Previous golf robots have required assistance from human operators, but Golfi can find golf balls on a green and work out how to hit them by itself

WIRED visited the Geological Society of America conference to learn about the untapped potential of gigantic reptiles in gaming.

This type of devastating scheme ensnares victims and takes them for all they’re worth—and the threat is only growing.

Electric vehicles went mainstream in 2022, so 2023’s designs will be bold, weird, and wonderful. Here are a few flashes of inspiration.

Manish Singh / TechCrunch: Zomato co-founder and CTO Gunjan Patidar leaves, following departures of two senior execs and another co-founder last month; Zomato’s stock dropped 57%+ in 2022  —  Zomato said on Monday its co-founder and chief technology officer Gunjan Patidar has left the firm, the latest in a series …

Evelyn Cheng / CNBC: A look at China’s rising Beijing-endorsed industry of “virtual people”, including scandal-free influencers, performers, and customer service representatives  —  – Tech company Baidu said the number of virtual people projects it’s worked on for clients has doubled since last year …

New York Times: Research: 35+ companies have pledged ~$200B for chip-related manufacturing projects in the US since spring 2020 across 16 states and 23 new chip factories  —  Amid a tech cold war with China, U.S. companies have pledged nearly $200 billion for chip manufacturing projects since early 2020.

As cells perform their everyday functions, they turn on a variety of genes and cellular pathways. MIT engineers have now coaxed cells to inscribe the history of these events in a long protein chain that can be imaged using a light microscope. Cells programmed to produce these chains continuously add building blocks that encode particular […]

Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times: German grocery delivery app Flink, one of the last independent services, had €400M in 2022 sales and expects to be profitable in 2023; Flink has raised $700M+  —  Berlin-based start-up aims for profits next year as rivals struggle for cash  —  Flink, one of Europe’s …

Stephen Katte / Cointelegraph: Luke Dashjr, one of the original core BTC developers, says someone stole “basically” all his BTC by compromising his PGP key; a wallet shows ~217 BTC were moved  —  A Bitcoin OG and core developer Luke Dashjr claims his PGP key was compromised, resulting in virtually all his Bitcoin being stolen […]

Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal: A look at the longest tech boom so far, including crypto’s rise and fall, VR falling short of its hype, the marketplace economy’s growth, pizza robots, and more  —  From pizza robots to the crypto meltdown, the long bubble has shown us the hilarious, the regrettable, and the unexpectedly […]

Whether you’re skiing in the backcountry or trampolining in the backyard, we have an activity tracker for you.

Maintenance of FORM, the 1980s software that’s used for the field’s hardest calculations, rests almost entirely with one septuagenarian physicist.

If you’re about to set your resolutions for 2023, stop. According to experts, this is how to pick the right ones, build good habits, and stay motivated.

Matthew Smith / Wired: A look at the use of AI to design and test games, such as to tune difficulty, find world geometry flaws, and sniff out situations that make it impossible to win  —  The next generation of video game characters could be powered by AI, making them more engaging and challenging.

Chris Velazco / Washington Post: Hands-on with Pixel 7 Pro’s Real Tone, which claims to render skin tones more accurately in photos, compared with the Galaxy S22 Ultra and iPhone 14 Pro Max  —  Google is trying to make its phone cameras more inclusive.  We put it to the test against its rivals.

Chloe Cornish / Financial Times: A look at the impact of the funding crunch on India’s tech startups, which raised $24.7B from January to November 2022, down 35% YoY, per data provider Tracxn  —  Funding crunch has triggered mass job cuts of up to 25,000 at country’s once-thriving tech companies

Neuroscientists and psychologists explain how to keep yourself on track—for good this time.

Keeping your coders in good spirits will be critical to retaining talent and beating a downturn.

New approaches to the biology of senescence can make lives longer and healthier.

Mitchell Clark / The Verge: Verizon decommissioned its 3G network on December 31, the last major US carrier to do so after AT&T and T-Mobile turned off services earlier in 2022  —  It’s well and truly curtains for 3G, one of the key technologies that helped usher in the age of the smartphone.

Wall Street Journal: A look at the rise and fall of Alameda Research, whose troubles began well before the crypto crash as it took big gambles, winning some and losing plenty  —  Trading firm took big gambles, winning some and losing plenty; ‘complete lack of a risk-management framework’

Hannah Murphy / Financial Times: Experts weigh in on Meta’s impending decision to lift Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram ban; source: the announcement will be made later than January 7  —  Tech giant’s policy chief Nick Clegg due to rule this month whether to revoke ban on former US president

It’s all the same features, but none of the distractions or annoying notifications.

Not every transition must be a caterpillar into a butterfly, or a solitary trek through terror and pain. The natural world has other models of transformation.

The phenomenon threatens local drinking water, and scientists think climate change may be the culprit.

Jenni Reid / CNBC: A look at ABBA Voyage, the hit London concert performed by 3D digital avatars of the band created from motion capture, as its producers plan a global expansion  —  – ABBA Voyage, which sees digital avatars of the four-piece Swedish band ‘perform’ a 90-minute concert created from motion capture …

Ernesto Van der Sar / TorrentFreak: Leaked screener copies of big movies tend to surface at year’s end, but didn’t in 2022, probably due to more security, streaming, and shorter release windows  —  Screeners are advance copies of recent movies that are generally sent out to critics and awards voters for review.

Lily Hay Newman / Wired: A look at 2022’s worst breaches, leaks, ransomware attacks, state-sponsored hacking campaigns, and digital takeovers, including at least two Twilio breaches  —  The year was marked by sinister new twists on cybersecurity classics, including phishing, breaches, and ransomware attacks.

Plus: Patches for Apple iOS 16, Google Chrome, Windows 10, and more.

Do “anti-hangover” supplements really work? With the sterling help of a UK rugby team, we raised a glass or five to find out.

Supply chains are clogged and driving is getting more dangerous. 2023’s autonomous vehicles could help fix both.

Ari Levy / CNBC: Ernst & Young: US tech IPO deal proceeds plummeted 94%, from $155.8B in 2021 to $8.6B in 2022; FactSet: no tech IPO raised $1B in 2022, compared to 15 in 2021  —  – IPO deal proceeds plummeted 94% in 2022, according to Ernst & Young’s IPO report published in mid-December.

Wall Street Journal: Predictions for 2023: competition for Meta’s metaverse, Apple’s AR/VR headset debut, generative AI integration into products, continuing crypto gloom, and more  —  Our tech columnists look ahead to an Apple headset, Netflix password crackdowns, the next DALL-E and more  —  Big layoffs at Meta, Amazon, Snap and others?

Brian Merchant / The Atlantic: Meta’s dramatic implosion, Elon Musk’s Twitter train wreck, and Amazon’s labor uprising show that 2022 was not just a disastrous year, but a reckoning for tech  —  The companies that define our digital lives have hit a wall.  —  The dramatic, multidimensional implosion of Meta …

From stray cats to low-rent vampire hunters, this year’s best games were all about the fun of failure.

Whether you want to run a marathon or learn to play the guitar, here’s how to set yourself up for success.

Any multifactor authentication adds protection, but a physical token is the best bet when it really counts.

Sandali Handagama / CoinDesk: Italy’s parliament approves a 26% tax on gains of €2,000+ from crypto trading per tax period and offers incentives for declaring crypto profits for tax purposes  —  Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s new bill also includes an incentive for those declaring crypto for tax purposes.

Kashmir Hill / New York Times: Google changes its appeals process for CSAM-flagged accounts; content deemed exploitative will still be removed and reported but users can plead their innocence  —  People who upload images of children that Google flags as potentially illegal will be able to provide more context to appeal bans.

Wall Street Journal: Source: Sam Bankman-Fried will likely plead not guilty to fraud and other charges at a January 3 hearing; SBF returns to Twitter to deny he moved Alameda funds  —  Created with sketchtool.  —  FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is likely to plead not guilty to eight counts of fraud at a hearing next […]

Ten picks from one of HBR’s most popular newsletters.

Reuters: Bahamas’ Securities Commission says it is holding FTX assets worth $3.5B on a temporary basis and plans to deliver them to customers and creditors who own them  —  The Securities Commission of the Bahamas said on Thursday that it is holding FTX assets worth $3.5 billion based on market pricing …

Reuters: Canada’s competition tribunal approves Rogers’ $14.77B bid to acquire Shaw, saying the deal is “not likely to prevent or lessen competition substantially”  —  Canada’s competition tribunal approved on Thursday Rogers Communications Inc’s (RCIb.TO) C$20 billion ($14.77 billion) …

Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal: Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft plan to connect data centers to heating systems in Europe; Meta began in 2020 in Denmark, and Google is assessing its opportunities  —  Rising energy prices and new regulations contribute to an increase in projects  —  With an energy crisis hitting Europe …

The European Union is set to create the world’s first broad standards for regulating or banning certain uses of artificial intelligence in 2023

The Wi-Fi 6The Wi-Fi 6E successor is creeping closer, and it promises to significantly boost the speed and stability of your wireless connections.

Schools adapted to remote learning, but students also got used to seeking easy answers instead of real understanding.

The next generation of video game characters could be powered by AI, making them more engaging and challenging.

New York Times: Sources detail Elon Musk’s Twitter cost-cutting measures, including closing a data center, reducing training for new staff, and canceling janitorial services  —  Elon Musk has reduced the company to a bare-bones operation, and employees are under a “zero-based budgeting” mandate to justify any spending.