They say Britain and America are two countries separated by a common language — bad news for Amazon‘s Alexa, the voice-controlled personal assistant built into Amazon Echo and Echo Dot speakers. As the Echo crosses the pond to the UK, Alexa has had to learn a whole new version of English. So in the interests …
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Facebook is letting brands try to get chummier with you by expanding the capabilities of chatbots in Messenger. David Marcus, Facebook’s vice president of messaging products, said Tuesday the initial success that companies have seen in reaching customers via Messenger spurred the expansion. He spoke at Web Summit 2016 in Dublin. As early as this week, you may start to …
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Google has begun using artificial intelligence to categorize Android apps on its Google Play store, the company said Tuesday. Using technology called a neural network, which is based loosely on the way human brains work, Google processes app names and descriptions to try to figure out which ones to show in search results. It’s not hard to show the Snapchat …
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Now playing: Watch this: Samsung’s ‘Bixby’ assistant may have its own button on… 1:55 Samsung plans to launch an artificial intelligence digital assistant with its upcoming Galaxy S8 phone, the company said Sunday according to Reuters. The announcement comes a month after Samsung revealed it had agreed to acquire the artificial intelligence startup behind Viv — a voice assistant that …
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The Google Play store is about to get an upgrade Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is looking to address developers’ concerns about the app store, including the difficulty of sifting through the sheer number of apps, Reuters reported Thursday. According to market researcher Statista, Google Play offers more than 2.4 million apps. Improvements could include using artificial intelligence to boost the …
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Uber is trying to save passengers time. How? By completely overhauling its app, putting a focus on speed and efficiency. “It’s not just a normal update,” Uber CEO Travis Kalanick said during a press briefing Tuesday at the company’s swanky San Francisco headquarters. “This is a radical redesign and rebuild of the app from scratch.” Uber’s premise is simple: It …
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The next time you “direct message” a company on Twitter, the reply could be so instantaneous it doesn’t even seem human. Maybe, that’s because it’s not. On Tuesday, Twitter said it was rolling out the ability for companies to set up automated customer service messages in DMs, like welcome greetings and replies meant to direct you to a quick solution. …
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A set of tiny, pop-in earbuds that can play audio and magically tune out the rest of the world…or let other audio feeds in. That’s what Here One is promising. It’s a vision that combines the 2013 movie “Her” with next-level noise cancelling technology. I’ve tried a pair, briefly. And I’m still trying to figure out what I was listening …
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The new Google Pixel phone has a super camera, with snappy performance and image quality that beats Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus overall. So how did Google do it? A lot of the success comes from a technology Google calls HDR+ that blends multiple photos into one to overcome common problems with mobile phone photography. Knowing that photography is a top-three …
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Facebook, the world’s largest social network, wants to help you be more, well, social. In an IRL kind of way. On Wednesday, the company added several new features that let you buy tickets to movies and events like concerts or festivals, get a price quote from a plumber, or let friends make restaurant suggestions — complete with a map — …
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