There’s a lot of attention right now on the idea of making public transport free. In the first instance, you might think it’s a no-brainer. You can ride public trains, trams, buses, and ferries at no charge. That sounds too good to be true, but they’re a reality in many parts of the world. Over 100 cities have some form of free public transport, but there are many different models of free public transport, each with its own intention and actual impact. What do they achieve when it comes to econo
As desirable vacation destinations go, war-torn Ukraine must surely rate low. But in the first month of Russia’s invasion, Airbnb bookings in Ukraine boomed, as people around the world used the accommodation platform to channel more than US$15 million in donations to the country. As with other forms of direct donation, using Airbnb to channel aid to Ukraine has been problematic. The company was relatively quick to waive the 20% commission it usually charges on transactions. But stopping scammers
EV owners got more than they bargained for when they tried to juice up their cars this week on the Isle of Wight, UK. Three charging points — which were supposed to display the website of the council’s charging network — were hacked to show porn. The issue was brought up by the affected drivers to local paper Country Press, which then reached out to the council. A spokesperson rushed to apologize to “anyone that found the inappropriate web content.” Officers were sent to inspect the EV signage a
I love Star Trek. Or more precisely, I really love the 80s, 90s and 00s Trek. Nothing is more soothing to me than the low hum of the Enterprise D, with Data and Geordi La Forge discussing the alignment of dilithium crystals in their coveted warp core. While most of Star Trek’s ‘technobabble’ is intricately thought out nonsense, it’s no secret that early sci-fi has had a huge influence on the development of real world tech. And while I’ve yet to use a tractor beam to pull a comet out of a traject
I recently attended the Autonomy Mobility Conference in Paris. A great 2-day experience filled with keynotes and great conversations all centred on what’s next in mobility. This is what I learned. First of all, I found it quite fitting that the conference took place in Paris. The mobility landscape of the French capital has been radically transformed during the past two years, and it really shows that the future of mobility is not too far away, if we purposefully work towards changing our infras
We’re in 2022, so grabbing text from a website or a document should be pretty easy, right? But that’s not always the case. There might be part of a site that doesn’t easily let you copy some text, or maybe the text you need to copy is part of an image. So we’re going to talk about a few tools to capture text easily. iPhone Live Text Apple recently rolled out the Live Text feature in iOS 15 that easily lets you copy text using your camera. To make sure this feature is enabled on your iPhone or iP
Whether you fancy yourself as the next Scorsese or want to spruce up your travel vlog, a handy video editor is vital in any digital creator’s toolkit. When you’ve finally captured your footage, and it’s almost ready for the world to see, some quick and simple editing can prevent it from getting lost in the 720,000 hours of video uploaded online every day. Here we’ll break down what you should prioritize in your search for video editing software and tools. Compatibility First things first. You ne
If you have two similar-looking USB-C to C cables, chances are that you might not be able to tell anything about their capabilities by just looking at them. The USB-C standard can handle a lot of things: charging, data transfer, and audio and video streaming. But not all USB-C cables are made alike. When I bought my M1-powered MacBook Air, I was excited about carrying only one charger to juice up all my gadgets. I put the stock USB-C Apple charger in my bag, and expected it to charge my laptop,
By: Dara Kerr When the St. Louis police arrived on the scene last April, Lyft driver Elijah Newman was already dead. Officers found him in the driver’s seat of his car with a gunshot wound to his torso. In a probable cause statement provided to The Markup by the Circuit Attorney’s office, detectives say they located a bullet casing next to Newman’s body and a Lyft light affixed to the front dashboard. “It was like a fist to the gut,” Elizabeth Hylton, Newman’s long-time friend and roommate, said
Have you heard the one about the algorithm that tells hilarious jokes? Me neither — but I have seen AI gags bomb like US presidents. Stand-up robots, improvised joke generators, Q&A pun systems, and android bartenders have all failed to make me laugh. “You can get a rum and coke anywhere,” Brian Connors, a hospitality professor, told the Miami Herald, “but how often are you going to get it from a robot that tells bad jokes?” More often than you may think, unfortunately. All of these comedians ha