TLDR 2022-03-03

Apple will hold its 'Peek Performance' virtual event on March 8. The event will be live-streamed from Apple's website, its YouTube channel, and on the Apple TV app. Apple is expected to announce the iPhone SE 3, iPad Air 5, iOS 15.4, a new Mac mini, a new MacBook Pro and MacBook Air with M2 chips, and a 27-inch iMac or iMac Pro. More details about the expected lineup are available in the article.

Epic Games has acquired Bandcamp, an online music-streaming service. The company plans to build a creator marketplace ecosystem for content, technology, games, art, music, and more. This suggests that developers in the future may be able to search through the Unreal asset sales ecosystem to license music for their projects. Bandcamp will remain a standalone marketplace and music community and all existing products and services will continue as normal.

Fortescue Future Industries (FFI), an Australian mining company, has announced a project to create an electric infinity train that will be able to move loads of iron ore without ever needing to be charged. The battery-electric locomotive will regenerate electricity on downhill loaded sections, removing the need for recharging infrastructure. The company has mining sites where there is enough downhill slope for the idea to work. FFI's other green-tech projects include an ammonia-powered ship, hydrogen fuel cell mining trucks, and ammonia-fueled trains.

Researchers have developed a method to turn on individual dormant genes by combining CRISPR technology with a protein designed by artificial intelligence. The technique disables the chemical switches that silence the genes so that they can be expressed. It will allow researchers to understand the role of individual genes in various stages of development. The approach can control gene activity without permanently changing the genome.

CSS was never designed to be a server-side language, but that doesn't mean that it can't be used as one. This article walks through how to use CSS as a server-side language to declare routing, do math, and even templating. While the tool will never be used in production, it is an interesting experiment in repurposing a tool for something it wasn't supposed to do.

Huemint is a color palette generator for brands, websites, and graphics. It uses machine learning to create unique color schemes and then applies the palette to stock product and branding images. Users can adjust the generation mode, level of creativity, colors, and other parameters.

Chipmakers worldwide are working together to create a new system for integrating chiplets together in future semiconductor designs. Almost every major name in the industry is involved with the project. The standard will use the same broad model that PC components have used for years but for specialized chips called chiplets that only do a few specific functions. Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express (UCIe) will be a standard for connecting chiplets together to make it easier to mix and match different components when building custom processors.

Google will start having employees in the Bay Area and several other US locations return to the office starting the week of April 4. The steady decline in cases means the company can officially begin the transition to the hybrid work week. Employees will return to the office based on local conditions. Most workers will come to the office three days a week and have two days of remote work. The company has dropped its mask and testing mandates for fully vaccinated employees and reopened its amenities.