List of All Articles with Tag 'tec'

Julius Baer is expanding its crypto wealth management services in Dubai, marking the firm’s first major digital-assets push

Google has scrapped its latest augmented reality (AR) headset that was meant to rival headsets from Apple and Meta, according to reports. The search giant’s ‘Project Iris’ was abandoned earlier this year, Insider reported, making it the second major set of smart glasses to be ditched following Google Glass. The latest AR glasses were first teased last year at Google I/O, with a video showing wearers using the device to translate conversations in real-time. “What we’re working on is technology that enables us to break down language barriers,” Max Spear, a product manager at Google, said in the video. “Making access to information just instant and intuitive, and by doing that technology fades into the background.” Since the glasses were teased, Apple has unveiled its Vision Pro headset and Meta has shown off its latest Quest 3 goggles, which will be available later this year. Google’s aborted project comes eight years after the firm discontinued its Glass smart glasses for consumers, and just months after it stopped producing the enterprise version. It follows the departure of Clay Bavor, Google’s chief of augmented and virtual reality, with the company’s focus now switching to AR software rather than hardware. One AR software platform is Android XR, which is being built for a headset under development at Samsung. A Micro XR platform is also rumoured to be in the works, which is expected to run on AR smart glasses rather than larger mixed reality goggles. One unnamed employee told Insider that Google was aiming to created the “Android for AR”, referring to the tech giant’s hugely popular mobile operating system. A spokesperson for Google declined to comment. Samsung announced at its Galaxy Unpacked event in February that it had partnered with Google and Qualcomm to make a mixed reality platform. No details were given about what the product might look like, with the company saying more information would be given later this year. “We are working to create a new era of highly immersive digital experiences that blur the line between our physical and digital worlds,” said Qualcomm’s Cristiano Amon. “With our Snapdragon XR tech, Samsung’s amazing products, and Google experiences, we have the foundation to make this opportunity a reality.” Read More ‘I saw the future. It left me in tears’ Apple releases urgent update to iPhone and iPad users Apple starts letting developers make apps for its upcoming headset The Apple Watch is getting some major changes this year – here’s why

Would you sign up to live in isolation for a year, all in the name of furthering scientific research? Probably not, we’re guessing, but that’s exactly what four NASA volunteers have agreed to do over the next 12 months. The participants will live in an environment created to simulate conditions on the surface of Mars as part of NASA's Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog for 378 days. The people involved are research scientist Kelly Haston, structural engineer Ross Brockwell, emergency medicine physician Nathan Jones and US Navy microbiologist Anca Selariu. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The simulation has been built at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and will see the four volunteers undertake a series of tasks as part of the exercise. Data collected over the next 12 months will help to inform future missions to send astronauts to Mars. During that time, the guests will take part in activities such as crop growing as well as simulated spacewalks and other operations. The 3D-printed hub they’ll spend their time in contains a kitchen, sleeping areas, two bathrooms as well as work and recreation spaces. The mission will also see the guests faced with simulated obstacles, which are designed to test responses to equipment failure, communication delays and other issues. Speaking at a recent briefing, the mission's principal investigator at NASA Grace Douglas said: “Thank you all for your dedication to exploration. Our best wishes go with you." Haston also spoke, calling her fellow participants an "amazing group of dedicated individuals who feel very passionate about space exploration and science." "The crew has worked so hard this month to get ready for this mission," Haston added. "It has been very special to be a part of such a tremendous group of scientists and specialists from a diverse set of backgrounds working together to bring CHAPEA 1, the first of three missions, to reality." Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Microsoft Teams, the popular workplace chat app, has gone down in the middle of the working day. Users complained that they were unable to get online or talk to colleagues in what appeared to be a widespread outage. But soon after the problems were identified, many appeared to be able to get back online again. The problems began around lunchtime in the UK, and around the time that many in the US are beginning work, according to tracking website Downdetector. Numerous users complained on that site and elsewhere that they were unable to get online, particularly using their browser. Many of those users were hit by a mysterious message reading: “Operation failed with unexpected error”. Others saw similarly vague messages about not being able to connect to the internet or indistinct error codes. Microsoft confirmed on its official account that it was aware of an issue where “some users may be unable to access Microsoft Teams using web browsers”. But numerous users complained that they were unable to get online through the desktop app, either.

Fly.io, a tech startup whose public cloud infrastructure enables developers to deploy applications, has raised $70 million in

Hyundai and Toyota have both come under fire recently by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over ads detailing the two firms’ quick charging times. The ASA found that the car adverts relating to Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 and Toyota’s bZ4X were ‘misleading’, due to many variables and limitations at play, especially when it came to the availability of the quickest EV chargers. But what are the different types of public EV chargers in the UK, how long can you expect a typical EV to charge with each and what is the availability of each type of charger like? Here we explain. AC slow charging – speeds up to 6kW There are two main types of EV charger – alternative current (AC) and direct current (DC). The first is used for slower charging, with the latter adopted for quicker speeds. If you’re in no rush, what’s classed as a ‘slow charger’ is the best bet. These are rated at speeds up to 6kW, and are ideal for if a car is parked up for an extended period of time. They are typically found in on-street chargers, including those in lamp posts. Let’s use Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 as an example. When equipped with the smaller 58kWh battery (an average size for an EV’s battery), it would take 16 hours to complete a charge. ‘Slow’ units are the second most popular type of charger in the UK. According to data from Zap-Map, one of the leading EV charging navigation firms, as of the end of May 2023, there were 10,699 slow chargers across Britain. AC fast chargers – 7kW to 22kW The most popular type of charger in the UK is what’s known as a ‘fast charger’. Rated between 7kW and 22kW, the smaller number is the most common type. These are often found in places where cars are usually stopped for several hours, such as in shopping centre and workplace car parks. The 7kW output is the typical output of a specific home EV charger, and with the Ioniq 5, it would take nine hours for a full charge. If you hooked up to a quicker 22kW charger, the time is reduced to six hours. According to Zap-Map data, there are 24,443 fast charging points currently in the UK. DC Rapid charger – 25kW to 99kW If you’re looking to speed things up a notch, it’s worth trying to find what’s known as a ‘rapid charger’. These are rated between 25kW and 99kW, though 50kW is the most common output. Often found in the car parks of supermarkets and fast food outlets, it would take around 45 minutes to charge the Ioniq 5’s 58kWh battery, according to Hyundai’s data, with one of these units. . As of May 2023, there were 5,182 rapid electric car charging points located across the UK. DC Ultra-rapid charger – 100kW + If you’re looking to top up an EV’s battery as quickly as possible, it’s an ultra-rapid charger that are the one to find. These are rated from 100kW upwards. They are typically found at motorway service stations, though specific EV hubs are now being set up with banks of these quicker units. Most Porsche dealers also have 350kW units, which are available to use by the public. It’s worth noting that every EV will have a maximum charging speed, with some older electric cars – or those with a smaller battery – having a maximum charging speed of 50kW, meaning there’s not a lot of point in using an ultra-rapid charger over a standard ‘rapid’ as it won’t charge it any quicker. But the Ioniq 5 is one of those that can charge at up to 350kW, however, meaning that in ideal conditions, it could take just 18 minutes to charge the battery to 80 per cent capacity. The trouble, however, as the ASA pointed out, is that there is limited availability of 350kW units. While, according to Zap-Map data, there are 3,302 ultra-rapid chargers across the UK, there are only around 70 individual locations across the whole of the UK that have 350kW chargers. The whole of Scotland, for example, has just six places that can deliver such charging speeds, while there are only three in Wales, and all of them are located in the south. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Emergency number back in use after nationwide technical fault Windrush trolls taken down after public criticism Meta rejects accusation of censorship of language around female body

It turns out that human ancestors and dinosaurs could have actually co-existed, according to new research. Scientists have produced a study which suggested that placental mammals were around before the asteroid that brought an end to the Cretaceous period hit Earth 66 million years ago. A new paper published in the journal Current Biology claims that fossil records of placental mammals suggests that our ancestors roamed the Earth before the extinction event, and later flourished due to the lack of competition from dinosaur species afterwards. According to the research, primates evolved shortly before the asteroid hit. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Lead author Emily Carlisle of Bristol’s School of Earth Sciences said: “We pulled together thousands of fossils of placental mammals and were able to see the patterns of origination and extinction of the different groups.” Carlisle added: “Based on this, we could estimate when placental mammals evolved.” “The model we used estimates origination ages based on when lineages first appear in the fossil record and the pattern of species diversity through time for the lineage,” co-author Daniele Silvestro from the University of Fribourg shared. While we don’t have a full picture of what human ancestors looked like at that time, it’s thought they “were small and squirrely”. Carlisle said: “Unfortunately we don’t know what our placental mammal ancestors would have looked like back then. “Many of the earliest fossils of placental mammals are quite small creatures such as Purgatorius – an early ancestor of primates – which was a small burrowing creature a bit like a tree shrew. So it’s likely that many of our ancestors were small and squirrely.” Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

US officials suing to stop Microsoft Corp.’s $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard Inc. argue the software giant’s

Elon Musk has begun training for his anticipated fight against Mark Zuckerberg, sparring with the same partner as his tech rival. Podcaster and AI researcher Lex Fridman, who holds a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, said he was “extremely impressed” with Mr Musk’s strength and technique after practising with him on Monday. The session came just days after Mr Fridman grappled with the Meta boss, who has been learning jiu-jitsu since last year. Both billionaires are expected to face off in a mixed martial arts contest after Mr Musk challenged his tech rival to a “cage match” earlier this month. The 51-year-old Tesla boss has no prior experience with martial arts and claims to not do any exercise beyond picking up his children and “throwing them in the air”. He is a long-time friend of Mr Fridman, who has been practising jiu-jitsu for more than a decade and earned his black belt five years ago. “I did an impromptu training session with Elon Musk for a few hours yesterday,” Mr Fridman wrote on Twitter. “I’m extremely impressed with his strength, power, and skill, on the feet and on the ground. It was epic.” Mr Musk replied: “That was fun!” Mr Fridman added that he hoped the two tech bosses would continue to train at martial arts but not actually fight each other. Within hours of sparring with his friend, Mr Musk had taken up an offer from UFC legend Georges St-Pierre to train him for the bout. The former two-weight UFC champion is considered one of the greatest ever mixed martial artists, having retired in 2019 after winning belts at welterweight and middleweight. It is not yet clear when the fight between Mr Musk and Mr Zuckerberg will take place, though the UFC Apex centre in Las Vegas has been proposed as a potential location. The contest has been endorsed by UFC president Dana White, who said last week that both men were “absolutely dead serious” about fighting each other. “This would be the biggest fight ever in the history of the world,” he said. “Bigger than anything that’s ever been done. It would break all pay-per-view records... You don’t have to be a fighting fan to be interested in this fight. Everybody would want to see it.” Read More Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg ‘dead serious’ about cage fight, says UFC boss Elon Musk picks UFC legend to train him for Mark Zuckerberg fight Twitter hacker who took over Musk, Obama, Biden accounts gets prison sentence Elon Musk confirms cage fight with Mark Zuckerberg

The online gaming world has a new obsession, with a game called Only Up where you simply have to keep climbing up a series of random objects until you reach space. The game sounds relatively straightforward as anyone who has even the most basic concept of videogames knows how to climb up various structures. However, Only Up does not make the game easy for players as the seemingly infinite amount of objects range from pipes, bridges and trampolines but even the slightest of mistakes can end in disaster sending the players plummeting all the way back to the start of the game. Only Up was developed by SCKR Games and released in May 2023. It is available to play on Steam for the price of £8.50 ($10.80). Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The game has gone viral thanks to high-profile streamers such as Adin Ross, Hasan Piker and iShowSpeed playing the game on their respective streams. iShowSpeed, who has 17 million followers on YouTube, attempts to play the game have proved to be particularly entertaining. At one point he lost 8 hours of progress. Thankfully, while playing the game on Tuesday the 18-year-old was able to complete the game in just under 5 hours. The most impressive run on the game so far has come from streamer Shade managed to find a glitch which allowed him to complete it in just 33 seconds. Whether you want to complete the game properly or use the glitch is your call but have fun regardless. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Scientists have designed a new robot nicknamed “morphobot” that can travel on different terrains, including land and air by shapeshifting its parts into wheels, propellers, or legs as required. Researchers, including Alireza Ramezani from Northeastern University in the US, say the morphobot can transform its shape to navigate the environment by flying, rolling, crawling, crouching, balancing, and tumbling. Several animals have adapted the use of their limbs to allow them to tackle different terrains. Sea lions, for instance, walk on land using their flippers that they also use to swim, and meerkats use their hindlimbs to scout their surroundings. Chukar birds have also shown adaptations to use their wings to walk on all fours up steep inclines. Similarly, the morphobot, described this week in the journal Nature Communications, performs different modes of movement inspired by animals like birds, meerkats, and seals by mimicking the animals’ limb repurposing abilities. The robot, which weighs 6kg (13lb), has four legs each comprising two joints, along with ducted fans fixed at the leg ends. It spans 70cm in length and has a width and height of 35cm. The new study shows that the morphobot’s fans can shapeshift to function either as legs, propellor thrusters, or wheels as required. The robot has demonstrated the ability to alter its movements to walk on rough terrain, traverse steep slopes, tumble over large obstacles, fly to higher levels, and crawl under low-ceiling pathways. Based on the study, researchers say future mobile robots can be designed with multi-functional limbs to navigate complex terrains by adapting their movement strategies. The new innovation could help further improve the design of robots to traverse harsh environments, such as those used in search and rescue responses after natural disasters, space exploration, and automated package delivery. The findings, according to scientists, demonstrate the advantages of designing robots with multipurpose appendages that can be used to travel over varied and challenging terrains. Read More ‘Real-life’ Spider-Man captured swinging in the air at Disney park in California Scientists invent electronic skin that gives amputees sense of touch ‘Robot taxi’ with smiling face and ‘ghost driver’ interacts with pedestrians in new experiment Scientists create tiny robot that works like an animal and swims around your body Celebrity impersonators banned from Facebook protest outside Meta offices Elon Musk picks UFC legend to train him for Mark Zuckerberg fight

(Reuters) -Alphabet-owned Google on Tuesday said it is cutting jobs at mapping app Waze as it merges the app's advertising