MSI Net, Inc. & mCloudServ

Hands-on with Wi-Charge’s wireless charging system that delivers power of up to 2 or 3 watts but requires a line of sight between transmitter and receiver (Simon Hill/Wired)

Simon Hill / Wired: Hands-on with Wi-Charge’s wireless charging system that delivers power of up to 2 or 3 watts but requires a line of sight between transmitter and receiver — Nikola Tesla once dreamed of transferring electrical energy through the air. Now, a company called Wi-Charge is beta-testing a prototype technology …

How Brad Smith, who became Microsoft’s top legal officer in 2002, used a legal, policy, and influence machine costing $1B+ a year to close the Activision deal (Financial Times)

Financial Times: How Brad Smith, who became Microsoft’s top legal officer in 2002, used a legal, policy, and influence machine costing $1B+ a year to close the Activision deal — Company’s top legal officer has honed diplomatic skills to recast the US tech giant’s reputation

Compact, Gesture-Based Remote Control over Bluetooth

[AlexMiller11] shared a project for a DIY gesture-sensing remote control that acts like a Bluetooth keyboard, capable of controlling media and presentations on a computer with a high degree of accuracy. The device recognizes eight different gestures and controls a host PC over Bluetooth. The hardware is a Silicon Labs xG24 dev kit, a small

How social media is inducing a fog of war surpassing previous clashes between Israel and Hamas, shaping the views of panicked citizens and a global public (Elizabeth Dwoskin/Washington Post)

Elizabeth Dwoskin / Washington Post: How social media is inducing a fog of war surpassing previous clashes between Israel and Hamas, shaping the views of panicked citizens and a global public — The barrage of false images, memes, videos and posts — mostly generated from within the region itself — is making it difficult to

A look at Obsidian, an indie, Electron-based note-taking app that has developed a cult following on Discord and Reddit; Obsidian estimates that it has ~1M users (Jared Newman/Fast Company)

Jared Newman / Fast Company: A look at Obsidian, an indie, Electron-based note-taking app that has developed a cult following on Discord and Reddit; Obsidian estimates that it has ~1M users — The indie darling rejects everything you know about modern software. And its strategy is working.

AI-Powered Snore Detector Shakes the Pillow So You Won’t

If you snore, you’ll probably find out about it from someone. An elbow to the ribs courtesy of your sleepless bedmate, the kids making fun of you at breakfast, or even the lady downstairs calling the cops might give you the clear sign that you rattle the rafters, and that it’s time to do something

Disney+ Hotstar reclaims the global streaming record for most live concurrent views with 35M watching the October 14 India-Pakistan ICC Cricket World Cup match (Manish Singh/TechCrunch)

Manish Singh / TechCrunch: Disney+ Hotstar reclaims the global streaming record for most live concurrent views with 35M watching the October 14 India-Pakistan ICC Cricket World Cup match — In India, few events garner as much attention as a cricket game. A high-profile match between neighbors India and Pakistan delivered …

DappRadar: blockchain gaming projects raised $600M in Q3 2023, down 38% YoY, and $2.3B so far in 2023, which is only 30% of what was raised for all of 2022 (Kate Irwin/Decrypt)

Kate Irwin / Decrypt: DappRadar: blockchain gaming projects raised $600M in Q3 2023, down 38% YoY, and $2.3B so far in 2023, which is only 30% of what was raised for all of 2022 — While the gaming industry continues to be plagued by mass layoffs, crypto gaming is still seeing many millions invested each

AMD’s Anti-Lag feature is getting gamers banned from Counter-Strike 2

Counter-Strike 2 players could get unceremoniously banned for using Anti-Lag Plus. | Image: Valve Counter-Strike 2 developers strongly warned players in a post that they’ll be banned if they turn on AMD’s Anti-Lag feature for CS2. According to the post, the features from the most recent driver updates are “implemented by detouring engine dll functions,”

The Pixel Buds Pro’ new conversation mode is a game changer

Credit: Rita El Khoury / Android Authority Although I love activating noise cancelation on my true wireless buds to isolate my music, I often end up having to disable it or take the buds out of my ears to talk to people. It’s a decidedly first-world issue, but I’ve been annoyed enough by this, especially

How Dustin Moskovitz’s Open Philanthropy is pushing policymakers to focus on AI’s long-term risks by funding salaries of staff in Congress and federal agencies (Brendan Bordelon/Politico)

Brendan Bordelon / Politico: How Dustin Moskovitz’s Open Philanthropy is pushing policymakers to focus on AI’s long-term risks by funding salaries of staff in Congress and federal agencies — An organization backed by Silicon Valley billionaires and tied to leading artificial intelligence firms is funding the salaries …

2023 Halloween Hackfest: Candy Basket Sees You Coming

On Halloween, some people can’t or don’t want to open the door for various reasons. Maybe they have a cat that likes to escape every chance it gets, or maybe their favorite TV show is on during prime trick-or-treating time. Whatever the case, we think it’s perfectly acceptable to leave a bowl of candy outside

Some AI image detectors are labeling real photographs from the Israel-Hamas war as fake, creating what an expert calls a “second level of disinformation” (Emanuel Maiberg/404 Media)

Emanuel Maiberg / 404 Media: Some AI image detectors are labeling real photographs from the Israel-Hamas war as fake, creating what an expert calls a “second level of disinformation” — Online AI image detecting tools that may or may not work are labeling real photographs from the war in Israel and Palestine as fake …

Caltech ends its Wi-Fi lawsuit against Apple and Broadcom

Illustration: The Verge Caltech has had some ups (winning $1.1 billion) and some downs (losing the $1.1 billion award and being ordered to a trial on damages) since suing Apple and Broadcom in 2016 over Wi-Fi patents. Reuters reported this week that Caltech is dropping its yearslong lawsuit against Apple and Broadcom, about two months

PCB Repair is a Sticky Proposition

What do you do when a PCB is cracked or even broken in two? [MH987] has a plan: superglue the board back and then bridge the traces with solder, solder paste, or wire. The exact method, of course, depends on the extent of the damage. We’ve had some success with similar techniques, and, honestly, for

Caltech ends its Wi-Fi lawsuit against Apple and Broadcom

How Dustin Moskovitz’s Open Philanthropy is pushing policymakers to focus on AI’s long-term risks by funding salaries of staff in Congress and federal agencies (Brendan Bordelon/Politico)

Lessons Learned: Plastic Injection Molding for Products

Injection molding is one of the technologies that makes the world go round. But what does it actually look like to go through the whole process to get a part made? [Achim Haug] wrote up a blog post that does a fantastic job of explaining what to expect when getting plastic enclosures injection molded in

LG’s desk-friendly C3 OLED has dipped below $1,000 for the first time

LG’s 42-inch C3 OLED TV might not be big enough for your living room, but it will look great on your desk. | Image: LG Welcome to the weekend, dear readers! Although we’ve spent the past week pummeling you with deals from Amazon’s fall Prime Day event — some of which are still available, to

X accused of illegally firing employee who criticized Elon’s return-to-work plan

The Verge CNBC reports that the National Labor Relations Board alleged, in a complaint filed Friday, that X violated labor law when it fired an employee who criticized the company. Elon Musk bought the company, then known as Twitter, in October and threatened to fire workers who didn’t return to in-person office work. After Yao

GPT-4V, the new mode of GPT-4 that lets users upload images as part of conversations, allows for prompt injection attacks by following instructions in images (Simon Willison/Simon Willison’s Weblog)

Simon Willison / Simon Willison’s Weblog: GPT-4V, the new mode of GPT-4 that lets users upload images as part of conversations, allows for prompt injection attacks by following instructions in images — GPT4-V is the new mode of GPT-4 that allows you to upload images as part of your conversations. It’s absolutely brilliant.

GPT-4V, the new mode of GPT-4 that lets users upload images as part of conversations, allows for prompt injection attacks by following instructions in images (Simon Willison/Simon Willison’s Weblog)

Adobe’s AI ambitions cast doubt on potential Figma acquisition

Adobe Inc.’s $20 billion plan to buy digital-design startup Figma is in doubt, according to a recent report by Bloomberg. Over a year since the announcement, the deal remains in limbo, facing regulatory hurdles. Meanwhile, Adobe’s gaze has shifted toward the burgeoning realm of AI. Adobe’s shift in priorities to AI At Adobe’s latest Los

5 Android apps you shouldn’t miss this week – Android Apps Weekly

Welcome to the 505th edition of Android Apps Weekly. Once again we bring you the latest news and apps from the previous week. Let’s start with some of the biggest headlines from last week: Nothing might have been a little slow in rolling out Android 13 on the Phone 1, but they’ve upped their game

The Microsoft-Activision deal closure shows that tech giants can still grow by getting “vertical mergers” through courts and regulators relatively unscathed (New York Times)

New York Times: The Microsoft-Activision deal closure shows that tech giants can still grow by getting “vertical mergers” through courts and regulators relatively unscathed — With the completion of the blockbuster acquisition, the notion that tech giants can grow through “vertical transactions” remains intact.

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