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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...

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...

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...

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....

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

This article is part of our coverage of the latest in AI research. In early May, Meta released Open Pretrained Transformer (OPT-175B), a large language model (LLM) that can perform various tasks. Large language models have become one of the hottest areas of research in artificial intelligence in the past few years. OPT-175B is the latest entrant in the LLM arms race triggered by OpenAI’s GPT-3, a...

Facebook Inc, now called Meta, announced its dating application, Facebook Dating, in May 2018. There was real excitement, with people expecting a revolutionary dating app that would soon beat Tinder. And it is no wonder when you consider the size of the company, its technical capabilities, and most importantly the large volume of data that Facebook has collected about its users. After all, research...

The pilot must have seen a crash coming. The BlockDown Web3 conference was kicking off the next day. TNW was flying in to attend — but the fates had other plans. After descending towards the landing strip in Split, Croatia, the plane suddenly reversed course and climbed back into the skies. A shroud of Saharan sand had made it too dangerous to land —...

There currently exists no machine capable of superhuman feats of intelligence. I’m sorry to be the one who bursts your bubble but, at least for the time being, that’s the way the universe works. It might seem like AI is smarter than humans in some ways. For example, the powerful neural networks used by big tech can sort through millions of files in a...

Transport operators are always looking at ways to increase passenger levels. And making comfortable carriages that offer a great user experience is the way forward. This week German long-distance rail operator Deutsche-Bahn launched images of a new interior redesign, part of their goal to modernize and improve the passenger experience. There’s a lot of wood, warm, natural colors, and modern fabrics to help you...

Qualcomm announced its XR1-based smart AR viewer last year before the “metaverse” became a buzzword. Now, it’s launching its new XR2-powered reference AR glasses so hardware manufacturers can “enable immersive experiences that unlock the metaverse.” But if we look beyond the marketing speak, the company’s new headset has gone wireless with a sleeker design. What does the new headset offer? The firm says it...

Most phone companies release several models throughout the year to give users more choice — and sell loads more devices than if they just offered a single one. Fairphone, a company with a core mission to make sustainable devices, is trying to chart a different path than most phone makers by breaking that cycle. It’s not a household name when it comes to buying...

. This week has been a big one in the EU, with the European Commission going all-in on renewable energy and, in particular,solar.  In March 2022, following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the European Union committed to entirely phase out its dependency on Russian gas, oil, and coal imports. It asked the European Commission to develop a plan on how to do so...

Traditional computer programming has a steep learning curve that requires learning a programming language, for example C/C++, Java or Python, just to build a simple application such as a calculator or Tic-tac-toe game. Programming also requires substantial debugging skills, which easily frustrates new learners. The study time, effort and experience needed often stop nonprogrammers from making software from scratch. No-code is a way to...

As car manufacturers and battery cell makers race to develop more efficient and faster-charging EV batteries, there’s one material that’s been gaining significant traction in replacing mainstream graphite in the battery’s anode: silicon. That’s because silicon has a theoretical energy capacity 10 times higher than that of graphite, meaning it can significantly increase an EV’s range. It can also absorb lithium-ions much quicker during...

A few months ago, Sony released the most interesting earbuds I’ve tested in years. The $180 LinkBuds — a rare Sony product with a pronounceable name — have a ring-shaped design that allows ambient sounds to filter through with perfect clarity. They also feature futuristic controls that allow you to tap the space in front of the earbuds rather than tapping on a tiny...

Sony is flaunting its entertainment arsenal in the battle for metaverse supremacy. The company has been diversifying a product portfolio that could lay strong foundations for virtual worlds. The Japanese conglomerate now boasts a revived music business, a movie studio that produces Marvel blockbusters, an immense film library, and the PlayStation gaming platform. The group’s music, movie, and gaming operations drove a fiscal fourth-quarter surge...

Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin were meant to be used as digital cash. Instead, they’ve become popular as speculative investments. As well as being resource-intensive and inherently wasteful, cryptocurrencies are also incredibly volatile. Prices for the largest cryptocurrencies, bitcoin and ethereum, have both dropped by over 55% in six months, leading some to suggest that regulation is needed to contain the turmoil. Some are blaming sliding...

Big Tech can be small-minded about the Global South.  Products conceived in Silicon Valley don’t always fit the needs and skills of Southern nations. Their launch can stymie homegrown competitors and fuel digital colonialism. The need for expertise is particularly vital in data science and AI. “If you’re looking at analytics, for example, getting a data scientist from the UK to come and integrate...

Have you heard maximalism is in and minimalism is out? Rooms bursting at the seams with clashing florals, colorful furniture, and innumerable knick-knacks, this is what defines the new interiors trend ‘cluttercore’ (or bricabracomania). Some say it’s a war between generation Z (born 1997-2012) and minimal millennials (born 1981-1996), symptomatic of bigger differences. Others say it’s a pandemic response, where our domestic prisons became...

The Elon Musk–Twitter saga has reached an extremely weird and uncomfortable point. Literally every few hours, the deal to acquire the social platform switches between full steam ahead to a hold state. If you’re an investor, user, or Twitter employee, it could be a really confusing time to understand where the company’s headed. I want to help you make sense of what’s happening with...

Calling a product ‘the best’ of anything isn’t something I take lightly. Everybody has different preferences and needs, so I always try to tailor recommendations to a person’s tastes. But when someone asks “what noise-canceling headphones should I get?” my answer is almost always “the Sonys.” Okay, sometimes one of Bose’s latest models gets the nod too, and I actually tend to find Bose’s...

It’s time to stop training radiologists. AI can predict where and when crimes will occur. This neural network can tell if you’re gay. There will be a million Tesla robotaxis on the road by the end of 2020. We’ve all seen the hyperbole. Big tech’s boldest claims make for the media’s most successful headlines, and the general public can’t get enough. Ask 100 people...

The crypto crash has spooked many investors, but blockchain bros have high hopes for one nascent application: GameFi. A portmanteau of “game” and “decentralized finance,” the model offers a chance at earning cash by gaming. Players who complete in-game tasks are rewarded with crypto and NFTs, which can then be traded for real money. It’s a tempting pitch on paper. But play-to-earn shows signs...

Ah, Uber. I’m just not sure what the company wants to be with its ever-expanding brand and platform. One day it’s a platform for flying cars. The next day it’s all about bikes, then it decides to let taxis share its platform.  And yesterday, it set its sights (or site, to be specific) much higher than ride-hailing and food delivery to something akin to...

Like Earth, planetary bodies such as the Moon, Mars, asteroids, and comets contain substantial deposits of valuable resources. This has caught the attention of both researchers and industry, with hopes of one day mining them to support a space economy. But setting up any kind of off-Earth mining industry will be no small feat. Let’s look at what we’re up against. In-situ resource utilization...

Rich people have a problem. No, it’s not lukewarm champagne or confrontation by stories of poor people in the news. How do they get their zillion-dollar yacht to the next sun-drenched destination location when they are tired of getting their feet wet? Thoughts and prayers, people.  I actually know a guy who sails people’syachts from one side of the world to the next. But...

Friends, some excellent news: recent reports suggest Apple will ditch the Lightning port and embrace USB-C on its gadgets from next year. There’s a problem though. If this news is excellent (which I’m certain it is), then why do I feel so sad? Before we try and unpack that mess, let’s suckle on a little slice of context. For the past several years, the...

Samsung has had a firm grip on several niches in the automotive components industry for some years now. With its own digital cockpit, its proprietary automotive processor, and various EV battery supply deals, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the hardware giant enter the market with its own electric car at some point. But Samsung has recently decided not to manufacture a dedicated electric...

Over the last few weeks, reports have suggested that Apple might finally ditch the lightning port and move towards a USB-C future. And I’m crossing my fingers hoping this will actually happen. First, Bloomberg and analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggested the iPhone 15 — which will be released next year — will sport a USB-C port. Now, a new note from Kuo suggests that some accessories...

A hundred kilometers away from the city of La Rioja, Argentina — and a thousand away from the capital Buenos Aires — lies the Los Colorados provincial reserve, which holds a Martian landscape filled with red soil and orange canyons. In this area, the Solar54 project will carry out a series of studies and tests of the different variables that will determine the human...

One of the useful features of search engines like Google is the autocomplete function that enables users to find fast answers to their questions or queries. However, autocomplete search functions are based on ambiguous algorithms that have been widely criticized because they often provide biased and racist results. The ambiguity of these algorithm stems from the fact that most of us know very little...

A few months ago, I quit my job at Google after 10 years to join a 40 person startup (Replit). At the time, I had a hard time expressing why I needed to make the change, even though I knew with certainty. Writing this helped me sort it out. I left because I needed to fix my work-life balance. I joined Google in early...

What do you need to make your garden grow? As well as plenty of sunshine alternating with gentle showers of rain – and busy bees and butterflies to pollinate the plants – you need good, rich soil to provide essential minerals. But imagine you had no rich soil, or showers of rain, or bees and butterflies. And the sunshine was either too harsh and...

If you had invested £100 (US$122) in the cryptocurrency Luna a month ago, you might have been quietly confident you’d made a sensible bet. But Luna’s value has since fallen drastically – at the time of writing, that £100 is worth around 4p (5¢). Luna was by no means the only victim in a week where cryptocurrencies were down 30%. Some have recovered to...

DeepMind today unveiled a new multi-modal AI system capable of performing more than 600 different tasks. Dubbed Gato, it’s arguably the most impressive all-in-one machine learning kit the world’s seen yet. According to a DeepMind blog post: The agent, which we refer to as Gato, works as a multi-modal, multi-task, multi-embodiment generalist policy. The same network with the same weights can play Atari, caption...

 It’s been a big week of updates on all things Google. Yesterday the company launched a bunch of handy updates for Android Auto, giving the in-car digital experience a much-needed refresh with added features and a far superior user interface. Let’s take a look. Split screen for the win I’m liking the split screen functionality Android‘s making split screen mode standard across all screen...

This week, escooter company Bird launched the latest tech to stop bad rider behavior. The Bird VPS (Visual Parking System) was shown on stage at Google I/O, demonstrating the latest tech to monitor escooter parking. The tool is powered by Google’s ARCore Geospatial API, enabling Bird to geo-localize parked scooters with pinpoint accuracy. This is achieved by taking advantage of the tech giant’s years...

Some cryptocurrencies have always been fairly volatile, with values soaring or plunging within a short space of time. So for the more cautious investor, “stablecoins” were considered the sensible place to go. As the name implies, they are designed to be a steadier and safer bet. At the moment though, that stability is proving hard to find. The value of one of the most...

Tesla has finally opened orders for its long-anticipated, electric Semi truck — to US customers at least. Expectedly, the automaker didn’t reveal any production date, but this week it did give us a better glance at performance figures, claimed range, and pricing. Credit: Tesla Performance specs Tesla will offer two different Semi models: one with 482km (300 miles) of range, and one with 804km...

The road map to replacing old-fashioned carbon-emitting cars with electric vehicles is well developed – at least in theory. All the major car makers (and even some of the smaller ones) are publicly committed to electric. But actually, buying a new electric car? That’s another matter entirely. Volkswagen, the largest car manufacturer in the world, recently announced it had sold out of electric vehicles in the US...

Elon Musk said today he’s temporarily putting the Twitter deal on hold — because of bots. Yep, you read that right. Musk said the company has to prove that bots consist of less than 5% of users on the platform. This comes after a Twitter filing with SEC earlier this month, that claimed that the number of bots and spam accounts in its daily...

Black holes are among the most profound predictions of Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Originally studied as a mere mathematical consequence of the theory rather than as physically relevant objects, they soon became thought of as generic and sometimes inevitable outcomes of the gravitational collapse that initially forms a galaxy. In fact, most physicists have suspected that our own galaxy revolves around a supermassive...

The ACLU and Clearview AI, a controversial facial recognition company, reached a legal settlement earlier this week that’s been hailed as a huge win by both parties. The big story here is that Clearview AI can no longer sell its databases to third party companies — but that’s not exactly news. Up front: The suit was filed in 2020 by the ACLU. It alleged...

If you’re searching for a new job or switching careers, a good CV will really make or break your application. After all, it represents a snapshot of your professional life. But how do you make sure that you’re putting your best foot forward? The general consensus around CVs is constantly changing. From gimmick CVs printed on donut boxes to wacky application videos, hiring managers...

In the context of work, the digital divide has become less about access to devices and connectivity and more about skills and mindset. Many experienced professionals have never learned more than the rudimentary basics of email, web search and Microsoft Office. Instead, they lean hard on nearby colleagues or the IT helpdesk when things go wrong. By contrast, young people have already demonstrated a...