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“Breaking the Cycle: Aepnus’ Vision for a Sustainable Battery Industry”

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Wastewater from these plants emerges laden with sodium sulfate, a byproduct of sulfuric acid and caustic soda, two chemicals used in battery manufacturing, copper refining and other industries. “We can totally create a circular economy around these reagent chemicals,” Bilen Akuzum, co-founder and CTO of Aepnus Technology, told TechCrunch. The two founded Aepnus to modernize the century-old chloralkali process, which splits salts like sodium sulfate back into the acids and bases that created them. “We don’t use any expensive catalysts in our electrolyzers,” Akuzum said. For customers, fully recycling sodium sulfate waste should reduce disposal and material costs.

“Convergence of DOJ and EU in Antitrust Case Against Apple: Examining NFC and Mobile Payments”

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The one time that Europe is explicitly mentioned, however, is in relation to Apple’s grip on digital wallets, NFC and mobile payment technology within its iOS ecosystem. For context, the EU filed charges against Apple in May 2022, concluding that Apple “abused a dominant position” around mobile wallets by preventing rival services from accessing the iPhone’s contactless NFC payment functionality. For example, Apple allows merchants to use the iPhone’s NFC antenna to accept tap-to-pay payments from consumers. Then there is cross-platform smartwatch compatibility, which the DOJ says Apple impedes by restricting certain features from third-party smartwatch makers. However, NFC, digital wallets, and mobile payments are where they seem to be most neatly aligned on.

Microsoft’s Latest Surface Devices Grant Copilot Exclusive Access Key

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What’s been billed as a Windows event is, predictably, focused on AI efforts, with Copilot taking the wheel. The new Surface Pro 10 for Business and Surface Laptop 6 for Business both sport a devoted Copilot key wedged between the Alt key and arrows. At the end of the day, a Copilot key is simply a physical shortcut that surfaces one particular service. That the key has been added to a pair of business-focused devices highlights how much the company is considering Copilot an important enterprise play. The Surface Pro 10 for Business sports a 13-inch touchscreen, powered by either the Intel Core Ultra 5 or 7 and the Intel AI Boost NPU.

Unlocking GenAI: How Diffusion Transformers are Revolutionizing OpenAI’s Sora

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Saining Xie, a computer science professor at NYU, began the research project that spawned the diffusion transformer in June 2022. Diffusion models typically have a “backbone,” or engine of sorts, called a U-Net. In other words, larger and larger transformer models can be trained with significant but not unattainable increases in compute. The current process of training diffusion transformers potentially introduces some inefficiencies and performance loss, but Xie believes this can be addressed over the long horizon. “I’m interested in integrating the domains of content understanding and creation within the framework of diffusion transformers.

The Importance of Sustainable Growth for Achieving Success

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It’s a story as old as time: Startup founder raises giant sack of that sweet, sweet VC money. If you throw enough money at advertising, anyone can get the growth chart to go up and to the right. But the thing is, you need to find the right way to do growth, and that’s a lot harder. In his new book, “Growth Levers and How to Find Them,” he makes a case for finding the right way to sell your product. And that actually worked.

Russian Citizen Accused of Masterminding Medibank Ransomware Attack Faces US Sanctions

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The U.S. government sanctioned a Russian national for allegedly playing a “pivotal role” in the ransomware attack against Australian health insurance giant Medibank that exposed the sensitive information of almost 10 million patients. The breach is believed to have impacted several high-profile Medibank customers, including senior Australian government lawmakers. The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Ermakov shortly after the Australian government imposed first-of-its-kind sanctions against the Russian national. According to the U.S. Treasury, REvil ransomware has been deployed on approximately 175,000 computers worldwide, garnering at least $200 million in ransom payments. The FSB’s surprise operation came just months after the U.S. Department of Justice charged a 22-year-old Ukrainian citizen linked to the REvil ransomware gang due to his alleged role in the Kaseya attack.

“Enhance Your PC Experience with Microsoft’s New Copilot Key”

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Microsoft would like 2024 to be the “year of the AI PC” and to put a point on that, the company today announced a new key for Copilot — that is, a physical key that will soon make its way to your keyboard and join the Windows key, together with its friends the Control key, Alt and that Insert key you’ve never purposely used. Based on the image Microsoft sent over, it looks like the new Copilot key will replace the right Control key on the standard PC keyboard, where it will slot in between the Alt key and the left arrow key. “The introduction of the Copilot key marks the first significant change to the Windows PC keyboard in nearly three decades,” Microsoft’s Yusuf Mehdi, Executive Vice President & Consumer Chief Marketing Officer, writes in today’s announcement. The Copilot key joins the Windows key as a core part of the PC keyboard and when pressed, the new key will invoke the Copilot in Windows experience to make it seamless to engage Copilot in your day to day.”In regions where Copilot is not available, the Copilot key will launch Windows Search. The first keyboards with the new key will launch at this year’s CES in Las Vegas and will likely start shipping in late February.

Exploring the Importance of Asset Tokenization as a Catalyst for Crypto Growth

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Why tokenization of assets can be a key driver of growth in cryptoStartups that find product-market fit can do well in any industry, but that’s not enough if you’re a web3 company. No, you have to go beyond and find real use cases for the emerging technology. There’s a lot more activity during bull markets as crypto tourists enter the industry in hopes of making it big. Many protocols and companies have taken the time to be regulated and work on bridging the real world and the world of crypto, Warden said. “I don’t love that expression ‘real world,’ because I think crypto is part of the real world, but I think we’re seeing more and more engagement there.”Warden thinks one of the biggest avenues for real world use cases is tokenization of assets and areas that aren’t even tradable yet.

“Valuable Valley Investors Take Aim at Unconventional Target: Reducing Methane Emissions from Cow Burps”

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In the fight against Methane, a key GHG, Valley investors have hit upon an unusual target: Cow burpsWhat do iconic Valley investors Zachary Bogue and Chris Sacca have in common? And one of the bigger issues at the most recent COP meeting was a pledge to reduce methane emissions, which are growing rapidly. And a major UN report said “urgent steps” are necessary to reduce methane if global warming is to be kept within a manageable limit. Mootral says its current Ruminant supplement can reduce methane emissions from dairy cows by up to 38 percent on commercial farms. CH4 Global — which is backed by the aforementiioned Zachary Bogue of DCVC — employs seaweed in cow feed to reduce their methane emissions.