CNET According to a report published by Blancco Technology Group, iPhones have been weighed down by a multitude of performance issues and high failure rates over the past year. Must read: 10 things Steve Jobs would hate about Apple today According to the report, crashes, bugs, battery drain issues, performance issues and such have driven iOS device failure rate from 15 percent during the last quarter to […]
This example of a 3-D ladar point cloud shows a fully foliated field site. Color indicates elevation above the ground, with red tones indicating a higher elevation value (for example, tree tops and vegetation) and blue tones indicating lower elevation value (ground-level vegetation and the ground itself). Credit: Massachusetts Institute of Technology The United States shares 5,525 miles of land border with Canada and 1,989 miles with […]
The shift from film to digital technology appears to have improved cancer detection rates for diagnostic mammography, but also has increased the abnormal interpretation rate, which may lead to more women undergoing biopsies for benign conditions, according to a new study that appears online in the journal Radiology. The major new study comes from the National Cancer Institute-funded Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium (BCSC), a large, diverse set […]
We’re all exposed to unhealthy traffic pollutants, but people who spend a lot of time on or very near higher-traffic roads get more. The Center for Public Integrity and Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting teamed up to look at the schools across the country that sit within 500 feet of busy roads. We picked that distance because, in general, studies suggest that the biggest daytime […]
In a 2011 biography of Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson wrote that the Apple co-founder “very much wanted to do for television sets what he had done for computers, music players, and phones: make them simple and elegant.” Jobs told Isaacson that he had “finally cracked” the key to creating an easy-to-use smart TV that synced with all your devices and the cloud; “the simplest user […]
Every so often, I like to dream about how we could think differently about the building blocks of the news industry. So far, I’ve tackled headlines, homepages, bylines, analytics, podcast ideas, comment sections and ideas for covering the President; in today’s installment, I’ll list some new ideas for newsletters. The nice thing about newsletters is that they’re great experimental platforms to test ideas and try new things. […]
There is good news that an economical manufacturing method for producing low-cost solar cells is coming up. This follows researchers making strides in overcoming the hurdle of the temperature gradient in developing a low-temperature production process. Thanks to researchers at the University of Toronto, the making of perovskite solar cells is looking easy in sharp contrast to the costly development of silicon solar cells. Hairen Tan of the […]
South Korean prosecutors have charged Lee Jae-yong, Samsung’s de facto boss, with bribery, embezzlement and other offences in connection with the country’s sprawling corruption scandal. The move on Tuesday is a blow to the leadership transition to the third generation of the founding family of South Korea’s largest conglomerate. The indictment of the 48-year-old vice-chairman of Samsung Electronics, along with four other Samsung executives, comes as the […]
Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG) convert mechanical energy harvested from the environment to electricity for powering small devices such as sensors or for recharging consumer electronics. Now, researchers have harnessed these devices to improve the charging of molecules in a way that dramatically boosts the sensitivity of a widely-used chemical analysis technique. (via WSJ)
Chatbots are fast becoming one of the pillars of artificial intelligence. In both internal and external communications, chatbots are becoming more accurate, consistent, scalable, and cost effective than humans. In the enterprise, chatbots are now being used to improve workflow, and asset optimisation joining up data from across the organisation. Palo Alto-based Maana has partnered with New York-based chatbot technology company exClone Inc to bring specialised chatbots […]
By Thomas Escritt | AMSTERDAM AMSTERDAM Since the evening in 2004 when policemen arrived unannounced to escort him and his wife to safety, Geert Wilders has lived in safe houses under 24-hour guard to protect him from Islamist militants who threatened to kill him. Film-maker Theo van Gogh had been shot, stabbed and nearly beheaded by a militant Islamist earlier that day, and Wilders, another prominent critic […]
New smartphones will use AI to carry out tasks The smartphone revolution is poised to go onto the next level—with “superphones” equipped with artificial intelligence now on the horizon. By learning their owners’ habits, these new phones will be able to carry out tasks even when they’re offline. During a first phase only high-end smartphones will use the technology, like the new models unveiled by China’s […]
By Se Young Lee and Ju-min Park | SEOUL SEOUL South Korean prosecutors said on Tuesday they will charge Samsung Group [SARG.UL] chief Jay Y. Lee with bribery and embezzlement as the top conglomerate announced the dismantling of its corporate strategy office, the latest developments in a scandal that has rocked the country for months. Jay Y. Lee, 48, was arrested on Feb. 17 over his alleged […]
Alexa is smart, feature-rich, and pretty innovative, but it has trouble spots, particularly with differentiating different voices to respond to. That may change soon. Amazon is reportedly developing an advanced voice-recognition feature that will allow Alexa to tell different voices apart, according to sources familiar with Amazon’s Alexa strategy. Will Alexa Be Able To Tell Voices Apart Soon? The report comes from Time. Alexa, like many virtual assistant, […]
Kim Smith was not given terms and conditions when her employer offered her a fitness tracker last year. The 27-year-old, who holds a junior position in a big media company, entered data such as how much water she drank and her weight on the GPS-enabled device. The number of steps she — and her colleagues who joined the programme — took each day were recorded on a […]
By Se Young Lee and Ju-min Park | SEOUL SEOUL South Korean prosecutors said on Tuesday they will charge Samsung Group chief Jay Y. Lee with bribery and embezzlement as the top conglomerate announced the dismantling of its corporate strategy office, the latest developments in a scandal that has rocked the country for months. Jay Y. Lee, 48, was arrested on Feb. 17 over his alleged role […]
By 2019, 77 percent of businesses in Australia will have embraced the Internet of Things (IoT) in some form, according to a study by Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company. In its latest study, The Internet of Things: Today and Tomorrow, Aruba said the remaining 13 percent of Australian organisations are currently not thinking about an IoT strategy, with approximately 8 percent of those surveyed still unclear […]
Shortly after breaking the Panama Papers, an international exclusive that shed light on illegal offshore banking around the globe, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists should have been riding high. Instead, the scrappy cross-border investigative team was facing the dreary prospect of laying staffers off due to a financial squeeze at its parent organization, the Center for Public Integrity. “I did feel a little deflated,” said Gerard […]
Thousands of ants converge to follow the most direct path from their colony to their food and back. A swarm of inexpensive, unmanned drones quickly map an offshore oil spill. What could these events have in common? Each extremely complex task is accomplished by individuals following very simple rules. But to make the drones do it, a bit of nature’s magic must be captured in a […]
Rumors have been circulating recently about a looming expansion for Hearthstone following the major Gadgetzan update late last year. The leaks have cited the so-called The Lost Secrets of Un’Goro update and Blizzard has officially confirmed it last Feb. 27. The publisher, however, announced a slightly different title, which is Journey to Un’Goro. Ancient Jungle Essentially, Un’Goro is purportedly an ancient jungle teeming with primordial wonders. So you can expect […]
Early last year Olivier Leprêtre signed a new lease on a €2.7m fishing boat. Then the UK voted to leave the EU — and the trawlerman from Boulogne-sur-Mer on the other side of the Channel is already regretting his decision. “If I’d known Brexit would happen, I never would have signed,” he says, gesturing towards the British coastline just 50km away. “It could crush us.” His fears […]
The Australian government has told the Senate Economics References Committee that the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) will subject its forthcoming policy and procedural changes to an independent Privacy Impact Assessment and “broad consultation” before implementing them in response to the 2016 Census debacle. One such change, however, will not include allowing citizens to omit their names from Census forms, with the government holding firm that it […]
The fact that farm incomes have come under increasing pressure over the past couple of years should come as little surprise to our readers (for those who missed our latest update, see: “Midwest Farm Bubble Continues Collapse As Farm Incomes Expected To Crash In 2017“). Unfortunately, at least according to Bank of America’s Global Ag Chemical team led by Steve Byrne, farmers shouldn’t expect a reprieve any […]
SHANGHAI An undisclosed buyer has placed the largest overseas order for China’s home-developed military drones, the Xinhua news agency has reported, in a boost for the Chinese arms industry’s efforts to increase export volumes. The order for the Wing Loong II was placed before the next-generation unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) successfully completed its maiden flight, Xinhua said late on Monday, citing the system’s developer Chengdu Aircraft Design […]
