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McLuhan was sharp to notice that new media was making the world a smaller place, metaphorically speaking of course. But whilst technology has helped bring the world closer together, some things haven’t changed all that much. With globalization comes the need for multilingualism, and speaking multiple languages helps bridge linguistic and cultural divides which are the last remaining barriers in creating the global village McLuhan envisaged. But if you were born as a native English speaker, there’s a good chance you’re monolingual, a fact that rears its head whenever you travel the world or simply go on a two-week break to the Mediterranean....

At this point, I gently close my laptop’s lid, turn off the lights, and exit the room with my head hung low. My heart hurts as I’m typing this — unfortunately not actually on the laptop I’m talking about. Why? Because I’m officially the owner of a ‘vintage’ MacBook Pro. Yes, Apple has just updated its vintage and obsolete products list and my model (a mid-2014 MacBook Pro) is on there....

It’s a day that’s almost like Christmas for hardcore audio engineering geeks. Last month saw the release of the much-anticipated Ableton Live 11, the latest iteration of the uber-popular digital audio workstation app that puts all the power of a professional music production studio right into your computer. Needless to say, audio-heads went nuts. MusicRadar called it “a fantastic DAW and live performance tool” while MusicTech gave a gushing Excellence Award review, bestowing Ableton Live 11 with a pristine 10 out of 10 rating....

Adobe After Effects is one of the most popular tools in use today by top-tier Hollywood film production, a graphic effects staple that’s behind much of the motion design and deep visual effects work done on all the biggest movie blockbusters. However, you might not be aware that After Effects also has a lot of interesting applications if you’re involved in heavy print design projects. Or if you create web pages and other content for the web....

Old Mutual Insure, a pan-African insurance firm, is opting out of insuring the computer equipment used by cryptocurrency mining firms, a local news outlet reports. The insurance firm has taken the decision to refuse insurance, citing the unregulated nature of the industry, and that cryptocurrency is often associated with cybercrime as the main reasons. What’s more, as cryptocurrency mining farms operate around the clock, every day of the week, hardware is prone to overheating and other malfunctions....

The company’s VP of global business solutions, Blake Chandlee, said the platform won’t allow paid ads that promote a political agenda: Interestingly, the app already had a similar policy for India before this year’s assembly elections. Today’s announcement is related to the US and Europe region. This is quite a different approach as compared to US-based tech platforms such as Gooogle, Facebook, and Twitter. All of them allow paid political ads but with transparency programs that allow people to see who paid for the ad....

That all changed last week when I found conclusive proof of Hilda’s existence. But before that could happen, we agreed on one more virtual date: Strip bowling. Here are the rules: Each player wears five items of clothing to start. The loser of each frame has to take one off, until one of us is down to our underwear. I arrange the bottles of tonic water, Pepsi Max, and milk that have sustained me through my quarantine into a set of pins, while Hilda lines up a healthier set of empty water bottles....

The hit strategy game, which was first released 20 years ago, has got a 4K graphics update, and its audio has been remastered too. The Definitive Edition will also have three new campaigns, including one called The Last Khans. The classic title will also feature four new civilizations: the Tatars, Bulgarians, Cumans, and Lithuanians. There’s also a spectator mode which lets you watch any player’s game from their point-of-view. You can watch the new trailer below....

That startup is called Remesh, and it builds tools that allow organizations to conduct surveys in real-time with more than 1,000 people simultaneously. Basically, the system lets you surface insights from a live audience. For example: if you wanted to poll 100 people about the taste of a new candy, you’d traditionally send them a questionnaire and then tally the answers to see what the majority thought. But with Remesh, you can ask follow-up questions in near real-time to give survey takers the opportunity to expand or explain....

The new dataset is a small subset of ImageNet, an industry-standard database containing more than 14 million hand-labeled images in over 20,000 categories. The purpose of ImageNet is to teach AI what an object is. If you want to train a model to understand cats, for example, you’d feed it hundreds or thousands of images from the “cats” category. Because the images are labeled, you can compare the AI’s accuracy to the ground-truth and adjust your algorithms to make it better....

The researchers unraveled these mysteries by analyzing the globular clusters that orbit our galaxy. These clusters can contain up to a million ancient stars. The Milky Way hosts over 150 of them, many of which were formed in smaller galaxies before merging to shape our own. “The main challenge of connecting the properties of globular clusters to the merger history of their host galaxy has always been that galaxy assembly is an extremely messy process, during which the orbits of the globular clusters are completely reshuffled,” said researcher Dr Diederik Kruijssen of the University of Heidelberg....

Over the past year, I’ve tried to embed AI into every aspect of my futile existence. I envisioned creating a cyborg in a real-life sci-fi story, in which I’d play the parts of both Frankenstein and his monster. And if that didn’t work out, surely the algorithms would be adequate replacements for my useless brain. Right? Friends, lovers, and nemeses: this was my year with AI. The belly of the beast The first stop on my journey into automation was the kitchen....

More than 60 years later, in 2016, a pair of artificial intelligence (AI) researchers were training an AI to play video games. The goal of one game – Coastrunner – was to complete a racetrack. But the AI player was rewarded for picking up collectable items along the track. When the program was run, they witnessed something strange. The AI found a way to skid in an unending circle, picking up an unlimited cycle of collectables....

The report suggests this year’s iPhones will be named the iPhone 11, the iPhone 11 Pro, and the iPhone 11 Pro Max. All of them will be powered by Apple’s latest A13 chip, and support Face ID, Wi-Fi 6, and bilateral wireless charging. The iPhone 11 Pro and the Phone 11 Pro Max have 5.8-inch and 6.5-inch OLED screens respectively. Both phones support the Apple Pencil, sport a 12-megapixel front camera, and a have a 12-megapixel triple camera setup on the rear....

The most exciting thing to happen to the Corvette brand was the introduction of the C8 Corvette that rolled off the assembly line in 2019 for the 2020 model year. The mid-engine design was the first of its kind in Corvette history, and we couldn’t get enough of it. Moving into the 2021 model year, Chevrolet might have another surprise in store for us — an electric C8 Corvette. So, what do we know about the electric C8, and when can we get our hands on one?...

There were, however, a couple of interesting reveals. The good news was the company’s new AI chips. According to the supposed specifications and obligatory hyperbole, Tesla’s AI chips will be the world’s most powerful. It’s at least plausible that the AI team at Tesla could pull off such a feat. The race to develop a better AI chip – currently dominated by Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, and the like – is a perpetual game of leapfrog....

While you can only download apps from Apple’s store on your iPhones, Android allows you to get apps from alternative stores such as the Epic Store. And with the next version of Google’s mobile operating system, that task will become easier. In a blog post, the search giant said that Android 12 will make it easier for people to install apps from other app stores: The company didn’t forget to mention that most Android phones already ship with two app stores pre-installed; case in point, the Galaxy App Store from Samsung....

The news comes after yesterday the agency announced a partnership which will see the Japanese giant become the camera provider for its reporters. As part of the transition, most AP photojournalists will be kitted out with Sony a9 II units, with select few receiving Sony A7R IV sets, according to PetaPixel. “Sony’s history of innovation aligns well with AP’s, and with our vision for the future of visual journalism,” said AP deputy managing editor for visual and digital journalism Derl McCrudden in a statement....

According to a report from 9to5Mac, Arcade will cost subscribers $4.99 a month after the initial free trial period. It’ll also be available to every member on a Family Sharing account. There will also be a free trial. The alleged price of the subscription is fairly competitive with other monthly subscription services in which you’re given access to a collection of games. Google’s Stadia Pro and Xbox Game Pass are both $9....

The new iPad features a 10.9-inch liquid retina screen with a 2360×1640 resolution. The screen also supports P3 wide color gamut, offering more colors on the screen. Instead of providing FaceID, Apple will provide a new TouchID on the power button. It has a USB-C port for charging and data transfer and Wi-Fi 6 compatibility. The new iPad Air features a 12-megapixel rear camera used in the iPad Pro with 4K video recording capability....