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That is at this time’s version of The Download, our weekday publication that gives a day by day dose of what’s occurring on the earth of know-how.
Erik Prince desires to promote you a “safe” smartphone that’s too good to be true
Erik Prince’s pitch to traders was easy, however actually bold: pay simply €5 million and treatment the largest cybersecurity and privateness plagues of our day.
The American billionaire—finest identified for founding the infamous non-public army agency Blackwater—was pushing Unplugged, a smartphone startup promising “free speech, privateness, and safety” untethered from dominant tech giants like Apple and Google.
However these daring claims are undercut by a beforehand unreported pitch deck obtained by MIT Expertise Overview. It’s a messy mixture of unattainable claims, meaningless buzzwords, and outright fiction.
Nearly each try to construct this sort of telephone has failed. This attempt is prone to be no totally different. Read the full story.
—Patrick Howell O’Neill
Ring’s new TV present is an excellent however ominous viral advertising and marketing ploy
Footage from Ring’s digital camera units, which prospects set up to guard their houses, keep watch over deliveries, and see or work together with who’s on the door, has grow to be a standard sight throughout social media in recent times.
Such movies will underpin new TV present Ring Nation when it begins subsequent month, that includes humorous animals, marriage proposals, and heartwarming neighborhood interactions.
In addition to an prolonged viral advertising and marketing marketing campaign, it’s a intelligent try to launder the picture of Ring—an organization that has been repeatedly criticized for its often-lax strategy to buyer knowledge, and particularly for permitting regulation enforcement to entry consumer movies with out consent. Read the full story.
—Eileen Guo & Abby Ohlheiser
The struggle for “Instagram face”
By magnificence filters, platforms like Instagram are serving to customers obtain more and more narrowing magnificence requirements—although solely within the digital world—at a stunningly fast tempo. There may be proof that extreme use of those filters on-line has dangerous results on psychological well being, particularly for younger women.
“Instagram face” is a acknowledged aesthetic template: ethnically ambiguous and that includes the flawless pores and skin, huge eyes, full lips, small nostril, and completely contoured curves made accessible largely by filters. And whereas Instagram has banned filters that encourage cosmetic surgery, huge demand for magnificence augmentation on social media is complicating issues. Read the full story.
—Tate Ryan-Mosley
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to search out you at this time’s most enjoyable/necessary/scary/fascinating tales about know-how.
1 The US is attempting to get extra monkeypox vaccines
By transferring manufacturing to Michigan and splitting current doses into fifths. (WP $)
+ It desires to supply 50,0000 vaccines for Delight occasions throughout the nation. (CNBC)
+ All the things it is advisable know concerning the monkeypox vaccines. (MIT Technology Review)
2 A Chicago metropolis sensor venture has gone international
It tracked the whole lot from air high quality to flooding. (MIT Technology Review)
3 How a predatory CEO’s web fame allowed him to cover in plain sight
Dan Value used social media to shamelessly rehabilitate his picture and management the narrative round his actions. (NYT $)
+ Value has resigned from his firm, Gravity Funds. (WP $)
4 An Apple safety flaw leaves units susceptible to hacking
Hackers might seize full admin entry to iPhones, iPads and Macs if customers fail to replace to the newest software program. (The Verge)
5 Google staff urged the corporate to cease accumulating abortion knowledge
The union can be asking Alphabet to stop its political lobbying post-Roe. (The Guardian)
+ An adtech agency that reveals journeys to abortion clinics has attracted the ire of the FTC. (WP $)
+ It’s nonetheless unclear how employer insurance policies overlaying staff’ abortions will work. (The Atlantic $)
+ Large Tech stays silent on questions on knowledge privateness in a post-Roe US. (MIT Technology Review)
6 What getting again to nature can train us concerning the future
A ‘hunter-gatherer’ perspective might come in useful because the local weather disaster intensifies. (Neo.Life)
+ Bioacoustics is a helpful, if restricted, method to keep watch over wildlife. (Fast Company $)
7 Google’s quantum pc has been cracked
By an algorithm operating on an ordinary machine. (New Scientist $)
8 How a lot meat ought to we eat?
We must be each lowering our consumption and farming extra sustainably. (Knowable Magazine)
+ Giving up simply half your hamburgers can actually assist the local weather. (MIT Technology Review)
9 Meet the musicians connecting with followers over electronic mail
Overlook TikTok and Instagram, Substack’s the place it’s at nowadays. (The Guardian)
10 TikTokers are stealing vehicles now
The Kia Boyz development has fueled a automobile crime wave throughout the US. (NY Mag $)
+ The platform has reversed its choice to ban the hashtag schizophrenia. (Input)
Quote of the day
“Individuals are begging for monkeypox vaccines, and we’ve simply pissed off the one producer.”
—An nameless well being official describes how the Biden administration’s choice to separate monkeypox vaccines into fifths didn’t go down properly with its maker, Bavarian Nordic, to the Washington Post.
The massive story
Inside Singapore’s big wager on vertical farming
October 2020
It’s taken many years for Singapore to get up and understand that—so far as meals goes—it is without doubt one of the most susceptible international locations on the earth.
This threat merely hadn’t occurred to authorities again within the Seventies, once they ripped up the crops of tapioca, candy potatoes, and greens flourishing throughout greater than 15,000 hectares of the nation’s land and changed them with high-rise workplace buildings and condos. The main target again then was finance, telecoms, and electronics, not meals.
However whereas this technique efficiently swelled Singapore’s financial system (it’s now the fourth richest nation on the earth, per capita), it left the nation with solely 600 hectares of farmland. Consequently, the nation has pinned its hopes on know-how, with high-output city farms hailed as its finest wager. However vertical farming will not be with out its skeptics. Read the full story.
—Megan Tatum
We will nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction in these bizarre occasions. (Received any concepts? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)
+ Who doesn’t love the Beach Boys?
+ The evocado is a extra environmentally pleasant avocado, apparently.
+ An amazing query—why *do* so many bikes find yourself on the backside of canals and lakes?
+ Right here’s a quick take a look at simply among the weird and wonderful creatures lurking within the ocean depths.
+ How superb does the world dog surfing championship look? (thanks Charlotte!)