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The next big breakthrough in AI will come from hardware, not software | The next big breakthrough in AI will happen through hardware advances. While general architectures allow many types of computations, they are not optimized for specific computation types. Some manufacturers are working on in-memory processing systems to more closely simulate neuronal processing models, but these computations are less general, so there needs to be a large established use case for them to make these chips profitably. Many architectures are still evolving quickly so manufacturers may be reluctant to mass manufacture designs. It will still take some time for the industry to mature. | 4Miscellaneous
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Here's why Morgan Stanley is spending $13 billion to buy E-Trade | Morgan Stanley has taken over E-Trade with a $13 billion deal. It is the biggest takeover by a US bank since the financial crisis. Morgan Stanley will gain 5.2 million customer accounts, $360 billion in assets, and a leading business that manages corporate stock plans. The deal is expected to complete in the fourth quarter. E-Trade's $56 billion in deposits will help Morgan Stanley fund loans to its wealthy clientele. Rival banks claim that Morgan Stanley overpaid in the deal. The retail stock trade market has been in consolidation ever since Robinhood popularized the idea that most retail stock trades should be free. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Google launches Android 11 Developer Preview 2 with foldable, call screening, and Neural Networks API improvements | Google has released the second Android 11 developer preview. It features hinge angle detection, call screening improvements, and new ops in the Neural Networks API. DP2 is only available on eight Pixel phones, and it can only be installed via a manual flash. Android 11 is still not ready for early adopters to try. Google will likely release Android 11 to more phones in DP3 or by the first beta. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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33 concepts every JavaScript developer should know (Github Repo) | Anybody interested in Javascript could get a lot out of this, this project has essentially taken 33 concepts like call stacks, closures, == vs === vs typeof, etc. and curated a few great articles and videos on each subject. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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AI guides single-camera drone through hallways it’s never seen before | A team of scientists at the University of California have combined data from simulations and the real world to create a deep reinforcement learning model that enabled a drone to navigate through hallways it had never seen before. Scientists have previously used deep reinforcement learning models for land-based robots to learn hiking trails and to recover from unexpected falls, but not with drones that can fly. There is a GIF that shows the drone in action along with its camera output. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Alphabet’s Loon sets a new record for longest stratospheric flight | One of Alphabet's Loon balloons spent 312 days aloft, breaking the previous stratospheric flight record of 223 days. It flew 135,000 miles over the 10 months, launching in Puerto Rico and landing in Mexico. Loon's balloons go through millions of simulated flights before they are even created. Alphabet has fine-tuned the manufacturing process to remove the tiny defects that drastically shortened its earlier flight attempts. Google carefully monitors the data from the balloons during flight to make adjustments and to maximize flight time. Longer-lasting balloons cost less and provide more consistent connectivity for those on the ground. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Microsoft to acquire Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion | Microsoft is acquiring Activision Blizzard in a deal valued at $68.7 billion. Many of Activision's games will be added to Xbox Game Pass once the deal closes in the fiscal year 2023. It will take a long time for the deal to close as Activision Blizzard operates in many markets, making receiving regulatory approval more complicated for Microsoft. Activision Blizzard was recently sued for promoting a culture of constant sexual harassment. Bobby Kotick will continue to serve as CEO of Activision Blizzard until the deal is fully closed. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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A Sunscreen for Pavement Could Help Keep Cities Cool | Pavement Technology Inc. has created a spray-on treatment for pavement that can lower its temperature, revitalize asphalt, and dissolve car exhaust pollution. The spray is based on titanium oxide, a photocatalyst that absorbs and disperses light and heat. Pavement Technology claims that one mile of sprayed pavement has the same air quality benefits as planting 20 acres of trees. The spray is now being tested in several municipalities in the US. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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How My Fears Doomed My First Startup | As a nerdy engineer that went to software development conferences for holidays, David Smith believed that if he could just build a great product, people would buy it. He developed a great program but never sold it because he never let anyone know about it. His fears of communicating with others about his product stopped him from releasing a program that could help others, and he didn't even know if it was a program that other people would want to use. | 4Miscellaneous
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This is the Osom OV1, a new phone from Essential’s former engineers and designers | Osom has released new details about its upcoming OV1 phone meant to compete with flagships from Apple, Google, and Samsung. The device will have a stainless steel and titanium housing, a ceramic back, Corning Victus cover glass, and a Qualcomm processor. Osom was founded by Essential's employees after the startup went under. The OV1 was scheduled to be fully revealed this week but Osom pushed back the announcement and ship date to upgrade the phone's processors. Many more details about the phone are available in the article. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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What if you could build any financial product from 1 API? (Sponsor) | What if you could build any financial product from 1 API? . Modern Treasury makes it easy to build products that move money. We provide a platform for companies like Marqeta/BlockFi/ClassPass to manage money movement from their bank accounts. Try us if you're building money flows for a marketplace, fintech app, lending business, etc. Checkout our docs and see how easy it is to build products that move money with Modern Treasury. Learn more. | 0Sponsor
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Scientists Found Creatures So Inactive They Expanded Our Idea of Life Itself | A team of scientists have discovered life forms deep underneath the surface of the ocean that survive on an energy budget about 50 quintillion times smaller than that of an average human. Despite the energy-limiting environments that these microbes are found in, the microbes are still abundant, feeding on organic material that falls to the seafloor. The microbes exist in a kind of suspended animation that may span millions of years. If microbes existed on Mars, they could have had similar abilities. So far, the oldest sediments tested date back 2.6 million years, but the scientists hope to recover samples from 50 to 100 million years ago. | 4Miscellaneous
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Researchers have used a virus to fight a drug-resistant lung infection | Researchers have successfully used bacteriophages to treat an antibiotic-resistant mycobacterial lung infection. The patient had cystic fibrosis and had suffered a mycobacterial lung infection over a six-year period. They were denied a life-saving lung transplant multiple times due to the infection. The bacteriophage treatment ran for 200 days and was so successful that the patient was able to undergo the lung transplant. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Spotify officially launches a shared-queue feature called Group Session | Group Session is a new feature on Spotify that will allow two or more Premium users in the same space to share control over the music being played. Participants will be able to control what is playing and also contribute to a collaborative playlist for the group. Spotify already offers the ability to build collaborative playlists with friends and Premium Family plan members have a personalized playlist called Family Mix. However, neither of these features allows users to collaborate in real-time, unlike Group Session. The feature will be available soon to all Premium users worldwide. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Uber announces deeper push into financial services with Uber Money | Uber has announced a new division called Uber Money which will offer a digital wallet and debit and credit cards. The service will allow its drivers to have access to a mobile bank account to get paid after each ride. By building a financial ecosystem, it could keep drivers and riders loyal to its platform. Many of Uber's customers use credit cards to pay for rides and food orders, and these services could eventually remove costs related to financial middlemen and generate new revenue streams. Uber's debit card is essentially a no-fee bank account and allows drivers to have access to funds immediately. A no-cost $100 overdraft feature allows drivers to pay for gas to kick off a working day. More and more tech companies are beginning to offer financial services. Apple has recently launched a credit card with Goldman Sachs and Facebook has revealed plans to launch its cryptocurrency, Libra. Uber's credit card will be a joint product with Barclays. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Autonomous Ravn X Drone to Launch Satellites From Airport Runways | Aevum's Ravn X is an 80 foot long, 18 foot tall autonomous rocket-launching aircraft. With a 60-foot wingspan, the aircraft flies as high as 60,000 feet before its two-stage, liquid-fueled rocket payload detaches and races into orbit. While SpaceX is set to dominate the large payload market, there is still a market for smaller rockets that deliver faster, cheaper launches. Ravn X can launch as fast as every 180 minutes, fly around weather to avoid launch delays, and only requires a crew of six to operate. Aevum has yet to launch Ravn X into space, but it plans to make an attempt next year. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Jack Dorsey’s Square, Inc. is buying a majority stake in Jay-Z’s streaming service Tidal | Square is acquiring Tidal for $297 million in cash and stock. Tidal will operate independently alongside Square's other ventures. Square will use Tidal to help find new ways for artists to support their work. The company has given sellers of all sizes business and wants to do the same for artists. Tidal has struggled to compete against Spotify, and it has been behind on payments to rights holders since 2020. Jay-Z will join Square's board of directors as part of the deal. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Robotic fish powered by electronic blood can swim for 36 hours | Researchers at Cornell University have developed a robot that is powered by its own artificial circulatory system. The robot can swim at a rate of 1.5 body lengths per minute, which is around 10 meters per hour. It is powered by flow batteries, so power is generated as liquid moves through the robot. The flow of the liquid to certain areas can also change the pressure in these areas, for example, it can cause the structure on one side of the robot’s tail to inflate, resulting in a bending motion. While the robot was only tested for a few hours, it could theoretically swim continuously for 36 hours. Two short videos are available showing the robot in action. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Valve’s gaming handheld is called the Steam Deck and it’s shipping in December | Valve's Steam Deck is a Switch-like handheld gaming device that will start shipping in December. There will be three storage tiers, and customers will be able to insert a microSD card for more storage. The Steam Deck has a huge number of control options, and it will be able to provide several hours of playtime for most games. It will be a full-fledged Linux computer, so users will be able to run software on the desktop if they want. The article contains many more details, as well as pictures and a video of the device. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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OpenAI launches Codex, an API for translating natural language into code | OpenAI Codex is an AI system that translates natural language into code. It was trained on billions of lines of public code so it works with a broad set of frameworks and languages. Codex is available via an API in private beta. It will be free during its initial testing period. While it is highly capable, Codex has some significant limitations, including biases and sample inefficiencies. Codex powers GitHub Copilot, a code suggestion service launched earlier this summer. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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OpenAI's GPT-3 may be the biggest thing since bitcoin | Using a small prompt that contains just a title and summary, GPT-3 can generate a whole article that can be mistaken as 'real'. An example is available in the article. | 4Miscellaneous
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How GPT3 Works - Visualizations and Animations | GPT-3 was estimated to cost 355 GPU years and around $4.6m to train. 300 billion tokens of text were used to train the model. It generates one token at a time. The model has 175 billion parameters which it uses to calculate which token to generate at each run. It converts each word into a list of numbers representing the word, computes a prediction, and then converts the resulting vector into a word. Animations that explain the structure of GPT-3 and deep learning models are available in the article. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Google used photogrammetry to create a detailed VR tour of Versailles | Google and the Château de Versailles have teamed up to create a VR private tour of Louis XIV's royal residence. The virtual palace has 21 rooms, 387,500 square feet of internal surfaces, and over 100 sculptures, paintings, and other works of art. Google used over 4TB of data and textured 15 billion pixels for the recreation. It is currently only available for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. A smaller online exhibition is available for people without the headsets, featuring over 390 objects, artifacts, and paintings from six of the Palace's most famous rooms. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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American Dominance in Tech Wealth Creation Upended by Asian Wave | According to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, the last few years has seen a change among the top 10 self-made billionaires under the age of 40. In the past, the list was dominated by people from the US, but in 2018, 4 of the top 10 were from China, 2 were from Australia, and only 3 were from the US. The changes are likely due to the rise of Chinese technology companies. Of the 500 total people on the list 41 are now from China, compared to 31 at the end of 2016. | 4Miscellaneous
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TikTok will let creators add mini apps to videos | Jumps is a new feature for TikTok that lets users embed mini-apps into their videos. Creators can use Jumps to add content to their videos that can be opened in other apps. Jumps has been in testing for several months. TikTok has been working with companies like Whisk, Wikipedia, and Tablelog during the beta period to develop Jumps. App developers will soon have access to create their own Jumps. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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For the first time, a spacecraft has returned an aging satellite to service | A communications satellite has been restored and returned to service in geostationary orbit. Northrop Grumman's Mission Extension Vehicle-1 was able to dock onto the Intelsat 901 satellite while in orbit and then navigate it to a new orbital location. The MEV-1 will provide five years of life extension services to the satellite before moving it into a graveyard orbit, after which it will still be able to provide additional mission extension services. Services such as these offer satellite providers a way to extend the lifetime of their assets, as well as to remove satellites that have lost communication with the ground. 💻 | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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OpenSpiel: A Framework for Reinforcement Learning in Games (GitHub Repo) | OpenSpiel is a collection of environments and algorithms designed for research for general reinforcement learning and search/planning in games. It is able to play a wide range of games and game formats. While OpenSpiel has only been tested on Linux, there should be no issues running the software on Windows or Mac OS platforms. A list of compatible games is available, which includes Backgammon, Chess, and Tic-Tac-Toe. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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DoorDash signs definitive agreement to acquire Caviar, Square's food-ordering platform | DoorDash has acquired Square's Caviar for $410 million in cash and DoorDash preferred stock. With Caviar, DoorDash will gain a portfolio of premium restaurants and technology. Square will continue to focus on building its two growing ecosystems, one for business and one for individuals. DoorDash is a technology platform that connects customers with local and national businesses by offering on-demand door to door delivery. Caviar is a food ordering platform that connects customers with premium restaurants for delivery, pickup, or catering. Square makes tools to empower businesses and individuals to participate in the economy, such as its Square Reader, a device that allows anyone to accept card payments using a smartphone or tablet. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Clubhouse comes to Android after more than a year of iOS exclusivity | Clubhouse is releasing its Android app in beta in the US after more than a year of exclusivity on iOS. It will collect feedback from the community over the next few weeks before rolling the app out more broadly. Users outside of the US will be able to pre-register for access in the Google Play Store. Clubhouse will remain invite-only for now. The company has limited access to control its growth, but the platform has still grown faster than expected. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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How NASA Will Use Robots to Create Rocket Fuel From Martian Soil | To send a single kilogram of fuel to Mars, we have to burn 225 kilograms of fuel here on Earth. It would be much more efficient for missions on Mars if we could somehow make the fuel we need there. This is why NASA is working on RASSOR, a robotic excavator which will dig out large chunks of Mars soil and and pull out all the water. Then it will separate out the hydrogen from the oxygen, and take carbon from the Mars atmosphere (which is 96% carbon dioxide), to make methane (CH4), an easily storable type of fuel. There's a video of RASSOR in action halfway down the page in this article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Welcome to the K-12 Surveillance State | Schools are adopting more and more technologies to monitor students in an effort to improve safety. Software programs, such as Gaggle, scan student activity across different platforms including email, computer files, and online assignments. Gaggle claims to have prevented at least 542 suicides. However, these claims are difficult, if not impossible, to prove. Facial recognition technology can be used to recreate a map of movements for students and teachers. Iris scanners have been installed in some playgrounds. The rise in the use of technology could be due to technology vendors taking advantage of school budgets. Constant monitoring of students results in a lot of data that is collected without the student’s consent. As the technology is relatively new, the laws behind data collection and sharing have not caught up yet, so parents need to be vigilant about what systems the schools may be installing to monitor their children with. | 4Miscellaneous
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Internet goliath Tencent is building a city the size of Midtown Manhattan in China | Tencent will build a 320-acre campus in Shenzhen for its employees in China. It will have offices, residences, retail, open spaces, and grass-covered rooftops. NBBJ won the development contract for the campus after participating in an international design competition held by Tencent last year. Renders of the design are available in the article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Android is now the world’s largest earthquake detection network | The Android Earthquake Alerts System is an earthquake detection network that uses Google Play Android phones. All smartphones contain accelerometers that are sensitive enough to detect P-waves, the less damaging initial wave that comes out of an earthquake. When an Android phone detects something that could be an earthquake, it will send a signal to Google's earthquake detection center along with a general location. The server collaborates the information to detect earthquakes as they happen. The system can notify people of earthquakes up to one minute before the damaging S-wave of an earthquake arrives. It will be distributed through Google Play Services for every Android device running version 5.0 and up. Users will be able to toggle the feature through the Google Location Services switch in settings. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Code scanning is now available | GitHub code scanning is a GitHub-native approach to find security vulnerabilities before they reach production. The feature has been in testing since May and is now generally available. It integrates with GitHub Actions or your existing CI/CD environment to maximize flexibility for your team. Code is scanned as it is created, ensuring vulnerabilities never make it to production in the first place. Code scanning is powered by CodeQL and it is built on the open SARIF standard so developers can extend its functionality. It is free for public repositories now, and available through Advanced Security for GitHub Enterprise customers. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Jobs in Web3 - How I landed a job in 4 months | Minting NFTs, creating cryptocurrencies, and making DApps is just scratching the surface of web3. Finding a job in web3 development requires knowledge of advanced topics and a high level understanding of topics related to the job that is being applied for. This article follows a developer's experience in finding a job in web3. It details the mistakes they made on the way and gives plenty of advice on how to be successful in the space. | 4Miscellaneous
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zheap (GitHub Website) | zheap is a way to keep table bloat under control. It implements a new PostgreSQL storage engine capable of running "UPDATE - intense workloads" more efficiently. A link to a series of blog posts explaining how zheap works is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Google Maps is getting a lot more detail | Google has applied a new color-mapping algorithmic technique to its satellite imagery to redesign the maps used in Google Maps. The new maps will make it easier to distinguish between natural features in the environment. Street features, such as roadways, sidewalks, crosswalks, and pedestrian islands, will also be included in maps of select cities. The new maps will start rolling out this week to all 220 countries and territories currently supported by Google Maps. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Zapping Nuclear Waste in Minutes Is Nobel Winner’s Holy Grail Quest | Gerard Mourou, one of the recipients of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2018, and Toshiki Tajima, a professor from California, are developing a laser that can reduce the lifespan of radioactive waste from thousands of years down to a few minutes. Nuclear energy produces low levels of emissions and is relatively cheap, but it also creates toxic waste that requires special storage due to its radioactive properties and long half-life. There are currently no good solutions for dealing with the waste. Mourou and Tajima's laser will fire high-intensity pulses at atoms to change the composition of the nucleus in a process called transmutation. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Elon Musk Raises More Questions About Twitter's Approach, Which Could Lead to a Big Shake-Up | Elon Musk made a series of tweets on Saturday night, raising questions about the platform and the future of the company. He noted that the most popular accounts on Twitter are not very active and that bots were skewing Twitter's active user numbers. Musk suggested that Twitter Blue subscribers should get an authentication checkmark and be excluded from seeing ads. He also suggested that Twitter's home base be converted to a homeless shelter. More about Twitter's past, its current state, and what the future may be like for the company, is available in the article. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Apple adds two brand new Siri voices and will no longer default to a female or male voice in iOS | Siri will no longer default to a female voice in English. Users can choose from two new voices in the latest beta version of iOS. The new voices offer more diversity in speech sound and patterns. They use source talent recordings that are run through Apple's Neural text-to-speech engine, making them sound natural and smooth. Siri supports 21 languages in 36 countries, and users can select a personal preference of voice in 16 languages. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Elon Musk is once again on a quest to ‘nuke Mars’ | Elon Musk has seemingly made it his life's mission to make a human colony on Mars a reality. Mars' atmosphere is less than one percent as dense as Earth's. However, there are CO2 deposits locked in Mars' poles, and it has been hypothesized that if a large bomb was dropped on the poles, the CO2 would be released to the atmosphere, helping the planet retain heat and making it slightly more habitable by human settlers. Past research has suggested that bombing the poles won't release enough CO2 to be worth the trouble, but Musk has publicly disagreed with this. Musk recently published a tweet in support of nuking Mars. No space agency is ready for preliminary planning for a crewed Mars mission, and we are still far away from any long-term efforts to terraform the planet. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Entire Crew Of A Russian Nuclear Submarine Is In Quarantine After COVID-19 Exposure | One of Russia's submarines is in quarantine after one of the crew members was possibly exposed to COVID-19. The virus is starting to impact the readiness of military forces around the world. Russia claims that it tested more than 3,700 individuals across its armed services for COVID-19 on March 30th, all of which came back negative. There are currently 1,836 cases in Russia, and Moscow has declared total lockdown. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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The LG Wing could have a surprisingly thin flip-around screen, as shown in new leaks | The LG Wing is a dual-screen device with a swiveling mechanism. Early images and videos show that the Wing has a triple-camera setup, will come in two colors, and will have 5G support. The rotating screen appears to be quite thin. LG will launch the device on September 14th. An 8-second video showing the device from different angles is available in the article. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes will go on trial next summer | Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and former company president and COO Ramesh Balwani will go on trial for two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and nine counts of wire fraud in August 2020. The pair face 20 years in prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines. Holmes founded Theranos in 2003, claiming that the company had developed technology that could conduct hundreds of tests on a single drop of blood. The claims turned out to be completely false, and it was discovered that the company had covered up results that proved that the device didn’t work. Theranos’ labs were shut down in 2016 and the company was closed down completely last year. | 4Miscellaneous
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Practical Deep Learning for Coders (Website) | This site covers the 2019 version of a practical deep learning course for coders. It is assumed that students have been coding for at least a year. The course recommends that beginners rent cloud machines as many have pre-installed AI setups, which means that students can focus on studying deep learning rather than figuring out how to install everything. Students can communicate with other students and AI practitioners through the course forum. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Apple becomes first U.S. company to reach a $2 trillion market cap | Apple hit a market cap of $2 trillion on Wednesday and is the first publicly traded US company to reach the milestone. It broke the barrier just before 11 am with a price of $467.77. Apple first reached a $1 trillion market cap in August 2018. It posted a strong third quarter in late July, reporting $59.7 billion in revenue and double-digit growth in its products and services. While Apple closed many of its retail stores during the quarter, work-from-home trends and strong online sales boosted overall operations. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Gene engineers make super-size plants that are 40% larger | Genetic engineers have created tobacco plants that are 40% larger than normal by genetically modifying them to photosynthesize more efficiently. It's the first time scientists have been able to enlarge plants by this much. Tobacco was chosen because it grows quickly and is easy to genetically modify, but the technique will soon be applied to food crops like potatoes, soybeans, and cowpeas. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Textual (GitHub Repo) | Textual is a Text User Interface framework for Python. It features Rich, asynchronous event handling, widgets, and CSS themes. Screenshots and examples are available in the repository. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Why Pebble failed (15 minute read) | This article tells the story of Pebble and why it failed. Pebble was a company that made a smartwatch that raised over $10 million on Kickstarter in 2012. The company sold 2 million watches over the next few years and did well over $230 million in sales. Pebble failed to create a sustainable business and sold parts of its business to Fitbit at the end of 2016. | 4Miscellaneous
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Chinese deepfake app Zao sparks privacy row after going viral | A Chinese app is able to create deepfakes in just seconds by using selfies. Users will need to provide a series of pictures showing various facial expressions, and then the app will be able to swap their faces with characters in any video. The app went viral as Chinese users placed themselves in scenes from well-known movies. Zao's privacy policy originally said that it had all rights to user-generated content, but this has now changed to say that Zao won't use content other than to improve the app. There are concerns over deepfake technology as it can be used to create videos to manipulate elections, defame someone, or to spread misinformation. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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SpaceX ISS docking simulator (Website) | This simulator allows you to fly with the actual interface used by NASA astronauts to manually pilot a virtual SpaceX Dragon 2 vehicle to the International Space Station. Operating instructions are available. Remember to slow down! | 4Miscellaneous
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Netflix Removes 30-Day Free Trial Across Markets | Netflix has removed free trials across its markets. There are still no contracts, cancellation fees, or commitment requirements for the service. The option has been disappearing from markets around the world since last year. Netflix reached nearly 193 million global subscribers in March. Disney+ also removed its seven-day free trial option in June. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Google employees are fighting over their company’s decision to ban a Hong Kong protest video game app | Google removed a pro-Hong Kong protestor mobile game from the Google Play store, resulting in many of its employees posting messages of solidarity with Hong Kong protesters in internal mailing lists and message boards. The issue was addressed by leadership at the company's most recent TGIF meeting, where a debate occurred about Google's ethical responsibilities regarding supporting democratic movements. The Revolution of Our Times was a game that allowed players to participate in virtual recreations of the pro-democracy demonstrations. Proceeds from the game were donated to charity. Google claims that the game capitalized on sensitive events, which violated one of its policies. Other tech companies such as Blizzard and Apple have recently made controversial decisions related to the protests in Hong Kong. | 4Miscellaneous
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MASSCAN (GitHub Repo) | MASSCAN is a TCP port scanner that can scan the entire Internet in under 5 minutes from a single machine. It uses parameters similar to nmap. MASSCAN can send 300,000 packets per second on Windows and 1.6 million packets per second on Linux. It randomizes target IP addresses, so it shouldn't overwhelm any distant networks. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Doctors plan to test a gene therapy that could prevent Alzheimer’s disease | Studies have shown that the APOE gene may be related to the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Those with type 4 of the gene are extremely likely to be affected, while those who carry type 2 are at significantly less risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. A gene therapy which floods the brain with the type 2 APOE gene will be tested in humans, and scientists hope that it will slow down or reverse the effects of Alzheimer’s disease in affected patients. While this may not cure existing patients, the study may pave the way for people who carry the type 4 APOE gene to start receiving preventative treatment. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet service has been approved in the UK, and people are already receiving their beta kits | Starlink has been approved by UK regulators and can now provide internet to people across the UK. Customers have already started to receive their kits. Starlink kits cost £439 upfront plus £84 for a monthly subscription. Users participating in the beta test should expect speeds of 50 to 150 Mbps. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Apps Installed On Millions Of Android Phones Tracked User Behavior To Execute A Multimillion-Dollar Ad Fraud Scheme (15 minute read) | A group has created a bunch of shell companies, bought up popular Android apps, then used their access to those apps to create bots that emulate real users in order to generate fake ad impressions. It's estimated that this scheme has defrauded advertisers of hundreds of millions of dollars. The scheme was uncovered when one of the apps, MegaCast, was found to be using a different app's ID to solicit advertisers (it was claiming to be a more popular app called EverythingMe, advertisers would bid to have their ad shown in EverythingMe, but instead their ad would be shown in Megacast). When journalists dug deeper into the issue, they discovered a network of over 60 apps. These apps were owned by different shell companies, but the companies were tied together because many of them listed the same addresses, phone numbers, support emails, and employees on LinkedIn. Google has pulled the apps from the Play Store. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Sony's 'Tokyo 2050' Envisions Humans Living on Floating Pods in the Sea | Sony's new project, 'One Day, 2050', envisions the future and how humans will be living in Tokyo in 2050. Global sea levels are rising at an alarming rate. Without land to live on, people may have to consider floating housing options. Sony has proposed floating pods that will allow people to live on the ocean. They have movement and power generating capabilities and can form hive-like structures that share resources when connected. A video showing how the pods would get around and combine together is available in the article. | 4Miscellaneous
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Cybercriminals who breached Nvidia issue one of the most unusual demands ever | Lapsus$, a ransomware group that stole up to a terabyte of data from Nvidia, has told the company to let its graphics cards be used for faster cryptocurrency mining or it will release Nvidia's trade secrets. Nvidia's GPUs have a feature that looks for signs of the Ethereum mining algorithm and limits the hash rate by around 50%. The feature was designed to discourage miners from purchasing the GPUs as they were intended for gamers. Nvidia has not indicated if it will comply with the demands. | 4Miscellaneous
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Wuhan Kids Give Bad Ratings to Homework-Assigning App to Remove It from App Store | Children in Wuhan might be currently under quarantine, but they still have schoolwork to complete. An app called DingTalk allowed students to sign in and join classes for online lessons, with teachers setting homework within the app. The kids worked out that if they gave the app enough one-star reviews, it would get removed from the App Store. Tens and thousands of reviews flooded in and the app's rating dropped from 4.9 to 1.4 overnight. DingTalk pleaded for mercy on social media. It is unclear whether the app has been permanently removed or whether the students succeeded in getting time off school. | 4Miscellaneous
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Apple Watch Could Gain Breakthrough Health Upgrade | Rockley Photonics produces sensors for the Apple Watch. The company is preparing to go public in New York. A recent report suggests that its new sensors, which can detect blood pressure, blood glucose, and alcohol levels, could be in devices as early as 2022. Rockley Photonics' CEO did not confirm if the sensors will appear in an Apple product. Apple is Rockley Photonics' biggest customer, and it is unlikely that the sensors the report are referring to belong to any other company. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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UI for Apache Kafka (GitHub Repo) | UI for Apache Kafka is a web UI for monitoring and managing Apache Kafka clusters. It makes data flows observable to make it easy to track key metrics and fix issues. UI for Apache Kafka can be easily set up to run locally or in the cloud. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Let companies apply to interview you with salary details upfront (Sponsor) | Hired is home to thousands of companies from the fastest growing startups to Fortune 500s that are actively hiring the best and brightest engineers, designers, data scientists, and more. Create a profile and hiring managers can extend interview requests based on desired salary, top skills, and career preferences, you get to see the salary range up front! Sign for free today! | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Apple introduces AirPods Max, the magic of AirPods in a stunning over-ear design | Apple has revealed its over-ear wireless headphones, AirPods Max. AirPods Max feature a custom acoustic design, H1 chips, and advanced software. It comes in five colors and will be shipped from December 15. The H1 chip in each ear allows AirPods Max to deliver a listening experience that includes Adaptive EQ, Active Noise Cancellation, Transparency Mode, and spatial audio. The batteries can last up to 20 hours while playing high-fidelity audio with Active Noise Cancellation and spatial audio enabled. AirPods Max are available to order now for $549. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Israel develops camouflage tech that makes soldiers ‘invisible’ | Polaris Solutions has developed a camouflage sheet that can make soldiers on the battlefield virtually undetectable. The Kit 300 is a lightweight sheet made out of a special thermal visual concealment material that makes it difficult to distinguish from nature, both with the naked eye and with thermal imaging equipment. Each sheet comes with different coloration on each side. They can be molded into three-dimensional shapes, or folded into compact rolls. The sheets can also be used as a shelter or stretcher, a splint to immobilize broken bones, or as a hypothermia blanket. A picture of the Kit 300 being used as a camouflage sheet is available in the article. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Coinbase dives deeper into banking by letting users deposit paychecks into their accounts | Coinbase users will soon be able to use a direct deposit service to deposit any percentage of their paycheck into the platform. The service can hold the money in dollars or convert it to cryptocurrency for no fee. Other popular finance apps already allow for direct deposit. Coinbase recently canceled plans for a high-interest lending product due to legal threats by the SEC. The SEC has called for more crypto oversight, arguing that most digital assets traded need to register with the agency. | 4Miscellaneous
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AP Taps Chainlink to Provide Untamperable News Data | The Associated Press has announced a partnership with Chainlink Labs to provide news and data secured by blockchain technology. AP will start using Chainlink smart contracts to cryptographically sign data to verify that it comes from the company. Chainlink is a decentralized oracle network built on Ethereum that provides real-world data to smart contracts. AP is a collective of more than 1,300 newspapers and broadcasters. Its governing structure is similar to that of DAOs, despite being founded in 1846. | 4Miscellaneous
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FAST (Website) | FAST is a collection of JavaScript packages that handles the most common web and app development challenges. It features a reusable, customizable, and sharable set of UI components, fast startup times, efficient memory usage, and the ability to integrate with any front-end framework or build system. Detailed documentation is available. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Facebook’s next hardware launch will be its Ray-Ban ‘smart glasses’ | Facebook's next product release will be its Ray-Ban smart glasses. The glasses will not have an integrated display and are not classified as an augmented reality device. Mark Zuckerberg said on a call that the glasses will be able to do some 'pretty neat things', but did not expand on what the glasses' capabilities will be. The glasses will likely have to be paired to a smartphone app. Ads continue to be an important part of Facebook's strategy. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Physicists Claim They've Found Even More Evidence of a New Force of Nature | The four known fundamental forces in our Universe are gravity, electromagnetism, and two nuclear interactions. Physicists may have observed a fifth physical force emerging from a helium atom. If its existence is confirmed, it could help scientists solve the dark matter problem. The force was first discovered after an anomaly was observed in the way beryllium-8 emits light as it decays. The direction that the energy moved was inconsistent with the law of conservation of energy. In order for this to be possible, a new kind of fundamental boson had to be involved. While the particle still hasn't been observed, experiments have shown that it is very likely it exists. The latest study has yet to be peer-reviewed, and many experiments will still need to be conducted to confirm the existence of X17. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Chinese city 'plans to launch artificial moon to replace streetlights' | Chengdu plans on launching an artificial moon into the sky by 2020, which will be eight times as bright as the real moon. The idea is to use this "illumination satellite" to replace street lights. Officials say that it will not be bright enough to harm night-time wildlife. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Kuo: iPhone 15 to Switch From Lightning to USB-C in 2023 | The iPhone 15 lineup will launch in the second half of 2023 and will feature a USB-C port, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Apple has kept the Lightning port on the iPhone, despite most of the industry moving to USB-C. Pressure from the EU has forced Apple to change its stance. Apple may have had plans to keep the Lightning port on the iPhone until it was ready to go entirely port-less. Most of its iPad lineup already features USB-C. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Google’s powerful AI spotlights a human cognitive glitch | Humans associate fluent expression with fluent thought, leading to a misunderstanding that AI models can think and feel just like humans do. | 4Miscellaneous
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Y Combinator’s Startup School relaunches to be ready when you are | Y Combinator's free online bootcamp Startup School started in 2017 as a free annual 10-week online course which then evolved into an 8-week program held multiple times a year. It is now available as a continuous year-round program. The curriculum of information can be accessed for free and on-demand through Y Combinator's website. | 4Miscellaneous
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This human genome does not exist: Researchers taught an AI to generate fake DNA | A team of researchers from Estonia has developed a machine learning system that can generate unique human genome sequences. These fake genomes could play a vital role in the future of DNA research. Generative neural networks have been used in many different domains, producing surprising results in some cases. The artificial genomes are indistinguishable from actual human genomes. While the technology will be used for good in this case, it opens up the possibility of people using it to create highly convincing fake personas. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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LinkedIn rolls out its freelance services marketplace globally after picking up 2M users in smaller US beta | LinkedIn is opening up its Service Marketplace, a service that lets freelancers advertise to those looking to hire people for short-term engagements. Service Marketplace began as a test in February and has picked up 2 million users since. The service is now available globally, featuring 250 job categories, with a plan to expand to 500. Service Marketplace currently does not charge any fees, but there are plans to introduce fees down the line. The service is still in development and many features are yet to be implemented. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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iPhone Macro: A Big Day for Small Things (12 minute read) | Macro photography is a field of photography that focuses on extreme close-ups of things magnified up to 10x. The iPhone 13 Pro features a new camera that can focus on objects less than an inch away. This article explores what the new lens unlocks, some details in its implementation and how it works, and much more. Examples of macro photography and the difference between lens types are available in the article. | 4Miscellaneous
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Netflix’s new ‘Play Something’ shuffle feature is here to solve your movie night indecision | Play Something is a new feature for Netflix that automatically suggests new shows and movies. It shows algorithmically curated content based on profile history. The feature has been in testing for months under a variety of names. It is now available for all users. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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'A more humane country': Canada to ban keeping whales, dolphins in captivity | The House of Commons in Canada has voted to ban keeping whales, dolphins, and porpoises in captivity. Parks who already own animals will be allowed to keep them, but obtaining new cetaceans or breeding them will now result in a fine of up to $200,000. The law also bans exporting animals or using them for entertainment. Marineland, an amusement park and zoo who looks after around 61 cetaceans, had strongly opposed the bill as they claimed that the animals were their main attraction. Cetaceans may be kept in captivity if they are receiving care or rehabilitation after an injury, or for scientific research. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Jony Ive leaving Apple after nearly 30 years to start new design firm | Jony Ive, Apple's chief design officer since 1996, will leave Apple later this year to form an independent design company. LoveFrom will count Apple as one of its primary clients. Ive has worked on all major Apple products, including the design of Apple retail stores. He had a close working and personal relationship with Steve Jobs and has largely maintained a private life despite his high profile. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Grindr has been sold by its Chinese owner after the US expressed security concerns | Grindr has been sold to San Vicente Acquisition for around $608.5 million. Beijing Kunlun Tech bought Grindr in 2018, but the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States identified Kunlun's ownership of the app as a national security risk and set a June 2020 deadline for it to sell the business. The sale to San Vicente Acquisition is still pending review. Grindr has previously been accused of sharing personal data with ad companies in violation of GDPR, as well as sharing its users' HIV statuses with outside companies. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Nvidia’s AI recreates Pac-Man from scratch just by watching it being played | Nvidia researchers have taught an AI system called GameGAN to recreate Pac-Man only by watching it being played. No coding or pre-rendered images were provided to the software, which was only fed visual data of the game along with the accompanying controller inputs. The resulting game was able to be played by humans and will be released online in the near future. There are some differences to the original game, but the main components are recognizable. A 24-second video showing a short demo of the recreated Pac-Man game is available | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Apple acquires patent portfolio of failed smart home security startup Lighthouse AI | Lighthouse AI was a startup that focused on augmented reality and 3D sensing with the aim of using the technology to make it easier to understand and sort through security footage. It shut down in December after failing to achieve commercial success. Apple has acquired eight patents and patent applications from the company, which relate to computer-vision based security, visual authentication, low-light video capturing, speech interference, communication interfaces, and incident sharing. It is still unknown what Apple plans to use these patents for, but they could be used to improve Face ID and expand HomeKit’s support for security systems. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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New FDA Approved Eye Drops Actually Eliminate the Need for Reading Glasses | Vuity is an eye drop that reduces pupil size, allowing people with age-related blurred near vision to see clearly without reading glasses for up to 10 hours. It was recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The drops cost about $80 for a 30-day supply and are not covered by medical insurance. There are side effects such as headaches and red eyes. The drops should not be used while driving at night or when performing activities in low-light conditions. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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IBM’s new 53-qubit quantum computer is the most powerful machine you can use | IBM will launch its new quantum computer next month. It will be available for researchers and companies to run applications via the cloud. The computer boasts 53 quantum bits. Google has a 72-qubit device, but it is not available for public use. IBM has been promoting quantum computing via the cloud since 2016. Other companies such as Rigetti Computing and D-Wave have also launched quantum computing cloud services. Google's quantum computers are rumored to be almost at the stage where they can perform tasks beyond the reach of the most powerful supercomputers. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Tesla reveals revolutionary new wiring architecture to help robots build upcoming cars like Model Y | Traditional wiring for vehicles is inefficient, and due to its lack of rigidity, assembly is difficult to automate and usually requires using human hands. Tesla has redesigned the wiring architecture for its cars, enabling more robot automation during manufacturing while using fewer materials. The Model 3 has about 1.5 kilometers of wiring harnesses, and the new design will bring this down to just 100 meters starting with the Model Y. Tesla has released drawings of its new design with its patent application, which are available to view on the article. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Twitter Will Allow Employees To Work At Home Forever | Jack Dorsey emailed Twitter employees on Tuesday informing them that they will be allowed to work from home permanently. Some jobs, such as server maintenance, will still require employees to come in. Twitter started encouraging employees to work from home at the beginning of March. The company had predicted that the change would become permanent as people discovered the benefits of remote work. Twitter had plans to start working in a distributed way before the pandemic. It is unlikely to open its officers before September and almost all business travel will be canceled until then as well. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Tablet-focused Android 12L update rolls out, just not to any tablets | Google has released Android 12L without any tablet hardware to run it on. The hardware will come later this year. Android 12L features a new taskbar UI, dual-pane UIs for the notification panel and system settings, and a new recent-apps view for bigger screens. An update will also roll out to Pixel 3a, 4, 4a, 5, and 5a devices. A Pixel 6 update will roll out later this month. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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This mouse embryo grew in an artificial uterus | A team of researchers In Israel have successfully grown an embryo of a mammal outside of the womb for the first time. The mice embryos were grown using a machine that consists of an incubator and a ventilation system. In the machine, the embryos float in vials filled with nutrient-laden fluid while a wheel gently spins them so that they don't attach to the walls. Meanwhile, the ventilator provides oxygen while maintaining the environment's flow and pressure. The technique will enable scientists to study disorders affecting the growth of mammalian fetuses. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Strange radio waves emerge from the direction of the galactic center | Unusual signals have been detected coming from the direction of the center of the Milky Way. The radio waves fit no currently understood pattern of variable radio source, suggesting that it comes from a new class of stellar object. It has a very high polarization, with its light oscillating in only one direction that rotates with time. The brightness of the object varies dramatically and the signal switches on and off seemingly at random. Scientists hope to learn more about the object when the transcontinental Square Kilometer Array radio telescope comes online sometime in the next decade. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Google’s Message app can now handle iMessage reactions, challenges Apple with new features | Google rolled out several product updates today, including improvements to Google Messages, Android widgets, Google TV, Google Photos, Nearby Share, Android Auto, and Accessibility features. Google's Messages app now features iMessage reactions, reply reminders, separate tabs for business and personal messages, birthday reminders, Google Photos integration, and more. Apple's refusal to use the RCS standard for messaging has resulted in many users turning to third-party messaging apps. Details about the improvements to Google's Messaging app are available in the article. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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COBOL Programming Course (GitHub Repo) | Common Business-Oriented Language was designed specifically for business use and it is responsible for the day-to-day operation of the world's economy. It continues to distinguish itself from other programming languages due to its inherent ability to handle vast amounts of critical data stored on the largest servers. This repository contains training materials and labs for a beginner’s course on COBOL. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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First Total Artificial Heart Successfully Transplanted In the US | A 39-year-old man who recently experienced sudden heart failure received a total artificial heart (TAH) from the surgeons at the Duke University Hospital. The TAH was developed by French company CARMAT. It mimics the human heart and gives the recipient more independence after surgery. The patient will have to carry an almost nine-pound bag containing a controller and two battery packs that work for four hours before requiring charging. The TAH is approved for use in Europe and has received primary approvals from the FDA for use in the US. | 2Science and Futuristic Technology
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Learning-K8S (GitHub Repo) | This repository uses a simple demonstration to teach a basic understanding of how Kubernetes works. It only covers enough docker content to gain a basic understanding to learn and work with Kubernetes. While it is long, it should be easy to follow if completed in order. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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Why Whole Foods is trying out a 'dark store' as part of its vision for the future of grocery shopping online | Whole Foods is opening its first online-only store in New York. The store will not be open to the public. Instead, Amazon delivery drivers will collect orders from the shop and deliver them to customers. Amazon had converted a few of its stores to temporary online-only stores to help meet demand but has since reverted four of them. While demand for grocery delivery has risen since the pandemic, plans for the online-only location were made pre-COVID-19. Amazon recently launched its first Amazon Fresh supermarket in Los Angeles. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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Netflix's new 'Black Mirror' movie takes interactive storytelling to the next level | Netflix has created their first interactive movie for adults, an episode of their dystopian sci-fi series Black Mirror. To create this choose-your-own-adventure style movie, Netflix built their own script-writing tool that allowed their writers to come up with complex narratives with loops to guide viewers back to the main story if they strayed too far. There are five possible endings, with an average viewing time of about 90 minutes. Netflix plans on having more interactive shows and movies in the future. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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The Tour de France Is Going Virtual, and It Starts This Weekend | The Tour de France will take place in a virtual format, with cyclists competing on stationary bikes in their homes. It will take place over three weekends, with six stages lasting one to two hours each. The race will be conducted on Zwift, a virtual training platform. Zwift has rushed to build new custom worlds for the Tour. 23 men's teams and 17 women's teams have registered for the virtual bike race and the event will be broadcast worldwide. | 4Miscellaneous
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Vulnerability in Bumble dating app reveals any user's exact location (23 minute read) | A vulnerability in the Bumble dating app made it possible to track a person's location. While the app tried to hide user locations by rounding their distances from the server, a dedicated attacker could still determine a user's location by spoofing a location and pinging the app's servers for the victim's location. The server's responses could be collected and analyzed to determine the user's real location. This article describes how the attack was developed and tested. The vulnerability has since been patched, with the finder being awarded a $2,000 bounty. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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McDonald’s is acquiring Dynamic Yield to create a more customized drive-thru | In the fast-food chain’s largest acquisition in 20 years, McDonald’s has acquired personalization company Dynamic Yield for a rumored amount of more than $300 million. McDonald’s plans to use the technology developed by Dynamic Yield to build drive-thru menus that are tailored to things such as weather, current restaurant traffic, and trending menu items. The new menus will also offer additional items based on what has been selected. These new menus have already been tested in several locations in the US in 2018 and will be rolled out to other areas in the US in 2019 before moving into international markets. Dynamic Yield will continue to operate as a standalone company and will serve existing and future clients while continuing the development of its personalization technology. | 1Big Tech & Startups
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500 Free Computer Science Courses from the World’s Top CS Universities (Website) | This page lists the best online courses for studying computer science. There are 500 online courses listed from 50 of the world's best universities for studying computer science. Subjects listed include AI & Machine Learning, Algorithms & Data Structures, Cybersecurity, Software Development, and Quantum Computing. | 3Programming, Design & Data Science
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