Новости за 10.02.2021

Baidu is reportedly planning to launch a subsidiary AI chip firm, which could boost China‘s efforts to develop a domestic semiconductor industry. CNBC reports that the search giant is in talks with venture capital firms GGV and IDG Capital about investing in the venture. The company would sell chips to customers in various industries, including automakers, and could also support Baidu’s work on electric and autonomous vehicles. A source told CNBC that Baidu would likely be the majority shareholder of the subsidiary. Читать дальше...

This is adapted from Plugged In, TNW’s bi-weekly newsletter on gear and gadgets. Subscribe to it here. There are plenty of bullshit sayings out there — they are the force that powers Facebook’s evil after all — but one of the worst is “don’t sweat the small stuff.” Yes, there are plenty of situations where this is true: if you spent all your time overanalyzing what the angry man at the vegan deli meant when he called you a “jerky boy” you’d go insane. Some things just aren’t worth the brain space to consider. Читать дальше...

Scientists from the University of Barcelona have developed an AI app called Marlit that detects floating marine litter in aerial photos. The system could help clean up the 8 million tons of plastic trash that enter our oceans every year, harming marine species, human health, tourism, and the climate. The litter is typically assessed by direct observations from boats and planes. But the vast ocean areas and volumes of data make it hard for researchers to accurately monitor the impact. Marlit reduces... Читать дальше...

India banned TikTok and 59 other Chinese apps last year. This gave birth to a bunch of other short video apps that have expanded rapidly and receive millions of hits every day. But there’s something else that gained a ton of traffic after the TikTok ban: a picture of a flower on Wikimedia. This image picture received more than 75 million daily hits — almost 20% of Wikimedia’s requests for images. You may have important questions such as “what the fuck?” and “how the fuck?” — but me explain how did this happen. Читать дальше...

I’m an absolute sucker for cute, but ultimately useless, bits of software. With this in mind, may I introduce you to Bird Folder, a delightful macOS extension that names new folders after birds. And, by god, I’m in love. Once you’ve got it installed (more on that in a bit), using Bird Folder is a breeze. I merely click on this bit of my toolbar… …and then a new folder appears named after a random bird. Some examples? I now have folders called “Red-billed malkoha,” “Zambezi indigobird,” and “Slender-billed greenbul.” [Read... Читать дальше...

This article was originally published by Steve Schaefer on Clean Fleet Report, a publication that gives its readers the information they need to move to cars and trucks with best fuel economy, including electric cars, fuel cells, plug-in hybrids, hybrids and advanced diesel and gasoline engines.  Micromobility — including electric scooters — is the latest quick and clean way to get around urban areas. But one big problem is managing where the fleets of shared scooters go and where they’re parked. Читать дальше...

Last week, with the help of Will Ferrell and GM, America threw down the gauntlet to electric vehicle lovers Norway, and vowed to “catch up.” It seems the US has already sorta kinda got the message, except it’s buying the wrong type of vehicle. According to figures from automotive market analyst Tyson Jominy at JD Power, the number of hybrid vehicles sold in the US is growing faster than the sale of plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) and battery electric vehicles (BEVs). It’s understandable that hybrids are winning, though. Читать дальше...

India’s vernacular language social network ShareChat has partnered with Snap Inc. to spice up its short video app, Moj. ShareChat said that starting today, Moj users will be able to use 30 of Snapchat’s lenses. Gaurav Mishra, SVP-Product, ShareChat, said that the company eventually aims to develop 400 lenses through this partnership over time. It is also tying up with some local Snapchat Official Lens Creators (OLCs), such as Hardik Shah of Superfan.ai and Vivek Singh. [Read: How much does it cost to buy, own, and run an EV? Читать дальше...

My editor Deb loves to ruin things. One time she used her Ph.D. in Italian to ruin an entire emoji. The emoji in question is a common Italian hand gesture that, roughly translated, means “what the hell?” This isn’t how our team was using it. At some point, we collectively decided to use this emoji to mean “perfection.” From what I can gather, people thought it represented kissing your fingertips, the way chefs sometimes do. Dozens of people used the emoji this way until Deb pointed out the (hilarious) discrepancy. Читать дальше...

Twitter said today that it’s taken action on more than 500 accounts in India, including permanently suspending some of them, based on government order. The social media company said that in the last 10 days, “several separate blocking orders by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).” The company acted on some temporarily and then restored the accounts on the basis of free speech.  For context, earlier this month, Twitter restricted access to several high-profile accounts for folks in India. Читать дальше...

In order to promote short videos created on its own platform, Instagram will stop recommending videos with logos of other apps, including TikTok. As first noted by The Verge, the company published a bunch of new guidelines for creators to get the best results possible on the platform. These tips, posted on Instagram’s creators account, suggested video-makers to use the vertical format, the app’s own sound library, and start a replicable trend. The post also noted that users shouldn’t upload clips... Читать дальше...

In case you didn’t know, Microsoft Word has a dark mode. The problem is, a huge portion of your screen — mainly the big ol’ page you’re writing on — remains white even after you’ve enabled the feature. For reference, this is what ‘dark’ mode currently looks like in Word: You’ve got a big chunk of white staring right at you. But as spotted by Paul Thurrott, Microsoft is currently testing a full-fledged dark mode that actually turns the white page a dark gray, and makes black text white(the feature is currently limited to Office Insiders). Читать дальше...