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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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Enlarge Image Screenshot by Luke Lancaster/CNET Try tweeting an eggplant at @NYPLEmoji and see what you get in retu.Created and curated by New York Public Library reference librarian Lauren Lampasone, the Twitter bot will respond to any emoji tweeted at it with a surprisingly relevant image from the library's extensive archive.The Jack O' Lante, for example, retued a vintage Collier's magazine cover. The eye emoji got a Mario Bettini science drawing in retu. The poop emoji gets a look-in too, of course.You can see the full source code for how the bot works, if you're so inclined. Otherwise, you can just revel ...

Enlarge ImageApps like this remind me that I'm old. Facebook In your face, Snapchat!Kids still say that sort of thing, right? How about: The '00s called and they want their app back! Well, it's late on a Friday, and Facebook has quietly released a new app, called Lifestage. And while its name might suggest the target market is caterpillars, this is actually for teens -- aka not me. Like other apps not built for me, it's somewhat confusing. But the gist of it is that you (the younger version of you, who was able to eat french fries dipped in milkshakes any time you damn well pleased) create a profile using you...

Don't like something some stranger is saying about you on Twitter? The social network has a solution.Twitter launched a new feature on Thursday that allows users to limit the notifications they see to only those sent by users they follow. It doesn't prevent strangers from mentioning you; it just insulates users from being exposed to those tweets. The new feature appear to be part of Twitter's attempt to address the chronic abuse and harassment that occurs daily on the social network. However, the move is little more than a band-aid since the offending tweets will still be present on the network; you are just choosing not to see them.Harassing and abusive tweets, while not a new occurrence on...

Mike Coppola, Getty Images The New York Times aounced today that it will be retiring its NYT Now app. The app, launched in 2014, was developed to reach a younger audience than the broader Times readership. For a reduced subscription price of $8, users could access a curated collection of daily stories. The app will become unavailable to download starting the last week of August.In many ways, the travails of the NYT Now app reflect larger movements in the news industry. Last year, the app shifted from an $8 subscription-based service to a free one -- once again, in an effort to reach younger and more "mobile-...

[embedded content] There's nothing more fun than spending a few hours playing the classic arcade game Pac-Man. Maneuvering your joystick to make Pac-Man race around a maze eating dots and fruit while colorful ghosts chase after him has always been a fun. While Pac-Man will remain a favorite among gamers, this video of Pac-Dog maybe even more charming than the original video game character himself. In the video Pac-Dog (Animal Arcade Ep. 1) -- posted on YouTube on Tuesday by HelloDenizen -- a tiny dog dressed as Pac-Man races around a real maze popping white balloons (that resemble dots) and tries not to run into googly-eyed ghosts on sticks who a...

As the homogenization of social media continues, Twitter followed in Snapchat's wake by adding the ability to apply stickers with embedded hashtags. Now the business justification emerges: brands will be able to offer stickers with their own built-in hashtags so that you can promote for them and allow them to track your stickered tweets. The company's Promoted #Stickers initiative was aounced in a blog post on Monday, with Pepsi as the exclusive partner, and the option will be available to "select marketers" with managed accounts. They're pitched to advertisers as "a huge opportunity for brands to drive brand affinity and raise awareness of their message at...

Enlarge ImageArvind Krishna, a senior vice president at IBM Research Stephen Shankland/CNET Bitcoin has a bad rap as the preferred currency of drug dealers. But that isn't stopping IBM and some of the world's most conservative businesses from tapping into its technological underpiings. Specifically, Big Blue is interested in the blockchain -- the mechanism Bitcoin uses to publicly record transactions. Today's businesses each have their own records, slowing transactions and triggering problems figuring out who's right when there are disagreements. But the blockchain approach is more cooperative by providing ...

Cell phone radiation can be a danger to soldiers, but maybe not for the reason you'd expect.Gen. Robert B. Neller, the top officer in the US Marine Corps, says those phones can give away a soldier's position. It's just one of the ways that mode comforts have made troops weaker, in his opinion. Speaking at a panel Tuesday on the future of expeditionary warfare, Neller told the audience that the military is now going back to basics, teaching sailors to navigate by the stars and soldiers how to use camouflage. Those skills hadn't been needed because the enemy didn't have planes, satellites, jammers and the ability to see the electromagnetic radiation spectrum, Neller said. [em...

Twitter is not responsible for the activities of ISIS on the social network, a federal judge rules. Corbis via Getty Images Twitter caot be held responsible for ISIS' activities on the social network, a federal judge ruled Wednesday in dismissing a lawsuit that accused the company of providing material support to the militant Islamic group.The lawsuit, which was filed in January by the widow of an American killed in Jordan, accused Twitter of knowingly permitting ISIS to use its network to spread propaganda, attract new recruits and raise funds for terrorist activities. While noting that the ISIS-related kill...

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the ...

The app store will be available within the Vive headset and online. Vive An app store for the Vive virtual-reality headset is on the horizon.On Friday mobile company HTC, maker of the Vive, unveiled Viveport, its online store for all things virtual reality. The new portal underscores the tech community's growing interest in virtual reality. A beta version of Viveport will be available for developers to tinker with "soon," according to HTC, but the store won't be available to customers until fall. When the store arrives, users will be able to create and shop for content, as well as sign up for subscription ser...

screenshot by Lance Whitney/CNET Apple now has a new tactic to try to get you to open your wallet. Updated on Thursday, the Apple Store app will now recommend and help you shop for products that work with the Apple devices you already own. So if you purchase an iPad, the app may propose buying a Smart Cover to accompany it. Or if you pick up an iPhone, Apple may suggest a dock to sync and charge the device. For me, the app pointed to a case for my iPhone 6. You see your recommended products as you scroll down the app's Discover screen. The new feature was leaked in late July by Bloomberg. A feature tha...

The day has come, Apple made good on its promise and released an improved Apple TV Remote app. It's an entirely different app from the rather old Remote app Apple that has been available for several years now. Effectively, your iPhone is now capable of replacing the Siri Remote that comes with the newest Apple TV.Setup is a breeze After installing the Apple TV Remote and opening it, select the Apple TV you want to coect to the remote. If you don't see a list of Apple TVs, make sure your iPhone is coected to the same Wi-Fi as your Apple TV(s).Enlarge Image Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET Tap ...

Atlantic Records is on the hunt for whoever leaked a song from the "Suicide Squad" soundtrack, and it's demanding Reddit help to find the culprit, according to TorrentFreak. Sometime around June 15, the song "Heathens" by Twenty One Pilots was uploaded to dropfile and leaked to the band's subreddit, a forum made by Reddit users to discuss the band. Atlantic stated in a complaint to a New York court that it gave a digital copy of the song to "an extremely limited number of individuals" before this date, the publication reported. "In each such case, the individual was barred from distributing the recording until the scheduled release date of June 24, 2016," it stated.Enlarge ImageThe leak of ...

Pokemon Go game on an iPhone. Jaap Arriens/Getty Images Maybe it was Pokemon Go.Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted Wednesday that July was the best month in the App Store's history, setting records for both monthly billings and money paid to developers. In a subsequent tweet, Cook said developers have eaed more than $50 billion from the consumer electronics giant since the digital bazaar opened in 2008. Cook didn't explain why July was so good, but we're thinking Pokemon Go had something to do with it.The app, from Nintendo and Niantic, was downloaded m...

Ramsay Bolton thought of some terrible tortures in "Game of Thrones," but had he just made Theon walk over a bunch of Legos, he might have broken the poor dude even earlier. As any parent or child caretaker will attest, stepping on a Lego delivers a specially horrific type of foot pain. Especially if it happens in the middle of the night, unexpectedly, when you're just trying to get to the damn bathroom in peace.The guys behind YouTube chael Where's My Challenge know this, and yet they still decided to spill boxes full of Legos on a treadmill and challenge themselves to run barefoot on it. "This is goa suck," one of them aounces at the begiing of the video. And oh, is he right.If ...

With only three days to go before the opening ceremonies, Twitter is gearing up for the Rio Olympics, including a special section in its Moments feature capturing all of the games' biggest, well, moments. The social network is also releasing hundreds of Olympic-related emojis. Fans can get into the spirit by tweeting a three-letter country code hashtag displaying flag emojis for every team, including the Refugee Olympic Team (#ROT)."Twitter's activation of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games will bring fans around the world together to see what's happening with the teams before, during and after the top athletes compete for glory," Leslie Berland, Twitter's chief marketing officer said a blog. "Twitt...