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Boffins from soccer stats firm Opta produced their final English Premier League table by analyzing four years of historic results to predict the likely outcome of each match. And in a huge shock in the title race, Manchester City pipped Liverpool to the trophy by a single point! Only joking! The Reds were comfortably crowned champions — just like everyone expected — with an estimated probability of 99.9%. At the other end of the table, there was heartbreak for Bournemouth fans, who finished level on points with Watford but were cruelly relegated on goal difference....

Exam regulator Ofqual adopted the system when exams across the country were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, teachers were instructed to submit their predicted grades for each student. The algorithm then moderated their assessments by comparing them to their school’s historic performance and each pupil’s past results. In total, the algorithm downgraded about 280,000 A-level results, with poorer students more likely to receive lower grades. Ofqual’s figures revealed pupils at fee-paying schools received double the improvement in the top A* and A grades compared to students at state-funded comprehensives....

For the second year in a row, South by Southwest went digital. This time, it featured an immersive recreation of downtown Austin in which attendees could strap on a pair of Oculus Quest headset to drink virtual beer, peruse a crypto-art gallery, and pop into a virtual selfie stand. SXSW 2021 was lauded for its technological feats — and rightly so — but if event organizers are convinced this VR utopia is the new frontier for live experiences, I believe they’ll be in for a painful reckoning....

Take Amsterdam for example, there are obviously cars — and lots of bikes — but there are also a lot of boats. Mostly used to cart tourists around the 50 miles (80 km) of picturesque canals, the boats are traditionally powered by diesel, but that’s already changing for when the city phases out combustion engine leisure boats in 2025. [Read: Say hello to Ellen, the electric ferry with 57 times the battery capacity of a Tesla] According to a Reuters report, the shift to emission-free commercial boats is not far from completion....

The “early stage experimental platform” blends multiple image detection models into a single tool that can identify various forms of manipulation. These models were provided by academics from the University of Maryland, University Federico II of Naples, and the University of California, Berkeley. Jigsaw has also built two of its own detectors to use in Assembly. The first is a synthetic media detector that uses machine learning to identify deepfakes....

It’s basically an easily overlooked, but essential component of how notifications work — and I hope I can get you just as excited as I am about this feature by the time you’re done reading this. What’s runtime notification permission? In simple words, apps in Android 13 will ask for your permission to send you push notifications when they’re first launched — as opposed to you changing those settings after you’ve been annoyed by one too many unwanted alerts....

Founded in 2010 by Chris Mitchell, Audio Analytic aims to augment consumer technology with high-end sound recognition, and has trained its AI to recognize a broad range of sounds, including smoke alarms, dogs barking, windows breaking, or even babies crying. As per the company’s website, its technology can give machines the “most accurate, robust, and compact sense of hearing on the planet”. Audio Analytic, the Telegraph reports, will join Meta’s Reality Labs division that’s tasked with the development of AR and VR tech....

A report from Bloomberg suggests that the company is already preparing for a blockbuster quarter by anticipating shipping 80 million new iPhones this year — including 75 million 5G units. Notably, the report suggests that Apple will release two basic iPhones with a 5.4-inch and 6.1-inch screen size, and two pro models with a 6.1-inch or 6.7-inch displays. All the phones will have iPad Pro-like squared edges, the latest Apple chipset, and OLED displays....

The company didn’t reveal exactly how this trade would happen: we didn’t see a demonstration, just a still image of two phones hovering next to each other. Presumably it’ll be part of the sharing option in Apple Music and other audio-based apps. You’ll get the option to share audio with your friend’s phone when you bring it close to theirs. It’s basically the next-generation (and more hygienic) version of taking an earbud out and putting it into your buddy’s ear....

Scientists at La Jolla Institute for Immunology in California showed that infection with common cold coronaviruses can generate an immune response that resembles key pieces of the immune response generated by SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19. This raises the possibility that previous infection with one of the milder coronaviruses could make COVID-19 less severe. But how likely is this? And how does this relate to what we already know about coronaviruses?...

Reports are surfacing that British sports car maker and James Bond’s ride of choice, Aston Martin, were behind a study that tried to cast doubt on the green credentials of electric vehicles. The study, which was presented as “groundbreaking,” has since been debunked by EV researcher Auke Hoekstra. It alleged that electric cars need to travel as far as 50,000 miles before they can match the carbon footprint of petrol models....

The flip-up hardware acts as both the front and rear cameras. When you want to take a selfie, the motorized camera flips up as shown in the picture below. Besides the dual-camera that flips up, the device’s main highlights are a 6.4-inch edge-to-edge display and a massive 5,000 mAh battery. The phone’s overall spec sheet puts it in the premium mid-range category, alongside the newly launched, non-pro version of the OnePlus 7....

Hertz stock has miraculously pumped once again and (surprise, surprise) Robinhood traders like what they see. $HTZ went from Tuesday’s low of $1.11 to a high of $2.38 on Wednesday — up 114% in 24 hours. Such a sudden rise would presumably trigger Robinhood traders to sell their Hertz shares en masse. After all, two weeks have passed since the car rental firm’s bankruptcy filing illogically triggered its stock to surge 680% in four days....

Governments are working to make it one-step harder to access porn online. Yesterday, Australia’s Department of Home Affairs proposed to start scanning porn viewers’ faces and match them up with government photos to verify their age using its ‘Face Verification Service’ — an image database of Australian citizens that is managed by government agencies. “Home Affairs is developing a Face Verification Service which matches a person’s photo against images used on one of their evidence of identity documents to help verify their identity,” the government agency wrote in a submission....

In June, Bird expanded its micromobility services by adding to its escooters a fleet of shared ebikes. The company launched its first dedicated Bird Bike along with the “Smart Bikeshare Program” that allows local shared ebike and emoped providers to integrate with the Bird app. At the time, Bird had only partnered up with the Italian emoped operator ZigZag, but as of Wednesday the company has rolled out free public bikeshare integration with multiple cities....

Today, Triumph launched its Trekker GT, a surprisingly well-equipped ebike. I say surprisingly because car and motorbike makes have done this kind of thing in the past. Usually, they pick an off-the-shelf frame, throw on some off-the-peg parts, and slap their brand name on it. Triumph’s Trekker GT, though, appears very well-thought-out. [Read: The future of electric motorbikes according to post-war inspired BMW concept art] The Trekker GT comes with an alloy frame, with internal cable routing for a clean appearance and to keep the cables away from dirt....

Buying a new car right now means waiting up to a year, sometimes more. It all depends on the bells and whistles you buy. However, choosing a used model can get you into a car immediately — if you’re willing to pay more. Why does it take so long to get your Tesla? Since the start of the pandemic, we’ve seen supply chain delays that have left automakers waiting for critical parts....

This increase in activity also appears alongside pressure from the UK competition commission to break up Apple’s multi-billion dollar sweetheart deal with Google. The deal ensures that Google is the default search engine for Apple’s iOS devices. Many are now anticipating that Apple is on track to launch its own search engine soon. Apple’s entry in to the search engine market comes 11 years after Microsoft’s Bing made its debut, the only other noteworthy competitor to Google to date....

Image editing software generally falls into two categories. There are apps that can handle basic crops, broad brush color readjustments — and not much else; or, apps dripping with so many features they could practically launch a NASA rocket test — and require almost as much training. For a vast majority of photo editing projects, the user’s needs are very likely somewhere in between. Luminar 3 is award-winning photo editing software that splits the difference between ultra-functional and intuitively simple for occasional users....

At its worst, CDR stock hit a low of $65.19 on Monday, down more than 46% since the day before the first Cyberpunk 2077 reviews hit the internet. The company’s share price recovered throughout the day and looks to finish around 8% lower than Friday’s close, and 33% below pre-Cyberpunk levels. While the game holds a 90% rating on review aggregator Metacritic, gamers have detailed a high number of awkward glitches and bugs that’ve rendered Cyberpunk 2077 almost unplayable in many instances....