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If you’ve already got some background using Microsoft Excel, congratulations — you’re among 800,000 people worldwide using the planet’s most robust data analysis tool. Of course, just because 800,000 people have it and have used it doesn’t mean they know how to use it well. After 40 years in the data game, Excel users have developed tricks on top of tricks to help accomplish virtually every numbers-driven task that could ever be done....

When it launched Fortnite on mobile back in 2018, Epic said it would only offer the game directly from its own website. According to CEO Tim Sweeney, the company doesn’t approve of Google taking 30% from sales made via its platform. It has held out until now, but now seems to have finally given in and joined the Play Store with its figurative teeth clenched. Read: Who the heck bought the $1,900 Death Stranding jacket?...

Ugh. Yep, you might soon feel your phone vibrate, pull it out your pocket, and find an advert for some piece of shit there. This story was first reported in 9to5Mac and, basically, it means that app developers will be able to send push notifications for “direct marketing purposes.” God, this is depressing me just writing about it. [SLAP YOUR PEEPERS ON THIS: Your gadgets are likely made in Chinese forced labor camps] Read the full section from the App Store guidelines there: Push Notifications must not be required for the app to function, and should not be used to send sensitive personal or confidential information....

Let’s get straight to it. This article will cover everything you need to communicate over the web effectively — this includes: – Application Program Interfaces (APIs) – JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) – Requests with Python – Real world use-cases This magical box is simply a script kept on a server. It acts as a gatekeeper — we tell the gatekeeper that we would like to know, change, or delete something, and the gatekeeper will (hopefully) perform the action we request and let us know how it went....

The game is called The Revolution of Our Times and it apparently was a game documenting the life of a Hong Kong resident as they become more involved in the events leading up to the protests as they exist today. It also had microtransactions of $0.99 and $1.99. According to the Wall Street Journal, it was removed for violating Google’s rules about games concerning current events. Google joins the likes of Apple, which removed HKMaps....

Gebru’s controversial exit sparked an outcry about diversity and ethics at the company that shows no signs of abating. The influential computer scientist lost her job in December after a dispute over a research paper she co-authored. Pichai had tried to quell the outrage by apologizing for her departure causing staff “to question their place at Google.” [Read: How this company leveraged AI to become the Netflix of Finland] On Thursday at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting, he said the dispute had attracted so much attention due to Google’s high levels of transparency: Gebru chastised his comments in a series of tweets....

The company says that when you look for public transport options to reach a place on Google Maps, you’ll get alerts and set of requirements — such as if you need to wear a mask — to use these services from local authorities: Plus, you can also see how crowded public transit routes are based on the time of the day. Google Maps is also rolling out alerts for routes that might take you across the border such as the US-Canada or the US-Mexico checkpoint, so that you can prepare for COVID-19 restrictions laid out by that country....

In a blog post, the company explained the app now uses machine learning to offer automatic suggestions tailored to the specific photo you’re editing. The new feature aims to make your photos “pop” more and also comes with a user interface that lets you further tweak the AI’s suggestions manually. The bolstered editor, which resides in the Suggestions tab in Google Photos, currently supports only three modes, but the Mountain View giant promises more are coming in the future, including special options for “portraits, landscapes, sunsets....

The Mountain View giant announced it’s making its video conferencing service Google Meet free for everyone for the time being. The video call tool will gradually become available over the next few days, the company says. “Starting in early May, anyone with an email address can sign up for Meet and enjoy many of the same features available to our business and education users, such as simple scheduling and screen sharing, real-time captions, and layouts that adapt to your preference, including an expanded tiled view,” said G Suite VP Javier Soltero in a blog post....

Will Grannis, Managing Director of the Office of the CTO at Google Cloud, spoke with CUBE’s John Furrier earlier this month in an interview where he revealed the end of Google’s future involvement with fossil fuel extraction. As The Hill’s Alexandra Kelly reports, this move comes hot on the heels of a Greenpeace expose showing Google as one of the top three developers of AI and machine learning solutions for the fossil fuel industry....

Google announced today it’s rolling out a new machine learning-based language understanding technique called Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers, or BERT. BERT helps decipher your search queries based on the context of the language used, rather than individual words. According to Google, “when it comes to ranking results, BERT will help Search better understand one in 10 searches in the U.S. in English.” Most of us know that Google usually responds to words, rather than to phrases — and Google’s aware of it, too....

However, that might change soon. According to a new document obtained by XDA Developers, Google is now urging phone makers to play nice with USB-PD (Power Delivery), an open USB-C fast-charging standard. The report notes a new version of the Google Mobile Services — a list of requirements companies need to meet to get Android certification — states new devices with Android 10 should have “full interoperability” with standard USB-C chargers....

Yesterday, in a bid to get you off your phone, Google launched three new experimental apps as part of its ‘Digital Wellbeing Initiative’ — the company’s showcase of ideas and tools that help people find a better balance with technology.’ But Google, one of the world’s most advanced digital organizations, has a more notable solution to ridding you of your phone addiction than this: sealing it in an envelope. [Read: Apps are stealing your attention — here’s how to break up with your phone] All you have to do is download Envelope on the Play Store app, then print out the included PDF, and follow the instructions to shape it into a pouch....

The casino has been empty for the first six years of GTA Online‘s existence (side note: I feel old). The resort has since opened, and it’s a pretty swish place. Besides new missions and housing options, it also offers exactly the kinds of games you’d expect from a casino — blackjack, poker, slot machines, roulette, the whole nine yards. I’m sure the primary reason they added these games is because card-based gambling has been a big hit in Red Dead Online....

I’m talking about my boy the Blue Bomber, more famously known as Mega Man. I liked the 8-bit Mega Man games on the NES fine, but I was a bit too young for their insane difficulty and it wasn’t until I got Mega Man X for the Super Nintendo back in 1994 that I became obsessed with the series. Something about the 16-bit graphics, the new moves like the wall jump and the dash, and the music spoke to me in a way few other games did....

No, this isn’t the start to a bad joke, it’s a legitimate question. It’s also one that Finnish record breaker show Ennätystehdas (or The Record Factory) managed to answer. Whether you actually should charge your Tesla using captive cyclists is another question entirely, though. [Read: Engineer finds Tesla Model 3 is secretly equipped with hardware for powering homes] Given how little power the average cyclist generates compared to cars and how big Tesla batteries are, it should come as no surprise that you’d need a hell of a lot of cyclists to charge a Tesla at rates comparable to its supercharger network....

Hell, the combination of sifting through information and following all the leaks is almost like a soap opera. Apart from instead of the finale being some familial murder, it’s just some nerds getting excited. Anyway, we’ve put together a lovely video rounding up some of the most prevalent iPhone 12 rumors, something you can watch above. So, I dunno, go and do it? But… what if you aren’t a fan of watching videos?...

I’ll tell you what I want; what I really, really want: for you to read about which Spice Girls are the embodiment of your favorite Javascript frameworks. This is the content you didn’t know you needed. Posh Spice = Angular Showing others in the group how to do it Like Posh being the fashionista of the Spice Girls, Angular was the first in fashion, setting the bar for other JS frameworks....

If you read more closely, you’ll have learned that and users have until February 8 to read and agree to the new terms. Failure to do so would lead to WhatsApp deleting your account. Just to be clear, you can accept these terms again to revive your account. The app collects a lot of metadata related to the account such as the phone number, your profile picture, your usage patterns (features you use, groups you’ve joined, and status in the Story format), and device data....

There are so many sayings with the same basic message: quitting is bad. This idea is instilled in kids, internalized by adults, and generally just considered common sense. It’s also often wrong. I once had a job that, in retrospect, I should have quit earlier. I stuck around two years longer than made sense, all because I thought giving up would be a personal failure on my part. That was wrong....