Nexus
Yuval Noah Harari (Fern Press, out 10 September)

Reading Nexus is a strange experience. The quality of the text lurches up and down: one minute you are reading something incisive, the next you are wading through banalities.

Its author, Yuval Noah Harari, is a medieval historian most famous for his book Sapiens, a whistlestop history of humanity from the Stone Age to the present day. Its central thesis is that humans came to dominate the planet because we can believe in things that only…

The New York Times has introduced the next title coming to its Games catalog following Wordle’s continued success — and it’s all about math. Digits has players adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing numbers. You can play its beta for free online right now. 
In Digits, players are presented with a target number that they need to match. Players are given six numbers and have the ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide them to get as close to the target as they can. Not every number needs to be used, though, so this game should put your math skills to the test as you combine numbers and try to make the right equations to get as close to the target number as possible.

Players will get a five-star rating if they match the target number exactly, a three-star rating if they get within 10 of the target, and a one-star rating if they can get within 25 of the target number. Currently, players are also able to access five different puzzles with increasingly larger numbers as well.  I solved today’s puzzle and found it to be an enjoyable number-based game that should appeal to inquisitive minds that like puzzle games such as Threes or other The New York Times titles like Wordle and Spelling Bee.
In an article unveiling Digits and detailing The New York Time Games team’s process to game development, The Times says the team will use this free beta to fix bugs and assess if it’s worth moving into a more active development phase “where the game is coded and the designs are finalized.” So play Digits while you can, as The New York Times may move on from the project if it doesn’t get the response it is hoping for. 
Digits’ beta is available to play for free now on The New York Times Games’ website

Google unveiled the Pixel 9 Pro Fold alongside Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, and Pixel 9 Pro XL last month. For those unaware, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is the successor of last year’s Google Pixel Fold. Undoubtedly, Google has done a pretty good job with the second iteration of its foldable device. However, like any other smartphone, it isn’t perfect. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold has downsides which are now being noticed, with one related to its charging speed.

The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold has the slowest wired charging speed of the series

The Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold reportedly has the slowest charging speed compared to other phones from the series. Today, Google confirmed 9to5Google that the Pixel 9 Pro Fold charging speed maxes out at 21W with the wired cable. Google hinted at the maximum power input received by the device based on the charging test carried out by its 45W charger.

That also means the Pixel 9 Pro Fold won’t receive any faster power input than 21W, even if you use a powerful charger. Well, the charging speed we are talking about here for the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is the same as the three-year-old Pixel 6. Surprising, right? Fortunately, this is not the case with other phones from Pixel 9 series.

In fact, all others got some generous charging speed boost from Google. For example, the Pixel 9 Pro XL has a capped wired charging limit of 37W. On the other hand, Google has slightly increased the charging speed on the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro compared to their predecessors.

Wireless charging capabilities aren’t good either

Are you thinking about wireless charging speed? The Pixel 9 Pro Fold disappoints in that aspect too. It comes with a maximum Qi wireless charging speed of just 7.5W. What’s worse, Google recently confirmed that the Pixel 9 Pro Fold doesn’t work with the Pixel Stand too. Earlier this month, multiple reports hinted that it could be the reason why Google pulled the Pixel Stand 2 from the online Google Store.

All that said, if you want first-hand Android experience on a foldable with good battery life, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is the right choice for you. However, if you are someone who is a fan of fast charging, this year’s foldable may not please you. But again, are you willing to give up on other aspects just for fast charging? Well, we’ll leave it up to you.

Snowflake on Thursday made Snowpark Container Services generally available to enable customers to securely deploy and manage models and applications, including generative AI, within the vendor’s environment.

First unveiled in preview in June 2023, Snowpark Container Services is a fully managed service now available in all AWS commercial regions and in public preview in all Azure commercial regions.

Containers are a type of software that can be used to isolate applications for secure deployment. Snowflake’s new feature enables customers to use containers to manage and deploy any type of model, but they are optimal for generative AI applications because they enable customers to safely join large language models (LLMs) and other generative AI-powered tools with their data, according to Jeff Hollan, Snowflake’s head of applications and developer platform.

Given its role in helping user develop AI tools, Snowpark Container Services’ launch builds on Snowflake’s recent moves to customers with an environment for developing generative AI models and applications, according to Mike Leone, an analyst at TechTarget’s Enterprise Strategy Group.

Sridhar Ramaswamy took over as Snowflake’s CEO in February when Frank Slootman stepped down after five years of leadership that included guiding Snowflake through a record-setting initial public stock offering. Since then, the vendor has aggressively added generative AI-related capabilities such as launching its own LLM, integrating with Mistral AI and tools to enable users to quickly create AI chatbots.

“There has definitely been a concerted effort to enhance Snowflake’s capabilities and presence in the market when it comes to AI and, more recently, GenAI,” Leone said. “Offerings like Snowpark are helping AI stakeholders like data scientists and developers use the languages they prefer.”

As a result of what it adds, Snowpark Container Services is a significant new feature for Snowflake customers, he continued.

“It’s a big deal for the Snowflake ecosystem,” Leone said. “By being able to easily deploy and manage containers right in the Snowflake platform, it helps customers more easily handle complex workloads and keeps things consistent across development and production stages.”

“While Snowflake Container Services provides developers a secure environment, it was revealed in May that the log-in credentials of potentially 160 customers had been stolen and used to gain access to their data, although the vendor has stated it has not found any evidence that the infiltration resulted from a vulnerability, misconfiguration or breach of the Snowflake platform.

Among the most prominent customers affected by the attack are AT&T, which filed a report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission detailing the effects of the attack, and Ticketmaster. Snowflake’s investigation into the stolen credentials and unauthorized access is ongoing.”