Category: TECH

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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Microsoft just officially listed AI as one of its top priorities

Dianne Jacobs

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

Staff Writer

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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HomePod firmware confirms the next iPhone will use infrared face unlock

Dianne Jacobs

Pinning down the precise features of the next iPhone has been difficult of late. A standard “S” model iPhone 7 and 7 Plus that won’t be radically different from last year’s is expected, but we’re also expecting a high-end model. It appears, based on a tweet from developer Steve Troughton-Smith, that at least one of those models will have face unlock. And the high-end model (alternately referred to as the “iPhone Pro,” “iPhone 8,” or even “iPhone X”) will have a bezel-less screen that wraps around the speaker and cameras…

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Nigerian entrepreneur wants Silicon Valley to fund a future where Africa is included.

Iyinoluwa Aboyeji , the cofounder of Flutterwave a payments API that makes it easier for banks and businesses to process payments across Africa, wants to transform how Africans pay by Connecting them to the digital economy. The 26-year-old entrepreneur founded the payments API that allows consumers to pay for things in their local currency; Flutterwave takes care of integrating banks and payment-service providers into its platform so businesses don’t have to take on the expense and burden. American investors just poured $10 million of fresh funding into it. This sizable…

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Microsoft MS Paint to get axed from Windows 10

Staff Writer

Microsoft plans to stop developing the iconic Paint program, nudging it a step closer to the end. The Tech Giant announced last week that it will stop actively developing Paint starting with a fall update to Windows 10, its flagship operating system. As a result, Paint could be removed altogether in future updates: The once vital component is now vestigial. In a statement, Microsoft played down the news, noting that Paint will continue to be available for free download and many of its features will remain in other places, including…

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Co-operation between international tech sectors is better for everyone

Brex

Technological co-operation between firms can be essential to boosting successful innovative businesses by creating networks of knowledge flows.  International cooperation and collaboration between individuals, businesses and sectors has been central to the sector’s runaway growth in the tech industry. In London, a start-up can find success by working with skilled European workers backed by capital from Asian investors. The same can be said for any major tech cluster around the world. There is evidence to highlight the importance of technology collaboration for innovative businesses. For instance, Winters and Stam (2007),…

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Microsoft’s new app narrates the world for blind people

Staff Writer

Microsoft recently released a smartphone app that uses computer vision to describe the world for the visually impaired. The Seeing AI  allows users to point their phone’s camera at a person and it’ll say who they are and how they’re feeling. They can also point it at a product and it’ll tell them what it is. All of this is done using artificial intelligence that runs locally on their phone. “Just hold up your phone and hear information about the world around you,” Microsoft promises. It seems almost magical when…

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Global Tech Websites unite to save Net Neutrality

Dianne Jacobs

Net neutrality is a principle about fairness on the Internet. It holds that no ISP should be able to unfairly manipulate your Internet usage or your experience of the Web, particularly in ways that harm other businesses. It means that ISPs don’t get to choose which data is sent more quickly, and which sites get blocked or throttled and who has to pay extra. About 200 internet companies and activist groups are coming together today to mobilize their users into opposing US government plans to scrap net neutrality protection. Facebook,…

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