Apple’s US Education Store revamped, new users need to complete verification to enjoy discounted prices

The Apple Education Store in the United States has now been redesigned, and new users will need to pass Unidays student or faculty education status verification in the future to purchase related products. For students and educators, Apple usually offers a 10% discount.

It is reported that before, Apple only randomly checked the identity of consumers who used education discounts, but now it needs to be verified by UNiDAYS. UNiDAYS is a website dedicated to providing education clients with discounts on products and services by confirming their enrolment.

Apple has previously implemented the same practice in education stores in places like India and the UK. The revamp covers countries including the US, UK and France, and new customers must now confirm through the UNiDAYS service whether their status applies to the education offer.

In addition, Apple China’s education store has also supported the verification of student identity through UNiDAYS. That said, students, teachers, and other educators now need to verify their incumbency status before ordering, avoiding the mix of graduates or ex-employees.

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Spotify has the most streaming music subscribers in the world, YouTube Music has increased subscribers by 50%

The new crown epidemic has caused many people to stay at home to work or study, and it has also increased consumers’ demand for digital entertainment, which is of course indispensable to listening to music. According to the “Annual Streaming Music Subscriber Market Share Report” released by market research firm MIDiA Research, the global streaming music subscriber base continues to grow. As of the end of the second quarter of 2021, there were 523.9 million subscribers, an increase of 109.5 million subscribers from a year ago. , an increase of 26.4% year-on-year.

Spotify’s market share continues to erode

As in the previous year, Spotify remains the digital service provider (DSP) with the highest market share at 31%, up from 33% in Q2 2020 and Q2 2019’s 33%. 34% has declined. However, Spotify is still far ahead of No. 2 Apple Music with a 15% market share.

The report argues that while Spotify added more users than any other DSP in the 12 months leading up to the second quarter of 2021, reflecting that Spotify should not lose its market leadership anytime soon, its market share has been eroded. It is stable and continuous.

In terms of growth rate, Amazon Music’s 25% growth rate once again surpassed Spotify’s 20% growth rate, but the most prominent performer is YouTube Music, which has the highest growth rate for the second consecutive year and the second highest growth rate in 2021. It was up more than 50% in the 12 months leading up to the quarter.

YouTube Music was the only Western DSP to increase global market share over the past quarter. The report argues that YouTube Music resonates among Gen Z and younger Millennials, a wake-up call to Spotify, whose core millennial audience is now aging.

The largest number of user growth came from emerging markets. Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) and NetEase Cloud Music added a combined 35.7 million users in the 12 months to the second quarter of 2021, accounting for 18% of the global market share. Russia’s Yandex was another winner, doubling its user base to 2% of the global market share. Yandex, TME and NetEase together account for 20% of the user market share, but they drove 37% of user growth in the 12 months leading up to the second quarter of 2021.

The report notes that the surge in non-DSP streaming in 2021 means that the streaming market is no longer dependent on revenue contributions from mature Western user markets (and indeed from emerging markets that dilute ARPU). They expect non-DSP streaming revenue to contribute a few 25% to 33.3% of streaming revenue growth in 2021, and its revenue is expected to deliver strong growth even if streaming subscriber growth slows.

Seemingly safe but dangerous, this Android third-party double verification app will steal your money

For most users, it is basic knowledge to open a double verification mechanism for their accounts. In addition to the double verification mechanism provided by Apple or Google, some users also choose to download third-party double verification applications to help make their personal information more secure.

But things may not be as good as you think.

Pradeo, a foreign information security company, found a malicious application called “2FA Authenticator” in the Google Play app store (the application was removed from the Google Play platform on January 27), which has been downloaded more than 10,000 times on the Google Play app store.

Pradeo researchers found that the malicious app contains a Trojan horse that hackers used to install malware on users’ mobile devices to steal their bank account information, and recommended that users who have downloaded the app should remove it as soon as possible.

According to Pradeo researchers, this is a “well-hidden” malicious application because it nominally makes the user’s mobile device look more secure, but in reality it puts your bank account information at risk.

For example, the app requires users to allow the app to open camera permissions on the device, disable your device’s screen lock, have full internet access, and override other apps to prevent your device from going to sleep.

To make matters worse, the app also steals other permissions from your device, including the ability to disable the keyboard, access to the web and foreground services, access to device biometrics (such as fingerprints), and more. Allowing the app to use the biometric features of your device is the most serious, as this is the easiest way for hackers to break into your bank account app.

If you want to make sure you are free of the 2FA Authenticator, the fastest way is to open your phone’s Settings and go directly to If you do find the app on your phone, then click “Uninstall” on the page.

Female stock god Wood: Innovative technology stocks are in a big discount period

Startups were favored by investors in 2020, but they were sold off in the second half of 2021. The decline continued this year. Cathie Wood, founder of Ark Invest, which invests heavily in innovative technology companies, still Be confident, and recently said that the adjustment is only a “big sale period.”

Cathie Wood, known as the “woman of the stock market”, has not performed well this year. The fund’s ETF has fallen 27%, and has halved since its high in February last year. However, she said in a recent interview that many people regard volatility and risk as the same, but she believes that volatility is an advantage. Concentrating on investing in valuable companies will see the best results when the stock market correction is over. The innovative technology companies she has invested in include DNA technology, automation, robotics, energy storage, artificial intelligence and financial technology, etc. Many innovative technology companies that have failed to show profitability are currently the main targets of selling.

Wood admits that the current market conditions are very difficult, but she has increased confidence in her investment targets over the past year, especially as the growth of new startups has accelerated a lot under the epidemic, especially the changes in the labor market, logistics and financial markets. She emphasized that now is the time for big discounts, and investors should seize the opportunity of cheap valuations to buy future stars who can bring changes to the market.

“Ditching” ASML? Two news from TSMC, free from dependence on US technology?

At present, the world is still in the quagmire of the lack of core, at present, ASML as the world’s only lithography monopoly giant, can be said to have eaten all the dividends of the times. However, the recent situation that ASML was not expecting still emerged, TSMC may be trying to get rid of the dependence on U.S. technology.

The two actions released so far seem to have the intention of getting rid of ASML’s lithography. So, what exactly is TSMC trying to do with this move? If TSMC really wants to get rid of the reliance on U.S. technology and abandon ASML lithography, then will TSMC succeed?

Two TSMC news, ASML may not matter anymore
Recently, TSMC has made two big moves that ASML may not have expected. The first move is that TSMC publicly stated not long ago that even without EUV lithography, mass production of 5nm and 7nm wafers can be achieved by using DUV lithography alone.

In addition, TSMC has said more than once that it wants to accelerate the adoption of new technologies, the discerning eye will be able to see at a glance, TSMC’s position also reveals that TSMC seems to be ready to reduce the reliance on ASML lithography.

The second action is that TSMC has also recently announced its financial spending plan for this year, ready to invest $44 billion, mainly in the construction of new factories and the development of new technologies. Are there any problems developing? There does not seem to be much consideration for the purchase of ASML lithography in ASML’s major capital investment.

As a chip foundry, the importance of ASML lithography to TSMC is self-evident, but TSMC just did not put much emphasis on it, which can’t help but make the public opinion feel that ASML is not so important in TSMC’s mind, which makes people suspect that TSMC may want to abandon ASML. So, why is TSMC doing what it is doing?

What is TSMC’s intention in this move?
First of all, TSMC may want to get rid of dependence and achieve independence

As we all know, TSMC’s dependence on ASML in terms of foundry equipment lithography is not small. And ASML’s lithography machines are notoriously expensive. Therefore, TSMC’s behavior of neglecting ASML may be to reduce or get rid of the dependence to a certain extent, and to realize its own independence to a certain extent.

Second, to improve their market influence

TSMC’s new move to get rid of ASML’s lithography is more or less the same, and at the moment, the only company that dares to blatantly show its desire to “abandon” ASML is TSMC, and such a “feat” is undoubtedly helpful in increasing TSMC’s market influence.

Finally, to break away from U.S. technology dependence and achieve freedom of shipment

TSMC’s two latest moves actually mean that it is ready to develop new technologies, so that TSMC can no longer use equipment with or without core technology such as ASML lithography. What is the benefit to TSMC? That is to get rid of or reduce the dependence on U.S. technology.

The U.S. may have less reason to dictate TSMC’s wafer shipments in the future, so that it can achieve freedom of shipment.

TSMC may be trying to get rid of its dependence on ASML, but if we look deeper, it may also be trying to get rid of its dependence on U.S. technology. So, will TSMC succeed in getting rid of it in the future?

Will TSMC be able to break away from its reliance on U.S. technology?
I am afraid that TSMC will have some difficulty to get rid of its dependence on U.S. technology in the future. Why? Because at this point in time, TSMC’s foundry wafers should not be able to get rid of lithography, especially EUV lithography, so where does TSMC want to get rid of its dependence on US technology?

In addition, even if TSMC does develop a new process, and really get rid of the U.S. technology dependence, the U.S. will definitely not stand by and watch, after all, TSMC such a move is challenging the U.S. leading position. I’m afraid it’s hard to say whether TSMC will be able to hold on to this new process under U.S. restrictions, and naturally, under U.S. pressure, TSMC may still not be able to get rid of its dependence on U.S. technology in the end.

Of course, everything can not be said too absolutely, TSMC’s own scientific research strength is actually not too weak, after all, in the chip manufacturing process, TSMC has always been the world’s leading existence, with such strong scientific research capabilities, the future, the development of new technologies to break away from the dependence on U.S. technology is actually not impossible. With such strong scientific research capabilities, it is possible to break through the pressure that may be exerted by the United States.

Conclusion
TSMC has made two big moves, spending a lot of effort to develop new technologies, more or less freeing itself from U.S. technology dependence and “abandoning” ASML. TSMC may have caught Asmayr off guard with this move. Of course, for the time being, if TSMC really wants to do so, I am afraid it is very difficult to achieve at the moment.

As for the future, it’s hard to say, after all, TSMC’s own research strength is not weak, maybe there is really such a day may not be impossible.

Microsoft can help Blizzard to “change the fate”, it depends on the person in charge of Xbox

Just after the news of Take Two’s $12.7 billion acquisition of Zynga, the most expensive acquisition in gaming history was broken by Microsoft, which announced the acquisition of Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion in cash on the evening of 18th.

After the netizens’ comic revelry, they would like to see Blizzard under the guidance of Microsoft to renew the image of “White Moonlight” in the hearts of players, but is this possible?

Blood change, then blood creation
These years Blizzard can only be described as “internal and external problems”, and more importantly, internal problems. The management led by Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, is like a broken faucet that leaks and spills dirty water every now and then, and the subsequent ripples even spread to the whole game industry.

Blizzard’s scandals have been breaking out since last summer, and it was only then that the outside world discovered that Blizzard, which gamers had long spurned, was already riddled with holes and incomplete, and that the public was only now seeing the first “cockroach” that had accidentally escaped.

This is the reason why Diablo 4 and Battlefront 2 have been delayed to meet with players, so how much Blizzard’s core gamers hated the company in the past few years is now how grateful Microsoft is, and this acquisition has caused an uproar. Players don’t care what the nearly $70 billion means, they’re just glad Blizzard isn’t really “cursed to death” by players, and may even come back from the dead, with new hopes all pinned on Microsoft.

The financial report of Activision Blizzard for the third quarter of 2021 showed a net profit of $639 million and an increase in revenue to $2.07 billion from $1.95 billion in the same period of 2020; what is interesting is that King has 255 million monthly active players, while Blizzard’s games have only 26 million monthly active players, which means that players are less but more willing to spend money for games; Blizzard is doing the opposite, and it is the “mysterious operation” of Blizzard that has angered the most in these years. Blizzard is doing the opposite, and it is the Blizzard players who are most angered by Blizzard’s “mysterious operation” in the past few years.

Strangely enough, no matter how many players criticize Activision Blizzard, the group’s financial fundamentals are quite healthy, with total revenues of US$7.5 billion, US$6.489 billion and US$8.086 billion from 2018 to 2020, in stark contrast to the difficult progress of game development. If not for the acquisition of Candy Crush Saga developer King in 2016, Blizzard would have had a hard time making up for the hole.

That’s why Kotick thinks it can stabilize its stock price by stabilizing its revenue, so it has the audacity to ignore the company’s internal corruption and the slow progress of new game development. As John Carreyrou explains in “Bad Blood: The Silicon Valley Unicorn’s Medical Scam! Secrets, Lies, and Money in the Blood” by John Carreyrou, Elizabeth Holmes is a woman of the world.

So the first thing Microsoft will do when it acquires Activision Blizzard is to clean house. Rumor has it that Kotick will leave after the acquisition is completed, taking nearly $400 million in dividends with him. Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft’s Xbox brand, will also serve as CEO of Activision Blizzard, perhaps bringing in “cronies” he has worked with to “transform” Activision Blizzard from the inside out.

New Work Accelerates
On the day the Activision Blizzard acquisition was announced, there was a comment on the Internet to the effect that after Microsoft completed the acquisition, Spencer opened the “Battlefront 2” folder and found it empty. The sequel to the series was announced at BlizzCon 2019, but the development progress has been very slow, originally planned to be released last year, but has been delayed. Kaplan is not the first core member to leave, as dozens of core creators have left Blizzard in recent years.

After Microsoft announced its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, a consensus was rarely reached in the gamer community: Microsoft is here, and Blue Sky is here. Why do you say so? Because most of the game developers acquired by Microsoft have not had bad luck afterwards.

In 2014, Microsoft spent US$2.5 billion to acquire Mojang, the developer of “Be the God of Creation”, and many gamers sang its praises, but today it has 141 million monthly active users, which is nearly ten times higher than the 14 million sales volume of Mojang, so it seems that Microsoft has successfully taken over.

The parent company of Bethesda Softworks, ZeniMax Media, was acquired by Microsoft in 2020 for $7.5 billion. Not only is the original IP being developed steadily, but the new IP, Starfield, was also unveiled at E3 2021, and is expected to meet gamers by the end of this year.

Microsoft is using its “money power” to explain what it means to have a big tree to lean on. Perhaps soon, holding the classic IPs of StarCraft, Warcraft, Battlefront, Diablo and Dueling Moments, Activision Blizzard will be able to end its internal and external problems and get back on track to develop games that meet the tastes of new and old players.

Microsoft intends to discuss with the new studio how to develop the games that Activision Blizzard has been shelved.

Spencer mentioned in an interview with the Wall Street Journal a few days ago that he wanted to resurrect old IPs that had been dusted off, even mentioning “Guitar Hero”, “King’s Secret Messenger” and other works that had been extremely popular at one time. The phrase “Blizzard’s products must be the best” has become history, but the Activision Blizzard IP still has infinite potential.

3 trends prove that home is the place to exercise

According to the designer, personal gyms are about to become the new normal.

If there is any lesson to be learned from the past year and a half, perhaps the biggest takeaway (and keeper of sanity) is that health takes precedence over everything else. Whether the home’s status as a multi-linked character is permanent remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: just like sports and leisure, the home gym is here to stay. More than just an afterthought relegated to a damp basement, exercise spaces are becoming inspirational places – mixing form and function in bespoke ways.

Elevating fitness equipment into avant-garde designed furniture that deserves to be displayed, not tucked away in a forgotten corner. Made in Italy with cutting-edge technology, ergonomic engineering and sleek silhouettes, these are more than just simple fitness equipment.

From a style and substance standpoint, bringing fitness equipment into your home requires some expertise. Drawing inspiration from these design and innovation trends from designer Karim Rashid, Technogym features speakers.Technogym Talks is a series of exclusive interviews and discussions conducted nationwide by experts in health, fitness, exercise and design. To see the lineup and register for one, simply go to Technogym Talks.

In a July presentation in New York, Rashid talked about how home gyms are becoming more family-friendly. Here are three trends he cited that are helping to make personal gyms the new normal.

Fitness equipment = decoration

As architects and designers increasingly see home gyms as necessities rather than conveniences, they are designing homes for treadmills, stationary bikes and weight lifting. The result is to elevate fitness equipment to furniture and decorative status.

“When I walk into my home, my treadmill is part of the furniture, and I like that,” Rashid says, “It should blend in.

3 Trends That Prove Home is the Place to Exercise
That’s why Technogym equipment is designed to create seamless mobility in the living room or bedroom. Its Kinesis Personal series looks like an elegant slatted shelving unit, but it’s a fully functional gym with a sleek pulley system that’s both effective and unobtrusive.

Instead of wood floors that scratch, wear and echo, Rashid prefers a solution that takes performance to the next level.

“When you enter the gym, your floor is soft. Why not have soft floors at home?” he says. he says. “My old attic had a light pink ballet floor. The floor itself is soundproof, so you can’t hear the neighbors. It’s soft. It’s warm. It feels good to walk on. When people come in, it’s very quiet.

3 trends that prove home is the place to work out
Handbooks can be as old as hard-copy books, and Rashid says that when it comes to fitness equipment, people expect a plug-and-play functionality.

“You should be able to understand [how to use a piece of equipment] right away,” he says. “I’ve been on a lot of treadmills, but I don’t know how to enter my height or weight. These things have to be seamless, or consumers will reject it,” he says.

Take the Technogym Run Personal treadmill, for example, which, like the brand’s other Personal series machines, has a large touchscreen display, built-in speakers, live programming and a library of guided workouts, so all you have to do is practice running on a virtual field. The key is the new Technogym Live console, which includes those instructor-led on-demand training sessions, exercise routines and virtual routes set up in nature or in real cities.

Obesity is really contagious! Want to lose weight or have to make friends with fitness people

The Chinese New Year is coming, and it’s a good time to gather with family members to eat a big meal. The rumor on the Internet that “every festive season puts on three pounds” is not unreasonable. In addition to eating and drinking, do you know that gaining weight is also “contagious”?

According to HealthDay News, living in a community with a high rate of obesity may increase the chances that you and your children will become fat. Researchers explain that living in a community with a lot of fat people affects the social acceptance of diet and exercise behaviors and body size. This may be a phenomenon called “social transmission” at work, although the study did not prove a direct cause-and-effect relationship.

Researchers surveyed more than 1,500 U.S. Army families. Army families were selected for the study because they typically move based on military requirements rather than personal preferences. This dispels a theory about regional obesity from the start – that obese people like to associate with people who are as fat as they are.

The researchers looked at data on about 1,300 parents and 1,100 children from 2013 to 2014. The families were stationed at or near 38 military installations across the United States. Researchers first examined family members’ body mass index (BMI), a measure of body fat based on height and weight. They then assessed the “shared environment” in which the service families lived, counting the number of grocery stores, sports and recreational facilities, and so on.

In addition, the researchers weighed the overall obesity rates in each community. These ranged from 21% (El Paso County, Colorado) to 38% (Vernon County, Louisiana).

The study found that military families assigned to counties with higher obesity rates were more likely to be overweight or obese than military families assigned to counties with lower obesity rates. The opposite was also true: moving to a county with a lower obesity rate reduced a family’s chances of becoming obese.

The researchers said that most people think they can control their behavior. But when asked about specific situations – such as going out to eat with friends and whether what their friends ordered influenced their meal choices – respondents’ responses changed. They would realize that other people around them do influence their meal choices.

Researchers suggest that if you want to change your weight, diet and exercise habits, then make friends who eat more healthily and exercise more often.

Related research was published in the “Journal of the American Medical Association”.

Parenting: To keep kids away from the adverse effects of media and games, parents can do this

In today’s society, the pressure to educate children is increasing and the influence of unhealthy elements in the media makes it difficult for parents to educate their children.

Because of their narrow daily exposure and the care of their families and teachers, they have too little direct experience and are curious about the world.

At this time, they will use the mass media to understand and explain the social reality, and gradually form their own values and outlook on life.

Because of the innocence of their minds, children tend to be positive about what the media offers. In this way, they unconsciously develop or change their ability to judge right and wrong. At the same time, there is also some false information, which affects the development of children’s physical and mental health.

There are many ways to solve this problem, such as

Take time to travel or camp in the countryside, away from the hustle and bustle of the city, and let your children experience the beauty of nature in a beautiful sunset.

You can also let your children spend a quiet afternoon at home with you.

Keep them as far away as possible from the influence of companionship and the lure of video games, and choose good books to cleanse their minds.

When parents help their children develop the habit of reflection and establish the right values, they will not worry about their children being polluted and their lives will become simple and comfortable.

NVIDIA RTX 3050 officially released

A while ago, the much-anticipated CES2022 show was officially held. Our old friends brought the RTX3050 and RTX3090 TI two air graphics cards, really “exciting”!

RTX 3050 as NVIDIA positioning $300 light chase entry-level graphics card, naturally more attention to everyone.

Parameters, RTX 3050 by 8nm core process manufacturing, core GA106-150, CUDA processor 2560, RT Cores for 20 (second generation), Tensor Cores for 80 (third generation), base frequency 1552MHz, acceleration frequency 1777MHz, memory capacity 8GB, memory type GDDR6, memory bit width 128-bit, memory bandwidth 224GB / s, TGP 130W.

In fact, it can be said that the 3050 is a castrated version of the 3060. Although it is the same GA106 core, there is a significant reduction in the number of CUDA, RT Cores/Tensor Cores, and memory capacity, bandwidth, and bit width.

However, the main purpose of the RTX 3050 is to replace the old dessert-class graphics cards, but also to give gamers a lower entry-level light tracing and DLSS and other features of the threshold, so at the right price, still has a certain degree of competitiveness.

Overall, the RTX 3050 doesn’t score very well, for example, in 3D MARK benchmark tests without light tracing, the GTX 1070 from years ago can still be compared to it.

However, thanks to NVIDIA’s DLSS technology, the actual performance of the game is acceptable. Overall, it can run games below 2K resolution at 60 fps smoothly, if it is the latest 3A masterpiece, some compromises need to be made on the settings, such as lowering the resolution to 1080P and setting the rest of the settings to medium to achieve a good frame rate level.

According to some other test data, the overall performance is slightly higher than GTX 1660 SUPER.