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Tech Update!

February 25, 2021

Tech Update

ARCHIVE October2020

Not finding life on Venus would be disappointing. But it’s good science at work.

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Last month’s report that there may be phosphine gas in the Venusian clouds came with a stunning implication: extraterrestrial life. On Earth, phosphine is a chemical produced by some kinds of bacteria that live in oxygen-poor conditions. Its presence on Venus, announced by a team led by Cardiff University’s Jane Greaves, raised the possibility that there could be life in what has long been thought one of the most inhospitable environments in the solar system: a planet that’s covered in thick clouds of sulfuric acid, with an atmosphere that’s 96{0ab330907ab55d1d247a5e46cbfc213f668b37838ccb2fc637c3c0da5f4ad964} carbon dioxide, and where the pressure at the surface is 100 times greater than Earth’s. Oh, and it experiences temperatures up to 471 °C—well above the melting point of lead. 

Since the initial report, though, doubt about the finding has crept in. Three different preprint papers (none of which have been published in a peer-reviewed journal, although one has … Read more

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Robert Prud’homme to receive new Princeton University award to honor faculty innovators

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Prud’homme led the invention of flash nanoprecipitation to encapsulate drugs in nanoparticles for targeted delivery

Credit: Photo by David Kelly Crow.

Robert Prud’homme, professor of chemical and biological engineering at Princeton University, has been selected to receive the inaugural Dean for Research Award for Distinguished Innovation for the invention of flash nanoprecipitation, a method for creating nanoparticles that promises to improve the delivery of drugs throughout the body.

The newly established annual award will be presented at 12 p.m. Eastern time on Nov. 5 as part of Engage 2020, Princeton’s new innovation and entrepreneurship conference, which is free and open to the public. At the ceremony, Prud’homme will deliver a lecture on the technology, focusing on its societal impact.

The award recognizes an innovation led by a Princeton professor whose scholarly activity and creative thinking has led to solutions for an issue of importance to society. The Office of the

… Read more

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DJI Pocket 2 review: Better than the original in so many ways

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When the DJI Osmo Pocket launched in 2018, it quickly became one of my favorite gadgets. Its tiny size and powerful features make it an essential part of my gear bag. It allows me to get high-quality, ultra-smooth video with the same camera sensor found on a prosumer DJI drone.

Needless to say, I was super excited to get my hands on the follow-up for this DJI Pocket 2 review. DJI made a lot of substantial upgrades to the Pocket 2 compared to the original, and I couldn’t wait to put them to the test.

About this DJI Pocket 2 review: I used the Pocket 2 on its own as well as in tandem with my OnePlus 7 Pro. I used it with a beta version of the DJI Mimo app for Android. DJI provided Android Authority with the device and the beta app for the purposes of this
… Read more

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This Week in Apps: Facebook Gaming skips iOS, TikTok goes shopping, Apple One bundles arrive

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Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the TechCrunch series that recaps the latest OS news, the applications they support and the money that flows through it all.

The app industry is as hot as ever, with a record 204 billion downloads and $120 billion in consumer spending in 2019. People are now spending three hours and 40 minutes per day using apps, rivaling TV. Apps aren’t just a way to pass idle hours — they’re a big business. In 2019, mobile-first companies had a combined $544 billion valuation, 6.5x higher than those without a mobile focus.

Top Stories

Here Comes Apple One

Thanks for all the market research, app developers.

Image Credits: Apple

Apple issued a slight beat on earnings this week, despite the COVID pandemic and a 20{0ab330907ab55d1d247a5e46cbfc213f668b37838ccb2fc637c3c0da5f4ad964} decline in iPhone sales year-over-year, including a drop in China.

But for app developers who already have a large install … Read more

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Cologix Welcomes Page Shaper Haun As Its New Chief Marketing Officer

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We are living in the future and there are new gadgets, gadgets and smart computers coming almost daily of our lives. Video conferencing helps people staying in distant locations to communicate with outer world without a lot touring or expenses. Individuals right this moment are attending to entry and use technology movies extra easily. Evidently, because net and its far-flung attain, information about newest in expertise is getting disseminated at a quicker tempo, the identical can also be welcoming folks to collaborate extra freely and willingly. Students can take advantage of video conferencing and technology news to attend classes at distant locations that in regular conditions would have been unattainable Students also can attend distant lessons via video conferencing and proceed an alternate career alongside. As the following step in its Linux expansion program, Lenovo has launched Linux-ready ThinkPad and ThinkStation PCs pre-put in with Canonical’s Ubuntu technology. The corporate … Read more

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RECENT UPDATE

For years, I’ve tried to work my way back into the middle class

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Early this winter, I took a long walk in the Salt Lake City park in which I had been arrested for bathing in a river when I was homeless.

About 30 minutes into that walk, I stood across from the park’s granite meditation temple, thinking: Three and a half years ago, I slept under that building’s awning.

I can still feel how hard that temple’s cold stone floor was; I remember how people strolled by my bed of cardboard and clothes and stared with what struck me as a combination of concern, contempt, and pity. Now I see that these are also the lenses through which I have often judged my own progress in my new, not-yet-middle-class life.

These days, I often wonder: Am I really doing as well as I should be after all this time? How did I ever allow myself to fall so far? Trying to … Read more

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FGM safeguarding policies are alienating UK’s African diaspora communities

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Credit: United Nations

AHEAD of tomorrow’s International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, by the United Nations, FORWARD, the leading African women-led organisation working to end violence against women and girls, and the University of Huddersfield have published new research that documents how the stringent, targeted, FGM safeguarding measures introduced since the 2014 Girl Summit are causing distress and mistrust amongst African diaspora communities in Bristol, and potentially across the country.

The research reveals first-hand evidence documenting how FGM safeguarding policies are leaving families feeling racially profiled, criminalised and stigmatised. To access the full study report, please follow this link: https://www.forwarduk.org.uk/forward-publications/fgm-safeguarding-bristol-study/.

Over the latter half of the last decade, the UK government intensified its response to FGM, giving FGM a ‘special’ status within national safeguarding, going far beyond the UK’s regulatory approach to other forms of child abuse.

This includes the introduction of FGM Mandatory Reporting Duty, the

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Predictive policing is still racist—whatever data it uses

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It’s no secret that predictive policing tools are racially biased. A number of studies have shown that racist feedback loops can arise if algorithms are trained on police data, such as arrests. But new research shows that training predictive tools in a way claimed to lessen bias has little effect.

Arrest data biases predictive tools because police are known to arrest more people in Black and other minority neighborhoods, which leads algorithms to direct more policing to those areas, which leads to more arrests. The result is that predictive tools misallocate police patrols: some neighborhoods are unfairly designated crime hotspots; others are underpoliced.

In their defence, many developers of predictive policing tools say that they have started using victim reports to get a more accurate picture of crime rates across different neighborhoods. In theory victim reports should be less biased because they aren’t affected by police prejudice or … Read more

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Save $90 on the Pixel 4a 5G, and more of the best Google Pixel deals

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Credit: David Imel / Android Authority

The Google Pixel family has long had a list of features that make it a go-to for die-hard fans. Whether it’s the vanilla Android experience or the powerful camera, the Pixel packs some features that set it apart from the pack. As Android nerds, we’re always on the lookout for Google Pixel deals. With the Google Pixel 5 finally here, we’re hoping that we’ll start to see bigger discounts on previous variants soon.

Here are some of the best deals on everything from the Pixel 5 to the original Pixel XL and everything in between.

Featured deal: Save $90 on the Pixel 4a 5G

Unlocked Google Pixel 4a 5G Best Buy Deal

Credit: Best Buy

The Google Pixel 4a 5G was already considered to be great value for its price point. Now a number of retailers have the Pixel 4a 5G on offer for $459 ($40 off), and Best Buy … Read more

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We asked, you told us: You don’t think Samsung should kill the Note series

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Credit: Oliver Cragg / Android Authority

Multiple recent reports have sounded the death knell for Samsung’s Galaxy Note series. Some say Samsung will completely ditch the phablet line in 2021 while others insist there might be one last Note on its way out next year.

Based on these reports, we asked our readers what they think of Samsung merging the Galaxy Note series with the Galaxy S flagship line. We also asked our audience across YouTube, Twitter, and our website if they want Samsung to kill off the Galaxy Note series completely. Here are the results of both those polls.

Do you want Samsung to merge the Galaxy S and Note series?



Do you think Samsung should kill off the Galaxy Note series?



Results

60.4{0ab330907ab55d1d247a5e46cbfc213f668b37838ccb2fc637c3c0da5f4ad964} of the 1,238 Android Authority readers who voted in … Read more

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OnePlus Nord N10 and N100 will get Android 11…and then that’s it.

PD by ASNF

Credit: Eric Zeman / Android Authority
  • OnePlus confirmed that the OnePlus Nord N10 and Nord N100 will receive just one Android upgrade.
  • Since the devices ship with Android 10, that means they’ll eventually get Android 11 and then no more upgrades after that.
  • The company did also confirm that both phones will see two years of security updates.

The OnePlus Nord series is brand new in 2020. As such, we don’t have years and years of history to look at when it comes to software upgrades, security support, etc. Up until now, that info has been all up in the air.

Related: OnePlus phones: A history of the company’s entire lineup so far

However, OnePlus recently confirmed to Android Central that the two newest Nord phones — the Nord N10 and Nord N100 — will only receive one software upgrade. Both devices ship with Android 10, which logically means … Read more

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The Charlesworth Group strengthens Hindawi partnership in China

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Leading open access publisher Hindawi has extended their partnership with The Charlesworth Group to include digital author marketing in China.

Credit: © The Charlesworth Group
© Hindawi Limited

The services provided by The Charlesworth Group form part of a holistic package of solutions across the entire publication journey to support Hindawi’s author engagement strategy in China. Through this partnership, The Charlesworth Group are now providing Hindawi with comprehensive digital marketing, including a new Chinese website and search marketing campaigns. Charlesworth have provided WeChat account management services and media monitoring to Hindawi since early 2018 and have recently begun offering Hindawi authors optional expert editing services through Charlesworth Author Services.

Through offering these new services, together with the existing WeChat account management service, this partnership can offer deeper author engagement in the China market at a key time for Chinese researchers as institutions begin to map out their publications policy in

… Read more

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