Researchers shed light on how WeChat censors images in private chats automatically in real time by using a massive and growing index of MD5 cryptographic hashes — The super app instantly blocks even the images for over 1 billion users and growing. — WeChat is a window into the future of the internet in many different ways.
Xiaomi is all set to launch the new Redmi K20 series phones in India today. Both phones were released in China a couple of months ago. They feature a new 3D four-curved large arc body and a front camera module that is housed in a pop-up module. Moreover, the Redmi K20 Pro is the new Xiaomi flagship device powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chipset, whereas, the Redmi K20 houses the mid-range Snapdragon 730 SoC. The launch event starts at 12pm today. It will be livestreamed on Xiaomi’s official website, social media accounts, and its YouTube channel.
The price and availability of both smartphones could be announced at the event today. However, the pricing is expected to be similar to the Chinese model, that is, CNY 2,499 (approx Rs 24,900) for the Redmi K20 Pro basic variant, 6GB RAM + 64GB storage, and CNY 2,599 (approx Rs 25,900) for the 6GB RAM + 128GB storage variant. The pricing of 8GB RAM variant could start at Rs 27,900, and could go up to Rs 29,900 for the 256GB storage variant.
In contrast to the Redmi K20 Pro, its younger sibling, the Redmi K20 is expected to be priced at Rs 19,900 for the 6GB RAM + 64GB internal storage variant, which could go up to Rs 25,900 for the 8GB RAM + 256GB storage variant.
Alongside these devices, a special variant of the Redmi K20 Pro is expected to be launched at Rs 4,80,800. Why the massive price tag? Well, it could come with gold and diamond in it.
As for the specifications, both devices have many similarities, including a 6.39-inch full-HD+ AMOLED panel with 19.5:9 aspect ratio and 91.9-percent screen-to-body ratio. They also have an in-display fingerprint scanner and run on MIUI 10. They could be launched with up to 8GB RAM and 256GB of internal storage.
The main difference is in the processor. As mentioned at the beginning of this article, the Redmi K20 Pro is powered by the Snapdragon 855 SoC, while the Redmi K20 comes with the Snapdragon 730 chipset. The other dissimilarity is in the optics department. While both the phones feature a triple camera setup with a 48MP primary sensor, the Redmi K20 Pro includes a Sony IMX586 sensor, and the Redmi K20 sports the Sony IMX582 sensor. Both phones feature a 13MP secondary sensor with wide-angle lens, and an 8MP tertiary sensor with a f/2.4 lens.
Both the phones pack a 4000mAh battery. While the Redmi K20 has 18W fast-charging support, the Redmi K20 Pro comes with 27W fast-charging.
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A look at privacy-focused DuckDuckGo, which has ~1% share of the search engine market but says it handles ~40M searches a day, up 3x over the past two years — PAOLI, Pa. — Gabriel Weinberg is taking aim at Google from a small building 20 miles west of Philadelphia that looks like a fake castle.
Neuralink, the Elon Musk-led startup that the multi-entrepreneur founded in 2017, is working on technology that’s based around ‘threads’ which it says can be implanted in human brains with much less potential impact to the surrounding brain tissue vs. what’s currently used for today’s brain-computer interfaces. “Most people don’t realize, we can solve that with a chip,” Musk said to kick off Neuralink’s event, talking about some of the brain disorders and issues the company hopes to solve.
Musk also said that long-term Neuralink really is about figuring out a way to “achieve a sort of symbiosis with artificial intelligence.” “This is not a mandatory thing,” he added. “This is something you can choose to have if you want.”
For now, however, the aim is medical and the plan is to use a robot that Neuralink has created that operates somewhat like a “sewing machine” to implant this threads, which are incredibly thin I(like, between 4 and 6 μm, which means about one-third the diameter of the thinnest human hair), deep within a person’s brain tissue, where it will be capable of performing both read and write operations at very high data volume.
All of this sounds incredibly far-fetched, and to some extent it still is: Neuralink’s scientists told The New York Times in a briefing on Monday that the company has a “long way to go” before it can get anywhere near offering a commercial service. The main reason for breaking cover and talking more freely about what they’re working on, the paper reported, is that they’ll be better able to work out in the open and publish papers, which is definitely an easier mode of operation for something that requires as much connection with the academic and research community as this.
Neuralink co-founder and president Max Hodak told the NYT that he’s optimistic Neuralink’s tech could theoretically see use somewhat soon in medical use, including potential applications enabling amputees to regain mobility via use of prosthetics and reversing vision, hearing or other sensory deficiencies. It’s hoping to actually begin working with human test subjects as early as next year, in fact, including via possible collaboration with neurosurgeons at Stanford and other institutions.
The current incarnation of Neuralink’s tech would involve drilling actual holes into a subject’s skull in order to insert the ultra thin threads, but future iterations will shift to using lasers instead to create tiny holes that are much less invasive and essentially not felt by a patient, Hodak told the paper. Working on humans next year with something that meets this description for a relatively new company might seem improbable, but Neuralink did demonstrate its technology used on a laboratory rat this week, with performance levels that exceed today’s systems in terms of data transfer. The data from the rat was gathered via a USB-C port in its head, and it provided about 10x more what the best current sensors can offer, according to Bloomberg.
Neurlalink’s advances vs. current BCI methods also include the combined thinness and flexibility of the ‘threads’ used, but one scientist wondered about their longevity when exposed to the brain, which contains a salt mix fluid that can damage and ultimately degrade plastics over time. The plan is also that the times electrodes implanted in the brain will be able to communicate wirelessly with chips outside the brain, providing real time monitoring with unprecedented freedom of motion, without any external wires or connections.
Elon Musk is bankrolling the majority of this endeavour as well as acting as its CEO, with $100 million of the $158 million its raised so far coming from the SpaceX and Tesla CEO. It has 90 employees thus far, and still seems to be hiring aggressively based on its minimal website (which basically only contains job ads). Elon Musk also noted at the outset of today’s presentation that the main reason for the event was in fact to recruit new talent.
Apple is said to be planning to bankroll the creation of original podcasts from third-parties that it will offer exclusively on its own streaming services, Bloomberg reports. The report says that Apple’s plans to land podcast exclusives will help the company compete with similar offerings from streaming rivals including Spotify and Sticher, both of which are funding exclusive podcast content, and in some cases, wholly original shows to run on their own streaming audio offerings.
The report says that Apple execs have been reaching out to media companies that produce audio content to talk about the possibility of buying exclusive rights to some podcasts, albeit in a “preliminary” way, which suggests that this plan may be in the very early stages. It seems unlikely, then, that we would see any kind of Apple exclusive original podcast content ahead of other media efforts soon to launch from the company, including its Apple TV+ subscription video service coming this fall.
Apple has recently made a number of improvements to its podcast product offerings, both on the consumer and the creator side, including more detailed analytics for podcasters, and a full-fledged standalone Podcasts app for its macOS computers, which is launching alongside macOS Catalina this fall. Still, it’s largely been hands-off when it comes to content, aside from informally meeting with podcasters on occasion and sharing best practices.
Meanwhile, Spotify in particular has been especially aggressive about acquiring its own podcast media companies, including Gimlet, which makes popular podcast ‘Reply All”; Anchor, which creates podcast making tools for publishing and monetization; and Parcast, another podcast creation network with a deep library of true-life and other content.
Apple still enjoys a strong majority of audience when it comes to overall podcast listenership by all accounts, but Spotify is definitely chipping away by focusing effort and investment both on the product and on the content side. Apple considering funding content of its own definitely makes sense given its tactics in video, and the changed landscape of the podcast business.
Google has banned Chinese app developer CooTek from its ad platforms and Play Store, removing 60+ CooTek Android apps for bombarding users with disruptive ads — Google is banning CooTek, a publicly traded Chinese app developer, from its Play store and ad platforms after BuzzFeed News …
Billy Perrigo / Time : An in-depth look at the UK's AI Safety Institute, whose researchers test AI systems for risks and for capabili...
