The future of Bitcoin: What Lightning could look like

After years of conceptualization and development, the first Lightning implementations are now in beta. As a result, more nodes are appearing online every day, a growing number of users are opening channels with one another, and some merchants even started to accept Lightning payments. But of course, these are still the very early days of theLightning Network. While the main implementations are usable and some wallets and other applications are available, Bitcoin’s overlay payment network is projected to improve over the next few years in areas ranging from network architecture to security and usability, and more. These are some of the more important Lightning…

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US elevates the role of Cyber Command

After months of talk and planning, US Cyber Command is now just as important as the rest of the Pentagon's commands -- at least, on paper. The military has officially elevated its cyberwarfare division to a "unified command" that operates independen...

Facebook only checks for impostors within your circle of friends

When you go to Face Recognition in Facebook's Settings page, there's a link that leads you to more info about it that says switching it on can "help protect you from strangers using a photo of you as their profile picture." That pertains to a feature...

4 steps to more accurately predict the future (and launch a product people actually want)

As a wide-eyed kid, did you think about a future with flying cars and personal domestic robots for everyone? We tend to see the future as a time full of opportunities and yet-to-be-discovered, society-altering inventions.   Think about The Jetsons. We’re still 44 years away from futuristic universe that the well-known show’s creators imagined in 1962 and it’s probably fair to say that they overestimated future change (though maybe when Amazon gives the Echo legs we’ll be a step closer to having our own Rosie the Robot Maid). This isn’t surprising. When any of us imagine the future, we typically…

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Lobe’s ridiculously simple machine learning platform aims to empower non-technical creators

Machine learning may be the tool de jour for everything from particle physics to recreating the human voice, but it's not exactly the easiest field to get into. Despite the complexities of video editing and sound design, we have UIs that let even a curious kid dabble in them — why not with machine learning? That's the goal of Lobe, a startup and platform that genuinely seems to have made AI models as simple to put together as LEGO bricks.

UK watchdog orders Cambridge Analytica to give up data in US voter test case

Another big development in the personal data misuse saga attached to the controversial Trump campaign-linked UK-based political consultancy, Cambridge Analytica — which could lead to fresh light being shed on how the company and its multiple affiliates acquired and processed US citizens’ personal data to build profiles on millions of voters for political targeting purposes. The […]

The formula behind San Francisco’s startup success

Why has San Francisco’s startup scene generated so many hugely valuable companies over the past decade?

Gillmor Gang: Paywall

The Gillmor Gang — Denis Pombriant, Keith Teare, Esteban Kolsky, Michael Markman, and Steve Gillmor . Recorded live Friday, May 4, 2018. G3: Trust Me — Mary Hodder, Halley Suitt Tucker, Francine Hardaway, and Tina Chase Gillmor. Recorded live Friday, May 4, 2018. @stevegillmor, @mickeleh, @kteare, @DenisPombriant, @ekolsky Produced and directed by Tina Chase Gillmor […]

Apple News had a one-week exclusive on a documentary series

Apple isn't kidding about its intentions to turn its News app into more than just an aggregator. BuzzFeed has confirmed to Digiday that Apple reached a deal to premiere the documentary series Future History: 1968 through News a week before it reache...

Recommended Reading: The 'Stories' invasion won't relent anytime soon

Why 'Stories' Took Over Your Smartphone Ian Bogost, The Atlantic Snapchat may have created the monster, but in nearly every social (and some not-so-social) app you fire up, you'll be greeted with a feed of Stories. In fact, Facebook says the forma...

Unroll.me to close to EU users saying it can’t comply with GDPR

Put on your best unsurprised face: Unroll.me, a company that has, for years, used the premise of ‘free’ but not very useful ’email management’ services to gain access to people’s email inboxes in order to data-mine the contents for competitive intelligence — and controversially flog the gleaned commercial insights to the likes of Uber — […]

A life sciences firm run by a top VC and a cofounder of Alphabet’s life sciences arm, just raised its biggest fund yet

There’s no end to the number of fascinating devices and therapies being created right now in the fields of health and life sciences. The investors behind them are often pretty interesting, too, given the expertise needed to make informed bets on what are often completely unproven projects. Such is the case with Foresite Capital, a […]

We need to focus on AI complementing the mind, not replacing it

Every few decades, a technological development leads us to believe that artificial general intelligence (aka strong AI) , the brand of AI that can think and decide like humans, is just around the corner. The excitement that follows is accompanied by fears of dystopian near-future and an arms-race between companies and states to be the first to create general AI. However, every time we thought we were closing in on strong AI, we have been disappointed. Badly. Every time, we spent a lot of time, resources, money and the energy of our most brilliant scientists on accomplishing something that seems to be…

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Land a six-figure cyber security job — and this $19 training will show you how

Companies need elite security talent to protect their digital systems — and they’re willing to pay handsomely for it. Whether you’re looking to advance in the field or just break in, this package of Complete White Hat Hacking and Penetration Testing instruction ($19, over 90 percent off from TNW Deals) is the training to help get you started.

BMW M550i review: Equal parts luxury and power

Cruising along on the autobahn at 220 kilometers per hour (136 miles per hour) is equal parts exciting and anxiety-inducing because my brain can't shake the feeling I'm still breaking the law. That concern didn't stop when I pulled over. I also exper...

The Morning After: Weekend Edition

You made it to right here, Saturday morning. This week, Nintendo faced a patent infringement investigation over its Switch, Sprint and T-Mobile announce they're together, and the notch rears its ugly head again. This time, though, most of us don't mi...

Vilifying Facebook is pointless — we need to take responsibility for our data

In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, all eyes are on Facebook and its data privacy practices. From policy-makers to financial markets, the reactions have been surprise and disapproval. Yet, collecting and monetizing user data has been standard modus operandi for the majority of today’s technologies. Email providers, cellular networks, workplace collaboration apps, social media, credit monitoring, etc. – nearly all are powered by the ‘data contract’ we as users entered with a click, before we could appreciate the worth of the information we give away. Today’s heightened focus on data privacy is a perfect opportunity to re-negotiate these…

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NASA's InSight lander is on its way to Mars

The first NASA mission that will look into the Martian interior is now on its way to the red planet. NASA's Mars InSight lander has launched on top of a ULA Atlas V rocket and is a historic launch in several ways. In addition to being the agency's fi...