List of All Articles with Tag 'tech'

By Elizabeth Howcroft LONDON (Reuters) -Mastercard and crypto exchange Binance will end their four crypto card programmes in Argentina, Brazil,

Developers say they “audibly gasped” when first using Apple’s upcoming augmented reality headset, the company has said. Apple announced the Vision Pro headset in June, when it said it would arrive early next year and cost $3,500. In the wake of that announcement, it allowed some journalists to use the headset, including The Independent. Since then, however, Apple has kept its Vision Pro largely hidden. Some units have been shipped out to developers, and it is offering special sessions where they can try out their apps in Apple’s buildings, but those taking part have been asked to sign expansive non-disclosure agreements that mean they cannot talk about those experiences. Now Apple has published some comments from some of those early users, however, who have detailed the first experience of using the headset. Actually strapping the headset on is fundamentally different from using it in the simulator that Apple has provided so that developers can start work on their augmented reality apps, they said. “I’d been staring at this thing in the simulator for weeks and getting a general sense of how it works, but that was in a box,” said David Smith, the developer of the app Widgetsmith. “The first time you see your own app running for real, that’s when you get the audible gasp.” Another developer said that it changed the experience of using his app. Michael Simmons – who runs Flexibits, which creates apps such as calendar tool Fantastical, said that using the kit was a surprise. “It was like seeing Fantastical for the first time,” he said. “It felt like I was part of the app.” Using the app in augmented reality meant that he was already thinking of new ways to get past the “limiting” nature of a screen with a border, he said in Apple’s post. “Experiencing spatial computing not only validated the designs we’d been thinking about — it helped us start thinking not just about left to right or up and down, but beyond borders at all.” Slack employee Chris Delbuck also said that he had come to think about the way the app might work in three dimensions in new ways. “I wouldn’t have been able to do that without having the device in hand,” Apple quoted him as saying. Apple is allowing any adult developer to apply to attend one of its “Vision Pro labs” for free, which are being held in a range of cities across the world. Developers must bring either an app they are working on for the Vision Pro, or an iPhone or iPad app that they want to see in augmented reality. Some reports have suggested that Apple has seen less interest for the labs than it might have hoped, possibly in part because it is not offering the labs on the east coast of the US. The labs have been “under-filled”, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported earlier this month – which might explain why the company is so keen to stress the importance of attending the sessions. Read More iPhone 15 could bring two major changes to fix battery life iPhone owners to receive payouts from Apple iPhone 15: Global smartphone demand collapses as Apple aims to take top spot

TikTok prankster Mizzy has again been released on bail after he was accused of posting videos on social media without the consent of the people featured in them. The star, real name Bacari-Bronze O’Garro, appeared at Stratford Magistrates’ Court in east London on Thursday morning. He was listed for trial on three counts of breaching a criminal behaviour order but his case was adjourned because he has now been accused of engaging in further “criminal activities”, according to a joint submission by prosecution and defence lawyers. The case was previously adjourned on July 19 at the same court. O’Garro was initially placed on bail for the offences at a hearing at Thames Magistrates’ Court in May. The 18-year-old spoke to the PA news agency outside court on Thursday, saying society is “out to get me” and adding: “We will conquer.” One of the alleged offences took place on May 25 when O’Garro visited the Westfield Centre in Stratford, which he is not permitted to do under the criminal behaviour order. He told PA after a previous hearing that he was unaware he was in breach because he had not been given a map of the out-of-bounds area. The two other offences relate to videos posted on May 25 and May 26 allegedly without the consent of the people involved. O’Garro will appear at Stratford Magistrates’ Court again on September 21. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live

T-Mobile on Thursday announced it plans to lay off 5,000 employees, or around 7% of its total staff, over the next five weeks.

Antarctica might be the only continent on Earth with no natural human habitation, but it’s emerged that an “Antarctica accent” is very much a thing. Despite having no locals, thousands of scientists have made up an ever-changing population in research stations over the years. The continent is so isolated and the level of interaction between researchers is so intense, that a common accent is beginning to emerge there despite people coming from different parts of the world. At its busiest points in the year during the summer, Antarctica is home to around 5,000 people. Only around 1,000 people live there during the winter months. The idea of accents changing due to human interaction on Antarctica is no different to the phenomenon seen throughout history at a glacial pace. However, given the very specific sample size, it’s an opportunity for scientists to study it at a much quicker rate and on a much smaller scale. Experts at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich published a study in 2019 which focused on the change in accents observed in 11 people who took part in the British Antarctic Survey. @human.1011 There’s an Antarctic Accent! #language #linguistics #english #antarctica Of the 11 who were studied, eight came from England, one from the US, one from Germany and one from Iceland. Their voices were recorded every six weeks, and the team found that over time they developed longer vowel sounds. There was a physical change too, with participants pronouncing the “ou” sound in the front of their mouths rather than the back of their throats. Speaking to IFL Science, Jonathan Harrington, study author and Professor of Phonetics and Speech Processing at the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich said: "The Antarctic accent is not really perceptible as such – it would take much longer for it to become so – but it is acoustically measurable. "It's mostly an amalgamation of some aspects of the spoken accents of the winterers before they went to Antarctica, together with an innovation. It's far more embryonic [than conventional English accents] given that it had only a short time to develop and also, of course, because it's only distributed across a small group of speakers.” Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The Apple iPhone is one of the most popular mobile devices in the world, but the company has issued a new danger warning to users that could help save lives. Popular among those particularly in the West, iPhones are prevalent in most people’s everyday lives, ever since the first one was released in June 2007. However, Apple has issued a stark warning for those who leave them charging overnight, highlighting a risk of fire, electrocution and injury. The warning by Apple comes under its updated user guide under the article titled, “Important safety information for iPhone” in which it is warned that charging phones over long periods poses a risk. It read: “Use common sense to avoid situations where your skin is in contact with a device, its power adapter, or a wireless charger when it’s operating or connected to a power source for long periods of time. “For example, don’t sleep on a device, power adapter, or wireless charger, or place them under a blanket, pillow, or your body, when it’s connected to a power source. “Keep your iPhone, the power adapter, and any wireless charger in a well-ventilated area when in use or charging. Take special care if you have a physical condition that affects your ability to detect heat against the body.” The company confirmed consumers can use “‘Made for iPhone’ or other third-party cables” that are compliant with relevant safety regulations. But, it added: “Other adapters may not meet applicable safety standards, and charging with such adapters could pose a risk of death or injury.” Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Artificial intelligence chip giant Nvidia has seen its revenue double in the last quarter due to surging demands for AI technology. The company’s stock surged by nearly 10 per cent in after-hours trading on Wednesday after it posted a sales growth of 101 per cent year-over-year to $13.5bn for the three months ending in July. The company has been a pioneer in accelerated computing, popular among gamers for its GPU inventions that redefined computer graphics and sparked the growth of the PC gaming market. In recent years, the company ignited the era of modern AI and fuelled industrial digitalisation across markets. The American chipmaking giant makes processors behind generative AI, which form the backbone of chatbots like ChatGPT. “A new computing era has begun. Companies worldwide are transitioning from general-purpose to accelerated computing and generative AI,” said Jensen Huang, founder and chief of Nvidia in a statement. “The race is on to adopt generative AI,” he said. Since OpenAI’s ChatGPT came to prominence, many tech companies such as Google, Facebook and Snapchat have attempted to develop their own versions of the generative AI technology to better interact with users and offer human-like responses to queries. The revenue earned by the company over the last quarter is much stronger than the $11.2bn that Wall Street analysts expected. This surge in revenue was driven by the chipmaker’s data centre business that includes the production of AI chips. “During the quarter, major cloud service providers announced massive Nvidia H100 AI infrastructures. Leading enterprise IT system and software providers announced partnerships to bring Nvidia AI to every industry,” Mr Haung said. The company hopes for its earnings in the current quarter to be even greater, predicting a revenue of about $16bn. “Demand for our data center platform for AI is tremendous and broad-based across industries and customers.” Nvidia’s chief financial officer Colette Kress said on the company’s earnings call. “We believe global demand has returned to growth after last year’s slowdown,” Mr Kress said. Read More Google may soon roll out AI ‘personal life coach’ WhatsApp update gives users access to generative AI to create custom sticker art AI poses a profound threat – but could also help us in a variety of important ways, experts agree Jury finds teenager responsible for computer hacking spree Hackers ’emptied’ victims’ accounts and tried to blackmail GTA maker, court told Why India’s moon landing is about a lot more than exploring the lunar surface

LONDON Britain will host a global summit on artificial intelligence at the old home of Britain's World War

Hundreds of fake Facebook posts are scaring people into sharing them, fact checkers have warned. Community groups are being filled with hoax posts that are shared across many groups and include scary information, intended to encourage people to share them. They claim that serial killers are on the loose, that deadly snakes are around, or that dogs or children have gone missing. One post claimed that a man was attacking people with a knife in the local area, for instance, claiming that he was preying on “home-alone teens” and demanding money from people. The same text has been circulated in a variety of locations in the UK – and has also been seen in the US and Australia – with police forces across the world having to make clear that it is a hoax. At least some of those posts are then being edited after the fact to change them to include financial offers that target people in the UK, and make exaggerated claims about those companies, according to Full Fact, the fact checking charity that has sounded the alarm on the posts. They then link users out to legitimate companies with the aim of making money through affiliate links that offer money for clicks. Full Fact said that it had identified over 1,200 hoax posts, spread across the UK. But it said there were likely many more. “The sheer scale of these posts is hard to fathom and we are conscious that the 1,200 or so we have identified is likely just the tip of the iceberg,” said Steve Nowottny, Editor at Full Fact. “These posts are all highly emotive and get shared widely because people understandably want to help those in need or warn their neighbours about threats. “But that’s where the risk lies – the hoaxers have clearly identified the massive reach these posts can have and local Facebook groups across the world are now becoming overwhelmed with false information. “Some of these hoaxes appear designed to terrify local communities, and sow needless fear and confusion. As a result, genuine warnings about dangers and genuine posts from people desperately appealing for help, such as those looking for missing loved ones or missing pets, are now at a much higher risk of being ignored. “The impact and scale of these hoaxes and the edited posts they are often replaced by is extremely concerning, which is why we have written to Meta to raise the alarm about this issue. ” Full Fact works with Facebook parent Meta on its third-party fact checking programme. It warned the company that “the risks posed by these posts are pernicious and frequent enough to merit stronger action from Meta in terms of proactively identifying and tackling this growing trend” in April, it said. Full Fact acknowledged that it is difficult to tell when a Facebook post is a hoax, since posts in groups are also often used to send out legitimate and important alerts. But it provided a list of characteristics that tend to indicate that a post might false. Many hoax posts close the comments, for instance, though fact checkers noted that some genuine posts close comments too and that not all fake posts have them on. They also tend to have been copied and pasted, use images from elsewhere, come from pages rather than profiles, use images and language from outside the UK, and include red pins or siren emoji. Full Fact also advised people to check whether posts had been edited, if they were suspected of being hoaxes. Clicking on the three dots in the corner of a post will show its edit history. And it suggested that users search for the text within a post, to check whether it has been shared elsewhere. Many of the scammers will use the same wording, with the location changed, fact checkers noted. Some groups have been forced to share frustrations about how many hoax posts are appearing in their communities. Full Fact pointed to one group formed by dog lovers that had been set up specifically to identify fake posts about lost or injured animals. A Meta spokesperson pointed to the company’s fact checking operations, and said that it was investing in more. It pointed to recently introduced tools including features that let group admins more easily remove posts that might include misinformation. “We’ve built the largest global fact-checking network of any platform, partnering with more than 90 independent fact-checking organisations including Full Fact, to tackle misinformation online,” a Meta spokesperson said. “Fraudulent activity is not allowed on our platforms and we removed the posts Full Fact brought to our attention for violating our Community Standards. “While no enforcement is perfect, we continue to invest in new technologies to stop scams and the people behind them. We also introduced new tools last year to help Facebook Group admins prevent the spread of misinformation and manage interactions in their groups.” Read More Justin Trudeau slams Facebook for blocking news stories about wildfires Elon Musk’s Twitter slows down access to rival websites Twitter turning Tweetdeck into paid service after slowing down access to rivals Mark Zuckerberg says he’s ‘out of town’ as Elon Musk drives to his house to fight Mark Zuckerberg hits out at Elon Musk for wasting time over cage fight Nvidia sales hit record high as AI chip demand soars

By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS Google will provide more information on targeted advertisements and give researchers more access

Frankfurt-listed shares of Nvidia jumped 8.7% on Thursday, lifting tech shares around the world, after the company forecast

India has successfully landed on the Moon – for less than the cost of the film Interstellar. The Indian space agency announced on Wednesday that it had completed a “soft landing” on the lunar surface, near its southern pole. It becomes the first ever to land there, and just the fourth country to successfully send a mission to the Moon at all. And it did so on a very restrictive budget. The Chandrayaan-3 cost was sent to the Moon at a cost of about 6.15 billion rupees, or $75 million, according to Reuters. That is less than the cost of most blockbuster space films. Gravity cost $100 million, The Martian cost $108 million – and it was less than half the cost of Interstellar, which was filmed on a budget of $165 million. It even costs less than some houses. The UK’s most expensive house, for instance, went on sale at £200 million, or nearly three-and-a-half missions to the Moon. The budget is even less than India allocated to Chandrayaan-2, the previous attempt to land on the Moon in 2019, which ended in failure when the lander crashed. That cost around 8 billion rupees, or about 30 per cent more than the latest successful mission, though engineers have made clear that many of the learnings from that earlier launch had been integrated into the latest one. India has looked to build a reputation for cost-effective but still successful missions to space. It comes as the country encourages investment in the private space industry and businesses focused on satellites. The price of the whole Indian mission is similar to that charged by SpaceX for one Falcon 9 launch. That is charged at $67 million, according to its website. Read More Why India’s moon landing is about a lot more than exploring the lunar surface WhatsApp has finally fixed the most stressful thing about making a group Jury finds teenager responsible for computer hacking spree