Spotify is pivoting toward short-form video content
Music streaming platform Spotify has announced a newly designed user interface that prioritises short-form video and quick preview snippets. It is the latest app to follow TikTok’s design model. Spotify is rolling out a new user interface that focuses on short-form video content. Previous iterations of the app displayed albums,...
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Could Sunzaun solar panels be the future of green energy?
A company in California has created a vertical solar panel that allows agriculture and green energy to co-exist. Solar panels are one of the most promising sources for green energy, with over 1 million different sites in the UK alone. With the disastrous effects of climate change already impacting people...
Rwanda to receive satellite internet service Starlink from SpaceX
In an innovative undertaking, Elon Musk's Starlink satellite service is set to be deployed in Rwanda, bringing high-speed internet access to the most underserved communities in East Africa. According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) report, Rwanda has a high uptake in ITC growth, and is developing Africa’s...
Online eBook platform Z-Library makes comeback
Z-library, an illegal online collection of eBooks, is beloved by both college students and romance novel fans. It is back after being seized last November by the FBI. The ‘shadow library’ has hosted free (and illegal) downloads from a selection of over 11 million eBooks since 2009. However, its surging...
TikTok imposes sixty minutes screen time limit for teens
Teenagers under the age of 18 in the US must now type a password into TikTok after sixty minutes of daily use if they want to continue. It comes as the platform faces a possible ban and mounting privacy concerns. Young people in the US will have to input a...
New online tool allows teens to remove explicit images
‘Take it Down’ aims to give back agency to teens and victims of revenge porn. Young people are often vilified for sharing explicit images of themselves online. ‘Everything on the internet lasts forever’ is often the warning cry of older generations. The reality is that many teens are coerced into uploading...
Snapchat announces its own integrated chatbot ‘My AI’
Snap has announced its own ChatGPT-style chatbot called ‘My AI,’ rolling out to paying subscribers and eventually everyone. This is billed as more a virtual friend, than all-powerful writing machine. Being ahead of the curve isn’t necessarily always best. In the realm of tech, sitting back and learning from rival mistakes can sometimes be the better recipe for success. With an eager eye on the commercial AI race unfolding between Microsoft...
Does the post-apocalypse shooter ‘The Day Before’ really exist?
‘The Day Before’ has been billed as a massive online post-apocalypse zombie shooter. It is the second most wish-listed game on Steam and has lapped up serious levels of hype. There’s only one catch – nobody is sure if it actually exists. When I mention video game disasters, what comes to mind? Most of us would probably list buggy, unplayable games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Fallout 76 as the biggest...
Could gene-editing be used to treat mental illness?
Just as the technology is promising new therapies for everything from heart disease to cancer, some researchers believe that tinkering with the epigenome could help reverse the damage done by trauma. In recent years, scientists have made strides towards treating diseases through gene-editing technology, their most promising breakthrough being the discovery of CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats). The essence of CRISPR is simple: it’s a way of...
Could this mushroom one day replace plastic?
Researchers are studying the molecular structure of fomes fomentarius, a fungus with the remarkable ability to yield a wide range of materials with different properties. If you’re familiar with my writing, by now I’m sure you’re well aware of my deep-rooted obsession with all things mycelium. This is pretty understandable, given the amount of recent findings proving that there’s very little these fantastic fungi can’t do. From communicating...
