There’s a glimmer of hope if you’re looking for last-ditch strategies to save your child from the halls of stupidity. A study published this week in the journal Frontiers of Psychology found that good ol’ cursive handwriting seems better at promoting learning than typing, and if we want to pump smarter kids out of our…
The first human patient has received a Neuralink brain implant, according to Elon Musk. The procedure was apparently successful, with Musk saying the individual “is recovering well” one day after the surgery.
Neuralink, which aims to create brain-computer interfaces (BCI), began recruiting human patients for its first clinical trial last fall after getting the green light from the FDA. At the time, Neuralink said that people “who have quadriplegia due to cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)” may qualify for the study. “The initial goal of our BCI is to grant people the ability to control a computer cursor or keyboard using their thoughts alone,” the company wrote in a statement.
The first human received an implant from @Neuralink yesterday and is recovering well.
Initial results show promising neuron spike detection.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 29, 2024
Musk didn’t share any other details about the procedure or the status of the trial. He said that “initial results show promising neuron spike detection.” Successfully implanting its device into a human patient would be a major milestone for the company, which Musk has claimed could one day enable people to experience alternate realities. The company is also facing a federal investigation for allegedly violating animal welfare laws.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/neuralinks-brain-chip-has-been-implanted-in-a-human-elon-musk-says-235434320.html?src=rss
James Gunn’s new DC Universe has found its Supergirl, and she already knows how to fly. Milly Alcock, who played the young dragon-riding Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen on HBO’s House of the Dragon, has been cast as the Kryptonian, beating out several other actresses for the role.
California will float a pair of bills designed to protect children from social media addiction and preserve their private data. The Protecting Youth from Social Media Addiction Act (SB 976) and California Children’s Data Privacy Act (AB 1949) were introduced Monday by the state’s Attorney General Rob Bonta, State Senator Nancy Skinner and Assemblymember Buffy Wicks. The proposed legislation follows a CA child safety bill that was set to go into effect this year but is now on hold.
SB 976 could give parents the power to remove addictive algorithmic feeds from their children’s social channels. If passed, it would allow parents of children under 18 to choose between the default algorithmic feed — typically designed to create profitable addictions — and a less habit-forming chronological one. It would also let parents block all social media notifications and prevent their kids from accessing social platforms during nighttime and school hours.
“Social media companies have designed their platforms to addict users, especially our kids. Countless studies show that once a young person has a social media addiction, they experience higher rates of depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem,” California Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) wrote in a press release. “We’ve waited long enough for social media companies to act. SB 976 is needed now to establish sensible guardrails so parents can protect their kids from these preventable harms.”
Meanwhile, AB 1949 would attempt to strengthen data privacy for CA children under 18. The bill’s language gives the state’s consumers the right to know what personal information social companies collect and sell and allows them to prevent the sale of their children’s data to third parties. Any exceptions would require “informed consent,” which must be from a parent for children under 13.
In addition, AB 1949 would close loopholes in the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) that fail to protect the data of 17-year-olds effectively. The CCPA reserves its most robust protections for those under 16.
“This bill is a crucial step in our work to close the gaps in our privacy laws that have allowed tech giants to exploit and monetize our kids’ sensitive data with impunity,” wrote Wicks (D-Oakland).
The bills may be timed to coincide with a US Senate hearing (with five Big Tech CEOs in tow) on Wednesday covering children’s online safety. In addition, California is part of a 41-state coalition that sued Meta in October for harming children’s mental health. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2021 that internal Meta (Facebook at the time) documents described “tweens” as “a valuable but untapped audience.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/proposed-california-bill-would-let-parents-block-algorithmic-social-feeds-for-children-220132956.html?src=rss
California will float a pair of bills designed to protect children from social media addiction and preserve their private data. The Protecting Youth from Social Media Addiction Act (SB 976) and California Children’s Data Privacy Act (AB 1949) were introduced Monday by the state’s Attorney General Rob Bonta, State Senator Nancy Skinner and Assemblymember Buffy Wicks. The proposed legislation follows a CA child safety bill that was set to go into effect this year but is now on hold.
SB 976 could give parents the power to remove addictive algorithmic feeds from their children’s social channels. If passed, it would allow parents of children under 18 to choose between the default algorithmic feed — typically designed to create profitable addictions — and a less habit-forming chronological one. It would also let parents block all social media notifications and prevent their kids from accessing social platforms during nighttime and school hours.
“Social media companies have designed their platforms to addict users, especially our kids. Countless studies show that once a young person has a social media addiction, they experience higher rates of depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem,” California Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) wrote in a press release. “We’ve waited long enough for social media companies to act. SB 976 is needed now to establish sensible guardrails so parents can protect their kids from these preventable harms.”
Meanwhile, AB 1949 would attempt to strengthen data privacy for CA children under 18. The bill’s language gives the state’s consumers the right to know what personal information social companies collect and sell and allows them to prevent the sale of their children’s data to third parties. Any exceptions would require “informed consent,” which must be from a parent for children under 13.
In addition, AB 1949 would close loopholes in the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) that fail to protect the data of 17-year-olds effectively. The CCPA reserves its most robust protections for those under 16.
“This bill is a crucial step in our work to close the gaps in our privacy laws that have allowed tech giants to exploit and monetize our kids’ sensitive data with impunity,” wrote Wicks (D-Oakland).
The bills may be timed to coincide with a US Senate hearing (with five Big Tech CEOs in tow) on Wednesday covering children’s online safety. In addition, California is part of a 41-state coalition that sued Meta in October for harming children’s mental health. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2021 that internal Meta (Facebook at the time) documents described “tweens” as “a valuable but untapped audience.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/proposed-california-bill-would-let-parents-block-algorithmic-social-feeds-for-children-220132956.html?src=rss
Twenty-eight years ago, Star Trek asked a daring question, one fitting of a franchise that triumphs boldly going and facing the unknown: should experimental FTL travel culminate in a captain and her helmsman turning into amphibians and doing the scaly deed? The answer is unequivocally no, but it has given us a…
California will float a pair of bills designed to protect children from social media addiction and preserve their private data. The Protecting Youth from Social Media Addiction Act (SB 976) and California Children’s Data Privacy Act (AB 1949) were introduced Monday by the state’s Attorney General Rob Bonta, State Senator Nancy Skinner and Assemblymember Buffy Wicks. The proposed legislation follows a CA child safety bill that was set to go into effect this year but is now on hold.
SB 976 could give parents the power to remove addictive algorithmic feeds from their children’s social channels. If passed, it would allow parents of children under 18 to choose between the default algorithmic feed — typically designed to create profitable addictions — and a less habit-forming chronological one. It would also let parents block all social media notifications and prevent their kids from accessing social platforms during nighttime and school hours.
“Social media companies have designed their platforms to addict users, especially our kids. Countless studies show that once a young person has a social media addiction, they experience higher rates of depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem,” California Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) wrote in a press release. “We’ve waited long enough for social media companies to act. SB 976 is needed now to establish sensible guardrails so parents can protect their kids from these preventable harms.”
Meanwhile, AB 1949 would attempt to strengthen data privacy for CA children under 18. The bill’s language gives the state’s consumers the right to know what personal information social companies collect and sell and allows them to prevent the sale of their children’s data to third parties. Any exceptions would require “informed consent,” which must be from a parent for children under 13.
In addition, AB 1949 would close loopholes in the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) that fail to protect the data of 17-year-olds effectively. The CCPA reserves its most robust protections for those under 16.
“This bill is a crucial step in our work to close the gaps in our privacy laws that have allowed tech giants to exploit and monetize our kids’ sensitive data with impunity,” wrote Wicks (D-Oakland).
The bills may be timed to coincide with a US Senate hearing (with five Big Tech CEOs in tow) on Wednesday covering children’s online safety. In addition, California is part of a 41-state coalition that sued Meta in October for harming children’s mental health. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2021 that internal Meta (Facebook at the time) documents described “tweens” as “a valuable but untapped audience.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/proposed-california-bill-would-let-parents-block-algorithmic-social-feeds-for-children-220132956.html?src=rss
A single man is responsible for leaking the tax information belonging to Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and others. Trump’s tax information was leaked to the New York Times and became the basis for a big story, while Bezos and Musk had their financial information handed over to ProPublica, which similarly reporte…
Japan is an innovative country that leads the way on many technological fronts. But the wheels of bureaucracy often turn incredibly slowly there. So much so, that the government still requires businesses to provide information on floppy disks and CD-ROMs when they submit certain official documents.
That’s starting to change. Back in 2022, Minister of Digital Affairs Taro Kono urged various branches of the government to stop requiring businesses to submit information on outdated forms of physical media. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) is one of the first to make the switch. “Under the current law, there are many provisions stipulating the use of specific recording media such as floppy disks regarding application and notification methods,” METI said last week, according to The Register.
After this calendar year, METI will no longer require businesses to submit data on floppy disks under 34 ordinances. The same goes for CD-ROMs when it comes to an unspecified number of procedures. There’s still quite some way to go before businesses can stop using either format entirely, however.
Kono’s staff identified some 1,900 protocols across several government departments that still require the likes of floppy disks, CD-ROMs and even MiniDiscs. The physical media requirements even applied to key industries such as utility suppliers, mining operations and aircraft and weapons manufacturers.
There are a couple of main reasons why there’s a push to stop using floppy disks, as SoraNews24 points out. One major factor is that floppy disks can be hard to come by. Sony, the last major manufacturer, stopped selling them in 2011. Another is that some data types just won’t fit on a floppy disk. A single photo can easily be larger than the format’s 1.4MB storage capacity.
There are some other industries that still rely on floppy disks. Some older planes need them for avionics, as do and some aging medical devices. It also took the US government until 2019 to stop using floppy disks to coordinate nuclear weapon launches.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/japan-will-no-longer-require-floppy-disks-for-submitting-some-official-documents-212048844.html?src=rss
HONOR has unveiled the HONOR Magic V2, touted as the world’s thinnest inward-folding smartphone, available in Europe, including the UK. The launch, held at the Porsche Experience Center in Leipzig, showcased HONOR’s commitment to innovation and design excellence with over 400 media representatives and partners in attendance.
The device brings premium materials like Titanium and a hing crafted through 3D printing technology—a first for foldable devices, according to the company, that said the phone’s durability isn’t just limited to the use of titanium, bringing to the table an SGS certification promising 400,000 folds (or 100 folds a day for 10 years), which gives users a sense of reliability in the everyday use, at least for a decade.
Speaking about the display, we have on this device two OLED panels up to 120 Hz, measuring 7,92″ (internal) and 6.43″ (external), incorporating 3840Hz PWM Dimming technology to minimize eye strain, ensuring comfortable viewing even during long-term use. The processor is a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, with 16GB of RAM and 256 or 512GB of storage.
In terms of imaging capture sensors, the HONOR Magic V2 features a triple rear camera setup that includes a 50MP Main Camera (f/1.9), a 50MP Ultra-Wide Camera (f/2.0), and a 20MP Telephoto Camera (f/2.4). For selfie lovers, the front-facing dual camera setup features two 16MP Cameras (f/2.2).
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Display | 7.92″ (internal), 6.43″ (external) — Both OLED, up to 120 Hz |
| Processor | Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (Octa-Core) |
| RAM | 16GB |
| Storage | 256 or 512 GB |
| Camera Setup | Triple rear camera (50MP Main, 50MP Ultra-Wide, 20MP Telephoto) and dual front camera (two 16MP) |
| Battery | 5000 mAh (HONOR 66W SuperCharge) |
| Operational System | MagicOS 7.2 (Based on Android 13) |
Debuting luxury and functionality, this version incorporates materials weighing 234g and measuring 9.9mm thick. It features an Anti-scratch NanoCrystal Shield for enhanced display durability, offering superior resistance to damage. Details on the PORSCHE DESIGN HONOR Magic V2 RSR release and pricing will be disclosed shortly.
The HONOR Magic V2 will launch on HiHonor in Black Vegan Leather and Phantom Purple today for £1,699.99 (~$2,159 and €1999.90 in select European countries), with a launch offer bundle worth over £600, including Bang & Olufsen Headphones (£459), 6-months screen protection, and a 66W HONOR SuperCharge Power Adapter. HiHonor also has an early-bird voucher, which gives customers £200 off the price before the 1st of March, using code AV2PR200 at checkout.
The HONOR Magic V2 will be available to purchase on the 2nd of February 2024, (with up to £1,199 worth of value when purchasing a Magic V2 from the telco Three).
We have a review of this device on the way so stay tuned for our first impressions of it!
HONOR Magic V2: Thinnest Inward-Folding Smartphone Launched
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