TLDR 2021-07-16

Square is building an open developer platform to make it easier to provide non-custodial, decentralized financial services. Its primary focus will be Bitcoin. The initiative will be open source. It will be different from Square Crypto. Square will establish Twitter and GitHub accounts to provide updates on the project.

Valve's Steam Deck is a Switch-like handheld gaming device that will start shipping in December. There will be three storage tiers, and customers will be able to insert a microSD card for more storage. The Steam Deck has a huge number of control options, and it will be able to provide several hours of playtime for most games. It will be a full-fledged Linux computer, so users will be able to run software on the desktop if they want. The article contains many more details, as well as pictures and a video of the device.

Engineers in Japan have broken the record for the world's fastest internet speed. The team transferred data at 319 Terabits per second on a line of fibers more than 1,864 miles long. It was accomplished with fiber-optic infrastructure that already exists, with a few modifications. Integrating the method into existing systems would be far simpler than using other experimental internet-speed boosting technologies.

A paralyzed man can now generate words and sentences on a computer using only his thoughts thanks to an experimental implanted device. The device decodes signals that control the vocal tract and translates them into words. After months of adjustment, the man can reliably generate 50 different words at roughly 15 words per minute. While slow, the results show that the approach can work.

IoT for Beginners is a 12-week, 24-lesson curriculum about IoT basics. Each lesson includes a sketchnote, quizzes, readings, assignments, and more. The course is project-based, and students will have built several IoT systems by the end of the series.

Quickwit is a distributed search engine designed to index big datasets. It was built for cost-efficiency and high reliability. Quickwit features a simple CLI, local and remote indexes, stateless instances, full-text search, native support for time partitioning, and more. Tutorials on how to use Quickwit are available.

Roadrunner is a new documentary about the life and death of Anthony Bourdain. The filmmaker used AI technology to digitally recreate Bourdain's voice for three audio quotes. There is a growing industry for AI voice replication. A sample of the AI-generated audio from the documentary is available in the article.

Apple will roll out a new hybrid model that requires employees to return to the office three days a week starting in September. The company has historically discouraged employees from working from home. Some employees have said that they won't be continuing with the company due to the new hybrid model. Employees are trying to find ways to get Apple to change its mind.