Voice-enabled personal assistants are cool things to have but are they really an important enough feature to get people to change platforms? ZDNet’s Matthew Miller , who was initially worried that Microsoft’s new Cortana service would be another “me-too” product that copied Siri and Google Now, now says that after trying it out this week that it’s the real deal and it could win over some iOS and Android coverts.
Your iPad can detect very fine touches thanks to the use of capacitive touch panels, but it still can’t do a great job of telling how hard you’re pressing (unless you hit the gadget hard enough to trigger the accelerometer). A new patent application by Apple spotted by Apple Insider today details a method for detecting force, using infrared transmitters. It uses IR light emitters embedded in the display to bounce light off of the inside surface of the display, and can detect when that surface is being covered more or less by a fingertip.
Amazon’s new Fire TV may be the newest and hottest TV streaming box but, because it does pretty much what other devices do, it’s not likely to set the world on fire. Users can stream video from Netflix, Amazon, HuluPlus, Showtime and other sources and listen to music from the likes of Pandora and iHeart radio. Users can also play games with the included remote or with an optional game controller. While it doesn’t have nearly as as many channels as Roku, it’s a lot more robust than Google’s Chromecast was when it was introduced last year, although Chromecast’s offerings are growing steadily.
An Israeli security source said on Thursday,Israel will temporarily suspend some of its government websites’ international traffic to fend off a potential mass-cyber attack by pro-Palestinian hackers. The precautionary measure would be in place from Friday through Monday and include refusal of electronic payment from abroad for government services. The source also said,some routine reprogramming of websites was also on hold. The Walla news site said Israeli civil servants had also been instructed not to open emails received from foreigners.
Google Fiber subscribers are extra lucky: Not only do they have access to the fastest Internet service in the United States but they could also be the first to have access to Google’s yet-to-be-announced wireless service . Instead, as The Verge relays to us, Google has reportedly had talks with both Verizon and Sprint to buy access to their wireless networks that it will then sell to consumers as a wholesale provider.
http://news.yahoo.com/windows-phone-skeptic-says-cortana-blows-away-siri-184338240.html
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/DRGitEX5Lbg/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrymagid/2014/04/03/amazon-fire-is-hot-but-wont-set-the-world-on-fire-a-hands-on-review/
http://news.yahoo.com/fearing-cyberattack-israel-curbs-government-websites-foreign-traffic-183109501–finance.html
http://news.yahoo.com/report-gives-key-details-google-plan-become-wireless-170141350.html
http://www.wochit.com