The FluSense device first detects coughing and crowd sizes in real-time. It then analyzes the data to predict the progress of COVID-19 and other respiratory diseases. These insights could guide public health responses to the pandemic, such as the allocation of medical supplies, travel restriction, and vaccine campaigns. [Read: This startup will map the coronavirus spread by looking at your poo] “I’ve been interested in non-speech body sounds for a long time,” said researcher Tauhidur Rahman, an assistant professor of computer and information sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst....

The system was introduced when school exams were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Teachers were instead asked to hand over their predicted grades for each student to exam regulators. The algorithm then adjusts their estimates by comparing them to the school’s past results. The approach aims to moderate teacher predictions that are overly generous. But critics fear that basing results on a school’s past performance rather than a student’s work will unfairly penalise children from disadvantaged backgrounds....

What would biology say about that? To understand why aliens and humans wouldn’t probably be able to generate offspring, we need to review some biological concepts. But not all lookalike organisms belong to the same species. One example is the African fish eagle and the bald eagle. They look quite similar but they belong to different species. Dogs, on the other hand (paw?), come in different colors, shapes, and sizes — but they all belong to the same species....

During the keynote, Apple focused on preventing websites and apps from tracking you at multiple points. Starting with iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and tvOS 14, developers will have to explicitly ask for user permission to track them. To be clear, this definition of tracking includes, data collected for ad targeting, location data, and email lists to share with data brokers, and a third-party SDK placed in the app to track user behavior....

The ecommerce giant requested the Court of Federal Claims to impose an injunction on the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract, which would see Microsoft build an enormous cloud environment for the Department of Defence. The JEDI project is no joke. It’s essentially the US government’s “war cloud,” to be responsible for processing and storing intense amounts of classified data, and will even feature an artificial intelligence component to help with war planning....

For both the new or the experienced IT professional, AWS’ ongoing dominance of the cloud and cloud-related services should serve as a huge wakeup that those capable of managing and maintaining systems in the AWS environment will remain in high demand. They certainly aren’t making over $130,000 a year for nothing. Right now, you can train up in everything AWS is doing with the coursework in The 2021 Ultimate AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate Exam Prep Bundle ($15, over 90 percent off, from TNW Deals)....

The NGO has shared a stream of examples of how the software amplifies racist policing and threatens the right to protest — and called for a global ban on the tech. The Ban the Scan campaign was launched on Tuesday in New York City, where facial recognition has been used 22,000 since 2017. Amnesty notes that the software is often prone to errors. But even when it “works,” it can exacerbate discriminatory policing, violate our privacy, and threaten our rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression....

Happy birthday Amplitude: If you haven’t played the Endless games or checked out the teasers for the highly-anticipated Humankind, now’s your chance. Before we dive into the details of the celebration, let’s take a look at the games we’re talking about. Endless Legend Endless Space 2 Dungeon of the Endless Humankind The news: Where to start? First up, the company today released all-new Definitive Editions for both Endless Legend and Endless Space 2....

Lacking the deep pockets and credit lines that more established corporations can fall back on during times of economic disruption, the startup community will surely be jarred by the rocky economic road ahead. While taking stock of company assets and liabilities, founders may be inclined to drastically decrease marketing spend, reactionarily pivot their core marketing strategies, or cut out their marketing initiatives entirely. This would be a mistake. Companies would be wise to stick to long-term marketing strategies that work....

The whole thing was a trainwreck. It’s a situation where I feel stuck between laughter (“man, Zuckerberg really has no self-awareness”) and abject horror (“he really wants to control the future of the internet”). But I cannot let my journalistic powers be weighed down by such concerns. I have a job, nay, a public service to do. And do it I must. So, please join me on an investigation into Mark Zuckerberg’s bookshelves....

Respawn, the game’s developers, posted a “check-in” update to Reddit over the weekend, detailing among other things its attempts to mitigate unfair play. There’s the usual measures: creating AI that detects cheating programs; identifying spam accounts; requiring two-factor authentication on suspect accounts. But another solution bears mentioning, because it sounds kind of ingenious: “[m]atchmaking that matches detected cheaters and spammers together.” Presumably that means that all those people who use aimbots and other cheats to get an edge will have to compete with each other instead of those of us who prefer to suck at the game honestly....

Hansson pointed out that the ‘sexist program’ gets even worse. In a screenshot posted to Twitter, he said even after his wife pays off an already low limit, the card won’t approve any new spending until the next billing period. After Hansson’s tweet went viral, the New York’s Department of Financial Services announced on Saturday that they’re launching an investigation into Goldman Sachs, the investment bank who provide the Apple Card, and the algorithm used by Apple Card to determine the “creditworthiness” of applicants....

Sufficient reason to take a second look at last year’s piece, and find out how rich you’d be if you hadn’t bought the product, but its stocks instead, and kept it in your portfolio up until today. So without further ado, here are the updated figures: If you didn’t buy the first iPad when it was released on April 3, 2010, but instead used that $499 to buy Apple stock you’d have $6950 today....

The update — available as a beta for iPadOS 13.2, iOS 13.2, Apple tvOS 13.2, WatchOS 6.1, and MacOS 10.15.1 — will also make it easy to delete their Siri and Dictation history, allowing users to erase all the Siri data Apple has on its servers. These new options can be accessed right from the Settings app: Settings > Privacy > Analytics & Improvements > Improve Siri & Dictation Settings > Siri & Search > Siri‌ & Dictation History > Delete Siri‌ & Dictation History...

Yet, over the past few years, Apple has started to address this gap in its offering. The biggest move Apple made in this space was, of course, Apple Arcade, its mobile gaming subscription. But there are growing signs that the company is looking to build on this, especially with recent revelations it has filed a range of patents for game controllers. The first of these was discovered at the end of March....

The company took to the keynote to preview Jason Mamoa-starrer See, which joins For All Mankind, The Elephant Queen, Dickinson, The Morning Show, among other shows available exclusively as part of the tech giant’s roster of original programming for its video streaming service. But it’s worth noting here that Apple TV+ won’t feature any licensed content from third-parties. Apple TV+ is expected to launch in over 100 countries, with up to six members eligible to share one subscription at no extra cost....

It’s glittery af and has a bubblegum pink interior. It’s the life-size Barbie Extra Car. And, boy, is it extravagant! It has winged doors, an all-pink interior with fluffy headrests, star-shaped head and taillights, and rainbow-painted five-spoke wheels. And wrap your head around this: the Barbie Car at the Auto Show is actually drivable, because it’s a modified Fiat 500e convertible. As such, it has an electric powertrain with 111hp and a 170km of range....

According to CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin started the month of August trading below $10,000; hitting $9,983.08 per coin at 05:44 UTC on August 1. It then recovered, surpassing the $10,000 mark, reaching $10,036.70 later that day. The cryptocurrency reached its highest value so far this month on August 6 at 10:44 UTC, when it climbed to $12,222.69. Bitcoin dropped to its lowest point of the month so far on August 15 at 07:44 UTC, hovering at $9,685....

Bitfinex’ marketing director Anneka Dew however told Hard Fork that today’s movements had nothing to do with the company at all. The set of five transfers began at approximately 07:00AM UTC, June 7, and was shared by Twitter-based transaction monitor @whale_alert. The circumstances surrounding the set of eery transactions aren’t yet clear. Curiously, Twitter users highlighted a section from the white paper for Bitfinex’ new LEO token that appears to foreshadow these kinds of movements....

At 14:35 UTC, June 10, the Bitcoin network rejected a block after it had been mined, which effectively cancelled the 12.5 BTC ($146,200) reward intended for its miner. Any resources spent mining the block were also essentially wasted. All 8 nodes at https://t.co/WKQ8hPDGON identified the block as invalid: Bitcoin Core 0.18.0Bitcoin Core 0.17.1Bitcoin Core 0.16.2Bitcoin Core 0.10.3bcoinBitcoin Knots 0.14.2btcdLibbitcoin pic.twitter.com/p5WKJ5rO0t — BitMEX Research (@BitMEXResearch) July 10, 2019 Did a bug in Bitcoin mining software really cause this?...