Month: July 2024

In the UK, the average fridge temperature is 7C; at between 0C and 5C milk would last for three more days. Photograph: Oppenheim Bernhard/Getty Images Most of us feel guilty about wasting food – and the stats are hard to swallow. Roughly one-third of the world’s food is thrown away every year – that’s approximately…

CLOSE It’s going to get more expensive to open up a new credit card. USA TODAYFewer Americans are using cash in a normal week.(Photo: Getty Images)Financial innovation has changed so much that we’re all paying for our favorite new smartphone apps from the comfort of our homes at 2 a.m. and using bitcoins transferred from our…

Admit it: you need to get some wireless headphones. With the technology getting so good and with headphone jacks disappearing, it just makes sense to invest in a future without wires if like listening to music or watching videos or just making the outside world less loud. How you use your headphones ought to inform…

This year we returned to Shenzhen, the Chinese city known as the world’s “Silicon Valley for hardware,” for an event that was packed full of future-looking discussions, innovative startups, experienced founders, VCs and more. We love Shenzhen. Sure, Beijing has Zhongguancun and Shanghai has its international and diverse entrepreneurial community. But Shenzhen has a certain…

When the internet first entered public consciousness in the early 1990s, a prominent media entrepreneur described it as a “sit up” rather than a “lean back” medium. What she meant was that it was quite different from TV, which encouraged passive consumption by a species of human known universally as the couch potato. The internet,…

The skills needed for cybersecurity jobs aren’t easy to learn in the classroom.By Josephine WolffMs. Wolff is an assistant professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology.Nov. 14, 2018ImageQuinn Galla working in the command center of Edgeworth Security, outside of Pittsburgh.CreditCreditRoss Mantle for The New York TimesBetween September 2017 and August 2018, employers in the United…

Artificial intelligence mastered a lot of tasks in 2018. There are algorithms that win human debates, book dinners, eliminate checkout lines, tend gardens, spot plumbing leaks, and call for help when we trip and fall. But the machines aren’t completely taking over just yet. There’s at least one thing we’re sure even the savviest silicone…

A 360-degree view of the customer: It’s seen as the holy grail of marketing. But the reality is that with the technology most companies are using today, it’s almost impossible to achieve. And if you can get it, chances are this legendary 360-degree view is a snapshot in time that may or may not reflect…

Julia Freeland Fisher, Opinion contributor Published 7:00 a.m. ET Nov. 28, 2018 Healthy development and access to opportunity both hinge on relationships — and it turns out technology can help.At Willis Junior High school in Chandler, Ariz. on Dec. 19, 2012.(Photo: Michael Schennum/USA TODAY Network)In 2018, screen time and bad parenting are practically becoming synonyms.…

“I THINK I got it,” says Alekos Simoni with a grin, returning an electronic fly zapper called “The Executioner” to a nearby metal shelf. With a deft flick of his wrist he has done away with a genetically modified mosquito that was making a bid for freedom. There are many levels of containment to ensure…

If we fail, it won’t be just the president’s fault.By John KerryMr. Kerry was the secretary of state from 2013 to 2017.Dec. 13, 2018ImageCreditCreditSally DengThis week is the third anniversary of the Paris climate agreement. The Trump administration marked it by working with Russia and Gulf oil nations to sideline science and undermine the accord…

Most people experience an eerie sensation when they meet natural-looking artificial beings, especially humanoid robots. This is the “Uncanny Valley” effect, the psychological reaction of unease and apprehension upon encountering hyper-realistic replicas or automata. Affinity increases with verisimilitude, but positive feelings drop off steeply as the entity approaches being indistinguishable from reality. Anxiety rises when…

ImageThe visionary conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, who long said he wanted to concentrate on composing, will be the next music director of the San Francisco Symphony.CreditCreditPeter Prato for The New York TimesSAN FRANCISCO — He never said never.For years, orchestras have courted the visionary conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen. Critics have frequently put his name at the top…

Good news for fans of getting stuff fast—all of us, then—because a new version of wifi is just around the corner. Wi-Fi 6 is going to be better than current wifi in every regard, and the body behind it just published a paper extolling its virtues, emphasizing that, yes, we will still need good old…

Eeyore is one of the many Disney characters to appear in the reference-heavy film. Disney “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” the sequel to Disney’s 2012 hit, “Wreck-It Ralph,” which hits theaters Wednesday, is worthy of the original according to critics. Critics are impressed with its clever examination of internet culture, saying that it “connects to our…

New York TodayImageWomen make up only 22 percent of New York’s City Council.CreditCreditHolly Pickett for The New York TimesWeather: Chilly and clear, high of 39. Likewise tomorrow, then a chance of flurries Thursday.Alternate-side parking: in effect till Christmas.‘Gender equity’ on the City CouncilIn politics, 2018 has been called the Year of the Woman.Nationwide, more women…

CLOSE Deepak Chopra is teaming up with Alexa to give ‘Daily Reflections’ to help you start your day relaxed and focused. USA TODAY 11/28/18 5:45:33 PM — New York, NY, U.S.A — Deepak Chopra — Photo by Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY Staff(Photo: Robert Deutsch, USAT) If you ask Deepak Chopra what the world needs, you…

5G will change our lives … eventually.  James Martin/CNET Do you want to know what 5G is going to look like? Qualcomm just went all-in on how next-generation wireless technology will take shape when it debuts next year. The maker of mobile chips, best known for the powerful processors that serve as the brains of high-profile…

While loneliness is experienced by all ages, it’s especially pronounced in older people. In the UK, 51 percent of all people aged 75 and over live alone and approximately 6 percent of older adults leave their house once a week or less. An increasing proportion of these older adults live in rural areas. In an age when…

Bicycling This Walmart tech executive shares his passion for mountain biking, and what it’s taught him. Image credit: Courtesy of Jeremy King Jeremy King Guest Writer Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Walmart November 30, 2018 9 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Wheels up at 6 a.m.: That’s the only…

When Lily Eftetahi arrived in Greece three years ago as a refugee from Iran, she spoke neither Greek nor English. She had countless questions about how to start a new life as a refugee, but wasn’t sure who to ask for accurate answers.  That changed when she discovered Refugee.Info, a set of digital resources for…

VideoBritain’s prime minister, Theresa May, announced that she reached a deal with cabinet members to move forward with a plan to exit the European Union.Published OnNov. 14, 2018CreditCreditJack Taylor/Getty ImagesLONDON — Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain faced down hard-line critics Wednesday and won the support of a jittery and divided cabinet for a plan…

Bob O’Donnell, Special for USA TODAY Published 5:14 a.m. ET Dec. 27, 2018 A monochromatic bird’s-eye view of a city with multiple connected wireless points(Photo: GETTY IMAGES)MAUI, Hawaii—After a relatively ho-hum 2018 for mobile phones, 2019 is looking to be gangbuster year for smartphones and the whole wireless industry.In addition to the launch of foldable…

Image copyright Dengeki Online Image caption Virtual YouTubers are animated characters, often anonymously controlled by human users A different kind of internet celebrity is emerging; virtual characters that talk on YouTube or pose on Instagram like living, breathing people. Is this the dawn of a new breed of star?Kizuna AI has 2.3 million YouTube followers.…

In meetings and retreats, chastened menfolk are working stuff out.ImageThis won’t hurt a bit: A member of the ManKind Project is invited to explore his emotions with the help of others at a weekly meeting in Midtown Manhattan.CreditCreditCasey Kelbaugh for The New York TimesOn a Monday night in a sparsely decorated room in Midtown Manhattan,…

AT&T CTO Andre Fuetsch speaks of the company’s 5G plans in September. Stephen Shankland/CNET If you live in one of a dozen US cities, you can tap into AT&T’s 5G network this week.The carrier, locked in a race with Verizon and other network operators to move to the next-gen wireless technology as fast as possible,…

(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.) Good evening. Here’s the latest.ImageCreditPool photo by Alexei Druzhinin1. Russian efforts to sway the 2016 U.S. election included an extraordinary effort to target black Americans and suppress turnout among Democratic voters, according to a new report commissioned by the Senate.The report also argued that the…

Disruptive innovations won’t produce a better society unless we work to contain their harms and spread their benefits. Nov 25, 2018 Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Zuckerberg at the joint Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees hearing on the company’s protection of user dataLeah Millis / Reuters The arc of innovative progress has reached an…

When the anime movie Ghost in the Shell was released in 1995, the world wide web was still little more than a novelty, Microsoft was just beginning to find its GUI-feet, and artificial intelligence research was in the doldrums. Against this background, Ghost was remarkably prescient for its time. Twenty-three years later, it’s even more…

As this particularly trying year mercifully draws to a close, we have only one thing to say to 2018: Thank you, next.  To celebrate the conclusion of the year, we’re rounding up the 10 best Mashable Shop deals on gadgets from 2018, all of which you can still snag for the next few days only.…

There are few things certain in our world except for the uplifting tendencies of technology. I’ve spent the past few years trying to prove this to myself, at least, by interviewing hundreds of thinkers on the topic. I’ve come to a singular conclusion: when tech moves into a city, be it an iOS dev shop…

Vaping is a popular activity, one that has a real a 21st-century twist to it. The technology behind vaping is relatively new. The consequences of doing it are mysterious and potentially very dangerous. And yet, vaping seems better than what people in the 20th century did to their bodies—namely smoking cigarettes. If you’re doing that…