Companies started to design a ‘lite’ version of their apps that can run on most phones and don’t take up much space on the device (less than 10MB). The primary reason was that many folks used to uninstall apps to make room for some photos, videos, or music. These apps were also designed to use the minimum amount of data, and even work when network conditions were not ideal. As a result, these companies came up with lite apps that were much smaller and snippier than their main counterparts....

One of their discoveries was the remains of fossilized crinoids, sometimes known as “sea lilies.” Close relatives of sea urchins and starfish, these flower-like animals consist of a series of plates connected together in branches with a stem. The specimens from Lyme Regis, dating back to the Jurassic period over 180 million years ago, look like polished brass because they have been fossilized with pyrite (fool’s gold). Buckland noticed that these crinoid fossils were attached to small pieces of driftwood we call lenses, which had turned into coal....

But perhaps that shouldn’t be surprising: reproducing and, especially, creating immersive audio content is awfully inconvenient. Luckily, things are starting to change. Immersive audio is finally becoming accessible to the mainstream thanks to big-name manufacturers like Apple building spatial audio right into their headphones. Even setting up spatial audio speaker systems has become a cinch thanks to wireless speaker manufacturers like Sonos adopting the format. The spatial audio trend shows no signs of slowing down, but widespread adoption will require a smaller learning curve (and lower prices) for creators....

But if other human-like civilizations are unlikely to exist, could there exist other forms of life – perhaps better suited than us to spread in the cosmos? And would it be possible for such lifeforms to communicate with each other (non-human SETI)? Our new study, published in Biosystems, suggests it would. Microbes, such as bacteria, may be rulers of the cosmic life – and they are a lot more intelligent than we give them credit for....

This testing lab, which is the center of OnePlus’ camera development, was established in 2014 under Simon Liu, who heads the company’s imaging team now. Carl Pei, OnePlus’ co-founder, told a bunch of reporters at a briefing in Taiwan the company’s philosophy behind its camera is to take ‘natural’ photos that are close to what your eyes see, but they shouldn’t be flat and should ‘have some emotions.’ “We want our consumers to take the phone out of their pocket, and without fiddling with the setting take a great photo in the auto mode,” he opined on the aim of OnePlus’ phone cameras....

More electric vehicles! Sounds great for the environment, right? Yes, but electric car manufacturers have to tread carefully. More EVs means more batteries, and it’s essential that companies source the raw materials needed for batters ethically, particularly cobalt. Tracing cobalt on the blockchain Polestar, a recent EV launch, was the first car to announce the use of blockchain to trace cobalt in its batteries, according to Polestar’s Head of Sustainability Frederika Klarén....

But as with any field going through the hype cycle, AI is surrounded by a saturation of information, much of which is misleading or of little value. I can tell that from my inbox. Every day, I receive several pitches that claim company X has solved problem Y with “advanced AI techniques,” or that AI can now solve problem Z. A few years ago, I might have opened and read these emails with interest....

According to widely-accepted models of the Big Bang, the enormous energy of the explosion soon began to freeze into subatomic particles. As the Universe continued to expand and cool, matter and anti-matter formed (theoretically) in equal amounts. Were that the whole story, however, these particles should have eventually wiped each other out of existence. But, when we look around us, everything we observe — from the tiniest microbe to the largest galaxy, is made of matter, while the presence of anti-matter seems to be relegated to high-energy environments like the surface of stars or the merger of black holes....

So you’re preparing for your next mobile development interview? Assuming that the company is working with the popular mobile app development framework, React Native, you’re in the right place. The interviewer is going to test your React Native knowledge, so let’s make sure you’re prepared for any questions coming your way. In this article, I’ll go through some of the most common React Native interview questions and provide the answers so you can confidently demonstrate your knowledge of the framework....

While I don’t have a short answer to this, there’s one thing I can say: your choice of funding needs to be based on the nature of your business and the product you are dealing with. The exact type of your business can be determined in a number of ways, but I find ‘Red Ocean’ and ‘Blue Ocean’ can be quite helpful. Coined by acclaimed business theorists, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne to classify all market strategies, Red Ocean refers to when there are a lot of competitors and you need a substantial amount of money to survive in it....

We all spend a large amount of time on our phones, and it’d probably shock at least a few of you to exactly how many hours of your lives you put into each app every day or week. Well, it’s your lucky day, because iOS can give you the cold hard numbers. Maybe you want to document a reduction in screen time (never a terrible idea), you’re trying to figure out how to conserve battery, or you’re just curious....

GOG today revealed a new refund policy in which it would accept returns on games for up to 30 days after the purchase, even if they’ve already been played. This would make it one of the few gaming platforms that I know of that accepts refunds for games that have been played to excess — even Steam will only accept returns if you’ve played for less than roughly two hours....

Today, there are almost 60 million freelancers in the United States to fill these roles, and the number is expected to grow- according to a new recent report from Freelancers Union and Upwork. While hiring freelancers is a great way to be able to get specific tasks done without having to hire more full-time employees. There are many things that you need to take into consideration before posting a job on a freelance website....

FaceApp is the talk of the town right now. Everyone’s trying out this AI-powered app to see how they’ll look when they’re old. While this is all fun and games, as we’ve pointed out before, there are plenty of privacy concerns surrounding this app. The biggest of ’em all is that according to the app’s privacy policy, it can use your photos and data for commercial purposes. Now, you wouldn’t want to give your data away just to see what you’ll look like with a few wrinkles, do you?...

I got into the habit of listening to soothing music to help me sleep a few months ago. My playlist varies from post-rock tracks to low-fi instrumentals. When I started this habit, I often woke up after some hours to find the music is still playing. Thankfully, I found a handy sleep timer option in the Spotify app that helps me save my phone’s battery, and prevents it from playing songs all night long....

There’s practically no need to allow websites to send you notifications, and there’s certainly no need for your web browser to ask if that’d be okay. If you’ve never found any use for these, I want to show you how to fix it once and for all, in whichever browser you use. Google Chrome (desktop) Click on the three dots button near the top right corner of the browser, and select Settings....

Apple has started to roll out iOS 14 to eligible iPhones, and there are so many nifty features including widgets and an App library. However, the update also packs some useful tricks up its sleeve that you may not know about. I’ve been using iOS 14 beta since it was announced in June at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) and back tap is my favorite feature. It lets you define actions when you tap two or three times on the back of your iPhone....

I remember the days when Windows and Android users had to follow obscure links or mirrors to ‘hack’ their way into watching an Apple event. That’s a thing of the past. These days, Apple’s big showcases are publicly accessible for just about everyone. Apple is hosting its event on Tuesday, September 14, starting at 10 AM Pacific or 1 PM ET. It’s where it’ll almost certainly announce the iPhone 13, and the company will surely have a bunch of other products to reveal too; you can read more about what to expect here....

From my experience at hackathons, I understand that it’s not just about winning first place. You participate to learn something new, make connections and have fun. During my first hackathons, I was really focused on winning and didn’t see all the other benefits of going to a hackathon. When I didn’t win, I was so upset that I almost wanted to forget about the whole event. Over time I noticed that hackathons always attract multiple types of people, with different skill sets....

Mouthful of a name aside, the phone looks decent enough for roughly $427 (11,990 TWD, as Taiwan is the only confirmed market). You get a Snapdragon 690 — no speed demon, but likely good enough for most people — 128 GB of storage, and 8GB of RAM. You also get a massive 5,000 mAh battery, which will hopefully guarantee all-day battery-life despite the 6.7 inch IPS display. That display also has a 90Hz refresh rate, which is a nice thing to see for a phone in this price range....