Hyperloop is edging closer to reality

Plenty has happened in the five years since Elon Musk first published his white paper on a system he called Hyperloop. Since releasing that manifesto to the world, hundreds of people and hundreds of millions of dollars have been put to work, all in t...

Google Maps now lets businesses mark themselves as ‘Women-Led’

In commemoration of this year’s International Women’s Day, Google is updating its My Business dashboard to allow business owners to list themselves as “Women-Led.” Attributes are the descriptive features that pop up on a business’s card when you search for it in Maps. They include things such as “Free Wi-Fi,” “Outdoor Seating,” or “Kosher Food.” Google has augmented the list several times, such as when it added an updated list of accessibility attributes to help those who used wheelchairs. The new feature follows in the footsteps of the LGBT-friendly attribute, introduced last year just in time for Pride. A Google…

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Spotify’s ‘Amplify’ hub will highlight important issues with music

As part of the International Women's Day celebrations, Spotify announced a new feature called "Amplify." This hub will be a destination for topics from different communities, and will feature podcasts and playlists highlighting important issues. Beca...

Try this AI experiment that converts 2D images to 3D

In January we wrote about an AI called Volume that ripped characters out of videos. The developers of that AI, Or Fleisher and Shirin Anlen, recently updated their website with an interactive AI experiment that converts any flat imageto 3D. We’ve seen similar AI before, but this one does more than facial reconstruction. We asked Fleisher, who you may also remember as the creator of an AI that gives any webcam Kinect-like capabilities, if training an AI to convert any type of image presents a different challenge than training one to convert something specific: It is different in some ways and similar in…

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Trump spurns experts for his video game meeting

Donald Trump is hosting a meeting today, which, according to a White House spokesperson, has been set "to discuss violent video-game exposure and the correlation to aggression and desensitization in children." CNN's Jake Tapper tweeted the list of at...

HTC debuts original Ready Player One content for the Vive

 While some don’t care for the hit novel Ready Player One, it’s hard to deny that the book captured the hearts and minds of millions as it climbed the NYT Bestseller’s list in 2011. At the end of this month, a film adaptation of the book, directed by Stephen Spielberg, will be released in theaters. And given the book’s heavy focus on VR, it makes sense that HTC wants to… Read More

RAD is a new system to help the visually impaired play racing games

A PhD candidate in Computer Science at Columbia Engineering, Brian A. Smith, created a new system for blind gamers who want to get a little racing in. The system, called racing auditory display or RAD, is truly amazing. It lets the visually impaired play racing games without “seeing” the screen. Instead, the audio output tells the player when they’re getting closer to an edge… Read More

Snap Interactive, quietly settling with Snap over trademark infringement, changes name to PeerStream

 Back in 2016 after Snapchat rebranded the company name to Snap Inc to reflect its status as a camera company and more than just Snapchat, an existing publicly-traded business by the name of Snap Interactive filed a trademark infringement lawsuit to bar the change. Snap Interactive’s concern: it was already distributing social network apps and using the name Snap in association with… Read More