Author : zebethcontrol

Clerkenwell Health raises £2.1m to test the new wave of psychedelics treatments • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 10, 2022Posted in Biotech & Health, Psychedelics startupsNo Comments

Clerkenwell Health, a psychedelic-specialist clinical research organisation, has raised £2.1m in seed funding, bringing the total to date up to £2.5m, which will be used to get the London startup-based fully operational. Investors include Lionheart Ventures, Convergence Partners, and Exceptional Ventures, which was co-founded by Paolo Pio (former MD Europe at Joyance Partners) and Matt Cooper (who was part of the founding team at Capital One Bank in the US, co-founder of Tandem Bank and Chairman of Octopus Capital Group). Claiming to be Europe’s first commercial facility dedicated to psychedelic-assisted therapies, Toronto-based life sciences company Psyence will now kick off its first trials at Clerkenwell’s London site, following its approval from the MHRA. The clinical trial will assess the efficacy and safety of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy versus psychotherapy alone for the treatment of adjustment disorder due to an incurable cancer diagnosis. Data from the UK’s Office of National Statistics suggests the suicide risk for terminally ill people is twice that of the general population. As we’ve detailed before, drugs which were previously relegated to underground communities and rave culture – drugs like ketamine, MDMA (commonly known as ecstasy) and psilocybin – are now being studied to develop therapies to treat everything from PTSD to cluster headaches. Tom McDonald, CEO of Clerkenwell Health, said in a statement: “The UK is extremely well-placed to become the leader in psychedelics research and trials thanks to its globally competitive framework for clinical trials, which is why we chose to launch our operations in London.” Most research related to psychedelics is currently happening in universities and hospitals. Other psychedelic drug facilities are being built (Compass Pathways x South London and Maudsley NHS Trust) but they tend to be built by drug developers so are designated to a single company or compound. By contrast, Clerkenwell Health says it will work with multiple drug developers. Paolo Pio, Co-Founder and General Partner of Exceptional Ventures, added: “Psychedelics show great promise in treating mental disorders, but it is a complex and highly regulated field. Clerkenwell Health founders bring together years of experience in this area, and we believe they are the best positioned in the UK and Europe.”Clerkenwell Health is also working with North American drug discovery and biotechnology companies, notably the Otsuka Pharmaceutical-backed Mindset, which focuses on treatments for neurological and psychiatric disorders.

Living with Apple’s iPhone 14 Plus • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 10, 2022Posted in Apple, Gadgets, Hardware, iPhone, iphone 14, iPhone 14 PlusNo Comments

What constitutes a big phone in 2022? It’s been a moving target for a number of years now — albeit a target that has been steadily moving in a single direction. It’s tough to determine the exact average display size, but most flagship smartphone screens generally fall somewhere between six and seven inches. In 2010, Steve Jobs famously touted four inches as the ideal screen size. “You can’t get your hand around it,” he noted as Android phones were slowly creeping up in size. “No one’s going to buy that.” The following year, Samsung released the first Galaxy Note. The 5.3-inch display elicited downright disgust from some. The first phablet of note was simply too big for pockets and hands. The intervening decade has rendered those comments quaint. Technology has a way of doing that. Fast-forward to 2022, and the four new versions of the iPhone 14 come in two sizes: 6.1- and 6.7 inches. Plenty of things have transpired to get us here, not the least of which is a dramatic gain in the screen-to-body ratio. As displays have gotten larger, the overall footprint required to support them has shrunk. I’ve been using the regular iPhone 14 as my primary device for the last few weeks. I can’t quite wrap my hand completely around it, but close enough. More important is the fact that it’s easy to use with one hand. We’ve come a long way since the days of a 5.3-inch phone seeming almost impossibly large. Image Credits: Brian Heater For my own daily use, I’ve come to really appreciate 6.1 inches as a sweet spot. It’s a good size screen in a hardware footprint that isn’t overwhelming. As ever, your mileage may vary. Some folks were understandably disappointed when the iPhone 14 lineup effectively marked the death of the Mini. Wanting a smaller phone is perfectly reasonable, and for now the SE will have to fill that role. As you’ve no doubt surmised from reading this, I’ve since switched to the 14 Plus for daily use. Right off the bat I will say that I cannot, in fact, wrap my hand around it. Using it in one hand is a bit more of a mixed bag. With face unlock enabled, there are certain actions that are perfectly possible to execute in this manner: checking emails, doomscrolling through social media — basically the things many of us spend most of our time doing on our phones. If you want to, say, respond to an email, on the other hand, things get more complicated. I can generally contort to select the specific message, but hitting Replay in Gmail and typing are going to require both hands. If you’re deep into the world of voice computing, perhaps you’ve got a workaround that works for you. As with all things in life, there’s a trade-off here. I do quite like the 6.7-inch size for things like video. It’s also nice having all that screen as a viewfinder while taking pictures. I ended up moderating a panel at a Brooklyn bookstore earlier this week, and it’s a great size to serve as a kind of makeshift teleprompter. Granted, that’s a fairly niche need, but moving from 6.1 to 6.7 inches, those sorts of advantages start to make themselves known fairly quickly. Beyond screen size, the biggest advantage to opting for the Plus over the standard 14 is battery. The Plus is rated at 26 hours of video playback versus the 14’s 20 hours. In practical terms for me, that meant I went to bed at around 50% battery and woke up around 37%. You should be able to make it through a full 24 hours without an issue. There’s a nice peace of mind in not having to worry about finding a charger during the day. We’re not talking an Apple Watch Series 8 to Ultra-sized jump here, but there’s a lot to be said for not having to worry about having a phone die on you when you’re out in the world. The 14 Plus sits in an interesting kind of liminal space in the iPhone line. It’s the entry-level model, and it’s not the most premium. It’s closer to the former, and similar in practically every respect aside from size. Interestingly, it’s actually lighter than the smaller 14 Pro. That’s something I noticed almost immediately, having been using the Pro a bit, as well. That’s certainly of note for a large phone like this. At $899, it’s also $100 cheaper than the Pro and $200 less than the Pro Max. Image Credits: Brian Heater The 14 is the device you get when you want a new iPhone, but don’t need all the latest bells and whistles. The 14 Pro sits on the bleeding edge of iPhone technology. The 14 Pro Max is a kitchen sink device. The Plus is for the person who prefers the larger screen, but doesn’t require all of the aforementioned frills. The surefire way to figure out which is right for you is to try them on for size at a local brick and mortar. I’d say the regular 14 makes the most sense for the most users. Upgrade to the Pro if you want better photos and a faster chip (and/or are generally dazzled by everything the Dynamic Island has to offer). If screen size is your chief concern, however, that 0.6 inches makes a lot of difference.

Binance admits hackers used cross-chain bridge to steal at least $100M • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 10, 2022Posted in Daily Crunch, Startups, Venture, venture capitalNo Comments

To get a roundup of ZebethMedia’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Friday! How’s that for brevity in newsletter introductions? Let’s get to it so we can crack open a Liquid Death and let the week sag off into the murky distance of memory sooner rather than later. — Christine and Haje The ZebethMedia Top 3 Uh-oh: Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, confirmed that it found a blockchain bridge breach where hackers made off with $100 million. Carly has more. Evolving elephants to unicorns: Annie reports that Kenya’s tourism-focused startup studio Purple Elephant Ventures raises $1 million pre-seed funding to bring some modernization to the industry. What until you see the picture: Amazon’s Scout makes you just want to go up to it and give it a pat. Unfortunately, you might not get a chance to. After three years unveiling the robot, the delivery giant said that it is cutting back the program, Brian reports. Startups and VC Wildfires have become an ever-increasing threat as houses are built closer together and the growing impacts of climate change wreak havoc on natural landscapes. Entrepreneurs, in response, have started to develop tech meant to minimize the scale and damage of these natural disasters. Convective Capital is a new VC firm looking to back them, and it raised $35 million to do so, Becca reports. Haje got really bored of startups taking liberties with its market sizing, complaining that if you are a car dealership, your total serviceable market isn’t the value of the cars you sell (that’s the SOM for the car manufacturer). Your SOM is the total value of the sales commissions, service plans, aftermarket goods and services and everything else you can actually make money on. And we have five more for you: 7 investors discuss how agtech can solve agriculture’s biggest problems Image Credits: The Creative Drone (opens in a new window) / Getty Images Of all global industries, perhaps none is more susceptible to the dangers of climate change than agriculture. There’s a consensus among reputable scientists that the amount of CO2 we’re putting in the atmosphere is aggravating extreme weather events. How is that impacting the way agtech VCs operate during a downturn? To learn more, we surveyed: Brett Brohl, managing director of Techstars Farm to Fork, and managing partner at Bread and Butter Ventures Monica Varman, partner at G2 Venture Partners Jinesh Shah, managing partner at Omnivore Adam Anders, managing partner at Anterra Capital Ting Ting Liu, investor, and Ashutosh Sharma, India head at Prosus Ventures Camila Petignat, partner at The Yield Lab Three more from the TC+ team: ZebethMedia+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription! Big Tech Inc. Google plans to open its first data center in Japan by 2023, Ivan writes. The center is part of a $730 million infrastructure fund and will be the search engine giant’s third one in the region. Meanwhile, Kyle and Amanda looked at artificial intelligence–powered music generators and its place in an industry where it generally pays to be able to use your natural, human abilities. And another five more for you: Sharing is caring: A new Twitter feature encourages users to share the tweet versus taking a screenshot of it and then posting to other social media, Ivan writes. Press pause: A judge ruled that the Musk vs. Twitter trial can be put on hold temporarily while the two parties work out a deal, Amanda reports. It’s Marioooooo: Amanda gives you an inside look at the new “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” where she writes, “So far, Chris Pratt’s Mario seems more like Andy Dwyer than Star-Lord, and we love that for him.” Making tweaks: Shopify has agreed to add some consumer safety features to its app in Europe that includes a faster and easier way for national consumer authorities to report problems, Natasha L reports. Crack open a cold one: Pepsi is at the front of the line to get some of the first Tesla Semi deliveries, Kirsten writes.

Demanding employees turn on their webcams is a human rights violation, Dutch Court rules • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 10, 2022Posted in human rights, Privacy, The Netherlands, worker rightsNo Comments

When Florida-based Chetu hired a telemarketer in the Netherlands, the company demanded the employee turn on his webcam. The employee wasn’t happy with being monitored “for 9 hours per day,” in a program that included screen-sharing and streaming his webcam. When he refused, he was fired, according to public court documents (in Dutch), for what the company stated was ‘refusal to work’ and ‘insubordination.’ The Dutch court didn’t agree, however, and ruled that “instructions to keep the webcam turned on is in conflict with the respect for the privacy of the workers’. In its verdict, the court goes so far as to suggest that demanding webcam surveillance is a human rights violation. “I don’t feel comfortable being monitored for 9 hours a day by a camera. This is an invasion of my privacy and makes me feel really uncomfortable. That is the reason why my camera is not on,” the court document quotes the anonymous employee’s communication to Chetu. The employee suggests that the company was already monitoring him, “You can already monitor all activities on my laptop and I am sharing my screen.” According to the court documents, the company’s response to that message was to fire the employee. That might have worked in an at-will state such as Chetu’s home state Florida, but it turns out that labor laws work a little differently in other parts of the world. The employee took Chetu to court for unfair dismissal, and the court found in his favor, which includes paying for the employee’s court costs, back wages, a fine of $50,000, and an order to remove the employee’s non-compete clause. The court ruled that the company needs to pay the employee’s wages, unused vacation days, and a number of other costs as well. “Tracking via camera for 8 hours per day is disproportionate and not permitted in the Netherlands,” the court found in its verdict, and further rams home the point that this monitoring is against the employee’s human rights, quoting from the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms; “(…) video surveillance of an employee in the workplace, be it covert or not, must be considered as a considerable intrusion into the employee’s private life (…), and hence [the court] considers that it constitutes an interference within the meaning of Article 8 [Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms].” Chetu, in turn, was apparently a no-show for the court case. Via NL Times.

Snapchat brings parental controls to India through in-app tool ‘Family Center’ • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 10, 2022Posted in Apps, india, Snap, SnapchatNo Comments

Snapchat is bringing an initial set of parental controls to users in India — a couple of months after its debut in the U.S. and some other markets — to deliver parents and guardians in the key oversea market insights on how their teens are using the social networking app. The in-app tool, called Family Center, lets parents and guardians review who their teens are friends with on the social app and who they have messaged in the last seven days. (They are not able to see the exact content of those messages.) It also brings the ability to report safety concerns and potential abuse to Snap’s Trust and Safety team to review. Parents and guardians need to install the Snapchat app on their devices and link their accounts to those of their teens using an opt-in invite process to use the new feature. Once the accounts are linked, the tool can be accessed with all its controls either from the Snapchat app’s Profile Settings or by searching for “family” or “family center” from the app’s Search functionality. Snapchat’s Family Center The parental controls are notably available to parents and guardians whose teens are between 13–18 since Snapchat is not meant to be used by younger people. Snap first announced the arrival of its parental controls in October last year and introduced them in the U.S. in August. That was followed by the launch of similar features launched by competitive social networking platforms including Meta’s Instagram and TikTok. Snap’s offering, however, isn’t as expansive. It does not allow parents and guardians to restrict their teens from using the app after a particular time frame, for instance, a feature that Instagram and TikTok both offer. The Santa Monica, California-headquartered company is also not addressing concerns about inappropriate behavior, such as sexting, on its platform with the new tool. The app’s ephemeral messages opens the app to misuse and abuse. Snapchat has introduced some additional measures over the years, such as requiring teens to have mutual friends before they can start chatting. The app also does not allow teenagers to have public profiles. Snap said it is working with local nonprofits FXB India Suraksha and CyberPeace Foundation to launch its Family Center feature in India. It will also closely work with both organizations to add new parental controls, the company said. Snapchat shares insights with parents and guardians through its Family Center Over the coming months, Snap said it plans to bring new features to Family Center, including new content controls for parents. Teens will also be able to notify their parents when they report an account or a piece of content to the platform. “Snapchat is a central communications tool for so many young Indians, and as our community continues to grow, we know parents and caregivers want additional ways to help keep their teens safe. Our new in-app Family Center tool will help parents get more insight into who their teens are friends with on Snapchat, to help foster positive conversations about online safety while respecting the privacy and autonomy of teens,” said Uthara Ganesh, Public Policy Head, India, Snap, in a prepared statement. Snap is also launching bully prevention and mental health campaigns globally to celebrate World Mental Health Day and Bullying Prevention Month. The company in India said it is partnering with nonprofit Sangath for these campaigns. India is an important market for Snap where it has amassed over 109 million monthly active users, according to market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. In August, Snap introduced its premium offering, Snapchat+, in the South Asian market.

Rivian voluntarily recalls 13,000 EVs for a potential loose fastener • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 10, 2022Posted in EV, Recall, Rivian, TransportationNo Comments

Rivian informed customers Friday that it is conducting a voluntary recall of all 13,000 vehicles it has delivered so far due to a loose fastener. The fastener, which may not have been sufficiently torqued on a small percentage of vehicles, connects the front upper control arm and steering knuckle. This can cause loose and vibrating tires, wheel tilt and loss of steering control. The company’s voluntary recall is expected to be posted on the National Transportation and Safety Administration on Saturday. Rivian sent an email to customers Friday evening. Rivian said that as of September 28, 2022, it had become aware of seven reports potentially related to this issue that had accumulated over the production of Rivian vehicles. The company said in a statement: The safety of our customers will always be our top priority, and we are committed to fixing this issue on any affected vehicles as quickly as possible. We will begin immediately contacting affected customers to schedule appointments for inspections and repairs if needed. We will make any necessary adjustments free of charge at one of our service centers. The repair takes a few minutes to complete, and with customer collaboration, we have built out the capacity to complete the needed action in as little as 30 days. To date, we are not aware of any injuries that have resulted from this issue. Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe also emailed customers saying that while the company has only seen seven reports potentially related to this issue across our fleet to date, “even one is too many.” “It’s important not to minimize the potential risks involved and why we are volunteering to conduct this recall,” Scaringe wrote in the letter. “In rare circumstances, the nut could loosen fully. I want to reiterate that this is extremely rare, but it does reinforce why we are acting with such urgency and caution.” If owners experience excessive noise, vibration or harshness from the front suspension, or a change in steering performance or feel, they should call Rivian immediately, Scaringe said, adding that if customers don’t feel safe driving the vehicle a Rivian employee will either service it as a house call or come pick it up. If a replacement part is needed, Rivian said it will offer loaner vehicles free of charge. Customers can call 855-RIVIAN5 (855-748-4265), you schedule a service appointment and a Rivian employee will come to the customer. They can also bring your vehicle to a Rivian service center, no appointment necessary. The company said it will also have pop-up locations in high-density areas for additional coverage as well.

China’s once-popular crypto exchange Huobi Global bought by About Capital • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 9, 2022Posted in China, Crypto, HuobiNo Comments

Huobi Global, once China’s top crypto exchange, has been retooling itself since exiting from the home market following Beijing’s crypto ban. Now the company is nearing a takeover by an investment firm. Huobi Global announced today that its controlling shareholder has completed the transaction to sell its entire stake to About Capital, a Hong Kong-based fund management firm started by Ted Chen, who founded China’s hedge fund giant Greenwoods Asset Management. This confirms an earlier report by Bloomberg saying the founder Leon Li was looking to sell his majority stake for over $1 billion, valuing the exchange at $3 billion. Founded in 2013, Huobi Global rode China’s crypto boom before Beijing declared all crypto transactions illegal in 2021. The parent firm Huobi Group now operates an umbrella of crypto-related entities, including its flagship exchange Huobi Global, its venture capital arm Huobi Ventures and a crypto cloud service. Huobi Global and rival Binance said they’ve stopped servicing China-based customers since the ban. While Binance kicked off global expansion well before the crackdown, Huobi Global appears to have been hit hard by the regulatory change as a big chunk of its users were still in China. The trading platform was reportedly laying off 30% of its workforce this summer after its retreat from China dampened revenues. About Capital’s buyout won’t affect Huobi’s “core operation and business management teams,” the announcement says. The exact amount of the deal wasn’t disclosed, but it looks like the new parent is providing the much-needed capital to help the exchange ride out its financial troubles and go global in the midst of a crypto rout. According to About Capital, Huobi Global will “embrace a series of new international brand promotion and business expansion initiatives, including a global strategic advisory board led by leading industry figures, the injection of sufficient capital in margin and risk provision fund, as well as measures to further enhance competitiveness.” “Following Huobi’s exit from the Chinese mainland market in 2021, we have accelerated our globalization push amidst a challenging market environment, which adds to the impetus for Huobi to seek a new shareholding structure with a global vision and international resources,” Li says in a statement. “We believe the successful acquisition by About Capital vehicle will contribute to Huobi’s global expansion in both aspects.”

How to Code a Scrollable Text Gallery in Three.js

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 9, 2022Posted in three.js, Videos, webglTagged coding, screencast, three.js, tutorial, video, webglNo Comments

A video coding session where you’ll learn how to recreate the text and image gallery seen on Design Embraced. Tagged with: three.js webgl

Pakistan strips YC-backed Tag of fintech services, orders to pull apps • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 9, 2022Posted in Fintech, Government & Policy, pakistan, Tag, Y CombinatorNo Comments

Pakistan’s central bank on Friday revoked the in-principle and pilot operations approval of Tag to operate as an electronic money institution in a move that poses existential threat to the firm. State Bank of Pakistan said in an order that it is revoking Tag’s approval to operate as an electronic money institution, the permission that is required for entities to offer innovative, user-friendly and cost effective low-value digital payments instruments such as wallets, cards and contactless payments. The central bank has also ordered the startup to close all customers’ wallet accounts and pull its apps from the app stores with immediate effect. The central bank’s action is in response to Tag violating regulatory requirements and “other concerns” that emerged during the pilot operations of the firm, it said. The decision has been taken to “protect the interest of the public at large,” it added. The regulatory action follows a months-long probe into Tag, which offers banking and financial services such as contactless payment, cards and wallets to users in Pakistan. The startup has been accused of forging documents to the central bank, according to an earlier investor letter obtained by ZebethMedia. The central bank ordered Tag in August to “immediately” refund all funds of customers. Tag is among the most valuable startups in Pakistan. It was valued at $100 million in its seed financing round in September last year. The startup counts Liberty City Ventures, Canaan Partners, Y Combinator, Addition and Mantis among its backers. The State Bank of Pakistan did not immediately respond to a request for comment via phone and email. Friday’s action is another blow to the nascent but fast growing startup ecosystem in Pakistan, which clocked record funding last year. Airlift, once the most valuable startup in the South Asian market, shut down in July this year after it failed to secure fresh funding. Tag’s chief executive couldn’t be immediately reached for comment. The startup will explore appealing the State Bank’s decision, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told ZebethMedia.

Menu to Grid Layout Animation

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 9, 2022Posted in grid, menu, PlaygroundTagged grid layout animationNo Comments

A simple layout animation where the thumbnails of a menu row animate to their position in a content preview grid. From our sponsor: Get personalized content recommendations to make your emails more engaging. Sign up for Mailchimp today. Today I’d like to share a little layout animation with you. It’s inspired by the design of Sturdy’s client showcase. Initially, we have a row based menu layout which shows some thumbnails on hover. Using the GSAP’s flip plugin, we animate the row to a content preview with larger images which fly to their position in a grid. Here’s the initial view: When hovering, some images appear on the right side. Once we click, the thumbnails animate to form a grid and some additional grid items appear: Here is how it all comes together: I hope you enjoy this little animation and find it useful! How to Code a Scrollable Text Gallery in Three.js How to Help Your Creator Clients Monetize Their Content with a WordPress Membership Site