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But what has remained constant throughout history is the human element. Though affected by those inventions, human thought has remained central to creativity. Will that change with artificial intelligence? I think not. It was with that mindset that I picked up Arthur I. Miller’s new book The Artist in the Machine: The World of AI-Powered Creativity. And while I can’t say that the book changed my mind—and I don’t think Miller’s goal is to assert that AI will replace human creativity—I have come to better appreciate the changes that AI is bringing to our creative arts....

We’re at the stage where even the common model of the funding round – the cycle of raising enough money from investors every 12-18 months to finance your company for the next 12-18 months – is starting to seem outdated. Historically, completing a funding round is both a time-intensive and cost-intensive process, with lawyers charging a small fortune and the endless back-and-forth negotiating deal terms with investors disincentivizing founders from raising more frequently....

Kinn is decidedly new but also familiar to anyone who has eyed Herman Miller’s pricy Embody — a $1,300 technological marvel that can quickly shoot past $1,600 depending on the selected upgrades. What makes Embody special is its TPE spine, a collection of arms covered in rubberized mesh that mimics the movement of the human spine. When you twist to the left, for example, so does the chair. Kinn offers the same sort of experience, but at $399....

We are two scientists who study exoplanets and astrobiology. Thanks in large part to next-generation telescopes like James Webb, researchers like us will soon be able to measure the chemical makeup of atmospheres of planets around other stars. The hope is that one or more of these planets will have a chemical signature of life. Habitable exoplanets Life might exist in the solar system where there is liquid water – like the subsurface aquifers on Mars or in the oceans of Jupiter’s moon Europa....

If anyone needs me, you’ll know where I’ll be.

And while certain areas have contracted and companies have acted accordingly by reducing their workforces, various industries continue to go from strength-to-strength and have been bolstered by the growing demand for cloud-based technology, machine learning tools, blockchain technology, and the acceleration of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) in our everyday lives. Fintech’s future The last 12 months have rocked the foundations of fintech—in May, Swedish BNPL fintech Klarna slashed 10% of its workforce, and in November Stripe announced it was laying off 14% of its staff, affecting approximately 1,120 of the fintech leader’s 8,000 strong workforce—but despite these attention-grabbing statistics, the sector’s future looks bright for 2023, thanks to the emergence of B2B fintech....

Basically, it’ll turn from a cool blue during the day, to a warmer yellow color at night. Users can either change this themselves, or set the device to do so automatically. Our eyes will thank us. The new Kindle Oasis is being launched on June 24 (so soon!) and you can pre-order that badboy here. Happy night time reading, y’all! This post includes affiliate links to products that you can buy online....

The OnePlus 7T Pro 5G McLaren Edition not only packs as many words as possible into its name, it also brings class-leading specs as one of the very few 5G devices on the market. It comes with a Snapdragon 855+ processor, 256GB of storage, and a massive 12GB of RAM instead of the 8GB on the regular Pro and 7T. It also comes in an eye-catching orange-and-black design matching the McLaren Brand....

The changes this time around aren’t totally surprising — they largely reflect the same changes given to the RadRover 6 Plus, which received its own redesign in July. The bike comes with what I think most people would consider a much sleeker design, thanks in large part to a battery that is semi-integrated into the body. I much like what Rad Power Bikes has done here. It’s not hiding the fact that it’s an ebike, and it leaves the battery easy to access and remove for charging or security purposes....

In total, more than 7,500 people in the US participated in the paired studies – as far as we’re able to determine, that makes this the largest set of experiments on the subject. Participants were split into three groups; one group watched a video, the second read a text transcript of the video, and the third acted as a control group so they received no media prompts. In the next phase, participants from all three groups were asked questions to determine whether they believed the media they’d seen, read, or if they agreed with certain statements....

Those numbers are somewhat misleading though — and their exuberance hides a darker story. Vinyl sales are strong, but the industry itself is at breaking point. From rising costs to a huge printing backlog, from mainstream label dominance to environmental concerns, and from material shortages to outdated equipment, records are being held together by a shoestring. But — and there’s always a “but” in these pieces —wherever there’s a problem, there’s a potential to fix it....

Researchers from antivirus firm Avira are warning that kinks in one of Cacagoo’s IP cameras (TV-288ZD-2MP) suffers from weak authentication protocols. The flaw not only exposes footage recorded by the device, but also makes it possible to infect the gadget with malware that scans your smart home network for other vulnerable systems. That’s not all. “During our network behavioural analysis of both devices, we observed suspicious behaviour,” the security professionals said....

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) March 19, 2021 As noted by Wong, the ‘undo tweet’ is seemingly meant to be a subscriber-only feature; you’d have to pay to access it. Of course, this is a leak, and anything can change between now and whenever the feature goes public (if it ever does). Still, Twitter has been looking into more ways to monetize its platform recently, so it’s not a complete surprise it might keep some features behind a paywall....

Scientists from Warwick University made the discovery by analyzing data collected by space telescopes, such as NASA’s Kepler and TESS. These telescopes capture signs of planets passing in front of their stars. This passage produces a distinctive dip in light emerging from the star. However, this effect can also be caused by a binary star system, interference from other objects, or problems with the camera. The new system was designed to separate these false positives from observations of real planets....

Multiple studies have proven that technology, specifically social media, is detrimental to people’s mental wellbeing. However, tech is taking on some of the responsibility to help those struggling with their mental health. One project is the “Flow” app, developed by the Malmö-based medical device company, Flow Neuroscience. The chatbot therapist aims to help those struggling with their mental health while they wait to be seen by a medical professional. The free app, which is currently available on iOS — set to launch on Android within the month — engages users in daily conversations to offer self-help techniques, mood tracking features, curated videos to better visualize mental health, and meditation and mental exercises....

The company wants to create supercapacitors that will use cellulose nanofibers, which are produced from wood-derived pulp, and refined to the size of hundredths of a micron or smaller. As per Nippon Paper, such supercapacitors could potentially store and release energy with better performance and smaller environmental impact, compared to existing batteries. Well, on the one hand it’s true that supercapacitors have been already considered as a viable alternative to lithium-ion batteries....

Despite things going as smoothly as in Apple’s wildest dreams most users still have a pressing question: do their favorite apps work on Apple Silicon yet? Thankfully, the beautiful genius that is Abdullah Diaa has put together a website to answer that query. So, everyone, please say hello to Is Apple silicon ready? The idea behind the site is simple: it shows you if specific apps will work on laptops and desktops with Apple’s in-house chip....

In Wordle, players have six tries to guess a target five-letter word. Every time they make a guess, they are told which letters in their guess are in the word and in the correct position (green), and which letters are in it but in a different position (yellow). It’s sort of like the board game Mastermind but with a key difference. In Mastermind, all six colors were equally likely to appear in the target....

That might change soon. A hands-on video leaked last week suggests Google might be working on an Android version for feature phones. The video shows Google apps such as Maps, Assistant, and Chrome in action on what looks like a Nokia phone, running a modified version of Android 8.1 Oreo. This all-too-short description for a Vimeo video demonstrating the OS, from a user we haven’t encountered in previous coverage about phone tech leaks, mentions that Google might spill more beans on this new version at its Pixel event on October 15....

Laurel Trainor is the director of the McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind and plays principal flute in the Burlington Symphony Orchestra. Her research examines how music is processed in the brain, how musicians co-ordinate non-verbally and the role music plays in early development from multiple perspectives including perceptual, cognitive, social and emotional development. Dan Bosnyak’s research studies neural plasticity in the human auditory system, in particular the neural correlates of tinnitus and peripheral hearing loss....