IBM’s new weather app sends emergency alerts without a network
At this point, IBM is only planning to launch its mesh-capable Weather Channel app in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The Android app is also built with emerging networks in mind. It’s only 3.2MB large and it’s built with slower 2G connections in mind. You can store offline weather data for 24 hours, and you can choose weather to enable updates via cellular or WiFi. IBM notes that the mesh networking technology won’t...
YouTube now has over one billion auto-captioned videos
Kaver said they made automated captions more available to YouTubers by combining Google’s automatic speech recognition technology with the YouTube caption system. They then achieved a 50 percent leap in accuracy — for English captions, at least — by improving the service’s machine learning algorithms and expanding its training data. We all know how funny caption fails can be, but people who have no other way of...
The LG G6 promises superior sound with an upgraded quad-DAC
The technology gives superior control over each earbud independently, resulting in a clearer, more balanced sound, LG claimed in a press release. The analog output means that while devices like the iPhone are going aux-free, it’s likely the G6 will include a headphone jack, according to GSM Arena. High-performance audio chipset specialist ESS is producing the DAC. All told, the technology is being touted as an improvement over...
Spyware targeted proponents of Mexico’s soda tax
It’s not clear who the culprit may be. Soft drink industry group ConMéxico says this is the first time it heard of the spyware intrusion, and it’s not clear which government agency would oppose the soda tax so vehemently that it would spy on prominent supporters. While there was a separate incident where a journalist fell victim to spyware after uncovering a presidential housing scandal, there’s no evidence that the...
Ford bets $1 billion on an unknown self-driving AI company
While the extent of the deal is surprising, it makes sense for Ford, especially after GM acquired the self-driving car startup Cruise for over $1 billion last year. As we’ve seen with the steady progress from Google’s Waymo, autonomous driving technology is evolving quickly. Car companies have to make some big moves now if they don’t want to get left behind once the technology becomes essential in a few years.Ford...
