Tag Archives: vr-101

Senate votes to kill broadband privacy rules

The Senate voted Thursday to approve a measure that could make it easier for broadband providers to sell private information about you to marketers. In a 50-48 vote, lawmakers approved a joint resolution from Sen. Jeff Flake, a Republican from Arizona, that uses the Congressional Review Act to prevent privacy rules passed by the Federal …

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Amazon’s next big market: Dubai?

Amazon may be nearing one of its biggest acquisitions in years, this time with its eyes on growing in Middle East e-commerce. Reuters reported Wednesday that Amazon agreed in principle to buy Dubai-based Souq.com, one of the biggest e-retailers in the Arab world. The site, started in 2005, sells over 400,000 products including electronics, clothes and household goods. Wednesday’s story …

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Galaxy S8 and beyond: Samsung bets big on Bixby’s AI

Now playing: Watch this: Samsung’s Bixby voice assistant will reach beyond Galaxy… 1:27 “Hi, Bixby. What’s Samsung planning to do with you?” A lot, it turns out. Bixby is Samsung’s new digital voice assistant, and it will debut on the upcoming Galaxy S8. It will have its own dedicated button on the side of the phone, letting you communicate with …

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Google seizes the season change with two Doodles

It may not feel like it on the US East Coast with mounds of snow piled along the streets, but Monday marks the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. Of course, if you’re below the equator, it marks the first day of fall. Google is heralding the day with Doodles. The word “equinox” comes from the Latin for …

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Spotify might restrict some album releases to paid users

If you aren’t a paying customer of Spotify, you may soon be missing out on some big album releases on the streaming-music service. The startup is in talks with several major record labels to lower the royalty fees that Spotify pays for their music, the Financial Times reported Thursday. In exchange, Spotify would for a limited time restrict access on …

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Google Tango means you’ll never get lost in a store again

Now playing: Watch this: Google Tango will change how you shop 1:59 As a kid, I always wanted to be on the TV show “Supermarket Sweep.” In the middle of a Lowe’s store in 2017, my dream almost came true. The home improvement retailer is rolling out an augmented-reality app that tells you the fastest way to find items on …

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​Vivaldi wants to make your web browsing history useful

Where you’ve already been on the web turns out to be a pretty important predictor of where you’d like to go next. That’s why the next version of Vivaldi, a newer competitor to the likes of Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, is putting browser history front and center. The new Vivaldi 1.8, due to arrive as soon as next week, …

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Amazon: Automation doesn’t have to kill jobs

A front cover of the New York Post in December offered an unflattering view of Amazon Go, a test convenience store that does away with cashiers. The cover included Robby the Robot modified with Amazon branding and standing beside the giant headline: “THE END OF JOBS.” Paul Misener, Amazon’s vice president of global innovation, sees things a little differently. “We’ve …

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New York City sues Verizon over unfinished fiber rollout

No one likes it when the cable guy runs late, especially New Yorkers. Nine years after signing a contract with Verizon to bring fiber-optic internet and television service to the city’s 3.1 million households — and nearly three years after the 2014 deadline to finish the job — New York City officials are sick of waiting. The city filed a …

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Up to 48 million Twitter accounts are bots, study says

Someone just liked your tweet. Someone else followed you. Do you know them? No? They could be among the nearly 48 million bots on Twitter, according to study released last week by the University of Southern California and Indiana University. The study, which used more than 1,000 features to identify bot accounts on the site across six categories, estimated that …

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