James Farrell
Latest from James Farrell
A smarter smartphone: Lenovo to release first phone with Google’s Tango augmented reality technology
Lenovo Group Ltd. is to release three new phones in the Phab line, the Phab 2, Phab 2 Plus and Phab 2 Pro. The last of which is the most exciting due to it being the first phone with Google’s Project Tango technology. The large 6.4-inch screen phones should hit the market around August or ...
Xbox One isn’t getting the TV DVR feature Microsoft promised, but it’s getting something big
Sometime this year Xbox One should have been getting DVR functionality, according to what Microsoft announced last year. Alas, Microsoft has scrapped the idea and instead has said it wants to concentrate on bigger things. A statement issued by Microsoft to The Verge concerning its sudden change of heart reads, “After careful consideration, we’ve decided ...
Design stylish digital content with Microsoft’s simple but effective Sprightly app
Do you remember a time when we all couldn’t be passable digital content designers? Those days are in the past, and now using a number of apps or websites just about anyone can put together a stylish looking flier, catalog, or a an e-card in a matter of minutes. With its Sprightly design app Microsoft ...
HPE’s The Machine gives Star Trek Beyond movie technology 250 years from now
HPE (Hewlett Packard Enterprise) was given what might perhaps be a dream job: to come up with the technology used in the latest Star Trek movie, Star Trek Beyond. Based on present day tech, or technology that is likely to emerge or advance in a not too distant future, HPE said it would “boldly go ...
Monday blues for Mark Zuckerberg as his social media accounts get hacked
Even the Chief Executive Officer of the world’s largest social networking site, it seems, isn’t creative enough with his passwords. This morning Mark Zuckerberg’s Twitter, Inc. and Pinterest, Inc. accounts were both hacked by a Saudi Arabia-based group known as OurMine. The group also claimed to have hacked his Instagram, Inc. account, but this has since ...
World’s first virtual reality auto show points to rise in virtual tourism
If you can’t be there in body, the next best thing might be to don a virtual reality (VR) headset and experience a bit of travel from your bedroom. While much has been said about virtual reality headsets such as Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR being a gamer’s wet dream, or perhaps the closest ...
Facebook says its new DeepText A.I. will be able to read you like a human
Facebook has made a pretty bold claim. It says it has developed an A.I. called DeepText that can understand the context of what you have written just as good as your average literate reader. It’s better than the average Joe though; Deep Text is somewhat of an avid reader, and also a polyglot. In a ...
Finding the freedom to do what you love through automation and Basic Income
Last week, following widespread protests across the U.S., Ed Rensi, a former McDonald’s CEO, said that increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour would result in businesses concluding that it’s time to replace their human staff with robots. “You’re gonna see a job loss like you can’t believe,” said Rensi, adding that when attending the ...
Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Twitter are moving towards a zero-tolerance attitude towards hate speech
In a move to combat hate speech, counter terrorism, or tackle behavior that might lead to violence, Microsoft, Facebook, Google and Twitter have agreed to implement new European Commission “Codes of Conduct”. The tech companies will adhere to the code, but it is not legally binding. A European Comission press release explained the initiative, in part ...
Bringing high-quality VR to your average smartphone with Microsoft’s Flashback
The rise of virtual reality (VR) isn’t exactly meteoric, but it’s certainly well beyond anything people can simply call hype – something that happened when VR first started being talked about many moons ago. The Oculus Rift is finally out there for consumers to play with; Google recently announced it’s making its own virtual reality ...