Google Launches Deepmind 2 A Pharmaceutical Hullabaloo

In other words: The CEO of DeepMind, Demis Hassabis, is going to run a drug-discovery spinoff. Up front: This seems like a really good thing. DeepMind’s AlphaFold 2 has supposedly revolutionized how researchers study protein structures. And Hassabis is obviously pretty good at running a lab. But let’s just have a gander at the company’s blog, shall we? Here’s an interesting quote: I’m pretty sure most biologists and computer scientists would disagree with the assertion that a deep learning model could solve human biology....

January 3, 2023 · 2 min · 390 words · Kenneth Heidrick

Google Play Hosted 205 Harmful Apps With 32M Installs Last Month Alone

The bulk of the suspicious software – 188 to be exact – contained hidden ads, accounting for 19.2 million installs. The rest of the offenders fell under the categories of subscription scam, ad fraud, stalkerware, fake apps, fake antivirus tools, adware droppers, and software with built-in backdoors, according to data compiled by ESET malware researcher Lukas Stefanko. Interestingly, while there were only three subscription scam apps, they made up a third of all downloads with 12 million installs....

January 3, 2023 · 2 min · 389 words · Bettie Koshiol

Google S Datally App For Saving On Mobile Data Is Dead

The app, launched in 2017, helped you keep a tab on data used by different apps and find Wi-Fi hotspots near you. AP’s report notes the app is active for current users, but it’s not compatible with Android 10. We’ve asked Google for a comment, and we’ll update the story once we hear from them. With that, the Google graveyard is expanding like a social media company with fresh funding....

January 3, 2023 · 1 min · 103 words · Sandra Polk

Google S G Suite Is No Longer Free Here Are The Best Alternatives Updated

If you own a business, your administrator can use the Google Takeout tool to move to a new Google account with your data intact. Google has done it again. After killing free unlimited storage on Google Photos last year, it has announced that G Suite will become a paid-only feature. As 9to5Google reported, all free G Suite users will be automatically upgraded to a premium plan from May 1. If the company doesn’t have your payment details, you need to update your account by July 1 — or face a shutdown....

January 3, 2023 · 3 min · 456 words · Jamal Campbell

Google Wants You To Complete Simple Tasks For Hard Cash In Its New App

At the moment, the app is live only for users in India. Plus, you’ll need an invitation code to sign up and start working on these tasks — it appears there aren’t many codes around yet. [Read: Here’s how to make your website more accessible] The firm already has an app called Google Opinion Rewards that asks you questions about its own products or places you visited in exchange for Play Store credit....

January 3, 2023 · 1 min · 191 words · Jerry Walker

Great News For The Industry Big Events Get Green Light In The Netherlands

This is big news for the events industry, and it comes at a time we’re all longing for in-person events. With a vaccine rate that’s steeply increasing and more vaccination capacity in the next months, the Netherlands is on track to get everyone above 18 vaccinated during the summer. It goes without saying that we’re very happy to see this development. TNW Conference, which takes place on September 30 and October 1, will have a hybrid setup....

January 3, 2023 · 2 min · 282 words · Ashley Johnson

Great Wall Motors New Ev Is Definitely Certainly Obviously Not A Vw Beetle

If you look at the images below and think today is one of those days, you’d be mistaken. The car below is a totally new car — and looks nothing like a VW Beetle from a bygone era. Chinese outfit, Great Wall Motors and its electric focused sub-brand Ora really hit it out of the park when it comes to originality. The not-a-Beetle four-door EV is expected to be shown off at the Shanghai Auto Show later this month....

January 3, 2023 · 2 min · 273 words · David Woolbright

Grillo Ibm And The Clinton Foundation Expand Low Cost Earthquake Detection To The Caribbean

The system is being developed by Grillo in tandem with the long-running Call for Code challenge. We’ve been covering David Clarke Causes and IBM’s Call for Code for years here at TNW and Grillo’s work has been one of many success stories to come out of the coding event. Grillo worked with IBM to develop open-source kits for the contest last year and, with the help of local scientists and government officials, began testing it’s earthquake-sensing technology in Puerto Rico....

January 3, 2023 · 2 min · 425 words · Annie Winn

Hands On The Ps5 S Dualsense Controller Is A Weird Shaky Wonder

Thanks to Sony, I got the controller and Astro’s Playroom in advance of the console’s launch, and was able to play with both for a while. I tested the controller out in the Cooling Springs level. All the levels are patterned after hardware inside the PS5 itself, and this one centers around fans and icy water and really making you understand just how much cooling tech is inside this beast of a console....

January 3, 2023 · 4 min · 645 words · Jennifer Williams

Here S How You Can Reset Your Sleep Cycle During Lockdown

All of these changes impact our natural circadian rhythm, which is an essential internal “clock” that plays a key role in regulating our sleep pattern. It controls body temperature and hormones in order to make us feel alert during the day and tired at night. Exposure to natural light and regular mealtimes are two of the most powerful forces in aligning our circadian rhythms. But for many of us, quarantine has changed the amount of time we spend outside, and we might be eating at different times than normal....

January 3, 2023 · 4 min · 845 words · Jimmie Sullivan

How A Healthy Hacker Mindset Can Make You A Better Developer

I remember when my parents bought our first home computer. It was somewhere in the 80s and I was about 6–7 years old. I remember looking at this mysterious “box” and thinking to myself, “how does it work? Are there little people living inside the box doing all the work for us?” My first instinct was to open it and try to see these little beings at work. Curiosity was killing me and I just wanted to tear it apart but I was a good kid and I didn’t want to upset my parents....

January 3, 2023 · 5 min · 947 words · Jeanette Madho

How About A Triple Screen Laptop The Mobile Pixels Trio Makes It Happen

If you spent years getting spoiled by the dual monitor setup that’s now gathering dust back on your desk at the office, the comparatively tiny 15-inch screen on your home laptop is probably feeling like a serious step down right now. Dual displays may look like self-indulgence, but the reality is that more room to maneuver really does speed up your productivity. Researchers determined the expanded desktop from a dual monitor configuration actually helps workers increase their efficiency by 20 to 30 percent....

January 3, 2023 · 2 min · 383 words · Ernesto Manis

How Apple S Airtags Track Items While Preserving Your Privacy

The Find My app will show you the direction and distance of your item attached to the AirTag, so you can look for it in that specific area. If you can’t find your items in U1 or Bluetooth range, you can see its last known location on Apple Maps. But to preserve your privacy, this location is only known to you with end-to-end data encryption. Apple says that it switches up Bluetooth frequencies when tracking the item to avoid hijacking of those signals....

January 3, 2023 · 1 min · 191 words · Donna Destina

How China Ended The State S Romance With Big Tech

Alibaba was hit with a record antitrust fine of 18.2 billion yuan (more than A$3.6 billion) over the weekend for supposedly abusing its market dominance. The company, which operates the digital payment platform Alipay and offers bank loans to entrepreneurs, issued a public apology: Meanwhile, questions have been asked about the whereabouts of Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma. In October last year, Ma lashed out at China’s financial watchdogs and banks....

January 3, 2023 · 5 min · 998 words · Bill Smith

How Cosmic Rays May Have Sparked Life On Earth And What This Could Mean For Life On Other Planets

Cosmic rays pouring down from space constantly bombarded those molecules as they replicated, and developed over time. These particles, raining down from distant stars and galaxies, could have played a significant role in the what would become the chemistry of life. Mirror, mirror, on the wall… Molecules can take on various shapes as they form during reactions. Some of these molecules can be mirror images of molecules having the same number and types of molecules, but bound together in different shapes....

January 3, 2023 · 5 min · 970 words · Theresa Woodruff

How Facebook Found Disinformation Networks Tied To Bolsonaro And Roger Stone

The network connected to Bolsonaro was “involved in coordinated inauthentic behavior in Brazil” that sought to influence elections and denigrate opponents of the government, according to Facebook. Most recently, the accounts have echoed Bolsonaro’s claims that the coronavirus pandemic has been exaggerated — which even a positive test for COVID-19 has failed to curb. Their network used duplicate and fake accounts to “create fictitious personas posing as reporters, post content, and manage Pages masquerading as news outlets,” according to Facebook....

January 3, 2023 · 5 min · 931 words · Eli Rippee

How Humans Survived The Plague For Millenia

The bacteria Yersinia pestis, which causes the plague, is thought to be responsible for up to 200 million deaths across human history — more than twice the casualties of World War II. The Y. pestis death toll comes from three widespread disease outbreaks, known as epidemics: the sixth century Justinianic Plague that ravaged the Eastern Roman Empire; the 14th century Black Death that killed somewhere between 40 percent and 60 percent of the European population; and the ongoing Third Pandemic, which began in China in the mid-19th century and currently afflicts thousands worldwide....

January 3, 2023 · 6 min · 1167 words · William Hamiel

How I Hacked All Displays In My High School District To Play Rick Astley

On April 30th, 2021, I rickrolled my high school district. Not just my school but the entirety of Township High School District 214. It’s the second-largest high school district in Illinois, consisting of 6 different schools with over 11,000 enrolled students. This story isn’t one of those typical rickrolls where students sneak Rick Astley into presentations, talent shows, or Zoom calls. I did it by hijacking every networked display in every school to broadcast “Never Gonna Give You Up” in perfect synchronization....

January 3, 2023 · 10 min · 2071 words · Randy Parker

How Quantum Computers Could Hack Our Brains With Fake Memories Like Total Recall

The realm of classic science fiction is littered with ideas that today’s experts believe lie within the realm of reality – if not today’s reality, then perhaps tomorrow’s quantum computer-laden one. One of those ideas comes straight out of a Paul Verhoeven film from over thirty years ago: Total Recall. In fairness, the film (we’re talking about the 1990 one starring the former governor of California not the 2012 remake) was based on a short story by Phillip K Dick....

January 3, 2023 · 3 min · 623 words · Charles Weaver

How Researchers Analyzed Allstate S Car Insurance Algorithm

State regulators and consumer advocacy groups have scrutinized Allstate Corporation’s use of big data and personalized pricing in the way it calculates how much the company charges its private auto insurance customers. We tested whether Allstate’s personalized pricing algorithm treated customers differently based on non-risk factors by analyzing rare customer-level data we found in documents that were part of a 2013 rate filing submitted for approval and subsequently disapproved by Maryland regulators....

January 3, 2023 · 19 min · 4044 words · Barbara Nolan