As reported by Droid-Life, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced today that he is stepping down from his CEO position, moving to an executive chair position in Q3 of this year. At that time, Amazon’s CEO role will be filled by Andy Jassy.

"Amazon is what it is because of invention. We do crazy things together and then make them normal. We pioneered customer reviews, 1-Click, personalized recommendations, Prime’s insanely-fast shipping, Just Walk Out shopping, the Climate Pledge, Kindle, Alexa, marketplace, infrastructure cloud computing, Career Choice, and much more.

If you do it right, a few years after a surprising invention, the new thing has become normal. People yawn. That yawn is the greatest compliment an inventor can receive. When you look at our financial results, what you’re actually seeing are the long-run cumulative results of invention. Right now I see Amazon at its most inventive ever, making it an optimal time for this transition." The statement was made by Jeff Bezos earlier today.

Jassy is in charge of Amazon’s cloud computing business, and the transition should be a great one.

Source: https://www.techwif.com/articles/jeff-bezos-to-step-down-as-amazon-ceo/89/

According to The Verge, TikTok has released its first augmented reality filter that can utilize the iPhone 12 Pro’s LIDAR sensor for an enhanced confetti effect that realistically settles on people or objects in your room.

One of the most prominently advertised new features of the iPhone 12 Pro was its LiDAR sensor, which enables some cool augmented reality effects thanks to its ability to position objects precisely in 3D space. The only problem is that actual use cases for the feature are still few and far between.

TechCrunch says the new effect should be available globally except in a few select countries; I wasn't able to access it, but the example shown by TikTok (above) is pretty self-explanatory. You can see that the virtual confetti actually stays on real-life surfaces, making the effect just a bit more cooler and realistic.

Mashable confirms that TikTok says it plans to develop more innovative effects in 2021, though it doesn't specifically says they'll use LiDAR.

TikTok is not the first social media company to use the iPhone 12 Pro's LiDAR for an effect; those honors go to Snapchat, which started allowing users to create lenses that use LiDAR back in Oct. 2020.

Source: https://www.techwif.com/articles/tiktok-debuts-first-augmented-reality-filter-that-uses-iphone-12-pros-lidar-camera/81/

Apple is said to be working on two foldable iPhone models.
According to Taiwanese outlet Economic Daily News (via MacRumors), two different foldable phone prototypes have passed internal durability tests at the Foxconn factory in Shenzhen, China.

The report claims that one of the devices is a vertically-folding phone, similar to Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip. The other is a dual-screen phone with two displays connected by a hinge.

Mashable says the idea of Apple making a foldable or a dual-screen device isn't new; the company was awarded a patent for such a phone back in 2017, and a report in 2018 said Apple might be preparing to launch a foldable phone in 2020. That never happened, but 2020 was a very atypical year, with the Covid-19 pandemic messing up Apple's phone launch schedule and impacting sales.

Mashable also claimed leaker Jon Prosser spoke about a dual-screen iPhone with display panels connected with a hinge back in June. He said that, while the phone's displays are separate, they seem "fairly continuous and seamless" when extended. A new patent, awarded to Apple just last week, describes a device with a foldable display, where the "first and second portions of an electronic device housing for the device may be joined using a hinge."

Speculations have it that the two models may launch in 2022 or 2023.

Source: https://www.techwif.com/articles/apple-reportedly-working-on-foldable-iphone-models/79/

Google earlier announced a new feature for select Pixel phones called Adaptive Charging. The idea for Adaptive Charging was to offer a solution that could help take care of your battery by charging it steadily over a long period of time rather than quickly.

According to Droid Life, in order to use the new battery charging feature, you’ll first have to turn it on (Settings>Battery>Adaptive Battery). Once done, your phone will look for two things: 1) that you start charging your phone after 9PM and; 2) an active alarm is set between 5-10AM. If you don’t meet all of that, Google says, “Otherwise, your phone charges normally.”

Droid Life assumes that it's obviously not awesome for those with alternate schedules or who don’t use alarms. If you work in the evening and sleep during the day or plan to wake up earlier than 5am, Adaptive Charging will apparently never kick on.

We hope for a better alternative in the long run.

Source: https://www.techwif.com/articles/google-pixel-adaptive-charging-only-works-duing-certain-hours/78/

DigiTimes report says that a miniLED display will be introduced on the iPad Pro in the first quarter of 2021. That means any time from this Friday, January 1, through March 31.

Forbes claims that since formidably accurate Ming-Chi Kuo has previously said that a miniLED iPad would come in the first half of 2021, this new claim is consistent with Kuo, though seems to draw the release sooner rather than later. Again, this fits with Apple’s favored Spring release timetable, though an announcement in June at WWDC isn’t impossible.

miniLED offers a great-looking display technology. Like OLED, each pixel is independently lit, so there’s the potential for outstanding contrast, deep black shades and rich colors. Unlike OLED, it can go really bright, so could mean a display that looks better than OLED in brightly-lit situations.

Source: https://www.techwif.com/articles/apple-ipad-pro-with-nice-display-to-launch-soon/77/

Are you interested in learning machine learning? Harvard University will be giving free online course on edX platform. This will span for 8 weeks.

What you will learn:

- The basics of machine learning
- How to perform cross-validation to avoid overtraining
- Several popular machine learning algorithms
- How to build a recommendation system
- What is regularization and why it is useful

Course description

Perhaps the most popular data science methodologies come from machine learning. What distinguishes machine learning from other computer guided decision processes is that it builds prediction algorithms using data. Some of the most popular products that use machine learning include the handwriting readers implemented by the postal service, speech recognition, movie recommendation systems, and spam detectors.

In this course, part of our Professional Certificate Program in Data Science, you will learn popular machine learning algorithms, principal component analysis, and regularization by building a movie recommendation system.

You will learn about training data, and how to use a set of data to discover potentially predictive relationships. As you build the movie recommendation system, you will learn how to train algorithms using training data so you can predict the outcome for future datasets. You will also learn about overtraining and techniques to avoid it such as cross-validation. All of these skills are fundamental to machine learning.

Interested? Follow this link: https://online-learning.harvard.edu/course/data-science-machine-learning?delta=2

Source: https://www.techwif.com/articles/harvard-university-set-to-give-free-machine-learning-course/76/

Yes

Notatribalist:
AI,you mean Artificial intelligence?

Air Force Assistant Secretary Dr. Will Roper revealed to Popular Mechanics that AI controlled a US military aircraft (and really, military system) for the first time, serving as the “co-pilot” aboard a U-2 Dragon Lady spy plane during a California flight on December 15th.

According to Engadget, ARTUμ, a variant of the μZero AI used for games like chess, had ultimate control over radar during a simulated missile strike on Beale Air Force Base. It determined when to focus on hunting for missiles and when to focus on self-preservation. Effectively, that made it the mission leader — it wasn’t flying, but it determined where the human pilot should fly. There was no override, either.

Engadget also revealed that the U-2 FedLab team spent a month training μZero’s algorithms to work the radar, teaching the AI to spot enemies and watch for danger while interacting with a pilot. The polished ARTUμ was cut off from other subsystems to minimize the risks involved with its decisions.

You won’t see AI take over combat duties for a while, even in tests. An AI-guided dogfighting drone isn’t scheduled to fly until July 2021, and it’s not hard for these systems to be fooled by human ingenuity. As it stands, the Defense Department has been developing AI ethics guidelines that stop short of allowing computers to launch attacks on their own, said Engadget.

Full control isn’t needed for the AI to prove useful, however. Roper saw the AI as helping pilots who might otherwise be overwhelmed by “complex” situations — the technology can assist or even take over some systems. The military could have an edge in battle simply by letting pilots focus on the most pressing issues during a mission.

Source: https://www.techwif.com/articles/us-military-aircraft-controlled-by-ai-for-the-first-time/75/

According to Engadget, Facebook is using full-page newspaper ads to criticize an upcoming Apple policy that will give iPhone and iPad customer the choice over whether advertisers can track them. The company claims in its advertisement that it’s “standing up to Apple for small businesses everywhere.” If the policy change goes ahead, it argues, these sorts of companies will be unable to find and target customers with personalised ads. If they can’t do that, their sales will plummet, “adding to the many challenges they face right now,” the company argues in the ad, which Bloomberg reports will be running in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post papers.

Engadget also claimed Facebook’s gripe is with a change in iOS 14 that requires developers to ask for permission before tracking them. “Tracking refers to the act of linking user or device data collected from your app with user or device data collected from other companies’ apps, websites, or offline properties for targeted advertising or advertising measurement purposes,” the company explains in a developer-focused support page. It was announced in June and originally meant to roll out with the launch of iOS 14 in the fall. Two months later, Facebook warned in a blog post that the change would “hurt many of our developers and publishers at an already difficult time.”

In September, Apple decided to push the policy change to next year. The company then attacked Facebook in a letter sent to several human rights and privacy organizations. “Facebook executives have made clear their intent is to collect as much data as possible across both first and third party products to develop and monetize detailed profiles of their users, and this disregard for user privacy continues to expand to include more of their products,” Apple reportedly wrote. Facebook quickly hit back, arguing that Apple was using its “dominant market position to self-preference their own data collection while making it nearly impossible for their competitors to use the same data. They claim it’s about privacy, but it’s about profit.”

Source: https://www.techwif.com/articles/facebook-runs-full-page-newspaper-ads-to-attack-ios-14-privacy-changes/74/

As confirmed by CNBC Tech, Oracle is the latest tech company to move its headquarters out of California. The company said on Friday it's moving its headquarters from the Silicon Valley to Austin, Texas.

"Oracle is implementing a more flexible employee work location policy and has changed its Corporate Headquarters from Redwood City, California to Austin, Texas. We believe these moves best position Oracle for growth and provide our personnel with more flexibility about where and how they work," a spokesperson confirmed to CNBC.

A bulk of employees can choose their office location, or continue to work from home part time or full time, the company said.

"In addition, we will continue to support major hubs for Oracle around the world, including those in the United States such as Redwood City, Austin, Santa Monica, Seattle, Denver, Orlando and Burlington, among others, and we expect to add other locations over time," Oracle said. "By implementing a more modern approach to work, we expect to further improve our employees' quality of life and quality of output."

Oracle is one of Silicon Valley's older success stories, founded in Santa Clara in 1977. It moved into its current headquarters in 1989. Several of the buildings on its campus there are constructed in the shape of a squat cylinder, which is the classic symbol in computer systems design for a database, the product on which Oracle built its empire.

CNBC said the coronavirus pandemic has given a number of tech companies and prominent Silicon Valley figures an excuse to exit California. Hewlett Packard Enterprise announced earlier this month that it will relocate its headquarters from San Jose, California, to Houston, Texas. Data analytics software company Palantir Technologies also moved its headquarters to Denver, Colorado from Palo Alto, California, earlier this year.

Source: https://www.techwif.com/articles/oracle-is-moving-its-headquarters-from-silicon-valley-to-austin-texas/73/

In an official statement released by Google, Google announced that it is shutting down Poly, its 3D platform launched in Nov. 2017. According to Forbes, the website will officially shut down on June 30, 2021, but users won’t be able to upload models beginning on April 30, 2021.

“After June 30, poly.google.com and associated APIs will no longer be accessible,” the statement reads. “You will not be able to upload new 3D models on poly.google.com after April 30, 2021.”

The platform allowed users to upload, browse, and distribute 3D content created using tools like Tilt Brush and Blocks.

Users will be able to download their entire libraries at the link: takeout.google.com/settings/takeout/cus…, or users “can download individual assets by viewing each asset’s page.”

Poly was an important part of the immersive landscape when it launched, fostering an open creative commons for creating and remixing 3D content and scenes, from hot dogs to Star Wars.

Article by Forbes

Michael Lavin, founder and managing partner of Germin8 Ventures, says over the past decade, consumers have shifted their mindset around food in exciting ways.

“Whereas we once favored convenient nutrition at low-cost, over time we have placed greater importance on clean labels and wholesomeness, and now consumers want functional, health-supportive ingredients as well,” said Lavin.

Lavin says that consumers are increasingly aware of the role diet plays in their health.

“Globally, chronic disease accounts for more than 70% of all deaths annually, yet 80% of certain chronic conditions can be prevented through a healthier diet. Diet is the second highest risk factor for early death after smoking, and, interestingly, it’s less about the intake of bad foods and more about the beneficial nutrients that are missing from our diets,” said Lavin.

“Consumers see that supplements are not a silver bullet, and they need a holistic strategy to manage their health proactively,” added Lavin.

Data and traceability

Part of that new health and food awareness comes down to data and traceability, according to Jean Pougnier, CEO of Crop Enhancement.

“Traceability will expand beyond food safety and production methods to encompass aroma, flavor, texture, nutritional benefits, and other aspects of food quality,” said Pougnier. “Big data has evolved, but the use of that data has yet to take off and will make strides in 2021.”

Pougnier adds it will be imperative for small growers in remote parts of the world who don’t have a seat at the table and lack long-lasting equity in their crops once sold to wholesalers.

The creation of alternative and cell-based proteins

Looking at the alternative protein market, McKinsey’s 2019 report on alternative proteins revealed that plant-based food sales increased by 17 percent in 2018. In 2019, UBS estimated the plant-based-protein or alternative-meat market to grow 28% a year to $85 B in 2030.

“The last twelve months have been a period where emerging players have been able to show proofs-of-concept to investors and media groups, said Lavin. “The next periods will be hallmarked by successes and failures in optimizing taste and formulation for scale-up.”

Lavin says cell-based protein can refer to cultivated protein for the human markets, but it also relates to alternative bio manufactured proteins for animals, including livestock, aquaculture and companion animal markets and each of these markets has attracted significant investment capital.

Ÿnsect is one of those companies.

Ÿnsect wants to change the food chain with insects. The company, armed with $425 M in funding and a recent $372 M series C in June 2020 including investment from Robert Downey Jr.’s FootPrint Coalition, is transforming farmed insects into premium animal nutrition.

“We believe that fish fed with sustainable (mealworm) protein will become a certified label and then a requirement in aquaculture in the future,” said Antoine Hubert, CEO, Ÿnsect.

Lavin notes that ultimately success could be eclipsed by poor consumer perception, unmet taste, sensory experience, and cost.

“This is a sector that still needs to industrialize, and a big part in doing so lies in designing better inputs and tools. We are already seeing many entrants developing new growth factors, media, bioprocessing hardware and software tools,” said Lavin.

Lavin adds that 100% plant-based and hybrid products, mostly plant-based, will ultimately prevail with the dominant market share and consumer preference.

The rise of carbon removal through nature-based, agricultural projects

There are multiple impact pathways for agriculture to diminish or remove carbon.

Ÿnsect’s Hubert says the emergence of large scale carbon-negative protein and vertical farms is one way. “With a vertical farm, we use 98% less land while significantly reducing the carbon footprint of protein production and generating zero waste,” said Hubert.

“The food system accounts for approximately 26% (13.6 B tons) of global greenhouse gas emissions, with livestock agriculture being the highest contributor,” said Lavin. “Of the 13.6 B tons of CO2 equivalents, approximately 31% is attributed to enteric fermentation – methane release – and 18% to land-use for livestock – this is a very significant impact pathway for startups, emerging technologies and farmers to make a difference.”

Lavin notes that the most significant barrier isn’t the availability of technology but the economics necessary to stimulate adoption and shift practices.

“A majority of methane-inhibiting feed additives and enzymes promise to reduce methane, but at a consequence of the animal’s weight gain, which means a net decrease in farmer profits, and therein lies the breakthrough needed,” adds Lavin.

“There are also grazing methods proven to create a dynamic where a given herd’s emissions are more than offset by carbon sequestered back into the soil, but these regenerative strategies are not the norm for its complexity,” said Lavin. “Technologies, markets and alternative proteins will increasingly intervene in this area and make it possible to shift livestock production to a more sustainable model. It’s mission-critical.”

Food as medicine

The global Covid-19 pandemic has affected every aspect of the industry and our collective way of life. Despite the disruption from the pandemic slowing investment in the movement, at the same time, it has also created an opportunity for real business opportunities to emerge that will advance the food-as-medicine movement.

“Germin8′s view is that food-as-medicine technology refers to any product or service that shifts power to food as a means of health, and they exist throughout the whole value chain,” said Lavin. “In the downstream, this can include consumer apps functioning as artificial intelligence (AI) nutrition coaches, foods featuring active ingredients backed by evidence, or personalized supplements aimed at improving your unique microbiome in a tailored manner.”

Lavin says that food-as-medicine innovations include computational discovery platforms uncovering new nutrients to fortify our health significantly; bioprocessing methods to produce high-value nutrients at low-cost; novel chemistry that’s safe and reliable for farmers to use; and farming new crops that make our diets more biodiverse.

“Chronic illnesses are projected to have a global impact of $47 T by the year 2030, so food-as-medicine represents a massive opportunity as it gains momentum towards solving these problems, and investors will keep investing,” adds Lavin.

Source: https://www.techwif.com/articles/four-food-tech-trends-that-will-still-be-trending-in-2021/71/

According to The Guardian, Netflix on Saturday said it would declare more than $1.3 billion in UK revenue, putting tax pressure on other tech firms like Amazon.

A Netflix spokesperson told Variety: "The UK is an incredibly important market to Netflix and we're proud to be increasing our investment in the UK's creative industries. 'The Crown,' 'Sex Education' and 'The Witcher' are among the shows that have been made in the UK this year and will be watched by the world. And these shows are a testament to the depth of talent that exists here."

Source: https://www.techwif.com/articles/netflix-to-declare-more-than-13-billion-in-uk-revenue/70/

TechRader confirms that Samsung is widely expected to be unveiling the Galaxy S21 at some point in January, but apparently it won't be the only new hardware from the company to welcome in 2021 – a new pair of Galaxy Buds are also rumored to be on the way.

As revealed by SamMobile, the new earphones will be called the Galaxy Buds Pro. They'll be successors to the Galaxy Buds Plus that launched with the Galaxy S20 phone, rather than replacements for the more recent bean-shaped Galaxy Buds Live.

The new earphones are going to feature the same in-ear design as the Buds Plus, according to the new leaks, and the sound quality upgrades are tipped to include improvements to the Ambient mode that allows outside sounds to be heard.

Source: https://www.techwif.com/articles/new-galaxy-buds-pro-earphones-set-to-launch-with-the-galaxy-s21/69/