Author: Zech

Jay Choudhury left work partying with unwitting billionaires. He’d just sold SecureIT, a startup he co-founded with his wife Jyoti in the late ’90s, to Verisign. Maybe the employees had thrown a big party, or spent money on decorations. As Choudhury was leaving, he was calculating the net worth of the attendees. “That night, I went home and [stock] “I counted how many options they had and multiplied that by the VeriSign stock price, and that’s when I realized there were like 70 or 80 billionaires with stock options,” Choudhury told CNBC’s Make It. “That was impressive,” he added, explaining…

Despite their recent proliferation in news headlines, virtual reality headsets have been around for decades. Many blame their inherently claustrophobia-inducing and isolating nature for preventing their success in the general market, but new augmented and mixed reality headsets offer groundbreaking levels of usability by integrating virtual experiences into everyday environments. Augmented reality projects virtual items and information into your view of the real world, while mixed reality adds the ability to interact with both aspects. The promise is that these next-generation models can offer a better way to visualize work and play in the digital age. But do expectations match…

Despite reports of lackluster sales, the PlayStation VR 2 virtual reality headset is a phenomenal piece of kit. The successor to Sony’s original PSVR is far more powerful than its predecessor, far easier to use and has a better control scheme. Games such as Horizon Call of the Mountain and Gran Turismo 7 really show off the machine’s graphical power, running at 120 frames per second and supporting 4K visuals with HDR technology. Perhaps the biggest drawback is always the price, and at £529.99 it’s a big investment, especially when you consider how much it costs to run a PS5.…

Chinese researchers have developed a quantum computing pipeline for drug development that could take the technology from concept to application in drug design. By combining simulation and calculations, the pipeline can tackle a range of challenges, including drug-target interactions, binding, and the energy needed to break bonds within drugs, according to the South China Morning Post. Quantum computing, known for its advanced computational power, has the potential to transform many scientific fields, including medicine. The potential for integrating quantum computing pipelines into real-world drug design Nevertheless, its application in drug discovery has been largely limited to proof-of-concept studies where the…

Bitcoin mining companies benchmarked each other at Bitcoin 2024 in Nashville last weekend, as the post-halving situation continues to put pressure on companies’ established business models. While some public companies are seeing industry-wide hurdles as an opportunity to expand or even launch hostile takeover attempts, others are seeking to gain an advantage by diversifying revenue streams through innovations in areas like AI computing and chip manufacturing. The annual conference was packed with companies making money from massive, power-hungry machines constantly running complex calculations in the race to validate bitcoin transactions. In April, the reward for that effort was cut in…

Remember Kinect? Back when it was called “Project Natal,” I had pretty high hopes for this technology. In all fairness, those hopes may have been further fueled by some tech demos that, well, kind of hid the truth. When Kinect launched it was a wreck, but it had some pretty damn good games on it – I had a blast with Fruit Ninja Kinect and would often pull it out and play (ooer) at house parties, while Ubisoft’s Child of Eden was hands down the best. Which brings us to Thrasher, Thumper’s spiritual successor, just released on Meta Quest and…

Imagine never having to fold laundry again. Instead, you just toss it in a pile (you probably already do), and a personal robot neatly folds your towels and delicates without you having to lift a finger. This reality isn’t as futuristic as you might think. The instructors in this robotics e-learning bundle once built a robotic arm and will teach you how to bring your own project ideas to life. With nine e-courses, you’ll be able to automate tedious tasks and corners of your home. Get started now, on sale for $59.97 (regular price $423) until midnight July 28. Designing…

Audio of this conversation is available via your favorite podcast service.The Distributed AI Research Institute, or DAIR—which seeks to conduct community-rooted AI research that is independent from the technology industry—has launched a new project called the Data Workers’ Inquiry to invite data workers to create their own research and recount their experiences. The project is supported by DAIR, the Weizenbaum Institute, and TU Berlin. For this episode, journalist and audio producer Rebecca Rand parsed some of the ideas and experiences discussed at a virtual launch event for the inquiry that took place earlier this month.What follows is a lightly edited transcript…

Listen to this article SectionStar is a tissue sectioning and transfer robot designed to improve capacity, reliability and consistency. | Source: Clarapath Robotics and automation systems have been introduced into healthcare as a way to alleviate workforce issues and standardize medical practice, but most of the progress has been focused on surgical robots and physical rehabilitation. ClaraPass wants to change that. Last week, the Hawthorne, New York-based company announced it had raised $36 million in Series B-1 funding. ClaraPass said it aims to modernize and transform the way pathology labs process tissue. This latest round brings its total funding to…

Robert Way/iStock Editorial via Getty Images Self-driving startup WeRide to go public in the US The Chinese self-driving car maker said it plans to list its shares on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the ticker symbol “WRD,” according to an F-1 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday. The company did not disclose how many shares it plans to sell or its expected price range. WeRide said in a filing that it lost $268 million last year on revenue of $55 million. WeRide’s IPO could be the largest IPO by a Chinese company in the U.S. since…