Month: November 2018

Spotify is currently testing an Apple Watch app that’s expected to debut soon. We’ve been able to get access to Spotify’s Apple Watch app ahead of its release to try it out and find out what’s in store. The app itself appears to be an initial release with very basic features. There’s no offline support for playing Spotify songs on the Apple Watch away from your iPhone, and you can’t stream songs to an Apple Watch over LTE.

Instead, this Spotify Apple Watch app is mainly used as a Spotify Connect controller to let you change music on an iPhone or any other device that’s playing Spotify content and linked to your account. Spotify’s app replaces the “Now Playing” screen on the Apple Watch if you’re listening to Spotify songs on an iPhone,…

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We live in a world that’s increasingly controlled by what might be called “the algorithmic gaze.” As we cede more decision-making power to machines in domains like health care, transportation, and security, the world as seen by computers becomes the dominant reality. If a facial recognition system doesn’t recognize the color of your skin, for example, it won’t acknowledge your existence. If a self-driving car can’t see you walk across the road, it’ll drive right through you. That’s the algorithmic gaze in action.

This sort of slow-burning structural change can be difficult to comprehend. But as is so often the case with societal shifts, artists are leaping headfirst into the epistemological fray. One of the best of these is Tom White, a…

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The MacBook Air made its return last week, featuring a new Retina display, a Touch ID fingerprint sensor, and Apple’s T2 security chip in what the company called “the most secure boot process of any notebook.” It’s an interesting choice of words because when Apple introduced the iPad Pro shortly after, it called Face ID “more secure than any tablet or computer.” Presumably, that includes the super secure MacBook Air.

It was a jarring moment. Apple went straight from boasting about the security of its new MacBook Air to declaring it outdated and weak compared to the comparatively priced iPad in the span of just a few minutes. So why isn’t Apple putting Face ID on the Mac?

There’s any number of practical reasons why this could be the…

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Alphabet’s longevity lab Calico trawled through Ancestry’s massive genealogy database to study human longevity—and found that DNA matters less than people have long believed.

Actors on online freelance marketplace Fiverr aren’t exactly household names, but one man has become a bit of a celebrity on YouTube for his spokesperson-like abilities. VoiceoverPete, otherwise known as Presenter Pete Ace, is one of Fiverr’s most popular users, but a recent ban for suspicious behavior has resulted in YouTube’s meme community coming out to support him.

Grandayy, one of YouTube’s most prolific meme creators, was the first to raise awareness regarding Pete’s ban. Grandayy tweeted about receiving a refund after trying to hire Pete for another video, including a screenshot of a message sent to him stating that “voiceoverpete” was no longer available on the marketplace.

An email sent to Pete from Fiverr’s Trust and Safety…

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The $84,000 luxury sedan can sense an impending crash and adjust its suspension to protect its occupants in under a second.

Picking the right iPhone has become an increasingly difficult choice, but this breakdown may help.

Scientists are making strides in developing liquid biopsies for brain tumours by detecting tumour DNA in the fluid from around the brain and spine.

Take some simple measurements, add a dash of algebra, and you basically have a way to measure an unknown mass.

Elevated levels of trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) — a compound linked with the consumption of fish, seafood and a primarily vegetarian diet — may reduce hypertension-related heart disease symptoms. New research in rats finds that low-dose treatment with TMAO reduced heart thickening (cardiac fibrosis) and markers of heart failure in an animal model of hypertension.