Apple is working on technology to detect a user's blood pressure using neural networks and seismocardiogram data, negating the need for a blood pressure cuff.

According to a patent application published Thursday, a wearable device, potentially paired with Apple Watch, might one day be capable of monitoring a user's blood pressure without the need for any additional peripherals.

The patent application, titled "Interpretable neural networks for cuffless blood pressure estimation," explores the use of neural networks to estimate blood pressure using seismocardiogram data. Unlike an electrocardiogram, which relies on electrical signals to monitor a heart rate, a seismocardiogram measures the micro-vibrations produced by the heart beating.

There exist seismocardiogram devices small enough to be considered wearable, though these sensitive systems are typically placed over a user's sternum to measure minute vibrations in or near the heart. How Apple intends to deploy such a device was not discussed in the patent filing.

According to Apple's patent, the system would work by leveraging an individually pruned neutral network accepting a seismocardiogram as input. That neural network would then use the data to estimate blood pressure.

For example, Apple could create a baseline model by training the neural networks with seismocardiogram data and blood pressure measurements from a group of subjects. Using that as a baseline, the system could then prune the model for subsequent users. The initial dataset would be collected from users performing different sedentary activities.

From there, Apple contends that the neural network could be used to accurately estimate a user's blood pressure without a cuff. As the patent points out, the system could use the neutral network "to determine blood pressure based on accelerometer or gyroscope data," which are already present in Apple devices.

Current versions of the Apple Watch can be used to monitor and analyze different types of health data, including heart rates with an optical sensing system, heart rhythms via a built-in electrocardiogram or blood oxygen sensing on the Apple Watch Series 6. Since the Apple Watch release, Apple has been continually expanding the device's health toolkit, and Apple may be looking to build out a set of health-minded accessories. 

The patent lists Siddharth Khullar, Nicholas E. Apostoloff, and Amruta Pai as its inventors. Among them, Apostoloff has been named on a previous patent dedicated to facial analysis and emotion detection.
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This isn't Apple's first patent focused on blood pressure monitoring. In 2020, the company filed a patent application for an Apple Watch-supported system that could use pulse transit time to measure blood pressure. Another system could use pressure sensor data, and Apple has explored how to monitor blood pressure without a cuff in the past.

The City of Las Vegas is home to 650,000 residents, with the greater Las Vegas area attracting 42 million annual visitors. The City of Las Vegas, working with technology and business solutions provider NTT, has expanded its efforts to become a smarter city and provide safe, reliable, and efficient civic technology that stimulates economic growth and offers better experiences for its residents and visitors.

City officials are seeking to improve interoperability among all public service sectors through open-source data sharing and real-time data analytics. They have deployed various tech solutions in the past two years that have already changed city safety.

The city’s smart city charter focuses on six major areas:

• Public Safety: Solutions should better inform first responders and decrease response times.
• Economic Growth: Infrastructures will promote new business models and lead to new job opportunities.
• Mobility: New connected vehicle infrastructure and data analytics will enable safer, more reliable, and energy-efficient mobility options.
• Education: Expanding collaboration with universities will support education initiatives and prepare the future workforce.
• Social Benefit: Programs for underserved communities will help establish demographic equity.
• Health Care: Connected and intelligent medical devices will encourage a broader view of well-being.

In this article, we will focus mainly on public safety initiatives and also touch on some social benefits.

Improving Safe Mobility. This pilot project was designed to decrease traffic congestion and help city officials address the problem of drivers accidentally driving the wrong way on streets. Sensors using lidar placed at various streets in Las Vegas could detect collisions, near misses, how many times cars went the wrong direction, and even resulting decreases in congestion after roadway improvements.

Edge data centers can quickly process and analyze massive amounts of data and send back near real-time alerts and suggestions for traffic control, amber alerts, and more. The connected data from all over Las Vegas streets also helps first responders react more quickly.

Through the pilot program, wrong-way driving was reduced by around 40%.

Expanding to Smart Park Initiative. Following an earlier trial at two park locations, Las Vegas has started expanding its smart park initiative to 12 more locations in a public safety effort. Deploying smart city technology in parks has allowed officials to monitor large crowds, gunshots, vandalism, breaking glass, and more.

Michael Sherwood, director of innovation and technology for the city of Las Vegas, said that understanding how many people visit parks and which facilities they use can help improve maintenance and operations, inform decisions about expansion and services, and protect residents.

Remote monitoring in the parks can improve efficiencies for public safety personnel, too. If sensors detect a visitor in the park after closing hours, automated recordings and remote systems can address the person before alerting officials.
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As Las Vegas continues to accelerate its smart city projects throughout the city, it’s learning that a connected society can directly benefit citizens and is looking ahead to how smart city technologies can extend further to stadiums, shopping malls, and manufacturing facilities.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, which has ushered in significant changes to media consumption habits and how major entertainment companies promote and display their offerings, we have watched considerable changes occur in at-home entertainment viewing.

“This pandemic has forced consumers to recalibrate their entire lives,” says University of Virginia Darden School of Business professor Anthony Palomba. Professor Palomba is an expert in media management. This interdisciplinary academic discipline examines how audiences consume media and entertainment products and services, as well as how entertainment companies compete amid shifting consumer preferences.

“What matters to them? What doesn’t? I think consumers are getting to know themselves a bit more. Rather than being told what is good by advertisers, they have to consider for themselves what is good,” said Palomba.

We are all consumers. We have been stopped in our tracks for nearly an entire year. We have reprioritized our lives. This impinges upon advertisers’ and marketers’ abilities to consistently reach and speak to us.

Professor Palomba continues: “Consumers’ acumen over available entertainment and media options has risen quite a bit. Consumers have had more time at home to watch, view, subscribe and try out these options. Marketers must consider how to position entertainment products and services to consumers who have greater market awareness. More consumers have begun to consume digital entertainment, and podcast audiences have swelled while consumers work from home. There is also intensified yearning for immersive escapes into other worlds and realms, which I think has fueled interest in the PlayStation 5.”

“Consumers are seeking entertainment brands that they can trust. It is astounding to think that Disney + got to 50 million subscribers in five months. It took Netflix seven years to reach that milestone. This business feat is symbolic of consumers’ predominant need to find trusted, feel-good, high-quality brands as consumers reconcile bills against unemployment, salary cuts, and other unknowns.”

This leads to a question: Do consumers enjoy searching for videos and finding the unexpected? With colossal and meticulous algorithms used to determine consumer preferences on streaming video on demand platforms and new [streaming video on demand] program advertisements, the joy of discovery may very well be undermined for consumers. Part of the human experience is discovery. Ensconced in the unknown, will we find something meaningful? Past studies have illustrated that engaging in discovery and exploratory activities is restorative and renews our perspectives about ourselves, giving us confidence and a better feeling about our future.
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Now, more than ever, consumers need reasons to be lost in discovery.

When we think about privacy and who can access our location data, we’re often focusing on our phones and not on the machine that actually takes us places: our car. A recent report from NBC News goes into just how much data is collected by our vehicles and how it can be used by police and criminals alike.

Your car, depending on how new it is and what capabilities it has, could be collecting all sorts of data without your knowledge – including location data, when its doors were opened, and even recordings of your voice. The NBC article uses the example of Joshua Wessel, a man charged with murder because the victim’s truck has a recording of his voice at the time of the killing. The report also looks at a company called Berla Corp., which has built a business out of extracting that data on behalf of the police.

In broad strokes, it’s hard to guarantee any kind of data protection, simply because cars collect so much sensitive data. Berla’s software boasts the ability to read the unique IDs of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi devices that have connected to a car’s infotainment system, as well as call logs, contacts, and text messages. But infotainment data isn’t all it can read – it can also look at the logs kept by the car’s internal computer, revealing when specific doors were opened, as well as providing a location log from its built-in GPS.

It’s not just the police that can get at this information. NBC mentions an Australian man who used an app to access live data from his ex-girlfriend’s Land Rover. Not only was he able to access live information about the car, but he was also able to control it, remotely turning it on and off and opening windows.
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The heart of the problem is that we’re sharing our private data with more and more devices, and the systems we rely on to keep that data safe are getting more complicated. If we really want to deal with the issue, we may have to take a hard look at our cars and start thinking about how much data they need.

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated a trend that was already well underway: employers letting their workers perform their jobs remotely, from home, most or all of the time. But even if you and your employer both know exactly where you live and work, you may be surprised to learn that state departments of taxation can have some very different ideas about where "here" is. As a result, Texans, Utahns, and Arkansawyers who work for New York- or Massachusetts-based companies will have income taxes withheld from their paychecks, even if they've never set foot in the home office.

In the wake of the pandemic, dozens of major companies are embracing employees' desire to stay remote, increasing their support for working from home permanently. Some businesses have even closed offices or let leases lapse, counting on a physically distant, flexible workforce to reduce their real estate needs.

In many ways, this can be a win/win: employers can save overhead costs on expensive square footage in high-demand cities, and employees can save time and money by skipping the commute and dialing in from, basically, anywhere they want. New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles are expensive; maybe you want to move to Montana and dial in from the woods or get a nice little ocean-view place in Florida. Unfortunately, as far as the state is concerned, your beachside cabana may as well be squarely in the middle of Manhattan, and you will be taxed as such.

Even before COVID, living in one state but working in another was common in many of the biggest US metropolitan areas. Many commuters into New York live in New Jersey or Connecticut, for example, and vast numbers of workers in Washington, DC live in Maryland, Virginia, or sometimes even farther out in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, or Delaware. Kansas City sprawls into both Kansas and Missouri, so traveling across city limits can mean crossing state lines. Any major city near a border likely has loads of workers that saunter over that line every day.

From a tax perspective, that's tricky because both the state where you perform a job and the state where you actually live are going to want to try to tax your income. Still, only one state at a time can, and most jurisdictions with a lot of overlap have agreements worked out with their neighboring states that make it easy for workers to take state withholdings and pay state tax where they live. (I, for example, only had to fill out one short form when I worked in downtown Washington, DC to make sure my taxes were properly withheld across the river in Virginia.) 

However, the increase in remote work means as offices downsize, some employees are now migrating to areas of the country where there are not tax agreements in place, leaving individuals to try to muddle through multiple states' tax codes on their own. Even more challenging: states are losing money hand-over-fist due to the pandemic and are likely to be more aggressive about chasing down every dollar they can claim.

Seven states – Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New York, and Pennsylvania – have so-called "convenience" rules on the books that require any work performed for an employer based in their state to be taxed as if the worker performing the job is in their state, no matter where the employee is located. Those states are still attempting to collect tax from telecommuting workers, and other states are fighting back.
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New Hampshire,  one of nine states that do not have an income tax, is suing neighboring Massachusetts over its convenience rule. Four other states – New Jersey, Connecticut, Hawaii, and Iowa – are supporting the suit.

In the near future, your phone may take its 5G signal from the sky instead of a nearby mast on the ground. It's an innovative way to solve the problem of increasing connectivity without relying on thousands of terrestrial cell towers. The concept is known as a High-Altitude Platform Station (HAPS), and it essentially takes the cell tower from the ground and puts it in the sky.

The latest HAPS project to be unveiled is from Great Britain – Stratospheric Platforms and Cambridge Consultants. Recently, the pair revealed the core of its efforts, a special antenna and crewless aircraft, which it has been working on confidentially for the last four years.

How will it work? Instead of talking to a nearby tower to get its signal, your phone talks to a three-square-meter antenna attached to hydrogen-powered aircraft with a 60-meter wingspan, flying at an altitude of 12 miles (20 kilometers). The aircraft, or HAP, is expected to stay aloft for at least a week, all the while providing 4G LTE and 5G network coverage over an area of about 86 miles (140 kilometers).

Phones don't give off a powerful signal, hence the antenna array's size on the aircraft, which has 4,000 radios working together inside it. The processing power is similarly immense, helping to steer and direct the beams toward the ground even when the aircraft is shifting around. The cooling system has to work at high altitudes, minimize drag, and keep the weight manageable. It's an exciting piece of technology in itself.

The aircraft itself, which is made of a composite material, has already been certified for use, so it's deemed safe and ready for flight in civil airspace. There's no pilot, and ground-based operators will only be involved during takeoff and landing. The hydrogen power cell is not only environmentally friendly, as it only produces water vapor and emits very little noise, but it also gives off a lot of power — it has been tested to 50KW in labs already — for a long duration. That's a lot more than the low-power solar power systems used on other HAP vehicles.

HAPS systems are also expected to be cheaper to implement. Building each aircraft reportedly saves 70% over the costs of building and installing a traditional mast. Then there's the space-saving and logistical benefits. According to research quoted by the team, it's estimated that an impractical sum of 400,000 5G masts will be needed to cover the U.K., for example, and each aircraft could replace around 200 of those masts.

What can you expect from the connection? The aircraft should return a smooth Sub-6 5G beamed signal offering speeds of 100Mbits per second and 1m/s latency to devices connected to it, which don't need any special software or hardware modifications. While a fleet of HAPS aircraft could provide enough coverage for an entire country, what's very interesting is that the unique modular design of the antenna enables targeted coverage.

This means a signal from a part of the antenna could be focused on an individual area like a motorway or even a single vehicle driving on it. The team said a fleet of 60 aircraft could cover the U.K. in its entirety, and the idea is for networks to partner with dedicated "airlines" that operate the planes.

Potential problems. This new technology forces networks to rethink how they currently work. Network operators are already installing a 5G network using traditional masts. Convincing them to bypass this and adopt a sky-bound service will take a lot of work. However, the team calls its stratospheric network complementary to a traditional terrestrial network and says the costs involved will be temptingly less than creating a widespread 5G network using only ground-based masts.
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When will it arrive? When can we expect to see Stratospheric Platforms HAPS system in operation? Deutsche Telekom is the project's initial investor and launch partner, and it has already tested an early version to show the system works. Stratospheric Platforms' aircraft is in preproduction now, with plans for the first prototype flight in 2022, while the antenna exists as a proof of concept and works with 3G, 4G, and 5G. It's anticipated the service will go live in 2024.

Remember when Amazon (quietly) announced its expansion to Sidewalk, back in September? Well, the feature is live for some in a new update for the Amazon Alexa app, and you might want to go turn it off. We covered it in Issue 7-25.

Sidewalk is a feature that extends the network coverage of your devices, particularly Ring surveillance tech (like its cameras, smart lights, and pet trackers) and Echo smart speakers. But it'll also share a small chunk of that internet bandwidth to provide the same services to your neighbors – so your privately-owned devices won't be so private anymore. 

Sidewalk has been slowly rolling out to Echo and Ring owners in the U.S. as of Thanksgiving, which users were made aware of via an email from Amazon. While the feature isn't up and running yet, the email essentially notifies users that it's "coming soon." But it's also the company's discreet way of letting you know the feature has officially been turned on. 

Amazon makes it easy to opt out if you're only just unboxing your shiny, new Sidewalk-compatible device. During the setup process, users are asked if they want to join the network via the Amazon Alexa app. However, if you already own one of the 20 Sidewalk-enabled products, it'll automatically opt-in for you. 
To disable Sidewalk, all you need to do is: 

• Update the Amazon Alexa app or double-check that you're on the latest version
• Open the Amazon Alexa app and tap on the More tab
• Then, tap Settings > Account Settings > Amazon Sidewalk and toggle off the Enabled button
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Thankfully, the additional Community Finding feature – which "can help your neighbors find pets and important items connected to Sidewalk by sharing the approximate location of [your] device and other Sidewalk bridges you own" is disabled automatically.

Of course, if you'd like to use Sidewalk on either your Echo smart speaker or Ring security device, you'll be happy to know you're already all set for when Amazon officially launches the new feature.

One of my ‘go-to’ technology research firms is Forrester Research. Recently, the firm said 2021 would be the year that edge computing graduates from experiment to practically applicable technology, primarily driven by AI and 5G. Edge computing is a technology that places the processing close to the data source rather than concentrated processing at a distant central location.

Forrester has released a bundle of tech predictions for 2021, and part of it is a firm claim about edge computing: 2021 is the year it will finally become a real value. 

“Until now, edge computing was promising but still developing. In 2021, new business models will emerge that facilitate the deployment of edge in production,” Forrester said in a summary of its predictions. 

The new business models that will push edge computing “from science project to real value” in 2021 are based mainly on two factors. Forrester said: Cloud platforms having to compete with artificial intelligence and the widespread proliferation of 5G will make edge use cases more practical.

With those two drivers in mind, Forrester made five predictions about how the tech world will evolve in 2021 that will directly impact edge computing.

Edge Hosting Will Evolve into a Full-Fledged Marketplace. Content delivery networks (CDNs) like Akamai and Fastly, Forrester said, are starting to target edge computing demands, leading to them reaching out to colocation companies to find small, widely distributed data centers where applications can be hosted closer to the populations they serve. 

Even large colocation firms lack the localized presence needed to meet edge computing demands, Forrester said. Those same large companies often obscure the small local players required to complete their edge services.

“In 2021, colocation marketplace aggregators like Edgevana and Inflect will emerge as attractive options for the CDNs and global colocation leaders serving enterprise needs, even in rural locales,” Forrester predicts.

Kubernetes Will Dominate, but There Won’t Be an Orchestration Winner. Forrester predicts that lightweight Kubernetes deployments will end up accounting for 20% of edge orchestration in 2021, but that doesn’t mean the battle for edge orchestration will end. Canonical, Huawei, OpenStack, Rancher, and other companies are also trying to expand their lightweight, edge-optimized platforms, and competition will be fierce in the year to come.

AI Will Leave the Data Center for the Edge. Forrester predicts that the use of AI in edge computing will undergo a significant shift in 2021: Instead of machine learning models being trained in the data center, learning will start to happen at the edge. 

That shift will be possible thanks to new chips from Intel and Nvidia and new machine learning techniques like reinforcement and federated learning. “Edge application intelligence will blossom in 2021 to accelerate digital transformation, especially in industries that must bridge the physical and digital worlds in real-time,” Forrester said.

Private 5G Networks Will Spread. Nationwide 5G from major telecom networks won’t be sufficient to meet edge computing needs, Forrester said. In its place will be private 5G networks deployed by companies and developed by manufacturers like Ericsson, Huawei, and Nokia. 

In 2021, Forrester predicts, private 5G networks will be used in cases like factory floor automation, AR/VR for remote inspection, surveillance, quality assurance, remote monitoring, predictive maintenance, and employee safety.

Public Cloud Growth Will Slow While Edge Spending Will Grow. Forrester predicts the public cloud market will experience a growth decline from 42% in 2018 to 24% in 2022 due to market maturation. In its place will be an explosion of growth in edge computing, meaning more growth for companies that have invested in cloud-like solutions for edge computing and content delivery, not centralized data centers.
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Public cloud entities won’t disappear, but they won’t dominate the future of distributed computing, Forrester predicts. “Their culture is based on massive data centers and tight control of the architecture; the exact opposite of what firms need to serve customers locally. Vendors with a winning edge strategy will do better.” 

Amazon is now starting to roll out its Amazon Sidewalk local networking system to customers in the U.S. Here's what you should know about it.

First announced in September 2019, Sidewalk is a new idea and long-term effort for extending the smart home to entire smart neighborhoods by using various local networking options. 

On November 24th, Amazon began sending out emails to Echo device owners letting them know that an update with Amazon Sidewalk will soon be rolling out. Though the system will take time to build out, the first steps are happening now.

With that in mind, here are some of the essential points that users should know about Amazon Sidewalk.

What is Amazon Sidewalk? Amazon Sidewalk is a new type of wireless network that makes smart home capabilities much longer ranged. A Sidewalk Bridge connects to your Wi-Fi network and essentially extends the connectivity range beyond what your router can output. In some cases, Amazon says this range could be half a mile.

It works by using various communication protocols, such as 900MHz radio signals and Bluetooth Low-Energy, for inter-device communications. The system will intelligently switch between these protocols depending on the range and power needed.

These Sidewalk networks work a bit differently than your home Wi-Fi, however. The bandwidth in a Sidewalk network is open for not just your own devices, but your neighbors', too. It's a bit like a local mesh network, but across a neighborhood. 

Most Amazon device owners already have a Sidewalk Bridge in their homes. Recent Echo and Ring devices will soon receive over-the-air updates that will allow them to work as bridges.

Benefits of Amazon Sidewalk. As mentioned earlier, one of the first and primary goals of Amazon Sidewalk is to extend the range of your smart home gadgets. What that looks like in practical terms could differ depending on your smart home setup.

A Sidewalk network could, as an example, ensure that outdoor security cameras or lights have a working connection even if they're far from your Wi-Fi router. It could also mean faster connectivity if a device connects to a nearby Sidewalk Bridge instead of attempting to connect to a router farther away.

If you happen to drop a Tile device while walking around the neighborhood, it could still be within the range of the local Sidewalk network — and it'll be able to connect to the appropriate servers using a neighbor's Sidewalk bandwidth.

Sidewalk will also make the onboarding of devices much quicker and simpler. And Amazon envisions other uses, too, such as a pet safety service called Amazon Fetch that alerts users if their pet wanders outside of a preset perimeter.

Are there any downsides to Amazon Sidewalk? For one, Sidewalk isn't a replacement for a home Wi-Fi network. The bandwidth available on a Sidewalk network is pretty small — Amazon says the maximum bandwidth is just 80Kbps, with a cap at 500MB. As such, it's only useful for low-power devices like smart locks, security sensors, and Tile trackers.

There are, of course, security and privacy concerns, too. If your dog has a Sidewalk-connected tag on its collar, it means that you may be sending Amazon the location, duration, and frequency of all your dog walks. Amazon does have a white paper that explains some of its Sidewalk-related security policies.

Of course, there's also the question of it being a shared network. Although Amazon says it will encrypt all traffic sent through a Sidewalk network, users won't know who is on a specific network or how much traffic their neighbor might be sending over it.

All in all, users will only be able to exercise marginal control over their local Sidewalk networks. There isn't currently a way for users to figure out which Sidewalk Bridge their compatible devices are connected to.
Can I opt out of Sidewalk? The downsides and implications of Amazon Sidewalk wouldn't be as pressing if it weren't enabled by default. The system is opt-out instead of opt-in.

Once Amazon enables Sidewalk, users will see an information splash screen that explains what it is and what it does. There, they'll have the option to disable it — it'll be turned on by default.

Users will also be able to disable the local networking system through the Amazon Alexa app. The option is located in Settings > Account Settings > Amazon Sidewalk.
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If users do disable Sidewalk, their devices won't connect to their local neighborhood networks. On the flip side, neighbors won't be able to use their Sidewalk bandwidth, either.

Ever since the pandemic began, many knowledge workers have continued their employment responsibilities from their homes. But now, with many employers extending the remote-work timeframe well into 2021, it may be time to consider working from a residence that’s in a far more pleasant location.

If you are a remote worker tired of sitting all day at your principal residence or working in grey cubicles at a remote office, here’s a group of exotic locations that offer you not only a stunning change of scenery but also dependable internet speeds and infrastructure necessary for remote work. From pristine beaches to tropical rainforests and paradise islands, there’s something in this list that is sure to make you want to book your ticket now and even consider these locations for a leased or purchased second home.

Galapagos Islands. West of continental Ecuador lies the isles made famous by Darwin’s studies of the natural world that would result in the Theory of Evolution. A natural paradise filled with stunning vistas, pristine beaches, and some of the most exotic wildlife in the world, the Galapagos Islands are a real paradise on earth. 

Galapagos has a population of only 25,000 people, setting the standard for the word remote. Nevertheless, they offer a reliable infrastructure for remote workers, with most hotels offering free Wi-Fi and most housing areas, including a good connection as well. While Galapagos is by far not the cheapest option on the list, you can expect prices similar or slightly less expensive than living in the continental USA.

Costa Rica. Costa Rica, the country with the most amazing biodiversity on the entire planet, has long been espoused as a real paradise for ex-pats. Not only does the Central American country offer dense tropical rainforests, volcanoes, and tropical climate, but also some of the best beaches in the world – featuring crystal clear water and pristine sand.

Santa Teresa is one of such beaches and is one of the most visited by tourists for many a reason. Not only does Santa Teresa have some of the best surf you will find in the world, but it also features a large town and tightknit community that offers plenty of yoga retreats, delicious food, thriving nightlife, and fantastic weather you could expect.

You will come for the surf and natural beauty, but you will stay for the people – a collection of ex-pats from around the world and locals that live the “Pura Vida” (Pure Life) lifestyle and always boast a smile on their face.

Morocco. Located not be too far off the coast of its northern neighbors in Spain, Morocco might as well be a galaxy apart. This diverse land containing four different mountain ranges, deserts, and Mediterranean beaches has been the setting for many iconic movies throughout the years, including Lawrence of Arabia, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Gladiator, and even Star Wars.

But what truly makes Morocco so special, and attracts millions of tourists each year, is its perfectly preserved culture and traditional architecture. The market town-turned-city of Marrakesh has been a crossroads for culture and trade for close to ten centuries. Featuring gorgeous oriental architecture and thousands of captivating smells and colors, the streets through the bazar hold plenty of secrets within them – from delicious honey drizzled pastries to sensual belly dancers.

A very low cost of living country, Morocco has been evolving technologically at a breakneck pace in the last few years and has plenty of co-working spaces available for digital nomads, as well as surprisingly fast internet connections for rental homes.

Bali, Indonesia. Another location famous for its beaches and surf, the Island of Bali, is often touted as a real heaven on earth. Boasting mind-blowing beaches, volcanoes, mountains, coral reefs, and overall nature, Bali can easily compete with any location on this list and come out ahead on most aspects.

In Ubud, the cultural center of the island and home of the ex-pat community, you will find the spiritual hippies and yogi types. In contrast, in the southern Bukit Peninsula, you will find the perfect location to surf in legendary breaks like Padang Padang, Dreamland, and Uluwatu.

What few people know about Bali, however, is that it has been building a burgeoning startup ecosystem with all kinds of entrepreneurs, initiatives, tech talent, and startups springing up all over the island. To satisfy this demand, Bali has seen a large number of co-working spaces pop up across the island, each one providing more than adequate commodities for digital nomads, who are not only attracted to the island’s legendary beauty but also its low cost of living and housing.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Touted as one of the best cities for remote workers around the world, Ho Chi Minh City is a colorful, vibrant, and creative metropolis in the south of Vietnam that has plenty to offer for digital nomads, tourists, and ex-pats alike.

A highly developed city bursting with cafés that offer fantastic coffee and an even better internet connection, the former Saigon is filled with culture, commerce, art, and plenty of beautiful natural and human-made sites to behold.
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Visit the Ben Thanh Market and its iconic clock tower to buy all sorts of goods ranging from clothes to electronics to groceries for excellent prices, provided you are willing to haggle a little. The food is absolutely delicious and incredibly cheap, with Vietnam having one of the lowest costs of living in this entire list.
For those who prefer to work in office environments, Ho Chi Minh City has plenty to offer, including the fantastic Dreamplex co-working space, which features the fastest and most reliable internet in the city, as well as excellent ergonomic chairs.