July, 2017

• 19 July

  Apple granted patent for what could be a Siri dock

  

  Apple could be angling for another way to get its Siri personal assistant into your home. Last month, the iPhone maker debuted the HomePod, a high-end speaker with Siri built in. But if a patent just granted to Apple is any indication, the company could be looking to enable Siri with more hardware. The patent …

  Read More »
• 19 July

  Air traffic control is not just for planes anymore

  

  Now playing: Watch this: Drone air traffic control wants to tame the sky 2:49 When regulations finally catch up to let companies like Amazon and UPS fly drones for delivery purposes, the airspace is going to get pretty crowded. That’s even before you add on the tens of thousands of recreational drone flights that take place every day. Unmanned aircraft …

  Read More »
• 19 July

  25 best battery life laptops for 2017

  

  There’s nothing worse than having your laptop shut down in the middle of a big meeting, while writing an important email or halfway through streaming the latest binge-worthy Netflix series. Fortunately, battery life for laptops, tablets and hybrids continues to show steady improvement, with systems regularly hitting the 10-hour mark and beyond. Improvements to Intel’s Core i-series CPUs, as well …

  Read More »
• 19 July

  Samsung’s Bixby voice assistant not coming to speakers soon

  

  It’ll be a while before Samsung’s Bixby joins Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri and Google Assistant on speakers. Samsung announced the Bixby voice assistant with the launch of its Galaxy S8 phone in March, but it only reached devices in the US on Tuesday after multiple delays. Samsung said the voice assistant would be available on its refrigerators, washing machines and televisions, …

  Read More »
• 19 July

  Amazon launches social network for its shoppers

  

  Amazon is getting into the social media game, but this network is more about shopping than sharing pictures of your kids or latest meal. Dubbed Spark, the new Instagram-like feature encourages Amazon customers to post images, stories and ideas about products they like. Other users can then react to the posts with comments and “smiles,” much as one would “Like” …

  Read More »
• 19 July

  FCC vs. robocalls: The battle heats up

  

  Now playing: Watch this: How to stop robocalls 2:42 People with landline home phones have long suffered unwanted marketing calls. Now these spam calls have made their way to our mobile phones in a big way. Robocalls to cell phones are illegal, so why am I still getting so many unwanted calls? Detroit Free Press If you’ve noticed a surge …

  Read More »
• 19 July

  Smart glasses give the blind a clear path ahead

  

  This is part of our Road Trip 2017 summer series “The Smartest Stuff,” about how innovators are thinking up new ways to make you — and the world around you — smarter.  Tiny drops of rain hit my face as I run through the sleepy residential neighborhood of Littleton, Massachusetts, about an hour’s drive north of Boston. There’s a slight incline to …

  Read More »
• 19 July

  Amazon makes it easier to buy a Jack Daniel’s chicken sandwich

  

  Amazon introduced on Wednesday a new payments feature that will let people use its mobile app to buy stuff in stores and restaurants. For now, Amazon Pay Places is only available for pickup orders at T.G.I. Fridays restaurants in Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington D.C., Richmond, Va. and Wilkes-Barre, Pa. (Here’s the menu, if you’re feeling peckish.) But, if Pay Places …

  Read More »
• 19 July

  T

  

  You can’t get enough of T-Mobile.  The nation’s third-largest wireless carrier said it added 1.3 million net new customers in the second quarter, helped largely by the 786,000 new phone customers on a post-paid plan, or who pay at the end of the month. The figure topped at least one Wall Street firm’s expectations.  The numbers underscore the fact that …

  Read More »
• 19 July

  Marvel VR hands

  

  VR is hard for some people to grasp. It’s not necessarily hard to get into, but it’s pretty hard to buy into. And not (just) because of the price, but because VR’s biggest problem is that you aren’t hyped about it — and you can’t be an evangelist about it — until you try it. But sometimes, you find that …

  Read More »