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At this time, like everyone else, we’re thinking about the health of our employees and their families and communities, and how that changes how we work together to help reduce the spread of infection. Like many companies, we currently have teammates working remotely who would ordinarily be in an office together. We’re also often asked how we use Slack at Slack, so this seems like a good opportunity to share what we’ve learnt about how remote work shifts the way we use our product....

Only 9 percent of Russian netizens prefer sticking to exclusively legal content, according to data from security firm ESET reviewed by TorrentFreak. While the number seemingly suggests that the remaining 91 percent resort to piracy, the survey makes no mention of “dual buyers” — people who pirate content, but also occasionally pay for it. Indeed, studies have previously shown that some pirates often convert to legitimate paying customers. So piracy doesn’t always end up affecting sales negatively, from that point of view at least....

We’ve danced around the subject of killer robots in the previous four editions in this series, but it’s time to look the machines in their beady red eyes and… speculate. First things first: the reason why we haven’t covered ‘killer robots’ in this series so far is because it’s an incredibly unlikely doomsday scenario. The seminal film about killer robots, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, paints the vivid picture of a global AI takeover involving armies of killer robots hunting humans down like vermin and eradicating them on sight....

The company announced on Twitter that it’s making a comeback with an iOS app. But before we get into that, let’s take a look at the brief history of the social network. How did it start? Tyler Droll and Brooks Buffington, graduates of Furman University, South Carolina started this project as a hobby. In 2013, they officially released the app that let you create anonymous threads called “Yaks.” Users within five miles of the created Yak could participate in the discussion participate in the discussion....

Yes, I know, I’m not a kid anymore. Yes, I’m terrifyingly close to my 30s. And yes, THIS MINIATURE DRIVABLE REPLICA OF A JAMES BOND CAR MUST BE MINE. Some history and context. In 2020, the folks at the Little Car Company teamed up with Aston Martin and the 007 brand to create two children’s replicas of the spy’s cars: the DB5 Junior and the DB5 Vantage Junior. These were fine and all, but my soul was stirred by the special edition, which was revealed on Tuesday to celebrate James Bond’s upcoming movie....

Yes, I am a man in love with a router: the Nighthawk RAX120. Let me spin you a tale. Back in the day, home networks were my shit. I scrimped and saved to get new routers, forced housemates to go halves on networking equipment they neither wanted nor needed, and spent a long time ensuring everything was seamless. Your boy had a remotely accessible media library back when internet speeds made that useless....

Some universities have reported more cheating during the pandemic, and such concerns are unfolding in a climate where technologies that allow for the automation of writing continue to improve. Over the past two years, the ability of artificial intelligence to generate writing has leaped forward significantly, particularly with the development of what’s known as the language generator GPT-3. With this, companies such as Google, Microsoft, and NVIDIA can now produce “human-like” text....

“Today, I must confirm that we are reducing the size of the Airbnb workforce,” Chesky wrote. “Out of our 7,500 Airbnb employees, nearly 1,900 teammates will have to leave Airbnb, comprising around 25% of our company. Since we cannot afford to do everything that we used to, these cuts had to be mapped to a more focused business.” Chesky explained the decision has to do with a sharp decline in revenue, which is forecasted to be less than half of what the company earned in 2019....

You’ll be hard pressed to find one with a gear stick. Why, you ask? Because EVs simply don’t need more than a single gear. I know, a stick shift car feels empowering, so why haven’t automakers thought about a “best-of-both-words” solution and put one in an EV? Oh wait, they have. Kinda. Toyota’s idea Yep, the carmaker is flirting with manual transmission and a clutch for… EVs?! At least that’s the info we got from a series of patents filed to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and unearthed by BZ Forums....

As noted by the Economic Times, after Wednesday’s notification to allow non-essential deliveries, several retail bodies lobbied for its retraction. After Sunday’s clarification, the commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal tweeted that this decision will create a ‘level-playing field’ for small retailers. States must ensure smooth movement of the entire supply chain of essential goods, including by e-Commerce#IndiaFightsCOVID19 Details: https://t.co/HUl20aNFPu pic.twitter.com/BgsE1bMGyU — PIB India #StayHome #StaySafe (@PIB_India) April 19, 2020 Earlier this week, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the extension of lockdown until May 3 to curb the coronavirus spread....

[Read: TikTok now gives you one-tap access to streaming app Resso] In a statement, the company said that customers have been telling the company that they would like to order prepared meals for a while: However, the pandemic has hit food delivery services hard. According to reports, the number of orders has dropped from around 3 million per day to 1 million per day for Zomato and Swiggy both. Earlier this month, Zomoto laid off 520 people — 13% of its workforce....

His post opens: What with big-tech salaries and share vestings, this will probably cost me over a million (pre-tax) dollars, not to mention the best job I’ve ever had, working with awfully good people. So I’m pretty blue. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, scared warehouse workers wondered if the company was doing enough to protect them. Bray writes: Management could have objected to the event, or demanded that outsiders be excluded, or that leadership be represented, or any number of other things; there was plenty of time....

On one hand, the news comes as a surprise, considering it was just in October the company announced it was working on a “radically different” smartphone dubbed Project GEM. The slim, candybar-shaped device was a nice change of pace from the typical phone slab, and if build quality held up to the original Essential Phone’s it could’ve offered something unique in a homogenized smartphone market. Taking a broader perspective, however, the company’s demise shouldn’t come as a shock....

Titled “Display System Having Sensors,” the patent filing — first reported by Variety — shows that the company intends to combine these inputs for a system “that provides 3D virtual views of a user’s environment augmented with virtual content.” The application was filed with the US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) on March 21, 2019. It was published last week on July 18. The proposed system could have hand sensors, “head pose sensors” that can capture information about the user’s position, orientation, and motion in the environment, “eyebrow sensors” to track expressions of the user’s eyebrows, and “lower jaw sensors” to track movement of the mouth and jaw....

Apple is currently offering one year’s subscription for free if you buy a new iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV. Plus, you can share the subscription with up to six family members at no extra cost. Apple Music currently costs $10 per month. So I expect the bundle might cost something like $12-$13 – but we don’t have an indication from the company on price yet. Also, as we’ve said earlier, the company can really go for the kill by also throwing in an Apple Arcade subscription and some iCloud storage in this package to sweeten the deal....

According to a report from Bloomberg, Apple is “considering” allowing users to set rival apps to be the default for web browsing and mail in the imminent iOS 14. Apple’s in-house apps are always set as the default in whatever activity you’re using your phone for. That’s not just the email and browser — as far as I know, there’s no way to change Apple Maps from being the default maps app....

However, it wants developers to get started on the platform, so they can port their apps quickly. So, the company is relating a developer transition kit (DTK) in the form of a refurbished Mac Mini. This Mac Mini will run a special A12Z bionic chip with desktop level architecture, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a variety of Mac I/O ports. Developers will have to sign up for a Universal App Quick Start Program to start working on the ARM version of their apps....

The company says this is because it’s confirmed there are “charging issues” with the X series battery cases — namely, that it doesn’t charge. Either the case won’t consistently charge when plugged in, or it won’t charge the phone. If you have either of those issues. Troubleshooting posts detailing users’ problems with this have been cropping up ever since the cases launched. According to Apple, the affected units were made between January and October last year....

First reported on by Apple Insider, Apple updated Siri so it now responds to the phrase “all lives matter” in a new way. When you say it to the digital assistant, you’re confronted with this: In case you have an issue reading the image, it says: “‘All Lives Matter’ is often used in response to the phrase ‘Black Lives Matter’, but it does not represent the same concerns. To learn more about the Black Lives Matter human rights movement, visit BlackLivesMatter....

First, it’s important to distinguish between augmented reality and virtual reality. Virtual reality is an almost wholly-digital experience that requires special hardware to immerse yourself in a new environment. Augmented reality is a combination of the digital and physical worlds, where the former is often “layered” over the latter. If you’ve used custom Snapchat filters or played Pokemon Go, you’ve already tried AR without even realizing it. But the great thing about AR is that it doesn’t require buying new hardware....