Technology

Wed
14
Sep
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Netflix Urges FCC to End All Data Caps

Netflix has called upon the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to examine whether data caps are harming the expansion of broadband data. The company, which also has close interest on the subject, says the FCC might have a legal duty to take ... action on the matter. The company complained in particular about monthly data limits on home broadband such as those imposed by Comcast, which recently enforced a 300GB a month cap on some customers - along with steep overage fees ($10 per 50GB). However, Comcast now says the cap has been bumped to 1TB , with unlimited data available in some areas, ... (view more)

Tue
13
Sep
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Tesla Auto: Perfect, Hands-Free Safety 'Impossible'

Elon Musk, the man behind the Tesla electric cars, says that the "Autopilot" and other self-driving systems will never be perfectly safe. Instead, he insists that safety for such features is improving, and the latest changes would have prevented a ... recent death. In the case of Tesla models, the autopilot cars are not fully autonomous in the same way as self-driving cars, such as Google's test vehicles . Instead, the technology is pitched somewhere between such cars and the far more common 'cruise control' feature. The Autopilot feature on the Tesla Model S combines a windshield camera, a radar ... (view more)

Tue
16
Aug
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Audi to Reveal Red Light Secrets

Audi will soon fit its cars with a technology that can coordinate with traffic lights in several US cities. According to Audi, the feature is being billed as more about convenience, rather than a safety measure. The new feature is being built into ... an existing navigation and information service called Audi Connect, which carries a $25 a month service fee. The feature will involve an extra display on the dashboard that coordinates wirelessly with traffic signals and shows the driver how long they have until the light will turn green if at a full stop. The theory is that this will let drivers ... (view more)

Tue
09
Aug
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Hulu Abandons Free Service; to become Subscription Only

Hulu is ditching its free TV service, though it will still be available in a different form. Analysts believe the move was forced on it by the television industry. Up until now, Hulu users had three options for streaming video online. The free, ... basic service let users watch many network and cable shows the day after broadcast - but only if users watched commercials. In most cases, the five most recent episodes of a show were available online. Customers can also pay $7.99 a month for a "limited commercials" option, or $11.99 a month to cut out commercials altogether. Both of these ... (view more)

Wed
20
Apr
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Global PC Sales Continue To Slump

Worldwide PC sales have fallen to their lowest level in almost a decade according to new estimates. It's also now four years since sales rose year-on-year. The figures come from analyst Gartner, which gathers together data from a range of sources. ... Strictly speaking, it estimates shipments to retailers rather than actual sales to consumers and businesses. That can have a lag effect, but doesn't affect overall trends - over the long run, sales affect how many units retailers order. (Source: gartner.com ) According to the company, shipments between January and March this year totaled 64. ... (view more)

Tue
01
Mar
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Google Self-Driving Car at Partial Fault for Crash

Google has confirmed that one of its self-driving cars was partially responsible for a minor crash with a bus. It's the first time the company has taken a share of the blame for a prang. The cars operate through a range of technologies including ... sensors, cameras, lasers, GPS and map data. The theory is that these allow them to track the activity of other vehicles on the road and more reliably avoid crashes than cars which are subject to human driver error. California allows companies such as Google which meet set criteria to operate self-driving or "autonomous" vehicles on ... (view more)

Tue
16
Feb
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Smartphones Could Detect Earthquakes

A new phone app is said to help detect earthquakes and provide quicker warnings than is currently possible. The 'MyShake app' has many limitations, but could theoretically still save lives. The app uses the accelerometer that's built into most ... modern phones. It's a small gadget that measures movement in the phone along three axes (left-right, up-down, back-forth) and powers all sorts of features, including fitness tools and the way that displays automatically rotate and resize if you turn the phone from landscape to portrait or vice versa. The idea of MyShake is to constantly monitor ... (view more)

Wed
20
Jan
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Amazon Dash Service Goes Live; Useful or Gimmick?

A printer that never runs out of ink and a washing machine that never runs out of detergent are now finally available. The devices automatically replenish themselves (sort of), thanks to a link to Amazon. The devices, from Brother and General ... Electric respectively, are among the first to take advantage of Amazon's Dash technology. Dash was first announced on the first of April last year, causing many readers to think it was an April Fool's Prank. In its original incarnation , Amazon Dash was a branded push button that could be stuck anywhere in the home, whereby users would press the ... (view more)

Tue
26
May
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Grocery Store Uses LED Lights To Track Customers

A French grocery chain is turning its overhead lighting into a way to send special offers directly to shopper's phones. It's seen as a way to experiment with technology, while still serving a more basic function. The lights are created by Philips ... and are being tried at a Lille branch of Carrefour, one of France's major chains of food and home goods stores. The entire store has been refitted with LED bulbs. Unlike ordinary bulbs, these transmit a signal by emitting light at a specific frequency for each bulb. The light can't be seen by the human eye; however, the front-facing ... (view more)

Wed
13
May
John Lister's picture

Scientists One Step Closer to Building Human Brain

Scientists have designed a simple computer circuit to successfully recognize three different letters. It sounds unimpressive, but it's actually a huge step towards replicating and learning more about the human brain. One of the curious things about ... a computer is that although it is considerably faster than a human at basic calculations (which are what its operations boil down to), there are certain tasks at which it is far inferior. Most of these tasks involve 'human' abilities, such as judgment and making snap decisions. A good example is situations which involve a large number ... (view more)

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