It’s finally Bag Week again! The most wonderful week of the year at TechCrunch. Just in time for back to school, we’re bringing you reviews of bags of all varieties: from backpacks to rollers to messengers to…The fanny pack. Or hip pack, waist bag, belt bag, sling, crossbody and sometimes bum bag, because where you’re from, a fanny means lady parts. Whatever it’s called, I’ve been searching for an all-around go-to alternative for purses. (I don’t care much for them since they don’t match my tee-shirt and holes-in-jeans aesthetic.)For the past two months, I’ve been trying out fanny packs (and trying to shove various objects into them) for different daily routines....

The case could escalate to the point where a judge is forced to make a landmark decision on AI.

After a week of modest gains, major stock indexes plummeted on Friday as China retaliated against U.S. tariffs by imposing $75 billion worth of tariffs on U.S. goods coming into the country.China’s foreign ministry said that it would resume tariffs on U.S. imports of automobiles and auto parts and place an additional 5% or 10% tariff on agricultural and food products like soybeans, coffee, whiskey and seafood.The trouble was exacerbated by statements on President Donald Trump’s Twitter account, which called for the U.S. to “immediately start looking for an alternative to China.” The president also accused China of stealing “our Intellectual Property at a rate of Hundreds of Billions of Dollars a year.”...

Walmart came out swinging earlier this week in a lawsuit that accused Tesla of breach of contract and gross negligence over problems with rooftop solar panel systems installed at the retail giant’s stores.Now, just days later, the lawsuit has been placed on hold while the two companies try to reach an agreement that would keep the solar installations in place and put them back in service, according to a joint statement issued late Thursday night.“Walmart and Tesla look forward to addressing all issues and re-energizing Tesla solar installations at Walmart stores, once all parties are certain that all concerns have been addressed,” the statement read. “Together, we look forward to pursuing our mutual goal of a sustainable energy future. Above all else, both companies want each and every system to operate reliably, efficiently, and safely.”...

Netflix is reportedly testing an all-new recommendation system that harnesses the power of employed biological neural networks – that’s humans if you insist on dumbing it down. Dubbed ‘Collections,’ the new system works like every collection of anything did before about 10 years ago – people sort it out so you don’t have to. I think this is a fabulous idea and so should you.The way Netflix does things now involves artificial intelligence and necromancy. The company gathers data on everything its users do on the platform, and then feeds that data to a bunch of machine-learning algorithms that continuously funnel users into titles that’ll keep them watching. It’s good old-fashioned psychological manipulation to keep us focused on the screen and not those monthly payments....

When Dell acquired EMC in 2016 for $67 billion, it created a complicated consortium of interconnected organizations. Some, like VMware and Pivotal, operate as completely separate companies. They have their own boards of directors, can acquire companies and are publicly traded on the stock market. Yet they work closely within Dell, partnering where it makes sense. When Pivotal’s stock price plunged recently, VMware saved the day when it bought the faltering company for $2.7 billion yesterday.Pivotal went public last year, and sometimes struggled, but in June the wheels started to come off after a poor quarterly earnings report. The company had what MarketWatch aptly called “a train wreck of a quarter.”...

The new app will first be available in South Korea in August, with North Americans getting a taste in the fourth quarter of 2019. Europeans will have to wait until 2020. This makes the most sense if you're all-in on LG appliances (no doubt LG's ultimate goal), but it could still be appreciated if you're tired of juggling apps to control even one device.Catch up on all the latest news from here!...

The company is only testing the feature in its iOS app so far, and stressed that there's no guarantee Collections will be widely available. They "may or may not become permanent features," a spokesperson told TechCrunch. Netflix's disc-based service already has a similar Collections feature, although it clearly doesn't have the instant gratification of streaming.It seems like it may be just a matter of time before Collections are more widely available, though. As initial discoverer Jeff Higgins , Collections are billed as an "easy way" to find shows you'd like. It's all too common to be overwhelmed by choices on streaming services like Netflix. If this helps you start watching sooner instead of browsing endless automated suggestions, you may be more likely to come back instead of drifting toward ....

It’s nearing the end of Bag Week 2019, where we highlight the best receptacles for the tech we cover daily, and we’ve got a few more winners for you. Earlier this week I collected a few excellent waxed canvas laptop bags together, a sequel to last year’s round-up, but these messenger style bags stood out. So I’ve collected them here separately.As I’ve written before, waxed canvas is a wonderful material. The natural fibers infused with wax provide water resistance, structure, protection and a great look that only gets better with time as you use it. It’s my favorite material and it should be yours too. Only trouble is, it can be expensive. But keep in mind that these bags are the kind that you take with you for a decade or two....

Throughout the interview, Samsung and Sony were frequent touchpoints for the executive, with Lau noting, "We want to benchmark the image and sound quality against the most premium quality products currently available in the market..." Notably, Lau didn't mention LG in his image quality comparison, likely due to the fact the OnePlus TV sets will feature QLED panels. LG's high-end OLED TVs are currently the highwater mark when it comes to TV image quality. However, they cost significantly more than their QLED counterparts., Lau also said the OnePlus TV features a custom user interface on top of Android TV. He added the company is "optimizing" the OS "very deeply." Based on Lau comments, it's not clear if OnePlus has limited its tinkering of Android TV to skinning the user interface or if it has created a new fork of the OS. OxygenOS, the software that comes pre-installed on the company's smartphones, is a fork of Android....

Google yesterday announced it’d banned 210 YouTube accounts “related to the ongoing protests in Hong Kong” and the discovery was “consistent with recent observations and actions related to China announced by Facebook and Twitter.”If you’re not an avid reader of social media company blogs, let me clear things up for you: Google banned 210 accounts that the People’s Republic of China was using to spread disinformation and propaganda about the protests and protesters in Hong Kong.This week has been rife with revelations that China‘s engaged in a massive global disinformation campaign encompassing both Chinese and US social media companies. Twitter and Facebook independently released statements indicating they’d found their own platforms had been used in the propaganda efforts and outlined steps they would take to ensure such coordinated efforts would cease to occur....

While Tesla does have a , it's not expected to start producing cars until later in 2019. Until it ramps up in earnest, the company will have to import EVs. BMW and Mercedes, meanwhile, ship many SUVs to China from American plants.The new round of tariffs also slaps 5 percent more on US crude oil and soybean imports starting September 1st.The timing for the car tariffs isn't coincidental. It lines up with a planned US action that would apply tariffs to phones, laptops, consoles and other devices on the same day. China wants to show that US tariffs won't go unanswered, and it's likely hoping to use this as a bargaining chip for planned negotiations in September. If there's no progress, though, the tariffs could both hike prices for tech sold in the US (a large amount of it being made in China) and hurt US car sales in China....

GOG, that other gaming platform, created a new launcher specifically to help everyone get all their games in one place. I finally tried it, and it’s a surprisingly gratifying experience.The Store Wars of 2019 continue to bubble beneath the crust of the gaming industry — forever brewing into the next big shitstorm should someone dare to declare platform exclusivity. Being upfront, I only care about it on a philosophical level, in that I like to examine the arguments, but it has no bearing on my day-to-day gaming.That being said, there is one annoying side effect of said Store Wars, and that’s launcher fatigue. Having multiple launchers for your games can get quite tiresome, and a frequent example of anti-consumerism in these platform exclusives. And it might seem like a petty complaint in the grand scheme, but Discord has already tried its hand at it with the Universal Library, so clearly it’s a complaint many are eager to resolve....

At Gamescom 2019, Seta announced that three remastered Yakuza games — originally numbered 3, 4 and 5 — will be released in the West as . The first instalment, Yakuza 3, is available right now if you buy the $60 bundle. Yakuza 4 will follow in October and Yakuza 5 will round out the set next February. If you haven't been following the Yakuza franchise, you might be wondering why RGG Studio is remastering three titles from PlayStation 3 era in quick succession.But make no mistake: these updated versions are important.There's a subset of Yakuza fans who have played every release on its original hardware. They discovered the series early on and have been championing its mix of serious, hardboiled drama and comically strange side-stories ever since. There's another group, though — based primarily in the West — who started with the in early 2017. The game's place in the larger story meant it was the perfect starting point for those who had heard about, but never played, a Yakuza adventure....

The US remains the global leader in artificial intelligence (AI) innovation, despite big moves by China to change its standing, according to a study from the Center for Data Innovation, released this week.   The study focused on six distinct categories—talent, research, development, adoption, data and hardware—and found that the US was far ahead of both China and the European Union in at least four of them.    With the help of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Intel and Microsoft, the US was able to financially dominate the last wave of digital innovation. But China has doubled down on its efforts to become equals with the US and now invests heavily into educating and funding AI research....

China was once a relative zero when it came to software. Not anymore. In both proprietary and open source development, China's influence is growing. Sure, open source has helped to fuel that rise—as Swim.ai CTO Simon Crosby has suggested, "Now [China] can download our best, for free, every day"—but this tells an incomplete story. China may have been a net consumer of code once upon a time, but now has gone from zero to hero in open source.Yes, really.SEE: How to build a successful developer career (free PDF) (TechRepublic)China wasn't always a paragon of open source virtue. For that matter, the country didn't invest much in software, period. As Dr. Ying Li, VMware vice president in Greater China, has highlighted, China's 10th five-year plan (2001 - 2005) made software development a critical pillar of economic development:...

Netflix is testing a new way to help users find TV shows and movies they’ll want to watch with the launch of a “Collections” feature, currently in testing on iOS devices. While Netflix today already offers thematic suggestions of things to watch, based on your Netflix viewing history, Collections aren’t only based on themes. According to Netflix, the titles are curated by experts on the company’s creative teams, and are organized into these collections based on similar factors — like genre, tone, story line and character traits.This human-led curation is different from how Netflix typically makes its recommendations. The streaming service is famous for its advanced categorization system, where there are hundreds of niche categories that go beyond broad groupings like “Action,” “Drama,” “Sci-Fi,” “Romance” and the like. These narrower subcategories allow the streamer to make more specific and targeted recommendations....

Several UK train stations already run on solar. Network Rail, which manages most of the railway infrastructure on the British mainland, has earmarked billions of pounds to electrify rail lines, and aims to do so with solar power if the pilot project is successful. The UK government aims to eliminate the use of diesel on the rail network by 2040.Those behind the solar project the renewable energy could power 20 percent of the Liverpool Merseyrail network and 15 percent of commuter lines in Kent, Sussex and Wessex as well as solar trains in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Nottingham, London and Manchester. Along with being a greener form of power than diesel, the solar farms could supply cheaper power than electricity from the natural grid, which would reduce costs for railways....

I did a bit of a double take when I first saw this announcement. IDrive, an online cloud storage and backup service, is launching a face recognition API today that goes up against the likes of AWS Rekognition and others. That seems like a bit of an odd move for a backup company, but it turns out that IDrive has actually been in the face recognition game for a while. Last year, the company launched IDrive People to help its users find faces in photos they’ve backed up on its service. With its API, IDrive is targeting a very different market, though, and entering into the API business for the first time....

Heavy rain and blizzards aren’t the only forms of severe weather Waymo’s self-driving vehicles encounter on the regular. In a blog post published this morning, the Alphabet subsidiary laid out the ways its cars in over 25 cities tackle fog, dust, smoke, and other dangerous conditions that trip up even human drivers.“Challenging [environmental] conditions, which affect human driver and vehicle performance, are one of the leading contributors to crashes on our roads … Poor perception creates significant risk for other road users including pedestrians, cyclists, and other vehicle occupants,” wrote Waymo chief safety officer Debbie Hersman. “Waymo is working hard to master a variety of weather scenarios as part of our mission to improve road safety.”...

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. Overstock CEO resigns after ‘deep state’ commentsThis comes after CEO Patrick Byrne released a statement declaring that he cooperated with federal investigators back in 2015 and was in fact “the notorious ‘missing chapter 1’ of the Russia investigation.” He subsequently gave interviews that also touched on his relationship Maria Butina, who’s been accused of working as a Russian agent.The ensuing controversy sent Overstock’s share price tumbling, and Byrne said yesterday that he would have to “sever ties with Overstock, both as CEO and board member.”...

The second bug, meanwhile, led police to, in some instances, associate a device with the wrong cellphone tower. As a result, they may have linked innocent people to crime scenes.Following an audit, authorities determined they will need to review 10,700 court cases dating back to 2012. The review will start with cases that are already before the country's courts, in addition to ones where individuals are serving prison sentences. The country has also ordered that cell location data not be allowed as evidence in any criminal cases for two months while it continues to investigate the issue.At the moment, it's unclear whether the situation in Denmark will force justice systems in other countries to reevaluate how they use cellphone data to try criminal cases. Unless they licensed their tools from a third-party, the bugs Danish Police discovered were likely limited to their system. That said, it may add fuel to ongoing discussions on how authorities use cellphone data to pursue criminal cases in other parts of the world. In the US, for instance, police use of — devices that mimic a cellphone tower, thereby allowing authorities to collect a wealth of sensitive data — has been a over the past few years....

Waymo, the self-driving car company under Alphabet, has been testing in the suburbs of Phoenix for several years now. And while the sunny metropolis might seem like the ideal and easiest location to test autonomous vehicle technology, there are times when the desert becomes a dangerous place for any driver — human or computer.The two big safety concerns in this desert region are sudden downpours that cause flash floods and haboobs, giant walls of dust between 1,500 and 3,000 feet high that can cover up to 100 square miles. One record-breaking haboob in July 2011 covered the entire Phoenix valley, an area of more than 517 square miles....

El Hijo is an isometric stealth game starring this 6-year-old as he traverses the desert, searching for his mother. She left him at a monastery, for his own protection, after their Wild West village was ransacked by outlaws. El Hijo -- Spanish for "The Son" -- decides to escape the monks, and the only way to avoid detection is to stick to the shadows. It's a puzzle game that plays with light and darkness as a mechanic, sending the young boy on an adventure across the Old American West.El Hijo inverts the Spaghetti Western genre, which is unabashedly macho and violent, by placing a child at the heart of the game and removing all offensive tools from his arsenal. The game is due to hit Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Switch and PC in mid-2020....

If most of your Excel workbooks contain only a single worksheet, you're missing out on the power and flexibility of using multiple sheets in a single workbook. By storing multiple Excel worksheets in the same workbook, you can tie them all together to save time and effort. You can perform the same data and formatting changes on all your worksheets in one fell swoop. You can create formulas in one worksheet that reference data in another sheet. And if any data changes in one worksheet, it also changes in any linked worksheets.In this tutorial, I'm using the latest flavor of Excel courtesy of Office 365, but the information offered will work similarly in the past couple of editions of Excel. To illustrate the examples, I created a workbook with five different sheets for product sales. The first four Excel worksheets display results from different regions: North, South, East, and West. The fifth worksheet is for totals from each of the other sheets. Each sheet has columns for the first six months of the year and rows for four different products....

The day of reckoning for the “flexible office space as a startup” is coming, and it’s coming up fast. WeWork’s IPO filing has fired the starting gun on the race to become the game-changer both in the future of property and real estate but also the future of how we live and work. As Churchill once said, “we shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us.”Until recently, WeWork was the ruler by which other flexible-space startups were measured, but questions are now being asked if it deserves its valuation. The profitable IWG plc, formerly Regus, has been a business providing serviced offices, virtual offices, meeting rooms and the rest, for years, and yet WeWork is valued by 10 times more....

It’s perfectly natural for a red-blooded American to, once they have procured their first real drone, experiment with attaching a flame thrower to it. But it turns out that this harmless hobby is frowned upon by the biggest buzzkills in the world… the feds.Yes, the FAA has gone and published a notice that drones and weapons are “A Dangerous Mix.” Well, that’s arguable. But they’re the authority here so we have to hear them out.“Perhaps you’ve seen online photos and videos of drones with attached guns, bombs, fireworks, flamethrowers, and other dangerous items. Do not consider attaching any items such as these to a drone because operating a drone with such an item may result in significant harm to a person and to your bank account.”...

Pad & Quill makes some of the most handsome leather goods for the modern world and its Gladstone Leather Briefcase is no different. This bag harkens back to the day of gentleman with a newspapers tucked under their arms and an ascot on their head. This bag has an air of permanence and longevity and yet it’s designed for people with modern needs.The bag features a smooth hinged top that opens to reveal a large opening. The bag doesn’t collapse inward when it’s empty or open; it retains its shape thanks to its sturdy structure making it easy to sort through the contents. The inside is lined with a tough herringbone fabric that seems like it will hold up well....

Combined, Sphero and LittleBits have sold more than $500 million in robots and electronics. They've reached over six million students globally. And with this acquisition, Sphero now has over 140 patents in robotics, electronics, software and IoT.This isn't the first time Sphero has branched out beyond robotics. Last year, it , and it went on to produce an of Specdrums' signature music-centric wearable ring. The company seems to have passed the rocky point at which it and re-focussed on educational products. Now, Sphero says it plans to accelerate international growth. Though, it may have to compete with the likes of , which recently made its own push into the classroom....

Catch up on all the latest news from here!...

The UK’s health data watchdog, the National Data Guardian (NDG), has published correspondence between her office and the national privacy watchdog which informed the ICO’s finding in 2017 that a data-sharing arrangement between an NHS Trust and Google-owned DeepMind broke the law.The exchange was published following a Freedom of Information request by TechCrunch.In fall 2015 the Royal Free NHS Trust and DeepMind signed a data-sharing agreement which saw the medical records of 1.6 million people quietly passed to the AI company without patients being asked for their consent.The scope of the data-sharing arrangement — ostensibly to develop a clinical task management app — was only brought to light by investigative journalism. That then triggered regulatory scrutiny — and the eventual finding by the ICO that there was no legal basis for the data to have been transferred in the first place....

Samsung’s settled into a nice little twice-yearly schedule for releasing flagships. That’s allowed the company double the opportunity to introduce some nice upgrades to their high-end Android handsets. Nearly six months after the release of the S10, the company just dropped the new Note line. Here’s a whole bunch of words I wrote about the 10+, the larger of the devices, which is helping distinguish the two lines with an utterly gigantic 6.8-inch screen.Interestingly the Note 10 marks a rare (albeit very slight) step down in screen size over the last generation, to a still-large 6.3-inches. The company says it’s hoping that the smaller device will appeal to first-time Note users and maybe even convince Galaxy S buyers to transfer over to S-Pen Station....

The issues at Riot Games came to the attention of the public last year, after published an investigative piece into the alleged sexism; the story included interviews with 28 current and former employees. Because the details of the settlement are not finalized, we don't know what it entails or how favorable the outcome will be for the plaintiffs.Riot claims to have looked into the issue of sexism in their offices and states, "...gender discrimination (in pay or promotion), sexual harassment, and retaliation are not systemic issues at Riot." The publisher also seems to attribute their decision to end litigation to their employees being distracted from work, rather than the allegations of sexism: "...we've encountered considerable fatigue among Rioters, who have been drained by constant engagement with the internal and external dialogues emerging from these lawsuits and recurring media cycles."...

India today addressed a long-standing challenge that has been affecting the country’s booming startup ecosystem. As part of a raft of measures to boost overall economic growth from a five-year low, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said New Delhi is exempting startups from Section 56(2) — a provision more popularly known as an “angel tax” in the local income tax laws — that required startups to pay a certain tax if they received an investment at a rate higher than their “fair market valuation.”Local tax authority in India does not recognize the discounted cash flow method that many investors use to value early-stage startups, and instead value the company for what it is worth currently, which as you can imagine, is very little. Investors assess a startup’s value based on what it could eventually become in the future....

The 2020 Chevy Bolt EV now has 259 miles of range, a 9% increase from previous year models of the electric hatchback, according to the EPA.To get there, the company focused on cell chemistry, not the battery pack. The GM brand did not add more battery cells or change the battery pack or the way it is integrated into the vehicle structure, a spokesperson confirmed.Instead, Chevrolet’s battery engineering team made what the company described as “impactful changes to the cell chemistry.” The changes to the cell chemistry allowed the team to improve the energy of the cell electrodes, and ultimately enabled them to squeeze more range out of the battery....

CEO Jeremy OBriant never intended to create Torch, an agile growth marketing agency based in San Francisco. He started his career as a CPA, but after leading a growth team at Sidecar and running growth projects on his own, forming Torch was the most obvious thing to do. He now leads a team that implements “agile growth,” an iterative approach that involves setting clear goals and running smaller experiments over the course of monthly sprints. Learn more about their approach to growth, their ideal client, and more. “We aim to be the thought leaders of Agile Growth. We didn’t invent the term, but we are certainly becoming the leading voice of the process in the growth marketing world. Agile simply means being able to move quickly and with ease. We start with clearly defined business goals and prioritize growth tactics based on the impact, cost, and efficiency. Then collaborate with growth teams to execute a handful of items in recurring growth sprints, typically on a monthly cadence.”...

I spent more than six years testing, reviewing, and otherwise writing about PCs and other gadgets for AnandTech and Ars Technica, and I've put in almost two years doing the same thing for Wirecutter. Much of that work has involved testing the performance of processors and graphics chips. I've been building, upgrading, and fixing PCs for more than 15 years, and I spent five of those years in IT departments buying and repairing laptops and desktops and helping people buy the best tech for their needs.Thunderbolt 3 graphics enclosures connect an external graphics card (also called a GPU, or graphics processing unit) to a laptop or with a Thunderbolt 3 port. They are for people who want to play games or do graphically intensive rendering work but don't want to own both a laptop and a desktop computer or to carry around a bulky or when they're away from their desk. But the resulting setup isn't as fast as a desktop computer with the same GPU, an external box takes up about as much space as a small desktop, and an enclosure costs as much as a good graphics card all by itself....

Strategy Analytics conducted an online survey with 2,500 smartphone owners aged 18 to 64 years old in the US. Company SVP David Kerr explained that there are several reasons behind consumers' decision not upgrade as quickly as they did in the past. To start with, buyers perceive newer phones' offerings as marginal upgrades not worth getting a new device for.The increasing prices of flagship devices are also proving to be prohibitive -- in fact, Kerr believes that prices for 5G phones would be a key barrier in their adoption, even though a lot of people understand how important the feature is. Customers who spend over $1,000 on phones and who'll likely purchase a 5G device when it becomes available only make up 7 percent of the people the firm surveyed. ...

In today's world of elevated privacy and trademarking, video footage could be denied public viewing. Or, you could face legal ramifications for showing something in your footage without expressed written permission. Fortunately, there are video editing tools available within Adobe's Premiere Pro to obscure unwanted objects or even blur faces in your video.  SEE: Choosing your Windows 7 exit strategy: Four options (TechRepublic Premium)Next, make sure you select your duplicated layer and then navigate to your effects controls panel. There, you'll see an opacity effect labeled "fx Opacity." This effect allows you to create a mask with an ellipse or polygonal shape, or you can just use the pen tool and draw a free-hand mask. For this example, we'll use the ellipse mask because the logo is round. ...

Netflix has even bigger plans for the future, though its ambition remains largely tied to the Stranger Things franchise. It hired Telltale Games to make a more complex narrative adventure set in the Duffer brothers' universe, but that project fell through when the in 2018. There's still a location-based, augmented-reality Stranger Things game in development by The Walking Dead: Our World studio Next Games, due out for mobile devices in 2020.And then there's The Dark Crystal. Netflix is preparing to release its own series based on the 1982 Jim Henson film on August 30th, with a story set years before the events of the movie. Simultaneously, Netflix is extending its video game tendrils to a new franchise with The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics....

Oh hey y’all, it’s Friday! It’s August! Which means it’s a great day for Facebook to drop a little news it would prefer you don’t notice. News that you won’t find a link to on the homepage of Facebook’s Newsroom — which is replete with colorfully illustrated items it does want you to read (like the puffed up claim that “Now You Can See and Control the Data That Apps and Websites Share With Facebook”.)The blog post Facebook would really prefer you didn’t notice is tucked away in a News sub-section of this website — where it’s been confusingly entitled: Document Holds the Potential for Confusion. And has an unenticing grey image of a document icon to further put you off — just in case you happened to stumble on it after all. It’s almost as if Facebook is saying ‘definitely don’t click here‘…...

Nonprofit groups and NGOs are now invited to apply for exhibit space in Startup Alley at TechCrunch Disrupt SF on Friday, October 4th.Founded in 2014, TechCrunch Include leverages our extensive network to support underserved and underrepresented groups in tech. Two years ago, we began to invite nonprofit and NGO groups to exhibit at the conference, as well as provide tickets for the event. This year, TechCrunch will host 10 nonprofits or NGOs at the Moscone Center at Startup Alley inside Disrupt SF.TechCrunch Disrupt’s Startup Alley is the heart of the conference show floor. Filled with early-stage startups, Startup Alley is the prime location to connect with startups, network with investors and engage with more than 100 corporate partners at the show. Participation in the Alley will give nonprofits and NGOs a unique opportunity to engage with the brightest tech talent, entrepreneurs and prominent investors from around the globe. Not to mention hundreds of press in attendance!...

Like many things that start out as a mere annoyance, though eventually grow into somewhat of an affliction. One particular dark and insidious thing has more than reared its ugly head in recent years, and now far more accurately described as an epidemic disease. I’m talking about the filth that is reCAPTCHA. Yes that seemingly …

One of the private companies aiming to deliver a commercial lunar lander to the Moon has adjusted the timing for its planned mission, which isn’t all that surprising given the enormity of the task. Japanese startup ispace is now targeting 2021 for their first lunar landing, and 2023 for a second lunar mission that will also include deploying a rover on the Moon’s surface.The company’s ‘HAKUTO-R’ program was originally planned to to include a mission in 2020 that would involve sending a lunar orbital vehicle for demonstration purposes without any payloads, but that part of the plan has been scrapped in favor of focusing all efforts on delivering actual payloads for commercial customers by 2021 instead....

As you may remember, a couple years ago infuriated Googlers when it argued that Google should drop attempts to include different cultures and genders. More recently, Google has faced controversy over its warning that employees who must do so in their personal capacity, and it's been charged with a . "Don't assume you have the full story," the guidelines caution employees.The guidelines include "key things to remember":The guidelines instruct Googlers to "avoid controversies that are disruptive to the workplace" and that make fellow employees feel like they don't belong. "While sharing information and ideas with colleagues helps build community, disrupting the workday to have a raging debate over politics or the latest news story does not," the guidelines read. As a final note, the guidelines point out that, due to local laws, Googlers may discuss pay, hours, other work terms or conditions and violation of laws....

Target’s investment in same-day pickup and delivery options is paying off. The company, which today offers same-day in-store pickup, drive-up and same-day delivery through its acquisition of Shipt, said this week that these services combined have more than doubled their sales in the last year. In addition, they accounted for more than a third of Target’s digital sales, up from about 20% last year.“These options offer speed, convenience and reliability and as a result, they are quickly becoming the preferred fulfillment choices for our guests,” said Target CEO Brian Cornell, speaking to investors about Target’s Q2 earnings. “And most importantly, because these options leverage our store infrastructure, technology, and teams, same-day fulfillment delivers outstanding financial performance as well,” he added. ...

Huawei has unveiled a high-end artificial intelligence chip for servers along with an AI computing framework called MindSpore. The Huawei Ascend 910 is the “world’s most powerful AI processor,” according to a press release on Friday. The chip’s specs were first announced during last year’s Huawei Connect event in Shanghai. Eric Xu, Rotating Chairman of […] The post Huawei unveils high-end AI chip for servers alongside MindSpore framework appeared first on AI News.

In a bid to establish a foothold in an AI chip market that’s anticipated to be worth $91.18 billion by 2025, Huawei today brought to market the Ascend 910, a new chipset in its Ascend-Max family optimized for AI model training, and the Ascend 310, an Ascend-Mini series inferencing chip designed to tackle tasks like image analysis, optical character recognition, and object recognition. It also announced MindSpore, a computing framework intended to support AI app development.Both chips were first detailed in October 2018, but this week marks their commercial debut. The Ascend 910 is aimed principally at datacenter workloads, while the Ascend 310 targets internet-connected devices like smartphones, smartwatches, and other internet of things devices....

Streaming Minecraft over Mixer is the perfect combination for growing your own gaming community and learning how to stream.

A hacker has been ordered to pay back over $1.1 million (£900,000) in cryptocurrency after carrying out attacks on several well-known businesses including Uber, Sainsbury's, and Groupon.

Sphero, the nine-year-old Colorado-based company best known for its lineup of programmable robots, this week completed a major acquisition that catapults it to the top of the burgeoning science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM) product market. Today, the company announced it has purchased New York City-based modular electronics startup LittleBits for an undisclosed sum, giving Sphero a combined portfolio of over 140 patents in robotics, electronics, software, and the internet of things (IoT).“Sphero and LittleBits are on a mission to make hands-on learning fun and memorable,” said Sphero CEO Paul Berberian. “Together, we’re able to make an even greater impact by delivering the best possible solution — whether it is programming a robot to solve a maze or building an electronic music synthesizer. There are infinite learning possibilities — and they’re all fun.”...

Sphero and Little Bits have long been kindred spirits in the world of entertaining STEM toys, and soon they’ll be one and the same. Sphero this morning announced plans to buy the New York-based electronic building block company.Founded in 2010 and 2011 respectively, Sphero (nee Orbotix) and Little Bits took separate approaches, but ultimately ended up in similar spaces. Sphero first brought to life a smartphone controlled 3D printed ball that debuted at CES in 2011. That same year, Ayah Bdeir’s electronics kit side project became a serious business under the LittleBits banner.Both companies were alumni of Disney’s accelerator. Sphero leveraged that connection in the break out Star Wars: The Force Awakens toy, a remote control BB-8. Ultimately, however, it flew too close to the sun with its licensed products, creating an R2-D2, Lightning McQueen and talking Spider-Man toys. Early last year, the Colorado-based company ended the Disney deal, laid off dozen and announced that it was moving full time into educational toys....

The gameplay teaser that followed half a year later showed a 2D game that seemed to play like the originals, but the art style still didn't seem "right." Why is the art such a massive departure? Would the game feel as direct and satisfying to play? Those were the kind of questions I was (silently, unlike many fans on social media) asking myself.Then came the musicians. Last month, the game's publisher Dotemu announced that Motohiro Kawashima and Yuzo Koshiro, whose contributions to the original soundtracks are legendary, were on board, joined by Hedeki Naganuma (Jet Set Radio), Keji Yamagishi (Ninja Gaiden) and Yoko Shimomura, who's most famous for the Kingdom Hearts series (before that she had worked on music for Final Fight, Street Fighter II, Legend of Mana and many others). To call it an all-star group would be an understatement. At the very least, then, this game would sound great....

A new Google Lens feature will allow Google Photos users to search for text in pictures and screenshots, Google Photos confirmed on Twitter Thursday. The feature could make it much easier to find things like business cards, Wi-Fi passwords that were saved in a photo, or receipts for expense reports and tax reporting purposes, our sister site ZDNet noted. "Starting this month, we're rolling out the ability to search your photos by the text in them," the tweet from Google Photos said. "Once you find the photo you're looking for, click the Lens button to easily copy and paste text. Take that, impossible Wi-Fi passwords." SEE: G Suite: Tips and tricks for business professionals (free PDF) (TechRepublic)...

After a long wait, a 'No Man's Sky' virgin tries the game in its newest format.

If you’ve been pining after a sleek wireless light switch with Alexa built right in, now’s your chance. iDevices, Hubbell’s smart home subsidiary, today took the wraps off of the Instinct, a wireless switch natively integrated with Amazon’s voice assistant. It’s hub-free and compatible with existing internet of things devices, and it boasts nice-to-haves like an LED light ring and motion and ambient light sensors.“By combining Amazon Alexa with a smart light switch, counter space is no longer a barrier to whole-home voice control,” said iDevices president Chrris Allen. “Instinct is the epitome of sophisticated intelligence, functionality. and design — a critical breakthrough in the smart home evolution. It represents the latest innovation from iDevices, and a clear shift in how we’ll interact with our homes going forward.”...

The light switch doesn't require a separate Alexa device, so you could use it instead of an Echo or other smart speaker. You can control the Instinct using the Alexa app, including the creation of to automate daily tasks, and you can access too.Another potential use for a smart light switch is in the entryway to your home. You could turn on your AC, play music, turn on your lights and open your blinds the moment you step through the door, all by pressing one switch. Or it could be handy in the kitchen when your hands are full and you want Alexa to read out a recipe for you.The device includes a motion sensor and ambient light sensors, and although these functionalities aren't available yet they should be enabled in a future over-the-air update....

Cryptocurrency exchanges are reportedly experiencing some disruption – how the tables have turned – after an outage at Amazon's Web Services (AWS) cloud.

Earlier this week, The Madras High Court in India ruled against any possibility of linking Aadhaar or any government ID with social media accounts.Justice S. Manikumar, said linking Aadhaar to emails or accounts would violate the original ruling from the Supreme Court which allows the IDs use only for government welfare schemes.The high court was responding to two public interest litigations (PIL) filed last year that sought “linking of Aadhaar or any one of the Government authorized identity proof as mandatory for the purpose of authentication while obtaining any email or user account.” The High Court has now expanded the scope of the case to review WhatsApp’s ability to trace the originator of messages that spread fake news. However, WhatsApp has said time and time again that’s not possible without breaking encryption, and would put its users’ privacy in danger....

Apple describes it as "the playlist that never sleeps, updated every day with new music you simply can't miss." The constantly updating nature of the playlist is bound to draw in music fans who are always looking for something new.The lead single for the first Daily playlist is Taylor Swift's latest release The Man, from her new album Lover. Other picks for the inaugural playlist include Missy Elliott, Sturgill Simpson, Lana Del Ray and Summer Walker.New Music Daily is Apple Music's answer to Spotify's popular Discover Weekly and other algorithmically generated daily playlists. Spotify debuted in 2016, and went a step further in June with a mix of news and music in . Apple Music already offers a which is based on the listening habits of your social circle and for showcasing emerging artists, but the New Music playlist will draw from more global inspiration, featuring music "from across the world and across genres"....

The threat actor behind the coordinated ransomware attack against multiple Texas local governments may have gained access to its computer systems via a third-party software provider.According to NPR, which first reported the development, the attackers want a collective ransom of $2.5 million. So far, there are no indications the amount has been paid.On August 20, the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) said as many as 23 state-run services — including police departments and libraries — had been had been affected by file-encrypting malware. Though very little is known about the attack’s origin or the strain of ransomware used, the agency revised the count to 22 two days later....

Some eight months after it was reported that Ping Identity’s owners Vista Equity had hired bankers to explore a public listing, today Ping Identity took the plunge: the Colorado-based online ID management company has filed an S-1 form indicating that it plans to raise up to $100 million in an IPO on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker “Ping.”While the initial S-1 filing doesn’t have an indication of price range, Ping is said to be looking at a valuation of between $2 billion and $3 billion in this listing.The company has been around since 2001, founded by Andre Durand (who is still the CEO), and it was acquired by Vista in 2016 for about $600 million — at a time when a clutch of enterprise companies that looked like strong IPO candidates were going the private equity route and staying private instead....

A mid-year report on vulnerabilities found so far in 2019 from Risk Based Security should make security professionals take notice: There are some serious risks out there.In the first half of 2019, there have been about 4,000 fewer entries in the common vulnerabilities and exploits (CVE) database, but that's no reason to start resting easy: 34% of the 11,092 reported vulnerabilities remain unpatched.SEE: 10 dangerous app vulnerabilities to watch out for (free PDF) (TechRepublic)Leading the pack with 24.1% of all vulnerabilities between them are five companies: Software in the Public Interest (Debian and related platforms), SUSE, Oracle, IBM, and Microsoft. Given the popularity of platforms from those organizations, it's reasonable to assume your organization is affected by at least one of the more than 11,000 vulnerabilities reported in 2019, and possibly by some that remain unpatched....

First, a quick breakdown of the controls. As before, you move with the left analog stick and execute both a basic throw and dash with the bottom face button (X on PS4, A on Xbox One, etc.) You can throw the disc quickly or slowly with a timed button press, and change its trajectory -- with a slight curve, for instance, or diagonally so it bounces off the top or bottom wall -- by pushing the stick in a specific direction. The lob has been shifted to the right button (circle on PS4, B on Xbox One, etc.) and, depending on your timing, can now be converted into a tactical drop-shot or slap-shot.Dropshots add a whole new dimension to the game. In the original Windjammers, it was generally a good idea to stay near the back of the court. It meant you weren't exposed to lobs and had the largest possible window to react to your opponent's shot. With the drop-shot, though, that's no longer viable. If the frisbee hits the deck, the other player gets a couple of easy points. That means -- just like a grass court tennis match -- you always have to be careful about your distance from the net....

TLDR: The Tern handles all your Wi-Fi connectivity needs wherever you are, now over 40% off.If you’ve done any international traveling, you’ve undoubtedly hassled with how to stay connected. And we don’t mean just chatting with friends and family back home. We mean making sure your smartphone, laptop and other Wi-Fi enabled devices stay tethered so your vital data and communication pipelines keep flowing, no matter your location.Up to now, that often meant using prepaid SIM cards, changing out your cards as you hop from region to region. Ultimately, that route is expensive, not to mention being a giant headache. Thankfully, Tern took that problem head-on, creating the Tern Global Data Connection Device, so you can stay connected anywhere in the world. ...

Facebook's 'cryptocurrency' Libra may be in even deeper trouble than we thought if a recent report is anything to go by.

Google has taken another step towards letting web apps in Chrome edit and gather information about your files. Using the new Native File System API, web apps would be able to read and save files, as well as gather info on the number and names of files stored on your device. To offset the risks, Google says it is putting in place controls that would only allow the feature to be used on "secure" sites and web apps, and only with express user consent. Google developer advocate Pete Le Page detailed how the API is available to test locally in Chrome 77, hidden behind a developer flag, and will be available for more widespread testing by developers in the forthcoming Chrome 78. Google and its fellow browser makers have been frank about the risks of the feature, previously known as the Writeable Files API, which they spell out in an explainer page. ...

Have you seen those people walking around town bumping music? You can be that person with Anker's Soundcore Motion B portable speaker for just $20.

In a new paper in , a team from Caltech describe using sets of folds like origami to create a flexible soft robot. They created two different type of hinges which fold at different temperatures, so when the robot is heated it folds in a specific order.The advantage of the hinges is that they allow the robot to be configured into different shapes but within set parameters. Other soft robots have blobby bodies which are difficult to predict and control, but the hinging robots only need to be deformed in the small area of the hinge.One robot they made using this technique is the Rollbot, which begins as a flat sheet 8 centimeters by 4 centimeters in size. When the Rollbot is placed onto a hot surface, its hinges fold and it becomes a pentagonal wheel....

Mobile developers are among the top 10 most in-demand and hardest to fill tech jobs, according to data from Indeed. Companies across industries are increasingly seeking these professionals to build out apps, and with that work comes rolling out new features to keep them up to date and meeting internal and external customer needs. Here are five tips for successfully launching new app features, and some of the tools that will help you accomplish your goals, according to Adam Zimman, vice president of product and platform at LaunchDarkly: In the planning phase and design process for a new feature, consider how it will be released, answering the following questions, Zimman said: SEE: 10 ways to build reactive mobile apps that engage your users (free PDF) (TechRepublic)...

Bitcoin and gold have been compared many times, but while the precious metal is reportedly set to suffer its worst week in almost five months, the cryptocurrency’s price recovered from a drop earlier this week.

Plus, Android Q has an official name. (It's 10).

Yesterday, Samsung hosted an event in San Francisco on the “Growth and Innovation in the Wearable Device Market.” Co-hosted with SF Women in Tech, the conference showed off some of the biggest new innovations in tech — but apparently drew the line when it came to women’s sexual health. Liz Klinger, the co-founder and CEO of Lioness, a women-led company designing tech-driven sex toys whose mission is to destigmatize pleasure, was asked to remove her stall from the event, even though she was allegedly previously approved to attend. Klinger said she was initially invited to present her company’s first product, the Lioness Vibrator that takes readings from the sensors and turns orgasms into art. However, shortly after Klinger had finished setting up her stall, she was asked to remove her products from the show. “It sounded like at least one person at Samsung, who was higher up at the event, was not ok with my stall,” Klinger told TNW. ...

We were able to surface screenshots by looking for specific keywords, but it looks like the feature even on ordinary pictures. Say, on images of signs or of the pages of a book. Further, you can simply click the Lens button when you find the image you're looking for to be able to copy-paste text from it. And since you can translate the words you highlight from within the app itself, we'll bet the feature could be useful for research or for figuring out what signs and food packages are saying when you're traveling in other countries. ...

US supermarket chain Walmart and Tesla are working to solve the issues which allegedly caused solar panel fires in seven of its stores, Reuters reports.It follows a lawsuit launched by the retailer, alleging "widespread negligence" when the panels were installed on roofs.Clean energy firm SolarCity had installed panels on 240 Walmart stores, and was bought by Tesla in 2016.In a joint statement, the firms said they were addressing the concerns.Every system needed to operate safely, they added.The firms said they were looking to "re-energise Tesla solar installations at Walmart stores, once all parties are certain that all concerns have been addressed"."Above all else, both companies want each and every system to operate reliably, efficiently, and safely," they added....

"This exciting new series takes an in-depth look at the unique and surprising roles these men and women call their daily jobs," the company said in a press release. Fans of Disney's theme parks, animation, art and VFX will no doubt geek out over the series, with no need to commit a lot of time for each episode. It might be the first step toward similar, inward-looking content that will be ideal filler for Disney+.The series will launch on December 3rd with a feature-length One Day in Disney special and matching coffee book. After that, Disney+ will stream shorts ranging in length from four to seven minutes each week for over 50 weeks. Disney+ debuts on November 12th, 2019....

The blockchain-mad CEO of online retailer Overstock has stepped down amid a confession that he was romantically involved with a suspected Russian spy.

Google has announced a new initiative that aims to “fundamentally enhance privacy on the web.”The proposal — dubbed “Privacy Sandbox” — is a stab at preventing extensive tracking of users on the web through cookies and other methods like tracking pixels and browser and device fingerprinting.In creating a new standard that puts users in control over their data, Google hopes it would strike a balance between personalization and privacy.“Technology that publishers and advertisers use to make advertising even more relevant to people is now being used far beyond its original design intent — to a point where some data practices don’t match up to user expectations for privacy,” Chrome‘s engineering director Justin Schuh said....

Motorola launches a $195 phone with a GoPro-like wide-angle action cam in India today.

New York based startup Tastemakers has raised a $1.4 million seed-round—led Precursor Ventures—for its business that connects Africa adventures to global consumers.Tastemakers’ platform curates, prices, and lists African travel and cultural experiences—from paragliding tours to wine-tasting to concerts.The startup generates revenues by taking a 20% commission on each transaction. Community managers in Africa screen and select experiences that go up on the site .Tastemakers will use the investment to grow the number of experiences offered from 200 to 10,000 and build out machine learning capabilities to better match suppliers, experiences, and clients—CEO and founder Cherae Robinson told TechCrunch....

Summer’s fading fast, but our 2-for-1 summer flash sale on Innovator, Founder or Investor passes to Disrupt Berlin 2019 is fading even faster. Today’s the final day you can get 2-for-1 tickets to join us in Berlin for two jam-packed days of startup goodness and opportunity. Why not do it for the lowest price?Our 2-for-1 summer flash sale ends tonight, August 23 at 11:59 p.m. (CEST). Buy your 2-for-1 passes right here.There are so many reasons to attend Disrupt Berlin on 11-12 December — try these five on for size, buy your passes and get ready to take your startup to the next level.Learn...

The delivery drivers weren't aware of the practice due to the lack of transparency. They weren't told how much of the money they get came from tips, so some of them had to experiment by ordering items themselves to figure out what was going on. Going forward, based on Amazon's email, the company will start sending them a fare breakdown for their shift, showing how much their base pay is and how much tips they got. Here's a photo sample of the breakdown included in the email to drivers:"While earnings vary by region and block, with the change to Amazon's minimum contribution, we expect nationwide average earnings for these blocks to increase to more than $27 per hour," the email reportedly read....

We’ve read plentyofstories of how AI can be horrible, but it can also be surprisingly useful. According to a report by the South China Morning Post, a person accused of murder was caught by an AI after he tried to scan his dead girlfriend’s face to get a loan sanctioned.The report notes that a 29-year-old man in Fujian province was suspected of killing his girlfriend after an argument over finances. He tried to scan her face in a lending app called Money Station. The app uses AI to verify applications, and it asks them to wink during the approval process. However, in this case, the app’s AI detected no eye movement. Plus, the company’s voice recognition software also found that a man is trying to apply for a loan rather than a woman....

Like Facebook and Twitter, YouTube has identified and disabled fake accounts that made posts relating to recent protests in Hong Kong.

It's not all downside for the mechs though -- their health has been bumped up from 1,000 points to 1,250. Overall, it should reduce much of the frustration players have had because they could so quickly kill someone even if that person had full health, with the changes designed to make it so mechs can still destroy a structure quickly, without being as hard to fight against.Epic has also temporarily removed the Junk Rift weapon from Arena playlists, which it says is the result of an audio issue.The response from the community so far seems positive, as reflected by streamer TimTheTatMan and pro player FaZe Ewok showing their appreciation. There's no patch to download, so go ahead and try out the game now, then let us know if it's finally moving in the right direction....

Seasoned photographers work with RAW images for a reason. RAW photos, unprocessed images captured by a variety of digital camera manufacturers, provide advertising, marketing, and other professionals with a much more capable file format than traditional .GIF, .JPG, or .TIFF files. The lack of a definitive RAW file standard has resulted in numerous RAW file types in the wild, from Nikon's.NEF files to Canon's.CRW counterpart, among many others. Because RAW files capture a full range of elements and complete metadata from a camera's image sensor, while also possessing a wider dynamic range than more common image formats, RAW files provide post-production capabilities unavailable in other file types....

OPTIMA creates a virtual model of a patient's heart so doctors only need to operate once.

In Hades, players take on the role of a son of Hades, the Greek god of the underworld, as he attempts to escape his father's domain. Standing between the player and their goal is a mountain of hurt. Supergiant describes Hades as a "rogue-like." That is, expect to die a lot as you learn the ins and outs of the combat mechanics and level design. Along the way, you'll meet mythological heroes such as Achilles, as well as most of the Olympian gods.Back when Epic , Hades was the company's first major exclusive. Since then, Epic has used its Fortnite war chest to , much to the chagrin of some PC gamers. Since launching in early access, Supergiant has released six major content updates for Hades, adding new levels, weapons, story beats and, best of all, by composer Darren Korb. Supergiant says players who purchase Hades before October 15th, 2019 will get a complimentary digital copy of the game's soundtrack. If you would rather wait for Supergiant to finish development on Hades before paying to play it, the studio says it expects to launch the game sometime in the second half of 2020....

A new study shows confirms the worst fears of mobile phone manufacturers like Apple and Samsung. According to responses from 3,640 mobile phone users shows that more than half of them plan to keep their current device for three to five more years.In recent years, we’ve certainly seen the slowdown. People who once rushed to buy the latest and greatest iPhone (like me) are now patiently bypassing new offerings and instead waiting an additional year (or more) between upgrades. For me, my current iPhone X has been wonderful, to the point where I saw little need to upgrade during last year’s announcement. For others, they’re still holding on to the iPhone 7, or even the 6.“After so many years of people being pressured into upgrading to a new phone when their old phone was perfectly functional, it’s encouraging to see that so many of our survey respondents are hanging on to their devices for longer,” said Andrew Moore-Crispin, Director of Content at Ting Mobile. “The data from our survey indicates that people are more conscious about things like price and basic phone functionality. They don’t care so much about having the latest, coolest tech — something that might not be great news for the big manufacturers this year.”...

3D printing has become commonplace in the hardware industry, but because few materials can be used for it easily, the process rarely results in final products. A Swiss startup called Spectroplast hopes to change that with a technique for printing using silicone, opening up all kinds of applications in medicine, robotics and beyond.Silicone is not very bioreactive, and of course can be made into just about any shape while retaining strength and flexibility. But the process for doing so is generally injection molding, great for mass-producing lots of identical items but not so great when you need a custom job....

Under the new policy, drivers will receive a base pay that ranges between $2 to $10, and is estimated based on factors like distance, duration and the desirability of the job itself. "Deliveries that are expected to take more time, that require Dashers to travel a longer distance, and that are less popular with Dashers will have higher base pay," wrote Xu in a blog post announcing the revamped policy. On top of that, drivers will be able to pocket 100 percent of the tips they receive from customers. DoorDash was originally criticized for its practice of subsidizing worker's pay with the tips they receive from customers.Drivers will also have the chance to earn extra income for deliveries made during peak times or for especially high performance. These promotions will be known as "Peak Pay" and "Challenge Bonuses", and will roll out to drivers over the next several months....

Farmers could soon get a better understanding of how pigs are feeling thanks to artificial intelligence.The technology, which is in its early stages, scans the animals' faces to try and identify whether an animal is stressed or happy.Scientists at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory say farmers have a moral obligation to enhance the welfare of animals, but add that happy animals also require fewer antibiotics, steroids and food.It's thought the system could be used on other animals too in the future.The BBC's been to Scotland's Rural College where they're taking photographs of their pigs as part of the project.For more Focus on Farming content, visit www.bbc.co.uk/focusonfarming...

Millions of passengers pass through UK airports every year, and those numbers are projected to double by 2050. New technology has been developed that uses a combination of facial recognition technology and your mobile phone in a bid to speed up the immigration process. The UK Home Office and Border Force are considering using the technology in the future. The BBC's Simon Browning has been to test it out....

From the time he was a high school student, Rohit Kalyanpur thought it was peculiar that although it’s possible to create energy from a solar panel, the panels have long been used almost exclusively on rooftops and as part of industrial-scale solar grids. “I hadn’t seen [anything solar-powered] in the things people use every day other than calculators and lawn lights,” he tells us from him home in Chicago — though he’s moving to the Bay Area next month.It wasn’t just a passing thought for Kalyanpur. Through research positions in high school, he continued to learn about energy and work on a solar charging prototype — initially to charge his iPhone — while continuing to wonder what other materials might be powered spontaneously just by shining light on it....

While Trachtenberg -- who recently directed the pilot episode of Amazon's super hero sendup The Boys -- is out on Uncharted, Sony has added to some talent to the project. PlayStation Productions, the media company set up by Sony last year, is now on board with the film, per . Assuming Uncharted eventually make its to movie theaters, it will be the first feature-length production to have the PlayStation Productions name attached to it.The Uncharted film has had a pretty since it was first announced back in 2014, with an original planned . Trachtenberg isn't even the first director to leave the project -- Stranger Things director before exiting. The delays may be for the best, though. In 2017, Spider-Man star to tackle the role of young Nathan Drake. Since he apparently won't have any more MCU films on his plate (at least for now), he should be able to keep busy with the Uncharted film that is set to be ....

DoorDash announced last month that it would be changing its controversial tipping model. Today it’s revealing the basics of how the new system will work.Under the past model, Dashers (DoorDash drivers and other delivery people) were guaranteed a minimum payment per delivery, with DoorDash paying a $1 base, then providing an additional payment boost when a customer’s tip wasn’t enough to meet the minimum — a system that made it seem like tips were being used to subsidize DoorDash payments.Under the new system, meanwhile, DoorDash will pay a base between $2 and $10 (the amount will depend on things like delivery distance and duration), with additional bonuses from DoorDash....

Solving information scatter inside enterprises seems to be the founding idea behind dozens of enterprise software startups. Capacity, which recently rebranded from Jane.ai, is raising new cash to tackle the issue with its corporate data search platform.The company just closed a $13.2 million Series B was funded entirely by Midwestern private investors and angels.The St. Louis workplace startup helps its customers pull all of their organizational data together into a platform that makes company information more accessible to people inside the company. It’s all done through a chat interface and directory that employees can use to search for information. There’s a pretty high degree of flexibility in customizing how questions are answered and when a line of questioning gets routed to a person onsite....

Age of Empires IV, a game that’s been teased for two years, is finally going to make its gameplay debut later this year — at least, we hope so. Microsoft turned up empty-handed to this week’s Gamescom.Okay, that’s not entirely true. Microsoft’s busy pushing its upcoming Gears of War 5, so it’s no surprise it’s chosen to focus on that. However, AoE4‘s absence was noted. When asked about it by a reporter, Xbox Marketing Manager Aaron Greenberg said, “Our next big beat is XO19. I would suggest that people watch that… Cannot confirm or deny anything, but [you] definitely want to tune in.” (For those who don’t know, XO19 is an Xbox fan event taking place in London.)It’s not exactly a confirmation one way or another, but considering how long it’s been since we heard anything about AoE4, it’s nice to at least have it acknowledged. The last numbered entry in the series, Age of Empires III, game out a full 14 years ago. We got several expansions for both AoE games and their Age of Mythology spin-off, but not much in the way of a new game. Well, there was Age of Empires Online, but as I recall, that was released to rather middling reviews....

Porsche has taken the wraps off the interior of the all-new, all-electric Porsche Taycan ahead of its world debut September 4. Gone are the buttons and the clutter. This is a minimalist and sleek interior for the modern digital age.Porsche released several images of the interior on Thursday. Earlier this week, TechCrunch was among numerous media outlets that got an up-close view of the interior (along with some other things we can’t talk about) and a chance to play around with the infotainment system.Porsche didn’t just slap a bunch of screens in and call it a day. Here are the details and what stood out....