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The tech world can’t stop talking about Spotify — but it doesn’t seem like the streaming giant is actually listening. For the uninitiated, Neil Young and others have removed their music from Spotify, because they believe Rogan’s podcast — something consumed by millions — contains vaccine misinformation. You can read about the saga here. The streaming service responded with a blog post saying it will publish its platform rules, and a COVID-19 hub containing globally verified information about the pandemic....

First, let’s get the obvious out of the way for those who are worried: if you already own Alpha Protocol on Steam, you’re good. You can still download the game and play it when you like. It’s just no longer available for new customers to buy, which is a pity and a reminder of the impermanence of digital game storefronts. It joins the Telltale library in its departure, though at least in this case no one’s charging $700 for it in an attempt to subvert a store glitch....

A few weeks ago I got an invite to try Hey.com. It’s a new email app made by 37signals, and I got in early enough to register [email protected] The beginnings were great. I was on top of my email and figured that this could be the tool to help me manage my inbox better — or so I thought… It’s been a few weeks now and I have 16 drafts open, too many emails to even know where to start, and a general feeling of anxiety before I even open the app....

You can probably guess that since I’m writing this, unfortunately, most people haven’t. Online and even among cyber security professionals, it’s still a common thought process. “What’s wrong with believing employees are the weak point?”, you might ask. Given the ever-increasing frequency data breaches – with human error often being either a cause or catalyst in the majority of cases – you’d be forgiven for thinking that employees are naturally at fault....

But there’s one thing most of us will probably have more of: time. And that’s what TNW’s 2020 gift guide is focusing on. Yes, we’ve picked out a whole load of awesome things to give people, but this year we’ve also focused on some gifts you can actually get yourself. Specifically, items that can help you fill some of the extra time you’ll have over the next few months. Anyway, enough of the “cool gift guides” babble — let’s get right into it....

In an attempt to make inner city residential communities more liveable, councils began introducing low-traffic neighborhoods. Low-traffic neighborhoods seek to make roads a safer place for all, by limiting the volume of cars allowed on certain residential roads, and improving support for more vulnerable road users like pedestrians and cyclists. According to a study of London’s Waltham Forest area, researchers found that low-traffic neighborhoods make the roads safer not just for pedestrians, but also cyclists, and drivers....

The study explored how humans will interact with machines in future social situations — such as self-driving cars that they encounter on the road — by asking participants to play a series of social dilemma games. The participants were told that they were interacting with either another human or an AI agent. Per the study paper: The researchers then compared what the participants chose to do when interacting with AI or anonymous humans....

But do people in modern societies really follow the teaching of this principle, especially when there are financial consequences to their actions? Our research brought this question into the laboratory and set out to answer it with a simple game of bargaining. We invited 300 people to the laboratory at the Center for Experimental Economics at the University of York to make a series of decisions regarding the split of a fixed amount of money between themselves and another anonymous person in the room....

Yamaha, Piaggio, Honda, and KTM have all reportedly signed an agreement to work together on the technology for motorbikes and light vehicles. The agreement sees the companies form a consortium, which is open to other manufacturers to join. So if you’re from or know someone who works at BMW Motorrad, Ducati, Harley-Davidson, or any other motorbike manufacturer, politely, please can you get on board with this? Kawaski and Suzuki were reportedly part of a similar deal which was discussed last April, however, those two brands appear to have been swapped (ahem) for Piaggio and KTM....

But a Swedish startup is here to take away your pain: Sesamy. It’s the brainchild of the people behind Acast, the world’s largest podcasting platform. Simply put, Sesamy enables you to purchase single audiobooks, ebooks, and podcasts without needing a subscription. So far, the Stockholm-based company has partnered with every major book publisher in Sweden and Denmark to offer users the option to purchase digital content as a single purchase....

We’ve seen smartwatches geared toward athletes. We’re even seeing them now tailored to doctors and other medical professionals. So it’s no surprise that the market for specialized wearables is growing to include all kinds of different niche groups. Like musicians. Yep, there’s now a smartwatch made especially for musicians. And the Soundbrenner Pulse SmartWatch for Musicians is an absolute ninja if you live in a world of music. Soundbrenner’s debut product, the Pulse isn’t so much a smartwatch as it is the world’s first wearable metronome....

CNET’s Jessica Dolcourt got a chance to check out a prototype of TCL’s latest venture, which features two of the company’s DragonHinges to morph into a 10-inch tablet when unfolded: One folds in, and the other folds out. With two hinges, the device will naturally be pretty thick, but at least it’ll feel like a normal phone with a usable tall screen on the front, and a quad camera array on the rear....

Despite the global chip shortage, Tesla delivered a record-breaking 184,877 cars in the quarter, beating the mark of 180,570 set in Q4 2020. This number was also much higher than the analyst expectation of 177,822 vehicle deliveries. The firm also edged past Wall Street predictions of earnings per share (EPS) of $0.86 by registering $0.93 EPS in its balance sheet. While the company’s share prices were up by 1.21% at the close, it dipped 2% in after-hours trading....

Late last night, at around 2330 CET (1730 EST) Tesla’s share price jumped to $554. This bumped the company’s overall market capitalization to over $100 billion. [Read: Tesla says there’s no unintended acceleration in its vehicles, blames short seller] Tesla’s valuation far outranks other publicly traded US carmakers like General Motors and Ford. At the time of writing, General Motors market cap is around $49 billion, while Ford’s is just over $36 billion....

We’re still a long way away from that — but companies are edging ever closer. There are prime examples, both approaching the challenge in very different ways. The first is Tesla, with its beta-testing of Level 2 driver-assist tech that aims to progress to full vehicle automation. The second is a group of companies involved in the development and deployment of autonomous robotaxis. But how do they compare? And how do we get from here to a fully autonomous future?...

I should’ve paid attention. For all of Musk’s quirks, I didn’t expect him to roll out a low-poly PS1-looking batmobile last night. How is Tesla actually going to sell this to normal people? Well, probably the same way Apple managed to make AirPods a thing. Admittedly, part of me digs the look in a that-would-be-cool-in-a-movie type of way, but appreciating an aesthetic in a certain context is very different from thinking “people will actually buy this....

Researchers from security firm Proofpoint have spotted a new phishing campaign which sends out fake HIV test results to lure recipients into loading a malicious Microsoft Excel file. To seem more credible, the attackers also pose as the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Ironically, the campaign spells Vanderbilt wrong (“Vanderbit”). [Read: Scientists need your computing power to find a cure for coronavirus] Once downloaded the infected Excel document asks users to enable macros, which “allows the actor [to install another piece of malware] to take complete control over a user’s system....

Considering every startup confronts this question at some point, I was surprised by how little has been written about it. Particularly anything actionable. So I decided to do my own digging. I spent the past month personally reaching out to founders, scouring interviews, and tapping the Twitterverse. Below, you’ll find first-hand accounts of how essentially every major consumer app acquired their earliest users, including lessons from Tinder, Uber, Superhuman, TikTok, Product Hunt, Netflix, and many more....

This modular, extensible machine is strongly reminiscent of the Power Mac G5 (remember that?) and is easily the most powerful Apple computer money (can’t yet) buy. This machine, which boasts tremendous CPU and graphical capabilities, is available as a desktop computer, as well as in a rack-mounted option. Interestingly, it is also the first rack-mounted computer available from Apple since January 31, 2011, when it discontinued the Xserve. And while they both enjoy similar form-factors, the two can’t be more different....

There has since been a huge amount of research trying to work out why this has happened. Are workers quitting work entirely, as the pandemic makes us reevaluate our priorities? Or are they quitting to pursue their dreams in a different career? We’ve been looking at to what extent this great resignation narrative holds true in the UK using data from the Labour Force Survey by the Office for National Statistics....