Several companies, including Apple and Microsoft, are betting that the world of tomorrow will, at least in part, be carried out in the metaverse. To this end, Microsoft recently acquired the video game giant Activision Blizzard for US$68.7 billion. As more of our daily activities take place online, we believe it’s time to consider how this may eventually play out; if tomorrow’s city dwellers prefer the metaverse to brick-and-mortar stores and other urban amenities, what will it mean for cities a
In this episode of our video series Unwind With Boris — where TNW co-founder Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten talks shop with Dutch entrepreneurs and innovators — Crisp co-founder Eric Klaassen discusses the future of online supermarkets. When online supermarket Crisp launched in 2018, it wasn’t as if the Dutch didn’t have any grocery stores to pick from. There are several big supermarket chains in the Netherlands, such as Jumbo and Albert Heijn, while organic, more high-end food had already found a
Once upon a time, 8 megapixels on a smartphone camera was a big deal. 50 megapixels used to be impressive. Then 100 MP phones arrived and that was neat too, I guess. But does anyone really want 200 megapixels? That’s what Motorola seems to be banking on with its upcoming flagship phones. Lenovo’s general manager posted an image teasing a 200-megapixel smartphone on Weibo (Lenovo owns Motorola). The post didn’t reveal much about the device beyond a July release date, although a separate post did
MIT researchers recently made one of the boldest claims related to artificial intelligence we’ve seen yet: they believe they’ve built an AI that can identify a person’s race using only medical images. And, according to the popular media, they have no idea how it works! Sure. And I’d like to sell you an NFT of the Brooklyn Bridge. Let’s be clear up front, per the team’s paper, the model can predict a person’s self-reported race: In our study, we show that standard AI deep learning models can be t
Everyone knows about recycling, from when you throw boxes in the paper bin to taking bottles back to the store in exchange for a deposit. But a growing movement now throws recycling on its head: circular design. Circular design completely reimagines product design from the original blueprints to various product lifecycle stages and what happens to each product after it has fulfilled its original purpose. It’s a big deal in mobility and part of a broader circular economy. But I want to introduce
On Friday, Nissan revealed its most affordable EV to date. The so-called Sakura is a cute electric minicar with a base price of just under $14,000 (2,333,100 yen). Destined for the Japanese market, where Kei city-driving cars are popular, the Sakura comes with some pretty top-notch features for its category. Meet the mini EV. Credit: Nissan Powered by a 20kW lithium-ion battery, the EV has a top speed of 130km/h and enough juice for 180km of range — just 60km less than the Nissan Leaf. On the in
What happens when you publish research about car emissions that manages to piss off not just ICE owners but those using electric vehicles? Well, people have a lot of feelings. In 2020, UK independent emissions testing firm Emissions Analytics published a research paper claiming that tire particulate wear emissions were 1,000 times worse than exhaust emissions. It generated a huge amount of attention, with the story translated into over 40 languages worldwide. During driving, the rubber from ca
Imagine this: you’re having a nice day, the weather is great, you’ve enjoyed a brilliant breakfast… and suddenly your iPhone shows a photo memory with your ex to inadvertently ruin your day. Why, you ask, as you curse the heavens, does this have to happen to you? Well, Apple’s Photos app has a Memories feature that shows you algorithmically curated collections of photos and videos — based on different factors like dates, holidays, or places you visited. These memories can appear through a notifi
This article is part of our coverage of the latest in AI research. For humans, working with deformable objects is not significantly more difficult than handling rigid objects. We learn naturally to shape them, fold them, and manipulate them in different ways and still recognize them. But for robots and artificial intelligence systems, manipulating deformable objects present a huge challenge. Consider the series of steps that a robot must take to shape a ball of dough into pizza crusts. It must k
The European Central Bank and its counterparts in the UK, US, China, and India are exploring a new form of state-backed money built on similar online ledger technology to cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ethereum. So-called central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) envision a future where we’ll all have our own digital wallets and transfer money between them at the touch of a button, with no need for high-street banks to be involved because it all happens on a blockchain. But CBDCs also presen