First, there’s the Surface Pro 7 – the device everyone expected. Not that it isn’t a welcome upgrade, but compared to everything else on display, the Surface Pro 7 is more of a spec bump than a true redesign. Externally, the device keeps the same basic design that’s been around since 2015’s Surface Pro 4, save for finally adding USB-C (by swapping it for the Mini DisplayPort jack). Unfortunately, it’s not Thunderbolt-compatible, but beggars can’t be choosers....

Developer cstark27, whom we’ve previously talked about for leaking the Pixel 6’s camera sensor, also noticed that the Android 12 beta refers to a device codenamed ‘Passport.’ This has previously been rumored as the folding Pixel’s codename (and the name makes sense in terms of form factor). The code suggests Passport will be running the new, Samsung-made Google Tensor processor, and the phones will seemingly use a Samsung modem....

Human spaceflight is incredibly difficult and expensive; the rockets must be reliable and the vehicle must be built with expensive life support systems and a certain level of redundancy. To date, only three countries – Russia, the United States and China – have achieved this feat. As a space policy expert, I find it hard to overstate the significance for both SpaceX and spaceflight in general. For SpaceX, it’s another step on their road to Mars, but more generally, it demonstrates that spaceflight need not be reserved for only the most powerful of states....

After all, our ingenuity, which is sometimes driven by passion and intuition rather than logic and evidence, has enabled us to make spectacular discoveries – ranging from vaccines to fundamental particles. Surely an AI won’t ever be able to compete? Well, it turns out they might. A paper recently published in Nature reports that an AI has now managed to predict future scientific discoveries by simply extracting meaningful data from research publications....

That’s why we need video compression algorithms and standards, which help reduce the size of the files beamed to your device. We have a ton of them already. Video compression makes it easier to transfer these files over the internet without burning through your data limits in a few minutes, and ensures smooth playback with minimal buffering. A seven-minute 1080p video would roughly burn 200-600MB of your data, based on the codec used....

WiFi connections are the centerpieces of our work lives. So, if I get connected to a wrong, or a slow network, I get annoyed as hell. A lot of times my router gets reset because of power cuts and surges. And as a result, my Mac reconnected to it on the 2.4GHz channel rather than the 5GHz channel. I would realize this only after working for a few minutes and noticing that all pages are loading at a slower speed....

I recently got an M1-powered Macbook Air, and I was excited to set it up after watching so many videos gushing over the laptop. I migrated all my apps and files from my old Intel-powered MacBook Air and I was raring to go. Then I realized that some of those apps might be running on Rosetta 2 — Apple’s simulation software to run intel-based apps on the new Mac. While they work fine, it’s nice to get the app’s native M1 version for better performance....

It’s quite possible that you live in a house with a lot of kids who often snatch your phone to play games and watch videos. That’s probably fine by you, but you might not want them to peek into your WhatsApp chats. Thankfully, WhatsApp allows you to lock your app with a fingerprint or a FaceID. WhatsApp enabled this setting for iOS back in February, and yesterday it rolled it out for Android phones....

Facebook has now rolled out its site-wide redesign to everyone, meaning we can all now enjoy its spiffy dark mode. The new design is very clean and aesthetically pleasing — it actually makes Facebook fun to look at again. But there is one change that might leave you confused. In the previous design, the ability to sort the News Feed by Top or Most Recent was done from a dropdown menu on the left-hand menu....

If you can raise capital right now, you will have something in common with Taylor Swift. Closing a venture deal during 2020 is like writing a pop song that hits No. 1 on the charts. It takes tremendous work and skill to achieve, not just luck. In fact, VC funds are much like record labels, because both make the bulk of their money on their platinum deals. A major venture fund can only thrive if it manages to find and lead one of the top 10 to 20 venture deals in the United States every calendar year....

Password managers are handy tools for when you don’t want to remember all your credentials. Plus, they provide an extra security layer of not typing in your password or storing it in plain text in a document. But if you share a Netflix account with someone, or want to give a friend your home Wi-Fi password, it’s difficult to do that. Thankfully, 1Password is rolling out a new feature that will let you share a password or a secure note through a link....

Electron allows you to build desktop applications using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. There are many arguments on the internet against Electron, one of them being its performance and many times low-quality apps, but don’t blame the framework; Electron is powerful and can be performant. Today, many popular applications run on top of Electron, such as VS Code, Slack, Skype, Discord, and more. But why is it then that many people argue so poorly against it?...

But it’s not just gamers who love VR and see its potential. VR is used a lot in psychology research to investigate areas such as social anxiety, moral decision-making and emotional responses. And in our new research we used VR to explore how people respond emotionally to a potential threat. We knew from earlier work that being high up in VR provokes strong feelings of fear and anxiety. So we asked participants to walk across a grid of ice blocks suspended 200 meters above a snowy alpine valley....

The new laptop is 13 percent smaller than the previous generation, thanks in part to slimmer bezels on the display – particularly on the bottom, where many ‘bezel-less’ laptops had developed a rather unsightly chin. HP has maintained the camera above the display too, even including Windows Hello infrared facial detection in that tiny sliver. It makes for an altogether smaller laptop that should more easily fit into a backpack or onto an airplane tray....

The Chinese giant is developing its own mapping service called Map Kit, state-owned outlet China Daily reports. There’s a catch, though: the service is not exactly meant for consumers. Instead, the idea is to give developers tools to build new applications based on its mapping capabilities. The service, which will be available in 150 countries and regions, will be connected to local mapping services. It’ll also support 40 different languages....

If you’d like to cut down on how many times your phone rings each day as well as control who’s on the other end, the very 2020 option is to protect yourself with a service like a Hushed Private Phone Line. Right now, a lifetime subscription to Hushed is available at almost 90 percent off its regular price, just $19.99 from TNW Deals. Hushed is a secure second phone line with its own number that you can choose, including any area code you like....

The opposite of general AI is narrow AI – the kind we have today. For example, you can ask Alexa to do all sorts of stuff but when you try to get it to do something it’s not specifically designed for it fails. A general AI, on the other hand, wouldn’t necessarily need to know how to do something before it tried. The current technological mindset in the field of machine learning dictates we accomplish GAI through the development of classical neural networks that attempt to imitate the machinations of the human brain....

But it failed to fully understand the impact of emerging technologies. It couldn’t get its 100+ year-old self to pivot in time. It didn’t cross the chasm and cannonballed deep into the abyss. You could build a small mountain out of the airport books that regurgitate this horror story. It’s also not exactly true. With established companies facing competition and upstarts claiming to have the upper hand through disruption, now is a good time to re-examine the myth:...

When you were in school, didja ever get to sit at the cool kids’ table during lunch? Maybe you were one of the cool kids and it was no big thing, but most of the rest of us never did. But if we did, we imagine it would be full of smart people who said smart things in a smart way. In fact, it would probably be a lot like sitting with those brainiacs who staff an Apple Store’s Genius Bar....

In a hearing at India’s apex court, Attorney General KK Venugopal, said that the government is ready to restore 4G in one district each in Jammu and Kashmir after August 15 (both are regions within one state Jammu & Kashmir). The authorities will observe the situation for two months and then submit a report to decide the next steps. Just to recall, the government ordered an internet shutdown on August 5 last year, after it scrapped Article 370 of the constitution to remove the autonomy of Kashmir....