The team at MIT’s Dream Lab believes that inserting sounds and scents into our dreams can make our waking lives better. Their research focuses on hypnagogia, the dream-like state between our conscious and subconscious minds, which we enter as we progress from being awake to asleep. “People don’t know that a third of their life is a third where they could change or structure or better themselves,” said Dream Lab researcher Adam Horowitz....

Take a look. Despite numerous Libra Association member companies getting cold feet over the regulatory challenges facing Facebook’s ‘cryptocurrency’ Libra, none have actually pulled out – until now. Payment services provider PayPal is the first to officially remove itself from the Libra Association, BBC reports. It announced the news last Friday, but didn’t give a specific reason for its departure. Walmart is reportedly piloting a blockchain to trace shrimp, The Hindu reports....

This impressive total marks another important milestone on our journey towards universal internet accessibility, and means that 63 percent of the world’s total population is now online. There’s much more to this story than a headline user figure though, and this article offers extensive analysis to help you understand the implications of this milestone. But there are plenty of other big stories in this quarter’s report too, including: A big new milestone for social media use in China; A remarkable new record for TikTok; A change in momentum for social media user growth; Further increases in the cost of social media ads; The role of digital in the workplace and B2B marketing; and A jump in cryptocurrency ownership across developing economies....

Musk has said he wants to make Twitter an arena for free speech. It’s not clear what that will mean, and his statements have fueled speculation among both supporters and detractors. As a corporation, Twitter can regulate speech on its platform as it chooses. There are bills being considered in the U.S. Congress and by the European Union that address social media regulation, but these are about transparency, accountability, illegal harmful content, and protecting users’ rights, rather than regulating speech....

Yeah, AirPods feel sophisticated, the Jabra Elite Active 65t are slick and durable, while the Sennheiser Momentum sound fantastic — but it was the MW07 that really captured my heart. They’re well designed, work flawlessly, and — importantly — sound tight as fuck. Well, today is a good day, because Master & Dynamic has updated the MW07 true wireless with two new models: the MW07 GO and the MW07 PLUS....

The Golden Records were built to last a billion years in the environment of space, but in a recent analysis of the paths and perils these explorers may face, astronomers calculated that they could exist for trillions of years without coming remotely close to any stars. Having spent my career in the field of religion and science, I’ve thought a lot about how spiritual ideas intersect with technological achievements. The incredible longevity of the Voyager spacecraft presents a uniquely tangible entry point into exploring ideas of immortality....

This change was originally spotted by Phil Swann, the TV Answer Man, and is backed up by a Netflix help center page that says free trials “are not available.” It’s not exactly clear when Netflix made the change, but the fact remains that if you aren’t already Netflix, you don’t get to try it. Either pay up or no watching Haunting of Bly Manor, or Tiger King, or whatever else is hot on the platform at the moment....

Starting from August, Zuck’s introducing a new Meta account (which won’t be linked to Facebook) for both new and existing users. And if you’ve been logging into your VR device with an Oculus account, you’ll also have to ditch it after January 1, 2023. The company stressed that the Meta account isn’t a social media profile. Instead, “it lets you log into your VR devices and view and manage your purchased apps in one place....

They also have to regularly help teammates and negotiate deadlines with stakeholders. It’s not surprising then, that some developers discover that they prefer working with humans as well as computers. Still, it can be difficult to know how to support developers that have expressed an interest in leading people. As research shows, 92% of people think having access to professional development is important or very important, so developers need pathways that enable them to explore, learn, and transition into leadership....

These were Ana’s first words to me, spoken as though having just been released from prison or escaped a hard labor camp. However, this was just our weekly managerial catch-up over Skype. The situation wasn’t nearly as dire, but the emotions were just as raw. Ana and her team (all millennials) jumped at the chance to go remote, even volunteering to work a 24-hour rotational schedule in exchange for not having to come into the office....

After banning porn on its platforms last week, OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely has publically blamed banks for this decision. According to a report from the Financial Times, Stokely said “unfair” treatment is the reason for the porn ban, “The change in policy, we had no choice — the short answer is banks.” The founder gave examples of banks making it difficult for the company to pay its creators. He said that the Bank of New York Mellon “flagged and rejected” every wire transfer to the company....

Prior to the pandemic 70% of office-based employees worked in open-plan offices. Employee complaints about this design are rife. Yet there is little experimental research investigating the effects of office noise on things like cognitive performance, physiological stress , and mood. The results of our study, in experimentally controlled conditions using heart rate, skin conductivity, and AI facial emotion recognition, shows the effects of that noise are very real. We’ve found a significant causal relationship between open-plan office noise and physiological stress....

With the launch, Opera Touch for iOS provides the same Web 3.0 and cryptocurrency wallet integration as its Android and PC-based counterpart. Opera says that it allows users to interact directly and seamlessly with Web 3.o (read: decentralized) applications on the Ethereum blockchain. Typically, users would need a browser add-on, like MetaMask, to do this, but with Opera Touch, it all comes as part of the package. “We believe that all modern browsers should integrate a crypto wallet,” said Opera’s head of crypto, Charles Hamel....

Founded as a way to take correspondences you receive in your mailbox and convert them into digital pieces of work, Outbox eventually serviced more than 2,000 customers from across the United States, with 25,000 on the waiting list. It wound up scanning more than 1.5 million pages and delivered over 250,000 requested mail packages. Unfortunately while the traction is impressive, things apparently weren’t that prosperous internally. The company’s co-founders write that its marketing efforts were unsuccessful....

Welcome to the latest edition of Pardon The Intrusion, TNW’s bi-weekly newsletter in which we explore the wild world of security. Facial recognition systems for use by law enforcement are all the rage these days. China has employed it on a vast scale to establish a surveillance network of sorts, while law enforcements’ use of facial databases in the US and UK have drawn scrutiny. These tools often mix AI with a curated database of images pulled from other databases, which could be anywhere from government ID databases to Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other websites....

There are generally two types of files that are probably filling up a majority of the space on your laptop or smartphone hard drive right now. One group includes all the photos, videos and other personal mementos that you’ve accumulated, all stuff that would be painful to lose. The other group is stuff you’ve mostly forgotten about, but don’t quite want to trash either. Stuff like old tax returns or a report or a podcast episode you’ve never gotten around to hearing....

In fact, researchers found Americans look at their phones over 50 times a day. Multiply that figure by about an estimated 270 million Americans, and that’s 14 billion (with a B) digital check-ins every day. So if you’re trying to drive an effective digital marketing campaign for your company or brand, that’s not an audience you dismiss casually. You can do digital advertising the right way with a lifetime subscription to a PixelMe Pro Plan, which is on sale right now at over 90 percent off, just $39 from TNW Deals....

We’ll get back to that in a moment. First, let’s suckle upon the news. An image has leaked that’s purporting to be of the new AirPods, what will be third generation of Apple’s true wireless earbuds. It was originally shared by 52 Audio, and then picked up by MacRumors. Slam your peepers on them: Before we truck on, let’s take stock: there’s a chance these pictures are fake. 52 Audio has been wrong in the past....

Naturally, attention has turned from private to public resources: what role should government agencies take in keeping the startup ecosystem alive? Introducing the second episode of Data Market Services Inspiration Series, a new podcast produced and hosted by Tech.eu to support startups in the current crisis with advice and experienced insight. This episode will compare and contrast the policies of France, the Netherlands, Latvia, and the greater EU. This podcast is produced in collaboration with Data Market Services Accelerator, a European Commission-backed initiative involving TNW and nine other partners from across Europe....

Unless you’re Kylie Jenner or The Rock, Googling yourself pretty much never ends well. For most people, after their Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin profiles, there’s a steady stream of results featuring you from outlets like TruthFinder and InstantCheckmate and Spokeo. As you check out those listings, the anger grows. Who is Intelius and why do they have my phone number online? And why do they need to publicize every address where I’ve lived since college, including my current one?...