The news: When a German hospital patient died in September while ransomware disrupted emergency care at the facility, police launched a negligent-homicide investigation and said they might hold the hackers responsible. The case attracted worldwide attention because it could have been the first time law enforcement considered a cyberattack to be directly responsible for a […]
How the pandemic readied Alibaba’s AI for the world’s biggest shopping day
The news: While the US has been hooked on its election, China has been shopping. From November 1 to 11, the country’s top e-commerce giants, Alibaba and JD, generated $115 billion in sales as part of their annual Single’s Day shopping bonanza. Alibaba, who started the festival in 2009, accounted for $74.1 billion of those […]
iOS 14.3 and iPadOS 14.3 Beta 1 Download Available Now
Apple has seeded the first beta of iOS 14.3 to developers. This will likely be a pretty big point iOS update with some new features and changes. Continue reading → Powered by WPeMatico
Why people don’t trust contact tracing apps, and what to do about it
The news: Digital contact tracing apps have faced a wide range of difficulties, but that doesn’t mean we should abandon the idea, according to the authors of a new essay in the journal Science. Instead, they argue, successful digital contact tracing needs to be ethical, trustworthy, locally rooted, and adaptive to new data on what […]
How materials you’ve never heard of could clean up air conditioning
In recent months, researchers at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and the University of Cambridge performed a simple experiment that could have huge implications for cooling and refrigeration. They placed plastic crystals of neopentyl glycol—a common chemical used to produce paints and lubricants—into a chamber, added oil, and cranked down a piston. As the fluid […]
macOS Big Sur Download Available Now
As announced by Apple earlier this week, macOS Big Sur is now available for download for all compatible Macs. Continue reading → Powered by WPeMatico
A private company has a crew going to the ISS next year
Axiom Space has signed three private astronauts to join former NASA astronaut Michael López-Alegría on Ax-1, the first private mission into orbit and to the International Space Station. The mission: In March, Axiom Space announced plans to launch “history’s first fully private human spaceflight mission to the International Space Station.” The mission, dubbed Ax-1, would […]
HomePod mini Review Roundup: Compact Size, Great Sound Quality
Apple launched the original HomePod in 2018. Unlike other smart speakers, the sole focus of HomePod was superior audio quality. The HomePod failed to take off as expected due to many reasons, including a premium price point. This year Apple launched a smaller and more affordable HomePod mini at $99. Continue reading → Powered by […]
Fireball Is Werner Herzog’s Ode to Space Rocks
A new documentary from the German auteur examines the influence of meteorites on cultures around the world. Powered by WPeMatico
AI is wrestling with a replication crisis
Last month Nature published a damning response written by 31 scientists to a study from Google Health that had appeared in the journal earlier this year. Google was describing successful trials of an AI that looked for signs of breast cancer in medical images. But according to its critics, the Google team provided so little […]