The US government’s export ban on ZTE has effectively brought the Chinese telecom giant and phone maker to its knees. In a Hong Kong Exchanges filing on Wednesday, ZTE told investors that the “major operating activities of the company have ceased” because of the US Commerce Department’s export ban. In April, US officials said they were …
Read More »
The TVs of 2018 just started to hit store shelves, and Netflix has already blessed a few of them. According to Netflix, the following 2018 televisions are officially “Netflix Recommended.” LG 4K UHD TVs with WebOS 4.0 Sony W800F- and WF800-series Android TVs Yep, it’s a short list. In fairness, the first line actually encompasses the vast majority of LG’s 2018 TVs, …
Read More »
After a long lull, this is turning out to be a big year for cloud gaming. Nvidia’s GeForce Now is still in beta but going strong, and now Valve is extending Steam’s in-home game-streaming capability to iOS and Android devices that connect to the same network as the host system. The Steam Link app, which Valve plans to launch the …
Read More »
Tuesday, at the I/O 2018 conference, Google announced that users would soon be able to choose among six new voices, including the voice of John Legend. These new voices are powered by WaveNet, an AI-based voice synthesizer created by DeepMind, a subsidiary of Google UK. Now playing: Watch this: Give Google Assistant a new voice 1:41 WaveNet lets Google simulate entire …
Read More »
Will my 9-year-old start making VR projects when he’s in junior high? I think it’s likely, after seeing what Google has in store with Tour Creator. The tool is a surprise announcement at this year’s Google I/O conference aimed at the education market, and unlike previous educational VR efforts, this one’s about creating. Google’s first educational dives into VR, years ago, …
Read More »
Google announced the browser-based Tour Creator, for roll-your-own VR walkthroughs, at its Google I/O developer conference this week. But if you want to create your own 360-degree content, you’ll need a camera that works with it. Out of the gate, Ricoh says it’s ready for you with its Ricoh Theta V, an existing 360 camera that will work with the …
Read More »
Years ago, Google Glass was pitched as a magic eye on the real world. I wore one. It never did what people really thought it could do. The crazy thing is, Google is getting to that magic world fast… through phones. The latest updates to Google Lens — demoed at this week’s Google I/O developers conference, and coming soon to …
Read More »
If a new Apple Watch debuts this fall, Google is likely to have a major new smartwatch (or watches) debuting right alongside it, powered by Qualcomm chips. Pankaj Kedia, senior director and business lead for Qualcomm’s Smart Wearables Segment, said as much yesterday in a story reported by Wareable. But I sat down at Google’s I/O developers conference with Kedia and …
Read More »
Odds are, the next big wave of Google smartwatches are coming later this year. In the meantime, Google’s updating Wear OS (formerly Android Wear) with a few key upgrades. In addition to a better on-board Google Assistant, Google’s added battery-saving functions to the new developer build of Wear OS, the company announced Wednesday. The key parts of that involve re-enabling …
Read More »
Pokemon Go’s maker, Niantic, has ambitions to build a three-dimensional map of the world by crowdsourcing the cameras on players’ phones, CEO John Hanke told Reuters. Pokemon Go was a breakout hit two years ago, a mobile game phenomenon that familiarized millions of consumers with the concept of augmented reality, a technology that overlays digital images on the real world. …
Read More »
Walmart’s making another big bet on e-commerce, agreeing on Wednesday to shell out $16 billion for a majority of India’s Flipkart. Flipkart — which sells electronics, large appliances, mobile phones, apparel and more — has the largest e-commerce players locally since its launch in 2007, with local rivals like Snapdeal helping draw more customers into online shopping. The deal for …
Read More »
TPG wants to be Australia’s big new mobile telco, and it’s offering free unlimited data to convince you. The TPG Mobile Network will launch within months (it’s given a date of between July and December), offering the first customers to sign up unlimited data for free for six months. From then, it will charge AU$9.99 a month. TPG says this …
Read More »
Microsoft Build 2018 started Tuesday and is still ongoing, but now Google is competing for your future attention with its own annual Google I/O developers conference. Unlike the hardware-centric announcements of last October, I/O focuses mostly on software and how to to get the most out of those devices. Before the conference started, Google announced it had rebranded its Google …
Read More »
The higher-tech retail arm of Walmart, Jet.com, is celebrating its entry into the Apple authorized reseller program with sales on accessories when you buy a handful of Apple products. The deals don’t look too amazing, though, since they don’t seem to be covered by Jet.com’s dynamic pricing engine. MacBooks, iPhone and Watch are all regular price, same as the Apple Store, …
Read More »
If you thought emojis were harmless, well, this one can freeze your iPhone’s ($285 at Amazon) messaging app. A new iMessage bug involving a string of text and the black dot emoji (⚫️) can overload iMessage if sent to your iPhone. The bug was spotted by YouTuber EverythingApplePro, who frames it as a prank to freeze people’s phones. Watch him explain …
Read More »