Category: Biz Tech

While emojis will certainly not replace texts in messages anytime soon, it is increasingly integrated into modern electronic communication. That is why when Apple redesigned the peach emoji for an iOS 10 beta version, the company drew immense amount of flak, prompting a complete turnaround. Realistic iOS Style This issue has two important variables going for it. First, there is Apple's drive to redesign the entire range of emojis available in future iterations of the iOS. In the current beta versions, the changes indicate

Snapchat parent company, Snap Inc., has just filed confidentiality for its initial public offering (IPO), according to reports. News about a Snapchat IPO at a $25 billion valuation first surfaced back in October, and new reports now bolster such claims. The company is reportedly seeing to raise $4 billion, which would lead to a valuation of $25 to $35 billion. The confidential filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) means that the annual revenue Snap Inc. makes is lower than $1 billion,

Clouds, weather conditions and intense urban lighting may have prevented some people to see and appreciate the supermoon this week but there were lucky ones who were able to gaze and capture amazing photos of the moon. One man may have been luckier though as he was able to capture what some think is a video of UFOs passing by the lunar orb. The supermoon watcher managed to film what he claimed to be UFOs while he was viewing and taking videos

By Lauren Hirsch and Liana B. Baker Snapchat has filed for an initial public offering, sources familiar with the situation said on Tuesday, which puts the messaging app a step closer to the biggest U.S. stock market debut since 2014. The Venice, California-based company could go public as soon as March and be valued at $20 billion to $25 billion, making it the largest IPO since Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's (BABA.N) went public two years ago valued at $170.9

By Paul Sandle | LONDON LONDON Google delivered a vote of confidence in London's future as a technological hub after the Brexit vote on Tuesday by announcing plans for a new building in the King's Cross area of the city that will house thousands of extra engineers. Google's Chief Executive Sundar Pichai said computer science had a great future in Britain, citing the talent pool, educational institutions, and passion for innovation present in the country. "That's why we are investing in London in

That WhatsApp has been working on a new functionality — support for video calling — is no secret. The company has now officially confirmed that the much-awaited feature is finally being pushed out for iOS, Windows and Android. On Monday, Nov. 14, the company confirmed the video calling feature's arrival for the three ecosystems in a blog post. WhatsApp's move was motivated by the fact that its users have been requesting the service to introduce video calling for a while now. "We're

Alphabet's Google announced the formation of an artificial intelligence group for Google Cloud, the tech company's latest gambit to increase its market share in the lucrative cloud computing business. Diane Greene, who leads Google's cloud business, announced the team at an event at the company's facilities in San Francisco. The group will be led by Fei-Fei Li, an artificial intelligence professor at Stanford University, and researcher Jia Li. “What really attracted these two people to come and be in Google Cloud is

Big changes are coming to Overwatch. In addition to a new character in the form of the hacker Sombra and the new "Arcade" game mode, Blizzard is also changing up the game's leveling system. It's that last change that has some players worried. Each time a player levels up they get a loot box, which contains various skins, sprays and voice lines for the game's characters. As Overwatch works now, the first few levels (roughly level 1-23) go by pretty fast, as

Halloween may have ended, but you can still don the wizard or witch's hat, pull out your imaginary Elder Wand, and drift into a world that is laced with wonder and enchantment. Or you can simply try some sleight of hand with the new Harry Potter spells that are courtesy of Amazon. Yes, even if you're a Muggle. Thanks to a few basic search bar hacks, the Hermione or Harry in you can simply wave about their imaginary wand and type the spell/enchanted words

A day before its official release, OnePlus 3T has already made an appearance at Oppomart. While the item appears to be serving as a placeholder, some of the listed specifications seem to be the real deal and they confirm a number of leaked information in the past few weeks. Confirming OnePlus 3T Leaks For starters, OnePlus is really calling the device as OnePlus 3T. How about the Snapdragon 821 processor? That is a big check as well. "The OnePlus 3T operational capacity and performance

Samsung has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Harman, the designer and maker of connection products for automakers, in a bid to expand and accelerate its growth in connected technologies. On Monday, Nov. 14 the Korean company confirmed that it will buy Harman for $112 per share, which brings the cost of acquisition to about $8 billion. Harman has a strong presence in the auto market as more than 30 million cars are equipped with the company's

By Julia Love and Kristina Cooke | SAN FRANCISCO SAN FRANCISCO Alphabet Inc's Google said on Monday it is working on a policy change to prevent websites that misrepresent content from using its AdSense advertising network, a move aimed at halting the spread of "fake news" and other types of misinformation on the internet. The shift comes as Google, Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc face a backlash over the role they played in the U.S. presidential election by allowing the spread of

Microsoft officially revealed its Black Friday 2016 deals, cutting deep into the price of various Surface devices, Xbox consoles and Windows 10 PCs. With Black Friday just around the corner, deals are starting to pile up and exciting offers can be found at nearly all reputable retailers and online shops, including the Microsoft Store. For this year's Black Friday, Microsoft has prepared an assortment of discounted devices to suit various tastes, needs, preferences and budgets, offering a number of deals that allow

Apple Inc (AAPL.O) is considering expanding into wearable glass headsets and has talked about the project with potential suppliers, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar with the matter. The wearable headset would show images, along with other information and may use augmented reality, according to the report. Chief Executive Tim Cook, who has been struggling with a slowdown in iPhone sales in recent quarters, said earlier this year that the company would continue to invest a lot into augmented reality. Apple, the world's largest

By Hugh Bronstein | BUENOS AIRES BUENOS AIRES Donald Trump's election as U.S. president raises concern that Washington may increase the intrusiveness of domestic intelligence gathering, former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden said on Monday, warning that democratic checks and balances were losing ground to authoritarianism. Snowden lives in Moscow under an asylum deal after he leaked classified information in 2013 that triggered an international furore over the reach of U.S. spy operations. He spoke at a teleconference hosted by Buenos

Ever wanted to have some aspect of your deceased loved ones with you wherever you go? Swiss company Algordanza can make that happen. Algordanza is a Swiss company that specializes in turning deceased loved ones into diamonds, a service that begins at $5,000 and can go as high as $20,000.  ( Algordanza ) When we die, our lifeless body is buried in the ground, mummified or turned to ash. Things have been going on like this for thousands of years; however, a

If you are envious of those who own the Android 7.1 Nougat-powered Google Pixel or Pixel XL smartphones because of the fingerprint gestures feature, there's no need to turn green. You can now get the same on your Android Marshmallow smartphone too! How you ask? Thanks to a new app called Fingerprint Gestures that enables the nifty feature on handsets powered by Android 6.0 Marshmallow. So courtesy of this app from developer SuperThomasLab, the fingerprint gestures on the Pixel XL or the Pixel will

An aspiring weatherman in Kentucky has been charged with arson after he allegedly started a wildfire and then uploaded the video on Facebook. The 21-year-old Johnny Mullins admitted to the crime of starting the wildfire, according to the local police chief. Starting A Wildfire For Facebook Views "It's really too bad because he's not a bad kid — he's just misguided," said Jenkins, Kentucky police chief James Stephens. Mullin likes making Facebook videos and then having people follow him as he does his "weather forecast,"

The Nintendo Switch 2017 Presentation on Jan. 12, in which more details regarding the upcoming hybrid console will be revealed, is still several weeks away. While waiting for more information to be released by Nintendo regarding the Nintendo Switch, rumors and speculations are running rampant for the details that are still unknown for the device. Garnering perhaps the most amount of speculation among the unknown specifics of the Nintendo Switch, however, is the price tag that Nintendo will attach to the hybrid

The PlayStation 4 Pro launched on Thursday, a significant graphical bump over its predecessor, PlayStation 4. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is one of the many games poised to take advantage of its 4K capability this early, and its performance has now been put to the test. Despite veering slightly off-center from its past iterations, COD: Infinite Warfare is still, at its core, a Call of Duty game, retaining the bulk of borrowed elements embedded in the original series. Seeing the game run on a native resolution

Snap Inc. — Snapchat's new name — and Nintendo launched the Spectacles and NES Classic Edition respectively, and they have proved to be some of the hottest tech products this month. The wearable and the retro gaming console are terribly difficult to come by, as they sold like hotcakes when they rolled out. That means there are a lot of disappointed fans out there, and "a lot" is probably a big understatement. Snapchat Spectacles: Wearable Tech Keeps Selling Out Fast Priced at $129, the Spectacles

If you've been salivating over Snapchat's Spectacles, the company's video-recording plaything unveiled back in September, you'll be pleased to know Vuzix's Blade 3000 series of upcoming smart glasses functions far beyond what Snapchat is poised to accomplish. Similar smart glasses have not ambled well in the past, keenly exemplified by the lukewarm reception of the Google Glass, whose future still remains foggy. There are only a few companies developing smart glass at present, the most popular of which is Microsoft's HoloLens,

Zebra and quagga mussels, the best known Great Lakes invaders, reduce the ability of native mussel species to move, feed and breed. Authorities have already come up with several means to deal with these invasive mussel species that have been spreading in bodies of water across the U.S. Officials have provided decontamination services to boat owners and resorted to using special chemicals such as liquid potash to eliminate infestation of these invasive species in bodies of water. Now, Montana is trying a new strategy

By Chris Prentice | NEW YORK NEW YORK Facebook Inc chief executive Mark Zuckerberg again rejected the idea that the social network affected the U.S. presidential election, saying late Saturday it is "extremely unlikely" news hoaxes changed the outcome. Ensnared in a string of content controversies in recent months, Facebook has insisted that it is a technology company, not a media firm. But scrutiny of the site has heightened since the surprise election of Republican Donald Trump on Tuesday, with critics alleging

Facebook has been navigating the dark web in search of stolen passwords, buying credentials off the black market in a bid to protect users. By purchasing stolen passwords off the black market, Facebook aims to increase its own security, as well as protect users who rely on one password for two or more accounts. While most people know that it's highly recommended to use different passwords for each account, many still use the same passwords over and over again so they don't

Sony's answer to 4K HDR gaming is finally here in the form of the new PlayStation 4 Pro. Regarded as the best option for casual gamers who aren't ready to commit to a full-fledged PC rig, the PS4 Pro boasts of high-end specs rarely seen on a console. This bad boy features a more powerful 2.1GHz octa-core AMD Jaguar x86-64 CPU compared to the PS4 and an 8GB DDR5 RAM capable of handling 218GB/s of bandwidth. It also comes with an

The latest weekly Spotify chart has a new leader as "Black Beatles" by hip-hop group Rae Sremmurd hits the top spot on the strength of the viral "Mannequin Challenge" video craze, for which the song serves as the unofficial theme. Former chart toppers The Weeknd and The Chainsmokers both drop down a spot with their latest hits as does Drake's newest release "Fake Love." 'Mannequin Challenge': Viral Video Craze The latest viral video craze known as the "Mannequin Challenge" has taken the

Samsung was surrounded with a lot of debate after some of its newly launched Galaxy Note 7 phablet exploded due to faulty battery. Samsung has already announced a global recall of the Galaxy Note 7, but it seems that the Samsung phablet is not the only one that can potentially explode. GizmoChina reports that an iPhone 7 Plus exploded in China's Yunnan province, when it hit the ground accidentally. The impact made the battery of the Apple smartphone to catch fire. The

The Google Pixel, a device that is being considered as possibly the best Android smartphone to date, has just been hacked by Chinese team in less than 60 seconds. The feat was achieved by white hat hackers from security solutions company Qihoo 360 at PwnFest, a hacking competition held in Seoul, South Korea. The Google Pixel Hack At PwnFest, Qihoo 360 demonstrated an exploit that gave the team access for remote code execution on the Google Pixel. Using a zero-day vulnerability, the team hacked

The Apple AirPods release date may not be as close as some would hope, as analysts believe the wireless earphones may not hit the market this year after all. Apple was supposed to launch its AirPods in October, but said it needed more time to perfect the product before bringing it to market. The company did not specify just how much more time it needed to smoothen things over, but the general belief was that it wouldn't take too long. Earlier this month,

Vive, a virtual reality headset, is a product developed by HTC in partnership with Valve. It delivers one of the best virtual technologies to the world. Back in April, Taiwanese company HTC started a program called the Vive X. Under this program, HTC would support and endorse startups working on virtual reality (VR) development. The program was funded with $100 million and now the results are becoming clearly visible. A Wireless Add-On HTC has recently released an add-on tool that would cease the need

Researchers have found that a special type of iPad game is more effective at treating lazy eye, or amblyopia, in children compared to traditional patching treatment. Treating Lazy Eye In Children As the primary cause of monocular visual impairment in children, lazy eye affects 3 percent of kids in the U.S. The condition has been traditionally considered as a monocular disorder treatable via patching the opposite eye. Patching treatment forces the usage of the lazy eye but it is not guaranteed that

If you own the Sony Xperia X Performance smartphone — which hit U.S. shelves in July — you would be pleased to learn that the handset is now receiving a software update that fixes the niggling accelerometer issue. As promised, Sony has now pushed out a software update which resolves the accelerometer issue. Some handset owners were also facing issues with the responsiveness of the screen rotation functionality, the barometer, magnetometer, gyroscope etc., and this update will fix these problems as well. What Was

Splash has long been viewed as a useless move in the Pokémon universe, and for good reason. When Splash is used, absolutely nothing happens — the move does not deal any damage, nor does it cause any status effects. However, that is seemingly going to change for Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon, with Splash to become possibly one of the best moves in the games. Understanding Z-Moves In Pokémon Sun And Moon One of the new features coming to Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon are Z-moves, which are