Following news that Meta’s Quest 3’s getting some big mixed reality upgrades including an AI that can recognize furniture and improved passthrough quality, there’s yet another improvement on the way this time for one of my favorite Quest apps: YouTube. That’s because the VR version of the video-sharing platform now supports 8K video playback on … Read more
Hello Nature readers, would you like to get this Briefing in your inbox free every day? Sign up here. Dust storms turned skies yellow on 27 March 2024 in Erenhot, Inner Mongolia.Credit: VCG via Getty Many Asian countries are facing an annual problem: dust storms linked to increased deaths from cardiovascular and respiratory conditions. These … Read more
When people say that Thursday is the new Friday, they’re typically referring to it being the main office night out day. In my case, it’s more about it being the day at which I start wishing it were already the weekend. Fortunately Strands is here to provide a pick-me-up, which it did today in the … Read more
Hello Nature readers, would you like to get this Briefing in your inbox free every week? Sign up here. A woman plays Go with an AI-powered robot developed by the firm SenseTime, based in Hong Kong.Credit: Joan Cros/NurPhoto via Getty AI systems can now nearly match (and sometimes exceed) human performance in tasks such as … Read more
Today’s Quordle might well catch out a few people, for reasons that shall become clear once you’ve played. I delve into that a little bit in my commentary below, but if you want to guard against trouble then by all means check out my daily hints first. SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, … Read more
Machine learning and robotics have shed new light on one of the most sophisticated skeletal structures in the animal kingdom: the insect wing hinge. Read the paper: Machine learning reveals the control mechanics of an insect wing hinge Unlike birds or bats, which evolved wings by adapting existing limbs, insect wings are wholly original appendages, … Read more
Boston Dynamics all but trade-marked jaw-dropping robot videos with its hydraulics-power Atlas robot’s dancing and parkouring videos. Now it’s upped the ante and I’m scraping my jaw off the floor again after watching the brief introduction video for its all-electric and completely redesigned Atlas robot. The All New Atlas is Boston Dynamic’s first all-electric humanoid … Read more
Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau and finance minister Chrystia Freeland hold copies of the 2024 federal budget.Credit: David Kawai/Bloomberg via Getty Researchers in Canada got most of what they were hoping for in the country’s 2024 federal budget, with a big boost in postgraduate pay and more funding for research and scientific infrastructure. “We are … Read more
Game emulator apps have come and gone since Apple announced App Store support for them on April 5, but now popular game emulator Delta from developer Riley Testut is available for download. Testut is known as the developer behind GBA4iOS, an open-source emulator that was available for a brief time more than a decade ago. … Read more
ASUS’ latest 14-inch gaming laptop is an incredibly versatile and stylish all-rounder. But for those who want something even beefier, there’s the ROG Zephyrus G16. Not only does it feature a more powerful Intel Core Ultra 9 CPU, it supports up to NVIDIA RTX 4090 graphics cards. That’s not all. Its OLED display refreshes twice … Read more