Eric David
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Asus reveals cute, mobile robot named Zenbo for your smart home
Taiwanese computer manufacturer Asus, which is formally known as ASUSTeK Computer Inc, has unveiled a cute a slightly creepy little robot designed for use as a personal assistant in the modern smart home. Priced at $599, Zenbo is a voice-controlled assistant with capabilities similar to Amazon Echo with one key difference: Zenbo can follow you around the house. ...
Dubai claims to have built the world’s first 3D printed office
The 3D printing movement has brought us all sorts of printable objects, from medical devices to guns, and now it seems that people are even starting to print entire buildings. This week, the architectural wonderland that is the city of Dubai unveiled what it says is the first fully 3D printed office building, which located ...
People ditch AI for giving bad advice but cut humans more slack
In what may be the first seeds of the eventual robot uprising, researchers at the University of Wisconsin have released a study that suggests that people are less likely to forgive an AI that gives bad advice than they are to forgive real humans who give bad advice. The researchers conducted 14 different trials where participants were ...
iPhone manufacturer Foxconn replaces 60000 employees with robots
Foxconn Technology Group has become the latest in a string of companies to replace a large number of workers with robots, as the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer has eliminated an incredible 60,000 jobs in favor of automation. “The Foxconn factory has reduced its employee strength from 110,000 to 50,000, thanks to the introduction of robots,” Xu Yulian, ...
Reddit ditches Imgur and hosts its own images
The company behind self-hating web community Reddit has decided to abandon its long-standing partnership with image hosting site Imgur in favor of offering its own image upload service. “We’re super excited to begin rolling out in-house image hosting on Reddit.com to select communities this week,” Reddit product team member Andy wrote in an announcement post ...
Microsoft and Facebook join forces to lay giant internet cable across the Atlantic
Facebook may be hard at work creating the future of internet connectivity with its high-altitude drones and lasers, but sometimes nothing beats laying a gigantic cable across the bottom of the ocean. That is exactly what Facebook and Microsoft are doing now as part of a newly announced partnership between the two companies. The plan is to ...
Your Fitbit probably gets your heart rate wrong, claims new study
Fitness wearable company Fitbit Inc recently became the subject of a class action lawsuit that claimed that its devices are not as accurate as it claims, and now that lawsuit may have some evidence to back it up thanks to a new study by researchers at the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. The researchers conducted a test ...
Facebook buys VR audio company Two Big Ears and offers its tools for free
Facebook has bought out spatial audio company Two Big Ears Ltd., and the social media giant has announced that it will be making its newly purchased VR audio tools available for free through the new Facebook 360 Spatial Workstation. “By joining with a company that shares our values and our vision, we will be able to scale our ...
‘Hyper-Reality’ shows the dark, ad-ridden potential of augmented reality
While high-end augmented reality devices like Microsoft’s HoloLens are still years away from being ready for the general public, the technology promises a whole new style of media that could literally change the way we see the world. For many people, this sounds like an exciting new frontier, but independent film director Keiichi Matsuda takes ...
Google tries to get AI to make music with “Magenta”
Google already stunned the artificial intelligence community earlier this year when its AlphaGo AI managed to defeat one of the best Go players in the world, and now Google is setting its sights even higher with Magenta, a new project whose purpose is to develop AI capable of creating music and other forms of art. There ...