Starting in August, the Quest 2 will cost $399.99 and $499.99 USD for the 128GB and 256GB versions, respectively. There are no improvements to the hardware that come with the increased cost. However, for a limited time, customers who purchase the headset will be able to download the $30 VR rhythm game Beat Saber at no additional cost. Meta is also increasing the prices for Meta Quest 2 accessories and refurbished units....

CodeSpark’s goal is to help children learn to code by stimulating their curiosity about computer science through making programming more like play. Kids five years old and up can learn the basics through creative tools and coding challenges. It’s a really wonderful way for any child to learn to code. They’ll learn concepts like conditional statement, Boolean logic and sorting, loops, sequencing, events and more. Up to three children will have unlimited access to all of the story and game creation activities and puzzles....

Also: This 3D printing system converts waste sawdust into stunning wooden lamps and guitars Another kind of device, which also spans the range from hobbyist to industrial applications, is the CNC laser cutter/engraver, which can etch designs into a variety of materials, including plastic, leather, wood, metal and glass, and also cut out shapes from some of them, which you can then assemble into 3D objects. That’s why Glowforge calls its device a ‘3D laser printer’....

With client-side encryption (CSE) enabled, the email body, attachments, and inline images are encrypted. The email header, subject, timestamps, and recipients lists are not. Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, or Education Standard customers can now apple to Google to join the Gmail CSE Beta test via its new support page for the feature. Also: Google warns: Android ‘patch gap’ is leaving these smartphones vulnerable to attack It’s not available to users with personal Google Accounts, and not available to users with Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Education Fundamentals, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers Google explains CSE is different to end-to-end encryption (E2EE) because clients use encryption keys that are generated and stored in a cloud-based key management service, so admins can control the keys and who has access to them....

Kent Walker, President of Global Affairs and Chief Legal Officer at Google, published a blog post on Wednesday about the current data framework that is causing issues between the US and the European Union. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went into effect in 2018 as a data privacy law to provide more privacy for citizens, deliver a better understanding of their rights when handing over personal data, and encourage organizations to take more precautions when handling information....

She previously served as assistant director for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA), where she led the Department of Homeland Security’s mission to protect and strengthen American critical infrastructure from cyber threats and its efforts to secure the 2018 midterm elections from digital interference. Roles like these saw Manfra become one of the most influential cybersecurity officials in US government, helping to form strategies to improve the cybersecurity of businesses and infrastructure, before switching to the private sector in December 2019....

Google Cloud’s partnership with Workday lands just days after an expanded pact with SAP. Google Cloud has been partnering with key software-as-a-service players to better target industries including healthcare, financial services, and retail. Under the deal, Workday Financial Management, Workday Human Capital Management (HCM) and Workday Adaptive Planning will run on Google Cloud. Workday customers can also run on AWS under a separate partnership. Workday also has another pact with Microsoft on integration between Azure applications....

Google Home Products Listening In Google Home products usually spend most of their time waiting for activation phrases like “Hey Google” or “Ok Google” before offering their assistance. However, artificial intelligence-based assistants aren’t always that “intelligent” and regularly – and sometimes hilariously – miss the mark. That’s why tech companies still employ humans to analyze user data and audio recordings. Humans can, for example, compare what the AI-based assistant thought it heard with what the user asked....

“We are continuing to invest in Google Tasks and expand its capabilities to help you capture, organize and accomplish all you have to get done. “Google product management VP Ilya Brown wrote in a blog post. “Moving reminders into Google Tasks is one step closer to helping people effortlessly get things done.” In the coming months, when you use Assistant or Calendar to create or view reminders, you’ll see a notification that will prompt you to use Tasks....

Through a series of feature additions that will happen throughout 2022, Google will bring seamless pairing, device switching, setup, and even better integration with a Windows PC to Android and Chrome OS. As is often the case with Google and Android features, the timeline for release isn’t exact. It’s more of a general guideline. I have a complete list of features and the generalized release timeframe at the bottom of this story....

Real-time image processing and HDR+ are still the bread and butter of the Pixel camera experience, but it’s the side dishes like Photo Unblur, Guided Frame, and Magic Eraser that will resonate with most users – professional or not. And Google continues to bet on making the most inclusive cameras in the business. One example is putting its machine learning to work in optimizing for a wide variety of skin tones....

The latest work builds on Google’s PaLM-SayCan model for robots to understand open-ended prompts from humans and respond reasonably and safely in a physical space. It also builds on OpenAI’s GPT-3 LLM and related work in automated code completion, like GitHub’s Copilot feature. “What if when given instructions from people, robots could autonomously write their own code to interact with the world?” said Google’s researchers. The latest generation of language models, such as PaLM, are capable of complex reasoning and have also been trained on millions of lines of code, Google said....

Twitter and Thomson Reuters Foundation will be some of the first organizations to use the tool. It allows users to review, sort, and export harmful comments with trusted parties, as well as mute or block perpetrators and hide replies to Tweets. Dozens of studies have repeatedly shown that women, and especially female journalists, receive waves of threats and harassment online. Google’s Jigsaw unit and the Economist Intelligence Unit released a study that showed that 70% of female journalists receive threats and harassment online, and more than 40% of those female journalists stopped reporting a story as a result....

Any skip, stutter, or ghosting scenario can turn into a life-or-death situation – in game of course. But the MSI Sword won’t stutter or skip with the built-in NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti graphics card and 144Hz refresh screen. Game, stream your favorite Twitch content creator, and no matter what, you’ll get a beautiful picture on this 15.6-inch Full HD screen. With most games now weighing in at about 60GB-80GB each, it’s important to have the storage to hold your library for when you’re on the go....

H&M Collected Extensive Information About Employees Private Lives If you are an employee, it goes without saying that you share certain personal data with your employer. For example, your name, telephone number, residential address, social security number, and bank account number. After all, your employer needs this information, to establish your identity, communicate with you, and transfer your monthly salary. H&M’s service center in Nuremberg, however, went one giant step further....

The valid signature enables the rootkit – malicious software that allows cyber criminals to access and control infected computers – to appear valid and bypass operating-system restrictions and gain what researchers describe as “virtually unlimited privileges”. It’s known for cyber criminals to use stolen digital certificates, but in this case, they’ve managed to acquire a valid one. It’s a still a mystery how cyber criminals were able to get hold of a valid certificate....

Prime Vaccine Candidate Over the last few weeks, Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca have emerged as the top three Covid-19 vaccine developers. AstraZeneca’s two-shot vaccine candidate demonstrated high efficacy. The company is now hurrying to submit their data to authorities around the world for conditional or early approval. In fact, all three developers are breaking records. Typically, it takes several years to go from the development stage to an approved vaccine. Moreover, AstraZeneca has promised to make their vaccine available at cost price....

Bora, which translates to “purple” in Korean, was designed to “evoke joy, spark creativity, and embrace individuality,” according to Samsung’s press release. “With its pastel and neutral tones, Bora Purple embodies optimism and a sense of calm. It will unfold your world with the power of choice,” said Sonia Chang, VP of Global Brand Marketing Group, MX Business at Samsung Electronics. While I didn’t major in color psychology, I can attest to the elegance and unbound feel of the new color....

But rather than looking at the incredible power or the groundbreaking performance-per-watt figures, some people couldn’t get beyond the tiny notch on the display. This… Huge, isn’t it? In the grand scheme of things, no. We’ve created a world that’s so comfortable that people get worried about something so small. And there are several good reasons why Apple chose the notch. Must read: The new MacBook Pros highlight what’s gone wrong with the Windows laptops market First, Apple is reusing the R&D that it’s done for the iPhone, rather than sticking with the old-style bezel or coming up with some in-display camera setup....

But perhaps that’ll still be the case when you reach the end of this tale. For this, you see, is the tale of a remote employee who didn’t like being ordered to keep his webcam on. All the time. Perhaps you can understand his feelings. Who really likes being watched all day when they’re in the comforts – or, indeed, confines – of their own home? Certainly not this unnamed employee of a software company called Chetu....