Microsoft beefs up Windows Phone voice recognition technology

But smartphone buyers may be less interested in Deep Neural Networks, and more keen to know whether Windows Phone 8 has their favourite appsGood news for Windows Phone owners in the US: you can now shave 0.5 seconds off the time it takes to find a decent pizza in Seattle by speaking to your smartphone.Okay, this isn't earth-shattering news, even for pizzaphiles. But Microsoft is excited ab

Facebook could do more with video, but is Instagram the answer?

With 100m users, photo-sharing app tipped to help social network fend off competition from Twitter's VineFacebook may be preparing to add video-sharing features to its Instagram app, in a direct response to the popularity of Twitter's Vine app.The new features could be announced this week, with Facebook having invited US journalists to an event on 20 June with the words "A small team has b

Boot up: Project Loon, Feminist Taylor Swift, Puzzle & Dragons, Ford in-car interfaces and more

Plus post-Napster bands, personal data exchanges, Sunrise app update, iTunes Radio, Intel smart-watch plans and moreA quick burst of 10 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology teamRelease the Google Internet Balloons! >> Stuck in CustomsTrey Ratcliff (hat tip @HotSoup for the link): So, what's the reason for all this? Well, there are billions of people on Earth without

Google Glass does have a diversity problem. Here's why it matters

If augmented eyewear really is a 'moonshot' for the company, it should be shaped beyond the USIt's hard not to feel a twinge of sympathy for Dean Johnson. Like other applicants to Google's #ifihadglass scheme providing early access to its Glass eyewear, he was eager to test out the new gadget, and delighted when he was selected to take part.He even flew to New York from his home country, t

Google Reader: what are the alternatives?

The tech giant is due to 'retire' its RSS app, but there are replacements out there – and Facebook or Apple could jump inThree months ago, Google announced the "retirement" of Google Reader as part of the company's second spring cleaning. On July 1st — two weeks from today — the RSS application will be given a gold watch and a farewell lunch, then it will pack up its bits and leave the buildi

Smartphones and facial recognition: focus groups 2.0

Coupled to facial imaging, the smartphone could become the ultimate media analytics toolWhen it comes to testing new products, most of us have been through the focus group experience. You sit behind a one-way mirror and watch a handpicked group of people dissect your new concept: a magazine redesign, a new website or a communication campaign. It usually lasts a couple of hours during which th

Boot up: ParaShoot, Facebook news reader, YouTube channels chart, Apple users' worth and more

Plus a study of filesharers, Songbird sings its last, Minecraft creator's email advice, and moreA quick burst of 10 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology teamParaShoot - Smart HD Videography Everyone Can Wear >> KickstarterSeeking $260k on Kickstarter: Patent pending ParaShoot is a smart HD camera supercomputer packaged into a small size that is wearable, customizabl

The NSA's Prism: why we should care

Politicians tell us the innocent need fear nothing from involuntary disclosure, but their actions threaten privacy and moreThe revelations about Prism and other forms of NSA dragnet surveillance has got some people wondering what all the fuss is. When William Hague tells us that the innocent have nothing to fear from involuntary disclosure, it raises questions about exactly what harms might c

Firefox add-on warns internet users of the dark side of the NSA

Young developer creates software that plays Pink Floyd tracks when surfers use sites embroiled in snooping scandalPrivacy-conscious fans of Pink Floyd may never use the internet in the same way again.A new Firefox add-on, dubbed Dark Side of the Prism, automatically plays tracks from the seminal 1973 album whenever a user visits sites, such as Google or Facebook, embroiled in the scandal o

Boot up: Jony Ive redesigns, Apple's games bid, Sweden bans Google Apps, and more

Plus Daft Punk through the centuries, live tiles and widgets critiqued, why Waze?, XP's buying opportunity, and moreA burst of 11 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology teamHands-on with Jolla's first smartphone running Sailfish OS >> The Next WebNick Summers: The first Jolla smartphone is still in development, but it's already shaping up to be a robust and refreshing

Boot up: Pirate Bay proxies blocked, Google Glass teardown, iOS 7 and more

Plus a Surface RT's desuetude, how the S4 senses weather, Snapchat v Wall Street, and moreA burst of 8 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology teamUK ISPs secretly start blocking torrent site proxies >> TorrentFreakSeveral UK Internet providers have quietly added a list of new sites to their secretive anti-piracy blocklists. Following in the footsteps of Sky, the first IS

Boot up: more on iOS 7, Galaxy S4 card update, US hacking China, and more

Plus how 'Mavericks' saves power, the difference between Tim Cook and Steve Forstall, Windows Phone v Asian phone makers, and moreA burst of 9 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology teamIs the new Apple iOS 7 look an improvement? >> QuoraDo pitch in. One important point to bear in mind: seeing a flat picture on the web doesn't do justice to the 3D presence of the softwar

Boot up: iOS 7 thoughts, Lanier on music, what apps teens use, and more

Plus Snapchat's icon change, tablet segmentation, iPads and power users, and moreA burst of 9 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology teamThe real danger of copying music (it's not what you think) >> Wired.comJaron Lanier: It is one thing to sing for your supper occasionally, but to have to do so for every meal forces you into a peasant's dilemma: The peasant's dilemma

WAN-IFRA: newspapers look to engage audiences – and bring in revenue

Digital transformation and paywalls were in the spotlight at the WAN-IFRA congress in Bangkok last weekLast week, I travelled to Bangkok for the 65th congress of the World Association of Newspapers (The WAN-IFRA also includes the World Editors Forum and the World Advertising Forum.) For a supposedly dying industry, the event gathered a record crowd: 1,400 delegates from all over the world (ex

Android v Apple, market share v profit share – part 255

Conventional wisdom and badly reconstructed history can lead to fragile conclusions. Prepare to be confusedEver since the Android _platform_ emerged as the only real competitor to Apple's iOS _devices_, we've been treated to a debate which I'll oversimplify: _If Apple makes all the money but Android gets all the volume, who will win?_ A cursory survey of tech journals and blogs would lead one

Boot up: Google's leaky Wallet, Waze buy?, Prism non-denial denials, and more

Plus Microsoft loses (and recovers) a Windows Phone, Samsung S4 sales forecasts trimmed, bad Android malware, and moreA burst of 13 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology teamGoogle Wallet is leaking money >> BusinessweekGoogle Wallet, the mobile software that allows Android users to pay for purchases online and in stores with their phones, has become a money pit. The co

General Assembly's Matt Cynamon on turning thinkers into creators - video interview

Matt Cynamon, EU regional director of tech community and digital education provider General Assembly, talks to Jemima KissJemima KissPaul Boyd

Boot up: Bing translates, the Bush-Obama spying, iOS7 concept, and more

Plus be a dirty data dealer!, what's new in Windows 8.1, Google as General Electric, and moreA burst of 9 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology teamPrivacy? Screw that. Turn the tables! >> Data DealerBecome a data dealer and get all the dirty details on your friends, neighbors and the rest of the world.This game is just like real life!Bing Translator >> Microsoft

Boot up: Zynga insider, eating sensors, Fukushima's real fallout, and more

Plus what if a theoretical bus hit Facebook?, Dell's tablet-laptop, students on Google, and moreA burst of 9 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology teamI was one of the 520 people laid off by Zynga yesterday. What do you wanna know about Zynga? AMA >> RedditThe anonymous writer: I was just laid off yesterday, along with 520 other employees. I'm willing to talk about t

Data protection in the EU: the certainty of uncertainty

When a regulation asserts that some data is 'anonymous', it is disconnected from the best theories in computer scienceAs I write this, the European Parliament is involved in a world-beatingly gnarly wrangle over the new General Data Protection Regulation. At stake are the future rules for online privacy, data mining, big data, targeted advertising, data-driven social science, governmental spy

Boot up: iPhone 4's US ban, Obama's troll-chasing, Lego + Sony, and more

Plus Haswell for the desktop (don't ask), verbs in app design, Zeus keeps raking it in, Yahoo's non-mail fail, and moreA burst of 9 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology teamITC bans importation of older iPhones and iPads into the US over 3G-essential Samsung patent >> FOSS PatentsFlorian Müller: basically, Apple would have to make the iPhone 4S its entry-level iPhon

Boot up: Apple's radio problem, dumping YouTube, Asus's 3-in-1 and more

Plus Oculus Rift co-founder dies, another Galaxy S4 on the way, visualising music on Facebook, and moreA burst of 8 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology team$42 Billion: what Apple could owe in royalties as a truly "Pureplay" Webcaster, if playing by the Letter of the Law >> RockonomicThe newswires are all a flutter with rumors of Apple's iRadio deals with both Univers

Google+ isn't a social network; it's The Matrix

Trying to analyse the amount of activity on Google+ in comparison to Facebook or Twitter yields little useful information - because it doesn't have the same purpose as themPretty much everyone (myself included) has been reading Google+ wrongly. Because it bears many superficial resemblances to social networks such as Facebook or Twitter - you can "befriend" people, you can "follow" people wit

Apple's Tim Cook leaves the D11 audience begging for … anything

The Wall Street Journal tech conference's star attraction was giving nothing away, but what did people expect?I'm back from D11, the 11th yearly edition of the Wall Street Journal's tech conference. The conference site gives you the complete speaker roster, commentary, and full videos of the on-stage interviews as well as demos and hallway conversations.With such a complete and well-organi

Boot up: iPads are PCs (Microsoft says), patent trolls unmasked, Denmark's snoopers, and more

Plus HTC v Samsung's displays, Turkey throttling social web?, Twitter moves, and moreA quick burst of 8 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology teamThe future is killer devices connected to amazing cloud services >> The Official Microsoft BlogFrank X Shaw, head of Microsoft PR, was at the ATD11 conference: On one hand, looking around the conference, there were iPads an

Firefox OS tablet from Foxconn tipped for 3 June unveiling

Rumoured device would go back to the roots of Firefox OS, but will there be a demand for it?Mozilla made a splash at Mobile World Congress in February with the official launch of its Firefox OS for smartphones, with several manufacturers and 18 operators already on board. Now it's expected to turn its attention to tablets.Mozilla is holding an event on 3 June with Taiwanese firm Hon Hai, t

Bootup: The painful legacy of Napster, Google's music subscription imminent and how Cisco pwns the world's switches

See also Motorola's senor-tastic new phone, why PS4 is all about the games, Bitcoin gets serious - and Facebook is worth the moneyA quick burst of 8 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology teamThe aftermath of Napster: Incumbents slowed down innovation >> TechdirtBrilliant piece on why the fallout from Napster was so damaging, and what the music industry missed out on.

Mary Meeker highlights 2013's next internet trends: 'Wearables, Drivables, Flyables and Scannables'

Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers partner's annual presentation also digs into smartphones, tablets, social media and ChinaAnalyst-turned-VC Mary Meeker's annual Internet Trends presentation draws plenty of attention in Silicon Valley and beyond. The 2013 edition is no exception, co-authored with Liang Wu, her colleague at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.Among the trends highlighted this yea

What can I use in remote areas without electricity?

Sarah is going to spend a year studying in a remote area without access to electricity, except about once a month. What kinds of technology can she use to record her visit?_I am a PhD student about to go and study in a remote area for a year, and wonder what technology to take with me. I want to be able to read documents (PDFs) and books, take notes, and take pictures and video. There is no e

Bootup: Cisco says Microsoft/Skype deal was unfair, China plans Taiwan firewall, and Samsung trumps Nokia in Finland

Also, how Pinterest will make money, will Microsoft ditch Bing and Xbox, and have the tech giants peaked?A quick burst of nine links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology teamCisco: Microsoft's deal with Skype Is monopolistic >> CNBCCisco Systems, the world's leading network equipment maker, asked an EU court on Wednesday to annul the approval of Microsoft's purchase of Skype