Geekly Update - 11 September 2024

The AskBobRankin Geekly Update

It turns out making a robot that can successfully interact with humans in their everyday environment is really hard. This Wired story delves into the challenges involved, and why a human-shaped robot might be the wrong idea.

A BBC reporter gained a deep understanding of so-called "pig butchering scams" after becoming a target himself. In these scams, fraudsters refer to their victims as "pigs," who are "fattened up" before being "butchered", or scammed out of as much money as possible. The BBC's Joe Tidy was approached on Instagram by scammers posing as a 36-year-old woman seeking a romantic relationship. Tidy decided to engage with the fraudsters for over two months to learn the psychological tactics they use to lure victims into cryptocurrency investment scams.

Huawei's new tri-foldable smartphone has Chinese social media buzzing with pride. But the rest of the world is wondering why anyone would pay $2,800 for a mobile phone.

The upcoming Apple Watch Series 10 is promising sleep apnea detection for the first time in a smartwatch (subject to FDA clearance). Leveraging its advanced accelerometer, the watch will monitor a user's breathing patterns during sleep, looking for brief interruptions in breathing, providing valuable insights into potential sleep apnea. If the watch detects signs of sleep apnea, it will notify the user and generate a comprehensive report that can be shared with a doctor.

Sure, the Apple Watch Series 10 has fitness tracking and some other fancy features, but can it play Space Invaders? Taito’s new SPACE INVADERS™: My Play Watch is an Apple Watch clone that brings the best of 1978 to your wrist. Or at least it will, if the Kickstarter project proves successful.

If you think you had a bad day yesterday, consider the plight of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. He lost $10 billion in wealth when the company's stock dropped by 9.5 percent. Nivdia was riding a wave of cash in 2024, due to the popularity of it's AI chips. But the market was suddenly grown cautious, as the US economy shows signs of weakness.

In a letter to Congress on Monday, the attorneys general of 42 states demanded that social media companies include a surgeon general's warning on their apps. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy found that social media use is causing a mental health crisis among youth. "A growing body of research links the use of these platforms by young people to serious psychological harms, such as depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts," the letter states. It also emphasizes how teens' everyday lives are disturbed by algorithm-driven social media, which keeps them awake with its never-ending scrolling, algorithmic suggestions, and incessant alerts.

A recent study from the University of Washington discovered that the Covid pandemic caused teenagers' brains to mature abnormally quickly. The study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that in girls, this "cortical thinning" was more noticeable. The mean acceleration was 1.4 years for males and 4.2 years for females when expressed as the number of years of accelerated brain growth. Cortical thinning is linked to a higher chance of behavioral and neuropsychiatric problems developing.

And finally, this week's Just Here For The Headline item: Dye In Doritos Used In Experiment Created See-Through Mice.

Post your comment or question below...