Sendinblue raises $160 million to automate repetitive marketing tasks

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Marketing automation company Sendinblue, which competes with companies like Mailchimp, has raised $160 million in venture capital.Read More

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Glassdoor launches employee reviews for diversity and inclusion practices at companies

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Glassdoor is now letting employees write diversity and inclusion reviews for companies in a way to make employers more transparent.Read More

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Indian startups blame Google for "unfair exploitation" of Play Store's monopoly after Google began to enforce its in-app purchasing policy with 30% commission (The Economic Times)

The Economic Times:
Indian startups blame Google for “unfair exploitation” of Play Store's monopoly after Google began to enforce its in-app purchasing policy with 30% commission  —  Tech giant says companies have multiple store options, can also use websites  —  Indian startups are up in arms …

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PlayStation Store Games of a Generation sale: 9 discounted PS4 games to buy now - CNET

Ghost of Tsushima, Resident Evil 2, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and more.

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Best holiday gifts under $250 for 2020 - CNET

Get something great for everyone on your list this year.

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Pantone releases Period red color to help end menstruation stigma - CNET

The new bold red color "emboldens people who menstruate to feel proud of who they are." The new campaign wants to encourage people to talk more openly about menstruation.

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Best laptops and desktops to give as holiday gifts in 2020 - CNET

Make someone's work, school or gaming life a little brighter for 2021.

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Twitter removed 130 accounts linked to Iran during first US presidential debate - CNET

The accounts were trying to disrupt the public conversation regarding the debates, Twitter says, based on information provided by the FBI.

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Facebook says, as part of its recent crackdown on QAnon and "militia" movements, it has removed 6,500 groups belonging to 300 organizations (Karissa Bell/Engadget)

Karissa Bell / Engadget:
Facebook says, as part of its recent crackdown on QAnon and “militia” movements, it has removed 6,500 groups belonging to 300 organizations  —  Facebook has removed more than 6,500 pages and groups associated with “militarized social movements,” since the company announced …

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South Park's new hour-long special will tackle the coronavirus - CNET

Will Cartman and the rest of the South Park kids successfully stay COVID-free?

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Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC fighter reveal: Start time, how to watch, predictions - CNET

A challenger appears!

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The 37 best games on Nintendo Switch - CNET

Our favourite games on the Nintendo Switch

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George R.R. Martin chooses his least favorite Game of Thrones scene - CNET

Still disappointed in the HBO show? You're not the only one.

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PlayStation 5 launch games: Every PS5 title you can buy on Nov. 12 - CNET

What can your shiny new PS5 play?

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37 of the best games on Nintendo Switch - CNET

All of our favourite games on the Nintendo Switch

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737 Max recertification is in the home stretch, says FAA chief - CNET

After piloting the grounded airliner on a test flight, FAA Administrator Steve Dickson says he likes what he saw.

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Jaguar Land Rover will soon use waste plastic in its interiors - Roadshow

Don't expect a dash made of milk jugs, though; the plastic is turned into a premium fabric called Econyl.

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WIRED25 Day 3: Look at Problems in a New Way

Guests like Anthony Fauci, Lisa Piccirillo, Patrice Peck, and Audrey Tang discussed how to puzzle through seemingly intractable situations.

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Study Finds ‘Single Largest Driver’ of Coronavirus Misinformation: Trump

Cornell University researchers analyzing 38 million English-language articles about the pandemic found that President Trump was the largest driver of the “infodemic.”

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Facebook says it will ban Facebook and Instagram ads that seek to delegitimize the outcome of an election, including calling specific voting methods fraudulent (Salvador Rodriguez/CNBC)

Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Facebook says it will ban Facebook and Instagram ads that seek to delegitimize the outcome of an election, including calling specific voting methods fraudulent  —  - Facebook on Wednesday announced that it will not allow any ads on its service that seek to delegitimize the outcome of an election …

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Google introduces a new Android feature called Hold for Me, which uses Assistant to monitor held phone calls and notify the user when taken off hold (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google introduces a new Android feature called Hold for Me, which uses Assistant to monitor held phone calls and notify the user when taken off hold  —  Google has been pushing forward the capabilities of what a smartphone can do when it comes to one of the device's most basic — if these days often overlooked — features: phone calls.

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Scare yourself silly with over 400 horror movies that cost $5 each - CNET

As we barrel toward Halloween, buy any of these iconic scary movies (and Twilight) for barely more than the rental price.

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US judge rules that Kik violated securities law in its $100M ICO from 2017, grants the SEC's motion for summary judgment against Kik (Jeff Benson/Decrypt)

Jeff Benson / Decrypt:
US judge rules that Kik violated securities law in its $100M ICO from 2017, grants the SEC's motion for summary judgment against Kik  —  US District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein today granted the US Securities and Exchange Commission its motion for summary judgement against Kik Interactive …

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Get the Razer Mamba Elite gaming mouse on sale for $46 at Newegg - CNET

Mechanical keyboards are discounted, too.

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The 31 best movies to watch on Disney Plus - CNET

Searching for something other than Marvel and Star Wars? Let's round up the best gems on Disney Plus.

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Seattle approves minimum wage for Uber and Lyft drivers - CNET

The ride-hailing services will be required to pay their drivers at least $16.39 under the new law.

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DivvyDose, an online pharmacy competing with Amazon's PillPack and Walmart's CareZone, is acquired by UnitedHealth; source says deal was worth $300M+ (Christina Farr/CNBC)

Christina Farr / CNBC:
DivvyDose, an online pharmacy competing with Amazon's PillPack and Walmart's CareZone, is acquired by UnitedHealth; source says deal was worth $300M+  —  - UnitedHealth Group has acquired DivvyDose, a competitor to Amazon-owned PillPack.  — A spokesperson declined to comment.

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Twitter hires Rinki Sethi as its new CISO following its July 15 hack; Sethi previously worked at cloud data management company Rubrik (Catalin Cimpanu/ZDNet)

Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Twitter hires Rinki Sethi as its new CISO following its July 15 hack; Sethi previously worked at cloud data management company Rubrik  —  Sethi previously served in security roles at Rubrik, IBM, Palo Alto Networks, Intuit, and eBay.  —  After leaving the position unfilled for months …

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Prior to their Wednesday direct listing debuts, the NYSE set reference prices for Palantir at $7.25 and Asana at $21 per share (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
Prior to their Wednesday direct listing debuts, the NYSE set reference prices for Palantir at $7.25 and Asana at $21 per share  —  Both companies are poised to do direct listings on Wednesday; only two other notable companies have done them before  —  Data firm Palantir Technologies Inc …

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Seattle unanimously approved new regulations that would ensure Uber and Lyft drivers earn minimum wage, the second US city to establish the standard after NYC (Monica Nickelsburg/GeekWire)

Monica Nickelsburg / GeekWire:
Seattle unanimously approved new regulations that would ensure Uber and Lyft drivers earn minimum wage, the second US city to establish the standard after NYC  —  Seattle became the second big city in the nation to establish a minimum wage standard for Uber and Lyft drivers on Tuesday.

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The 11 best TV shows to watch on Disney Plus - CNET

Searching for more great shows like The Mandalorian? Let's round up Disney's best gems.

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Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing to offer gorgeous optional carbon racing seats - Roadshow

The carbon will even be bookmatched for extra eye candy.

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The Facebook Pages With the Largest Share of Debate Conversation

Which Facebook pages are engaging people the most about Tuesday’s presidential debate? Here are the top 10.

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Seattle unanimously approved new regulations that would ensure Uber and Lyft drivers earn minimum wage, the second US city to establish the standard after NYC (Monica Nickelsburg/GeekWire)

Monica Nickelsburg / GeekWire:
Seattle unanimously approved new regulations that would ensure Uber and Lyft drivers earn minimum wage, the second US city to establish the standard after NYC  —  Seattle became the second big city in the nation to establish a minimum wage standard for Uber and Lyft drivers on Tuesday.

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Enter to win a tablet with CNET's The Apple Core giveaway* - CNET

The grand prize includes a keyboard and pencil. *Open to the US, Puerto Rico and Canada (excluding Quebec).

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We're giving away $100 for your next oil change* - Roadshow

We're giving away $100 Jiffy Lube gift cards to 10 grand prize winners. *Open to the US only. This giveaway ends Sept. 30, 2020.

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How TikTok is changing social media (Instagram should take notes) - CNET

Despite an uncertain future in the US, the social video app could have lasting implications for what we want from social media.

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Airbus unveils three concepts for hydrogen-powered commercial planes - CNET

The concepts, which range from a turboprop commuter plane to a blended wing design, would fly with modified gas turbine engines that burn liquid hydrogen as fuel.

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2021 BMW 4 Series Convertible: No roof, same horrifying face - Roadshow

At least you can't see the nose when you're living your best top-down life, right?

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2021 BMW 4 Series Convertible: Losing the roof didn't make it prettier - Roadshow

On one hand, top-down motoring is fun, but on the other hand, people can see you driving this thing.

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Black Friday and Thanksgiving shopping 2020: What we know so far - CNET

Several major retailers are closing on Thanksgiving for the first time in years.

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Disney struggles with reopening global theme parks following COVID-19 closures - CNET

Disney is laying off 28,000 cast members from its theme parks as Disneyland remains closed.

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This Bluetooth transceiver connects all your stuff for just $10 - CNET

Use BTMagic to listen to your TV using wireless headphones, or stream music from your phone to a nonwireless sound system. It goes both ways.

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Seattle Passes Minimum Pay Rate for Uber and Lyft Drivers

The city became the second in the nation to create a compensation standard for ride-hailing drivers, after New York.

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Right-Wing Sites Falsely Claim Biden Got Debate Questions in Advance

Fox News, which is providing the moderator for the debate tonight, called the claim “entirely false.”

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UK-based Huboo, which offers an end-to-end fulfillment service for online retailers, raises £14M Series A led by Stride.VC (Steve O'Hear/TechCrunch)

Steve O'Hear / TechCrunch:
UK-based Huboo, which offers an end-to-end fulfillment service for online retailers, raises £14M Series A led by Stride.VC  —  Huboo, the U.K.-headquartered startup that offers an end-to-end fulfilment service for online retailers of all sizes, has raised £14 million in Series A funding.

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Eero 6 mesh routers announced: Amazon's Wi-Fi 6 upgrade for the work-from-home era - CNET

They're the fastest Eero routers yet, the company says.

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Pew survey of 12K+ US adults: 26% said they get news from YouTube while only 23% of those said they "often" get news from channels of established news orgs (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Pew survey of 12K+ US adults: 26% said they get news from YouTube while only 23% of those said they “often” get news from channels of established news orgs  —  Around a quarter of U.S. adults, or roughly 26%, say they get news by watching YouTube videos, according to a new study …

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TikTokker knits terrifying, life-sized Thanos from Avengers - CNET

The hardest knits require the strongest wills.

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Best e-bikes to ride for 2020 - CNET

These electric bikes will help you get around while public transit is limited. And we've got picks for almost any budget.

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Best website builder for 2020: Squarespace, Wix and more compared - CNET

Whether you’re a small business owner, artist, photographer, writer or consultant, there's a website builder out there for you -- even if you don't know how to code.

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FAA certifies world's largest jet engine for commercial use - CNET

The General Electric GE9x will power the new Boeing 777x, which flew for the first time this year.

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Global death toll from COVID-19 surpasses 1 million - CNET

More than 33 million people worldwide have tested positive for the disease.

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Hulu's Monsterland horror anthology blurs the lines between humans and monsters - CNET

Review: This psychologically terrifying new creature-feature series will still give you chills even if you end up rooting for the monster.

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Best toaster ovens of 2020 - CNET

Toaster ovens are bulky, inefficient and outdated. There, I said it. Now let's find the ones that are actually worth it.

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LA Comic Con 2020 is going ahead despite coronavirus concerns - CNET

Other conventions have opted to postpone or go virtual.

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Hyundai drops a potential Elantra N teaser in its TCR reveal video - Roadshow

It's about time Hyundai's N division got busy on another full-fat model to keep the Veloster company.

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Protect your AirPods: 5 cases under $15 - CNET

Whether you want to enclose your AirPods in a waterproof case, a hard shell or a silicone car, there's a case here for you.

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Here's how to see the Northern Lights in the US this week - CNET

If you live in the right location, you don't need any special equipment, though a camera might help.

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30 best movies on Disney Plus - CNET

Searching for a movie that isn't Marvel or Star Wars? Here are some of the hidden gems on Disney Plus.

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30 of the best movies to see on Netflix - CNET

Looking for what to watch tonight? Here are some of the best movies Netflix has to offer.

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15 of the best movies to see on Amazon Prime Video - CNET

Looking for what to watch on Amazon tonight? Let's round up some of its best movies.

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Disney sells TrueX, an ad-tech company it absorbed as part of its acquisition of 21st Century Fox assets in 2019, to Gimbal; a source says for less than $100M (Sahil Patel/Wall Street Journal)

Sahil Patel / Wall Street Journal:
Disney sells TrueX, an ad-tech company it absorbed as part of its acquisition of 21st Century Fox assets in 2019, to Gimbal; a source says for less than $100M  —  Gimbal wants TrueX's technology to go after the ‘addressable-TV’ market, where different ads are shown to different households

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Boston- and Shenzhen-based XtalPi, which uses AI for drug discovery and development, raises $319M Series C led by SoftBank's Vision Fund (Devin Coldewey/TechCrunch)

Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:
Boston- and Shenzhen-based XtalPi, which uses AI for drug discovery and development, raises $319M Series C led by SoftBank's Vision Fund  —  XtalPi, an American-Chinese biotech firm that focuses on AI-assisted drug discovery, has raised a $319 million round C from a slate of enthusiastic investors led by SoftBank's Vision Fund.

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Apple, Epic, and federal judge spar over restraining order in antitrust case

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A federal judge in Oakland heard arguments today over a temporary restraining order in an antitrust case between Apple and Epic Games.Read More

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Scientists create a microscopic robot that ‘walks’

The scientists behind a microscopic "walking" robot hope their tech could one day be used against cancer.

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Microsoft is investigating an authentication error impacting multiple Microsoft 365 services, including Office, Teams, Power Platform, and Dynamic365 (Chris Duckett/ZDNet)

Chris Duckett / ZDNet:
Microsoft is investigating an authentication error impacting multiple Microsoft 365 services, including Office, Teams, Power Platform, and Dynamic365  —  Microsoft continuing to look into the problem after roll back fails to solve issue.  —  Microsoft is currently looking into an authentication error hitting its Office 365 systems.

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Amazon launches Personal Shopper for men's fashion for $4.99 per month, expanding on its similar offering for women rivalling Stitch Fix (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Amazon launches Personal Shopper for men's fashion for $4.99 per month, expanding on its similar offering for women rivalling Stitch Fix  —  Amazon is introducing a personal shopping service for men's fashion.  The service, now available to Prime members, is an expansion of the existing Personal Shopper …

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A School Ran a Simulation of the Pandemic—Before the Pandemic

A Florida middle school has staged mock outbreaks for years to teach science and civics. Last December’s lesson was an uncanny harbinger of Covid-19.

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Uber Can Continue Operating in London, Judge Rules

After a battle with transportation regulators, the ride-hailing firm was granted an 18-month license.

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Uber wins license battle in London, one of its biggest markets

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Uber has won its battle to operate in London, one of its biggest markets, after a judge found that the company had addressed safety concerns. Read More

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Will RISC-V be a contender now that Nvidia is buying Arm?

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RISC-V International CEO Calista Redmond shares her thoughts on Nvidia's pending acquisition of Arm and why she believes RISC-V is a contender.Read More

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The tech sector can — and must — disrupt social inequity

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If we’re going to achieve social equity, we need a collective effort across the entire tech industry, and it starts at the top.Read More

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Uber wins legal fight to regain London license as a judge overturned a ban by the city's transport regulator TfL (Ryan Browne/CNBC)

Ryan Browne / CNBC:
Uber wins legal fight to regain London license as a judge overturned a ban by the city's transport regulator TfL  —  (Photo by Olly Curtis/Future via Getty Images)  —  Uber won its legal fight to continue operating in London on Monday, as a judge overturned a ban on the ride-hailing app by the city's transport regulator.

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The US Army wants to modify SpaceX’s Starlink satellites for unjammable navigation

SpaceX has already launched more than 700 Starlink satellites, with thousands more due to come online in the years ahead. Their prime mission is to provide high-speed internet virtually worldwide, including to many remote locations that have lacked reliable service to date.

Now, research funded by the US Army has concluded that the growing mega-constellation could have a secondary purpose: by doubling as a low-cost, highly accurate and almost unjammable alternative to GPS. The new method would use existing Starlink satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to provide near-global navigation services. 

In a non-peer reviewed paper, Todd Humphreys and Peter Iannucci at the Radionavigation Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin claim to have devised a system that uses the same satellites, piggybacking on traditional GPS signals, to deliver location precision up to ten times as good as GPS, and much less prone to interference. 

Weak signals

The Global Positioning System consists of a constellation of around 30 satellites orbiting 20,000 kilometers above the Earth. Each satellite continually broadcasts a radio signal containing its position and the exact time from a very precise atomic clock on board. Receivers on the ground can then compare how long signals from multiple satellites take to arrive and calculate their position, typically to within a few meters. 

The problem with GPS is that those signals are extremely weak by the time they reach the Earth, and are easily overwhelmed by either accidental interference or electronic warfare. In China, mysterious GPS attacks have successfully “spoofed” ships into fake locations, while GPS signals are regularly jammed in the eastern Mediterranean.

The US military relies heavily on GPS. Last year, the US Army Futures Command, a new unit dedicated to modernizing its forces, visited Humphreys’ lab to talk about a start-up called Coherent Navigation he had co-founded in 2008. Coherent aimed to use signals from Iridium satellites as a rough alternative to GPS, and was acquired by Apple in 2015. 

“They told me the Army has a relationship with SpaceX [it signed an agreement to test Starlink to move data across military networks in May] and would I be interested in talking to SpaceX about using their Starlink satellites the same way that I used these old Iridium satellites?” Humphreys says. “That got us an audience with people at SpaceX, who liked it, and the Army gave us a year to look into the problem.” Futures Command also provided several million dollars in funding. 

The concept of using a LEO constellation, such as Starlink’s satellites at 550 kilometers, for navigation isn’t new. In fact, some of the first US spacecraft launched in the 1960s were Transit satellites orbiting at 1100 kilometers, providing location information for Navy ships and submarines. The advantage of a LEO constellation is that the signals can be a thousand times stronger than GPS. The disadvantage is that each satellite can serve only a small area beneath it, so that reliable global coverage requires hundreds or even thousands of satellites. 

Upgrade and enhance

Building a whole new network of LEO satellites with ultra-accurate clocks would be an expensive undertaking. Bay Area start-up Xona Space Systems plans to do just that, aiming to launch a constellation of at least 300 “Pulsar” satellites over the next six years.

Instead, Humphreys and Iannucci’s idea is to use a simple software upgrade to modify Starlink’s satellites to use their communications abilities and existing GPS signals to provide position and navigation services .

They claim their new system can even, counterintuitively, deliver better accuracy for most users than the GPS technology it relies upon. That is because the GPS receiver on each Starlink satellite can use cutting-edge algorithms that are rarely found in consumer products, to pinpoint its location within just a few centimeters. These technologies exploit physical properties of the GPS radio signal, and its encoding, to improve the accuracy of location calculations. Essentially, the Starlink satellites can do the heavy computational lifting for their users below. 

The Starlink satellites are also essentially internet routers in space, capable of achieving 100 megabits per second. GPS satellites, on the other hand, communicate at fewer than 100 bits per second

“There are so few bits per second available for GPS transmissions that they can’t afford to include fresh, highly accurate data about where the satellites actually are,” says Iannucci. “If you have a million times more opportunity to send information down from your satellite, the data can be much closer to the truth.”

The new system, which Humphreys calls fused LEO navigation, will use instant orbit and clock calculations to locate users to within 70 centimeters, he estimates. Most GPS systems in smartphones, watches and cars, for comparison, are only accurate to a few meters. 

But the key advantage for the Pentagon is that fused LEO navigation should be significantly more difficult to jam or spoof. Not only are its signals much stronger at ground level, the antennas for its microwave frequencies are about ten times more directional than GPS antennas. That means it should be easier to pick up the true satellite signals, rather than those from a jammer.  “At least, that’s the hope,” says Humphreys.

According to Humphreys and Iannucci’s calculations, their fused LEO navigation system could provide continuous navigation service to 99.8 percent of the world’s population, using less than 1 percent of Starlink’s downlink capacity and less than 0.5 percent of its energy capacity.

“I do think this could lead to a more robust and accurate solution than GPS alone,” says Todd Walters, from Stanford University’s GPS Lab, who was not involved with the research. “And if you don’t have to modify Starlink’s satellites, it certainly is a fast, simple way to go.”

Nor is the navigation technology limited to just SpaceX’s satellites. The bankrupt OneWeb constellation that the UK government is purchasing could also serve as a home-grown navigation system, says Iannucci, “although Starlink is in pole position right now.”

Fused LEO navigation does have its drawbacks, however. The initial Starlink mega-constellation is not expected to operate above 60 degrees latitude, meaning that residents of Helsinki might miss out on its benefits, as would soldiers in any future disputed Arctic or Antarctic regions.  

To use the system on the ground would also mean relying upon SpaceX’s own Starlink antenna—described by Musk as looking like a UFO on a stick and likely having a significant price tag—rather than cheap GPS chips that can fit into smartphones and watches. Any future fused LEO navigation service would also, unlike GPS, come with a significant price-tag attached, not least because SpaceX needs to start seeing a return on its huge investment in Starlink. For these reasons, not everyone thinks it’s the way forward.

“We looked at this approach a long time ago and neither the commercial nor the technical capabilities really made sense, which is why we’re working on an independent constellation,” says Xona CEO Brian Manning.

Neither the US Army Futures Command nor SpaceX responded to requests for comment, but the UT researchers are hoping that Elon Musk will see the value of the new technology. “There’s a potential here to really change navigation worldwide,” says Iannucci. 

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Uber secures right to continue operating in London

A court has ruled that the ride-hailing giant is "fit and proper" to hold a licence to work in London.

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LinkedIn rolls out its own version of Stories and adds Zoom, BlueJeans, and Teams video integrations as part of wider redesign (Ingrid Lunden/TechCrunch)

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LinkedIn rolls out its own version of Stories and adds Zoom, BlueJeans, and Teams video integrations as part of wider redesign  —  With the employment market remaining sluggish as the world continues to struggle with COVID-19, a company that has built its popular businesses largely around recruitment …

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Sony Xperia 5 II review: The best Sony phone in years - CNET

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AI in Schools: Sony Reimagines Remote Learning with Artificial Intelligence

Back to school was destined to look different this year.

With the world adapting to COVID-19, safety measures are preventing a return to in-person teaching in many places. Also, students learning through conventional video conferencing systems often feel the content is difficult to read, or teachers block the words written on presentation boards.

Faced with these challenges, educators at Prefectural University of Hiroshima in Japan envisioned a high-quality remote learning system with additional features not possible with traditional video conferencing.

They chose a distance-learning solution from Sony that links lecturers and students across their three campuses. It uses AI to make it easy for presenters anywhere to engage their audiences and impart information using captivating video. Thanks to these innovations, lecturers at Prefectural University can now teach students simultaneously on three campuses linked by a secure virtual private network.

Sony’s remote learning solution in action, with Edge Analytics Appliance, remote cameras and projectors.

AI Helps Lecturers Get Smarter About Remote Learning

At the heart of Prefectural’s distance learning system is Sony’s REA-C1000 Edge Analytics Appliance, which was developed using the NVIDIA Jetson Edge AI platform. The appliance lets teachers and speakers quickly create dynamic video presentations without using expensive video production gear or learning sophisticated software applications.

Sony’s exclusive AI algorithms run inside the appliance. These deep learning models employ techniques such as automatic tracking, zooming and cropping to allow non-specialists to produce engaging, professional-quality video in real time.

Users simply connect the Edge Analytics Appliance to a camera that can pan, tilt and zoom; a PC; and a display or recording device. In Prefectural’s case, multiple cameras capture what a lecturer writes on the board, questions and contributions from students, and up to full HD images depending on the size of the lecture hall.

Managing all of this technology is made simple for the lecturers. A touchscreen panel facilitates intuitive operation of the system without the need for complex adjustment of camera settings.

Teachers Achieve New Levels of Transparency

One of the landmark applications in the Edge Analytics Appliance is handwriting extraction, which lets students experience lectures more fully, rather than having to jot down notes.

The application uses a camera to record text and figures as an instructor writes them by hand on a whiteboard or blackboard, and then immediately draws them as if they are floating in front of the instructor.

Students viewing the lecture live from a remote location or from a recording afterward can see and recognize the text and diagrams, even if the original handwriting is unclear or hidden by the instructor’s body. The combined processing power of the compact, energy-efficient Jetson TX2 and Sony’s moving/unmoving object detection technology makes the transformation from the board to the screen seamless.

Handwriting extraction is also customizable: the transparency of the floating text and figures can be adjusted, so that characters that are faint or hard to read can be highlighted in color, making them more legible — and even more so than the original content written on the board.

Create Engaging Content Without Specialist Resources

 

Another innovative application is Chroma key-less CG overlay, using state-of-the-art algorithms from Sony, like moving-object detection, to produce class content without the need for large-scale video editing equipment.

Like a personal greenscreen for presenters, the application seamlessly places the speaker in front of any animations, diagrams or graphs being presented.

Previously, moving-object detection algorithms required for this kind of compositing could only be run on professional workstations. With Jetson TX2, Sony was able to include this powerful deep learning-based feature within the compact, simple design of the Edge Analytics Appliance.

A Virtual Camera Operator

Numerous additional algorithms within the appliance include those for color-pattern matching, shape recognition, pose recognition and more. These enable features such as:

• PTZ Auto Tracking — automatically tracks an instructor’s movements and ensures they stay in focus.
• Focus Area Cropping — crops a specified portion from a video recorded on a single camera and creates effects as if the cropped portion were recorded on another camera. This can be used to generate, for example, a picture-in-picture effect, where an audience can simultaneously see a close-up of the presenter speaking against a wide shot of the rest of the stage.
• Close Up by Gesture — automatically zooms in on and records students or audience members who stand up in preparation to ask a question.

With the high-performance Jetson platform, the Edge Analytics Appliance can easily handle a wide range of applications like these. The result is like a virtual camera operator that allows people to create engaging, professional-looking video presentations without the expertise or expense previously required to do so.

Officials at Prefectural University of Hiroshima say the new distance learning initiative has already led to greater student and teacher satisfaction with remote learning. Linking the university’s three campuses through the system is also fostering a sense of unity among the campuses.

“We chose Sony’s Edge Analytics Appliance for our new distance learning design because it helps us realize a realistic and comfortable learning environment for students by clearly showing the contents on the board and encouraging discussion. It was also appealing as a cost-effective solution as teachers can simply operate without additional staff,” said Kyousou Kurisu, director of public university corporation, Prefectural University of Hiroshima.

Sony plans to continually update applications available on the Edge Analytics Appliance. So, like any student, the system will only get better over time.

The post AI in Schools: Sony Reimagines Remote Learning with Artificial Intelligence appeared first on The Official NVIDIA Blog.

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