We might still be waiting on the PC version of last year’s It’s the latest offering from EA’s
Teaching computers to learn the way we do is widely considered an important step toward better artificial intelligence, but it’s hard to achieve without a good understanding of how we think. With that premise in mind, a new $12 million effort launched Wednesday with aims to “reverse-engineer” the human brain. Led by Tai Sing Lee, a professor in Carnegie Mellon University’s Computer Science Department and the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (CNBC), the five-year project seeks to unlock the secrets of neural circuitry and the brain’s learning methods. Ultimately, the goal is to improve neural networks, the computational models often used for AI in applications including self-driving cars, automated trading, and facial and speech recognition.
Over the past two years security researchers have shown that many Internet-connected "smart" devices have not been designed with security in mind. This also seems to be the case for their back-end systems. The latest example are flaws found in the Web services operated by smart-toy makers which could expose children's personal information and location. Researchers from security firm Rapid7 found serious vulnerabilities in the Web application programming interfaces (APIs) used by the Smart Toy line of interactive stuffed animals and the hereO GPS watch for children. In the case of Smart Toy devices, the researchers found that the manufacturer's Web service did not properly validate request senders. Through the exposed APIs, they could enumerate all customers and find their toy ID, name, type and associated child profile; they could access all children's profiles, including their names, birth dates, gender and spoken languages; they could find out when a parent or child is interacting with their toy and could associate someone's toy with a different account, effectively hijacking it.
Google Play Music can now house all your podcasts alongside your music collection. Google promised Find podcasts to listen to now or save them for later in the Google Play Music app.
If you were intrigued by InFocus’ The $169 Kangaroo Plus comes with 64GB of storage and 4GB of RAM, both doubling the original $99 model. The hardware is otherwise identical, including an Intel “Cherry Trail” Atom-x5-Z8500 processor, microSD expansion slot, fingerprint reader for
The virtual reality revolution is almost here, and YouTube wants to be ready for it. The Google-owned property is getting ready to roll out live 360-degree videos, according to To get ready for live streaming, YouTube has been meeting with 360-degree camera makers, Buzzfeed says. What those conversations were about, however, is unclear.
Microsoft is buying SwiftKey, the developer of a popular software keyboard for Android and iOS phones—even though it already has its own software keyboard, Word Flow. Software keyboards such as SwiftKey and Word Flow are used to speed up input: Rather than pecking at individual letters, users slide their finger from one letter to another, drawing a shape on the touchscreen. The software analyses the pattern to identify which word they are trying to type. Microsoft’s executive vice president for technology and research,
A customized version of Google’s Chrome browser developed by security vendor Chromodo is marketed as a browser with enhanced security and privacy controls. But Ormandy found it contains a flaw that violates one of the most basic rules for Web security.
Google followed through on its promise to address battery life in Android 6.0.
As car automation technologies like navigation and infotainment systems emerge as the next big opportunity for the automotive industry, patent disputes similar to those seen in the smartphone business have not unexpectedly surfaced in the industry. The U.S. International Trade Commission is expected to announce Wednesday an investigation into charges by Advanced Silicon Technologies in Portsmouth, New Hampshire that a number of car makers like Honda, Toyota, BMW and Volkswagen, and component makers like Harman, Texas Instruments and Renesas Electronics infringe on certain claims of four of its patents relating, among other things, to car infotainment systems, according
In the next year or two, millions of gearheads will strap on VR headsets to explore their alter-egos, play games and view 3D content. Shipments of virtual reality and augmented reality headsets will balloon this year to 1.4 million, up from just 140,000 in 2015, Gartner predicted Tuesday. In 2017, shipments will soar to 6.3 million. VR systems were a hot-ticket at
Cisco Systems has won the latest round against Arista Networks at a U.S. trade agency that could block importation of Arista products. Arista violated three Cisco patents on networking technologies, Administrative Law Judge David Shaw of the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled on Tuesday. If the full Commission confirms that finding, the ruling could be bad news for Arista, a growing player in data-center networking. Cisco sued Arista in December 2014, alleging the Silicon Valley startup violated 14 patents in its Arista EOS operating system. The legal battle continues, heading toward two possible trials in federal court as well as continuing activity at the ITC. In a