Opera shuts down its Opera Max Service

Opera Max has been the rising star in Opera’s portfolio. The service offered a system-wide data-saving proxy that funnelled all app data through Opera’s servers to compress images and videos. Initially, opening a web page required users to calculate the amount of data that they would spend. Smartphones have been always data hungry and people tried all sorts of ways to save the smallest KiloBytes of data. It is this where Opera’s data saving app came to the rescue. Opera developed some clever algorithms and used in their Opera Max…

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Explore the latest threats to your mobile device security

It is common knowledge that mobile devices are integral to both our personal and business lives. With cyberattacks against individuals, businesses, and government entities increasing in frequency and sophistication, it is no surprise that mobile devices are now considered by threat actors to be one of the weakest links in the IT infrastructure of most enterprises. A decade ago, mobile malware was considered a new and unlikely threat. Many mobile device users even considered themselves immune from such threats.  Currently, more than 1.5 million new incidents of mobile malware have…

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AI is now at the heart of every innovative economy

Technology

How do you solve an enormous problem like stagnant global growth? It would require getting more productivity from people already working flat out. The solution? Well, it comes from something other than people, of course. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to double the GDP growth rates of 12 developed economies by 2035 a study found out. The study, entitled Why Artificial Intelligence is the Future of Growth, also found that AI could significantly boost labour productivity – by up to 40pc in some cases. Between them, the 12 countries…

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LinkedIn loses legal right to block startup from public profile data

A Judge on Monday ruled that an analytics company has the right to scrape data from LinkedIn . HiQ, the data gatherer, has been processing publicly available data from LinkedIn and using it to train AI models, until May when LinkedIn demanded it stop.  U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco granted a preliminary injunction request brought by hiQ Labs, and ordered LinkedIn to remove within 24 hours any technology preventing hiQ from accessing public profiles in a test of how much control a social media site can wield…

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Are Data Brokers Actually Secure?

Are you an internet privacy fanatic? Do you block browser tracking cookies? Do you use Duck Duck Go for anonymous web searches? It doesn’t matter now. Your internet service provider (ISP) or your browser extensions can collect and sell your web-browsing history even if you take the above precautions. And anyone who obtains that data, whether the data is anonymized or not, will likely be able to figure out your real name and see exactly what you do online. Back in March the well-publicised repeal of Obama’s broadband privacy regulations…

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One on One with Sendy Ltd: Using Technology to bring efficiency in business

Think back to how business was done a few decades ago. There was no email, Internet, mobile marketing, telecommuting or smartphones. Innovations in technology have improved operations at companies of all sizes. ITBusinessDirect spoke with Sendy Ltd, a tech platform in Kenya that connects businesses to Drivers to make delivery simple and transparent, on the tech ecosystem in Kenya. The session is majorly on the digital innovation trends and the set backs faced by Tech start ups in the industry. Question: Its true that Technology brings businesses closer to customers. How can…

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Facebook making its workforce more diverse

Diversity is core of business at Facebook.  According to an update by the social media company, diversity enables them to build better products, make better decisions and help bring the world closer together. While most tech companies struggle to make their workplaces more diverse and less dominated by white and male employees, Facebook has managed to hire more women and minorities in the last year in almost every category it tracks. Of course, the improvements are still very incremental, but the improvements show that Facebook’s efforts, led by executive diversity…

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Microsoft just officially listed AI as one of its top priorities

Microsoft just named artificial intelligence as one of its top priorities in a financial filing. The annual report for the company’s 2017 fiscal year, which ended on June 30, now includes six references to AI, up from zero in the previous annual report. And the company has plunked AI into its corporate vision statement, too. “Our strategic vision is to compete and grow by building best-in-class platforms and productivity services for an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge infused with AI,” the company wrote in the annual report, which was…

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Samsung to dethrone Intel as world’s largest chipmaker

South Korean technology giant Samsung Electronics Co. has overtaken Santa Clara, Calif. based Intel Corp.’s (INTC) as the world’s No. 1 chipmaker in terms of revenue. Samsung, most well-known for its smartphones and televisions, reported second-quarter sales of $15.7 billion for its semiconductor unit and operating profit of $7.1 billion. For the first time, Intel fell behind its Asian rival with Q2 chip revenue of $14.8 billion and operating profit of $3.8 billion. Samsung mainly generates its chip segment revenue through selling memory chips used in mobile devices, as opposed…

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Microsoft to include in-built eye tracking support Windows 10

Microsoft is planning to add native eye tracking support into Windows 10. The new support is primarily designed to help those suffering from neuro-muscular diseases like ALS and other disabilities to control the various interface elements in Windows 10 without a traditional mouse and keyboard. This ranges from gazing at apps to launch them, or using an onscreen keyboard to glance at characters and type out words. Dubbed Eye Control in Windows 10, the new feature will require hardware like Tobii’s Eye Tracker 4C. Microsoft has worked closely with Tobii…

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