Executives at four social media giants appeared yesterday before a Senate committee to receive what’s become a traditional biannual walloping on CSPAN over the host of ills their products routinely visit upon their users and the rest of world.
When Walmart launched its virtual fitting room back in March, it gave you 50 models with various body types and heights to choose from. It was up to you to find the model you resemble the most, so you can see what a piece of garment would look like on you. Now, the retailer is leveling up the experience by letting you virtually try clothes on your own photos.
In the company’s announcement, Apparel and Private Brands EVP Denise Incandela said its virtual fitting room can show how clothes fit in a realistic way. It doesn’t simply overlay images on your photos — when you choose an item to fit, you’ll see the parts where shadows would fall and you’ll see how the fabric would drape on your body. Theoretically, that means different sizes of the same item would look differently on your photo in the same way they’d fall differently on your body if you were trying them in real life. That’s made possible with the use of algorithms and machine learning models originally used to develop accurate topographic images.
The new virtual try-on experience is available for 270,000 items across brands on Walmart’s website, including Levi’s and Hanes, and will continue to grow. You can’t use previous photos with the feature, though: The first time you choose “yourself” as a model when you tap the “Try It On” button, you’ll be prompted to take a photo of yourself wearing something form-fitting and to input your height.
The upgraded experience is now available on Walmart’s iOS app, and iOS users be able to use the photos they take on mobile when they fire up the experience on desktop or the web “shortly.” The feature will roll out to Android users in the coming weeks, as well.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said global COVID deaths last week were the lowest since March 2020.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said global COVID deaths last week were the lowest since March 2020.
Ethereum has completed its much-anticipated “Merge” to a far more energy efficient method of minting new tokens, the cryptocurrency’s co-founder Vitalik Buterin tweeted. Ether will no longer be minted by “proof-of-work” that uses powerful computers to solve cryptographic tasks. Instead, they’ll be created using “proof-of-stake” methods that require users called validators to stake tokens for the chance to approve transactions and earn a small reward.
Until today, mining Ethereum has required powerful banks of computers to solve difficult math problems. That not only consumed huge amounts of energy, but made Ethereum difficult to scale and costly for small transactions. It also concentrated power into the hands of a few, something that’s anathema to the decentralization ethos of crypto.
And we finalized!
Happy merge all. This is a big moment for the Ethereum ecosystem. Everyone who helped make the merge happen should feel very proud today.
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) September 15, 2022
With the new system, the more a validators stakes, the larger the chance of winning a reward. But everyone gets at least something, as all staked ether earns interest (around 5.2 percent), making it more like buying a bond or putting it in a bank (apart from the wild market volatility, of course). The minimum stake amount required to be a validator is 32 ether (around $50,000 right now), though individuals can do pooled staking with trusted third-party validators to meet that level.
The Merge got its name because the Ethereum blockchain has combined with a parallel network that’s now been running for almost two years in a proof-of-stake test, but it’s just one step in the transformation. “We still have to scale, we have to fix privacy. To me the Merge symbolizes the difference between an early stage Ethereum and the Ethereum we’ve always wanted,” said Buterin during a livestreamed Merge party.
Ether started the day going up, but has since dropped a few percent from yesterday. It remains to be seen if the the Merge will live up to its promise of transforming crypto, as there are still a lot of questions around regulation, Ethereum forks and more. There’s also the risk of scams (as usual in crypto), with the risk of transactions from the old chain being copied to the new one, among others.
It was a big day for tech reviews. Alongside the iPhone 14 and 14 Pro, there are also new action cams from both GoPro and DJI – and we’ve got detailed reviews on all of them.
But let’s kick things off with the 6.1-inch iPhone 14 Pro and 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Pro Max. With Apple embracing higher resolution cameras, always-on displays and smaller screen cutouts – now called a Dynamic Island – there are new features, new tech and plenty to assess. The new 48-megapixel camera doesn’t translate to dramatic photography improvements (images and video are still great!), but the new implementation of the screen cut-out is a smart distraction for what was once a divisive notch. Sure, we’re still on Lightning chargers, and, yes, iPhones aren’t for everyone, but there are more tangible changes to this year’s Pro phones. Check out Cherlynn Low’s full review right here.
– Mat Smith
Action RPG ‘Project Eve’ will finally debut in 2023 as ‘Stellar Blade’
Google fails to overturn EU Android antitrust ruling but reduces its fine by 5 percent
Jeep adds new Grand Cherokee and Wrangler trims to its 4xe lineup
While the GoPro Hero 11 looks exactly the same as the 10, there are some extra shooting modes, with SuperView available right up to 5K 60 fps and 4K at 120 fps. There’s also a new 360-degree horizon-locked Linear mode and the ability to record in Full Frame. The latter is more of a tool for shooting absolutely everything and then “punching out” the aspect ratio you want. The Hero 11 Black costs the same as last year’s flagship: $399.98 with a subscription or $500 without. Check our full review from Engadget’s James Trew, who put the camera through its paces.
DJI wisely returned to an action cam form-factor for its third Osmo action camera, addressing the overheating and other complaints of users who purchased the Action 2. It also introduced features that trump the Hero 10, like the magnetic clip mount and long-lasting, fast-charging battery. However, it still doesn’t beat GoPro where it really counts: the footage. But it’s a good option for many, particularly at the $329 base price.
Contrary to this year’s Pro model, not much has changed for Apple’s base iPhone. Pour one out for the iPhone mini, which sadly didn’t survive longer than two years. The iPhone 14 is pretty similar to the iPhone 13, which was very similar to the iPhone 12. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad phone – it’s just less of an upgrade for anyone using an iPhone that’s only two years old. For US readers, the move from SIM cards to eSIMs is probably the biggest change. Apple may have been early in getting rid of the SIM card tray, but it could give US carriers the push they need to adopt the format. Compare it to the disappearance of the headphone socket.
Northeastern University has found itself the victim of an unusual technology-related bomb attack. CNN reported that someone sent a bomb-like package to the Boston university’s virtual reality lab in Holmes Hall, causing hand injuries to the man who opened the container. The unidentified attacker appears to have a grudge against VR, and Meta in particular. CNN sources claimed a “rambling” note in the package slammed Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg as well as the links between academia and VR developers.
Almost exactly eight years after first arriving on PC, The Sims 4 is going free to play. Starting on October 18th, publisher EA won’t charge you anything to download the base game on Mac, PC, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X. If you already paid for the original release or decide to buy it before October 17th, the company will offer some free DLC, too. However, for all the content in the existing 12 (!) DLC packs, you will have to pay.
Samsung has committed to achieving net zero carbon emissions for the whole company by 2050 and will spend KRW 7 trillion ($5 billion) over the next seven-and-a-half years to make that happen. While its plans are likely not as aggressive as Microsoft’s, which previously promised to be carbon negative by the end of the decade, it plans to get its devices arm to net zero by 2030.
“You’re literally the King of England, dude. If you don’t like the pens, get different pens.”
The Ethereum network, which powers the second largest cryptocurrency in the world, completed a long-planned upgrade known as “The Merge” early Thursday, moving from a proof-of-work system to a proof of stake system. And nothing catastrophic has happened yet, despite plenty of dark predictions by an army of…
Former President Donald Trump was unmoved and told her she worried too much.
After first teasing it way back on January 2021, Korg has released the much-anticipated Drumlogue, a hybrid drum machine with a digital multi-engine and expandability via the logue SDK used in its Minilogue XD and other products. It has both analog and digital drum synths and can also play back samples, with the unique ability to add third-party plug-in effects and more — making it one of the more versatile drum machines out there.
As mentioned, the Drumlogue has three sound engines, analog and digital synthesisers as well as sample-based instruments. The analog has a kick, snare hi tom and low tom, with controls to manipulate decay, tune and more.
On the digital side, it comes with the Nano virtual analog synth plugin or, you can load a multi-engine with VPM synthesis, a noise generator, or other custom algorithms via the logue SDK (multi-engine) found on the NTS-1 and other products. It also supports third-party logue plugins using Korg’s SDK. From there, you can use the multi-fx engine to load effects including reverb, delay, equalizer, boost and compressor.
The sequencer offers 64 steps, chain functionality and other features. On the connectivity side, it comes with four assignable 6.3mm audio outputs and an audio input for routing external audio through the effects. Despite the audio input, it doesn’t work as a sampler — you can only play back samples. It’s now available on preorder for $600 at B&H Photo Video and elsewhere.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
