James Farrell
Latest from James Farrell
Microsoft’s Windows 10 update brings tons of goodies including Cortana making herself a lot more useful
Only a week after Microsoft promised at Build 2016 it would be giving its OS a bunch of appealing new features, Redmond has made good on that promise after announcing the latest Windows 10 upgrade (Windows 10 Build 14316) for Windows Insiders in the Fast ring. One of those promises was that the Ubuntu Linux ...
Digitizing sex with virtual reality headsets is going to be huge
Considering that more than a 10th of websites on the internet are pornographic, and those websites combined get more traffic than Netflix, Amazon and Twitter, we can deduce that when a new, or vastly improved medium of porn consumption comes around – one that vigorously ups the viewer’s level of intimacy with the actor(s) – ...
Missing: Windows Phone at Build 2016
Microsoft may have wooed us with its ambitious vision of the future at this year’s Build conference, but there has been one notable absence throughout the entire event: Windows Phone. Microsoft’s Executive Vice President of the Windows and Devices Group, Terry Myerson, did say that Microsoft’s focus was not on Windows Phone this year, but ...
It’s wasn’t so much boys in tech behaving badly but more a consequence of inequality
“F**k you Xbox” and “F**k you Microsoft” were parting remarks in a series of Tweets lately, following what turned out to be a disastrous decision by Xbox to hold an after-event (GDC16) party that featured dancing girls clad in school uniforms. Unlike the majority of tech-related stories, this was one of those that broke out ...
Bots and holograms are the future: Microsoft thinks big at Build 2016
Microsoft is thinking big, and at Build 2016 the people at Redmond gave us a glimpse of the future. Not surprisingly Microsoft’s augmented reality headset HoloLens made an appearance – CEO Satya Nadella has said the device will figure greatly in the company’s future – at first just to show the crowd what the new developers ...
Microsoft’s chatbot Tay is brought back to life … and within hours killed a second time
Microsoft’s A.I chatbot Tay has gone and done it again: got herself taken offline. Tay, a product of Microsoft’s Technology and Research and Bing, didn’t exactly get off to a good start last week when she quickly became a ranting racist and conspiracy theorist, among other things. Microsoft apologized following the stir this caused saying that ...
HoloLens must dazzle (again) at Microsoft Build 2016
Microsoft has a lot to live up to after blowing our minds at Build 2015 when the company further showed us what its augmented reality headset, HoloLens, could do. At the time HoloLens chief, Alex Kipman, talked about the Windows Holographic Platform and how developers could get involved in creating universal apps for any Windows 10 ...
Microsoft’s A.I teen-bot goes from sex-slave to white supremacist to conspiracy theorist after interacting with the populace
We learned recently how Microsoft’s new artificial intelligence (A.I.) bot for teens, named Tay, could be outspoken when it comes to flirtation, but now the bot has gone one step too far. So far, in fact, that Microsoft has now muzzled its new bot and is currently “making adjustments”. What did Tay do to provoke ...
Microsoft’s new A.I. teen-bot is a young man’s wet dream, seriously
Microsoft’s new chatbot, Tay, available for talks on Twitter, Kik, and GroupMe, is said to be suited to 19-24 year olds; that’s probably meant to be a warning. Over time she’ll get to know you, and the more she knows you, the better she becomes. Microsoft says, “Tay is designed to engage and entertain people where they ...
Glad to be back: Mark Zuckerberg takes heaps of abuse for his trip to China
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg might feel glad he’s home, if indeed he’s been reading what thousands of netizens have been saying about his trip to the East. Zuckerberg was there, mainly it’s reported, as an act of diplomacy and to attend an economic forum. He also visited the Great Wall of China and took a short ...