Asos teams up with Google to launch a shopping skill for Google Assistant October 11, 2018 Asos is expanding into voice-assistant technology in a partnership with Google, making it one of the first UK fashion retailers to debut on Google Assistant. Customers in the UK and US will be able to engage with Asos' fashion chatbot Enki, starting a conversation using the phrase "Hey Google, talk to Asos" on a smartphone or [...]
Astro Bot Rescue Mission review: a slice of Nintendo-grade genius that celebrates the PSVR’s abilities October 10, 2018 There’s a moment shortly after you begin playing Astro Bot when the character you’re controlling runs behind a wall and out of view. You expect the camera to follow after him, but it doesn’t, until you remember that you are the camera, and you must physically lean forward in your seat to peer around the corner and [...]
Firewall Zero Hour is a tactical multiplayer shooter with depth. It proves the genre can work in virtual reality October 10, 2018 I’ve got a chest infection. My lungs are all wrong. If I were a translucent man from a cough syrup commercial, my insides would be flashing red while some hovering labels point at all of the inside parts of me that are revolting. Which is all to say that I’ve been coughing a whole lot [...]
First impressions from this week’s Google hardware event, which revealed the Pixel 3, Pixel Slate and Google Home Hub October 10, 2018 At this week’s Google event, the search giant opened with a rather sheepish admission, following comprehensive leaks of its latest flagship Pixel phones. “We hope you agree that we’re better at making hardware than keeping secrets.” But while the physical aspects of the new Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL phones were already known about [...]
Amazon abandons sexist AI-powered recruiting tool October 10, 2018 Amazon has reportedly had to scrap an artificially intelligent recruitment tool built by its in-house engineering team, after sources told Reuters the results began to be skewed in favour of male candidates. Five members of the team who worked on the tool in 2014 said it began to teach itself that male candidates were preferable over [...]
Snap to challenge Netflix in new turn to original scripted content October 10, 2018 Snap has today announced it has expanded into the realms of original content, with 12 new shows lined up from the creators of popular TV shows such as Riverdale and Keeping Up With The Kardashians. Each of the 12 series will release new episodes daily, and be monetised by up to six seconds of unskippable advertisements. [...]
Softbank mulls majority stake in Wework October 10, 2018 Softbank is reportedly in talks to take up a majority stake in co-working giant Wework, despite the firm tripling its losses last year. Sources told Reuters the pricing and valuation of the deal has not been confirmed, while the Wall Street Journal earlier reported the investment could be between $15bn (£11.4bn) and $20bn from Softbank's Vision Fund. The fund [...]
Google files appeal against EU’s €4.3bn Android antitrust fine October 10, 2018 Google's parent firm Alphabet has filed an appeal against the EU's record-breaking €4.3bn antitrust fine for its Android operating system. The tech giant was charged by regulators over "serious illegal behaviour" with its Android operating system in July. Brussels ruled that Google had forced smartphone makers to favour its own products such as Search and Chrome [...]
Western Union launches Transferwise rival service in UK October 10, 2018 Western Union is gearing up to face innovation head-on as it launches a digital bank account transfer service in the UK, competing with major fintech startups such as Transferwise for command of the market. UK consumers will now be able to send up to £50,000 from the Western Union app or website directly into other bank accounts around [...]
Google launches photo-fixing Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL models October 9, 2018 Google has launched its highly anticipated Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, revealing new photography features and an improved digital zoom. The two models come with cameras on the front of the handsets and one on the rear, while a second wide-angle lens has been added to the face of the phone to make it [...]