Shopify Inc. executives believe the shift toward online sales triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic is here to stay. Chief executive Tobi Lutke and president Harley Finkelstein said Wednesday that early patterns emerging in lockdown-free countries like New Zealand and Australia show consumers have embraced e-commerce even after COVID-19 restrictions are lifted — and they expect… Read more »
Monthly Archives: April 2021
Apple charged over ‘anti-competitive’ app policies
Apple has been charged with breaking EU competition rules over the way it runs its App Store. European Commission anti-trust regulator Margrethe Vestager tweeted that “consumers are losing out”. It relates to charges brought two years ago by music streaming app Spotify which claimed that Apple was stifling innovation in that industry. Apple faces a large fine… Read more »
‘It’s your device, you should be able to repair it’
What would you do if your smartphone was damaged or stopped working? Take it to a repair shop or perhaps upgrade to a new one? Not Suhaib, a Canadian teen. Unable to afford the repair cost he ordered a replacement screen, watched an online tutorial and fixed it himself. “It took me around two hours…. Read more »
Fisheries scientist calling on high-tech anglers to reel it in
Technology might be trumping old-school fishing tackle, but an Ottawa biology professor is calling for limits on the increasingly fancy lures and high-tech gear. Some sport fishermen with deep pockets are using drones to drop baited lines, electric lures that flash lights or emit scent, and fish finders so advanced that they create 3D images of the prey, turning… Read more »
Can a Smartphone App Change Your Personality?
Most of us have something about us that we’re not 100% in love with—an impulsive streak, perhaps, or a short temper. What if those personality traits could be modified with daily use of a smartphone app? That was the focus of a new study from an international research team led by the University of Zurich, published in Proceedings… Read more »
Amazon is bringing palm-scanning payment system to Whole Foods stores
Amazon is expanding its palm-scanning payment system to a Whole Foods store in Seattle, the company announced Wednesday, the first of many planned rollouts at other locations. Amazon One, which debuted in September and is currently in use at about a dozen Amazon physical stores, allows shoppers to pay for items by placing their palm over… Read more »
Want to get rich investing in bitcoin? Read this first
In 2018, I did something that would make cautious investors cringe: With almost no savings to my name, I bought cryptocurrency. I don’t need to tell you that when you’re low on cash, whether you’ve got debt or are in your first job after university as I was, a get-rich-quick scheme is always more attractive… Read more »
The hidden fingerprint inside your photos
Hidden information inside digital photos can reveal much more than photographers and their subjects bargain for. Just ask John McAfee, founder of the eponymous antivirus software. In 2012, he was on the run from the Belizean authorities in Central America. Reporters from Vice magazine tracked him down and published an image of him online, under the… Read more »
Scarcity Cred
Any firm that approaches $1T in value has tapped into a basic human instinct. Consuming, signalling, loving, and praying have been the fuel of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google’s ascents, respectively. That the crypto asset class universe has reached $2T reveals, I believe, that it taps into two attributes we instinctively pursue: trust and scarcity. Source: No… Read more »
‘There’s literally no limit’: NFTs could soon be used for cars, real estate: Experts
The first time most Canadians heard the term “non-fungible tokens” was likely after a recent blockbuster Christies auction for a piece of digital art. However, experts expect the technology to move far beyond the art world into everyday life — though nobody knows for sure how they will be used. NFTs — which are essentially… Read more »
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