Dec 17
Find out which creams, soaps and shampoos the experts recommend for this stubborn skin condition.
Dec 17
Baby, It’s Cold Outside. Keep Warm With One Of These Classic Wool Coats For Men.
Posted in: Today's ChiliKeep warm, cozy and look good with an elegant wool coat for men that will last for many years to come.
Dec 17
Bring in 2022 with style and comfort.
Dec 17
The Fox News personality appeared to surprise Laura Ingraham with his holiday announcement.
Dec 17
Warrant Issued For Alec Baldwin’s Cell Phone For Possible Evidence In Shooting
Posted in: Today's ChiliThe actor accidentally shot and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins while rehearsing with a prop gun on the set of “Rust.”
Dec 17
Sony has unveiled a new type of stacked CMOS sensor that uses “two-layer transistor pixels” to double the light gathering capability. Typical image sensors have the light-sensitive photodiodes and pixel transistors that control and amplify the signal on the same layer. However, the new design puts the photodiodes on top and the pixel transistors below, “approximately doubling saturation signal levels,” Sony said.
Sony pioneered stacked sensors that put fast memory and other electronics directly under the sensor, allowing for faster readout speeds and thus rapid burst shooting and reduced rolling shutter (jello effect) on cameras and smartphones. This latest sensor uses a similar idea, but packs the pixel transistors onto a separate substrate underneath the photodiode layer.
Sony
That means each layer could be optimized, allowing Sony to double the sensor’s light saturation (well depth), or the amount of charge each pixel can hold. That in turn allows for around double the light-capturing capability.
Sony notes that because the transistor pixels sit on a separate layer, it was able to boost the amplifier transistors in size. That allows for a bigger signal boost, reducing noise when shooting nighttime or other images in dark locations. The increased dynamic range will allow for “high-quality, low-noise images even in low-light,” according to Sony.
Sony specifically stated that the tech will allow for higher-quality smartphone photography. With double the light gathering capability, it will allow for much improved light sensitivity even in relatively small, high-megapixel sensors. Sony has yet to say when this tech will make it to smartphone or cameras, but it plans to further improve the design for both large and small sensors.
Sony
Dec 17
The Morning After: 'Final Fantasy XIV' is so popular that Square Enix stopped selling it
Posted in: Today's ChiliSquare Enix is suspending the sales and delivery of Final Fantasy XIV Starter Edition and Complete Edition because it’s doing too well and the company’s servers can’t keep up. The decision applies to both physical and digital versions of the game and will happen in the coming weeks. FFXIV players have been struggling with lengthy queues ever since the Endwalker expansion came out in late November. They still have to wait hours to get into a server and be able to play the game.
It’s a little inside-baseball, but I’m planning a story on the record-breaking online RPG — but can’t access the game while this suspension continues. I guess I’ll have to find something else to write about over the holiday season. At least I have Deathloop and Metroid Dread to keep me busy.
— Mat Smith
What happened to the ‘Meta’ Instagram handle?
A motorcycle magazine controlled it for years — until Facebook changed its name.
Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
When Facebook decided to change its name, changing its websites, business documents and more, the company didn’t control the @Meta handle on Instagram. It belonged to a small Denver-based magazine called META. The day of the announcement, the magazine posted a photo of assorted print issues with the caption “Since 2014.” But by the next day, the account had mysteriously vanished. @Meta now hosts all the content from the @Facebook Instagram page, while posts from META, the magazine, now appear under the @readmeta handle. What happened? And doesn’t this break Meta’s own rules about Instagram handles?
Uber will test ‘autonomous’ food delivery sometime next year
Expect meal kits, not fast-food. For now.
Uber and autonomous vehicle company Motional announced a partnership for “autonomous deliveries” through Uber Eats. The pilot will launch at some point in “early 2022,” but it won’t offer the full range of Uber Eats options. Instead customers will be able to pick from “a curated set of meal kits from select restaurants.” The joint venture isn’t entirely driverless, either. A Motional spokesperson told Engadget: “We will be launching the service with safety operators present in the vehicle.” Meal kit deliveries will be in Santa Monica, California, to start, where a large portion of Motional’s team works.
Researchers call new zero-click iPhone exploit ‘incredible and terrifying’
Apple has sued the NSO group over the ‘nation state’ level iMessage attack.
Google researchers have described NSO Group’s zero-click exploit used to hack Apple devices as “incredible and terrifying,” calling it “one of the most technically sophisticated exploits we’ve ever seen,” on par with attacks from elite nation-state spies.
The Project Zero team said it obtained one of NSO’s Pegasus exploits from Citizen Lab, which managed to capture it via a targeted Saudi activist. NSO’s original exploit required the user to click on a link, but the latest, most sophisticated exploits require no click at all. Called ForcedEntry, it takes advantage of the way iMessage interprets files like GIFs to open a malicious PDF file with no action required from the victim. Last month, the US Department of Commerce added NSO Group to its “entity list,” essentially banning it for use in the US.
Arrival offers an early look at its first electric car
Made for rideshare drivers, but not a taxi?
Arrival
Arrival is a UK–US startup that wants to revolutionize the design and manufacture of electric vehicles. Its first sales pitch is the Arrival Car, designed, first and foremost, for rideshare drivers during their working day. We’ve got an exclusive first look, but is it just me or does it remind you of the Johnny Cab from Total Recall?
The biggest news stories you might have missed
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Meta says 50,000 people were targeted by ‘surveillance for hire’ companies
Dec 17
Eric Clapton Wins Lawsuit Against Woman Who Listed Bootleg CD on eBay for $11
Posted in: Today's ChiliGuitarist Eric Clapton has successfully sued a woman in Germany who listed a bootleg CD on eBay for roughly $11. The woman didn’t even sell the CD, but the listing will set her back at least $2,000 in court costs for copyright infringement, according to the German news outlet DW.
Dec 17
These toxic phrases can make people feel unnecessary shame and suck the joy out of the season. Here’s what to say instead.
Dec 17
The Worst Assumption People Make About Their Single Colleagues During The Holidays
Posted in: Today's ChiliNo one “needs those days less” or more than anyone else.
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