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This site turns your selfies into Renaissance portraits with AI

Jul22
by on July 22, 2019 at 6:25 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, artificial intelligence, Insider


First came Instagram filters. Then came the Snapchat masks. Now AI renders are the latest way of using technology to change the way we look. Sure, FaceApp has been making the rounds for its dramatic aging filters (and questionable data practices), but for something more dignified, why not render your face like a Renaissance portrait instead? AIportraits.com does just that. Created by a team of researches at the MIT IBM Watson AI Lab, the site uses an AI model trained on 45,000 portraits from styles ranging from the Early Renaissance to the Contemporary period. The results are surprisingly authentic. The…

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No, you don’t own your apps — here’s why it feels like you do

Jul22
by on July 22, 2019 at 5:42 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, syndication


Possessions are going out of fashion. An endless stream of media reports claim millennials – that amorphous mass of people born in the 1980s and 1990s who have grown up with the internet and digital technology – are in favor of accessing rather than owning stuff. And yet my research shows that owning possessions is still something millennials hunger for. It is just that these possessions are now digital rather than physical. People who become heavy users of the apps they download can develop deep relationships with these services, so deep that they take on what we call “psychological ownership”…

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Dota 2 International prize pool surpasses $30M, becomes largest in esports history

Jul22
by on July 22, 2019 at 5:24 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, gaming


In case anyone still needed convincing that esports is truly massive, the Dota 2 tournament to be held next month just accrued over $30 million in prize money. That’s the largest pot ever offered for such a competition, and judging by the amount it’s increased in just the last few months, it’s going to be even more massive this time next year. The 2019 Dota 2 International, the largest tourney for players of Valve’s MOBA, currently has a prize pool of $30,200,471 (at time of writing — it’s still going up). That makes it the biggest ever offered for a single…

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Pixel 4 leaks show the notch will be replaced for a chunky forehead with a neat trick

Jul22
by on July 22, 2019 at 5:10 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider, Plugged


By now the Pixel 3 XL’s giant notch has become something of a meme in the tech world. The most egregious example of an unfortunate design trend, it’s a testament to human adaptation that the phone’s users were eventually kinda-sorta able to ignore the notch. Sort of. Almost a year after I reviewed the Pixel 3 XL, the notch still haunts me now and then, especially when I see at a bezel-less phone like the OnePlus 7 pro. Google appears to have relented with the Pixel 4. While the company has already shown us what the back of the Pixel…

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Watch someone play GoldenEye with a piano as a controller

Jul22
by on July 22, 2019 at 4:55 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider


Few third-party Nintendo 64 titles have managed to maintain as fond memories as Goldeneye 007, a title that was many a 90s kid’s first FPS game. It also had some really catchy tunes. Now an enterprising YouTuber Jackson Parodi has combined music and gameplay by controlling Goldeneye with his digital piano. The concept is pretty simple. Parodi simply maps different piano keys to buttons on the N64 remote. Considering the N64 only had one analog stick and Goldeneye made you aim with four C-buttons or the D-Pad anyway, it’s not as inconvenient a setup as it might seem. You can…

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