Interesting news from around the World

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Amazing new technology can ‘bend’ sounds into your ears only

What if you could listen to music or a podcast without headphones or earbuds and without disturbing anyone around you? Or have a private conversation in public without other people hearing you?

OpenAI’s o1-pro is the company’s most expensive AI model yet

OpenAI has launched a more powerful version of its o1 “reasoning” AI model, o1-pro, in its developer API.

Second biggest US bank hit by major data breach stealing personal data

Bank of America has informed clients that their names, account details, addresses, contact information, date of birth, social security numbers, and other government IDs were all exposed when documents were left outside in an unsealed container.

Apple is reportedly bringing live translation to AirPods

Apple is a little behind others in adding live translation to the AirPods, as Google brought the feature to its very first pair of Pixel Buds in 2017, and later expanded it to the Pixel Buds Pro in 2022. Other companies, like Meta and Humane, have attempted live translation with their wearables as well, though the results proved pretty inconsistent.

Chinese hackers breach Juniper Networks routers with custom backdoors and rootkits

“The backdoors had varying custom capabilities, including active and passive backdoor functions, as well as an embedded script that disables logging mechanisms on the target device,” Google-owned Mandiant said in a report.

Amazon forest felled to build road for climate summit

A new four-lane highway cutting through tens of thousands of acres of protected Amazon rainforest is being built for the COP30 climate summit in the Brazilian city of Belém.

54% of people are creeped out by personalized advertising

US consumers were the least comfortable with personalized advertising among 17 markets surveyed, with British and French coming in next. Consumers in Hong Kong, India and the United Arab Emirates were the most comfortable with personalized ads.

Skype will close in May, announces Microsoft

Skype, the video-calling service that had hundreds of millions of users, is closing in May, its owner Microsoft has said.

Amazon joins quantum race with ‘cat qubit’ powered chip

The chip seeks to address one of the biggest stumbling blocks to the development of quantum computers – making them error free.

Apple’s 2026 foldable iPhone has no visible display crease

Apple’s apparent solution could hand the company a major competitive advantage.

Bank of America to launch USD-pegged crypto stablecoin

The landscape of the digital asset industry is changing rapidly. Moreover, those shifts have seen a growing likelihood that financial services entities will enter the evolving cryptocurrency market. That was confirmed this week by Bank of America CEO who recently said they are preparing to launch their own USD-pegged crypto stablecoin.

Alexa relaunched with ambition to be ‘your best digital friend’

Amazon has unveiled Alexa+, an overhauled version of its virtual assistant with which it hopes users will share “just about anything”.

From McDonald’s to Kellogg’s: Why are so many brands ditching their logo?

Kellogg’s recent See You in the Morning campaign has sparked a lively debate: is it a masterstroke or a brand mishap?

What Lush learned from three years of being mostly offline

“We were very early adopters in something that felt crazy [at the time], and now social media feels crazy,” Jack Constantine, the brand’s chief digital officer, said.

Cryptocurrency theft of £1.1bn could be biggest ever

Dubai-based cryptocurrency firm Bybit said hackers stole $1.5bn (£1.1bn) worth of digital currency in what could be the biggest crypto theft in history.

Apple pulls data protection tool after UK government security row

Apple is taking the unprecedented step of removing its highest-level data security tool from customers in the UK, after the government demanded access to user data.

European Central Bank explores using digital ledgers to settle transactions in central bank money

The two-track plan includes establishing a settlement platform using central bank money and creating a long-term solution for using central bank money in digital ledger-based transactions, involving foreign exchange settlement among other international financial use cases.

Apple gambles on new iPhone with AI features at lower cost

The iPhone 16e has the same processor as the larger iPhone 16, Apple said, with similar storage options, though a lower spec elsewhere, including fewer cameras.

Brands are confidently disguising their logos in outdoor ads but is it effective?

While brands experimenting with logo placement is nothing new, a growing number of companies are embracing this approach. In recent months, Heinz, Kellogg’s, Tesco and McDonald’s have all deleted or disguised their logos in outdoor advertising campaigns.

France announces $112B in AI investment over coming years

“This is new era of progress,” says French president ahead of third AI summit in Paris.

Google data centers used nearly 6B gallons of water in 2024

AI growth and competition push water and energy demand, with consumption set to double by 2026.

Apple is reportedly developing AirPods with cameras

Apple is working on a new version of the AirPods Pro that uses external cameras and artificial intelligence to understand the outside world and provide information to the user. This would essentially be the smart glasses path – but without actual glasses.

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