Stop and search is one of the most contentious areas of how the police interact with the public. It has been heavily criticized for being discriminatory towards black and minority ethnic groups, and for having marginal effects on reducing crime. In the same way, the police use of machine learning algorithms has been condemned by human rights groups who claim such programs encourage racial profiling and discrimination along with threatening privacy and freedom of expression....

The set-piece battle of the next ten years is taking shape. On one side, European cities, and on the other, emissions, CO2, and pollution. The goal? To achieve carbon neutrality and take one step closer to the end of the climate crisis. Cities across Europe have an arsenal of tools in this fight against climate change but one that is often overlooked is procurement. In the grand coalition of humanity fighting a common foe, this powerful tool must not be ignored....

Don’t worry, I’ll explain what this has to do with self-aware robots in due course. Fun with physics First, however, let’s lay the foundation for our speculation with a quick glance at this all-new wormhole theory. The pre-print paper comes courtesy of French researcher Pascal Koiran. According to them, if you apply a different theoretical math metric to our understanding of gravity at the edge of a black hole, you get a different theoretical output....

If you own an Apple TV and are anything like me, you’ll have been hit with a weird surprise a while ago: a button on the remote randomly changed function. Where once you clicked and were taken to the Apple TV home screen, an overnight change meant you were directed to the Apple TV app instead. This totally threw me off. I can’t recall a single other occasion where the function of a button changed without any warning....

Voice messages are a divisive form of communication. Their devotees say they create a more personal connection, feel more natural than writing, and convey emotion better than mere text. They’re also helpful for people who have difficulties texting (who are obviously exempt from the criticisms that are coming). Despite these advantages, voice notes have manifold detractors. The critics argue that they’re slow to scan, susceptible to rants, and disruptive to whatever else you’re doing....

Imagine it’s your first time entering a social virtual reality experience. You quickly set up an avatar, choosing feminine characteristics because you identify as female. You choose an outfit that seems appropriate, and when you’re done, you spawn into a space. You have no idea where you are or who is around you. As you’re getting your sea legs in this new environment, all the other avatars look at you and notice that you’re different....

If you’re a heavy reader, your list never gets any shorter, does it? Because no sooner do you devour one book, then two more spring up to take its place on your never-ending list of gotta-read-it tomes. Unless you’ve got super-speed, reading takes time. Fortunately, 12min has found a loophole in that process so you can down an entire book in just 12 minutes. We can get in on fast tracking your reading list with a lifetime 12min premium subscription, available now for only $39, 88 percent off, from TNW Deals....

Google recently revealed it was giving iPhone users the same security as their Android brothers, by making your phone the equivalent of a key. No more dealing with SMS codes… just one Google app on your phone. Whereas before you’d have to buy a physical key to get this same level of protection, now all you need is the Google Smart Lock app. Here’s everything you need to know to get started....

To use this new tool, you can just type, “COVID-19 vaccine” in your browser and go to the “Where to get it” tab on your phone or desktop. You can perform this search on Google’s home page, search app, or the Maps app. The list also shows if you require an appointment at the center and if vaccines are available for only certain ages. Some centers in India are still open to only essential workers and people aged above 45....

In a Facebook post last night, the company’s CEO said he wanted to talk about free speech and how we might address the challenges that the internet introduces in that regard. Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday, October 16, 2019

The event will take place on August 5, at 7AM PT / 10AM ET/ 4PM CEST / 7:30PM IST. Samsung will be streaming the announcement right from its homepage on Samsung.com, or in the embedded video at the bottom of this post. It’s expected to be a bit of a doozy too, with Samsung planning to announce five major pieces of hardware. The biggest one of these, of course, is the Galaxy Note 20; the latest in the series has launched in the second half of the year for several generations now....

The hack on the surface may appear to be a run-of-the-mill financial scam. But the breach has chilling implications for democracy. Serious political implications As a scholar of internet governance and infrastructure, I see the underlying cybercrimes of this incident, such as hacking accounts and financial fraud, as far less concerning than the society-wide political implications. Social media – and Twitter in particular – is now the public sphere. Using a hijacked account, it would be simple to wreak economic damage, start a national security crisis, or create a social panic....

Griffin already produces a $100 connected toaster which can enable users to adjust temperature and even create presets for different types of bread directly from their mobile phone. The rapid proliferation of such devices raises questions about the safety and security risks that these connected smart gadgets pose. A toaster may be relatively harmless on its own, but once it connects to the internet it can do more than just burn your toast....

Coined in 1992 by science fiction author Neal Stephenson, the relatively obscure term exploded in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly after Facebook rebranded as Meta in October 2021. There are now myriad articles on the metaverse, and thousands of companies have invested in its development. Citigroup Inc. has estimated that by 2030 the metaverse could be a US$13 trillion market, with 5 billion users. From climate change to global connection and disability access to pandemic response, the metaverse has incredible potential....

Canadian authorities arrested Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, in December 2018 at the behest of the US. The incident angered Beijing considerably, and the event soon became the centerpiece of a trade war between China and the Trump administration. [Read: Huawei P40 Pro leak shows off superzoom lens and reserved ceramic design] New York Times notes that the first stage of Meng’s extradition hearing will decide whether her alleged crimes are common to both the United States and Canada, the latter of which has not imposed sanctions in Iran in the same way as the US....

This envelope of electrically-charged particles stretches 1.3 million light years from it’s home galaxy, halfway to the Milky Way. In some places, Andromeda’s halo stretches two million light years from its parent galaxy, two-thirds of the way to our home galaxy. This close proximity means that Andromeda, destined to collide with the Milky Way in several billion years, has made “first contact” with our home galaxy. “We find the inner shell that extends to about a half million light-years is far more complex and dynamic....

Truly, we live in a foldable world. The Mate Xs was announced yesterday, and I managed to get my hands on one in Barcelona. Before we get into what it was like to use though, let’s talk a little bit about the phone itself. [Read: Everything you need to know about Honor’s just-launched 9X Pro] What exactly is the Huawei Mate Xs? Effectively, it’s Huawei’s second foldable device. Rather than being a flip phone clone (like the aforementioned Motorola Razr), it’s more in the vein of the Galaxy Fold....

What? While Elite Hybrid Cloud Build Team might sound like a crack squad of futuristic Airborne Seabees, the reality is almost just as cool. Per IBM: In other words, the EHCBT helps businesses connect their on-premise, on-cloud, and other AI systems no matter what platform they’re on. With decades of expertise in Microsoft Azure, IBM Cloud, AWS and many more environments, the IBM Hybrid Cloud Build Team helps its ecosystem partners revamp workloads across all cloud platforms and providers while infusing new technologies like AI, 5G, Kubernetes and Edge to optimize business operations and improve client outcomes....

Call for Code is a five-year challenge (now in its third) issued to developers around the world. Every year teams compete to solve big problems such as disaster response, climate change, and, now, the COVID-19 pandemic. So far, more than 200,000 developers, coders, engineers, and problem-solvers have accepted the Call for Code Challenge in its two years running. The winning team receives a cash prize and support from IBM and it’s partners to get their project off the ground....

New research from Ramboll finds that personal safety concerns about walking, cycling and using public transport have a big influence on how women move around cities. The Gender and (Smart) Mobility report calls on cities and transport planners to adopt a safety by design approach and apply a gender lens to all projects without casting women as victims. This, it says, is the key to making all citizens feel safer....