Whether or not this is the surge that puts Microsoft in range of its herculean competitor, Azure architects are already finding a healthy job market, with average salaries from $99k to $198k a year. You can join those well-paid ranks with the training found in The Complete 2020 Microsoft Azure Certification Prep Bundle ($42.90, over 90 percent off). With 11 courses including over 50 hours of instruction, students can find all the background they need for building, nurturing and protecting a network, site or app of virtually any size or shape in Azure....

NASA has released an interactive 360-degree panorama of the red planet, which was captured by Perseverance’s Mastcam-Z stereo imaging system. The space agency says the 2.4-billion-pixel image is a blend of 992 separate images of the Van Zyl Overlook. The pictures were taken between April 15 and 26, while Perseverance waited for the Ingenuity helicopter to complete its first flights on Mars. The image of Perseverance, however, was taken on an earlier date, and added to give a better impression of the scale and perspective from the rover’s point of view....

Spending on smart city technology is expected to reach US$327 billion by 2025, up from US$96 billion in 2019, according to a new forecast from Frost & Sullivan. The analyst company said an uncertain post-pandemic situation will compel cities to focus on developing collaborative, data-driven infrastructure for use in healthcare, public security services and more. Artificial intelligence and data-driven solutions are expected to be in high demand, with growing opportunities for crowd analytics, open data dashboards and digital city services....

The FBI initially sought Apple’s help to gain access to the locked iPhone, in the hopes of uncovering information to aid in its investigation. While Apple offered some assistance, it stopped short of creating a backdoor that would break iOS encryption and unlock the phone, as that could set a dangerous precedent for how law enforcement could deal with such systems, and undermine the company’s security measures for its products....

So, compatriots and enemies, lovers and enemies, friends and enemies, I am here to claim my birthright and give iOS 14.4.1 the rating it was created to receive. Prepare yourself. First things first… what’s going on with iOS 14.4.1? [Read: How do you build a pet-friendly gadget? We asked experts and animal owners] Basically, it’s Apple’s latest iPhone OS update. And in the interest of full accuracy — because that’s what this piece is all about, after all — the company also released iPadOS 14....

Yep, at today’s Event, the Cupertino-based company confirmed that the iPhone 12 and other models will not ship with a charger, coming only with a cable instead. And, as you could’ve probably guessed by now, this is not a good thing. I wrote about this before, so if you want an in-depth discussion on the topic, go and read that. Still, I feel we can sum up some of the pertinent points here....

He contorts himself with passion as his rhetoric reaches its fever pitch — you might say he ‘peaks’ — and suddenly bursts into self-awareness like a phoenix, renewed. Finally, he shakes an iPhone at me, declaring it a monument to human ambition and actuation. After watching, I feel like I’m both a tiny worm on a big hook and the master of my own universe. These are some wonderfully weird videos....

Most of the time, senior developers in the team conduct the interview. In part, this is because HR doesn’t really know what they’re supposed to be looking for. You can brief them as much as you want but there are some nuances to a candidate that only someone who actually understands and knows the trade can actually make a proper judgment on. As a senior dev, I’ve often been in situations where I play the role of HR and shift through all resumes that come through....

As the BBC’s Justin Rowlatt explains, the electric revolution will happen much faster than expected. An enlightening parallel To illustrate his prediction, Rowlatt offers an illuminating parallel, that of the internet, and he suggests that the EV market is about where the internet was around the late 1990s or early 2000s. He demonstrates that the internet, like all new successful technologies, didn’t follow a linear path to mass adoption, but rather a gradual development, which can be described by an S-Curve....

Admittedly, it’s one of the most influential games ever (it introduces Mario to the world) and the specific copy was given a 9.4 grading, which means it’s in near-perfect condition. Oh, and there’s some weird technicality about a cardboard hanger tag that makes it super rare. But still… $114,000? This got me thinking — how good of an investment would it have been buying a copy of Super Mario Bros....

— NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) February 18, 2021 But people might be surprised to learn there have been another 48 missions to the red planet so far. Of these, more than half failed at stages from take-off to deployment — including the 1999 Mars Climate Orbiter, destroyed on Mars entry after someone failed to convert imperial measurements to metric. Successful missions include Mars Insight, which is studying the interior via measurement of “marsquakes”, and the Curiosity rover, which touched down in 2012 and has been examining the geology of Mt Sharp....

Well, developer Richard Reis felt there’s a shortage of incomprehensible names, so he built the Elon Musk name generator — a tool that dreams up what your name would’ve been if the billionaire was your dadda. In all fairness, soon-to-be-arrested Musk told Joe Rogan his only contribution to this glorious name was “A-12,” the predecessor to his favorite aircraft, the SR-71 Blackbird. The rest was all his partner Grimes’ idea....

The event is taking place in New York City at 10 AM Eastern Time, and it’s one of relatively few Microsoft will be streaming live – further pointing to some major reveals. Where to watch it? So far, the company has confirmed it will be streaming from Surface.com/microsoftevent, as well as Twitter and Facebook, in your browser of choice. We’re expecting a ton of news. Images from reliable leaker Evan Blass point to at least a new Surface Pro 7, Surface Laptop, and new 2-in-1 Surface Tablet powered by an ARM chip....

Moving a company’s entire digital infrastructure to the cloud is a massive undertaking — and it’s caused any number of sleepless nights for company leadership both big and small. But between worries over productivity, compatibility, scalability and, of course, cost, there is a central question that can often get overlooked by overwhelmed execs. Just how safe is that new network’s cloud home, anyway? The truth is, cloud security is a new frontier for most IT pros and leaving your security measures up to the base level protections of your provider might not be good enough....

The jacket, which retails from $1,900, is from the cyberpunk-ish clothing brand Acronym, of which Death Stranding developer is apparently a fan. Acronym co-founder Errolson Hugh, who models the jacket on the site, made a cameo in the final game. My surprise at the price tag notwithstanding, it’s a very fine piece of fashion and comes branded with the logo of Bridges, the in-game organization dedicated to rebuilding the United States (I think — Death Stranding was kind of a mindscrew for me)....

Did you know we have an online conference about digital commerce coming up? Checkout will share strategies on how to move forward in these unprecedented times. COVID-19 has made the public more aware of price fluctuations on basics like toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and dried goods, as demand for those products surged beyond expectations. How does dynamic pricing work? Dynamic pricing (or algorithmic pricing) relies on algorithms that can synthesize lots of information about the marketplace and then change the price of something based on what’s happening hour to hour or even minute to minute....

As a Spaniard living in London, I’m constantly hyping up what my great country has to offer, and the caliber of talent that comes out of its universities — and let me tell you, neighboring Portugal has nothing to envy Spain. Spain’s and Portugal’s tech ecosystems have grown significantly over the past decade, and even though their scenes are still nascent, they shouldn’t be overlooked or underestimated. [Read: Are EVs too expensive?...

The new tires are meant to show Michelin’s “concern for Chinese consumers and the company’s development strategy,” Shanghai Daily reports. But… why would EVs need special tires to begin with? Well, it all boils down to weight. EVs generally weigh more than gasguzzlers, which means they wear tires down much faster. Also, worn tires will reduce the cars’ range, so there’s a lot to win by preventing that from happening....

When app stores entered the mainstream tech culture, they exposed developers to an audience of millions who were keen to adopt the innovative capabilities of their devices through the creations of third-party developers. The rapid commercialization of the app ecosystem has caused leading tech brands to restrict app innovation within their platforms, often to the detriment of developers. As developers wage war with app store policies, Huawei is betting on a simple concept that developers can rally around: open ecosystems....

Simply put: the outcomes for people who receive a UBI are typically demonstrably better than people in similar financial and economic situations who don’t. But a significant number of people ranging from laypersons to economics experts believe that paying people for what they consider “not working” is a bad idea. The solution, of course, is artificial intelligence. What if we scrapped the idea of a UBI and, instead, allowed AI to do all the work while we just cash the paychecks?...