Change happens more quickly and creatively during times of economic disruption. Innovations meeting material and cultural needs accelerate. Structures preventing new, more efficient technologies weaken. As the old economy collapses, innovations “cluster” to become the core of the new economy. Over the past three centuries, there have been five great “waves” of economic disruption and clustering. The first was driven by harnessing water power, the second by steam power, the third by coal and electricity, the fourth by oil and gas, and the fifth by digital transformation....

Maxine used deep learning for resolution improvement, background noise reduction, video compression, face alignment, and real-time translation and transcription. In this post, which marks the first installation of our “deconstructing artificial intelligence” series, we will take a look at how some of these features work and how they tie-in with AI research done at Nvidia. We’ll also explore the pending issues and the possible business model for Nvidia’s AI-powered video-conferencing platform....

The power of the helix DNA is not the only helix in nature. Flip through any biology textbook and you’ll see helices everywhere from the alpha-helix shapes of individual proteins to the “coiled coil” helices of fibrous protein assemblies like keratin in hair. Some bacteria, such as spirochetes, adopt helical shapes. Even the cell walls of plants can contain helically arranged cellulose fibers. Muscle tissue too is composed of helically wrapped proteins that form thin filaments....

Because I occasionally tweet about my health struggles, (which include two brain surgeries, a life-threatening brain infection, and two ICU stays), a number of people in the tech industry have contacted me to privately share about their own experiences with disability or illness. Many of them say that they fear discrimination within the tech industry if they were to speak publicly about their health. Will people think that I’m less capable?...

People all over the world have taken to the streets to support the Black Lives Matter movement and many of you might be taking photos to spread the word. However, images may have a lot of personally identifiable data attached to them, such as faces of people or location stored in its metadata with device information. So it’s important to remove this metadata and blur or hide faces present in the images that you take....

Spam calls are a menace in any country. Don’t you hate it someone calls you to offer a car loan when you don’t even own a car? Thankfully, most of today’s phones offer call blocking services — you just need to know how to activate them. In 2019, Apple rolled out an automatic call blocking service through iOS 13. While the functionality is available on the phone, someone has to provide a list of spam callers....

Discord servers have become a staple of digital life, not just for gamers (their original intended audience), but for just about everyone. You can find a Discord server for almost anything now, from lifestyle groups to political debate servers. With so many diverse groups, there’s no reason to have one identity for all of them. I mean, it’s tough to be taken seriously on debate forum when you’re still going by “MasterChiefsBae” … not that I’m speaking from experience....

Watch Parties are now available worldwide to any creator with a Prime or Prime Video subscription. Kick back and enjoy your favorite movie or TV shows together on Twitch. Learn how to start a Watch Party here: https://t.co/aERXbYMJWY pic.twitter.com/qEyT2myFn1 — Twitch (@Twitch) September 2, 2020 It’s restricted by which location the viewer is in — for example, a viewer with a Prime UK subscription won’t be able to watch a Watch Party where the streamer is playing something exclusive to Prime US users....

Apple just released its iOS 15.4 update, which means you can finally unlock your phone through Face ID when you’re wearing a mask. Notably, this feature works only on iPhone 12 and beyond, so if you’ve got an older version, you’re out of luck. But thankfully, in 2020, Apple introduced a feature of quickly bringing up the passcode screen if the iPhone detects a mask. The feature is not turned on by default, and you will have to enable this option manually from the settings menu....

With companies everywhere telling employees to work remotely, the need for a manager who “checks on you” has suddenly evaporated. If anything, this outbreak proved to everyone that life is complicated enough, especially now, to be managed by people who walk the halls of your company and seek power and self-worth by dominating others. [Read: 9 tips to perfect your ‘working from home’ morning routine] In this new world of “work-from-home,” creatives feel free from antagonisms of the old, and the creators of new....

One of my favorite cocktail bars in Amsterdam is The Flying Dutchman. Great atmosphere, young and ambitious bartenders, and some of the most original and amazing cocktails you can find. Now obviously, I haven’t been there for a while, or to any cocktail bar really, and I truly miss it. Now loads of companies are pivoting online during the pandemic, but if you would’ve asked me whether the Dutchman had a shot at it, I would’ve said “no....

Research with people experiencing long-term sensory deprivation, such as blindness or deafness, appears to support this notion. People born without sight can indeed feel and hear things significantly beyond the range of the sighted. Brain data initially seemed to explain these sensory superpowers. When a major sensory input is lost, the brain area that would have supported the missing sense now becomes active to other inputs. This can happen across sensory systems – like visual areas activating to touch in the blind....

A computer is like your home. You usually buy it when it’s stripped pretty bare, then you spend years and years building it up and building it up. Before you know it, your home becomes your castle, filled with treasures, impregnable defenses, and time-honed operations that have your place running like a Swiss watch. For a Mac owner, reaching that level of computing nirvana requires lots of additions, lots of time, and often, lots of money....

According to a report by cyber intelligence firm Cyble, its team of researchers discovered, that on May 3, the company’s database containing personally indefinable information of customers such as usernames, names, and email IDs was being sold for $2,000. Cyble said that the post advertised 20 million records, the database had 21,909,707 user-records. As per a report by Bleeping Computer, it also contains corporate emails from companies such as Wipro, Infosys, Cognizant, Google, and Facebook....

Husband and wife team Rebecca Cordingley and Ben Wasser have been developing a darling life sim game called Ooblets since 2016. They’ve been fairly active and vocal developers, and have a Patreon and Discord server where they regularly interact with fans and potential buyers. Last week they announced they’d be launching Ooblets on PC exclusively through the Epic Store, in a rather flippant blog post explaining why this would be somewhat incendiary to a subset of gamers and recommending those aforementioned gamers redirect their anger towards something more deserving (such as the new Twitter UI)....

The company said that this feature is rolling out for users in a few countries without specifying which ones. If it’s available in your region, you’ll be able to add pronounce by heading to Edit Profile > Pronouns. You can choose up to four pronouns to write in the field. [Read: This dude drove an EV from the Netherlands to New Zealand — here are his 3 top road trip tips] Once you’ve saved the info, it’ll appear next to your display name....

It’s Instagram’s 10th birthday — yes, it’s now been in our lives for 10 years, and no I don’t feel old at all. As a treat for users this month, Instagram’s giving users the option to change their app icon to one of the old classics. Here’s how you can do it. — Instagram (@instagram) October 6, 2020 The icons are somewhat hidden in the app itself, so you’ll have to do a little snooping to find it....

That’s why I rushed to the charger, and updated my iPhone to iOS 14.2 that has more than 100 emoji on offer. Apple released the newest update for iOS and iPadOS last night. It brings some nifty features such as connecting HomePod to Apple TV 4k and optimized charging speed for AirPods so that they can charge in a shorter time. However, emoji are probably the most attractive part of the update....

For example (spoilers!), in Spider-Man: No Way Home, we discover there are other universes and other Earths, some of which have their own local Spider-Man. In the universe of the movie, magic is possible. This magic, thanks to a misfiring spell from superhero Dr. Strange, causes some of the other Spider-Men to be transported into our universe, along with a few supervillains. In Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (in cinemas this week), the universe-on-universe buffoonery threatens a “desecration of reality”....

Whether data is used for creepy targeted advertising or bought or sold to third-parties, it’s clear many companies and hackers don’t have our best interests in mind. In fact, according to IMDEA Networks Institute, seven in ten smartphone apps share your data with third-parties these days. And just recently, 14 million Hostinger customers had their info exposed by hackers due to a vulnerability. The dangers of handling highly sensitive information are loud and clear, and consumers are demanding more privacy....