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For those of you wondering when driverless vehicles will truly begin to make their mark on society, the answer is: today. Up front: No, you won’t be seeing green tractors rolling themselves down city streets anytime soon. But the timeline for fully autonomous farming is being massively accelerated. Today’s purchase is all about John Deere’s need for speed — and accuracy, but first let’s talk about rapid development. I spoke with Jorge Heraud, John Deere’s VP of Automation and Autonomy, and Willy Pell, VP Autonomy and New Ventures at Blue River Technology (a John Deere company)....

Musk isn’t alone in seeing a significant increase in wealth during a year of pandemic, recession, and death. Altogether, the world’s billionaires saw their wealth surge over $1.9 trillion in 2020, according to Forbes. Those are astronomical numbers, and it’s hard to get one’s head around them without some context. As anthropologists who study energy and consumer culture, we wanted to examine how all that wealth translated into consumption and the resulting carbon footprint....

However, this uncertainty hasn’t stopped major exchanges from exploring the possibility of building out their presence in India. According to a report by Reuters, U.S.-based Kraken, and Hong Kong-based Bitfinex and KuCoin are “scouting the market” to potentially set up camp in the country. The report said that according to analysts, Indian cryptocurrency investors hold assets worth $1.37 billion. [Read: Why entrepreneurship in emerging markets matters] Cryptocurrency giant Coinbase has already expressed its intention to so set up offices in the country by acquiring startups and going on a hiring spree....

Mark Scott is accused of siphoning some $300 million from the US using corporate accounts at the Bank of Ireland, whose employees were asked to testify against him in September. Scott allegedly created several offshore investment vehicles, called the “Fenero Funds,” which were then reportedly used to launder the proceeds from the scam. Additionally, prosecutors claim he spent some of the proceeds on several luxury items, including a yacht, three homes, and a Ferrari....

Sadly, I’m not at CES this year to try it out in person. But Engadget’s Chris Velazco demonstrated how responsive and accurate the screen is when used with the stylus in his hands-on, which you watch below (I’ve cued it to start at 1:50): That’s a huge draw for me, because I’m all about taking notes by hand. I generally use pen and paper while brainstorming or when participating in meetings, but I’ve recently picked up an iPad Air along with an Apple Pencil....

Right now, Google Cloud is a modest trailer in that discussion. But after Google CEO Sundar Pichai reported 2020 cloud revenue on track for an $8 billion showing, they’ve had AWS and Azure looking over their shoulder. Considering Google’s overall status and current cloud growth now might be a great time to catch up on how to build, manage and grow a networked system on the platform with the training in The Complete Google Cloud eBook and Video Course Bundle ($29....

What’s the most popular Microsoft Office app? While it’s tough to make that call with certainty, it’s hard to imagine Microsoft Word doesn’t lead that pack. Ask for other Office features that get lots of use and you’ll likely hear plenty of votes cast for Excel, Outlook, or PowerPoint. One app you don’t hear cited nearly as often is Microsoft Access. But in an age where data is king, you may be shocked at the everyday utility of the industry-leading information management tool....

Given the current state of the world, Microsoft did not hold a physical event for the launch (the company said it was canceling all gatherings until 2021). We’ll be going hands-on with press samples soon, but in the meantime, there isn’t too much new to go ‘hand-on’ with anyway; the Surface Book 3 is mostly just a spec bump. But it’s a welcome spec bump. The Surface Book 2 was getting a bit long in the tooth, announced in October of 2017....

Edge takes over the runner-up position with a 7.59% market share, followed by Firefox with 7.19%, according to data NetMarketShare shared with Softpedia News. That said, Google’s Chrome still lords over the competition with a stunning 68.5% market share. Credit: NetMarketShare via Softpedia News To make matters worse, it seems Firefox lost ground primarily to Edge. In January, Firefox commandeered an 8.22% share of the browser market, trailing behind Chrome’s 66....

In case you are wondering, this does not appear to be a Surface-related event, or one focusing on hardware otherwise. Instead, we understand the event will focus on Office, and I might’ve guessed from the invite: Microsoft says we will learn how to be “more productive across work, life, and family.” [Read: Microsoft’s Surface Duo is reportedly launching months earlier than expected] As noted by The Verge, the news is expected to revolve around updates to Office and new apps and services focused on productivity....

The conference was scheduled to take place in Seattle between May 19 and May 21. [Read: Hackers are using coronavirus maps to infect your computer] In a statement to The Verge, the Settle-based tech giant said it has taken this step considering safety recommendations issued by the government: Microsoft has already asked its Seattle and California based employees to work from home till March 25. With the rising number of cases in the US and events being canceled every day, this doesn’t come exactly as a surprise....

In a new study, the team quantitatively assessed the future potential of 97% of the US patent system. The fastest-improving domains were predominantly software-related. They then converted their findings into an online system in which users can enter keywords to find improvement forecasts for specific technologies. Their research could give entrepreneurs, researchers, investors, and policy-makers clues about the future opportunities in tech. “Our method provides predictions of performance improvement rates for nearly all definable technologies for the first time,” said lead author Anuraag Singh in a statement....

GSMA CEO John Hoffman released a statement announcing the cancellation, saying the coronavirus outbreak has made it “impossible” to hold the event. In an emailed statement, John Hoffman, the CEO of GSMA, said the outbreak has made it “impossible” to hold the event #MWC2020 pic.twitter.com/PS1BqTCzU8 — QuickTake by Bloomberg (@QuickTake) February 12, 2020 While a few companies were still planning to go on with added health precautions, it seems they will no longer have the chance....

When assessing men and women creating websites and apps, it’s safe to guess they’re likely pretty bright folks. It’s not like you can just slap together a decent web experience without having at least some level of product or marketing knowledge, right? Well, while those creators might have realized that they’ll eventually need to market their web content, they likely haven’t thought through exactly how that will happen. Like…how do you create product images to go on your app store page or standalone website?...

But what the algorithms recommend is not always fair. In a new study we showed a widely used recommendation algorithm is more likely to pick music by male than female artists. In response, we’ve come up with a simple way to give more exposure to female artists. The representation of women and gender minorities in the music industry is tremendously low. About 23% of artists in the 2019 Billboard 100 were women or gender minorities....

According to a report by The New York Times, the space organization is currently looking into a claim that astronaut Anne McClain improperly accessed the bank account of her estranged spouse Summer Worden outside the confines of earth — while aboard the International Space Station (ISS). McClain — who has since returned to Earth — admitted to accessing the account, but denied any ulterior motive. She took to Twitter, stating there’s “unequivocally no truth to these claims....

Now the space agency has announced it will finally make history on October 21, when Koch and Jessica Meir are set perform an excursion outside the International Space Station (ISS) — and making sure there are enough medium-sized spacesuits to outfit the female astronauts. In the spacewalk back in March, McClain was replaced by a man because there was only one spacesuit available that could fit Koch and McClain. While the issue of space suit sizing may sound like an easy fix, fitting spacesuits isn’t as simple as it sounds, given the body grows taller in microgravity....

The space telescope is now on its way to #UnfoldTheUniverse at its final destination one million miles (1.5 million km) away from Earth. pic.twitter.com/gqICd0Xojz — NASA (@NASA) December 25, 2021 If something goes wrong now, it’s out of NASA’s hands. From its vantage point at the L2 boundary, a point in space where the gravitational pull of both the Earth and Moon helps hold an object in a deep orbit, Webb will allow humans to see further into the reaches of space and time than ever before....

You buy the best screen you can afford. You keep your display settings reasonably calibrated. You optimize your viewing distance for maximum detail perception. Naturally, you also pay for Netflix‘s top-tier 4K plan. Life’s too short for 1080p. One night, it’s too late to turn on your 100-inch TV, so you start up Netflix on your PC, eager to appreciate all 8 million pixels of glorious 4K resolution. Except something seems off....

“The story of how a small band of Swedish tech industry insiders transformed music — how we listen to it and how it’s made — is truly a tale of our time,” said Berna Levin, executive producer of Yellow Bird, the producers behind the series. “Not only is this a story about the way all our lives have changed in the last decade, it’s about the battle for cultural and financial influence in a globalized, digitized world....