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Enlarge ImageGoogle Crowdsource lets you help the company with language translation, handwriting recognition and map translation accuracy. Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET Google has a formidable artificial intelligence team working on everything from photo recognition to email spam filtering. But for some tasks, it's looking for the human touch -- yours, specifically.The online giant on Monday released a new Android app called Crowdsource that lets you contribute your own suggestions to language translation, handwriting recognition and street sign transcription. "Each microtask takes no more than five to 10 seconds, so knock away a few the next time you find yourself with a few moments ...

Alphabet executive David Drummond has left Uber's board over conflict of interest conces. Alphabet The race to put autonomous vehicles on the road has apparently cost one Alphabet executive his seat on Uber's board of directors.David Drummond, Alphabet's senior vice president of corporate development, resigned from the ride-hailing startup's board several weeks ago amid rising conces over conflict of interests. Drummond, who had been on Uber's board since 2013, helped oversee Google's $250 million venture-capital investment in Uber that same year.Drummond confirmed his departure from Uber's board in an statement that indicated GV -- Alphabet's venture capital arm -- remains strong. "I recent...

An FTC suit against AT&T over its practices surrounding data throttling has been dismissed. Roberto Machado Noa, LightRocket via Getty Images A US appeals court on Monday dismissed the FTC's suit against AT&T that charged the company deceived its unlimited-data customers when it slowed their coection speeds. The Federal Trade Commission had accused the company of failing to deliver on its promise of "unlimited data," saying it violated the FTC Act. "The issue here is simple: 'unlimited' means unlimited," FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez said when the suit was filed in 2014. The practice of slowing down speeds once wireless customers reach a certain usage level is known as throttling. The agency ...

Enlarge ImageTrendForce expects most PCs will come with SSDs, not hard drives, in 2018. TrendForce They've been a fixture of the computing industry for 60 years, but in 2018, hard drives will be pushed aside by storage systems using memory chips in PCs, an analyst firm predicts.Hard drives revolutionized computing when IBM commercialized the first, RAMAC, in 1956. They read and write ones and zeros as tiny patches of magnetic information on rotating platters. But they don't fit well in phones, thumb drives and camera memory cards, which use a type of memory chips called flash instead. PCs with hard drives remain common, but the fastest machines use banks of flash memory called a solid-state ...

A new MacBook coming this year? Martin Hajek Would you like to use Apple's stylus with your iPad? That is one of the plaed software updates that will accompany hardware improvements already in development, sources tell Bloomberg. The updated iPad software, which is designed to cater to the needs of professionals, is expected to ship in 2017, the unidentified sources told the news outlet. The tech titan, which will be making product aouncements at an iPhone event on September 7, is also working on a new line of Mac laptops and desktops, Bloomberg reported. The new lineup, which could debut as soon as this year, will include new versions of the iMac desktop, MacBook Air laptop, and a thier Mac...

Attendees at next month's Google Play Indie Games Festival will have a chance to play more than two dozen new games, some of which are not yet widely available.Google on Monday unveiled the 30 Android games selected from more than 200 submissions vying for a chance to be exhibited at the conference. Fifteen of the games showcased are on a very limited beta, so this is the best opportunity many will have to play them.Fans will have an opportunity to vote for their favorite games at the festival. A complete list of the games chosen for exhibition can be found here.Google also aounced that it has opened up registration of the event, which will be held in San Francisco on September 24. The event...

[embedded content] If you like cowboy hats with your robots, you're probably excited about HBO's new "Westworld" series. HBO released a fresh trailer on Sunday, so brush off your Stetson and get ready for some mechanical people with shotguns and spurs. HBO released a teaser in June, but the new trailer takes a longer, deeper dive into the upcoming series.Michael Crichton, creator of "Jurassic Park," wrote and directed the original 1973 film version of "Westworld." The basic premise is all about what can go wrong in a Weste-themed amusement park populated by robots. Since this is on HBO, we can expect a grittier, more "Game of Thrones"-like vision than we saw in the '70s movie.The trailer sta...

Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata has spoken up again to talk about why it was decided that the long-awaited and much-anticipated game be delayed from September to November.Speaking with Famitsu, as translated by and reported on by Kotaku, Tabata started off by stating that "the optimization isn't [yet] sufficient." There are "various bugs" throughout the game, while frame rate is not holding to its 30 FPS target as well as Square Enix would like.Some of Final Fantasy XV's bugs won't keep players from advancing (a lot of games have bugs like this), but there are others that Tabata hopes can be fixed before release. "There are still of number of bugs like characters floating uaturally i...

Over the last few months I've written about the persistent rumors that Apple will remove the headphone jack on the next iPhone.Every time I write about it, readers' comments have been generally negative, with some folks threatening to boycott the iPhone when Apple drops the headphone jack.Well, from all indications, including published reports citing "people familiar with the matter" and some early iPhone 7 cases I've received, it's the end of the road for the iPhone's headphone hack. But don't panic, folks. After being on the fence about the issue these last few months, I've come to the conclusion I can live without the headphone jack. And I think you can, too.Here are the reasons why: Clos...

[embedded content] Fans who love to dress up as their favorite film, TV, comic book and video game characters don't just reside in the United States. Our Easte European friends reminded us of this at Starcon in St. Petersburg, Russia, where cosplayers doed their DIY costumes and strutted their stuff. In two videos, Starcon Старкон 2016 Russian Cosplay Part 1 and Part 2, posted on August 25 by YouTube chael Beatdownboogie, fans are seen dressed in highly detailed costumes as Captain Kirk, Hulk Hogan, Chewbacca, Link, Poison Ivy, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Batgirl, Ahsoka Tano, Darth Maul, Deadpool, Jon Snow and even Godzilla himself, just to name a few.While mainstream superheroes and villains are...

Enlarge ImageMy MacBook Pro today is maxed out, and I'm worried future models with USB-C will leave me without enough ports. Stephen Shankland/CNET Apple's next MacBook Pro will help move us all into the future of personal computing. But it could also bring some big headaches along the way.I'm confident it'll remain a powerful machine while getting lighter and smaller. But I'm worried that one new technology that enables that slimming down, the versatile USB Type-C port, will also mean the MacBook Pro and other heavy-duty laptops will leave me in the lurch.USB-C is flexible enough to handle just about anything you can plug into a laptop. I'm not sure we're yet ready to have it push aside oth...

Everyone loves to hear Kanye West say crazy things (admit it), and usually he reserves his craziest outbursts for the MTV Video Music Awards. He gave a six-minute speech at tonight's VMAs, but that's not what social media was buzzing about afterwards. Instead, the birds were tweeting about Drake and Rihaa. Presenting the Video Vanguard award (MTV's lifetime achievement honour) to Rihaa, Drake declared that he's been "in love" with the singer since he was "22 years old." The two then shared a hug -- some say it was sweet, others say it was awkward. You decide: And while many tweeted about how the two would make a perfect couple, the fuiest tweets were a touch more savage. And then there's the...

A discrete relocatable overlay (currently at the bottom left coer) lets you know how many viewers you currently have. Screenshot by Aloysius Low/CNET Think you're the bee's knees at games like World of Warcraft and StarCraft II? Now you can show all your friends just how good you are. Blizzard's live streaming service is now up and ruing, so you can broadcast your skills (or lack thereof) to your buddies on Facebook Live. It's good timing too, with World of Warcraft's Legion expansion dropping on Tuesday.To sign up, simply hit the video button that should appear on the Battle.net client, or go to Settings > Streaming and enable it there. You'll need to coect your Battle.net account to Facebo...

The Roku 4 is the company's current high-end streaming box. Sarah Tew/CNET Hoping for a Roku 5 to succeed the Roku 4? You may be disappointed by this report.According to ZatzNotFuy.com's correlation of an FCC leak against a Canadian computer sales website published Saturday, the streaming company could be debuting up to five streaming devices this fall that would add HDR picture capabilities and give each of the streamers a name instead of a number.The entry-level Roku 1 would be instead replaced by the Roku Express and Roku Express Plus, both the Roku 2 and Roku 3 would be replaced by the Roku Premiere and Roku Premiere Plus and the 4K-capable Roku 4 would be replaced by a Roku Ultra device...

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.Enlarge ImageIs he a little bored with his iPhone? Tech.Science.Society/YouTube screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET I rather thought that tech CEOs all go around being nice to each other in public and only offering criticisms of other CEOs' companies through Masonic-like winks, nods and code words.I was moved, therefore, on Saturday night when I saw splendidly forthright Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff retweet this: "Crazy seeing Apple trying to catch Samsung. Battery life, waterproofing, blue color, front led light, &curved screens. Samsung set the standard."The original tweet was emitted by basketball ...

Whatever happened to the son of Odin? If you were a bit miffed by Thor's absence from "Captain America: Civil War," you're in good company, because there's a short film that answers that very question. (Short version: No one called him).The clip was first shown at this year's San Diego Comic-Con, when "Thor: Ragnarok" director Taika Waititi took to the stage to show off a sizzle reel for the upcoming third Thor film. While written reports of "Team Thor" started to circulate after it made an extremely limited debut at the convention, you can now watch it for yourself in full on the Marvel Studios twitter account. Now that it's online, watch what the Thunder God, his hammer Mjolnir and his new...

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.Enlarge ImageKliff Kingsbury, on the right, appearing on the podcast. The HawkCast/YouTube screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET College athletes live an interesting life.They're suddenly placed on a higher plane and asked to perform daily.They're fawned upon when they win and vilified when they lose. In some cases, it's said that colleges are so desperate to persuade these young men to join their athletic programs that schools hire attractive young women to increase the attraction of the school.Once athletes are on the team, though, might they continue to enjoy the attention of women? On social media,...

After the summer craze of Pokemon Go, Target is painting Pokeballs onto the ballards of some of its stores. Target A number of companies tried capitalizing on the popularity of Pokemon Go in the wake of its July launch; T-Mobile offered free data, stores bought lures to attract customers and so on. Even with the craze dying down to some extent and the time for this thing having already passed, Target's trying to get in on the action by, uh, painting those balls located out in front of its stores.As aounced in a bizarre news release on its website, Target aounced that select stores have painted the design of Pokeballs onto the bollards out front. Target's bollards are giant red balls, as oppo...

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.Enlarge ImageColin Kaepeick. Standing up for his principles? Stack/YouTube screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET As protests go, it was as silent as you could get.While the rest of his team stood for the national anthem during a preseason game on Friday night, quarterback Colin Kaepeick sat on the bench.When asked about it by NFL.com, Kaepeick explained: "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people g...

Nobody likes getting socked with a charge for going over a monthly wireless data cap. And thanks to changes made by the nation's two largest carriers, those days may be over forever.Earlier this summer AT&T and Verizon said they'd eliminate charges for customers who bust their data caps, in exchange for slowing service to 2G speeds. It's a policy competitors T-Mobile and Sprint have offered for years. And it's likely to be a welcome change for many customers, who cringe every month when the phone bill arrives. But are the two big carriers really offering a good deal? In this edition of Ask Maggie, I help answer that question. Dear Maggie,I have two teenagers on my Verizon family plan, and th...