TechSlice 2023-11-03

💻

BIG TECH & STARTUPS

SpaceX’s Starlink “has achieved breakeven cash flow” (2 minute read)

Elon Musk's SpaceX Starlink project has reached a significant milestone by achieving breakeven cash flow, as reported by TechCrunch. Starlink's satellite-based internet service has been rapidly expanding and generating revenue, moving closer to sustainability. This accomplishment marks a crucial step in making satellite internet more accessible and financially viable for a global user base.

Mint is shutting down, and it’s pushing users toward Credit Karma (2 minute read)

Intuit is shutting down its budgeting app, Mint, and integrating it into Credit Karma, a service it acquired in 2020, by January 1, 2024, though it's uncertain whether Credit Karma will offer Mint's budget tracking features. This move allows Mint users to transfer their accounts to Credit Karma, which already added net worth tracking, while Intuit plans to introduce transaction viewing, spending tracking, and account aggregation features in Credit Karma.

🌌

SCIENCE & FUTURISTIC TECHNOLOGY

Enhanced bedroom ventilation linked to improved sleep quality (5 minute read)

A study has found that improved bedroom ventilation can lead to better sleep quality, which has implications for overall well-being. The study, conducted over four weeks with 35 participants, showed that increasing bedroom ventilation led to fewer awakenings, increased deep sleep, and reduced light sleep, all indicating improved sleep quality.

Cancer trial results show power of weaponized antibodies (4 minute read)

Promising results for antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) in cancer treatment were presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress, including a combination of treatments that almost halved the risk of death in patients with advanced bladder cancer, a significant advance for a cancer with historically low survival rates.

The planet is heating up faster than predicted, says scientist who sounded climate alarm in the 1980s (4 minute read)

A new study led by James Hansen, a renowned climate scientist, suggests that the Earth is more sensitive to climate change than previously understood. The study predicts that global temperatures could rise beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by the 2020s, breaching a key threshold, and exceed 2 degrees Celsius by 2050, resulting in disastrous consequences, including rapid sea-level rise and the potential shutdown of vital ocean currents. However, some scientists have cast doubt on the paper's conclusions, suggesting that the rate of global warming is not accelerating beyond what models predict.

Rocket Lab sets sights on 2024-2025 window for Venus mission (4 minute read)

Rocket Lab plans to launch its mission to Venus at the end of 2024, with a launch window extending into 2025. The company was granted permission to resume launches by the US Federal Aviation Administration in October after a flight anomaly resulted in the loss of a payload in September. The mission will be in collaboration with Professor Sara Seager from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and will involve detecting phosphine in Venus's atmosphere to search for signs of organic matter.

👩🏻‍💻

PROGRAMMING, DESIGN & DATA SCIENCE

apache / incubator-answer (1 minute read)

A Q&A platform software for teams at any scales. Whether it's a community forum, help center, or knowledge management platform.

How to instantly improve your design using 7 key Gestalt Principles (7 minute read)

Gestalt principles are a set of design rules based on how humans perceive and group visual elements. They help designers create intuitive and visually appealing interfaces. By leveraging principles like proximity, similarity, and symmetry, designers can improve user engagement, reduce cognitive load, and make interfaces more aesthetically pleasing.

🎉

MISCELLANEOUS

UK invests £225M to create one of world’s most powerful AI supercomputers (2 minute read)

The UK government is investing £225 million to create the Isambard-AI supercomputer, which will be ten times faster than the country's current fastest machine. Isambard-AI will support AI research and various industries and is equipped with over 5,000 NVIDIA superchips.

This AI can tell if your home is wasting energy — just by looking at it (2 minute read)

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have developed an AI algorithm that can classify energy-wasting homes, which are challenging to decarbonize, with 90% accuracy using open-source data. The model can pinpoint areas of buildings that lose the most heat and determine a home's age, potentially helping policymakers prioritize decarbonization efforts.

🔗 

QUICK LINKS

The next Apple Watch will reportedly add 3 new health sensors for diabetes, blood pressure, and sleep apnea (3 minute read)

Apple is reportedly enhancing its Apple Watch with sensors that can detect prediabetes, elevated blood pressure, and sleep apnea in 2024, emphasizing preventive health measures, while maintaining non-diagnostic functions. This aligns with Apple's broader healthcare strategy.

Brave responds to Bing and ChatGPT with a new ‘anonymous and secure’ AI chatbot (2 minute read)

Brave, the privacy-focused browser, has introduced Leo, a native AI assistant that prioritizes privacy in comparison to other AI chatbot services, offering features like translation, answering questions, summarizing webpages, and generating content without recording conversations or requiring login information, and it's available for free to Brave desktop users.

What is NASA+? Everything you need to know about the streaming service (2 minute read)

NASA is launching a new free streaming service called NASA+ that will provide live coverage of missions, launches, research, and other space-related content, with a focus on improving digital engagement with the public.

Nokia sues Amazon, HP over video compression technology (5 minute read)

Nokia is suing Amazon and HP, alleging patent infringement regarding the H.264 video compression standard, stating the two companies violated 15 patents relating to the technology used in their products and services.

Two former Google engineers have a product and a plan to fix robot vacuums (9 minute read)

Matic, a robot vacuum developed by former Google Nest engineers, stands out with its unique visual navigation system, local operation, and the ability to perform wet/dry cleaning, along with voice command and gesture recognition, while targeting a premium market segment at $1,495.

TechSlice is a daily newsletter with links of the most interesting stories in startups 💡, tech 💻 and programming 👩🏻‍💻.

Have a great weekend and see you on Monday!