Windows has a rocky history with widgets. Vista had the Windows Sidebar, a collection of widgets (then called ‘gadgets’) that provided glanceable information on one side of your desktop. Windows 7 allowed you to place these gadgets wherever you wanted on your desktop, but these were eventually deemed a security hazard and eventually scrapped. The original ‘gadgets’ in Windows Vista Then Windows 8 and Windows 10 abandoned traditional widgets in favor of Live Tiles. These were Start menu items tha
Canadian quantum computing startup D-Wave today announced its intent to go public. In doing so, the company will merge with financial corp DPCM to reach a predicted valuation of approximately $1.6 billion. Not too shabby. While D-Wave isn’t the first quantum company to go public — there are several quantum computing stocks on the market — its entry into the NYSE could have far-reaching implications for the quantum computing industry. It’s beyond the scope of this article to discuss the financial
The news is out: Peter Thiel is stepping down from Meta’s board of directors. Pals, we should pray for Zuck. Thiel — the billionaire co-founder of PayPal and Palantir Technologies — has sat on Meta’s board since 2005, and was one of The Big Mark Dawg’s most influential mentors. While Thiel is rumored to be stepping down in order to focus on, uhhh, “influencing November’s midterm elections,” his departure leaves a major hole in Meta. Who now can guide Big Zuck on his path into darkness? What indi
After being overtaken by Europe in 2020, China is back on top and leading the charge in new energy vehicle (NEV) global sales According to Chinese EV media outlet CnEVPost, China sold 3.31 million NEVs (battery electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids, and fuel cell vehicles) out of a 6.23 million global total in 2021. Based on data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), this means that China took a 53% share of the global market, surpassing Europe’s 33% and the US’s 11%. These figures alig
Your new car is packed with a bunch of driver-assist features. But that doesn’t exactly make it an autonomous vehicle. So what’s the difference? What is driver-assist? Driver-assist is also called Advanced Driving Assistance Systems (ADAS). It refers to and encompasses functions and technology that augment the driving experience of the driver. These include: Blindspot detection Front, rear, and cross-traffic alerts Collision avoidance Lane departure warning Forward and side collision warning Ad
Just this weekend, respected New York Times journalist Farhad Manjoo wrote an article about traveling in a Cadillac Escalade embedded with Super Cruise, driver-assist technology. It erroneously stated that by deploying the technology, a driver could “twiddle your toes and put your hands in the air like you just don’t care.” As well as being cringe-inducing, the article is littered with phrases and descriptions of Manjoo’s behavior while driving that show a fundamental lack of understanding of th
Welcome to TNW Basics, a collection of tips, guides, and advice on how to easily get the most out of your gadgets, apps, and other stuff. If you’ve been on Twitter recently, you’ll have seen people donning a username with an .eth suffix. You can see an example in the screengrab below. Ethereum address of co-founder of… Ethereum In this article, we’ll discuss what this .eth suffix means, and how you can get one and use it. Here we go! What the hell is an .eth domain? In a nutshell, it’s a domain
Astronomers famously snapped the first ever direct image of a black hole in 2019, thanks to material glowing in its presence. But many black holes are actually near impossible to detect. Now another team using the Hubble Space Telescope seems to have finally found something nobody has seen before: a black hole which is completely invisible. The research, which has been posted online and submitted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal, is yet to be peer-reviewed. Black holes are what’s lef
A US-based science group intends to use a “crowd sale” to distribute brain-computer interfaces to a community of hackers. Dun-dun-dunnnnn! Another way of putting it: A PhD student and an artificial intelligence expert are planning to sell some nifty brain-computer interfaces they cobbled together. And, for some weird reason, they’ve called their company Hacker BCI and given it the tagline: “from hackers for hackers.” Per the duo’s website: In our definition “Hackers” are creative problem-solvers
Update February 8, 2022 3.30PM IST: Nvidia’s deal to buy ARM has officially been called off. In a statement, Softbank said “significant regulatory challenges” prevented the acquisition. The Japanese conglomerate also mentioned that it’s planning to take ARM public by March 31, 2023. Softbank will receive $1.25 billion as agreed upon with Nvidia during the announcement of the deal. Geoff Blaber, CEO of CCS Insights said an IPO is the best option for ARM: Finding a way to appease regulators whi