With its announcement that it will automatically transfer users’ funds from alternatives like USD Coin (USDC) to its Binance USD (BUSD) token, Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, has upended the stablecoin market into mayhem.
On Monday, Binance announced that starting on September 29, it will automatically convert all investments in USDC, Pax Dollar (USDP), and TrueUSD (TUSD) into BUSD.
Customers transferring these tokens to the exchange will have their funds instantly converted on that day into Binance’s stablecoin. However, while taking money out of Binance, users will be able to do it in USDC, USDP, or TUSD at a 1:1 ratio to their BUSD-denominated account balance.
According to the exchange, the step is meant to “improve users’ access to money and liquidity.” In actuality, the move essentially subdues USDC, the second-largest stablecoin, from one of the most prominent positions in cryptocurrency, creating a barrier to it overtaking Tether (USDT) as the largest one. The impacted USDC products will be terminated and liquidated on September 23 and include savings accounts, DeFi staking subscriptions, and crypto loans.
According to estimates, USDC, issued by Circle Internet Financial, is the second-ranked stablecoin behind Tether, with a market value of close to US$52 billion. BUSD, a stablecoin from Binance, comes in third place with over US$19.3 billion. The leading stablecoin, USDT, has a market value of US$68 billion.
The unexpected decision comes as Binance undercuts Coinbase, a competitor exchange, in order to compete with it on pricing.
Tesla is stepping up recruitment in Thailand, a Southeast Asia automotive hub, with the US electric vehicle (EV) maker looking to hire a business development manager and recruiters, its website shows.
The job announcements come as demand and interest for EVs in Thailand pick up due to concerns over high energy prices and government consumer incentives.
Nearly 20 Bangkok-based jobs, including a home charging developer, were advertised on its website, and the position of a charging infrastructure lead was posted on LinkedIn on Monday.
Other vacancies were for vehicle technicians, customer service, and a parts adviser. For now, Thailand is not expected to be a production site for Tesla, though the government has been promoting EV sales, and there is speculation the company might set up official showrooms.
Thailand is Asia’s fourth-largest auto assembly and export hub for companies like Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor. It produces about 1.5 million to 2 million vehicles annually, of which about half are exported.
Domestic demand for EVs is a crucial part of a Thai government strategy to preserve its status as a top regional automaker. The government of Thailand is targeting the production of 725,000 EVs a year, or 30% of total vehicle output, by 2030.
Chinese automakers have begun selling EVs in Thailand at what customers say are affordable prices. Great Wall Motors launched its ORA Good Cat model at the annual motor show for 828,500 baht ($22,600). Great Wall Motors plans to produce the model in Thailand in 2024.
The Iranian government is planning to use face recognition technology to spot women who are not abiding by the country’s strict new regulation mandating wearing hijabs in public. According to Mohammad Saleh Hashemi Golpayegani, secretary of Iran’s Headquarters for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice revealed, facial recognition will play a key role in identifying and penalizing women who violate the law approved by President Ebrahim Raisi.
It is the first time in Iranian history that a governmental official has acknowledged the use of face recognition technology in surveillance systems. Golpayegani has previously stated that women who post images of themselves online without wearing a hijab can lose some social privileges for six months to a year.
A month after the national “Hijab and Chastity Day” on July 12, which provoked nationwide demonstrations by women who uploaded videos of themselves on social media with their heads uncovered on the streets, in buses, and in trains, the new law was signed on August 15. Amid the draconian laws, the Iranian government has responded in recent weeks with a wave of arrests, detentions, and forced confessions on television.
The Iranian government has been issuing biometric identity cards since 2015. These cards have a chip that records information, including iris scans, fingerprints, and face photographs. Researchers are concerned that this data will be used with face recognition technology to identify those who disobey the dress code offline and online.
After Iran’s revolution in 1979, Iranian women and girls over the age of 9 were required to wear the hijab. In the years followed, women have increasingly challenged the confines of the stipulated dress code.
However, the enhanced legislation has begun a new age of punishment and public monitoring. 28-year-old Sepideh Rashno was detained after a fellow passenger released a video of her wearing “improper clothing” as evidence of her breaking the law.
Bystanders physically escorted the passenger who was filming her from the bus, but local rights advocates claim that Rashno was subsequently taken into custody, assaulted, and made to make a public apology to the offending passenger on state television.
As Tehran turns to monitor people using facial recognition technologies, there is a looming concern that other women might meet a fate like Rashno’s after Iran starts using facial recognition. Meanwhile, the dreaded Morality Police, also known as Guidance Patrols, have ramped up their activity and violence. On social media, videos have surfaced that show authority detaining women before shoving them into vans and escorting them away.
Intel plans to launch several initiatives such as ‘AI for current workforce’ and ‘AI for future workforce’ by the end of this year to build a skill-ready workforce, told Shweta Khurana, senior director, Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) for government partnerships, initiatives, and global government affairs, Intel.
Khurana said that the AI for the future workforce would cater to 18 years and above. AI for the current workforce is for professionals primarily focused on women-driven small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The program will be delivered virtually by an Intel-certified coach.
The company’s curriculum designed for AI for the future workforce is technical. However, students do not require any prior domain knowledge. Furthermore, projects under the program are focussed on industrial impacts such as insurance fraud protection, predictive maintenance, viral post protection, and common trade application, among others.
Through virtual training in a real-world environment for three months, learners will be exposed to the challenges and how to build solutions. Earlier initiatives from Intel included Building AI Readiness, Intel AI for youth, and Responsible AI for Youth among young innovators. Under these three initiatives, over 3,50,000 students have been trained with AI skills since 2019.
Under Intel AI for youth programs, the learners acquire technical skills in data science, computer vision, natural language processes, and social skills, focused on AI ethics, biases, and AI solutions-building. For this, Intel has collaborated with the Ministry of Education (MoE) and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to create AI readiness by skilling facilitators in CBSE schools, AI curricula for students, and setting up focused AI skill labs.
Saudi Arabia’s banking regulator has appointed Mohsen AlZahrani to lead their virtual assets and central bank digital currency program to sign the Gulf state’s potential crypto ambitions.
People familiar with the matter told that while the kingdom has taken cautious steps to approach virtual assets, the emergence of a global crypto hub in the UAE has led to some urgency in Riyadh to draft more formal rules for the asset class,
AlZahrani, a former managing director at Accenture, reported to Ziad Al Yousef, the Central Bank’s deputy governor for development and technology, as per reports. The talks involved the digital economy, cryptocurrency, digital banks, and smart cities.
AlZahrani is a part of a team in Riyadh that’s engaging with some of the world’s biggest crypto firms on future regulations.” UAE has been pushing firms to increase their presence in the capital city as part of Mohammed bin Salman’s plans to turn Riyadh into a global hub.
This posed a direct challenge to the Gulf’s business hub, Dubai. The Saudi government has been collaborating with the UAE on a potential joint digital currency for several years.
In 2018, Riyadh banned banks from processing cryptocurrency transactions, though workarounds exist to trade. However, in recent months, local financial firms reiterated the restrictions in correspondence with customers. Binance Holdings have staffed its Saudi teams, identifying the kingdom as a largely untapped market if the current restrictions loosen.
Crop of an Outpainting created by DALL-E user Emma Catnip
In a blog post, OpenAI’s DALL-E announced “Outpainting,” a new feature that encourages users to utilize natural language description to express themselves more creatively. By incorporating visual components in the same style and using a brush to cover places outside of the original canvas, outpainting enables users to extend an image beyond its initial bounds. To put it simply, the new Outpainting feature seeks to continue the viewable section of any backdrop painting or panorama.
GIF from OpenAI Original: ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’, Johannes Vermeer | Outpainting: August Kamp
DALL-E, an image-to-text generator tool unveiled last year, combines the language interpretation and context offered by GPT-3 and its underlying structure to produce a convincing image that corresponds to a prompt. The updated version of DALL-E, called DALL-E 2 was released for a limited number of customers earlier this year in April, and it just surpassed the 100,000-user mark.
DALL-E 2’s current ‘Inpainting’ edit functionality allows for adjustments inside a created image. However, by extrapolating the original image data, users can produce large-scale images in any aspect ratio. In order to preserve the context of the originality of the photographs, the new Outpainting feature considers the already-present visual components like reflections, shadows, and textures.
The size and aspect ratio of the creations users could make with DALL-E 2 were previously constrained. The AI algorithm could not produce any image greater than 1,024 pixels by 1,024 pixels or with a different form. With outpainting, customers are now only constrained by their credit balance and not by content controls. Both the extra outpainted portion and the creation of the initial image each cost one credit. During their first month, everyone is given 50 free generation credits, and they are given 15 to utilize each subsequent month. Additional credits in blocks of 115 can be purchased for US$15.
DALL-E 2 is one of the best text-to-image generating AI tools available today. It is opening doors for a new generation of artists who may have previously been constrained by physical limitations, a lack of time, or the inability to pursue an art school. However, it has received backlash due to bias, and violent and sexual content. Now, given the Outpainting feature of DALL-E 2, it might rapidly become troublesome if anybody could add to already-existing pieces of art.
All DALL-E 2 users currently have access to outpainting, although it is only available on desktop. OpenAI has promised to expand these functionalities to smaller display devices in the upcoming months. If you want to participate in the public beta, sign up for the waitlist.
Samsung recently revealed a cybersecurity data breach that occurred in late July. The incident – discovered on August 4 – resulted in a breach of personal information, including names, contact and demographic information, dates of birth, and product registration information, according to a September 2 notice from Samsung to customers. The corporation informed customers that social security or credit card information kept in the system was unaffected by the data breach.
Samsung said in the blog post that it had taken measures to safeguard the compromised systems. Additionally, it has teamed up with a well-known outside cybersecurity company and is collaborating with law authorities on the matter. Furthermore, the company has created a FAQ page on its website with additional questions, solutions, and recommended actions.
Although the number of people impacted has not yet been disclosed, Samsung warns that if you have received a notification, your data may have been compromised. Samsung advises people impacted by the breach to be on the lookout for phishing scams, regularly watch their credit profiles, read the security notice FAQ, and review the company’s privacy policy. If you’re worried, you can ask questions regarding the incident by email at seainfo@email.support.samsung.com.
It’s not the first time Samsung has struggled with a security problem, nor is it its first in 2022. Back in March, Samsung disclosed that it had experienced a cybersecurity breach that exposed confidential business information. The leaked information is believed to have contained source code from its partners, including proprietary data from Qualcomm, a US chipmaker that supplies chipsets for Samsung Galaxy smartphones marketed in the US. However, according to Samsung, neither its employees’ nor customers’ personal information was impacted. The company assured at the time that it had taken precautions to prevent attacks in the future. The Lapsus$ hacker organization had previously claimed responsibility for the breach.
Google and Amazon have criticized Microsoft’s cloud computing changes commenting they limit competition and discourage customers from switching to rival cloud service providers.
The US giant on Monday announced amended licensing deals and other changes that will take effect on Oct. 1. Microsoft said that they would make it easier for cloud service providers to compete. Amazon, Google, Alibaba, and Microsoft’s cloud services are excluded from the deals.
Microsoft’s move comes after smaller European Union (EU) competitors took their complaints about its cloud service practices to EU antitrust regulators, which, as a result, questioned market players on the issue and the impact they have experienced. Amazon, trailed by Microsoft and Google, was scathing in its critiques.
A spokesperson for Microsoft cloud service unit AWS said that Microsoft is now doubling-down on the same disruptive practices by implementing even more restrictions in an unfair attempt to limit the competition it faces rather than listening to its customers and restoring fair software licensing in the cloud for everyone.
Marcus Jadotte, Google’s vice president for government affairs and policy, was equally critical. He said in a tweet that the promise of the cloud is flexible, elastic computing without contractual lock-ins.
The promise of the cloud is flexible, elastic computing without contractual lock-ins. Customers should be able to move freely across platforms and choose the technology that works best for them, rather than what works best for Microsoft.
He added that customers should be able to move freely across platforms and choose the best technology for them rather than what works best for Microsoft.
European robotic arm (ERA) is pictured extending out from the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module
On Friday, Roscosmos’s Expedition 67 Commander Oleg Artemyev and Flight Engineer Denis Matveev completed their spacewalk at 5:12 p.m. EDT. They succeeded in accomplishing their primary goals, which included relocating the European robotic arm’s exterior control panel from one operating area to another and testing a rigidizing mechanism that would be utilized to make it easier to grab payloads. By opening the hatch of the Poisk docking compartment airlock, the duo had to outfit the European robotic arm on the Nauka laboratory of the International Space Station (ISS). Furthermore, the team moved a Strela telescoping boom from the Zarya module to the Poisk module.
The European robotic arm (ERA) for European Space Agency (ESA) was created by a European team under the direction of Airbus Defense and Space in the Netherlands. Launched into orbit in July 2021, the robotic arm is designed to function like a human arm but can lift up to 17,600 pounds (8 tonnes) when operating outside the orbiting space station. The robot arm, which is the first to be capable of anchoring itself to the ISS, has two hands and can move back and forth by crossing one hand over the other like an inchworm. By transferring payloads as they arrive at the space station without the need for spacewalking humans, the arm lessens the workload on the ISS astronauts. It can also help transport astronauts when they are performing spacewalks. Apart from this arm, ISS already has the Canadian-built Canadarm2 robotic arm, and the Japanese arm currently assisting station maintenance, operations, and research.
According to information released by ESA, the European robotic arm successfully carried out its maiden transfer outside of the International Space Station on August 24. The arm maneuvered in accordance with instructions from Russian cosmonauts (astronauts) on board to release a tiny payload from a single pin latch on the Nauka science module. The payload was then put back in its original position after being transferred to the other side by the robot. The process took around six hours, and then the robot resumed its hibernation.
The main reason behind the latest spacewalk was to complete unfinished tasks from the August 17 EVA (extravehicular activity, or spacewalk), i.e., VKD-54. If two or more Russian spacewalks are carried out by the same crew, a suffix (“a,” “b,” etc.) is added to any prior unplanned or emergency spacewalks. So, the EVA on Friday was given the name VKD-54a. Officially, VKD-54a was the eighth spacewalk in 2022 and the 253rd overall to assist the International Space Station. It was also Matveev’s fourth spacewalk and Artemyev’s eighth spacewalk overall in his career as an astronaut.
For their journey outside the Station, both men donned Russian Orlan-MKS spacesuits, with Artemyev’s having red stripes and Matveev’s having blue stripes.
On Friday, September 2, at 13:25 UTC, the hatch on the Poisk module was opened, signaling the formal commencement of the EVA. A little while later, Artemyev and Matveev exited the airlock.
The two cosmonauts moved to the Nauka module once they were outside and set up a payload adapter platform there. They then began moving the External Man Machine Interface (EMMI) control panel, which enables spacewalkers to operate the European Robotic Arm during EVAs manually. Artemyev and Matveev used the EMMI to translate from the side to the front of Nauka, then put the control panel on a handrail and hooked it to the BLT3 base point via a cable.
The EMMI was then turned on, and Artemyev was instructed to test the controls, which worked according to plan. Next, the team verified and configured several settings on each of the European Robotic Arm’s end effectors using a rotating torquing tool, confirming with ground control in Moscow intermittently to ensure each setting was accurate.
To reposition the European Robotic Arm, Artemyev and Matveev then unhooked End Effector 1’s launch restraint ring. The robotic arm’s testing went off without a hitch, with orders to slowly approach and eventually grip the BTL2 base point on Nauka.
After the European Robotic Arm’s movement testing was over, Artemyev was advised to return to the EMMI for more inspections, which were successfully carried out. The EMMI was then put into storage mode, and Artemyev moved to complete mounting a set of soft handrails to the side of the Nauka module. Since the two cosmonauts were working significantly ahead of schedule, mission control decided to proceed with completing get-ahead tasks before the next EVA. One of these was creating a translation route by extending the Strela boom from its base on the forward end of the Zarya module to the Poisk airlock module.
Although it was postponed from a previous spacewalk, this mission was nevertheless crucial since subsequent EVAs will use it to relocate Nauka’s airlock and radiator.
According to September’s Google Play system update, the Wear OS Play Store has begun to get a new redesign. First shown off of the redesign was done at Samsung’s Unpacked event last month with the Watch 5 Pro and Galaxy Watch 5 unveiled there. This redesign begins with the search button now being housed in a pill instead of a circle.
‘Explore all’ with three app suggestions are next to the ‘See More’ button. You get the application’s name, rating,and icon at the same place. ‘Recommended for you’ and ‘Now trending’ are followed by large cards for ‘Music streaming,’ ‘Watch faces,’ ‘Healthy mind & body,’ and ‘Essential watch apps.’
The last section allows one to browse and install applications from other devices, such as one’s phone, with the option to open the Play Store on said device. ‘Settings’ and ‘Manage apps’ round out the page. Unfortunately, the former is still buried for checking app updates.
In contrast, the current design is very text heavy and dull. Promoting apps directly on the main feed can encourage people to download more elements for their wearables and can further boost developer interest. It’s a sign that wearable design is more focused on showing most content in one view rather than having to dive into different menus.
The current report of this redesign is on version 31.2.10-26 of Google Play for Wear OS. However, the revamp is being rolled out with a server-side update, and it is not yet widely showing up for most people today.
