Caught off guard by a huge backlash, Evernote recently abandoned its plan to let staffers read customer notes under certain circumstances. The plan would have allowed staffers to review private customer notes as a means of assessing the accuracy of its new machine learning technology. The company made a mistake in judgment, Evernote CEO Chris O’Neil acknowledged.
The frenzied 2016 election cycle mercifully is over, but Facebook’s fake news problem isn’t going away. The company may face steep fines in Germany if it fails to address it satisfactorily. A bill slated for consideration next year would establish fines of up to $500,000 euros per day for each day that a fake news story persisted after notification of its falsehood was provided.
Apple and the Irish government are fighting what some view as a European Union tax grab. The two recently filed a formal appeal of the EC’s decision ordering Apple to pay nearly $14 billion in back taxes, based on its finding that Ireland had given Apple several illegal tax breaks. The EC found that Ireland had allowed Apple to determine its tax based on the activities of its subsidiary firms.
More security vulnerabilities will appear in the software of Adobe and Apple than in Microsoft’s, more attacks on the Internet’s infrastructure will occur, and cybersecurity events will stoke international tensions. Those are a few of the predictions for 2017 that security experts have made. Signs of hackers’ increased interest in Adobe and Apple started appearing in 2016, Trend Micro noted.
2016 really was a year like no other. We had yet another election defined by the misuse of analytics — and folks seem to be getting worse rather than better at this. We had a rush to robotics, particularly self-driving cars, and some firms even leaped ahead to self-flying, people-delivering drones. We had a wave of fake news, mostly paid for by Google, because that company has no compass.
Fact-checking President-elect Donald Trump can be a chore, even for people paid to do it. The Washington Post wants to make it less so, with add-ons to the popular Chrome and Firefox browsers. The browser extension, RealDonaldContext, is available from the Chrome Web Store or the Mozilla Foundation. Once installed, the extension displays any fact-checking the Post may have done.
Zalando, Amazon and Otto together account for 18 percent of the 40 billion euros online shoe and apparel market in Western Europe. For now, Otto Group is the market leader, with Zalando just behind, but Amazon could be the number one soon. The American company is ramping up its fashion Continue reading
Bose’s latest earbuds are designed to help you tune in to the specific sounds you want to hear. Hearphones are a sort of blend of noise-cancelling earbuds and hearing aids. There are several presets in the app, with names like “focused conversation,” “gym,” “airplane” and “television.” You can opt to crank up the volume on all sound from the world around you or turn it down.
French sporting goods retailer Decathlon have launched a dedicated ecommerce website in Switzerland. Just a few days before Christmas, consumers in Switzerland can now order cheap sports clothing and accessories online. Decathlon sells products for over 70 different sports in physical stored as well as online. The international retailer is Continue reading
Hot off the rumor mill on Wednesday is news of Beast Mode, a new feature Samsung may include in its upcoming Galaxy S8. Spotted in an EU trademark application, Beast Mode would apply to smartphones, mobile phones and application software for smartphones. The Galaxy S8 is expected to be the first smartphone built around Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 processor.
In the United Kingdom, 44 percent of adults add to their income by selling products or services online and 30 percent thinks they will do this regularly. And half of Britons would prefer to run an online store rather than a high street shop. These are some of the results Continue reading
In Spain, more people are using their smartphones and tablets to order products and services online. One in two Spanish internet users who have purchased online claim to have made some of these purchases through their mobile device. This is an increase of 15 percentage points compared to last year. Continue reading
Waymo, the standalone venture that emerged from Google’s self-driving car project, on Monday unveiled a fleet of 100 Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans with the latest high-tech sensors, telematics, and other gear designed for fully autonomous operation. Modifications were made to several parts of the Pacifica to optimize it for fully autonomous driving.
Softbank has cut a check for $1 billion to OneWeb, which plans to build a constellation of satellites to provide Internet access to underserved parts of the world, the companies announced Monday. Helmed by satellite industry veteran Greg Wyler, OneWeb raised a total of $1.2 billion in its latest round of funding. The company will deploy 650 Ku band satellites into orbit at a height of 750 miles.
Two months after Lidl announced it will start selling fruits and vegetables online in Germany, the supermarket discounter is now experimenting with Lidl Express, a pick-up point for online orders where consumers can also buy fresh products. Lidl has a branch in the Berlin locality of Schöneberg that’s currently going Continue reading
AI will be having a big coming out party in 2017. While there are plenty of opportunities in this space for workers, executives, investors and partners, not every company that uses the term “AI” in its marketing will become a serious winner in the field. As advanced as AI is — and I have seen some technology that would blow your socks off — not every company is created equal.
