en apple news

Want a smarter Alexa, savvier Siri, brainier Google Now or a cleverer Cortana? So do Amazon, Apple, Alphabet and Microsoft -- and each is working to make its voice assistant your personal Einstein of choice. Amazon recently enhanced its efforts by nabbing an AI expert from eBay, The Wall Street Joual reported Friday. Hassan Sawaf is now Amazon's director of artificial intelligence, focusing on "the user experience for users of Amazon's search capability across all products and businesses," according to Sawaf's LinkedIn page. The Joual was one of the first to spot Sawaf's updated responsibilities on LinkedIn. "eBay has wide and deep capabilities in AI across the technology organization, and recently completed two acquisitions ... that contribute tech and talent to our AI and machine leaing/machine translation capabilities," an eBay spokeswoman said in an email.Amazon didn't respond to a request for comment.Alexa could eventually outsmart those rival voice assistants, and ultimat,amazon,amazon prime,amazon books,amazon smile,amazon video,amazon prime video,amazon echo,amazon fire stick,amazon music,amazon uk ...ادامه مطلب

Apple Music and Tidal have leaned on exclusives as the battle to catch up to Spotify's lead in subscribers. Taylor Martin/CNET The rivalry between the subscription music giants may be tuing bitter. Spotify has been penalizing some artists who provide music exclusively to its main competitor, Apple Music, according to a Bloomberg report. Citing unnamed people familiar with the practices, the report said Spotify search results bury tunes by artists who give their material to Apple Music first. The company also waed acts it will exclude Apple-exclusive music from featured Spotify playlists once it's available to stream there, the report said. A spokeswoman for Spotify said statements about burying search results are "unequivocally false." She didn't comment on playlist strategy. High-profile exclusives have emerged as the weapon of choice for smaller streaming-music services in their battle to catch, ...ادامه مطلب

In mid-June, Dave Jackson bought a Frito-Lay variety pack through AmazonFresh for $10.44. When he retued to the Amazon mobile app soon after, it coaxed him to purchase more of the snacks through its "Buy It Again" feature. But the very same variety pack under the "Buy It Again" banner didn't cost $10.44. It was $22.94. The same thing happened after buying Snickers bars for 89 cents apiece on AmazonFresh, Amazon's grocery delivery service. Yet again, Amazon invited him to buy more, but for $4.95 each, more than five times the previous price. What was happening? Jackson, a web administrator in San Jose, Califoia, believes he found a handful of bugs on Amazon after it recently combined the listings on its main website and on AmazonFresh. These potential bugs aren't just bothersome -- they could unnecessarily cost Fresh customers a lot more money if they don't pay close attention.Enlarge ImageHere are pictures of the same bottle of Diet Dr Pepper, with the same product identifica, ...ادامه مطلب

RoadshowNewsCar IndustryAmazon offers up car advice with Amazon VehiclesEnlarge ImageA screenshot of an Amazon Vehicles detail page. Amazon Amazon is gearing up its car knowledge.No, the e-commerce juggeaut still isn't selling cars -- not yet, anyway. Instead, the company on Thursday launched a new webpage called Amazon Vehicles that helps customers research new and classic cars.Amazon Vehicles could help solidify Amazon's place as the search engine for shopping. Bypassing Google's own Google Shopping search engine could train consumers to start thinking about a purchase at Amazon first, even in the rare case the company doesn't sell the item. That way, Amazon can condition shoppers to keep coming back to its site.At the very least, Amazon Vehicles could be a way for the world's largest online retaile,amazon offers upcoming,amazon india upcoming offers,amazon sign up offers,amazon india sign up offers ...ادامه مطلب

RoadshowNewsCar IndustrySchedule a test drive where you want with Hyundai and Amazon Close AutoComplete: Massachusetts will tax ridesharing and give that money to taxi companies Drag "Bring it to the mountains, please. I have some, uh, steering tests I'd like to perform." Josh Miller/Roadshow Test-driving a new car usually involves wading into the lion's den of a dealership and trying to make it out without purchasing three new cars,schedule a test drive,schedule a test,schedule a test pearson vue,schedule a test drive tesla,schedule a test lsu,schedule a test drive bmw,schedule a test at usu testing center,schedule a test at ivy tech,schedule a test usu,schedule a test drive subaru ...ادامه مطلب

[embedded content] Even if you might be suffering from Pokemon Go overload, this video of a musician playing the Pokemon theme song on flaming bagpipes while dressed as the Pokemon creature Charmander is very impressive. Considering the Charmander has a tail that can produce fire, it makes sense that the bagpipes used to play the Pokemon theme also ignite with flames.The talented musician who made this tribute possible is Brian Kidd -- best known as The Unipiper -- from Portland, Oregon. This isn't the first time The Unipiper has paid homage to something geeky. Earlier in the year, he dressed up as Superman and taunted Batman by playing his bagpipes and riding around on his unicycle. The Unipiper also wore a Darth Vader costume and played the Star Wars theme song on his flaming bagpipes while balancing on his unicycle -- all without using the, ...ادامه مطلب

"Endless" is exclusively streaming on Apple Music. Screenshot/Xiomara Blanco The wait for a new Frank Ocean album is over -- kind of.Early Friday moing the artist released a visual album, "Endless," exclusively on Apple Music. Currently, it's only available to stream as a 45-minute long video, not as a typical audio-only album with individual tracks.The project was heavily teased, thanks to a mysterious live stream that unceremoniously debuted two weeks ago. It answers a few questions curious fans have patiently waited for (he really was building some type of staircase), but, it doesn't quite answer the most important question -- where's the new album? There's no official word on when or if the album-only version of "Endless" will be released. Rolling Stone is reporting t,frank ocean releases new album,frank ocean releases new song,frank ocean releases double album,frank ocean release date,frank ocean release date new album,frank ocean release date 2015,frank ocean release 2015,frank ocean new releases,frank ocean new releases 2014,frank ocean latest releases ...ادامه مطلب

Enlarge ImageThe Ecobee3 Smart Thermostat and the Amazon Echo smart speaker. Ecobee Last year, Amazon established the $100 million dollar "Alexa Fund" for developers and manufacturers both large and small. The idea was fairly straightforward -- support people with good ideas on how to put the voice-recognition technology in the Amazon Echo smart speaker to good use. Now, the online mega-retailer is ponying up for its biggest investment yet and joining in on a$35 million-dollar funding round for the makers of the Ecobee smart thermostat. The funding round brings Amazon in with Thomvest and Relay Ventures, and comes several months after the Ecobee3 became the first smart thermostat to sync up with Alexa, Amazon's increasingly popular virtual assistant. To that end, Steve Rabuchin, Vice President of Amazo,amazon,amazon prime,amazon books,amazon smile,amazon video,amazon prime video,amazon echo,amazon music,amazon fire stick,amazon uk ...ادامه مطلب

Jet.com has landed at Walmart. Jet.com Walmart is hoping its acquisition of startup Jet.com takes its own online presence to new heights. The retail giant said Monday it has acquired Jet.com in a stock and cash deal worth $3 billion. The deal underscores the competitive nature of the online retail business, where Amazon dominates and Walmart, the largest brick-and-mortar retail in the US, plays second fiddle. Walmart is apparently expecting that Jet.com, which saw early hype as a possible "Amazon-killer," can even the playing field. "Walmart.com will grow faster, the seamless shopping experience we're pursuing will happen quicker, and we'll enable the Jet brand to be even more successful in a shorter period of time," Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said in a statement. "The combination of Walmart's retail expertise, purchasing scale, sourcing capabilities, distribution footprint, and digital assets -- together with the team, technology and business we have built here at Jet -- will allow us to deliver more value to customers," Jet.com CEO Marc Lore said in a statement.Walmart and Jet.com disclosed that the retail startup adds 400,000 new shoppers every month and processes an average of 25,000 orders each day. A bulk of the deal is in cash, with Walmart paying $300 million in stock over time. Let's block ads! بخوانید, ...ادامه مطلب

Will Release Radar be as successful as the popular Discover Weekly playlist? Spotify Spotify's hit a certain groove with its algorithm-driven playlists like Discover Weekly. The music streaming service regularly unearths songs and artists listeners might have missed.Now, Spotify is applying that same idea to new releases with a feature called Release Radar, the company said in a blog post Friday. Release Radar, available today, is a personalized playlist that updates every Friday with 1-2 hours of tracks from new releases, culled from the past few weeks. Spotify says the more you listen, the better the playlist gets. "With the huge amount of new music released every week, it can be difficult to keep up with the latest tracks," Spotify's Senior Product Owner Matt Ogle said in the post. So, Spotify wants to do the work for you. Let's block ads! بخوانید, ...ادامه مطلب

Thanks a lot, Steven Spielberg and John Williams, for forever creeping us out about sharks. Spielberg's 1975 movie "Jaws" wouldn't have been quite as terrifying without Williams' "duunnn dunnn" music, and we all know it. Now a study published Wednesday in the joual PLOS One has quantified our quivering. Researchers from UC San Diego and Harvard showed 2,100 people a shark clip from the BBC's "Blue Planet" documentary series and either set it to ominous or uplifting music or let it run silently. "Participants who viewed a video clip set to ominous music rated sharks more negatively and less positively than those who watched the same clip set to uplifting music or to silence," the researchers wrote. Why does it matter? Researchers think documentary makers should choose their music carefully, because no matter how the sharks are presented in the video, the music may change viewers' attitudes. While researchers didn't find that participants changed their attitudes about shark conservation after viewing one of the clips, they do feel it could hold sway. "Filmmakers, joualists and exhibit designers set the tone of their works, and, while an ominous soundtrack may enhance their entertainment aspect, it may also undermine their educational value by biasing viewers' perceptions of sharks," the researchers wrote. "This, in tu, may impede legitimate shark conservation efforts and fuel counterproductive management programs like culling and setting shark nets."Let's block ads! بخوانید, ...ادامه مطلب

Target and Amazon, together again. Target Four years ago, Target threw Amazon's gadgets out of its stores amid heightened competition between the retailers.Now, the big-box chain has reversed course, bringing back Amazon's Fire tablets, Fire TV devices and Kindle e-readers to its website, with plans to sell the gadgets in stores by October, according to a report from Bloomberg. The Amazon Echo smart speaker, though, doesn't appear on Target.com."Target continually evaluates our assortment to deliver quality products at a great value," a Target spokesperson said in a statement Thursday. "We know our guests love the many aspects of shopping at Target, and believe they will appreciate the convenience and savings of finding these items in our stores and on Target.com."Target expects the Amazon devices will help drive more traffic to its stores and boost its electronics sales, Bloomberg reported. Walmart, another major competitor to Amazon, still doesn't sell Amazon devices.Let's block ads! بخوانید, ...ادامه مطلب

There are plenty of things in my house that I yell at. Some of them answer back these days, though, and even do what I ask. My dog is still a work in progress as far as that goes, but my Amazon Echo has just about nailed it. The Echo is a device that uses speech recognition to perform an ever-growing range of tasks on command. Amazon calls the built-in brains of this device "Alexa," and she* is the thing that makes it work.Alexa is a smart cookie: if I say "Alexa, play some Pink Floyd", she will find some Floyd and start playing it over the built-in speaker of the Echo. If I say "Alexa, what's the weather?" she will calmly tell me that it is too damn hot in Boston. How does she do this? The answer is that Alexa is a bit of a cheat: take the Echo apart and you'll find little more than a few speakers, microphones and a small computer. That isn't enough to do all of the clever stuff that she can do. Her real smarts are on the Inteet, in the cloud-computing service run by Amazon. Colin McDonald/CNET The small computer in the Echo isn't completely dumb. It has enough built-in smarts to do a number of tasks, like playing back music and making lights blink. It can also recognize the Alexa name: when you say the word "Alexa", it recognizes the word (Amazon calls this the wake word) and starts recording your voice. When you have finished speaking, it sends this recording over the Inteet to Amazon.The service that processes this recording is called Alexa Voice Services (AVS). Run by Amazon, this converts the recording into commands that it interprets. It's more than a simple voice-to-text service: it is a fully programmable service that can work with other online services to do a surprising range of things. Once authorized by Amazon, anyone can use this service for free to build a home-made Echo: Amazon offers sample code for building one using a Raspberry Pi, a simple $30 computer. , ...ادامه مطلب

There are plenty of things in my house that I yell at. Some of them answer back these days, though, and even do what I ask. My dog is still a work in progress as far as that goes, but my Amazon Echo has just about nailed it. The Echo is a device that uses speech recognition to perform an ever-growing range of tasks on command. Amazon calls the built-in brains of this device "Alexa," and she* is the thing that makes it work.Alexa is a smart cookie: if I say "Alexa, play some Pink Floyd", she will find some Floyd and start playing it over the built-in speaker of the Echo. If I say "Alexa, what's the weather?" she will calmly tell me that it is too damn hot in Boston. How does she do this? The answer is that Alexa is a bit of a cheat: take the Echo apart and you'll find little more than a few speakers, microphones and a small computer. That isn't enough to do all of the clever stuff that she can do. Her real smarts are on the Inteet, in the cloud-computing service run by Amazon. Colin McDonald/CNET The small computer in the Echo isn't completely dumb. It has enough built-in smarts to do a number of tasks, like playing back music and making lights blink. It can also recognize the Alexa name: when you say the word "Alexa", it recognizes the word (Amazon calls this the wake word) and starts recording your voice. When you have finished speaking, it sends this recording over the Inteet to Amazon.The service that processes this recording is called Alexa Voice Services (AVS). Run by Amazon, this converts the recording into commands that it interprets. It's more than a simple voice-to-text service: it is a fully programmable service that can work with other online services to do a surprising range of things. Once authorized by Amazon, anyone can use this service for free to build a home-made Echo: Amazon offers sample code for building one using a Raspberry Pi, a simple $30 computer.It might so, ...ادامه مطلب

Enlarge Image Britney Spears/Twitter Spotify has suffered another blow in the ongoing online music-streaming battle: Britney Spears' "Glory", her first album since 2013, will be an Apple Music exclusive.The news was announced by Spears herself, who said on Twitter that the album would be dropping on August 26.Both Apple Music and Tidal have managed to snag their own share of exclusives this year, but the same can't be said for Spotify. Frank Ocean's "Boys Don't Cry" will be an Apple Music exclusive upon its release this Friday, and Drake's "Views" was exclusive to the service for a week back in April. It'll remain to be seen if the albums by Spears and Ocean remain exclusive, however. Kanye West first released "The Life of Pablo" as a Tidal exclusive, and even claimed it would never come to Apple Music, but it made its way to both Apple Music and Spotify. Meanwhile, Beyonce's Lemonade remains a Tidal exclusive. Let's block ads! بخوانید, ...ادامه مطلب