Grew

Raw power. High refresh rates. RGB. These are some of the defining factors of the best gaming laptops, and they have been for years. But for as much portable power as you could buy, most gaming laptops have skipped a critical element of a great gaming experience: the screen. In years past, you could find a high refresh rate or good image quality, but you generally couldn’t have both. In 2023, gaming laptops grew up, providing both the speed and quality gamers have come to expect, and that sets 2024 up to be an…

December 20, 20235min readToday’s Silicon Valley billionaires grew up reading classic American science fiction. Now they’re trying to make it come true, embodying a dangerous political outlookBy Charles Stross Science fiction (SF) influences everything in this day and age, from the design of everyday artifacts to how we—including the current crop of 50-something Silicon Valley billionaires—work. And that’s a bad thing: it leaves us facing a future we were all warned about, courtesy of dystopian novels mistaken for…

Have you ever heard the term “ingredient household”? It describes a household in which there are no ready-made snacks, just ingredients to make bigger meals. So, instead of having something quick, you have to actually take your time to make something to eat, like a sandwich or a salad. Or, simply eat all the ingredients separately.The latter scenario is, apparently, the more common way of dealing with it. At least that’s the conclusion you might come to after seeing how many people resonated with this approach and made…

Mini brains grown in a lab from stem cells spontaneously developed rudimentary eye structures, scientists reported in a fascinating paper in 2021.On tiny, human-derived brain organoids grown in dishes, two bilaterally symmetrical optic cups were seen to grow, mirroring the development of eye structures in human embryos.This incredible result will help us to better understand the process of eye differentiation and development, as well as eye diseases."Our work highlights the remarkable ability of brain organoids to…

A smile crossed my face when a local NBC outlet recently touted 90-year-old U.S. Postal Service employee Leroy Brown. He has worked for the federal government for 70 years, most of that time for the post office, and has no plans to retire. My father worked at the post office’s World Way location in Westchester. He is 84, and while he did not make it to 70 years of service, I feel his 45 years was rather impressive.Like Mr. Brown, my father joined the Postal Service after a stint in the Army, where he collected several…

IDC posted its quarterly analysis of the wearable market in India, revealing a massive 29.2% growth YoY. The top company was boAt, dominating the market with a 29.7% share, nearly three times more than the second-placed Noise. During the July-September period, the country saw 48.1 million shipments, bringing the total for the first nine months up to 105.9 million units – a 5.8% increase compared with the first three quarters of 2022. Overall average selling price (ASP) declined from $27.2 to $21.7, fueled by the…

Updated Nov. 15, 2023 8:11 am ETPeople are skipping their Target runs, but the company is finding ways to boost profits.Target sales fell in the period just before the holiday shopping season as it grappled with choosy shoppers cutting spending on some products and visiting stores less often. Comparable sales, those from stores and digital channels operating at least 12 months, fell 4.9% in the three months ended Oct. 28 from the prior year.Copyright ©2023Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.…

SAN FRANCISCO — Two months ago, Kyle Vogt, the CEO of Cruise, choked up as he recounted how a driver killed a 4-year-old girl in a stroller at a San Francisco intersection. “It barely made the news,” he said, pausing to collect himself. “Sorry. I get emotional.” To make streets safer, he said in an interview, cities should embrace self-driving cars like those designed by Cruise, a subsidiary of General Motors. They do not get distracted, drowsy or drunk, he said, and being programmed to put safety first meant they could…

In the second quarter of 2023, Spotify saw its million monthly active users (MAU) climb to 551 million after welcoming 36 million new listeners. That represents a 27 percent increase in MAUs and is an all-time high for the streaming giant, which has just published its earnings report. While not all new users signed up for a Premium account, Spotify also had a record-breaking second quarter when it comes to Premium subscriber numbers. It welcomed 10 million paying users — 3 million larger than guidance — and grew its…

Mercedes-Benz USA released its second quarter 2023 sales results, indicating an over 600% jump in EV sales. Electric vehicles now account for 15% of overall Mercedes-Benz passenger vehicle sales in the US. Mercedes-Benz sees EV sales growth in the US Despite several US automakers seeing a drop in EV sales from the first quarter, Mercedes-Benz continues to see higher demand. The German automaker sold 11,927 electric vehicles in Q2 2023, up 608% from the second quarter of last year. After…