Scrap coercive ‘privacy fee’, MEPs urge Meta’s Nick Clegg in open letter
Meta is facing a call from lawmakers in the European Union to scrap its controversial “consent or pay” tactic on Facebook and Instagram. Currently, the company demands a per-account fee of €9.99/month on web or €12.99/month on mobile for users in the region wanting to avoid its tracking. No other
Read MoreExperiences with Thread Programming in Microsoft Windows
Lately I’ve been helping a colleague to add worker threads to his GUI-based Windows application. Thread programming can be tricky. Here are a few things I’ve learned along the way. Performance. This app does compute-intensive work. It is helpful to offload this very compute-heavy work to a worker thread. Doing
Read MoreHow can augmented reality (AR) enhance real world experiences?
With 5G, augmented reality (AR) gets even better. It makes images show up faster, delivers content quickly, and processes things more efficiently, unlocking the full potential of AR. In future, the growing availability of 5G connectivity promises to enable innovative companies to take AR to the next level with richer,
Read MoreOPPO to Introduce IoT and AI Product Ecosystem to South Africa
OPPO, a global smart device brand, is thrilled to announce its focus on the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem with its 2024 product lineup in the South African market. For those unfamiliar, IoT refers to the interconnected network of physical devices capable of collecting and exchanging data, facilitating smart and
Read MoreMercedes begins piloting Apptronik humanoid robots
Pilot season has officially begun for the world of humanoid robotics. Last year, Amazon began testing Agility’s Digit robots in select fulfillment centers, while this January, Figure announced a deal with BMW. Now Apptronik is getting in on the action, courtesy of a partnership with Mercedes-Benz. According to the Austin-based
Read MoreIndia cuts import taxes on EVs in win for Tesla’s entry plans
India will lower import taxes on certain electric vehicles for companies committing to invest at least $500 million and setting up a local manufacturing facility within three years, a move that could potentially bolster Tesla’s plans to enter the South Asian market. Companies must invest a minimum of $500 million
Read MoreAbu Dhabi’s ADIA explores investment in India’s Pocket FM, sources say
Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund ADIA is in talks to back Pocket FM in a large new round of funding, two sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch, as the Indian audio-storytelling platform makes deeper inroads in the U.S. The talks for the new round, which have been ongoing for
Read MoreYour whole repo fits in the context window
The home team discusses the challenges (hardware and otherwise) of building AI models at scale, why major players like Meta are open-sourcing their AI projects, what Apple’s recent changes mean for developers in the EU, and Perplexity AI’s new approach to search.
Read MoreApple acquires AI startup specializing in overlooking manufacturing components
Apple has added another AI startup to its acquisition list with Canada-based DarwinAI, which specializes in vision-based tech to observe components during manufacturing to improve efficiency, Bloomberg reported. While Apple or DarwinAI haven’t announced this deal, several members of the startup’s team joined Apple’s machine learning teams in January, as
Read MorePaytm secures license it needed to survive
India’s Paytm has secured a vital license it needed to survive and maintain continuity of several core features of its eponymous payments app, a day before the firm’s banking unit is scheduled to cease operations because of regulatory clampdown. The National Payments Corporation of India, the firm that built the
Read More