#Hassan.

Top oil executives have appeared before US lawmakers to face allegations they misled the public about climate change. Major producers were quizzed about the impact of the fossil fuels they profit from and their environmental toll. The hearing on Thursday, which Democrats hailed as historic, marked the first time oil bosses had answered questions publicly and under oath. The six-hour session saw some heated exchanges, with firms such as BP and Shell facing tough questions. "Some of us actually have to live the future that you are all setting on fire for us," Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said. But the executives of Exxon Mobil, Chevron, BP and Shell repeatedly spoke about their efforts to transition to clean energy and denied misleading the public. The session, which saw decades of lobbying and public statements by America's biggest energy firms put under the spotlight, came just days before the start of the UN's COP26 climate conference. President Joe Biden is set to fly to Glasgow for the meeting of world leaders, which is being seen as a crucial moment in the global fight against climate change. How the oil industry made us doubt climate change What the COP26 climate summit could mean for us all A really simple guide to climate change The hearing in House of Representatives Oversight Committee hearing was part of a broad probe that Democrats said would last a year. "For far too long, Big Oil has escaped accountability for its central role in bringing our planet to the brink of a climate catastrophe," committee chairwoman Carolyn B Maloney said during her introduction. Questioning Exxon's CEO, she said there had been a "clear conflict" between what past executives had said publicly versus the the effects of the company's activities on the climate. Ms Maloney also condemned the companies for failing to provide internal documents that the committee had requested ahead of the hearings. The committee had been seeking records relating to "payments to shadow groups," public relations firms and other firms, as well as records of communications from senior executives discussing their companies' role in the climate crisis. Ms Maloney told the executives that she intends to issue subpoenas to force them to hand over the documents. "I have tried very hard to obtain this information voluntarily, but the oil companies employ the same tactics they used for decades on climate policy: delay and obstruction," she said. Throughout proceedings, Democrats were keen to draw parallels between their climate disinformation probe and the House's Big Tobacco investigation in the 1990s, which, after months of testimony, concluded that cigarette companies tried to conceal evidence that their products were addictive and harmful. A statement issued by the committee on Wednesday said the industry had known about the effects of global warming since 1977 but "for decades spread denial and doubt about the harm of its products". Michael Wirth, from Chevron, denied his firm had knowingly lied to the public. "While our views on climate change have developed over time, any suggestion that Chevron is engaged in an effort to spread disinformation and mislead the public on these complex issues is simply wrong," he said. Darren Woods, chief executive of Exxon, said his company had long recognised climate change was real but said there was "no easy answers" and insisted "oil and gas will continue to be necessary for the foreseeable future". None of the executives present agreed to a request from Democratic Representative Ro Khanna to conduct independent audits to establish whether their companies were contributing to groups that promote climate disinformation and denial. Republicans were resounding in their criticism of the questioning directed by their Democratic counterparts. Arizona Republican Andy Biggs told the CEOs they had been "brought here so they can beat the crap out of you". Representative James Comer said the hearing was intended "to deliver partisan theatre for primetime news" and said the committee should instead be focusing on the "pressing concerns of American citizens". Republicans called Neal Crabtree, a welder who lost his job after the cancellation of a major oil pipeline by Mr Biden, to testify about his family's struggles to make ends meet. Ms Maloney, the panel's chair, said at the close of Thursday's hearing that the investigation must continue. "I intend to issues subpoenas to the fossil fuel industry representatives here today," she said, adding: "We are at code red for climate and I am committed to doing everything I can to help rescue this planet and save it for our children. link : https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-59083395

he Xperia 1 III looks a lot like the smartphones that came before it. If it wasn’t for the matte finish, it would be almost identical to last year’s Xperia 1 II. Sony has stuck to its unusual elongated smartphone form factor while upgrading the screen itself, as well as the cameras. Yet again, this phone is pitched at a particular kind of smartphone shopper. That’s no bad thing, especially in a time where most smartphones — if they don’t fold — lack anything particularly unique. At $1,300, the Xperia 1 III is also an expensive phone. That’s several hundred dollars more than an iPhone 13 Pro Max and creeping closer to prices typically held for Samsung’s flagship foldables. (Edit: Just as I wrapped up this review, Sony unveiled a new flagship smartphone, the Xperia Pro-1 with a bigger imaging sensor, several attachments and a $1,800 price tag.) If you're tempted by the potential of unrivaled smartphone camera control — or just love the aesthetic of Sony’s hardware— there’s a lot to like here. Hardware I’m not sure whether it’s the similarities with Sony’s camera series or simply how sleek and understated the Mk.III is, but I love how this phone looks. A black oblong is far from exotic, but it’s definitely attractive. And that’s despite the unusual screen ratio (21:9), which makes the device more elongated than pretty much all other smartphones. In addition, a new almost-matte finish adds to the premium feel, something the Xperia 1 III demands at this price. The Mk.III lays claim to being the world’s first 4K phone with a 120Hz refresh rate. I’m splitting hairs here, but it’s 1644 x 3840 — so it’s not quite 4K like your TV would show, which would be 2160 x 3840. Predictably, everything on the screen looked incredibly crisp, and my interactions with the phone were also buttery smooth. The 6.5-inch OLED display continues to show Sony’s obsession with displays, and given the specs, you’d expect it to look as good, if not better, than Samsung and Apple’s top devices. If you decide to switch the high refresh rate on, the Xperia won’t dynamically change refresh rates to maximize battery life. There are a lot of times when you’re simply looking at the screen that you don’t need 120Hz refresh rates. Whether it’s Samsung’s Galaxy S 21 and its dynamic refresh rates, or the iPhone 13 Pro’s ProMotion, both of those phones flit between refresh rates as needed, reducing the toll on the battery. Unfortunately, once set, the Xperia 1 III’s screen stays at 120Hz. The phone houses front-facing stereo speakers, which sound good. That’s still a rarity for smartphones. As you might expect from Sony, there’s support for nearly all the cutting-edge audio formats, including its own 360 Reality Audio, Hi-Resolution audio, and Dolby Atmos. You’ll have to figure out which apps and services offer these upgraded audio experiences, as it’s still a labyrinth of discovering out exactly how to play the highest-quality music files. On that subject, Sony is clinging onto the 3.5mm audio jack for one more year. There’s a fingerprint sensor built into the phone’s power button on the right edge of the phone, a volume rocker, a two-stage camera shutter button and then yet another button, just because Sony could. It summons the Google Assistant but sadly can’t be assigned to other (more useful functions). In the early stages of using the phone, I’d often press the wrong one, power up the screen instead of launching the camera. Sometimes, I’d do the reverse. Four buttons on one side is too many and while I eventually got used to it, a dedicated voice assistant button seems entirely redundant. I might love how the Mk. III looks, but that tall screen will be a struggle for some smaller hands. I find it a bit of a reach for icons at the top of the screen, and drop-down menus usually demand two hands. This form-factor does feel more comfortable in my hands, though, and slides into pockets easier than Apple’s bigger Pro phones, or the Pixel 4a 5G. Rounding out the list of specs you’d expect to see in a premium smartphone, the Xperia 1 III is running on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 chipset, with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. It is also a little bit more 5G-friendly, working this time around with T-Mobile and Verizon bands. However, there is no mmWave support nor will it work on AT&T’s 5G offering. Sony has increased the battery size to 4,500mAh, making it notably bigger than its predecessor. Unfortunately, the Xperia 1 III struggles to last an entire day, if you keep the screen running at 120Hz, at least. On days of heavy use, I’d have to recharge the phone by early evening. After dropping the settings down from 120Hz I was typically getting just shy of a day and a half of use, which is a pretty standard figure for most high-end Android devices. The battery is big, yes, but so is the screen. The cameras It’s an open secret that Sony makes camera sensors for a lot of smartphone makers. But until recently, that didn’t translate to killer smartphone cameras for its own phones. So if the Xperia 1 II was Sony getting serious about its phone cameras, then the Xperia 1 III is Sony getting serious, focused and business-like, all at once. As with the screen, Sony is taking its own approach with three 12-megapixel cameras of varying focal lengths. That includes a new telephoto lens that can switch between 70mm and 105mm equivalent zoom. Sony says the variable zoom lens helps it to focus faster, which was true in my experience, although I did find there was a little bit too much blur when using the optical zoom at its maximum. With the Mk.III, Sony also added dual-phase-detection-autofocus pixels, which, paired with 20 frames per second shooting, should offer a better chance of catching crisp shots in hectic settings. You can tap to focus and the camera will track moving subjects, just like a digital camera touchscreen. Sony has pulled together an intriguing mix of (relatively) low-megapixel sensors and infused it with what it’s learned from its camera series. Compared to what iPhones and Pixel phones do with computational photography and post-processing, Sony offers a more technical approach to capturing shots. While testing out the phone, I leaned heavily on the “auto” shooting mode, which acts like any camera app on any smartphone. But like the Xperia 1 phones before it, the Mark III comes with a pretty expansive Photography Pro app. Beyond the basic mode, you can tinker with shutter speeds, ISO, color balance and pretty much anything else. I’ll confess that I’m not the best photographer, and so anything that helps me get a better shot, whether that’s software assistance or higher light sensitivity, is appreciated. Outside of the automatic, simplified camera mode, the Xperia 1 III has a learning curve. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite match the experience of a Sony camera. I fumbled around for an aperture priority mode (so I could maximize bokeh effect at low f stops), but it doesn’t exist. I was tricked into thinking the Mk.III would work like a camera, but it’s still just a smartphone camera. You can adjust shooting speed and ISO, but not aperture. At times, I felt I wasn’t skilled enough to get the most from the Mk.III. I can take better photos on other flagship phones, but I think that’s due to my own photographic shortcomings. The Xperia 1 III does great with face detection and often latches onto fast-moving people and pets. However, when you’re using the telephoto lens, the phone seems to hop between fore and background details a little too often. The usual curse of smartphone photography doesn’t escape Sony, either. Low light conditions will still mess up autofocus, no matter how smart Sony has made it. There’s no night shoot mode, either, which is curious in 2021. link : https://www.engadget.com/sony-xperia-1-iii-review-143002186.html

Mailchimp and Shopify users can now connect the two platforms with a direct integration Mailchimp has announced a new partnership that allows users of its email marketing software to directly integrate with Shopify's ecommerce platform. Both new and existing users of the two companies will now be able to connect their Mailchimp account with their Shopify storefront through a direct integration which eliminates the need for third-party tools and manual data transfers. VP of Mailchimp's app marketplace, Joni Deus explained in a press release that this new direct integration will help drive business for both companies' customers ahead of the 2021 holiday shopping season, saying: “Last year, Mailchimp customers generated 36 percent more orders from Thanksgiving to Giving Tuesday than they did in 2019, showing just how important having an online presence for commerce and retail businesses really is. We’re thrilled to have partnered with Shopify again ahead of our customers’ busiest season to make it easier for merchants to reach their customers, sell more stuff, and be successful.” Direct integration By connecting Mailchimp and Shopify directly, merchants will be able to combine the power of both purchasing and marketing data and use these insights to help drive conversions, increase revenue and reach even more customers. The two companies decided to announce their new direct integration now so that their small business customers will have plenty of time to connect the two platforms and make this one of their most profitable holiday selling seasons yet. Mailchimp also revealed that it has acquired ShopSync whose app has been used by tens of thousands of its customers to connect their Mailchimp and Shopify accounts over the past two years. ShopSync's work on its app also made it easy for the email marketing firm to bring their technology in house and integrate it into its platform. Mailchimp and Shopify users can check out this support page to learn more about connecting the two platforms so they can drive additional business to their online stores.Direct integration By connecting Mailchimp and Shopify directly, merchants will be able to combine the power of both purchasing and marketing data and use these insights to help drive conversions, increase revenue and reach even more customers. The two companies decided to announce their new direct integration now so that their small business customers will have plenty of time to connect the two platforms and make this one of their most profitable holiday selling seasons yet. Mailchimp also revealed that it has acquired ShopSync whose app has been used by tens of thousands of its customers to connect their Mailchimp and Shopify accounts over the past two years. ShopSync's work on its app also made it easy for the email marketing firm to bring their technology in house and integrate it into its platform. Mailchimp and Shopify users can check out this support page to learn more about connecting the two platforms so they can drive additional business to their online stores. link : https://www.techradar.com/news/mailchimp-and-shopify-team-up-in-ecommerce-boost

The Microsoft account page gets a helpful makeover in Windows 11. Windows 11 launched to the public on October 5th, but Microsoft is already looking forward to the operating system's next major update arriving during the first half of 2022. Today, the company pushed out Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22489 to testers on the Dev Channel, and it brought several changes, including a new Microsoft account page in Settings. With this latest build, navigating to Settings —> Account will bring you to a revised page that provides expanded access to information regarding your existing Microsoft account. Near the top of this refreshed page, you'll find details about your recurring subscriptions (i.e., Microsoft 365) along with further information regarding how much OneDrive space you're currently using (including shared family members). We also see a helpful reminder that shows when your next recurring charge will occur for your subscription. There are also links to see your previous order history from Microsoft, manage payment details, and check up on additional Microsoft subscriptions. Microsoft Rewards, which were already present in the current iteration of the Account page, is also readily accessible. The update to the Account page will come as part of a future Online Service Experience Pack, which is a slightly updated take on the Windows Feature Experience Packs first introduced with Windows 10. "The difference between the two is that the Windows Feature Experience Packs can deliver broad improvements across multiple areas of Windows, whereas the Online Service Experience Packs are focused on delivering improvements for a specific experience such as the new Your Microsoft account settings page," wrote Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc and Amanda Langowski. According to Microsoft, the new Account page will first be rolled out to a "small set of Insiders" as it gauges reaction to the included changes. The company will then "ramp [up the rollout] over time." Here are some additional improvements added with Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22489: Discovery of Designated Resolvers has been added, allowing Windows to discover encrypted DNS configuration from a DNS resolver using only its IP address. The Connect app was renamed to "Wireless Display." "Apps & Features" in Settings is now split into two pages within Apps: "Installed Apps" and "Advanced app settings." The Windows Sandbox is now functional on Arm64 PCs. A couple dozen additional fixes have been made to the operating system, while about 10 "known issues" have yet to be resolved. You can check out Microsoft's blog post on Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22489 to see the full details of what's included. link : https://www.tomshardware.com/news/windows-11-microsoft-account-insider-preview

It's called fashion, baby! There are several Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy outfits to collect and if you pre-ordered it, you'll get some sweet throwback threads, too. There are outfits for Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax and Rocket to find, and even some for Groot. If you manage to find and equip each outfit, you'll get the achievement, 'Fashion Passion', too. With all that in mind, let's get to finding those outfits. All Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy outfits locations Each character has a throwback outfit available if you pre-ordered the game. If you went with the deluxe version, you'll get two extra Star-Lord outfits called Sun-Lord and City-Lord, as well as his Team-Lord throwback outfit. The rest of the Guardians get: Gamora: Black Vortex Rocket: The Stinger Drax: Thanos Imperative Groot: Impaler There's an outfit to find in various chapters, usually hidden off the beaten track. It shouldn't take you very long to find them all as you progress through the story, so let's get started. Below you'll find descriptions of each Guardians of the Galaxy outfit location, or you can check out the video immediately below, courtesy of Legacy Gaming. Rocket's movie outfit In Chapter 1, you'll find Rocket's Guardians of the Galaxy movie outfit. After sliding down a metal ramp, you'll come to a fork in the road and Rocket will comment on the dead end to the right. If you walk to the right of the metal platform just before the fork, you can drop down to a corridor below and find his outfit. Groot's movie outfit Once you meet up with Groot, you'll enter the tunnels. On your right, there should be a pink, slimey wall illuminated by a red light with a hole in the bottom. Slide through that hole to get Groot's movie outfit. Star-Lord: Nova-Lord outfit After pushing a box in the tunnels to put out a fire, you'll have the option of encouraging Nikki or taking control. Once the choice is made, you should see a pipe behind where she's standing. Duck under it to find a new outfit for Star-Lord. CHAPTER 3 Gamora's movie outfit Once you've dealt with the jelly monsters, you'll wind up in a forest. Take a right at the massive red, ribbon-like plant and keep walking until you reach a cave entrance. There's some reddish goo to destroy that's blocking your path and then you'll have to deal with two jelly monsters. Shoot the grey goo to continue and squeeze through a narrow passageway to exit the cave. There should be a box containing Gamora's movie outfit to your right. Groot: Five Horseman of the Apocalypse outfit The second Chapter 3 outfit is designed for Groot, your giant tree buddy. After you've dealt with the slakebeasts, grab the electronic cage and get Groot to build a bridge. Once you cross the bridge, keep left and destroy some grey goo to enter a cave. Equip your elemental guns to freeze a section of the waterfall to create a climbable platform. Climb up and out of the cave and you'll find a new outfit on the cliff's edge. CHAPTER 4 Drax's movie outfit Okay, this is where things get a bit spoilery for Chapter 4. Where you can find these next two outfits depends on whether you sell Groot or Rocket, so let's take a look at both. Sell Rocket: Once you've escaped the throne room, avoid the big rotating fan by shooting boxes found on your left. Follow the path around and the rest of your squad will head to the left, but you should carry on forwards. Jump across the platforms and you'll find Drax's outfit on the platform to your right. Sell Groot: If you sell Groot, sneak back into her throne room and head behind the throne. Cross the room and at the opposite side, you'll find Drax's outfit. Rocket: Five Horseman of the Apocalypse outfit Sell Rocket: Once you reach the sewers, follow the path until you come to a junction. When everyone else heads right, you should stick to the left. At the end of the path, you'll find this shiny new outfit for Rocket. Sell Groot: Make your way through the halls, avoiding the drunk guards as you go, until you reach the lift. After exiting the lift, your party will go left, but you should go right and launch yourself over the bar table. Go around the large circular table where the boxes are and you'll find a hole in the boxes you can pass through to find the outfit. Drax: Nova Corps outfit We're on to Chapter 5 now and you'll be faced with hacking the doors to the Nova Corps base. If you reroute power to the little locked door, you'll get a special outfit for Drax. Go through the door and head to the bathroom to find it. Groot: Nova Corps outfit After talking to the helmet, you'll immediately be entered into combat. After fighting off a bunch of enemies in the hall, you'll enter a room illuminated by an orange light with a big machine in the centre of it. You'll need to climb up the machine to exit the area, but before you do, head to the far corner of the room to find a new outfit for Groot. Star-Lord's movie outfit It's time for another new Star-Lord outfit, which you can find in Knowhere. Head towards the objective until you come across the big pink Spirit tree—there are small, green children playing at its base. Jump over the railing behind them and head under the stairs to find his movie outfit. link : https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/all-guardians-of-the-galaxy-outfits-locations/

Revised plug-in hybrid XC60 gets a bigger battery pack, brawnier motor and Volvo’s smart new Google-based UI system What is it? While Volvo is pushing its EV models hard as it moves towards full electrification, it is also pushing some very aggressive model cycles for the development of its plug-in hybrids. Less than a year after we first experienced the XC60 PHEV, the company has already given the electrical side of its powertrain some substantial upgrades, the same revisions set to be offered on the company’s other larger plug-ins. The big change is the arrival of a new, longer-range battery featuring a third layer of cells. This has a capacity of 18.8kWh, an increase of more than 50% over the earlier PHEV’s 11.6kWh. This is enough to boost electric-only range in the XC60 T8 to 47 miles. The electric motor that powers the rear axle has also been upgraded to make 143bhp – an increase of 56bhp. Working in conjunction with the less powerful turbocharged four-cylinder engine in the T6, this now makes a total of 393bhp, while the brawnier T8 – which uses a turbocharged and supercharged version of the same engine making 305bhp – now has a system total of 448bhp. Making it the most powerful Volvo road car powertrain so far. What's it like? The T8 powertrain is certainly impressively rapid when both combustion and electrical sides are working together. The XC60 launches hard and accelerates at a vigour that makes the fitment of Volvo’s corporate 112mph speed limiter seem like a cruel curtailment. There is little doubt an unconstrained T8 would be able to easily attain the 155mph that Volvo used to restrict its cars to. Refinement is generally very good, although the petrol engine does become vocal under hard use. Choosing the pure electric ‘Pure’ mode trims the level of performance, but turns the powertrain almost entirely silent. Performance is more than adequate when running as an EV, although pressing too hard on the accelerator pedal will fire the combustion engine into life again. The one-pedal mode also works impressively well; as in the fully electric C40 Recharge, it allows the XC60 T8 to be brought to an almost imperceptible stop. Not that selecting the new function is particularly easy. The new Google-based UI system looks good and copes well when asked to provide navigation and entertainment functions. But it has also been given control of lots of the car’s settings, with most of these buried in sub-menus. link : https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/volvo/xc60/first-drives/volvo-xc60-t8-r-design-pro-2021-review

In the recent past, many celeb moms have opened up on unrealistic expectations of them, on 'looking great', 'losing weight', right after giving birth. Around the world, there seems to be this weird obsession with women and their post-birth bodies. In the era of social media, where there is a lot of interest and transparency around celeb pregnancies, celebrity mothers are expected to make a striking comeback soon after welcoming their babies. But Gwyneth Paltrow does not understand or condone this culture. The Iron Man actor recently spoke her mind on this and did not hold back, starting with her own difficult pregnancies. During an interview with actor Dax Shepard for his Armchair Expert podcast, Paltrow said she had to have an “emergency caesarean section” and “almost died” while giving birth to her first child Apple, whom she shares with ex-husband Chris Martin. The Goop creator, 49, also talked about the scars left behind by the surgeries for both her pregnancies. “I had two caesareans… My daughter was an emergency. It was crazy, we almost died. It was, like, not good,” she was quoted as saying. The actor continued, saying, “Anyway, there’s a big scar across your body and you’re like, ‘Oh wow, that didn’t used to be there’. And it’s not that it’s bad, or you want to judge it, but you’re just like, ‘Oh my god’.” Paltrow is mother to 17-year-old Apple and 15-year-old Moses, whom she shares with the Coldplay frontman. Somewhere else in the podcast, as mentioned in an Independent report, she also criticised the toxic social media culture that burdens new moms with the task of bouncing back and looking like their bodies have not changed at all. “Thank god there wasn’t Instagram when I had babies, because now it’s like if I see someone, ‘Oh, I just gave birth two weeks ago and I have a completely washboard stomach’, and I’m like, ‘Wow, that’s not what I [looked like]’,” Paltrow said, calling out the unrealistic expectations. “And like great, more power to the lady with the washboard [stomach], but that is totally the exception. Now we’re being fed all of these other images of what we’re supposed to look like all the time, babies, no babies, whatever. I think women really need to be friends with each other, and all that judgement around how you have a baby, do you breastfeed, this that, are you going to work, are you not going to work? Guess what, whatever it is, it’s okay. I feel like we also have this weird thing around, it’s past perfectionism, it’s like I can do this gargantuan task that’s superhuman and why? For what?” she continued. In the recent past, many celeb moms have opened up on unrealistic expectations of them, on ‘looking great’, ‘losing weight’, right after giving birth. Actor Kareena Kapoor Khan, who likes to keep it real on social media, had spoken her mind during an Instagram live session earlier this year, to launch her book, wherein she had said that it takes nine months for a woman to grow a human being insider her body, during which it goes through many changes. So, it is all right for them to take care of themselves and take their time to get back in shape. link : https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/life-style/gwyneth-paltrow-unrealistic-expectations-women-pregnancy-for-what-kareena-kapoor-khan-sameera-reddy-7593105/

Investigators exploring a fatal shooting on a New Mexico film set say there was "some complacency" around safety. Presenting their initial findings on Thursday's shooting, officials said they believe actor Alec Baldwin was handed a gun loaded with a live round. The US actor then accidentally shot dead cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded the film's director. Prosecutors are refusing to rule out filing criminal charges over the case. Santa Fe district attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies told reporters that "all options are on the table at this point" as their investigation continues. Authorities said Wednesday they have recovered some 600 pieces of evidence so far - including three firearms and 500 rounds of ammunition. Santa Fe County Sheriff, Adan Mendoza, said the ammunition trove constitutes "a mix of blanks, dummy rounds and what we are suspecting is live rounds" that require lab analysis. He also said that a "lead projectile" was recovered from the shoulder of wounded director Joel Souza and handed over as evidence. "I think the facts are clear - a weapon was handed to Mr Baldwin. The weapon is functional and fired a live round killing Ms Hutchins and injuring Mr Souza," he said about the killing. Who was Halyna Hutchins? What are the rules for guns on film sets? The sheriff told reporters there were up to 100 people on the set of the Western film, called Rust, when the shooting happened. He also confirmed that two other people had handled the gun before it was given to Mr Baldwin: the film's armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed and assistant director Dave Halls. Court records say Mr Halls reportedly called out "cold gun" as he handed over the weapon, meaning it was considered safe. New details of his police interviews, reported by US media on Wednesday, say the assistant director has admitted to investigators that he did not check the gun's chamber for live rounds before handing it to Mr Baldwin. New search warrant documents say armorer Ms Gutierrez Reed told investigators that live ammunition had not been kept on the film's set, with access to guns usually restricted to a few people with access to a safe. Police identified the firearm shot by Mr Baldwin as an antique-edition F LLI Pietta Long Colt .45 revolver. Investigators have also recovered a spent shell casing thought to be from the shooting incident. Mr Baldwin, known for his work on US shows like 30 Rock and Saturday Night Live, is named as both an actor and producer on Rust. He is cooperating with investigators and has previously expressed his shock and sadness over what he described as a "tragic accident". Last week's shooting death sparked debate about safety regulations on Hollywood sets and the use of "prop guns" on productions. "Obviously I think the industry has had a record recently of being safe," Sheriff Mendoza told reporters. "I think there was some complacency on this set, and I think there are some safety issues that need to be addressed by the industry and possibly by the state of New Mexico." link : https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-59068976

Redmi Note 11 series is all set to launch later this month. The company has been rolling out multiple teasers in the run up to it, and three models are apparently confirmed to launch – Redmi Note 11, Redmi Note 11 Pro, and Redmi Note 11 Pro+. The series is now teased to come in a new Shallow Dream Galaxy colour scheme. The phone is seen to feature a gradient finish with white and blue hues. Redmi Note 11 series is likely to feature a hole-punch display and a multiple camera setup at the back. Xiaomi has taken to Weibo to post multiple teasers about the new colour option of the Redmi Note 11 series. As mentioned, it will be called the Shallow Dream Galaxy. The poster suggests that this may be introduced for the Redmi Note 11 Pro model, but it may be introduced on other models as well. The render posters show that the Redmi Note 11 Pro may feature a quad camera setup with a 108-megapixel main sensor. Previous leaks suggest that the Redmi Note 11 may be powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 810 SoC, Redmi Note 11 Pro is said to be powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 920 SoC, and Redmi Note 11 Pro+ is said to be powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 1200 AI SoC. All three Redmi Note phones are reported to come with 120Hz displays and include 5,000mAh batteries. Additionally, all three Redmi models are tipped to come with up to 256GB of onboard storage. The phones may also have a Corning Gorilla Glass Victus protection as standard and are made using an aluminium alloy-based middle frame. The company has confirmed that the launch event for the Redmi Note 11 series will take place on October 28 at 7pm CST Asia (4:30pm IST). link : https://gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/news/redmi-note-11-pro-plus-series-colour-option-shallow-dream-galaxy-colour-option-teaser-poster-2588638

Stripe users in 20 countries can now offer Klarna as a payment option Stripe and Klarna have announced a new strategic partnership that will enable businesses using Stripe's payment gateway to let their customers to buy now and pay later using Klarna. Buy now, pay later options have become increasingly po[CENSORED]r over the last few years as they allow consumers to receive products first while spreading their payments out over time. Businesses also benefit from this new payment model as the flexibility it provides can dramatically increase conversions and boost revenue. According to research from Klarna, businesses offering its services at checkout generated a 30 percent average increase in conversion and a 41 percent increase in average order value. Additionally, some retailers discovered that 40 percent of Klarna shoppers were new to their brand which allowed them to win over entirely new customer segments. Increased payment flexibility By partnering with Stripe, Klarna's flexible payment options will now be available to millions of ecommerce businesses using Stripe across the US and 19 countries in Europe. However, the two companies have also decided to collaborate further and Stripe will now be Klarna's preferred payments partner for consumer purchases. This means that after a customer's purchase from a retailer is funded by Klarna, the subsequent repayments will also be processed by Stripe. Following initial tests with Stripe that yielded significant improvements in reliability and performance, Klarna decided to shift even more of its payments volume to the company than it had originally planned. Going forward, Klarna will now rely on Stripe to process the majority of its payment volume in both the US and Canada. Chief technology officer at Klarna, Koen Köppen provided further insight on the company's new strategic partnership with Stripe in a press release, saying: “Over the past years, Klarna and Stripe redefined the e-commerce experience for millions of consumers and global retailers. Together with Stripe, we will be a true growth partner for retailers of all sizes, allowing them to maximize their entrepreneurial success through our joint services. By offering convenience, flexibility, and control to even more shoppers, we create a win-win situation for both retailers and consumers alike.” link : https://www.techradar.com/news/stripe-and-klarna-partner-to-offer-businesses-buy-now-pay-later

A new highly cut-down version of Windows 11, targeted towards education Windows 11 SE is reportedly a new flavor of Windows 11 Microsoft has been developing. Its first real mention showed up with the rumor of a new budget-friendly Surface laptop designed for education earlier today. Not much is known about the latest version of Windows; however, leaked builds of SE were shared across the internet months prior to Windows 11's release, giving us a better idea of SE's capabilities and purpose. Current projections suggest a 2022 release date for Windows 11 SE alongside the new education-focused Surface laptop. We know for sure that Windows 11 SE will be targeted specifically towards the Education market (particularly for children). It will run on low-end hardware usually present on school laptops and will feature specific educational features for remote control of school laptops. This means you probably won't be buying this version of Windows 11 from retail stores, and you'll probably not want to install it on anything other than a school machine. We don't know yet what features are getting cut from Windows 11 and how locked down the operating system will be. However, according to a post by Windows Latest several months ago, it appears SE will be very locked down out of the box and disable the following: Disables News and Interests (Windows Widgets) Full Win32 app support (S Mode is disabled) Microsoft Store is blocked by default Settings app adverts for Edge/Bing were removed and Your Phone integration no longer works, which could be due to the unfinished state of the leaked update. These changes make a lot of sense in light of the target market for the OS. In addition, disabling the store and widgets will keep the systems locked down specifically for school tasks and ensure any additional apps installed are through the discretion of the school's IT management. Thankfully SE will not be locked down to UWP apps in S Mode and feature full Win32 support like a regular PC. This will be optimal for schools that use software not coded for Microsoft's UWP (Store apps) and could give SE a competitive edge against Chromebooks that are locked down to web-based and Android apps only. These changes also confirm that SE is not a replacement for Windows 11 Education Edition, another flavor of Windows optimized for schools. Education is a much more advanced trim of Windows that takes most of its identity from the Pro version of Windows. With Education, you get Pro's full CPU core, socket, and physical memory compatibility. It also has hardware device encryption and features exclusive to Education, such as BranchCache and AppLocker. Keep in mind that Windows 11 SE is still not out yet, so any of these changes are subject to change before an official launch. link : https://www.tomshardware.com/news/what-we-know-about-windows-11-se

We can be heroes. There are several characters in Darkest Dungeon 2, and they all break the mould of typical RPG knights, clerics, and rogues. You won't be able to unlock every character on your first playthrough—trust me, I tried—and you'll need to balance your characters' mental health against the urge to build an unstoppable team because, shockingly, not everyone gets along. With all that in mind, here's each character currently available in Darkest Dungeon 2 and a breakdown of their special abilities. Darkest Dungeon 2 character guide At this point in Early Access there are nine characters to recruit in Darkest Dungeon 2, called Heroes. You can only field four Heroes at a time, but if one dies, another character can join your party at the next Inn (if you make it there alive). Darkest Dungeon 2 doesn't allow you to stack characters of the same class, forcing characters with different personality quirks to make nice. Fostering positive relationships between teammates is the obvious goal here, though it's not easily attainable. Still, it's nothing a bottle of laudanum or a quick game of cards can't solve. More items, afflictions, and quirks will be added to Darkest Dungeon 2's randomly sorted mix as you earn Hope on each playthrough, too, which is all the more reason to push that carriage as far as you can on each run. Just keep an eye on stress levels, as they can cause Heroes to develop negative quirks which can make things all the more difficult. Map path and encounter choices you make along the way will affect them, so you'll need to weigh the negative and positive consequences. Now that you understand the basics, here are all the characters you can choose and what they bring to the table. Audrey can play in any rank and many of her moves have high crit damage, so she has the potential to deal a lot of damage. She's quite an agile character, so if you want someone with a lot of movement and flexibility in battles then she's your gal. link : https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/darkest-dungeon-2-character-guide/

Redmi Watch 2 is teased to feature a large 1.6-inch AMOLED display. Redmi Watch 2 is all set to launch in China alongside the Redmi Note 11 series. The smartwatch will launch on October 28 in the home market and is teased to come with a larger display than the predecessor Redmi Watch. A fresh leak now hints at the price of the Redmi Watch 2 just days ahead of the launch. The pricing has been spotted on Chinese e-commerce site JD.com. Redmi Note 11 pricing had also leaked earlier through a Chinese tipster and teasers have been in abundance. GizmoChina spotted the Redmi Watch 2 price on JD.com ahead of launch. The listing suggests that the Redmi Watch 2 may be priced at CNY 399 (roughly Rs.4,600) at launch. This was spotted in the ‘Guess you like' widget on JD.com and clicking on the Redmi Watch 2 product displayed a message that the smartwatch is yet to be announced. Teasers suggest that the Redmi Watch 2 will come with a 1.6-inch display, whereas the original Redmi Watch has a 1.4-inch display. Redmi Watch 2 will feature a larger AMOLED display instead of an LCD one. The AMOLED display on the Redmi Watch 2 is expected to deliver deeper black levels and better contrast when compared with the earlier model. It may also help bring an improved battery life as AMOLED panels are considered to be better than their LCD counterparts when it comes to power efficiency. Redmi also teased that the new smartwatch will come with narrow bezels that result in a larger screen-to-body ratio over the existing Redmi Watch. JD.com has listed the Redmi Watch 2 and is offering pre-sale registrations at CNY 50 (roughly Rs. 600). It is listed in three distinct wrist strap colour options, namely Elegant Black, Ivory, and Space Blue (machine translated). The smartwatch is expected to offer a list of fitness tracking features — alongside providing real-time notifications from a connected phone. link : https://gadgets.ndtv.com/wearables/news/redmi-watch-2-price-leak-cny-399-teased-features-ahead-of-launch-2587095

With the magic of an integrated POS system, level up your customer loyalty and sales. For a business owner, an integrated point of sale (POS) system can be the lifeline of their operations, whether it’s run brick-and-mortar style or online. The demand for POS systems is increasing at a rapid pace: by 2025, the global POS software market is expected to grow from $17.66 billion to $30.86 billion. However, to leverage the complete benefits at the point of sale, you need an integrated POS system that brings together different functions. Let’s understand what an integrated POS system is, and how it can make a difference to your business. What is an integrated POS system? An integrated POS system is a platform which connects sales data with your other business apps so they can exchange data seamlessly. Traditional POS systems just had a sales record book or a cash register. You would then have a separate payment system, another one to manage your stock, another one to track your product list, and so on. As you can imagine, this is cumbersome. Many of these operations are manual. And, as you tackle the different parts of your business in silos, you constantly struggle to keep them in synchronization and understand the big picture. On the other hand, an integrated POS system encompasses some or all of the below features: Payment processing Inventory management Employee management Revenue management Reports generation Customer relationship management (CRM) Data analytics Ecommerce Integration with app marketplace Hardware and software coupling There are many integrated POS systems in the markets, and you will find that each system has its own strength. While one has robust employee management functions, another focuses on CRM. Why should you opt for an integrated POS system? The convergence of so many functions in one place obviously makes a strong case for an integrated POS system as opposed to the hassle of managing multiple systems in addition to a standalone POS terminal. In particular, an integrated POS system scores over a non-integrated POS system in the following aspects. a The benefits of Integrated POS systems vs. Manual Point of Sale systems Integrated POS systems Non-integrated POS systems Payment processor speaks to POS Payment processor does not speak to POS POS automatically syncs payment amount to terminal thus reducing the scope of human error Payment amount needs to be manually entered on the terminal thus increasing the chances of human error Transactions are automatically marked as “paid” Transactions must be manually marked as “paid” Fewer steps in the checkout process More steps in the checkout process Logs customer information and other useful data for marketing/promotion Only logs that a sale happened and a card was used to pay for it Provides a better customer experience Provides a less than optimal customer experience Reduces the risk of fraud May increase the risk of fraud as it takes time for all systems to 'speak' to each other and sync up data Does not require extra spend on external card processing devices Requires extra spend on external card processing devices Saves time and improves efficiency through automation Manual intervention takes more time and is less efficient How does an integrated POS system help your business? From receiving multiple payment types and storing customer shopping preferences to managing inventory and receipts, POS integrations make an impact in all areas of your business. As an integrated POS system streamlines your operations and reduces administrative burden, your team can focus on aspects that really matter—offering excellent customer service. Beyond improving the checkout process, an integrated POS system can give you valuable insights into the behavior and purchase patterns of your customers. You can leverage such data on the shop or café floor, but it can also be shared with internal UX analysts, brand marketers, and pricing teams to help inform marketing campaigns and increase profitability. Let’s dig a little deeper into the benefits of integrated POS systems. link : https://www.techradar.com/news/why-integrated-pos-systems-are-a-must-for-your-business

Easily send files without worrying about network protocols and permissions Sharing files between two devices on the same network should be straightforward, right? Anyone who’s wanted to quickly shunt a file to or from their mobile device, or struggled getting shared folders set up that all the machines on their network can see or access, might have something to say about that. You could try setting up a pair of synced folders using a tool like the wonderful Syncthing, or make use of cloud storage such as Google Drive or Dropbox, but these all come with their own pitfalls: synced folders can result in data loss if used incorrectly, while cloud storage has question marks over its security. This is where a tool like Sharik comes in. It’s designed to make it easy to send files to any desktop or mobile device connected to your local network without the need for an internet connection. At the present time, there’s a Sharik app available for Windows, Android, Linux and iOS for sending files, but you can share files with other systems via a web browser. How To Install Sharik on Linux The quickest and easiest way to install Sharik is via snap – integrated into the Software Store from Ubuntu 16.04 or later, or you can install it directly from the command line. At time of writing, the latest version for Ubuntu 20.04 on snap was 2.5. If you want the very latest version – 3.0 – then install it through its own repo instead. 1. Open a terminal and use curl to download the GPG key and add it to your list of approved keys. This gives us assurance and security that the repository which stores the application is secure. How to Install Sharik on Windows You can grab the install file for Sharik from the program’s github page. Note that you may have to click Run anyway if warned by Windows that this is an unknown file. How to Install Sharik on Android You can install Sharik on any Android device by going directly to the program’s page on Google Play store. How to Install Sharik on iOS Devices You can find Sharik directly on its own page in Apple’s App store. How Does Sharik Work? The simplest way to use Sharik is purely to send individual files to other devices, regardless of whether or not they’re running Sharik. The receiver doesn’t need Sharik installed, as the file can be accessed through their web browser, as you’ll see shortly. Although Sharik’s documentation seems to hint you need to be connected to the same Wi-Fi network to share files, the reality is that any machine on your local network with the same subnet (typically 192.168.0.x, where ‘x’ is unique to each connected device) should be able to access files sent via Sharik. Sending a File 1. Open Sharik. It can be found in your applications menu. On first run, the application will show a series of slides, showing us what the application can do. link : https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/easily-send-files-between-devices-with-sharik

We're rerunning Richard Cobbett's classic Crapshoot column, in which he rolled the dice and took a chance on obscure games—both good and bad. From 2010 to 2014 Richard Cobbett wrote Crapshoot, a column about rolling the dice to bring random obscure games back into the light. This week, the adventure that brought Tolkien's epic fantasy to life like never before—using text! Wait, hang on... In the middle of the earth, in the land of the Shire, lives a brave little hobbit who we all admire. With his long wooden pipe, and fuzzy woolly toes, he lives in a hobbit-hole and everybody knows him. Bilbo. Bilbo Baggins. He's only three feet tall. Yes, Bilbo, Bilbo Baggins. The bravest little hobbit of them all. Well, would you try ordering Thorin Oakenshield to carry your hairy arse around? The Hobbit is one of those '80s classics, much beloved by everyone who ever played it, and to its credit, not a bad attempt at turning the adventure into... well, an adventure, especially by 1982 standards. At a time when GO NORTH was still seen as impressive, and GO WEST could still be typed without an immediate response of "You go west. Life is peaceful there", it dared to try—among other things—characters with their own lives, a real-time take on adventuring that pretty much no other commercial game tried (though there were a few, like Infocom's Border Zone), and a mix of text and graphics to both help convey the world, and punish anyone who'd bought a colour monitor for their hubris. To hear some people talk of it, The Hobbit is the greatest text adventure ever. Of course, it's not. By modern eyes, it's about as primitive as an orc's dating profile. ("Name: Azog the Defiler. Hobbies: Murdering dwarf-scum, helping make what should be one movie into three snoozers. First thing people notice about me: My prosthetic murder-hand stabbing their face as I laugh. I also enjoy jazz.") Depending on how you play, it can also be one of the shortest adventures ever, as seen in this transcript of what happened the day Gandalf came to town while Bilbo was in no mood for anyone's shit. Gandalf gives the curious map to you. Thorin, rising to his feet, says to you "Well Mr Baggins, all is ready for our adventure and I must say things are looking very hopeful. Shall we be off then?" You attack Gandalf. With one well placed blow you cleave his skull. Gandalf is dead. Thorin says "Well, are we just going to stand around here all day?" > KILL THORIN You attack Thorin. With one well placed blow you cleave his skull. Thorin is dead. Of course, you're not guaranteed to take out both of those heavy-hitters. You have a random chance, which somehow ends up being higher than the canonically more likely "You swing at Thorin, just as a bolt of lightning coincidentally strikes him from on high" or "You try to punch Gandalf in the cock. He laughs so hard he has a heart attack and collapses with a look of outraged shock." It's also a fairly short adventure if you don't have those two characters to hand. You can still run out through the Shire, like in the movie, only with fists covered with wizard intestines and wearing Thorin's head as a particularly hairy hat, as well as make it through much of Middle-earth without breaking a sweat. Mostly because in The Hobbit, Middle-earth consists of just a few screens. Trying it though didn't work so well, involving first stepping over Elrond's corpse over in Rivendell, and then getting trapped in a goblin dungeon. This is where you need to type one of the most famous lines in text adventure history—SAY TO THORIN "CARRY ME"—so that you can get a boost to open a window. With him lying in a puddle back in Bag End, the only possible result is... well... a Bad End. Restore, Restart, Quit? Say to Thorin "Bite Me" While the story is heavily truncated, not least by taking a red pen to Thorin, Balin, Dwalin, Fili, Kili, Dori, Nori, Ori, Oin, Gloin, Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur to trim the dwarves, just a little, down to "Thorin", The Hobbit actually does a surprisingly good job of covering the game's narrative. The world is condensed down to hilarious levels, especially if you've seen the sweeping vistas of the movie, to the point that Bilbo's house is essentially next door to Rivendell, the Lonely Mountain, and probably close enough to Mount Doom to use it as a garbage incinerator. The actual plot points though are surprisingly close in a different way, including duelling with Gollum and persuading Bard to kill Smaug the dragon, meeting up with Elrond and finally making it back alive with a chest of gold and some vaguely nifty magic ring. The main catch is that all the random elements get in the way. They're cool, on a technical level, but a real bloody nuisance in practice. Characters routinely disappear when you need them, or take endless cajoling to do what you need, and a world where Bilbo can beat up Thorin is a world that has no problem beating up Bilbo at a moment's notice. It can be very frustrating, if you're not using a walkthrough, in which case it's shorter than a tossed dwarf's temper. You can play The Hobbit in your browser for free. There's no reason not to give it a try—unless of course you're racing to deliver a heart to a dying superhero, in which case do that first. Alternatively, there's the PC version which can—cough—be quite easily found. If you remember the game from when it was new, you might also be interested in a project called Wilderland, which uses fancy futuristic technology to track what's going on behind the scenes, using the Spectrum version of the game. Speaking of that Spectrum version, here it is in its entirety. Marvel at its amazing graphics. The PC version is much sleeker and higher resolution, but you just can't beat the... OK, you can beat the original, just as someone beat it with the ugly stick. Still, when people think of this game, this is typically the version they're thinking of. It took the movies about nine hours to tell this story. YouTube, 10 minutes. Including loading time. link : https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/saturday-crapshoot-the-hobbit/

High-performance brake supplier Brembo has launched a revolutionary electronic braking system called Sensify, which could be the most significant advance for braking technology since the advent of ABS in the 1970s. Sensify combines artificial intelligence with traditional brake technology to provide individual brake pressure per wheel, rather than per axle. An actuator on each wheel is triggered by an electronic control unit which constantly monitors all parameters that affect brake performance, including road surface friction, vehicle mass, weight distribution, speed and steering angle. Two ECUs are fitted – one front and one rear – which are connected for failsafe reasons but which send commands to actuators separately. The actuators have double windings for safety reasons, with Brembo claiming to have secured type approval from authorities in all markets. When the ECU receives an input signal it calculates the force required by each wheel within milliseconds, then sends a command to each actuator, which in turn activates the connected calliper. Although calliper pressure is applied via hydraulics, Brembo stresses the system is fully electronic, with hydraulics merely applying the required force. Although activation on test cars was via traditional foot pedals for ‘feel’ purposes, electronic switches or buttons could readily be substituted as the pedal merely provides input to the ECU. Artificial intelligence prevents lock-up, while anti-skid and traction control systems can be readily incorporated to provide fully integrated suites of driver aids at little additional cost. However, Sensify’s complexity makes retro-fitting impossible. The system has major advantages over traditional systems, not least its compact size and lightweight, while its capacity to consistently adapt to vehicle weight makes it ideal for delivery vehicles, whose weight can vary by as much as three tonnes according to load. These features also make Sensify perfect for motorcycles, given two-wheelers are more susceptible to weight and road surface changes. Sensify could be extended via electronic hardware to Sensify-fitted trailers or caravans to provide individual braking on all six (or even eight) wheels, thereby vastly improving towing safety. ‘Pad drag’ against the disc is eliminated - saving wear and reducing pollution - although the system could be programmed to exert light pressure during rain to clean friction surfaces, A dedicated app enables Sensify to be customised, with ‘feel’, pedal travel and force programmable. Sensify’s ecosystem anonymously collects and processes data to provide improvements and features via updates. “Brembo is pushing the boundaries of what is possible with a braking system, opening up entirely new opportunities to drivers to improve their experience on the road and customize brake response to their driving style. Sensify gives drivers the peace of mind they are looking for,” said Brembo CEO Daniele Schillaci. He told Autocar he could “commit to the first use of Sensify by an OEM with a new model in early 2024”, adding that the second application would be announced six months later. Although pricing was not announced, Schillaci said that over the lifecycle of a vehicle the total cost would be lower than current systems. Back to top VIDEOS FROM AUTOCAR More precision, more fun? New Ford Focus ST Edition review | Autocar Is Sensify going to revolutionise the roads? Autocar was among a select group of publications to sample Sensify at the Circuito Tazio Nuvolari near Milan. During the launch we drove four Teslas - two with standard brakes and two with Sensify - taking in low- and high-speed brake manoeuvres, followed by brake tests on three different surfaces: dry asphalt with a friction co-efficient of 0.9, wet concrete (0.6) and snow (0.3). Test runs were undertaken with the equivalent model save for braking, with runs scheduled in quick succession for comparisons. We had repeat runs, and test cars were fitted with sensors to record brake performance to dispel doubts about Sensify’s effectiveness lest lack of drama and absence of ABS pedal ‘kick-back’ created perceptions that braking was too effortless to be effective. I was left with no doubts that Sensify is a massive advance, particularly on low-friction surfaces. During high-speed straight-line and mid-corner emergency braking manoeuvres full steering control was maintained in both instances, but with considerably less drama in Sensify-equipped cars. Braking distances were shorter by a metre – potentially enough to save a life – and understeer reduced. During slow speed manoeuvres with sudden swerves I missed a pylon three times with Sensify, yet hit it once without, which tells its own story: steering controllability is tangibly improved with Sensify. Back to top However, on low-friction surfaces Sensify came into its own – on ‘ice’ I maintained control under full braking which was not possible without the system, while stopping distances from 31mph were around two metres shorter. ‘Wet’ concrete improvement was less marked but still significant. Another indicator: after three high-speed runs brake temperatures with Sensify were around 50C higher (at 435deg C) than without, pointing to greater braking energy. Reaction times felt faster with less lag before brakes bit - Brembo reckons the system’s reaction time is measurable in milliseconds rather than whole fractions. I’m a convert, as were the other three hacks at the launch. link : https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry-news-tech%2C-development-and-manufacturing/brembo-sensify-revolutionary-new-ai

"My beauty and skincare regime is extremely minimalistic and I believe in the principle of less is more," the actor says There is no denying that Jacqueline Fernandez has an enviable screen presence. Off-screen, too, there have been many occasions when she has mesmerised us with her fashion and beauty. On most days, you will find the 36-year-old looking impeccable in her outfits — her hair game on-point and makeup on-fleek. Recently, she collaborated with a cosmetics company to unveil the Jacqueline Fernandez Collection. Over a Zoom call, she showed us her many makeup moods and tricks In an exclusive email interaction, however, Jacqueline spoke more about her love for beauty and makeup, letting us in on some skincare secrets, hair care strategies, Beauty and makeup, to me, don’t fit into any stereotypes. For me, real beauty awakes and ignites the best version of you, for you to be who you want to be and unleash all that you want to. Fitting into conventional standards isn’t what beauty means to me. What is your earliest memory of wearing makeup? My earliest memory of wearing makeup takes me back to some very fond days with my mother. Like every young girl who is fascinated with makeup, I used to try some of my mother’s lipsticks on. Whether it was using them to apply blush or eyeshadow, lipsticks used to be my favourite! You have flawless skin — what do you do for skincare? My beauty and skincare regime is extremely minimalistic and I believe in the principle of less is more. Glowing, youthful skin isn’t handed out on a platter; I do have some personal beauty rules I follow for radiant skin. I ensure that I always take off any traces of makeup before I go to bed. Sleeping with makeup can lead to congested skin and cause breakouts, something I’d never want to face again. Another commandment I follow is, never leaving my home without SPF. I always apply sunscreen every 2-3 hours, especially when I’m shooting outdoors! I also strongly believe in eating healthy food and always keeping myself hydrated; after all, inner beauty triumphs all. What is your skin type, and what do you consider to be a beauty essential? My skin type fluctuates from normal to combination depending on the weather. I believe in only one beauty essential: moisturising well. A good moisturiser can give you a glow of the gods. Most often, I find that people tend to skip out on moisturiser, when it’s the most important product. Five makeup products that you always carry in your bag. My sunscreen, lipstick (sinful matte), makeup fixer, lip balm and nail paints. You will always find these products in my bag. There hasn’t been a day where I’ve forgotten to carry them. Whom do you go to for beauty and makeup advice? My beauty inspiration has always been my mom, who taught me all the tips and tricks and home DIYs to keep my skin and hair looking flawless. One tip that’s stayed with me is keeping my beauty regimes minimalistic and simple. Whether that’s whipping up quick face-masks at home or eating healthy to ensure healthy skin. ALSO READ |Three content creators on the significance, meaning of Pride makeup What are some makeup dos and don’ts, according to you? I believe in less is more, so I try not to overdo it with too much makeup. I love using multi-tasking products that minimise my time and energy. One big beauty no-no for me is hopping mindlessly on beauty trends instead of trying out things that you personally enjoy. Besides beauty and skincare, how important is hair care to you, and what do you do about it? Hair care is of supreme importance to me, especially with the industry I belong to. I’m constantly at shoots and my hair is always subjected to too much heat and colour. I try keeping my hair routine minimal and often experiment with DIYs. Has your understanding of beauty and skincare changed in the pandemic? Lockdown taught us to do a lot of things on our own; most importantly it taught us independence. Like everyone else, I, too, learned a lot about myself and the world I live in. Staying away from salons and spas brought me closer to home and my roots. I’ve started embracing DIYs a lot more than I used to before. If you had only a minute to get ready, which makeup products would you quickly and absolutely use? While I love all the products from this collection, my favourites are the lipsticks because those shades happen to be my daily favourites; the highlighter, too, because who doesn’t love a blinding glow? What does the collection mean to you? As a young girl, I was always fascinated with makeup and as I grew up, this fascination transformed into an obsession and I was always on the lookout for products that stunned me. Being a part of the Colorbar family, I wanted to create a collection that reflected a part of me that was inspired by all of my wonderful experiences. So I huddled up with the team and I travelled around the world to curate this incredible collection that reflects all that I stand for. What’s even more special is that it represents my love for animals — it’s cruelty-free and paraben-free. Link : https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/life-style/jacqueline-fernandez-skincare-hair-care-secrets-diy-lockdown-pandemic-makeup-makeup-tips-sunscreen-moisturiser-7559652/

Members of Sudan's transitional government and other civilian leaders have been arrested amid reports of a military coup. Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok is among those reported to have been put under house arrest by unidentified soldiers. The army has not commented, but pro-democracy groups urged street protests. Military and civilian leaders have been at odds since long-time ruler Omar al-Bashir was overthrown two years ago and the transitional government set up. Africa Live - read the latest reports here It remains unclear who was behind the pre-dawn arrests. A statement from the information ministry on Facebook said the detentions were carried out by "joint military forces" and those arrested were being held in "an unidentified location". The ministry said soldiers had stormed the HQ of the state broadcaster in Omdurman and detained staff there. It also said Mr Hamdok was being pressed to support a coup but was refusing to do so and he urged people to continue with peaceful protests to "defend the revolution". The United States was "deeply alarmed" by the coup reports, its special envoy for the Horn of Africa, Jeffrey Feltman, said. Witnesses have said that the internet is down in the north African nation's capital, Khartoum, while images have appeared on social media showing angry crowds burning tyres in the streets. The army and paramilitary have been deployed across the city, restricting the movement of civilians, a witness is quoted as saying by Reuters news agency. Khartoum airport is now closed, and international flights are suspended. Sudan's main pro-democracy group has called on its supporters to resist any military coup. Sounding the alarm for Sudan’s democracy Why Omar al-Bashir was overthrown Are military takeovers on the rise in Africa? The military and civilian transitional authorities have ruled together since President Bashir was toppled after months of street protests in 2019. A power-sharing deal between the military and a loose coalition of groups - the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) - had been agreed, launching the Sovereign Council. It was to rule the country for another year - with the aim of holding elections and transitioning to civilian rule. But the deal has always been fractious, with a large number of rival political groups - and divisions within the military too. Tensions grew further after a coup attempt attributed to followers of Mr Bashir was foiled in September. This month, opponents of Sudan's transition to democracy took to the streets of the capital, Khartoum, to call on the army to take control of the country Pro-democracy groups said it was an organised attempt by the military to retake power. Last Thursday, tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Khartoum to show solidarity with the transitional government. Support for the interim government has slumped in recent months as the country's economy has struggled. Sudan has been unable to find a workable political system since independence in 1956 and has seen numerous coups and coup attempts. link : https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-59033142

you are very activeYou deserve to be on a team journalist

PeLEDs are a combination of organic and inorganic compounds that can make a display extremely flexible. When mobile phones first came into existence they were big and unattractive. Several researchers then worked on making them compact and desirable. People gradually warmed up to the technology and embraced it as it allowed them to communicate on the move. There have been several advancements since, catering to various demands of the users. A group of researchers has now developed a way to make the cell phone multipurpose – you can fold it up and keep it in your pocket or wallet, stretch the screen to make it a tablet, or wrap it around your wrist like a watch. This next step in the development of digital displays has been made possible by researchers at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University. Led by Chuan Wang, Assistant Professor in the Preston M. Green Department of Electrical & Systems Engineering, the researchers have developed a new material that has the best of both technologies — LEDs and OLEDs — and a novel way to fabricate it, using an inkjet printer. Their research has been published in the journal Advanced Materials. The researchers used the inkjet fabrication method, instead of the traditional spin art method to create a particular type of crystalline material called an organometal halide (Omh) perovskite. This organic-inorganic compound makes the display flexible. From there, the Perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs) can be recovered. Because it comes in a liquid form, we imagined we could use an inkjet printer,” Wang was quoted in a release published on EurekaAlert. Also, inkjet fabrication saves materials as it deposits perovskite only where it's needed. The process is much faster, cutting time from 5 hours to 25 minutes," said Wang. These PeLEDs may be just the first step in an electronics revolution. They could make walls light up or even display the day's newspaper. They can be used to make wearable devices, like a pulse oximeter to measure blood oxygen. Most excitingly, they can allow manufacturers to print stretchable devices. What's most interesting about Apple's new MacBook Pros, M1 Pro and M1 Max silicon, AirPods (3rd Generation), and Apple Music Voice plan? We discuss this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts. link : https://gadgets.ndtv.com/science/news/phone-display-peled-stretchable-tablet-watch-research-mckelvey-school-engineering-washington-university-2585084

TikTok’s turnover in Europe grew 545% to $170.8 million last year as advertisers upped their spending on the platform, according to a filing with the U.K.’s company registry on Monday. Losses at the Chinese-owned firm soared from $118.7 million in 2019 to $644.3 million in 2020. Staff have been one of TikTok’s biggest expenses. The company’s headcount in Europe rose by over 1,000 people last year, going from 208 in 2019 to 1,294 in 2020. LONDON — TikTok’s turnover in Europe grew 545% to $170.8 million last year as advertisers upped their spending on the platform, according to a filing with the U.K.’s company registry on Monday. The filing, submitted to Companies House, shows how TikTok has invested heavily in scaling up its European business as it looks to take on rivals like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Snap. Losses at the Chinese-owned firm soared from $118.7 million in 2019 to $644.3 million in 2020. A TikTok spokesperson told CNBC that the results “reflect an exciting period of growth for the business.” “We saw revenue increase significantly as our community grew, and we’ve continued to invest aggressively in building a solid foundation for the long-term success of the platform,” they said. Staff has been one of TikTok’s biggest expenses. The company’s headcount in Europe rose by over 1,000 people last year, going from 208 in 2019 to 1,294 in 2020. TikTok declined to comment when CNBC asked how many staff it has elsewhere in the world. But in July the firm said it wanted to increase its U.S. workforce from 1,400 to 10,000. Beyond staff, TikTok also spent $344.9 million on selling and marketing expenses in 2020, up from $110.3 million in 2019, according to the filing. TikTok’s po[CENSORED]rity has boomed in the last three years and last week it announced that it has 1 billion monthly active users on its platform, up 45% on July 2020. TikTok said it had about 55 million global users by Jan. 2018. That number grew to more than 271 million by Dec. 2018 and 507 million by Dec. 2019. The company reported nearly 700 million monthly active users last summer. But TikTok is aware that the growth may not last forever. The company, which is owned by China’s ByteDance, noted under a “business risk” section that it “faces competition from internet companies that operate content-based social platforms.” Indeed, Facebook and Snap are among TikTok’s biggest competitors and they’re all fighting for advertising dollars. The size of these social media companies has led them to come under increasing levels of scrutiny from regulators in recent years. Under a “compliance risk” section of the filing, TikTok noted that it is “subject to a range of new and existing laws in a regulatory landscape that can change.” The company has faced a number of setbacks, including a possible U.S. ban after the former Trump administration deemed its data storage and security a national security risk. TikTok was to be sold to an American company if it wanted to keep operating widely, with Oracle later being named as its “trusted technology provider.” However, President Joe Biden’s ascension to the White House allowed the company to continue operating as normal. In February, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Oracle deal had been “shelved indefinitely.” Biden this summer also signed an executive order that sets criteria for the government to evaluate the risk of apps connected to foreign adversaries. Culture concerns The dramatic increase in TikTok’s European headcount comes even though some people have been turning down jobs at the video-sharing company over fears that it has a so-called 996 culture. The 996 culture is practiced by some companies in China. The name is derived from the employees’ requirement of working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. for six days in a week, which works out at 72 hours per week. Meanwhile, the norm in the U.S. and the U.K. is around 40 hours per week, although many workers go over this. It’s illegal to work more than 48 hours per week in the U.K. on average. TikTok denied that such a culture exists. “Like any fast-growing start up, employees work hard at TikTok and some functions occasionally have emergency off-hours work, but we absolutely do not have ’996′ policies,” a spokesperson told CNBC in May. They added: “Teams like user support or safety, whose work requires round the clock coverage, stagger on-call hours to arrange continuous service for our customers. As our employees continue to scale, requests that fall outside of working hours are the exception rather than the norm.” — Additional reporting by CNBC’s Jessica Bursztynsky. link : https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/04/tiktoks-turnover-grew-by-545percent-in-europe-in-2020-but-losses-are-rising.html

Ready for Intel's Ponte Vecchio ExecutableFix has shared the alleged specifications for AMD's Radeon Instinct MI250X accelerator. The HPC GPU won't compete with the best graphics cards, but it'll give Intel's Ponte Vecchio a run for its money. According to the reputable hardware leaker, AMD will launch the Radeon Instinct MI250 and MI250X, but only exposed the specifications for the latter. The Radeon Instinct MI250X comes equipped with the Aldebaran silicon, which is built on the 7nm process node and features the CDNA2 architecture. The leaker stated that the GPU is based on the OAM (Open Accelerator Module) form factor so it's unlikely that we'll see it in a PCIe presentation. The Radeon Instinct MI250X sports a multi-chip module (MCM) design and carries two dies that are interlinked through AMD's Infinity Fabric interconnect. It reportedly comes equipped with 110 compute units, operating at 1.7 GHz. According to the leaker, the Radeon Instinct MI250X also has 128GB of HBM2E memory at its disposal. The Radeon Instinct MI250 will most likely come with fewer compute units and lower clock speeds. Therefore, we can assume that the non-X variant probably utilizies recycled silicon that doesn't meet the requirements for the "X" counterpart. If the clock speeds for the Radeon Instinct MI250X are accurate, the GPU should deliver up to 47.9 TFLOPs of double-precision (FP64) performance. That's four times as much as the current Radeon Instinct MI100 (Arcturus). For comparison, Ponte Vecchio GPU has already surpassed the 45 TFLOPs mark in regards to FP32 throughput in its early silicon. The Radeon Instinct MI250X also offers up to 383 TFLOPs of half-precision (FP16/BF16) performance. As for power consumption, the Radeon Instinct MI250X seemingly has a 500W TDP. Ponte Vecchio, on the other hand, rocks a 600W TDP, and an Intel document has revealed that OAM will require liquid cooling link : https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-radeon-instinct-mi250x-110-cus-128gb-hbm2e-500w-tdp

Rockstar has given us a first look at the upcoming Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Collection, and it showcases the enormous amount of work that has gone into improving the games' visuals. You're never quite sure with a remaster whether you'll be getting an up-ressed version of an old game or a completely overhauled product, but so far, it looks like Rockstar and developer Grove Street Games are treating these classics with the reverence they deserve. Rich Stanton, News Editor: What blew me away was the simple trick of transitioning from the 'old' scenes into the new, which really emphasised how much brighter and cleaner those environments look. Like many people, I imagine, I haven't played these games in well over a decade so my memories of them are always 'better' than how the things actually looked at the time, and seeing this was like Rockstar had reached into my brain, fetched out the nostalgia goggles, and somehow made it into a game. I honestly wasn't that excited about the GTA Trilogy, but all of a sudden I just can't wait to get back to the gorgeous, pastel-soaked Vice City, stick some Duran Duran on, and burn rubber. Nat Clayton, News Writer: It's a really weird aesthetic! GTA 3 through San Andreas came out at a time where you couldn't really pull off the grounded, gritty look of 4 and 5, and so get around it by heightening their look and tone. This remaster attempts to retroactively declare that a deliberate stylistic choice, and what you end up with is this uncannily shiny lo-fi look. The kind of thing you'd see on a '90s mag or some sort of spoofed game showing up in the background of CSI. That said, my experience with the early GTAs is playing them in the cramped bedroom of my brother's best mate, putting up with his mean-spirited jokes because your parents wouldn't buy you 18-rated games. Can a remaster capture that energy? Would it even want to? Evan Lahti, Global EIC: As someone who read a lot of those '90s mags Nat, I find it nostalgic and fun. It's an aesthetic that centers more on how these games actually looked, rather than how we think we remember them. The look preserves the literal shape of the games and their characters, how absurd and hammy these performances are, the PlayStation 2's jagged models. It was unrealistic to expect these remasters to reverse-inherit the fidelity and style of modern GTAs—that would be asking Rockstar to make three massive games roughly from scratch. Phil Savage, UK Editor-in-Chief: My first reaction was "Huh!", followed closely by "Err?" and finally settling on "Hmm?!". In short, I don't know where I land on this, and probably won't until I'm playing it. The environments and lighting look great, and would clash heavily with the early, low-poly character models of the original. Rockstar had to do something, and, as Evan rightly points out, achieving the look of the modern games was never going to happen. Perhaps part of my reaction is down to the fact that I still like the look of those old GTAs. As a PC player, they're not some relic of the ancient past—inaccessible unless I rescue a dusty old console from the attic. They're there, in my Steam account, ready to be played whenever I like. History is inescapable on PC: it's as easy for me to replay Deus Ex or Doom II or Planescape as it is to play something new like Far Cry 6. Untethered from the expectation of new and better looking, I've got no problem with the aesthetic of certain eras. The reason I don't replay the old GTAs is because the control schemes are clunky, and the controller support is bad. These Definitive Editions could have modernised all that and left the look as was, and I'd have been perfectly happy. They never would—that's not how you do a remaster—but it's why I'm left unsure about the new style. Robin Valentine, Print Editor: I think I like it? It’s definitely a bold choice, and that alone is appealing – I’m really pretty sick of by-the-numbers remasters that often create a messy look by combining bland, high-res textures with environments and animations too old to gel with them. Reimagining the old look into a new form that fits together harmoniously is a cool move, and I think it also maintains a nice separation between this era of GTA and the more modern installments. If anything I think they could have gone further—things like the spiky anime hair gesture towards an even more exaggerated style that they haven’t quite committed to. Steven Messner, Senior Editor: It honestly reminds me of something you'd see in Dreams, that PS4 game engine by Media Molecule. There's something about the character models—especially the protagonist from GTA 3—that gives me this "carved out of clay" vibe I can't wrap my head around. But I also think I like it a lot too, it's just so different? Chris Livingston, Features Producer: I'm glad they didn't try to cram a bunch of extremely realistic models or effects in there. That's always weird, like when a Pixar film has super cartoony characters with bizarrely realistic hair. Like, why? Why make that one aspect look real among the rest of it? It's jarring. It looks like Rockstar has done a good job of both preserving and updating the classics without anything looking really out of place. But on the other hand, considering it's not a massive upgrade or transformation, I sort of think the originals are fine as-is, too. I think if I ever want to replay them, the original versions will be just fine with me. link : https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/the-gta-trilogy-remasters-goofy-art-style-is-good-actually/