Team

Wikimedia will launch a paid service for big tech companies

The Wikimedia Foundation is creating a new paid service for companies that draw on Wikipedia data. The foundation announced the news today via an article in Wired, and it’s planning to launch later in 2021. Wikimedia Enterprise, as it’s called, won’t change how current Wikipedia services work. Instead, it will offer new options for companies… Read more

Mars might be hiding most of its old water underground, scientists say

Vast amounts of ancient Martian water may have been buried beneath its surface instead of escaping into space, scientists report in the journal Science. The findings, published Tuesday, may help untangle a clash of theories seeking to explain the disappearance of Mars’ water, a resource that was abundant on the planet’s surface billions of years… Read more

Hackers stole NFTs from Nifty Gateway users

Over the weekend, some users of NFT marketplace Nifty Gateway said hackers stole digital artwork worth thousands of dollars from their accounts. Some people who were hacked also said their credit cards on file were used to purchase additional NFTs, also costing thousands of dollars, which were then transferred away to a hacker’s account. Nifty… Read more

Why game developers can’t get a handle on doors

Sometimes the simplest objects are the most difficult to design The best kind of door in a video game is the one no one remembers. Sure, everyone can appreciate a big, beautiful door with great animations, says Owlchemy Labs developer Pete Galbraith. But in a video game, doors are often synonymous with a massive design… Read more

Facebook’s next big AI project is training its machines on users’ public videos

Teaching AI systems to understand what’s happening in videos as completely as a human can is one of the hardest challenges — and biggest potential breakthroughs — in the world of machine learning. Today, Facebook announced a new initiative that it hopes will give it an edge in this consequential work: training its AI on… Read more

How modders rebuilt Resident Evil 4’s graphics from scratch

Albert Marin has taken some very specific vacations. In Wales, he visited Raglan Castle to snap pictures of its stone wall. At the Palau Güell in Barcelona, he took meticulous photos, not of the building itself, but of the marble floor and its unique veins. His trips followed in the steps of Capcom, which put… Read more

When games are hard on their hands, some players turn their voices into controllers

As both a software engineer and an avid player of strategy games, chaosparrot struggled to reckon with the damage his work and hobbies had done to his hands. By 2017, the consistent pain of his repetitive stress injuries was bad enough that he could no longer type comfortably or enjoy the games he loved to… Read more

McIntosh’s reference car audio system revealed in 2022 Jeep Grand Wagoneer

Home News (Image credit: McIntosh / Jeep) McIntosh has released details of its reference in-car audio system, which will feature in the 2022 Jeep Grand Wagoneer SUV, due in mid-2021. This is the latest fruits of the American hi-fi brand and car’s partnership (announced last September), following the launch of the McIntosh sound system inside… Read more

Facebook’s ‘culture fit’ is the focus of a discrimination complaint, report says

A Black woman who interviewed at Facebook last year says she was told the company was “looking for a culture fit” before being rejected, according to The Intercept. She’s now one of four people who’ve recently complained to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) about allegedly racist hiring and promotion practices at the tech giant…. Read more

Microsoft says the latest Xbox Series X update fixes controller disconnect issues

Microsoft released a new Xbox update earlier this week that brings toggles for Auto HDR and FPS Boost and improvements to better support the new Xbox Wireless Headset. But there was another big feature that wasn’t mentioned in the official release notes: the update also fixes “many” of the Xbox Series X controller disconnect issues… Read more

Control a Raspberry Pi RC Car Online With Surrogate’s New Project

Home News (Image credit: Surrogate) If you have a soft spot for RC cars, you’ll love this Raspberry Pi-controlled RC car project recently shared by the team at Surrogate. Not only does it use our favorite SBC, it can be controlled online using Surrogate’s custom SDK. The main project components are an RC truck, a… Read more

Lip-syncing app Wombo shows the messy, meme-laden potential of deepfakes

You’ve probably already seen a Wombo video floating around your social media. Maybe it was Ryu from Street Fighter singing the “Witch Doctor” or the last three heads of the US Federal Reserve miming in unison to Rick Astley’s “Never Going to Give You Up.” Each clip features exaggerated facial expressions and uncanny, sometimes nightmarish… Read more

Facebook is testing a way for creators to make money through Stories: sticker ads

Facebook introduced Stories to its platform four years ago, mostly as a way to encourage people to post content that wasn’t highly produced or necessarily photogenic. Now, it’s giving some users a chance to make money through that content. The company announced a test today that’ll allow some creators to place ads that look like… Read more

Relax with the calming sound of NASA’s Perseverance firing lasers on Mars

NASA has released an audio recording of its Perseverance rover firing lasers on the martian surface. The strikes, which sound like a series of small clicks, are designed to help scientists analyze the rocks around the rover. In this case the target was a rock called “Máaz,” which scientists were able to discover was basaltic,… Read more

Compact cassette tape inventor Lou Ottens has died aged 94

Home News (Image credit: Laura Balbarde at Pexels) As reported by Dutch publication NRC Handelsblad, the inventor of the compact cassette tape, Lou Ottens has died aged 94. Ottens began working at Philips in 1952 and became the head of product development for the company’s Hasselt division in 1960. Here, he started his journey to… Read more