Google today is expanding its speech recognition capabilities to support dozens of new languages, particularly those in emerging markets in India and Africa, the company announced this morning. That means more people around the world will gain the ability to search the web by voice as well as type via voice using Google’s keyboard app, Gboard. The company says with the update,… Read More
Glossybox, a BirchBox clone launched by the Samwer brothers back in 2011 to deliver willing consumers a monthly subscription of beauty products, has been acquired by UK online retailer and ecommerce platform operator, The Hut Group (THG). Read More
Snapchat is teaming up with The Pokémon Company to introduce a new Pikachu filter to the app. The official Pikachu filter applies the electric mouse’s trademark rosy cheeks, pointy ears, black nose and big eyes to faces in the app, and when users open their mouth the iconic Pikachu cry rings out as an animated version of the characters leaps into frame.
The Pikachu filter is a pretty… Read More
Security startup Canary is bringing a handful of new features to its camera products, the all-in-one and Flex. Most notable here is the addition of two-way audio, which has been conspicuously absent from the company’s products and ranks as their “most demanded feature,” according to Canary. The feature lets users speak through the camera, using a mobile device with the Canary… Read More
Uber is launching its in-app tipping feature for drivers in the U.K. Starting tomorrow, Uber passengers will be able to tip their driver using the app for rides and/or food via UberEATS. Back in June, Uber added in-app tipping capabilities for passengers to give drivers a little extra something in the U.S.
“While drivers have told us they love the freedom of being their own boss… Read More
Tesla has a new way to demonstrate the possibilities of its home solar products to potential customers – using a ‘tiny house’ on wheels, which it can tow on a rolling tour with a Tesla Model X. The Tesla Tiny House made its official debut in Australia (via Electrek), where it will welcome visitors at Melbourne’s Federation Square, before taking off for a… Read More
Rovio, the Finnish company behind Angry Birds, is planning to go public “as early as next month,” Bloomberg reports.
Citing sources, Bloomberg reports the IPO could value Rovio at $2 billion and that the company could raise about $400 million from a local market listing. Though, it seems that a final decision has yet to be made, meaning Rovio may decide to stay private for… Read More
Google’s Cloud Speech API, which has allowed developers to use Google’s services to transcribe spoken words into text since its launch in 2016, is getting a major update today. The most interesting of these is probably the addition of support for 30 new languages on top of the 89 languages the service already understood (though, to be fair, Google includes multiple regional variants… Read More
The first time Huong Tran pitched a group of Vietnamese investors on Epomi, a beauty retail startup she founded in 2014, she was shocked by their reaction. “They told me that women are too emotional to run a business and they don’t like investing in them,” she said. “This was one of the leading international VC firms in Vietnam—I didn’t expect this.”… Read More
Shonda Rhimes is coming to Netflix.
The writer/producer whose television empire spans from West Coast hospitals to a scandal-wracked West Wing is joining the Netflix stable of exclusive content.
It’s a blow to Rhimes’ longtime distributors at ABC, whose parent company Disney announced earlier this week that they’d be pulling their titles from Netflix’s streaming… Read More
White supremacist site Daily Stormer needs to find another domain provider after getting the boot from GoDaddy. In a tweet, the company said “We informed The Daily Stormer that they have 24 hours to move the domain to another provider, as they have violated our terms of service.” Read More
As the nation recovers from yesterday’s tragic violence caused by pro-nazi and white supremacist rallies that took place in Charlottesville, Va., Twitter users have been mobilizing to identify the participants in the weekend’s events. Since early Sunday morning, the @YesYoureRacist account has been calling on Twitter users to identify participants in the rally. If you recognize… Read More
With a 1-2 gut punch of streaming video on demand services for Disney and ESPN content, Disney looked straight into Netflix’s eyes and pronounced, “Game On!” So, how worried should Netflix and its investors be?
In a word, “Very.” Read More
We humans use machines as tools — and the advent of AI doesn’t change this. “Machines aren’t rational,” argues Hilary Mason, implying that there are many more important things for us to worry about than an imminent singularity. Read More
Some had guns and some carried sticks and shields. Some carried homemade pepper spray and mace. But one thing nearly everyone on all sides carried: a camera. There were television cameras, DSLRs, 360-cameras and, most commonly of all, simple smartphones. It was the one constant in the crowds of yesterday’s showdown between politically emboldened white nationalists and counter-protesters… Read More
This past week’s news that Netflix would purchase independent comics publisher Millarworld is hardly an outlier. It echoes larger moves made by Warner Brothers and Disney, when they purchased the two largest comics publishers, DC and Marvel, respectively, cementing their own cinematic comics universes. And while the specifics of those deals differ, both have kept their comics… Read More
Down with the tyranny of geography. Down with commuting, “the daily activity most injurious to human happiness.” Down with allegedly “collaborative” open floor plans built such that “high-level executives […] are exempt from this collaborative environment.” Up with more time, greater flexibility, and, believe it or not, higher productivity.… Read More
What a day for Bitcoin. 24 hours ago the cryptocurrency was trading below $3,700. About an hour ago it surged passed $4,000 and has no signs of stopping. It’s now trading around $4,135.00. For reference, a week ago Bitcoin hit an all-time high as it passed $3,000 for the first time. Check out the chart below to see what the price has done in the last 24 hours. So the million… Read More
Amazon is issuing refunds for those who’ve purchased possibly fake solar eclipse glasses on the site in anticipation of this summer’s big solar eclipse event. A lot of folks have been gearing up for the event that will — depending on where you are — either totally block out the sun or partially block it as the eclipse moves across the North American hemisphere on… Read More
For many of us, our first experience with fake meat involves rubbery tofu that tastes more like sneaker sole than seared filet. As we forage on, next come the veggie burgers, the soy dogs, the meatless meatballs. Eventually, we grow accustomed to these protein-dense foodstuffs. And yet, what if fake meat tasted and satiated like the real deal? Read More
