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I hate shopping. I hate the aisles. I hate the noise and the random tannoy announcements. I hate the chaotic changes in smells and temperature as I drag myself from the deli counter to the cold section. I hate unexpected items in the bagging area. But most of all, I hate remembering what I need to buy. When I go shopping I like to operate with military precision. I like to start out with a clear cut plan, execute to the letter, and wear combat trousers....

Uber has committed to become a “zero-emission platform” by 2040, with all rides taking place in zero-emission vehicles, on public transport or via micromobility. It has also pledged that 100 percent of rides will be in electric vehicles (EVs) in US, Canadian and European cities by 2030, and to reach net-zero emissions from its corporate operations by the same date. This follows rival Lyft’s June commitment to rely 100 percent on EVs by 2030....

In an announcement, Huawei revealed it has finalized the sale off its Honor mobile sub-brand to Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology, a consortium of 30 agents and dealers led by the government of Shenzhen. “Huawei’s consumer business has been under tremendous pressure as of late. This has been due to a persistent unavailability of technical elements needed for our mobile phone business,” the company said. “Huawei […] has thus decided to sell all of its Honor business assets....

The Hubble Space Telescope has imaged a total lunar eclipse, becoming the first space telescope to ever image such an event. This also marked the first time that a total lunar eclipse has been thoroughly examined in ultraviolet light, as well as the first time ultraviolet (UV) light was seen from space after passing through the atmosphere of our homeworld. The technique used to measure ozone in the atmosphere of the Earth could be adapted to allow astronomers to study exoplanets like Earth orbiting other stars....

Last week everyone was talking about Iowa. I usually wouldn’t bother covering the controversy here if not for two things. First of all, even though I currently live in Sopot, Poland, Iowa is a significant part of my life. Back in 1999, I finished high-school in Marion, IA (with not the best grades), and that was a life-changing time for me. A nerdy web-designer/developer, out in Iowa, trying to fit in, and mostly failing....

Amazingly futuristic? Absolutely. We’ve gone beyond just talking about when robots enter the workforce, and actually made it happen. We wrote a script which scours the internet for news about Bitcoin; how its price is developing, what people are tweeting/writing about it, and then it puts together all that info in human understandable terms — derived from rule-based phrases and terms we wrote beforehand. So, what did I think of this at first?...

So herein lies the memoir of a relatively new founder (or flounder?), which will explain why you’ll never be ‘great at your job’ again after starting your own company. Sweet safety of being given goals I used to be great at my job. I solved problems. I got shit done. I did more than what was expected of me. At a relatively young age, I touched down in Europe with what I considered to be my dream job....

We’ve got the skinny, but there’s a lot to get through so strap in and get comfy. AI, AI, AI, and more AI AutoSQL and Cloud Pak for Data: IBM’s touting a breakthrough in cloud-based database management. Basically, where businesses serve up answers to customer queries using cloud-managed AI databases, this will significantly speed things up. According to IBM, the new system gives answers to distributed queries “as much as 8x faster than previously and at nearly half the cost of other compared data warehouses....

The answer defines deepfake as a technology that “enables to allows alter/create the image or video media of a person with any other person’s image or video using artificial neural networks and deep learning/machine learning techniques.” This is vaguely correct, but, deepfakes can also include the manipulation of voice and content without using anyone else’s imagery. The measures listed by the minister seem quite rudimentary and give the impression that there’s a real lack of understanding about deepfake technology:...

IGTV is Instagram’s answer to YouTube, a separate-but-not-really app for longer-form videos than the base app allowed for. It launched in June 2018 to great fanfare, but not much has happened with it since then. You can watch IGTV videos without the app, but the button was intended to offer users a shortcut to browse IGTV content. Anyone who’s used that button in the last year, tweet me an emoji of a raised hand....

The Cupertino behemoth is planning to start selling computers with its own ARM-based processors as early as 2021, Bloomberg reports. The new chips will be based on the same designs underpinning the iPhone and the iPad, according to sources familiar with the matter. [Read: Apple’s new $399 iPhone SE couldn’t have come at a worse time] Apple is developing three of its own processors — known as systems-on-a-chip — based on the A14 processors slated to power the next iPhone....

Electric motor production at the Peugeot Citroen PSA plant in Tremery, France, is expected to double this year to 180,000 units. By 2025, the factory is aiming to produce 900,000 motors a year. When that happens, the factory will be producing more electric motors than combustion engines. [Read: How Netflix shapes mainstream culture, explained by data] The one downside of this pivot is that jobs are at risk. Diesel engines are complex and are made up of hundreds of components, and require more people to produce than electric motors....

In a business sense, a “unicorn” is a privately held startup company valued at over $1 billion which has experienced hyper-growth in a new or evolving market. Venture capitalists coined the phrase to express the rarity of these companies. The venture capital investment model is built around the premise of investing in a bunch of companies, one of which they hope will be a unicorn and will go on to reap a large return for investors, making up for the vast majority of their investments which are not successful....

The case stems from a complaint by energy company Enel X Italia, which makes an app called JuicePass that allows users to find electric vehicle charging points — a service Google Maps also provides. The regulator says Google abused its market position by shutting out the rival app from Android Auto for more than two years: In addition to the fine, the watchdog has ordered Google to make JuicePass available on Android Auto....

This comes after a five-month internet shutdown in the region, which is still ongoing in some parts of the valley. In August 2019, the Indian government blocked internet and telecom services in Jammu & Kashmir to supposedly maintain law and order, after it scrapped Article 370 of the Indian constitution and revoked the state’s autonomy. An order from Kargil police, tweeted by local publication Ladakh Times, suggests admins have to register their WhatsApp groups at the nearest police station....

— KFC (@kfc) August 26, 2019 Plant-based meat alternatives have been around for decades, but it’s only recently that mainstream restaurants have offered them as a menu option. KFC will join the illustrious company of Carl’s Jr, Burger King, and Del Taco — all of whom offer plant-based meats either from Beyond Meats or its competitor Impossible Foods. This definitely adds zest to the ongoing race between Beyond and Impossible as to who can corner the Sounds-Like-A-Barnum-And-Bailey-Act-Meatless Market....

Security researchers from vpnMentor were able to exploit a kink in the adult-themed site to glean the personal data – including email addresses and countries of residence – of over 1 million users. The incident, the researchers argue, opens up Luscious users to a series of attacks, including phishing, doxing, and extortion. Among other details, the researchers were also able to view the users’ gender and activity on the platform, their uploads, comments, likes, and blog posts....

Imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery. Even for the most creative of people, the way to learn how to build something new is to start by trying to recreate something that has already been done before. So if you want to learn how to build video games, you could learn a lot by building your own version of an already proven success. So how about starting your career as a game creator by making your own Legend of Zelda?...

The company’s decision was approved by the board this morning. The Korean tech firm said that it wants to concentrate on other verticals such as EV parts, IoT, and AI: LG assured that it’ll provide repairs and software support for existing phone owners. However, the validity of this support may vary from region to region. While the firm made some interesting phones, its business has been a lossmaker for 23 straight quarters....

No. I was wrong. The MacBook Touch Bar fucking sucks. Sorry, people I doubted. First off, a little bit of context and history. The MacBook Touch Bar (first unveiled in October 2016) is basically a touch display in place of the old function keys. This means that rather than having a stationary button for, say, changing the volume, there’s a customizable strip that alters depending on the app you’re using....