I suck at sleeping. I’ve always been one of those people who toss and turn for hours before falling into a light slumber. Then, at the sound of a pin-drop, my eyes flutter open and I’m doomed to spend another hour willing myself to fall back asleep. It’s exhausting. Luckily I’m also a technology reporter and the parent of a toddler. I’ve got a couple tips to help you snag some extra Zzz’s under even the worst conditions, and I’m happy to share....

Duo is Google’s video chatting app, and, like almost all video-chatting apps, it’s getting a lot more use during the coronavirus lockdown than it did before. It’s now rolling out a feature that allows users to invite friends to a call with a link. In case you’re wondering what’s the difference between Google Duo and Google Meet: unlike Meet (or Hangouts, for that matter), which are designed to accommodate multiple people, Google Duo is more like a person-to-person call....

Shortcuts for iOS is a useful app for automating actions on your iPhone or iPad. In this series, we’ve been looking at a variety of workflows to make your Apple device a lot more powerful to accomplish specific tasks. Today, we’ll take a look at another simple automation to combine multiple PDF documents or image files into a single PDF document. While there are lots of websites and apps that offer this functionality, Shortcuts makes it dead simple and doesn’t require you to upload files....

There are three main approaches that have been discussed over the past couple of years, and it’s worth taking a look at the merits and limitations of each as well as the human element involved. After all, knowing the capabilities of your team and who you’re attempting to serve with data science influences heavily how to implement it. The more researchers (people capable of inventing new algorithms), coders (those who can actually write the underlying code to make data science “real”), and classic data scientists (folks who blend data, tools and expertise) an organization has, the more options there are available to you....

One of Facebook’s most subtly ingenious features is the birthday fundraiser. It prompts users to set one up on or near their birthday to raise money for various nonprofits — essentially capitalizing on the moment when everyone on your Facebook list suddenly remembers you exist to generate some social good. The company launched the feature in 2017. Originally Facebook collected a fee from the money raised, but it no longer does....

Ok… let’s start with a story. I lived in Amsterdam for 3 years. When I moved there I was very lucky to find an apartment in a building that was recently finished. My wife and I were the first people to ever live in our apartment, and the building even had a lift — you might not realize it, but in Amsterdam, that is kind of a big deal. Unfortunately, and probably because we were so excited about the whole “new building” situation, we didn’t realize there was one essential thing missing… Lighting!...

Tabletop games are all the rage right now (some things never change) but gamers are so spoiled for choice that it can be daunting for newcomers to get started. This guide’s meant to take you from zero knowledge (what is Dungeons and Dragons?) to ready to roll some dice without wasting any of your time or money. Tabletop RPGs can be an expensive hobby. While you can usually find a free sample rulebook or an inexpensive new player’s guide, core rulebooks usually cost $15-50....

A model that is very expressive has a low bias, but it can also be too complex. While a model that generates predictions that aren’t too far off from the true value has low variance. Overfitting When the model is too complex and tries to encode more patterns from the training data than it’s actually necessary, it will start picking up on noise. Since it’s already going beyond the real patterns of the data, the model is overfitting the data....

Even when AI is used to automate parts of marketing strategies, it’s clear that it’s a much more efficient way of collecting and analyzing data, allowing businesses to better understand their customers, and freeing up more time for interpreting the data and using it to improve every stage of the customer journey. But are we taking advantage of this game-changing tech as much as we can? With the ability to gather and analyze behavioral data, operate with real-time integration and prediction, and autonomously create a continuous loop of learning and improving, there are endless possibilities we can leverage to better serve our customers....

Airlines have flown empty planes to try and keep their usual slots despite flight prices dropping below unimaginable levels — tickets from New York to Miami were on offer for just $51 several weeks ago. The situation is such that comparisons to the 9/11 terrorist attacks — which brought the travel industry to its knees — don’t seem overtly far-fetched. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) trade body estimates that worldwide revenue could fall by between $63 billion and $113 billion, or as much as 20% this year....

Fortunately, the Hubble Space Telescope trained its eye on the head of the comet on April 20 and the 23rd as the spaceborne iceberg broke apart. The first image showed 30 fragments where the nucleus (main body) of the comet should have been found. The second observation showed 25 pieces of ice and rock, each the size of a typical house or larger. “Their appearance changes substantially between the two days, so much so that it’s quite difficult to connect the dots....

Kate Darling, a robotics researcher at the MIT Media Lab, conducted an experiment: she asked the participants to hang out with robots (which were dressed up as cute baby dinosaurs), give them names, stare at them, and talk to them. After a couple of hours of human-machine “quality time,” she then surprised the group with a harsh command: they must torture the robots, and, finally, kill them! Emotions were flying high....

I want other startup founders to know that it’s possible to build a wildly successful SaaS business without VC funding, angel investors, or taking on shoulder-crushing traditional debt. Those who have bootstrapped a startup previously will more than likely relate to the lessons I’m going to touch on, which I hope will inspire and help those who are looking to start their first business. We didn’t use any top-secret growth hacks or have game-changing connections in the early days of Maropost....

Giulio Zompetti, a developer who also happens to collect rare Apple devices, recently got his hands on what are reportedly partially-transparent Apple prototypes. Behold, the translucent AirPods: — Giulio Zompetti (@1nsane_dev) November 30, 2021 Oooh, ahhh. Of course, if you want transparent headphones that are actually meant to be transparent, Nothing has you covered. But it’s nice to imagine a universe where this is an option Apple provides too. Heck, even Apple’s transparent 29W USB-C brick looks amazing:...

An end-to-end, integrated chemical research system unveiled by IBM last week gives us a glimpse of how artificial intelligence, robotics and the cloud might change the future of drug discovery. And it’s a good time as any to see some a breakthrough in the field. The world is still struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic, and the race to the find a vaccine for the dangerous novel coronavirus has not yet yielded reliable results....

According to a report by The Indian Express, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has already started the program on a trial basis, asking citizens to report illegal content on the internet. MHA wants these volunteers to identify posts that include child pornography, rape, terrorism, radicalization, and anti-national activities. [Read: How much does it cost to buy, own, and run an EV? It’s not as much as you think] As reported by the Wire, Jammu & Kashmir police already released a statement asking people to register as volunteers on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal: The publication noted that while people signing up might have to upload a valid government ID, there won’t be any verification process to vet them....

I wasn’t the only one facing this problem. A lot of users in India found that the site had been blocked because of an order from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). There was no explanation as to why the site was banned. However, a few days later, the site was accessible again. The owners of the site were aware of the problem. However, there was no official communication from the government to suggest what was the problem related to the site....

For something that important, you should really turn to some experts for input. Now, you can rely on the experience of some of the world’s top marketing executives with the insight in The 2019 State of Marketing Report, on sale now for just $39. And when we say report, we mean a comprehensive report. Created by a team of experienced marketing pros themselves, this examination of marketing in 2019 identifies actionable steps that can drive a business forward — or definitely leave it spinning its wheels....

Last week, researchers from Intel Labs unveiled an AI-powered revamp of the Rockstar classic that brings the graphics close to photorealism. TNW spoke to Intel research scientist Stephen Richter to find out more about the technique — and the potential to productionize the method. The cornerstone of the Intel Labs method is a convolutional network, a deep learning architecture that’s commonly used for image processing. The team trained their convolutional networks on real-life images to translate GTA V’s graphics to a model of reality....

Deep Fusion has finally made its way in the latest iteration of Apple’s operating system for mobile, iOS 13.2 (but only the developer beta) — and the results are making the Android fan in me very upset. For those unfamiliar, Deep Fusion relies on the iPhone’s A13 Bionic chip and its Neural Engine to perform pixel-by-pixel processing to improve texture, details, and noise reduction in less-than-ideal lighting. Apple says the feature will kick in automatically, similarly to its new Night mode....