(Reuters) — Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk made a brief public appearance late on Tuesday to unveil the first tunnel completed by the underground transit venture he launched two years ago as an ambitious remedy to Los Angeles’ infamously heavy traffic. But contrary to some of his own hype from several months ago, free rides were […]
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Zwift, a Long Beach, California-based startup that develops online virtual worlds for cyclists and runners, has raised $120 million in a series B round of funding led by Highland Europe. Additional investors include True, Causeway Media, and Novator. Founded in 2014, Swift initially built its business on top of virtual training games for cyclists. The company’s […]
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Artificial intelligence has supercharged cybersecurity, with faster, smarter ways to identify and analyze threats in real time — and take them down fast, letting you avoid disaster. Join this VB Live event to learn more about how AI-powered security can lock down your data, improve privacy, protect the enterprise and more. Register here for free. […]
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(Reuters) — U.S. supermarket chain Kroger said on Tuesday it has started using unmanned autonomous vehicles to deliver groceries in Scottsdale, Arizona in partnership with Silicon Valley startup Nuro. The delivery service follows a pilot program started by the companies in Scottsdale in August and involved Nuro’s R1, a custom unmanned vehicle. The R1 uses public […]
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The story of once-hyped augmented reality (AR) startup Blippar has come to an end. The London-based company announced yesterday that it had started insolvency procedures, a process that means all employees will be let go and, likely, services terminated. Back in September, Blippar raised $37 million as it sought more runway to reach profitability by focusing […]
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Google’s AI-driven Gboard keyboard now supports more than 500 language varieties — up from 100 languages in December 2016 and 300 in March, respectively. That’s according to technical program manager Daan van Esch, who revealed the figure in a blog post this morning. Newly supported dialects include Nigerian Pidgin, Rangpuri, Balinese, and Pontic Greek, which […]
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PUBG Mobile made about $32.5 million in revenue in November, according to market analyst Sensor Tower. This is the battle royale’s best month on mobile yet. That $32.5 million is up 44 percent compared to October. PUBG Mobile previous best month was in August, when it earned $25.7 million. November didn’t just beat the record — it […]
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Last year, cloud storage provider Box launched Box Skills, a suite of third-party apps that add features and functionality to uploaded files, and the Box Skills Kit, a set of APIs, developer tools, and documentation for designing custom Box Skills on platforms like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, IBM’s Watson, and Microsoft Azure. Today, the […]
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New York regulators made national headlines in July by threatening to boot internet provider Charter out of the state for failing to deliver promised service to customers. Now Charter is settling at least part of the dispute with New York by agreeing to pay a record $174 million fine — the largest consumer payment by an […]
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Blindness, both partial and total, is incredibly common. The World Health Organization estimates that approximately 1.3 billion people live with some form of distance or near-vision condition and that as many as 217 million people suffer from moderate to severe problems with distance vision. Those impairments not only complicate everyday chores like walking the dog and […]
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Back in January, a CES panel of cellular insiders correctly predicted that 2018 would be remembered as the “road to 5G” — a year of laying the foundation for ultra-fast fifth-generation cellular devices to launch in early 2019. Hundreds of 5G announcements have followed since then, some more significant than others, and a few companies have […]
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Squeaking in just under the wire for its promised “end of 2018” launch of a 5G network, AT&T said this morning that its network is now live in parts of 12 cities across the United States, with the first mobile 5G device arriving on Friday, December 21. According to an AT&T spokesperson, the company’s 5G […]
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Ada, a Canada-based startup that is setting out to help companies develop their own automated customer service tools, has raised CAD$19 million (USD$14 million) in a series A round of funding led by New York-based VC firm FirstMark Capital, with participation from Leaders Fund, Burst Capital, Bessemer, Version One, and computer scientist Barney Pell. Founded […]
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According to the yearly report published by Stockholm-based phone number-identification service Truecaller, spam calls grew by 300 percent year-over-year in 2018. The report also found that telecom operators themselves are much to blame. Between January and October of this year, Truecaller said, users worldwide received about 17.7 billion spam calls. That’s up from some 5.5 […]
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Though Apple’s latest iPhones shipped with hardware support for eSIMs, U.S. carriers weren’t fully ready to support the feature until iOS 12.1.1 debuted in early December. Now that Verizon and AT&T have introduced iPhone eSIM support, third-place U.S. carrier T-Mobile is joining the party — and using the opportunity to pitch its competitors’ customers to switch […]
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Alphabet’s in-house incubator, Jigsaw, has revealed that it is opening up its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered abuse-detection technology to more languages, starting with Spanish. Anyone who has spent time reading the comments section on websites will know all too well that they can be unpleasant places, with abuse and trolling comments commonplace. That is why Google’s Counter Abuse […]
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From right-message, right-time targeting to contextual conversation that delivers personalized results, customers expect high-value service and attention — and AI and machine learning can help you deliver. To learn more about leveraging AI to be super-relevant and make engagement meaningful, and more, catch up on this VB Live event with execs from Yummly, Eharmony, and […]
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Just in time for the holidays, Google is rolling out new tools to keep your cross-country flights stress-free — or as stress-free as they can be. The Mountain View company today announced proactive flight notifications from the Google Assistant and in Google Flights, its online flight booking search service, plus more detailed fare breakdowns, search […]
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Messenger is taking a page from other properties in Facebook’s family of apps with the addition of new camera effects. Messenger is adding two new camera modes — Boomerang, the video looping effect popularized on Instagram, and Selfie Mode, which puts the subject of the photo or video in crisper focus. Messenger is also adding […]
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Fitbit today announced Fitbit OS 3.0. The new version adds an extended on-device dashboard, on-device quick logging for weight and water intake, and goal-based exercise modes originally introduced with the Fitbit Charge 3. “We are excited to announce these software and app updates, as they provide Fitbit smartwatch users with more ways to take action […]
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