Chernobyl and Why Some TV Shows Should Be Unbingeable

An anonymous reader shares a column [Editor’s note: the link may be paywalled]: Few television shows in recent years have been as compelling, yet as difficult to watch, as Chernobyl. The story of the hours and days following the 1986 nuclear reactor meltdown, and the many awful ways that radiation can kill, was expertly told. But it was the antithesis of…

5G Network: How It Works, and Is It Dangerous?

5G is the next generation of cellular broadband, promising to bring mobile users into a future where Full-HD movies can be downloaded in seconds and emerging technologies such as self-driving cars and augmented reality are commonplace. Source: https://www.livescience.com/65959-5g-network.html

Xiaomi Threatens Legal Action Against Users Who Call Its Mimoji App a Copycat of Apple’s Memoji

From a report: Apple’s Memoji may have become the more popular 3D avatar feature for smartphones, but Xiaomi wants people to know that its similarly-named version — Mimoji — came first, despite increasingly confusing overlap between the apps’ names and features. Moreover, it’s apparently threatening legal action against writers who call it a copycat without providing proof. In September 2017, Apple…

In a virtual world, the sky is no longer the limit

Kayleigh Oliver began her career as one of just six women in a room full of more than 100 computing students. 10 years later, she works as a QA and Release Manager at Immerse, a virtual reality training software company. Kayleigh also runs her own app development business in her spare time. We spoke to […]
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Secretive Magic Leap Says Ex-Engineer Copied Headset For China

Magic Leap, a secretive U.S. startup that makes a $2,295 augmented-reality headset, filed a lawsuit Monday accusing one of its former engineers of stealing its technology to create his own AR device for China. Bloomberg reports: In a lawsuit filed Monday, Magic Leap alleges that Chi Xu, who left in 2016, exploited its confidential information to “quickly develop a prototype of…

AR Recreation of Apollo 11 Mission in Celebration of 50th Anniversary of Moon Landing

edX and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library have partnered to bring an exciting experience to the edX community. In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library is launching the JFK Moonshot, a first-of-its-kind augmented reality app experience. From July 16th to the 20th, the app will provide users anywhere in the…

Why ‘Ambient Computing’ Is Just A Marketing Buzzword — For Now

An anonymous reader quotes Computerworld columnist Mike Elgan: Ambient computing is real. It’s the next megatrend in computing…. To interact in an “ambient computing” context means to not care and not even necessarily know where exactly the devices are that you’re interacting with. When IoT devices and sensors are all around us, and artificial intelligence can understand human contexts for what’s…

Apple Updates iPod Touch With A10 Fusion Chip (and Nothing Else)

Apple today released a new iPod Touch with A10 fusion chip that supports group FaceTime chats and improved augmented reality capabilities. From a report: The rest of the device is unchanged, compared to the previous generation iPod Touch, but it’s still nice to see it receive updates. The new, more powerful chip will let people play the latest games and use…

Neal Stephenson Says Social Media Is Close To A ‘Doomsday Machine’

PC Magazine interviewed Neal Stephenson about his new upcoming book Fall; Or, Dodge in Hell, as well as “the digital afterlife, and why social media is a doomsday machine.” [Possible spoilers ahead]: The hybrid sci-fi/fantasy novel begins in the present day with Richard “Dodge” Forthrast, an eccentric multibillionaire who made his fortune in the video game industry. When a freak accident…

Google Glass Gets a Surprise Upgrade and New Frames

Google just unveiled its newest version of Glass. It’s not made to be a widespread consumer product, but there are business users who will care. And the latest Glass Enterprise Edition 2, with key upgraded specs, shows where most smartglasses are at. From a report: You might remember Glass as a strange 2013 footnote, but Glass has stuck around: it became…