Sources: the Trump campaign has bought exclusive nationwide masthead ads on YouTube for days leading up to and on election day; ads may cost up to $1M+ a day — In the immediate run up to the U.S. presidential election and on Election Day, the homepage of YouTube is set to advertise just one candidate: Donald Trump.
A look at current innovations in higher ed, including ongoing subscriptions instead of tuition, AI tutors, and transcripts that can help students find work — Labs test artificial intelligence, virtual reality and other innovations that could improve learning and lower costs for Generation Z and beyond.
With iOS 14, Apple may start opening its walled garden, beginning with allowing third-party apps as defaults, which could ease antitrust pressure — Default app changes are small but significant — I have a love-hate relationship with my iPhone. I love the hardware …
Samsung Electronics names ex-finance minister Bahk Jae-wan its new board chairman after his predecessor was jailed for union-busting activities — SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics said on Friday that former finance minister, Bahk Jae-wan, has become its new board chairman after his predecessor …
Samsung announced a new clamshell foldable phone at its Galaxy Unpacked 2020 event on February 11. While the device has been made available in the US, it was yet to be launched in India. However, the company has finally begun taking pre-orders for the Galaxy Z Flip in the country. The foldable phone is priced at Rs 1,09,999 for the sole 8GB + 256GB model. It is being offered in Mirror Black, Mirror Purple, Mirror Gold colour options. Users can pre-order the phone via Samsung e-store and select offline retailers.
Samsung will start delivering the Galaxy Z Flip pre-orders from February 26. The company is packing a free cover and AKG headphones inside the box. The open sale is said to start on a later date.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip features a foldable 6.7-inch full-HD (1080x2636 pixels) Dynamic AMOLED Infinity Flex display with 21.9:9 aspect ratio and 425ppi pixel density. It has a secondary 1.1-inch (112x300 pixels) Super AMOLED display with a 303ppi pixel density. The handset is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+ SoC. It comes with 8GB RAM and 256GB of internal storage. However, there is no option to expand the storage further with a microSD card.
As for the optics, the Galaxy Z Flip sports a dual rear camera setup: a 12MP wide-angle sensor (f/1.8, 1.4-micron pixels, 78-degree FoV) + a 12MP ultra-wide-angle lens (f/2.2, 1.12-micron pixels, 123-degree FoV, OIS). On the front lies a 10MP selfie shooter. The handset packs a 3300mAh battery and has a single mono speaker.
The Galaxy Z Flip comes with a new Flex mode UI that lets the Galaxy Z Flip open at varied angles. The small screen also has a swipe-to-see notification feature for scanning through all important notifications without opening the phone. Moreover, Samsung has added small nylon fibres on the edges of the hinge to repel dust. The hinge is touted to open and close 200,000 times.
https://ift.tt/2HJJH6F
Oracle founder and executive chairman Larry Ellison. (credit: Oracle PR / Flickr)
About 300 Oracle employees walked off the job on Thursday to protest founder and executive chairman Larry Ellison's decision to hold a fundraiser for President Donald Trump the previous evening, Bloomberg reports. It was a rare sign of dissent for a company known for its stodgy corporate culture. But the circumstances of the small-scale protest also suggest that Ellison has less reason to worry about future employee revolts than some of his fellow tech moguls.
"The protest, called No Ethics/No Work, involved about 300 employees walking out of their offices or stopping work at remote locations at noon local time and devoting the rest of the day to volunteering or civic engagement," Bloomberg reports. Bloomberg's source asked not to be named for fear of retaliation.
Oracle has more than 130,000 employees, so a walkout by 300 workers is hardly a serious threat to the company. Some employees, worried about retaliation from management, chose to give to charities opposing Trump's agenda rather than participate in the walkout. Others took vacation time for their afternoon off. In short, Oracle employees took a less confrontational approach than employees at other tech giants, including Google and Amazon.
Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments
Facebook will pay users up to $5 for voice recordings via its Viewpoints app to improve its speech recognition tech; recordings won't be tied to user profiles — But it won't pay much — Facebook will offer to pay some users for voice recordings that will be used to help improve …
We’ve been dropping into the Australian startup scene increasingly over the years as the ecosystem has been building at an increasingly faster pace, most notably at our own TechCrunch Battlefield Australia in 2017. Further evidence that the scene is growing has come recently in the shape of the Pause Fest conference in Melbourne. This event has gone from strength to strength in recent years and is fast becoming a must-attend for Aussie startups aiming for both national international attention.
I was able to drop in ‘virtually’ to interview a number of those showcased in the Startup Pitch Competition, so here’s a run-down of some of the stand-out companies.
Medinet Australia
Medinet Australia is a health tech startup aiming to make healthcare more convenient and accessible to Australians by allowing doctors to do consultations with patients via an app. Somewhat similar to apps like Babylon Health, Medinet’s telehealth app allows patients to obtain clinical advice from a GP remotely; access prescriptions and have medications delivered; access pathology results; directly email their medical certificate to their employer; and access specialist referrals along with upfront information about specialists such as their fees, waitlist, and patient experience. They’ve raised $3M in Angel financing and are looking for institutional funding in due course. Given Australia’s vast distances, Medinet is well-placed to capitalize on the shift of the population towards much more convenient telehealth apps. (1st Place Winner)
Everty
Everty allows companies to easily manage, monitor and monetize Electric Vehicle charging stations. But this isn’t about infrastructure. Instead, they link up workplaces and accounting systems to the EV charging network, thus making it more like a “Salesforce for EV charging”. It’s available for both commercial and home charging tracking. It’s also raised an Angel round and is poised to raise further funding. (2nd Place Winner)
AI On Spectrum
It’s a sad fact that people with Autism statistically tend to die younger, and unfortunately, the suicide rate is much higher for Autistic people. “Ai on Spectrum” takes an accessible approach in helping autistic kids and their families find supportive environments and feel empowered. The game encourages Autism sufferers to explore their emotional side and arms them with coping strategies when times get tough, applying AI and machine learning in the process to assist the user. (3rd Place Winner)
HiveKeeper
Professional bee-keepers need a fast, reliable, easy-to-use record keeper for their bees and this startup does just that. But it’s also developing a software+sensor technology to give beekeepers more accurate analytics, allowing them to get an early-warning about issues and problems. Their technology could even, in the future, be used to alert for coming bushfires by sensing the changed behavior of the bees. (Hacker Exchange Additional Winner)
Relectrify
Rechargeable batteries for things like cars can be re-used again, but the key to employing them is being able to extend their lives. Relectrify says its battery control software can unlock the full performance from every cell, increasing battery cycle life. It will also reduce storage costs by providing AC output without needing a battery inverter for both new and 2nd-life batteries. Its advanced battery management system combines power and electric monitoring to rapidly the check which are stronger cells and which are weaker making it possible to get as much as 30% more battery life, as well as deploying “2nd life storage”. So far, they have a project with Nissan and American Electric Power and have raised a Series A of $4.5M. (SingularityU Additional Winner)
Gabriel
Sadly, seniors and patients can contract bedsores if left too long. People can even die from bedsores. Furthermore, hospitals can end up in litigation over the issue. What’s needed is a technology that can prevent this, as well as predicting where on a patient’s body might be worst affected. That’s what Gabriel has come up with: using multi-modal technology to prevent and detect both falls and bedsores. Its passive monitoring technology is for the home or use in hospitals and consists of a resistive sheet with sensors connecting to a system which can understand the pressure on a bed. It has FDA approval, is patent-pending and is already working in some Hawaiin hospitals. It’s so far raised $2m in Angel and is now raising money.
Here’s a taste of Pause Fest:
Patricia Cohen / New York Times : How Schneider Electric is using AI in call centers and manufacturing to complement employees' work ...
