Game streaming loomed large as the biggest story of E3. Between Google’s Stadia news late last week, Microsoft’s Game Pass additions, a Ubisoft announcement and even the presence of Netflix, the writing is clearly on the wall.Nintendo, of course, has largely been absent from that conversation. No real surprise, really. The gaming company has always marched to the beat of its own drum, bucking larger industry trends in favor of its own singular vision. The approach has sometimes been to its detriment (as is the case with its longtime heel-dragging on mobile), but has largely resulted in a number of the industry’s most beloved platforms, titles and IP....

From arctic wastes to fiery volcanoes, ocean depths to distant planets, a new generation of rugged drones is going to places humans can't. But how do you make a super-tough drone?When it sets off on its arctic explorations, the Royal Research Ship (RSS) David Attenborough will be carrying within it a full complement of autonomous flying and submersible vehicles designed to lay bare the mysteries of the polar regions. One underwater drone or AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) that may be aboard come launch day bears the name Boaty McBoatface, the quirky moniker chosen for its mother ship in an online poll which was subsequently overruled.Boaty is designed to dive to 6,000m (19,700 ft) where the pressure is about 600 times greater than at sea level. Less rugged vehicles would be crushed completely at those depths. ...

Dozens of 11-to-18 year olds have come up with new ways to use artificial intelligence to solve some of the Earth's greatest problems - as well as other planets'.One team involved in the Teens in AI competition suggested how to tackle Mars' hostile environment. Tallulah Berry reports from London's CogX festival....

Freelance marketplace Fiverr had a good first day on the New York Stock Exchange.The company priced its IPO at $21 per share last night, raising around $111 million. It then started trading this morning at $26, with shares climbing for most of the day and closing at $39.90 — up 90% from the IPO price.Fiverr is one of the most well-known companies facilitating the so-called gig economy. When it filed to go public last month, the company said it has facilitated 50 million transactions between 5.5 million buyers and 830,000 freelancers.Investors seem willing to bet on the company despite the fact that it’s losing money, reporting a net loss of $36.1 million on revenue of $75.5 million in 2018. In an interview this afternoon, founder and CEO Micha Kaufman noted that the company’s negative EBITDA is shrinking (at least when you compare the first quarter of 2019 to Q1 2018)....

BBC Click's Paul Carter looks at some of the week's best technology stories including:Images of tens of thousands of people crossing the US border with Mexico have been stolen in a major hack, the US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) has said.Uber has said Australia will become the first international market for its flying taxi service Uber Air.Scientists have built a robot with a sense of irony - the idea was to make a robot that better mirrors how people talk in real life.See more at Click's website and @BBCClick....

Apple has registered seven unreleased Mac models with the Eurasian Economic Commission today. These models, first spotted by MacRumors, are all described as “portable” computers, making it increasingly likely that each belongs to a new MacBook that could arrive in the next couple of months.The filings contain no information about the new models, beyond noting that each is running macOS Mojave (rather than recently announced macOS Catalina). It seems likely that at least one of these is a new 12-inch MacBook, and another could be the rumored release of the 16-inch MacBook Pro.This would undoubtedly be great news for those who like larger notebooks, as the 16-inch MacBook Pro could provide the same size (or larger) screen in a notebook with a much smaller footprint thanks to the shrinking bezels and thinner stylings of current Apple laptops. For some fans, the lack of a 17-inch notebook has left a gaping hole in Apple’s hardware lineup since it killed off the largest MacBook to date in 2012....

Orphan Black: The Next Chapter takes place eight years after the end of the show and includes many of the same characters. Maslany will once again play the various clones she portrayed in the TV show.Plot details are scant so far, though Serial Box and production company Temple Street Productions say will partly center on the relationship between Cosima (Maslany) and Delphine (Évelyne Brochu). The first episode will be free, and the others will cost $2 each. You can probably expect a season pass to be available too, which Serial Box typically sells for around $14 for its audiobook seasons.That's not the only Orphan Black project fans have to look forward to. It emerged earlier this year Temple Street is in the early stages of developing a spin-off set in the same world with ....

New details keep trickling out about the Honda e, the compact electric vehicle that’s coming to market in spring 2020, from pop-out door handles and internal side view mirrors to the touchscreen display.The latest, revealed Thursday, includes a battery capacity of 35.5 kilowatt-hours. An important nugget that is sure to get some folks excited is that the vehicle will have a 50/50 weight distribution, thanks to the position of the battery at a low level under the floor and centrally within the wheelbase.The upshot: This electric car will have lots of stability and handle curves like a champ; in short, all things being equal, the car will steer neutrally, not oversteer or understeer. Combine that with a rear-wheel drive and a high-torque electric motor and the Honda e promises to deliver lots of thrills in its diminutive package....

The Iranian accounts were divided into three categories depending on their activities. More than 1,600 accounts were tweeting global news content that supported the Iranian state. A total of 248 accounts were engaged specifically in discussion about Israel. Finally, a total of 2,865 accounts were banned due to taking on a false persona which was used to target political and social issues in Iran.Twitter has been regularly culling accounts it suspects of election interference from Iran, Russia and other nations since the fallout from the 2016 US presidential election. Back in February, the social media platform it had banned 2,600 Iran-linked accounts and 418 accounts tied to Russia's IRA it suspected of election meddling....

On Twitter, users were quick to question and criticize the ads. Given Huawei's , the company certainly doesn't need more bad publicity. And while Huawei has , we doubt this is a move to boost revenue. When Engadget reached out to Huawei for comment, a spokesperson said the company is investigating and that it will provide more details when it has them....

A decision to confirm Rep. Will Hurd as the keynote speaker at the Black Hat security conference this year has prompted anger and concern by some long-time attendees because of his voting record on women’s rights.Hurd, an outspoken Texas Republican who has drawn fire from his own party for regularly opposing the Trump administration, was confirmed as keynote speaker at the conference Thursday for his background in cybersecurity. Since taking office in Texas’ 23rd district, the congressman has introduced several bills that would aim to secure Internet of Things devices and pushed to reauthorize the role of a federal chief information officer....

VMware has been trying to reinvent itself from a company that helps you build and manage virtual machines in your data center to one that helps you manage your virtual machines wherever they live, whether that’s on prem or the public cloud. Today, the company announced it was buying Avi Networks, a 6-year old startup that helps companies balance application delivery in the cloud or on prem in an acquisition that sounds like a pretty good match. The companies did not reveal the purchase price.Avi claims to be the modern alternative to load balancing appliances designed for another age when applications didn’t change much and lived on prem in the company data center. As companies move more workloads to public clouds like AWS, Azure and Google Cloud Platform, Avi is providing a more modern load balancing tool, that not only balances software resource requirements based on location or need, but also tracks the data behind these requirements....

Starks cites the TV show Firefly, the film Brazil and the Coen Brothers as part of the team's inspiration. David Williams, lead systems designer at Obsidian, said Wes Anderson films like The Grand Budapest Hotel and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou lent their whimsy.The juxtaposition of dark apocalyptic moments and biting satire made New Vegas feel like a living world a player desired to inhabit. From observing gameplay at E3, The Outer Worlds has the same allure, right down to the puns and quips. It doesn't just tickle you for escapism, but it creates levity in a potentially grim world in danger of taking itself too seriously.Part of the fun comes from the protagonist -- you -- subverting the rules of a rigid, corporate world. "The player is not trapped in the same oppressive system that other characters in the game are, because you're coming from outside of the colony," Starks said....

Tesla and Uber both had requests for tariff relief rejected by U.S. trade officials, a decision that will force the companies to pay a 25% tariff or seek new suppliers.Reuters was the first to report the decision by the office of the U.S. Trade Representatives. TechCrunch previously reported on the Trump administration’s refusal to exempt the “brain” of Tesla’s Autopilot technology from punitive import tariffs.Last year, the Trump administration imposed 25% tariffs on a range of imports, including electronics, to try to reduce the U.S. trade deficit with China. Tesla and Uber are among the U.S. companies that have requested relief on those tariffs....

The problem in question occurs after the security key powers up. According to Yubico, a bug keeps "some predictable content" inside the device's data buffer that could impact the randomness of the keys generated. Security keys with ECDSA signatures are in particular danger. A total of 80 of the 256 bits generated by the key remain static, meaning an attacker who gains access to several signatures could recreate the private key.Fortunately, any affected customers will receive a replacement key. This isn't the first time a security company has issued a similar recall. Google earlier this year some Titan security keys after finding a Bluetooth vulnerability....

Tesla has consistently been adding software to its in-car touchscreen infotainment displays — including sometimes things that probably leave a lot of people scratching their heads. During a special Q&A today at annual gaming event E3 in LA, Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed that Tesla’s in-car display will support YouTube someday soon.This isn’t the first time the Tesla CEO has suggested YouTube might one day have a home in the company’s cars: In response to a fan’s question on Twitter last August he noted that version 10 of the company’s in-car software would provide support for third-party video streaming. The company debuted its Software Version 9.0 last year....

Lightspeed Venture Partners, a firm behind the likes of BetterUp, Aurora, Goop and dozens of others, will allocate more capital to mature companies with the hiring of three new partners.Adam Smith, Amy Wu and Arsham Memarzadeh join the Menlo Park-headquartered venture capital fund’s growth practice. The team is led by longtime partner Will Kohler and Brad Twohig, who joined LSVP in 2018 to amp up the firm’s late-stage efforts, leading a $1.25 billion investment in Epic Games only months after arriving from Insight Venture Partners. “I think we will continue to add to the team as we see the market opportunity ahead of us, so we can better understand when and where to invest,” Twohig tells TechCrunch. “They are going out and helping us identify interesting new opportunities. We are really looking for outlier businesses. We aren’t trying to invest in any company. We want outlier founders, outlying companies with outlying performance.”...

Her Story's plaudits -- including from The Game Awards, BAFTAs and numerous 'best of the year' lists -- also framed Barlow as the brains behind a new form of non-linear, interactive narrative that's more complex than the choose-your-own-adventure of Netflix's or Telltale Games titles. Barlow -- who previously worked on games like Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and Serious Sam: Next Encounter -- is now refining the same mechanic but on a grander scale with Telling Lies, which will be out this year."If Her Story was figuring out 'oh it's neat to have a game where all the exploration gameplay is being applied to the video footage', here it was 'how can we expand that, how can we make it broader, how can we make it more tactile," Barlow told Engadget at E3, where he played Telling Lies in a short demo....

A trio of researchers have developed an experimental machine learning method that allows AI to listen for the early whispers of psychotic break that humans can’t hear. The team, consisting of Neguine Rezaii of Harvard Medical School and Emory School of Medicine, and Elaine Walker and Philipp Wolff from Emory University’s Department of Psychology, set out to see if there was any way to use language as an indicator of impending latent onset psychosis.They developed a machine learning method that looks for specific indicators long thought associated with psychosis, especially schizophrenia. The team then spent two years observing study volunteers, a significant portion of whom ended up demonstrating psychotic break (the first experience of a fully psychotic episode)....

E3 has drawn to a close for another year, and with the end comes the usual question of what the conference’s purpose is in the gaming industry. According to Xbox head Phil Spencer, the purpose is to raise the profile and reputation of gaming worldwide. It’s a nice, idealistic view — too bad it’s wrong.In an interview with GiantBomb’s Jeff Gerstmann after the show, Spencer lamented the absence of Sony and Activision from the E3 tableau. He also referenced the “legislation” around gaming — the World Health Organization’s ratification of “gaming disorder,” specifically — and said the show should be about the leaders in the industry showing the world, during the time when the conference collectively makes enough noise to draw their attention, that gaming‘s a worthwhile hobby:...

The open-source model paved the way for significant advancements in the fields of software and programming, and has positively affected industries such as medicine, engineering and even fashion. The success of open-source methods that focus on decentralization and allows for open collaboration on projects brings to light the potential for its implementation in other areas.Among these areas, the 2D wonder-material graphene could greatly benefit from the widespread experimentation of open-source use. In its current state, graphene is primarily researched by scientists in universities and labs, but by making graphene a material that is open to be improved upon by anyone, we might see the fulfillment of the potential that graphene has been hailed for since its discovery....

The switch has been flipped on the 24-hour shot clock, which means there’s only one day left to save $100 on your pass to TC Sessions: Mobility 2019 in San Jose, Calif. on July 10. Early-bird savings ends on Friday, June 14 at 11:59 p.m. (PT), so buy your ticket now and save.Join more than 1,000 dreamers and makers at TC’s day-long event focused on the current and future state of mobility and transportation. Hear from the top minds in their fields and see demos of their latest work. They’re not just dreaming of the future. They’re determined to invent, fund and build the revolutionary technology required to create it....

Nothing says summer in Silicon Valley better than the TechCrunch Summer Party. In its 14th year, we’re celebrating the startup spirit and culture at the Park Chalet, San Francisco’s coastal beer garden, on July 25. Who doesn’t love ocean views?And nothing says relaxed networking in Silicon Valley more than showcasing your early-stage startup at our summer soiree. It’s a great opportunity to demo your business and place your face in front of influential people in a convivial atmosphere. Each demo table includes four summer party tickets — bring your whole crew. There’s a limited number of tables available, so book your startup demo package now....

To play Tesla's eclectic line up of games, users will have to keep their car in park -- which is probably for the best for everyone. The vehicles will support PS4 and Xbox controllers, though racing titles will be compatible with car controls. Gamers will be able to use their steering wheel to control their virtual racer and use the brake pedal to slow down in the game. The accelerator will be off-limits for safety purposes.In addition to the games, Musk said Tesla's entertainment system will also allow people to watch Netflix and YouTube through the . Like the games, users will have to be in park in order to watch anything, though that may eventually change if self-driving features prove to be ....

Xprize CEO and Prodea founder Anousheh Ansari dreamed of being an astronaut as a child growing up in Iran, but, understandably, most people around her were skeptical about her ambitions. Yet in 2006, she made that dream come true when she became the first woman to visit the International Space Station as a privately funded citizen (as well as the first Iranian citizen and the first Muslim woman), traveling aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket as a trained and paying guest of the Russian Space Agency.At the time, NASA wasn’t thrilled about the idea and definitely did not want Ansari to pay a visit. Thirteen years later, the U.S. space agency announced earlier this week that the ISS is officially “open for business,” and revealed that pricing for a night’s stay will be around $35,000 per person (that’s just lodging — you still have to figure out your own transportation). At a Creative Destruction Lab event in Toronto this week, I spoke to Ansari about what this milestone announcement means for commercial space interests, and her perspective on the field and opportunity for space-focused startups in general....

Three big recent tech moves - one announcement and two acquisitions -- exemplify the trend of making data more available to business users.

However, Devindra's review was published nine months ago: There were fewer game titles optimized for the new tech and it was too early to see how ray-tracing might be most useful. If you're a fan of, or use the or , tell us how your time with them has gone: How do you feel about the current lineup of games developed for the graphics cards? Are you impressed by the ray tracing technology you've seen? How do the NVIDIA cards compare to the Radeon VII? Leave a user review for either card (or both) on their respective product pages and tell us all about the ups and downs of working with NVIDIAs popular GPUs. Note: Comments are off for this post; please contribute your review on the or product pages!...

As part of the gaming option for Tesla’s cars, Todd Howard, the director of Bethesda Games, said that the company’s “Fallout Shelter” game will be coming to Tesla displays.Elon Musk is a huge fan of the Fallout series, saying in an interview at the E3 gaming conference that he’d explored “every inch” of Fallout 3.Earlier this year, Tesla announced that it was adding “2048” and “Atari’s Super Breakout” to the list of games that drivers and passengers can play on the company’s dashboard display.The company added Atari games to its slate of apps and services last August via a software update. At the time, the initial slate of games included “Missile Command”, “Asteroids”, “Lunar Lander” and “Centipede”....

We are using the core aspects of “procrastination” for two purposes; one is serving as a direct strategy of the AI driving the car.

The new DEEPFAKES Accountability Act in the House — and yes, that’s an acronym — would take steps to criminalize the synthetic media referred to in its name, but its provisions seem too optimistic in the face of the reality of this threat. On the other hand, it also proposes some changes that will help bring the law up to date with the tech.The bill, proposed by Representative Yvette Clarke (D-NY), it must be said, has the most ridiculous name I’ve encountered: the Defending Each and Every Person from False Appearances by Keeping Exploitation Subject to Accountability Act. Amazingly, that acronym (backronym, really) actually makes sense....

The guidelines caution against using "superlatives or puffery" -- no more claims about being the world's greatest. They ask that users describe projects as ideas, not finished products, and that they be as transparent as possible about funding. While these are simply guidelines, Kickstarter warns that going against the recommendations can lead to anything from being ineligible for promotion to project suspension.The company is taking an even stronger stance against heavily manipulated images. According to its new rules, "presentation should be honest, transparent, and based in reality—not overly slick, salesy, or deceptive in any way." Products should be shown in their current state, with the least amount of editing possible. If projects include both hardware and software, they'll need to show users that the features works or explain that the functions haven't been developed yet. Violating these rules can result in project suspension....

Dr. Lisa Porter, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, says finding problems suitable for AI technologies is the challenge.

Rogue One, Solo, Rebels and the all operate in a similar narrative space. Heck, even , an episodic VR game, is set before the events of episode four. They can't change the original trilogy, but their stories can flesh out heroes and villains that operated on the fringes or were never widely acknowledged.The narrative setting has a huge impact on the audio, too. Nick Laviers, the audio director for Jedi: Fallen Order, explained that the music is designed to evoke the original trilogy. "It's also got to be space age," he told Engadget. "It's got to be futuristic, but it's also got to have this 1970s, warm and familiar technology vibe to it. That's some of the notes we get back from [the original movies]. Very much along those lines. Visually and from an audio point of view. It's like, "How can we make this a little bit more reminiscent of going and seeing Star Wars in 1977? That kind of feel."...

At Cisco Live 2019, TechRepublic Associate Managing Editor Teena Maddox met with Schneider Electric Director of Comm at Global Strategic Alliances Scott San Antonio about the merging—and possible applications—of APC by Schneider's physical infrastructure with Cisco's HyperFlex compute platform. The following is an edited transcript of the interview.  Teena Maddox: Tell me what Schneider Electric and you are doing here this week at Cisco Live. Scott San Antonio: We're really excited to be here at Cisco Live this week. This is our first live physical demonstration of HyperFlex for the Edge in the US, in the NAM in fact. We unveiled a solution at Cisco Live in Barcelona back in February, and this is our kind of 'coming out party,' for the NAM. ...

Here I am expanding on my answer and post it in public for anyone who’s having trouble finding a data science job, but who doesn’t understand why.

It'll mean there's one fewer, prominent option to watch movies and TV on Daydream, though there's still support for the likes of Netflix, Hulu, Plex and, of course, YouTube. The shift from Play Movies & TV to YouTube VR might cause some annoyance, as you can't rent or buy directly through the latter app, and there's no dedicated section there for your purchases.The shutdown reflects a couple of trends in Google strategy. For one thing, it seems to be winding down entertainment options under the Google Play branding. Google Play Music is going away, with . Google is also shifting its focus away from VR to augmented reality, having and in recent months....

Global e-commerce is among the fastest growing industries globally, experiencing 18% growth in 2018. The data-driven industry is ripe territory for AI.

A Generative Adversarial Network, or GAN, is a type of neural network architecture for generative modeling. Generative modeling involves using a model to generate new examples that plausibly come from an existing distribution of samples, such as generating new photographs that are similar but specifically different from a dataset of existing photographs. A GAN is …

Street price: $65;deal price: $50If you're an avid Switch user, there's definitely ample reason to check out this controller, designed to be more comfortable than Joy-Cons (even with the accompanying grip). The Nintendo Switch Pro Controller is down to $50, matching the best price we've seen. At this price, it's a great deal if you play lots of single-player games while docked.The Nintendo Switch Pro controller is the controller pick for long sessions in our guide to . Wirecutter Editor Andrew Cunningham wrote, "The Joy-Con grip that comes with the Switch makes the two Joy-Cons into a decent controller, but if you're planning to play a lot of Mario or Zelda, you owe it to yourself to buy Nintendo's Switch Pro Controller. It's a wireless controller similar to Microsoft's Xbox One controller, and its joysticks, face buttons, shoulder buttons, and triggers are all more comfortable and satisfying than the ones on the Joy-Cons, especially for long play sessions. It also supports all the same motion controls and Amiibo scanning features as the Joy-Cons, for the games that need it. It costs between $60 and $70, which is a little expensive, but if you play lots of single-player games with the Switch in its dock, it's definitely worth it."...

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.1. Telegram faces DDoS attack in China… againThe popular encrypted messaging service Telegram is once again being hit with a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack in Asia as protestors in Hong Kong take to the streets.As they look to evade surveillance measures by government officials, Telegram is one of the tools that organizers have turned to. Four years ago, a similar attack struck the company’s service, just as China was initiating a crackdown on human rights lawyers in the country....

The updated software also handles up to 1,000 auxiliary channel strips, 1,000 external MIDI tracks and 12 sends for every channel strip. The software should be leaner, too, with a more responsive Event List and Mixer as well as better efficiency for compositions with plenty of Flex Time and tempo changes.The upgrade is free if you already have Logic Pro X, while newcomers can buy it for $200 from the Mac App Store. This probably won't lure you away from competing audio editing apps if you prefer their workflows, especially if you aren't already part of the Mac ecosystem. However, it might make a case for the Mac Pro/Logic combo if you're receptive to Apple's way of thinking or want a single computer that can handle truly enormous music projects....

Earlier today, Tyson Foods announced the launch of its first foray into the meat replacement market with the unveiling of its Raised and Rooted brand.While the company’s plant-based nuggets present a direct challenge to companies like Beyond Meat, Tyson Foods is playing a different game by introducing consumers to foods that are blended with meat and protein replacements.So it’s not exactly a direct competitor to Beyond Meat, a former Tyson Foods venture portfolio investment, or Impossible Foods, which are the two current leaders in the growing alterna-beef category.Rather it seems to be an attempt to up-sell customers on products with less beef for potentially more money? Tyson did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication....

So how does it work?Well, it's actually pretty simple. The motors spin at a specific RPM that corresponds with a particular audio frequency. For example, plug in a MIDI keyboard, press middle C and the motors will immediately start whirring at a frequency of 261.63Hz. To be clear, what you hear when you press that button isn't the actual sound of the motors. (Though they are, unsurprisingly, quite audible.) Instead, magnetic pickups are used to capture the electromagnetic energy through induction, which is then turned into musical notes.The result is unlike anything I've heard come out of a synthesizer before. It's , but still thoroughly enjoyable. There's a slight natural waver to the tones that's reminiscent of an old analog synthesizer but different in a way that's hard to explain....

A hospital infusion pump widely used in hospitals and medical facilities has critical security flaws that allow it to be remotely hijacked and controlled, according to security researchers.Researchers at healthcare security firm CyberMDX found two vulnerabilities in the Alaris Gateway Workstation, developed by medical device maker Becton Dickinson.Infusion pumps are one of the most common bits of kit in a hospital. These devices control the dispensing of intravenous fluids and medications, like painkillers or insulin. They’re often hooked up to a central monitoring station so medical staff can check on multiple patients at the same time....

A critical vulnerability in the Alaris Gateway Workstation, a control system for infusion pumps manufactured by Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD) and used in hospitals, allows attackers to remotely modify the functionality of the system. The system is used to "provide mounting, power, and communication support to infusion pumps," which are used for "a wide range of therapies including fluid therapy, blood transfusions, chemotherapy, dialysis, and anesthesia," according to research firm CyberMDX. The vulnerability, designated as CVE-2019-10962, is listed with a risk vulnerability of 10.0 (Critical), and permits attackers essentially full control of a device, including the ability to remotely install firmware, as the Alaris Gateway Workstation does not use cryptographically signed packages for firmware updates....

'Wolfenstein: Youngblood' is a fun cooperative shooter that does FPS a little differently.

Game Builder uses a drag-and-drop, card-based visual programming system, which doesn't require any coding. Though, if you want to take things up a level, you can build your own cards in Javascript. There are thousands of 3D models to work with when you're building characters. And the tool is meant to be collaborative -- multiple users can build or play games simultaneously. Google hopes it will appeal to everyone from novice to experienced game designers and says you can slap together a game in 10 minutes or spend hours crafting one. You can find Game Builder for PC and Mac....

Musk and Howard's conversation takes place at 3PM ET on the show floor at E3 Coliseum, a series of panels related to many of the games showcased at the expo. You can watch the livestream of their exchange below.Who knows? Maybe they have a surprise in store. is playable , so why not on a Model 3 screen?Catch up on all the latest news from here!...

As augmented reality (AR) technologies barrel toward ubiquity, a key concern among ethicists remains preserving privacy in data on which the underpinning AI models train. In order to localize themselves in space, AR apps require access to device cameras, which they use to construct digital maps of their surroundings. These maps are often stored persistently either on-device or remotely, and although images aren’t retained along with them, malicious actors with access to them could theoretically infer geometry, appearance, the layout of private spaces, knowledge about objects contained in those spaces, and other sensitive information.That’s why a team at Microsoft and academic collaborators are investigating techniques that obfuscate data without sacrificing performance or accuracy. In a pair of papers scheduled to be presented at the Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR 2019) conference next week in Long Beach, California, they demonstrate that 3D point clouds and camera localization features are prone to privacy attacks, and they offer a solution that involves transforming the 3D points such that scene geometry is concealed....

When it announced the long-awaited Mac Pro relaunch onstage at WWDC last week, Apple settled on creative pro software as the best way to illustrate the desktop’s power. Along with Final Cut, Logic was one of the centerpieces of that introduction. Today the company issued the update to Logic Pro X illustrated onstage. Version 10.4.5 of the pro-level music production software supports up to 56 processing threads, and up to 1,000 audio tracks and software instrument tracks. That can be augmented with 1,000 auxiliary channel strips and 1,000 external MIDI tracks. The company says the new version is capable of handling five times as many real-time plug-ins on the software as the last version of the Mac Pro....

This morning, Spotify announced the rollout of a redesigned app for its Premium users. Now, the service is down. The streaming music provider is experiencing an outage today, according to reports from social media and various outage tracking websites, including DownDetector. Spotify had failed to acknowledge the outage on its Spotify Status Twitter account. But the company has now confirmed the outage directly with TechCrunch.Spotify’s Twitter customer support team is also responding to customers to let them know the company is aware of the problem and working on a fix.Many of the impacted users appear to be complaining about their Spotify mobile app not working — something that led people to believe the outage is related to the app redesign that went live earlier today....

How well your project teams function and execute project tasks is highly dependent on their morale. As a leader, you play a pivotal role in how invested they are in a project. Are you sending your project team the wrong signals with these four behaviors?Project managers may be tempted to keep a serious face in an effort to show leadership, thinking that teams are more likely to follow their lead and work harder. This could not be further from the truth. In fact, team members are more likely to have higher levels of productivity when they feel invested in a project and company and have a connection with their team, project manager, and leadership team. Maintaining a serious demeanor at all times only serves to send the signal to team members that you are unapproachable. The unfortunate consequence of appearing unapproachable is an increased chance that mistakes will be made as a result of team members avoiding discussions with you. In order to appear approachable, it is important to know when to be serious and also recognize that a sense of humor—and the ability to at least show a smile—lets your team see that they can approach you. This increases the chance of your team voicing concerns with you when things crop up....

The company is no stranger to releasing movies in theaters first, but there's typically been a larger gap. reached movie theaters in November 2016, but it didn't hit Prime Video until May 2017.Amazon's strategy isn't going to win over , many of whom see streaming movies undermining the theatrical experience. The Academy , though, and you can be sure that Amazon, Netflix and others will take advantage of those rules to chase awards and draw attention to their movies....

The UK government today announced a £153 million investment into efforts to commercialize quantum computing. That’s about $193 million and with additional commitments from numerous industry players, that number goes up to over $440 million. With this, the UK’s National Quantum Technologies Programme has now passed £1 billion (or about $1.27 billion) in investments since its inception in 2014.In the US, president Trump last year signed into law a $1.2 billion investment into quantum computing and the European Union, which the UK is infamously trying to leave, also launched a similarly-sized plan. Indeed, it’s hard not to look at this announcement in the context of Brexit, which would cut the UK off from these European efforts, though it’s worth noting that the UK obviously has a long history of fundamental computer science research, something that is surely also motivating these efforts....

Investments by U.S. venture capital firms into Latin America are skyrocketing and one of the firms leading the charge into deals is none other than Silicon Valley’s Andreessen Horowitz.The firm that shook up Silicon Valley with potentially over-generous term sheets and valuations and an overarching thesis that “software is eating the world” has been reluctant to test its core belief… well… pretty much anywhere outside of the United States.That was true until a few years ago when Andreessen began making investments in Latin America. It’s the only geography outside of the U.S. where the firm has committed significant capital and the pace of its investments is increasing....

Fresh off its 10th anniversary and under the helm of a new CEO, Kickstarter is shaking things up with a new set of guidelines targeted at seller claims.A new page titled Honest and Clear Presentation in Projects notes:Among the bullets points here are presenting projects as ideas, rather than finished products and, notably, avoiding exaggerations and dubious claims — both of which are mainstays of not just Kickstarter projects, but advertising in generally.Included among the latter is a dissuasion to “Use superlatives or puffery to describe your project, such as ‘the world’s best / smallest / fastest / first / etc.’ or ‘the ultimate / unrivaled / revolutionary / etc.’ ”...

The same, but different.

"This is one of the faster warming continental regions in the world, but we don't know what's really going on above 5,000 meters," said Paul Mayeswki, the expedition's scientific leader, in an interview with . The nearly two month expedition involved more than 30 scientists from all over the world, including 17 Nepali researchers.The team also collected the world highest ice core sample at 8,020 meters (26,312 feet), which will help scientists study the deep record of precipitation on the mountain and composition of the atmosphere during pre-industrial times. Another milestone of the project was the world's highest helicopter-based lidar scan and the most detailed photogrammetric imaging (also with lidar scans) of the Everest Base Camp area and the entire Khumbu Glacier ever completed....

In its blog post, CERN said "MAlt's objective is to put us back in control using open software." Its goal is to break CERN's dependency on commercial vendors and "keep hands on the data." The multi-year project will begin with a pilot mail service for the IT department and volunteers this summer. If that goes well, CERN will migrate all of its staff to the new mail service. It also plans to move Skype for Business clients and analogue phones to a softphone pilot.While Microsoft agreed to ramp up CERN's fees over a ten-year period to help the institution adapt, CERN said in a blog post that the costs are not sustainable. It also points out that it's not alone; many other public research institutions face a similar dilemma with private sector vendors. In launching MAlt, CERN hopes to play a "pioneering role" among its peers. "While the Microsoft Alternatives project is ambitious, it's also a unique opportunity for CERN to demonstrate that building core services can be done without vendor and data lock-in," the company wrote. If vendors continue to increase rates, we may see more institutions going the way of open source software....

If there’s one insight that might be gleaned from continuing AI research, it’s that many events once assumed unknowable are, in fact, predictable with relatively high accuracy. Case in point? A paper (“Time to Die: Death Prediction in Dota 2 using Deep Learning“) published by researchers at the University of York describes a system that can reliably anticipate (within a 5-second window) which player characters won’t survive Dota 2 matches.For the uninitiated, Valve’s Dota 2 — a follow-up to Defense of the Ancients (DotA), a community-created mod for Blizzard’s Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos — is what’s known as a multiplayer online battle arena, or MOBA. Two groups of five players, each of which occupy and defend a base, attempt to destroy structures located at opposite ends of the map. Players have a distinct set of abilities, and collect experience points and items that unlock new attacks and defensive moves....

The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in the U.S. Congress today spoke with a panel of legal and AI experts to discuss the potential of AI-powered manipulated media like deepfakes to degrade trust in democratic institutions and news media, and enable attacks by foreign adversaries on people’s sense of reality.Participants wondered out loud what will happen if deepfakes to defame people like Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden are released in the coming election year or if media, intelligence, or military organizations can no longer verify facts about events seen in a video.In business, a deepfake scenario considered at the hearing was the release of a malicious video imitating a CEO ahead of an IPO to tank a company’s stock value on its first day of trading....

Google’s Area 120 team, the company’s in-house incubator for some of its more experimental projects, today launchedGame Builder, a free and easy to use tool for PC and macOS users who want to build their own 3D games without having to know how to code. Game Builder is currently only available through Valve’s Steam platform, so you’ll need an account there to try it.After a quick download, Game Builder asks you about what screen size you want to work on and then drops you right into the experience after you tell it whether you want to start a new project, work on an existing project or try out some sample projects. These sample projects include a first-person shooter, a platformer and a demo of the tool’s card system for programming more complex interactions....

The initial version will allow person-to-person payments, "pots" to split savings from spending money, and no-fee international spending. Monzo intends to become a fully licensed US bank with the help of a partner bank, but that's a "long process" -- it would rather start offering some kind of service in the US and learn from that in the meantime.It's not shocking that Monzo would make the trip across the Atlantic. The , and Monzo has both experience and momentum on its side. Even a limited launch could get its foot in the door and ensure that you're at least aware of the company by the time it's ready to offer full-fledged banking services. If it waited until everything was ready, it risked being passed over in favor of existing options like Chime or Simple....

There are numerous challenges to finding effective treatments for mental disorders. However, Blackthorn Therapeutics, a neurobehavioral health company using machine learning to create personalized medicine for mental health, is betting its technological approach to finding drugs that work will put it ahead of the competition. Lucky for them, GV and other biotech investors have shown they agree by adding another $76 million in Series B financing to the coffers.Today, Blackthorn announced the close of its $76 million series B round from GV, Scripps Research, Johnson & Johnson Innovation and a bevy of other biotech investment firms, including Polaris Partners, Premier Partners, Vertex Ventures HC, Alexandria Venture Investments, Altitude Life Science Ventures, ARCH Venture Partners, and Biomatics Capita....

  Every day we hear about some new threat or vulnerability in technology, and the data harvesting attack known as "Magecart" is the latest threat. I discussed this threat with Peter Blum, vice president of technology at app delivery provider Instart.  Scott Matteson: What is a Magecart attack?Peter Blum: Magecart is a form of data skimming, which attacks using the client-side browser as the front-door for consumer interactions. "Skimming" is a method used by attackers to capture sensitive information from online payment forms, such as email addresses, passwords, and credit card numbers. For Magecart specifically, hackers implant malicious code into websites in order to steal credit card information as people enter credentials on the checkout page....

Right Side Up is not your typical growth marketing agency. As a former entrepreneur and in-house growth marketer for startups like Eventbrite, founder Tyler Elliston says he created RSU as a way to help his former self. RSU recruits a collective of expert growth marketers and partners them with various companies, but unlike a traditional agency, RSU actively encourages growth teams to hire their top talent.It may seem counterintuitive, but two and a half years later, with more than 250 marketers in their “growth collective”, and having helped 120+ companies, Tyler seems to be fulfilling his vision. Learn more about RSU’s unique approach to growth marketing for startups....

Zume Inc. (they of the robotic pizza) has acquired Southern California-based Pivot, designer of plant-based packaging material. Along with the deal, Zume will be opening up a 70,000 square foot manufacturing plant in the area.Zume notes that it has actually been in the food packaging industry in one form or other since 2016, when it introduced a compostable pizza box made the fibers of discarded sugarcane. This acquisition find the company expanding its offering into additional containers, including bowls, plates cups, trays and cutlery.The startup has set the lofty goal of replacing one billion plastic and styrofoam containers by next year. It’s an admirable target — food packing waste is undeniably out of control, and is likely to only get worse before it gets better....

Vodafone says it is working to tackle "disruption" to its mobile and fixed-line broadband services.The firm experienced a fault with its ability to transmit data from one country to another but says it is rerouting traffic to address the issue.Reports on the DownDetector website indicate that subscribers in the UK, Ireland, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Germany are among those affected.The problem appears to have begun after 14:00BST.Some affected users have, however, reported that issues with email and other internet-based activities have been resolved.The fault comes a day after the firm announced that it had begun allowing users to link their accounts to Amazon's Alexa service, letting them call contacts via the US company's smart speakers. However, there is no suggestion that this was the cause of the outage....

Deepfake technology could spark "violent outbreaks", an expert warns.The warning came during a hearing in the US House of Representatives on deepfake technology that can create convincing videos of public figures.Public safety could be put at risk if it was adopted by those pushing "false conspiracies", said Clint Watts, from the Foreign Policy Research Institute, Its threat could be countered by making social media services liable for fake videos users share, one witness said.The US House Intelligence Committee called witnesses to testify about the peril and promise of deepfake technology. The hearing came a day after Facebook was criticised for not removing a manipulated video that appeared to show Mark Zuckerberg credit a secretive organisation for its success....

India plans to have its own space station in the future and conduct separate missions to study Sun and Venus, it said on Thursday, as the nation moves to bolster its status as a leader in space technologies and inspire the young minds to take an interest in scientific fields.India’s space agency said today that it will begin working on its space station following its first manned mission to space, called Gaganyaan (which means “space vehicle” in Sanskrit), in 2022 — just in time to commemorate 75 years of the country’s independence from Britain. The government has sanctioned Rs 10,000 crores ($1.5 billion) for Gaganyaan mission, it was unveiled today....

The May 2019 Update of Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system—version 1903—delivers a range of fixes along with a few new features in this semi-annual release. The star feature arguably is the Windows Sandbox that allows for users to access a containerized version of Windows 10 to aid in testing software installs and deployments without compromising a production system or spin up a virtual machine each time you wish to test something out.The aim of the lightweight desktop environment is to isolate applications in a safe sandbox, which serves to isolate the apps from the live Windows host, without causing a lasting impact. In fact, the sandboxed environment is quick and temporary, booting up in a matter of seconds and once closed, all changes including file, app, and system states are permanently deleted without any of the left-over cruft found in VMs or production systems that must be purged manually....

Target is ramping up its same-day delivery efforts, following news of Amazon’s plans to increase Prime speeds and Walmart’s recent launch of free, next-day delivery in select markets. This morning, Target announced it’s making it easier to shop its same-day selection directly from its website, with the deliveries powered by Shipt.The retailer acquired grocery delivery service Shipt for $550 million in 2017, in order to accelerate its digital fulfillment efforts. Following the deal, Target has continued to offer same-day delivery through Shipt on grocery items and other day-to-day needs, like household, pet and baby items. While Shipt delivers for other local grocers and stores as well, Target’s prices in Shipt aren’t marked up....

Target customers have a selection of 65,000 items for delivery to their door through Target.com. The retailer has marked same-day eligible items on its website so shoppers can easily browse items that can be delivered that day and add them to their cart. While deliveries will cost $9.99, if you find yourself frequently using the service, you can become a Shipt member for $99 per year and get free delivery on purchases of over $35.Target's move into same-day shipping shouldn't come as much of a surprise, seeing as its biggest competitors have also made advances in the space. Walmart has been working on same-day delivery service for groceries but has . Amazon has also at times. Both and offer next-day delivery on some items....

Why is there no app where you can follow party animals, concert snobs, or conference butterflies for their curated suggestions of events? That’s the next phase of social calendar app IRL that’s launching today on iOS to help you make and discuss plans with friends or discover nearby happenings to fill out your schedule.The calendar, a historically dorky utility, seems like a strange way to start the next big social network. Many people, especially teens, either don’t use apps like Google Calendar, keep them professional, or merely input plans made elsewhere. But by baking in an Explore tab of event recommendations and the option to follow curators, headliners, and venues, IRL could make calendars communal like Instagram did to cameras....

At Cisco Live 2019, TechRepublic's Teena Maddox spoke with Vertiv Corporation's Patrick Quirk about how Enterprise applications are growing the need for 5G, with edge computing creating the need for immediate content. The following is an edited transcript of the interview. Teena Maddox: Tell me about your company and what you're working on these days. Patrick Quirk: Vertiv Corporation, we're in our third year of being Vertiv. We are formerly Emerson Network Power and we've really spent the last two and a half years really trying to build the Vertiv brand off of our existing core brands of Avocent, Liebert, NetSure, Chloride and recently we acquired Geist for rack PDUs. Our expertise is in data center management, power, critical power, critical thermal and device management at the edge. ...

If you're a network or web admin, you like stats. Of course you do. And when the higher ups call a meeting and want numbers, you need to have them. That's when tools like AWStats come into play. AWStats is an open source web analytics software that can give you all the stats you need for your websites. Ah, analytics—a word every member of the business nation loves to use in a sentence. With good reason. Today's businesses need numbers to crunch. With a tool like AWStats, you get plenty of numbers. But how do you install AWStats? SEE: https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-office-365-for-business-everything-you-need-to-know/Choosing your Windows 7 exit strategy: Four options (Tech Pro Research)...

In the Music section, you'll find tabs for Playlists, Artists and Albums. The latter two includes all the artists and albums you've liked, and the other includes playlists you've liked and created. There's also a new playlist called Liked Songs that pulls in all the tunes for which you've tapped the heart button. When you don't have a data or WiFi connection, Spotify will rearrange the playlists to highlight the ones you've downloaded for offline listening.The move is clearly designed to give podcasts a prominent and separate place within Your Library. It's no secret that Spotify is going all in on podcasts. In recent months, well-regarded studio Gimlet Media and the podcast creation app Anchor. Just last week, with Barack and Michelle Obama for them to create and appear in exclusive podcasts, while on Wednesday which blends music with newsy podcasts....

Monzo, the U.K. challenger bank with more than two million customers and a unicorn valuation to go with it, has formally announced its U.S. expansion.The tentative move — which TechCrunch exclusively reported was underway five months ago — will see a U.S. Monzo app and connected Mastercard debit card made available via in-person signups at events to be held soon. The roll-out will initially consists of a few thousand cards, supported by a waitlist in preparation for a wider launch.In a call, Monzo co-founder and CEO Tom Blomfield told me he thinks the key to cracking North America is to create a fully localised version of Monzo based on carefully listening to U.S. users in order to find market-fit. There are obvious and less obvious cultural and technical differences in the way Brits and Americans save, spend and manage their finances and this will require significant product divergence....

Presented by Bold 360 by LogMeInA significant investment in AI technology doesn’t guarantee a positive return. Join this VB Live webinar to learn about the five biggest mistakes companies make when they bring cutting-edge customer service technology to their workflows, and how to leap over these pitfalls and into real results.Register for free right here.Most business leads are aware of the importance of AI, says Michael Butler, head of customer success at Ople, but often don’t know how to get started – or if an investment in AI technology is the smartest route to stacking up real ROI.Previously, as director of global ecommerce at VMWare, he was relying entirely on his data science team, Butler says. The team consisted of about 35 people on staff full time, and the problem was that they were slow to produce models and results. For instance, coming up with a model to score customers most likely to buy a new release would take six weeks; when an anniversary sale came along, it would take another six weeks, starting from scratch each time....

At Cisco Live 2019, TechRepublic's Teena Maddox spoke with Cisco's Jonathan Davidson about the new Cisco unified domain structure and how it can improve revenue streams. The following is an edited transcript of the video. Teena Maddox: Tell me about what news your division is talking about at Cisco Live this week. Jonathan Davidson: We are talking about how we are helping our customers actually create new revenue streams with a 5G infrastructure with our unified domain center, which is a new API gateway that sits on top of our mobile packet core, and this mobile packet core, of course, is what you need for both the 3G, 4G, and upcoming 5G networks. We're the number one mobile packet core vendor in the world, with over 40% market share, and we're excited to be able to help our source product customers actually monetize their 5G infrastructure through this new UDC product through the enterprise. I'll tell you more about that as well. ...

Amazon is being sued over its smart assistant's recordings of children.Two US cases allege the firm lacks consent to create voiceprints that could let it keep track of a youngster's use of Alexa-enabled devices and thus build up a "vast level of detail about the child's life".Amazon has said it only stores data once a device-owner has given it permission to do so.And it says parents can delete a child's profile and recordings.Lawyers involved in the cases are seeking damages for the two plaintiffs involved, as well as others who are being invited to join the class-action lawsuits in nine states where it's claimed Amazon is in breach of privacy laws.Amazon said in January more than 100 million devices featuring Alexa had been sold worldwide, ranging from its own Echo speakers to third-party products including headphones, fridges and televisions....

Along with egg white, the chicken-less nuggets pea protein, in addition to flaxseed and bamboo fiber. Both products will go on sale later this year. Tyson says it's working on more alternative proteins, but it's not clear as to whether any of those will be entirely plant-based."Today's consumers are seeking more protein options, so we're creating new products for the growing number of people open to flexible diets that include both meat and plant-based protein," Noel White, president and CEO of Tyson Foods, . He added that Tyson has no plans to move away from traditional meat, and will sell both types of products.The move underscores a growing demand, and makes Tyson a direct competitor to and , both of which sell vegan plant-based proteins that are . Tyson in Beyond, but its holding before that company's IPO in April. When Beyond filed to go public in November, Tyson held a 6.5 percent ownership stake. , Beyond's stock price had soared more than 600% since its IPO....

The Nintendo Switch has come on leaps and bounds since its launch date, especially after all those juicy E3 announcements.

Ransomware is once again gaining popularity with attackers, as ransomware campaigns increased from 9% in Q4 2018 to 24% in Q1 2019—growth of 167%—according to the Cybersecurity Threatscape report published by Positive Technologies on Thursday. Conversely, cryptojacking or cryptomining—essentially, the covert mining of cryptocurrency on compromised devices—continues to decrease, as the increasing technical complexity required to deploy these campaigns, combined with lower valuations of cryptocurrency, make it a less attractive choice for hackers. Some 54% of attacks are motivated primarily by access to information, according to the report, with financial gain representing 30%. Hacktivism represented 15%, while cyberwar was only 1%, the report notes. Despite that, governments remain the most targeted industry, at 16%, while healthcare and industrial firms represented 10% of attacks each. Finance, online services, science/education, and hospitality/entertainment firms were tied at 6% each. Notably, officials in Georgia paid a $400,000 bounty in March following a ransomware infection. ...

Machine learning algorithms at the core of voice assistants learn to make predictions from libraries of labeled samples. For instance, Amazon’s Alexa is regularly fed text snippets like “Play the Prince song 1999,” where “1999” and “Prince” are mapped to the categories “SongName” and “ArtistName,” respectively. It’s a highly effective means of driving systems to classify data on their own, but it’s not exactly easy — annotation is a painstaking process that must be undertaken by hand.That’s why researchers at Amazon’s Alexa AI division devised a so-called active learning approach that selects which training examples to annotate automatically, based on the likelihood they’ll yield a reduction in Alexa’s error rate. They claim that in experiments, it boosted the accuracy of AI models by 7% to 9% relative to training on randomly selected examples....

Emma, the U.K. money management app (now calling itself your “best financial friend”), has launched in the United States and Canada — and is now one of a plethora of London fintechs venturing states-side.Competing banking app Cleo entered the U.S. nine months ago, and challenger bank Monzo is thought to be gearing up to launch across the pond soon, to name just two.Emma says the U.S. launch comes after partnering with Plaid, the U.S.-based fintech that specialises in bank account aggregation. The London startup says that with its U.S. launch, 350 million people will now be able to have access to Emma’s money management features....

Spotify is officially rolling out its redesigned experience which puts a greater emphasis on podcasts. The company today announced a new version of its “Your Library” section is being rolled out now to paying subscribers on its Premium plan. Its goal is to make it easier to move between Music and Podcasts and find the podcast shows and episodes you want to hear.The company in May previewed this news with selectpress while the redesign was in testing.With the update, users will be able to swipe or tap to switch between music and podcasts, while the latter also features three sections for podcast management: Episodes, Downloads, and Shows....

Target Circle and TapHeaven have announced that they’re merging into a single company under the Target Circle brand.TapHeaven co-founder and CEO Chris Hoyt, who is becoming chief growth officer at the combined organization, said the two companies have been “trying to solve the same problem” — namely, eliminating many of the inefficiencies in the mobile advertising business.Hoyt said that for Target Circle, that meant trying to “unify this fragmented ecosystem into a single dashboard for contracts, invoices and offers.” And for TapHeaven, that meant a focus on automation, resulting in the launch of what the company calls a “command center” for user acquisition, where advertisers can optimize their ad campaigns “at the source level, by country” while getting high-quality traffic without fraud....

AT&T has cancelled early orders for the Samsung Galaxy Fold.Tom’s Guide first reported the cancellation, noting that AT&T said the Galaxy Fold would be available again to order as soon as Samsung announces a new launch date. AT&T is also offer $100 in credit to those whose orders it has cancelled.The Samsung Galaxy Fold was originally scheduled to launch on April 26. However, early reviews indicated that there were issues with the phone, which Samsung initially said was the fault of reviewers. The company eventually decided to postpone the launch and get back to the drawing board.Earlier this week, a Samsung rep told Cnet that it would announce timing on the nearly $2,000 phone “in the coming weeks.”...

Tech workers, rejoyce: You don't have to move to San Francisco or New York City to find a high-paying job, according to SmartAsset's Best American Cities to Work in Tech in 2019 report. The report compared 172 US cities across five metrics: Average salary, average cost of living, tech employment concentration, unemployment rate, and ratio of average pay to tech pay. SEE: How to build a successful developer career (free PDF) (TechRepublic)Finding a lucrative tech job with great benefits in a city with a lower cost of living will give these professionals more bang for their buck, the report found. The top 10 cities this year were spread only across the South and Midwest, including three cities in Texas. More than half of the cities that made the list this year were also among the top 10 cities for tech workers last year, the report found, demonstrating that these may be growing non-coastal tech hubs. ...

While these figures represent a very marginal difference, additional findings from FERC suggest that the gap is likely to widen in the coming months. The report notes that the US has been adding, on average, one percentage point to its renewable energy capacity every year, and predicts that by 2022 the technology will account for nearly a quarter of America's total available installed generating capacity. Meanwhile, the nation's appetite for , with consumption dropping 39 percent from its peak in 2008, to its lowest level in 40 years....

Flying taxis are undoubtedly an exciting concept — one that Uber has put a lot of work into making a reality. In order to these electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles to become a reality, they need to have proper batteries, approval from the Federal Aviation Administration, buy-in from cities, public acceptance and, of course, vehicle partners.Uber is aiming to start testing these aircrafts next year, and wants to commercially deploy Uber Air in Los Angeles, Calif., Dallas-Fort Worth/Frisco, Texas and Melbourne, Australia in 2023.Right now, the model of Uber Air we may see in the skies will have a pilot on board. The model Uber unveiled at Elevate seats four people and one pilot....

Security researchers have uncovered a Monero cryptocurrency mining botnet that seems to be targeting China. The botnet appears to still be in developmet.

If you think about it, the basic concept of a toothbrush hasn’t evolved since… forever. Sure, many people have switched to an electric toothbrush, but it remains a stick with a brush at the end.Willo thinks that’s not good enough. The company has developed an oral care device to improve brushing with a focus on plaque. The company says that basic brushing only cleans 42 percent of dental plaque, while electric brushes clean 46 percent of dental plaque.The startup has worked with actual dentists to design its product. It still sounds a bit mysterious as the company isn’t sharing much about the product. The photo is the only image of the product right now....

The Nightsword is available for $80. If you're looking for something less flashy or happen to be a southpaw, there's also another option. The $40 M55 RGB Pro (below) revolves around an ambidextrous design that will be friendlier to lefties. It has 'just' a 12,400DPI sensor, eight programmable buttons and simpler RGB lighting, but that should be more than enough if you're just looking for a solid option for everyday gaming.Catch up on all the latest news from here!...

Have you ever heard of a marketing funnel? While it serves a different principle than the funnels you have in your kitchen or garage, its purpose is basically the same. It’s all about the simple steps can turn a complete stranger into a valued customer, from attracting awareness to building a relationship to establishing trust, right through to transactions and referrals.Of course, that relationship never gets started if you can’t come up with content that speaks to your audience. Be it a picture, an article or even a single line of copy to engage and start that dialogue, The Complete Content Marketing Master Class Course (normally $49, 77 percent off, from TNW Deals) is all about learning to create those breakthrough opportunities; and it’s on sale for only $11. ...

Video advertising company VidMob is announcing that it has raised $25 million in Series B funding.When I wrote about VidMob’s seed funding back in 2015, it was focused on building a marketplace that connected marketers and professional video editors. That’s still a component of the VidMob business, said founder and CEO Alex Collmer, but the company has also built a broader platform for video advertising, which it calls the Agile Creative Studio.So Collmer said that with VidMob, not only can marketers find professionals (editors, animators, graphic designers and more) to create their ads, they can also “with a single click, send hundreds and in some cases thousands of custom ads” to VidMob partners like Facebook, Google/YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter....

A recent research expedition to Mount Everest that wrapped up this week recorded a number of global records and world-firsts, including installing weather stations at the highest elevation ever on Earth, collecting ice core samples from the highest point ever, and performing a helicopter-based liar scan from the most extreme height ever accomplished.The series of experiments were part of a multipurpose scientific expedition that included researchers from the National Geographic Society and Tribhuvan University in Nepal. The team for the research trip was made up of scientists and researchersDuring the expedition, the team installed fully automated weather monitoring stations at 8,430 meters (27,657 feet) and 7,945 meters (26,066 feet), both of which are the highest currently in service today. In total, the researchers set up five weather stations across Everest. One ice core sample collected during the trip was taken at a height of 8.020 meters (26,312 feet), gain breaking records, and the lidar imagery piece of the puzzle included the most detail scans ever taken of both the Everest Base Camp and the Khumbu Glacier, as well as a helicopter-based lidar scan at the highest elevation on record, also of the glacier, which will help in monitoring its state over time....

The hype around blockchain technology is finally fading, and while interest in the distributed ledger technology remains high, few companies are actually deploying it, according to recent research from Gartner. Only 11% of CIOs have deployed or are in short-term planning with blockchain, Gartner found, in part because the majority of these projects fail to go beyond the initial experimentation phase. "Blockchain is currently sliding down toward the Trough of Disillusionment in Gartner's latest 'Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies,'" Adrian Leow, senior research director at Gartner, said in a Wednesday press release. "The blockchain platforms and technologies market is still nascent and there is no industry consensus on key components such as product concept, feature set and core application requirements. We do not expect that there will be a single dominant platform within the next five years."...