Wallets could become a thing of the past in China. Starting next year, the Chinese will no longer have to worry about leaving their identity cards at home, as long as they’re registered users on WeChat. On Monday, the Guangzhou government in China released the country’s first batch of “WeChat identity cards.” They’ll allow citizens to …
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Even for streaming video, it’s true what they say: You can’t always get what you want. The top complaint consumers have about streaming-video services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu is lack of content, according to a survey by IBM Cloud Video, which powers streaming for online video providers. Nearly half of those users say video-streaming services rarely or …
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If you ask Google “Is Hamilton a good musical?” it will send back a link to Quora, the question-and-answer service, where people ask that same question. The next link, a story published in Slate last year, is an interview with a critic who argues why the Pulitzer-, Grammy- and Tony-winning musical isn’t revolutionary (their pun, not ours). Microsoft thinks it can …
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Qualcomm’s next mobile chip isn’t available yet, but it already has a big-name customer: Xiaomi. Lei Jun, CEO of the Chinese phone maker, joined Cristiano Amon, the head of Qualcomm’s chip business, at the chip maker’s tech summit Tuesday to talk about the importance of their partnership. Jun said the next premium smartphone from Xiaomi, currently in development, will run …
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Apple may be getting into semiconductors in an even bigger way. The company may make its own iPhone power management chips as soon as 2018, according to a report from Nikkei. Currently, Apple relies on supplier Dialog Semiconductor for those processors, which are important for making sure an iPhone charges correctly and doesn’t consume too much energy. One of Nikkei’s …
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If you’re going through a difficult time, Facebook wants to help. Its artificial intelligence software can now use pattern recognition to scan Facebook posts and live videos for suicidal thoughts. Once the technology has identified a problem post through what the company calls proactive detection, it alerts a team of human moderators who specialize in dealing with suicide and self …
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Samsung fans who have been jealously, or at least curiously, eyeing the iPhone X’s Face ID unlock feature maybe shouldn’t pin their dreams on the Galaxy S9 getting 3D facial mapping, too. This comes from a report in Business Korea, citing sources inside and outside the company. The Galaxy S8, S8 Plus and Note 8 already have the face unlock functionality, …
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US vascular surgeon John Martin found cancerous cells in his own neck while testing a portable ultrasound device called Butterfly iQ. The Butterfly iQ connects to your iPhone and looks a bit like an electric razor. Place it on the area of the body you wish to examine and a black-and-white ultrasound image will appear on your phone. The Butterfly …
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These days, Amazon vacuums up most of the attention when it comes to retail innovation. Voice commerce? Check. Drone delivery? Check. Automated warehouses? Check. But more than any other rival this year, Walmart seems to be challenging Amazon with aggressive efforts meant to show that it, too, is dreaming up new ways for people to shop. At The Wall Street …
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Intel might be an old-school computing company, but the chipmaker thinks the latest trends in artificial intelligence will keep it an important part of your high-tech life. AI technology called machine learning today is instrumental to taking good photos, translating languages, recognizing your friends on Facebook, delivering search results, screening out spam and many other chores. It usually uses an …
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