Twitter will now allow people to tip their favorite content creators with bitcoin and will also launch a fund to pay some users who host audio chat rooms on its Spaces feature, the company said on Thursday.
The company also said it will test new ways to help users have a safer experience on Twitter, such as warning when people are entering a “heated” conversation, or letting them leave tweet threads they no longer want to be part of.
The product announcements are the latest in Twitter’s effort to compete with rival platforms like Facebook and Alphabet Inc’s YouTube for popular content creators with large followings, and turn around its image as a site where polarized discussions can fester online.
Twitter users globally on iOS devices can now send and receive digital payments, which was previously limited to a small group of testers.
“We believe we can continue to incentivize the types of conversations that people want to see,” said Esther Crawford, product lead for creator monetization at Twitter, in a briefing with reporters.
The San Francisco-based company added it is exploring how to allow users to filter out certain words they do not want to see in the replies to their tweets, which could be used to stop name-calling or abusive speech.
About Bitcoin
Created following the 2008 global financial crisis, bitcoin initially promoted a libertarian ideal and aspired to overthrow traditional monetary and financial institutions such as central banks.
The founding white paper, published on October 31, 2008, was penned by Satoshi Nakamoto, a pseudonym whose identity remains unknown.
The eight-page document included the key goal of processing online payments between two parties without passing via a financial institution.
A first block of 50 bitcoins was created in January 2009, which has risen to 18.8 million units currently in circulation.
No more than 21 million can be created, helping bitcoin’s price to trade way above its rivals.
Thousands of other cryptocurrencies have meanwhile since been created, led by the likes of ethereum, ripple and tether.
There are two ways to get hold of bitcoin. Historically, individuals have “mined” for it by using computers to solve complex mathematical puzzles.
But as bitcoin’s price soared, so did the number of miners, reducing the chances of accessing units this way.
Mining also requires huge amounts of energy, meaning the cost of accessing a bitcoin can exceed the gain, not withstanding the environmental impact amid global efforts to tackle climate change.
The alternative way is to buy a whole or fractions of bitcoin on an exchange platform using traditional currencies.
Purchased funds are held in protected virtual wallets, but with hacks still possible, some investors have decided to hold portfolios offline.
A US judge has ordered Facebook to release records of accounts linked to government-backed violence against the Rohingya in Myanmar that it had shut down, the Wall Street Journal reported.
In his ruling on Wednesday, Washington DC district court Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui criticized the social media giant for refusing to provide the records to countries pursuing a case against Myanmar in the International Court of Justice, the Journal said.
Facebook had resisted releasing the information on the grounds of US privacy law.
But the judge ruled that the deleted posts would not be covered under the protections for users’ personal communications.
“Locking away the requested content would be throwing away the opportunity to understand how disinformation begat genocide,” Faruqui wrote in his ruling, as quoted by the Journal, saying Facebook “taking up the mantle of privacy rights is rich with irony.”
Facebook has been accused of being slow to respond to abusive posts portraying Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims in sub-human terms, helping to drum up support for a military crackdown that forced more than 740,000 of the stateless minority to flee the country in 2017.
In August 2018, UN investigators called for an international probe and prosecution of Myanmar’s army chief and five other top military commanders for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. On the same day, Facebook banned the top generals from its platform.
Facebook said Thursday it was reviewing the judge’s decision and stressed it had made voluntary disclosures to the UN Human Rights Council’s Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM), which is collecting and analyzing evidence of serious international crimes in the Southeast Asian country.
“We’re reviewing this decision. We remain appalled by the atrocities committed against the Rohingya people in Myanmar and support justice for international crimes,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement.
“We’ve committed to disclose relevant information to authorities, and over the past year we’ve made voluntary, lawful disclosures to the IIMM and will continue to do so as the case against Myanmar proceeds.”
The Gambia has taken majority-Buddhist Myanmar to the UN’s top court in The Hague, accusing it of breaching the 1948 UN genocide convention.
PESHAWAR: A man accused of harassing a girl in the United States (US) through social media was arrested in Peshawar by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Cyber Crime Cell on Thursday, ARY News reported.
The FIA Cyber Crime Cell carried out an action against the suspected man following the complaint of the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). It emerged that the suspect was involved in harassing a girl in Virginia state via social media.
According to the FIA spokesperson, the accused confessed his crime during the interrogation.
The suspected man was arrested from the Hayatabad area of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) capital Peshawar by the officials of the child pornography cell working under FIA’s Cyber Crime Cell.
Earlier on September 4, the FIA Cyber Crime Cell had arrested three accused in Islamabad for allegedly blackmailing a girl, threatening to share her photo on social media.
The girl had approached the police saying that she was being threatened by some people to share her photo on social media.
“They demanded money from the girl and threatened that in case of a denial, they will immediately share her photo on social media,” the agency said adding that the FIA acted upon the request immediately and arrested the three suspects.
The development team of Cyberpunk 2077 are hiring a developer to work on their upcoming untitled Computer Role Playing Game (CRPG).
CD PROJEKT RED had posted the advertisement for the position of Open World Designer was posted on Game Jobs website.
“CD PROJEKT RED is looking for an Open World Designer (Junior/Specialist) to join our Cracow team,” the advertisement read. “We are looking for candidates with boundless creativity to fill our game world with believable and exciting content consisting of communities and events that player will encounter.”
The candidates will be required come up with design and organize events by availing a toolset. Moreover, they will also be asked to fixed glitches and maintain the open world content quality of the company.
The employee will be responsible for handling the paperwork and coordinate with different teams.
The candidates need to have passion for gaming and have a knack to mod the games. They should have communication skills and creativity with an idea of visual effects. Strong critical and analytical thinking are a must and must be fluent in speaking English.
CD PROJECT RED’s project Cyberpunk 2077 is a first-person shooter that was released on platforms namely Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S.
The game was met with positive reviews from fans and critics despite having delays to get its glitches resolved.
The beta version of Battlefield 2042 is slated to be released next month and players reported receiving code right after pre-ordering it.
According to a report, multiple Reddit users had claimed that they got the codes after they registered for the beta on Amazon. A series of posts regarding the code leaks were seen on the micro-blogging platform named Twitter as well.
The leaks made the players believe as if the video gaming giant have already rolled out the codes ahead of the beta version’s release on October 8.
An official gave a clarification on the issue.
This was a simple store front error that incorrectly listed the pre-order offer for PS4. It’s being updated now and you’ll see the correct details shortly.
To confirm: there have been no changes to the pre-order incentives for Battlefield 2042. https://t.co/2BYSV35d9i
Earlier, Electronic Arts had announced that the game’s release has been pushed back from October 22 to November 19 due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the development team.
“With the ongoing conditions not allowing that to happen safely, and with all the hard work the teams are doing from home, we feel it is important to take the extra time to deliver on the vision of Battlefield 2042 for our players,” the company added.
The game will be releasing on platforms namely PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X along with Xbox Series S, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows.
ProGrade Digital just released the first CFexpress Type A cards that aren’t made by Sony and while they aren’t “cheap” by any stretch of the imagination, they are more affordable than Sony’s offering. But does that discount come at a performance cost?
At the time of publication, CFexpress Type-A memory cards were only used by Sony in a few of its newer cameras like the Alpha 1. The format is much smaller than a CFexpress Type B card and while Type A cards will never be as fast, Sony chose them for its line of cameras because they have a secondary benefit: the small size lets them share a card slot that can also be used with legacy SD cards.
SD cards are actually bigger than CFexpress cards, which let Sony build a slot in both its cameras and its CFexpress card reader that lets the one slot pull double duty. For photographers, this means that Sony could support faster read and write speeds to get the most out of its new cameras while also not forcing photographers to pick up all-new media.
That choice is great because Sony’s CFexpress Type A cards are — at the time of publication — $400 for 160GB of capacity, a considerable investment.
As you can see above, ProGrade elected to keep its two memory card reader slots separate.
While the format isn’t widespread yet, ProGrade Digital believes it will become more popular in the future and as such has decided to join the party and just released its version of the media.
What’s the Difference?
Performance-wise, both Sony and ProGrade promise the same read and write speeds and physically both devices look almost identical — in fact, both cards note the country of origin as the same as well: Taiwan. The only real differences between them appear to be minor design choices on the back of the cards and a $70 price margin.
The only real way to repeatedly test and determine if there is a difference between these two cards is to run them each through speed tests. Theoretically, I could fire a burst of photos on camera with each card and time how long it takes to clear the buffer, but there is no reason to believe that the speed tests here would provide a different result especially since — as I’ll explain below — I used two different card readers. Additionally, this method is much more repeatable and controlled.
For this test, I have both the Sony and ProGrade CFexpress cards as well as the official card readers from both companies: the Sony MRW-G2 and the ProGrade Digital CFexpress Type A and SD Reader. I ran both cards through both of the readers in order to both see if there was any benefit to using a card reader and card from the same manufacturer, but also to assure that there was no unfair advantage that would appear by using a Sony card on a Sony reader, for example. I did not think one would exist, but it’s safer to be sure.
I ran speed tests using the BlackMagic Speed Test application on an Apple MacBook Pro multiple times. Both card readers were connected via USB-C cables into the reader and into the laptop — I did not use the cable that converts the USB-C design to USB-A. Testing speeds on cards varies with each run that the card goes through and performance will vary slightly depending on individual cards and over time, but the screenshots below are good overall averages of what you can expect from the cards.
Sony Versus ProGrade via ProGrade Card Reader
First I want to show the results from running both cards through the ProGrade Digital combination CFexpress Type A and SD card reader:
ProGrade Digital CFexpress Type A CardSony CFexpress Type A Card
As you can see, both cards fell short of the promised “up to” 800 MB/s read spends and 700 MB/s write speeds. The ProGrade Digital card averaged around 679 MB/s write speeds and around 785 MB/s read speeds with the ProGrade reader. The Sony card performed pretty similarly, averaging around 683 MB/s write speeds and around 780 MB/s read speeds through the ProGrade reader.
While it appears the ProGrade Digital card read data a bit faster than the Sony and the Sony wrote data a bit faster than the ProGrade, the difference here is within a tolerable margin of error of around 5 MB/s, which means that there is effectively no difference in performance between these cards with the ProGrade reader.
Sony Versus ProGrade via Sony Card Reader
Next, I ran both cards through the Sony combination CFexpress and SD card reader:
ProGrade CFexpress Type A CardSony CFexpress Type A Card
The Prograde CFexpress card averaged around 654 MB/s write speeds and 730 MB/s read speeds when tested through the Sony reader. The Sony card averaged around 651 MB/s write speeds and 731 MB/s read speeds through the Sony reader. The results here are much closer than when the cards were compared through the ProGrade card reader and are absolutely within the expected margin of error.
As far as I am concerned, this confirms that the cards should effectively perform identically across mediums and cameras.
Curiously, both the ProGrade card and the Sony card performed worse through Sony’s reader than through ProGrade’s reader by a factor of nearly 20 MB/s in both read and write, which is more than I feel comfortable attributing to just a margin of error. I am not familiar with the inner workings of card readers and what might make one perform better than the other, but in my testing, ProGrade does take the win here as far as media readers.
Hunt the Best Price, Not the Brand
If you were afraid that the $70 discount in price between the Sony and the ProGrade cards would result in worse performance for ProGrade, I have good news: both cards should perform pretty much exactly the same.
One thing worth noting though is that as far as card readers go, ProGrade Digital’s CFexpress Type A and SD card combo reader appears to be a bit better than the Sony MRW-G2 Cfexpress Type A reader. Sony’s reader is also $120, while ProGrade’s is $80. So while I can comfortably recommend you can buy either the Sony or ProGrade card (whichever is on sale) and get the same performance, it appears the ProGrade card reader will give you better performance, albeit just a little.
That said, ProGrade’s reader is made of mostly plastic while Sony’s is an all-metal housing. I haven’t ever encountered a situation where I needed my card reader to be tough as nails, but if that’s important to you, Sony is likely the better choice even if it’s just a hair slower.
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Source: Tech Crunch
Scientists have discovered another clue to the origins of the virus that causes Covid-19, with bats living in caves in Laos found to be carrying a similar pathogen that experts suggest could potentially infect humans directly.
The virus has killed millions since it emerged in China in late 2019, and controversy continues to swirl around where it came from.
Some experts say it is animal-driven but others have pointed to the possibility the pathogen leaked from a lab.
Researchers from France’s Pasteur Institute and the National University of Laos said their findings showed that viruses genetically close to the SARS-CoV-2 virus “exist in nature” among bat species in the limestone caves of northern Laos, which neighbours China.
Of the viruses they identified among the hundreds of bats tested in Vientiane Province, three were found to closely resemble the virus that causes Covid-19, particularly in the mechanism for latching on to human cells.
“The idea was to try to identify the origin of this pandemic,” Marc Eloit, who leads the Pasteur Institute’s pathogen discovery laboratory, told AFP.
Eloit, whose team analysed the samples collected, said there were still key differences between the viruses found and SARS-CoV-2.
But he said the work was “a major step forward” in identifying the pandemic’s origin, confirming the theory that the coronavirus that has spread across the world could have started with living bats.
The authors of the study, which has been submitted to Nature for peer review, warned that their findings suggest the new viruses “seem to have the same potential for infecting humans as early strains of SARS-CoV-2”.
“People working in caves, such as guano collectors, or certain ascetic religious communities who spend time in or very close to caves, as well as tourists who visit the caves, are particularly at risk of being exposed,” the authors said.
‘Natural spillover’
International experts sent to China by the World Health Organization (WHO) in January concluded that it was most likely that the SARS-CoV-2 virus jumped from bats to humans via an intermediate animal.
A competing hypothesis that the virus leaked from a lab like the specialised virology laboratory in Wuhan was deemed “extremely unlikely”, although it has yet to be ruled out.
Martin Hibbert, Professor of Emerging Infectious Disease at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine — who was not involved in the Laos research — said the most closely related virus was found to be able to infect human cells “as easily” as SARS-CoV-2 and therefore might be capable of infecting humans.
But he stressed that the virus is “not an ancestor of the pandemic strain”.
“This work confirms the expected diverse nature of bat infecting coronaviruses and increases the evidence that natural spill-over events from bats to humans can occur,” said Hibbert.
The authors of the Laos study, which has been posted on the site Research Square, said their results suggest the pandemic coronavirus potentially evolved through mixing between different viruses and species of bats.
James Wood, Head of Department of Veterinary Medicine at University of Cambridge — who was also not involved in the research — said it suggests “recombination between different viruses was likely involved, rather than there being a simple evolution of a single lineage over a long period”.
In a comment to the Science Media Centre he said this not only underscores the likely role played by bats and perhaps other animals living closely together, but also shows the “risks inherent in living wildlife trade”, where markets can help drive cross-species zoonotic transmission.
As California struggles with another crippling drought, a Silicon Valley startup that believes robots can grow produce more sustainably said Wednesday it raised $50 million in a funding round led by Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures.
Iron Ox uses robots that are integrated with a hydroponic system consuming 90% less water than traditional farms, said CEO Brandon Alexander.
The company is putting that system to work at a 10,000-square foot (930 square meter) greenhouse in Gilroy, California, where a self-driving robot named Grover moves pallets of Genovese Basil and a robotic arm system lifts the pallets for inspection. Sensors check the water for nitrogen and acidity levels for healthy growth.
“Then they say, ‘What is missing? What does that plant need that we’re not giving it’,” Alexander said. Any water not used can be pumped back into the system to be reused later.
Agriculture plays an important role in California’s economy, but water usage is increasingly in the spotlight. The last major drought in 2012-2017 cut irrigation for farmers, forced strict household conservation measures and stoked deadly wildfires.
Iron Ox grows Thai basil and strawberries and is working on cilantro, parsley, and tomatoes. The company is also building a new 535,000-square-foot greenhouse in Lockhart, Texas, 30 miles (48 km) south of Austin.
Alexander said hydroponics – saving water by growing plants without soil – is just one piece of the puzzle for future farming.
“To really eliminate waste, to really get to that next level of sustainability and impact, we have to rethink the entire grow process,” he said.
The funding round included investors from Crosslink Capital, R7 Partners, and Pathbreaker Ventures, among others. Iron Ox declined to comment on its valuation.
Microsoft has announced that Office 2021 will be launching alongside Windows 11 with the company already set the new operating system’s launch date for October 5.
Office 2021 will be available in the following versions:
Microsoft Office Home and Student 2021
Microsoft Office Home and Business 2021
Microsoft Visio Standard 2021
Microsoft Visio Professional 2021
Microsoft Project Standard 2021
Microsoft Project Professional 2021
Office 2021 is practically identical to Office Long Term Servicing Channel (LTSC), a software suite that the company already distributes to business customers, according to a report.
Microsoft will continue to offer 32-bit versions as well and you do not need to purchase a Microsoft 365 subscription for the next version of Office as Microsoft’s MSRP remains as it was for the 2019 edition.
The company has not yet released much information about features the new version of Office will have. But, it has confirmed that Office 2021 will have a new standard font, XLOOKUP, Dynamic arrays and Instant Search, among other changes.
Apple Watch Series 7, the latest addition to Apple’s wearable tech family. The Series 7‘s new features have the potential to add more convenience to a lot of everyday tasks, from checking the time to responding to texts and tracking your sleep.
Apple unveiled the $399 Apple Watch Series 7 during its product launch event on Sept. 14 alongside the iPhone 13 family, a refreshed iPad Mini, and a new entry-level iPad. The company hasn’t specifically said when the Series 7 will launch, beyond later this fall.
Here are the best exciting new features of the Apple Watch Series 7.
Apple Watch Series 7 will have a QWERTY keyboard for real typing
The Apple Watch is getting a new, QWERTY keyboard that takes advantage of its larger screen, which is about 20% bigger than the Series 6’s, allowing you to type similarly to the way you would on your phone.
What’s new: A full-size keyboard means that you won’t be limited to sending a canned response to a text, scribbling a quick note or dictating a message, as is the case with the Apple Watch Series 6.
How you’ll use it: The Apple Watch Series 7’s QWERTY keyboard will let you tap each key to type, or use Apple’s QuickPath feature to swipe between letters without lifting your finger.
The bottom line: The Series 7’s QWERTY keyboard should make it easier to send longer and more complex messages that are uncomfortable to scribble or too private to dictate. It’s another example of how the Apple Watch has evolved to become better at working independently of your phone in the years since its launch.
Larger screen
The Apple Watch Series 7 is getting its first major redesign since the Series 4 launched in 2018. The new watch will come in 41-millimeter and 45mm sizes for the first time, representing a shift away from the 40mm and 44mm sizes that were available on the Series 4 through Series 6.
The Apple Watch Series 7’s screen is about 20% larger than the Series 6’s and more than 50% bigger than the Series 3’s. The borders that frame the screen are also 40% smaller than those of the Series 6, allowing Apple to expand the screen size without making the device much larger. Apple says older watch bands will still be compatible with the Series 7.
A brighter screen in always-on mode
Apple is also updating the Apple Watch’s display in a different way by making the screen more visible in always-on mode. It’s another addition that should make it even faster to get quick bits of information from your watch.
What’s new: The Apple Watch Series 7’s screen is up to 70% brighter in always-on mode when your wrist is down, according to Apple. However, Apple specifically says this applies to indoor usage, so it’s unclear whether you’ll see meaningful gains outdoors in direct sunlight.
How you’ll use it: The Series 7’s improved brightness means it should be even easier to see information like the time, your activity rings and your next meeting without having to wake the watch’s screen.
Fast charging as compared to Series 6
The battery of the Apple Watch Series 7 is expected to last as long as the Series 6, but Apple says it’s slashing the amount of time it takes to charge your watch. The Apple Watch Series 7 can charge up to 33% faster than the Apple Watch Series 6. It should take 45 minutes to charge from zero to 80%, and 8 minutes of charging should enable 8 hours of sleep tracking.
We’ve been asking for more battery life out of the Apple Watch for years, but that’s especially relevant now that Apple has added native sleep tracking to its smartwatches. Rather than extending the watch’s battery life, Apple is making it easier to quickly charge the watch during short windows throughout the day, presumably so that you don’t have to charge it overnight.
The Apple Watch Series 7 has a brawnier build
Apple is largely focusing on exercise tracking for the Apple Watch. The Series 7 should be more suitable for outdoor activity since Apple claims it has a more durable build.
What’s new: The Apple Watch Series 7 is rated for IP6X dust resistance (a first) and is coated in a crystal cover that Apple says is 50% thicker than that of the Apple Watch Series 6. That means you should feel at ease wearing it to the beach or during a hike.
How you’ll use it: The Series 7’s increased durability could pair nicely with the new cycling features in WatchOS 8. The new software brings an updated version of fall detection that Apple says can tell the difference between falling off a bicycle and a different type of accident. Apple also says WatchOS 8 should be able to automatically detect outdoor cycling workouts.
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