwatch and one of the many hardware sensors that are improved over the original.
The Pixel Watch 3 adds a thermometer and skin conductance sensors, which provide valuable insights into your skin temperature while asleep and are used for cycle tracking. There’s also a new light sensor, barometer, gyroscope, and the pulse oximeter used for the new Loss of Pulse Detection feature.
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Joe Maring / Digital Trends
This feature is designed to get you help when you need it most. Most smartwatches offer a fall detection feature that will get you emergency help if you have a fall, but Loss of Pulse Detection takes things much further. If your Pixel Watch 3 fails to detect a pulse, it’ll undergo a further check to rule out a false negative and, failing that, contact emergency services. It’s only available in certain EU countries, but it’s a worthy reason to upgrade to the Pixel Watch 3.
The Pixel Watch 3 also adds new Cardio Load and Target Load features, a Daily Readiness score, and a Morning Briefing that gives you pertinent information on your health and sleep. The two Load features are designed to track your heart’s performance over the day (and longer) and give you a numerical understanding of your cardiac function. The Target Load feature then sets a daily goal to aspire to, ensuring you won’t overtrain or undertrain.
Joe Maring / Digital Trends
All of this information is presented in the Fitbit Premium app. Certain features, like the Daily Readiness score, required a Fitbit Premium subscription, but now all users get it included. The Pixel Watch 3 comes with six months of Fitbit Premium for free — just like the original — after which the subscription costs $10 per month or $80 per year.
The Pixel Watch 3 offers significantly more than the original, including hardware improvements and useful wellness features in Wear OS 5. Many of these are powered by Google AI, which analyzes and provides recommendations on achieving and surpassing your goals.
There are also unique features that only work when the Pixel Watch 3 is used alongside a Pixel phone. For example, if you have the Pixel 9 Pro or Pixel 9 Pro XL, you can use the Pixel Watch 3 to control the camera. You can also use it to control Google TV, letting you change volume, inputs, and virtually everything else from your watch.
Joe Maring / Digital Trends
You can also see your Nest Cam feed on the tiny screen and either respond using the microphone or send a canned response. Then, there are features like call screening and a smart recorder that can record and analyze audio using AI in real time. There are many Pixel Watch 3 features that will delight anyone who upgrades.
The original Pixel Watch is far more limited. It runs Wear OS 3.5 and offers a fairly standard introduction to the Pixel Watch experience. Many of the Pixel Watch 3 improvements launched on the Pixel Watch 2, and while some of these may eventually come to the original, some will likely remain exclusive to Google’s newer models.
One of our biggest complaints about the first Pixel Watch was its battery life. Simply put, it’s not very good and requires recharging more than once per day. The Pixel Watch 3 solves these problems with a more efficient chipset, a larger battery, and improvements in the operating system.
The Pixel Watch has a 294mAh battery, while the Pixel Watch 3 has a larger 307mAh battery in the 41mm model and a 420mAh battery in the 45mm. The Exynos 9110 processor in the Pixel Watch offers far less efficiency than the Snapdragon SW5100 powering the Pixel Watch 3.
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Our Pixel Watch 3 review found that the battery life on Google’s latest smartwatch is exceptional and routinely exceeds Google’s own estimates. That’s with the always-on display enabled, tracking multiple workouts and sleep overnight, and receiving notifications throughout the day when paired with the Pixel 9 Pro. Simply put, the battery life has been very impressive and is one of the best reasons to upgrade from the original.
Joe Maring / Digital Trends
This means you can expect all-day battery life of around 24 hours with the Always On display turned on or up to 36 hours with the Battery Saver mode enabled. Both are large improvements over the original Pixel Watch, which requires recharging to last a full day.
The Pixel Watch 3 is also vastly improved when it comes to charging. The 41mm is rated as recharging to 50% in just 24 minutes and reaching 85% in 35 minutes, while the 45mm is slightly slower at 28 minutes and 50 minutes, respectively. We found that it charges from 12% to 62% in 30 minutes, and a full charge takes just over an hour, but the fast charging is great for those days when you’ve been using it heavily.
The Pixel Watch 3 is available now with a starting price of $349, while the original Pixel Watch launched at a similar price and is now available for just under $200. The price difference is significant, but the Pixel Watch 3 represents much better value despite the higher price.
If you want the Pixel Watch 3 in the 41mm size, the Bluetooth-only model is $349, while the LTE version is $449. For the larger size, add $50 to both of those prices.
The Pixel Watch 3 comes in a choice of colors. If you buy the 41mm model, you can choose from Polished Silver, Matte Black, or Champagne Gold, while the larger model ditches the gold option in favor of a more neutral Hazel color. There is a choice of bands, including a striking new Rose Quartz option that matches the colors of Google’s latest phones.
If you have the original Pixel Watch, there’s never been a better time to upgrade. The Pixel Watch 3 offers everything you need from a smartwatch and is one of the most stylish options on our best smartwatch list. Crucially, it also adds features that will make your life easier and potentially even save it one day. If you’re considering which to buy and don’t currently have a Pixel Watch, it’s worth first looking at the Pixel Watch 3.
It is Google’s best smartwatch, but it costs double the original. If budget is a concern, the first Pixel Watch is a decent choice, but keep in mind that there are other smartwatches from the same era that are much better, like the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5. If you’d rather stay with Google, then we’d recommend buying the Pixel Watch 2, which is just $70 more, but a much better smartwatch.
However, if you can stretch your budget or snag a good deal, our Pixel Watch 3 review found that it’s the Google smartwatch we have been waiting for. It’s the best that Google offers and one of the best smartwatches you can buy in 2024. The original Pixel Watch still has some value, but given the vast improvements in the third generation, there’s no doubt that the Pixel Watch 3 is the better one to buy.
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Palworld was once one of gaming’s biggest hits thanks to its blend of Pokémon-like gameplay elements mixed with survival and crafting mechanics, but it was perhaps only a matter of time before Nintendo and The Pokémon Company filed a lawsuit against the game’s developers. That’s exactly what’s happening as Nintendo officially announced that together with The Pokémon Company it’s filing a lawsuit against Pocketpair.
Palworld saw huge success following its early access launch having sold nearly 5 million copies in just a few days. And it’s this kind of success that seems to have drawn Nintendo’s ire. The possibility of a lawsuit was looming well before now. However, it was also suspected that Nintendo may just let the whole thing go. After all, the game launched in January and it’s been 9 months. Pocketpair at one point also said that it had the game put through a few legal reviews and no issues were found.
But Nintendo seems to have found something, as its lawsuit states that Pocketpair is infringing on multiple patents. This lawsuit also shouldn’t come as a huge surprise, as The Pokémon Company confirmed back in January that it intended to investigate Palworld.
The Nintendo lawsuit against Palworld deve Pocketpair doesn’t mention specifics
While Nintendo has confirmed it’s filing a lawsuit against Pocketpair, the statement about the lawsuit doesn’t mention any specific details. As of right now, Nintendo isn’t saying what patents Pocketpair is infringing. However, it’s likely that information will come out in due time. Provided this lawsuit goes to court and the case proceeds.
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So far the only thing Nintendo has said is that its lawsuit is seeking an injunction against Pocketpair for these infringements. However, no information is given in terms of what it’s actually seeking as an end result. “Nintendo Co., Ltd. (HQ: Kyoto, Minami-ku, Japan; Representative Director and President: Shuntaro Furukawa, “Nintendo” hereafter), together with The Pokémon Company, filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court against Pocketpair, Inc. (HQ: 2-10-2 Higashigotanda, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, “Defendant” hereafter) on September 18, 2024.
This lawsuit seeks an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages on the grounds that Palworld, a game developed and released by the Defendant, infringes multiple patent rights. Nintendo will continue to take necessary actions against any infringement of its intellectual property rights including the Nintendo brand itself, to protect the intellectual properties it has worked hard to establish over the years,” the statement reads.
Pocketpair has responded to the lawsuit
Following Nintendo’s statement, Pocketpair has issued its own statement in response to the lawsuit. Stating that at this time, it’s “unaware of the specific patents” that it’s accused of infringing. The developer also says that it “hasn’t been notified of such details.”
Pocketpair is a small indie dev based in Tokyo, Japan. So it’s likely an easy target for Nintendo given the size of the studio and the success of its game. Pocketpair says it will do everything it can to ensure that indie devs are not hindered or discouraged from pursuing their creative ideas. This might suggest that Pocketpair fully intends to fight this lawsuit. As it believes it hasn’t infringed on any of Nintendo or The Pokémon Company’s patents.
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Palworld was launched on January 19, 2024, and was made available to play via GeForce NOW back on May 16.
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