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Police in the Philippines have arrested 277 Chinese nationals following a tip-off from the Chinese authorities. The suspects are thought to be connected to a cryptocurrency scam primarily targeting investors based in China, a local news outlet reports. A 19-year-old hacker suspected of stealing music from award-winning artists to sell on for cryptocurrency has been apprehended. The teenager has been arrested on suspicion of copyright and computer misuse offenses, according to a City of London Police statement....

Prior to the launch of the Model Y, Tesla said that it would effectively mirror the pricing structure of its Model 3 sedan. The only difference would be a price bump of around $5,000 at each spec level. However, that’s not going to be the case as Musk says the range of a more affordable “standard range” Model Y would be “too low,” Electrek reports. [Read: Honda to buy a tiny stake in EV battery company that also supplies Tesla] In case you were wondering, Musk’s idea of “too low,” is below 250 miles (around 400 km)....

So, I spent the last few weeks collecting unique project ideas for any Python developer. These project ideas will hopefully bring back your interest in this amazing language. The best part is you can enhance your Python programming skills with these fun but challenging projects. [Read: Are EVs too expensive? Here are 5 common myths, debunked] Let’s have a look at them one-by-one: Create a software GUI using voice commands These days, massive progress has been made in the field of desktop application development....

For years, Microsoft has tried to stave off Chrome OS’ increasing presence in education. Chromebooks are cheap, reliable, and relatively easy to deploy in an educational environment. Despite Windows’ long history (or perhaps because of it), Chromebooks have been steadily growing in popularity in the few short years they’ve been available. Chrome OS actually surpassed mac OS in market share this year for the first time, and it’s showing no sign of slowing down....

And then I tried the Boox Note Air. It does almost everything a Kindle Oasis does, but it also supports a surprisingly useful stylus and has a giant 10.3-inch screen. At $480, it’s pricey, but the price feels totally fair given the screen size and features on offer (and the company just announced a smaller, $350 7.8-inch model). I kind of love it. The best way to summarize the Boox Note Air is that it’s really just an Android tablet with an e-ink screen and a book-centric UI....

In the U.S., violent crime has declined by more than half over the past quarter-century. Property crime has declined at an even greater rate. Even in those countries that have relatively high crime rates, crime is decreasing. In the Americas, Europe, and Asia, many crimes, including intentional homicides, have declined or remained flat. Only in Africa, where poorer countries may not have sufficient resources to invest in law enforcement, are researchers seeing an increase in certain crimes....

In short, the IRS has firmed its stance that cryptocurrency should be taxed under the same rules as any other property or capital gains. There’s nothing new here in that respect. As cryptocurrency policy think tank Coin Center states, there are some good things to come of this update, but there are some bad, too. It also raises some questions, which suggests the IRS still doesn’t “get” cryptocurrency. What’s up with the new guidance?...

Missing us already? We’ll be back sooner than you think. The next edition of the TNW Conference will take place on June 16 & 17, 2022. The first ticket buyers can grab 2 tickets for the price of 1! Snag your discount while it’s not too late!

Earlier this week, the Anglo-Germanic marque unveiled its Urbanaut concept. To put it bluntly, it’s a Mini van… I’ll see myself out. Seriously though, Mini’s Urbanaut represents a totally new direction for the brand and on the surface is decidedly un-Mini. Let’s not spend too much time analyzing its appearance, because well, it follows the futuristic standard of smooth lines, lots of glass, and wheels that would be a nightmare to keep clean....

The device scores a 1 out of 10 on iFixit’s repairability scoreboard. The only product I can think of that’s scored worse is the original Surface Laptop, which scored a zero. (the most recent revision brought that score all the way back up to a 5). For comparison, the iPhone 11 Pro Max scores a 6, and even the Galaxy Fold scored a 2. iFixit blames the copious use of glue, needing to remove two separate batteries instead of the usual single one, and general complex construction for the difficulties of opening the device....

This is obviously interesting news in itself, but the biggest update all revolves around the design of the new macOS. Having watched the keynote, there’s no doubt that with Big Sur, Apple is bringing macOS ever closer to iOS and iPadOS. One of the most obvious updates has been the redesign of many of Apple’s famous icons, including things like Finder and Garageband. Another change is going to be the dock, which has had a subtle update....

To give a short introduction, the Nuraphone are an odd-looking pair of headphones that adapt the sound they produce based on your own hearing. It’s really fucking cool — and if you’re looking for more information on them on that front, I suggest you read this detailed and descriptive review from my colleague, Napier. This piece is slightly different to that. Instead of a review, it’s about my journey with these strange, weird headphones, and how I’ve come to love them...

It’s unsurprisingly OnePlus’ most expensive phone, coming in at $840, compared to a starting price of $669 for the regular OnePlus 7 Pro. But that price needs context; it’s the cheapest 5G flagship yet. The LG V50 5G, for example, costs $999, while the Galaxy S10 5G starts at $1,299. Sprint doesn’t specify the specifications of its 7 Pro variant, but we’ve contacted OnePlus for more information. It’s also worth noting this is the first OnePlus device that is actually supported on Sprint – the phone has previously been limited to GSM networks (primarily T-Mobile and AT&T in the US) and Verizon....

Chancellor Rishi Sunak today announced a new task force that will explore the value of a CBDC, which would be issued by the Bank of England and used by households and businesses. It would exist alongside cash and bank deposits, rather than replace them. Sunak (jokingly?) suggested the digital currency could be called “Britcoin.” Urgh. — Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) April 19, 2021 In a statement, the Bank of England said the task force will assess the objectives, use cases, opportunities, risks, and design features of a CBDC....

As of yesterday, there are now 40,181 charging connectors spread across 14,947 locations, according to Zap-Map, a UK-based online vehicle charging point locator. Credit: Zap-Map.com There’s good news and less good news. The less good news – while it’s promising that more locations are coming online,the geographical distribution of charging points strongly favors the country’s metropolitan capital, London. Credit: Zap-Map.com The good news – the numbers are encouraging. If we compare them with the stats in January, connectors have increased by 33%, and locations by 39%....

Yeah, I don’t know where to start either. But let’s try. The plans show a cryptocurrency mining farm, swimming pools, shopping mall, food court, and a spa all wrapped around each other, blurring the lines between form and true function. The idea is to create an off-grid, glass-encased water park that secretly mines cryptocurrency all day, every day, all year long. The plans have been proposed in response to US sanctions being placed on Iran and were submitted to this year’s eVolo architecture magazine skyscraper competition, Design Boom reports....

Researchers modeled three forms of exoplanets, each with varying amounts of dust in their atmosphere. The study found that dusty atmospheric conditions could insulate a planet, increasing the range of distances at which life could form, making the development of life more likely on these planets, if the planet is close enough to its parent star. Planets which orbit close to cool, red stars (known as red dwarfs or M-dwarfs) are likely to be tidally-locked to their stars — a single face of these worlds would permanently face the star just as one side of the moon always faces Earth....

With Apple and Tesla’s most recent stock splits, the phenomenon is getting a bad rep as a way to artificially create shareholder value, not attributed to actual company growth, or shrinkage of the amount of outstanding shares by way of share buybacks from the company itself. Now, a bunch of fintech services allow for buying fractional shares, making it easier to jump into highly priced stocks. Also, you could get access to high-priced stocks nowadays by buying into ETFs, baskets of different securities, which tend to have accessible share prices....

In the world of cybersecurity, no one is safe. Last month, facial recognition app maker Clearview AI had its entire client list stolen in a breach, during which an intruder was able to gain access to a list of the company’s customers, as well as the number of accounts those customers used plus the number of searches they executed. In short, the intruder hit pay dirt, and Clearview was sent reeling....

Thankfully, a new AI tool can make even crappy snappers look like Mario Testino. Okay, that’s a slight exaggeration. But it does an impressive job of giving fuzzy portraits a creepy, HD makeover. The tool was developed by Duke University researchers as a new approach to photo correction. It works by searching through AI-generated images of HD faces until it finds ones that look like the input image when compressed to the same size....