List of All Articles with Tag 'tech'

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has urged the public to think about their data privacy before buying smart tech devices in Black Friday sales. The data protection regulator has issued a set of tips for shoppers ahead of the online sales event, reminding them to research how different smart devices collect their data before purchasing them. The tips encourage people to “think before you click” to buy a new smart device, but once they do have it to ensure they regularly install software updates, choose a strong password and “be picky” about who gets access to their personal data. Our recent investigation found smart tech firms are collecting more data than they need and burying this important information in lengthy terms and conditions Rocio Concha, Which? “We know that consumers want to enjoy the benefits of smart devices but that they also value their privacy in an increasingly connected world,” information commissioner John Edwards said. “They shouldn’t have to choose between the two. These tips from our tech experts will help consumers to make informed purchases and have more control over how their personal data is being used.” The ICO’s guidance also encourages people to wipe their old devices before they get rid of them, and request their data be deleted via a device’s settings or by contacting the company behind the device. Rocio Concha, director of policy and advocacy at consumer group Which? said: “Which? is warning consumers to be wary when shopping for connected tech products this Black Friday. “Make sure you have researched the product you’re thinking of buying, steer clear of any that have concerning security flaws and check to see how you can control the data the device is able to access or collect. “Our recent investigation found smart tech firms are collecting more data than they need and burying this important information in lengthy terms and conditions. “It’s positive that the ICO is looking at updating its guidelines on smart tech privacy and vital that this leads to better protection for consumers against accidentally giving up huge swathes of their own data without realising.” Read More Meta to allow users to delete Threads accounts without losing Instagram AI among biggest threats to next UK election, cyber security agency warns AI can create Caucasian faces that look more real than actual humans – study

By David Shepardson and Ben Klayman WASHINGTON/DETROIT (Reuters) -General Motors' Cruise driverless car unit said on Tuesday it will pause

(This Nov. 13 story has been corrected to remove reference to China in the headline, to clarify that TikTok is

Sperm can “defy the laws of physics”, according to new research. The laws of motion have helped us to comprehend the behaviours of the natural world for centuries, but sperm appears to go against one of the laws set down by Isaac Newton. Kenta Ishimoto and his fellow mathematical scientists from Kyoto University have revealed new research which suggests that sperm actually display qualities which don't follow Newton’s third law of motion. Science enthusiasts will know that the third law states that “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”. However, sperm seems to go against this. According to their research, the tails of sperm known as “flagella” have an “odd elastic” quality which makes them able to travel through viscous fluids without losing much energy. While scientists would normally expect them to be slowed down by the viscous fluids, they’re able to propel themselves forward much easier than researchers would have predicted – and seemingly avoid coming into contact with an equal and opposite reaction. "From solvable simple models to biological flagellar waveforms for Chlamydomonas and sperm cells, we studied the odd-bending modulus to decipher the nonlocal, nonreciprocal inner interactions within the material,” the team behind the study said. "Odd elasticity is not a generic term for activity in solids, but rather a well-defined physical mechanism that generates active forces in solids or in other systems in which a generalized elasticity can be defined without using an elastic potential." Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings

Scientists are learning new things all the time about the early days of life on Earth, and a new discovery could change our understanding of evolution in our oceans. Algae are among the most vital life forms of the planet today – and new research into algae’s ancient ancestors makes for intriguing reading. Palaeontologist Tom Harvey from the University of Leicester believes he’s found fossilised phytoplankton which was key to the makeup of the oceans 500 million years ago. A new study authored by Harvey and published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B focuses on samples he found in rock from Newfoundland, Canada, While there’s more known about the early animals that dominated the food chains at that time, the smaller organisms around 500 million years ago are still relatively unstudied. Harvey’s research focuses on the microscopic creatures – and it all came about by chance. While he was actually looking for animal skin in rocks using a microscope, he instead stumbled upon collections of geometric clusters, which he later concluded were ancient forerunners to algae. “The cells were quite big, they formed quite a large colony that has this amazing geometry,” he said. “It was just too mysterious. I didn’t even want to hazard a guess.” According to Harvey’s findings, it’s evidence that the animals at that time filtered seawater for phytoplankton – which would mark the earliest evidence of them doing so, which is vital to the makeup of ocean ecosystems. Like today’s life forms, it’s thought that chemical signals sent by nearby animals caused the ancient samples to divide and grow. It also fills a space in the records of phytoplankton and helps to paint a well-rounded picture of evolution over time, given that the phytoplankton we see today only traces back around 200 million years ago. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings

Sometimes when a friend sends you a message on Snapchat, for whatever reason you could take a sneak peek by half swiping on the message. But, there's now a new feature on Snapchat Plus where users can see if their friends have half-swiped on the message - so a lot of Snapchatters could be caught out with this tool. However, if you want to get this feature yourself and catch your pals out with the half-swipe read then it costs $3.99/£3.99 per month for a Snapchat Plus account which would enable you to get a range of exclusive and experimental features such as Best Friends Forever. Here is how to toggle on the feature: Once subscribed to Snapchat Plus, click on your Bitmoji to go to your profile Tap the ‘Settings’ in the top right Scroll down to ‘Peek a Peek’ Move the slider to the green ‘On’ position You can now see which friends are trying to be stealthy. For those wanting to try Snapchat Plus, you can subscribe by going to your profile and pressing the Snapchat+ banner card at the top, then select a subscription and purchase before closing and reopening the app to see the benefits. Something to remember next time if you're contemplating this half-swipe tactic. How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

A new artificial intelligence breakthrough could revolutionise weather forecasts, its creators say. The new technology, built by Google Deepmind, allows for 10-day weather forecasts to be produced in just a minute. And it does so with unprecedented accuracy, Deepmind said. The forecasts made by the GraphCast system are not only more accurate but produced more efficiently, meaning they can be made more quickly and with fewer resources. It can also help spot possible extreme weather events, being able to predict the movement of cyclones and provide early alerts of possible floods and extreme temperatures. Google therefore says it could help save lives by allowing people to better prepare. At the moment, weather forecasts usually rely on a system called Numerical Weather Prediction, which combined physics equations with computer algorithms that are run on supercomputers. That requires vast computing resources as well as detailed expertise by weather forecasters. The new system is one of a range of technologies that instead use deep learning. Instead of looking at physical equations, it learns from weather data and then uses that to model how the Earth’s weather changes over time. Creating the model was intensive, since it required training on decades of weather data. But now that it is created it could vastly reduce the resources required for predicting the weather: 10-day forecasts take a minute on one machine, a process that might otherwise take hours and use hundreds of machines in a supercomputer. In use, the system was able to provide more accurate forecasts than the gold-standard traditional system in 90 per cent of tests, its creators write in a paper newly published in the journal Science. What’s more, the system is able to spot extreme weather events despite not being trained on it. In September for instance it had predicted the path of Hurricane Lee nine days before it arrived, compared to six days for traditional forecasts. Deepmind noted that GraphCast’s prediction of extreme temperatures could be particularly useful given the climate crisis. The system can predict areas where the heat will arrive above the historical top temperatures, allowing people to anticipate heat waves and prepare for them. The company will also open source the system so that it can be used by others. That may help with other new tools and research to help tackle environmental challenges, Deepmind said. Read More Battery breakthrough brings ‘unprecedented performance’ to next-gen cells Meta to allow users to delete Threads accounts without losing Instagram

By Darya Korsunskaya and Alexander Marrow (Reuters) -Yandex's Dutch holding company is considering selling all its Russian assets in one

FRANKFURT EU rules to protect the financial system from risks stemming from cryptocurrencies contain a loophole that allows

(Reuters) -Amazon.com said on Monday it would allow Snapchat users in the United States to buy some products directly from

A battery breakthrough made by researchers in Japan could pave the way for next-generation batteries to finally enter mass production. A team from Tokyo University of Science discovered a way to build sodium-ion batteries with an equivalent performance to conventional lithium-ion batteries. Lithium-ion, or li-ion, batteries are found in everything from electric cars to smartphones, however they are made from difficult-to-extract and expensive resources, while also containing liquid electrolytes that are toxic and flammable. By contrast, sodium-ion batteries are cheaper, offer stability against extreme temperatures, and pose no risk of overheating. Until now, their main limitation has been a lower energy density compared to li-ion batteries. To overcome this limitation, the scientists developed a high-capacity electrode made from nanostructured hard carbon, which they were able to optimise and then incorporate into an actual battery. The researchers said the new electrodes deliver “unprecedented performance” and offer a viable option for producing next-generation batteries for consumer electronics and electric vehicles. “This value is equivalent to the energy density of certain types of currently commercialised lithium-ion batteries... and is more than 1.6 times the energy density of the first sodium-ion batteries, which our laboratory reported back in 2011,” said Professor Shinichi Komaba from Tokyo University of Science. The breakthrough could also make sodium-ion batteries viable for other practical applications, such as low carbon footprint energy storage systems for solar and wind farms. The research was detailed in a study, titled ‘New template synthesis of anomalously large capacity hard carbon for Na- and K-ion batteries’, published in the journal Advanced Energy Materials. Read More Breakthrough solar system outperforms military-grade diesel generator

LONDON Britain's interior ministry has told food delivery firms Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Just Eat to implement stricter