An AI company, Shanghai Zhizhen Network Technology, has filed a lawsuit against Apple in a Shanghai court, accusing Apple of infringing on its patent for a virtual assistant. This could potentially force Apple to temporarily halt the sale of products featuring Siri. Shanghai Zhizhen is demanding ¥10bn (£1.1bn) in damages over Apple’s alleged use of … Read more
Microsoft has said its game streaming service xCloud will arrive for Xbox users on 15 September. The xCloud service will be available to anyone who has purchased Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and will allow them to stream console quality games on their Android phone or tablet. Over 100 games will be playable directly from the … Read more
Microsoft has pledged to bring its direct waste footprint to zero within a decade, as part of a new resources strategy which will boost the recyclability of its devices and see plastic packaging phased out entirely. The company said its goal of achieving zero waste by 2030 covers its direct operations, products and packaging. It added … Read more
Samsung has reportedly landed orders from Google to make at least two types of bespoke chips, including a new body motion tracker. Google has ordered multiple chips from Samsung, although they may not be for existing device categories. The industry sources said that one of the devices would be a body motion sensor while another … Read more
A cheap and cheerful device that wins on price but lacks some of the kid-friendly features that appeal to young users. The Mini 2 fitness-tracking watch from FourFit is marketed at children aged 10+ and its strap does go down small enough for younger ones. But it’s also large enough for an adult to wear … Read more
According to Bloomberg, a lawsuit has been filed in California accusing Facebook of “collecting, storing, and profiting” from the biometric data of more than 100 million users of its subsidiary Instagram. Facebook rejects the accusation. The complaint was filed this week in state court in Redwood City, in California’s Bay Area. The complaint claims that … Read more
Facebook Messenger has added a forwarding limit to let users forward messages only to five people or groups at a time. The new development is aimed to reduce the spread of viral misinformation and curb the circulation of fake news through the messaging platform. In 2018, Facebook brought a similar forwarding limit to WhatsApp in … Read more
Charlette N’Guessan is the first woman to win the prestigious prize since it was established in 2014, and the first winner from Ghana. The prize was awarded for BACE API, which uses facial recognition to verify identities remotely. N’Guessan and her team decided to go ahead with the project in 2018, after they discovered that … Read more
A University of Oxford paper which explores the hypothetical collapse of Facebook has recommended a new regulatory framework for ‘systemically important technological institutions’, which draws on existing regulation for global financial institutions and public utilities. Facebook going the way of MySpace is unlikely, with the company sailing mostly unharmed through its largest-ever advertiser boycott, increasing … Read more
Cornell University computer scientists have developed a tool which can improve the fairness of online search rankings, without sacrificing relevance or usefulness. For much of the world, Google Search is the entrance to the rest of the internet (other search engines are available). With most users clicking the results towards the top of the first page of returned … Read more