Amazon has confirmed it’s releasing its own smartphone. It’s not quite the 3D spectacular originally rumored and another of itsย key features is as much about Amazon’s bottom line as user benefit. The 32GB edition of the Fire phone is available exclusively on AT&T for $199 with a service plan, or you can buy it without […]
A New York designer has created a dress that exposes her skin in proportion to the amount of data she has — knowingly or otherwise — exposed about herself online. Xuedi Chen says the project is designed to explore questions about how personal information is made public when somebody uses online services: “Since I have […]
The US government is to allow mapping sites to use more detailed satellite images. It could lead to more disputes about personal and corporate privacy and national security. Until now, companies using satellites could only publish pictures at a resolution that meant items or features had to be at least 50 centimeters across to be […]
Did you know, the entire library of 822 original NES games can now fit on one single microSDXC card… 40 TIMES! [Source: Reddit]
A Russian computer program is said to have become the first to pass the “Turing Test” for artificial intelligence. Whether that’s the case is a question of interpretation. The Turing test is named after computer pioneer Alan Turing, whose 1950 paper “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” examined whether computers can think. He said such a question […]
The University of Michigan is building a 32-acre model city for testing self-driving cars. The Mobile Transformation Facility will include both a city centre with the traditional grid model and a four-lane highway. Realistic features will include “merge lanes, stoplights, intersections, roundabouts, road signs, a railroad crossing, building facades, construction barrels and eventually a mechanical […]
If you want to fool the Secret Service, it appears sarcasm might be the way to go. The agency is looking for software that can figure out when social media users don’t mean exactly what they say. In a procurement document, spotted by the BBC, the agency is asking for a commercial firm to provide […]
Pixar is giving away rendering software used to make movies such as Toy Story. It will be free to use for non-commercial projects. The RenderMan software is not only used for Pixar’s own movies but has been licensed to other studios for movies such as the Harry Potter series. The software is designed for ray […]
Confused about Net Neutrality? Watch this. Know someone confused by Net Neutrality? Watch this. (Contains some language.) [via HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver]
Microsoft has demonstrated Skype carrying out voice translation almost instantaneously. It plans to roll out the feature to the public starting later this year. Voice translation has been around for several years, with varying degrees of success. In 2010, Google unveiled a voice feature in Google Translate that — in theory at least — allowed […]