Month: February 2013

Games Microsoft

Microsoft’s new Xbox will include improved Siri-like speech recognition

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As reported on The Verge. By Tom Warren DON’T MISS ANY STORIES FOLLOW THE VERGE 8 inShare Microsoft will greatly improve its speech recognition technology inside the next Xbox,The Verge has learned. Sources familiar with Microsoft’s Xbox plans have revealed that Durango, the codename for the next Xbox, will support wake on voice, natural language controls, and speech-to-text. The improved capabilities mean that Xbox users will be able to walk into a room and simply say “Xbox on”…

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Google Microsoft

Seriously, This Again? New, Aggressive Marketing From Microsoft Warns Gmail Users That Google Reads Their Email

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As reported on TechCrunch. by SARAH PEREZ Hey Microsoft, 2004 called. It wants its privacy outrage debate back. Microsoft is on the rampage lately, aggressively attacking Google on search, shopping, and email, the latter of which is now featured on Microsoft’s infamous “Scroogled” site where – get this! –  Microsoft goes after Gmail because Google reads your email to target you with ads! Seriously. You have to have a sense of history to get how ridiculous this all is. Let’s go back…

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Application Education

Curbing The Cost Of College: Coursera Wins Approval To Offer Online Courses For Credit For Under $200

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As reported on TechCrunch. by RIP EMPSON Last year, the buzz around the potential of online courses (particularly MOOC platforms) reached new heights, and this year is already shaping up to be the one in which online course platforms and the startups that love them, make their big push for legitimacy. To wit: The year kicked off with the news that the largest university system in the world has partnered with Udacity to pilot low-cost, lower-division and remedial…

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Business Culture

The Valley Needs A Valleywag — Or Something

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As reported on TechCrunch. by ALEXIA TSOTSIS Here’s an unpopular opinion, especially on TechCrunch: The Valley needs a new Valleywag. On any given day, beneath the hype cycle of startups threatening to launch, then getting their VCs to blog/tweet about their launch threats, then pre-launching, then fueling PR/hype about their pre-launches, then putting up a special access code on select blogs, then their official launches,* some darker aspects surface. Sometimes it’s one startup stealing another’s idea, sometimes it’s a…

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Application Business

CoverHound Lands $4.5M From RRE, Bullpen & Blumberg To Become The Kayak Of Online Insurance

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As reported on TechCrunch. by RIP EMPSON Car insurance is a necessary evil for all drivers. Of course, if you don’t happen to be accident prone, paying expensive monthly or annual bills is a headache and seems equivalent to setting your wallet on fire. Of course, insurance companies are great at reminding us that the world is a wild and dangerous place and that more coverage equals better protection from the vagaries of the road and…

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Application iPhone

Skitch update for iOS brings improved text editor, faster UI response

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As reported on Engadget. By Joseph Volpe First went Skype, now goes Skitch. (Must be something in the Sk-water.) Yet another app update is on its way today for iOS users and this time, it’s Evernote’s productivity app that’s seeing a version bump. Bundled into this 2.0.3 update is a new text editor that the company claims will allow users to easily add and resize image annotations without adding unnecessary steps to their workflow. A host of unspecified, “under the hood” improvements have…

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Story Tech

LibreOffice kicks it up to version 4.0, promises leaner performance and greater interoperability

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As reported on Engadget. By Nicole Lee It’s been a little over a week since Microsoft unveiled its big Office 2013 suite (along with that Office 365 subscription option) to the world, and right on cue the Document Foundation has released version 4.0 of open source alternative LibreOffice. The latest update promises to be cleaner and leaner according to devs, but more importantly to you and me is that it brings greater interoperability between different file formats such as DocX and…

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Story Tech

DropTag tells phones when packages are bruised before they’re opened (video)

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As reported on Engadget. By Jon Fingas Many of us have had the misfortune of receiving a package that has been roughhoused in transit, and we might not have even realized it until we burrowed through the cardboard and tape. Cambridge Consultants’ upcoming DropTag might just serve as the insurance we need. The badge can detect a drop or other violent motion, like earlier sensors, but carries Bluetooth 4.0 to transmit data and alerts in real-time to a mobile app,…

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Story Tech

HP tells Chinese factories to stop raiding schools for cheap labor

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As reported on Engadget. By Sharif Sakr We know that HP’s Chinese sub-contractors enjoy a spot of opera on the production line. What’s always been harder to determine though, is who those workers are and what employment rights they have. In an effort to preempt the sort of headlines that have afflicted other brands, HP has issued new guidelines to its Chinese partners — including Foxconn — designed to limit the use of students and temporary personnel and give those people more control over…

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Environmental

Powerful blizzard takes aim at Northeastern United States

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As reported on Yahoo.com By Scott Malone View PhotoReuters/Reuters – Residents of the Boston suburb of Medford, Massachusetts dig their cars out of the snow in this file picture. REUTERS/Jim Bourg BOSTON (Reuters) – The Northeastern United States braced on Friday morning for a possibly record-setting blizzard bearing down on the region, which forecasters warned could drop up to 2-1/2 feet of snow and bring travel to a halt. Blizzard warnings were in effect from New…

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