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Melatonin is a hormone produced in the pineal gland and retina. It regulates processes throughout the body, such as body temperature and digestion, but it’s most associated with sleep. As you’re exposed to more natural light, melatonin production is reduced. As natural light fades, it increases, causing the body to rest. However, we live in a world full of light sources, and both that and changes in daylight hours across seasons can leave us with less melatonin than we need....

Hydroponics is a way of growing plants without soil; instead, you use a water-based nutrient solution. Plants usually grow much faster than they would in soil, and on a large scale, hydroponically-grown plants can decrease the amount of water used in agriculture. It’s an ideal solution for farming in harsh environments. For those living in apartments or small spaces who yearn to grow veggies year-round, Rise Gardens offers an 18-inch indoor garden kit small enough to place on your countertop....

Of concern to Labor Senators Tim Ayres and Nita Green was the alleged lack of security of Australia’s COVID-19 digital certificates, with both of them criticising the certificate for being easily forged through man-in-the-middle cyber attacks. Providing responses to the senators’ concerns, Services Australia said it was aware of reports concerning man-in-the-middle cyber attacks via the Medicare Express Plus app, but brushed off the concerns by merely saying such attacks “require significant knowledge and expertise”....

The line between Singapore’s PayNow and India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) enables customers of participating financial institutions in the two Asian markets to send and receive funds between bank accounts or e-wallets, in real-time. Transfers from India to Singapore can be made using mobile numbers or virtual payment addresses, while funds from Singapore can be transferred to India using the recipient’s registered UPI identity. The mobile numbers, virtual payment addresses, and UPI identities are uniquely associated with the individual’s bank account....

South Korea also will be the first Asian market to sign on for Singapore’s Digital Economy Agreement, the latter’s fourth following similar pacts with the UK, announced last week, as well as Australia and Chile and New Zealand. Under the digital agreement, data localisation would not be permitted unless necessary for specific purposes, such as regulatory access, the two partners said Wednesday in a joint statement. This would facilitate secured data transfers between organisation in both nations and enable them to decide where they want to store and process their data, according to their business requirements....

Skullcandy and Budweiser sent me a sample kit that included absolutely no beer, but it did include a pair of the Crusher Evo headphones and the Dime True Wireless earbuds, along with what looks like a metal Budweiser sleeve to hold a beer. At least I think that’s what it is. But I digress. My initial thought after opening was “That’s shiny!” when I looked at the earcup shells on the Crusher Evo headphones....

In the face of a broken Zoom call, many have wished that their home Wi-Fi matched the speeds they enjoyed in the office. And after all, if employers can deliver office chairs and monitors to ensure that their staff is able to work comfortably, is it much of a stretch to imagine that companies could sponsor decent broadband packages for their employees’ homes as well? SEE: Best internet speed tests: Test your connection This is exactly what the Gigabit Take-up Advisory Group (GigaTAG) suggests should happen in a new report that advises the UK government to start upping its game to convince consumers and businesses that it is in their best interest to upgrade to gigabit broadband – the next-generation connectivity that offers a speed of one gigabit per second....

Conducted by the Regional Center for Studies for the Development of the Information Society (Cetic.br) of the Information and Coordination Center of Ponto BR (NIC.br), the TIC Domiciles research has been conducted since 2005 and aims to analyze the ownership, use, access, and habits of the Brazilian population in relation to information technology and communications. According to the study, smart TV sets surpassed personal computers in 2021. After smartphones, TVs are the most used device to access the Internet – from 37% of users in 2019 to 50% last year....

The cloud data company reported fourth quarter revenue of $383.8 million, up 101% from a year ago, with a net loss of $132.1 million, or 43 cents a share. Wall Street was expecting Snowflake to report fourth quarter revenue of $371.89 million. For the full fiscal year 2022, the company reported a revenue of $1.219 billion, with $1.14 billion coming from product revenue. Snowflake said it ended the quarter with 5,944 total customers, including 184 customers with trailing 12-month product revenue greater than $1 million....

The new phone will be available in September for approximately $1,600 in black and purple. It is interesting to see an announcement more than three months ahead of availability with pre-orders starting today. Those who pre-order the phone will receive the Sony WF-1000XM4 wireless noise-canceling earbuds ($280 value). Some of the advanced photography features from the Sony Xperia Pro-I smartphone will be available on the Xperia 1 IV. That phone was a camera with phone features, while this new model is more of a phone with advanced camera features....

The pair announced the scheme implementation deed on Monday, under which Square has agreed to acquire all of the issued shares in Afterpay. The transaction has an implied value of approximately $29 billion – AU$39 billion – based on the closing price of Square common stock on 30 July 2021 and is expected to be paid in all stock. Based on Square’s closing price of $247.26 per share, this represents an implied transaction price of approximately AU$126....

On Thursday, the Detectify Labs team published a report based on the initial analysis of public SSL/TLS certificates, conducted from June 2021. The team says that there are “pitfalls” to the deployment of these certificates that “can lead to company data being exposed or compromised by malicious actors.” SSL/TLS certificates, issued by certificate authorities (CA), are used to authenticate and secure connections made through a browser. Encryption is used to protect communication streams during online sessions....

So, when looking for a note-taking application, I knew of ones such as Evernote, which happens to have an app for the Linux desktop. I’ve used Evernote and think it’s a fantastic tool. Evernote is everything I need in a note-taking app. But it is proprietary, and when I see an open-source option, such as Standard Notes, I’m all over it. Standard Notes is a note-taking app that places privacy front and center....

In a blog post, Proofpoint said TA575 – a “large cybercrime actor” – has sent emails pretending to be someone working on the show, urging people to download malicious attachments or fill out forms with sensitive information. The emails come with subject lines saying things like: “Squid Game is back, watch new season before anyone else,” “Invite for Customer to access the new season,” “Squid game new season commercials casting preview,” and “Squid game scheduled season commercials talent cast schedule....

The tech giant has showcased the high-end, 14-inch display ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 and ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 8, as well as the 13-inch display ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3. The new ThinkPad X1 lineup includes 90% recycled magnesium in the palm rest and 55% recycled aluminum on its bottom cover, according to Lenovo. Additionally, retail packing is entirely made of bamboo and sugarcane fibre, while the brown box packaging is made from plastic-free packaging and is 90% recycled....

Also: TCL 20 Pro 5G first impressions: Stunning design, lovely display, capable quad-camera system The TCL 20SE is available in Nuit Black and Aurora Green for $189.99. It will work with GSM networks but is not supported on Verizon. We also have one of these in the house so please post any questions you have for any of these three new TCL 20 Series phones and we will provide answers in our reviews....

Why? As Meta explained in a blog post, “We bump into problems whenever a leap second is introduced. And because it’s such a rare event, it devastates the community every time it happens. With a growing demand for clock precision across all industries, the leap second is now causing more damage than good, resulting in disturbances and outages.” Therefore, Meta concludes, we should simply “stop the future introduction of leap seconds....

3G is shutting down and some of your most essential tech may soon – or, may have already – become unusable. What steered the evolution of how we use, interact, and communicate with technology 20 years ago will officially retire by the end of 2022 (which is in two weeks), with major US carriers having nearly finished with repurposing their 3G satellites. In their place: 5G, the next-generation network that promises considerably faster speeds than 4G LTE and a more unified system for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) expansion....

Various manufacturers, including many from China and Korea, have compelling products that are becoming more popular as we reach smartphone saturation. We also now see Samsung, Google, and Apple offering more affordable options with all three bringing in models that support 5G cellular connectivity. In particular, Google is committed to bringing its advanced camera software technology to mid-range phones. Camera performance was a major differentiator between flagships and mid-range phones over the past couple of years, but even today’s affordable phones can help you capture decent photos to share with family and friends or selfies for social media....