Science and technology

Buried with a padlock on her foot and an iron sickle across her neck, “Zosia” was never supposed to be able to come back from the dead. Entombed in an unmarked cemetery in Pien, northern Poland, the young woman was one of dozens feared by her neighbours to have been a “vampire”. Now, using DNA, 3D printing and modelling clay, a team of scientists has reconstructed Zosia’s 400-year-old face, revealing the human story buried by supernatural beliefs. “It’s really ironic, in a way,” said Swedish archaeologist Oscar Nilsson. “These people burying her, they did everything they could in order to prevent her from coming back from the dead… we have done everything we can in order to bring her back to life.” Zosia, as she was named by locals, was found in 2022 by a team of archaeologists from Torun’s Nicolaus Copernicus University. Aged 18-20 when she died, analysis of Zosia’s skull suggests she suffered from a health condition which would have caused fainting and severe headaches, as well

Ubisoft has responded to the reports that its upcoming game Assassin’s Creed Shadows might be delayed further amid sale rumours. Reports had said that the game risked being pushed further after the developer announced in September that it would be delayed until February 14, 2025, from its initial planned release on November 15. Now, Ubisoft chief financial officer Frédérick Duguet said during a company earnings call that the team was confident of releasing Assassin’s Creed Shadows in February next year. According to Duguet, the game was “feature complete” when the decision was taken, saying that the team “wanted to make sure that the delivery of the experience was impeccable on Day 1.” Read more: Assassin’s Creed Shadows fans get another disappointing update Meanwhile, he said that Ubisoft now has “good visibility for that game to be delivered with great experience by mid-February.” Responding to a question regarding a risk of further delay, Duguet said: “We have a good visibili

Nintendo has announced the launching of its music app for subscribers of Switch Online ahead of the release of its hotly-anticipated gaming console. The app, titled “Nintendo Music,” will let fans enjoy music from classic and current gaming franchises including Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Kirby, Pikmin, Animal Crossing, Metroid, Splatoon 3, and Donkey Kong Country among others. The app is available for iPhone and Android devices for free to subscribers of Switch Online (and Switch Online + Expansion Pack) in the US and Canada along with specific countries and regions. Users will be able to stream songs directly from the app or download the titles to the app for offline listening. According to Nintendo, the app will let users loop songs or extend select tracks to 15, 30 or 60 minutes for “uninterrupted listening” along with filtering out songs from a specific game — to avoid spoilers. Read more: Nintendo responds to Mario Club layoffs reports Meanwhile, reports said t

The cryptocurrency industry has spent years clashing with Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration over regulatory issues, but executives expect an easier ride from Washington, regardless of who wins the White House next week. Crypto asset managers including Bitwise and Canary Capital are planning new products ahead of what many executives expect to be a more crypto-friendly administration, while others including Ripple are planning a fresh push for crypto legislation in the new Congress, said executives and lawyers. “Regardless who wins, there will be a new approach to how we move forward with crypto,” said Rebecca Rettig, chief legal and policy officer at crypto company Polygon Labs. Republican candidate Donald Trump has pledged to be a “crypto president,” and executives also expect Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate, to take a softer stance than Biden. Kamala Harris has not yet detailed her crypto plans, but executives have been encouraged by her prom

Nintendo has responded to the reports of laying off employees at its subsidiary Mario Club ahead of the Switch 2 gaming console reveal. Several Japanese media outlets had reported that the Kyoto-based gaming company had let go at least 150 Mario Club employees out of around 400 people. Now, Nintendo has refuted the claims of employees being fired from the team which has been actively involved in game-testing and debugging for several titles. “We have confirmed with Mario Club Co., Ltd. that the rumoured information in the report is untrue,” the company said in a brief statement. The statement came amid speculations that the company was gearing up to reveal its highly-anticipated Switch 2 gaming console. Speculations about the reveal of the gaming console intensified after Brazilian journalist Pedro Henrique Lutti Lippe who reported on Switch 2 being delayed to 2025, said that Nintendo was set to announce the gaming console in the week starting on October 28. Speaking on his YouT

Fans of Grand Theft Auto (GTA) 6 expressed concerns about the potential cost of the game after Rockstar Games revealed the pricing for Red Dead Redemption’s PC version. A day earlier, the developer released the game on PC via Steam and Epic Games for the first time. While PC gamers celebrated the arrival of the beloved game on PC, fans of GTA 6 started to feel concerned over Rockstar Games’ future pricing of its titles. Red Dead Redemption debuted in 2010 on the Xbox and PlayStation 3, while it was later ported to Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4. However, this is the first time that PC gamers will be able to get their hands on the game which has seen significant upgrades. Rockstar Games has priced the PC version of Red Dead Redemption at $49.99, which raised concerns among the fans who suggested that it is quite expensive given that the game is fourteen years old. The latest pricing of the game has fans worried that Rockstar Games might hike the price of the sixth title of th

Three Chinese astronauts including the country’s only woman spaceflight engineer blasted off on a “dream” mission to the Tiangong space station in the early hours of Wednesday. The new Tiangong team will carry out experiments with an eye to the space programme’s ambitious goal of placing astronauts on the Moon by 2030 and eventually constructing a lunar base. The Shenzhou-19 mission took off with its trio of space explorers at 4:27 am (2027 GMT Tuesday) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, state news agency Xinhua and state broadcaster CCTV reported. Among the crew is Wang Haoze, 34, China’s only woman spaceflight engineer, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA). She is the third Chinese woman to take part in a crewed mission. “Like everyone else, I dream of going to the space station to have a look,” Wang told a media gathering Tuesday alongside her fellow crew members, lined up behind podiums and tall panes of glass to seal them off from the pu

Nintendo has announced that its Switch gaming console is set to get a remaster of the survival game Xenoblade Chronicles X. The Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition, a remaster action RPG, will launch on the Switch on March 20, 2025, as per the Kyoto-based gaming company. The company also released a new trailer to mark the occasion of announcing the remaster of the game which will put gamers in a standalone sci-fi story, with the new version containing even more content. It is worth mentioning here that the original Xenoblade Chronicles X was developed by Monolith Soft and was published by Nintendo, and later got two sequels for the Switch. The first sequel was released in 2017, followed by the second in 2022. The news came days after reports emerged that Nintendo was reportedly working to get other publishers to remaster their old games including Splinter Cell: Blacklist and Driver for the original Switch gaming console. Read more: Nintendo leaker drops major hint on Swi

In today’s digital age, privacy is paramount. WhatsApp’s chat lock feature offers an additional layer of security to safeguard your conversations. This feature allows you to lock specific chats, including group conversations, providing peace of mind when sharing your phone. How to Enable Chat Lock on WhatsApp To lock chats on WhatsApp: 1. Open WhatsApp and tap-hold on the desired chat. 2. Tap the three dots at the top-right corner. 3. Select “Lock Chat.” Your locked chats will be moved to the “Locked Chats” section. To access them, tap “Locked Chats” and enter your credentials. To Unlock Chats Follow the same steps and select “Unlock Chat” to restore access. Creating a Secret Code for Locked Chats To add an extra layer of security: 1. Go to “Locked Chats.” 2. Tap the three dots and select “Secret Code.” 3. Create and confirm your secret code. Important considerations – Calls will still come through from locked contacts. – Locked chats will be synced across linked devi

Global tech giant Apple has offered up to $1 million to anyone who hacks into its Private Cloud Compute which will incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) features. In a recent blog titled “Security research on Private Cloud Compute”, the company announced a bounty for those who can identify vulnerabilities in the cloud service that might threaten the service. The announcement came as Apple is set to launch Apple Intelligence on iPhones next week with iOS 18.1 update. The update will also include iPhone AI features for the first time, such as enhancements to its voice assistant Siri. The tech giant will run the Private Cloud Compute on its own silicon servers what Apple calls “the most advanced security architecture ever deployed for cloud AI compute at scale.” “In the weeks after we announced Apple Intelligence and PCC, we provided third-party auditors and select security researchers early access to the resources we created to enable this inspection, including the PCC Virtual R

Meta Platforms is working on an artificial intelligence-based (AI) search engine as it looks to reduce dependence on Alphabet’s Google and Microsoft’s Bing, the Information reported on Monday. The AI search engine segment is heating up with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, Google and Microsoft all vying for dominance in the rapidly evolving market. The search engine will provide conversational answers to users about current events on Meta AI, the company’s chatbot on WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook, according to the report. It currently relies on Google and Bing search engines to give users answers on news, stocks and sports. Meta did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Artificial Intelligence or AI: Will it One Day Beat Humans? Meta Platforms, Inc., headquartered in Menlo Park, California, is a multinational technology conglomerate founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and fellow Harvard students. Initially named Facebook, Inc., the company rebranded as Meta in 2

JAKARTA: Tech giant Apple will not be allowed to sell its iPhone 16 smartphones in Indonesia because they have not met the country’s rules on the use of locally made components, the industry ministry said. Indonesia requires certain smartphones sold domestically to contain at least 40% of parts manufactured locally and the iPhone 16 has not met the requirement, ministry spokesperson Febri Hendri Antoni Arief said in a statement issued on Friday. “Imported iPhone 16 hardwares cannot be marketed in the country, because Apple Indonesia has not fulfilled its investment commitment to earn a local content certification,” he said, adding that the phones can still be brought from abroad for personal use as long as users pay the necessary taxes. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company’s iPhone 16 phones were first released in September. The top two smartphone makers in the first quarter of 2024 in Indonesia were Chinese firm OPPO and South Korean firm Samsu

Amid the wait for Grand Theft Auto (GTA) 6, Rockstar Games North’s office has become the centre of attention for fans of the game. The developer and its parent company Take-Two Interactive have remained silent about the game after confirming earlier this year that the upcoming title will be released in the Fall of 2025. Since then, fans have been eagerly awaiting any updates or media on the game which has been kept under wraps. Earlier, reports said that fans of Grand Theft Auto 6 camped outside Rockstar Games’ office as a fan shared three photographs of a computer screen reportedly placed inside the office. Now, another TikTok video from Rockstar North’s office in Edinburgh, Scotland has gone viral. A TikToker going by the name MattIsUsual walked up to one of the doors and shot a video of the inside. While the user could not capture computer screens that could give any insight into the game, he managed to record a mega-sized poster of what seemed to be the GTA 6 cover art of J

Amid the anticipations for the Switch 2, a latest rumour has suggested that Nintendo is set to reveal the gaming console in the upcoming week. The Kyoto-based gaming company has not made any official announcement about the console other than confirmation that development on a success of Switch was underway. Now, Brazilian journalist Pedro Henrique Lutti Lippe who reported on Switch 2 being delayed to 2025, has said that Nintendo was set to announce the gaming console in the week starting on October 28. Speaking on his YouTube channel, Lippe narrowed down the reveal date to October 28 and November 1. The journalist said that Nintendo’s earnings report is scheduled for November 5, and the company would want to announce the Switch 2 before investors’ questions regarding the gaming console. Further, he said that he would be refreshing Nintendo’s X feed during “key hours” on Monday, October 28, and Tuesday, October 29. PH(luttilippe) Brazil believes the Nintendo Switch 2 is getting

The Bank of England is reluctantly pressing on with work to create a form of digital currency accessible to the general public, as commercial banks risk failing to keep up with less-regulated tech firms, Governor Andrew Bailey said on Saturday. Bailey’s remarks build on his longstanding concerns that he does not want to see day-to-day payments or banking-type services shift to cryptocurrencies or services from tech companies that are less safe or private than banks. The BoE and Britain’s finance ministry have said they will not make a final decision before 2025 at the earliest whether to go ahead with a state-backed digital pound or central bank digital currency (CBDC), following a consultation which drew widespread concerns about privacy. “That (CBDC) is not my preferred option, but it’s one we can’t rule out,” Bailey said at the Group of Thirty in Washington, a forum for central banks and commercial bankers. While Britain’s electronic payment infrastructure already provides fast

Apple convinced a federal jury on Friday that early versions of health monitoring tech company Masimo’s smartwatches infringe two of its design patents as part of a broader intellectual property dispute between the companies. The jury, in Delaware, agreed with Apple that previous iterations of Masimo’s W1 and Freedom watches and chargers willfully violated Apple’s patent rights in smartwatch designs. But the jury awarded the tech giant, which is worth about $3.5 trillion, just $250 in damages – the statutory minimum for infringement in the United States. Apple’s attorneys told the court the “ultimate purpose” of its lawsuit was not money, but to win an injunction against sales of Masimo’s smartwatches after an infringement ruling. On that front, jury also determined that Masimo’s current watches did not infringe Apple patents covering inventions that the tech giant had accused Masimo of copying. Masimo said in a statement it appreciated the jury’s verdict “in favor of Masimo and

Steven Spielberg’s “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” (2001) has always been a thought-provoking film, but with the recent advancements in AI technology, it’s gaining a new level of relevance. The film’s exploration of themes like consciousness, identity, and the nature of humanity resonates deeply in our current era of rapid technological progress.   A Timeless Tale of Artificial Sentience At its core, “A.I.” tells the story of David, a highly advanced AI child programmed with the ability to love. As David navigates a world that increasingly blurs the lines between human and machine, the film raises profound questions about what it means to be alive, to feel, and to be loved. The Mirror to Our Present The film’s vision of a future where AI has become an integral part of society is eerily similar to our current reality. With the emergence of powerful language models like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Meta AI, we’re witnessing the birth of AI systems that can generate human-quality text, code,

Nvidia dethroned Apple as the world’s most valuable company on Friday following a record-setting rally in the stock, powered by insatiable demand for its specialized artificial intelligence chips. Nvidia’s stock market value briefly touched $3.53 trillion, slightly above Apple’s $3.52 trillion, LSEG data showed. Nvidia ended the day up 0.8%, with a market value of $3.47 trillion, while Apple’s shares rose 0.4%, valuing the iPhone maker at $3.52 trillion. In June, Nvidia briefly became the world’s most valuable company before it was overtaken by Microsoft and Apple. The tech trio’s market capitalizations have been neck-and-neck for several months. Microsoft’s market value stood at $3.18 trillion, with its stock up 0.8%. The Silicon Valley chipmaker is the dominant supplier of processors used in AI computing, and the company has become the biggest winner in a race between Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta Platforms and other heavyweights to dominate the emerging technology. Known since th

KARACHI: Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Thursday released ‘consumer service short codes’ for citizens to block spam and enhance mobile security. In a social media post, the PTA released some codes for the citizens for several uses including block spam messages/calls, verify SIM details, and safeguard communication effortlessly. The PTA’s consumer service short codes are as follows: Send an SMS to 900 to block spam/unsolicited communication. Send an SMS to 3627 to block Telemarketing Communication. To check the 15-digit IMEI number the consumer can dial *#06#. For registration status of the mobile device the consumer can send an SMS to 8484. To check mobile number portability, the consumers can send an SMS to 667. Send an SMS to 668 to check total number of registered SIMs on CNIC. To report a child abuse content dial 1121. To block Obnoxious/Unknown Communication dial *420#. from Science and Technology News - Latest science and technology news https://if

Ubisoft has confirmed that it is working on a new Rayman game weeks after announcing a delay in the release date of Assassin’s Creed Shadows. The developer has been the topic of several speculations from a plan of buyout to rumours of developing multiple games. Now, Ubisoft has revealed that work on a new Rayman game was in the early stages after rumours suggested that the developer was planning to develop a new game. “We are pleased to confirm Ubisoft Montpellier and Ubisoft Milan have recently started an exploration phase on the Rayman brand. The project is still in its early stages, and we will share more details later,” a spokesperson said. “As creator of the Rayman brand, Michel Ancel is being consulted to ensure consistency within the universe.” The developer, however, did not provide much details about whether it will be a remake or a title that will carry forward the game universe. Read more: Assassin’s Creed Shadows fans get another disappointing update Last month, Ubis

Nintendo is reportedly working to get other publishers to remaster their old games including Splinter Cell: Blacklist and Driver for the original Switch gaming console. According to Metro UK , the Kyoto-based gaming company is reportedly planning a number of new remasters for its original gaming console. The report emerged days after speculations that the company’s hotly-anticipated Switch 2 might be released at a later date than the anticipated early 2025 date. Rumours had it that Nintendo approached developer Ubisoft which is working to release a remaster for Splinter Cell: Blacklist in 2025. Additionally, the company is also working to bring the remasters of Driver 1 and 2 to the original Switch. According to reports, the Kyoto-based gaming company has also asked EA, Bandai Namco, and an unnamed Western company to remaster some of their popular games for its gaming console. Fans of the device were quick to suggest that the move indicated that Nintendo had no plans to release

Many rumors have been circulating for a while now that Apple is about to announce the iPhone SE 4 and iPhone SE 4 Plus, the two new models in its SE series. A few enhancements are anticipated for both handsets; the iPhone SE 4 is said to have a bigger display, support Apple Intelligence, and switch from Touch ID to Face ID. The iPhone SE 4 Plus, meanwhile, is probably going to sport a 6.7-inch screen. Display According to rumors, the iPhone SE 4 will have a full-front display, no Home Button, and a sleek, contemporary appearance akin to the iPhone 14. This implies that Touch ID will be replaced by Face ID. The anticipated 6.06-inch display will be a major improvement above the screen size of the existing iPhone SE. Additionally, rumors suggest that Apple would introduce the iPhone SE 4 Plus with a 6.7-inch OLED screen. Camera Upgrades According to certain rumors, Apple may swap out the rear camera of the iPhone SE 4 for a brand-new 48MP single-lens camera. To put it in perspecti

KARACHI: TikTok, in collaboration with the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), has announced the launch of the #DigitalHifazat Contest, an initiative aimed at raising digital safety awareness among the youth across Pakistan. The contest invites TikTok creators to produce short, impactful videos highlighting six key areas: responsible social media usage, combating online harassment, preventing online fraud, ensuring youth safety and well-being, understanding TikTok’s safety tools, and addressing misinformation on social platforms. Through the #DigitalHifazat Contest, TikTok and the PTA aim to inspire the platform’s users to help spread the message of digital safety and foster a culture of verifying information before sharing. By participating, users will play a role in educating others about responsible online behavior, contributing to a safer digital environment for all. TikTok remains committed to the safety of its users, ensuring that content on the platform adheres to it

Ubisoft dropped another disappointing update for the fans of its highly-anticipated game Assassin’s Creed Shadows. A month after delaying the game to 2025, the developer has announced cancelling early access to the game along with collector’s edition and season passes. According to Insider Gaming , Ubisoft confirmed the cancelation of Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ early access and its plans to implement season passes during a Discord Q&A session. The move resulted in a drop in Assassin’s Creed Shadows collector’s edition from $280 to $230. Reports said that Ubisoft took the measure amid issues in maintaining historical accuracy and cultural representation. The developer aims to have more time to polish the game before its release. Read more: Ubisoft responds to XDefiant game shutdown rumours Further, Ubisoft Quebec has reportedly been working to add a co-op mode to Assassin’s Creed Shadows to allow two players to fight side-by-side as the game’s dual protagonists, Naoe and Yasu

Three years after Meta shut down facial recognition software on Facebook amid a groundswell of privacy and regulator pushback, the social media giant said on Tuesday it is testing the service again as part of a crackdown on “celeb bait” scams. Meta said it will enroll about 50,000 public figures in a trial which involves automatically comparing their Facebook profile photos with images used in suspected scam advertisements. If the images match and Meta believes the ads are scams, it will block them. The celebrities will be notified of their enrollment and can opt out if they do not want to participate, the company said. The company plans to roll out the trial globally from December, excluding some large jurisdictions where it does not have regulatory clearance such as Britain, the European Union, South Korea and the U.S. states of Texas and Illinois, it added. Monika Bickert, Meta’s vice president of content policy, said in a briefing with journalists that the company was targetin

Microsoft will allow its customers to build autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) agents from next month, in its latest push to tap the booming technology amid growing investor scrutiny of its hefty AI investments. The company is positioning autonomous agents – programs that need little human intervention unlike chatbots – as “apps for an AI-driven world” that can handle client queries, identify sales leads and manage inventory. Other big technology companies such as Salesforce have also touted the potential of such agents, tools that some analysts say could provide companies with an easier path to monetizing the billions of dollars they are pouring into AI. Microsoft said its customers can use Copilot Studio – an application that requires little knowledge of computer code – to create such agents in public preview from November. It is using several AI models developed in-house and by OpenAI for the agents. The company is also introducing 10 ready-for-use agents that can help wit

Fans of Grand Theft Auto (GTA) 6 seemed to have been irritated by the long wait for the game as some reportedly camped outside Rockstar Games’ office. Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar Games, has earlier this year announced that the hotly-anticipated game will be released in the Fall of 2025. Rockstar Games later announced that GTA 6 would be released for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, however, it fell short of announcing a release date for a PC version. Before that, the developer dropped the first and only trailer for GTA 6 and has since gone into silent mode regarding the game. Now, a Redditor has claimed that eager fans are camping outside the developer’s office to sneak a peak into the development of the game. “People are allegedly camping outside Rockstar Offices to try and take photos of GTA 6,” the post read alongside three photographs of a computer screen. The images were posted by an X user going by the name of Crzy65, who captioned the images wi

Microsoft will allow its customers to build autonomous artificial intelligence agents from next month, in its latest push to tap the booming technology amid growing investor scrutiny of its hefty AI investments. The company is positioning autonomous agents – programs that need little human intervention unlike chatbots – as “apps for an AI-driven world” that can handle client queries, identify sales leads and manage inventory. Other big technology companies such as Salesforce (CRM.N), opens new tab have also touted the potential of such agents, tools that some analysts say could provide companies with an easier path to monetizing the billions of dollars they are pouring into AI. Microsoft said its customers can use Copilot Studio – an application that requires little knowledge of computer code – to create such agents in public preview from November. It is using several AI models developed in-house and by OpenAI for the agents. The company is also introducing 10 ready-for-use agents

Astellas Pharma today announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved VYLOY (zolbetuximab-clzb) in combination with fluoropyrimidine- and platinum-containing chemotherapy for the first-line treatment of adults with locally advanced unresectable or metastatic human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative gastric or gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) adenocarcinoma whose tumors are claudin (CLDN) 18.2 positive as determined by an FDA-approved test.  VYLOY is the first and only CLDN18.2-targeted therapy approved in the U.S. In the SPOTLIGHT and GLOW clinical trials, approximately 38% of patients screened had tumors that were CLDN18.2 positive.2,3 CLDN18.2 positivity is defined as ≥75% of tumor cells demonstrating moderate to strong membranous CLDN18 immunohistochemical staining, as determined by the VENTANA CLDN18 (43-14A) RxDx Assay from Roche.2,3 Astellas collaborated with Roche on the newly approved immunohistochemistry (IHC) companion diagnostic (CDx)