You can find AI that creates new images, but what if you want to fix an old family photo? You might have a no-charge option. Louis Bouchard and PetaPixel have drawn attention to a free tool recently developed by Tencent researchers, GFP-GAN (Generative Facial Prior-Generative Adversarial Network), that can restore damaged and low-resolution portraits. The technology merges info from two AI models to fill in a photo's missing details with realistic detail in a few seconds, all the while maintaining high accuracy and quality.
Conventional methods fine-tune an existing AI model to restore images by gauging differences between the artificial and real photos. That frequently leads to low-quality results, the scientists said. The new approach uses a pre-trained version of an existing model (NVIDIA's StyleGAN-2) to inform the team's own model at multiple stages during the image generation process. The technique aims to preserve the "identity" of people in a photo, with a particular focus on facial features like eyes and mouths.
You can try a demo of GFP-GAN for free. The creators have also posted their code to let anyone implement the restoration tech in their own projects.
This project is still bound by the limitations of current AI. While it's surprisingly accurate, it's making educated guesses about missing content. The researchers warned that you might see a "slight change of identity" and a lower resolution than you might like. Don't rely on this to print a poster-sized photo of your grandparents, folks. All the same, the work here is promising — it hints at a future where you can easily rescue images that would otherwise be lost to the ravages of time.
In late 2020, Alphabet's DeepMind division unveiled its novel protein fold prediction algorithm, AlphaFold, and helped solve a scientific quandary that had stumped researchers for half a century. In the year since its beta release, half a million scientists from around the world have accessed the AI system's results and cited them in their own studies more than 4,000 times. On Thursday, DeepMind announced that it is increasing that access even further by radically expanding its publicly-available AlphaFold Protein Structure Database (AlphaFoldDB) — from 1 million entries to 200 million entries.
Alphabet partnered with EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) for this undertaking, which covers proteins from across the kingdoms of life — animal, plant, fungi, bacteria and others. The results can be viewed on the UniProt, Ensembl, and OpenTargets websites or downloaded individually via GitHub, "for the human proteome and for the proteomes of 47 other key organisms important in research and global health," per the AlphaFold website.
"AlphaFold is the singular and momentous advance in life science that demonstrates the power of AI," Eric Topol, Founder and Director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, siad in a press statement Thursday. "Determining the 3D structure of a protein used to take many months or years, it now takes seconds. AlphaFold has already accelerated and enabled massive discoveries, including cracking the structure of the nuclear pore complex. And with this new addition of structures illuminating nearly the entire protein universe, we can expect more biological mysteries to be solved each day."
Tim Hortons has agreed to settle multiple class action lawsuits that accused the company of tracking customers' locations through its app without consent. Under the proposed settlement, which requires a judge's approval, eligible customers in Canada will receive a free hot drink and baked good. In other words, in exchange for your location data, the restaurant chain will give you coffee and a doughnut.
In an email to customers, the company said it will delete any geolocation data it obtained from them between April 1st, 2019 and September 30th, 2020, and tell third-party vendor Radar Labs to do the same. An investigation conducted by Canadian privacy officials determined last month that the Tim Hortons app was tracking and recording users' locations every few minutes, even when they didn't have the app open. The probe determined that the company and Radar Labs didn't have sufficient consent from users for that level of tracking.
Tim Hortons has not admitted to any wrongdoing and isn't believed to have misused the data. It also avoided disciplinary action.
If you’ve been patiently waiting for Valve to ship that Steam Deck you reserved months ago, you may not have to wait too much longer to get your hands on the device. The company claims it will be able to fulfill all current Steam Deck reservations by the end of the year.
Valve says that many of its supply chain issues are easing and it’s able to continue increasing production. It has moved some people’s scheduled deliveries up to the third quarter (i.e. between now and the end of September). All other outstanding reservations are now scheduled for delivery in Q4. People who lock in a reservation right now should still be able to get one in time for the holiday season. After Valve reaches its capacity for that period, it will start filling up the delivery queue for early 2023.
The update comes a month after Valve said it was doubling the number of weekly Steam Deck shipments. This is a rare sliver of positive news for a sought-after piece of gaming hardware, given the supply chain problems that have stymied PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X production. Who knows? We might even see the Steam Deck on retail shelves before too long.
Great news: Everyone who currently has a reservation can get their Steam Deck by the end of this year! We’ve cleared up supply chain issues, a bunch of folks got moved up to Q3, and all other reservations are now in Q4.
Blue Origin has revealed when New Shepard's sixth crewed flight will take place. The NS-22 mission (New Shepard's 22nd launch overall) is set for August 4th, which is two months to the day after its previous spaceflight. The launch window opens at 9:30AM ET.
The company recently announced the passengers who will travel to the edge of space this time around. Among them are engineer Sara Sabry and entrepreneur Mário Ferreira, who will be the first Egyptian and Portuguese people to visit space, respectively. Mountaineer Vanessa O’Brien, meanwhile, will become the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest, venture to Challenger Deep (believed to be the deepest point of the ocean) and cross the Kármán line — the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space.
The crew also includes Coby Cotton, a cofounder of the popular trickshot and comedy YouTube channel Dude Perfect, and telecoms executive Steve Young. The sixth passenger is Clint Kelly III, who started the Autonomous Land Vehicle project at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the 1980s. Blue Origin notes that Kelly is credited with creating the technology base that paved the way for modern self-driving vehicles.
Twitter has published its 20th transparency report, and the details still aren't reassuring to those concerned about abuses of personal info. The social network saw "record highs" in the number of account data requests during the July-December 2021 reporting period, with 47,572 legal demands on 198,931 accounts. The media in particular faced much more pressure. Government demands for data from verified news outlets and journalists surged 103 percent compared to the last report, with 349 accounts under scrutiny.
The largest slice of requests targeting the news industry came from India (114), followed by Turkey (78) and Russia (55). Governments succeeded in withholding 17 tweets.
As in the past, US demands represented a disproportionately large chunk of the overall volume. The country accounted for 20 percent of all worldwide account info requests, and those requests covered 39 percent of all specified accounts. Russia is still the second-largest requester with 18 percent of volume, even if its demands dipped 20 percent during the six-month timeframe.
The company said it was still denying or limiting access to info when possible. It denied 31 percent of US data requests, and either narrowed or shut down 60 percent of global demands. Twitter also opposed 29 civil attempts to identify anonymous US users, citing First Amendment reasons. It sued in two of those cases, and has so far had success with one of those suits. There hasn't been much success in reporting on national security-related requests in the US, however, and Twitter is still hoping to win an appeal that would let it share more details.
Calls for data spiked starting in early 2020, and this latest transparency report indicates that they're only continuing to climb. Twitter sees the attempts to target journalists as a mounting threat to freedom of the press. We'd add that the situation is volatile, at least in the near term. Russia cut off access to Twitter following that country's invasion of Ukraine, and the company is suing India to resist an order to block accounts. Don't be surprised if the next report paints a significantly different picture.
Twitter has been testing out a few experimental features lately, including tweets that can be co-authored by two accounts and an AIM- or MySpace-style status label. For its latest trick, Twitter is toying around with a way for people to pack a single tweet with multiple images, videos and GIFs.
“We’re testing a new feature with select accounts for a limited time that will allow people to mix up to four media assets into a single tweet, regardless of format. We’re seeing people have more visual conversations on Twitter and are using images, GIFs and videos to make these conversations more exciting," Twitter told TechCrunch in a statement. "With this test we’re hoping to learn how people combine these different media formats to express themselves more creatively on Twitter beyond 280 characters.”
Although we haven't seen these tweets in the wild as yet, app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi previously shared screenshots of what the tweet composer looks like when adding several forms of media. It looks similar to the existing method of attaching multiple images to a tweet, with the option to add and remove photos, videos and GIFs and to shuffle the order of them around. Having multiple videos or GIFs in a single tweet could end up looking messy, though, and it might cause havoc on people's data plans.
Framework sold its eponymous laptop on the promise that end users should feel comfortable enough to fix almost any hardware problem themselves. Replacing a component shouldn’t be the reserve of dedicated service professionals if all you need is a T5 screwdriver and patience.
When the company released its new 12th-generation Intel Core mainboards, it couriered over a new board which could be inserted into last year’s model. And given that I don’t consider myself to be a very confident DIY-er, it made sense for me to put Framework’s promises to the test.
As you can see in the video below, laptops aren’t yet at the stage where you can pull components out as if they were Lego bricks. Although I think the industry is missing a trick by not making these components a lot simpler to assemble by standardizing the connections.
That said, one of the biggest hurdles was the ZIF connectors, which briefly made me wonder if I was really cut out for tech journalism. Those little lay-flat ribbons may be great for space but they’re a nightmare if you’ve got big hands and poor eyesight.
But, as I said when the new hardware was released, it’s empowering just how easy this stuff can be, more or less, if companies make even the smallest bit of effort. I was able to do this, talk to the camera (which probably slowed me down by quite a bit) and not blow myself up. And if I can do this, then surely you can too.
We saw a number of gadgets go on sale this week as July comes to a close. Both Amazon's Echo smart speaker and the Echo Show 5 have been discounted, with the Echo now down to the same price as it was on Prime Day earlier this month. The Apple TV 4K is nearly $50 off and down to $130, and you can save $300 on the 16-inch MacBook Pro as well. DJI's Action 2 combo pack remains on sale for $279, and if you're on the market for a new smartphone, Amazon will give you a free $50 gift card when you buy the new Google Pixel 6a. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today.
Amazon Echo
Amazon's full-sized Echo speaker is down to $60, which is a return to its Prime Day price. We gave it a score of 89 for its solid audio quality, handy Alexa capabilities and its built-in Zigbee smart home hub.
The Echo Show 5 smart display is on sale for $40 right now, or only $5 more than it was on Prime Day last week. We gave the device a score of 87 for is compact, minimalist design, good audio quality and tap-to-snooze feature.
The Apple TV 4K is back in stock at Amazon and on sale for $130. While not quite as cheap as it was on Prime Day last week ($109), this remains one of the best prices we've seen no our favorite high-end set-top box. We gave the device a score of 90 for its fast performance, Dolby Vision and Atmos support, HomeKit integration and much-improved Siri remote.
The 16-inch MacBook Pro is down to $2,199, or $300 off its usual price. We gave it a score of 92 for its powerful performance, lovely Liquid Retina XDR displays and new bevy of ports.
Amazon includes a free Blink Mini camera when you buy a Blink Outdoor kit, so you'll save $35 in total on the bundle. Blink cameras are a relatively affordable way to outfit your home with security cameras — all of them record 1080p video and support two-way audio and motion alerts. The Outdoor cameras are wireless and weather-resistant, while the Blink Mini is a smaller, wired camera that's designed to fit into tight spaces inside your home.
A bundle that includes the Echo Show 15 smart display and the Echo Show 5 is on sale for $250, which essentially means you're getting the Show 5 for free. The Show 15 is the most unique of Amazon's smart displays as it's a large TV-like device that you can mount on the wall and that will show you things like calendar events, reminders, shopping lists and more. It also lets you video chat and watch shows and movies from services like Netflix, Prime Video and others. The Echo Show 5 is one of our favorite smaller smart displays thanks to its compact design, decent audio quality and useful tap-to-snooze feature.
DJI's Action 2 Power Combo bundle is still 33 percent off and down to $279. The pack includes the Action 2 camera, a magnetic protective case and a battery module. DJI introduced the Action 2 last year as a total redesign of its Osmo Action cams, and it has a super compact design along with a 12-megapixel sensor that can capture 4K video at up to 120fps.
Google's newest smartphone, the Pixel 6a, comes with a free $50 Amazon gift card when you order the handset through the online retailer. From now through August 7, you'll get the gift card at no extra cost — just click the "Add both to cart" option under the "Special offers and product promotions" section that's underneath the phone's description. We gave the Pixel 6a a score of 89 for its attractive design, great cameras and long battery life.
The 6-quart Instant Pot Vortex Plus air fryer is still 38 percent off and down to only $99. This is a slightly older version of one of our favorite air fryers, and we like that it has six different cook modes including air fry, broil and dehydrate, and that it has a clear window on its drawer that lets you check out your food while it's cooking.
Logitech's Litra Glow soft light for streaming is on sale for $50 right now, or $10 off its normal price. Unveiled earlier this year, the Litra Glow is produces light that's designed to be easy on the eyes so you can keep it on for multi-hour streams. It comes with five different brightness and color temperature presets, but you can also create your own using Logitech's G Hub software.
Solo Stove's summer sale knocks up to $350 off fire pits, so you can grab one for as low as $200. The discounts translate to $100 off the Ranger, $180 off the Bonfire and $350 off the Yukon. We like these fire pits because their double-walled designs minimize smoke while keeping the fire hot, and they're sleek and relatively portable, too.
The Samsung 980 Pro SSD in 1TB that comes with a heatsink is on sale for $150, or 35 percent off its usual price. We like this PS5-compatible drive for its standard design, sequential read speeds up to 7,000MB/s and handy optimization software.
Crucial's MX500 in 1TB is on sale for $85 when you clip the on-page coupon that knocks $5 off its $90 sale price. It’s a good option if you need a standard 2.5-inch drive that works with both laptops and desktops. It also has AES-256 bit hardware encryption and integrated power loss immunity to protect your data.
Another one of our favorite PS5 SSDs, the PNY XLR8 CS3040, has dropped to $105. It's an already affordable drive made even better by this sale, and we like its 5,600 MB/s read speeds and its five-year warranty.
The OnePlus 9 smartphone is 32 percent off and down to $500, which is the lowest price we've seen for it. We gave the handset a score of 88 when it came out last year for its fantastic display, excellent performance and improved main camera.
Twitter now has an exact start date for its trial against Elon Musk over his attempt to withdraw from his $44 billion purchase offer. The Vergenotes Delaware Court of Chancery Judge Kathaleen McCormick has scheduled the lawsuit's trial for October 17th. The courtroom showdown will last the promised five days, wrapping up on October 21st.
The timing represents a slight compromise. Twitter had pressed for a four-day trial starting in September. The social media firm's shareholder vote on the takeover is slated for September 13th. Musk's attorneys wanted to push the trial to February 2023, arguing that they needed more time to collect and interpret data on Twitter's volume of fake accounts and bots.
The move ultimately favors Twitter. It only has to wait a few months for a ruling. If Musk's team isn't finished combing through data by October, the company may also strengthen its argument that the Tesla chief rushed his offer and doesn't have enough information to level accusations of deceit. That, in turn, may let Twitter either force completion of the deal or demand compensation for a broken agreement.
