Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Canalys analysts forecast that the installed base of smart speakers will grow from 114M units in 2018 to 207.9M in 2019, a growth of 82.4% — Smart speakers’ global installed base is on track to top 200 million by the end of this year, according to a report out today from
Read MoreVarious commenters on Twitter are using the burning of the beautiful, historic Notre Dame cathedral to further a number of absurd conspiracy theories, ranging from an Anti-Christian arsonist to… actually, that’s the worst of them so far. Conspiracy theories and wild speculation about breaking news are common enough on Twitter, but this one is a cut
Read MoreThe city will allow the vehicles to multiply, as long as they can be locked up. Electric scooter fleets to double in San Francisco – CNET Source: CNet
Read MoreTitan, Saturn’s mysterious moon, gets a little weirder. NASA's Cassini finds disappearing 'phantom lakes' on Saturn's largest moon – CNET Source: CNet
Read MoreThe Wikileaks founder spent at least part of his time in the Ecuadorian embassy in London learning new moves but footage shows he has a long way to go. Julian Assange's embassy skateboarding caught on tape, with skills less than ill – CNET Source: CNet
Read MoreAlex Kantrowitz / BuzzFeed News: Source: Twitter left up tweets threatening Rep. Ilhan Omar’s life, which would typically be removed once reported, so law enforcement could investigate them — Twitter left up tweets threatening Rep. Ilhan Omar’s life over the weekend so law enforcement could investigate them, BuzzFeed News has learned. Source: Twitter left up
Read MoreGoogle also hints that “something big” is coming to the Pixel on May 7. Avengers: Endgame Playmoji stickers available on Google Play – CNET Source: CNet
Read MoreNew York Times: Some companies attacked in 2017’s NotPetya ransomware plague have been denied insurance coverage over “war exclusion” clauses — LONDON — Within days of a cyberattack, warehouses of the snack foods company Mondelez International filled with a backlog of Oreo cookies and Ritz crackers. Some companies attacked in 2017's NotPetya ransomware plague have
Read MoreWinter isn’t coming. At least not for the world of artificial intelligence. Jeff Bigham, program director of the Human-computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon, believes we’ll soon reap the bounties of an AI autumn instead. An AI winter is a period in which research and funding freeze up and it becomes difficult to break new
Read MoreAri Levy / CNBC: Hulu has repurchased AT&T’s 9.5% stake in the business for $1.43B, giving Hulu a valuation of $15B; Disney said in November that Hulu was worth $9.26B — – Hulu bought back AT&T’s 9.5 percent stake in the entity for $1.43 billion, valuing the streaming company at $15 billion. Hulu has repurchased
Read MoreAs images of the iconic spire falling to the streets played on YouTube, “information panels” appeared below the videos appearing to link it to the terrorist attack on Sept. 11. A computerized YouTube fact-checking tool goes very wrong: In flaming Notre Dame, it somehow sees Sept. 11 tragedy Source: Washington Post Tech
Read MoreKarissa Bell / Mashable: Despite publicly pausing verification, Twitter has verified 10,000+ accounts in recent months but withheld the privilege from anyone without backchannel access — Jack Dorsey’s mother and father, the ’80s band Whitesnake, a “war room” associated with Donald Trump’s reelection campaign … Despite publicly pausing verification, Twitter has verified 10,000+ accounts in
Read MoreAlmost 1,000 years of French history is burning. Notre Dame Cathedral fire: What we know so far – CNET Source: CNet
Read MoreWriting about copyright infringement appears to have been confused with copy infringement. Starz reportedly apologizes for going after tweets about TV piracy – CNET Source: CNet
Read MoreThe final season opening dives inside the Stark crypt and the Red Keep. Game of Thrones season 8 opening credits hint at events to come – CNET Source: CNet
Read MoreThe easy-to-use folding drone will make on-the-spot aerial thermal imaging possible for just about anyone. Parrot Anafi Thermal ultracompact drone does live thermal and 4K video for ,900 – CNET Source: CNet
Read MoreThe Microsoft Azure-based solution has been rolled out to capture and store IoT data, using advanced data analytics and visualisation tools to make sense of it. How Downer is using sensors to predict Sydney Trains maintenance Source: ZDNet Microsoft
Read MoreCatalin Cimpanu / ZDNet: Kaspersky Lab says ~70% of the attacks its products detected in Q4 2018 targeted Office vulnerabilities, four times the percentage it saw in Q4 2016 — That’s more than four times the percentage the company was seeing two years before, in Q4 2016. — Microsoft Office products … Kaspersky Lab says
Read MoreA hand-held device brings medical imaging to remote communities, often for the first time. Global Health: In African Villages, These Phones Become Ultrasound Scanners Source: NY Times Tech
Read MoreWith so many start-ups listing their shares this year, each is trying to avoid the traffic jam to get its own moment in the sun. Who Goes Public When? Tech Companies Maneuver to Stand Out in the Horde Source: NY Times Tech
Read MoreJoi Ito / Wired: Locking kids out of big internet platforms is not the solution to commercial bad actors, we should optimize algorithms instead to make them safer for kids — This column is the second in a series about young people and screens. Read the first post, about connected parenting, here. Locking kids out
Read MoreAfter dangling little more than a title before us for months, EA and Respawn Entertainment finally revealed more about their new Star Wars game, Jedi: Fallen Order over the weekend. What they revealed almost says more about the publishers than it does about the game — namely, that the lack of typical “EA-ish” elements means Electronic Arts may
Read MoreDave Gershgorn / Quartz: Satya Nadella says that Microsoft is making changes to how HR investigates incidents, creates an Employee Advocacy Team to help staff through complaint process — Microsoft employees have been telling executives in recent weeks how workplace harassment and discrimination has pervaded unchecked throughout … Satya Nadella says that Microsoft is making
Read MoreKyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: Amenity Analytics raises $18M Series B for its “text-mining” AI platform that detects sentiment and deception from news and social media for Fortune 100 clients — Amenity Analytics, a New York-based startup developing what it describes as a “text-mining” AI platform for enterprise … Amenity Analytics raises M Series B for
Read MoreChris Welch / The Verge: YouTube showed a link and description of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, as part of its fact checking, underneath live streams of the Notre Dame Cathedral fire — A fire has broken out at the iconic Notre Dame Cathedral today, and as you’d expect, many news networks are offering live coverage
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